This Day In History

May 18 1980
The body of Ian Curtis, lead singer of dirge band Joy Division, is discovered hanging in the kitchen by his wife. Curtis killed himself on the eve of Joy Division's U.S. tour. His surviving bandmates go on to form New Order.

May 18 1980
After a 5.1 magnitude earthquake in Washington state, 57 people are killed in an avalanche of volcanic mud in the eruption of Mount St. Helens. The volcano spews out 200 million cubic yards of of pumice, ash, and debris which covers 24 square miles of the valley below.

Severe Weather Rakes Midwest; 5 Dead

(CNN) -- Five people were killed in Ohio as severe thunderstorms and tornadoes raked the Midwest on Saturday and early Sunday, authorities said.

The deaths came in Wood County, Ohio, when a tornado touched down there overnight, state Emergency Management Agency spokeswoman Kelli Blackwell told CNN. Wood County is about 30 miles south of Toledo.

A 4-year-old child was among the deaths in Millbury, Ohio, Blackwell said. A man was also found dead in the street in Millbury, and two adults died in a van in Lake Township, about five miles from Millbury. Blackwell said she did not have details on the fifth fatality.

In Michigan, 11 people were injured when a storm struck Monroe County, Michigan, and damage to the exterior wall of the Fermi 2 Nuclear Power Plant prompted an automatic shutdown, said Dan Smith, spokesman for the county's emergency management division. The plant will remain closed until crews have assessed the damage, he said.

Ten people were taken to hospitals by ambulance, and one was flown, after the storm struck about 3 a.m. Sunday, Smith said. Field crews were assessing the number of homes and businesses damaged in Dundee Village and Dundee Township, he said.

Up to 500 people staying at a water park resort were evacuated safely to a middle school, Smith said.

Several other communities in Illinois were hard-hit by severe weather. The town of Streator, Illinois, looks "like a war zone," Mayor Jimmie Lansford said. A total of 50 people were triaged, and 17 were transferred to hospitals and later released, Lansford said.

Thirty homes sustained major damage, and several others had minor damage, Lansford said. Animal rescue officials were set to begin searching through the rubble.

Officials are not sure whether the damage was caused by a tornado, pending confirmation by the National Weather Service, he said. "All we know is, it cut a path from the west side of town all the way through to the east side of town."

Many trees and power lines were downed, he said, and "a couple of businesses sustained some damage but we don't know to what extent."

"If it would have been two blocks farther north, St. Mary's Hospital would have been right in the path and it would have been devastating," Lansford said. "It could have been a lot worse."

A tornado touched down in Elmwood, Illinois, Saturday night, according to the Peoria County Sheriff's Office. Pictures from CNN affiliate WMBD showed a twisted gas station awning and streets covered with debris, branches and broken glass. The tornado ripped through downtown Elmwood, tearing the second stories off buildings in some cases, WMBD said.

Footage of storm damage across several states showed buildings with roofs ripped off, other structures reduced to rubble and overturned school buses and RVs.

The severe weather may continue Sunday, forecasters said, as there is a moderate risk of severe storms and tornadoes over areas of the northeastern United States. A tornado watch, meaning conditions are favorable for tornadoes, was issued until 8 p.m. Sunday for an area stretching from New Hampshire and Vermont southward to Virginia. The watch includes the cities of Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore and Washington.

Tropical Storm Agatha Floods Kill 150, Cause Giant Sinkhole in Guatemala City

CSMonitor- Flooding and landslides from Tropical Storm Agatha have killed more than 150 people throughout Central America in the past few days, and apparently caused a giant Guatemala City sinkhole.

Villagers have been buried alive in Guatemala. Residents, caked in mud, have searched in the wreckage of their homes for loved ones. Aerial photos show entire swaths of the nation's coffee crop under water. Then, there's the giant Guatemala City sinkhole.

The Atlantic hurricane seasons opens today, preceded by the Pacific one just weeks earlier, but already seasonal weather – coupled with volcano eruptions and other freak accidents – has battered Central American nations.

