Environment

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** FILE ** Mail carrier Kenjiro Ishimori rides a motorcycle after delivering mails at an area devastated by the March 11 earthquake and tsunami in Ishinomaki, Miyagi Prefecture, northeastern Japan, Saturday, April 30, 2011. (AP Photo/Hiro Komae)

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Angela Gray, of Cullman, Ala., weighs her future as she waits for help on the steps of the Cullman County Courthouse on Thursday. Her home was destroyed by a tornado.

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QB Norm Snead, Wake Forest (1961, 2nd) - Might not have been a great quarterback for the Redskins, but they were able to trade him for a great quarterback (Sonny Jurgensen*).

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ASSOCIATED PRESS Space shuttle Endeavour is scheduled to launch at 3:47 p.m. Friday. The next-to-the-last shuttle mission has boosted the local economy.

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CHRISTOPHER JOHNSON/SPECIAL TO THE WASHINGTON TIMES Debris sit atop what's left of a three-story building surrounded by rubble in the obliterated city of Minami-Sanriku, Japan. Reconstruction officials are calling for settlements to be built on high ground.

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Richmond American Homes is building 45 single-family homes on quarter-acre sites at Hope Hill Crossing in Woodbridge. The homes have 2,333 to 2,736 finished square feet, with base prices from $429,990 to $449,990.

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The center-island kitchen in the Harvard model features stainless steel appliances, granite counters, hardwood flooring and a pantry.

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Lightning touches down on the Louisiana side of the Mississippi River early Wednesday before finding its way to Vicksburg, Miss., bringing heavy rain and winds with it. At least four deaths were reported in Mississippi. (AP Photo/The Vicksburg Post, Bryant Hawkins)

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Allen Hartfield walks past downed electric lines on County Road 101 in Oxford, Miss., on Wednesday. A spate of severe storms downed trees, as well as power lines, with deadly effect in Mississippi. AP Photo/Oxford Eagle, Bruce Newman)

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People examine damage in Vilonia, Ark., on Tuesday after a tornado hit the area late Monday. The National Weather Service office in North Little Rock sent survey teams to Vilonia to investigate the damage from Monday's storm.

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ASSOCIATED PRESS PHOTOGRAPHS Kasey Medley (right) stands on the front porch of her flooded home with her friend, Erica Cass, on Tuesday in Poplar Bluff, Mo. Powerful storms have pushed river levels to dangerous heights and are threatening to flood several towns in Missouri.

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FAIRFAXCOUNTY.GOV "We have determined that federal law does not give the county an opportunity to challenge that environmental assessment at this time," said Fairfax County Supervisor Jeffrey C. McKay.

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Kasey Medley (right) stands on the front porch of her flooded home with her friend, Erica Cass, on Tuesday in Poplar Bluff, Mo. Powerful storms that swept through the nation's midsection have pushed river levels to dangerous heights and are threatening to flood several towns in Missouri.

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After Tuesday's service for Chernobyl disaster victims at St. Elias Cathedral near the nuclear power plant site in Ukraine, (from left) Russian Orthodox Church Patriarch Kirill, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, Ukrainian Orthodox Metropolitan Vladimir and Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych ring bells in memory of the victims.

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ASSOCIATED PRESS PHOTOGRAPHS On the 25th anniversary of the nuclear disaster at Chernobyl, Vera Toptunova mourns at the Moscow grave of her son Leonid, a senior control engineer at Reactor No.4 when it exploded April 26, 1986. "It's of utmost importance that we understand what kind of force humankind is dealing with so that our solutions meet the challenges of nuclear energy," Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said.

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Reporters surround National Police Agency Chief Takaharu Ando (center) for news on the search effort in Futaba, a town now almost deserted near the radiation-spewing Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant in northeastern Japan. Soldiers joined the effort Monday to find the remains of some of the 11,900 people still missing since the tsunami hit March 11. (Kyodo News via Associated Press)

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Sumi Abe, 80, is rescued from her tsunami-destroyed home in Ishinomaki, Japan, on March 20. Likely the most famous of the tsunami survivors, Mrs. Abe has come to personify the enduring spirit that many believe will help Japan overcome its worst crisis since World War II. (Asahi Shimbun via Associated Press)

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Dean West and his wife, Nancy, show off the 1974 Volkswagen Super Beetle he has converted to run on all-electrical power in the garage of his home in Milton, Wash. Electric-car advocates say the state of Washington risks alienating Mr. West and others like him with proposed legislation that would impose a $100 annual fee on electric cars to make up for lost gas-tax revenue. (Associated Press)

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Miller and Smith is building single-family homes and town homes at Millville by the Sea in Millville, Del. The three-bedroom single-family homes are priced from $239,900 to $319,900.

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The O'Neill Development Corporation and Peabody ArchItects are building the area's first Passive House in Bethesda, Md. Although it looks like a normal house from the outside, it is completely energy efficient and designed to save an average of 90 percent of the cooling and heating energy of a standard home. Some of the features that help are 8-inch-thick walls, triple-glazed windows, and extra insulation and sealing. (Barbara L. Salisbury/The Washington Times)