Floods
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Cloud Lightning

US: Hail brings Brooklyn to a near standstill in a freaky, fast but furious storm

Joe Jackson, Kerry Burke and Bill Hutchinson
NYDailynews.com
Mon, 11 Oct 2010 09:54 UTC
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© Arvind S. GroverLightning strikes the NYC skyline during Monday night's short, freak storm.
A freak autumn storm turned parts of the city into a winter wonderland on Monday night, pounding some of Brooklyn and Manhattan with hail the size of quarters.

The ferocious front blew in out of the east, hitting the city at about 8:30 p.m. and prompting multiple severe storm warnings and flash flood warnings.

Joann Binns, 61, of Manhattan, said she was pelted by hail a quarter-inch in diameter.

"I started running. There were ice stones," said Binns, who sought shelter under the marquee outside Madison Square Garden. "They hit me and I said, 'I'm outta here.' They hurt."

The storm prompted transit officials to reroute the F subway line and suspend the G line because of station flooding. The wicked weather also delayed the Jets' game against the Minnesota Vikings in the Meadowlands for 45 minutes because of lightning.

Comment: For more information on unusual weather in New York, see this Sott article:

New York City Hit by a TORNADO: One Person Killed and a Trail of Destruction Left as 100mph Winds Rip Through City

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Bizarro Earth

One dead, thousands affected in Philippine floods


Terra Daily / Agence France-Presse
Sat, 09 Oct 2010 19:17 UTC
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© Unknown
One person has drowned and thousands of people have been affected by floods that have swamped a rain-soaked island in the central Philippines, police said Saturday.

Floodwaters rose south of Naujan lake on Mindoro island after heavy rain began falling in the area before dawn Friday, national police spokesman Senior Superintendent Agrimero Cruz told reporters.

In addition to the drowned person, an undetermined number of farm animals was also lost in floodwaters that reached an average of three feet (0.91 metres), he added.

Some 8,148 families were affected in the towns of Socorro and Pinamalayan, and police are on standby to conduct rescues or evacuations where necessary.
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Bizarro Earth

Death Toll Rises As Storm Lashes Eastern U.S.


Reuters
Sat, 02 Oct 2010 16:25 UTC
Tropical storm Nicole lashed the eastern United States with heavy rain and high winds again on Friday, causing more flooding and leaving one Pennsylvania woman dead in a weather-related traffic accident.

The woman drove her car into a rain-swollen creek, bringing the U.S. death toll from the storm to at least six, after five people were killed earlier this week in North Carolina.

The governor of North Carolina declared a state of emergency, with officials there warning that creeks and rivers would continue to rise even after the storm passed.

Flood warnings were in effect for parts of New York, Pennsylvania, Connecticut, Massachusetts, North and South Carolina, Virginia, Maryland and Washington D.C.

The deluge that started on Wednesday set records in several areas, said Dan Peterson, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service.
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Bizarro Earth

Tropical Storm Nicole Kills Nine in Jamaica

Kevin Gray
Reuters
Sat, 02 Oct 2010 05:43 UTC
Short-lived Tropical Storm Nicole triggered flash flooding that killed at least nine people in Jamaica and dumped heavy rain on Florida, Cuba, the Cayman Islands and the Bahamas on Wednesday.

The broad and ragged storm formed on Wednesday morning and dissipated Wednesday afternoon. U.S. and Cuban meteorologists disagreed on whether it ever actually became a tropical storm at all.

Forecasters at the U.S. National Hurricane Center in Miami pegged its peak sustained winds at 40 miles per hour, just over the 39 mph threshold to become a named storm.

Cuban forecasters put the top winds at 37 mph and disagreed that it was a tropical storm when it crossed the island. "No tropical storm exists," Cuba's top meteorologist, Jorge Rubiera, said on national television.

U.S. forecasters said Nicole had a poorly defined center of circulation and had been "a marginal system."
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Bizarro Earth

Canada, Quebec: Nun dies in Sherbrooke flooding


CBC News
Fri, 01 Oct 2010 17:51 UTC
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© CBCAuthorities closed major roads into Sherbrooke because of flooding.
Torrential rain over the past two days has caused major flooding across Quebec's Eastern Townships, killing at least one person.

More than 95 millimetres of rain have fallen in the region, which includes the city of Sherbrooke in the last 24 hours, causing nearby rivers to spill their banks.

A 66-year-old Sherbrooke nun plunged to her death Friday morning while trying to track down a leak on her roof. The woman, who lived on Évangéline Street, fell several metres from a ladder as she tried to climb down, according to eyewitnesses.

About 100 people were forced out of their homes because of high water levels in the Saint-François River, which rose to seven metres on Friday.

Transport authorities shut down at least two major arteries into the downtown core, Saint-François North Street and Grandes-Fourches Street because of water accumulation.
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Attention

Germany: Evacuations begin amid record flooding in Brandenburg


The Local
Wed, 29 Sep 2010 12:40 UTC
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© Unknown
Emergency services in Brandenburg are preparing to evacuate the towns of Elsterwerda and Bad Liebenwerda amid flooding caused by record high water levels on the Elster River, officials said Wednesday.