More than 150 people have been killed, mostly due to flooding and landslides, after Tropical Storm Agatha, the first Pacific storm of the season, struck Guatemala Saturday, impacting El Salvador and Honduras as well. Thousands across the region are homeless.

The worst hit nation is Guatemala. In the Chimaltenango Province west of Guatemala City, landslides buried dozens of communities, leaving at least 60 dead.

"The department has collapsed," Gov. Erick de Leon told the Associated Press. "There are a lot of dead people. The roads are blocked. The shelters are overflowing. We need water, food, clothes, blankets — but above all, money."

Isolated villages
Although the sun emerged in Guatemala yesterday, the number of those dead could rise as rescue workers attempt to reach communities that have been isolated by washed out roads and bridges.

Schools were shut down across the region, and the risk of more deadly landslides has not passed. In Guatemala over 110,000 people have been evacuated.

In El Salvador, where 11,000 people have been evacuated and ten killed, 179 bridges were wrecked. The Lempa River already flooded 20 villages, officials say, and the Acelhuate River could top its banks and flood the capital.

In Honduras, thousands have fled their homes as three more days of rain are forecast and rivers are already swollen near the capital, Tegucigalpa.

The storm hit on Saturday, just two days after the the Pacaya volcano, about 20 miles south of Guatemala City, erupted, causing the international airport to shut down.

Guatemalan President Álvaro Colom had declared a 15-day calamity, before Tropical Storm Agatha dumped three feet of water in the western part of the country. Officials have said that the ash from the volcano, which again covered the airport Monday, could aggravate flooding as it blocks the nation's drainage systems.

The Guatemalan government posted photos of the flooding tragedy, including one of a sinkhole apparently the size of an entire street block, that opened in the northern section of Guatemala City. A three-story building was swallowed by the hold. Authorities are investigating the cause. A sinkhole in the same area killed three people in 2007.

Last November, Hurricane Ida struck the region, killing at least 150 people from landslides and flooding.

The worst in recent memory was Hurricane Mitch, from the Atlantic Hurricane season, which in 1998 killed almost 11,000 people and left 8,000 missing.

Landslide Swallows Canadian Home: Bodies of Family of Four Recovered from Sinkhole Wreckage

NY Daily News- A family of four was found dead in their basement after their farmhouse was swallowed into the earth by a massive sinkhole.

The bodies of Richard Prefontaine, his wife, Line, and their two young daughters, Anais and Amelie, were pulled from the wreckage in St. Jude, Quebec, a day after Monday night's flash landslide, the Toronto Star reported.

"After digging and going through the rubble we found the four victims," Michel Dore, Quebec's emergency management coordinator, told reporters Tuesday night. "They were found very close to one another, some of them lying on the couch in the family room in the basement."

Quebec police said the resulting crater is 500 meters by 100 meters (1,640 feet by 330 feet) wide and 30 meters (98 feet) deep, Canada's Globe and Mail reported.

The sole survivor of the tragedy seems to be one of the family's two dogs, which rescue workers found alive outside the home.

"It was like an earthquake," a neighbor, Herman Gagnon, told the Montreal Gazette. Gagnon drove from his home toward town to see what had happened - a drive that took him past the Prefontaine home.

"It was only when I approached the edge of the crevice that I realized what happened," he said.

Report: At Least 2 in Family Die After Sinkhole Swallows Home

[Update 9:59 p.m. ET] Two members of a family whose home was swallowed by a sinkhole were found dead Tuesday evening, officials said, CNN affiliate CBC reports.

The condition of two other family members was not available. All four members of the family were found in the basement of the home, Michel C. Doré, Quebec's associate deputy public security minister,told the CBC.

[Update 2:49 p.m. ET] The mud-caked dog of a Canadian family has been found in a sinkhole that swallowed their home, but searchers have found no signs of the couple and their two daughters, ages 9 and 11, CNN affiliate CBC reported Tuesday afternoon.

Yvon Desrochers, uncle of homeowner Richard Préfontaine, told CBC he fears his nephew and his family were in the home’s basement watching the Montreal Canadiens-Pittsburgh Penguins hockey playoff game Monday night when the ground gave way beneath the home, about 40 miles northeast of Montreal.

