Snow piles up - Thousands without electricity

"Thousands without electricity" This is a perfect example for the need to prepare for the unexpected. Weather is no respecter of persons. Whether you are rich, poor, healthy, sick, young or old, etc. the unexpected can take a tole on you and your family worse if you have no back-up plan, reserves or education. It's better to be prepared for emergencies and know that you've done what you can, than to be found struggling because of denial. Here is an article with an excellent example. What could you do to prepare for this?

Find original article Here

Snow piles up, paralyzing nation's capital (AP)

AP - A blizzard battered the Mid-Atlantic region Saturday, with emergency crews struggling to keep pace with the heavy, wet snow that has piled up on roadways, toppled trees and left thousands without electricity.

Officials urged people to huddle at home and out of the way of emergency crews. Forecasters said the storm could be the biggest for the nation's capital in modern history.

A record 2 1/2 feet or more was predicted for Washington. As of early Saturday, 10 inches of snow was reported at the White House, while parts of Maryland and West Virginia were buried under more than 20 inches. Forecasters expected snowfall rates to increase, up to 2 inches per hour through Saturday morning.

Blizzard warnings were issued for the District of Columbia, Baltimore, parts of New Jersey and Delaware, and some areas west of the Chesapeake Bay.

"Things are fairly manageable, but trees are starting to come down," said D.C. fire department spokesman Pete Piringer, whose agency responded to some of the falling trees. No injuries were reported.

Airlines canceled flights, churches called off weekend services and people wondered if they would be stuck at home for several days in a region ill-equipped to deal with so much snow.

"D.C. traditionally panics when it comes to snow. This time, it may be more justifiable than most times," said Becky Shipp, who was power-walking in Arlington, Va., Friday. "I am trying to get a walk in before I am stuck with just the exercise machine in my condo."

The region's second snowstorm in less than two months brought heavy, wet snow and strong winds that forecasters warned could gust near 60 mph in some areas along the coast.

Hundreds of thousands of customers across the region had lost electricity and more outages were expected to be reported because of all the downed power lines. A hospital fire in D.C. sent about three dozen patients scurrying from their rooms to safety in a basement. The blaze started when a snow plow truck caught fire near the building.

Authorities blamed the storm for hundreds of accidents, including a deadly tractor-trailer wreck that killed a father and son who had stopped to help someone in Virginia. Some area hospitals asked people with four-wheel-drive vehicles to volunteer to pick up doctors and nurses to take them to work.

The country band Rascal Flatts postponed a concert Saturday in Ohio, but the Atlanta Thrashers-Washington Capitals NHL game went on as planned.

In Dover, Del., Shanita Foster lugged three gallons of water out of a Dollar General store.

"That's all we need right now. We've got everything else," said Foster, adding that she was ready with candles in case the power went out.

Shoppers jammed aisles and emptied stores of milk, bread, shovels, driveway salt and other supplies. Many scrambling for food and supplies were too late.

"Our shelves are bare," said Food Lion front-end manager Darlene Baboo in Dover. "This is just unreal."

Metro, the transit system the Washington area is heavily dependent upon, closed all but the underground rail service and suspended bus service.

Maryland's public transportation also shut down Saturday, including Baltimore's Metro. Maryland Transit Administration spokeswoman Jawauna Greene said the underground portion of the Metro could reopen later Saturday but it depended on the weather conditions.

"We have trees on the overhead wires, trees on train tracks. We can't get anything out," she said.

Amtrak also canceled several of its Northeast Corridor trains Saturday, and New Jersey's transit authority expected to suspend bus service. As much as a foot of snow was reported in parts of that state.

Across the region, transportation officials deployed thousands of trucks and crews and had hundreds of thousands of tons of salt at the ready. Several states exhausted or expected to exhaust their snow removal budgets.

Maryland budgeted about $60 million, and had already spent about $50 million, Gov. Martin O'Malley said. Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell, who has been in office less than a month, declared his second snow emergency, authorizing state agencies to assist local governments. As of early Saturday, some parts of Virginia had already seen more than 18 inches of snow.

The snow comes less than two months after a Dec. 19 storm dumped more than 16 inches on Washington. Snowfalls of this magnitude — let alone two in one season — are rare in the area. According to the National Weather Service, Washington has gotten more than a foot of snow only 13 times since 1870.

The heaviest on record was 28 inches in January 1922. The biggest snowfall for the Washington-Baltimore area is believed to have been in 1772, before official records were kept, when as much as 3 feet fell, which George Washington and Thomas Jefferson penned in their diaries.

In Washington, tourists made the best of it Friday, spending their days in museums or venturing out to see the monuments before the snow got too heavy.

A group of 13 high school students from Cincinnati was stranded in D.C. when a student government conference they planned to attend was canceled — after they had already arrived. So they went sightseeing.

At the Smithsonian's natural history museum, Caitlin Lavon, 18, and Hannah Koch, 17, took pictures of each other with the jaws of a great white shark in the Ocean Hall.

"Our parents are all freaking out, sending texts to be careful," Koch said. "Being from Ohio, I don't think I've ever seen that much snow at once."

___

Associated Press writers Brett Zongker and Sarah Karush in Washington, Kathleen Miller in Falls Church, Va., David Dishneau in Chantilly, Va., Ben Nuckols in Hanover, Md., Randall Chase in Dover, Del., and Steve Szkotak in Richmond, Va., contributed to this report.

(This version CORRECTS spelling of band 'Rascal Flatts.')

Jobless rate at highest level in 26 years

By Patrice Hill
Read original article here.

