2 dozen tornadoes hit Kansas

ULYSSES, Kan. - Powerful thunderstorms spawned two dozen tornadoes in southwest Kansas in less than two hours Thursday, damaging a hospital roof and downing fences and sheds.

Many of the tornadoes were weak, and no injuries were reported as they touched down in a corridor roughly 20 miles wide and 110 miles long from near Ulysses in Grant County to north of Protection in Comanche County.

At one point just before 5 p.m., storm chasers reported two tornadoes moving on either side of U.S. 283 in Ford County, about 20 miles south of Dodge City.

Two minutes later, a trained spotter in Ford County reported a separate tornado with a debris cloud estimated at one mile wide.

Nine patients at Bob Wilson Memorial Hospital in Ulysses were moved to other rooms after a layer of the roof over the intensive care unit was blown off about 4:30 p.m., hospital officials said. An older wood roof remained in place, but crews covered it with tarp to prevent water damage.

Staff at the National Weather Service in Dodge City tallied 24 separate tornadoes in all from 3:50 p.m. to 5:40 p.m.

The outbreak was fed by the same weather system that brought heavy snow to eastern Colorado. Forecaster Jennifer Ritterling, of the weather service bureau in Dodge City, said tornado outbreaks sometimes hit the Plains in September and October when conditions are right.

Luis Castillo, a firefighter with the California Dept. of Forestry, battles the Esperanza Fire along Highway 97 in Gilman Hot Springs, Calif., on Friday, Oct. 27, 2006.

Deadly Southern California wildfire called arson; 4 firefighters killed


Tinder-dry conditions contributed to the rapid spread of the flames


Firefighters from the California Department of Forestry prepare to battle the Esperanza Fire at it burns next to a home in Banning, Calif., 90 miles east of Los Angeles Friday, Oct. 27, 2006. Fire crews were working Friday to hold the western edge of a fast-moving blaze that raced across 15 miles of terrain with the help of hot, dry Santa Ana winds, killing four firefighters who became trapped by a wall of flames. (AP Photo/Kevork Djansezian)

CABAZON, Calif. — A wind-driven wildfire that has destroyed 24,000 acres of land in Southern California jumped a highway barrier today, threatening a canyon that crews are using as a staging area for firefighters, fire engines and helicopters.
Four U.S. forest service firefighters have been killed since the Esperanza Wildfire, believed to be the work of an arsonist, erupted early Thursday. A fifth firefighter is in critical condition.

The fire has destroyed 10 structures, including five homes, and almost 38 square miles of forest in the San Jacinto Mountains west of Palm Springs. It is burning in a south-southwesterly direction, with 25 mph gusts of wind out of the east.

Firefighters at the Lamb Canyon landfill, which is being used as a staging area, were watching from the east side of Highway 79 today when fire suddenly jumped the roadway and exploded into 25-feet high flames. Crews screamed "water" and pulled out their hoses to attack the oncoming flames.

Firefighters were also worried about some 120 to 140 children being sheltered at a special needs school in Beaumont. Crews were preparing to set a backfire around the facility to protect it and made plans to remove the children if conditions worsened.

"We don't anticipate needing to evacuate them, but just in case, we have buses on scene," said Phil Rawlings, spokesman for the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection. About half of the children are residential students and the rest are drop-in, day care students.

The unpredictable winds have been merciless, driving flames forward and preventing crews during the night from mounting aerial assaults with water and fire retardant.

More than 1,100 firefighters, armed with 171 engines, 15 air tankers and 22 helicopters, are battling the blaze, but Incident Commander Rick Henson, with the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, said today that officials are still "critically short" on resources to battle the blaze. Only 5% of the wildfire has been contained and fire officials say they cannot predict when it will be brought under control.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has proclaimed a state of emergency for Riverside County.

"We had a lot of fire activity overnight," Bill Peters, spokesman for the California Department of Forestry told the Associated Press. "Normally the fire dies down and the winds let up but that didn't happen last night. It burned like it was daytime."

As daylight broke today, firefighters were finally able to prepare aerial equipment to begin dropping water and fire retardant on the blaze.

"We're going to be here, and we're going to hit it hard," said Riverside County fire Chief John Hawkins.

