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

[Shammu]

Brace yourselves: the perfect storm is coming your way

Gales, tidal surges, flooding and widespread havoc - but this time it's only a simulation

Ian Sample, science correspondent
Monday March 27, 2006
The Guardian

A perfect storm is about to gather off the east coast of Britain, whipping up the sea and menacing the coastline with gales and torrential downpours. Before long, it will head south and make landfall, sending a wave of water up the Thames estuary, battering the hotchpotch of flood defences erected since Victorian times.

The surge will trigger an alert to raise the Thames barrier, but downstream widespread breaches and floods are expected. Where the most vulnerable areas will be is anyone's guess.

Article continues
Fortunately, the storm and the havoc it brings will go unnoticed by anyone except a handful of the country's leading scientists. The extreme weather, like the damage it causes, will exist only in the ones and zeroes of a programme running on powerful computers at the Meteorological Office in Exeter.

The virtual storm lies at the heart of an unprecedented £5.5m experiment involving the Environment Agency, the Met Office and eight universities to test cutting-edge artificial intelligence systems designed to foresee dangerous storm surges. Beginning tomorrow, they will be put through their paces, when a team led by Brian Golding, head of weather forecasting at the Met Office, will digitally recreate a storm that struck Britain in November last year.

Over the following three days, weather experts will play along, issuing forecasts of the storm's intensity and path across the sea, while separate teams of scientists race against the clock to feed the information into their computers. Some aim to churn out predictions of how big a storm surge will hit London. Others will use 3D digital maps to reveal how water might gush through the urban sprawl and what areas are most at risk of flooding. Another team is charged with deciding whether the public can be given accurate warnings in good time.

Together, they will need to answer pressing questions: should the public be warned? The emergency services? Should the underground be closed and the military put on standby to start shifting sandbags? "It's going to be one hell of a nailbiter. It'll reveal any cracks in the system," said Ian Cluckie at Bristol University, who heads the Flood Risk Management Research Consortium.

When the real storm hit in 2005, the wall of water it sent up the Thames caused little concern because it arrived on a neap tide, when water levels in the estuary are at their lowest. In the simulation, the surge will be electronically pasted on top of an extremely high spring tide due on September 30 2015. It will amount to a rare but entirely plausible storm surge of up to 3.5 metres (11ft) charging up the Thames on the highest tide for 25 years.

To make matters worse, the Met Office will introduce a nasty kick. By programming strong northerly winds into the simulation, the swelling river will be blown up against the riverside defences, straining them beyond their limit.

The simulation will give the researchers a unique opportunity to test whether artificial intelligence can predict such events and also be used to save lives and prevent damage. "We want to see if these systems can tell us further ahead when we've got a major issue. And we want to know definitely what's going to happen, because if you get a pile of false alarms, it just causes chaos," Prof Cluckie said.

The Thames barrier is old engineering, but its designers anticipated rising sea levels and worsening storms. By 2030, it will still be able to shield against a freak one-in-a-thousand-year storm surge topping 7 metres, but the flood defences downstream, in low-lying Thamesmead, for example, are a mixed bag of earth embankments, grassy flats and sheet pile walls - piles set close together. "They are so different and they each have their own ways of failing," said Andy Batchelor, Thames tidal flood risk manager at the Environment Agency.

The test is part of crucial planning for the unexpected that could prevent a real disaster unfolding. When Hurricane Katrina was bearing down on New Orleans, officials knew from simulations that protective levees would be breached and lives would be lost. "If you don't have a plan, you end up repeating what went wrong with Katrina. If the worst does happen, you don't want to be looking on and scratching your head wondering what to do next," said Garry Pender, of Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh.

The simulation will give the Met Office a chance to test another fledgling technology - ensemble forecasts. Instead of issuing one forecast for the storm laden with uncertainty, Met Office staff will issue more than 20 to cover the breadth of possible futures. Whether scientists and their computer models can cope with such a swamp of information is unknown.

Throughout the three-day simulation, Hazel Faulkner and her team from Middlesex University will check how information is passed between the groups. Even if individual groups perform perfectly, if their advice is misinterpreted by others, it could badly damage the emergency response to the storm.

"Science is couched in such different language that sometimes it fails to deliver what it should. We're trying to improve that without losing the sense of the message," she said.

Ultimately, the research team believe they will be able to use artificial intelligence systems to foresee dangerous storm surges up to a week in advance. Bulletins including maps of areas under threat and simple advice could then be sent to mobile phones in regions at risk, with specific instructions given to local TV and radio stations to help protect the public.

