MIAMI — The rapidly intensifying Irene that’s already cut a destructive path through the Caribbean is the first hurricane to seriously threaten the U.S. in almost three years, a worry for some emergency management officials who hope people haven’t become complacent about the dangers.

Predictions by the U.S. National Hurricane Center in Miami said Irene was likely to become a major Category 3 hurricane later Tuesday.

By Thursday, as it roars toward the U.S. coast over warm open waters, it could become a Category 4, NHC hurricane specialist John Cangialosi said late Monday. Winds in such a storm can blow from 131 to 155 mph. By contrast, Hurricane Katrina was a Category 3 when it hit New Orleans in 2005.

Late Tuesday morning, the first Atlantic hurricane of the season had maximum sustained winds around 100 mph and was near the Turks and Caicos islands in the Caribbean.

Current projections have Irene tracking off Florida’s coast on Friday and then making landfall in the Carolinas on Saturday or Sunday. From there it could move into Chesapeake Bay, the hurricane center said. The last hurricane to make landfall in the U.S. was Ike, which pounded Texas in 2008.

The center did caution, however, that predictions made days in advance can be off by hundreds of miles. For instance, some models show Irene could remain offshore along the East Coast.

With tropical force winds that extend 205 miles and hurricane force winds 50 miles from Irene’s center, Irene could still hit Florida hard even if it doesn’t make landfall there.

Bryan Koon, director of the Florida Division of Emergency Management, said after a meeting Monday with Gov. Rick Scott that the two have frequently discussed raising awareness since the Atlantic hurricane season began June 1.

“We want to make sure Floridians are paying attention,” Koon said. “We are at the height of the hurricane season right now. If it’s not Hurricane Irene, it could be the follow-up storm that impacts us.”

‘Take this storm seriously’
After several extremely active years, Florida has not been struck by a hurricane since Wilma raked across the state’s south in 2005. The Hurricane Center said it was responsible for five deaths in the state and came two months after Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans.

“For residents in states that may be affected later this week, it’s critical that you take this storm seriously,” said Craig Fugate, administrator at the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

Julio Gonzalez in Miami was heeding the warnings and headed to a hardware store to pick up what he needed to protect his home.

“I’m gonna board up,” he said Monday. “It’s best to play it safe.”

Others were stocking up on bottled water and plywood. And Hurricane Irene was trending on Twitter.

The storm slashed directly across Puerto Rico, tearing up trees and knocking out power to more than a million people. It then headed out to sea, north of the Dominican Republic, where the powerful storm’s outer bands were buffeting the north coast with dangerous sea surge and downpours. President Barack Obama declared an emergency for Puerto Rico, making it eligible for federal help.

‘Looks like it could get bad’
Irene was forecast to pass over or near the Turks and Caicos Islands and the southeastern Bahamas by Tuesday night and be near the central Bahamas early Wednesday.

In the overseas U.K. territory of the Turks and Caicos, a steady stream of customers bought plywood and nails at hardware stores, while others readied storm shutters and emergency kits at home.

“I can tell you I don’t want this storm to come. It looks like it could get bad, so I’ve definitely got to get my boats out of the water,” said Dedrick Handfield at the North Caicos hardware store where he works.

Many of the center’s computer models had the storm veering northward away from Florida’s east coast toward Georgia and the Carolinas, but forecasters said much was still unclear.

“In terms of where it’s going to go, there is still a pretty high level of uncertainty,” said Wallace Hogsett, a National Hurricane Center meteorologist. “It’s a very difficult forecast in terms of when it’s going to turn northward.”

One key reason for that, he said, is the difficulty of measuring the effect on Irene of the high terrain of the island of Hispaniola, which is shared by Haiti and the Dominican. Hurricane warnings were up on the northern side of the Dominican Republic, as well as the Turks and Caicos islands just south of the long Bahamas chain. Forecasters say it depends on which way the storm veers after passing the Bahamas Tuesday or into Wednesday and heads into the very warm Atlantic waters.

And several past hurricanes have turned into Category 4 or 5 monsters but hit land with much less force.

The other big factor is exactly when the storm will encounter a higher-level trough along the U.S. East Coast, which will eventually turn it to the north.

“Timing is everything,” Hogsett said.

In South Carolina, state and coastal emergency agencies went on alert for possibly the first hurricane to hit there in seven years.

(CNN) — Investigators were working early Tuesday to figure out what caused a fire in a home in Marion County, Florida, that killed five children.

Firefighters got a call about the blaze at about 10:40 p.m. and arrived eight minutes after the emergency call, said Peveeta Persaud, a spokesperson for Marion County Fire Rescue.

“When they arrived the structure was fully engulfed,” said Persaud. “It was a wooden structure.”

Two girls, ages 6 and 12, were killed in the blaze, along with three boys, ages 8, 13 and 15.

At least three other people in the home were able to escape and were taken to nearby hospitals, the spokeswoman said.

The fire marshal and other officials were working to determine what caused the blaze, Persaud said.

A neighbor told CNN affiliate WKMG that she was able to break a window and help get one woman out of the home but the smoke and fire was so treacherous that she could not help any of the others.

“The whole house was engulfed in flames. And I heard the mom yell, ‘My babies, my babies are inside,’” said the sobbing neighbor, who was not identified. “It is very, very sad because I wanted to get all the babies out. My kids play with their kids.”

Marion County is located about 90 miles northwest of Orlando, Florida.

Source (article): CNN

Source (picture): OBIT-MAG.COM

WINTER HAVEN, Fla. - WESH.com

Winter Haven Police are investigating a murder-suicide that happened in a surgical ward at Winter Haven Hospital around 1:30 p.m. Monday.

