Largest flood in Washington State's
history followed by the largest ice storm and power
outage in Oklahoma's history
In 10 days, the United States experienced the largest
flood in the state of Washington’s history,
hurricane-force winds up to 127 mph in Oregon, I-5
between Seattle and Portland was closed for five days,
and a massive ice storm hit America’s heartland —
causing chaos, a travel gridlock and over 1 million
homes and businesses to lose their power. Also, the
largest ice storm in Oklahoma history produced the
largest power outage in that state's history.
In 10 days, President Bush declared major FEMA
disasters for Washington, Oregon, Oklahoma and Kansas —
and is expected to do the same for Missouri, Iowa and
Illinois.
These were two separate, back-to-back, $1
billion-plus disasters bringing the 2007 total to four
billion-dollar disasters that coincided with U.S.
pressure on Israel to divide her land.
Chronology
Monday, Nov. 26: President George W. Bush
hosted Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas at the White House
in preparation for the Annapolis Conference.
That night, he welcomed 49 nations to the U.S. State
Department in town for the Annapolis Conference. He
said, "Achieving this goal requires neighbors committed
to peace between Israel and a new Palestinian state —
and I'm encouraged by the presence of so many here."
Tuesday, Nov. 27: President Bush opened the
Annapolis Conference, saying, "We appreciate you joining
us in what I believe is an historic opportunity to
encourage the expansion of freedom and peace in the Holy
Land."
Wednesday, Nov. 28: President Bush invited
Olmert and Abbas to the White House for joint meetings
and a closing statement with the world press in
attendance. He said, "And one thing I've assured both
gentlemen is that the United States will be actively
engaged in the process, that we will use our power to
help you as you come up with the necessary decisions to
lay out a Palestinian state that will live side by side
in peace with Israel."
Thursday, Nov. 29: U.S. Secretary of State
Condoleezza met with the leaders of 18 American Jewish
organizations to assure them that the Bush
administration will not pressure Israel but, rather,
facilitate talks between the two sides.
Ynet reported that along with her calming words for
the leaders, Rice reminded them that President Bush has
been the friendliest president towards Israel in
American history, and that Israel should therefore
accelerate talks with Palestinians to achieve as much as
possible while Bush still sits in the White House.
Friday, Nov. 30: AccuWeather: "It's hard to
believe how much energy is available for storms right
now. Not only one, but two major disturbances will
impact various parts of the country within the next 72
hours."
Saturday, Dec. 1: AccuWeather: "Two very
potent winter storm systems are affecting the country
today: one in the Northeast, and one in the Pacific
Northwest. Both systems contain a great deal of snow and
wind."
Sunday, Dec. 2: Ha'aretz reported the fourth
earthquake in two weeks. It shook parts of Israel on
Sunday, but caused no casualties or damage. Israel's
Geophysical Institute stated that the tremor, which was
felt in Holon and Jerusalem, had a magnitude of 4.0. on
the Richter Scale. Its epicenter was north of the Dead
Sea, the lowest point on earth, on the active
Syrian-African rift fault line where earthquakes are
common.
Sunday, Dec. 2: Winter storm systems moved
into the Northeast and the Pacific Northwest.
Monday, Dec. 3: Olmert spoke to the Knesset:
"Greater Israel" was and is a magnificent idea; however,
after losing 6 million of our people, there was a need
to come to terms with what could be achieved then, and
to establish a state. This is the truth. Because the
only choice left to us today, just as it was 60 years
ago, is between a Jewish state in part of the Land of
Israel and a bi-national state in all of the Land of
Israel. This is the choice today as well — two states,
Jewish and Palestinian, for there is no other way.
Monday, Dec. 3: President Bush met with
U.S.-Palestinian public-private partnership, saying: The
partnership is aimed at promoting economic opportunity
and leadership development for Palestinian youth. And so
Walter Isaacson and the other leaders here have outlined
a strategy to us as to how we can make sure our USAID
money and our OPIC money can be leveraged with private
participation to help the Palestinians develop a civil
society that is a key part of making sure that the
vision of two states living side by side in peace
becomes a reality.
Monday, Dec. 3: AccuWeather: Northern New
England received more than a foot of snow through
Tuesday. Schools from New York to Maine were canceled
because of slick roads and 40-mph winds that have
created near-blizzard conditions in some parts of New
England.
Hurricane-force winds gusting to 100 mph were
reported along the Oregon coast, with the highest
reading at 129 mph at Bay City, the National Weather
Service said. Massive rains produced flooding.
The governors of Washington and Oregon declared
states of emergency, which could speed relief efforts in
flood-hit areas.
Tuesday, Dec. 4: AccuWeather: "The storm
system that pummeled parts of Washington and Oregon on
Monday will hang around for one more day. The good news
is that this system will not pack nearly as much of a
potent punch as it did yesterday."
Wednesday, Dec. 5: AccuWeather: "The flooding
that has inundated the Northwest, greatly impacting
lives and travel, will be part of historical records.
Rivers have either risen to or will exceed record levels
set during a 1996 storm."
