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

[Shammu]

Drought Comes Again to East Africa

By CHRIS TOMLINSON, Associated Press Writer Sun Feb 19, 6:24 PM ET

BISSEL, Kenya - Babies in East Africa are starving again.

They lie in battered beds, hooked up to IV drips, their skeletal mothers beside them. Their cries are barely audible for now, but their woes won't end when they have gained weight. All of their families' wealth — their cattle and goats — are dead.

When drought comes, the very young and the very old are the first to suffer. But according to the latest U.N. figures, they are only the most visible of 11.5 million East Africans who don't have enough to eat.

Hunger strikes Africa for reasons as diverse as its 53 countries — drought, locusts, government policies that wreck the agricultural economy.

In East Africa, which includes Kenya, Somalia, Ethiopia, Sudan, Tanzania and Uganda, drought arrives every few years, usually predicted months in advance.

Drought does not have to cause hunger, but inevitably it does.

Breaking the cycle wouldn't take much: just the vision and enough money to provide clean water, distribute electricity and build some roads.

___

Cattle are grazing the suburbs again.

The first thing the herders of the Kajiado clan of the Masai tribe do when drought comes is head north to the city of Nairobi, just as they have done for hundreds of years to keep their cattle alive.

The Masai gave Nairobi its name, which means "the place with cool water." When British engineers in 1899 were building a railway from the coastal town of Mombasa to what is now Uganda, they chose the Masai's emergency watering hole as a watering point for their steam engines and it eventually became Kenya's capital.

Even though the Nairobi river is now a polluted trickle, the Masai still come, herding cattle down busy streets to graze in the medians or any open place with grass or edible garbage.

The hungry in East Africa are rarely found in the big towns. They are usually nomadic tribes who, against all odds, maintain their traditional ways of life, walking their animals through the semiarid lands no one else has any use for.

Their livestock is their pride and only possession of real value.

Their homes in Kajiado district, 60 miles to the south, are mostly abandoned now. The few young men who stayed behind shovel 65 feet into dry riverbeds to reach the water table and pass up buckets of water for the cows.

It's not enough. The cows in the market wither before their owners' eyes. When they can no longer stand, they are slaughtered and each skinny carcass is sold for as little as $3.

Moriaso Kasairo, chairman of the livestock market in Bissel village, said most herders have lost more than 90 percent of their animals for lack of water and forage.

"Most of the people have left the rural areas and moved into the urban areas in search of food, but they still cannot get it," he said. "We normally have enough land here, but it is all dry now."

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"Famine" headlines are here again.

Starving Africans almost always attract world attention and U.N. and humanitarian agencies seize the fundraising opportunity.

"Millions at risk from East African famine," "Aid Group Warns of Famine in East Africa," and "East Africa faces famine crisis," are just some of the recent newspaper and Internet headlines. But famine and hunger are not the same thing, and while the word "famine" grabs attention, the problem is not lack of food. It's lack of money.

Nicholas Haan, an expert on East Africa for the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization, said that technically famine is defined this way: More than 10,000 dead and society unable to cope.

Another myth, says Haan, is that the hungry are pitiful, helpless and dependent on the outside world.

"Be it Kenyans, Somalis or Ethiopians, these are not passive victims," he said. "They are incredibly resilient people, and they do everything they can to maintain their livelihoods, and they don't want to be dependent on relief aid."

___

International donors are handing out millions again.

_The U.N. World Food Program is asking wealthy governments and foundations for $1.8 billion to feed 43 million people across Africa in 2006.

_The U.N. Children's Fund has asked for $16 million to help feed starving babies and their mothers in Kenya, Ethiopia and Somalia.

_Ethiopia's government, U.N. agencies and aid groups have appealed for $166 million in emergency assistance for that country.

_International donors will receive dozens of additional appeals for hundreds of millions of dollars for other aid programs before the year is out.

In response, the European Union, Britain's Department for International Development and the U.S. Agency for International Development will start writing checks. Many of the U.S. government's checks will go to U.S. farmers to ship food to Africa.

Romano Kiome, the top civil servant in Kenya's ministry of agriculture and an expert on African crops, said the last thing Africa needs is U.S. grain. When it arrives, the price of locally grown cereals will collapse, hurting African farmers.

