2007年VOA标准英语-Heavy Rains Flood Central US

By Greg Flakus
Houston
02 July 2007

Flooded streets in Gainesville, Texas, 18 Jun 2007

More than two weeks of heavy rains have produced floods in a large area of the central United States. From central Texas to Oklahoma, Kansas and Missouri, rivers have come up over their banks and flooded towns and farmland. At least 12 deaths have resulted. VOA's Greg Flakus has more from Houston.

In Texas, flooding has forced people from their homes all through the central part of the state, from San Antonio in the south to Fort Worth in the north. The rains continue in some areas making it difficult for residents to return to devastated¹ areas.

Bands of storm clouds have moved up across Oklahoma and on into Kansas, Missouri and northwest Arkansas, spreading rain over a wide area of the plains and producing floods in several places. Nearly half the residents of Osawatomie, Kansas had to be evacuated² after two creeks³ that run on either side of the community of 4,600 people flowed over their banks.

Farther south, on the border with Oklahoma, flood waters devastated a good part of the town of Coffeyville, forcing the shutdown of an important regional oil refinery⁴.

Speaking to VOA by telephone, Coffeyville City Manager Jeff Morris said flood waters have been contaminated by oil from the refinery. "Coffeyville Resources is located on the northeast side of our community. They did an emergency shutdown or very quick shutdown as well when reports of the river coming up rapidly came in. They did have a tank that leaked a number of gallons of crude oil into the river," he said.

Other sources estimate the amount of oil that spilled into the flood waters at over one thousand barrels. The refinery normally handles over 100,000 barrels a day. Company officials are now meeting with state officials and officials from the federal Environmental Protection Agency to deal with the contamination problem. There is no word yet on how long the refinery will remain out of operation.

 

The situation in Coffeyville was helped by a let up in the rain Monday. Jeff Morris says that will allow local officials to get a better idea of how many people in the town were forced to abandon their homes.

"We are estimating right now approximately a fourth of our community, which is approximately 2,500 people. That is purely⁵ an estimate right now. We are still trying to count roof tops that were affected⁶. Our first concern is public safety, getting the people out. Now we are trying to catch up on the statistics of things."

Kansas Governor Kathleen Sebelius declared the flooded communities a disaster area and spent much of the day Monday surveying the damage in person.

Some of the areas where heavy rain fell in Texas, Oklahoma and Kansas over the past couple of weeks have recorded near record levels of rain. At least part of the areas hit by rains in Texas and Oklahoma had experienced drought in recent years and the rains have helped replenish⁷ lakes and reservoirs. But most residents of the stricken area are ready to see an end to the current rains so that they can dry out and assess the damage to their homes.

1 devastated   

v.彻底破坏( devastate的过去式和过去分词)；摧毁；毁灭；在感情上（精神上、财务上等）压垮adj.毁坏的；极为震惊的

参考例句：

• The bomb devastated much of the old part of the city. 这颗炸弹炸毁了旧城的一大片地方。
• His family is absolutely devastated. 他的一家感到极为震惊。

2 evacuated   

撤退者的

参考例句：

• Police evacuated nearby buildings. 警方已将附近大楼的居民疏散。
• The fireman evacuated the guests from the burning hotel. 消防队员把客人们从燃烧着的旅馆中撤出来。

3 creeks   

n.小湾( creek的名词复数 )；小港；小河；小溪

参考例句：

• The prospect lies between two creeks. 矿区位于两条溪流之间。 来自辞典例句
• There was the excitement of fishing in country creeks with my grandpa on cloudy days. 有在阴雨天和姥爷一起到乡村河湾钓鱼的喜悦。 来自辞典例句

4 refinery   

n.精炼厂，提炼厂

参考例句：

• They built a sugar refinery.他们建起了一座榨糖厂。
• The purpose of oil refinery is to refine crude petroleum.炼油厂的主要工作是提炼原油。

5 purely   

adv.纯粹地，完全地

参考例句：

• I helped him purely and simply out of friendship.我帮他纯粹是出于友情。
• This disproves the theory that children are purely imitative.这证明认为儿童只会单纯地模仿的理论是站不住脚的。

6 affected   

adj.不自然的，假装的

参考例句：

• She showed an affected interest in our subject.她假装对我们的课题感到兴趣。
• His manners are affected.他的态度不自然。

7 replenish   

vt.补充；(把…)装满；(再)填满

参考例句：

• I always replenish my food supply before it is depleted.我总是在我的食物吃完之前加以补充。
• We have to import an extra 4 million tons of wheat to replenish our reserves.我们不得不额外进口四百万吨小麦以补充我们的储备。