[Posted 11:07 a.m. ET] A Quebec family of four was missing Tuesday after a massive sinkhole swallowed their home, according to reports from CNN affiliates.

Authorities said the home fell 30 feet into the hole when it opened around 9:30 p.m. Monday. A couple in their 40s and two children, ages 9 and 11, were believed to be inside, according to a report by CNN affiliate CBC news.

The couple’s vehicles were seen outside the house and efforts to reach them by cell phone were unsuccessful, authorities told the CBC.

"We tried to reach them by phone, because the father always wears his cellphone on him," Quebec Provincial Police Sgt. Ronald McKinnis told CBC. "The firefighters heard the cellphone, but they weren't able to [locate] it."

The hole was about 500 yards long and forced the evacuation of five other homes in the town of Saint-Jude, in a rural area near the Yamaska River about 40 miles northeast of Montreal, CNN affiliate CTV reported.

McKinnis told the CBC that the hole was first reported by a truck driver whose rig fell into it Monday night. He suffered only minor injuries, McKinnis said.

Search-and-rescue dogs were being called in to help the search, according to a report in the Montreal Gazette, and a helicopter was circling the area looking for signs of movement.

A Third of the U.S. Faces Above-Average Flood Risk

MSNBC-More than a third of the contiguous United States faces a high or above average flood risk this spring, the National Weather Service reported Tuesday.

"We are looking at potentially historic flooding in some parts of the country this spring," Jane Lubchenco, head of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, said at a news briefing while presenting the government's spring outlook. NOAA oversees the weather service.

The highest threat is in the Dakotas, Minnesota and Iowa. Those areas have already seen some flooding and rivers are rising quickly, especially the Red River between North Dakota and Minnesota.

"Crests could approach the record levels set just last year" along the Red, the service stated. In 2009, about 100 homes in the area were damaged and thousands of people were evacuated after the Red River rose above the flood stage for a record 61 days and crested twice.

"It’s a terrible case of deja vu, but this time the flooding will likely be more widespread" across the Midwest, Lubchenco said.

"As the spring thaw melts the snowpack, saturated and frozen ground in the Midwest will exacerbate the flooding of the flat terrain and feed rising rivers and streams," she added.

Rell Probes Complaints That CL&P Delayed Storm Response

Greenwich Time- The governor is calling for a probe into Connecticut Light & Power's response to the weekend's major storm, saying municipal leaders have complained about the utility's slow response after thousands were left without power.

Gov. M. Jodi Rell's response also comes after union officials claimed that CL&P delayed their response to keep costs down.

Rell said she heard from many municipal leaders, fire and police chiefs and emergency management officials, who said they had trouble reaching utility officials -- often getting voice mail or no answer -- and said that they saw relatively few utility crews on the job in the first two days of the storm.

Rell has asked the Department of Emergency Management and Homeland Security and the state Department of Public Utility Control to pull individual work crew records for Saturday and Sunday.

"Thousands of Connecticut residents remain without power even now -- three days after the storm, with nighttime lows still dipping into the 30s," Rell said in a statement. "And it is flatly unacceptable for a fire or police official to be unable to reach a `real person' at a utility company in the middle of an emergency. We need to know what went wrong, why it happened and how to keep it from happening again."

CL&P spokesman Frank Poirot Tuesday morning declined to comment on the allegations by labor union officials that the utility didn't want to pay crews double time for working longer shifts.

"We're focus our efforts on restoration," Poirot said. "Anything else is a distraction."

The Storm of the Century..

Yes, our area had the biggest storm that I will always remember. One woman in our town died, as I will post an article on, and my house only received electricity today after being without since Saturday.

It's sad to have lost a life in our community from the storm- and my uncle, a responding officer to the incident, almost lost his life due to a tree that had crushed where he and his fellow officer sat in the vehicle just moments before.

I will never forget this storm, or the other news I received yesterday- my maternal grandfather has lung cancer.

[check out these pictures]

..Good news is that it's at an operable stage and there is great hope.

