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JACKSONVILLE, Fla. ? First on the ground, then through the air, the San Diego Chargers took a big step toward ending their longest losing streak in eight years Monday night by building a 24-14 halftime lead over the Jacksonville Jaguars.
Philip Rivers took advantage of the Jaguars' depleted secondary, throwing a 22-yard touchdown pass to Vincent Brown and a 35-yard scoring pass to Vincent Jackson on the final two drives of the first half.
Both scores came against cornerbacks who were not on the active roster for most of the season.
Ryan Mathews ran for 56 yards in the first quarter alone as the Chargers (4-7) built a 10-0 lead. The Chargers had lost six straight games, their longest skid since the end of 2002 and start of 2003.
Mathews did not touch the ball in the second quarter, which belonged largely to Rivers.
Maurice Jones-Drew, the lone offensive star for Jacksonville (3-8) who leads the AFC in rushing, caught a 9-yard touchdown pass from Blaine Gabbert to cap a 79-yard drive at the start of the second quarter. The Jaguars managed only 27 yards in the opening quarter.
After a three-and-out by the Chargers, Gabbert and Drew hooked up on a 48-yard shovel pass. It was a beautifully executed play, with Gabbert flicking the ball five yards with his left hand to Drew, who had the middle of the field all to himself and ran down to the 4-yard line.
Cornerback Antoine Cason broke up a potential touchdown pass to Jarrett Dillard, but on third-and-goal from the 5, Gabbert found Cecil Shorts in the back corner of the end zone to give the Jaguars a 14-10 lead.
The Jaguars made their debut for interim coach Mel Tucker, and it was their first game after the most sweeping changes in the 17-year history of the franchise. Wayne Weaver fired Jack Del Rio last week, and announced he was selling the team to Illinois businessman Shahid Khan.
Khan was not at the game, though several fans wore fake mustaches to mimic the owner-in-waiting. The $760 million deal still must be approved by the NFL later this month in Dallas.
The Chargers, who appeared to be in firm control throughout the first quarter, suddenly found themselves behind. But not for long. Rivers hit Malcom Floyd, activated for Monday night's game, for 14 yards. The drive appeared to stall with a couple of penalties, but Rivers threw a perfect strike to Antonio Gates for a 23-yard gain to the Jaguars 22.
Two plays later, Rivers found Brown alone with Kevin Rutland, and the receiver turned him around for an easy catch that put the Chargers back on top. Gabbert was starting to get into a rhythm when Cason tipped a pass that was intercepted by Eric Weddle, the lone turnover of the first half.
Three plays later, Rivers threw another strike to Jackson, who bobbled it once before securing the ball just as he was running into the end zone. Jackson easily beat Ashton Youboty, who was signed off the street three weeks ago.
The Jaguars have lost Rashean Mathis and Derek Cox to injuries, and this week Will Middleton, the top backup, was placed on injured reserve.
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FILE - In this Sunday, Sept. 26, 2010 file photo, Bishop Eddie Long speaks at New Birth Missionary Baptist Church in Lithonia, Ga. Megachurch leader Long has announced he's taking time off to focus on his family after his wife filed for divorce. Long's spokesman, Art Franklin, said that the New Birth Missionary Baptist Church leader told his congregation Sunday, Dec. 4, 2011, that he will continue to serve as senior pastor at the church in Lithonia, an Atlanta suburb. But Long said he needs a sabbatical. (AP Photo/John Amis, Pool, File)
FILE - In this Sunday, Sept. 26, 2010 file photo, Bishop Eddie Long speaks at New Birth Missionary Baptist Church in Lithonia, Ga. Megachurch leader Long has announced he's taking time off to focus on his family after his wife filed for divorce. Long's spokesman, Art Franklin, said that the New Birth Missionary Baptist Church leader told his congregation Sunday, Dec. 4, 2011, that he will continue to serve as senior pastor at the church in Lithonia, an Atlanta suburb. But Long said he needs a sabbatical. (AP Photo/John Amis, Pool, File)
ATLANTA (AP) ? When Bishop Eddie Long was accused of sexual misconduct by former church members, his congregation rallied around him and his wife stood by his side. About a year later, the Atlanta megachurch pastor is headed for divorce and stepping away from the pulpit.
