Many of the jellied pieces had come apart on impact, but those that landed in taller grass were in batter shape. Theories abounded on the Internet about what it might be, including the usual extraterrestrial-themed guesses.

The substances do not melt in water, do not smell, and are not sticky.

The company says its wireless and wireline operations teams from Florida to Maine are completing the tasks necessary for preparation, and points out that since last year’s storm season, has launched its 4G LTE network in numerous markets along the East Coast.

“Wireless communication is critical before, during and after hurricanes and other weather-related emergencies,” said Nancy Clark, Northeast president for Verizon Wireless.  ”We work hard every day to enhance and maintain the nation’s largest, most reliable wireless network and to deliver consistently superior service to our customers when and where they need it most.  Preparation is key to staying safe.  We have years of experience of planning for and maintaining service during severe weather and are very proud of how our employees and network have performed in meeting these challenges.”

Verizon says its Business Continuity and Emergency Management team has activated its National Emergency Coordination CEnter, so that Verizon execs can quickly deploy recovery efforts. They’re also preparing for possible flooding, power outages and downed trees and wires. They’re reviewing the inventory of supplies like utility poles, cable and other equipment and are already staffing positions specifically for recovery.

“The Verizon communications networks require power to function properly,” the company says. ”If commercial power goes out, backup batteries and generators in Verizon’s central switching offices, mobile units and field facilities keep power flowing so customers’ phones ring even when the lights go out.  The company is pre-arranging fuel delivery for these critical facilities to ensure they continue to function during possible extended power outages.”

They’re also moving trucks and other portable equipment out of low-lying areas where possible, while building sump pumps are being tested and drains and gutters cleared.

“At Verizon, we know how critical communications are during and after severe storms, and customers can count on our network to weather the storm,” said Chris Creager, Verizon Telecom senior vice president of national operations for consumer and mass markets. “We’ve learned over the past 100-plus years what we need to do to minimize the impact of Mother Nature on our network so that service is maintained and we can respond quickly and effectively when problems do develop.”

In addition to its own preparations, Verizon is encouraging its customers who may be in the path of Hurricane Irene to prepare as well. The company has provided the following tips:

• Keep phones, batteries, chargers and other equipment in a dry, accessible location.  Consider waterproof accessories or simple zip-lock storage bags to protect devices.
• Keep wireless phone batteries fully charged – in case local power is lost – well before warnings are issued.
• Have additional charged batteries and car-charger adapters available for backup power.
• Maintain a list of emergency numbers – police and fire agencies; power and insurance companies; family, friends and co-workers; etc. – and program them into your phone.
• Distribute wireless phone numbers to family members and friends.
• Download applications from a wide variety of weather- and safety-related apps for smartphones, tablets and other devices.  Many of these apps are free.
• Use a service such as Backup Assistant, the free Verizon Wireless application that stores a phone’s address book on a secure server in case the phone is lost or damaged.
• Limit non-emergency calls to conserve battery power and free-up wireless networks for emergency agencies and operations.
• Send brief text messages rather than voice calls for the same reasons as above.
• Forward your home phone calls to your wireless number if you evacuate.
• Check weather and news reports on wireless phone applications when power is out.
• Customers who rely solely on cordless phones in their home should consider purchasing an inexpensive hard-wired phone that plugs directly into a wall jack.  Cordless phones will not function without commercial power.
• While home answering machines do not work without power, Verizon voice mail service powered by the network will help families communicate.

The hurricane has already prompted evacuation efforts in New York. It’s getting closer.

The International Space Station has captured some footage of Hurricane Irene that is simply stunning. The footage, taken Wednesday afternoon, shows the hurricane as it moved over the Bahamas.

The video, pulled from the NASA website, has this description:

From 230 miles above the Earth, cameras on the International Space Station captured new views of powerful Hurricane Irene as it churned over the Bahamas at 3:10 p.m. EDT on August 24, 2011. Irene is moving to the northwest as a Category 3 hurricane, packing winds of 120 miles an hour. Irene is expected to strengthen to a Category 4 storm as it heads toward the Outer Banks of North Carolina, the Eastern Seaboard and the middle Atlantic and New England states.

