History > 2006 > USA > Weather (III-VI)

Denver gets blitzed

by another snowstorm

Updated 12/30/2006
2:24 AM ET
AP
USA Today

DENVER (AP) — Denver's second big snowstorm of the holidays grounded scores of flights Friday during one of the busiest travel periods of the year and blanketed streets that never got plowed the last time.

At Denver International, the nation's fifth-busiest airport, the major airlines canceled 15% to 20% of their flights Friday — nearly 300 departures — to ease congestion.

But officials were optimistic they would avoid a rerun of the pre-Christmas blizzard that unloaded 2 feet of snow and shut down the vaunted "all-weather" airport for two days, stranding 4,700 passengers and snarling holiday travel around the country.

The latest storm hit the state Thursday morning, and the snow was expected to be spread out over two or three days, making it easier for plows to keep up. A foot or more of snow was forecast in Denver through Saturday.

"That's something we can handle," Frontier Airlines spokesman Joe Hodas said.

The storm eased in the Denver area Friday afternoon but continued to buffet the Plains as it moved east.

Winter storm warnings extended from New Mexico to South Dakota, and blizzard conditions were forecast for the eastern Colorado plains and parts of southwestern Nebraska, western Kansas and the Texas and Oklahoma panhandles.

Tornado watches were issued for parts of Texas and Oklahoma on Friday evening as the leading edge of the storm approached. A tornado killed one person when it struck a home in west Texas, authorities said.

A weather slowdown at Denver has relatively little nationwide ripple effect on airlines other than United and Frontier, which account for 80% of Denver's traffic, said David Castelveter of the Air Transport Association, an industry group.

The New Year's weekend was extended by a day Friday as government offices and businesses closed in Denver and other Colorado cities.

A 200-mile stretch of Interstate 70, the main east-west highway through the state, was closed from Denver to Colby, Kan. Greyhound canceled all bus trips out of Denver.

Colorado Gov. Bill Owens again declared a state of emergency, putting the National Guard on standby. During the previous storm, troops rescued motorists and delivered diapers, blankets and baby formula to stranded travelers at the airport.

A tow truck driver was killed when a car slid off I-70 on Thursday night near Burlington, about 150 miles southeast of Denver.

At the airport, check-in counters that had been packed Thursday with travelers rushing to beat the storm had normal lines Friday morning.

Chris Malmay of San Diego hoped to spend a long holiday with family in Colorado, but because of the first storm, he could not reach Denver until Christmas Eve. On Thursday, his flight back to California was canceled because of the second storm.

"It's been crazy," Malmay said as he waited to board a plane Friday. "I'm saying, 'Please let me go back where it's sunny. You won't get snowed in, I promise.'"

The storm stretched across the Rocky Mountains into the western Plains, where forecasters warned that the gusts could whip up blinding whiteouts.

In New Mexico, Interstate 40 was closed from Albuquerque to Santa Rosa, and numerous crashes were reported.

More than an inch of snow per hour fell Friday morning in Kansas. Forecasters predicted 15 to 20 inches in some areas.

The 7 inches of snow that had fallen in Cheyenne, Wyo., by Friday morning gave the city 24 inches total in December, topping its nearly century-old record of 21.4 inches for the month.

Associated Press writers Jon Sarche in Denver and Ben Neary in Cheyenne, Wyo., contributed to this report.

    Denver gets blitzed by another snowstorm, UT, 30.12.2006, http://www.usatoday.com/weather/storms/2006-12-29-snowstorm_x.htm

Extreme weather caps off the year

Updated 12/29/2006 4:10 PM ET
USA Today
By Patrick O'Driscoll

This year of weather extremes, from incessant rain in the Northwest to chronic drought in the heartland and wildfires in the West, could go down as the second-warmest on record when it ends this weekend.

The first 11 months of 2006 already were the second-warmest January-to-November since national record-keeping began in 1895, says the National Climatic Data Center, which analyzes weather statistics.

The center's preliminary estimate was that the year would be the third-warmest — behind 1934 and 1998. But after balmy temperatures around the country for most of December, "we're going to be very, very close to second-warmest," says the center's Richard Heim. "The warmth has been incredible."

Last January was so warm that North America had the second-lowest amount of snow on the ground for that month. Only January 1981 had less.

Despite the overall warming trend, the second major snowstorm in 10 days arrived Thursday for Denver and the Great Plains and could dump up to 2 feet of snow, atop the more than 2 feet that fell last week. The storm could linger before pushing to the East Coast by New Year's Eve.

Several major cities broke records this year:

•Seattle had the most rainfall in a single month in November, topping its 73-year-old record with 15.63 inches — about three times the city's average for the month. "The 'Pineapple Express' has just been slamming the Pacific Northwest with storm after storm, just soaking them," Heim says.

•New York broke a 59-year-old record when 26.9 inches of snow blanketed the city Feb. 11-12. Buffalo, no stranger to heavy snow, got an unusually early blast of almost 2 feet Oct. 12-13.

•Phoenix had a record 143 straight days without measurable rain before a March 11 downpour.

In July, a heat wave in California was blamed for at least 140 deaths. The same month, violent thunderstorms raked the St. Louis area, cutting power to hundreds of thousands of people for more than a week.

The wet weather in Washington and Oregon is unusual because an El Niño climate pattern now in place normally would make it drier. The phenomenon, brought on by the warming of the eastern Pacific Ocean, usually brings significant rain and snow to the southern third of the USA.

"This El Niño we've got going right now is one of the weirdest ones that I've seen," Heim says. "We should not be having the weather we're having."

    Extreme weather caps off the year, UT, 29.12.2006, http://www.usatoday.com/weather/climate/2006-12-29-extreme-year_x.htm

Another Snowstorm Pounds Colorado

December 29, 2006
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Filed at 12:47 p.m. ET
The New York Times

DENVER (AP) -- The second major snow storm in a week pounded Colorado on Friday, burying the foothills under another 2 feet of snow, shutting down highways and forcing the cancellation of hundreds of flights at the Denver airport.

The storm stretched across the Rocky Mountains into the western Plains, where the National Weather Service warned that the gusting wind could whip up blinding whiteouts.

Colorado Gov. Bill Owens again declared a statewide disaster, putting the National Guard on standby as areas west of Denver got 28 inches of snow Thursday and early Friday. In the city, more than a foot of snow had fallen by morning and another foot was expected.

United Airlines and Frontier Airlines, the largest carriers at Denver International Airport, canceled 513 flights starting Thursday through Friday morning, trimming their schedules to ease congestion from weather delays.

While last week's blizzard dumped nearly 2 feet of snow in about 24 hours, making it impossible for airport and highway plows to keep up, snow from the new storm was expected to stretch over about three days.

The metro area's light rail trains, buses and public transit all planned to run on their regular schedules Friday. Maintenance crews covered Denver streets with deicer, but offices still closed early and residents stocked up on groceries. Many residential streets -- never cleared after the first storm -- were buried again.

A 200-mile stretch of Interstate 70, the main east-west highway through the state, was closed early Friday from Denver to Colby, Kan. Greyhound canceled all trips out of Denver on Friday and more cancelations could follow.

With memories fresh of the 4,700 stranded holiday travelers and backed up flights around the country last week, New Year's travelers jammed the airport Thursday trying to get out of Colorado while they still could.

Managers at the nation's fifth-busiest airport drew up snowplowing plans, and airlines urged ticket-holders to get early flights or wait until after the storm.

Chris Malmay of San Diego hoped to spend a long holiday with family in Colorado, but because of the first storm, he couldn't reach Denver until Christmas Eve. On Thursday, his flight back to California was canceled because of the second storm.

