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

[Shammu]

N.M. wildfires force interstate closure

1 hour, 40 minutes ago

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. - Hundreds of people were forced to evacuate their homes and an interstate was closed in two of the many wildfires that dotted the West on Friday.

In southwestern New Mexico's Gila National Forest, a lightning-sparked fire that burned at least 8,500 acres forced the evacuation of about 200 homes after wind gusts of about 40 mph pushed the blaze over a hand-cleared line. No homes had been damaged and the fire was 30 percent contained by Friday night, authorities said.

Fire officials had attempted to guide the fire into areas where heavy vegetation needed to be burned off, but decided Friday to work more aggressively to contain the blaze. It was consuming pinon, juniper and ponderosa pine trees northeast of Pinos Altos.

Lightning also sparked 15 fires that burned roughly 30,000 acres of mostly grassland in northeastern New Mexico.

South of Albuquerque, firefighters battled a blaze that temporarily shut down Interstate 25, a casino and a resort and forced the evacuation of about 30 homes. The highway reopened Friday morning and the evacuation order was lifted around noon Friday.

The winds had calmed Friday and firefighters worked to snuff small spot fires that remained, said Don Scott, deputy chief of emergency management for the Bernalillo County Fire Department.

"At this point, it's still very, very small," Scott said. "It's putting out a very small amount of smoke."

In Alpine, Ariz., a 1,300-acre fire that broke out Thursday burning at a relatively slower pace Friday and was 31 percent contained. Crews stopped the forward progress with bulldozers and backfires overnight.

Another northeastern Arizona wildfire reached 3,100 acres and was only 5 percent contained, officials said.

Residents of about 1,000 homes in Flagstaff, Ariz., were allowed to return Thursday, a day after they were evacuated as wind pushed flames from a pine forest toward them. The 120-acre fire crept within feet of a half-dozen houses, but crews managed to save all of them.

In northern Arizona near the Grand Canyon, three lightning-triggered wildfires burned a collective total of 2,515 acres, Kaibab National Forest officials said Friday. The fires were allowed to burn because they are not threatening any property and remained within boundaries established by fire managers.

In southern Colorado, all 100 people who left their homes near a 700-acre fire were given the all-clear to return late Thursday. The fire, near Westcliffe about 100 miles south of Denver, was 50 percent contained.

Wildfires also burned in Alaska, Utah and Texas.

N.M. wildfires force interstate closure

[Soldier4Christ]

Volcano continues to spew glowing lava in Indonesia

Coughing Mount Merapi, which is located between Yogyakarta and Central Java Province, Indonesia, continued to spew hot clouds and glowing lava in the southerly direction toward Gendol River on Saturday.

"From the Babadan observation post, it was monitored that Mount Merapi expelled two hot clouds over a maximum distance of 1.5 kilometer in the wee hours on Saturday," Antara news agency quoted head of the Merapi Section of Yogyakarta's Volcanological and Technology Development Center (BPPTK) Subandriyo as saying.

Glowing lava was also expelled for 15 times stretching over a maximum distance of three kilometers toward Krasak River, and for 34 times sliding down the slope toward Gendol River over a distance one kilometer.

The Center's seismograph, however, recorded 38 hot clouds, 176 multiphase tremors, 304 trails, two shallow volcanic quakes, and five tectonic quakes during that morning.

The volcano also sent thick sulfurous gas 350 meters into the sky above the mountain's top with moderate pressure.

Just about 24 hours after downgrading the volcano's alert status, the authorities restored its highest caution' status on June 14, following expulsion of massive hot clouds stretching over a distance of seven kilometers and killing two persons.

The 2,965-meter-high Mount Merapi had erupted several times in the past, of which the most deadly took place in 1930 killing 1, 370 people. It also erupted in 1994, claiming the lives of at least 66 people.

[Shammu]

Small earthquake rattles 4 N.C. counties

Fri Jun 16, 7:58 AM ET

FRANKLIN, N.C. - A small earthquake shook buildings and rattled dishes in at least four western North Carolina counties Thursday night, the seventh noticeable temblor to shake the region in the past year.

