Prophecy, Drought, Earthquakes, Famine, Pestilence, War, and Strange Weather.

[Shammu]

Surprise Geysers Erupt in Oklahoma
By The Associated Press

posted: 12 December 2005
08:28 am ET
   

KINGFISHER, Okla. (AP) _ An outbreak of geysers spewing mud and gas into the air in rural Kingfisher County is puzzling state and local officials.

Kingfisher Fire Chief John Crawford says initial reports of the geysers came in Friday morning, and that firefighters and Oklahoma Corporation Commission officials were on the scene yesterday.

The geysers have appeared throughout the countryside of rural Kingfisher, with stretches of up to 12 miles between spots, and some as short as a quarter of a mile.

Crawford says the threat of the gas igniting is unlikely, but he says there is a concern the gas could begin coming up through water-well lines.

He says sheriff's deputies were dispatched to inform residents of the possibility of gas coming through wells and water systems.

Suprise Geyers Erupt in Oklahoma

My note; I'm a little suprised Bep's didn't report on this. Course he hasn't been feeling very good lately. So Brother, I'm praying you get better.

[Soldier4Christ]

Southern Ice Storm Renders Many Powerless

ASHEVILLE, N.C. (AP) - More than 700,000 homes and businesses began the day Friday without power after a frigid night allowed ice to build from a deadly storm in the South.

The ice also left commuters with more tough driving conditions from Georgia to Maryland, and forecasters warned that dense morning fog could create an extra coat of ice in below-freezing weather.

Hundreds of accidents were reported Thursday, and utility companies said it would take days to fully restore power. Still in the dark Friday were about 328,000 customers in North Carolina, 358,000 customers in South Carolina and 30,000 in Georgia - numbers that climbed from the night before as temperatures fell and ice built up.

The outages were caused when ice-laden tree limbs fell onto power lines.

At least three deaths were reported, including a 58-year-old man in suburban Charlotte who was lying on a couch in his living room when a 100-foot tree buckled from heavy ice and crushed him. Two men were killed in separate accidents in Maryland when each lost control of his vehicle and collided with another vehicle.

North Carolina's heaviest icing - one-half to three-quarters of an inch - came in the southwestern area of Saluda and Flat Rock, said Doug Outlaw of the National Weather Service's bureau at the Greenville-Spartanburg Airport in South Carolina.

[Shammu]

Travellers face chaos as freeze hits Europe

James Sturcke and agencies
Wednesday December 28, 2005

Freezing conditions across parts of northern Europe caused travel chaos today as forecasters warned that more snow and colder temperatures were expected over the next two days.

British motoring organisations urged people only to make essential journeys, while hundreds of drivers in France spent the night in their cars after 30cm of snow fell in parts the country.

In Austria, a blizzard resulted in power cuts to homes and was blamed for numerous road accidents across eastern parts of the country.

Article continues
In the UK, Kent and eastern England suffered the worst of the freezing conditions, which brought road closures and train cancellations.

The coldest place in Britain last night was Benson, Oxfordshire, where temperatures plunged to -8.2C. Forecasters said temperatures were likely to drop further tonight.

"Temperatures tonight could fall as low as -10C where snow lies on the ground, and they could be down to -7C in other places," PA WeatherCentre spokesman Paul Knightley said.

"Tomorrow looks like being the coldest day of this cold spell, with daytime temperatures not rising above freezing in many places."

He said there would be snow today from north-east Scotland down the eastern side of England to the Wash, with snow showers in Kent.

"There could be some heavy snow in northern England and Scotland ahead of another weather system which will bring rain and higher temperatures on Friday and Saturday," Mr Knightley added.

The RAC said lanes on sections of the M20 in Kent were closed because of the snow, and that there was also disruption on the A20 between Dover and Folkestone.

Canterbury was hit by severe black ice, while part of the A3 at Milford, Surrey, was closed, as was a section of the A14 in Cambridgeshire.

"There are hazardous driving conditions throughout northern and eastern counties of England," an RAC spokesman said.

South Eastern Trains urged passengers from coastal areas in Kent and East Sussex not to travel at all this morning. No train services were running from Hastings to Tonbridge, Dover to Folkestone, Ashford to Swanley, Tonbridge to Redhill or Strood to Maidstone West.

