Earth Changes
IRINThu, 13 Sep 2007 17:46 UTC
Government figures indicate that in northern Ghana flooding has affected more people than in all other West African countries combined, yet the disaster has received little international attention compared to floods elsewhere in the region.
|
| ©Unknown
|
The government's National Disaster Management Organisation (NADMO) says floods have affected close to 275,000 people in the Upper East, Upper West and Northern Regions of the country. Parts of the Western Region have also seen flooding. Most of the affected people are displaced, although some are still living in what is left of their homes.
The algal bloom that tarnished Virginia Lake earlier this year refuses to go away.
Scientists expected the blue-green algae would die out in the chill winter, but not so.
Barry Gilliland, Horizons Regional Council's water quality leader, said latest sampling from the lake had shown a rapid increase in the algal cell count in the lake.
Nine cows died after drinking from Delmoe Lake, a popular recreational lake east of Butte.
A witness reported watching two of the cows drink water from the lake, then walk just a few feet before falling over dead. This has prompted a warning for people to stay out of Delmoe Lake.
The first reports filtered in late last month, about the time deer hunters began trimming shooting lanes and servicing tree stands for the upcoming season.
Hunters and farmers in Southern Illinois began finding dead deer on their property. Others observed sickly looking whitetails with bloodshot eyes, drooling excessively and walking around emaciated in a shocklike state.
Tom Micetich knew exactly what the culprit was: Epizootic Hemorrhagic Disease, or EHD, an often-fatal disease that hits deer herds hard during excessively dry summers with limited rainfall, like the one the region is just completing.
An insect-borne virus may have killed more than 1,000 deer in southwestern Pennsylvania this year, and officials said it appears to have struck earlier and wider than previously.
The Pennsylvania Game Commission said Tuesday that epizootic hemorrhagic disease has been confirmed in a third Pennsylvania county, Beaver, and tests are being performed to see if it has reached Allegheny, Cambria or Westmoreland counties.
Thousands of wild Atlantic salmon returning to Scotland's rivers have been infected by a mysterious parasite which has left them with bleeding wounds.
The Fisheries Research Service (FRS) in Scotland has revealed that evidence of the infection has been found in salmon in more than 50 rivers across the country.
The unprecedented infection is also widespread in England, Wales and Ireland.
|
| ©CBS
|
Texas - Many people in Grapevine are wondering what to make of strange blobs at Lake Grapevine.
The Vineyards Camp Grounds have been closed due to recent heavy rains, but now Lake Grapevine has visitors popping and oozing up all over the place.
AFPThu, 13 Sep 2007 15:08 UTC
A tropical storm dragged across Louisiana Thursday, leaving a trail of damage and warnings of floods after Hurricane Humberto battered Texas, authorities said, as one man was reported killed.
The storm moved east into in Louisiana, passing the city of Lake Charles where strong winds "took the roof off a trailer, knocked down some trees, some power lines," John Butterick of the local county emergency preparedeness department told AFP.
"We have a couple of areas that are without power but crews are already on the scene restoring that," he said. Weather authorities had warned of possible flooding but none was reported so far, he added.
Paraguay's government declared a national state of emergency on Wednesday as it battles the worst forest fires ever to hit the poor South American country.
The flames have devoured more than 100,000 hectares (nearly 250,000 acres) of forest, crops and grazing pasture and burned down dozens of rural homes in three northeastern provinces, where a regional state of emergency was already in place.
CNNThu, 13 Sep 2007 03:47 UTC
Humberto made landfall on the Texas coast early Thursday shortly after strengthening into a Category 1 hurricane, the National Hurricane Center said.
The center of the storm crossed the Texas coast just east of High Island at about 2 a.m. (3 a.m. ET) with maximum winds of 85 mph (135 kmh). Humberto -- a slow mover -- is primarily going to be a rainmaker, CNN Meteorologist Chad Myers said.