Sirens in Hawaii Warn of Possible Tsunami

(CNN) -- Sirens sounded early Saturday morning across Hawaii, warning people of a possible tsunami and telling people to in coastal areas to evacuate.

The sirens sounded at 6 a.m. local time (11 a.m. ET/1600 GMT) to warn of a potential tsunami triggered by a 8.8 earthquake in Chile.

The siren systems in each county are sounding to "to alert residents and visitors to evacuate coastal areas," Hawaii's Civil Defense Division said in a statement.

"Residents will be advised by their respective country civil defense or emergency management agencies to evacuate coastal areas."

The earliest estimated arrival for a wave that could affect Hawaii is 11:05 a.m. local time (4:05 p.m. ET/2105 GMT), the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center said.

Pacific Tsunami Warning Center Director Charles McCreery said Hawaii would see some effect from the earthquake.

"We believe it will be a threat here in Hawaii, that's why we initiated a warning, not only for a Hawaii, but for the entire Pacific," McCreery said.

Asked by CNN affiliate KHON whether it was possible Hawaii wouldn't see any effect from the earthquake, McCreery said, "No, I wouldn't say that's possible at all. I think there's no chance we'll see no effect from this event.

"So people need to take this very seriously."

But he added, "We're not expecting this to be a worst-case scenario, but we are expecting ... dangerous waves coming on shore, and people need to take it very seriously."

Speaking of the evacuations, Shelly Ichishita, spokeswoman for the Civil Defense Division, said people in the evacuation zones -- basically coastal areas -- were "asked to go inland," she said. "We do not have evacuation shelters open."

John Cummings, Oahu Emergency Management Department spokesman, told The Honolulu Advertiser that "If you live anywhere in the evacuation zone, you have to evacuate.

"This is a serious event. We're going to treat this as a destructive-type tsunami."

The state's two U.S. senators, Daniel K. Inouye and Daniel K. Akaka, urged Hawaii residents to remain calm.

"If you live in an evacuation zone I urge you to gather your family and please leave the area," Inouye said.

"It is important to remain calm, listen to the news, and follow the instructions being issued by state and county civil defense officials."

Earlier Saturday, people rushed to supermarkets to stock up on food, water and other supplies.

"We got lots of water, we got our batteries, we got toilet paper," one woman told KITV, while she stood in a line with other shoppers and their carts stuffed with supplies.

Asked if she was scared, another shopper said, "Very, very. We're from Georgia, so ..."

Businesses in the area said they will be closed all day Saturday, the affiliate reported.

Several tsunami waves have come ashore along the Chilean coast after the earthquake, which killed at least 122 people, U.S. Geological Survey geophysicist Victor Sardina told CNN.

He said the largest was recorded at 9 feet near the quake's epicenter. Another wave, 7.7 feet hit the Chilean town of Talcahuano, according to Eric Lau of the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center.

Video from the town showed one car sitting in a large expanse of water.

McCreery said the first tsunami wave would sweep across Hawaii in about 30 minutes.

"And then the hazard will go on for many hours, because these waves, they get reflected off the islands, they wrap around the islands, and it becomes a very complex wave field that persists for quite a while."

IReport Hosts Efforts to Look for Loved Ones in Haiti

A 7.0-magnitude earthquake struck Tuesday near Port-Au-Prince, Haiti, leaving thousands missing. Are you searching for a family member? Upload his or her photo here.

Please enter the missing person's information in the title of your iReport like this:
LAST NAME, FIRST NAME; age; city
Any additional info can go in the body of the iReport.

You can use the search bar above to look for loved ones. And if you're in Haiti and safe, please take a look through the photos and share any information you may have.

Relief Groups Struggle to Aid Desperate Haiti Quake Victims

LA Times-- Relief groups and governments struggled today to speed emergency aid to Haiti's earthquake victims, who are increasingly desperate to find food, water and medical help for the many injured.

U.N. officials said today that looters had broken into a warehouse in Haiti's ruined capital, Port-au-Prince, where the World Food Program stored 15,000 tons of food, but they did not know how much of the stockpile was stolen or when the theft took place, the Associated Press reported from Geneva.

