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Study finds that faults beneath the Salton Sea ruptured during Colorado River floods and may have triggered large earthquakes on the southern San Andreas FaultSouthern California's Salton Sea, once a large natural lake fed by the Colorado River, may play an important role in the earthquake cycle of the southern San Andreas Fault and may have triggered large earthquakes in the past. Researchers at Scripps Institution of Oceanography, UC San Diego, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) and the University of Nevada, Reno, discovered new faults in the Salton Sea near the southern end of the San Andreas Fault. By examining...

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — As record floodwaters along the Missouri River drench homes and businesses, concerns have grown about keeping a couple of notable structures dry: two riverside nuclear power plants in Nebraska. Though the plants have declared “unusual events,” the lowest level in the emergency taxonomy used by federal nuclear regulators, both were designed to withstand this level of flooding, and neither is viewed as being at risk for a disaster, said a spokesman for the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. “We think they’ve taken all the necessary precautions and made the appropriate arrangements to deal with the flooding conditions,” said...

Officials at the Omaha Public Power District say there have been no releases of radioactive material since flooding from the Missouri River caused them to declare a low-level emergency June 6 at the Fort Calhoun nuclear power plant. The emergency level, declared as "a notification of an unusual event," is the lowest possible of four standard emergency classifications set by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) and, as of now, there has been no risk to the public. Officials say they have sandbagged the area surrounding the plant to a level greater than what the projected water levels will reach, and...

<p>Fort Calhoun Nuclear Power Plant is an island, but authorities are hoping it stays dry.</p> <p>A fire in Nebraska's Fort Calhoun nuclear power plant briefly knocked out the cooling process for spent nuclear fuel rods, ProPublica reports. The fire occurred on June 7th.</p>

Persistent Northern Plains rainfall and heavy mountain snowpack is setting the stage for the worst flooding on the Missouri River since 1993, reports Allen Motew, QT Weather meteorologist. These extreme levels of flooding are predicted to last for at least the next month. “The entire Missouri River Basin is flooding – only to get worse over the next several weeks,” Motew reports. “Abnormal rainfall is now expected to continue (or increase for many) across 1000’s of miles and millions of acres over the next eight days, from Alberta to Ohio.” Motew says recent reports show that the Missouri River is...

Aerial view of the Missouri River from a North Dakota National Guard Black Hawk helicopter in the vicinity of Bismarck and Mandan, N.D., on May 29, 2011. When these photos were taken, the river was at about 15.74 feet with a garrison release flow of 80,000 cubic feet per second.

The world grain inventories were already depleted from truly terrible weather in 2010. Now we are seeing even worse weather so far this year. China is experiencing its worst drought in 50 years. The government says this weather is decimating a major grain belt, and it is leaving livestock without water. Fish farms have been ruined. Who knows the long term effects? More than 4.3M people are having trouble finding drinking water. Actually this last is a much bigger problem throughout China, which has a long term drinking water problem. The Chinese have released extra water from the Three Gorges...

Paul Christensen cast his line deftly into the water. Seconds later, the line went taut and he went to work to reel in his catch. The outcome was never in doubt, but the fish was not giving up without a fight. After a couple of minutes, Christensen showed off his catch, a carp of about 5 pounds (more like 3 pounds), hooked on the soccer field at Fuller Park in Ann Arbor Friday. That’s right, a soccer field. “It’s sort of a making lemonade out of lemons situation,” said Dirk Fischbach of Saline, who came out with Christensen Friday to...

This is a photo taken this morning of a black swamp bear on the move in Mississippi in the Delta up between Panther Burn and Delta National Forest about 8 miles west/southwest of Yazoo City off Satarita road area. We all knew bears were there but you rarely see them. It's funny, we were just talking about this here last week. Nice size bear too btw.