''It's been crazy,'' Malmay said as he waited to board a plane Friday. ''I'm saying, 'Please let me go back where it's sunny. You won't get snowed in, I promise.'''

The airport and airlines called in extra workers, and security lines moved relatively quickly. But long lines formed at ticket counters as travelers tried to adjust their plans.

The Frontier line snaked across the cavernous terminal, weaving behind the lines of ticket counters on the other side of the building.

Frontier waived its usual change fee to encourage passengers to catch earlier flights. ''Let's try and get as many people out ahead of the storm as we can,'' Frontier spokesman Joe Hodas said.

After running out of bedding for stranded passengers during the first storm, airport managers lined up cots and blankets and urged food vendors to ensure they had plenty of supplies on hand.

In New Mexico, Interstate 40 remained closed Friday morning from Albuquerque to Santa Rosa, with numerous crashes were reported after a storm swept through.

More than an inch of snow per hour was falling Friday morning in parts of Kansas. Six inches were on the ground, and forecasters predicted 15 to 20 inches in some areas.

Residents of Cheyenne, Wyo., also braced for another storm. The 7 inches of snow that had fallen by Friday morning put Cheyenne over its nearly century-old record for December snowfall -- 24 inches in all, exceeding the 21.4 inches that fell there in December 1913.

State government offices in Cheyenne were on a two-hour delay Friday morning, streets in Cheyenne were snow-packed and icy, and parts of Interstate 25 were closed.

------

Associated Press writers Dan Elliott and Don Mitchell contributed to this report.

    Another Snowstorm Pounds Colorado, NYT, 29.12.2006, http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/us/AP-Winter-Storms.html?hp&ex=1167454800&en=f8bb2cff6736866a&ei=5094&partner=homepage

Cleanup begins after 4 Florida tornadoes

Updated 12/26/2006 10:52 PM ET
AP
USA Today

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. (AP) — Four Christmas Day tornadoes damaged hundreds of Florida homes, with one flipping airplanes at a flight school and tearing the roofs off three apartment buildings, officials confirmed Tuesday.

Gov. Jeb Bush late Tuesday declared a state of emergency in Columbia, Pasco, Lake and Volusia counties, which were hardest hit by the storm.

One confirmed tornado hit the Daytona Beach area, where high winds tore portions of the roof from three apartment buildings and caused extensive damage to many of their 240 units. It was an F-2 tornado, which has winds of 113 mph to 157 mph. Daytona Beach reported 20 police vehicles were destroyed.

The wind also hurled an airplane through a building wall at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, causing a fire. About 50 other planes at the university were also damaged by winds that snapped off their wings and caused them to overturn.

Estelle Hunter, 25, left five minutes before the winds uprooted a tree and slammed it through the roof of her home in the area. She tried to salvage some of her possessions from the rubble.

"It's all gone," she said. "All of my baby's Christmas presents are under water."

Injuries reported in the storms were relatively minimal, which authorities called remarkable.

"It's near miraculous that no one was killed," said Bart Hagemeyer, a National Weather Service meteorologist based in Melbourne.

More than 200 homes in a number of mobile home parks were damaged west of Daytona Beach around DeLand, where another F-2 tornado was confirmed, the Volusia County Property Appraiser's Office said.

A third tornado damaged about 80 homes in Pasco County north of Tampa, largely at the Tampa Bay Golf and Country Club. An F-0, bringing winds of 70 miles per hour, was confirmed in Lake County, near Leesburg.

Elaine Mandela was among those forced from their home in Pasco County. She spent Monday night with friends, but said she was unsure what she would do now.

"I have no idea," she said. "I'm not sure it has hit me yet."

    Cleanup begins after 4 Florida tornadoes, UT, 26.12.2006, http://www.usatoday.com/weather/stormcenter/2006-12-25-florida-storms_x.htm

Thousands Stranded in Denver Airport and Environs After Blizzard

December 22, 2006
The New York Times
By MINDY SINK

DENVER, Dec. 21 — Thousands of travelers were stranded at airports and shelters Thursday after a blizzard on Wednesday paralyzed Colorado and parts of other Western states.

“This is one of those storms that you tell your grandkids about,” said Dennis Feltgen, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Silver Spring, Md.

Snowfall measured over 50 inches in the Rocky Mountain foothills, and drifts reached more than five feet on airport runways.

Gov. Bill Owens of Colorado declared a state of emergency on Wednesday, calling in National Guard troops to help stranded motorists reach home, a hotel or Red Cross shelters. Denver International Airport, where nearly 5,000 people were stuck overnight on Wednesday, was to remain closed until noon Friday.

Mr. Feltgen said the storm first hit parts of Arizona and New Mexico before bringing snow across Colorado and to parts of Kansas, Nebraska and Wyoming.

“There were 30- to 40-mile-per-hour winds with falling snow, which by definition is a blizzard,” he said. “The snow was accumulating too fast to keep up with it.”

Cities along Colorado’s Front Range could not plow roads fast enough as the snow kept falling for over 24 hours, leaving 20 to 30 inches in Denver. Light-rail trains and bus service were canceled here through most of Thursday, and officials said it could be Saturday before side streets in Denver were plowed.

Mail delivery was canceled and most businesses, including malls, were closed during the busiest shopping time of the year. With cars, trucks and buses abandoned on the roads, the cleanup from the storm is expected to take several days.

On Wednesday morning, Ray Ragonese was one of many people who headed to work as usual. When he tried to drive home in the afternoon, he got stuck on a highway off-ramp for seven hours. He and a few other drivers decided to run the engine in just one car at a time and go from car to car to stay warm, using up all but one-quarter tank of gas in each car.

“We were in survival mode,” Mr. Ragonese, 45, said in a telephone interview on Thursday. “Here’s what was going through our minds: If I run out of gas, I’m going to freeze to death, so we better do something about this.”

A plow finally came and Mr. Ragonese was able to make it to a hotel, where he shared a room with one of the drivers he had met on the exit ramp. “Long story short, we managed to get to the hotel and we’re alive,” he said.

At Denver International Airport, thousands of passengers were bused to hotels and many others slept on the floor.

“We hate to see it, especially at this time of year,” said Chuck Cannon, an airport spokesman. “We know these people are going to visit family and friends, and it’s doubly tough to see kids who did not make it to Grandma’s house. But people are making the best of it and understand it’s Mother Nature; we can’t do a lot about it.”

By Thursday morning, those not grounded at the airport or in a shelter began skiing, snowshoeing, sledding and snowboarding around their neighborhoods.

“Now it’s fun because we are all together,” said Andrea Flanagan, who had been worried when her husband, Matt, was walking home on Wednesday. “We’ve been out sledding and building forts and just having so much fun today.”

The weakened storm moved east on Thursday with freezing rain in the Dakotas and Minnesota.

Flooding Hits New Orleans

NEW ORLEANS, Dec. 21 (AP) — Heavy rains filled many streets in New Orleans and neighboring Jefferson Parish with a foot or more of water Thursday, snarling traffic, closing schools and raising concerns about the next hurricane season.

“Unbelievable,” said Pamela Borne, who waded to her midtown New Orleans house through knee-high water with her daughter. The ground-level “basement” of her family’s house, where she had stashed Christmas presents, had four inches of water before noon, Ms. Borne said.

“It’s very disappointing, that just with an overnight rain of this magnitude, that the city is so ill-prepared,” she said.

Pumping stations, closely watched since the catastrophic flooding after Hurricane Katrina in August 2005, struggled to keep pace. All of the city’s pumps were working, but some storm drains were clogged by debris, like tree leaves, said Robert Mendoza, director of the Public Works Department in New Orleans.

