Storm damage delays flights at Halifax airport

HALIFAX - An intense thunderstorm that damaged equipment and kept workers off the tarmac has caused a flight backlog at Halifax Stanfield International Airport.

Ashley Gallant, a spokeswoman for the Halifax International Airport Authority, says all workers were pulled off the tarmac Tuesday after a red alert was declared.

Gallant says planes were able to land but it wasn't safe for anyone to be working outside.

She says lighting systems on their main and secondary runways were damaged by lightning strikes but they have since been repaired.

Planned upgrades that would have closed the secondary runway today have been delayed to accommodate flights still affected by unsettled weather.

Across the province Nova Scotia Power's outage map showed a few hundred customers in the Liverpool, Bridgewater and Goshen areas without power early Wednesday.

-- The Canadian Press

Tropical Storm Emily threatens Haiti

SAN JUAN, PUERTO RICO—Rain from the outer bands of Tropical Storm Emily began falling Tuesday in Puerto Rico as the system moved on a track that would take it to the island of Hispaniola within 48 hours and possibly to Florida by the end of the week.

With the storm stalling south of Puerto Rico, most government offices closed and people cleared water and other emergency supplies from store shelves. The showers and wind gusts were sporadic and there were no reports of major flooding or injuries.

The storm was expected to bring up to 15 centimetres of rain in Puerto Rico, enough to trigger floods and mudslides to an island that is already saturated from months of heavy rain.

The storm was moving on a northwestern track that forecasters said would reach Hispaniola, the island shared by Haiti and the Dominican Republic, by Wednesday. Both countries, but especially Haiti, are prone to devastating floods.

Civil defence officials and the military in the Dominican Republic have already begun moving people out of high-risk zones ahead of the storm.

Forecasters at the National Hurricane Center said the storm was about 435 kilometres southeast of San Juan, Puerto Rico at 11 a.m. EDT. It had been meandering, but the forecasters said they expected it to resume its westward path at about 19 km/h later in the day.

A wind gust of 80 km/h was reported on St. Thomas in the U.S. Virgin Islands, the U.S. National Hurricane Center said.

A tropical storm warning was in effect for Puerto Rico, Vieques, Culebra, the Dominican Republic and Haiti. A tropical storm watch was in effect for the U.S. Virgin Islands.

 

-- The Associated Press

Southwestern U.S. headed for a ‘perpetual drought’

A family looks on as a dust storm converges on downtown Phoenix, July 5, 2011. (Mark J. Rebilas/US PRESSWIRE)

A 160-kilometre wide dust storm, corn shrivelling in Georgia fields and Texas blackouts are all harbingers of an unstoppable force geophysicists call "perpetual drought."

At least the terrible Dust Bowl years of the 1930s in North America ended, Dr. Richard Seager told the Toronto Star on Thursday. This one won’t.

The U.S. Drought Monitor computer tracking tags the parched conditions in Texas and Oklahoma as an extraordinary drought, with the rest of the stretch from Arizona to Florida not much better.

Losses in Texas alone, to cattle and wheat, could reach $3 billion U.S., state officials said. Rainfall in Oklahoma is 28 per cent of normal.

In parts of Arizona, it’s half of what it should be. The July 5 dust storm, the worst in 30 years, shut down Phoenix Sky Harbour International Airport and coated the city in a crust of dirt.

All 254 counties of Texas have been declared natural disaster areas. In some place, salt buildup on power lines not swept away by rain has caused blackouts.

“The current drought has been running for less than a year,” said Seager of the Earth Institute at Columbia University. The cyclical arrival of the La Niña weather pattern brought it and will eventually move on.

But more ominous and catastrophic is the permanent spike in temperatures that is making southwestern North American too feeble to bounce back.

“Beyond the year-to-year variability, the entire region from California to the southern plains is getting dryer. It may not be more severe than what we have now, but it will be more persistent,” Seager said.

