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Philippines Bracing for 'Super Typhoon'

Wednesday, November 21, 2007

MANILA, Philippines —
President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo ordered the evacuation of thousands of people in the eastern Philippines ahead of a powerful tropical storm, officials said Wednesday.

In one province alone, officials estimated that up to 200,000 people would be evacuated to gymnasiums, churches and schools by Friday when Tropical Storm Mitag was forecast to make landfall.

And in Vietnam, the government said Tropical Storm Hagibis was expected to hit the country's southern region Saturday.

Mitag could became a "super typhoon" with winds of more than 138 mph by the time it hits land in the Philippines, chief government forecaster Nathaniel Cruz said.

"It's still far, and that means we still have time to conduct preparedness," Cruz said. "With two days in the open sea, it has a big potential to become a very strong typhoon."

Recent rains have saturated the ground around Mayon volcano in Bicol, and the president was worried there could be a repeat of last year's landslides and flash floods that killed more than 1,000 people, said Anthony Golez, deputy director of the Office of Civil Defense.

Gov. Joey Salceda of Albay, where last year's Typhoon Durian unleashed tons of volcanic debris that wiped out entire villages, said some schools will be used as temporary shelters.

The same communities devastated last year were again flooded Wednesday. A wooden bridge connecting two villages in Daraga township was washed away, local officials said.

Evacuations also were reported from the provincial capital of Legazpi and nearby Daraga township, Cedric Daep, executive officer of the Albay disaster office, told The Associated Press.

He said many residents were terrified after the devastation last time.

"If we don't prepare now, they will be more scared," he said.

In neighboring Sorsogon province, radio announcements advised officials, community leaders and the public to prepare to evacuate, provincial disaster officer Noel Pura said.

Philippines Bracing for 'Super Typhoon' (http://www.foxnews.com)

Philippines Brace for Powerful Typhoons, Thousands Evacuated

Friday , November 23, 2007

MANILA, Philippines —
Officials stepped up the evacuation of tens of thousands of people from coastal villages and riversides Friday as a powerful typhoon stalled off the eastern Philippines.

Typhoon Mitag was "stationary" 125 miles east of the island province of Catanduanes in the Bicol region, said Prisco Nilo, the head of the country's weather bureau. The storm was packing winds of 109 mph and gusts of 131 mph.

Nilo told President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo and other officials that the typhoon "appears to have not moved," making it difficult to predict its direction. But he said "the most logical" direction the storm would take was toward Bicol, making landfall Saturday on Catanduanes.

He warned of storm surges and a rise in the sea level in areas directly affected by the typhoon and heavy rains and strong winds elsewhere.

Philippine disaster officials said more than 194,000 people have fled or been evacuated to temporary shelters in Albay, Sorsogon, Camarines Sur, Camarines Norte and Catanduanes provinces on the southern tip of the main Philippine island of Luzon.

Philippine forecasters said Mitag could intensify into a "super typhoon" with more than 138 mph winds.

Chief government forecaster Nathaniel Cruz said a powerful but slow-moving typhoon could wreak more havoc than one that passes quickly.

"The end result is that more things will be blown down and destroyed," he said.

In Vietnam, officials began evacuating 200,000 people as Typhoon Hagibis headed to the country after leaving 13 people dead in the Philippines earlier this week.

Hagibis was packing 83 mph winds and was expected to make landfall Saturday on Vietnam's southern coast.

In the South China Sea, 25 Filipino sailors were missing after a their fishing boat capsized in rough seas, a Chinese maritime official said Friday. Thirty other crew members were rescued and search teams were dispatched to look for the missing, said a man at the China Maritime Search and Rescue Center who gave only his surname, Zhang.

Catanduanes Gov. Joseph Cua said constant rains triggered landslides, blocking the main highway and isolating six northern towns. The main Bato river also was rising, he said.

He has directed the mayor of one isolated town to distribute about 800 110-pound sacks of rice from a government warehouse in case food runs short while the town is inaccessible.

Several flights to the region from Manila were canceled.

In Manila, workers started rolling up giant roadside tarpaulin billboards on steel frames to prevent them from being toppled by strong winds.

Arroyo, concerned about a repeat of last year's disaster in Bicol, ordered mass evacuations along the typhoon's expected path. She cut short her visit to Singapore, where she was attending an Asian summit.

Cruz, the weather forecaster, said after slamming into Catanduanes, the typhoon could veer slightly southwest and hit Albay province, which bore the brunt of last year's Typhoon Durian. That typhoon triggered flash floods and unleashed tons of debris, killing more than 1,000 people.

Albay Gov. Joey Salceda has suspended classes so some schools can be used as shelters. The provincial government mobilized military and police trucks to transport residents to evacuation centers.

He said the "pre-emptive evacuation" would prevent more difficult rescue work at the height of the typhoon.

"The order of the president is zero casualty," he told DZRH radio Friday. "We are ordering the evacuation of the eastern seaboard. This is a huge population."

He said those who refuse to evacuate will be asked to sign a waiver.

Philippines Brace for Powerful Typhoons, Thousands Evacuated (http://www.foxnews.com/printer_friendly_story/0,3566,312594,00.html)

Hurricane forecasters blow it again
Florida newspaper asks question: 'Why do they bother?'

Two years ago, way under. Last year, way over. This year, still not right.

It's been a stormy few years for William Gray, Philip Klotzbach and other scientists who predict total hurricane activity before each season begins, which raises fundamental questions as the 2007 season draws to an end on Friday:

Why do they bother? And given the errors -- which can undermine faith in the entire hurricane warning system -- are these full-season forecasts doing more harm than good?

''The seasonal hurricane forecasters certainly have a lot of explaining to do,'' said Max Mayfield, former director of the National Hurricane Center.

''The last couple of years have humbled the seasonal hurricane forecasters and pointed out that we have a lot more to learn before we can do accurate seasonal forecasts,'' he said.

The numbers provide abundant support for those statements.

Just before the season started on June 1, the nationally prominent Gray-Klotzbach team at Colorado State University predicted that 17 named storms would grow into nine hurricanes, five of which would be particularly intense, with winds above 110 mph.

A different team at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration predicted 13 to 17 named storms, seven to 10 hurricanes and three to five intense hurricanes.

The actual results for the 2007 season: 14 named storms, five hurricanes, two intense hurricanes.

That turned a season predicted to be extremely active into one that was about average in number of storms and well below average in total intensity.

Even mid-season corrections issued by both teams in August -- somewhat akin to changing your prediction about a baseball game during the fifth inning -- proved wrong.

Their pre-season predictions in 2005 and 2006 were even worse.

The teams defend their forecasts, saying they are based on the best science available, were closer to the mark in prior years and serve an important public service.

''The seasonal forecasts are quite good,'' said Gerry Bell, NOAA's lead seasonal forecaster. ``Last year, we over-predicted and this year we over-predicted, but our track record, I think, is excellent.''

Klotzbach, who now is the lead forecaster of the Colorado State team created more than two decades ago, said long-range predictions satisfy the public's ``inherent curiosity.''

Both teams employ what they call ''climate signals'' -- a variety of ocean and atmospheric conditions -- along with historical records to produce their forecasts.

''Seasonal forecasts are meant to provide people with the best information possible about how active or inactive the coming season is likely to be,'' Klotzbach said.

Mayfield and virtually all hurricane researchers and forecasters, some of whom were skeptical years ago, now support the issuing of full-season predictions.

But many openly share concerns about the current system, focusing in particular on NOAA's tendency to subtly link the National Hurricane Center in West Miami-Dade County to the seasonal forecasts produced by Bell's team, which is based in Maryland.

In fact, it is important to emphasize the distinction between the six-month seasonal forecasts and the real-time forecasts of an actual hurricane or other tropical system, which are called ``operational forecasts.''

Several researchers at the hurricane center worked with Gray and contribute to the data collected by Bell's team, but the center's real-time forecasters play no substantive role in the full-season predictions and are not responsible for them.

CONCERN OVER IMPACT

Many of them worry, however, that substantial errors in those full-season predictions can undermine faith in their generally accurate forecasts of actual storms.

They note that NOAA, parent agency of the hurricane center and Bell's team, often releases Bell's predictions during pre-season news conferences conducted at the hurricane center.

During other years, the hurricane center's director is ordered to participate in the pre-season news conference, wherever it might be held.

''NOAA has been using the good name of the National Hurricane Center, at least to some extent, to help promote the seasonal product and that's not the mission of operational hurricane forecasters,'' Mayfield said.

''In some areas, hurricane forecasters are losing credibility even though they are not the lead on this -- and that's always a concern,'' he said. ``We don't want the credit for the seasonal forecasts.''

Bell said the differences between the two groups should be clear to the public by now. He said South Floridians and other residents of the hurricane zone should never disregard real-time forecasts, especially based on a misconception about the full-season predictions.

''There's no basis for those kinds of comments,'' Bell said, ``especially if they're made by people who don't know what they're talking about.''

Another concern focuses on the hyperactivity of the Gray-Klotzbach team, which issues not one, not two, but six forecasts before and during the season.

The first arrives in early December, forecasting the outcome of a hurricane season that doesn't begin for six months. Maintaining the baseball comparison, that would be like predicting -- this past October -- the Marlins' precise win-loss record in 2008.

''If Gray were honest, he would say they have no skill in making predictions that far in advance,'' said Jeff Masters, a former NOAA hurricane researcher who now serves as chief meteorologist of the Weather Underground. ``It's just an interesting mental exercise.''

Nevertheless, Masters also favors the issuing of seasonal forecasts.

''If you put good science in the hands of people, that's always a benefit,'' he said.

''But they should do a better job of educating the public about the uncertainty involved,'' Masters added. ``And they have to keep underscoring that you have to be prepared in any given year, whatever the forecast.''

That raises another issue.

Virtually everyone involved in the system agrees that seasonal forecasts provide opportunities to remind the public that it must prepare for the worst -- and that certainly works during the current period of generally heightened hurricane activity.

But what happens the next time the data suggest a comparatively mild season? How will the scientists handle that and might that information encourage people to let down their guard?

WHEREVER IT LEADS

The leaders of both teams say they are scientists and will go where the science takes them, regardless of where that might be.

''We believe, and I'm sure NOAA would agree, that people should not relax or pay less attention if we forecast an inactive season,'' Klotzbach said. ``Obviously, storms can make landfall and do major damage in inactive years. Just look at Hurricane Andrew in 1992 as an example of this.''

NOAA does agree.

''People have the right to know if we think it will be an above normal or below normal season,'' Bell said.

''But we always, always, impress on people that we cannot, on seasonal time scales, predict if a given locality is going to get hit, so they have to be ready,'' he said.

And what about the recent tendency to over-predict seasonal activity?

''Forecast activity was too high,'' Bell said. ``But gosh darn it, that's a good thing. We'll take it.''

Deadly Midwest storm halts air, highway traffic
Freezing rain, flurries predicted for Iowa a day after wintry mix kills three

Forecasters predicted freezing rain and snow flurries in Iowa on Sunday, a day after snow and ice plastered the Midwest, disrupting airport and highway traffic and leaving at least three people dead.

Hundreds of flights were canceled at airports in Des Moines, Chicago and Milwaukee on Saturday, with officials closing Des Moines International Airport for several hours after a United Airlines plane slid off a taxiway as it headed to a runway for a flight to Chicago’s O’Hare. None of the 44 passengers was injured and the airport reopened by mid-afternoon.

At Dane County Regional Airport in Madison, Wis., an incoming Mesa Airlines regional jet flying for United Express slid off the pavement after failing to make a turn onto a taxiway, but no injuries were reported among the 25 passengers.

The National Weather Service had posted winter storm and ice warnings across parts of Nebraska, Iowa, Wisconsin, the eastern Dakotas, Illinois and northern Michigan, but many of the warnings were lifted later in the day. In Minnesota, Duluth received nearly 8 inches of snow.

Much of Iowa was hit by snow, sleet and freezing rain. Temperatures warmed to above freezing by Saturday evening, helping to melt away much of the ice and sleet that had accumulated, Ken Podrazik, a meteorologist with the service in Des Moines, said late Saturday.

Podrazik said some rain and freezing drizzle was expected early Sunday, turning to flurries later in the day. He said travel could remain troublesome because roads were expected to refreeze during the night. He also said gusty wind also could be a problem.

Madison had expected three inches of snow and wind gusts of up to 30 mph Saturday. The University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Department of Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences department postponed its annual Solstice Party, which was set for Saturday, until February.

“This is the most treacherous kind of weather that the weather can deliver,” said department chairman Jonathan Martin.

The storm also complicated plans for some presidential hopefuls drumming up support for the Jan. 3 caucuses that kick off the nomination process.

Weather halts campaign stops
Republican Mitt Romney canceled three campaign stops planned Saturday in southern Iowa, and former President Clinton canceled a rally for his wife, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, scheduled Saturday afternoon outside Des Moines.

In the mountains of western Colorado, the storm dumped up to two feet of snow, bringing moisture to a region that had been thirsting for it. A half foot of snow in Beaver Creek forced organizers to postpone a men’s World Cup super-G skiing event from Saturday to Monday.

Eastbound Interstate 70 was closed for about three hours Saturday night leading up to Vail Pass in the mountains due to accidents on icy, snowpacked roads.

Heavy ice accumulations on power lines blacked out more than 14,000 customers scattered around Iowa, according to Alliant Energy and MidAmerican Energy. Thousands more were without power near Galesburg, Ill., Ameren spokesman Leigh Morris said.

In Indiana, a van carrying Purdue University’s ice hockey team rolled over on an ice-slickened highway about 20 miles southwest of West Lafayette, killing one team member and injuring seven others, school officials said.

A man died when his Jeep hit a semitrailer on a highway north of Madison, Wis., authorities said. Vehicles had been slowing after another semitrailer tipped on its side as the driver tried to exit the highway.

Storm that killed 4 targets Midwest
Washington, Oregon declare states of emergency

A storm that brought hurricane force winds and heavy rain to the Northwest of the United States, killing at least four, was en route to the Upper Midwest, which has already been hit with heavy snow and rain.

Many roads remained closed by downed trees and landslides in Oregon and Washington, communications were spotty at best and power remained out for thousands of residents after back-to-back storm fronts Sunday and Monday that were among the region's worst in recent memory.

The governors of Washington and Oregon declared states of emergency, which can speed relief efforts. Many schools and some government offices planned to close or stay closed Tuesday because of high water or power outages.

About 150 people were stranded at some point Monday across the region, said Washington Gov. Chris Gregoire. About half were rescued by Monday evening, many of them by boat, she said.

The storm should blanket the Midwest on Tuesday, with Ohio predicted to get several inches of snow, said Mike Dutter, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Cleveland.

The weather service said 3 to 6 inches of rain had fallen across much of western Washington.
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Storm turns deadly
By 10 p.m., six Coast Guard helicopters had hoisted 66 people from areas surrounded by water in Washington -- in some cases from rooftops, said Petty Officer Kelly Parker in Seattle.

More stiff winds were likely Tuesday in the Northwest, but nothing like the blasts that exceeded 120 mph at times Sunday and Monday.

At least two Oregon deaths were reported, including that of a 90-year-old woman who suffered a heart attack as she evacuated. The driver of a truck swept away by floodwaters in the same area also was reported dead.

In Washington, one man in Aberdeen died when a tree fell on him as he was trying to clear another downed tree. Another person died from an undetermined medical problem after power was lost, said Grays Harbor County sheriff's Detective Ed McGowan.

Thousands without power
Pacific Power reported 40,000 homes without power in Oregon, and it could be days before electricity is fully restored, the utility said. Transmission poles 100 feet tall were toppled, and large sections of lines lay on the ground.

"The ground is saturated from intensive rainfall and trees are leaning into power lines and dropping to the ground," the utility said in a statement.

More than 80,000 people lost power in Washington, Gov. Gregoire said.

Wind gusts of more than 100 mph were reported along the Oregon coast, with the highest reading at 129 mph at Bay City, the Weather Service said. Gusts hit 81 mph at Hoquiam, Wash., it said.

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Check weather and forecasts around the world
Fatal storm spreads ice, snow across Northeast

Mudslides halted north-south Amtrak passenger train service between Eugene, Ore., and Vancouver, British Columbia, and flooding forced the indefinite closure of Interstate 5, the main route between Seattle and Portland. To the east, snowslides temporarily closed major Cascade Mountain passes carrying traffic on Interstate 90 and U.S. 2.

Most major roads in southwestern Washington's Grays Harbor and Pacific counties were closed, and virtually all roads into the coastal city of Aberdeen were cut off, officials said.

"In 30 years of law enforcement, it's as bad as I've ever seen," said Grays Harbor County Sheriff Michael J. Whelan, whose own truck was smashed in his driveway by a falling tree.

Telephone and other communications were so were so tenuous that it was impossible to determine how many people were forced out of their homes, said Abby Kershaw of Oregon Emergency Management.

Cyclone batters Fiji island, no deaths: officials

Fri Dec 7, 5:18 PM ET

SUVA (AFP) - Much of the tiny Fiji island of Cikobia was flattened by devastating Cyclone Daman Saturday with most houses and vegetation destroyed, but its 69 villagers survived by hiding in caves, officials said.

Communications to the remote island on Fiji's northeastern border were knocked out in the storm but a brief radio telephone message confirmed all the villagers had been accounted for.

They were able to flee their homes before Daman made a direct hit about about 3:00 am (1530 GMT Friday) and took shelter in caves on the island.

Initial reports indicated there had been casualties but a nurse on Cikobia was able to get a message to Labasa Hospital on Vanua Levu island to confirm there were no serious injuries, the hospital Superintendent Ami Chand said.

As Daman, packing hurricane-force winds up to 260 kilometres an hour, bore down on Fiji on Friday, residents were forced to take shelter and tourists were evacuated from expensive resorts on outlying islands.

The storm, a category four on a five-point scale, was initially heading for Vanua Levu, Fiji's second largest island, before veering away and making a direct hit on Cikobia.

Although the worst of the storm was considered to have passed by dawn Saturday, residents across Fiji were warned of possible flash-floods in low-lying areas and coastal flooding at high tide.

Fiji is frequently hit by tropical cyclones in the summer months and Cikobia in particular is considered a "cyclone magnet," suffering direct or near-direct hits of Cyclones Kina in 1993, Gavin in 1997 and Ami in 2003.

The Nadi weather office in Fiji said Daman was slowly moving out of the Fiji group towards Tonga and on its present path was not expected to affect any other islands in the Fiji group.

Cyclone batters Fiji island, no deaths: officials (http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20071207/wl_asia_afp/fijistormcyclone;_ylt=AtbHV_hF0Q5J2JAGdTvDnsEBxg8F)

Grand Forks sets weather record for third straight day...

For the third time in five days, Grand Forks has set a weather record.

Temperatures yesterday dropped to minus 19 degrees shattering the previous record low of 16 below set in 1972.

Grand Forks reported record snowfall on Saturday, with 6.4 inches, and on Tuesday, with just over 8 inches.

Weather officials expect an El Nino to influence North Dakota's winter weather pattern. During El Nino years, the winter tends to be slightly colder with more snow than average.

Snow sets more records in Grand Forks, Fargo

More snowfall records in eastern North Dakota.

The National Weather Service says the Grand Forks airport had 8.1 inches of snow yesterday, setting a record for the date. And Fargo set a record with 5.9 inches.

The previous mark in both cities was set back in 1926.

Grand Forks and Fargo also had record snowfall last Saturday.

Today's forecast calls for a chance of light snow in the west and flurries in central North Dakota, and a little snow overnight in the east. The southwest could get some freezing rain tonight.

Further down the road the National Weather Service says southern North Dakota could get up to two inches of snow on Saturday. And colder weather is moving in, with low temperatures on Saturday dropping to the teens below zero in some regions.

Major Ice Storm Pounding Central U.S.

A major winter storm is already affecting travel across parts of the Central U.S., and its effects could linger for days.

As of Saturday morning, freezing drizzle and rain was falling across most of the state of Kansas, with road conditions rapidly deteriorating.

Dozens of traffic accidents have been reported in Kansas City, where the roadways were already coated with a thin glaze of ice.

Conditions were about the same in Wichita, where the city’s police department was asking drivers only to report accidents with injuries or serious damage.

The wintry weather extended into Missouri, where travelers along I-70 between St. Louis and Kansas City encountered slick roads.

Although the precipitation in St. Louis was falling as rain, a change over to freezing rain is expected by Saturday night.

The wintry weather could last through Monday across the region, with parts of Kansas and Missouri receiving over an inch of accumulating ice.

Parts of Oklahoma could see the freezing rain start as early as Sunday, with wintry weather lasting through mid-week.

In addition to hazardous travel conditions, the ice storm is expected to cause power outages as ice weighs down trees and power lines.

_____________

I wonder how soon global warming is going to usher in the next ice age? ::) ::) Looks like it might be soon.

Ice Storm Coats Much of Nation's Middle
Dec 9 07:45 PM US/Eastern
By CHERYL WITTENAUER
Associated Press Writer

ST. LOUIS (AP) - An ice storm slickened roads and sidewalks, grounded flights, and cut power to tens of thousands Sunday in a swath from the Southern Plains to the Great Lakes as even colder weather threatened.

The wintry weather was expected to continue through midweek, and ice storm warnings stretched from Texas to Pennsylvania.

"Tomorrow may be even more of a dilemma than today because we're going to get even a little bit more colder," said John Pike, a meteorologist in the Weather Service's office in Norman, Okla.

Five traffic deaths were blamed on icy roads in Oklahoma.

More than 130,000 customers lost power in Missouri, Oklahoma, Illinois and Kansas, utilities reported.

Some communities in Missouri reported ice as thick as three-quarters of an inch, the National Weather Service said.

"The rural roads are pretty rough, the main highways are pretty clear, and the overpasses are slick," said John Christiansen, emergency management director in Missouri's St. Clair County.

Missouri Gov. Matt Blunt declared a state of emergency and activated the National Guard.

At Kansas City International Airport, about two dozen flights were canceled by midafternoon Sunday, and more than a dozen flights were called off at St. Louis Lambert International Airport.

Places of worship across the region called off services because of the slippery roads. Roads in all but the southeastern corner of Oklahoma were considered slick and hazardous, the state Department of Transportation said.

Chicago officials used the city's emergency phone system to deliver recorded warnings to about 2,700 elderly residents that sidewalks were icy and slippery.

Ice Storm Coats Much of Nation's Middle (http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=D8TE8PGG0&show_article=1&catnum=-1)

Ice storm coats nation's middle; 6 dead

An ice storm slickened roads and sidewalks, grounded hundreds of flights, and cut power to tens of thousands Sunday in a swath from the Southern Plains to the Great Lakes as even colder weather threatened.

The wintry weather was expected to continue through midweek, and ice storm warnings stretched from Texas to Pennsylvania.

"Tomorrow may be even more of a dilemma than today because we're going to get even a little bit more colder," said John Pike, a meteorologist in the Weather Service's office in Norman, Okla.

Six traffic deaths were blamed on icy roads in Oklahoma. Roads along much of the state were considered slick and hazardous by the Oklahoma Department of Transportation, with two sections of Interstate 40 being closed temporarily.

More than 130,000 customers lost power in Missouri, Oklahoma, Illinois and Kansas, utilities reported.

Some communities in Missouri reported ice as thick as three-quarters of an inch, the National Weather Service said.

"The rural roads are pretty rough, the main highways are pretty clear, and the overpasses are slick," said John Christiansen, emergency management director in Missouri's St. Clair County.

Missouri Gov. Matt Blunt declared a state of emergency and activated the National Guard.

Chicago's O'Hare International Airport, one of the nation's busiest, canceled more than 400 flights. The airports in Kansas City, Mo., and St. Louis also canceled several flights.

Places of worship across the region called off services because of the slippery roads. Roads in all but the southeastern corner of Oklahoma were considered slick and hazardous, the state Department of Transportation said.

Chicago officials used the city's emergency phone system to deliver recorded warnings to about 2,700 elderly residents that sidewalks were icy and slippery.

Atlantic SPECIAL TROPICAL DISTURBANCE STATEMENT

000
WONT41 KNHC 101549
DSAAT
SPECIAL TROPICAL DISTURBANCE STATEMENT
NWS TPC/NATIONAL HURRICANE CENTER MIAMI FL
1100 AM EST MON DEC 10 2007

SATELLITE IMAGES AND SURFACE REPORTS INDICATE THAT A CLOSED SURFACE
CIRCULATION HAS DEVELOPED IN ASSOCIATION WITH THE BROAD AREA OF LOW
PRESSURE NOW CENTERED ABOUT 200 MILES EAST OF PUERTO RICO. SHOWER
ACTIVITY WITH THE LOW REMAINS DISORGANIZED...HOWEVER...WITH THE
STRONGEST THUNDERSTORMS LOCATED A COUPLE HUNDRED MILES NORTH AND
NORTHEAST OF THE CENTER. WHILE A TROPICAL OR SUBTROPICAL CYCLONE
COULD STILL FORM DURING THE NEXT 24 HOURS...UPPER-LEVEL WINDS ARE
EXPECTED TO BECOME GRADUALLY LESS FAVORABLE FOR DEVELOPMENT OVER
THE NEXT COUPLE OF DAYS. REGARDLESS OF WHETHER THE LOW DEVELOPS
FURTHER...IT COULD PRODUCE HEAVY SQUALLS AND GUSTY WINDS OF NEAR
GALE FORCE ACROSS THE VIRGIN ISLANDS AND PUERTO RICO LATER TODAY
AND TONIGHT AS IT MOVES WESTWARD OR WEST-SOUTHWESTWARD AT ABOUT 20
MPH. HEAVY RAINS OVER PUERTO RICO AND HISPANIOLA COULD CAUSE
LIFE-THREATENING FLASH FLOODS AND MUD SLIDES...AND INTERESTS IN
THESE AREAS SHOULD CONTINUE TO MONITOR THE PROGRESS OF THIS SYSTEM.

FURTHER SPECIAL TROPICAL DISTURBANCE STATEMENTS WILL BE ISSUED AS
NECESSARY. FOR INFORMATION SPECIFIC TO YOUR AREA...CONSULT
STATEMENTS ISSUED BY YOUR LOCAL WEATHER OFFICE.

$$
FORECASTER FRANKLIN

Atlantic SPECIAL TROPICAL DISTURBANCE STATEMENT (http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/text/refresh/MIADSAAT+shtml/100329.shtml?)
~~~~~~~~~~

This kind of thing is very rare this late in the season. Sometimes God uses nature to send a message. It will be interesting to watch, hurricane season officially ended Nov 30th.

Ice storm results in 11 traffic deaths
Oklahoma especially hard hit, with quarter-million customers blacked out

Commuters contended with treacherous roads Monday from the southern Plains to the Northeast as a storm spread a coating of ice and freezing rain linked to at least 11 deaths.

Thousands of people had no electricity and airline flights were canceled Monday in Oklahoma. During the weekend, hundreds of flights had been grounded because of the weather.

Ice storm warnings, freezing rain advisories, winter storm watches and winter weather advisories extended along a cold front from Texas to New Hampshire. The wintry weather was expected to continue through midweek.

Oklahoma was especially hard hit, with a quarter-million customers blacked out Monday morning and schools closed across the state. The Highway Patrol discouraged travel for the whole state.

Ice accumulations already a half-inch thick were reported Sunday in parts of Oklahoma and could build up to as much as an inch thick in the Oklahoma City metropolitan area, the weather service said.

Most morning flights were canceled at Oklahoma City's Will Rogers World Airport, where two of the three runways were iced over.

Oklahoma utilities said about 300,000 homes and businesses were blacked out Monday, mostly in the Oklahoma City and Tulsa areas.

There was no way to estimate when power might be restored, said Oklahoma Gas & Electric spokesman Gil Broyles. "It's a changing situation, almost minute by minute," he said.

The Oklahoma City suburb of Jones, a town of 2,500 people, had very low water pressure because there was no electricity to run well pumps, and firefighters said an early morning fire destroyed most of the local high school.

Blackouts affecting thousands of customers also were reported Sunday in parts of Missouri, Illinois and Kansas.

In the Northeast on Monday, many schools across upstate New York were closed or started late because of icy roads. Last Monday, a mixture of snow, rain and sleet closed schools across a large area of upstate New York state.

On ice-covered Interstate 40 west of Okemah, Okla., four people died in "one huge cluster of an accident" that involved 11 vehicles, including a tractor-trailer rig, said Highway Patrol Trooper Betsey Randolph. All 11 vehicles burned, she said.

Seven other people also died on icy Oklahoma roads.

Missouri Gov. Matt Blunt declared a state of emergency Sunday and activated the National Guard to aid communities affected by the storm.

In Chicago, poor weather and low visibility forced the cancellation of more than 400 flights Sunday at O'Hare International Airport, authorities said. About two dozen flights were canceled at Kansas City International Airport, and 13 were canceled at Lambert International Airport in St. Louis.

A section of Interstate 70 in Missouri's Montgomery County was closed Sunday when a large power line fell across the highway. A nursing home in the county was without power, and its generator didn't work.

Midwest plastered by more deadly ice

By JAMES BELTRAN, Associated Press Writer 33 minutes ago

DES MOINES, Iowa - Schools closed for thousands of youngsters, Iowa's biggest airport shut down and thick layers of ice brought down more power lines Tuesday as a major ice storm glazed the nation's midsection.

At least 22 deaths had been blamed on the storm system since the waves of sleet and freezing rain started during the weekend. Hundreds of thousands of homes and businesses had no electricity.

Officials in Missouri, Kansas and Oklahoma had declared states of emergency. President Bush declared an emergency in Oklahoma on Tuesday, ordering federal aid to supplement state and local response efforts.

Iowa's largest school district closed for the day in Des Moines, telling its nearly 31,000 students to stay home, and kids across most of Oklahoma and in the Kansas City, Mo., area stayed home for a second day.

Schools also were closed in parts of Wisconsin, including Milwaukee Public Schools with 85,000 students. "We thought about our kids on foot," said Milwaukee schools spokeswoman Roseann St. Aubin. Some drivers couldn't even get to their buses, she said.

About an inch of ice was expected Tuesday over parts of Iowa, followed by up to 5 inches of sleet and snow. "It's a pretty good ice-maker," said Frank Boksa, a National Weather Service forecaster.

Ice as much as an inch thick had accumulated on trees, power lines, streets and car windshields Monday in parts of Oklahoma and Missouri, with thinner layers elsewhere.

Nearly 600,000 Oklahoma homes and businesses still had no electricity Tuesday, most of them since Monday when power lines began snapping under the weight of ice and falling branches — the biggest power outage in state history. Utilities in Missouri reported more than 100,000 homes and business without power and Kansas utilities said probably more than 70,000 were blacked out Tuesday, with some in the dark since Sunday.

"This is a big one. We've got a massive situation here and it's probably going to be a week to 10 days before we get power on to everybody," said Ed Bettinger, a spokesman for Public Service Company of Oklahoma. "It looks like a war zone."

Iowa's two major utilities reported over 17,000 customers without power Tuesday.

The storm even put a crimp on presidential campaigning, with Republican Mike Huckabee canceling stops in western Iowa and former President Bill Clinton calling off appearances in eastern Iowa on behalf of his wife, Hillary Rodham Clinton.

Des Moines International Airport closed because of ice late Monday and could be closed most of Tuesday, said spokesman Roy Criss. The airport, which also was shut down by winter weather two weeks ago, has 138 arrivals and departures per day, he said.

"This rain keeps refreezing. We put chemicals down, it melts and the freezes again. We can't stay ahead of it," Criss said. "This is not fun."

Many travelers also were grounded at Chicago, where about 250 flights were canceled Tuesday morning at O'Hare International Airport and departure delays averaging 15 to 30 minutes, said Karen Pride of the city's Department of Aviation.

Kansas City International Airport in Missouri canceled more than 90 flights Tuesday morning, but spokesman Joe McBride said that was probably due to problems at other airports.

Southeastern Nebraska also had power outages Tuesday and some flights in and out of Omaha's Eppley Airfield were canceled.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency and the Army Corps of Engineers sent 50 generators and three truckloads of bottled water from Texas to distribute to blacked-out areas of Oklahoma.

At least 22 deaths — most of them in traffic accidents — had been blamed on the ice and cold since the weekend, including 15 in Oklahoma, four in Kansas, and three in Missouri.

Midwest plastered by more deadly ice (http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20071211/ap_on_re_us/winter_storm;_ylt=A0WTUfVVsV5HEAQBEgZKTb8F)
~~~~~~~~~

I guess Al Gore decided to finally shut his mouth. ;D ;D ;D

Storm threatens flooding, mudslides in Caribbean
11 Dec 2007 16:50:09 GMT
Source: Reuters

MIAMI, Dec 11 (Reuters) - Subtropical Storm Olga threatened the northern Caribbean islands with heavy rain, flash flooding and mudslides on Tuesday.

Olga was a relatively weak storm with top sustained winds of 45 mph (75 kph) and forecasters at the U.S. National Hurricane Center predicted strong winds in the upper atmosphere would start to tug it apart on Wednesday.

They said Olga's greatest threat was of torrential rains.

"These rains have already produced life-threatening flash floods and mudslides in Puerto Rico," the forecasters said in an advisory.

Tropical storm warnings and watches were issued for parts of Haiti and the Dominican Republic, which share the island of Hispaniola, and were expected later in the Turks and Caicos islands and the southeastern Bahamas.

At 10 a.m. EST, (1500 GMT) the storm's center was about 130 miles (200 km) east-southeast of the Dominican Republic capital of Santo Domingo.

Olga was moving almost due west near 15 mph (25 kph) on a path that would keep it very near the southern coast of the Dominican Republic on Tuesday.

The storm could dump up to 10 inches (25 cm) of rain on isolated parts of Hispaniola, while Puerto Rico could get another 2 to 4 inches (5 to 10 cm), bringing its total to 12 inches (30 cm) in some areas, the forecasters said.

Most forecasting models showed the storm moving westward across the Caribbean toward Central America for the rest of the week, keeping it well away from U.S. oil and gas production facilities in the Gulf of Mexico.

One model had it crossing western Cuba into the southern Gulf of Mexico and then veering across the southern tip of Florida toward the Atlantic Ocean.

Olga was a subtropical storm, with a cooler core than a tropical storm or hurricane, and formed over the Virgin Islands on Monday, 10 days after the official end of the six-month Atlantic-Caribbean hurricane season.

Tropical storms draw strength from warm seas, so December storms are unusual. Olga was the 17th named storm to form in the region in the month of December since record keeping began in 1851, the hurricane center forecasters said.

Storm threatens flooding, mudslides in Caribbean (http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/NCB504539.htm)

Deadly winter storm hits Northeast
Crews in Plains, Midwest work to restore power to hundreds of thousands left in dark

A deadly winter storm brought snow and sleet to the Northeast on Thursday, while crews in the Plains and Midwest worked to restore power to hundreds of thousands of people left in the dark in its ice-coated wake.

Some parts of the Northeast could receive up to a foot of snow, forecasters said. Schools in Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, New York, New Jersey and Connecticut announced closures, in some cases before flakes even began to fall.

Dozens of traffic accidents were reported on Connecticut roads.

"We're having, I won't say a crisis, but we have an abundance of crashes literally all across the state on main and secondary roads," said Lt. J. Paul Vance. "It really is pretty dangerous, so we would strongly advise people to stay off the roads."

Some businesses sent their workers home early, leading to a steady stream of customers at Sebby Randazzo's liquor store in Columbia.

"Before the snow starts, and for the first hour or so, people want to load up for their snow parties," Randazzo said. "They want to gather around the fire with a glass of wine, or have a beer with their buddies, or maybe after they shovel snow for a while they come in and have a beverage."

Molly Bergstrom, of Canastota, N.Y., stuffed grocery bags in the back of her car and said she had gone shopping early to beat the worst of the weather.

"I hate driving in the snow. They said it was going to get worse later so I thought I could finish up some shopping and get back home before it did. I still have a couple more stops so I guess that plan is shot," Bergstrom said, the snow starting to pile up.

The storm was blamed for 35 deaths, mostly in traffic accidents, as it moved through the middle of the country. In Oklahoma, about 333,000 homes and businesses still were without power Thursday, officials said. In Missouri, about 35,000 customers remained in the dark, said Al Butkus, spokesman for utility Aquila Inc.

Northeast airports were bracing for travel problems. By midday, more than 100 flights had been canceled at Newark's airport in New Jersey. But the airport was only seeing delays of about 15 minutes, said Alan Hicks, spokesman for the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey.

At Boston's Logan International Airport, air traffic was normal Thursday morning, but the airport expected airlines to cancel up to half of the afternoon's scheduled flights because of snow.

"But unless it snows 2 inches an hour, or we have whiteout conditions, the airport should stay open maybe with just one runway operating, but open," airport spokesman Phil Orlandella said.

At New York's airports, some airlines were allowing passengers to reschedule their flights free of charge. At Connecticut's largest airport, near Hartford, a dozen flights had been canceled as of 9 a.m., said John Wallace, an airport spokesman.

In Yorktown, N.Y., Mitchell Hardware sold more than 25 shovels Wednesday nearly twice as many as it usually sells in a week, said assistant manager Mike Malone.

Sunshine and milder temperatures on Thursday should help cleanup efforts in much of the Plains, but another winter storm approaching from the west could dump heavy snow on parts of Oklahoma on Friday.

More than two dozen shelters were set up at churches and community centers across the Oklahoma for people needing a warm place to stay. Exhibit halls at the Cox Convention Center in Oklahoma City were turned into a shelter Wednesday capable of housing more than 700 people.

Wayne Wooldridge lasted only one cold, dark night in the frigid house he volunteered to watch for his son, who is deployed overseas for the U.S. Air Force.

"I can get bundled up pretty warm in the house, but there was no light at night," Wooldridge, 68, said Wednesday at a shelter. "We get spoiled."

Industrial-size generators, bottled water, plastic sheeting to cover 2,000 damaged roofs, and blankets arrived Wednesday via the Federal Emergency Management Agency, which was authorized by President Bush's emergency disaster declaration to help all 77 Oklahoma counties clean up.

At the John 3:16 Mission in Tulsa, a lottery is held each day to determine who gets a bed, and the facility is scrambling every bed, mattress and bench it has to accommodate people, said The Rev. Steve Whitaker, executive director at the mission.

"It's gut-wrenching to turn those guys away," he said.

Killer storm pummels Northeast
'I don't mind an inch or 2, but this is too much'

A pre-winter storm dumped up to a foot of snow on parts of Michigan, causing crashes that claimed at least two lives and canceling Monday's classes for tens of thousands of children.

At least 150 school districts, including the state's largest in Detroit, announced the cancellation of classes because of the storm.

By late Sunday, AAA Michigan had helped more than 3,000 motorists.
Story continues below ↓advertisement

The fatal crashes happened on U.S. 23 in Monroe County and Interstate 94 in Berrien County.

Motorists slid off roads as a wind-blown brew of snow, sleet and freezing rain cut visibility and iced over highways from the Great Lakes to New England.

The National Weather Service posted winter storm warnings for Monday from Michigan and Indiana all the way to Maine. Around a foot of snow had fallen on parts of the Chicago area and Ann Arbor, Mich., with 10 inches in Vermont. Meteorologists said that 18 inches was possible in northern New England and that there was a chance of 14 inches in parts of Michigan.

"Our biggest advice right now is, stay home," said Maine State Police Sgt. Andrew Donovan. Visibility in the blowing snow was less than 200 yards, and in stronger gusts "if there's a car in front of you, you can't even see it," he said.

Every available plow truck was at work in Vermont, said Reggie Brown, highway department dispatcher in Montpelier. "Everybody's out and running," he said.

The Hancock County Sheriff's Office in northwestern Ohio declared roads off limits to non-emergency vehicles, declaring that anyone else traveling through was subject to arrest.

Illinois Department of Transportation spokesman Mike Claffey said 1,000 trucks were out clearing snow there Sunday.

Snow depths in some places were uncertain. "They can't tell how much because it's blowing so hard," Brown said.

"I don't mind an inch or two, but this is too much," said Larry Thelen in Ann Arbor.

Difficult travel conditions
The Hancock County Sheriff's Office in northwestern Ohio declared roads off limits to nonemergency vehicles, threatening anyone else traveling through the county with arrest. Wind gusts as high as 40 mph blew snow around and diminished visibility.

The storm canceled hundreds of flights at airports in Chicago. Many flights were canceled at airports in the Northeast, including in Portland, Maine; Buffalo, N.Y.; and Manchester, N.H. Few major problems were reported at airports in Philadelphia, Boston and New York, although New York's Kennedy and New Jersey's Newark Liberty reported delays.

Many churches called off Sunday services because of the hazardous driving conditions.

"I don't want folks to venture out because we're having church and they feel obligated," the Rev. Glenn Mortimer said after calling off services at Wakefield-Lynnfield United Methodist Church in Wakefield, Mass. He noted that some people still hadn't completely dug out from a storm Thursday that dumped more than a foot of snow on parts of Massachusetts.
Football fans, shoppers undeterred

The storm didn't keep fans away from the New England Patriots vs. New York Jets game at Foxborough, Mass., but they had to shovel off their seats in the stadium. A video of a fire roaring in a fireplace was shown on the scoreboards at both ends of the field.

At Giants Stadium in East Rutherford, N.J., strong winds collapsed a fabric dome used for hospitality events before and after games. No one was inside or hurt when the structure fell Sunday morning.

The storm didn't stand in the way of dedicated Christmas shoppers.

"The reason we came out in the storm early, early, is that we knew there would be no lines," Michael McGrath, 48, of Boston, said as he stomped along partly shoveled downtown sidewalks. "It was true. The stores were empty."

Betty Gould and Rocky Castellano drove about 20 miles from Pittsfield, N.H., to Steeplegate Mall in Concord, N.H. Asked whether she considered staying home, Gould said: "Never."

"We like the snow," Gould said. "He thinks he's invincible. He has four-wheel drive, studded tires, the whole bit."

Deaths in Michigan, Wisconsin
Slippery roads were blamed for two traffic deaths in Michigan and one in Wisconsin.

The Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission said the storm at one point blacked out 160,000 customers Sunday, although service had been restored to thousands by Sunday evening. Scattered power failures also were reported in Vermont, state officials said.

The storm came less than a week after an ice storm blamed for at least 38 deaths, mostly in traffic accidents, in the middle of the country. Thousands of homes and businesses still had no electricity in parts of Oklahoma, Kansas and Missouri.

Only about 14,900 Missouri homes and business remained without power Sunday morning, down from about 165,000 on Tuesday, but it could be the end of the week before power is restored statewide, said Duane Nichols, deputy director of the State Emergency Management Agency.

Over 100,000 Still in Dark in Oklahoma after Ice Storm

Eight days after the powerful ice storm hit the Midwest forcing three states to declare the state of emergency; there still are at least 100,000 homes without electricity in Oklahoma, where the federal emergency was declared by the White House.

"We've had people using generators who ran out of money for fuel to operate the generators," said Vince Hernandez, chairman of the American Red Cross of Central Oklahoma.

Most inhabitants who were still affected by the lack of electric power have relied on a temporary shelter at the Cox Convention Center in downtown Oklahoma City on Monday.

The states hit the hardest by the “perfect ice storm” were Oklahoma, Nebraska and Kansas. The three states suffered a record- breaking power outage last week when electricity to more than million homes and businesses was cut off by the ice that brought the power lines and trees to the ground.

The storm also led to the killing of at least 24 people, forced the management of Iowa's biggest airport to shut it down and canceled 560 flights at Chicago's O'Hare Airport.

The largest electricity supplier of the state - Oklahoma Gas and Electric – said in a public statement that at least 70,000 customers, mostly in Oklahoma City, are still struggling without electric power.

Temporary stations were set up in nine of Oklahoma’s main cities so the inhabitants could report power failures.

Another energy supplier of Oklahoma State - The Public Service Company – has reported it had 32,000 powerless homes in its list, while the Oklahoma Association of Rural Cooperatives said it had 5,712.

Vital elements of the city, the hospitals and water-treatment plants, were provided with at least 100 industrial generators sent by the Federal Emergency Management Agency, who also brought pre-packaged meals, cots and blankets.

Thousands still without power in Oklahoma, Kansas

OKLAHOMA CITY, Oklahoma (AP) -- More than 100,000 homes and businesses remained without power Monday, more than a week after an ice storm battered Oklahoma, and the emergency has outlasted the ability of many residents to pay for it.

Some depleted their funds before the storm stocking up on food that went bad after the power went out, while others used money to stay in a hotel, thinking power would be restored within a day or two.

"We've had people using generators who ran out of money for fuel to operate the generators," said Vince Hernandez, chairman of the American Red Cross of Central Oklahoma.

Hundreds of people found a place to sleep and hot meals over the weekend at a temporary shelter established at the Cox Convention Center in downtown Oklahoma City. Officials reported 349 people stayed at the shelter Sunday night, down from more than 400 on Friday and Saturday nights.

Oklahoma Gas & Electric, the state's largest electric utility, set up temporary walk-up stations in nine central Oklahoma cities for customers to report power failures.

"We've got eight days without lights," said 7-year-old Josue Velasquez, who came to one station with his mother, Rebeca Rascon, who speaks little English. Josue said they "just sit on the couch and wait for the lights to come on" in their "very cold" south Oklahoma City home.

OG&E reported nearly 70,000 without power, mostly in the Oklahoma City area, while Tulsa-based Public Service Company of Oklahoma reported 32,000. The Oklahoma Association of Rural Cooperatives reported 5,712 customers without power Monday.

Overnight temperatures in the state in the past week have dipped into the teens.

The state medical examiner's office said the ice storm contributed to at least 27 deaths: 16 in traffic accidents, eight in fires, two from carbon monoxide fumes and one from hypothermia.

In Kansas, where six deaths were blamed on last week's storm, about 24,000 customers remained without power, and some of those in rural areas might not see electricity restored for a week or more. The reason is another winter storm expected later this week, said Larry Detwiler of the Kansas Electric Cooperatives.

"We all hope for everybody to be back on by Christmas," he said. "I'm not sure that's a realistic goal."

Margy Knight, who owns several rental and commercial properties in south Oklahoma City that are without power, said she has stopped by OG&E's station every day for the last week and acknowledges she's getting frustrated with the lack of progress.

"I'm trying real hard not to be tacky," Knight said. "I think they're doing the best they can, but they need more manpower."

Rick McCown, a field account supervisor for OG&E, said the company is working overtime to restore power.

"We let them know that we've got people on the ground working to get power restored," McCown said. "We try to be patient with them and let them know we understand their frustration and what they're going through."

While the Plains struggled to put power back on, a swath of the country from the Great Lakes to New England dug out from a weekend storm that dumped 18 inches of snow in some places.

School districts across the region canceled classes Monday. Snow blown by winds gusting to 35 mph cut visibility made driving hazardous. At least eight traffic deaths were reported.

Thousands still without power in Oklahoma, Kansas (http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/12/17/winter.storm.ap/index.html)

Multicar pileup as snowstorm hits Plains

A strong snowstorm that cut visibility nearly to zero in some places as it rolled across the Plains on Saturday caused numerous vehicle pileups and forced authorities to close portions of several major highways.

