La Nina's brewing, forecasters warnWASHINGTON - Forecasters warned Tuesday that a La Nina weather pattern — the nasty flip side of El Nino — is brewing, bringing with it the threat of more hurricanes for the Atlantic.
Officials at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration announced the official end of a brief and mild El Nino that started last year. That El Nino was credited with partially shutting down last summer's Atlantic hurricane activity in the midst of what was supposed to be a busy season.
"We're seeing a shift to the La Nina, it's clearly in the data," NOAA Administrator Conrad Lautenbacher said. La Nina, a cooling of the mid-Pacific equatorial region, has not officially begun because it's a process with several months with specific temperature thresholds, but the trend is obvious based on satellite and ocean measurement data, he said.
"It certainly won't be welcome news for those living off the coast right now," Lautenbacher said. But he said that doesn't mean Atlantic seaboard residents should sell their homes.
Forecasters don't know how strong this La Nina will be. However, it typically means more hurricanes in the Atlantic, fewer in the Pacific, less rain and more heat for the already drought-stricken South, and a milder spring and summer in the north, Lautenbacher said. The central plains of the United States tend be drier in the fall during La Ninas, while the Pacific Northwest tends to be wetter in the late fall and early winter.
Of special concern is west Texas which is already in a long-term drought, which during a La Nina will likely get worse, Lautenbacher said.
Historically, El Ninos and La Ninas are difficult to forecast, said National Center for Atmospheric Research senior scientist Michael Glantz, who studies how they effect humans.
"I don't see it as a useful forecast," Glantz said. "Every event since they've been looking at El Nino ... surprised scientists."
La Ninas tend to develop from March to June and reach peak intensity at the end of the year and into the next February, according to Vernon Kousky, NOAA's top El Nino/La Nina expert. La Nina winters tend to be warmer than normal in the Southeast and colder than normal in the Northwest.
Andrew Weaver, a meteorology professor at the University of Victoria in Canada, said NOAA's forecast looks good because the signs of a brewing La Nina are apparent just below the ocean's surface.
"La Nina is the evil twin sister of El Nino, so it's good or bad depending on where you live," Weaver said. However, in general La Ninas do not have as costly effects on humans as El Ninos do, he said.
The last lengthy La Nina, from 1998 to 2001, helped cause a serious drought in much of the West, according to NOAA drought specialist Douglas Lecomte.
"There are winners and losers, people tend to concentrate on the losers," Lautenbacher said.
Arkansas town copes with tornado damageDUMAS, Ark. - Much of this small town still had no electricity Monday and an estimated 800 workers had no jobs to report to because of a weekend tornado.
Among the dozens of people injured, two young children remained in critical condition Monday.
Gov. Mike Beebe cut short his trip to the National Governors Association conference in Washington to tour the damaged area Monday. Lt. Gov. Bill Halter visited Sunday and said it looked as though "high explosives" had been set off in some homes.
The tornado struck Saturday with wind estimated at up to 207 mph.
It destroyed the Arkat Feeds pet food plant, where 125 people were employed, and heavily damaged the Federal Mogul auto supply company. It also destroyed several other businesses in the town of 5,300 people
About 2,300 customers in the Dumas area were still without power Monday, said Entergy Arkansas spokesman James Thompson.
Thompson said the utility's electric substation for the area was knocked out and it had to bring in temporary equipment. However, he said everyone able to accept electricity should have service by the end of business on Tuesday.
On Sunday, Dumas resident Kevin Hill and his family pulled furniture from the rubble of their home. He said he and his family were in Pine Bluff to pick up a saw blade when the storm ripped apart their home.
"Thank God for a five-dollar saw blade or we would have all been inside the house," said Hill, 42.
The storm also polluted the town's drinking water and residents were told to boil it before using it.
The National Weather Service rated the Dumas tornado an F-3, with wind estimated at 158 to 207 mph. A second tornado that went from near Pendleton to near Tichnor was rated an F-1.
The tornadoes were spun off by thunderstorms that were part of the huge weather system responsible for blizzard conditions farther north that blocked highways on the Plains, grounded airline flights and blacked out hundreds of thousands of customers.
At least 43 houses and 50 mobile homes were destroyed or damaged around Dumas, while 25 businesses were leveled and nine had major damage, a state Department of Emergency Management spokesman said.
"We feel like we've probably got 800 unemployed today as a result," Desha County Sheriff Jim Snyder said.
Severe winter storm hammers Midwest, East CoastCHICAGO (Reuters) - A severe winter storm dumped snow and freezing rain across the Midwest and mid-Atlantic United States on Sunday, stranding air travelers from Boston to Chicago and causing several traffic deaths.
More than 200 flights were canceled at Chicago's O'Hare International Airport, with remaining flights delayed 60 to 90 minutes because of the icy snow, Chicago Department of Aviation spokeswoman Wendy Abrams said.
JetBlue Airways Corp., still struggling from a service meltdown during last week's ice storm in New York, was among the airlines that canceled flights.
Numerous road closings were reported in the upper Midwest. Wisconsin police reported at least eight traffic-related fatalities, including one accident in southern Wisconsin where a woman's vehicle slammed into a snow plow, killing her and two children.
Thousands of homes lost power. In northern Illinois, utility company ComEd spokesman Jeff Burdick said at its peak, 38,000 customers lost power. Ice on the power lines was a major contributor to the outages, he said.
The National Weather Service said a winter storm warning was in effect from New Jersey to Virginia, while an ice storm warning was in effect in western Pennsylvania.
Moderate to heavy snow was expected through the afternoon for much of the region, but Pennsylvania and Maryland state authorities said all roads remained open.
Snow removal efforts caused flight delays at Dulles and Reagan National airports in the Washington region, Washington Metropolitan Airports Authority spokesman Rob Yingling said.
Bad weather caused flight cancellations from Boston to Milwaukee.
Amtrak service on the East Coast was unaffected by the storm, but service between Washington and Chicago was canceled in part due to the weather, spokeswoman Karina Romero said.
On Saturday, authorities shut down highways and canceled hundreds of flights on Saturday as the storm hammered much of the Midwest.
At least one tornado touched down in Arkansas, while the storm caused a 35-car pileup east of Denver.
Food crisis looms in flood-ravaged MozambiqueCAIA, Mozambique, Feb 26 (Reuters) - Thousands of flood victims are pouring into crowded refugee camps in central Mozambique, straining relief efforts and prompting fears of a food crisis, authorities said on Monday.
Weeks of heavy rains have triggered flash floods along the mighty Zambezi river and its tributaries, washing away homes, bridges, livestock and crops in four central provinces in the low-lying southern African nation.
Some 170,000 people have been displaced and at least 45 have died as a result of the flooding, the worst to hit the former Portuguese colony since the 2000-2001 floods that killed some 700 people and drove another half a million from their homes.
Aid workers were battling on Monday to supply food and fresh water to a ballooning refugee population, with an estimated 2,000 people each day streaming into temporary accommodation centers set up by the Red Cross and other agencies.
"We still have some food, but it's not enough," said Joao Ribeiro, deputy director of Mozambique's National Institute for Disaster Management (INGC).
Ribeiro said sanitary conditions in the shelters were worsening due to a lack of toilets and poor hygiene, raising fears of potential outbreaks of cholera and dysentery among the estimated 50,000 people living in the makeshift camps.
Mozambican President Armando Guebuza, however, said the relief effort was proceeding smoothly and there was no need for the government to issue a broad appeal for help.
"It's not a declaration on the international front that can help to change the situation. I think we are going in the right direction," Guebuza told reporters in Caia, a central Mozambican town that has become a command center for the relief effort.
Earlier on Monday the Mozambican leader flew over parts of the Zambezi valley that were hard hit by the flooding.
The U.N. World Food Programme (WFP) is already distributing food to refugees in the affected provinces. Neighbouring South Africa and the European Union also have pledged more help for the relief effort.
South Africa will send two helicopters and a mobile water purification plant to its northeastern neighbour this week and could add a field hospital and water and wind resistant tents to its contribution, the SAPA news agency reported on Monday.
But aid workers say the effort to feed and shelter refugees has been complicated by poor roads in Mozambique, which is still rebuilding after a 16-year civil war that ended in 1991.
The struggle to get food and water to flood victims could become more difficult in the coming weeks as more rain falls on the country. March traditionally is one of the wettest periods in Mozambique's rainy season.
"A lot of areas are still very difficult to get through and there are new pockets of disaster areas forming," said Peter Rodrigues, emergency relief coordinator for the WFP in Caia.
"The challenge is that these people are spread out, making it difficult to reach them."
In southern Mozambique, which is home to the bulk of the country's economically important tourist resorts, authorities were assessing the damage from Cyclone Favio, which came ashore on Thursday with winds of up to 270 kph (169 mph).
The cyclone slammed into the coast, knocking down buildings, uprooting trees and killing five people near Vilanculos. Mozambique's military on Monday was attempting to restore water and electricity in the resort city.
Tornado damages Arkansas town, storm hits MidwestLITTLE ROCK, Ark., Feb 24 (Reuters) - At least one tornado touched down in Dumas, Arkansas, on Saturday, injuring a number of people and destroying much of the small town's business district, while a strong winter storm moved across Colorado and into the Midwest.
A line of thunderstorms and at least one and possibly two tornadoes struck at about 3 p.m. in Dumas, about 85 miles (135 km) southeast of Little Rock.
"We have lots of injuries, lots. But no reports of fatalities thus far. That's something of a miracle," said Tina Owens, spokeswoman for the Arkansas Department of Emergency Management.
"Most of the businesses along the town's main corridor have been destroyed, and a number of homes immediately behind those businesses have been destroyed as well," she said.
An unidentified woman told a TV station that she and several friends were in a store when the storm hit.
"We all gathered in the center of the store and got down on the floor and covered our heads and prayed. The noise was incredible and I thought, 'This is it -- I'm gonna die.' But we all made it," she said.
