Prophecy, Drought, Earthquakes, Famine, Pestilence, War, and Strange Weather.

[Shammu]

Moderate earthquake shakes southern Iran, 70 slightly hurt

TEHRAN, Iran A moderate earthquake has caused injuries and damage in Iran.
The magnitude five-point-two quake struck near Zarand, about 600 miles southeast of Tehran.

The governor of Zarand says more than 70 people were hurt, but most of the injuries were minor.

The governor says people panicked when the quake hit and poured into the streets. Some buildings were damaged, as were some roads.

Zarand was the scene of a devastating magnitude six-point-four-quake in February of 2005. At least 612 people were killed, more than 14-hundred injured and thousands left homeless.

Moderate earthquake shakes southern Iran, 70 slightly hurt

[Shammu]

China evacuates thousands as typhoon skirts coast
Sat Jul 8, 2006 10:19pm ET171

BEIJING (Reuters) - China evacuated more than 7,600 people from their homes near the eastern city of Ningbo as a typhoon skirted the coast on Sunday, heading for South Korea.

Evacuations were also under way in other cities of Zhejiang province, including Taizhou, Zhoushan and Wenzhou, Xinhua news agency said.

More than 8,000 ships had returned to harbor in Ningbo, south of Shanghai, and Zhoushan.

Typhoon Ewiniar was heading almost due north and was expected to make landfall on the Korean peninsula on Monday, the Hong Kong Observatory said on Saturday night.

China evacuates thousands as typhoon skirts coast

[Shammu]

Freak Hail Storm In Germany


Berlin - A storm that drenched parts of south-western Germany and brought hailstones as big as tennis balls killed one man and injured more than 100 people, police said on Thursday as a clean- up began.

In the Black Forest town of Villingen-Schwenningen, population 82,000, a teacher, Rolf-Juergen Look, stared sadly at his car, which had dozens of dents from the Wednesday evening hailstorm.

'It happened in just a few minutes,' he said. Holes were punched in the roof of his home too, and months of gardening was wasted, with all the young plants flattened. Area firefighters took 700 calls to pump out basements, patch roofs and clear roads of debris.

'We only bought our BMW three days ago and now it's a total write- off,' said another resident, Ingrid Huber, 50. 'And on top of that, I got hit on the head by the hail.'

The town hospital said it treated 120 people, mostly for bruises and cuts from lumps of ice.

A 66-year-old farmer who tried to herd his cattle into a shed in the nearby area of Haslach drowned when a peaceful stream became a torrent, sweeping away a trailer that hit him and held him under water.

The summer storm, attributed by meteorologists to sharp changes of temperature, caused millions of euros in damage. On Thursday, debris was being swept away, windows were re-glazed and other damage fixed.

The extremes were marked by a temperature reading of minus one degree Celsius at dawn Friday at a weather observatory on Germany's North Sea coast and reports of 40 degrees in the shade, just 1,200 kilometres away in Mostar, Bosnia-Herzegovina, this week.

Spots baked by the sun had reached temperatures of 60 degrees in Bosnia this week, according to the Sarajevo weather office, which said the previous seven days had been the hottest for a century.

[Shammu]

Sandton ice ball fell out of clear sky, says scientist

July 08, 2006 Edition 1

Karyn Maughan

The giant ice ball that fell from the Douglasdale sky has put the suburb on the meteorological map.

Research conducted by a Nasa- affiliated scientist suggests that the frozen object that plummeted from the clear sky last Friday morning was one of the first "megacryometeors" to be recorded in Africa.

And Professor Jesus Martinez-Frias, head of the Planetary Geology Laboratory at the Centro de Astrobiología in Madrid, has warned that the microwave oven-sized ice object could be a portent of "serious environmental problems".

Frias is an authority in the megacryometeor phenomenon, having written a number of research papers on possible reasons for its development. According to his research, falling ice balls have been recorded since the 19th century.

And, six years ago, a plague of falling ice balls caused extensive damage to cars and an industrial storage facility in the Iberian Peninsula.

Fortunately, Africa's first recorded ice ball was far less destructive, melting almost immediately after it shattered on its pavement landing area.

Frias agreed with security guard Sizwe Sofika, who witnessed the frozen object plummet from the sky, that the ice ball was not frozen human waste ejected from a plane.

