Sandbaggers race against time as Red River rises

By Bill McAuliffe, Matt McKinney and Bob von Sternberg

Star Tribune (Minneapolis)

(MCT)

FARGO, N.D. _ Mud-soaked and aching, residents of Breckenridge, Minn., spent Monday trying to build a walled city against the marauding Red River and its tributaries.

By evening, after a day of sandbagging to fill gaps in permanent dikes, residents and officials believed they were protected 1 foot higher than the 19-foot crest predicted to pass through the city beginning at midday Tuesday.

"That was critical," said Wilkin County highway engineer Tom Richels. "We're feeling pretty good right now."

Thousands of volunteers up and down the Red River Valley toiled mightily Monday as potential record flooding threatened those along the north-flowing river. In Fargo, where classes at North Dakota State University were postponed indefinitely so students could help, sandbaggers worked to fill nearly 2 million sandbags ahead of Thursday's anticipated crest.

"This is coming up way faster than in 1997. We had a lot more time then," said college student Krista Ramstad as she took a break Monday night with tired friends who were filling sandbags in the Fargodome. Some of them had worked since Sunday morning.

Already main roads _ Interstate 29 on the North Dakota side and Hwy. 75 in Minnesota _ were closed between Wahpeton, N.D., and Fargo because portions were under water.

Richels estimated Monday morning that 80 percent of his county's roads outside the city of Breckenridge were under water and closed.

It probably will only get worse as heavy rain, eventually turning to snow, will bedevil the region this week.

According to the National Weather Service, rain will accumulate by as much as an inch before turning Tuesday night to snow that will linger through the rest of the week.

That could be a mixed blessing, as colder temperatures slow the melting that's feeding the flood, but make it tougher for volunteers to erect the cities' flood defenses.

As night fell Monday, heavy rain was falling in Breckenridge, accompanied by thunder and lightning.

Rain of more than half an inch in the region could push the city's crest toward 20 feet, higher even than the 19.4-foot record set in 1997, which devastated Breckenridge, its sister city of Wahpeton across the river, and began a wave of misery that culminated at Grand Forks, N.D., and beyond.

For some homeowners, slinging sandbags is becoming a wearying spring routine.

Chris Vedder, heaving sandbags in a long line of volunteers trying to protect some private homes across the street from where she and her husband live, said the effort had a strange effect on her.

"You get happy to see another semi" filled with sandbags, she said. "It's a real sick excitement."

Vedder's home in Breckenridge was raised 3 feet after the foundation caved in 1997. "We can't keep doing this," she said.

Hydrologists have indicated that this year's flooding is the result of not enough of last fall's record rains draining into rivers. Much of that rain froze solid and deep in the soil, holding it all winter, along with deeper-than-average winter snows.

That said, a diversion ditch built after the 1997 flood is supposed to keep the water away from downtown Breckenridge. "We think it's going to do what it was designed to do," said Steve Buan, a hydrologist for the National Weather Service's regional forecast.

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The concrete floor of the Fargodome, the city stadium that was supposed to be getting prepared for a championship rodeo competition, instead held hundreds of volunteers swarming six piles of sand. There was no hi-tech sandbagging machinery here, just shovels and white plastic bags. A crowd of 200 volunteers swarmed the floor Monday evening, their pants and sweatshirts covered in sand as they piled 40-pound bags onto pallets for waiting bulldozers and trucks to haul away.

"The evening shift is the toughest and we've had to shut down for lack of volunteers in the middle of the night," Fargo Mayor Dennis Walaker said. "But today, we've got people coming from (NDSU) and the high school, so that should help. We still need 400 to 500 people a shift to pull this off. But things are looking better than yesterday."

Eighty football players from NDSU took shifts Monday. Public high school students were to be released if they wanted to help. Even inmates got into the act, with Cass County jail residents filling sandbags overnight.

"I think today was a really good day," said Kristi Brandt, who held open a bag as her sons Alex, 6, and Jacob, 11, worked nearby.

