Allie Griffin New York Post Wed, 02 Aug 2023 10:49 UTC
A Hawaii man was mauled by a pack of dogs and left bleeding to death in the middle of the road in a "horrific" attack Tuesday morning, police said.
Robert Northrop, 71, was killed when four large dogs charged at him unprovoked in the Ocean View Estates subdivision just before 9 a.m., according to the Hawaii Police Department.
A neighbor said he heard a commotion outside his Ocean View home and looked out to witness the canines attacking Northrop in the roadway. He chased the dogs away and called 911, according to cops.
Officers and paramedics found the victim lying unconscious in the middle of the street when they arrived.
Two people are reported to have died in severe flooding that has engulfed parts of Beijing, as Typhoon Doksuri passed through China's capital.
People's Daily reported on Monday that two people were found unresponsive in a river in Mentougou, a district in west Beijing that has suffered some of the worst flooding. According to state broadcaster CCTV, more than 31,000 people have evacuated their homes in the city.
Heavy rain continued to fall in Beijing as well as in Hebei, Tianjin and eastern Shanxi as Doksuri dissipated over northern China, the China Meteorological Administration said.
Doksuri is one of the strongest storms to hit China in years and caused widespread flooding over the weekend in the southern province of Fujian, driving hundreds of thousands of people from their homes.
China's capital has recorded its heaviest rainfall in at least 140 years over the past few days as remnants of Typhoon Doksuri deluged the region, turning streets into canals where emergency crews used rubber boats to rescue stranded residents.
The city recorded 744.8 millimeters (29.3 inches) of rain between Saturday and Wednesday morning, the Beijing Meteorological Bureau said Wednesday.
Beijing and the surrounding province of Hebei were hit by severe flooding because of the record rainfall, with waters rising to dangerous levels. The rain destroyed roads and knocked out power and even pipes carrying drinking water. It flooded rivers surrounding the capital, leaving cars waterlogged, while lifting others onto bridges meant for pedestrians.
The number of confirmed deaths from the torrential rains around Beijing rose to 21 on Wednesday after the body of a rescuer was recovered. Wang Hong-chun, 41, was with other rescuers in a rubber boat when it flipped over in a rapidly flowing river. Four of her teammates survived.
At least 26 people remain missing from the rains.
Among the hardest hit areas is Zhuozhou, a small city in Hebei province that borders Beijing's southwest. On Tuesday night, police there issued a plea on social media for lights to assist with rescue work.
Rescue teams traversed the flooded city in rubber boats as they evacuated residents who were stuck in their homes without running water, gas or electricity since Tuesday afternoon.
"I didn't think it would be that severe, I thought it was just a little bit of water and that it would recede," said 54-year-old Wang Huiying. She ended up spending the night on the third floor of her building as the water seeped into the first floor, which holds her steamed bread shop. All the machinery is now underwater.
It's unknown how many people are trapped in flood-stricken areas in the city and surrounding villages. Rescue teams from other provinces came to Zhuozhou to assist with evacuations.
"We have to grasp every second, every minute to save people," said Zhong Hongjun, the head of a rescue team from coastal Jiangsu province. Zhong said he had been working since 2 a.m. Wednesday when they arrived, and expects to work into the night. They've rescued about 200 people so far. "A lot of the people we saved are elderly and children," he said.
On Wednesday, waters in Gu'an county in Hebei, which borders Zhuozhou, reached as high as halfway up a pole where a surveillance camera was installed.
Gu'an county resident Liu Jiwen, 58, was evacuated from his village on Tuesday night. "There's nothing we can do. It's natural disaster," he said.
Two other people were trying to pass through the flooded areas to rescue a relative trapped in a nearby village.
Nearly 850,000 people have been relocated, local authorities in Hebei province said.
The previous record for rainfall was in 1891, the Beijing Meteorological Bureau said Wednesday, when the city received 609 millimeters (24 inches) of rain. The earliest precise measurements made by machines are from 1883.
Ma Jun, director of the Institute of Public and Environmental Affairs, called the recent rainfall "extreme." Last year's total rainfall in Beijing did not even top 500 millimeters (19.6 inches).
