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Fri, 29 Oct 2021
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Large sinkhole closes road in Durban, South Africa

Image
© RescueCare
The sinkhole appeared in Essenwood and St Thomas roads in Durban.
A large sinkhole appeared in Essenwood and St Thomas roads in Durban late on Thursday afternoon, forcing authorities to close the roads.

Durban Rescue Care operations director Garrith Jamieson said paramedics were called to a "road collapse" on Thursday.

"Previously paramedics have attended to the same intersection for the same incident where a vehicle actually fell into the hole," said Jamieson."Fortunately this time no vehicle was involved. The road was quickly cordoned off and all the necessary authorities are on the scene to try and fix the situation."

Cloud Lightning

First tornado of the season touches down in north Alabama

Tornado
© NWS
Radar image from the National Weather Service forecast office in Huntsville when a tornado warning was issued for DeKalb County on Friday night 4.3.15. The weather service confirmed on Saturday that an EF-1 tornado touched down briefly in the Ider community.
A weak tornado touched down briefly in DeKalb County on Friday night, the National Weather Service forecast office confirmed following a storm survey on Saturday.

The weather service classified the tornado as an EF-1 with top wind speeds estimated at 105 mph.

It's the first confirmed tornado in north Alabama in 2015 and the first in the state since Jan. 4.

Comment: Also see: Storms, fires, and floods sweep across American South and Midwest - more severe weather on its way


Stop

Two injured after vehicle plunges into sinkhole in Sheffield Beach, South Africa

Image
© Allan Johns
The beach buggy dived into the deep sinkhole on Sheffield Drive.
Two people were injured after their vehicle drove into a sinkhole at the intersection of Colwyn and Sheffield drives in Sheffield Beach, on KwaZulu-Natal's Dolphin Coast last night.

Netcare 911 spokesperson Chris Botha said reports from the scene indicated the people had been travelling in the heavy rain when their vehicle plunged into a sinkhole.

"Paramedics arrived at the scene and found that the people managed to escape from the wreckage of their vehicle. After medics treated them at the scene, they transported the injured to a local hospital for the care that they required," he said.

Bizarro Earth

Multiple earthquakes shake Los Angeles area over a period of three hours

Image
© USGS
A series of earthquakes, the largest magnitude 3.1, shook the Oat Mountain area north of the San Fernando Valley Saturday.

Automated seismographs reported a series of six quakes, most in the 1-2 magnitude, starting at 7:45 a.m.

The largest quakes were magnitude 2.7 at 7:52 and magnitude 3.1 at 7:54, according to preliminary automated reports that have not been reviewed by humans.

A magnitude 2.0 temblor hit the mountain at 10:14 a.m.

As a precaution, Los Angeles city fire trucks were rolled out of station houses, where garage doors can jam or stall if a major quake occurs.

Seismologists routinely give a 10 percent chance of a major shaker following what turns out to be a foreshock.

Firefighters also scanned bridges and buildings near their station houses, which is the standard drill following a quake. No damage was found.

Persons reported to the USGS that they felt weak shaking in the northern half of the San Fernando Valley, and in across Santa Clarita, and as far away as Westlake Village, Glendale and the Antelope Valley.

Attention

Strayed wild elephant gores man to death in Bengal, India

Image

Some irate Asian elephants
In a sad incident, a young man was gored and killed by a wild elephant herd in Bankura district of West Bengal on Saturday.

According to information, the incident occurred in Kuchkunda village under Barjora forest range of the district in the early hours of Saturday while the 25-year-old man was sleeping outside his house.

A senior forest official said that the village in which the incident occurred is situated on the periphery of a heavily forested tract.

He said that a herd of four elephants had strayed into the village in search of food and water. "The victim was sleeping outside his house when he was unfortunately attacked by one of the four elephants."

Question

Common murre (guillemot) die-off along the waterfront in Seward, Alaska

Image
© Heidi Zemach
Common murre carcass found Sunday at Lowell Point beach.
If you've walked Seward waterfronts lately, you might have come across the carcasses of common murres or you might have spotted bald eagles feasting on them. There's been a lot of the carcasses spotted, and people are calling in, said Dr. Carrie Goertz, a staff veterinarian at Alaska SeaLife Center who also helps manage the stranding program and disaster response. Most of the murres are very thin and emaciated, indicating starvation, she said.