Students of the Elsterschloss secondary school in Elsterwerda were forced to evacuate the school building on Wednesday, a police spokesman said.

In Bad Liebenwerda, the water level had already exceeded the maximum stage four flood alert by 30 centimetres. According to the state's Environment Ministry, the situation was intensifying in that town, with flood waters spilling over the dykes.

"This is no normal flood. We have the highest-ever measured water levels on the Elster," said ministry head Matthias Freude.

In places the flood waters could no longer be contained, making evacuations unavoidable, he said.

In particular danger was the area around the town of Pulsnitz in Saxony and the Schwarzer Elster River.

More than 800 emergency workers have been deployed and 150,000 sandbags transported to the area to contain the rising water.

The head of Ministry for the Cottbus region, Wolfgang Genehr, described the situation as "extremely critical."
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Bizarro Earth

US: Mighty Rains Deluge Cars, Close Roads in Northeast

Frank Eltman and Jim Fitzgerald
The Associated Press
Fri, 01 Oct 2010 10:04 UTC
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© Matt Rourke/AP PhotoAmel Sincere empties out her car after receded floodwaters submerged the parking lot of the Waterford Apartments in Havertown, Pa., Friday.
Torrential downpours from a faded tropical storm inundated the Northeast on Friday, forcing evacuations, toppling trees, cutting power to thousands and washing out roads during a snarled morning commute. Water pooled so deeply in a Philadelphia suburb that a car literally floated on top of another car.

The storm that killed five people in North Carolina on Thursday soaked a great swath of the Northeast by the Friday morning commute, including New York City and Philadelphia. Flights coming into LaGuardia Airport in New York City were delayed three hours and traffic coming into Manhattan was delayed by up to an hour under a pounding rain.

Firefighters in the Philadelphia area used a ladder truck to pull residents through the upper-floor windows of a building. Cars were submerged up to their windows, and a graphic artist found another vehicle floating atop his car.

Rainfall totals in the Philadelphia area topped 10 inches.
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Cloud Lightning

US: Rain Pounds North Carolina as Storm Moves Up the East Coast

Tom Breen
The Associated Press
Thu, 30 Sep 2010 09:19 UTC
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© Chuck Burton/AP PhotoA man cleans his car at a flooded car wash in Carolina Beach, N.C., Thursday, Sept. 30, 2010.
Driving rain from a storm system moving up the East Coast brought flooding to parts of North Carolina on Thursday, caused soggy morning commutes in the Northeast and prompted worries of additional flooding as far north as Maine.

Tornado watches were issued from North Carolina to New Jersey.

In North Carolina, the nearly 21 inches collected in Wilmington since rain started falling Sunday topped Hurricane Floyd's five-day mark of 19 inches set in 1999, the National Weather Service said.

In the eastern part of the state, officials evacuated about 70 people overnight from a mobile home community in Kinston because of high water, Roger Dail, director of emergency services in Lenoir County, said.

"The water's still up," Dail said. "I would suspect it's going to be later today, maybe tomorrow, before the water goes out of there."
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Bizarro Earth

Hundreds Feared Dead After Landslide Buries Mexico Town


MSNBC
Tue, 28 Sep 2010 10:39 UTC
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© European Press Agency A landslide in Puerto Escondido, Oaxaca, Mexico. Reports suggest up to 1,000 people may have died in the remote area of south-western Mexico
'We can't even see the homes,' survivor says; 8,000 people impacted, more slides feared

Hundreds of people were buried in their homes early Tuesday after a rain-soaked mountainside gave way in southwestern Mexico, officials said.

Donato Vargas, an official in Santa Maria Tlahuitoltepec reached by phone, said 500 people were missing and that 300 homes were buried after the slide around 4 a.m. local time.

"We were all sleeping and all I heard was a loud noise and when I left the house I saw that the hill had fallen," Vargas said.

"It has been difficult informing authorities because the roads are very bad and there isn't a good signal for our phone," Vargas said shortly before the call dropped.

Reached by the news agency AFP, Vargas added that "we fear that those missing are buried inside their homes because we've already searched nearby areas."
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Bizarro Earth

US: State Of Emergency Declared In Seven Wisconsin Counties


Chanel3000.com
Fri, 24 Sep 2010 21:03 UTC
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© Unknown
Buffalo, Jackson, Marathon, Portage, Wood Counties Added In Wake Of Flooding

Madison -- Gov. Jim Doyle declared a state of emergency in Buffalo, Jackson, Marathon, Portage and Wood counties on Friday following strong storms that caused flooding in the area.

Seven counties are currently under a state of emergency. Doyle announced a state of emergency in Clark and Trempealeau counties on Thursday.

According to state officials, Wisconsin's Emergency Management and Department of Natural Resources officials are working with the National Guard to assist in recovery efforts.

State officials say the declaration is a response to widespread flooding and storm damage in the affected counties. The storms caused damage to homes and businesses, flooding roads and bringing down power lines.

In Clark County, officials have reported at least three bridges washed away and damage estimates nearing $500,000.
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