Northeast Slammed By Rare April Storm

Hundreds Of Flights Canceled As High Winds, Heavy Rains, Snow Slam Mid-Atlantic States, New England

(CBS/AP)  A nor'easter battered the East with strong wind and pouring rain Sunday, grounding hundreds of airline flights, downing power lines and threatening severe coastal flooding overnight.

The storm flooded people out of their homes in the middle of the night in West Virginia and trapped others. Some New Jersey shore residents evacuated, and officials in Connecticut urged some residents along the Long Island Sound to do the same. Inland areas from upstate New York to Maine faced a threat of heavy snow.

One person was killed in South Carolina as dozens of mobile homes were destroyed or damaged by wind. The storm system already had been blamed for five deaths on Friday in Kansas and Texas.

Storm warnings and watches were posted all along the East Coast, with coastal flood watches from Maryland to Maine through at least Monday morning.

More than 5.5 inches of rain fell in the New York region Sunday, shattering the record for the date of 1.8 inches set in 1906, according to the National Weather Service. Weather service meteorologist Gary Conte said Sunday night's high tide was likely to bring coastal flooding on Long Island and in parts of New York City.

Connecticut's emergency management commissioner, James Thomas, was expecting most of the problems to come Sunday night with the high tide.

"We are prepared to deliver sandbags, assist with an evacuation, or whatever we need to do," Thomas said. "We're kind of all sitting back, getting prepared and hoping it doesn't get as bad as it has been in different parts of the country."

In New York, flooding stalled traffic along parkways and forced residents in at least one Queens neighborhood to paddle through streets in boats. In the coastal Seagate section of Brooklyn, which suffered major flooding in a December 1992 nor'easter, residents placed sandbags in the streets.

"Everybody remembers that (1992 storm)," resident Jose Serrano said. "Everybody's home got ruined. Some houses got underwater. It was up to your stomach."

More than 400 flights were cancelled in the New York region — over 80 in Philadelphia and 70 in Boston, reports CBS News correspondent Randall Pinkston.

Fire Island Ferries suspended service to the island, off the south shore of Long Island, and the Metro-North Railroad suspended service on its Harlem and New Haven lines for several hours because of flooding in the Mott Haven section of the Bronx.

The Coast Guard had warned mariners to head for port because wind up to 55 mph was expected to generate seas up to 20 feet high, Petty Officer Etta Smith said in Boston.

A tornado touched down in the central part of South Carolina, killing one person, seriously injuring four others and cutting a 300-yard swath of destruction in Sumter County, officials said. A second tornado touched down near Lynchburg.

In New Jersey, 16 roadways throughout the state were either partially or fully closed and traffic lights were malfunctioning in some areas, Kris Kolluri, state Transportation Commissioner, said late Sunday afternoon.

In Sea Bright, New Jersey, the storm, which picked up power as it headed over the ocean, pounded the area with heavy rains and wind gusts of more than 50 mph, reports CBS News correspondent Bianca Solorzano.

"This is going to be bad," Shaun Rheinheimer said as he moved furniture to higher spots at his house on New Jersey's Cedar Bonnet Island.

The storm caused flash flooding in the mountains of southern West Virginia, where emergency services personnel rescued nearly two dozen people from homes and cars in Logan and Boone counties early Sunday. Two people were unaccounted for and others were trapped in their homes.

"Our houses sit in the middle of the hill, and it's all around us. I'm surrounded, it's like a lake completely around us," said Samantha Walker, 29, who was visiting her grandmother in Matheny. "We can't get out even if we wanted to get out."

The storm forced the postponement of six major league baseball games Sunday — the most in a single day in a decade — and gave runners in Monday's Boston Marathon something to worry about besides Heartbreak Hill. The race-day forecast called for 3 to 5 inches of rain, start temperatures in the 30s and wind gusts of up to 25 mph.

Heavy rain and thunderstorms extended from Florida up the coast to New England on Sunday. Wind gusted to 71 mph at Charleston, S.C., the weather service said.

Major flooding was forecast in parts of eastern and central Pennsylvania, where some rivers already were above flood state Sunday night.

Thousands of electricity customers lost power in states including New York, Connecticut, New Jersey and North Carolina.

