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

[Shammu]

Deadly Bird Flu Expands in Africa, Asia

By EMMANUEL TUMANJONG, Associated Press Writer 1 hour, 52 minutes ago

YAOUNDE, Cameroon - The deadly H5N1 strain of bird flu was detected for the first time in poultry in Myanmar and Cameroon, officials in the two nations said, in the latest sign of the disease's expanding range in Africa and Southeast Asia.

Experts over the weekend confirmed cases in hundreds of dead chickens at a farm outside of Myanmar's second largest city, Mandalay, Than Tun, director of the country's livestock breeding and veterinary department, said Monday.

Myanmar borders Thailand and China, which together have reported 24 human deaths from the disease.

Cameroon's government announced its first avian case on Sunday, becoming the fourth African country to be struck by the deadly bird flu virus.

The fatal virus was first discovered in Africa on a commercial poultry farm in Nigeria in February. It has since been reported in Niger and Egypt.

Experts have expressed concern that bird flu was likely to be spreading undetected in Africa, which is ill-prepared to deal with the virus and lacks laboratories to detect it.

Cameroon's government said the tests that confirmed the H5N1 strain were carried out in a laboratory in Paris.

Minister of Livestock Aboubakary Sarki told reporters the infected duck was among 10 birds that died in Maroua from Feb. 12-26. He said the government had already slaughtered birds in the area as a precaution, but did not say how many.

Sarki said the government had banned the sale of chicken in the affected area, but some residents contacted by phone said it was still being sold.

Cameroon also said it was reinforcing a ban on poultry imports from Nigeria and any other country affected by bird flu. Authorities imposed the ban shortly after the fatal strain was reported in Nigeria.

The H5N1 strain of bird flu has killed or forced the slaughter of more than 140 million chickens and ducks across Asia since 2003, and has recently spread to Europe, Africa and the Middle East. Health officials fear H5N1 could evolve into a virus that can be transmitted easily between people and become a global pandemic.

At least 97 people have died from the disease worldwide, two-thirds of them in Indonesia and Vietnam, according to the
World Health Organization. No human cases have been detected in Africa.

Humans and poultry live close together on small farms across Africa, as in Asia where the current H5N1 wave began and where the virus first jumped to humans.

In Myanmar, teams of experts were sent to the area to begin slaughtering chickens within a two-mile radius of the farm where the infected birds were found.

Myanmar's military government — which generally restricts the free flow of information and exercises tight control over the mostly state-owned mass media — had previously said it would deal openly with any bird flu problems.

Deadly Bird Flu Expands in Africa, Asia

[Shammu]

Lunar Eclipse March 14th

LUNAR ECLIPSE:  When the full moon rises on Tuesday evening, March 14th, you might notice something odd--a pale shadow darkening the moon's southern hemisphere. That is the shadow of Earth, and if you can see it, you've spotted a "penumbral" lunar eclipse. Weather permitting, the eclipse will be visible from eastern parts of the USA and Canada, all of Europe and Africa, most of Asia and South America, and western Australia. The eclipse will *not* be visible from California and other far western US states.

Penumbral eclipses are not as dramatic as total eclipses. A penumbral eclipse involves only the pale fringe of Earth's shadow while a total eclipse happens in the shadow's dark red core. Both are fun to observe.

Maximum eclipse occurs between 6:18 p.m. and 7:18 p.m. EST on March 14th (14/2318 UT and 15/0018 UT). Observers in Europe, Africa and eastern parts of North America are favored; the eclipse will not be visible from California and other western US states:

http://spaceweather.com/

Visability Map

[Shammu]

BLUE SUN: For the second time this year, a blue sun has appeared over Egypt. "A powerful khamaseen dust storm swept through Alexandria on March 7th," reports astronomer Aymen Ibrahem of the Bibliotheca Alexandrina. "The sun shining through the dust turned blue." 

Blue suns occur when the air fills with particles just a little larger than the wavelength of light. This makes the air behave like a filter, scattering red while allowing blue to pass. For maximum blue, the particles should all be very close to the same size--about a millionth of a meter across. Khamaseen storms are notorious for such fine dust. The spring dusty season is just beginning in Egypt. Sky watchers there should be alert for more blue suns--and blue moons, too.

http://spaceweather.com/

[Shammu]

Tornadoes Rip Across Midwest, Killing 10

By JOHN O'CONNOR, Associated Press Writer 14 minutes ago

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. - Swarms of tornadoes killed at least 10 people across the Midwest, shut down the University of Kansas and caused so much damage in Springfield that the mayor compared it to the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.

