Jack Gray
AC360° Producer/Writer

A snowstorm in March.  I know it’s still technically winter but, nevertheless, it feels so out of place.  Like Christmas in July or a healthy economy.

I can’t say I’m happy with this weather.  If I wanted to walk around with wet socks and fall on my butt then I would have just gone to Sam Donaldson’s retirement party.

At least I live in New York City, which means I don’t have to shovel.  I’ve never been a fan of shoveling.  In fact, as a general rule, I am opposed to anything that builds character and/or makes sidewalks safer for the elderly.

It is, however, tough to argue that snow doesn’t make everything seem prettier. Maybe it’s the Robert Frost in me talking but there’s just something special about a mugger fleeing by toboggan.  Then again, maybe it's the Peppermint Schnapps in me talking.

My dog Sammy is a Labrador Retriever so, of course, she loves the snow.  Her favorite thing to do is to get on her back and wriggle in it.  It’s behavior that raises far fewer eyebrows at the dog park than it did during her brief stint sniffing out cocaine at the airport.

When I was younger I welcomed snowstorms because they brought with them the possibility of days off from school.  Unfortunately, the television news business does not operate on that system.  You can’t call in and say, “I’m not going to make it to work today, the roads are too dangerous.”  If you do, mark my words, ten minutes later Lou Dobbs will be outside your apartment on a snowmobile.

There are lots of people who, obviously, do love this kind of weather, skiers being chief amongst them.  I myself have never been one for skiing.  I think it’s because I – what’s the word I’m looking for, ah yes – can’t.

I know, a New Englander who can’t ski.  It’s sacrilege.  Though it’s not for a lack of trying.  I just get too nervous way up there on top of that bunny hill.  Crashing into trees, avalanches, polar bear attacks…I’ll just meet you in the lodge, thank you very much.

I can’t water-ski either.  My only experience water-skiing was watching that scene in Jaws where the woman gets picked off by the shark.  As a result, I have about as much interest in water-skiing as I do in being shot out of a cannon or going to see Confessions of a Shopaholic.

As for today, it’s difficult to determine exactly how much snow has fallen in New York.  I suppose I could turn on the TV but that would require getting out of bed.  And looking out the window, well, that just seems like cheating.

I think I’ll just sit here, hoping that it melts before the polar bears arrive.

________________

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Authorities will decide Monday whether a few hundred people in the area of the Grand Canyon still need to be evacuated, an official said.

Authorities halted the evacuation Sunday night of those initially thought to be in danger after rain breached an earthen dam at the Grand Canyon, said Gerry Blair, spokesman for the Coconino County Sheriff's Office.

A decision about whether crews will evacuate them is expected Monday, Blair said.

The group awaiting word on evacuations were on high ground and did not appear to be in immediate danger by Sunday night, the spokesman said.

Rescue crews in helicopters evacuated about 170 others Sunday after water poured through Redland Dam, sending water down two canyons and threatening several hundred tourists and residents, Blair said.

Officials also plan to resume the search Monday for "less than 20" people who were in the affected area and whose whereabouts are not yet known to authorities, Blair said.

The air evacuations were called off due to darkness at 8:30 p.m. Sunday (11:30 p.m. ET).

Most of the 170 people evacuated Sunday were campers, tourists and paddlers, he said.

A few hundred others - perhaps as many as 400 - remained in the area of concern. Most are permanent residents of Supai village, located within the Havasupai Indian Reservation at the bottom of the Grand Canyon.

Read More...

Tropical Storm Fay is expected to deliver up to a foot of rain to parts of Cuba, and with it, the possibility of life-threatening flash floods and mudslides, the National Hurricane Center said Monday.
At 8:15 a.m. ET Monday, Tropical Storm Fay was in the Gulf of Mexico, heading toward the Florida Keys.

Fay swept over western Cuba on Monday morning as it made its way to the eastern Gulf of Mexico and Florida Keys, according to the center's 8 a.m. ET advisory out of Miami.
"The center of Fay should be emerging into the Florida Straits during the next few hours, and be very near the Florida Keys tonight," the center said.