Sofika and guard S'Wester Moya were sitting in a security booth outside the Fontana de la Vita complex when they saw a white object plunge from the sky.

The impact of the ice ball's fall created a small crater on the pavement, which was covered with pieces of broken ice.

"Megacryometeors are not the classical big hailstones, ice from aircraft (waste water or tank leakage), nor the simple result of icing processes at high altitudes," Frias said.

"The term 'megacryometeor' was recently coined to name large atmospheric ice conglomerations, which, despite sharing many textural, hydrochemical and isotopic features detected in large hailstones, are formed under clear-sky conditions," he said.

Sandton ice ball fell out of clear sky, says scientist

[Shammu]

Rains, flooding in Chile leave 11 dead

Wed Jul 12, 8:17 PM ET

SANTIAGO, Chile - Flooding and landslides triggered by heavy rain in central Chile left at least 11 people dead and forced 30,000 to flee their inundated homes Wednesday, the government said.

President Michelle Bachelet declared a state of emergency in the area, about 300 miles south of Santiago, because of massive flooding triggered by rain-swollen rivers, the Interior Ministry's National Emergency Office said.

Seven of the deaths occurred in a landslide in Chiguayante, where a family of four was buried along with three firefighters, the emergency office said.

A police officer remained missing after he and another officer were swept away by the Teno River on Tuesday night. The second officer was found clinging to branches 18 miles down river Wednesday.

Chilean power generators opened floodgates at major reservoirs because of the heavy rain that also washed out roads and cut electricity in isolated rural areas.

Rains, flooding in Chile leave 11 dead

[Shammu]

Tornado hits north of Manhattan
Winds damage store, close highway; no serious injuries reported

NEW YORK (CNN) -- A tornado struck about 20 miles north of New York City during rush hour Wednesday, causing heavy damage to a Westchester County store, the National Weather Service and a store spokesman said.

No one was seriously injured when the twister skipped along a highway and hit a California Closets store in Hawthorne, New York. A supervisor for the company said employees and shoppers got out of the building before the roof collapsed. Two people suffered minor injuries, the supervisor said.

Nearby, guests huddled in the lobby of a Comfort Inn as the tornado passed, causing minor damage to the building, a hotel employee said.

Mount Pleasant police said wind damage forced the closing of Saw Mill Parkway just as the afternoon rush hour was beginning.

Police also responded to reports of flash flooding, and trees and power lines knocked down by the high winds, according to a Westchester County spokeswoman.

The county opened its emergency operations center in response, she said.

Though rare, tornadoes have struck near New York City. Most recently, a tornado touched down on Staten Island on October 27, 2003, according to the New York City Office of Emergency Management. It uprooted trees and caused minor property damage. There were no injuries.

Tornado hits north of Manhattan

[Shammu]

Hundreds evacuated as Calif. fire rages

By CHRISTINA ALMEIDA, Associated Press Writer 25 minutes ago

YUCCA VALLEY, Calif. - Desert winds and blistering heat Wednesday challenged firefighters battling a 37,000-acre wildfire that destroyed buildings and forced hundreds of people to leave but spared historic structures in a town developed decades ago as a movie set for Westerns.
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Temperatures hit 108 degrees as 2,500 firefighters attacked flames devouring greasewood, Joshua trees, pinon pines and brush in hills and canyons of the high desert about 100 miles east of Los Angeles.

"It's burning vigorously in specific areas," said Capt. Marc DeRosier of the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection. Eight air tankers and 13 helicopters attacked from above. Containment was just 16 percent.

The fire, ignited during the weekend by lightning, had destroyed 30 homes and other buildings, DeRosier said. Damage assessment teams were working on a detailed count.

The fire was moving southwest as winds gusted to 40 mph, DeRosier said, and 800 to 1,000 people remained evacuated from Pioneertown, Burns Canyon, Rimrock, Gamma Gulch, Flamingo Heights and Little Morongo Canyon.

Officials worried that if the blaze continued to move toward the San Bernardino National Forest, it could grow rapidly, threatening the resort community of Big Bear Lake.

A bark beetle infestation has killed many trees in the area in recent years, which could provide the wildfire with substantial fuel.

