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| Gov. Quinn after killer storms: 'We will prevail' - USA TODAY Posted: 18 Nov 2013 09:36 AM PST A violent storm that brought rare, late-season tornadoes to the Midwest was heading to the northeast and out to sea Monday, leaving behind death and destruction in 12 states, including some communities with entire blocks of houses flattened. The death toll rose to eight with scores of injuries reported. Authorities feared the casualty list would climb as towns begin to clear roads and restore communications. The wave of thunderstorms Sunday brought damaging winds and tornadoes to Michigan, Wisconsin, Iowa, Illinois, Missouri, Indiana, Ohio, Kentucky, Tennessee, West Virginia, Pennsylvania and western New York. Six deaths were reported in Illinois, two in Michigan. Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn on Monday declared disaster emergencies in seven counties. He lauded first responders for "working to exhaustion" to search for survivors and clear roads. And he vowed to work with the federal and local governments to expedite recovery. "We're in this together," Quinn said at a brief press conference. "We're a team. We are the people of Illinois -- we never give up, never surrender. We will prevail." The National Weather Service said showers and thunderstorms would continue to develop as the storm moved eastward into New England and Canada, but that the widespread severe weather threat had diminished. The weather service said around 80 tornadoes were reported as of Sunday night, but that the actual number will likely be in the 30 to 40 range because the same tornado often gets reported multiple times. In Illinois, an elderly man and his sister were killed when a tornado hit their home in the rural southern community of New Minden, coroner Mark Styninger said. Three people perished in Massac County in the state's southern tip, and one person died in Washington, outside Peoria. Washington, a town of 16,000 about 140 miles southwest of Chicago, appeared to have been the hardest hit. A violent twister cut a path about an eighth of a mile wide from one side of town to the other, State Trooper Dustin Pierce said. The National Weather Service said two tornadoes were rated EF-4, the second-highest rating on the Fujita scale, based on damage. Winds reached at least 166 mph in New Minden, and the Washington twister had winds estimated at up to 190 mph, the weather service said. As a powerful tornado bore down on their Illinois farmhouse in Washington, Curt Zehr's wife and adult son didn't have time to do anything but scramble down the stairs into their basement. When the twister passed, the spot where the home had stood was nothing but rubble. Across farm fields a little more than a mile from where Zehr's home was swept up, several blocks of homes in one neighborhood were destroyed. "The whole neighborhood's gone. The wall of my fireplace is all that is left of my house," said Michael Perdun, speaking by cellphone. The Illinois National Guard said it had dispatched 10 firefighters and three vehicles to the town to help with search and recovery operations. At OSF Saint Francis Medical Center in nearby Peoria, spokeswoman Amy Paul said 37 patients had been treated, eight with injuries ranging from broken bones to head injuries. Another hospital, Methodist Medical Center in Peoria, treated more than a dozen, but officials there said none of them were seriously injured. In Lebanon, Ind., Melinda Wissig, a shift supervisor at Starbucks, said she looked up as someone shouted and saw a funnel bearing down on the coffee shop. She rushed to the drive-thru to warn customers to come inside then took shelter with 10 other people in a bathroom, The Indianapolis Star reports. Wissig said she heard "a lot of crashing glass." Then, after two or three minutes, silence. When she came out, Wissig saw a floor covered with debris, windows blown out and a car flipped upside down on the sidewalk out front. No one was injured. In metro Detroit, power was knocked out for 459,000 people. In Indianapolis, an historic police office, built in 1903 in the neighborhood of Irvington, was demolished by strong winds and heavy rain. As high winds slammed into the Chicago area, officials at Soldier Field evacuated the stands and ordered the Bears and Ravens off the field. Fans were allowed back to their seats shortly after 2 p.m., and the game resumed after about a two-hour delay. Weather service meteorologist Matt Friedlein said such strong storms are rare this late in the year because there usually isn't enough heat from the sun to sustain the thunderstorms. But he said temperatures Sunday had been expected to reach into the 60s and 70s, which he said is warm enough to help produce severe weather when it is coupled with winds, which are typically stronger this time of year than in the summer. "You don't need temperatures in the 80s and 90s to produce severe weather (because) the strong winds compensate for for the lack of heating," Friedlein said. "That sets the stage for what we call wind shear, which may produce tornadoes." Contributing: John Bacon in McLean, Va.; Alex Campbell, reporter for The Indianapolis Star, in Lebanon, Ind.; Associated Press |
| Dow breaks 16000 barrier, S&P 500 tops 1800 as stocks hit milestones - NBCNews.com Posted: 18 Nov 2013 09:38 AM PST 8 minutes ago Stocks were having a milestone day on Monday when the Dow Jones industrial average pushed above the 16,000 barrier for the first time ever. Driven by optimism that the Federal Reserve would keep its foot firmly on the economic-stimulus gas pedal and by increases in overseas stocks, the Dow broke though the benchmark barrier shortly after the opening bell, before retreating slightly. The S&P 500 also surpassed a psychological hurdle, rising above 1,800 for the first time, while the Nasdaq also gained, leaving it less than 10 points from 4,000. After clearing 16,000 for the first time, the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose to an intraday record of 16,030.28 -- above its record Friday close -- before retreating somewhat. But it was still 48 points ahead in early afternoon trading. Boeing was among the blue-chip companies on the rise, after it received more than 250 orders for its revamped 777 jet at an airshow in Dubai. The CBOE Volatility Index (VIX), a gauge of investor uncertainty, traded near 12. Benchmark indices initially trimmed their rise after the release of the National Association of Home Builders/Well Fargo Housing Market Index, which found home builder confidence to be flat this month from a downwardly revised level of 54 the prior month. But the underlying gains that took the Dow above 16,000 for the first time and the S&P 500 above 1,800 is optimistic about the stimulus program of bond-buying from the Fed. "The market is very Fed oriented," said Paul Nolte, managing director at Dearborn Partners. "Every question gets answered with what does this mean to the Fed? The builders confidence falling below forecasts means the Fed is going to stay in the market," said Nolte, downplaying the survey's impact. For every three stocks on the decline, roughly four rose on the New York Stock Exchange, where 179 million shares traded as of 11:10 a.m. Eastern. Composite volume neared 956 million. "Although the stock market does not appear to have the typical 'bubble' characteristics of ultra-high valuation levels seen in 2000 and 2007 or the rapidly rising interest rates and slowing money supply conditions of those years, it does appear extended from a near-term technical perspective and ripe for a modest near-term pullback," Fred Dickson, chief investment strategist at Davidson Companies, wrote in emailed commentary. The dollar fell against global counterparts and the yield on the 10-year Treasury note used in figuring mortgage rates and other consumer loans fell a basis point to 2.7 percent. Crude-oil futures dipped 0.1 percent to $93.71 a barrel; gold futures fell 0.3 percent to $1,283.60 an ounce. At a conference in the United Arab Emirates, Boston Federal Reserve President Eric Rosengren told reporters capital ratios have improved in the United States, with bank lending on the rise to households and corporations. Stocks in China climbed after the government vowed to ease its one-child policy and increase private investment as part of a package of economic reports. © 2013 CNBC LLC. All Rights Reserved |
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