Death In The Family

 Due to The Death of a Family Member No New Posts Will Appear Until the Bereavement Process is Over. 

I truly have no way of telling  how long that  will be.  I apologize, but under the  circumstances do not feel the inclination to write much less post more  news of  death and pain. 

Thank you for your time and attention.

Linda C.  /  Desert Rose

Quote from the Comfort Company

Composite created with image from the Comfort Company

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Condolences and Sympathy messages

Landslide swallows up the city of Shenzhen in southern China , entire buildings being gobbled up in seconds. 91 people missing.

   

Chilling footage shows Shenzhen landslide claim entire BLOCKS; 91 now missing in disaster (VIDEO)

Published time: 21 Dec, 2015 02:14Edited time: 21 Dec, 2015 08:50

© CCTV News / YouTube

A horrifying video of a landslide swallowing up the city of Shenzhen in southern China shows entire buildings being gobbled up in seconds. Meanwhile, the number of people missing has jumped to 91, China Central Television (CCTV) reports.

The disaster occurred in the Hengtaiyu industrial park in Shenzhen, Guangdong province, on Sunday morning, destroying a total of 22 buildings and causing a gas pipeline explosion. Shocking video footage from CCTV shows an entire multi-level building collapse in under five-seconds. At first, people are in disbelief, but are then seen running away from the landslide seeking safety.

China’s Ministry of Land & Resources has blamed the disaster on a collapse of piled-up construction waste and soil residue in the area, state media said. It also cited a local emergency office giving a sharply increased estimate of the number of people missing. The figure had previously stood at 59.

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The death toll from two storms which battered the Philippines rose to 45. Several towns remain under water and rainfall continues in northern regions,

 

Inquirer.net

Death toll rises to 45 in storm-hit PH

Agence France-Presse

05:41 PM December 20th, 2015

 

 

The death toll from two storms which battered the Philippines rose to 45 Sunday as several towns remained under water and rain kept falling in northern regions, disaster monitoring officials said. 

 

 

The rain was caused by a cold front, dragged into the country by Typhoon Nona (international name Melor) and Tropical Depression Onyok which hit the Philippines in succession last week. 

 

 

Floods almost three meters deep covered some riverside areas north of the capital Manila as heavy rain kept falling, civil defense offices said.

 

 “Our home has been flooded up to the waist. It has been flooded for over two days,” 

said Mary Jane Bautista, 35, in the industrial town of Calumpit 50 kilometers north of the capital. 

 

Her family and several others were forced to take refuge on nearby high ground — in front of a church where their only shelter is the awning over the entrance. 

 

 “My husband has to wade through the waters to go home to get supplies. If we need water, he has to go to the faucet in our kitchen,” she told AFP, expressing fears the current could wash him away. 

 

 

 

Read More Here

For the second time in two months, a rare deadly yellow bellied sea snake has washed ashore at one of southern California's most popular beaches.

Pelamis platurus, related to the cobra family (Elapidae)

Yellowbelly Sea Snake      Carpenter0     Wikipedia.org

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El Nino washes a SECOND posionous sea snake onto popular California beach which has not seen any for THIRTY YEARS

By Regina F. Graham For Dailymail.com and Evan Bleier For Dailymail.com

Published: 22:18 EST, 19 December 2015 | Updated: 03:17 EST, 20 December 2015 

For the second time in two months, a rare deadly sea snake has washed ashore at one of southern California's most popular beaches.

A dead 27-inch-long male yellow bellied sea snake was discovered last week during a coastal cleanup campaign by volunteers for the Surfrider Foundation in Huntington Beach, the Los Angeles Times reported.

In October, a two-foot-long yellow bellied sea snake was discovered slithering onto Silver Strand State Beach in Ventura County, but it died shortly after being taken to a US Fish and Wildlife Service office nearby.

The venomous sea serpent, known to scientists as Pelamis platura, was first spotted in 1972 during an El Niño in San Clemente.