With drought threatening food production in the EU, US and China, analysts at Renaissance Capital believe the next 8-10 weeks will be crucial to prices in 2011 and 2012. “The food price threat for 2011-2012 is very significant, but may disappear in August. It depends entirely on the weather over May to July,” said Renaissance Capital’s Charles Robertson. “If we do not get the right mix of rain and sun in the coming 8-10 weeks, then later this year we will see record price levels for the most important cereal in the world today – corn,” he said. If this...

The Army Corps. opened the Morganza spillway on the Mississippi River in Louisiana on Saturday forcing tons of water and covering more than 100 acres of dry land with a foot of water within 30 minutes. The flood gates were opened to shift the flow of the swollen river away from the numerous oil refineries and chemical plants in Baton Rouge and New Orleans. While the flood waters will move away from the more densely populated area, the opening of the gates could affect 25,000 people, 11,000 structures, and acres of farmland. This is the first time the Morganza spillway...

The Mississippi River has topped a levee north of Lake Providence in extreme northeast Louisiana, flooding croplands as an effort by farmers to shore up the 100-year-old structure was thwarted by the rising river. About 12,000 acres behind the 18-mile-long levee, mostly planted in corn and soybeans, were flooding Thursday morning though no homes appeared to be in danger in the thinly populated area. Maintenance on the levee was abandoned years ago after another, higher levee was built farther back off the river.

MEMPHIS, Tenn (Reuters) – The motto for the 2011 Memphis In May International World Championship Barbecue Cooking Contest was "Come Hell or High Water." Mission accomplished. The high water came -- nearly 48 feet deep -- washing the contest out of Tom Lee Park next to the Mississippi River in downtown Memphis for the first time in more than 30 years. But nearly 250 cooking teams turned out anyway with names such as "Pigs Gone Wild," "Notorious P.I.G," "The People's Republic of Swina," and "Not Ready for Swine Time Porkers." Thousands of spectators came as well, including sisters Kathy Lawson...

Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal said that while the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has not given specific time for opening the Morganza Spillway on the Mississippi River upstream from New Orleans to reduce the possibility of downstream flooding, state and local officials are taking action now to get prepared and constructing barriers to protect people and property from the flood. The Corps has said it would likely open the Spillway this weekend to divert Mississippi floodwaters into the Atchafalaya River basin, but it has not named a specific time for the opening. “We don’t have the time to wait for...

President Obama doesn’t seem to have even peered out his Air Force One window to view the swelling Mississippi, a minimal show of interest for which George W. Bush was pilloried when he took a peek at the damage wrought by Hurricane Katrina in 2005. At least Bush bothered to look. Obama is traveling today OVER the devastation being wrought by the Mississippi in order to get to events in Texas, where he will rally his Hispanic supporters with a speech on immigration in El Paso and then head to the Lone Star state’s liberal bastion of Austin for two...

The Metropolis Emergency Management Agency Director, Keith Davis, has asked media to post the following voluntary evacuation order that has been issued for the City of Metropolis:

Have to drive down I-24 through Paducah and to Benton, KY. Anyone know the road conditions south of Paducah?

Missouri on Sunday asked the U.S. Supreme Court to halt a plan to intentionally breach a levee on the rain-swollen Mississippi River, flooding Missouri farmland in an effort to save an Illinois town. Earlier, Missouri filed a federal suit to block the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers from following through on its plan to breach the Birds Point-New Madrid levee. A federal judge on Friday ruled against Missouri, saying a 1928 law permits the breach of the levee to ease pressure on the river. Missouri Attorney General Chris Koster filed an application for an injunction to the high court on...

CAPE GIRARDEAU, Mo. (AP) - A federal judge is giving the go-ahead to the Army Corps of Engineers' plan to intentionally break a Mississippi River levee in southeastern Missouri. The break could happen as early as this weekend to spare a flood-threatened Illinois town just upriver. Friday's ruling in Cape Girardeau turns back Missouri's bid to block the corps from blasting a hole in the Birds Point levee in Mississippi County, just south of Cairo, Ill. Missouri argued the floodwaters would ruin farmland and damage about 100 homes.