An earthen dam holding back a retention pond broke early Monday at a power plant run by the nation's largest public utility, releasing a frigid mix of water, ash and mud that damaged 12 homes and put hundreds of acres of rural land under water.
The 40-acre pond was used by the Tennessee Valley Authority to hold a slurry of ash generated by the coal-burning Kingston Steam Plant in Harriman, about 50 miles west of Knoxville, said authority spokesman Gil Francis. The dam gave way just before 1 a.m. local time, burying a road and railroad tracks leading to the plant under several feet of mud.
Authorities said no one was seriously injured or hospitalized.
Investigators were trying to determine exactly what caused the breach, but the authority spokesman said heavy rains and freezing temperatures may be to blame. Forecasters said the overnight temperature dropped to 14 degrees in Harriman, and Francis said there had been 4.9 inches of rain this month so far compared to 2.8 inches in a typical December.
"I am still in shock," said Crystell Flinn, 49, whose ranchstyle house was pushed off its foundations and driven more than 30 feet onto a road. "I don't think it really has hit me yet."
Flinn was traveling back from Knoxville when a friend called her cell phone to say she had heard that the flood hit Flinn's house and that her 53-year-old husband James Schean was trapped inside.
Schean escaped cold and shaken but not injured. Flinn told his story while he slept at a temporary shelter at a community college.
Schean, a boilermaker at the authority's plant, was in bed when he "heard a loud clap like thunder," she said. Pieces of the ceiling began falling, wood was popping, glass breaking and furniture falling. And then the house started to move.
"He didn't know what was going on," his wife said. "He couldn't see anything. He had to tear one door off the hinges to get out of the bedroom, and he couldn't get out the front door so he had to kick out a window."
Emergency workers rescued people from two partially collapsed homes and used fourwheel drive vehicles to help others who couldn't get out of their driveways, said Roane County Rescue Squad spokesman Brian Grief.
Off icials originally said 15 homes were flooded, but Francis later said 12 homes had been damaged to some degree. Flinn's house was the worst hit.
Francis said 30 pieces of heavy equipment and nearly 100 people were involved in the cleanup effort. He said water flow through a dam on the Clinch River - which flows into the Tennessee River - has been reduced to prevent pollution from runoff from the flood.
Howie Rose, the director of the Roane County Office of Emergency Management and Homeland Security, said a train carrying coal to the plant reached the point on the tracks that was covered in mud and couldn't go forward or back up. He said authorities were trying to assist the train.
The broken dike left about 4 to 5 feet of water and mud over 250 to 400 acres, Francis said. The Environmental Protection Agency was notified.
The pond is used for dumping a slurry of waste from burning coal at the steam plant, Francis said. The authority will check for signs of problems at its 10 other coal-fired plants, most of which were built in the 1950s.
"They're going to look at that for sure, but we have not had one of these [breaks] like this anywhere," Francis said.
The Knoxville-based Tennessee Valley Authority supplies electricity to 8.8 million consumers in Tennessee, Mississippi, Alabama, Kentucky, Georgia, North Carolina and Virginia.
buy wow gold
cheap wow gold
wow gold
cheapest wow gold
warhammer gold
warhammer powerleveling
war gold
war powerleveling
war power leveling
rose zulie
http://myhappyblog.com/index.php?do=/public/blog/view/id_1507/title_a-new-reputation-grind-quest-hub/ http://myhappyblog.com/index.php?do=/public/blog/view/id_1508/title_the-big-story/http://wowgold2008.blogspages.com/?p=12 http://wowgold2008.blogspages.com/?p=11http://www.iblogme.com/wowgold2/24215/+a+large+fan+base.html http://www.iblogme.com/wowgold2/24214/last+visit.htmlhttp://www.hyperblogs.net/wowgold2008/24406/if+they+were+real+people.html http://www.hyperblogs.net/wowgold2008/24405/there+is+a+difference+.htmlhttp://wowgold2008.blogs.experienceproject.com/88115.html http://wowgold2008.blogs.experienceproject.com/88114.htmlhttp://www.blogtext.org/wowgold2/article/33266.html?a+top+court http://www.blogtext.org/wowgold2/article/33268.html?merchandisershttp://www.beneblog.eu/wowgold2008/6015/+plans+into+disarray.html http://www.beneblog.eu/wowgold2008/6014/a+non-executive+director.html
2008年12月24日星期三
after a scandal
Belgium on Monday turned to a veteran politician to broker a new government after a scandal over the botched bailout of the Fortis bank forced the ruling coalition to resign.
King Albert II accepted the government's resignation after three days of negotiations with Belgium's political leaders failed to keep the coalition intact. In a bid to avoid early elections, he asked former Premier Wilfried Martens to act as a go-between to broker a new coalition.
"It is an exploratory task to try and seek agreement," Martens said.
Martens, an eight-time prime minister who led coalition governments during the 1980s, is not expected to lead the new coalition. Instead, the elder statesman will try to seek common ground between the six major parties and quickly form a new coalition to deal with the global financial crisis.
