A 12-year-old girl died Tuesday after falling into floodwaters near Flagstaff, Arizona, authorities said.

Shaelyn Wilson had gone to see runoff from a flash flood around 2 p.m., according to the Coconino Sheriff’s Department. A younger sister ran back to tell the father that Shaelyn had fallen into a wash.

The family searched the area near where the girl fell and several agencies also took part in the search, according to Kelli Most, administrative specialist with the sheriff’s department.

The girl was found about a third of a mile from where she went into the water, and her father performed CPR until paramedics arrived. She was pronounced dead at Flagstaff Medical Center.

A massive wildfire last month made the area susceptible to flooding, said Most. “There’s just no greenery there” to prevent runoff, she said. The blaze charred 15,000 acres.

Several small streams pushed over their banks, and flash floods were threatening homes, according to CNN affiliate KPHO.

via Arizona girl, 12, dies in flooding – CNN.com.

Port St. Joe – Single red flags were flying at St. Joseph State Park when a man, his son, and his brother-in-law waded into the waist deep water. A short time later, the man would be dead, and his brother in law hospitalized.

Although names are being held pending the family’s notification, the drowning happened around noon, shortly after a 53-year-old man, his 21-year-old son, and his 49-year-old brother in law waded into the surf. Although the trio was in waist deep water, they got caught up in a rip current, and were dragged away from the shore.

A beach goer noticed that they were in trouble, and called 911. Then other beach goers, park rangers, and DEP Police all responded, pulling the men to shore, where they began to perform CPR on the 53-year-old man. From the beach, he was transported to Sacred Heart Hospital Port St. Joe, where he was pronounced dead at 1:10 p.m.

The son was treated and released, the man’s brother in law was airlifted to Bay Medical Center in Panama City, where he’s listed in stable condition.

via Rip current costs a man his life in Gulf County.

MEXICO CITY, July 2 (Xinhua) — Civil Protection authorities in northern Mexican state Nuevo Leon raised the death toll from Alex to seven on Friday from four a day earlier, Mexican broadcasters reported.

Alex, which hit northeastern Mexico state Tamaulipas as a category two hurricane on Wednesday night, dumped heavy rains to four states including Tamaulipas, Nuevo Leon, Zacatecas and Jalisco.

The tropical storm is downgraded to a minor storm.

The total death toll in Mexico is now 13. Some 10 people died due to Alex’s destructive journey through Nicaragua, El Salvador and Nicaragua.

On Friday, Mexico’s Interior Ministry declared an emergency for 21 municipalities in Nuevo Leon, a move which frees funds from the National Disaster Fund managed by the ministry.

Rodolfo Navarrete, an economist at Vector Casa de Bolsa, told Xinhua that the disaster will have a clear economic impact for the nation as a whole.

“The hurricane will have an economic impact because Monterrey is practically paralysed,” Navarrete said. “It is going to reduce industrial production in July.”

The hurricane has destroyed bridges, caused oil slick and paralysed traffic in some regions. A group representing Monterrey business owners said that some 25,000 people did not show up for work on Friday.

Monterrey is Mexico’s most industrialized city and part of an area dedicated to manufacturing for export that spread across all of Mexico’s border states. Alongside central Mexican state Puebla, border states produce large volumes of vehicles for export to the United States, the nation’s northern neighbor.

The auto industry represents around 15 percent of Mexico’s gross domestic product.

via Death toll from Alex rises to 7 in northern Mexican state.

MONTERREY Mexico (Reuters) – Intense rain from Hurricane Alex shut down Mexico’s richest city, Monterrey, on Friday, as floods killed six people, swept away cars and swamped wealthy suburbs with mud and rocks.

More than a year’s worth of rain fell in three days from the first named Atlantic storm of the 2010 season, swelling dry river beds and destroying chunks of highway in the city, 125 miles (200 km) south of McAllen, Texas.

One woman was crushed to death by a mudslide as huge rocks from the surrounding mountains crashed down on roads.

“I thought we were going to die,” housewife Lesly Ramos told local radio as she surveyed her home filled with rocks and mud in a middle-class suburb.

The floods dragged away furniture from mansions in the San Pedro Garza Garcia suburb, Mexico’s wealthiest municipality, and buffalo were washed out of the city zoo.

