Earth ChangesS


Cloud Precipitation

Severe hailstorm causes havoc in Australian wine country - up to 30% vineyard losses

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Vineyards in the south of Western Australia could see yield losses of up to 30 per cent after they were hit by damaging hail storms this week.

Severe thunderstorms struck the South West and Great Southern regions on Wednesday evening.

Wineries in Frankland and Pemberton were hardest hit, with reports of hail completely stripping vines of new season growth.

Ferngrove Wine Group was one of the wineries that fell victim to the hail. Ferngrove senior winemaker Kim Horton said that the storm completely damaged some vines, but some were left unscathed.

Arrow Down

6 family members killed in Crimea as a massive sinkhole swallows up car

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Six members of one family - including three-year-old twins - died instantly when a vast sinkhole opened up in the motorway and swallowed their car in Crimea. Two other children aged 12 and 12 months survived.

It is believed the car was driving between the Crimean capital Simferopol and a village called Nikolaevka in the disputed region, which recently voted to leave Ukraine and join Russia.
Car falls into monster 8-meter-wide sinkhole in Crimea (PHOTOS, VIDEO) http://t.co/QbrCYG11C8 pic.twitter.com/EKpC5jzGoH
- RT (@RT_com) September 28, 2014
Suddenly a massive hole opened up in the ground, ripping away power-lines and reportedly casting the road into darkness. The car's driver, Ibrail Eskandarov, 34, frantically applied his brakes but had no time to avoid the 26-feet wide hole, rescuers said. The car fell 20 metres and smashed into the bottom.


Arrow Down

Cement truck gets swallowed up by huge sinkhole, Russia

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© YouTube/WiktorNot what you expect on your normal commute
There are times to regret the amount of dash cams on the road recording our every mistake but this truck driver must be chuffed the car behind had their camera working.

Explaining to the boss that your cement truck fell into a large sink-hole works a lot better knowing there is video evidence.

Sinkholes are depressions or craters caused after the collapse of the surface layer and can vary in diameter from one to 600m.

The cause of such rare incidents can vary from the collapse of a disused mine shaft to to ruptured sewage pipes.

Needless to say, this truck driver will never look at a road the same ever again.


Comment: Sinkhole heat map for the past year -




Cloud Precipitation

Athens and Antalya inundated as floods hit Southern Europe

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After the storm surge in northern Europe, then flooding and storms in Slovenia, Czech Republic and parts of the Balkans, the severe weather thought to be caused by the remnants of Hurricane Gonzalez, moved to parts of southern Europe on Friday 24 October 2014.

Athens, Greece

Athens in Greece was left knee-deep in water after torrential rain caused flooding in central and western parts of the city. Local media say as much as 14 cm of rain fell in just 90 minutes on Friday. Emergency services received over 600 calls as hundreds of homes and businesses were inundated. The worst affected areas were Peristeri, Ilion, Perama, Menidi, Aegaleo, Aghioi Anargoiroi, Nikaia, Piraeus and Kamatero.


Attention

Deer crashes through window into furniture store in Cedar Falls, Iowa

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The owner of an Iowa furniture store said security cameras recorded a deer running buck wild through the store before leaving through the back door.

Deb Emmert, owner of Simpsons Furniture in Cedar Falls, said the store had just opened Saturday when the buck crashed through a window and started running around the store.

Security camera footage shows the deer running among the furniture before using his antlers to push open the back door and make his exit.

"They go, 'Deer! Deer! Deer!' And they go, 'Get out of the way!' And I'm just like ... I didn't know which way to go to get out of the way of the deer," Emmert said. "We're just laughing. We're just laughing, especially when we saw him just nonchalantly opened the door and was like, 'OK, done with my shopping.'"

There were no injuries from the deer's shopping trip Saturday and the store remained open while a crew cleaned up the mess.


Attention

Pack of wild boar attack woman in suburb of Stockholm, Sweden

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© N. A. Naseer/ Wikimedia Commons A wild boar group.
A young woman was left shaken after being chased by a pack of wild boar in a suburb of Stockholm, Sweden.

Stocholm county police write on their website that the woman was out walking in the evening when she met more than a dozen wild boars.

