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

[Shammu]

 Glaciers are melting at their fastest rate for 5,000 years
By Steve Connor, Science Editor
Published: 27 June 2006

Mountain glaciers are melting faster now than at any time in the past 5,000 years because of an unprecedented period of global warming, a study has found.

Ice cores taken from mountains as far apart as the Andes in South America and the Himalayas in Asia have revealed how climate change is leading to a full-scale retreat of the world's tropical glaciers.

Scientists have warned that human activities over the past 100 years may have nudged the global climate beyond a critical threshold which could see most of the highest ice caps disappearing within the near future. Melting glaciers in South America and Asia not only contribute to rising sea levels, they are also vital sources of freshwater for many millions of people who live within their range at lower altitudes, the scientists said.

The scientists, led by Lonnie Thompson of Ohio State University, present three lines of evidence pointing to a dramatic melting of glaciers in both the Andes and the Himalayas: a change in the chemical isotopes of the ice cores, the widespread retreat of glaciers and the uncovering of frozen plants that had been buried for thousands of years.

"These three lines of evidence argue that the present warming and associated glacier retreat are unprecedented in some areas for at least 5,200 years," the scientists wrote in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science. "The ongoing global-scale, rapid retreat of mountain glaciers is not only contributing to global sea-level rise but also threatening freshwater supplies in many of the world's most populous regions."

Professor Thompson said the research was based on nearly 50 scientific expeditions to seven mountain glaciers over the past three decades, including the Huascaran and Quelccaya ice caps in Peru, the Sajama ice cap in Bolivia and the Dunde and Puruogangri ice caps in China. He said: "We have a record going back 2,000 years and when you plot it out, you can see the medieval warm period [from 1000 to 1300] and the little ice age [from 1600 to 1850]. And in that same record, you can clearly see the 20th century and the thing that stands out is how unusually warm the last 50 years have been. There hasn't been anything like it, not even in the medieval warm period.

"The fact that the isotope values in the last 50 years have been so unusual means that things are dramatically changing."

The most dramatic evidence comes from 28 sites where the retreating ice has exposed plants that have been frozen and preserved for between 5,000 and 6,000 years by the glacier's base.

"This means that the climate at the ice cap hasn't been warmer than it is today in the last 5,000 years or more," Professor Thompson said. "If it had been, then the plants would have decayed."

Mountain glaciers are melting faster now than at any time in the past 5,000 years because of an unprecedented period of global warming, a study has found.

Ice cores taken from mountains as far apart as the Andes in South America and the Himalayas in Asia have revealed how climate change is leading to a full-scale retreat of the world's tropical glaciers.

Scientists have warned that human activities over the past 100 years may have nudged the global climate beyond a critical threshold which could see most of the highest ice caps disappearing within the near future. Melting glaciers in South America and Asia not only contribute to rising sea levels, they are also vital sources of freshwater for many millions of people who live within their range at lower altitudes, the scientists said.

The scientists, led by Lonnie Thompson of Ohio State University, present three lines of evidence pointing to a dramatic melting of glaciers in both the Andes and the Himalayas: a change in the chemical isotopes of the ice cores, the widespread retreat of glaciers and the uncovering of frozen plants that had been buried for thousands of years.

"These three lines of evidence argue that the present warming and associated glacier retreat are unprecedented in some areas for at least 5,200 years," the scientists wrote in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science. "The ongoing global-scale, rapid retreat of mountain glaciers is not only contributing to global sea-level rise but also threatening freshwater supplies in many of the world's most populous regions."

Professor Thompson said the research was based on nearly 50 scientific expeditions to seven mountain glaciers over the past three decades, including the Huascaran and Quelccaya ice caps in Peru, the Sajama ice cap in Bolivia and the Dunde and Puruogangri ice caps in China. He said: "We have a record going back 2,000 years and when you plot it out, you can see the medieval warm period [from 1000 to 1300] and the little ice age [from 1600 to 1850]. And in that same record, you can clearly see the 20th century and the thing that stands out is how unusually warm the last 50 years have been. There hasn't been anything like it, not even in the medieval warm period.

"The fact that the isotope values in the last 50 years have been so unusual means that things are dramatically changing."

The most dramatic evidence comes from 28 sites where the retreating ice has exposed plants that have been frozen and preserved for between 5,000 and 6,000 years by the glacier's base.

"This means that the climate at the ice cap hasn't been warmer than it is today in the last 5,000 years or more," Professor Thompson said. "If it had been, then the plants would have decayed."

Glaciers are melting at their fastest rate for 5,000 years

[Shammu]

Rip current warnings at N.C. beaches

Wed Jun 28, 10:19 AM ET

WILMINGTON, N.C. - More than 100 people have been rescued this season from rip currents at Wrightsville Beach despite signs, red flags and announcements on public address systems warning of the danger.

