Hurricane Arthur makes first landfall

Shortly before midnight Thursday, Arthur made landfall over the Shackleford Banks near Cape Lookout, North Carolina. (National Hurricane Center) The storm, upgraded to a Category 2 hurricane, pounded the Outer Banks with 100 mph maximum sustained winds. (Reuters)  Some flooding occurred in Beaufort County,  but no deaths or injuries have been reported, according to the county’s emergency manager, John Pack. (WRAL, Raleigh)

Dashboard and smartphone cameras provide stunning video of meteor

Our knowledge of abrupt events like the meteor(ite) (shower) that struck Russia earlier today are being forever changed by new consumer technology like smartphones and dashboard cameras, and by internet services like YouTube and Twitter.

[T]he most dramatic scenes were captured by Russia’s ubiquitous dashboard cameras, quickly uploaded to video sharing sites such as YouTube and copied among different users.

Massive meteor(ite) reported to injure hundreds in Russia

A massive meteor(it)e reportedly left a trail of damage and injuries across Russia’s sparsely populated Chelyabinsk region earlier today. The shock wave it created blasted out windows, caused a roof to collapse, and injured hundreds of people. Below, a Russia Today broadcast describes the event.

Rare “thundersnow” captured on video

Filmed February 8, 2013, by Christine Heeren, in Middle Island, NY. From Gothamist.com.

AP Twitter Feed

Read tweets from AP journalists reporting on the winter storm.

Blizzard pounds East Coast, knocks out power and nuclear plant

Snow and hurricane-force winds battered eastern states through the night, and more snow in expected today. The accompanying storm surge caused “severe coastal flooding ” in Massachusetts.  The storm knocked out power to more than 650,000 homes and businesses and forced cancellation of more than 5,000 flights.

Photo: Sugar Hill, Harlem, New York, on Feb.9,2013, by rufusowliebat at Flickr (CC)

Link to Christian Science Monitor live blog for winter storm.

Blizzard expected for states still recovering from superstorm Sandy

The eastern seaboard just can’t catch a break, it seems.  A winter storm is moving into eastern Pennsylvania, New York, New Jersey, Connecticut and Massachusetts–states still raw from the blows struck by superstorm Sandy last October.  New Hampshire and Maine are likely to be affected, also.

Disaster relief workers finally to get access to federal health insurance benefits

Days ago, I questioned whether the lack of health insurance for FEMA’s part-time workers was affecting the availability of disaster relief services.

Temporary closures of FEMA assistance centers and Red Cross facilities due to “weather,” angered Staten Island residents looking for help.  (Could FEMA’s refusal to provide health insurance benefits to its part-time disaster workers have something to do with the reluctance to work in rough circumstances?)

It never did seem reasonable to hire people to work in disaster-stricken areas–where the likelihood of illness or injury are much higher than usual–and to deny them access to reasonably priced health insurance.  After some nudging, the federal government finally has seen the light.

Need for more boots on the ground post-Sandy brings out volunteers

Since Superstorm Sandy struck the East Coast, private and public resources are not meeting all of the needs of citizens left with flooded homes, no utilities, no transportation, and no jobs.  Temporary closures of FEMA assistance centers and Red Cross facilities due to “weather,” angered Staten Island residents looking for help.  (Could FEMA’s refusal to provide health insurance benefits to its part-time disaster workers have something to do with the reluctance to work in rough circumstances?)

Fortunately, volunteers have been organizing relief efforts, often developing innovative methods on the fly.  They include Ashley Diamond, a New York blogger and runner, who is taking advantage of an existing organizing tool–the wedding registry–to secure donations of needed items for another runner left homeless by the storm.