National Service

RIO GRANDE, PUERTO RICO / / Manuel Maldonado showed us hummingbirds, walking sticks, giant albino snails and other rain forest residents, but couldn't find a single coqui -- although they were singing all around us. Our visit to El Yunque, the Caribbean National Forest, had been delayed that morning. The rain forest was closed because of rain. Actually, a storm that ebbed as we arrived had scattered tree limbs, and U.S. Forest Service rangers had to make sure the roads were clear. "The Taino Indians called the land sacred, so the rain up here is holy water," said Manuel, our guide and driver.

Nothing is guaranteed at Fort Meade's version of a rummage sale, except the prices: an IBM printer for $30, a plush orange armchair for $1, a rotary phone for 25 cents.d,3 Starting tomorrow, the military retail outlet, called the Defense Reutilization and Marketing Office, will open to the public from 8 a.m. to noon, Monday through Friday. The store had been open only once a week.Sharon McMillon, chief of the outlet's distribution, said the increased hours mean more money for the government.

A line of thunderstorms passed through Harford County Saturday afternoon, knocking down trees - including one at the Harford County Courthouse - and causing sporadic power outages. By 7:30 p.m., the BGE web site was reporting roughly 2,200 customers were without power in the immediate aftermath of the storm; more than 1,500 had power restored and more than crews were working to get 700 more back on line. Hardest hit were areas along Route 24 from Forest Hill to Joppa, and in the greater Havre de Grace area.

The National Weather Service confirmed Friday that a tornado passed through the Lake Shore neighborhood east of Pasadena in Anne Arundel County during Thursday's storm. Officials at the National Weather Service said the tornado reached maximum winds of 80 mph, with a path as wide as 200 yards and as wide as one mile long, passing within a half mile of Chesapeake High, Chesapeake Middle and Bodkin Elementary schools. The tornado formed at about 9:46 p.m. over Cornfield Creek, knocking a sailboat on its side and then moving toward Milburn Circle in Lake Shore, where it knocked down several trees.

PISCATAWAY, N.J. -- President Clinton hit the road yesterday to promote his "signature" government initiative: an ambitious program of voluntary national service for young people.Mr. Clinton's sales effort was long on sweeping rhetoric and historic symbolism but devoid of specifics, including how the plan would work.National service "in the next few years will change America forever and for the better," he said in pitching his proposal to several thousand students in the politically important state of New Jersey.

Piles of dusty and outdated computer equipment are sprawled, stacked and stashed throughout a blocky warehouse nestled in an east Columbia office park. It seems an electronics graveyard.But a watch-your-step tour through the hard drives, keyboards and monitors with Art Silverglate soon makes it clear that this is no micro-chip garbage heap."Some of this stuff I guess we'll have to trash eventually. But a lot of it will end up in schools in good working condition when we're through with it. I'd much rather see it there than in landfills," says Mr. Silverglate.

Weather radios have been the de facto means of weather emergency communication for decades, but the National Weather Service is bringing its warnings into the 21 st Century. Starting in May, the agency will begin texting tornado, flash flood and other warnings to wireless users in the affected county. There is no need to sign up for the alerts, but not all cell phones are capable of receiving them. The alerts will have special tones and vibrations that will be repeated twice, and they will display messages of up to 90 characters.

This is in response to the Sept. 6 letter to the editor, "County's policy on lightning well-intentioned but misguided. " The National Weather Service applauds Howard County's lightning safety education effort to protect its residents. The safety message on the sign, "When Thunder Roars, Go Indoors" can be a matter of life or death. If you can hear thunder, lightning is close enough to strike and you should seek shelter immediately. If a substantial building is not close by, a vehicle provides very safe shelter.

Columbia-based National Conference Services has a big job: organizing conferences and events for the federal government. Employees work long hours and are expected to shoulder considerable responsibility, said Megan Parmenter, executive director of corporate marketing and operations for the privately owned company, which was founded in 1997. "Nobody goes into event planning to work 9 to 5," she said. National Conference Services strives to promote workers from within, Parmenter said.

The funnel cloud that caused minor damage in Ocean City on Thursday has been officially determined to be a tornado, a National Weather Service meteorologist said Saturday. The storm began as a waterspout over the Assawoman Bay and dissipated as it transitioned onto land about 3:55 p.m. near 75th Street, said Dan Proch, of NWS' Wakefield, Va., bureau. Gusts were estimated to be 60 to 70 miles per hour, he said. An on-site investigation Saturday revealed that the tornado was about 40 yards wide and cut a path of about one-half mile, Proch said.