Damage could be in the billions of dollars,
Washington Gov. Chris Gregoire said Wednesday.
Friday, Dec. 7, 2007: Herb Keinon of The
Jerusalem Post wrote: Israel and the U.S. are heading
for a showdown over construction in Jerusalem's Har Homa
neighborhood, as U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza
Rice said Friday that building there does not help
create confidence in peace negotiations, and
Construction and Housing Minister Ze'ev Boim responded
that the construction will continue.
Rice said, "There just shouldn't be anything that
might try and judge final status, the outcomes of final
status negotiations. It's even more important now that
we are really on the eve of the beginning of those
negotiations."
Saturday, Dec. 8: President Bush declared a
federal FEMA disaster for 11 counties in the Pacific
Northwest. Oregon and Washington saw severe flooding,
landslides and mudslides as the result of storms that
hit the coast Dec. 1-3.
A new wave of storms: A first wave of low pressure,
which developed across the southwest on Dec. 8, produced
light freezing rain through much of the Midwest and
southern Ontario on Dec. 9.
Sunday, Dec. 9: An ice storm slickened roads
and sidewalks, grounded hundreds of flights, and cut
power to tens of thousands in a swath from the Southern
Plains to the Great Lakes as even colder weather
threatened.
More than 130,000 customers lost power in Missouri,
Oklahoma, Illinois and Kansas, utilities reported.
Chicago's O'Hare International Airport, one of the
nation's busiest, canceled more than 400 flights. The
airports in Kansas City, Mo., and St. Louis also
canceled several flights.
Monday, Dec. 10: On the eve of the first peace
talks in nearly seven years, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert
promised to "forge a historic path" toward a final
settlement with the Palestinians.
A second stronger storm developed across the
southwest on Dec. 10 and gave significant snows to the
higher elevations of Arizona near Flagstaff as well as
in Colorado. It then produced a significant swath of ice
across much of the Middle Plain States. More than
700,000 homes and businesses were without power in the
Midwest. Oklahoma's governor declared statewide
disaster.
Tuesday, Dec. 11: President Bush signed a
federal emergency disaster declaration. This was the
federal response to the ongoing and sweeping ice storm
affecting the Midwest that began on Dec. 8, 2007, and
affected all 77 counties in Oklahoma.
"This is a big one. We've got a massive situation
here, and it's probably going to be a week to 10 days
before we get power on to everybody," said Ed Bettinger,
a spokesman for Public Service Company of Oklahoma. "It
looks like a war zone."
Nearly 600,000 Oklahoma homes and businesses still
had no electricity Tuesday, most of them since Monday
when power lines began snapping under the weight of ice
and falling branches — the biggest power outage in state
history. Utilities in Missouri reported about 170,000
homes and business without power. Outages elsewhere
affected more than 100,000 customers in Kansas, more
than 60,000 in Iowa and nearly 18,000 in Illinois.
Wednesday, Dec. 12: Israeli and Palestinian
negotiating teams met in Jerusalem for their first
official meeting towards a permanent peace agreement
since 2001. In their 90-minute meeting, they argued over
Israel's Jerusalem construction and Hamas rockets being
fired from Gaza.
Wednesday, Dec. 12: Rice: Bush to take a more
active role in Middle East peace process. Secretary of
State Rice told USA Today that President Bush would be
visiting the region because "he very much wants to
signal support for the bilateral process between the
parties and to continue in a hands-on way to encourage
them to move forward."
Still, she described that approach as not one that
says "All right, I'm going to go ahead and fix this for
you," but one emphasizing talking to the parties, in
which "he'll be able to get a strong sense of where the
points of convergence are that maybe they won't see, and
where the points are divergence are as well."
Wednesday, Dec. 12: About 468,000 homes and
businesses in Oklahoma still had no power — the state
suffering its worst power outage on record. Utility
officials said it could be a week to 10 days before
power is fully restored.
Elsewhere, around 228,000 customers were still
blacked out in Missouri, Kansas, Iowa, Illinois and
Nebraska. Kansas' tally had risen sharply — to 130,000
on Wednesday from Tuesday's 15,000 — as rural electric
cooperatives reported in and falling branches brought
down more power lines.
Thursday, Dec. 13: In Oklahoma, at least
315,000 homes and businesses were still without power,
officials said. In Missouri, about 35,000 customers
remained in the dark, said Al Butkus, spokesman for
utility Aquila Inc.
Friday, Dec. 14: The second wintry blast could
complicate efforts to restore power to the more than
280,000 homes and businesses in Oklahoma, Kansas and
Missouri still blacked out after the first storm put a
million customers in the dark at its height this week.
Utilities in the Plains said nearly 400,000 customers
remained without power on Friday due to ice storms this
week. Electric companies reported that more than 800,000
of the 1.2 million customers who lost power have had it
restored.
Saturday, Dec. 15: Oklahoma utilities said
about 181,000 homes and businesses still had no
electricity. Some 62,000 were still blacked out in
Kansas, and Missouri utilities reported about 27,000
customers still off line.