Nation in brief: Wildfire forces out thousands
Firefighters battling a wildfire that apparently began when a military jet dropped a flare on a bombing range hoped a rainstorm Wednesday would help them douse the flames.
But they also kept their eyes on high winds associated with the storm that whipped up columns of flame and smoke and could worsen the blaze.
The fire, which began Tuesday, sent walls of flames 80 to 100 feet high racing toward senior citizen communities.
No deaths or injuries had been attributed to the fire, but at least 13 homes were damaged or destroyed and about 6,000 people were evacuated from 2,500 homes along the border between Ocean and Burlington counties. About 115 people were in shelters Wednesday evening, authorities said.
A portion of the Garden State Parkway, one of the state’s main north-south routes, was closed briefly Wednesday because dense smoke made it difficult for motorists to see.
Miami
NOAA criticized for use of funds
The new director of the National Hurricane Center escalated his criticism of superiors in the federal government Wednesday, charging they are squandering millions on counterproductive image-building campaigns while front-line forecasters wrestle with budget shortfalls.
Bill Proenza, who took the hurricane center post in January, said top officials at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration are spending $4 million on a “bogus” 200-year NOAA anniversary celebration.
That celebration is part of a broader campaign to publicize NOAA and its leaders, Proenza and other critics said, while diminishing the identity of its best known components, the National Weather Service and the hurricane center.
Meanwhile, Proenza said, NOAA has cut $700,000 from a crucial hurricane research program and allowed inflation to erode the hurricane center’s budget, and it wants to spend more money to change the widely recognized center’s name to the “NOAA Hurricane Center.”
Providence, R.I.
Bank robber made limo escape
A 22-year-old pleaded guilty Wednesday in federal court to trying to rob a bank at a drive-up window while traveling in a hired limousine.
Authorities said Evonne D. Maurice had a limousine take her to a Citizens Bank branch in Cranston and told the driver she needed to withdraw cash to pay for the ride.
Then she walked up to the window and handed the teller an envelope with a note demanding money and saying there were two bombs in the bank.
The teller triggered an alarm, and Maurice got back in the limo without any money and was driven away. The driver was unaware of the Dec. 1, 2005, robbery attempt, prosecutors said.
Maurice was arrested in Tampa, Fla. Prosecutors said she told police there that she robbed banks to pay the drug-dealing debts of her and her boyfriend.