By the middle of this century, he said, the drought state of the southern United States will be permanent.

“There will still be wet years. There will be dry years. But the net flux, which supplies the moisture to the soil, is going to reduce from 20 to 40 per cent.”

Unlike the Dirty Thirties drought, which lasted seven years, the decade-long drought in the 1950s or even the “megadroughts” of the 13^th and 16^th centuries — all of them La Niña phenomena — this one is triggered by man-made gases.

“As long as the carbon dioxide in the atmosphere stays where it is, we have a new equilibrium,” said Seager.

Even if all CO² emissions dropped to zero overnight “significant drying would still occur.”

And while farmers have compensated for dry spells since the 1930s with irrigation, it’s an expensive and gasoline-burning way to spread water around.

“As the century progresses, it will be harder and harder to keep the productivity up.”

- Lesley Ciarula Taylor, Staff Reporter

Awesome view of dust storm descending on Phoenix

 

A giant dust storm covers Phoenix on Tuesday, July 5, 2011. (AP Photo/The Arizona Republic, Rob Schumacher)

PHOENIX - A massive dust storm descended on the Phoenix area in the U.S. state of Arizona, drastically reducing visibility and delaying flights as strong winds downed trees and left thousands of residents without power.

PHOTOS: Arizona Central's stunning photo gallery of the dust storm

See more photos of the dust storm

The dust cloud that moved across the Phoenix valley Tuesday night had formed in an afternoon storm in the Tucson area, and then rolled north across the desert before sweeping over the city like an enormous wave, said National Weather Service meteorologist Paul Iniguez.

Radar data showed the storm's towering dust wall had reached as high as 8,000 to 10,000 feet, or nearly 2 miles, he said.

"This was pretty significant," Iniguez told The Associated Press. "We heard from a lot of people who lived here for a number of storms and this was the worst they'd seen."

By the time the dust cloud neared the metropolitan area, it had started to dissolve but it still towered over the city with a wall of at least 5,000 feet, according to the weather service.

KSAZ-TV in Phoenix reported the storm appeared to be roughly wide in some spots. It briefly covered the city's downtown at around nightfall.

The storm was part of the Arizona monsoon season, which typically starts in mid-June and lasts through September.

The National Weather Service says strong winds with gusts of up to more than 95 km/h in some places rapidly moved the dust cloud northwest through Phoenix and the surrounding cities of Avondale, Tempe and Scottsdale. More than a dozen communities in the area also were placed under a severe thunderstorm watch until 11 p.m.

Some 8,000 Salt River Project utility customers were left without power, KNXV-TV reported late Tuesday.

The Federal Aviation Administration said on its website that because of low visibility in the area, no Phoenix-bound flights were allowed to leave Las Vegas or Los Angeles airports until 9 p.m., and flights at the airport were delayed for about an hour.

-- The Associated Press

A dust storm known as a "habub" rolls into downtown Phoenix on Tuesday. (AP Photo/Amanda Lee Myers)

Customers sit outside a Starbucks Coffee cafe during a dust storm in Phoenix. (REUTERS/Joshua Lott)

Jason Wallace, right, wears a face mask as he sits with Emily Wallace inside Sky Harbor International Airport in Phoenix. The Wallaces' flight to Tucson was delayed due to the storm. (REUTERS/Joshua Lott)

The storm was part of the annual monsoon season in Arizona. (AP Photo/The Arizona Republic, Rob Schumacher)

A car at Sky Harbour International Airport. (REUTERS/Joshua Lott)

Motorists drive along 16th Street. (REUTERS/Joshua Lott)

Motorists drive along Arizona State Highway 51 during a dust storm in Phoenix on Tuesday evening. (REUTERS/Joshua Lott)

Severe thunderstorm warning for cottage country

Environment Canada has issued a severe thunderstorm warning for cottage country and the surrounding areas.

The affected region includes York-Durham, Haliburton, Peterborough, Barrie, Muskoka and Algonquin.

