Tag Archives: Storm

Deadly Storms Rage Through Texas and Oklahoma

Officials in Texas and Oklahoma say that at least 11 people are dead and over a dozen missing following a massive storm front that roared through the two states.

Record rainfall fell in many communities and flooding caused mass devastation.

Houston officials say that two people were found Tuesday and that they likely drowned in the massive flooding in the area.  Authorities were telling residents to not leave their homes.   Over 70,000 customers are without power in the Houston area.

The National Weather Service reported 11 inches of rain in six hours throughout southwest Houston.  Over 130 water rescues had to be conducted throughout the city.  The weather was so severe that the Houston Rockets NBA team told the people who came to their playoff game to stay inside the arena in their seats until the passing of the storm.

“We’ve seen flooding before, but not nearly to this extreme,” said Gage Mueller, a Houston resident for the past 40 years and Houston Rockets employee who stayed overnight at the Toyota Center because it wasn’t safe to go home. “It rains and it rains and it rains, and there’s really nowhere for the water to go. … It’s ridiculous.”

Texas Governor Greg Abbott declared disasters in 37 counties.

“You cannot candy coat it. It’s absolutely massive,” Abbott told reporters after he viewed the devastation in the region.

One of the storm’s victims was 18-year-old Alyssa Ramirez, president of the student council at Devine High School who was driving home from her senior prom.  She called 911, she called her father and then the flood waters rose too fast for her to be rescued.

The flooding was so strong that a vacation house next to the Blanco River was pushed off the foundation and rushed downriver into a bridge.  Only parts of the home have been found.  At least one person was killed by the flooding of the Blanco river.

A dam near Highway 71 broke causing the highway to be blocked.

Northeastern Blizzard Not As Strong As Feared

Some areas of the northeast are digging out from up to two feet of snow today but that total is far less than was anticipated from a massive winter storm.

Officials say that New York City was spared a large wave of the storm when less than a foot of snow fell on the city.  The bans on car travel were lifted early Tuesday and the New York City subway system returned to regular operation after being shut down 10 hours out of caution.

Snow is expected to fall into Wednesday morning through upper New England, leaving some towns in danger of tying or breaking record snowfall amounts for this time of year.  Snow drifts are the biggest issue, with Massachusetts governor Charlie Baker saying some drifts are over six feet in height.

Only one death has been reported from the storm so far.  A teenager died Monday when he was snow-tubing on Long Island and crashed into a lamppost.

While schools and other businesses remain closed throughout the region, the National Weather Service lifted the blizzard warning for all areas below Boston Tuesday.

New York’s governor defended his decision to issue a travel ban ahead of the storm.

“I would rather, if there is a lean one way or another, lean towards safety because I have seen the consequences the other way and it gets very frightening very quickly … we have had people die in storms,” Cuomo told reporters. “I would rather be in a situation where we say ‘We got lucky.'”

Year’s Strongest Storm Bearing Down On Japan

The year’s most powerful storm is focusing on Okinawa.

Japan, which has been recovering from a strike from Typhoon Phanfone last week that dumped heavy rain and battered the country with high winds, is directly in the path of Typhoon Vongfong.

Vongfong is classified as a “Super Typhoon” and is over open water.  The Hawaii-based Joint Typhoon Warning Center says the storm has sustained winds of 179 miles per hour and gusts over 219 miles per hour.  Forecasts say the sustained winds will strengthen to 190 miles per hour at the storm’s peak.

Vongfong is the sixth “Super Typhoon” in the Pacific this year.  While the storm season has seen half the usual amount of storms, the number of Super Typhoons is double the season average.

Japanese officials are concerned about the storm striking so soon after Phanfone, which disrupted air and sea travel, led to the disappearance of two American soldiers and forced suspension of searches for bodies on Mount Ontake.