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WEATHER REPORT
Christmas Day cleanup after storms kill 14 in US
by Staff Writers
Chicago (AFP) Dec 25, 2015


Five dead, 150,000 evacuated in Latin America floods
Asuncion (AFP) Dec 24, 2015 - Flooding dampened Christmas eve celebrations in parts of Latin America on Thursday, leaving five people dead and driving almost 150,000 from their homes in Paraguay, Argentina and Uruguay.

Some 130,000 people have been forced from their homes across Paraguay, officials said, as President Horacio Cartes declared a state of emergency to free up more than $3.5 million in disaster funds.

Three people traveling Paraguay's international Route 2, which links Asuncion and Foz de Iguazu in Brazil were killed when a tree fell on their vehicle before dawn.

Another woman traveling by motorcycle in Asuncion was killed by a falling tree overnight, official sources told AFP.

The National Emergency Secretariat (SEN) reported a dozen other similar incidents in the capital.

The agency's head of operations, David Arellano, said rescue and evacuation operations were underway for dozens of families in the face of floodwaters from the Paraguay River.

Around the capital Asuncion 125,000 homes were without power and 17 power distribution centers knocked out across the country.

Northeastern Argentina also reported widespread disruption and one fatality from the worst flooding in half a century.

A 13-year-old boy was electrocuted by a power cable while trying to assess storm damage to his home in the city of Corrientes, local media reported.

In Entre Rios province at least 10,000 people were evacuated, with Concordia, a city of some 170,000 on the banks of the Uruguay River, the worst affected with nonstop rain throughout the night, Mayor Enrique Crest said.

"This is the worst flooding in 50 years," he said, adding that although "flooding was predicted due to El Nino, no one thought that it would be so substantial."

The city is located 18 kilometers (11 miles) from the Salto Grande dam, which was helping to hold the waters back, but was nearing its full capacity, Crest said.

The governor of Entre Rios said the total number of evacuees across the province could rise to "between 16,000 to 20,000."

Argentina's vice president, Gabriela Michetti, traveled Thursday to the affected region to view the damage and assess disaster relief needs.

The country has declared a state of emergency for the Panama, Uruguay and Paraguay rivers and their tributaries, following exceptionally high rainfall.

In November and December, the Rio de la Plata river basin in Argentina's northeast received between 150 and 300 millimeters more rain than is typical for the period, the farm industry ministry said in a statement.

Uruguay on Wednesday also declared a state of emergency in three northern departments affected by flooding.

The number of displaced people reached almost 5,500 Thursday, as the situation worsened.

Rescue workers and heartbroken residents on Friday sifted through what was left of homes wiped out by several ferocious storms and tornadoes that killed at least 14 people in the US southeast.

The storms, feeding on unseasonably warm air, left a trail of destruction in rural communities from Alabama to Illinois, just as Christmas reached its crescendo.

More than a dozen tornadoes were reported in six states, with the southern state of Mississippi hardest hit. Seven people were confirmed dead there and another 60 injured, with one person missing, said the state's emergency management agency.

"We are experiencing some flash flooding today, with storms coming through right now in five counties. And damage assessments are still ongoing," the emergency agency's Brett Carr told AFP.

Among the Mississippi dead was a seven-year-old boy who was killed when a brutal storm picked up and tossed the car he was travelling in, fire chief Kenny Holbrook told reporters in the town of Holly Springs, where thousands greeted Christmas Day without power.

Mississippi Governor Phil Bryant declared a state of emergency in seven counties after the storms caused widespread damage.

Six fatalities were confirmed in neighboring Tennessee, including three people found dead Thursday in a car submerged in a creek, according to the fire department in Columbia, Tennessee.

One person was reportedly killed in Arkansas.

Georgia's governor declared a state of emergency in counties affected by the severe weather.

Debris from ravaged buildings and other structures littered roads, making them impassable in parts of the southeast.

Officials were inviting volunteers to help clean up or make donations as people who fled returned to their homes to see what, if anything, was still standing.

Television footage and pictures posted on social media showed homes flattened across several states, with possessions and Christmas presents strewn on the ground or left in a messy heap.

Power lines, trees and mobile phone towers were also toppled.

Therese Apel, a reporter at Mississippi's Clarion-Ledger newspaper, spoke with a north Mississippi family hard hit by the violent weather.

"The Wilkins family lost everything, but they told me, 'It's still Christmas. It's about family and being grateful,'" Apel posted on Twitter.

The worst appeared to be over, but forecasters at the National Weather Service warned severe weather was possible in several states including Mississippi, Missouri and Oklahoma. Flash floods in the US southeast were also a possibility.

The East Coast meanwhile was enjoying unseasonably warm weather, with temperatures in New York's iconic Central Park peaking at 72 degrees Fahrenheit (22 Celsius) Thursday, the warmest Christmas Eve since records began in 1871.

The location set a Christmas Day record with temperatures reaching 66 degrees (19 Celsius) on Friday.

Atlanta, Georgia was also expected to set a record with temperatures reaching 75 degrees Fahrenheit (24 Celsius).

The opposite was happening in other areas of the country.

"Ho Ho Ho! Vegas got snow!" reported the National Weather Service before dawn Friday, saying the trace of white tied the record set in 1941 for Christmas Day snow in normally balmier Las Vegas. That record was also tied in 1988 and 2008.


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Previous Report
WEATHER REPORT
Tornadoes, storms kill at least six in US
Chicago (AFP) Dec 24, 2015
Storms and tornadoes killed at least six people and left dozens injured when they ripped through large swathes of the eastern United States on Wednesday, reports and officials said. Homes were badly damaged or even leveled and at least two people were missing as a series of tornadoes and twisters tore rapidly through several states, leaving a trail of destruction. But the danger was not ... read more


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