"We have enough in the country to feed the hungry," Kiome said.

But nomadic people are too poor to buy it and too far from roads, electricity and clean water to make enough money in good years to cushion them when drought strikes, Kiome said. What his government needs is money to buy food from their own farmers and to transport it to the needy — not boxes of goods marked "Gift of the USA."

"I know Americans feel very gracious that they are contributing food to us, but in my view, it is immoral," Kiome said. "It is immoral to only respond when people are dying. Instead, there should be a long-term plan so that this does not happen."

___

People in T-shirts splashed with logos are handing out food again.

If images of starving babies set off the alarm, photos of food being unloaded and handed out create the impression that the emergency is over.

Dozens of international organizations specialize in providing the labor and logistics to deliver handouts.

Dan Maxwell, the deputy regional director for Atlanta-based CARE International in East Africa, has seen many droughts and warns that this year's may be one of the worst if the rains don't return in March and April.

He is frustrated that more has not been done to pre-empt the cycle of suffering.

"Every time there is a big emergency, there is a lot of talk during the emergency about addressing the underlying causes of these things," he said. "But as soon as the images disappear from the media, all of that talk dissipates really quickly."

As the new drought struck, CARE was just starting a project, funded by the U.S. government, to develop an integrated program to help nomadic communities deal with drought. Experts had begun working with them to improve livestock health and marketing, and to provide more education and health services.

But with people and animals starving, he said, the emphasis must turn to saving lives.

Maxwell said he feels "a combination of frustration that we can't seem to get a handle on this, but a determination not to get cynical about it and think we're not making progress."

___

Long-term solutions have fallen short again.

Every aid worker agrees that the world is good with emergencies but not with providing money for the long-term solutions to stop the cycle of drought-hunger-emergency aid.

When an emergency strikes, it sucks up money intended for development projects, the projects go unfinished and the cycle continues.

Haan, the U.N. food expert, said aid workers call it "the relief trap."

If Western and Asian countries can deal with cyclical droughts without loss of life, so can the nations of East Africa, with the right kind of help.

The solution is as simple as the old proverb: Give a man a fish and you have fed him for today; teach him to fish and you have fed him for life.

"Drought is a trigger, not a cause," Haan said. "Drought will come and go, unless we deal with the issues of governance and sustainable development in these areas we can be sure these crises will come back to us."

The U.N. advocates a two-track approach to guarantee money for immediate assistance without dipping into funds for intermediate and long-term solutions, Haan said.

Intermediate solutions include drilling wells and teaching modern farming to nomadic herders. Long-term solutions require that herders in semiarid areas raise fewer animals and find other livelihoods.

Samare Kisipan, 33, has gone to school, owns land and operates a business in Kajiado. As a Masai, he understands the importance of cattle to his culture, but he also knows that the traditional ways can no longer be supported. Although he has never met anyone from the United Nations, he agrees with Haan wholeheartedly.

"In the past the land was spacious, but now the land has become small," he said. "Conditions are forcing us to change. Now all of our cows are gone and we have to find a way to continue to exist."

Drought Comes Again to East Africa

[Shammu]

El Nino May Affect Africa's Food Supply

2 hours, 57 minutes ago

WASHINGTON - Climate change that strengthens the El Nino weather patterns could endanger food supplies for more than 20 million people in Africa, a new study warns.

El Nino is a warming of the water in the tropical Pacific Ocean that is associated with changes in air pressure and the movement of high-level winds that can affect weather worldwide.

In the past, El Ninos have occurred every four to seven years, but many climate experts worry that continuing global warming will lead to stronger and more frequent events.

A new analysis of 40 years of African crop and livestock records shows a close association between El Ninos and variations in production of corn, sorghum, millet and groundnuts such as peanuts.

Corn was particularly affected, with yield reduced in El Nino years in several African countries, researchers led by Hans R. Herren of the Millennium Institute in Arlington, Va., report in Tuesday's issue of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

In southern Africa, crop production could be down by as much as 20 percent to 50 percent in strong El Nino years, the researchers found.

There were smaller crop reductions in west Africa, they reported, but in northwest Africa there was an increase in sorghum and groundnut production in El Nino years.

Production of cassava and wheat did not vary in response to El Nino, they reported.