U.N. officials warned that residents of impoverished Port-au-Prince are becoming more impatient about the lack of assistance they've gotten since the magnitude 7.0 earthquake devastated their city Tuesday.

The world has vowed its help, but efforts are complicated by earthquake damage to the capital's airport and its seaport, which was closed. Hundreds of U.S. troops were on the ground this morning, the leading edge of a military contingent that is expected to number more than 5,500 by Monday.

"We have much more support on the way," Army Lt. Gen. Ken Keen said on ABC's "Good Morning America," AP reported. "Our priority is getting relief out to needy people, to mitigate the suffering that the Haitian people are experiencing right now."

Former President Clinton, the U.N. special envoy to Haiti, said in a separate television interview that it is crucial to get food and water into Haiti the next four or five days, as survivors are pulled from the rubble by rescue specialists who have begun to arrive in Port-au-Prince.

Clinton said even $10 donations by individuals could make a big difference in coming days. President Obama tapped Clinton and former President George W. Bush to lead fundraising for quake victims.

On Thursday, emergency aid flowed from around the world toward Haiti, only to confront a reality that grew more desperate by the hour: Crippled ports and communications left stunned earthquake survivors on their own to scavenge for food and water, carry away legions of dead and dig frantically for voices calling out from under the rubble.

Obama promised $100 million and the full resources of the U.S. government for what he said would be one of the largest relief efforts in recent history. U.S. officials said 30 countries had either sent aid or promised to do so. Rescue teams from eight countries had arrived.

But two days after the earthquake, there was little evidence of the aid effort in the capital of the hemisphere's poorest country.

"In Haiti, you're lucky if they come with a screwdriver," said Jean Marc Mercier, a Haitian American who spent the last two days hunting for survivors in the wreckage of the Hotel Montana, a longtime gathering spot for diplomats, journalists, humanitarian workers and businessmen.

The toppled six-story hotel was an exception to the scenes of abandonment elsewhere; a rescue team newly arrived from Virginia was combing the debris.

Mercier, who runs a computer business in Haiti, said he and others had been burrowing by hand toward voices calling out from deep inside the wreckage. They had managed to save one woman, an aid worker.

"Last night after I went to bed, all I heard were the voices in my head. One guy told me not to bother: 'Go help people who are in better shape. There is no way you are getting to me,' " said Mercier, 44. "I wasn't able to sleep all night."

Asked how many people were in the hotel when it collapsed, he whispered, "Hundreds."

Aid officials said the risk of violence and looting would increase as scant food and water run out and frustrated families fail to find medical care for the injured.

Officials who were willing to estimate the number of dead acknowledged that they were just guessing. Victor Jackson, an official with Haiti's Red Cross, told Reuters news agency that his organization was estimating 45,000 to 50,000 had died.

All across Port-au-Prince, it seemed, the living bore the dead -- in the beds of pickups, in wheelbarrows, on makeshift stretchers. At a hospital named St. Marie, crowded a day earlier with dozens of people seeking help, the courtyard was empty except for two cleaners mopping bloody water into the street.

Even many who didn't lose their homes were afraid to sleep in them.

Lionel Aceveje, a police officer who lives in a hillside shantytown near the suburb of Petionville, said his family of six was sleeping outside in the evening chill. "Every little shaking terrifies us," he said.

Official Fears Hundreds of Thousands Dead After Earthquake

Why did this have to happen?

Port-au-Prince, Haiti (CNN) -- Rescue workers struggled to clear rubble and bodies Wednesday from the streets of Haiti's "flattened" capital, where a government official said the death toll from Tuesday's 7.0-magnitude earthquake may exceed 100,000.

Thousands of injured people waited for care outside badly damaged hospitals, while an unknown number remained trapped inside collapsed buildings. Basic services like water and electricity were out, and Haitian President Rene Preval said his government needs help clearing streets so rescuers can reach some of the hardest-hit areas.

"We need medicine. We need medical help in general," Preval told CNN. "Some of the hospitals, they collapsed."

