Northwest's Killer Storm Headed To Midwest

7 Dead; Many Roads In Oregon, Washington Still Closed By Felled Trees, Landslides

(CBS/AP)  National Guard troops evacuated residents in a flooded town Tuesday and tens of thousands of residents remained without power after back-to-back storms pounded the Pacific Northwest.

The storms are the worst people can remember. The scope of the devastation is staggering: at least seven people are dead, 111,000 in two states have been left without power, and houses, roads, whole blocks, whole communities are underwater, reports CBS News correspondent Bill Whitaker.

Troops with the Oregon Air National Guard used inflatable rafts to evacuate flooded residents in Vernonia, a mountain timber town on the Nehalem River, about 35 miles northwest of Portland.

"They're moving down the streets, and through the backyards," said Maj. Mike Braibish, spokesman for the National Guard.

Vernonia, which has about 2,200 residents, had been largely cut off by landslides that blocked roads into the community, but Guard trucks with high clearance were able to get in late Monday and more were being sent, Braibish said.

Still, communications were difficult. "There are no phone lines or land lines available in Vernonia," said Hyla Ridenour, spokeswoman for Columbia River Fire and Rescue in nearby St. Helens.

The storm that hit Monday smacked the region with hurricane-force winds and several inches of rain, and was blamed for five deaths in Oregon and Washington state. It came only a day after another severe system moved through Sunday.

By Tuesday, the second system had moved on to the Upper Plains and Midwest, where it was predicted to bring snow. In North Dakota, the National Weather Service said parts of the state could get up to 9 inches.

Towns on the coast were hit hardest by the storms. Red Cross shelters in western Oregon were housing 556 people as of midnight Monday, said spokeswoman Lise Harwin.

The governors of Washington and Oregon declared states of emergency, which could speed relief efforts in flood-hit areas. The weather service said 3 to 6 inches of rain had fallen across much of western Washington. The 24-hour rain total for Bremerton, Wash., was 10.78 inches.

In Washington, some 130 people had to be rescued from flooded areas by Coast Guard helicopters. Mudslides and floods blocked roads, and Interstate 5, the principal north-south route along the West Coast, was closed near Centralia because of about 10 feet of water over the road. Many schools and government offices were closed for a second day.

Mudslides also halted Amtrak passenger train service between Portland and Vancouver, British Columbia.

Winds reaching 100 miles per hour toppled power lines throughout the region, leaving tens of thousands of people without electricity, others without roofs, Whitaker reports.

Nearly 75,000 customers lost power in Washington, and more than 50,000 were still without power Tuesday morning, emergency management officials said. In Oregon, Portland-based Pacific Power said about 36,000 customers were still without power.

In Oregon, a 90-year-old woman died after suffering what Tillamook County medical examiner Dr. Paul Betlinski called "a weather-related heart attack" as she evacuated. In the same area, a truck was swept away by floodwaters, and the driver was reported dead.

In Washington, a man in Aberdeen died when a tree fell on him as he was trying to clear another downed tree. Another man died in Montesano when the cutoff of electricity left him without the oxygen equipment he needed, officials said.

A man in Mason County died Monday night when he was buried in a building hit by a mudslide, Kyle Herman, spokesman for the Washington State Emergency Management Division, said Tuesday.

Mudslides blocked numerous roads and forced an undetermined number of residents to evacuate condominiums, apartments and houses in Seattle, at least nine houses in suburban Burien and several mobile homes in Shelton.

In Olympia, the rain Monday turned a normally small creek into a roiling, muddy surge of water that tore through a wall at the Ranch House BBQ restaurant. Tables and booths were strewn across the street.

Christy Romo, who lives just up the hill, said she could hear the floodwaters coming and started packing before the first floor of her cabin was inundated.

"I knew I wouldn't have much time," Romo said. "I heard a bang, and then saw the water rising quickly."

Power companies said electricity may not be restored to some areas for three or four days. More stiff winds were likely, but nothing like the blasts that exceeded 120 mph at the height of the storm.

The storms started howling in from the west Sunday, adds Whitaker. Hurricane-like winds pushed pounding waves ashore, turned beaches into sandblasters, then tore through forests and subdivisions.

The back-to-back storm fronts Sunday and Monday were among the Northwest's worst in recent memory. The first storm marched across the country, killing at least 15 people, mostly in traffic accidents, and dumping snow from the Midwest to the Northeast.

The first major storm of the season hammered the Northeast Monday with more than a full day of a messy blend of snow, ice and rain, reports CBS News correspondent Bianca Solorzano. From New Hampshire to Massachusetts, drivers dealt with a tricky commute, constant snow, icy rain, and wind gusts up to 40 miles per hour.

Lake-effect snow storms delivered a first blast of winter overnight Tuesday to a large part of upstate New York, dumping up to a foot of snow on some areas and forcing schools to close.

"There's people who will be cursing this stuff as they drive to work today. Not me," said Chip Sutton, a 45-year-old mechanic who was plowing parking lots and driveways in Syracuse. "I'm tired, but I'm happy, and a few dollars richer."

Wintry weather also spelled success for ski areas in New England that suffered through an abysmal winter last year. In Vermont, 7 inches of snow welcomed skiers and snowboarders Monday.

"It's not snow. It's white gold," said Christopher Francis, innkeeper at Ye Olde England Inne, a 30-room establishment in the shadow of Vermont's Stowe Mountain Resort.