For Africa overall, the variation in corn production corresponded to the amount of food needed to feed 20 million people in a year, the report concluded. Variations in rice, sorghum, millet and groundnuts amounted to food for 2 million to 3 million people.

The danger could be reduced by increasing irrigation and by changing land use, including planting alternative crops, the researchers said.

The research was funded by the University of Oslo, Norway; the World Bank and the Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation.

El Nino May Affect Africa's Food Supply

[Shammu]

Talking with a friend of mine in the Ukraine, I found out, and I will quote them.

Concerning weather in Ukraine? At us it is cold, The snow not enough this year, but very colder.

They go on to say that the snow pack is 4 inches. Where they are, normal snow pack is 60+ inches.   So the weather is different there as well.

[Soldier4Christ]

Powerful Quake Sends Thousands Fleeing

MAPUTO, Mozambique - A powerful earthquake sent thousands of panicking people fleeing from swaying buildings in Mozambique and Zimbabwe soon after midnight Thursday, and killed at least two people.

Thousands of residents slept in the open, fearful of returning to their beds as aftershocks rocked the region.

"It felt like the building was going to fall down and it went on for a long time, the trembling," Johana Neves, manager of the Tivoli Hotel in Mozambique's main port city of Beira, said by telephone. "It felt like you were in a boat, it was shaking everything yet, it's strange, nothing is broken, even the windows."

The U.S. Geological Survey said the quake struck at 12:19 a.m. with a magnitude of 7.5 — one capable of widespread and heavy damage — and was centered 140 miles southwest of Beira. It shook buildings in Beira and Maputo, Mozambique's capital, and the Zimbabwean cities of Masvingo and Mutare. The temblor awoke people hundreds of miles away in Harare, Zimbabwe's capital, and as far away as Durban on South Africa's Indian Ocean coast.

Mozambican and Zimbabwe authorities reported surprisingly little damage, apparently because the epicenter was in remote and sparsely populated farmlands near the border with Zimbabwe.

"That same size earthquake in a populated area would probably cause quite considerable damage," said William Leith of the U.S. Geographic Survey's Earthquake Hazards Program.

Esperanca Dias, Mozambique's minister of mineral resources, told state television some buildings were damaged in Beira and the walls of some buildings collapsed in Chimoyo, north of the quake's center.

Two people were killed in farm towns near the epicenter, she said.

A little girl tripped and fell as she rushed downstairs from a seventh floor apartment in Espungabera, and died of injuries on the spot, Dias said. And a man was buried in rubble when a wall of his home collapsed in Machaze.

She said at least 11 people were injured, one seriously when he panicked and jumped from the third floor window of a Beira hotel.

Beira was without electricity earlier Thursday and so were some suburbs of Maputo, the seaside capital, where the quake uprooted several power pylons.

It shook every corner of Mozambique and was felt strongly in Maputo, in the far south, where tall office and apartment buildings swayed and hundreds of panicked residents fled into the streets.

During the night, national energy director Elias Daudi went on state radio to urge people not to return to buildings because of possible aftershocks.

In Beira, people were so frightened they refused to go back into buildings Thursday morning even as a light rain was falling.

Rosa Silva, governor of Maputo province, said the government was concerned there might be serious aftershocks and had asked South Africa for help monitoring seismic activity.

At least five aftershocks were recorded immediately and more were expected in coming days because of the quake's size, said Rafael Abreu of the Geographic Survey.

President Armando Guebuza broadcast a message to the nation Thursday afternoon saying the government still was taking stock.

The quake was felt in oil fields some 120 miles from the epicenter, but there was no damage, said Johann van Rheede, spokesman for South African company SASOL, which produces natural gas there.

In Tete province, J.J. Constantino of the World Food Program said many people had slept in the fields.

Tete also is home to one of the world's largest hydroelectric dams, the Cabora Bassa which covers 1,095 square miles. A reporter at the dam said the earthquake was felt and people also abandoned their homes to sleep outside, but that there were no immediate reports of damage.

The quake was unusual for Mozambique, one of the world's poorest countries where natural disaster usually takes the form of flooding. Floods killed at least 13 people this month and more than 800 in 2000 and 2001.

