Earth Changes

Rare twin storms batter Mexico, 40 dead

Channel News Asia
Mon, 16 Sep 2013 22:32 UTC

© AFP/Pedro Pardo
Residents attempt to leave the flooded area in Acapulco, Guerrero state, Mexico, after heavy rains hit the area.

Acapulco: Mexico reeled Monday from the rare one-two punch of major storms on opposite coasts that triggered floods and landslides, killing at least 40 people while stranding tourists in Acapulco.

The Pacific coast was still being battered by the remnants of tropical storm Manuel, which continued to dump rain after dissipating, while hurricane Ingrid hit the northeast with tropical storm force before being further downgraded.

Thousands of people were evacuated as the two storms set off landslides and floods that damaged bridges, roads and homes across the country.

Water rose to almost 10 feet (three meters) in parts of the Pacific resort of Acapulco, cutting off the main highway to the city and marooning tens of thousands of Mexican and foreign beach-goers.

The last time Mexico was hit by two tropical storms in the span of 24 hours was in 1958, officials said. Never had it been struck by a hurricane and another storm at the same time, forecasters said.

German Professor: IPCC in a serious jam... "5AR likely to be last of its kind"

P Gosselin
No Tricks Zone
Mon, 16 Sep 2013 16:59 UTC

And: "Extreme weather is the only card they have got left to play."

So says German Prof. Fritz Vahrenholt, who is one of the founders of Germany's modern environmental movement, and agreed to an interview with NoTricksZone. He is one of the co-authors of the German skeptic book "Die kalte Sonne", which took Germany by storm last year and is now available at bookstores worldwide in English under the title: The Neglected Sun.

In Germany Prof. Vahrenholt has had to endure a lot heat from the media, activists, and climate scientists for having expressed a different view. But as global temperatures remain stagnant and CO2 climate sensitivity is being scaled back, he feels vindicated.

Terror grips Bhaktapur folk as birds drop dead in Nepal

Ishworkaji Khaiju
The Himalayan Times
Mon, 16 Sep 2013 13:50 UTC

No need to conduct avian flu tests: Official

Bird flu fear has gripped Bhaktapur people, again. The ominous signs started haunting the locals after crows and pigeons on flight dropped dead at Chnwaga Ganesh of Bhaktapur Municipality-17.

The Bhaktapur Bird Flu Control Section has asked locals to bury dead pigeons and crows well, without bothering to conduct avian influenza tests on the samples.

Who will be responsible if they catch 'bird flu' after burying the birds? This is the question local people like Tulasha Shrestha are asking.

Shrestha says the section's instruction to locals - to bury the birds on their own - has terrified the locals further. According to Shrestha, a crow dropped dead in front of her house yesterday evening. She says pigeons have died in her neighbour Indrabhakta Rajlabat's house.
Locals fear that bird flu will make inroads into Bhaktapur, again.

Pet snakes becoming a danger to humans and wildlife in USA

wildlifeextra.com
Mon, 16 Sep 2013 13:37 UTC

Born Free USA calls for national crackdown; reports growing numbers of pet snake incidents and inconsistent regulation on ownership, seriously endangering public and environment

Apart from being a danger to humans, snakes have become a major threat to native wildlife. In Florida, Burmese pythons (like this one, one of the largest caught) that were released have been breeding and are now considered a pest.

Incidents involving "pet" snakes in the USA causing injury or death to humans, or escaping and putting communities and the environment in danger, are on the rise, according to Born Free USA, a leader in animal welfare and wildlife conservation. On the heels of the latest incident reported this week in Florida where a 60 pound family dog was killed by a 10 foot long snake - the 58th snake incident tracked by Born Free USA this year - the organization is calling for a nationwide crackdown on keeping of snakes as pets.

Born Free USA's exotic animal incidents database (www.bornfreeusa.org/database) has tracked more than 600 incidents involving reptiles in less than a decade and an astounding number of them, nearly 75%, involved snakes. The organization has been monitoring incidents involving exotic and wild animal escapes and attacks including reptiles, big cats, and primates and sees a steady rise in snake ownership - particularly deadly boa constrictors and pythons.

600 vultures killed by elephant poachers in Namibia

Claire Salisbury
news.mongabay.com
Wed, 11 Sep 2013 13:06 UTC

As the illegal poaching of African elephants and rhinos reaches epidemic levels, other species are also suffering catastrophic losses as a direct result of poachers' behavior. A recent incident in July, where a poisoned elephant carcass led to the death of 600 vultures near Namibia's Bwabwata National Park, has highlighted how poachers' use of poison is now one of the primary threats to vulture populations. Poachers poison carcasses to kill vultures, since large flocks may give away the location of poaching activity, attracting the attention of law enforcement officials.

"By poisoning carcasses, poachers hope to eradicate vultures from an area where they operate and thereby escape detection," explains Leo Niskanen, Technical Coordinator, IUCN Conservation Areas and Species Diversity Programme. "The fact that incidents such as these can be linked to the rampant poaching of elephants in Africa is a serious concern. Similar incidents have been recorded in Tanzania, Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Botswana and Zambia in recent years".

African vultures are highly imperiled, and are under pressure from a range of factors, including habitat loss as well as poisonings. Drastic population declines over the last 30 years have resulted in many species being classified as threatened by the IUCN. On average, the number of vultures in West Africa has dropped by 42% during this time, with Rueppell's vulture (Gyps rueppellii) suffering losses of up to 85%.