Dozens of vehicles were involved in a pileup on Interstate 29 in western Missouri, authorities said. Sections of some Oklahoma highways were closed because of whiteout conditions.

The Missouri State Highway Patrol said preliminary reports indicated 20 to 40 vehicles, including three tractor-trailer rigs, were involved in the early afternoon chain-reaction wreck on Interstate 29 at St. Joseph.

Multiple ambulances were sent to the scene but there was no immediate indication how many people were injured or if there were any fatalities. Heartland Regional Medical Center in St. Joseph said it was treating several people from the accident though none of the injuries appeared to be life-threatening.

The patrol closed about 100 miles of I-29 from Dearborn, which is between Kansas City and St. Joseph, to the Iowa state line. The storm blew locally heavy snow across Oklahoma, eastern Kansas and northwestern Missouri, plus parts of Nebraska and Iowa.

In Oklahoma, U.S. 412 near Mooreland was closed because 15 to 20 cars had slid off the road or had been involved in collisions, authorities said.

The Oklahoma Highway Patrol said a six-car collision on U.S. 64 in the state's northwest corner involved an ambulance that was carrying victims from the scene of another accident. Parts of that highway and others in the Panhandle were closed because of blowing snow and low visibility.

The Kansas Department of Transportation said a 25-mile stretch of I-70 west of Topeka was closed because of a weather-related multiple-vehicle crash.

By early afternoon, the storm had dropped 3 inches of snow in the St. Joseph area, said National Weather Service meteorologist Julie Adolphson. Accumulations of up to 7 inches were possible in northwest Missouri and northeast Kansas.

Wind was blowing at sustained speeds of 25 to 35 mph with gusts to 45 mph in Oklahoma, threatening to bring down tree limbs damaged during the severe ice storm early last week that blacked out hundreds of thousands of homes and businesses.

Farther west, Colorado roads remained icy in spots following a storm Friday. Eastbound I-70 was closed about 20 miles east of Denver for more than two hours after a wreck in which five people were injured.

Latest winter blast claims at least five lives

A winter storm packing heavy snow walloped the central United States, causing at least 5 deaths and dozens of injuries as multi-car pileups forced authorities to close parts of several major highways.

The storm Saturday blew heavy snow from Texas to Minnesota. Much of the region was still recovering from a severe ice storm early last week that knocked out electricity for hundreds of thousands of homes and businesses.

At least three people in Minnesota and one person each in Texas and Kansas were killed in traffic accidents that authorities said were weather related. Strong winds could make traveling hazardous all weekend, said Craig Cogil, a forecaster with the National Weather Service in Des Moines, Iowa. Parts of the state were expected to get between 6 and 10 inches of snow by Sunday morning, he said.

In Minnesota, a man was killed when he lost control of his car on Highway 10 in Harris and went into the opposite lane and was hit by an oncoming car, according to the Chisago County Sheriff's Office. The victim was identified as John Marvin Becklin, 46, of Harris. Authorities said weather appeared to be a factor in the collision, which happened shortly after noon.

A 17-year-old girl died in an early-morning accident when she lost control of her car in Oak Grove, crossed the center line and was struck by a pickup truck, the Anoka County Sheriff's Office said. The name of the victim, who was from Oak Grove, was being withheld until relatives had been notified.

A 33-year-old West St. Paul man was killed when the car he was driving on icy Highway 7 slid sideways into oncoming traffic and was hit by an oncoming car, according to the State Patrol. The victim's 24-year-old passenger was critically injured in the crash. Their names were not immediately released.

The Minnesota State Patrol said it handled at least 347 accident reports of vehicles that ran off roads across the state.

In Texas, one person died in a chain-reaction pileup involving more than 50 vehicles, including several tractor-trailer rigs, on Interstate 40, police said. Authorities said it would take a few days to determine exactly how many were involved.

Eighteen people were taken to hospitals, two with life-threatening injuries, Sgt. Michael Poston said.

"There were cars crashing while they (firefighters) were there," Fire Department Capt. Bob Johnson told the Amarillo Globe-News for its Sunday editions. "They could hear them (the crashes), but they couldn't see them."

Many were holiday travelers, including families with small children not dressed for the weather, Sgt. Shawn McLeland said. Other drivers spotted them and opened Christmas presents to provide warmer clothing for the children.

The tangle of twisted cars and trucks shut down the interstate for most of the day. Authorities believe the pileup was caused by blowing snow and the resulting zero visibility.

In northeast Kansas, at least one person was killed in a 30-car pileup on Interstate 70, prompting authorities to close a 40-mile stretch of the highway. The pileup occurred about 30 miles west of Topeka.

The fierce snowstorm caused another wreck involving 20 to 40 vehicles, including three tractor-trailer rigs, on Interstate 29 in St. Joseph in western Missouri. Police closed about 100 miles of I-29 to the Iowa state line.

Wind was blowing at sustained speeds of 25 to 35 mph with gusts to 45 mph in Oklahoma, where U.S. 412 near Mooreland in western Oklahoma was closed after up to 20 cars slid off the road or crashed, authorities said.

The storm also impacted flights at airports in the Midwest, as the busy pre-Christmas weekend travel was getting underway. The delays rippled across the country, affecting flights in the New York region.

Midwest storm leaves 8 dead, snarls holiday travel
Official: 'Everything is just an ice rink out there'; thousands lose power

Highways were hazardous for holiday travelers Sunday and thousands of homes and businesses had no electricity in the Midwest as a storm blew through the region with heavy snow and howling wind.

At least eight deaths had been blamed on the storm.

Winter storm warnings were posted for parts of Minnesota, Wisconsin and Michigan on Sunday as the core of the storm headed north across the Great Lakes. Parts of Wisconsin already had a foot of snow, and up to a foot was forecast Sunday in northeastern Minnesota, the National Weather Service said.

Radar showed snow falling across much of Wisconsin and eastern Minnesota on Sunday and moving into parts of Michigan and Indiana.

"Everything is just an ice rink out there," Rock County Sheriff's Sergeant Steve Selby said Sunday morning.

The weather system also spread locally heavy rain on Sunday from the Southeast to the lower Great Lakes.

The storm rolled through Colorado and Wyoming on Friday, then spread snow and ice on Saturday from the Texas Panhandle to Minnesota. Multi-car pileups closed parts of several major highways Saturday in the Plains states.

The area of Madison, Wis., got three to four hours of freezing rain early Sunday, said weather service meteorologist intern Bill Borghoff at Sullivan. The combination of icy pavement and gusty wind there was making driving treacherous, he said.

"It's quite a mess out there," Borghoff said.

Weather knocks out power
Wind gusting to more than 50 mph uprooted trees in parts of Michigan. "I can see the snow moving basically sideways," weather service meteorologist Wayne Hoepner said in Grand Rapids.

More than 11,000 homes and businesses were without power in Wisconsin on Saturday because of the freezing rain, ice, gusty wind and heavy snow, utilities said.

Some 114,000 customers were without power Sunday morning in Michigan, and in Illinois about 58,000 customers were blacked out in the Chicago metro area.

At least three people in Minnesota, three in Wyoming and one person each in Texas and Kansas were killed in traffic accidents that authorities said stemmed from the storm.

The fatality in Texas came in a chain-reaction pileup involving more than 50 vehicles, including several tractor-trailer rigs, on Interstate 40, police said. At least 16 people were taken to hospitals, two with life-threatening injuries, Sgt. Michael Poston said.

"We're not really sure how many cars, probably in excess of 40 cars and in excess of 20 semi-trailers," Amarillo police Sgt. Greg Fisher said Sunday.

Many were holiday travelers, including families with small children not dressed for the weather, Sgt. Shawn McLeland said. Other drivers spotted them and opened Christmas presents to provide warmer clothing for the children.

Authorities believe the pileup, which shut down the highway for most of the day, was caused by near zero visibility in blowing snow and slippery pavement. Multi-vehicle wrecks on Saturday also blocked sections of I-70 in Kansas and I-29 in Missouri.

The storm also impacted flights at airports in the Midwest, as the busy pre-Christmas weekend travel was getting underway. The delays rippled across the country, affecting flights in the New York region.

Landslides leave up to 81 dead or missing in Indonesia
Wed Dec 26, 2007 5:58pm EST

JAKARTA (Reuters) - Landslides and floods caused by torrential rains have left up to 81 people dead or missing in Indonesia's Central Java province, police and rescue officials said on Wednesday.

A provincial official said the landslides were the worst to hit the region in quarter of a century as thousands of people moved to shelters after their homes were buried or washed away.

Rescue workers and police were struggling to reach the affected areas as roads were cut off by floods and mud, said provincial police spokesman Syahroni.

By late afternoon, 36 bodies had been recovered while 30 others were still buried under thick mud in Karang Anyar district near the banks of the Bengawan Solo river, said Heru, head of the local disaster coordinator agency.

Another person was found dead and 14 were missing after landslides and floods in Central Java's Wonogiri and Sukoharjo districts, said Sarjono, a spokesman for the provincial government.

Landslides are frequent in Indonesia, where tropical downpours can quickly soak hillsides and years of deforestation often means there is little vegetation to hold the soil.

But Heru said he did not believe deforestation had contributed to the latest landslides.

"The forest in the area is thick," he said.

A lack of heavy equipment was slowing rescue efforts, officials said.

"It is difficult for any help to reach the area, so the local teams are left on their own," said Julianto, another official with the provincial government.

"The landslides took us by surprise. This is the first time in the last 25 years anything of this scale occurred here in Central Java."

Thousands of villagers in areas who lost their homes to floods or landslides have moved into temporary shelters in buildings and tents set up by emergency response teams, Julianto said.

Metro TV showed footage of ruined houses and residents wading through neck-high water.

Landslides leave up to 81 dead or missing in Indonesia (http://javascript:singlePageView();)

Rain saves Atlanta from drought record

ATLANTA - This year was almost one for the record books, but then it rained. A lot. After a fourth consecutive day of rain Sunday, 2007 barely missed becoming Atlanta's driest year on record. That dubious honor goes to 1954, when only 31.80 inches of rain fell.

Atlanta is at the center of a historic drought that has engulfed more than one-third of the Southeast. The affected region includes most of Tennessee, Alabama, Georgia, North and South Carolina, as well as parts of Kentucky and Virginia.

Even four days of rain couldn't touch the epic dry spell, but normal rainfall levels over the next few months could help return disappearing lakes, rivers and streams to their former glory, Lynn said.

Sunday's showers pushed the city up to 31.85 inches for the year, where it is expected to stay as forecasters say Monday - the final day of 2007 - will be mostly dry.

Light rain was possible for counties in north Georgia early Monday morning as a system moved through the region, said Brian Lynn, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service station in Peachtree City.

A parade of rainstorms that began the week before Christmas helped Atlanta escape its driest year on record. Rain fell in the city on 10 of the last 12 days.

But the moisture had only a small effect on Lake Lanier, the metropolitan area's main source of drinking water. The reservoir rose only about a foot from the rain after hitting an all-time low earlier last week.

"What's falling now won't show up until tomorrow or the next day," said Rob Holland, a spokesman for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which operates the reservoir.

"Anything that stops the level from falling is a good thing," he added. "But we'd like to get a whole lot more."

The lack of rainfall across the region has set off intense fighting between Georgia, Florida and Alabama over the federal government's management of water in the region.

Georgia Gov. Sonny Perdue has asked the federal government to release less water from its reservoirs, such as Lanier, but Alabama and Florida are concerned about how that would affect their supplies. Last month, Perdue held a public prayer vigil for rain on the steps of the Capitol.

New Year's Snowstorm Hits Mich. Hard

A fast-moving New Year's Day storm dumped more than a foot of snow on southeastern Michigan, a record blast that made driving hazardous, snarled the flight home for holiday travelers and threatened to do the same in New England.

Thousands of people in Michigan and Ohio lost power. Authorities reported no deaths or serious injuries from the six-hour burst of snow in Michigan that started around midnight, but they said there were many spinouts and minor accidents.

The storm left 10 to 16 inches of snow across parts of Oakland, Lapeer and St. Clair counties north of Detroit, the National Weather Service said. The western St. Clair County community of Capac reported 16 inches.

"This storm most definitely packed quite a wallop," said Weather Service meteorologist David Shuler in Oakland County. "This will be a memorable storm for the amount of snow it dumped in such a short amount of time."

He said it was the region's heaviest New Year's Day snowstorm on record and was unusual for its intensity. In the heart of the storm, snow fell at a rate of at least 2 inches an hour, with periods of 4 inches an hour.

Chicago's O'Hare International Airport, one of the nation's busiest, canceled about 150 flights Tuesday and reported delays of around 45 minutes because of blowing snow. Passengers also experienced morning delays at Detroit Metropolitan Airport, but operations were back to normal by the afternoon, spokesman Michael Conway said.

Utility officials reported scattered power failures affecting more than 36,000 homes and businesses at one time or another.

The storm also blacked out 10,000 customers in northeast Ohio, mainly in areas east of Cleveland, said Chris Eck, a spokesman for FirstEnergy Corp. Wind gusted to 51 mph at Cleveland's Burke Lakefront Airport, the Weather Service said.

FirstEnergy repair crews had difficulty keeping up with the storm, Eck said. "As they're getting lights on, lights are going off. They're just fighting it as it happens," he said.

Farther east, the weather system spread snow across upstate New York and northern New England, where it was expected to last into Wednesday and drop as much as a foot of snow on parts of Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont.

That followed a storm in the Northeast on Monday that made it the snowiest December in the region in decades. December's snowfall at Concord, N.H., totaled 44.5 inches, toppling a record of 43 inches that had stood since 1876. Burlington, Vt., got 45.7 inches, far above its 17.2-inch December average, and Portland, Maine, amassed 37.7 inches for its third-snowiest December on record.

New Hampshire has already spent $30 million on snow removal out of the $75 million budgeted for the entire winter, said highway department spokesman Bill Boynton.

However, New England ski resorts enjoyed the flurry of storms after last year's lack of snow early in the season.

In Maine, it provided a fresh layer on top of the roughly 6 feet that the state's two biggest ski resorts, Sugarloaf USA and Sunday River, each got last month.

"It's been unbelievable," Sugarloaf spokesman Bill Swain said. "It just keeps coming."

California hit with powerful storm

A fierce arctic storm lashed California on Friday, toppling trees, soaking a coastal landscape already charred by wildfires and threatening to paralyze the mountains with deep snow.

The northern half of the state was being hit with strong rain, 85-mph wind and heavy snow in the Sierra Nevada, National Weather Service forecaster Andrew Rorke said.

In Southern California, the storm was gathering strength off the coast and was expected to strike the region by mid-afternoon, Rorke said.

"We're watching it really blossom on satellite," he said.

Homeowners rushed to stack sandbags around houses lying below fire-ravaged hillsides in Southern California, while Northern California residents - like those along the Gulf Coast before a hurricane - scurried to stock up on last-minute provisions. Forecasters warned the high wind and other extreme weather would last through the weekend.

In the eastern Sierra ski town of Mammoth Lakes, resident Barbara Sholle went to the supermarket after receiving a call from the town's reverse-911 system. She waited an hour to pay for her groceries amid a crush of residents.

"People were waiting in line for shopping carts," she said.

The storm system began dumping rain and snow Thursday in parts of Northern California. Power outages, damaged electrical lines and downed trees were reported by nightfall.

Nearly 150,000 people were without power in parts of California, utilities companies said, with about two-thirds of them in the Sacramento area.

The U.S. Forest Service issued an avalanche warning for Mount Shasta, in the Cascade Range in far Northern California, while the National Weather Service issued a rare blizzard advisory for the Sierra Nevada.

The storm system brought high wind warnings along the coast. Ocean tides were expected to swell to 30 feet, leading the Coast Guard to caution boaters to remain in port.

"If you don't have to go out this weekend, it might be a nice weekend to stay at home after the holidays," said Frank McCarton, chief deputy director of the California Office of Emergency Services.

A rare blizzard warning for the mountains and Lake Tahoe region remained in effect until Saturday morning, and chains or snow tires were required on all vehicles in mountain passes. Forecasters said several feet of snow was expected, along with winds gusting to 150 mph and zero visibility.

"It's been several years since we've seen a storm this impressive," said Chris Jordan, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Reno, Nev.

As the storms barreled into the West, forecasters were expecting a freeze in the East to subside. After a freezing day virtually everywhere east of the Mississippi River, temperatures in the East were to climb Friday.

Florida's citrus growers might have been spared major damage from the cold snap, which produced flurries in the Daytona Beach area, but it will be Saturday or later before strawberry farmers know the extent of their losses.

A serious freeze would have been devastating to the Florida's citrus trees, already struggling from years of diseases and hurricanes. But most groves are in central and South Florida, where temperatures hovered in high 20s and low 30s. Trees can be ruined when temperatures fall to 28 degrees for four hours.

"It could have been far, far worse," said Terry McElroy, a spokesman for the state Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services.

Huge storm slams entire West Coast

A woman dies in Central Point as eastern Oregon and northern California take the brunt of the destruction

A thousand-mile storm stretching from Southern California to southern Alaska plowed into the West Coast on Friday, generating blizzard-like conditions in many areas.

The storm cut power to at least a million people in northern California, overturned trucks in eastern Oregon, caused heavy surf up and down the Pacific coast and dumped snow by the foot in the Sierra Nevada. But, as with a major storm last month that killed 14 people and devastated large swaths of Oregon and Washington, Friday's weather largely spared the Portland area.

At least one person -- a 50-year old Central Point woman -- died when a tree crushed her car. Forecasters said a blizzard in southern Oregon and northern California stretching into today could threaten more lives.

"It was a big old storm," said Clinton Rockey, a forecaster for the National Weather Service in Portland. "It's the kind you see once or twice every winter."

Although the system was considerably less powerful than the coastal gales and flooding that brought misery to Oregon and Washington in early December, Friday's storm was striking because of its size.

In Oregon, high winds and mounting surf forced the U.S. Coast Guard to close the Tillamook Bay and Columbia River bars.

The Columbia River bar closure stalled ship traffic at ports in Washington and Oregon and is expected to continue in effect until at least Sunday morning.

Mark Hanson, vice president at Transmarine Navigation Corp. in Portland, said the closure costs ship owners $50,000 to $100,000 a day as wheat, new cars and logs wait for the weather to clear.

Eastern Oregon

Across the eastern part of the state, the storm toppled trees, blew roofs off buildings, blocked traffic on Interstate 84 and other roads, and left thousands without power. Wind gusts to 70 and 80 mph left residents and businesses without electricity in La Grande, Elgin, Haines, John Day, Milton-Freewater and elsewhere.

"It came on very, very suddenly," said Shannon Fitch at the Oregon Department of Transportation offices in La Grande.

All of Wallowa County was without power for about an hour, and several persons were stranded in their vehicles by snowdrifts, said Paul Karvoski, emergency services manager for the county in Enterprise.

Union County commissioners in La Grande declared a local disaster at the height of the storm at mid-morning, said J.B. Brock, the county's emergency manager.

"We actually had houses that had their roofs blown off," he said. "There were power poles that were blown down."

Friday evening, Gov. Ted Kulongoski declared a state of emergency for Umatilla County, at the request of county commissioners. Oregon emergency management officials were monitoring the situation, said Patty Wentz, a Kulongoski spokeswman.

High winds flipped over three commercial trucks and a camper towed by a pickup on I-84 east of Pendleton, the Oregon State Police reported.

Transportation crews barricaded the east- and westbound lanes of the freeway near Hermiston about 8 a.m., when blowing dust and snow hampered visibility, said Tom Strandberg, an ODOT spokesman in La Grande.

Several of the overturned vehicles were pelted by wind-driven rocks. The freeway was reopened but later closed farther to the east, between Hermiston and Baker City -- a 109-mile stretch of the freeway.

"It was a very strong storm," said Jon Mittelstadt, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Pendleton. "We don't get them this strong every winter."

In Walla Walla, a tree fell on the Veterans Affairs Medical Center, forcing officials to evacuate the buildings and establish an emergency operations center.

No patients or employees were injured during the storm, officials said, but all clinics were shut down and appointments for the day were canceled.

Farther south, Rosetta Costello of Central Point died when a "very big, very heavy" tree crushed her Suzuki sedan, said Jackson County Detective Sgt. Colin Fagan.

It was about 6 a.m., and Costello, 50, had just left for her job at Bear Creek Corp., parent company of Harry & David, when the power went out on her street.

"We'd had a night of very heavy rain and winds, which we believe loosened the root base" of the tree, Fagan said. "It's very tragic."

Gusts in valley, coast

High winds for the most part spared the Willamette Valley, where the peak gust was 55 mph at McMinnville about 2 p.m. Hillsboro recorded a gust of 52 mph. In Tigard, a tree fell on a house Friday evening, but nobody was home at the time.

Most other locations reported gusts of 35 to 45 mph, Rockey said. A gust of 48 mph, followed by heavy rain and lightning, hit Portland International Airport shortly after 4 p.m., The airports in Aurora and Eugene also had 48 mph gusts during the day; winds gusted to 53 mph in Vancouver.

On the Oregon coast, peak wind gusts included 93 mph at Newport; 85 mph at Cape Meares; 82 mph at Cape Foulweather; 80 mph near Yachats, with lightning and pea-size hail; and 79 mph at Mount Hebo.

But the worst effects were felt in northern California. Justin Roberti, a forecaster for Accuweather in State College, Pa., said snow amounts could rank among the top 15 snowstorm totals in the Sierra Nevada during the past 50 years.

Millions lose power as storms slam West

A monster storm system spanning the length of the West Coast slammed into California Friday, knocking out power to a million homes and threatening the weather-weary state with deep snow, mudslides and flash floods.

The wildfires and droughts of last year were replaced by extreme arctic conditions: hurricane-force gusts, swelling ocean tides and forecasts for 10 feet of snow and 12 inches of rain in some regions.

"It's a whiteout here," said Neil Erasmus, general manager of the Ice Lake Lodge and Rain Lodge in Soda Springs, near Lake Tahoe. "We're plowing and grooming, plowing and grooming to keep us from being buried in."

Across the northern part of the state, roads were shut down, ski resorts closed and flights were canceled. Further south, homeowners scurried to put up sandbags.

There were no reports of deaths or serious injuries, but trucks were barred from the Golden Gate Bridge as winds topped 55 mph.

The Richmond-San Rafael Bridge in San Francisco was closed after big rigs were blown over on both decks of the span during the morning commute.

"Be alert for flying debris," the National Weather Service warned, predicting that winds could gust to 145 mph, the strength of a Category 4 hurricane, in the mountains.

After its driest year on record, Southern California is bracing for its biggest rainfall since January 2005.

Flash-flood watches were ordered for Los Angeles and San Diego. Swaths of hillside burned in last year's wildfires were primed for mudslides.

Supermarkets were packed as residents girded for the worst.

"People were waiting in line for shopping carts," said Barbara Sholle, who waited an hour to buy groceries in the mountain resort area Mammoth Lakes.

Shelters were set up for those who lost power, and there was little hope of quick relief.

"Because of the strong winds and heavy rains, restoration is taking longer than normal," said Darlene Chiu, a spokeswoman for Pacific Gas and Electric.

Brothers and Sisters,

This is a change for us in Oklahoma, but I'm happy to report that we aren't having any big problems right now. This has been a very hard year for wild weather in Oklahoma. We're in SW Oklahoma, so we just barely missed most of the horrible ice storms recently that killed 36 in Oklahoma. Large portions of the state are still recovering from that one. I can't remember now the number of times that Oklahoma was declared a Disaster in the last year. I guess that we had a little bit of everything: ice, snow, fires, and floods. For Al Gore's information, we didn't suffer from any heat waves. In fact, our summer temperatures didn't get nearly as high as normal. We really could have used a visit from Al Gore since he's full of hot air. Doesn't everyone know this by now? However, he is writing another book on global warming.

There will be a time in the future of global warming, but it will be GOD'S Appointed time and a fulfillment of Bible Prophecy. It won't have anything to do with how much hot air Al Gore spouts, and mankind won't be able to do a thing about it. Mankind has been able to read all about this in the Bible for thousands of years, and there will be NO ESCAPE from the searing heat. The cause of this is also listed in the Bible - disobedience and rejection of GOD. This is just a tiny portion of the wrath that will be poured out on evil mankind. That time isn't here yet, but I think that time is soon!

Nobody knows the day or the hour when GOD'S Plans will be carried out most perfectly, but that time will come. There are a host of details in the Holy Bible with descriptions of many events and times. Many of the things happening around the world are beginning to resemble the descriptions in GOD'S WORD, so many believe that the end days of this Age of Grace are growing near. Mankind won't be able to do ANYTHING to slow or stop the events. However, mankind will have the vanity to TRY.

Love In Christ,
Tom

Thanks be unto God for His unspeakable GIFT, Jesus Christ, our Lord and Saviour Forever!

Quote

Doesn't everyone know this by now?

Everyone should by now except for those with perfect vision and hearing that still are blind and deaf to the truth.

We are having some high temps here today and tomorrow. It is supposed to get up to 61 today and 68 tomorrow. That is not really unusual though as today's record is 61 set many years ago, long before any man made co2 levels were involved.

Quote from: blackeyedpeas on January 06, 2008, 01:18:29 AM

Brothers and Sisters,

There will be a time in the future of global warming, but it will be GOD'S Appointed time and a fulfillment of Bible Prophecy. It won't have anything to do with how much hot air Al Gore spouts, and mankind won't be able to do a thing about it. Mankind has been able to read all about this in the Bible for thousands of years, and there will be NO ESCAPE from the searing heat. The cause of this is also listed in the Bible - disobedience and rejection of GOD. This is just a tiny portion of the wrath that will be poured out on evil mankind. That time isn't here yet, but I think that time is soon!

Nobody knows the day or the hour when GOD'S Plans will be carried out most perfectly, but that time will come. There are a host of details in the Holy Bible with descriptions of many events and times. Many of the things happening around the world are beginning to resemble the descriptions in GOD'S WORD, so many believe that the end days of this Age of Grace are growing near. Mankind won't be able to do ANYTHING to slow or stop the events. However, mankind will have the vanity to TRY.

Amen, brother, it will indeed be caused by man but not the man made CO2 levels that it is attained to. That nonsense is nothing more than man trying to control God and trying prove God's word is wrong. The truth will be known to all in God's time.

Several die, 70,000 displaced in Mozambique floods

Mon Jan 14, 8:31 AM ET

MAPUTO (AFP) - Several people have died while 70,000 others were displaced by floods in central Mozambique and the situation is expected to worsen till mid-February, the National Institute of Natural Disaster Management (INGC) said Monday.

"The floods have for now claimed several lives, according to an official toll," INGC's deputy director Joao Ribeiro told AFP.

On Sunday, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA) gave a death toll of 50, a figure which Ribeiro said was overestimated.

Mozambique had as far back as November envisaged a heavy downpour during this raining season and had warned its population, a step which has helped to reduce the number of victims.

More than 70,000 people have been resettled, particularly in schools and other public buildings.

Overall, the southern African country which declared a red alert last January 3, is gearing up to evacuate more than 200,000 people.

In Geneva,the Red Cross and Red Crescent warned Monday that much of southern Africa faces potentially disastrous flooding, while the situation in Mozambique was particularly worrying.

Heavy rains that started last month in parts of Zimbabwe had provoked flooding there, said a statement from the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC).

That was now spreading to Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Swaziland and Zambia, while the large Indian Ocean island of Madagascar, off the Mozambican coast, was also affected.

"The weather forecast for the next seven days is not good with more rain expected, which could last until April," said Peter Rees, head of the IFRC's operations support department.

"If this happens, southern Africa will certainly face major flooding with potentially catastrophic consequences," he added.

Rees called for immediate action to head off the crisis.

The IFRC statement pointed out that Mozambique was still recovering from flooding and then a cyclone in February 2007.

Since late November when the raining season started, the heavy downpour has led to a sharp rise in the levels of rivers Zambezi, Pongue, Buzi and Save.

"Currently the River Zambezi is almost two metres (six feet) high above the warning level," Ribeiro said.

"The forecasts we have indicate that the rains would intensify in the coming weeks, to attain a peak in the second half of February."

Thirty people died, while 80,000 others were rendered homeless as a result of flooding last year.

In 2001 and 2002, torrential rains swept through the former Portuguese colony still undergoing reconstruction after a long period of civil war (1976-1992). More than 700 people were lost to flooding.

More than 3,000 people have been rendered homeless in Zambia, while three people died in Zimbabwe.

The local Red Cross had already sent emergency supplies to to affected regions and in Geneva and the IFRC on Friday released one million Swiss francs (980,000 dollars, 660,000 euros).

The federation will shortly be launching an appeal for funding to help fund operations in the region.

Several die, 70,000 displaced in Mozambique floods (http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20080114/wl_africa_afp/mozambiquefloods;_ylt=Au3SOkxYuPHS0i4UtGuQdkS96Q8F)

Russia warns of emergency as Siberian temperatures dip to -67F.

Jupiter Kalambakal - AHN News Writer

Moscow, Russia (AHN) - Russians are bracing for temperatures of as low as minus 55 degrees Celsius (minus 67 degrees Fahrenheit) in Siberia as Russia's emergencies ministry warns on Wednesday of its impending dangers in the coming weeks.

Government agencies were placed on high alert, reports AFP. The ministry ordered local administration officials to prepare for the extreme chill expected to last until Jan. 21.

The ministry warned that the unusually cold weather could kill, cause frost-bite, conk heaters and cut electricity to homes, disrupt transport, increase the rate of car accidents and even destroy buildings across Siberia.

The freezing temperatures have already caused overloading of electricity grids and power interruptions in the regions of Irkutsk and Tomsk because of overused heaters in homes. Two people have already died and more than 30 others hospitalized with forst-bite in Irkutsk, reports AFP citing state media.

Bloomberg reports that worst hit will be the Siberian region of Evenkiya, while neighbor Georgia, whose climate is subtropical, already plunged to as low as minus 35 degrees Celsius. Lake Paliastomi in the western Georgia froze for the first time in 50 years, reports Rustavi-2 television.

Average temperatures in large Siberian cities in January usually range between minus 15 degrees Celsius and minus 39 degrees Celsius, according to data from weatherbase.com. Schools have been closed down in at least four regions because of the cold.

Russia warns of emergency as Siberian temperatures dip to -67F. (http://www.allheadlinenews.com/articles/7009739004)

Snow strands 500,000 at 1 train station
Police bark orders through bullhorns to try to maintain order

MORE than 500,000 travellers found themselves stranded in and around a Chinese city's train station yesterday, as blizzards and ice storms created a transport crisis ahead of the country's New Year celebrations.
The travellers, most of them migrant workers, were stuck in Guangzhou after heavy snowfalls to the north cut off parts of the busy line that starts in the city and ends in Beijing.

Officials were scrambling to prevent riots and find temporary shelter in schools and convention centres for the crowd, which has swollen each day as more workers tried to return to their home towns for the Chinese New Year.

The holiday, which begins on 7 February, is as important in China as Christmas is in the West. For many migrants, it is the only chance to visit their families, and they stay away for weeks.

At Guangzhou's main station yesterday, a massive outdoor plaza was packed with people pulling luggage or lifting it over their heads. The crowd eventually spilled out on to a major road in front of the station, and it had to be blocked off to create more space for the travellers.

The workers created small camps with their suitcases, bundles and plastic bags full of snacks. They littered the ground with chicken bones, sunflower seed shells and cigarette butts as they patiently waited for their trains.

Radio announcements told people not to go to the station, which will not sell tickets again until 7 February. State-run newspapers ran headlines urging the migrants to seek ticket refunds and stay put for the holiday.

Li Moming, 48, a construction worker, spent the night on the street, enduring a bone-chilling drizzle. The train that was to take him to his home village in central Henan province – 20 hours away – was cancelled. He said his next move might be to scrap his travel plans and spend the holiday in his dormitory room at his work. "I thought about taking a bus, but the highways are shut down, too. Oh well, what can you do?" said a jovial Mr Li, dressed
in a mud-splattered brown pinstripe suit for his ill-fated return journey home.

Nearby, four women who work in a digital camera factory in Foshan, just outside Guangzhou, were taking turns holding a colleague's seven-month-old daughter. The child, bundled up in a fleece jumper and knitted cap, spent the night with them on the street outside the station.

The baby's mother, who would only give her surname, Yang, said her morning train had been cancelled. She and her friends were hanging around and hoping they would get on a later train to their home town in neighbouring Jiangxi province.

"There's no reason to get upset about this or blame anyone," Ms Yang said. "It's just the weather's fault."

Other migrant workers were just as stoic – an approach to life they've learned from living on the bottom rung of China's society, with constant hardship, long delays and disappointment.

Snow blankets Jerusalem in Mideast freeze

Blankets of snow brought the Holy City of Jerusalem and other cities across the Middle East grinding to a halt on Wednesday as icy weather conditions gripped the mainly desert region.

Snow blocked roads to the Jordanian capital Amman and schools, universities and banks were shut in the desert kingdom, while freezing winds swept through the Mediterranean island of Cyprus and severe storms battered much of Lebanon.

Beirut was hit by torrential downpours and hailstorms on Wednesday, while heavy snow blocked roads in mountainous regions.

Residents of the region, more used to heat than freezing temperatures, complained about the cold, but weather forecasters welcomed both snow and rain to replenish almost empty dams and reservoirs.

In Beirut, one security official also welcomed the cold snap and rain saying it could at least discourage a repeat of deadly riots that shook the capital last weekend.

In Syria snow fell overnight on the capital Damascus, taking temperatures seven degrees Celsius (up to 12 Fahreinheit) below seasonal norms. State television reported the closure of secondary roads in the south of the country.

The first snowfall of the year covered Jerusalem -- and its famed Dome of the Rock in the heart of the Old City -- with several centimetres (inches) of heavy snow and slush.

The streets of the Holy City were deserted during the normally hectic morning rush-hour, with few cars on the roads and isolated pedestrians making their way through the puddles of slush and snow on the sidewalks.

Classes were cancelled and public transport was not operating on a normal schedule.

"It was very difficult to get to work. Cars were sliding on the road," Aid Lezy, a 29-year-old bank worker, told AFP as she queued for coffee at one of the few cafes open in central Jerusalem.

Ravit and Motti Fitousi travelled together with their three children from the coastal town of Rishon Letzion, south of Tel Aviv, to see the snow.

"We come to Jerusalem every time it snows. We love it and the kids get a day off school," said Ravit, as the family played in the 6-7 centimetres (more than two inches) of snow on the ground at Sakher park in the centre of Jerusalem.

Schools and offices were closed, as snowploughs cleared the streets. Most shops and schools also stayed closed in the nearby West Bank town of Ramallah.

Jordan's government declared Wednesday a public holiday because of the freeze. Delays hit Amman international airport but it remained open despite heavy snow since the early morning, according to a Royal Jordanian spokesman.

Meteorologists expected the cold front that hit Jordan and other regional countries to last at least through Thursday.

Snow covered high-lying areas of western Amman, which is built on seven hills with the highest point at 1,100 metres (3,630 feet), trapping residents at home in many high-altitude areas.

Several centimetres of snow largely paralysed the capital and officials urged people "to stay home and refrain from driving except for emergencies," the state-run Petra news agency reported.

Jordan is one of the 10 most water impoverished countries in the world, and the country depends on rain and snow to meets its needs.

In Iran, which is more accustomed to a wintery chill, snow fell on southern parts of the country earlier this week.

In the normally sunny tourist island of Cyprus, thick snow fell on the Troodos mountains, but temperatures ranged from five degrees Celsius (41 Fahrenheit) inland to nine degrees (48 Fahrenheit) on the coast.

The Cyprus Mail told its readers in a frontpage headline they were "in the grip of an icy freeze."

Snow blankets Jerusalem in Mideast freeze (http://www.africasia.com/services/news/newsitem.php?area=mideast&item=080130121156.npwzvc8t.php)

Trains freed from snowy California mountains
Winter storms on both sides of country make for miserable travel

A passenger train stuck overnight in the Northern California mountains resumed its journey Saturday after a snow plow that was blocking the tracks was removed, officials said.

Two Amtrak trains with about 400 passengers were initially stranded after the accident Friday. One train was pulled to Reno, Nevada, and its 165 passengers were put up in a hotel, Amtrak spokeswoman Karina Romero said.

The other train, which was headed from Emeryville to Chicago, remained in the mountains until the tracks were cleared Saturday morning.
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About 60 passengers from the second train were taken by bus back to the San Francisco Bay area overnight, while 155 stayed on board to wait for the line to reopen, Romero said.

The train had heating and lights and passengers were given food, Romero said. No injuries were reported.

The train was scheduled to arrive in Chicago Monday morning about 16 hours behind schedule.

A Union Pacific spokeswoman, Zoe Richmond, confirmed that the company's equipment was blocking the tracks but had no other information.

Storms sock both sides of country
Winter storms at both ends of the country dumped snow and snarled air and land travel, killing at least 10 people and blocking major highways.

Nearly 7.5 inches of snow was reported at Chicago's O'Hare International Airport before the front moved out of the area Friday. About 500 flights were canceled at O'Hare, which canceled 600 flights Thursday and housed hundreds of stranded travelers who spent the night awaiting planes from other cities also affected by the storm.

At least 12 inches of snow was reported in Springfield by Friday morning, said National Weather Service meteorologist Gino Izzi. Other parts of Illinois saw similar amounts.

"If you don't have to be out here, don't," Ty Wilson, a very wet Chicago bicycle messenger, said as he stopped along a slushy street between morning deliveries.

The storm brought snow, freezing rain and sleet to the Northeast, where arriving flights at Newark Liberty Airport were delayed as long as three hours Friday afternoon. Arrivals were delayed by 2 1/2 hours at La Guardia Airport, two hours at Philadelphia International and an hour and a half at New York's Kennedy, according to the Federal Aviation Administration's Web site.

At least four people died Friday on ice-slicked New York state roads. Six people died on Illinois roads Thursday and Friday.

Another storm system made roads impassible in parts of the Pacific Northwest. In Washington state, Interstate 90 was reopened Saturday morning after being closed for three days because of the avalanche danger at the Snoqualmie Pass in the Cascade Range.

Death, chaos in blizzard Britain
Blast of wintry weather strands hundreds of motorists, cuts power to thousands

EMERGENCY services were at full stretch yesterday coping with the devastation caused by a blast of wintry weather that stranded hundreds of motorists, cut power to thousands and brought havoc to shipping.

At least one person died as a result of the weather that brought sub-zero temperatures, gales and blizzards across large parts of Britain.

A 20-year-old mother was killed near Aberdeen after the car she was travelling in with her young daughter and boyfriend flipped over on an icy road on Friday night.

More than 45,000 homes were without electricity in the northeast, Yorkshire and Lincoln-shire following strong winds on Friday, although by last night fewer than 1,000 were still in darkness.

Coastguards were involved in three shipping dramas hundreds of miles apart. The injured skipper of the Horn Cliff, which was taking a cargo of fruit from the Caribbean to Dover when it was hit by 30ft swells 200 miles off the Isles of Scilly, was successfully airlifted to hospital by the RAF.

The captain, a Lithuanian who had suffered spinal injuries after apparently being crushed by crates of melons and bananas, was taken to the Royal Cornwall hospital in Truro where he was recovering last night.

Six other crew members and passengers were also airlifted to safety before the Horn Cliff managed to reach the harbour at Falmouth.

The owners of the Riverdance ferry, which ran aground near Blackpool’s beach resort after being hit by a freak wave on Thursday, said two heavy trucks of salvage equipment would soon arrive from Holland to help to inspect the vessel.

A spokesman for Riverdance’s owners, Seatruck, said the first priority was to remove the vessel’s 150 tons of fuel to avoid the possibility of pollution. Weather conditions mean it could be a week before the boat is refloated.

There were also fears last night that a Spanish-crewed trawler that had foundered off St Kilda in the Outer Hebrides on Friday could pose an environmental hazard if the rats believed to be on board reached shore.

Susan Bain, of the National Trust for Scotland, said that rodents from the Spinning Dale, which is resting on rocks, could threaten the seabirds’ eggs on the island, which is free of ground-based predators.

St Kilda, which is home to many species including puffins, gannets and guillemots, is the most important seabird breeding station in northwest Europe. The trust has now launched its “emergency rat procedure”, which involves activating rat traps to catch any of the animals that manage to make it past the coast.

National Trust experts will also visit the island to lay down a chocolate-flavoured wax bait.

The rescue and clean-up operations were helped yesterday by slightly warmer weather. Forecasters said that temperatures in Scotland had reached –11C on Friday and winds of up to 70mph were recorded.

Heavy rain and gales are predicted for today, particularly in the west.

One of the worst affected areas has been the A66 between Cumbria and Co Durham, which was closed on Friday after blizzards made driving impossible. Police rescued 200 stranded motorists, including a coachload of pensioners. A group of 30 primary schoolchildren from Co Durham were forced to spend the night at an adventure centre in Alston in Cumbria after their route was also cut off.

The mission to rescue the captain of the Horn Cliff had begun on Friday but the severity of the weather and the distance of the ship from land meant that the attempt to winch him to safety by helicopter had to be postponed until yesterday morning.

A paramedic was eventually winched down from an RAF helicopter and the captain, who had also suffered internal injuries, was airlifted together with five passengers and one other member of the crew, two of whom had minor head and hand injuries.

It is thought they were injured while trying to secure the load of 130 crates of fruit, which came loose during the force nine gales on Friday. All but 40 of the crates fell over the side.

Flight Lieutenant Jonathan Singh, who took part in the rescue, described the conditions as “horrendous”. He said: “It was obviously pitch black out there. The sea swell was probably between 35ft and 40ft and because the vessel had suffered some power failure it was unable to manoeuvre.”

Dahne Carstensen, 64, a German who was one of the rescued passengers, was on the Horn Cliff as part of his honeymoon with his wife Suzanne. “I’m a sailor so for my honeymoon I wanted to travel by cargo ship with bananas from the Caribbean. I guess it didn’t go so well,” he said.

His wife Suzanne, 50, added: “I thought it was our last moment of life.”

China warns worst not over in weather crisis

China warned Saturday the worst was not over in its national weather crisis as desperate holiday travellers jammed transport hubs and others endured bitter winter storms without power or water.

Bracing for still more freezing weather and an accelerating travel rush, China has doubled the number of troops and paramilitary forces aiding winter storm relief efforts to more than a million, state media reported.

The worst winter in five decades has caused massive transport bottlenecks and power outages across huge areas in the lead-up to next week's Lunar New Year, China's biggest annual holiday.

The China Meteorological Administration said some of the worst-affected central, eastern and southern provinces could face another week of snow and freezing rain from a cold front parked over the region since early January.

"The most difficult period is still not over yet. The situation remains grim," Premier Wen Jiabao said during a Cabinet meeting, state media outlets reported.

The government also repeated a plea to millions of people to shelve their travel plans as the country entered the peak holiday travel period, with New Year celebrations beginning on February 7.

In the southern city of Guangzhou, about 2,000 police struggled to hold back hundreds of thousands of people who have gathered every day for a week outside the main railway station, surging forward at the merest hint of an opening to a train platform.

One woman was killed after being knocked to the ground during a stampede at the station on Friday, Xinhua said. Some 1.4 million people were waiting to leave the industrial city by train on Friday, the railways ministry said.

Factory worker Fang Yu has fought for two days to get in the station after the throng forced him to miss an earlier train to his home province of Hunan.

"I really want to go in, but it's getting very dangerous. If I don't make it by tomorrow I might just give up," he told AFP over the din of the crowd.

Airports in large cities such as Shanghai, Hangzhou, Nanchang and Changsha, which had reopened, were forced into a new round of flight cancellations and delays Saturday as they de-iced planes, state Xinhua news agency said.

More freezing rain overnight also caused new closures on key highways in Guangdong and Hunan provinces in southern China, said state television, showing images of endless lines of traffic at a standstill on icy roads.

About 180 million people were expected to travel home for Lunar New Year in what is thought to be the largest annual human migration in the world.

"(The government) has less than five days left to safely send hundreds of millions home. At the same time, they will have to ensure timely delivery of coal to coal-starved power plants," a China Daily editorial said, summing up a key quandary facing authorities.

The government said it has pressed more than 1,000 additional trains into service to cope with the huge passenger demand and maintain shipments of coal -- the country's main energy source -- amid widespread power blackouts.

A woman in the city of Chenzhou in hard-hit Hunan told AFP by phone the city of four million had been without electricity or running water for over a week.

"We light candles for dinner, burn coal for heating, and get water from wells," said the woman, who gave only her surname, Li.

"If we can hold on, it will be a special Lunar New Year," she joked.

State electricity officials said Chenzhou's power should be at least partially restored later Saturday.

The big freeze has caused 7.5 billion dollars in damage, killed at least 60 people and affected at least 105 million more in the nation of 1.3 billion, according to official figures.

More than one million troops and paramilitary forces have been mobilised to help move snow and ice from roads and power lines as well as maintain security.

Two military transport planes and the first of six helicopters loaded with relief supplies were deployed to hardhit areas on Saturday, Xinhua said.

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LITTLE ROCK, Ark., Feb 6 (Reuters) - Tornadoes and thunderstorms ravaged four states in the American South on Tuesday night, killing at least 20 people, injuring dozens and causing widespread damage, emergency services and local media said.

The violent storms swept across Arkansas, Tennessee, Kentucky and Mississippi, overturning trucks, trapping people, and smashing houses.

Two of the states hit by the tornadoes -- Arkansas and Tennessee -- were involved in "Super Tuesday" as a total of 24 states across the country held nominating contests ahead of November's presidential election.

Several candidates expressed condolences to the victims as they addressed supporters and there were media reports that at least four polling stations in western Tennessee were closed because of the storm.

In Arkansas, emergency services reported 11 dead after tornadoes hit as many as eight counties.

"It's a pretty rough night in the scope of it. I don't know if I can remember when we've had as many (tornado) warnings and touchdowns," Arkansas Gov. Mike Beebe, said a telephone interview from an emergency operations center in North Little Rock.

The governor's spokesman, Matt DeCample, said there was "no clue" as to how many were injured. "We're getting answers back in the multiples, but we're still looking for folks," he said.

In Kentucky, at least three people were killed at a mobile home park, the Louisville Courier-Journal newspaper reported.

Six more died in Tennessee, according to the Nashville Tennessean newspaper, and more than two dozen others were injured, some critically.

WIDESPREAD DAMAGE

Extensive damage in Tennessee included part of a shopping mall in Memphis and a dormitory at Union University in Jackson, where some students were trapped for a time but not seriously injured, according to the Web site of the Memphis Commercial Appeal. The newspaper quoted a National Weather Service spokesman as saying the Memphis area had been hit by a "pretty significant tornado."

CNN reported as many as 86 injuries and an unknown number of fatalities from the storm system, which swept through Arkansas before moving into Tennessee.

