CHARLOTTE, NC vs FLORENCE - EXTREME FLOODING THIS WEEKEND (RED CROSS & FEMA)

CHARLOTTE, NC vs HURRICANE FLORENCE - RISK OF EXTREME FLOODING THIS WEEKEND:

EMERGENCY SHELTERS & MEALS FOR EVACUEES, ELDERLY/ DISABLED (RED CROSS & FEMA).

FLORENCE DOWNGRADES TO CATEGORY 2 BUT STILL VERY DANGEROUS.

PREPARE & CONTINUE TO PRAY (PSALM 91).


Post Sources: Charlotte Observer, Fox News, Youtube


***** Charlotte at ‘extreme’ risk for flooding this weekend


Friday, 8:35 a.m. There’s little deviation in the National Hurricane Center’s 8 a.m. track for Florence, which shows the storm is expected to move south and west across South Carolina through Saturday before turning north and west into North Carolina.

The storm is expected to cross the Columbia, S.C. region on Saturday. Charlotte is in line for 10 to 15 inches of rain and potential tropical storm-force winds, the National Hurricane Center predicts.

Friday, 8 a.m.

The National Weather Service’s Greer, S.C. office is predicting Charlotte will receive a massive deluge this weekend as Florence moves inland. That’s elevated the risk for flooding to “extreme” in Charlotte and the surrounding counties for Saturday and Sunday.

A flash flood watch will be in effect this weekend for most of the region. The Charlotte area could receive a foot or more of rain, the weather service is predicting.

Florence’s 5 a.m. track from the National Hurricane Center shows the storm moving across Columbia, S.C. on Saturday afternoon, before turning northwest and heading for North Carolina. That would bring it near the Charlotte region as a tropical storm or tropical depression, dumping heavy rain before moving into Tennessee and Virginia early Monday.

Florence drops to Cat 1, but still ‘life-threatening’

Thursday, 11 p.m.: Florence was downgraded to a Category 1 hurricane but was delivering “life-threatening storm surge” along the NC coast, the National Hurricane Center said in an advisory. Florence had 90 mph winds, and the “threat of freshwater flooding will increase” in the days ahead, according to the advisory. The storm was about 60 miles east of Wilmington.

Islamic Center opens doors to evacuees

Thursday, 9:24 p.m.: The Islamic Center of Charlotte, 1700 Progress Lane, tweeted that it is partnering with United Muslim Relief to provide fresh water and basic aid packs to evacuees and is “opening our doors as a shelter ... to help those in need.“

Charlotte braces for more rain than expected

Thursday, 8:21 p.m.: Charlotte’s airport can expect 10.83 inches of rain during Florence, according to the latest projected rainfall totals from the National Weather Service office in Greer, S.C. That’s up significantly from Wednesday’s NWS estimate of 6.3 inches.

Areas to the south and east of Charlotte could see even more rain and flooding — 14.5 inches in Monroe, 13.67 inches in Concord, 14.7 inches in Albemarle and 18.46 inches in Anson County, said meteorologist Doug Outlaw of the National Weather Service in Greer, S.C.

Higher amounts also are forecast for cities to the west of Charlotte, with Gastonia at 9.64 inches, Lincolnton 8.78 inches and Shelby 6.8 inches.

The mountains should see far smaller amounts, according to Outlaw, with only 3.54 inches anticipated in Asheville.

Government offices to close at noon Friday

Thursday, 5:03 p.m.: City of Charlotte and Mecklenburg County government offices will close at noon Friday ahead of the storm, the city and county announced in a joint news release.

CharMeck 311 and 911 emergency services will remain active. CharMeck 311 will operate from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Friday, Saturday and Sunday.

Storm emergency updates: http://charlottenc.gov/emergency/Pages/default.aspx .

Volunteers respond to call to deliver meals to shut-ins

Thursday, 4:52 p.m.: Friendship Trays, the nonprofit that provides meals for shut-ins, the elderly and people who can’t cook for themselves, was overwhelmed with help Thursday after putting out word on social media that they needed volunteer drivers, said executive director Lucy Carter Bush. So many people stepped up, they couldn’t answer all the messages.

“It was wild,” she said. “We got what we needed and then some.”

Friendship Trays was delivering both meals and emergency packs with canned goods, to make sure their clients could get through the weekend.

Monday is still up in the air, Bush said. Since no one knows how conditions will develop over the weekend, she doesn’t yet know if they’ll be able to make deliveries. If they can, they will need more volunteers, she said.

They’ll post updates on the website, www.friendships.org, and through a recording on their phone line, 704-333-9229.

Mecklenburg County jail inmates allowed free calls

Thursday, 4:33 p.m.: Sheriff Irwin Carmichael approved a request from Global Tel Link Inc. to offer inmates two free 5-minute phone calls per day Thursday through Saturday.

“We know how important it is to get reassurances from loved ones that they are taking the necessary steps to prepare,” the sheriff’s office said in a news release.

Plenty of space at Red Cross shelters

Thursday, 4 p.m.: The Observer visited each of the Charlotte area’s five Red Cross shelters on Thursday, and all five had plenty of space available.

The busiest, at East Mecklenburg High School, had only about a quarter of its beds occupied at midday. Several shelters were almost empty Thursday.

All of the shelters accept pets, and by 4 p.m. Thursday, the North Mecklenburg High shelter was housing two dogs, two cats and a bearded dragon.

Islamic Center opens doors to evacuees

Thursday, 9:24 p.m.: The Islamic Center of Charlotte, 1700 Progress Lane, tweeted that it is partnering with United Muslim Relief to provide fresh water and basic aid packs to evacuees and is “opening our doors as a shelter ... to help those in need.“

CharMeck 311 and 911 emergency services will remain active. CharMeck 311 will operate from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Friday, Saturday and Sunday.

Storm emergency updates: http://charlottenc.gov/emergency/Pages/default.aspx .

HURRICANE FLORENCE ENCOURAGES MASS EXODUS TO SAFETY (EVACUATIONS)

HURRICANE FLORENCE ENCOURAGES MASS EXODUS TO SAFETY (EVACUATIONS):

MORE THAN ONE MILLION EVACUATIONS ORDERED BY SEVERAL GOVERNORS.

PREPARE AND PRAY - PSALM 91.


