Earth Changes
The 7.2-magnitude quake triggered several major landslides, blocking roads and stranding about 100 bathers at a hot spring resort. Crews searching for the missing had to hike mountain trails and dig their way to the worst-hit areas.
"It was the worst quake I have ever felt," said Rinji Sato, whose grocery store in this town near the epicenter was a mess of shattered bottles and food thrown from shelves. "We were just lucky this didn't hit a big city."
At least 66 homes had been destroyed with 17 others damaged in the Butte County town of Paradise, about 90 miles north of Sacramento. The fire had contributed to at least one death - an elderly woman who suffered a heart attack while evacuating.
Only 35 percent of the fire was contained Saturday, and it had charred more than 36 square miles. Five firefighters suffered minor injuries.
That blaze was just one of a series vexing firefighters across Northern California. A wildfire in Monterey County continued to chew through the Los Padres National Forest, and flames in the Santa Cruz County kept hundreds of residents away from their mountain homes.
Wilkins Ice Shelf, a broad plate of floating ice south of South America on the Antarctic Peninsula, is connected to two islands, Charcot and Latady. In February 2008, an area of about 400 km² broke off from the ice shelf, narrowing the connection down to a 6 km strip; this latest event in May has further reduced the strip to just 2.7 km.
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©Chris Foltz, NOAA |
Tornado in Kansas on May 22, 2008. |
Rescuers found the three bodies at around 2 a.m. Saturday at the landslide site at a brick factory near Shang'an village, Lvliang City. The landslide occurred at around 10:20 a.m. Friday, destroying the factory's workshops and burying 20 workers.
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©IRIN |
Threatening the livelihoods of some 78,000 people |
Ahmad Issa, 41, has been fishing in Lake Maryut [also spelt Maryout or Marriout] near the port city of Alexandria for the last 30 years. Like thousands of other fishermen, Issa said he was constantly getting skin diseases caused by the polluted water.
One of the people killed was caught in a landslide, Chief Cabinet Secretary Nobutaka Machimura told reporters. A second man was hit by a car after running out of a building and a third was killed by falling rocks at a dam construction site.
Seven people were trapped in a hot-spring resort inn hit by a landslide but police had rescued five and were trying to get the other two out, NHK public TV reported.