"If someone talks about a shark, you wouldn't have a single person in the water," said Wrightsville Beach Fire Chief Frank Smith. "But people just don't take these rip current warnings seriously and they are really what's killing people in the water."

The rip currents are the product of the pull of the moon, strong easterly winds and a tropical system hovering near the Bahamas.

From June 20 through Tuesday, 76 people had been rescued from unexpected at Wrightsville Beach. So far this season, which runs April 1 through Oct. 31, 108 have been saved. By comparison, 122 were pulled from the water during all of the 2005 season.

People ignore the warnings, Smith said.

"I think that's been demonstrated by the numbers of rescues the last month," he said. "It's just been through the efforts by the rescue squad and surfers that we haven't had a fatality during these last days of severe conditions."

At Carolina Beach, 15 to 20 people were rescued from rip currents this past weekend, said Charles Smith, Ocean Rescue director. About 45 people have been rescued since April 1.

"We're tired," Charles Smith said. "It's been a busy week and we're gearing up for the Fourth and hopefully the ocean will be a little more relaxing for us."

Ron Benson, a 65-year-old math teacher and soccer coach from Chapel Hill, rescued four of those saved at Wrightsville Beach last week.

"I just happened to be in the right place at the right time," said Benson, who was surfing near Crystal Pier. "Once you've been a lifeguard, you can see people getting in trouble."

He rescued a grandmother and a young man June 21 and a two teens Saturday.

A tropical system and easterly wind pushed in lots of water, creating the high risk of rip currents. Those conditions have passed out of the area, said Michael Ross, meteorologist with National Weather Service in Wilmington. So the forecast is for calmer seas over the holiday weekend.

Rip current warnings at N.C. beaches

[Shammu]

Pennsylvania flooding forces evacuations

By MARK SCOLFORO, Associated Press Writer 56 minutes ago

WILKES-BARRE, Pa. - Up to 200,000 people in the Wilkes-Barre area were ordered to evacuate their homes Wednesday because of rising water on the Susquehanna River, swelled by a record-breaking deluge that had killed at least 12 people across the Northeast.
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Thousands more were ordered to leave their homes in New Jersey, New York and Maryland. Rescue helicopters plucked residents from rooftops as rivers and streams surged over their banks, washed out roads and bridges, and cut off villages in some of the worst flooding in the region in decades.

Wilkes-Barre, a northeastern Pennsylvania city that was devastated by deadly flooding in 1972 from the remnants of Hurricane Agnes, is protected by levees, and officials said the Susquehanna was expected to crest just a few feet from the tops of the 41-foot floodwalls.

But Luzerne County Commissioner Todd Vonderheid said officials were worried about the effects of water pressing against the levees for 48 hours. The floodwalls were completed just three years ago.

"It is honestly precautionary," Vonderheid said. "We have great faith the levees are going to hold."

An estimated 150,000 to 200,000 people in the county of about 351,000 were told to get out by nightfall. The evacuation order applied to much of Wilkes-Barre and several outlying towns, all of them flooded by Agnes more than three decades ago.

Laura Lockman, 42, of Wilkes-Barre packed a car and planned to clear out along with her husband, three kids and a puppy named Pebbles. They were not ordered to evacuate their brick home, a half-mile from the Susquehanna, but were going to nearby Scranton anyway for the children's safety. Their home was inundated in 1972, when water reached the second floor.

"I just want to get out of here. I just want to be safe, that's all," she said.

A dozen helicopters from the Pennsylvania National Guard, the state police and the Coast Guard were sent on search-and-rescue missions, plucking stranded residents from rooftops in Bloomsburg, Sayre and New Milford. Hundreds of National Guardsmen prepared to distribute ice, water and meals ready to eat.

Flooding closed many roads in the Philadelphia area, including the Pennsylvania Turnpike.

"We lost just about everything — the cars, the clothes, even the baby's crib," said James Adams, who evacuated his family's home near Binghamton, N.Y., after watching their shed float away and their cars get submerged. "I'm not sure what we are going to do."

Elsewhere in the Binghamton area, an entire house floated down the Susquehanna.

The soaking weather was produced by a low-pressure system that has been stalled just offshore since the weekend and pumped moist tropical air northward along the East Coast. A record 4.05 inches of rain fell Tuesday at Binghamton. During the weekend, the same system drenched the Washington and Baltimore region with more than a foot of rain.

Although the bulk of the rain moved out of the area Wednesday, streams were still rising from the runoff and forecasters said more showers and occasional thunderstorms were possible along the East Coast for the rest of the week.

Earlier this week, floodwaters in the nation's capital closed the National Archives, the IRS, the Justice Department and other major government buildings. The National Archives, several Smithsonian museums and some government office buildings were still closed Wednesday.