The temblor struck near the southern end of the East Africa rift system, a seismically active zone which has produced quakes measuring magnitude 7.6. Thursday's was shallow, which increases the potential for damage, said Dale Grant, a geophysicist with the Geographic Survey.

[Shammu]

Bird Flu Reported at French Turkey Farm

Fri Feb 24, 8:27 AM ET

PARIS - France confirmed cases of bird flu on a turkey farm, but it was not immediately clear whether it was the deadly H5N1 strain, the agriculture minister said Friday.

International health experts were meeting with European Union health ministers in Vienna amid concern that EU governments are ill-prepared to deal with large-scale outbreaks of H5N1. EU health ministers were expected to agree to launch a targeted public information campaign to raise awareness across Europe.

"The most important thing is to send a strong message," said Austria's Health Minister Maria Rauch-Kallat. "We will focus on communication of rules and behavioral standards to be applied."

Scientists fear the deadly strain, which has spread to 10 European countries, could mutate into a form that is easily transmitted between humans, sparking a pandemic.

French Agriculture Minister Dominique Bussereau said turkeys were found to have the H5 virus, but more tests were needed to determine if it was the H5N1 strain,

If so, it would be the first time the strain had spread to poultry stocks in France — the EU's largest poultry producer.

On Thursday, authorities sealed off a farm with more than 11,000 turkeys in the southeastern Ain region, where the deadly strain found in two wild ducks.

So far the strain has not been found in domestic birds in Germany. But on Friday, a second German state reported H5N1 in wild birds.

Two wild ducks found in the northwestern state of Schleswig-Holstein tested positive for the strain, according to the state agriculture ministry.

The H5N1 strain was first positively identified in Germany last week in the state of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, which neighbors Schleswig-Holstein to the east.

A domestic duck from Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania that was suspected of having bird flu, however, tested negative for the H5N1 strain on Thursday.

Indonesia stepped up its fight against the virus on Friday. Hundreds of veterinary workers went door-to-door in the capital Jakarta, testing for bird flu and killing infected fowl.

Many people in the city of 12 million keep one or two chickens or songbirds in the their backyards.

Indonesia has the highest death toll from bird flu, 19 people in the last nine months. Most cases of bird flu have been in Jakarta.

"Bird flu has now reached an alarming level," Agriculture Minister Anton Apriyantono said.

In India, veterinary workers wearing goggles and protective suits cleaned up chicken coops in a small town hit by the disease, while China reported that a 6-year-old bird flu victim had been released from a hospital after fully recovering.

Malaysian health and veterinary workers were expanding a screening operation in bird flu-infected areas near the main city on Friday, as two people with flu-like symptoms remained under observation in a hospital.

Some 190 veterinary officials, students and other government staff began the checks around four villages in the Gombak suburb of Kuala Lumpur, where 40 chickens died from the H5N1 virus last week.

The H5N1 virus has devastated poultry stocks and killed at least 92 people, most in Asia, since 2003, according to the
World Health Organization. Four deaths have been reported in Turkey and one in Iraq.

Bird Flu Reported at French Turkey Farm

[Shammu]

Philippine volcano erupts
From: Agence France-Presse
From correspondents in Manila

February 21, 2006

AS it struggles to cope with its mudslide disaster, the Philippines faces a new natural threat: volcanic eruption.
The 460m high Mayon volcano shook with more than a hundred quakes and sprayed ash across its slopes on today.

Government vulcanologists raised an alert advising residents to stay out of a danger zone in a radius of 6km from the crater as an ash column rose 500m into the sky.

It said there was no need to evacuate Legaspi, a nearby city of about 160,000 people.

Philippine volcano erupts

[Shammu]

Heavy Storms Threaten Mardi Gras Events

By KEVIN McGILL, Associated Press Writer 20 minutes ago

NEW ORLEANS - The Bacchus Lounge is a shell of its former self — gutted to the studs after Hurricane Katrina flooded it to the ceiling — but the Krewe of Dreux was determined to celebrate Mardi Gras at the little neighborhood bar Saturday and, weather permitting, march through the surrounding devastation.

Heavy storms in the forecast threatened to drown many of the day's activities: the large, like the celebrity-studded Krewe of Endymion's parade on elaborate floats through the relatively unscathed Uptown area; and the small, like the ragtag Krewe of Dreux's 34th annual trek through the flood-ravaged Gentilly neighborhood.

