Topic Archive: Calamities
President of the Huntington Library and botanical gardens asks for financial help to clean up "extensive" damage from last week's winds. $MTEntryExcerpt$>
Posted December 8, 2011 6:29 PM
On her blog, the novelist uses verse to mark the century-old eucalyptus' passage into firewood and sawdust. $MTEntryExcerpt$>
Posted December 7, 2011 12:21 AM
Volunteers have restrung most of the the wind-damaged lights on Altadena's traditional Christrmas Tree Lane and say they will flip the switch on Saturday at 6 p.m. — as scheduled before last week's freak wind event. $MTEntryExcerpt$>
Posted December 6, 2011 12:17 AM
Over half the specimens at the Los Angeles County Arboretum & Botanic Garden suffered some kind of wind damage. Sobering pictures. $MTEntryExcerpt$>
Posted December 2, 2011 7:42 PM
The National Weather Service update for Mammoth Mountain contained a startling fact. $MTEntryExcerpt$>
Posted December 2, 2011 9:41 AM
What's that, half a million people in the Los Angeles metropolitan area bedding down for a second night without electricity? $MTEntryExcerpt$>
Posted December 1, 2011 11:53 PM
DWP's map of outages is impressive. Plus: historic Los Feliz deodars down. $MTEntryExcerpt$>
Posted December 1, 2011 5:13 PM
Pasadena really took the brunt of last night's wind storm. $MTEntryExcerpt$>
Posted December 1, 2011 1:54 PM
The air over the Pacific Northwest has been at his highest barometric pressure in a long time. Instant wind down here. $MTEntryExcerpt$>
Posted December 1, 2011 11:33 AM
It's right where scientists expected it would be, near Midway Island, and should reach Hawaii in two years and North America in three. $MTEntryExcerpt$>
Posted October 18, 2011 4:15 PM
Much of the city of San Diego is still dark, but some areas — including the south end of Orange County and the desert cities of the Coachella Valley — are gradually getting power back. $MTEntryExcerpt$>
Posted September 8, 2011 11:24 PM
Tears, candles and a moving display as each player from the Minsk team knelt at a photo of a deceased counterpart, then skated a solitary puck the length of the ice. $MTEntryExcerpt$>
Posted September 8, 2011 10:39 PM
Without power or air conditioning, it could be a long night in the lower deserts. Here are the current temperatures. $MTEntryExcerpt$>
Posted September 8, 2011 6:07 PM
With essentially all power off across the region served by San Diego Gas & Electric, the biggest problem faced by the SDPD right now is rush-hour traffic without stop lights. $MTEntryExcerpt$>
Posted September 8, 2011 5:54 PM
The New York Times tweets, "As a public service, @nytimes will allow free access to storm-related coverage on nytimes.com and its mobile apps." $MTEntryExcerpt$>
Posted August 26, 2011 4:46 PM
CET says that all of the money raised during the three-hour telethon it aired on May 24 will go for Japanese tsunami relief efforts. $MTEntryExcerpt$>
Posted May 31, 2011 10:10 PM
KCET is devoting the 8 to 11 p.m. block on Tuesday night to a live show raising money for Japan. All proceeds will go to tsunami and quake relief efforts... $MTEntryExcerpt$>
Posted May 23, 2011 3:02 PM
Northeastern Japan endured another 7.1 magnitude aftershock on Monday afternoon. $MTEntryExcerpt$>
Posted April 11, 2011 2:09 AM
KTLA's Frank Buckley wasn't the only visiting foreign journalist to parachute into Japan after the earthquake then want to quickly get out once the story became about nuclear radiation. $MTEntryExcerpt$>
Posted March 20, 2011 9:35 PM
The folks at Southern California Public Radio made a nice video with Tony Tsukui, one of the Japanese businessmen and women who were here when the earthquake and tsunami struck Japan. $MTEntryExcerpt$>
Posted March 20, 2011 8:25 PM
In a sign of how bad it may be, Japanese officials finally accept help from American nuclear experts. $MTEntryExcerpt$>
Posted March 17, 2011 11:39 PM
Channel 5's morning anchor explains how he came to be sent to cover the Japan disaster on short notice — and why he and his crew, producer Toni Molle and photographer Mike McGregor, came back so soon. $MTEntryExcerpt$>
