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The cracks that appeared in the levee of the Yangtze River after a 5.7-magnitude earthquake hit Jiujiang in East China's Jiangxi Province on Saturday "pose no danger for the time being," said government officials yesterday. The cracks were found in the Yong'an section of the levee, 30 metres above the ground, Zheng Keqiang, deputy secretary-general of the Jiangxi provincial government, said at a news conference. "The cracks will cause no immediate havoc as the Yangtze River is in dry season," Zheng said. The earthquake, measuring 5.7 on the Richter scale, rocked Ruichang and Jiujiang on Saturday morning, killing at least...

PARIS - In one case, the catalyst was Hurricane Katrina; in the other, a freak electrocution accident in a Paris suburb. What followed — drownings and dislocation in the United States, riots across France — has forced each nation to confront problems of racism and poverty that are deeply entrenched but usually ignored. The parallel soul-searching is taking place in two countries where politicians and pundits have long delighted in mocking the other's perceived hypocrisies and flaws. "I'm not sure you can say that one country's system is better or worse than the other — neither works very well," said...

Do Not Fear Disasters (Originally titled: What Are the Clouds?) August 19, 1855 by C. H. SPURGEON (1834-1892) “Clouds are the dust of his feet.”—Nahum 1:3 It is possible for a man to read too many books. We will not despise learning, we will book undervalue education, such achievements are very desirable; and, when his talents are sanctified to God, the man of learning frequently becomes, in the hands of the Spirit, far more useful than the ignorant and the uneducated; but at the same time, if a man acquires his knowledge entirely from books, he will not find himself...

OSLO — Deforestation is often wrongly blamed for causing floods, like in Guatemala this month, under a myth that has skewed agricultural policies, an international report said on Thursday. "There is no scientific evidence linking large-scale flooding to deforestation," the U.N.'s Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and the Indonesia-based Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR) said in a report. The frequency of major floods in the past 120 years, back to the late 19th century when forests were far more abundant, has been stable worldwide, it said. That implied that deforestation was not a cause of flooding. It said devastation...

ALSTEAD, N.H. - Prolonged, heavy rain caused flooding from North Carolina to New Hampshire over 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 flood waters, 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 the...

Politics: Louisiana's senior senator, whose brother is lieutenant governor and whose father was New Orleans' mayor, is blaming President Bush for "the staggering incompetence of the federal government." Come again? It's understandable that on the Sept. 4 edition of ABC's "This Week," Mary Landrieu said of President Bush, "I might likely have to punch him — literally" if he or members of his administration made any more disparaging remarks about local authorities and their pre- and post-Katrina efforts. Some are and were family. Brother Mitch Landrieu is lieutenant governor of Louisiana. Father "Moon" Landrieu was not only mayor of New...

U.S. Geological Survey seismologist Lucy Jones remembers attending an emergency training session in August 2001 with the Federal Emergency Management Agency that discussed the three most likely catastrophes to strike the United States. First on the list was a terrorist attack in New York. Second was a super-strength hurricane hitting New Orleans. Third was a major earthquake on the San Andreas fault. Now that the first two have come to pass, she and other earthquake experts are using the devastating aftermath of Hurricane Katrina as an opportunity to reassess how California would handle a major temblor. Jones, scientist-in-charge for the...

Hurricane Katrina was barely gone when the anti-God crowd was already at it. Smugly asking things like, “If there was a designer then what about this destructive hurricane?” As usual they were asking questions not caring if there was an answer and they obviously didn’t bother to look. There has been a lot of talk about how the fundamental constants of the universe and everything they control are fine-tuned to allow life here on Earth. Just a minute change in any one of hundreds of such constants and life would be extremely difficult, if not impossible. If all such constants...

The Louisiana bayou, hardest working marsh in America, is in big trouble—with dire consequences for residents, the nearby city of New Orleans, and seafood lovers everywhere. _________________________________________________ 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...