Arkansas Lt. Gov. Bill Halter requested National Guard troops be dispatched to the area.
Severe weather also hit Colorado, where fierce winds and blowing snow were blamed for a 35-car pileup east of Denver early on Saturday, said Mindy Crane, spokeswoman for the Colorado Department of Transportation.
Crane said four or five minor injuries were reported.
The storm forced the closure of a 150-mile (240-km) stretch of Interstate 70 east of Denver to the Kansas border, and it remained closed late on Saturday afternoon, Crane said.
"We are still experiencing 50- to 60 mile-per-hour (80-96 kph) winds that are creating whiteout conditions," Crane said.
The storm was moving east and the National Weather Service said northern Illinois and northwest Indiana would be hit with a mix of freezing rain, sleet and snow by Monday.
Wisconsin will take the brunt of the storm, with a blizzard warning in effect for parts of the state, including Milwaukee, the Weather Service reported.
Seven people in Wisconsin died from traffic accidents related to the storm, which is expected to drop 7 to 10 inches (18-25 cm) of snow on the state, the Milwaukee Journal reported.
In the Chicago area, an ice storm warning was in effect until 6 a.m. CST on Sunday.
Airports in the Chicago area prepared for the storm, canceling some 230 flights out of O'Hare International Airport and 70 flights at Midway Airport as of 7 p.m. CST on Saturday, said Wendy Abrams, a spokeswoman for the Chicago Aviation Department.
United Airlines spokeswoman Robin Urbanski said the company had begun canceling flights by early afternoon and by 7 p.m. CST all United flights into O'Hare and Midway were canceled, she said.
Abrams said United was the only airline to cancel all its flights. "The remainder of flights are on time for both airports," she said.
Urbanski said United's cancellation policy was designed to keep customers safe at home rather than stuck in an airport or on an airplane.
"We recover from storms more quickly," she said.
Mozambique island tourists woken by cyclone wrathMAPUTO, Feb 24 (Reuters) - Peter Thomas was peacefully sleeping in a lavish island resort off Mozambique when the full wrath of tropical cyclone Favio slammed into his chalet.
"I was in my room enjoying my sleep and suddenly found myself in a pool of water and the rooftop was being ripped off," the South African said in the capital Maputo after being airlifted from battered Bazaruto island.
"The front windows were smashed and I could see the roof and satellite dishes flying over our heads," said another tourist, who declined to be identified.
Thomas and other tourists who cowered for 12 hours in bathrooms at the Indigo Bay resort as the cyclone uprooted palm trees and ripped apart buildings were lucky.
At the hotel, 600km north of Maputo, no one died from the cyclone, which killed four people and injured at least 70 in the resort town of Vilanculos since hitting the coast on Thursday.
It was downgraded on Friday to a tropical storm as wind speeds dropped from a peak of 270 kph (170 mph) and dissipated further on Saturday, officials said.
This lessened worries that rain from the storm would exacerbate several weeks of flooding that had already displaced more than 120,000 people.
Neighbouring South Africa said it would help in the relief effort, providing helicopters, tents and water treatment plants.
The European Commission was also planning to help airlift supplies and said it had sent an extra 2 million euros ($2.62 million) in emergency aid, the same amount it sent last week for the flooding victims.
TOURISM IMPACT MUTED
Lodges like Indigo Bay were reduced to rubble by the storm that hit the Bazaruto archipelago, a string of islands 40 km off the coast in the Indian Ocean dotted with luxury resorts.
Resorts there were especially vulnerable since they were constructed of natural materials like reed, thatch and wood to blend in with the tropical surroundings.
"The resort has been completely destroyed and they will have to shut it down for a couple of months," one of the tourists said.
A government official said the cyclone would not have a major impact on overall tourism in the country since other areas were spared by the storms.
"We have beautiful Islands in the northern Cabo Delgado and people still have destinations while we reconstruct Bazaruto," tourism ministry official Albino Mahumane told Reuters.
The former Portuguese colony, recovering from a devastating 16-year political conflict, saw its worst disaster on record in 2000-2001.
A series of cyclones then compounded widespread flooding in southern and central parts of the country, killing 700 people and driving close to half a million from their homes.
Cyclone Favio leaves destruction in MozambiqueMAPUTO (AFP) - Emergency workers Friday have surveyed damage to areas of Mozambique left devastated by Cyclone Favio, which left at least three people dead, scores and flattened most of the worst-hit town.
Red Cross spokesman Tapiwa Gomo said he had received differing reports that three or four people had been killed in and around the town of Vilankulo in Inhambane province.
"The situation is extremely bad, about 80 percent of the town has been destroyed. The local hospital, which has about 120 patients, was also destroyed," he told AFP.
Government and Red Cross teams were working together in Vilankulo, around 800 kilometers (500 miles) northeast of the capital Maputo, to move the patients into tents.
"The problem right now is that medicine in the hospital was affected, which means there is no medicine," said Gomo.
About 200 tents were being provided for those who had had the roofs of their houses blown off.
Items such as blankets were needed, Gomo added, while aid organisations went on evacuating people and assessing areas which would need assistance.
Meanwhile Favio was downgraded to a tropical depression.
"It is no longer a cyclone, it is now a tropical depression. The winds are strong, from 60 kilometers (37 miles) per hour to 80 kilometers per hour. It is travelling north-west to Zimbabwe," said Helder Sueia, chief forecaster in the national meteorological office.
He would not comment on the dangers of Cyclone Jumede, currently to the east of Mozambique, affecting the country.
Gomo said they were not yet worried about the possibility of a second cyclone as it was "still very far".
UN Childrens Fund spokesman Thierry Delvijne-Jean said emergency material that had been stored in a Maputo warehouse for victims of the flooding, such as chlorine, water, tarpaulin sheets and basic survival kits would be handed out to victims of the cyclone.
Favio was classified as a category four cyclone, which is one that can generate winds of around 200 kilometers an hour.
The cyclone adds to the strain on emergency workers already helping victims of recent flooding that left 80,000 people living alongside the Zambezi river homeless and around 30 dead.
Deluges in Mozambique in 2000-2001 claimed more than 700 lives. The southern African country's peak rainfall season is from the end of February to early March.
Indonesia to try to plug mud volcano with concrete ballsSURABAYA, Indonesia (AP) -- An Indonesian official hit back at critics of a plan to control a gushing mud volcano by dropping concrete balls into its crater, saying something must be done to stop a nine-month-long eruption that has displaced 11,000 people.
A team of geologists and engineers hope the plan, believed to have never been tried before, will reduce the amount of mud flowing from the geyser at a gas exploration site on Java island by up to 70 percent. The mud is now surging out at a rate equivalent to about a million oil drums a day.
The plan follows an abandoned attempt to block the flow by pouring in concrete.
Critics have said they doubt the new attempt will work, and that it may be dangerous or cause the mud to flow out from different points.
"Those experts can say what they want, but we have to do something," said Rudi Novrianto, a spokesman for a government task force handling the disaster. "There is no time to debate and sit around."
The team had planned to begin releasing the balls on Friday, but were forced to postpone the operation until a later date -- possibly as soon as Saturday -- due to technical problems, he said.
Engineers will release five of the chained cement balls, each weighing up to 250 kilograms (550 pounds), and monitor the effect before gradually releasing more balls into the hole, Novrianto said.
He said laboratory tests by geologists at Indonesia's most respected university had indicated the plan will work.
Mud volcanoes are fairly common along volatile tectonic belts such as the one running below Indonesia, and in areas where there are rich oil and natural gas deposits.
Opinions differ about the cause of the mud flow, but experts agree it could continue for years.
Some scientists suggest the rupture was triggered by faulty gas exploration techniques by operator PT Lapindo Brantas. Other research suggests it is the result of increased seismic activity, with the mud flow starting two days after a major earthquake.
The mud has inundated several villagers and scores of factories in one of Java's most densely populated areas.
Some of the mud is being channeled to the sea, while the rest is being contained behind dams.
Lapindo is a subsidiary of PT Energy Mega Persada Tbk, controlled by the family of Indonesian Welfare Minister Aburizal Bakrie. He has said repeatedly the geyser was sparked by the earthquake and that his company bears no financial liability.
An Indonesian rows a makeshift raft through a flooded Jakarta graveyard on February 9. Devastating floods in the Indonesian capital earlier this month have caused nearly one billion dollars worth of damage and losses.(AFP/File/Adek Berry)Jakarta flood losses rise to nearly one billion dollarsJAKARTA (AFP) - Devastating floods in the Indonesian capital earlier this month have caused nearly one billion dollars worth of damage and losses.
National Development Planning Minister Paskah Suzetta said direct losses from infrastructure damage and state revenue were at least 5.2 trillion rupiah (572 million dollars), higher than his earlier estimate of 4.1 trillion rupiah.
Potential economic losses were estimated at another 3.6 trillion rupiah, newspapers quoted him as saying.
The floods which hit on February 2 covered much of the city and forced hundreds of thousands of people to flee their homes. Some 85 people were killed in the sprawling city and surrounding districts.
Businesses and private individuals bore the brunt of the flood damage, accounting for 4.5 trillion of the estimated 5.2 trillion rupiah, while the government and related institutions and enterprises suffered about 650 billion rupiah in losses and damage.
He said the figures did not yet include damage to social and public facilities such as schools, clinics and hospitals.
"The flood has the potential to lower Jakarta's GDP growth by 0.59 percent in the industry and trade sector" and also hit growth in surrounding towns, he said.
Environment Minister Rachmat Witoelar has blamed the floods on excessive construction on natural drainage areas, while city governor Sutiyoso has dismissed them as a "cyclical natural phenomenon."
Vice President Jusuf Kalla has told AFP that Sutiyoso and other officials should take responsibility for the devastation because of over-building which had not been accompanied by improved drainage.
"The richer people are, the more villas they build. So the mountains are full of villas. The green areas, including the rivers, are getting smaller and it is not balanced with a proper drainage system," he said.