[Netterz]

I wonder if any of the powers that be, and the other oes tht blame everything from a sliver to snow loss,on the very clear fact, that every year we get aot closer to the sun? Or isit that the lastest hype is called Global Warming, and it gives everyone something to argue over. Gotta love the things the media posts to get people going over something we have no control over. Earmarks and gov''t spending on stupid things like this needs to stop. Balance the budget, get America back to work, a few million Americans fom losing there homes, and healthare.

[jimfinster]

How about some facts about volcanoes & climate change:

Volcanic eruptions can increase global warming by adding CO2 to the atmosphere. However, a far greater amount of CO2 is contributed to the atmosphere by human activities each year than by volcanic eruptions. In fact, T.M.Gerlach (American Geophysical Union) notes that human-made CO2 exceed the estimated global release of CO2 from volcanoes by at least 150 times. The small amount of global warming caused by eruption-generated greenhouse gases is offset by the far greater amount of global cooling caused by eruption-generated particles in the stratosphere (the haze effect).

[hawksprings]

During the age of the Neanderthals, they noticed that the snow line was receding higher into the mountains, and it took them longer to get to the Wooly Mammoth Hunting Grounds.
They realized the climate was warming and determined that this was due to the campfires they had going in their caves. So a law was passed banning campfires in caves. (Except for the Tribal Cheifs, they exempted themselves from the ban and continued to have campfires in their caves.)

Over the years the climate cooled again and the snow line lowered, and it was closer to the Wooly Mammoth Hunting grounds. The Neanderthals would have congratulated themselves on how they changed the environment, but by then they were all extinct, primarily from eating uncooked meat.


History tends to repeat itself.

[jetranger7]

Hey, its like 80* degrees here, in my house, nice and warm,, I have my Wood Burning fireplace, going and 6 cords of split fire wood here in the mid-midwest. Hope it stays away from here, send those winds over to the White House, and hopefully it''ll blow away all the corrupt Ploiticians who lie-lie and Spin the truth, and get rid of them out in the Atlantic somewhere - good ridence !

[kitchenkop]

63 in silvercity, nm

[kitchenkop]

It''s 19 degrees here in Northern Wisconsin. And it''ll get colder yet. I don''t know if I agree with the experts about global warming because last year at this time it was 60 degrees. Go figure.

[rangerdahl]

it rained in the northwest?...wow, that never happens huh? It must be global warming becasue the northwest is known for sunshine in november isn''t it?

You freakin'' nut jobs see conspiracy or global warming in everything...I''m suprised one of you hasn''t blamed Cheney for the rain. I say we waterboard mother nature and find out.

[denn034]

Thoughts and prayers for all concerned.

Hey zoe20006, how do you tackle Volcanoes? They are one of the major causes of global warming. During the little ice ages, it was believed to have been caused by a cataclysmic volcano erupting thousands of miles from here. After it''s eruption, our country was in what a lot of people call a little ice age....where it snowed during the summer on the north east coast....so its really tough to prevent those from happening. Think about the monies that are being spent right now to find out all these things. Something we have zero control over. If we all were to stop driving gasoline and diesel cars and trucks, the climate change will still be going on. It is irreversible to this point. Let the earth heal itself and things will settle down. I''m more worried about our guys and gals overseas fighting wars than I am about global warming. And please, no one bring up the Shuttle program....those engines are burning liquid oxygen and helium....zero carbon dioxide being pumped into the air.....

hypnotoad72, you never know...China is at or close to 1,321,851,888 as of July of this year.....

[hypnotoad72]

Could be God''''s way of population control as well.....

Posted by mitchoncbs
--------------------

If people don''t believe in God, then will God leave them alone - the result of which would be their breeding until their populations exceed one billion or more?

[jetlizhan]

God bless that firefighter justin ralph for saving that precious dog.

Could be God''s way of population control as well.....

[slim1h2o]

Dam....it should of said,you can''t change a naturally occurring phenomen

[slim1h2o]

As to the cause? who knows, who cares, and it makes no difference- there''''s nothing WE can do to alter what is a global change.

Posted by newster1 at 01:27 PM : Dec 04, 2007

We should care, because, they''re going to introduce laws, and bills that are going to cost us taxpayers billions. And it won''t change anything, like you said we can''t naturally occurring phenomenon.

Bunch of dummies here don''t know the true concept of global warming....it was global warming that caused the last two ice ages....do some research before spouting off stupid remarks....

[nothappyatall]

Whats really funny is that the Senate is going to try and sign some goofy historic global warming legislation on Wednesday and the forecast calls for 3 inches of snow from the remnants of this storm.

The Global Warming Sheep need to pray harder to Father Algore. Were still having winters!

Posted by hawksprings

Well naysayer, think of it not as global ''warming'' but as global CLIMATE CHANGE and it''s obvious as well as proven via photos of formerly year-round snow capped mountains now bare, the ice sheets at the poles there for thousands of years rapidly melting and breaking apart and this can be seen in satalite images compared to older images- the change is rapidly happening.

As to the cause? who knows, who cares, and it makes no difference- there''s nothing WE can do to alter what is a global change.

[hawksprings]

What''s really funny is that the Senate is going to try and sign some goofy historic global warming legislation on Wednesday and the forecast calls for 3 inches of snow from the remnants of this storm.

The Global Warming Sheep need to pray harder to Father Algore. We''re still having winters!

[nlm2383]

41 and sunny here in Nashville...

[santa2007-2009]

Hey, A Picture Is Worth A Thousand Words:
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