March 13, 2015 - ANGOLA -
Floods in the Angolan capital, Luanda, have left at least nine people
dead and four others missing, state news agency Angop reported on
Sunday.
A government official was quoted by Angop as saying the
deaths were caused by destruction to houses during heavy rain on
Saturday. Some of the victims were children according to the official.
Most of the affected areas were in the outskirts of Luanda, including
in Kilamba Kiaxi, the site of a showcase public housing development with
thousands of apartments built by Chinese firms two years ago.
According
to Angop, hundreds of homes were submerged in the flood, causing
widespread material damage, with 500 houses affected in the Samba and
Coreia suburbs alone.
A road near Luanda's port had to be shut due to a landslide caused by the rains, Angop said.
Angola, Africa's No. 2 oil producer, is in the process of revamping
infrastructure that was destroyed by a 27-year civil war that ended in
2002.
The conflict led to the migration of thousands from the
interior of the country to the capital, for safety. As a result, Luanda
has an estimated population of 5 million people, many of whom live in
shanty towns called musseques. - TVC.
March 13, 2015 - NORTH AMERICA - A
section of Fifth Street East outside Cornwall Collegiate and Vocational
School collapsed late Wednesday night causing a giant sinkhole. A
sinkhole forced soldiers at Fort Campbell to take evasive maneuvers to
get around post.
Typically, fluctuating temperatures above and below freezing like
Cornwall has experienced the last couple of days is extremely hard on
water mains.
A Cornwall public works supervisor and roughly a
half dozen workers could be seen inspecting a large cavity under the
street before a backhoe with a jack hammer was brought in around 1:30
a.m.
Workers could be seen rerouting water in order to make
repairs and it's believed that water service in the area wasn't
affected.
A section of Fifth Street East from Sydney Street to Amelia Street was closed overnight to traffic.
A sinkhole forced soldiers at Fort Campbell to take evasive maneuvers to get around post.
The 20-by-20 hole opened up on Monday on the corner of Wickham Avenue and 101st Road Cole Park Commons.
Geologist Kallina Dunkle with Austin Peay State University believes the snow and ice followed by rain caused the sinkhole.
"Times when we tend to get more rain and especially this year with
getting the snow melt on top of the rain, it's going to be more likely,"
Dunkle said.
Dunkle said sinkholes are fairly common in
Tennessee, particularly in Clarksville where there is a lot of
limestone. Dozens of sinkholes have opened up on Austin Peay's campus
over the past decade.
WATCH: Sinkhole opens up at Fort Campbell.
"We can imagine where typically a series of caves or systems that might
be connected, and so when all that soil starts to get washed out into
the underlying system, you end up with a depression at the top," Dunkle
said.
Last spring, construction crews discovered a relatively
small sinkhole near Austin Peay's football field. The sinkhole expanded
and was nearly 60 feet deep.
Bill Persinger with Austin Peay said at no time was anyone or any building in danger.
Since sinkholes are so common on campus, support systems have been put in place under each structure to ensure its stability.
"Our Sundquist Science Building is actually our largest building on
campus," Persinger said. "It had issued there. And usually it boils down
to structuring the building right, getting the right size, putting
concrete in certain areas to make sure the building will stay there."
Engineers at Fort Campbell are looking at assessing the sinkhole there
this week to see how deep it is. They said it could take anywhere from
two weeks to several months to fill. - WSMV.
March 13, 2015 - PUEBLA, MEXICO
- Snow closed some roads yesterday in Michoacán, but today the wintry
conditions have moved to the State of Mexico and Puebla, closing the
Mexico City-Puebla freeway early this morning.
Officials closed
the highway about 4:30am between the San Marcos toll booth, on the
outskirts of the Federal District, to Río Frío in the State of Mexico,
near the Puebla border.
The Federal Highways and Bridges
Agency, Capufe, issued a warning via Twitter at 7:51 to urge drivers to
use alternate routes. The 5 de Mayo freeway has also been closed,
according to another report.
As many as 18,000 residents of the
communities of Río Frío, Llano Grande and Avila Camacho are reported to
have been cut off by the closure of the highway.
Yesterday,
Civil Protection officials in Michoacán described as very rare the sight
of snow on various hills in the municipalities of Paracho, Nahuatzén,
Cherán and Zacapu.
The Zacapu-Zamora highway was closed for a
while due to a heavy hailstorm at about 1:00pm, blanketing the road with
four centimeters of ice and causing at least four accidents.
Officials said that with the exception of the Pico de Tancítaro, with an
altitude of 3,485 meters, the sight of snow on five hills in the region
was uncommon.
The National Meteorological Service said the
center of the country is being affected by cold front #41, and the
combination of cold air and Pacific moisture are bringing about colder
temperatures, rain and snow.
March 13, 2015 - TURKEY - A rare cloud formation in western Turkey has gone viral on social media, dubbed "a portal to heaven."
A cloud over the Söke district of the Aydın provinceinitially appeared as a ring on the evening of March 10. As the sun began to set, the circumference of the ring grew larger and the lower rim of the cloud approached the horizon.
Söke resident Yasin Toköz filmed the moment and shared it on social media, which led some Twitter users toliken the natural formation to supernatural phenomena.
Pareidolia is a psychological phenomenon involving a vague and random
stimulus, often an image or sound, being perceived as significant. - Hurriyet Daily News.
March 13, 2015 - GUATEMALA - Two
of Guatemala's three active volcanoes have now rumbled to life,
officials said Wednesday, one day after the Santiaguito volcano began
belching smoke and showering nearby towns with ash.
Guatemala's Fuego volcano, in the southwest, over the past several
weeks has spewed adjacent towns with soot, forcing the temporary closure
last month of a neighboring airport.
Now the Santiaguito volcano in the west has awakened as well, emitting columns of ash 400 meters (1,300 feet) tall above its crater.
Santiaguito, whose peak soars to 2,500 meters above sea level, is located in western Quetzaltenango province.
The sleeping giant began to stir on Tuesday, but officials said that
thus far, they have not had to evacuate populated areas nearby.
The 3,700-meter tall Fuego — whose name means fire in English — last
month spewed out large columns of ash, prompting an orange alert and
forcing nearby residents to wear protective masks.
In 2012, several thousand people were evacuated from Fuego's slopes after an eruption.
Officials
said they are keeping an eye on Guatemala's third active volcano,
Pacaya, in the south. So far, there is no indication that it has been
roused from its slumber. - The Japan Times.
