A 57-year-old woman died early Wednesday after rescuing her grandchild from a rip current off Old Orchard Beach in Maine, and officials warned there may be more of the treacherous currents in the area this year.

Anne Farley of Westbrook, Maine, jumped in the water at Saco Beach Tuesday afternoon when she saw one of her grandchildren struggling in the water, Old Orchard Beach Fire Chief John Glass said. Farley managed to push her grandchild to the point the child could swim back to shore, but was unable to make it back herself, the family told officials.

Witnesses at neighboring Old Orchard Beach spotted Farley face down in the water and alerted lifeguards, who pulled her out and performed CPR, Glass said. She was transported to Southern Maine Medical Center in Biddeford, then transferred to Maine Medical Center in Portland, where she died Wednesday morning, he said.

Lifeguards rescued five other swimmers at the same time as Farley; they were unharmed. Glass said he was unsure if Farley, who was unconscious when lifeguards pulled her out of the water, had been caught underwater in a rip current or became too exhausted to continue swimming.

The area has experienced unusually strong rip currents this year, Glass said. Over Fourth of July weekend alone, lifeguards rescued about 50 people who were caught in the currents, he said. Farley was the first unsuccessful rescue this season, he said.

Unprecedented erosion up and down the New England coastline may be to blame for the unusual currents, said Stephen Dickson, a marine geologist for the Maine Geological Survey said. Strong storms wore away at beaches earlier this year in ways not seen for 20 years, he said.

“It’s a possibility,” Dickson said. “Lifeguards and swimmers are experiencing new rip currents in places they’ve never seen before. It will probably remain hazardous to swimming for the rest of the summer.”

via Maine woman dies rescuing grandchild; officials warn of rip currents – Local News Updates – MetroDesk – The Boston Globe.

MEMPHIS, TN— Police still have not charged anyone connected to a deadly pit bull attack. William Parker, 71, died after two pit bulls attacked him while he was walking home from the store. His wife, Bessie, says her husband had a heart attack while being attacked by the dogs.

Memphis police have confirmed an officer was called to the apartment complex where the attack happened on July 18, 2010. The officer responded to a “dogs on the loose” call. Police say the viscous dogs had a person trapped inside a car. A spokesperson for the Memphis Police Department said animal control was never called to pick up the dogs because the owner was able to get the dogs back in the apartment.

The dogs belong to Bernard Humphrey. When police responded to the dog call, they discovered Humphrey was a sex offender who failed to register his new address. Humphrey was arrested for violating the sex offender registry law and the dogs were left at the apartment.

In addition to Parker, four others were injured. One was Gardenia Parker. She was attacked trying to save her father. “These little cuts and bruises is nothing. I can get over that part. I can’t get over losing my daddy,” said Parker. “I ain’t ever going to get my daddy back. I think justice needs to be done.”

Bessie Parker thinks Humphrey needs to be criminally charged. “The way I feel right now, they could give him the death penalty because he killed my husband,” said Parker, “I miss my husband. I can’t bring him back.”

The dogs are now at the animal shelter under quarantine.

The Parker’s had been together for more than fifty years. Bessie Parker now has to come up with the money needed to bury her husband. The couple had no insurance. Parker said, “I try to be strong for my daughter and my grand baby, this is all I got left now.”

via Wife Talks About Pit Bull Attack That Killed Her Husband|myEyewitnessNews.com, Memphis News, Entertainment, Videos, Business Search and Shopping.

A 14-year-old boy struck by lightning in McDonough has died, authorities said Wednesday. A girl who was also struck survived and is recovering at a local hospital.

Henry County Coroner Greg Cannon told the AJC  that Eric West died overnight at Henry Medical Center.

A 15-year-old girl, Ceyara Taylor, was also struck by the lightning bolt Tuesday night as heavy storms slammed the south side of the metro area.

Taylor was taken to Henry Medical Center and was later tranferred to Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta at Egleston. She was in good condition Wednesday afternoon, an Egleston spokeswoman told the AJC.

