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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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There are mysteries beneath our feet.

Sinkholes appear out of nowhere: From small, round to gaping paths to the abyss

by Matt Johnson, matt.johnson@lee.net

Sometimes the earth just opens up leaving a big hole.

David McClurg, who raises beef on his farm near Bud, was checking out a field last week when he saw a dark spot. McClurg went closer and saw it was actually a sinkhole. A circle of earth, about six feet in diameter, had fallen into a pit about seven feet deep. At the bottom of the hole, it spread out and darkness disappeared in to crevices.

“I had been over the top of it just a few weeks before and nothing had been there,” McClurg, president of the Vernon County chapter of the Wisconsin Farm Bureau Federation, said. “This one just opened up and it was big enough at the bottom to put a car inside.”

Paul Krahn of the Vernon County Land and Water Conservation Department said McClurg’s sinkhole is rare in that it appeared during a relatively dry period, before rain came over the weekend. However, sinkholes in Vernon County are nothing new.

A sinkhole is a natural depression or hole in the surface topography caused by the removal of soil or bedrock, usually by some event involving water occurring under the ground. This can include water bubbling up to the surface to erode limestone structures or erosion by water flowing through sedimentary rock under the surface.

“Sinkholes are a bit of a mystery and that’s part of what makes them interesting,” Krahn said.

McClurg has owned his farm for 43 years and this isn’t the only sinkhole he’s had. When he first bought the place there was a sink hole in a field that he kept filling up with field stones. After 15 years of putting big rocks in the hole, he covered it over with dirt.

Krahn said that in 2007 and in 2008, the county had more reports of newly-formed sinkholes than during any other period in recent history. About six or seven significant sinkholes were found each year.

Perhaps the biggest was on the Donald Weber farm just off County NN in the town of Franklin northwest of Liberty Pole.

At the bottom of a ravine in one of Weber’s fields, a sinkhole began to open up after the flood of August 2007. It got bigger after the floods of June 2008 to the point now where it’s about 25 feet in diameter.

“It’s the kind of hole where you drop a stone, hear it go clink, clink, clink, clink and then hear a splash,” Krahn said.

Weber said four officials from the Geological Society of America came to see the sinkhole, two of them were spelunkers, or cave explorers.

“They said once you get down in the hole a ways you come into a good sized cave,” Weber said. “Leading from the cave are other open places beyond, but they didn’t go any further because they were worried about the ceilings caving in.”

When contacted, officers in the North-Central Region of the Geological Society of America said that the “purported sinkhole” at the Weber farm was explored, but could not immediately name who participated. The regional chair, Eugene C. Kelly, said the visit was not part of a scheduled event particularly for the society.

Weber has owned his farm since 1959 and this is the only sinkhole he’s ever had. For only having one, it’s a doozy.

“I don’t call it a sink hole, I call it a syphon hole, because all the water that runs toward it just goes down in that hole and disappears,” Weber said. “It’s just like a giant drain.”

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No injuries after tornado hits Iowa campground

1:33 PM

Posted: Monday, April 27, 2009

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Authorities said Monday that no injuries were reported after a tornado slammed into a campground and destroyed five camping trailers at a park in Linn County.

The tornado hit Pinicon Park in northern Linn County shortly before 5 p.m. on Sunday.

“We’ve lost a lot of trees and that kind of thing, but fortunately there was no loss of life. Everybody had gotten to a safe place,” said Dennis Goematt, deputy director of Linn County Conservation.

Goematt said the campground had been full Saturday night. On Sunday, about 10 trailers remained.

“It had been a rainy day so some of them had decided to go somewhere to eat and had left the campground just coincidentally anyway. We do have a block building there that’s a shower house and some of them went to that to escape,” he said.

Goematt said the tornado cut a path right down the middle of the campground.

“Either side, things were largely undamaged, but right in that path, it was pretty devastating,” he said.

The tornado also damaged homes and outbuildings north of Cedar Rapids. No injuries were reported, said Mike Goldberg, the county’s emergency coordinator.

He said damage was reported at 31 locations, ranging from siding and roof damage on homes to outbuildings damaged by falling trees.

“It was on the ground for a while, but I don’t have a length yet. It definitely popped down,” Goldberg said.

Two other possible tornadoes were spotted in Delaware and Dubuque counties, but no one was hurt.

The storm system also dumped heavy rain in western and central Iowa.

From Sunday into early Monday, 5-7 inches of rain fell in Cass and Guthrie counties, with 3-6 inches in Marshall, Tama and Black Hawk counties.