The nation's unemployment rate surged to a 26-year high of 9.7 percent last month as employers slashed jobs in nearly every part of the economy, the Labor Department reported Friday.

The news heralds what is likely to be a long, "jobless" recovery for the economy. Analysts believe the economy this summer started to emerge from the steep recession that started in December 2007, but say improvement in the job market is following the pattern of other recent recessions and lagging behind the return of growth in other sectors, such as manufacturing.

The job cuts since last summer have been the deepest seen in modern times, and have left the nation with nearly 7 million fewer jobs than before the recession, the department said. But the 216,000 jobs eliminated during August were the fewest in a year and fewer than the 276,000 jobs cut in July, indicating that the pace of layoffs continues to slowly moderate from a peak of 700,000 a month at the beginning of the year.

"Job losses are diminishing as the labor market creeps ever so slowly toward stabilization," said Bernard Baumohl, chief global economist at the Economic Outlook Group. "But employment conditions are improving at such an agonizingly slow pace that most Americans will not be able to detect any genuine improvement. That's why consumer spending will remain weak for the balance of the year."

Even though a recovery likely has begun, "if history is any guide, we will continue to see payrolls decline for at least another six months," he said. After the last two recessions, it took more than two years for the economy to generate enough jobs to bring down the unemployment rate.

"Companies just do not commence hiring once a recession ends, in part because it is so difficult to know with confidence that the economy has turned the corner for good," Mr. Baumohl said. "As a result, employers ask their existing workers to produce more" to get by for a while, and later they will add temporary workers until they are sure a recovery has taken hold and they can add full-time staff, he said.

Incomes have taken a hit along with jobs. Average hourly wages grew modestly by 0.3 percent in August, but weekly earnings were up by less than 1 percent over the past year because employers have been slashing hours as well as jobs in their efforts to cut costs and stay afloat.

Every major sector lost jobs during the month except education and health care, where jobs have kept growing since the onset of the recession. Even the government, which managed to create a few jobs in past months, slashed jobs by 18,000 in August, reflecting the lagging effect of tax revenues lost to the recession.

While state and local governments, faced with escalating budget gaps, are expected to continue trimming jobs, the federal government is becoming a rare source of job growth as it gears up to carry out massive stimulus, homeland-security, bank-bailout and other programs.

With baby boom-era government workers moving toward retirement, a survey by the Partnership for Public Service estimates that the government will need to fill 273,000 mission-critical jobs in the next three years, a 41 percent increase from the group's 2007 survey of job openings.

"Job opportunities are there. People need to seize them," said Max Stier, president of the partnership. "For job-seekers motivated by a desire to make a difference and improve the lives of Americans, there are no better possibilities than those provided by our federal government."

Unemployment rose among all groups in August but hit teenagers particularly hard. More than one in four teens who are looking for work have been unable to find jobs - a record, according to the department's survey of 60,000 U.S. households.

One reason the unemployment rate jumped to 9.7 percent from 9.4 percent in July was the fact that 73,000 people entered the market looking for work but were unable to find jobs, the department said.

In a broader measure of the job malaise facing most Americans, a measure of unemployment that includes workers who are too discouraged to keep looking for jobs and those working part time who would rather have full-time jobs rose to a record 16.8 percent from 16.3 percent in July.

In a sign of the depth of the employment distress, one in every three workers looking for jobs has been unemployed for more than six months.

John Silvia, chief economist at Wells Fargo Securities, said that is a hint that layoffs in the past year have been permanent rather than temporary. The hardship for workers with no prospect of being rehired by their previous employers is increased by the fact that the struggling housing market has made it more difficult to move elsewhere to find work, he said.

A Study in Contrasts: The Dole

The original article can be found here.

April 23, 2009 — Tracy M

Continuing our theme this week… Almost seventeen months ago, my husband lost his job. We had our six-months reserves, we had our cars and student loans paid off, we had our food storage and our credit cards were empty. We did everything we were counselled to do. We cashed in our 401K, pared down our expenses and tried to stretch our dollar, making our six months savings last almost a year and half. In these months, we’ve also accumulated over 300 rejection letters for the jobs my husband has applied for in three states.

Today, we are out of rope. The savings are gone. The 401K is gone. The unemployment insurance is gone. We don’t know what comes next. But here is what I can see from where I stand…

Study One:State Department of Health and Human Services (hereafter DHS)

First Visit.We gather all our papers- social security cards, bank statements, insurance and paystubs- and head down to the DHS offices. We have an appointment, and we think this means something. It does not. An appointment, it turns out, only means they will see you sometime that day. There are no guarantees- it may be at 10 a.m. or at 4 p.m. So be prepared to sit and wait.

There are dozens of others sitting and waiting in the poorly-lit windowless office. There are not enough chairs, and people are scattered on the floor as well. It’s undignified, whether by design or by funding, I don’t know. It’s also dirty. I don’t mean a value judgement, but factually, it is a dirty place.

We wait for our names to be called for over two hours. All the “windows” are walled with gray-painted boards, and there is a small opening through which you talk to your “case worker”. We provide all the information requested. Our Case Worker informs us that we with our unemployment compensation, we make exactly, to the dollar, the cut-off for assistance. We are also told to quietly sell one of our cars, and it will help our case. Otherwise, the will count our car as income and make us claim it. We are hoping for medical insurance for our kids, since the COBRA from my husband’s job is almost the same as our mortgage every month.

After almost another hour, we are told to go home, that someone will contact us with information regarding our eligibility. They do, and our kids get medical insurance. We are grateful for this. We are eligible for no other aid.