    Thousands Stranded in Denver Airport and Environs After Blizzard, NYT, 22.12.2006, http://www.nytimes.com/2006/12/22/us/22storm.html?hp&ex=1166850000&en=555ab328fd56bc22&ei=5094&partner=homepage

Major Winter Storm Paralyzes Denver

December 21, 2006
The New York Times
By JOHN HOLUSHA

A major winter snowstorm closed airports and highways in the front range of the Rocky Mountains and on the High Plains today. Denver was paralyzed under two feet of snow, and there were forecasts of potentially damaging ice storms in Minneapolis and possible flooding in New Orleans.

Some 5,000 people were stranded at Denver International Airport overnight after runways were closed Wednesday afternoon because of mounting snow. Authorities there said they were unlikely to reopen the airport until late today at the soonest, or perhaps Friday morning. The Colorado National Guard sent blankets and other supplies to stranded passengers sleeping on the airport floor.

Long stretches of three major Interstate highways, I-25, I-70 and I-76, were closed to traffic as sharp winds piled the snow into impassable drifts.

“The police pulled everybody off the highway,” said Leon Medina, the manager of a truck stop in Walsenberg, Colo., about 130 miles south of Denver, according to the Associated Press. “Cars are all around the building. Trucks are all over, trucks and cars pulled into ditches.”

The storm dumped up to 18 inches of snow on parts of New Mexico, forcing some schools to close, and parts of Nebraska and Kansas were coated in snow and ice.

The southern part of the storm was expected to pelt the New Orleans area with wind and water later today, and the National Weather Service issued a tornado warning for several counties in southern Louisiana. Dipping temperatures in northern states like Minnesota meant that the forecast rain may turn to sleet and freezing rain.

Half a world away, thousands of holiday travelers were delayed at Heathrow, London’s main airport and the busiest in Europe, as heavy fog over southern England grounded hundreds of flights. About 500 people spent the night at the airport, and authorities warned of overcrowding and long waits for people scheduled to fly today to visit relatives for Christmas or begin a winter vacation.

    Major Winter Storm Paralyzes Denver, NYT, 21.12.2006, http://www.nytimes.com/2006/12/21/us/21cnd-storm.html?hp&ex=1166763600&en=b6df1548aeec57b7&ei=5094&partner=homepage

Colorado Blizzard Strands Thousands

December 21, 2006
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Filed at 11:32 a.m. ET
The New York Times

DENVER (AP) -- Stranded travelers lined up at ticket counters at snowbound Denver International Airport early Thursday, hoping to get out of town amid a powerful snowstorm that paralyzed Colorado's biggest cities with up to 2 feet of snow.

The news wasn't comforting: While some flight updates still said ''on time,'' airport spokesman Steve Snyder said the runways likely wouldn't open before noon Friday.

The airport crews simply can't keep up with the falling and drifting snow, Snyder said. They plow the runways, but within 30 minutes, the tarmacs are covered again.

''It feels like I'm a refugee,'' said Lisa Maurer, a University of Wyoming student who was stuck at the Denver airport as she tried to make her way home to Germany. Some 4,700 people hunkered down with her overnight after all flights there were canceled -- more than 1,000 of them Wednesday and Thursday morning alone.

Denver's streets were empty, and long stretches of highway in the eastern Colorado were so impassable, even the mail couldn't get through. Bus and light rail service in a six-county region was suspended.

Cathy Stuart, 44, a sales representative from Dallas, spent the night on the airport's stone floor after her flight home was canceled.

''I don't feel bad, but I just want to get out of here,'' she said.

More than 30 inches of snow fell in the Colorado mountains, and up to 2 feet fell in the Denver metro area Wednesday and early Thursday. A snowstorm also dumped up to 18 inches on New Mexico, icing roads and closing schools, and the National Weather Service warned that another storm was taking aim at the New Mexico Friday night.

In Denver, Colorado Springs and other cities along the Rocky Mountain Front Range, workers slipped and slid their way home on Wednesday and stayed there, leaving the cities virtual ghost towns Thursday, typically a busy shopping day. A few pedestrians trudging down the middle of unplowed streets as the snow continued.

Three more inches of wind-whipped snow was expected Thursday before tapering off in the afternoon. Parts of Nebraska and Kansas were also getting snow and ice, but farther east, warmer temperatures meant even Chicago was only forecast to get heavy rain as the storm moved through.

In Colorado's socked-in eastern half, few travelers were going anywhere.

The Colorado Springs airport reopened and some airlines were flying, but getting there was nearly impossible.

Gov. Bill Owens declared a state of emergency and activated the National Guard, which assisted dozens of motorists on the highways around Denver and delivered diapers, formula and bottled water to Denver's airport.

Long stretches of Interstates 70 and 25, the main east-west and north-south routes through the Mountain West, were closed. Interstate 76 was closed from Denver to Nebraska. The State Patrol had reported a rash of car crashes on the open roads but no fatalities.

''They pulled everyone off the highway,'' said Leon Medina, manager of a truck stop on Interstate 25 in Walsenburg, about 130 miles south of Denver. ''Cars are all around the building. Trucks are all over, trucks and cars pulled into ditches.''

At least 270 people took refuge at American Red Cross shelters in the Denver area and the number was expected to rise as motorists arrived by the busload early Thursday, said Robert Thompson, spokesman for the Mile High chapter.

''It's just amazing how many people are still out there,'' he said.

The Red Cross provided 140 cots for nearly 350 people stranded at a Greyhound bus station in downtown Denver, Thompson said.

Weather Service program manager Byron Louis said it was the most powerful storm to hit Colorado since March 2003, when a massive blizzard dumped up to 11 feet of snow in the mountains over several days and was blamed for at least six deaths.

Major malls closed early Wednesday. One, Flatirons Crossing Mall in Broomfield, northwest of Denver, offered warmth for motorists stranded along U.S. 36, the major link between Denver and Boulder.

Mail service was canceled in the eastern half of the state because mail carriers and trucks delivering mail four days before Christmas couldn't get through.

''We don't want to take the risk of clogging up the system just by being out there,'' said Al DeSarro, a U.S. Postal Service spokesman in Denver. ''We're considering delivering on Sunday to make up for what's sure to be a backlog of mail.''

At Denver International Airport, a major hub for United Airlines, United canceled more than 670 inbound flights, plus 160 that had been scheduled leave before noon Thursday. Frontier Airlines canceled up to 190 flights.

''It's the wind and blowing and drifting snow that is causing the main problems,'' Snyder said.

Some airport monitors tantalized travelers by listing ''on time'' beside arrivals and departures, but Snyder said that was probably caused by a computer glitch.

''I'm just happy to be alive. It was a terrifying drive,'' Sara Kelton said of the two-hour crawl over slick, snow-clogged roads to reach the airport.

Thirteen hours after Alan Barr left his Denver office for a bus ride home to Boulder, he was stuck at a Red Cross shelter in Denver, not much closer to home than when he left. His bus had set out from Denver hours late, then had to turn back.

Barr trudged into the shelter shortly after midnight with other discouraged riders but said he had not given up on the bus system.

''Days like today are an exception,'' he said. ''I believe in public transportation.''

Commuters on several buses had similar experiences, said Scott Reed, spokesman for the Regional Transportation District: ''It was absolute gridlock.''

Public transit service was not expected to resume until late Thursday at the earliest.

''It was comical for a while,'' said bus rider Matt Notter of Boulder. ''Then we realized, this is an all-night thing.''

