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Nibiru
NATURAL DISASTERS
EARTH CHANGES
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THE PRINCIPAL COMMING WORLD EVENTS
Torrential rain battered eastern Sicily on Wednesday, where mudslides have killed at least three people and muddy torrents have swept away cars and washed out bridges, authorities said.
A mudslide in the hamlet of Saponara, near the Sicilian port city of Messina, fatally struck a 10-year-old boy Tuesday as his family fled their home. Much of Italy's terrain is landslide-prone, and many have built homes on steep hillsides in defiance of warnings by geologists.
Muddy torrents of water rushed through the Messina area, sweeping along cars as if they were toys and knocking down part of an elevated roadway.
Heavy rains also lashed Calabria, the southern Italian region across from Sicily. State railways said washed out railway bridges, landslides on track and flooding caused suspension of service on some routes.
About 100 soldiers were sent in to Saponara, one of the worst hit towns, to rescue residents stranded in flooded homes or vehicles, Italian news reports said.
This fall, flash flooding in Genoa, northwest Italy, killed at least six people, and at least nine perished in severe floods in Tuscany and the Cinque Terre tourist area of Liguria.
President Giorgio Napolitano asked local authorities to express his solidarity and closeness to the victims' families and repeated his appeal to Italians to pay urgent attention to their fragile environment.
Some of the flooding has been blamed on failure to regularly clean storm drains.
Former Premier Silvio Berlusconi had been criticized by environmentalists for concentrating his government's efforts on his pet project to build a bridge over the strait dividing Messina from Calabria, instead of devoting financial resources and manpower to more mundane projects like maintaining drainage systems and shoring up hillsides prone to landslides.
With Italy now slashing spending to cut deficit and devote resources to reviving the economy and prevent financial disaster, the plan to build a bridge has fallen by the wayside.
"A dramatic national emergency is before our eyes," said Stella Bianchi, the center-left Democratic Party's point person on the environment. "We are paying a painful price for years of errors, culpable lack of attention" and excessive building, she said in a statement.
Police have launched an internal investigation after a 19-year-old woman claims she suffered a miscarriage after being pepper-sprayed at an Occupy Seattle protest.
Jennifer M. Fox says police kicked her and hit her in the stomach with a bicycle at the encampment on November 15 and also doused her with pepper spray.
She says she was three months pregnant at the time.
Crying out: Jennifer Fox was rushed to the hospital after being kicked in the stomach and sprayed with pepper spray by police in Seattle
'I was standing in the middle of the crowd when the police started moving in,' Ms Fox has said.
‘I was screaming, “I am pregnant, I am pregnant. Let me through. I am trying to get out,”’ she continued.
After being kicked and sprayed, she was rushed to the hospital by ambulance where she said an ultrasound confirmed that her baby had not been affected.
But she began cramping and went back to the hospital five days later, and she said she was then told by doctors that there was no heartbeat for the baby.
Investigation: Police have come under fire throughout the country due to seemingly excessive use of pepper spray on Occupy protesters
Indiscriminate: Police sprayed Dorli Rainey, 84, in Seattle as well
None of her claims have been verified by medical records because she is denying reporters access, but Ms Fox said that the doctor cited the kicks to her stomach and ingestion of pepper spray as the causes for the miscarriage.
Seattle police spokesman Mark Jamieson says the department is looking into the situation because of the seriousness of the allegations.
‘It hurts. It’s upsetting. I was ready to have a kid, because my family was going to support me in taking care of the child. Her name was going to be Miracle,’ Ms Fox has said.
Cyclists: Ms Fox said that a police officer kicked her in the stomach and threw a bike at her, which she believes prompted her to miscarry
The Seattle Times reports that Fox's family doubts her story.
Her former foster mother, Lark Stebbins, says Fox has a history of exaggerating and never mentioned she was pregnant when they spoke recently.
Blog reports say that Ms Fox is living full time in the Occupy encampment and is allegedly homeless.