Posted March 17, 2011 11:20 PM
This might help prevent locals from going a little crazy over the arrival of airborne radiation particles from Japan. $MTEntryExcerpt$>
Posted March 17, 2011 5:47 PM
Experts said that small amounts of radioactive isotope that escaped from the crippled Japanese nuclear power stations would blow across the Pacific in the upper atmosphere. $MTEntryExcerpt$>
Posted March 16, 2011 11:46 PM
Channel 5's morning anchor flew into LAX tonight and tweeted there's a new addition to the customs procedure: a radiation wand. $MTEntryExcerpt$>
Posted March 16, 2011 7:34 PM
The nuclear power generating station near San Luis Obispo on the central California coast was allowed to open without an emergency plan for earthquakes — and still doesn't have one, the HuffPost says. $MTEntryExcerpt$>
Posted March 16, 2011 6:17 PM
Release from the office of Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa says "no immediate threat to the United States" from radiation in Japan. $MTEntryExcerpt$>
Posted March 15, 2011 5:52 PM
L.A. Creek Freak posted this video of Friday's tsunami wave rolling uphill in Ballona Creek. $MTEntryExcerpt$>
Posted March 15, 2011 5:10 PM
Danger of nuclear disaster reaches a new level in Japan, "threatening to overshadow even the massive damage and loss of life spawned by a devastating earthquake and tsunami." $MTEntryExcerpt$>
Posted March 15, 2011 12:40 AM
As if the March 11 quake off Japan's northeast coast needed any more historic cred, the USGS recalculated it upward in magnitude. $MTEntryExcerpt$>
Posted March 14, 2011 9:04 PM
This clip catches the start of Friday's tsunami flooding into the streets of Kesennuma, in Miyagi Prefecture, and watches up close for six astounding, frightening minutes. $MTEntryExcerpt$>
Posted March 14, 2011 2:16 AM
The Rafu Shimpo website has, of course, gone heavily into disaster relief and communication mode. $MTEntryExcerpt$>
Posted March 13, 2011 11:59 PM
Japan is probably the most prepared country in the world, but the spreading misery and risk of nuclear disaster shows that you can't prepare adequately for an 8.9 magnitude earthquake and resulting tsunami. $MTEntryExcerpt$>
Posted March 13, 2011 11:50 PM
The blogger behind the site called With Malice — "the half-crazed ramblings of a Laker fanatic in Japan" — has posted his reactions to news coverage and the local reality of the quake and tsunami. $MTEntryExcerpt$>
Posted March 13, 2011 11:37 PM
L.A. County Fire's urban search and rescue team boarded buses last night for LAX. $MTEntryExcerpt$>
Posted March 12, 2011 12:27 PM
Sped-up video of the tsunami surge entering and leaving Crescent City's harbor on Friday morning, leaving extensive damage behind. $MTEntryExcerpt$>
Posted March 12, 2011 12:09 PM
These are always a mix of awesome and frightening. $MTEntryExcerpt$>
Posted March 11, 2011 2:56 PM
Crescent City, near the Oregon border, appears to have suffered significant damage to its harbor. $MTEntryExcerpt$>
Posted March 11, 2011 11:00 AM
Tsunami coming ashore at Natori in Miyagi prefecture. From Kyodo News Service at New York Times. Wave inundating Sendai airport on closed-circuit video.... $MTEntryExcerpt$>
Posted March 11, 2011 10:18 AM
TV reports are showing not much happening along the Southern California coast as the hour passes for the arrival of tsunami surges. $MTEntryExcerpt$>
Posted March 11, 2011 8:47 AM
NOAA has put up a tsunami advisory for us and a higher tsunami warning for north of Point Concepcion. $MTEntryExcerpt$>
Posted March 11, 2011 1:58 AM
Updated monitoring of media reports on the Japan earthquake, which the USGS is calling a magnitude 8.9 event. Number aftershocks over 6.0 have occurred. $MTEntryExcerpt$>
Posted March 10, 2011 10:13 PM
Members of the Los Angeles County Fire Department's
search and rescue team are at LAX right about now boarding a flight for New Zealand. $MTEntryExcerpt$>
Posted February 22, 2011 11:41 PM
