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LONDON — The worst flooding to hit England in at least 60 years has put tens of thousands of people to flight, many leaving their homes, cars and possessions to the ravages of rising water and looters. Forecasters warned yesterday that more rain is on the way. Flash floods that started Friday have inundated thousands of square miles of central and western England, including William Shakespeare's hometown of Stratford-upon-Avon. Other favorite tourist destinations such as Oxford and Windsor are under threat. An estimated 90,000 gallons of water per second is sweeping down the Thames River, so far sparing London but...

11 deaths reported as rescue crews struggle to keep up with emergencies. Rain poured down Thursday for the 16th straight day across Texas and Oklahoma, where flash floods and high winds have already killed 11 people. With little relief expected until the Fourth of July, emergency crews were being flown in from other states to help with rescue efforts.

KANSAS CITY, Mo. - Heavy rain from an already deadly storm system sent the Missouri River and other Midwest waterways over their banks Tuesday, forcing thousands of people to evacuate and bringing warnings that the region could see flooding close to the devastation of 1993. Missouri Gov. Matt Blunt declared a state of emergency and mobilized National Guard troops to help. At least 19 Kansas counties declared local disaster emergencies. River towns across much of Missouri were evacuating low-lying areas Tuesday or seeking help filling and stacking sandbags. "We're scrambling around here," said Steve Mellis, who was volunteering near the...

Very sad story for those interested in New Jersey and Revolutionary War history. Heavy damage to the house and some collection. Follow the link to Bergen County Historical Society's web page for pics.

Scientists have long said the only way to restore Louisiana’s vanishing wetlands is to undo the elaborate levee system that controls the Mississippi River, not with the small projects that have been tried here and there, but with a massive diversion that would send the muddy river flooding wholesale into the state’s sediment-starved marshes. And most of them have long dismissed the idea as impractical, unaffordable and lethal to the region’s economy. Now, they are reconsidering. In fact, when a group of researchers convened last April to consider the fate of the Louisiana coast, their recommendation was unanimous: divert the...

Warmer climes have led to more rain and less snow falling in the Western U.S., a shift that could increase the risk of flooding and affect water supplies, according to a study by the U.S. Geological Survey. Researchers found that warmer weather in the last half century has led to an average decline in snowfall of about 20% in the 11 Western mountain states -- much of it falling instead in the form of rain. During that period, the average temperature in the region has risen by about one degree Celsius. Two years ago, a separate group of scientists at...

With a tropical storm threatening Florida and the one-year anniversary of Katrina approaching, CNN’s August 28 “American Morning” kicked off a weeklong look at “Red Tape and Rubble” in the Gulf Coast. But Ali Velshi’s first report in the series was unbalanced, treating insurance companies as guilty until proven innocent of greed or fraud. “We’re going to be there when you need us,” anchor Soledad O’Brien said is the promise insurance companies extend out to policy holders, “But many Katrina victims think uh, uh, that’s not true,” she complained. O’Brien set the stage for Velshi’s unbalanced report by painting insurance...

EL PASO, Texas -- Almost 1,000 people waited in a shelter Friday to see whether the rain-swollen Rio Grande would puncture an earthen dam and flood portions of downtown, a city spokeswoman said. Water was seeping out of the aging, badly eroded dam across the Mexican border in Ciudad Juarez, and crews spent much of the night pumping out the area, spokeswoman Juliet Lozano said. U.S. engineers were headed to the site Friday, she said. The threat came after more than an inch of rain fell on the area Thursday, most of it in about an hour, and a later...