Check it out –

The video comments present the strange dichotomy of fear and awe that we feel from something like this. One commenter says how “amazing and humbling” the video is while another says “awesome video of nature’s fury; let’s all hope for minimal damage and casualties.

NASA has been tweeting about the hurricane as it moves toward the east coast of the U.S.

Nature is both fascinating and dangerous. FEMA suggests that you go to ready.gov for tips on how to prepare if you are in the storm’s path. The Red Cross has also come up with a list (pdf) of supplies you need to prepare for the storm.

[The lead image is a view of the hurricane taken yesterday by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer on the Terra satellite]

According to The Weather Channel, the quake’s epicenter was in Virginia and reports claim that it was felt in New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Rhode Island, New Hampshire, Toronto and Ottawa.

Businesses are already exploiting the quake:

Some are already making jokes at Redskins’ QB Rex Grossman’s expense:

CNN tweets that the quake was felt in Martha’s Vineyard, where President Obama is:

Some are blaming Obama himself for the quake:

While there have been plenty of evacuations (including at the Pentagon), we’ve yet to see any reports of damage or injury from the quake.

It’s always interesting to see the different perspectives on the weather on Twitter (probably why they just announced a new partnership with the Weather Channel).

The quake isn’t the only weather event that’s currently on Twitter’s trending topics. Hurricane Irene is also on there at the moment. More on that here.

One really interesting aspect of this whole earthquake thing is that there was also a quake in Colorado last night – the strongest in the state since the 70s, according to reports. In fact, there have been quite a few around the country in the last day. Look at this map from Intellicast:

Google thinks this may help make travel easier. It can’t hurt to see the weather as you’re planning the route you’re about to journey upon.

Users will see “weather” added to the list in the widget in the right hand corner of Google Maps (with traffic, photos, etc.). When selected, you’ll not only see weather info on the map itself, but in the left panel, you’ll see current temps from The Weather Channel’s weather.com for the areas that are on the screen. There is also cloud coverage info from the U.S. Naval Research Lab.

“And, if you look closely, you can also tell if it’s day or night around the world by sun and moon icons,” notes user experience designer Jonah Jones.

If you click on the weather icon for a city, it will open a window displaying data about humidity, wind conditions and the four-day forecast. Users can also adjust units for wind speed and temperature, and enable/disable clouds.

Speaking of the weather and the Weather Channel, Twitter announced last week that it has teamed up with The Weather Channel on social weather, which sees TWC using tweets about weather for an interesting citizen weather reporting feature.

Well, I’m not sure that Twitter’s altering the weather itself too much (though there was that stuff about Google searches’ impact on the environment a while back), but it is now adding to weather reporting.

Twitter announced today that it has partnered with The Weather Channel to bring real time tweets about the weather to The Weather Channel, Weather.com, and The Weather Channel’s mobile apps.

The Weather Channel has created Twitter accounts for 200 U.S. cities. Users should be able to keep up with the local weather via these accounts.

If you go to Weather.com, they have a tool called “Social Weather,” which allows you to find the local weather for your area, provided that you live in an area they’re tweeting about.

Twitter itself provides a list of other accounts to follow for commentary around weather events here.

“People send more than 200 Tweets per minute about the weather,” says Twitter on its official blog. “When conditions turn severe, weather-related Tweets double, as people share powerful personal stories along with reports of hurricanes, heat waves and blizzards.”

Take that Google+.

“The stage blew down and collapsed. Everyone is shaken up but band and crew are all fine,” the band said in an update on their website.

They also posted the following before/after images:

Before

After

The AP shared the following clip via YouTube:

Mobile phones have become major contributors to journalism. Likewise, sites like YouTube have become important source of timely video.

Apple is building a system to recognize concert events and shut down iPhones when they are trying to film a performance. There are other reasons why this move is controversial, but this event gives us something else to think about.

