Typhoon "Gener" (international name: Saola) left at least 24 persons dead and almost 180,000 displaced as of Thursday afternoon, disaster management officials said. The National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (NDRRMC) said new fatalities were recorded in Ilocos Sur, Quezon, Bulacan, Negros Occidental, Iloilo, Negros Oriental and Misamis Oriental.
The latest fatality was identified as Venice Sinopen, a grade three pupil from San Ramon Sigay, Ilocos Sur, who died of drowning. In Bataan, a certain Angelito Bicoy, 59, drowned and was recovered along the shoreline of barangay Sisiman in Mariveles last Tuesday.
Two new fatalities were also recorded in Bulacan namely Efren Salvacion, 41, of Obando and Patrick dela Rosa, 12, of Marilao. Both died of drowning. Five persons from Visayas and Mindanao died after they were hit by fallen trees during the height of the typhoon.
Earth Changes
A deep, magnitude-6.1 earthquake shook people awake in Peru's central jungle region early Thursday and was also felt in the capital, Lima. There were no immediate reports of damage or injuries. Civil defense official Jairo Goreau in the provincial capital of Pucallpa near the epicenter said some power outages were reported as well as telephone line congestion but city inspectors had so far encountered no damage.
The quake struck at 4:38 a.m. (9:38 GMT), 21 miles (34 kilometers) east of Pucallpa, a city of more than 270,000 people, at a depth of 89 miles (143 kilometers), according to the U.S. Geological Survey.
The quake struck at 4:38 a.m. (9:38 GMT), 21 miles (34 kilometers) east of Pucallpa, a city of more than 270,000 people, at a depth of 89 miles (143 kilometers), according to the U.S. Geological Survey.
© Getty Images
Description: Corn plants struggle to survive in a drought-stricken farm field on July 19, near Oakton, Indiana
Description: Corn plants struggle to survive in a drought-stricken farm field on July 19, near Oakton, Indiana
Most people are aware of the historic, unrelenting drought tightening its grip on the United States. But too few are seriously contemplating what this means, not just for America, but for the world.
To most people in wealthier nations, drought simply means ridiculously hot weather, parched lawns and plants, and perhaps a higher-than-normal electric bill. A lack of rain is an annoyance, like an itch, uncomfortable, irritating. Few consider drought to be catastrophic, even fatal.
It wasn't always this way. There was a time when people understood that severe, prolonged drought meant extreme hardship, suffering and, if it persisted, eventual death. People understood that without rain, crops, fruit trees and pastures died, lakes and watering holes dried up, livestock starved. In the past, when a drought tightened its grip, farmers and their families, and even entire towns and cities, recognized early that they had two options: relocate or starve.
Although we're in the 21st century, this reality has not changed. Except that unlike yesteryear, people today are ignorant to the fact that extreme drought kills.
Just over half of the counties in the U.S. are now labeled "natural disaster areas" after the U.S. Department of Agriculture on Wednesday added 218 counties in 12 states to the list.
With drought drying up food crops and animal feedstock, the USDA also said it was allowing haying and grazing on 3.8 million protected acres, many of them wetlands, and that it had received assurances from insurers that they would forgo interest payments on unpaid farm loans for up to 30 days.
"The assistance announced today will help U.S. livestock producers dealing with climbing feed prices, critical shortages of hay and deteriorating pasturelands," Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said in a statement announcing the moves.
Across 32 states, ranchers and farmers in 1,584 counties -- 50.3 percent of the total -- are now eligible for low-interest loans. Some 90 percent of those counties were listed due to drought conditions.
That's a new record and one that's been broken repeatedly in recent weeks as more counties have been added. The declarations first started on July 12.
© Marnie Levy Williams / WPTV
This "fire rainbow," or iridescent cloud, was captured in a photo taken on Tuesday (July 31) over South Florida.
This "fire rainbow," or iridescent cloud, was captured in a photo taken on Tuesday (July 31) over South Florida.
They are technically known as iridescent clouds, a relatively rare phenomenon caused by clouds of water droplets of nearly uniform size, according to a release by NASA. These clouds diffract, or bend, light in a similar manner, which separates out light into different wavelengths, or colors.
That makes them similar to rainbow-colored glories, which are also formed by diffraction, and also produce an oscillating pattern of colors ranging from blue to green to red to purple and back to blue again.
Although iridescent clouds have rainbow-like colors, the way light is scattered to produce them is slightly different. Rainbows are formed by refraction and reflection. When light is refracted, it is bent by passing through mediums of different densities, such as water or a prism. Reflected light bounces off a surface at an angle equal to the angle it hit the surface at. Diffraction, though, involves light waves being scattered into a ring-like pattern.