McDonough fire Chief Steve Morgan told WSB Radio that the teens were outside a house in the Huntington Ridge subdivision off Ga. 42 when they were knocked to the ground by a lightning bolt around 8 p.m.

West was in cardiac arrest when emergency crews arrived and was pronounced dead at the hospital. Taylor regained consciousness at the scene, Morgan said.

Two weeks ago, on June 19, a teen was struck by lightning in Acworth. The victim in that incident survived after a friend quickly summoned help by flagging down an Acworth police officer near the intersection of Lake Acworth Drive and West Lakeshore Drive.

Storms also delayed some arriving flights at Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport, FAA spokeswoman Kathleen Bergen told the AJC late Tuesday. For about 30 minutes, beginning around 9:45 p.m., the weather prevented flights from landing in Atlanta, Bergen said.

There is a 60 percent chance of  rain and storms on Wednesday, according to WSB-TV Chief Meteorologist Glenn Burns.

“It’s going to be very hot and very muggy,” Burns said.

Temperatures are expected to cool slightly, with Wednesday’s high expected to be 87 degrees in Atlanta, down from Tuesday’s high of 93.

So far, the upcoming holiday weekend looks like it will be sunny and dry, Burns said.

via Henry County lightning strike: Teen killed, girl survives  | ajc.com.

A newborn baby is dead after being attacked by a dog, Quebec provincial police say.

The attack happened in Saint-Barnabé-Sud, Que., on Monday afternoon.

Police said they received a call about the three-week-old girl around 3:30 p.m. ET.

Neighbours said the baby was in the home on Rang Bas-Saint-Amable with a pair of huskies — a male and a female.

The dogs did not belong to the family, but to a couple visiting the home, they said.

For an unknown reason, one of the dogs, believed to be the male, attacked the baby, said police.

A baby died in a dog attack in Saint-Barnabé-Sud, 60 kilometres east of Montreal. (CBC)”The investigation is just starting. What happened exactly, we will learn more over the coming hours,” said provincial police Sgt. Claude Denis.

The incident has shocked members of the small community and many people gathered outside the home where it happened, Radio-Canada's Jean-Philippe Cipriani reported from the scene.

Both of the dogs were taken away by humane society officials, who said tests would be done to confirm which of the animals was responsible for the attack and whether it was suffering from any problems, such as rabies.

“They are not aggressive dogs,” said Claude Dionne of the St-Hyacinthe SPCA. “They are just territorial dogs.”

Dionne said it was likely the dog responsible for the attack would be euthanized.

Since 1990, there have been 28 fatalities related to dog attacks in Canada, according to Statistics Canada. Of those killed, 85 per cent were children under 12 years of age.

Saint-Barnabé-Sud is about 60 kilometres east of Montreal.

via CBC News – Montreal – Dog kills Quebec newborn.

CODY — Authorities are investigating the circumstances surrounding the fatal mauling by a grizzly bear Thursday of a Shoshone National Forest cabin owner. The incident occurred at a site where a bear had been captured and released earlier that day.

Erwin Frank Evert, 70, of Park Ridge, Ill., was reported missing to a member of the Interagency Grizzly Bear Study Team who had been conducting research in the Kitty Creek drainage, about seven miles east of Yellowstone National Park.

Researchers had earlier trapped and released an adult male grizzly in the area, according to information released by Park County Sheriff Scott Steward.

A longtime friend and professional colleague said Evert was aware that researchers had been trying for several days to trap a bear in the area, and that friends and family members were unsure why he had hiked into the capture site despite knowing the risks.

“None of us understand it and apparently never will,” said retired ecologist Chuck Neal, author of “Grizzlies in the Mist.”

Neal said he often hiked the woods around Yellowstone with Evert, a botanist, sharing a common interest in researching the region’s plants and animals.

Neal, a survivor of several close encounters with grizzlies, said Evert had called him last week asking about a sign posted at Kitty Creek warning about bear-trapping activities, and that Evert was “absolutely aware” of the risks of hiking in the area.