"If it starts in there, it will be almost impossible to stop," said forestry department spokeswoman Karen Guillemin.

Smoke darkened the sky over the Mojave Desert north of the town of Yucca Valley.

Firefighters used picks and shovels against hotspots in the Pioneertown area, where the fire raged Tuesday. There was no damage to the historic area, which dates to the 1940s when Hollywood cowboys such as Roy Rogers and Russ "Lucky" Haden began establishing it as a filming site.

In Morongo Valley — where large ranch homes are surrounded by highly combustible greasewood, Joshua trees, pinion pines and fine brush — residents watched nervously.

"I want to see how bad it is and see if I need to pack up my pictures," said Tammy Taylor, who drove the family Jeep to the top of the canyon from their nearby home.

An evacuation center was set up at Yucca Valley High School, and horses and other livestock were taken to the town of Landers.

Elsewhere in the West, Montana firefighters were trying to control a blaze about 40 miles west of Billings that had destroyed at least four structures, including two homes, officials said.

Authorities urged residents of about 120 homes to leave because of the fire, which had burned more than 3,100 acres. No injuries were reported.

Hundreds evacuated as Calif. fire rages

[Soldier4Christ]

S. Calif. Wildfires Merge Into Big Blaze

Thousands of firefighters aided by aircraft worked Friday in fierce heat to keep two big wildfires from gaining a foothold in the heavily populated San Bernardino Mountains, where millions of trees killed by drought and bark beetles could provide explosive fuel.

The lightning-caused fires, covering more than 95 square miles combined, merged Friday afternoon. Wildfires can grow more unpredictable after merging, but in this case "there was no cataclysmic event," U.S. Forest Service spokesman Jim Wilkins said.

The larger of the two fires has destroyed 45 homes and 118 outbuildings and remained a potential threat to 1,500 homes, said Kristel Johnson of the U.S. Forest Service. The 53,000-acre blaze started a week ago on the Mojave Desert floor below the eastern flank of the San Bernardinos, and was 20 percent contained.

The smaller fire had burned 8,300 acres, mostly at higher elevations. Though heavy smoke continued to fill the sky Friday, wind was pushing that fire away from the mountaintop Big Bear resort region and onto areas already burned by the larger fire.

Several thousand people live in and around Big Bear Lake, which went through its last big scare in Southern California's onslaught of devastating wildfires in 2003.

"There's no danger to Big Bear residents, there's no imminent threat at this time," said Tracey Martinez, a San Bernardino County Fire Department spokeswoman. However, about 75 scattered homes and a fish hatchery remained in the fire's path.

Despite low humidity, steep, broken slopes and 105-degree temperatures, firefighting efforts were in "great shape," U.S. Forest Service spokesman Jim Wilkins said. About 2,700 firefighters and three dozen aircraft were fighting the blazes.

Still, fire did burn onto ridges with scattered trees, which went up like torches underneath heavy air tankers that dropped fire retardant.

Concerns about what would happen when the fires merged had focused on the possibility of an ultra-hot fire front that could create its own unpredictable winds, but a merger also can create firebreaks by quickly burning up brush in each fire's path.

"They're going to burn each other out in that area," Martinez predicted.

In Pioneertown, a former Western movie locale where the larger fire burned several homes this week, a 20-person search and rescue team headed out Friday to look for a 57-year-old man missing since Tuesday. The wife of Jerry Guthrie reported him missing.

Firefighters in southern Montana, mostly east of Billings, were battling a string of fires burning more than 140,000 acres, or more than 218 square miles. The estimate on the largest fire nearly tripled overnight, fire information officer Paula Rosenthal said.

More than 254 structures, including 125 homes, were threatened by the fires, and another blaze near Ashland destroyed at least four buildings. Firefighters were close Friday to containing a wildfire that destroyed five buildings earlier this week.

Meteorologists had bad news for firefighters in southern Montana and California's Mojave Desert and foothills: Both parched areas were expected to see weekend thunderstorms that could trigger more lightning-caused wildfires.

Other wildfires around the West included an 850-acre blaze that forced the closure of southern Nevada's Beaver Dam State Park since lightning started it late Tuesday. The park reopened Friday, and authorities said the blaze was 50 percent contained.

[Soldier4Christ]

First half of year was USA's warmest on record

The first half of the year was the warmest on record for the USA.