Passengers using Arriva Trains Wales and Central Trains faced long delays after a road vehicle hit a railway bridge in the Oakengates area between Wolverhampton and Shrewsbury.

Signalling problems at Tulse Hill, south London, led to delays for passengers on Southern and Thameslink services.

In France, hundreds of motorists were stranded overnight after heavy snowfall blocked roads, forcing some to abandon their cars and others to sleep in their vehicles.

Scores of travellers spent the night in community centres and hotels near Nancy, where road crews worked to clear up to 30cm of snow, according to the Regional Road Information and Coordination Centre in nearby Metz.

Several cars were abandoned on the A31 highway, which remained heavily congested heading north toward Luxembourg. Officials ordered trucks to remain parked in rest areas until normal traffic flow was restored, and advised drivers not to travel.

Hundreds of people were stranded overnight in the Calvados region in western Normandy, where the A84 highway was closed in both directions.

"There were 600 vehicles blocked, which amounts to around 600 or 800 people [stranded]," road security official Remi Fromont told the French television channel LCI.

In Austria, at least 15cm of snow fell in eastern areas, creating treacherous conditions blamed for numerous road accidents.

Authorities said at least 11 trucks had jack-knifed in the province of Lower Austria, causing long tailbacks, and at least 300 homes were without power.

Four trucks collided on the motorway linking the Czech capital, Prague, with the southern city of Brno, blocking traffic, while officials in Slovakia warned of a heightened avalanche risk in some areas.

Heavy snow and icy rain in Croatia forced officials to close local roads, effectively cutting off access to dozens of central villages. Snow also created traffic and rail havoc in Hungary, where nearly 120 trains were running behind schedule.

Most of northern Italy was under a blanket of snow, causing traffic disruption, and a motorway from Parma to La Spezia was closed as a precaution.
Travellers face chaos as freeze hits Europe

[Shammu]

 Much of California under flood watch

Thursday, December 29, 2005; Posted: 8:15 a.m. EST (13:15 GMT)

SACRAMENTO, California (AP) -- A drenching winter storm swelled rivers in northern California to their highest levels in seven years, causing power outages and forcing some residents to evacuate.

Flood warnings were in effect for the northern half of the state after the storm swept through Tuesday and Wednesday. One person was killed in a car crash caused by a mudslide.

"It's been several years since we've had this widespread of flooding, and we're not done," said Rob Hartman of the National Weather Service's California-Nevada River Forecast Center in Sacramento.

The last significant flooding in the region was during the El Nino year of 1998 and a year earlier, when three people died after levees collapsed north of Sacramento. The danger is lower this time because there is relatively little snow in the Sierra Nevada to be melted by the warm rains, officials said.

In Modesto, a mudslide led to a pileup that killed a motorist Monday. And in Mendocino County, four homes were evacuated after a landslide Tuesday night.

Rivers were cresting from the Napa County wine country to the far northern coast, including the Russian, Navarro, Scott, Klamath and Eel rivers. They were expected to rise to flood stage periodically through the weekend without causing severe damage.

"We're getting an early start on the rain-and-snow season, which is good as long as we don't get flooding," said Don Strickland, a spokesman for the state Department of Water Resources.

Federal and state water managers were releasing torrents of water at the Oroville and Folsom dams, but both reservoirs had plenty of capacity to handle additional runoff, officials said.

More storms were forecast for Friday through the New Year's weekend. The system was expected to spread farther south by Saturday and potentially cause mudslides and flash floods in recently burned areas of Southern California, Hartman said.

Much of California under flood watch

[Soldier4Christ]

It doesn't take much rain to cause flooding in Calif but this is more rain than they have had in many, many years so the flooding is really horrendous. I remember 2 inches of rain in a 48 hr period causing flooding in the LA and San Diego area. It floods just as easily in the Sacramento, Modesto, Stockton area.

Normally the levees have very little water in them and some are even dry most of the year. I lived in the Stockton area for quite a few years and remember taking many walks down the levee bottoms. Now it isn't even safe to walk on the tops.