The violent weather started during the weekend with a line of storms that spawned tornadoes and downpours from the southern Plains to the Ohio Valley.

On Monday, a second line of storms raked the region, with rain, hail and fierce wind tearing up trees and homes from Kansas through Indiana. To the northwest, the vast weather system pulled cold air in Canada, generating snowstorms that cut off power to thousands and shut down schools in South Dakota, Minnesota and Wisconsin.

Illinois' capital was hit hard twice in 24 hours, first by a tornado and then strong wind early Monday that blew debris through the city. Power lines were down across Springfield, trees uprooted and windows blown out.

"It's just amazing how devastating it is," Mayor Tim Davlin said Monday after daylight let him see the extent of damage. "It looks like the pictures we saw a couple months ago after Katrina."

The tornado that struck Springfield on Sunday evening was one of about 20 that broke out along a 400-mile patch across Missouri and Illinois, National Weather Service meteorologist Ed Shimon said Monday.

Most major roads into the city were closed, and police searched damaged homes and businesses for people who could be trapped, said city spokesman Ernie Slottag. At least 24 people were treated for minor injuries.

Two hotels looked like they were still under construction, with missing roofs and blown-out windows. A nearby Wal-Mart store had also lost its roof.

Even the five-story Illinois Emergency Management Agency building was damaged, its roof partly torn off and the top floor flooded, said IEMA spokeswoman Patti Thompson. The Capitol lost two windows, and the governor told nonessential state employees in Springfield they weren't required to report to work Monday.

Missouri was also hit hard by the weekend storms, with at least nine people killed and hundreds of homes and businesses destroyed or damaged. Hail as big as softballs pounded parts of the state.

Bobby Ritcheson, 23, said he watched as a neighbor was killed south of Sedalia, Mo.

"The trailer came down right on top of her," Ritcheson said.

Homes were destroyed along a path of more than 20 miles south of St. Louis, officials said.

At the University of Kansas, where 60 percent of the buildings were damaged by weekend storms, Provost David Shulenberger said classes were canceled Monday because of safety concerns about debris falling from roofs. The Lawrence campus was littered with trees, roof tiles and window glass.

Two trees fell through Rhonda Burns' mobile home in Lawrence early Sunday.

"If the wind had shifted that tree just a few inches, I wouldn't be talking to you," she said.

Tornadoes also destroyed dozens of homes Sunday in Oklahoma and Arkansas.

"It was over before you knew it," said Greg Kospar, 41, of Bentonville, Ark. "The house is gone."

In Illinois, the tornado that struck Springfield on Sunday had made a two-hour pass through central Illinois.

The Chicago area was struck by high wind, with gusts to 70 mph in suburban Tinley Park, and roofs were blown off apartment buildings in suburban Bridgeview. Localized flooding was reported in the Chicago and Quad Cities areas.

Thousands of people were without power in the state Monday morning, including about 15,000 in the Springfield area, down from about 65,000 at the height of the storms, Thompson said.

Davlin said his brother's restaurant and bar in the nearby town of Jerome was heavily damaged.

"I had to call him and tell him that his roof was four buildings away," said the mayor, whose brother was out of town during the storm.

The vast weather system arose as moist air from the Gulf of Mexico collided with cold Canadian air, said Philip Schumacher of the National Weather Service in Sioux Falls, S.D. The system dumped 20 inches of snow in parts of western South Dakota and knocked out power and closed schools as it moved into Minnesota and Wisconsin.

"It is a sign that spring is coming," said Schumacher. "You start getting stronger low-pressure systems, and they're able to bring in stronger south winds, which tend to bring up more moisture."

Missouri authorities reported nine people killed, including four whose bodies were found in the rubble of homes near the town of Renick.

Another storm victim was found in Indiana, where several people had to be rescued from cars stalled in rapidly rising water. Flood warnings were posted Monday for large areas of southern and central Indiana.