Visit Two: A year later. Yesterday. Our resources are gone. We have no savings or cash. Since unemployment has run out, we wonder if we might qualify for other aid or services. Our income is now $0. 00. Because it made no difference before, we skip making an appointment. We again gather our papers, get a sitter for the kids and go downtown. A large sign greets us at the check-in kiosk informing us they do not see walk-ins on Wednesday. Knocking on a board “window” I ask a woman if she can help me. She tells me she cannot officially “help” me, but maybe she can answer a few questions.

I learn: If I were not married, I would qualify for about twice the aid I do as a married woman with three kids. If I were unmarried and pregnant, I would qualify for even more. If I lie on my form and say I only have one car, they will give me more. To receive aid, I must be willing to go back to work, at which time they will provide the funding for daycare. But only if I work. They will only pay someone else to watch my kids, not me.

My husband and I fill out the forms and drop them in the box. Since we don’t have an appointment, and no one can officially help us, we now wait for a phone call to give us an appointment so we can go back down and wait all day.

We left the DSH offices and sat in the car. We were quiet, unsure of what to say- it’s humiliating to be in the position of needing help. It’s worse when you’re not even seen as a person. It becomes almost funny dealing with a bureaucracy as inefficient, mind-numbing and soul-deadening as the red-tape welfare system.

Study Two: Church Welfare and the Bishop’s Storehouse

I’m biased. Right up front. I am. You can read about my experiences at the BSH here, and about struggling with humility here. I have a testimony of this church, and of the work it does, and nothing will shake that from me.

Recently, I had the privilege of talking with a local authority on the charitable mission of the Church. I was expressing concern over our need for assistance and being a burden, when he stopped me. He told me to set aside my worries. In a recent training session, he had been told all work, all temple building, all production of media would be set aside before any cut in aid to the poor and needy. Aid to the poor and needy was the single most important mission of this Church, and they would continue to provide that aid long after funds for anything else might be cut.

He also asked me if I knew the difference between the “Poor” and the “Needy”. The Poor are poor of spirit, and are needful of the Gospel and the love of Christ, while the Needy are those who know Christ and are simply in need of temporal assistance until they can again help themselves. It is the Church’s mission to care for both, without discrimination.

So, when my husband and I left the DHS offices yesterday, we drove to the Bishop’s Storehouse. We tied on our aprons and got to work. We cooked a meal for 30 people, and then sat down and broke bread with our brothers and sisters who were there to serve each other as well.

Periodically as we ate, another family would come in, and some of us would excuse ourselves to help prepare their order, while another offered their place at the table so the family could eat a hot meal while they waited.

When we get home, there is a message from our bishop. He knows our situation, and wants our mortgage information so the Church can take care of it for us this coming month. He assured us in his message to not worry, and that he will meet with us on Sunday.

In one day, we see the best and near the worst. We see misguided and failed attempts at a social safety net, and we can a truly family-centered and carefully run program that actually helps real people with real needs. We see one program contributing to the Poor and ignoring many Needy. And we see another program helping not only the Needy, but working diligently to alleviate being Poor altogether.

So we can theoretically argue all day over what social welfare means. We can discuss the pros and cons and whys till the cows come home. But what is a dispassionate discussion of social policy to some, is something I am passionately living every day.

Ready for Recession

For Mormons, preparing for hard times is an article of faith

By Beth Brelje
Pocono Record Writer
February 22, 2009

How long would the food supply in your home last without grocery shopping? A couple days? A few weeks?

A year?

Mormons, who store a year's supply of food in their homes, might top the Boy Scouts in the "Be Prepared" department.

"The Lord tells us, if you are prepared you don't have to fear," said Marie Whitaker of Henryville, a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Stroudsburg.

You don't have to be Mormon to plan for tight times. It is simple advice anyone can follow.

Whitaker says her stash of necessities has come in handy a few times. Twelve years ago, her husband lost his job. With five of their six children living at home at the time, the family dipped into the food storage.

"I wasn't worried about food because I had things on hand," Whitaker said.

When her husband went to graduate school, she planted a garden, and they used the food storage more often. Recently, a friend had surgery. Whitaker went to her pantry and had all the ingredients to whip up a dish. She was able to quickly get food to the friend without running to the store.

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints counsels members to plan ahead. "We believe in being self-reliant and self-sustaining. We set aside three months of food in case there is some adversity in our lives so we can take care of ourselves," Whitaker said.

The three-month supply is made up of food in the family's regular diet. Whitaker's family likes ketchup, so she bought four bottles of the condiment when it was on sale recently. They are also big on green beans. She buys them a case (24 cans) at a time when the price is low. Stockpiling saves money.

Chocolates and the fixings for a birthday cake or homemade cookies are in the three-month pantry too. Treats like these can lift spirits during lean times.

Items in the three-month storage are rotated. As new items are added, older shelf contents are used.

In addition to the three-month supply, a long-term storage is kept. These are things that will sustain life and can sit on a shelf for as long as 30 years without spoiling when properly stored. They include dried beans, rice, wheat for making flour, and freeze-dried fruits and vegetables.

Sara Lane of Tunkhannock Township is also a member of the church. Jokingly, Lane wondered if people crave French toast when it snows, because everyone rushes to the store to buy eggs, milk and bread whether they need it or not.

Running out of food during a snowstorm is not a concern for those who stockpile food.
They also keep basic necessities such as water, candles, blankets and a grill or camp stove for cooking.

"It frees you from worry," Lane said.

Lane and her family also have 72-hour kits. These are bags near the door filled with everything the family would need for three days in case they had to suddenly leave the home.

