The Wizard of 'as'

The word 'as' has two useful and different functions in combining parts of a sentence:

1. It can be an informal way to indicate cause:

"I can't meet you tomorrow afternoon as I am in court on a murder charge."

2. It can indicate events happening at the same time:

"As I drove by your house, I saw that it was on fire."

For the DM, however, the meaning of 'as' seems much more fluid:

"Disgraced ... actor ... hides in the back of a car as he is bailed on child porn charges" (December 30 2015)

Here 'as' seems to mean 'after' ...

I've a feeling we'll be seeing a lot of these as the year goes by.

Another trailer

On, December 30, in story about flooding in Northern England, we find:

"The storm is already causing carnage elsewhere in the country, including on the M74 in South Lanarkshire (centre) where cars were quite literally floating down the road today after the motorway was engulfed with floodwater."

"carnage" is not a synonym for "damage", and "quite literally" is redundant here.