There were no reports of damage in the 3.1-magnitude quake, centered 28 miles north of Franklin and felt from Maggie Valley to Bryson City to Cashiers just before 9 p.m.

The quake was considered minor, said Dale Grant, a geophysicist with the National Earthquake Information Center.

"A quake of this magnitude generally won't cause a great deal of damage, if any," he said.

Still, emergency dispatchers took a flood of worried calls from people asking if they had heard an explosion or plane crash.

"Oh Lord, after it happened every line in here lit up," Jackson County dispatcher Belinda Clawson said.

Arthur Buchanan said he didn't hear anything while working inside P.J.'s Fast Food Mart in Sylva, but he felt the store tremble.

"I figured somebody had ran into the side of my building," he said, "because it shook it good."

Over the past year, four of six other noticeable quakes within 60 miles of Thursday's epicenter were bigger, according to the center. They include a 3.7-magnitude temblor in August centered in Madison County that shook houses as far south as Athens, Ga.

Small earthquake rattles 4 N.C. counties

[Soldier4Christ]

 Bahamas tries to contain malaria outbreak

Health authorities tested inmates and guards in an immigration detention center for malaria Friday as the Bahamian government sought to contain an outbreak of the illness on the southern island of Great Exuma.

The government decided to conduct the tests at the Carmichael Road Detention Center after realizing that a group of suspected illegal immigrants from Haiti were sent to the jail after they were captured in Great Exuma two days after the discovery of malaria on the island, the Ministry of Health said in a statement issued late Thursday.

There have been 16 confirmed cases of malaria on Great Exuma, about 130 miles southwest of Nassau since the first week of June. Bahamian authorities have been screening people in the southern island for malaria and spraying pesticides to control the outbreak.

The Ministry of Health said it had notified the Pan American Health Organization and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control about the outbreak. It said the CDC planned to issue an advisory recommending that visitors to Great Exuma take anti-malarial drugs.

[Soldier4Christ]

Iowa Mumps Outbreak Contained

The number of mumps cases in Iowa has declined dramatically over the past few weeks, and an outbreak of nearly 2,000 cases appears to be contained, state public health officials said Friday.

"People became more aware of it, people were being diagnosed faster, staying home when they had mumps so they are not transmitting it, and we had many more people get vaccinated, so our number of susceptible people went down," said Dr. Patricia Quinlisk, state epidemiologist.

Iowa was the worst hit of 12 states, mostly in the Midwest, that have reported a total of more than 3,200 mumps cases. No deaths and few hospitalizations have been reported, but the numbers dwarf mumps reports from recent years.

As of Wednesday, there were 1,938 confirmed and probable cases of mumps reported by the Iowa Department of Public Health. The number was up just 14 cases from the previous week.

Once a childhood rite of passage, mumps has been on the wane since a vaccine came along in the late 1960s. Generally a two-dose shot of the measles-mumps-rubella vaccine is recommended for all children, a regimen considered effective at preventing the virus in about 90 percent of patients.

The latest outbreak hit colleges especially hard, and health officials believe it's partly because many of those students were born before 1989 and got only one dose of vaccine.

Iowa health officials offered free immunizations to all 18- to 22-year-olds after the outbreak started in December, then expanded the group to 18- to 46-year-olds. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta and a drug company have been providing extra vaccine.

State health officials have warned that mumps cases typically declines from spring to summer, but could rise again in the fall. They are encouraging college students to get vaccinated before they return to school.

Mumps is a virus spread by coughing and sneezing. The most common symptoms are fever, headache and swollen salivary glands under the jaw. It can lead to more severe problems, such as hearing loss, meningitis and swollen testicles, which can lead to infertility.

[Shammu]

 Army on standby in India's flood-hit Assam state
Guwahati, India, June 17, IRNA

India-Floods
Indian authorities Saturday asked army soldiers to remain on standby in the northeastern state of Assam where floods that began last month marooned 30,000 people overnight killing 16 and displaced 5,30,000, officials said.