"9 Because you have made the Lord your refuge, and the Most High your dwelling place,
10 There shall no evil befall you, nor any plague or calamity come near your tent.
11 For He will give His angels [especial] charge over you to accompany and defend and preserve you in all your ways [of obedience and service].
12 They shall bear you up on their hands, lest you dash your foot against a stone.
13 You shall tread upon the lion and adder; the young lion and the serpent shall you trample underfoot.
14 Because he has set his love upon Me, therefore will I deliver him; I will set him on high, because he knows and understands My name [has a personal knowledge of My mercy, love, and kindness—trusts and relies on Me, knowing I will never forsake him, no, never].
15 He shall call upon Me, and I will answer him; I will be with him in trouble, I will deliver him and honor him.
16 With long life will I satisfy him and show him My salvation."


Post Sources: NY Times, CBS News, Youtube


**** Hurricane Florence Threatens Carolinas; 1 Million Ordered to Evacuate


With Hurricane Florence swiftly gaining strength and bearing down on the Southeast, Gov. Henry McMaster of South Carolina on Monday ordered more than a million people living in eight coastal counties to evacuate inland.

“We do not want to risk one South Carolina life in this hurricane,” the governor said at a news conference Monday afternoon.

Evacuations were also ordered in parts of North Carolina as the region braced for a major destructive hurricane projected to make landfall late Thursday or Friday, with damaging winds, torrential rains and a potentially destructive storm surge.

The South Carolina evacuation order takes effect at noon Tuesday. Governor McMaster said that lanes of two major divided highways — Interstate 26 and U.S. 501 — would be reversed to make the roads one-way, carrying traffic only away from the coast, and that two others may also be reversed if needed. Schools and state offices in about half the state would be closed starting on Tuesday, the governor said.

Hurricane Florence swiftly strengthened into a major storm on Monday as it churned across the Atlantic Ocean toward the coast of the Carolinas. By 5 p.m. Eastern Time, the storm had maximum sustained winds of 140 miles an hour with higher gusts, according to the National Hurricane Center, and “further strengthening is anticipated.”

The center upgraded the storm at noon to Category 4 on the Saffir-Simpson scale of intensity, only an hour after upgrading it to Category 3.

Forecasting models show the hurricane headed for a landfall somewhere near the border of North Carolina and South Carolina. Destructive winds extending as far as 150 miles in all directions from the storm’s center may be felt on shore as soon as Wednesday night.

President Trump, who was criticized for his response to the crisis in Puerto Rico after Hurricane Maria last year, signaled that he was on top of this storm in a pair of tweets on Monday.

In coastal Dare County, N.C., the local emergency management agency announced a mandatory evacuation order that took effect Monday at noon, for all residents and visitors on Hatteras Island, the long, slender barrier island off the North Carolina coast.

A similar order will go into effect Tuesday for other nearby communities, including Kitty Hawk, Kill Devil Hills, Nags Head, Roanoke Island, Duck, Manteo, Southern Shores and the mainland portion of Dare County, according to a statement from the county.

Social media users reported that stores in both states were being bought out of bottled water and other supplies as residents prepared for the storm.

The hurricane center warned that in addition to damaging winds, the “extremely dangerous” storm posed two kinds of flooding threats — a storm surge of salt water along the coast, and freshwater flooding inland from very heavy rains — as well as dangerous surf and riptides along much of the Eastern Seaboard.

HAWAII VOLCANO ERUPTIONS & EVACUATIONS INCREASE (PRAY)

HAWAII VOLCANO ERUPTIONS & EVACUATIONS INCREASE:

PARADISE IS BURNING.

MANY MEMBERS OF THE U.S. MILITARY RESIDE IN HAWAII.

MORE EVACUATIONS ORDERED.

PRES TRUMP DECLARES MAJOR DISASTER.

PRAY FOR THE PEOPLE OF HAWAII.


Post Sources: CBS News, Fox News, Youtube


***** Hawaii volcano spurs new evacuations on Big Island after lava fissure reported


Officials ordered more evacuations on Sunday for residents on Hawaii’s Big Island after a new lava fissure threatened to send bright orange lava spewing onto major highways and roads.

An 18th fissure caused by the Kilaueau volcano, that first erupted more than a week ago, was reported early Sunday morning, releasing steam and lava spatter west of Highway 132 along Hale Kamahina Loop Road in lower Puna, Hawaii County Civil Defense said. Residents living along that road have been ordered to evacuate.

Two community centers have been opened to shelter people and pets.

Hawaii officials have been on edge throughout the weekend as they monitored reports of two new breakouts around Leilani Estates that could prompt thousands more to evacuate in an instant. The region saw a two-day reprieve from volcanic activity, giving some residents hope until the three new weekend fissures.

The 16th fissure reported on Saturday broke out about a miles east of the Puna Geothermal Venture plant. The 17th one opened about 109 yards below.

A portion of Highway 132, between the “Y” interchange turning into Pohoiki Road and Four Corners, was shut down on Sunday, Hawaii News Now reported. Cracks along the highway have worsened in the last few days, with authorities fearing a 19th fissure can form. Residents have said they fear getting cut off when, not if, the major roadway gets shut down.

"I think everybody recognizes that the lava outbreak is purely unpredictable," resident David Ellis told Hawaii News Now. "I think our greatest danger is being cut off when Highway 132 is closed, and that should be soon, from everything that I hear."

"We assume the worst, and hope for the best," Ellis added.

Tina Neal, USGS scientist-in-charge at the Hawaiian Volcano Observatory, said the volcano is still “highly active.” The volcano could spew out “hotter, fresher” magma, destroying everything in its path. At least 36 structures, including 27 homes, have been destroyed since the eruptions began. The lave has covered more than 17 acres of land.

"The situation remains unstable. Additional outbreaks of lava are likely."

The new developments over the weekend also prompted the U.S. Geological Survey to warn of possible more disaster to come. Experts are eyeing volcanic peaks on America’s West Coast, part of the geologically active Pacific “Ring of Fire.”

The West Coast is home to an 800-mile chain of 13 volcanoes, from Washington state's Mount Baker to California's Lassen Peak. They include Mount St. Helens, whose spectacular 1980 eruption in the Pacific Northwest killed dozens of people and sent volcanic ash across the country, and massive Mount Rainier, which towers above the Seattle metro area.

"There's lots of anxiety out there," said Liz Westby, geologist at the U.S. Geological Survey Cascades Volcano Observatory in Vancouver, Wash. "They see destruction, and people get nervous."

Hawaii’s Kilauea volcano is threatening to blow its top in the coming days or weeks. Scientists say there’s not definitive answer on when the volcanic activity will end.