The National Archives moved in giant dehumidifiers to preserve its historic documents. "The threat to the records is not floodwater, but humidity from the lack of air conditioning," spokeswoman Susan Cooper said Wednesday.

An estimated 2,200 people were ordered to evacuate the area around Lake Needwood at Rockville, Md., which was approaching 25 feet above normal. Engineers reported weakened spots on the lake's earthen dam.

A swollen creek carved a 25-foot-deep chasm through all four lanes of Interstate 88, about 35 miles northeast of Binghamton, N.Y., and two truckers were killed early Wednesday when their rigs plunged into the gaps, officials said.

Thousands of people were evacuated from communities across New York state, and whole villages north of Binghamton County were isolated by high water.

Along the Delaware River, more than 1,000 people left low-lying areas of Trenton, N.J., and state employees in buildings along the river left work early.

Trenton's water filtration system was shut down because of debris floating down the Delaware, and Mayor Doug Palmer called for conservation, saying the city had only about two days of drinkable water. The river was expected to crest Friday at nearly 8 feet over flood stage, the fourth-highest level on record for Trenton.

The weather was blamed for four deaths each in Maryland and Pennsylvania, one in Virginia and three in New York, including the two truckers.

The Agnes flood caused 50 deaths and more than $2 billion in damage in Pennsylvania, and remains the worst natural disaster in state history. It left 20,000 families homeless in Wilkes-Barre and surrounding Luzerne County towns.

Afterward, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers undertook one of the most ambitious flood-control projects east of the Mississippi River, raising the existing levees by 3 to 5 feet. The $200 million project was finally completed in 2003.

Pennsylvania flooding forces evacuations

[Shammu]

Up to 200,000 told to flee Northeast flooding
Storm kills 12; state of emergency declared in more than 50 counties

Updated: 1 hour, 56 minutes ago

ALLENTOWN, Pa. - Up to 200,000 people in the Wilkes-Barre area were ordered to evacuate their homes Wednesday because of rising water on the Susquehanna River, swelled by a record-breaking deluge that had killed at least 12 people across the Northeast.

Thousands more were ordered to leave their homes in New Jersey, New York and Maryland. Rescue helicopters plucked residents from rooftops as rivers and streams surged over their banks, washed out roads and bridges, and cut off villages in some of the worst flooding in the region in decades.

Wilkes-Barre, a northeastern Pennsylvania city that was devastated by deadly flooding in 1972 from the remnants of Hurricane Agnes, is protected by levees, and officials said the Susquehanna was expected to crest just a few feet from the tops of the 41-foot floodwalls.

But Luzerne County Commissioner Todd Vonderheid said officials were worried about the effects of water pressing against the levees for 48 hours. The levees were completed just three years ago.

“It is honestly precautionary,” Vonderheid said. “We have great faith the levees are going to hold.”

An estimated 150,000 to 200,000 people in the county of about 351,000 were told to get out by nightfall. The evacuation order applied to much of Wilkes-Barre and several outlying towns, all of them flooded by Agnes more than three decades ago.

Laura Lockman, 42, of Wilkes-Barre packed a car and planned to clear out along with her husband, three kids and a puppy named Pebbles. They were not ordered to evacuate their brick home, a half-mile from the Susquehanna, but were going to nearby Scranton anyway for the children’s safety. Their home was inundated in 1972, when water reached the second floor.

“I just want to get out of here. I just want to be safe, that’s all,” she said.

Search and rescue
A dozen helicopters from the Pennsylvania National Guard, the state police and the Coast Guard were sent on search-and-rescue missions, plucking stranded residents from rooftops in Bloomsburg, Sayre and New Milford. Hundreds of National Guardsmen prepared to distribute ice, water and meals ready to eat.

Flooding closed many roads in the Philadelphia area, including the Pennsylvania Turnpike.

“We lost just about everything — the cars, the clothes, even the baby’s crib,” said James Adams, who evacuated his family’s home near Binghamton, N.Y., after watching their shed float away and their cars get submerged. “I’m not sure what we are going to do.”

Elsewhere in the Binghamton area, an entire house floated down the Susquehanna.

Up to 200,000 told to flee Northeast flooding

[Shammu]

Dozens of wildfires hamper Nevada firefighters
Governor declares emergency; fires near cities, brothel prompt evacuation

Updated: 1:26 p.m. MT June 28, 2006

RENO, Nev. - More than 1,000 firefighters battled dozens of wildfires across Nevada on Wednesday including blazes around Reno and Carson City that forced some evacuations.

A state of emergency declared Tuesday by Gov. Kenny Guinn freed up state resources to help local governments and help put equipment on the fire lines. About 190 square miles have burned in the state since lightning sparked the fires last weekend.