Neal said bear researchers were returning from the capture site when they were told by Evert’s wife, Yolanda, that he was missing.

A study team member went back to the capture site and found Evert’s body. Wardens with the Wyoming Game and Fish Department and a sheriff’s deputy responded at 8:30 p.m. to the remote location, about two miles from Highway 14-16-20.

Members of Park County Search and Rescue recovered Evert’s body around midnight, with assistance from Game and Fish workers, who provided armed security, Steward said in a written statement released Friday afternoon.

Steward said that Evert, who was not armed and was not carrying bear spray, apparently wandered into the capture site sometime after the bear had been released.

Neal said he did not know how researchers returning from the site failed to cross paths with Evert while he was hiking in, unless the botanist had left the trail at some point.

Bear not relocated

The bear had not been captured before Thursday, and had not been relocated from another area, said Chris Servheen, grizzly bear coordinator for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

Researchers drew blood from the captured bear and fitted it with a radio collar before releasing it, Servheen said, but it has not yet been determined whether the previously captured bear was the same one that killed Evert.

Servheen said that wildlife officials will try to compare any DNA left by the attacking bear, most likely in its saliva, with blood drawn from the captured bear.

It is uncertain whether that difficult process of analysis will prove possible, he said.

Steward said that the U.S. Forest Service had issued a closure order for the Kitty Creek drainage and that federal wildlife and law enforcement agents are searching for the bear using electronic tracking equipment.

Servheen initially said Friday morning that wildlife officials would not try to trap the bear again. But he said later that efforts were being made to recapture it.

“If we get a chance to trap it, we will trap it,” he said.

He said that the investigation of the mauling is in its early stages, and that authorities will work to try and re-create what happened.

If it is determined that the bear trapped Thursday is the one that killed Evert, federal wildlife officials will decide the bear’s fate, he said.

“We’ll try to make a decision as to whether the actions of the bear were natural aggression,” Servheen said.

“We will try to make that decision based on what we know after we put all the facts together,” he said, adding that re-creating an attack without any witnesses can prove difficult.

Some cabin owners have said they were unaware of research work being done in the area, and questioned whether wildlife and land management agencies were communicating effectively with the public about such activities. The press is not routinely notified of study team field work.

Servheen said that interagency partners including the Wyoming Game and Fish and Shoshone National Forest personnel are aware of researchers’ work in the area, and that signs are posted in areas where bears are being captured.

He said he was unaware of what other public notifications, if any, were routinely made about bear capture efforts.

“The people doing this are highly trained professionals who follow very detailed protocols. One of the most important protocols is public safety,” he said.

“We want to make sure people don’t walk into these places, so they place signs lower down on the trail” warning people to avoid the area, he said.

Servheen said “it would be impossible to enter this area” without noticing warning signs

Close friends

Neal said Evert and his wife spent summers each year for the last three decades at their Kitty Creek cabin, and that they were close family friends.

“We walked many miles and spent many days together,” he said.

Evert was a research field botanist working for the Morton Arboretum in Chicago, and he also worked as a research associate at the Rocky Mountain Herbarium at the University of Wyoming, Neal said.

Evert had just published “Vascular Plants of the Greater Yellowstone Area,” a book offering an exhaustive catalog of native plants, including a series of annotated maps, Neal said.

“It’s a magnificent book. It weighs about 5 pounds,” he said.

“It really was his life’s work, so it’s good, and I’m grateful that he got to see that published,” Neal said.

“He just turned 70 this spring, but he was still very active and very fit,” Neal said.

Neal described Evert as “a committed man who could focus like a laser beam on his goal.”

Persistent windy conditions around Cody over the last week made it a particularly dangerous time for hiking in grizzly country, Neal said.

Bears are unable to easily hear or smell people approaching under such blustery conditions, and are more likely to be surprised, eliciting a defensive response.

