Earth ChangesS


Igloo

US: Blizzard Conditions Blamed for at Least Six Deaths

Steve Olafson
Reuters
Tue, 20 Dec 2011 12:29 UTC
Blizzard conditions that shut down highways in five states on Monday were blamed for at least six deaths, the National Weather Service said on Tuesday.
Image
© Reuters/Steven HauslerA truck travels along Highway 40 as snow covers the highway and the surrounding plains, west of Hays, Kansas December 20, 2011.
The storm filled roadside hotels and motels from eastern New Mexico to Kansas on Monday and triggered nearly 100 rescue calls from the Texas Panhandle. It was moving deeper into the Great Plains on Tuesday, according to the NWS.

Four people died on Monday in a car wreck in New Mexico said Mark Wiley, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service.

And in eastern Colorado, a prisoner and a corrections officer were killed when the driver of a van transporting nine prisoners lost control on Interstate 70, authorities said.

An additional five people also died in a single-engine plane crash in Central Texas on Monday, but the crash was not near the severe weather in the Texas Panhandle.
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Heart - Black

Philippines Sends Coffins as Toll Nears 1,000 Dead


USA Today
Tue, 20 Dec 2011 00:00 UTC
Image
© The Associated Press/Bullit MarquezSoldiers carry coffins of flash flood victims during a mass burial Tuesday at a cemetery in Iligan.
The government shipped more than 400 coffins to two flood-stricken cities in the southern Philippines on Tuesday as the death toll neared 1,000 and President Benigno Aquino III declared a state of national calamity.

The latest count listed 957 dead and 49 missing and is expected to climb further as additional bodies are recovered from the sea and mud in Iligan and Cagayan de Oro cities.

A handful of morgues are overwhelmed and running out of coffins and formaldehyde for embalming. Aid workers appealed for bottled water, blankets, tents and clothes for many of 45,000 in crowded evacuation centers.

Navy sailors in Manila loaded a ship with 437 white wooden coffins to help local authorities handle the staggering number of dead. Also on the way were containers with thousands of water bottles.
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Bizarro Earth

US: Satellite Spies Major Winter Storm Heading for Midwest


OurAmazingPlanet
Mon, 19 Dec 2011 16:18 UTC
Winter Storm
© NOAA/NASAThis image was taken by NASA's GOES East satellite on Dec. 19.
It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas in the Midwest. A fast approaching snow storm could be a doozy in the country's midsection, according to forecasters.

A developing low-pressure system is expected to spread snow across northeast New Mexico and into Kansas from today (Dec. 19) into Tuesday with possible blizzard conditions, according to the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).

Areas of the country on the northern edge of the weather system will see a strong pressure gradient, causing gusty winds, blowing snow and poor visibility. There is warm air ahead of the low-pressure system so a slight risk of severe thunderstorms is forecast to move from southeastern Texas today into the lower Mississippi Valley on Tuesday.

Many places in the storm's path are expecting 6 to 12 inches (15 to 30 centimeters) of snow. The Dodge City, Kan., National Weather Service (NWS) office has issued a major winter storm warning through early Tuesday. They are forecasting up to 14 inches (36 cm) of snow. Colorado, Oklahoma and Texas could also see strong winds and heavy snow.
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Fish

Beluga Whales Trapped By Ice in Russia


redOrbit
Sun, 18 Dec 2011 15:41 UTC
Beluga Whale
© redOrbit

More than a hundred Beluga whales are trapped in frigid water surrounded by ice floes in the Chukotka region of Russia's Far East, and risk death unless they are rescued soon, local authorities said.

The flock of gentle whales was trapped in the Sinyavinsky Strait off the Bering Sea near the village of Yanrakynnot, a statement from the Chukotka Autonomous Region said, with local governor Roman Kopin calling for the government to send an icebreaker to the region to try and free them from their soon-to-be icy graveyard.

Local fishermen reported that the whales were concentrated in two relatively small ice holes, where they can at least breathe freely for the time being. But the odds of them being able to swim back out to open water are slim due to the vast fields of ice over the strait.

The statement said the whales risk becoming starved if they cannot be rescued soon. And with the advancement of the ice floes, the space where they are concentrated is growing smaller and smaller.

"Given the lack of food and the speed at which the water is freezing, all the animals are threatened with exhaustion and death," it added.

A Russian icebreaker was just two days sail away from the area, the Chukotka government noted. It could easily make the trip in time to save the whales, it added.
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Snowflake

US: Snowstorm threatens travel in southwest, Midwest


Associated Press
Mon, 19 Dec 2011 09:30 UTC
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© AP PictureNick Trenkamp shovels his driveway to get to his car.
Wichita, Kansas - A powerful snowstorm is threatening holiday travel across the southwest and Great Plains.

Blizzard warnings were either in effect or scheduled to begin Monday as the storm barreled toward parts of New Mexico, Texas, Oklahoma and Kansas.

In southern Colorado, blizzard conditions were expected to drop between 8 and 16 inches of snow and threaten the closure of Interstate 25 from New Mexico into the state.

Heavy snowfall was predicted from southwestern Kansas, south into the Oklahoma panhandle, south toward Amarillo, Texas, and west into the New Mexico plains. Wet, heavy snow was already creating tricky driving conditions near Santa Fe, N.M.

In Kansas, winds up to 45 mph were expected to create whiteout conditions that could threaten holiday motorists.
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Bizarro Earth

US: Two Centuries After New Madrid Quakes

Adrian Sainz
ClaimsJournal.com
Mon, 19 Dec 2011 07:26 UTC
Image
© Unknown
The United States was still a young nation when three major earthquakes rocked the central Mississippi River valley in the winter of 1811-1812.