Of course if you end up breaking into the long-term supplies, you are going to have to know how to prepare them. The knowledge of how to prepare dried beans and other foods is essential. Basic, homemade cooking can dramatically reduce the cost of feeding a family, while increasing flavor.

Lane, for example, bakes her own bread. She gets four loaves from a batch at a cost of 25 cents a batch, or less than 7 cents a loaf. Her sister makes yogurt for $3.50 a gallon, and they trade yogurt for bread.

For those who say they don't have time to bake, Lane says it takes five minutes to mix the bread dough, and later, another five minutes to shape it into loaves. "People make time for what's important to them," Lane said.

A long-term pantry is not stocked overnight. The church also teaches members to save money and live within their means, so buying all the food at once is not practical. Instead, they recommend gradual purchases over time. Watch the ads and buy it when it goes on sale.

"It's nice not to worry. It gives you a peace of mind that you can take care of yourself in any circumstance," Whitaker said.

STORE IT LIKE A MORMON
Items with an estimated 30-year shelf life when properly stored, according to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints:

Wheat
White rice
Corn
Sugar
Pinto beans
Rolled oats
Pasta
Potato flakes
Apple slices

Items with a 20-year shelf life:
Non-fat powdered milk
Dehydrated carrots

The Mormons' estimate of what a family needs per person, per month:
25 pounds of wheat, white rice, corn and other grains 5 pounds of dry beans and other legumes

Source: www.providentliving.org

Recession grows interest in seeds, vegetable gardening

By Bruce Horovitz, USA TODAY

(Here is the original article.)

Hard economic times are acting like instant fertilizer on an industry that had been growing slowly: home vegetable gardening.

Amid the Washington talk of "shovel-ready" recession projects, it appears few projects are more shovel-ready than backyard gardens. Veggie seed sales are up double-digits at the nation's biggest seed sellers this year.

What's more, the number of homes growing vegetables will jump more than 40% this year compared with just two years ago, projects the National Gardening Association, a non-profit organization for gardening education.

"As the economy goes down, food gardening goes up," says Bruce Butterfield, the group's research director. "We haven't seen this kind of spike in 30 years."

At W. Atlee Burpee, the world's largest seed company, seed sales will jump 25% this year, Chairman George Ball estimates. "It's weird to have everyone else you talk to experiencing plunging markets. We're on a roll."

Burpee is taking pains to craft its marketing to fit the times, says Ball. It recently rolled out the "Money Garden," a value bundle of tomato, bean, red pepper, carrot, lettuce and snap pea seeds sold online at www.burpee.com. With a separate retail value of $20, the pack sells for $10, and under the right conditions, Burpee claims, can produce $650 worth of veggies.

"Seeds are God's microchip," says Ball. But in the suddenly hot world of veggie seed sales, Burpee has company:

•Park Seed. Vegetable seed sales are up 20% this year vs. 2008, says Walter Yates, who oversees the company's e-commerce.

Says Yates, "Every time this country goes through a recession, there is a surge of folks who want to get back to basics."

•Renee's Garden. Business manager Sarah Renfro says veggie seed sales were up about 10% last year and look to grow up to 20%.

"After years of declining veggie seed sales, the whole cycle has completely reversed," says Renee Shepherd, president.

•Harris Seeds. Home garden vegetable seed sales are up 80% from one year ago, says Dick Chamberlin, president. "A jump like this has never happened."

•Ferry-Morse Seed. After 2008 sales grew 5%, the company stocked up on 50% more vegetable seeds to sell in 2009, says John Hamrick, vice president of sales and marketing.

The veggies are apparently squeezing flowers for space in the nation's gardens. Ferry-Morse, along with others, is seeing a decline in sales of flower seeds, and Hamrick says the company has switched its inventory mix from 50-50 to 40% flower seeds and 60% veggies.

KY deploys full Army Nat'l Guard for storm cleanup

By BRUCE SCHREINER and BETSY TAYLOR, Associated Press Writers Bruce Schreiner And Betsy Taylor, Associated Press Writers

(See original article here.)

MAYFIELD, Ky. – Gov. Steve Beshear deployed every last one of his Army National Guardsmen on Saturday, with his state still reeling after a deadly ice storm encrusted it this week.

More than half a million homes and businesses, most of them in Kentucky, remained without electricity from the Ozarks through Appalachia, though temperatures creeping into the 40s helped a swarm of utility workers make headway. Finding fuel — heating oil along with gas for cars and generators — was another struggle for those trying to tough it out at home, with hospitals and other essential services getting priority over members of the public.

The addition of 3,000 soldiers and airmen makes 4,600 Guardsmen pressed into service. It's the largest call-up in Kentucky history, which Beshear called an appropriate response to a storm that cut power to more than 600,000 people, the state's largest outage on record. Many people in rural areas cannot get out of their driveways due to debris and have no phone service, the governor said.

"With the length of this disaster and what we're expecting to be a multi-day process here, we're concerned about the lives and the safety of our people in their own homes," Beshear said, "and we need the manpower in some of the rural areas to go door-to-door and do a door-to-door canvass ... and make sure they're OK."

Staff Sgt. Erick Duncan of Murray said he and his colleagues have been putting in long shifts to open tree-littered roads. Duncan, who manned a chain saw, said he expects the assignment to last quite a while.

"It's a mess and we're just in the city limits," he said. "We're not even out in the county yet. And there's plenty of cities and counties to go to."