Rain dumped 3 inches on eastern Kentucky, where a 50-foot section of highway collapsed near Pikeville, said State Police Sgt. Jamey Kidd. No vehicles were caught by the collapse, he said.

In central Florida, a tornado damaged mobile homes in Dundee but no injuries were reported, police said.

[pilgrimsway-2009]

http://
pilgrimswaylighted.blogspot.com

http://
pilgrimswaylighted.blogspot.com

[jimfinster]

Likewise, goodnight all.

[jimfinster]

rheola:

Thanks. Debate is good, I always learn something new. And hawksprings has studied this issue, so he is worth debating.

[hawksprings]

It's bedtime, I'll read anymore posts tomorrow.

Thanks rheola,
It would be fun to hang out in a pub or bar and argue these things, if we could keep it civil. We'd probably enjoy each other's company.

Jimfinster, we'll probably never agree unless we could live to 120 or so and see the outcome of the next few decades. But with all my teasing and sarcasm, I bear you no ill will.

Thanks and good night!

[jimfinster]

Water vapor has stayed constant while CO2 has increased. That arguement just does not work.

[rheola-2009]

Jimfinster, Hawksprings

Thank you for an interesting and enjoyable debate. you each do the other credit.

[jimfinster]

You are correct, water vapor is THE primary greenhouse gas. Planet earth would be a big ice ball without it.

But human activity seems to have little effect on the amount of water vapor.

[jimfinster]

hawksprings:

I will take a look at your reference.

The site below provides the best explanation I have seen on this whole thing.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Global_warming

[hawksprings]

You're still talking about a tiny, tiny fraction of the atmosphere. I was under the understanding that water vapor was far and away the most predominant greenhouse gas, something like over 95% of the greenhouse gases. And that we have almost no influence on the amount of water vapor, and almost no contribution to it.

What do you think of this website:
http://mysite.verizon.net/mhieb/WVFossils/greenhouse_data.html

[jimfinster]

hawksprings:

24,126,416 metric tons of CO2, annually
the volume increases every year

The C02 concentration has increased by 40% in the past 100-150 years. Think about it.

[jimfinster]

HawkSprings:

Human respiration CO2 contribution is neglible, easily offset by uptake by plants & trees.

[jimfinster]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_carbon_dioxide_emissions

According to this article, global CO2 total is 24,126,416 metric tons. That is about 53 billion pounds.

My bad in the previous post. I meant to say billion, not trillion.

[hawksprings]

jimfinster, I've got to get to the point, The Apprentice is on, and it really irritates my wife when I spend all evening on the computer.

Since we humans are part of nature, we're responsible for a portion of that .04% just because we're breathing, but how much? And how much have we increased it with our burning of fossil fuels over what we would have if we lived like cavemen?

Now we're taking about fractions of fractions of
.04%. It's getting pretty miniscule.
And I find it hard to believe that the planet's systems can't handle a tiny variation like that.

A fraction of a fraction of an increase on .04% of CO2 concentrations is going to turn this planet into another Venus??? I doubt it.

[jimfinster]

HawkSprings:

Not sure of the total, to be honest. But I can tell the rough amount from global transportation:

500 billion gal fuel burned per year
approx 20 lbs CO2 created for each gallon
total CO2 = 10 trillion tons

That ignores power plants, etc.

[erasmus6]

HawkSprings

When I first heard about the snow in Florida, it was a few years back. You say it is rare, but the fact is, that originally it used to get NONE. So, my point is that it is a place that used to get nothing and now is getting it AND it hasn't happened just once.
Now on the topic of tornadoes, there are places where it is supposed to be impossibe to get them, where I live, is one of them, because of the mountains.

[jimfinster]

HawkSprings:

I respect you for playing the game.

Doubt that I can prove anything beyond a shadow of a doubt. Even my own existence :)

[hawksprings]

jimfinster, ok, .04%, that's 4 hundredths of a percent, right?

And what part of that .04% do you and The Consensus say is caused by human activity?

[hawksprings]

erasmus, my response to rheola was even better.

[jimfinster]

About 0.04%, if I recall correctly.

[jimfinster]

HawkSprings:

With regard to animals, perhaps you are thinking of methane, another greenhouse gas. Methane is 20 times more potent than CO2.

Lifestock production is a HUGE source of methane.