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Tsunami

Best of the Web: Houses, schools flooded, cars washed away as storms cause havoc in Spain - at least 223 dead, 78 missing - year's rain in 8 hours (UPDATES)

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Torrential rain in the upper Guadalhorce area of Malaga province has left dozens of houses and schools flooded in Álora and Pizarra this Tuesday morning. The downpours have also caused several cars parked near the river to wash away and float downstream.

It comes as 100mm of rain was dumped on the upper Guadalhorce during the early hours of this Tuesday morning, according to the Junta de Andalucía's Hidrosur network, with rain continuing throughout the morning.


Comment: Update October 30

Reuters reports:
At least 72 people have been killed in the deadliest flooding to hit Spain for three decades after torrential rain battered the eastern region of Valencia, sweeping away bridges and buildings, local authorities said on Wednesday.


Meteorologists said a year's rain had fallen in eight hours in parts of Valencia on Tuesday, causing pile-ups on highways and submerging farmland in a region that produces two-thirds of the citrus fruit grown in Spain, a leading global exporter.

Residents in the worst-hit places described seeing people clambering onto the roofs of their cars as a churning tide of brown water gushed through the streets, uprooting trees and dragging away chunks of masonry from buildings.

"It's a river that came through," said Denis Hlavaty, who waited for rescue on a ledge in the petrol station where he works in the regional capital. "The doors were torn away and I spent the night there, surrounded by water that was 2 metres (6.5-feet) deep."






Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez promised to rebuild infrastructure that had been destroyed and said in a televised address: "For those who at this moment are still looking for their loved ones, the whole of Spain weeps with you."

Footage shot by emergency services from a helicopter showed bridges that had collapsed and cars and trucks piled on top of each other on highways between flooded fields outside the city of Valencia.

Trains to the cities of Madrid and Barcelona were cancelled due to the flooding, and schools and other essential services were suspended in the worst-hit areas, officials said.

Power company i-DE, owned by Europe's biggest utility, Iberdrola, said about 150,000 clients in Valencia had no electricity.

Emergency services in the region urged citizens to avoid all road travel and to follow further official advice, and a military unit specialised in rescue operations was deployed in some places to help local emergency workers.

Some parts of Valencia such as the towns of Turis, Chiva or Bunol recorded more than 400 mm (15 inches) of rainfall, leading the state weather agency AEMET to declare a red alert on Tuesday. It was lowered to amber on Wednesday as the rain eased.

There was also flooding in other parts of the country, including the southern region of Andalusia, and forecasters warned of more bad weather ahead as the storm moved in a northeasterly direction.

The regional weather service in Catalonia issued a red alert for the area around Barcelona, warning of high winds and hail, while the AEMET state agency placed the city of Jerez in Andalusia on red alert.

"(The floodwaters) took away lots of dogs, lots of horses, they took away everything," said Antonio Carmona, a construction worker and resident of Alora in the southern region.

DEADLIEST SPANISH FLOODS SINCE 1996

The death toll appeared to be the worst in Europe from flooding since 2021 when at least 185 people died in Germany.

It is the deadliest flood-related disaster in Spain since 1996, when 87 people died near a town in the Pyrenees mountains.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said on X that Europe was ready to help. "What we're seeing in Spain is devastating," she said on X.

ASAJA, one of Spain's largest farmer groups, said on Tuesday it expected significant damage to crops.

Spain is the world's largest exporter of fresh and dried oranges, according to trade data provider the Observatory of Economic Complexity, and Valencia accounts for about 60% of the country's citrus production, according to Valencian Institute of Agriculture Investigations.
Update October 31

Al Jazeera reports:
Spain floods death toll rises to 158 as rescuers search for survivors

The death toll from Spain's worst floods in decades has soared to 158, emergency services and officials say, as rescue services work frantically to find survivors.

The body coordinating rescue work in the eastern region of Valencia announced on Thursday that 155 bodies had been recovered there. Officials in Castilla-La Mancha in central Spain reported two deaths, and Andalusia in the south announced one.

The widespread damage resembled the aftermath of a hurricane or tsunami. Cars were piled on top of one another like fallen dominoes. Uprooted trees, downed power lines and household items were all mired in mud that covered streets in dozens of communities in Valencia. The floods demolished bridges and left roads unrecognisable.