Normally spared from hurricanes coming off the Gulf of Mexico, Monterrey was caught unprepared for the storm that came ashore as a Category 2 hurricane on Wednesday night after it killed 12 people in Central America but missed oil rigs in the Gulf.

The storm powered inland in Mexico, bringing up to 30 inches (80 cm) of rain in some areas of Monterrey.

“That is more than the accumulated amount of rain in the 365 days of the year,” said Jorge Camacho, director of rescue services in Nuevo Leon state, of which Monterrey is the capital.

Many businesses in the city, which has the highest per capita income in Mexico and is home to drinks giant Femsa and global cement maker Cemex, shuttered as authorities closed bridges over the Santa Catarina river, usually bone-dry but surging on Friday.

Tens of thousands of homes were without water and electricity on Friday and many huddled in shelters. Although the rain lessened, authorities were still on high alert.

via Six killed as Alex floods major Mexican city | World | Reuters.

Link

Mexico City, Mexico (CNN) — The death toll from heavy floods and mudslides in Mexico increased Tuesday to 41, a government agency announced.

Most of the deaths — 30 — have occurred in eastern Michoacan state, on the central Pacific coast. The state attorney general’s office released a list of the deceased Tuesday.

Another 12 people are missing after mudslides from two large hills, Michoacan Gov. Leonel Godoy said Tuesday.

The remaining 11 deaths resulted from a mudslide Saturday near the small town of Temascaltepec in neighboring Mexico state.

Interior Secretary Fernando Francisco Gomez Mont has declared a state of natural disaster for the Michoacan cities of Angangueo, Ocampo, Tiquicheo de Nicolas Romero, Tuxpan and Tuzantla. The declaration makes those cities eligible for money from the federal natural disaster fund.

The death toll in Michoacan had been 27 until three additional bodies were discovered Tuesday.

Godoy said officials are focusing on three tasks: searching for anyone who is alive, recovering bodies and removing boulders and downed trees. Officials are under pressure to act quickly, he said, because another cold front with more possible rain is expected within the next few days.

More than 3,500 Michoacan residents are homeless, the state government said on its Web site.

In addition to Michoacan and Mexico states, unusually heavy rain in the past week also flooded parts of Mexico City, the nation‘s capital.

Up to 37,000 people nationwide have been affected, government officials said.

On Sunday, Mexican President Felipe Calderon toured Valle de Chalco, another city in Mexico state on the eastern outskirts of the Mexico City metro area.

National Water Commission Director Jose Luis Luege said Tuesday that contaminated water from a sewage network there that overflowed Friday will continue to flood the town for at least another 48 hours. The break in the sewage pipe had been fixed, but it burst again.

Officials also built two dikes to contain the sewage but were unable to use them out of concern that they would burst under the intense pressure from the floodwaters, Luege said.

“It’s a very complicated operation,” he said.

More than 3,000 homes in Valle de Chalco were flooded.

Mexico state is bordered on the west by Michoacan and adjoinsMexico City on three sides — north, east and west.

Link

Death toll in El Salvador storms rises to 192

SAN SALVADOR, El Salvador — Salvadoran authorities say at least 192 people were killed by floods and landslides that swept through the country last week.

El Salvador’s Civil Protection agency says in a statement that 89 of the victims were killed in the state of San Vicente, where days of heavy rains caused mud and boulders to sweep down the side of the Chichontepec volcano before dawn a week ago.

The agency said Sunday that dozens more remain missing. It says that more than 14,000 Salvadoran have been affected by the floods and mudslides that were indirectly linked to Hurricane Ida’s passage through the region.

Link

274 in one week alone.

Alaska rocked by earthquakes, 274 in past week

According to a report by the U.S. Geological Survey, Alaska has had 274 earthquakes in the past week. A magnitude 5.4 earthquake rocked Southern Alaska at 11:28 a.m. Alaska Time Zone on June 22, 2009. This would be 3:28 p.m. in Eastern Time Zone and 12: 28 p.m. in Pacific Time Zone. The earthquake was felt in Skwentna, Alaska; Willow, Alaska; Susitna, Alaska; and Anchorage Alaska. An official statement from the West Coast and Alaska Tsunami Warning Center issued at 11:20 a.m. Alaska Time, on June 22, 2009 stated that a tsunami would not be generated as a result from the earthquake. However additional studies and surveys will be conducted by the United States Geological Survey to determine the earthquakes effects, and tsunami risks.