The government reported Friday that the average temperature for the 48 contiguous United States from January through June was 51.8°F, or 3.4°F above average for the 20th century.

That made it the warmest such period since recordkeeping began in 1895, the National Climatic Data Center reported.

No state was cooler than average and five states — Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas, Nebraska, and Missouri — experienced record warmth for the period.

While much of the Northeast experienced extreme rainfall and flooding at the end of June, many other areas continued below normal precipitation.

As of June, 45% of the contiguous U.S. was in moderate-to-extreme drought, an increase of 6% from May.

Dry conditions spawned more than 50,000 wildfires, burning more than 3 million acres in the continental USA, according to the National Interagency Fire Center.

Worldwide, it was the sixth-warmest year-to-date since record keeping began in 1880.

[Soldier4Christ]

Firefighters make progress in battle against huge California wildfires

Thousands of firefighters aided by aircraft worked Friday in fierce heat to keep two big wildfires from gaining a foothold in the heavily populated San Bernardino Mountains, where millions of trees killed by drought and bark beetles could provide explosive fuel.

The lightning-caused fires, covering more than 95 square miles, merged Friday.

Wildfires can grow more unpredictable after merging, but in this case "there was no cataclysmic event," U.S. Forest Service spokesman Jim Wilkins said.

The larger fire has destroyed 45 homes and 118 outbuildings and remained a potential threat to 1,500 homes, said Kristel Johnson of the U.S. Forest Service. The 53,000-acre blaze started a week ago on the Mojave Desert floor below the eastern flank of the San Bernardinos, and was 20 percent contained.

The smaller fire had burned 8,300 acres, mostly at higher elevations. While heavy smoke continued to fill the sky Friday, wind was pushing that fire away from the mountaintop Big Bear resort region and into areas burned by the larger fire.

Several thousand people live in and around Big Bear Lake, which went through its last big scare in Southern California's onslaught of devastating wildfires in 2003.

"There's no danger to Big Bear residents; there's no imminent threat at this time," said Tracey Martinez, a San Bernardino County Fire Department spokeswoman. However, about 75 scattered homes and a fish hatchery remained in the fire's path.

Despite low humidity, steep, broken slopes and 105-degree temperatures, firefighting efforts were in "great shape," Wilkins said. About 2,700 firefighters and three dozen aircraft were fighting the blazes.

Still, fire did burn onto ridges with scattered trees, which went up like torches underneath heavy air tankers that dropped fire retardant.

Meanwhile, firefighters in southern Montana, mostly east of Billings, were battling three fires totaling close to 150,000 acres, or more than 230 square miles. The estimate on the largest fire nearly tripled overnight, a fire information officer said.

More than 200 structures, more than 80 of them homes, were threatened by the fires, and another blaze near Ashland destroyed at least one house. Firefighters were close Friday to containing a wildfire that destroyed five buildings.

Meteorologists had bad news for firefighters in southern Montana and California's Mojave Desert: Both parched areas were expected to see weekend thunderstorms that could trigger more lightning-caused wildfires.

Other wildfires in the West included an 850-acre blaze that forced the closure Tuesday of southern Nevada's Beaver Dam State Park. The park reopened Friday, and authorities said the blaze was 50 percent contained.

[Soldier4Christ]

[Soldier4Christ]

Fires Unite but Veer From Big Bear
Resort towns in the San Bernardino Mountains appear to be safe -- for now, officials say.

YUCCA VALLEY — A massive wildfire heading directly toward Big Bear Lake was diverted Friday as nearly 3,000 firefighters, aided by a shift in winds, beat back the inferno in temperatures reaching 112 degrees.

Fire officials said there seemed little chance that flames would reach the resort community and other forest towns in the San Bernardino Mountains, which remained under an ominous shroud of gray smoke most of the day.

"With the winds and weather and the work being done by the firefighters, the probability of the fire reaching Big Bear is low," said Tracey Martinez, spokesman for the San Bernardino County Fire Department.

"But we are keeping a close eye on the fire and are prepared to respond wherever it goes."

By Friday afternoon, the 59,000-acre Sawtooth Complex fire combined with a second, 10,000-acre blaze that was barely half a mile away, a minor setback for fire officials.