[Shammu]

Here I though the season, was finally over for the year.

Tropical Storm Zeta Forms in Atlantic

By ADRIAN SAINZ, Associated Press Writer 38 minutes ago

MIAMI - Tropical Storm Zeta formed Friday in the eastern Atlantic Ocean, another installment in a record-breaking hurricane season that officially ended last month.

Zeta, the 27th storm of the season, formed Friday about 1,000 miles south-southwest of the Azores islands, according to an advisory posted on the National Hurricane Center's Web site. It posed no immediate threat to land.

The center said it would send out a full advisory later Friday. Tropical storms have winds of at least 39 mph.

It was not immediately known if Dec. 30 was the latest date for the formation of a tropical storm in the Atlantic. But earlier this month, Hurricane Epsilon became only the fifth hurricane to form in December in 154 years of record-keeping. Hurricanes form when their winds exceed 74 mph.

Zeta is the sixth letter of the Greek alphabet, which forecasters turned to after they used up — for the first time — their list of 21 proper names for storms. The record for tropical storms and hurricanes in a season had been 21, set in 1933 before such storms were regularly named.

The 2005 Atlantic storm season, which officially ended Nov. 30, included 14 hurricanes, including Epsilon.

One of the hurricanes, Katrina, destroyed large portions of Louisiana and Mississippi last August in the most costly disaster in U.S. history. Hurricanes Dennis, Rita and Wilma also caused significant damage in the U.S.

Forecasters have said that hurricane seasons are going to be more active than usual for at least another decade — and possibly as long as 50 years.

Tropical Storm Zeta Forms in Atlantic

[Shammu]

New Storm Batters California

Saturday, December 31, 2005

PETALUMA, Calif. — A powerful storm set off mudslides that blocked major highways and sent rivers and creeks over their banks and into cities across Northern California on Saturday. At least half a dozen people had to be rescued from the rushing water, and forecasters were warning of another storm on Sunday.

California officials urged residents along the Napa and Russian Rivers and on hillsides to collect their valuables, gather emergency supplies and get out.

In the city of Napa, near the heart of wine country, the river was already 5 feet over flood stage. Further inland, Reno, Nev., was seeing its worst flooding since a 1997 flood that caused $1 billion in damage.

Firefighters in the Sonoma area rescued two people from a mobile home park, where 4 feet of rushing water washed at least one home off its foundation, and they were searching for a third person, said Division Chief Bob Norrbom with the Sonoma Valley Fire Authority. Cars floated through the park, pushed by the water.

Elsewhere, television footage showed a stranded driver being plucked from the back of a pickup truck by a rescue helicopter, and another person being pulled to safety through the water.

Rick Diaz went out into a flooded Petaluma neighborhood in a 14-foot Zodiac boat on his own to ferry residents to dry ground and rescue their pets.

"He's a hero," said a tearful Suzi Keber after the wetsuit-clad Diaz rescued two pet lizards from her home.

In downtown San Anselmo, the creek overflowed into as many as 70 businesses, said town administrator Debbie Stutsman. Two people rescued from the rising water there were hospitalized with hypothermia, she said.

"I'm looking out of my office now at merchants bringing their damaged goods out into the street," Stutsman said. "The entire downtown area was under 4 1/2 feet of water."

"It's pretty bad all across town," she said.

Meteorologists had warned that parts of Sonoma, Sacramento, Shasta and Tehama counties were ripe for their worst flooding in years, and they said severe was anticipated upstream in Calistoga, St. Helena and Yountville, as well.

In St. Helena, the Napa River was at record levels, seven feet over flood stage. The last record flood there destroyed dozens of homes and businesses.

Mudslides closed several major roads, including Interstate 80 in the Sierra Nevada about 25 miles west of Reno. Six tractor-trailer rigs were caught up in one slide on the interstate early Saturday, but no injuries were reported.

I-80, the major corridor linking Northern California and points east, was expected to remain closed for at least two days, said California Department of Transportation spokesman Mark Dinger.

"No work can be done until the slide stabilizes and we don't know when that will occur," Dinger said.

The Russian River at the Sonoma County town of Guerneville could rise as high as 11 feet above flood stage after if the storm expected on Sunday hits as expected, officials said.