Local authorities have not disclosed how many people are still unaccounted, and Defence Minister Margarita Robles said the final national death toll could be much greater.

Opposition politicians accused the central government in Madrid of acting too slowly to warn residents and send in rescue teams, prompting the Ministry of Interior to say regional authorities were responsible for civil protection measures.
Update November 1

The Associated Press reports:
Death toll from Spanish floods rises to 205 as residents appeal for aid

Three days after historic flash floods swept through towns in Spain and killed at least 205 people, the initial shock was giving way to anger, frustration and a wave of solidarity on Friday.

Spanish emergency authorities raised the death toll to at least 205 victims, 202 of them in Valencia alone.

Many streets are still blocked by piled-up vehicles and debris, in some cases trapping residents in their homes. Some places still don't have electricity, running water, or stable telephone connections.

The damage from the storm Tuesday and Wednesday recalled the aftermath of a tsunami, with survivors left to pick up the pieces as they mourn loved ones lost in Spain's deadliest natural disaster in living memory.
Update November 9

ShiaWaves.com reports:
The confirmed death toll from last week's catastrophic floods in Spain has reached 223, Anadolu Agency reported yesterday citing an announcement made by Transport Minister Oscar Puente.

An additional 78 individuals remain missing, with 48 bodies yet to be identified. The floods, triggered by historic rainfall on October 29, particularly devastated the province of Valencia, where rivers overflowed, leading to widespread flooding that caught many residents off guard.

Despite prior warnings from some local mayors, the Valencian government issued an emergency alert only after the worst of the flooding had passed. In response to the disaster, protests are planned to voice frustration over the government's handling of the crisis.

Cleanup efforts are ongoing, affecting over 75 municipalities and approximately 450,000 hectares of land. Spain's government has committed €10.6 billion ($11.4 billion) in aid to support recovery efforts. The floods, caused by a prolonged storm system, also impacted other regions, including Cadiz, Barcelona, and Girona, marking one of the most significant natural disasters in recent Spanish history.
Two days earlier in the nearby Balearic Islands: Stormy night in Mallorca, Spain: Heavy rainfall, flash floods, road closures, 8 rescues and 77 emergency operations


Control Panel

Best of the Web: Science Shock: U.K. Met Office is "inventing" temperature data from 100 non-existent stations

UK Met office
© UnknownU.K. Met Office
Shocking evidence has emerged that points to the U.K. Met Office inventing temperature data from over 100 non-existent weather stations. The explosive allegations have been made by citizen journalist Ray Sanders and sent to the new Labour Science Minister Peter Kyle MP. Following a number of Freedom of Information requests to the Met Office and diligent field work visiting individuals stations, Sanders has discovered that 103 stations out of 302 sites supplying temperature averages do not exist. "How would any reasonable observer know that the data was not real and simply 'made up' by a Government agency," asks Sanders. He calls for:
"An 'open declaration' of likely inaccuracy of existing published data, to avoid other institutions and researchers using unreliable data and reaching erroneous conclusions."
In his home county of Kent, Sanders charges that four of the eight sites identified by the Met Office, namely Dungeness, Folkestone, Dover and Gillingham - which all produce rolling temperature averages to the second decimal place of a degree - are "fiction". Sanders notes that there has been no weather station at Dungeness since 1986. The Daily Sceptic is able to confirm that none of the four stations appear in the list of Met sites with a classification from the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO). The Met Office directs online inquiries about Dover to the "nearest climate station" at Dover Harbour (Beach) and provides a full set of rolling 30-year averages.

Comment: Agenda-driven: Rigged data and false conclusions regarding 'climate change' have taken place around the globe for decades.


Snowflake

Best of the Web: Summer snowfall in parts of Eastern Cape, South Africa

Snow has fallen on the N9
Snow has fallen on the N9
Snow started falling in some parts of the Eastern Cape on Tuesday.

The affected areas included the snow-prone mountainous route of Lootsberg Pass on the N9 between Middelburg and Graaff-Reinet, the Wapadsberg Pass, as well as the N9, between Graaff-Reinet and Nxuba (formerly Cradock).