"During the past 40 years the U.S. Army Corp of Engineers has spent hundreds of millions of dollars constructing a barrier around the low lying city of New Orleans to protect it from hurricanes. But is the system of levees high enough? And can any defense ultimately protect a city that is perpetually sinking - in some areas at a rate of half an inch per year?"

Why is New Orleans in so much worse shape today than New York City was after the attacks on Sept. 11? The short answer is that New York was attacked by fire, not water. But then why are urbanites so much better prepared to cope with fire than with flooding? Mostly because they learned to fight fire without any help from the Army Corps of Engineers or the Federal Emergency Management Agency. For most of history, fire was far more feared than flooding. Cities repeatedly burned to the ground. Those catastrophes occurred sporadically enough that politicians must have been tempted...

In the wake of all that has happened and watching the events that unfold hourly, and keeping up with the Katrina live threads, I thought I would post a thread that could help all of us on FR and those visiting, lurkers etc... I know that we are an intelligent, creative, and ingenuous bunch, so I am tapping many of you and others to contribute your emergency preparedness plans, ideas, or homebrew solutions to emergency problems. Just to start off, here are a few things my family and I have decided during an emergency, be it natural disaster, civil insurrection,...

Vernon Dalhart, the most popular singer in America during the 1920's, recorded many songs about the great disasters of that decade, inlcuding hurricanes, floods, earthquakes, explosions, airship crashes, and train wrecks. His hit recording about the massive flood in the lower Mississippi Valley in 1927 seems eerily timely. The Mississippi Flood Another great disaster has come upon our land, Down where the Mississippi flows on its way so grand. The springtime flowers were blooming, the world was bright and gay, And folks along the levee were happy all the day. Ane then the skies grew cloudy, and rain came falling...

Hurricanes come in two waves. First comes the rainstorm, and then comes what the historian John Barry calls the "human storm" - the recriminations, the political conflict and the battle over compensation. Floods wash away the surface of society, the settled way things have been done. They expose the underlying power structures, the injustices, the patterns of corruption and the unacknowledged inequalities. When you look back over the meteorological turbulence in this nation's history, it's striking how often political turbulence followed. In 1889 in Pennsylvania, a great flood washed away much of Johnstown. The water's crushing destruction sounded to one...

With conditions in the hurricane-ravaged city of New Orleans rapidly deteriorating, Gov. Kathleen Blanco said Tuesday that everyone still in the city, now huddled in the Superdome and other rescue centers, needs to be evacuated. "The situation is untenable," Blanco said, pausing to choke back tears at a news conference. "It's just heartbreaking." The breach of two levees Tuesday meant the city was rapidly filling with water and the prospect of having power was a long time off, the governor said. She said the storm also severed a major water main, leaving the city without drinkable water. "The goal is...

MIDI - CITY OF NEW ORLEANS - version 5 Say a prayer for people of New Orleans Many of them learned they have lost everything Say one for the ones who didn't make it To His Kingdom we're hoping their souls He'll bring We're Americans, it's time to share...let's pull together, show we care As people that is what we are about Help your neighbor, make a friend...we all are in this to the end They'll be stronger and there never will be a doubt Pray for all the people of New Orleans And those who just learned they...

The attached is a video from WWL TV in New Orleans. The mayor of New Orleans gives a very detailed report of the condition of the city. As bad as the national news is painting the picture, it falls short of the devastation that has occurred. There are 8 refineries located in the New Orleans to Mobile areas. Nearly 1/2 of all the gasoline in the country is refined here. These are all shut down, and they don't know for how long. Even if they were capable of running the refineries, there will be a huge shortage of workers as...

Europe's weather crisis eased on Thursday as fires were put out in Portugal and flood waters receded in central Europe, but the death toll rose in Romania and Austria after heavy rains. Since June, the flooding in central and eastern Europe has caused 103 deaths, while fires in drought-stricken Portugal, Spain and France killed 37, according to figures compiled by news agency AFP. Portuguese firefighters said on Thursday they had brought under control all blazes that have ravaged the centre and north of the country over the past two weeks, thanks to the arrival of cooler weather. A villager...