Maximum sustained winds strengthened to almost 60 mph (100 kph), with higher gusts, and the storm is expected to strengthen as it moves across the warm Gulf waters, the warning said.
Read More...

Gary Tuchman struggles to stand as Hurricane Dolly ravages South Padre Island, Texas. Read his experience below.
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Gary Tuchman
AC360° Correspondent

Don’t mess with Dolly

As I write this, much of South Padre Island, Texas is underwater. It looks very much like parts of Wisconsin, Iowa, and Missouri from a few weeks ago, but the way South Padre got to this point has been much more rapid fire...

Hurricane Dolly was not taken seriously by many people who live on this barrier island on the southernmost point of Texas. Not only was she still a tropical storm as she was getting close, but South Padre hadn't been directly hit by a hurricane since 1980. But this barrier island's luck has now changed. The rains and the tropical storm force winds began at around 6am central time and continued into the evening. But it peaked in early afternoon with gusts of over 100 miles per hour. Dolly then made landfall in South Padre Island.

It is impossible for us to ascertain the extent of the damage because so much of the town is flooded and we physically can't drive around. We can't even get back to our hotel because the road to the hotel is underwater. So my CNN crew and I are sitting in one of our satellite trucks in a forlorn parking lot. The truck is shaking from the wind but it weighs 26 thousand pounds, so we feel safe. But we feel sorry for the people of South Texas, who will undoubtedly be dealing with many of the same heartbreaking problems we just saw in the flooded upper Midwest.

Jacqui Jeras
CNN Meteorologist and Weather Anchor

Here we go… the first hurricane to make landfall in the U.S. is just hours away. At the time I write this, it’s still a Tropical storm with winds of 70 mph. It needs to hit 74 mph to call it a hurricane. What are a few miles per hour between friends?

Dolly has been intensifying all morning and will continue to do so… there’s not much doubt it will be a hurricane later today, as there’s little in the way to weaken the storm before landfall.

Check out the Sea Surface temperatures map here.

It shows the path of Dolly moving over warmer water of about 86 degrees on its way to the coast. That will keep it ramping up. Notice the blue/green sliver of cooler water right next to the coast. Not enough to weaken it, but maybe prevent a little intensification right before landfall.

While Dolly is no monster storm, it does pose some serious risks. Flooding has me most concerned. The forecast is calling for 4-8” of widespread rain in the path of the storm, and localized amounts could reach over a foot. Drop that down over less than 24hrs and rivers will rise and urban flooding will be severe. Most people in hurricanes die from the water. Many of them think it’s a good idea to drive through it. It’s just so not worth the risk!!!

About 2 million people live in the Rio Grande Valley and have been told to stay put unless they are located in a flood prone area. Other worries include storm surge (expected to be 4-6ft. above normal tide), wind damage, and tornadoes. The worst of all of this happens on the “dirty” side of the storm, or the right, front quadrant.

Weather computer models have been amazingly consistent bringing the storm in near the Texas/Mexico border. So, we have a high amount of confidence on WHERE it is going to hit. WHEN, poses a bigger question mark. The speed of the storm has been slowing as expected, but it’s real tough to predict just how slow it goes. And it doesn’t take a meteorologist to tell you that the time the storm hits land depends on how fast the storm moves!

My best thinking is sometime Wednesday after breakfast, but before lunch. I’m hopeful Dolly doesn’t slow down too much for two reasons: 1. The slower it goes, the greater the risk of flooding. 2. That would make me wrong.

After Dolly, we may have a new storm to deal with. There is a tropical wave coming off the African coast as we speak. It could become a tropical depression or Tropical Storm Edouard in the next couple of days. The tropics are getting busy, and will continue to do so…. climatologically speaking, August is a busy hurricane month with the peak of the season in mid September.