Associated Press writers Colleen Slevin, Eric Daigh, Dan Elliott, Jon Sarche, Judith Kohler, Steven K. Paulson, Sandy Shore, and Chase Squires contributed to this report.

    Colorado Blizzard Strands Thousands, NYT, 21.12.2006, http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/us/AP-Snowstorm.html?hp&ex=1166763600&en=dcdd4d5a16862d9d&ei=5094&partner=homepage

Blizzard Lashes Pacific Northwest

December 15, 2006
The New York Times
By JOHN HOLUSHA

A blizzard lashed the Pacific Northwest today, with winds gusting up to 110 miles an hour knocking down trees and damaging homes and businesses, as heavy rains at lower altitudes swelled rivers and led to flooding.

About 1.5 million homes and businesses in Washington and Oregon last power, as falling trees brought down power lines and blocked access to some roads. The downed trees and fierce weather prevented repair crews from reaching some areas to restore power.

“They’ve had to pull back; it just been too hairy out there,” said Roger Thompson, a spokesman for Puget Sound Energy, according to The Associated Press. Other utility officials said it was too dangerous to elevate the buckets on repair trucks in the high winds.

Falling trees also damaged houses and other structures around the region. “It sounded as if a plane crashed into my house,” said a woman in the Portland, Oregon area.

One death was reported in Seattle, where a woman drowned after being trapped in a flooded basement; two traffic deaths in the region were attributed to falling trees.

Flights were canceled at both the Seattle-Tacoma and Portland airports due to the high winds. Floating bridges in the Seattle area were temporarily closed for the same reason.

Power was lost to some of the passenger area at Seattle-Tacoma and the wind blew in some windows. Passengers were moved to other areas, said Bob Parker, a spokesman for the airport, because the wind and rain made the exposed area “very uncomfortable.”

At elevations above 1,000 feet, the storm was producing heavy snows, with as much as a foot of new snow expected to fall today on top of a foot deposited in recent days.

The harsh weather conditions further hampered efforts to rescue three climbers missing on Mount Hood in Oregon, eight days after departing on a planned two-day climbing trip.

Aircraft have been unable to fly in the region because of the harsh weather, and crews on the ground have been unable to reach the higher elevations of the mountain, where the climbers are believe to be stranded.

In addition, the gusty winds and new layers of snow on top of an already thick snow-pack are increasing the danger of avalanches, weather forecasters said.

The National Weather Service issued blizzard and avalanche warnings for the higher elevations in both states, and high-wind and winter storm warnings for lower levels. A high-surf warning was issued for coastal areas, and a hazardous seas advisory for small boats.

The immense storm is expected to move inland to the north and east today, easing conditions in Washington State, Oregon and northern California. Rescuers are expected to try once again sometime on Saturday to reach the stranded men, one of whom is believed to be above 10,000 feet on the 11,239-foot mountain.

One of the missing men, Kelly James, had a conversation on his cell phone on Tuesday, but has not responded since then to signals sent every five minutes by engineers for the service he uses, T-Mobile.

    Blizzard Lashes Pacific Northwest, NYT, 15.12.2006, http://www.nytimes.com/2006/12/15/us/15cnd-storm.html?hp&ex=1166245200&en=ee1571187ebc7574&ei=5094&partner=homepage

First big winter storm halts planes, brings snow to Midwest and high winds to East

Updated 12/2/2006 1:08 AM ET
By Christopher Leonard, Associated Press Writer
USA Today

ST. LOUIS — The season's first big wintry storm blustered across the Midwest on Friday and closed in on the Northeast, leaving hundreds of thousands without electricity, stranding airline passengers and collapsing the roof of a nursing home with its wet, heavy snow.

The storm was blamed for at least nine deaths as it cut a swath from Texas to the Northeast, bringing snow, freezing rain and high winds, and closing schools and businesses.

The East Coast saw rain, thundershowers and high winds late Friday, with damaging gusts up to 55 mph expected as the cold front passed.

The roof collapsed into a nursing home cafeteria in Peoria on Friday night but caused no serious injuries, said fire Division Chief Greg Walters. Four people were taken to a hospital with cuts and bruises.

"The building administrator was there, and he heard a snap," Walters said. "He started seeing a collapse and got people moving out of there. His attention to detail may have saved some lives."

Ameren Corp. reported about 520,000 customers without power in Illinois and Missouri on Friday after ice and snow blanketed much of the state, snapping power lines and tree limbs. Ron Zdellar, Ameren vice president, said it would be days before all customers had electricity again.

"We know a lot of people are going to have to leave their homes, probably over the next few days," he said.

Missouri Gov. Matt Blunt declared a state of emergency and deployed National Guard members to help people in need. More than 200 were to be in the St. Louis area by Saturday morning, and 500 others were available if needed around the state. Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius declared a disaster emergency for 27 counties.

Shelters and warm-up centers opened in the St. Louis area, with temperatures expected to drop into the teens.

Two St. Louis police officers escorted 89-year-old Francis Oldani on Friday afternoon to a warming center, where volunteers offered lunch and hot chocolate. Oldani said she lost power Thursday night and called police in desperation Friday morning.

"It was miserable; I was so cold," Oldani said. "I just had to put on as many clothes as I could. I put a blanket around me and sat in a chair. I guess these people will provide for me. I really don't know."

The fire chief in the St. Louis suburb of Affton said an 87-year-old woman died early Friday in a house fire that started after an ice-laden tree limb fell on a power line, causing the fuse box in her basement to short-circuit.

In Chicago, where snow covered street signs and commuters walked gingerly along slushy streets, forecasters warned residents to be careful digging out of what they called "heart attack snow" — difficult to shovel because it is so heavy.

A man older than 60 died after shoveling snow in Racine, Wis., which got up to got 14.5 inches, officials said. And in Fond du Lac, a 70-year-old man died after shoveling.

Chicago received 6.2 inches, and many areas of Illinois, Wisconsin and Missouri got more than a foot.

As the storm moved east, strong showers and gusty winds caused even more people to lose power. In Michigan's Lower Peninsula, more than 100,000 customers lost power at some point during the day, though many had power restored. In Tennessee, West Virginia, Kentucky and Indiana, a total of at least 142,000 customers lost power at some point.

In central Kentucky, winds toppled a church steeple. The Forks of Dix River Baptist Church, near Lancaster, was damaged when the steeple and a "big, big chunk of the roof" was torn off, said the Rev. Jerry Browning.

In New York, severe thunderstorms and high winds toppled trees and knocked out power to at least 65,500 customers outside the New York City area. One person died after a tree fell onto a house in Ellenville.

Trees fell on cars in Niagara County, causing minor injuries, the sheriff's office said.

The combination of sleet, rain and snow made driving treacherous in many areas. In Milwaukee, the slippery roads were too much for vehicle after vehicle — even a snowplow overturned.

Near Paducah, Texas, a sport-utility vehicle carrying a high school girls' basketball team slid on an icy patch and tipped over, killing a 14-year-old player and injuring six teammates and the coach.

In Missouri, where two storm-related fatal accidents occurred Thursday, officials closed 50 miles of Interstate 70 for several hours Friday morning. Icy roads were also a factor in at least two other traffic deaths, one in Kansas on Wednesday and one Thursday in Oklahoma.

Scores of cars and semitrailer trucks skidded off a 70-mile stretch of Interstate 80 in Illinois, bringing traffic to a standstill. The state used snowmobiles Friday evening to take food to motorists, Department of Transportation spokesman Mike Claffey said.

The nasty weather caused problems for travelers nationwide. United Airlines canceled 821 flights as of late afternoon Friday, according to company spokeswoman Robin Urbanski.