The government of outgoing Prime Minister Yves Leterme has been accused of trying to influence an appeals court as the state tries to sell most of Fortis, once the country's largest bank, to France's BNP Paribas. Thousands of jobs are at risk, and many Belgian shareholders have seen their stakes become nearly worthless.
The scandal led to the resignation of the country's justice minister Friday, followed by Leterme's offer to have the government resign.
The separation of powers is a cornerstone of Belgian parliamentary democracy, and the purported attempts by the government to influence the judicial process infuriated partners in an already shaky coalition government.
In a statement, Leterme denied any wrongdoing.
"I insist that at no moment there was any attempt to influence, let alone attempt to obstruct, due process," Leterme said. Nonetheless, he said he would not serve in the new coalition.
Most observers have ruled out early elections because of the pressing need for government action to counter the financial crisis.
Instead, several scenarios are considered, from an interim government until new elections to coincide with the European Parliament polls in early June or a full-blown government to rule the rest of the legislature until 2011.
Leterme headed a coalition of Christian democrats, liberals and socialists, split into Dutch-speaking and Francophone parties.
The Fortis case had been one of Leterme's biggest tests since he became prime minister in December 2007. The formation of his coalition ended six months in which Belgium had no government. No party won a clear majority in the June 2007 elections.
The major parties are expected to quickly form a new government because of the financial crisis.
buy wow gold
cheap wow gold
wow gold
cheapest wow gold
warhammer gold
warhammer powerleveling
war gold
war powerleveling
war power leveling
rose zulie
http://dojoin.baidu.ws/10746/The+film+stars.html http://dojoin.baidu.ws/10745/the+product+endorser+to+be+envied.htmlhttp://blog.focus.cn/group/blogforum_detail.php?blog_id=21759686&msg_id=158127288 http://blog.focus.cn/group/blogforum_detail.php?blog_id=21759686&msg_id=158127405http://www.neigo.com/blog/blog.php?user=wowgold12345 http://www.neigo.com/blog/blog.php?user=wowgold12345http://blog.focus.cn/group/blogforum_detail.php?blog_id=21721204&msg_id=158170332 http://blog.focus.cn/group/blogforum_detail.php?blog_id=21721204&msg_id=158170221http://blog.gxnews.com.cn/u/26169/a/225345.html http://blog.gxnews.com.cn/u/26169/a/225346.html
King Albert II accepted the government's resignation after three days of negotiations with Belgium's political leaders failed to keep the coalition intact. In a bid to avoid early elections, he asked former Premier Wilfried Martens to act as a go-between to broker a new coalition.
"It is an exploratory task to try and seek agreement," Martens said.
Martens, an eight-time prime minister who led coalition governments during the 1980s, is not expected to lead the new coalition. Instead, the elder statesman will try to seek common ground between the six major parties and quickly form a new coalition to deal with the global financial crisis.
The government of outgoing Prime Minister Yves Leterme has been accused of trying to influence an appeals court as the state tries to sell most of Fortis, once the country's largest bank, to France's BNP Paribas. Thousands of jobs are at risk, and many Belgian shareholders have seen their stakes become nearly worthless.
The scandal led to the resignation of the country's justice minister Friday, followed by Leterme's offer to have the government resign.
The separation of powers is a cornerstone of Belgian parliamentary democracy, and the purported attempts by the government to influence the judicial process infuriated partners in an already shaky coalition government.
In a statement, Leterme denied any wrongdoing.
"I insist that at no moment there was any attempt to influence, let alone attempt to obstruct, due process," Leterme said. Nonetheless, he said he would not serve in the new coalition.
Most observers have ruled out early elections because of the pressing need for government action to counter the financial crisis.
Instead, several scenarios are considered, from an interim government until new elections to coincide with the European Parliament polls in early June or a full-blown government to rule the rest of the legislature until 2011.
Leterme headed a coalition of Christian democrats, liberals and socialists, split into Dutch-speaking and Francophone parties.
The Fortis case had been one of Leterme's biggest tests since he became prime minister in December 2007. The formation of his coalition ended six months in which Belgium had no government. No party won a clear majority in the June 2007 elections.
The major parties are expected to quickly form a new government because of the financial crisis.
buy wow gold
cheap wow gold
wow gold
cheapest wow gold
warhammer gold
warhammer powerleveling
war gold
war powerleveling
war power leveling
rose zulie
http://dojoin.baidu.ws/10746/The+film+stars.html http://dojoin.baidu.ws/10745/the+product+endorser+to+be+envied.htmlhttp://blog.focus.cn/group/blogforum_detail.php?blog_id=21759686&msg_id=158127288 http://blog.focus.cn/group/blogforum_detail.php?blog_id=21759686&msg_id=158127405http://www.neigo.com/blog/blog.php?user=wowgold12345 http://www.neigo.com/blog/blog.php?user=wowgold12345http://blog.focus.cn/group/blogforum_detail.php?blog_id=21721204&msg_id=158170332 http://blog.focus.cn/group/blogforum_detail.php?blog_id=21721204&msg_id=158170221http://blog.gxnews.com.cn/u/26169/a/225345.html http://blog.gxnews.com.cn/u/26169/a/225346.html
订阅：
博文 (Atom)