People were digging though the rubble of leveled buildings with their hands Wednesday, looking for survivors or bodies, CNN's Anderson Cooper reported from Port-au-Prince. Other CNN correspondents in Port-au-Prince and its suburbs reported whole blocks of collapsed buildings, with dozens of bodies piled in the streets.

Video images captured just moments after the temblor show dust-covered survivors rushing through the streets, yelling in terror. Others trapped in buildings are seen punching out debris and bricks, and shouting for help and trying to squeeze themselves out through cracks in the structures.

Port-au-Prince "is flattened," said Haiti's consul general to the U.N., Felix Augustin, who said he believed more than 100,000 people were dead.

But Preval said other estimates ranged from 30,000 to 50,000.

"It's too early to give a number," Preval said.

The 7.0-magnitude earthquake struck shortly before 5 p.m. Tuesday, centered about 10 miles (15 kilometers) southwest of Port-au-Prince, the U.S. Geological Survey reported. It could be felt strongly in eastern Cuba, more than 200 miles away.

The earthquake's power matched that of several nuclear bombs, said Roger Searle, a professor of geophysics in the Earth Sciences Department at Durham University in England. He said the combination of its magnitude and geographical shallowness made it particularly dangerous.

About 3 million people -- one-third of Haiti's population -- were affected by the quake, the Red Cross said. About 10 million people most likely felt shaking from the earthquake, the U.S. Geological Survey said.

As night fell over the island Wednesday, gunshots sounded off in Port-au-Prince. Screams and wails could be heard with each aftershock. Some people who still had homes refused to go inside, fearing collapse. Scores huddled together in parks and sidewalks, trying to get rest.

Though planes carrying aid began arriving Wednesday, humanitarian groups struggled to get the supplies to victims due to the poor roads and debris.

There was no clear system for clearing debris, removing bodies and treating the injured, officials and journalists reported.

"Simply getting through the streets to collect the dead bodies is seemingly an impossible task," CNN's Dr. Sanjay Gupta reported from the capital, where shooting could be heard in the background. "There's hardly any heavy machinery to try and dig through the rubble -- people are doing it by hand.

"The hospitals themselves -- the destination of those patients who might survive -- they're nonexistent or have a terrible infrastructure," Gupta said.

Haiti native and "Heroes" cast member Jimmy Jean-Louis was searching for his elderly parents in Haiti on Wednesday. He said the Haitian government is not up to addressing the overwhelming nature of the disaster.

"Just as an example ... we had one school that collapsed -- one school, and we were unable to take care of that," he said, referring to a November 2008 incident that killed 90 people in Petionville, Haiti. "This year, we have the entire city [of Port-au-Prince] that collapsed, including the major points such as hospitals, hotels and even the presidential palace."

Former President Clinton, the U.N. special envoy to Haiti, appealed to the public to support programs that will provide food, water, shelter and medical supplies to the impoverished country.

"The most important thing you can do is not to send those supplies, but to send cash" to relief agencies, Clinton said.

Governments and agencies across the globe geared up to help, including rescue teams from China, Iceland and France, Haiti's onetime colonial ruler; aid flights and 3 million euros ($4.35 million) from Spain; doctors from Cuba; and a field hospital from Russia.

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said the United Nations plans to release $10 million in aid immediately, while the World Bank pledged another $100 million Wednesday afternoon.

President Obama promised a "swift, coordinated and aggressive" response from the United States.

"The reports and images that we've seen of collapsed hospitals, crumbled homes and men and women carrying their injured neighbors through the streets are truly heart-wrenching," Obama said.

Watch survivors describe what they saw

Clinton also urged international leaders to fulfill their previous donor commitments to Haiti.

"Most countries are way behind on fulfilling it. ... If you can provide any emergency help, if you can give us helicopters or basic medical supplies -- we need that," Clinton said.

The U.S. military is working to get ground and air assessments of the damage, with Coast Guard cutters, airplanes and choppers deploying to the scene, and Navy ships preparing to leave.

