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Fri, 05 Nov 2021
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Black Cat

4-year-old girl attacked by mountain lion near Rexburg, Idaho

Kelsi Butt, 4, of Blackfoot, Idaho shows some of the wounds she suffered when a mountain lion grabbed her and tried to drag her away.

Kelsi Butt, 4, of Blackfoot, Idaho shows some of the wounds she suffered when a mountain lion grabbed her and tried to drag her away.
Little Kelsi Butt is now "more or less 100 percent back to normal," her dad says, four days after the 4-year-old's Aug. 12 encounter with a mountain lion.

The Butt family — dad Israel, mom Kera and their three children, son Kegan, 8, and daughters Maylie, 7, and Kelsi — were at a family reunion, camping with grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins, near Green Canyon Hot Springs, east of Rexburg, Idaho.

The weekend of outdoor fun took an unexpected turn Friday night, when Kelsi was attacked by a 90-pound, young male mountain lion that had been lurking in the wooded area.

"We usually have family reunions up there, camping at Hot Springs Campground," Israel Butt told Gephardt Daily, "but this year we decided to go higher up."

The area was a little more remote, with fewer people around than at the campground. Kelsi's mom thought she saw the cat earlier in the day and mentioned it to other family members. But the woods are full of wildlife, no one else had seen the animal, and cats generally avoid human beings anyway, so there seemed to be no cause for concern.


Comment: See also this other recent report: Jogger uses rock to battle cougar in attack on Vancouver Island, Canada


Attention

Dead whale mistaken for overturned boat near Elliston, Canada

Representative image

Representative image
There is a dead whale floating off the coast of Elliston that was mistaken for an overturned boat earlier today.

In a press release issued this afternoon, Bonavista RCMP say they were called to Elliston after a report of a possible overturned boat off the coast.

According to RCMP, the Joint Rescue Coordination Centre was contacted and they dispatched a cormorant helicopter from Gander to investigate.

Once the helicopter arrived on the scene, they determined the object was not a boat but a dead whale.

Bonavista RCMP are advising the public to be cautious while boating in the area of Elliston, as the whale is floating at the surface of the water and may be difficult to see.

Red Flag

NASA team finds fracking contributing to major methane leaks in the US

methane us map
© NASA /J PL-Caltech / University of Michigan
This map shows anomalous U.S. methane emissions (or how much the emissions differ from average background concentrations) for 2003 to 2009, as measured by the European Space Agency's SCIAMACHY instrument
Using airborne thermal infrared spectrometers, a NASA-led team has found 25 leaks due to fracking natural gas production are contributing two-thirds of the methane emissions in a hot spot in the United States' Four Corners region.

Using two airborne spectrometers flying 3,000 to 10,000 feet above the ground, researchers identified and measured more than 250 individual sources leaking methane plumes in the Four Regions region of Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico and Utah. The majority of leaks are from gas wells, storage tanks, pipelines and processing plants used in hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, operations for natural gas.

"The sources emitted the gas at rates ranging from a few pounds to 11,000 pounds (5,000 kilograms) per hour," NASA said in a statement. The study said as much as two-thirds of the methane could be spewing from only about 25 locations.

Only a handful of the 250 leaks were caused by natural seepage from underground formations, and one was a vent from a coal mine, according to researchers with NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory and the California Institute of Technology.

Fish

Over 1,000 fish found dead in Yellowstone River, Montana

Dead whitefish
© Scott McMillion
Dead whitefish
Vicki Schwarz had friends in from out of state, so they decided to float down the Yellowstone River on Sunday afternoon. They put in at Mayor's Landing near Livingston, six people on the raft. But as the Livingston schoolteacher rowed them along, it became clear something strange was going on.

"I noticed as I was paddling that like every 5 feet I could see a belly-up whitefish," Schwarz said. "It was really sad. I didn't know what to tell anyone."

State officials aren't yet sure what to tell anyone either. Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks has now counted more than 1,000 dead mountain whitefish in the Yellowstone River. Dead fish have been seen as far upstream as the Point of Rocks Fishing Access Site south of Emigrant and as far downstream as one east of Springdale. But they can't point to a cause just yet.

Fire

State of emergency declared for wildfire raging in San Bernardino, California; 18,000 acres burned and 82,000 people evacuated

Blue Cut Fire in California
© (Will Lester/AP)
Firefighters battle the Blue Cut Fire along Swarthout Canyon Road in the Cajon Pass.
A fast-growing 18,000-acre wildfire burned through rural communities in California overnight, triggering a state of emergency and evacuation orders for more than 82,000 residents in the San Bernardino area.

More than 700 firefighters and other emergency workers were battling the Blue Cut fire, which flared early Tuesday some 60 miles east of Los Angeles and spread rapidly along the Cajon Pass.

