Tuesday, October 30, 2007

Noel Hits Cuba; 22 Dead Elsewhere


Click on picture for higher resolution image


Tropical Depression 16 was intensifying into Tropical Storm Noel late in the morning of October 28, 2007, when the Moderate Resolution Imaging (click here)



October 30, 2007
Taveras, Dominican Republic
Photographer states :: This is the spillway of the Taveras Dam. It almost looks fun! We then hiked down to take the 1st picture under the plume of water shooting 50 ft. in the air.


October 30, 2007
Taveras, Domincan Republic
Photographer states :: For scale, my husband is 6 ft. tall in the bottom left. This is a picture of the spillway that was opened to relieve the pressure on the Taveras Dam. Unfortunatly for those downstream, all that water has to go somewhere! This is upstream from Baitoa and is causing damage to the bridge.


October 30, 2007
Taveras. Dominican Republic
Photographer states :: This is under the plume of water shooting 50 ft. in the air at Taveras Dam. I wouldn't recommend this to anyone! While we were taking these photos, the North end of the Baitoa Bridge was being washed away.

From the Associated Press

...The storm cut a destructive path across the island of Hispaniola, which is shared by Haiti and the Dominican Republic.
Because of difficulties reaching remote areas of Hispaniola, there was uncertainty over death toll figures, with emergency officials reporting between 22 and 36 people dead.
Tuesday evening, a Dominican emergency commission spokesman revised the death toll in the country upward to at least 30. The official, Luis Luna Paulino, did not release specifics of the deaths, and earlier in the day he acknowledged miscalculating a previous toll.
Almost 12,000 people were driven from their homes and nearly 3,000 homes were destroyed, while collapsed bridges and swollen rivers have isolated 36 towns, Luna said.
"The rains continue to fall and we fear for several families," said Sergio Vargas, a merengue star and Dominican congressman who represents Villa Altagracia, a small town north of the capital, Santo Domingo.
In neighboring Haiti, at least six people died, including two women washed away by a river in the town of Gantier, said U.N. peacekeeping mission spokesman Mamadou Bah. Red Cross volunteers said a 3-year-old boy drowned as his family tried to rescue him from a raging river in the neighborhood of Duvivier.
Noel's outer bands were pounding the two countries Tuesday evening even as the center of the sluggish storm chugged away from Hispaniola, where damages by flash flooding are exacerbated by erosion and stripped hillsides....

The weather in Antarctica (Crystal Ice Chime) is:



October 31, 2007
0117 gmt
South Pole Satellite

After the loss of frigid temperatures of the Blue Ice in the satellite below it returned today but with some of the lowest temperatures noted recently. Vostok was -52 C while Amundsen-Scott is only -42 C. The Peninsula remains at between -2 C and -3 C.


October 30, 2007


1320 gmt


South Pole Satellite

The weather at Glacier Bay National Park (Crystal Wind Chime) is:


The Arctic Circle is becoming frozen but according to bloggers of the 'north' they state the flows are not new and the refreeze is coming late. One of the myths the Neocon newsnetworks like to promote is that there has never been more ice at the North Pole, but, they won't talk about the fact their president is lusting after oil in sea beds now exposed as never before in recorded history. They are such liars and manipulators and they expect to be taken seriously.

...Amid all this slushy angst, the Pacific walrus had decamped to the northwestern Alaskan coast in such numbers that Native elders were stunned and marine mammal scientists were rattled, as FNS reported earlier this month.
Barrow blogger Anne Brygger reports seeing a lone walrus swept along in broken floes off the coast, apparently caught up in shattered pans that just won't freeze hard.
"For the last few days ice has been showing up from somewhere to the north & east," she writes in the latest post from
Tundra Garden. "It's small chunks, but they have 6 inches or more thickness, so they're not brand new.
"This is really late."
In their latest dispatch, posted on line Oct. 16, the ice gurus at NSIDC report sea ice extent has expanded to about 2.18 million square miles - a 37 percent increase since the Arctic cap set its
all-time minimum record of 1.59 million square miles on Sept. 16.
The Northwest Passage has also refrozen, after opening for the first time in modern history.
"Though some portions of the channels appear to still be fairly free of ice, all possible routes would now require ice-hardened vessels or icebreakers to transit," the NSIDC says....



