USA: Winter Storm Causes Cancellation Of 1,000 Flights

Holiday travel could be delayed as heavy snow storm has moved across the US.

A blizzard that has already canceled or delayed thousands of airline flights and injured a passenger and crew member on a commercial jet over the Dallas area could dump nearly a foot more snow in some states, forecasters said Friday.

It was not immediately clear how many US-bound flights from the UAE were affected.

At least one fatality has been reported as the snowstorm continues to whip the northern US plains and Upper Midwest.

The combination of increasing wind and the dry, powdery nature of the snow created blizzard conditions at times from western Kansas to central Nebraska during Thursday. Gusts near 60 mph occurred in western Kansas and central Nebraska on Thursday morning.

One fatality was reported by emergency managers near Grinnell, Kansas, after multiple accidents on Interstate 70. Blizzard conditions and icy roads were present at the time of the fatal accident.

The storm, which began late on Wednesday, contributed to the cancellation of more than 1,000 flights and delayed another 4,200. Nearly 400 flights to or from Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport were canceled, with hundreds delayed.

Chenard said the storm system caused heavy rain and thunderstorms with the risk of flash floods in the southeastern United States, including parts of Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama.

Parts of the U.S. Midwest and Southeast were being hit with the first wave of heavy snow and rain expected in the central United States through the weekend, said Marc Chenard, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service.

Through this morning there have already been amounts as high as 6 to 10 inches of snow across those areas and additional snowfall of 10 inches is possible throughout the day and tonight, Chenard said.

Travel is going to be very difficult across the areas under weather and blizzard warnings. A passenger and a flight attendant suffered knee and back pain after an American Eagle flight operated by Mesa Airlines hit turbulence over the Dallas-Fort Worth area, American Airlines said in a statement.

Flight 5781, a Bombardier CRJ-900 aircraft that departed from San Luis Potosi International Airport in Mexico carrying 75 passengers and 4 crew members, was diverted to Austin, Texas.

The plane landed safely and the injured passenger and crew member were treated and released from a local hospital in Austin, the airline said.

In the Midwest, winter storm and blizzard warnings were in effect for parts of Kansas, Nebraska, North Dakota, South Dakota and Minnesota, the National Weather Service said.

The storm, which began late on Wednesday, contributed to the cancellation of more than 1,000 flights and delayed another 4,200. Nearly 400 flights to or from Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport were canceled, with hundreds delayed.

Chenard said the storm system caused heavy rain and thunderstorms with the risk of flash floods in the southeastern United States, including parts of Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama.

A tornado watch for parts of central and southwest Louisiana and southeast Texas were in effect on Thursday.

Kansas Governor Jeff Colyer on Wednesday declared a state of emergency. We hope that travelers will be wise by paying attention to weather alerts and not unnecessarily placing themselves in harm's way as the storm moves through, Colyer said in a statement.

Meanwhile, flights from New York's LaGuardia airport resumed early Friday after they were delayed or diverted overnight by an explosion at an electrical substation that cut off power.

The first services in the early morning were listed to operate as scheduled, including a 5:45 a.m. United Airlines service to Houston and a 5:52 a.m. American Airlines departure to Columbus, Ohio. Three planes that had been due to take off late Thursday were set to depart by 8:15 a.m.

Travelers should still check with their carrier on the status of their flight and allow extra time when coming to the airport, the airport's website advises.

The explosion in Astoria, New York City, illuminated the skyline with a bright blue light.

The glow could be seen from Manhattan shortly after 9 p.m. Thursday following a brief electrical fire at the facility in the Northern Queens neighborhood, said Bob McGee, a spokesman for utility Consolidated Edison Inc.

LaGuardia had to switch to backup generators during the blackout. Power has since been restored but not before Delta Air Lines Inc. and American Airlines diverted some of their flights to nearby airports.

The blue light prompted a wave of commentary on social media, with New Yorkers joking about its origins.

It's '*Not* aliens,' tweeted Eric Phillips, a spokesman for Mayor Bill de Blasio.

"There was a brief electrical fire at our substation on 20th Avenue & 32nd Street in Astoria this evening, which caused a transmission dip," Con Ed tweeted. "All power lines serving the area are in service and the system is stable." The company said it's investigating the cause of the blaze.

Find out more about San Luis Obispo County Regional Airport by clicking here.


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USA: Texas Soaks In Water

President Trump took to Twitter Sunday to indicate he was monitoring Tropical Storm Harvey, which continues to wreak havoc on the Texas Gulf Coast after being downgraded from a hurricane.

