Storms

US: Huge Haboob Hits Lubbock, Texas

OurAmazingPlanet
Tue, 18 Oct 2011 16:08 UTC

A giant dust storm known as a haboob swept through Lubbock, Texas, on Monday, blotting out the sun and turning everything a hazy copper.

The 8,000-foot-tall (2,400 meters) dust cloud knocked down trees and power lines, sparked small wildfires and damaged a hangar at the local airport, reported the Los Angeles Times.

Jerald Meadows, a meteorologist based in Lubbock, told the L.A. Times that smaller haboobs of around 1,000 feet (305 m) in height are fairly common in the area, but that yesterday's whopper was "fairly rare." He attributed the storm to the dry condition in the area, which have plagued most of Texas this year, and strong cold front with whipping winds that moved in from the Rockies. The storm traveled at an estimated 75 mph (120 kph).

Haboob is Arabic for "strong wind."

US: Dust Storm Roils Through Texas South Plains

The Associated Press
Tue, 18 Oct 2011 07:34 UTC

Winds gusting at more than 70 mph churned up a dust storm that roiled through the Texas South Plains during the Monday afternoon commute. Dust kicked up by westerly breezes ahead of a strong cold front restricted visibility in Lubbock to about 5 miles all afternoon, said National Weather Service Lubbock meteorologist Matt Ziebell.

That was nothing compared to the 8,000-foot-high rolling dust cloud that moved through the city just before 6 p.m., dropping visibility to between zero and less than a quarter of a mile, Ziebell said. North winds gusting as high as 74 mph had begun forming the dust cloud about 100 miles north of Lubbock around 4:30 p.m., he said.

Thai PM says floods costs to top $3.3bn, death toll reaches 300

Thanaporn Promyamyai
Jakarta Globe
Mon, 17 Oct 2011 14:57 UTC

Three months of heavy rains have deluged about one third of Thailand's provinces

The Thai premier on Monday said reconstruction from massive floods swamping vast swathes of the country is expected to cost the government over $3.3 billion -- a fifth more than previously estimated.

Fears for the capital Bangkok appeared to have eased as authorities battled to contain Thailand's worst flooding in decades, which has claimed over 300 lives, swallowed homes and shut down industry.

But Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra warned: "The original budget to support the recovery of both the industrial and agricultural sectors is not likely to be enough."

Storms Kill Dozens in Central America

The Star Phoenix
Sat, 15 Oct 2011 18:53 UTC

© Getty Images, Agence France-Presse
Rescuers search for victims of a landslide 170 kilometres west of Guatemala City on Friday. Guatemala remains under red alert with 56.000 people affected by torrential rains.

Two storm systems left at least 38 people dead and forced tens of thousands from their homes after heavy rains battered Central America and Mexico's Pacific coast, officials said Friday.

Guatemala alone accounted for 21 killed, according to local authorities and emergency services.

The toll in Mexico rose to eight Friday with three more reported dead from flooding and landslides in the wake of Hurricane Jova, which hit the Pacific coast as a category two hurricane Tuesday before weakening to a tropical storm.

Torrential rains destroyed and carried away bridges in Guatemala, where authorities confirmed 21 deaths and 55,000 people affected by a tropical depression, which hit Central America at the start of the week.

Australia: Hail storms lash southeast Queensland, killing one and causing flash flooding, havoc on roads

The Courier-Mail
Fri, 14 Oct 2011 16:21 UTC

Southeast Queensland will be hit with a second day of heavy rain after yesterday's violent storms killed a driver seeking shelter.

The deadly rain and thick hail that lashed the southeast on Thursday left thousands of homes without power and hundreds of homes and businesses severely damaged.

The 42-year-old Crestmead man was killed by a tree that fell on his car as he parked at the side of Johnson Rd at Hillcrest in Logan City.

A woman was killed when a car smashed into two other cars that had stopped on a road in the heavy rain at Pittsworth, near Toowoomba.

Residents Evacuate From Thai Floodwaters

Paula Hancocks
CNN
Sat, 15 Oct 2011 15:32 UTC

The Thailand government is diverting floodwaters to protect Bangkok's inner city.

Bangkok braced for devastating floods

Ian MacKinnon
The Telegraph
Fri, 14 Oct 2011 12:04 UTC

Anxiety and uncertainty seized Thailand's low-lying capital on Friday as residents waited apprehensively to find out if their city would be swamped by the rising flood waters that have shut factories and devastated rice crops across a swath of the country.

Conflicting official information sowed the seeds of doubt about the risk faced by city of 12 million as troops and an army volunteers rushed to shore up sandbag barriers crumbling under the deluge lapping at the periphery of the metropolis.