"We're winging it," Bacchus patron and Krewe of Dreux member Dave Stephens, who helped gut the bar, said Friday. "We're going to see what the weather does. We plan to march. If the weather prevents that, then we'll party at the Bacchus."

This is the last big weekend of the annual Carnival season, culminating on Mardi Gras, or Fat Tuesday, on Feb. 28 with parades and street parties in and around the city. Tourism officials and merchants are hoping that the event will gin up an economy reeling since Katrina hit on Aug. 29, flooding 80 percent of the city and dispersing more than two thirds of the population.

There were promising signs Friday in the French Quarter, as the streets began filling with revelers, many in costumes — white Elvis jumpsuits, sexy bustiers, T-shirts with obscene slogans taking aim at government officials.

"We're already starting to pack them in," said a jubilant Lisa Linscott, bartender at the Old Absinthe House bar.

But the crowds appeared to be smaller than a typical pre-Mardi Gras Friday and some shops were still waiting to benefit.

"It's dead. Not slow, dead," said Dennis Booth, working at a souvenir shop and bar.

The crowd was heavily local, but included some tourists.

"We love to have lunch here," said Laurie Weathers, of Norman, Okla., who was lunching at Galatoire's, a historic upscale restaurant on Bourbon Street. "But to be able to be here today is really special."

Visitors are often estimated at more than 1 million for Mardi Gras. Authorities were expecting fewer this year but were uncertain of how many. A shortage of hotel rooms was one problem, the storm forecast was another.

Better weather was expected for the final three days of Carnival.

Heavy Storms Threaten Mardi Gras Events

My note; You would think they would have learned after Katrina.

[Shammu]

Philippine volcano erupts
From: Agence France-Presse
From correspondents in Manila

February 21, 2006

AS it struggles to cope with its mudslide disaster, the Philippines faces a new natural threat: volcanic eruption.
The 460m high Mayon volcano shook with more than a hundred quakes and sprayed ash across its slopes on today.

Government vulcanologists raised an alert advising residents to stay out of a danger zone in a radius of 6km from the crater as an ash column rose 500m into the sky.

It said there was no need to evacuate Legaspi, a nearby city of about 160,000 people.

Philippine volcano erupts

Here is more information on the eruption.

As of the 24th of February, the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (PHIVOLCS) reported that Mayon Volcano’s seismic activity was characterized by nine (9) explosion-type earthquakes during the past observation period. Due to very thick clouds over the summit, no ash emissions were directly observed although minor ash explosions probably accompanied the seismic events. This is also apparent from confirmed reports that rumbling heard by local residents in Sta Misericordia accompanied the explosion-type quakes which occurred at 3:04AM and 3:06AM. In addition, the seismic network recorded two (2) low frequency volcanic earthquakes associated with shallow movement of magma. Sulfur Dioxide (SO2) flux emission rates averaged 1,740 tonnes per day (t/d), similar to 1,687 t/d measured last 28 November 2005. These values are still significantly above the usual 500 t/d.

Due to the continuing active seismicity involving minor explosion events, PHIVOLCS interprets the volcano to be undergoing moderate unrest, brought about by some magma ascent intruding the summit area. However, should rates of seismic, surface and other volcanic activity significantly change, PHIVOLCS shall elevate its notice of alert status accordingly. Alert Level 2 remains hoisted over the volcano, which means that the public is strongly advised not to enter the six (6) kilometer radius Permanent Danger Zone (PDZ) especially in the southeast sector of the volcano where the crater rim is at its lowest. Residents just outside the PDZ are also advised to be vigilant against sudden explosions which could generate hazardous volcanic flows.

The beautifully symmetrical Mayon volcano, which rises to 2,462 m above the Albay Gulf, is the Philippines' most active volcano. The structurally simple volcano has steep upper slopes that average 35-40° and is capped by a small summit crater. The historical eruptions of this basaltic-andesitic volcano date back to 1616 and range from Strombolian to basaltic Plinian. Eruptions occur predominately from the central conduit and have also produced lava flows that travel far down the flanks. Pyroclastic flows and mudflows have commonly swept down many of the approximately 40 ravines that radiate from the summit and have often devastated populated lowland areas. Mayon's most violent eruption, in 1814, killed more than 1,200 people and devastated several towns. Eruptions that began in February 2000 led PHIVOLCS to recommend on 23 February the evacuation of people within a radius of 7 km from the summit in the SE and within a 6 km radius for the rest of the volcano.