Old Batavia, the former colonial port under Dutch rule from where Jakarta has expanded, was built on marshland and some areas of the capital are below sea level.
Surprising Solar Storms Rage at Sun's South PoleRelatively calm weather was the standard forecast for the Sun, which is near the end of another 11-year solar cycle, but raging solar storms just spotted at its south pole now tell a different story.
At the start of a solar cycle, sunspots-regions on the Sun marked by cooler temperatures and intense magnetic activity-tend to appear near the poles and move towards the equator as the cycle concludes.
Scientists were therefore surprised when Ulysses, a joint European Space Agency (ESA) and NASA spacecraft currently embarking on its third tour around the Sun since launch in 1990, spotted intense solar storms near the Sun's south pole.
Solar storms are energetic explosions on the surface of the Sun caused by solar flares or coronal mass ejections, both of which tend to occur near sunspots.
'Particle events of this kind were seen during the second polar passes in 2000 and 2001, at solar maximum,' said Richard Marsden, ESA's Ulysses Project Scientist and Mission Manager. 'We certainly didn't expect to see them at higher latitudes at solar minimum.'
Ulysses also found that the Sun's south pole is currently cooler than its north pole. This is a reversal from 10 years ago, when the northern polar coronal hole was about 7 to 8 percent lower than the southern one. Coronal holes are like bald spots on the Sun: they are regions in the Sun's upper atmosphere, called the corona, where there is less heated gas than average. During solar minimum, coronal holes are mainly found at the Sun's polar regions; during solar maximum, they can be located anywhere.
'This implies that the asymmetry between north and south has switched with the change of the magnetic polarity of the Sun,' said George Gloeckler, Principal Investigator for the Solar Wind Ion Composition Spectrometer (SWICS) aboard Ulysses.
The Sun's magnetic field consists of a north pole, where the field flows out of the Sun, and a south pole, where the field re-enters. During solar maximum, when the Sun's activity is at a peak in its 11-year cycle, the poles exchange places.
Strong quake hits IndonesiaJAKARTA (AFP) - A strong 6.6-magnitude undersea earthquake has rocked Indonesia's northern Maluku province, prompting initial fears of a tsunami.
The meteorology agency urged residents on Bacan island to be alert for signs of rising sea levels after the quake struck 48 kilometres (30 miles) northwest of the beachside town of Labuha at 5:04 pm (0804 GMT).
But the alert was cancelled an hour later as there were no signs of a tsunami developing, said Suharjono from the agency's headquarters.
"The tsunami warning has now been cancelled," Suharjono told AFP.
The warning was issued because the earthquake was strong and shallow, striking just 18 kilometres under the seabed.
Another agency official, Fauzi, said there were initial reports that the quake was strongly felt in Labuha but there were no immediate reports of damage or casualties.
An aftershock measuring 5.1 struck 20 minutes later centered just 24 kilometres north-northwest of Labuha, Fauzi told AFP.
A stronger aftershock measuring 5.8 stuck the same area at 11:25 pm but there were no immediate reports of any damage, the meteorology office said.
A telecom operator in Labuha said the first quake was felt strongly in the town and caused light cracks in his office walls.
Atere, the operator, also said the local authorities had not issued an official tsunami warning.
The Indonesian archipelago sits on the Pacific Ring of Fire where continental plates meet, causing frequent seismic and volcanic activity.
Indonesia was the nation worst hit by the earthquake-triggered Asian tsunami in December 2004, which killed some 168,000 people in Aceh province alone.
Jakarta flood losses rise to nearly one billion dollarsJAKARTA (AFP) - Devastating floods in the Indonesian capital earlier this month have caused nearly one billion dollars worth of damage and losses.
National Development Planning Minister Paskah Suzetta said direct losses from infrastructure damage and state revenue were at least 5.2 trillion rupiah (572 million dollars), higher than his earlier estimate of 4.1 trillion rupiah.
Potential economic losses were estimated at another 3.6 trillion rupiah, newspapers quoted him as saying.
The floods which hit on February 2 covered much of the city and forced hundreds of thousands of people to flee their homes. Some 85 people were killed in the sprawling city and surrounding districts.
Businesses and private individuals bore the brunt of the flood damage, accounting for 4.5 trillion of the estimated 5.2 trillion rupiah, while the government and related institutions and enterprises suffered about 650 billion rupiah in losses and damage.
He said the figures did not yet include damage to social and public facilities such as schools, clinics and hospitals.
"The flood has the potential to lower Jakarta's GDP growth by 0.59 percent in the industry and trade sector" and also hit growth in surrounding towns, he said.
Environment Minister Rachmat Witoelar has blamed the floods on excessive construction on natural drainage areas, while city governor Sutiyoso has dismissed them as a "cyclical natural phenomenon."
Vice President Jusuf Kalla has told AFP that Sutiyoso and other officials should take responsibility for the devastation because of over-building which had not been accompanied by improved drainage.
"The richer people are, the more villas they build. So the mountains are full of villas. The green areas, including the rivers, are getting smaller and it is not balanced with a proper drainage system," he said.
Old Batavia, the former colonial port under Dutch rule from where Jakarta has expanded, was built on marshland and some areas of the capital are below sea level.
Quake shakes Uganda and Congo, no injuries reportedKAMPALA, Feb 19 (Reuters) - An earthquake with a magnitude of 5.7 struck the Lake Albert region of western Uganda and eastern Democratic Republic of Congo on Monday, officials said, but there was no immediate word of casualties or damage.
"An earthquake passed here but it did not hurt anyone or destroy any property," Andrew Diboi, police chief for western Uganda, told Reuters by telephone.
Earthquakes are common in the western Great Rift Valley -- a seismically active fault line straddling western Uganda, eastern DRC and neighbouring Tanzania.
In 1994, a magnitude 6 tremor in the foothills of western Uganda's Rwenzori mountains killed at least six people. In 1966, a magnitude 7 earthquake killed 157 people and injured more than 1,300 in the Semliki Valley, also in western Uganda.
Disease, hunger risk in Mozambique flood struggleMAPUTO, Feb 19 (Reuters) - Mozambique's national disaster agency, already struggling to get food and clean water to thousands of victims of flooding, warned on Monday the worst could be yet to come as the rainy season gets under way.
Paulo Zucula, the country's top disaster official, said there was only one helicopter working to bring relief supplies to people stranded in isolated evacuation centres, raising the spectre of malnutrition and disease.
"At least 4,000 people in the district of Mopeia have not received food and clean drinking water. They are starving and some diseases such as malaria and cholera are looming," he told Reuters by telephone from Caia, where the central relief office has been established.
Zucula said a number of evacuation centres were not accessible by road, leaving a single U.N. helicopter as the only way to get food and other supplies to the refugees.
"We were not prepared ... it's another disaster," he said.
More than 87,000 people have been affected by several weeks of flooding in Mozambique's Zambezi river valley, which in 2000 and 2001 suffered a major flood disaster that killed 700 people and displaced half a million more.
The reported death toll this year is only about 40, but officials are bracing for a possible surge in the numbers of displaced people as continued rains in Malawi, Zambia and Zimbabwe drain into the already-flooded Zambezi.
Mozambique officials are attempting to control the situation by regulating water discharge from the country's massive Cahora Bassa Hydro-Electric dam, but this could become more difficult if flood waters continue to flow into the dam.
"We expect that scenario in two or three weeks ... our contingency plan is for 285,000 (displaced) people, but this number is likely to double," Zucula said.
Meanwhile, Mozambique's Red Cross has appealed for $5 million in food assistance to help feed more than 50,000 people scattered in 53 accommodation centres throughout the central provinces of Manica, Tete, Zambezia and Sofala.
"There is not enough food for everybody, some centres (in Zambezia) have not received food at all. We need help to reduce the effects of hunger, Red Cross Secretary-General Fernanda Texeira told the national television on Monday.
Asians usher in the Year of the PigBEIJING - Asians flocked to temples, parks and Disneyland on Sunday to pray, play, eat, and celebrate the first day of the Lunar New Year, ushering in the Year of the Pig.
At the Lama Temple and White Cloud Temple in Beijing, faithful burned incense and tossed coins at incense burners, believing that if they landed in the pot they would have better luck in the New Year.
At a traditional fair in the capital's Ditan Park, performers sang folk songs and snippets of Peking opera for throngs of people snaking through the park, many carrying balloons and pinwheels. Vendors sold pork dumplings and other treats, such as freshly made caramel candy sculpted into chubby pig shapes.
The pig is one of 12 animals (or mythical animals in the case of the dragon) on the 12-year cycle of the Chinese zodiac, which follows the lunar calendar. According to Chinese astrology, people born in pig years are polite, honest, hardworking and loyal. They are also lucky, which is why many Chinese like to have babies in a pig year.
Across China, revelers ushered in the New Year Saturday night and early Sunday morning by exploding firecrackers and fireworks — an ancient New Year tradition meant to drive away bad luck and scare off evil spirits.
In Beijing, the streets were littered with tattered red paper and the cardboard casings from spent fireworks.
The official Xinhua News Agency reported that in Beijing 125 people were reported injured from fireworks, including one person who lost both eyes. Police said shoddy fireworks were to blame.
Chinese President Hu Jintao and Premier Wen Jiabao made separate visits to remote villages in poorer areas, chatting and cooking with locals in far western Gansu and northern Liaoning provinces.
Such trips have become an annual ritual for the leadership — part of efforts to show that the government cares about those living in the countryside, where incomes average only $400 a year.
Hu fried dough twists with farmers on the outskirts of Gansu's Dingxi city, helped cut traditional door decorations from red paper, and received a basket of potatoes from a poor farmer, state media said.
China's booming economic growth in the last several decades has pulled hundreds of millions out of poverty, but a growing wealth gap in recent years has exposed cracks that Hu and his government have acknowledged threatens social stability.
