Three children and two adults dead as at least 120 tornadoes batter Midwest ripping through hospitals, homes and tearing apart entire towns leaving dozens injured

Posted by admin on Apr 16, 2012 | 0 comments

Three young girls and two adults have died after tornadoes ripped through an Oklahoma town earlier today in an outbreak of twisters that swept through the Midwest and Plains states.

Frank Hobbie was killed with his daughters, aged five and seven, when the storm hit the trailer park where they lived in the town of Woodward, while Darren Juul died at his home nearby alongside his ten-year-old daughter.

At the storm’s height, tornadoes popped up faster than they could be tallied. The National Weather Service had received at least 122 reports of tornadoes touching down in Oklahoma, Kansas, Nebraska and Iowa.

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Deadly: A tornado tears through the night near Salin, Kansas – the storms have killed at least five people, including two children

Twister: Hundreds of tornadoes tore through the midwest including this one making its way over the 135 freeway near Moundridge, Kansas

High-speed: A tornado moves on the ground north of Solomon, Kansas, on Saturday evening, with I-70 seen in the foreground

Devastation: Residents of Marquette, Kansas console one another after a vicious twister ripped through the area

The killer weather hit the northwest town of Woodward, Roscoe Hill, and battered buildings including houses, a hospital, a jail, an Air Force base and other buildings around the region, officials said.The Mayor said that many residents were caught unaware after storm sirens failed to sound.

Woodward suffered the worst of the destruction from the storms, which also struck in Kansas, Iowa and Nebraska. Woodward City Manager Alan Riffel said 89 homes and 13 businesses were destroyed, and bloodied survivors in the 12,000-resident town emerged to find flipped cars and smashed trailers.

Sheriff’s office dispatcher Matt Jones confirmed that two people were dead but said he did not have immediate details. He says the tornado hit part of west Woodward and the nearby town of Tangier.

The National Weather Service said the tornado was reported at 12:18 a.m. on Sunday. Woodward Mayor Roscoe Hill said 37 people were injured in the twister, including several critically.

Mother: Shelly Hobbie, whose son Frank was killed in the Oklahoma storm, searches through the rubble of his destroyed mobile home

Cleanup: Workers inspect the damage done to a carnival situated in Wichita when the storm struck

Wreckage: The Boeing facility in Wichita was badly hit by the storm on Saturday night

Grieving: Carole Beckett sorts through belongings at her home in the beleagured town of Woodward

Sirens were not apparently working when the tornado struck as their electricity had been cut by the storm earlier. He said the sirens had been sounding loudly from storms on Saturday afternoon.

‘We had a little tornado earlier … and they blew all the sirens. When this one came in, our sirens weren’t working. We didn’t have a very good storm alert,’ Hill said.

The tornado flattened 87 homes and 13 businesses, up to 250 search and rescue units arrived in the town after the twister hit.

Retired firefighter Marty Logan said he spotted the tornado when it knocked down power lines, causing flashes of light, and saw a radio tower’s blinking lights go black. He later saw a man emerge from a twisted, wrecked sport utility vehicle that had been tossed along the side of the road.

‘The guy had blood coming down his face,’ Logan said. ‘It was scary, because I knew it was after midnight and a lot of people were in bed.’

Destruction: Two men look for people who may be trapped underneath rubble at Pinaire Mobile Home Park after it was struck by a tornado, in Wichita, Kansas on Saturday night

Destruction: Gary Gladwin looks over his wrecked property where he stored a 1937 Chevy, in Thurman, Iowa

Rescue mission: Sheriff’s deputies carry out an injured man from a south Wichita neighborhood after a tornado caused massive destruction in Wichita, Kansas

Authorities said a signal tower for Woodward’s tornado sirens was struck by lightning and hit by a tornado early Sunday morning. Police Chief Harvey Rutherford said the tower that was supposed to send a repeating signal to the town’s tornado siren system was knocked out.

Considering the tornado struck at night and the sirens were damaged, it was remarkable that there wasn’t a greater loss of life, Rutherford said. ‘We had the hand of God take care of us,’ he said.

Woodward was among the many communities in the nation’s midsection under a ‘high-end, life-threatening event’ that had been issued by the Storm Prediction Center in Norman, Oklahoma. The center specializes in tornado forecasting and emitted the extraordinary warning nearly two days before the bad weather hit.