In the quiet after the storm, the teams will reconvene to pick over events to see if their new hi-tech systems worked quickly and accurately enough to make a difference. "You have to do these tests. If you hear a storm surge bigger than you've ever seen is on its way, you want to know you can cope with it," Prof Pender said.

Brace yourselves: the perfect storm is coming your way

[Shammu]

 Avian flu kills swan in Scotland
By Anil Dawar
(Filed: 06/04/2006)

A wild swan has been found dead from avian flu in Scotland. Preliminary tests found "highly pathogenic H5 avian flu" in a sample from the bird, the Scottish Executive said.

The bird was found near the coast in an emaciated condition, about nine miles from St Andrews, in Fife.
    
Map

A two-mile exclusion zone was set up around Cellardyke while scientists continued to examine the bird to discover if it was carrying the H5N1 strain of the virus, which can be fatal to humans.

Poultry farmers and bird owners in the zone were told to make sure that their animals did not mix with wild birds and to keep them indoors if possible.

A spokesman for the Scottish Executive said that if H5N1 was confirmed, ministers would have to make an immediate decision on whether all farm birds across the United Kingdom would be brought indoors.

A decision would also be made on whether restrictions would be imposed on the movement of goods from poultry to eggs.

Last night samples from the swan were sent for analysis to the European Union bird flu laboratory at Weybridge, Surrey. If the tests prove positive, it will be the first time the H5N1 strain has been identified in the wild in Britain.

Charles Milne, the chief veterinary officer for Scotland, said the discovery was a "huge development" for Britain.
    
Debby Reynolds
Debby Reynolds: 'In a high state of readiness'

Speaking on BBC2's Newsnight programme, he said: "This is the first time that we have any indication that we might have highly pathogenic avian influenza H5 strain in GB. This has clear implications for our veterinary risk assessments and the action that we want to put in place over the next few days and weeks."

He said that farmers within the protection zone would be required to house their birds.

"We've got to consider vaccination right from the start and, indeed, we've discussed this today but we do not think that at this stage vaccination is the policy that we wish to pursue."

Debby Reynolds, the Government's chief veterinary officer, said: "We are already in a high state of readiness and I have every confidence that officials north and south of the border will work together to manage this incident successfully."

Prof Hugh Pennington, a microbiologist from Aberdeen University and a leading expert on bird flu, told the BBC: "I would be surprised if it was not the H5N1 virus but I would be happy to be proved wrong."

The H5N1 strain has killed more than 100 people, mostly in Asia, since 2003. However, it has not mutated to be able to transfer between humans. Prof John Oxford, the scientific director of Retroscreen Virology Ltd and professor of virology at St Bartholomew's and the Royal London Hospital, said: "You can imagine the swan as a piece of litmus paper. A dead swan will indicate that some wild bird such as a duck has silently infected it, so there will be other wild birds around that are H5 positive. It means the virus has arrived.

"However, it is still a big step away from a domestic chicken being infected or even a human but it could be the first step on a pathway."

The news comes on the same day that German authorities ordered the slaughter of 16,000 fowl on a farm near Leipzig after the H5N1 strain was found. It is only the second confirmed case in the EU of the lethal strain being found in domestic birds.

H5N1 was found in Britain last October in pet birds in held in quarantine in Essex.

Originally, ministers said it had been identified in a parrot but had to admit that a mesia finch was to blame as samples had been mixed up.

The H5N1 virus does not at present pose a large-scale threat to humans, as it cannot pass easily from one person to another.
    
Bird flu factfile

However, experts fear the virus could mutate to gain this ability, and in its new form trigger a flu pandemic, potentially putting millions of human lives at risk.

The virus has so far caused the deaths of people in Cambodia, China, Indonesia, Thailand, Turkey and Vietnam, all of whom were in contact with the faeces of infected birds.

Avian flu kills swan in Scotland

[Shammu]

Disaster is coming to San Francisco ... the question is when
Updated 4/6/2006 12:53 AM    

By John Ritter, USA TODAY
SAN FRANCISCO — Hurricane Katrina was bad enough. But consider what an earthquake like the monster that devastated this city 100 years ago would do today.

More than 300,000 people left homeless. Thousands of buildings collapsed or damaged beyond repair. As much as $200 billion in economic losses. Two major airports knocked out. Freeways crumbled and sunken. Mass transit disrupted. Water pipelines shattered. An untold number of fires fueled by broken gas lines.

Picture one of America's greatest cities, perched on a peninsula, cut off when bridge approaches fail. Commuting all but stops. Ships and military airlifts become the bearers of emergency food and supplies. Tent cities and makeshift trailer parks persist for months as a region already chronically short of housing struggles to rebuild.