Aftershocks include an M2.1 earthquake that was felt at 12:18 Alaska Time Zone, or 4:18 Eastern Time in the same regions of Skwentna, Willow, Susitna, and Anchorage, Alaska. It is recommended that all those who live in regions affected by earthquakes have a survival kit prepared and are ready to take shelter as needed. Here is a free guide that teaches how to prepare for an earthquake in Alaska. It is in pdf format and 27 pages. To download the Alaska Earthquake Survival Guide, right click the link and choose “save target as” or “save link as”. You may also click the link to read the earthquake survival guide online.

USGS Map of Earthquakes: Alaska Region

Link

4 dead as heavy storms push through Midwest

By JIM SALTER – 9 hours ago

ST. LOUIS (AP) — Thunderstorms packing winds gusting to 120 mph pounded parts of the Midwest on Friday, leaving four people dead, collapsing a church and knocking out power to thousands, authorities said.

Two people were killed near Poplar Bluff, Mo., when wind knocked a tree onto their car. In Dallas County, a man in his 70s had a fatal heart attack after he and his wife were sucked from their home and thrown into a field 75 to 100 feet away, said county emergency management director Larry Highfill.

The wife was taken to a Springfield hospital. Her condition wasn’t immediately known.

A 54-year-old woman was killed in southeast Kansas when the mobile home she was in was blown off its foundation. Wilson County emergency management spokeswoman Cassandra Edson said it appears the mobile home was “wrapped around a tree.”

Wind in the area reached 120 mph, destroying the New Albany United Methodist Church, the town’s post office and at least one home, authorities said. Major damage also was reported to a high school in Cherokee, Kan.

National Weather Service offices in Springfield, Mo., and St. Louis received multiple reports of tornadoes from one end of Missouri to the other, mostly south of Interstate 44. The weather service sent out teams to determine if tornadoes had touched down.

Many counties reported wind of 80 mph and higher. Several people were hurt, mostly when wind damaged their homes or businesses, but a few from flash floods.

Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon declared a state of emergency.

“My primary concern is the safety of Missourians and this executive order makes state agency resources available to help communities respond to the storms,” Nixon said.

The storm system ransacked southern Illinois as well, peeling siding and roofs off homes and other buildings, blowing out car windows and tearing up trailer parks. About 52,000 Ameren customers were without power around 3:30 p.m., according to the utility company’s Web site.

A truck driver who had to be extricated from an overturned semitrailer was in serious condition after a “major trauma,” said Rosslynd Rice, a spokeswoman for Southern Illinois Healthcare.

About six other patients with minor injuries were being treated at Memorial Hospital of Carbondale, she said.

“It tore the hell out of things,” said Calvin Brown at the Cherry Street Pub in Herrin, a town of about 11,000 residents east of Carbondale. “It was wicked. I haven’t seen that in a long time.”

Carbondale Township Fire Capt. Mark Black said he wasn’t sure if a tornado touched down in his area but the “winds were just amazing. They were howling and the siding on the trailers was flying through the air and there was a pretty hard rain.”

Law enforcement agencies reported tornado touchdowns in the Jackson County community of Raddle and just south of Pinckneyville in Perry County, National Weather Service meteorologist Amy Seeley said.

Seeley said the strong line of thunderstorms began moving through the region Friday morning. Wind gusts in the Carbondale area reached 100 mph around 1:30 p.m., and sustained winds were as high as 90 mph.

Carbondale resident Eric Fidler said he rode out the storm in a basement room with his wife, 22-month-old daughter and their dog.

When they emerged, dozens of large, old trees had been snapped throughout his neighborhood — including an old oak blocking his front door — but there was little damage to homes. Even the cushions on his patio furniture were undisturbed.

“I was talking to a neighbor and saying, ‘This is just incredible. Everywhere I look, there are enormous trees down, but it missed everybody’s house,’” said Fidler, who walked a mile to the hardware store for a chain saw.

David Gugerty, 28, a graduate student at Southern Illinois University, said a tree crushed his car and a branch tore through the roof of his trailer, coming to rest atop his refrigerator.

“I’m sitting in the trailer park trying to decide which way to run,” Gugerty said.

In sparsely populated Dallas County, Mo., seven other people were also hurt as wind destroyed 50 homes. Highfill said all the damaged homes were in the same path, a strong hint that a tornado was to blame.