Popular cause: Occupy Seattle has a number of students participating from the University of Washington, shown here with groups of union workers
Dozens still have no idea how damaged their properties are or whether they will have a home to return to.
Shire president Ray Collier was visibly distressed as he addressed the crowd and tried to give perspective to the damage inflicted.
He told the crowd he expected the State Government to provide financial support to deal with the disaster.
"We're a strong community, we've had fires before... I'm sure that the country spirit is strong and there's certainly going to be people who will need comforting support," he said.
"The community's been great. We've had so much offers of support, it's very humbling to know that the people of the Augusta-Margaret River shire understand the difficult times the people are going through."
The majority of questions from the crowd related to trying to pinpoint exactly which roads and areas had been impacted by fire.
DEC incident controller Roger Armstrong said he did not want people to find out about possible loss of property through the media and all attempts were being made to contact impacted residents personally.
At the end of the meeting, Mr Collier said everyone who had lost a home so far had now been contacted.
Another public meeting will be held at 3pm.
Earlier the DEC revealed the prescribed burn which got out of control and destroyed at least 20 homes was started two months ago.
As firefighters brace for another tough day with conditions similar to yesterday and 65km/h winds predicted, fire incident controller Roger Armstrong said the prescribed burn was started on September 6.
He told a media briefing that once a prescribed burn started it had to be maintained until it was safe.
The fire was managed over several weeks but it escaped the boundary yesterday, he said.
Did you take photos? send them in or MMS to 0402 228 221
Mr Armstrong said the priority for the day was to maintain containment of the fire which was 80 per cent tracked.
“The only part we haven’t got tracked is north of the Margaret River mouth, north of Preston town site,” he said.
“Obviously, that is a concern for us today with north-side winds, so a lot of our efforts will be focused on the town of Prevelly Park.
“The other area of concern is on the eastern side.”
Volunteers and officials from brigades across WA, along with police, the DEC, FESA, Red Cross, the Department of Child Protection and a host of other community agencies are involved in the firefighting effort.
Mr Armstrong confirmed 19 homes have been destroyed or badly damaged, mostly in the Wallcliffe subdivision.
The only access to Prevelly Park is through the bushfire. The area is closed to traffic today.
At 9.30am, there was still an unknown number of people stranded on the beach.
Just before 9.30am, the fire was burning towards the coast in a south-westerly direction.
Meanwhile, residents’ anxious wait to know if their homes are still standing is expected to be over within minutes.
More than 100 residents have gathered at the evacuation centre for a community meeting at 10am.
Many have walked in with little hope their homes have survived the devastating bush fires, less than 10 kilometres from the town’s centre.
Burnside man Corey Jones said the situation was surreal.
“It’s a bit weird, I’ve just phoned a friend and told them I’m going down into town to find out if the house is still there,” he said.
Mr Armstrong said 60 prescribed burns had been carried out in the area in the past month, 40 of which were near "assets".
He rejected suggestions the department started the burn during a catastrophic fire warning and that it relied on weather forecasts from the weather bureau.
Mr Armstrong said homes were still at risk from the fire.
Firefighters expected cooler conditions later in the day but "we have several hours before that", he said.
On a day one experienced firefighter called "as bad as they come", flames carved a path of destruction around the coastal hamlets of Ellensbrook to the north and Prevelly to the south of the South West tourist town yesterday.
Anger is growing in the community that the fire emergency was caused by prescribed burns that got out of control.
Up to 90 per cent of the fire is contained but not controlled out to existing breaks but the Department of Environment and Conservation is warning that the high winds could cause the fire to flare out of control again.
The fire has burned through 1800 hectares.
More than 400 fire personnel from DEC, local volunteer bushfire brigades and Fire and Rescue Service are on the scene and worked through the night.
Local disaster and community welfare workers are assisting the community.
