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US: Lake Okeechobee at Lowest Level in 4 Years


The Miami Herald
Sat, 04 Jun 2011 00:00 UTC
Image
© Richard Graulich/Palm Beach Post
A Moor Hen hunts on the shallow edge of Lake Okeechobee near a South Florida Water Management District press conference at Jaycee Park in Okeechobee Wednesday, May 18, 2011.
The water level in Lake Okeechobee has fallen below 10 feet above sea level for the first time since 2007.

The lake fell to 9.96 feet Saturday morning.

South Florida is experiencing a drought. The rainy season began May 26 but it's off to a slow start.

National Weather Service Warning Coordination Meteorologist Robert Molleda says West Palm Beach only recorded 10.45 inches of rain from October through May 31. That's less than a third of a normal rainfall in that time.

Water managers say there's no change yet to watering restrictions for residents, farmers and nurseries. South Florida Water Management District Division Director of Water Resources Terrie Bates says that's partly because there's been no salt water intrusion or increased chloride levels in coastal wells.

Source: The Associated Press
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Bizarro Earth

US: Tornadoes and Floods ... and Now Hurricane Season

Janet McConnaughey
The Miami Herald
Fri, 03 Jun 2011 00:00 UTC
hurricane season
The spring of tornadoes and floods has made Mississippi and Alabama more prepared for the summer hurricane season, rather than stretching their resources too thin, emergency directors said Friday.

The tornadoes that hit Alabama on April 27 - part of a four-day outbreak that killed more than 300 people in the South and Midwest - showed an emergency preparedness gap created by the state's largest deployment ever of National Guard troops to Afghanistan and Iraq, said Art Faulkner, director of the Alabama Emergency Management Agency.

The National Weather Service said 58 tornadoes touched down in Alabama, killing more than 230 people and injuring thousands. Put together, emergency management officials say the twisters left a path of destruction 10 miles wide and 610 miles long, or about as far as a drive from Birmingham to Columbus, Ohio.
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Phoenix

Mexico's Popocatepetl Volcano Erupts


The Telegraph, UK
Sat, 04 Jun 2011 08:23 UTC
Popocatepetl volcano has erupted sending columns of ash into the sky.


The 5,400-metre volcano erupted with a plume of ash after shaking for several minutes early on Friday. Civil protection authorities reported that the cloud drifted west before turning back eat towards Puebla City.

Lying j37 miles southeast of Mexico city and its 18 million inhabitants it remains to be seen how the ash cloud will effect the megalopolis.

The volcano's activity has been reported as stable and there is no threat to populated areas. However, authorities have urged people to stay at least seven miles from the area and to await further information from Mexico's national disaster prevention agency.

The gas cloud is the largest in many years with authorities eagerly keeping watch over any potential change in activity.

Popocatepetl has had more than 15 major eruptions since the arrival of the Spanish in 1519.
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Umbrella

Drought-Hit Chinese Provinces to See Heavy Rains: Xinhua


Reuters
Fri, 03 Jun 2011 12:19 UTC
Image
© unknown
A Chinese farmer shows the dried vegetable seeds at his drought-striken fields in Zhouping, east China's Shandong province in January 2011.
Several Chinese provinces that have been hit by a months-long dry spell are expected to receive heavy rains soon, helping to ease the drought along the country's biggest river, the Yangtze, the official Xinhua news agency reported on Friday.

Citing the China Meteorological Administration, Xinhua said rainstorm alerts had been issued Friday evening for part of Chongqing municipality, as well as the provinces of Guizhou, Hunan, Hubei, Anhui, Jiangxi and Zhejiang.

Xinhua cited unnamed experts as saying the rains should ease central China's worst drought in decades, which has hurt crops and cut power from hydroelectric dams.
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Cloud Lightning

US: Rare twisters stun Massachusetts survivors

John Pape
Disaster News Network
Sat, 04 Jun 2011 19:58 UTC
Image
© Elise Amendola/Associated Press
Tony Esposito surveys the rubble of his home in Monson, Mass., on Thursday, one day after it was destroyed by a tornado. Esposito said no one was injured at his home.
First tornado fatality in more than 60 years for New England state as survivors assess damages

Massachusetts remained under a state of emergency Thursday after the state was hit by a rare tornado outbreak that left four dead and more than 200 injured.

They were the first tornado deaths in the state in more than 60 years.

In all, as many as 19 different communities sustained damage as the storm front moved across the state late Wednesday afternoon, according to Mass. Gov. Deval Patrick.

