We have very little control over external forces such as
tornadoes, earthquakes, floods, disasters, illness and pain.
What really matters is the internal force.
How do I respond to those disasters?
Over that I have complete control.**
Leo F. Buscaglia
LARGEST QUAKES -
This morning -
5.3 KEP. TANIMBAR REGION, INDONESIA
5.4 EAST OF THE MARIANA ISLANDS
Yesterday -
7/26/11 -
5.1 PERU-ECUADOR BORDER REGION
5.1 GULF OF CALIFORNIA
5.6 GULF OF CALIFORNIA
5.4 NEW IRELAND REGION, P.N.G.
5.2 MID-INDIAN RIDGE
5.1 MINDANAO, PHILIPPINES
5.7 NEAR EAST COAST OF KAMCHATKA
5.4 OFF EAST COAST OF KAMCHATKA
5.0 NORTHEASTERN IRAN
TROPICAL STORMS -
TROPICAL DEPRESSION 11W (ELEVEN) was LOCATED APPROXIMATELY 260 NM SOUTHWEST OF ANDERSEN AIR FORCE BASE, GUAM.
TYPHOON 10W (NOCK-TEN) was LOCATED APPROXIMATELY 90 NM NORTHEAST OF MANILA, PHILIPPINES.
SEVERE RAIN STORMS, FLOODING, LANDSLIDES -
SOUTH KOREA - Six people were killed and three remained buried after a landslide triggered by torrential rain smashed into a South Korean mountainous region. The landslide just after midnight today (local time) in the Chuncheon area 100km east of Seoul flattened an inn and three homes. The six killed in the inn, near the Soyang River Dam, were all college students who were in the area for volunteer work. 20 others were injured, four of them seriously. More than 500 firefighters and police have been sent to the area to speed up the rescue.
UPDATE - At least 10 people are dead and several missing after heavy rain triggered the landslide in a mountain resort in northern South Korea. Hundreds of rescuers have been sifting through rubble and mud to find survivors in Chuncheon, about 100km (60 miles) east of Seoul. Hotels, restaurants and coffee shops were wrecked when the slide occurred just after midnight (1500 GMT Tuesday). More than 250mm (10in) of rain have fallen on Chuncheon in two days. The ten victims were reportedly college students doing volunteer work in the area, who had all been staying in the same hotel. "We were asleep and suddenly heard a big sound, and then the ceiling fell down. I heard a weird sound like a train. I felt weird for hearing that train sound, but heard someone shouting 'Help me'. So I went out to see, and I saw it was swept by landslide all over." More heavy rain was forecast for Wednesday. (photo & map)
HEAVY SNOW / EXTREME COLD -
Snow dump traps skiers in New Zealand - The great snow dump New Zealand tourism operators have been praying for has arrived with gusto, trapping hundreds of skiers and blocking main highways across the country. It is the WORST WHITE-OUT IN A DECADE. Winter hit late across the Tasman, but arrive it has, with huge snowfalls across the entire South Island and the southern half of the North Island.
The dump caught many by surprise, stranding 250 skiers at Mt Lyford, near Christchurch, up the mountain overnight, leaving them to sleep in the resort's cafeteria. The risk of avalanche was deemed too high to allow them to leave yesterday. Some of the country's main roads have been closed due to snowfalls, and many others are coated in dangerous black ice, slowing traffic to a crawl.
Some towns, like tourist ski village Wanaka, near Queenstown, are expected to run out of petrol after tankers could not make the trip.There were "queues and queues" when news of the shortage spread through town. "As soon as people came down off the skifields it was bedlam."
The snow has not brought cheer to earthquake-ravaged Christchurch, where thousands of people are living in damaged homes or temporary accommodation. The worst white-out in a decade is keeping residents indoors, but many are struggling in freezing conditions. "We're very cold, feel a bit abandoned." The chill just added to the worries. "No power and people are cold, just another horrendous nightmare added on top of it." Authorities fear melting ice will cause havoc on broken-up roads and properties that still have no stormwater drains.
HEALTH THREATS -
Papaya Salmonella hits 23 U.S. states - The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said that two more patients have been sickened in a multistate Salmonella Agona outbreak linked to papayas imported from Mexico. The new reports push the total to 99 cases, and the number of affected states stayed the same at 23. The Papaya Salmonella strain has links to an outbreak last year.
The distributor, Agromod Produce based in McAllen, Texas, recalled the papayas it sells under four different brand names after tests found the outbreak strain in produce samples from its facility and from papayas at a US border station that were bound for the company. The CDC also said the outbreak strain is made up of four closely related pulse-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE) patterns that have RARELY BEEN SEEN in its PulseNet, an electronic network for sharing molecular fingerprinting. Three of the patterns were first identified starting in 2010 and were seen in 119 patients from 14 states between May 28 and Sep 10, 2010; however, an investigation that summer by the CDC and its partners did not find an outbreak source, though the probe focused on fresh fruit, including papaya. The CDC said the profile of last year's outbreak resembles the current one.
