AUSTIN, Texas- The University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston, a teaching hospital severely damaged by Hurricane Ike, will lay off about 3800 workers - nearly a third of its work force - because it is running out of money.
The University of Texas Board of Regents said in a news release that the Galveston hospital would have no money to operate in about three months, at its current spending rate.
Ike caused nearly $710 million in losses to the hospital when it struck the Texas coast in September, and officials have said insurance covered only about $100 million of that.
(ASSOCIATED PRESS)
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CAMAGUEY, Cuba - Ferocious Hurricane Paloma roared across Cuba today, downing power lines,
flooding the coast and forcing the evacuation of hundreds of thousands of people on an island still
recovering from two other devastating storms. Paloma made landfall late yesterday near the town of Santa Cruz del Sur as an extremely dangerous Category 4 storm, but it quickly weakened into a Category 2 with winds of 100 mph and torrential rains, the National Hurricane Center in Miami said. It was expected to steadily lose strength as it moved across the island before hitting the central Bahamas by tonight or tomorrow.
State television said the late-season storm toppled a major communications tower on the southern coast
and interrupted electricity and phone service. A storm surge of up to 20 feet had caused coastal flooding, pushing the sea as much as 2,300 feet inland and flooding hundreds of homes, Reuters reported.
In the central-eastern province of Camaguey, more than 220,000 people were evacuated from low-lying
areas. An additional 170,000 people were moved in the eastern province of Las Tunas.
Cuba regularly relocates masses of people to higher ground ahead of tropical storms and hurricanes,
preventing major losses of life.
Former President Fidel Castro warned in an essay published by Cuban state media yesterday that Paloma
would damage roads and crops planted after Hurricanes Gustav and Ike hit in late August and early
September, causing about $9.4 billion in damage and destroying nearly a third of the island's crops.
...
Once packing winds of 145 mph, the storm late yesterday had begun to weaken over land and was moving
northeast at about 7 mph. It was expected to slow today as it crossed Cuba and hit the open Atlantic by
late morning. Still, hurricane-force winds extended up to 30 miles from the storm's center and rainfall was due to reach 5 to 10 inches in central and eastern Cuba, with isolated totals of 20 inches possible. ...
Before Paloma made landfall, Cuba's National Information Agency said crops, poultry and pork
operations were being protected in the eastern provinces of Camaguey and Santiago. State television
showed workers warehousing bags of rice, trimming tree branches and clearing storm drains. Bus and
train service was suspended across central and eastern Cuba. Hurricanes Ike and Gustav had damaged almost 450,000 homes and devastated crops, compounding Cuba's economic woes.
The hurricane center said Paloma - the eighth hurricane of a busy 2008 Atlantic storm season - could
bring parts of the island battering waves and a life-threatening storm surge of up to 23 feet. ...
Elsewhere, Paloma knocked out power across much of the British Caribbean territory of Grand Cayman
Island, downing trees, flooding streets and low-lying areas, and ripping off roofs before heading to Cuba.
... Paloma's fierce winds ripped the roofs off some buildings on Cayman Brac, to the east.
A tropical storm warning remained in effect late yesterday for the central Bahamas, including Cat Island,
the Exumas, Long Island, Rum Cay, San Salvador, Acklins Island, Crooked Island and the Ragged Islands.
(Anne-Marie Garcia, ASSOCIATED PRESS)
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Mandatory water-saving measures for all San Diego businesses and residents will start to take shape
Monday, when the City Council likely will approve an emergency conservation plan.
Most of the rules won't begin immediately because it's not clear how much water the city or the region must
save in 2009. Barring heavy mountain snowfall this winter, water agencies statewide are widely expected by spring to step up conservation with new rules and stronger enforcement amid a prolonged drought. San Diego's role is particularly important because it is by far the largest water user in this county, accounting for more than one-third of the overall consumption. ...
The biggest potential change for customers is a property-by-property water "budget" that would
impose dramatically higher rates for those who go over their allotted limit.
San Diego also is preparing to stop issuing water permits for most new development projects unless
builders can offset their water demand through conservation or other measures. That provision would
start only if the drought becomes more severe, but it already has sparked concerns about the lack of
details. ...
San Diego's strategies for dealing with drought, and those for the rest of the county, are based on the
amount of water the region must conserve. Level 1, the current stage, relies on voluntary steps to
achieve savings of up to 10 percent. The next three levels include mandates of increasing severity.
Late last month, California officials said they have enough water to meet 15 percent of requested
deliveries in 2009 - the second-lowest initial allocation in the history of the State Water Project.
Water leaders for the city of San Diego said some water-saving measures should be made permanent.
For instance, they have proposed a year-round ban against irrigating to the point where water flows
off properties. City officials also want to compel restaurants to serve water only on request and force people to wash their vehicles at commercial facilities unless they use a hose with an automatic shut-off nozzle or a hand-held container. Until now, those measures have been voluntary.
At Level 1, San Diego encourages, among other things, landscape watering between 6 p.m. and 10
a.m. and using recycled water at construction sites.
