A ferocious snowstorm pummeled the northeastern United States for a second straight day Saturday, shutting down schools, severing power lines and forcing planes, cars and trains to come to a standstill. The storm was forecast to bring the heaviest snow so far this winter along the New England coast…
While vacationing in South Carolina the last thing you would expect to see would be thousands of dead fish wash ashore a beach. Well this is exactly what happened to some tourists.
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“We came down to the beach for the day just to have, you know, a nice day on the beach, smell the fish smell, came down to look for shells and all these fish — dead,” Pat Hawkins told local NBC affiliate WMBF. “It’s a shame. I don’t know what’s causing it.”
According to Pawleys Island Police Chief between 30,000 to 40,000 dead menhaden fish, 6 to 8 inches long washed up on a mile and a half stretch of the beach in South Carolina on Tuesday – and is the second occurrence in the area in a week.
“On Friday we had a new moon (which caused) real high high tides and real low low tides,” Mel Bell, director of the Office of Fisheries Management for the South Carolina Department of Natural Resources, told The Sun News.
“Probably what happened was a school (of menhaden) got in an area of water on a high tide, in a hole or depression, and at low tide they were trapped and depleted the oxygen in the water. Then, all the fish would suffocate. Then, when the tide came back in, it washed the dead fish out and they washed up on the beach.”
Last year an influx of dead starfish were found on the same beach and back in 2011; two hundred cows were found dead in Wisconsin and birds fell from the sky in January of 2011 in Arkansas, Florida, Texas and Italy.
JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) — A powerful earthquake early Saturday set off a tsunami warning for hundreds of miles of Alaskan and Canadian coastline, but the alert was canceled after no damaging waves were generated.
James Poulson/Daily Sitka Sentinel, via Associated Press
The magnitude-7.5 quake and the tsunami warning caused concern in some coastal communities, with people rushing to higher ground as alarms sounded.
But the Alaska Tsunami Warning Center later said the waves were too small to pose a threat, at just six inches above normal sea level in places like Sitka and Port Alexander.
“Initially, in the first 15 to 20 minutes, there might have been a bit of panic,” Chief Sheldon Schmitt of the Sitka Police Department said. Residents calmed down, he said, as the town waited for the all clear.
The temblor struck around midnight local time and was centered about 60 miles west of Craig, the United States Geological Survey said.
Jana Pursley, a seismologist with the agency, said the quake was followed by six aftershocks, the strongest of which registered at magnitude 5.1 and came nearly four hours later.
“Houses shook,” said Chief Robert Ely of the Craig Police Department. “Mine had things tossed from the wall.”
But, he added, there were “no reports of any injuries, no wave, no tidal movement seen.”
The initial tsunami warning had been expanded to include coastal areas from Cape Fairweather, Alaska, to the northern tip of Vancouver Island, Canada — an area extending more than 700 miles.
The warning center had said that “significant widespread inundation of land is expected,” adding that dangerous coastal flooding was possible.
In its cancellation statement, the center said some areas were seeing just small changes in sea level.
“A tsunami was generated during this event but no longer poses a threat,” the center said.
The Alaska Earthquake Information Center said that the quake had been widely felt, but that there were no reports of any damage.
“It was the most intense earthquake I’ve felt in my 10 years here — I’m pretty sure there was stuff falling off of shelves,” Chief Schmitt said. “There is no report of any wave activity here.”
Chief Schmitt said evacuation sirens and announcements in Sitka came shortly after the quake, prompting the temporary rush by residents to higher ground.
Some people in Craig also moved to safer territory.
“Several citizens elected on their own to move to higher ground,” Chief Ely said. Several sites had been set up for staging and shelter, he said, although no evacuation was ordered.
In addition to the warning, a tsunami advisory was briefly in effect for some coastal areas north and south of the warning zone, including a stretch from the Washington State border to the northern tip of Vancouver Island.
A tsunami warning means that an area is likely to be hit by a wave, while an advisory means that there may be strong currents but that widespread inundation is not expected.
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(Forbes) Airlines have begun to restore service at most Northeast airports, but departures from the New York airports is being delayed at least until Thursday.
Flights to most key East Coast airports began to resume Tuesday as Hurricane Sandy departed and will continue to be ramped up on Wednesday. But in the New York area, airports remain closed. The most hopeful sign is that Delta expects to begin limited domestic flying at Kennedy InternationalAirport on Wednesday afternoon. The carrier will resume limited flying to LaGuardia and NewarkAirports Wednesday night, planning for a Thursday morning restart.
An aerial view of LaGuardia Airport (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
“Delta continues to monitor the situation at New York City-area airports, including working closely with the Port Authority and other stakeholders to resume operations as soon as safely possible,” the airline said. The barriers to a restart include flooded runways, the lack of mass transit to carry employees and passengers to and from the airports and a lack of power at Newark.