Memories of the 1997 flood that devastated Grand Forks have people in Fargo prepared for the worst. Ramstad, the college student who said her family lost half of their belongings in that flood, said her parents were once again shoring up their house in Ada, Minn., against a rising tide. "I was supposed to leave for school (Sunday) when my mom started screaming from the basement because the water's rushing down the walls," she said.

Her father, a highway department supervisor, hasn't been home for five days while he fights the flood elsewhere.

Ramstad said she doesn't want to go back to school. For now, she wants to sandbag.

"We were out earlier building dikes," said Jeran Hilde, who said he worked until 1 a.m. early Monday on the relief effort.

"I couldn't sit up this morning," said Ramstad, whose jeans were covered with sand. "This is pretty much what I've been wearing for the last 48 hours."

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A student from Horace, N.D., a small town just outside Fargo, said crews shut off the city water recently to relieve the drains.

"They just turned it back on today but the whole town smells like sewer," said Jaden Fedora. No one has lost their house there, she said, but there wasn't much in the way of sandbags to stop the water.

Back on the floor of the Fargodome, volunteers prepared to work into the night.

"We can use as many as we can get," said Capt. Lee Soeth of the Fargo Fire Department.

"I'm doing as much as I can, I guess," said Matt Blum, an NDSU student.

He held a bag open while a friend loaded it with sand. Behind him sat a pile of empty white bags.

Nearby, Fargo elementary school teacher Sheri Wanzek said she planned to stay, "until I tire out."

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© 2009, Star Tribune (Minneapolis)

Visit the Star Tribune Web edition on the World Wide Web at http://www.startribune.com

Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.

Alaska volcano remains active after morning blast

By George Bryon

McClatchy Newspapers

(MCT)

ANCHORAGE, Alaska _ Since an erupting Mount Redoubt sent an ash cloud shooting nearly 12 miles high early Monday morning with its fifth and strongest explosion, the Cook Inlet volcano has remained highly active, the Alaska Volcano Observatory reports.

Six to seven smaller, subsequent explosions lasting about two minutes apiece have sent additional ash and gas into the atmosphere since the big blast at 4:30 a.m., AVO staff scientist Chris Waythomas said.

Ash has now been detected at 60,000 feet above sea level, the National Weather Service reported.

Midlevel winds are still carrying the ash plume north over the Susitna Valley, and minor ash fall has been reported in Skwentna, Willow, Trapper Creek and Talkeetna, according to the Weather Service, the Matanuska-Susitna Borough and eyewitness reports. Traces of ash also have now been reported in Denali National Park and at the village of Nikolai to the west.

High-elevation winds above 40,000 feet are beginning to veer toward Anchorage, but no ash is expected to fall on Alaska's largest city at this time, Bob Hopkins, the meteorologist-in-charge of the National Weather Service office in Anchorage, said.

"Eight miles up _ that's going to stay there," Hopkins said. "But that will affect aircraft at that altitude."

It's the lower-elevation winds between 10,000 and 20,000 feet, currently blowing north by northeast, that are most likely to carry ash to the ground, Hopkins said.

In the Su Valley, the ash fall is being described as fine gray dust around Skwentna, Trapper Creek and Talkeetna.

The eruption has apparently destroyed the "RSO" seismometer on the south flank of the volcano, as well as the AVO webcam inside a hut six miles from the summit, Waythomas said.

Two additional seismometers on Redoubt's north and east slopes were nonoperational for a while Monday morning, but that was due to a power outage on the Kenai Peninsula, he said.

By midmorning, residents in Kenai began reporting a sulfur smell in the air, but no ash had yet fallen there and schools are open, officials said.

Redoubt began erupting Sunday night, with the first explosion coming at 10:38 p.m., followed by another at 11:02 p.m., a third at 12:14 a.m. and a fourth at 1:39 a.m., the AVO reported.

Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport remains open, although some airlines have canceled or diverted flights. Alaska Airlines reported canceling 19 flights in and out of Anchorage because of the ash but other flights are operating.

Elmendorf Air Force Base reported that 60 planes, including fighter jets, cargo aircraft and a Boeing 747 commercial plane, are being sheltered. The base initially ordered only essential personnel to report for duty; that was later changed to all personnel reporting at 8 a.m.

Mount Redoubt, a 10,197-foot stratovolcano 100 miles southwest of Anchorage, last erupted during a fourth-month period in 1989-90. Its recent period of volcanic unrest began Jan. 25.

An official with the Federal Aviation Administration at the Anchorage airport early Monday said there were no immediate plans to close the airport.

The Weather Service advised people in areas of ash fall to seal windows and doors, protect electronics and cover air intakes and open water supplies as well as minimize driving.

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© 2009, Anchorage Daily News (Anchorage, Alaska).

Visit the Anchorage Daily News online at http://www.adn.com/

Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.

Three Smithtown Juniors Have Been Awarded a Simons Summer Research Fellowship at Stony Brook University

Valentine Esposito and HSE Research Teacher Maria Trinkle

(SMITHTOWN CENTRAL SCHOOL DISTRICT) - Congratulations to Valentine Esposito, Reena Glaser and Jessica Noviello. Only 32 juniors are selected to participate in this prestigious program which receives applications from students throughout the country. According to a Simons release, the program "gives academically talented, motivated high school students who are between their junior & senior years the opportunity to engage in hands-on research in science, math or engineering at Stony Brook University. Simons Fellows work with distinguished faculty mentors, learn laboratory techniques and tools, become part of active research teams, and experience life at a research university." Along with this wonderful opportunity, a $1000 stipend will be awarded to each participant. Dr. Joanne Figueiredo, coordinator of the research program at West, believes that Reena and Jessica are dedicated students that epitomize a positive work ethic. Dr. Figueiredo stated that the knowledge that Reena and Jessica acquire at Stony Brook this summer will enhance their senior year experiences. Reena Glaser will be working with Dr. Marcia Simon and Dr. Miriam Rifailovich and Jessica Noviello will be working with Dr. David Krause. According to Ms. Trinkle, coordinator of the program at East, “Valentine is an exceptional student who goes above and beyond what is required to meet with success in a research setting. Her commitment to excellence is impeccable. Her affable nature makes her a joy to work with, and I anticipate much success for this lovely young lady.”

Red Flag Warning Issued

...RED FLAG WARNING IN EFFECT UNTIL 8 PM EDT THIS EVENING...

THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE IN UPTON HAS ISSUED A RED FLAG
WARNING...WHICH IS IN EFFECT UNTIL 8 PM EDT THIS EVENING.

NORTHWEST WINDS OF 15 TO 20 MPH WITH FREQUENT GUSTS UP TO 25 MPH
WERE ALREADY OCCURRING IN SPOTS OVER EASTERN LONG ISLAND LATE THIS
MORNING...AND WILL BE WIDESPREAD THIS AFTERNOON AND EARLY
EVENING...ALONG WITH MINIMUM RELATIVE HUMIDITIES OF 15 TO 20
PERCENT. IF IGNITION OCCURS...THESE WEATHER CONDITIONS IN
COMBINATION WITH DRY FINE FUELS DUE TO LACK OF RECENT WETTING
RAINS AND LACK OF GREENUP WOULD PROMOTE RAPID FIRE GROWTH THIS
AFTERNOON AND EARLY EVENING.

PRECAUTIONARY/PREPAREDNESS ACTIONS...

A RED FLAG WARNING MEANS THAT CRITICAL FIRE WEATHER CONDITIONS
ARE OCCURRING OR IMMINENT. A COMBINATION OF STRONG WINDS...LOW
RELATIVE HUMIDITY...AND DRY FUELS WILL PROMOTE RAPID FIRE GROWTH.

&&

$$

BG/BS/TM

Plane crashes in Montana, killed up to 17 people

By Phillip Reese and Jennifer Garza

McClatchy Newspapers

(MCT)

SACRAMENTO, Calif. _ A plane that left Oroville, a small town about 70 miles north of Sacramento, Calif., this morning crashed in Montana three hours later, killing up to 17 people, a Federal Aviation Administration spokesman said.