Long announced Sunday at New Birth Missionary Baptist Church that he needed a break from preaching to focus on his family. The hiatus leaves New Birth, which once boasted 25,000 members, at a crossroads, its reputation battered and membership dwindling. Their pasts inextricably linked for nearly a generation, both Long and his church face an uncertain future.
"A church is bigger than its pastor," said Goldie Taylor, who has attended New Birth in the past. "For too long, the New Birth family has acted as if it is smaller than its pastor. Its challenge going forward will be its ability to flip that and become a church without walls again."
For many members, Long has been the only pastor they have ever known. He became senior pastor in 1987, taking the helm of a flock of only a few hundred members. Not long after he arrived, the former Ford salesman and Honeywell executive dismissed New Birth's board of directors and took unilateral control of the church, ensuring that he would be the one to determine the date of his departure.
New Birth grew quickly under its charismatic, dynamic young leader, swelling to 8,000 members in five years. A decade later New Birth boasted 18,000 members and the church paid cash for the land and sprawling property it currently occupies in DeKalb County ? including a 10,000-seat sanctuary. In addition to its Lithonia, Ga., headquarters, the church has satellites in several cities including Miami, Charlotte and Denver and television and international ministries.
Many who joined the church under Long's tenure were attracted to the prosperity gospel that he preached and practiced. It was a message that mirrored an emerging black middle class in and around Atlanta. Unlike the traditional Southern Baptist preacher, Long owned a $350,000 Bentley and private jet, lived in a $1.4 million house with six bedrooms and nine bathrooms, adorned himself with diamond jewelry and read his sermons on an iPad.
Long's spiritual swagger inspired a loyal and protective congregation. In September 2010, when accusations swirled that he used his lavish lifestyle to seduce four young men into sexual relationships in exchange for cars, clothes and trips, New Birth members supported around their embattled leader, who vowed he was innocent and would fight the cases.
Long settled out of court eight months later for an undisclosed amount and has never admitted any wrongdoing. After that, some changed their opinion of him.
"Once the money was paid, it was like you're hiding something," said Donielle Marshall, who joined New Birth as a college student in 1999. "Did you lie to us? I look at him as just a common man, full of fault, but also a disgrace."
KaCey Venning said she left New Birth about a month after the allegations because she wanted a smaller church. She believes New Birth can get past its challenges "if they are able to stick together and not rally behind somebody in blind support."
"They need to focus getting back to their outreach, getting out in the community," Venning said. "If the focus is going to be around this particular person, if there's no New Birth without him ... there might be a problem."
Long's wife, Vanessa, filed for divorce last week after 21 years of marriage. The couple has three children and a fourth from Long's first marriage. In a statement released by the church, Vanessa Long said she may reconsider her decision to divorce, but her filing followed "attacks in the media that frustrated and overwhelmed me."
The Rev. Kenneth Samuel, who preceded Long, said the allegations hurt.
"With New Birth being as large and prevalent as it is, every church in the area has felt the impact," Samuel said. "And rightly so. I think there has to be a level of accountability. I think it's certainly possible for the church to carry on. My prayer is for growth and progress and to become more committed to open, honest dialogue and discussion."
Marshall said the church can be healed, but also thinks Long needs to step down permanently.
"All things can be renewed, but I think he needs to leave," she said. "Why continue to lead people when you are being dishonest? It shames the church, it shames the followers, and it shames him."
___
Online:
http://www.newbirth.org
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Public release date: 5-Dec-2011
Share ] Contact: Adam Voiland
adam.p.voiland@nasa.gov
301-614-6949
NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center
As parts of Central America and the U.S. Southwest endure some of the worst droughts to hit those areas in decades, scientists have unearthed new evidence about ancient dry spells that suggest the future could bring even more serious water shortages. Three researchers speaking at the annual meeting of the American Geophysical Union in San Francisco on Dec. 5, 2011, presented new findings about the past and future of drought.
Pre-Columbian Collapse
Ben Cook, a climatologist affiliated with NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS) and Columbia University's Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory in New York City, highlighted new research that indicates the ancient Meso-American civilizations of the Mayans and Aztecs likely amplified droughts in the Yucatn Peninsula and southern and central Mexico by clearing rainforests to make room for pastures and farmland.
Converting forest to farmland can increase the reflectivity, or albedo, of the land surface in ways that affect precipitation patterns. "Farmland and pastures absorb slightly less energy from the sun than the rainforest because their surfaces tend to be lighter and more reflective," explained Cook. "This means that there's less energy available for convection and precipitation."