A 70,000-acre-plus blaze was burning uninhabited rangeland in northeast Nevada, while a complex of smaller fires around Reno and Carson City threatened about 200 homes.
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A Type I incident management team, which handles the nation’s most challenging fires, took over command of those fires, and about 800 firefighters are on the lines there.

The series of fires has grown to 6,000 acres and looped around Carson City on the eastern front of the Sierra, sending a snake of fire down a hillside near McClellan Peak.

In New Mexico, thunderstorms brought rain as well as wind and lightning, helping firefighters quell several blazes that have charred more than 82,000 acres in recent weeks. The largest, which has burned 51,000 acres in the Gila National Forest, is now 87 percent contained.

Lightning sparks blazes
Lightning had started a half-dozen fires around Reno and Carson City early Tuesday, adding to blazes that already had charred more than 50,000 acres of the state.

More than two dozen fires were active, many out of control, scattered from the heavily timbered western front of the Sierra Nevada near Reno to the sage- and grass-covered rangeland near Elko, 300 miles east.

As many as 300 homes and businesses east of Carson City — including a legal brothel — were threatened by brush fires. The flames curved around the state’s capital city.

“We’re actually waiting at the door to leave,” said Bunny Love, an employee at the Moonlite Bunny Ranch, on Tuesday. “The girls all have their bags packed.”

In Arizona, a 49,700-acre wildfire north of Grand Canyon National Park had jumped the only highway leading to the remote North Rim, closing the road and marooning hundreds of tourists and workers. The fire was burning about 30 miles from the park and officials said no one was in any danger.

“The canyon is covered in smoke,” Amber Boeldt of Globe said in a telephone interview from the Grand Canyon Lodge, where she and her family were staying on the North Rim. “That’s all you can smell.”

An estimated 200 of the 950 stranded people drove for two hours on a forest road around the fire to Fredonia, near the Utah state line, said park spokeswoman Maureen Oltrogge.

Nevada officials earlier ordered evacuations in two rural communities near Elko and flames burned within a quarter mile of homes 15 miles northwest of Reno, but no injuries were reported and no homes faced immediate threat. Some residents also voluntarily evacuated from the rural valleys on the northern outskirts of Reno, where some of the lightning fires that began Monday burned about 2,000 acres.

40,000-acre fire
Nevada’s biggest fire grew Tuesday to about 40,000 acres about 20 miles west of Elko near Carlin, where the University of Nevada Fire Science Academy is located along I-80.

“We do a lot of real-life fire training, but we never expected this,” said Denise Baclawski, the academy’s executive director. “All night long we had staff members work to protect the facility.”

Northwest of Reno, a 1,500-acre wildfire in the Sierra just across the Nevada-California line was estimated to be 50 percent contained early Tuesday and some of those 250 firefighters were being transferred elsewhere.

About 90 miles north along U.S. Highway 395 near Susanville, Calif., an 100-acre fire forced evacuations of as many as 100 homes before residents returned Monday night.

Near Sedona, Ariz., where owners of about 400 homes and scattered businesses were evacuated, fire officials predicted that a 4,200-acre fire that forced hundreds to evacuate would be contained sometime on Wednesday.

As of Monday, wildfires around the United States had blackened 3.3 million acres this year, compared with 1.2 million acres on average at this point in the fire season, the National Interagency Fire Center reported.

Dozens of wildfires hamper Nevada firefighters

[Shammu]

Juan de Fuca, West Valley Earthquake Sequence

June 28, 2006:

SOSUS is currently detecting a relatively small, but ongoing earthquake sequence at the West Valley of the northern Juan de Fuca Ridge. The first earthquake, likely the mainshock, occurred at 23:21Z on June 27 2006 and was also recorded by the Pacific Northwest Seismic Network which assigned this event a magnitude of 4.4. Over the last 12 hours, 113 aftershocks have been detected occurring at a rate of 5-10 events per hour. The earthquakes from this sequence are centered (yellow dot) along the northeastern side of the valley, relatively distant from either ends of the ridge segment. This activity is significant in that the West Valley segment has not exhibited a large amount of seismicity during the past 15 years of SOSUS recording. We will continue to closely monitor this activity and will send another announcement if the activity increases significantly.

WValleyEQmap pdf reader

Juan de Fuca, West Valley Earthquake Sequence

[Shammu]

Drug-resistent 'Superbug' Spreading Across U.S.

    NewsMax.com
    Wednesday, June 28, 2006

An antibiotic-resistant strain of staph bacteria similar to the bug that has plagued hospital patients for years is now spreading across America.

Called community-acquired methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), the potentially fatal infection has turned up in parts of California, Texas, Illinois and Alaska and has recently been detected in New York and Pennsylvania.