Although bear encounters around Yellowstone are not uncommon, including ones that result in serious injuries to people, fatal bear attacks are relatively rare.

Neal said the incident was the result of “incredible bad luck, and also bad judgment.”

“I’m thinking it had to be a close-range, surprise encounter,” he said.

via Grizzly kills botanist in attack near Yellowstone park.

Neal said bear spray or a gun “may not have done any good” in such an attack.

CODY — A lab analysis has confirmed that a bear shot dead early Saturday morning near the east entrance to Yellowstone National Park is the one that fatally mauled a man Thursday afternoon in the same area.

The adult male grizzly bear had been snared and tranquilized by federal researchers Thursday morning and fitted with a radio collar before being released.

Erwin Frank Evert, 70, of Park Ridge, Ill., was found dead at the capture site Thursday after the bear was released. Evert ignored warning signs posted advising hikers to avoid the area because of the likelihood of a dangerous bear encounter.

Wildlife officials used a helicopter and radio tracking gear to locate and shoot the bear Saturday morning, after making unsuccessful attempts Friday to catch it.

Rapid DNA testing of genetic material from the bear that was left on the victim matched blood drawn from the bear when it was tranquilized Thursday, said Chris Servheen, grizzly bear coordinator for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

Servheen said he decided late Friday to authorize killing the bear if it could not be captured, because experts could not definitively determine whether the animal’s actions were natural and defensive or aberrant and unusually aggressive.

“We regret the whole idea of having to remove a bear, but we just wanted to be sure. I stand by that decision to remove him,” Servheen said.

Servheen said the bear was initially near a road where it might have been captured, but it later began moving deeper into the wilderness, where it could later shed its radio collar and become exceptionally difficult to locate.

Servheen said he and other agency officials agreed that “the best thing to do for the safety of the public is to remove the bear.”

The U.S. Forest Service is now expected to reopen the Kitty Creek area, about seven miles east of Yellowstone, where the attack occurred. The area had been closed as a public safety precaution until it could be determined that the bear involved in the mauling was either not a threat or dead.

Friends and wildlife officials have said that Evert, a botanist who owned a cabin at Kitty Creek, was well aware of the risks of entering the capture area, but that he was curious about work being done there, and ignored verbal and posted warnings.

The incident is the first fatal mauling by a grizzly bear in the area in 25 years, and the first such fatal attack to take place at a site where researchers had recently trapped and released a bear.

Servheen said the U.S. Geological Survey crew from Bozeman that had been trapping bears in the area has left. The bear that killed Evert was the last one they had sought to capture.

Authorities will later complete a comprehensive incident report, but an initial review indicates that there were no obvious signs that researchers failed to follow standard trapping protocols, Servheen said.

“We try to do everything we can to minimize the risks. But we can’t protect ourselves against people that ignore every warning we give, and we can’t protect people against themselves,” he said.

“The whole thing is regrettable; just one tragedy followed by another,” Servheen said.

Evert was a research field botanist working for the Morton Arboretum in Chicago. He also worked as a research associate at the Rocky Mountain Herbarium at the University of Wyoming.

He had just published “Vascular Plants of the Greater Yellowstone Area,” a book offering an exhaustive catalog of native plants, including a series of annotated maps.

Evert and his wife, Yolanda, had spent summers at their Kitty Creek cabin for the past 30 years, according to family friend and professional colleague Chuck Neal, a retired ecologist and author of “Grizzlies in the Mist.”

“It really was his life’s work, so it’s good, and I’m grateful that he got to see that published,” Neal said of the book.

Neal described Evert as “a committed man who could focus like a laser beam on his goal.”

Neal, a survivor of several close encounters with grizzlies, said Evert had called him last week asking about a sign posted near Kitty Creek warning about bear-trapping activities, and that Evert was “absolutely aware” of the risks of hiking in the area.

Evert called his daughter early Thursday and described to her the route he planned to take from his cabin to the capture site, and it “was kind of his favorite route for light hiking,” but it did not follow the main trail, Neal said.

