Haiti spared the worst of Tomas - Christian Science Monitor

Tropical storm Tomas is heading into the central Atlantic Ocean after splitting the uprights – the 50-mile -wide Windward Passage between Haiti and Cuba – as a category 1 hurricane Friday.

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After inflicting an estimated $185 million in damage on the island of St. Lucia in the Lesser Antilles last weekend, resulting in 14 deaths, Tomas's effect on Cuba, Jamaica, and the Dominican Republic has been more restrained.

For residents of Haiti, still struggling to recover from last January's destructive earthquake and more recently trying to cope with an outbreak of cholera, the country dodged a bullet. So far, seven fatalities have been attributed to Tomas so far, mostly around the town of Leogane, southwest of the capital of Port-au-Prince. The city lies in a region where flooding and storm surge were said to be particularly heavy.

IN PICTURES: Tropical storm Tomas

There, initial reports indicate the storm destroyed 48 homes, partially damaged as many as 2,800, and slightly damaged another 150. But vast numbers of people in tent cities to the east have largely been spared, if initial reports hold up.

In Cuba, civil-defense officials said their country sustained little damage and no fatalities, according to the Cuban News Agency.

In Jamaica, officials were fending off questions about whether the government had over-prepared in the face of tropical-storm warnings.

"There can be no over-planning or over-reaction when there is a probable threat of a disaster," government information minister Daryl Vaz told reporters after Tomas had passed. "This was probably the best prepared we have been in terms of being proactive and doing everything we needed to do" to protect Jamaicans.

Meanwhile, across Haiti's border with the Dominican Republic, floods from the storm destroyed an estimated 1,700 homes and forced at least 8,500 people to evacuate. So far, no fatalities have been reported.

Prior to the storm, concerns centered on the effect a direct hit would have on some 1.3 million people living in tent cities in and around the Haitian capital Port-au-Prince. In some ways, it's a vulnerability too many Haitians have long experienced, says Julie Schindall, a spokeswoman for Oxfam/America in Port-au-Prince.

She notes that before the earthquake, some 80 percent of the capital's residents lived in slums in shelters hardly more robust than the tents that now house them. Even before the quake, they lived "in a country that doesn't have the infrastructure to take care of itself on a day-to-day basis the way that its neighboring countries do," she says.

As it turned out, winds in the capital were mild, and the rainfall not nearly as heavy as people feared. The worst flooding came to tent cities built on the streets of Port-au-Prince, says Andrea Koppel, a spokeswoman for the American Red Cross who currently is in the capital. There were no other paths for running water to follow.

Outside the city center, the Red Cross had been working with residents for months to dig drainage ditches and build sandbag retaining walls to keep water and mud at bay.

Teams have been working their way through these areas assessing any damage, Ms. Koppel notes. And while they have yet to report in, she says she counts it as an encouraging sign that during the height of the storm, volunteers in these areas still had cell phone service, and they reported nothing significant in the way of damage.

Prior to the storm, public health officials and aid groups were trying to stem an outbreak of cholera that threatened to reach the city and spread. At the time, representatives of the American Red Cross in Port-au-Prince expressed concerns over the effect flooding through the tent cities would have in spreading the disease.

So far, public-health officials have succeeded in keeping the small handful of cases isolated, Koppel says.

Given the 800 people killed during the 2008 hurricane season, when Haiti fell within the crosshairs of four tropical cyclones and fewer people were exposed to the elements, "we got very, very lucky" with Tomas, Koppel says.

The event once again throws a spotlight on the challenges the international community faces in trying to keep the tottering country upright while also trying to help it rebuild and become self-sustaining, aid workers say.

Tomas's timing was terrible, Oxfam's Ms. Schindall says, adding, "I sincerely hope that this is a reminder to us all that we need to seize on this opportunity after the earthquake to rebuild this country properly."

IN PICTURES: Tropical storm Tomas

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NASA Delays Shuttle Launching After Finding Hydrogen Leak and Crack - New York Times

KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, Fla. — The shuttle Discovery, already delayed three times by technical problems and bad weather, was grounded again Friday, this time by a potentially dangerous gaseous hydrogen leak in a vent line attached to the ship’s external tank.

The Discovery was initially scheduled to make its 39th and final flight last Monday, bearing fresh supplies and an intelligent robot for the International Space Station. But complications delayed the flight from Monday to Friday, when the hydrogen leak led NASA to conclude that the shuttle would not be ready to launch before its flight window closed this Monday.

Almost at the same time that NASA managers were deciding to delay another attempt until Nov. 30, the opening of the next available launching window, engineers spotted a 7-inch-long crack in protective foam insulation on the side of the giant tank.