The Current Colour Code for Mayon is currently at ALERT LEVEL 2.

[Soldier4Christ]

A volcano on Papua New Guinea's remote island of Manam has erupted, spewing ash two kilometres into the air and raising safety concerns for nearby villagers.

An official at PNG's Vulcanological Observatory in Rabaul says the eruption started on Monday and continued on Tuesday.

He says small lava flows have been reported on the mountainside, but the situation for about 300 people living in nearby villages is unclear.

Manam, a tiny volcanic cone rising from the sea north of the PNG mainland, last erupted in November 2004, forcing the evacuation of about 9,000 people.

The island has been evacuated on a number of occasions because of volcanic activity.

[Soldier4Christ]

Earthquake Jolts Southern Iran

TEHRAN, Iran — An earthquake of magnitude 5.9 jolted southern Iran on Tuesday, the U.S. Geological Survey said. There were no immediate reports of casualties.

The temblor struck at 11:01 local time and was centered in an area about 600 miles southeast of the capital Tehran, the USGS said on its Web site. Theepicenter was about 80 miles from the nearest sizable city — Bandar-e Abbas, on Iran's coast.

The earthquake was classified as moderate, but such quakes have killed thousands of people in the past in the Iranian countryside where houses are often built of bricks. The head of the Tehran Seismology Center, Mahdi Rezapour, put the magnitude at 5.8.

State television said it was felt in the southern towns of Orzoueih, Kerman, Jiroft, Kahnooj and Baft. The governor of Baft province told state radio the quake caused walls to crack in villages.

"No deaths have yet been reported, but the quake has caused cracks in many buildings. The region hit by the quake is where the houses are made of mud brick," said the governor, identified only as Amini.

In February 2005, a 6.4-magnitude temblor rocked the town of Zarand in southern Iran, killing 612 people and injuring more than 1,400. A magnitude-6.6 quake flattened the historic southeastern city of Bam in the same region in December 2003, killing 26,000 people.

[Soldier4Christ]

Storm Brings More Snow to Sierra

A winter storm is making its way through the Sierra, causing dangerous driving conditions and bringing more snow.

A winter storm warning was in effect through Tuesday afternoon. Two to five inches of snow was expected to fall with wind gusts up to 45 miles an hour.

Eastbound traffic on Interstate 80 was stopped early this afternoon at Drum Forebay west of Blue Canyon because of a series of spin-outs near Soda Springs. Traffic was backed up for about two miles.

Chains are required on the freeway for all vehicles except four-wheel-drive vehicles with snow tires on all four wheels from one mile east of Baxter in Placer County to seven miles east of Truckee.

Chains are also required on US-50 from five miles east of Kyburz to Meyers in El Dorado County.

The California Highway Patrol urges drivers to remember to slow down, carry extra water, food and blankets while traveling in winter conditions.

Earlier this morning, a big rig driver was killed when his truck overturned on Interstate 80 near Nyack. The CHP said the crash occurred at about 2:07 a.m. when the driver failed to negotiate a curve in the road and struck a guardrail in the center divider.

To check conditions on specific roads, click on the traffic link above.

At Sugar Bowl ski resort, managers said they had trouble early this morning because yesterday's rain froze overnight. Workers had to climb the towers early this morning to break up the ice in order to get the lifts to run. However, today's snow has made ski conditions good, the marketing director said.

[Soldier4Christ]

Storm narrows Southern California's rain shortfall
Associated Press

LOS ANGELES - A Pacific storm moved out of the region Tuesday after narrowing Southern California's rainfall gap while causing power outages and other problems.

Power outages hit parts of downtown Los Angeles and the Silver Lake and El Sereno neighborhoods but all but about 1,000 had electricity restored by afternoon. Some 270 Southern California Edison customers also remained without power.

Downtown received .62 inch of rain Tuesday, raising the total to 7.32 inches since the start of the rain year on July 1, but still 3.48 inches below normal to date. A year ago, Los Angeles had received 33.87 inches by Feb. 28.

