**Talk about your blessings
more than you talk about your problems.**
LARGEST QUAKES -
This morning -
None 5.0 or higher.
Yesterday, 8/10/13 -
5.2 EASTERN NEW GUINEA REG., P.N.G.
5.0 SOUTHERN IRAN
5.0 BANDA SEA
8/9/13 -
5.0 SOUTH OF ALEUTIAN ISLANDS
5.0 EASTERN NEW GUINEA REG., P.N.G.
5.2 OFF EAST COAST OF HONSHU, JAPAN
Earthquake damages homes in central Greece - More than 100 houses in a region in central Greece hit by a moderate earthquake were damaged enough to be dangerous. The homes in Phthiotis are now scheduled for demolition.
The region was rocked by an earthquake measuring 5.1 on the Richter scale Wednesday. There were several aftershocks, including one on Friday measuring 4.9. Wednesday's quake was felt as far away as Athens, about 100 miles to the southeast. Engineers examined damaged buildings and said they were not built to be earthquake-resistant. In the village of Reggini, about half the 100 houses are expected to be demolished.
VOLCANOES -
Indonesia - Mount Rokatenda in East Nusa Tenggara province. Gushing hot lava from the erupting volcano killed six people sleeping in a beach village on an eastern Indonesian island yesterday, after ash and smoke shot up to 1.2 miles into the air. At least two children are among the victims of the powerful eruption. . Nearly 3,000 people were evacuated from the area on Palue island, located north of Flores island.
Hot ash covered a nearby beach, leaving four adults and two children dead. The volcano had been rumbling since late last year, forcing the evacuation of hundreds of people. A 3km exclusion zone was set up after an eruption last October. But many villagers had become accustomed to the volcanic activity and ignored the mandatory evacuation order. Palue has a population of some 10,000 people.
The latest eruption had begun at 04:27 on Saturday (20:27 GMT Friday) and lasted for nearly four hours. It was difficult to predict if there would be further eruptions. Palue is about 4km wide and lies a short distance off the north coast of Flores, the main island in East Nusa Tenggara province. Eruptions in Palue in October and again in March this year had forced hundreds of people from their villages, with significant losses of income in farming, trade and fishing. Much of the Indonesian archipelago lies on the Pacific "ring of fire", an area prone to volcanic eruptions and earthquakes. At least 350 people died and 250,000 were displaced when Mount Merapi in central Java erupted in 2010.
TROPICAL STORMS -
In the Eastern Pacific -
Tropcial storm Henriette is located about 460 mi (740 km) SSE of Hilo, Hawaii. A weakening Henriette will pass several hundred miles south of the main Hawaiian islands on Sunday.
In the Western Pacific -
Typhoon Utor is located approximately 285 nm eastward of Manila, Philippines. While tracking over Luzon, Philippines terrain, frictional effects will weaken the system considerably. Once Utor re-emerges in the South China Sea, generally favorable conditions should allow for gradual re-intensification, with rapid dissipation after landfall over southern China.
NOAA affirms forecast of 'very active' hurricane season - Approaching the heart of hurricane season, government forecasters say indicators are pointing to a potentially "very active" pattern in the tropics.
12th Phillipine cyclone develops near Samar - Cyclone Utor was moving west northwest at a speed of 9 kilometers per hour. Tropical depression “Labuyo” [Utor] gained strength and turned into a storm on Saturday as it approached the country.
SEVERE RAIN STORMS, FLOODING, LANDSLIDES -
1 dead, 3 missing in Colorado mudslide, flash floods - Three people were unaccounted for in Manitou Springs, Colorado, after an inch and a half of rain caused flash floods, the town's police chief said Saturday. One of the missing is a petite blonde woman "seen near the creek hanging in a tree one minute and not seen the next." Two other men were also reported missing by a family member and a neighbor.
Floods tore through streets of the small city west of Colorado Springs, killing at least one person. It's one of several areas around the United States where heavy rains have caused fatal floods over the past week. The National Weather Service say more showers and thunderstorms are expected through the weekend in states ranging from the Pacific Northwest to the deep South. In Colorado, slow-moving, heavy rain could wreak even more havoc by way of flash flooding as it falls on saturated and unstable soils in the area plagued by last year's devastating Waldo Canyon wildfire.
Friday's death in Manitou Springs came amid a flash flood and mudslide that swept away cars and washed out parts of a state highway. The man's body was found beneath "significant amounts of debris" left on Colorado Highway 24.
Video of the mudslide showed cars sliding swiftly down an incline while others remained stranded in rushing, grey-colored water. Flash flood watches and warnings, as well as flood watches and warnings, were in effect for 12 U.S. states from Washington and Oregon to parts of coastal Georgia and South Carolina on Saturday. The most severe threats are in Missouri, Arkansas and Tennessee.
