Disaster Areas

More than half of the counties in the United States have been designated as disaster areas mainly because of the ongoing drought that has been ravaging the nation, officials announced Wednesday. Disaster designations were signed for 218 more counties in 12 states, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack announced. That brings this year's total to 1,584 counties in 32 states; more than 90% of those designations are due to drought conditions. The latest designations were in Arkansas, Georgia, Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Mississippi, Nebraska, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Tennessee and Wyoming.

WEST, Texas - The crowd that had gathered - lighting candles, offering prayers, crying as they tightly embraced family and friends - had streamed from the dimly lit sanctuary of Assumption Catholic Church, but Kelly Nelson lingered behind. “The people who we lost, these are people I know, I see on a daily basis,” Nelson said. “Knowing that I'm never going to see these people on the earth again is very difficult for me to handle.” On Wednesday night, a blast at the West Fertilizer Co. plant had rocked this small town.

President Clinton has declared parts of Illinois and Arkansas disaster areas after recent severe storms, making several counties eligible for federal disaster relief, the White House said Tuesday. The areas affected include Crawford and Sebastian counties in Arkansas and Champaign and Macon in Illinois.

The eastern portion of the nation turned to emergency rescue, recovery and resupply Tuesday even as meteorologists warned that the danger from super storm Sandy will continue as the massive system works its way through the country. Sandy churned about 120 miles east of Pittsburgh and was moving toward the Great Lakes and Canada, carrying winds of 45 mph and pelting rain or snow across an area stretching from Lake Michigan to Maine. At least 38 deaths were reported by the Associated Press.

President Clinton declared major disaster areas Monday in parts of Iowa and Ohio and ordered federal aid to help recovery efforts in areas struck by storms and flooding. A White House statement said Clinton's action would make federal funds available to 10 counties in Ohio and 12 in Iowa.

President Reagan signed disaster declarations Wednesday for Guam and Rota, U.S. territories in the Pacific, to help them recover from damages sustained in a typhoon earlier this month. The White House said the President declared both to be major disaster areas, triggering a variety of assistance programs.

President Clinton on Monday declared disaster areas in parts of Pennsylvania struck by tornadoes in late May and early this month. The tornadoes leveled scores of houses. The action makes federal assistance, including disaster housing, grants and low-cost loans to replace uninsured property, available to people in Allegheny, Berks, Somerset and Wyoming counties.

Sections of Virginia and Pennsylvania were declared federal disaster areas Saturday in the wake of last week's floods, and West Virginia's governor authorized state police to deputize even "individuals in the street" to help disaster relief efforts. Farther west, the season's first widespread snowstorm sent temperatures diving and left half a foot or more of snow Saturday from the Dakotas to Michigan, turning roads into skating rinks. At least one death was blamed on the storm.

Gov. Pete Wilson asked President Bush on Saturday to declare a federal disaster area in five California counties hit this month by rainstorms that left eight people dead, five missing and an estimated $125 million in property damage.

This blue-collar town, described three years ago as a suburban "disaster area," has received a $2.7-million federal grant that officials are counting on to revitalize the city. The Urban Development Action Grant will enable the city to begin preliminary work on the Puente-Merced Redevelopment Project, which will include a 200-room Hilton hotel and a commercial center.

President Obama has signed major-disaster declarations for parts New York and New Jersey, sending additional government aid to those waking up to the mess left behind by Cyclone Sandy. The designation makes new federal dollars available to those living in the areas most battered by the storm. That includes direct grants to individuals for temporary housing and home repair, and low-cost loans to help cover property damage not covered by insurance. It also makes federal money available to help local governments remove debris and cover emergency services.

More than half of the counties in the United States have been designated as disaster areas mainly because of the ongoing drought that has been ravaging the nation, officials announced Wednesday. Disaster designations were signed for 218 more counties in 12 states, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack announced. That brings this year's total to 1,584 counties in 32 states; more than 90% of those designations are due to drought conditions. The latest designations were in Arkansas, Georgia, Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Mississippi, Nebraska, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Tennessee and Wyoming.

HOUSTON - Multiple tornadoes ripped through the Dallas-Fort Worth area Tuesday, tossing truck trailers like Tinkertoys, damaging hundreds of homes and causing numerous injuries, some critical. The mayor of Lancaster, a suburb about 15 miles south of Dallas, saw one of the twisters approach. "I was leaving a meeting here in town and heard the tornado sirens go off," Mayor Marcus Knight said at a news conference. After the tornado struck, Knight said multiple injuries were reported, sending some victims to the hospital.

Syrian opposition activists on Monday declared a "humanitarian disaster area" in the embattled city of Homs and called on the United Nations and Arab League to intervene and protect threatened civilians. The opposition decried a 5-day-old siege of Syria's third-largest city, which has become a hub of the rebellion and a reported site of sectarian massacres. "Indiscriminate slaughter is being committed by the regime's militias," said the Syrian National Council, an opposition umbrella group that demands the ouster of President Bashar Assad.

The soggy carpeting has been thrown away, the damaged furniture discarded. The beaches are being rebuilt, and the landscaping redone. Hawaii continues to recover from the effects of the tsunami triggered by the 9.0 earthquake that struck Japan on March 11, which, in turn, prompted President Obama to declare parts of the state federal disaster areas. But the bigger question, some say, is whether the decrease in the number of Japanese visitors will cause a financial seismic shock that may prove more difficult to overcome for a state just beginning to recover from the recession.

U.S. Navy ships and aircraft were converging on disaster-stricken Japan Saturday, while the main U.S. aid agency dispatched two urban search-and-rescue teams to help look for trapped survivors. The military assistance operation is known as Operation Tomodachi, or "friendship," the III Marine Expeditionary Force said in a statement. The operation name was chosen by the Japanese. Photos: Scenes from the earthquake "We have units from all of our services, with a multitude of capabilities, from medical to communications to civil engineering, poised and ready to support where needed," John Roos, U.S. ambassador to Japan, told reporters Saturday.

President Reagan has declared a major disaster in parts of Texas, ordering federal aid to help local recovery efforts in the area hit last month by Hurricane Gilbert and tornadoes, the White House announced Wednesday. Individuals and business owners in Bexar, Cameron and Hidalgo counties will be eligible.

Thousands of people were being evacuated from towns in northeastern Australia amid rising floodwaters that by Friday had left half of massive Queensland state inundated and affected more than 200,000 people. Mandatory evacuations of 4,000 residents were underway in Rockhampton on the state's east coast, the latest populated area to be hit by flooding. Officials feared that the entire city of 76,000 people might be cut off by Monday. The local government was dropping food on isolated rural properties cut off by the rising Fitzroy River.

The first tropical storm of the Atlantic hurricane season headed toward the Yucatan Peninsula on Saturday night and was expected to turn northwest toward the southern coast of Texas without roiling the massive oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. But Tropical Storm Alex was still giving the jitters to officials in charge of cleaning up the spill and protecting beaches and wildlife-rich marshland from Louisiana to Florida. "We all know the weather is unpredictable, and we could have a sudden last-minute change," said Coast Guard Adm. Thad Allen, the Obama administration's point man for the spill.