Cook and colleagues used a high-resolution climate model developed at GISS to run simulations that compared how patterns of vegetation cover during pre-Columbian (before 1492 C.E.) and post-Columbian periods affected precipitation and drought in Central America. The pre-Columbian era saw widespread deforestation on the Yucatn Peninsula and throughout southern and central Mexico. During the post-Columbian period, forests regenerated as native populations declined and farmlands and pastures were abandoned.
Cook's simulations include input from a newly published land-cover reconstruction that is one of the most complete and accurate records of human vegetation changes available. The results are unmistakable: Precipitation levels declined by a considerable amount -- generally 10 to 20 percent -- when deforestation was widespread. Precipitation records from stalagmites, a type of cave formation affected by moisture levels that paleoclimatologists use to deduce past climate trends, in the Yucatn agree well with Cook's model results.
The effect is most noticeable over the Yucatn Peninsula and southern Mexico, areas that overlapped with the centers of the Mayan and Aztec civilizations and had high levels of deforestation and the most densely concentrated populations. Rainfall levels declined, for example, by as much as 20 percent over parts of the Yucatn Peninsula between 800 C.E. and 950 C.E.
Cook's study supports previous research that suggests drought, amplified by deforestation, was a key factor in the rapid collapse of the Mayan empire around 950 C.E. In 2010, Robert Oglesby, a climate modeler based at the University of Nebraska, published a study in the Journal of Geophysical Research that showed that deforestation likely contributed to the Mayan collapse. Though Oglesby and Cook's modeling reached similar conclusions, Cook had access to a more accurate and reliable record of vegetation changes.
During the peak of Mayan civilization between 800 C.E. and 950 C.E., the land cover reconstruction Cook based his modeling on indicates that the Maya had left only a tiny percentage of the forests on the Yucatn Peninsula intact. By the period between 1500 C.E. and 1650 C.E., in contrast, after the arrival of Europeans had decimated native populations, natural vegetation covered nearly all of the Yucatn. In modern times, deforestation has altered some areas near the coast, but a large majority of the peninsula's forests remain intact.
"I wouldn't argue that deforestation causes drought or that it's entirely responsible for the decline of the Maya, but our results do show that deforestation can bias the climate toward drought and that about half of the dryness in the pre-Colonial period was the result of deforestation," Cook said.
Northeastern Megadroughts
The last major drought to affect the Northeast occurred in the 1960s, persisted for about three years and took a major toll on the region. Dorothy Peteet, a paleoclimatologist also affiliated with NASA GISS and Columbia University, has uncovered evidence that shows far more severe droughts have occurred in the Northeast.
By analyzing sediment cores collected from several tidal marshes in the Hudson River Valley, Peteet and her colleagues at Lamont-Doherty have found evidence that at least three major dry spells have occurred in the Northeast within the last 6,000 years. The longest, which corresponds with a span of time known as the Medieval Warm Period, lasted some 500 years and began around 850 C.E. The other two took place more than 5,000 years ago. They were shorter, only about 20 to 40 years, but likely more severe.
"People don't generally think about the Northeast as an area that can experience drought, but there's geologic evidence that shows major droughts can and do occur," Peteet said. "It's something scientists can't ignore. What we're finding in these sediment cores has big implications for the region."
Peteet's team detected all three droughts using a method called X-ray fluorescence spectroscopy. They used the technique on a core collected at Piermont Marsh in New York to search for characteristic elements -- such as bromine and calcium -- that are more likely to occur at the marsh during droughts.
Fresh water from the Hudson River and salty water from the Atlantic Ocean were both predominant in Piermont Marsh at different time periods, but saltwater moves upriver during dry periods as the amount of fresh water entering the marsh declines. Peteet's team detected extremely high levels of both bromine and calcium, both of them indicators of the presence of saltwater and the existence of drought, in sections of the sediment cores corresponding to 5,745 and 5,480 years ago.
During the Medieval Warm Period, the researchers also found striking increases in the abundance of certain types of pollen species, especially pine and hickory, that indicate a dry climate. Before the Medieval Warm Period, in contrast, there were more oaks, which prefer wetter conditions. They also found a thick layer of charcoal demonstrating that wildfires, which are more frequent during droughts, were common during the Medieval Warm Period.