Together, the two weekend storms could add as much as 6 inches of rain to the already water-logged region, said Rick Canepa, a weather service meteorologist in Monterey. More than 2 feet of snow was forecast in the Sierra Nevada.

One woman suffered a broken leg when a mudslide destroyed her home in Santa Rosa late Friday. It took firefighters nearly an hour to free her from the mud and debris, said Santa Rosa Fire Battalion Chief Andy Pforsich.

Flooding also prompted evacuations of at least five mobile home parks in Nevada's Reno-Carson City area.

Flash flooding and landslides closed Interstate 5 both ways over the Siskiyou Summit near the Oregon line between Hilt and Ashland, Ore., but Oregon officials said three of the four lanes were reopened by midday. U.S. Highway 101 was closed by fallen trees and mud south of Crescent City.

Rain also started moving into Southern California on Saturday, and flash flood watches were issued for large areas burned by the year's wildfires in Santa Barbara, Ventura and Los Angeles counties.

Even Pasadena's Rose Parade was in danger of rain on Monday. The parade has had dry days for half a century, but float builders were still prepared to roll out sheets of clear plastic to protect delicate flowers.

"I'd hate to be selfish to ask God just for this favor, but I came far to help decorate and see the parade for the first time," Jean Steadman, 79, of Georgetown, Texas, she said as she gathered yellow roses for a safari-themed float.
New Storm Batters California

[Shammu]

Mount St. Helens' Lava Baffles Scientists

By PEGGY ANDERSEN, Associated Press Writer Fri Dec 30, 8:31 PM ET

SEATTLE - Roughly every three seconds, the equivalent of a large dump truck load of lava — 10 cubic yards — oozes into the crater of Mount St. Helens, and with the molten rock comes a steady drumfire of small earthquakes.

The unremitting pace, going on for 15 months now, is uncommon, said U.S. Geological Survey geologist Dave Sherrod. Experts say it is unclear what the activity signifies or how much longer it will continue.

"One view of this eruption is that we're at the end of the eruption that began in 1980," Sherrod said. "If it hadn't been so cataclysmic ... it might instead have gone through 30 or 40 years of domebuilding and small explosions."

St. Helens' violent May 18, 1980, eruption blasted 3.7 billion cubic yards of ash and debris off the top of the mountain. Fifty-seven people died in the blast, which left a gaping crater in place of the perfect, snowclad cone that had marked the original 9,677-foot peak known as "America's Mount Fuji."

St. Helens — now 8,325 feet — rumbled for another six years, extruding 97 million cubic yards of lava onto the crater floor in a series of 22 eruptions that built a 876-foot dome.

The volcano, about 100 miles south of Seattle, fell silent in 1986.

Then, in September 2004, the low-level quakes began — occasionally spiking above magnitude 3. Since then, the mountain has squeezed out about 102 million cubic yards of lava, more in 15 months than in the six years after the eruption.

Sherrod describes the movement of lava up through the volcano as being "like a sticky piston trying to rise in a rusty cylinder. These quakes are very small — we think they're associated with that sticking and slipping as the ground is deformed and relaxes."

The dome collapses and grows and collapses and grows, he said. "It changes its location ... it can't seem to maintain its height at much more than it is now " — about 1,300 feet. "Then it kind of shoves the sandpile aside and starts over."

It's not entirely clear where the lava is coming from. If it were being generated by the mountain, scientists would expect to see changes in the mountain's shape, its sides compressing as lava is spewed out.

At the current rate, "three or four months would have been enough time to exhaust what was standing in the conduit. ... The volume is greater than anything that could be standing in a narrow 3-mile pipe," Sherrod said.

That suggests resupply from greater depths, which normally would generate certain gases and deep earthquakes. Neither is being detected.

"That's one of the headscratchers, I guess," Sherrod said.

All the recent activity has remained within the crater, though scientists — keenly aware of the potential damage that silica-laced ash can pose to jet engines — monitor St. Helens closely for plumes of smoke and ash. Some have gone as high as 30,000 feet.

Mount St. Helens Lava Baffle Scientist...  