Eastern Cape Department of Transport spokesperson Unathi Binqose said authorities are monitoring the route and might close it if snowfall worsens.

"This curious phenomenon of snowfall in November adds another damage to already challenging driving conditions in the Eastern Cape, as most areas are affected by heavy rains that have led to slippery conditions as well as poor visibility.


Quenelle

Best of the Web: Squirrel!

peanut squirrel
© Mark Longo/TikTokPeanut the squirrel
Safety first means nothing is safe

It's just days to the election, and by the way Americans did you vote yet? and I have decided to talk to you about a dead rodent.

Seven years ago Mark Longo found a baby squirrel orphaned when someone ran a car over its mother. Longo brought him into his home and named him Peanut. Peanut imprinted on Longo as his new mother; when Longo tried to release him back into the wild, the little guy had no idea how to survive in the wild, returned frightened and injured to the only home he knew, and thus their relationship became permanent.

Here, watch this, it will melt your heart.

Black Cat

Best of the Web: Facebook execs suppressed Hunter Biden laptop scandal to suck up to Biden-Harris admin: bombshell report

hunter joe biden drugs laptop
Hunter Biden photo recovered from his laptop
(inset) President Joe Biden
The FBI warned major US tech companies ahead of The Post's first reports on Hunter Biden's laptop in October 2020 that Russian agents were preparing a strikingly similar document dump — and once the scoop materialized, Facebook executives discussed calibrating censorship decisions to please what they assumed would be an incoming Biden-Harris administration, a congressional investigation found.

The new details — contained in an interim report by the House Judiciary Committee's subcommittee on the weaponization of government — are emerging as former President Donald Trump leads in polls ahead of the Nov. 5 election and as his allies urge a house-cleaning at the FBI and possible new regulations or antitrust actions to punish and restrain platforms like Facebook.

"FBI tipped us all off last week that this Burisma story was likely to emerge," an unidentified Microsoft employee wrote on Oct. 14, 2020, the day The Post published the first in a series of bombshell stories on the Biden family's foreign dealings, according to the congressional report.

Comment: The effort at covering up the smoking gun pointing to the Bidens' decades long corruption was prodigious.


Star of David

Flashback Best of the Web: How Jewish Is the War Against Russia?

Ben stiller zelensky
© Ukrainian Presidential Press ServiceHollywood actor Ben Stiller meets with Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky in June, 2022
Five years ago, I wrote an article entitled "America's Jews Are Driving America's wars." It turned out to be the most popular piece that I have ever written and I was rewarded for it by immediately being fired by the so-called American Conservative magazine, where I had been a regular and highly popular contributor for fourteen years. I opened the article with a brief description of an encounter with a supporter whom I had met shortly before at an antiwar conference. The elderly gentleman asked
"Why doesn't anyone ever speak honestly about the six-hundred-pound gorilla in the room? Nobody has mentioned Israel in this conference and we all know it's American Jews with all their money and power who are supporting every war in the Middle East for Netanyahu? Shouldn't we start calling them out and not letting them get away with it?"
In my article I named many of the individual Jews and Jewish groups that had been leading the charge to invade Iraq and also deal with Iran along the way. They used fake intelligence and out-and-out lies to make their case and never addressed the central issue of how those two countries actually threatened the United States or its vital interests. And when they succeeded in committing the US to the fiasco in Iraq, as far as I can determine only one honest Jew who had participated in the process, Philip Zelikow, in a moment of candor, admitted that the Iraq War, in his opinion, was fought for Israel.

Tsunami

Best of the Web: Philippine flooding triggered by tropical storm Trami (Kristine) kills 150, with 6.7 million affected - 2 months' rain (15.4 inches) in 2 days (UPDATED)

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Flooding triggered by tropical storm Trami killed at least three people and displaced about 382,300 people in central Philippines, prompting the government and aid groups to rush with aid for the victims.

Trami, the 11th typhoon to hit the Catholic-majority nation this year, disrupted classes, work and public transport in Bicol, Western Visayas, Zamboanga Peninsula, and Eastern Visayas region, government officials said.

The storm started making landfall on Oct. 21 and vast areas remain submerged in muddy water as of Oct. 23.