Geologists warn that Kilauea's summit could have an explosive steam eruption that would hurl rocks and ash miles into the sky.

Northeast Better Prepared For Hurricane Irene Than South: Focused On People NOT Race!

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New York Wakes to Hurricane Irene

Hurricane Irene made its second landfall, this one early Sunday in southern New Jersey, as the storm continued its relentless push toward New York City.

Though the storm weakened as it moved up the Eastern Seaboard, it continued to funnel storm surge and floodwater to the Jersey Shore overnight, where the National Hurricane Center said the center of the storm crossed over land near Little Egg Inlet, north of Atlantic City, around 5:35 a.m. The storm’s maximum sustained winds are estimated to be 75 miles per hour, making it a weak category one hurricane.

The hurricane first came ashore Saturday morning near Cape Lookout, N.C., then slipped back over water farther north near Virginia and Maryland before hitting land again in New Jersey.

New York was the next major city in the hurricane’s path, and for much of the night, the metropolitian area was pounded with heavy rain and wind, causing power failures and flooding.

While New York had all but closed down in anticipation of what forecasters warned could be violent winds with the force to drive a wall of water over the beaches in the Rockaways and between the skyscrapers of Lower Manhattan, as of early Sunday morning, all bridges and tunnels remained open, with the exception of the lower level of the George Washington Bridge because of high winds, said Steve Coleman, a spokesman for the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey.

Forecasters said the relentless rain from the slow-moving storm made it very dangerous.

“Even though they are saying that the storm is quote-unquote weakening, hurricane winds are hurricane winds,” John Searing, the deputy commissioner of the Suffolk County Department of Fire, Rescue and Emergency Services, said before daybreak Sunday as he prepared to deal with the damage. “Whether they say it’s 80 miles or 75 miles an hour, what’s the physical difference in that?”

City officials warned that a big problem could be flooding at high tide, at about 8 a.m. Sunday — before the storm has moved on and the wind has slacked off. The storm is expected to pass through by Sunday afternoon, moving into southern New England.

“That is when you’ll see the water come over the side,” Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg cautioned Saturday afternoon.

The National Hurricane Center warned that “water levels have been rising rapidly in advance of the center of Irene.” At 5 a.m., the center reported a storm surge of 3.1 feet at Cape May, N.J., 3.8 feet in Sandy Hook, N.J., and 3.9 feet in New York Harbor.

On the Jackie Robinson Parkway, three feet of water blocked all lanes, state and city officials reported. Floodwaters diverted traffic on the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge and shut the southbound F.D.R. drive at 116th Street. The Union Turnpike ramp on the Grand Central Parkway was shut, and on the Cross Bronx Expressway, the rising waters blocked the exit at White Plains Road.

Hundreds of thousands of homes and businesses in the New York area had lost electricity by early Sunday morning — 150,338 on Long Island, according to the Long Island Power Authority, which shut power to Fire Island, Captree Island, Robert Moses, and Oak Island; 166,000 in New Jersey, according to Public Service Electric and Gas; and about 57,992 in the city and in Westchester County, according to Consolidated Edison. Of those, more than 8,400 were on Staten Island, according to utility’s Web site, and about 5,000 in Queens and Brooklyn.

Utilities in Connecticut reported about 70,000 customers are without power, according to The Associated Press. The Connecticut Light and Power Company reported nearly 60,000 customers were without power early Sunday, and United Illuminating, which serves the Bridgeport and New Haven area, reported 10,000 customers.

“The number of outages continues to climb as Hurricane Irene moves north,” the New Jersey utility said in a statement on its Web site.

Since Friday, the city had done more than issue warnings. The subway system, one of the city’s trademarks, had shut down in the middle of the day on Saturday, and firefighters and social service workers had spent much of Saturday trying to complete the evacuation of about 370,000 residents in low-lying areas where officials expected flooding to follow the storm. In New Jersey, Gov. Chris Christie said that more than a million people had been evacuated, mainly from four counties in the southern part of the state.

The storm, a wide and relentless mass that had had lurched onto the Outer Banks of North Carolina in the early daylight hours of Saturday, heaved clumsily but implacably north, leaving in its wake at least nine deaths. After crawling slowly from North Carolina into Virginia, the storm weaved out to sea and onto a path that forecasters said would take it to Long Island and New York City.

The storm was a spinning kaleidoscope of weather, sometimes pounding windows with rain, sometimes flashing the sky with lightning, sometimes blacking out the horizon with ominous, low-riding clouds. As the hurricane moved up the East Coast, tornado watches had moved right along with it, and that lockstep continued as the storm closed in on the New York area: early Sunday, the National Weather Service announced a tornado watch for the city, along with Westchester, Suffolk, Nassau and Rockland Counties. “It’s actually common when we have these tropical systems,” said Brian Ceimnecki, a meteorologist with the Weather Service.

The Nassau County executive, Edward P. Mangano, said that “thousands” of people were spending the night in county facilities, including Nassau County Community College. He asked people in areas that were in danger to stay with friends or relatives, if possible.

The city opened 78 emergency shelters that could take in 70,000 people. But officials said that only 8,700 had arrived by 11 p.m. on Saturday. The only other statistics available pointed to the difficulty of getting people to abide by the mayor’s mandatory evacuation order in what the city calls Zone A low-lying areas: The mayor had said several hours earlier that 80 percent of the residents in some city-run buildings — but only 50 percent in others — had left.

Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo ordered 2,000 National Guard troops called up. Mr. Cuomo saw the first of them off from the 69th Regiment Armory, on Lexington Avenue at 26th Street, after saying they would assist the police, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority and the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. He also said that some would be sent to Long Island, which could face heavy damage in the storm.

Mr. Christie said 1,500 National Guard troops had been deployed in New Jersey.

The mayor attributed one casualty to the storm, a 66-year-old man who fell from a ladder while trying to board up windows at his house in Jamaica, Queens, early in the day. A Fire Department spokesman said the man, who was not immediately identified, was in serious condition at Jamaica Hospital Medical Center.

The mayor said police rescuers had pulled two kayakers from the water off Staten Island after their boats capsized. “When they were out there in spite of all the warnings, I don’t know,” the mayor said at his late-evening briefing, adding that they had been “kept afloat by lifejackets” they were wearing. He said they had been given summonses.

He also said that going out in the water as the storm approached was a “reckless” move that had “diverted badly-needed N.Y.P.D. resources.”