Elevation :: 33 ft / 10 m

Temperature :: 45 °F / 7 °C

Conditions :: Overcast

Humidity :: 81%

Dew Point :: 39 °F / 4 °C

Wind :: 15 mph / 24 km/h / 6.7 m/s from the SE

Wind Gust :: 18 mph / 30 km/h / 8.2 m/s

Pressure :: 29.58 in / 1002 hPa (Steady)

Windchill :: 38 °F / 3 °C

Visibility :: 10.0 miles / 16.1 kilometers

UV:
0 out of 16
Clouds:
Scattered Clouds 2100 ft / 640 m
Mostly Cloudy 2800 ft / 853 m
Overcast 4300 ft / 1310 m
(Above Ground Level)

Mukasey is stonewalling. We have seen it before in the Alito and Robert's hearings.


By Richard B. Schmitt, Los Angeles Times October 19, 2007
WASHINGTON - The confirmation hearing of Attorney General-designate Michael B. Mukasey turned contentious yesterday as Senate Democrats accused the nominee of dodging questions about a controversial interrogation technique and backtracking on statements he made about the obligations of the president to follow the law....



With the confirmation hearings of the Bush/Cheney administration, the candidates are coached to remain silent. The Conservatives always point to Judge Ginsberg and her unwillingness to answer to the satisfaction of the questioner some issues.

Well.

The days of mimicking Judge Ginsberg are over. We have seen the corruption introduced into the Judiciary with Alito especially and in my opinion it is time for Senate confirmations to take on the character they should and vote against candidates that DON'T answer questions. Mr. Mukasey is STONEWALLING the USA Senate and it should be viewed as exactly that. He is holding the best interest of the American people hostage to his confirmation. We already know what a nightmare Gonzalez was and Bush's big push with him was the fact he was hispanic. Just because someone is a minority doesn't equate to the best candidate for the job.

If Mukasey can't answer questions, excuse him as a candidate. He will do exactly what he wants when it gets into office regardless of what he says in hearings. He won't answer because it would be a lie ! Liars are not allowed in office.

In the Robert's confirmation hearings, all we heard about Roe v. Wade was "Stare decisis" and when he took the bench, the first chance he got he turned against precident, gutted Roe v. Wade and we know for a fact has put women's lives in danger.

We need to KNOW whom is taking office and what qualities they bring otherwise they are rejected.

Republicans DON'T 'get it.' What Rudy Giuliani says in his latest campaign AGAINST American health insurance is EXACTLY the problem.


Mayor Rudolph Giuliani "I would urge everyone to get the P.S.A. test, there's nothing painful about the P.S.A. test. It's a blood test ... You should have it tested and find out."


The 'sympathy' vote didn't work when he ran before, neither did dressing in drag, so, what does he think he's doing?


In his dissertation to the public regarding his prostate cancer he states his survival rate in the USA is 82% while that same survival rate would drop to 44% in England. To begin he is comparing apples and oranges. The USA is not England and England is not the USA. In the USA we do a lot of 'screening' and I don't see that changing. But, that isn't really his greatest folly.

When my sister was diagnosed with a brain tumor she had the best insurance money could buy. Her husband was employed at a high end job and had the best benefits in the world. So did, Rudy Giuliani. Having access to health insurance turns the corner on wellness. Being able to go to screenings and then being able to access care when diagnosed is key to being cured.

Not only that,but, he goes on and on about 'deductions' in the amounts that would invite anyone currently able to AFFORD health insurance in the first place. As a matter of fact $15,000 and $7500 could even allow people to improve the health insurance they currently subscribe to and seek new carriers IF they can get accepted for a plan that also will accept for treatment PRE-EXISTING conditions. Did the former New York mayor change insurance carriers in the middle of his treatment for prostate cancer? Of course not, he was insured by the State of New York and nowhere is there better treatment. If he had tried to find new health insurance while he was treated, he probably would be rejected for insurance and if he did receive it he would have a pre-existing condition and it would not be covered.

But back to these 'deductions.' In order for tax deductions for health insurance to matter a family has to be able to afford it in the first place. If a family doesn't subscribe to health insurance because they cannot afford it, they'll never receive the deduction because they never spent the money in the first place and they will be locked out of the system. THAT is what is "W"rong in the first place. We have Americans underinsured and uninsured that cannot get health insurance because of the expense and pre-existing condtions.