Several strains of staph bacteria have been infecting hospital patients for the past 15 years, but the new, related MRSA strain began turning up in the general population in the late 1990s, according to Time magazine.

The superbug spreads quickly, and is resistant to the most common antibiotics. It is also showing up among prison inmates, athletic teams and others who are in close contact and may share contaminated items.

MRSA usually begins as a skin infection. The danger comes when a scrape or cut allows the bacteria to enter the body.

Six recent outbreaks of MRSA have been traced to unlicensed tattoo artists, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

Reuters writes:

    "MRSA infection typically manifests as abscesses or areas of inflammation on the skin, though it can also lead to more serious problems such as pneumonia, blood infections or, in some cases, necrotizing fasciitis, also referred to as the ‘flesh-eating disease.'

    "The six tattoo-related outbreaks affected 44 people in Kentucky, Ohio and Vermont, the CDC reports in its Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report. Thirty-four had recently gotten a tattoo from an unlicensed source, while 10 others contracted the infection from close contact with the tattoo recipients.

    "Health officials' investigations found that the tattooists in many cases did not follow standard hygiene practices like changing gloves between clients, using skin antiseptic and disinfecting equipment. Three tattooists had recently been in prison, where they could have picked up MRSA. In some cases, the amateur artists used makeshift equipment like guitar strings and computer ink-jet cartridges instead of tattoo dye."

"We are still riding a big wave of this bacterial infection and I really don't see any end in sight," said Dr. Mysheika LeMaile-Williams, a CDC infectious disease investigator who co-authored the report.

Doctors advise that if you have a skin infection accompanied by a high fever, a lot of redness or an abscess, you should seek medical attention to find out if you have an MRSA infection.

Drug-resistent 'Superbug' Spreading Across U.S.

[Shammu]

Weary Nevada Residents Hope Rainstorm Will Douse Blazes

Thursday , June 29, 2006

RENO, Nev. — Nevada continued to endure lightning-sparked wildfires on Wednesday, but an approaching rainstorm — complete with a flood watch — held the potential to douse some of the flames.

In all, about 140,000 acres of the state have been charred since the fires began over the weekend. Of 33 large fires burning in the U.S. and being tracked by the National Interagency Fire Center, 10 were in Nevada.

But three consecutive days of high temperatures, low humidity and dry lightning were forecast to give way Wednesday night to a possibility of heavy rain. A flash flood watch was posted for the hard-hit Reno-Carson City area.

"We've got a lot of cloud cover, the humidity has come up and the temperatures are a lot cooler," said Kathy Jo Pollock, a spokeswoman for the fire management team in Carson City.

A fire that began Monday just east of Carson City near the historic Pony Express trail, was estimated at 5,000 acres on Wednesday. About 200 homes were threatened Tuesday, but most residents who chose to leave were returning.

A blaze of more than 78,000 acres burned toward a subdivision in northwestern Elko but stopped 1 1/2 miles short at a green belt. No one was evacuated, and the fire was estimated to be 20 percent contained Wednesday night.

No injuries have been reported and no structures have burned in the Nevada fires.

In Arizona, most of the 200 employees stranded on the Grand Canyon's North Rim by a wildfire were escorted out of the park Wednesday, a day after about 800 stranded tourists were taken out. About 30 employees will remain indefinitely to maintain operations, park spokeswoman Maureen Oltrogge said.

Zion National Park in Utah remained open Wednesday, despite the closure of nine of the park's hiking trails because of a wildfire. It had burned about 17,630 acres — most of it inside the park — since it started Saturday. The fire is 40 percent contained, with the most active burning on its north edge in very steep, rocky terrain.

Weary Nevada Residents Hope Rainstorm Will Douse Blazes

[Shammu]

Floodwaters Begin to Recede After Mass Evacuations in Northeast

Thursday , June 29, 2006

WILKES-BARRE, Pa. — After nearly 200,000 people were evacuated in record-breaking flooding that has killed at least 12 people in the Northeast, Pennsylvania officials said Thursday that levees along a swollen Susquehanna River will hold and residents can return to the Wilkes-Barre area.

"We are confident that the dike system will hold," Luzerne County Commissioner Greg Skrepenak told The Times Leader in Wilkes-Barre, whose staff had to evacuate to a hotel because of the flood threat.

"Unfortunately, we don't want to take any risks. The dike system has never been tested to his level," he said.

Residents were told they could return to their homes beginning around noon Thursday. The river crested at 3 a.m. Thursday at 34 feet, according to officials.

In New Jersey, the Delaware River was also expected to crest Thursday to near record levels. More than 1,000 people left low-lying areas of Trenton, and state employees in buildings along the river left work early Wednesday.