Level 2 provisions require that most landscaped areas be irrigated no more than three times per week
from June through October, on a schedule set by the city, and no more than once a week for the rest of
the year. The use of ornamental fountains generally would be prohibited.
The most complex Level 2 strategy is creating, monitoring and enforcing usage budgets for some
274,000 customers with water meters. ... The city could penalize heavy water users with a surcharge on their water bill of 20 percent or more. Ruiz said repeat offenders also may be subject to flow-restriction devices on their water lines. At Level 3, landscape irrigation would be reduced to two designated days per week. Car washing would be prohibited unless residents use high-pressure, low-volume wash systems or go to facilities
that use recycled water. The city also would largely stop allowing new hookups to its water supply system if its needs to curb consumption by at least 30 percent. For months, many residents have demanded a halt on new
developments because they increase water use.
San Diego is proposing exceptions for public health and for builders who pledge to offset their water
use by, for instance, reducing existing water demand somewhere else in the city.
At Level 4, landscape irrigation generally would be banned except for crops and for hand-watering
trees and shrubs two days a week. Also, the city would prohibit filling pools and spas when the
conservation goal exceeds 40 percent.
San Diego officials said sanctions for violating emergency regulations would range from warning
letters to fines of as much as $1,000.
(Mike Lee, STAFF WRITER)
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BISMARCK, N.D. - Crews fought mud and water yesterday as they tried to restore power after a fierce
storm spread a wintry mix across the Dakotas, while authorities worked to remove snow-stranded vehicles
that littered an interstate highway hours after their occupants were rescued.
Blizzard warnings subsided, but thousands of customers in rural areas remained without power after
freezing rain and high winds. The Nodak Rural Electric Cooperative said it was trying to restore power to about 4,500 rural customers. Nodak President George Berg said that some areas got about 5 inches of rain, and that the freezing rain and winds toppled power lines and poles along a 40-mile path in five counties. "Our biggest obstacle is not he snow, but all the mud and water," Berg said. ...
North Dakota's deer hunting season opened yesterday, and Steele County Sheriff Wayne Beckman worried
some hunters could mistake power crews for deer. Hunters and farmers should also be cautious of
downed power lines, he said. ...
In South Dakota, the Highway Patrol worked through the night to rescue people stranded in their vehicles
on snow-clogged highways in the western part of the state. About 300 people had been helped by
yesterday, authorities said. ...
There are no reports of anyone missing in the blizzard, and no fatalities have been reported.
The storm dropped at least 45 inches of snow near Deadwood, S.D., in the Black Hills. In southwestern
South Dakota, 20-foot snowdrifts were reported on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation. In both Dakotas,
dozens of schools, agencies, businesses and attractions, including Mount Rushmore National Memorial,
had to close. The storm also disrupted travel and electrical service for a time in Nebraska.
(ASSOCIATED PRESS)
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Lawsuits were filed by the state yesterday against San Diego Gas & Electric Co. and Cox Communications seeking at least $13 million in reimbursement for the costs of fighting the Witch Creek, Guejito and Rice Canyon fires of October 2007. The two lawsuits also seek compensation for damage caused by the fires to state lands including the costs of rehabilitating natural resources, such as timber, soil, ground cover and plant life. ... [This is] a drop in the bucket when compared with other lawsuits already filed in connection with the fires. Some estimate that liability claims could reach $1.5 billion.
Two investigations, one by Cal Fire and the other by the California Public Utilities Commission, have concluded that the three fires were caused by arcing SDG&E power lines. ... Investigators said it was a loose support cable from a Cox fiber-optic line that lashed against a power line and sparked the Guejito blaze in the San Pasqual Valley. The Guejito fire merged with the Witch Creek fire early in the morning Oct. 22.
The three fires destroyed more than 1,300 homes, killed two people and burned thousands of avocado and other fruit-bearing trees. (The Harris and Poomacha fires have been attributed to an illegal campfire and house fire, respectively, and don't figure into the lawsuits.) ...
All the cases have been assigned to San Diego Superior Court Judge Robert Strauss, who is tasked with bringing sense to the legal morass, which now involves more than 80 lawyers. Few have hopes that the cases will be settled this decade. ...
A spokeswoman for SDG&E ... said SDG&E "has always maintained there is a big difference between an ignition source and responsibility and liability given the extreme weather conditions that existed last October." Cox says it was complying with all regulations at the time of the fires, and both companies say the Cal Fire and PUC reports were premature because more testing needs to be done. It's common for the state to seek reimbursement for firefighting costs when cause can be determined against someone or some company that has substantial assets. Often, that's not the case. The cost of fighting fires caused by lost hunters, campers or illegal immigrants is usually absorbed by taxpayers. ...
(J. Harry Jones, STAFF WRITER)
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SAN DIEGO - A break in a 50-year-old water main in the Southcrest neighborhood yesterday flooded a
home and created a large sinkhole in the street that swallowed a car. Authorities evacuated residents and an elementary school for several hours because the car had landed on top of a gas line.