Additionally, the priorities of the health insurance industry causes deaths. They refuse treatment even if you have insurance. There are some insurance companies like 'Great Western' that may not even bother to insure any Americans, because their 'in network' participants are few and far between, there is no such thing on any provider list for OB-GYN but ONLY Nurse Practitioners, and if a subscriber goes 'Out of Network' they pay nearly nothing which is what they want to pay in the first place.

There is a lot "W"rong with the health care industry in the USA. For one, it's an industry. I'm sorry but my body is not a PRODUCT. Rudy Giuliani is wrong and so are the Republicans. The system in the USA has to be completely revamped and to listen to Michael Moore is a delight. He loves the ideas of some of the wealthier countries that afford people 'in home service workers' when ill to do their laundry and vacations to keep stress low and the chances of illness caused by stress eliminated from their countries.

Here's Michael on his PodCast.

http://audio.kvmr.org/mmoore29oct2007.mp3

He even takes on the Democrats running as Presidential hopefuls. That is a lot "W"rong with the USA health insurance industry and it's completely unconscionable to allow people to live without any health insurance in a country that spends trillions of dollars on bombs and missiles.

Rudy Giuliani is "W"rong on everything. He personifies exactly what is the problem.

Critics Fault Response to San Diego Fires (click for NPR report)


October 29, 2007
Chuka Vista, California
Photographer states :: Sara ve su casa quemada...una amiga de chula vista visita lo que fue su casa.


If the wildfires occurred to me? I'd be on vacation, too. Who can cope? I mean really. Home one day with all the comforts a life's work can afford and homeless the next.


1) If the state fire safety rules -- requiring that state-trained "spotters" be aboard -- that kept military helicopters from going up early last week were so crucial, then why did state officials later essentially agree to waive them? In a phone interview Friday, top state officials defended the decision-making seen last Monday with great passion. They can't reconcile that with the decision 36 hours or so later to back down. It was, is and will always be incredible that the question of "spotters" wasn't resolved before San Diego County's encore nightmare.
2) The congressmen who are doing such a good job exposing the state's bureaucratic tomfoolery in its wildfire response have some explaining to do themselves. Couldn't they have spared an earmark to cover the cost of outfitting the California Air National Guard's C-130 with a fire-retardant tank, something that was promised to happen after the 2003 wildfires but never did?
Instead, Duncan Hunter
funneled $63 million ...


This is what CORRUPTION does. The misdirection of public monies for the favor of a crony provides REAL damage in the REAL world. The political world of the Republicans needs to be abandoned because it isn't NEED based, it's crony based. The country suffers at the hand of politics. The electorate has to focus on candidates the speak to the issues with real solutions, not theory, not beliefs, but, real solutions to real problems. GET RID OF THESE REPUBLICAN BOZOS. They don't know what reality is !


...Hunter has received $36,000 in campaign contributions from Anthony duPont, president of duPont Aerospace, the company developing the plane at a facility in El Cajon.
The cutoff of funds might be the death knell for the project, duPont said.
But Hunter remains optimistic.
“Congressman Hunter continues to support the program, and DP-2 funding could very well be revisited in the next budget cycle,” said spokesman Joe Kasper.
Hunter had sought $6 million for the project next year.


...into the DP-2 Vectored Thrust Aircraft boondoggle. And Dana Rohrabacher worried more about buying expensive planes the military didn't want than about helping California's wildfire-fighting capacity. This is from a May story in the Washington Post:



... Rohrabacher (R-Calif.) has made one of the biggest earmark requests in the new Congress, seeking $2.4 billion to build 10 more C-17 planes -- which the Pentagon has said it does not need.

Do know how much 'Alternative Energy' infrastructure $2.4 billion would buy? A lot. The new jobs it would create? Get rid of these people.

I know a lot of people are selling it as hard as they can, but don't buy the narrative that last week saw a perfect synergy of local, state and federal officials and resources. It's not true, not by a long shot.
Posted by Chris Reed at October 29, 2007 09:19 AM

The Carribean Sea vortex has become a Tropical Storm Noel. Slow as molasses, isn't it? (click for 2 hour loo0)


October 29, 2007
Baitoa, Dominican Republic
Photographer states :: This is a small creek that runs through town, usually 1 foot wide. About 1 ft. of shore has been lost and is threatening the treeline.


