WEATHER BOMBING OF THE USA

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http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/08/18/...in4357660.shtml

Grand Canyon Flood "Pretty Scary"
Tourists, Residents Recount Ordeal After Successful Airlift To Safety Following Flash Floods

PHOENIX, Aug. 18, 2008

CBS/AP) Approximately 50 tourists and Hualapai Tribe members spent the night in a shelter after being lifted out of a flood-devastated gorge off the side of the Grand Canyon by helicopters.

People were airlifted by helicopter after heavy rains caused an earthen dam gave way. Residents and campers were plucked from Supai, Arizona yesterday.

"Just like you would think in a movie, a flash flood comes out of nowhere, that's exactly what happened and we ran to higher ground, and it never went down after that," said evacuee Michael Rodgers.

Rafter Dylan Hennings described a "huge wall of water coming at you - it's pretty scary."

Dozens of people spent the night at an American Red Cross evacuation center set up in the Hualapai Tribal Gymnasium in nearby Peach Springs.

Tracey Kiest, a spokeswoman for the American Red Cross, said the shelter was located in a gymnasium in Peach Springs. She said they were making preparations for the possibility of accomodating more people, adding that the shelter would be in operation as long as it was needed.

Some people who were believed to be in the side canyon along Supai Creek were unaccounted for after the flood struck on Sunday.

However, CBS News correspondent Claire Leka reported that so far no people have been reported injured.

The area of northern Arizona got 3 to 6 inches of rain Friday and Saturday and about 2 inches more on Sunday, said Daryl Onton, a National Weather Service meteorologist in Flagstaff. Early Monday, about 0.80 of an inch more fell on the area, the weather service said.

"That's all it took - just a few days of very heavy thunderstorms," Onton said.

A flash flood warning remains in effect for the area.

Rescuers planned to evaluate weather conditions and the level of flooding Monday morning before deciding when they could safely resume air evacuations, said Grand Canyon National Park spokeswoman Maureen Oltrogge.

"We Lost Everything"

About 6 a.m. Sunday, the Redlands Earthen Dam about 45 miles upstream from the Hualapai village of Supai broke, park officials said. The dam isn't a "huge, significant" structure and its rupture was only one factor in the flooding, said Gerry Blair, a spokesman for the Coconino County Sheriff's Department.

On Sunday, Cedar Hemmings and his small party returned from a hike to the spot where they had tied their rafts and discovered they were stranded by the flood.

"We were basically stuck up the canyon without our rafts," he said. "We had no supplies, no food and very little water, we lost everything."

Hemmings and his group were airlifted out of the scenic gorge by helicopter Sunday, along with about 170 other people.

Rescuers worked throughout the day to locate campers and Supai Village residents and evacuate them to the top of the canyon. About 400 Havasupai tribe members live in the village.

Many residents and campers chose to stay in Supai, Blair said. There were no confirmed reports of damage in Supai, which is on high ground, he said.

"We're not as concerned about it as we initially were," he said.

Some hiking trails and footbridges were washed out and trees were uprooted, according to park officials and the weather service.

Supai is about 75 miles west of Grand Canyon Village, the popular gateway to Grand Canyon National Park.

In 2001, flooding near Supai swept a 2-year-old boy and his parents to their deaths while they were hiking.

© MMVIII, CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/08/17/...e=related_story

Hundreds Rescued In Ariz. After Dam Bursts
National Park Service Airlifts Campers And Residents Near Grand Canyon To Safety
PHOENIX, Aug. 17, 2008

(AP) Days of heavy rains around the Grand Canyon caused an earthen dam to fail Sunday and created flooding that forced helicopters to pluck hundreds of residents and campers and deliver them to safety. No injuries were immediately reported.

The failure of the Redlands Dam caused some flooding in Supai, a village on a canyon floor where about 400 members of the Havasupai Native American tribe live, said Grand Canyon National Park spokeswoman Maureen Oltrogge. The current floods and potential for more required the evacuations, she said.