They feared that the firestorm's blistering heat could affect weather patterns and cause the fire to behave erratically, although the combined blaze will allow for a streamlined firefighting effort.

"What it will do for us is we will have one fire and not have to fight on two fronts," said Becki Redwine of the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection.

The Sawtooth fire ignited after a lightning strike Sunday and has grown swiftly, sometimes consuming hundreds of acres of desert per hour. As many as 1,000 people were evacuated and 56 houses and 163 other buildings were destroyed. But firefighters had managed to dig lines around parts of the blaze, which was 35% contained.

Mandatory evacuations remained in effect Friday for Burns Canyon, Rimrock and a small area of Morongo Valley with about 20 homes, officials said. Evacuation orders were lifted for Pioneertown, Skyline Ranch, Pipes Canyon and Gamma Gulch.

The fire, which had been visible from Yucca Valley and Highway 62 in Morongo Valley, was burning away from major population centers. Firefighters supported by constant helicopter and air tanker sorties had largely extinguished flames in and around Pioneertown, which has seen the most destruction.

Many of the 341 residents returned to the historic Wild West themed-town Friday to check on their property.

Despite the massive destruction of fences, garages, landscaping and desert plants, most of the homes suffered little external damage. Many sat surrounded by desert and blackened Joshua trees.



Some weren't so fortunate. There were incinerated homes with nothing left but a spiral staircase, a birdcage, a wheelbarrow and, in one case, a rubber Ronald Reagan mask that somehow survived.

Scott Pasby and Ted Bigley came home expecting the worst but didn't find it. Not that there weren't problems.

Their back fence, the grape vines, the big brass elephants, the picnic table, the gazebo, the Jacuzzi and tiki bar were torched. But the house was unscathed.

"I feel very, very relieved and very, very happy. I got off pretty darn lightly," said Pasby, 47, an artist.

Firefighters hoped to dig a 30-mile fire line around the blaze, but their efforts have been hampered by strong winds and rugged terrain. So far, roughly 3,000 firefighters from all over the state are involved.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has declared San Bernardino County a disaster area.

The fires created air quality considered unhealthful in the Coachella Valley and portions of the San Bernardino Mountains. Officials with the Air Quality Management District urged people in those areas to exercise caution and avoid unnecessary outdoor activities.

With the fires stalled several miles to the east and south of Big Bear, firefighters in the San Bernardino Mountains went on the offensive Friday morning, cutting roads and clearing brush from rural homes and crucial communication towers atop Onyx Peak, about 15 miles east of the resort community.

However, U.S. Forest Service authorities called a halt to the work — and a plan to cut a fire break 12 miles long and two bulldozer blades wide — about 12:20 p.m. to avoid unnecessarily damaging wildlife habitat and archeological sites.

"We're starting to make some progress [on the fires] … so we don't want to build this contingency unless we have to — 'dozer lines leave some pretty ugly scars on the ground," said San Bernardino County Fire Department Battalion Chief Larry Busby, surveying curtains of smoke rising from the desert below the 9,100-foot-high peak.

cont'd

[Soldier4Christ]

At YMCA Camp Arbolado, just off Highway 38 south of Big Bear, about 180 children from the Orange County YMCA were enjoying their visit in the woods, but their camp manager was carrying a scanner to monitor the situation.

"We've been assured by fire officials that our camp is not in danger," said Bob Warnock, camp executive director. "It would take an almost unnatural act of nature for the fire to come to where we are."

Fire officials said they cannot estimate when the blaze will be fully contained, and said the fire could still march toward mountain forests and ignite vast stands of 100-foot-tall beetleravaged trees surrounding the Big Bear area.

The fire "remains dangerous and troublesome for us. There are no roads, and finding places to put hot shot crews is extremely complicated," said Battalion Chief Steve Seltzner of the U.S. Forest Service.

The 31,000-acre Big Morongo Canyon Preserve, just south of Twentynine Palms Highway, remained out of harm's way, said site manager Betty Zeller.

But the fire was less than a half a mile from Morongo Valley, a small community surrounded by mountains where firefighters were working a backfire they built in the eastern hills to protect homes along the mountainside.