Dave Wallace, chief executive officer of Woodward Regional Hospital, said 29 people, five of the in critical condition, were brought to the hospital for treatment of injuries ranging fractures and serious injuries to cuts and bruises. Three patients have been transferred to other hospitals and four were admitted, he added.

‘We transferred them to a hospital with a higher level of care,’ Wallace said. ‘We’re not a trauma center.’

Remains: A flag lies on the twisted metal base of a motor home in Woodward’s wrecked trailer park

Aerial view: The damage wought on Wichita by the violent tornado was clear to see on Sunday

A resident of a Wichita trailer park breaks down as she scours her mobile home for precious belongings

Michelann Ooten, an official with the Oklahoma Department of Emergency Management, said that emergency crews remained very much in search and rescue mode at first light, hours after they began operations in darkness.

‘They’re still going door to door and in some cases there are piles of rubble and they are having to sift through the rubble,’ she told AP. ‘They are trying to identify if anyone is still in there, trying to account for everyone.’

Storms were reported yesterday in Kansas, Iowa, Nebraska and Oklahoma. Emergency officials in Iowa said that high winds or a tornado damaged a hospital in Creston, but no injuries were reported. Authorities also said about 75 percent of the small western Iowa community of Thurman was destroyed, with no injuries reported there either.

In Nebraska, baseball-sized hail shattered windows and ripped siding from houses. In Oklahoma, more than 5,000 people gathered for a rattlesnake hunt in Woods County scattered when a tornado touched down there, said the county’s emergency management director, Steve Foster.

The Storm Prediction Center in Norman, which specializes in tornado forecasting, had warned of a ‘high-end, life-threatening event’ nearly two days before the bad weather hit.

Twisters: A spate of tornadoes tore through the states of Okhlahoma, Nebraska, Iowa and other areas  including these two spotted in Kansas yesterday

Still standing: Not quite all of this house in Marquette, Kansas was destroyed

Rebuilding: Store owners clear up their business in Wichita after it was hit by a tornado overnight

It was just the second time in U.S. history that the center issued a high-risk warning more than 24 hours in advance. The first was in April 2006, when nearly 100 tornadoes tore across the southeastern U.S., killing a dozen people and damaging more than 1,000 homes in Tennessee.

The center’s spokesman, Chris Vaccaro, said the weather service had received at least 97 reports of tornadoes by dawn Sunday and survey teams would be heading out to investigate and determine the number of actual tornadoes, their highest winds, and the width and length of their destructive paths. Several large funnel clouds and tornadoes were photographed and videographed during the outbreak.

He warned the threat wasn’t over for those across several states in the nation’s interior.

‘Severe weather is possible in a swath from Minnesota, Wisconsin and Michigan south to eastern Texas and Louisiana,’ Vaccaro said.

National Weather Service forecasters also had issued somber outlooks that the worst of the weather in the Midwest and Plains would hit in the nighttime hours, predicting that conditions were right for exceptionally strong tornadoes. Emergency management officials had worried most about what would happen if potent storms hit when people were sleeping, not paying attention to weather reports and unlikely to hear warning sirens.

A tornado watch in and around Tulsa and some areas continued through daybreak.

Ruins: Sue Lord is dwarfed by the debris from her home, which is piled up on the neighbor’s home, following a tornado in Woodward, Oklahoma – Lord was in her home but managed to escape without injury

Lucky escape: Barbara Cline holds her dog while standing in front of her damaged house in Wichita, Kansas

Power cut: Downed power lines kept some people trapped in a Quiktrip in Wichita, Kansas on Saturday

Flattened: Galen Zumbach of Creston, Iowa begins the cleanup process with the help of neighbors and friends after his house was hit by a tornado

The American Red Cross summoned volunteers to drive relief trucks from Oklahoma City to aid the rescue crews in and around Woodward he said were pressed to the limit by the immediate disaster response.

‘They’re in chaos mode,’ said Rusty Surette, a regional communications director for the American Red Cross in Oklahoma City, speaking of authorities in Woodward.

He said trucks with cots, food, water and medical and hygiene supplies would head to the area, where a shelter was established in a church for those rendered homeless.