On the 17th anniversary of the Northridge earthquake, it seems like a good time to point out the new research that says a theoretical Pacific-spawned superstorm is now believed likely to do much more damage in California than a major earthquake on the San Andreas Fault. $MTEntryExcerpt$>
Posted January 17, 2011 5:12 PM
BBC is streaming live from Copiapo as the rescue capsule is being readied to lower a medic into the mine and remove the first trapped miner. $MTEntryExcerpt$>
Posted October 12, 2010 3:04 PM
An underground natural gas pipeline blew up in a San Bruno neighborhood south of San Francisco this evening, engulfing whole blocks in a fireball. $MTEntryExcerpt$>
Posted September 9, 2010 11:35 PM
Bennet Kessler, the dean of Eastern Sierra journalists, has covered more than her share of crashes on U.S. highway 395. "A horrible scene of death, fire and suffering," she wrote in today's story. $MTEntryExcerpt$>
Posted August 10, 2010 5:58 PM
Anibal Archila was injured in the eruption that closed the airport at Guatemala City, declared missing then confirmed dead Thursday night. $MTEntryExcerpt$>
Posted May 28, 2010 12:58 AM
On this day, the Rodney Kings riots erupted in 1992 and the Central Library burned in 1986. $MTEntryExcerpt$>
Posted April 29, 2010 11:34 AM
At 2:30 this afternoon, the Los Angeles Fire Department will supervise
the full evacuation of the Aon Building, the 62-story tower at Wilshire and Hope that was known as the First Interstate Tower when a fire broke out on the 12th floor in 1988. $MTEntryExcerpt$>
Posted March 24, 2010 11:25 AM
Tsunami surges killed hundreds and devastated ports and towns along the Chilean coast in the first hours after Saturday's 8.8 magnitude earthquake. Check out the animation. $MTEntryExcerpt$>
Posted March 1, 2010 6:57 PM
Lauren Williams and Aneya Fernando moved from Los Angeles to Santiago last month and have been blogging about the quake and its aftermath. $MTEntryExcerpt$>
Posted February 28, 2010 4:26 PM
Modeling by NOAA of the tsunami action expected across the Pacific from the 8.8 earthquake in Chile. The ocean is normally blue on these maps. Small world, as they say.... $MTEntryExcerpt$>
Posted February 27, 2010 12:26 PM
More than 140 people have been killed by a major earthquake that struck before dawn, centered in the Pacific 60 miles offshore from the port city of Concepcion. A tsunami could hit Hawaii at 11:05 island time. $MTEntryExcerpt$>
Posted February 27, 2010 11:44 AM
Reporter Andrew Mollenbeck of KNX 1070 flew into Haiti from Guantanamo Bay and is embedded now with the U.S. Navy ship USS Bataan. In Wednesday's report he described a water... $MTEntryExcerpt$>
Posted January 21, 2010 1:03 AM
Video from KABC7 of last night's story. $MTEntryExcerpt$>
Posted January 20, 2010 9:10 AM
The Los Angeles County Fire Department urban search and rescue team in Port-Au-Prince pulled another woman from the earthquake rubble. In this one, you can hear the crowd applauding and chanting "U.S.A!" $MTEntryExcerpt$>
Posted January 19, 2010 1:55 PM
Task Force 2 comes through again. Just watch the video. $MTEntryExcerpt$>
Posted January 18, 2010 10:01 PM
Firefighters apparently from California Task Force 2, the L.A. County FD urban search and rescue team in Haiti, are live on CNN trying to reach a girl buried in rubble in Port-Au-Prince who is believed to be tapping messages to rescuers. $MTEntryExcerpt$>
Posted January 16, 2010 1:41 PM
The cameras crew grew in number today at TiGeorges' Chicken, the Haitian restaurant on Glendale Boulevard where Jenny Burman visited yesterday for Chicken Corner. $MTEntryExcerpt$>
Posted January 14, 2010 6:30 PM
I'm told that L.A. Times photographer Carolyn Cole was packing in her Brooklyn apartment within fifteen minutes of the first quake bulletin. How she got to Port-Au-Prince. $MTEntryExcerpt$>
Posted January 14, 2010 6:10 PM
The L.A. Times has photographers Carolyn Cole and Rick Loomis on the ground in Haiti. $MTEntryExcerpt$>
Posted January 14, 2010 3:35 PM