Two Coast Guard crews of C-130 Hercules fixed-wing aircraft were evacuating nearly 140 U.S. personnel to Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic. Nine critically injured peopled were taken to the U.S. Naval Hospital Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

Numerous relief organizations were already working in Haiti, the Western Hemisphere's poorest country, when the quake struck Tuesday afternoon. Aid groups scrambled to help in the aftermath of the quake, but were struggling with the same problems as ordinary Haitians.

In a small clinic in Port-au-Prince, doctors were overwhelmed with the causalities coming in. Bodies and bleeding wounded seemed to cover every inch of the clinic.

A woman with a broken leg sat on the floor next to the body of a dead toddler who was covered by a sheet. She'd been waiting for treatment since Tuesday.

A CNN crew at the clinic counted at least 13 other adult bodies piled outside. Others were still alive, leaning on walls, lying on floors in despair.

None of the three aid centers run by Doctors Without Borders was operable Wednesday, the group said. The organization was focusing on re-establishing surgical capacity so it could deal with the crushed limbs and head wounds it is seeing.

The earthquake sheared huge slabs of concrete off structures and pancaked scores of buildings, trapping people inside those buildings, and knocking down phone and power lines.

"One woman, I could only see her head and the rest of her body was trapped under a block wall," said Jonathan de la Durantaye, who drove through Port-au-Prince after the quake. "I think she was dead. She had blood coming out of her eyes and nose and ears."

The headquarters of the U.N. mission in Haiti, a peacekeeping and police force established after the 2004 ouster of then-President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, collapsed during the quake, leaving leaving about 150 members unaccounted for, U.N. officials in New York said Wednesday. At least 10 survivors were pulled from rubble at the U.N. mission, according to former President Clinton.

The top two civilian officials at the U.N. mission, Special Representative Hedi Annabi and his deputy, Luiz Carlos da Costa, were believed trapped in the rubble of the hotel that housed the world body's headquarters, their fates unknown, said Alain Le Roy, the undersecretary-general for peacekeeping operations.

The Brazilian-led mission has about 9,000 troops, police and civilian staff in Haiti, about a third of whom were in Port-au-Prince. At least 16 peacekeepers, including 11 Brazilians, three Jordanians, one Argentine and one Chadian, were reported dead Wednesday afternoon, U.N. officials said.

Also among the dead was Joseph Serge Miot, the Roman Catholic archbishop of Port-au-Prince, according to the official Vatican newspaper. The archbishop was buried beneath rubble along with 100 priests and aspiring priests attending a religious conference, Papal Nuncio Bernardito Auza told the Vatican's Fides news agency.

"There were priests and nuns in the street. ... Everywhere, you heard cries from beneath the rubble," Auza said.

Authorities braced for civil disturbances. Edmond Mulet, the U.N. assistant secretary-general for peacekeeping operations, told CNN that the 95-year-old, badly overcrowded National Penitentiary in the capital, collapsed and the inmates escaped, prompting worries about looting by escapees.

Obama urged Americans trying to locate family members in Haiti to telephone the State Department at 1-888-407-4747.

The presidential palace in Port-au-Prince was in ruins. Preval, Haiti's president, said he did not know where he was going to sleep Wednesday night.

"I have plenty of time to look for a bed," he said late in the afternoon. "But now I am working on how to rescue the people. Sleeping is not the problem."

Family Watched As Lightning Struck Boy

A 12-year-old boy was struck by lightning and killed yesterday evening while playing catch with another boy on a ballfield south of Fredericksburg in Spotsylvania County, authorities said.

The other boy was critically injured in the lightning strike, which came as powerful thunderstorms raked much of the Washington region with hail, gusts of wind and downpours that caused trees to topple and roads to flood in spots.

The 12-year-old, Chelal Matos of Spotsylvania County, was struck at 6:26 p.m., said 1st Sgt. Liz Scott of the county sheriff's department.

She said that because of the weather, umpires had called off a baseball game and ordered participants off the field, which is two or three miles east of Interstate 95 and just north of Route 17.

Scott said the boy and his 11-year-old teammate stayed on the field under parents' supervision.

The boys were taken to Mary Washington Hospital, where the older boy was pronounced dead.