The storm system left tens of thousands without power, including — at the peak — 60,000 customers in the Joplin area. Hundreds of homes and businesses were damaged or destroyed.

In St. Francois County, 911 director Alan Wells said several people suffered moderate injuries from wind damage at their homes. Roofs were torn off of many homes and businesses. A tractor-trailer overturned on U.S. 67 near Park Hills.

Wind wasn’t the only problem. Many parts of Missouri received 3 inches of rain or more. Flash flooding forced authorities to rescue several people from cars and homes in St. Francois County. Flash flooding also closed roads from Springfield through Cape Girardeau.

In Joplin, strong winds toppled a big section of KSNF-TV’s tower shortly after 7 a.m., crushing a vehicle and damaging two homes. It appeared no one was hurt.

Keith Johnston told The Joplin Globe he was not at home when the tower collapsed, but his wife and two kids were.

“My wife said she heard the wind come up and got the kids into the closet,” he said. “They heard a booming noise and thought the tower fell.”

About a dozen homes in Laclede County were destroyed or had major damage, emergency director Jonathan Ayres said.

“It does look tornadic from the surveys we have done,” Ayres said. “Right now, we’re just trying to help these people salvage what they can before dark.”

Flooding caused widespread problems in Laclede County, shutting down several roads and washing away part of a railroad track.

Dan Wadlington, a spokesman for Rep. Roy Blunt, R-Mo., said roofs were damaged at two high schools near Springfield, at the towns of Ash Grove and Fair Grove. He said Blunt was prepared to seek federal aid if the damage was significant.

Storm spotters said a house in the Springfield area was flattened. An air-conditioning unit was blown off the roof of a Wal-Mart Superstore near Kimberling City, damaging the roof.

Fredericktown, about 85 miles southwest of St. Louis, reported damage to several businesses. Another eastern Missouri town, Potosi, reported baseball-sized hail.

Several communities — Joplin, Buffalo, Willard, Elkland among them — opened shelters for those left homeless by the storms.

Link

As if the flooding alone wasn’t bad enough.

Brazilians flee flooding, stay in cow pens

By MARCO SIBAJA 
Associated Press Writer

Published: Friday, May. 8, 2009 – 8:14 am 
Last Modified: Friday, May. 8, 2009 – 6:35 pm

BACABAL, Brazil – Brazilians huddled in cow pens converted into emergency shelters Friday, as swollen rivers continue to rise and northern Brazil’s worst floods in decades boosted the number of homeless to nearly 300,000. The death toll rose to 39, and coffins started popping out of the soaked earth.

More than 1,000 people forced from their homes were crammed into a sprawling complex of stables and wooden shacks that hosts the annual August cattle fair in this city of 95,000 surrounded by small farms and jungle.

Up to six people were staying in each pen, sleeping in hammocks, mattresses and on the floor. They cooked government handouts of rice and beans over open wood fires, many with the TVs they toted with them stacked among their belongings.

Others stayed in shacks normally used to sell trinkets and cattle products during the annual fair. The pigs, chickens and dogs they brought with them roamed a concrete courtyard where children kicked around balls.

Local health officials acknowledged sanitary conditions were deplorable and could lead to outbreaks of disease, but those staying in the stables said they worried conditions could be worse elsewhere if they are forced to go.

Luz Gomes said a cow pen felt like a safe temporary home for her three children, with her neighbors living in the stall next door after all were evacuated by flatbed truck as floodwaters swept through their poor neighborhood of wooden shacks and mud-brick houses.

“We’ve gotten used to being here, I’ve got my family by my side, we know this place and we don’t know what we’d find in another shelter,” said Gomes, while cradling her baby son.

None thought about returning home anytime soon as unusually heavy rains continued Friday, extending two months of rainfall across 10 of Brazil’s 26 states. Three times the size of Alaska, the affected area stretches from the normally wet rainforest to coastal states known for lengthy droughts.

In Belterra, about 1,100 kilometers (680 miles) from Bacabal, the rains washed earth from a cemetery, dislodging four coffins that later washed up on riverbanks and sending an unknown number floating down the Tapajos River that feeds into the Amazon.

“The current was so strong that it dragged them away,” said city official Edicley Dias.

