https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/260000-power-tornado-sirens-sound-winds-hit-texas-south-rcna73210

The high and damaging winds in parts of the southern U.S. unfolded as mountainous areas of Southern California remained buried under several feet of snow that has left people trapped.

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March 2, 2023, 7:49 PM PST / Updated March 3, 2023, 3:18 AM PST

By Phil Helsel and Chantal Da Silva

Thousands across Texas are waking up Friday morning without power following a night of tornado sirens and heavy winds, as a “potent” winter storm is expected to bring heavy snow from the Upper Midwest through New England this weekend.

More than 170,000 homes and businesses were left without power across Texas on Thursday night after severe weather struck parts of the state and others, the Texas utility Oncor said.

As of early Friday, power had been restored to some, with at least 110,000 utility customers still facing outages.

Tornadoes reported in multiple counties

Tornado sirens sounded in Dallas and other parts of Texas on Thursday, and high winds overturned multiple tractor-trailers, officials said. No deaths had been immediately reported.

Tornadoes were reported in Franklin and Hopkins counties in Texas, which are east of Dallas, and in the Shreveport, Louisiana, area, the National Weather Service said.

Storm surveys are being done to confirm whether reported tornadoes actually occurred.

Tornado watches covered around 3.5 million people in Texas and the South on Thursday night, according to the weather service. The watches stretched from east of Dallas into Arkansas and northern Louisiana.

By early Friday, watches had expired for Texas but tornado watches covered northern Louisiana, large parts of Missouri and into Mississippi. The storm was forecast to move into the Ohio and the Tennessee valleys Friday and then continue northeast, the weather service said.

Louisiana State University Shreveport suffered minor damage after a storm hit around 5:45 p.m. There were no injuries, but the winds were powerful enough that two shipping containers parked in a campus parking lot were moved, university Communications Director Erin Smith said.

The weather service in Shreveport said it would investigate possible damage in the region to see whether tornadoes had developed. Video shared by the agency appeared to show one in Shreveport.

NBC Dallas-Fort Worth reported that its crews spotted five overturned tractor-trailers on highways north and east of Dallas.

Parts of California buried under snow

The high and damaging winds in parts of the southern United States occurred as mountainous areas of Southern California remained buried under several feet of snow that has trapped people, authorities there said.

Gov. Gavin Newsom has declared a state of emergency for 13 counties, and the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Office said ready-to-eat meals would be flown by helicopter to affected communities. The California National Guard said Thursday that a UH-60 Blackhawk was being sent to help.

“We know that roofs are starting to collapse,” Dawn Rowe, chair of the San Bernardino County Board of Supervisors, whose district includes some of the hardest-hit areas, said Wednesday.

Drone video shows market roof collapsed by snow in California

MARCH 3, 202300:33

Around 10 feet of snow fell in some of the mountain communities in the county, which is east of Los Angeles, the county fire department said.

Plowing was being done around the clock to try to clear roads, said the California Department of Transportation, known as Caltrans.

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County Fire Chief Dan Munsey said Wednesday that the fire department had responded to almost 100 calls for rescue.

The weather service said the snow total for Snow Valley in the San Bernardino Mountains was 120 inches, or 10 feet, from Feb. 22 to Wednesday. In Crestline, where a grocery store roof collapsed this week, it was 91 inches.

‘This storm kind of kept coming’

Andrew Braggins, 43, told The Associated Press that the ceiling in his kitchen in Crestline began to bow from the weight of all the snow, prompting him to shovel his roof — where 5 feet had accumulated.

“I’ve got friends just a few roads away, and they’ve been without power for days,” he said. “You can stock up for a storm. But this storm kind of kept coming.”

Some regions now ‘free of drought’

While the recent severe weather has caused chaos for many, central California’s Sierra Nevada and foothills are now “free of drought and abnormal dryness for the first time since January 2020,” according to a new report released by the U.S. Drought Monitor.

“The rain has improved California soil moisture and streamflow levels, while the snow has increased mountain snowpack to much above-normal levels,” it said. “Abnormal dryness and moderate to severe drought were contracted across much of California to reflect the above-normal precipitation of recent months, above-normal snowpack, and improved reservoir levels.”

Meanwhile, abnormal dryness and moderate to extreme drought were also eased in Montana, New Mexico and Utah, while abnormal dryness and moderate drought were pulled back in Arizona, the report said.

‘Potent’ storm to bring weather hazards

Meanwhile, a “potent system” was forecast to produce a “multitude of weather hazards” throughout the eastern third of the country Friday and Saturday, the weather service said.

The storm was expected to rapidly deepen as it approaches “all-time record low sea level pressure values for portions of the Ohio and Missouri valleys,” it said.

“The ongoing severe weather and flash flood risk associated with the system will continue through the early Friday morning hours across the Lower Mississippi Valley, with the threat shifting northeastward throughout the day as the strengthening low lifts northward into the Ohio Valley,” the weather service warned.

Thunderstorms were also expected to have the potential to produce damaging wind gusts, as well as small hail and the possibility of isolated tornadoes Friday, prompting the weather service’s Storm Prediction Center to issue an enhanced risk of severe thunderstorms warning for eastern parts of the Tennessee Valley.