The crack, on the side of the tank facing the Discovery, represented a possible source of debris that could have posed a threat to the shuttle’s fragile heat shield during the climb out of the dense lower atmosphere.

Officials said the crack would have been spotted during normal prelaunching inspections and most likely would have prompted a delay even if the hydrogen leak had not developed. In the end, senior NASA managers decided to take the time needed to make sure the problems were well understood and repaired before making another attempt.

“We will come back in late November and give it another shot,” said Michael Leinbach, the launching director. “We’re going to fly when we’re ready, and clearly we were not ready to fly today.”

The Discovery’s six-member crew — Cmdr. Steven W. Lindsey; Col. Eric A. Boe of the Air Force, the shuttle pilot; Col. Benjamin A. Drew Jr., also of the Air Force; Col. Timothy L. Kopra of the Army; Nicole P. Stott; and Dr. Michael R. Barratt, a physician-astronaut — flew back to Houston after the launching scrub was announced.

The Discovery is attempting an 11-day mission to deliver critical supplies and equipment to the International Space Station. It will be loaded with a new cargo module, more than 6,000 pounds of supplies and equipment and a spare set of cooling system radiators that will be stored outside the lab complex.

Because of temperature issues related to the space station’s orbit, NASA will have only about one week, from Nov. 30 through Dec. 5 or 6, to get the Discovery off the ground this year. Otherwise, the flight could be delayed until late February, throwing a wrench into NASA’s plans for carrying out a final three missions and retiring the shuttle fleet by next summer.

“Discovery’s not going out easy,” Mr. Leinbach joked earlier in the week. “She’s giving us a little bit of trouble. But that’s fine — she’ll fly perfectly when she does.”

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How Pelosi's determination could hamper Obama - Washington Post

Just when President Obama thought he had all the problems he could handle, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi might have handed him another.

Pelosi stunned many Democrats on Friday with the announcement that she will run for leader of the new Democratic minority in the House. If her colleagues and the smart money in Washington thought she would retreat and resign after the Democrats' 60-seat loss Tuesday, Pelosi reminded them that she didn't become the first female speaker in history through timidity.

The question is whether she has significantly complicated life for Obama as he prepares to deal with the Republican majority in the House and Senate Republicans led by someone who spent the week hurling thunderbolts at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. From outside reports, the White House was conflicted about whether it wanted her to stay or go, torn between loyalty to the speaker for all she did during the past two years and its own political needs in the wake of Tuesday's loss.

Pelosi would be a symbol of resistance and liberal opposition to the Republicans. If Obama wants a House leader who will help draw bright lines of distinction with the new House majority, Pelosi could be exactly the right person to lead House Democrats. If he wants more room to maneuver, to make deals with Republicans as well as confront them, she might not be at all what he wants.

Memories are short in Washington, which is why there was such widespread expectation that Pelosi would resign. Former Republican speaker Newt Gingrich stepped down days after his party's embarrassing performance in the 1998 midterms (though the party did not lose its majority). Former Republican speaker J. Dennis Hastert decided not to seek a leadership position after his party lost the majority four years ago and later quit Congress entirely.

For Pelosi, who might have looked further back in the history books, the role model could be Sam Rayburn, the legendary Democratic speaker from Texas. Rayburn's party lost its majority in the 1946 midterms but he stayed on, running successfully for minority leader - although he never liked the term.

Rayburn's persistence was rewarded when Harry S. Truman's 1948 campaign against the "do-nothing" 80th Congress not only resulted in the president's unexpected victory but the election of a Democratic majority in the House to boot.

Pelosi might not believe House Democrats will return to the majority that quickly, but she sounds determined to defend what has happened on her watch.

If Rayburn was one of the strongest speakers in history, Pelosi is the strongest of modern times. Fighting the kind of prejudice that all women in politics face, she emerged as a shrewd, savvy and, above all, tough-minded speaker. Under her leadership, the House passed historic legislation and accumulated a record of significant productivity. Without her political skills, Obama would not be able to count health care as one of his achievements.

The other side of the story is that Pelosi became as polarizing a figure as there was in Washington - much more than Obama. The health-care law has divided the country and come to symbolize Democratic overreach. She pushed House Democrats to pass the cap-and-trade energy bill, and many paid the price.

By Election Day, her image was upside down, with 29 percent viewing her favorably and 58 percent unfavorably. Only among liberal Democrats did her image hold up during the four years she has been speaker. Among all other groups - Republicans, independents, moderate and conservative Democrats - her numbers declined.

Republicans made Pelosi their favorite target in campaign commercials this fall, and Democrats who used her did so to make the point that they would keep their distance and independence if the voters rewarded them with another term. Most of them lost anyway.

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