Tag Archives: Deaths

Flooding disaster that killed seven in Louisiana now menaces Texas

Richard Rossi and his 4 year old great grandson Justice wade through water in search of higher ground after their home took in water in St. Amant, Louisiana,

By Bryn Stole

LIVINGSTON, La. (Reuters) – Overwhelmed rivers in much of southern Louisiana receded slowly from record levels on Monday while crews in boats searched for more people stranded in inundated homes after three days of torrential rains that killed seven people.

While the threat of flash flooding moved west into Texas, more than 11,000 Louisianans have signed up for disaster assistance. Many are waiting for the flood waters to drain away so they can determine what can be salvaged from their sodden homes and businesses.

Emergency crews already have rescued more than 20,000 people and continued to search for more after a storm dumped more than 2 feet (61 cm) of rain in three days.

Aerial photographs on Sunday showed houses inundated in mud-colored water with only their roofs visible while the bridge over the Amite River around Port Vincent, Louisiana, was almost underwater. People had become trapped overnight in their cars when the water rose on Saturday over parts of a major interstate around Baton Rouge.

While some rivers were receding on Monday, others downstream were still cresting.

“The water started rising three or four days ago and it’s still coming up right now,” said Lonnie Wells, 59, as he stood on flooded state highway in French Settlement, a town in southern Livingston Parish.

Wells said he would try to ride out the floods with his chickens, rabbits, goats and dogs, although neighbors urged him to flag down a passing Louisiana National Guard truck to get out.

The Louisiana flooding, which prompted U.S. President Barack Obama to issue a disaster declaration, resulted in seven deaths, National Weather Service meteorologist Jennifer McNatt said. Four occurred when people drove vehicles into high waters.

“IT’S GOING TO TAKE A WHILE”

The flood waters were expected to linger.

“It is going to take a while for that water to make its way out,” McNatt, who is based in Fort Worth, Texas, said in a telephone interview.

Rivers in Louisiana crested at record levels in multiple places, with the Amite River reaching 46.2 feet (14 meters) in Denham Springs, 5 feet (1.5 meters) higher than a 1983 record, McNatt said.

In flood-ravaged Livingston Parish, scores of people woke up on Monday in packed emergency shelters, sprawled out wherever they could find room. Emergency rescuers worked through the night to bring to safety people who were still stranded in roads in the middle of subdivisions, surrounded by flood water.

Pierre and Barbara Pitard, both 76, had just minutes to leave their home in Denham Springs as the water rose rapidly. The couple fled first to a neighbor’s two-story house before moving on to a Walmart, a gas station and a community center. They were finally rescued by boat and carried to safety on Saturday night, the vessel rocking as it hit submerged pickup trucks on streets inundated by water.

Pierre Pitard accepted the damage to his home but fretted about the scope of the state’s devastation.

“It’s already under water,” he said of his house. “I’m worried about how you go about getting it fixed because you’ve got thousands of people now with the exact same problems.”

Some 11,000 people already have registered with the federal government’s disaster assistance website, Louisiana Governor John Bel Edwards said in a Twitter post on Monday morning.

Flooding in Texas was a concern on Monday with the NWS saying a flood watch extended from Houston to the Hill Country region in the central part of the state. Rain also could menace parts of Arkansas in the next two days, McNatt said.

(Writing by Letitia Stein; Editing by Bill Trott)

California wildfires likely to worsen as season peaks

A firefighter stands on steep terrain while fire crews create fire breaks at Garrapata State Park during the Soberanes Fire north of Big Sur, California, U.S

(Reuters) – Drought conditions in California risk stoking new and ongoing wildfires as the season enters its peak, a forecaster said on Wednesday after several blazes already killed at least six people and charred thousands of acres so far this year.

The warning came as 5,500 firefighters battled a wildfire near the Big Sur coast, a well-known tourist destination. Dubbed the Soberanes Fire, it has scorched some 44,000 acres (17,800 hectares) and dozens of homes in the area, fire officials said.

Little rain and the strong, dry Santa Ana winds will likely stoke more wildfires as the peak of the wildfire season begins, AccuWeather said. The wildfire season officially begins in May and stretches into September.