UP TO 200,000 ORDERED EVACUATED FROM WILKES-BARRE, PENNSYLVANIA, IN NEXT FIVE HOURS- COUNTY OFFICIAL

COASTAL HAZARD MESSAGE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE BALTIMORE MD/WASHINGTON DC 608 PM EDT TUE JUN 27 2006 -snip- Flood Statement FLOOD STATEMENT WVC003-023-027-031-037-065-071-MDC001-021-031-043-VAC013-047-059- 061-107-177-179-510-630-DCC001-280709- FLOOD STATEMENT NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE BALTIMORE MD/WASHINGTON DC 909 PM EDT TUE JUN 27 2006 ...SIGNIFICANT RISES UNDERWAY IN THE POTOMAC AND RAPPAHANNOCK RIVER BASINS... THE POTOMAC RIVER AT HARPERS FERRY AT 6 PM TUESDAY WAS 4.8 FEET AND RISING. FLOOD STAGE IS 18.0 FEET AND RECORD STAGE IS 36.5 FEET. AT 18.0 FEET, WATER BEGINS TO INUNDATE LOW LYING SERVICE ROADS ON THE SHENANDOAH RIVER SIDE OF HISTORIC HARPERS FERRY, DUE TO BACKWATER EFFECTS. THE POTOMAC...

Looks like Houston is a mess and things could get a whole lot worse. How is your part of town looking? Roads? Flooding? We're in Pearland near where 1128 and 518 (Broadway) intersect. Our yard has a small amount of standing water but all looks well for now.

So Mitt Romney goes on national TV yesterday and says he’s “making sure there is no looting of any kind.” Looting? Not around here, Governor, not unless the looters have got some of those airboats like they use in the Everglades. Unfortunately, this is what happens when the governor spends so much of his time out of state, telling jokes at the expense of Massachusetts. He’s starting to believe his own material. Of course that was the only reason Mitt was invited on to begin with. The networks are in the middle of a sweeps month, and they desperately wanted...

By AccuWeather.com News Director Steve Penstone (STATE COLLEGE) - AccuWeather.com is forecasting strong storms will develop over Texas and Oklahoma later today. The three ingredients necessary for the development of severe weather will be over the Lone Star State today. Southeast winds will bring ample amounts of moist air from the Gulf, cold air will move in behind the system as it heads east, and a powerful jet stream is in place to stir everything together. The system will rocket out of the southern Rockies and into the southern Plains, and by late afternoon or this evening thunderstorms will develop...

SACRAMENTO, Calif. - Rain was falling again Tuesday in northern and central California, where Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger declared a state of emergency in seven counties that have been battered by storms and flooding. In his emergency declaration Monday, Schwarzenegger warned that levees in the region had been seriously weakened by the storms and were in danger of breaking. The National Weather Service forecast rain through the weekend. "There's great vulnerability in the San Joaquin Valley and the Central Valley," Schwarzenegger said after touring the state's flood operations center. "We want to do everything we can to make sure that we...

FARGO, N.D. - Mayor Bruce Furness declared an emergency Thursday to help the city prepare for spring flooding. Officials said they closed some streets near the Red River but they believe the city is in good shape. "We've decided again to provide free sandbags to people along the river. And at this point, we think it's just a very few people," Furness said. "I want to emphasize that it's not a real critical situation at this point, but it is one that we have concern about," the mayor said. "We've ordered sand, we've ordered pumps to do the pumping that...

Published online: 23 March 2006 | doi:10.1038/news060320-8 Warnings rise over rising seas Fresh predictions about climate change prompt news@nature.com to ask what we know about the future of our oceans. Michael Hopkin Greenland is melting: water streams from glaciers in the south. © Science/Courtesy of Richard B. Alley The polar ice caps may melt far faster under the pressure of global warming than experts previously thought. New predictions suggest that, without efforts to curb the rise of greenhouse gases, the world's ice sheets could retreat farther by the year 2100 than they have in the past 130,000 years, leading to...

Heaving rain is causing flooding in Dallas/ Ft. Worth. Heavier Storms still coming. Six Flags Over Texas is under water.

For the first time ever, scientists have confirmed that the Earth is melting at both ends.  They have long predicted that up in the Arctic, global warming would start to melt Greenland's 2-mile thick ice sheet, but scientists have been predicting - and hoping - that the far more massive ice sheet covering Antarctica would actually increase in the 21st century. Yet, the scientists' new measurements find that, despite the increasing snowfall that comes with global warming, Antarctica's ice sheets are losing far more than the snow is adding: Dr. Jay Zwally - NASA Glaciologist: "The warmer ocean comes underneath...