Thousands of people were staying in motels and shelters, asked to leave their homes by authorities who said emergency teams in some areas were too strapped to reach everyone in need of food, water and warmth. The outages disabled water systems, and authorities warned it could be days or weeks before power was restored in the most remote spots.

That uncertainty had many appealing for help and officials urging those in dark homes to leave, if they could — many were stuck in place by blocked roads and other obstacles.

The storm that began in the Midwest had been blamed or suspected in at least 42 deaths, including 11 in Kentucky, nine in Arkansas, six each in Texas and Missouri, three in Virginia, two each in Oklahoma, Indiana and West Virginia and one in Ohio. Most were blamed on hypothermia, traffic accidents and carbon monoxide poisoning.

From Missouri to Ohio, thousands were waiting in shelters for the power to return. As far away as Oklahoma, around 10,000 customers still had no electricity.

At Graves County High School in western Kentucky, where 490 sought shelter Friday night, Ruthann Taylor, 23, said she tried to ride out the early part of the storm at home with her 1-year-old son, but it simply got too cold.

"I woke up the next morning and my son was pretty much an ice cube," Taylor said. "I said 'OK, we've got to go.'"

Fuel shortages, a problem since the storm, spilled into the weekend, with radio stations that normally broadcast music telling people where they could get gas and oil businesses ranking customers according to how urgently they needed it.

"We're trying to prioritize to get fuel to hospitals, nursing homes, ambulance services," said David Dunlap, regional sales manager for MFA Oil Co., which has 10 locations in southeast Missouri.

With the power back on in Tennessee's northeast corner, Kentucky residents headed across the state line to get fuel. Obion Co. Propane Gas general manager Ken Walker said he gets five customers on the average day at his shop in Union, Tenn.

He saw 200 in a single day Thursday.

"They are bringing their propane cylinders, camper bottles and whatever else they can to do what it takes to stay warm," Walker said.

The community of Caruthersville, Mo., about 200 miles south of St. Louis, had its own supply of about 8,000 gallons of diesel and another 8,000 of gas. Workers used generators to power pumps to get fuel to power other generators around town, including one that kept the water plant going. Reserve water supplies were on hand in case of additional emergencies.

"I can't feel real good about it until all our people are back in a comfortable environment," Mayor Diane Sayre said.
___
Betsy Taylor reported from St. Louis. Associated Press writers Roger Alford in Leitchfield, Ky., and Janet Cappiello Blake in Louisville, Ky., contributed to this report.

Residents face long, icy wait for power to return

By BRUCE SCHREINER, Associated Press Writer Bruce Schreiner, Associated Press Writer – Thu Jan 29, 3:25 pm ET

(see original article here)

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – More than a million homes and businesses were left in the cold without power Thursday in the wake of an icy winter storm could face a lengthy wait for electricity to come back, even as federal help was promised to two states hit hardest by the blast.

President Barack Obama signed requests late Wednesday from Kentucky Gov. Steve Beshear and Arkansas Gov. Mike Beebe for federal emergency declarations. Crews — even the National Guard in Kentucky — worked around the clock to resurrect power lines downed by thick ice.
At a mall turned into a staging area in Barboursville, W.Va., crews in hard hats met alongside piles of poles, generators, wire and other supplies to find out where to go first. A convoy with crews from as far away as North Carolina was there to help.

"We're attacking it head on," said Appalachian Power spokesman Phil Moye. "As long as the ice is still on the trees, the storm is still here."

Utility officials estimated more than 1.3 million homes and businesses from Arkansas to Ohio were powerless, and warned it could be mid-February before some customers had power.
Various charities opened shelters across the region, but with the power out nearly everywhere — including at some radio stations — it was difficult to spread the word. Some deputies went door to door and offered to drive the elderly to safety.

Some huddled next to wood-burning fires and portable heaters to fend off the frigid air. Communities urged people to conserve water because the outages could limit supplies. Those who stayed put in their homes relied on gas stoves to cook food, and emergency officials feared the crisis could escalate as temperatures plunged.

"I'm so worried that we're going to have a death due to hypothermia or carbon monoxide," said John Robinson, the severe weather coordinator for the National Weather Service at North Little Rock, Ark. Space heaters, if improperly used, can generate dangerous levels of carbon monoxide.
In Boone County, Ark., Sheriff Danny Hickman said the jail lost power and its generator failed. The lockup's 23 inmates had to be moved to other jails until utility service returns.

The storm has been blamed for at least 24 deaths so far. Kentucky officials Thursday added two that they called weather-related: A woman who died while an ambulance on the way to her was blocked by impassable roads and a woman who fell on her basement stairs while she was retrieving a kerosene heater. A woman in Indiana died while shoveling snow.

Tony Cipolla managed to keep warm by building a fire at his powerless home near Seneca Park in Louisville, cooking a pot of soup over a gas stove. But there wasn't a long-term plan for Cipolla and his two children, ages 5 and 9, if electricity wasn't soon restored.

"If it'll be a couple days, then we'll be in trouble," Cipolla told The Courier-Journal in Louisville, where temperatures dipped into the 20s overnight.

More than a half-million were without power in Kentucky, where the power outages produced by the ice storm were outdone only by the remnants of Hurricane Ike, which lashed the state with fierce winds last year, leaving about 600,000 customers without power.

"We've got lots of counties that do not have any communication, any heat, any power," Beshear, the state's governor, said Wednesday.

Kyle Brashears' family rode out the storm in their Mountain Home, Ark., home before fleeing to relatives after half an ice-caked oak tree fell into their home.

"It caved the roof in and ripped the gutter off, although it didn't penetrate inside," he said. "I was walking around outside until about 1 a.m. and it was just a nonstop medley of tree limbs cracking off."