Gov. Jon S. Corzine declared a statewide emergency and toured flooded areas Thursday morning.

Trenton's water filtration system was shut down because of debris floating down the Delaware, and Mayor Doug Palmer called for conservation, saying the city had only about two days of drinkable water. The river was expected to crest nearly 8 feet over flood stage, the fourth-highest level on record for Trenton.

Sections of that city's River Line light-rail service were shut down.

Some 11,000 people were ordered to leave their homes in New Jersey, Maryland and New York as rivers and streams surged over their banks, washed out roads and bridges and cut off villages in some of the worst flooding in the region in decades. In the Binghamton, N.Y., area, an entire house floated down the Susquehanna.

The Pennsylvania levees appeared to be performing exactly as intended Thursday and the Susquehanna crested at just over 34 feet, well below the top of the 41-foot floodwall. The rain-swollen river began a slow retreat at 6 p.m. Wednesday and was not expected to rise again despite the possibility of more showers and occasional thunderstorms along the East Coast.

A second crest predicted for early Thursday did not materialize, leading officials to preliminarily declare victory.

"It is definitely going in the right direction and we couldn't get better news," said Luzerne County public safety chief Alan Pugh.

Although the bulk of the rain moved out of the region, some streams were still rising from the runoff.

The rains, which began over the weekend, have been blamed for four deaths each in Maryland and Pennsylvania, one in Virginia and three in New York.

Wilkes-Barre, a city of 43,000 in northeastern Pennsylvania coal-mining country, was devastated by deadly flooding in 1972 from the remnants of Hurricane Agnes.

Emergency officials had been keeping a close eye on the river, hoping the levee system the U.S. Army Corp of Engineers finished overhauling just three years ago would hold. They ordered the evacuations just in case.

"We're confident that the Army Corps of Engineers did a great job building the levee system, but water is a powerful force," Mayor Tom Leighton said.

Luzerne County Commissioner Todd Vanderheid said Thursday he was stopped by a resident who told him: "I'm glad you didn't test the levees with me behind them."

Retirees Richard and Janet Yahrae were rousted from their high-rise apartment building Wednesday afternoon and wound up spending the night with 275 others at a high school-turned-emergency shelter.

But they didn't mind and didn't complain about the uncomfortable narrow cots: "The dike's never been tested. Who knows if it's going to hold or not?" said Richard Yahrae, 71.

A dozen helicopters from the Pennsylvania National Guard, the state police and the Coast Guard were sent on search-and-rescue missions, plucking stranded residents from rooftops in Bloomsburg, Sayre and New Milford. Hundreds of National Guardsmen prepared to distribute ice, water and meals ready to eat.

Flooding closed many roads in the Philadelphia area, including the Pennsylvania Turnpike.

The soaking weather was produced by a low-pressure system that has been stalled just offshore and pumped moist tropical air northward along the East Coast. A record 4.05 inches of rain fell Tuesday at Binghamton, N.Y., and over the weekend the same system drenched the Washington and Baltimore region with more than a foot of rain.

Earlier this week, floodwaters in the nation's capital closed the National Archives, the IRS, the Justice Department and other major government buildings, and toppled a 100-year-old elm tree on the White House lawn. The National Archives, several Smithsonian museums and some government office buildings were still closed Wednesday.

An estimated 2,200 people were ordered to evacuate the area around Lake Needwood at Rockville, Md., which was approaching 25 feet above normal. Engineers reported weakened spots on the lake's earthen dam.

In the Binghamton area, a swollen creek carved a 25-foot-deep chasm through all four lanes of Interstate 88, about 35 miles northeast of the city, and two truckers were killed early Wednesday when their rigs plunged into the gaps, officials said.

Thousands of people were evacuated from communities across New York state, including 1,500 people from the Binghamton area. Whole villages north of Binghamton County were isolated by high water.

Lourdes Hospital in Binghamton transferred all it patients, about 90, to two other hospitals, said spokeswoman Kathy Cramer.

After touring the region by helicopter, New York Gov. George Pataki said the heavy rain caused "unparalleled devastation" and estimated that property damage in his state would total at least $100 million. He declared states of emergency in 13 counties and activated more than 300 National Guard members to help with evacuations and rescues and conduct traffic.

Floodwaters Begin to Recede After Mass Evacuations in Northeast

[Shammu]

Panel backs cancer vaccine for 11-year-old girls
Shots would protect against sexually transmitted disease

Updated: 51 minutes ago

ATLANTA - An influential government advisory panel Thursday recommended that 11- and 12-year-old girls be routinely vaccinated against the sexually transmitted virus that causes cervical cancer.

The Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices also said the shots can be started for girls as young as 9, at the discretion of their doctors.