In Kansas, a reported tornado in Wichita caused damage at McConnell Air Force Base and the Spirit AeroSystems and Boeing plants. A mobile home park was heavily damaged in the city, although no injuries or deaths were reported.

Yvonne Tucker rushed to a shelter with about 60 of her neighbors at Pinaire Mobile Home Park. She said people were crying and screaming, and the shelter’s lights went out when the twister hit. When they came back outside, they found several homes destroyed, including Tucker’s.

‘I didn’t think it was that bad until I walked down my street and everything is gone,’ said Tucker, 49. ‘I don’t know what to do. I don’t know where to go. I’ve seen it on TV, but when it happens to you it is unreal. I just feel lost.’

Iowa emergency officials said a large part of the town of Thurman in the western part of the state was destroyed Saturday night, possibly by a tornado, but no one was injured or killed. Fremont County Emergency Management Director Mike Crecelius said about 75 percent of the 250-person town was destroyed. Some residents took refuge at the City Hall.

A hospital in Creston, about 75 miles southwest of Des Moines, suffered roof damage and had some of its windows blown out by the storm, but patients and staff were not hurt. Medical center officials were calling other area hospitals to determine how many beds they had available in case they needed to move patients.

Racing to safety: A pick-up truck passes through Soloman as an ominous storm touches down in the distance, ripping through everything in its path

Funnel: A twister touches down north of Soloman, Kansas, as dark clouds loom overhead

In Nebraska, baseball-sized hail shattered windows and tore siding from houses in and around Petersburg, about 140 miles northwest of Omaha.  In southeast Nebraska, an apparent tornado took down barns, large trees and some small rural structures. Johnson County emergency director Clint Strayhorn said he was trying to determine the twister’s duration and the damage it caused.

‘I’m on a 2-mile stretch that this thing is on the ground and I haven’t even gotten to the end of it yet,’ he said, walking the path of destruction near the Johnson-Nemaha county line. He didn’t immediately know of any injuries.

At least 10 tornadoes were reported in Kansas, mostly in rural parts of the western and central sections of the state.The county where Wichita is located was declared a state of disaster and said preliminary estimates suggest damages could be as high as $283 million.

Kansas Governor Sam Brownback acknowledged that the damage could have been far worse, noting in an interview with CNN that residents appeared to have heeded safety warnings. ‘God was merciful,’ he said.

Kristin Dean, among the Wichita mobile home residents sheltering from the storm, said she was shaking as she was being pushed from home in her wheelchair. She was able to grab a bag of her possessions before going into the shelter and that was all she had left. She lost her mobile home, and the windows in her car shattered.

‘It got still,’ the 37-year-old woman, who’s in a wheelchair after hurting her leg a month ago, recalled of the scene inside the shelter. ‘Then we heard a wham, things flying. Everybody screamed, huddling together. It is devastating, but you know we are alive.’

Kansas Division of Emergency Management spokeswoman Sharon Watson said Rice County said several buildings in Rice County were damaged, including one housing the sheriff’s department and jail. Inmates were transferred because of the damage. She also said homes were damaged or destroyed in several other counties.

Blown away: A home ripped apart by an apparent tornado in Thurman, Iowa on Saturday

Ruins: The path of the powerful storm left little of a brick wall and staircase of the Thurman home

Destruction: The tiny Iowa town of about 250 people was 75 per cent destroyed by a possible tornado

Rescue mission: Members of local and area fire departments go house-to-house checking on residents after Saturday’s storms

Searching: A man hunts among the wreckage of a home in Thurman battered by severe weather

Recovery: A team looks to see what they can salvage from the home, splintered by heavy winds

Shock: Residents walk the streets, taking in the damage during the calm after the storms

Chaos: Splintered wood is scattered along a road, a utility post teetering above, in the devastated town of Thurman

Downed: Trees cracked in half litter the landscape of a building, where windows appears to have blown out

The aftermath: High winds appear to have ripped the shingles off a house and twisted a metal fence in the front yard

Repair: People begin to pick up the pieces, helping to remove fallen trees and debris from a damaged property on Saturday

In Creston, about 75 miles from Des Moines, the Greater Regional Medical Center suffered roof damage and had some of its windows blown out by a storm, said John Benson, a spokesman for Iowa Homeland Security and Emergency Management. Patients were being moved to a hospital in Osceola, about 30 miles away. No injuries were reported.