Around 700 people have been evacuated from homes mainly in the Twin Pines, Poppet Flats and Silent Valley area.

Charles Miner, who had burns on his face and right hand, said he told his mother and sister to get out as he struggled to save his $50,000 backhoe.

He shook his head when asked if his house was still standing. "It's not," he said. "I watched it. It's burnt to the ground."

Timo Harju, 61, said he could see the fire's glow inside his hilltop house when he awakened around 4:30 a.m. Thursday.

He said he grabbed his two dogs and rushed from the house after looking out a window at a fire raging in a nearby valley.

"The whole thing was ablaze with flame," he said. "It was the most spectacular view. A terrible view, but spectacular."

Hundreds of people were riding out the fire at the Silent Valley RV Park, about 35 miles west of Palm Springs. Campers were protected by a firebreak that had been created around the camp years ago. "It may be a bit smoky, but they are fine," said Riverside County Fire Department Capt. Julie Hutchinson.

Riverside County's fire chief Hawkins says an arsonist set the blaze around 1 a.m. Thursday in alignment with the wild Santa Ana winds, also known as the Devil Winds, that roar through these hills and canyons, especially in October.

"It was set to go," Hawkins said.

A $300,000 reward has been offered for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the arsonist, who would face murder charges.

"Turn that scum in, please," said Riverside County Supervisor Marion Ashley.

Three firefighters were killed on the scene when flames engulfed them so suddenly they were not able to scramble to protective shelter. The fourth died in the hospital. All were based in Alandale, a small community near Idyllwild.

Killed were engine Capt. Mark Loutzenhiser, 44, of Idyllwild; engine operator Jess McLean, 27, of Beaumont; assistant engine operator Jason McKay, 27, of Phelan; and firefighter Daniel Hoover-Najera, 20, of San Jacinto.

A fifth firefighter — identified as Pablo Cerda, 23, of Fountain Valley — had burns over almost his entire body and also had severe respiratory damage, officials said. Loutzenhiser was a father of five, said Pat Boss, a U.S. Forest Service spokesman.

The deaths brought to 19 the number of California firefighters killed in the line of duty over the past year, according to statistics kept by California Professional Firefighters, a lobbying organization.

It was the deadliest wildfire in the United States since July 10, 2001, when four firefighters were killed in Washington's Okanogan National Forest.

"You don't kill four federal employees," Bill Peters, public information officer for the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, said. "Whoever did this has incurred the wrath of the federal government."

As the Esperanza wildfire raged, another sprung up in neighboring Orange County, about 50 miles southwest. There, firefighters were battling a brush fire that started overnight and forced the evacuation of about 140 people from a campground in the Cleveland National Forest near the city of Lake Elsinore, said Orange County Fire Capt. Steve Miller.

Tropical storm Cimaron

Tropical storm Cimaron is forecast to strike the Philippines at about 06:00 GMT on 29 October. Data supplied by the US Navy and Air Force Joint Typhoon Warning Center suggest that the point of landfall will be near 15.3 N, 123.0 E. Cimaron is expected to bring 1-minute maximum sustained winds to the region of around 101 km/h (63 mph). Wind gusts in the area may be considerably higher.

Deadly spinach scare appears over as investigators look to wild pigs as culprits

WASHINGTON (AP) — After a month without any reports of illness from tainted spinach, health officials say the deadly outbreak of bacteria that killed three people and sickened more than 200 others nationally appears to be over.
Investigators also have linked the fatal strain of E. coli to wild pigs that may have spread the bacteria by trampling fences surrounding a spinach field in California.

"All evidence points to this outbreak having concluded," Kevin Reilly of the California Department of Health Services said Thursday. No one has become ill from eating contaminated spinach since Sept. 25.

Samples taken from a wild pig, as well as from stream water and cattle on the ranch, have tested positive for the same strain of E. coli implicated in the outbreak, Reilly said in a conference call with reporters.

Still, investigators continue to look at three other ranches in the areas in seeking the source of the contaminated fresh spinach.

"We are not saying this is the source at this point," Reilly said of the ranch.

The outbreak sickened 204 people in 26 states and one Canadian province, he said.