Tornadoes Rip Across Midwest, Killing 10

[Soldier4Christ]

Tornadoes Rip Across Midwest, Killing 10

I'm right in the middle of all that activity last night. There is a lot more of it today, again.

[Soldier4Christ]

Texas Fires Burn Half a Million Acres

GROOM, Texas (AP) - Massive wildfires raced across the dry southern plains early Monday, burning more than half a million acres in Texas, leaving at least seven people dead and injuring at least seven more.

Four people died in a chain-reaction crash on Interstate 40 east of Groom as smoke obscured the road. Three others died in fires near Borger, northeast of Amarillo.

"This is probably one of the biggest fire days in Texas history," said Warren Bielenberg, a spokesman for the Texas Forest Service.

The fires scorched more than 663,000 acres - more than 1,000 square miles or about two-thirds the size of Rhode Island - far eclipsing the deadly wildfires that prompted Gov. Rick Perry to declare a statewide drought disaster in January. The earlier blaze charred more than 455,000 acres, destroyed more than 340 homes and killed three people.

Early Monday, the fires burned near the border of Gray and Donley counties in the Panhandle. Fields visible from Interstate 40 were ablaze and fallen trees smoldered in roadside ravines. Fire snaked its way across fields and sent smoke hundreds of feet into the air. Some power poles appeared close to toppling as flames burned their bases.

Bill Tidwell worked overnight in his hometown of Alanreed to fight spotfires with his shovel.

"It's burning houses down all over the country," said Tidwell, 68. "I've never seen nothing like it."

Officials weren't certain what sparked the wildfires, but wind gusting up to 55 mph and low humidity made conditions ideal for the fires to quickly spread. The parched region around Amarillo has had just three-tenths of an inch of rain since February, nearly an inch below normal, and no rain is expected for at least another week.

"With these windy conditions and dry grasses, there was nothing to stop the fires," said J.J. Brost, a forecaster with the National Weather Service in Amarillo.

Cooler temperatures Monday should help firefighters, but the winds are still forecast around 15 mph, Brost said.

Wildfires forced the evacuation of eight small towns over the weekend, although some residents were allowed to return to Skellytown and Lefors late Sunday.

Near Borger, two people died trying to escape a grass fire that consumed their home, fire Capt. Mike Galloway said.

"The brush fire overtook their house and yard and got them," he said. "The flames just spread so fast."

Eight to 10 structures were destroyed near Borger, about 40 miles northeast of Amarillo, Galloway said. Firefighters worked through the night to try to contain the blazes.

Another person died in Hutchinson County, said Sheriff's Deputy Aaron McWilliams. No details were immediately available.

Volunteer firefighter Danny Whittington said 15 to 20 structures were lost in a fire between Pampa and McLean.

"I can't imagine what it's going to look like at daylight," Whittington told the Amarillo Globe-News. "I've seen something I've never seen before and that's cattle and horses burned. You'd think they would run, but they just stood there."

Whittington's father, Frank, suffered burns to the chest while fighting the blaze.

The crash near Groom, about 40 miles east of Amarillo, involved nine vehicles, said Daniel Hawthorne, a spokesman for the Department of Public Safety in Childress. A vehicle stopped because of the smoke and was struck from behind, sparking the chain reaction, he said.

Low visibility from the dense smoke forced officials to close an 89-mile stretch of Interstate 40 from Amarillo to Shamrock for six hours, Hawthorne said. Traffic was initially diverted down State Highway 70 to U.S. 287, until that road was closed because of the fires.

Mandatory evacuations were issued Sunday for the towns of Lefors, Skellytown, Miami, Wheeler, Hoover, McLean and Old and New Mobeetie.

In Shamrock, evacuees arrived Sunday from Wheeler County nursing homes, Police Chief Joe Daniels said. The Red Cross was setting up a shelter at the community center, he said.

Shamrock City Manager John Rhodes said a few hundred people, including some elderly and sick patients from nursing homes, were transported in school buses. Some of the nursing home residents were later moved to other facilities.

Fires also menaced southeastern New Mexico, where a 70,000-acre grass fire prompted evacuation orders for up to 200 people Sunday and injured one man, who was hospitalized in stable condition, officials said.

Several smaller wildfires also burned in Oklahoma, where some people were evacuated from the central Oklahoma town of Carney.