Mike Crabb of Orlando, was supposed to fly out of Chicago's O'Hare Airport after attending a Radiological Society of North America meeting. But he gave up and used his laptop computer to buy a one-way ticket out of Midway Airport.

"Right now you just got to do what you got to do," said Crabb, who was celebrating his 28th birthday. "I understand things like this happen."

Contributing: Also contributing reporting were Associated Press writers Don Babwin, Deanna Bellandi, Jan Dennis and Chris Wills in Illinois; Rochelle Hines in Oklahoma City; Dave Skretta in Kansas City, Mo., and Dinesh Ramde in Milwaukee.

    First big winter storm halts planes, brings snow to Midwest and high winds to East, UT, 2.12.2006, http://www.usatoday.com/weather/stormcenter/2006-11-30-midwest-storm_x.htm

Snow and Ice Storm Moves Through Midwest

December 1, 2006
The New York Times
By JOHN HOLUSHA

A major ice and snow storm moved through the Midwest today, snarling air travel, making roads treacherous and cutting power to tens of thousands of homes as ice-laden tree limbs brought down power lines.

Hundreds of flights out of Chicago’s O’Hare airport were cancelled Thursday afternoon and were not expected to resume before noon today. The Federal Aviation Administration reported that flights headed for O’Hare were being delayed by an average of four hours and 19 minutes.

A FedEx cargo plane arriving at O’Hare this morning slid off the only open runway, causing no injuries but disrupting operations as crews worked to pull the jet from the mud, the Associated Press reported.

Sleet, snow and freezing rain forced the cancellation of over 200 flights out of Dallas-Fort Worth airport on Thursday and most flights out of Lambert-St. Louis were cancelled as well.

The delays extended to the east as well, with arrival delays to LaGuardia Airport of 1 hour and 48 minutes and Philadelphia airport reporting an average delay of 1 hour and 22 minutes.

The storm was expected to dump as much a foot of snow in Chicago and parts of Illinois after unseasonably warm weather earlier in the week. Blustery winds and rainfall were expected later today in the New York region in advance of a forecast steep drop in temperature.

Some 350,000 customers were reported to be without power today in eastern Missouri and southwestern Illinois as a result of icy rain coating power lines and tree limbs.

    Snow and Ice Storm Moves Through Midwest, NYT, 1.12.2006, http://www.nytimes.com/2006/12/01/us/02stormcnd.html?hp&ex=1165035600&en=66e9482583594670&ei=5094&partner=homepage

Seattle Journal

City That Takes Rain in Stride Nears Record

November 27, 2006
The New York Times
By WILLIAM YARDLEY

SEATTLE, Nov. 26 — For all the fame of the rain in this soggy city, conversations about climate often lead to local defensiveness: Seattle, which averages about 38 inches of rain annually, is far from the country’s wettest big city. Atlanta, Boston, Houston, Miami and New York are just some of the others that get more rain.

The rain here has made its name mostly through persistence, not volume. It plays bass, not lead guitar. And not every complaint about precipitation involves wanting less.

“I hate mist, because mist is just a tease,” said Alex Sloan, 17, waiting Saturday night for the Number 28 bus to take her home to the Broadview neighborhood after shopping downtown. “Thicker rain, I love it.”

Her friend Lani Farley, 16, chimed in, “Yeah.”

“If you’re going to get wet,” Lani said, “you might as well get soaking wet.”

This month, Alex and Lani got their wish.

At midday on Sunday, near the end of what is typically Seattle’s rainiest month, the official rain gauge at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport was well past 14 inches and rising, having mocked the November average of about 5.9 inches and smeared the previous single-month record documented at the airport, 12.92 inches, set in January 1953.

Storm after storm has slammed the Puget Sound region, riding warm air from southern parts of the Pacific Ocean.

Now some wonder whether the weather here might deliver the single-month record for rainfall since such data was first collected back in the 19th century. The mark, 15.33 inches, was set in December 1933, when the official rain gauge was downtown; the official gauge was moved to the airport in 1945.

With just four days left in November and colder, drier air in the forecast — snow, a rarity, dusted parts of the city on Sunday — chances for setting the record have diminished, but hope remains.

“The way I look at it, we might as well go all the way,” said Carl Cerniglia, a meteorologist at the National Weather Service in Seattle.

An inconsistency muddles the comparison of past and present puddles: usually, more rain falls at the airport than downtown. According to a National Weather Service calculation of data from one 27-year period, the airport received about 11 percent more rain than the downtown spot. So when 15.33 inches fell downtown in December 1933, the airport might well have received 17 inches.

One potential reason for the disparity is that the grand, damp Olympic Mountains to the west, home to a temperate rain forest, create a “rain shadow” that stops plenty of moisture before it can arrive in the city. The airport, however, is about 14 miles south of downtown.

This month’s rains have done extensive damage to a region accustomed to ducking but enduring. Flooding in November killed at least three people in the Northwest, destroyed or damaged hundreds of homes, forced evacuations, ruined farms and washed out roads.

Mount Rainier National Park, about 50 miles southeast of the Seattle region, has been closed since flooding damaged park roads and buildings and swept away a campground, Sunshine Point. Nearly 18 inches of rain fell in one 36-hour period, according to park officials, far more than hit Seattle.

“The mountain,” as Seattleites reverently refer to Mount Rainier — is pronounced “ray-near.” It is named for Rear Admiral Peter Rainier of the British Royal Navy, not the climate surrounding its 14,410-foot peak.

The weather is a constant topic of conversation, even among those who insist the rain “doesn’t bother me,” but this month’s drama has stirred discussions about long-term implications. Some models of global warming predict more extreme wet weather in future Northwest winters, and more extreme dry periods in the summer. Just as November has seen record-breaking rain, this summer was unusually dry and hot.

Six of the 10 wettest Novembers on record in Seattle have occurred in the last 16 years, according to the National Weather Service.

“We can’t attribute this particular rainy month to climate change,” said Nick Bond, a research meteorologist at the Joint Institute for the Study of the Atmosphere and Ocean at the University of Washington. “But there is emerging evidence that this sort of thing is liable to happen more often in the future, so maybe it is a harbinger. We just don’t know.”

Mr. Bond noted that the current mess may have upsides, at least in the short term. A moist winter, he said, could deepen the snow pack in the Cascade Mountains, improving the skiing, the water supply and the power generation from rivers, and potentially smoothing the journey of salmon smolts that will ride the rivers to sea next year. Then again, the area is entering an El Niño weather pattern, potentially reducing precipitation this winter.

Sunshine is abundant in the summer, a fact that is best kept a secret, locals commonly quip, to prevent even more outsiders from moving here.

In the chorus of his song, “The View From Home,” Bryan Bowers, an Autoharpist who began his career as a street musician in Seattle, sings:

“Out on the road we tell all the turkeys, yes, it’s always raining and the sun never shines.

“But all the natives know when the mountain lifts her skirts, the view from home will flat out melt your mind.”

On Saturday, after a Thanksgiving holiday that treated out-of-town visitors to the appropriate, off-putting dreariness, a “sun break” silhouetted Mount Rainier and later illuminated the snow-capped Olympics. The fat clouds that loomed did not keep hundreds of families from downtown for the Seattle Kids Marathon.

In a city where the population suffers disproportionately from Seasonal Affective Disorder, the rain is sometimes blamed, but the main culprit is winter darkness, not wetness, experts say. The dampness, a secondary cause, drives people indoors, away from sunlight. Exposure to natural light, even if it is filtered by clouds and moisture, is crucial.