No structures were damaged after the dam failed about 45 miles upstream from Supai, but some hiking trails and footbridges were washed out, she said.

Even before the rain-swollen dam burst, heavy rainfall since Friday totaling as much as 8 inches caused flooding and problems in the area. Sixteen people in a boating party were stranded on a ledge at the confluence of Havasu Creek and the Colorado River on Saturday night after flood waters carried their rafts away, Oltrogge said.

The boaters were found uninjured and were being rescued from the canyon, whose floor is unreachable in many places except by helicopter.

Rescuers were trying to find visitors staying at the Supai Campground and escort them to safety, Oltrogge said.

Evacuees were being flown to a parking area 8 miles from Supai and bused to a Red Cross shelter in Peach Springs, about 60 miles southwest of Supai, the spokeswoman said.

A flash flood warning was in effect for the area until the early evening. The area received 3 to 6 inches of rain Friday and Saturday and about 2 more inches on Sunday, said Daryl Onton, a National Weather Service meteorologist in Flagstaff, Arizona.

"That's all it took - just a few days of very heavy thunderstorms," he said.

Supai is on Havasu and Cataract creeks, about 30 miles (48 kilometers) northwest of Grand Canyon Village, a popular tourist area on the south rim of the canyon. Havasu Creek feeds the Colorado, which runs the length of the canyon.

The flooding came on a weekend during the busy summer tourist season, when thousands of visitors a day flock to the canyon for spectacular views, hikes or to raft its whitewater.

The Grand Canyon has been the traditional home of the Havasupai for centuries.

© MMVIII The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

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http://www.havasupaitribe.com/
http://www.havasupaitribe.com/aboutus.html

" When the reservation was created in 1882, the federal government confined us to the 518 acres at the bottom of the canyon and we lost almost 90% of our aboriginal land. This loss of the economic base had a major influence on our culture, forcing us to rely more on farming and seeking wage labor outside of the canyon. Eventually the Tribe began to rely on tourism, as people found their way to our beautiful homeland. In 1975, Congress reallocated 185,000 acres of our original hunting grounds back to the tribe. "

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re: From Tropical Weather Underground's blogs/comments on Invest94 now TD7 soon to be Gustav? It already looks like Tropical Storm Gustav to me when looking at the satellite photos! Isn't that already an eye formation?

"Quoting WatchingThisOne:

I suspect there is a bit of political pressure being applied. The Bush administration would probably prefer to delay announcing any ramping up of this storm in order not to throw meat at the Democrats gathering in Denver. They don't want Katrina being kicked around as an issue right after Fay and with new, potentially big, trouble brewing.

The stock market is also on a fragile footing, and nobody wants to think about a major cane hitting oil production in the Gulf. A badly sagging market is also not something the administration wants to hand to the Democrats this week.

As much as things CAN be made to go slow, I suspect they WILL be made to go slow. (But events may overtake desires.)

God forbid this storm does build and landfalls on CONUS. FEMA has plenty on their plate already. We could well see a "Katrina-like" response if a major cane rolls in. A bit of extra preparedness and planning might be in order if this thing starts shaping up as a major over the next three to five days. Might have to cope without outside help for a spell.

Hopefully it will not build, will dissipate or will hit where it does the least damage, preferably outside CONUS and away from oil fields. "

http://www.wunderground.com/blog/JeffMaste...=200808&page=11

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...and "THAR HE BLOWS!"

Invest 94 became TD7 and QUICKLY grew into TS Gustav and is not far from becoming a hurricane as the winds are already at 60 mph

Gustav details at:

http://www.wunderground.com/tropical/tracking/at200807.html

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Hurricane Gustav intensified remarkably overnight, and is poised to deliver a heavy blow to Haiti early this afternoon as a Category 1 or 2 hurricane. Gustav intensified from a tropical depression at 11 am yesterday to a Category 1 hurricane last night in just 16 hours, tying Hurricane Humberto's record--set just last year--for the fastest intensification from first advisory to a Category 1 hurricane. (Actually, Humberto did the feat in 14 1/4 hours, but both Humberto's intensification feat and Gustav's will get rounded off to 18 hours in the final data base, which stores points only every six hours).