That is a doomsday scenario that the Red Cross, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), city and state disaster agencies and private engineering firms believe is not only possible but likely. "My going-in position? It won't be pretty," says Kevin Kellenberger, disaster services director for the Red Cross' Bay Area Chapter. "We're going to have significant issues, with sheltering, water supplies, food supplies. It's all going to be very difficult."

The magnitude-7.8 earthquake of April 18, 1906, and its ghastly aftermath of fire and disease killed an estimated 3,000 people across an area whose population is 10 times greater today. In a repeat of that earthquake, one of the USA's worst catastrophes, several thousand would perish, the USGS estimates.

Arguably no other earthquake-prone spot in the world is better prepared for the "Big One" than the San Francisco Bay Area, nine counties and 6.7 million people living atop seven active earthquake faults.

Tens of billions of dollars has been spent to fortify buildings, bridges, roads, dams and power stations, much of it since the Bay Area's last big earthquake, Loma Prieta in October 1989. Thirty years of construction under tougher seismic building codes have created structures better able to withstand Earth's violent shaking.

But thousands of old buildings still need reinforcing, says Chris Poland, president of Degenkolb Engineers in San Francisco. Seismic upgrades on critical infrastructure remain unfinished: a span of the Bay Bridge damaged in 1989, the aging tunnels and pipes of a water system supplying 2.5 million people, $1 billion in retrofits on Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) lines, including a train tube that rests on the bay's soft mud floor.

Many hospitals and schools couldn't withstand a major earthquake, state studies show, and few have money for seismic strengthening. Older concrete buildings — apartment and condominium towers among them — were built with inadequate reinforcing steel and are at risk of collapse in a major earthquake, Poland says.

It's coming

It's not a matter of if but when the next one will strike. The USGS, the government's chief earthquake research agency, puts the odds of a repeat of 1906 at 1-in-25 in the next 25 years.

The notorious San Andreas Fault that produced the 1906 earthquake has ruptured repeatedly over millenniums. Stress builds gradually along the fault deep in Earth's crust, then lets loose in an instant like the snap of a rubber band. Scientists can observe stress buildup but can't predict the time and place of the snap.

The longer the rupture, the stronger the earthquake. In seconds, at a speed of up to 13,500 mph, nearly 300 miles of the San Andreas ripped apart in 1906 — as much as the fault is capable of, the USGS says. The epicenter was 2 miles offshore from San Francisco's Golden Gate Park, yet Santa Rosa, 60 miles north, was flattened and had the highest per capita death toll, 117. Forty miles south, the then-new Stanford University campus lay in ruins.

In 1989, just 25 miles of the fault ruptured, enough to produce a magnitude-6.9 earthquake that killed 63 people and left $6 billion in damage. Small bumps in magnitude carry a big wallop: The 7.8 earthquake in 1906 was 30 times more potent than the 6.9 in 1989.

Across the bay from San Francisco and the San Andreas looms another disaster-in-waiting: the Hayward Fault coursing through a dense urbanscape including Oakland and Berkeley.

The Hayward is much shorter and couldn't generate as big a rumble as the San Andreas. Yet, a Hayward rupture could be nearly as destructive because 400,000 people live on top of the fault, many on artificial land created over decades by filling in edges of the bay. "Made ground," as it was called in 1906, shakes the worst in an earthquake.

"These areas typically are right at water level, water saturated, lots of sandy material," says Mary Lou Zoback, a scientist with the USGS in Menlo Park. "They behave like quicksand and lose their strength. Whole houses and apartment buildings can tip over."

The process, called liquefaction, struck San Francisco's marina and financial districts in 1989. It caused a double-deck freeway section to collapse in Oakland. In a repeat of 1906, almost the entire perimeter of San Francisco and large stretches of the East Bay would liquefy. Farther south, pieces of Alameda, San Leandro, Hayward and Fremont are built on fill.

The USGS rates "very high" the chances that all the land under Foster City, population 29,500, would liquefy.

Sixty terrifying seconds

Northern California had a strong earthquake every few years in the 1800s but none big enough to spoil San Francisco's rowdy emergence as the West's most populous and sophisticated city. Earthquake science was primitive, seismic building codes non-existent.

Sixty terrifying seconds just before dawn changed everything.

The jolt was violent and destructive, but the fires that followed, wind-driven and superhot, accounted for at least 80% of the damage. Within days, San Francisco looked like Dresden, Germany, after World War II bombing. Nearly 500 blocks burned. More than half the city's residents were homeless amid staggering rubble. The water system failed, leaving no supply for drinking, much less fighting fires. Service wasn't restored for three months. Crowded, unsanitary camps and shelters bred plague.

