Monday, June 9, 2008

What’s Next?

For the Second Time in Less Then 2 Weeks
A EF-5 Tornado and Now Getting Flooded Out
Area gets a Soaking; Braces for More
The evacuation of New Hartford may be just the beginning.

The rest of the Cedar Valley is crossing its fingers and filling sandbags.
Boy Scout Troop 87 members Ryan Oberrieder, left, and Marcus Lampe pass heavy sand bags along the line as the Cedar River continued to rise as dozens of volunteers gathered to sandbag around the Ice House Museum along the Cedar River Sunday evening in Cedar Falls, Iowa.
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Record flooding is projected for Waterloo, Cedar Falls and parts of Northeast Iowa after another round of heavy rains and severe storms Sunday. In perhaps the most visible evidence of the flooding at hand, a major portion of the city of New Hartford was evacuated Sunday night. "It's just so devastating. The whole town has low morale because it's been so stressful" since the tornadoes, said resident Lorrie Martin, whose house on Washington Street was taking in water.
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Railroad dam breaks, Clarksville flooding Just N.W. of Parkersburg
One-third of the city of Clarksville is underwater this morning after a railroad bed that generally acts as a dike to the city gave way under the pressure. The railroad bed swept away about 2 a.m., officials said. Fire officials went through the town telling people of the situation. About 50 homes were evacuated and shelter was set up at the Fire Station.Mayor David Kelm is calling it the worst flood in Clarksville in 70-some years. Sandbagging is going on in this morning. Bud Hirsch, fire chief in Clarksville, said "Some of the homes have 6 to 7 feet of water in them. That's catastrophic."Most of the water damage is to the basements and first floors of homes. The railroad is shut down for repairs to the rail bed. There is only one way into the city

Girl Who Silenced the UN For 5 Minutes

Giving H2S Gas to Stroke Victims

Stink bomb gas to give stroke victims new hope
The gas that provides millions of schoolchildren with hours of fun and gives stink bombs their revolting smell could soon provide doctors with new treatments for conditions ranging from strokes to chronic arthritis. Some researchers are even trying to use hydrogen sulphide - the source of rotten eggs' unpleasant odor - to put patients with strokes or serious injuries into a form of suspended animation to help them survive severe traumas. This research is now being backed by the US military, who believe it could help their surgeons cope with injuries suffered by soldiers in battle.
'Hydrogen sulphide is made in very low doses in the body and, far from doing harm, it has become clear that it can do a great deal of good,' said Dr John Wallace, a pharmacologist at the University of Calgary in Canada. 'It is found in the brain and is also thought to control blood pressure. It is quite pervasive, in fact.'Hydrogen sulphide is corrosive, foul-smelling, flammable and deadly in sufficient concentrations. A single breath can kill. Yet the gas has recently become a buzzword in scientific circles following discoveries that in tiny doses it plays a significant role in influencing some chemical pathways in the body.

Texas Governor's Mansion Fire Points to Arson

AUSTIN, Texas — Arson is suspected in a fire that swept through the historic Texas Governor's Mansion early Sunday and left much of the 152-year-old home charred and severely damaged, the state fire marshal said.
"We have some evidence that indicates that we do have an intentionally set fire," said state Fire Marshal Paul Maldonado. "So we believe that we may be looking at a criminal act here."
Calling it a "devastating loss to the state of Texas," Maldonado did not offer details on how the fire may have been set or whether authorities had identified a suspect.
Security cameras are set up around the mansion, which sits downtown on a lot the size of a city block, and investigators were interviewing people who were nearby and might have noticed suspicious activity.
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Pictures Of Texas Governor's Mansion Fire

Find Best Gas Prices

With gas prices — and driver frustration — soaring, here are two Web sites that help track national prices and best value near you:
AAA's FuelGaugeReport.com — Web site tracks the daily national average price of unleaded gasoline.
GasBuddy.com — Web site searches for the cheapest unleaded gas prices in your area.
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Child's Kiss of Deaf

This is a story about a kiss - an expression of love so potent from a little girl -- that it caused her mother not only to lose her hearing in one ear after a buss on the ear, but to be thrust into the pages of medical history. Yet it wasn't the sound of the smackaroo that damaged the hearing of Hicksville homemaker Gail Schwartzman, but a suction force that displaced the woman's eardrum, paralyzed a tiny trio of bones and left residual sounds in her head. Schwartzman's case will be the subject of a medical journal report within the coming weeks, outlining for the first time what the author calls "the kiss of deaf."
Schwartzman describes the kiss as physically painful but says it has left a deeper emotional scar on her daughter. Even as she recounted details of the kiss planted two years ago, the child, now 6, broke into tears, apologizing to her mom. Schwartzman requested that her daughter's name not be published. "She grabbed me and gave me a hug and a really big kiss on the left ear. And while she was doing it, it felt like she was sucking the air out of my head. I couldn't push her away because I had this terrible sensation in my head," Schwartzman said. "When she was finished, I had no hearing in that ear. The hearing slowly came back but with screeching noises in my ear," she said, referring to sounds known medically as tinnitus. Although some of her hearing has returned, allowing her to hear in muffled tones, the tinnitus has remained.