The committee’s recommendations usually are accepted by federal health officials, and influence insurance coverage for vaccinations.

Gardasil, made by Merck & Co., is the first vaccine specifically designed to prevent cancer. Approved earlier this month by the Food and Drug Administration for females ages 9 to 26, it protects against strains of the human papilloma virus, or HPV, which causes cervical, vulvar and v****l cancers and genital warts.

Some health officials had girded themselves for arguments from religious conservatives and others that vaccinating youngsters against the sexually transmitted virus might make them more likely to have sex. But the controversy never materialized in the panel’s public meetings.

Earlier this year, the Family Research Council, a conservative group, did not speak out against giving the HPV shot to young girls. The organization mainly opposes making it one of the vaccines required before youngsters can enroll in school, said the group’s policy analyst, Moira Gaul.

Health officials estimate that more than 50 percent of sexually active women and men will be infected with one or more types of HPV in their lifetimes. Vaccine proponents say it could dramatically reduce the nearly 4,000 cervical cancer deaths that occur each year in the United States.

Boys next?
The vaccine comes as a $360 series of three shots, and in tests has been highly effective against HPV. The vaccine is formulated to address the subtypes of HPV responsible for 70 percent of cervical cancer cases and 90 percent of genital warts.

Scientists say the vaccine is most effective when given to girls before they become sexually active, and some girls become active before their teens. About 7 percent of children have had gotcha146 before age 13, and about a quarter of boys and girls have had sex by age 15, according to government surveys.

In a public comment session at Thursday’s meeting, all nine speakers supported recommending the vaccine to females 9 to 26, the broadest possible group under FDA license. The speakers included a state senator from Maryland and the chief medical officer of AmeriChoice, a UnitedHealth Group company that manages state Medicaid programs.

The panel focused on 11- to 12-year-olds in part because children that age already routinely get two other shots.

Merck officials said clinical effectiveness studies in males should be completed by 2008.

Merck officials also said they can provide the more than 19 million doses that health officials expect would be used in the next year.

[Shammu]

Flooding in South Central New York
Released: 6/29/2006 8:44:11 AM

U.S. Department of the Interior, U.S. Geological Survey
Office of Communication
119 National Center
Reston, VA 20192    

There is severe flooding in parts of south-central New York including much of the Delaware River basin as a result of heavy rainfall over the last several days.

The Delaware River at Callicoon, NY was at 19.64 feet and over 125,000 cubic feet per second (ft3/s) at 7:30 this morning (Wednesday June 28). The National Weather Service flood stage for this site is 12 feet.

The flow measured at this site corresponds to a 500-year flood-recurrence interval, based on thirty years of data through 2005. A 500-year flood is a flood that has a 1 in 500 chance of being exceeded in any given year, but the occurrence of a 500-year flood does not decrease the chances of its happening again in the near future.

The USGS has crews currently working in the area to measure these flows. There have been new record high flows at several sites including West Branch Delaware River at Walton, NY, West Branch Delaware River at Hale Eddy, NY, and Delaware River at Callicoon, NY. Many of these and other sites across New York are still rising. For up-to-date information go to http://ny.water.usgs.gov/htmls/pub/data.html for near real-time steam stage and flow data from over 200 sites across New York State.

Flooding in South Central New York

[Shammu]

Magnitude 5.6 - BOUGAINVILLE REGION, PAPUA NEW GUINEA

2006 June 30 08:07:40 UTC

Magnitude     5.6 (Moderate)
# Date-Time    Friday, June 30, 2006 at 08:07:40 (UTC)
[A few different time zones.
Friday, June 30, 2006 at 03:07:40 AM (CDT) - Central Daylight (Chicago, Mexico City)
Friday, June 30, 2006 at 02:07:40 AM (CST) - Central Standard (Regina, Guatemala)
Friday, June 30, 2006 at 02:07:40 AM (MDT) - Mountain Daylight (Denver, Calgary, Mazatlan)
Friday, June 30, 2006 at 01:07:40 AM (MST) - Mountain Standard (Phoenix)
Friday, June 30, 2006 at 01:07:40 AM (PDT) - Pacific Daylight (Los Angeles, Vancouver, Tijuana)]
= Coordinated Universal Time
# Friday, June 30, 2006 at 6:07:40 PM
= local time at epicenter
Time of Earthquake in other Time Zones
Location    6.207°S, 154.783°E
Depth    60.7 km (37.7 miles) set by location program
Region    BOUGAINVILLE REGION, PAPUA NEW GUINEA
Distances    85 km (55 miles) W of Arawa, Bougainville, PNG
210 km (130 miles) WNW of Chirovanga, Choiseul, Solomon Islands
915 km (560 miles) ENE of PORT MORESBY, Papua New Guinea
2355 km (1470 miles) N of BRISBANE, Queensland, Australia
Location Uncertainty    horizontal +/- 11 km (6.8 miles); depth fixed by location program
Parameters    Nst=109, Nph=109, Dmin=911.2 km, Rmss=1.14 sec, Gp= 43°,
M-type=moment magnitude (Mw), Version=7
Source    USGS NEIC (WDCS-D)
Event ID    usppai

[Shammu]

Dome of Montserrat's volcano partially collapses

A lava dome that had been rapidly growing atop a volcano on this Caribbean island partially collapsed Friday, sending large clouds of ash over the sea, scientists said. No injuries were reported.