"We have asked the army to remain on standby with boats and expert divers to rescue or evacuate people from vulnerable areas with the flood situation turning critical," Bhumidhar Barman, Assam revenue, relief and rehabilitation minister, told IRNA.

Eleven people have died in Assam and some 5,20,000 were left homeless with floodwaters inundating their homes.

Five were killed in neighboring Tripura state where some 10,000 were displaced earlier in the week due to flooding.

Officials said heavy mudslides have blocked the lone highway linking the landlocked Tripura state with the rest of India.

An Assam government statement said 16 of the state's 27 districts were reeling under floodwaters with the main Brahmaputra river cutting a swathe across the region.

A total land area of about 65,000 hectares has been submerged in the current wave of flooding, the statement said.

Police and rescue workers with rubber boats were deployed in the worst-hit Cachar and Karimganj districts in southern Assam to evacuate trapped villagers.

"We are trying our best to mitigate the woes of the people.

Several villages have been completely cut off with floodwaters overtopping roads," Cachar district magistrate Gautam Ganguly said by telephone.

According to a Central Water Commission bulletin, the main Brahmaputra river was flowing above the danger level in at least five places in Assam.

"We have been distributing food and other essentials to people living in makeshift shelters," the minister said.

Floodwaters of the Brahmaputra entered the famed Kaziranga National Park in eastern Assam, home to the endangered one-horned rhinoceros.

There are no reports of any deaths with the animals still safe, a park ranger said.

The 2,906 km long Brahmaputra is one of Asia's largest rivers that traverses its first stretch of 1,625 km in China's Tibet region, the next 918 km in India and the remaining 363 km through neighboring Bangladesh before converging into the Bay of Bengal.

Every year the floods leave a trail of destruction, washing away villages, submerging paddy fields, drowning livestock, besides causing loss of human life and property, in the remote state of 26 million.

In 2004, at least 200 people died and more than 12 million displaced in the floods.

Army on standby in India's flood-hit Assam state

[Shammu]

The Jordan river is deep and wide no more
By Zafrir Rinat

Over-use of water from the southern stretch of the Jordan River threatens to dry it up and devastate one of the world's most important religious sites. The warning comes from conservationists, Christian groups and the heads of local authorities in the region - Palestinians, Israelis and Jordanians. Israel, Jordan and Syria are preparing to increase use of the tributaries feeding the southern Jordan - a stretch of the river between Lake Kinneret and the Dead Sea - and there is mounting fear of a natural disaster that would have far-reaching consequences.

Until the 1950s, more than a billion cubic meters flowed through the southern Jordan annually, helping to maintain the Dead Sea's water level and a healthy river with a diverse ecological system. Construction of a dam that prevented water flow from the Kinneret, channeling part of the Yarmuk River into an irrigation canal in Jordan and later building dams on the Yarmuk's tributaries caused the river to dry up. Now the flow is only 100 million cubic meters a year, except when the Kinneret dam is opened due to flooding.

Reservoir project

Last month an unusual group of mayors from Jordan, Israel and the PA returned from a visit to the United States to raise awareness of the problem. The group included the head of Israel's Tamar Regional Council, Dov Litvinoff, mayor of Jordan's Tabket Fahel Municipality, Wajdy Abdelhammed Masaadeh, and Jericho Mayor Hassan Saleh Hussein. They were accompanied by the directors of Friend of the Earth Middle East (FOEME). The delegation met with Congressional members, U.S. State Department officials and environment ministers attending a United Nations conference.

According to FOEME, the state of the southern Jordan will worsen once the Unity Dam being built by Jordan and Syria on the Yarmuk is completed at the end of the year. The Yarmuk is one of the Jordan's main tributaries in its southern part. The Unity Dam is supposed to collect tens of millions of cubic meters annually, thereby further reducing the flow to the southern Jordan.

"This is a fatal blow because these were the only flood waters flowing in that part of the Jordan," says Hilel Glazman, of the stream monitoring department at the Israel Nature and National Parks Protection Authority. "These floodwaters helped a little to cleanse the immense pollution that has collected in the Jordan."

