Wednesday, September 3, 2014

Global Disaster Watch - daily natural disaster updates.

**A man who lies to himself, and believes his own lies, becomes unable to recognize truth, either in himself or in anyone else, and he ends up losing respect for himself and for others. When he has no respect for anyone, he can no longer love, and in him, he yields to his impulses, indulges in the lowest form of pleasure, and behaves in the end like an animal in satisfying his vices. And it all comes from lying — to others and to yourself.**
- Dostoevsky


LARGEST QUAKES so far today -
6.0 EASTER ISLAND REGION
5.1 EASTER ISLAND REGION
5.1 SOLOMON ISLANDS
5.1 PHILIPPINE ISLANDS REGION
5.0 TONGA
5.1 CAYMAN ISLANDS REGION
5.8 SAMOA ISLANDS REGION
5.0 EASTERN HONSHU, JAPAN
5.4 ICELAND

Yesterday, 9/2/14 -
5.5 CENTRAL EAST PACIFIC RISE
5.3 KERMADEC ISLANDS REGION
5.0 SOUTH OF FIJI ISLANDS

9/1/14 -
5.2 NEAR COAST OF SOUTHERN PERU
5.0 SOUTH OF JAVA, INDONESIA
5.5 ICELAND
5.4 SOUTH OF TONGA

8/31/14 -
5.0 ICELAND
5.0 HINDU KUSH REGION, AFGHANISTAN
5.2 SOUTH GEORGIA ISLAND REGION
5.1 VANUATU

8/30/14 -
5.3 WEST CHILE RISE
5.3 NORTHERN MID-ATLANTIC RIDGE
5.4 ICELAND

8/29/14 -
5.0 IZU ISLANDS, JAPAN REGION
5.5 SOUTHEAST INDIAN RIDGE
5.0 NORTHWEST TERRITORIES, CANADA
5.3 BOUGAINVILLE REGION, P.N.G.
5.2 ICELAND
5.0 SOUTH OF KERMADEC ISLANDS
5.1 NEAR EAST COAST OF HONSHU, JAPAN
5.8 SOUTHERN GREECE

8/28/14 -
5.8 KYUSHU, JAPAN
5.1 GUATEMALA
5.4 ICELAND
5.4 KEPULAUAN BARAT DAYA, INDONESIA

California - Thousands of Bay Area apartment houses need a quake fix. Thousands of Bay Area apartment buildings with structurally weak first stories could collapse in a major earthquake, risking the lives of those who reside in them and leaving tens of thousands of families homeless.

VOLCANOES -
Iceland - Bardarbunga volcano continues dramatic lava eruption. The dramatic lava eruption that began early on Sunday near Iceland's Bardarbunga volcano continued into Monday. At the weekend, lava fountains more than 50m (165ft) high prompted the Met Office in Iceland to raise its ash warning for aviation to red, the highest level. Later, it reduced the alert from red to orange - the next level - saying the eruption was not creating (video)

Thousands In Guatemala Facing Evacuation As Pacaya Volcano Erupts. The Pacaya volcano began spewing ash and lava after a powerful explosion on Saturday afternoon. New explosions were seen on Sunday, with ash clouds reaching a height or at least 4km (3 miles).
Flights have been diverted from the area, some 50km (30 miles) south of the capital, Guatemala City. The Pacaya is one of three active volcanoes in the Central American nation. The other two are the Fuego and the Santa Maria. “We are assessing with the National Disaster Management Centre (Conred) whether we will need to evacuate the 3,000 people who live in the villages of El Rodeo and Patrocinio,” said the Pacaya National Park director. “Access to the areas around the volcano has been suspended."
The Guatemalan authorities have issued an amber alert, the third highest. It means people must remain alert and be prepared to leave the area at short notice.

TROPICAL STORMS -

* In the Atlantic Ocean -
Remnants of Tropical storm Dolly, located about 150 mi (240 km) SSE of La Pesca, Mexico. Dolly was expected to produce rainfall amounts of 5 to 10 inches with isolated maximum amounts of 15 inches across much of Tamaulipas and Nuevo Leon, as well as northern Veracruz and eastern San Luis Potosi, Mexico through Wednesday evening.

* In the Eastern Pacific -
Tropical storm Norbert is located about 230 mi (375 km) S of the southern tip of Baja California.
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The Atlantic's fourth named storm of 2014 - Tropical Storm Dolly - formed Tuesday morning in the Gulf of Mexico's Bay of Campeche. Radar loops out of Altamira, Mexico show Dolly's heavy thunderstorms were already beginning to move ashore over the coast of Mexico a few hundred miles south of the Texas border Tuesday morning, though the heaviest activity was still well offshore.
Satellite loops on Tuesday morning showed the classic appearance of a tropical storm struggling with wind shear - a low level circulation center partially exposed to view, with the heavy thunderstorms limited to one side (the south side) by strong upper-level winds. Sea Surface Temperatures were very warm, near 30°C (86°F), but dry air to the north of Dolly was being driven into the center of the storm's circulation by strong upper-level winds from the north-northwest, keeping development slow.
Dolly doesn't have long over water before it makes landfall on Wednesday morning, and likely will not have time to intensify into a hurricane, given the dry air to its north and continued moderate levels of wind shear expected to affect the storm. None of the Tuesday morning runs of the reliable hurricane intensity models showed Dolly becoming a hurricane.
Heavy rain is the main threat of the storm, and Dolly's rains will be capable of generating dangerous flash floods and mudslides over the mountainous terrain of Mexico near and to the south of the landfall location. The heavy rain threat will be less to the north of the landfall location, due to the presence of dry air.

SEVERE RAIN STORMS, FLOODING, LANDSLIDES -

Heavy rainfall across China has triggered floods and landslides, killing at least eight people and leaving 24 others missing. State television reported on Tuesday that at least 11 coal miners are also missing in Yunyang county, who were buried by a landslide a day before.
About 27 miners were in a four-story dormitory building when the landslide hit. Fifteen of them managed to escape, but the rest were buried in a mine shaft, where they had been taking shelter. One miner was rescued and sent to a local hospital where he remained in stable condition. More than 500 rescue workers, including firefighters and police, have evacuated 7,000 residents in nine rain-drenched townships in Yunyang county to safe locations.
In Yunyang alone, the state news agency estimated the economic losses at $11m. Torrential rain started to pound north-eastern parts of Chongqing on Sunday. Rainstorms also caused landslides and massive flooding in Wuxi and Fengjie county, disrupting traffic, and forcing thousands to flee their homes. More rain was expected to hit the region on Tuesday.

Alaska - More Rain for Fairbanks. After completing the WETTEST SUMMER ON RECORD, Fairbanks is getting started on some new records. A staggering 2.24" of rain has fallen since noon on Monday (September 1st). This already puts Fairbanks into the Top 10 for wettest September's on record and makes for the WETTEST 24 HOURS EVER in the month of September.
There have now been 4 days with at least 1" of rain from midnight to midnight this year. No other year has seen more than 3 days with 1"+ of precipitation on a calendar day. Since 1915, a total of 48 days have exceeded 1" of precipitation. If we drop the threshold down to 0.75", there have been 9 days in 2014. The next highest year is 1962 with 6 days at or above 0.75".
If you take the ten wettest days of 2014, it adds up (10.59") to just a shade under the normal annual precipitation total. No other year has seen as much as 9" when the 10 wettest days are added together.

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