Ma said there should be a review of how cities are planned because some places experience repeat flooding. "We need to avoid building large-scale construction ... in low-lying areas," Ma said.
The record rainfall from Doksuri, now downgraded to a tropical storm, may not be the last. Typhoon Khanun, which lashed Japan on Wednesday, is expected to head toward China later this week. The powerful storm, with surface winds of up to 180 kph (111 mph), may also hit Taiwan before it reaches China.
Thousands of people were evacuated to shelters in schools and other public buildings in suburban Beijing and in nearby cities. The central government is disbursing 44 million yuan ($6.1 million) for disaster relief in affected provinces.
The severity of the flooding took the Chinese capital by surprise. Beijing usually has dry summers but had a stretch of record-breaking heat this year.
Powerful winds and lashing rain from an approaching typhoon have killed at least one person and knocked out power to hundreds of thousands of people in southern Japan.
The slow-moving Typhoon Khanun, which was nearing Japan's southwestern islands on Wednesday, also forced the cancellation of hundreds of flights to the popular tourist destination of Okinawa and other islands, stranding thousands of tourists.
Japan's Fire and Disaster Management Agency said a 90-year-old man died after getting crushed under a collapsed garage, while media reports said at least 11 others were wounded.
The storm, described as "very strong" by the Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA), brought maximum sustained winds of 200kmph (124mph), while some areas on Okinawa logged more than 250mm (9.84 inches) of rain in the past 24 hours.
The JMA warned of flooding and landslides in some parts, and authorities issued an evacuation order across Okinawa and in parts of neighbouring Kagoshima prefecture, urging more than 690,000 residents to move to safety.
Television footage showed strong winds flipping cars over in parking lots as rain battered empty streets in Okinawa.
The Sierra Nevada Mountains are currently holding a staggering 1,000% of normal snow water equivalents as of July 21, 2023, following a historic winter season.
The last time the Sierra Nevada saw such a significant late summer snowpack was over a decade ago, in 2011, when late spring storms combined with intense snowfall throughout the season contributed to a similar late-summer snow accumulation. Since then, there have been only two other years, 2017 and 2019, when any snowpack was documented in July.
A woman was taken to a hospital for treatment of minor injuries after her car fell into a sinkhole Monday afternoon.
Police said the sinkhole opened up around 3:15 p.m. near the intersection of McClellan Street and Eastern Avenue. It was unclear if the driver was sitting in traffic and the hole opened up, or if it opened before the motorist could not avoid it.
Police said no one else was hurt and there was no threat to the public.
Crews — including at least three tow trucks — were working Monday evening to get the car out of the hole, with the vehicle sitting nose down in the hole with its trunk elevated. The intersection was closed for repairs. Police did not say how long the repairs might take.
An 8-year-old was left with minor injuries after being attacked by a cougar in Washington's Olympic National Park on Saturday evening, park officials said.
The child was camping with their mother at Lake Angeles, in the Heart O' the Hills area south of Port Angeles when the cougar attacked, according to a news release from the National Park Service.
The feline predator "casually abandoned its attack after being yelled and screamed at by the child's mother," the park service said.
Park personnel were notified about the attack at 6:30 p.m. and quickly responded, the release said.
The child experienced "minor injuries" and was taken to the hospital for further evaluation. Park staff escorted the family back to the trailhead, says the release.
Five people were killed and two others are missing in floods and landslides caused by prolonged heavy rains in the south and the Central Highlands during the weekend.
The southwest monsoon has been more intense than normal, resulting in torrential rains and strong winds in Lam Dong, Binh Thuan, Ba Ria - Vung Tau, Bac Lieu, Ca Mau, An Giang, Hau Giang, and Kien Giang provinces in the last three days, with many places reporting record rainfall.
The rains triggered a landslide at around 2:30 p.m. Sunday in the Bao Loc Pass near Da Lat in Lam Dong Province in the Central Highlands, burying a traffic police station.
Three officers have been confirmed dead and one civilian was trapped in the debris as of Monday morning.
Comment: Update August 2
Associated Press reports: