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HONOLULU – Strong winds in the northwest Pacific Ocean sent towering waves crashing along Hawaii's coast, prompting officials to close beaches amid fears that some waves could reach as high as 50 feet. The National Weather Service put high surf warnings in effect for the north-facing shores of all the islands except Lanai until Wednesday night. "High surf coupled with unusual high tide levels have a tendency to magnify the effects of the event and increase the probability of damages to homes, roads and infrastructure in the affected areas," said Doug Aton, acting administrator for Oahu Civil Defense. A handful...

NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE LOS ANGELES/OXNARD CA 115 PM PST MON DEC 29 2003 ...GALE FORCE WINDS AND VERY HAZARDOUS SEAS WILL DEVELOP OVER            THE COASTAL WATERS THIS AFTERNOON... A STRONG LOW PRESSURE SYSTEM OVER NORTHERN CALIFORNIA THIS AFTERNOON WILL MOVE SOUTH OVERNIGHT. GALE FORCE WINDS WILL DEVELOP OVER THE COASTAL WATERS TONIGHT AND CONTINUE THROUGH TUESDAY. VERY STEEP NORTH SWELLS WITH 6 SECOND PERIODS WILL DEVELOP AS THE SOUTH WINDS STRENGTHEN TONIGHT.      THE LOW PRESSURE SYSTEM WILL MOVE SOUTH OF POINT CONCEPTION OVERNIGHT AND PERSIST OFFSHORE THROUGH TUESDAY. GALE FORCE WINDS WILL DIMINISH NORTH OF POINT CONCEPTION TUESDAY...

ALOHA ...On the last day of his California Gubernatorial Campaign ARNOLD SCHWARZENEGGER beautifully surfed his way onto the Beach at Hungtington Beach this afternoon. And what a Day for Surfing it was. ...Flanked by Congressman CHIRS COX, Surfer/Congressman & Mrs. DANA ROHRBACHER, State Asseblyman JOHN CAMPBELL, Mrs. EUNICE KENNEDY-SHRIVER and wife MARIA... ...ARNOLD SCHWARZENEGGER showed himself to be the inspiring leader that he has always been in every field of endeavor that he chose to enter, bringing JOY to many along the way. ...With a very happy crowd of supporters of all ages present, along with a huge contigent of...

GALVESTON BAY -- James Fulbright rides waves with no beach in sight. For Fulbright and a small pod of friends, surf's up when the hull of an approaching tanker appears on the horizon of Galveston Bay like an apparition, trailed by a thin line of white water that signals a breaking wave. "Dude, what do you think of that? That's a pretty big ship," said Fulbright, 45, a local surf shop owner and surfboard manufacturer who chased the wakes of tanker ships Friday morning aboard a 17-foot Boston Whaler named Surf Bored. The group of local surfers, which includes a...

New ways of tracking these killer waves may help save lives FOR many inhabitants of the Pacific coast, powerful waves caused by earthquakes or underwater landslides-generally known by their Japanese name, tsunamis-are an ominous threat. When a wave 15 metres (50 feet) high pounded the northern shores of Papua New Guinea in July 1998, the inhabitants were taken by surprise. This tsunami killed more than 2,200 villagers, making it one of the most destructive in recent years. But it was just one of a string of killer waves that have struck the western Pacific over the past few years. Since...

The headline read: "Massive tsunami sweeps Atlantic Coast in asteroid impact...." It was at that point that I wished that I had taken a speed-reading course, because the rest of the headline read: "...scenario for March 16, 2880." I'm really thankful for all those folks who spend countless hours each week with their eyeballs glued to the small end of a telescope as they search the skies, keeping constant vigil for anything heading toward Earth that's larger than a frozen turkey. The men and women of NASA and the Jet Propulsion Lab, college professors and their student assistants and even...