Temperature
Extremes
High
temperature extreme:
Boulia, Queensland, Australia, +105 degrees.
Low temperature extreme:
Kyusyur, Siberia -67 degrees.
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Earthquakes
A
powerful magnitude 6.8 temblor struck the Philippine island
of Luzon for 30 seconds, killing at least five people and injuring
dozens of others. Police said that numerous buildings in Manila
suffered cracks and shattered glass.
More
than 2,000 members of a Philippine doomsday cult were forced
out of their hiding places in tunnels when a magnitude 4.8 earthquake
struck the province of Leyte. The followers of cult leader Ceferino
Qunito were apparently more afraid of the quake than the predicted
rain of fire from the sky at the dawn of the new millennium.
Earth
movements were also felt in northeast Japan, two points
in Turkey, Croatia, northeast Colombia, southern
Mexico, Vancouver Island, south-central Alaska,
Kodiak Island and the Southern California high desert.
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New
Rumblings
The
landscape of the Caribbean island of Montserrat has been
changed once again by the Soufriere Hills volcano as the mountain
begins developing a new lava dome.
The once-lush island has been covered in gray ash since the volcano
roared to life in 1995, causing 4,000 of Montserrat’s 11,000 residents
to flee. Vulcanologists reported that the lava dome is growing
in a crater left by a July 1998 eruption on the eastern flank
of the mountain. Scientists at the Montserrat Volcano Observatory
got their first view of the new dome in early December and say
that it has since been growing larger ever since.
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Tropical
Cyclones
Cyclone
John, the most powerful storm ever recorded in Australia,
lashed the country’s northwest coast, ripping up trees and tearing
roofs off homes before moving inland and dissipating over the
interior desert.
Cyclone
Ilsa was predicted to move ashore over the same general area over
the weekend with far weaker winds.
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Venezuelan
Inundations
At
least 37 people in northern Venezuela were killed when
mudslides triggered by torrential rains struck the region.
Many of the victims drowned in raging rivers when the downpours
inundated some valleys of Vargas state. Others were buried alive
by mudslides that engulfed their homes. Authorities feared that
the number of victims would rise even further as many disaster
relief workers had been unable to reach areas that were cut off
due to blocked highways. It is estimated that at least 4,000 homes
were destroyed in the flooding.
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Jellyfish
Blackout
Thousands
of jellyfish, accidentally sucked into the water intakes of major
power plants north of Manila, caused blackouts that lasted
for hours and affected more than 40 million residents of Luzon
Island.
Engineers rushed to provide backup supplies of electricity as
crews filled at least 50 dump trucks with the jellies pulled from
the seawater cooling pumps of the power plants’ generators. Rumors
abounded that the migration of the jellyfish into the intake facilities
was an omen of an impending deadly earthquake, or a military coup
in Manila. But officials discounted those speculations, saying
that the gathering of jellyfish was probably just a natural phenomenon.
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French
Spill
French
disaster crews deployed specialized seagoing equipment to combat
an oil slick that spread off the coast of Brittany after an oil
tanker split in half in severe weather and sank.
The slick reached 10 miles in length and nearly four miles in
width as it moved toward land on Wednesday. High winds in the
region drove the 12,000 tons of oil south toward the French and
Spanish coasts. Gilles Bentz, director of a clinic specializing
in treating oil-affected birds, reported that teams of volunteers
were on alert to care for oil-covered birds that reached the coast.
He said that, “... given the consistency of the fuel, which is
very viscous, I doubt many birds will get to the shore. More likely
they will get glued up and stuck in the slick.”
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Fight
to the Death
Two
people, scores of hyenas and two lions were left dead in a remote
clearing in eastern Ethiopia after a bloody battle between
the animals that lasted six days.
Government officials reported that the fighting began when a lioness
and her cub were devoured by a pack of hyenas. The pride of lions
and the pack of hyenas then pursued each other relentlessly. The
gruesome battle near the uninhabited area of Forest Hill, 300
miles east of the capital of Addis Ababa, raged on until at least
30 of the hyenas, two of the lions and two humans had died when
the revenge attacks finally ended. The government report did not
mention how the two human victims perished.
