Storm

HOFFMAN ESTATES, Ill. -- After struggling earlier this season away from home, the Blast has suddenly transformed into a team of road warriors. With yesterday's 12-4 Major Indoor Soccer League victory over the Chicago Storm, the Blast has won three straight away from 1st Mariner Arena. KiXX@Blast Friday, 7:30 p.m., 680 AM

PORT CHARLOTTE, Fla. -- Already the hurricane hysteria industry is in full force, not even waiting for the official start of the season. The story is that we're in for a busy season this year. Yeah, right. I moved to Punta Gorda just in time for Hurricane Charley in August 2004. My family was watching it on The Weather Channel when it changed its mind. Originally, it was a benign Category 2 storm headed to Tampa. Then it was headed to Fort Myers. Then it turned right at my house and quickly upgraded to a Category 4. We got maybe 30 minutes' notice.

T.J. Hamilton, 75, of Baltimore asks, "When was the worst ice storm in Baltimore's history. ... I would like to know this before I die." I'll hurry, but there's no objective way to compare. My nomination goes to a relentless series of storms in January and February 1994. The worst was Feb. 10-11. Freezing rain and sleet left 1 to 3 inches of ice. North Central Maryland added 4 to 7 inches of sleet. Trees, power lines, gutters and pedestrians fell. Damage was put at $100 million. Readers?

1958: J. Millard Tawes is elected governor1962: March storm smashes Ocean City1962: Sit-in demonstrators are arrested

Driven by strong winds, a brief storm struck the Baltimore metropolitan area around dinner time yesterday and left more than 18,000 homes and businesses without power, several downed trees and malfunctioning traffic signals, said a Baltimore Gas and Electric Co. spokesman.Service was expected to be restored by rush hour today, said BGE spokesman Karl Neddenien.On the average, .18 inches of rain fell during the storm, doing little to reverse a long dry spell, said a spokesman for the National Weather Service in Sterling, Va. Wind gusts between 30 and 40 mph were reported during the storm.

Baltimore was poised for battle. An army of salt trucks stood ready to cruise the city's streets. Hot coffee brewed in police stations. Residents stockpiled bread, milk and toilet paper.It was supposed to be a colossal mess, but the much-hyped ice storm ended up as a long night of rain.As freezing rain coated streets with sheets of ice Saturday night, Marylanders went to bed with full refrigerators and piles of rented movies, prepared to be trapped at home. But they awoke yesterday to the sweet sound of traffic running smoothly.

DEL CITY, Okla. -- President Clinton brought personal solace and the promise of federal financial aid yesterday to tornado survivors in Oklahoma, where devastating twisters killed 41 people and caused more than $600 million in property losses Monday.On a walking tour of the hard-hit Frolic Meadows neighborhood southwest of Oklahoma City, the president spent 90 minutes embracing residents and offering his sympathy.Tammy Weston, a mother of three whose family "lost it all" when the storm hit, said the president's words of consolation "made us feel better, actually."

An article in yesterday's Maryland section incorrectly reported the amount of power used in the Baltimore region on Tuesday. Baltimore Gas and Electric Co. said the usage was 6,016 megawatts, a summer record but lower than the all-time high.The Sun regrets the error.A fast-moving storm whipped through portions of Maryland yesterday evening, cutting power to more than 95,000 people in Montgomery and southern Prince George's counties.The heavy winds from the largely dry storm also left 9,800 without power in southern Anne Arundel and northern Prince George's counties, Baltimore Gas and Electric Co. officials said.

OCEAN CITY -- Emergency management officials say Maryland's resort city should receive only a glancing blow from Hurricane Bonnie, as the first major storm of the season apparently will spare both property owners and beach-goers.Forecasters from the National Weather Service say the storm will arrive tonight, pass within 150 miles of the coast early tomorrow morning and bring sustained winds of 50 mph and higher gusts.Heavy rains and wind could bring flooding in some low-lying areas and some property damage is likely, officials say. But more than 200,000 visitors will be allowed to finish their late-summer vacations.

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. -- For as long as even the very oldest can remember, the wail of warning sirens atop courthouses, little police stations, and volunteer fire departments has pierced the calm of the drowsy Alabama communities of Rock Creek, Oak Grove, and Sylvan Springs.It chases the people deep into their basements and down on their knees, till the skies clear and they walk outside to see who was spared, who was not.Always, their prayers seemed to nudge the full force of the wind away, so that while a few lives have always been lost, a few houses destroyed, the communities have survived.

