Earth ChangesS


Sun

Record Heat Kills Thousands of Fish

Grant Schulte
Wric.com
Sun, 05 Aug 2012 09:58 UTC
Thousands of fish are dying in the Midwest as the hot, dry summer dries up rivers and causes water temperatures to climb in some spots to nearly 100 degrees.

About 40,000 shovelnose sturgeon were killed in Iowa last week as water temperatures reached 97 degrees. Nebraska fishery officials said they've seen thousands of dead sturgeon, catfish, carp, and other species in the Lower Platte River, including the endangered pallid sturgeon. And biologists in Illinois said the hot weather has killed tens of thousands of large- and smallmouth bass and channel catfish and is threatening the population of the greater redhorse fish, a state-endangered species.

So many fish died in one Illinois lake that the carcasses clogged an intake screen near a power plant, lowering water levels to the point that the station had to shut down one of its generators.
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Cloud Lightning

31 Killed in Uttarakhand Flash Floods

C.K. Chandramohan
The Hindu
Sun, 05 Aug 2012 21:42 UTC
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© The Associated PressPart of a three-storey building washed away in flash floods in the Uttarkashi district of Uttarakhand state on Sunday.
India - Thirty one people were killed in the flash floods in Uttarakhand on Saturday and at least six missing from Gangori, which bore the brunt of nature's fury.

Heart-wrenching scenes were witnessed at Gangori, where the maximum number of deaths were reported, with relatives and villagers crying for help.

Efforts were on to move about 700 Char Dham pilgrims stranded at various places to safer spots on foot, as the roads were completely damaged and the hostile weather was not allowing airlifting of the people.

The State government released Rs. 20 crore from the disaster mitigation fund for immediate relief work and urged civil society organisations to rush help to the victims.

The weather department has sounded an alert for heavy rains and flash floods for the next 24 hours.
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Cloud Lightning

Jamaica Gets Rain as Tropical Storm Ernesto Passes to South

David McFadden
Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Sun, 05 Aug 2012 06:06 UTC
Image
© The Associated Press/David McFaddenFisherman Daniel Edwards bails his small wooden skiff out in Port Royal, a fishing village just outside of Kingston, Jamaica, Sunday Aug. 5, 2012.
Port Royal, Jamaica - Fishermen near Jamaica's capital tied wooden skiffs down along a rocky shore Sunday as a poorly organized Tropical Storm Ernesto spun past the Caribbean country's southern coast on a path expected to carry it by Honduras and across the Yucatan Peninsula into the Gulf of Mexico.

Emergency officials said some eastern parts of Jamaica were drenched by rain from Ernesto and more heavy rainfall and gusty winds were likely as the rapidly moving storm passed by, though U.S. forecasters said it was becoming less organized.

Jamaica's emergency management agency urged people in flood-prone areas to be on alert and avoid flooded waterways and submerged roads. The government earlier ordered fishermen on outlying cays to evacuate and move to the main island.

Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller called on all Jamaicans to make the necessary preparations to ensure their safety.

"I urge you to especially consider the children, the sick, persons with disabilities, the elderly, and the most vulnerable in the society," she said.

Daniel Edwards, a dreadlocked fisherman in Port Royal, a small fishing village at the tip of a spit of land near Kingston's airport, said vigorous lightning lit up the sky over the sea late Saturday and early Sunday.

Bailing out his small wooden fishing boat next to a dilapidated wooden dock, Edwards said he wasn't overly concerned about the storm.

"It's not much of a muchness," said the veteran fisherman, decked out in rain gear.
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Bizarro Earth

Catastrophic Man Made Global Warming is a hoax

James Delingpole
The Telegraph
Sat, 28 Jul 2012 00:00 UTC
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© NASAGreenland: nearly all gone. We are doomed
No, not really. It's just my little joke, based on pretending to take people like the BBC's resident climate activists David Shukman, Richard Black and Roger Harrabin seriously.

I'll tell you what doesn't amuse me, though. Here I am in Wales, on my holidays, enjoying the semi-sun, and suddenly I get emails from and Tweets from sensible people on my side of the argument saying: "Help! Help! The BBC has gone mad for this story about the NASA satellite showing that 97 per cent of Greenland has melted and apparently it's 'unprecedented'. What do we do?"

Sigh. The right thing to do on occasions like this, I find, is to head straight for Watts Up With That? Unlike, say, the BBC, or the Guardian, or the Independent or most of the rest of the MSM, WUWT's posts are grounded in actual science and real world data.

Comment: It may not be man-made, but 'climate change' is very real. Something is causing significant changes on all the planets in our solar system.

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Bizarro Earth

Sudden deep sinkhole shocks Tennessee town

Stacye Sullivan
The Tennessean
Tue, 31 Jul 2012 16:58 UTC
sinkhole
© Stacye Sullivan/The Fairview ObserverPhillip Rykwalder with Cave Now checks the rope of Sara Goning as she ascends into the sinkhole on Cumberland Drive.
On the afternoon of July 19, Fairview resident Trish Parker wanted to get her yard cut before the predicted rain later that evening generated another grass growth spurt. Imagine the shock when Trish and her husband Dean walked outside the next morning to discover what was generated in their side yard was a super-sized sinkhole.