Wild pigs are one "real clear vehicle" that could explain how E. coli spread from cattle on the ranch to the spinach field less than a mile away, Reilly said. The pigs could have tracked the bacteria into the field or spread it through their droppings, he said.

Investigators also are looking at runoff, flooding, irrigation water, fertilizer and other wildlife, including deer, as possible sources.

Investigators first recovered the same strain of bacteria earlier this month from three cattle manure specimens collected on the ranch. On Thursday, Reilly said the strain had been isolated from six other samples collected on the ranch, including from cattle.

The finds mark the first time that investigators have identified a possible source for any of the multiple E. coli outbreaks linked to the heavily agricultural area.

Reilly refused to give a location for the ranch, other than to say it's in a valley in the area of San Benito and Monterey counties.

Investigators have taken roughly 750 samples from the four ranches. They've found generic E. coli on all four ranches — the bug is commonly found in cattle — but turned up the particular strain involved in the outbreak on only one.

"We have no evidence to suggest people should not be eating spinach from other places — except from these four ranches," said Jack Guzewich of the Food and Drug Administration's Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition.

Women under attack in Iraq, Afghanistan

UNITED NATIONS - Women are facing increasing violence in Iraq, Afghanistan and Somalia, especially when they speak out publicly to defend women's rights, a senior U.N. official told the U.N. Security Council.

Noeleen Heyzer, executive director of the U.N. Development Fund for Women, called on for fresh efforts to ensure the safety of women in countries emerging from conflicts, to provide them with jobs, and ensure that they receive justice, including compensation for rape.

"What UNIFEM is seeing on the ground — in Iraq, Afghanistan, Somalia — is that public space for women in these situations is shrinking," Heyzer said Thursday. "Women are becoming assassination targets when they dare defend women's rights in public decision-making."

Heyzer spoke at a daylong open council meeting on implementation of a 2000 resolution that called for women to be included in decision-making positions at every level of striking and building on peace deals. It also called for the prosecution of crimes against women and increased protection of women and girls during war.

Undersecretary-General for Peacekeeping Jean-Marie Guehenno said that, in the past year, Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf became the first woman head of state in Africa, Liberia adopted an anti-rape law, women in Sierra Leone pushed for laws on human trafficking, inheritance and property rights and women in East Timor submitted a draft domestic violence bill to parliament.

Despite these positive developments, he said, women face widespread insecurity and in many societies violence is still used as a tool to control and regulate the actions of women and girls seeking to rebuild their homes and communities.

"In Afghanistan, attacks on school establishments put the lives of girls at risk when they attempt to exercise their basic rights to education," Guehenno said. "Women and girls are raped when they go out to fetch firewood in Darfur. In Liberia, over 40 percent of women and girls surveyed have been victims of sexual violence. In the eastern Congo, over 12,000 rapes of women and girls have been reported in the last six months alone."

Assistant Secretary-General Rachel Mayanja, the U.N. special adviser on women's issues, said that from Congo and Sudan to Somalia and East Timor, she said, "women continue to be exposed to violence or targeted by parties to the conflict ... lacking the basic means of survival and health care."

At the same time, Mayanja said, they remain "underrepresented in decision-making, particularly on war and peace issues."

Assistant Secretary-General Carolyn McAskie, who is in charge of supporting the new U.N. Peacebuilding Commission which was established this year to help countries emerging from conflict, said her office will try to ensure that "space is created for women's active participation in political, economic and social life."

"We cannot ignore the voices of the women from the time we broker peace onwards," McAskie said. "Peacemaking is not just an exercise involving combatants, it must involve all of society, and that means women."

At the end of the meeting, the council said it "remains deeply concerned by the pervasiveness of all forms of violence against women in armed conflicts." and reiterated its strong condemnation of all acts of sexual misconduct by U.N. peacekeeping personnel.

Allegations of sexual abuse have also been reported in peacekeeping missions in Congo, Bosnia, Kosovo, Cambodia, East Timor and West Africa.

Significant storm impacts much of America

Tropical Storm Paul floods Mexico

SAN JOSE DEL CABO, Mexico - The remnants of Tropical Storm Paul made landfall on Mexico's mainland Thursday, triggering floods that caused mostly superficial damage to 5,000 houses, officials said.