Sure, disaster doesn’t strike at concerts on a daily basis, but it does strike from time to time. Remember the Great White fire? The Dimebag Darrell shooting?

Thankfully, it appears this didn’t turn out to be as disastrous as these other events, though people were injured. The number and severity of injuries are unclear. The AP reported that at least one as “seriously” injured.

Although the tornado damaged buildings and threw debris around the track, nobody was reported injured as a result of the storm.

“Several barns have been damaged, some substantially,” Spokesman John Asher told Reuters. “There’s a lot of debris, the power is out.”

Officials had to evacuate about 150 horses and 100 stable workers who have homes situated on the grounds. All the races scheduled for today have been cancelled, but they expect to resume racing tomorrow.

All in all, 9 barns were destroyed in the 110 mph winds accompanying the tornado.

Tornadoes always make for compelling user content, as amateurs take out their cameras to document the impressive storms. While the YouTube videos for the Churchill Downs tornado are not as widespread or ultimately as impressive as user-videos from places like Sedalia or Joplin, the uploaded videos so far show both the formation of the funnel cloud and the damage to the barns.

This video show the entire formation of the tornado as it swirls in the sky. Note that once the video hits about 1:57, you begin to see the tornado touch down and debris begin to fly. Whoever shot the video was pretty close to the tornado.

This video shows the size of the tornado and it’s relation to both Churchill Downs and Louisville Cardinal Stadium.

This last video show the damage close up to one of the barns –

Luckily the tornado only did physical damage and didn’t hurt anyone. It’s been a crazy year already for tornadoes, with towns in the South and Midwest still trying to pick up the pieces. Although this tornado didn’t cause catastrophic devastation, it did hit one of our country’s historic landmarks. Plus, living in Kentucky, you rarely see something like this.

The latest death toll from Sunday’s tornado in Joplin is 89. The Weather Channel’s tornado expert Greg Forbes is saying that the twister could have been at least an F4, which would make it the strongest to hit that area of the country, going back to 1880. He also says that according to the debris signature, the tornado encompassed an area of over a mile wide.

The Red Cross has tweeted a link to their Safe and Well site, where you can report yourself as safe for loved ones across the country.

Videos from the disaster are just beginning to hit YouTube, including this one of people inside a convenience store when the tornado hit. Most of it is dark, but the audio in enough to paint a picture of what it was like to be in the middle of the storm:

These two videos show the devastation left behind by the tornado, one from the air and one from the ground:

Image Courtesy of Weather.com

Weatherbug – The simplicity of Apple’s Weather app, but with a few extras for your phone. It’s the largest network of professional weather stations in the US and is the only source for truly live, local weather (as taken from their site).

BePut – enables users to share their whereabouts with people they want to find them. Users simply use the application to locate their exact position and with a touch of a button, have the opportunity to send an email or text message to the desired recipient with their exact location. The recipient gets a special FindMe Key which is secure. The only guaranteed way to not get lost.

Car Care & Roadside Emergencies – I don’t know about you, but I absolutely hate it when things don’t go according to the plan. You have this important presentation, and you end up with a flat tire in an express way. Or maybe you are trying to get home from a concert, and your car doesn’t start up. These situations happen all the time, and they usually tend to happen when you expect them the least. Now some of us have a knack for breaking and fixing things as far as cars are concerned.

Waze – Waze is a social mobile application that enables drivers to build and use real-time road intelligence. The service includes constantly-updated road maps, alerts on traffic and accidents, and data providing users with the fastest route to get to wherever they need to go. Map and traffic updates are automatically collected and generated as users drive with Waze activated, but drivers can also actively report and update other users with what’s happening on the road.

Shazam – In the car for hours and can’t figure out the song playing on the radio? When you hear a song and wonder what it is, Shazam is there with the answer. Hold your iPhone to the music and within seconds Shazam will tell you the artist and track name. You can even download the song through iTunes on your iPhone.

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