A significant portion of the water now reaching the river is saltwater that Israel diverted from the Kinneret through a special carrier, as well as inadequately treated waste. Plans in Israel to treat the waste for use in irrigation will reduce pollution in the Jordan but will further reduce the river's meager water.

Christian importance

Along with the dying Jordan, the Dead Sea has also begun disappearing, its water level going down each year by close to a meter. Israel and Jordan are studying the possibility of building, with the World Bank's help, a water carrier from the Gulf of Eilat to the Dead Sea to stop the decline.

"With construction of the Jordanian-Syrian dam, water flow in the southern Jordan will decline to the point where it ceases flowing throughout the river," warns Gidon Bromberg, the Israeli director of FOEME. "The significance, beyond the environmental and ecological damage, is severe damage to one of the sites sacred to Christianity, and of great importance to Jewish and Muslim heritage. If anyone were to harm in this manner a site sacred to Judaism, Israel would raise an outcry. It's true that Syria and Jordan also share in the damage to the river, but most of the water is used by Israel, and we also have greater ability to find solutions."

Concern for the river's future is shared by Christian groups that are ardent supporters of Israel. One of these is the International Christian Embassy Jerusalem (ICEJ). "I think Israelis do not sufficiently grasp how important the Jordan is to us," says ICEJ Media Director David Parsons. "The pollution and lack of conservation greatly offend Christians. The citizens of Israel as well as the decision makers must understand that preserving the river for pilgrims and also preserving the ecological system will prevent damage to Israel's image. We are working to enlist support for Israel, but there are Christian elements that will exploit the neglect of the Jordan to hurt Israel. It is clear to us that Israel needs water, but other alternatives must be considered."

"We are calling for fresh water from the Kinneret to be restored to the Jordan River," says Bromberg." Litvinoff adds that even a partial restoration of water flow would help rehabilitate the river, slow the decline in the Dead Sea water level and allow for tourism development to replace agriculture.

FOEME has received a discouraging message on this score from the Water Commission. "Rehabilitating the Jordan is particularly problematic because it is a river shared with neighboring countries," Water Commissioner Shimon Tal wrote to Bromberg several weeks ago. "Channeling clear water to the river can only be done through full cooperation among the countries. In view of the water shortage in the region, especially in the neighboring countries, it is hard to believe there would be consent to this."

The Jordan river is deep and wide no more

[Shammu]