Meteorologists blame the heavy rain on an Atlantic Ocean weather system that typically moves on by April – and they forecast weeks more of the same. And fleeing presented its own perils: In the same newly formed rivers that flood victims waded through or plied with canoes there swam anacondas, rattlesnakes and legless, rodent-eating “worm lizards,” whose bite is excruciating.

Alligators also were seen swimming through many flooded cities and towns, and scorpions congregated on the same high ground as people escaping the rising water. No injuries to people from wild animals were reported.

Rivers still were rising in the hardest-hit state of Maranhao, where Bacabal is located. The surging torrents wrecked bridges and made it too dangerous for relief workers to take boats onto some waterways. Mudslides were stranding trucks, preventing them from delivering food and supplies to places cut off from civilization.

“They are stuck and waiting until we can clear the roads, which for some highways could be in a week if alternative routes aren’t found,” said Abner Ferreira, civil defense spokesman for Maranhao.

Brazil’s Vale, the world’s largest producer of iron ore, warned that it may not be able to meet obligations to buyers of the raw ingredient for steel because the floods have prevented shipments from being sent by rail from a huge Amazon mine to an Atlantic Ocean port for export.

Repairing and reopening the 560-mile (900-kilometer) railway closed since Monday depends on weather conditions, Companhia Vale do Rio Doce SA said in a statement. If the rains don’t ease up, Vale said it could declare force majeure – is a clause in contracts that can free parties from liability or obligation when an extraordinary event beyond their control occurs.

Cleide Soede dos Santos, camped out at the fairgrounds, said her devastated neighborhood would probably take months to rebuild once waters recede.

“Our houses are falling down, and on my street there are houses that were completely destroyed because the river’s flow was so strong,” she said.

Ferreira said authorities were trying to improve conditions: “We are doing the best we can to find sanitary shelters so that people can live in adequate places.”

The flooding in northern Brazil is the worst in 20 years, and experts have warned river levels including the Amazon could hit records not seen since 1953 by June.

Link

Severe storms flood Charlotte; flood threat continues

By David Perlmutt, Cleve R. Wootson Jr., and Steve Lyttle
dperlmutt@charlotteobserver.com / cwootson@charlotteobserver.com / slyttle@charlotteobserver.com

Posted: Tuesday, May. 05, 2009

A series of thunderstorms triggered flooding in parts of east, central and southeast Charlotte on Tuesday evening, forcing the rescue of dozens of people from cars and homes in high waters.

The storms, which struck the Charlotte area during the height of the evening commute, also produced scattered reports of wind damage, including an unconfirmed report of a tornado in the Matthews-Mint Hill area.

Firefighters have used boats this evening to rescue stranded motorists and residents, and Charlotte officials have called in extra help to deal with flash flooding across the city.

A flood warning is in effect for central and eastern Mecklenburg County this evening.

The flooding washed out a portion of East Independence Boulevard near Briar Creek, and the inbound lanes remained closed at 10:15 p.m. Crews are trying to repair the road tonight, before the morning commute.

In addition, much of Freedom Park was under water at 10 p.m., as the Briar Creek poured over its banks.

The area remains under a tornado watch until midnight, although meteorologist Melissa Hurlbut at the Storm Prediction Center in Norman, Okla., said the storms have been weakening over the last hour or so.

“Little rotation and supercell structure has been observed recently,” Hurlbut said, adding that the loss of daytime heating is causing the storms to weaken.

However, new showers and storms continue to form this evening in the Greenville-Spartanburg area and move toward Charlotte. While those storms lack the power of the severe weather which hit the area earlier, they will dump more rain on already-soggy ground.

More than 2 inches of rain fell in two hours this evening at Charlotte/Douglas International Airport, and Doppler radar estimates indicate that between 3 and 4 inches might have fallen in east Charlotte, Matthews and Mint Hill.

An automated weather gauge in the Annecy neighborhood near Sam Newell and Rice roads in Matthews measured rainfall coming down at a pace of 3 inches per hour at 6 p.m. — moments before the storm knocked out power to the weather station.

Thousands of Duke Energy customers in Mecklenburg County lost power, but electricity had been restored to all but 2,000 customers by 9:30 p.m.

Additional severe weather is possible late Wednesday, forecasters say.

Capt. Mark Basnight of the Charlotte Fire Department said there were more than 70 flood-related incidents, with firefighters making about 50 rescues.