In Hong Kong, the normally bustling streets were virtually empty as families gathered for feasts of chicken and hot pots piled high with pork, shrimp and vegetables.
At Hong Kong Disneyland, Mickey Mouse and Minnie Mouse shed their usual Western clothes and wore traditional Chinese clothing. Mickey wore a red beanie with a matching silk shirt trimmed in gold. Minnie showed off a bright red cheongsam — a tight-fitting Chinese women's dress.
Instead of the usual Disney movie tunes, speakers in the park played classical Chinese music. There was also a loud clattering of cymbals and drums as a traditional dragon dance wound its way around the park.
In Taiwan, firecrackers exploded late Saturday and early Sunday to usher in the New Year. Worshippers gathered at temples all around the island, holding incense sticks and bowing in the direction of Buddhist and Taoist deities in an effort to secure good luck throughout the coming year.
Major highways in South Korea were congested on Sunday as millions began returning home after visiting family to celebrate the Lunar New Year.
Airborne planes' windshields crack in blustery coldDENVER, Colorado (AP) -- Airlines were investigating why windshields on at least 13 planes cracked at Denver International Airport as winds of up to 100 mph whipped through the foothills in Colorado.
Meanwhile, at least three people in Iowa died Friday night when a Cessna twin-engine airplane crashed during a snow storm in a field southeast of the Council Bluffs airport, officials said.
The names of the victims have not been released, and it's possible there is a fourth victim, said Tony Molinaro, a spokesman for the Federal Aviation Administration in Chicago.
According to the National Weather Service, a fast-moving winter storm was pushing through the area when the plane went down, bringing wind gusts of up to 53 mph, snow and poor visibility.
Officials could not say what caused the crash and did not know if weather was a factor.
In Colorado, several major highways that were closed Friday due to blowing snow and whiteout conditions reopened, though some mountain sections remained closed Saturday -- including U.S. 40 over Berthoud Pass, where an avalanche buried two cars last month.
The storm system that brought nearly a foot of fresh powder to ski resorts, was expected to move out of the state Saturday.
SkyWest Airlines reported cracked windshields on eight planes that were taking off or landing Friday as winds gusted up to 50 mph, spokeswoman Marissa Snow said. One plane's windshield cracked while it was airborne.
"Only the outermost layer was affected," Snow said of the windshields, which are made from multiple layers of glass.
SkyWest, a regional carrier for United Airlines, said the planes involved were the Embraer EMB120 Brasilia and Bombardier Canadair Regional Jet, though she did not immediately have numbers.
Two Frontier Airlines Airbus planes had their windshields crack while airborne, while two other windshields cracked while at the gate, airline spokesman Joe Hodas said.
In all instances the planes returned to the airport and/or made it to the gate safely. No emergencies were declared and no injuries were reported.
Hodas said it was unclear whether the high winds were to blame.
"It's not exactly unusual weather for Denver," Hodas said. "We don't know what it is... It's kind of a mystery at this point."
Spokesman Steve Snyder said windshields cracked on several different makes and models of airplanes from several airlines, though he did not immediately know which and how many. None of the pilots reported flying debris, Snyder said.
"Everybody is fairly baffled by it," Snyder said.
At least 55 flights were canceled and others were diverted.
Stranded motorists rescued
In southern Wyoming, parts of Interstate 80 were closed between Cheyenne and Laramie because of windblown snow driven by gusts over 50 mph and icy patches.
Before I-80 was closed, the driver and passenger of a tractor-trailer were killed in a crash at Laramie, the highway patrol said.
In Pennsylvania, the last of hundreds of motorists stranded on a 50-mile stretch of Interstate 78 were freed Friday, but several highways remained shut as crews struggled to clear ice and snow following a monster storm that has been blamed for at least 24 deaths in the Northeast and Midwest.
Gov. Ed Rendell apologized for the state's "totally unacceptable" handling of the storm and the Interstate 78 tie-up, which stranded hundreds of motorists for as long as 24 hours. He blamed an "almost total breakdown in communication" among state agencies.
State Transportation Secretary Allen D. Biehler said I-78 and large portions of I-81 and I-80 would remain closed so workers could clear them.
At least 24 deaths were blamed on the storm system and accompanying cold: six in Ohio; three in Nebraska; two each in Illinois, Indiana, New York, New Jersey and Delaware; and one each in Missouri, Pennsylvania, Virginia, New Hampshire and Louisiana.
MOZAMBIQUE: Cash not food needed to help flood evacuees recovery, says NGOJOHANNESBURG, 16 February (IRIN) - As floods continue to displace thousands of Mozambicans in the central region, Save the Children UK has urged the humanitarian community to consider cash grants rather than food aid for long term recovery.
"This is not to undermine the validity and importance of food aid interventions for people currently experiencing shortages, but to avoid dependency, to stimulate local markets, to give people the dignity of choice," said Chris McIvor, programme director of the child rights agency. "We believe that some level of debate needs to be had within the humanitarian community as to what might be more appropriate."
According to the UN's World Food Programme (WFP), 85,000 people have had to flee their homes in the four central provinces of Manica, Sofala, Tete and Zambezia following heavy rainfall. Water discharged from Cahora Bassa dam, in Tete Province in the northwest, has also displaced communities downstream. The WFP and its partners have begun distributing food aid to 2,000 people in temporary accommodation centres in Caia district in Sofala Province and 6,100 people in the Mutarara district of Tete Province.
McIvor said procuring food could be a lengthy affair if it has to be imported, and past experience in Mozambique had shown that it could take between three to six months to secure supplies of needed items. Any food procured in the middle of February from outside the country might only be distributed in May, at the earliest. "If direct food aid is required then food should be purchased from those parts of Mozambique that have a surplus and if food is available locally in communities then cash is probably the best option. If people have been given the means to replant and re-establish, there should not be any need of food distribution in June-July," he said.
"Distributing food aid can disrupt the local market, as the prognosis for the harvest in Mozambique has been generally good, and food is available in markets near the affected areas," McIvor added.
The Ministry of Agriculture's Early Warning Department had forecast "better than normal harvests in the centre and north of the country, in the areas not directly affected by flood damage", which meant the staple food, maize, was available in the affected central provinces of Manica, Sofala, Tete and Zambezia, with additional supplies available from Nampula province in the north, McIvor said.
Experience during the "much more serious floods" in 2000 and 2001 along the Limpopo, Save and Zambezi river valleys had shown that markets soon opened near the accommodation camps, because traders were quick to use the opportunity offered by the concentration of people, he pointed out. In 2000 half a million people were made homeless and 700 lost their lives.
Cash grants given out by Save the Children and the development agency, Oxfam, to those affected by the 2005 earthquake in Kashmir, and by his organisation and WFP to Indonesians affected by the Tsunami in 2004, had helped their respective markets to recover.
"If all items distributed to the flood-affected [Mozambican] households are procured outside of the area, none of the benefit will accrue to these [local] economies," McIvor said.
The UN's Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) in Mozambique said it supported the cash transfer intervention. "We have been moving in that direction," said spokesman Tatenda Mutenga. "We have been running a cash voucher scheme for Mozambican small-scale farmers for the past three years. The vouchers give the farmers the freedom to procure what they need - seeds, farming implements or fertilisers."
In its annual report earlier this month, FAO advocated cash transfers over food aid, which it said disrupted local markets. It did make allowances for food aid where emergency assistance was needed.
A cash grant scheme from March through to May would help households cope better when the floodwaters receded, said McIvor. "People will return home and if they have seed, they will re-plant, with the harvest expected in June-July. If food reserves have been lost, families will suffer a food gap from March to July." Food prices would probably remain stable in March, April, May, as this was the harvest period and supply was high.
Cash grants would also help households to re-establish their homes; building if necessary, buying utensils or assets such as animals, agricultural tools or sewing machines and other basic needs destroyed in the floods. More importantly, cash grants helped "to restore the dignity of people who have been affected by a natural disaster - people can quickly take charge of their own lives and are not put in the position of passive recipients of goods/services provided by a third party," he added.
A painter works on the finishing touches on a memorial cross to commemorate the first year anniversary of a landslide in Guisaugon town, southern Leyte, central Philippines February 16, 2007. More than three thousand residents were killed and buried by landslides in the mountain village of Guisaugon a year ago.
REUTERS/STRINGER/PHILIPPINESMysterious ailment wiping out beesPHILADELPHIA, Pennsylvania (Reuters) -- A mysterious disease is killing off U.S. honeybees, threatening to disrupt pollination of a range of crops and costing beekeepers hundreds of thousands of dollars, industry experts said on Monday.
Beekeepers in 22 states have reported losses of up to 80 percent of their colonies in recent weeks, leaving many unable to rent the bees to farmers of crops such as almonds and, later in the year, apples and blueberries.
"It's unusual in terms of the widespread distribution and severity," said Jerry Bromenshenk, a professor at the University of Montana at Missoula and chief executive of Bee Alert Technology, a company monitoring the problem.
Dave Hackenberg, a Pennsylvania beekeeper who reported the so-called Colony Collapse Disorder to researchers at Pennsylvania State University in November, said he had lost about 2,000 hives, which can each contain around 50,000 bees during the summer months.
He estimated that he will lose as much as $350,000 after accounting for lost income and the cost of replacing bees.
Researchers from state and federal agriculture agencies have been frustrated in their search for a cause because affected hives are often empty except for the queen and a few bees.
The number of bees in a hive typically diminishes over a period of days to the point where there are very few or none left, Hackenberg said. There is no indication of where the bees have gone or what drove them away, he said.
"The rate of loss is startling," said Jeff Pettis, a bee researcher at the U.S. Department of Agriculture in Beltsville, Maryland.
Pettis said the bees may have been killed off by a combination of factors including parasitic mites and a lack of nectar in pollen. Scientists are also looking into whether there is a link with significant recent bee losses in some European countries, particularly Spain.
Bromenshenk of the University of Montana said the symptoms are similar to "Dwindling Disease" that affected the U.S. bee population during the 1960s. Some beekeepers have told him that they have been seeing the problem for up to two years but have not reported it to authorities.
