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Oil spill in Israeli nature preserve causes one of country's worst environmental disasters

Zafrir Rinat, Shirly Seidler
Haaretz
Thu, 04 Dec 2014 08:50 UTC
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Millions of liters of crude oil gushed out of a breached pipeline in southern Israel early Thursday, causing what one Environmental Protection Ministry official called "one of the gravest pollution events in the country's history."

The official, Guy Samet, said there is a seven-kilometer (4.3 mile) long river of oil flowing through the Evrona Nature Reserve in southern Israel, some 20 kilometers (about 12 miles) north of Eilat.

Firefighters, police, Environmental Protection Ministry officials and oil pipeline maintenance teams were dispatched to the site of the spill, and managed to curtail the flow after about two hours.

The breach occurred during maintenance work that was part of preparations for the international airport under construction in Timna, in southern Israel. Once the leak was discovered, pipeline company officials shut the pipeline's valves - but not in time to prevent the spillage of millions of liters of oil.

The pipeline, which links Eilat to the port city of Ashkelon, opened in the 1960s to facilitate the movement of Iranian oil from the Persian Gulf to European markets. Since the rupture in Israeli-Iranian relations in 1979, it has mostly been used to move oil and oil products from Eilat to different parts of Israel.

Comment: This is the second massive oil spill in the past few weeks. In late November Shell Oil caused one of the worst oil spills in years in the Niger Delta.

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Health

Woman left bloodied after attack by koala in Willaston, Australia


au.news.yahoo.com
Wed, 03 Dec 2014 13:55 UTC
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Ms Forster was taken to hospital after the koala bite.
A woman has been left bloodied and required a four-day stay in hospital after being attacked by a koala north of Adelaide.

But despite her injuries, she says she doesn't blame the animal for the brutal attack.

Willaston woman Mary Anne Forster said she was walking her two dogs a fortnight ago when they pulled her towards a koala at the base of a tree.

"Obviously the koala felt very threatened because it attached itself with its mouth, jaws, to my leg and bit very hard, bit very deeply," she said.

After a struggle, she managed to break free.

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Snowflake Cold

Ice storm with deep snow in Serbia: People experiencing mental breakdown after 48 hours without electricity, water and heating

Robert Felix
iceagenow.info
Wed, 03 Dec 2014 11:15 UTC
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© Tanjug
3 Dec 14 - "48 hours of agony in Majdanpek, people mentally break!" says headline.

Put on your coat and hat and get under a blanket and wait to pass this evil, say angry residents of Majdanpeka. At night it is very cold.

The city is bound by snow and ice, without electricity, water and heating, and the torture is far from over. The fourth attempt to connect pokidna transmission network, this afternoon failed. It's agony.

Business is great, joked a shop owner: he has sold burners for gas. These gadgets over the past two days in Majdanpeku have become worth gold, because it is only on them that food can be prepared.

Comment: A map of locations for many of the early and extreme cold weather events for the past month, is shown below -



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Snowflake

Mad blizzard swallows cars, streets, buildings in Far East Russia


RT
Wed, 03 Dec 2014 18:16 UTC
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© Screenshot from YouTube user Евгений Шибин
Winter has come with a vengeance: Russia's snow-and-ice-bound Far East regions have declared states of emergency. Traffic chaos is rife, with cars stuck or sliding uncontrollably. Residents are trying to push cars, and also stop them with their bodies.

The cold and snowy season began in Russia's Far East - including the cities of Vladivostok and Khabarovsk - on Dec. 1, the first day of winter proper according to the calendar. Yet municipal services were not ready to deal with weather conditions, people on social networks complained.

Snowfall in Khabarovsk - reportedly the heaviest in decades - forced the city authorities to announce the state of emergency and call in military to aid with the storm's aftermath.

Harsh weather conditions caused traffic to come to a standstill, with people being unable to use either public transport or their own cars.


Challenged to not only find and then dig their cars out from under the snow, drivers also had to push their vehicles when they were stuck on snow and ice-covered roads, as well as stopping them from moving uncontrollably.

Comment:

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Snowflake Cold

U.S. Lake Erie temperature at end of November coldest since 1976

T.J. Pignataro
Buffalo News
Tue, 02 Dec 2014 20:57 UTC
Image
© NASA
NASA image of Lake Erie was taken the week of the dual lake-effect storms.
Lake Erie's water temperature at the end of November fell to 40 degrees. That's the coldest Nov. 30 reading in Buffalo since 1976, when the lake temperature was 38 degrees. Anyone old enough to remember November 1976 needs no further reminder of what happened the following January.

The lake froze, and sustained winds during the Blizzard of '77 blew 3 feet of accumulated snow off the ice and dumped it across the Niagara Frontier. Great Lakes scientists say it's too early to tell if the lake's present condition will lead to that kind of snow catastrophe this winter.