"The plane was in route from Oroville to Bozeman for reasons we don't know," said FAA spokesman Les Dorr. "They diverted into Butte and crashed 500 feet short of the runway."

Tom Hagler, a mechanic at the Oroville airport, said this evening he arrived at the airport at 11 a.m. and saw the plane. He let about a dozen children who were on the plane use the airport bathroom. The plane didn't refuel.

Hagler said he spoke briefly with the pilot but he didn't recognize the pilot or any of the children. He didn't know if any members of the group were local.

Hagler said he would be surprised if as many as 17 people could have been on the single prop plane.

An FAA spokesman told the Associated Press the children could have been part of a ski trip.

The plane had left Redlands, Calif., early today and flew to Vacaville, Calif., according to records at flightaware.com. It stayed in Vacaville for 50 minutes before taking a short flight to Oroville. It was on the ground in Oroville for 30 minutes before leaving for Montana.

Oroville law enforcement authorities said they knew nothing about the plane.

Dorr says the plane was registered to Eagle Cap Leasing Inc. in Enterprise, Ore., but he didn't know who was operating the plane.

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© 2009, The Sacramento Bee (Sacramento, Calif.).

Visit The Sacramento Bee online at http://www.sacbee.com/

Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.

4th Oakland cop dies following shootouts that killed 3 officers, parolee

Police officers hide behind cars after hearing shots fired during a second shooting during a manhunt of a suspect who shot two more police officers Saturday Mach 21, 2009. In the most horrific day in Oakland Police Department history, a parolee shot to death three police sergeants within two hours of one another Saturday afternoon. When officers tracked down the suspect, a fourth officer was shot and was pronounced dead Sunday morning. (Dan Rosenstrauch/Contra Costa Times/MCT)

By Jessie Mangaliman and Mary Anne Ostrom

San Jose Mercury News

(MCT)

SAN JOSE, Calif. _ A fourth Oakland police officer has died following two separate shootouts in which three other officers and a parolee were killed.

John Hege, 41, who had been with the Oakland department since 1999, was pronounced dead at Highland Hospital shortly before noon today, said Jeff Thomason, a department spokesman.

The three other Oakland police officers were pronounced dead Saturday after a traffic stop and, later, as a SWAT team tried to apprehend the man.

The gunman, Lovelle Mixon, 27, of Oakland was fatally shot after police tracked him down to a nearby apartment.

Acting Police Chief Howard Jordan identified the other slain officers as: Sgt. Mark Dunakin, 40, who was killed during the traffic stop; and Sgt. Ervin Romans, 43, and Sgt. Daniel Sakai, 35, both killed at the apartment where the gunman was holed up. Dunakin was with the department since 1991, Romans since 1996 and Sakai since 2000.

A fifth officer, whom police did not identify, was grazed by a bullet. He was treated and released from Highland.

The killings were among the deadliest shootings of police officers in California history.

(EDITORS: BEGIN OPTIONAL TRIM)

They deeply affected Oakland police officers, California Highway Patrol officers and Alameda County sheriff deputies. Many of them were also at Highland on Saturday and this morning, hugging one another and wiping away tears of grief and shock.

"Everyone is pouring out their hearts," said Acting Police Chief Jordan said during a news conference late Saturday.

"We feel a tremendous sense of loss," said Oakland Mayor Ron Dellums.

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After the first shooting of two police officers on motorcycles on MacArthur Boulevard, the gunman fled from the scene. Mixon was wanted on a no-bail arrest warrant for violating parole on a previous assault with a deadly weapon conviction, police said.

A tip led police about two hours later to an apartment one-tenth of a mile away in the 2700 block of 74th Avenue, blocks from a police substation in East Oakland. Heavily armed SWAT team members descended on the apartment building to take the suspect into custody.

Business workers and media responding to reports of the shootout on 74th Avenue described a "Wild West" scene, where cops yelled at pedestrians to get down and take cover behind cars.

Two more police officers were shot dead while trying to take the suspect into custody. Police said the two officers were shot inside the apartment with an assault weapon. A second weapon, which police did not identify, was used to shoot the motorcycle cops.

