Rare Pre-Halloween Storm Blankets East Coast With Snow

A report at Fox News, "Early Storm Pelts East Coast With Wet, Heavy Snow." And at New York Times, "Nearly Two Million Lose Power as Snow Coats Region."

And Dana Pico has pictures, at Common Sense Political Thought, "Afternoon Snow Pictures":

NASA Launches Latest NPP Earth-Observing Satellite from Vandenberg

It's the National Polar-Orbiting Operational Environmental Satellite System, NPP.

At LAT, "NASA launches satellite from Vandenberg at night." And PC Magazine, "NASA Weather, Climate Satellite Launches Successfully."

Thailand Floods Bring Fears of Escaped Crocodiles

Interesting piece, at WSJ, "As Floodwaters Rise, So Do Thais' Crocodile Fears: Reptiles Escape Farms, Spurring Bid to Bring Them Back Alive."

'Hurricane Irene' at The Big Picture

An astonishing photo essay.

Flooding Devastates Vermont and Catskills: Irene Death Toll at Least 35 People

At NYT (via Memeorandum):

CHESTER, Vt. — While most eyes warily watched the shoreline during Hurricane Irene’s grinding ride up the East Coast, it was inland — sometimes hundreds of miles inland — where the most serious damage actually occurred. And the major culprit was not wind, but water.



As blue skies and temperate breezes returned on Monday, a clearer picture of the storm’s devastation emerged, with the gravest consequences stemming from river flooding in Vermont and upstate New York.



Here in southern Vermont, normally picturesque towns and villages were digging out from thick mud and piles of debris that Sunday’s floodwaters left behind. With roughly 250 roads and several bridges closed off, many residents remained stranded in their neighborhoods; others could not get to grocery stores, hospitals or work. It was unclear how many people had been displaced, though the Red Cross said more than 300 had stayed in its shelters on Sunday, and it expected the number to grow.



In upstate New York, houses were swept from their foundations, and a woman drowned on Sunday when an overflowing creek submerged the cottage where she was vacationing. Flash floods continued to be a concern into Monday afternoon. In the Catskills, where Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo led a helicopter tour of suffering towns, cars were submerged, crops ruined and roads washed out. In tiny, hard-hit Prattsville, what looked like a jumble of homes lay across a roadway, as if they had been tossed like Lego pieces.



“We were very lucky in the city, not quite as lucky on Long Island, but we were lucky on Long Island,” Mr. Cuomo said. “But Catskills, mid-Hudson, this is a different story and we paid a terrible price here, and many of these communities are communities that could least afford to pay this kind of price. So the state has its hands full.”

And see also LAT, "Irene death toll rises to 35 amid cleanup effort."



Look, this was a devastating storm for many people, and thus I was irked this morning to see some media reports suggesting that Irene was "hyped." William Jacobson, who rode it out, was not pleased: "Irene wasn’t overhyped in train- and drive-through country."



RELATED: Dan Drezner blogged the hurricane, a little more seriously this time, compared to 2005, when he dissed Katrina coverage as "hurricane porn." That's around the time I stopped reading Drezner on a daily basis. See: "We interrupt normal blogging about the rest of the world to freak out about THE BIG STORM!!!!" Idiot.

Update on Hurricane Irene

At Bloomberg, "Hurricane Irene's Damage: Deaths, Flooding, Power Losses State-by-State."



And an awesome photo-essay at London's Daily Mail, "Floodwaters rise across Northeast submerging whole neighbourhoods underwater as millions without power warned they may not have electricity for weeks."



And at New York Times, "Storm Damage Largely Spares New York."

Hurricane Politics

Think Progress is going after conservatives over a 6-year old hurricane that hit during the term of a president who's no longer in office: "Right Wing Tries New Tactic To Soften Bush’s Katrina Debacle: Say Obama’s Leadership On Irene Is Just For Show." (At Memeorandum.)