Rotary and fixed-wing water bombers will today assist ground crews. A large number of fire trucks and heavy machines have been sent to the area from around the South West.
Yesterday, homes in Wooditch Road and Orchid Ramble, off Wallcliffe Road, are understood to have been the worst hit. It was believed that historic Ellensbrook Homestead had been lost, but it was unscathed.
Hundreds of people from Prevelly, Burnside, Kilcarnup, Wilderness and Gnarabup were still waiting for news last night on whether their homes had survived after authorities ordered them to evacuate shortly before midday.
Surfpoint Backpackers' Hostel manager Will Carter said more than 200 Prevelly residents had gathered on the beach near the Margaret River mouth after being forced out of their homes.
Another 140 people were sheltering at an evacuation centre in Margaret River.
More than 100 career and volunteer firefighters as well as water bombers battled to control the blaze, which flared when embers from a prescribed burn blew ahead of their containment lines.
At 9am, FESA advised an EMERGENCY WARNING was still in place for people in Ellensbrook, the Kilcarnup, Prevelly and Wilderness subdivisions and the area north of Wallcliffe Rd and east of Caves Rd in the Shire of Augusta-Margaret River.
WHAT TO DO
- People living or travelling in the area need to be alert and aware of fire and other emergency services personnel working on site and take their advice.- Although the fire threat has temporarily eased conditions may worsen at any time and people in this area still need to have their bushfire survival plan in action.
An emergency relocation welfare centre has been opened at the Margaret River Cultural Centre on Wallcliffe Road.
Police have advised leavers travelling to the Margaret River region to check the impact of the fire with their accommodation provider prior to travel.
Leavers travelling to the Dunsborough or Busselton area are advised they can travel as planned.
Police say the impact on leavers is expected to be minimal.
Frustration and chaos reigned at a heated public meeting last night when the Fire and Emergency Services Authority admitted it could give only “flimsy” information to fire-stricken locals.
Last night, deputy incident controller Chris Widmer told nearly 150 people — most in shock — he was still struggling to find out what was going on at the Margaret River fire front.
“We hope to be able to speak to people who have suffered losses as soon as we can,” he said.
“Our aim is to consolidate the fire lines tonight.”
Mr Widmer conceded he had been put in the role a short time before he was told he was to front the meeting.
For those who feared they had lost homes, it was not enough after waiting an hour for FESA officials to address the meeting.
Residents in Orchid Ramble told the meeting they only received warning text messages hours after the fires forced them to flee.
Orchid Ramble resident Lane Alver said FESA was fortunate most people at the meeting were too shocked to be angry.
“This fire should never have happened in the first place,” he said, furious over prescribed burns.
“We had new additions and they’re gone, our house is probably a shell.”
“This is extremely frustrating and they haven’t told us anything.
“We’re not going to be able to get any sleep tonight.”
Locals tried to comfort each other, while many tried to indentify their homes on aerial footage from TV stations.
Mr Widmer said it could be tomorrow before residents knew if they had homes to return to and he did not know when they could go back.
Police Commissioner Karl O’Callaghan said the State Emergency Co-Ordination Group was on standby and an emergency situation had been declared to help agencies on the ground.
The SECG met yesterday afternoon and last night to prepare for the worst-case scenario today.
Mr O'Callaghan warned about 140 school leavers who were intending to travel to Margaret River for leaver celebrations to stay away from the area during the emergency.
A spokesman for the Department of Environment and Conservation said the fire was originally started in September but had to be restarted several times since, including on Monday, because of difficulties with the weather.
DEC deputy bushfire control officer David Holland said firefighters had been faced with an uphill task because the fire was being fanned by hot, dry, north-easterly winds and significant fuel loads in the heavily forested area.
He warned that affected residents were unlikely to be let back into their properties until at least noon today as search and rescue officers assessed the damage. "It's as bad as it gets - not good," Mr Holland said.
Amid the disaster yesterday, local residents described plumes of thick smoke that left the area in darkness and walls of flames up to "a couple of storeys high".
