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Garbage truck falls into sinkhole in Austin, Texas

Jane Webster
Austin American-Stateman
Fri, 10 Jun 2016 11:38 UTC
Austin sinkhole
© Rodolfo Gonzalez/Austin American-Statesman
A sinkhole swallowed the front end of a garbage truck in North Austin on Friday.

The truck's driver was fine — he found another truck and finished his route, a city official said — but Austin Water had to turn off the water in the immediate area for several hours while crews extracted the truck.

The cause was a 12-inch water main break, said Jill Mayfield, a spokeswoman for Austin Water.

"When water mains break, they run underneath the ground for a while, and then they're going to find the path of least resistance," she said.

The water from this break had flowed under the road and undercut its foundation, Mayfield said, weakening it enough for the heavy truck to break through.

A full block of West 49th Street was shut down between Woodview Avenue and Shoal Creek Boulevard on Friday morning while more than a dozen people worked to pull the truck out of the hole.

Workers hooked the truck to a tow vehicle, but then they had to get steel plates to make the ground safe enough for towing.
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Attention

Shallow magnitude 3.3 earthquake strikes near King City, California

Quakebot
Los Angeles Times
Sun, 12 Jun 2016 10:25 UTC
quake
© El Comercio/AP
A shallow magnitude 3.3 earthquake was reported Saturday afternoon 18 miles from King City, Calif., according to the U.S. Geological Survey. The temblor occurred at 1:32 p.m. Pacific time at a depth of 3.1 miles.

According to the USGS, the epicenter was 24 miles from Coalinga, 26 miles from Greenfield and 32 miles from Soledad.

In the last 10 days, there have been no earthquakes of magnitude 3.0 or greater centered nearby.

This information comes from the USGS Earthquake Notification Service and this post was created by an algorithm written by the author.

A map showing the location of the epicenter of Saturday afternoon's quake near King City
© Bing MapsA map showing the location of the epicenter of Saturday afternoon's quake near King City, California
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Attention

Hundreds of aftershocks following magnitude 5.2 earthquake in Borrego Springs, California

Joseph Serna
Los Angeles Times
Sat, 11 Jun 2016 09:51 UTC
quake
© El Comercio/AP
There have been hundreds of aftershocks from the magnitude 5.2 earthquake that rattled Southern California on Friday.

Aftershocks are common after significant quakes, and Friday's temblor - which was felt from San Diego to Los Angeles and beyond - produced a few larger than 3.0. Most were much smaller.

The quake occurred in a sparsely populated area near Borrego Springs in San Diego County but the 1:04 a.m. quake was felt across a wide area.

"It's the biggest one for a while," said Egill Hauksson, a research professor of geophysics at Caltech.

Friday's temblor occurred on the San Jacinto fault, the most active in the region, Hauksson said. As of Saturday, the U.S. Geological Service listed more than 200 aftershocks in the Borrego Springs area, and there were others nearby.

Small boxes on a U.S. Geological Survey map represent the epicenters of aftershocks from Friday's magnitude 5.2 earthquake, signified by the larger yellow box.
© U.S. Geological SurveySmall boxes on a U.S. Geological Survey map represent the epicenters of aftershocks from Friday's magnitude 5.2 earthquake, signified by the larger yellow box.

Comment: See also: Southern California shaken by 5.2 earthquake

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Attention

4.9 magnitude earthquake strikes central Japan, tremors felt in Tokyo

Samhati Bhattacharjya
International Business Times
Sun, 12 Jun 2016 09:44 UTC
Senior member of Japan Meteorological Agency in a meeting
© ReutersSenior member of Japan Meteorological Agency in a meeting
A 4.9-magnitude earthquake hit central Japan on Sunday morning, according to the US Geological Survey (USGS).

The epicenter of the tremor was 6km east of Noda and at a depth of 45km. The local media reported that the quake struck at 7.54am (local time) in the southern part of Ibaraki Prefecture at a depth of 40km.

The Japan Meteorological Agency said the earthquake struck the Kanto region, but there was no tsunami alert. Tremors were felt in Tokyo, the capital of Japan.

However, there were no immediate reports of damage or injuries.
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Fire

Large fire at 16-story apartment block in London after a 'series of explosions'


RT
Sat, 11 Jun 2016 18:10 UTC
Brixton tower fire
© ITV London / Facebook
Fifty people from a Brixton apartment complex had to be evacuated as a fire spread quickly after what witnesses said was a series of explosions. Three people have been hospitalized with smoke inhalation.

"We were having lunch and heard a small explosion and we saw a black cloud of smoke going up and the growing fire," an eyewitness near to the Canterbury Crescent complex told the London Evening Standard. "Some seconds after the first explosion he heard one or two more, also small. There were some people in the field in front, I guess calling the emergencies."

The local fire station is located about 100 yards from the tower block, and the London Fire Brigade (LFB) said that 72 firefighters and 10 fire engines were dispatched to put out the flame.

Comment: SOTT Exclusive: More mysterious high-rise building explosions - is there a 'cosmic' source of ignition?

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Cloud Lightning

Lightning strikes kill 5 and injure 8 in Bangladesh


en.prothom-alo.com
Sat, 11 Jun 2016 18:43 UTC
Lightning
Lightning strikes kill five people and injures eight others in Bagerhat, Madaripur and Barisal on Saturday, says news agency UNB.

The two people killed in Bagerhat were identified as Alamin Khan (34), who died on the spot, and Ajam Sheikh (48), who died later in Fakirhat Upazila Health Complex.