There is the possibility of hail and 90 km/h winds but the rains seem to be passing quickly and will likely be over by 3 p.m., said Marie-Eve Giguere, a meteorologist for Environment Canada.

A cold front is expected to pass through southern Ontario in the afternoon and evening but Giguere says severe thunderstorms are unlikely to hit Toronto.

Environment Canada says people should take shelter if they see a storm approaching and to stay in doors for at least 30 minutes after they hear the last rumble of thunder.

-- Amanda Kwan, Staff Reporter

Outlook for first week of summer: rain

Toronto can look forward to a wet first week of summer, forecasters say.

The GTA saw rain, thunder and lightning overnight Tuesday and can expect more of the same for Wednesday, all the way through to the weekend.

Wednesday’s early morning storm began with a lightning show over city skies just before 12 a.m. and brought a thunderous downpour around 2 a.m.

The storm was more boom than bust – there were no reports of damage, as winds were not particularly strong at around 30 to 35 km/h, said Mark Seifert, Environment Canada meteorologist. Toronto Island Airport received just over 10 millimetres of rain.

That’s in sharp contrast to the damage the storm system caused elsewhere. In southwestern Ontario, wind gusts reached 90 km/h, downing trees and power lines in the Leamington area.

But the storm did cause a power outage that affected 1,100 homes and businesses in Toronto’s west end, according to Toronto Hydro.

The power went out at 3 a.m. and came back on at 5 a.m., spokeswoman Jennifer Link said. The outage was caused not by lightning but tree limbs leaning on hydro wires.

Seifert said the rest of Wednesday should be fairly quiet in the GTA, but there is a risk of thunderstorm again in the afternoon and into the evening. A heavier downpour is the main threat with even more rain than Tuesday night predicted, he said.

The rain is expected to continue until at least Saturday.

--Zoe McKnight, Staff Reporter, with files from The Canadian Press

Storm strands Chicago commuters for hours

Travelers sleep in Terminal 2 at O'Hare International Airport, Tuesday, June 21, 2011, in Chicago. Heavy rains across northern Illinois caused the cancellation of hundreds of flights from Chicago's two major airports. (AP Photo/Brian Kersey)

CHICAGO - Thunderstorms and heavy winds pounded the upper Midwest Tuesday night, stranding Chicago commuter train riders for hours, forcing the cancellation of hundreds of flights, and delaying Vice-President Joe Biden's return to Washington after a fundraiser.

The National Weather Service issued several tornado watches and warnings in the region, forcing staff at O'Hare International Airport to herd frightened passengers into a lower-level baggage claim area. High winds also damaged two hangars at the Gerald R. Ford International Airport in Grand Rapids, injuring at least three people.

Ashley Luthern of Youngstown, Ohio, who was trying to make a connection to Pittsburgh after a flight from Istanbul, was among the hundreds of passengers ushered to safety at the American Airlines terminal at O'Hare.

"At first they said get away from the windows, which is very hard to do in an airport," she said. "They then became forceful in telling us to go down to the baggage claim area."

Karen Ramsey of Williamsburg, Iowa, was trapped at O'Hare after flying in from Cancun, Mexico on United Airlines when her connection to Moline was cancelled.

"It was beautiful down there. Come home to this," Ramsey said.

Biden had been attending a Democratic fundraiser and raising money for an epilepsy foundation in Chicago when the storm struck, delaying his arrival at O'Hare and subsequent return to Washington.

More than 300 flights were cancelled at O'Hare, with incoming and outgoing flights delayed by at least two hours, the Chicago Aviation Department said. More than 30 flights were cancelled at Midway International Airport.

No twister sightings were reported in the area.

In Michigan, WZZM-TV and The Grand Rapids Press reported Wednesday that high winds pulled two hangars off their foundations at the Gerald R. Ford International Airport. WOOD-TV said members of the Civil Air Patrol were preparing for natural disaster training when the storm hit Tuesday night. They took cover in one of the hangars as powerful gusts ripped a door off and blasted some of the service members off their feet. Three suffered minor injuries.