ABC affiliate WAPT in Jackson, Mississippi reported that a 50-foot (15-metre) wall had collapsed at the Sears store in the Hickory Ridge Mall in southeast Memphis and a building caught fire along State Line Road at Airways Boulevard.

Citing local officials, WAPT reported that an unknown number of people were trapped in a nearby industrial plant.

The Jackson Sun reported that a nursing home had been seriously damaged but the 114 residents were evacuated with no injuries reported.

The Nashville Tennessean newspaper, citing the Fayette County Sheriff's Department, said one man had been found dead north of Somerville, Tennessee.

The paper reported that the National Weather Service had recorded a half dozen tornadoes in Tennessee and northern Mississippi.

It also reported that 60 tractor-trailers had crashed on an interstate highway.

Deadly tornadoes wreak havoc in the South

ATKINS, Ark. - Authorities went door-to-door trying to find additional victims of tornadoes that killed at least 44 people, ripped the roof off a shopping mall and blew apart warehouses as they tore across four states.

The dead included 24 people in Tennessee, 13 in Arkansas, and a mother and father who died in Kentucky with their adult daughter. The total death toll in Kentucky was seven.

Those killed in Arkansas included another set of parents, who died with their 11-year-old in Atkins, about 60 miles northwest of Little Rock. The family died from trauma when the storm their home "took a direct hit" from the storm, Pope County Coroner Leonard Krout said. "Neighbors and friends who were there said, 'There used to be a home there,'" Krout said.

The twisters, which also slammed Mississippi, were part of a line of storms that raged across the nation's midsection at the end of the Super Tuesday primaries in several states. As the extent of the damage quickly became clear, candidates including Hillary Rodham Clinton, Barack Obama and Mike Huckabee paused in their victory speeches to remember the victims.

Northeast of Nashville, Tenn., a spectacular fire erupted at a natural gas pumping station northeast of Nashville that authorities said could have been damaged by the storms. An undetermined number of people were reported dead.

Eight students were trapped in a battered dormitory at Union University in Jackson, Tenn., until they were finally freed.

Four more people were killed in Allen County near the Tennessee state line, said Buddy Rogers, public information officer for the Kentucky Division of Emergency Management in Frankfort.

Well after nightfall Tuesday, would-be rescuers went through shattered homes in Atkins, a town of 3,000 near the Arkansas River. Around them, power lines snaked along streets and a deep-orange pickup truck rested on its side. A navy blue Mustang with a demolished front end was marked with spray paint to show it had been searched. Outside one damaged home, horses whinnied in the darkness, looking up only when a flashlight reached their eyes. A ranch home stood unscathed across the street from a concrete slab that had supported the house where the family of three died.

Gov. Mike Beebe planned to tour Atkins on Wednesday.

In Memphis, high winds collapsed the roof of a Sears store at a mall. Debris that included bricks and air conditioning units was scattered on the parking lot, where about two dozen vehicles were damaged. A few people north of the mall took shelter under a bridge and were washed away, but they were pulled out of the Wolf River with only scrapes, said Steve Cole of the Memphis Police Department.

In Mississippi, Desoto County Sheriff's Department Cmdr. Steve Atkinson said a twister shredded warehouses in an industrial park in the city of Southaven, just south of Memphis. "It ripped the warehouses apart. The best way to describe it is it looks like a bomb went off," Atkinson said.

The power was knocked out briefly at a Little Rock convention hall that hosted a watch party for Huckabee, a former Arkansas governor seeking the GOP nomination for president. "While we hope tonight is a time for us to celebrate election results, we are reminded that nothing is as important as the lives of these fellow Arkansans, and our hearts go out to their families," Huckabee said.

Midwest storm grounds flights, snarls traffic
Hundreds of motorists stranded in traffic pileup near Madison, Wisconsin

Hundreds of motorists were stranded in a massive traffic pileup on Thursday, frustrated air passengers were trying to reschedule their trips, and dozens of schools were closed as the Midwest dug out from a major snowstorm.

Meanwhile, residents around the Great Lakes nervously eyed rising rivers and braced for flooding.

In Wisconsin, traffic backed up for 19 miles south of Madison on Wednesday after semitrailer trucks got stuck on a hill. Gov. Jim Doyle later called a state of emergency, sending National Guard troops to help vehicles stuck in the jam blocking Interstate 90. Snowmobiles and all-terrain vehicles were used to check on the stranded motorists and bring them food or fuel.
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As many as 800 vehicles remained stranded Thursday morning, according to Wisconsin National Guard Lt. Col. Tim Donovan. Traffic began to move by 7:30 a.m., but troopers were still working to remove semis and cars, some of whose drivers had gone to sleep.

"We've been going out knocking on cars, waking them up and getting people moving," said Lori Getter, Wisconsin Emergency Management spokeswoman.

Peter Freeman, 29, left his restaurant in Janesville Wednesday night for his 25-mile ride home. He sat in his minivan for hours waiting, listening to the radio and watching a movie on its DVD player. People in a car in front of him eventually offered up a sandwich and soda.

Emergency workers on snowmobiles came by asking whether he was OK, but they had little information about the backup, Freeman said.

"They told us to be single file and turn on our headlights and then off they went. There was no offer of food, water or blankets. Nothing," he said.

More than 200 public school districts and private schools in southeastern, central and western Michigan canceled Thursday's classes, as did many community colleges. Dozens of schools in northern and eastern New York were closed or delayed the start of classes because of icy conditions.

Flights canceled
General Mitchell International Airport at Milwaukee stopped all flights Wednesday afternoon due to whiteout conditions. More than 100 people spent the night in the concourses, airport spokesman Ryan McAdams. Air traffic resumed at 7 a.m. Thursday, although McAdams said delays were expected.

Lines at Chicago's O'Hare International Airport were long Thursday morning, a day after carriers canceled about 1,000 flights. Eighty flights were canceled Thursday morning, said Karen Pride, a spokeswoman for the Chicago Department of Aviation. About 100 passengers spent the night on cots.

No delays were reported across town at Chicago's Midway International Airport.

"Things are much improved from yesterday morning," Pride said.

Flood warnings were issued in Illinois, Indiana, Ohio and New York after three days of heavy rain and melting snow. People in northwest Ohio moved to higher ground as forecasters predicted that floodwaters would continue to rise in an area still recovering from flooding five months ago.

Town fears flooding
Rising waters from the Blanchard River in Findlay, Ohio, were another blow to residents and business owners just getting their lives back to normal after flooding in August displaced hundreds and caused millions of dollars in damage.

"We had the place completely gutted," music store owner Scott Adams said as he loaded equipment into a trailer to try to keep it dry. "I don't see fixing the place again."

The river was expected to crest before 9 a.m. at 5.5 feet above flood stage, the level at which the river began flowing over its banks, city Safety Director Jim Barker said Thursday morning.

The flooding wasn't expected to be as bad as August's — the city's worst since 1913 — but firefighters evacuated a handful of residents.

Water started spilling into downtown Wednesday afternoon, forcing the city's main thoroughfare to close where several storefronts remain empty from the last flood. Within a few hours, the entire street was covered by water, and at least 100 homes had suffered some water damage, Barker said.

In northwestern Indiana's Newton County, divers spotted at least one body in a vehicle submerged underwater in a quarry. The car may have plunged into the icy water overnight, Indiana Conservation officers said. A diver was unable to open the car doors, and the recovery effort was postponed until water could be pumped out, they said.

In upstate New York, freezing rain and snow contributed to a pileup that killed one person and sent another to a hospital, authorities said. In Wisconsin, two traffic fatalities were blamed on the storm.

I-90 at Snoqualmie Pass

Crews on Saturday made progress clearing debris, snow and standing water from the major highway pass through Washington's Cascade Range, with hopes of reopening it to traffic late at night.

However, the other two passes likely will remain closed into Sunday due to heavy snow.

Reopening Snoqualmie Pass on Interstate 90 would be a boost for travelers who have been unable to cross the mountains since Washington's three large passes became simultaneously closed early Friday afternoon. About 72 miles of Interstate 90 have been closed.

Avalanche control crews cleared snow and standing water from Snoqualmie Pass with a goal of reopening the road about 10 p.m. Saturday, said Meagan McFadden, spokeswoman for the state Department of Transportation.

White Pass and Stevens Pass likely will remain closed into Sunday.

Highway 2 over Stevens Pass was closed between Leavenworth and Deception Creek. Highway 12 over White Pass was closed between Coal Creek Drive to near Wildcat Road.

"It's a little too dangerous for their crews to be out at night, so once it gets dark, they're going to stop working and reevaluate the situation in the morning," McFadden said.

Highways in Eastern Washington were all open, after blowing snow forced the closure of a number of roads on Friday. Spokane County commissioners even declared a state of emergency Friday afternoon, closing all roads in the southern and western portions of the county due to high winds and blowing snow. Blowing snow also closed several highways in the Palouse area between Pullman and Spokane.

The forecast for Eastern Washington called for more snow on Sunday. The National Weather Service also issued a winter storm watch for the western slopes of the central and north Cascades for Saturday night and Sunday. So more snow or rain could be on the way.

Since Feb. 1, 86.5 inches of snow have fallen on Snoqualmie Pass, bringing the total this winter to 416 inches. The record for winter snowfall is 696 inches of snow in 1945-50.

"And we still have three months left, because we sometimes get snow still in May," McFadden said. "As more snow falls, we get a little closer to those record years."

Second-snowiest winter zaps salt budgets

Plows and salt trucks have hit village streets several times this winter already.

Much more so, in fact, than village officials estimated when the budget was approved last spring.

“We set aside $300,000 for snow removal, and we’ve almost gone through it,” village Finance Director Bob Mullins said.

He paused for a minute.

“Wait — we have gone through it,” he said.

Mullins said he moved money from other accounts to cover the shortfall this week.

“I put in another $80,000,” he said. “I think that should get us through the winter. … It won’t throw our budget off because we build in contingencies. It just means that when we move more money for snow, we won’t have money for other things.”

Moving money around to cover costs of snow removal isn’t unique to Machesney Park. Cities and towns throughout the region are near the limit or over their snow removal budgets this year.

But what a year.

National Weather Service Meteorologist Bill Nelson said the snowfall for the 2007-08 climatological winter — the months between December and February — is the second snowiest since records were compiled in Rockford.

According to Nelson’s numbers, 56.5 inches fell through Feb. 6 this year. That’s just 6.9 inches less than the all-time record of 63.4 inches that fell during the winter of 1978-79.

“And there are still three weeks to go,” Nelson said. “We might set a record. It’s very possible.”

In South Beloit, Finance Director Mike Salmons said the city was over its $40,000 snow removal budget for the year.

“But let me check, just to be sure,” he added.

You know, we’ve only spent $37,200 so far,” Salmons said. “I’m surprised. I thought for sure we’d be over budget.”

Rockton Public Works Director Gordy Nygren said he wasn’t sure how much the city has budgeted for snow removal, “but I know we’re pretty close to it.”

Village President Dale Adams said it’s not just the cost of gasoline to run plows, salt to spread on roads and cash to pay contractors.

“The overtime, I know, has to be over budget,” he said.

Still, Nygren saw a silver lining in the storm clouds.

“You know, we’re one of the only places around that still has salt,” he said. “We have about 300 tons left.”

Nygren thinks that’s enough to keep the village going until it gets another shipment.

Dan Jacobson, director of public works and development in Loves Park, doesn’t have that luxury.

“In fact, we’re sending four trucks (to Milwaukee) this weekend,” Jacobson said.

The city gets its salt from a supplier in Milwaukee, but they’ve been unable to replenish their reserves after the big snow this week.

“A lot of it has to do with transportation,” Jacobson said. “When the snow came — they had up to 20 inches in some areas up there — I-90 was backed up and (Interstate) 43, which is the route they take to get here, was impassable.”

Winnebago County might get a shipment next week to supplement its 2,500 ton stockpile, which county Engineer Joe Vanderwerff said is good for maybe four or five more snowfalls.

“It doesn’t matter if it’s 2 inches or 14 inches (of snow),” Vanderwerff said. “We use about the same amount of salt because we spread it before the snow falls, or just when it starts.”

But if the delivery doesn’t make it, the county certainly tried.

“We called as far east as New York and as far west as Overland, Kan., where the headquarters of North American Salt Co. is located,” Vanderwerff said. “But nothing was available.”

The search finally ended — or appears to have ended — 1,200 miles north in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan.

“We partnered with Moline (Ill.) because we knew they were looking, too,” Vanderwerff said.

“Now, nothing’s final yet, but we think we can get 3,000 tons here by rail from Saskatoon. We’re trying to work out train routes right now.”

Staff writer Mike Wiser can be reached at 815-987-1377 or mwiser@rrstar.com.

Top 10 snow winters

Data for 2007-08 snowfall is through Feb. 6.

63.4 inches 1978-79
56.5 inches 2007-08
49.9 inches 1993-94
48.9 inches 1909-10
47.3 inches 1973-74
46.4 inches 1917-18
42.8 inches 1935-36
41.0 inches 1942-43
40.3 inches 1987-88
40.2 inches 1977-78

Snowiest January in 40 years

If the 69.3 inches of snow piled up in Mount Shasta City this past January was not enough for winter enthusiasts, local National Weather Service observer Frank Christina says to expect more of the same for both February and March.

“According to the Weather Service, February looks like a carbon copy of January,” Christina said. “And we will go into March looking the same way.”

The official measurement of 69.3 inches was the most accumulation of snow since the 76 inches that fell in Mount Shasta in 1968, according to Christina.

It may sound like a lot of snow, but imagine what is was like in 1916 when the all-time record for January snow was set at 150 inches.

This past January, the daytime high temperatures were below 32 degrees freezing for eight days with a low of eight degrees on Jan. 22.

In a normal winter, the daytime high temperature rests below freezing for just seven days, according to Christina.

Counting this past December, Mount Shasta City's daytime high temperature was south of freezing for 14 days, doubling the normal winter season.

For 24 days in January 2008, the high temperatures were in the 30s or less.

“That is quite a feat,” Christina said. “I'm sure that will affect many residents' heating bills.”

Another effect the recent weather can have on local residences is the heavy weight of the snow on roofs.

If Mount Shasta were to receive rain, it would mix with the recent snow and put many roofs at risk of collapsing, Christina warns. “I've been here for 34 years,” he said. “And this is the snowiest I've ever seen it.”

Not counting drifts or pile-ups, Mount Shasta had 35 inches on the ground as of Jan. 31. The Mt. Shasta Ski Park, another 3,000 feet or so up the mountain, was reporting an accumulation of 259 inches of snow at its highest elevation as of Tuesday morning. That's 21 1/2 feet.

Schools running out of snow days
With snowiest months to come, students not thrilled with more classes in June

Erskine Academy in South China, concerned that Friday's snowstorm would cause hazardous road conditions, opted not to hold classes for the sixth time this winter.

That means Erskine will have to make up one day -- five "snow days" are built into the school calendar. Other schools in central Maine are faced with the same issue, and winter is far from over.

Assistant Headmaster Michael McQuarrie said administrators at Erskine Academy weigh several options when determining how to make up a postponed day of classes. That decision, he said, generates great curiosity among the backpack crowd.

"The kids have been speculating on what we will do," he said, "just as much as we have."

McQuarrie said extending the school year, currently scheduled to end June 13 for Erskine students, is one possibility.

But McQuarrie said switching a teacher in-service day to a student seat day or attending class on a Saturday are other options. The latter choice, he said, is not a favorite with students.

In a sampling of five local school systems, Erskine leads by two days. The other four school units each have called off school four times.

McQuarrie said Erskine's higher total is not surprising given that the school draws students from eight rural communities.

"We cover quite a geography," he said, "and most of (the towns) have small, rural roads. And we have a high percentage of commuter students."

Snow days are accumulating for other school systems, too.

Hugh Riordan, interim superintendent for School Union 52, which includes the towns of Winslow, China and Vassalboro, said the union already has used its allotment of four snow days.

Typically, Riordan said, a fourth snow days doesn't occur until late March.

"The snow really came early this year," he said. "Traditionally, February and March tend to be the snowy months for us, so we will see what happens."

Union 52 students are to finish the school year June 18.

In Farmington-based School Administrative District 9, the school calendar does not account for snow days. Any class day called off because of bad weather is added to the end of the school year, which is scheduled to be June 5.

This means classes will extend to June 11 at this point.

SAD 47, which includes the towns of Oakland, Belgrade, Sidney and Rome, is in the same situation as Union 52: It has used the four snow days built into the school calendar.

Monique Gilbert, administrative assistant to the superintendent, said June 16 is the last day slated for students.

SAD 47, however, has one more student seat day than the state requires -- 175 is the requirement.

Gilbert said SAD 47 could thus elect to finish classes June 16 even if another day of school is called off this winter.

Such a decision, though, would have to be recommended by the superintendent and approved by the school board, she said.

Afghan Winter Claims Lives, Limbs

Several men lay side by side in hospital beds, the stubs of their amputated arms and legs wrapped in fresh bandages. They are not victims of war or land mines, but of frostbite.

It's the coldest this impoverished, war-ravaged nation has been in at least a decade — that's as far back as Afghanistan's weather records go — and so far, the harsh weather has been blamed for more than 650 deaths.

The hospital in Herat has taken in more than 90 patients suffering from problems related to the winter weather, many of them shepherds. Several of the amputee patients were tending their sheep and goats when a blizzard shrouded the western province in blinding snow and left them stranded.

"I was surrounded by snow for two days, and I couldn't find my way back," said Ahmad Sadiq, 18, whose uncle died in the storm. One of his feet was amputated, and the doctors decided that the other will have to go, too.

"I don't want to live like this. I can't walk anymore. It's better to die than to live like this," he said.

A spate of warmer weather in recent days hasn't slowed patient traffic at the hospital.

"The weather is much better now, but we are still very worried. More people are coming from remote areas because the road is now open," said Barakatullah Mohammadi, head of emergency room at Herat hospital.

Afghanistan is largely mountainous, and many people live in remote villages reachable only by foot. It's one of the poorest countries in the world, and most people live in mud and thatch homes heated by burning wood, coal or dung.

Temperatures this winter have plummeted to a low of minus 22 degrees Fahrenheit. The more mountainous regions have seen up to 70 inches of snow, said Abdul Qadir Qadir, head of the meteorology department.

Aid organizations and foreign troops have passed out several tons of clothing, blankets, food and fuel in provinces throughout the country and in remote, mountainous villages.

Among those hardest hit in Kabul are 70 displaced families recently relocated from the southern Helmand province, which was the front line of battles last year between international troops and insurgents.

Their camp lies on the outskirts of Kabul, where children walk barefoot in the freezing cold mud and snow. Many of the "houses" are like that of 30-year-old Fatima and her family — a rectangular hole a few feet deep covered by a tarp.

"My children are all sick and are coughing throughout the night," said Fatima, who goes by only one name.

Along with the human lives the winter has claimed, more than 100,000 sheep and goats have died in the largely agricultural country, according to Abdul Matin Edrak, head of the Afghanistan National Disaster Management Commission.

"All of my animals died. Both my legs were amputated," Ghulam Rasul, 35, said from his hospital bed, recovering from the operation. "I was in the snow for two nights, then someone came and rescued me and took me home."

More snow looms for China amid transport crunch

More snowy weather was forecast for parts of China on Monday, threatening to snarl transport at the height of holiday travel and hampering the country's efforts to return to normality after its worst winter in decades.

China is expected to see railway traffic peak on Tuesday, the last day of Spring Festival, as the Lunar New Year holiday is known, when millions head back to work from their villages.

"Post-Spring Festival railway traffic peak saw more than 5 million passengers in one day last year and we expect more in 2008," Xinhua news agency quoted the Railways Ministry as saying.

The travel crunch comes as China's transport systems are only just creaking back to life after freak cold and ice storms hit swathes of the country, causing billions of dollars in damage and killing at least 80 people.

"The overall transport situation is still relatively grim, especially problems of capacity and demand emerging in railway transport," the State Council's command centre for dealing with the disaster said in a statement.

"All regions and all government departments concerned must pay high attention to the work of post-holiday transport," said the statement, posted on the government's Web site (www.gov.cn).

Sleet and snow was forecast for the already hard-hit southwestern province of Guizhou, the country's meteorological centre said, calling for authorities to make preparations to deal with traffic and public safety.

Heavy snow could also hit the far-western provinces of Qinghai, Gansu and Sichuan, as well as Tibet, in the next few days.

In most of the country, transport, power generation and food supplies were back to normal by the weekend after weeks of the unusually harsh winter weather.

Record Cold for Northern Minn.: 40 Below

It lived up to its name: The temperature in International Falls fell to 40 below zero Monday, just a few days after the northern Minnesota town won a federal trademark making it officially the "Icebox of the Nation."

It was so cold that resident Nick McDougall couldn't even get his car trunk lid to close after he got out his charger to kick-start his dead battery. By late morning, the temperature had risen all the way to 18 - below zero.

"This is about as cold as it gets, this is bad. There's no wind - it's just cold," said McDougall, 48, a worker at The Fisherman, a convenience store and gas station in the town on the Canadian border. "People just don't go out, unless you have to go to work."

Residents of the area use electric engine block heaters to keep their cars from freezing.

"You plug in your car, for sure, and you put the car in the garage if you can," McDougall said. His garage is full of other things, so he had to park outside - a "big mistake."

The previous record low for Feb. 11 in International Falls was 37 below, set in 1967, said meteorologist Mike Stewart at the weather service in Duluth. The cold was expected, he said: "When the winds finally died off and the skies cleared off, it just dropped."

The temperature also fell to 40 below in Embarrass, 80 miles southeast of International Falls. That's just one degree above the all-time record in Minneapolis, 250 miles to the south, that was set in January 1888, the weather service said.

It was also a cold day for the appropriately named town of Winter. The town in northwest Wisconsin chilled to a low of 25 below.

"I try to stay out of it as much as possible right now," said Winter area resident Bill Warner, 37. "I don't have to go out and do anything today so I am all right. You don't want to be out there too long."

Chilly air also spread into the Northeast on Monday and many schools in New York state between Buffalo and Syracuse closed or opened late. Single-digit temperatures plus high wind drove the wind chill factor to nearly 20 below across much of upstate New York.

Philadelphia had a "Code Blue" alert in effect, sending outreach crews to coax homeless people into shelters. Monday's low of 10 above zero.

Farther south, freezing rain hit southwest Missouri early Monday, making roads hazardous and losing schools. A coating of ice up to an inch thick was expected across much of southern and central Missouri, the weather service said.

"It's treacherous. If you can stay home this morning, do it," Missouri Highway Patrol Sgt. Dan Bracker said in Springfield.

Thousands of West Virginia homes and businesses had no electricity Monday after the state was hit by weekend wind gusts of up to 55 mph. At least nine counties closed schools because of power outages and the cold - the mountain city of Elkins had a low of 6 above.

Classes also were canceled Monday for a number of schools in Michigan, which remained in a deep freeze after a weekend of single-digit temperatures and gusty wind. One death was blamed on the weather.

Brother, I was just thinking about GOD'S Finely Tuned CREATION. The balances in nature were placed there by GOD, and there is no other possible explanation. The balances are intricate, and they represent the impossibility of random anything. As the first example, think about the Sun and how tiny changes in the Sun result in horrendous changes on earth. There is a direct relationship between the earth and the sun, moon, etc. How much do we really know about these intricate relationships? - NOT VERY MUCH! - WHY? - GOD CREATED THE UNIVERSE AND ESTABLISHED THESE INTRICATE BALANCES!

UM? - Let's not forget that man has gotten wise and looked into other galaxies. What is known by man is dwarfed by what is unknown, and the unknown increases by the day. Man gets vain in learning a tiny piece of information but is humbled again with what lays beyond. As an example, how big are the heavens? We make larger and larger telescopes to view the heavens and find out continually there is much we've never seen. This is part of the Majesty of GOD'S Creation, and we really know very LITTLE about it. What we know compared against what we don't know is like a single grain of sand on a beach.

Here's the bottom line: GOD IS IN CHARGE! GOD has described our times and seasons, and they will be changed by GOD at HIS Appointed time. GOD has already Promised times of GREAT and GLOBAL warming that mankind won't be able to escape. It won't be just a few degrees and many lost men will curse GOD. It will be a scorching temperature that will be much more than just unpleasant. It won't be according to Al Gore, rather according to GOD, and it will be at GOD'S Appointed Time. It will be directly related to man's evil, sin, rejection of CHRIST, and disobedience of GOD - NOT GREENHOUSE EFFECTS, ETC.!

If there is a thermostat, GOD has it and GOD controls it!

Love In Christ,
Tom

(http://i71.photobucket.com/albums/i160/tlr10/mine/mine046.jpg)

Storm Hits California And Strands Hundreds Of Motorists

Almost 500 motorists remained stranded on a mountain freeway when a storm, which came out of nowhere, hit San Diego County pouring rain and snow triggering flows of mud which invaded another highway. No injuries or other damages were recorded.

The weather was expected to be clear by Friday.

A stretch of the Interstate 8 long of 27 miles which goes through the mountains in the eastern county was reopened early Friday after being closed for 12 hours.

The cars were escorted by the California Highway Patrol, while big trucks were still not allowed to pass. After 4 p.m. Thursday the freeway was shut down due to the snow and ice which made the traffic impossible.

California Highway Patrol Officer Jim Bettencourt said: "It was just a big dump of snow, real fast," the Associated Press reports.

The cars skidded off the road and hundreds of motorists stopped in their tracks.

The California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection said that the rescue teams went from car to car and almost 30 people were deployed to temporary shelters made at a fire station and a casino.

According to Bettencourt, early Friday authorities believed that all the motorists were found, but the rescuers were still looking for cars that could have moved to the side of the road.

Due to the abandoned cars, the snow plows were stranded.

Bettencourt said: "Now we have a virtual parking lot of empty vehicles. You've got big rigs that are jackknifed. So it's going to be a pretty daunting task."

Other highways were also hit by the storm. According to authorities, 179 crashes were recorded Thursday between midnight and 9 p.m.

A stretch of the road between Poway and Ramona of 8 miles was shut down by authorities because of mudslides. Due to the heavy rain almost 2 feet of mud and rocks ended on the roadway.

The storm was triggered by a low-pressure system which came from the Gulf of Alaska and moved into Southern California.

Storms batter southern Britain

The Associated Press
Monday, March 10, 2008

LONDON: Coast guard tugboats headed to the aid of a tanker adrift in the English Channel on Monday as rain and strong winds pummeled southern coasts of Britain in the winter's worst storm.

Commuters struggled through the morning rush hour as gusts of up to 82 mph (130 kph) felled trees and power lines and huge waves disrupted ferries and shipping to English ports.

The Environment Agency issued seven severe flood warnings and urged people to stay away from coastal areas, where high tides and huge waves threatened to breach flood defenses.

The Maritime and Coastguard Agency said the Swedish tanker Astral, carrying 13 crew members and gas oil, was dragging anchor off the Isle of Wight. Crews on the two coast guard tugs were towing the vessel to its destination, an Esso oil refinery in Fawley on England's south coast. Gales roaring in from the Atlantic toppled trees, damaged roofs and downed power lines across southwest England and Wales early Monday. More than 11,000 people were left without electricity, power companies said.

Northern England and Scotland were hit by blowing snow. Further south, commuters battled through driving rain. Train services were delayed by damaged power lines in many areas, and uprooted trees across roads added to the delays for travelers.

Heathrow Airport said 34 short-haul flights were canceled Monday morning because of the storm. Ten inbound flights to Gatwick airport south of London were diverted to other airports.

Ferry traffic between Portsmouth and Bilbao in northern Spain was canceled, and the port of Dover, one of the country's busiest, was closed to shipping because of the wind.

Across the Channel, a Dutch cargo ship ran aground in the Vendee region on France's west coast. Maritime officials said it was approaching the port when high winds pushed it off course.

In Belgium, winds up 60 mph (100 kph) caused delays at Brussels airport and led authorities to close roads. Authorities issued a storm warning for the North Sea coast, where even stronger winds were expected.

Meteorologists said the gales are likely to subside before gaining strength again later Monday.

Paul Leinster of the Environment Agency said a "potent cocktail" of strong winds, large waves and high tides is expected to last until Wednesday.

"The gale-force winds will combine with spring high tides to significantly elevate the water levels along the coast by up to 1.5 meters (5 feet) over normal levels, which is likely to cause some flooding," he said.

The storm is the worst to hit southern England this year. Last month, northern Britain was battered by blizzards and 70 mph (110 kph) winds.

Last year, low-lying areas across England were hit by severe flooding as rivers overflowed causing millions of pounds (dollars, euros) in damage.

Storms batter southern Britain (http://www.iht.com/bin/printfriendly.php?id=10865543)

Record snow buries parts of Ohio, Indiana

By MATT LEINGANG, Associated Press Writer Sun Mar 9, 7:45 PM ET

COLUMBUS, Ohio - Highway and utility crews worked overtime Sunday to recover from the huge storm that buried Ohio and other parts of the Midwest in snow and tore down power lines elsewhere.

More than 20 inches of snow fell from Friday through Saturday at Columbus, eclipsing the city's previous record of 15.3 inches set in February 1910, the National Weather Service said. Elsewhere 14 inches fell at Milan, Ind. Up to a foot fell in parts of Kentucky, Tennessee and Arkansas on Friday.

Many churches in the Columbus area canceled Sunday services because roads were so slippery.

Cleveland Hopkins International Airport, which shut down Saturday, reopened Sunday but flight delays and cancelations were expected as airlines tried to get their schedules back on track, spokesman Todd Payne said.

Delays also were expected at Port Columbus International Airport, where 90 percent of flights were canceled Saturday.

Ohio had one traffic death linked to the weather, and four men died while shoveling snow. Two traffic deaths were blamed on the storm in western New York state and one in Tennessee. Two people were killed Friday as tornadoes spun out of the eastern edge of the weather system in Florida.

The storm also made roads slippery and snow-covered in western New York and caused flooding that closed roads in other parts of the state. On Sunday, high wind and falling temperatures created brisk wind chills in much of the state.

Northern Maine also got heavy snow as the storm sped into Canada's Maritime Provinces, with 17.5 inches at St. Agatha, and 3 inches of rain fell at Robbinston in the state's eastern corner. A flood watch was in effect Sunday for wide areas of Maine but officials said there was no widespread flooding.

"We did dodge a bullet. We're just waiting for next shoe to drop," weather service hydrologist Tom Hawley said Sunday in Gray, Maine, just north of Portland, noting the potential for more rain this coming weekend.

At least 8,400 Vermont homes and businesses still had no power Sunday, down from a peak of some 20,000 during the storm Saturday, Central Vermont Public Service Corp. officials said. Repair crews were hampered by ice-covered roads and fallen trees.

Utility companies in southeastern Pennsylvania said Sunday they had restored power to most of the 80,000 customers who were blacked out Saturday by power lines snapped by wind and falling tree limbs.

More than 100,000 New Jersey homes and businesses lost power at the height of thunderstorms that boiled up along the eastern part of the weather system, and some commuter train routes into New York City were blocked by fallen trees, authorities said. Wind gusted to 65 mph in New Jersey, the weather service said.

In Maryland, the storm system's wind blew a ship away from its pier Saturday in Baltimore. Coast Guard Petty Officer 3rd Class Ayla Stevens said no one was injured when the car-carrier's mooring lines broke and the ship was pushed out into the city's harbor.

Record snow buries parts of Ohio, Indiana (http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080309/ap_on_re_us/severe_weather;_ylt=At.8h5le3PY3ShYgcbqt226s0NUE)

Tornado upends downtown Atlanta, first eve to hit center of town.
'We're bracing for another round of whatever mother nature throws at us'

Crews hauled broken glass and furniture out of downtown streets today and homeowners surveyed damage caused by a possible tornado that caught residents and basketball fans by surprise.

More thunderstorms headed across northern Alabama toward the city Saturday. "We're bracing for another round of whatever mother nature throws at us," said Lisa Janak of the state emergency management agency.

At least 27 people were hurt last night, though no injuries were believed to be life-threatening.

All downtown events scheduled for Saturday were canceled, including the St. Patrick's Day parade.

"It's a mess," Janak said.

Mayor Shirley Franklin said the storm was "what we now know was a tornado." National Weather Service officials continued to say only that a "possible tornado" hit around 9:40 p.m. as a thunderstorm roared through with wind up to 60 mph.

That was just 10 minutes after the weather service issued a tornado warning.

Weather service investigators planned to examine the wreckage Saturday to determine whether a tornado caused it.

"It does look like it from what we're seeing," said Trisha Palmer, a weather service meteorologist in nearby Peachtree City. "The radar sign is very indicative of a tornado but we've got to get on the ground to make sure it wasn't strong winds."

Palmer said there had been only a "light risk" in the area Friday for thunderstorms capable of producing strong tornadoes and very large hail. In contrast, the risk was rated as moderate Saturday north Georgia and upstate South Carolina.

The storm smashed hundreds of skyscraper windows, blew furniture and luggage out of hotel rooms, crumbled part of an apartment building and rattled a packed sports arena.

Streets around the Georgia Dome, Phillips Arena, the CNN Center and Centennial Olympic Park were littered with broken glass, downed power lines, crumbled bricks, insulation and the occasional office chair. Billboards collapsed onto parked cars.

CNN said its headquarters building suffered ceiling damage that allowed water to pour into the atrium, and windows were shattered in the CNN.com newsroom and the company's library. A water line inside the building broke, turning a staircase into a waterfall.

"It was crazy. There was a lot of windows breaking and stuff falling," said Terrence Evans, a valet who was about to park a car at the Omni Hotel when the storm twister hit.

Although a tornado warning was issued, there was no announcement of the approaching storm for the 18,000 fans inside the Georgia Dome for the Southeastern Conference basketball tournament. The first sign was rumbling and the rippling of the fabric roof. Catwalks swayed and insulation rained down on players during overtime of the Mississippi State-Alabama game, sending fans fleeing toward the exits and the teams to their locker rooms.

"I thought it was a tornado or a terrorist attack," said Mississippi State guard Ben Hansbrough, whose team won 69-67 after an hourlong delay under a roof with at least two visible tears. A later game between Georgia and Kentucky was postponed. SEC officials said the tournament's remaining games would be played at Georgia Tech.

"Ironically, the guy behind me got a phone call saying there was a tornado warning," fan Lisa Lynn said. "And in two seconds, we heard the noise and things started to shake. It was creepy."

Power was knocked out to about 19,000 customers.

A loft apartment building had severe damage to one corner and appeared to have major roof damage. Property manager Darlys Walker said there was one minor injury.

Taylor Morris, 29, who lives near the lofts, said he and his girlfriend took shelter in the bathroom.

"The whole house was shaking," he said. "We didn't know what was going on."

Fire Capt. Bill May said a vacant building also collapsed, with no apparent injuries.

Grady Memorial Hospital, the city's large public hospital where many of the injured were taken, had broken windows but was operating as usual.

In East Atlanta, downed trees, debris and power lines were strewn in the streets.

Melody and Brad Sorrells were home in their living room with their two children when the storm hit, and the huge pine in their front yard crash into their house.

"I saw it falling and we ran into the back bedrooms in the closet," Melody Sorrels said. "I feel sick."

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association said the last tornado to hit a major city's downtown was on Aug. 12, 2004, in Jacksonville, Fla. Downtown tornadoes have also struck Fort Worth, Texas; Salt Lake City; Little Rock, Ark.; and Nashville, Tenn., in the past decade.

If confirmed, the tornado would be the first on record in downtown Atlanta, said Smith, the meteorologist. The last tornado to strike inside the city was in 1975, and it hit the governor's mansion north of downtown, he said.

Snowy Weather Causes 20-Car Pileup, Killing 2 in Arizona

Sunday , March 16, 2008

PHOENIX —
Dozens of vehicles collided in heavy, blinding snow on a northern Arizona interstate Sunday, killing two people, seriously injuring 10 others and forcing police to close the highway for 20 miles in both directions.

The low visibility on Interstate 40 near Flagstaff caused about 20 collisions, which occurred over a stretch of highway at least 4 miles long around noon, Flagstaff Fire Department Chief Mark Wilson said.

He described the wrecks as clumps of vehicles piled on top of each other, involving cars, trucks and semis.

"The magnitude of it was pretty severe," Wilson said. "We had a whiteout scene with the snow, and obviously a single-vehicle accident caused multiple-vehicle accidents, which continued to pile up due to the low visibility."

Wilson said two people died, and 15 people had to be removed from vehicles with hydraulic equipment and hand tools.

Flagstaff Medical Center spokeswoman Starla Addair said the hospital received 53 patients, at least 10 of whom needed to be admitted for serious injuries. She said 35 patients were treated and released.

Red Cross volunteer Gene Munger said about 40 people involved in the wrecks were at a middle school shelter Sunday evening deciding whether to spend the night there on cots or find a hotel.

"They're pretty shook up right now," he said.

National Weather Service meteorologist Clair Ketchum said whiteout conditions occurred off-and-on Sunday afternoon in the Flagstaff area and could occur overnight as a storm rolls across the state.

Ketchum said 3.8 inches of snow fell by 5 p.m. Sunday near where the collisions occurred.

Snowy Weather Causes 20-Car Pileup, Killing 2 in Arizona (http://www.foxnews.com/printer_friendly_story/0,3566,338310,00.html)

Heavy Rain, Floods Cover Central U.S.
By Betsy Taylor
Associated Press Writer
March 18, 2008

CBNNews.com - PIEDMONT, Mo. - Torrential rain chased hundreds of people from their flooded homes and deluged roads in the nation's midsection Tuesday, killing at least two people.

The storm system also grounded hundreds of flights in Texas. One control tower at Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport was briefly evacuated when a funnel cloud was spotted.

The National Weather Service posted flood and flash flood warnings from Texas to Ohio, with tornado watches in Texas, Louisiana and Arkansas.

Heavy rain began falling Monday and just kept coming. Forecasters said some parts of Missouri could get 10 inches of rain or more before the storms finally stop Wednesday.

Gov. Matt Blunt activated the Missouri National Guard as high water closed hundreds of roads.

An estimated 200 houses and businesses were flooded in Piedmont, a town of 2,000 residents. McKenzie Creek rose well above its banks before receding, said Eric Fuchs, Wayne County Emergency Management director.

Up to 30 homes were evacuated in Winona, and some residents of Cape Girardeau were trapped in their homes, the State Emergency Management Agency said. In the town of Ellington, as many as 50 homes and half the businesses were evacuated, officials said.

The body of an 81-year-old man was found in the water at Ellington, about 120 miles southwest of St. Louis, said Missouri State Water Patrol Lt. Nicholas Humphrey. A 21-year-old state Department of Transportation worker was killed near Springfield when his dump truck was hit by a tractor-trailer rig as he helped out in a flooded area, state officials said.

Firefighters and police were sent to pull motorists out of flooded roads in and around Springfield, said Greene County Emergency Management Director Ryan Nicholls.

"It's absolutely abnormal to have this much rain and more on the way today and tonight," Nicholls said.

Scott and Marilyne Peterson and their 25-year-old son, Scott Jr., scurried out of their mobile home in rural Piedmont after watching the water rise 3 feet in five minutes. The family had just enough time to grab some essentials, a few clothes and the family dog.

"You didn't have time to worry," Scott Peterson Sr. said. "You just grab what you can and go and you're glad the people are OK."

In Arkansas, authorities searched for a West Fork man whose truck was believed to have been swept from a low-water bridge. Authorities found only the vehicle.

In northeast Arkansas, the Spring River was rising at 6 inches per hour, carrying debris that included full-grown trees.

In Oklahoma, Muskogee firefighters rescued a mother and her four children from their minivan stranded in flood waters.

At Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport in Texas, American Airlines canceled about 700 departures and arrivals because of wind near 70 mph and heavy rain, and more than 100 of the carrier's flights headed to that airport were diverted, said airline spokesman Tim Wagner.

Federal Aviation Administration officials evacuated the airport's west tower for about 15 minutes after seeing a funnel cloud. Another was spotted over Lake Lewisville, just north of the airport.

"This is one of the most vicious thunderstorms DFW has seen in quite some time, especially its ongoing intensity," said airport spokesman Ken Capps. "Add in two snow storms in the past two weeks and this has been one of the most unusual early spring weather patterns in years."

At Dallas Love Field, some 20 Southwest flights were canceled, 20 others were diverted and many other flights were delayed, said airline spokeswoman Ashley Rogers.

Heavy Rain, Floods Cover Central U.S. (http://www.cbn.com/CBNnews/341727.aspx)

9 dead, 4 missing in central U.S. storm
Flooding forces hundreds to flee homes across wide swath

Flooding forced hundreds of people to flee their homes and closed scores of roads Wednesday across a wide swath of the nation's midsection as a huge storm system poured as much as 10 inches of rain on the region.

Four deaths were linked to the flooding in Missouri, and five people were killed in a highway wreck in heavy rain in Kentucky. Searches were under way in Texas for a teenager washed down a drainage pipe and in Missouri for a man missing in a creek, and two people were missing in Arkansas after their vehicles were swept away by rushing water.

The National Weather Service posted flood and flash flood warnings from Texas to Pennsylvania on Wednesday, and evacuations were under way in parts of Missouri, Arkansas and Ohio.

Heavy rain began falling Monday and just kept coming. Just over a foot had fallen at Mountain Home, Ark., and about 10 inches had fallen by Wednesday morning in southeast Missouri's Cape Girardeau County, where officials said street flooding marooned some residents in their homes. The weather service said 6.2 inches had fallen at Evansville, Ind.

Scott and Marilyne Peterson and their son, Scott Jr., scurried out of their home near Piedmont after seeing water rise 3 feet in five minutes. They had just enough time to grab essentials and their dog.

"You didn't have time to worry," Scott Peterson Sr. said. "You just grab what you can and go and you're glad the people are OK."

The rain in Missouri was expected to finally come to an end Wednesday as the weather system crawled toward the northeast.

An estimated 300 houses and businesses were flooded in Piedmont, a town of 2,000 residents on McKenzie Creek. Dozens of people were rescued by boat.

Outside St. Louis, the Meramec River was expected to crest 10 to 15 feet above flood stage at some spots, threatening towns like Eureka and Valley Park.

Flooding was widespread in Arkansas, washing out some highways and leading to evacuations of residents in parts of Baxter, Madison, Sharp counties, said Tommy Jackson, a spokesman for the Arkansas Department of Emergency Management. The Highway and Transportation Department reported state roads blocked in 16 counties.

In northeast Arkansas, the Spring River was rising at a rate of 6 inches per hour and carrying debris that included full-size trees.

Two motorists were missing in Arkansas after their vehicles were washed away by high water, authorities said.

Authorities in southwest Missouri were searching for another man reported swept away by rushing water. "He was going down the creek screaming and hollering," Lawrence County emergency management chief Mike Rowe said.

Emergency officials in Mesquite, Texas, searched for a 14-year-old boy apparently swept away as he and a friend played in a creek. The friend swam to safety, authorities said.

Up the Ohio Valley, widespread flooding was reported in parts of southwest Indiana and parts of Ohio.

"We've got water rising everywhere," said Jeff Korb, president of the Vanderbugh County, Ind., commissioners. "We've got more than 70 roads under water."

Rescuers in southern Indiana plucked a man from a tree in the Ohio River after his truck was swept away. Knight Township Fire Chief Chris Wathen said the man was conscious but showing signs of hypothermia.

"It's hard for anybody to say how long he could have survived there," Wathen said. "But I do think it was fair to say he was within minutes of losing his life."

Residents of South Lebanon, Ohio—a town of about 2,800 people—were urged to get out as the Little Miami River was expected to crest at 28 feet, 11 feet above flood stage and the third highest level since measurements began in 1889, said Frank Young, emergency management director in Warren County.

"That would put half of South Lebanon under water," Young said.

Key roads were closed in the Cincinnati area, where water 4 feet deep was reported in businesses in the suburb of Sharonwille, police said. Police contacted at least nine businesses and warned them not to open Wednesday. Northeast of Cincinnati, two members of a cross-country team had to be rescued from a rain-swollen creek after falling in.

The Ohio River at Cincinnati was expected to rise about 2 feet above flood stage by Friday, flooding some neighborhoods outside the city.

Missouri state officials said three people died there, including one man whose car was swept 600 feet down a flooded stream. The Southeast Missourian newspaper in Cape Girardeau reported a fourth death. Kentucky State Police said five people died in heavy rain Wednesday on Interstate 65 in south-central Kentucky when a tractor-trailer, a pickup truck and a van crashed.

Israel Suffers Worst Drought in Decade

By LAURIE COPANS
The Associated Press
Wednesday, March 19, 2008; 3:25 PM

JERUSALEM -- Israel is suffering its worst drought in a decade and will have to stop pumping from one of its main sources of drinking water, the Sea of Galilee, by the end of the summer, an official said Wednesday.

Water Authority spokesman Uri Schor said Israel must start pumping more ground water from aquifers that are already depleted.

"The situation is very, very bad," Schor said. "As we pump more from the aquifers, the quality of the water will go down."

Israel's water problem stems from population growth and rising prosperity that has seen an increase in lawns and gardens, Schor said. In addition, this winter was the fourth in a row in which Israel had low rainfall, with only about 50-60 percent of the average in most areas, he said.

Israel's rainy season ends this month and will not begin again until October.

Water is a contentious issue in the dry region, and the subject of one of the disputes Israeli and Palestinian peace negotiators.

Despite the shortage, Israel will probably not reduce the amount of water supplied to Jordan according to a peace treaty between the countries, Schor said. Jordan's drought is much worse than Israel's, he said.

Israel has in recent weeks reduced the drinking water supplied to farmers by more than 50 percent, increasing their need for recycled water, Schor said. This weekend water officials will discuss raising the cost of drinking water in an attempt to cut household use, he said.

Israel has two desalination plants that supply about one-third of water needed by municipalities and households, Schor said. Three other plants, scheduled to be completed by 2013, will double that amount. The next one is due to be operational next year.

Israel Suffers Worst Drought in Decade (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/03/19/AR2008031902424.html)

Weary Midwesterners battle rising rivers

By CHRISTOPHER LEONARD, Associated Press Writer 2 hours, 17 minutes ago

FENTON, Mo. - With more than a dozen people killed by floodwaters and rivers still rising, weary Midwesterners on Thursday weighed not just the prospect of a sodden cleanup but the likelihood that their communities could be inundated again.

Families in some areas have been forced from their homes multiple times in the past few years, making the routine of filling sandbags and rescuing furniture into a familiar drill.

"We've been through this before," said Michelle Buhlinger, who works for the school district in Valley Park in suburban St. Louis. "We're expecting the levee to hold up, but we don't want to take any chances."

The first day of spring brought much-needed sunshine to some flooded communities, but many swelling rivers were not expected to crest until the weekend in Arkansas, Missouri, southern Illinois, southern Indiana and Kentucky.

The worst flooding happened in smaller rivers across the nation's midsection. Major channels such as the Mississippi, Missouri and Ohio rivers saw only minor flooding.