Alarm bells sound for Europe’s water supply
Published: Saturday, 17 June, 2006, 08:47 AM Doha Time
By Richard Ingham and Anne Chaon
SUMMER has still to make its official start in Europe, yet many countries are sweating – and it has less to do with the immediate temperature than out of worry for their water supplies.
If the sun god Apollo decides to put on a show similar to the heatwave that held western Europe in a molten grip in 2003, half a dozen countries are on course for water shortages that will be socially disruptive and economically costly, experts and officials say.
Southern Spain, southeastern England and western and southern France are viewed as chronically vulnerable, while eyes are anxiously following water availability in parts of Portugal, Italy and Greece, incompletely recovered from the scorcher of three years ago.
Several years of above-average temperatures, below-average rainfall and extraction of water for farms, holiday homes and population densification are driving the big crunch.
“You’re talking about the ideal conditions for a drought, of a lack of water and rising temperature,” said Carlo Lavalle, an expert in risk analysis at the European Union’s Joint Research Centre in Ispra, Italy.
In Spain, reservoirs and water tables are at their lowest levels in 10 years, failing to recharge after last year’s drought, which was the worst since reliable record-keeping began in 1947.
The worst exposed region is the south, which has developed fast in the past two decades with thirsty irrigated crops, golf courses and tourist resorts.
In southeastern England, reserves of water are only at 54% of capacity, after the driest winter since 1963-4.
Specialists say 10 weeks of intense rain are needed to redress the balance; a damp May, which gave twice that month’s average rainfall, has not even made a significant dent in the problem.
As a result, drought orders and other restrictions have been issued to 13mn people for the first time in this region in 11 years, amounting to bans on hosepipes, sprinklers, car washing, the filling of swimming pools and other non-essential uses.
Local suppliers are scrambling for alternative sources, looking at the possibility of transporting water by tanker ship from Scotland and Norway – and even of building a desalination plant for London.
In France, the authorities have for months been building public awareness that the Atlantic and Mediterranean regions face problems of water scarcity.
On June 7, Agriculture Minister Dominique Bussereau revived a national drought committee to monitor water availability for farms. Water restrictions have already begun in rural areas of the Charente-Maritimes and Deux-Sevres department in the west, and in the Tarn department, in the southwest.
In Italy, most of the country has still to recover from the 2003 drought, a smaller version of which hit northern regions again in 2005.
The country is officially classified along with Cyprus, Italy and Spain as “water-stressed”, meaning that withdrawal of water is 20% more than totally available supplies.
In Portugal, 2005 brought the worst drought in 60 years, prompting the government to propose a programme of dam construction and improved water management.
The 2003 drought hit continental central and western Europe for much of July and August that year.
It inflicted economic costs, mainly in shrivelled crops and burned forests, of more than 12bn euros ($15.6bn), according to the European Commission.
The heatwave also cost tens of thousands of lives, principally among the elderly and poor in health.
Ronan Uhel, head of spatial analysis at the European Environment Agency (EAA) in Copenhagen, said the data pointed to a trend that had been continuing for at least a decade – and global warming is a clear factor.
“Summers are getting hotter, demand for water is increasing and at the same time, rainfall is decreasing,” he said.
The shift in precipitation has been especially felt in the Iberian peninsula, western France, southern Britain and Ireland, which get their rainfall from the warm, moist winds off the Atlantic.
On the other hand, northern latitudes and central and eastern Europe, as well as northern Britain, have had normal or even above-average rainfall this year.

Alarm bells sound for Europe’s water supply

[Shammu]

Nigeria in Midst of Polio Epidemic

Friday , June 16, 2006

ABUJA, Nigeria — Nigeria's health authorities reported a surge in polio cases Thursday, saying the number of infections so far this year is double the total from all of last year.

The World Health Organization began a global immunization drive in 1988 in hopes of eradicating the disease. But its spread has continued in parts of Nigeria, where authorities in the mostly Muslim north ordered an immunization boycott in 2003, claiming the vaccine was part of a U.S.-led plot to render Muslims infertile or infect them with AIDS.

Nearly 90 percent of the new infections were reported in Nigeria's north, Educe Ababa, a top health official, told reporters in the capital, Abuja.

She said Nigeria has recorded 467 polio infections in the first months of 2006, compared with 224 new cases for the whole of 2005.

CountryWatch: Nigeria

Ababa said that while Nigeria won't be able to halt the disease's spread this year, it could be brought under control in the north.

The Geneva-based WHO failed to meet its long-standing target of eradicating polio globally by the end of last year.

Vaccination programs restarted in Nigeria in 2004 after the 11-month boycott. But the delay effectively set global eradication efforts back at least a year, and the boycott was blamed for causing an outbreak that spread the disease across Africa and into the Middle East.

WHO now has set a target for eradicating the disease in 2007.

Last year, 1,889 people were infected with polio worldwide, 775 of them in Africa, according to WHO. Polio is still classified as endemic in Afghanistan, India, Nigeria and Pakistan, and has recently been stamped out in Egypt and Niger.

Polio is spread when people — mostly children under 5 — who are not vaccinated come into contact with the feces of those with the virus, often through water. The virus attacks the central nervous system, causing paralysis, muscular atrophy and deformation and, in some cases, death.

Nigeria in Midst of Polio Epidemic

[Shammu]

Philippine volcano ejects ash, pebbles

Sun Jun 18, 5:50 AM ET

MANILA, Philippines - The Philippines' restive Bulusan volcano spewed ash and pebbles in a new explosion Sunday, and officials said about 40 families living nearby would evacuate to a safer area.

The ash explosion was the eighth since March, and Filipino scientists said they would assess the possibility of a major eruption. But they said they could not immediately obtain details about the latest blast due to clouds shrouding the volcano's summit.

