Monday May 31, 2004

By KIMBERLY HEFLING

Associated Press Writer

MARENGO, Ind. (AP) - Powerful storms again swept across the Midwest and beyond, knocking out power to thousands of customers and spawning tornadoes that leveled buildings and hurled mobile homes through the air. At least nine deaths were blamed on the storms during the weekend and on Monday.

One storm destroyed 50 homes and killed a man Sunday in Marengo, Ind., a town of 800 people about 35 miles northwest of Louisville, Ky. About 100 people took shelter at a high school when the storm struck.

Indiana Gov. Joe Kernan planned Monday to fly over areas hit by the storm - only three days after his last such trip.

``It's the worst thing I've ever been through. It was loud and noisy, windy. It was unreal,'' said Marengo resident Howard Lincoln, 49, who rode out the tornado under his Bronco, and later found his home still standing but knocked four feet off its foundation. ``I feel lucky, totally lucky. When you look up and see that thing on top of you, you don't know what to think.''

After generating tornadoes during the weekend, the storm system continued toward the east and south on Monday, producing heavy rain along an arc from Louisiana to Virginia.

The rain caused widespread flooding early Monday in hilly southern West Virginia, and one man drowned in Wyoming County, authorities said. His wife was hospitalized.

Flooding and mudslides washed out bridges and covered roads in West Virginia, isolating communities throughout Mingo, Logan and Wyoming counties including the city of Williamson, which got 4.25 inches of rain in 24 hours, local officials and the National Weather Service said.

Also on Monday, a 7-year-old girl was killed in Giles, Tenn., when a wall collapsed in her home, said supervisor Dan Creasy of the Giles County Ambulance Service. At least 16 other people were injured, also in the south-central part of the state, according to the Tennessee Emergency Management Agency.

Another man was killed Sunday in Missouri by a tree that slammed onto his car. On Saturday, high wind was blamed for two deaths in Kansas and three in Missouri.

The weekend storms also ripped through parts of Nebraska and Kansas.

In Indiana, one powerful storm raked across the south side of Indianapolis on Sunday, ripping the roof off a nursing home while 50 residents were inside. They were evacuated, many wrapped in sheets and blankets.

``Everything was going up in the air,'' said Brenda Edwards, 26, who works at a restaurant about seven miles southeast of downtown Indianapolis. ``We went inside and got in the cooler.''

Rain delayed the start of the Indianapolis 500 and forced a nearly two-hour interruption. Nearby, the National Weather Service said it saw evidence of a tornado touchdown close to its office on the southwest side of the city.

In Marengo, Patricia Parker found three mobile homes on top of each other when she arrived home. She did not think the residents were home at the time.

``My stomach's in knots,'' the 21-year-old said.

Sunday's storms knocked out power to more than 130,000 customers in Illinois and the St. Louis area. Flights were delayed up to three hours Sunday evening at O'Hare International Airport and two hours at Midway Airport, and roughly 100 O'Hare flights were canceled, the Chicago Department of Aviation said.

At least two tornadoes struck in southern Nebraska, and two people jogging in Omaha on Saturday were seriously injured by lightning, authorities said.

The storms knocked out electricity to thousands of customers in Nebraska and Oklahoma.

Tornadoes also were reported Sunday in Arkansas, but no injuries or major damage were reported.

In Missouri, Jodi Frazier lives only about 200 yards from the house where one man was killed Saturday. She left her mobile home with her family and took shelter in a friend's basement.

``It didn't sound that bad until the tornadoes started dropping out of the sky, and then that's when we got out,'' she said. ``Because a mobile home, everybody knows you can't ride a tornado out in.'' Her home was destroyed.

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Associated Press writers Jennifer Bundy in Charleston, W.Va., Heather Hollingsworth in Weatherby, Mo., and Rick Callahan in Indianapolis contributed to this report

5-26-04

PORT-AU-PRINCE : An international rescue operation for Haiti and the Dominican Republic gathered pace as the death toll from flash floods rose to 918 with hundreds still missing.

The United Nations and other aid agencies were trying to get water and medical supplies to the worst hit towns, UN officials said. But bad weather held up efforts.

The death toll in the Dominican Republic rose Thursday to 339 dead and at least 375 missing, mainly in the devastated town of Jimani. The official toll in Haiti rose by eight overnight to 579 dead.

National Emergency Commission spokesman Jose Luis German said there were 329 confirmed dead, 375 missing and 122 injured in Jimani, which was virtually wiped out by the flash floods in the early hours of Monday.

Ten other deaths in the rest of the country have also been blamed on the floods.

German said the toll in the Jimani region would certainly rise as the affected zone was very spread out.

In Haiti, UN relief agencies and non-government groups were trying to fly food, water and medical supplies to the worst hit towns of Mapou Belle-Anse and Fonds Verette.

But bad weather was holding up helicopter flights.

A Geneva spokeswoman for the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said a local UN mission, the Red Cross and the Oxfam charity had flown to Mapou Belle-Anse in the southeast with 1.5 tonnes of water and water purification tablets.

A joint World Food Programme and Haitian health ministry team was to go to Fonds Verette, north east of Port-au-Prince, with food supplies, the spokeswoman added.

Two teams of UN disaster experts will leave for Haiti and the Dominican Republic by Friday to help the relief efforts, the OCHA spokeswoman said.

In Haiti, members of the multi-national force brought in to assure security after deposed president Jean Bertrand Aristide resigned and fled at the end of February were also trying to get emergency supplies to the worst-hit areas.

At least 272 people were reported dead in Mapou Belle-Anse and at least 100 in the Grand Gosier area. Another 165 died in Fonds Verettes.

Haiti and Dominican Republic make up the island of Hispaniola which was hit by 10 days of torrential rains turning rivers into raging torrents. Many of the dead were swept away as they slept in their beds.

In Jimani, many of the people buried in mass graves because of public health concerns were women and children. President Hipolito Mejia and the US ambassador to the Dominican Republic, Hans Hertell, were to fly by helicopter to the disaster zone on Thursday.

Authorities said nearly 30,000 people had been evacuated from their homes in the Dominican Republic.

The US State Department said the US Agency for International Development had provided 50,000 dollars (41,000 euros) in aid and that the agency's advisors were conducting on-scene assessments for further aid.

In New York, whose Dominican community numbers some 400,000, Mayor Michael Bloomberg said a disaster experts would go to the island Thursday "to conduct an assessment of what is needed in the aftermath of the deadly floods."

Inhabitants of the two countries have told of miraculous survival tales as the Soleil turned into a torrent in Jimani on Monday.

Bartolina Diaz, 65, said she clung to an iron door on her house that the waters could not drag away.

Dionisio Mendez, 86, who is blind, was swept a kilometer (0.6 mile) downstream before he managed to grab a tree.

- AFP

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