“The main thing,” said David H. Avery, a professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at the University of Washington who has spent 15 years studying light therapy and winter depression, “is to try to get outside in spite of the rain.”

Mr. Bond, who commutes to work by bicycle every day regardless of the weather, said he has noticed a change in outlook this month among some of his friends.

“They’re just kind of complaining about how heavy the rains have been, even people who have been here a while,” he said. “I’m not too sympathetic. I like the rain. You can become a shut-in or something or you can just embrace it, almost.”

    City That Takes Rain in Stride Nears Record, NYT, 27.11.2006, http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/27/us/27rain.html?hp&ex=1164690000&en=0e3f8ac0d3eaa20f&ei=5094&partner=homepage

Storms in Southeast Kill 12 and Injure Dozens

November 17, 2006
The New York Times
By PATRICK GANNON and BRENDA GOODMAN

WILMINGTON, N.C., Nov. 16 — A volatile storm system killed at least 12 people and injured dozens more across the Southeast before heading north, prompting forecasters to issue flash-flood warnings from Virginia to Maine.

Powerful winds and tornadoes ripped off roofs, demolished houses, tossed trucks and toppled trees in six states, leaving at least 13,500 people without power. Forecasters said that though the storms were weakening, coastal and low-lying areas farther up the coast should look out for heavy rains, flooding and downed power lines through Friday morning.

One tornado that hit a mobile home park near Riegelwood, N.C., around 7 a.m. Thursday was responsible for many of the fatalities. “It appears that the tornado touched down in a mobile home area,” said Gov. Michael F. Easley of North Carolina in an afternoon news conference. It damaged 30 to 40 houses, skipped over a highway and leveled some brick houses on the other side, Mr. Easley said.

Alton Edwards, the retired chief of Acme-Delco Riegelwood Fire and Rescue, responded to the scene and likened it to a war zone. “It was total devastation,” he said. “It looked almost like the mobile homes had exploded from the ground up.”

That twister killed at least eight adults and children there and sent about 20 more people to the hospital, Mr. Easley said.

Mr. Edwards said he had seen an elderly couple lying in a yard, 150 feet from their overturned trailer, and found a member of the fire and rescue unit who had been killed.

Lillian Graham, 63, of the East Arcadia Fire Department, arrived at the scene early in the morning and saw the tornado move along its path, apparently throwing people out of their trailers.

“We saw trees had been broken like sticks,” Ms. Graham said in a telephone interview. “The tornado was above ground, it went over a brick house and two or three trailers and hit the ground. It then picked up one trailer, took it over the top of trees for about 30 or 40 feet or more, slammed it down and broke it into pieces.”

She said bodies were found in front of patches of earth where a trailer had been.

“Another worker came out of the woods and said: ‘There are bodies all over here. I can’t take it. I am leaving,’ ” she said.

Thirty families are now housed in a local shelter, Mr. Easley said. The major highway through the area, North Carolina 87, was closed because it was blocked by debris.

Ron Steve, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service, said the service was unlikely to be able to measure the strength of the Riegelwood tornado until Friday.

But the twister was forceful enough to send Martin Brown, 39, of Riegelwood, diving under a kitchen table when he saw it barreling toward his house.

“It was nothing but a big old brown twister coming straight at me,” Mr. Brown said. “I thought I was going to die.”

He watched as his refrigerator was blown away, and the brick and cinderblock walls of his house started to crumble. One wall fell against the table, shielding him from flying debris. He survived with only scratches and cuts.

Some Riegelwood residents said that they were awakened early by what sounded like a hurricane.

“The rain was pounding and beating on the windows of the house,” said Marjorie Graham, 46, a teacher. “The wind was strong. When I looked out the window, I could see the leaves and branches breaking off the trees.”

Ms. Graham said her aunt had been at the site helping to pull bodies from the wreckage, but she became so overwhelmed that she eventually left.

“That one came up out of nowhere,” Ms. Graham said of the storm. “They had forecast heavy rain, but we didn’t realize the wind was going to be so severe.”

The tornado was one of at least a dozen generated by a pair of storm systems with fierce winds and torrential rainfall that moved across the Southeast.

Two people were killed in storm-related auto accidents in North Carolina. In South Carolina, a utility worker checking power lines was electrocuted Thursday, and another man was killed by a tornado that destroyed his mobile home near Greensburg, La., early Wednesday morning.

The storm that swept through North Carolina was part of that system, Tom Bradshaw, a meteorologist with the Southern Regional Headquarters of the National Weather Service in Fort Worth, said.

Kip Godwin, chairman of the Columbus County Board of Commissioners in North Carolina, said he had heard a report from an emergency worker about a child found in a ditch, still alive, who was taken to a local hospital.

“I don’t think these folks had very much warning,” Mr. Godwin said.

Patrick Gannon reported from Wilmington, N.C., and Brenda Goodman from Atlanta. Christine Hauser contributed reporting from New York.

    Storms in Southeast Kill 12 and Injure Dozens, NYT, 17.11.2006, http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/17/us/17tornadoes.html

Deadly Storms Flood Northeast States

November 17, 2006
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Filed at 10:09 a.m. ET
The New York Times

RIEGELWOOD, N.C. (AP) -- Search teams worked their way through the rubble of dozens of flattened homes and planned to send divers to check a pond Friday after a tornado killed eight people in this small riverside town, the area hardest hit by a devastating storm system that swept through the northeast overnight.

The deadly storms left a path of destruction from Louisiana to Maine, killing 12 people, and knocking out power and flooding streets Thursday in the Mid-Atlantic region and the Northeast.

In Maryland and New York, hundreds of people had to be rescued from homes and cars caught in flash flooding.

The tornado that hit Riegelwood injured dozens of people, including four children who remained hospitalized in critical condition, and left about 100 people homeless, officials said.

All the area's residents were believed to have been accounted for Friday, but Columbus County's water search team still planned to check a nearby pond for any additional victims, Sheriff Chris Batten said.

Residents, meanwhile, were getting a chance to retrieve whatever valuables they can salvage from devastated homes.

''It will take years for these people to recover, get back on their feet and rebuild,'' Batten said.

As the storms moved northward with heavy rain, officials in Broome County near the Pennsylvania line rescued more than 200 residents from cars caught in flooding and from homes as water approach front doors and poured into basements.

One man clung to a tree as his car was swept away by flood water, county spokeswoman Darcy Fauci said. Sections of Interstate 88 east of Binghamton remained closed by mudslides Friday.

''Lots of roads are washed out, several areas of the city are shut down and impassible,'' said Lt. John Shea of the Binghamton Police Department. ''But, as we speak, things are improving because the rain has stopped.''

Dozens of schools in Broome, Chenango and Delaware counties were closed Friday, many because of impassable roads.

Three freight cars derailed in Bowie, Md., and investigators were trying to determine whether the storm caused the wreck, CSX Corp. spokesman Gary Sease said. The empty coal hoppers jumped off tracks shared with Amtrak trains, bringing down some power lines. No one was injured.

Amtrak service was delayed between Baltimore and Washington on Friday, while a commuter line serving the cities was suspended for the day.

Most of the dead in Riegelwood were found within 200 yards of where the tornado touched down, Batten said.

''We assume they were literally consumed by the tornado,'' he said.

The community on the Cape Fear River, about 20 miles west of Wilmington, has no tornado sirens.

''There was no warning. There was no time,'' said Cissy Kennedy, a radiologist's assistant who lives in the area. ''It just came out from nowhere.''

The storms began Wednesday, unleashing tornadoes and winds that overturned mobile homes and tractor-trailers, uprooted trees and knocked down power lines across the South.