[Shammu]

Superbug that eats flesh is on the loose
Potentially lethal bacteria infects hundreds in Tucson
By Carla McClain
ARIZONA DAILY STAR
Tucson, Arizona | Published: 12.04.2005
advertisement
As if threats of pandemic superflu weren't enough, yet another new and potentially fatal "superbug" is spreading worldwide — including in Tucson.

No mere threat, this bug has infected hundreds of Tucsonans already and hospitalized dozens, some with life-threatening illness.

Appearing at first as just a pimple, maybe a small cut, the infection often is mistaken by many victims — and their doctors — for a spider bite, delaying vital treatment.

Known as MRSA — methicillin-resistant staphylococcus aureus or "mersa" — it is in fact a highly contagious bacteria that has developed strong resistance to most antibiotics, making it hard to treat and setting the stage for dangerous invasive disease.
Mersa itself is actually nothing new. This resistant form of staph bacteria has been around for decades, but was limited mostly to outbreaks in hospital and nursing-home patients.

What's alarming doctors and public-health officials now is that mersa has moved into the general public — often infecting young people who have been nowhere near a hospital.

Infection begins on the skin, triggering inflammation, boils or nasty abscesses that can take weeks of treatment to stop — including surgery and hospitalization. But if it moves to the bloodstream, mersa can cause bone infection, lung-damaging pneumonia, organ damage, even fatal toxic shock syndrome.
Several Tucson emergency rooms report treating some 500 cases of mersa this year — triple the number seen just two years ago.

"It is absolutely the new superbug, and everyone is worried about it now," said Dr. Sean Elliott, a University of Arizona pediatrician who handles mersa in young patients.

"What is significant is that we are seeing lots of healthy individuals from the community who have developed severe skin disease, with more and more ending up as surgical cases, and some progressing to severe invasive disease."

In the past month, Elliott has treated five children with this form of life-threatening mersa. All have survived.

He has seen patients end up with chronic lung disease or disabled limbs after a mersa battle. He has handled nearly 30 entire families affected by it this year.

"This is a big one," he said. "It's not a cause for panic yet, but it's a bad player."

Unlike past years, mersa now can strike anyone anywhere, without warning or risk — an unexplained phenomenon occurring in developed countries worldwide.

However, no one yet knows the magnitude of mersa's spread. Exploding only in the past two years, "community-acquired" mersa has been reported in clusters in cities throughout the United States. But cases are not required to be officially confirmed to the government.

Trying to get a fix on mersa's march through Arizona, state health officials a year ago started tracking laboratory-confirmed reports of the most severe, invasive cases, and now are seeing 125 a month statewide. To date, 1,305 invasive cases have been reported, with 132 in Pima County. Deaths have not been tracked.

"That's probably a pretty significant underestimate," Elliott said. "This is going to have to change — it probably should be a reportable disease, if we're going to evaluate what's really going on."

A single emergency room, at Tucson Medical Center, has treated 541 cases this year — triple the number TMC saw in 2003.
"It's just floored us all, how much is showing up in the community, and how aggressive it is," said Connie Glasby, director of infection control at University Medical Center, where 483 mersa cases have come through emergency or urgent care in the past year.

Though mersa warnings have been sent out by federal and state health officials, Elliott, an infectious-disease specialist, still gets calls from doctors around Tucson asking about strange spider-bite cases that don't respond to treatment.

Several patients have reported small skin pimples that their primary-care doctors have diagnosed as insect bites, and treated with standard antibiotics. Only after the lesion has erupted, spread, caused severe pain, and sometimes fever up to 103 degrees has mersa finally been correctly diagnosed.
Though mersa is resistant to most standard antibiotics, there are a couple of drugs that still work. Those drugs, plus surgery to remove infected tissue — with one patient having his entire leg cut open, thigh to ankle, to get at it — are considered the most effective treatment. And that's for the less serious, non-invasive cases.

Some Tucsonans have missed up to two weeks of work trying to get over this "milder" form of mersa, which can take months — and can recur later — according to their doctors.

