Four children were among 17 people killed over the weekend in central Indonesia after heavy rains triggered floods and landslides, officials said on Monday.The children, aged between two and nine, died along with 13 adults when flooding and landslides hit the northern part of Sulawesi island early Sunday, provincial disaster management agency spokesman Howke Makawarung told AFP. "We recorded 17 people killed. All bodies were found on Sunday," he said, adding that heavy rains had hit three areas, including the North Sulawesi provincial capital of Manado which saw water levels up to four meters (13 feet). Water, which inundated around 5,000 houses in Manado, had receded by Monday and residents had begun cleaning up their homes.


A landslide which hit the city killed a six-year old boy. "He was taking a bath in the morning when a landslide suddenly struck his house," the capital deputy mayor Harley Mangindaan told AFP. Indonesia is regularly affected by deadly floods and landslides during its wet season, which lasts for around six months. Environmentalists blame logging and a failure to reforest denuded land for exacerbating flooding. Heavy rains caused flooding in the capital Jakarta in January that left 32 people dead and at its peak forced nearly 46,000 to flee their homes. - Raw Story

It will be a messy weekend in the Northeast and the Deep South as the massive weather system that walloped 20 states with a snowstorm rolls off towards the Atlantic Ocean. A winter storm is expected to deposit up to 10 inches of snow in isolated pockets of western Massachusetts, and 6 inches to a foot in parts of southern Vermont and New Hampshire, and central Maine. This is not the same storm that blanketed the Great Plains, said CNN Meteorologist Pedram Javaheri, although it is part of the same overall system that spans the country from north to south. It will be much less intense, he said, and it should not affect the places hardest hit by the blizzard that plastered the Northeast two weeks ago, knocking out power to hundreds of thousands of customers. Boston will likely see a slushy mix of rain and snow that could lead to downed branches and power lines, Javaheri said.

Rain will continue to soak the eastern United States from Washington, D.C., on down, especially Sunday, according to the National Weather Service. "Across the Southeast, some of the rainfall totals are going to be staggering," said CNN Meteorologist Karen McGinnis. Parts of the central Southeast should get 4 - 6 inches of rainfall. The outgoing system will have made its mark on virtually the entire country from the southwest corner of California to central Maine, leaving its deepest imprint on Kansas. Wichita saw its second-highest storm snowfall total on record with 14.2 inches over two days, the National Weather Service said. The town of Russell in the state's middle lay under a 22 inch layer of white by the time the storm roared by. Missouri was not far behind, with accumulations of around a foot in some places. The snow set a record at Kansas City International Airport, with 9 inches falling in a single day. The old record was 5.1 inches set in 2010. Some businesses and universities shut down Thursday as state officials urged residents to stay off the roads. The white blanket emptied the streets of Kansas City. - CNN

Massive landslip in the UK

There is no end in sight to the severe disruption a landslide has caused for Scunthorpe area rail passengers, according to a leading rail expert. Sim Harris, managing editor at Railnews, the national newspaper for the British rail industry, says the landslide near Hatfield Colliery that is affecting thousands of North Lincolnshire rail passengers is the worst in decades. The disruption for passengers travelling between Scunthorpe and Doncaster has seen their journeys extended by up to an hour as they take buses to and from their destination. Work cannot begin repairing the track until the landslide stops moving - and officials at Network Rail say they have no idea when this will be. Mr Harris said: "Landslips themselves are not that uncommon and over the last year there have been quite a few because of the heavy rain that we have had. "There have been a lot of landslips that have not been rail-related, but some railways have been affected. This one is certainly the worst in my recollection and you have to go back a long way to find anything of this nature. In 1953, there were floods along the east coast service near Newcastle, where bridges were washed away. I don't think I have seen anything like this in recent memory. I don't recall anything as serious as this. There is no end in sight. He says repairing the line will not be an easy task. Until the ground stops moving, there is not much that Network Rail can do - their hands are tied. When it stops moving, it will take more than five minutes to rebuild four tracks of main railway. There are junctions that are involved which make it much more difficult." - TIS.uk


Unprecedented landslip in Spain

Heavy rains in recent weeks have caused a major landslide in Subiza (Cendea of ​​Galar) that has devastated rural roads, farms and caused serious damage to two electrical towers that are at serious risk of falling. The landslide is located on the southeast slope of Mount of Forgiveness, towards Bells, and therefore did not affect any house in this small town of Basin, about 190 inhabitants. The dimensions of the land mass, dragged stones and vegetation, as a result of heavy rainfall are calculated such that can reach 800 meters long and 700 wide. "It is of immense dimensions, and quite tremendous." I've never seen one this big slide," claimed yesterday Esteban Faci, geologist of the Government of Navarre, in an initial field assessment. Continuous rains, during January and February, along with the snowmelt, are behind this spectacular landslide, which began about three or four weeks, according to Ismael Amatriain. As if it were a glacier, the tongue of land, rocks and vegetation has shifted gradually from the hillside, taking about six or seven fields of wheat and barley crops with it. It has also destroyed three rural roads; sometimes breaking them so dramatically that you could see a stretch perfectly, you can see where the next, 10 or 15 feet had moved. In addition, roads, are covered by tons of earth in places, and have large and deep cracks. The council has sealed off many of these roads, making access totally impassable. The landslide also destroyed a cattle track that crossed the region. - Noticias