In Louisiana, a man died Wednesday when a tornado struck his home. In South Carolina, a utility worker checking power lines Thursday during the storm was electrocuted. Two people died in car crashes in North Carolina as heavy rain pounded the state.

------

Associated Press Writer Mike Baker in Raleigh contributed to this report.

    Deadly Storms Flood Northeast States, NYT, 17.11.2006, http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/us/AP-Eastern-Storms.html

At least four dead as severe storms pound Texas and Louisiana

Updated 10/16/2006 9:47 PM ET
The Associated Press
USA Today

Unrelenting rains in Southeast Texas turned highway feeder roads into rivers, yards into moats and cars into death traps on Monday.

The skies teased residents with brief, sporadic cessations of the downpours, but driving rain characterized most of the overcast, soppy day.

Some people returning to work from the weekend got stranded in their commute. LBJ Hospital sent vans to a nearby Whataburger to pick up two dozen employees who were unable to get past flooded streets. Other people gave up on their stalled cars and gave public transportation a shot.

For at least four people, the storms were fatal.

Houston residents Patricia Gutierrez, 36, and her daughter Melissa Rojas, 16, died in their submerged sport-utility vehicle in an underpass where 8 to 12 feet of water accumulated near Interstate 45. Police found them at 9 a.m. as water receded; the women had been there for at least four hours.

A 56-year-old man was also found in his car, this time on a state road along the Brazoria-Fort Bend county line, southwest of Houston.

Water exerts such strong pressure on submerged vehicles, said Sgt. P.E. Ogden III with the Houston Police Department, that "Arnold Schwarzenegger couldn't get out."

Many people underestimate the danger of floodwaters, Ogden said. "A Hummer couldn't get through... It's not worth the chance."

As much as 10 inches of rain fell in the Houston-Galveston area, closing numerous roads and some public school systems. Fort Bend County roads were closed and widespread flooding was reported.

The deluge was expected to end early Tuesday morning, according to the National Weather Service.

In other weather-related accidents, a 54-year-old woman driving a Ford car was killed when a Dodge pickup lost control on a slick farm road in Brazoria County and ran into her head-on, said Texas Department of Public Safety Trooper E.J. King Jr., the Houston Chronicle reported. The truck driver was taken to a local hospital by family members, King said.

Nine members of one family were injured when their SUV skidded off rain-slicked Interstate 10 and hit a guardrail on their way home from a family gathering, said Harris County emergency management spokeswoman Gloria Roemer.

Harris County Sgt. Dana Wolfe said none of the injuries were life-threatening. Wolfe said one of the victims was a 1-month-old baby, who was not secured in a car seat and was ejected.

In Iowa Colony, south of Houston, the one-story brick house of Charles and Lee Anna Smith was an island amid muddy waters. Seats on a swing set in the backyard hovered just above the water and the couple's grandson was home from middle school.

The Smiths have been monitoring the water since the storms began Sunday, watching as their already saturated yard absorbed another 5-6 inches of driving rain through the night. The downpour finally stopped about 5 a.m., though bands of thunderstorms continued to pummel the Houston area throughout the day Monday.

"It's scary looking at all this water like this. It concerns me a whole lot," Charles Smith said as he looked at his submerged front yard. "If we get any more rain, it will be in my house."

In Hitchcock, near the Gulf Coast, a tornado tore the roof off a mobile home, but none of the six people inside were injured. Two other mobile homes sustained minor damage.

Galveston County emergency management coordinator John Simpson said the county had "sporadic" power outages, most of them near the trailer park struck by the high winds.

Simpson said dump trucks were blocking exits off I-45, preventing motorists from driving into flooded feeder roads.

"Things are pretty good," Simpson said. "We're hoping the rain stays away. Our creeks are going down, but that will be a long, gradual process."

Floodwaters were receding in Harris County by late morning. No power outages were reported, said Keith Lejeune, alert manager of the county's EMS. The city's two major airports experienced some delays.

Parts of Interstates 10 and 45 were shut down around Houston, and the University of Houston and several other schools were closed. Twenty bayous overflowed their banks, but county officials said no evacuations were ordered.

The storm spread as far east as the Louisiana line, where a tornado struck near the Jefferson County town of China, said emergency management spokeswoman Darlene Koch. The National Weather Service confirmed the tornado, and Koch said five mobile homes and two houses were destroyed. No injuries were reported.

Another tornado ripped through northern Newton County on the Texas-Louisiana line.

Koch said the Jefferson County storm brought 40-mph wind gusts and knocked over trees, causing some power outages in east Texas.

In the Texas Coastal Bend, as many as 20 homes were damaged as a suspected tornado roared through the small Lavaca Bay community of Magnolia Beach before daybreak Monday, Calhoun County Sheriff B.B. Browning said.

That was up to one fifth of the homes in the town 75 miles northeast of Corpus Christi, he said. The only injury reported was a cut thumb a man suffered from flying glass, he said.

    At least four dead as severe storms pound Texas and Louisiana, UT, 17.10.2006, http://www.usatoday.com/weather/stormcenter/2006-10-16-texas-flooding_x.htm

Flood watch follows record N.Y. snowfall

Updated 10/15/2006 9:10 AM ET
AP
USA Today

BUFFALO (AP) — A flood watch was posted Saturday as the region's record snowfall melted, and around 325,000 homes and businesses still had no electricity.

More than a day after nearly two feet of snow buried western New York, travel bans were lifted Saturday, the airport was open, stores reopened and the evening's Buffalo Sabres game was on.

However, National Grid still had more than 229,000 customers without power at noon Saturday and New York State Electric & Gas reported 96,500 customers still in the dark.

"This is going to be the worst (outage) we ever had in western New York," said National Grid spokesman Steve Brady.

Mike Burke, 52, had to go to a restaurant to warm up.

"I spent the night on the couch, dressed a little more heavily than normal — a sweat shirt, street clothes, with a quilt," Burke said at Daisies restaurant in Lackawanna. "I was just happy that the temperature wasn't down below freezing."

Because temperatures were in the 40s, the snow was rapidly melting and the National Weather Service posted a flood watch for the area.

Buffalo's two snowiest October days on record claimed three lives, two in traffic accidents and one person killed by a falling tree limb while shoveling snow.

Health officials said hospitals had seen dozens of cases of people sickened by carbon monoxide produced by improperly vented stoves and generators.

Gov. George Pataki and members of the state's congressional delegation asked President Bush to declare a federal emergency in four western counties.

    Flood watch follows record N.Y. snowfall, UT, 15.10.2006, http://www.usatoday.com/weather/stormcenter/2006-10-14-buffalo-snow_x.htm

9 dead in storms hitting Midwest, South

Updated 9/24/2006 12:44 AM ET
AP
USA Today

LOUISVILLE (AP) — High winds, heavy rain and tornadoes pounded parts of the Midwest and the South, leaving at least nine people dead, stranding people in cars, forcing others from their homes and leaving thousands without power.

The death toll in Kentucky on Saturday reached eight, including a father and his 1-year-old daughter in a truck that skidded into floodwaters. In Arkansas, a woman whose boat was struck by lightning died and authorities were searching for two missing people.

Officials urged people to stay off the roads as forecasters warned of more stormy weather to come.

"We have a lot of people driving past the high water signs and they are getting stuck," Kentucky State Police dispatcher John Reynolds said. "We are telling people if they can avoid going out, they ought to."

The National Weather Service reported that areas of Kentucky received at least 5 inches of rain, with isolated regions getting close to 10 inches. Over 24 hours, sections of Vanderburgh County, Indiana, received 4-6 inches, and parts of northeast Arkansas and southeast Missouri received more than 10 inches of rain, the weather service reported.