“It’s bad now and it’s only going to get worse,” long-range forecaster Paul Pastelok said.

The Soberanes Fire began on July 22 and was sparked by an illegal, unattended camp fire in a section in Garrapata State Park that was closed to camping, the U.S. Forest Service said on Tuesday. No arrests have been made, the service said.

Fire personnel battling the blaze have been able to draw containment lines – a measure of how much of its perimeter has been cleared by fire crews of unburned vegetation – around only 25 percent of the wildfire so far.

A bulldozer operator hired by property owners to help battle the Soberanes blaze died last week when his vehicle rolled over. It was the second wildfire-related death in California in a week, another person having been found dead in his car in the path of the Sand Fire in Los Angeles County. Four people were killed in other blazes in June.

The fire threat has prompted the closure of several popular California campgrounds and recreation areas along the northern end of the Big Sur coastline, including Point Lobos State Natural Reserve and Pfeiffer Big Sur State Park.

Another fire that broke out on Saturday in grass and brush about 30 miles northeast of Fresno, in central California, has since charred about 2,185 acres and is threatening 400 structures, prompting evacuations in the area, the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection said.

Nine structures, including four homes, have been destroyed, fire officials said. On Tuesday evening, the so-called Goose Fire was listed as 60 percent contained.

(This version of the story corrects to singular “forecaster” in first paragraph, not “forecasters”)

At least 12 have died in Texas flooding, Prisons evacuated

Texas Game Warden Jeff Gillenwaters and Chris Zimmer, deputy director for Fort Hood's Directorate of Emergency Services, discuss search and recovery efforts for four missing soldiers in Fort Hood

AUSTIN, Texas (Reuters) – At least 12 people, including five Army soldiers, have died in Texas due to torrential rain in the past week which has also damaged hundreds of homes and led the state to evacuate three prison facilities, officials said on Friday.

The U.S. Army and local rescue teams were using boats, helicopters and sniffer dogs to search for four soldiers who went missing when their military vehicle overturned in a flood-swollen creek on Thursday at Fort Hood in central Texas.

Five other soldiers in the vehicle were killed while three more who survived were expected to be released from a hospital as early as Friday, a military official told a news conference.

“This tragedy extends well beyond Fort Hood and the outpouring of support from around the country is sincerely appreciated,” Major General John Uberti told reporters.

The vehicle overturned at a low-water crossing and military officials have not said why the convoy was training near a swollen waterway. The sprawling army post covering an area about 15 times larger than Manhattan was closing down flood-hit roads when the accident took place.

There was likely one more flood-related death in the state, San Antonio police said on Friday, after recovering the body of a man caught in metal bars at a river drainage site in the city.

The Texas Department of Criminal Justice began evacuating on Friday about 1,700 inmates at its Ramsey Unit in Rosharon, about 30 miles (50 km) south of Houston, due to flooding along the Brazos River.

It evacuated about 2,600 inmates from two other facilities earlier this week due to flooding on the same river. Many of the inmates were sent to other units with available beds, it said.

The National Weather Service has placed large parts of Texas and Louisiana on a flash flood watch, including Houston and New Orleans.

Heavy rains are forecast to hit Houston and eastern Texas through the weekend, likely causing more flooding, it said. Some areas could see as much as 7 inches (18 cm).

“Due to already saturated soils, even fairly brief, intense rainfall rates can easily cause roadway and low-land flooding over urban areas,” it said.

More than 150 flights have been canceled at airports in Dallas and Houston as of 1:00 p.m. (1800 GMT) on Friday due to the weather, according to tracking service FlightAware.com.

(Reporting by Jon Herskovitz; Additional reporting by Jim Forsyth in San Antonio; Editing by Phil Berlowitz and James Dalgleish)

Evacuations in Texas after worst flooding in 100 years

Mobile home park flooded following heavy rains in Richmond, Texas

By Jim Forsyth

SAN ANTONIO, Texas (Reuters) – Mandatory evacuations were ordered on Tuesday along the swollen Brazos River in Texas ahead of what could be the worst flooding in more than 100 years after at least six people died.