Wind was blowing ash from the mid-afternoon explosion northwest toward the farming towns of Casiguran and Juban, which have been grappling with volcanic ash and fears of a major eruption since the 5,149-foot volcano came back to life in March.

"It was a loud blast, there are pebbles and it's getting dark," Casiguran Mayor Edwin Hamor told The Associated Press by cellular phone as he rushed by car to a village in the path of falling ash.

Some 40 families, who initially refused to leave their homes less than 3 miles from the crater, have agreed to move in with relatives or to a temporary relocation site starting Monday, Hamor said.

President
Gloria Macapagal Arroyo inspected Casiguran and other towns Saturday and ordered local officials to ensure villagers were evacuated from dangerous areas.

Bulusan is about 240 miles southeast of the Philippine capital, Manila. Its last major eruption was in 1994.

The Philippines, which has about 22 active volcanos, is in the Pacific "Ring of Fire," where volcanic activity and earthquakes are common.

Philippine volcano ejects ash, pebbles

[Shammu]

Fire forces evacuation in Sedona, Oak Creek Canyon

08:50 PM Mountain Standard Time on Sunday, June 18, 2006

Associated Press Report

SEDONA, Ariz. (AP) -- A wildfire burning north of Sedona has grown to 3,000 acres and is bumping up to the western edge of Oak Creek Canyon.

The flames raced up Wilson Mountain in the Secret Mountain Wilderness between Sedona and Flagstaff, said Connie Birkland, a fire information officer.

"It's going to be quite a fight not to lose them," said Kristy Bryner, a fire information officer. "This is very active fire behavior."

Sedona City Manager Eric Levitt said a siren went off in the area warning residents, business owners and campers to get out.

Smoke from the fire was visible 30 miles away in Flagstaff, said Raquel Romero, a fire information officer.

The cause of the fire was under investigation.

In southwestern New Mexico, fire officials said residents of 220 homes in the Lake Roberts area homes would be allowed to return Tuesday as crews battle a 10,000-acre wildfire.

The homes were evacuated Thursday after wind gust pushed the blaze, which was reported June 2 in the Gila National Forest, over a hand-cleared line.

"We're making good headway," fire information officer Brian Morris said.

But fire officials cautioned that residents should remain ready to leave again.

"It may be necessary to evacuate again based on unforeseen weather or fire activity," said Mike Dietrich, incident commander for the California Incident Management Team 5, which is managing the blaze.

No structures have been lost in the blaze.

Fire forces evacuation in Sedona, Oak Creek Canyon

On the news, the evacuation is now 400 homes.  I could see and smell, the smoke (earlier) where I live which is over 100 miles away (as the row flies).

[Soldier4Christ]

Army called to fight toad invasion in Australia

 An Australian state government called for the army to be deployed against an invasion of toxic toads.

Battalions of imported cane toads are marching relentlessly across northern Australia and the West Australian government wants soldiers to intercept the environmental barbarians.

 State Environment Minister Mark McGowan has written to Defence Minister Brendan Nelson asking permission to use soldiers based in the neighbouring Northern Territory to kill the toads.

"The army in the Northern Territory is greater than any other part of Australia," McGowan told national radio.

"We'd seek the Commonwealth (federal government) to help us in fighting this terrible threat to native fauna in Western Australia."

The toads, Bufo Marinus, were introduced from South America into northeast Queensland state in the 1930s to control another pest -- beetles that were ravaging the sugar cane fields of the tropical northern coasts.

But the toads now number in the millions and are spreading westward through the Northern Territory, upsetting the country's ecosystem in their wake.

Cane toads have poisonous sacs on the back of their heads full of a venom so powerful it can kill crocodiles, snakes or other predators in minutes.

All attempts to fight the spread of the toads so far have failed.

[Soldier4Christ]

Belfast

Over 1,000 superbug cases in Ulster hospitals


More than 1,000 cases of a superbug, now causing more concern than the feared MRSA, were found in Ulster hospitals last year, it was revealed today.

Clostridium difficile, which can result in serious illness and even death, is dwarfing cases of MRSA.