The phenomenon is apparently a murre die-off, or "wreck," and is probably caused by these small marine birds having exhausted their nutritional reserves, with the sudden bouts of cold temperatures and waves of poor weather in mid to late March pushing them over the edge to their deaths. Also, the fish biomass may not have coincided with when they were in the area, plus in a weakened state they're easier prey for predators, or to get hit by cars, the latter two of which she saw examples of in the bird carcasses brought in to ASLC, Goertz said.

The center vets did some cursory examinations of the murres they found, but are sending them to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and U.S. Geological Survey for more in-depth examinations.

Cloud Precipitation

Storms, fires, and floods sweep across South and Midwest - more severe weather on its way

Image
© Unknown
Tornado touching down in Kansas
Searchers on Friday found the body of a woman whose car was swept away by floodwaters in Kentucky earlier in the day, after powerful thunderstorms rolled through the South and Midwest.

The car and the body were found at around 7 p.m. after the rain-swollen Sinking Creek near Beattyville subsided, authorities said. State police believe she tried to drive through moving water on Kentucky Route 52 just before 10 a.m. when her car was swept into the creek and disappeared.

Police initially said a child was also in the car, but investigators now believe she was alone.

Comment: Below is footage of the flooding in Louisville, Kentucky:


And with more severe weather on its way worldwide, it's a good idea to hope for the best and prepare for the worst. To see how people are being affected by it, check out:
  • California drought: Where will all the people go when the mass migration starts?
  • Mount Sinabung volcano eruption in Indonesia triggers evacuation
  • Remarkable footage of rare tornado tearing through a desert city in Northern India



Cloud Lightning

Flooding closes parts of Indiana's I-64 as severe weather spreads across the region

Flood
© via Twitter
Severe storms in Midwestern and Southern US have brought floods and tornadoes
Heavy rains closed parts of Interstate 64 on Friday and led to the rescue of a UPS driver.

Westbound portions of the highway between Evansville, Ind., and Louisville, Ky., were closed in Perry and Dubois counties starting around 7 a.m. ET because of flooding, according to Sgt. Philip Hensley, an Indiana State Police spokesman. At least one lane had reopened by 11 a.m.

Motorists were being detoured, and firefighters in a ladder truck had to rescue the driver of a UPS truck stranded in the flash flood about 60 miles west of Louisville, Ky., Hensley said.

State police urged motorists to avoid driving into high water.

Comment: The weather has truly gone bonkers, and, as SOTT.net's Joe Quinn has pointed out, so has society. To learn more about the potential connection, check out:
  • Earth Changes and the Human Cosmic Connection
  • SOTT Talk Radio show #70: Earth changes in an electric universe: Is climate change really man made?



Snowflake

Cold weather stops migrating storks in their tracks in Europe

Image
© Wikimedia commons/K.Billington
Still on the way.
A cold snap has stopped storks on the way back for the summer in Poland in their tracks.

The birds have halted their advance from Africa and are weathering the cold snap in Romania and Bulgaria, researchers reported.

The few storks that have already made their way to Poland are struggling to find food and are getting nearer to human settlements than usual. But storks are equipped to deal with harsh weather and the scientists have asked for people to refrain from feeding them.

The overwhelming majority of storks have, however, been put off by the cold, snow and strong winds.

"They are not far," ornithologist Ireneusz Kaługa said. "We believe two or three days of better weather will be enough for them to turn up."

Cloud Lightning

Severe thunderstorms flaring up across American Midwest, Great Plains, and the South

Tornado_Oklahoma_March 25 2015
© Alix Chin/European PressPhoto Agency
Severe thunderstorms are again flaring up across parts of the Midwest, Great Plains and South as a storm system plods eastward through the central and southern U.S., prompting the National Weather Service to issue numerous tornado warnings.

Notable information:

Comment: Below is footage of a funnel cloud that touched down in Labette County, Kansas: