Earth Changes
The quake detected at 8:35 p.m. was the strongest tremor reported on land in the country with the Korea Meteorological Administration (KMA) saying the epicenter was near Naenam-myeon region in Gyeongju, some 371 kilometers southeast of Seoul.
The quake was preceded by a 5.1-magnitude tremor detected at 7:44 p.m. in the same area located some 9 kilometers south of Gyeongju. The second quake was felt in most parts of the country.
No serious damage was immediately reported, including at the Wolsong, Hanul and Gori nuclear power plants located in the Gyeongsang region.
The Beaufort Fire Department said the call came at 12:48.
The Assistant Fire Chief told WNCT the two men were working on a house on front street.
They were on an aluminum ladder when it hit.
Beaufort EMS took the men to Carteret Health Care, there is no word on their conditions.
Their identities are not released at this time.
More than 22 feet (6 metres) long and 8 feet (2.4m) in girth, with 3-foot (0.9m) pectoral fins and a 3-foot fluke, the whale weighed 2 tonnes. It hit the shore around 6am, U Nyunt Wai said.
"A stranded whale is a strange thing in nature," he said. "The stranding might be related to magnetic fields, as this type of animal goes around seeking the magnetic field."
Villagers and members of the township's Department of Fisheries successfully pushed the whale back into the water and along the canal until it reached a place where it could swim by itself.
- A record-breaking number of tornadoes in the US for August
- Another '1-in-1,000-year flood event', this time in Louisiana
- A destructive earthquake in central Italy
- The fastest comet ever recorded
- Lots more lightning deaths, including an entire herd of reindeer in southern Norway
- Three massive sinkholes opening up to swallow (and kill) people in China
- Intense storms hitting many world capitals, including record rainfalls in Macedonia and Moscow
- Raging wildfires across the western Mediterranean and western US
Police were dispatched at 7 a.m. to Crenshaw Boulevard, between 168th and 170th streets, to provide traffic control as utility crews fill up sinkhole, according to a news release from the Torrance Police Department.
"There were cracks (in the pavement) across all [four] lanes of traffic," the release stated.
It was not immediately known if any water service was interrupted due to the water main brake.
Crenshaw Boulevard was closed between 168th and 170th streets at about 7:25 a.m. Police expected the big hole to be filled and traffic lanes re-opened by 12:30 p.m., police said.
Piton de la Fournaise is classified as a shield volcano because of its low profile and multiple lava flows when it erupts. No one was injured in the eruption.
The most powerful of the tornadoes was rated an EF-2 by the National Weather Service, reaching a peak wind speed of 125 miles per hour and leaving a 4.7 mile path of damage.
Significant damage is reported in the small towns of Homer — in between the city of Champaign and Danville — and Sidney south of Danville. A 116-year-old farmhouse was destroyed, and headstones in a cemetery were knocked over. The tornado threat bypassed the University of Illinois.
Busan Regional Meteorological Administration pinpointed the epicenter of the quake at 8 kilometers south of Gyeongju, some 371 kilometers southeast of Seoul. The quake was felt throughout Gyeongsang Province.
No damage was immediately reported, although most people in the region felt homes and buildings shake.
Several people were unable to leave their business places for more than an hour and motorists were left stranded.
It was reported that employees of the Wallenford Coffee Company sought refuge on the upper floor and stairway of the office as water inundated the ground floor.
Vehicles in the main car park were also flooded.
Communications Manager at the National Works Agency Stephen Shaw said a pile-up of garbage contributed to the flooding along Marcus Garvey Drive, where roadwork is also under way.
Shaw said last evening that work crews had been dispatched to the area to address the flooding problem.
Some 107,000 people have been displaced in the area along the Tumen River, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said in a statement, citing figures from Pyongyang.
The official KCNA news agency reported on Sunday that the flooding in the country's northeast has led to "great hardship." A labor campaign designed to bolster the nation's economy has been shifted to "direct all efforts to the construction of dwelling houses to provide flood-hit people with warm cradles and turn the flood-battered region into a fairyland in the era of the Workers' party within this year," the agency reported, quoting the country's Central Committee.
An address published in the country's official state media has called on all citizens to take part in the recovery work, TASS reported, stating that "all the human, material, and technical resources of the country have been mobilized."
Workers from the International Red Cross and Red Crescent are reportedly taking part in humanitarian efforts, distributing aid to those in the worst-hit areas.
















Comment: See also this report of the earlier event: Magnitude 5.3 earthquake rocks southeastern South Korea