Earth ChangesS


Cloud Lightning

Heavy Wisconsin Rains Close Milwaukee Airport

sinkhole
© Mike ThielA SUV sits in a sink hole Friday, July 23, 2010, in Milwaukee. Powerful thunderstorms caused widespread flooding in southern Wisconsin, closing down Milwaukee's airport and opening up a giant sink hole, and two people were hospitalized after being struck by lightning, authorities said.
Stranded travelers weary from an overnight stay in a Milwaukee airport were hoping to be allowed to fly out Friday after powerful overnight storms pounded southeastern Wisconsin, halting flights and causing widespread flooding.

Storm water flooded the runways at Mitchell International Airport during the Thursday night storm. Airport officials said they hoped to clear away leftover debris and reopen the runways on Friday, but further disruptions were possible because of a new round of showers and thunderstorms that was expected to pass though the region.

Brian Kulpin, a spokesman for Reno-Tahoe International Airport, said he doesn't expect that the Milwaukee closure will affect air traffic in Reno.

Padlock

Floods Close Chicago Highways, Damage Dam


Standing water on Chicago-area expressways turned what should have been an easy Saturday morning drive into a soggy, snarled mess after heavy rains across the Midwest closed roads, stranded residents and punched a hole through an Iowa dam.

In Chicago, officials say more than 7 inches of rain fell early Saturday, inundating the sewer system and overwhelming waterways. Water covered portions of several Chicago interstates and the commuter train tracks that run along them, leading crews to divert traffic and call in bus shuttles. Portions of Interstate 290 west of downtown were closed for several hours.

Chicago Mayor Richard Daley and other officials urged residents to call for help if they need it.

Bizarro Earth

Typhoon Lashes Southern China, Killing 3

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© XinhuaA street lamp is partially emerged by the flooded Yangtze River in southwest China's Chongqing city.
Typhoon Chanthu killed three people before weakening into a tropical storm Friday after making landfall in southern China's Guangdong province.

Winds of up to 78 miles per hour (126 kilometers per hour) knocked over a wall in Guangdong's Wuchuan city, killing two people, the official Xinhua News Agency reported.

Heavy flooding swept away a 50-year-old man in a village in Hong Kong late Thursday. Marine police said they found his body in open water Friday morning.

Chanthu has moved north to Nanning, the capital of the Guangxi region, and been downgraded to a tropical storm, the China Meteorological Administration said in a statement on its website.

The storm comes as China grapples with severe flooding that has left at least 742 people dead and 367 missing so far this year, the flood prevention agency said Friday. The death toll jumped by more than 40 Friday, but it was not clear if the increase was from new deaths this week.

Arrow Down

Floods and Landslides Kill 10 in Vietnam

Flooding and landslides caused by heavy rain have killed at least 10 people in Vietnam's northern mountainous provinces near China, the government said on Sunday.

The biggest death toll of five came in Ha Giang province, where people were buried in their homes or swept away in floods, the Hanoi-based national flood and storm control department said in an online statement.

Of the victims, four were children aged between two and 15 years old, the agency said.

Hundreds of houses in five northern provinces have been inundated while roads and crops were severely damaged in up to 300 millimetres (12 inches) of rain, which began falling on Thursday, it said.

At least 10 communes in Bac Giang province have been cut off.

Bizarro Earth

Tonga: Earthquake Magnitude 6.0

Tonga Quake_250710
© USGSEarthquake Location
Date-Time:
Sunday, July 25, 2010 at 03:39:19 UTC

Saturday, July 24, 2010 at 04:39:19 PM at epicenter

Location:
15.032°S, 173.543°W

Depth:
41.2 km (25.6 miles) (poorly constrained)

Region:
TONGA

Distances:
237 km (147 miles) SW (234°) from APIA, Samoa

317 km (197 miles) WSW (254°) from PAGO PAGO, American Samoa

405 km (252 miles) N (7°) from Neiafu, Tonga

2572 km (1598 miles) W (273°) from PAPEETE, Tahiti, French Polynesia

Life Preserver

Iowa's Lake Delhi Dam Bursts Due to Flooding

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© AP Photo/The Gazette, Julie KoehnMaquoketa River water gushes out of the Delhi Dam as areas surrounding the Maquoketa River continue to flood on Saturday, July 24, 2010 in Delhi, Iowa.
Residents Flee as Rising Floodwater Eats 30-Foot-Wide Hole in the Earthen Dam

The Lake Delhi dam in eastern Iowa failed Saturday as rising floodwater from the Maquoketa River ate a 30-foot-wide hole in the earthen dam, causing water to drop 45 feet to the river below and threatening the small town of Hopkinton.