Mr. Bloomberg said the transit system was “unlikely to be back” in service on Monday. He said crews would have to pump water from tunnels if they flooded and restore the signal system before they could move the parked trains out. That would mean “the equipment’s not where you would want it” for the morning rush, he said. “Plan on a commute without mass transit on Monday morning.”

Mr. Bloomberg also said electricity could be knocked out in Lower Manhattan if Consolidated Edison shut off the power to pre-empt the problems that flooding could cause for its cables. (A Con Ed spokesman said later that the company, while prepared, had no immediate plans for that kind of shutdown.)


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Sources: AP, Meet The Press, MSNBC, NY Times, Youtube, Google Maps

New York Outsmarts/ Beats Irene! Bloomberg's Great Planning! 18 Deaths Thus Far

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Irene fails to wow New Yorkers

Tropical Storm Irene's swipe at the Big Apple proved Sunday that New Yorkers can be a tough crowd to impress.

"I slept through the whole thing," said James Trager, a writer who watched nature's display of fury as it took place outside the windows of his apartment in Midtown and gave a tepid review: "Nothing. It's exaggerated."

"I think we're all surprised how relatively quickly the storm blew through here and the rain stopped," said Steve Kastenbaum, a national correspondent for CNN radio, who watched the storm from the comfort of his apartment in the Boerum Hill section of Brooklyn.

He said he saw lots of local street flooding and branches in the streets, but few uprooted trees; during the height of the storm, people were walking on the street. "I even saw one or two folks taking a jog," he said. "I kid you not. Pretty typical for Brooklyn. They're not going to let anybody get in their way."

While the initial effects of the storm were less harsh than anticipated, officials said they were still concerned about flooding from heavy rains that could affect electrical systems and other infrastructure that is largely underground in New York.

Gov. Andrew Cuomo said it was not yet clear when subways, Metro North trains and Long Island Railroad lines would reopen. "The conditions are still too dangerous. We can't put people on bridges; we can't put people in tunnels," he told CNN affiliate WCBS. "Once we get a full assessment, we will give people an idea of when the system will come online."

He praised New Yorkers for taking the storm in stride. "When we have our darkest hours, New Yorkers shine their brightest, and I think this is one of those times."

But the possibility of worse occurring away from the shore was weighing on National Hurricane Center Director Bill Read. "The biggest concern, now that (Irene's) gone inland, is heavy rain, flash floods" and wind damage, he told CNN. Once inland, hurricanes "start falling apart pretty fast," he said. "Eventually, it will exit out into Canada."

"Overall, I think we've gotten through this," Joseph Bruno, commissioner of emergency management for the city, told reporters in Brooklyn, where the skies were bright. He said the hardest-hit areas were from Coney Island in Brooklyn to the Rockaway area of Queens. "We have 50,000 people without power. That's pretty good in a city of this size. So, we did well, but we prepared well, also."

"Nothing really that bad happened," said Sarah Sargenti, who spent Saturday night in a friend's walkup apartment in Soho rather than risk getting stuck without elevator service in her 23rd-floor apartment near the financial district. "A lot of wind and rain."

Lt. Gen. Russel Honore, a CNN contributor who was involved in a leadership role in the recovery efforts in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina hit in 2005, described Sunday's hurricane as a six out of 10, with 10 representing Katrina.

About 30 miles north of the city, in Westchester County's Sleepy Hollow, near the Tappan Zee Bridge over the Hudson, Tom Sobolik was out early Sunday at the Philipse Manor Beach Club.

Though the bridge was shut to traffic, "the boats here are all fine," the photographer said. "Nobody had any problem."

On Saturday night, he attended a hurricane party in his neighborhood to discuss the brewing storm. "Everybody just went over how they prepared and how it was going to be a waste," he said. "It turned out to be largely true. The media blew this all out of proportion."

It did not flood the 9/11 memorial site in Manhattan, as many had worried it might.

Still, the storm left quite a wake -- sending water from the East River and the Hudson River over their banks for a brief period on Sunday morning and into New York City.

The water also led officials to close for a brief time the north tube of the Holland Tunnel, from Lower Manhattan to New Jersey.

Earlier, authorities had halted public transportation, closed bridges and tunnels and buttoned up ports, essentially locking down the city of more than 8 million people as Hurricane Irene began to lash the city with wind and rain.

And New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg urged some 370,000 people to evacuate their residences in low-lying areas.

In the Long Island community of Long Beach, massive berms were breached by 8 a.m., with water pushing northward into town. The water yanked a lifeguard building from its foundation on the beach and streets were flooded.

Bloomberg ordered evacuations for Long Beach Island, including Atlantic Beach, Lido Beach and Point Lookout.

The mandatory evacuations, which also affected parts of Manhattan, Queens, Brooklyn, the Bronx and Staten Island, were a first in the city's history, he said.

CNN iReporter and Queens resident Anne Egan, who was watching events unfold from her house three doors down from the beach wall, said she disregarded the evacuation order because she was afraid of looters. "You can see the waves breaking on (the beach wall)," she said. "I was a little panicked approaching high tide, which was about 7:30 a.m. But now that the peak of high tide has passed us, I'm not as nervous. The waves are just huge out there."

More than 905,334 people were without power in New York early Sunday afternoon, authorities said.

In Brooklyn, Seunh Hong watched in despair as the water in his shop's basement rose to his knees.

"Way worse than I'd expected," he said. "It is absolutely horrible. Afterwards we have to spend lot of time and money, (and) energy for fixing them up."

Many in New York began preparing days ago for the arrival of Irene, stocking up on essentials.

By late Saturday, most stores, restaurants and bars were closed.

The bread shelves were bare early Sunday at the Associated Supermarket on Manhattan's Upper West Side, according to Aaron Herman, who said more than 1,000 people had stopped in Saturday to buy the "essentials."

By then, the streets were largely deserted. "For a city that never sleeps, it's clearly taking a nap," Herman said.




Irene charges into New England, NYC escapes worst



Irene charged into New England on Sunday as it weakened to a tropical storm after racing across a shuttered New York City and leaving behind a stunned U.S. East coast where at least 18 people died, severe flooding was widespread and 4 million homes and businesses lost power.

As waves continued pounding the Connecticut shore east of America's biggest city, New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg lifted the evacuation order for residents in low-lying areas.

New England residents were now feeling the brunt of the diminished but still-dangerous storm, which will cause flooding and winds that could topple many towering trees anchored in soil already saturated by earlier heavy rains. The storm was centered about 65 miles south of Rutland, Vermont at about 5 p.m. EDT, and it was moving north-northeast at about 26 mph.