One Tucsonan, Janene Urias, has only now fully recovered — five years after nearly dying from a virulent mersa infection that hospitalized her for two weeks, then kept her on intravenous antibiotics for six more weeks, requiring a home nurse.
Even after the mersa infection finally cleared up, three months later, her out-of-balance body sank into chronic-fatigue syndrome for two years.

"This is a horrible disease, and people need to know about it," said Urias, 35, who now warns anyone she talks to of the dangers of contaminated surfaces in public places — where mersa bacteria can linger.

"If I go into a grocery store, I never touch my face until after I wash my hands. I carry hand sanitizer with me all the time," she said. "If I use a public restroom, I don't touch the doorknob on the way out — I use a paper towel to handle it. This thing lives on surfaces, and many of us are carriers of it and don't know it."
The most common cause of skin infections, staphylococcus aureus — including the drug-resistant mersa form of it — is everywhere. Some 30 to 40 percent of us carry it in our noses and on our skin, without ever developing symptoms.

Scientists do not yet fully understand what triggers mersa to set off a bad skin infection, or move on to severe, possibly fatal disease. They only know that mersa can develop what is known as "virulent factors" — toxic proteins that make it extremely dangerous — and that it is spread through skin-to-skin contact or by contact with contaminated surfaces.

Mersa clusters have broken out on athletic teams — including the NFL's St. Louis Rams — and in prisons and among military recruits.

Clare Kioski, an epidemiologist with the state Department of Health Services, said there have been cases of invasive mersa in every Arizona county.

"If you have any kind of a skin wound that's not getting better, go to a doctor and be tested as soon as possible," she said.

Preventing infection
● Keep your hands clean by washing with soap and warm water or using an alcohol-based sanitizer.
● Keep cuts and scrapes clean and covered with a bandage until healed.
● Avoid contact with other people's wounds or bandages.
● Avoid sharing personal items such as towels or razors.

Superbug that eats eats flesh is on the loose

[Soldier4Christ]

Earthquake activity picks back up in the Pacific Ocean vicinity.

6.0 Magnitude Earthquake Occurs South of Panama Fri Dec 30 18:26:45 2005 UTC

5.7 Magnitude Earthquake Occurs in Guam Region Mon Jan 2 01:01:25 2006 UTC

4.4 Undersea earthquake reported in Russia's Far East:

Russian seismologists said Monday that the magnitude-4.4 undersea earthquake had been registered late Sunday in the Pacific Ocean about 40 miles south-east to Russia's far-eastern Kamchatka Peninsula.

No casualties or damage were reported in Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky, the administrative center of the Kamchatka Peninsula, hit by the quake, which measured between two and three on the Richter Scale.

[Soldier4Christ]

Major earthquake strikes east of South Sandwich islands in South Atlantic

A major earthquake with a magnitude of 7.3 on the Richter scale was registered east of the South Sandwich Islands in the South Atlantic, the US Geological Survey reported.

The quake struck about 345 kilometers southeast of Bristol Island, South Sandwich Islands at 0610 GMT, at a depth of 11.6 kilometers, the survey's National Earthquake Information Center said.

The Japan Meteorological Agency said the quake measured 7.5 on the Richter scale.

'Generally speaking, a quake of similar scale can cause a tsunami if it occurs in a shallow area under the sea,' the agency said on its website.

[Soldier4Christ]

 Moderate Earthquake In Banda Sea, Indonesia

KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 2 (Bernama) -- A moderate earthquake measuring 5.7 on the Richter scale occurred in the Banda Sea, Indonesia, at 3.33am Monday, according to the Malaysian Meteorological Services Department.

The centre of the earthquake was located 1,180km southeast of Tawau, at co-ordinates 2.9 South, 125.9 East, it said in a statement here.

Based on its location and magnitude, the earthquake was not expected to generate a tsunami, it added.

[Soldier4Christ]

A second earthquake is felt in North Island - first in Te Kaha and second in Turangi

(IRN News Via Thomson Dialog NewsEdge)An earthquake has been felt in the central North Island just after one o'clock this afternoon.

It was centred within 5km of Turangi, at a depth of 8km, and measured 2.8 on the Richter scale.

An earlier tremor under the sea off Te Kaha in the Bay of Plenty measured 5.4 and was felt just before 11 this morning.

