Hurricane season ending; '06 could be bad, too
(11/30/05)
MIAMI -- The busiest and costliest Atlantic hurricane season on record officially -- and mercifully -- draws to a close today, with hundreds of thousands of Americans still dealing with the devastation wrought by Katrina, Rita and Wilma. Despite the end of the June 1-to-Nov. 30 season, hurricanes could still form over the next few months. In fact, a tropical storm took shape in the Atlantic on Tuesday. But no hurricane has been known to hit the United States between December and May...
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Hurricane season
Tropical Storm Delta gains strength in Atlantic
(11/28/05) MIAMI -- Tropical Storm Delta gained strength in the central Atlantic on Sunday but was expected to weaken before reaching the Canary Islands, forecasters said. Delta, the 25th named storm of the record 2005 Atlantic hurricane season, had top sustained wind near 65 mph, up from 40 mph earlier in the day. ...
Tropical Storm Gamma kills six in Central America
(11/20/05) TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras -- Tropical Storm Gamma deluged the coast of Central America on Saturday, killing at least six people -- three in flooding in Honduras and three in the crash of a small plane belonging to a Belize lodge owned by filmmaker Francis Ford Coppola...
Tropical system's rains kill 2
(11/16/05) KINGSTOWN, St. Vincent -- Mudslides killed two fishermen and destroyed three homes as heavy rains brought by a tropical depression overflowed river banks and made roads impassable in St. Vincent and the Grenadines, emergency officials said Tuesday. Torrents of rain also swept away two bridges in Trinidad... 
Independent authors team up to aid hurricane relief
(11/14/05)A group of writers that meet regularly on the Internet felt monetarily inadequate in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. They fully understood that every penny counted in the efforts to rebuild. They also knew that talent can spin straw into gold. Jackson independent writer Chris Manning felt that same tinge of helplessness...
Travel agents rushed as hurricanes change plans
(10/31/05) The recent hurricanes have caused plenty of damage already, but they're not completely winded just yet. Now they're dampening holiday travel plans to warm-weather regions like the Caribbean. Hurricane Wilma wrecked Mexican vacation destinations Cancun and Cozumel, and some hotels there are closed at least through Christmas. Florida resorts were also banged up, but they expect to reopen sooner...
Hurricane Beta heads for Central America
(10/30/05) SAN ANDRES ISLAND, Colombia -- A strengthening Hurricane Beta headed for Central America's Caribbean coast Saturday after lashing the small Colombian island of Providencia with harsh winds, heavy rains and high surf. Nicaraguan troops evacuated thousands of people from low-lying areas as forecasters predicted the Category 1 hurricane could reach Category 3 strength before making landfall on the mainland near the border between Nicaragua and Honduras...
Florida death toll from Wilma rises
(10/27/05) FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. -- Authorities raised Florida's death toll from Hurricane Wilma from five to 10 Wednesday and urged the storm's survivors to have patience as they endured long waits for food, water and other necessities. Gov. Jeb Bush took responsibility Wednesday for frustrating delays at centers distributing supplies to storm victims, but he also said people who have waited in line for hours seeking relief should have done more to prepare for the storm...
Tourists battle to get out of Cancun
(10/26/05) CANCUN, Mexico -- Tens of thousands of haggard tourists, fed up after five days in hot and dirty emergency shelters, battled for airline and bus seats out of Mexico's hurricane-battered Caribbean resorts on Tuesday. Officials said they still had no solid estimate of the damage caused by Hurricane Wilma, which lashed the coastline Friday and Saturday and wiped out the heart of Mexico's $11 billion foreign tourism industry, even washing away Cancun's famed white beaches...
Florida slowly recovers from Hurricane Wilma
(10/26/05) WESTON, Fla. -- Floridians lined up for water, gas, ice and generators Tuesday outside the few stores that were open after Hurricane Wilma cut a costly, deadly swath across the peninsula. The storm slammed across the state in about seven hours Monday, causing billions in insured damage and leaving 5.9 million people, or a little less than 3 million homes and businesses, without electricity. ...