TiGeorges Laguerre, the Haitian restaurateur in Echo Park who Jenny Burman
visited with earlier today, talks about the earthquake devastation tonight on "Which Way, L.A.?" with Warren Olney. $MTEntryExcerpt$>
Posted January 13, 2010 5:21 PM
Jenny Burman at Chicken Corner went over to TiGeorges' Chicken, the Echo Park restaurant that is becoming a center for the local Haitian community. $MTEntryExcerpt$>
Posted January 13, 2010 1:37 PM
The Los Angeles County Fire Department's urban search and rescue team, veterans of Katrina and the South Asia tsunami, is poised to head for Haiti. $MTEntryExcerpt$>
Posted January 12, 2010 6:01 PM
Ron Kaye's new organ for his activist brand of politics and news, OurLA.org, ran a long piece yesterday claiming to debunk the "meltdown myth" regarding the 1959 nuclear reactor incident... $MTEntryExcerpt$>
Posted July 30, 2009 9:55 AM
Metrolink has agreed to pay the agency's former spokeswoman $135,500 to settle potential claims arising from her departure. Denise Tyrrell resigned last September after being criticized by some Metrolink officials... $MTEntryExcerpt$>
Posted May 5, 2009 1:07 PM
When I read about the horrible crash where Angeles Crest Highway dumps out at Foothill Boulevard in La CaƱada Flintridge, I wondered if the semi-truck driver had used the sand... $MTEntryExcerpt$>
Posted April 2, 2009 1:15 PM
Among the texts that engineer Robert Sanchez sent before the fatal crash in Chatsworth last September were messages arranging to let enthusiasts ride in the cab later that evening. Details... $MTEntryExcerpt$>
Posted March 3, 2009 1:42 PM
This might be the story of the weekend. Robert Sanchez, the engineer driving the Metrolink train that crashed in Chatsworth last September, not only texted regularly with teenagers along his... $MTEntryExcerpt$>
Posted March 1, 2009 12:06 PM
On Sept. 12, a Metrolink commuter train headed for Simi Valley and Moorpark smashed head-on into a southbound Union Pacific freight train in Chatsworth. Twenty-five passengers and crew have died... $MTEntryExcerpt$>
Posted January 3, 2009 3:35 PM
The NTSB says that Robert Sanchez, the engineer whose Metrolink train ran head-on into a freight train in Chatsworth, sent a text message 22 seconds before the crash that has... $MTEntryExcerpt$>
Posted October 1, 2008 2:22 PM
In a personal reflection on his county website, Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky writes about going to the scene of the Metrolink crash in Chatsworth and talking with the relatives of victims.... $MTEntryExcerpt$>
Posted September 24, 2008 10:05 AM
When Conan O'Brien began a bit last night (this morning actually) about trains crashing together, KNBC Channel 4 cut in with anchor Colleen Williams introducing footage of Sen. John McCain's... $MTEntryExcerpt$>
Posted September 23, 2008 10:41 PM
My KCRW segment on Friday said that Denise Tyrrell deserves our respect for cutting to the chase in her statements on the Metrolink disaster in Chatsworth. Listen here (or grab... $MTEntryExcerpt$>
Posted September 21, 2008 10:53 PM
Veolia, the French multinational company that provided Metrolink with engineer Robert Sanchez, is already facing trial in Los Angeles federal court on suits alleging the firm routinely denied workers' rest... $MTEntryExcerpt$>
Posted September 19, 2008 12:25 AM
Three calls to 911 are up on the LAFD news blog: one from a passenger on the Metrolink train, one from the adjacent school and another from up on the... $MTEntryExcerpt$>
Posted September 18, 2008 1:12 AM
Chuck Peck's cell phone called family members 35 times on Friday night and Saturday during the hours while they waited to hear whether he had survived the Metrolink train crash... $MTEntryExcerpt$>
Posted September 17, 2008 11:46 AM
Only four seconds elapsed from the time the two engineers could have seen each other around the curve in Chatsworth where the Metrolink commuter train and a Union Pacific freight... $MTEntryExcerpt$>
Posted September 17, 2008 12:40 AM
