A man was killed by a landslide near Salzburg in Austria and two people have died in the Czech Republic. The Czech government has declared a nationwide state of emergency. The Czech deaths came after floodwaters destroyed flimsy country cottages. Two more people are missing in the country after their raft overturned on a swollen river. In Prague, the Czech capital, the situation is tense.
Firemen have been putting up metal flood barriers and volunteers filling sandbags as the River Vltava is due to reach peak levels in Prague some time on Monday morning. Authorities believe the river in Prague will not reach the levels it did in 2002, when parts of the city were devastated, but will still be high enough to cause severe damage.
Parts of the old town of Passau in Bavaria are under water Bavaria's flood alert service warns that the forecast of continuing heavy rain is likely to worsen the flooding affecting the Danube and the Inn, among other rivers in the area. The German cities of Passau and Rosenheim have declared a state of emergency. Authorities in Passau, which lies at the confluence of three rivers in Bavaria, say they expect the Danube to reach 10.5m by Sunday evening and have requested help from the German army.
Bavaria is not the only German state to be affected; towns and cities in Saxony, Thuringia and Baden-Wuerttemberg are also inundated. The German army is to be deployed in Bavaria, Saxony and Thuringia to support the flood-affected areas. Near the Austrian city of Salzburg a man was found dead after being swept away as he worked to clear a landslip. Two further people are missing in the Salzburg area. A third is missing in Vorarlberg. The Austrian army was called in to help civil authorities in the settlement of Taxenbach, south of Salzburg. Their main task was to clear landslides and make roads passable. Parts of the Pinzgau region, which includes Taxenbach, have been declared a disaster zone.
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the commencement speaker tells thousands of students
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Robert Purvis
There will be no update on Tuesday this week.
LARGEST QUAKES -
Live Seismograms - Worldwide (update every 30 minutes)
This morning -
None 5.0 or higher.
Yesterday -
6/2/13 -
5.5 MINDANAO, PHILIPPINES
5.1 BOUGAINVILLE REGION, P.N.G.
5.3 EASTERN NEW GUINEA REG., P.N.G.
6.2 TAIWAN
5.0 SOUTH OF FIJI ISLANDS
Strong Taiwan quake kills two, injures 21 - one missing. At least two people have been killed by falling rocks after the 6.3 magnitude earthquake. The quake, which violently shook buildings in the capital Taipei on Sunday, sent people running into the streets and was also felt in Hong Kong, more than 700 kilometres away. Shoppers screamed and ran out of a 12-story department store that shook violently for nearly a minute, TV stations reported from the central city of Taichung. Households elsewhere in central Taiwan reported cracks on the walls or ceilings falling.
Taiwan's Seismology Centre measured the quake's magnitude at 6.3, while the US Geological Survey put it at 6.2. The tremor hit at 1.43pm, centred 32 kilometres east of the central county of Nantou at a depth of 10 kilometres, followed by a series of aftershocks. A mountain climber was killed after he was hit by falling rocks on Mount Ali in central Taiwan, while the second victim also died after being knocked down by falling rocks. In Chushan town of Nantou county, rescuers were running against time, digging through tonnes of rubble which buried a male angler. "The rescuers have been working hard to search and rescue the missing person, even though, I'm afraid, the odds of finding him alive is slim."
Twenty-one people were injured, including three severely. Operations at the three nuclear power plants on the island were not affected, according to state-owned Taiwan Power Co. Nantou county was the epicentre of a 7.6-magnitude quake in September 21, 1999 that killed around 2400 people in the deadliest natural disaster in the island's recent history.
Philippines - The quake which struck late on Saturday with a magnitude of 5.7, injured 33 and also cracked roads, damaged the approach to a bridge and damaged water supply pipes in two farming communities. The earthquake jolted the southern Philippines, damaging more than 140 houses and several school buildings and setting off a landslide that partially blocked a road with boulders.
At least 33 people, including children, were injured by collapsed walls and falling debris in the hard-hit North Cotabato villages of Kimadzil and Kibugtongan. The quake, which was set off by the movement of a nearby fault, damaged the approaches to two bridges and concrete pipes that cut off water supply to the two villages. Some of the damaged school buildings won’t be able to be used for Monday’s resumption of classes after a summer break for safety reasons.
