Fatal Landslide Derails Indonesian Train

A landslide triggered by heavy rain derailed a train as it travelled through Indonesia’s main island of Java on Friday, leaving five people dead, an official said.

There were about 250 passengers on the train as it travelled from the city of Bandung in the west of Java to Malang in the east.

The land slipped away from under the tracks as the train was passing through the city of Tasikmalaya at 6:30 pm (1130 GMT), said national disaster agency spokesman Sutopo Purwo Nugroho.

Three of the train’s eight carriages derailed and five people were killed, he said.

“Three bodies have been evacuated and the two other bodies remain trapped. We are in the process of evacuating them,” he said.

The other people on board the train were transferred to other forms of transport, said Nugroho. He did not have information on whether anyone else was injured.

Train accidents are common on Indonesia’s ageing and poorly maintained railroad network. Landslides and floods occur frequently during the archipelago’s six-month rainy season.

http://tinyurl.com/p2t3e2h

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MAGNITUDE 5.4 – EASTERN SICHUAN, CHINA

http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/eventpage/usc000p61s#summary

Subject To Change

Depth: 26 km

Distances: 7km (4mi) SE of Xiluodu, China
93km (58mi) N of Zhaotong, China
110km (68mi) WSW of Xunchang, China
117km (73mi) SW of Yibin, China
820km (510mi) NNW of Ha Noi, Vietnam

MAGNITUDE 5.2 – SOUTH OF AFRICA

http://www.emsc-csem.org/Earthquake/earthquake.php?id=369861

Subject To Change

Depth: 10 km

Distances: 2705 km S of Maseru, Lesotho / pop: 118,355 / local time: 23:52:11.0 2014-04-04
3074 km S of Mbabane, Swaziland / pop: 76,218 / local time: 23:52:11.0 2014-04-04
3105 km S of Pretoria, South Africa / pop: 1,619,438 / local time: 23:52:11.0 2014-04-04

MAGNITUDE 4.8 TONGA REGION

http://www.emsc-csem.org/Earthquake/earthquake.php?id=369852

Subject To Change

Depth: 14 km

Distances: 193 km SE of Nuku‘alofa, Tonga / pop: 22,400 / local time: 10:09:58.4 2014-04-05
160 km SE of ‘Ohonua, Tonga / pop: 1,241 / local time: 10:09:58.4 2014-04-05

Two Fatal Landslides Strike North Sumatra & West Java

Torrential rain on Wednesday in North Sumatra and West Java triggered two fatal landslides that killed 11 people, police said. 

Eight gold miners, who were working illegally, were killed after they were buried by a landslide while working in a gold mine concession operated by the state-owned Aneka Tambang in Nanggung, Bogor on Wednesday, Nanggung police chief, Adj.Cmr. Nyoman Suparta said.

Nyoman said the victims were identified as Mama, 50 and his sons; Ididng,20, and Yayan, 28. Other victims were identified as Jana, 32, Amir, 52, Ahmad 28, Dedi, 31 and Nurdin, 20.

“All of the victims were the residents of Cianaga village, Kabandungan, Sukabumi,” Nyoman said on Friday.

The men were working inside a tunnel when the walls collapsed. All eight victims have been recovered from the site and returned to their families.

Nyoman said police had experienced difficulties in securing the site from opportunistic individual miners because of the scale of the site.

In Sibolga, North Sumatra, three people died and three others were seriously injured after a landslide buried two homes in Aek Parombunan village, South Sibolga.

“The downpour was very heavy before the landslide happened, we heard the thunder shortly before the landslide,” Ririn, who lived next door to the victims, said on Friday.

Three siblings identified as Alpi,14, Annum, 11 and Darma, 10 were found dead by first responders.

“They were at home when the hill behind their home collapsed, they didn’t have time to save themselves,” Ririn said.

Three other people were rushed to Ferdinand Lumban Tobing general hospital in Sibolga with serious injuries.

Last month four people were killed in the South Bogor subdistrict of Bogor, West Java.

Previously in February, 11 people died and several were injured after a landslide hit Papua. The National Disaster Mitigation Agency (BNPB) spokesman, Sutopo Purwo Nugroho, said the landslides occurred in three separate districts in the province: North Jayapura, Abepura and South Jayapura,

At least 40 houses were damaged while 15 others were severely damaged during the disaster.

http://tinyurl.com/nl6pjux

Landslide Strikes South West China – 1 Dead, Injuries & 2 Missing

One person has died and two others are missing after a landslide onto a road in southwest China’s Yunnan Province on Thursday afternoon.

 

The accident, in which a further six people were injured, happened around 2:05 p.m. on a road in Shiyueliang Township, Fugong County of Nujiang Lisu Autonomous Prefecture.

 

When three cars stopped to check fallen rocks on the road, they were struck by a second collapse, said the county’s publicity department.

 

The accident also disrupted the only main road linking the county with Liuku, the capital of the prefecture.

 

The landslide was related to heavy rainfall in south China over the last few days, according to the publicity department.

