NEW YORK - A Colombian Avianca jet with 158 aboard crashed Thursday night on approach to New York's Kennedy Airport after losing one engine over Long Island.
Flight 52 - a Boeing 707 en route from Bogota, Colombia, via Medellin - split open behind the cockpit, then broke into four pieces on impact in Cove Neck at 9:47 p.m. EST.
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Flooding 'siege' to continue
May 18, 1990
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As the southern Plains get "whacked again" this weekend by the worst flooding this century, the wet weather is moving north to the Midwest.
Ohio, Illinois, Missouri and Indiana can expect weekend flooding, caused in part by three weeks of rain-borne devastation in Texas, Louisiana, Arkansas and Oklahoma.
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Raging fires make West a 'war zone'
June 29, 1990
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LOS ANGELES - The Southwest is in for a smoldering weekend.
Fires are spreading destruction across Southern California and Arizona while the region bakes in 100-plus degree heat.
"It's a siege," says Karen Terrill of the California Department of Forestry && Fire Protection. "There have been 13 fires in the last 24 hours."
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Killer twisters rip through N. Illinois
Aug. 29, 1990
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Tornadoes roared Tuesday through northern Illinois, killing at least 20 people and destroying an apartment complex, a school and 90 homes.
The tornadoes touched down about 3:30 p.m. CDT and cut a path 300 yards wide through Joliet, Plainfield and Crest Hill, said Mark Finn of the Illinois State Police.
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Wildfires in Calif. could get worse
Aug. 13, 1990
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Wildfires that may get "much, much worse" are burning in California, sparked by lightning and years of drought.
The situation today:
- Yosemite National Park is closed to the public for the first time because of fire.
- In Temaha County, two fires are burning 124,000 acres - the state's worst.
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Tourists back for 'rebirth' of Yosemite
Aug. 21, 1990
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Gates to wildfire-charred Yosemite National Park reopened Monday, with 10,000 tourists eager to come inside.
Park officials expect a full house, capping off a fiery month that saw the park's first closing because of fire in its 100-year history.
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Hurricane Bob's winds push north; Residents 'concerned, ' not scared
Aug. 19, 1991
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OUTER BANKS, N.C. - Trees groaned amid swirling debris Sunday night as driving rains cut the view of Pamlico Sound from several miles to the width of a street.
Ocracoke and Hatteras islands - where 150,000 tourists had frolicked in the sun and surf Friday and Saturday - shed their summer fun as Hurricane Bob took aim.
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Fire survivors angrily ask 'Why?' Locked doors draw most criticism
Sept. 5, 1991
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HAMLET, N.C. - Anger mixed with tears here Wednesday as residents demanded answers to why 25 workers died in a chicken plant blaze.
"I feel like I'm dead," said Pamela Moore, 27, an Imperial Food Products worker who escaped after a co-worker kicked open a locked door.
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'California is built to burn'; A nightmare for urban firefighters
Oct. 21, 1991
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OAKLAND - California has seen the future, and it's burning.
One of the worst wildfires in California history roared this week into the backyards and up the hillsides of this city. In its wake, more than a dozen people are dead, hundreds of houses are reduced to rubble and thousands are homeless.
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Death toll rises in 'devastating' blaze
Oct. 22, 1991
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Firefighters Monday partially capped a blaze in drought-stricken Oakland, Calif., that has claimed at least 14 lives and destroyed 600 structures.
At least 400 homes were razed in the wildfire that started Sunday and has blackened more than 1,775 acres and sent 5,000 residents fleeing.
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Lost on runway: 8 dead; Jets collide in a 'ball of flame'
Dec. 4, 1990
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DETROIT - Experts today begin investigating why two Northwest jets collided Monday while trying to take off on the same foggy runway.
The collision sparked an explosion and fire. At least eight people were reported dead as of 2 a.m. today.
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Record rainfall ravages Texas; 13 dead; hundreds evacuated
Dec. 23, 1991
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Torrential rains continued to deluge south-central Texas Sunday after leaving at least 13 people dead, five missing and hundreds evacuated.
"It was a mess, man. We lost everything," said Jerry Lee Dear, 31, of Dallas. "We lost Christmas presents, all our food. It's just gone."
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Calif. rains just a drop for drought
Jan. 2, 1992
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LOS ANGELES - People in this drought-battered state are hearing a familiar refrain this week. Despite a series of major rainstorms, water officials say, the six-year drought is still very much with them.
"It's helpful but that's about it," says Dean Thompson of the California Department of Water Resources' Drought Center.
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Californians use respite to retrench
Feb. 14, 1992
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LOS ANGELES - Astrologer Barry David is preparing for disaster, but it has nothing to do with what's in the stars. His guide is the weather report.
With his office flooded by a series of storms that have drenched this region since Sunday, British-born David has propped his antique piano on stilts and dug a trench around his Topanga Canyon home.
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'I've never seen one that lasted so long'
June 29, 1992
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YUCCA VALLEY, Calif. - Dane Huusfeldt considers himself an old hand at riding out California's most famous natural disaster.
But even he has the shakes now. "This earthquake was not normal," says Huusfeldt, 38. "It was like Armageddon."
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Andrew hits Florida; Biggest storm in decades homes in on the coast
Aug. 24, 1992
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CORAL GABLES, Fla. - Hurricane Andrew chased as many as a million people from their homes then descended on south Florida today.
Andrew's edge hit the coast at 1:15 a.m. ET today, threatening to wreak havoc with winds between 135 and 150 mph, heavy rain and 18-foot waves.
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Andrew zeros in again; Survivors who stayed wish they hadn't
Aug. 25, 1992
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PERRINE, Fla. - Hurricane Andrew left a trail of wreck, ruin and tears across a huge swath of south Florida Monday, but to Martha Bass, her own yard summed up the fallout from one of the century's biggest hurricanes.
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Andrew took much, but left hope
Aug. 28, 1992
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CUTLER RIDGE, Fla. - For Librado Gerena, Andrew changed everything.
It took home - his apartment building, leveled.
It took health - a gash in his left leg, from wind-blown glass, required 73 stitches.
