Welcome to This Sunday

Revelations
11:17 "We give you thanks, Lord God, the Almighty, the one who is and who was; because you have taken your great power, and reigned.

11:18 The nations were angry, and your wrath came, as did the time for the dead to be judged, and to give your bondservants the prophets, their reward, as well as to the saints, and those who fear your name, to the small and the great; and to destroy those who destroy the earth."

waiting for Sunday to drown

Strong typhoon rips northern Philippines

MANILA, Philippines - One of the strongest typhoons to hit the storm-prone Philippines in years battered the mountainous north late Sunday, and the country's president urged people to prepare for the worst.

"Let us all pray," President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo said in a message on nationwide radio as she ordered schools and government offices closed in the affected area and temporarily banned bus trips there.

Typhoon Cimaron lashed Isabela province with sustained winds of 121 mph and gusts of up to 143 mph, the Philippine weather bureau said. Hours earlier, the region was placed under the highest of a four-step warning system to advise residents to abandon vulnerable coasts and mountains.

"The wind is really blowing strong. Trees are swaying and I can hear tin roof sheets banging about. Large areas are without light. We're expecting the worst," Armand Araneta, a provincial Office of Civil Defense officer, told The Associated Press by phone from Isabela.

The storm was expected to disrupt the national All Saints' Day holiday, on Wednesday, when millions travel to cemeteries to remember their dead, some leaving days in advance for outlying provinces. Officials warned people to cancel trips to threatened areas.

"We know in our culture that we should visit our dead, but this is not an ordinary typhoon, it's a super typhoon," a government official, Graciano Yumul, warned. "People could figure in many accidents if they don't listen."

Arroyo, who is visiting China, urged authorities and residents in the four northern provinces to stay home during the 16th typhoon to hit the country this year.

"I appeal to you not to venture out," Arroyo said in her radio message.

The storm was expected to weaken over land, but still should maintain typhoon strength as it emerges into the South China Sea, forecasters said.

Cimaron — the Philippine word for wild ox — is potentially devastating to a region prone to deadly mudslides. Forecasters said the last time a typhoon this strong struck the Philippines was in December 2004, although in that case, the storm was deflected by a mountain range and casualties were minimal.

Last month, Typhoon Xangsane left 230 people dead and missing in Manila and neighboring provinces.

Wind KOs power to thousands in the East

NEW YORK - Thousands of homes and businesses had no electricity Sunday from Maryland to Maine as a storm system blasted the region with winds gusting to more than 50 mph, knocking over trees and a construction crane. The storm was blamed for at least two deaths.

Gusts of 70 mph were possible Sunday in northern New York state, the National Weather Service said.

A falling tree killed a motorcyclist in Massachusetts, police said. In New Hampshire, one man was missing after falling off a cruise ship on Lake Winnipesaukee during the storm late Saturday, and one man drowned when his kayak overturned on a rain-swollen river, state officials said.

In hard-hit Maine, a 165-foot crane with a wrecking ball attached toppled in one of the most populous neighborhoods of Portland, falling on three houses. No injuries were reported.

The wrecking ball narrowly missed a car.

"The first thing I saw was the ball coming down really fast about 10 feet from us," said Colleen Mowatt, 48, of Gorham, Maine, whose boyfriend hit the brakes in the nick of time. "It hit the roadway, and the rest of the crane just fell on the buildings in front of us."

Utilities in Maine reported 44,000 customers still in the dark at midday Sunday and gusts up to 50 mph were causing new failures even as crews tried to restore service.

New Jersey's Newark Liberty International Airport, one of three major airports for the New York City region, had delays up to 2 1/2 hours, mostly for incoming flights, authorities said.

Willimantic, Conn., reported 3.54 inches of rain Saturday, and New York City's Central Park measured 2.54.

Power failures elsewhere across the region still affected more than two dozen communities Sunday across New Hampshire; 9,500 homes and businesses in Massachusetts; 1,500 customers in Rhode Island; 6,400 in Connecticut; 2,900 in Maryland; 5,000 in New Jersey; 4,700 on New York's Long Island; and 15,500 in upstate New York, state and utility officials said.

The weather observatory atop New Hampshire's 6,288-foot Mount Washington, famous for severe weather, reported sustained wind of 100 mph and a gust to 114 mph. The peak also got 11 inches of snow overnight, for an October total of 39 inches.

The storm produced heavy lake effect snowfall in parts of New York state downwind from Lake Ontario, including 9 inches at Old Forge, the weather service said. A winter storm warning was in effect for the area Sunday, with as much as 18 inches of snow possible at higher elevations.

The wind, rain and snow were produced by a stronger-than-normal low pressure system that passed through Pennsylvania and New York on its way to southeastern Canada, the weather service said.

California Wildfire - "There is only One who can Judge you."

SOBOBA HOT SPRINGS, Calif. - The mother of one of the four firefighters who died battling a wildfire that authorities blamed on arsonists urged those who set it to turn themselves in Saturday.

“I firmly believe you didn’t believe that things were going to turn out the way they did, but they did,” said Bonnie McKay, whose son Jason, 27, died Thursday. “Don’t let the remorse eat you alive. Come forward. ... I for one will try not to judge you. There is only one who can judge you.”

Meanwhile, firefighters took advantage of calm weather and dissipating Santa Ana winds, making headway against the 62-square-mile conflagration by dumping water and retardant on flames using a fleet of helicopters and airplanes, including a DC-10 jumbo jet.

Fears that fire will spread
Still, forestry officials worried about the fire spreading in one area.

Scott McLean, spokesman for the California Department of Forestry, said the southeastern flank was threatening to spread to Black Mountain, a forested area even steeper than where it is burning now that is difficult to access.