[Soldier4Christ]

New World Record 110 Twisters

Tornadoes spin death, damage across US Midwest

CHICAGO (Reuters) - Violent storms that spawned a record number of tornadoes killed at least eight people across the Midwest, many dying in Missouri where twisters wrecked mobile homes, authorities said on Monday.

There were at least seven deaths in Missouri, with the other fatality a drowning victim in Indiana, emergency management officials said.

The preliminary estimate of 110 tornadoes that touched down on Sunday broke a 16-year-old record for any day in March, the National Storm Prediction Center said.

Damage and power outages from the weekend storms and twisters extended across Missouri, Illinois and Indiana.

"Missouri got banged this weekend," said Joe Schaefer of the Storm Prediction Center in Norman, Oklahoma.

Four people who lived in mobile homes died in and around Moberly, Missouri, which was struck by a powerful twister on Sunday, Schaefer said. Other victims were reported in Sedalia and Marionville.

Missouri's emergency management agency said 29 counties sustained storm damage.

The unsettled weather across the United States included a freak snowfall in normally balmy sections of California and relief from the record 143-day drought gripping Phoenix.

Wind, hail, lightning and downpours paraded across the Midwest. The mayor of Springfield, Illinois, compared the damage from Sunday's large tornado to what he had seen from Hurricane Katrina.

Officials at the University of Kansas said the main campus in Lawrence suffered about $6 million damage on Sunday, but there were no injuries. Classes for the 26,000 students were canceled on Monday, spokesman Todd Cohen said.

More than half the buildings on the campus suffered some sort of damage, ranging from blown-in doors to ripped-off roofs. The soccer stands were left in twisted wreckage, he said.

On Saturday, another 17 tornadoes were reported across the region, contributing two fatalities to the weekend death toll.

There are more expected today.

[Shammu]

Ready or Not, Bird Flu Is Coming to America
Officials Advise Stocking Up on Provisions -- and Warn That Infected Birds Cannot Be Prevented From Flying In
By BRIAN ROSS

March 13, 2006 — - In a remarkable speech over the weekend, Secretary of Health and Human Services Michael Leavitt recommended that Americans start storing canned tuna and powdered milk under their beds as the prospect of a deadly bird flu outbreak approaches the United States.

Ready or not, here it comes.

It is being spread much faster than first predicted from one wild flock of birds to another, an airborne delivery system that no government can stop.

"There's no way you can protect the United States by building a big cage around it and preventing wild birds from flying in and out," U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Michael Johanns said.

U.S. spy satellites are tracking the infected flocks, which started in Asia and are now heading north to Siberia and Alaska, where they will soon mingle with flocks from the North American flyways.

"What we're watching in real time is evolution," said Laurie Garrett, a senior fellow for global health at the Council on Foreign Relations. "And it's a biological process, and it is, by definition, unpredictable."

Industry Precautions

America's poultry farms could become ground zero as infected flocks fly over. The industry says it is prepared for quick action.

"All the birds involved in it would be destroyed, and the area would be isolated and quarantined," said Richard Lobb of the National Chicken Council. "It would very much [look] like a sort of military operation if it came to that."

Extraordinary precautions are already being taken at the huge chicken farms in Lancaster County, Pa., the site of the last great outbreak of a similar bird flu 20 years ago.

Other than the farmers, everyone there has to dress as if it were a visit to a hospital operating room.

"Back in 1983-1984, we had to kill 17 million birds at a cost of $60 million," said Dr. Sherrill Davison, a veterinary medicine expert at the University of Pennsylvania.

Can It Be Stopped?

Even on a model farm, ABC News saw a pond just outside the protected barns attracting wild geese.

It is the droppings of infected waterfowl that carry the virus.

The bird flu virus, to date, is still not easily transmitted to humans. There have been lots of dead birds on three continents, but so far fewer than 100 reported human deaths.

But should that change, the spread could be rapid.

ABC News has obtained a mathematical projection prepared by federal scientists based on an initial outbreak on an East Coast chicken farm in which humans are infected. Within three months, with no vaccine, almost half of the country would have the flu.

That, of course, is a worst-case scenario -- one that Lobb says the poultry industry is determined to prevent with an aggressive strategy to contain and destroy infected flocks and deny the virus the opportunity to mutate to a more dangerous form but one that experts say cannot be completely discounted.

