Earth Changes
The owner of Paardenrusthuis Ogier, a kind of retirement home where old horses spend their last years, happened to be in the pasture when it happened. The weather suddenly turned bad at around 2:00 p.m., he said to the newspaper. The horses, some 26 in total, gathered together and walked into the meadow. "Horses usually stand with their behinds against the wind so that their heads don't get wet," the owner explained.
Firefighters and army troops have been helping as more than 7,000 people were forced to evacuate.
Xunyang is home to about 450,000 residents.

Photos of two dogs seized by Coweta County animal control as investigators worked to determine how a man died at the home.
An autopsy confirmed the cause of death as a dog attack. Investigators say the evidence indicates the man was inside where the dogs were located at some point but died outside the home.
Investigators say the homeowner doesn't know the man or why he would be in his home.

About a hundred small earthquakes have been detected approximately one kilometer south of Keilir in the last 24 hours. The photo shows geometrical activity in Reykjadalur in Iceland.
The largest quake's epicentre was between Keilir and Litli hrútur, according to Met Office natural hazards specialist Bjarki Kaldalón Friis. The earthquake swarm began on Monday and included 700 shakes yesterday and 400 so far today.
The 3.7 quake followed a 3.5 at around 11.00 yesterday morning, and a handful of others around 3. The quakes are occurring at a depth of 6-7 kilometres and there is no sign of volcanic unrest. Live cameras are being monitored closely and new satellite images will be analysed today. The civil protection agency scientific council will meet this afternoon to discuss Reykjanes, and also Askja in the highlands.
There are reports one person has been injured.
The damage spreads over a 25 to 30 kilometre line, running roughly north-west, says the Bureau of Meteorology.
The body of a seven-foot-long dolphin was found floating on Kuakata beach in Patuakhali on Wednesday.
Locals spotted it in the second Jhaoban area, about five kilometres east of the Kuakata Zero Point.
The eruption began at about 3:20 p.m. on Wednesday when the Hawaiian Volcano Observatory (HVO) detected a glow while looking at webcam images from the volcano's summit. Lava became visible a short time later and the eruption appeared to intensify around 7 p.m.
The eruption is taking place within the Halemaʻumaʻu crater in Kīlauea's summit caldera, which is part of Hawai'i Volcanoes National Park, according to an advisory from the USGS, which raised the volcano's alert level to the highest level.
A tornado lashed the northern German port city of Kiel Wednesday as high winds caused destruction and injury. Police, firefighters and rescue services are currently on the scene.
The German Weather Service (DWD) had previously forecast winds of up to 110 kmh (70 mph) for the area from Wednesday evening until around midday Thursday, as well as exceptionally heavy rain into the weekend.
Local reports on Wednesday showed images of uprooted trees and houses that had their roofs torn off.
The State Emergency Service (SES) has had more than 60 call-outs, mostly in the Adelaide Hills, including to a baby and mother stuck in a car in rising floodwaters at Oakbank.
Fortunately, the water had receded by the time crews arrived and the pair had been removed without incident.
Jon Carr from the SES said the largest number of calls were around the Onkaparinga Valley Road in Balhannah, Verdun and Oakbank.
Several roads are flooded in the area and at Hahndorf.
Scots woke up to frost this morning and will need to dig out their warm winter gear as snow arrived a bit earlier than usual this autumn.
The Met Office says temperatures plunged as low as -0.5C this morning in Kinbrace in the Scottish Highlands with the mercury below average as we near October.
Ben Nevis saw around 2cm of the white stuff, with reports of 5-7cm of snow landing on the Cairngorm plateau on Monday.













Comment: Related: Unusually early and severe snowstorm hits Iceland