Persistent windy conditions around Cody over the past week made it a particularly dangerous time for hiking in grizzly country, he said.

Bears are unable to easily hear or smell people approaching under such blustery conditions, and are more likely to be surprised, eliciting a defensive response.

Evert was not armed and was not carrying bear spray when he was attacked, according to information released by the Park County Sheriff’s Office.

“I’m thinking it had to be a close-range, surprise encounter,” Neal said.

He said bear spray or a gun “may not have done any good” in such an attack.

Neal said the incident was the result of “incredible bad luck, and also bad judgment.”

“He was an extraordinary man who made a very ordinary mistake,” Neal said.

via DNA tests match dead bear to mauling.

The fatal grizzly bear attack on 70 year-old Erwin Evert near Yellowstone Park by a bear that may have been trapped, tranquilized, and radio-collared just hours before Evert's death raises perplexing questions. Why did Evert's wife notify Chad Dickinson of the Interagency Grizzly Bear Study Team that her husband was missing? Normally, people would call the Wyoming Game and Fish Department or Shoshone National Forest officials.

Was the area where the bear was captured posted with warnings, or was it closed? U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service Grizzly Bear Recovery Coordinator Chris Servheen told the Billings Gazette “it would have been impossible to enter this area” without noticing signs. What, exactly, did the signs say? If agency officials failed to close the area, could they be held liable for Mr. Evert's death?

In 1983, a grizzly bear that had been captured 20 times and drugged 12 times dragged Roger May out of his tent at a U.S. Forest Service campground near West Yellowstone, killed him,and partially consumed him. Even before the incident, there was speculation that after being trapped, drugged, and handled, bears became more aggressive and dangerous.

In the 1980s, bears were drugged with Sernylan, known on the streets as “Angel Dust.” New drugs are reputedly safer, but old concerns about the effects of drugging bears have never gone away.

If trapping and drugging bears isn't dangerous, why post warnings? If trapping and drugging bears is dangerous, why not close the area?

What was the purpose of the bear research that may have cost Evert his life?

State and federal agencies tell hunters and hikers in grizzly country to carry bear spray. The agencies claim bear spray provides better protection than a firearm. Why did Wyoming Game and Fish Department wardens provide “armed security” for the Park County Sheriff's Department search and rescue team that retrieved Evert's body? Why didn't the wardens use bear spray?

via More questions than answers in fatal bear attack near Yellowstone.

CHEYENNE, Wyo. — A grizzly bear killed a Wyoming man outside Yellowstone National Park, apparently just hours after researchers trapped and tranquilized the animal.

The attack happened Thursday in the same place where two researchers with the Interagency Grizzly Bear Study Team had examined a large adult male grizzly earlier that day, Park County Sheriff Scott Steward said Friday.

The suspect bear was wearing a radio collar. Authorities didn't intend to venture into the woods to chase the animal, however.

They hoped to trap it — again — and do DNA testing to see if it was indeed responsible.

“Certainly there is a good chance it was the bear they were working on,” Steward said. “There's certainly the exception, where it's just another bear.”

Shoshone National Forest officials closed off the Kitty Creek area, about six miles outside the Yellowstone East Entrance, until further notice.

“There have been Forest Service people in the area talking to people who live in those cabins, and at the lodges around there, letting them know what's going on,” forest spokeswoman Susan Douglas said Friday.

The victim was Erwin Frank Evert, 70, who went hiking around 12:45 p.m. from his cabin in the Kitty Creek drainage.

When Evert didn't return, his wife went looking for him and met one of the bear researchers. The researchers had been getting ready to leave the area but one of them returned to the place where they had found the bear in a previously set trap, then tranquilized the animal for study.

The researcher found Evert's body where they had left the bear to wake up, about two miles from Evert's cabin.

“My heart goes out for the victim and the family involved in this. Nobody would want anything like this to happen,” Chuck Schwartz, head of the Interagency Grizzly Bear Study Team based in Bozeman, Mont., said Friday.