Alpha blamed for at least 10 deaths before weakening
(10/25/05) PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti -- Alpha, the Atlantic season's record-breaking 22nd named storm, left at least 10 people dead in Haiti and the Dominican Republic before moving north into the Atlantic Ocean and weakening into a tropical depression, authorities said Monday...
Six dead in Florida, six million without power thanks to Wilma
(10/25/05) FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. -- Hurricane Wilma knifed through Florida with winds up to 125 mph Monday, shattering windows in skyscrapers, peeling away roofs and knocking out power to 6 million people, with still a month left to go in the busiest Atlantic storm season on record...
Looting breaks out after Wilma slams Mexico
(10/24/05) CANCUN, Mexico -- Mexicans and stranded tourists, hungry and frustrated after a two-day beating by Hurricane Wilma, stood in line to buy supplies Sunday or simply raided grocery or furniture stores, dragging goods from shops ripped open by the storm...
'Rocket' Wilma aims at Florida
(10/24/05) KEY WEST, Fla. -- Rain pounded Key West late Sunday as Hurricane Wilma accelerated toward storm-weary Florida, threatening residents with 115-mph winds, tornadoes and a surge of seawater that could flood the Keys and the state's southwest coast. The Category 3 hurricane was expected to make landfall before dawn today in the state's southwest corner, likely near Naples and Marco Island, National Hurricane Center Director Max Mayfield said...
Mexico endures day two of Wilma
(10/23/05) CANCUN, Mexico -- Hurricane Wilma punished Mexico's Caribbean coastline for a second day Saturday, ripping away storefronts, peeling back roofs and forcing tourists and residents trapped in hotels and shelters to scramble to higher floors. At least three people were killed...
Wilma rakes Mexico coast
(10/22/05) CANCUN, Mexico -- Hurricane Wilma tore into Mexico's resort-studded Mayan Riviera on Friday, filling the streets with water, shattered glass and debris as thousands of stranded tourists hunkered down in hotel ballrooms and emergency shelters. Packing winds of 140 mph, the storm shattered windows and downed trees that crushed cars on the island of Cozumel, a popular cruise-ship stop. Pay phones jutted from floodwaters in the famed hotel zone...
Wilma slows on approach to Florida
(10/21/05) KEY WEST, Fla.-- Hurricane Wilma's march toward Florida slowed somewhat Thursday, giving residents an unexpected extra day to prepare for the storm, while authorities stockpiled emergency supplies. Forecasters at the National Hurricane Center said Wilma would likely strike Florida's western coast sometime late Sunday, more than a day later than previously thought...
Hurricane Wilma: Most intense Atlantic storm ever
(10/20/05) Tempest swelled, reaching lowest minimum pressure ever measured in Americas. SAN PEDRO SULA, Honduras -- The fringes of Hurricane Wilma lashed Caribbean nations on Wednesday, forcing schools to close and thousands to evacuate as it churned toward Mexico's Cancun resort and Florida after killing at least 12 people and becoming the most intense storm ever to form in the Atlantic...
Rita losses for farmers reaches $195 million
(10/19/05) WASHINGTON -- Hurricane Rita cost farmers at least $195 million in crop and livestock losses, pushing the total for that storm and Hurricane Katrina past $1 billion, the Agriculture Department said Tuesday. However, damage from Midwestern drought hasn't been nearly as bad as forecast, officials said...
Southeast Missouri hurricane shelters close
(10/13/05) Though two hurricane shelters in Southeast Missouri are officially closed, relief efforts continue in Southeast Missouri. "It was the largest relief effort that we ever dealt with in Southeast Missouri in terms of sheltering this many people for this long and assisting almost 1,000 people," said American Red Cross director Mary Burton...
Bus company questioned over explosion
(09/30/05) The owners of the bus that exploded during the Hurricane Rita evacuation may have been negligent. DALLAS -- The company whose bus caught fire last week, killing 23 nursing-home patients fleeing Hurricane Rita, was the subject of complaints by three people in 2002 who said its vehicles reeked of fuel and were in disrepair, according to state records...
