

A funnel cloud is shown in this Aug. 18 photo made in Wilmington, N.C. Shannan Bowen/Wilmington Star-News/AP
In an April 28 photo, emergency personnel search through the remnants of a home in Ringgold, Ga., for survivors in the tornado-ravaged community. Jake Daniels/Chattanooga Times Free Press/AP/File
Matias Gomez (l.) and Jeronemo Ramirez move food and perishables out of the destroyed concession stand at the Dixie Speedway in Woodstock, Ga., on Sept. 6. John Spink/The Atlanta Journal-Constitution/AP
In this Sept. 5 file photo, firefighters battle a large wildfire near Smithville, Texas. Erich Schlegel/AP/File
A damaged home from a devastating tornado that ripped through Joplin, Missouri, in late May is seen in this August 18 photo. Eric Thayer/Reuters
A flag is seen on the foundation of a home in Joplin, Missouri, on Aug. 17. Eric Thayer/Reuters
A police officer checks on people in a house after a reported tornado struck Springfield, Mass., on June 1. Jessica Hill/AP
An aerial photo shows the flood waters from hurricane Irene around West Branch of the Susquehanna River and Susquehanna River merging into one in Sunbury, Pa., on Sept. 8. Mark Nance/Williamsport Sun-Gazette/AP
In this Aug. 27 file photo, one of two people rescued from a sailboat uses a line to make their way onto the beach on Willoughby Spit in Norfolk, Va., after a couple and their cat were rescued from the boat that foundered in the waters of the Chesapeake Bay battered by winds from Hurricane Irene. Bill Tiernan/TheVirginian-Pilot/AP/File
A mobile home frame is wrapped around a tree in Columbia, N.C., on Sept. 2, after Hurricane Irene moved through the area the week before. Jim R. Bounds/AP
Dean Moltrer laughs as he finds mail in a mailbox crushed when the front of a brick building collapsed from an earthquake in Segundo, Colo., on Aug. 23. Ed Andrieski/AP
Security guards stand at the base of the Washington Monument, blocked off by fencing the day after an earthquake shook the east coast and damaged one of the stones at the top of the monument, in Washington, on Aug. 24. Molly Riley/Reuters
People stand in Foley Square in New York after being evacuated from the Federal and State buildings that surround it on Aug. 23, after an east coast earthquake shook much of Washington, D.C., and was felt as far north as Canada. Richard Drew/AP
Police block off the alley behind the Embassy of Ecuador in Washington after part of the building sustained damages, on Aug. 23, after a earthquake in the area. Pablo Martinez Monsivais/AP