Two feet of rain causes massive flooding in Florida, Alabama

Scott Neuman at NPR: Extreme rainfall in much of the East and parts of the South is causing major problems, with Florida's Panhandle and southern Alabama — which got more than 2 feet of rain in 24 hours — bearing the brunt of the onslaught. The torrential rains followed close on the heels of a rash of deadly tornadoes that battered a broad swath of the country earlier this week, killing dozens of people.

Flood warnings for today stretch from Massachusetts to the Carolinas, Georgia, Florida, Alabama and Mississippi. The Associated Press says the system is expected to bring heavy rain and thunderstorms to the Mid-Atlantic and Northeast regions.

In Pensacola, Fla., it was the single rainiest day ever recorded, and people climbed to rooftops or into attics to escape the rising floodwaters. NPR's Debbie Elliot says Pensacola's high bluffs over the bay undermined the busy scenic highway there.

"Scores of motorists were stranded as water gushed over roads," she reports on Morning Edition. "At least one person was killed on a flooded roadway. Some homes are now flooded out, and entire neighborhoods are unnavigable. Boats have floated away from docks and are making landfall elsewhere."  The cause of an apparent gas explosion at a Pensacola jail that killed at least two inmates and injured dozens of others has yet to be determined, but the severe weather and flooding could be a factor.

The Pensacola News Journal quotes Ben Kitzel, who was out in a kayak with his black Labrador retriever, Abby, on board: "There's no way this flooding is going away anytime soon," he told the newspaper....

Hurricane Dennis soaking Pensecola in 2005. Continuing the Carbon Based tradition of outdated and on partly relevant photos. US Navy photo

Isaac officially reaches hurricane strength

CBS News: Isaac officially ballooned into a hurricane Tuesday that could flood the coasts of four states with storm surge and heavy rains on its way to New Orleans, where residents hunkered down behind levees fortified after Katrina struck seven years ago this week.

Shelters were open for those who chose to stay or missed the chance to get away before the outer bands of the large storm blow ashore ahead of a forecast landfall in southeast Louisiana on Tuesday night or early Wednesday.

Forecasters warned that Isaac was a large storm whose effects could reach out 200 miles from its center. Water may be worse than wind because the storm could push walls of water while dumping rain to flood the low-lying coast in Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and the Florida Panhandle.

The U.S. National Hurricane Center in Miami upgraded Isaac to a Category 1 hurricane midday Tuesday, with surface wind speeds of 75 mph and flight-level winds even stronger, at 110 mph. The storm system was centered about 75 miles south-southeast of the mouth of the Mississippi River at 12:20 p.m. ET and was moving northwest at 10 mph, according to the National Hurricane Center in Miami. It was 160 miles southeast of New Orleans.

CBS News hurricane consultant David Bernard reports from CBS station WFOR-TV in Miami that some areas hit by Isaac could see as much as 20 inches of rain. In Washington, President Obama urged Gulf Coast residents to listen to local authorities, saying in brief remarks at the White House that "now is not the time to tempt fate."

The president declared a state of emergency in Louisiana late Monday, more than 24 hours before the storm was expected to hit the Gulf Coast. The declaration makes federal support available to save lives, protect public health and safety and preserve property in coastal areas....

GUANTANAMO BAY, Cuba (Aug. 23, 2012) Employees of Bremcor, a military contracting company, tie down geo-fabric netting that surrounds the detainee camps at Guantanamo in preparation for Tropical Storm Isaac.

Tornadoes' death toll mounts; rescue efforts underway

Jessie Halladay and Doyle Rice in USA Today: A series of tornadoes that cut a swath of death and destruction across at least 10 states left stunned residents digging through rubble Saturday, looking for survivors and bodies.

The death toll stood at 31 early Saturday, including 14 Indiana, 13 in Kentucky, three in Ohio and one in Alabama. Tornadoes also were reported in Mississippi, Tennessee, Illinois, Georgia, North Carolina, and Virginia.