Heat, crowd overwhelms FEMA Houston relief center
(09/29/05) HOUSTON -- Saying they were caught off-guard by the number of people in need, FEMA officials closed a relief center early on Wednesday after some of the hundreds of hurricane victims in line began fainting in triple-digit heat. The midday closing of the Houston disaster relief center came as officials in areas hit hardest by Hurricane Rita criticized FEMA's response to the storm, with one calling for a commission to examine the emergency response...
Some progress along coast; much more left to do
(09/29/05) NEW ORLEANS -- Ladling out bowls of red beans and rice for passers-by in the French Quarter, bar owner Finis Shelnutt buoyantly proclaims over blaring jazz music, "People will come back." "Oh yeah, we're going to have a helluva time," he says, and plenty of other business owners and residents agree with him...
Power knocked out by storm
(09/27/05) About 5,400 Southeast Missouri residents went without electricity Sunday -- some for up to 13 hours -- after remnants of Hurricane Rita caused 70 separate outages in the area, according to AmerenUE spokesman Mike Cleary. High winds knocked trees into lines in many of the incidents, he said...
Rescuers find more survivors, damage in western Louisiana
(09/27/05) CREOLE, La. -- Hurricane Rita's path of devastation along the Texas-Louisiana coast became shockingly clear Monday, as rescuers pulled stranded bayou residents out on skiffs and Army helicopters searched for thousands of cattle feared drowned. Crews struggled to clean up the tangle of smashed homes and downed trees. ...
Rita's fury falls short of fears
(09/26/05) PERRY, La. -- For the storm-shattered Gulf Coast, the images were all too familiar: Tiny fishing villages in splinters. Refrigerators and coffins bobbing in floodwaters. Helicopters and rescue boats making house-to-house searches of residents stranded on the rooftops...
Houston slowly comes back to life
(09/26/05) HOUSTON -- Airlines resumed service and cars flowed easily over freeways as Houston flickered back to life Sunday, avoiding at least for now a repeat of the gridlock that plagued the evacuation before Hurricane Rita. There were signs the eerie emptiness was lifting in the nation's fourth-largest city: More gas stations offered fuel, and supermarkets, drug stores and restaurants opened their doors...
Rita exposes evacuation problems
(09/26/05) WASHINGTON -- The 14-hour lines of traffic fleeing Houston -- complete with cars that ran out of gas -- show that four years after the Sept. 11 attacks, it is difficult to evacuate a major metropolitan area. Experts say the consequences could be far more deadly in the event of a radiological or other terrorist strike...
Few mind evacuating even though predictions fall short
(09/25/05) CONROE, Texas -- In far-flung Texas shelters, where evacuees huddled as Hurricane Rita spared many of their homes, scarcely a gripe was heard. Nobody accused anyone of crying wolf. Searing images of the helpless New Orleans poor trapped on rooftops, watching their own city die in the winds and waters of Katrina, had sent a clear message to people here as another hurricane roared toward land:...
Rita, then relief hit Gulf Coast
(09/25/05) The hurricane spared Houston, New Orleans and other major cities a direct hit. BEAUMONT, Texas -- Nasty as it was, Rita wasn't Katrina. For that, a drenched, twice-battered Gulf Coast gave thanks. Hurricane Rita hammered east Texas and the Louisiana coast Saturday, unleashing floods and collapsing buildings, yet the overriding reaction was relief that the once-dreaded storm proved far less fierce and deadly than Katrina. ...
Gov. Matt Blunt activates Missouri National Guard
(09/25/05) JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -- As Hurricane Rita edged toward the already battered Gulf Coast, Gov. Matt Blunt on Friday activated the state's National Guard. Blunt also issued a state of emergency for Missouri, freeing up more state agencies and money for hurricane relief...
Bus carrying elderly Rita evacuees burns near Dallas
(09/24/05) WILMER, Texas -- A bus carrying nursing home residents fleeing from Hurricane Rita caught fire and was rocked by explosions Friday on a gridlocked highway near Dallas, killing as many as 24 people, authorities said. "Deputies were unable to get everyone off the bus," Dallas County Sheriff's Department spokesman Don Peritz said. He said he believed 24 people were killed, but that number could change...
