**Change your thoughts and you change your world.**
Norman Vincent Peale
Not much to report today.
LARGEST QUAKES so far today -
OFF EAST COAST OF HONSHU, JAPAN
Yesterday, 6/26/14 -
5.4 MINAHASA, SULAWESI, INDONESIA
5.0 ANDREANOF ISLANDS, ALEUTIAN IS.
5.0 KERMADEC ISLANDS REGION
5.1 SUMBAWA REGION, INDONESIA
TROPICAL STORMS -
Current tropical storms - maps and details.
No current tropical storms.
SEVERE RAIN STORMS, FLOODING, LANDSLIDES -
Rain Storms Pummel U. S. Upper Midwest, Drowning Resources - Heavy rains over the past couple of weeks have rivers rising all across the Upper Midwest, flooding homes, swamping fields and washing out roads.
Heavy rains over the past couple of weeks have rivers rising all across the Upper Midwest, flooding homes, swamping fields and washing out roads.
In the small town of Rock Valley, Iowa, offficials in this town of 3,300 say it will take weeks to clean up and months to repair and rebuild damaged homes, businesses and infrastructure. And they're not alone. Statewide, Iowa officials estimate flood damages topping $15 million.
About an hour south of Rock Valley in Sioux City, Iowa, the county's Emergency Services Director says it's been difficult to recover. "We were already at saturation point, and we were receiving heavy rain. We need a little time to dry out here, and we need these storms, instead of parking over us, to keep moving."
One storm last week dumped 6 inches of rain on Sioux City in just three hours. "What we saw last week were weather systems that just literally got here and continued to develop and redevelop on top of themselves." These storm systems have been dumping massive amounts of rain on other parts of Iowa, Nebraska, the Dakotas and Minnesota, where the governor has declared a state of emergency in 35 counties. "It's very hard to see the pain and suffering people are going through - homeowners in Henderson whose houses of 26 years were destroyed by a mudslide, farmers whose entire crop has been destroyed by the flooding or the hail."
Many northern farmers are now in a bind because when their fields finally dry out, it might be too late in the growing season to replant their crops. One agronomist estimates crop yields could drop 20 to 30 percent in Minnesota alone because of weather-related losses, and there will likely be crop losses in other states, too.
In Delano, about 30 miles west of Minneapolis, where the raging Crow River flooded downtown businesses and closed a main bridge through town. The flooding is draining the city's bank accounts."For a community our size, we're expending a tremendous amount of resources, probably upwards of 10 percent of our annual budget just simply in the last five days trying to deal with holding back these waters."
Planners in Midwestern communities are bracing for these kinds of severe storms to become the new normal. This is the third major flood in Delano in five years. Forecasters predict this rainy weather pattern will likely continue into July across much of the Upper Midwest.
Village near Belgrade "hit by tornado" - Extreme weather is continuing in Serbia this summer, with a new round of storms hitting many areas of the country late on Wednesday. A tornado-like storm was reported in a village near the town of Lazarevac.
Strong winds in Šopići ripped off roofs from homes, caused significant damage to a local church, and turned over vehicles, including a tank truck. Heavy rain and high winds affected several other towns, including Topola and Aranđelovac in central Serbia, Šabac, Bogatić, and Koceljeva in the west, and Belgrade.
Some areas of Lazarevac - a municipality of Belgrade southwest of the central parts of the city - was left without electricity as wind damaged transmission lines. In Priboj, southwestern Serbia, winds and rain brought down trees and cause flash flooding. Farmers in some areas have also reported damage to their crops.
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