The storm also led to water rescues.

In Orange County, Santa Ana firefighters used a ladder truck like a crane to rescue man trapped on a ledge of a bridge support as runoff flowed down the Santa Ana River.

In Riverside County, firefighters came to the aid of two men whose car became trapped in 4 feet of water in Perris.

Elsewhere, a landslide took a chunk out of a parking lot at a Northrop Grumman facility northeast of Los Angeles in Azusa, and accumulated rain collapsed ceilings of a townhouse in the Orange County community of Rossmoor.

[Soldier4Christ]

 Schools close as week-long Arctic storm takes hold

More than 150 schools were closed yesterday and dozens of roads were blocked by snow as Arctic weather hit parts of Britain.

While many central areas enjoyed uninterrupted winter sunshine, the north of Scotland and the East Coast experienced some of the heaviest snowfall of the winter.

The northerly air stream, which is expected to last for most of the week, hit Orkney and Shetland, where all schools were shut, Aberdeenshire, the North-East of England, north Wales and Northern Ireland.

The weather also hampered efforts to recover an RAF helicopter which was abandoned during a rescue operation in the Cairngorms on Monday night.

The aircraft was forced to make an emergency landing after its rotors iced up during blizzard conditions. The crew of five had to walk off the hill, while a mountain rescue team went to the aid of a climber who had broken his ankle.

Michael Mulford, a spokesman for RAF Lossiemouth, said conditions during the attempted rescue were "utterly horrendous" with the helicopter being buffeted by 60mph winds as it approached Corrie an Sneachda, above Aviemore.

He said: "The 10-ton helicopter is now basically posing as a huge ice sculpture. It is too early to guess when, or if, it will get back to flying.

"We have alpine-trained mountain rescuers who are checking the helicopter, but conditions are currently too bad to mount a rescue operation. The helicopter is picking up more ice and snow so, when the time comes, it will need to be dug out and de-iced."

Severe weather warnings were issued yesterday for Yorkshire and Lincolnshire, with several inches of snow expected on the North York Moors, and up to eight inches of snow on high ground in Scotland.

In Aberdeenshire, 122 schools were closed or partially closed by 11am, and main roads including the A93 Braemar to Cairnwell, and the A939 Cockbridge to Tomintoul, were blocked by drifting snow.

In Yorkshire, there were sporadic snowfalls in the Scarborough and Whitby areas.

The Thames Barrier was closed during the day as the weather combined with high spring tides to create a 20in surge.

Andrew Batchelor, the tidal flood risk manager, said the move was standard procedure "when strong winds on the East Coast combine with high spring tides".

The Met Office said there would be no let-up in the cold weather today, with more snow forecast and temperatures expected to plunge below freezing later in the week.

A second weather front could bring snow to the southern half of the country towards the end of the week and into the weekend.

[Soldier4Christ]

Storms May Push Western Rivers to Flood

RENO, Nev. — Persistent rain that threatened to push creeks and rivers over their banks turned to snow early Tuesday, easing flood threats across western Nevada and the Sierra.

South of Carson City, snow began falling before dawn after a day of heavy rain that had emergency personnel on high alert amid fears of a repeat of a New Year's Eve flood that caused more than $17 million damage.

Small creek and urban flood warnings that had been issued a day earlier for the Reno-Carson City area and eastern Sierra were canceled early Tuesday by the National Weather Service. A flood warning for the lower Truckee River at Vista east of Sparks remained in effect until 4 p.m.

A winter storm warning was posted for the Lake Tahoe region, where forecasters said up to 10 inches of snow was possible before the storm dissipated later in the day.

Total snow accumulations at the higher elevations could reach 3-5 feet, forecasters said.

Chains or snow tires were required on all mountain roadways, including Interstate 80 over Donner Summit and U.S. 50 over Echo Summit.

The snow was in stark contrast to a day earlier, when pelting rain and high snow levels caused streams, rivers and creeks to swell with rain water, runoff and melting snow.

The city of Sparks, hard hit by flooding two months earlier, declared an emergency Monday as crews, residents and businesses worked to fill sand bags and shore up banks along the Truckee River.

"We're focussing all of our resources to respond to a pending flood," Sparks Mayor Geno Martini said Monday afternoon.