Feb 27 2006 4:57PM Southern Russia braces for severe flooding ROSTOV-ON-DON. Feb 27 (Interfax) - A total of 689 towns and villages - home to over 860,000 people - in Russia's South Federal District face sever spring floods this year. Up to 7,000 square kilometers of land, including 5,500 square kilometers of agricultural lands, may be flooded, Lieut. Gen. Sergei Kudinov, chief of the Emergency Situations Ministry's southern branch, told an Interfax-South news conference in Rostov-on-Don on Monday. "Areas where 73 cemeteries for domestic cattle and 25 hazardous chemical sites are located may be flooded as well," Kudinov said. The...

GIVEN THE PASTING PRESIDENT BUSH has taken over the government's response to Hurricane Katrina, one might have assumed the president's critics were in agreement about how to prevent such disasters. But for years now, the left has been deeply ambivalent about the most logical and time-tested mitigator against the threat of city-wide and regional floods: dams.How could dams, embraced by everyone from beavers to Franklin Delano Roosevelt, be a source of contention? Ask the environmentalists. Their campaign against dams has gained influence and stalled, decommissioned, or otherwise limited the construction of many dams and levees, including one project that could...

California vineyards flooded as torrential rain causes chaos By Catherine Elsworth in Los Angeles (Filed: 02/01/2006) Northern California's famous wine country suffered widespread flooding yesterday after powerful storms pummelled the region. Rivers overflowed their banks, engulfing homes and triggering mudslides that blocked roads across the area. At least a dozen people were rescued from the rushing waters and, with more rain forecast, emergency officials urged residents in low-lying areas close to rivers to evacuate. The heaviest rain hit the Napa Valley area, just north of San Francisco and home to more than 200 vineyards, including the Robert Mondavi Winery, Francis...

NAPA, Calif. - A powerful storm sent rivers and creeks spilling over their banks and into cities and set off mudslides that blocked major highways across Northern California on Saturday. At least a dozen people had to be rescued from the rushing water, and forecasters were warning of another storm on Sunday. California officials urged residents along the Napa and Russian rivers and on hillsides to collect their valuables and get out. In the city of Napa, near the heart of wine country, the river rose 5 feet over flood stage and water surged into downtown before the water began...

Sacramento area TV news is reporting that I-80 between Truckee and the CA/NV border is closed due to a massive mudslide. Caltrans estimates closure for several days until cleaned up.

U.S. Military Personnel in Italy Evacuated Due to Flooding Story Number: NNS051215-09 Release Date: 12/15/2005 5:00:00 PM From Commander, Navy Region Europe Public Affairs NAVAL AIR STATION SIGONELLA, Sicily (NNS) -- Floods from weeklong, heavy rainfall resulted in a mandatory evacuation of the Maranai government housing complex at Naval Air Station (NAS) Sigonella, Sicily, Italy, Dec. 15, a day after the commanding officer declared a state of emergency at the U.S. base. Continuous heavy rainfall since Dec. 13 has resulted in flooding and power outages aboard NAS Sigonella and in surrounding areas, including government housing units in Maranai and Maneo....

New Orleans Levee Failure Analysis - Part V Contents Introduction and Basic Levee Construction, Section and Elevation Details Section 1. Pre-Landfall Flooding in Kenner and Western Metairie of East Jefferson Parish Section 2. Analysis of the 17th Street and London Canal Breaches and Post Katrina Flood Sequence in Downtown New Orleans Section 3. Surge Sequence for the Industrial Canal Basin, Analysis of the Five Major Breaches and east Orleans Parish Flooding Section 4. Flood Sequence for St. Bernard Parish and the Lower Ninth Ward, MRGO Reach Failure Analysis Section 5. Contributory Causality, Political and Funding Issues Leading to Levee Failures...