Rebuilding started as soon as the fires were out. Huge tracts of redwood forests from Santa Cruz to Oregon were clear-cut for lumber. Speed trumped planning, and just nine years later, when the remade city threw a coming-out party — the Panama-Pacific International Exposition — 18 million showed up.

More important, lessons sunk in. The city designed a backup water system for firefighting that, many upgrades later, still exists today. The Hetch Hetchy system of dams, pipelines and reservoirs was approved to bring water from the Sierra Nevada in Yosemite National Park to the Bay Area.

Earthquake-hazard research emerged, and scientists for the first time mapped, on horseback, the San Andreas Fault, 800 miles from near the Salton Sea in the Mojave Desert to Cape Mendocino south of Eureka. They found that it had ruptured repeatedly and that earthquakes appeared to be cyclical.

Later investigation revealed six other major faults running roughly parallel at 10- to 20-mile intervals in Northern California. "They can all have a damaging earthquake," Zoback says. "The very strong shaking we're most worried about can occur throughout the region."

cont'd next post

[Shammu]

Tougher building codes didn't emerge until 67 people died in the 1971 San Fernando earthquake in Southern California. Now pilings sunk deep below layers of artificial fill anchor tall buildings such as San Francisco's Transamerica Pyramid. The 48-story tower swayed more than a foot during Loma Prieta, alarming workers but escaping damage. Other deep-pile structures: AT&T Park, home of the National League baseball Giants, and San Francisco Airport's international terminal.

Not business as usual

Designating a building "earthquake resistant" — the modern standard — means it won't collapse. It doesn't mean business as usual. "The public thinks it means no damage," says Richard McCarthy, executive director of the California Seismic Safety Commission. "It means you and I get out of that building alive, but the next day they start tearing it down."

Most older brick and masonry buildings — the main rubble piles from big earthquakes — have been reinforced. Still vulnerable, however, is one of San Francisco's signature housing styles: multistory wood-frame apartments above ground-floor garages or glass commercial storefronts.

"We don't know how many could collapse, certainly hundreds, maybe thousands," says Laurence Kornfield, one of San Francisco's chief building inspectors. "These are very important buildings to the city — visually and culturally." Many are rent-controlled, and landlords have little incentive to retrofit them because they can't pass the costs on to tenants.

As for pre-1970s concrete buildings, including many high-rises, the city is "just beginning to understand the scope of the risk," Kornfield says. Retrofitting can eat up three-quarters of the cost of replacing such a building, but the alternative is grim. "In a concrete collapse, pretty much everybody inside will end up in the pile of debris," he says.

With public works, timing is everything. A $4.5 billion Hetch Hetchy upgrade won't be finished until 2015. A big earthquake today could mean loss of tap service, rationing, orders to boil water, perhaps empty reservoirs. After 2015, "we'll be able to restore service within 24 hours," says Tony Winnicker, spokesman for the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission.

Major bridges, except the Bay Bridge, have been strengthened, but on-ramps might be impassable. Stretches of two major north-south freeways built on fill, U.S. 101 on the bay's western side and Interstate 880 on the eastern side, probably would crack, crumble or sink. If an earthquake hits during winter rains, landslides could bury east-west highways that cut through coastal mountains, Zoback says.

Oakland-to-San Francisco BART trains would be marooned on either side of the bay if the line through the tube flooded. Commuters, if they still had jobs to go to, would have to catch ferries.

Commercial shipping at the Port of Oakland, the nation's fourth-largest, could be disrupted if some of its 37 mammoth cranes that unload cargo jump their rails or if emergency food and supply shipments take priority. Runways at San Francisco and Oakland airports could break up or sink into the bay. Canceling or rerouting San Francisco's 1,000 daily flights would play havoc with air travel nationwide.

The Red Cross has lined up schools, churches and public buildings for use as shelters, Kellenberger says, "but we have no idea what condition they're going to be in after an earthquake."

Pacific Gas and Electric's $2.5 billion program to replace 500 miles of vulnerable gas lines and harden switching and transmission facilities is 90% complete. "It doesn't mean we won't have any fires," says Lloyd Cluff, director of the utility's geosciences department.

A 2002 survey by the state architect found that a strong earthquake could severely damage 7,500 schools built before 1978. School districts have no money to retrofit, and only one in 10 has even asked for survey results. Private schools, attended by a third of San Francisco's children, weren't surveyed.