October 29, 2007
Baitoa, Dominican Republic
Photographer states :: A small mudslide caused this 30-40 ft. tree to fall on this small shack....amazingly a man, 1 year old and 8 month pregnant woman were sleeping at the time and are all fine....strong little shack!!


The 14th named storm of the 2007 Atlantic hurricane season brought dramatic skies to the seafront of Santo Domingo, capital of the Dominican Republic.




In pictures: Tropical Storm Noel (click here)




October 30, 2007
0915z
UNISYS Water Vapor GOES East Water Vapor Satellite


Huge. Meanderingly slow. Lacking sufficient water vapor to become volitile quickly. Anti-Cyclonic air masses (it's cyclonic, I was looking at the southern hemisphere at the same time I made this entry. Oops.) are usually attributed to a high pressure system normally, but, the 'miminum' millibars currently are 999. It's extremely sluggish though. If one looks at the entire hemisphere all the vortices are taking on a sluggish movement.

UNISYS Hemispheric Satellite (click here)


CARIBBEAN SEA... ALTHOUGH TROPICAL STORM NOEL IS NOW N OF CUBA THE EFFECTS REMAIN ACROSS PORTIONS OF THE CARIBBEAN TONIGHT.

FLASH FLOODING AND MUD SLIDES CONTINUE TO BE CONCERN OVER THE MOUNTAINOUS ISLANDS OF HISPANIOLA.

THESE HEAVY RAINS ARE EXPECTED TO CONTINUE AS E CUBA SHOULD BEGIN TO SEE THE EFFECTS AS THE STORM MOVES WNW.

HEAVY SHOWERS/ISOLATED THUNDERSTORMS ARE S OF PUERTO RICO FROM 16N-19N BETWEEN 64W-68W. ELSEWHERE...A SURFACE TROUGH EXTENDS FROM S OF NOEL ACROSS THE CENTRAL CARIBBEAN FROM E CUBA NEAR 19N76W JUST E OF JAMAICA ALONG 15N78W TO 12N82W.

A BROAD UPPER HIGH ASSOCIATED WITH NOEL COVERS MOST OF THE CARIBBEAN W OF 70W. CLUSTERS OF SCATTERED SHOWERS/ISOLATED THUNDERSTORMS IN THE GULF OF HONDURAS S OF 19N W OF 83W TO INLAND OVER CENTRAL AMERICA.



Tropical Storm Noel Rains Lash Haiti (click here)
By JONATHAN M. KATZ – 22 hours ago
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP) — Tropical Storm Noel lashed Haiti with heavy rains early Monday as it moved across the impoverished Caribbean nation, generating fears of flash flooding on deforested hills often blanketed by rows of flimsy shacks.
Noel, the 14th named storm of the Atlantic season, was expected to drop as much as 20 inches of rain on Haiti and the Dominican Republic — which share the island of Hispaniola — before heading on a path east of Cuba toward the Bahamas.
The storm weakened overnight as it encountered Hispaniola's mountainous terrain but still poses a serious threat to Haiti, which is recovering from floods that killed at least 37 and sent more than 4,000 people to shelters earlier this month.
Noel had sustained winds of about 45 mph and is expected to move over or near Haiti's western coast Monday, according to the U.S. National Hurricane Center in Miami.
At 8 a.m. EDT, Noel's poorly organized center was located near the Haitian capital of Port-au-
Prince, forecasters said....

...Forecasters said Noel, with tropical storm force winds fanning 140 miles from its center, could drop 10 to 20 inches of water on Hispaniola.
Dominican authorities said at least 600 people had been evacuated as the storm touched off landslides, flooded rivers and pushed storm surges onto Santo Domingo's seaside boulevard.
Swollen rivers also forced evacuations in Cabaret, a town north of Port-au-Prince where floods killed at least 23 people earlier this month, said Marie Alta Jean-Baptiste, director of Haiti's civil protection agency....




At least 20 killed by storm in Dominican Republic (click here)
Tuesday, October 30, 2007
A tropical storm has killed at least 20 people after triggering major floods in the Dominican Republic.
Another 20 people have been reported missing after Tropical Storm Noel dumped up to 20 inches of rain on the country yesterday.
The storm is now heading of the Bahamas and is also expected to hit Florida in the south-eastern United States.