Hi Everybody! I am freeping from Mumbai and I am trapped in the floods. I am right now in office, cant get out of the building and cant go home.....and have nothing to do :(  So I am posting this. This is how bad things are at this end :    

The floods have left thousands trying to salvage their belongings Devastating floods in southern China have killed at least 29 people and forced more than 250,000 people to flee their homes, officials say. Flood waters swept through the south-western city of Dazhou, where thousands of homes collapsed. At least seven people are missing. The floods are the latest in a lethal early summer, and come after some of the heaviest rains for a century. At least 600 people in the south have died from floods already this year. In Dazhou, some 26,000 homes collapsed as flood waters rose to the...

Introduction During the last week, the weather in Venezuela has been extremely atypical with rainfall establishing records and flash floods killing over one hundred people while thousands have lost their homes. This is obviously an abnormal natural phenomenon and nobody can be blamed for it. However, the case of Vargas state, a densely populated and small state north of Caracas, is very particular, because that state was the victim of an even larger tragedy in December 99, when tens of thousands were killed due to generalized mudslides. That tragedy was like nothing Venezuela had ever seen in its history, coinciding...

Is it just me or did the police go OVERBOARD by arresting this woman when there are many, many, better candidates for arrest out there?

Omaha, Neb., January 13, 2005 – Union Pacific announced today that damage from the massive storm that hit California and Nevada during the past week will reduce the company’s rail capacity between the Los Angeles Basin and points farther east by about one third for an extended period. While the company’s critical Sunset route between Los Angeles and El Paso, Texas, is now open and operating at capacity, two of the five main routes in and out of the Los Angeles Basin remain closed. Track inspections on Wednesday, January 12 revealed that the line between Los Angeles and Salt Lake...

There have been huge disastrous floods in Guyana and the nation is openly appealing for help from the American military. This may seem like an old story, but it's not. I hope we help Guyana. There are good reasons, and it's in everyone's interest. The tsunami relief effort got word to the world that when you are in deep trouble, America is the one, the only one, you can reliably turn to. Swift efficient help to impossible areas, soldiers who are friendly and compassionate, soldiers who won't shake you down, soldiers who will treat you with dignity and help you...

JANUARY 2005 Flood Summary During the first 6 days of January, moderate to heavy rains fell on soils already saturated from snowmelt. Rainfall totals for January 1 through 6 ranged from more than 2 inches in north-central Indiana to more than 6 inches in south-central Indiana. Significant flooding occurred on Indiana rivers and streams, particularly in central and southern Indiana. Rivers affected included the Big Blue River, White River, East Fork White River, and Wabash River. More moderate to heavy rains on January 11 and January 13 brought rivers and streams across Indiana up again.   Flood Updates January 13:...

A little over a year ago, on Dec. 26, 2003, a massive earthquake struck in Bam, Iran, killing almost 30,000 people. Exactly one year later, an even greater tragedy devastated much of southeast and southern Asia. The death rate hovers at 150,000 as a result of the Asian earthquake and tsunami. Sadly, such massive tragedies often overshadow lesser ones such as the nightclub that recently burned in Argentina, killing 175 people. I've found it interesting that Muslim clerics throughout Indonesia have not hesitated to call the Asian tragedy a "punishment" from God for the religious laxity of the people. Such...

County issues the declaration as 3,000 to 4,000 residents are evacuated, and crews work to keep San Juan Creek within its banks. Railroad bridge over creek is closed. SAN JUAN CAPISTRANO – Sheriff’s deputies today were evacuating up to 4,000 residents as storm-swollen San Juan Creek threatened to flood neighborhoods along its banks, prompting the county to declare a state of emergency. The Board of Supervisors declared the emergency late this morning, after 540 feet of concrete lining along the flood-control channel gave way Monday night and another 300 feet was washed away this morning. Repair crews were working to...