The current bird flu strain has been around for at least 10 years and has taken surprising twists and turns -- not the least of which is that it's now showing up in cats in Europe, where officials are advising owners to bring their cats inside. It's advice that might soon have to be considered here.

Ready or Not, Bird Flu Is Coming to America

[Shammu]

Crews Battle Texas Wildfires That Killed 7

By BETSY BLANEY, Associated Press Writer 1 hour, 51 minutes ago

BORGER, Texas - Using bulldozers and air tankers, firefighters struggled Monday to stop wind-blown wildfires that scorched more than 1,000 square miles of the drought-stricken Texas Panhandle.

The blazes were blamed for at least seven deaths, four of them in a crash on a smoke-shrouded highway over the weekend. Four more bodies were found Monday evening in a car that had crashed into a ravine, and authorities suspected those deaths were also caused by the wildfires.

About 1,900 people in seven counties were evacuated.

"This has been a very deadly wildfire season, but Texas communities have shown strength, and we're going to continue fighting these fires from the ground and from the air," said Rachael Novier, a spokeswoman for Gov. Rick Perry.

There was no immediate estimate of the number of homes damaged or destroyed. Firefighters used bulldozers to plow fire breaks in the parched earth, while air tankers dropped water on the flames.

Jennifer Orand fled her doublewide mobile home Sunday in the tiny Panhandle community of Texroy to stay with a nearby relative. When she returned Monday, there was nothing left.

"I just started crying," said Orand, 27, who shared the home with her husband. "You hear all the time that people think it will never happen to you. I never thought I'd say that myself."

Eleven fires burned across an estimated nearly 700,000 acres Monday, up from 663,000 over the weekend. State fire crews fought more than 160 blazes in one 24-hour period.

The size of the scorched area easily eclipsed the 455,000 acres that burned in December and January, when the governor declared a disaster.

The cause of the latest blazes was under investigation.

The previous fires were apparently sparked by people who burned trash, tossed cigarettes or illegally set off fireworks in the middle of one of the worst droughts in Texas in 50 years.

About 3.5 million acres — 2 percent of the state's land mass — have burned since Dec. 26.

A blaze near Borger covered 432,000 acres, a fire near Groom consumed 211,000 acres, and a fire south of Childress burned 20,000 acres. Authorities believed the fire near Borger was sparked by power lines feeding oil field equipment at a ranch.

One of the most intense fires burned Monday about 10 miles north of Pampa. Winds blew it toward the town of about 17,000 people, said Donny Hooper, a spokesman for Gray County Emergency Operations.

"We're not sure where it's going to lead tonight," said Ken Hall, the community's emergency management coordinator.

Orand's mobile home, just four months old, had been filled with new furniture and appliances. At the burned-out site Monday, a melted jar of coins still smoldered.

Orand said she had evacuated without her wedding ring: "I think it's melted. It's gone."

A set of cement steps were all that remained, but she vowed to rebuild. "I'm not leaving this place," she said. "A tornado could come, and I'd still move back here."

Four people were killed Sunday in a chain-reaction accident involving nine vehicles on a smoky Interstate 40 near Groom, about 40 miles east of Amarillo. Three people died in fires near Borger — two of them trying to escape a grass fire that consumed their home, said fire Capt. Mike Galloway.

"The brush fire overtook their house and yard and got them," he said. "The flames just spread so fast."

Monday evening, four bodies were found in a car that had run off a road into a ravine in Roberts County.

Authorities said early evidence suggested the deaths were linked to the grass fires. No further details were immediately available; the investigation was continuing.

The fires were fanned by the same storm system that caused deadly tornadoes and storms in the Midwest. Winds of 55 mph combined with low humidity on Sunday to spread the flames.

The wind dropped to 15 or 20 mph Monday, and the humidity rose. But no rain is expected in the region before Saturday.

Crews Battle Texas Wildfires That Killed 7

[Soldier4Christ]

Shifting Wind Worries Texas Firefighters

Firefighters said they were making progress Tuesday against a string of wildfires ravaging the dry Texas grassland, but the good news was tempered by a threat of shifting winds and the distress of evacuees returning to charred homes.