The dome had been building since the last collapse on May 20 and formed the highest part of the 3,000-foot (920-meter) Soufriere Hills volcano, said Sue Loughlin, director of the Montserrat Volcano Observatory.

"Today's collapse is the result of a high amount of seismic activity at the volcano," Loughlin said.

The partial-dome collapse, which started at about 1 p.m. local time (1800 GMT) and lasted for 20 minutes, followed two earthquake swarms in recent days in which the observatory's seismic network recorded 1,236 small earthquakes at the Soufriere Hills volcano during a roughly weeklong reporting period, she said.

Fast-moving bursts of hot gases and rock fragments shot down the eastern flank of the volcano into the Caribbean during the collapse. Nearly all the gray plumes of ash spread over the sea with a small amount coating inhabitable areas, Loughlin said.

Montserrat's volcano sprang to life in 1995. More than half the British Caribbean territory's 12,000 inhabitants moved away. An eruption in 1997 buried much of the south, including the capital, Plymouth, and killed 19 people.

The southern part of the tiny island is deserted and off-limits after dark, while the island's 5,000 residents now live in the north, reports

edited the link out because of some adverse ads.

[Shammu]

Volcano in western Mexico shoots ash

Thu Jun 29, 11:06 PM ET

MEXICO CITY - Western Mexico's Volcano of Fire sent a towering column of ash and gas more than a mile into the air Thursday, authorities said.

Winds blew a 7,150-foot column of ash toward the west. No communities were affected, said authorities in Jalisco state.

The 2 1/2-mile-high volcano sent up twin eruptions in January, triggering several small landslides.

The Volcano of Fire, on the border of Jalisco and Colima states, 420 miles west of Mexico City, has erupted repeatedly in recent years.

Volcano in western Mexico shoots ash

[Shammu]

Spain detects its first case of H5N1 bird flu

Fri Jul 7, 12:52 PM ET

MADRID (Reuters) - A Spanish laboratory has confirmed the country's first case of H5N1 bird flu after analyzing a sample taken from a wild migratory water bird, the Agriculture Ministry said on Friday.

The dead great crested grebe was found in the northern province of Alava and a sample sent to the National Reference Laboratory on Thursday revealed "high pathogen" H5N1, the ministry said.

The government has forbidden transport of poultry or bird hunting within a 3 km (1.8 mile) protection zone round the place where the grebe was found and is monitoring within a 10 km (6.2 mile) radius, the ministry said.

"We have reinforced monitoring of the countryside in order to detect any deaths among wild birds as soon as possible," the ministry said.

It said there were no commercial poultry farms within 10 km (6.2 miles) of the Salburua wetland, near the city of Vitoria, where the bird was found.

With cases in Italy and other European countries, experts had said it was only a matter of time before Spain also confirmed it had found an infected bird.

The country has already enforced rules to cover poultry being bred close to many wetlands areas in order to prevent migrating birds infecting domestic fowl and keep the deadly virus from coming into contact with humans.

Earlier this year the Madrid region ordered all poultry farms to enclose their birds, whether close to wetlands or not, and others may follow suit. But many smallholders in villages also keep chickens unregistered in their backyards.

The European Commission said it had been informed of the test result and that the Spanish authorities are applying the measures required by EU legislation as agreed by member states and the Commission."

"In the protection zone, poultry movements are restricted and poultry must be confined indoors," said Philip Tod, the Commission's spokesman on health and consumer protection.

Although there is no vaccine for bird flu, Spain has stockpiled anti-viral drugs, which suppress its symptoms. Last year the government said it was buying enough drugs to cover 20 percent of the population.

Agriculture Minister Elena Espinosa said there was no reason for alarm.

"It's important to stress that the bird is a wild one and remind everyone that this is a bird disease that is not passed on by eating poultry products," she told a news conference.

Chicken sales suffered in the past when bird flu cases were discovered in neighboring countries.

The Small Farmers' Union gave a similar message.

"This does not constitute a problem for our farms or a reason to be alarmed," the union's Secretary General Lorenzo Ramos told radio station SER.

Spain detects its first case of H5N1 bird flu