Strong storms knocked out power in Des Moines, Council Bluffs and Sioux City. The National Weather Service in Des Moines also received reports of high winds that toppled at least five semis on Interstate 29.

In southeast Nebraska, an apparent tornado took down barns, large trees, and some small rural structures.

Overturned: The storms that flipped the semis in Thurman were affected by a massive system that stretched from Northern Nebraska south through Oklahoma

Emergency: EMTs raced to the scene as rain continued to pound the region

In northeast Nebraska, Boone County Sheriff David Spiegel said baseball-sized hail had damaged vehicles, shattered windows and tore siding from houses in and around Petersburg, about 140 miles northwest of Omaha. Johnson County emergency director Clint Strayhorn said he was still trying to determine how long the twister was on the ground and how much damage it did.

‘I’m on a 2-mile stretch that this thing is on the ground and I haven’t even gotten to the end of it yet,’ he said Saturday afternoon as he walked the path of destruction near the Johnson-Nemaha county line. He didn’t immediately know of any injuries.

Two possible tornadoes were reported father south in Nebraska near the Kansas border, and as many as 10 others were reported in largely rural parts of western and central Kansas, including one north of Dodge City that was said to be on the ground for a half-hour, weather officials said.

Wild weather: A weather forecast for Saturday issued at 4:41pm EDT by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) shows severe weather conditions stretching across the U.S.

Severe: This graphic shows the areas as risk of ‘life threatening’ weather on Saturday – tornado sirens were sounded in Oklahoma City at dawn

In Salina, Kansas, tornado sirens sounded after a possible tornado was spotted nearby. National Weather Service meteorologist Mike Scott also said tornadoes were reported in the central and western Kansas counties of Pratt, Stafford, Rush and Hodgeman.

There were reports of a home damaged in Rush County and an old schoolhouse damaged in Hodgeman County.

Tornado threats caused some weekend festivities to be called off. The threat prompted University of Nebraska-Lincoln athletic officials to cancel the annual spring football game minutes before Saturday’s kick-off.

Damage: The storms struck Oklahoma on Friday, destroying several buildings around the town of Newcastle

Devastation: 19 people were sent to hospital with minor injuries after the Oklahoma tornado

‘Life-threatening’: Huge tornadic super cells shoot out lightning bolts in the skies near the area of Apache, Oklahoma

Storm chaser: Photographer Brad Mack from Orange County, California, takes photos of lightning from a tornadic super cell near Apache City Oklahoma

Electrifying: Huge storm clouds shoot out lightning bolts in the skies near the area of Apache Oklahoma – the worst of the storms are predicted for this evening

Strike: Lightning was hitting Nebraska days before the expected outbreak of violent storms

Ominous: The skies over Nebraska hinted at the extreme weather expected to hit the Midwest this weekend

The McConnell Air Force Base in Wichita, Kansas, relocated 16 aerial refueling tankers to Grand Forks Air Force Base in North Dakota because of the risk of hail from the storms. And four air refueling aircraft from Forbes Field in Topeka were flown to Kirtland Air Force Base in New Mexico, and three other aircraft were moved into hangars to protect them from the potential for large hail in the Shawnee County area.

Forecasters warned that even once the danger Saturday night passed, the threat from the storm system wasn’t over. Severe weather was also possible for a significant band of the center of the country on Sunday.

‘The threat isn’t over with tonight, unfortunately. Severe weather is possible again tomorrow from east Texas and Arkansas and up into the Great Lakes,’ said Bill Bunting, chief of operations at the Storm Prediction Center, which is part of the National Weather Service.

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The Flood Won’t Stop the Fair

Posted by admin on Apr 15, 2012 | 0 comments

Owego, NY (WBNG Binghamton) The scars from September’s flood are still healing in Owego.

Thanks to some volunteers, one of the places many remember for the fun times will be ready to welcome some more this summer.

At the Tioga County Fairground volunteers must take down the old, before building the new.

“It is a big project and in my opinion it’s just starting the completion process,” says Owego Mayor Kevin Millar. “I really do not know how much more work the Fair Board has to do, I’m just here as a helper to help move metal and wood.”

All of these efforts are to host the Tioga County Fair this summer.

“We’ve had people that have come both days and just come down and pitch in, and they’re working hard,” says Fair Board member Clover Perrotta. “I can’t believe how hard they’re here working they’re just to volunteer.”

