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Extreme Weather: Thirty-Seven Killed in Record Beijing Rains

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© Reuters/ China DailyA woman pushes her bicycle on a flooded street amid heavy rain in Beijing on July 21, 2012
Thirty-seven people were killed as the heaviest downpours in more than half a century have flooded China's capital, Beijing, state-run new agency Xinhua reported.

Only 22 victims were identified. Most of them drowned, but some were killed by houses brought down by the flood or electrocuted, and one was hit by lightning, the report said.

Some 14,500 Beijing residents have been evacuated from flood-hit areas as of early Sunday, China Network Television (CNTV) said on its website.

Heavy rains began in Beijing on Saturday morning, with 220 mm of rain falling over the city of 14 million, the report said. The rains were the heaviest to hit China's capital in 61 years.

Bizarro Earth

Beijing Sees Heaviest Rains in 60 years‎

Beijing Floods
© Associated PressA woman wades through a flooded street following a heavy rain in Beijing Saturday, July 21, 2012. China's government says the heaviest rains to hit Beijing in six decades. The torrential downpour Saturday night left low-lying streets flooded and knocked down trees.
The heaviest rain to hit Beijing in six decades killed at least 10 people and left cars and buses submerged, and 10 other storm deaths were reported elsewhere as China braced Sunday for more downpours.

The rain Saturday night knocked down trees in Beijing and trapped cars and buses in waist-deep water in some areas. In Tongzhou district on the capital's eastern outskirts, two people were killed by collapsed roofs, one person was fatally struck by lightning and a fourth was electrocuted by a fallen power line as he helped neighbors escape, the government's Xinhua News Agency said.

One man in Beijing died when his car was trapped in deep water near the city center, the newspaper Beijing News said.

Elsewhere, six people were killed by rain-triggered landslides in Sichuan province in the west, Xinhua said, citing disaster officials. Four people died in Shanxi province in the north when their truck was swept away by a rain-swollen river.

On Sunday, the government warned of more storms over the following 24 hours for China's northeast, the port city of Tianjin east of Beijing, Inner Mongolia in the north, Sichuan and neighboring Yunnan province, and Guangdong and Hainan provinces in the southeast.

Radar

Eureka Earthquake: Twin Magnitude 5 Quakes Shake Up Northern California

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No damage or injuries have been reported after two earthquakes rattled the Northern California coast Friday night.

The U.S. Geological Survey says a magnitude 5.1 quake hit about 78 miles southwest of Eureka at 6:52 p.m. Friday.

Then just after 11 p.m. a magnitude 5.2 earthquake was recorded about 62 miles southwest of Eureka.

A dispatcher at the Eureka Police Department says the quakes were felt in the community, but police had no reports of damage or injuries.

USGS seismologist John Bellini says the quakes took place in an area where there's a lot of seismic activity.

Radar

18 die, 17 hurt as landslide hits bus in Mizoram, Northeastern India

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© UB Photos
Mizoram orders probe to ascertain cause of accident

At least 18 persons died and 17 were injured when a landslide from a roadside quarry hit a night bus at Keifang village in Champhai district of western Mizoram on the Indo-Myanmar border, about 100km from this capital town, last night.

The bus, run by a Champhai-based private transport agency KZ Travels, was travelling from Champhai town to Aizawl. It had almost reached the end of this quarry around 1am when the boulders came crashing down, hitting the rear of the bus and pushing it over the deep gorge, survivors said.

Travellers along this road have often complained about the quarry, fearing landslides, but the authorities have failed to take action.

As news spread, people from nearby villages gathered at the site and started rescue work. At least five persons, a family of four (Dengthuama, 24, his wife Malsawmtluangi, 24, and their children Zothanmawia, 4, and Zomuanpuii, 3) and a man, escaped unhurt.

Extinguisher

Wildfires Battled in Western Idaho Near US 95

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© article.wn.comSome 20 large wildfires are burning in eight Western states
Crews battle western Idaho fire near U.S. Highway 95

Horseshoe Bend, Idaho - Authorities say U.S. Highway 95 has been reduced to one lane near Midvale as crews battle a 600-acre wildfire in western Idaho.

The Roadside Fire started early Friday and the cause has not yet been determined.

