Earth ChangesS


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US: Rain-swollen rivers threaten Midwest, force evacuation in Missouri town


The Boston Globe
Wed, 27 Apr 2011 00:00 UTC
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© Richard Rasmussen/The Sentinel-Record/Associated PressA resident of Garland County, Ark., looked for his cellphone yesterday in the remains of his home after a tornado hit the area.
A powerful storm system that spawned a deadly tornado in Arkansas caused rivers to swell yesterday across the Midwest, straining levees that protect thousands of homes and forcing panicked residents of one town to flee for higher ground.

Six inches of rain fell Monday in the southeastern Missouri community of Poplar Bluff, bringing the four-day total to 15 inches. The deluge caused the Black River to pour over a levee in 30 places and to break through in one spot, and about 1,000 homes were evacuated. Deputy Police Chief Jeff Rolland said it was a "miracle'' that the levee held until late morning.

The levee extends from Poplar Bluff to the town of Qulan downstream, in a sparsely populated area. Butler County Sheriff Mark Dodd said water pouring through a breach between the two towns was unlikely to make it far enough upstream to threaten Poplar Bluff, a town of 17,000 residents south of St. Louis.

Flooding in 2008 damaged or destroyed hundreds of homes in Poplar Bluff, raising questions about whether the levee was capable of protecting the town during times of heavy rainfall.
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Radar

5.4 Magnitude Earthquake Rattles Residents Of Central Indonesia


KWTX
Tue, 26 Apr 2011 00:00 UTC
An earthquake sent residents fleeing in central Indonesia.

An earthquake that hit waters off Indonesia's main island of Java sent panicked residents fleeing from their homes and office buildings.

No tsunami warning was issued, and there were no immediate reports of injuries or damage.

The U.S. Geological Survey says the quake had a preliminary magnitude of 5.4 and hit 88 miles south of Cirebon city.

It was centered nearly 50 miles beneath the ocean floor.

El Shinta radio reported the temblor triggered widespread panic in the nearby town of Garut.

Indonesia is on the Pacific "Ring of Fire," an arc of volcanoes and fault lines encircling the Pacific Basin.
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Bizarro Earth

Taal volcano heats up, gets ready to rumble

Maricar Cinco and Marrah Erika Lesaba
Inquirer.net
Tue, 26 Apr 2011 23:15 UTC
taal,volcano
© Jason Gutierrez / AFP - Getty Images file
San Pedro, Laguna - The water temperature in the main crater of Taal volcano increased over the weekend, a sign that the volcano may be about to erupt.

Volcanologists raised alert level 2 over Taal early this month.

A bulletin released by the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (Phivolcs) said the temperature of crater waters rose from 30.5 degrees Celsius to 31.5 degrees Celsius over the weekend.
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Nuke

The Nuclear Disaster That Could Destroy Japan ... and the World

Hirose Takashi
Counterpunch
Mon, 25 Apr 2011 22:32 UTC
japan earthquake
© n/a
Translated by Doug Lummis

The nuclear power plants in Japan are ageing rapidly; like cyborgs, they are barely kept in operation by a continuous replacement of parts. And now that Japan has entered a period of earthquake activity and a major accident could happen at any time, the people live in constant state of anxiety.

Seismologists and geologists agree that, after some fifty years of seismic inactivity, with the 1995 Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake (Southern Hyogo Prefecture Earthquake), the country has entered a period of seismic activity. In 2004, the Chuetsu Earthquake hit Niigata Prefecture, doing damage to the village of Yamakoshi. Three years later, in 2007, the Chuetsu Offshore Earthquake severely damaged the nuclear reactors at Kashiwazaki-Kariwa. In 2008, there was an earthquake in Iwate and Miyagi Prefectures, causing a whole mountain to disappear completely. Then in 2009 the Hamaoka nuclear plant was put in a state of emergency by the Suruga Bay Earthquake. And now, in 2011, we have the 3/11 earthquake offshore from the northeast coast. But the period of seismic activity is expected to continue for decades. From the perspective of seismology, a space of 10 or 15 years is but a moment in time.
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Cloud Lightning

US: 2 Dead in Arkansas, Missouri. Residents Flee Flooding

Jeremy Hubbard
ABC News
Tue, 26 Apr 2011 19:51 UTC
Tornado Dallas
© ABC NewsDark storm and funnel clouds form over Dallas, Texas on April 25, 2011
At least two people have been killed in Arkansas during the recent round of heavy storms and tornadoes that ripped through the midwest while Missouri residents flee from flooding, authorities said.

Arkansas authorities told the Associated Press the two people were killed following the severe storms that passed through the state.

In Missouri's Poplar Bluff, residents evacuated amid fears of the flooding, the Associated Press reported.

Water began to leak and overflow the levee holding back the Black River, officials said.