Forecasters predicted more rain as the Brazos rose to levels not seen in 103 years after heavy rainfall late last week and was expected to crest at about 53 feet on Tuesday, according to emergency officials in Fort Bend County, located southwest of Houston.

Jeff Braun, director of the Fort Bend County emergency management office, said many parts of the county would experience water levels “not seen in our lifetime.”

Dozens of people have been rescued from cars and homes in the past 24 hours, according to the agency’s website.

“The water level is going to stay at the same level for 24 to 36 hours before there will be a slow decrease,” Braun said. “If you flood, you’re going to have the water there for a while.”

The storm system dumped up to 22 inches (56 cm) of rain in just a few hours, killed at least six people last week, according to local authorities.

SECURITY TO STOP LOOTING

In Simonton, Texas, in Fort Bend County, officials provided transportation to help residents leave their homes as well as security to prevent looting.

The American Red Cross opened additional shelters in the Houston area.

Several rivers in southeast and eastern Texas were in “major flood stage.” While relatively rare, forecasters have seen a number of such events in Texas over the past year, said National Weather Service meteorologist Patrick Burke.

A swath of Texas including San Antonio, Austin and Houston has been hardest hit, although other areas in the state have also been affected by flooding, including Dallas-Fort Worth, Burke said.

More than 20 inches of rain have fallen over some parts of southeast Texas during the last month, 8 to 10 inches above normal, Burke said.

An area between the Texas cities of College Station and Houston received 17 inches in one extreme situation late last week, he said.

More rain is forecast this week, which could lead to additional flooding, the weather service said. Moderate and heavy rain will hit western and central Texas, then move east, drenching San Antonio, Austin and Houston on Wednesday and Thursday, Burke said.

“This will certainly prolong the problems they’re having there,” Burke said.

(Additional reporting and writing by Suzannah Gonzales; Editing by Colleen Jenkins and Jeffrey Benkoe)

Aftershocks bring Misery for Japan

Yuji Maeda cries as he watches search and rescue operation at a site where houses collapsed due to a landslide caused by an earthquake in Minamiaso town

By Elaine Lies

TOKYO (Reuters) – Aftershocks rattled survivors of deadly Japanese earthquakes on Wednesday, nearly a week after the first one struck, as the area braced for heavy rain and the possibility of more landslides.

Rescuers using backhoes and shovels to dig through crumpled houses swept away in a landslide found a woman’s body, one of several people still missing. Another death was confirmed later in the day, taking the toll to 48.

Hundreds of people in the Kumamoto area of southwestern Japan spent another night in their cars, afraid to return to damaged houses.

Medical experts warned of the danger of potentially fatal blood clots from sitting too long in cramped conditions after a 51-year-old woman died and at least 12 people were hospitalized.

Eleven people appear to have died of illnesses related to their prolonged stay in evacuation centers, NHK national television said. The first quake hit late last Thursday and the largest, at magnitude 7.3, some 27 hours later.

“I keep thinking the earthquakes will stop, but they just go on and on,” one woman at an evacuation center in Mashiki, one of the worst-hit areas, told NHK.

“It’s really scary.”

Of more than 680 aftershocks hitting Kyushu island since April 14, more than 89 have registered at magnitude 4 or more on Japan’s intensity scale, strong enough to shake buildings.

An earthquake of 5.8 magnitude struck off Japan’s northeast coast on Wednesday evening, the U.S. Geological Survey said, but there was no tsunami warning, nor were there any reports of damage or casualties.

The agency gave an initial magnitude of 6.1 for the quake that was centered 104 km (about 60 miles) southeast of Sendai, Honshu, near where a devastating quake and tsunami struck in March 2011, killing about 20,000 people.

On Kyushu, nearly 100,000 people were in evacuation centers, some huddling in blankets outside as night temperatures fell as low as 8 Celsius (46 Fahrenheit).

Heavy rain is expected over the area, raising fear that slopes weakened by the quakes could collapse.

Authorities have begun condemning buildings and other structures deemed unsafe. Hundreds, possibly thousands, of buildings collapsed, many brought down by their heavy roofs of traditional tiles.