"We still need to do more research before we can say with confidence how widespread or frequent droughts in the Northeast have been," Peteet said. There are certain gaps in the cores Peteet's team studied, for example, that she plans to investigate in greater detail. She also expects to expand the scope of the project to other marshes and estuaries in the Northeast and to collaborate with climate modelers to begin teasing out the factors that cause droughts to occur in the region.
The Future of Food
Climate change, with its potential to redistribute water availability around the globe by increasing rainfall in some areas while worsening drought in others, might negatively impact crop yields in certain regions of the world.
New research conducted by Princeton University hydrologist Justin Sheffield shows that areas of the developing world that are drought-prone and have growing population and limited capabilities to store water, such as sub-Saharan Africa, will be the ones most at risk of seeing their crops decrease their yields in the future.
Sheffield and his team ran hydrological model simulations for the 20th and 21st centuries and looked at how drought might change in the future according to different climate change scenarios. They found that the total area affected by drought has not changed significantly over the past 50 years globally.
However, the model shows reductions in precipitation and increases in evaporative demand are projected to increase the frequency of short-term droughts. They also found that the area across sub-Saharan Africa experiencing drought will rise by as much as twofold by mid-21st century and threefold by the end of the century.
When the team analyzed what these changes would mean for future agricultural productivity around the globe, they found that the impact on sub-Saharan Africa would be especially strong.
Agricultural productivity depends on a number of factors beyond water availability including soil conditions, available technologies and crop varieties. For some regions of sub-Saharan Africa, the researchers found that agricultural productivity will likely decline by over 20 percent by mid-century due to drying and warming.
###
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AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
Public release date: 5-Dec-2011 Share ] Contact: Adam Voiland
adam.p.voiland@nasa.gov
301-614-6949
NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center
As parts of Central America and the U.S. Southwest endure some of the worst droughts to hit those areas in decades, scientists have unearthed new evidence about ancient dry spells that suggest the future could bring even more serious water shortages. Three researchers speaking at the annual meeting of the American Geophysical Union in San Francisco on Dec. 5, 2011, presented new findings about the past and future of drought.
Pre-Columbian Collapse
Ben Cook, a climatologist affiliated with NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS) and Columbia University's Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory in New York City, highlighted new research that indicates the ancient Meso-American civilizations of the Mayans and Aztecs likely amplified droughts in the Yucatn Peninsula and southern and central Mexico by clearing rainforests to make room for pastures and farmland.
Converting forest to farmland can increase the reflectivity, or albedo, of the land surface in ways that affect precipitation patterns. "Farmland and pastures absorb slightly less energy from the sun than the rainforest because their surfaces tend to be lighter and more reflective," explained Cook. "This means that there's less energy available for convection and precipitation."
Cook and colleagues used a high-resolution climate model developed at GISS to run simulations that compared how patterns of vegetation cover during pre-Columbian (before 1492 C.E.) and post-Columbian periods affected precipitation and drought in Central America. The pre-Columbian era saw widespread deforestation on the Yucatn Peninsula and throughout southern and central Mexico. During the post-Columbian period, forests regenerated as native populations declined and farmlands and pastures were abandoned.
Cook's simulations include input from a newly published land-cover reconstruction that is one of the most complete and accurate records of human vegetation changes available. The results are unmistakable: Precipitation levels declined by a considerable amount -- generally 10 to 20 percent -- when deforestation was widespread. Precipitation records from stalagmites, a type of cave formation affected by moisture levels that paleoclimatologists use to deduce past climate trends, in the Yucatn agree well with Cook's model results.
The effect is most noticeable over the Yucatn Peninsula and southern Mexico, areas that overlapped with the centers of the Mayan and Aztec civilizations and had high levels of deforestation and the most densely concentrated populations. Rainfall levels declined, for example, by as much as 20 percent over parts of the Yucatn Peninsula between 800 C.E. and 950 C.E.
Cook's study supports previous research that suggests drought, amplified by deforestation, was a key factor in the rapid collapse of the Mayan empire around 950 C.E. In 2010, Robert Oglesby, a climate modeler based at the University of Nebraska, published a study in the Journal of Geophysical Research that showed that deforestation likely contributed to the Mayan collapse. Though Oglesby and Cook's modeling reached similar conclusions, Cook had access to a more accurate and reliable record of vegetation changes.