Northeast Iowa has been inundated with torrential rain in recent days with as much as 9 inches being reported in some locations. The heavy rain has pushed the Maquoketa River to 23.92 feet - more than 2 feet above its previous record of 21.66 feet in 2004.

Jack Klaus, a spokesman with the Delaware County emergency management office, said warning sirens were sounding in Hopkinton as water began to surround homes there Saturday afternoon. Areas below and above the dam had been evacuated, including numerous cabins and homes - as many as 700 - above the dam because of high water.

"There's going to be significant losses of property there," Klaus said.

Binoculars

Baboons Learn to Listen for Cars Central Locking Tweet Before Breaking In

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© Getty ImagesIf the Baboons haven't heard the telltale 'tweet' of the locking system, they sneak over and open the car door to plunder its contents
Baboons in Cape Town have learned to listen out for the tweet of a car's remote central locking before deciding whether to break in to search for food, according to the local authorities.

The highly intelligent animals lie in wait as tourists get out of their car to gaze at the view from Cape Peninsula - the thin finger of land in the south westernmost corner of South Africa that juts out into the Atlantic Ocean.

Then, if they haven't heard the telltale "tweet" of the locking system, they sneak over and open the car door to plunder its contents.

So many picnics have now been lost to the simian raiders that the local authorities are pushing the government to commission an official baboon warning road sign as they have done for hippos, elephants, warthogs and kudus.

Theuns Vivian, Cape Town's Destination Development Manager, said humans and baboons would get along fine provided they were equally aware of each other.

Arrow Down

Amazon River Dolphins Threatened with Extinction

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© Kevin Schafer/Barcroft A pair of Boto, or Amazon river dolphins in Rio Negro, Amazonia, Brazil.
The pink dolphins of the Amazon are being threatened with extinction as fishermen kill them to use their flesh as bait.

Scientists believe that 1,500 dolphins are being killed annually in the western Amazon to fuel a lucrative trade in catfish, which feeds on dead animals.

"The population of the river dolphins will collapse if these fishermen are not stopped from killing them," said Vera da Silva, the top aquatic mammals expert at the government's Institute of Amazonian Research.

"We've been studying an area of 27,000 acres for 17 years, and of late the population is dropping seven per cent each year."

The dolphins, which can be eight feet long and weigh the same amount as an adult man, are the largest of four species known to exist in South America and Asia. The cause of their pinkish hue is debated, with some scientists saying it is due to blood vessels being close to the skin and others citing scarring as the reason for their coloring.

Question

Forty-Ton Whale Lands on Yacht During Cape Town Sailing Trip

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© The TelegraphThe 40-ton whale crash-landed on couple's boat.
A couple who took a yacht for a quiet sailing trip were stunned when a 40-ton whale crash-landed on their boat off Cape Town.

The pair were enjoying calm seas off the South African coast when the animal flipped into the air and smashed into their mast.

Ralph Mothes, 59, and Paloma Werner, 50, were helpless as the beast thrashed around on their 33ft vessel before slipping back into the water.

Miss Werner said: "It really was quite incredible but very scary. The whale was about the same size as the boat.

"We'd spotted it about 100 metres away and thought that was the end of it. Then suddenly it was right up beside us.

"I assumed it would go underneath the boat but instead it sprang out of the sea. We were very lucky to get through it, as the sheer weight of the thing was huge.

Bizarro Earth

Philippines: 4th Earthquake Magnitude 6.5 - Moro Gulf, Mindanao

Mindanao4_240710
© USGSEarthquake Location
Date-Time:
Saturday, July 24, 2010 at 05:35:01 UTC

Saturday, July 24, 2010 at 01:35:01 PM at epicenter

Time of Earthquake in other Time Zones

Location:
6.194°N, 123.596°E

Depth:
563.9 km (350.4 miles)

Region:
MORO GULF, MINDANAO, PHILIPPINES

Distances:
135 km (85 miles) SSW of Cotabato, Mindanao, Philippines

175 km (110 miles) W of General Santos, Mindanao, Philippines

180 km (110 miles) S of Pagadian, Mindanao, Philippines

975 km (600 miles) SSE of MANILA, Philippines