Flooding forced more than 100 people to flee an apartment complex for shelter at a nearby high school, officials said. Portions of Interstate 64 just east of Louisville were closed in both directions due to standing water. Meanwhile, the storms left thousands of Kentuckians without power.

Maggie DiPietro, 58, said she woke up shortly after 2 a.m. Saturday and found about 2 inches of water in her home.

"By the time the police came and rescued me, it was almost up to my calves," she said.

The rain dampened a music and arts festival in central Kentucky as waters rose to at least 6 feet in some areas, forcing the evacuation of about 200 people and covering about 30 vehicles at the farmstead just north of Harrodsburg in Mercer County.

The American Red Cross and six county emergency agencies used boats and school buses Saturday afternoon to transport attendees at the Terrapin Hill Harvest Festival to a shelter at Lion's Park in Harrodsburg, said Ruthann Phillips of the Red Cross.

"It was almost Katrina-like pretty much," said Chester Craig, a lieutenant with the Mercer Central Volunteer Fire Department. "There were vehicles underwater and people were walking around in a daze."

Elsewhere, a tornado touched down Saturday night in Kent County in western Michigan, peeling off the roof of a barn, overturning vehicles and damaging businesses, according to the weather service. No injuries were reported.

In central and eastern Missouri, hundreds were without homes or power a day after a storm churned up about 10 tornadoes and drenched some parts of the state with as much as a foot of rain. Nearly 400 structures were damaged or destroyed and at least 10 people were injured, said Susie Stonner, a state emergency management spokeswoman.

In Arkansas, four northern counties declared emergencies Saturday after severe flooding. Emily Taylor, a state emergency management spokeswoman, said a tornado touched down five miles outside Ash Flat, damaging 12 homes and destroying two others. Two people were taken to a hospital for minor injuries.

In northwest Tennessee, about 300 people returned home Saturday after they were evacuated Friday night from a trailer park in Obion County when water from a nearby creek began to overflow, said Jeremy Heidt, a spokesman for the Tennessee Emergency Management Agency. No tornado touchdowns, major damage or injuries were reported, he said.

In Evansville, Ind., Vanderburgh County emergency management director Sherman Greer said his agency had given away about 550 sandbags in 90 minutes Saturday, many of them to residents of Evansville's southeast side who were dealing with flooding for the second time in two weeks.

"These people are going through round two right now," Greer said. "Just about the time they got their carpet dried out ... they're going through it again."

    9 dead in storms hitting Midwest, South, UT, 24.9.2006, http://www.usatoday.com/weather/stormcenter/2006-09-23-midwest-storms_x.htm

Storm Soaks Baja California, Destroying Homes and Roads

September 4, 2006
The New York Times
By ELISABETH MALKIN

SAN JOSÉ DEL CABO, Mexico, Sept. 3 — Heavy rains destroyed homes, killed livestock and washed out roads through the middle of Baja California, officials said Sunday, as Tropical Storm John continued its advance up the peninsula.

Nobody had died from the storm, but many were left homeless in the northern part of the state of Baja California Sur, which covers the southern portion of the peninsula.

“It has rained more than ever before in our history,” said José Gajón de la Toba, the state’s civil protection director.

Mr. Gajón said it was still too early to estimate how many people had lost their homes in the storm. Many homes made of plywood and tar paper were flooded or destroyed. Crops were destroyed and cows, goats and sheep died in the storm, he said.

President Vicente Fox was expected to visit the region and tour La Paz, a city of 150,000 where the storm did serious damage. Navy helicopters were to fly food and water to the most isolated regions.

The state’s highways were spared but local roads were “in pieces,” cutting off small communities, Mr. Gajón said. The hardest-hit regions of the state were the counties of Loreto, Comondú, and Mulegé.

The storm approached the peninsula from the southwest on Thursday as the strongest hurricane to threaten the region in recent memory. It spared the coastal resort of Los Cabos on Friday as it shifted to the east and its winds weakened as it traveled up the peninsula.

Much of the state’s telephone communication was cut off Sunday because the storm had damaged lines to the rest of the country. Electricity service and cellular phone service were out in much of the state.

By Sunday night, the storm was still dumping rain on the arid peninsula and threatening flash floods. The United States’ national hurricane center in Miami said that up to 6 inches of rain was expected, with as much as 18 inches in some places.

The storm was downgraded to a tropical depression on Sunday evening. By 8 p.m., centered 80 miles northwest of Santa Rosalía, its strongest winds had dissipated to 35 miles an hour. Forecasters said it would continue to move north along the east coast of Baja, bringing heavy rains to northern Baja and Southern California.

The airport serving Los Cabos reopened Saturday and was jammed with tourists on Sunday trying to catch flights out of the beach towns, which remained shuttered.

While the storm spoiled some vacations, it destroyed the homes of many employees at large hotels.

The mayor of Los Cabos, Luis Armando Díaz, told The Associated Press that the hurricane had damaged homes and cut off the highway between his town and La Paz.

The authorities reported flood waters had swept one man away in a car on Saturday in La Paz, but he was found alive hours later, clinging to a branch in the middle of a stream.

James C. McKinley Jr. contributed reporting from Mexico City for this article.

    Storm Soaks Baja California, Destroying Homes and Roads, NYT, 4.9.2006, http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/04/world/americas/04mexico.html

Storm Blamed for 5 Deaths and Power Cuts

September 3, 2006
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
The New York Times

BALTIMORE, Sept. 2 (AP) — Disrupting the start of the Labor Day weekend, the remnants of Tropical Storm Ernesto drenched the Mid-Atlantic region, cut power to more than 400,000 customers and forced evacuations.

The storm was blamed for at least five deaths in Virginia and North Carolina, where it swirled ashore late Thursday as a tropical storm, a day after thunderstorms had already drenched the region. It weakened Friday to a tropical depression, meaning its sustained winds had fallen below 39 miles an hour.

Flash-flood watches were posted early Saturday for Pennsylvania, New Jersey and New York. Flood warnings were issued for Delaware, the District of Columbia, Maryland, North Carolina and Virginia. Many of the watches, including those in Pennsylvania and New Jersey, were lifted as the storm moved inland.

Eastern North Carolina got 8 to 12 inches of rain, while southeastern Virginia had up to a foot. Seven inches fell in Worcester County on the Eastern Shore of Maryland.

Sheriff’s deputies in St. Mary’s County, Md., evacuated about 30 residents of St. George Island, which juts into the Potomac River where the river meets the Chesapeake Bay. The county ordered the evacuation of all tidal areas, about 3,000 people.

Greg Gill, 36, waded through waist-deep water to leave the island. “It pushed me back and forth as I walked through it,” Mr. Gill said. “I was going to stay, but it just keep getting worse and worse.”

More than 200 homes were evacuated in Richmond, Va., and about a dozen people had to leave their homes in coastal Poquoson, which is still recovering from Hurricane Isabel in 2003. About 50 homes in Northumberland County on the Chesapeake Bay were also evacuated.

In Gloucester, Va., a husband and wife were crushed to death when a tree fell on their home, the county sheriff’s office said. The storm was also blamed for two traffic deaths in Virginia and one in North Carolina.

More than 460,000 customers were without power from North Carolina to New Jersey, with more than 200,000 of those in Virginia.

The governors of North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Virginia and West Virginia and the mayor of the District of Columbia each declared a state of emergency.

    Storm Blamed for 5 Deaths and Power Cuts, NYT, 3.9.2006, http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/03/us/03Ernesto.html?hp&ex=1157256000&en=a2c8edbed1427592&ei=5094&partner=homepage