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National Situation Update: Saturday, May 27, 2006

Homeland Security Threat Level: YELLOW (ELEVATED).

National Weather

Northeast:  After some severe thunderstorms from southern New England to the Virginias yesterday, the weather will rapidly improve this holiday weekend. As the upper-level low exists, some showers and a few thunderstorms will linger from the Hudson and Delaware Valleys to New England. Tomorrow will be a great sunny day across the entire Northeast region with high temperatures up to 10 degrees above average.

Midwest:  A few mainly p.m. thunderstorms will pop in the Mississippi Valley today and in the Ohio Valley tomorrow. A few severe thunderstorms will roam the northern Plains and Upper Midwest through the holiday weekend.

West:  A vigorous upper-level system is taking control of the West. Gusty weekend winds and very low humidity will keep the fire danger high over the Four Corners states. Showers and thunderstorms will be scattered from Washington and Oregon to Montana, Wyoming and northernmost Colorado. Rainfall could be locally heavy in parts of Montana, Idaho and Wyoming. Also snow levels will be dropping to 4000 feet in the northern Rockies by later today and tomorrow morning with potentially heavy wet snow in western Montana.

South:  Across the South, a few late day severe thunderstorms may pop over the southern high Plains. From the Tennessee Valley to the Gulf Coast and Florida, afternoons will produce isolated-to-widely scattered thunderstorms with localized downpours and maybe a few hail or wind gust reports. Many areas may escape most of the weekend rain-free.    (NWS, Media Sources)

Flooding in Central Washington

From Region X on May 26, 2006, 4:00 p.m. EDT - Unseasonably warm temperatures in central Washington has caused a rapid snowmelt in higher elevations which has created flooding conditions along several major streams and rivers in the region during the week of May 15, 2006.  Sandbagging of numerous residences along the Stehekin and Wenatchee Rivers in Chelan County was necessary.  Residents in Leavenworth along Icicle Creek had been advised to prepare to evacuate as stream bank erosion was anticipated.  In Okanogan County most major streams and rivers, including the Okanogan, Similkameen, Methow, and Twisp exceeded flood stage.  There is no anticipated request for federal involvement.  (FEMA Region X)

Five Dead After Heavy Rain In IN, KY, TN

Severe thunderstorms that lashed through Kentucky, Tennessee and Indiana left five people dead and a 4-year-old girl missing, authorities said Friday.  The girl's mother and another adult got out of their vehicle safely before a rain-swollen creek swept the car away with the child about 50 miles southwest of Louisville Thursday night, said Rick Priest, Breckinridge County emergency management director.

In central Kentucky, a 68-year-old woman died after being struck by lightning from the storms, officials said.  Shirley F. Cosby, of Lexington, was found early Friday on the sidewalk in front of her residence, the coroner's office said. It appeared she was placing her yard waste container by the curb for pickup when she was struck.

In Indiana, searchers found the bodies of Greg Kemp, 35 and his 4-year-old son Issac, both of Leopold, downstream from where their pickup truck was washed off the road by a rain-swollen creek in southern Indiana, Indiana Conservation Officer Mark Farmer said.  The search continued Friday for the boy's grandfather, Robert Edwards, 55, also of Leopold. Greg Kemp's 7-year-old son, Morgan, was able to swim away to safety Thursday, Farmer said.

In Tennessee, the bodies of two 15-year-old boys, Vincent Kruk and Philiip Siefert, were found Friday after they were swept away the night before while swimming in a creek just north of Clarksville, said Montgomery County Emergency Medical Services official Gary Perry.

Two emergency workers trying to rescue the teens were injured, one critically, when their boat capsized. One of them, rescue diver Joe Snow, was under water for up to six minutes after he was caught in the undertow, Perry said.  Snow was in critical condition Friday at Vanderbilt University Medical Center.

About 187,000 Duke Energy customers in southwest Ohio and northern Kentucky without electricity at one point, and service to some Cincinnati-area homes was not expected to be restored until Saturday, spokesman Steve Brash said Friday.   (Media Sources)

Tropical Activity

No new activity (FEMA HQ)

Earthquake Activity

No new activity (FEMA HQ)

Preliminary Damage Assessments

No new activity (FEMA HQ)

Wildfire Update

(This information is reported as of 7:30 a.m. EDT.)  Initial attack activity was light nationally with 54 new fires reported. One new large fire (*) was reported in the Eastern Great Basin Area. Two large fires were contained in the Southern Area.  Very high to extreme fire indices were reported in Arizona, Kansas, Nebraska, Oklahoma, Texas New Mexico, Colorado and Utah.

Red Flag Warnings: Northern Arizona and northeast New Mexico for strong southwest winds and low humidity. For most of western Utah for strong winds and low relative humidity.

Fire Weather Watches: Northwest Arizona for strong southwest winds and low humidity.  Guadalupe Mountains of southeast New Mexico for strong south to southwest winds and low humidity.

Weather Discussion: An upper level trough will move over the Northwest today creating strong winds combined with already dry and unstable conditions in place for portions of the Southwest, Great Basin, and Rocky Mountain Areas. Isolated dry thunderstorms are possible for portions of Colorado and northwest Texas.   (National Interagency Fire Center, NWS, Storm Prediction Center)

Disaster Declaration Activity

FEMA-DR-1629-NV closed May 26, 2006.  (FEMA HQ)