During the peak of Mayan civilization between 800 C.E. and 950 C.E., the land cover reconstruction Cook based his modeling on indicates that the Maya had left only a tiny percentage of the forests on the Yucatn Peninsula intact. By the period between 1500 C.E. and 1650 C.E., in contrast, after the arrival of Europeans had decimated native populations, natural vegetation covered nearly all of the Yucatn. In modern times, deforestation has altered some areas near the coast, but a large majority of the peninsula's forests remain intact.
"I wouldn't argue that deforestation causes drought or that it's entirely responsible for the decline of the Maya, but our results do show that deforestation can bias the climate toward drought and that about half of the dryness in the pre-Colonial period was the result of deforestation," Cook said.
Northeastern Megadroughts
The last major drought to affect the Northeast occurred in the 1960s, persisted for about three years and took a major toll on the region. Dorothy Peteet, a paleoclimatologist also affiliated with NASA GISS and Columbia University, has uncovered evidence that shows far more severe droughts have occurred in the Northeast.
By analyzing sediment cores collected from several tidal marshes in the Hudson River Valley, Peteet and her colleagues at Lamont-Doherty have found evidence that at least three major dry spells have occurred in the Northeast within the last 6,000 years. The longest, which corresponds with a span of time known as the Medieval Warm Period, lasted some 500 years and began around 850 C.E. The other two took place more than 5,000 years ago. They were shorter, only about 20 to 40 years, but likely more severe.
"People don't generally think about the Northeast as an area that can experience drought, but there's geologic evidence that shows major droughts can and do occur," Peteet said. "It's something scientists can't ignore. What we're finding in these sediment cores has big implications for the region."
Peteet's team detected all three droughts using a method called X-ray fluorescence spectroscopy. They used the technique on a core collected at Piermont Marsh in New York to search for characteristic elements -- such as bromine and calcium -- that are more likely to occur at the marsh during droughts.
Fresh water from the Hudson River and salty water from the Atlantic Ocean were both predominant in Piermont Marsh at different time periods, but saltwater moves upriver during dry periods as the amount of fresh water entering the marsh declines. Peteet's team detected extremely high levels of both bromine and calcium, both of them indicators of the presence of saltwater and the existence of drought, in sections of the sediment cores corresponding to 5,745 and 5,480 years ago.
During the Medieval Warm Period, the researchers also found striking increases in the abundance of certain types of pollen species, especially pine and hickory, that indicate a dry climate. Before the Medieval Warm Period, in contrast, there were more oaks, which prefer wetter conditions. They also found a thick layer of charcoal demonstrating that wildfires, which are more frequent during droughts, were common during the Medieval Warm Period.
"We still need to do more research before we can say with confidence how widespread or frequent droughts in the Northeast have been," Peteet said. There are certain gaps in the cores Peteet's team studied, for example, that she plans to investigate in greater detail. She also expects to expand the scope of the project to other marshes and estuaries in the Northeast and to collaborate with climate modelers to begin teasing out the factors that cause droughts to occur in the region.
The Future of Food
Climate change, with its potential to redistribute water availability around the globe by increasing rainfall in some areas while worsening drought in others, might negatively impact crop yields in certain regions of the world.
New research conducted by Princeton University hydrologist Justin Sheffield shows that areas of the developing world that are drought-prone and have growing population and limited capabilities to store water, such as sub-Saharan Africa, will be the ones most at risk of seeing their crops decrease their yields in the future.
Sheffield and his team ran hydrological model simulations for the 20th and 21st centuries and looked at how drought might change in the future according to different climate change scenarios. They found that the total area affected by drought has not changed significantly over the past 50 years globally.
However, the model shows reductions in precipitation and increases in evaporative demand are projected to increase the frequency of short-term droughts. They also found that the area across sub-Saharan Africa experiencing drought will rise by as much as twofold by mid-21st century and threefold by the end of the century.
When the team analyzed what these changes would mean for future agricultural productivity around the globe, they found that the impact on sub-Saharan Africa would be especially strong.
Agricultural productivity depends on a number of factors beyond water availability including soil conditions, available technologies and crop varieties. For some regions of sub-Saharan Africa, the researchers found that agricultural productivity will likely decline by over 20 percent by mid-century due to drying and warming.
###
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AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
Source: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2011-12/nsfc-ads120511.php
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PASADENA, Calif. ? The most powerful winds to tear across California in years kept 9-year-old Dalen Guyton up late into the night. Then, around midnight, came the boom.