Deadly: A dead 27-inch-long male yellow bellied sea snake (above) was discovered last week during a coastal cleanup campaign by the Surfrider Foundation

The latest yellow bellied sea snake discovered was found at the popular Huntington Beach in California (file photo above)

A descendant of Australian tiger snakes, experts believe the arrival of the sea snake is a harbinger of El Niño because the last time it appeared in California was during the weather system in the '80s.

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120 “cold-stunned” sea turtles wash up on the shores of Cape Cod Bay

The Boston Globe

Scores of rare turtles found stranded on Cape

Wellfleet Bay Wildlife Sanctuary

Rescuers placed cold-stunned turtles in fruit boxes.

By Reenat Sinay Globe Correspondent  December 21, 2015

 

 

Massachusetts Audubon Society volunteers recovered about 120 “cold-stunned” sea turtles during the weekend after strong winds caused them to wash up on the shores of Cape Cod Bay.

The majority of the reptiles found on the beaches of Wellfleet, Truro, Eastham, and Brewster were Kemp’s ridley sea turtles, a critically endangered species and the rarest type of sea turtle.

It was an unusually large late-season stranding for the turtles, who most often get stuck on Cape Cod shores around Thanksgiving as they try to make their way south to warmer waters for the winter.

Young sea turtles often feed in Cape Cod Bay during the summer but can get trapped in the “hook” of the Cape and become hypothermic as temperatures drop, according to Mass Audubon.

Despite their rarity, Kemp’s ridleys are the type of turtle most often found stranded on Massachusetts beaches.

Read More Here

New cases of highly pathogenic avian flu in poultry have recently been detected in south-western regions of France,

New bird flu outbreak: More than 60 farms in France infected

Published time: 22 Dec, 2015 16:38

 

© Luc Gnago / Reuters

 

 

New cases of highly pathogenic avian flu in poultry have recently been detected in south-western regions of France, forcing authorities to step up sanitary measures.

 

The total number of confirmed cases of contamination with the virus in France has risen to 61, according to a statement from the French Ministry of Agriculture. The statement was published on Tuesday.

infos140 @infos140

GRIPPE AVIAIRE 8 nouveaux foyers identifiés dans les Landes. 61 foyers désormais touchés dans le sud-ouest

6:45 AM - 22 Dec 2015

 

Special protection zones stretching for between 3 to 10 kilometers around the farms have been set up until the epidemic ceases, a decree published in the Official Journal said.
There is currently no evidence that the virus is transmitted to humans through birds’ eggs, meat or foie gras, the World Health Organization (WHO) and the European Centre for Disease and Control (ECDC) stated.

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Indonesia - 6.0 Magnitude Earthquake with 4.6 registered not long after , 12/20/2015

Indonesia 6.0 Magnitude EQ 12/20/2015

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2 earthquakes in map area

1. M 4.6 - 38km ESE of Sembakung, Indonesia

   2015-12-20 21:38:39 UTC 10.0 km

2. M 6.0 - 36km N of Tarakan, Indonesia

   2015-12-20 18:47:35 UTC 9.0 km

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• M 6.0 - 36km N of Tarakan, Indonesia

  2015-12-20 18:47:35 UTC 9.0 km

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NOAA's National Weather Service

Tsunami.gov

DOC > NOAA > NWS > Tsunami.gov

Current date and time is: Dec 21, 2015 01:59 UTC

No Tsunami Warnings, Advisories or Watches are in effect

 

 

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Borneo buffeted by strong, shallow M6.0 temblor but no tsunami threat: USGS

AFP-JIJI

 

• Dec 21, 2015

JAKARTA – A strong 6.0 magnitude earthquake struck Indonesia early on Monday, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) said, but no immediate damage or casualties were reported.

The quake, which was relatively shallow, struck the northeastern corner of Kalimantan on the Indonesian part of Borneo island, 34 km (21 miles) north of the coastal city of Tarakan, according to the USGS.

The agency reported the quake hitting at a depth of 22 km.

Indonesia’s tsunami warning center said there was no potential for the quake to trigger tsunami. There were also no immediate reports of damage.

Read More Here

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