In Bagerhat, two people were killed and two others injured in separate lightning strikes in Mollahat and Morelganj upazila in the afternoon.

In Madaripur, lighting strike injured Foysal Sardar. He was taken to Shibchar Upazila Health Complex where doctors declared him dead.

An unidentified child died to lightning strike at Kadam Bari in Rajoir upazila.

In Barisal, a vendor, Sobhan (52) was killed by lightning strike.

Six other people were injured in lightning strikes around the upazila.
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Snowflake

Rare summer snowfall for Lapland, Finland


yle.fi
Thu, 09 Jun 2016 14:37 UTC
Snow in Finland
A storm with high winds which swept across western and northern Finland Wednesday night and during the early hours of Thursday downed trees and cut power supplies to up to 14,000 households. Parts of Finnish Lapland have also seen a "summery" eight centimetres of snow.

Highs winds are expected to die down as evening approaches as the low pressure area responsible for the stormy weather moves eastward.

Residents of northern areas also awoke Thursday to some rare white June landscapes. Snowfall was seen especially on the fells of Lapland and in the Saariselkä region which recorded as much as eight centimetres in some localities.

A Thursday morning scene in Rovaniemi.
© Sauli Antikainen / YleA Thursday morning scene in Rovaniemi.

Comment: See also: Summer snowfall hits China's northernmost province

Global warming? Snowfall in Siberia marks the official start of summer

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Cloud Precipitation

Switzerland hammered by heavy rains and floods

Simon Bradley, Michele Andina and Ester Unterfinger
swissinfo.ch
Thu, 09 Jun 2016 13:42 UTC
The Jura village of Buix flooded after major storms
© RTSinfoThe Jura village of Buix flooded after major storms
Torrential rain, thunderstorms and flash floods have inundated towns and villages, especially in parts of northwest, central and eastern Switzerland in recent days.

Heavy rain over the past few days has caused damage to homes and infrastructure in cantons Solothurn, Aargau and Basel-Country, with numerous cellars and roads flooded. The police and fire services were called out 400 times in Aargau alone, and in several areas civil protection volunteers were out in force. In the town of Stetten 60 millimetres of rain fell in three hours.

Rail services were affected between Lenzburg and Othmarsingen on the Zurich-Aargau line. In Oftringen a barn was set ablaze after being struck by lightning but no one was injured. On Wednesday afternoon the A1 motorway was flooded near Lenzburg causing tailbacks for over an hour.


The village of Buix suffered on Tuesday.
© Laurent Blanchard/Canal Alpha The village of Buix suffered on Tuesday.
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Cloud Precipitation

1 missing after 6 hours of torrential rain in Accra, Ghana

Richard Davies
Floodlist
Fri, 10 Jun 2016 13:02 UTC
Various parts of Accra are flooding.
© Qojo_Bibz WildouVarious parts of Accra are flooding.
Wide areas of Accra, Ghana, are under water after a period of heavy rain that began 09 June 2016. Residents of the city are fearing a repeat of last year's flood and fire disaster which left over 150 people dead. Ghana Meteorological Agency say that more rain can be expected in the coming days.

The country's National Disaster Management Organisation (NADMO) has asked residents of flood prone areas to move to higher ground. They have also asked for residents' co-operation in reporting floods around the city.

The Odaw River has overflown and drainage channels including the Onyasia, Odaw and Nima are full. Local media say that flooded areas of greater Accra include Kwame Nkrumah Circle, parts of Teshie, Airport Residential, Dzorwulu, Achimota and Tse Addo.

Personnel from the National Disaster Management Organisation (NADMO), the Ghana Police Service (GPS), the Ghana Armed Forces (GAF) and the Ghana National Fire and Rescue Services (GNFRS), are working in the flooded areas. Earlier today, President Mahama thanked them for their efforts.




floods all over Accra.
© Joy 99.7 FMFloods in Accra.
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SOTT Focus: SOTT Earth Changes Summary - May 2016: Extreme Weather, Planetary Upheaval, Meteor Fireballs


Sott.net
Tue, 07 Jun 2016 20:18 UTC
Meteor US May 2016
© Sott.netMeteor fireball seen, heard and felt from across southeastern Canada and northeastern US, 17 May 2016
More and more people are starting to notice that something unusual is going on with the weather (and the planet as a whole). While vaguely acknowledging that all these extreme weather events occurring simultaneously points to their being somehow connected, mainstream media reporting about this, however, remains mired in complete absurdity. CNN, for example, recently reported that "[2016 was] the second year in a row Texas has been hit by one-in-500-year floods."

Last month, more volcanoes erupted during one week than would typically erupt during an entire year in the 20th century. Hailstones the size of tennis balls fell across southeast Asia, while the Indian subcontinent roasted in a record-breaking heatwave for the second year running. Europe experienced record-late snowfall in many places, followed by tornado outbreaks, devastating flash-floods and hailstorms that required snowploughs to clear streets. Wildfires raged across vast expanses of sub-Arctic regions, notably in central Canada, where the population of an entire city was forced to flee.

Month after month, the rain falls harder, the winds blow stronger, and the meteors come closer. Devastated homes can't be rebuilt fast enough before the next waves of natural disasters hit. The leaders of the free world, while waging more wars, plundering more resources, and causing ever more death and suffering, are telling us we've never had it so good.

Based on this snapshot of global environmental upheaval in May 2016, Mother Nature apparently begs to differ...

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