The flooding began about 12:30 p.m. on 36th Street near Newton Avenue after a 16-inch cast-iron pipe broke.
Police closed access to 36th Street near Newton Avenue. Several hours after the water line broke, police began evacuating residents from about eight to 10 homes on 36th Street and from nearby Emerson-Bandini
Elementary School on Newton Avenue because of the fear that the car, when moved, might break the 1.5-inch
natural gas line, said Maurice Luque, a San Diego Fire-Rescue Department spokesman.
The department's hazardous materials crew also responded. San Diego Gas & Electric crews were sent to shut off the gas line, and the car was lifted out about 5:30 p.m. ...
Water was shut off and the broken pipe will be replaced with a new PVC one, said Arian Collins, a
city water department spokesman. Repairs were expected to take up to 16 hours, Collins said.
Dozens of homes in the area were without water during the repairs, he said.
(Angelica Martinez & Greg Gross, STAFF WRITER)
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HOUSTON - A top official of the Federal Emergency Management Agency has admitted that agency was sluggish in its response to Texans affected by Hurricane Ike's devastation, according to a report.
Deputy FEMA Administrator Harvey E. Johnson Jr. said he intends to improve the help that the agency provides to Texans whose homes were damaged or destroyed by the September hurricane.
He said FEMA will deploy mobile homes to the hardest-hit areas more rapidly, review rules that might be causing premature denials of assistance and provide more resources to Texas. He told the Houston Chronicle on Friday that he has put more personnel into Texas housing assistance programs. Ike came ashore near Galveston on Sept. 13, causing at least $11 billion in damage to Texas.
(ASSOCIATED PRESS)
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DONORA, Pa. - When the killer smog rolled into town here in late October 1948, 12-year-old Joann Crow thought it was an adventure. "Dad couldn't drive us to school because it was so hard to see," said Crow, now 72. "He had to walk us to school that Wednesday with a flashlight, which we thought was fun."
But the next day, Oct. 28, her grandmother, Susan Gnora, 62, started coughing and experiencing chest pains. It was the same for many older residents of this Monongahela River valley mill town 24 miles southeast of Pittsburgh. "She died the next day. ... They tried to blame it on asthma. But we knew that wasn't true.... It was that smog from the mills." [said Crow].
By the time a rain on Oct. 31 cleared the air, 20 people in Donora had died, and nearly half the town became ill in one of the worst air-pollution disasters in the nation's history.
After decades of largely remaining silent about the horrors of that week, Donora residents began to open up about it in recent years, placing a historical marker in town on the 50th anniversary. Over the past two weeks, they marked the 60th anniversary with memorials for the families of those who died, discussions with experts about the lessons learned, and the opening of the Donora Smog Museum, with the slogan "Clean Air Started Here."
"It was the first time that people really understood that a lot of air pollution in a short period of time could kill people," said Devra Davis, director of the Center for Environmental Oncology at the University of Pittsburgh and author of "When Smoke Ran Like Water," about air pollution. She's also a Donora native who was 2 at the time of the killer smog. The Donora smog gained national attention and helped lead to some of the first local and state pollution-control laws and, eventually, to the 1970 federal Clean Air Act. ....
The two plants that caused the smog closed by 1966, and Donora today is a struggling town of 5,653. After the deadly incident, U.S. Steel, owner of the plants, said it was "an act of God" and never admitted responsibility, even after the company settled lawsuits filed against it for $250,000.
(Sean D. Hamill, NEW YORK TIMES NEWS SERVICE)
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WAM, Pakistan - Desperate villagers clawed through piles of mud and timber yesterday looking for victims of an earthquake that collapsed thousands of homes in southwestern Pakistan before dawn, killing at least 170 people.
Army planes took tents, medical supplies and blankets to the quake zone in Baluchistan province, but some 15,000 homeless people in the impoverished region faced a night in the open in near-freezing temperatures after the 6.4-magnitude jolt. ...
Pakistan is no stranger to natural disasters, but the quake comes at an especially precarious time for the Muslim country, with the civilian government battling al-Qaeda and Taliban attacks while grappling with a punishing economic crisis. As the army and other government agencies rushed to provide help, at least three hard-line Islamic organizations also were quick to aid quake survivors. Among them was Jamaat-ud-Dawa, designated a terrorist group by the U.S. government for its links to Muslim separatists fighting in India's portion of the disputed Himalayan region of Kashmir. The group set up relief camps and won friends among survivors of a 7.6-magnitude quake that devastated Kashmir and northern Pakistan in October 2005, killing about 80,000 people and leaving hundreds of thousands homeless. Baluchistan is home to a long-running separatist movement, but has so far been spared the level of militant violence seen in the northwestern tribal areas along the border with Afghanistan, where Muslim extremists are strong.
Yesterday's quake hit before sunrise as most people slept. Witnesses reported two strong jolts about an hour apart, saying the second at 5:10 a.m. caused the destruction, collapsing the flimsy mud-brick and timber houses common to this poor region. "We were awoken with a big thundering noise and a tremor and we came out of our home and started reciting prayers," said Malik Abdul Hasmat, 35, a teacher. "We went back inside because of the cold and then came the second and bigger jerk and all the homes collapsed." ...