An elderly woman died in a car crash on a rainy road and officials were investigating whether the death was directly connected to the storm, said Jorge Tallaeche, a spokesman for the civil protection service of the Pacific state of Sinaloa, where the storm hit land.

Paul, which had been a hurricane earlier in the week, weakened to a tropical depression before making landfall near the Sinaloan town of La Reforma. After hitting land it quickly dissipated.

However, it unleashed floods that forced more than 5,000 families to evacuate their homes, Tallaeche said. Most of the damage was superficial, with the houses' structures left intact, he said.

Gov. Jesus Aguilar Padilla said he would ask the federal government to declare the zone a disaster area.

Some of the worst flooding was in the village of Villa Juarez, where a canal overflowed and sent more than 3 feet of water into the streets.

On Monday, Paul neared Category 3 hurricane status, with winds reaching 110 mph.

In September, Hurricane John battered Baja California, killing five people and destroying 160 homes. Later that month, Hurricane Lane threatened the resort region but ended up hitting the resort town of Mazatlan, causing relatively minor damage.

San Jose del Cabo and Cabo San Lucas are popular with sports fishermen and celebrities and famous for its deep-sea fishing, golf courses and beaches flanked by cactus-dotted deserts.

Colorado digs out, restores power after storm

DENVER - Coloradans were digging out Friday after a massive autumn storm left up to 2 feet of snow in the mountains and 4-foot drifts on the Eastern Plains.

Hundreds of miles of highways had been shut down the day before as the biggest October storm in years barreled through the state, but all major routes had reopened by Friday and traffic was moving smoothly.

"Not too shabby," state Department of Transportation spokesman Gene Towne said.

Dozens of schools on the plains were closed Friday, and lawns across the state were littered with broken tree limbs that crashed down under the weight of the wet snow.

The falling branches played havoc with power lines, and up to 90,000 customers in the Denver area alone lost electricity during the storm, Xcel Energy spokesman Tom Henley.

He called the storm "devastating."

Crews had restored power to all but 1,400 by Friday morning, but Henley said it could take until Friday night to get all of them back on line.

Another 20,000 customers lost power in Colorado Springs but service was restored to all but about 1,000 by Friday, the city-owned utility said.

Flights back to normal
Denver International Airport and United Airlines officials said operations were back to normal by Friday. At least 110 flights were canceled Thursday, most of them by United, the airport's busiest carrier.

The storm began late Wednesday and turned highways wet and slushy across the state. At one point, snow was falling at a rate of about 3 inches an hour in Denver.

The storm shut down dozens of schools, courthouses, voting centers Thursday and even chased office employees home early from a sheriff's office.

Small towns in the mountains and foothills just west of Denver appeared to get the heaviest snowfall, with Evergreen reporting 25 inches and Conifer reporting 22 inches and 4-foot drifts. Two feet fell in Rocky Mountain National Park.

Denver International Airport got 5 inches. Some suburbs reported up to 10 inches of snow that fell at about 3 inches an hour before the storm moved east onto the Plains, where it caused more trouble.

Jackknifed trucks
A 15-inch snowfall blew into 3- and 4-foot drifts about 30 miles southeast of Denver Thursday night. A 150-mile stretch of Interstate 70 was closed from Denver to Burlington, near the Kansas line, after falling temperatures turned slush to ice.

"There's an awful lot of trucks jackknifed in the median or across the road," said Dick Hormann, who was waiting out the delay at the Flying J Travel Plaza restaurant in Limon, about 70 miles southeast of Denver. "There's a lot of rigs across the road in both directions."

At least one ski resort, Keystone, announced it would open Nov. 3, a week earlier than planned.

"This storm really put them over the top," said Molly Cuffe, a spokeswoman for the industry group Colorado Ski Country USA.

The storm also was welcome for water utilities and farmers, as the closely watched mountain snowpack — which provides much of the state's water — got an early boost.

"We've probably got a good three-week jump on the season," said Mike Gillespie of the federal Natural Resources Conservation Service, which tracks Colorado's mountain snow.

Large October snowstorms are common in Colorado, but this was the strongest in several years, National Weather Service spokesman Carl Burroughs said.

"We haven't had a real good storm like this in a while," he said. "It dumped a lot of snow pretty quick and then moved on."