A number of people have been forced to flee their homes because of high water, including residents at the Doral Apartments on Monroe Road. The American Red Cross opened a shelter at East Mecklenburg High at 9 p.m. for anyone displaced by the storm.

The storms moved into the Charlotte area about 4:45 p.m. and intensified over the city. At 6:10 p.m., there were unconfirmed reports of a tornado touchdown near Interstate 485 between Matthews and Mint Hill.

The National Weather Service also reported several trees blown down at Thompson and Idlewild roads, along the Matthews-Mint Hill line.

While vivid lightning and gusty winds hit parts of the area, the heavy rain caused the biggest troubles. By 6:30 p.m., two to three inches had fallen in some areas and Charlotte firefighters began rescuing people trapped in cars or homes by high water.

Firefighters rescued more than a dozen people. Most calls were for motorists trapped in rising waters on major thoroughfares, but firefighters were also being called out to houses with power lines on them. There were no immediate reports of injuries.

East Independence Boulevard’s inbound lanes were closed for a time this evening at Albemarle Road, because the Briar Creek overflowed and flooded the roadway. Reports from crews dealing with the flooding indicated that several feet of water were on Independence Boulevard at one point.

Fire officials, who were bringing in additional resources from outlying parts of the city and from neighboring cities, encouraged people to stay home until the storm had passed. They asked residents to call 911 only if they have a life-threatening emergency, and be ready with information about the location and any injuries.

The first flooding calls came in around 5:20 in areas just west of uptown Charlotte, according to Capt. Rob Brisley, spokesman for the Charlotte Fire Department.

“As the system has moved from west to east,” Brisley said, “so did the calls for service.”

At the height of the storm, a motorist was trapped in a car at Buick Drive and Electra Lane. At least two people were trapped in a car on East Independence Boulevard near North Wendover Road. And a house had flooded on the 800 block of Crater Street, according to the Charlotte Fire Department.

The fire department was also pulling people from the water at Randolph and Wendover Roads, on Villa Court and near Third Street and Caswell.

“We’re asking people to get off the road and stay off the road now,” said fire department spokesman Capt. Mark Basnight.

Flooding was happening all over the city, but concentrated on Freedom Drive and Independence Boulevard near the end of rush hour.

Flooding has closed North Tryon Street near East 16th Street. Freedom Drive at Thrift Road and 9th Street between College and Brevard streets were also flooded, the Charlotte Fire Department is reporting.

The storms developed what meteorologists call a “training” process. That means thunderstorms continued to form and follow the same path. A weak and stalled frontal system across the Piedmont provided a focus for the thunderstorm develop.

Larry Gabric, chief meteorologist at the National Weather Service office in Greer, S.C., said the storms in Charlotte were training. “It’s just an east-west line through the city,” he said.

This trend of afternoon thunderstorms is expected to continue Wednesday and Friday — with a quiet Thursday forecast.

Link

Heavy rainfall causes creek flooding in Tenn. county, tornado watches issued for northern Ala.

By Associated Press

6:15 PM CDT, May 2, 2009

AETNA, Tenn. (AP) — Authorities say a dozen residents in a central Tennessee county have been evacuated from their homes because of flooding caused by heavy rain while tornado watches and warnings have been issued for northern Alabama.

Janet Kelley of the Hickman County Emergency Management Agency in Tennessee says flat-bottomed rescue boats were used Saturday morning to retrieve residents in Aetna, located about 80 miles southwest of Nashville.

Kelley says the flooding later receded and many of the residents were able to return to their homes. She says some county bridges remained closed because of the weather on Saturday.

Meanwhile, the National Weather Service has issued a tornado warning for Fayette and Lamar counties in western Alabama.

Link

2 more Kan. storm deaths reported

By ROXANA HEGEMAN

Associated Press Writer

WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — Two people were found dead in a southeast Kansas creek Wednesday, bringing to five the number of deaths blamed on violent storms since the weekend.

The state Division of Emergency Management said Labette County sheriff’s deputies found the bodies of a 26-year-old Parsons man and a 22-year-old woman from Springfield, Mo., early Wednesday. They were in a car submerged in 10 feet of water in Pumpkin Creek, near Mound Valley. The two, whose names were not released, had been reported missing Tuesday evening. Authorities believe they were traveling west on a local road and were swept into the creek at a low-water crossing.