Wind-blown flames have raced across more than 1,000 square miles since Sunday, killed 11 people and forced about 1,900 others to evacuate.

On Tuesday, firefighters were bracing for the possibility of a shift in wind direction and dropping humidity as they worked to strengthen the perimeters around the blazes, said Jan Fulkerson, a spokeswoman for the Texas Forest Service. The wind was near 20 mph mid-morning and there was no rain in sight.

The Department of Public Safety late Monday attributed four new deaths to the fires, bringing the death toll to 11. Nine firefighters have been injured.

"We share in the grief of those who have lost family members and loved ones, and we offer our prayers," Gov. Rick Perry said. "Throughout this wildfire season, communities in our state have shown strength and resolve that are uniquely Texan."

Eleven fires were burning across an estimated nearly 700,000 acres Monday, up from 663,000 over the weekend. State fire crews fought more than 160 blazes in one 24-hour period.

The size of the blackened area easily eclipsed the 455,000 acres that burned in December and January, when the governor declared a disaster.

Fire evacuee Jennifer Orand returned Monday to find her mobile home in the Hutchinson County community of Texroy burned to the ground.

"I just started crying," said Orand, 27, who lives with her husband, Shannon, about 40 miles northeast of Amarillo. "You hear all the time that people think it will never happen to you. I never thought I'd say that myself."

A series of rural fires stretching through Collinsworth, Wheeler, Carson, Hutchinson, Donley and Gray counties, charred some 652,000 acres by Monday night, and were still burning early Tuesday, the Texas Forest Service reported.

Another wildfire in Childress and Cottle counties reached 45,000 acres, the Texas Forest Service said.

In southeastern New Mexico, authorities contained a 92,000-acre fire that had charred tinder-dry brush, burned the McDonald post office and two homes, and forced about 200 people to evacuate. It appeared to have been started by an emergency flare at a natural gas plant, Lovington fire officials said.

Texas Department of Public Safety reported seven firefighters suffered minor injuries fighting the blazes in the Panhandle. One was hospitalized in stable condition Monday night after a wreck in his fire truck. A ranch hand assisting firefighters was hospitalized with second-degree burns.

About 3.5 million acres - 2 percent of Texas land mass - has burned since Dec. 26, said Rachael Novier, a spokeswoman for Perry.

[Soldier4Christ]

    
Strong earthquake rocks eastern Indonesia
The Associated Press
 
JAKARTA, Indonesia A powerful undersea earthquake rocked Indonesia's eastern coast on Tuesday, causing panic but no serious damage, officials said. There were unconfirmed reports it triggered a small, nondestructive tsunami, police said.
 
The 6.8-quake struck 93 kilometers (58 miles) west of Ambon, the capital of Maluku province, the U.S. geological survey said on its Web site.
 
Residents in Ambon and other towns close to the epicenter some 40 kilometers (25 miles) under the ocean fled homes and offices when the temblor hit, witnesses said.
 
"I was surprised, and everyone ran onto the streets because we really felt the shaking," said Daniel Leonard from Ambon, around 3,000 kilometers (1,9000 miles) north east of the capital, Jakarta.
 
The region was then hit by several aftershocks, witnesses said.
 
A police officer on the nearby island of Buru said locals living on the coast reportedly saw the sea withdraw by several feet (meters) and then rush in land by around 10 centimeters (4 inches) further than before.
 
"But I cannot not confirm this because I myself did not see it," said Sgt. Usro, in Namlea, the main town on Buru island.
 
Usro, who only gave a single name, said there were no reports of damage, either from the quake or the apparent tsunami.
 
The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center said there "there was a very small possibility" that the quake would generate a small tsunami that could affect coasts no more than 100 kilometers (62 miles) from the epicenter.
 
Indonesia, the world's largest archipelago, sits atop a volcanically active region in the Pacific known as the Ring of Fire and is rocked daily by earthquakes of varying magnitudes.
 
In December 2004, a 9.1-magnitude earthquake off the coast of Sumatra Island triggered the Asian tsunami, killing more than 131,000 people in Aceh and leaving tens of thousands more missing.
 
 

[Soldier4Christ]

Earthen Dam in Hawaii Bursts, Killing One

An 1890s-era plantation dam failed in the rugged hills above northern Kauai, sending water and mud surging through two homes and wiping out the only highway. Searchers found one person dead and were looking for at least seven others, some of them children who hadn't been seen since the deluge.