LOS ANGELES - "Southern California began its fourth consecutive day of drenching rain Monday as a stubborn wintery mix pounded the region, triggering floods that forced evacuations and caused scores of accidents on slippery roadways. The wet weather wasn't expected to let up until Wednesday, with as much as 6 inches of rain forecast in the region through Tuesday and an additional 2 feet of snow at elevations above 7,500 feet. Dense fog and high winds also were expected. "We're going to be getting more of the same, harsh weather," said Curt Kaplan, a National Weather Service (news - web...

God is alerting believers of the soon return of His Son through what are called "signs of the times." These are prophecies concerning world events that we are told to watch for, prophecies that will identify the season of the Lord's return. The Bible is full of these signs. There are about 500 prophecies in the Old Testament that relate to the Second Coming of the Messiah. In the New Testament, one out of every 25 verses is concerned with the return of Jesus. In fact, there are so many signs that it is difficult to grasp all of them....

Opposition to Airborne Cell Phones Floods FCC Thu Dec 16, 6:06 PM ET By Jeremy Pelofsky WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. air travelers wasted little time barraging communications regulators with hundreds of e-mails registering their opposition to ending the ban on the use of mobile phones during commercial flights. The U.S. Federal Communications Commission on Wednesday unanimously proposed lifting the ban if issues about safety and technical hurdles can be overcome. FCC officials said their mandate was to facilitate communications. But the potential of scores of passengers talking on mobile phones during a lengthy flight has many travelers worried that their...

The purpose of FreeRepublic.com's multiple message boards is to limit the topics for each board to particular topics. Posting the same message on all the boards defeats the purpose of multiple-boards for special topics. It is very annoying to see the same message on every bulletin board. PLEASE! DO THE READERS A FAVOR. STOP CROSS-POSTING YOUR MESSAGES!

QUEZON PROVINCE, Philippines, Nov 30 - "More than 300 people died after flash floods and landslides devastated three coastal towns and left swathes of the northern Philippines under water on Tuesday. The death toll was expected to rise as rescuers were unable to reach areas cut off by huge mudslides and fast-moving floodwater in the wake of tropical depression Winnie and as the country braced for another powerful storm. At least 306 people died in the towns of Real, Infanta and General Nakar in Quezon province, about 80 km (50 miles) east of Manila, Social Welfare Secretary Corazon Soliman told...

Widespread flooding was reported across Western Pennsylvania today as the remains of Hurricane Ivan dumped a one-day record rainfall on the region. Evacuations of low-lying areas began in the afternoon in Oakdale and Etna in Allegheny County, which designated seven emergency shelters. Major roads, such as McKnight in Ross, Route 51 in Overbrook and Route 8 in Shaler were under water. The Pirates canceled their game tonight with the Mets, and numerous high school football games were washed out. The National Weather Service in Pittsburgh issued a flood warning for Allegheny and many of the counties surrounding it through tonight....

THE FLOODS OF 1916 The lines of Southern Railway Company suffered unprecedented damage from floods during the months of July and August, 1916. On July 5th and 6th a tropical cyclone swept over the Gulf Coast of Alabama, accompanied by high winds, reaching a maximum of 107 miles per hour at Mobile on the fifth, and followed by torrential rains over a large part of the State, with somewhat lighter rains in eastern Tennessee and the Carolinas, greatly damaging Southern Railway waterfront property at Mobile and interrupting traffic on the Company’s lines in Alabama south and west if Birmingham, by...