Chimneys fell, the earth heaved and church bells rang hundreds of miles away, set off by the powerful vibrations from what is now called the New Madrid Seismic Zone. As farmland rolled and shuddered, the shock waves spread as far as New York and the Carolinas.

Now on the 200th anniversary of those devastating quakes, some seismologists are warning that the region should be on guard because of the risk that another "Big One" could strike the region within the next 50 years.

"There have been past big earthquakes, there will be future big earthquakes," said California-based seismologist Mary Lou Zoback, who released a report Dec. 7 on the "seismic hazard" inherent in the New Madrid fault. "It's a reminder that we need to keep this in mind and do what we can to prepare."

The quakes on Dec. 16, 1811, and Jan. 23 and Feb. 7 of 1812 were among the strongest in U.S. history. Their magnitudes have been estimated to have ranged from 7.7 to 8.1, though some seismologists have suggested the magnitudes should be lower, closer to the 7 to 7.6 range.

They centered around the New Madrid Seismic Zone, a 150-mile stretch of land between Memphis and St. Louis that crosses parts of Arkansas, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Missouri and Tennessee. The zone produced major earthquakes dating to around 1450 A.D., 900 A.D., 300 A.D. and even further back.
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Cloud Lightning

At Least 50,000 Children Caught Up In Philippines Flooding


Save The Children
Sun, 18 Dec 2011 20:52 UTC
Philippines Flooding
© Eduardo Umali/Save the Children
At least 50,000 children have been caught up in flooding in the Philippines, Save the Children estimates, after hundreds of people were swept to their deaths by an enormous cyclone.

Two days after torrential rains triggered some of the worst flooding ever seen in the country, some areas are still cut off by damage and debris, hampering relief efforts and prompting fears for families trapped without enough food and clean water.

Save the Children is particularly concerned that children may have been separated from their families during the floods, leaving them especially vulnerable, Save the Children's Anna Lindenfors in the Philippines said.

"We fear that many children were split up from their parents as this disaster unfolded and our priority is to reach them as soon as possible. We are especially worried about children trapped in areas that we cannot access due to the damage caused by the storm. Children are likely to have borne the brunt of this disaster, because they are less likely to be able to cope with torrents of floodwater." she said.

Hundreds of people are still missing after the storm tore through coastal villages in Mindanao and there are reports that the majority of the bodies recovered so far have been children.
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Clock

Minor quakes hit Puerto Rico, no report of damage


The Star
Sat, 17 Dec 2011 20:05 UTC
A magnitude 5.3 earthquake and a slightly weaker one shook Puerto Rico early on Saturday, but there were no immediate reports of damage or casualties.

The epicentre of the stronger quake was 8 miles (13 km) westnorthwest of Puerto Real on the Caribbean island's west coast at a depth of 14.4 miles (23.2 km), the U.S. Geological Survey said. A weaker quake of 5.1 magnitude struck the same area three minutes earlier.

The tremor was felt at a hotel on the northwestern coast of Puerto Rico, said Jose Caro, an employee at Marriott Courtyard Aguadilla.
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Nuke

Fukushima: Japanese Media Skeptical About Containment Claims


Firstpost.com
Sat, 17 Dec 2011 16:54 UTC
Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant's No.4
© ReutersThe crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant's No.4 reactor building is seen from bus windows in Fukushima prefecture.
Tokyo: Japanese media simmered with doubts on Saturday about a government announcement that the world's worst nuclear accident in 25 years had been contained with the tsunami-stricken Fukushima Daiichi plant in a state of cold shutdown.

Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda announced on Friday that cold shutdown meant the accident itself had been contained, though he added that the government faced a long and hard task in cleaning up radiation and dismantling the plant, which may take up to 40 years.

The plant, 240 km northeast of Tokyo, was wrecked by towering tsunami waves, triggered by a 9 magnitude earthquake on 11 March, which knocked out its cooling systems, triggering meltdowns and mass evacuations.

A cold shutdown is when water used to cool nuclear fuel rods stays below boiling point, preventing the fuel from reheating. The declaration of a cold shutdown is a government pre-condition for allowing about 80,000 residents evacuated from a 20-km radius exclusion zone around the plant to go home.
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Bad Guys

U.S. Abandons Toxic Burn Pits as it Withdraws from Iraq and Afghanistan

Matthew J. Nasuti
KabulPress.org
Sat, 10 Dec 2011 16:30 UTC
consolidated burn pit
© diehardengineer.comPicture of a consolidated burn pit at FOB Junction City, Iraq
American troops are among the victims of the Pentagon's "pollute & run" policy

U.S. service members and their Iraqi and Afghan allies have a common enemy. It is not Iran, the Taliban or al-Qaeda, but the Pentagon which operated hundreds of toxic burn pits in Iraq and Afghanistan. As the U.S. completes its withdrawal from Iraq and begins to draw down in Afghanistan, the American military, pursuant to its "pollute and run" policy, is abandoning millions of kilograms of toxic and potentially radioactive waste. Everything is being buried and covered over, just as it did in Vietnam and in the Philippines when the U.S. withdrew from Clark Air Base and the Subic Bay naval installation. The Pentagon seems to hope that all the health problems of U.S. troops can likewise be buried and covered over.

The (U.S.) Air Force Times ran an editorial on March 1, 2010 that read: "Stamp Out Burn Pits." We reprint the first portion of that editorial:

"A growing number of military medical professionals believe burn pits are causing a wave of respiratory and other illnesses among troops returning from Iraq and Afghanistan. Found on almost all U.S. bases in the war zones, these open-air trash sites operate 24 hours a day, incinerating trash of all forms - including plastic bottles, paint, petroleum products, unexploded ordinance, hazardous materials, even amputated limbs and medical waste. Their smoke plumes belch dioxin, carbon monoxide and other toxins skyward, producing a toxic fog that hangs over living and working areas."
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