After building in Texas and Oklahoma on Monday, the storm moved east, finally dumping more than a foot of snow in some parts of New England. Except for school cancellations and some airline delays and cancellations, the storm lost steam as it moved east.

In Ohio, passengers on an AirTran Airways flight were held up to 10 hours before finally taking off. Travelers in Columbus boarded Flight 373 for Orlando at a little before 7:30 a.m.

Wednesday. Passengers say it took more than four hours for the plane to push out of the snow at the gate, then were delayed even more when deicing wouldn't work as freezing rain and snow fell.

People were allowed off the plane at lunchtime, then got back on board and sat for several more hours until AirTran gave up on the deicing and brought in another plane, passenger Tiara Berger said. AirTran spokesman Tad Hutcheson said the flight probably should have been canceled, and that the passengers will receive free roundtrip tickets.
___
Contributing to this report were Associated Press writers Kantele Franko in Columbus, Ohio; Justin Juozapavicius in Tulsa, Okla.; Daniel Shea in Little Rock, Ark.; Rick Callahan in Indianapolis; Ben Feller in Washington; Ben Greene in Baltimore; Dan Sewell in Cincinnati; and John Raby in Charleston, W.Va.; and Patrick Walters in Philadelphia.

My Lighthouse - A Journey in Obedience

Recently I purchased one of those short, round I-Robot vacuums that do all the work for me. It came with virtual walls or lighthouses that keep it within one room. I can set it as a virtual wall to keep it from leaving the room, or I can set it to a lighthouse to have it completely clean that room before moving onto the next. My husband found it amusing that I would watch it clean as that defeated the purpose of having it do the work. Then, I caught him doing the same. What I noticed I found very interesting.

In order to get the layout of the room it would wonder aimlessly until it would hit something. Then, it would turn and go in another direction until it would hit something, turn and hit, sometimes the same something that it originally hit, but now in a different spot. Sometimes it travels from one side of the room to the other without any obstruction. Sometimes it spins in circles when it hits a concentrated spot of dirt until it feels it has been sufficiently cleaned. By the time 45 minutes has passed, it had cleaned the entire room multiple times and then returned to its docking station to be recharged.

I began to notice a parallel between my I-Robot and my life. I thought of the times that I felt I was simply moving along, trying to figure out my course and bumping into walls, then readjusting my aim only to bump into something else. There have been times I felt I was spinning in circles during a difficult part of my journey. There were also times that I felt that I had hit virtual walls where I couldn’t seem to move past something or forward in my life.I much preferred the virtual lighthouses in my life. They are not walls, but guidance through council provided to direct my course during my journey. I consider our modern-day Prophet one of my biggest lighthouses. By listening, studying, pondering, praying about, and practicing the counsel and guidance that he provides to me, I have felt a comfort in knowing that through that obedience I have been properly and safely steered.

One of those councils is to be prepared in storing food. There are many avenues in which we have been directed in heeding that council. One avenue is gardening, another is education. There are tips in frugality and organizing our homes.

Food storage is much more than merely buying and storing food. It is a lesson in obedience, patience, consistency, and faith. Oftentimes, we relate food storage to the story of the ten virgins, assuming that our food storage is the oil. It occurred to me that the food storage is NOT my oil…. But, my obedience to the Prophet of the Lord in obtaining food storage is the oil. The increased patience that I learned in consistently building as my budget permitted is the oil. The faith that I have knowing that regardless if whether or not I will ever get to use the food during an emergency and trusting that I will still be provided for is my oil. The food was the tool that a wise Father in Heaven has used to help me fill my lamp.

Through my journey to build an emergency supply, learn to cook, create menus, and share what I have learned I remember that regardless of these efforts, the real test is in following the council of my Living Prophet. He is my lighthouse to which I can watch and heed his warnings and council in order to avoid the unnecessary walls in my life. I am grateful for that.

Northeast ice storm leaves 1.25M without power

For more information to prepare for these types of emergencies visit the following links:
1) Be prepared
2) Water Storage Option, Practicing Water Preservation, and Water Filtration and Purification.
3) Emergency Warmth, Emergency Shelters, and Staying Warm.

For more helpful articles visit Emergency Preparedness Articles

Now to the article....

By DAVID TIRRELL-WYSOCKI, Associated Press Writer

CONCORD, N.H. – An ice storm to compare with some of the Northeast's worst made a mess of the region Friday, leaving 1.25 million homes and businesses in seven states without power as it forced schools to close and toppled ice-laden trees and power lines onto slippery roads.

Most of the outages were in New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Maine and New York, and it was expected to take several days to completely restore electricity. The storm wreaked havoc from Maine to Pennsylvania, leaving a sparkling, ice-covered landscape that was too destructive for many to find beautiful.

"This is pathetic," said Bob Cott of Portland, Maine, who lost power. "I'm already sick of winter and we have nine days to go before it officially begins."

At least one death was related to the storm: New Hampshire officials said a 49-year-old Danville man who lived in a camper died of carbon monoxide poisoning after turning on his generator when his power went out Thursday night.

For New Hampshire, the power outages dwarfed those during the infamous Ice Storm of '98, when some residents spent more than a week in the dark.

In Hampstead, N.H., Mark Cegelis, 36, said things were hectic at his neighborhood gas station, which was jammed with people trying to get gas for home generators.

"It's kind of lawless out there right now," he said. "There's a lot of people very frustrated stacking up at the gas stations. It's pretty ugly."

