Earth ChangesS


Fish

US: Fourth of July weekend jellyfish invasion

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© Joe Burbank/Orlando SentinelDozens of Sea Nettle jellyfish are among the thousands that washed ashore in Ormond Beach, Saturday, July 2, 2011. This photo was shot about two miles north of Granada Blvd.
Florida's Volusia County beaches were littered with Sea Nettle jellyfish over Fourth of July holiday weekend

In all my years of beaching it in northern Volusia county, I've never seen an invasion of jellyfish, also known as sea jellies, quite like what filled the surf and littered the beach shoreline in Ormond on Saturday.

Looking like glass medallions twinkling in the afternoon sun, the jellies stretched by the thousands in northern Volusia, up to Ormond-By-The-Sea. More than 2,000 visitors countywide reported being stung according to Volusia County Beach Patrol.

Bell

Shaanxi Landslide Kills 18 People


Beijing - The death toll has risen to 18 from a rain-triggered landslide in northwestern China's Shaan-xi Province.

400 rescuers have completed a search mission and pulled out 20 people from the debris.The landslide had a volume of 5-thousand-cubic-meters and engulfed 12 houses when it hit an area near a major highway in Lue-yang County. Authorities have cleared the road and transportation is expected to resume on Wednesday morning.

More heavy rains are expected to hit the southern part of Shaan-xi, according to weather forecasters. Local authorities are on high alert and are evacuating people living in low-lying areas.

Bizarro Earth

Washington, US: Landslide Cuts Power, Hits Central Avenue in Kent

Crews in Kent were clearing the remains of an overnight landslide that brought down trees and shut down a section of busy Central Avenue South, near East Titus Street.

A landslide in July is a little strange, even in the Puget Sound area.

City crews in Kent were clearing the remains of an overnight slide that brought down trees and shut down a section of busy Central Avenue South, near East Titus Street.

Power to about 1,400 Puget Sound Energy customers was temporarily knocked out Tuesday night but had been restored by early Wednesday.

A spokeswoman for the city said officials don't know what caused the mudslide.

Alarm Clock

Laos: PanAust Says Contract Worker Swept Away in Phu Kham Landslide

Perth− Gold miner PanAust said on Tuesday a contract worker in Laos was likely killed after heavy rain swept through its Phu Kham operations.

The excavator operator was working on an off-site road clearance when his excavator was swept away in a landslide, the company said.

The Phu Kham gold operations and the surrounding area received significant rainfall from tropical storm Haima between June 24 and June 26, which caused widespread flooding and infrastructure damage across the region, and resulted in the loss of two days of concentrate production.

Further heavy rains also occurred on July 2 and 3, which caused concentrate production to be suspended yet again, and caused further damage to road infrastructure in the region.

Concentrate production resumed on July 4.

Bizarro Earth

Philippines: 6 Dead, 4 Injured in Northern Mindanao Landslide, Flashfloods

Cayagan De Oro City, Misamis Oriental - At least six persons were killed due to flashfloods and landslides that occurred in separate areas in Northern Mindanao caused by the continuous heavy rains, last weekend.

Reports reaching the Regional Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (RDRRMC) said two children were buried alive while playing in the vicinity of Purok 11, Barangay Tongantongan, Valencia City, at about 8:00 a.m. of July 4.

Their parents who were in the city some 20 km. from their homes only knew about their plight when they came home in the afternoon. Immediately, the bodies of the victims: Joy Culamar, 7 yrs. Old, female and Roque Santillan, 6 yr. old, male, were retrieved by their respective families and relatives.

At about 8:45a.m., the same day, another landslide occurred in Sitio Hangaron, Lumbayao, also of Valencia City, more than 20 km. from Tongantongan, Director Carmelito A. Lupo of the Office of Civil Defense (OCD) and Chairperson of the RDRRMC-10, said.