Michael Gillis, spokesman for Chicago's commuter rail network Metra, said one outbound train was stuck for about five hours when a storm knocked a power line onto the rail. After 2 a.m. Wednesday, the train headed back downtown and passengers were asked to find alternative transportation or face an even longer wait for another train.

Two inbound trains remained stranded before dawn Wednesday, and the storm caused numerous other delays and cancellations to the service, Gillis said.

"Since the wind stopped, we've been dealing with various track obstructions," Gillis said.

Some 267,000 customers remained without power in Illinois, particularly in the north where the storm hit hard, Bennie Currie, a spokesman for the utility Commonwealth Edison, said early Wednesday. About 5,600 customers in Chicago still have no electricity, he said.

The storm also delayed play for 1 hour, 44 minutes in the second game between Chicago rivals the Cubs and White Sox. The game at U.S. Cellular Field was temporarily halted in the top of the sixth with one out and the Cubs having runners on the corners.

On Monday, a massive storm forced fans attending a College World Series game in Omaha, Neb. to evacuate the stadium. Sirens blared and fans were ushered to an underground shelter as black clouds shrouded the city.

The game between Florida and Vanderbilt was suspended until Tuesday, with the Gators winning 3-1.

--The Associated Press

Travelers sleep on cots in Terminal 3 at O'Hare International Airport. (AP Photo/Brian Kersey)

Thousands still without power after GTA's 'worst-first' storm

While only a handful of homes in Toronto remain without power, about 50,000 customers in Ontario are still in the dark after Wednesday’s severe storm.

The thunderstorm ripped through Ontario, downing hydro wires, upturning trees, and setting off a number of lightning fires, particularly in Vaughan.

At its peak on Wednesday, 150,000 customers were without power. By late Thursday, Hydro One had restored power to 60,000 households but said it will still be a few days before everything is back to normal.

“Because so many of those repairs involve putting lines back up, putting a new pole in the ground, removing trees, that’s why it’s such a labour-intensive process,” said Hydro One spokeswoman Daniele Gauvin. “We don’t anticipate having everyone back on before Sunday.”

Gauvin attributed the outages to “lightning hits on equipment and 80 to 100 km/h winds.”

“It’s an unprecedented storm,” she said. “The damage is so extensive — there are 300 broken poles between Peterborough and Tweed alone.” There are just 97 kilometres between the two sites.

Environment Canada climatologist Geoff Coulson said this kind of storm is called a “worst-first” because all the worst weather aspects are at the leading edge — rain, hail, gusty winds, lightning. “It can be brief and very intense,” he said.

One particularly bad aspect of this kind of storm is what Coulson calls downbursts, which are very strong winds coming from the core of the storm, at either the front or tail end. These winds “flatten out” when they hit the ground and can cause as much damage as a tornado, he said. It was this kind of wind that was responsible for much of the damage in Coboconk and Minden Hills.

“People were getting disappointed when they were told a tornado was not the cause of damage. But downbursts are dangerous enough to kill.”

Vaughan deputy fire chief Gary Fraser said city saw 15 lightning strikes and seven confirmed fires from the storm.

Much of downtown and central Toronto were spared the worst of the storm but parts of Scarborough and North York felt the effects of lightning and heavy gusts of wind which knocked down trees, branches and power lines.

Up to 10,000 in Toronto were without electricity on Wednesday after the storm.

-- Aleysha Haniff and Galit Rodan, Staff Reporters

Extensive storm damage sparks massive cleanup

Multiple power outages are shown on a map on the Hydro One website. Green triangles represent multiple outages. Click for map

In the aftermath of a storm that ripped through Ontario Wednesday, Hydro One has sent out more repair crews than it did following the massive ice storm of 1998.