When the surprised woman turned tail and fled the boars gave chase. She luckily met a group of young people who were able to scare away the pack of pursuing porkers.

Attention

At least six people attacked and injured by a group of wild boar in India

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A group of 5 Wild Boar
In the latest incident of man-wildlife conflict in villages lying in close proximity of Bhitarkanika wildlife sanctuary, at least six persons including two women and an infant were injured today following attack by hordes of wild boars in Jamboo village under Mahakalpada police station jurisdiction.

As the news of animal attack spread, people rose in protest and demonstrated in front of the local forest office.

The agitating people were demanding the launch of foolproof measures to curb the intrusion of animals like wild boar, crocodiles and spotted deer into places of human habitation.

Three persons including a 15-year-old girl, a 55-year-old woman were injured while three others sustained injuries following the stampede that ensued as the wild boars chased the people. All of them, who were hospitalised, are out of danger.

Bizarro Earth

At least one California town is now bone dry as megadrought continues

California drought
© Unknown
A poor, rural community in Calfornia's agricultural belt has run out of water.


At least one California town has gone dry, and many are expected to follow soon. East Porterville, in Tulare County is now without water, as the wells that feed it have dried up. Residents, according to Yahoo! News, now have to drive to the local fire station to get water to drink, bathe, and flush the toilet. And ironically, the town is near what was once the largest freshwater lake in California.

Tulare County, which relies heavily on the agricultural industry, is parched. The some 500 wells that feed its residents and farmers have gone dry. And the county says that it may be years and cost $20 million before a new groundwater management program, which includes a hookup between East Porterville and Porterville's water systems, goes into effect.

The county is named for Tulare Lake, which was once the largest freshwater lake west of the Great Lakes. It was drained for regional agricultural purposes, begining in the early 20th Century. The lake basin is now some of the most fertile soil in the Central Valley, the most productive agricultural region of the United States. Although dry for the most part, the lake occasionally reappears after unusually high levels of rainfall or snow melt, the last time being 1997.

Earlier this month, a 5,000-gallon-water tank, donated by the county's Sheriff's Association was delivered to East Porterville, and that is primary source of water for this low-income community. Residents now drive to the fire department with empty water jugs and pump water from the tanks to take home. The county has also been supplying free bottled water, paid for by the state, to residents for drinking and cooking.

However, there are worries within the community that the county might use the bottled-water handout to identify undocumented residents or condemn homes that are in disrepair. Non-profit groups and churches have also been trying to help supply water to East Porterville residents.

"It's a disaster," says Andrew Lockman, manager of the Tulare County Office of Emergency Services. "It's not a tornado, it's not a hurricane, it's a quiet disaster."

Cloud Precipitation

Tropical wave in Caribbean; Hurricane Ana still hanging on in Pacific

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© National Hurricane CenterThe remnants of Tropical Depression Nine have moved into the northwest Caribbean and have a 20 percent chance of development over the next five days.
The remnants of Tropical Depression Nine, which washed ashore in Mexico earlier this week, have made it into the northwest Caribbean, where there is a chance -- a very small chance -- that they could develop.

The low pressure area was interacting with a cold front and had disorganized storms associated with it, the National Hurricane Center said Saturday morning.

The hurricane center gave it only a 20 percent chance of development over the next five days -- that is, if it develops at all.

Meanwhile, in the central Pacific, Hurricane Ana was still hanging in there.

Health

Wolf Lake man attacked and injured by elk at campground in Muskegon, Michigan

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A 59-year-old man was injured by an elk at the Wolf Lake Resort & Campground in a bizarre Monday, Oct. 6 incident.

An Egelston Township fire official confirmed the attack happened Monday evening between 6 p.m. and 7 p.m. at the resort located at 5451 Harding Ave. The elk is housed at an adjacent deer and elk farm owned by the same people who own the campground.

A woman who spoke with an MLive Muskegon Chronicle reporter by phone from the campground office refused to confirm the incident. She denied it ever happened.

But the fire official confirmed the fire department was sent there on a medical call and the man had been injured by the elk severely enough that he required hospital treatment.