Stocks of food and bottled water have started to run low.

Panicked residents left bare supermarket shelves in buying sprees and trucks had difficulty making deliveries from outlying areas of the city.

Deadly storms swamp Mexico and Guatemala

MSNBC
Thu, 13 Oct 2011 11:30 UTC

© Marco Ugarte / AP
Floodwaters from Hurricane Jova swamp a main intersection in Villa de las Garzas, Mexico, on Wednesday.

Beach areas get swamped, while mountain towns see flash floods

Hurricane Jova slammed into Mexico's Pacific coast as a Category 2 storm early Wednesday, killing at least five people and injuring six, while a tropical depression hit farther south and unleashed steady rains that contributed to 13 deaths across the border in Guatemala.

Jova came ashore west of the Mexican port of Manzanillo and the beach town of Barra de Navidad before dawn with 100 mph winds and heavy rains, before moving inland and weakening to a tropical depression by afternoon. It continued to dump rain over a large swath of northwest Mexico, including Jalisco state where rainfall this year had been low.

A 71-year-old woman drowned in Colima state after a strong current swept away the car in which she and her son were riding. Her son survived, Colima Gov. Mario Anguiano said.

In the neighboring state of Jalisco, Jova triggered a mudslide in the town of Cihuatlan, just inland from Barra de Navidad, that swept away a house on a hillside, killing a 21-year-old woman and her daughter, Jalisco civil protection officials said in a statement.

Farther northwest along the Mexican coast in the town of Tomatlan, about 12 miles from where Jova landed, a man and a teenage boy were killed when a wall of their home softened by heavy rains fell on them, officials said.

Hurricane Jova swamps Mexican towns, slides feared inland

MSNBC
Wed, 12 Oct 2011 14:09 UTC

Hurricane Jova flooded the streets of Mexico's main Pacific port with torrential rain Wednesday, and inundated several popular beach resorts along the coast.

© Marco Ugarte / AP
Floodwaters from Hurricane Jova swamp a main intersection in Villa de las Garzas, Mexico, on Wednesday.

Streets in the port city of Manzanillo were underwater, communities along the coast were flooded and roads were blocked due to fallen trees and washouts after Jova hit the coast as a Category Two storm late Tuesday.

Highways leading northwest from Manzanillo along the coast were closed and the beach towns of Zihuatlan, Melaque and Barra de Navidad were swamped with floodwaters, according to the Red Cross. However, there were no reports of injuries or deaths.

"The streets of Manzanillo are impassable, as are the highways connecting Manzanillo with the south of Jalisco," national Red Cross coordinator Isaac Oxenhaut said.

US: Severe weather leads to power outages, wrecks in North Texas

Marjorie Owens
WFAA.com
Wed, 12 Oct 2011 10:52 UTC

Thousands in North Texas woke up this morning to find their homes without power after severe weather blew through the area overnight.

As of 6:30 a.m., there were about 5,000 outages in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, according to Cristi Ramon, a spokeswoman for Oncor. While Occupy Dallas protesters donned ponchos and took shelter in their tents as rain fell down on Pioneer Plaza, drivers across North Texas reported accidents and high water.

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State power has its own limits defined by the fact that it is authority that reaches people from outside. State power cannot oversee and dictate the creative states of the soul and mind, the inner states of love, freedom and goodwill. The state cannot demand from its citizens faith, prayer, love, goodness and conviction. It cannot regulate scientific, religious and artistic creation. It should not intervene in moral, family and daily private life, and only when extremely necessary should it impinge on people's economic initiative and creativity.

- Ivan Ilyin

They are cracking down on crypto because they know it is a threat to their central banking model.

poooolish

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Christian83

I sense a surge of archeological one-upmanship lately. What do they want to prove to each other, or us ?!?!?

codis

I don't view DARPA or Russian reports about new weapon systems or ongoing developments as anything else than peception management.

codis

Ashes to ashes, bones to dust. R.C.

Rowan Cocoan

Storms

US: Huge Haboob Hits Lubbock, Texas

US: Dust Storm Roils Through Texas South Plains

Thai PM says floods costs to top $3.3bn, death toll reaches 300

Storms Kill Dozens in Central America

Australia: Hail storms lash southeast Queensland, killing one and causing flash flooding, havoc on roads

Residents Evacuate From Thai Floodwaters

Bangkok braced for devastating floods

Deadly storms swamp Mexico and Guatemala

Hurricane Jova swamps Mexican towns, slides feared inland

US: Severe weather leads to power outages, wrecks in North Texas

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