"It remains to be seen whether this is something new," he said.
21st victim dies after Florida tornadoesLEESBURG, Fla. - An 88-year-old man has become the 21st victim of the deadly tornadoes that struck central Florida earlier this month, officials said Thursday.
Albert Gantner died Wednesday in a hospital from injuries he suffered when a tornado destroyed his home in the middle of the night, Lake County officials and son Roger Gantner said.
He and his wife, Doris, lived in a Lady Lake mobile home belonging to his son. Doris Gantner, 81, was killed the night of the Feb. 2 storms.
Relatives found Albert Gantner about 50 yards from his wife. He suffered a concussion, a broken collarbone and broken vertebrae, his family has said.
He battled Parkinson's Disease and had been confined to a wheelchair for the last several years.
Including Gantner, the storms have left 21 dead and hundreds homeless in a 30-mile path in central Florida.
January hottest on recordWASHINGTON (AP) -- It may be cold comfort during a frigid February, but last month was by far the hottest January ever.
The broken record was fueled by a waning El Nino and a gradually warming world, according to U.S. scientists who reported the data Thursday.
Records on the planet's temperature have been kept since 1880.
Spurred on by unusually warm Siberia, Canada, northern Asia and Europe, the world's land areas were 3.4 degrees Fahrenheit (4 degrees Celsius) warmer than a normal January, according to the U.S. National Climatic Data Center in Asheville, North Carolina.
That didn't just nudge past the old record set in 2002, but broke that mark by 0.81 degrees Fahrenheit (0.56C), which meteorologists said is a lot, since such records often are broken by hundredths of a degree at a time.
"That's pretty unusual for a record to be broken by that much," said the data center's scientific services chief, David Easterling. "I was very surprised."
The scientists went beyond their normal double checking and took the unusual step of running computer climate models "just to make sure that what we're seeing was real," Easterling said.
It was.
"From one standpoint it is not unusual to have a new record because we've become accustomed to having records broken," said Jay Lawrimore, climate monitoring branch chief.
But January, he said, was a bigger jump than the world has seen in about 10 years.
The temperature of the world's land and water combined -- the most effective measurement -- was 1.53 degrees Fahrenheit (0.96C) warmer than normal, breaking the old record by more than one-quarter of a degree.
Ocean temperatures alone didn't set a record. In the Northern Hemisphere, land areas were 4.1 degrees Fahrenheit (2.4C) warmer than normal for January, breaking the old record by about three-quarters of a degree.
But the United States was about normal. The nation was 0.94 degrees Fahrenheit (0.63C) above normal for January, ranking only the 49th warmest since 1895.
The world's temperature record was driven by northern latitudes. Siberia was on average 9 degrees Fahrenheit (5.1C) warmer than normal. Eastern Europe had temperatures averaging 8 degrees Fahrenheit (4.55C) above normal. Canada on average was more than 5 degrees Fahrenheit (2.88C) warmer than normal.
Larger increases in temperature farther north, compared to mid-latitudes, is "sort of the global warming signal," Easterling said.
It is what climate scientists predict happens and will happen more frequently with global warming, according to an authoritative report by hundreds of climate scientists issued this month.
Meteorologists aren't blaming the warmer January on global warming alone, but they said the higher temperature was consistent with climate change.
Easterling said a weakening El Nino -- a warming of the central Pacific Ocean that tends to cause changes in weather across the globe -- was a factor, but not a big one.
But Kevin Trenberth, director of climate analysis at the National Center for Atmospheric Research, said El Nino made big changes worldwide that added up.
Temperature records break regularly with global warming, Trenberth said, but "with a little bit of El Nino thrown in, you don't just break records, you smash records."
As much of the United States already knows, February doesn't seem as unusually warm as January was. "Even with global warming, you're not going to keep that cold air bottled up in Alaska and Canada forever," Easterling said.
Eastern US and Canada digs out of snowstormWASHINGTON (AFP) - Residents in the eastern United States and parts of Canada have driven on treacherously icy roads and dug out of the first major snow storm to hit the region this year.
The massive weather system started in the US southwest, then swept through the US midwest, said Dennis Feltgen, a meteorologist at the National Weather Service. The storm then regained strength off the Virginia coast and lumbered up the US east coast, dumping snow along the way.
The low pressure center behind the storm was climbing up the eastern US seaboard and expected to reach Canada's maritime provinces late Thursday, Feltgen said.
"Things will get worse today before they get better," he said.
Blizzard warnings were out in the northeastern United States, the NWS said, amid warnings that with the wind chill factor temperatures on Thursday could drop below minus 20 Fahrenheit (-29 Celsius) in New York state and Vermont, with arctic winds sweeping in from the north.
The National Weather Service said that heavy ice combined with wind gusts of up to 40 miles (64 kilometers) an hour downed trees and power lines across the affected region.
According to CNN early Thursday, the storm killed 13 people in six states, while some 300,000 others were without power across seven states.
In Washington on Thursday, area school districts remained closed for a second day, and the US government announced its area employees could take an unscheduled day off if they could not make it to work.
The US capital awoke Wednesday to an icy mix of snow and sleet that closed airports and slowed the federal government. Bus routes were cancelled and residents urged not to drive, stalling commuters.
Temperatures in the region plunged overnight, freezing the snow slush and turning streets Thursday into dangerously slippery ice rinks.
Heavy snow and freezing rain forced flight cancellations and delays at major airports in Washington, New York and Boston, Massachusetts. Hundreds of flights were also cancelled at Chicago's O'Hare Airport, the country's busiest.
In New York City, meteorologists warned of freezing rain and sleet, with snow accumulating one to three inches (2.5-7.5 centimeters).
At New York's John F. Kennedy Airport, passengers aboard a Jet Blue flight bound for Cancun, Mexico, were trapped inside the plane for eight hours as the pilot awaited clearing to depart.
"There was very little food," a passenger told CNN, describing his ordeal among screaming infants and stressed-out adults inside the airplane. "It was just a nightmare."
The crew "had to open the actual plane doors to get some air," said another passenger.
The airline eventually cancelled the flight and issued a written apology that acknowledged they had "no excuse for why we allowed passengers to sit on the tarmac," according to CNN,
The weather also played havoc with the heating-up 2008 presidential race.
Republican Mitt Romney, who announced the bid for his party's presidential nomination Tuesday, was forced to cancel a campaign stop in the northeastern state of New Hampshire.
In Canada, the worst snowstorm of the season blanketed southern Ontario, forcing several flight cancellations and school closures, and tormenting drivers as it swept eastward.
In Toronto, Montreal and Ottawa, dozens of flights, mostly to large US cities, were cancelled, according to airport authorities.
"It's the first big storm of the year. It's not commonplace, but at the same time, it's not the end of the world," Denis Heroux, an Environment Canada meteorologist at Montreal airport, told AFP.
"It's almost as much snow in one day as has fallen since the beginning of winter," said Heroux, noting that Montreal received only 70 centimeters (27.5 inches) of snow this year, half the normal snowfall.
Winter's biggest snowstorm chills Valentine's Day in USWASHINGTON (AFP) - The most powerful snowstorm of the season has pummeled the US, sticking an icy dagger into the heart of Valentine's Day and slowing the federal government in Washington.
A massive weather system -- the biggest this winter -- started in the US southwest, swept through the Midwest, regained strength off the Virginia coast and was lumbering up the East Coast.
"Just in time for Valentine's Day," Dennis Feltgen, a meterologist at the National Weather Service, told AFP Wednesday. But with a romantic spin he said, "If you need an excuse to stay inside and be a good valentine, this is your day."
The storm was expected to clobber the northeastern states, he said, with blizzard warnings posted in most of them.
"Things will get worse today before they get better," he said.
Blizzard warnings were hoisted as heavy snows and high winds were expected to cut visibility to near zero, the service said, warning people in the area to stay indoors.
The weather service issues blizzard warnings when sustained winds or frequent gusts over 35 miles (56 kilometers) per hour are combined with "considerable" falling and drifting snow.
The center of the storm was expected to move out of the northeastern New England region by Thursday at the latest, but the edges of the storm would still be making their power felt, he said.
In Washington, the US capital awoke to an icy mix of snow and sleet that closed airports and slowed the federal government.
As snow covered the layer of ice on Washington streets, roads became treacherous and bus routes were cancelled, stalling commuters.
In a pre-dawn announcement Wednesday, the US government said employees in the Washington area could arrive up to two hours late.
Most schools were closed and service shuttered at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport and Dulles International Airport.
Travel was "treacherous" on the slippery roads as heavy ice downed trees and power lines, the service said. Wind gusts of up to 40 miles (64 kilometers) an hour were forecast for Wednesday afternoon. More snow and ice could cause severe power outages, it warned.
Along the Atlantic seabord, in portions of Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland and New Jersey, snow accumulations were expected to reach six to 10 inches (15-25 centimeters).
In New York City, meteorologists warned of freezing rain and sleet, with snow accumulating one to three inches (2.5-7.5 centimeters).
The weather also played havoc with the heating-up 2008 presidential race.
Republican contender Mitt Romney, who announced his bid for his party's nomination Tuesday, was forced to cancel a campaign stop in the northeastern state of New Hampshire.
Three weather-related deaths were reported by the National Weather Service on Tuesday: a snow-plow operator in Missouri was killed and two people died in Nebraska.
Katrina victims pummeled by tornadoNEW ORLEANS - Storm-weary Curtis Jefferson is homeless. Again.
Hurricane Katrina destroyed his home in New Orleans' Gentilly neighborhood more than 17 months ago. Hurricane Rita chased him from a friend's place in Lake Charles a month later. Now he's looking for yet another place to live after a tornado ripped holes in his government-issued trailer early Tuesday.
"It's just bad luck, man," Jefferson, 60, said as he waited in his battered car for a Federal Emergency Management Agency worker to inspect his Uptown trailer, his home for the last eight months.