A Lawrence man was killed by lightning in Jefferson County on Saturday while riding with motorcyclists on U.S. 24 in northern Kansas, and a 58-year-old Leavenworth man drowned Monday while trying to clean a spill drain in a private pond near Easton.

On Tuesday, the body of a 20-year-old Yates Center man whose truck was swept off the road was found in a farm field near Quincy after floodwaters receded.

By late Wednesday afternoon, 2 to 4 inches of rain had fallen over much of Kansas in a 48-hour period. Rainfall totals were closer to 5 and 6 inches along a swath from southwest of Wichita into the Flint Hills, said Jim Caruso, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Wichita.

“The ground is definitely saturated,” he said.

Major street flooding was reported Wednesday from the overflowing Walnut River in Winfield.

The forecast called for another storm system moving into the state Thursday afternoon or evening that could bring fairly widespread rainfall of 1 to 2 inches which could aggravate flooding in southeast and south-central Kansas, Caruso said.

But Caruso said meteorologists are not expecting severe flooding like that which drenched southeast Kansas in 2007.

Still, the Kansas Division of Emergency Management partially activated its state emergency operations center in Topeka to monitor river levels and prepare for any emergency response across the state.

Butler, Harper, Reno, Sumner and Wabaunsee counties have issued local disaster declarations due to flooding, the Division of Emergency Management said.

About 10 homes in Butler County have taken on water, while about 100 homes in Harper County had water in their basements and 12 had water in the first floor.

The National Weather Service also has reports of an undetermined number of homes flooded near Belle Plaine in Sumner County, south of Wichita, Caruso said.

Flood warnings were posted for communities along several eastern Kansas waterways, including the Marais des Cygnes River, Arkansas River, Walnut River, Pottawatomie Creek, Neosho River, Cottonwood River and Verdigris River.

Link

The warning has expired, but a flood watch is in effect until noon for portions of east central Kansas and northeast Kansas, including Douglas County. The rains are expected to continue through the morning hours. U.S. Highway 24, which was reduced to one lane through much of Jefferson County overnight due to water over the road, is back open for a normal, if wet, morning commute.

Link

Levees can’t save New Orleans from floods: report

Fri Apr 24, 2009 12:44pm EDT

By Chris Baltimore

HOUSTON (Reuters) – Bigger, higher and stronger levees cannot save New Orleans from the worst floods and the city remains vulnerable to a repeat of Hurricane Katrina, the National Academy of Sciences said on Friday.

New Orleans had the flood protection of a 350-mile network of levees, I-walls and T-walls ringing the city when Hurricane Katrina slammed ashore on August 29, 2005. The levees broke, flooding 80 percent of the city.

The hurricane killed about 1,500 people along the U.S. Gulf Coast and caused $80 billion in damages, making it the costliest U.S. natural disaster.

As Katrina demonstrated, “the risks of inundation and flooding never can be fully eliminated by protective structures no matter how large or sturdy those structures may be,” said the report by the National Academy of Engineering and the National Research Council.

“Substantial risks” of living in flood-prone areas were never clearly communicated to residents before Katrina, it said, and simply rebuilding New Orleans and its hurricane-protection system back to pre-Katrina levels would leave the city vulnerable to another flooding disaster.

The first floor of buildings in flood-prone parts of the city should be raised at least to the 100-year flood level, which the report called a “crucial flood insurance standard.” But for heavily populated cities like New Orleans, that standard is inadequate, said the report, part of a five-part study by the academies in the wake of Katrina.

The 100-year standard basically stipulates protection based on the assumed worst damage of the worst flood in the last 100 years. It determines insurance rates for the National Flood Insurance Program administered by the federal government.

But structures in New Orleans’ most flood-prone areas have a 26 percent chance of flooding over the term of a 30-year mortgage, and the 100-year standard is “far too risky” to rely on, the report said.

Authorities should discourage settlement in flood-prone areas and encourage voluntary relocation away from them, the report said. They should also shore up electricity supplies that are key to running giant pumps that route floodwaters away from the city, the report said.

Large portions of New Orleans are below sea level, which makes it vulnerable to floods and storm surges from hurricanes. Located at the mouth of the Mississippi River delta, New Orleans is in close proximity to Lake Pontchartrain and Lake Borgne.

The city’s levee system was tested again in September 2008, when a surge from Hurricane Gustav nearly overtopped a protective T-wall along New Orleans’ Inner Navigation Canal.