Earth ChangesS


Cloud Lightning

U.S.: Portion of Prairie County, Arkansas evacuated due to fears about flood waters from White River

Little Rock, Arkansas - Neighborhoods in Prairie County are being evacuated because of fears about rising flood waters from the White River.

Spokesman Davis Bell with the county's emergency operations said Monday that between 200 and 300 households in flood-prone areas east of the White River at Des Arc and Biscoe were being notified of the evacuation order. County officials say roads in the area will soon be impassable due to flooding.

Bell said officials are concerned about the rising waters from flash floods and whether levees along the river will be able to hold. Volunteers are going door to door to notify residents of the evacuation order.

Shelters are available in Des Arc churches, the Hazen Armory and the DeValls Bluff Gym.

Igloo

Canada: Snowstorm Blankets Parts of Manitoba., Saskatchewan.

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© Brady Strachan/CBCMotorists in the Brandon area of western Manitoba encountered snow and ice Saturday.
Residents of southeast Saskatchewan and southwest Manitoba are coping with another blast of winter, with heavy wet snow causing havoc for travellers in both provinces.

On Saturday, a blizzard warning was issued for areas around Dauphin, Minnedosa, Neepawa, Russell and St. Rose in Manitoba.

The storm hit Friday night and was expected to last until Saturday evening.

People were being told to expect 10 to 20 centimetres of heavy, wet snow and strong winds that may gust to 80 km/h.

Cloud Lightning

Canada: Saskatchewan Flood Barrier Broken by Wind

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© Kent Morrisson/CBCThirty-seven homes and cottages on Katepwa Lake, east of Regina, were flooded after a section of berm was overwhelmed by water whipped up by strong winds.
Community exhausted by water fight

Strong prairie winds have pushed water through a section of sandbag berms that were protecting homes and cabins on Katepwa Lake, east of Regina.

Wind gusts that reached 60 kilometres an hour on Friday night whipped up the water on the lake, which has been rising precipitously for the past week.

"The waves just kept coming in and took down the wall and all the hard work that everybody put in for the last two weeks," Don Ferguson, a local cabin owner, told CBC News on Saturday. "It's unbelievable."

Local officials said 37 properties flooded. Of those, 11 were permanent homes. A voluntary evacuation was in place for the flooded area.

Ferguson said that at one point, lake water was pouring down onto people working on the dry side of the berm.

Bizarro Earth

New Zealand: Monster whale found on beach

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© Department of ConservationThe giant dead stranded whale at Waiinui Beach.
Waiinu Beach in South Taranaki was the final destination for huge sea monsters as two giant whales washed ashore in the past three days.

Residents of Waitotara were surprised to discover what is believed to be a dead 22.3m-long pygmy blue whale washed up on the beach, about 1.5km south of the river mouth, sometime on late Friday night or early Saturday morning.

A Wanganui Department of Conservation spokesman said if this was a pygmy blue whale, it was a rare specimen and the only one of its kind to have washed up on this coastline for at least 30 years.

Then overnight Sunday a large sperm whale stranded itself on the beach.

Unable to re-float the large mammal, DOC staff had to put the sperm whale down.

Bizarro Earth

Huge sinkhole appears in Germany! Usedom Island has a Grand Canyon now

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© Unknown
About 50 meter long and four meter deep! On the Baltic Sea island Usedom (Mecklenburg-Western-Pomerania) the earth has opened up. The gaping ravine looks like the little brother of the Grand Canyon in the USA.

Did ancient hollows collapse? Or did a meteorite hit there? The hole gapes right in the middle of a field close to Zirchow. BILD reporter Andreas Weihrauch (21) discovered it while going for a walk. He believes: "Sand has collapsed here. There are patterns on the walls of the sinkhole." And: The ravine runs square into a little lake. "Mysterious bubbles are rising up there."

Radar

Philippines: 5.0 Magnitude Earthquake Rocks Mindanao

A moderate earthquake measuring 5. 0 on the Richter scale rocked the southern Philippine region of Mindanao Sunday evening, US seismologist said.

There was no immediate report of casualties or damage from local authorities.

