Earth ChangesS


Umbrella

Waterspout filmed off Oahu's Windward side

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© Christina Viernes
The National Weather Service in Honolulu issued a special marine warning for Oahu's waters on the Windward side until 5 p.m. Saturday.

At 4:23 p.m., people reported a waterspout seven miles north of Heeia Kea small boat harbor, or about 15 miles north of Honolulu, moving west at 10 knots, or 11-and-a-half miles an hour.

Showers can produce waterspouts that can easily overturn boats and create locally hazardous seas. Seek safe harbor immediately.

Waterspouts tend to form within long cloud lines and are most likely to form under a large cloud buildup with a dark, flat base.


Cloud Precipitation

25,000 evacuated from flooding in 15 Maguindanao villages, Philippines

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© ARMM Heart Rescue Flooding has submerged not just residential areas but also affected schools and hampered public services in Maguindanao.
At least 25,000 persons in 15 villages of Sultan sa Barongis in Maguindanao province have been displaced by floods, which in some areas were as bad as neck deep, officials said.

Sultan sa Barongis Mayor Ramdatu Angas said the local government has declared a state of calamity in the entire town as flood water from the Ala River has been rising due to the torrential rain in the mountains of Sultan Kudarat and South Cotabato.

Rasol Angas, a resident of Barangay Barurao, one of the hardest-hit villages, said the characteristics of flood water remained unpredictable as it receded and suddenly rose although Maguindanao experienced no rain.

"It could be raining up there in the mountains of South Cotabato and Sultan Kudarat," he said, pointing at Daguma ranges south of Sultan Kudarat province.

Zenaida Sandig, 28, a resident of Barangay Paidung, said the water level in her village was at its highest late Saturday afternoon, reaching as high as five feet.

Sultan sa Barongis, a town situated in the borders of Maguindanao and Sultan Kudarat, is at the direct path of Ala river, a major tributary emanating from South Cotabato.

Cloud Precipitation

Flash flooding and landslides kill 23 in southeastern Bangladesh

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© Johan Race
At least 23 people have died in flash floods and landslides triggered by heavy rains that lashed southeastern Bangladesh, officials said today.

Tens of thousands of people were marooned on higher ground as flood waters submerged areas around Cox's Bazar and the hilly district of Bandarban.

Local police official Habibur Rahman confirmed the toll to reporters after four more bodies were recovered from a river.

Bangladesh - one of the world's most densely populated countries - is highly vulnerable to natural disasters, including cyclones, droughts, floods and earthquakes.

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© Johan Race

Attention

Beaver attacks man at bus stop in Sweden

A European Beaver
© Per Harald Olsen A European Beaver
A man who was bitten by a beaver at a bus stop in Tyresö, south of Stockholm, has been describing the snappy attack

Pentti Savola, 58, was among a group of early morning commuters waiting to get a bus to work when the animal came up to him and bit his leg last week.

"It was lightning fast. I never thought that an animal that looks so clumsy could be so crafty,
" he told Swedish news site mitti.se.

He said that he may have stressed the animal out when he tried to take a photo of it with his mobile.

But after his own stressful experience, he said he wanted to tell his story to warn children that they should not pet beavers without knowing more about the animals.

Savola was not hurt in the attack.

The beaver was hunted to extinction in Sweden by the end of the nineteenth century but was reintroduced during the 1920s and 1930s after eighty of the furry animals were imported from Norway, in what is often cited as one of the most successful animal conservation efforts in history.

The wood-loving, sharp-toothed, primarily nocturnal, semi-aquatic animals are the second largest rodents on the planet (after the capybara) and are most prevalent in North America.

Attention

Belligerent beaver attacks two Bavarian bystanders in Germany

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DPA
Beavers are normally peaceful animals shy of human contact. But experts are now warning that close contact can be dangerous after two attacks in the same spot near Starnberg, Bavaria.

The two attacks happened within a few days of each other on the river Würm. On May 29th a 24-year-old had taken his dogs to the banks of the river when the beaver bit him, reports the Süddeutsche Zeitung (SZ).

A few days later on June 3rd a 26-year-old was swimming in the river when the beaver attacked again.

"Just as I wanted to avoid him, I suddenly felt an intense pain. Shortly after a beaver emerged in the water next to me, swam along beside me and stared directly into my eyes for about five seconds," the young man told SZ.