Since reliable record keeping of intensification rates of Atlantic hurricanes began in 1970, only Humberto and Gustav have managed to intensify to a hurricane in less than 24 hours after the first advisory was issued. There have been six storms that accomplished the feat in 24 hours--Hurricane Florence of 2000, Hurricane Erin of 1995, Hurricane Bonnie of 1992, Hurricane Earl of 1986, Hurricane Kate of 1985, and Hurricane Kendra of 1978.

http://www.wunderground.com/blog/JeffMaste...2&tstamp=200808

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With four named storms going at once--Gustav, Hanna, Ike, and Josephine--the tropics are exceptionally active today.

The last time there were four named systems present on the same day was on August 24, 1999, when Bret, Cindy, Dennis and Emily were all active in the Atlantic.

Four hurricanes have occurred simultaneously on two occasions. The first occasion was August 22, 1893. The second time was on September 25-27, 1998, when Georges, Ivan, Jeanne and Karl were all hurricanes.

There have been five named storms at once--this occurred in 1971, from September 10 to 12.

There's a tropical wave over Africa behind Josephine that the GFS model forecasts will develop into a tropical storm next week.

http://www.wunderground.com/blog/JeffMaste...8&tstamp=200809

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Lowell and Ike and a cold front will converge over the OK-AR-MO area for a predicted 10+ inches of rain! Isn't this an "evil" looking photo? It reminds one of the Molech owl. The evil eyes have it! I stand by my earlier post that they are working to recreate the earthquake along the New Madrid fault. It is their recreation but also their attempts at re-creation and at the same time they are trying to re-create the big bang with the supercollider. All the Mississippi inflowing rivers have gotten it this year and now it still looks like the AR River is being targeted as that area is not "soft" enough yet. Check out jim McCanney on softening by weather bombing at
http://z13.invisionfree.com/THE_UNHIVED_MI...4425&st=0&#last

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http://www.wunderground.com/blog/JeffMaste...0&tstamp=200809

Hurricane Ike's winds remain at Category 2 strength, but Ike is a freak storm with extreme destructive storm surge potential. Ike's pressure fell rapidly last night to 944 mb, but the hurricane did not respond to the pressure change by increasing its maximum winds in the eyewall. Instead, Ike responded by increasing the velocity of its winds away from the eyewall, over a huge stretch of the Gulf of Mexico. Another very unusual feature of Ike is the fact that the surface winds are much slower than the winds being measured aloft by the Hurricane Hunters. Winds at the surface may only be at Category 1 strength, even though Ike has a central pressure characteristic of a Category 3 or 4 storm. This very unusual structure makes forecasting the future intensity of Ike nearly impossible. The possibilities range from a Category 1 storm at landfall--as predicted by the HWRF model--to a Category 4 storm at landfall, as predicted by the GFDL.

Ike is now larger than Katrina was, both in its radius of tropical storm force winds--275 miles--and in it radius of hurricane force winds--115 miles. For comparison, Katrina's tropical storm and hurricane force winds extended out 230 and 105 miles, respectively. Ike's huge wind field has put an extraordinarily large volume of ocean water in motion. When this swirling column of water hits the shallow waters of the Continental Shelf, it will be be forced up into a large storm surge which will probably rival the massive storm surge of Hurricane Carla of 1961. Carla was a Category 4 hurricane with 145 mph winds at landfall, and drove a 10 foot or higher storm surge to a 180-mile stretch of Texas coast. A maximum storm surge of 22 feet was recorded at Port Lavaca, Texas. Despite the fact that the center of Carla hit over 120 miles southwest of Houston, the hurricane drove a 15-foot storm surge into the bays along the south side of the city. I don't expect Ike will reach Category 4 strength, thus its maximum surge is not likely to reach the extreme values above 20 feet seen in Hurricane Carla. Like Carla, though, Ike will probably inundate a 180-mile stretch of Texas coast from Port O'Connor to just north of Galveston with a 10-15 foot storm surge. This will occur even if Ike is a Category 1 storm at landfall. The latest experimental storm surge forecast From NOAA's SLOSH model (Figure 1) shows a 10% chance that Ike's storm surge will exceed 15-21 feet at Galveston. The Galveston sea wall is 17 feet high, so it may get overtopped.