Until the lake freezes, there's always a chance for lake-effect snow. But as the water turns colder, there's less chance for a repeat of the heavy lake-effect snowfall that hit the area a couple of weeks ago. "It really depends on what happens now and over the next few weeks or month," said Eric J. Anderson, a forecaster at the Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory in Ann Arbor, Mich.

Comment: Ice ages can start at any time and develop quickly. Are you prepared?

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Ice Cube

Dramatic evacuation of Hohe Wande because of ice storm in Austria


thelocal.at
Wed, 03 Dec 2014 20:50 UTC
Image
© einsatzdoku.at
In the last few hours on Wednesday afternoon, all access to the Hohe Wand was cut off by ice-covered boulders and broken tree branches, as a result of the ice storm.

Police and fire departments were busy all morning visiting residents living in the area to ask them to leave their homes, many of which are threatened by falling trees.

Some residents left voluntarily, while others refused to leave. Some elderly residents had to be evacuated for medical reasons.

Comment: See also: Rare ice storm strikes Waldviertel in Austria

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Wolf

An 85-year-old woman mauled by stray dogs dies, Louisiana


knoe.com
Tue, 02 Dec 2014 18:16 UTC
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An 85-year-old woman who was mauled by stray dogs has died, five days after the attack.

Grant Parish Sheriff Steve McCain confirmed the death of Bobbie Cheveallier Monday evening, after it was posted on social media.

Dogs attacked Cheveallier on Wednesday as she took out the trash from her home near Pollock.

McCain says deputies have caught 15 stray dogs for testing since the attack.

Cheveallier's son Randy Cheveallier says her legs had to be amputated.

He says nobody saw the attack.

Cheveallier says a neighbor's boyfriend saw three dogs in his mother's yard Wednesday afternoon, went over to see what was going on, and found her on the ground, unconscious.
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Snowflake Cold

100,000 Czech railway travelers stranded due to freezing cold weather


presstv.ir
Tue, 02 Dec 2014 17:46 UTC
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Around 100,000 passengers are stranded across the Czech Republic due to the disruption of the railway system
Around 100,000 passengers have been stranded across the Czech Republic due to the disruption of the railway service as a result of freezing cold weather.

"Several hundred passenger trains were cancelled or delayed," Czech Railways said on its website on Tuesday.

Czech railways authority said the disruption occurred after ice encased overhead power lines and brought railway traffic to a halt.

According to the officials, the freezing began on Monday and continued into Tuesday.

They added that people were forced to spend the night, when temperatures dropped to a low of minus 7.3 Celsius (19.4 Fahrenheit), in cold trains and at railway stations.
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Cloud Precipitation

Storm drenches California, but it's only a drop in state's drought bucket

Brittny Mejia
LA Times
Wed, 03 Dec 2014 14:54 UTC
Image
© Al Seib, Los Angeles Times
Danny Lopez, left, and Fernando Hacindo work to stem mud and debris flowing down a blocked drain in Camarillo Springs.
The first major Pacific storm of the season drenched much of California on Tuesday, slaking a parched and dusty region, but still leaving the state deep in a historic drought.

The stream of subtropical moisture dropped more than an inch of rain over much of Los Angeles County by evening, with higher numbers in the local mountains. In foothills and canyons where fires recently burned desiccated brush, residents scrambled to set up barricades to divert debris flows and prepared to evacuate.

In Camarillo, gushing mud and water prompted a mandatory evacuation of 75 homes where a slide had buried a residence on Halloween. In Glendora and Azusa, homeowners and fire crews worked feverishly to buttress sandbags with plywood and concrete blocks. Rock slides hit the road in Malibu Canyon, and in Silverado Canyon residents moved horses and other large livestock to lower, flatter terrain.
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Cloud Lightning

Philippines residents evacuating ahead of typhoon Hagupit

Rosemarie Francisco
Reuters via Yahoo News
Wed, 03 Dec 2014 14:47 UTC
Image
© NASA
Typhoon Hagupit
The Philippine government on Wednesday sent food and medical supplies to central provinces on the path of a category 3 typhoon, with many of them still reeling from devastation brought by super typhoon Haiyan late last year.

Residents of coastal villages and landslide-prone communities were told to move to government-designated evacuation areas, as typhoon Hagupit (Filipino for lash) barreled towards Eastern Samar province in central Philippines with winds of up to 140 kph and gusts of up to 170 kph.

Hagupit is currently hovering over Palau islands and is expected to pick up strength before hitting eastern Philippines on Saturday. Tropical Storm Risk forecasts Hagupit will become a category 4 typhoon in 36 hours.

"Definitely we will now strictly enforce forced evacuation," said Jerry Yaokasin, vice mayor of Tacloban City in central Philippines.
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