It should go without saying that preparing is the key. Though it never ceases to amaze me when storm after storm you hear people say, “We didn’t know it was coming.” So get ready, my friends, buckle your seatbelt and pay attention. This season will likely feature more storms that average. I’ll be here along with the rest of the CNN Weather team with my power bars and Starbucks to help you get through it!

CNN's Betty Nguyen reports on Myanmar farmers struggling to survive after cyclone Nargis. Even after the disaster, it's a hard road ahead as they try to salvage their crops.

Betty Nguyen brings us to Myanmar two months after cyclone Nargis hit. With the help of some locals, she was able to document the devastation and despair still evident. Watch her special report.

Frankie Davis and her husband paddle a boat through floodwaters back to their house in Foley, Mo., Wenesday.

Kay Jones
AC360° Staff

We just arrived in Foley, Missouri, a small town of about 150 people in Lincoln County. From where I'm standing, it looks as if the entire town is under water.

There are some hilly areas to the west of Main Street that are obviously dry. But Foley is flooded.

The police chief thought this would be the worst, as the river was supposed to be cresting now. But as we were speaking we got word that there is a new, higher crest prediction for Friday night, four inches more than what it is today.

He said it's still lower than what they saw in '93 and that he thinks most people will come back and rebuild.

Gary Tuchman | BIO
AC360° Correspondent

The floodwaters in Winfield, Missouri continue to rise and rage; more homes are being flooded.

Some people are resorting to building their own levee systems surrounding their homes.

One man's home looks like a houseboat; all you can see is the house and his levee. High water surrounds it on all sides.

He says he'll leave his home if the water tops his levee, but not until then.

Mark Rowland wades through floodwater near his home, June 19. Levels have risen in Lincoln County since then.

Kay Jones
AC360° Staff

People in the flooded towns of Illinois and Missouri, along the Mississippi River, are getting something they do not need right now–rain... And lots of it.

A massive thunderstorm has just erupted, and it's expected to last a while.

Lincoln County has more water than last time we were here, just a few days ago. Fields for baseball games Friday night now have a couple of inches of water on them.

Houses that survived the initial levee overtopping are now either flooded or dangerously close.

And people are nervous. Will the levees that are still standing now hold, or will there be more flooding? People here in Lincoln County are holding their breath... Again.

Floodwaters in East Moline, north of Grafton Ill., Tuesday.

Gary Tuchman BIO
AC360° Correspondent

Anxiety and nervousness in Grafton, Illinois. Most of downtown is under as much as ten feet of water. And Jim and Linda Tolley are worried.

Floodwaters have surrounded the Tolley's home and the grocery store they own. The store was submerged by six feet of water in the 1993 floods.

There is one escape route, so they are staying in their home for now, but ready to leave at a moment's notice.

Their store is closed and they have boxed up their inventory.

Financially, just closing the store is difficult for them. If it gets flooded, it can ruin them.

Kay Jones
AC360° Staff

"House For Sale: Riverfront Property"

That's the first sign I noticed after we pulled into Grafton, Illinois, today. Pretty typical sign, but in a not so typical situation.

The Mississippi River has risen to the bottom of the gate where the sign is hanging, about 200 yards from where the river usually stops.

Today, reporter Gary Tuchman, our CNN crew, and I hung out with the owners of Jimbo's General Store & Hardware, Jim and Linda Tolley. They say the flooding so far is not as bad as it was in 1993, but as we were wrapping up our day with them, a new predicition on Wednesday's river crest came in... and it's another 5-6 inches higher than what they were told yesterday.

While Gary and our cameraman, Dave, were taking a boat tour of the area with Jim, his wife, Linda, and I chatted about the river's rise. She told me that they've been experiencing high water levels for six weeks and that it was only a matter of time before the town saw the flooding.

She also said that Grafton isn't protected by a levee, so she was expecting some water. Just not this much.