After the 1994 Northridge earthquake near Los Angeles — 6.7 magnitude, 60 deaths — the state gave its 430 hospitals until 2008 to make unsafe buildings collapse-proof. Half have asked for more time, while others hope the state won't enforce the deadline, says Jan Emerson, a spokeswoman for the California Hospital Association.

Not until 2030 must hospitals be able to keep functioning after an earthquake. San Francisco General, whose trauma center would be crucial in a disaster, chose to rebuild rather than retrofit, but completion is seven years away.

Economic factors

Politics and scarce resources inevitably affect earthquake preparedness. "When you're cutting back services to your community every day because of budget constraints, there won't be the political will to spend money on something that may never happen," says Frances Edwards, a former San Jose emergency services director.

Four years ago, San Francisco's building commission killed a study after preliminary findings predicted that a third of the city's housing would collapse or be badly damaged in a big earthquake. The study found that 83% of city housing was built before modern building codes. Under pressure, the commission revived the study last year.

Businesses need tax credits to afford to build buildings that won't just survive an earthquake but will remain operational afterward, says McCarthy of the seismic safety commission.

The more companies that stay in business, the sooner communities get back on their feet, he says. And the state loses a lot less tax revenue. The idea has found no traction in the Legislature.

For Bay Area disaster planners counting on a quick federal response, Katrina was a revelation. It has driven local agencies and governments into closer partnerships, McCarthy says.

"Before, we thought FEMA would get out here and do something right afterward," he says. "Now that's in question. We're going to be alone for a long time."

Disaster is coming to San Francisco ... the question is when

My note; I got news for them, it will happen to the whole world!

[Shammu]

3 Die After Falling Into Volcanic Fissure

1 hour, 57 minutes ago

MAMMOTH LAKES, Calif. - Three members of a ski patrol team, including an avalanche expert, died Thursday when they fell into a volcanic fissure at the Mammoth Mountain resort, officials said.

Whether they were killed by the 21-foot fall or were also affected by gases seeping from the cavity was not immediately clear.

The victims were part of a four-man team inspecting the mountain after heavy snowstorms and fencing off the gap in the rock, officials said.

Mammoth Lakes Mayor Rick Wood said heat from hot rocks had hollowed out the snow and two ski patrol members fell into the fissure on the 11,053-foot peak in the Eastern Sierra.

A third patrol member attempted a rescue and perished as well, and the fourth was injured, he said.

Additional rescue efforts were conducted by other ski patrol members and local firefighters and paramedics. Four rescuers were hospitalized for exposure to carbon dioxide but were doing well, said Rusty Gregory, chief executive officer of Mammoth Mountain Ski Area.

The role that gas might have played in the three deaths was uncertain, but the mayor said a police detective told him that "the level of carbon monoxide inside this cavity was extremely high."

One of the victims was Walter Rosenthal, a researcher at the University of California, Santa Barbara, and an expert in snow hydrology and remote sensing of snow, officials said.

Rosenthal, who was in his 40s, was the ski resort's avalanche troubleshooter. He was also a founder of the Eastern Sierra Avalanche Center, which provides skiers information about snow stability.

The other two victims were not immediately identified.

The mountain, about a six-hour drive north of Los Angeles, is popular with skiers from Southern California. The peak towers over a dramatic landscape in a volcanically active region.

The region has been quiet of volcanic activity for six years, said Dave Hill, a scientist with the U.S. Geological Survey in Menlo Park.

3 Die After Falling Into Volcanic Fissure

[Shammu]

Wildfires Erupt in Texas; Town Evacuated

By BETSY BLANEY, Associated Press Writer 1 hour, 32 minutes ago

AMARILLO, Texas - Numerous wildfires erupted in the parched, windy Texas Panhandle on Thursday, destroying nine homes and prompting a mandatory evacuation of two small towns.

More than a dozen fires burned at least 27,000 acres in the Panhandle, destroying homes north of Amarillo, the Texas Forest Service said. A fire south of Pampa in Gray County consumed 5,000 acres and forced the evacuation of at least 600 residents from Lefors and Bowers City, the forest service said.

"You can see we have a big, big problem, and the weather's not cooperating," said Texas Department of Public Safety spokesman Wayne Beighle. "The winds are relentless."

Residents were taken to a shelter in Pampa, about 54 miles northeast of Amarillo, Beighle said. By late Thursday, firefighters had gained control over some of the wildfires and residents were allowed to return. No injuries were reported.

"You can call that a bullet dodged," Beighle said.