The United States Geological Survey (USGS) said the quake, which struck at 7:06 p.m. local time (1106 GMT) at a depth of 78.6 kilometers, was traced 158 kilometers southeast of Davao, Mindanao, or 1105 kilometers southeast of Manila, the country's capital.

The Philippines sits in the so-called Pacific Ring of Fire, an area where continental plates collide producing frequent quakes and volcanic activities.

Source: Xinhua

Bizarro Earth

New Zealand: Monster of Sea Shocks Beachgoers

Dead Whale
© Dennis Loveridge Extra Large: The 22.3m whale that washed up on Waiinu Beach at the weekend. The man in the background is standing on a four-wheeler motorcycle to see over its back.

Residents of Waitotara were in for a big surprise when they went down to the beach on Saturday.

Late Friday or early Saturday morning a 22.3m-long whale washed up on Waiinu beach, about 1.5km south of the Waitotara River mouth.

Although it is not uncommon for whales to wash up on the beach, this was the largest one local residents have seen.

One woman said the whales they saw usually were smaller and a different species to the one found this weekend.

This one is believed to be a pygmy blue whale.

A neighbour had told them where it was, and she had gone down to the beach to have a look on Saturday morning.

The woman said the giant mammal was "pretty awe-inspiring".

"It was just amazing. I've not seen anything like it. I didn't want to leave it," she said.

The whale was so tall that, at 1.57m (5ft 2in) herself, she could not see over it.

Whanganui Department of Conservation biodiversity programme manager Jim Campbell said identification was a best guess, going on its size and the shape of its fins.

Bizarro Earth

US: Record Wildlife Die-Offs Reported in Northern Rockies

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© unknown
Salmon, Idaho - A record number of big-game animals perished this winter in parts of Montana, Idaho and Wyoming from a harsh season of unusually heavy snows and sustained cold in the Northern Rockies, state wildlife managers say.

"Elk, deer and moose -- those animals are having a pretty tough time," said Wyoming Game and Fish biologist Doug Brimeyer.

Snow and frigid temperatures in pockets of Idaho, Montana and Wyoming arrived earlier and lingered longer than usual, extending the time that wildlife were forced to forage on low reserves for scarce food, leading more of them to starve.

Based on aerial surveys of big-game herds and signals from radio-collared animals, experts are documenting high mortality among offspring of mule deer, white-tailed deer and pronghorn antelope.

This comes as big-game animals enter the last stretch of a period from mid-March through early May that is considered critical for survival.

Wildlife managers estimate die-offs in the tens of thousands across thousands of square miles that span prairie in northeastern Montana, the upper Snake River basin in Idaho near Yellowstone National Park and the high country of northwestern Wyoming near the exclusive resort of Jackson.

Bizarro Earth

US: Nearly 10,000 Bats Die in Durham Cave

Bats
© Courtesy of Pennsylvania Game CommissionPennsylvania Game Commission biologists photographed these bats hibernating in the Durham mine in September, 2010.

Of the 10,000 bats that have hibernated in an abandoned mine in Upper Bucks County for generations, only about 200 are still alive, officials said Friday. Durham's bats became infected with White Nose Syndrome, a mysterious disease that's killing off bat colonies at an alarming rate from Vermont to Virginia.

In late March, Game Commission biologist Greg Turner checked in on the bats hidden in the hillside of Upper Bucks and found near devastation.

"We're looking at a 99 percent decline," he said.

And the bat deaths might continue.

"There's a few survivors. Hopefully, the ones that are there will survive."

Check back for more details on this story

Cloud Lightning

After the wind, the water: Fears of floods worse than Mississippi disaster of 1927 to strike tornado- devestated South East

A devastating flood is heading to tornado-ravaged Mississippi, which could cause levels of destruction not seen since the Great Flood of 1927, forecasters have warned.

The enormous levees lining the Mississippi River are likely to be seriously strained in the coming days, adding further danger to a region already shattered by deadly tornadoes and thunderstorms.

Governors in Mississippi and Louisiana have issued severe flood warnings and declared states of emergency in the regions.

mississippi, floods
Floods: Experts have warned that the Mississippi could rise to levels not seen in the country since the devastation on The Great Flood of 1927