Flood

What do Manhattan and Miami have in common with ancient Pompeii? They are doomed places where the residents cannot imagine that the good times will ever end. Superstorm Sandy got our attention -- like Mike Tyson walking into the house and punching our dog. And the certainty that more freakish, savage storms will pay a visit has made it tough for global-warming deniers to keep denying. But denial is not as tough to reckon with as obliviousness. Being oblivious to approaching doom is a consistent human trait.

Winds and fierce rains lashed parts of the Northwest, putting the region on alert for flooding on Tuesday, officials said. The storm, which began on Monday, cut power to about 50,000 people overall, though most had service restored within hours. At least one death was reported. According to the National Weather Service, flood warnings were issued for parts of the Skokomish River area in Mason County and the Satsop River in Grays Harbor County, both in the state of Washington.

As coastal areas of New Jersey, New York and Connecticut are just drying out from horrific flooding prompted by Hurricane Sandy, more watery disaster has struck 4,200 miles away in Italy. Following torrential rains, Venice is experiencing unusually bad flooding. It's the fourth time floods have exceeded norms there since 2000. One of the world's great artistic treasures, the low-lying city of lagoons on the Adriatic Sea experiences problems from high waters every winter. Especially around St. Mark's Square, many of its Byzantine, Gothic and Renaissance buildings are regularly flooded.

Ninety-two people have filed papers to run for city offices in the March 5 Los Angeles election, with three-fourths of them angling for seats on the 15-member City Council, according to a list posted Saturday by the city clerk. With Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa stepping down next year, 14 people are seeking to replace him, including City Controller Wendy Greuel, council members Eric Garcetti and Jan Perry, and former prosecutor Kevin James. Six people filed to run for city controller, a position being vacated by Greuel.

The estimated 250,000 cars flooded by Superstorm Sandy on the East Coast will drive up used-car prices, even as far away as California. The supply shortage comes on the heels of an already tightened used-car market in the wake of the recession, when new car sales dried up. Some experts say prices could rise $700 to $1,000 on the typical used car in the short term. Although those effects will be felt most acutely near the flood zone, the increasingly digital and national market for used cars will spread the price shocks widely.

NEW YORK - A nor'easter that threatens to lash the mid-Atlantic states with freezing rain, snow and high winds appeared to be weakening in the Atlantic Ocean, but still could cause new flooding and power outages and hamper recovery efforts in areas that suffered the brunt of Superstorm Sandy last week. The new storm is far smaller than Sandy, but officials fear low-lying areas in New Jersey and southern New York are vulnerable because Sandy destroyed so many sand dunes and other natural barriers, as well as man-made sea walls and jetties, that normally limit damage from high storm surges.

CHICAGO - Obama for America volunteers from Illinois have helped flood the zone in Wisconsin in the last few days to help work for an electoral prize the campaign would dearly love to win. A surge in volunteer hours in recent days has been fed partly by the promise of tickets to President Obama's Election Night Party in Chicago. Many of those volunteers have been at work in the neighboring state for weeks now, knocking on doors and working the phones to help the former Illinois senator lock down Wisconsin in his bid for reelection.

More than half a billion dollars in political cash is likely to be spent in California by Tuesday, a staggering amount in a year when the presidential candidates are barely present and voters appear tepid about much of the state ballot. This election will rank among the top in California history for campaign spending -- without the governor's office or most other top posts in play. The money infused into ballot-measure campaigns, congressional races and bids for state legislative seats is a reminder that California is an election powerhouse in its own right.

- Thursday is the customary night for art openings in Chelsea, the Manhattan neighborhood that's home to the city's biggest concentration of galleries. But this Thursday, the black-clad scenesters were replaced by men in white hazmat suits and surgical masks, and the only buzz came from generators. Chelsea is one of the many neighborhoods ravaged by super storm Sandy when it made landfall Monday night. Although the human tragedy here pales next to the horrors in Staten Island, where at least 19 people have died, the storm delivered a serious blow to New York's contemporary art world, damaging dozens of gallery buildings and many artworks they were designed to protect.

BABYLON, N.Y. -- "There was a fish in my kitchen," said Elizabeth Scoyen, standing on the deck of her apartment in the Babylon marina, two blocks from the Atlantic Ocean. "That is when I knew this was going to be bad," she said, as she arranged water-logged chair cushions, soaked clothes and lamps in the open air. Like many residents on the south shore of Long Island, Scoyen, 57, a retired high school teacher, came outside Wednesday as the rains let up, and tried to dry out her belongings and take stock of what just happened.