Forecasters expect it to reach Canada later Sunday or early Monday. Irene, while diminished in strength, was still massive and powerful, carrying sustained winds of 50 mph after its long journey up the East Coast, where it dropped a foot of rain on North Carolina and Virginia. The National Hurricane Center downgraded the storm after its winds fell below 74 mph, the threshold for a hurricane.

As the eye of the sprawling storm blew through America's largest city and Long Island to the east, it pushed an 8-foot Atlantic storm surge toward New York and sent salty floodwater flowing into lower Manhattan.

As of 10:30 a.m., more than 900,000 homes and businesses in New York state were without power, authorities said.

Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said President Barack Obama was briefed Sunday morning and instructed administration officials to continue to be aggressive in their efforts to deal with the storm and its aftermath. Napolitano said the worst of the storm has passed for most areas, but she cautioned communities still in Irene's path should continue to be vigilant even though the storm had weakened.

She told a news conference that pre-storm preparations dramatically reduced the loss of life but warned that river flooding across the eastern seaboard continued to pose hazards for the public.

65 million people affected

Forecasters said early Sunday that Irene was moving to the north-northeast at 26 mph as it pushed into New England. Officials also warned that isolated tornadoes were possible in the northeast.

The huge storm had threatened 65 million people up and down the Atlantic coast, estimated as the largest number of Americans ever affected by a single storm.

The 18 deaths related to Irene included two children, an 11-year-old boy in Virginia killed when a tree crashed into his home and a North Carolina child who died in a car crash at an intersection where traffic lights were out. Four other people were killed by falling trees or tree limbs — two in separate Virginia incidents, one in North Carolina and one in Maryland. A surfer and another beach-goer in Florida were killed in heavy waves.

The latest fatalities were reported in Pennsylvania.

In Vermont a woman was swept away by the Deerfield River, and is presumed dead, though no body has been found, according to the Burlington Free Press.

A New Jersey firefighter was in critical condition after injuries sustained when he was attempting a water rescue. New Jersey's Gov. Christie stated at a press briefing that the first responder had died. His office said later that the governor had received erroneous information.

Recovery mode

New York City was eerily quiet. In a city where many people don't own cars, the population stayed indoors. The entire transit system was shut down because of weather for the first time ever. All of the city's airports were closed. Broadway shows, baseball games and other events were all canceled or postponed.

But in a briefing Sunday afternoon, Mayor Michael Bloomberg indicated that the city was moving into recovery mode.

He said there were no known deaths or injuries caused by Irene in New York City.

"The good news is the worst is over," Bloomberg said.

"As we anticipated, the storm surge has caused serious flooding across the five boroughs, including here in Lower Manhattan, where the East and Hudson Rivers are flowing over their banks and into the parks and low-lying streets at the water's edge," said Bloomberg. "We did have substantial erosion at the Staten Island beaches and in the Rockaways, where the waves breached 94th Street between 127th and 132nd Streets."

He said the city government would reopen on Monday, despite some damage to city government buildings. The stock exchange and other financial institutions are slated to reopen on time Monday morning as well.

For many people, however, getting to work would remain a problem until the subway and other transit systems were back up and running.

Bloomberg praised the residents of New York for their cooperation in the face of the hurricane. Despite dire predictions, he said there were just 45 arrests overnight, compared to an average of 345 on a normal Saturday night in the city.

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie said in an interview on NBC's "Meet the Press" that the storm covered half of the state and 250 roads were closed due to flooding and downed trees.

Christie said he expects damages from Irene to be costly along the Atlantic coast and from inland river flooding.

"I've got to imagine that the damage estimates are going to be in the billions of dollars, if not in the tens of billions of dollars," Christie said.

Newspaper stands float down NYC streets

Briny water from New York Harbor submerged parts of a promenade at the base of Manhattan. A foot of water rushed over the wall of a marina in front of the New York Mercantile Exchange, where gold and oil are traded.

"You could see newspaper stands floating down the street," said Scott Baxter, a hotel doorman in the SoHo neighborhood.

As the center of the storm passed over Central Park at midmorning, floodwater reached the wheel wells of some stranded cars in Manhattan, and more streamed into the streets of Queens.

Still, the storm didn't come close to inflicting the kind of catastrophic damage that had been feared in the city. The Sept. 11 museum, a centerpiece of the rebuilding of the World Trade Center site, said on Twitter that none of its memorial trees were lost.

Forecasters had said there was a chance a storm surge on the fringes of Lower Manhattan along New York Harbor could send sea water streaming into the maze of underground vaults that hold the city's cables and pipes, knocking out power to thousands and crippling the city. Officials' feared water would slosh into Wall Street, the ground zero location of the former Twin Towers and the luxury high-rise apartments of Battery Park City.

Battery Park City in the extreme south of Manhattan island was virtually deserted as rain and gusty winds pummeled streets and whipped trees. Officials were bracing for a storm surge of several feet that could flood or submerge the Promenade along the Hudson River. On Wall Street, sandbags were placed around subway grates near the East River because of fear of flooding.

In Times Square, shops boarded up windows and sandbags were stacked outside of stores. Construction at the World Trade Center site came to a standstill.

Some cabs still on streets

While public transit was shut down, some taxi cabs could be found.

"I have to work. I would lose too much money," said cabbie Dwane Imame, who worked through the night. "There have been many people, I have been surprised. They are crazy to be out in this weather."

In New York City, 370,000 people had been ordered to move to safer ground, although they appeared in great numbers to have stayed put.

"It's nasty out there and wet," Cindy Darcy said from a 36-floor building facing the harbor. "We unplugged the drains, and we fastened anything loose or removed it." She was up early making bagels for the nine workers and 24 inhabitants who stayed in the building, which is in the evacuation zone.

New York has seen only a few hurricanes in the past 200 years. The Northeast is much more accustomed to snowstorms — including a blizzard last December, when Mayor Michael Bloomberg was criticized for a slow city response.

Irene made landfall just after dawn Saturday near Cape Lookout, North Carolina, at the southern end of the Outer Banks. Shorefront hotels and houses were lashed with waves, two piers were destroyed and at least one hospital was forced to run on generator power.

More than 10,000 flights have been canceled through Monday, according to FlightAware. That includes some 6,600 on Sunday alone. The number of airline passengers affected by the storm could easily be in the millions because so many flights make connections on the East Coast.

Amtrak, the nation's only long haul passenger rail service, canceled all Northeast trains for Sunday.

