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Attention

US: Heavy Rains Cause Mudslide in Maple Grove; Minnesota


Associated Press
Mon, 23 May 2011 17:22 UTC
A mudslide has closed a road in Maple Grove in the northwestern Twin Cities.

Hennepin County officials say an emergency closure is in place on Bottineau Boulevard from 93rd Avenue North to Fernbrook Lane.

Heavy rains and storms over the weekend caused the mudslide.

Crews are working to remove the mudslide so one lane in each direction will be open by Monday evening. Residents are encouraged to find alternate routes.
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Cloud Lightning

US: National Weather Service warns more rain could bring floods to western Montana

Jenna Cederberg
Missoulian
Tue, 24 May 2011 06:36 UTC
Officials are keeping a close eye on both the rivers and the sky this week, as they track several weather systems predicted to bring rain and more flood worries to western Montana.

The National Weather Service issued flood watches for Missoula and Ravalli counties Monday afternoon in anticipation of overnight rainshowers.

Severe flooding in eastern Montana caused road closures and evacuations as the week began, prompting Gov. Brian Schweitzer to issue a statewide flood emergency declaration. Missoula, Ravalli, Sanders, Lincoln, Glacier and Lake counties were all included in the declaration.

The Weather Service issued a flood warning for the Clark Fork River above Missoula as well. The river rose to 9.3 feet Monday and is forecast to reach its 10-foot flood stage by Tuesday morning.

"The area that looks like it will go to flood probably quicker than anything is the Clark Fork River in Missoula. How fast and how much it rises will depend on how much precipitation falls. This forecast could change as we go into the week," said Ray Nickless, hydrologist for the Weather Service.
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Cloud Lightning

Canada: Lake Manitoba residents the latest to fear floods

Melissa Martin
Global Winnipeg
Tue, 24 May 2011 15:05 UTC
Image
© Reuters, The StarphoenixSandbags surround farm buildings as water from a deliberate breach of a dike on the Assiniboine River approaches near Newton, Man. Swollen with water from the Portage Diversion and driven by a gale, Lake Manitoba reared up on Monday and slammed against the shores in cabin country.
Delta Beach, Manitoba - Swollen with water from the Portage Diversion and driven by a gale, Lake Manitoba reared up on Monday and slammed against the shores in cabin country.

Thirty homes in Delta Beach were placed under voluntary evacuation, hours after a blustery north wind sent water crashing against homes, surging over some of the community's roads and swamping three cabins on its southern edge.

The Rural Municipality of Portage la Prairie was monitoring the situation "hour by hour," an official on the scene said, in case a mandatory evacuation order was needed.

But while some cottagers and full-time residents were spotted driving away, cars packed with clothes, other residents along a mucky stretch road stayed, betting that the roads out would stay passable.

With most sandbags in place, all they could do was watch the waves break and wonder what might happen next to the lake that is, suddenly, a threat.
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Cloud Lightning

US: Joplin, Missouri Survivor: Tornado 'Just One Big Wall'

Enjoli Francis
ABC News
Tue, 24 May 2011 16:55 UTC
Joplin tornado
© Mike Gullett/AP PhotoMary Womack, right, reacts to the news that a renter who lived in her house had been found and taken to the hospital, May 23, 2011.
Rance Junge had the surprise of his life when he opened the back door of his Pronto pharmacy in Joplin, Mo., Sunday evening, exposing a scene from another world.

"It was just one big wall," he said of the nearly mile-wide tornado. "You couldn't see a funnel. It was just so massive."

His story of survival is just one of many beginning to emerge after the twister cut a six-mile-wide path through Joplin on Sunday, causing widespread destruction and killing 117 people -- the most from one storm in 60 years.
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Better Earth

US: Flooding Cuts Off Montana Town, More Rain Forecast

Matthew Brown
Seattle PI
Tue, 24 May 2011 05:05 UTC
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© Billings Gazette, Paul Ruhter/APA man walks across South Canal Road in Huntley, Mont. on Sunday, May 22, 2011 as flood water from Pryor Creek inundates a neighborhood and spills over into a canal. Widespead flooding also closed Interstate 90 from Hardin, Mont. to Ranchester, Wyo.
Billings - More rain is on tap this week for Montana communities besieged with flooding that has isolated a town near the Wyoming border, claimed at least one life and left another person missing, state and local authorities said Monday.