In Fenton, another suburb, Jeff Rogles joined dozens of volunteers to fill sandbags and pile them against downtown businesses near the fast-rising Meramec River, which was expected to reach more than 20 feet above flood stage in some spots near St. Louis.

"I think we have enough volunteers out here to stave off disaster," said Rogles, 27, who joined the effort because he remembered the devastating Great Flood of 1993.

Parts of Missouri got a foot of rain over a 36-hour period this week, causing widespread flash flooding and swelling many rivers. Five deaths have been confirmed in Missouri and hundreds of people were forced from their homes. Many families will return to find their property badly damaged or destroyed.

Valley Park is protected by a flood levee completed in 2005, but the projected 40-foot-crest there on Saturday would reach within three feet of the top of the levee. As a result, many homeowners, merchants and even schools were moving to higher ground.

Police in Pacific, Mo., went door-to-door evacuating about 50 homes in low-lying areas.

In southwest Indiana, Todd Ferguson has spent the past three days building a sandbag wall around his sister-in-law's Evansville home.

Pigeon Creek normally flows about 200 yards from Valerie Ferguson's house, but the water had crept to within 10 feet and was not expected to crest until Sunday.

In 2006, the Fergusons piled more than 1,000 sandbags around their home and still sustained about $1,000 in damage. This time, they don't have help from Valerie's husband, Tim, who is serving in Iraq with the Indiana National Guard.

"We won two years ago, but I don't know if we're going to win this one," Todd Ferguson said. "Only time will tell, I guess."

In Batesville, Ark., antique mall operator Marcia Weaver stood along the banks of the Spring River and watched as pieces of lives were washed away.

"There were large pieces of furniture, dressers, picnic tables from the parks. I saw a four-wheeler going down. Lots of canoes and kayaks that didn't have anybody in them," she said.

In the tiny community of Edgewater, Ohio, relatives helped Judy Lambert move out of her double-wide mobile home. Her detached garage had a foot of water in it from the flooding Great Miami River.

"We're getting all the valuables out and trying to salvage what we can," said Lambert's son, Sean, 34. The flood is "knocking at the back door."

High water also closed the eastbound lanes of Interstate 70 for about 4 miles in central Ohio's Licking County, state police said. The floodwaters were receding by midday, but there was no estimate of when the lanes would reopen.

Levee breaches in southeast Missouri forced hundreds of people from their homes and left many major roadways impassable. The Coon Island levee near Poplar Bluff, Mo., broke around noon Thursday, and authorities were preparing to conduct water rescues if necessary.

President Bush declared a major disaster in Missouri on Wednesday night and ordered federal agencies to assist state and local authorities in flooded areas.

The Black, Big and St. Francis rivers in Missouri were also expected to flood significantly. Minor flooding was predicted on the Mississippi and Missouri rivers.

In Eureka, Mo., in St. Louis County, Patrick Butler was busy building a wall of sandbags wrapped in plastic he hoped would keep floodwaters out of a downtown building he rents to a screen-printing shop.

He said residents are nervous but well-acquainted with flooding in the low-lying Meramec River town.

"I think we'll have to just have a fishing tournament out in the street," he joked.

At least 15 deaths have been linked to the weather over the past few days, and three people were missing.

Searches were under way in Texas for a teenager who was washed down a drainage pipe, and two people were missing Thursday in Arkansas after their vehicles were swept away by rushing water on Tuesday.

Government forecasters warned Thursday that some flooding could continue in the coming days because of record rainfall and melting snow packs across much of the Midwest and Northeast.

Weary Midwesterners battle rising rivers (http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080320/ap_on_re_us/severe_weather;_ylt=AiFFlzGtoyGkAOZxBEg4r6as0NUE)

Rising river begins flooding Missouri town

Rising, churning waters of the Meramec River overwhelmed a corner of this hamlet west of St. Louis on Friday morning, covering streets and swamping dozen of houses.

Throughout the day, the river -- swelled by a week of torrential rains -- is expected to rise another 8 to 10 feet. Most residents evacuated, having days of warning to prepare. Authorities floated through the streets in boats looking for people needing help but found none.

Unlike mountain communities in southwest Missouri caught unaware by flash floods earlier this week, residents here knew what was coming. They packed up most everything they own into trucks Thursday and high-tailed it to high ground.

"Noah had years to build his ark: we've got to pack and get out in a day," grumbled Jeremy Millfelt, who rented a truck and storage space to move his family's furniture and belongings out of harm's way in Pacific on Thursday. "But it's better to have the notice than to get out with water pushing at your door."

Roads were closed in and out of Pacific. To keep water from reaching other parts of towns, volunteers were sandbagging near downtown.

The river was rising not in inches but by more than a foot per hour, engulfing Millfelt's apartment past dawn Friday. Downriver, where waters are expected to peak to near-record crests by Sunday, residents and volunteers were furiously filling and stacking sandbags Friday morning.

The towns of Eureka, Valley Park and Fenton watched as the Meramec kept rising and was gushing downstream from Pacific.

At least sixteen deaths have been blamed on a powerful storm that dumped more than a foot of rain in 36 hours across several Midwest states.

Besides the Meramec, the Mississippi and Ohio Rivers were rising Friday to dangerously high levels. Levees protecting major population areas were expected to limit damage to only minor flooding. But farmlands along the rivers will be submerged.

In Chester, Mo., along the Mississippi River, water was creeping onto land. A statue representing explorers Lewis and Clark was covered in water from toe to nearly the head. .

In one neighborhood outside Eureka where the Meramec meets a tributary, a resident defiantly remained in his attic while his house flooded. Pleas from police to leave went unheeded.

In downtown Eureka less than a mile away, business owners sandbagged their door fronts and removed inventory and furniture from the floors.

"We know it is heading our way," said Ken Knapp, standing outside his wife's downtown screen printing shop on Thursday afternoon.

Despite being located on one of America's most flood-prone rivers, many of the towns like Eureka never mustered the political will to get the federal money needed to build a levee. Further downriver, though, in Valley Park, that city was keeping its fingers crossed, hoping that its new levee would hold.

After a flood covered most of the downtown in 1994, Valley Park officials lobbied the federal government and a 3-mile-long earthen hill was completed in 2005 for $50 million.

Built with about three-quarters of the cost from federal funds, the levee surrounds the town like a great wall and is designed to contain waters as high as 43 feet; 3 feet higher than the projected crest at Valley Park.

"Oh, it'll hold," said Mayor Jeffery Whitteaker. "This is our first big test and we are confident."

Residents strolled along the levee top on Thursday looking at the murky, rising Meramec.

"The question is, has the levee been given enough to time to harden?" asked Mark Engleman, who has lived in Valley Park for the last eight years. "The town says it will take five years to settle and it has only been three."

Peering down at the escalating tide, Engleman figured: "As long as there is no big swirling, we should do fine."

But some of his neighbors were taking no chances.

John Elliot was helping relatives move furniture, artifacts, kitchenware and electronics out of his aunt's home into a rental truck. They will transport the items to Elliot's mother's house on higher ground.

"Why take a chance?" Elliot asked. "How can we trust that the levee won't break when it hasn't been through this before? So we choose to be cautious."

At the Interstate 44 exit for Valley Park, more than 6 feet of water was in the intersection beneath the highway overpass. Transportation crews were feverishly sandbagging the interstate and putting up concrete barriers so that the highway would not flood in the coming hours.

Further west on high ground where City Hall is located, officials in Pacific said they admired Valley Park's efforts: it took some 15 years for study, funding and construction.

"They moved on that and we didn't have that push," said Pacific's city manager, Harold Selby. "Maybe this flood will get things moving in that direction for us too."

For now, townsfolk and the river are doing the moving as the Meramec was expected to crest at 31.5 feet by Saturday morning.

After packing up Thursday, some residents embraced each other and cried before taking their farewell glances back at their threatened homes.

"God help us," said Jim Seward, as he rested on his pickup truck before hauling the final few pieces out of his house. "We just have to hope the river goes back down as fast it comes up."

Bush signs disaster order; includes entire 8th district

U.S. Rep. Jo Ann Emerson (R-Cape Girardeau) and U.S. Senator Kit Bond (R-Missouri) on Thursday announced that President Bush has signed a disaster declaration for 70 Missouri counties and the independent city of St. Louis following severe flooding in the state.

Emerson’s entire 8th Congressional District is included in the disaster declaration.

“It’s a pressing emergency situation we have, and I appreciate Gov. Blunt’s and President Bush’s quick response,” said Emerson, who told the Rolla Area Chamber of Commerce luncheon Wednesday that she intended an air tour of the devastated areas in her district today.

“The assistance program to help public and private response organizations is going into immediate effect. That program will help get resources to state and local governments and private nonprofit organizations which need assistance dealing with the mess left in the wake of this storm.

“In the coming days and weeks, we will be asking for an expansion of the declaration to cover things like debris removal, damage to structures and individual assistance,” she said.

Emerson said her tour of several Southern Missouri sites affected by the flooding has been extended beyond today to include Saturday.

“The President’s quick approval of a disaster declaration means help is on the way for our communities hard-hit by these floods,” said Bond.

“Times like this bring out the best in us - despite the wide-spread devastation, I am proud to see Missourians helping Missourians during a challenging time.”

The Federal Emergency Management Agency has left the door open to additional disaster designations pending further evaluation, which would potentially make other federal emergency programs available to affected Missouri residents. Individual Assistance and Hazard Mitigation assistance have been requested by Missouri Governor Matt Blunt.

Category B Public Assistance is for emergency protective measures. Emerson and Bond both have urged the Administration to expand the designation to supply assistance for debris removal and recovery assistance for buildings, roads, equipment, and flood protection measures as soon as feasible.

Individual assistance programs are pending review by FEMA and will likely not be implemented until a thorough assessment of the damage can be made.

U.S. Spring Season Forecast: More Record Floods

Major floods across the central United States this week are a preview of the spring seasonal outlook, according to the National Weather Service. This week, more than 250 communities in a dozen states are experiencing flood conditions.

Several factors will contribute to above-average likelihood of flooding, including record rainfall in some states and snow packs, which are melting and causing rivers and streams to crest over their banks.

After massive rains from Texas to Ohio over the past couple of days - more than a foot in parts of Arkansas, Missouri, and Illinois - many rivers are flooding, with some streams and rivers heading toward record crests.

A flood warning is currently in effect along the Mississippi River for parts of Illinois, Missouri and Kentucky.

The Mississippi River at Cape Girardeau is still expected to crest at 44.5 feet Sunday despite levels being lower than expected north of the region. Flood stage is 32 feet. In Cape Girardeau, crews are racing to close the big steel flood gates that safeguard the town from the rising river.

Residents are packing up and moving to higher ground, a Cape Girardeau nursing home has been evacuated, and the American Red Cross has opened five shelters for flood victims. Many highways are closed, gravel county roads are scoured into huge potholes, and many small bridges have been destroyed.

Missouri Governor Matt Blunt thanked President George W. Bush for his quick approval of expedited federal disaster assistance for 70 Missouri counties and the city of St. Louis as a result of flooding and severe weather across the entire central and southern parts of Missouri.

"I appreciate the President's quick approval of my request for federal assistance," the governor said. "Our emergency responders have acted heroically in their efforts to assist the flood victims. This federal assistance will be very helpful in addition to the many state actions we have taken this week to assist Missourians impacted by this devastating flooding."

Widespread flooding in Arkansas has washed out some highways and led to evacuations in some areas, said a spokesman for the Arkansas Department of Emergency Management.

Some residents of southern Illinois had to evacuate. In Marion, Illinois, firefighters used their own fishing boats to rescue residents.

Across the entire flood zone, 13 people have died this week.

National Weather Service forecasters warned of the potential for the current major flood event a week in advance and began working with emergency managers to prepare local communities for the impending danger.

"We expect rains and melting snow to bring more flooding this spring," said Vickie Nadolski, deputy director of the National Weather Service, a division of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, NOAA.

"Americans should be on high alert to flood conditions in your communities," said Nadolski. "Arm yourselves with information about how to stay safe during a flood and do not attempt to drive on flooded roadways - remember to always turn around, don't drown."

Nadolski called on local emergency management officials to continue preparations for a wet spring and focus on public education to ensure heightened awareness of the potential for dangerous local conditions.

Above-normal flood potential is evident in much of the Mississippi River basin, the Ohio River basin, the lower Missouri River basin, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, most of New York, all of New England, and portions of the West, including Colorado and Idaho.

Heavy winter snow combined with recent rain indicates parts of Wisconsin and Illinois should see minor to moderate flooding, with as much as a 20 to 30 percent chance of major flooding on some rivers in southern Wisconsin and northern Illinois.

Current snow depth in some areas of upstate New York and New England is more than a foot greater than usual for this time of the year, which increases the potential for flooding in the Connecticut River Valley.

Locations in the mountains of Colorado and Idaho have 150 to 200 percent of average water contained in snowpack leading to a higher than normal flood potential.

Snowfall has been normal or above normal across most of the West this winter, however, preexisting dryness in many areas will prevent most flooding in this region, according to the National Weather Service. Runoff from snow pack is expected to improve stream flows compared to last year for the West.

The current heavy rains have been good for parched areas of the Southeast, caught in the grip of record drought for several years.

Although some reservoirs are unlikely to recover before summer, the drought outlook indicates continued general improvement in the region. On the U.S. Drought Monitor, extreme drought coverage dropped from nearly 50 percent in mid-December to less than 20 percent in the Southeast for March.

Overall, the Southeast had near-average rainfall during the winter with some areas wetter than average. Nevertheless, lingering water supply concerns and water restrictions continue in parts of the region.

Drought across the West is not forecast to ease off. "We expect drought to continue in parts of the southern Plains despite some recent heavy rain," the National Weather Service said.

Parts of Texas received less than 25 percent of normal rainfall in the winter, leading 165 counties to enact burn bans by mid-March. Seasonal forecasts for warmth and dryness suggest drought will expand northward and westward this spring.

During the spring season, weather can change quickly from drought to flooding to severe weather, including outbreaks of tornadoes, said the weather service.

Water level climbing in flood-weary Midwest
Situation expected to worsen – Chicago area could see 9 inches of snow

Flooding from rainstorms blamed for at least 16 deaths threatened to worsen Friday, with many Midwestern rivers over their banks for more than a day already and the water level climbing.

To the north, a fresh snowstorm blew into the Chicago area, prompting authorities to cancel flights protectively. Forecasters said the storm could leave as much as 9 inches of heavy snow in the region.

A blizzard warning remained in effect in northern Maine, where fierce winds had already scattered a foot or more of snow.
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“Even though it was spring yesterday, we still have winter on our doorstep,” spokeswoman Ginny Joles of Maine Public Service Co., northern Maine’s major electric company, said Friday.

Swelling rivers could spell weekend woes
Thursday, the first day of spring, brought much-needed sunshine to some flooded communities, but many swelling rivers were not expected to crest until the weekend in Arkansas, Missouri, southern Illinois, southern Indiana and Kentucky.

The worst flooding happened in smaller rivers across the nation’s midsection. Major channels such as the Mississippi, Missouri and Ohio rivers saw only minor flooding.

In Fenton, a St. Louis suburb, Jeff Rogles joined dozens of volunteers to fill sandbags and pile them against downtown businesses near the fast-rising Meramec River, which was expected to reach more than 20 feet above flood stage in some spots.

“I think we have enough volunteers out here to stave off disaster,” said Rogles, 27, who joined the effort because he remembered the devastating Great Flood of 1993.

Parts of Missouri got a foot of rain over a 36-hour period this week, causing widespread flash flooding and swelling many rivers. Five deaths have been confirmed in Missouri and hundreds of people were forced from their homes. Many families will return to find their property badly damaged or destroyed.

Valley Park is protected by a flood levee completed in 2005, but the projected 40-foot-crest there on Saturday would reach within three feet of the top of the levee. As a result, many homeowners, merchants and even schools were moving to higher ground.

Door-to-door evacuations
Police in Pacific, Mo., went door-to-door evacuating about 50 homes in low-lying areas.

In southwest Indiana, Todd Ferguson has spent most of the week building a sandbag wall around his sister-in-law’s Evansville home. Pigeon Creek normally flows about 200 yards from Valerie Ferguson’s house, but the water had crept to within 10 feet and was not expected to crest until Sunday.

In 2006, the Fergusons piled more than 1,000 sandbags around their home and still sustained about $1,000 in damage. This time, they don’t have help from Valerie’s husband, Tim, who is serving in Iraq with the Indiana National Guard.

“We won two years ago, but I don’t know if we’re going to win this one,” Todd Ferguson said. “Only time will tell, I guess.”

In Batesville, Ark., antique mall operator Marcia Weaver stood along the banks of the Spring River and watched as pieces of lives were washed away.

“There were large pieces of furniture, dressers, picnic tables from the parks. I saw a four-wheeler going down. Lots of canoes and kayaks that didn’t have anybody in them,” she said.

‘Trying to salvage what we can’
In the tiny community of Edgewater, Ohio, relatives helped Judy Lambert move out of her double-wide mobile home. Her detached garage had a foot of water in it from the flooding Great Miami River.

“We’re getting all the valuables out and trying to salvage what we can,” said Lambert’s son, Sean, 34. The flood is “knocking at the back door.”

Levee breaches in southeast Missouri forced hundreds of people from their homes and left many major roadways impassable.

In Eureka, Mo., in St. Louis County, Patrick Butler was busy building a wall of sandbags wrapped in plastic he hoped would keep floodwaters out of a downtown building he rents to a screen-printing shop. He said residents are nervous but well-acquainted with flooding in the low-lying Meramec River town.

“I think we’ll have to just have a fishing tournament out in the street,” he joked.

At least 2 people still missing
At least 16 deaths have been linked to the weather over the past few days, and at least two people were missing.

Searchers in Texas recovered a body Thursday in waist-deep water that matched the description of a teenager who was washed down a drainage pipe, but hadn’t confirmed it was him. Two people were missing Thursday in Arkansas after their vehicles were swept away by rushing water Tuesday.

Government forecasters warned that some flooding could continue in the coming days because of record rainfall and melting snow packs across much of the Midwest and Northeast.

Arkansas Prepares for Worst Flooding in 25 Years
Midwest Continues to Struggle With Cresting Rivers
By MIKE VON FREMD, COLE KAZDIN AND IMAEYEN IBANGA

March 24, 2008 —

Neglected Arkansas levees proved no match for torrential rains that are poised to cause the worst flooding the state has seen in a quarter century.

The Black River sliced through a 60-year-old levee before emergency workers could stem the tide with a mountain of sandbags Saturday, according to The Associated Press.

Arkansas Gov. Mike Beebe declared 35 counties disaster areas and forecasters warned residents along the White River, despite minimal rain in the forecast.

"You may be wondering why we issued a flash flood watch in eastern Arkansas when there is little to no rain in the forecast," John Robinson of the National Weather Service in North Little Rock wrote Sunday in an e-mail to reporters, according to the AP. "There will be water going into areas where people have not seen it before, and may not be expecting to see high water."

Officials warned that the Black and White rivers may not crest until Wednesday and that it remains too dangerous for many residents to return to their evacuated homes.

"It's kind of hard when things happen so fast. You cannot think, but we have our lives and I guess that is the most important thing," said 72-year-old Clara Gabrielsen, who had to be evacuated from her nursing home because of the flooding.

Many residents were forced to leave with little time to prepare.

"It was pretty hectic when we saw the water coming up. We didn't have time to get anything," said Arkansas flood victim Tom Honeycut.

Arkansas emergency management officials have said early estimates for statewide damage to homes, businesses and infrastructure were at $2 million, though that figure was expected to grow, according to the AP.

So far one person is missing in the state because of the floods.

Midwest Continues to Fight Floods

Arkansas isn't the only region seeing flood-related problems. Last week rains submerged parts of the Midwest and this week, though the rains may have ceased, the rivers continue cresting and causing massive damage.

The destruction has been staggering, like near St. Louis where waters swallowed intersections and fierce floods swept homes off their foundations. The rushing waters even carried off one home and smashed it into a bridge.

Thousands of Missouri residents fled to Red Cross shelters and last week's flooding also affected parts of Ohio and southern Illinois.

Towns south of where the Mississippi and Ohio rivers meet in Cairo, Ill., braced for flooding expected in the next couple of days, according to the AP.

"They're not going down yet," John Campbell, operations chief at Missouri's State Emergency Management Agency, told the AP. "They're still rising."

Farther north where rivers are receding, many families are returning home to see what is left.

"We found people's family pictures in our yard yesterday. It's very hard," said Missouri flood victim Jane Nantz.

At least 17 deaths have been attributed to the flooding, wet roads and other weather conditions.

Arkansas Prepares for Worst Flooding in 25 Years (http://abcnews.go.com/print?id=4511366)

Snow World - What a Year for Snow in Unusual Places

It snowed in places where snow is rare or unheard of, and many all-time snow records were set in other places used to snow in winter.

Since the article was penned last week, St. Johnsbury, Vermont came in with a new seasonal snow record at the Fairbanks Museum and Planetarium with 139.1 inches, just eclipsing the mark of 139.0 inches set in 1968-69. According to Mark Breen the Museum’s meteorologist, records go back to 1894, and the observing site is essentially the same throughout the period of record. It has been an amazing winter there Mark noted. The snowiest winter season - December, January, and March - with 119 inches, the snowiest December of record - 54.1 inches, the only winter with two months exceeding 40 inches of snowfall, and one of the longest continuous snowcover seasons (they still have 15 inches of snow at the stake).

Also all the way acrosss the country to the northwest, Spokane, Washington found their seasonal total move into second place all-time with 89.4 inches, second only to 1949-50. Stowe, Vermont is pushing 400 inches and Vail, CO 420 inches with another storm brewing. In fact in all these places additional snow is very possible before they put away their snow sticks.

In the middle, Minnesota saw a major snowstorm with up to 32 inches of snow that the Minnesota Climatology Working group wrote about, with another snowstorm on the way.

Across the Atlantic, the UK is getting an unusual April snow. Britain saw its worst April snowfall for nearly 20 years yesterday. Up to three inches of snow fell in parts of southern England and temperatures were below freezing in many places even at midday. The Arctic cold snap meant more misery for passengers at Heathrow’s Terminal 5, where British Airways cancelled more than 100 flights. Both Heathrow’s runways briefly closed for de-icing. Gatwick’s runway closed for two hours to clear snow, with 55 flights abandoned.

Storm dumps more than 2 feet of snow in northern Minnesota

Residents of the Iron Range and other parts of northern Minnesota are digging out from under at least 2 feet of fresh snow.

The grand prize for the most snowfall goes to Virginia, Minn., where 32 inches piled up between Friday night and this morning. More than a foot fell in the northern Minnesota community of about 9,000 people since Sunday evening, the National Weather Service said.

Not far behind, 29 inches fell in northern portions of Itasca County, 27 inches in Cass Lake, 26 in Babbit, and 25 in Chisholm.

A spring snowstorm Sunday and continuing today caused slippery roads and travelers advisories and prompted the closing of Interstate Hwy. 94 westbound out of Alexandria.

And this morning, more than a dozen school districts in northern Minnesota have delayed or canceled classes, KARE-TV in the Twin Cities is reporting.

A winter storm warning remained in effect until 7 a.m. today in northeast Minnesota. The warning indicates that significant amounts of heavy snow, freezing rain and sleet are expected. The snow will make travel hazardous or impossible, the National Weather Service said.

The snow in northern Minnesota is expected to end by late this morning, but 1 to 2 additional inches of snow will fall before then. The storm is likely to move into western Wisconsin later this morning.

Another storm system may bring more snow to the northern part of the state by the end of the week, the weather service said.

Other heavy snowfalls were reported in Babbitt with 22 inches, Tower, 19, Grand Rapids 25, Wirt, 22 , and Cohasset 23.5. Lake Bemidji reported 13 inches, Wilton, 12.5, Zerkel, 18, and New York Mills, 13 inches.

Snow was coming down at the rate of 1 to 2 inches per hour on Sunday afternoon.

A St. Louis County sheriff's deputy says "quite a few" vehicles were in the ditch all the way toward Hibbing Sunday afternoon, but no serious injuries were reported.

Heavy snow also fell in the Morris, Alexandria and Staples area of west-central Minnesota. Grand Forks reported 6 inches of snow

I-94 westbound out of Alexandria was closed early today. About 6 inches of snow fell in that area.

Today in the Twin Cities will bring a 40 percent chance of light snow between 10 a.m. and 1 p.m. The skies will be mostly cloudy and temperatures will hit a high of around 39 degrees. Tonight, temperatures should drop to about 28 degrees.

On Tuesday look for rain after 1 p.m. and temperatures should rise to about 44 degrees with winds of 6 to 9 miles per hour.

Tornadoes Reported in Texas, Oklahoma and Arkansas; 1 Killed

Thursday , April 10, 2008

AP
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BENTON, Ark. —
A band of hail, heavy rain and twisters pounded Arkansas, Texas and Oklahoma, damaging hundreds of homes, flooding roads and leaving thousands without power. The worst wasn't over for Arkansas, which braced Thursday for another hit.

Some residents in the small north Arkansas town of Leslie were being evacuated because of flooding and the threat of mudslides. Workers were sandbagging in places to keep flood waters at bay. Roads were flooded and people were being told to stay home.

The state already is contending with three weeks of flooding and the aftermath of 10 tornadoes that struck last week.

"It's just getting worse," sheriff's dispatcher Nola Massey said. "We're just trying to get everybody to stay home and not get out in it."

About 1,000 customers of Entergy Arkansas lost power and tornado sirens blared around midday in parts of central Arkansas, including Little Rock. Flooding also was reported in southwest Missouri as storms crossed the region.

"It's a two-headed monster this morning," National Weather Service forecaster John Lewis said Thursday, noting the flooding and threat of tornadoes in Arkansas.

The severe weather began in the region Wednesday. An apparent tornado with winds of up to 70 mph moved through west Texas, tearing shingles from roofs, shattering glass and flipping vehicles. Roughly 100 homes reported damage, mainly in Breckenridge, DeSoto and Hurst.

Bobby Russell, a 45-year-old maintenance man, said he was huddled with wife and two teenage children in their duplex when a falling tree punched a hole in the roof and collapsed a wall of his daughter's bedroom.

"We got the family together in the hallway, and then we heard a big boom," Russell, of Hurst, said.

In far east-central Oklahoma, Muldrow was particularly hard hit, with state officials reporting damage to more than 200 homes and businesses from straight-line winds. The city was pounded with heavy rains, marble-sized hail and sustained winds of more than 60 mph, said Officer Jose Flores.

"We've got flooding like you wouldn't believe," Flores said.

At least 180,000 homes and businesses lost electricity in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, and more than 11,000 customers were without power in Oklahoma Thursday morning. Flooding in Oklahoma forced about a dozen state highways to close, and some schools called off classes for the day.

In Oklahoma, where some parts of the state had more than 4 inches of rain, two rain-related traffic deaths were reported. Three people were treated for minor injuries in Texas.

Red Cross spokeswoman Anita Foster said no injuries were reported from the high winds and heavy rain in the Dallas-Fort Worth areas. Two shelters were set up for residents who may need them, she said.

One hangar at Addison Airport, in the Dallas area, lost part of its roof.

The storm pelted the city with quarter-sized hail just after midnight with winds of up to 70 mph, said Hector Guerrero, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service. The service received reports of cars and a tractor trailer flipped over.

In DeSoto, just south of Dallas, about a dozen homes had roof damage and there was severe roof damage at a senior apartment complex and at a hotel with about 50 people in it at the time, said Kathy Jones, a spokeswoman for the city of DeSoto.

Stephens County Sheriff James Reeves said about 20 homes in the Breckenridge area sustained major damage, including some roofs and top stories torn away.

Six mobile homes were destroyed and two businesses were damaged, Reeves said.

In Arkansas' Saline County, residents spent a week picking up blown-off shingles and cleaning culverts after the 10 tornadoes roared through central Arkansas the night of April 3. Forecasters said Thursday's storm could be on scale with those last week, with up to 2 inches of rain possible in Saline County, and gusts up to 30 mph.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency estimates at least 47 homes were destroyed by last week's tornadoes in Saline County. More could be affected as rainwater hits already saturated fields and lawns Thursday.

"It's just overwhelming — a flood on top of a tornado," Saline County Judge Lanny Fite, the county's top administrator, said Wednesday. "People have been working night and day trying to prepare, but there's not a whole lot we can do to prepare for rain in the magnitude they're talking about."

Tornadoes Reported in Texas, Oklahoma and Arkansas; 1 Killed (http://www.foxnews.com/printer_friendly_story/0,3566,349129,00.html)

Cold Temperatures Freeze Gardening Season

MARION – All of this cold weather is freezing the start of the gardening season. Now, outdoor fans are eager for a warm-up.

"I'm 71-years-old and I've never seen spring come this late," Robert Ciesleck said.

Ciesleck and his family look forward to gardening together every spring. This year, they're not sure when they're going to be able to get their hands dirty.

"When it starts getting into mid-March and April, then things should change fast, but not this year," he said.

On a typical Sunday afternoon, the Culver’s greenhouse would be packed with people, but the recent cold temperatures scared away a lot of customers.

"All the plants are right here. All you can do is come and look for now. I'd hate to take any home quite yet, but it's getting really tempting,” customer Rhonda Kaczinski said.

Cold temperatures aren't the only problem. This winter's snow and ice storms drenched the soil and left it soggy.

"If you can pick up a handful of soil and still wring moisture out of it, it's too wet to plant," Culver’s employee Sherri Baldonado said.

Even though it might be too cold for flowers to take root, Culver's employees recommend buying plants now and storing them in a warm place like a garage.

"I have a saying for people -- If you see it and you like it, take it now, because it may be gone the next time you come back," Baldonado said.

Ciesleck and his family eventually found a few plants they like, and they plan to visit the greenhouse again soon.

Even if we do get some warmer weather, a spring frost is still possible all the way until mid-May. Culver's employees try to warn all of their customers about that possibility.

To put in into perspective, Cedar Rapids and the surrounding Midwest has been consistently colder than normal since December. In Cedar Rapids, December averaged 3.0 F below normal, January 1.9 F below normal, February a whopping 8.3 F below normal, March 4.9 F below normal and so far in April 4.4 degrees below normal.

Sandstorm blankets Iraqi capital, forcing airport closure

By SAMEER N. YACOUB, Associated Press Writer Thu Apr 17, 2:28 PM ET

BAGHDAD - A thick layer of yellow dust blanketed houses and cars in the Iraqi capital Thursday as a heavy sandstorm over central Iraq sent dozens of residents to hospitals with breathing difficulties.

The spring storm, one of the worst in years, forced the closure of the Baghdad International Airport. It also appeared to hamper military flights.

None of the helicopter patrols that regularly roar over the city of 6 million people seemed to be airborne. The deadliest helicopter crash in this war occurred during a sandstorm that sharply reduced visibility in 2005, when a CH-53 Sea Stallion went down, killing 31 U.S. troops.

Apparently taking advantage of the reduced aerial activity, militants from eastern Baghdad repeatedly shelled the Green Zone, which houses diplomatic missions and much of the Iraqi government.

Explosions were heard across the city as salvos of rockets or mortar shells were fired into the high-security district. The U.S. Embassy confirmed the attacks but said no casualties were reported.

Many shops in the city were closed, and only a few cars were seen on the deserted streets.

AP Television News footage also showed Iraqi traffic policemen wearing masks over their mouths as protection from the dust whipped up by the hot winds.

Shukri al-Naimi, owner of a shawarma grill in the northern neighborhood of Azamiyah, said he also closed four hours earlier than usual. "I cannot use the outside grill with dust blowing everywhere around it and there are too few customers anyway."

A doctor at the Ibn al-Nafis hospital in eastern Baghdad who identified himself only as Dr. Wissam said the emergency room was crowded with people complaining of breathing problems because of the dust clogging the air. At least two elderly women and one elderly man were in critical condition and he said he expected the numbers to rise if the bad weather continues.

Sandstorms are a regular occurrence in Baghdad, which is shielded from the desert by a thin strip of arable land between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers.

Sandstorm blankets Iraqi capital, forcing airport closure (http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080417/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iraq_sandstorm;_ylt=Atd8KtRCA_uCaqF9R6AoZyQLewgF)

Blizzard forces Earth Day event inside
'On a day like today you don't necessarily think of global warming'

So much for global warming. Earth Day festivities went ahead despite the blast of frigid weather yesterday.

Vendors and presenters from various eco-friendly groups, including Bullfrog Power, CO2 Reduction Edmonton and the local solar energy society, crammed into a lone tent in Hawrelak Park after a blizzard forced them to abandon their original locations.

Organizers crammed over 40 groups in a space that would normally be occupied by half that number. Presenters' booths were initially planned to have been spread out between at least five tents, with far larger displays.

"We're normally here with a lineup of cyclists for our free bike repair service. No bikers came today. Big surprise," said Chris Field of Mountain Equipment Co-Op.

A handful of visitors still took the time to inquire about several solar-powered products on display at the M.E.C. booth and browsed several others before running off toward the lone heater in the tent to warm up.

A lemonade vendor towards the front might as well not have been there.

"Obviously we'll have fewer people than we would have liked, but to cancel an Earth Day event because of weather would kind of be the antithesis of what this is all about," said organizer Janice Boudreau.

"This isn't about celebrating just the parts of the Earth that we like, it's about celebrating all of it."

Eco-Air representative Eric Gormley couldn't convince local kids lobbying city council for an anti-idling bylaw to brave the cold yesterday, but happily stepped up on their behalf, offering stickers and information about greenhouse gas emissions from vehicles.

"We're here to raise awareness of the problem, even though on a day like today you don't necessarily think of global warming," he said.

"We especially want to encourage young people in school to join us. It's the youth that have the power to make real change."

Cyclone kills hundreds in Myanmar
'It reminded me of when Hurricane Katrina hit the United States'

A powerful cyclone killed more than 350 people and destroyed thousands of homes, state-run media said Sunday. Some dissident groups worried that the military junta running Myanmar would be reluctant to ask for international help.

Tropical Cyclone Nargis hit at a delicate time for the junta, less than a week ahead of a crucial referendum on a new constitution. Should the junta be seen as failing disaster victims, voters who already blame the regime for ruining the economy and squashing democracy could take out their frustrations at the ballot box.
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Some in Yangon complained the 400,000-strong military was doing little to help victims after Saturday's storm.

"Where are all those uniformed people who are always ready to beat civilians?" said a trishaw driver who refused to be identified for fear of retribution. "They should come out in full force and help clean up the areas and restore electricity."

Myanmar, also known as Burma, has been under military rule since 1962. Its government has been widely criticized for human rights abuses and suppression of pro-democracy parties such as the one led by Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, who has been under house arrest for almost 12 of the past 18 years.

Last September, at least 31 people were killed and thousands more were detained when the military cracked down on protests led by Buddhist monks and democracy advocates.

The Forum for Democracy in Burma and other dissident groups outside of Myanmar urged the military junta Sunday to allow aid groups to operate freely in the wake of the cyclone — something it has been reluctant to do in the past.

It would be difficult for other countries to help unless they received a request from Myanmar's military rulers.

"International expertise in dealing with natural disasters is urgently required. The military regime is ill-prepared to deal with the aftermath of the cyclone," said Naing Aung, secretary general of the Thailand-based forum.

Storm leaves ‘utter war zone’
At least f ive regions of the impoverished Southeast Asian country have been declared disaster zones.

Of the 351 people killed, at least 162 lived on Haing Gyi island off the country's southwest coast, state-run television said. Many of the others died in the low-lying Irrawaddy delta.

"The Irrawaddy delta was hit extremely hard not only because of the wind and rain but because of the storm surge," said Chris Kaye, the U.N.'s acting humanitarian coordinator in Yangon. "The villages there have reportedly been completely flattened."

State television reported that in the Irrawaddy's Labutta township, 75 percent of the buildings had collapsed.

“Utter war zone,” one Yangon-based diplomat said in an email to Reuters in Bangkok. “Trees across all streets. Utility poles down. Hospitals devastated. Clean water scarce.”

Many roofs were ripped off even sturdy buildings, suggesting damage would be severe in the shanty towns that sit on the outskirts of the sprawling river-delta city of 5 million people.

“I have never seen anything like it,” one retired government worker told Reuters. “It reminded me of when Hurricane Katrina hit the United States.”

No water, power in Yangon
Although the sun was shining by Sunday morning, the former capital was without power and water.

An Electricity Board official said it was impossible to know when services -- hit-and-miss at the best of times in one of Asia’s poorest countries -- would be restored.

“It is very hard to say when we can resume supply. We still have to clear the mess,” the official, who did not want to be named, said.

United Nations disaster experts said it would be days before the extent of the damage was known in a country ruled since 1962 by secretive and ruthless military regimes.

The U.N. planned to send teams Monday to assess the damage, Kaye said. Initial assessment efforts have been hampered by roads clogged with debris and downed phone lines, he said.

"At the moment, we have such poor opportunity for communications that I can't really tell you very much," Kaye said.

Bunkered down in Naypyidaw, a new capital 240 miles to the north of Yangon, the ruling generals will almost certainly have avoided the worst of the storm.

“There does not seem to be a high number of casualties but for sure there is a lot of damage to property and infrastructure,” Therje Skavdal, regional head of the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA), said.

“It’s early and it will take a few days before we get an overview of the damage,” he told Reuters in Bangkok.

Another United Nations official said a formal offer of assistance had been made although the junta was yet to respond.

Damage severe outside Yangon
Outside Yangon, the damage appears to have been severe.

More than half of buildings had been damaged or collapsed in some towns in the Irrawaddy delta, where the massive cyclone landed on Friday night having gathered steam in the tropical waters of the Bay of Bengal, official newspapers said.
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Authorities are slowly making contact with outlying towns and villages along the coast, where weather forecasters had predicted a storm surge of up to 12 feet.

Official media said four vessels sank in Yangon harbor.

Yangon residents ventured out Sunday to buy construction materials to repair their homes. The price of gasoline jumped from $2.50 to $10 a gallon on the black market and everything from eggs to construction supplies had tripled, residents said.

Some people expressed anger that the military-led government in Myanmar, also known as Burma, had done little so far to help with the cleanup.

"Where are all those uniformed people who are always ready to beat civilians?" said one man, who refused to be identified for fear of retribution. "They should come out in full force and help clean up the areas and restore electricity."

The Forum for Democracy in Burma and other dissident groups outside of Myanmar called on the international community to provide urgent humanitarian assistance and urged the military junta to allow aid groups to operate freely — something it has been reluctant to do in the past.

"International expertise in dealing with natural disasters is urgently required. The military regime is ill-prepared to deal with the aftermath of the cyclone," said Naing Aung, secretary general of the Thailand-based forum.

A Western diplomat, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue, said it was difficult for other countries to help unless they received a request from Myanmar's military rulers.

"We have to be welcomed by the host government," the diplomat said. "The international community is willing to provide humanitarian assistance. There has been tremendous destruction. At the end of the day, the government needs to let in the assistance."

Michael Annear, a regional disaster management delegate for the International Federation of the Red Cross in Bangkok, said his agency had teams in Yangon on Sunday distributing shelter kits and other relief supplies.

The state-owned newspaper New Light of Myanmar, meanwhile, reported that the international airport in Yangon remained shut but state-run television said it could be opened by Monday. Domestic flights have been diverted to the airport in Mandalay.

The cyclone came only days before a May 10 referendum on the country's military-backed draft constitution. Authorities have not yet said whether they would postpone the vote.

A military-managed national convention was held intermittently for 14 years to lay down guidelines for the country's new constitution.

The new constitution is supposed to be followed in 2010 by a general election. Both votes are elements of a "roadmap to democracy" drawn up by the junta.

Critics say the draft constitution is designed to cement military power and have urged citizens to vote no.

Record-setting iceberg season predicted off Newfoundland
Source: CBC News
Posted: 05/10/08 5:39AM

A chilly spring is being credited for a massive parade of icebergs off Newfoundland, making for what experts say will be a stunning season for onlookers."This is going to be a record-setting year for icebergs," Lt. William Woityra of the International Ice Patrol told CBC News."We've certainly seen more icebergs already this year than we've seen in the past four years combined."The International Ice Patrol keeps track of ice-infested waters, and has been doing so since the Titanic disaster of 1912, when the doomed luxury liner sank in the Atlantic Ocean after striking an iceberg.

So far this year, the patrol has counted 890 bergs.Icebergs glide by Newfoundland each spring, melting gradually as they head further south.This year, however, has been a bonanza for iceberg spotters, with many communities offered one choice view after another of various shapes and sizes."Beautiful, breathtaking, spectacular," said Brenda Ellis, a tourist from Ontario, said while gazing at bergs near the Avalon Peninsula community of Cappahayden. "Just gorgeous.""Some of them look like ships, and some of them look like apartment buildings to me," her husband, Bob Ellis, said."You can make up your own mind, but they all are very fascinating.

It's amazing to see them for the first time."Woitrya said weather conditions this year contributed to the spectacle."[It was] the colder weather, particularly in the months of March and April," he said. "So far this year, the ice conditions were perfect for a heavy iceberg season."The icebergs have made for a spectacle for tourists and residents alike, but Woityra said there is a significant reason why the Ice Patrol exists."It's a very serious impediment to transatlantic shipping, since the shipping lanes normally run very close to the Avalon Peninsula," he said."This is forcing those ships to move further south and out of their way than they would normally have to."

Record-setting iceberg season predicted off Newfoundland (http://news.aol.ca/article/iceberg-record/224871/)

Tornadoes Tear Across Central U.S., Killing 23

PICHER, Okla. — Crews and search dogs hunted Sunday for survivors or bodies in piles of debris after tornadoes and storms rumbled across the region a day earlier and killed at least 23 people in three states.

Seven people died in Picher, once a bustling mining center of 20,000 that dwindled to about 800 people as families fled lead pollution here, and officials held out hope that they wouldn't find any more bodies.

Residents said the tornado created a surreal scene as it tore through town Saturday afternoon, injuring 150 people, overturning cars, damaging dozens of homes and throwing mattresses and twisted metal high into the canopy of trees.

"I swear I could see cars floating," said Herman Hernandez, 68. "And there was a roar, louder and louder."

Ed Keheley was headed to town to help out Saturday night when he heard a woman screaming. He looked over to see her hand reaching out of debris.

"She was sitting in the bathtub, she had curlers in her hair and she wanted out of there," said Keheley, who along with several others pulled her out.

The same storm system then moved into southwest Missouri, where tornadoes killed at least 14 others. The storms moved eastward; on Sunday, storms in Georgia killed at least two people.

"The federal government will be moving hard to help," President Bush said. "I'll be in touch with the governors and offer all of the federal assistance we can."

In Seneca, Mo., about 20 miles southeast of Picher near the Oklahoma state line, crews on Sunday combed farm fields looking for bodies and survivors. Ten of the dead were killed when a twister struck near Seneca.

Nineteen people were hospitalized in Newton County, which includes Seneca, said Keith Stammer, acting spokesman the county emergency operations. He did not know the extent of their injuries.

Susie Stonner, a Missouri emergency management spokeswoman, said it was unclear how many homes were damaged or destroyed. But she said Newton County officials had initial estimates of 50 homes damaged or destroyed there.

Jane Lant was sorting through the debris of her bridal shop about 10 miles north of Seneca. A body wrapped in blue tarp lay next to the shop. Her husband's feed store and a home across the road were also destroyed.

Lant said they were thankful the store had closed an hour before the twister hit.

"We would have had people in here at 6 when it hit," she said.

In Picher, some homes were reduced to their foundations, others lost several walls. In one home, the tornado knocked down a bedroom wall, but left clothes hanging neatly in a closet.

"People were just wandering up and down the streets. Some had blood on them, some were dazed," Keheley said.

A Best Western hotel sign was blown miles before coming to rest against a post. At one home, a basketball hoop planted in concrete had its metal support twisted so the rim hung only about 3 feet above ground.

Broken glass was strewn around the inside of 30-year-old Michael Richardson's home, but a wrapped Mother's Day gift and a laptop computer were left unscathed on the kitchen counter.

Frank Geasland, Ottawa County's emergency manager said, a government-sponsored buyout of homes in the town left some residences vacant, and this may have prevented a greater loss of life.

The National Weather Service sent out a tornado warning at 5:26 p.m., 13 minutes before the tornado hit Picher, said David Jankowski, a National Weather Service meteorologist in Tulsa. Tornado sirens warned residents to take shelter.

The twister was the deadliest in Oklahoma since a May 3, 1999 twister that killed 44 people in the Oklahoma City area.

The National Weather Service estimated that at least eight tornadoes had been spawned in Oklahoma along six storm tracks. Three teams were dispatched to assess damage, meteorologist Steve Amburn said.

On Sunday, storms rumbled across Georgia, killing at least two people in Dublin, about a 121 miles southeast of Atlanta, authorities said. Weather officials had not yet confirmed whether the storms produced any tornadoes.

The two bodies were found in the rubble of a mobile home, said Bryan Rogers, the Laurens County administrator. Two children were also found in the wreckage but they were unharmed, Rogers said.

By Sunday afternoon, Georgia Power officials said about 72,000 residents are without electricity across the state, mostly concentrated in the metro Atlanta area and the Macon area.

In storm-weary Arkansas, a tornado collapsed a home and a business, and there were reports of a few people trapped in buildings, said Weather Service meteorologist John Robinson.

Tornadoes killed 13 people in Arkansas on Feb. 5, and another seven were killed in an outbreak May 2. In between was freezing weather, persistent rain and river flooding that damaged homes and has slowed farmers in their planting.

Click here for more on this story from MyFOXKansasCity.com. (http://Click here for more on this story from MyFOXKansasCity.com.)

Wild weather hammers Southern California

A severe-weather system that brought hail storms, tornadoes and heavy rains to much of Southern California had cleared considerably by Friday morning.

There was only a 20% chance of thunderstorms in Los Angeles County in the afternoon, National Weather Service meteorologist Jamie Meier said.

"Things have calmed down significantly," Meier said. "But we are still going to keep a close eye on the situation for the afternoon."

On Thursday, a freakish weather system flooded streets in Moreno Valley, unleashed mudslides in the fire-scarred canyons of the Santa Ana Mountains and transformed some neighborhoods with a dusting of snow and hail.

California Highway Patrol Officer Alex Santos watched twin twisters bear down on Interstate 215 in Riverside County.

Santos, 40, said he saw one of the tornadoes topple a tractor-trailer and overturn several boxcars on the train tracks nearby in a cloud of dust and debris. The truck driver had to be cut out of the cab and suffered lacerations and a back injury, he said. Santos later visited the victim in the hospital.

In Baldwin Park, a San Gabriel Valley suburb east of Los Angeles, children donned yellow kitchen gloves as they threw snowballs at each other. Others squealed with delight as they used boogie boards to slide across lawns and sidewalks buried inches deep in hail.

The National Weather Service issued tornado warnings for parts of Riverside County about 55 miles east of Los Angeles and area residents sent photos and video of funnel clouds to local television news stations.

Michael Ritter was scrambling to put away lawn furniture in his backyard in Riverside when he spotted a tornado and grabbed his camera.