The worst-hit area was the Ziarat valley, where hundreds of houses were destroyed in at least eight villages, including some buried in landslides triggered by the quake. ... Ziarat itself, a popular summer resort since the days of the British empire, was spared major damage. ...
(Sattar Kakar, ASSOCIATED PRESS)
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SEATTLE - Seven Puget Sound killer whales are missing and presumed dead in what could be the biggest decline among the sound's orcas in nearly a decade, say scientists who carefully track the endangered animals. "This is a disaster," Ken Balcomb, a senior scientist at the Center for Whale Research on San Juan Island, said Friday....
While the official census won't be completed until December, the number of live, "southern resident" orcas stands at 83. Among those missing since last year's count are the nearly century-old leader of one of the three southern-resident pods and two young females who recently bore calves. Balcomb said the loss of the seven whales would be the biggest decline among the Puget Sound orcas since 1999, when the center also tracked a decline of seven whales.
Low numbers of chinook salmon, a prime food for these whales, could be a factor in the unusual number of deaths this year, Balcomb said. ... The three pods, or families, that frequent western Washington's inland marine waters are genetically and behaviorally distinct from other killer whales. The sounds they make are considered a unique dialect, they mate only among themselves, eat salmon rather than marine mammals and show a unique attachment to the region. The population reached 140 or more in the last century, but their numbers have fluctuated in recent decades. They were listed as endangered in 2005....
The whales recently have been traveling over greater distances than usual, suggesting they may be ranging farther for food, said Brad Hanson, a wildlife biologist with the National Marine Fisheries Service. Lack of food may be a concern, but it's too early to know the reason for the unusual number of presumed deaths, he said. Pollution and a decline in prey are believed to be the whales' biggest threats, although stress from whale-watching tour boats and underwater sonar tests by the Navy are concerns. In the late 1960s and early '70s, the population fell as dozens were captured for marine parks.
The whales apparently were making a comeback in recent years, reaching 90 in number in 2005. ... It's not unusual to lose older or younger whales, but losing two females in their reproductive prime is "a bit of a concern" because they typically have a high survival rate, Hanson said.
(Phuong Le, ASSOCIATED PRESS)
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LA JOLLA - Moments after he became one of the first motorists to drive on the freshly patched Soledad Mountain Road, Andy Rusnak thanked Nick Manansala, a city engineer. ... Rusnak's home was blocked by the massive work site San Diego had to mount to piece together the ruins from last October's La Jolla landslide. He and other residents and commuters who used the thoroughfare can breathe easier now because their favored route reopened just before noon.
Since the Oct. 3, 2007, landslide took out a huge chunk of the road, destroyed three homes and left eight others uninhabitable, city and private crews have been working to stabilize the land, largely through the insertion of huge columns known as shear pins.
The pins extend up to 80 feet in length, with some measuring 6 feet in diameter. The city used 77 of them to bolster the road; there are plans to insert 44 more in the alley below the slide, on Desert View Drive. The project will continue through next year.
Shoring up the land and rebuilding the road cost $10 million, or about 40 percent of the city's $26 million budget for response to the landslide. City officials estimate that most of the costs will be reimbursed by disaster-relief government grants. ...
Nearly 9,000 commuters used the road daily before the slide, and the lengthy path around it inconvenienced motorists and angered those who live on the mostly residential streets that were part of the detour. Things are not completely back to normal. Manansala said the speed limit on the road will be 25 miles per hour - slower than the previously posted limit of 35 mph - as work continues nearby, and traffic patrols will be watching closely. ...
(Jennifer Vigil, STAFF WRITER)
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Despite the fire on Camp Pendleton yesterday, San Diego County was spared from the worst of the Santa Ana winds. But the fall is young, and the atmospheric forces that create the devil winds might not be as benign the next time. And there will be a next time. "Expect this for some time to come," National Weather Service forecaster Stan Wasowski said. "We'll go in and out of this (Santa Ana) pattern until December."
A red-flag warning, signifying critical fire conditions, remains in effect until 6 p.m. today for the county's inland valleys, mountains and parts of the desert. The combination of low humidity levels, which dropped below 10 percent in Oceanside yesterday afternoon, dry chaparral and wind creates "dangerous wildfire potential," the weather service said. The winds were expected to pick up again early this morning, but like yesterday, the county should not experience the devastating gusts that raked areas to the north. The winds should begin to fade this afternoon.
Powerful winds howled through canyons and whipped fires in Los Angeles County yesterday. Gusts in the mountains of Los Angeles and Orange counties were clocked at 87 mph and topped 60 mph in Riverside and San Bernardino counties. In San Diego County, the top gusts in most mountain areas were in the 40 mph range, although Campo, near the U.S.-Mexico border, recorded a 52 mph gust before 3 p.m. Julian had a peak gust of 43 mph. Areas west of the mountains reported much lighter winds.