According to reports, Ramon Duckworth, 77, hid a gun when he went to visit his wife, Patricia, 76.

Once in her room, investigators said he shot her and then turned the gun on himself.

Patricia Duckworth recently had surgery for a kidney infection and family members said she had a stroke a few months ago.

The couple married 57 years ago.

Some of the couple’s neighbors and family members said Ramon Duckworth was suffering from a number of illnesses including Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s and prostate cancer.

Investigators believe the couples’ declining health may have contributed to this murder-suicide.

“It’s shocking,” Maria Sykes said.

Sykes’ mother recently came out of surgery on the same floor where the shooting happened.

She found out about the murder-suicide when she called to check on her mother.

“My mother was there, and that made it worse,” she said.

Following the shooting, the hospital cleared out most patients on the floor. Twenty workers were also rushed out.

Source (article): MSNBC

Source (picture): CENTRAL-ORTHOPEDICS

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. - The shuttle Discovery and its astronauts returned safely to Earth on Tuesday after making a rare flyover of America’s heartland to wrap up their 15-day, 6 million-mile journey to the International Space Station.

The touchdown was delayed by rain and fog that dissipated as the sun rose, allowing Mission Control to take advantage of the morning’s second landing opportunity.

Discovery swooped through a hazy sky before landing on the Kennedy Space Center runway. NASA briefly considered bringing the shuttle in to the opposite end of the strip because of puffy clouds, but the glare from the sun was too great and flight controllers stuck to the original plan.

In the end, commander Alan Poindexter made what appeared to be a smooth touchdown, a day late because of rain.

“Welcome home,” Mission Control’s Rick Sturckow said, radioing congratulations on the entire flight.

“It was a great mission. We enjoyed it,” Poindexter said. “And we’re glad that the International Space Station is stocked up again.”

NASA had promised a spectacular show, weather permitting, for early risers in Helena, Mont., and all the way along Discovery’s flight path through the Midwest and Southeast. With the space shuttle program winding down, there weren’t expected to be any more continental flyovers.

This was, in fact, Discovery’s next-to-last flight. Only one more mission remains for NASA’s oldest surviving shuttle. As soon as it’s removed from the runway, it will be prepped for the final shuttle flight, scheduled for September.

Discovery zoomed over the North Pacific on its way home before crossing into North America over Vancouver, British Columbia. Then it headed toward the southeast, flying over northeastern Washington, Helena, Mont.; Wyoming; southwestern Nebraska; northeastern Colorado; southwestern Kansas; Oklahoma; Arkansas; Mississippi; Alabama; Georgia and finally Florida east of Gainesville.

NASA had anticipated the sonic booms might be heard as far north as Kansas. There were no immediate reports.

Before the shuttle began its descent, Mission Control described to the astronauts the route they would be taking to Cape Canaveral. “Sounds like a great ground track,” Poindexter observed.

It was the first time since 2007 that a space shuttle descended over so much of the United States. NASA typically prefers bringing a shuttle home from the southwest, up over the South Pacific, Central America and the Gulf of Mexico. That way, there’s minimal flying over heavily populated areas. In 2003, space shuttle Columbia shattered over Texas during re-entry, but no one on the ground was injured by the falling wreckage.

NASA wanted to maximize the crew’s work time in orbit, while minimizing fatigue. That resulted in this North American crossing.

Before leaving the space station Saturday, Poindexter and his crew dropped off tons of supplies and equipment. The main delivery was a tank full of ammonia coolant, which took three spacewalks to hook up.

A nitrogen pressure valve refused to open after the tank was installed, and for a day, NASA considered sending the shuttle astronauts out on a fourth spacewalk to fix the problem. But engineers concluded it was not an emergency and that the space station crew or future shuttle fliers could deal with it.

History, meanwhile, was made with the presence of four women in space: three on the shuttle and one at the station.

Discovery returned with a couple tons of trash and discarded space station equipment. Most of that was jammed into a cargo carrier that rocketed away aboard the shuttle back on April 5. The carrier will be re-outfitted and fly back up on Discovery in September, and be installed permanently at the orbiting outpost.

Source (article): MSNBC

Source (pictures): THEEPOCHTIMES

There is a chance that snow flurries could fall in Central Florida over the weekend.

“It’s very rare in Central Florida, but it has happened before that we’ve had a couple of flakes, so it’s possible we could do it again,” WESH 2 News meteorologist Amy Sweezey said.

A cold blast began making its way toward Central Florida on Friday, causing a huge difference in temperatures on the coast versus inland. Melbourne was at 67 degrees at noon, while temperatures in Ocala and The Villages had only climbed to the high-40s.

A freeze warning is in effect for Flagler, Marion and Sumter counties from 3 a.m. to 9 a.m. Saturday. A freeze watch was issued for other areas of Central Florida, which may be upgraded to a warning.

“The timing is going to make such a difference on whether or not we can have a little bit of sleet and frozen precipitation,” Sweezey said.

The front should move through the region early Saturday morning. Residents in the northern counties could see some flakes before sunrise. In metro Orlando and Daytona Beach, the best chance would happen after sunrise, and in areas south and east of Orlando, the best opportunity should be around noon.

Southerly winds and clouds had temperatures climbing before sunrise Saturday into the 40s in most locations.

The wintry precipitation expected on Saturday won’t be anything like what those who have lived up north would consider snow.

“It’s not actually going to be big snowflakes. Instead, a little bit of an ice pellet, maybe a little bit of sleet. That’s it,” Sweezey said. “The timing all has to come together.”

While it’s rare in Central Florida, snow flurries fell in January 2008, January 2003 and in December 1989.

Source (article): MSNBC

Source (picture): LUMINOUS-LANDSCAPE