"It looked like one of those dirt devils and then it got bigger. I've never seen anything remotely as big," Ritter said. "We could hear the wind from a mile away and see the debris flying up. I thought, that's the real thing."

Earlier Thursday, mud flows swept down canyons in neighboring Orange County.

Evacuation orders were issued for a few hours in Williams, Modjeska and Trabuco canyons, areas devastated by a 28,000-acre wildfire last fall, Orange County Fire Authority Capt. Mike Blawn said.

A handful of residents at the top of Williams Canyon were temporarily stranded, fire officials said.

Aerial TV footage showed thick layers of mud surrounding homes as residents picked their way outside and began to clear properties with shovels. A road in Trabuco Canyon was impassable.

Late Thursday, swift-water dive teams rescued a man in a nearby creek. He had been riding a motorcycle along the creek when a flash flood knocked him from his bike and swept him three miles down a river. The man pulled himself to safety on an island but was trapped by high water on all sides.

The dive team assisted the Orange County Fire Authority in getting the man from the water.

April Brown, who runs a propane store in Modjeska Canyon with her husband, said she watched a creek swell during a half-hour downpour.

"You could just hear the boulders in the creek moving and popping and crashing into each other," Brown said. "I saw trees going down the creek."

The National Weather Service issued numerous flash-flood warnings through the day as thunderstorms pushed across the state's southern counties from metropolitan Los Angeles south to central San Diego County and eastward through Riverside and San Bernardino counties.

Localized street and freeway flooding swamped cars and jammed traffic around the region.

Lightning sparked many brush fires in northern and eastern San Diego County but they were quickly doused, said Nick Schuler, a spokesman for the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection.

Unusually cold late-season weather wasn't limited to Southern California, which just last weekend baked in 100-degree highs.

In the Sierra, about 2.5 inches of snow fell early Thursday in the Mammoth Lakes area and as much as six inches of snow in upper elevations there, said Scott McGuire, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Reno.

Lake Tahoe had as much as an inch of snow overnight above 7,000 feet. Squaw Valley reported an overnight temperature of 19 degrees, and the temperature remained at 25 degrees at 8,500 feet in the Lake Tahoe area at midday Thursday. Temperatures were in the upper 40s to low 50s at lake level, McGuire said.

Violent storms kill 8 in Iowa and Minnesota

Powerful storms packing large hail, heavy rain and tornadoes made for a deadly Memorial Day weekend across the nation's midsection, killing at least seven people in Iowa and a 2-year-old child in Minnesota.

Iowa Homeland Security administrator Dave Miller said seven people were killed Sunday by a tornado in northeast Iowa—five from Parkersburg, a town of about 1,000 some 80 miles northeast of Des Moines—and two from nearby New Hartford. At least 50 injuries were reported.

"It's been a long time since we've had those kinds of injuries and deaths reported," Miller said.

Witnesses reported parts of Parkersburg—particularly the town's south side—were reduced to rubble, including most of the town's high school. The Des Moines area had heavy rain and lightning Sunday night with wind gusts of 70 mph.

Warning sirens sounded early enough to give residents time to seek shelter, said Parkersburg Mayor Bob Haylock.

"Without that, we would have a tremendous amount of injuries and loss of life," Haylock said. "People were down in their basements and waiting it out."

Iowa Gov. Chet Culver issued a disaster proclamation for Black Hawk, Buchanan and Butler counties, a move that helps coordination between state and local authorities.

The storms came after three days of violent weather elsewhere across the nation. Rural Oklahoma was battered Saturday and storms in Kansas a day earlier killed at least two people.

Tim Halback, of the National Weather Service in Romeoville, Ill., said the storms were caused by a huge warm air mass that had been centered over the southern and western great Plains several days ago. When it began moving northward into Minnesota and Canada, a cold high followed in its wake, sparking severe storms.

The weather system stretched from western Kansas to northwestern Minnesota early Monday and was headed through Illinois toward Wisconsin and Indiana. As much as 4 inches of rain may have fallen overnight in extreme southern Illinois, the weather service said Monday.

In Minnesota, a violent storm that struck the St. Paul suburb of Hugo killed a 2-year-old child and critically injured a sibling of the victim, Washington County Sheriff Bill Hutton said. The children's parents also were hospitalized, as were three other adults and another child.

Washington County, Minn., Sheriff Bill Hutton said Monday that 40 to 50 homes were uninhabitable in Hugo and 150 to 200 others were damaged to some extent. Gov. Tim Pawlenty planned to tour the storm-ravaged town Monday.

Power had been restored Monday to most of the more than 15,500 customers blacked out in the area, primarily in Hugo and Forest Lake to the northeast, Xcel Energy spokeswoman Patti Nystuen.

Hugo Public Works Director Chris Petree said his family took shelter in their basement, huddling against a foundation wall, before the storm lifted his house off the ground and completely wiped out the second floor.

"I put my daughter down first, my wife on top of her and then I bear- hugged on top of them," Petree said.

"All you hear is glass breaking and wood tearing and breaking in half," Petree said.

Farther south, at least three weak tornadoes touched down Sunday in the Texas Panhandle. No injuries or building damage were reported in the sparsely populated region, meteorologist Jason Jordan said.

About 100 people have been killed by U.S. twisters so far this year, the worst toll in a decade, according to the weather service, and the danger has not passed yet. Tornado season typically peaks in the spring and early summer, then again in the late fall.

Quote from: grammyluv on May 26, 2008, 05:06:09 PM

Wow... this is some crazy stuff. I'm looking up because I'm expecting to be "air-lifted" outta here any time now!

Hello GrammyLuv,

;D Thanks - I needed this laugh, but I too am expecting to be "air-lifted" out of here soon. I know that we're both looking forward to the RAPTURE - not a tornado. It looks like it's going to be a rough year for tornadoes, and they are popping up in places that rarely have that kind of weather. I've lived with this kind of weather all of my life, so I feel sorry for people being surprised by these violent storms for the first time. This is a matter of prayer.

NOW - back to the pleasant topic we were both thinking about:

1 Thessalonians 4:13-18 NASB
But we do not want you to be uninformed, brethren, about those who are asleep, so that you will not grieve as do the rest who have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so God will bring with Him those who have fallen asleep in Jesus. For this we say to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord, will not precede those who have fallen asleep. For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive and remain will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we shall always be with the Lord. Therefore comfort one another with these words.

1 Corinthians 15:50-58 NASB
Now I say this, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable. Behold, I tell you a mystery; we will not all sleep, but we will all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet; for the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed. For this perishable must put on the imperishable, and this mortal must put on immortality. But when this perishable will have put on the imperishable, and this mortal will have put on immortality, then will come about the saying that is written, "DEATH IS SWALLOWED UP in victory. "O DEATH, WHERE IS YOUR VICTORY? O DEATH, WHERE IS YOUR STING?" The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law; but thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your toil is not in vain in the Lord.

Quote from: blackeyedpeas on May 26, 2008, 05:47:24 PM

Amen, my friend!

Quote from: blackeyedpeas on May 26, 2008, 05:47:24 PM

AMEN!!

US nears record tornado year; meteorologists don't know why

http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2008/05/27/america/Tornadoes.php (http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2008/05/27/america/Tornadoes.php)

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Another week, another rumbling train of tornadoes that obliterates entire city blocks, smashing homes to their foundations and killing people even as they cower in their basements.

With the year not even half done, 2008 is already the deadliest tornado year in the United States since 1998 and seems on track to break the U.S. record for the number of twisters in a year, according to the National Weather Service. Also, this year's storms seem to be unusually powerful.

But like someone who has lost all his worldly possessions to a whirlwind, meteorologists cannot explain exactly why this is happening.

"There are active years and we don't particularly understand why," said research meteorologist Harold Brooks at the National Severe Storms Lab in Norman, Okla.

Over the weekend, an extraordinarily powerful twister ripped apart Parkersburg, Iowa, destroying 288 homes in the town of about 1,000 residents, said Gov. Chet Culver. At least four people were killed there. Among the buildings destroyed were City Hall, the high school, and the lone grocery store and gas station. Some of those killed were in basements.

The brutal numbers for the U.S. so far this year: at least 110 dead, 30 killer tornadoes and a preliminary count of 1,191 twisters. The record for the most tornadoes in a year is 1,817 in 2004. In the past 10 years, the average number of tornadoes has been 1,254.

"Right now we're on track to break all previous counts through the end of the year," said warning meteorologist Greg Carbin at the Storm Prediction Center, also in Norman.

And it's not just more storms. The strongest of those storms — those in the 136-to-200 mph range — have been more prevalent than normal, and lately they seem to be hitting populated areas more, he said. At least 22 tornadoes this year have been in the top part of the new Enhanced Fujita scale, rating a 3 (for "severe") or a 4 ("devastating") on the 1-to-5 scale.

The twister that devastated Parkersburg was a 5 — the first in the U.S. since a tornado nearly obliterated Greensburg, Kan., just over a year ago. The Parkersburg tornado was the strongest to hit Iowa in 32 years.

So far, more than 50 of the deaths this year have been in mobile homes, the wrong place to be during a tornado. They have been a factor in nearly half of all tornado fatalities in recent years.

And if that's not bad enough, computer models show that the conditions that make tornadoes ripe are going to stick around Tornado Alley for about another week, according to Brooks.

The nagging question is why.

Global warming cannot really explain what is happening, Carbin said. While higher temperatures could increase the number of thunderstorms, which are needed to trigger tornadoes, they also would tend to push the storm systems too far north to form some twisters, he said.

La Nina, the cooling of parts of the Central Pacific that is the flip side El Nino, was a factor in the increased activity earlier this year — especially in February, a record month for tornado activity — but it can't explain what is happening now, according to Carbin.

Carbin explained the most recent tornadoes with just one word: "May." May is typically the busiest tornado month of the year.

A short-term answer is that the nation's heartland is stuck in a tornado rut with usually temporary weather conditions that can lead to tornadoes parked over the Plains, said Adam Houston, a professor of meteorology at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Cooler air at high altitudes and warmer moist air coming from the Gulf of Mexico are combining and settling over the region.

"You get day after day of severe weather and day after day of tornadoes until the pattern changes," Houston said.

But why that happens, Houston doesn't know. While scientists can forecast hurricane seasons, predicting their land-bound cousins is much harder, Brooks said. While tornadoes, like hurricanes, rely on large-scale weather phenomena, the crucial triggers are extremely local weather conditions.

On top of that, tornadoes have a "Goldilocks" issue. To make a tornado, the conditions have to be just right. Too much or too little of one ingredient and there is no tornado. For example, wind shear — when upper and lower winds are at different speeds or coming from different directions — is crucial to create a funnel cloud. Too little and there is no spin. Too much and the tornado falls apart.

And tornadoes form most often in late afternoon, between 5 and 9 p.m., so if a thunderstorm starts up early in the morning, it's far less likely to throw off a tornado, Brooks said.

As for why so many people are getting killed, Brooks suggests thinking of the landscape as a dartboard: "We're throwing more darts and throwing bigger darts than normal."

More people are living in mobile homes in the past few decades, and that has shown up in tornado fatality statistics. In 1970, about one-quarter of all tornado deaths were in mobile homes; now it's about half, Brooks said. In 1970, Census data showed that 3 percent of the U.S. population lived in mobile homes; now it is 7.6 percent, with a higher rate in the Southeast and other parts of Tornado Alley, such as Oklahoma, Brooks said.

But as deadly as this year has been, it used to be far worse in the United States. In 1925, tornadoes killed 794 people. From 1916 to 1936, tornadoes killed an average of nearly 280 Americans a year. That's because tornado warnings were not as good, people couldn't hear them and housing was not as sturdy, Brooks said.

Even with a busy tornado year, meteorologists are getting the word out. Of the 110 deaths so far this year, 101 came while there was a tornado watch in effect, according to the National Weather Service.

Hello GrammyLuv,

I've lived in Oklahoma all of my life, and I'll say that the weather has been strange over the last several years. However, I would make NO ATTEMPT to connect it to GLOBAL WARMING that doesn't exist. Our temperatures have actually been lower than normal.

I remember times in the 1980s with many days between 115 and 120 degrees. Those times were NOT associated with rough weather and tornadoes. I've read several articles that indicate a shift of the jet-stream, and I would guess that has dramatic effects for areas that normally don't have tornadoes. We live in far Southwest Oklahoma, and we've seen a shift of rough weather to the North. We've still had many nights with rough weather and tornado watches, but we've mainly just been hit with severe thunderstorms. For us, we consider a thunderstorm to be severe if the winds are over 60 mph. We have many storms up to 50 mph that we really don't pay much attention to.

Folks like Al Gore can offer wild and uneducated guesses about any kind of weather or disaster pattern, so I can also. The unusual weather and disaster patterns are all over the world, and I don't think they have a thing to do with global warming. If a wild guess is to be offered, I'll guess possible signs of the End Days of this Age of Grace. Bible Prophecy does mention all kinds of disasters, including weather, and I think this is a much more intelligent guess than GLOBAL WARMING. When the prophecies are actually fulfilled, it will be much more obvious than the possible previews we are seeing now. The magnitude of the disasters we are seeing now are also tiny in comparison to Bible Prophecy. NATURE has the potential to easily release the power of many nuclear weapons in a single event. This is why we have an area on the forum for news on volcanoes, earthquakes, tsunamis, hurricanes, and more. It's simply VAIN for mankind to think he has any control over these things. In fact, it would be just a senseless as saying that we can control the sun or movement of other planets. The NEWSFLASH is that GOD controls these things - NOT MAN!

Talking about things like this around Al Gore would be dangerous. He might be able to come up with all kinds of new con games.

Hello GrammyLuv,

Sister, you are in our prayers every day, but we'll make the prayers more specific.

I was just thinking that many missions and ministries are in very old buildings. Your post also made me think about many pleasant memories of sweet Christians over the years serving the LORD in many ways. This was the pleasant side of law enforcement in getting to see what GOD can do with limited resources. Human needs in our own country are great, and you know that I'm talking about things many people either don't know about or don't care about. YES - we do have people here who are hungry - need shelter - need medical attention - and need other necessities of life. Lots of people have the mistaken idea that conditions like this apply ONLY to other parts of the world. Most of all, we have many people in our own part of the world who need to hear GOD'S WORD and be given Christian materials. We've done a pretty good job around the world, but I honestly think that we neglected our own during the same time frame.

Love In Christ,
Tom

Ephesians 1:18-23 NASB I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened, so that you will know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, and what is the surpassing greatness of His power toward us who believe. These are in accordance with the working of the strength of His might which He brought about in Christ, when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places, far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the one to come. And He put all things in subjection under His feet, and gave Him as head over all things to the church, which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all.

Levees break as Midwest floods worsen
Storms overnight add to swollen rivers, food prices impacted

With rivers still rising, towns submerged and crops ruined after days of rain, the Midwest was told Wednesday to expect up to 4 more inches through Thursday.

"A cold front approaching from the Plains later on Wednesday through Thursday will bring the greater threat for not only heavy rain, but severe weather," the National Weather Service stated. "Rainfall amounts from 1 to 4 inches look likely for the Wednesday through Thursday time frame.

"With the grounds well saturated, much of this would runoff into rivers and streams already high with recent rainfall, leading to more river flooding," the agency warned, citing Iowa, southeast Minnesota and Wisconsin as flood watch areas.
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Tuesday saw new levee breaks that swamped Illinois farms and homes — part of a week of severe weather in the nation's heartland that's claimed 15 lives and put new pressure on crop prices.

Three levee breaks along the Embarras and Wabash rivers in Illinois were causing widespread flash flooding of nearby areas — including Lawrenceville, a town of 5,000, and several smaller communities.

About 200 homes are in the immediately affected area, with water up to the roofs of some of them.

Between 50 to 75 square miles of farmland was flooded along the Embarras River, said Lawrence County Sheriff Russell Adams.

In Wisconsin, engineers kept watch over rain-deluged dams Tuesday after a major collapse nearly emptied Lake Delton in a torrent that washed away houses and a highway.

And officials in Cedar Falls, Iowa, were telling residents and business owners in downtown to begin preparing for a possible evacuation as the Cedar River keeps rising.

The river reached more than a foot above the record 98-foot crest in 1999 on Tuesday morning. The downtown area in the town of 36,000 was blocked off and no one was being allowed in.

City Administrator Susan Stout told MSNBC that the river could top the town's 102-foot levee late Tuesday or early Wednesday.

"It does not look good," Stout said.

The widespread flooding was caused by violent, drenching weekend thunderstorms that displaced thousands of residents in several states.

The downpours flooded corn fields and made it difficult for farmers to plant, pushing corn prices to record highs on commodities exchanges this week.

New storms during the night knocked out power to more than 50,000 customers in Ohio, utilities reported Tuesday. Michigan utilities said about 247,000 customers were still blacked out because of the weekend storms.

The rainfall also has created flooding concerns along the Mississippi River. The National Weather Service predicted crests of 10 feet above flood stage and higher over the next two weeks at places including Hannibal, Mo., and Quincy and Grafton, Ill. Most of the towns are protected by levees, but outlying areas could be flooded.

"This is major flooding," weather service hydrologist Karl Sieczynski said of the Mississippi. He urged people in unprotected flood plain areas to seek higher ground.

Can lake be rebuilt?
In Wisconsin, an engineer assessment team from the National Guard was headed to Lake Delton on Tuesday to determine what would be needed to begin repairs on an embankment along the man-made lake that gave way, releasing a powerful current.

The 267-acre lake emptied into the nearby Wisconsin River on Monday, washing out part of a highway, sweeping away three homes and tearing apart two others.

Don Kubenik, 68, burst into tears after seeing the 2,800-square-foot home he built in 2003 snapped into pieces when the lake's embankment burst. The businessman from the Milwaukee suburb of West Allis said he spent every weekend there.

"That house had everything you can imagine and now it's all gone," said Kubenik, who was in West Allis when the lake overflowed. "My boat's gone. The pier's gone. Everything is gone."

The water pouring out of the reservoir also ripped away buried sewer lines, and a contractor started work Tuesday to stretch a temporary sewer line across the 200-yard breach. Raw sewage was still pouring out of the pipes and downstream to the Wisconsin River.

Lake Delton, a key part of the Wisconsin Dells tourism area, was nearly dry by Monday afternoon. The 20 resorts that line the lake already are reporting cancellations by people who had planned summer vacations in the area.

Second time around for town
Residents of Gays Mills, about 70 miles southwest of Lake Delton, stood on the edge of their ruined town, so close to finally turning the corner before this latest flood.

For nearly a year, the tiny southwestern Wisconsin village along the lake has struggled to survive after a devastating flood. The new deluge may have sealed its fate.

Flash floods inundated the town of 625 over the weekend, just 10 months after residents worked to rebuild their homes and businesses.

The swollen Kickapoo River engulfed nearly the entire town Monday morning, forcing about 150 people to evacuate. By evening, the village was a grid of canals with cars submerged up to their windows and parking lots looking like lakes, just as it was in August.

"I can't believe this is happening again," said Liz Klekamp, 23, who said she grabbed her cat and fled Monday morning when water poured into her house. "It's really, truly sad."

Asked if this was the end of the town, Village President Larry McCarn just stared and said: "It could be."

In waterlogged Indiana, military crews joined desperate sandbagging operations Monday to hold back streams surging toward record levels, and rushing water breached dams and washed out portions of highways.

Indiana officials said they could not give a dollar estimate on the damage or the number of homes and businesses destroyed by flooding caused by up to 11 inches of rain on Saturday. Two more inches fell Monday.

Some 200 Indiana National Guard members and 140 Marines from North Carolina helped local emergency agencies sandbag a levee of the White River at Elnora, about 100 miles southwest of Indianapolis. The White River was forecast to crest Tuesday at nearby Newberry at 16 feet above flood stage.

By Monday morning, flooding at eight sites in central and southern Indiana had eclipsed levels set in the deluge of March 1913, which had been considered Indiana's greatest flood in modern times, said Scott Morlock, a hydrologist with the U.S. Geological Survey in Indiana.

The weekend's heavy rain and the threat of more heavy rain later this week could push corn prices even higher, analysts say, likely adding to Americans' growing grocery bills. The price of corn for July delivery jumped to a record of nearly $7 a bushel Monday on the Chicago Board of Trade, up from around $4 a year ago.

Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels asked U.S. Agriculture Secretary Edward Shafer to declare farm disasters in 44 Indiana counties because of crop and livestock losses blamed on the flooding and other storms this month.

The weekend death toll included eight in Michigan, three in Indiana and one each in Iowa and Connecticut. Authorities said wet roads contributed to the deaths of two motorists in separate accidents Monday in Oklahoma, where more than 4 inches of rain fell.

Meantime, the East Coast is being baked by a heat wave. Heat watches and advisories were in effect Tuesday from North Carolina to New Hampshire. New York City recorded a high of 99 on Monday.

4 Boy Scouts die as tornado hits Iowa camp
Rescuers find some victims buried under rubble, 48 people injured

The Midwest remained on the lookout for more tornadoes Thursday, after two twisters Wednesday killed six people — four of them Boy Scouts at an Iowa camp where Gov. Chet Culver described the devastation as "horrific."

"The devastation was massive through the campgrounds," Culver told NBC's "TODAY" show.

The twister Wednesday night set off a frantic search to reach others in the piles of debris and downed trees in the hills of western Iowa. Forty-eight children and adults were injured.

"All four of the young men who were killed were Scouts," Culver said. Three of the victims — Josh Fennen, 13; Sam Thomsen, 13; and Ben Petrzilka, 14 — were from Omaha. Officials said the fourth victim was Aaron Eilerts, 14, of Eagle Grove, Iowa.

Culver paid tribute to the Scouts who came to the aid of their injured colleagues, describing them as "the real heroes of this story."

"I'm very proud of the young men who were up there who were able to help the Scouts in need," he told TODAY. "I think lives were saved."

Tornadoes also raked Kansas on Wednesday, killing at least two people, destroying much of the small town of Chapman and causing extensive damage on the Kansas State University campus.

NBC's WeatherPlus service warned that "more tornadic activity is possible especially later in the day," adding that "the storms will gradually shift into the Ohio Valley as we work our way into Friday."

Tornado siren
Lloyd Roitstein, an executive with the Mid America Council of the Boy Scouts of America, said a tornado siren went off at the camp.

The boys had been in two groups when the storm hit the Little Sioux Scout Ranch in the remote Loess Hills. One group managed to take shelter, but the other was out hiking.

At least 42 of the injured remained hospitalized Thursday morning, with everything from cuts and bruises to major head trauma, said Gene Meyer, Iowa's public safety commissioner. At least four of the injured were airlifted from the camp, he said, refusing to elaborate on their conditions or identify the dead.

"Our thoughts and prayers are with the victims and the families of the victims," Culver said. "We continue to do everything we can to make sure those injured are going to recover."

All the scouts and staff were accounted for, Meyer said, adding that searchers were making another pass through the grounds to make sure no one else was injured. The camp was destroyed.

Thomas White, a scout supervisor, said he dug through the wreckage of a collapsed fireplace to reach victims in a building where many scouts were seeking shelter when the twister struck at 6:35 p.m.

"A bunch of us got together and started undoing the rubble from the fireplace and stuff and waiting for the first responders," White told KMTV in Omaha. "They were under the tables and stuff and on their knees, but they had no chance."

The nearest tornado siren, in nearby Blencoe, sounded only briefly after the storm cut power to the town, said Russ Lawrenson of the Mondamin Fire Department.

Sounded like a jet
Taylor Willoughby, 13, said several scouts were getting ready to watch a movie when someone screamed that there was a tornado. Everyone hunkered down, he said, and windows shattered.

"It sounded like a jet that was flying by really close," Taylor told TODAY. "I was hoping that we all made it out OK. I was afraid for my life."

Ethan Hession, also 13, said he crawled under a table with his friend.

"I just remember looking over at my friend, and all of a sudden he just says to me, 'Dear God, save us,'" he told TODAY. "Then I just closed my eyes and all of a sudden it's (the tornado) gone."

Ethan said the Scouts' first-aid training immediately compelled them to act.

"We knew that we need to place tourniquets on wounds that were bleeding too much. We knew we need to apply pressure and gauze. We had first-aid kits, we had everything," he said.

Ethan said one staff member took off his shirt and put it on someone who was bleeding to apply pressure and gauze. Other scouts started digging people out of the rubble, he said.

Agencies praised
At a news conference Thursday, Culver praised the scouts for "taking care of each other" as emergency workers from several state and local agencies cut through debris to reach the camp.

Roitstein reminded reporters at the news conference that the Boy Scouts motto is "Be Prepared."

"Last night, the agencies and the scouts were prepared," he said. "They knew what to do they knew where to go and they prepared well."

The injured were taken to Burgess Health Center in Onawa, Alegent Health Clinic in Missouri Valley and Creighton University Medical Center in Omaha.

Burgess spokeswoman Beth Frangedakis said 19 victims arrived at the hospital around 8:30 p.m. They included children ages 2 months to 15 years, plus three adults.

Frangedakis said four were admitted to the hospital, one was taken by helicopter to Mercy Medical Center in Sioux City, Iowa, and the others were released. She wouldn't release the nature of the victims' injuries.

David Hunt, chairman of the Mid-America Boy Scout Council's Goldenrod District, which covers several eastern Nebraska counties, said he believed the boys were from eastern Nebraska and western Iowa.

The 1,800-acre ranch about 40 miles north of Omaha includes hiking trails through narrow valleys and over steep hills, a 15-acre lake and a rifle range.

'Relieved'
Gayle Jessen of Fremont, Neb., said her 19-year-old son Zach is a staff leader at the camp. He called his parents to say he had a bruise on an arm and was being treated at a hospital.

"I'm so relieved my son is OK," Jessen said. She said her husband was headed to the hospital to pick up their son.

Lawrenson said parents will be reunited with their children at a community center in nearby Little Sioux.

The tornado touched down as Iowa's eastern half grappled with flooding in several of its major cities. The storm threatened to stretch Iowa's emergency response teams even further.

Tack said officials were confident that the state's emergency response teams could handle the crisis because western Iowa had been largely unaffected by the recent flooding.

2 fatalities in Kansas
Tornadoes also touched down in central Kansas, killing two, as well as southern Minnesota and eastern Nebraska.

A tornado caused significant damage in Manhattan and Kansas State University, tossing cars and destroying several businesses.

One person was killed in Chapman, where part of the roof of the high school gymnasium was torn off, emergency officials said.

Sharon Watson, spokeswoman for the Kansas Adjutant General's Department, said a half-mile-wide tornado tore through the town Wednesday night, destroying more than 60 homes and numerous businesses.

Image: Residents look over tornado damage in Chapman, Kan.
Orlin Wagner / AP
Residents look over tornado damage in Chapman, Kan., Thursday.
She said another victim was found dead outside a mobile home in the Jackson County town of Soldier.

A tornado ripped a house from its foundation, leaving a bathtub protruding from a back wall near Fulda, Minn., 140 miles southwest of Minneapolis. A woman inside at the time suffered a knee injury.

Another struck a farm near Springfield, Minn., causing extensive damage to outbuildings, but no injuries to people or livestock.

There were no immediate reports of damage from the Nebraska twisters, though a lightning strike knocked out radar at the National Weather Service's office in Valley, about 30 miles northwest of Omaha.

Brothers and Sisters,

Things like this are yet more examples of just how uncertain this short life can be. We can be and should be in prayer for others every day - especially for the lost. Our own lives are just as uncertain, and the RAPTURE of the CHURCH WHICH IS THE BODY OF CHRIST could be at any moment. Only GOD Knows the Appointed Times.

I'll be praying for the families of these four young scouts who died and many others. We know there should be comfort when a Christian goes HOME, but there is still sadness for the grieving families and friends. A dear Christian friend of mine died in his car last night with a massive heart attack. He left 6 children, his wife, and a large number of grandchildren. Any number of things could be us, our loved ones, or our friends. Are we all ready?

Love In Christ,
Tom

GOOD NEWS!

1: Romans 3:10 NASB as it is written, "THERE IS NONE RIGHTEOUS, NOT EVEN ONE; THERE IS NONE WHO UNDERSTANDS, THERE IS NONE WHO SEEKS FOR GOD; ALL HAVE TURNED ASIDE, TOGETHER THEY HAVE BECOME USELESS; THERE IS NONE WHO DOES GOOD, THERE IS NOT EVEN ONE."

2: Romans 3:23 NASB for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,

3: Romans 5:12 NASB Therefore, just as through one man sin entered into the world, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men, because all sinned--

4: Romans 6:23 NASB For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

5: Romans 1:18 NASB For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth in unrighteousness,

6: Romans 3:20 NASB because by the works of the Law no flesh will be justified in His sight; for through the Law comes the knowledge of sin.

7: Romans 3:27 NASB Where then is boasting? It is excluded. By what kind of law? Of works? No, but by a law of faith.

8: Romans 5:8-9 NASB But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from the wrath of God through Him.

9: Romans 2:4 NASB Or do you think lightly of the riches of His kindness and tolerance and patience, not knowing that the kindness of God leads you to repentance?

10: Romans 3:22 NASB even the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all those who believe; for there is no distinction;

11: Romans 3:28 NASB For we maintain that a man is justified by faith apart from works of the Law.

12: Romans 10:9 NASB that if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved;

13: Romans 4:21 NASB and being fully assured that what God had promised, He was able also to perform.

14: Romans 4:24 NASB but for our sake also, to whom it will be credited, as those who believe in Him who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead,

15: Romans 5:1 NASB Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ,

16: Romans 10:10 NASB for with the heart a person believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation.

17: Romans 10:13 NASB for "WHOEVER WILL CALL ON THE NAME OF THE LORD WILL BE SAVED."

Thanks be unto GOD for HIS unspeakable GIFT!, JESUS CHRIST, our Lord and Saviour forever!

Hundreds Flee Flooding in Iowa City

Sunday , June 15, 2008

AP
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IOWA CITY, Iowa —
A week's work of frantic sandbagging by students, professors and the National Guard couldn't spare this bucolic college town from the surging Iowa River, which has swamped more than a dozen campus buildings and forced the evacuation Sunday of hundreds of nearby homes.

The swollen river, which bisects this city of about 60,000 residents, was topping out at about 31.5 feet — a foot and a half below earlier predictions. But it still posed a lingering threat, and wasn't expected to begin receding until Monday night.

"I'm focused on what we can save," University of Iowa President Sally Mason said as she toured her stricken campus. "We'll deal with this when we get past the crisis. We're not past the crisis yet."

The university said 16 buildings had been flooded, including one designed by acclaimed architect Frank O. Gehry, and said others were at risk.

Click here to see uReport photos. (http://www.foxnews.com/photoessay/0,4644,4227,00.html)

Iowa City Mayor Regenia Bailey said 500 to 600 homes were ordered to evacuate and hundreds of others were under a voluntary evacuation order through the morning. The city had no estimate of the number of homes that had actually flooded.

Bailey said homeowners will not be allowed back until the city determines it's safe.
Gov. Chet Culver said it was "a little bit of good news" that the river had crested, but cautioned that the situation was still precarious.

"Just because a river crests does not mean it's not a serious situation," he said. "You're still talking about a very, very dangerous public safety threat."

Elsewhere, state officials girded for serious flooding threats in Burlington and southeast Iowa including Fort Madison and Keokuk. Officials said 500 National Guard troops had already been sent to Burlington, a Mississippi River town of about 27,000, and some people were being evacuated.

Culver said the southeastern part of the state was likely to "see major and serious flooding on every part of the southeastern border of our state from New Boston and down."

In Cedar Rapids — where flooding had forced the evacuation of about 24,000 people from their homes — residents waited hours to get their first up-close look since flooding hammered most of the city earlier this week.

Some grew angry after long waits to pass through checkpoints. Cedar Rapids officials also were inspecting homes for possible electrical and structural hazards.

"It's stupid," said Vince Fiala, who said he waited for hours before police allowed him to walk five blocks to his house. "People are down on their knees and they're kicking them in the teeth."

The city's municipal water system was back to 50 percent of capacity Sunday, a big victory after three of the city's four drinking water collection wells were contaminated by murky, petroleum-laden floodwater. That contamination had left only about 15 million gallons a day for the city of more than 120,000 and the suburbs that depend on its water system.

After much of the University of Iowa's Arts Campus flooded in 1993, raised walkways were installed that doubled as berms. But those were quickly overwhelmed by the Iowa River's rising waters.

Standing beside the grayish water surrounding the limestone and stainless steel Iowa Advanced Technologies Laboratories, designed by Gehry, Mason choked up.

"I got tears in my eyes when I saw what was happening here," she said.

Across the river, Art Building West was surrounded by a lagoon of murky water. Designed by Steve Holl, it was one of only 11 buildings in the world recognized last year by the American Institute of Architects, said Rod Lehnertz, director of campus and facilities planning.

The damage would have been worse had it not been for the Herculean efforts of students, faculty, National Guard troops and others who swarmed the campus over several days to erect miles of sandbag walls, some as high as 9 feet.
On Saturday alone, volunteers filled and installed more than 100,000 sandbags, Lehnertz said.

Lehnertz was confident that buildings that hadn't flooded by Sunday were well-protected. He said the most pressing issue was flooding in the six miles of underground tunnels that feed steam to campus buildings for power. Workers pumped water from the tunnels into the streets and down toward the river.

Some buildings at the Arts Campus on the river's west bank had as much as 8 feet of water inside.

All elective and non-emergency procedures were canceled at the university hospital, and non-critical patients were discharged, Mason said. Nurses were brought in from elsewhere to ensure all emergency shifts would be covered.
Bruce Brown, 64, a retired radiology professor at University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics, spent three days filling sandbags on the east bank. But picturesque brick Danforth Chapel, where his daughter was married, flooded anyway.
"When I think about moving rare books from the bottom of the library, I weep," he said. But then he joked about pulling sandbag duty with a hulking Hawkeye football player.

"I weigh 129, he weighs about 300 pounds," he said. "He would ship these thing that were like dead bodies to me. But that was fine. We worked together and got it done."

Elsewhere in the Midwest, hundreds of members of the Illinois National Guard headed to communities along the swollen Mississippi River on Sunday for sandbagging duty while emergency management officials eyed rain-swollen rivers across the state.

Two levees broke Saturday near the Mississippi River town of Keithsburg, Ill., flooding the town of 700 residents about 35 miles southwest of Moline. The National Weather Service said the Mississippi would crest Tuesday morning near Keithsburg at 25.1 feet. Flood stage in the area is 14 feet. Rising water threatening approaches also prompted Illinois officials to close a Mississippi River bridge at Quincy.

Hundreds Flee Flooding in Iowa City (http://www.foxnews.com/printer_friendly_story/0,3566,367142,00.html)

Tropical storm floods southern Taiwan, killing 7

Fri Jul 18, 6:46 AM ET

TAIPEI, Taiwan - Tropical storm Kalmaegi lashed southern Taiwan with torrential rains Friday, triggering flash floods and landslides. Rampaging waters killed at least seven people and washed six others away.

Television footage showed water pouring down a mountain road, flooding a large area of Kaohsiung county in southern Taiwan. The Disaster Relief Center said a woman was rescued from a house buried in a landslide, but her 1-year-old daughter and a brother died.

A soldier was killed after falling into a drainage ditch in Taichung, central Taiwan, the center said.

Four people drowned and four others were washed away by flood waters in Kaohsiung and Tainan, also in southern Taiwan, the center said.

A man and a woman were missing after the police motorboat that rescued them from their home overturned in flood waters in Tainan county, it said. Three rescuers were pulled from the waters unharmed, it said.

Water supplies were cut in the county for more than 650,000 households because of flooding, officials said.

Television showed firefighters using ladders to rescue several people trapped in a flooded house in coastal Yunlin county, and several drivers being rescued after hollering for help on top of their trucks in a flooded freeway in Taichung.

Officials said parts of the south had recorded up to 44 inches of rain in the past 24 hours.

The storm started lashing Taiwan late Thursday. It headed away from Taiwan and toward southern China early Friday, packing winds of 52 mph, the Central Weather Bureau said.

In the Philippines, the government disaster agency said two people died earlier this week as the storm pounded the country's northern corner with rain and strong winds.

Kalmaegi is the Korean word for sea gull.

Tropical storm floods southern Taiwan, killing 7 (http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080718/ap_on_re_as/taiwan_tropical_storm;_ylt=As_T8WZOMia26LxwU75IOjgBxg8F)

Snow Greets Visiting Hikers at Mount Rainier

Cool ocean temperatures in the southern Pacific Ocean—a phenomenon known as La Nina—chilled sunny expectations this summer for thousands of visitors to Mount Rainier National Park. Those who arrived here in July planning to backpack or hike its famous sub-alpine wildflower meadows found snow instead, six feet in places, though sunny daytime temperatures reach into the 70s.

The popular mountain that draws 1.5 million visitors each year received 950 inches of snow last winter, 300 inches more than its 650-inch average. Park officials said a cooler than usual spring also pushed back the thaw. “A lot of people were disappointed to come and find snowy meadows,” said Mike Punches, a park interpreter at the Henry M. Jackson Visitor Center at Paradise, located 5,400 feet above sea level. “Normally the wildflower season is all of July and August. The early bloomers come the first of July.

Areas that feature the avalanche lily are limited to certain parts of the mountain."I led wildflower hikes in June on 10 feet of snow. They weren’t listed that way. We shifted them to ecology hikes about life on Rainier, and what it takes to adapt here.” Climate officials said the Pacific Northwest snowpack is the heaviest it has been since 1999. That’s when the last La Nina event occurred. Deep snows remain throughout the region affecting the Olympic and North Cascade mountain ranges along with portions of Oregon, Idaho and British Columbia.

“The main driver is a strong La Nina,” said Dave Garen, hydrologist for the National Water and Climate Center in Portland Oregon, part of the U.S. Department of Agriculture. The agency monitors mountain snowpack for its water content, predicting river flow volumes for agricultural use.

Global warming, yeah right, it’s cold!

North Island nearby Vancouver, British Columbia.

Well “Juneuary” is long over up here and we finally had a bit of sun in July.

Never had I seen a colder spring. Last year was bad enough. Two springs in a row that “frosted the pumpkin” so to speak.

Utility bills not a whole lot different than winter even! And thanks to Gordo Campbell’s “Save the Earth by sticking it to the taxpayer” philosophy which has brought down not one, but two separate energy taxes complete with wasteful bureaucracy gobbling it all up, the provincial government is even more pocket-emptying than before.

Enough of that. I even burnt all of my firewood the last two years for the very first time. Global warming my ... – more like a fulfillment of the old “Nuclear Winter” theory I’d say. That without the bombs even going off!

So I finally got around to getting the firewood and am left wondering how soon the government is gonna get us there? Sooner rather than later I’d guess.

Anyhow, here the Newfie neighbour gal is walking by and says as I’m splitting the timber, “Once you get yer summer firewood in, you can start on your winter wood!”

Newfies tell it like it is!

This spring was just a horrific extension of winter says me. And as if I need further proof I goes down to the Marble River in mid-July for a swim.

Well, the toes were tingling and the hairs on my legs were standing up – even under the water! And then I hit waist deep.

By golly the family jewels shot up so high I looked like I had two Adam’s apples for a while, eh? Couple of icebergs could have floated by and it probably would have warmed her up a bit!

Yes sir, Newfie Bob said it best, “Ever since they started babbling about this global warming theory I haven’t been warm since!”

But my kid and others tell us different, “That’s all part of global warming too Dad,” he says.

I say that’s a pretty indestructible theory to be sure. No doubt we are all gonna freeze to death from global warming.

That’s what they’ll write down in history they will. I just hope that ol’ Suzuki and Gore start prophesying about global cooling sometime soon cause then sure as heck, we’ll have a heat wave that will warm us up real fine like we both want and need.

Suzuki and Gore should have lived in Old Testament times I figures. When you prophesied back then in Hebrew Land, you had to deliver or you would get a free ticket to a very painful sort of rock concert where you were both the star and would also soon be seeing stars!

Rare Snow in Australia

Snow in Queensland, soft hail or snow in Sydney and icy delays in Adelaide. It has snowed in Queensland, and it will pay to rug up because even colder weather is expected tomorrow. Snow, sleet, wind and rain ripped through the state’s Granite Belt and southern Darling Downs, bringing freezing conditions yesterday. See photos here. The big chill was felt across virtually all over the eastern seaboard and the ski fields at Perisher in the New South Wales Snowy Mountains enjoyed a 15cm dump of snow.

Meanwhile, one of Adelaide’s coldest mornings forced the delay of flights yesterday as ice formed on the wings of planes. Adelaide Airport managing director Phil Baker said up to 400 passengers were due to leave about 7am but their flights were delayed until about 8.15am, when the air temperature increased. For Adelaide it was the coldest temperature since 1982.

Yesterday, Granite Belt Wine Country marketing director Michele Cozzi said snow was reported at Eukey, south of Stanthorpe, and at Sugarloaf Forest to the east while sleet was recorded at Stanthorpe, Glen Aplin and Applethorpe.

And the ground turned white in Sydney. It looked like snow, and it felt like snow, but in what may come as a disappointment to Sydneysiders, today’s winter whiteness was just soft hail. Just after 3.30pm (AEST) this afternoon the area around Lindfield, Roseville and Killara became blanketed in white as a thunderstorm brought a winter wonderland to parts of northern Sydney. It’s given a very European feel to Roseville,” one Roseville woman told the Seven Network. “I think the snow here is better than Perisher,” a man from the same suburb told the ABC. But despite some hope that metropolitan Sydney had experienced its first recorded snowfall since 1836, the Bureau of Meteorology said northern Sydney had just been blanketed in hail. “It was soft hail,” senior forecaster Peter Zmijewski said.

As an emailer said some of the places where snow fell were the equivalent of a snow in Buenos Aires as they experienced last year for the first time in many years.

Mideast Drought and Syrian Wheat Harvest Failure
4 days ago
Mideast Drought and Fall in Syrian Wheat Harvest

The wheat harvest is in across Syria and the Middle East and the situation looks grim

The most recent Syrian estimates place the harvest at 2 million metric tons - less than half the 4.1 million ton harvest of 2007, and the 2007 harvest was almost 1 million tons below a peak harvest.

The culprit is a devastating drought that has left soil dry and dusty. The early stages of the drought affected the 2007 harvest and it has now intensified and decimated the 2008 Syrian harvest. The strength of the drought increases eastward towards the Iraqi border. Everywhere here precipitation has been less than 50 % of normal. Even weeds are sparse in dry empty fields.

The drought is also affecting pasture lands putting pressure on the Bedouin and their sheep. In Syria both shepherds and farmers face an uncertain future. Irrigation has helped in some cases, but less that 50% of fields are irrigated and irrigation water often disappears in the dry winds. In addition, groundwater and reservoir supplies are under pressure, some reservoirs are now mere puddles compared to their former capacity.

Even the mighty Euphrates is not immune to the drought, discharge has decreased and pumps run incessantly drawing water from the river. Syria has promised to aid Iraqi farmers with releases of water, but by the time the flow reaches the border the salt content has doubled.

Syria with its growing and increasingly urbanized population has only months of emergency wheat stores left and for the first time in 15 years is resorting to purchases on the international market - a market that is becoming increasingly expensive.

SImilar declining harvests due to drought in Turkey, Lebanon, Iran are dirving those countries to purchases on the international market, In Syria and throughout the Middle East, an old enemy, drought, is again challenging an ancient and troubled region.

Mideast Drought and Syrian Wheat Harvest Failure (http://www.ireport.com/docs/DOC-54148)

Dam breaks near Grand Canyon; hundreds evacuate

By AMANDA LEE MYERS, Associated Press Writer Sun Aug 17, 7:27 PM ET

PHOENIX - An earthen dam broke near the Grand Canyon early Sunday after heavy rains that forced officials to pluck hundreds of residents and campers from the gorge by helicopter. No injuries were immediately reported.

The failure of the Redlands Dam caused some flooding in the village of Supai, where about 400 members of the Havasupai tribe live, said Grand Canyon National Park spokeswoman Maureen Oltrogge.

As much as 8 inches of rain since Friday caused trouble even before the dam burst. A private boating party of 16 people was stranded on a ledge at the confluence of Havasu Creek and the Colorado River on Saturday night after flood waters carried their rafts away, Oltrogge said.

The boaters were found uninjured and were being rescued from the canyon, whose floor is unreachable in many places except by helicopter.

Rescuers were trying to find visitors staying at the Supai Campground and escort them to safety, Oltrogge said.

Evacuees were being flown to a parking area 8 miles from Supai and bused to a Red Cross shelter in Peach Springs, about 60 miles southwest of Supai, the spokeswoman said.

A flash flood warning was in effect for the area until the early evening. The area got 3 to 6 inches of ran Friday and Saturday and got about 2 more on Sunday, said Daryl Onton, a National Weather Service meteorologist in Flagstaff.

"That's all it took — just a few days of very heavy thunderstorms," he said.

Supai is on Havasu and Cataract creeks about 30 miles northwest of Grand Canyon Village, a popular tourist area on the south rim. Havasu Creek feeds the Colorado, which runs the length of the canyon.

The flooding came on a weekend during the busy summer tourist season, when thousands of visitors a day flock to the canyon for spectacular views, hikes or to raft its whitewater.

The helicopters lifting residents out were from the National Park Service, the National Guard and the Arizona Department of Public Safety, Oltrogge said.

In 2001, flooding near Supai swept a 2-year-old boy and his parents to their deaths while they were hiking.

The Grand Canyon has been the traditional home of the Havasupai for centuries.

Dam breaks near Grand Canyon; hundreds evacuate (http://news.yahoo.com/s//ap/20080817/ap_on_re_us/grand_canyon_flooding)

Keys take Tropical Storm Fay in stride

By BRIAN SKOLOFF, Associated Press Writer 1 hour, 18 minutes ago

KEY WEST, Fla. - Two years since a hurricane last lashed at Florida, many residents took a wait-and-see attitude Monday as a strengthening Tropical Storm Fay swept across the Florida Keys and bore down on the Gulf Coast.

While tourists caught the last flight out of town and headed out of the storm's path, residents in the carefree Florida Keys put up hurricane shutters and checked their generators, but not doing much more.

"We're not worried about it. We've seen this movie before," said 58-year-old Willie Dykes, who lives on a sailboat in Key West and was buying food, water and whiskey.

By early evening, locals and some tourists returned to the streets of Key West after the worst of the storm system passed the lower Keys, leaving the islands drenched but largely unscathed.

The sixth named storm in the Atlantic hurricane season was expected to be at or near hurricane strength before curling up the state's western coast and hitting Florida's mainland sometime Tuesday.

"There are bad storms and there are nice ones, and this is a nice one," said Becky Weldon, a 43-year-old guest house manager in Key West. "It cleans out all the trees, it gives people a little work to do and it gets the tourists out of here for a few days."

Officials were worried that complacency could cost lives, repeatedly urging people across the state to take Fay seriously. The message got through to tourists — Monroe County Mayor Mario Di Gennaro estimated 25,000 fled the Keys. Some residents have taken steps since the busy 2004-05 storm years, when eight hurricanes hammered Florida, such as buying generators and strengthening homes, but not everyone is as prepared.

"This is not the type of storm that's going to rip off a lot of roofs or cause the type of damage we normally see in a large hurricane," said Craig Fugate, the state's emergency management chief.

However, Fugate said: "I've seen as many people die when I have a blob-shaped asymmetrical storm that they dismiss as not being very dangerous."

The state took every step to make sure it was ready. National Guard troops were at the ready and more were waiting in reserve, and 20 truckloads of tarps, 200 truckloads of water and 52 truckloads of food were ready to be distributed.

One who did heed the call to prepare was Chris Fleeman, a 35-year-old mechanic on Big Pine Key who was busy helping friends and family members seal up their homes.

"I've got a generator and I've got a concrete home that I built myself, so I know it can withstand this," Fleeman said.

Since 2006, Florida has taken several steps to make sure its residents are prepared. More than 400,000 houses were inspected under a program that provides grants to people to strengthen their houses.

Florida law also now requires some 970 gas stations along hurricane evacuation routes statewide to have backup generators so they can keep pumping gas if the power goes out. Many utilities also have installed stronger power poles.

"Every hurricane that we have, we have additional lessons learned and experience," said U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Fla.

As it moved though the Carribean, Fay was blamed for at least 14 deaths in Haiti and the Dominican Republic, including two babies who were found in a river after a bus crash.

The storm center passed over Key West around 5 p.m. on Monday, and a hurricane warning was in effect along southwestern Florida from Flamingo to just south of the Tampa Bay area. A tropical storm warning in effect in the east from Flagler Beach southward.

At 8 p.m. EDT, Fay was about 105 miles south of Naples and moving north at about 9 mph. Sustained winds were about 60 mph with some higher gusts.

National Hurricane Center officials said the storm would likely make landfall sometime Tuesday morning. Forecasters said Fay would probably be at or near hurricane strength, which is winds of at least 74 mph.

No damage or injuries were immediately reported in the Keys, where a few bars and restaurants stubbornly remained open. Authorities said a possible tornado knocked down a tree on Big Coppitt Key and there were scattered power outages as well as local street flooding.

Local officials planned to reopen Key West's airport Wednesday.

Between 4 and 10 inches of rain is possible across mainland Florida, so flooding is a threat even far from where the center comes ashore, said Stacy Stewart, a senior hurricane specialist at the National Hurricane Center.

"This is a broad, really diffuse storm. All the Florida Keys and all the Florida peninsula are going to feel the effects of this storm, no matter where the center makes landfall," he said. "We don't want people to downplay this."

Farther north, residents were not so sanguine. In Punta Gorda — a Gulf Coast community hit hard by Hurricane Charley in 2004 — the sounds of drills were in the air as business owners attached aluminum storm shutters to windows and doors Monday afternoon.

The very idea of an August storm frightens residents there, especially those who rode out the compact but powerful Category 4 hurricane four years ago.

"I am scared," said Monica Palanza, a Punta Gorda real estate agent who remembers seeing trees topple on her neighbors' homes in 2004. "You can never be prepared enough."

Keys take Tropical Storm Fay in stride (http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080819/ap_on_re_us/tropical_weather_florida;_ylt=Auv298Yk7lV_OPZCVio_y.JH2ocA)

Quickly spreading brush fire burns homes in Reno

By SCOTT SONNER, Associated Press Writer 1 hour, 39 minutes ago

RENO, Nev. - A wind-whipped fire quickly crackled through sagebrush and grass on a residential hillside Monday in northern Reno before destroying several homes and forcing evacuations. No serious injuries were reported.

The cause wasn't known, but investigators were looking into reports that juveniles ran from the area about the time the blaze broke out.

Six homes are a total loss, and a seventh was seriously damaged, fire spokesman Steve Frady said. Responders included more than 50 firefighters and a helicopter.

"They jumped on it really fast. Sometimes conditions just combine to make it difficult to catch," he said. The most serious danger had passed by early evening, he said.

The fire sent up a plume of black smoke visible from downtown Reno, about 5 miles away.

Two firefighters were treated at the scene for exhaustion, and a third was taken to a Reno hospital as a precaution after inhaling smoke, Frady said.

The fire is in the same neighborhood where a blaze destroyed four homes and damaged a fifth in 2004. That fire was started by a pair of boys playing with fireworks.

In a central Oregon forest, a blaze threatened a small town after three fires touched off this month by lightning merged into one blaze, though no one has been evacuated.

High winds and temperatures over the weekend fanned the flames into a fury near the town of Mitchell, said Jeree Mills, spokeswoman for the fire dispatchers at the Northwest Interagency Coordination Center.

"The unstable air hit, and it blew up on 'em," she said.

The blaze was 2 miles south of the town, which has fewer than 200 residents, and threatened one home, fire officials said.

Quickly spreading brush fire burns homes in Reno (http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080819/ap_on_re_us/wildfires;_ylt=AhRNZI0bygiJEPs9HCPSNRhH2ocA)

South Asia monsoon rains kill 147 as thousands rescued
Mon Aug 18, 2008 9:39am EDT

By Sharat Pradhan

LUCKNOW, India (Reuters) - Heavy monsoon rains have triggered floods across South Asia in which 147 people have been killed in the past week as the downpours swamped villages and caused landslides, officials said on Monday.

Most of the deaths were due to house collapses triggered by incessant rains in India and Bangladesh. Thousands more have been evacuated across the region after their homes were flooded.

In the northern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh, hundreds of old buildings collapsed, killing 73 people in the past two days, officials said.

"The victims were all very poor people, living in old and dilapidated buildings," said senior government official Balwinder Kumar. "So far we have received reports about the partial or full collapse of as many as 890 houses."

More rain was forecast in the next 48 hours and authorities fear the crisis could worsen.

More than 60 people were killed in flooding in India's southern state of Andhra Pradesh, with tens of thousands more moved to safety in makeshift camps.

In neighboring Bangladesh, at least 14 people were killed, a dozen injured and 10 others feared trapped under the rubble of collapsed houses in landslides in the port city of Chittagong and the coastal town of Cox's Bazar on Monday, officials said.

Every year monsoon rains leave a trail of death and destruction across South Asia, but much of the economy in a largely agricultural region depends on the downpours.

In the Himalayan nation of Nepal, thousands of villagers were moved to safety on Monday after a river in the southeast breached a dam and inundated huge swathes of crop land, police said.

More than 4,000 people from three villages had already been moved to safety in Nepal's Sunsari district after the Koshi river broke an embankment, police official Yadav Khanal said.

"The situation is getting worse and dangerous," Khanal said.

"No one has been killed so far but flood waters have submerged parts of a highway."

Sunsari lies in Nepal's southern plains about 200 km (125 miles) southeast of Kathmandu.

South Asia monsoon rains kill 147 as thousands rescued (http://www.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUSDEL25760420080818)

Floods force thousands to flee homes in India, Nepal
Wed Aug 20, 2008 4:26am EDT

GUWAHATI, India (Reuters) - Floods triggered by heavy monsoon rains left some 50,000 people homeless in India's remote northeast, officials said on Wednesday, warning of more rains in one of the country's most flood-prone regions.

Floodwaters swamped some 100 villages in Assam state, destroying homes and croplands and forcing thousands of people to the safety of high grounds.

Officials set up temporary shelters for the homeless in school and government buildings, and used wooden boats to rescue those marooned. Many camped on highways under plastic sheets with what little they had salvaged of their belongings.

"Water levels of all rivers are rising and hundred villages have been completely submerged," said P. C. Deka, an official at the worst-hit Majuli, a riverine island in Assam's Jorhat district. "Around 50,000 people are badly affected so far."

The regional weather office warned of more showers in the next 24 hours in the region.

In neighboring Nepal, at least 20,000 people were displaced and sheltered in relief camps in the country's southeast after a river broke a dam and flooded six villages, an official said on Wednesday.

Local media reports said three people were killed but an official said he had no information about the deaths.

Television channels showed video clips of people wading waist-deep water to higher ground, carrying babies in their arms and balancing their belongings on their heads.

Nepal's new Maoist Prime Minister Prachanda is scheduled to tour the affected areas on Wednesday, official said. He has already announced $300,000 as immediate relief to the flood victims.

Floods and landslides are common in mountainous Nepal during the annual monsoon season that normally begins in June and continues through September. About 50 people have died since the rains started this year.

In India, more than 200 people have been killed in rains in the past month, some 30 of them in Assam and the northeast. Most of deaths were due to houses collapsing or by drowning. Some people were killed in landslide.

Assam accounts for about 55 percent of India's tea production and also produces oil. Officials said the rains had not affected tea trade or oil exploration.

The monsoon usually hits India on June 1 and retreats in September, and is key to irrigating some 60 percent of farm land. But it leaves in its wake massive destruction, killing hundreds of people, destroying homes, crops, roads and bridges every year.

Floods force thousands to flee homes in India, Nepal (http://www.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idUSSP1011920080820?sp=true)

Tropical Storm Fay Makes Fourth Florida Landfall; Death Toll Rises to 10

Saturday , August 23, 2008

STEINHATCHEE, Fla. —
Tropical Storm Fay crossed into the Florida Panhandle on Saturday, becoming the first storm of its kind in recorded history to hit the state four different times.

Fay's center made landfall around 1 a.m. EDT about 15 miles north-northeast of Apalachicola, Fla., according to the National Weather Service's National Hurricane Center.

Fay was expected to skirt across the Panhandle's coast Saturday and the coast of Mississippi and Alabama on Sunday, forecasters said.

Though Fay never materialized into a hurricane, its zigzagging downpours have been punishing and deadly.

Florida authorities said 2 more people were killed by Tropical Storm Fay Saturday, raising death toll to 10. The state attributed an additional death, before the storm hit, to hurricane preparedness after a man testing generators died of carbon monoxide poisoning.

"The damage from Fay is a reminder that a tropical storm does not have to reach a hurricane level to be dangerous and cause significant damage," said Florida Gov. Charlie Crist, who toured flooded communities this week.

Crist on Friday asked the White House to elevate the disaster declaration President Bush issued to a major disaster declaration. Crist said the storm damaged 1,572 homes in Brevard County alone, dropping 25 inches of rain in Melbourne.

Counties in the Panhandle — including Bay, Escambia and Walton — opened their emergency operations centers Friday in preparation for the storm's expected arrival there. To Florida's relief, forecasters expect Fay to weaken over the weekend and finally blow away before losing steam in Alabama, Mississippi and Louisiana.

In Steinhatchee, just south of Florida's Big Bend, bartender Dana Watson said she was bracing for a possible drenching. "It's moving real slow. We're waiting. We're just waiting."

In an area that can flood badly when high tide rolls in during a bad storm, she said most people remain prepared. "We've all got our generators filled up with gas and oil and our nonperishable food," Watson said.

At 5 a.m. Saturday, the center of the storm was located about 20 miles southeast of Panama City and moving west near 7 mph with sustained winds near 45 mph. The storm was expected to keep its strength and remain a tropical storm into Sunday.

Meanwhile, heavy rain in Fay's wake were causing widespread flooding across the Jacksonville area, near the storm's third landfall. Forecasters said some areas of Duval County had received up to 20 inches, and authorities reported an unknown number of homes and businesses flooded.

Farther south in Florida, some of the hardest-hit areas got encouraging signs as the floods receded. Days earlier, 4 feet of water made roads look like rivers in Melbourne.

"This is a welcome sight," said Ron Salvatore, 69, who stood in his driveway Friday morning boiling coffee on a propane grill and surveyed a dry street. Salvatore and his wife Terry, 59, had been stuck in the house since Tuesday because water surrounded their home.

Florida Insurance Commissioner Kevin McCarty said so far nearly 4,000 flood claims from Fay had been filed.

Fay has been an unusual storm, even by Florida standards. It set sights on the state last Sunday and first made landfall in the Florida Keys on Monday. The storm then headed out over open water again before hitting a second time near Naples on the southwest coast. It limped across the state, popped back out into the Atlantic Ocean and struck again near Flagler Beach on the central coast. It was the first storm in almost 50 years to make three landfalls in the state, as most hit and exit within a day or two.

Tropical Storm Fay Makes Fourth Florida Landfall; Death Toll Rises to 10 (http://www.foxnews.com/printer_friendly_story/0,3566,409321,00.html)
~~~~~~~~~~

This is a email I got from my uncle in Jacksonville Fla. yesterday.

Hi Family & All,

And the rains came, and the wind blew and more rain and more wind. Flooding in streets and trees down, power out and stupid people swimming in the ocean. During the past 96 hours we have seen it all. Fortunately we have had power all during that time with one exception. Last evening power was off for about 1 minute. There are thousands without power this morning and it will be awhile before they get it on. One girl died while swimming in the ocean last evening. Did not go over to see Betty last evening as Wells Road is flooded and will probably not go this morning as it is still flooded. *********************** (I removed all personal information DW)

That is the latest from Orange Park.

Love and God Bless All,

New Orleans Repeating Deadly Levee Mistakes

Saturday , August 23, 2008

NEW ORLEANS —
Signs are emerging that history is repeating itself in the Big Easy, still healing from Katrina: People have forgotten a lesson from four decades ago and believe once again that the federal government is constructing a levee system they can prosper behind.

In a yearlong review of levee work here, The Associated Press tracked a pattern of public misperception, political jockeying and legal fighting, along with economic and engineering miscalculations since Katrina, that threaten to make New Orleans the scene of another devastating flood.

Dozens of interviews with engineers, historians, policymakers and flood zone residents confirmed many have not learned from public policy mistakes made after Hurricane Betsy in 1965, which set the stage for Katrina; many mistakes are being repeated.

"People forget, but they cannot afford to forget," said Windell Curole, a Louisiana hurricane and levee expert. "If you believe you can't flood, that's when you increase the risk of flooding. In New Orleans, I don't think they talk about the risk."

Tyrone Marshall, a 48-year-old bread vendor, is one person who doesn't believe he's going to flood again.

"They've heightened the levees. They're raised up. It makes me feel safe," he said as he toiled outside his home in hard-hit Gentilly, a formerly flooded property refashioned into a California-style bungalow.

Geneva Stanford, a 76-year-old health care worker, is a believer, too. She lives in a trim and tidy prefabricated house in the Lower 9th Ward, 200 feet from a rebuilt floodwall that Katrina broke.

"This wall here wasn't there when we had the flood," Stanford said, radiant in a bright kanga-style dress. "When I look at it now, I say maybe if we had had it up it there then, maybe we wouldn't have flooded."

They're not alone. A recent University of New Orleans survey of residents found concern about levee safety was dropping off the list of top worries, replaced by crime, incompetent leadership and corruption.

This sense of security, though, may be dangerously naive.

For the foreseeable future, New Orleans will be protected by levees unable to protect against another storm like Katrina.

When and if the Army Corps of Engineers finishes $14.8 billion in post-Katrina work, the city will have limited protection — what are defined as 100-year levees.

This does not mean they'd stand up to storms for a century. Under the 100-year standard, in fact, experts say that every house being rebuilt in New Orleans has a 26 percent chance of being flooded again over a 30-year mortgage; and every child born in New Orleans would have nearly a 60 percent chance of seeing a major flood in his or her life.

"It's not exactly great protection," said John Barry, the author of "Rising Tide," a book New Orleans college students read to learn about the corps' efforts to tame the Mississippi.

As a rule, any levee building makes people feel good in this unsettling landscape where the Gulf of Mexico can be seen gleaming from the top floors of skyscrapers and where the ubiquitous dynamics of a sinking and eroding river delta ripple through every aspect of life.

Levees tend to get built after devastating hurricanes: It's happening now and it happened after Betsy struck and flooded much of the same low ground that Katrina invaded.

"We did go in and did a whole bunch of levee work right after Betsy," said Philip Ciaccio, a New Orleans appellate judge and longtime former politician from eastern New Orleans, a reclaimed swamp transformed into the Big Easy's version of the American suburban dream.

Between Betsy and Katrina, about 22,000 homes were constructed in eastern New Orleans out of an abundance of confidence.

"We were under the illusion that what we had done would prevent another Betsy from flooding the area," Ciaccio said. "Hopefully the experts know what they're doing this time."

The corps says its work is making the city safer, but there are serious doubts.

At every step in the scramble to correct the engineering breakdowns of Katrina, independent experts have questioned the ability of the corps, an agency that has accumulated ever more power over the fate of New Orleans, to do the right job.

On the road to recovery, the agency has installed faulty drainage pumps, used outdated measurements, issued incorrect data, unearthed critical flaws, made conflicting statements about flood risk and flunked reviews by the National Research Council.

At the same time, the corps has run into funding problems, lawsuits, a tangle of local interests and engineering difficulties — all of which has led to delays in getting the promised work done.

An initial September 2010 target to complete the $14.8 billion in post-Katrina work has slipped to mid-2011. Then last September, an Army audit found 84 percent of work behind schedule because of engineering complexities, environmental provisos and real estate transactions. The report added that costs would likely soar.

A more recent analysis shows the start of 84 of 156 projects was delayed — 15 of them by six months or more. Meanwhile, a critical analysis of what it would take to build even stronger protection — 500-year-type levees — was supposed to be done last December but remains unfinished.

Another opportunity for setbacks: The corps says it will need more than 100 million cubic yards of clay and dirt to build up levees — enough to fill the Louisiana Superdome 20 times.

Also on the corps' drawing board are gigantic pumps capable of pushing more than 20,000 cubic feet of water per second. For comparison, the biggest pumps in New Orleans move about 6,000 cfs every second and they're among the most impressive in the nation.

That's not all: The corps has awarded The Shaw Group a $695 million contract to build a massive barrier against storm surge in the Industrial Canal. It's touted as one of the biggest public works projects ever performed by the agency.

Publicly, the corps says the work is on budget and will be done by 2011.

"The progress I see each time I visit is really remarkable. The region has a better hurricane and storm damage reduction system in place than ever before in its history — and it will continue to get better," Lt. Gen. Robert Van Antwerp, the corps chief, wrote on his blog in April.

Al Naomi, a corps branch chief who's worked for the past 37 years in New Orleans, said he was upbeat because Congress has shown a willingness to fund the work. In addition, he said, enough elements are coming together to make him "cautiously optimistic" the work will stay on track.

"We are in pretty good shape financially to do quite a bit of work in this area," he said.

cont'd next post

Doubts, though, weigh on those familiar with the game plan.

"It's almost one of those proverbial `you can't get there from where we are' situations," said Gerald Spohrer, executive director of the West Jefferson levee district. The deadline, he said, is "overly optimistic."

The trouble so far stirs up bad memories: Of the four decades of excruciatingly slow levee building after Betsy.

Betsy was eerily similar to Katrina. The levees broke. Water reached roof tops and people clung to trees for survival. A flotilla of rescuers worked for days in lingering floodwaters.

In Betsy's aftermath, President Lyndon B. Johnson — like President Bush — pledged to rebuild New Orleans and make it safe from hurricanes. Little more than a month after the storm, Congress gave the corps $85 million to build a Category 3 hurricane levee system.

By 1976, though, the Government Accountability Office found the completion date for the work had slipped 13 years, from 1978 to 1991. Costs had soared to $352 million. By 1982, the GAO found that the project's cost had increased to $757 million and the agency said the work would not get done by 2008.

Katrina's storm surge laid bare the incomplete and inadequate work.

What happened? By 1968, a Congress worn down by the Vietnam war and economic turmoil began reining in spending; at the same time, the work met resistance from Louisiana politicians, communities, environmentalists and businesses fighting for individual interests.

For example, the corps scrapped a plan in the 1970s to build a floodgate at the entrance to Lake Pontchartrain out of concern that it would impede boats and marine life. Next, the alternate plan to build gates at the mouths of city drainage canals was rejected. Finally, the corps built floodwalls on the canals — and they broke during Katrina.

Can this sort of history repeat itself?

"All the human instincts post-Katrina are the same (as) post-Betsy," said Oliver Houck, a natural resources law professor at Tulane University and longtime New Orleans resident who participated in many of the fights since Betsy.

Some present-day examples of those instincts:

• Politicians have pushed for development in wetlands, undercut flood protection efforts with legislation and balked at paying for levee work.

• Environmentalists have pushed for wetlands-sensitive policies that arguably could add millions of dollars in costs.

• Residents have filed lawsuits to stop the corps from removing trees the agency says pose a risk to levees and sued the corps over the Katrina levee breaches.

• Policymakers are encouraging development in risky areas.

Ameliorating that last instinct is the business of Joe Sullivan, the 82-year-old city engineer who's overseen the New Orleans drainage and water department for nearly a half century.

"We keep building in holes, and contractors keep trying to move in and take advantage of a situation: They come in with a bunch of contractors, sell off property in low places, take their money and run," Sullivan said.

He runs his finger across a city drainage map. On it, green indicates low-lying terrain, and green is everywhere.

"You see that green spot up there? That's below sea level, well below sea level," he said. "There's some people going to have dinner tonight out there in New Orleans east, they're walking on the floor inside their house at 13 feet below sea level."

Naomi, the Corps of Engineers veteran, said his agency was candid about telling people the risk they face.

"We're in the job of risk reduction, not risk elimination," he said. "Strictly relying on levees alone should not give anyone the impression they are risk free. I think that would be a horrible mistake to make."

Three years since Katrina killed more than 1,600 people and destroyed a way of life here, New Orleans is trying to reclaim a past taken away from it.

And there are some promising signs.

Streetcars are swaying on St. Charles Avenue again. Coteries of old men have reappeared, swapping stories in the shade. There are plans for new parks, schools and theaters.

But the past remains prologue in another sense, too: This majestic city is still perilously at the mercy of the next hurricane.

"What we learn from history is that we learn nothing from history," said Tim Doody, the president of the Southeast Louisiana Flood Protection Authority-East, a consolidated regional levee board created after Katrina to improve levee protection.

"What happened after Betsy? Katrina," Doody said. "And what's going to happen after Katrina? Pick a name and put it on it and it's going to happen again unless we pull together to make sure."

New Orleans Repeating Deadly Levee Mistakes (http://www.foxnews.com/printer_friendly_story/0,3566,409445,00.html)

Thousands displaced by floods in Ethiopia
Mon Aug 25, 2008 7:09am EDT

ADDIS ABABA (Reuters) - Flooding in Ethiopia's western Gambella region has killed three people, displaced thousands and destroyed crops, an official said on Monday.

"Flash floods following heavy rains for nearly a week have caused major rivers in Gambella to burst their banks, submerging residential areas and farmlands and forcing 18,000 people to be displaced", said Akway Ojulu, head of emergency assistance in Gambella.

"So far we have reports of the deaths of three people including one child," he told Reuters by telephone.

Ethiopia faces seasonal flooding between June and September. Flash floods typically happen in lowland areas of the country after heavy rains drench the highlands during the rainy season.

According to the United Nations, more then 100,000 people were affected by floods in Ethiopia last year and 17 died of waterborne diseases.

Akway said crocodiles had hampered rescue efforts.

"We are taking precautions, but the vast number of crocodiles swarming the Gilo river may harm unsuspecting people," he said.

About 3,000 hectares of farm land with maize, sorghum and cotton have been destroyed by the flood water, he added.

"Indications are there will be continued heavy rains in the coming weeks to hit Gambella," he said.

Akway said the federal and the regional governments had offered food assistance to the displaced.

"But there is great need for shelter, blankets and cooking utensils for the displaced people who are living in open air and under trees," he said.

Thousands displaced by floods in Ethiopia (http://www.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUSLP60682120080825)

New Orleans considers evacuation as Gustav looms
Wed Aug 27, 2008 7:44pm EDT

By Kathy Finn

NEW ORLEANS (Reuters) - Three years after Hurricane Katrina slammed into the Louisiana coast, New Orleans residents on Wednesday again faced the prospect of an evacuation as Tropical Storm Gustav loomed.

Not since Katrina and Hurricane Rita, which followed in its wake, have residents faced government orders to evacuate their homes and businesses. Many are still struggling to rebuild their lives in a city famed for its jazz clubs and Mardi Gras festival.

On Wednesday, two days before the third anniversary of Katrina's August 29, 2005, landfall, Gustav drifted away from Haiti and the Dominican Republic after killing 22 people. It could hit the U.S. Gulf Coast around Monday.

The storm was expected to strengthen to a hurricane over the Gulf's warm waters, and U.S. landfall could be anywhere from the Florida panhandle to Texas.

But Gustav's most likely track is directly toward New Orleans.

Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal put New Orleans residents on alert, saying evacuations could begin as early as Friday.

City officials said New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin would order an evacuation if Gustav looked likely to come ashore with wind speeds over 111 miles per hour (178 kph) -- a Category 3 hurricane or higher on the 5-step Saffir-Simpson scale.

"It's still too early to tell exactly what it's going to do," city emergency preparedness director Jerry Sneed said.

Nagin, the city's public face during Katrina and Rita, cut short his trip to the Democratic National Convention in Denver to return home.

THEY ASSUME RESPONSIBILITY

During Katrina and Rita, many city residents ignored mandatory evacuation orders and remained to guard their homes and businesses from looters.

Sneed said residents would not be physically forced to leave their homes during an evacuation order -- which would be given about 30 hours before the storm comes ashore.

But they assume responsibility if they stay, Sneed said.

"If a tree comes through the roof and buries them underneath there, they're going to be on their own," Sneed said.

Sneed said he was confident that floodgates and pumping stations that failed during the 2005 storms would bear up.

"The citizens should not be worried about the flooding again," he said.

Storm levees broke under the onslaught of Katrina in 2005, flooding 80 percent of New Orleans and killing almost 1,500 people in the city and along the Gulf coast. The hurricane caused at least $80 billion in wind and flood damage. Some estimates put damages as high as $125 billion.

Jindal said he had activated the state's catastrophic action team and could declare a state of emergency as early as Thursday. He also has put the Louisiana National Guard on alert.

Jindal, elected in October 2007, is hoping to avoid heavy criticism that fell on his predecessor, Kathleen Blanco, for not reacting swiftly after Katrina.

Federal agencies and the New Orleans city government also faced the wrath of residents over their response to the disaster. President George W. Bush himself was severely criticized for his role, including his initial decision to view the devastated city only from the air.

After Katrina, chaos broke out in New Orleans as stranded flood victims waited days for help. Many residents who fled the hurricane have not returned.

Jindal said that if the threat continues, the state could make 700 buses available for assisted evacuations, which could begin on Friday for people who need help due to medical or other conditions.

Amtrak trains were standing by to move 7,000 elderly residents to safety, Sneed said.

New Orleans considers evacuation as Gustav looms (http://www.reuters.com/articlePrint?articleId=USN2746162920080827)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Please see my post New Orleans Repeating Deadly Levee Mistakes (http://forums.christiansunite.com/index.php?topic=20546.msg255215#msg255215) <<<< link

Thousands evacuated from floods in eastern India

Thu Aug 28, 5:35 AM ET

PATNA, India (Reuters) - Indian army troops helped evacuate more than 120,000 people from floods in eastern India, but more bad weather raised fears that rivers would to continue to overflow, officials said on Thursday.

The flooding, which officials say are the worst in 50 years, was caused after the Kosi river broke a dam in Nepal where it originates, unleashing huge waves of water that smashed mud embankments downstream in Bihar state.

Many villagers offered prayers and slaughtered goats to appease the Kosi, known as Bihar's "river of sorrow" for its regular floods and ability to change course.

"We are praying to the river goddess and offering her blood since only she can help us," a village woman in the worst affected Supaul district told a local newspaper.

At least two million people have been forced from their homes and a quarter of a million houses destroyed. So far 55 deaths have been officially reported in Bihar, but activists and local media put the toll many times higher.

Stranded villagers complained of an unbearable stench from rotting carcasses and the United Nations warned of the spread of water-borne disease.

TV stations showed swirling flood waters pouring into homes through windows, submerging hundreds of villages and roads and railway tracks. Telephone and power lines snapped.

Torrential rains have killed more than 1,000 people in South Asia since the monsoon began in June, mainly in India's northern state of Uttar Pradesh, where 725 people have lost their lives. Other deaths were reported from Nepal and Bangladesh.

Some experts blame the floods on heavier monsoon rains caused by global warming, while others say authorities have failed to take preventive measures and improve infrastructure.

"The administration is misleading people about the casualty, I have myself seen some 40 dead bodies at a village in Araria district alone," flood expert Dinesh Kumar Mishra told The Times of India newspaper.

The newspaper quoted a villager from a badly affected district as saying he had seen at least 250 bodies at one place.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Sonia Gandhi, head of the ruling Congress party, flew over devastated areas by helicopter on Thursday.

State officials told Reuters more than 120,000 had been evacuated and kept in more than 100 temporary camps, but bad weather was hampering rescue and relief operations.

"We have the army, disaster management teams, police and other groups of rescuers making every effort to save the population," said R.K. Singh, a top disaster management official.

Officials said floods had destroyed more than 227,000 homes and damaged about 100,000 hectares (247,000 acres) of vegetables, wheat and paddy crops.

Thousands evacuated from floods in eastern India (http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20080828/wl_nm/india_floods_dc;_ylt=AtAltrOBthAJ9GAactiviB9vaA8F)

Gustav moves through Caymans

By MAURA AXELROD, Associated Press Writer 57 minutes ago

GEORGE TOWN, Cayman Islands - Gustav became a hurricane again on Friday and moved through the Cayman Islands, the start of a buildup that could take it to the U.S. Gulf Coast as a fearsome Category-3 storm three years after Hurricane Katrina.

Gustav, which killed 71 people in the Caribbean, on Friday evening reached the Cayman Islands, a tiny ubgone51 haven studded with resorts and cruise-ship souvenir shops, on track to next hit Cuba's cigar country and heading into the Gulf of Mexico by Sunday.

Well-heeled tourists fled Cayman hotels by air, while Katrina victims in Mississippi still living in emergency cottages and trailers were told to evacuate beginning this weekend.

Hotels on the Cayman Islands asked guests to leave, then after the airport closed prepared to shelter those who remained. Chris Smith, of Frederick, Maryland, said his hotel handed out wrist bands marked with guests' names and room numbers so that "if something happens they can quickly identify us."

"That was a little bit sobering," he said, standing outside the hotel with his luggage.

About 20 islanders waited for the storm in a high school gym.

"If people give you a shelter, you should take it," said Pamela Hall, 52.

The storm killed four people in a day-long march across the length of Jamaica, where it ripped off roofs and downed power lines. About 4,000 people were displaced from their homes, with about half relocated to shelters.

Prime Minister Bruce Golding said the government sent army helicopters Friday to rescue 31 people trapped by floods. At least 59 people died in Haiti and eight in the Dominican Republic.

The U.S. National Hurricane Center in Miami said Gustav could grow to a Category 3 storm, with winds above 111 mph (180 kph), by the time it hits the U.S. Gulf coast next week. Gustav could strike anywhere from the Florida Panhandle to Texas, but forecasters said there is a better-than-even chance that New Orleans will get slammed by at least tropical-storm-force winds.

As much as 80 percent of the Gulf of Mexico's oil and gas production could be shut down as a precaution if Gustav enters as a major storm, weather research firm Planalytics predicted. Oil companies have already evacuated hundreds of workers from offshore platforms.

Retail gas prices rose Friday for the first time in 43 days as analysts warned that a direct hit on Gulf energy infrastructure could send pump prices hurtling toward $5 a gallon. Crude oil prices ended slightly lower in a volatile session as some traders feared supply disruptions and others bet the government will release supplies from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve.

Late Friday night, Gustav was centered 25 miles (40 kms) west-southwest of Little Cayman Island, moving northwest near 10 mph (17 kph). The hurricane center said top winds were to near 80 mph (130 kph).

"Gustav could become a major hurricane near the time it crosses western Cuba," the hurricane center said.

Meanwhile, Tropical Storm Hanna was projected to curl westward into the Bahamas by early next week. It had sustained winds near 50 mph (85 kph).

Along the U.S. Gulf Coast, most commemorations of the Katrina anniversary were canceled because of Gustav, but in New Orleans a horse-drawn carriage took the bodies of Katrina's last seven unclaimed victims to burial.

President Bush declared an emergency in Louisiana, a move that allows the federal government to coordinate disaster relief and provide assistance in storm-affected areas.

New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin said an evacuation order was likely, though not before Saturday, and the Federal Emergency Management Agency said it expects a "huge number" of Gulf Coast residents will be told to leave the region this weekend.

Closer to the storm, workers at the Westin Causarina Hotel on Grand Cayman island shored up ground-floor rooms with sandbags.

"We've taken in all the balcony furniture, all the pool furniture, the marquees, tied up what needs to be tied up, cut down any coconuts," said hotel manager Dan Szydlowski.

Thunderstorms associated with Gustav already were bringing heavy downpours Friday to parts of central Cuba and evacuations were ordered in flood-prone areas.

Authorities in the tobacco-rich western Cuba, where Gustav is expected to cross the island, hauled 465,000 sacks of tobacco to higher ground for safekeeping and began distributing extra rations of milk and bread.

Gustav moves through Caymans (http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080830/ap_on_re_la_am_ca/tropical_weather;_ylt=An1C2.DevW8YFdYhZnq2Q5AUewgF)

New Orleans: Leave or face Gustav alone
Mississippi governor already has called for Gulf Coast residents to leave

Hurricane Gustav strengthened into a dangerous storm Saturday, and as city officials started evacuation plans, some residents weren't waiting to be told to leave.

Cars packed with clothes, boxes and pet carriers drove north among heavy traffic on Interstate 55, a major route out of the city. Gas stations around the city hummed. And nursing homes and hospitals began sending patients farther inland.

"I'm getting out of here. I can't take another hurricane," said Ramona Summers, 59, whose house flooded during Katrina. She hurried to help friends gather their belongings. Her car was already packed for Gonzales, nearly 60 miles away to the west of New Orleans.

Gustav swelled into a major hurricane south of Cuba and could strike the U.S. coast anywhere from the Florida Panhandle to Texas by Tuesday, but forecasters said there is a better-than-even chance that New Orleans will get slammed by at least tropical-storm-force winds. That raised the likelihood people will have to flee, and the city suggested a full-scale evacuation call could come as soon as Sunday.

Mayor Ray Nagin's spokeswoman said buses and trains would begin Saturday taking city residents to shelters north and out of the state.

"We will start moving residents from the 17 pickup areas that are located throughout the city," Nagin spokeswoman Ceeon Quiett said.

No shelter at Superdome
Police and firefighters were set to go street-to-street with bull horns over the weekend to direct people to leave. Unlike Hurricane Katrina, there will be no shelter of last resort in the Superdome. The doors there will be locked.

Those among New Orleans' estimated 310,000 to 340,000 residents who ignore orders to leave accept "all responsibility for themselves and their loved ones," the city's emergency preparedness director, Jerry Sneed, has warned.

Officials plan to announce a curfew that will mean the arrest of anyone still on the streets after a mandatory evacuation order goes out. Police and National Guardsman will patrol after the storm's arrival, and Gov. Bobby Jindal has said he requested additional search and rescue teams from other states.

Evacuation of coastal parishes was likely to start on Saturday, said Gov. Bobby Jindal. In St. Mary Parish, which hugs the coastline, the Louisiana Shrimp and Petroleum Festival — the state's oldest chartered harvest festival usually held over the Labor Day weekend_ has been canceled, officials said.

Meanwhile, Jindal said the state would likely switch interstate lanes on Sunday so that all traffic would flow north, in the direction an evacuation would follow.

For the third day in a row, Jindal stressed that people with the means should stock up on food, water and other essentials, and prepare to head away from the coast.

"We all still have personal responsibility," he said. "Now's the time to begin making evacuation plans."

Gustav strengthened into a Category 3 hurricane early Saturday with top winds near 120 mph as it headed for western Cuba. The National Hurricane Center in Miami said it was a dangerous storm and could strengthen further once it gets over the warm waters of the Gulf bound for the U.S. coastline early next week.

At 8 a.m. EDT, Gustav's center was about 225 miles east-southeast of the western tip of Cuba .

No excuse
New Orleans has taken steps to ensure no one has an excuse not to leave. The state has a $7 million contract to provide 700 buses to evacuate the elderly, the sick and anyone around the region without transportation.

LSU's Health Care Services Division began moving patients Friday from its hospitals to facilities north of Interstate 10. A complete evacuation from Leonard J. Chabert Medical Center in Houma and Dr. Walter O. Moss Regional medical Center in Lake Charles should be finished by Saturday evening. Partial evacuations are scheduled for hospitals in Bogalusa and New Orleans and University Medical Center in Lafayette has been placed on alert.

The entire Louisiana National Guard, over 7,000 members, was activated on Friday. Over 1,500 were sent to New Orleans to assist with evacuations and prevent looting. Jindal sought to reassure New Orleans residents, who recall rampant looting during Katrina, that the guard and New Orleans police would fight any recurrence.

"We don't want folks worrying about their property. It is time for people to be worried about their personal safety," Jindal said.

Authorities also wanted to avoid creating any unnecessary panic.

In New Orleans, the locations of the evacuation buses were not made public because people who need a ride are supposed to go to designated pickup points, not to the staging area.

But that approach worried some residents. Elouise Williams, 68, said she called the city's 311 hot line Thursday until she was "blue in the face."

She was concerned about getting a ride to the pickup point and about what would happen to those who left. As of late Friday afternoon, she planned to remain in the Algiers neighborhood and look in on any other residents who stayed behind.

"My thing is, my fright is, if we have somebody in these houses and they're not able to get out, they're going to perish," she said, "And we had enough of that in Katrina."

Biblical tragedy
at Sea of Galilee
'I have been here 54 years and I have never
seen the water so low, the situation so bad'

The 2,000-year-old fishing boat of Galilee in which, the story goes, Jesus may have sailed, is one of the most precious ancient treasures in Israel.

The vessel, which draws thousands of tourists to a kibbutz in Ginosar, was discovered by chance in 1986 when the sea level dropped dramatically because of a severe drought.

"This year it is actually worse. I have been here 54 years and I have never seen the water so low, the situation so bad," said Haim Binstock, an expert on the boat in the museum where it is kept. "I don't think the outside world realises just how dangerous the situation is, not just for Israel but for the whole region."

The waters of the Sea of Galilee are now at their lowest on record and, officials say, are set to fall even lower. The crisis is both natural and man-made. Four successive years of droughts, with rainfall less than half the annual average, has combined with a lack of snow on the peaks of Mount Hermon to lead to the shortage. At the same time,Israel's relentless pumping of water to irrigate farmland and supply homes has been massively worsening the situation.

The Israeli government, environmentalists say, seems oblivious to the damage being caused to the largest lake in the country. Despite the water falling below the lowest red line, which denotes serious hazard, the pumping has continued until it is due to reach an even lower black line, seen previously as a point of no return.

Gidon Bromberg, the Israel director of Friends of the Earth Middle East says: "There is a very real danger that this could lead to over-salination. The lower red line indicates the level at which the sustainability of the lake is threatened. We are certainly very alarmed by the authorities' willingness to go to the black line. This development could well be irreversible."

The main factor driving the unending thirst is Israel's projection of itself is a country of pioneering farmers who made the desert bloom while the previous Palestinian owners of the land were prepared to live in a barren environment without seeking progress.

Attempts by the Israeli government to bring in strict restrictions on water usage would, analysts say, be politically suicidal with an election on the horizon. No party would be willing to put forward such proposals against the powerful farming lobby.

Israeli farmers consume 40 per cent of the country's fresh water using some of it, environmental campaigners point out, to grow fruit such as bananas and types of berries alien to the desert, for export to the West. That leads to the perverse equation, they say, of water being exported from the parched Middle East to wet Europe.

The Sea of Galilee has now also taken on another international strategic dimension. The next round of the fledgling talks between Israel and Syria are due to begin and, according to Walid al-Moualem, the foreign minister in Damascus, control of the Sea's shoreline is a bone of contention.

The late president of Syria, Hafez al-Assad, while stressing that much of Galilee used to belong to his country, once described to Bill Clinton how he used to swim in the waters of the sea before the 1967 war when Israel captured the eastern shore and the plateau.

Israel's unwillingness to relinquish those gains led to Assad refusing to sign a peace accord at the time. His son and heir, President Bashir al-Assad, insists that Israel must withdraw from "every inch" of the Golan, including the eastern shore of Galilee.

At the kibbutz of Ein Gev, beside the sea, from where ferries run to Tiberias, Leon Segal, a guide, sees Syria's hand behind part of the problem. "Our cousins – I say that because the Bible says we are cousins – have been drilling in areas they should not, and this is diverting the water. This is the politics of the Middle East."

Mr Segal did acknowledge, however, that the Israeli government should be doing a lot more to alleviate the situation. "They should be setting up manydesalination plants to get water from other sources. They're using Israeli expertise in these matters all over the world but this is the one country which isn't using it enough. I don't think it would be possible to deprive the farmers of their water, so what is needed is alternative sources, it's that simple."

Temperatures at midday on the Galilee shore rise to a cloying, humid mid-50s Celsius. Faye Statiabou, 52, who arrived at the kibbutz from Australia 30 years ago, described how "quite big cracks are now appearing on the walls of our home, that is due to the heat caused by the drought. This is the hottest I can remember. We desperately need some rain pretty soon. Maybe this is global warming.

"But the pumping out of the water doesn't help. My husband was a fisherman and he has seen how the water has gone over the years, and with it the fishes."

Ms Statiabou and Mr Segal wandered down to a shore of shingle. "This is where the water used to come to," said Ms Statiabou. "Now look how far it has gone." The nearest sunbathers and swimmers were at the new shoreline at least 30 yards away.

The Galilee region had been verdant through the ages with a ribbon of flourishing towns and villages beside the lake. The historian Flavius Josephus, writing in the first century, was so taken with the area that he wrote: "One may call this place the ambition of nature." He reported 230 fishing boats working each day.

Ari Binyamin, a fisherman, said he wished he was living in that time. "We used to say even a few years ago that one place where you couldn't go wrong fishing was Kinneret [Hebrew name for the Sea of Galilee] but now it is getting very, very hard because the stocks are so low. Many fishermen fear for their livelihood and so do I. But it seems no one really cares about us."

At Ginosar, after showing another group of visitors round the Galilee boat – made out of 12 different types of wood -Mr Binstock said: "Of course many of the disciples of Jesus were fishermen at Galilee. If you recall, he said he would make them fishers of men. Well, that wouldn't be possible now, there are hardly any fish left around here.

"This country has found itself, through circumstances, as the keeper of some of the most precious things in the world, both made by man and by nature. It has a responsibility to the rest of mankind to look after these things. They are failing to do this here, at the Sea of Galilee."

Category 4 Gustav slams Cuba

By WILL WEISSERT, Associated Press Writer 42 minutes ago

HAVANA - Gustav slammed into Cuba's tobacco-growing western tip as a monstrous Category 4 hurricane Saturday, destroying homes and roads as it roared toward the Gulf of Mexico and New Orleans, where the authorities order an evacuation of the city.

Forecasters said Gustav was just short of becoming a top-scale Category 5 hurricane when it hit Cuba's mainland after passing over its Isla de la Juventud province. At least 300,000 people were evacuated from the storm's path in Cuba.

On the Isla de la Juventud, an island of 87,000 people south of mainland Cuba also known as the Isle of Youth, Gustav's screaming 140 mph (220 kph) winds toppled telephone poles, mango and almond trees and peeled back the tin roofs of homes.

Civil defense chief Ana Isla said there were "many people injured" on the Isla de la Juventud, but no reports of deaths. She said nearly all of the island's roads were washed out and that some regions were heavily flooded.

"It's been very difficult here," she said on state television.

By late Saturday night, Gustav's eye had crossed over Cuba into the warm waters of the Gulf of Mexico. The U.S. National Hurricane Center said Gustav had weakened slightly, but was expected to regain strength on Sunday, possibly becoming a Category 5 hurricane with winds above 155 mph (249 kph) as it spins toward the U.S. coast, where it was expected to make landfall on Monday.

A hurricane watch was issued from Texas east to the Florida-Alabama border.

New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin ordered the mandatory evacuation of the city, turning informal advice to flee from the approaching Gustav into an official order to get out.

More than a million Americans made wary by Hurricane Katrina took buses, trains, planes and cars as they streamed out of New Orleans and other coastal cities, where Katrina killed about 1,600 people in 2005.

Nagin called Gustav the "mother of all storms" and told residents to "get out of town. This is not the one to play with."

City officials began putting an estimated 30,000 elderly, disabled or poor residents on buses and trains for evacuation.

Gustav already has killed 81 people by triggering floods and landslides in other Caribbean nations.

The center said Gustav was about 90 miles (145 kilometers) west of Havana late Saturday night and it was moving northwest near 15 mph (24 kph).

Cuba's top meteorologist, Jose Rubiera, said the hurricane's massive center made landfall in mainland Cuba near the community of Los Palacios in Pinar del Rio — a region that produces much of the tobacco used to make Cuba's famed cigars. There, the storm knocked down power lines, shattered windows and blew the roofs off some small homes.

Rubiera said the storm brought hurricane-force winds to much of the western part of Havana, where power was knocked out as winds blasted sheets of rain sideways though the streets and whipped angry waves against the famed seaside Malecon boulevard.

Felled tree branches and large chunks of muddy earth littered roads that were largely deserted overnight.

Cuba grounded all domestic flights and halted all buses and trains to and from Havana, where some shuttered stores had hand-scrawled "closed for evacuation" signs plastered to their doors.

Authorities boarded up banks, restaurants and hotels, and residents nailed bits of plywood to the windows and doors of their houses and apartments.

"It's very big and we've got to get ready for what's coming," said Jesus Hernandez, a 60-year-old retiree who was using an electric drill to reinforce the roof of his rickety front porch.

In tourist-friendly Old Havana, heavy winds and rain battered crumbling historic buildings. There were no immediate reports of major damage, but a scaffolding erected against a building adjacent to the Plaza de Armas was leaning at a dangerous angle.

Lidia Morral and her husband were visiting Cuba from Barcelona, Spain. She said Gustav forced officials to close the beaches the couple wanted to visit in Santiago, on the island's eastern tip earlier in the week. The storm also prevented them from catching a ferry from Havana to the Isla de la Juventud on Saturday.

"It's been following us all over Cuba, ruining our vacation," said Morral, who was in line at a travel agency, trying to make other plans. "They have closed everything, hotels, restaurants, bars, museums. There's not much to do but wait."

In the Gulf of Mexico, where about 35,000 people work staffing offshore rigs and production facilities, among other tasks, oil companies wrapped up evacuations in preparation for the storm.

As of midday Saturday, more than three-fourths of the Gulf's oil production and nearly 40 percent of its natural gas output had been shut down, according to the U.S. Minerals Management Service, which oversees offshore activity.

The U.S. Gulf Coast accounts for about 25 percent of domestic oil production and 15 percent of natural gas output, according to the MMS. The Gulf Coast also is home to nearly half the nation's refining capacity.

Analysts say prolonged supply disruptions could cause a sudden price uptick for gasoline and other petroleum products.

On Friday, Gustav rolled over the Cayman Islands with fierce winds that tore down trees and power lines while destroying docks and tossing boats ashore, but there was little major damage and no deaths were reported.

Haiti's Interior Ministry on Saturday raised the hurricane death toll there to 66 from 59 and Jamaica raised its count to seven from four. Gustav also killed eight people in the Dominican Republic early in the week.

Meanwhile, the hurricane center said Tropical Storm Hanna was projected to near the Turks and Caicos Islands late Sunday or on Monday, then curl through the Bahamas by early next week before possibly threatening Cuba.

As it spun over open waters, Hanna had sustained winds near 50 mph (85 kph) Saturday evening and the hurricane center warned that it could kick up dangerous rip currents along parts of the southeastern U.S. coast.

The U.S. State Department urged Americans to be aware of the risks caused by Hanna to people traveling to the Bahamas and the Turks and Caicos Islands. It urged U.S. citizens lacking safe shelter to consider leaving while flights are still available.

Category 4 Gustav slams Cuba (http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080831/ap_on_re_la_am_ca/tropical_weather;_ylt=AiFbskx96_oXNnQaVx0rr8y9IxIF)

Mandatory evacuation ordered for New Orleans

By BECKY BOHRER, Associated Press Writer 17 minutes ago

NEW ORLEANS - Spooked by predictions that Hurricane Gustav could grow into a Category 5 monster, an estimated 1 million people fled the Gulf Coast Saturday — even before the official order came for New Orleans residents to get out of the way of a storm taking dead aim at Louisiana.

Mayor Ray Nagin gave the mandatory order late Saturday, but all day residents took to buses, trains, planes and cars — clogging roadways leading away from New Orleans, still reeling three years after Hurricane Katrina flooded 80 percent of the city and killed about 1,600 across the region.

The evacuation of New Orleans becomes mandatory at 8 a.m. Sunday along the vulnerable west bank of the Mississippi River, and at noon on the east bank. Nagin called Gustav the "mother of all storms" and told residents to "get out of town. This is not the one to play with."

"This is the real deal, this is not a test," Nagin said as he issued the order, warning residents that staying would be "one of the biggest mistakes you could make in your life." He emphasized that the city will not offer emergency services to anyone who chooses to stay behind.

Nagin did not immediately order a curfew, which would allow officials to arrest residents if they are not on their property.

Gustav had already killed more than 80 people in the Caribbean, and if current forecasts hold up, it would make landfall Monday afternoon somewhere between East Texas and western Mississippi.

The storm's center moved into the Gulf of Mexico from Cuba late Saturday and at 11 p.m. EDT was about 530 miles southeast of the mouth of the Mississippi River, the National Hurricane Center in Miami said. Top winds were near 140 mph and likely to strengthen.

Forecasters warned it was too soon to say whether New Orleans would take another direct hit, but residents weren't taking any chances judging by the bumper-to-bumper traffic pouring from the city. Gas stations along interstate highways were running out of fuel, and phone circuits were jammed.

Forecasters at the National Hurricane Center said they were surprised at how quickly Gustav gained strength as it slammed into Cuba's tobacco-growing western tip. It went from a tropical storm to a Category 4 hurricane in about 24 hours, and was likely to become a Category 5 — with sustained winds of 156 mph or more — by Sunday.

"That puts a different light on our evacuations and hopefully that will send a very clear message to the people in the Gulf Coast to really pay attention," said Federal Emergency Management Agency chief David Paulison.

Levee building on the city's west bank was incomplete, Nagin said. A storm surge of 15 to 20 feet would pour through canals and flood the neighborhood and neighboring Jefferson Parish, he said.

Nagin estimated that about half the population had left and admitted officials were worried that some people would try to stay.

Even before the evacuation order, hotels closed, and the airport prepared to follow suit.

Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff planned to travel to Louisiana on Sunday to observe preparations. Also, likely GOP presidential nominee John McCain and his running mate, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, are traveling to Mississippi on Sunday to check on people getting prepared.

As part of the evacuation plan New Orleans developed after Katrina, residents who had no other way to get out of the city waited on a line that snaked for more than a mile through the parking lot of the city's main transit terminal. From there, they were boarding motor coaches bound for shelters in north Louisiana. The city expects to move out about 30,000 such residents by Sunday.

"I don't like it," said Joseph Jones Jr., 61, who draped a towel over his head to block the blazing sun. "Going someplace you don't know, people you don't know. And then when you come back, is your house going to be OK?"

Others led children or pushed strollers with one hand and pulled luggage with the other. Volunteers handed out bottled water, and medics were nearby in case people became sick from the heat.

Unlike Katrina, when thousands took refuge inside the Superdome, there will be no "last resort" shelter. "You will be on your own," Nagin said.

About 1,500 National Guard troops were in the region, and soldiers were expected to help augment about 1,400 New Orleans police officers in helping patrol and secure the city.

Standing outside his restaurant in the city's Faubourg Marigny district, Dale DeBruyne prepared for Gustav the way he did for Katrina — stubbornly.

"I'm not leaving," he said.

DeBruyne, 52, said his house was stocked with storm supplies, including generators.

"I stayed for Katrina," he said, "and I'll stay again."

Many residents said the early stage of the evacuation was more orderly than Katrina, although a plan to electronically log and track evacuees with a bar code system failed and was aborted to keep the buses moving. Officials said information on evacuees would be taken when they reached their destinations.

Advocates criticized the decision not to establish a shelter, warning that day laborers and the poorest residents would fall through the cracks.

About two dozen Hispanic men gathered under oak trees near Claiborne Avenue. They were wary of boarding any bus, even though a city spokesman said no identity papers would be required.

"The problem is," said Pictor Soto, 44, of Peru, "there will be immigration people there and we're all undocumented."

Farther west, where Gustav appeared more likely to make landfall, Guard troops were also being sent to Lake Charles.

The National Hurricane Center issued a hurricane watch for Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana and part of Texas, meaning hurricane conditions are possible within 36 hours.

Two East Texas counties also issued mandatory evacuation orders, and authorities in Mississippi began evacuating the mentally ill and aged from facilities along the coast.

National Guard soldiers on Mississippi's coast were going door-to-door to alert thousands of families in FEMA trailers and cottages that they should be prepared to evacuate Sunday.

In Alabama, shelters were opened and 3,000 National Guard personnel assembled to help evacuees from Mississippi and Louisiana.

"If we don't get the wind and rain, we stand ready to help them," Gov. Bob Riley said.

Mandatory evacuation ordered for New Orleans (http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080831/ap_on_re_us/gustav_gulf_coast)

Tropical quartet: 4 storms with more to come

By SETH BORENSTEIN, AP Science Writer Tue Sep 2, 4:57 PM ET

WASHINGTON - The tropics seem to be going crazy what with the remnants of Gustav, the new threat from Hanna, a strengthening Ike and newcomer Josephine. Get used to it.

Hurricane experts say all the weather ingredients, which normally fluctuate, are set on boil for the formation of storms. And it's going to stay that way for a while, they said.

Four named storms at the same time is a bit odd, but not unprecedented, meteorologists said. In 1995 five named storms lived simultaneously. And in 1998 there were four hurricanes at the same. But wait and see what happens next.

"Give us time, this is only Tuesday," said meteorologist Dennis Feltgren, spokesman for an all-too-busy hurricane center in Miami.

The peak of hurricane season isn't until Sept. 10 and this season already has 10 named storms, which is the long-term average for an entire season.

"Normally in an active season, there are bunches of hurricanes and lulls. It just doesn't seem like there's been bunches of lulls. I sure hope we're not talking (hurricanes) Christmas Eve," said meteorology professor Hugh Willoughby at Florida International University.

Two hurricane prognosticators — including William Gray, who pioneered the field of storm season forecasts — predicted Tuesday that this month would be almost twice as busy as an average September. They forecast five named storms, four of them hurricanes and two of them major.

These latest predictions cover only September and are not a revision of the season-long forecast, which called for a total of nine Atlantic hurricanes through November.

The wind and water conditions that led to the September update will likely continue for the next month or so, said Phil Klotzbach of Colorado State University, co-author of the new report. But if history is any guide, those conditions should change sometime in October, he said.

Wind shear — wind coming from a different direction at high altitude — often weakens a hurricane or at least puts the lid on some developing storms. But at the moment, the only wind shear in the entire Atlantic hurricane region is around Hanna, Feltgren said. So a major factor keeping other storms from forming or strengthening is absent, he said.

Waves of clouds and thunderstorms this time of year head westward from northern Africa every couple days. Some become tropical storms and hurricanes and others just die down. Gustav, Hanna, Ike and Josephine all started as those waves. What's different right now is that all those waves from Africa head right into a brew of air and water conditions ideal for strengthening, Klotzbach.

First, in the deep tropics, certain winds are blowing from the west and in the subtropics they are coming from the east, creating a propensity for spinning in between — which is the main hurricane development region — Klotzbach said. The current "spin factor" is among the top 20 percent in history, he said.

Add to that the fact that water temperatures are slightly warmer than normal, Klotzbach and Feltgren said. Warm water serves as fuel for storms.

And finally, Klotzbach factored into his forecast how the season has already been so far this year: Extremely busy. That means the atmosphere is unstable, which is good for storm development. He said the atmospheric pressure in the hurricane formation area is among the lowest it has ever been and storms are giant low pressure systems.

So Klotzbach advises to keep watching those waves coming off Africa: "There may be one today or tomorrow. But certainly today we have enough to worry about with Hanna, Ike, Josephine and Gustav remnants to keep us all busy."

Tropical quartet: 4 storms with more to come (http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080902/ap_on_sc/hurricane_forecast;_ylt=Akql.fqClO7bER0uJ5rgaotvzwcF)

'Extremely Dangerous' Category 4 Hurricane Ike

September 04, 2008

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Hurricane Ike was upgraded to an 'extremely dangerous' Category 4 storm by the National Hurricane Center late Wednesday as the system roared west across the central Atlantic.

The latest advisory from the National Hurricane Center, issued at 5 a.m. Thursday, increased Ike's maximum sustained winds to 145 mph, with higher gusts. Hurricane-force winds extended 35 miles from the storm's center of circulation.

The hurricane center's official forecast puts Ike on a path toward the south Florida coast sometime early next week, though the storm's path and strength can change without warning.

Other storms in the Atlantic have become less of a major threat. Hanna, once a hurricane, weakened to a tropical storm near the Bahamas, and is foercast to strike the southeastern U.S. as a Category 1 hurricane by the end of the week.

Beyond Ike in the Atlantic, Tropical Storm Josephine had winds of 50 mph at 5 a.m., but appeared headed northwest into open seas, where it would weaken in the coming days.

Ike is the fifth hurricane in the Atlantic this season.

Tropical Storm Hanna knocked out power to the southern Bahamas on Wednesday and officials from Nassau to South Carolina warned residents to prepare for possible evacuations as it moves north and grows back into a hurricane, possibly Thursday.

The storm, packing 70 mph winds, turned to the northwest after lingering for days near Haiti, where it caused flooding that killed 61 people.

The Civil Protection Department reported that flooding is responsible for most of the deaths.

Department spokesman Abel Nazaire says 21 of the deaths were in Gonaives. That northern city has been almost entirely cut off by floodwaters from the storm.

Only a few dozen of the Bahamas' roughly 700 islands are inhabited, but they are near sea level and have little natural protection. The storm was expected to pass near or over the central Bahamas on Thursday before reaching hurricane strength.

But the National Hurricane Center in Miami warned its reach was expanding, with tropical-storm force winds extending up to 290 miles from the center.

"Hanna has become a large tropical cyclone," the center said.

Forecasters said Hanna could bring moderate to heavy rains to the east coast of Florida by Friday morning. Long-range forecasts call for the storm to hit anywhere from Georgia to North Carolina on Saturday and curve along the U.S. Atlantic coast.

On Wednesday, South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford said he was returning from the Republican convention in Minnesota to deal with the storm.

'Extremely Dangerous' Category 4 Hurricane Ike (http://www.foxnews.com/printer_friendly_story/0,3566,416261,00.html)

Freak hailstorm turns part of tropical Kenya white

Wed Sep 3, 11:00 AM ET

NAIROBI (Reuters) - A huge hailstorm turned parts of central Kenya white, thrilling residents most of whom had never experienced such conditions, officials said on Wednesday.

Hailstorms are usual in some parts of Kenya, which straddles the equator, but the ferocity of the storm in Busara, 255 km (158 miles) northwest of the capital was unprecedented.

Excited villagers pelted each other with snowballs while some ate pieces of the icy sheet that formed over an entire hillside.

"We thought a big white sheet had been spread, so we decided to come and see for ourselves. We thought that it was Jesus who had come back," one villager told reporters.

Kenya's Meteorological Department said Tuesday's storm was caused by the convergence of cold air currents from the Indian Ocean and warm air currents from the Congo.

"The hailstones falling on the ground joined together to form expansive sheets of ice or snow flakes occupying a large area, 30 acres," a statement by the meteorologists said.

More than 12 hours after the storm, the forested hillside was still white despite the hot tropical sun.

"In fact this thing is very sweet, we have never seen anything like this. We like the ice so much because with the sun being hot, you take it and you feel satisfied," resident Simon Kimani said.

The only snow to be seen in normally sunny Kenya is on top of the country's highest mountain, 5,199-metre (17,057 ft) Mount Kenya.

Freak hailstorm turns part of tropical Kenya white (http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20080903/od_uk_nm/oukoe_uk_kenya_weather;_ylt=An.OovoiXyTMGGDW.D0H5Das0NUE)

Hurricane Damage Extensive in Texas
By CLIFFORD KRAUSS and JAMES C. McKINLEY Jr.
September 13, 2008

HOUSTON — Hurricane Ike barreled across a wide swath of Texas on Saturday, deluging the city of Galveston with a wall of water, flooding coastal towns and leaving extensive damage across metropolitan Houston.

With wind gusts approaching 100 miles per hour, the 600-mile-wide Category 2 hurricane peeled sheets of steel off skyscrapers in Houston, smashed bus shelters and blew out windows, sending shattered glass and debris across the nation’s fourth-largest city, with a population of 2.2 million.

The storm came ashore on Galveston Island, which in 1900 suffered one of the worst hurricanes to hit the United States. Winds covered the main highway with a layer of boats and debris, shutting it down. In Orange, Tex., near the Louisiana coast, the sea rose so rapidly that people were forced to flee to attics and roofs, and the city used trucks to rescue them, local police said.

Yet officials expressed relief that the damage was not as catastrophic as federal and state officials had warned it would be, in part because forecasters appear to have overestimated how much the sea would rise in the path of the storm.

“Fortunately the worst-case scenario did not occur,” Gov. Rick Perry of Texas said at a news conference Saturday afternoon. “The good news is the surge was not as big as we thought it would be.”

There were reports of as many as four people killed, but it could take days to search flooded homes to assess the full impact of the storm, officials said.

Authorities said the hurricane could still prove to be the most punishing storm to hit the area since Hurricane Alicia 25 years ago.

Almost the entire metropolitan area lost power, and authorities said more than three million people were trying to manage in the dark. Utility officials said it could be weeks before power is restored throughout the region.

The magnitude of the power loss and the flooding raised the possibility that several major oil refineries would take more than a week to reopen. As a result, gasoline prices will probably spike around the country, even if oil prices continue to ease on international markets. Overnight, prices rose an average of 5 cents a gallon, to $3.73 for regular gasoline, according to AAA.

The expectations at nightfall Friday that a virtual tsunami of 20-foot waves would crash directly into Galveston, a city of 57,000, were fortunately dashed after midnight when the eye of the hurricane hit shore. City officials estimated the seas rose about 12 feet, though some tide gauges showed a 15-foot rise, and federal officials said it would take time to determine the exact number.

Whatever the height of the surge, longtime residents of Galveston said the damage was still the worst they had ever seen.

More than two million people evacuated coastal areas of Texas and Louisiana before the storm struck, but the authorities estimated that more than 100,000 people throughout the region, including 20,000 in Galveston, had disregarded mandatory evacuation orders.

For industries in the area, officials at refining companies said early damage reports were encouraging, because the center of the storm missed the refineries. The surge of water into Galveston’s shipping channel, an important depot for imported oil, was not as strong as many had feared, and officials hope to reopen it early in the week if no major obstacles are blocking shipping lanes.

At least 100,000 homes were inundated by surging waters, while isolated fires broke out around the region when trees and flying objects fell on electrical transformers, causing sparks.

In Houston, only the downtown area and the medical center section had power as of Saturday evening.

“It’s going to be weeks before we get power to the last customers,” said Mike Rodgers, a spokesman for Entergy Texas, the primary electricity provider between Houston and the Louisiana border.

President Bush issued a major disaster declaration for 29 Texas counties and said federal officials were prepared to help with recovery efforts.

“Obviously, this is a huge storm that is causing a lot of damage not only in Texas, but also in parts of Louisiana,” Mr. Bush said. “Some people didn’t evacuate when asked, and I’ve been briefed on the rescue teams there in the area. They’re prepared to move as soon as weather conditions permit.”

Senator Barack Obama canceled an appearance on “Saturday Night Live,” aides said, because he felt it would be inappropriate.

Civic leaders asked residents to conserve water and call 911 only in life-or-death situations.

“We don’t know what we’re going to find,” said Mayor Lyda Ann Thomas of Galveston, according to The Houston Chronicle. “We hope we’ll find that the people who didn’t leave here are alive and well.”

Despite the devastating flooding in Galveston, experts said the storm surge had not been as severe as some predicted.

Benton McGee, a hydrologist with the United States Geological Survey, told The Associated Press that the surge at Galveston, where the storm made landfall, was about 11 feet. Forecasters had predicted a surge of up to 25 feet.

But Stacey Stewart, a senior hurricane analyst at the National Hurricane Center, defended the government’s predictions of a 15- to 20-foot surge and said it would take time to determine the exact rise in sea level.

“I wouldn’t go out and say that surge values weren’t as high as predicted,” he said. “We have received reports of 15 feet and the sea wall being topped.”

Mr. Stewart said a shift in the storm’s track to the north just before landfall may have kept the rise in sea levels on the lower side of what had been forecast.

The storm moved through the region more quickly than some previous hurricanes and tropical storms, limiting flooding. By early afternoon, the National Hurricane Center had downgraded Ike to a tropical storm.

Mike Varela, chief of the Galveston Fire Department, said flooding was 8- to 10-feet deep in some areas of the city. “The low-lying neighborhoods are extremely flooded right now,” Chief Varela said.

Twenty-two men aboard a crippled freighter, which was adrift off the coast of Galveston when the hurricane hit, came through the storm safely, the Coast Guard said.

Initial reports from residential neighborhoods around Houston suggested that flooding and property damage were not as serious as some had feared early in the morning after hearing reports from downtown, where windows were shattered on skyscrapers and hotels. Winds downtown were particularly intense.

At Reliant Park, in southwest Houston, the storm tore chunks from the retractable roof of the football stadium, the park’s president and general manager told The Associated Press. The game between the Texans and the Baltimore Ravens scheduled for Monday night would probably have to be postponed, he said.

-Late in the afternoon, Air Force helicopters began plucking people out of flooded homes in Galveston and carrying them to shelters on the mainland.

Joyce Williams, 58, arrived on the first chopper with her 80-year-old mother, Eunice Haley, who had spent the night in a house with four feet of water on the ground floor. Ms. Williams was trying to get her mother out of the swamped house when she saw the helicopter and waved. “I was relieved,” she said.

Steven Rushing, who had tried to ride out the storm at his Galveston home with his family, eventually left by boat. Mr. Rushing, six relatives and two dogs wound up at a hotel in Galveston.

“I know my house was dry at 11 o’clock, and at 12:30 a.m., we were floating on the couch putting lifejackets on,” he said. Once the water reached the television, four feet off the floor, Mr. Rushing said, he retrieved his boat from the garage and loaded his family into it.

“I didn’t keep my boat there to plan on evacuating because I didn’t plan on the water getting that high, but I sure am glad it was there,” he said.

Hurricane Damage Extensive in Texas (http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/13/us/13cnd-ike.html?_r=2&oref=slogin&pagewanted=print)

Typhoon slams into Taiwan, at least two missing

Sun Sep 14, 9:23 AM ET

TAIPEI (AFP) - A powerful typhoon pounded Taiwan on Sunday with fierce winds and torrential rains, leaving at least two people missing and 17 others injured, officials said.

Traffic was severely disrupted as Typhoon Sinlaku made landfall in northeastern Ilan county early Sunday, packing winds of up to 173 kilometres (107 miles) per hour, the Central Weather Bureau said.

TV reports said two small cars carrying an unknown number of people had been washed away by a river after a bridge collapsed in central Taiwan.

Hundreds of domestic and international flights have been cancelled on the island, and around 500 passengers were stranded in Kinmen airport, a Taiwan-controlled offshore island near the southeastern Chinese city of Xiamen.

Traffic on 20 highways was interrupted by landslides caused by heavy rains, which have accumulated to up to 1,000 millimetres (40 inches) in some remote mountainous areas over the weekend.

Power and telephone services were also disrupted to nearly 100,000 households as trees were uprooted by the strong winds.

Some 250 residents in northern mountain villages were evacuated to safety, said the National Fire Agency which coordinates Taiwan's rescue missions.

The typhoon lost momentum after making landfall but weather forecasters warned residents that heavy rain would continue.

"The typhoon kept losing force over the past three hours," said a weather bureau official. It packed gusts of 119 kilometres (71.4 miles) per hour, down from 124 kilometres recorded earlier in the day.

"However, people must not relax their vigilance as the typhoon is expected to spark more rains in the day to come," he said.

A worker was washed away by flash floods while fixing a power system in the central Nantou county. A 69-year-old farmer was reported missing in the central Changhua county when visiting his paddy field, the National Fire Agency said.

Seventeen people were injured, including two hit by debris, while four were hurt when their bus crashed in southern Taiwan, it said.

At 1000 GMT, the centre of the typhoon was 40 kilometres west of the northern city of Keelung. With a radius of 250 kilometres, Typhoon Sinlaku was moving northeast towards Japan.

On the southeastern coast of mainland China, more than 170,000 people have been evacuated from low-lying coastal regions in Fujian and Zhejiang provinces.

Sinlaku evoked painful memories of Typhoon Nari, which hit Taiwan in September 2001, leaving 94 people dead and causing severe flooding.

Two tropical storms pounded the island in July, leaving at least 22 people dead and causing hundreds of millions of dollars in damage to agriculture.

Typhoon slams into Taiwan, at least two missing (http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20080914/wl_asia_afp/taiwanweathertyphoon;_ylt=ArJYmjXALvKrmBMUbmXjyDcBxg8F)

Norbert strengthens into Category 2 hurricane

By OLGA R. RODRIGUEZ, Associated Press Writer 33 minutes ago

MEXICO CITY - Hurricane Norbert strengthened into a powerful Category 2 storm over the Pacific Ocean and forecasters warned that it could reach Mexico's Baja California peninsula by the weekend.

The hurricane was expected to become a major Category 3 storm on Wednesday and then turn toward the northeast on Thursday on a path that could take it over the southern Baja peninsula and the Mexican mainland, the U.S. National Hurricane Center said.

Forecasters said Norbert was moving west-northwest at 10 mph (17 kph) and by late Tuesday was located 500 miles (805 kilometers) south of Baja California's tip. It had sustained winds of near 105 mph (165 kph).

Norbert is the seventh hurricane of the east Pacific season.

On Mexico's Gulf coast, Marco weakened into a tropical depression late Tuesday after slamming into land as a tropical storm with near hurricane-force winds.

The storm hit land about 55 miles (90 kilometers) north of Veracruz.

Mexico's state oil company had shutdown of some oil platforms in the gulf and evacuated some 3,000 people ahead of Marco's arrival.

Marco was expected to dissipate overnight as it moved over Mexico's mountainous terrain, but forecasters said rains of up to 5 inches could still unleash mudslides.

Marco appeared to have largely spared water-logged southern Veracruz state, where rain-swollen rivers jumped their banks, leaving the towns of Minatitlan and Hidalgotitlan under 10 feet (3 meters) of water last week.

Veracruz state authorities closed schools and set up some 200 shelters, while soldiers and rescue officials bused people from low-lying communities.

In northern Veracruz state, authorities evacuated a hospital in the town of Misantla, where two overflowing rivers threatened with flooding it.

Norbert strengthens into Category 2 hurricane (http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081008/ap_on_re_la_am_ca/lt_tropical_weather;_ylt=AmkquD27QttTJ10dVNmGOPVBXYh4)
~~~~~~~