Decades of debate failed to answer whether a little-used shipping channel east of the city would invite disaster during a major hurricane. Katrina may have settled the argument. After massive flooding killed hundreds in St. Bernard Parish, eastern New Orleans and the Lower 9th Ward, there is growing consensus that Katrina's surge was made far worse by the Mississippi River-Gulf Outlet, a 76-mile shortcut between the city and the Gulf of Mexico. And while the shipping industry vows to protect the channel, political momentum appears increasingly in favor of St. Bernard officials who have long warned the waterway must be...

In a stunning case of déjà vu, residents of the Ninth Ward were delivered another blow hampering their efforts to clean up their homes and begin the process of rebuilding. Water was found ponding in some areas of the flood ravaged neighborhoods, leaving many to believe that the levees had once again been topped. The Army Corps of Engineers said 8 to 12 inches of water were discovered in selected parts of the Ninth Ward; the result of a weak pumping system. National Guardsmen were blocking all entrances into the neighborhood while the Army Corps of Engineers monitored the situation....

KEENE, New Hampshire (AP) -- Prolonged, heavy rain caused flooding from North Carolina to New Hampshire during the weekend, forcing hundreds of people to evacuate, knocking out electricity, weakening dams and making roads impassable. At least four people died, including two people killed in New Hampshire when a car apparently drove off a washed-out bridge into floodwaters, officials said Sunday. A fifth person was missing and feared dead. Gov. John Lynch returned from Europe to take charge of relief efforts in New Hampshire. He declared a state of emergency and called in 500 National Guard members for assistance. "This is...

New Orleans -- Much of the city flooded not because water rushed over the tops of levees, but because two of the storm barriers that ring New Orleans actually shifted and then collapsed, a team of independent engineers said Friday. The preliminary analysis contradicts initial reports by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which said water may have pushed over the top of the levees, eroding the earthen embankments that support the flood walls. The independent engineers said the shifting of the barriers was understandable and did not assign blame or speculate about design flaws that the storm surge from...

The Dutch are gearing up for climate change with amphibious houses. If rivers rise above their banks, the houses simply rise upwards as well. Such innovation could be good news for hurricane and flood-stunned America. But are water lovers prepared to live on swimming family arks?

BELLE CHASSE, La. (NNS) -- Firefighters and Marines from Naval Air Station Joint Reserve Base (NAS JRB) New Orleans helped evacuate more than 60 people Sept. 24 from an area flooded in the aftermath of Hurricane Rita. Eight firefighters and three Marines responded to a call for assistance from the Lafitte Volunteer Fire Department. The call was placed early that morning when water from the nearby bayou started flooding the small community, which is located approximately 25 miles southwest of New Orleans. Two fire engines, a military humvee, and a seven-ton transport vehicle were sent with the team to help...

This is part four of a five part series examining the Hurricane Katrina levee failures. Part 1 is a timeline sequence of who reported what flood events, to whom, and when it was reported. It can be found here: Part I: Hurricane Katrina Flood Report Sequence Part 2 is a discussion of the levee system's viability, or lack thereof, prior to Hurricane Katrina. It can be found here: Part II: Pre-Katrina Levee Assessment Part 3 is a discussion of the overall storm surge sequence, levee failure modes, and causal limitations relating to the 17th Street Canal and London Canal seawall...

NEW ORLEANS - Outer bands of rain from Hurricane Rita began falling in New Orleans on Thursday, and forecasts of between 3 and 5 inches of rainfall in the coming days raised fears the patched levee system could fail and flood the city all over again. A direct hit from Hurricane Rita was still unlikely, but the Category 5 storm veered on a more northerly course toward a Saturday landfall in Texas that put New Orleans on the eastern edge of tropical storm warning. The rainfall Rita could bring to New Orleans put it dangerously close to the predictions that...