During a meeting with disaster management officials in the capital Manila on Oct. 23, President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. said rescuers have mobilized rubber boats from various provinces from as far as Mindanao island in southern Philippines to bring the affected communities to safety.

In Camarines Sur, the largest among six provinces in Bicol, at least half of its land area is still underwater due to massive flooding, the president disclosed.


Comment: Agence France-Presse reports:
Philippine rescuers waded through chest-deep flood waters Wednesday to reach residents trapped by Tropical Storm Kristine (international name: Trami), which has killed seven people and forced thousands to evacuate as it barrels toward the east coast.

Torrential rain driven by the storm has turned streets into rivers, submerged entire villages and buried some vehicles in volcanic sediment set loose by the downpour.

At least 32,000 people have fled their homes in the northern Philippines, police said, as the storm edges closer to the Southeast Asian country's main island of Luzon.

In the Bicol region, about 400 kilometers (249 miles) southeast of the capital Manila, "unexpectedly high" flooding was complicating rescue efforts, said police.
Update October 24

AP reports:
At least 24 people killed in north-eastern Philippines as Tropical Storm Trami causes flooding and landslides

Widespread flooding and landslides have left at least 24 people dead after Tropical Storm Trami hit the north-eastern Philippines on Thursday.

The government shut down schools and offices for the second day on the entire main island of Luzon to protect millions of people after the storm hit the country's north-eastern province of Isabela after midnight.

The storm was blowing over Aguinaldo town in the mountain province of Ifugao after dawn, with sustained winds up to 95 kilometres per hour and gusts up to 160kph.

It was blowing westward and on track to enter the South China Sea later on Thursday, according to state forecasters.

Most of the deaths were reported in the six-province Bicol region, south-east of Manila, where at least 20 people died, including seven residents in Naga city, which was inundated by flash floods during Trami's approach on Tuesday.

The toll is expected to rise as towns and villages isolated by the storm manage to send out reports, police and provincial officials said.

More than two months' worth of rainfall fell in just 24 hours at high tide, regional Police Chief Andre Dizon and other officials said.
Update October 25

Associated Press reports:
Storm blows away from northern Philippines leaving 82 dead but forecasters warn it may do a U-turn

Tropical Storm Trami blew away from the northwestern Philippines on Friday, leaving at least 82 people dead in landslides and extensive flooding that forced authorities to scramble for more rescue boats to save thousands of terrified people, who were trapped, some on their roofs.

But the onslaught may not be over: State forecasters raised the rare possibility that the storm — the 11th and one of the deadliest to hit the Philippines this year — could make a U-turn next week as it is pushed back by high-pressure winds in the South China Sea.

A Philippine provincial police chief said Friday that 49 people were killed mostly in landslides set off by Trami in Batangas province south of Manila. That brought the overall death toll from the storm to at least 82.

Eleven other villagers remain missing in Batangas, Col. Jacinto Malinao Jr. told The Associated Press by telephone from the lakeside town of Talisay, where he stood beside a villager whose wife and child were buried in the deep mound of mud, boulders and trees.

With the use of a backhoe and shovels, police scrambled to search into 10 feet (3 meters) of mud, rocks and debris and found a part of a head and foot that apparently were those of the missing woman and child.

"He's simply devastated," Malinao said of the villager, a fisherman, whose wife and child were buried in the landslide that happened Thursday afternoon amid torrential rains while he was away tending to fish cages in a lake.

[...]

More than 2.6 million people were affected by the deluge, with nearly 320,000 people fleeing into evacuation centers or relatives' homes, disaster-mitigation officials said.
AFP reports:
'Two months' worth of rain

Government offices and schools across the main island of Luzon remained shuttered Friday, and storm surge warnings were still in place along the west coast, with potential waves as high as two meters.

State weather agency specialist Jofren Habaluyas told AFP that Batangas province had seen "two months' worth of rain", or 391.3 mm, fall over Oct. 24 and 25.
Update October 28

Xinhua reports:
Death toll from tropical storm Trami in Philippines climbs to 116, 39 missing

The death toll from catastrophic flooding and landslides triggered by tropical storm Trami that slammed into the Philippines last week has risen to 116, with at least 39 people remaining unaccounted for, the Philippines' National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (NDRRMC) said Monday.