The winds approached San Diego Gas & Electric's new threshold for turning off power to backcountry areas, although officials yesterday said they had suspended the program temporarily. SDG&E officials had said this month that the utility would turn off power during red-flag warnings if sustained winds in an area were greater than 35 mph or wind gusts topped 55 mph. Downed power lines played a role in starting several fires last October.
The next Santa Ana wind condition could hit the county harder, Wasowski said. ... In the typical fall pattern, storms from the north skirt Southern California, then exit to the east. Once the storms depart, high pressure usually develops behind them over the Great Basin. That high pressure generates the Santa Anas, and the location of the high determines the direction of the winds. If the high sets up over northern Nevada and southern Idaho, as it did yesterday, the winds, blowing in a clockwise direction around that high, come out of the north. North winds scoured the canyons and passes of the east-west trending mountains north of Los Angeles yesterday, but they had less effect on San Diego County. When storms move farther south, the ensuing high pressure can settle over the Four Corners region in the Southwest. That sets up more of an easterly wind that can pummel San Diego County's canyons and passes because the mountains in East County trend north-south.
Until a substantial storm drops far enough south to drench all of Southern California, the fire danger will likely climb every few days or weeks as a new round of Santa Ana winds develops, Wasowski said....
Santa Ana winds by numbers (peak gusts recorded yesterday in mph): Fremont Canyon, Orange County, 87; Chilao, San Gabriel Mountains, 87; Mountains of Riverside County, 70; Ontario, San Bernardino County, 61; Campo, 52; Julian, 43; Lindbergh Field, 15
(Robert Krier, STAFF WRITERS)
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The second wildfire in a week at Camp Pendleton forced more than 4,000 people on and off the base to flee their homes yesterday as flames threatened Oceanside neighborhoods. By nightfall, the Juliet fire had spared the houses, but it scorched about 1,500 acres on the base and was uncontained as it spread to the northeast along the Oceanside city limits. A separate, 500-acre fire on the base near Fallbrook later merged with the larger Juliet fire farther south and burned to within 200 yards of homes. Shortly after 9 p.m., new evacuations were ordered for about 300 homes in the northeast corner of Oceanside, off Sleeping Indian Road and Wilshire Road, when another fire, called the Sleeping Indian fire, broke out near Fallbrook. The Juliet training area fire broke out about 3 p.m. at the southern end of Camp Pendleton, near the base's San Luis Rey Gate east of Vandegrift Boulevard. It quickly jumped the roadway and burned on both sides of Vandegrift Boulevard. At the same time, flames threatened to jump off the base and into Oceanside.
... By nightfall, 51 fire engines and more than 350 firefighters were on hand, and fire officials were optimistic, but they said it was too soon to speak of containing the fire. ... Cal Fire and the U.S. Forest Service rushed helicopters and air tankers to the blaze, including P-3 Orions, converted four-engine antisubmarine bombers and two Canadian-built "Superscooper" water bombers leased by the county. They dropped water and fire retardant on the fire until night fell. At one point, some Marine buildings around the San Luis Rey Gate appeared on the verge of being overrun by the fire. Camp Pendleton officials credited the Superscoopers with preventing major losses on the base.
... A force of 40 engine companies was staged along Sleeping Indian Road as night fell, prepared for the worst. ..
It was the second major fire at Camp Pendleton in less than a week. A 1,500-acre blaze roared across the southern end of the base Thursday. There was no immediate word on the cause of the Juliet fire, but the base commander, Col. James Seaton, said no live-fire training was going on yesterday when the fire broke out....
(Greg Gross and Pauline Repard, STAFF WRITERS)
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LOS ANGELES - It was a chaotic scene across a rugged swath of the San Fernando Valley yesterday as fire season arrived with a vengeance. Thousands of terrified residents waited until the last possible moment to run for their lives, as dry Santa Ana winds ferociously whipped flames along the mountains and into hillside neighborhoods. Even police and firefighters had to quickly abandon a command post when the unpredictable winds changed direction.... At one point, a news crew broadcasting live for Fox 11 News had to pack up its gear and run. ...
[Multimillion-dollar] homes were in the path of a raging wildfire that in two hours had grown to cover more than 2,000 acres. As it spread, it rained hot embers and gray ash onto the neighborhood, setting palm trees on fire and producing billowing clouds of smoke. Hours earlier, gusting winds sent flames charging down on the Blue Star Mobile Home Park. Panicked residents had to smash their way through a locked emergency gate to escape after the main entrance became gridlocked with cars. Three dozen homes were destroyed. In nearby Kagel Canyon, Renee Dunkel and her family grabbed buckets and a garden hose to try to keep fire from their home. "We didn't think the fire was going to come over the mountain to us, but it was right there," said Dunkel, 33, who later took refuge at an evacuation center. ...
By midmorning, as that fire began to calm down, the mountains above Porter Ranch, noted for its stunning views of the San Fernando Valley, erupted in flames. Pushed by wind gusts reaching 50 mph, that blaze whipped down hillsides so swiftly it quickly turned blue skies as black as night. ...
Fleeing people jammed roads and highways around Porter Ranch, and traffic came to a standstill. One man was killed in a fiery rear-end collision on the state Route 118. ... Television news helicopters showed vehicles on the closed Simi Valley Freeway turning around and driving against traffic to escape the smoke and flames. ... In an eerie scene no more than 1.5 miles from the fire, people played golf at the Porter Valley Country Club and trash trucks went through the neighborhood collecting garbage ...
(Greg RISLING, ASSOCIATED PRESS)
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LOS ANGELES - Strong Santa Ana winds sent two wildfires surging into neighborhoods ringing the San Fernando Valley yesterday, killing a homeless man, destroying homes and triggering frantic evacuations. Another person died in a freeway crash as fire brought traffic to a halt.
In a full-throttle start to the fall fire season, more than 1,000 firefighters and a fleet of water-and retardant-dropping aircraft battled the 4,726-acre Marek fire at the northeast end of the valley and the 5,000-acre Sesnon fire in the Porter Ranch area at the west end. Combined, more than 15 square miles were charred. ... Winds dropped in the evening but were predicted to roar back to life later in the night, with speeds over 60 mph, officials said.
Authorities confirmed more than three dozen mobile homes burned in the Marek fire, and 19 structures - some of them homes - were either damaged or destroyed by the Sesnon fire. Commercial sites burned in both fires. An estimated 1,200 people were evacuated because of the Marek fire; authorities were unsure how many were evacuated in the Sesnon fire. ... [Resident] Glenn Bell described a chaotic scene at daybreak as hundreds of people tried to escape the Blue Star Mobile Home Park on the edge of the San Gabriel Mountains. He said he and another resident broke a padlock on an emergency exit gate at the back of the park in Sylmar....
Bell said that as he fled with his wife, Jean, and their dog, he looked back to see his home going up in flames. "We lost 25 years worth of marriage in there," Bell said at an evacuation center.
In the San Fernando Valley, firefighters were struggling with the resurgent, day-old Marek fire when a blaze erupted at midmorning a few miles to the west on Oat Mountain above Porter Ranch. That fire quickly grew as winds blew from the northeast at 35 mph to 45 mph, with gusts to 70 mph.
"It is a blowtorch we can't get in front of," said Los Angeles County fire inspector Frank Garrido.
Fire officials alerted other communities to the west in the Ventura County city of Simi Valley and south to Malibu, 20 miles away, as an ominous plume streamed over neighborhoods and far out to sea. Gov.... Residents downwind were warned to remain alert into the night. "It can go from here to the ocean in a matter of two to three hours," Los Angeles County Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky said.... Arnold Schwarzenegger declared a state of emergency in Los Angeles and Ventura counties.
... The Marek fire began early Sunday during the first significant Santa Ana of the season, and about 1,000 firefighters from city, county, state and federal agencies were deployed. ...
Flames jumped Interstate 210, the Foothill Freeway, which was closed in both directions for about three miles in northern Los Angeles between the state Route 118 freeway and Interstate 5 amid the morning rush hour, officials said. The eastbound side of state Route 118 also was closed.
... The cause was under investigation.
Late last night, a brush fire alongside Interstate 215 torched buildings blocks away in San Bernardino. City fire spokesman Steve Tracey said sustained winds were stoking the blaze, which began spreading in the freeway median around 5 p.m. The freeway was closed in both directions for a second time yesterday; it was not immediately clear whether the fire was the same one that had closed freeway the first time.
Firefighters also contained small blazes near Santa Clarita in northern Los Angeles County, near a Santa Paula oil facility in Ventura County and in Newport Beach. In Northern California, a blaze charred more than half of 740-acre Angel Island in San Francisco Bay, but it spared historical structures, including an immigration station that was the first stop for millions of immigrants, mostly from China, in the early 1900s.
(Shaya Tayefe Mohajer, ASSOCIATED PRESS)
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LOS ANGELES - Firefighters gained ground yesterday an a wildfire that destroyed two homes and forced the evacuation of about 1,200 people in a rugged area 20 miles north of downtown, but authorities worried that gusty winds could fan flames further afield through the night.
Los Angeles County Fire Department spokesman Ron Haralson said the blaze charred up to 750 acres in the Angeles National Forest and also burned a garage, several sheds and three motor homes. By midafternoon, the Forest Service said the fire was 20 percent contained. ...
Haralson said firefighters are "getting a really good handle" on the blaze that started about 2 a.m. yesterday. Powerful Santa Ana winds were expected to arrive late last night, and gusts could spread embers and ignite brush and chaparral in the area.
About 450 homes were evacuated early yesterday when the blaze threatened homes in the vicinity of Kagel and Lopez canyons.
The fire was burning south of the Wildlife Waystation, an animal sanctuary and rehabilitation facility on 160 acres. The nonprofit agency houses more than 400 animals, including lions, bears and deer. Officials were loading up the animals in case the fire switched direction.