Many residents remained jittery Sunday because of continuing aftershocks. The ground started to shake and objects fell from shelves. “It’s a big relief that no motorist was passing through our highway when boulders rolled down from the mountainside." The Philippine archipelago is located in the Pacific “Ring of Fire,” where earthquakes and volcanic activity are common. A magnitude 7.7 quake killed nearly 2,000 people on the northern island of Luzon in 1990.
VOLCANOES -
Volcano Webcams
Indonesia - Mount Kerinci in Jambi erupted on Sunday, spewing smoke as high as 600 meters. The eruption occurred at 8:43 a.m. local time. Everyone panicked, pouring out of their houses worried that a bigger eruption would follow.
“A loud bang was heard in our village. When we looked up we saw the volcano spew plumes of black smoke.” An ash cloud turned the sky black and locals could smell sulfur in the air. Half hour after the eruption, several villages in Gunung Tujuh district were blanketed in thick black ash, sparking concern for food crops, but heavy rain after the ash shower washed the crops clean. Mt Kerinci last erupted in 2009. Activity increased in July 2011 with tremors recorded in October that year.
Alaska - Pavlof activity has paused. During past eruptions of Pavlof, the style of eruptive activity fluctuated from higher to lower levels. Therefore, this pause in eruptive activity does not necessarily indicate that the eruption has ended. Renewed activity is possible.
TROPICAL STORMS -
No current tropical storms.
In the Gulf of Mexico, tropical moisture will increase Monday through much of the upcoming work-week as NOAA is tracking an area of low pressure located in the Bay of Campeche. There is potential that this low could turn into a depression or tropical storm as it tracks north.
After cyclone Mahasen hit the coastline of Bangladesh, there was a trail of devastations to human lives, their homesteads and standing crops. Though human casualties were not very high, yet losses to house-holds and crops were colossal.
SEVERE RAIN STORMS, FLOODING, LANDSLIDES -
A veteran tornado scientist, his son, and a meteorologist died while chasing Friday's EF-3 tornado in El Reno, Oklahoma. The three were all featured chasers on the Discovery Channel’s series, Storm Chasers. They chased over 125 tornadoes together: In June 11, 2004 near Storm Lake, Iowa, "they defied the odds and deployed their probes right in the path of a tornado. The six-camera video probe captured amazing footage from multiple angles while the sensor probe recorded data that revealed just how fast wind speeds are close to the ground."
An aerodynamically-designed probe they placed in the path of an EF-4 tornado near Manchester, South Dakota on June 24, 2003, measured a WORLD-RECORD PRESSURE FALL of 100 mb over a 40 second period.
Damaging storms moving through U.S. east, south - Damaging winds flattened trees and utility wires and knocked out power in parts of northern New England on Sunday, flights were delayed in New York City and a tornado touched down in South Carolina as the East Coast weathered the remnants of violent storms that claimed 13 lives in Oklahoma.
Heavy rain, thunderstorms, high winds and hail moved through sections of the Northeast on Sunday afternoon, knocking out power to more than 40,000 in Vermont, New Hampshire and Maine. The National Weather Service issued a RARE tornado warning as a line of thunderstorms raced through New Hampshire into western Maine. The weather service said a tornado warning was issued as radar indicated a possible tornado moving from Kingfield, Maine, to Bingham, Maine. The tornado was not immediately confirmed.
Thunderstorms and winds in excess of 60 mph in Vermont produced 1-inch-diameter hail and knocked down numerous trees and wires. In northern Maine, radar picked up a line of thunderstorms capable of producing quarter-sized hail and winds stronger than 70 mph.
In northwestern South Carolina, a tornado knocked a home off its foundation and blew part of the roof off. Some trees were blown down and there was heavy rain, but no widespread damage. No injuries were reported. In other parts of the South, thunderstorms, high winds and hail rolled through as part of a slow-moving cold front. Heavy rains could spawn flash flooding in some areas, the weather service said.