"My wife just cut the grass in that very spot yesterday," explained Dean, as he looked down into the ten-foot-wide hole.

The sinkhole is located along the property line between the Parker's property and neighbors Michael and Jennifer King. It sits approximately 75 feet from the Parker's home and 105 feet from the center line of Cumberland Drive.

The Parkers began making calls and Williamson County Emergency Management arrived on the scene to do an initial assessment, placing caution tape around the sink hole so that nearby neighborhood children would be warned of the danger.

Family friend and local resident Steven Brison came by on Sunday afternoon and rappelled down into the nine-foot wide hole for a closer look.
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Cloud Lightning

Tropical Storm Florence joins Ernesto in Atlantic


NBC News
Sat, 04 Aug 2012 13:05 UTC
Image
© Navteq/MS/Bing™See article 'Title' link for interactive map.
After a lull in the 2012 Atlantic hurricane season, Tropical Storm Florence formed on Saturday, joining Ernesto as both moved west on paths that could eventually take them to the U.S. coast.

Florence has sustained winds up to 45 mph, the National Hurricane Center reported.

It was still in the deep Atlantic, but on a path towards the Caribbean.

Ernesto was packing sustained winds of 50 mph and should pass south of Jamaica on Sunday, the center stated. "Ernesto is forecast to become a hurricane ... in a day or two," it added.

After Jamaica, which issued a tropical storm warning, Ernesto will likely head toward Grand Cayman, arriving Monday, and then Cancun/Cozumel in Mexico on Wednesday, weather.com reported.
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Cloud Lightning

Typhoon toll rises as 300,000 evacuated in Asia


Herald Sun
Fri, 03 Aug 2012 15:38 UTC
Image
© Associated PressResidents wade through a flooded street in the town of Navotas in suburban Manila
The death toll from Typhoon Saola has risen to 42 in the Philippines and Taiwan, and 300,000 people have been evacuated in China as Typhoon Damrey makes landfall.

The Philippines recorded 37 deaths in floods and accidents caused by Saola's torrential rains and strong winds, officials said on Friday. Four people were missing and feared dead.

Taiwan residents spent Friday cleaning up storm damage and returning to work, a day after Saola slammed into the island, packing winds of up to 155 kilometres an hour, dumping 1.8 metres of rain and killing five people. Two were reported missing.

Saola weakened into a tropical storm before making landfall on Friday morning in Fuding in China's south-eastern province of Fujian with winds of 90km/h at its centre, China's official Xinhua news agency reported.
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Bizarro Earth

Louisiana's Bayou Corne Evacuated: Swamp Gas Turns into Monster Sinkhole


WBRZ
Fri, 03 Aug 2012 10:27 UTC

Napoleonville - Gov. Bobby Jindal declared a state of emergency Friday in Assumption Parish after officials ordered an immediate evacuation of the Bayou Corne area because a slurry area appeared to be expanding.

"The fear of the unknown prompted the evacuation order," said John Boudreaux, director of the parish's Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness. "The fear of it possibly compromising either the nearby pipelines or cavern storage areas, that could cause a risk to the community."

Boudreaux said about 150 homes are affected by the order. He was unsure how long it would remain in effect. The governor's emergency proclamation extends through Sept. 2 unless terminated earlier.

Boudreaux initially estimated the area was about 200 feet by 200 feet. He said it's on private land near the Texas Brine Co. LLC facility. Police Jury President Marty Triche said that in speaking with the Louisiana Department of Natural Resources and the Governor's Office, he was advised there was a risk that the slurry area could grow to a size of about 2,000 feet across.
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Attention

Man swallowed by massive sinkhole as Typhoon Saola pounds Taiwan, reporter nearly taken by second sinkhole minutes later

Rheana Murray
New York Daily News
Thu, 02 Aug 2012 06:18 UTC
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Emergency workers at the scene of the enormous sinkhole.
There appears to have been no warning before the ground opened up beneath the man's feet. At least five people have died in the storm so far and two are missing.

Unbelievable footage captures the moment a man was swallowed by a sinkhole that suddenly opened up on a Taiwan street.

The unidentified man was reportedly walking in Taipei Wednesday morning when the road beneath him suddenly collapsed, pulling him to his death.

CNN reports the incident occurred near the Temple of Sansha.

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Phoenix

Oklahoma fires destroy homes


CNN
Fri, 03 Aug 2012 23:15 UTC
Oklahoma fire
© CNNA line of flames from one of several wildfires advances through an Oklahoma field.
Low humidity and strong winds Friday helped fuel a half-dozen wildfires in Oklahoma that have so far burned at least 65 structures and are threatening more.

The largest of the fires is just south of Oklahoma City in Cleveland County, according to Jerry Lojka, spokesman for the department of emergency management.

"The metro area is not in danger, but there are still homes out there, and there are subdivisions that are in those wooded areas," he said.

Twenty-five structures have burned in Cleveland County, according to Kelli Cain, another spokeswoman at the emergency department. Roughly 100 or so homes there are threatened.
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