Though public buildings must abide by stringent safety standards, the law is lax for private homes.

“When a big earthquake hits, structures may sustain damage that’s impossible to fix if there’s another quake within days,” said Akira Wada, professor emeritus at Tokyo Institute of Technology.

Most of those who were killed had returned to their homes after the first quake.

(Additional reporting by Kwiyeon Ha; Editing by Robert Birsel)

More storms for hard hit Houston, 5 dead

HOUSTON (Reuters) – Scores of schools were closed and cleanup was underway in Houston on Tuesday, a day after record rains hits the fourth most populous U.S. city, causing floods that left five dead and led to more than 1,000 water rescues.

The National Weather Service has put a flash flood watch in effect for large parts of the Houston area and into southwestern Louisiana on Tuesday. As much as 18 inches (45 cm) fell in some areas of Harris County, which contains Houston, and the weather service said heaviest daily rain records were set on Monday at the two main airports in the city.

More storms have been forecast for already saturated parts of Texas on Tuesday. About 9,000 customers were without power in the Houston area on Tuesday morning, a sharp decrease from more than 100,000 a day earlier, CenterPoint Energy said.

Flood waters that blocked roads to downtown and other main areas of the city have largely receded, with officials saying most people should be able to make it back to work.

“The city is back to normal operations but be careful driving in. Now we plan to help people recover from the flooding waters,” Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner said in a tweet.

As of 8 a.m. CDT (1300 GMT), there were more than 100 flight cancellations on Tuesday at Houston George Bush Intercontinental Airport, according to tracking service FlightAware.com. More than 1,000 flights were canceled at major Texas airports on Monday due to the storms.

Rains in other parts of the state were expected to cause rivers to crest later in the week, bringing floods to downstream areas, the weather service said.

(Reporting by Jon Herskovitz and Erwin Seba Editing by W Simon)

Dwindling hopes for Ecuador, death toll over 400

Ecuador's President Correa embraces a resident after the earthquake in the town of Canoa

y Julia Symmes Cobb and Ana Isabel Martinez

PEDERNALES/CANOA, Ecuador (Reuters) – Earthquake-stricken Ecuador faced the grim reality of recovering more bodies than survivors as rescue efforts went into a third day on Tuesday and the death toll climbed over 400 in the poor South American country.

Praying for miracles, distraught family members beseeched rescue teams to find missing loved ones as they dug through debris of flattened homes, hotels, and stores in the hardest-hit Pacific coastal region.

Meanwhile, a moved President Rafael Correa, visiting the disaster zone, said the quake had inflicted between $2 billion and $3 billion of damage on the OPEC nation’s already-fragile economy.

The damage from the quake could knock between two and three percentage points off gross domestic product growth, he told reporters. “Let’s not deceive ourselves, it’s going to be a long struggle … Reconstruction for years, billions (of dollars) in investment.”

In Pedernales, a devastated rustic beach town, crowds gathered behind yellow tape to watch firemen and police sift through rubble overnight. The town’s soccer stadium was serving as a makeshift relief center and a morgue.

“Find my brother! Please!” shouted Manuel, 17, throwing his arms up to the sky in front of a small corner store where his younger brother had been working when the quake struck.

When an onlooker said recovering a body would at least give him the comfort of burying his sibling, he yelled: “Don’t say that!”

But for Manuel and hundreds of other anxious Ecuadoreans with relatives missing, time was running out.

As of Tuesday, rescue efforts would become more of a search for corpses, Interior Minister Jose Serrano told Reuters.

The death toll stood at 413, but was expected to rise.

The quake has injured at least 2,600 people, damaged over 1,500 buildings, and left 18,000 people spending the night in shelters, according to the government.

In many isolated villages or towns struck by the quake, survivors struggled without water, power, or transport. Rescue operations continued, but the sickly, sweet stench of death told them what they were most likely to find.

“There are bodies crushed in the wreckage and from the smell it’s obvious they are dead,” said Army Captain Marco Borja in the small tourist village of Canoa.

“Today we brought out between seven and eight bodies.”

