Massive landslides caused by melting snow bury homes in parts of India

Massive landslides, triggered by fast melting of snow above Billing Nullah, about 1.5 km from Keylong, the district headquarters, blocked the flow of a rivulet for more than 40 hours, resulting in formation of a huge lake about one km above the Manali-Keylong highway. 

 

As the rivulet, with about one cubic metre of water flow, continues to increase the area of the lake, an alert has been sounded downstream to stay away from the nullah and banks of Chandra and Bhaga rivers, sources said. Officials are monitoring the spot continuously and the district administration has sought help from state geological department. Three houses and nearly 10 bighas of land were buried under the debris on Monday, they said. 

 

Lahaul-Spiti deputy commissioner Beer Singh Thakur said landslides are continuing in an area of about 200 metres. “The region is under close observation. In case of any danger, we shall take necessary action. For now, people have been told not to come close to the rivulet.” 

 

Thakur said water level rose continuously with the blockade and now some water was flowing over the debris. Dust particles due to falling rocks are visible from many kilometers away and there was possibility that more debris making the situation more critical, he said. 

 

Tashi Dorje, of Billing village, said, “We could not sleep the whole night due to the sound of falling rocks. Our village is safe as the nullah flows more than 100 feet below. But sudden breakage of the dam can prove fatal.”

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MAGNITUDE 5.2 NEAR COAST OF CENTRAL PERU

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Depth: 45 km

Distances: 51 km S of Lima, Peru / pop: 7,737,002 / local time: 16:34:14.3 2014-06-03
15 km SW of San Bartolo, Peru / pop: 5,733 / local time: 16:34:14.3 2014-06-03

MAGNITUDE 5.0 FIJI REGION

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Depth: 60 km

Distances: 330 km NW of Suva, Fiji / pop: 77,366 / local time: 07:53:12.7 2014-06-04
218 km NW of Nadi, Fiji / pop: 42,284 / local time: 07:53:12.7 2014-06-04

Sweltering heatwave is hottest in Chandrapur district, Vidarbha, India

Chandrapur was on Tuesday the hottest city in Vidarbha, recording a maximum temperature of 47.2 degrees Celsius, the highest this summer in the eastern Maharashtra region which reeled under heatwave conditions.

Bramhapuri at 46.3 and Wardha 45 at degrees Celsius were the second and third hottest places, respectively, in the region, the MeT department said.

Nagpur, the second capital of Maharashtra, was slightly better at 44.6 degrees.

Following were the maximum temperatures recorded in other important places in Vidarbha: Akola-44.8 degrees Celsius, Amravat-43.8, Buldana-41.7, Gondia-43.6, Washim-44 and Yavatmal-44.2.

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UK & IRELAND URGENT WEATHER ALERT

Heavy rain is fast approaching from the SW which will last most of tomorrow with the threat of thunder & lightning and potential flash flooding.

There is a deep depression out in the Atlantic which is slowing forming into a vicious swirl. This swirl will herald very heavy rain with the threat of thunder & lightning and potential flash flooding on Saturday.

 

Tomorrow’s heavy is definitely going to occur, but there is still time for the Saturday deluge to shift. It is still on course, so I would advise at this point this is quite alarming.

Plane crashes into McDonald’s parking lot in Louisiana, USA

A small airplane has crashed in the parking lot of a fast-food restaurant in northeast Louisiana.

 

Ron Phillips, the director of Monroe Regional Airport, told The News-Star that the pilot was injured in the crash on Tuesday and was believed to be the only person aboard.

 

The plane was upside down in the parking lot of a McDonald’s but there were no reports of injuries on the ground.

 

The News-Star reported that it left Carmi Municipal Airport in southeastern Illinois and crashed at 10:55am today.

 

The pilot suffered ‘serious’ injuries and was airlifted to a nearby hospital by helicopter.

 

The plane was registered to Illinois resident Donald R. Jones and part of the fleet owned by WFO Flying Service, but it is unclear if he was the pilot at the time of the crash.

 

Ron Phillips said: ‘Part of the plane is up against the McDonald’s sign post and it looks like maybe one car was damaged.