David Mattingly
AC360° Correspondent

All roads to Gulfport, IL lead to nowhere. They all dead-end into Mississippi flood waters. The closest we could get to the inundated Village using roads in Illinois was a police roadblock that is SEVEN MILES from town. That might tell you how close this river town of about 200 was to disaster when the flood waters started to rise.

But people lived here comforted by a levee system that the government said would protect them from a 100 year flood. No one was required to have federal flood insurance. Only 28 property owners had it. Some now say they were misled about the risks they were taking and that the chance of catastrophic flooding was miscalculated.

Senator Chris Dodd of Connecticut agrees and says anyone living in an area protected by a levee should be REQUIRED to have flood insurance. He's pushing a bill that would do just that. But any change comes too late for Gulfport.

When the levee failed, the village was wiped out. All you can see today are a few signs and roof tops. Most buildings are completely under water.

Some residents tell me they will never go back. Without insurance they certainly can't afford to rebuild.

Editor's Note: See David Mattingly's Keeping Them Honest report on CNN.com HERE

Drew Griffin reports on the threat to East St. Louis, Ill., posed by the floodwaters of the mighty Mississippi.

Drew Griffin
Special Investigations Unit

East Saint Louis, Illinois is not prepared for a major flood.

Fortunately it looks like the city won't have to be. So many levees have been topped upstream, the pressure is now off this economically depressed town. But what is surprising to me, so many years now after Katrina, is that East St. Louis has not learned the lesson of New Orleans.

The levees that protect this city are not strong enough to withstand a major flood. The Army Corp. of Engineers is in the process of decertifying the levees, which means the Corp. does not have confidence they will hold. And yet the mayor and city manager seem only mildly concerned.

In fact when I visited the city manager in his office yesterday it was apparent he had not even been keeping up with the flood forecasts for his city.... Worse yet, we actually took him to a spot where he was surprised to see seepage in one of his levees, the initial warning stage of failure.

What the Mayor and city manager told me is Congress and the state and basically someone else needs to get busy fixing their levee.

Sound familiar?

CNN's Gary Tuchman reports on how one town is bracing for the fury of the Mississippi floods.

I spent Thursday night watching people who literally have the power to save an American town.

Hundreds of men, women, and children were filling sandbags at the high school in the small town of Winfield, Missouri.

Sandbags can, and do stop floodwaters from breaching levees. So the work these people are doing, while strenuous, is incredibly valuable and rewarding.

The throngs of people look like a colony of ants. They were industrious, steady, and productive.

What struck me though was watching the children. Kids as young as 3 and 4 were doing their part to help out.

I was there as a journalist, but as a parent, I wished my three children had come with me from Atlanta, and that we could have worked together to assist.

What an amazing experience and lesson for children! We want our kids to be productive and valued members of society.

When you have them do something like this at an early age, they have an incredible and memorable head start.

David M. Reisner
360° Digital Producer

The Mississippi River claimed new tracts of farmland overnight north of St. Louis, Missouri, as officials warned that the swollen river could breach four or five more levees today around the Gateway City. About 11 levees have been breached in the St. Louis area since the flooding began.

When you hear the term 'levee breach,' what does that mean exactly? A levee breach can come from any number of scenarios. I put together a slideshow to show you all the different ways a levee can fail. Take a look:

Photos taken from CNN Photojournalist Steve Coppin on Blackhawk Tour in the Quincy, IL area

Karin Matz
CNN Producer

Someone once told me the best way to get perspective in life is to try to see yourself from 1000 feet above ground.

That was particularly true this morning. I got a call at 7:30 am asking if I could be at the airport in Quincy, Illinois by 8 a.m. to go up in a Blackhawk helicopter to tour the flood zone. I said, "Sure."

I been driving along the Mississippi River the past few days seeing the flood damage at eye level, from Burlington, Iowa to Quincy. I've watched volunteers sand bag for hours, talked to police and seen homes and farms destroyed by the mammouth Mississipi. But I didn't really have perspective until today from the bird's eye view.