Gov. Jerry Brown declared a state of emergency in San Bernardino County, families fled and Interstate 15 was closed as the blaze grew.

"This moved so fast," said Darren Dalton, 51, who along with his wife and son had to get out of his house in the small town of Wrightwood. "It went from 'have you heard there's a fire?' to 'mandatory evacuation' before you could take it all in ... Suddenly it's a ghost town."

Ash rained down on motorists from billowing black smoke, while aerial pictures from KNBC captured a roadside 'firenado' in which swirling gusts of wind sent flames twisting high into the air.


Comment: Could 2016 be California's worst wildfire season?


Tornado2

7 tornadoes touch down in Central Indiana

Indiana tornado
© Katie Braun
The National Weather Service confirmed Tuesday that seven tornadoes tore through Central Indiana on Monday night, including three in Hendricks County.

The weather service confirmed an EF-0 tornado near Clayton, an EF-1 tornado near Avon and an EF-1 tornado near Pittsboro, all in Hendricks County.

Four additional tornadoes were confirmed: an EF-0 tornado near Battle Ground in Tippecanoe County, an EF-2 tornado near Whitestown in Boone County, an EF-1 tornado near Sheridan in Hamilton County and an EF-0 near Greentown in Howard County.

The weather service uses the Enhanced Fujita Scale to determine and rank the strength of tornadoes based on wind speed, which is derived from damage estimates taken on the scene using 28 damage indicators and the degree of damage sustained.


Cloud Precipitation

Update: 11 dead in devastating Louisiana floods, 30,000 people rescued and at least 40,000 homes damaged

Louisiana flooding
© Getty Images
A total of 11 people have now been killed in the devastating Louisiana floods, the governor said on Tuesday, and at least 40,000 homes were damaged.

Giving a stark assessment of the widespread disaster, Gov. John Bel Edwards spoke at a news conference alongside FEMA administrator Craig Fugate, saying 'well over' 20,000 people have been rescued since the flooding began on Friday.

His office later increased that figure to more than 30,000 - which included a 78-year-old woman who spent a night stranded in a tree.

Beginning on Friday, a torrent of about two feet of rain inundated the southern part of the state over a 48-hour period, and days later many homes and businesses were still underwater.


Comment: Governor Edwards declared a state of emergency over the weekend, calling the floods 'unprecedented' and 'historic'. Some other 'historic' flooding in the United States in recent times include:

June 2016: 23 deaths as West Virginia swamped

March 2016: more 'historic' flooding in the southern states

January 2016: massive flooding and mudslides in southern California

November 2015: record rainfall in Texas

October 2015: "once-in-a-thousand-year" flash flooding in South Carolina


Fire

5,500-acre fire spreading rapidly in Southern California, evacuations underway

Southern California fire
© CAL_FIRE / Twitter
A massive blaze is forcing mass evacuations after shutting down Southern California's Interstate-15, the main route to Las Vegas. The enormous inferno, now covering 5,500 acres, spread across its first 1,000 acres within an hour of its initial spark.

The fire was reported in Devore, California, in the late morning hours of Tuesday, and within an hour, it spread from five acres to over 5,500, according to KABC.

It broke out near the Cajon Pass, where there have been red flag warnings from the San Bernardino Fire Department, in recognition of gusty winds and low humidity, prime conditions for wildfires.

Evacuations were ordered by the US Forest Service around West Cajon Valley, between Highway 2 and the I-15, KABC reported. At least one structure was seen burning, but no injuries have been reported.

The cause remains unknown.

Snowflake Cold

Ice Age cometh: 'Unfathomable' snow and wind blasts New Zealand's North Island

New Zealand snow August 2016
© YouTube/Adapt 2030 (screen capture)
The north island of New Zealand which receives a dusting of snow every 15 years or so, was pummeled with 3 feet and 120 mph winds over the last week. So rare was the event that the word Unfathomable was used in the media.


Comment: As the global warming hoax spirals out of control, evidence suggests that the world is on the brink of a new ice age. See also:


Cloud Lightning

Lightning bolt kills four in Cambodia

lIGHTNING
A lightning strike during a midday storm in Kampong Chhnang province killed four rice farmers taking shelter from the rain, police said.

They had been working in their fields in Rolea Ba'ier district when the storm hit and had huddled together in a small hut together with a fifth person, who was unharmed, said deputy district chief Vung Sambath.

"Two people among the four dead people are father and son and another two are their neighbors," he said.

He named the dead people are Mao Sareth, 54, the father of Mao Chantha, 17, Sath Chum, 23, and Chom Pisei, 21.

Mr. Sambath said this was the first fatality from lightning in his district this year, and that authorities regularly warned people to be careful during storms.

The National Committee for Disaster Management reported last month that 78 people had been killed by lightning in the first seven months of the year, with a further 100 injuries and 60 cattle fatalities.

In 2015, lightning killed 130 people and injured about 200.