The Soros-backed goons single out John Hinderaker for particular scorn, attacking him pathetically as a "Koch Industries lawyer."



So, let's see what that's all about, at Power Line, "HOW TO POLITICIZE A HURRICANE":

It remains to be seen whether Irene turns out to be the Comet Kohoutek of hurricanes, but President Obama is taking no chances. He posed for a photo-op today, pretending to have something to do with the potentially-severe weather event. AFP headlined: “Obama takes charge at hurricane command center.”



*****



I’m sure it’s a relief to everyone on the East Coast to know that Obama is personally directing hurricane response efforts. Never mind that he isn’t competent to organize a Little League baseball team; today’s charade obviously is a corollary of the Hurricane Katrina fiasco, in which America’s mass media committed group malpractice, somehow managing to blame the inevitable consequences of a severe weather event, magnified by incompetent local authorities in New Orleans, on the Bush administration. Obama is setting the stage to receive praise, rather than blame, no matter what actually happens between now and when Hurricane Irene blows itself out.

Continue at the link above.



And see Bob Williams, "Shifting Blame in the Katrina Tragedy." If the pathetic progressive trolls want to go back 6 years to drudge up a blame game, they need only look to their own party to find responsibility for the left's criminal failure to protect Gulf Coast citizens in 2005.

Hurricane Irene News

Well, it's been hot summer weather in the O.C. today, with temperatures in the mid-90s. But Hurricane Irene is bearing down on the East Coast and there's a lot of developments.



At NYT, "City Orders 250,000 People to Evacuate," and "This Storm, Bloomberg Responds Differently." And at LAT, "Airlines cancel nearly 5,000 flights because of Hurricane Irene." But see Dr. Jeff Masters' WunderBlog, "Irene's eyewall collapses; further intensification unlikely."



BONUS: From Nate Silver, "A New York Hurricane Could Be a Multibillion-Dollar Catastrophe" (via Memeorandum).

Hurricane Irene

At Miami Herald, "Bahamas taking a battering from Cat 3 Hurricane Irene," and USA Today, "Powerful Hurricane Irene menaces Bahamas." Also at New York Times, "Hurricane Irene Gains Strength as It Batters the Bahamas."

Evelyn Taft, Political Scientist

I'm watching KCAL 9 while the CA-36 results come in, and things don't look like they're turning out too well for Craig Huey (here and here).

We'll, see. And even if Huey's cooked the night's not a total loss. I'm catching up on the local weather with KCAL's Evelyn Taft, and she's a political scientist:

A Bay Area native, Evelyn Taft first lived in Los Angeles while attending the Annenberg School of Journalism at the University of Southern California. While getting her Broadcast Journalism and Political Science degrees at USC, Evelyn forecasted the weather for Annenberg’s live newscast.

VIDEO: North Dakota Flooding — Souris River Hits Record High Flood Level in Minot

North Dakota blogger Rob Port has has first hand coverage: "Some Before And After Pictures Of Minot Flooding.

And in the news, from Fox and PBS:

Also at Los Angeles Times, "Looming flood prompts North Dakota evacuations," and New York Times, "They Dropped Their Flood Insurance, Then the ‘Mouse’ Roared."

Plus, at Minneapolis Star Tribune, "Neighbors, strangers aid Minot flood victims."

Out Yesterday to Irvine Spectrum Center

I've mentioned it before (website's here). And the weather's been awesome:

We had lunch at Wahoos:

Probably going down there again today, to the Apple Store. My son likes the iPhone 4, although if we get him something, it'll probably be an iTouch. We're debating it, since he's still young, but it'll be soon, no matter what happens. He's about that age when kids start to get wired, and of course, the technology's everywhere. For now though, he can just play with the "Cars" app on the store's demonstration model.

Joplin, Missouri, Tornado: VIDEO

Robert Mackey has a video roundup, "Video Shows Missouri Tornado Damage."