"The declaration of emergency enables us to request aid from other jurisdictions, such as Washoe County and the state of Nevada," he said.

Some of the heaviest rain Monday fell along the Sierra in California north and west of Reno on Monday. A spotter for the weather service reported 2.8 inches of rain in less than 24 hours near Cromberg in Plumas County, with 2.7 inches near Sierraville in Sierra County and 2.1 inches near Jansesville in Lassen County.

The weather service said the region should get a brief reprieve on Wednesday before another, colder storm system moves in Thursday, bringing with it the potential for heavy snow in the mountains and western Nevada valleys, including the Reno-Carson City area.

[Soldier4Christ]

Giant Volcano Under Yellowstone Park Stirring to Life
Thursday, March 02, 2006

Forces brewing deep beneath Yellowstone National Park could be making one of the largest volcanoes on Earth even bigger, a new study reveals.

In the past decade, part of the volcano has risen nearly five inches, most likely due to a backup of flowing molten rock miles below the planet's crust.

While the rise may not be noticeable to the casual hiker, the activity may have cracked the crust in the park's famous Norris Geyser Basin (NGB), leading to the formation of new fumaroles — holes that vent smoke and gas — and the reawakening of some of the area's geysers, including Steamboat, the largest geyser in the world.

Eventually, however, it could explode again as a super-volcano that would destroy life for hundreds of miles around and coat the entire country in ash.

Up and down

Radar observations from the European Space Agency's ERS-2 satellite reveal that the jellybean-shaped Yellowstone caldera — a giant depression caused by past volcanic explosions — began to rise in 1995.

Although the caldera floor started to sink in late 1997, part of the north rim, called the north rim uplift anomaly (NUA) continued rising until 2003.

Molten rock called magma rises from the Earth's core under Sour Creek dome, a major feature in the eastern section of the caldera.

When the magma reaches the mantle layer, six to 12 miles below the surface, it spreads like a pancake before branching off into several tunnels.

Magma flow is controlled by natural valves — one at Sour Creek dome that lets magma enter the system, and others that allow it to flow out. The outflow valve below the north rim uplift anomaly, however, can only pass so much magma at once.

"Magma's always coming up in Sour Creek dome and going through the system," U.S. Geological Survey research geophysicist Charles Wicks told LiveScience. "But maybe there are pulses when more comes up. That may be what causes the surface to rise."

The research is detailed in the March 2 issue of the journal Nature.

The pulses might be more than the outflow valve can handle — like trying to squeeze all the toothpaste out of the tube at once. As the molten material pushes out on the surrounding rock, the ground around the valve expands and cracks.

This could explain why the uplift anomaly has risen and the Norris Geyser Basin has become more active, Wicks said.

Another explanation is that nearby geothermic changes and seismic activity altered the shape of the valve, perhaps narrowing it. However, previous studies have indicated that no such alterations have occurred, and that changes in flow rate more likely cause these deformations.

Big changes

The five-inch increase at the uplift anomaly probably wasn't noticed by many tourists, but the changes in the Norris Geyser Basin were easily spotted by some.

After a nine year period of inactivity, Steamboat Geyser erupted in May, 2000, and has erupted five times since. Reaching more than 300 feet in the air, Steamboat produces the highest plumes of any geyser in the world.

Since 1989, Pork Chop geyser was active only as a hot spring, but in the summer of 2003 it reawakened as a geyser. Also that summer, several footpaths near the Norris Geyser Basin were closed because of near-boiling ground temperatures.

And a 250-foot line of new fumaroles, holes venting hot smoke and gases, formed near Nymph Lake to the north of the uplift anomaly.

"But when the [uplift anomaly] quit inflating in 2002 and 2003, the thermal unrest died off too," Wicks said. "So we think there's pretty good evidence for tying these events together."

Despite these changes, Wicks doesn't believe that Yellowstone is ready to erupt.

"This is probably an ongoing feature in Yellowstone. We've only been able to study it like this for 10 years, so we're still not sure what's normal and what's not," Wicks said. "But there's no evidence yet to suspect an eruption."

Also, the magma pancake serves as a thermal buffer that helps stabilize the volcanic system against potentially dangerous sudden changes in temperature.