FEMA workers fanned out across the area to assess the latest damage to the thousands of trailers that have been sheltering displaced residents since Katrina hit on Aug. 29, 2005. The agency had counted at least 50 damaged trailers by Tuesday, but the number was expected to grow. An 85-year-old woman, Stella Chambers, was killed and at least 29 people were injured.
Chambers was almost out of her government-issued trailer. Only one utility hookup remained before she could once again live in her modest red brick home that had taken a year-and-a-half to rebuild after Katrina. Her rebuilt home was flattened by the tornado, which the National Weather Service said Wednesday may have been two twisters.
After Katrina, many questioned the wisdom of placing so many flimsy trailers along the hurricane-prone Gulf Coast. Tuesday's tornadoes confirmed many occupants' fears.
"Don't get one. They're no good," said Chris Usea, a 38-year-old insulation installer who miraculously came out nearly unscathed when the tornado tossed and crushed his FEMA trailer in Westwego like a soda can. "I came out with underwear, a T-shirt, no shoes."
Residents whose trailers were rendered uninhabitable by the latest storm will be provided with a hotel room or another trailer, according to FEMA.
Firefighters went door to door, once again searching for victims. They spray-painted bright orange rectangles on the buildings and trailers and, as with the circles searchers used after Hurricane Katrina, they listed the date of the search and whether bodies were found.
"Some of these houses still have the circle on them from the last search," resident Patrick Clementine said. "Now we're doing it again."
Gov. Kathleen Blanco issued a disaster declaration, a necessary step for Louisiana to seek aid from the federal government. She said the state would send in National Guard troops for security.
Valencia Williams has no clue where she, her 8-month-old baby and her fiance will be living. But she does know one place where they will not be staying: their FEMA trailer in Gretna.
Williams, who was asleep when the tornado drove a large board through the trailer only a few feet from her head, said she doesn't want to live in a trailer any more.
"It's just too scary," she said. "I keep thinking about what could have happened. I think, what if we made it through Katrina and got killed like that."
Gwendolyn Armstrong, 77, who walks with a cane after having her hip replaced, was sleeping in her Gretna trailer when she felt it starting to shake. By the time the storm had roared past, she had windows broken out, siding missing and one side of the trailer bashed in.
"I wasn't hurt, but I sure was scared," Armstrong said. "I had heart surgery and I have high blood pressure. I can't take much more of this, but what am I going to do?"
She's trying to repair her house, next to the trailer, but didn't get as much insurance money as she expected and hasn't received any government grant money to fix her home.
A FEMA employee couldn't tell her much.
"She said they have to go back and have meetings on it. We all know about those meetings," Armstrong said.
Mozambique seeks help in flood refugee crisisCAIA, Mozambique, Feb 14 (Reuters) - Mozambique may need emergency help to airlift food and other supplies to thousands of flood refugees stranded in evacuation centres that are fast running out of supplies, officials said on Wednesday.
Mozambique's National Institute for Disaster Management (INGC) says the country faces a fresh humanitarian disaster as some 45,000 people crammed into temporary camps run short of food, fuel and basic shelter.
"The people have been there for over a week without proper feeding ... they are isolated and we can't go there by road and we have to airlift some of them and drop food," INGC national director Paulo Zucula told Reuters.
"We now have to change our focus from rescue operations to the accommodation centres. We will consider an emergency appeal if the flooding situation continues," he said.
Mozambique's latest flooding has affected some 80,000 people, many of whom have been cut off from the rest of the country as rising waters from the Zambezi river cut off access roads and wash out bridges.
Zucula, who on Tuesday visited the worst hit region of Mutarara in the northern province of Tete, where more than 17,000 people are living in make-shift shelters of twigs and wet grass, said food and sanitation were now top priorities.
"The rains are making our operations very difficult, probably we will call for help in air assistance in air lifting operations ... we will ask for this help now," he said.
WILD FRUIT
The government says at least 29 people have died as torrential rains pounded the central provinces of Tete, Manica, Sofala and Zambezia over the last two months.
The national broadcaster, TVM, reported on Wednesday that a further 10 people had drowned in the lower Zambezi in the past four days, although this could not be immediately confirmed.
The U.N World Food Programme (WFP) on Tuesday began distributing food to evacuees, but the operation has been complicated by poor access roads.
Some flood victims say they have been surviving for more than a week on wild fruit, some of which pose serious health hazards, and untreated water.
"We have not eaten anything since we arrived here last week. Children will die and we cannot feed them with wild fruit because it's too dangerous," said Johane Balicholo, an official in charge of the Samarusha accommodation centre in Mutarara.
"There are many old people sleeping in a roofless church and we can't do anything for them and they can't even walk. Some women left their children here as they fled in different directions and now they can't come back because all roads have been swamped."
Reuters reporters accompanying officials on a fly-over of the region saw waterlogged farmland split into islands while grass-thatched houses and schools have been submerged along the lower Zambezi.
In make-shift accommodation centres, anxious and hungry children stood in the rain crying for help.
Mozambique saw its worst flood disaster in 2000/2001 when some 700 people died in southern and central regions hit by the biggest floods in some 50 years.
The European Commission said on Wednesday it had allocated 2 million euros to help, with the main objective of resettling evacuees in safer areas with access to clean water and adequate health care.
Tornado hits New Orleans area; 1 deadNEW ORLEANS - A powerful storm and likely a tornado hit the New Orleans area early Tuesday, killing an elderly woman, injuring dozens of other people, and damaging dozens of homes and business in a region still trying to recover from Hurricane Katrina.
An 85-year-old woman died in the city's Gentilly neighborhood, one of the areas hit hardest by Katrina 18 months earlier.
Another storm cell hit south-central Louisiana, damaging buildings in New Iberia and on the outskirts of Breaux Bridge in St. Martin Parish, but it did less damage and there were no reports of injuries.
In the New Orleans area, FEMA trailers were tossed around, homes collapsed, and the wind tore the roof off a hotel across the river in Westwego. At least 10 to 15 buildings were destroyed in New Orleans, said James Ross, a spokesman for Mayor Ray Nagin. Dozens of other homes and businesses were damaged in Westwego, Mayor Robert Billiot said. City and parish officials said about 30 people were injured.
"There is just so much destruction," Billiot said.
In New Orleans' Gentilly neighborhood, Stella Chambers died after the twister slammed into her FEMA trailer, ripping it and their newly renovated home apart and scattering debris about 200 feet to the Industrial Canal levee.
Neighbor Hellean Lewis said Chambers' daughter banged on her door. "Her face and head were covered with blood. It was running down her side. She was crying and screaming, `Help me! I can't find my mother!'" Lewis said.
Lewis said her son went through the debris and found Chambers, still alive and crying for her daughter.
"Her body was just all mangled," Lewis said.
In Westwego, Tanya Clark, 38, sorted through the pile of rubble that had been her home, looking for whatever she could salvage. Her left arm was in a sling because the shoulder was dislocated when the storm threw her 10 to 15 yards. Her son, Blaise, had a gash on his jaw. They hadn't been able to find their chihuahua and two cats.
"I just hope I don't find my pets under all of this," she said.
Clark said she and Blaise, 17, were asleep when the tornado hit. "The saddest part, I don't have any (homeowners) insurance any more. A single mom, and I couldn't keep it up in the past few months," she said.
At least one nearby house was also destroyed, and a barn had been thrown into the back of a brick apartment building. Huge twisted curlicues of corrugated tin — once roofs — lay here and there.
About 20,000 people were without power in New Orleans, Westwego, and Metairie, a spokesman for Entergy Corp. said. Public, private and parochial schools in Westwego closed for the day. Xavier University in New Orleans shut down for the day because it had no power, said spokesman Warren Bell.
Mike Wiener, spokesman for the Federal Emergency Management Agency, said FEMA had assessment teams in the areas affected by the storm.
"Right now our concern is with the safety of the travel trailer residents," he said. "We're going to get them adequate housing as soon as possible, whether it be a hotel room or another trailer."
Kevin Gillespie's trailer in Westwego was pulled five feet and shoved next to his steps so he couldn't open the door. A FEMA trailer next door had been yanked from its moorings and flipped into his back yard, Gillespie said.
"My next-door neighbors, they had just moved back into their house from (Hurricane) Katrina. Now it's totaled out again," he said.
He didn't know how badly his own belongings were damaged; a crew had only just cut off the gas. But the storm removed every vehicle he owned: "My car, pickup, motorbike and trailer all went away."
Still, he said, as dawn arrived, "The more damage I see there, the more fortunate we are."
At one point, emergency workers in New Orleans' Uptown neighborhood scrambled to clear a downed magnolia tree so an ambulance could get by. A trailer serving as the fire house for the city's Engine 12 also flipped over, injuring three firefighters.
John Carolan, 50, who lives in the neighborhood, said he was awakened by the storm and got up in time to get into a closet with his wife.
"Ten seconds and it was over," he said.
He said the storm blew the furniture from his porch into the street.
Radar data provides "pretty convincing evidence there was a tornado," said meteorologist Robert Ricks in the National Weather Service office in Slidell. He said the damage appeared to be from one storm cell that was behind a squall line moving east, he said.
"It should be an improving trend the rest of the day," Ricks said.
Midwest snowstorm spawns logistical headachesCHICAGO (Reuters) - A major snowstorm was moving through the U.S. Midwest causing transportation hang-ups, making it difficult to move grain and livestock to terminal markets, a private forecaster said on Tuesday.
The heaviest snow of 3 to 6 inches fell across central Illinois, Indiana and Ohio in the past day. Snow was still falling Tuesday morning with some Midwest areas expected to see a total of 6 to 12 inches. The hardest hit will be the central sections of Illinois, Indiana and Ohio.
"Certainly transportation will be problematic along and south of Interstate 80 -- northern Iowa, Des Moines and across the eastern Midwest," said Mike Palmerino, a forecaster with DTN Meteorlogix.
