• Alex Brandon / AP

    Denny Spicher, left, uses a garden hose to spray away residue with Pedro Cardoso as they help a neighbor after flooding from the Susquehanna River, caused by the remnants of Tropical Storm Lee, Sept. 10, in the Shipoke area of Harrisburg, Pa.

    As Susquehanna recedes, towns assess Lee's damage

    In northeastern Pennsylvania, officials hoped to lift an evacuation order Saturday afternoon for about 70,000 residents in and around Wilkes-Barre. The level of the Susquehanna River had dropped to about 32 feet on Saturday morning and was expected to be back within its banks at about 29 feet, Luzerne County Commissioner Maryanne Petrilla said.

    "We're asking people to be patient because we have a lot of logistics to work out with transportation and getting utilities turned on," Petrilla said. "We know people are anxious to get home, but we don't want them to go to a home that has no power or to an area that is still flooded."

    Read more here.

  • Tar balls wash ashore on Gulf Coast following Tropical Storm Lee

    Jay Reeves / AP

    Brandon Franklin picks up a tar ball washed in by Tropical Storm Lee from amid shells at Gulf Shores, Ala., on Tuesday, Sept. 6, 2011. Franklin, coastal plans manager for the city, said the tar balls are suspected of being pieces of submerged tar mats left over from the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. Officials said Tuesday that they plan to test the black and brown globs to find out if they're related to last year's oil spill.

    Jay Reeves / AP

    Tar balls washed in by Tropical Storm Lee are amid shells on the beach at Gulf Shores, Ala., on Tuesday, Sept. 6, 2011. City officials suspect the tar balls are left over from the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico last summer. Officials said Tuesday that they plan to test the black and brown globs to find out if they're related to last year's oil spill.

    Full story.

    Slideshow: World’s thirst for oil

    Rupak De Chowdhuri / Reuters

    Around the globe countries are drilling for it, distributing it, trading it and looking for ways to run their economies with replacements for it.

    Launch slideshow

  • Kiichiro Sato / AP

    Beachgoers run for shelter as the rain starts pouring down, Sept. 3, in Dauphin Island, Ala. As Tropical Storm Lee continues advancing toward the Louisiana coast, the storm dumps sporadic heavy rain along the coasts.

    Tropical Storm Lee trudges toward Gulf Coast

    According to msnbc.com staff and news service reports:

    The storm was expected to make landfall on the central Louisiana coast late Saturday and turn east toward New Orleans, where it would provide the biggest test of rebuilt levees since Hurricane Gustav struck on Labor Day 2008.

    Still, residents didn't expect the tropical storm to live up to the legacy of some of the killer hurricanes that have hit the city.

    "It's a lot of rain. It's nothing, nothing (compared) to Katrina," said Malcolm James, 59, a federal investigator in New Orleans who lost his home after levees broke during Katrina in August 2005 and had to be airlifted by helicopter.

    "This is mild," he said. "Things could be worse."

    Read the full story here.