“If it goes there, the fire is going to hell in a handbasket,” said McLean from the command post in Beaumont, 90 miles east of Los Angeles.

Typhoon Cimaron

Typhoon Cimaron is forecast to strike the Philippines at about 12:00 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 16.7 N, 123.1 E. Cimaron is expected to bring 1-minute maximum sustained winds to the region of around 222 km/h (138 mph). Wind gusts in the area may be considerably higher.

According to the Saffir-Simpson damage scale the potential property damage and flooding from a storm of Cimaron's strength (category 4) at landfall includes:

• Storm surge generally 4.0-5.5 metres (13-18 feet) above normal.


• Curtainwall failures with some complete roof structure failures on small residences.


• Shrubs, trees, and all signs are blown down.


• Complete destruction of mobile homes.


• Extensive damage to doors and windows.


• Low-lying escape routes may be cut by rising water 3-5 hours before arrival of the centre of the storm.


• Major damage to lower floors of structures near the shore.


• Terrain lower than 3 metres (10 feet) above sea level may be flooded requiring massive evacuation of residential areas as far inland as 10 km (6 miles).

There is also the potential for flooding further inland due to heavy rain.

Rains, floods kill six in S.Lanka, displace many

COLOMBO, Oct 28 (Reuters) - Torrential rains and flooding have killed six people in southern and western Sri Lanka and forced around 18,000 families from their homes, a top disaster relief official said on Saturday.

"We are providing dry rations to the affected people," said N.D. Hettiarachchi, director general of the National Disaster Management Centre.

The heavy rains since Thursday had also triggered landslides in some areas, blocking roads, newspapers reported.

Media showed people using makeshift rafts to escape flooded houses in some areas. In other parts, schoolchildren in uniform walked home in knee-deep water carrying their bicycles.

Tornado causes damage in Florida town

APALACHICOLA, Fla. - This seaside town was without power Saturday after a tornado tore through the area, damaging nearly 50 buildings and slightly injuring two people, authorities said.

All 1,600 customers in the area remained in the dark late Saturday but were expected to have power at some point Sunday morning, said Progress Energy spokeswoman Tanya Evans.

By Saturday evening, George E. Weems Hospital had reopened its lab using generator power; workers covered the roof with tarps and the broken windows with boards.

American Red Cross damage assessors said three homes were destroyed and 43 were damaged in Friday afternoon's tornado.

Butch Baker, Franklin County's emergency management director, said witnesses confirmed it was a tornado that struck the town of 2,500, about 65 miles southwest of Tallahassee.

Two people went to a hospital with minor injuries, Baker said.

"It was like a black wall," Helen Reese, an admission clerk at George E. Weems Memorial Hospital, told The News Herald of Panama City. "It was coming right at us. It was a horrible noise."

The twister damaged the roofs of an elementary school, Baker said.

Thousands feared displaced in Ethiopian floods


Residents of the Southern Nationalities, Nations and People's State in Ethiopia walk through flooded lands after massive flashfloods in Tolta. Thousands of people may be displaced in southeast Ethiopia after raging floods washed away their homes in the wake of torrential rains that have pounded the region in recent days.(AFP/File/Abraham Fisseha)

ADDIS ABABA (AFP) - Thousands of people may be displaced in southeast Ethiopia after raging floods washed away their homes in the wake of torrential rains that have pounded the region in recent days.

Sesay Tadesse, spokesman for the Disaster Prevention and Preparedness Agency (DPPA) said that up to 10,000 people may have been displaced in one area in the Kibre Dehar region, about 700 kilometres (435 miles) southeast of the capital Addis Ababa.

"We received the reports about the toll of this river flooding, but we need to confirm with our organisation in the region of Kibre Dehar," Sesay told AFP Saturday.

He said they had sent a team to the region to assess the situation after the River Wabe Shabelle breached its banks.

"We are following up carefully the situation. We have a regional office there and they will verify and monitor the situation and check the figures," he said.

"According to our team there, which has not yet been able to go on the ground to check, an estimated 10,000 people could be affected only in Kelafo," Sesay said, in reference to one of the affected areas in the region.

In addition, he said they were preparing to send some 1,800 tonnes of food supplies to those affected.

At least 639 people were killed when unusually heavy rains sparked massive flooding in the country's eastern, northern and southern regions in August, at the height of the July to September rainy season.

And a total of 357,000 people were affected by those floods, said to be the the worst in decades, according to the United Nations humanitarian agency.

Ethiopia, home to some 70 million people, has faced heavy floods and droughts in recent years along with other countries in the Horn of Africa which have endured cycles of deadly weather for decades.

Flood claims two lives in southeast Turkey


Floods in Erdine earlier in the year. A wife and a husband were killed in the mainly Kurdish province of Sanliurfa in Turkey's southeast as floods caused by torrential rain hit the region.(AFP/File/Str)

ANKARA (AFP) - A wife and a husband were killed in the mainly Kurdish province of Sanliurfa in Turkey's southeast as floods caused by torrential rain hit the region.

The bodies of the victims, who went missing overnight, were recovered by the security forces in a stream near the village of Sarikuyu on Saturday, Anatolia news agency reported on Saturday.

The floods damaged many homes, shops, roads and bridges across the impoverished province and dozens of livestock perished, Anatolia reported.

Electricity and telephone services were cut in several villages, it said, adding that civil defense teams and security forces were dispatched to help residents.

R.I.P.

Women's rights leader killed
Violence in Iraq killed at least three people and wounded scores more on Saturday.

Police were also investigating the killing of a women's rights leader in Iraq.

Gunmen reportedly stormed Faliha Ahmed Hassan's house in Hawija, about 43 miles southwest of Kirkuk, and shot her to death on Friday evening.