 

‘The plane broke apart but it doesn’t seem like any other major damage to any facilities around.’

 

The cause of the crash is unknown at this time.

 

 

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Horrific landslide kills at least 5 family members in Guatemala

Heavy rains have killed at least five people in Guatemala, where authorities on Monday urged residents to take precautions because showers and thunderstorms are expected to continue this week.

National Office for Disaster Reduction director Alejandro Maldonado said a landslide set off by rain killed five members of a family over the weekend in the province of Huehuetenango.

He said the family’s neighbors and rescue crews saved the family’s dog after the animal was partially buried for more than 18 hours.

Several rivers have burst their banks and the drainage systems in at least four western provinces have collapsed. So far, authorities haven’t reported any major flooding, Maldonado said.

The Education Department suspended classes in nine provinces for two days because of the rain coming from a weather system that became a tropical depression Monday.

The U.S. National Hurricane Center said the system centered about 210 miles (340 kilometers) south-southeast of the coastal city of Salina Cruz, Mexico, was likely to become a tropical storm between Tuesday and Wednesday.

The Mexican state of Chiapas, which neighbors Guatemala, had seen light to moderate rains for 24 hours and some landslides were cleared from roads in the state’s mountainous areas, state Civil Protection spokesman Jose Aragon said. He said authorities would begin evacuating people Monday evening from coastal and low-lying areas next to rivers that are prone to flooding.

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Landslide kills 2 in Balangoda, Sri Lanka

Two residents of Wathukara Kanda  in Balangoda area  have succumbed to injuries  due to a landslide  today morning.

 

Residents have been identified as a 17 year old and a 24 year old.

 

Mother of the deceased girls has been admitted to the Balangoda hospital due to minor injuries.

 

Balangoda police are conducting further investigations in to the incident. 

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Volcano Eruption at Alaska’s Pavlof Intensifies

“Over the weekend, a small eruption began at Alaska’s Pavlof. Now it seems like that eruption has begun to intensify, with new reports from pilots near the volcano saying that the plume now reaches more than 6.5 km (22,000 feet) and the latest update from the Alaska Volcano Observatory reports that the plume is seen drifting 80 km to the southeast in satellite images (see above). This change has prompted AVO to raise the Aviation Alert Status for Pavlof Red/Warning.

 

 This new eruption started just over one year after the last eruption at Pavlof and judging from the images of the eruption taken from nearby, the activity appears to be pretty similar, with strombolian eruptions and possibly lava flows moving down the flanks of the volcano. Last year’s activity lasted a few months before the volcano quieted and the alert status was moved to Green/Normal until AVO moved the volcano back to Orange/Watch on May 31.

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Meteorite fireball seen in Daylesford area, Australia

If you were in the Daylesford area at 6.25pm on Sunday, May 25, you may have thought you were seeing things.

 

Amateur astronomer David Finlay said sightings of a massive fireball in the area were recorded on the worldwide meteorites news website.

 

Mr Finlay said the fireball headed south to north and most likely would have passed over Ballarat.

 

Many who saw a large white flash heard a loud explosion, “but the sound would have been a sonic boom”, Mr Finlay said. “We (astrologers) know the fireball was white and, while it is hard to ascertain the size, it would have been as large as a basketball or bigger.”

 

Mr Finlay said the meteorite would not create a crater but would fall to the ground in several pieces. He said it could be strewn over many kilometres and in a paddock somewhere.

 

“Pieces will look like black rocks with a burnt fusion crust on the outside, plus the majority of them will be attracted to strong magnets due to the iron content.”

 

He said people who heard a loud bang on Sunday evening would have been close to its landing.

 

Mr Finlay is hoping someone has captured the fireball on CCT footage.

 

“Someone may have taken it on their IPhone or video.”

 

Other sightings of fireballs were at Jerioco in Queensland, and West Wylong NSW.

 

“There were three meteorites sighted at the same time, which is unprecedented,” he said.

 

Recovered pieces allow scientists to understand the age and chemical composition of the solar system, what the Earth’s core is made of and its age, where the Earth’s water came from and possibly how life might have come to Earth.

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