Wedged between the praise for emergency responders, however, were missives touching on subjects such as his proposed border wall between the U.S. and Mexico and his attempt to renegotiate the North American Free Trade Agreement.

Trump’s first tweet of the day was a post promoting a book by Milwaukee County Sheriff David Clarke.

He also teased an upcoming trip to Missouri, mentioning he “won by a lot in ’16” there,” and contended that Democratic Sen. Claire McCaskill will lose her seat in 2018.

Soon after, Trump touched on two major themes of his campaign, building a southern border wall and renegotiating or terminating NAFTA.

At a rally in Phoenix Tuesday, Trump threatened a government shutdown if Congress did not fund the wall’s construction, a stark departure from his campaign promise that Mexico would pay for it. Trump’s tweet Sunday assured “Mexico will pay for it through reimbursement/other.”

He followed that up with a dig at the U.S.’s southern and northern neighbors, claiming that both Mexico and Canada were being very difficult throughout the NAFTA renegotiation process.

Turning back to the disaster in Texas, Trump praised the “the great coordination between all levels of government and great talent on the ground.

He also said he will visit Texas as soon as that trip can be made without causing disruption to the ongoing emergency response. Trump seemed to marvel at the intensity of the storm.

Tropical Storm Harvey made landfall in Texas Friday as a Category 4 hurricane, and images out of Houston and the surrounding area show severe flooding.

Officials confirmed at least two fatalities as of Sunday, with some outlets reporting up to five deaths.

We do value our freedom here in Texas. People floating down Buffalo Bayou on their principles, proud residents of the largest city in these United States that did not grow in accordance with zoning ordinances.

The feeling there was that persons who own real estate should be free to develop it as they wish.

Houston, also known as the Bayou City, is a great location because of its access to international shipping in the Gulf of Mexico.

It is not a great location for building, though, because of all its impervious cover. If water could easily sink into the ground, there would be less of it ripping down Houston’s rivers that just a week ago were overcrowded streets.

In less-free cities, the jackbooted thugs in the zoning department impose limits on the amount of impervious cover in a development. Some of the limits can be finessed by lining parking lots with bricks turned sideways, so grass can be planted in the holes.

If you meet the impervious cover standards, you still might get your entire plat chucked into the round file because some computer has determined that your business plan will attract automobile traffic in excess of the carrying capacity of nearby roads.

Faceless bureaucracies have no respect for the inalienable right of every American to park his car on the public streets during rush hourt

I got snarky in the law school class where I first heard that Houston had no zoning, wishing out loud I could build a rendering plant in the so-posh River Oaks neighborhood.

River Oaks remains some of the most expensive real estate in the U.S., a model of what could be done with appropriate planning. Developers accomplished their ends by deed restrictions and gentlemen’s agreements.

Home prices were required to exceed $7,000 back in the 1920s and deed restrictions even specified allowable architectural styles.

Gentlemen of the times, of course, excluded Jews and “Negroes” and similar undesirables. After Houston annexed River Oaks in 1927, the suburb became a neighborhood, but it remained a haven for swell folks as tightly regulated by custom as Houston was unregulated by law.

Impervious cover in Houston, meanwhile, has increased and continues to increase. I look at my television and see that the streets are flooded.

The San Jacinto River and Buffalo Bayou are out of their banks. People are wading through waist-deep water carrying a few possessions, children and pets.

This catastrophic flooding is the result of 20 to 30 inches of rain. Adding to the water in the streets now, the Army Corps of Engineers has announced several reservoirs in the area will be opening floodgates to avoid failure of the dams, and the floodgates are expected to stay open for weeks because so much water will be coming downstream.

Additionally, the National Weather Service is warning Houston to expect another 15 to 25 inches of rain.

Hurricane Harvey is ambling off toward Louisiana, taking with him the high winds and the danger of storm surges but leaving rain and more rain.

Critics are complaining that Houston issued no mandatory evacuation order.

That would only occur to somebody who has never sat in the parking lot that Loop 610 becomes at least twice a day when people are just going to and from work.

Putting the entire population on the roads at the same time, roads that are prone to flash floods when rains are nowhere near these historic levels, would mean not just inconvenience but fatalities.

There would be at least as many rescues to be done as there are now, but they would be more dangerous rescues.

Agreeing that mandatory evacuation would have driven up the casualty numbers, Houston Police Chief Art Acevedo told MSNBC that half of the population would refuse to evacuate, but enough would do so to cause massive traffic jams that would leave everyone stuck in them at extreme danger in flash floods.

Houston was built without regard for the carrying capacity of its roads, just as it was built without regulating the amount of impervious cover that would be shedding water into streets, storm sewers, rivers and Buffalo Bayou.


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