Denise Cobb with the Payette National Forest says the fire is burning on a mix of private, state, and federal land within the forest's protection zone. Officials reported just before 2 p.m. that the blaze had crossed Sage Creek and was heading northwest.

To the south, firefighters said a brush fire that burned 100 acres near Highway 55 outside of Horseshoe Bend had been contained. The Summit Ridge Fire ignited Thursday afternoon and forced the evacuation of more than 10 homes.

Cloud Lightning

Flash flooding fears prompt state of emergency in British Columbia

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© CBCLast month, flash flooding near Sicamous, B.C., washed the highway, damaging several vehicles and cutting off road access and drinking water supplies to hundreds of residences.
Fears about the possibility of a flash flood have led a city in British Columbia's Cariboo region to declare a state of local emergency.

The City of Quesnel, located 114 kilometres south of Prince George, B.C., says specialists from Emergency Management BC have visited the site of a landslide on Baker Creek, near Pinnacles Provincial Park.

They say the slide may have taken place as early as June 28, creating a blockage and backing up water to a depth of three to 3.6 metres.

Bizarro Earth

Bus Falls into Deep Gorge During Landslide in India

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© presstv.irPeople look at a bus that fell off a bridge in India’s northwestern state of Maharashtra on June 16, 2012.
A government official in India says 18 people are dead after a bus fell into a deep gorge after being hit by hurtling boulders during a landslide in the mountainous northeast. Another 17 people are injured.

Gauhati, India - A government official in India says 18 people are dead after a bus fell into a deep gorge after being hit by hurtling boulders during a landslide in the mountainous northeast. Another 17 people are injured.

Arunachal Pradesh state Transport Minister Zoram Sangliana says the bus plunged about 45 meters (150 feet) into the gorge early Saturday near Keifang, a village 100 kilometers (60 miles) east of Aizawl, the state capital. Monsoon rains triggered the landslide in the region.

Umbrella

Floods kill 2 in Philippines, halt traffic

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© AP Photo/Bullit Marquez Children play in floodwaters following heavy monsoon rains spawned by a tropical depression in Manila, Philippines, Saturday July 21, 2012. The heavy rains flooded most parts of metropolitan Manila Saturday forcing cancellation of classes, creating massive traffic jams and closure of some businesses.
Torrential monsoon rains have inundated large areas of the northern Philippines, leaving at least two people dead and six missing and halting traffic in parts of the capital for many hours.

The weather bureau says the rains early Saturday were aggravated by a passing tropical depression.

A civil defense report says the body of a man was recovered from floodwaters in Laguna province south of Manila and another person drowned in a swollen creek in northern La Union province.

Many roads in the sprawling capital area were underwater for hours, halting traffic.

Suburban Pasay City Mayor Antonio Calixto says some areas near Manila's airport had neck-deep floods, forcing vehicles to take other routes.

Cloud Lightning

China: 10 Dead, 30,000 Evacuated in Beijing Downpour

Beijing flood
© Xinhua/Li FangyuFirefighters pull a submerged car near Guangqumen Bridge in Beijing, capital of China, July 21, 2012.
The heaviest rain in six decades in the Chinese capital has left 10 people dead, Beijing authorities said Sunday.

As of 4 a.m. Sunday, more than 30,000 residents in districts of Fangshan, Huairou, Mentougou and Pinggu as well as Miyun and Yanqing counties were relocated, the city's floods control headquarters said at 9 a.m.

In Fangshan, where the maximum precipitation reached 460 mm in Hebei Township as of 6 a.m., road traffic in 12 townships was disrupted. Mobile telecommunication services and Internet access were cut off in six townships, the headquarters said.

Bizarro Earth

Twin Earthquakes Magnitude 5.1 and 5.2 Rock Eureka, Northern California

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© USGS
No damage or injuries have been reported after two earthquakes rattled the Northern California coast Friday night. The U.S. Geological Survey says a magnitude 5.1 quake hit about 78 miles southwest of Eureka at 6:52 p.m. Friday. Then just after 11 p.m. a magnitude 5.2 earthquake was recorded about 62 miles southwest of Eureka.

A dispatcher at the Eureka Police Department says the quakes were felt in the community, but police had no reports of damage or injuries. USGS seismologist John Bellini says the quakes took place in an area where there's a lot of seismic activity.