He said winds gusted to 70 mph, toppling an 18-wheeler along a rural road.

Officials closed several roads because of blowing dust and smoke. At least 1,500 acres had burned.

Fires last month burned nearly a million acres in the Panhandle.

On Thursday, the largest fire was burning in Potter County, north of Amarillo. It scorched 14,000 acres and threatened the Fain Natural Gas Plant, but the plant wasn't damaged, said Texas Forest Service spokeswoman Traci Weaver.

Blazes in Howard and Glasscock counties scorched more than 3,000 acres, but firefighters were making progress containing them, Weaver said.

Firefighters contained flames burning north of Amarillo that burned 1,800 acres. They also were close to fully containing another blaze on the Crane-Upton county line that charred 800 acres and threatened a wind farm, she said.

Wildfires Erupt in Texas; Town Evacuated

[Shammu]

Norovirus Outbreak Kills 2 in Washington

1 hour, 6 minutes ago

VANCOUVER, Wash. - A viral outbreak at a retirement center has left two people dead and sickened more than 40 residents and workers, authorities said.

Clark County health officials said Thursday they have asked the 180 residents of the Cascade Inn to stay in their rooms and urged friends and family not to visit until the outbreak of norovirus runs its course. Social activities have been canceled.

The voluntary quarantine will remain in effect until four days after the last new diagnosis — perhaps another week, said Marni Storey, manager of the county health department's infectious disease program.

One of the patients died late Wednesday and the other Thursday morning, officials said.

The norovirus is common and often takes the form of a mild stomach disorder. Symptoms can include nausea, diarrhea and vomiting.

Norovirus Outbreak Kills 2 in Washington

[Shammu]

Tornadoes Sweep Through Tennessee, Kill 10

By ERIK SCHELZIG, Associated Press Writer 30 minutes ago

NASHVILLE, Tenn. - A line of severe thunderstorms and tornadoes marched across the South on Friday, peeling away roofs, overturning cars and killing at least 10 people in Tennessee, officials said.

It was the second wave of violent weather to hit the state in less than a week. Last weekend, thunderstorms and tornadoes killed 24 people in the western part of the state and destroyed more than 1,000 homes and buildings.

The storms raked an area from northern Mississippi to northern Virginia as they moved to the northeast late Friday after developing from a low-pressure system in the central Plains.

The Nashville suburbs were the hardest hit, with at least eight deaths happening northeast of the city.

Fire Chief Joe Womack said three bodies were pulled from the wreckage of homes in a subdivision of Gallatin, about 24 miles northeast of the city.

Steven Davis, who lives about a block from the subdivision, said he ran to a neighbor's home to take shelter in a crawl space when he heard the storm approaching.

"When the tornado came through, the roof was off just like that," Davis said, snapping his fingers. Houses on each side of his street were destroyed.

"Our neighborhood is leveled," Davis said.

Tornadoes were also reported in the Nashville suburbs of Goodlettsville, Hendersonville and Ashland City, and in Holladay, about 90 miles west of Nashville. The storms flattened trees, knocked down power lines and damaged homes and other buildings.

Spotty communications made it difficult for emergency responders to get a full picture of the damage. Phone lines to authorities and most businesses were out of service.

Hospitals admitted at least 60 people with storm-related injuries and transferred at least nine critically injured patients to Nashville hospitals.

At Volunteer State Community College in the Nashville suburb of Gallatin, several people suffered cuts and scratches, spokesman Eric Melcher said.

Two campus buildings were severely damaged, Melcher said. Emergency workers searched other buildings in an attempt to account for all students.

Three car dealerships near the college were devastated, with 250 cars totaled.

In Cheatham County, just west of Nashville, Sheriff John Holder said the tornado passed over his office.

"I looked up and you can't believe the stuff that was in the air," he said.

A tower that held the tornado warning siren was destroyed in Ashland City.

In Kentucky, two homes were destroyed, possibly by a tornado.

In southern Indiana, the storms pelted some areas with golf ball-sized hail. High winds blew the roof off a country club and toppled a semitrailer.

As the storms moved farther east, parts of West Virginia were lashed with heavy rain and winds, blowing the roofs off businesses and sending trees crashing into houses.

The number of tornadoes in the United States has jumped dramatically through the first part of 2006 compared with the past few years, according to the National Weather Service's Storm Prediction Center.

Through the end of March, an estimated 286 tornadoes had hit the United States, compared with an average of 70 for the same three-month period in each of the past three years.

The number of tornado-related deaths was 38 before Friday's storms. The average number of deaths from 2003 to 2005 was 45 a year, the prediction center said.