The great yawning tree that stood next to his grandmother's house, the one with the rope swing he and his sisters played on, had toppled, coming within inches of their one-story home.
On Thursday, the siblings stood out front surveying the damage, like thousands across the West where high winds toppled countless trees, knocked out power to hundreds of thousands and brought gusts of 123 mph.
"If she pays someone to clean it up, it's not going to be a good Christmas," said the boy, who was wearing a Santa hat. "She's not going to be able to get any presents."
The National Weather Service called Southern California's winds Wednesday night a once-in-a-decade event, and it's not over. Winds were expected to pick up again Thursday night, though they won't be as fierce.
In the mountains, winds were expected to gust up to 65 mph into Friday morning and 50 mph in the valleys.
High wind warnings and advisories were also issued for Utah, Nevada, Wyoming, Arizona and New Mexico. The blustery weather is expected to eventually hit Oklahoma, Missouri and Indiana.
The storms were the result of a dramatic difference in pressure between a strong, high-pressure system and a cold, low-pressure system, meteorologists said. This funnels strong winds down mountain canyons and slopes.
The winds reached 123 mph at a ski resort northwest of Denver and topped 102 mph in Utah.
California, however, was the hardest hit, with more than 330,000 utility customers still without power late Thursday. The gusts were blamed for toppling semitrailers and causing trees to fall on homes, apartment complexes and cars.
A state of emergency was declared in Los Angeles County, where schools in a dozen communities were closed.
In some neighborhoods, concrete light poles cracked in half. Darkened traffic signals and fallen palm tree fronds and branches snarled traffic. At a Shell station, the roof collapsed into a heap of twisted metal.
"It was a terrifying ride for me, coming here in pitch dark ... and watching motorists take no notice of lights being out," said Bob Spencer, a spokesman for the Los Angeles County Department of Public Works.
The last time that Southern California was battered by such intense winds was in January 2007, when similarly high gusts toppled trees and made a mess.
Bill Patzert, a climate expert with NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, lives in Sierra Madre and, like hundreds of thousands of people across the region, lost power at his home. A heavy tree limb blocked his driveway.
He estimated winds peaked between 80 to 90 mph in his neighborhood overnight.
"It was like being in a hurricane. I thought I was going to blow away," he said.
In heavily damaged Pasadena, schools and libraries closed and a local emergency, the first since 2004, was declared. Officials said 40 people were evacuated from an apartment building after a tree smashed part of the roof.
Pasadena is known for its historic homes and wide oak-lined streets that are frequently depicted in films.
Many residents Thursday blamed the city for protecting its old trees from over-trimming to such an extent that they have now become a public safety hazard.
Vince Mehrabian, the general manager at A&B Motor Cars, estimated eight Lexus, Cadillac and other luxury cars had been destroyed by fallen limbs. He said he'd been asking the city for four years to trim the trees more.
On a street around the corner, almost every tree was either cracked in half or missing limbs.
Elsewhere, Daphne Bell, a 30-year Pasadena resident, said she was kept awake by howling wind. "This is the worst, the absolute worst. There were times it sounded like a freight train was roaring down my driveway," she said.
Similar stories of downed trees and power lines echoed across the West, where winds in some areas ripped storefront awnings, filled gutters with debris and forced school closures.
High winds ripped through Utah, overturning several semi-trucks on or near Interstate 15. About 50,000 customers lost power along the state's 120-mile Wasatch Front as high winds took down power lines, but service was restored to more than half of them by Thursday night.
Police asked schools to close in Centerville, where a 102-mph gust was reported. Mail delivery and trash pickup were canceled.
In Nevada, weather officials warned that blowing dust was creating visibility problems on a highway between Reno and Las Vegas.
In Steamboat Springs, Colo., the roof of a four-story condominium complex was blown off and about 100 trees were knocked over, some landing on homes. A ski area shut down its lifts after a gust of 123 mph.
Even some weather experts were surprised by the wind's force.
"It's one of the strongest events that I can remember," said Brian Edwards, a meteorologist with Accuweather. "It's rather rare."
___
Associated Press writers John Rogers and Alicia Chang in Los Angeles, Jennifer Dobner in Salt Lake City, and Oskar Garcia in Las Vegas contributed to this report.