He bought 21 gallons for himself and tried to deliver some to friends in Derry but couldn't get there because downed trees blocked roads. So the two friends came to him instead, and were expected to hunker down with Cegelis' family, his parents and another friend until power was restored.

"I'm sure they'd do the same thing for us," he said. "It's treacherous out there."

Nearly two dozen shelters were set up across the southern part of the state, and authorities were working to get generators to several nursing homes. About 35 people, mostly elderly, had settled in at a shelter at Portsmouth High School by early afternoon.

"All the motels have no electricity, and that's why I'm here," said Duke Straychan of Hampton, who can't do without power because he uses an oxygen tank at night. People at the shelter dined on American chop suey and shepherd's pie and watched "The Polar Express" in the cafeteria.

Gov. John Lynch urged residents to "please go out of your way" to check on their neighbors, especially those who are elderly and live alone.

Both Lynch and Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick declared states of emergency Friday morning and called up members of the National Guard. Five hundred Massachusetts Guard members were cleaning up debris and clearing access to downed power lines. Lynch put 150 on alert and deployed 20.

"All of the resources at our disposal have been made available to try to get the roads clear and power restored," said Patrick, adding that it would be "ambitious" to think power would be restored by Monday to the 350,000 homes and businesses in his state left in the dark.

"This is not going to be a couple of hours," Patrick said. "It's likely to be several days."

The Red Cross, in conjunction with the Massachusetts Emergency Management Agency, has opened 23 temporary shelters across the state. In Holden, which had no power, some senior citizens on oxygen were taken to the hospital or a shelter opened at the town's senior center.

Utilities reported more than 400,000 homes and businesses without power in New Hampshire, including 320,000 served by the state's largest utility, Public Service Company of New Hampshire. By contrast, the 1998 storm left 55,000 Public Service customers without power.

"This is the absolute, most significant power restoration effort we've ever had. There has not been a storm before that has affected more customers," Public Service spokesman Martin Murray said.

Public Service officials suggested repairs for at least some homes and businesses will go into next week. They lined up 300 crews from as far away as Maryland and Ohio to be in the state by Sunday and were looking for more.

Crews from Canada and South Carolina were headed to Maine, where Gov. John Baldacci declared a limited emergency allowing utility crews to work longer hours. Utilities there reported more than 227,000 customers in the dark, mostly in southern and coastal areas.

In eastern New York, particularly around Albany, the state capital, outages at National Grid and other utilities brought the statewide total to more than 255,000.

"Trees were down on all the roads," said Miguel Figueroa, 28, as he waited for coffee at a Starbucks in Colonie, N.Y. "... I couldn't even get on the Thruway today."

In Vermont, at least three shelters were being set up in southern Vermont for the more than 30,000 customers who were without power Friday afternoon. It could be days before some homes and businesses get their lights back on, officials said.

The ice storm extended to Pennsylvania, where about 4,700 customers, most of them in the Poconos, lost power, and Connecticut, where some 17,000 customers were without electricity at the height of the storm. Those states mostly got heavy rain or rain changing to snow.

Though blue skies appeared in some areas by Friday afternoon, temperatures were expected to fall below freezing again, with single digits forecast for Maine, Vermont and New Hampshire Saturday night.

___
Associated Press writers Holly Ramer and Kathy McCormack in Concord, N.H.; Beth LaMontagne Hall in Portsmouth, N.H.; Russell Contreras and Mark Pratt in Boston; Clarke Canfield in Portland, Maine; John Curran and Lisa Rathke in Montpelier, Vt.; and Mike Hill and Jessica M. Pasko in Albany, N.Y., contributed to this report.

Why Store Food

President Ezra Taft Benson, Of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, in his October 1980 General Conference address to the world-wide church declared: . . .

“More than ever before, we need to learn and apply the principles of economic self-reliance. We do not know when the crisis involving sickness or unemployment may affect our own circumstances. We do know that the Lord has decreed global calamities for the future and has warned and forewarned us to be prepared. For this reason the Brethren have repeatedly stressed a “back to basics” program for temporal and spiritual welfare. “Today, I emphasize a most basic principle: home production and storage. Have you ever paused to realize what would happen to your community or nation if transportation were paralyzed or if we had a war or depression? How would you and your neighbors obtain food? How long would the corner grocery store—or supermarket—sustain the needs of the community? . . .“

Earthquakes Really Do Happen Just About Everywhere

"Earthquakes Really Do Happen Just About Everywhere" By Carolyn Nicolaysen

The crust of the earth is constantly moving. This movement is slow and, except in the case of an earthquake, it is unnoticeable. Movement of the crust creates stress. This stress can cause rocks and the geology of the area to change its shape and size. This change to the body of rock can also be called strain, the adjustment of the rock in response to stress.

An earthquake is a shaking or rolling of the ground caused by a sudden release of energy stored in the earth's crust. This happens when stress builds up until suddenly a rupture occurs and energy waves (seismic waves) are sent out through the earth. Volcanic activity can also cause earthquakes. The epicenter of an earthquake is the point of the greatest movement.

The size of an earthquake is directly related to the amount of energy released. Two factors are used to determine the true size of a quake: energy released and the damage caused.

The Richter scale measures the total amount of energy released by an earthquake. The scale uses numbers from 1 up to describe magnitude. Each number represents an earthquake ten times stronger than the next lower number. For example, an earthquake with a magnitude of 5 is ten times stronger than an earthquake with a magnitude of 4.