© Oklahoma Forestry Services
Tulsa reached its hottest temperature of the calendar year on Tuesday, 112 degrees. Tulsa finished the month of July with 1.38 inches of rain, almost 2 inches below normal for the month. Excessive heat warning The weather service extended its heat warning for northeast Oklahoma until 7 p.m. Friday.
A twister that touched down in Colorado's high-country on Saturday is estimated to be the second-highest tornado ever recorded in the U.S. by the National Weather Service.
There were four different reported sightings of the high-altitude hit the northeast side of Mount Evans - a prominent mountain located about 60 miles west of Denver. The National Weather Service estimates the tornado's touched down at about 11,900 feet in elevation.
Bob Glancy, a National Weather Service meteorologist in Boulder, Colo., told NBC News that this tornado above the treeline is "not unheard of," but "just unusual." Most tornadoes in high terrain are weak, he said.
There were four different reported sightings of the high-altitude hit the northeast side of Mount Evans - a prominent mountain located about 60 miles west of Denver. The National Weather Service estimates the tornado's touched down at about 11,900 feet in elevation.
Bob Glancy, a National Weather Service meteorologist in Boulder, Colo., told NBC News that this tornado above the treeline is "not unheard of," but "just unusual." Most tornadoes in high terrain are weak, he said.
© Josh Deere
The tornado that touched down on Colorado's Mount Evans last weekend is the second-highest ever recorded by the National Weather Service.
The tornado that touched down on Colorado's Mount Evans last weekend is the second-highest ever recorded by the National Weather Service.
Once considered to be once-in-100-year events, giant dust storms are pounding the U.S. state of Arizona. In a summer of excessive heat and extreme drought, this is not good news. Since June, five dust storms have plagued Arizona's famous valley area. On July 29, Phoenix looked more like Saharan Africa than the well-manicured American Southwest. A massive dust cloud, referred to as a haboob - an Arabic word meaning strong wind - blanketed the metropolitan area. The cloud was 2,000 feet tall and nearly 60 miles wide.
Although not the largest dust storm to hit the area, tree limbs and power poles were snapped, causing 9,000 homes to lose power. The Sky Harbor Airport was shut down for 20 minutes.
These huge dust storms form during the monsoon season that runs from June until the end of September. They are so destructive because of the fine dust particles that manage to permeate everywhere during the storm.
According to experts, these storms are becoming more frequent. It is not just the big storms that pose problems. Phoenix experienced three dust storms in a row the last week of July - which is considered very rare. USA Today stated: "This means more deadly accidents, more harmful pollution and more health problems for people breathing in the irritating dust particles."
© marksontak
A dust storm rolls into an Arizona town on July 21.
A dust storm rolls into an Arizona town on July 21.
These huge dust storms form during the monsoon season that runs from June until the end of September. They are so destructive because of the fine dust particles that manage to permeate everywhere during the storm.
According to experts, these storms are becoming more frequent. It is not just the big storms that pose problems. Phoenix experienced three dust storms in a row the last week of July - which is considered very rare. USA Today stated: "This means more deadly accidents, more harmful pollution and more health problems for people breathing in the irritating dust particles."
© Unknown
Wildlife officials first became concerned in September 2011, when seals with severe pneumonia and skin lesions suddenly appeared along the coastline from southern Maine to northern Massachusetts. Most were infants (less than 6 months), and a total of 162 dead or moribund seals were recovered over the next 3 months.
© ecowatch
Farmers have warned the Obama administration that ethanol quotas threaten the food supply.
Farmers have warned the Obama administration that ethanol quotas threaten the food supply.
The Obama administration was urged on Monday to stop diverting grain to gas amid warnings of an "imminent food crisis" caused by America's drought.
US government forecasts of a 4% rise in food prices for US consumers because of the drought have sharpened criticism of supports for producing fuel from corn-based ethanol.
Meanwhile, research published last week by the New England Complex Systems Institute warned of an "imminent food crisis" because of the diversion of corn stocks to ethanol.
"Necsi has warned for months that misguided food-to-ethanol conversion programs and rampant commodity speculation have created a food price bubble, leading to an inevitable spike in prices by 2013. Now it appears the "crop shock" will arrive even sooner due to drought, unless measures to curb ethanol production and rein in speculators are adopted immediately," the researchers warned.
Comment: Obeisance to the laws of a biblical God are unlikely to make a difference at this point in the cycle of climate change. The earth has undergone many such cycles in the past and no matter how much praying is done, the cosmos will undertake the necessary steps to cleanse itself of the inherent pathology extant on planet earth at this time.
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