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School bus slides into sinkhole in Conneaut, Ohio - no children hurt

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Loaded bus slides into sinkole, March 11, 2014.


Officials say no children were hurt when a loaded school bus slid partially into a sinkhole on a city street in northeast Ohio, nearly flipping it.

A school official in Conneaut said the pavement collapsed as the bus passed on Monday afternoon, causing the rear wheels to fall into the hole. The angle of the bus in the hole caused problems for rescue workers trying to get the 30 elementary-aged children off the bus.

School superintendent Kent Houston tells The Star-Beacon that the kids were more scared than anything. They were transferred to another bus for the ride home. A wrecker was called to extract the bus.

The sinkhole may have been caused by one of the water leaks that have resulted from the extreme weather this winter.

Source: AP

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Second sinkhole appears in Bloomington, Illinois

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© KEVIN BARLOW, The PantagraphOfficials from the city of Bloomington discuss options after another sinkhole was reported Tuesday on Locust Street — the second in the city in two days. A wrecker was able to free the truck, but Locust Street will remain closed for several days while repair work continues.
Spring isn't even officially here yet and already Bloomington City Engineer Kevin Kothe is tired of dealing with sinkholes.

For the second time in as many days, the Bloomington Public Works Department was called Tuesday to the scene of a vehicle stuck in a sinkhole. As a result, Locust Street will be closed to through traffic for water and sewer repair for several days, he said.

"Because of the safety issues with that street, we had to close it as well," he said.

That comes a day after a sinkhole on Monday forced the closure of the 900 block of North Lee Street. A car wheel sunk through the pavement, unveiling an underground hole several feet deep that remained under repair Tuesday.

The latest problem surfaced when a Union Pacific heavy machinery truck was eastbound on Locust about 11:15 a.m. The driver's side rear dual wheels got stuck in a sinkhole near the intersection of Locust and Western Avenue.

Snowflake Cold

Mass duck deaths in western New York state due to cold harsh winter

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"This duck die-off has been unprecedented. Biologists who've been here for 35 years have never seen anything like this," says Wildlife Biologist Connie Adams of the New York Department of Environmental Conservation.

The Western New York region is bearing witness to a quiet but devastating ecological disaster. The harsh and seemingly endless winter has been the root cause of death for thousands of ducks, from Rochester to the Niagara River.

Adams says, "This has never been documented in the past. ... As cold as people believe the winter has been, it has in fact been that cold because it's verified by the fact that this abundant wildlife population cannot survive... this winter."
The massive die-off first was noticed by local birders in mid-January. Adams tells 2 The Outdoors that when the NYDEC went out to investigate the situation had already reached a serious stage.

Bizarro Earth

USGS: Earthquake Magnitude 6.1 - 180km SE of Lorengau, Papua New Guinea

PNG Quake_110314
© USGS
Event Time
2014-03-11 22:03:11 UTC
2014-03-12 08:03:11 UTC+10:00 at epicenter

Location
3.113°S 148.477°E depth=10.0km (6.2mi)

Nearby Cities
180km (112mi) SE of Lorengau, Papua New Guinea
264km (164mi) WSW of Kavieng, Papua New Guinea
326km (203mi) NW of Kimbe, Papua New Guinea
378km (235mi) NE of Madang, Papua New Guinea
714km (444mi) NNE of Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea

Technical Details

Bizarro Earth

USGS: Earthquake Magnitude 6.4 - East of the South Sandwich Islands

S.Sandwich Quake_110314
© USGS
Event Time
2014-03-11 02:44:05 UTC
2014-03-11 01:44:05 UTC-01:00 at epicenter

Location
60.839°S 19.957°W depth=10.0km (6.2mi)

Nearby Cities
418km (260mi) ESE of Bristol Island, South Sandwich Islands
2879km (1789mi) ESE of Ushuaia, Argentina
3125km (1942mi) SE of Punta Arenas, Chile
3136km (1949mi) SE of Rio Gallegos, Argentina
2513km (1562mi) SE of Stanley, Falkland Islands

Technical Details

Bizarro Earth

Mass bird deaths in New South Wales

Mass Bird Deaths
© Anna FeltonWIRES volunteers horrified at mass bird deaths.
The Dubbo community have been asked to help solve a mystery that has resulted in the deaths of hundreds of native birds, including galahs, correllas and cockatoos.

While there were indications the birds died from ingesting a pesticide, a spokeswoman from the NSW Environment Protection Authority said they were still waiting on final test results to confirm the cause of the deaths.

"The early indication is that pesticide was involved...(and) hopefully we will have the test results soon," she said.

In the meantime, the spokeswoman asked for any members of the community with information to call the EPA's EnviroLine on 131 555 to help investigators.

The NSW Wildlife Information, Rescue and Education Service (WIRES) also called for people with information to step forward, as the number of dead birds continued to rise.

Sherlock

U.K. Floods: BBC reporter's claims of 'exceptional rainfall' linked to 'climate change' not supported by the data

BBC news report
© BBC News
I have already well covered the Met Office report into the recent storms, issued last month, but Dr Butina alerted me to one particular comment which I had missed. In the BBC article, Julia Slingo, introducing the report, is reported as saying:
"The UK had seen the most exceptional period of rainfall in 248 years."

Unsettled weather at this time of year was not unexpected - but the prolonged spell of rain, as well as the intensity and height of coastal waves, was "very unusual".

"We have records going back to 1766 and we have nothing like this," she said. "We have seen some exceptional weather. We can't say it is unprecedented but it is exceptional."
Dr Butina has his own full analysis here, which is worth a read. But, as soon as I read this statement again, I realised it simply was not true.

Let me explain.

Attention

10-metre whale caught in fisherman's net, Tunisia

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Tunisian fishermen pull onto the dock a whale they found caught in their nets at Sidi Boussaid.
A 10-metre whale died on Sunday after becoming tangled in a Tunisian fisherman's nets off the coast of Sidi Bou Said town north of the capital Tunis.

"At first, I thought it was a car bumper. Then I saw the whale's tail," the 24-year-old Bilel Jerbi told AFP.

He said the whale, whose species has yet to be identified, was already dying when he found it in his nets, although it was unclear what had killed it.

Jerbi then towed the carcass to port in Sidi Bou Said.

The marine mammal was around 10 metres in length and weighed "seven or eight tons", according to an official from the Tunisian coastguard.

"We have seen three- or four-metre-long whales before. But it's the first time for one of this size or weight," the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

Radar

Powerful 6.3 magnitude earthquake hits off coast of Southwestern Mexico

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© USGS
An earthquake with a magnitude 6.3 occurred in the ocean to the south of the Mexican coast today, the US Geological Survey reports.

The epicentre of earthquake shocks registered at 4:38 Moscow time was located 32km south-west of the town of Pinotepa Nacional in Oaxaca State. The seismic centre lay 35km deep. There is no information about damage or casualties.

Radar

Powerful 6.9-magnitude earthquake hits off Northern California coast - strong aftershocks

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A massive 6.9-magnitude earthquake hit off the coast of Northern California Sunday evening, 50 miles west of Eureka, Calif., according to the USGS.

The earthquake was recorded at around 10:18 p.m. Pacific and KTVU viewers say they felt it as far away as Redwood City.

"Felt the Eureka earthquake all the way down here in Redwood City. Friends up there say shaking lasted 30-60 seconds," wrote viewer Kristopher Rowberry on KTVU's Facebook page.

USGS seismologist Susan Hoover says more than 300 people have reported feeling the temblor on their website as of 10:49 p.m., according to the Associated Press.

By 11:15 p.m., that number had increased to 1300 people.