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FILE - In this May 22, 2010 file photo, civilians look on as Indian firefighters and rescue personnel try to extinguish the fire around the site of an Air India plane that crashed in Mangalore, in the southern Indian state of Karnataka. From 2011-2030, Boeing and Airbus both predict Asia will account for about a third of global aircraft deliveries worth a total of more than $1 trillion. To keep up with growth and replace retiring pilots, Boeing forecasts Asia-Pacific will need 182,300 new pilots over the next 20 years, with about two-fifths of that demand coming from China. (AP Photo/File)
FILE - In this May 22, 2010 file photo, civilians look on as Indian firefighters and rescue personnel try to extinguish the fire around the site of an Air India plane that crashed in Mangalore, in the southern Indian state of Karnataka. From 2011-2030, Boeing and Airbus both predict Asia will account for about a third of global aircraft deliveries worth a total of more than $1 trillion. To keep up with growth and replace retiring pilots, Boeing forecasts Asia-Pacific will need 182,300 new pilots over the next 20 years, with about two-fifths of that demand coming from China. (AP Photo/File)
FILE - In this April 29, 2011 file photo, passenger jets from Air India, India's national carrier, stand at Indira Gandhi International Airport in New Delhi, India. From 2011-2030, Boeing and Airbus both predict Asia will account for about a third of global aircraft deliveries worth a total of more than $1 trillion. To keep up with growth and replace retiring pilots, Boeing forecasts Asia-Pacific will need 182,300 new pilots over the next 20 years, with about two-fifths of that demand coming from China. (AP Photo/Kevin Frayer, File)
In this Nov. 30, 2011 photo, a pilot from Japan's ANA airline walks in the Hong Kong International Airport in Hong Kong. From 2011-2030, Boeing and Airbus both predict Asia will account for about a third of global aircraft deliveries worth a total of more than $1 trillion. To keep up with growth and replace retiring pilots, Boeing forecasts Asia-Pacific will need 182,300 new pilots over the next 20 years, with about two-fifths of that demand coming from China. (AP Photo/Vincent Yu)
In this Nov. 30, 2011 photo, two pilots from Cathay Pacific walk in the Hong Kong International Airport in Hong Kong. From 2011-2030, Boeing and Airbus both predict Asia will account for about a third of global aircraft deliveries worth a total of more than $1 trillion. To keep up with growth and replace retiring pilots, Boeing forecasts Asia-Pacific will need 182,300 new pilots over the next 20 years, with about two-fifths of that demand coming from China. (AP Photo/Vincent Yu)
FILE - In this May 1, 2011 file photo, Air India pilots who are on strike shout slogans against corruption near to the Gateway of India monument in Mumbai, India. The pilots demanding more pay refused to work for a fifth day, defying a court order to end their strike and forcing the beleaguered national carrier to cancel most of its scheduled flights. To keep up with growth and replace retiring pilots, Boeing forecasts Asia-Pacific will need 182,300 new pilots over the next 20 years, with about two-fifths of that demand coming from China. (AP Photo/Rajanish Kakade, File)
HONG KONG (AP) ? Fast-growing Asian and Middle Eastern airlines have signed orders recently for hundreds of new airplanes ? now they face the problem of finding enough pilots to fly them. For safety-conscious travelers, that means sticking with the big, well known airlines who can afford to lure the best staff as the scramble to fill the cockpit intensifies.
While there have been warnings for several years of a pilot shortage in Asia, the latest orders add to the urgency. The region is forecast to account for the lion's share of global aircraft deliveries over the next two decades as demand for air travel surges amid strong economic growth. It's also forecast to need the largest number of new pilots and the widening shortage of experienced staff is raising safety concerns and playing havoc with flight schedules.
"Quite a number of carriers are increasing their orders. So where are the pilots coming from? The shortage is going to manifest itself certainly as we go into next year because there'll be a lot of planes coming in then, so these guys are going to have a hard time finding the pilots to fly them," said Shukor Yusof, an aviation analyst with Standard & Poor's.
Last month, Indonesia's Lion Air ordered 230 Boeing Co. 737s with options for 150 more. Qatar Airways ordered at least 55 jets from Airbus SAS while Emirates ordered 50 Boeing 777s. From 2011 to 2030, Boeing and Airbus both predict Asia will account for about a third of global aircraft deliveries worth a total of more than $1 trillion.
To keep up with growth and replace retiring pilots, the International Civil Aviation Organization forecasts Asia will need 229,676 new pilots over the next two decades ? up from 50,344 in 2010. In the most likely scenario, Asia will be short about 9,000 pilots a year because it will need about 14,000 but have capacity to train only about 5,000.
