Earth ChangesS


Cloud Lightning

Tropical storm Noel causes heavy losses in Cuba

Tropical storm Noel has caused heavy losses in many Cuban provinces, the Juventud Rebelde (Rebel Youth) newspaper said Tuesday.

More than 40,000 people are living in emergency shelters in the Cuban province of Granma as a result of the torrential rain that came with the storm. In the worst-hit town of Rio Cauto, 20,400 residents, or 40 percent of the population, have been evacuated to the cities of Bayamo and Manzanillo after the Cauto, the largest river in the country, burst its banks.

Cloud Lightning

Tropical storm Peipah enters South China Sea

Tropical storm Peipah, the 22nd this year, has entered the South China Sea, the meteorological observatory in South China's island province of Hainan said Monday.

Peipah was located in the eastern South China Sea at 8:00 am Monday, packing winds up to 108 kilometers per hour, the observatory said. Peipah intensified into a "super" tropical storm before noon Sunday and its center is moving westward at a speed of 15 kph.

Health

Disease Feared in Flooded Southeast Mexico

Military trucks hauled bottled water, food, and clothing to Mexico's flooded Gulf coast Friday, as rescue workers in helicopters and boats worked furiously to retrieve thousands of victims stranded on rooftops.

With flooding across nearly all of the Gulf coast state of Tabasco and food and drinking water scarce, health officials warned of possible epidemics of cholera and other waterborne diseases.

©America Rocio/AP
These children are among tens of thousands of people fleeing flooded areas in Tabasco, Mexico.

President Felipe Calderón said Thursday that floods in southeastern Mexico this year are "one of the worst disasters in the history of the country."

Bizarro Earth

'Island' emerges in Indonesian volcano crater

An island that has emerged in the middle of the crater lake of Indonesia's Mount Kelut may have been effectively plugging the volcano but it could be dislodged, scientists warned Tuesday.

The peak in East Java, whose fertile slopes are populated by thousands of people, was put on high alert on October 16 but has not fully erupted, puzzling scientists who say it is impossible to predict what may happen next.

Bizarro Earth

Update: Mexico army searches mudslide, 16 feared dead

Mexican soldiers dug on Tuesday for victims of a giant mudslide that buried a village when torrential rains caused a soaked hillside to collapse.

©REUTERS/Tomas Bravo
A view of the mudslide that buried the village of Juan del Grijalva in the southern Mexican state of Chiapas November 6, 2007.

Magnify

New Wild Pig Species Reported in Brazil



©Unknown

A Dutch scientist thinks he has discovered a new species of wild pig nearly twice the size of other pigs in Brazil's Amazon region.

Cloud Lightning

Record opening rains for November in South Australia

This week's storms and heavy rains have given parts of South Australia their wettest start to November since records began - but has the River Murray benefited?

Although it is hoped the same tropical system poured into the River Murray's catchment as it flooded parts of eastern Victoria, authorities are yet to determine where any run-off will go.

©Fiona Hamilton
Lyn Craig tends to her stranded sheep in a flooded paddock in Tinamba, Victoria, yesterday.

Cloud Lightning

Hawaii soaked by heavy rains, high surf

The first storm of the season sent boulders crashing into two O'ahu homes yesterday, caused power outages across much of the island and triggered sewage spills totaling nearly 2 million gallons.

And more rain is on the way.

©Deborah Booker / The Honolulu Advertiser
Firefighters push a pump through the floodwater to drain driveways of homes on Kalaheo Avenue in Kailua.

Bizarro Earth

Hundreds of thousands flee ahead of Indonesian volcano eruption

A major evacuation effort is underway in Indonesia amid concerns that the notorious Mount Kelud may erupt.

Cloud Lightning

Colombia's Capital hit by hailstorm

An unusually strong hail storm whipped through Colombia's capital, on Saturday, causing severe flooding and burying dozens of vehicles under the ice. Authorities say it is the strongest ever hailstorm seen in Bogotá, but despite several major roads becoming blanketed in ice, no one was killed by the storm.