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03 Mar 2012 12:53

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U.S.: Tornado outbreak tears across the Midwest and South

  • Tornado outbreak leaves towns leveled, at least 33 dead. A series of tornadoes left 16 dead in Kentucky, 14 dead in Indiana,  2 in Ohio, and 1 Alabama. Officials have warned that additional fatalities could be reported, and early reports suggest that the Indiana town of Marysville has been almost completely destroyed. In an interview with CNN, Governor Mitch Daniels said, “we’re not unfamiliar with Mother Nature’s wrath out here in Indiana, but this is about as serious as we’ve seen in the years since I’ve been in this job.” (photo by C.E. Branham/The News and Tribune via Associated Press) source

10 Jan 2012 11:22

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U.S.: Small Alaskan town gets all the snow the rest of the country isn’t getting

  • 18′ amount of snow, in feet, that has fallen in the town of Cordova, Alaska this winter
  • 6′ amount of snow, in feet, that has fallen in the past few days alone; it’s reaching a crisis level source
  • » How bad is it getting? To put it simply, the remote Alaskan town needs help. According to one resident, “there is getting to be more snow in Cordova than people and shovels to deal with it.” In some cases, buildings have collapsed. The city’s mayor has already declared a state of emergency and called the National Guard. And they’re not alone: In Nome, in the same state but 700 miles away, they’re waiting on an ice tanker with necessary fuel — and it’s moving very, very slowly.

21 Dec 2011 22:41

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Offbeat: KTLA weatherguy walks off during live television

  • Raining on his parade: A weather personality for KTLA Los Angeles stormed off during a live interview after someone back at the station cut his weather segment short.source

31 Oct 2011 23:11

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U.S.: East Coast snowstorm bad for staying warm, good for ghost stories

  • 3 million people still without power in the northeast after snowstorms source
  • » At least five states reported major outages this morning. With record-setting snowfalls snapping tree limbs, power lines were severed cutting power off for millions. The official winter season doesn’t start for 52 more days, so start preparing now. Worst. Halloween. Ever.

30 Oct 2011 09:34

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U.S.: Didya guys hear about all this snow in the friggin’ Northeast?

  • 22″ the amount of snow that fell in one Massachusetts town on Saturday — one of the highest points for the major storm
  • 2.3M the number of people that lost power during the storm, including New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (oh no!)
  • three the number of deaths reported from the storm, including an 84-year-old hit by a tree that fell into his home source
  • » A Halloween surprise? For many people, the dramatic change in weather was surprising, to say the least. “This is absolutely a lot more snow than I expected to see today,” said New Jersey resident and driveway-shoveler Carole Shepherd. “I can’t believe it’s not even Halloween and it’s snowing already.” (Edit: We’re idiots, we put a single prime instead of a double prime on the first number. Our bad. Fixed.)

09 Sep 2011 12:57

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U.S.: Pennsylvania flooding: Floodwaters high but not at Agnes levels

  • 38.9′ the crest of the Susquehanna River in Wilkes-Barre, Pa. early Friday morning
  • 40.9′ the crest of waters in Wilkes-Barre caused by Hurricane Agnes in 1972, the all-time record
  • 41′ the level of flooding the levee in the region can stand; not all regions are levee-protected source
  • » Toxic waste dangers: The flooding has one particularly disturbing side effect — it reportedly washed out 10 sewage processing plants, leading Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Corbett to warn of messing with the floodwaters. Flood warnings are currently in effect for Pennsylvania, New York, New Jersey and Massachusetts, with other nearby regions, such as Virginia and DC, still in danger of flooding.

05 Sep 2011 11:05

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Politics: Obama on Irene cleanup: “We are going to meet our federal obligations”

  • As president of the United States I want to make it very clear that we are going to meet our federal obligations because we are one country. When one part of the country gets affected, whether it’s a tornado in Joplin, Missouri or a hurricane that affects that eastern seaboard, then we come together as one country and make sure that everybody gets the help that they need.
  • President Barack Obama • Speaking about the need for federal disaster funding during a visit to Irene-ravaged New Jersey yesterday. This is an issue as a result of some stuff Eric Cantor said last week, suggesting that federal funding of disaster cleanup would only happen by cutting matching funding elsewhere. We like the point The Bergen Record’s Mike Kelly makes about this: “Memo to conservatives: You make good points about the need for America to get serious about government spending. But this is not a John Wayne western, with steel-eyed gunfighters making black-and-white decisions about life and death.” Conservatives are right on a surface level on this — we need to cut spending — but get down to the nitty-gritty and it’s simply not clear-cut. source
 

04 Sep 2011 11:23

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World: Mitch Landrieu to New Orleans residents: “Don’t go to sleep” on Lee

  • We’re not out of the woods. Don’t go to sleep on this storm.
  • New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu • Offering a word to residents about the possible danger Tropical Storm Lee poses, particularly because it’s not a quick moving storm. With the potential for heavy rains over extended periods, the storm could test the region’s support system for the first time since Katrina brought it past the brink back in 2005. A lot of rain has fallen in the Gulf Coast region thus far. source

04 Sep 2011 10:45

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U.S.: Tropical storm update: Lee floods; Katia suddenly looks more dangerous

  • With Tropical Storm Lee proving to be a slow-moving rain-pourer over the Gulf Coast, the next storm looking to cause trouble is Hurricane Katia, whose projected path has changed much in the past day and is likely to get within shouting distance of North Carolina. While it’s still entirely possible that it’ll go back out to sea, many areas are still recovering from Irene, lending a little bit of understandable nervousness to the whole mess. We’re going to focus our coverage on Lee this morning, and hopefully, Katia proves to do little more than stir up the ocean. source

02 Sep 2011 12:37

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U.S.: Tropical depression to Gulf Coast: You can call me Lee!

  • It’s expected to become a tropical storm tomorrow. Because we are apparently in the thick of hurricane season all of a sudden, this unnamed tropical depression, which forecasters expect to become Tropical Storm Lee, will likely dump a ton of rain on the region, including New Orleans. We’ll keep an eye on this one and hope it’s not too bad. source