Rising rivers caused by several days of continued rain forced hundreds of families out of their homes in Maine and Maryland on Friday. However, flooding across the East is still far from a widespread catastrophe.

Currently waning out from the snowy winter season, areas outside of the city of New York were the most affected. Also, northern New Jersey, which is a notable flood-prone area, are still in water. The flood waters are not likely to dry for a couple of days.

State police reported that 1,300 homes had to be evacuated by midmorning Friday since they are situated in Pequannock close to the Pompton River. The same happened with 100 homes in Fairfield. By midday, several shelter homes opened as American Red Cross prepared for more.

Widespread  flooding is likely to occur along Pequannock, Pompton and Ramapo rivers in North Jersey. The rivers are still not likely to reach their peak until Saturday. However, Gov. Chris Christie said worst could happen.

Christie was condemned during a blizzard in late December when he was not in the state when it occurred. But now, he has announced a state of emergency even though the rain has not yet started.

According to weather agency National Weather Service, there will be no expected major rain for the next few days, which might give a chance for the area to get dry. The department also expected the Susquehanna River located northeast of Pennsylvania to rise as high as 8 feet near Wikes-Barre by Saturday.

Moderate flooding occurred in western Maryland while both Monocacy River near Frederick and Conococheague Creek in Fairview were already over their banks.

Minor flooding continued along the Ohio River and flood waters in Cincinnati were already 3 feet above the official flood level and still rising.

The U.S. government has allowed eight additional airports to provide charter flights going to and from Cuba. This is part of the most recent small opening in the U.S. trade embargo against the Caribbean country.

On Tuesday, Customs and Border Protection said Cuba flights will now be permitted from airports in Puerto Rico, San Juan, Tampa, Pittsburgh, New Orleans, Chicago, Dallas/Fort Worth and Atlanta. However, it was still unknown when flights would start from the new cities.

Past flights to and from Cuba were only catered in Los Angeles, Miami and New York. In January, President Obama informed that Cuba charter service would be widened to other cities. He also announced that restrictions would be loosened for some U.S groups that will go on travel to Cuba.

The United States trade embargo against Cuba was imposed since February 7, 1962. It was meant to bring down the communist government after a revolution took place in 1959. Since then, only charter flights and not regular air service flights are allowed to run on U.S. and Cuba routes.

Obama said he wishes to change the relationship between Cuba and United States. Previously, he removed the limitations on sending remittances, as well as travel of Cuban American to the communist country.

Cuban Americans have swarmed into the country, which made Americans one of the top nationalities to visit the island situated just 90 miles far from Florida.

Under the administration of President Obama and Raul Castro of Cuba, negotiations on migrations issues and potential continuation of direct mail service have also been initiated.

A new exposition was held last week at New York’s exhibition space, Discovery Times Square. The exhibit, which came all the way from Italy, captured the last glimpse of the old city of Pompeii.

The city of Pompeii is a partially buried region in Rome. It was covered with 4 to 6 inches of mud, rock and volcanic ash about 2,000 years ago when the Mount Vesuvius erupted. It was a lost city for over 1,500 years, but was accidentally rediscovered in late 1950s.

Replicas of body casts, which were created by the researchers from the remains of the buried residents, lingered as a peculiar part of the exhibit. Some of them include a crouching man covering his mouth and a family of four gathering together.

The exhibit also features a short film that remakes what Pompeians might have done during the catastrophic event. The floor of the museum trembles as the volcano’s furrow widens. Also, a movie screen appears with a double door that opens to reveal a scene of 20 hardened bodies, posed from their last moments.

It was morning of August 24, 79 A.D. when Mount Vesuvius started releasing ash, noxious gases and mud- all without warning. The city was covered with darkness after a 12-mile black cloud blocked out the ray of the sun.

Pompeii’s land, located on the western coast of Italy, is now rich from volcanic soil and produced many kinds of crops such as wheat and wine grapes. The city became a sea and river port that exported goods all through the entire Roman Empire.

The city’s inhabitants are now living well as farmers, ship captains, bankers, and traders.

A massive amount of dead sardines were found drifting in a harbor marina located just south of Los Angeles. The incident puzzled authorities who initiated a huge cleanup drive.

News footage that aired on television showed piles of dead fish, which was about a foot deep from the surface, according to a police spokesman. It was blocking the way in and out for several private boats in King Harbor Marina at Redondo Beach.

The police initially identified the fish as anchovies.

Andrew Hughan, spokesman of the Department of Fish and Game in California, tentatively concluded that the fish died from oxygen deprivation after a storm drove brought them to a closed-off area in the pier.

