Earth Changes
Meteorologist Vince DiCarlo spent early Tuesday surveying the damage that happened around 6 p.m. Monday along Goodnight Road and Highway 29 in the China Grove area.
The quake shook downtown L.A. buildings and was felt as far south as San Diego and as far east as Palm Desert.
Scientists say the break, the largest on record since 2005, is the latest indication that climate change is forcing the drastic reshaping of the Arctic coastline, where 9,000 square kilometres of ice have been whittled down to less than 1,000 over the past century, and are only showing signs of decreasing further.
Off the eastern edge of Andros Island lies the Tongue of the Ocean, a hundred-mile, inky blue swathe of sea over the Great Bahama Canyon. Bounded on the south and east by the shallow sands of the Bahamas banks, the seafloor drops precipitously from 3 meters near shore to more than 2,000 meters farther out.
While the region boasts a colorful history of pirates and shipwrecks, scientists will head there this summer seeking treasure of a different sort: beaked whales, some of the deepest diving and least known animals on Earth. The research aims to solve one of the most contentious mysteries in marine biology today - the relationship between military sonar and stranded, dying whales.
The rain, which resulted from a powerful typhoon that pounded Taiwan and the Philippines, led authorities to urge some 70,000 people to evacuate in the historic areas of Kyoto and Kanazawa.
A ferocious torrent gushed through Japan's sixth largest city of Kobe, sweeping bystanders off their feet and into the water.
Four people were killed -- a 29-year-old woman, girls aged 12 and 5, and a 10-year-old boy. Another three people were rescued and rushed to hospital, a city official said.
Television footage showed a man wearing a helmet, apparently a construction worker, holding onto a stone bridge column in a desperate effort not to be swept away by the flash flooding.
Xinhua news agency said the typhoon was expected to make landfall on the coast of China's Fujian province in the early hours of Tuesday after it left one dead and six injured in Taiwan.
Authorities in Fujian had already ordered the return to shore of more than 270,000 people to their fishing communities in advance of the storm, Xinhua said.
In neighbouring Zhejiang, 230,000 people had been evacuated and more than 26,000 boats had returned to shore, it said.
"I feel stupid for not moving out," said Kristina DiLorenzo, 25, who called 911.
DiLorenzo said she can't return to her place and will spend the night in a hotel. "I don't know what I'm going to do yet," she added.
Additional fire fighting crews from around the province have arrived in the region to help with existing fires and expected lightning-caused fires. Two additional unit crews, comprising a total of 40 firefighters, are available for sustained action on larger fires. Five additional three-person initial attack crews are also standing by to respond to smaller fires and new fire starts.