Yup, here in Arizona we are expecting some weather out of Norbert.

Snowstorm closes major highways, schools
23 mins ago

PORTJERVIS, N.Y. – The first big snowstorm of the season in the Northeast closed sections of major highways Tuesday and blacked out thousands of utility customers.

The National Weather Service posted a winter storm warning for parts of New York state, in effect until 8 a.m. Wednesday, and issued winter storm advisories for parts of Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Vermont.

"It looked like a mini blizzard in October," said Joe Orlando, spokesman for the New Jersey Turnpike Authority. "We're salting the roads and we haven't even gone trick or treating yet."

Up to a foot of snow was possible in parts of upstate New York, with wind blowing at 25 mph and gusting to 40 mph, and as much as 9 inches of snow was forecast in Vermont's mountains, the weather service said. Eight inches of snow had fallen by late morning in Pennsylvania's Pocono Mountains.

Schools closed or delayed their opening in parts of Pennsylvania and New York state.

New York's Thruway Authority said Interstate 84 was closed for part of the morning at the New York-Pennsylvania state line in the Port Jervis area. It was reopened by late morning.

Stretches of Interstate 80 in northeastern Pennsylvania were closed intermittently because of multiple tractor-trailer wrecks, state agencies said.

PPL Corp. said more than 33,000 of its customers in northeastern Pennsylvania lost power when the heavy, wet snow brought down trees and power lines.

Elsewhere, light snow fell at higher elevations of the southern Appalachians, and National Park Service spokesman Bob Miller said. U.S. 441 through Great Smoky Mountains National Park in Tennessee and North Carolina was closed for part of the morning while crews spread sand.

Snowstorm closes major highways, schools (http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081028/ap_on_re_us/northeast_storm/print;_ylt=AuCYTP_dSwBCbBfztfrvgHPLLJ94)

More rain as Vietnam flood toll rises to 74
by Tran Thi Minh Ha Tran Thi Minh Ha
Nov 4, 9:48 am ET

HANOI (AFP) – More rain lashed Vietnam's flood-hit capital Hanoi and the north-central countryside on Tuesday as the official death toll climbed to 74 after more than a week of heavy downpours.

Thousands of people, including children and the elderly, remained trapped in their water-logged homes in Hanoi, where 20 people have died since last Friday in what officials now call the capital's worst floods in 35 years.

Authorities worried whether the rain-soaked dyke system around Hanoi and across the northern Red River delta would hold back swollen waterways and have deployed thousands of troops to stand by for emergency repairs.

Across Hanoi, 44 neighbourhoods remained under dirty brown floodwaters up to 2.5 metres (8.3 feet) high, raising fears about outbreaks of diseases such as cholera and dengue fever, authorities said.

Hanoi officials said more than 9,000 troops had joined rescue efforts and over 5,000 households had received help -- but in many flood areas residents said there was hardly a police officer, soldier or rescue volunteer in sight.

Schools across the capital remained closed Tuesday, and hospitals were crowded with cases of respiratory and gastrointestinal disease.

Many districts still had no electricity and suffered shortages of drinking water, while food and petrol prices have multiplied in local markets.

Among those killed in Hanoi were 12 people who were swept away in floods or fell into open drains hidden under flooded roads, four victims of electrocution and two people killed by lightning, said authorities.

Across the disaster region, more than 120,000 buildings have been flooded, 250,000 hectares (over 600,000 acres) of rice and other crops have been lost, and 170 kilometres (105 miles) of rural roads damaged, officials said.

Television reports showed rescue workers using trucks to clear boulders and rubble from roads in remote northern mountain areas, where heavy rains in deforested areas routinely cause flash floods and landslides.

The worst-hit rural province was north-central Nghe An, where authorities have reported 22 deaths, including a 49-year-old man who was killed after saving three other people from drowning.

In Ninh Binh province, south of Hanoi, workers used hundreds of sand bags to reinforce a river dyke but thousands of houses remained under water, said an official with the flood and storm prevention committee.

Fifteen more people died in Ha Tinh province, and casualties were reported in provinces as far south as Quang Binh, a central region which has suffered almost two weeks of rains and floods.

Weather forecasters predicted more downpours in the north, while Hanoi authorities said it would take at least until the end of the week before flood waters could be pumped out of the worst-hit areas.

In neighbouring China, massive downpours in the southwestern Yunnan province and Guangxi region had also killed 43 people, mostly in landslides, and left 47 more missing by early Tuesday, state media reported.

Vietnam, a country of 86 million, gets lashed by typhoons and tropical storms every year, mostly along the central coast.

Last year, seven major storms from the South China Sea battered Vietnam, killing more than 435 people in floods and landslides, displacing thousands and leaving vast central areas inundated for months.

More rain as Vietnam flood toll rises to 74 (http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20081104/wl_asia_afp/vietnamweatherfloods/print)

Massive waves a mystery at Maine harbor

By Megan Woolhouse, Globe Staff | November 4, 2008

Dockworker Marcy Ingall saw a giant wave in the distance last Tuesday afternoon and stopped in her tracks. It was an hour before low tide in Maine's Boothbay Harbor, yet without warning, the muddy harbor floor suddenly filled with rushing, swirling water.

In 15 minutes, the water rose 12 feet, then receded. And then it happened again. It occurred three times, she said, each time ripping apart docks and splitting wooden pilings.

"It was bizarre," said Ingall, a lifelong resident of the area. "Everybody was like, 'Oh my God, is this the end?' " It was not the apocalypse, but it was a rare phenomenon, one that has baffled researchers. The National Weather Service said ocean levels rapidly rose in Boothbay, Southport, and Bristol in a matter of minutes around 3 p.m. on Oct. 28 to the surprise of ocean watchers. Exactly what caused the rogue waves remains unknown.

"The cause of it is a mystery," said National Weather Service meteorologist John Jensenius, who first reported the waves from a field office in Gray, Maine. "But it's not mysterious that it happened."

Specialists have posed a variety of possible explanations, saying the waves could have been caused by a powerful storm squall or the slumping of mountains of sediment from a steep canyon in the ocean - a sort of mini tsunami. The last time such rogue waves appeared in Maine was at Bass Harbor in 1926.

Jensenius said the occurrence is so unusual, that specialists don't have a name for the phenomenon.

"That's part of our problem," he said.

A similar occurrence in Florida more than 15 years ago continues to baffle researchers. A series of 12- to 15-foot waves hit Daytona Beach on July 3, 1992, injuring more than 20 people and lifting and tossing dozens of cars.

Jeff List, an oceanographer at the US Geological Survey at Woods Hole said he and other researchers studied the occurrence, but no one has been able to pinpoint the cause. And he said similarly enormous waves appeared once on the Great Lakes.

Could such a wave or waves enter Boston Harbor, or even engulf the Massachusetts coast?

"It seems a little unlikely one could hit Boston," List said. "But then again, these things are always surprises when they occur."

A squall line surge, which occurs when fast-moving storm winds sweep over water that is traveling the same speed, can create such a wave. (The speed of waves is directly related to wind speed and the depth of the ocean at any given point.)

List and other specialists said such an occurrence is exceedingly rare, but when it occurs, "you get this interaction that causes a large bulge of water to rise up."

Jensenius said that might have been a factor last week, when a major storm front brought rain to most of the East Coast, particularly southern New England. But he said that does not solve the mystery, adding that he had not ruled out a massive "land slump" underwater. Such slumps can create waves that may be classified as tsunamis, although no where near the size and scale of the tsunami that occurred in the Indian Ocean in 2004. Those fast-moving and deadly waves were caused by a massive earthquake.

Tsunami-like waves may not be as rare on the East Coast as most people think. Jensenius referenced a 2002 article in the International Journal of the Tsunami Society that called the threat of tsunami and tsunami-like waves generated in the Atlantic Ocean "very real despite a general impression to the contrary."

The article said such waves appear "in most cases to be the result of slumping or landsliding associated with earthquakes or with wave action associated with strong storms."

Explosive decompression of underwater methane could also be a factor.

Jensenius said he is trying to gather information on the waves that hit Boothbay Harbor, adding that he has asked local businesses such as banks whether the event might have been recorded on security videos.

"It could be this or it could be that, but as a science, it is very difficult to tie it down," he said of the waves.

List also said the waves could have been triggered by the same conditions that cause a tsunami, including a breaking glacier. Rogue waves can result from a tsunami traveling through the ocean that breaks "down into numerous waves."

According to the National Weather Service, no earthquakes or seismic activity were reported in the area when the Boothbay waves appeared. List noted that there was no seismic reading when the Daytona waves struck.

Tom Lippmann, an oceanographer in the Marine Sciences Department at the University of New Hampshire, said he also suspected that the Maine wave was a squall line surge. The National Weather Service incorrectly called it a tide surge, he said.

"Tides in the Gulf of Maine are essentially driven by celestial bodies' pull on the earth's water," he said. "They're very well predicted and very well known."

Residents and business owners in Boothbay said they were glad the phenomenon didn't happen at high tide, when it might have caused massive flooding and more extensive damage. Janice Newell, who lives nearby in Head of the Harbor, told the local newspaper the rushing water "was of biblical proportion."

"There were three large whirlpools in the inner harbor, up to within a foot of my neighbor's wall," she told the Boothbay Register. "It was beautiful, but it was scary."

Elena Smith, a waitress and part-owner of McSeagull's restaurant overlooking the harbor, said the late-afternoon lunch crowd sat speechless as the waters rose and receded. She was stunned to see the normally safe and placid harbor suddenly run like rapids. Some residents reported seeing massive whirlpools of water that disappeared, leaving clam shells and seaweed in vortex patterns on the harbor floor.

"It felt like somebody took the plug out somewhere" in the ocean, Smith said. "It felt like there must have been water missing in the ocean someplace."

Massive waves a mystery at Maine harbor (http://www.boston.com/news/local/maine/articles/2008/11/04/massive_waves_a_mystery_at_maine_harbor?mode=PF)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Luke 21:25 And there shall be signs in the sun, and in the moon, and in the stars; and upon the earth distress of nations, with perplexity; the sea and the waves roaring;

The disaster no one is reporting: Honduran floods
11 Nov 2008 13:57:00 GMT
Written by: Emma Batha

Landslides and flooding in Honduras have affected an estimated 320,000 people, wiped out almost half the crops and prompted the government to declare a state of emergency.

Aid workers say it's the worst disaster since Hurricane Mitch, which killed more than 5,000 people when it slammed into the Central American county in 1998.

Yet scan the newspapers or internet and you'll be hard pressed to find any reports.

Admittedly, the world media has been focussed on the American elections and global credit crunch, but this isn't the only reason behind the silence.

Christian Aid says the lack of attention is partly because the flooding in Honduras has been a slow developing disaster caused by weeks of sustained rain brought on by a tropical depression. A sudden hurricane hit would have probably attracted more coverage.

Yet this disaster shows depressions can be every bit as devastating.

"This is the worst flooding Honduras has experienced since Hurricane Mitch 10 years ago," says Erwin Garzona, Christian Aid's emergencies officer for Central and South America.

"The impact is worse than Hurricane Felix in 2007 or Hurricane Bertha in 2004, but there has been little media coverage, partly because this situation is caused by continuous heavy rainfall rather than a dramatic hurricane strike."

The low death toll is probably another factor in the lack of coverage. Thanks to lessons learned from Hurricane Mitch, many Honduran communities now have better early warning and evacuation systems which have probably saved many lives.

Around 40 people have died so far - a tiny fraction of the number killed by Mitch. But aid workers say the geographical extent of this year's disaster is worse than in 1998. Only one of Honduras's 18 provinces has escaped unscathed.

Tens of thousands of people have been forced to leave their homes, and many communities can only be reached by boat, hampering relief efforts. Aid agencies warn that Honduras will face serious food shortages for many months after the rains destroyed up to half this year's crops.

Garzona says the international response had been surprisingly slow - a fact he believes is due in part to the lack of media coverage. Another factor is the aid world's focus on the Pakistan earthquake which struck on Oct. 29 as the Honduran disaster was escalating.

U.N. agencies and their partners have launched a $17 million flash appeal for Honduras to provide food, shelter, health care, water and sanitation. But just 8.8 per cent of this has been funded so far.

The U.N. Central Emergency Response Fund, which was partly set up to plug the gaps for overlooked emergencies, has released a $1.5 million grant.

"The international community has been very slow considering the impact. The number affected is high - not as high as Mitch, but it is high," Garzona says.

The disaster has been exacerbated by the large number of landslides caused by widespread deforestation which has become much worse in the last decade, he says.

Landslides have long-term effects because villagers cannot replant crops and rebuild homes when the rains subside. But Garzona says deforestation is a hard problem to tackle because much of it is illegal and there is a high level of corruption.

Some aid workers say the level of poverty in Honduras has also increased since Mitch, meaning more people are building homes on land that is marginal and prone to flooding.

The disaster no one is reporting: Honduran floods (http://www.alertnet.org/db/an_art/19216/2008/10/11-135720-1.htm)

Fast-Moving Wildfires Destroy Homes, Send Residents Fleeing in Southern California
Saturday , November 15, 2008

LOS ANGELES —
A wind-blasted wildfire tore through the city's northern foothills early Saturday, sending thousands of residents fleeing in the dark, forcing a hospital to evacuate and destroying an untold number of homes.

The fire broke out late Friday in the foothill community of Sylmar on the edge of the Angeles National Forest and quickly spread across 2,600 acres — more than 4 square miles — as it was driven by Santa Ana wind gusting as high as 76 mph.

Dozens of homes were destroyed, officials said, and aerial footage from television helicopters showed rows of houses gutted in just in one subdivision.

Fire crews had to abandon a mobile home park that was burning out of control. The park had 600 spaces for homes.

"We have almost total devastation here in the mobile park," Los Angeles Fire Capt. Steve Ruda said. "I can't even read the street names because the street signs are melting."

Part of the area's network of highways was shut down.

Officials ordered huge evacuations in the Sylmar, Knollwood and Porter Ranch communities as the fire jumped two freeways, closing the highways and forcing evacuees to take surface streets.

"Near hurricane winds made it very difficult for firefighters," Los Angeles Fire deputy chief Mario Rueda said.

To the west, firefighters were still battling a separate wildfire that destroyed more than 110 homes in Santa Barbara.

The Los Angeles blaze threatened at least 1,000 buildings, fire spokeswoman Melissa Kelley said.

Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa said the fire brought down some power lines and could cause rolling blackouts. He urged residents throughout the city to conserve power.

One resident was hospitalized in serious condition with burns over 60 percent of his body, Kelley said. Two firefighters were treated for minor injuries.

Flames struck the edge of the Olive View-UCLA Medical Center campus shortly after midnight, causing an electricity outage that forced officials to evacuate two dozen critical patients. About 200 other patients stayed behind.

Several administrative buildings were damaged.

The hospital's power and backup generators failed, and emergency room staff had to keep critical patients alive with hand powered ventilators. Twenty-eight people, including 10 neonatal babies, were rushed out by ambulance to another hospital.

"It was totally dark." said hospital spokeswoman Carla Nino. "There was dense smoke."

Power was restored at the hospital after three hours.

Some people refused to leave their homes, grabbing water hoses to defend their homes, but others left even before mandatory evacuation orders were issued.

"I can see the smoke. It's terrible. I'm going to take my dog and go," Dorothy Boyer told The Associated Press from her home late Friday.

More than 600 firefighters struggled to protect homes threatened by flying embers. Because of the rough terrain in the forest, they were relying on water-dropping helicopters to tackle flames. Authorities said some aircraft were grounded during the night by the savage wind, but they expected six airplanes and a dozen helicopters to attack the fire during the day.

The shifting wind pushed the fire uphill toward the San Gabriel Mountains and downhill toward homes, sometimes skipping across canyons. It also jumped Interstate 5 and the 210 Freeway, forcing the California Highway Patrol to shut down sections of both freeways and some connecting roads.

Flying embers ignited sporadic spot fires and firefighters were patrolling the evacuated neighborhoods "making sure these small fires don't turn into big fires," Rueda said.

If the fire continues marching west, it could be slowed by a fire break that resulted from a wildfire which burned about 14,000-acres near Porter Ranch last month, authorities said.

The cause of the fire was under investigation. One resident suffered serious burns, Kelley said.

The blaze also charred habitat for the endangered California condor and several hiking trails, U.S. Forest Service spokesman Stanton Florea said.

About 80 miles to the west, an uncontained blaze in the Santa Barbara community of Montecito had forced the evacuation of more than 5,400 homes since it started Thursday night, exploding through dry brush and vast stands of oil-rich eucalyptus trees. About 800 firefighters were battling the fire at the wealthy, celebrity-studded enclave, and they were expected to make significant progress through Saturday morning, said Santa Barbara city fire spokesman John Ahlman.

"There's plenty of hot material still left out there," he said. "But things could change in a hurry if the winds pick up."

Several multimillion-dollar homes and a small college suffered major damage in Montecito, a quaint and secluded area that has attracted celebrities such as Rob Lowe, Jeff Bridges, Michael Douglas and Oprah Winfrey.

The fire quickly consumed rows of luxury homes and parts of Westmont College, a Christian liberal arts school, where students spent the night in a gymnasium shelter.

"That whole mountain over there went up at once. Boom," said Bob McNall, 70, who with his son and grandson saved their home by hosing it down. "The whole sky was full of embers. There was nothing that they could do. It was just too much."

Santa Barbara Mayor Marty Blum said up to 200 homes may have been destroyed or damaged.

The cause of the fire is under investigation.

At least 13 people were injured in Montecito. A 98-year-old man with multiple medical problems died after being evacuated, but it was unclear if his death was directly related to the blaze, Santa Barbara County Sheriff-Coroner Bill Brown said.

Montecito, known for its balmy climate and charming Spanish colonial homes, has long attracted celebrities. The landmark Montecito Inn was built in the 1920s by Charlie Chaplin, and the nearby San Ysidro Ranch was the honeymoon site of John F. Kennedy in 1953.

Montecito suffered a major fire in 1977, when more than 200 homes burned. A fire in 1964 burned about 67,000 acres and damaged 150 houses and buildings.

Fast-Moving Wildfires Destroy Homes, Send Residents Fleeing in Southern California (http://www.foxnews.com/printer_friendly_story/0,3566,452567,00.html)

Australia's storm-hit city like a 'war zone', says PM
Tue Nov 18, 3:26 am ET

SYDNEY (AFP) – The city of Brisbane on Australia's east coast was like a "war zone", Prime Minister Kevin Rudd said Tuesday as troops led recovery efforts after a deadly storm.

Rudd had his flight home from the United States -- where he attended the G20 summit on the global financial crisis -- diverted to Brisbane to assess the damage to his home town caused by Sunday night's storm.

"It looks like a war zone, and it feels like a war zone, and what's good about it is the people pulling together and neighbours looking after each other," Rudd told reporters.

"If we need more troops to clean this mess up they will be provided immediately and we'll respond immediately to the requests of the disaster management coordination authorities."

The storm damaged about 4,000 homes, destroying at least 30, flattened cars and felled power lines, plunging large swathes of the city into darkness, emergency service officials said.

A 20-year-old man died when he was swept away while photographing the dramatic weather -- described as the worst to hit the area in 25 years -- from a stormwater drain north of Brisbane.

More than 8,000 homes were still without power in Brisbane and on the nearby tourist destinations of the Gold and Sunshine Coasts as some 370 troops joined fire-fighters, police and volunteers in clean-up operations Tuesday.

"This is just the beginning of what's going to be a long-term clean-up and I think the important thing for us all is to keep faith with the people who have been horribly affected by this," Rudd said.

The prime minister announced financial assistance for families whose homes had been damaged by the storm, saying the government would work to make sure they could enjoy a Christmas that is as close to normal as possible.

Australia's storm-hit city like a 'war zone', says PM (http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20081118/wl_afp/australiastorm/print;_ylt=AuCYTP_dSwBCbBfztfrvgHOROrgF)

50,000 Ethiopians displaced by floods
Wed Nov 19,

ADDIS ABABA (AFP) – Dramatic floods in the eastern Somali region of Ethiopia have killed at least three people and displaced more than 50,000 since the start of the month, aid sources said Wednesday.

"At least 52,000 people have abandoned their homes in Ethiopia's Somali region after the Wade Shabelle and Genale rivers burst their banks following heavy rains," the United Nations' humanitarian news agency IRIN reported.

The agency said heavy rains fell on the region for six days from November 2.

The report said that "36,888 people were displaced and three killed in the worst-affected woreda (a small district), Kelafo, in Gode."

Government officials said assessment teams had been sent to the affected areas.

"The flooding is there, we have sent an assessment team to this area. Such things are said, but we need to confirm. We are waiting for the report and confirmation," agriculture ministry spokesman Taregne Tsigie told AFP.

Ethiopia, home to 80 million people, is chronically hit by floods and droughts and is currently experiencing what UN and other relief organisations have described as a critical humanitarian situation.

Meanwhile, thousands of people in northern Uganda have been displaced from their homes because of floods caused by heavy rains.

The precise number of people displaced by flooding is difficult to estimate because a large territory is affected, but the situation is undoubtedly urgent, Minister for Disaster Preparedness Tarsis Kabwegyere told AFP.

"We need information so we can get assistance to them quickly," he said.

Uganda's Daily Monitor newspaper on Tuesday put the number of displaced at 15,000, based on reports from local leaders around Uganda's northern ring.

50,000 Ethiopians displaced by floods (http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20081119/wl_africa_afp/ethiopiafloodsrelief;_ylt=AjlQzA_gyz89PsBU3ZZ_C4C96Q8F)

Hunger Plagues Haiti After Storm Wipes Out Crops, Livestock

Thursday , November 20, 2008

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti —
The 5-year-old teetered on broomstick legs — he weighed less than 20 pounds, even after days of drinking enriched milk. Nearby, a 4-year-old girl hung from a strap attached to a scale, her wide eyes lifeless, her emaciated arms dangling weakly.

In pockets of Haiti accessible only by donkey or foot, children are dying of malnutrition — their already meager food supply cut by a series of devastating storms that destroyed crops, wiped out livestock and sent food prices spiraling.

At least 26 severely malnourished children have died in the past four weeks in the remote region of Baie d'Orange in Haiti's southeast, aid workers said Thursday, and there are fears the toll will rise much higher if help does not come quickly to the impoverished Caribbean nation.

Another 65 severely malnourished children are being treated in makeshift tent clinics in the mountainous area, or at hospitals where they were evacuated in Port-au-Prince and elsewhere, said Max Cosci, who heads the Belgian contingent of Doctors Without Borders in Haiti.

One evacuee, a 7-year-old girl, died while being treated, Cosci said, adding: "The situation is extremely, extremely fragile and dangerous."