The amount of water Ike has put in motion is about 50% greater than what Katrina did, and thus we can expect Ike's storm surge damage will be similar to or greater than Katrina's. The way we can estimate this damage potential is to compute the total energy of Ike's surface winds (kinetic energy). To do this, we must look at how strong the winds are, and factor in the areal coverage of these winds. Thus, we compute the Integrated Kinetic Energy (IKE) by squaring the velocity of the wind and summing over all regions of the hurricane with tropical storm force winds or higher. This "Integrated Kinetic Energy" was recently proposed by Dr. Mark Powell of NOAA's Hurricane Research Division as a better measure of the destructive power of a hurricane's storm surge than the usual Category 1-5 Saffir-Simpson scale. For example, Hurricane Katrina hit Mississippi as a strong Category 3 hurricane, yet its storm surge was more characteristic of a Category 5 storm. Dr. Powell came up with a new scale to rate potential storm surge damage based on IKE (not to be confused with Hurricane Ike!) The new scale ranges from 1-6. Katrina and Wilma at their peaks both earned a 5.1 on this scale (Figure 2). At 9:30am EDT this morning, Ike earned a 5.6 on this scale, the highest kinetic energy of any Atlantic storm in the past 40 years

Figure 2. Comparison of the potential damage from storm surge and waves on a scale of 1 to 6 (left scale, and corresponding to little "x" marks on the plot), as a function of total Integrated Kinetic Energy in Tera-joules (IKE, on the right scale, corresponding to the little squares on the plot). Hurricane Ike at 12:30pm EDT had an IKE of 134, 10% higher than the value of 122 Katrina had at landfall in Mississippi. Ike's amount of wind energy can generate storm surge and wave damage rated at 5.2 on a scale of 1 to 6, worse than Katrina's 5.1 at landfall. Image credit:"Tropical Cyclone Destructive Potential by Integrated Kinetic Energy" by Mark Powell and Timothy Reinhold.

All this energy is also going into the waves in the Gulf of Mexico, and the offshore oil rigs can expect to receive a terrific battering. At 8:50am CDT, waves at the Buoy 42001 180nm south of Louisiana were 28 feet and growing. NOAA's Wavewatch III model is predicting wave heights up to 13 meters from Ike on Friday. For comparison, Hurricane Ivan of 2004 generated 27 meter high waves in the Gulf of Mexico. Surf heights of 15 feet have been reported at beaches along the Florida Panhandle, and tides are also running extremely high. Tides are 2-4 feet above normal along the Gulf Coast from Louisiana to the west coast of Florida, and one foot above normal in Galveston. The water level will continue to rise as Ike approaches Texas, and NOAA's experimental storm surge forecast (Figure 1) is calling for a 10% chance that the storm tide from Ike will reach 24-27 feet on the south and east sides of Houston.

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http://www.neworleanscitybusiness.com/upto...rer=dailyUpdate

Louisiana coast floods as Ike heads west
by The Associated Press

LAKE CHARLES - Levees were breached in coastal Louisiana today as Hurricane Ike churned toward Texas, threatening thousands of homes where fishers, oil-field workers and farmers live close to the Gulf of Mexico.

The low-lying levees south of Houma were the site of the worst flooding. By early afternoon, crews were attempting to plug four breaches.

"We've got a bad situation," said Windell Curole, levee manager for Terrebonne Parish. "There's a lot of levee we can't deal with — hundreds of feet. (Hurricane) Rita-like flooding is a possibility."

In September 2005, Rita followed a similar route to Ike's — slowly crossing the Gulf from southeast to northwest. Rita's storm surge pushed salt water up to 20 miles inland.