Patrick declared a state of emergency Wednesday evening, only hours after the storm system tore though the central and western parts of the state. In response to the disaster declaration, the National Guard called up approximately 1,000 troops to assist in rescue and response efforts.
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Fish

US: Thousands lose power in Midlands storm

Clif LeBlanc
The (Columbia) State
Sat, 04 Jun 2011 19:44 UTC
South Carolina--The vegetable refrigeration units were off, the greenhouse was dank and warm, and hundreds of tilapia were belly-up Friday morning when City Roots urban farm co-owner Eric McClam discovered his new business had no electricity.

An overnight storm with winds gusting to 60 mph ripped tree branches and popped transformers across the Columbia area, leaving up to 53,000 SCE&G customers in the dark, a utility company spokesman said Friday.

That peak of discomfort had eased by late Friday afternoon to 11,300 customers in Richland and Lexington, including McClam's three-acre farm in the Rosewood neighborhood near Jim Hamilton-L.B. Owens Airport. About 1,100 were in apartment complexes off I-20 and Broad River Road, according to a South Carolina Electric & Gas Co. website that tracks outages.
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Alarm Clock

Bariloche (Argentina) and Southern Chile on Alert After Volcano Eruption


Buenos Aires Herald
Sun, 05 Jun 2011 00:00 UTC
CHilean Volcano Puyehue
© Constanza Yañez
The Puyehue volcano eruption, as seen from the Chilean side.
The entire city of San Carlos de Bariloche turned dark as ash spewed by the nearby Chilean volcano Puyehue began falling all over town. Meanwhile, the Civil Defence Municipal Board called an emergency meeting to decide on how to proceed.

Authorities told the population to remain calm, to keep their water reserves and to remain home at all times in order to avoid the falling ash. In case of an emergency, officials have suggested the use of face masks in order to avoid it.

As an orange alert was declared, authorities shut down the airport.

Earlier, five quakes ranging between 4.6 and 4.8 in the Richter scale had been registered in the south of the Neuquén province, while a few kilometres away, across the border with Chile, some 600 people were evacuated due to the sudden eruption.
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Attention

Chile's Puyehue volcano explodes, unleashing massive ash cloud


theextinctionprotocol.wordpress.com
Sat, 04 Jun 2011 15:39 UTC
Puyehue Volcano Chile
A huge plume of smoke and ash from Puyehue volcano that is visible from Entre Lagos. The neighbors of that community have spotted the onset of eruptive activity conducted by the Sernageomin. The government issued an emergency Red Alert for the area surrounding the volcano. 600 people have been evacuated so far.
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Phoenix

US: Transformer Explosion Knocks Out University of Maryland Power

Bruce Goldfarb
Elkridge Patch
Fri, 03 Jun 2011 14:37 UTC
Image
© Bruce Goldfarb
A transformer explosion at UMBC knocked out power to the campus and threw a massive fireball into the sky Thursday evening. As a result, UMBC was closed on Friday.

Around 8:40 p.m., one of several transformers adjacent to the campus police headquarters exploded, causing several small grass fires nearby.

A huge orange fireball rose above the police station.

Image
© Bruce Goldfarb

Comment: Another case of transformer explosion, this time in Maryland, US.

Read Exploding Transformers - More than meets the eye?, an article that connects the dots of the recent electrical and other disturbances.

      Read More...
Phoenix

The Earth opens up? New Zealand: Source and the type of deadly gas in tunnel a mystery

Susan Pepperell
Sunday Star Times
Sat, 04 Jun 2011 12:54 UTC
Image
© Phil Doyle/Fairfax Media
Speaking at a Onehunga explosion press conference (front left) Derrick Adams, CEO of HEB Contractors, Mark Ford, CEO of Watercare Services and Auckland mayor Len Brown
Emergency services are mystified at how an explosive gas came to be present at the site of yesterday's fatal blast in Auckland.

The type of gas and its origin are unknown.

Gas levels were still at an explosive level late last night following the early morning tragedy in Onehunga.

A police spokeswoman said emergency services were continuously pumping air into the tunnel but the site was too dangerous to enter for closer inspection.

The spokeswoman said the type of gas remained unidentified and no one knew how it had come to be in the pipe. "It is a mystery to everybody," she said.

Fire Service staff would remain at the scene until it was safe, and nearby residents were able to stay in their homes because the gas is not toxic.
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