About 1,300 Hydro One employees were in the field and some 110,000 customers remained without power by midday, said Hydro One spokeswoman Daniele Gauvin.

“Usually to have that number [of employees] out, the whole province would have to be down,” said Gauvin.

“It’s an unprecedented storm,” she said. “The damage is so extensive, there are 300 broken poles between Peterborough and Tweed alone.”

About 150,000 Hydro One customers lost power Wednesday night from around Fenelon Falls and Peterborough all the way to the outskirts of Ottawa.

Gauvin attributed the outages to “lightning hits on equipment and 80-100 km/h winds.”

Hydro One restoration staff includes line maintainers, foresters, assessers and even apprentices. Six helicopters have also been sent out. Gauvin said the helicopters are especially helpful in assessing the damage in heavily wooded areas and in flying staff and equipment to remote areas.

“Because so many of those repairs involve putting lines back up, putting a new pole in the ground, removing trees, that's why it’s such a labour-intensive process,” said Gauvin.

“We don’t anticipate having everyone back on before Sunday.”

Although the GTA was spared the brunt of the storm, Toronto Hydro said it had about 99 active calls as of 2:00 p.m.

A spokeswoman said she expected that there were about 500 customers still without power.

“We’ve held back all crews from any planned construction work today and every available skilled tradesperson is out restoring power,” she said.

About 1,800 Toronto customers were without power at the peak of the storm.

In Maple, Kim Ambrose said Wednesday that lightning had effectively destroyed her neighbour’s roof on Kinloch Cres.

The home was surrounded by neighbours and firefighters, who were at the top of a ladder spraying water down into the roofless building, Ambrose said.

“The entire main floor is gone, I’m sure the ceiling has fallen into the rest of the house,” she said. In Scarborough, power was out around Midland Ave. and several blocks eastward, forcing cars to treat intersections along Kingston Rd. as four-way stops.

At Chine Dr., a massive tree was ripped from the sidewalk, uprooting a power line pole and taking down a fence.

Caroline Colaris was on her way to the airport when the storm hit and pounded her car with hail.

When she returned to her home on Chine Dr., she found police tape closing off the street and firefighters dealing with other fallen trees and debris.

“We missed all the excitement,” said Colaris. “But it’s still quite a shock.”

She said she’s never seen a storm so bad in her 20 years in Scarborough. There was no damage to her home, she added, aside from a few scattered flowerpots.

As people from the neighbourhood surveyed the damage, city workers shooed them away from the fallen power pole, calling it unsteady and dangerous.

Just off Brimley Rd., another huge tree lay across Barkdene Hills, its branches jutting upward as high as a power pole.

Returning from a bike ride, Ron Harlow said he didn’t expect such strong gusts of wind and the barrage of quarter-sized hail, even as he watched storm warnings on the news.

“It was pretty scary,” he said. His nephew, Caleb, 11, said, “It sounded like the windows were going to break.”

Among those with homes badly damaged by the storm was Mark Towhey, Mayor Rob Ford’s policy chief.

At 9:25 p.m. he tweeted the city’s 311 information service to say he had been on hold for 35 minutes to report a city tree down on his house and wires, and asking when was a better time to call.

A city staffer operating the 311 Twitter feed apologized and asked him to call again.

Throughout Ontario, about 150,000 Hydro One customers were left without power and many may not get their electricity back until Sunday.

The storms caused damage in Haliburton County and the Kawartha Lakes and there were unconfirmed reports of tornadoes in the Minden Hills area near Peterborough.

Environment Canada investigators were in the area Thursday determining whether there had been a tornado.

After a muggy day and stormy night, Thursday proved cooler and wet. Environment Canada said the overcast weather should clear this evening, with a low of 14 C.

The slightly cooler forecast comes as a relief after Wednesday’s record-breaking weather, with temperatures reaching a high of 33.4 C. That exceeded the 32.2C record for June 8 set in 1950 and 1959.