Wind and waves from the powerful nor'easter that has pummeled the Mid- Atlantic coast since Wednesday have eaten away as much as a quarter of Ocean City's dune line. The sand will have to be replaced, city officials said, but the man-made storm barrier did its job. Other than street flooding and minor wind damage, the resort appears to have weathered the worst of the storm. "There were no instances of ocean water anywhere west of the dune line, and no damage that we can see from the ocean to any property along the oceanfront," said Mayor Rick Meehan.

Beachgoers along the Mid-Atlantic coast could face another weekend of rough surf and wet and breezy weather as Tropical Storm Danny takes a slow spin up the East Coast. The poorly organized storm reached tropical storm force Wednesday morning in the Atlantic north of Puerto Rico and is forecast to become a minimal hurricane near the Carolina coast by Saturday morning. The storm's center was not expected to make landfall, but Danny could be off the Delmarva beaches by Saturday afternoon, forecasters said.

The statistical peak of the hurricane season begins next week and runs into October. But we shouldn't read too much into this season's storm-free start. June and July produce fewer than two named storms a year on average. Hurricane Andrew, the first named storm of 1992, formed Aug. 17 and blasted South Florida on the 24th as a Cat. 4 storm, causing tremendous damage.

Emergency personnel and BGE crews worked Monday to clear downed trees and wires and to restore electricity to more than 31,500 customers in Baltimore, Carroll and Harford counties after an intense straight-line storm moved through early Sunday evening. No injuries were reported as a result of the microburst, characterized by straight-line winds, which was centered in a square-mile area near Franklin and Red Run boulevards in Reisterstown, said Baltimore County Fire spokeswoman Elise Armacost.

A severe and swift straight-line storm with winds in excess of 60 miles per hour and with more than 1,000 reports of lightning, hail and heavy rain struck parts of Baltimore, Harford and Carroll counties about 6 p.m. Sunday, knocking down countless trees and causing power outages and power surges, authorities said. "We have nearly 90 calls for assistance backed up," said a Baltimore County police communications supervisor at the height of the storm. Baltimore Gas and Electric Co. said there were still 25,000 power outages as of 10:45 p.m., with nearly 20,000 of those reported in Baltimore County.

Attorney general leaning toward torture inquiry WASHINGTON - Attorney General Eric H. Holder is leaning toward appointing a criminal prosecutor to investigate whether CIA personnel tortured terrorism suspects after Sept. 11, 2001, setting the stage for a conflict with Obama administration officials who would prefer that the issues remain in the past, according to sources familiar with his thinking. Naming a prosecutor to probe alleged abuses during the Bush era would run counter to President Barack Obama's oft-repeated desire to be "looking forward, not backward."

An apparent tornado knocked down power lines and tree limbs Saturday afternoon in the Essex and Rockaway Beach sections of Baltimore County, authorities said. A tree landed on a house in the 900 block of Lance Avenue, fire officials said. The family was displaced, but no one was injured. Police began receiving reports of storm damage about 4 p.m., including tree branches blocking roads. More than three dozen houses sustained minor damage, said Baltimore County Fire Department spokeswoman Elise Armacost.

Category 5 - The 1935 Labor Day Hurricane Thomas Neil Knowles (Florida, $29.95) Rarely is a nonfiction book so compelling that it demands to be read in one sitting. But Thomas Neil Knowles' straightforward retelling of the 1935 hurricane that leveled Florida's Middle Keys is the exception. Knowles provides a sobering yet gripping account of the storm's ferocity, and at the same time personalizes its consequences by making us care about the people it affected. If you are a fan of the Keys, the author's descriptions of life there in the mid-1930s will add to your understanding of why it is such a unique place to so many people.

A long-range space-weather forecast: After the quietest low in a century in the 11-year cycle of solar activity, NOAA scientists predict the next solar peak will top out in May 2013 at the lowest level since 1928. But even "weak" solar cycles can act up. A similar cycle in 1859 produced a solar storm that set fires in telegraph offices and sparked Northern Lights bright enough to read newspapers by.

The General Assembly passed three environmental protection measures in its recently concluded session that affect fly ash, air quality and storm-water management, according to the county. The legislation strengthens existing regulations requiring air quality monitoring for coal fly ash and extends the statute of limitations for storm-water management plans to three years, providing consistent enforcement of environmental laws. The legislation also requires the state to include county reimbursement claims for environmental health monitoring and testing, in cases where the state collects fines.