Wild Weather

[Shammu]

'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

[Shammu]

This seems very reminiscent of the Katrina, Rita record breaking season. That year, they even ran out of names for the storms!! But the season can break all the records it wants ... After the RAPTURE!!

Have I mentioned lately that I really, really, really want to go home to be with our Lord??

[Shammu]

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

[Soldier4Christ]

This is the area not far from me. All of this weather is being caused by what was a tropical storm called  Lowell that came across from the Pacific.

Flooding Rains Force Some From Homes

Heavy rains Saturday night have forced some from their cars and others from their homes. And, the rain isn't going away just yet.

Clogged sewer drains and saturated soils means the rainfall has nowhere to go. In Peoria, some roads were closed and others impassible, stranding motorists on Saturday night. High water took over a car on the University exit ramp from Interstate 74.

Near Spring Bay along the Illinois River, a trailer park is flooded and emergency crews from Woodford County are using a boat to rescue residents from their homes. Residents say there is also a gas leak and authorties are trying to get everyone out of the trailer park and campground off Route 26.

There are also reports of numerous flooded basements.

Peoria picked up an inch and a half of rain within an hour early Saturday evening with total rainfall for the day well above 4 inches.

That's why the entire Peoria and Bloomington/Normal areas are under a Flash Flood Watch through Sunday.

We're going on the fourth day of these rains. Not only has it brought us a whole lot of rain but we have also been seeing tornadoes and thunder storms.  It is now expected that the remnants of Ike will also being going directly over us giving us even more of it.

[Soldier4Christ]

The flood stage in the Illinois River here is at 18 ft. It is expected crest at just over 26 ft. by Thursday. Many of the Illinois River tributaries such as the Fox River which is upstream from here is already over it's banks and is still getting more rain. The power plant here is coal powered and the coal comes in by train. The tracks that serve the power plant is already underwater. Four factories have closed down and expected to remain closed for most of the week. One of those factories is one of the main ethanol production plants for the Mid-West. The local Sewage Treatment facility may have to get closed down also as it appears it will be flooded out. I'm not sure what that may do to spread pollution in the waters if anything at all. It is said that they are preparing for it so I'm thinking that they are taking safeguards to prevent that from happening.

[Shammu]

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

[Shammu]

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

[Shammu]

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
~~~~~~~

Yup, here in Arizona we are expecting some weather out of Norbert.

[Debp]

Where Los Angeles used to have a specific wildfire season, our Govenor now says we can get these wildfires year round.  We just had a really bad one the past week.

[Soldier4Christ]

That was pretty much true when I was living out there. There was a dry, hot winter that caused a lot of problems. The following year though it was fairly wet both summer and winter and there weren't as many fires.

[Shammu]

90 dead, 20,000 displaced in Yemeni floods
By AHMED AL-HAJ,
Oct 27, 4:45 pm ET

SANA, Yemen – Flooding caused by a tropical storm has killed 90 people and displaced 20,000 others in southern Yemen, police and the World Food Program said Monday.

The WFP, which said 20,000 people were displaced, said it has been difficult to get aid to hard-hit Hadramut province because many roads were destroyed by floodwaters after Thursday's storm.

A police official said 90 people died and 24 farms were wrecked. He spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to the media.

President Ali Abdullah Saleh called on Yemenis and non-governmental organizations to help flood victims by donating money and other aid.

"Efforts are too slow," said Akeel Al-Ataf of Hadramut province's municipal government. "We haven't seen any food or medicine in three days, and the relief efforts are chaotic."

Neighboring Arab countries have sent in planes loaded with goods. Oman provided medical supplies and the Emirati Red Crescent gave $100,000 to the relief effort.

Besides buildings and farms, about 7,000 beehives reportedly have been destroyed. Yemen's honey is among the most expensive in the world.

90 dead, 20,000 displaced in Yemeni floods

[Shammu]

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

[Shammu]

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

[Shammu]

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
~~~~~~~~~~~~~

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;

[Shammu]

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