During the 20 years from 1975 to 1995 there were only four states in the United States that did not have any earthquakes: Florida , Iowa , North Dakota , and Wisconsin . The 1906 San Francisco earthquake registered 7.9 on the revised Richter scale. In 1954 a 7.3 magnitude hit Dixie Valley Nevada . The year 1959 saw a 7.3 at Hebgen Lake , Montana . Prince William Sound in Alaska had the biggest quake recorded in the United States : 9.2 in 1964. The 1983 Idaho Borah Peak earthquake had a magnitude of 7.3. And the 1994 Northridge quake was a 6.6.

Most people know earthquakes occur in California and Alaska , however, earthquakes are not unique to these regions. From December 1811 to February 1812, a series of the greatest earthquakes in history with an intensity at the top of the earthquake scale struck—not in California—but in a one million square mile area of the Midwest and southeastern portion of the United States: Missouri, Kentucky, Tennessee, Ohio, Georgia, and South Carolina. These quakes occurred along the New Madrid fault. Because of the limited population in the area at the time, the quakes resulted in only one death. If a quake of this size were to occur in these areas today the loss of life could be 50,000 or more.

On August 10, 1884 an earthquake measuring 5.2 on the Richter scale had its epicenter in New York south of Rockaway Beach . It caused chimneys to crumble and rang church bells in Connecticut and Pennsylvania . According to experts, a similar quake would cause major damage because of a much larger population today and the enormous buildings, bridges, and tunnels which were constructed without thought of earthquakes. New York , New Jersey , and Connecticut all sit on ancient geological faults.

The Wasatch Range runs north to south through Utah and like all mountain ranges it was produced by a series of earthquakes. The 240 mile long Wasatch Fault is made up of several segments, each capable of producing up to a 7.5 magnitude earthquake. See Meridian article Keeping Our Kids Safe While Away at College for more information on the Wasatch Range.

January 17, 1994 residents of Northridge , California were jolted out of bed at 4:31a.m. Apartment buildings pancaked, freeway overpasses fell, and fifty-seven people died—all in eight seconds. Seismologists consider Northridge to be only a strong quake, two steps below the magnitude 8 “big one.” Scientists believe the "big one" will cause an earthquake rupture which will extend ten to fifteen miles deep and 200 to 250 miles long, maybe more. It will be the size of twenty Northridge earthquakes laid end to end.

In October 2007 a 5.6 earthquake rocked the San Francisco Bay Area. This quake occurred on the Calaveras fault which runs adjacent to the Hayward Fault. The Hayward Fault moves about every 140 years producing catastrophic quakes. Experts fear the recent Calaveras quake could actually trigger the “big one” on the Hayward Fault. The Hayward fault last moved 140 years ago.

On January 26, 1700 a great earthquake shook the Pacific Northwest . This quake, with an estimated magnitude of 9.0, produced shaking which continued for several minutes and dropped the coastline of Washington State by nearly five feet.

Yes, several areas of the country are due for a “big one”, but the United States is not alone. Each day there are approximately 2,600 earthquakes somewhere in the world, or two per second. On October 14, 1968 a magnitude 6.9 earthquake hit east of Perth , Australia . The greatest recorded earthquake occurred in Chile on May 22, 1960. It was recorded as a 9.5 on the Richter scale and caused tsunamis in Chile , Japan , Hawaii , Philippines , New Zealand , Australia , and Alaska .

When a sizable earthquake occurs, there are many potential disasters that may follow during the next few days or weeks. With broken natural gas lines, fires are inevitable; dam failures, hazardous materials spills, power outages, natural gas leaks, landslides, loss of clean water supplies, road and bridge collapses, and even tsunamis may occur. Infrastructure may be destroyed: police and fire stations may be damaged or destroyed; hospitals may suffer severe damage just when they are needed most; jobs will be lost; banking and grocery store deliveries interrupted; gasoline may become scarce; telephone and internet services may be inoperable and garbage may pile up. With mail delivery spotty or nonexistent, bills will still need to be paid but might not be delivered.

While people are dealing with all of these hardships, first responders will have to choose between meeting the needs of their families and reporting for work. Who are first responders? We automatically think about fire fighters, police officers, and health care professionals but here are also many others. Utility workers will be needed immediately to restore power and water. Those who run your waste disposal plants will need to get those facilities up and running again.

Yes, earthquakes can happen where you live.

With all this to be concerned about, questions arise:

Can earthquakes be predicted? The answer is no. Scientists have never predicted a major earthquake. Scientists can, however, estimate the probability of an earthquake occurring by examining the records of past quakes.

Is there earthquake weather? Again, the answer is no. There is no connection between weather and the likelihood of an earthquake occurring. Earthquakes are not capable of altering the weather either.

Will California eventually fall into the ocean? Oh, I love that one! No. Earthquakes on the San Andreas Fault are a result of slip plate motion. The plates are moving horizontally past one another, so California is not going to fall into the ocean. Over thousands or millions of years Los Angeles could end up a neighbor of San Francisco , but the entire state will not fall into the ocean.

Which country has the most devastating earthquakes? Which has had the most damage and fatalities? China , Iran , and Turkey are in active areas which have a long history of catastrophic earthquakes.

Which country has the most earthquakes? Japan has more total earthquakes than anywhere else. Indonesia is a close second with Tonga and Fiji being very active zones.

Which country has the fewest earthquakes? Antarctica is the safest place to live if you are worried about earthquakes.

Why all this earthquake information without instructions of some kind? Well, I felt it was important for everyone to recognize the dangers they face from earthquakes even though they may live in an area we don't normally associate with them. Now, re-read the Meridian article Prepare Your Home for the Unexpected and, if you have not already done so, begin making the preparations that are suggested.