Hughan said they did not find any signs of illegal activity that would have caused the death of the fish. Also, no oil sheen or chemicals were found in the area.

While biologists wrap up their investigation, authorities were starting to get rid of the dead fish from the water. Buckets and nets round up around the water.

Police Sgt. Phil Keenan of Redondo Beach said tons of rotting dead fish can become a hazardous material. Thus, a cleanup drive is their main concern. Authorities are trying to decide where to place the dead fish. They are also considering throwing them several miles out to the ocean.

According to Trudy Padilla, who is the tenant services coordinator of the marina, the dead fish started showing up during the overnight hours. She said the bad smell from rotting fish has not yet become so apparent, but it will if they don’t clean up the area quickly.

Washington’s cherry blossoms may bloom earlier this year as temperature increases in the district, an expert from National Park Service said on Thursday. He said cherry trees may come to a full blossom in late March.

Rob DeFeo, chief horticulturist, said that cherry blooms might bloom best starting March 29 until April 3. However, the flowers can also be seen before and after the given dates.

The full bloom of cherry trees is expected to occur halfway of the well-celebrated National Cherry Blossom Festival. The festival will be held from March 26 to April 10.

The Park Service said cherry blossoms are usually seen at its finest every year on April 4. It is considered as the average peak blossom date. Hence, the first flower blossoms of these trees may occur almost a week earlier this year.

De Feo said Yoshino cherry trees are one of the oldest most consistent things in the country’s capital. Out of the last 19 years, he has already predicted the tree’s peak bloom dates correctly 16 times.

Cherry trees came to Washington, DC as a gift from Japan to celebrate the continued relationship between both nations.

Last month, the National Christmas Tree situated near the White House was blown down by the high winds. Yet, DeFeo said the trees are still healthy. There are still 100 trees growing out of the original 3,000 trees presented from Tokyo in 1912. Meanwhile, the other 2,900 trees have been changed over time.

This year, one of the festival events will be charging admission for the first time. The Sakura Matsuri Japanese Street Festival has emerged to be the biggest Japanese festival in United States. Last year, it attracted hundreds of thousands of visitors and took place over the event’s final weekend.

However, most of the events during the two-week festival are still free, according to Diana Mayhem, president of the Cherry Blossom Festival.

The yearly horticultural festival bids goodbye to the fierce winter storms as it brings Paris to Philadelphia.

Themed “Springtime in Paris,” the Philadelphia International Flower Show welcomed visitors with over 25,000 tulips displayed under an artificial Eiffel Tower on Sunday.

The colorful floral exhibits overwhelm the senses of tourists as they mingle with mimes and musicians going around the 10-acre field. Artists also adore the re-created Parisian gardens as they try to capture its beauty through paint.

The eight-day event, which is considered as the largest indoor flower show in the world, is expected to attract almost 250,000 people. It draws both plant and flower enthusiasts, as well as individuals exhausted from the snowy winter.

The flower show has become a warm place to break away from the remains of the winter season. Now, most people are looking for leisure activities to indulge in the fragrant and vibrant blooms as spring time officially opens.

This year, the horticultural extravaganza include a tableau presenting the “Phantom of the Opera,” wedding scenery at Notre Dame, floral carousels, a small Centre Pompidou and Arc de Triomphe, as well as a scene from the cemetery in Paris.

Event organizers coordinated with suppliers to display new and fascinating plants. This year, the plants include the newest colors of Gerber daisies, new kinds of roses from Colombia, as well as orange kinds of Oncidium orchid, said Sam Lemheney, the show design director.

However, the flower exhibit gives a boost of $61 million to the city’s economy. It also serves as a fundraising and educational event for its sponsor- the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society.

The latest fare increase implemented by large American airlines has been cut in half because of the pressure felt from discount carriers.

Last week, major network carriers such as American, Continental, Delta and United increased many of their domestic fares by $20 per round trip ticket. However, the rise in cost had been lowered to $10 by Monday afternoon.

Five broad-based fare increases have already been attempted by the airlines this year. In fact, most of them adhered to the given price increase.

Larger airfare increases have been enforced twice on high-priced tickets often picked by business travelers. At that time, plane tickets were increased as high as $60 per round trip. On their third attempt, airlines failed to increase business fares.

CEO Rick Seaney of FareCompare.com said that the latest rollback took place after low-fare airlines such as AirTran, Frontier, JetBlue and Southwest started raising fares to only half of the price increases of larger carriers.

The larger network airlines subsequently slashed their fare increases in half to prevent them from pricing more than their low-fare competitors, Seaney said.

