Storm fells hundreds of trees in NY's Central Park

NEW YORK — Hundreds of century-old trees lay snapped in half and uprooted throughout Central Park on Wednesday after a severe thunderstorm with winds as high as 80 mph barreled through the city overnight.

"I've never seen a wind of that velocity in New York City," Parks Commissioner Adrian Benepe said. "It looks like pictures that I've seen of war zones where artillery shells have shredded trees."

The storm swept through the area Tuesday night, snapping the park's famous American elm trees in half while uprooting others. One tree lay across the tennis courts at West 96th Street, and a few lampposts stood at a slant after trees crashed into them.

Several parked cars were also destroyed when branches hurtled through the air and landed on them.

Steve Sherman, a 50-year-old photographer, cycled through Central Park on Wednesday morning and counted dozens of fallen trees around him. He compared the devastation to the aftermath of a tornado.

"Central Park is our oasis. It's our only saving grace living in an urban center like New York," Sherman said. "To see Mother Nature up front and realize her power, it's phenomenal. You just don't expect it in an urban setting."

Dorothy London has spent years sketching the area's towering American elm trees. On Tuesday night, the artist stood by her apartment window worrying about how the trees were faring in the fierce storm.

"I heard the screaming of the wind. I heard crashing," London said. "I was worried if all those beautiful trees were all dying."

On Wednesday morning, she toured the park, looking for her favorite American elm near the tennis courts. She found the elm split in two.

"It's dead," she said, bursting into tears.

Parks employees were cleaning up streets and travel lanes Wednesday and identifying any hazardous areas of trees with hanging limbs that could still come down. The Central Park Conservancy also brought in emergency contractors.

Benepe urged the public to stay away from any trees in the park marked hazardous. He said some of the heavier-hit sections, like the North Meadow and the area around the tennis courts, might have to be cordoned off.

"The landscape has changed forever," he said.

The American elm can grow up to 125 feet tall, with a spread spanning 65 feet at the top. Benepe said he wasn't sure if new saplings would ever be able to reach the size and maturity of the trees that were lost.

"My grandchildren might be able to enjoy those trees in time," Sherman said. "But they won't be able to see the tree I just looked at yesterday. We've lost friends here."

The storm swept in after two sweltering days of temperatures above 90 degrees. According to the National Weather Service, there is a chance of showers and thunderstorms Wednesday evening.

by the associated press

Winds rip through Minneapolis, could be a tornado

MINNEAPOLIS — Weather experts are looking into tornado reports after powerful winds ripped through Minneapolis, tearing off part of a 90-year-old metal church steeple.

The National Weather Service issued a tornado warning Wednesday afternoon after receiving reports of a tornado just north of downtown. The city has received no immediate reports of injury.

The winds toppled trees and scattered large outdoor tents and chairs set up downtown for the national Evangelical Lutheran Church in America convention. The steeple at the Central Lutheran Church next door was damaged as 120 people were inside, though a church spokesman said no one was injured

Hennepin County sheriff's officials said trained weather spotters also reported seeing a tornado.

by the associated press

Extreme heat and cold

BUFFALO — In the past four months, weather in the northwestern Oklahoma community of Buffalo has included a blizzard, brutally hot temperatures, temperatures below normal and a "severe drought.”

On Monday, the high hit 105 degrees making it the 13th time this year the Oklahoma Mesonet Station at Buffalo has had the highest temperature in the state, said Gary McManus, of the the Oklahoma Climatological Survey.

It marks yet another swing in an active weather year.

Harper County Emergency Management Director Conyetta Lehenbauer remembers shivering in late March as Buffalo received a 23-inch snowfall with one drift reaching the hood of her husband’s pickup.

But on June 17 the temperature reached triple digits, and the heat was on.

"The difference this year is that it got so hot, so early,” she said. "And it was that kind of heat that takes your breath away.”

The Mesonet on July 9 recorded an actual temperature of 115 degrees, which was matched the following day at Freedom.

That July 9 reading began a six-day span in which Buffalo reached 110 degrees or higher five times. The good news was cooler weather was on the way. This included lows of 58 degrees July 18 and 57 degrees July 19. Temperatures were cooler than normal in Buffalo 13 days in July.

This week they returned to 100s. But that’s only part of the problem.

They are in an area of the state with a drought intensity listed as "severe” by the U.S. Drought Monitor, a federal effort that categorizes drought status.

"We just can’t get any rain,” said Buster Record Jr., a rancher who has lived in the Buffalo area for 30 years. "The grass is burned up.”

Buffalo is one of the driest areas in Oklahoma with only 8.8 inches of precipitation this year. They’ve only received a half inch of rain in the past 30 days. The last time they received at least a quarter inch of rain was 1.09 inches on June 20.

McManus, who is a native of Buffalo, said "Drought tends to fuel that heat. That’s High Plains weather in a nutshell. You’re baking one week and digging in the closet for your jacket the next week.”


from the oklahoman

Homes ready to be Built

NEW ORLEANS — The only thing keeping Gerard Rigney from getting back into his home is the FEMA trailer in his front yard.

It needs to vanish so his plumber can redo the piping into the house, which was damaged by Hurricane Katrina’s floodwaters almost four years ago. After months of calls and letters from the Federal Emergency Management Agency saying his days in the trailer were numbered, he can’t wait to get rid of it.

"I’m grateful I had this. I would’ve been at the mercy of friends and strangers without it,” the 65-year-old stagehand said from his trailer’s front steps — a day before FEMA’s Saturday deadline for him and thousands of others to leave their federally issued travel trailers and mobile homes or face possible repossession.

Mobile home and trailer dwellers like Rigney were given several extensions to finish rebuilding homes or find permanent places to stay. Those who stayed on or past May 1 were given notices to vacate. And it appears the deadline is going to stick after FEMA told residents they would ask the U.S. Department of Justice to help get them out of the units.

With hurricane season beginning Monday, an estimated 3,400 households affected by those storms remain in trailers and mobile homes in Louisiana and Mississippi.

David Garratt, FEMA’s acting deputy administrator, told a House subcommittee on May 22 that it could take several months for any "evictions.”

FEMA has assured state officials the situation would be approached on a case-by-case basis. Agency spokesman Clark Stevens said FEMA is working with federal, state and local agencies to help residents transition into long-term housing.




by the associated press

Obama urges to make plan's for hurricane season

WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama urged residents of hurricane-prone communities Friday to take responsibility for their own safety and start planning now.

Hurricane season officially begins Monday.

"A lot of these plans are not complicated,” the president said after a disaster-preparedness briefing at the Federal Emergency Management Agency. Individuals should be ready with a supply of nonperishable food, water, first aid kits and radios that will work in the rain, he said.

Forecasters are predicting a normal hurricane season, with four to seven hurricanes.



by the associated press

Voting , is slow from Violence and Weather

PATNA, India — A brutal heat wave, together with threats of violence from communist guerrillas, kept millions away from the polls Thursday in India’s monthlong election.

The initially high turnout slowed to a trickle as summertime temperatures reached 111 degrees. The intense heat caused the death of one election official and hospitalization of another in Orissa state, said Prabhakar Sahu, a spokesman for the election commission.

The low numbers were expected to further confuse an election already dominated by a range of regional and caste-based parties and without any dominant central issues.

Polls indicate neither the Congress party, which leads the governing coalition, nor the main opposition, the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party, will win enough seats in the lower house of Parliament to rule on their own. That means it will likely leave India with a shaky coalition government.

Problems awaiting the next premier include Maoist rebels, who have threatened to kill citizens participating in the vote.

The results are expected May 16.

by the associated press

Snowstorm in Two States

DENVER — More than a foot of wet, heavy snow closed highways and canceled flights in parts of Colorado and Wyoming on Friday.

Up to 3 feet of snow was expected by tonight in the mountains above 6,000 feet, forecasters said. Nearly 2 feet already had fallen in Rocky Mountain National Park about 60 miles northwest of Denver.

The weather forced a return to heavy coats and snow boots for some who already had packed away their winter clothes.

"I cannot get used to this snow,” said Myra Gonzalez, 25, who moved to Denver from Southern California two years ago.

Gonzalez said she usually drives to work but opted for the bus after seeing heavy flakes outside.

"Now I’m stuck on the bus. I didn’t even want to mess with it,” the customer-service worker said.

Many suburban Denver schools closed early Friday. United Airlines, the dominant carrier at Denver International Airport, canceled 76 flights.

The storm was welcomed at ski areas, though, where the economic downturn has reduced bookings more than 8 percent from last year at some resorts.

On Friday, the slopes were packed with late-season skiers and snowboarders taking their final runs of the season. Most resorts close Sunday.

The storm was not without headaches, though. A 140-mile stretch of Interstate 80 and many smaller roads in Wyoming were closed.

Authorities had no reports of serious injuries.

Parts of central and southern Wyoming were under a winter storm warning. Federal courts and city offices were closed in Cheyenne, where at least 14 inches were predicted. The Wyoming State Museum in Cheyenne canceled an Earth Day celebration planned for today.

by the associated press

Flood Watching from Military Aircraft

FARGO, N.D. — As the swollen Red River threatened Fargo this spring, thousands of eyes were trained on the city’s sandbag walls. But just in case the townspeople missed something, the eye in the sky was watching, too.

A Predator drone of the sort used by the U.S. military was sent up three times in recent weeks to give officials a view of the floodwaters, marking the first time one of the remote-controlled planes has been used for flood-fighting in the U.S.

Equipped with radar and infrared cameras that can see in the dark and peer through clouds, the aircraft provided detailed, real-time video images of ice floes, flood patterns and any trouble spots along the levees.

Experts said some of the Predator’s sorties over North Dakota lasted 11 or 12 hours, meaning the mission doesn’t need to be stopped to refuel.

And because the Predator is unmanned, no pilots had to risk their lives in bad weather. Also, the streaming video could be instantly downloaded to command centers.

by the associated press