Winter's biggest snowstorm chills Valentine's Day in US

WASHINGTON (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 tornado

NEW 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 crisis

CAIA, 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.