RELATED NEWS ON HURRICANE SANDY
American said it too hopes to resume service to New York airports on Thursday. JetBlue, which operates its principal hub at JFK, said “New York airports are still a question – we are waiting for condition reports from the Port Authority but we are ready to resume operations to JFK, LaGuardia and Newark.”
US Airways said it will not operate at New York airports until noon Thursday at the earliest. “Islip is scheduled to resume service Thursday morning,” Robert Isom, executive vice president, wrote Tuesday morning in a note to employees. “LaGuardia, in particular, was hit hard with several feet of standing water currently on runways and ramp areas (and) Newark is currently reporting no power.”
At the other east coast airports, including its Philadelphia hub, US Airways will resume operations on Wednesday. US Airways was ferrying airplanes intoBoston, Washington National and Philadelphia on Tuesday with more ferry flights scheduled for early Wednesday morning.
American said it will begin operating after midday Wednesday at seven airports – Baltimore; Charleston, S.C.; Harrisburg, Pa.; Philadelphia, Washington Dulles, Washington National and Westchester County. The carrier offered limited service at a dozen key East Coast airports, including Boston, Hartford and Cleveland, on Tuesday.
“Our operations at Chicago O’Hare are being significantly impacted due to high winds in the area,” American said. At most airports, operations are expected to resume Wednesday, “but it’s possible that the aftermath of the storm may force some additional delays and cancellations,” the carrier said.
JetBlue, which operates a hub at JFK, says “New York airports are still a question – we are waiting for condition reports from the Port Authority but we are ready to resume operations to JFK, LaGuardia and Newark.
”The availability of public transportation will also play into the New York plan, too and we’re watching that closely, the carrier said. JetBlue began to restore service at Boston and Washington National on Tuesday.
United said it hopes to fly planes into Newark and Kennedy on Wednesday and to resume departures on Thursday. United also plans a relatively normal schedule at its Washington Dulles hub on Wednesday.
Airlines cancelled more than 17,000 flights in anticipation of Hurricane Sandy. In general, the early cancellations and extensive advance planning have enabled the industry to recover more quickly than it might have. Planes waited out the storm at airports where they would not be damage.
President Barack Obama called on Americans Sunday to take Hurricane Sandy “very seriously,” urging them to heed the instructions of local and state authorities. “This is a serious and big storm. And my first message is to all people across the eastern seaboard, mid-Atlantic going north, you need to…
(Fox News) New York City officials on Sunday ordered evacuations of some low-lying areas and the closing of schools ahead of the arrival of Hurricane Sandy.
The measures are aimed at keeping residents safe and not endangering the lives of emergency services personnel, Mayor Michael Bloomberg said in a press conference.
Credit: AP
The evacuation order covers areas of the city prone to flooding caused by the heavy rains expected from the hurricane.
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, meanwhile, announced that the transit system would close down in the city on Sunday evening.
The storm, which has maximum sustained winds of 120 kph (75 mph), is about 400 kilometers (250 miles) southeast of Cape Hatteras, North Carolina, and about 930 kilometers (575 miles) south of New York City, the National Hurricane Center, or NHC, said in its 11:00 a.m. advisory.
The hurricane is “expected to bring life-threatening storm surge flooding to the mid-Atlantic coast … including Long Island Sound and New York Harbor … winds expected to be near hurricane force at landfall,” the NHC said.
Sandy is moving northeast at about 22 kph (14 mph), the NHC said.
“Hurricane-force winds are expected along portions of the coast between Chincoteague, Virginia, and Chatham, Massachusetts. This includes the middle and upper Chesapeake Bay … Delaware Bay … and the coasts of the northern Delmarva Peninsula … New Jersey … The New York City area … Long Island … Connecticut … and Rhode Island,” the NHC said.
The storm is having an effect on the presidential race, with both President Barack Obama and his Republican challenger, Mitt Romney, being forced to cancel events and change campaign plans.
Romney cancelled all his planned events Sunday in Virginia and will focus on the key battleground state of Ohio, where polls give the president a narrow lead.
Obama will not campaign in Virginia on Monday and cancelled an event scheduled for Tuesday in Colorado, another state that could prove key to deciding who the next president of the United States will be.
The president is scheduled to visit the headquarters Sunday of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, or FEMA, to get a firsthand look at the preparations being made to deal with Sandy, which is expected to batter the Middle Atlantic and Northeast with powerful winds and heavy rains, causing flooding and power outages.
Obama plans to travel to Orlando, Florida, later in the day for a rally with former President Bill Clinton on Monday and will travel from there to Ohio.
The president will then return to the White House to monitor Hurricane Sandy.
Source: Fox News ~ Latino
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