When flood damage from this past September left the Fairgrounds without electricity, water, or safe structures, people of all ages showed up this weekend to start the rebuilding process.

“What happened is just so tragic because of the flood and everything, it just broke my heart. I needed to help out,” says 11 year-old Lauren Gwardy.

A local business owner even heard about the cause and donated heavy duty equipment to help the demolition process as much as he could.

“We had support equipment that would help the fair committee and the other volunteers so we thought it would be good to bring the water trucks down, bring the excavators down, get the buildings torn down that needed to be torn down,” says Eric Johnson of Johnson’s Pools and Spas.

Community support that the Fair Board members needed to see to believe this summer’s fair would take place.

“Until this weekend I was very, a little skeptical, as to whether or not we were gonna be able to pull it off and really have the fair this year,” says Perrotta.

The volunteers at the Fairgrounds completely demolished one damaged horse barn, and salvaged another all within two days.

The story of how three donkeys landed two Oswego County families in court

Posted by admin on Apr 11, 2012 | 0 comments

Oswego, NY — A trial date has been set in the case concerning who owns two Oswego County donkeys.

The jury trial will begin July 16 in state Supreme Court in Oswego.

Betty and Henry Suhr, of county Route 85 in the town of Oswego, say the two donkeys belong to them. They maintain they loaned the animals to Kim Sitzer, of Hannibal, seven years ago and can’t get them back.

They are suing Sitzer, contending she treated the donkeys negligently, defamed the couple’s character and was responsible for having them falsely arrested and maliciously prosecuted.

This is the sad tale of Libby, Olive and Arturo.

Anyone who travels Route 48 between Fulton and Oswego may be familiar with the names. Signs adorn both sides of Ozzie’s Antiques, chastising the Oswego County Sheriff’s office and others involved in the lives of the three.

Libby, Olive and Arturo are donkeys that Betty and Henry Suhr, of County Route 85 in the town of Oswego, say belong to them. They maintain they loaned the animals to Kim Sitzer of Hannibal seven years ago and can’t get them back.

Now, they are suing Sitzer, contending she treated the donkeys negligently, defamed the couple’s character, and was responsible for having them falsely arrested and maliciously prosecuted.

And, ultimately, the Suhrs want their donkeys back.

The Suhrs declined be interviewed for this article, but a lawsuit they filed in court tells some of their story.

Their Save the Donkeys Facebook page, informs readers, “Here we are, $25,000 out for attorney fees and without our animals on our property!” And those signs along Route 48 make an accusation of animal abuse and question how a county sheriff’s deputy handled the matter.

The saga began in 2004 when, according to the Suhr’s suit, Sitzer wanted to buy one or more of the Suhrs’ donkeys. While the Suhrs wouldn’t sell their animals, they agreed to loan them to Sitzer so she could use them for breeding. Sitzer would keep any offspring from the female donkeys.

The deal was good as long as Sitzer agreed to take proper care of the donkeys, allowed the Suhrs to inspect and approve the site where Sitzer would keep the three and to could visit the donkeys on occasion, the suit says. If Sitzer could not care for the donkeys, the Suhrs would take them back, it says.

All of this was done through an oral agreement, according to the Suhrs’ court papers.

The Suhrs checked the donkeys a number of times through the years and everything was going well, the suit says. But in July 2009, after an anonymous phone call, the Suhrs checked on their animals and found that Arturo had been killed by a steer and Libby and Olive were being kept in muddy ground with “manure and muck up to their bellies,” according to their complaint.

Libby and Olive also had overgrown hooves, making it “difficult and painful for the donkeys to walk,” had lice and founder, which is an inflammation of the tissue on which the hoof is attached, the suit says.

The Suhrs had the animals seen by a veterinarian. They claim in their suit that Sitzer agreed to let them have the animals back and on July 13, 2009, they loaded the donkeys onto a trailer and took them, while Sitzer wasn’t home — “over the objection of (Sitzer’s) daughter.”

The Suhrs contend Sitzer then “signed an affidavit falsely stating that she owned all three animals and further falsely stating that she gave no one permission to remove the animals from the property.” The Suhrs were arrested and charged with petit larceny and trespass.