Temperatures will be turning colder. Highs east of the Mississippi River will be in the 20s to low 30s Fahrenheit on Tuesday. Then it will turn sharply colder, with highs in the teens and lows below zero to 10 F from Wednesday through Friday.
The western Midwest will be colder, with highs in the single digits and teens and lows from -10 to 5 degrees F.
The sharp turn to colder conditions will cause a flash freeze, Palmerino said.
"That's going to make for treacherous road conditions the next few days," he added.
Livestock producers were already having a difficult time moving hogs on Tuesday.
"We've got a blizzard," said one Indiana hog dealer. "There is a 40 mile-per-hour wind and six to eight inches of snow. There isn't a school that is open."
By Saturday conditions will start to warm up with highs in the 20s and lows in the teens F.
"Chicago temperatures will be above freezing about the middle of next week," he said.
The frigid temperatures over the past week have caused a build-up of ice on the Illinois River, stalling barges carrying grain from the Midwest Corn Belt to U.S. export terminals at the Gulf.
Meteorlogix's six- to 10-day Midwest forecast, Sunday through Thursday, called for near to above-normal temperatures in the western belt and near to below-normal temperatures in the eastern region. Precipitation was expected to be near to below normal.
New York town may have hit snow recordREDFIELD, N.Y. - The snow just won't stop. Intense lake-effect snow squalls that buried communities along eastern Lake Ontario for nine straight days diminished Sunday — then started up again early Monday.
Unofficially, the squalls have dumped 12 feet, 2 inches of snow at Redfield. If accurate, that would break the state record of 10 feet, 7 inches of snow that fell in nearby Montague over seven days ending Jan. 1, 2002, said Steve McLaughlin, a meteorologist for the National Weather Service in Buffalo.
A weather service representative was being sent to Redfield on Monday to verify the total.
Residents of this hardy upstate New York village seem unfazed. Redfield, whose economy thrives on snowmobilers and cross-country skiers, receives an annual average of 270 inches — more than 22 feet.
"It's snow. We get a lot of it. So what?" said Allan Babcock, a lifelong resident who owns Shar's Country Diner, a popular eatery in this village of 650 people.
However, Gov. Eliot Spitzer has declared a state disaster emergency in Oswego County. The county's community of Parish had recorded 115 inches by early Sunday. Mexico had 103 inches, North Osceola had 99 and Scriba 94. The city of Oswego had 85 inches.
The persistent snow bands that have wracked the county for a week were expected to finally end later Monday.
"We have a sharp front coming in Monday that's going to kick all this out. We may get one more burst of snow. But then it's over. Finally, some mercy," McLaughlin said.
However, the forecaster noted that a coastal winter storm expected midweek could bring another 6 to 12 inches to areas of upstate New York.
As the bands shifted north into Jefferson County most of Sunday, residents continued recovering from the heavy snow. Roads were mostly cleared as workers turned their attention to removing the snow and trimming down 10- and 12-foot-high snow banks that continued to make driving dangerous.
The snow led to surreal scenes. One house appeared to be in a cocoon. Drifting snow in the front had swallowed the front door and blocked the windows.
"In all my life, I mean my entire life combined, I've never seen this much snow at once," said Jim Bevridge, 47, of Timmonium, Md., who drove up for a long weekend of snowmobiling.
Mozambique floods displace 68,000, more at riskCAIA, Mozambique (Reuters) - Floods in Mozambique have left 68,000 people homeless and 280,000 more may be forced to evacuate this week as torrential rains lash the impoverished country, a top official said on Monday.
The head of Mozambique's national relief agency INGC told Reuters around 27,000 people had been moved to accommodation centers from areas along the Zambezi river and around 41,000 more had no shelter after their homes were submerged.
Paulo Zucula said 280,000 people -- mostly poor rural folk who live in tiny mud huts and survive by growing vegetables and rearing goats and chickens -- would probably be forced from their homes this week as more rains swept the southern African country.
Experts fear the crisis could surpass the devastating floods of 2000 and 2001, which killed 700 people, displaced half a million and wrecked infrastructure.
"We expect more water than we had in 2001. ... The situation is deteriorating and it will get worse but this time we are better prepared than in 2001," Zucula said in an interview in Caia, one of the worst hit areas, some 1,400 kilometres (875 miles) north of the capital Maputo.
The floods, sparked when rains from neighboring Zimbabwe, Zambia and Malawi poured into the overflowing Cahora Bassa Dam, have killed 29 people and damaged thousands of homes and schools, mainly in the central Zambezia and Sofala provinces.
Many face homelessness for the second time after the floods six years ago wrecked their homes. Even in accommodation centers, food, water and medicine are scarce and shelter limited.
In Chapunga, in Sofala, around 600 people flocked to an accommodation center but tents are scarce and many are sleeping in the open.
"I lost everything, I brought my wife and my two sick children and we are sleeping in the open, there are no tents and there is no food here," said 45-year-old Joaquim Dausse.
"This is the second time I'm facing this flooding... I can't believe it," said Dausse, hunched beside a sick child whose bloated tummy hinted at malnutrition.
N.Y. sees 110 inches of snow in 7 daysPARISH, N.Y. - With more than 8 feet of snow already coating the ground, it wasn't good news for this winter-weary region when the blue sky turned gray Saturday, signaling another intense snow squall was about to dump some more.
"This is bad," said 67-year-old Dave DeGrau, who has operated an auto repair shop on Main Street for 45 years. "We had a very easy winter until now. Last fall during hunting season it rained every time I went out. I kept saying 'I'm glad this isn't snow.' Now, it's snow."
Persistent bands of lake-effect snow squalls fed by moisture from Lake Ontario have been swinging up and down this part of central New York along the lake's eastern shore since last Sunday.
The National Weather Service said Parish — about 25 miles northeast of Syracuse — reached a milestone early Saturday with 100 inches of snow during the past seven days. Late Saturday, the total had risen to 110 inches. Unofficial reports pegged totals at 123 inches in Orwell and 131 in Redfield, but those measurements include snow from another storm a couple of days before the current weather system. All three towns are in Oswego County.
A warning in effect until Monday morning said 2 to 4 more feet of snow was possible with wind gusting up to 24 mph.
"That's all we need," Mike Avery said as he took a brief break from loading dump trucks with snow to be hauled to a pile outside town. "It's getting monotonous."
The fluffy new snow was a magnet for snowmobilers, but stopping was out of the question.
"You can't stop or you're done," said Dan Hojnacki, 23, of Syracuse, after he ground to a halt in a field. "I never got stuck until today, and I've been snowmobiling for 10 years."
Residents of the nearby town of Mexico see 5- to 6-foot snowfalls every two or three years, but this time even hardened locals are amazed. The only sign of parked SUVs are their radio antennas or roof racks sticking up above the snow. Front doors are buried and footprints lead to second-story windows. Sidewalks that have been dug out look like miniature canyons.
The state transportation department said 125 workers from elsewhere in the state had been sent in with snow equipment to help.
The region is located along the Tug Hill Plateau, the snowiest region this side of the Rocky Mountains. It's a 50-mile wedge of land that rises 2,100 feet from the eastern shore of Lake Ontario. It usually gets about 300 inches — roughly 25 feet — of snow a year.
The hamlet of Hooker, near the boundaries of Jefferson, Lewis, and Oswego counties, holds the state's one-year record with 466.9 inches, about 39 feet, in the winter of 1976-77.
Still, less than a month ago it seemed more like spring.
"Gosh, three weeks ago there was green on the ground. We got spoiled," Parish Mayor Leon Heagle said. "This just came fast. This is not normal. God, we can't catch a break. I feel like getting right in the car and driving south, but I'd probably get in trouble."
The intense blast of snow hasn't been blamed for any deaths in Oswego County. Elsewhere, however, more than a week of bitter cold and slippery roads have contributed to at least 20 deaths across the northeastern quarter of the nation — five in Ohio, four in Illinois, four in Indiana, two in Kentucky, two in Michigan, and one each in Wisconsin, and Maryland and elsewhere in New York, authorities said.
8 feet of snow in N.Y., and more comingMEXICO, N.Y. - Before weekend squalls add to the 8 feet of snow already on the ground, the communities along eastern Lake Ontario needed the dry respite they got Friday.
"Have to move fast. Want to at least get it off my roof," said Ray DeLong, 75, as he carved a path to his driveway with a snowblower and two contractors pushed streams of snow from the roof of his two-story home.
Snow squalls off Lake Ontario have dumped snow by the feet onto Oswego County communities since Sunday, leading Gov. Eliot Spitzer to declare a state disaster emergency.
Parish and Scriba had about 8 feet of snow since the squalls started, according to the National Weather Service. Mexico Mayor Terry Grimshaw said his village was blanketed by 7 feet.
On Friday, the squalls shifted south into Syracuse and stayed there, dropping 4 to 8 inches of snow.
But forecasters said heavy snow bands would return to Oswego County later Friday night and likely stall there again. The forecasts call for another 6 to 12 inches, pushing the seven-day total over 100 inches.
While residents enjoyed Friday's lull, snow plows were out in full force to clear roads. An advisory against any nonessential travel remained in effect for Oswego and three nearby counties. Snow banks tower nearly 10 feet tall and have narrowed roads.
Although authorities have reported few problems because of the snow, Oswego Fire Chief Ed Geers said his firefighters have had to help three ambulances that got stuck in the snow.
Schools were closed the entire week. Mexico Superintendent Nelson Bauersfeld said if the district exceeds its allotted six snow days, it would have to shorten its winter or spring breaks.
"We try not to get into vacations if we can help it. So lets just hope once this week is over we can get back to normal and be laughing about this come June," Bauersfeld said.
More than a week of bitter cold and slippery roads have contributed to at least 20 deaths across the northern quarter of the nation — five in Ohio, four in Illinois, four in Indiana, two in Kentucky, two in Michigan, and one each in Wisconsin, New York and Maryland, authorities said. There have been no deaths in Oswego County related to the snow.