Curole said about 10,000 homes flooded in Terrebonne during Rita and that many of the same places were in danger today.

"It's terrible," Curole said. "The water is coming in almost unimpeded right now."

Gov. Bobby Jindal encouraged residents in low-lying southwest Louisiana to evacuate. Nearly 200 people in Cameron Parish — which is under a mandatory evacuation order — had refused to leave, but Jindal asked them to reconsider before it would become dangerous to travel on the roads.

"I strongly discourage people in our coastal areas, where there are mandatory evacuation orders, from trying to shelter in place," Jindal said. "I strongly encourage you to get out of harm's way. There is still time."

Forecasters expected Ike to push tidal surges of up to 19 feet into Cameron, a sparsely populated area that borders Texas. In Lake Charles, a 13-foot storm surge is possible.

Flooding was also reported at Grand Isle and Port Fourchon, two of Louisiana's most important coastal towns.

Grand Isle is a sandy southeastern Louisiana barrier island with a vibrant fishing industry.

It was hit hard by Hurricane Gustav on Labor Day, damaging fishing marinas, blowing out sections of the town beach dune and flooding some homes. The island has struggled to cope with a series of storms in the past decade.

About 130 people remained on Grand Isle and the only road leading to it had been cut off by storm surge. Jindal said search and rescue teams would head to the island as soon as wind died down and water receded. He told residents they could break into a state wildlife and fisheries lab that was deemed a safe structure. He called it "the most unusual piece of advice I might give."

Port Fourchon, an important offshore oil and natural gas hub, also was flooded, an official said. Many of the helicopters and ships that service the Gulf's offshore industry leave from the port and it is also a gateway for oil and gas pipelines coming ashore.

Chris Macaluso, spokesman for the governor's Office of Coastal Activities, said there were reports of severe flooding there.

Though Ike was taking aim at Texas, it spawned thunderstorms, shut down schools and knocked out power throughout southern Louisiana today. No was reported killed.

An estimated 1,200 people were in state shelters in Monroe and Shreveport, and another 220 in medical needs shelters.

Ike's gusts knocked out power, adding to the state's woes. Gustav caused widespread power outages when it made landfall southwest of New Orleans on Labor Day. Gustav's winds were so powerful they toppled transmission towers and the lights had not been turned on in many places by today.

Entergy Corp. said more than 84,500 customers were without electric. Cleco Corp. reported about 2,000 outages, and Dixie Electric more than 13,000.

In the New Orleans area, floodgates were closed at canals, railroad crossings and navigation channels.

But a more serious threat was to Lake Charles, an industrial city of 71,000 near the Texas border and close enough to the Gulf for high water to enter.

"Remember Rita," Lake Charles Mayor Randy Roach said Thursday, urging Calcasieu Parish residents to evacuate low-lying areas, trailers and mobile homes. "This is not a time to be lackadaisical."

The National Weather Service said storm surge in the Lake Charles area could be higher than during Rita.

A federal state of emergency was declared in Cameron, Calcasieu, Jefferson Davis and Vermilion parishes — the mostly rural areas around Lake Charles where sugarcane, alligators, crawfish and fishing are the economic mainstays.

National Guard troops and buses were deployed to evacuate people in the southwest corner.

Lake Charles residents heeded warnings to get out and officials said at least 1,200 people boarded government-sponsored buses bound for shelters in north Louisiana.

But not everyone was leaving. Sidney Victorian, a 34-year-old offshore worker, said he would stay as he filled gasoline cans.

Three years ago he left for Rita, but the storm only loosened a few shingles on his roof. He spent $500 evacuating.

He now has a generator and said he's ready to ride out Ike.

"For the same amount of money, I could be home," said Victorian.

Meanwhile, Tiffiny Guidry, 37, got ready for another evacuation with her children and her mother, this time to Alexandria in central Louisiana. For Gustav, the family went to Dallas.

"I'm not taking any chances, because you never know," Guidry said.