Those charges were dismissed Feb. 1, 2010 in Oswego Town Court.

Meanwhile, Sitzer took the donkeys back through “the concerted efforts of Oswego County Sheriffs, including Deputy Charles Midlar …,” without the knowledge of the Suhrs, their suit says.

Sitzer’s lawyer, Timothy Kirwan, declined to speak about the case before the trial. Sitzer also would not comment.

The Facebook Save Our Donkeys page outlines the story from Betty and Henry Suhr and tries to persuade those favoring the Suhrs to come out to the trial. It says, “The purpose of this site is to ask for the public’s support in our effort to save our two donkeys, Libby and Olive, from abuse and neglect.”

The 61st Miami-Dade County Fair & Expo is Underway

Posted by admin on Mar 21, 2012 | 0 comments

Come live the experience and be a part of the Miami-Dade County Fair, going on daily until April 1, 2012.

Continue reading on Examiner.com The 61st Miami-Dade County Fair & Expo is Underway: – Miami art events | Examiner.com http://www.examiner.com/art-events-in-miami/the-61st-miami-dade-county-fair-expo-is-underway#ixzz1pllMtP1X

Local dad accused of abandoning daughter, nieces at RodeoHouston

Posted by admin on Mar 6, 2012 | 0 comments

HOUSTON – A family outing led to a trip to jail for a Houston dad who allegedly left his daughter and two nieces alone for two hours at RodeoHouston.

Ralph Robinson, 22, is charged with three counts of child abandonment.

According to police, Robinson took the three girls, ages 4, 6 and 7, to the show Sunday night.

But a woman sitting next to the kids said Robinson left the girls there for two hours, returning only once to check on them.

The woman called security, and guards took the kids into custody and detained Robinson until police arrived.

Robinson was taken to the Harris County Jail, where he remained Monday on $6,000 bond.

Rising gas prices create tough climate for states’ proposals to increase gas tax

Posted by admin on Mar 5, 2012 | 0 comments

ANNAPOLIS, Md. (AP) — As if gas prices weren’t high enough, several states across the U.S. are looking to raise fuel taxes they say are needed to pay for roads and bridges that are outdated, congested and in some cases, dangerous.

Maryland’s governor is proposing a phased-in 6 percent sales tax by 2 percent a year, which would raise about $613 million annually when fully implemented. Iowa is considering raising its current 21-cent-per-gallon tax by either 8 cents or 10 cents.

Such proposals were hard to even contemplate during the recession and its immediate aftermath. Now, states forced to grapple with the problem are running into record-high gas prices for this time of year and lingering effects of the recession.

In Maryland, lawmakers are questioning whether the time is right for such an increase, which is never popular even in good fiscal times. “They understand that it’s needed,” Delegate Tawanna Gaines, a Democrat, said when asked about the proposal last month, on a day when the national average price of gasoline hit $3.65 a gallon. The average price of gas on Monday pushed toward $3.80 a gallon. “They get that, but they basically believe that you can’t get blood out of a turnip. It’s going to be a very, very tough sell.”

Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley, a Democrat, is quick to point out that the state hasn’t raised its gas tax since 1992 — and the flat tax doesn’t buy nearly as much as it once did. But some lawmakers say they are getting significant pushback from residents who are calling their offices to express opposition at a time when Maryland, like most other states, is still trying to bounce back from the recession.

O’Malley’s plan would delay a 2 percent annual increase if gas prices rise by more than 15 percent in a fiscal year. Lawmakers also say Maryland’s $1.1 billion deficit is creating another obstacle, because his challenging budget plan includes a variety of other tax increases that legislators will be considering.

Other states also are looking at increasing revenue streams for transportation projects after years of neglect. Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder, a Republican, is calling on lawmakers in his state to raise $1.4 billion more for transportation needs. In Arkansas, voters may be asked to consider raising two taxes to help pay for the state’s roads. In Iowa, a commission named by Republican Gov. Terry Branstad recommended late last year that the fuel tax be increased.

In Michigan, state lawmakers in both parties are considering higher fuel-related taxes and vehicle registration fees to raise more than $1 billion of the $1.4 billion the governor is seeking. Rep. Rick Olson, a Republican who supports the revenue increases, contends it’s a matter of trying to avoid larger expenses later, if maintenance is deferred. “It’s certainly going to be difficult, and no one argues that we need $1.4 billion,” Olson said. “The longer we wait, the more it is going to cost us.”

