Earth ChangesS


Cloud Lightning

Heavy rains flood parts of New Orleans still recovering from Katrina


Associated Press
Tue, 23 Oct 2007 17:21 UTC
Residents in areas only now recovering from hurricane Katrina have been soaked by more than 20 centimetres of rain, flooding streets, forcing the closure of schools and leaving businesses sitting in waist-high water.

The city's drainage pumps were working properly Monday but were unable to keep up with the intense rain, emergency preparedness officials said. They urged motorists to stay off roads.

©AP Photo/Alex Brandon
Lauren Robinson from New Orleans walks through the water in the uptown area of New Orleans on her way to study in a coffeehouse Monday, Oct. 22, 2007.
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Cloud Lightning

Flood displaces 120,000 villagers in Nigeria

Emma Amaize
Vanguard
Mon, 22 Oct 2007 18:58 UTC
No fewer than 60 communities have either been submerged or ravaged by a charging flood in four states of the Niger-Delta, specifically, Delta, Edo, Bayelsa and Ondo states in the past few weeks with more than 120,000 persons reportedly dislodged following the overflow of the River Niger and the bordering tributaries Vanguard learnt that the kind of flooding that was experienced, this year, has never been experienced in the riverside communities of the Niger-Delta in the past five decades and the situation was not helped by the fact that most of the communities do not have foreshore protective walls and there was no piling or concrete measures taken to prevent flood disaster.

©APA - Vienna
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Cloud Lightning

250,000 flee raging wildfires in California


CNN
Mon, 22 Oct 2007 17:59 UTC
A quarter-million people fled their homes amid wildfires that had burned 100,000 acres around San Diego County, officials said Monday.

©NASA
This photograph from space shows smoke rising from the wildfires in Southern California.
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Bizarro Earth

Hundreds Evacuated From Calif. Hospital

allison Hoffman and Gillian Flaccus
Associated Press
Mon, 22 Oct 2007 13:39 UTC
SAN DIEGO - Hundreds of patients were being evacuated Monday from a hospital and nursing homes in the path of one of more than a dozen wildfires engulfing Southern California. The fires fanned by fierce desert winds killed at least one person, injured dozens more and forced tens of thousands to flee their homes.
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Cloud Lightning

Rain, hail, lightning slam Puget Sound area

Scott Sistek
KOMO-TV
Sat, 20 Oct 2007 12:13 UTC
What an encore!

A day after wind gusts of over 60 mph Thursday, Western Washington was "treated" to a second round of storms Friday.

A large cool of very cold, unstable air moved into the region Friday, lighting up the radar with widespread showers that brought heavy rain, large hail, and frequent lightning across the Puget Sound area -- thunderstorms that were certainly big by Northwest standards.



©K. McAlpine

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Cloud Lightning

Rain washes out 107-year-old Minnesota record

Bob Von Sternberg
startribune.com
Sun, 21 Oct 2007 12:09 UTC
No, it wasn't your imagination.

Last week's endless days of rain and leaden skies were, indeed, the stuff of records.

The National Weather Service announced Friday that the 18.91 inches of rain that fell in the Twin Cities during August, September and October set a record -- well before October ends.
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Arrow Up

Temperatures hit record high in Toronto - warmest October on record

Rachel De Lazzer
TheStar.com
Mon, 22 Oct 2007 12:01 UTC
Residents who donned their shorts yesterday may find it no surprise it was a record warm day.

Temperatures at Pearson Airport hit 26C, more than twice the normal high for that day. Toronto's last record high for the day was in 1979 when the mercury hit 24C, said Dave Phillips, senior climatologist with Environment Canada.

But it wasn't a one-day deal. This is the city's warmest October on record so far, said Phillips.
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Better Earth

Ladybugs Help New York As Pest Killers


Associated Press
Mon, 22 Oct 2007 00:46 UTC
It sounds like a horror movie: 720,000 ladybugs on the attack in Manhattan.

In this real life story, however, the red-and-black bugs have been unleashed on the 80-acre grounds of one of New York's biggest apartment complexes with a mission: eat pests infesting the neatly landscaped property.

The ladybugs from Bozeman, Mont., arrived at the Stuyvesant Town and Peter Cooper Village complex on Manhattan's East Side on Thursday afternoon, packed in boxes shipped by a natural gardening company.
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Bizarro Earth

South Africa: Iceberg off St Francis Bay


SAPA
Tue, 09 Oct 2007 23:43 UTC
An iceberg, 25 meters in length and 20 metres in height, has been spotted south-east of St Francis Bay, Eastern Cape, the National Sea Rescue Institute (NSRI) said on Monday.

"This is very unusual and in fact we don't know of anything in recent history that has being reported this close to South African waters," said NSRI spokesman Craig Lambinon.

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Cloud Lightning

Flood hits provinces in NE, central Thailand


Xinhua
Thu, 18 Oct 2007 23:37 UTC
Flood has hit a number of northeastern, lower northern and central provinces in Thailand, local media reported Thursday.

The northeastern border province of Buri Ram declared nine districts as disaster zones. The damages by flood are initially estimated at more than one million baht (about 29,400 U.S. dollars), according to the Thai News Agency.
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