The team is made up of federal and state biologists who monitor and study grizzlies in the Yellowstone ecosystem.

The researchers also had trapped and tranquilized another grizzly in the area Thursday.

Schwartz said there would be an investigation, including into whether required procedures were followed, such as posting warning signs about the grizzly research.

Schwartz said it wasn't certain whether the trapped grizzly had mauled Evert. But Chris Servheen, grizzly bear recovery coordinator with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, said it's unlikely that another grizzly would have been in the same area as the large adult male.

“There's a very, very high probability that it was this bear,” Servheen said.

The Wyoming Game and Fish Department was working Friday to try to recapture the bear, agency spokesman Eric Keszler said.

Grizzly bears have been back on the federal list of threatened species since last year.

via The Associated Press: Grizzly kills man near Wyoming’s Yellowstone park.

Seeing the funnel cloud barreling toward the small town of Mentor in northwestern Minnesota on Thursday, Wes Michaels yelled to his daughter working in the family-owned gas station.

“It's coming straight for us,” he shouted. “Get in the cooler.”

“In seconds, everything was on top of us,” said Michaels' daughter Heidi. She survived the storm, her father's body shielding her from the debris that killed him.

The tornadoes that ripped through northwestern and southern Minnesota on Thursday killed at least one other person, leveled a broad swath of Wadena and damaged numerous houses and farm buildings across the state.

An elderly woman from the small community of Almora in Otter Tail County died during the storm and her husband was taken to the hospital, said David Hauser, Otter Tail County attorney and spokesman. Brittney Schulke of Almora told the Daily Journal that her grandmother, Margie Schulke, was killed and that her grandfather, Norman Schulke, suffered two broken shoulders.

“We know that there are several other people who were injured,” Hauser said.

Heidi Michaels said her father had owned the Cenex gas and convenience store in Mentor for four years and wasn't supposed to have been working Thursday, his 58th birthday. He had come in only to check on her after hearing the storm warnings. When he saw the twister headed for the station, he ordered her and several customers into the cooler just before the store and four vehicles were destroyed.

“He saved me,” Heidi Michaels said.

The tornadoes that struck Mentor and Almora were the state's first fatal twisters in two years.

The storm that crashed into Almora also spawned a tornado that tore up about a 10-block residential area in nearby Wadena, ripping up old oak and elm trees, tearing off roofs and damaging buildings.

“It's a whole different horizon now,” said Randy Mohs, who drove through town after the storm.

The hours-long march of ferocious weather across the state also knocked out power in many locations, keeping utility and emergency crews busy as night fell.

The metro area was largely spared, with scattered reports of tornadoes and funnel clouds in the western suburbs, but no reports of serious damage. About 6,000 homes, mostly in the west metro area, lost power for a portion of the evening.

In Wright County, a tornado was on the ground north of Buffalo in a fairly rural area, but no injuries were reported, said Sgt. Peter Walker of the Sheriff’s Office. Damage was limited to downed trees and power lines, along with minor property damage, he said. A tornado was confirmed in McLeod County about 5:25 p.m., emergency management director Kevin Mathews said. “It was on the ground for a quarter to a half-mile, but it touched down in a field,” he said, adding that damage was limited to downed trees and grain wagons.

Multiple tornadoes and funnel clouds also raked Freeborn and Faribault counties in southern Minnesota. Buildings and other property near Kiester and Walters in Faribault County, along the Iowa border, were badly damaged. County Commissioner Tom Warmka said Kiester had been closed to traffic because live power lines were down in the streets. An 8-mile stretch of Hwy. 22 was also closed and many farms in the area were damaged, he said.

In Freeborn County, in the southern part of the state, multiple tornadoes hit, including one a half-mile wide, emergency management director Mark Roche said. Roche, who was out assessing the damage Thursday night, knew of multiple people taken to hospitals, but he didn’t have accounts of the seriousness of the injuries.