The younger was transferred to a Richmond hospital in "very critical" condition, Scott said.

She said it appeared that the 12-year-old was struck directly and that the bolt might have jumped from him to the younger boy.

The incident came on a second night of powerful thunderstorms.

Almost an inch and a half of rain fell at Reagan National Airport between 6 and 11 p.m. Rainfall was even heavier in western Fairfax and eastern Loudoun counties, as more than two inches fell at Dulles International Airport between 8 and 10 p.m.

Flash flooding was reported on Route 50 about a mile northeast of Chantilly. As much as a foot of water was flowing across the roadway just before 10 p.m.

Flooding was reported in the South Riding area of Loudoun County, with as much as 2 1/2 feet of water on Tall Cedars Parkway.

High water also was reported on Interstate 270 in the Rockville area, with two cars stalled.

About 11 p.m., power was out at about 4,400 homes and businesses in Montgomery and Prince George's counties and Northern Virginia.

The National Weather Service said it would check today for a possible tornado touchdown yesterday evening in Page County, Va.

Hailstones ranging in size from marbles to quarters to golf balls and even baseballs were reported in parts of Virginia.

In the District, six trees were reported toppled near Rhode Island Avenue and Fourth Street NE.

13,500 Flee Growing California Wildfire

Really getting serious over there.. =[

SANTA BARBARA, California (CNN) -- A wind-fanned wildfire spread across 1,300 acres in Santa Barbara County, California, early Thursday, forcing 13,500 residents to evacuate and destroying at least 20 homes.

The fire, strengthened by high temperatures and low humidity, engulfed mansions in the coastal community's foothills.

"It's just horrible. We're all in a panic here. It's terrifying," iReporter Exton Quinn said Thursday.

Quinn said she and a friend were out shooting video Wednesday night when "all of a sudden the wind changed and a house caught on fire just behind me," she said.
Watch fire roar on hillsides »

Her house, on the edge of the mandatory evacuation zone, hadn't burned, she said, but the artist and architect said she was concerned as she headed for Los Angeles on Thursday morning.

More than 1,400 firefighters are battling the blaze and 10 have been injured, Schwarzenegger said, lauding their efforts. Watch Gov. Schwarzenegger urge vigilance »

"Firefighters, thank you, thank you, thank you for your hard work," he said.
A day earlier, fire officials expressed how difficult it is to fight the blaze.

"The fire is moving very, very rapidly," Santa Barbara County Fire Capt. David Sadecki said Wednesday. "This is an uncontrolled wildfire."
"I have hundreds of paintings, so I would just lose everything," if her duplex did fall victim to the flames, she said.

About 5,400 homes have been evacuated and another 3,500 are threatened, California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger said at a news conference.

The blaze, which started Tuesday, came six months after the Tea Fire destroyed about 200 homes in the Santa Barbara area.

Though there was no official count on homes destroyed early Thursday, one firefighter said he saw 20 homes scorched.

Firefighting helicopters and aircraft as well as 177 engines were being used.

On Thursday morning, iReporter Adrian Casillas, a student at the University of California-Santa Barbara, said it felt more like evening.

"I'm looking out towards the east, and it's just a big cloud going from the coast all the way to the Channel Islands," he said of smoke from the fire.

"The sun is just rising, but it looks a little bit like sunset because the cloud is covering the sun," he said.

Wildfires also were burning in Arizona near the Mexican border.

One blaze covered about 4,000 acres near the city of Sierra Vista. It had destroyed three homes and sent an area resident to the hospital with third-degree burns, according to the National Forest Service.

Three other smaller fires in the area were largely or completely contained, fire officials said.

This Day In History

Aug 21 1986
1,700 people are killed in Cameroon when Lake Nyos emits a huge cloud of fast-moving fog, quickly enveloping the villages of Nyos, Kam, Cha, and Subum. The lethal mist, consisting mainly of carbon dioxide and water vapor, displaces the oxygen in the low-lying zones, killing thousands of cattle and even more birds and wild animals. One eyewitness later describes the landscape as being "littered with human remains and animal carcasses."