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McHENRY - A winter storm is bringing measurable snow to the mountains of far Western Maryland.
The National Weather Service has issued a winter storm warning for 6 to 12 inches of snow in the area through Tuesday night.
An inch or two had fallen by 5 p.m. today, but state police and state highway officials reported no problems.
The snow is likely to stick around because temperatures in Garrett County aren't expected to rise above freezing until Thursday. |
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HANOI, Vietnam (AP) — Flooding killed at least 11 people in Vietnam's southern and central regions, submerged thousands of homes in its largest city and stranded air and railway passengers, officials said Sunday.
The country braced for more rain as another tropical storm approached, forecasters said.
Floods caused by surging high tides submerged thousands of homes in the southern commercial hub of Ho Chi Minh City over the weekend, according to state media.
No deaths were reported in the city, but television footage showed homes and streets in the downtown area under three feet (one meter) of water.
At least eight people were killed in heavy rains in southern Khanh Hoa province over the weekend, including a 2-year-old boy who drowned, said disaster official Pham Van Quang.
In neighboring Phu Yen province, the bodies of three children were recovered Sunday after being washed away from their homes, said provincial official Dang Thi Lanh.
The floods disrupted the main highway and railway links between northern and southern Vietnam. Flights were canceled to Nha Trang, a southern beach resort town. Thousands of passengers were stranded, Lanh said.
Rains had stopped in most areas by Sunday afternoon, but Tropical Storm Noul, packing winds of 45 miles (70 kilometers) per hour, was expected to make landfall Tuesday in the country's central region and the Mekong River delta, Vietnam's rice bowl, the national forecaster said.
Deputy Prime Minister Nguyen Sinh Hung urged provinces to move people to higher ground and call home thousands of fishing boats.
"This storm, though not very strong, is expected to hit hard the vast delta, where houses are not well built. So it could be a very devastating one," state-owned television quoted Hung as saying.
Last week, 94 people died in floods that inundated the capital, Hanoi, and other provinces in the country's northern and central regions.
Vietnam is prone to floods, which kill hundreds |
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THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
SEATTLE -- A small dam failed and caused minor flooding in Cosmopolis as heavy rain resulted in flood warnings Wednesday along rivers throughout Western Washington.
The dam at Mill Creek Park in the town about 40 miles west of Olympia collapsed after it was weakened by a falling tree, town officials said. Some streets and nearby houses were flooded with several inches of water. A contractor was hired to repair the dam.
Water also covered several highways and roads around nearby Aberdeen.
Elsewhere in the state, about 200 residents were encouraged to evacuate from areas along the Carbon River near Orting, southeast of Tacoma. North of Seattle, the Snohomish County Public Works Department was bringing sand and sandbags to be picked up by home and business owners at half a dozen fire stations and parks.
No injuries or serious property damage were reported from the wet weather.
Mount Rainier National Park was closed after the main access route, Nisqually Road, was covered with more than 6 inches of floodwater from Kautz Creek in the southwest corner of the park. Rangers used a service road to help evacuate seven guests from the National Park Inn at Longmire on Tuesday night.
The park was closed for months in the fall of 2006 because of flood damage from storms that dumped nearly 18 inches of rain in 36 hours.
Barns at the Evergreen State Fairgrounds in Monroe, east of Everett, were opened as temporary stables for horses, cows and other livestock that had been moved out of floodwaters.
East of Monroe, in Sultan, Don Marshall borrowed a friend's red kayak and paddled around some flooded houses by the U.S. Highway 2 bridge near the confluence of the Sultan and Skykomish rivers. Sandbags were placed around some downtown businesses, and a stream of residents and business owners filled sandbags from a pile of sand on Main Street.
About 5 to 7 inches of rain had fallen in the 24 hours ending at 11 a.m. Wednesday, and another four to six hours of moderate to heavy rain appeared likely, said Brad Colman, a National Weather Service meteorologist in Seattle.
In populated areas, the 24- and 48-hour totals included 0.95 and 1.10 inches at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport, 2.25 and 3 inches in Olympia, 2.20 and 2.50 inches in Centralia, 0.8 and 0.99 in Everett and 0.65 and 0.69 in Bellingham.
The flood warnings included residential areas near the Skagit River around Mount Vernon, 55 miles north of Seattle, and in places where the Snohomish River could top levees near Snohomish, 25 miles northeast of Seattle.
Warnings also were issued for the Naselle, Satsop, Nooksack, Stillaguamish, Skykomish, Tolt, Snoqualmie, Cedar, Carbon, Puyallup and Deschutes rivers, mostly in largely rural areas with low-lying roads and pastures.
Previous rains this month saturated the soil in most areas west of the Cascade Range, raising the risk of rock and mud slides, the weather service reported. |
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