Meanwhile, residents in Oklahoma cleaned up after the storms there killed 13 people, including three veteran storm chasers. In El Reno, about 30 miles from Oklahoma City, the death toll could rise as emergency workers continue searching flooded areas for missing residents. The death toll had risen to 13 from Friday's EF3 tornado, which charged down a clogged Interstate 40 in the western suburbs. Among the dead were two children — an infant sucked out of the car with its mother and a 4-year-old boy who along with his family had sought shelter in a drainage ditch.
In Missouri, areas west of St. Louis received significant damage from an EF3 tornado Friday that packed estimated winds of 150 mph. In St. Charles County, at least 71 homes were heavily damaged and 100 had slight to moderate damage. Northeast of St. Louis, the town of Roxana, Ill., also saw damage from an EF3 tornado. It wasn't clear whether the damage in Missouri and Illinois came from the same twister or separate ones.
Five tornadoes struck the Oklahoma City metro area on Friday. 115 people were injured. The storms formed out on the prairie west of Oklahoma City, giving residents plenty of advance notice. When told to seek shelter, many ventured out and snarled traffic across the metro area — perhaps remembering when a tornado hit Moore on May 20 and killed 24 people. Roadways quickly became congested with the convergence of rush-hour traffic and fleeing residents. "They had no place to go, and that's always a bad thing. They were essentially targets just waiting for a tornado to touch down. I'm not sure why people do that sort of stuff, but it is very dangerous."
Europe - Four people have died and at least eight more are missing as torrential rains lash central Europe, forcing hundreds to evacuate their homes after floods and landslides. Austria, Germany and the Czech Republic have sent in army units to help with rescue efforts after RAINS REACHED RECORD LEVELS in some areas, while hundreds of roads have been closed and rail services cut.
The banks of the mighty Danube River burst in one area in Germany, and dozens of towns have been put on flood alert across a large swathe of central Europe. In Austria, one person has been killed and two are reported missing following landslides triggered by heavy rains that forced several hundred people from their homes. Two people were also missing in neighbouring Germany following a 48-hour downpour that hit record levels in parts of the south and east.
In the Czech Republic, a man and woman were killed in Trebenice, just outside Prague, when their house collapsed. At least four other people are missing. The body of a man in his fifties was found on Sunday evening in the swollen waters of the Upa River, at Trutnov, 150km northeast of the capital. Two men who were rafting on the Berounka River, 30km southwest of Prague, have been missing since Saturday. The government declared a state of emergency and released 300 million korunas ($A16.33 million) in disaster funds. Several hundred people had to be evacuated, as well as a hospital and the Prague Zoo.
The southern German town of Passau on the Austrian border was partly flooded when the Danube burst its banks. Rail services between Munich and Salzburg have been cancelled. Much of Austria's western provinces of Vorarlberg, Tyrol and Salzburg, as well as northern Upper Austria, are on flood alert. Rail links have been suspended due to landslides in many parts of Salzburg and Tyrol, while a section of the motorway to Switzerland is closed because of flooding, as are smaller roads throughout the country.
German summer a washout - The national weather office has issued extreme weather warnings after 178% MORE RAIN FELL IN MAY THAN THE YEAR BEFORE. A typical low weather pattern is forcing clouds up the Alps, where they cool off and shed heavy rain. But this time it's LASTED FOR WEEKS, washing out the southern states of Bavaria, Baden-Wurttemberg, Lower Saxony and other regions. Trees have fallen as the soil has weakened, crops have been ruined and basements flooded. A cyclist drowned in Hannover after being swept away.
Switzerland has also been affected, with ships banned from the Rhine in Basel. 100 more litres of rain per square meter have been forecast between Saturday and Sunday. Germans are renowned for their stoical attitude. But after THE DARKEST WINTER IN OVER 40 YEARS, even the hardiest residents are being tested as rain and floods replace the traditional warm summer. (YouTube Video)
EXTREME HEAT & DROUGHT / WILDFIRES / CLIMATE CHANGE -
Thousands evacuated as crews fight California wildfire - A wildfire that destroyed at least six homes, damaged 15 others and threatened hundreds more grew quickly Sunday as it triggered evacuations for nearly 3,000 people and burned dangerously close to communities.