Coastguards in Cornwall have had to issue warnings to sailors to inform them that a new island has appeared in the Canary Islands.
The island has been formed by molten lava pushing up from the seabed.
Falmouth Coastguard, which deals with incidents in the Atlantic, said it confirmed the new island with coastguards in Spain.
Richie Williams, from Falmouth Coastguard, said they were passing on warnings from the Spanish.
He said: "They've issued a navigation warning to this effect and have put a four nautical mile cordon around that area
"Vessels are being advised to take extreme caution when approaching."
by Gabe Gutierrez / KHOU 11 News
khou.com
Posted on November 22, 2011 at 4:52 PM
Updated today at 7:06 AM
HARRIS COUNTY, Texas – A teenager was safe after a sinkhole suddenly swallowed him Monday afternoon as he was standing on a street corner.
Giovanni Long, 16, said he was on his way to the gym and was waiting at the corner of Louetta and Lyons School Roads around 4 p.m. when it happened.
"The ground was completely dry and I was there, waiting for my friend to cross the street. And then everything beneath me just crumbled," he said. "I didn’t know what to do."
The Klein High School junior said he fell several feet and was under water for roughly 15 seconds as he tried to lift himself to safety.
"I was trying to dig my way out of the hole, but the ground kept breaking back into me," Long said. "It’s funny now that I think about it, now that I’m safe and everything. But when it happened, it was actually scary."
Long managed to walk away with just a few scratches on his back and a twisted ankle. The teen’s mother is just glad school was out this week.
"I was terrified," Rolanda Long said. "I think the main concern that I had was that kids walk through this walkway every morning. Thank God it was holiday time. Unfortunately, he was the one who fell in it, but (that’s) better than five or six kids falling in that huge hole."
A contractor at the scene Tuesday said a 12-inch water line had broken. It’s not clear why, but the recent moisture in the area after months of drought may have caused the ground to shift.
Long and his mother said the hole was at least 6 feet deep and 10 feet wide on Monday. It has since been partially filled in.
That contractor roped off the hole and said he plans to clean it up soon – possibly by Wednesday.
The Associated Press reports that "heavy rain in southern Italy has triggered flash floods and mudslides that have killed at least four people."
Several days of heavy rain have left many residents stranded across the Kenyan capital city of Nairobi.
Daily downpours since Sunday have produced widespread street flooding throughout Nairobi. The flooded roadways left many motorist stranded, sometimes for hours, Sunday and Monday.
In addition to causing major traffic problems, flood waters also impacted many residential areas of the city. Many area homes were inundated by flood waters Sunday and Monday, forcing residents to seek shelter elsewhere in the city.
Conditions throughout Nairobi may only get worst over the next few days before they get better.
A persistent ribbon of moisture flowing westward from the Indian Ocean will continue to produce scattered showers and thunderstorms each day through the end of the week and likely even through the weekend. Locally heavy downpours will remain possible with these showers and thunderstorms, likely leading to more flooding across the city in the coming days.
A 6.1-magnitude earthquake struck near Japan's Fukushima Dai-chi nuclear plant Thursday morning.
A 6.1-magnitude earthquake struck near Japan’s Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant Thursday 4:30 a.m. local time with no immediate reports of injuries or damage, the Associated Press reported.
The US Geological Survey said the quake struck at a depth of 23 miles (37 kilometers) and 62 miles (101 kilometers) east of the nuclear power plant. Fukushima Dai-ichi suffered a partial nuclear meltdown from the March 9.0-magnitude earthquake that ravaged much of Japan’s northeastern region.
Journalists were recently permitted entrance to the power plant for the first time since the March earthquake and tsunami in an effort by the Japanese government to prove the plant has been stabilized.
