Mark Price Miami Herald Thu, 24 Aug 2023 08:49 UTC
An unresponsive 73-year-old woman found outside a Florida condominium building is the nation's 10th lightning fatality of 2023, according to the National Lightning Safety Council.
It happened late Wednesday, Aug. 23, on Sand Key in Clearwater, just west of Tampa.
"She was found dead on a sidewalk in her condominium complex," police said in a news release.
A passerby at Bayside Gardens IV discovered Kathleen M. Carrick's body around 7:45 p.m. "after storms rolled through the area," WTVT reports.
A 7-year-old boy was attacked by a bear in Westchester County this morning - a rare occurrence that left the animal shot dead by authorities and the child injured.
The incident happened at 75 Hickory Kingdom Road in Bedford at around 11 a.m. North Castle Police Chief Peter Simonsen says the child was playing in his backyard with a sibling just before the attack.
The sibling was unharmed, and the child's parent rendered aid as the bear stayed close by.
"That's extremely brave," said Simonsen. "...That's what good parents do."
The child was taken to Northern Westchester Hospital with injuries that were not considered life-threatening.
A man has described the terrifying moment he was attacked by a shark while cooling off in the sea in Spain.
He entered the ocean for a dip as temperatures soared to 31C on Thursday in the Oliva municipality, around 50 miles south of Valencia on the east coast.
But while relaxing within metres of the shoreline in the shallow water, which was no more than knee deep, he saw a 'shadow' nearby.
Within seconds, a blue shark lashed out and went for him, sinking its teeth into his foot.
In a rare piece of good news, five stranded beluga whales have been rescued from where they were trapped on a beach.
The belugas, four adults and a calf, were found stuck on a beach near the mouth of the Tigil River in Russia's Far East, local news outlet Kamchatka-Inform reported.
The group of whales was rescued from their predicament by several local fishermen, who poured seawater on the mammals and kept them well fed with fish until the tide came back in.
Scores of people gathered since early on Wednesday to see the carcass of a juvenile whale that washed up on a beach in Umhlanga, Durban.
Social media platforms have been flooded with images of the mammal, which Marshal Security company staff cordoned off to keep the public at bay.
Nazir Sadack of the Community Emergency Response Team which provides voluntary medical, fire, trauma support and animal rescue, told TimesLIVE the carcass is south of Umhlanga lighthouse.
"I don't know the circumstances of how the whale got there. It appears to be about six metres in length and seems to be a baby.
Two more dead whales washed ashore late last week in the tristate, reigniting a politically charged debate whether wind farm sonar mapping could be responsible for the growing number of marine mammal deaths.
On Friday, a dead 30-foot whale washed ashore at Smith Point County Park in Long Island. A second dead whale was found in Long Branch.
Saturday's whale was first seen by boaters off Deal and Asbury Park. It eventually washed up near the Imperial House Condominiums. More than a dozen whales have now washed up in New York and New Jersey since December. Dozens more dead dolphins and porpoises have also come ashore in that time frame. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration calls it a continuation of the unusual mortality event - dating back to 2016.
A mixture of low clouds and dense mist prevented a pod of dolphins from being seen on Ruakākā Beach, resulting in a heartbreaking discovery.
Six deceased dolphins were found stranded on the northern point of Ruakākā Beach on Sunday. Locals suspect they went unnoticed due to the dense cloud covering the beach that morning.
Richard Addis discovered the dolphins around 10.30am on Sunday as he drove along the popular fishing spot in his 4WD with his two children.
Addis said the six dolphins, between six and eight feet long, were dead upon their arrival. He described himself and his children as feeling "sorry to see" such a sight.
Chopper 12 was over the scene at Smith Point County Park’s outer beach where a dead humpback whale washed ashore early Friday.
Officials say the whale was a male, believed to be around 5 years old.
Atlantic Marine Conservation Society Chief Scientist and Executive Director Rob DiGiovanni Jr. says the whale was over 35 feet long and looks to have been dead for a while.
He says this is the 13th deceased whale this year to wash up in the tri-state area.
"We are currently in the middle of an unusual mortality event for three species of large whales - the humpback whale, the right whale, as well as the minke whale," DiGiovanni says.
Comment: Details of the earlier stranding: Dead whale washes ashore at Smith Point County Park, New York