Flood warnings continued on Monday across Iowa as the heavy rain caused flash flooding and sent rivers and creeks rising.

In Waterloo, 2 feet of water poured into an intersection, while manhole covers popped off on another street.

In Chariton, strong winds knocked over a 30-foot section of a trailer at the city’s airport

Mindy Albrecht of the National Weather Service in Johnston said the storms kept dumping heavy rain over the same area, saturating the ground.

“We haven’t had any heavy rains recently, but you get that much amount of rain and it’s hard to soak it all in at one time because it came down so fast,” she said.

Showers and thunderstorms were expected to move out of Iowa by later on Monday, with cooler and drier weather settling in on Tuesday. More rain is in the forecast on Wednesday and Thursday. 

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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.

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Wildfires may keep Alligator Alley shut down through weekend

A growing wildfire in the Everglades has authorities warning that Alligator Alley, closed since Wednesday evening, could remain shut down until Monday.

Heavy smoke fills the sky Thursday at the 77 mile marker on Alligator Alley. The highway will remain closed through at least Friday, officials say. 

LOU TOMAN / SUN SENTINEL

BY DAVID SMILEY

DSMILEY@MIAMIHERALD.COM

A wildfire fueled for days by 10,000 acres of dangerously dry Everglades vegetation may force authorities to keep Alligator Alley closed for the weekend, creating headaches for travelers.

The Florida Highway Patrol has kept the highway closed since about 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, when smoke from the fire began billowing over the roadway in spots of Collier County and Big Cypress National Preserve.

Officials hoped to open the 78-mile stretch of Interstate 75 on Friday, but with no rain expected and firefighters stretched to the limit, authorities say it is probable that the road will remain closed all of Saturday and possibly Sunday.

”We’re doing this for public safety,” Big Cypress spokesman Bob DeGross said. “I know it’s an inconvenience, but we’re being cautious.”

The highway has already been shut down for more than 48 hours because of the blaze, longer than the 46 cumulative hours the highway has been closed since 2003 due to wildfires, according to the Florida Department of Transportation.

For many, the closure has been only an annoyance, forcing drivers to take one or two-hour detours on U.S. 41 or State Road 80 to make the trek from Sunrise to Naples.

And for those who rely on the highway for business and income, a weekend closure is troubling, as well.

`TIME IS MONEY’

”If they keep it closed all weekend, there will be a financial impact because we have to take alternate routes, spending more money on fuel to get to the East Coast and longer hours,” said Boris Espinosa, a dispatcher with B&G Carriers, a produce shipping company based in Naples. “Time is money.”

Businesses at the Big Cypress Seminole Indian Reservation have felt a hit, with few customers making the long detour to get to the reservation.

”We are down significantly,” said Cindy Malin, a spokeswoman for Billie Swamp Safari. “Mother Nature is in charge right now.”

And as Alligator Alley remains closed, money that would normally flood into the Florida Department of Transportation via tolls at either end of the highway has run dry.

More than $85,000 was lost between Wednesday evening and noon Friday, FDOT spokesman Chad Huff said.

Should the highway remain closed on Saturday and Sunday, the agency could stand to lose another $60,000 or so, he said.

Despite a strong easterly wind blowing over the fire and reducing smoke during the day, weather forecasts predict little relief.

Strassberg said South Florida has been abnormally dry during the past 16 months, particularly in Collier County.

”There is no chance of rain across the interior where the fire is,” said meteorologist Gordon Strassberg.

Strassberg said winds blowing from the east Friday and Saturday should disperse the smoke some, but likely not enough to make driving safe, given the location of the blaze — near State Road 29 toward the middle of Alligator Alley.

”It’s in a really bad spot,” he said. “It’s close enough to the roadway where there will at least be some effects no matter how strong the winds are during the day, and at night, the winds will likely calm and smoke will tend to settle near the ground. There could also be some patchy fog mixed in.”

He said rainfall at Immokalee, the location closest to Big Cypress where the National Weather Service measures precipitation levels, has been more than nine inches below average since October.

Strassberg said the fire is believed to have been sparked by lightning, meaning the blaze began smoldering during a thunderstorm.

DeGross, the Big Cypress spokesman, said about 100 firefighters from several state agencies have been battling spot fires to keep the blaze east of State Road 29.

HEALTH OF THE PARK

The park’s dry conditions have officials concerned that other fires could spark elsewhere in the 720,000-acre preserve, where most of the blaze has burned.

However, he said the fire has not damaged the park.

”It’s actually a benefit to the ecology of the forest,” he said. “Fires tend to remove heavy and old vegetation in areas for new vegetation to grow.”

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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.