In Oklahoma, floodwaters swept away and killed a man who was trying to save his daughter from a stranded vehicle early Friday. The 60-year-old man was washed away by fast-moving floodwater that had rapidly appeared in Oklahoma City overnight. His daughter had been stuck in a vehicle surrounded by rapidly rising water.
In South Carolina, a man was found dead in floodwater on his family property Wednesday night near the town of Central. He was found outside his vehicle, which ended up about a mile downstream. At least two people were reported killed in Missouri this week, including a driver who was caught in rapidly rising water in McDonald County on Thursday. The woman, thought to be in her 60s, had been trying to drive over a bridge when the water overwhelmed her vehicle.
On Monday, a 4-year-old died after 6 inches of rain fell on Pulaski County, about 140 miles southwest of St. Louis. The boy was found in a vehicle swept up in floodwater that caught the community along Mitchell Creek off guard. A mudslide closed a highway and flash flooding stranded vehicles in high, fast-moving water Friday night as rain fell west of Colorado Springs.
EXTREME HEAT & DROUGHT / WILDFIRES -
California - Firefighters are making progress battling Southern California's latest destructive wildfire, which has burned 18,000 acres (7200 hectares), a figure that has nearly doubled since Thursday. 26 homes have burned and more than 500 others threatened in the San Jacinto Mountains.
Though Alaska and California saw an early start to their annual wildfire seasons this year, with major burns flaring up in May, experts said that fire activity has been average so far in 2013.
GLOBAL WEIRDNESS / CLIMATE CHANGE -
Water leaks at Fukushima nuclear plant could contaminate entire Pacific Ocean - Two and a half years after the Fukushima tragedy Japan does not want to admit how serious it is, but it is obvious the drastic environmental implications are to follow.
Japanese officials have admitted a leak at Fukushima has been happening for two years and is worse than earlier thought. "The Japanese authorities have been covering up the true depth of the disaster because they don’t want to embarrass themselves and the global nuclear industry and they are trying to open up another nuclear plant in Japan. When the Japanese people now find out that the accident is worse than we thought and they have been leaking many tons of radioactive water into the Pacific Ocean for almost two and a half years, this is a catastrophe.
Tokyo Electric has no idea how to control this accident. This is absolutely terrifying after two and a half years. To find out that these reactors have been out of control, now that they can’t control this they don’t know what’s going on. This is not a primitive backward country; this is Japan with advanced technology. It has very serious implications for nuclear power all over the world...
They don’t know what to do. This has never happened before. You have three explosions; you have four nuclear reactors that are severely compromised. No one ever planned for this. THIS IS AN APOCALYPTIC EVENT. This is something that could contaminate the entire Pacific Ocean. It is extremely serious. The reality is that Tokyo Electric does not know what is happening and does not know how to control what is going on. Our entire planet is at risk here. This is two and a half years after these explosions and they are still in the dark. It’s terrifying...
There is no medical or epidemiological or scientific basis for estimating how much damage this will cost. We are on entirely new ground here and this cannot go by without a serious impact on the entire human race. This is a terrible tragedy. The problem is that the company does not want to admit how serious this is and the government of Japan doesn’t want to admit how serious this is. And even if the government of Japan steps in, they don’t know what to do. This particular administration in Japan wants to open the other nuclear plants. 50 nuclear plants have been shut in Japan since the accident and they want to reopen them...
. It will never be cleaned up. We have materials there that are radioactive, that are harmful, and that are dangerous for hundreds of thousands of years. They can talk about cleaning it up in 40 years but it will never be cleaned up. You will never be able to go back on that site. The radioactivity will be in the waters forever...
There are serious health impacts. People will be harmed. We are seeing 40% rate of thyroid damage among children in the area and this is a huge impact and it will go up, not down. More and more radiation is escaping from the water and tritium into the atmosphere. And radiation to the thyroid is very serious, especially among small children and we are already seeing a 40% rate. People will be suffering for hundreds of years. I interviewed people in central Pennsylvania a year after the (3 Mile Island) accident and discovered tremendous health impacts among the people there. We know that Chernobyl did tremendous damage to people in Belarus and Ukraine and now we are going to see it again in Fukushima."
["RT news covers the major issues of our time for viewers wishing to question more and delivers stories often missed by the mainstream media to create news with an edge. RT provides an alternative perspective on major global events, and acquaints international audiences with the Russian viewpoint."]
Associated Press retracts bogus north pole lake photo - The Associated Press issued a formal retraction of a photo it published that claimed to show that a large lake had formed at the North Pole due to global warming.