A shelter was opened at the National Guard Armory in Albert Lea for those in Freeborn County who lost housing in the storm, Roche said.

Travis Henderson, mayor of Conger, about 10 miles west of Albert Lea, said everyone had been accounted for “one way or another.” “Several farms are lost and houses are gone,” he said.

Fire departments from around the county were in Conger helping to round up pigs and cattle set loose in the storm, Henderson said, including one farm that had up to 3,000 pigs.

Wadena reeling

Wadena Mayor Wayne Wolden said the storm wiped out about a quarter of his town and left about 20 people injured. “Dozens and dozens of homes are flattened,” he said. “Part of the roof on the high school was ripped off and thrown across the street. The high school is damaged. The community center is gone.”

Luckily, the sirens in town alerted residents before the storm hit; otherwise there might have been more injuries. He and his daughter stayed in the basement as the sirens blared and the storm passed overhead. It took just three minutes, he said. “I heard a train just like they say,” Wolden said.

When the storm passed, he noticed his home lost only a few shingles. “But my neighbors lost their homes.”

The building that housed Leaf River Ag Service was leveled and an old two-story house that boarded students who attend the nearby vocational community college was destroyed, Mohs said.

“It’s cork-screwed across the street. It’s twisted like a candy wrapper,” Mohs said. “There are a lot of sirens, ambulances, police. There are helicopters flying. … It’s a mess.”

Joanne Ostlund, who works in the Wadena city offices, waited out the storm with co-workers. “There was a lot of damage,” she said. “My garage and shed are gone and one of our neighbors lost an entire farm site.”

Gov. Tim Pawlenty plans to inspect the damaged sections of the Wadena and other areas Friday.

In the nearby Deer Creek area, several farms were heavily damaged, said Deer Creek resident Kathy Hill.

“My brother’s farm is pretty much gone,” she said. “The barns are gone. The house is damaged.”

Hill and her husband tried to reach her brother’s farm, but roads were blocked. Then she tried to check on her sister in Wadena, but entrances to the town were blocked.

“The roads are filled with debris — 2-by-4s, metal from buildings, power lines,” she said. “We have no electricity. No telephone service. It was bad. It will be awhile before recovery happens.”

Hail up to 4 inches in diameter was reported elsewhere in Douglas County. Hail also dominated reports across southern Minnesota, with a report of 2 1/2-inch stones near Fairfax, about 100 miles southwest of the Twin Cities.

via 2 dead as tornadoes sweep across Minnesota.

With the storms over, benign weather is forecast to return to Minnesota on Friday and Saturday, with the Twin Cities expecting sun and highs of 86 Friday and 79 Saturday.

A nine-year-old girl from Kokomo, Indiana, has died of dog bite wounds five days after her family’s pit bull attacked her in her own home. According to reports, Savannah Gragg was letting the family dog out of the front door when the animal lunged at her, brought her to the floor, grabbed her neck, and shook her violently. While the girl’s grandmother, who witnessed the attack, tried to free the girl, she was unsuccessful. The deadly dog attack too place on Saturday, May 29, 2010.

She was rushed to Indianapolis and admitted to Kokomo's Howard Regional Hospital. She was then transported by Life Line helicopter the Riley Hospital for Children, where she underwent surgery in an attempt to repair her mangled neck and trachea. Although she survived the surgery, she continued to be listed in serious condition on Sunday. The young girl died on Thursday afternoon, almost a week after the attack, according to Howard County Sheriff Marty Talbert.

The child suffered a lack of oxygen to the brain when her trachea was torn by the dog. She was declared brain dead on Thursday afternoon. The Gragg family told police that the dog had never shown aggressive behavior in the past.

The pit bull has been quarantined at a local animal control office as deemed by Indiana dog bite laws and will be put down in the near future. The fatal Indiana dog attack is still under investigation by Howard County authorities. Savannah was a third-grade student at Taylor Intermediate School in Kokomo this fall.

via Kokomo, Indiana, Girl Dies After Pit Bull Attack | Keller and Keller.