Temperature
Extremes
High
temperature extreme:
Atbara, Sudan 108 degrees.
Low temperature extreme:
Vostok (Russia), Antarctica -73 degrees.
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African
Wildlife Rescue
Rising
waters on Zimbabwe’s Lake Kariba have trapped thousands of
animals that are now being fed by a massive relief effort launched
by conservationists and farmers in the southern African nation.
The animals are facing starvation on islands that are shrinking
as the lake fills with water from the region’s unusually wet rainy
season. The high water levels have forced the wildlife back from
shoreline grazing into the treeline where there is no food. A series
of droughts in the 1980s caused the lake’s water levels to drop
dramatically and enabled the animals to cross easily from the mainland
to areas that were formerly islands. Farmers have donated more than
100 tons of food and transported it on their own trucks to the city
of Kariba. Volunteers are ferrying the supplies to the stranded
animals, mostly impalas, hippos, baboons and waterbuck.
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Sinking
Islands
A
group of islands in New Guinea is sinking into the Pacific
at the rate of 4-6 inches a year, and a team of government scientists
has recommended that their 20,000 residents be quickly relocated
to a larger island.
The Duke of York Islands are sinking not because of rising sea levels,
but due to seismic activity. In 1994, two volcanoes on opposite
sides of one of the islands erupted for four months. When the activity
ceased, evacuees moved back, but the regional news service Pacnews
now reports that further subsidence is forcing officials to move
the inhabitants to the Gazelle Peninsula on New Britain. Many buildings
on the islands are already under water.
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Indian
Ocean Drought
The
island republic of Mauritius is in the throes of its worst
drought in 95 years, forcing authorities to limit water use in the
capital city of Port Louis to no more than six hours a day.
The remaining 1.2 million residents of the Indian Ocean island will
receive water for one hour a day.
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Eruptions
Ecuadoran
armed forces were called in to enforce evacuations of communities
situated near two of the country’s most active volcanoes. Evacuations
from around Guagua Pichincha Volcano, six miles from the capital
city of Quito, were ordered due to the continuing rise in seismic
activity. The military was under instruction to use force if necessary
to keep residents from returning to their homes. The volcano triggered
more than 2,000 tremors and 20 minor explosions of rock and ash
during a single day.
Police
used tear gas to hold back hundreds of residents who tried to return
to their homes in the resort area of Banos in the evacuated zone
around Tungurahua Volcano 75 miles south of Quito. More than 25,000
residents were evacuated from the area on October 16. Authorities
said that an eruption of Tungurahua could engulf the entire city
within 10 minutes. A series of small explosions has spewed out incandescent
rocks three to five times every day.
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Cyclone
Aftermath
Disaster
relief teams worked feverishly to stave off the disease and starvation
that may follow in the wake of a disastrous cyclone that struck
India’s Bay of Bengal coast on October 29.
More than a million people were left stranded in the wake of cyclone
05B by floodwaters along the 120-mile stretch of the country’s ravaged
east coast. Estimates of the number of victims have fluctuated between
10,000 and 20,000, but witnesses reported that at least 8,000 had
been killed in the area of the port city of Paradeep where the storm
first made landfall.
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Earthquakes
One
man was killed and 25 other people injured when their homes in the
Peruvian province of Ayacucho were wrecked by a magnitude
4.0 earthquake.
There
were an undisclosed number of casualties and injuries in western
Iran when a magnitude 5.0 earthquake struck the city of Kazerun
in Fars Province.
Earth
movements were also felt in Taiwan, northern China,
South Australia and western Greece.
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Migration’s
End
More
than five million monarch butterflies have completed their annual
migration from the cold northern winters of Canada and the United
States to the warm winter climes of Mexico.
Another 180 million more are expected to join them soon in the sanctuaries
of the west-central state of Michoacan. Environmentalists said the
first butterflies arrived on October 23 in the fir forests where
they will spend the winter months. Scientists in the U.S. said that
conditions this year are perfect for the legendary black and orange
creatures. There is sufficient moisture to sustain their food supplies,
and few damaging thunderstorms predicted.