[Soldier4Christ]

 Coastal towns hit by blazes in record heat
David King and James Madden
January 02, 2006

FIRES were raging out of control last night after record temperatures and fierce winds fanned flames across NSW and Victoria, destroying homes and badly injuring a farmer.

Six fires in the Gosford and Woy Woy regions, on the NSW central coast, destroyed several properties and vehicles, as 30m flames ripped through bushland bordering residential areas.

A man from Junee, 450km southwest of Sydney, was taken to hospital with burns to 60per cent of his body after he was caught in a fire that burnt 1000ha of land and destroyed a house.

Heavy rain in western Victoria helped about 500 firefighters battling a large bushfire west of Stawell that struck on Saturday.

It destroyed seven houses and burned more than 9000ha of state forest and private land.

Sydney registered its hottest day since 1939, with a maximum of 45.2C. A cool change last night was accompanied by southwesterly winds of up to 96km/h, fanning flames that threatened more properties.

On the central coast last night, four residential areas were under threat: Kariong, Point Clare, Tascott and Koolewong.

A blaze was also expected to hit the main fire operations centre near Woy Woy.

NSW Rural Fire Service commissioner Phil Koperberg said last night that firefighters in the region had abandoned attempts to fight the fire front and were concentrating instead on protecting property.

"This is going to be very dangerous right throughout the central coast area," he said.

At least three homes and seven cars were destroyed on the central coast. Powerlines were cut and thousands of hectares of bushland destroyed.

About 550 firefighters, with 136 trucks, were protecting properties last night against fires advancing on multiple fronts on the central coast.. At least 80 residents were ordered to evacuate their homes, while 400 more volunteered to go to evacuation centres.

Mr Koperberg said at least 100 homes had been saved when the three main fires broke out into about a dozen blazes as temperatures on the central coast also soared to 45C.

"It's very difficult. It's been hotter than 45 degrees for the firefighters -- probably another 10 degrees hotter," he said.

Mr Koperberg said fires were causing serious concern at Junee and nearby Cootamundra, where emergencies had been been declared, and at Appin and Bulli, south of Sydney.

The fires closed the F3 freeway north of Sydney for more than six hours as holidaymakers tried to return to the city after the Christmas-New Year break. Authorities were attempting to clear the freeway last night but concern that a southerly change could force the fires back toward the road meant it was not open for general traffic.

Trains between northern Sydney and Gosford were shut down, adding to the commuter chaos.

Firefighters evacuated the Horsfield and Phegans Bay areas, accommodating residents at leagues clubs in Woy Woy and Gosford.

Houses at nearby Umina Heights were under threat last night as firefighters scrambled to protect property from the out-of-control fire.

The blazes were headed towards the nearby beachside hamlet of Pearl Beach, in the Brisbane Waters National Park.

The extreme temperatures, gusting northwesterly winds and low humidity fed the inferno after fires at Alison Point, Mount White and Woy Woy joined into a single front.

The Rural Fire Service said three properties and seven cars, including several belonging to volunteer firefighters, were destroyed by the blaze.

Fires were also burning at Merimbula, on the south coast, and Belrose in Sydney's north.

In Victoria, bushfires around Stawell, in the state's west, burnt out nearly 10,000ha and destroyed seven houses before the flames were doused. At one point, the 30km front was moving towards the town itself.

Last night, the southern side of Wangaratta, 235km northeast of Melbourne, was also bracing itself in the face of an out-of-control grassfire. Properties close to Wangaratta were also at risk. The Hume Highway was closed in both directions.

[Shammu]

Residents Survey Remains After Wildfires

By ANGELA K. BROWN, Associated Press Writer Thu Dec 29, 6:27 PM ET

CROSS PLAINS, Texas - Residents picked through the charred remains of their homes after devastating wildfires swept through nearly 20,000 acres in eastern Texas and Oklahoma, destroying nearly 200 homes and killing four people.

Linda and Kenneth Dixson recently turned down a would-be buyer's offer for their quaint renovated farmhouse here, deciding instead to stay put and fill it with new furniture.

But after wind-driven blazes ripped across the arid land, they were left with only a smoldering heap.