Irene caused flooding from North Carolina to Delaware, both from the 7-foot waves it pushed into the coast and from heavy rain.

More than one million of the homes and businesses without power were in Virginia and North Carolina, which bore the brunt of Irene's initial fury. Then the storm knocked out power overnight to hundreds of thousands in Washington, Maryland, Delaware, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, the New York City area and Connecticut.
Readers capture Hurricane Irene's approach

Irene was the first hurricane to make landfall in the continental United States since 2008, and came almost six years to the day after Katrina ravaged New Orleans and the Gulf Coast.

In New Jersey, the Oyster Creek nuclear plant, just a few miles from the coast, shut down as a precaution as Irene closed in. And Boston's transit authority said all bus, subway and commuter rail service were suspended Sunday.

NBC News reports that two homes had collapsed in Fairfield, Conn., according to Fairfield Police Dept. spokeswoman Suzanne Lussier.

There was an evacuation order put in place for this part of Connecticut but not all people heeded the orders and left, she said. Rescue teams were checking the homes for people.

In addition, there are currently 12,000 people without power in Fairfield alone and 70 people are in shelters

Federal Emergency Management Agency chief Craig Fugate told NBC's "Meet the Press" and other news shows on Sunday that people shouldn't underestimate the danger once Hurricane Irene passes.

Flooding, weakened trees and downed power lines pose a danger even after the storm moves north up the Atlantic Coast, Fugate said.

He urged not to drive around and sight see after the storm had passed through their areas. His advice: Stay inside, stay off the roads, and let the power crews do their job.


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Sources: CNN, MSNBC, Meet The Press, NY Daily News, Google Maps

Bloomberg Shuts Down Nation's Largest Mass Transit System For Irene; Evacuates Sick & Elderly

N.Y.C. to Shut Mass Transit for Storm

With Hurricane Irene pushing relentlessly toward the East Coast, officials made plans to shut down New York City’s sprawling subway and bus system beginning at noon on Saturday, Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo said.

The commuter rail lines that serve Long Island, Westchester County and Connecticut will also be shut down.

Officials decided to go ahead with the transit shutdown, which they had first mentioned on Thursday as a possibility at a City Hall briefing on Thursday, as the city was evacuating hospitals and nursing homes in low-lying areas. Sstate officials continued arrangements for coordinating emergency services and restoring electricity if the storm does the kind of damage many fear.

Some Atlantic City casinos made plans to stop rolling the dice and turn off the slot machines by 8 p.m. Friday. The naval submarine base in Groton, Conn., sent four submarines out to ride out the storm deep in the Atlantic Ocean. And Gov. Chris Christie of New Jersey said that all lanes of 28-mile stretch of a major highway in Ocean County would go in only one direction — westward — beginning at 6 p.m. on Friday to help speed the trip away from Long Beach Island.

Those preparations came as states of emergency remained in effect in New York, New Jersey and Connecticut. Homeowners scrambled to cover windows with plywood and boaters struggled to get their vessels away from docks.

In New York, apartment dwellers with balconies and terraces hauled in patio furniture and potted plants, and stores ran short on staples like batteries, flashlights and bottled water. In shore towns on Long Island and in New Jersey, vacationers waited in lines at gasoline stations and watched as emergency crews piled sandbags on low-lying beach roads.

The hurricane watch for the city was a formal indication that forecasters saw a potential threat within 24 to 36 hours. It was issued 14 hours after Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg said the city was ready with “evacuation contingencies” for low-lying places like Coney Island in Brooklyn, Battery Park City in Lower Manhattan and parts of Staten Island and the Rockaways in Queens — areas that are home to 250,000 people.

The mayor said Thursday that the city was ordering nursing homes and hospitals in those areas to evacuate residents and patients beginning at 8 a.m. Friday unless they receive special permission from state and city health officials, among them the city’s health commissioner, Dr. Thomas A. Farley, who, the mayor noted, was chairman of the community health sciences department at Tulane University when Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans in 2005.

The evacuation order covered 22 hospitals, nursing homes and other facilities for older people.

The city also ordered construction work halted until 7 a.m. Monday. With the worst of the storm expected on a weekend, a time when relatively few construction crews would normally be on the job, the Buildings Department said Friday that its inspectors were checking construction sites to see that equipment had been secured. The department said it would check over the weekend that builders complied with the no-work order.

Anticipation of the hurricane disrupted other rituals of late summer. New York University postponed its move-in day for undergraduates, which had been scheduled for Sunday, James Devitt, a university spokesman, said. Students will not be able to move into university housing until Monday.

Columbia University also shifted its move-in day from from Sunday to Monday and Tuesday, according to an e-mail from Brian Connolly, a university spokesman. He also said that campus events on Sunday and Monday, including a welcome reception and a convocation ceremony, had been cancelled and would be rescheduled.

At a City Hall briefing on Thursday evening, the mayor said the five hospitals in the low-lying areas were reducing their caseloads and canceling elective surgeries on Friday to be ready for emergencies over the weekend. One, Coney Island Hospital, is to begin moving patients to vacant beds in other parts of the city on Friday, he said.

Mr. Bloomberg said he would decide by Saturday morning whether to order a general evacuation of the low-lying areas.

He also said he was revoking permits for events in the city on Sunday and in the low-lying areas on Saturday. The Sunday cancellations apparently included a concert on Governors Island by the Dave Matthews Band. A statement on the band’s Web site said people with tickets for that show should attend the Friday or Saturday performance. But the Web site said to check for updates on Friday.

The mayor said 300 street fairs over the weekend “would have to be curtailed” to keep streets clear for hurricane-related transportation — ambulances carrying patients to nursing homes or hospitals on higher ground, buses and city-owned trucks moving to where they would be ready for duty once the hurricane had swept by.

Mr. Bloomberg said people should stay out of parks because high winds could bring down trees. “And incidentally,” he said, “it’s a good idea to stay out of your own backyard if you have trees there.”

The mayor cautioned that forecasts were not always accurate and that the hurricane, a sprawling storm still far away, could become weaker.

“We’re talking about something that is a long time away in meteorological terms,” he said, “so what we have to do is assume the worst, prepare for that, and hope for the best.”

That seemed to be the official mantra from South Jersey to coastal Connecticut on Thursday. In East Hampton, N.Y., crews removed sidewalk benches so they would not blow away if Hurricane Irene howled through. In Long Beach, N.Y., maintenance crews used a different kind of defensive maneuver, building up berms that they hoped would block the waves.