(ASSOCIATED PRESS)
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PUERTO SAN CARLOS, Mexico - Hurricane Norbert swept across Mexico's southern Baja California peninsula yesterday, tearing off roofs and forcing hundreds of people to flee flooded homes.
It hit land near Puerto Charley on Baja's southwest coast as a Category 2 hurricane, but weakened to Category 1 after emerging over the Gulf of California, according to the U.S. National Hurricane Center in Miami.
Norbert was expected to reach mainland Mexico before dawn today.
Baja residents fled to shelters in school buses and army trucks as floodwaters rose in their homes. Winds uprooted palm trees and the water rose knee-high in some streets of Puerto San Carlos. ...
Streets turned into rushing, knee-deep rivers in Ciudad Constitucion, on the southern peninsula. ...
More than 2,000 people were in the city's shelters, many of them from coastal villages where nearly all homes had lost their roofs, said Miguel Arevalos, the local Civil Protection director....
Last night, the hurricane was centered about 70 miles east-southeast of Loreto, a small town popular with tourists in Baja's east coast. It was moving northeast at 15 mph. The storm passed well north of the resort-dotted Los Cabos area on the southern tip of the peninsula. ...
The storm's remnants were expected to continue to dump rain on water-logged west Texas, where authorities prepared for more flooding. ...
(Kirsten Johnson, ASSOCIATED PRESS)
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St. HELENA - More than 1,500 firefighters battled a fast-growing fire yesterday that threatened homes and wineries in Napa Valley.
The blaze, which broke out Friday, had burned about 300 acres in the rugged hills near the wine country town of St. Helena by last night. It was about 70 percent contained, with full containment expected today, according to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection.
The fire destroyed one home and one outbuilding and threatened about 200 homes and several wineries, a Cal Fire spokeswoman said. About 100 residents were evacuated from their homes Friday night, and an evacuation center was set up at St. Helena High School. The cause is under investigation.
(ASSOCIATED PRESS)
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The international Cassini space probe flew within 16 miles of the surface of Saturn's moon Enceladus yesterday Ð a breathtakingly close flyby designed to gather dust and water particles that will help scientists better understand the recently discovered geysers that spew constantly from the moon's south pole....
On an earlier Cassini flyby, scientists discovered that the plume contained ice particles, gases and some carbon-based organic (though not ever living) material.
The flyby was the closest ever of any moon of Saturn and led to great excitement among NASA scientists, now that the tiny moon is known to contain large amounts of water. Although conditions are frigid on Enceladus, scientists believe that liquid water, or even an ocean, might exist below the icy surface, possibly creating conditions that could support life.
(THE WASHINGTON POST)
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The first Santa Ana of the season should arrive Sunday morning, and while it's not expected to rival the winds that drove the devastating wildfires last October, civic leaders and fire officials are on alert. Fire departments are gearing up with a small army and air force of firefighters, heavy equipment and aircraft. "We're as prepared as we're gonna be. We're ready," said San Diego Fire Chief Tracy Jarman.
Weather conditions, at least in San Diego County, aren't expected to equal the perfect storm of high temperatures, low humidity and powerful offshore winds that enveloped the area last year. For comparison purposes, if the Santa Anas that fanned flames last year were rated as a 10, National Weather Service forecaster Phil Gonsalves said, the next one would probably rank as a 7 or 8....
Wind gusts topped 60 mph in some San Diego County canyons last Oct. 21. Those winds knocked down trees and power lines, which started some of the fires. Temperatures were also higher during the fires last year than they are expected to be Sunday and Monday. Forecasters predict sustained winds of 20 to 30 mph in inland San Diego County, with localized gusts of about 45 mph at the peak Monday morning. The winds should die down by Tuesday afternoon...
If the winds turn out to be stronger than anticipated, San Diego Gas & Electric Co. might shut off power in much of the backcountry. SDG&E spokeswoman Stephanie Donovan said if the National Weather Service issues a red-flag warning because of high fire danger and other criteria are met, SDG&E will turn off the power to an area where sustained winds are greater than 35 mph or wind gusts top 55 mph....
Fire officials say they are ready for the worst. Division Chief Ned Nickerson of Cal Fire said his agency has 31 fire engines, 22 hand crews, and five bulldozers and extra water tenders in the county ready to move.
In addition, another force of 26 engines, 18 hand crews, three bulldozers and three reserve engines is being brought from Northern and Central California and staged in the Riverside area, ready to go at the first sign of a major fire in Southern California, Nickerson said. The U.S. Forest Service is weighing in with another 20 engines, two bulldozers and another water tender. As for aircraft, Cal Fire has four air tankers and two air attack planes at its Ramona air base, Nickerson said. Added to that are two Forest Service tankers, a half-dozen helicopters from various agencies, one large "heli-tanker" and two Canadian-built CL-415 Super Scoopers leased this year by the county.
Cal Fire also has contacted the Navy and Marines about having military aircraft available should a major fire break out, Nickerson said. ...