 

The injured are being treated in a county hospital and further investigation is under way.

http://tinyurl.com/pzht55p

Hail Storm Causes Extensive Damage In Denton, Dallas & North Texas, USA

With the recent hail storms that swept through Dallas, Denton, Melissa and McKinney, many people saw their personal and real property damaged. While the intense bombardment from hail stones produces obvious devastation, some of those who endured through the storm were lucky enough to come away with seemingly light damage.

 

Roofing experts agree that first impressions can be deceiving and that all homeowners should have their roofs examined for hail damage. That is why Aspenmark Roofing & Solar is urging all area homeowners to have an inspection performed by an expert today.

 

Vents and shingles are areas of the roof that are most likely to receive damage during a storm. Hail will typically produce dents in the surface of these shingles, leading to granule loss. The end result is a roof that simply won’t hold up to the conditions over time. In order to avoid an even more costly problem with leaks, it is necessary to have a professional inspection completed as quickly as possible, preferably without delay. The longer you go without filing a claim with the insurance company, the more difficult it will be to get work started without having to pay out-of-pocket expenses yourself.

http://tinyurl.com/pn9m8ra

Massive Hailstorm The Size Of Golf Balls Stops Twenty20 Cricket World Cup

Sri Lanka sailed into the World Twenty20 final after beating holders West Indies by 27 runs via the Duckworth-Lewis method in a rain-ruined contest on Thursday.

Chasing 161 for victory against the team they beat in the final of the 2012 tournament, West Indies were 80 for four in 13.5 overs when the players were forced off by a hailstorm and a wet outfield prevented any further action in the semi-final.

http://tinyurl.com/peku84n

Hailstorm Causes Terrible Damage In Lampang’s Thoen District, Thailand

“I’d never seen such storm before,” said Sanga, 42

A hailstorm hit Lampang’s Thoen district on Thursday night, damaging more than 100 houses and other buildings.

A wood-processing factory crumbled amid the storm, the roof of a cooperative was almost fully blown away, and a telephone pole was uprooted. 

 

Sanga Tuakjankham said the storm also sent a tree crashing into her house. 

 

“I’d never seen such storm before,” said Sanga, 42. 

According to Lampang’s disaster prevention and mitigation chief, Thawanrat Chai-in-pan, hailstorms have damaged more than 2,100 houses in the province this year.

http://tinyurl.com/qfpkeny

Tornado Causes Damage In Darling, South Africa

It chased down the hill, peeling corrugated iron roofs from tinder frames and turning them into flying guillotines.

For many residents, the “mini tornado” that tore through the small West Coast town of Darling at 4.30am on Wednesday sounded like an enormous truck or industrial vacuum cleaner.

For Venette McDillon, woken by the sound of cracking glass and bending sheets of iron, it sounded like the metallic crunch of a car crash.

“My heart was pounding so hard,” said the 24-year-old, who almost fell out of bed when the storm swept through the town.

Standing in the courtyard of her rented home on Mount Pleasant Street, underneath the buckled remains of the courtyard’s roof, McDillon said she was still shaking.

“I rolled out of bed and ran to the other side of my house, away from the tornado.

“My windows sounded like they were about to shatter and outside I heard everything being ripped apart,” she said.

“I was worried that my car would be lifted away, that’s how strong the wind sounded.

“As it turned out, a big piece of metal narrowly missed hitting it.”

McDillon’s home is part of a bigger building, largely made up of a warehouse which was the worst-hit part of the property.

The strong winds had lifted the gate to the warehouse, breaking it in half and flinging both parts down the road.

The building’s co-owner, Richard Mills, said he had retrieved one of the halves almost two blocks from where it had been picked up in the gale.

“There’s also bits of my roof everywhere,” Mills said, pointing to a long sheet of corrugated iron wrapped around a lamppost 10m from his warehouse.

“Luckily it was early and no one was on the street. Imagine someone getting hit by something like that.”

Paul Duckett said he had been woken up to the “machine-gun fire” as the roof of his house was ripped off.

“The strangest part is how this thing just seemed to follow the road exactly,” Duckett said.

The “mini tornado” was the talk of the town, with townsfolk on every corner discussing the damage.

There were stories about a resident who had to retrieve his chimney from outside the grocery store, and another who said an uprooted tree had landed in his lounge.

All along Mount Pleasant Street, the storm’s damage was visible – from uprooted trees to splintered wooden frames waiting to be collected.

Most of the residents could not believe the damage the storm had wrought in just 20 seconds.

“It can only be global warming,” said Herman Oelsner.

The German, who has been a resident in the town for more than 25 years and runs a wind farm nearby, was convinced the storm was a tornado, something he had never before seen on the West Coast.

The local municipality said it was assessing the damage and could not confirm whether the howling winds had been a tornado.

According to meteorologist Rian Smit it was unlikely that this was the case. While storms such as Wednesday’s were not unusual at this time of the year, the forecaster, who works for the SA Weather Service, preferred to call what happened in Darling a “localised thunderstorm with strong to galeforce winds and possible heavy rain”.

A tornado is described as a violent rotating column of air that extends from the thunderstorm to the ground.

But, for the residents of Darling, what happened Wednesday will always be the town’s own “mini tornado”.

http://tinyurl.com/q4cptl7