Gov. Brian Schweitzer declared a statewide emergency as broad areas of southeastern Montana remained underwater.

Rural communities in southeastern Montana, including the Crow Reservation, were hardest hit, authorities said.

In Carbon County, 84-year-old Betty Kebschull was killed after she was caught in rising waters from an unnamed creek.

Kebschull was swept a short distance downstream from her house near Boyd, where authorities found her body Saturday, Deputy Coroner Ben Mahoney said. A Monday autopsy confirmed she drowned.

In Yellowstone County, authorities were searching for a man reported missing after a backhoe he was operating tipped into Pryor Creek.
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Attention

Summer? What Summer? Scotland Battered by 100mph Winds


Daily Record
Mon, 23 May 2011 16:31 UTC
Scotland wind blown lorry
High winds brought chaos to Scotland's transport network today as falling trees blocked main routes.

Roads, rail, air and ferry services were all affected as winds gusting 100mph were recorded in central Scotland.
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Cloud Lightning

Lightning strikes kill 40 in Bangladesh


IOL News
Tue, 24 May 2011 14:42 UTC
Image
Dhaka - Lightning strikes during a heavy rainstorm in Bangladesh killed at least 40 people and injured more than 150, most of them harvesting rice in fields or fishing, police and officials said on Tuesday.

The deaths, the largest number of casualties from lightning in a single day, occurred on Monday. Ten people died in northwestern Chapainawabganj district.

Rainstorms ahead of the monsoon season starting in May or June often bring electric storms that kill residents and damage crops.
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Cloud Lightning

US: Nursing Home Lost At Least 11 in Joplin Twister


MSNBC
Tue, 24 May 2011 14:00 UTC
As death toll in tornado-ripped city hits 117, people brace for possible second punch from new storm system. Searches continue ahead of new storms; 1,500 people unaccounted for

Joplin, Missouri - As rescue crews in this city made their way through the debris of thousands of homes and concrete slabs where large stores once stood, the death toll crept higher and a nursing home operator reported that at least 11 of the fatalities were at its premises.

"What used to be a building was nothing more than a pile of rubble," said Bill Mitchell, who operated Greenbriar on the city's south side. Ten victims were residents and the 11th was a staff member, he added. One person remains unaccounted for.


"One of the little old men from the nursing home was standing in the middle of the street when we came out of the house," neighbor Sandy Conlee told the Joplin Globe in describing the aftermath. "He had blood all over his head. He was in shock."
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Bizarro Earth

US: 2011 Tornado Death Toll Is Worst Since 1953

Andrea Mustain
OurAmazingPlanet
Tue, 24 May 2011 11:06 UTC
Tornado
© NOAATornadoes have killed hundreds of people so far this year.
2011 has a grim new place in the record books: the deadliest year for tornadoes in more than five decades, with 482 people killed by the storms as of this writing.

It's the highest number of fatalities from tornadoes since 1953, when twisters killed 519 people, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the home agency of the National Weather Service.

As of Tuesday morning, the death toll from the devastating tornado that smashed through Joplin, Mo. on Sunday (May 22) had risen to 117, and could continue to rise as officials sort through the wreckage of the town, home to almost 50,000 people.
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Cloud Lightning

US: Joplin survivors recall '15 minutes of hell'


boston.com
Tue, 24 May 2011 11:05 UTC
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© Eric Thayer/ ReutersRyan Harper paused while looking for a missing friend after a devastating tornado hit Joplin, Mo. yesterday.
Rod Pace, manager of the medical helicopter service at St. John's Regional Medical Center in Joplin had just finished payroll paperwork Sunday evening when he decided to stay an extra 15 to 20 minutes to let the menacing weather pass.

From the second floor, he watched the storm approach. The swirling rain began to form about a mile away.

Then the glass doors he was holding onto - with a 100-pound magnet to keep them locked - were suddenly pulled open. Pace was sucked outside briefly and then pushed back in like a rag doll, all the while clinging to the handles.
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