The beaver had left a bite three centimetres deep and four centimetres wide in his thigh, meaning he had to go to the nearby hospital to be treated..

Attention

Chaos at Canary Islands zoo after chimpanzees escape enclosure and attack 3 staff members

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British holidaymakers were caught up in chaotic scenes at a zoo in the Canary Islands when three chimpanzees escaped. Pictured is chimp Cheeta receiving medical care after being shot by police
British holidaymakers were caught up in chaotic scenes at a zoo in the Canary Islands when three chimpanzees escaped their enclosure and attacked and injured three people, one seriously.

The three rescue animals - called King, Cheeta and Felipa - went on the rampage on Friday at the popular Oasis Park in Fueteventura, with police eventually having to shoot them with live ammunition after attempts to tranquilize them failed.

Two of the chimps, King and Felipa, were killed, while Cheeta survived after emergency treatment from vets.

The three injured were a park staff member and two of the owners, one of which was airlifted to a hospital in Las Palmas and given plastic surgery, according to the zoo.


It said in a statement that human error was to blame, with the animals escaping after 'an incident in the security protocol'.

The park owners, it's understood, fearlessly tried to lead the chimpanzees away from the public and back into their enclosure.

Red Flag

Oregon men hospitalized, recovering after rare beaver attack

Angry beaver
© Unknown
Two Oregon hikers who were assaulted by a beaver after they climbed onto its dam have been hospitalized for injuries incurred during the rare attack, law enforcement officials said on Friday.

Clayton Mitchell, 23, told the Deschutes County Sheriff's Office that he and a friend had been hiking along a river near his central Oregon home on Thursday when they climbed onto a beaver dam.

A resident beaver emerged from the dam, knocking Mitchell into the Deschutes River and trapping his friend, 31-year-old John Bailey, in a tangle of submerged logs, according to the sheriff's department incident report.

Ambulance

Surfer loses leg in shark attack off South Africa coast

Surfer
© Andy Colwell/Penn State University/MCT via Getty ImagesA surfer rides a wave off the coast of Lladudno, South Africa, a small beach town near Cape Town.
A man in his early twenties lost a leg in one of two shark attacks off the southern Cape coast on Saturday, emergency medical services reported.

ER24 said the man was surfing with friends at Buffelsbaai just outside of Knysna on Saturday afternoon when he was attacked by a shark.

"The people that were with him in the water loaded him onto a surfboard and brought him to shore. When ER24 paramedics arrived on scene they found that the shark had taken off his right right leg.

Attention

Hundreds of thousands of mussels wash up in False Bay, South Africa

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© Willem LawA mysterious mass of Black Mussels have washed up on Muizenburg beach where the Sandvlei wetlands drain into the ocean.
People have been feasting on mussels which have washed up in their hundreds of thousands on False Bay beaches in recent weeks - but authorities say it isn't a good idea to eat them.

They cite a red tide, which has been known to contaminate shellfish, but this hasn't stopped people collecting the delicacy by the sackload.

Local fisherman Godfrey Permall scoffed at concerns that the mussels may be toxic.

He says they wash up every winter - and when they do, he is waiting.

Permall, from Vrygrond near Muizenberg, fills around eight or nine plastic bread packets with the mussels, which he sells for R30 each.

He comes to the beach every day but it is in winter when the ocean's bounty is most generous and helps put food on the table.

Bug

Arizona man dies after being stung by hundreds of Africanized bees

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© APThis undated photo provided by Trez Garvin shows bees gathered around a full-blown, wild hive in all its stages in Arizona.
A man who was stung hundreds of times in a bee attack in western Arizona has died.

The Mohave County Sheriff's Office confirmed Friday that the man died Sunday at a hospital in Kingman.

Authorities say the man was watching a property in Valle Vista, a community about 14 miles northeast of Kingman, June 12 when he was attacked by a hive of Africanized bees.

He was stung between 500 and 1,000 times.

Beekeeper Johnnie Hoeft, who was called to the scene, says the hive was inside an old tool cabinet in a shed.

The Today's News-Herald in Lake Havasu City identified the victim as John Wade.

Family friend Betty Crippin told the newspaper that Wade had suffered a heart attack after the bee attack.

Source: The Associated Press