At a makeshift malnutrition ward at a Doctors Without Borders hospital in the capital, 10 emaciated children were under emergency care Thursday, their stomachs swollen and hair faded by pigmentation loss caused by malnutrition. Several had the puffy faces typical of kwashiorkor, a protein-deficiency disorder.

Five-year-old Mackenson Duclair, his ribs protruding and his legs little more than skin stretched over bones, weighed in at 19.8 pounds, even after days of drinking milk enriched with potassium and salt. Doctors said he needed to gain another five pounds before he could go home.

Dangling from a scale mounted from the ceiling, 4-year-old Venecia Lonis looked as limp as a rag doll as doctors weighed her, her huge brown eyes expressionless, her hair tied with bright yellow bows.

Mackenson's grandmother, who has raised him since his mother died, said she barely has a can of corn grits to feed herself, the boy and her 8-year-old granddaughter each day.

"These things did not happen when I was growing up," 72-year-old Ticouloute Fortune said.

Rural families already struggling with soaring food prices in Haiti, the Western Hemisphere's poorest country, lost their safety nets when fields were destroyed and livestock wiped out by the storms, which killed nearly 800 people and caused $1 billion worth of damage in August and September.

U.N. World Food Program country director Myrta Kaulard said she fears more deaths from malnutrition in other isolated parts of Haiti, and search and medical teams were fanning out in the northwest and along the southwestern peninsula to check.

The World Food Program has sent more than 30 tons of food aid — enough to feed 5,800 people for two weeks — into the remote southeastern region since September, and other groups funded by the U.S. Agency for International Development have sent food as well, she said.

But the steep, narrow paths and poor visibility make it difficult to deliver the food to the mountain communities where hunger is worsening. In one case, a WFP truck flipped over while struggling up a hill and slid into a ravine, killing an aid worker.

"There is always a bottleneck. The same situation that the people are facing is the same situation we're also facing," Kaulard told The Associated Press Thursday.

The mountain villages have long suffered from chronic hunger, growing only enough staples to feed themselves less than seven months out of the year, she said.

But families normally have enough to last through December. This year, Haiti's agriculture ministry estimates 60 percent of the harvest was lost in the storms nationwide. Land quality is already poor and farmers lost seeds for next year when the storms hit, Kaulard said.

Effects of the storms vary widely from village to village and even family to family. In some places, food supplies seem intact. In others, Doctors Without Borders has found rates of severe malnutrition as high as 5 percent.

Aid shortages may soon compound the problem. Donor countries have funded only a third of the U.N.'s $105 million aid appeal for Haiti following the storms, and resources could run out in January, Kaulard said.

At the hospital Thursday, Enock Augustin sat beside the bed where his 5-year-old daughter Bertha was sleeping. The fragile-looking child was evacuated by helicopter Nov. 8 with vomiting and diarrhea. When she arrived, nearly a quarter of her body weight was due to fluid retention, a sign of severe protein deficiency.

The swelling gradually receded as she was fed nutrient-enriched milk and treated with antibiotics and anti-worm medicine; she shrank to just 21 pounds.

She has since gained about two pounds but can't go home until she reaches 26 pounds, doctors said.

For months, the Augustin family had gotten by despite the soaring prices of corn grits and imported rice because they grew potatoes, which they could eat or barter for plantains, yams and breadfruit that did not fluctuate with the world market.

But then, in August, Tropical Storm Fay hit, followed by Hurricane Gustav, Tropical Storm Hanna and Hurricane Ike.

"Every time a hurricane came through, it killed our animals and plants," said Augustin, a father of six. The road was washed out, markets became unreachable and "the price of everything went sky high."

The entire family subsisted on two cups of corn grits, and Bertha began shrinking — and then swelling — before his eyes.

"She was really bad. We put her in the helicopter and they brought her here," Augustin said. "I hope the government will hear about us and bring more support."

Hunger Plagues Haiti After Storm Wipes Out Crops, Livestock (http://www.foxnews.com/printer_friendly_story/0,3566,455584,00.html)

Rare 50 year Arctic Blast Sets Sights On Southern California.

Joshua Young
Monday, December 8, 2008

SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA - December 8, 2008 (OWSweather.com) Rare 50 year Arctic Blast Sets Sights On Southern California.

With a week away, and a sure sign of things to come, OWSweather.com is making preparations on the server to handle the traffic from this next event. UJEAS is in line with the majority if not all the other models in keeping a near historical arctic air mass into the Southern California region.

With a warm November, Southern California is finally ready for cold storms to make their way in. Resort level snow will be likely next week, and in pretty hefty amounts if things stay on track. OWSweather.com Meteorologist Kevin Martin predicts a 50 year event. While Martin is usually conservative on these events, the pattern highly favors it. "We are in a pre-1950 type pattern, "said Martin. "We know we are due for a winter storm sometime this year. The type we may be dealing with will be ranked up there with the known years before 1950, which set record low daytime temperatures into the forecast region. With this, may come low elevation snow."

Forecaster Cameron Venable is seeing very cold temperatures in the Los Angeles areas as well. Torrance is not usually known for winter weather, thus making this an interesting event for Venable to track.

"Temperatures in Siberia, Russia will be -81 degrees this week, "said Martin. "With those type of temperatures the arctic air mass has to spill somewhere. Our answer of the exact track will become more clear this week. All residents in the mountain communities should prepare this week for very cold, winter weather, with snow."

Indications are a second, colder storm could hit near the 18th-22nd time-frame. The details on that will have to be sorted out.

Rare 50 year Arctic Blast Sets Sights On Southern California. (http://www.venturacountystar.com/news/2008/dec/08/rare-50-year-arctic-blast-sets-sights-on/)

Winter weather blasts nation from end to end
By Amy Lorentzen
23 mins ago

DES MOINES, Iowa – Successive waves of wintry weather gripped much of the country Saturday, frustrating holiday travelers from coast to coast and keeping the lights off for thousands of people who lost power after ice storms just days ago.

Iowa public safety officials urged motorists not to travel as heavy snow began to fall in the morning. The state expected winds up to 35 miles per hour and wind chills of minus 25 just two days after being slammed with sleet, ice and snow.

Washington state braced for hurricane-force winds as a storm blew in from the Pacific. The temperature dipped to minus 18 Saturday in Spokane, which expected up to 6 inches of snow on top of the 25 that fell over the past three days, said Johnny Burg, a National Weather Service meteorologist.

In the Northeast, the aftermath of snow that fell Friday continued to snarl air traffic. And residents who still lacked power after an ice storm last week grew frustrated as officials warned that the storm now battering the Midwest would blow in Sunday, the official first day of winter.

But the wintry conditions weren't unwelcome everywhere. Megan Zarbano, manager of Kratz Hardware in Valley City, N.D., noted that the snow was helping to clear inventory from years of mild winters.

"We haven't had a blizzard-type storm in almost 10 years," she said. "A good storm really shakes people up; they freak out and realize they're not prepared for winter."

North Dakota's snowfall total for December nearly matches the 19.3 inches that fell all last winter, said meteorologist Joshua Scheck at the National Weather Service office in Bismarck.

"And it's not even the first day of winter yet," he said Saturday.

The cold was the major concern in Illinois, where the Weather Service canceled a storm watch in the north but warned that freezing temperatures could cause flooding from ice jams on rivers near the Quad Cities and Rockford.

Meteorologists also said the weekend's temperatures, expected to hit minus 5 by late Sunday with wind gusts of 30 mph, could again damage power lines serving those plunged into darkness by ice earlier in the week.

More than 77,000 customers in northern Indiana still had no power Saturday after Thursday night's ice storm, and Indiana Michigan Power said the power failures could last beyond Wednesday. The Weather Service warned that winds as high as 40 mph would "create havoc with trees and power lines" already covered or weakened by ice.

In New Hampshire, more than 20,000 homes and businesses awaited restoration of power after an ice storm last week but feared the worst as the next storm approached.

"The utilities have made significant progress in restoring power in what is an unprecedented outage," New Hampshire Gov. John Lynch said Saturday. "However, I continue to hear frustration from the local communities regarding communication with the utilities, and I share their frustration."

Sunday's storm could bring more power failures to southern New Hampshire, which was expected to get 10 to 16 inches of snow, forecasters said.

Boston's Logan International Airport reported about 60 canceled flights and about 215 delays Saturday as effects lingered from a storm the day before. In the New York City area, some arrivals were three hours late to Newark airport, and arrival delays at Kennedy Airport averaged 90 minutes, according to the Federal Aviation Administration.

Alaska Airlines, a major regional carrier in the Northwest, said it pre-emptively canceled 47 flights to and from Seattle, Portland and Vancouver, British Columbia. United Airlines also canceled some flights, said Perry Cooper, spokesman for Seattle-Tacoma International Airport.

It was unclear whether weather was a factor in an airport mishap in Denver, where a Continental Airlines jet taking off veered from the runway and went into a ravine, injuring at least 38 people. It was cold but not snowy at the time of the Saturday evening accident.

Blizzard warnings were posted for parts of Washington as high winds, snow and freezing rain began coating the state Saturday. Western Washington, including the Seattle area, could see wind gusts as high as 90 mph, meteorologist Burg said.

Icy wind and heavy snow closed a 45-mile stretch of Interestate 84 in Oregon between the Portland suburb of Troutdale and Hood River. The state braced for wind gusts up to 60 mph.

Freezing rain clattered to the ground Saturday in the agricultural Willamette Valley, meteorologist Jonathan Wolfe said.

"It'll be nasty well into Sunday evening," he said.

Accidents have been reported for days on the region's icy roads, including one Friday in which a charter bus slid down an icy hill and crashed through a barrier, slightly injuring several people and leaving the front of the bus dangling about 20 feet above Interstate 5 in Seattle.

Even an indoor ice skating rink in Seattle bowed to officials warning against travel, putting up a sign saying it was closed "because of snow."

Winter weather blasts nation from end to end (http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081221/ap_on_re_us/wintry_weather/print;_ylt=AjsaDRl_uq7AQlCX8nCVUD9H2ocA)

High wind knocks out power to 413,000 in Mich.
By David Runk
Dec 28, 10:05 pm ET

DETROIT – Wind gusting more than 60 mph knocked out power to about 413,000 Michigan homes and businesses on Sunday as temperatures dipped back into the 20s and 30s.

Meanwhile, flood warnings were posted throughout the Midwest as temperatures rose after a week of heavy snowfall. Forecasters said flooding was possible in areas of Wisconsin, Ohio, Iowa, Michigan and Indiana.

In Michigan, high wind knocked down tree limbs and power lines. Parts of the state also got about 4 inches of snow.

"We've had an intensifying storm system track northeast through the state," said Mark Sekelsky, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Grand Rapids. "As that storm intensified, it brought the winds."

Detroit-based DTE Energy Co. said about 230,000 lost power Sunday, mostly in Wayne and Oakland counties. Crews were working, but spokesman Scott Simons said 10 percent of the 155,000 customers blacked out Sunday night would have to remain without power into Thursday.

"We're still assessing," Singer said.

CMS Energy Corp. subsidiary Consumers Energy said about 183,000 of its customers lost power because of the winds and 91,000 remained blacked out Sunday night. Consumers said it couldn't predict when power might be restored because the winds continued.

Crews from Tennessee, Kentucky, Illinois, Indiana and Ohio aided Michigan's power restoration efforts.

Strong winds also gusted across upstate New York, reaching 75 mph in the Buffalo area and toppling some power poles and trees. Nearly 16,000 customers were without power in five western and northern counties. In New York City, residents relaxed as temperatures reached the mid-60s Sunday.

Melting snow and ice caused problems in the Midwest. In southeastern Wisconsin, the National Weather Service predicted the Fox River would crest about a foot over flood stage Tuesday in the town of Wheatland.

Flooding along U.S. 31 in Holland, Mich., forced Amtrak to cancel a train from Chicago to Grand Rapids on Saturday night, and at least 300 passengers were taken to buses to complete their trips, WZZM-TV reported.

Amtrak canceled one train Sunday night and one Monday morning between Chicago and Grand Rapids because of the weather, Amtrak spokeswoman Tracy Connell said.

High wind knocks out power to 413,000 in Mich. (http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081229/ap_on_re_us/winter_weather/print;_ylt=AjsaDRl_uq7AQlCX8nCVUD9H2ocA)

35 dead in Australia's worst fires in decades
By Rohan Sullivan
6 mins ago

SYDNEY – Walls of flame roared across southeastern Australia, razing scores of homes, forests and farmland in the country's worst wildfire disaster in a quarter century. At least 35 people died and the toll could rise further, police said Sunday.

Witnesses described seeing trees exploding and skies raining ash as temperatures hit a record 117 degrees Fahrenheit (47 C) on Saturday in Victoria state and combined with raging winds to create perfect conditions for uncontrollable blazes.

"Hell in all its fury has visited the good people of Victoria in the last 24 hours," Prime Minister Kevin Rudd told reporters Sunday as he toured the fire zone.

Police said they believed the deaths included groups of people whose charred bodies were found in cars — suggesting families or groups of friends were engulfed in flames as they tried to flee. One official said an entire town had been razed save for one building, though no deaths were reported there.

Police said they were still trying to confirm details of the deaths, with officers' movements hampered by still-dangerous conditions in the disaster zone.

But Victoria police spokeswoman Sarah Campbell said a total of 35 bodies were found at a dozen locations north and east of the state capital, Melbourne. At least 18 people were hospitalized with burns.

Conditions in Victoria eased Sunday, but several major fires were still posing a threat and state Premier John Brumby said troops would be deployed to help thousands of exhausted volunteer firefighters battle on.

The fires were so massive they were visible from space Saturday. NASA released satellite photographs showing a white cloud of smoke across southeastern Australia.

Deputy Commissioner Kieran Walshe said police suspected some of the fires were set deliberately, and predicted it would take days to get all the blazes under control.

The largest of about a dozen big fires in Victoria ripped unchecked across at least 115 square miles (298 square kilometers) of forests, farmland and towns north of Melbourne on Saturday.

"The whole township is pretty much on fire," Peter Mitchell, a resident of the town of Kinglake, where at least six people died in the same car, told Australian Broadcasting Corp. radio during the inferno. "There was no time to do anything. ... It came through in minutes."

Marysville, a former goldrush town of about 800 people 60 miles (100 kilometers) northeast of Melbourne, was almost completely gone, a local lawmaker said. Media reports said residents fled to a football field to escape the flames.

"I understand, there's only one building left in the town," said federal parliamentarian Fran Bailey.

"It's been, I think, the worst day in our history," said Brumby, whose parents' house was among those saved by firefighters Saturday.

Forecasters said temperatures would only reach about 77 F (25 C) on Sunday around Melbourne, but along with cooler conditions came wind changes that could push fires in unpredictable directions.

On Saturday, steel-gray smoke clogged the air and flames roared to two-story heights, while homes and businesses burned.

In the town of Taralgon, resident Lindy McPhee watched in fear as a fire front edged closer to the town until rain began falling late Saturday.

"It's raining black soot," McPhee told Sky News television.

In nearby Wittlesea, Sally Tregae described feeling terror as the fire approached.

"I saw trees explode in front of me," she said. "It's a horrible thing to see."

Rudd said he was "absolutely horrified" by the disaster and promised blankets for victims in the near term and money for them later.

Victoria's Country Fire Authority deputy chief Greg Esnouf said Saturday's conditions were "off the scale" in terms of danger. Another fire official, Stuart Ord, said some 460 square miles (1,190 square kilometers) was burned by early Sunday, and estimated the number of houses destroyed would be "into the hundreds."

In New South Wales state, where several fires were also burning but not posing an immediate threat to property, police detained and questioned a man in connection with a blaze but released him without charge.

Wildfires are common during the Australian summer. Government research shows that about half of the roughly 60,000 fires each year are deliberately lit or suspicious. Lightning and people using machinery near dry brush are other causes.

Australia's deadliest fires were in 1983, when blazes killed 75 people and razed more than 3,000 homes in Victoria and South Australia.

35 dead in Australia's worst fires in decades (http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090208/ap_on_re_au_an/as_australia_wildfires/print;_ylt=AlC10K_yIKLGnoKvBK1yOFhNYhAF;_ylu=X3oDMTB1MjgxN2UzBHBvcwMxNARzZWMDdG9vbHMtdG9wBHNsawNwcmludA--)

St. Louis Airport Closed After Reported Tornado Rips Through Facility
foxnews

An apparent tornado ripped through St. Louis' International Airport Friday, injuring several people and forcing the airport to be closed indefinitely.

There was extensive damage to the airport's busiest terminal, where 40 to 50 percent of glass was blown in, according to Lambert-St. Louis International Airport Spokesman Jeff Lea.

Mayor Francis Slay said Lambert would be shut down "indefinitely," impacting 256 daily departures and arrivals from the facility.

Gov. Jay Nixon announced late Friday he had declared a state of emergency, allowing state agencies to assist local jurisdictions with their emergency responses to the storm's aftermath, including the destruction at Lambert.

"The state of Missouri is ready to assist at every stage of this emergency to keep Missouri families safe and help communities recover," Nixon said.

Friday evening's storm at Lambert-St. Louis International Airport ripped away a large section of the main terminal's roof, forcing the airport to close indefinitely and diverting incoming flights to other cities.

"We have all hands on deck here," Mayor Francis Slay said at the airport. "This is something we're putting a lot of attention to."

But amid all the damage, there was relief that things could have been worse. Only four people with minor injuries were taken to the hospital from Lambert, while an unspecified number of others were treated at the scene for cuts blamed on flying glass.

"We're fortunate we didn't have larger (numbers) of injuries," said airport director Rhonda Hamm-Niebruegge.

The airport's main terminal sustained the most damage. Hamm-Niebruegge said roughly half of that structure's windows were blown out, sending glass and rain into that building. Elsewhere on the property, trees were toppled and power lines downed, further limiting access to the airport even hours after the storm left its destruction.

Passengers from at least two planes were stranded briefly on the Lambert tarmac because of debris but were later taken away by buses. An Air National Guard facility at the airport was reportedly damaged.

Installation and roofing tile was strewn about the inside and outside of one terminal. Large, plate-glass windows were blown out. A shuttle was teetering precariously from the top level of a parking garage.

Dianna Merrill, 43, a mail carrier from St. Louis, was at Lambert waiting to fly to New York with a friend for vacation. She said her flight had been delayed by weather and she was looking out a window hoping her plane would pull up. But the window suddenly exploded.

"Glass was blowing everywhere. The ceiling was falling. The glass was hitting us in the face. Hail and rain were coming in. The wind was blowing debris all over the place," she said. "It was like being in a horror movie. Grown men were crying. It was horrible."

Merrill said she felt lucky to be alive and that airport workers quickly moved people to stairwells and bathrooms to get them out of harm's way.

St. Louis County Police Chief Tim Fitch, who was at the airport when the storm was closing in, said he saw gawkers watching the weather outside as the tornado sirens blared. Moments later, they hastily scrambled inside the building and sought shelter in a restroom.

"About the time we came into the building, the doors blew off," he said. "Literally 10 seconds later, it was over. It's amazing to me more people weren't hurt."

Elsewhere around St. Louis, residents in suburbs were waking to damaged homes, fallen trees and downed power lines -- the remains of a fierce line of storms that moved through central and eastern Missouri.

Unconfirmed tornadoes were reported in several counties in the St. Louis area, and at one point utility company Ameren Missouri reported more than 47,000 power outages, with another 7,000 reported in Illinois.

In the suburbs of Maryland Heights and New Melle, the storms damaged several dozen homes but there were no immediate reports of major injuries. Some playground equipment in New Melle was left in a twisted heap by the storm that also tore up roofs and ripped off siding.

Brandon Blecher, 16, said he was home watching the storm out his window in Maryland Heights when he spotted the tornado coming toward his house. A gust of wind knocked out his window.

"The giant wooden swing set in my neighbor's yard came into my yard and a shed landed on my deck," he said. "The tornado was right on top of us."

Maryland Heights police were dealing with reports of gas leaks and downed trees that were blocking roadways.

The city's community center was opened as a shelter Friday night for residents affected by the storm.

"We have electricity, and everything's fine," Vaughn said. "We have heat and air. We'll be here as long as we need to be."

Damage, possibly from a tornado, was also reported at several towns near the airport -- Bridgeton, St. Ann, Ferguson and Florissant. Interstate 270 in that area was closed. Trees and power lines were down. A tractor-trailer was sitting on its end.

In downtown St. Louis, Busch Stadium officials hurriedly moved Cardinals fans to a safe area as tornado sirens blared. The game with the Cincinnati Reds was delayed for hours but later resumed.

Deadly Storms Slam Midwest as Levees Are Pushed to the Limit
foxnews.com

Severe storms across the Midwest caused heavy flooding and violent tornadoes, killing 7 in Arkansas and forcing residents in a Missouri town to pack up and flee to higher ground.

Arkansas Department of Emergency Management spokesman Tommy Jackson said four people died Monday in the central Arkansas town of Vilonia, where a tornado likely ripped through the area. In the state’s northwest, three people died after their vehicles were swept off the road.

Vilonia's fire chief, Keith Hillman, said 40 to 50 weren't accounted for, but he expected many simply weren't reachable. He said he didn't expect the death toll to rise significantly. Fire crews wrapped up work overnight and planned to resume early Tuesday morning.

"The town's gone," Vilonia resident Sheldon Brock said outside a gas station a few miles outside of town.

Brock told The Associated Press he was standing in his front yard and watched storms pass over his home, leaving him and his family unscathed, while strong winds and a possible tornado destroyed homes and businesses and yanked down power lines. Heavy rains sent water from nearby creeks washing over their borders.

Torrential rain expected to continue for several days pounded southern Missouri early Tuesday, forcing residents to flee to higher ground away from overburdened levees on the verge of breaking.

Authorities evacuated more than 1,000 homes threatened by rising floodwaters in the Missouri town of Poplar Bluff.

Heavy rains that are expected to continue for several days and saturated grounds threatened a levee holding back the Black River in Poplar Bluff. By early Tuesday morning, water from the was pouring over in more than three dozen spots, and police said a catastrophic failure of the levee was imminent.

If the levee breaks completely, many homes will be left uninhabitable. Sandbagging wasn't an option -- the river, spurred on by 10 inches or more of rain since last week, simply rose too quickly.

The Missouri National Guard sent 200 guardsmen and rescue equipment to the area. Several people had to be rescued by boat, including some who don't live in the flood plain, as heavy rain flooded several streets Monday night.

Police officers spent Monday going door-to-door in the southwest part of town, telling residents to get out. Not everyone did.

"We've got water laying around everywhere looking for somewhere to go," said David Nickell, a college instructor in Ledbetter, in western Kentucky's Livingston County, who did not plan to leave his home even though floodwaters were rapidly approaching.

Flood warnings have also prompted evacuations of hundreds of people in Indiana, Kentucky and parts of Ohio, Reuters reports.

Gov. Jay Nixon activated the Missouri National Guard on Monday to help communities threatened by flooding.

"There have been many evacuations in small pockets of populations along the Missouri/Arkansas border," Bill Davis, meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Springfield, Mo., said.

"There are a lot of low-lying bridges and roads in that area that can be dangerous."

The storm system was expected to move into Illinois and Wisconsin on Tuesday, said Greg Carbin, a meteorologist with the Storm Prediction Center in Norman, Okla. At the same time, a second storm system will start along the same path, meaning several more days of rain. That system will continue east through Thursday, he said.

Governors in both Arkansas and Kentucky declared states of emergency. In Kentucky, historic flooding is expected over the next few days, partly because of a double-whammy -- both the Ohio and Mississippi rivers significantly above flood stage. Several dozen residents were evacuated near the confluence of the rivers at Cairo, Ill.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers was considering the extraordinary step of intentionally breaching the Birds Point levee in southeast Missouri, just downriver of the confluence, in a bid to reduce the amount of water moving down the Mississippi. The move would soak 130,000 acres of farmland, and Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon objected to the idea. A decision was expected Tuesday.

Missouri was still cleaning up from tornado damage in the St. Louis area -- 2,700 buildings, including Lambert Airport, were damaged in the Friday night twister -- when spring flooding went from bad to far worse Monday.

A dam in St. Francois County was in jeopardy of bursting, with a few dozen homes potentially in harm's way. Levees were stressed along the Mississippi River in Pike and Lincoln counties, north of St. Louis.

South storm death climbs to 193; 128 in Ala.
AP 4/28/11

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. – The death toll from severe storms that punished five Southern U.S. states jumped to a staggering 193 Thursday after Alabama canvassed its hard-hit counties for a new tally of lives lost.

Alabama's state emergency management agency said it had confirmed 128 deaths, up from at least 61 earlier.

"We expect that toll, unfortunately, to rise," Gov. Robert Bentley told ABC's "Good Morning America."

Mississippi officials reported 32 dead in that state and Tennessee raised its report to 14. Another 11 have been killed in Georgia and eight in Virginia.

The fierce storms Wednesday spawned tornadoes and winds that wiped out homes and businesses, forced a nuclear power plant to use backup generators and prompted the evacuation of a National Weather Service office.

The National Weather Service's Storm Prediction Center in Norman, Okla., said it received 137 tornado reports around the regions, including 66 in Alabama and 38 in Mississippi.

One of the hardest-hit areas was Tuscaloosa, a city of more than 83,000 and home to the University of Alabama. The city's police and other emergency services were devastated, the mayor said, and at least 15 people were killed and about 100 were in a single hospital.

A massive tornado, caught on video by a news camera on a tower, barreled through the city late Wednesday afternoon, leveling it.

By nightfall, the city was dark. Roads were impassable. Signs were blown down in front of restaurants, businesses were unrecognizable and sirens wailed off and on. Debris littered the streets and sidewalks.

College students in a commercial district near campus used flashlights to check out the damage.
At Stephanie's Flowers, owner Bronson Englebert used the headlights from two delivery vans to see what valuables he could remove. He had closed early, which was a good thing. The storm blew out the front of his store, pulled down the ceiling and shattered the windows, leaving only the curtains flapping in the breeze.

"It even blew out the back wall, and I've got bricks on top of two delivery vans now," Englebert said.

A group of students stopped to help Englebert, carrying out items like computers and printers and putting them in his van.

"They've been awfully good to me so far," Englebert said.

The storm system spread destruction from Texas to New York, where dozens of roads were flooded or washed out.

The governors in Alabama, Mississippi and Georgia each issued emergency declarations for parts of their states.

President Barack Obama said he had spoken with Alabama Gov. Robert Bentley and approved his request for emergency federal assistance, including search and rescue assets. About 1,400 National Guard soldiers were being deployed around the state.

"Our hearts go out to all those who have been affected by this devastation, and we commend the heroic efforts of those who have been working tirelessly to respond to this disaster," Obama said in a statement.

Around Tuscaloosa, traffic was snarled by downed trees and power lines, and some drivers abandoned their cars in medians.

"What we faced today was massive damage on a scale we have not seen in Tuscaloosa in quite some time," Mayor Walter Maddox said.

University officials said there didn't appear to be significant damage on campus, and dozens of students and locals were staying at a 125-bed shelter in the campus recreation center.

Volunteers and staff were providing food and water to people like 29-year-old civil engineering graduate student Kenyona Pierce.

"I really don't know if I have a home to go to," she said.

Storms also struck Birmingham, felling numerous trees that impeded emergency responders and those trying to leave hard-hit areas.

The Browns Ferry nuclear power plant about 30 miles west of Huntsville lost offsite power. The Tennessee Valley Authority-owned plant had to use seven diesel generators to power the plant's three units. The safety systems operated as needed and the emergency event was classified as the lowest of four levels, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission said.

In Huntsville, meteorologists found themselves in the path of severe storms and had to take shelter in a reinforced steel room, turning over monitoring duties to a sister office in Jackson, Miss. Meteorologists saw multiple wall clouds, which sometimes spawn tornadoes, and decided to take cover, but the building wasn't damaged.

"We have to take shelter just like the rest of the people," said meteorologist Chelly Amin, who wasn't at the office at the time but spoke with colleagues about the situation.

In Kemper County, Miss., in the east-central part of the state, sisters Florrie Green and Maxine McDonald, and their sister-in-law Johnnie Green, all died in a mobile home that was destroyed by a storm.

"It's hard. It's been very difficult," said Mary Green, Johnnie Green's daughter-in-law. "They were thrown into those pines over there," she said, pointing to a wooded area. "They had to go look for their bodies."

In Choctaw County, Miss., a Louisiana police officer was killed Wednesday morning when a towering sweetgum tree fell onto his tent as he shielded his young daughter with his body, said Kim Korthuis, a supervisory ranger with the National Park Service. The girl wasn't hurt.

The 9-year-old girl was brought to a motor home about 100 feet away where campsite volunteer Greg Maier was staying with his wife. He went back to check on the father and found him dead.

"She wasn't hurt, just scared and soaking wet," Maier said.

Her father, Lt. Wade Sharp, had been with the Covington Police Department for 19 years.

"He was a hell of an investigator," said Capt. Jack West, his colleague in Louisiana.

In a neighborhood south of Birmingham, Austin Ransdell and a friend had to hike out after the house where he was living was crushed by four trees. No one was hurt.

As he walked away from the wreckage, trees and power lines crisscrossed residential streets, and police cars and utility trucks blocked a main highway.

"The house was destroyed. We couldn't stay in it. Water pipes broke; it was flooding the basement," he said. "We had people coming in telling us another storm was coming in about four or five hours, so we just packed up."

Not far away, Craig Branch was stunned by the damage.

"Every street to get into our general subdivision was blocked off. Power lines are down; trees are all over the road. I've never seen anything like that before," he said.

In eastern Tennessee, a woman was killed by falling trees in her trailer in Chattanooga. Just outside the city in Tiftonia, what appeared to be a tornado also struck at the base of the tourist peak Lookout Mountain.

Tops were snapped off trees and insulation and metal roof panels littered the ground. Police officers walked down the street, spray-painting symbols on houses they had checked for people who might be inside.

Mary Ann Bowman, 42, stood watching from her driveway as huge tractors moved downed trees in the street. She had rushed home from work to find windows shattered at her house, and her grandmother's house next door shredded. The 91-year-old woman wasn't home at the time.

"When I pulled up I just started crying," Bowman said.

New Fears of Overdue "megathrust" earthquake in US North West
dailymail.co.uk

The north-west coast of the U.S. could be devastated by a huge movement of undersea plates known as a ‘megathrust’ earthquake, scientists say.

A review of the dangers posed by the Juan de Fuca plate released in the wake of the Japanese quake has raised fears that the Pacific seaboard could be similarly ravaged.

The horrifying possibilities have been brought to light by data researched by the Active Tectonics and Seafloor Mapping Laboratory at Oregon State University.

And the results are shown in a documentary, Megaquake: The Hour That Shook Japan, which is set to go out on the Discovery Channel in the UK this weekend.

The huge March 11 earthquake that sparked the tsunami off the coast of Japan may have been a ‘megathrust’ quake and now researchers fear the Cascadia fault line 50 miles off the U.S. coast could rupture and cause a quake and subsequent tsunami.

The average time along that fault between massive quakes above magnitude 8 is 240 years, said The Times, and the last 'megaquake' was just over 300 years ago.

'Megathrusts' are the world's largest earthquakes, and happen in a 'subduction zone', a region where one of the earth's tectonic plates is thrust under another. The last one involving Cascadia was estimated at magnitude 9 on the Richter scale, according to Natural Resources Canada.

The Juan de Fuca plate is being forced under the North America plate along the Cascadia fault and, as large parts of the plates are locked together, stress is being built up until an eventual breakage causes a massive earthquake.

Professor Chris Goldfinger, director of the Laboratory at Oregon State University, told the newspaper that their information showed an increase in pressure at the plates: 'It's loading a spring for a future earthquake, there's no doubt about that.'

And geologist Jeffrey Park, director of the Yale Institute for Biospheric Studies, said in a recent - separate - article: 'History tells us that more megathrust earthquakes could occur in the next decade, but we have no evidence that the recent rate of nearly one megathrust per year will persist for longer than that.'

Cascadia, which stretches from Vancouver island to northern California, has been dormant for over 300 years but scientists now believe there is a 45 per cent probability of an earthquake of an 8.0 magnitude or higher in the next 50 years. They add there is a 15 per cent chance of magnitude 9 or more.

Such a quake could produce a massive tsunami and engulf the Pacific Northwest coast, affecting Oregon, Washington state and Vancouver Island, according to The Times, with a tsunami with waves of up to 30metres high and potentially reaching Japan.

The threat is all the more serious as several cities in the north-west of the U.S. are not adequately prepared for the type of devastation a ‘megathrust’ quake could wreak.

An upgrade programme is currently underway to protect the settlements most at risk.

Skyscrapers built in Seattle before 1994 - prior to more stringent building regulations - would be liable to collapse and countless small coastal communities could be swept away due to flooding. Some 1,000 schools in Oregon are reportedly judged to have poor resistance to eruptions, but the refurbishment is not set to be completed until 2032.

However, experts are unable to be specific about when a quake could hit.

‘We don't know how to tell you, “Hey, next week, you know, get out of town there's going to be a big earthquake”,’ Tom Jordan, director of the Southern California Earthquake Centre, told The Times.

John McCloskey, Professor of Geophysics at the University, added: ‘The problem with using a recurrence timeline is that earthquakes can be more like buses, coming two or three at a time rather than regularly.

‘We need a vision of what the biggest quake is likely to be in a region and then protect against that.’

WHAT IS A ‘MEGATHRUST’ EARTHQUAKE?

All six earthquakes with a 9.0 magnitude or higher since 1900 have been megathrust quakes
They occur when a tectonic plate is forced under another
Megathrusts are most common in the Pacific and Indian oceans
The March 11 earthquake in Japan has been classed as a 9.0 quake and can be called a megathrust
The 2004 Boxing Day tsunami, which killed over 230,000 people, was caused by a 'megathrust'

Flooded Montana towns prepare for more water
msnbc.com

Montana communities took advantage of a break in rainy weather to clear flood debris from homes and roadways as states downstream prepared for floodwaters from the higher elevations and releases from their own burgeoning dams.

A respite in weather that has brought as much as 8 inches of rainfall over a span of a few days to some areas of Montana had allowed waters to recede slightly in several flooded communities, giving emergency crews the chance Saturday to fix some water-damaged roads.

But it looked brief with the National Weather Service predicting up to 3 inches of rainfall from Sunday to Monday. Meteorologist Keith Meier also warned that high temperatures and melting snowpack in the Rocky Mountains next week would likely swell rivers for even longer.

"Take a little time to breathe today, figure out what you need to do but don't let your guard down," said Cheri Kilby, Disaster and Emergency Coordinator for Fergus County.

Authorities have already started releasing massive volumes of water from overburdened reservoirs. The releases coupled with the floodwaters have been predicted to cause flooding downstream, possibly in the Dakotas, Iowa, Nebraska, Kansas and Missouri.

The Army Corps of Engineers is increasing releases from Missouri River dams because of higher rain forecasts. In South Dakota, the revised release plan means water levels in Yankton, Dakota Dunes will be higher than previously expected, the governor said.

Gov. Dennis Daugaard advised residents to be ready to evacuate. About 17,000 people live in the two communities.

"We expect flooding in these communities to be significant," the governor said. "I urge property owners in these areas to begin to plan immediately for an evacuation and to take steps to protect themselves and their property."

Near Bismark, N.D., the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers planned to increase releases over the coming weeks at Garrison Dam, about 75 miles upstream on the Missouri River. Plans also called for releasing water at four other Missouri River reservoirs.

The Missouri River in Bismark was slightly below flood stage of 16 feet on Saturday, but well out of its banks in some parts of the city and nearby Mandan, and officials are building levees to protect the city from a flood stage of 21 feet.

North Dakota Gov. Jack Dalrymple also said that the Federal Emergency Management Agency had expanded its federal emergency declaration to include seven state counties and the Standing Rock Reservation as they fight rising water on the Missouri River.

A state of disaster also was declared Friday on the Fort Berthold Reservation by Three Affiliated Tribes Chairman Tex Hall, who said flooding had damaged homes and other buildings, swamped farmland and caused highways to erode.

FEMA issued an emergency declaration in early April for 14 counties hit with flooding.

In Montana, Gov. Brian Schweitzer deployed Montana National Guard soldiers to the Crow Reservation, one of the hardest hit areas, a day after touring the area.

The guardsmen were setting up unarmed security checkpoints on the Crow Reservation Saturday afternoon to help with emergency response. Crow Tribe officials earlier in the week requested National Guard aid after heavy rainfall put much of the reservation under water and left residents stranded.

Crow Chairman Cedric Black Eagle said the tribal government helped pump water out of flooded basements and clear off roads so families could return and start to repair their homes.

It was possible people would have to leave the reservation again if water levels began to rise again, he said.

To the northwest, the small agricultural town of Roundup seemed to retain much of its flood water and the Musselshell River level was hardly declining, emergency officials said. Road closures have cut the town off from all directions but the north.

Director of Disaster and Emergency services for Musselshell County Jeff Gates said people are still stranded around the town. Gates said there is little emergency crews can do at this point but provide people with supplies they need and wait for water to go down.

Gates said that doesn't look to be likely for quite a while.

He is concerned about the town running out of freshwater and residents are being told to conserve as much as they can.

Businesses are having a hard time getting supplies and residents are mostly helpless to do anything about several feet of water on the southern side of town.

The businesses that have managed to stay open have seen quite a few customers, frustrated with nothing else to do but wait out the water.

Everett Reaves, owner of the Keg Bar in Roundup said a number of people are coming out to his bar.

"When things are down, people go to places like this to forget about it," he said.

Blaine Tull, who runs the Pioneer Café in Roundup with his wife, had a different take on the situation and the water conservation.

"Ain't no sense in getting frustrated with something you can't change," he said

More Rain Falls on Flood-Soaked Montana Towns
AP 5/30/2011

More rain began falling Sunday on soaked Montana communities after more than a week of floods in the region, along with a heavy mountain snowpack and burgeoning dams, prompted states downstream to also prepare for flooding.

A break in rainy weather at the start of the long holiday weekend allowed Montana residents to clear flood debris from homes and roads, but the respite wasn't expected to last long. The National Weather Service predicted up to 3 inches of rainfall from Sunday to Monday in the wake of a previous storm that brought as much as 8 inches to some areas of the state.

Officials warned ongoing flooding could ultimately be the worst in decades for the state, with an unusually heavy snowpack in the mountains, persistent spring rains and waterlogged ground incapable of soaking up any more moisture.

As much as 18 inches of snow is predicted for the region's Beartooth Mountains this week, said Marc Singer of the National Weather Service in Billings, and temperatures at lower elevations could be above 70 degrees by Thursday.

"No part of the state is expected to not have some type of flooding," Monique Lay, spokeswoman for the state Emergency Coordination Center, said in anticipation of more rain and melting snowpack. "It's statewide, corner to corner."

The weather service for the second weekend in a row blanketed much of the central and eastern regions of Montana with flood warnings on Sunday, and Gov. Brian Schweitzer sent 36 National Guard soldiers to Roundup, a town northwest of Billings in central Montana that remained inundated by several feet of water for a fourth day.

Only one road leading into the agriculture and mining town was open, and the governor's order to deploy the National Guard to the community came a day after he sent 50 guardsmen to the Crow Reservation, which also has been inundated by heavy flooding. The National Guard contingents were to provide unarmed security checkpoints.

About 1,500 North Dakota National Guard soldiers also have been summoned to help in the flood effort there as residents in Bismarck, N.D., and nearby Mandan brace for mass amounts of water to be released in the coming weeks at Garrison Dam, a Missouri River reservoir bloated by large inflows of rain and melting snow in Montana, Wyoming and western North Dakota.

The Missouri River on Sunday was slightly below flood stage of 16 feet.

In South Dakota, several hundred homeowners in low-lying areas of Pierre and Fort Pierre also have been working feverishly for several days, moving their belongings to higher ground and laying sandbags around the houses.

Water had already moved into some residential areas of Fort Pierre, and was expected to rise another 4 feet in Pierre and Fort Pierre within a couple of weeks.

In perhaps a sign of weariness in Montana, the state Emergency Coordination Center on Sunday felt compelled to issue a statement saying Fort Peck Dam is not in danger of failing in an effort to quell what spokeswoman Lay said were persistent rumors being voiced at many local meetings.

"There is a lot of frustration and devastation," said Lay about what residents are facing.

The spillway at Fort Peck Dam, which backs up the 134-mile long Fort Peck Lake, operated earlier this month for the first time since 1997, said Jody Farhat, Chief of the Missouri River Basin Water Management office with the U.S. Corps of Engineers.

She said water will pass over the spillway again starting Thursday as the Corps plans to build to a record release of 50,000 cubic feet per second by June 6. The previous record, she said, was 35,000 cfs in 1975. She reiterated that the dam is absolutely safe.

Farhat said all six mainstem dams on the Missouri River are being operated in a coordinated way to handle what she said is likely a record runoff for the basin.

Arizona Fire Burns Summer Cabins, Forces Evacuations
AP 6/4/2011

Crews on Saturday worked to protect several small Arizona communities from two large wildfires by clearing away brush near homes and planning to set fires aimed at robbing the blazes of their fuel.

The Wallow Fire, near the White Mountain community of Alpine, grew to 218 square miles, or more than 140,000 acres, by Saturday morning.

The fire is the third largest in state history, with its smoke visible in parts of southern Colorado. Fire officials said they had zero containment of the fire near the New Mexico-Arizona state line, which has forced an unknown number of people to evacuate.

The fire has burned four summer rental cabins since it started May 29, the U.S. Forest Service said.

Crews were working to protect homes in Alpine and nearby Nutrioso from the fire and blowing embers that could start smaller, spot fires. The fire had reached Alpine's outskirts and was about two miles away from homes in Nutrioso, said Bob Dyson, a spokesman for the team fighting the blaze.

Related Links
After Historic Mississippi Flood, Some Residents Are Forced to Start OverA shift in winds around mid-afternoon Saturday blew embers that started a spot fire at the southwestern corner of Alpine. A helicopter knocked down that fire by dumping water on it, and no buildings were damaged or destroyed as a result.

The yellowish smoke in Alpine was so heavy that it reduced visibility to about a quarter mile.

Authorities Friday night warned residents of the town of Greer to be ready to leave, but no evacuation order has been issued. Greer has fewer than 200 permanent residents, but the town and area attract many vacationers.

Gov. Jan Brewer traveled to Springerville to get a briefing from fire team's commander and took an aerial tour of the blaze to get an appreciation for its scope and size, said Matthew Benson, a spokesman for Brewer.

"The governor's main concern is for the families living in the White Mountains and the firefighters and emergency personnel responding to this fire," Benson said. "It's an extremely dangerous fire at this point."

In terms of size, the Wallow Fire ranks behind Arizona's 469,000-acre Rodeo-Chediski Fire in 2002 and the 248,000-acre Cave Creek complex fire in 2005.

Meanwhile, crews were trying to protect a church camp and two communities from the Horseshoe Two fire that had burned 140 square miles in far southern Arizona. It's the fifth-largest fire in state history.

The 90,000-acre blaze had come within a mile of the evacuated Methodist church camp in the steep Pine Canyon near the community of Paradise on Friday night.

"It will be a major concern until the fire passes there," Dave Killebrew, a spokesman for the team fighting the fire.

Helicopters were dumping water and retardant on a hotspot near the camp. "As far as I know, (the fire) hasn't gotten into the camp," Killebrew said Saturday.

Crews also were focusing on protecting the evacuated communities of Paradise and East Whitetail Canyon. Paradise fared well Friday as crews set fires that burned natural forest fuels and kept the blaze from about a dozen occupied homes and many other vacation residences.

The fire was within two miles of the eight to 10 homes in East Whitetail Canyon. The blaze is 50 percent contained.

The nearby Chiricahua National Monument was closed as a precaution.

The Horseshoe Two fire has been burning since May 8 and about 800 firefighters were battling it.

Wallow Fire - Fire rages on burning close to 200,000 acres

A community meeting will be held at the Springerville High School Auditorium, Mon. Jun. 6 at 6pm.

The evacuation of Blue River residents by Greenlee County officials remains in effect.

Residents in the communities affected by this fire are asked to remain prepared in the event an order is needd.

The evacuation order for the communities of Alpine and Nutrioso by Apache County Emergency Management remain in effect.

Evacuations today by the Apache County Sheriff’s Office included the following subdivisions along Hwys 180/191: Escudilla Mountain Estates, Bonita, White Mtn. Acres, and the H-V Ranch. This area includes CR 4000, CR 4001, and CR 4225.

The pre-evacuation notice by the Apache County Sheriff’s Office to the residents of Greer community and the surrounding areas remains in effect.

Catron County Sheriff’s Office has issued a pre-evacuation notice to the residents of Luna, New Mexico.

Fire Facts:

Date Started: 5/29/2011

Number of Personnel: Approximately 2,315 personnel, Including 31 hotshot crews and 25 handcrewsIncluding 31 hotshot crews and 25 handcrews

Location: south and west of Alpine, Arizona

Cause: Human – under investigation

Equipment: 12 dozers, 138 engines, 31 watertenders

Size: 192,746

Aircraft: 22 helicopters

Percent Contained: 0%

Injuries to Date: none

Fire Update

Firefighters continue perimeter control in conjunction with San Carlos and Ft. Apache Indian reservations and continue point protection around values at risk.

Storm and wind activity caused embers to spot over the U.S. Hwy. 191 resulting in a flurry of fire activity around Alpine and Nutrioso to include Escudilla Mountain .

Structural protection and perimeter control continue in the evacuated communities.

A red flag warning is in effect, 10 am – 8 pm with low humidity.

Closures:

Due to extreme fire conditions, the Apache National Forest is closed to all public entry. Property owners and their guests will continue to have access to private lands within the Forest. See website for closure order details. Please see the Forest website for more information: http://www.fs.fed.us/r3/asnf/

Apache-Sitgreaves National Forests Fire Restrictions: A Temporary Emergency Closure Order for the Apache National Forest was issued effective June 3 at 12:00 p.m. (noon). For more information, please call the Arizona fire restrictions hotline 1-877-864-6985 or visit http://www.wildlandfire.az.gov/.

Wallow Fire update June 6 - Fire rages on burning close to 200,000 acres (http://www.wmicentral.com/news/wallow-fire-update-june-fire-rages-on-burning-close-to/article_a45f9b94-904a-11e0-aec1-001cc4c002e0.html)
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Yes I am concerned about this fire. We don't need another Rodeo-Chediski fire in Arizona or anywhere in the world. I wouldn't wish a fire (especially this fire) upon any one!! The fire is only 50 miles away from us but, we are ready to leave if we have to go..............

Map with a over lay of the Wallow Fire. (http://www.inciweb.org/incident/2262/)

Another map with a legend (https://inciweb.nwcg.gov/ftp/InciWeb/AZASF/2011-05-31-00:57-wallow/picts/pict-20110604-173528-0.jpeg)

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Theology => Prophecy - Current Events => Topic started by: Shammu on November 22, 2007, 09:20:09 PM