The continuing rain was hampering the search and road-clearing efforts, and officials were worried that other old earthen dams in the area may have been catastrophically weakened by days of heavy rain, state Sen. Gary L. Hooser said.

One dam in particular was in imminent danger of collapsing, Hooser told ABC's "Good Morning America." He said workers were trying to drain off the water behind it.

"It's still raining. I don't think it's over with. The entire island is kind of flooding in different parts," Hooser said Wednesday. "We're just hoping and praying for the rain to pass and the skies to clear and get on with the work of rebuilding the community."

The water cut off access to and from thousands of rural houses and luxury condominiums along Kauai's north shore.

"Sounded like a 747 jet crashing here in the valley, all the trees popping and snapping and everything," said John Hawthorne. "It was just a horrendous sound, and it never quit."

Search crews recovered the body of an unidentified man, and area residents said one family whose home was swept away was missing several children.

"To my knowledge, there was no warning whatsoever," Hooser said. "We're still hopeful that we'll find some of the missing."

Gov. Linda Lingle, who planned to tour the area Wednesday, extended state disaster programs and services Tuesday to the residents affected by recent rains and flooding. She also made loans available to people whose homes or businesses were damaged and authorized the use of National Guard troops to help with disaster relief.

State officials were assessing the safety of other dams in the island's steep hills. Ed Teixeira, state vice director of civil defense, said officials were worried about erosion.

"I would characterize this as a growing crisis on Kauai," he said.

Nearly all of Hawaii's dams were built early in the past century before federal standards existed or the advent of the state's program for assessing dam and levee safety, according to Edwin Matsuda, an engineer who heads the state's safety programs.

The 40-foot-high Kaloko Reservoir dam, which captured runoff from small streams, gave way about an hour before dawn Tuesday. Authorities estimated that about 1,400 acre-feet of water poured out of the reservoir, enough water to cover 1,400 acres a foot deep, or more than 60 million cubic feet.

"You could hear a roar and trees breaking. It was nuts. It was totally loud," said Brendan O'Connor, who was awakened by the thunderous sound of rushing water.

Officials feared Morita Reservoir's dam, located downstream from Kaloko, might also fail.

"Everybody's on edge," resident Victoria Stamper said.

Late Tuesday, road crews began clearing mud, trees and other debris from the highway by the truckload until work was stopped so water could be released from Morita Reservoir, state transportation spokesman Scott Ishikawa said.

One lifelong north shore resident, Be Chandler, waited patiently in her pickup truck in hopes her mother, who was stranded on the other side of the Kuhio Highway, would be allowed through. Her 74-year-old mother is in a wheelchair and requires dialysis three times a week.

"Somehow, we have to get her over," said Chandler. "I'm just praying to see my mom."

Roy Matsuda, lead forecaster at the Honolulu office of the National Weather Service, said Tuesday that a storm had dumped 5 to 6 inches of rain on Kauai in 24 hours.

An exhausted Katie Carlin, of San Mateo, Calif., arrived Monday night with her husband and two young children only to find they were unable to reach their hotel room in Hanalei because of a flooded bridge.

"We're trapped," she said. "It's small potatoes to what's going on here, but I just don't want to spend another night in the car."

[Soldier4Christ]

Texas Firefighters Battle Strong Winds

Stiff wind swept across the dry Texas landscape Wednesday, challenging firefighters already weary from three days of battling wildfires that have blackened 840,000 acres and killed 11 people.

Fire crews and equipment had been stationed around the north sides of the fires in anticipation of the wind picking up again, said Jan Fulkerson, a spokeswoman with the Texas Forest Service.

At daybreak, no towns appeared to be in imminent danger, Fulkerson said. She said firefighters hoped increased humidity would keep the fires from becoming explosive, as they did Sunday when the outbreak began.

Still, crews had been preparing for the worst.

"The winds and all the burning embers we got, it could be bad," said McLean Volunteer Fire Chief Clifford McDonald.

In the 24-hour period that ended at midday Tuesday, the state had sent crews and aircraft to more than 200 fires covering 191,000 acres.