WASHINGTON – Warming water temperatures in the central equatorial Pacific last month may indicate the start of a new El Niño. El Niño, which can affect weather conditions around the world, is often first seen as increased sea surface temperatures in the Pacific along with changes in wind patterns. Sea surface temperatures rose nearly 1 degree Fahrenheit above normal in July, with even higher readings to the east, the National Weather Service's Climate Prediction Center said on Thursday. The temperature increases, the agency said, "indicate the possible early stages of a warm episode." The report noted that the normal easterly...

Picture credit: TheCabal"I will never cower before any master nor bend to any threat"LINK TO THREAD TEN Iran seeks swap of Brits for suicide attackers Report says 40 Revolutionary Guard 'volunteers' held by UK Iran apprehended British military personnel and Navy vessels earlier this week in order to secure release of 40 "suicide operations volunteers" held by the UK, according to an Iranian Revolutionary Guard source. The source told the London Arabic-language daily Al-Sharq Al-Awsat that the British Army command in Iraq received the demand from the Revolutionary Guard, reported the Middle East Media Research Institute. According to the source,...

About 12.5 million tons of cargo move through three antiquated locks and dams on the lower Monongahela River each year, but lack of money to rebuild the dams threatens to halt those shipments. The reconstruction project, already 10 years in the making, will last 15 more years if the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers cannot devote $60 million to it annually. If anything happens to shut down river traffic, every household in the region would see higher utility and gasoline costs. Thousands of jobs directly and indirectly tied to river transportation could be jeopardized. "We think we're living on borrowed...

Caribbean floods left 3,300 dead, missing Jun. 5, 2004. 08:51 AM PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP) - The toll of dead and missing from floods that ravaged parts of Haiti and the Dominican Republic was set at more than 3,300 on Friday as aid workers reached the most remote areas. In Haiti, the official death toll was at 1,191 and the number of missing at 1,484. The figures on the Dominican side of the border were 395 dead and 274 missing. That brought the overall toll to at least 3,344 from flooding caused by days of rains that unleashed torrents of water...

Caribbean Death Toll from Floods Nears 2,000 Wed May 26, 2004 07:05 PM ET PORT-AU-PRINCE (Reuters) - The death toll from devastating floods and landslides in Haiti and the Dominican Republic rose to at least 1,950 on Wednesday. The toll rose dramatically with the discovery of more than 1,000 bodies in Mapou, a southeastern Haitian town where communications are poor, said Margareth Martin, the head of the civil protection office for Haiti's southeast region. Haiti's death toll stood at about 1,660, including 1,000 in Mapou, 500 elsewhere in Haiti's southeast region, 158 in the riverside town of Fond Verettes, and...

Flood waters washing away rice crop Farmers working on what to do next By PATRICK COURREGES pcourreges@theadvocate.com Acadiana bureau VILLE PLATTE -- Flood waters have begun to recede in the area around northern Evangeline Parish but not before wiping out thousands of acres of rice. Agents of the LSU Agricultural Center's extension and research programs made the rounds in Evangeline Parish on Tuesday, talking about the things farmers worry about each year -- such as weeds and insects -- and the specific problems of the recent heavy rains. Days of heavy rains flooded parts of south Louisiana earlier this month,...

Dominican, Haiti Floods Kill at Least 360 2 hours, 51 minutes ago By PETER PRENGAMAN, Associated Press Writer JIMANI, Dominican Republic - The caskets of dozens of children lined this town's streets after floods swept away whole villages and sent desperate families into the darkness and mud in a frantic search for loved ones. At least 360 were dead and hundreds missing. Trucks dumped more than 100 bodies into a mass grave outside of Jimani, a town of about 10,000 on the Haitian border, on Tuesday. Sobbing families, meanwhile, waited for the tiny caskets of their children to be buried...

SAN BERNARDINO – Authorities on Sunday found the bodies of five more people caught in the flash floods that engulfed a church camp on Christmas. Two children washed away from the St. Sophia Camp were found tangled in debris more than four miles below, in a cement catch basin in downtown San Bernardino, said Chip Patterson, spokesman for the San Bernardino County Sheriff's Department. Two women and a man, all in their 40s, were found closer to the camp in the San Bernardino Mountains. It took a bulldozer and other heavy equipment to find those bodies in the deep mud....

