Oklahoma town unlikely to recover from tornado
The News Review:
- Oklahoma town unlikely to recover from tornado
- One town uses the arts to revive after hurricane Katrina
- Chertoff tours tornado damage in rural Mo.
- Newtonians honor those who died in Greensburg tornado
- Is fabulous Colin Farrell turning into Alex ‘Hurricane’…
- Wealth shields US from Myanmar cyclone scenario
Oklahoma town unlikely to recover from tornado
International Herald Tribune – May 14, 2008
: State and federal officials toured this tornado-ravaged town and essentially hammered the final nail into its coffin. Any financial aid sent to the 800-person community, they said, will only help people relocate, not rebuild in the same area where a government buyout of homes is already under way. “Rebuilding here is not going to be a real option,” Gov. Brad Henry said Tuesday. The storm will likely hasten, rather than delay, the buyout process, he said… Brad Henry said Tuesday. The storm will likely hasten, rather than delay, the buyout process, he said. Saturday's tornado leveled 114 homes and was responsible for seven deaths in Picher, a fading lead and zinc mining town in far northeastern Oklahoma. The severe weather killed another 20 people in the Plains and the Southeast. “It really is like a small nuclear bomb went off,” Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said after touring the area. He was joined by the governor and David Paulison, administrator of the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
One town uses the arts to revive after hurricane Katrina
Christian Science Monitor – May 14, 2008
Louis Little Theater. To his left, a tin sign leans against the yellow building, spray-painted words underscoring the greater meaning of today’s light-hearted event: The show must go on. Hurricane Katrina drew the curtains on the theater, as well as on Bay St. Louis, two and a half years ago. But the arts community refused to let the lights dim, and today they’re helping revive a town in one of the rare success stories of post-Katrina life on the Gulf Coast. Across the region, the hurricane’s imprint continues to be as somber as an Edvard Munch painting: damaged downtowns, destroyed neighborhoods, FEMA trailers serving ? seemingly endlessly ? as homes. But here in Bay St.
Chertoff tours tornado damage in rural Mo.
Newton Kansan – May 14, 2008
?We don?t have insurance, so anything they can do would be helpful,? Geary said. The death toll stands at 16 in Missouri, all but two of those in Newton County, said Missouri Highway Patrol Trooper Dan Bracker. At least 100 people were injured in Saturday?s tornado, including 19 who were transported by ambulance, said Gary Roark, emergency management director for Newton County. ?No one else is in a life-threatening condition,? Roark said, adding the death toll was not expected to rise. But officials were nervously watching a weather system that threatened to bring some of the same conditions that spawned Saturday?s tornado. Seneca schools were letting students out early so they could get home. ?We are hoping it doesn?t get bad,? Roark said.
Newtonians honor those who died in Greensburg tornado
Newton Kansan – May 14, 2008
?When our vehicles pulled up in front of the place where we were going to set the stone and we got out, we immediately knew who the other was,? Ryan said. ?It was pretty cool. ?On the one-year anniversary of the tornado, members of the Kansas Patriot Guard, made up of members of the Kansas American Legion Riders from across the state, traveled to Greensburg to honor those who survived and remember those who lost their lives in the tragic event. Members of the local American Legion Post and others from the area met in Pratt before heading into Greensburg together. Ryan said about 400 riders who met in the Wal-Mart parking lot in Pratt. ?It was a pretty cool sight to see all those bikes,? he said. But, that wasn?t even half of who showed up in Greensburg.
Is fabulous Colin Farrell turning into Alex ‘Hurricane’…
Daily Mail – May 14, 2008
Like Farrell, the Hurricane has a legendary capacity for booze,cigarettes and womanising. He battled back from throat cancer in1998, but all that fast living now looks to have caught up with the59-year-old. There was speculation that Farrell had shed weight because ofthe demands of the film he is currently shooting in the southernSpanish city of Alicante. He is starring alongside Spanish actress Paz Vega and Britishfilm veteran Christopher Lee in a thriller entitled Triage. It tells the story of a war photographer who loses his bestfriend during a harrowing assignment in war-torn Bosnia during theearly 1990s.
Wealth shields US from Myanmar cyclone scenario
Reuters AlertNet – May 14, 2008
Myanmar state TV raised the official Nargis death toll to 38,491 on Wednesday, while the International Federation of the Red Cross estimated up to 127,990 people had died. About 1,500 people were killed in the United States’ worst recent hurricane, Katrina, which in 2005 swamped New Orleans, a low-lying city near the Mississippi River delta, a landscape similar to Myanmar’s Irrawaddy. But the people of the U. delta, where a comparable hurricane could easily push a similar 12-foot (3. 7-metre) storm surge ashore, are not poor, subsistence farmers dependent on their own feet to flee, and the area has good highways. Nearly 90 percent of New Orleans was evacuated for Katrina… National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. "A Cat 2 hurricane would put 16 feet (4. 9 metres) of surge into the St. Marks River," he said, referring to the second level on the five-step Saffir-Simpson scale of hurricane intensity. "The more gently the seabed slopes, the higher the storm surge it can maintain. " The nearby Tampa Bay area, home to some 2.