And at ABC News, "Tornadoes Rip Across Midwest; 89 Dead in Joplin, Mo."

ALSO: A first-person video, riding out the storm, here.

3 Die After Power Line Falls in Yard

A sad story, at LAT, "Downed Power Line Kills 3 in San Bernardino":

A father died while investigating why the 12,000-volt line fell in the backyard and his wife and her son were killed when they tried to help.

Three members of a San Bernardino family were killed Friday when they came into contact with the electric current from a 12,000-volt power line that had fallen into their backyard amid 50-mph winds.

Steven Vego, a 44-year-old plumber, went into the yard Friday morning after he and his family were jolted by two loud explosions. From inside the home, Kayli Vego saw her father step over the line and stumble to the ground.

She called to her mother, Sharon, who was in the frontyard putting out two fires apparently caused by falling power lines. Sharon sprinted to the backyard. But when she touched her husband, she collapsed as well. Her 21-year old son darted out next. He too tumbled to the ground when he touched one of his fallen family members.

According to a relative, Kayli, 17, and her 10-year old brother Steven Jr. watched in horror from inside the house and immediately called 911 at about 5:45 a.m.

When San Bernardino firefighters arrived, the grass was still sparking and smoldering, Capt. Mike Bilheimer said. They were initially unable to reach the victims because the line was still electrified. Crews from Southern California Edison arrived about 15 minutes later and the power was shut off.

Woman Drowns in Australia Flooding

At New York Times, "Floods Kill Woman in Australia."

A full report from PA Pundits International: "Queensland Australia Flood Disaster Central – Rockhampton."

And from The Australian, "Military sends supplies to Rockhampton." Also, an editorial at the paper, "Resilience in facing catastrophe":

Australia must plan and build for extremes of climate

FOR many city dwellers watching the Queensland floods on plasma screens, the prospect of camping on baking roofs surrounded by putrid floodwaters submerging homes, farms and towns is barely imaginable. So, too, is the stoicism with which outback and regional Australians are facing the crisis, especially after a decade or more of crippling drought.

The rest of Australia, and indeed the world, can only admire the hardiness and resilience of those who have been ravaged by the continent's climatic extremes repeatedly and who have become resigned to them. As one family whose home is on the banks of Rockhampton's Fitzroy River philosophically told The Australian's Graham Lloyd last week: "We've been through it before, we've been through a lot of floods. It's part of living here . . . when they come, they come." And so do the snakes, the debris and billions of dollars damage.

As usual, the response of local government, police and Queensland State Emergency Service staff to the crisis has been outstanding. Driving into floodwaters at night until the vehicle is almost submerged then boating to rescue terrified children clinging to the branches of trees in a crocodile-infested river is not for the faint-hearted. Authorities have done an excellent job notifying local government officials, police and residents in plenty of time about flooded rivers and the need to evacuate.

More at the link.

Blizzard Time Lapse

At Geekosystem:

Orange County Storms

Orange County bore the brunt of the storm earlier this week. LAT has a report, "Major flooding in Laguna Beach, mudslides in canyons as storm bears down on L.A."



And here's the scene Wednesday afternoon as I was leaving Kohl's in Irvine:

Warm Southern California Weather

I left my college at about 3:00pm, and it felt like a warm summer day!



Check the image from the live doppler's at KABC-TV Los Angeles. And here's the view out in front of the LBCC athletics facility. What a beautiful day.

RELATED: My college was featured at Los Angeles Times last week, "In Long Beach, a Promise to Help Struggling Students."

Record-Setting Heat in Southern California

At KABC-TV Los Angeles and Los Angeles Times. It was 108 degrees in Irvine at 3:30pm, when I picked my oldest son up from his high school. I called my youngest son's after school program to make sure they kept him inside. I'll update if I see any reports on claims of "global warming."

Sexiest Bikini Moments Caught On Screen

Celebrating the last holiday weekend of summer. More viddies at the link (c/o Linkiest):