Nearly 400 rescue workers flew in from various Latin American neighbors, along with 83 specialists from Switzerland and Spain, to boost rescue efforts. The United States said it would dispatch a team of disaster experts while Cuba was sending a team of doctors.

To finance the costs of the emergency, some $600 million in credit from multilateral lenders was immediately activated, the government said.

Ecuador also announced late Monday it had signed off on a credit line for $2 billion from the China Development Bank to finance public investment. China has been the largest financier of Ecuador since 2009 and the credit had been under negotiation before the quake.

(Repoprting by Julia Symmes Cobb in Pedernales and Ana Isabel Martinez in Canoa; Additional reporting by Alexandra Valencia and Diego Ore in Quito; Writing by Alexandra Ulmer and Andrew Cawthorne; Editing by Jeffrey Benkoe)

At least two people killed at Lackland Air Force Base

Bexar County Sheriff photo of deputies inside Lackland Air Force Base

By Jim Forsyth

SAN ANTONIO (Reuters) – Two people were killed in an apparent murder-suicide at Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio on Friday that triggered a lockdown at the facility, the Bexar County Sheriff’s Office said.

“It’s over,” Bexar County Sheriff’s office spokesman James Keith said, adding that deputies were still on the scene.

The commanding officer of the 331st K-9 Training Squadron at the base was shot by an airman, according to the Air Force Times, an independent news outlet, citing on internal Pentagon communications. Neither person was immediately identified.

The incident took place at the Medina annex at the facility, where dog training takes place.

Keith said the sheriff’s office did not believe there were other victims but deputies were searching buildings “out of an abundance of caution.”

The sheriff’s office had responded to reports of a shooter at the base.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation said it had been called to assist.

Parts of the base were locked down as a result of the incident, including nearby schools, the sheriff’s office said.

Authorities also ordered people at a nearby industrial complex to stay in their buildings.

(Reporting by Jon Herskovitz and Jim Forsyth; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama and Jeffrey Benkoe)

Nearly 1,600 Homes Destroyed by Northern California Wildfires

Another 162 homes North of San Francisco have been destroyed, raising the number of homes destroyed to 1,050, and making it the third worst wildfire in California’s history.

California fire officials announced the numbers on Sunday stating that the two wildfires in North California have destroyed nearly 1,600 homes. The fires have also killed five people.

Cal Fire reported Monday that the Valley Fire was about 69% contained but an additional 6,563 residential buildings were at risk from the wildfire north of San Francisco. Daniel Berlant the spokesman for the Department of Forestry and Fire Protection stated teams have completed about 80% of the damage assessment. At this time, only homes have been accounted for, additional structures like barns, sheds, and other outbuildings have not been counted.

The Butte Fire, a second large blaze about 170 miles southeast in the Sierra Nevada foothills, is threatening another 6,400 structures and has destroyed about 550 homes and 356 outbuildings.

Cal Fire reported on Twitter that the Butte Fire was 72% contained early Monday. The evacuation orders were lifted on Saturday, but some residents had nothing left.

“Everything was destroyed,” said Annie Curtis, 16, an evacuee from Mountain Ranch, told KCRA.

“My house, the barn, the woodshed, three cars, some tractors, a whole backhoe, the tires melted off,” she said.

Another fire in Monterey Country, named the Tassajara fire, is reportedly 30% contained as of Monday.

Massive Quake Shakes Chile’s Capital

At least 8 people are dead and a million people have been displaced because of a massive magnitude 8.3 earthquake in Chile.

Violent aftershocks continue to shake the ground around Santiago and surrounding towns.  Residents were preparing for the possibility of a second strong quake although the tsunami warnings have ended for the region.

The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) says the quake struck around 6:45 p.m., 29 miles west of the capital in a small city of Illapel.  The USGS reported the quake was the strongest to hit the region in 100 years.

Aftershocks of 6.3 and 6.4 have been recorded by the USGS.  A tsunami watch was issued for both California and Hawaii because of the quakes, although they were later retracted.  Residents are still being warned to watch for high waves and significant rip tides.

Chile is one of the most earthquake-prone countries in the world because of two major plates connecting just off the coastline.  The strongest recorded quake in world history took place in the nation in 1960, magnitude 9.5.