--Galit Rodan, Staff Reporter, with files from Star staff and The Canadian Press

• Got a picture of yesterday's storm, or any damage it caused? Email them to webmaster@thestar.ca or tweet your picture using the hashtag #storm TO or post to our Flickr pool.l

Wild storm downs trees, cuts power in GTA

A man inspects a fallen tree limb near Kingston Rd. and Midland Ave. in Scarborough after a fierce storm swept through the GTA Wednesday evening. (RICK EGLINTON/THE TORONTO STAR)

Toronto Hydro is still working to restore power after a wild storm knocked down trees and power lines in pockets of the city Wednesday night.

Power has been restored in many areas, but remained out Thursday morning in areas of North York and Scarborough.

On Kinloch Cres. in Maple, Kim Ambrose said lightning had effectively destroyed her neighbour’s roof.

The home was surrounded by neighbours and firefighters, who were at the top of a ladder spraying water down into the roofless building, Ambrose said.

“The entire main floor is gone, I’m sure the ceiling has fallen into the rest of the house,” she said.

In Scarborough, power was out around Midland Ave. and several blocks eastward, forcing cars to treat intersections along Kingston Rd. as four-way stops.

At Chine Dr., a massive tree was ripped from the sidewalk, uprooting a power line pole and taking down a fence.

Caroline Colaris was on her way to the airport when the storm hit and pounded her car with hail. When she returned to her home on Chine Dr., she found police tape closing off the street and firefighters dealing with other fallen trees and debris.

“We missed all the excitement,” said Colaris. “But it’s still quite a shock.”

She said she’s never seen a storm so bad in her 20 years in Scarborough. There was no damage to her home, she added, aside from a few scattered flowerpots.

As people from the neighbourhood surveyed the damage, city workers shooed them away from the fallen power pole, calling it unsteady and dangerous.

Just off Brimley Rd., another huge tree lay across Barkdene Hills, its branches jutting upward as high as a power pole.

Returning from a bike ride, Ron Harlow said he didn’t expect such strong gusts of wind and the barrage of quarter-sized hail, even as he watched storm warnings on the news.

“It was pretty scary,” he said.

His nephew, Caleb, 11, said, “It sounded like the windows were going to break.”

Among those with homes badly damaged by the storm was Mark Towhey, Mayor Rob Ford’s policy chief. At 9:25 p.m. he tweeted the city’s 311 information service to say he had been on hold for 35 minutes to report a city tree down on his house and wires, and asking when was a better time to call.

A city staffer operating the 311 Twitter feed apologized and asked him to call again.

Throughout Ontario, about 150,000 Hydro One customers were left without power and many may not get their electricity back until Sunday.

The storms caused damage in Haliburton County and the Kawartha Lakes and there were unconfirmed reports of tornadoes in the Minden Hills area near Peterborough.

After a muggy day and stormy night, Thursday in Toronto will likely be cooler and wet.

Environment Canada predicts a cloudy day, with showers beginning this morning. There’s a chance of thunderstorms late Thursday morning and this afternoon.

Though the agency predicts a daytime high of 25 C, the humidity will make it feel muggier. The overcast weather should clear this evening, with a low of 14 C.

The slightly cooler forecast comes as a relief after Wednesday’s record-breaking weather, with temperatures reaching a high of 33.4 C.

That exceeded the 32.2C record for June 8 set in 1950 and 1959.

The humidex sat at 42, according to Environment Canada. A heat alert and humidex advisory were in effect for the GTA, with a UV index of 8, or very high.

• Got a picture of yesterday's storm, or any damage it caused? Email them to webmaster@thestar.ca or tweet your picture using the hashtag #storm TO or post to our Flickr pool.l

Alyesha Haniff, Staff Reporter, with files from Star staff and The Canadian Press

Doug Sanderson clears a fallen tree limb near his home in the Kingston and Midland Rds. area Wednesday evening. (RICK EGLINTON/THE TORONTO STAR)