Traffic officers pulled over the parolee's 1995 Buick at 1:08 p.m. near the Eastmont Town Center. Eight minutes later, a caller reported two officers down in the 7400 block of MacArthur Boulevard.

After hearing gunshots, a barbershop worker nearby said he walked down the block to find the two officers on the ground near each other. He said he attempted CPR until police arrived.

"I went over to one officer and saw he was bleeding from his helmet pretty bad," said the worker, who asked not to be identified. "The other officer was laying motionless."

The officer lying near a car appeared to have two gunshots to his head. One bullet, the worker said, appeared lodged in the jaw, another in the neck.

The incident involving the gunman "is bad because he's a state ward, he's a state parolee, they let him out," said California Attorney General Jerry Brown, a former Oakland mayor. "There are hundreds of shooters walking around the East Bay. Our parole system isn't working."

Howard said Oakland police investigators believe no suspect other than Mixon was involved in the shootings. He was on parole for a conviction on assault with a deadly weapon.

(EDITORS: STORY CAN END HERE)

Tensions have been high between police and many Oakland residents since the shooting death Jan. 1 of Oscar Grant, 22, by a BART police officer at an Oakland transit station. After Grant's death, violent protests erupted in Oakland streets.

By Saturday night, a dozen pastors were calling for calm in the city.

At the lobby of the police administration building, four bunches of white roses were placed at the bottom of a memorial that lists the names of 47 Oakland police officers who have been killed in the line of duty since 1867. The last on the list was an Oakland police officer killed in January 1999.

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© 2009, San Jose Mercury News (San Jose, Calif.).

Visit MercuryNews.com, the World Wide Web site of the Mercury News, at http://www.mercurynews.com.

Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.

_____

PHOTOS (from MCT Photo Service, 202-383-6099): OFFICERSSHOT

Astronauts' spacewalk should ease workload for future missions

By Robert Block

The Orlando Sentinel

(MCT)

ORLAND, Fla. _ U.S. astronauts Steve Swanson and Joe Acaba ventured outside the international space station Saturday for a six-and-a-half-hour spacewalk aimed at easing the workload of future spacewalkers. But the excursion was not a complete success: the pair completed only some of the tasks on their orbital to-do list.

Crawling hand over hand, Swanson and Acaba made it all the way to the end of the station's power-grid framework and loosened bolts holding down batteries that must be replaced during the next shuttle visit to the station in June.

They also installed a second Global Positioning Satellite antenna on the Japanese Kibo laboratory that will help a Japanese cargo ship dock with the lab in September. In addition, the astronauts photographed a damaged radiator with an infrared camera.

But a problem prevented the full deployment of a cargo storage platform on the station's power truss and scrapped plans to unfold another. Swanson also had trouble reconfiguring connectors that power some of the station's gyroscopes, and only managed to partially complete the job.

Still, NASA applauded the tasks that were accomplished and recognized it was a tough day for the spacewalkers. "We sure appreciate the hard work you did for our beautiful space station," commander Mike Fincke radioed the spacewalkers at the end of the walk. "You guys proved that flexibility is definitely key."

It was the Discovery crew's second spacewalk in three days, bringing the total time spent outside the orbiting complex during the mission to 12 hours and 37 minutes. The spacewalk was the fourth for Swanson and the first for Acaba, a former teacher at Melbourne High in Brevard County, Fla.

The mission's final spacewalk is planned for Monday.

(EDITORS: STORY CAN END HERE)

(EDITORS: BEGIN OPTIONAL TRIM)

While Swanson and Acaba toiled in the void of space, astronauts inside the station were also busy, testing a replacement part on the station's new water recycling unit that turns urine and sweat into clean drinking water. The original part failed shortly after it was installed late last year. Recycling urine is critical to NASA's long-range plans to support a full-time crew of six on the space station.

(END OPTIONAL TRIM)

Shuttle Discovery will depart the space station Wednesday.

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© 2009, The Orlando Sentinel (Fla.).

Visit the Sentinel on the World Wide Web at http://www.orlandosentinel.com/.

Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.