In addition, he said that American airlines will keep on testing price increases in the following weeks to determine how much travelers will accept. Some of the analysts believe that airlines will shun customers away once they further increase prices on leisure tickets.

Even though airlines offer ticket sales, prices are still higher than last year. CEO Tom Parsons of Bestfares.com said that Southwest carrier even increased its lowest sale price by $5 each way on short trips.

Airlines also increased fuel surcharges on flights involving United States and Europe. The charges went up from $360 to $400 a round trip, which tripled some of the airfares for travel in late March.

Philadelphia, Bakersfield, California and Fresno are America’s most toxic cities based on a recent study that analyzed the quality of water and air in metropolitan places.

Morgan Brennan, the person who conducted the study, said Philadelphia has more than 50 Superfund sites with poor quality of water and large quantity of toxic releases.

Baton Rouge located in Louisiana and New York City completed the top five most toxic metropolitan areas in United States.

The list was compiled by American publishing company website, forbes.com. It went through 80 chief metropolitan areas in the country and analyzed the quantity of Superfund locations. These are unused areas that contain harmful materials.

It also examined the local Air Quality Index, as well as the Toxics Release Index, which is a measurement of how much dangerous material is released, managed or recycled by local industries.

The metropolitan area of Philadelphia comprises more than 50 Superfund sites. Also, California cities have especially poor quality of air. Bakersfield made 43 days to pass AQI to 100 through a 500-point scale in 2009. Zero is the best possible score in the scale.

Fresno received 29 days to pass AQI to 100 while Los Angeles got 14 days. However, majority of the cities in U.S. can go a whole year without getting the AQI pass to 100.

On the list, Los Angeles got the number 6 spot.

However, Brennan informed that the increased levels of toxicity do not essentially mean it has high health risks for local residents. He also said that several cities on the list have already taken steps to lessen the harmful effects of increased levels of toxicity.

Wind-whipped wildfires ruined almost 70 homes and burned up more than 110, acres of land in West Texas. Windy conditions threatened to cause further disaster, authorities said on Monday.

The fires moved rapidly from the strip of land in Texas to the southern plains. It emitted smoke that covered the Interstate 20, which caused a traffic accident close to Midland, killing a 5-year-old girl. This impelled the brief closure of the highway on Sunday.

Firefighters struggled to put out the fire until Monday.

Mark Stanford from the Texas Forest Service said that downed lines of electricity could have brought many of the blazes in the Panhandle. Also, a welder ignited another fire. A flicker from a car’s tire rim began a fire when a tire burst in the Midland area, Stanford Said.

Wind of nearly 70 miles per hour was recorded by the National Weather Service. It helped spread the fire in the Amarillo area on Sunday afternoon.

The fire destroyed as much as 68 homes since it started Sunday afternoon. Ten homes were affected in Colorado City and others were in Amarillo area, Kearney said. Abilene, Lubbock, Midland and Panhandle remained at high as a result of the strong winds. However, aircrafts were expected to help by Monday.

The wildfires claimed the life of a 5-year-old child, Cameron Dominguez. She died when their pickup truck was caught up in a traffic accident. The Department of Public Security said it involved eight vehicles and two other passengers were injured. A firefighter lived through second-degree burns in a fire in close proximity to Colorado City, which is nearly 250 miles west of Dallas.

Business-owners around Panama City Beach are anxiously hoping and waiting for the arrival of thousands of teens and young adults who will eagerly celebrate this year’s spring break.

After the BP oil spill last year, a good spring break will indicate the area has recovered from past the incident. However, a weak spring break will bring another tough year for the region.

Panama City Beach had high hopes with the opening of a newly-built international airport in 2010. Yet, that was before BP oil spill ruined tourism along the strip of sugar-white sandy beaches of Florida Panhandle. The once crystal and clear waters were tarnished with oil-covered debris and tar orbs.

According to President Dan Rowe of Panama City Beach Convention and Visitor’s Bureau, March is highly important since it is their first big tourism season since the Deepwater Horizon was fixed.

Today, stores are hiring additional staff to cover extended hour shifts from March until April. Spring break shirts, Mardi gras beads, thong bikinis, and beer cosies crowd the shelves of the Paradise Found store located at Panama City Beach.

To promote the city, Rowe went to Midwest colleges with his staff. They distributed gift cards and promoted flights to the new international airport in Northwest Florida.

They went to Ohio State University, University of Michigan and University of Wisconsin. They are also planning to visit schools in Tennessee and Georgia for late spring break.

Their economy has been sustained by the steady arrival of retired tourists looking to find a break from the cruel northern winter. In December, it has seen an 8 percent raise in tourism development tax collections from the same month a couple of years ago.