Massive thunderstorms threw off scores of tornadoes, crushing entire blocks of homes, ripping down power lines and tossing cars, buses and trucks on roadways made impassable by debris. The scale of the devastation and the breadth of the storms made it impossible to immediately assess the storm system's damage.

At least four people were killed in and around the town of Chelsea in Jefferson County, Ind. First responders found a 4-year-old boy and his great-grandparents lying on the ground 50 feet from where the elderly couple's home was blown off its foundation and thrown more than 100 feet. "All of this happened in less than 30 seconds," said volunteer firefigthter Cory Thomas.

In Marysville, Ind., most of the several dozen homes that make up the town were destroyed. "Marysville is completely gone," Clark County Sheriff's Maj. Chuck Adams said.

Kentucky declared a state of emergency, and Indiana officials said they were discussing that. Authorities in Ohio planned to survey areas Saturday to determine the extent of the damage there....

February 29, 2012. a view of where a church used to stand in Harrisburg, Illinois, on U.S. Route 45 at south corner with Illinois Route 34 and Illinois Route 145, adjacent to the United States Forest Service office. Shot by Pat York, Wikimedia Commons via Flickr, under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license

More flooding expected as Lee nears Alabama

CBS News: Tropical Storm Lee - downgraded to a tropical depression - has dropped a foot of rain in some places, spreading the risk of flash flooding as it heads north, especially in Louisiana. The storm left 13 inches in New Orleans and 15 inches in the metro areas, and spawned tornadoes in Lilliana.

Jackson, Miss., has gotten more than ten inches of rain. The storm is expected to bring between four and eight inches of rain as it crosses over into Alabama tomorrow. CBS News correspondent Bigad Shaban reporting Monday from Crown Point, La., said while the storm is expected to die down this morning, coastal communities are suffering the effects of storm surge, turning homes into tiny islands.

Plaquemines Parish President Billy Nungesser told "The Early Show" that water is still coming over the levee there. "Highway 23 is completely underwater, cut our parish in half," he said. Nungesser said it was not as bad as Hurricane Katrina, but said that with water pounding on the levee for three days, "it was inevitable the levee would be overtopped. " He said about 5,000 people were stranded in South Plaquemine.

While Lee's winds have lost some of their punch, forecasters warn that its slow-moving rain clouds pose a worse flooding threat to inland areas with hills or mountains in the coming days....

Tropical Storm Lee on September 3, 2011, just off the coast of Louisiana

US southern tornados become second-deadliest in history

Xinhua: The death toll from the devastating tornados that swept through the southern United States this week has risen to at least 342, making it the second-deadliest tornado outbreak in American history. By early Saturday morning, emergency management officials tallied 254 deaths in Alabama, 34 in Tennessee, 33 in Mississippi, 15 in Georgia, 5 in Virginia and 1 in Arkansas, the CNN reported.

This is the deadliest tornado outbreak since March 1932, when 332 people were killed. The death toll is also the second-largest in the country's history, only below that of a 1925 tornado outbreak which left 747 people dead, according to the National Weather Service.

In the hardest-hit Alabama, the confirmed fatalities have soared to 254, according to the state Emergency Management Agency. In addition, more than 1,700 people were injured while several others still missing. U.S. President Barack Obama on Friday flew to Tuscaloosa, Alabama. The city, with a population of over 90,000, has lost at least 45 lives in the storms and tornados.

"I've never seen devastation like this," said the president, "I just want to make a commitment to the communities here that we are going to do everything we can to help these communities rebuild ... We're going to make sure you're not forgotten."

Home to the University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa is now struggling to get power and water supply back to city neighborhoods. In Alabama, up to one million homes and businesses remained without power Friday. Because of looting reports, Walter Maddox, mayor of Tuscaloosa, has issued a curfew order and it was still in effect Friday night from 8 p.m. to 6 a.m. Saturday morning….

From the National Weather Service: EF4-rated tornado damage in Ringgold, Georgia which occurred during the April 25–28, 2011 tornado outbreak. Damage occurred overnight on the 27th, photo taken the next day