Those blazes destroyed 15 homes, closed at least one highway and forced the evacuation of 45 people, officials said. Since last weekend, 1,900 others in seven counties already had been forced to evacuate. About 10,000 cows and horses were feared dead across the smoking landscape, according to the Texas Animal Health Commission.

Gov. Rick Perry plans to tour the devastated areas Thursday.

Since Dec. 26, fires have consumed about 3.7 million acres and nearly 400 homes in his state, Texas officials said.

Wednesday morning, southerly wind had picked up to 28 mph at Amarillo, about 70 miles west of McLean in the Texas Panhandle, and gusts to 40 mph were possible, the National Weather Service said. The wind was expected to continue through the day before easing slightly during the night.

Humidity was only 37 percent, but still about twice as high as Sunday, and forecasters said there is a slight chance of rain this weekend.

More than 350 firefighters have been battling the latest outbreak of flames, about two dozen aircraft have been used to drop fire retardant, and 55 bulldozer crews have been clearing brush and digging trenches.

The charred bodies of four oilfield workers were found within 50 yards of their car, said Newell Rankin, the range foreman of the Roberts County ranch where the bodies were found. Rankin said it appeared the men drove off a gravel road Sunday and into a ravine, where they abandoned the car.

"In a last act of desperation you just run for your life, literally," he said. "It's a shocking thing, the loss of life."

Rankin said most of his 1,300-acre ranch was burned, and he was trying to account for his 750 head of cattle. He found 12 dead and had to shoot another. About 500 were back in their pens, and firefighters managed to save his home, Rankin said.

On Sunday, four people died in a crash on a smoke-shrouded highway near Groom, and three more died trapped in homes near Borger.

Nine firefighters have been injured, with two of them in intensive care after a vehicle rollover, said Daniel Hawthorne, spokesman for the Department of Public Safety.

[Soldier4Christ]

Red Flag Warning In Effect For All Central Florida Today.

In short that means that we could be in for dangerous activity, and that we should all be careful with campfires, cigarette butts, and anything that could emit sparks.

Tune to News 13, where our team of meteorologists will have the latest conditions on your weather on the one's.

With no major rain in sight, conditions are still favorable for brush fires in Central Florida.

A Red Flag Warning is in effect from 11 am to 6 p.m. today for Volusia, Lake, Seminole, Orange, Northern Brevard, Osceola and Okeechobee counties due to low relative humidity and sustained winds at 15 to 20 mph and gusty.

Gusty northeast winds will bring a very dry air mass into east Central Florida today and produce long durations of relative humidity values below 35 percent. The combination of low relative humidity and northeast winds sustained will lead to an increased fire weather threat.

A Red Flag Warning means that critical fire weather conditions long durations of low relative humidity or a combination of low relative humidity and strong winds are either occurring now or are forecast to occur in the next 24 hours.

[Soldier4Christ]

Second Earthquake in Central Mozambique

An earthquake, measuring 5.3 on the Richter scale, hit the central Mozambican provinces of Manica and Sofala on Wednesday, but without causing any damage, according to reports on Radio Mozambique.

This earthquake, which was felt at 13.52 local time (11.52 GMT), may have been an aftershock of the much larger earthquake (measuring 7.5 on the Richter scale) that struck central Mozambique on 23 February.

The February earthquake, which had its epicentre in Machaze district, about 1,200 kilometres north of Maputo, resulted in five known deaths. Although it shook buildings in several of the main cities, including Maputo, it did no significant material damage.

The spokesperson for the police command in Manica, Pedro Jemusse, described the Wednesday quake as "very slight". It did not stop people going about their normal business.

Some environmental activists have used the February earthquake as an excuse to demand that the projected new dam at Mepanda Ncua on the Zambezi should not be built.

The Environmental Justice Association claimed on Tuesday that an earthquake or construction failure could cause a catastrophic collapse of the dam wall, leading to a disastrous flood in the Zambezi valley.

But this is every bit as true for the existing dam at Cahora Bassa as for the hypothetical one at Mepanda Ncua. And the 23 February quake was certainly felt in the Zambezi Valley, but caused no damage at all to Cahora Bassa.

Dams are built taking seismic activity into consideration, and there is no reason to believe that in this regard Mepanda Ncua will be more dangerous than any other dam.