Tennessee and northern Alabama tasted a bit of winter weather Friday morning — sleet and freezing rain iced over roadways, and some precipitation briefly turned to snow.
Jakarta residents survey flood damageJAKARTA, Indonesia - The death toll from massive flooding in Indonesia rose to 80 on Saturday, as some 140,000 people returned to their sodden homes in the capital to clear away piles of mud and rancid debris.
Rivers overflowed in some parts of the sprawling city, much of which remains under water following last week's flooding, the worst in recent memory. But electricity and phone service have been restored to tens of thousands of homes and businesses in recent days.
Many returning residents who have been living in shelters or relatives' homes for days surveyed the damage to their washed out houses for the first time on Saturday.
"My home and everything in it was washed away," said Titi Komala, a 38-year-old widow and mother of three. "Now everything is gone and I can't do anything about it. If I had money I'd move, but I have nothing."
Floods in Jakarta and its surrounding cities last week killed or have been cited as a factor in the deaths of at least 57 people. Some were electrocuted but most drowned, the government said.
Twenty-three others also died in neighboring Banten and West Java provinces last week, said National Disaster Management Coordination Board deputy chief Tabrani, who goes by one name.
At the peak, officials said about half of Jakarta was covered by up to 12 feet of water. Hundreds of square miles of land, mostly rice fields, surrounding the city remained inundated.
Estimates of those made homeless in Jakarta topped out at more than 400,000 out of a population of 12 million. Rustam Pakaya, chief of the Health Ministry's crisis center, said about 140,000 people returned to their homes Saturday.
High water levels had prevented sanitation officials from picking up the garbage that piled up in the streets of some densely packed low-income areas, mixing with the black water during overnight rain.
That has intensified fears about diseases, with the government saying three people have contracted leptospirosis, a potentially fatal disease borne by water contaminated by rat urine. So far no cases of tetanus or other serious waterborne disease have been reported.
Fire-trucks will be deployed Sunday to spray disinfectant in hard-hit areas.
"Residents are complaining about the stench and flies," said Joko Triyanto, an official at the Jakarta Health Department, as hundreds of soldiers helped clean knee-deep mud from the streets, houses, schools and places of worship.
Indonesia is hit by deadly floods each year, and Jakarta is not immune. But this year's have been particularly bad, with some 100,000 homes, shops and businesses swamped in rich and poor areas alike.
The flooding in the capital has caused an estimated $460 million in damage. President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono this week promised to seek more funds from the state budget to cover the cost of trying to prevent similar events in the capital in the future.
More rains hit flood-stricken Indonesian capitalJAKARTA, Feb 8 (Reuters) - More heavy rains struck Indonesia's capital on Thursday, hampering clean-up efforts and piling on misery for hundreds of thousands of people camping under make-shift shelters after days of floods.
However, an official at the Jakarta Flood Crisis centre said the latest flooding was less widespread than in the past week.
The official, Kartawi, added that water levels at sluice gates controlling flows into the largely flat, low-lying city had returned to normal in all cases but one.
The death toll from the floods, Jakarta's worst for at least five years, remained at about 50, the official said, with around 230,000 still displaced.
In the Prumtung cemetery in east Jakarta, hundreds of people were living under tents made of plastic next to gravestones after their homes were flooded, relying on food handouts.
"I've already been here for seven days with four children," said Kusmiah, who uses just one name.
With so many displaced since the floods started late last week, there are concerns about disease and sanitation in the city and its suburbs, home to an estimated 14 million people.
President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono pledged to maintain supplies of food and medicine to those affected.
"The overall situation is improving, even though we still expect that the rain will return in Jakarta," he told a news conference.
The heavy overnight rains largely subsided in the capital on Thursday, but the meteorology agency said there could be more rains in the next few days.
Officials and green groups have blamed excessive construction in Jakarta's water catchment areas for making the floods worse.
DESPERATE TO GO HOME
In Kampung Melayu, one of the worst-hit areas, the floods had receded despite the latest rain, although water remained more than 1 metre (3 ft) deep in some places, an official said.
"I still worry that the house floods whenever it rains," resident Saniah told Reuters Television, as she tried to clean her kitchen utensils in water collected after recent rain.
The previous flood disaster in 2002 saw widespread looting, but National Police Chief General Sutanto said there had been no repeat this time and he had dispatched 14,000 police officers to flood-hit areas, Antara news agency reported.
Officials have also been on alert for disease outbreaks. So far, people mainly appear to have been suffering diarrhoea, respiratory infections and skin diseases.
Losses at manufacturing firms in Jakarta could top 1 trillion rupiah ($110.7 million) due to the floods, Sofyan Wanandi of the Indonesian Employers Association told the Jakarta Post newspaper.
Insurance firms may face claims of over $200 million from the floods as the damage is seen to be worse than from floods in the city in 2002, a top industry official said.
"Around 75 percent of the claims may come from insurance policies for commercial buildings like hotels, shopping centres, malls, banks or factories," Frans Sahusilawane, the head of the association of Indonesian non-life insurance firms (AAUI) said.
Bambang Trisulo, the head of Indonesia's Automotive Industry Association, said the floods were delaying output and distribution, although the impact should be short-term.
Most of Indonesia's auto makers have their factories in greater Jakarta area.
Mozambique PM issues flood warning amid evacuation appealMAPUTO (AFP) - Mozambican Prime Minister Luisa Diogo has warned that torrential rains could wreak more havoc than heavy floods in 2001 when nearly 1,000 people died, as authorities urged people to start evacuating.
"It's really a dramatic situation and there is a possibility of emergency," Diogo told reporters in Maputo, adding that the swelling waters of the Zambezi river in the centre of the country were of particular concern.
"If the Zambezi river continues growing, the situation can be worse than in 2001. Because, as opposed to 2001, the situation is happening when the rainy season is not yet at its peak."
Incessant downpours have lashed Mozambique since the start of the year, claiming 29 lives, flooding vast swathes of the coastal nation and rendering more than 46,000 homeless.
Authorities in the central town of Tete, bearing the brunt of the flash floods, urged people living along the banks of the Zambezi to leave their homes but the call went largely unheeded, residents told AFP by telephone Thursday.
Meanwhile, the National Water Directorate said the water levels on the Zambezi were flowing above the danger level, forcing the management of the giant Cahora Bassa dam to increase the outflow of water to prevent the dam from bursting.
Cahora Bassa, built during Portuguese colonial rule, is one of Africa's largest hydroelectric projects.
Located on the Zambezi River, the dam has created a 2,000-square-kilometre (800-square-mile) artifical lake which stretches to the point where the borders of Mozambique, Zambia and Zimbabwe converge. It produces some 2,000 megawatts of power annually.
The national water directorate said the dam's management had started discharging more than 6,000 litres of water per minute from Wednesday, which is higher than the level of discharge during the devastating 2001 floods.
According to the National Institute of Calamities Management, 29 people have died thus far in flash flooding or from electrocution and about 46,500 people have seen their homes washed away.
Amarildo Romao, a 31-year-old journalist living in flood-washed Tete, told AFP: "The situation is very dramatic.
"It is not raining in town but there is a lot of rain coming from Zumbo," the area where the Zambezi enters Mozambique from Zambia and Zimbabwe.
"The downtown hotels are all flooded ... The wine, oil and soap factories are also partially flooded."
"People who live on islands on the Zambezi have all moved away. Their houses are also flooded."
The upper sections of Tete, where most of the residential areas are located, have been largely untouched by the rising waters.
Prime Minister Diogo meanwhile underlined that the impoverished country, which is emerging from the ashes of a 16-year civil war which ended in 1992, was better prepared to tackle floods this time around.
"There is a huge difference. In 2001, our early warning systems were not working so well. There has been a vast improvement," she said, adding the top priority for the government would be the evacuation of those living on the banks of the river.
The prime minister however said it was too early to launch a call for international help or declare a natural disaster.
Travel chaos as heavy snow hits UKLONDON, England (Reuters) -- Britain was hit by travel chaos on Thursday as much of the country was covered by a thick blanket of snow at the height of the morning rush-hour.
Hundreds of schools were closed and there were delays on trains, planes and roads.
Runways at Gatwick, Birmingham, Bristol, Cardiff, Luton and Stansted were closed for part of the morning while workers cleared the snow.
"Nearly 100 flights were cancelled," a Stansted spokeswoman said. "The runway has reopened but there is going to be a knock-on effect."
A Luton airport spokesman said there would be no departures until 12:30 p.m. or arrivals until 1:30 p.m. Passengers should check with their airline before setting off.
At Heathrow, 86 flights were cancelled, although the airport and its runways remained opened. Many flights were cancelled at London City Airport.
There were also cancellations and delays at Glasgow, Edinburgh and Aberdeen airports.
The Met Office said many areas will receive 5 to 10 cm (2 to 4 inches) of snow, although the wintry showers will ease during the day.
The Highways Agency (HA) warned drivers to check weather forecasts and road conditions before setting out.
"If the weather is severe, don't travel unless your journey is essential," the HA said.
The agency had put 400 salt-spreading vehicles on standby and all England's motorways and major roads were treated before the snow arrived.
Birmingham City Council said all its schools were closed due to the travel disruption. Dozens more were shut in Bristol, Cheshire, Gloucestershire, Somerset and Staffordshire.
Network Rail said the disruption was "minimal", although there were cancellations and delays across the southeast and on services run by Virgin West Coast, Virgin Cross Country, Chiltern and Central Trains.
Eurostar trains were unaffected by the weather, a spokesman said.
But there were severe delays and closures across the London Underground system. The Bakerloo, Jubilee and Metropolitan lines were among the worst affected.
The snow will peter out during the afternoon on Thursday but temperatures will plummet overnight to as low as minus 4 degrees Celsius (24 Fahrenheit), bringing the risk of icy roads and freezing fog, the Met Office said.