Alarm Clock

India: Gangortri-Rishikesh highway closed due to landslide

Dehradun - Many people were stranded at Gangortri-Rishikesh highway as landslides triggered by heavy rain blocked vehicular traffic at Narendranagar in Tehri district of Uttarakhand. The workers were pressed to clear the landslides at Narendranagar where hundreds of vehicles were waiting for the clearance of the road, an official of disaster management department said.

Bizarro Earth

English Tsunami The Result Of Weather Conditions

A small tsunami that struck the south coast of England on 27 June was most likely caused by weather conditions and not a submarine landslide or earthquake, according to the British Geological Survey (BGS).

The tsunami occurred in South West England, between Penzance and Portsmouth, along approximately 200 miles of coastline. It struck the Yealm (see below video) at about 10.30 on 27 June; wave heights were 0.5 - 0.8 metres. Tide data indicates an east to west progression of the wave, confirmed by observations at St Michael's Mount, where the water built up on the east side of the causeway (20 cm higher than on the west) before it was overtopped.

According to the Tidal Gauge Anomaly measure, which records the difference between the forecast tide and actual tide, the wave was higher by 20 cm in Newlyn, 30 cm in Plymouth and 40 cm in Portsmouth. The water levels dropped and withdrew from the coast before the wave came in (Marazion, Cornwall). Video evidence shows the wave as a bore in the Yealm Estuary. At St Michael's Mount there were reports of 'hair standing on end' before the wave struck.


Cloud Lightning

US: Heavy rains wash out roads in western Nebraska, officials say it could take a week to repair

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© Unknown
Scottsbluff, Nebraska - It may take up to a week to repair some roads in western Nebraska that were damaged by torrential rain and large hail.

Officials say the area of western Nebraska was hit by severe weather Saturday, with hail nearly 2-inches in diameter damaging vehicles and siding on homes and other buildings.

Scotts Bluff County Director of Public Works Bob Bennett tells KNEB in Scottsbluff it will take a week to get some roads in his county back in shape. Some roads in the western part of the county remained closed Tuesday.

Lyman city officials say high winds knocked down some trees and basements were flooded by the heavy rain. Several roads in Banner County also were flooded and a number of roads were washed out near Torrington in Goshen County.

Cloud Lightning

Rain-Triggered Landslide Leaves 18 Dead, 4 Injured in China

Xi'an - Eighteen people were confirmed dead and four others injured in a rain-triggered landslide that lashed Lueyang County in northwestern Shaanxi Province Tuesday, local authorities said Wednesday.

Torrential rain hit Lueyang County from 3 a.m. to midday Tuesday, triggering a 5,000-cubic-meter landslide that engulfed a two-story building in the county seat at 11:15 a.m., the government of Hanzhong city said in a statement.

The local government sent more than 400 people to the site for rescue operations.

Rescuers reached 22 people, but 17 were already dead, and one died after treatment failed. Four others were injured and are hospitalized.

Also in Lueyang, an 80-year-old villager, Sun Guiying, remain missing after she was swept away while crossing a torrential river Tuesday.

As of midnight Wednesday, the downpours that have also wreaked havoc in 10 other counties of Hanzhong City have affected 102,300 people and forced evacuation of nearly 5,000.

Frog

"The magnitude of the weeds is alarming": Mysterious seaweed dump chokes Sierra Leone's coastline

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© Unknown
Massive piles of seaweed have washed ashore along Sierra Leone's coastline, covering the white sand and raising fears for tourism and the fishing industry, officials said Monday.

"People should stay away until we determine through lab tests whether the weeds are toxic and harmful to human beings. We are now turning people away from the area," warned Momodu Bah of the country's Environmental Protection Agency.

About 15 miles (24 kilometres) of beach is affected.

Residents and hotel owners along the 4km-long Lumley Beach in the west of Freetown said they were startled by the appearance of the thick brown seaweed which started washing up early Sunday and by late Monday stretched across the beach, covering every inch of sand.