"We didn't take any clothes, and now it's all gone," Kenneth Dixson said Wednesday night while eating at First Baptist Church, where the Red Cross set up a shelter. "I didn't want to go back out there today. I just didn't want to see it again."

Severe drought, wind gusts of 40 mph and temperatures reaching the low 80s earlier this week set the stage for the fires in Texas and Oklahoma, which authorities believe were mostly set by people ignoring fire bans and burning trash, shooting fireworks or throwing out cigarettes. At least 73 blazes were reported in Texas over two days, and dozens more broke out in Oklahoma.

While the wind and high temperatures eased after the outbreak of fires Tuesday, the National Weather Service predicted a return of hazardous conditions on Saturday — prompting fears that New Year's fireworks could spark another round of fires.

"It's not going to be a good day to throw up fireworks," meteorologist Alan Moller said. "This could lead to some really nasty fires."

Patrick Burke, a National Weather Service meteorologist in Norman, Okla., said little if any rain is expected in that state over the next seven days. Higher wind and higher-than-normal temperatures were expected.

"Sometimes we just get locked into these weather patterns until something big comes along and forces it out," Burke said.

Cross Plains, a working-class town about 115 miles west of Fort Worth, was the hardest-hit community, losing about 90 homes and several other buildings, including a church, on Tuesday. Two of the state's three deaths were reported there.

One was Mattie Faye Wilson, 67, who taught several generations of Cross Plains first-graders before her retirement, said Debbie Gosnell, a city administrator. "She was a really sweet woman," Gosnell said.

Another victim was Maudie Sheppard, a bedridden 89-year-old living with her son. He rushed home to try and save her, but it was too late, neighbors said.

Remnants of several of the burned-out houses still smoldered Wednesday evening, blanketing the air with a smoky haze and burning odor. Texas Gov. Rick Perry planned to survey the Cross Plains damage by air Thursday.

Another woman died in Cooke County, near the Texas-Oklahoma line, after she apparently fell while helping her husband pour water on the grass around their house.

The Texas Division of Emergency Management had said there were four deaths in the state, but Perry spokeswoman Kathy Walt said Thursday those figures were wrong and there were only three.

The fourth death was reported in Oklahoma. Kelly Tiger, 69, collapsed and died while trying to battle flames on his family's property in Hughes County. Burns covered 70 percent of his body but doctors determined that he died of a heart attack.

"I believe my father was trying to get back to us," his son, Kelly Tiger Jr., 47, said. "He saw the winds shift and the fire coming at our house. That's when he started running toward us."

In all, the grass fires destroyed about 120 homes across Texas and about 75 in Oklahoma, authorities said.

Among the Oklahoma fires was one in Seminole County that burned more than 9,000 acres and 50 homes, said Herbert Gunter, the county's emergency management director.

"There's not anything left to burn," Gunter said Thursday. "The town this morning looks like fog, there's so much smoke ..."

This year has been the fifth-driest year on record for north and central Texas, where most of the fires happened. The annual rainfall in the Dallas-Fort Worth area is about 16 inches less than the average of about 35 inches. Oklahoma has received about 24 inches of rain this year, about 12 inches less than normal.

Some residents of Mustang, just west of Oklahoma City, returned to their homes Wednesday to pick through what remained. Five homes were destroyed as the fire raced across 400 acres.

Pat Hankins watched as friends and family members pulled partially destroyed items from his home and put them on the lawn. Inside, heaps of blackened insulation lay on top of a bed in a back bedroom lit by sunlight that poured through holes in the ceiling.

"We were planning on dying here," said Hankins, 62, of the home he has shared with his wife for 13 years. "We loved this piece of property. Whether we'll rebuild, I just don't know."

Eight homes were lost in a fast-moving grass fire in Choctaw, east of Oklahoma City. Among those destroyed was the home of Kenneth Franks, who had lived there since 1976.

The fire ripped through with such intensity that the aluminum cylinder heads of his wife's car melted into a pool that later hardened in front of the car. The dashboard dissolved around what was left of the steering wheel.

"When me and my wife got married 23 years ago, we had this house and a couple of cars," Franks said. "We have less now than we did then."

Residents Survey Remains After Wildfires