Colorado flood victims urged 'get out now'

Sky News
Mon, 16 Sep 2013 09:37 UTC

Rescuers will not return for families who refuse to evacuate immediately as more rain threatens to swell floods, officials warn.

Thousands of people trapped by floods that swept through towns in north Colorado have been warned to leave or risk weeks without food, electricity and running water.

Authorities have carried the message into canyon communities and towns where stranded residents eager to escape the Rocky Mountain foothills used every means possible to attract the attention of rescuers.

Boulder County Sheriff Joe Pelle warned National Guard helicopters and truck convoys would not go back for people who insisted on staying.

From extreme drought to extreme rainfall in 24 hours: Six dead, 500 unaccounted for in devastating Colorado flash-floods

Mark Leberfinger,
AccuWeather.com
Mon, 16 Sep 2013 09:31 UTC

© Cliff Grassmick AP
Railroad tracks at 9th Street, East of Airport Road, continue to be flooded in Longmont, Colo, on Sept. 14, 2013.

As many as six people are reported dead after historic flooding in Colorado.

At least 482 people remained unaccounted for in Larimer County, Colo., the county's sheriff Twitter feed announced Sunday morning. In Boulder County, there were 431 entries on the county's unaccounted-for list at 9 a.m., local time, but they were reduced to 212 entries by 3 p.m., representing 326 people, Boulder County Sheriff Joe Pelle said.

At least one person was killed in a collapsed home due to the flooding. Another life was taken on the 200 block of Linden in Boulder, Boulder Emergency Management officials reported. A third person was found dead in Fountain Creek, Colorado Springs police said. The fourth person died in Boulder, authorities told The Associated Press.

Big storms hit Mexico on opposite coasts; 21 dead

Jose Antonio, Rivera
Associated Press
Mon, 16 Sep 2013 09:27 UTC

© AP Photo/Bernandino Hernandez
A man takes a photo with his phone as a car lies on its side after a portion of a hill collapsed due to heavy rains in the Pacific resort city of Acapulco, Mexico, Sunday, Sept. 15, 2013.Flooding and landslides unleashed by Hurricane Ingrid and Tropical Storm Manuel have claimed at least a dozen lives in Mexico and sparked the evacuations of thousands of people even before the weather systems had made landfall on the country's east and west coasts.

(Acapulco) - The remnants of Tropical Storm Manuel continued to deluge Mexico's southwestern Pacific shoulder with dangerous rains while Hurricane Ingrid weakened to a tropical storm after making a Monday landfall on the country's opposite coast in an unusual double onslaught that federal authorities said had caused at least 21 deaths.

The heaviest blow Sunday fell on the southern coastal state of Guerrero, where Mexico's government reported 14 confirmed deaths. State officials said people had been killed in landslides, drownings in a swollen river and a truck crash on a rain-slickened mountain highway.

Mexico's federal Civil Protection coordinator, Luis Felipe Puente, told reporters late Sunday that stormy weather from one or both of the two systems also caused three deaths in Hidalgo, three in Puebla and one in Oaxaca.

Getting hit by a tropical storm and a hurricane at the same time "is completely atypical" for Mexico, Juan Manuel Caballero, coordinator of the country's National Weather Service, said at a news conference with Puente.

What caused deadly Colorado floods?

Doyle Rice
USA Today
Sun, 15 Sep 2013 09:24 UTC

© Cliff Grassmick AP
Railroad tracks at 9th Street, East of Airport Road, continue to be flooded in Longmont, Colo, on Sept. 14, 2013.

Boulder picked up almost nine times its average September monthly rainfall in about four days.

Colorado is no stranger to devastating and deadly flash floods, due to a lethal combination of geography and meteorology. When unusually heavy rain falls across the region, narrow canyons and steep mountains help funnel raging torrents of water down into the heavily populated foothills to the west and north of Denver.

One of them, the notorious "Big Thompson" flash flood of July 1976, killed at least 144 people north of Boulder. It caused "the worst natural disaster, in terms of documented lives lost, in Colorado state history," according to Boulder's Flood Safety Education Project website.

Boulder, specifically, is considered to be Colorado's "most at risk" city in terms of potential flood damage, notes Weather Underground weather historian Christopher Burt. This is because it rests against the mouth of a canyon (the Boulder Canyon) from which a creek (the Boulder Creek) bisects the heart of the town.

Aerial video of devastation by Colorado floods

Jennifer Preston
The New York Times
Sat, 14 Sep 2013 09:19 UTC

Updated | Sunday, 12:40 p.m. As my colleagues, Dan Frosch and Jack Healy reported, Colorado's worst flooding in years has killed at least four people, washed away homes and roads and forced thousands of residents from Pueblo to Fort Collins to flee.

Aerial video footage and images captured on Friday by videographer Payton H. Peterson show the extent of the damage in Longmont and Lyons in Boulder County after 12 inches of rain.

Larimar County that Sheriff Justin Smith uploaded onto YouTube aerial video footage showing widespread damage in the area, which includes Estes Park, the gateway to Rocky Mountain National Park and the Big Thompson Canyon area, where flooding washed away portions of the roadway.