October 30, 1991: President George Bush opens the Madrid Conference with an initiative for a Middle East peace plan involving Israel's land. On the same day, an extremely rare storm forms off the coast of Nova Scotia. (It was eventually tagged "The Perfect Storm," and a book and movie were made about it.) Record-setting 100-foot waves form at sea and pound the New England Coast, even causing heavy damage to President Bush's home in Kennebunkport, Maine. August 23, 1992: The Madrid Conference moves to Washington D.C. and the peace talks resume, lasting four days. On that same day, Hurricane Andrew-the...

October 01, 2001 Drowning New Orleans A major hurricane could swamp New Orleans under 20 feet of water, killing thousands. Human activities along the Mississippi River have dramatically increased the risk, and now only massive reengineering of southeastern Louisiana can save the city ...

A steel barge that came crashing into one of the levee walls, and not the failure of that levee to hold back an immense tidal wave, was to blame for much of the flooding that drowned parts of New Orleans. Lying an average of seven feet below sea level, surrounded by the waters of Lake Ponchartrain, the Mississippi River and Lake Borgne, which separates Lake Pontchartrain from the Gulf of Mexico, and protected by a series of sinking levees, the city of New Orleans was a disaster waiting to happen. It happened on August 29, 2005, just as the city...

There are two kinds of homes in New Orleans' historic French Quarter, says Allen Fugler, vice president of marketing for Lipca, an insurer of pest-control operator: "homes that have Formosan termites and those that will get them fairly soon". Indeed, the vicious Formosan subterranean termite, dubbed "super termite" by Louisiana State University's agriculture research and extension center, has infested nearly all of the houses and 30 percent of the trees in greater New Orleans, costing homeowners and the state and federal governments $300 million annually in repairs and prevention efforts. Unlike ordinary termites, these pests can literally destroy a wood-framed...

It was a broiling August afternoon in New Orleans, Louisiana, the Big Easy, the City That Care Forgot. Those who ventured outside moved as if they were swimming in tupelo honey. Those inside paid silent homage to the man who invented air-conditioning as they watched TV "storm teams" warn of a hurricane in the Gulf of Mexico. Nothing surprising there: Hurricanes in August are as much a part of life in this town as hangovers on Ash Wednesday. When did this calamity happen? It hasn't—yet. But the doomsday scenario is not far-fetched. The Federal Emergency Management Agency lists a hurricane...

An estimated 377,700 Hurricane Katrina refugees are in shelters, hotels, homes and other housing in 33 states and Washington, D.C., according to the Red Cross and state officials: TEXAS: An estimated 205,000 in shelters and homes LOUISIANA: About 54,000 in 240 shelters, 659 in special needs shelters ARKANSAS: About 50,000 in shelters, motels and homes TENNESSEE: 15,500 MISSISSIPPI: 13,262 in 104 Red Cross shelters MISSOURI: Nearly 6,100 in homes, hotels and church camps FLORIDA: 3,472 in 48 shelters ALABAMA: 2,183 in shelters; 660 in hotels; 116 in state parks; more in homes KENTUCKY: 116 at Murray camp in western...

There has been something askew in the reporting from New Orleans. It has bothered me for a week now. Finally, when I took a look at the 2000 census data on New Orleans, a lot became clearer. According to the Census, the population of New Orleans in 2000 was 485,000 of whom 326,000 were black, 136,000 white, and the remaining ten thousand or so each, Asian or Hispanic. If 75-80 percent of the population evacuated the city safely before the storm hit, as everybody is reporting, that means that far more than half the black population escaped safely before the...

Where to even begin in being one more idiot talking about Hurricane Katrina? I hate the subject. It should be a news item and a humanitarian cause --a huge recovery and reconstruction effort joined in by all. It should not a political issue fit for “commentary.” But the Hurricane tore at more than just the weaknesses in New Orleans’ inadequate levees. The shortcomings of the levee system were known to all who ever lived on the Gulf Coast, and in the end, all the levees really did was encourage expanded development in a huge geologic bowl sitting between a large...

Amazing before and after animated satellite imagery. http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/facility/new-orleans-imagery.htm

NEW ORLEANS (AP) - Planes, trains and buses delivered refugees to safety on Saturday as the evacuation of this ruined city finally appeared to pick up steam. Buses had evacuated most people from the frightening confines of the Superdome by early morning. At the equally squalid convention center, thousands of people began pushing and dragging their belongings up the street to more than a dozen air-conditioned buses, the mood more numb than jubilant. More than 50,000 people had been trapped for days at the two filthy, sweltering buildings, suffering from a lack of food, water or medical attention. Help came...

Advanced Search Is Bush to Blame for New Orleans Flooding? He did slash funding for levee projects. But the Army Corps of Engineers says Katrina was just too strong.September 2, 2005Modified: September 2, 2005 eMail to a friend Printer Friendly Version Summary   Some critics are suggesting President Bush was as least partly responsible for the flooding in New Orleans. In a widely quoted opinion piece, former Clinton aide Sidney Blumenthal says that "the damage wrought by the hurricane may not entirely be the result of an act of nature," and cites years of reduced funding for federal flood-control projects...

No, this isn’t about Maureen Dowd or Paul Krugman. That’s too easy. It’s about a story on flooding in New Orleans today (1 September). Here’s the lead: “The 17th Street levee that gave way and led to the flooding of New Orleans was part of an intricate, aging system of barriers and pumps that was so chronically underfinanced that senior regional officials of the Army Corps of Engineers complained about it publicly for years.” The second and third paragraphs say: “Often leading the chorus was Alfred C. Naomi, a senior project manager for the corps... [who] grew particularly frustrated this...

Already we are watching in frustration as looters swarm over what is left of the City of New Orleans, and now we witness the underside of the Democrat Party crawling out in to the daylight, only to act as "Political Looters". They deserve all the castigation and rejection they receive. How can we respond? By shaming them in the eyes of the majority of Americans... by doing something really positive and needed!! The contrast will be undeniable! But what to do? Money to the Red Cross, of course. If you are an EMW or other emergency worker, volunteer. But the...

Not all Nationwide Insurance homeowners in Florida have to worry about a round of rate hikes going into effect starting this month. Thousands won't be renewed at all. Beginning March 1, Nationwide will not renew about 35,000 homeowners' and 4,800 mobile home policies across the state, the Columbus, Ohio, company said Wednesday. It also will no longer write mobile home policies starting today and won't renew about 12,000 commercial policies (mainly condominiums, apartments and rentals) starting March 1. After the cutback, the fourth-biggest property insurer in Florida will continue to carry about 570,000 policies in Florida, including 240,000 homeowners' policies....

Editor's Note: An additional article by Mike Bayham, Katrina's Wrath, can be found here. For 90% of the day I have been furiously calling anyone in New Orleans-St. Bernard for information, without much success. By midnight New Orleans time, the cell phone transmitters in the area were mostly operational (with the exception of Verizon) and I was finally able to reach a member of the sheriff's office for an update. What he said sent chills down my back. Almost all of St. Bernard was destroyed by the hurricane. The crevasse in the levee system led to the flooding as did...

In the wake of Hurricane Katrina, much of New Orleans is under water in the top satellite image, taken on August 30, 2005, at 11:45 a.m. CDT by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Terra satellite. Early news reports say that as much as 80 percent of the city is flooded after levies failed to hold Katrina’s massive storm surge back. The flooding is getting worse as water slowly seeps into the city from Lake Pontchartrain. On Saturday, August 27, 2005, New Orleans formed a tan and green grid sandwiched between the lake shore and the river in...

<p>Late Tuesday, Gov. Blanco spokeswoman Denise Bottcher described a disturbing scene unfolding in uptown New Orleans, where looters were trying to break into Children's Hospital.</p> <p>Bottcher said the director of the hospital fears for the safety of the staff and the 100 kids inside the hospital. The director said the hospital is locked, but that the looters were trying to break in and had gathered outside the facility.</p>