Tornadoes Sweep Through Tennessee, Kill 10

[Shammu]

Several earthquakes rattle California coast
Strongest temblor was magnitude-4.2, centered northwest of L.A.

Updated: 4:49 a.m. ET April 7, 2006

SAN SIMEON, Calif. - A minor earthquake and several small tremors shook central California near Hearst Castle, but there were no immediate reports of damage, authorities said.

The magnitude-4.2 earthquake happened at 6:06 p.m. Thursday and was centered 8 miles northeast of San Simeon, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.

It was followed by four tremors ranging in magnitude from 2.6 to 2.2, according to the automated California Integrated Seismic Network.

On Wednesday, there was a magnitude-3.6 earthquake in the same area.

San Simeon is about 200 miles northwest of Los Angeles.

Several earthquakes rattle California coast

[Shammu]

This story could also be posted in Prophecy and End Time Series. - Israel but I elected this thread because of the weather.
__________________________________________________________________________ _________________

Tornado, Sand-Storms and Oversized Hail Strike Israel
22:26 Apr 05, '06 / 7 Nisan 5766

      A small tornado ripped across the western Galilee Tuesday evening. Hail the size of golf balls also fell in the region. Scores were hospitalized. Freak stormy weather across Israel continues.

The tornado touched down during a hailstorm in the Acco region, striking the Arab villages of Julis, Fassouta and Jedaideh. Hail as big as ping-pong balls was reported as far away as Nahariya. In southern Israel, sandstorms reduced visibility to less than three feet.

Nine foot waves were reported on the Red Sea in Eilat, with telephone and cellular service knocked out for the entire city. The highways through the Negev were also covered completely by several inches of sand.

On Sunday, four Israeli Arabs were killed in northern Israel due to flooding. Sahar Mehamid, 23, from Umm al-Fahm was killed in Wadi Ara and three women from the lower Galilee village of Touran were killed in a car accident after driving through floodwater covering the road. PA resident Iyad Taha, from a village near Ramallah, also drowned in the floodwaters.

Tuesday's hail and tornado broke electric poles, overturned cars, uprooted trees, damaged crops and injured more than 75 people - most lightly. Most of those injured were struck by objects whipped up by the strong winds, including two children, who suffered deep lacerations. The villages lost electricity for many hours.

Farmers report that avocado, lychee and banana crops were severely damaged by the winds and hail.

Vadim Amar, Mayor of Julis, said that the tornado damaged dozens of homes and asked that the region be declared a natural disaster site.

Tornados are rare in Israel. The occasional ones that have occurred have mostly taken place over the ocean and along the coast.

Hail was also experienced in elevated areas such as Gush Etzion on both Tuesday and Wednesday.

Elsewhere in Gush Etzion, an earthquake simulation exercise is being held Wednesday in Beitar Illit, in conjunction with the Defense Ministry, MDA, Israel Police, Israel Fire Department and others. The three-hour training event began at 11 AM.

Tornado, Sand-Storms and Oversized Hail Strike Israel

[Soldier4Christ]

Weather Service: Three tornadoes touch down near Charleston


CHARLESTON, S.C. - One person was injured as three tornadoes touched down in the Charleston area Saturday afternoon, the National Weather Service said.

Charleston County police also were investigating a three-car crash that left one woman dead.

Charleston County Deputy Coroner Judy Koelpin said 47-year-old Ellen Grant of James Island died of head injuries in the wreck that happened just as heavy rain, wind and lightning from a line of severe thunderstorms hit the area.

The injury came when an F1 tornado partially collapsed a structure near Minnie Hughes Elementary School in Charleston County at 3:53 p.m. The twister also knocked down trees and power lines. Details about the injury were not immediately available.

A minimal tornado touched down at the Family Circle Cup tennis facility at Daniel Island, damaging banners and a score board and interrupting the tournament's qualifying rounds.

The third storm also was minimal and was in the West Ashley area and blew out windows and caused other minor damage to businesses along its path near U.S. Highway 17.

The tornadoes were spawned by a line of severe thunderstorms that moved through the state Saturday and also brought high winds and hail.

By 5 p.m. South Carolina Electric and Gas reported that 9,000 customers lost power, most in the Hollywood area where bad weather uprooted trees and utility poles, spokesman Jason Darby said.