<p>MARSEILLE, France, Dec. 3 (UPI) -- Five people have reportedly died as torrential rain and high winds brought serious flooding and widespread chaos Wednesday to southeastern France.</p> <p>The BBC said forecasters warned of further downpours, as the floods blocked roads, disrupted rail services and forced more than 9,000 people to flee their homes.</p>

Issued at: 9:38 PM CST 11/17/03, expires at: 4:30 AM CST 11/18/03 The NWS has issued a flood watch for, Winnebago, Mchenry, Boone, Lake, Ogle, Cook, Kane, De Kalb, Dupage, Lee, Will, Kendall, La Salle, Grundy, Kankakee, Livingston, Iroquois And Ford counties. The watch is in effect until noon cst Tuesday(100 pm est Tuesday afternoon). Rain and thunderstorms will become widespread overnight. Heavy rain is likely overnight and Tuesday morning. The rain should begin to diminish during the mid to late morning hours Tuesday. By the time The rain ends Tuesday morning, Most Areas Will receive 2 to 3 inches...

THE DALLES, Ore. - The National Park Service has proposed a marked trail to commemorate Ice Age floods through four Western states that left canyons, valleys, lakes and ridges that still dominate the terrain today — some so dramatic they can be seen from outer space. Picture an ice dam 30 miles wide, forming a lake 2,000 feet deep and 200 miles long, stretching from the Idaho panhandle into western Montana, containing more water than Lake Erie and Lake Ontario combined. Now picture that dam giving way, the water thundering out in 48 hours, through four states, across Washington and...

Loans And Grants It's too bad Southern California isn't part of Iraq. If it were, then the federal aid it will get would be in the form of grants instead of loans. If Southern California were Israel, it could get $4 billion a year in grants without fires. Even so, it's better to be temporarily scorched Southern California than part of Iraq. Iraq doesn't have forest fires, but that's because there are no forests. Iraq has sandstorms instead. Israel is afflicted with perpetual war. It's sad to see so many lose their homes, but it's just nature. Southern California has...

Severe floods in central Europe are not becoming more common, say scientists in Germany who have compiled a historical record that stretches back almost 1000 years. Even the devastating floods that left cities from Prague to Dresden awash with water in 2002 do not suggest an upward trend, Manfred Mudelsee at the University of Leipzig and his colleagues found. Many reports at the time suggested that the floods were the kind of extreme weather event expected to become more frequent as a result of global warming. But "if they can't find trends, then there is no reason to attribute the...

The Kennedy Expressway at Lawrence Avenue was closed for three hours Sunday afternoon due to extreme flooding. (Chicago)—As of 2:30, there are 5,200 people without power, most on the north side and north suburbs. Power outages have been reported at: Irving and Oak Park Glencoe Vernon Hills Palatine Rolling Meadows Customer numbers reported out of power as of 1pm today: North Chicago 66 South Chicago 215 N E Suburbs 1200 I was on WBBM CBS radio with my firsthand experience. In my 50 years I've never seen anything like this storm. Our lawn was covered with hail from the size...

<p>A slow moving rainstorm parked itself over the city's East End last night, drenching parts of Homewood, Squirrel Hill, Highland Park and Point Breeze with more than three inches of rain, causing flooding on roadways and in the basements of homes and businesses.</p>

<p>Two weeks ago, Jim and Jackie Cimino went through their belongings and packed away those which they considered most important in their lives: the grandchildren's pictures, the tax documents.</p> <p>Ten boxes went into storage, thus giving the Ciminos peace of mind as they look out their living room window and watch the churning, muddy Allegheny River flow past their floating home, the 57-foot houseboat named Jackie's Cover that is docked at the Oakmont Yacht Club.</p>