Latest figures show 243 cases of Methicillin Resistant S. aureus (MRSA) among patients during 2005 - a fall of 27 (10%) from the previous calendar year.

That means there are nearly five times more cases of C. difficile in hospitals here than MRSA.

Several months ago, the Belfast Telegraph revealed there had been 581 incidences of C. difficile throughout our hospitals in six months since surveillance records became mandatory in January.

The Telegraph can also reveal today that there were two cases of VRE - which is resistant to vancomycin, the antibiotic widely used to treat MRSA infections - during 2005 and 2006.

Every microbiologist's waking nightmare is that VRE might also change - making the infection virtually untreatable.

The latter figure emerged in reply to a written parliamentary question from DUP MP Iris Robinson.

It coincides with the publication of the annual report on Health Care Associated Infections, published today by the Communicable Diseases Surveillance Centre, Northern Ireland (CDSCNI).

The data on MRSA in the report relates to all 12 hospital trusts in Northern Ireland.

Eight of the 12 trusts reported lower rates of MRSA than for the previous year, and those showing an increase involve only small numbers of patients.

C. difficile is a bacterium found in the intestinal tract of around 3% of healthy adults and up to two thirds of babies.

However, people aged over 65 are at greatest risk of contracting CDAD, which can lead to more serious illness. Some 1,032 cases were reported among hospital patients aged over 65 during the whole of 2005. There were a further 73 cases among people from the same age group who were not inpatients at a hospital here.

Dr Brian Smyth, Director of CDSCNI, said doctors, nurses and hospital staff should be encouraged by the lower MRSA rates. However, he warned against complacency, saying that much work would be needed to continue to maintain the current trend upon its downward path.

[Soldier4Christ]

Torrential downpours cause flash flooding in Southeast Texas

Torrential downpours created a nightmare commute for Houston-area residents early Monday, flooding major traffic arteries and threatening some homes.

As much as 10.5 inches of rain was reported by the heart of the morning commute Monday, said Rusty Cornelius, administrative coordinator for Harris County Emergency Management.

The worst problems are reported in southeast Houston and western Pasadena. The National Weather Service reported that almost 6 inches of rain fell within 75 minutes early Monday near Hobby Airport. The weather service also estimated 5 to 8 inches of rain fell in three hours along Sims Bayou in southeast Houston.

Four homes were reported flooded in a neighborhood along Hunting Bayou, across the Houston Ship Channel from Pasadena, Cornelius said. The Washburn Tunnel beneath the ship channel at Pasadena was flooded an impassable this morning, and parts of Interstate 10, Beltway 8, and Texas Highways 225 and 288 in southern and eastern Harris County flooded.

Underpasses in the area were under water during the peak commute period, and the Houston Fire Department reported about a dozen high-water rescues of motorists in southeastern Houston, between Hobby Airport and Pasadena, Cornelius said.

Parts of Interstate 10, Beltway 8, and Texas Highways 225 and 288 in southern and eastern Harris County flooded, and the Washburn Tunnel beneath the Houston Ship Channel at Pasadena is reported to be flooded and impassable.

Flooding also was forecast along Armand Bayou, between Ellington Field and the Johnson Space Center.

Numerous school districts called off classes Monday because of the rain and flooding.

On the Texas-Louisiana border, up to 6 inches of rain was reported in and around the border city of Orange.

More rain was in the forecast for those areas Monday.

[Soldier4Christ]

Severe Flooding in Southwest Louisiana

Heavy rains have drenched Calcasieu Parish. The rainfall started around 3 a.m. this morning.

The main storm activity is centered around the central part of the parish. In some areas, the rain has come down at a rate of 3" per hour. In Sulphur, around the Maplewood Dr. area, rainfall was recorded at 12" per hour.

The Sulphur City Police Department reports that most of the city is under water. Police advise that residents there should not leave their homes unless it is an emergency. Residents in some neighborhoods are reporting that flood waters have entered their homes.

Stay tuned to KPLC for more on weather updates and closures. We'll continue to update you with the latest throughout the day.