The weather service also warned of the possibility of flash flooding throughout much of the mid-Mississippi and the Ohio valleys, as well as eastward into the mid-Atlantic. A moderate risk of excessive rainfall was possible in parts of northeastern Arkansas, southeastern Missouri, southern Illinois and southern Indiana, it said. 

From:

Boulder-White Clouds Council

Wolf on a hillside in the Salmon River canyon. I hid in the sage and watched as her pack fed on an elk, likely

injured after being hit by a vehicle on Hwy 75, a common occurrence. © 2008 Lynne Stone.

March 1, 2023

Subject: Idaho Wolf Management Plan – Comments due Monday, March 6th. Read the plan here: https://idfg.idaho.gov/form/wolf-plan-2023

Dear Friends, 

Many of you have seen wolves in Idaho, perhaps have gone on wolf outings with Boulder-White Clouds Council over the past 18 years, and now wolves need your help, again. 

A draft management plan that will govern Idaho wolves for the next six years has been proposed by Idaho Dept. of Fish and Game. It’s terrible. IDFG claims there are 1500 wolves in our state. The goal is to reduce wolf numbers to 500, meaning 60% of the wolves IDFG says are on the landscape would be killed. By just about any means possible. 

The rationale that IDFG uses isn’t based on science or biology, but politics. We live with 20,000 black bears in Idaho and at least 4000 mountain lions. Elk numbers exceed 120,000 and there are 400,000 deer. The plan doesn’t say one good word about wolves. Non-lethal is not an option for the current IDFG. They fail to recognize the Wood River Project’s success in proving there can be co-existence between wolves and sheep. 

So far, big game units 48 and 49 in Blaine County are the only ones in Idaho where wolf trapping and snaring are not allowed. We can thank our county commissioners and other officials. The Idaho Trappers Association based in Fairfield is pushing hard to be able to trap where we hike, bike, ski, camp, fish and simply walk our dogs. Remember the minute you drive over Galena into Unit 36, be wary of wolf traps and snares. This means the Sawtooth Valley, Stanley area, Salmon River canyon, Valley Creek and points in-between.

IDFG is advocating wolf hunting year around with no limit on tags or wolves taken. That’s how much the agency disregards wolves. No other species is so over mismanaged. Manage = kill.   

Phantom wolf pups I happened to walk up on, looking for a place to lead a wolf outing. ©2008 Lynne Stone. 

Looking back: I’ve lived in Idaho since 1981and remember ten years later in 1991, when IDFG participated in the sockeye vigils that the Sawtooth Wildlife Council organized at Redfish Lake weir. Some of you were there. Char Roth led us in an inspirational musical mantra. Will Caldwell filled the night with the rhythm of his drums. IDFG spoke and educated us about Redfish Lake sockeye, which were near extinction. But, one sockeye – to be named Lonesome Larry – showed up one morning at the weir, I took a photo that went out across Idaho media. Redfish Lake sockeye were given a chance. BWCC board president Pat Ford has worked decades on the salmon issue and continues. 

My point is, I remember a time when IDFG was our ally, now the agency is consumed with killing wolves, even contributing to bounties. Powerful interests who don’t care for salmon or wolves are forcing this. 

We must fight back. 

Attached to this email is an ALERT from Western Watersheds Project with details to comment on the draft plan. It’s easy, you can be brief. Thank you, WWP for the excellent summary. Cut and paste this link into your browser:  https://mailchi.mp/westernwatersheds/takeactionidahowolvesmarch2023?e=ab965341d5

Note – I was a founding board member of the Idaho Watersheds Project in 1993 along with Jon Marvel and Linn Kincannon. We worked on grazing including state leases. Wolves had yet to be reintroduced. I walked every stream and spring in the Upper East Fork Allotment along with Herd Creek and also Warm Springs Meadow in the White Clouds. Those allotments are now retired, benefitting fish and wildlife. Wolves could have a refuge if not for unlimited hunting, trapping and snaring.

Also, I spent many summers at Cape Horn next to sheep bands and chasing off wolves when they came by, nearly nightly. That allotment is now closed. Wolves no longer will tangle with sheep there. Some of the Wildhorse Allotment over Trail Creek also is no longer grazed. I spent more days than I care to remember walking, documenting grazing overuse, until snow drove me out. Perseverance pays off. Ranchers couldn’t meet grazing standards, so when offered a buyout they took it. Works goes on to retire more allotments. Less livestock means less conflict with predators. 

Why bring up this history? These “wins?”  So we can remember that hard work and advocacy does make a difference. Local, state, regional and national groups care about Idaho wolves. Lawyers are trying to stop the madness governing wolves in Idaho, Montana, Wyoming. It takes money, I’ve worked many days in the past decades without pay, to try and make a difference and would do it again. Please help groups working to help wolves. 

Other ways to help:

– being in touch with our elected officials – city, county, state

– getting to know the IDFG Commissioner in your Region: https://idfg.idaho.gov/d7/about/commission/members

– thanking sheep and cattlemen who coexist with wolves and other predators

– supporting environmental groups that believe wolves have a place on the landscape and oppose wolf hunting/trapping/snaring

– support businesses and outfitters who support wolves  (I choose to boycott those that guide wolf hunts, websites give that info) 

With resilience, 

Lynne 

Lynne K. Stone, Director

Boulder-White Clouds Council

Box 6313

Ketchum ID 83340