Tornadoes were forming over Dallas late Monday afternoon, as the weather there turned ominous, threatened by a storm system that has brought 200 reports of severe weather across the country over the last 24 hours.
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Nuke

French System For Cleaning Fukushima Water Blamed For Leukemia, Polluted Beaches In Europe

Jeff McMahon
Forbes
Tue, 26 Apr 2011 19:00 UTC
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© Greenpeace / Gavin NewmanA diver sampling the cleaned water from the Areva nuclear processing plant outflow in the English Channel.

The process a French firm will use to clean Fukushima's radioactive water has been blamed for a leukemia cluster in France and for polluted beaches and irradiated waters from the English Channel to the Arctic Sea.

Areva SA has promised to remove up to 99.99 percent of the radioactive contaminants in 67,500 tons of water flooding the crippled Fukushima-Dai-ichi nuclear plant. It will use a co-precipitation method employed at its La Hague nuclear fuel reprocessing facility in Normandy.

That process has been documented in detail by a French nuclear expert and by the U.S. government, which has shunned France's fuel reprocessing method because of "a nonproliferation concern and environmental concerns," in the words of Nuclear Regulatory Commission Chairman Gregory Jaczko.
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Cow Skull

Drought could continue in southern U.S.

Angela K. Brown
Chron.com
Mon, 25 Apr 2011 17:52 UTC
Fort Worth, Texas - The extreme drought that has gripped parts of nine states - most of them in the South - is expected to drag on for several months or intensify, posing a risk for more wildfires, agriculture problems and water restrictions, national weather experts said Monday.

Portions of Texas and a small part of eastern Louisiana are the only parts of the nation that rank in the National Weather Service's worst drought condition category, said Victor Murphy, the climate service program manager for the southern region, based in Fort Worth. The "exceptional" drought level happens once every 50 to 100 years, he said.

Much of the rest of Texas and Louisiana are in extreme drought conditions - the worst in 20 to 50 years - as are parts of Arizona, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Arkansas and Florida and tiny portions of Colorado and Kansas. Other areas of those states are experiencing severe and moderate drought conditions, along with parts of Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia and South Carolina.
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Bizarro Earth

US: Hot weather forecast for Texas as battle against wildfires continues


CNN
Mon, 25 Apr 2011 17:12 UTC
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© Getty Images

Hot, dry weather returns to Texas this week, whisking away the limited relief scattered thunderstorms brought to firefighters in parts of the Lone Star state over the weekend.

In a trifecta of potentially bad news for fire crews, the Texas Forest Service said a low-pressure system will push temperatures into the 90s, humidity to 10% or less and winds up to 45 mph on Monday and Tuesday.

The conditions have prompted the National Weather Service to issue a red flag warning for a large portion of west Texas, urging residents to avoid the use of open flames and to avoid activities that may generate sparks.
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Bizarro Earth

Quake shakes Acapulco, tourists to streets


Associated Press
Tue, 26 Apr 2011 16:08 UTC
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© Lalate
Acapulco, Mexico - A moderate earthquake shook the Mexican Pacific coast resort of Acapulco on Tuesday, forcing dozens of nervous spring vacationers into the streets. No damages or injuries were reported.

The magnitude-5.7 quake occurred at 6:07 a.m. local time (1107 GMT) and was centered about 30 miles (50 kilometers) northeast of Acapulco, in the state of Guerrero, the U.S. Geological Survey in Colorado reported on its website. It was followed by a magnitude-4.6 replica at 6:18 a.m. (1118 GMT), the agency said.

The quake occurred at a depth of nearly 13 miles (20 kilometers).
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Cloud Lightning

U.S.: Extremely Dangerous Tornado Situation Today

Kristina Pydynowski
AccuWeather
Tue, 26 Apr 2011 16:03 UTC
An extremely dangerous outbreak of tornadoes will endanger many lives and property from northeastern Texas into Arkansas, northern Louisiana, northwestern Mississippi and western Tennessee this afternoon into tonight.

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These are the same areas that were just hit by tornadoes Monday afternoon and night, and today's outbreak is expected to be worse than Monday's. Large, long-track tornadoes are a major concern through tonight.

"It's a very dangerous day," said AccuWeather.com Senior Meteorologist Henry Margusity. "It's the kind of day where tornadoes could cause massive destruction."

The Little Rock, Ark., area is at risk again after multiple tornadoes, including one large twister, just tore through Monday night.

Thunderstorms were starting to initiate over northeastern Texas and southwestern Arkansas around mid-afternoon and will continue developing and becoming more widespread and powerful into this evening.

The thunderstorms and tornado danger will reach the western Tennessee Valley by tonight, before shifting farther east through the Tennessee and Ohio Valleys Wednesday into Wednesday night.
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