By Steve Newman - June 11, 1999 - Click any icon

Flood Evacuations	Glacial Melt	Vampire Bat Attacks
Eruptions	Tropical Storm	Killer Bee Attack
Earthquakes	Yellowstone Suprise	Feline Intrusion

Flood Evacuations
Two million Chinese are being permanently moved from low-lying areas along the Yangtze River that are in danger of being flooded.

The flood season, which begins this month, is predicted to bring 30 per cent more rain than during normal years. Disaster officials warned earlier this year that the worst drought in a decade had made the earth too dry to absorb this summer’s returning rains — a condition that could make this season’s inundations much more severe. Floods along the Yangtze River and in northeast China last year killed more than 4,000 people.

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Glacial Melt
All 15,000 glaciers in the Himalayas are melting at an alarming rate, according to environmentalist Syed Iqbal Hasnain of the Jawaharlal Nehru University in New Delhi.

The melting glaciers could unleash a series of torrential floods in the mountain valleys of northern India during the next 40 years. Hasnain predicts the floods will be followed by water shortages because the rivers will eventually dry up without the glaciers as a source. Gangotri Glacier, which is the source of the Ganges, is retreating at a rate of about 100 feet a year.

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Vampire Bat Attacks
Fears of rabies have prompted authorities to issue quarantine alerts in northern Mexico after a flurry of 15 vampire bat attacks.

Earlier this year, a six-year-old child died from rabies after being bitten by one of the blood-sucking mammals. Three small towns in Chihuahua have been placed under a special watch. Disease prevention officials have warned inhabitants that it is particularly dangerous to walk at night near the woods and caves where the bats dwell.

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Eruptions
Nicaragua’s Telica Volcano resumed its rumblings with a fresh plume of smoke from its crater.

Civil defense officials said that preparations have been made to evacuate more than 9,000 residents if a violent eruption occurs. Telica is located 62 miles northwest of Managua and has been inactive for five years. Mount Cameroon Volcano threatened to erupt once again after being dormant for six weeks. Officials said an increased volume of magma is pouring out of the volcano, located 215 miles west of the Cameroon capital of Yaounde.

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Tropical Storm
Typhoon Maggie lashed the northern Philippines and southern Taiwan, swamping some coastal areas and disrupting transportation across the region. The storm later lost force as it blew ashore near Hong Kong.

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Earthquakes
One person was killed and 15 others injured when a magnitude 7.0 earthquake wrecked the town of Agaly in western Azerbaijan.

A magnitude 5.1 earthquake rocked the Philippine island of Mindanao, destroying 20 buildings. The tremor was centered near Bayugan, 500 miles southeast of Manila. Earth movements were also felt in northwest Iran, Cyprus and from southern Mexico to Nicaragua.

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Yellowstone Surprise
A parking lot in Wyoming’s Yellowstone National Park has its own tourist attraction — a new mud spring.

The spring developed in the lot, eating up several parking spaces and the adjoining sidewalk. The new spring surfaced last month when it began sending up steam through cracks in the pavement. Some of the park’s staff removed pieces of asphalt and discovered a gaping space that holds a bubbling pool of steaming mud five feet below the surface.

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Feline Intrusion
Surprisingly high levels of cat dander and dust mites have been found in the Antarctic, the Wellington Asthma Research Group reported.

The researchers stated that Antarctica has always been feline free. The mystery of how such substances made it to the remote region was solved when the scientists studied clothing and mattresses that belonged to workers at Scott Base on Ross Island, some of whom had cats at their homes in New Zealand. It’s believed that the imported mite can proliferate even in the harsh Antarctic environs.

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Additional Sources: Japan Meteorological Agency, U.S. Climate Analysis Center, U.S. Earthquake Information Center and the World Meteorological Organization.
Distributed by the Los Angeles Times Syndicate.