[Soldier4Christ]

Chateau Raceway racing cancelled because of heavy rains

LANSING, Minn. -- The scheduled season opener for the 50th Anniversary Season of racing at Chateau Raceway in Lansing was cancelled because of heavy rains that lead to high water on the Cedar River. The rains stopped before noon on Friday and preperations were underway to open the season on schedule. The water and wet conditions were being dealt with however there was no way to deal with the rising water on the river which runs just behind the back straightaway. The river was exceeding flood stage and the forecast was for the river to continue to rise until early Saturday morning so the work preparing the track for racing had to be stopped. The new track ownership "Four Link Promotions" tentatively has plans to hold a test and tune session during the week before another attempt to get the season underway next Friday night. The track will be running its normal five classses of raicng....The Chateau Pure Stocks, Classic Dwarf, The Power 96 WISSOTA Midwest Modifieds, WISSOTA Street Stocks, and Miners Outdoor Open Modifieds. Hot Laps are slated for 7:00 with the racing underway by 7:30.

[Soldier4Christ]

KENYA : 430 emergency water sources to beat drought
 
 
President Mwai Kibaki said on Saturday that the government has mobilized over 1.2 billion shillings to sink 178 boreholes and complete 263 pans and dams around the drought-stricken country.
 
President Kibaki was speaking at State House Nairobi when he flagged off 25 water trucks donated by the Norwegian Red Cross to drought stricken areas.

The President said over 1.3 billion shillings was required for immediate intervention in water provision until the end of May this year.

He emphasized that the planned actions and other long-term strategies for drought preparedness will continue until the country becomes water secure.

He added that numerous programmes were being undertaken with development partners in water services provision, sanitation, information management and other cross cutting issues.

President Kibaki thanked the Norwegian Red Cross, the Norwegian Government and the Kenya Red Cross for their response in helping alleviate the effects of drought in the country.

[Soldier4Christ]

Dry weather causes Tarpon Springs blaze

A fire in Tarpon Springs consumed five acres of trees and heavy brush Saturday afternoon, threatened several homes and took a handful of agencies to contain in a suspicious blaze that one fire marshal deemed the biggest one he had seen in a year.

Investigators are trying to figure out who started it. But Rick Butcher, Tarpon Springs Fire prevention chief, already knows what whipped the fire into a frenzy. Readers can probably guess it, too.

"The high winds and dry weather," he said.

That explanation has sounded familiar the past few weeks, with brush fires materializing around a parched Tampa Bay, and Smokey the Bear working overtime during a drought that reached 40 days on Friday.

But possibly, some relief. At least a 40-percent shot of it.

A cold front from the panhandle is forecasted to reach our area this morning, possibly bringing less than half an inch of rainfall. Some neighborhoods might experience just a quick shower.

Ernie Jillson, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service, called it "a start." He said it was the best chance so far this month to get more than .01-inch of rain, the point when they can start measuring and the drought can officially end. (For those wondering, the record in Tampa is 52 straight days without measureable rain, set in 1942. As of presstime, this current dry spell tied for sixth on the area's top drought list.)

The cold front also explains the pickup in winds, Jillson said. In the Tarpon Springs fire, they reached between 20 and 25 mph. "You will generally get an increase of wind speeds ahead of the cold front and behind it," he said.

When the front moves through Tampa Bay this morning, the winds will shift from southwest to northeast and taper down to the 15 mph range on land, Jillson said. Boaters might feel moderate chop or better, with winds 15 to 20 knots, and near-shore seas between 3 and 5 feet.

Those northeasterly winds can last until the middle of this week, though it doesn't appear that the National Weather Service will issue a fire weather watch, said Jillson.

Nonetheless, as some people well know: "If we don't receive much rain with this cold front, the threat of wildfire spreading is still higher than normal," Jillson said. "It's important to realize the ground is very dry."

[Soldier4Christ]

Wildfires Threaten Dozens of Texas Homes

HUNT, Texas -- Firefighters wrested control of wildfires Saturday that killed one man and burned about 6,200 acres, officials said.

One fire in Kerr County, about 100 miles west of Austin, had scorched about 1,100 acres and threatened about 50 homes, said Texas Forest Service spokeswoman Traci Weaver.

In the same county, a fire that scorched 150 acres burned a camper-trailer and two mobile homes. That fire was about 75 percent contained, the forest service said.

Calmer winds expected Sunday should prevent the fires from spreading, Weaver said.

"Tomorrow we'll be able to get full containment," Weaver said.

In Uvalde County, officials said a man found dead Friday next to his bulldozer was most likely killed by the fast-moving flames. He had been trying to protect his property from the fires, officials said.

Wildfires in Texas have burned more than a million acres since Dec. 1, including about 40,000 acres this week in the Panhandle, Weaver said. About 431 homes have been lost in fires since Dec. 27.