In New Jersey, Gov. Chris Christie told shore-area residents hoping to sit out the storm that “it is not the smart thing to do.” He said people who were thinking about a weekend along the coast should think again.

“Do not go,” he said.

Mr. Christie also urged people on barrier islands to leave. “Right now, I’m asking people to do this voluntarily,” he said. “I am actively considering a mandatory evacuation, but I’m not there yet.”

Officials elsewhere echoed his concern about areas closest to the Atlantic Ocean. On Long Island, the Islip town supervisor, Phil Nolan, called for a voluntary evacuation of Fire Island “to avoid a rush of people as the storm nears Long Island.”

Cape May County, N.J., went a step further, ordering everyone out. Evacuations of its barrier islands began on Thursday afternoon. People on the mainland were told to leave beginning at 8 a.m. on Friday, said Lenora Boninfante, the county communications director.

In the northern part of the state, the Jets-Giants game at MetLife Stadium was changed to 2 p.m. Saturday from 7 p.m. because of concerns about the weather.

Back in the city, Mr. Bloomberg, along with Joseph F. Bruno, the commissioner of the city’s Office of Emergency Management, instructed residents to take preliminary steps: stock up on basic supplies, identify an alternative place to sleep in the event of an evacuation and prepare a “go bag” of essentials to allow for a rapid departure, if necessary.

As for a transit shutdown, Jay H. Walder, the chairman of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, said his agency could not guarantee the safety of passengers if winds remained above 39 miles per hour for a sustained period. He said it could take up to eight hours to shut down the system, meaning that transit planners may have to make a judgment call on Saturday, well before the full force of the storm is felt.

And because it takes the agency several hours to restart trains and buses, a shutdown could last through early Monday, if not longer. “It’s hard to predict when it will come back,” Mr. Walder said, “because I can’t really predict for you exactly what will happen in the storm.”

In the event of a shutdown, Mr. Walder said, the transportation authority will aid in evacuation efforts.

Mr. Bloomberg warned New Yorkers to heed any evacuation call as quickly as possible, in case mass-transit options were unavailable.

Certain low-lying areas of the subway system are particularly susceptible to flooding, in Lower Manhattan and on exposed tracks in parts of Brooklyn. Overhead catenary cables, which provide power to commuter rail lines in the suburbs north and east of the city, can be knocked down by winds, and stations on elevated routes could be dangerous for the trains and for passengers waiting to catch them.

Still, against the drumbeat of plans and announcements from officials on Thursday, some all but disregarded the hurricane talk. Dave Merklin of Freeport, N.Y., said he was doing “practically nothing, because I’ve been through so many of these storms.”

“I’ve lived in this house for 40 years,” he said. “I wait until the storm is gone, and then I clean up the mess. I don’t do much in the way of preparation except make sure the doors are closed.”


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Sources: AP, CNN, Euronews, NY Times, Youtube, Google Maps

New York City Vs. Irene! Babylon Blinks & Bows To Historic Storm!

Hurricane models prepare New Yorkers for worst-case storm scenarios

New York City hasn't experienced a big hurricane since 1938 and if some of the current models are accurate the impact could be catastrophic.

A simulation done by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration shows what a Category 2 hurricane could do to a tunnel linking Brooklyn and Manhattan. Donald Cresitello with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers mapped out some worse-case scenarios.

"If a storm were to occur, it could be catastrophic, given the population density in the Northeast," Cresitello said.

National Hurricane Center computer models and comprehensive studies are chilling. If the worst-case scenarios come true, the impact could be devastating.

Water would be pushed into lower Manhattan, steadily rising. Seawater would pour through the Holland and Brooklyn Battery tunnels.

JFK airport would go under an astounding 20 feet of water. The famous Fulton Ferry boat landing in Brooklyn, a popular spot for young couples to take wedding pictures, could also end up under water. Wall Street could find itself in deep water - about 7 feet. The subway system could also be knocked out.

Coastal geologist Nick Coch, himself a New Yorker, says that a major hurricane could have catastrophic effects.

"Because the most dangerous thing in New York is the New Yorker," he said. "And the New Yorker thinks they've been tested by everything, but very few New Yorkers have been in the eye of a hurricane and know how uncontrollable the energy is."

For years, Coch has been sounding the alarm about how vulnerable New York City is because of its topography. He says storm surges could trigger massive flooding in low-lying areas, particularly lower Manhattan – even if the city is spared a direct hit.

'There's going to be glass all over the street, glass flying through the air," he said.

One study puts economic losses from a Category 3 hurricane at $100 billion.

"Metropolitan areas have high population density and very expensive properties," Jeanne Salvatore of the Insurance Information Institute told CNN. "So you throw a hurricane into that scenario, and the results can be really catastrophic."

There is a plan in place, if necessary, to move 2.3 million people out of coastal zones. But how many will go? Dolores Orr, head of the community board in Rockaway, says that could be a problem.

"For those that were raised here, I hear them today talking that they're not going anywhere," she said. "And that's a concern."

Steve and Debbie O'Sullivan and their three children live in Rockaway Beach in Queens, New York, a tranquil place with a wide and beautiful shoreline. They didn't worry about hurricanes, until Katrina struck the Gulf Coast in 2005.

"We never really understood, you know, the greater impact of it," Steve Sullivan said. "We never had a great fear. We used to play out in them."

The O'Sullivans, whose house sits just one block from the ocean, with the Atlantic on one side and Jamaica Bay on the other, are stocking up on hurricane supplies.

For the O'Sullivans, being prepared just makes sense; even in New York, where hurricanes are as unheard of as the Yankees not making the playoffs.

However, Coch says most New Yorkers need to remember that a Category 3 hurricane made landfall in 1938 on the eastern edge of Long Island in Southampton in 1938. The "Long Island Express" caused widespread damage, even about 70 miles to the west in New York City.

"It made Shinecock Bay a branch of the ocean," he said.

"[It's] the New Yorkers," Coch said. "Because they don't listen. You can always tell a New Yorker, but you can't tell them very much."


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Sources: AP, CNN, Youtube, Google Maps

California Floods Forcing More Residents To Evacuate

More Evacuations Ordered as New Storm Hits Calif.



A third powerful Pacific storm pounded California with heavy rain and snow Wednesday, forcing evacuations of hundreds of homes below wildfire-scarred mountains, shutting a major interstate, knocking out power to thousands and unleashing lightning strikes on two airliners.