Rita's early punches
(09/24/05) BEAUMONT, Texas -- Hurricane Rita steamed toward refinery towns along the Texas-Louisiana coast with 120 mph winds Friday, creating havoc even before it arrived: Levee breaks caused new flooding in New Orleans, and as many as 24 people were killed when a bus carrying nursing-home evacuees caught fire in a traffic jam...
Rita takes right turn; Gavelston, Houston could be spared the worst
(09/23/05) HOUSTON -- Hurricane Rita closed in on the Texas Gulf Coast and the heart of the U.S. oil-refining industry with howling 145 mph winds Thursday, but a sharper-than-expected turn to the right set it on a course that could spare Houston and nearby Galveston a direct hit...
NASA space center emptied in preparation for hurricane
(09/23/05) NASA's legendary base for astronaut training and Mission Control was empty Thursday as Hurricane Rita aimed for the Texas Gulf Coast and posed a flooding risk to Johnson Space Center. The space center was locked down, with the power turned off, and monitoring duties for the international space station were turned over to Russian flight controllers outside Moscow. The same thing happened in 2002 when another approaching storm threatened the space center...
Rain returns to hard-hit New Orleans as Hurricane Rita targets Gulf Coast
(09/23/05) NEW ORLEANS -- In a grim opening salvo from Hurricane Rita, a steady rain began falling Thursday on New Orleans for the first time since Katrina laid waste to the city, and engineers rushed to shore up the broken levees for fear of another ruinous round of flooding...
Red Cross has room for 400
(09/22/05) The Southeast Missouri Red Cross chapter has room for up to 400 evacuees from Hurricane Rita if the need arises, officials said Wednesday. The Southeast Missouri chapter of the American Red Cross has only one shelter for Hurricane Katrina relief still open in Benton, Mo., said Kristi Thurman, director of emergency services. But other campgrounds and shelters that have either seen Katrina refugees or were ready for people fleeing the earlier storm could be reopened quickly, she said...
A monster approaches: 1.3 million evacuate Texas coast
(09/22/05) GALVESTON, Texas -- Gaining strength with frightening speed, Hurricane Rita swirled toward the Gulf Coast a Category 5, 175-mph monster Wednesday as more than 1.3 million people in Texas and Louisiana were sent packing on orders from authorities who learned a bitter lesson from Katrina...
Rita builds strength, barrels into Gulf
(09/21/05) Katrina evacuees in Houston are moved to Arkansas as forecasters predict a Category 4. KEY WEST, Fla. -- Rapidly strengthening Hurricane Rita lashed the Florida Keys on Tuesday and headed into the Gulf of Mexico, where forecasters feared it could develop into another blockbuster storm targeting Texas or Louisiana...
Engineers in New Orleans race gainst Rita to patch weak levees
(09/21/05) NEW ORLEANS -- The Army Corps of Engineers raced to patch New Orleans' fractured levee system Tuesday and residents were forced to decide yet again whether to stay or go as a new, rapidly strengthening hurricane threatened to flood the city anew. "First it was come back, then it was go," said Karen Torre, who returned to her home Tuesday to clear debris before leaving again. "We're just trying to do what they tell us and get a few things done in between."...
Fearful of Rita, mayor suspends reopening New Orleans
(09/20/05) NEW ORLEANS -- Under pressure from President Bush and other top federal officials, the mayor suspended the reopening of large portions of the city Monday and instead ordered nearly everyone out because of the risk of a new round of flooding from a tropical storm on the way...
Florida residents flee; oil industry gets nervous
(09/20/05) Storm was moving over warm water, which is 'extremely favorable for development.' KEY WEST, Fla. -- Residents boarded up windows Monday and evacuated the low-lying Florida Keys as Tropical Storm Rita gathered strength in the Bahamas, threatening to grow into a hurricane with a potential 8-foot storm surge...
Worried OPEC ministers to increase oil supply
(09/20/05)
VIENNA, Austria -- OPEC ministers edged toward consensus Monday on a proposal to make available 2 million extra barrels of oil a day, while fears about another storm heading for the U.S. Gulf Coast drove prices up more than $4 a barrel. Prices soared above $67 a barrel in New York on worries about Tropical Storm Rita, which was gaining strength in the Bahamas and was expected to further strengthen to a hurricane with the potential to inflict fresh damage on U.S. refineries... |