"There's no access to the fire up in those areas [on the other side], so we have to wait for it to come down," said Mitch Villalpando, deputy fire chief for the Sycuan Fire Department of the Kumeyaay Nation in San Diego. "We kind of want to wait until the fire's almost down here and then send it right back to itself."

Randy Godfrey, a real estate agent whose home is just beneath the range that burned Thursday, said he had grabbed the guitars in his Morongo Valley house and scrambled to evacuate.

"This whole place looked like a giant volcano had exploded…. But the threat's gone now," said Godfrey, who was so confident his home was safe that he was on his way to see "Superman Returns" in 3-D.

But first, he was dropping off ice to two of his clients, Tom and Sharon McKinney of Pioneertown, who lost their Mediterranean-style home Tuesday and had found a place to stay in Morongo Valley.

Then they heard a knock on the door. It was sheriff's deputies — asking them once again to evacuate.

[Soldier4Christ]

 4,000 battle blazes in California



Nearly 4,000 firefighters worked in blistering temperatures yesterday to contain a huge complex of fires in rugged wilderness and keep them from threatening Californian desert and mountain communities.

The lightning-caused fires, covering about 108 square miles have now merged in craggy, brush-covered hills just north east of the mountains, where millions of trees killed by drought and bark beetles could provide explosive fuel.

When fires become intense enough, they can generate their own winds and become highly unpredictable. Officials were concerned that the unforgiving desert heat, erratic winds and rugged terrain will challenge firefighters. Fire heat rising into the atmosphere could produce dry lightning.

The larger of the two fires has destroyed 56 homes and 163 smaller buildings such as sheds, officials said.

The 59,000-acre blaze over about 92 square miles, began a week ago on the Mojave Desert floor below the eastern flank of the San Bernardinos, and was 35 per cent contained.

The smaller fire had burned 10,000 acres - roughly 16 square miles - and was for from contained.

Though heavy smoke filled the sky on Friday, wind was pushing that fire away from the mountaintop Big Bear resort region and back on to areas already burned by the larger fire. Thousands of people live in and around Big Bear Lake, a popular summer destination about 80 miles east of Los Angeles.

Despite low humidity, steep, broken slopes and 40C temperatures, US Forest Service spokesman Jim Wilkins said that firefighting efforts were in "great shape". About 2,900 firefighters and three dozen aircraft were battling the blazes.

In Pioneertown, a former Western movie locale where the larger fire burned several homes this week, a search and rescue team found a body about a mile away from the home of a 57-year-old man who was reported missing on Tuesday after a fire swept through the area

A 500-acre blaze which began on Friday night near the city of San Bernardino, California, threatened about 100 homes and was said to be only 20 per cent under control.

Meanwhile, in southern Montana, firefighters mostly to the east of Billings were battling four large fires that charred tens of thousands of acres on Friday evening.

The fires threatened hundreds of homes, officials said.

[Shammu]

Ecuador volcano spews rocks, villages evacuated
Fri Jul 14, 2006 11:09pm ET164


QUITO, Ecuador (Reuters) - Ecuador's Tungurahua volcano spewed ash, gases and molten rocks on Friday, forcing authorities to evacuate four nearby villages after the crater registered its most volatile activity since a 1999 eruption.

Tungurahua, located about 81 miles south of Quito, has been increasingly active since May when it shot out large clouds of hot gas and prompted officials to renew a limited state of emergency in nearby towns.

Civil defense authorities ordered evacuations in four small villages in the areas surrounding the volcano, whose name means "throat of fire" in local indigenous Quichua language.

It is one of the eight active volcanoes in Ecuador.

"The volcano has been active for some time, but this is an eruption that goes beyond the sustained and moderate... and has become an eruption of much more energy," said Hugo Yepez, director of a local geophysics institute.

Local television stations showed images of molten rocks blasting from the crater while radio reported ash raining down on the Andean provinces of Tungurahua and Chimborazo.

Authorities have not yet declared a red alert, which would trigger a forced evacuation of all neighboring areas, one official said.

The volcano's crater is little over a mile south of the tourist town of Banos whose 17,000 residents were forced to evacuate in 1999 after loud explosions and huge plumes of ash billowed out of the volcano.

Emergency centers were set up in Banos to receive any residents fleeing from nearby villages.

Ecuador volcano spews rocks, villages evacuated