(Robert Krier and Greg Gross, STAFF WRITERS)
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YOSEMITE NATIONAL PARK - Chunks of granite crashed to the Yosemite Valley floor in a cloud of dust yesterday, injuring at least three people and destroying several cabins and trees at one of the park's most popular lodging areas, officials said. The rock slide was the second in two days in the area called Curry Village, a lodging and retail area defined by dramatic, sheer cliffs....
The slide destroyed five cabins and damaged three others, according to a park statement. Three visitors were treated for minor injuries. In all, 1,000 people were evacuated from the area. Most of Curry Village remained closed yesterday, but late in the afternoon campers were allowed to move back into the area farthest from the rock fall.
The volume of rocks cascading from the granite face was estimated at about 1,800 cubic yards, or about 180 truck loads, said Vickie Mates, a park spokeswoman. ...
In 1996, a rock slide in the same area sent as much as 162,000 tons of rock plummeting more than 2,000 feet, killing one visitor and felling 500 trees. A slide in 1999 killed one climber and injured three others while narrowly missing the popular campground. ...
Recent geologic studies have described a series of cracks along the cliff's face and have hypothesized that pressure from water flowing beneath the surface may be a trigger of the slides.
(Tracle Cone, ASSOCIATED PRESS)
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MEXICO CITY - Hurricane Norbert became a Category 4 storm in the Pacific yesterday and headed for Baja California Sur, where it was on track to hit land before dawn Saturday. The storm was packing 135 mph winds with higher gusts, the U.S. National Hurricane Center said in a statement.
(REUTERS)
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CAMP PENDLETON - San Diego sweltered through record-breaking heat yesterday while a 1,000-acre brush fire at Camp Pendleton covered North County with smoke that drifted as far as Temecula.Cal Fire's two Superscooper water bombers were called into service for the first time in the county, to drench flaming hillsides with seawater. ...
The [] brush fire started about 3:30 p.m. at an explosives disposal range in a southwestern area of the base between an airfield and a golf course, said Marine Staff Sgt. Jesse Lora, a base spokesman. Flames reportedly came within about a mile of Oceanside city limits in the afternoon.
Power was shut off in some areas of the base, leaving some barracks without electricity, as a precautionary measure to allow for back-burning operations, base officials said. The right lanes of Vandegrift Boulevard in both directions were closed to any traffic except emergency vehicles. Marine Cpl. Priscilla Vitale, a base spokeswoman, said it was not known how the fire started or whether training was going on at the time. Vitale said she did not know if unexploded ordnance remained on the range.
Cal Fire, the U.S. Forest Service and the Sheriff's Department sent a total of 10 aircraft to the fire, including helicopters and tanker planes and two CL-145 Superscooper water bombers leased last month from Canada, Cal Fire Capt. Nick Schuler said. Aircraft were grounded by nightfall, but firefighters kept working on the ground. ...
The 94-degree reading at Lindbergh Field, the city's official weather station, broke the mark for the highest temperature ever on Oct. 8. The previous record was 93, set in 1899. The 94 degrees in San Diego yesterday matched the high for the year, which was recorded April 27. San Diego's daily temperature records date to 1875, which is longer than most cities on the West Coast. Several coastal spots, including Coronado, La Jolla, Torrey Pines, Carlsbad and Oceanside, reached the 90s before noon.
... Weather service forecasters say temperatures could climb again beginning Sunday if Santa Ana winds arrive as expected, but they do not think it will get nearly as hot as yesterday. ...
(Pauline Repard, Robert Krier and Greg Gross, STAFF WRITERS)
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ROME - The U.N. food agency yesterday called for a review of biofuel subsidies and policies, noting that they had contributed significantly to rising food prices and the hunger in poor countries. With policies and subsidies to encourage biofuel production in place in much of the developed world, farmers often find it more profitable to plant crops for fuel than for food, a shift that has helped lead to global food shortages. ...
In releasing the report, the United Nations joined a number of environmental groups and prominent international specialists who have called for an end to - or at least an overhaul of - subsidies for biofuels, which are cleaner, plant-based fuels that can sometimes be substituted for oil and gas.
In an assessment released this summer, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development concluded that government support of biofuel production in member countries was hugely expensive and "had a limited impact on reducing greenhouse gases and improving energy security." It did have "a significant impact on world crop prices" by helping to raise them, the report said. "National governments should cease to create new mandates for biofuels and investigate ways to phase them out," the report said. The organization includes European countries, the United States, Canada, Japan and Australia.
(NEW YORK TIMES NEWS SERVICE)
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ALMATY, Kazakhstan - A powerful earthquake rocked Kyrgyzstan on Sunday evening, killing at least 72 people and leveling a remote mountain village, officials said yesterday. According to the U.S. Geological Survey, the quake in Kyrgyzstan measured 6.6 and struck about 10 p.m. Sunday in the Osh region in the south of the former Soviet Central Asian republic. The quake flattened Nura, a town of about 960 residents, and 400 houses near the Chinese border.
Yesterday, an earthquake of the same magnitude hit Tibet, a remote mountainous region of China, state news media reported. At least nine were killed.
(NEW YORK TIMES NEWS SERVICE)
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