I and photojournalist Steve Coppin met up with members of the Illinois National Guard 1st Battalion 106 Aviation Regiment out of Decatur, IL. Five minutes later we were up in the UH60 Blackhawk...

We first headed north and saw the damage by the Myer, IL, levee break. At times I couldn't tell where the river ended and the flooding began. The region was so vast and under water. Then the chopper took a turn and headed south, past Quincy, IL. We saw Hannibal, Louisiana and Clarksville, MO, and the Sny Levee district. Not to be cliche, but there really was "water, water, everywhere." I saw drowning homes, income lost, massive damage.

The view from above put it all in perspective. Not one town or one person, but the Mighty Mississippi, winning in some places despite man's best efforts.

When we landed, the National Guard members said they'd seen a lot of seepage. but some said it looked worse in 1993 and said the water has begun dropping.

Mike McLaughlin, Adams County Chairman, said the water is expected to crest tonight: "The next 24 hours will be crucial."

We drove to Hannibal, Missouri, and saw the damage from the ground again, the homes and lives underwater. But now I understand the magnitude.

She is unpredictable, the Mississippi River. She is such a resource to our country, but can be so fierce. And from above, you can see why. So much water, so much power and sometimes no place to go but out. And when that happens, she can swallow entire communities.

A picnic shelter at the Quincy River Front park shows the water level rising from the Mississippi River near Quincy, Ill.

Karin Matz
CNN Producer

At Shaffer farm, just north of Quincy, Illinois, folks have been sandbagging for a week.

So far the levees are holding but there's major concern. About 100 volunteers are working 18-hour days.

"The levees ain't gonna save themselves!" one volunteer told us

Local Menonites are volunteering. The Red Cross is providing meals.

We are now following a police officer down to a high water area. He took amazing pictures of deer in the water. I'm going to look for the deer, too.

Air National Guard members help fill sandbags along the Mississippi River in Quincy, Ill. today.

Cherly Waterman
United Way of Adams Co.

• Sandbagging here in Quincy Illinois started Friday the 13th
• Volunteers start 6am and the last volunteer leaves around 9
• More than 500 volunteered today
• More than 4,000 volunteered this past weekend
• They're filling 5000 sandbags an hour
• That means more than million sandbags stacked since Friday

Piles of water destroyed items line the streets in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, Tuesday.

Gary Tuchman BIO
AC360° Correspondent

There is a song in the famous musical “The Music Man” called “Iowa Stubborn.” In that song, there is this line: “There’s an Iowa kind of special chip on the shoulder attitude we’ve never been without that we recall.” I think about that right now because, if you’ll allow me to generalize, the truth is just so much the opposite.

I have spent several days now with Iowans who are suffering greatly after floodwaters pulverized their homes, their neighborhoods, and their lives. Despite that, they are incredibly friendly and happy to see journalists like me wander into their lives.

We spent the day in Cedar Rapids talking to a 23-year-old woman who may not ever be able to move back into her house again after several feet of water flooded her basement and first floor. Her furniture is ruined, her new carpet is full of growing molds, her floors are buckling. Nevertheless, she was happy to spend the day with us as she went back to her home for the first time and was as friendly and as patient as could be.

We talked with a man and his daughter-in-law who arrived home to see not only his house heavily damaged, but sentimental photo albums destroyed. The woman was crying when I arrived, and when I noticed that I told both of them I would leave them alone. But they wanted to talk to us, and were concerned that we were enjoying our stay in Iowa.

The managers of hotels, restaurants, and convenience stores in many cases have suffered immense damages to their homes, but they have gone out of their way to welcome us.

This is the same kind of reaction I got here during the run-up to the Iowa caucuses a half year ago. The Iowans I spent time with were remarkably friendly then, which didn’t strike me as extraordinary because of the nature of the story. But when I see the same qualities now, it is extremely notable.

In the song “Iowa Stubborn,” the song eventually ends with the line that you “ought to give Iowa a try.” I think that’s the least a non-Iowan can do.