Fierce winds howled as forecasters warned of rainfall rates as high as 1 1/2 inches an hour on soil already saturated from two days of wild weather that caused street flooding in coastal cities, spawned a tornado and toppled trees, killing two people.

Even though police officers and sheriff's deputies were making door-to-door stops, some residents refused to comply with evacuation orders in Los Angeles-area foothill communities below the steep San Gabriel Mountains where 250 square miles of forest burned in a summer wildfire.

Rick and Starr Frazier put their faith in concrete barriers and a 2-foot-high wall of sandbags on the perimeter of their home in La Canada Flintridge.

"Look at our house, we're pretty well fortified here," Starr Frazier said. "If any rain or mud or anything comes down, it'll be blocked by our barricades, and we're very well stocked with food and water."

When they said they weren't leaving, Los Angeles County sheriff's deputies warned it might not be possible to rescue them and asked them to fill out forms stating they'd been advised of the danger.

While most others in the Fraziers' community appeared to be complying, officials in nearby Los Angeles reported only about 40 percent compliance by residents of 262 homes in that jurisdiction.

Police Chief Charlie Beck sternly urged the rest to go, saying: "We're not doing this because your carpet is going to get wet; we're doing it because your life is at risk."

The neighborhoods' luck was still holding at nightfall as the heaviest downpours slowly moved east. But forecasters warned of more rain Thursday into Friday with high surf battering the coast.

Los Angeles Fire Chief Millage Peaks said they were "seeing mud in the streets, a significant amount of water flowing out of the hillsides but nothing that has jeopardized any structures or life at this time."

Two Southwest Airlines aircraft were struck by lightning Wednesday morning after reaching their arrival gates at Burbank's Bob Hope Airport, Federal Aviation Administration spokesman Ian Gregor said. Two people on one plane reported feeling numb and were taken to a hospital, he said.

The Grapevine stretch of the state's backbone Interstate 5 was closed due to snow and ice in 4,100-foot-high Tejon Pass north of Los Angeles. Vehicles were to be escorted down by the Highway Patrol.

Since the beginning of the week, more than 300,000 Southern California Edison customers had lost power. About 13,000 were being restored Wednesday.

In Northern California, 50 homes were ordered evacuated as a central coast river rose near Felton Grove in the Santa Cruz Mountains, but it began to recede late in the day. Warnings for hazardous conditions were posted around the state with extreme concern in the south, where vast areas scorched by wildfires have been denuded of vegetation that would normally capture or slow runoff.

The storms were testing months of preparations in burn-area neighborhoods from northeastern Los Angeles through La Crescenta, Glendale, La Canada Flintridge and Altadena.

County and city officials decided Tuesday to order evacuation of hundreds of homes because some of the 28 flood-control debris basins protecting the area were near capacity. County Public Works Director Gail Farber said they were continuing to function as designed but evacuations were a necessary precaution.

A recent U.S. Geological Survey assessment of the post-fire danger noted the history of tragedy in Southern California from so-called debris flows: 30 killed and 483 homes destroyed in 1934 in the Los Angeles-area foothills, and 16 killed in 2003 to the east in the San Bernardino Mountains.

Glendale police Sgt. Tom Lorenz said the current threat could be as bad as 1934, when "a 20-foot wall of mud came down through this area."

Despite a visit from Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, homeowners remained in the Alpine Village area of Big Tujunga Canyon. Magdalena Kuehne, 37, said she and her husband would leave "when rocks start rolling down this street. Now it's only a little mud and water. That's not too dangerous."

As the mayor's caravan left the area, it had to stop when an unrelated vehicle flipped in the rain on a freeway. A firefighter driving a van at the end of convoy rendered aid until an ambulance came.

In nearby Riverwood Ranch, retiree John Brown, 68, was one of only two people at an evacuation center.

"I brought some papers and stuff to do my 2009 taxes," he said. "It will be a good way to pass the time."

Much of the concern focused on Paradise Valley, a neighborhood on the upper reaches of winding Ocean View Boulevard in La Canada Flintridge offering spectacular panoramas of Los Angeles.

Lynn Thompson, a 32-year resident who barricaded her front door and windows with plywood and took family photos to her daughter's house said, "sometimes you have to pay big bucks for these views, both emotionally and financially."

State authorities also advised of considerable avalanche danger on steep, north-facing slopes of the central Sierra Nevada after as much as 30 inches of snow fell since Sunday. Blizzard conditions cut visibility to near zero on U.S. Interstate 80 over Donner Summit, and blowing snow made driving dangerous between Sacramento and Reno, Nev.

In Arizona, officials warned residents to prepare for up to 3 feet of snow in the north on Thursday and Friday, up to 4 inches of rain in the Phoenix area and 2 inches of rain around Tucson. Travel on Interstates 40 and 17 was slow after the roads were closed overnight.

A third powerful Pacific storm pounded California with heavy rain and snow Wednesday, forcing evacuations of hundreds of homes below wildfire-scarred mountains, shutting a major interstate, knocking out power to thousands and unleashing lightning strikes on two airliners.

Fierce winds howled as forecasters warned of rainfall rates as high as 1 1/2 inches an hour on soil already saturated from two days of wild weather that caused street flooding in coastal cities, spawned a tornado and toppled trees, killing two people.

Even though police officers and sheriff's deputies were making door-to-door stops, some residents refused to comply with evacuation orders in Los Angeles-area foothill communities below the steep San Gabriel Mountains where 250 square miles of forest burned in a summer wildfire.

Rick and Starr Frazier put their faith in concrete barriers and a 2-foot-high wall of sandbags on the perimeter of their home in La Canada Flintridge.

"Look at our house, we're pretty well fortified here," Starr Frazier said. "If any rain or mud or anything comes down, it'll be blocked by our barricades, and we're very well stocked with food and water."

When they said they weren't leaving, Los Angeles County sheriff's deputies warned it might not be possible to rescue them and asked them to fill out forms stating they'd been advised of the danger.

While most others in the Fraziers' community appeared to be complying, officials in nearby Los Angeles reported only about 40 percent compliance by residents of 262 homes in that jurisdiction.

Police Chief Charlie Beck sternly urged the rest to go.

"We're not doing this because your carpet is going to get wet; we're doing it because your life is at risk," Beck told a televised news conference.

The neighborhoods' luck was still holding at nightfall as the heaviest downpours were slowly moving east. But forecasters warned of more rain Thursday into Friday with high surf battering



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Sources: AP, CNN, ABC News, Google Maps