Local authorities said Trami dumped two months of rain, impacting over 6.7 million people across 17 of the country's regions.

The search continues for 39 missing people who were either buried in landslides or washed away by the floods.
Update October 31

Business World reports:
PRESIDENT Ferdinand R. Marcos, Jr. on Thursday said his government remained in "full control" as deaths caused by Tropical Storm Trami and Super typhoon Kong-rey, which caused heavy rains in the northernmost province of Batanes, climbed to more than 100.

In a statement, he noted that while state resources and personnel "may be stretched due to the impact of typhoons on multiple fronts," the government was "ably handling all disaster management efforts." "We remain in full control."

In an 8 a.m. report, the Philippines' disaster agency said the reported death toll from Trami, locally named Kristine, and Super Typhoon Kong-rey (Leon) had hit 150. Fourteen deaths have been validated, while 29 people were still missing, it added.

The National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council said there were 115 reported injuries. More than 150,000 were damaged, more than 10,000 of which were totally destroyed. Trami and Kong-rey have caused P6.5 billion in damage to infrastructure.



Black Magic

Best of the Web: Group behind 'disinformation dozen' list sought to 'kill Musk's Twitter,' launch 'black ops' against RFK Jr.

fir constitution twitter graphic
The Center for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH) — authors of The Disinformation Dozen — planned to "kill" X (Twitter), shut down popular social media accounts on other platforms, censor non-establishment voices and "bring back" attacks on "antivaxx" voices, according to internal documents leaked by CCDH insiders.

The Center for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH) — authors of "The Disinformation Dozen" — planned to "kill" X (Twitter), shut down popular social media accounts on other platforms, censor non-establishment voices and "bring back" attacks on "antivaxx" voices, according to internal documents leaked by CCDH insiders.

Investigative journalists Paul D. Thacker and Matt Taibbi on Tuesday released the documents on The Disinformation Chronicle and X.

Thacker told The Defender he spoke with "several CCDH insiders" who provided minutes from internal CCDH staff meetings that took place between January and early this month.

According to the documents, CCDH planned to organize "black ops" against Robert F. Kennedy Jr., chairman on leave from Children's Health Defense (CHD), and pressure Substack to remove COVID-19 vaccine critics Dr. Joseph Mercola and Alex Berenson from its platform.

Comment:


Cult

Best of the Web: Woke doc refuses to publish $10 million trans kids study that showed puberty blockers didn't help mental health

Johanna Olson-Kennedy transgender kids doctor puberty blockers
© Michael Tullberg / Getty ImagesDr. Johanna Olson-Kennedy is withholding a study on transgender children
A prominent doctor and trans rights advocate admitted she deliberately withheld publication of a $10 million taxpayer-funded study on the effect of puberty blockers on American children — after finding no evidence that they improve patients' mental health.

Dr. Johanna Olson-Kennedy told the New York Times that she believes the study would be "weaponized" by critics of transgender care for kids, and that the research could one day be used in court to argue "we shouldn't use blockers."

Critics — including one of Olson-Kennedy's fellow researchers on the study — said the decision flies in the face of research standards and deprives the public of "really important" science in a field where Americans remain firmly divided.

Star of David

Best of the Web: How does AIPAC shape Washington? The Intercept has tracked every dollar

Aipac influence capital building
© Fei Liu/The Intercept
The Intercept followed AIPAC's money trail to reveal how its political spending impacts the balance of power in Congress.

For decades, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee had been an influential presence on Capitol Hill, working behind the scenes to lobby politicians and their staffers in support of Israel. But ahead of the 2022 midterm elections, AIPAC made a decision that would fundamentally alter its purpose and the contours of American politics.

After 60 years of issues-based lobbying, AIPAC for the first time opted to spend directly on campaigns. Flush with millions of dollars from loyal donors, among them Republican billionaires and megadonors to former President Donald Trump, AIPAC embraced a new strategy. It would use its vast funds to oust progressive members of Congress who have criticized human rights abuses by Israel and the country's receipt of billions of U.S. dollars in military funding.