Signs have begun going up in Downtown advising commuters. A funeral procession for Officer Spree Desha will begin at Parker Center at 8:45 am Thursday and move to the Cathedral... $MTEntryExcerpt$>
Posted September 16, 2008 1:32 PM
Gregory Lintner walked away from the deadly 2005 Metrolink crash in Glendale &mdash and was hailed as a hero — but died in last week's head-on accident in Chatsworth. Two... $MTEntryExcerpt$>
Posted September 16, 2008 12:48 AM
The man in his 50s died today at County-USC Medical Center. His name has not yet been released. The Los Angeles County coroner's office today also formally identified the engineer... $MTEntryExcerpt$>
Posted September 15, 2008 3:53 PM
Former Metrolink spokeswoman Denise Tyrrell, who resigned overnight when the agency's board did not back up her statements about the engineer's culpability in the Chatsworth train crash, just talked to... $MTEntryExcerpt$>
Posted September 15, 2008 11:32 AM
Metrolink spokeswoman Denise Tyrrell, who had said publicly on Saturday that the agency's engineer ran a red light and caused the Chatsworth train crash, resigned after the agency's board released... $MTEntryExcerpt$>
Posted September 15, 2008 7:53 AM
A Metrolink dispatcher reportedly called train 111 to alert the engineer that a freight train was ahead, but reached the conductor too late. LAT Two more names of the... $MTEntryExcerpt$>
Posted September 14, 2008 5:26 PM
Channel 2 aired reports tonight showing text messages reportedly sent by Metrolink contract engineer Robert Sanchez just before his train crashed head-on into a Union Pacific freight train, killing at... $MTEntryExcerpt$>
Posted September 13, 2008 11:22 PM
Here's a partial list from the Los Angeles County Coroner's office (via Associated Press) of the passengers and crew killed in Friday's Metrolink train crash in Chatsworth. City News Service... $MTEntryExcerpt$>
Posted September 13, 2008 7:35 PM
Paul Long, an English teacher at Oaks Christian School in Westlake Village, died this afternoon after being taken off life support at County-USC Medical Center. He had been riding the... $MTEntryExcerpt$>
Posted September 13, 2008 3:35 PM
The 18th victim, possibly the Union Pacific freight train engineer, was pulled from the scene about 8:45 am. Authorities say that more bodies remain in the wreckage of Metrolink train... $MTEntryExcerpt$>
Posted September 13, 2008 10:05 AM
The Los Angeles Police Department officer who died in the Chatsworth train collision was identified by the LAPD as Spree Desha, a seven-year veteran who worked in the Office of... $MTEntryExcerpt$>
Posted September 12, 2008 11:24 PM
Channel 7 says an unidentified Los Angeles Police Department officer has been confirmed dead in the Chatsworth Metrolink crash. Updates from media monitoring: * Rescue workers have been pulled out... $MTEntryExcerpt$>
Posted September 12, 2008 8:56 PM
First news round-up, second news round-up, media scan. Blood donations of all types are needed in the wake of the Chatsworth train crash, UCLA Medical Center says. The UCLA Blood... $MTEntryExcerpt$>
Posted September 12, 2008 8:51 PM
First news round-up, second news round-up. At 8:30 pm, Channels 2 and 7 are the only Los Angeles TV stations still airing full coverage. The Los Angeles Times story (timestamp... $MTEntryExcerpt$>
Posted September 12, 2008 8:40 PM
Information on victims will be gathered and distributed to families at Chatsworth High School, at De Soto Avenue and Devonshire Street. Thats's also where families will be reunited. Family members... $MTEntryExcerpt$>
Posted September 12, 2008 8:17 PM
Picking up from the earlier roundup: * It's a bit clearer now what probably happened. A source with good connections in the transit agencies emails that Ventura-bound Metrolink train #111... $MTEntryExcerpt$>
Posted September 12, 2008 7:28 PM
An outbound Metrolink train headed for Moorpark collided with a freight train on the Chatsworth side of Santa Susana Pass. Cars are off the tracks and rescues are underway. Triage... $MTEntryExcerpt$>
Posted September 12, 2008 5:01 PM