Magnitude | 6.1 |
---|---|
Date-Time |
|
Location | 37.373°N, 141.387°E |
Depth | 33.3 km (20.7 miles) |
Region | NEAR THE EAST COAST OF HONSHU, JAPAN |
Distances | 66 km (41 miles) ENE of Iwaki, Honshu, Japan 100 km (62 miles) E of Koriyama, Honshu, Japan 101 km (62 miles) ESE of Fukushima, Honshu, Japan 244 km (151 miles) NE of TOKYO, Japan |
Location Uncertainty | horizontal +/- 14.1 km (8.8 miles); depth +/- 4.2 km (2.6 miles) |
Parameters | NST=450, Nph=463, Dmin=298.3 km, Rmss=0.62 sec, Gp= 36°, M-type="moment" magnitude from initial P wave (tsuboi method) (Mi/Mwp), Version=F |
Source |
|
Event ID | usc0006x3y |
Vultures in South Asia were on the brink of extinction until Lindsay Oaks and Richard Watson, from The Peregrine Fund in the US, undertook observational and forensic studies to find out why the number of birds was falling so rapidly. They discovered the vultures were being poisoned by residues of an anti-inflammatory drug (diclofenac) used in cattle and other livestock, whose carcasses they feed on. The work is presented in a chapter of the new book, Wildlife Ecotoxicology – Forensic Approaches, published by Springer.
”The story is far from over and the stakes are high. The failure to effectively control carcass contamination by diclofenac will likely lead to extinction of these magnificent birds which, through their scavenger role, have controlled the spread of infectious disease for millennia, as well as provided other important ecological services.” Lindsay Oaks and Richard Watson
Oaks and Watson describe their scientific investigations, including their many challenges and setbacks, following the unprecedented decline in the population of two of the world’s most abundant raptors – the Oriental White-backed vulture and the Long-billed vulture – in India in the 1990s, and neighboring Pakistan by the early 2000s. They describe how they were able to prove that the commonly used anti-inflammatory drug diclofenac, fed to ailing cattle and other livestock, was being ingested by the wild birds feeding on the carcasses and causing visceral gout, a manifestation of renal failure.
The authors go on to discuss their efforts in 2004 to get the governments of India, Pakistan and Nepal to take note and act, faced with the irrefutable proof that diclofenac was responsible for the declining numbers of vultures at such a catastrophic rate. They demonstrate how solid science can facilitate a rapid regulatory response – with India, Nepal and Pakistan all banning the manufacture of veterinary diclofenac in 2006.
In spite of the researchers’ 10-year crusade and significant accomplishments, veterinary diclofenac continues to be used widely and illegally almost four years after the drug was banned, leaving the fate of wild Gyps vultures in doubt. The authors highlight a number of potential measures which could lead to a more effective implementation of the ban. This forensic work and other scientific detective cases are featured in Wildlife Ecotoxicology – Forensic Approaches.
The editors present case-by-case examinations of the science, describing the challenges biologists personally face while doing their research and bringing these issues to the public and regulatory forum. (TerraDaily)
Tens of millions of vultures once played a key role in South Asia’s ecosystem, disposing of carcasses and keeping down populations of stray dogs and rats that also feed on carcasses and are likely to spread diseases among humans. But millions of long-billed, slender-billed and oriental white-backed vultures have died in South Asia over the past several years after eating cattle carcasses tainted with diclofenac, an anti-inflammatory painkiller given to sick cows.
The decline in the vulture population has impacted the funeral rites of the India’s tiny Zoroastrian community. Zoroastrians, also known as Parsis, worship fire and believe that cremation is a mortal sin and that burial pollutes the earth. So they leave their dead atop the towers to be devoured by vultures, a process they believe releases the spirit of the dead.
In response to the decline, authorities in India banned diclofenac five years ago, but conservationists hope that a second animal painkiller — ketoprofen — will also eventually be banned and farmers will use only a drug called meloxicam, which has proven safe, according to Vibhu Prakash, a senior scientist at the Bombay Natural History Society. (AnimalsWorldwide)
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