A massive landslip destroys dozens of fields and roads near Cendea de Galar Spain

Nightmarish cracks, splits land in Kashmir At least 200 families of Yamrad Bala, 16 km from Handwara have been forced to migrate to other locations after cracks developed in the land around their houses. The cracks are widening constantly giving a nightmarish experience to the inhabitants. Locals said that land was developing cracks, which were widening with each passing day. They expressed fear that their residential structures may collapse anytime and result in devastation of life and property. The land is developing cracks and it appears that major soil erosion may wreak havoc to life and property," said Habibullah Qureshi, a local. The village is located at a slope and a non-metallic road connects it with the Handwara town. We have a joint family of 18 members living under a single roof. Fearing collapse of our house, we were forced to evacuate during the night and stay with relatives in Magam since Monday," Muhammad Ayoub, a local said. Some families who muster courage to stay in their homes during nights said it was a nightmarish experience for them to spend nights amid increasing fear of widening of cracks. Following a representation by locals about soil erosion in the village, a team from Soil Conservation Department accompanied by Tehsildar Handwara Ghulam Ahmad Khan today visited the village. Officials of Soil Conservation Department collected the sample of soil and sent it for testing. There is no need to panic and necessary measures will be taken for the safety of inhabitants of the village," Khan said. Most of the families evacuated their houses and moved to safer location in nearby localities during nights. "Staying for nights here may prove disastrous because land is developing more cracks at different places. For past two days, we have been moving to other locations to spend nights and avoid any eventuality," a local Muhammad Sarwar said. "The soil may have turned marshy after many years. If that is the case, then the entire village may be forced to migrate to other areas for rehabilitation," said another local Abdul Rashid Lone. - Rising Kasmir

As many as 30 million people living from Oklahoma to the Ohio Valley are in the path of a storm moving east out of California that could dump several inches of snow in some areas and freezing rain and sleet elsewhere in the next few days.

According to the Weather Channel, the storm is caused by an "upper-level dip in the jet stream," on Wednesday.

Snow will also intensify and spread east in the Plains and Midwest Wednesday into Thursday. By that point, conditions will become favorable for a zone of freezing rain and sleet from Oklahoma and Kansas to the Ohio Valley and parts of the East.

Several hours of heavy rain and a thunderstorm in the Greek capital Athens have flooded roads and homes, caused traffic jams and disrupted the train and tram network, officials say.

The deluge inundated basements and forced authorities to close underpasses and a central subway station.

Violent thunderstorms and torrential rains have caused chaos across southern Europe.

In Italy, much of the Sicilian city of Catania was turned into a raging river with strong waters carrying away vehicles. Some 50 litres per square metre of rain fell in just half an hour.

Hundreds of firefighters were scrambled but only one person was injured.

The situation was worse in Greece where one woman died and dozens of commuters were trapped in their cars after a torrential downpour swamped the capital Athens.

Police said a 27-year-old woman died of a suspected heart attack after being trapped in her car in the northern suburb of Halandri.

Event Time
2013-02-22 12:01:59 UTC
2013-02-22 09:01:59 UTC-03:00 at epicenter

Location
27.993°S 63.195°W depth=585.8km (364.0mi)

Nearby Cities
23km (14mi) ESE of Suncho Corral, Argentina
62km (39mi) NW of Anatuya, Argentina
86km (53mi) WSW of Quimili, Argentina
107km (66mi) ESE of Santiago del Estero, Argentina
628km (390mi) WSW of Asuncion, ParaguayTechnical Details

Arizona Department of Transportation spokesperson Tim Tate says that the possibility of more sinkholes appearing in the vicinity of the one that was discovered Wednesday morning remains a concern. Tate says that in addition to engineers and workers dispatched to the area of the Big Cut to assess and move forward with road restoration, about 25-miles south of Page, workers are also looking for signs of other sinkholes.

Tate says the 150-feet wide, 5-feet deep chasm was first reported by two unlucky motorists who apparently drove on the scene not long after the sinkhole appeared. Both drivers suffered minor injuries, possibly from their airbags being deployed.

The region is filled with sand and rock and ADOT workers are taking soil samples as part of the effort to solve the mystery of why the sinkhole appeared. Tate says officials don't believe the incident was weather related and may have been triggered by a geologic occurrence. A check of the U.S. Geological Survey's website doesn't show any earthquake activity in the area of the sinkhole preceding its emergence.

Highway 89 does remain closed at the sinkhole between Page and Tuba City near the Big Cut. Tate says repairing the roadway may be costly and take awhile to accomplish.

Flash and lashing rain saw homes damaged in Melbourne's north and west as a storm hit the suburbs overnight.

The wild weather flooded a police station, caused a supermarket roof to collapse and grounded flights at Melbourne Airport.

Residents in South Morang and Mernda are cleaning up today after flash flooding hit some homes and streets.

More than 50mm of rain bucketed down in Melbourne's outer north last night in little more than a few hours.

And the Bureau of Meteorology is warning there is a possibility of more storms later this afternoon.

The snow started falling around Arizona during the early morning hours Wednesday and by mid-morning was even falling near the Valley of the Sun.

Viewers were quick to grab videos of the snow falling outside their homes and send them in to ABC15.