"Never in human history have we seen a time when 2 billion people will enter the middle class and demand air travel. That time is now," said William Voss, president of the Washington, D.C.-based Flight Safety Foundation.
Some airlines are already acting.
Emirates has announced plans to set up a dedicated $109 million flight training center in Dubai that will be able to train up to 400 students at a time. Earlier this year, Canadian flight-training company CAE Inc. said it was expanding its training center in Zhuhai, China that it runs jointly with China Southern Airlines.
But Roei Ganzarski, Boeing's chief customer officer for flight services, warns that recruiting pilots will be a long-term problem for the aviation industry. "We've already heard of a few airlines that have either reduced their operations or even grounded their airplanes because they don't have enough people to fly them."
Training a commercial airline pilot takes time ? up to three or four years. Trainees must obtain a Private Pilot's License and then a Commercial Pilot's License. Then they need an Air Transport Pilot's License ? the advanced credential required to fly a commercial airliner ? which involves logging about 1,500 flying hours. It's an expensive and time-consuming entire process that rookies starting from scratch will need two to three years to complete.
Once they're hired by an airline as a first officer, candidates will need more time for additional conversion training for the type of aircraft they'll be flying, which could take another year.
Aviation industry executives say small airlines will be hit hardest because they can't compete with big, rich carriers such as Dubai-based Emirates, the Middle East's biggest airline.
Capt. Alan Stealey, senior vice president for flight operations, said Emirates isn't facing problems recruiting its target of 600 pilots this year, up from about 400 or 450 in past years.
Emirates lures staff with generous salaries and benefits. First officers earn tax-free annual salaries averaging $95,000 while captains get about $135,000 as well as free housing, medical benefits and tuition fees.
Emirates also operates some of the world's newest, most advanced jets ? another draw for recruits.
"We're an airline of choice from a pilot's point of view," said Stealey. "The shortage will not be in carriers like Emirates," but rather will hit smaller, regional carriers hardest, he predicted.
The crash of an Air India Express jet in May 2010 highlighted the problems smaller airlines are facing. An investigation blamed the Serbian pilot for the disaster in which a Boeing 737 operated by the national carrier's low-cost arm crashed while landing at Mangalore's airport, killing 158 people.
The probe found that the pilot slept through more than half the flight and woke up disoriented when it was time to land the aircraft.
India's pilot shortage has been driven by fierce demand as a slew of carriers have started up in the past decade and expanded rapidly. Pilots complain that they don't have enough rest time between flights, a violation of international aviation safety practices.
Indian airlines have been forced to look abroad for staff, which comes with its own problems as some Eastern European pilots had difficulties with English ? the international language of aviation.
By hiring pilots from countries where English isn't spoken widely, "you have to accept that there's potential for confusion, or less comprehension," said Gideon Ewers, a spokesman for the U.K.-based International Federation of Airline Pilots' Associations.
Airlines across Asia have been recruiting foreigners. China has at least 1,300 foreign flight captains, according to the state-run China Daily newspaper. Garuda Indonesia and Korean Airlines have also been forced to hire foreign pilots. In China, state media quoted an American pilot for Spring Airways complaining he had to rely on his Chinese first officer to communicate with air traffic controllers who wouldn't or couldn't speak English.
Experts say while some smaller airlines are forced to hire pilots on short-term contracts, they don't have as much control over the quality of the pilot's training and experience as big airlines with cadet programs do. The result is that while airlines may have crews that meet the minimum training requirements, some airlines will have crews that are excellent but others are "dangerously marginal," said Voss.
At airlines where safety and training standards are closely followed, the pilots in the cockpit "correct the missteps and correct problems on the spot. All of those little corrections eventually define the safety culture of that airline," said Voss.
"If the crews are all on six-month contracts, that doesn't happen. Risky behavior goes unchallenged, professionalism decays, and disaster inevitably follows."
A potentially even graver shortage looms of maintenance personnel, aviation groups say. Boeing forecasts that Asia will need a quarter-million new technicians over the next two decades, up from about 46,500 now.
"It is a more difficult problem to solve," said Voss,"since the job is very unattractive and harder to train."
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AP Business Writer Adam Schreck in Dubai, Aviation Writer Slobodan Lekic in Brussels and AP Writer Nirmala George in New Delhi contributed to this report.
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