In both Maryland and Michigan, business groups have been supportive of raising revenue for transportation.

Rich Studley, president of the Michigan Chamber of Commerce, said Michigan’s transportation system is crucial to three top industries in the state, including manufacturing, agribusiness and tourism. “It’s really, from a Chamber of Commerce perspective, all about jobs and the economy,” Studley said.

View full sizeBrian Witte / APKathleen Snyder, president and CEO of the Maryland Chamber of Commerce, takes part in a Jan. 19 rally in Annapolis, Md., backing an increase in the gas tax. The chamber is one of several business organizations that is part of the Statewide Transportation Alliance to Restore the Trust, which advocates for a gas tax increase along with assurances that any new money headed to the state’s Transportation Trust Fund won’t be used for other purposes.

Kathy Snyder, Maryland’s Chamber of Commerce president, also is backing a revenue increase in Maryland. However, she said the chamber would rather phase in a 10-cent increase to the state’s flat tax, instead of O’Malley’s phase-in of a sales tax.

“Transportation funding is one of the top priorities of the Maryland chamber again this year,” Snyder said. “Like many states, we don’t have enough funding to build any road, bridge, highway or transit project either from state funds or federal funds.”

An Arkansas constitutional amendment that lawmakers have placed on the November ballot will ask voters to approve a temporary, half-cent sales tax to pay for the state’s highways. The sales-tax measure is part of a highway plan calling for an increase in the state’s diesel tax, which the Legislature approved last year. That plan was scaled back when the state’s trucking lobby withdrew its support and said voters would not approve a tax hike. Instead, voters approved extending a $575 million highway bond program in November.

A second proposal in Arkansas would raise the state’s severance tax on natural gas to pay for highways. A former natural-gas executive has until July 6 to submit more than 62,000 signatures to place his proposal on the November ballot. It would increase the severance tax to 7 percent. Wells are now taxed at between 1.25 percent and 5 percent of the value of the gas being taken from the land.

In Iowa, a commission recommended late last year that the fuel tax be increased by 8 cents to 10 cents per gallon. Iowa has gone even longer than Maryland in increasing its current 21cents-per-gallon tax, which was last raised in 1989. Branstad reacted by saying there was no need to increase the tax this year, and instead told state transportation officials to identify $50 million in savings that could be diverted to road projects. They have done so.

Some Iowa lawmakers think that’s inadequate, however, and committees in both the House and Senate are debating a fuel-tax increase.

Branstad continues to say he’s focused on finding efficiency but refuses to issue a veto threat that would halt debate immediately. Republicans run the House and top leaders there have the power to block debate, but they have yet to do so. Democrats run the state’s Senate, and they say the issue will proceed only if it gets broad support from Republicans.

Interest groups pushing the issue say there are enough votes to approve the increase, with the only remaining question being if an adequate level of Republican support can be found to avoid the issue being used against Democrats in November. All sides say they will need some signal from Branstad that he will approve the measure, even if it only comes privately.

In Maryland, O’Malley focused much of his State of the State speech on the need to make tough budget choice in order to find money that would help create construction jobs and maintain transportation infrastructure crucial to economic development in the suburbs of the nation’s capital, which has some of the worst traffic in the nation. “To create jobs, a modern economy requires modern investments,” O’Malley said in the Feb. 1 speech. “Investments by all of us, for all of us.”

O’Malley’s chief of staff, Matthew Gallagher, has been meeting with lawmakers to underscore the gas tax measure’s “breaking mechanism,” which would defer any increase in fiscal years when the price of gas increases by more than 15 percent. Gallagher said the administration anticipated concern about price volatility and included the slowdown to allay worries. “I think there is an awareness about the significant need for funding and an awareness that nothing has happened on this in 20 years,” Gallagher said.

Studley, who is optimistic there will be a window of opportunity to pass legislation in Michigan this year, noted the challenges of previous years, when lawmakers have told him to come back with the proposal when it’s not an election year or when gas prices are not high. “Sometimes, working on this issue is kind of like going into that friendly neighborhood tavern, where everybody knows your name and the sign behind the bar says ‘Free beer tomorrow,’ which sounds good, but tomorrow never comes,” Studley said.