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AFP: Seven old buses that once shuttled commuters around Chile's capital Santiago have found a new life as makeshift classrooms in this quake-devastated coastal city.
Friday, April 30, 2010
Tuesday, April 27, 2010
Italy's Biggest Public Safety Problem:"Mount Vesuvius"
An aerial view taken from a helicopter windows shows the crater of the Mt Vesuvius volcano
An aerial view of Torre del Greco, one of the villages inside the "red zone" near the mount Vesuvius volcano, is seen near the Italian city of Naples in 2009. If and when Mount Vesuvius wakes up from its long slumber, it will threaten more than a million people, Italy's public safety chief said Tuesday.
"Vesuvius is the biggest public safety problem there is in Italy, because entire towns lie in the area of the volcano and would be invaded by an eruption," Guido Bertolaso said.
SOURCE
"Vesuvius is the biggest public safety problem there is in Italy, because entire towns lie in the area of the volcano and would be invaded by an eruption," Guido Bertolaso said.
SOURCE
Iceland's main airport reopening after ash closure
LONDON – Iceland's main international airport is reopening after a three-day closure due to ash from an erupting volcano.Keflavik Airport shut Friday after easterly winds began blowing ash from the Eyjafjallajokull (ay-yah-FYAH-lah-yer-kuhl) volcano toward the capital, Reykjavik.
The airport reopened Monday.
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CHINA QUAKE UPDATE
--China pledges to repair quake-damaged monasteries --In China, Aid Groups Still Hard at Work after Three Earthquakes
-- Past Disasters Offer Lessons...
--Rare rescues as China quake toll passes 2,000
--Flood of aid reaches China's remote quake zone
--China's Hu comforts quake victims on scripted trip
--Young China quake survivor survived by sleeping in
--Dalai Lama Asks China to Let Him Visit Quake-Hit Region
Lightning electrifies volcano ash
The Eyjafjallajokull (ay-yah-FYAH-lah-yer-kuhl) volcano continues to produce spectacular visual effects. Photographers have captured images of lightning, seemingly erupting directly from the volcano. The bolts may look like Hollywood special effects, but they're very much the real deal. No CGI required. But as LiveScience reports, they're also still a "bit of a mystery"...ICELAND VOLCANO CRISIS UPDATE
--After Crisis, European Union To Reform Air Control System --Cruise ship sets sail for UK with ash cloud tourists
--Ash cloud puts lives of bone marrow patients at risk
--Online conferencing takes off as volcano grounds planes
--Green groups point to ash cloud silver lining
--Airlines lose $1.7 billion, ash blame game begins
--European skies open but airline schedules scrambled
--European Airports Reopen Amid Safety Debate
--Volcanic Ash: Air Passengers Warned Of Further Delays As New Ash Cloud Spreads Towards UK
--How Long Will Iceland's Volcano Keep Planes Grounded?
--Ash cloud could hit Canadian coast Monday: forecasters
--Airline losses from ash spiral over $1 billion
--Volcano flight chaos leaves many passengers broke
--UK sends warships to rescue stranded Britons
-- Volcano halts toddler transplant....
--Discovery Readies Return To Earth Unhampered By Ash Cloud
--EU Says Half of Normal Flights May Run Monday
--Should planes fly in Iceland volcano ash? Be careful, study says
--Obama Cancels Trip to Attend Funeral of Poland's President
--A glance at flight disruptions due to volcanic ash
Thursday, April 22, 2010
Volcanic climate change? Not likely, say experts
Watching the enormous plumes of dust and ash rising from Eyjafjallajokull, it is hard to imagine that this almost week-long eruption would not have any effect on weather and climate.But that is the likelihood; that the impact on Britons, Europeans and the citizens of the wider world will be limited to cancelled flights, with no other effects on the skies.
Volcanoes produce tiny particles - aerosols - which have a net cooling effect on the world because they reflect solar energy back into space.
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Toxic ash threatens Iceland animals
Farmers in southern Iceland have been racing to protect their animals from being poisoned by volcanic dust.The animals are at risk of fluoride poisoning if they inhale or ingest the ash, leading to internal bleeding, long-term bone damage and teeth loss.Sheep, cattle and horses were rushed to shelter after they got lost in a fog of ash in areas near an erupting volcano.Areas south of the Eyjafjallajoekull volcano have been caked in a layer of grey ash some 10cm (four inches) thick.Ponds have turned into pools of cement-like mud and geese have had trouble flying because their wings are heavy with ash, media reports say.READ MORE
Recriminations grow over airline costs
The international airline association has criticised Europe's governments for the way they closed airspace because of volcanic ash from Iceland.IATA chief Giovanni Bisignani told the BBC: "This is a European embarrassment and... a European mess."The crisis, now in its fifth day, has affected millions of passengers.Britain sent three Royal Navy ships to bring home stranded nationals. British Airways' boss said test flights showed EU flight curbs were unnecessary.READ MORE
Volcanic flight ban hits Kenya farm workers
Thousands of farm workers in Kenya have been temporarily laid off because of the volcanic ash over Europe that has grounded flights.The BBC's Will Ross in Kenya says they have been sent home as harvesting of flowers and vegetables has had to stop.Agriculture is the East Africa nation's largest export sector, employing hundreds of thousands of people.The head of the Kenya Flower Council has told the BBC that 3,000 tonnes of flowers have already been discarded....
Tuesday, April 20, 2010
Raw Video: New Images of Volcanic Ash Cloud
A cloud of ash rising from a volcano in Iceland has shut down most European airports for a fifth day. Britain has sent Royal Navy warships to rescue those stranded across the Channel.
Raw Video: China Quake Survivors Rescued
Rescuers pulled out a four-year-old girl and a Tibetan woman alive from the rubble of an earthquake more than five days after they were trapped...
Few European Airports Reopen to Limited Traffic
AMSTERDAM-Some European airports were reopening to limited traffic Monday after volcanic ash forced their closures, a day after the European Union said that if weather forecasts confirm the skies are clearing, air traffic over the continent could return to about 50 percent of normal levels.Austrian authorities said they had reopened the country's airspace, though many flights remain canceled, and Stockholm's Arlanda Airport was reopening for limited air traffic after the country's aviation authority lifted airspace restrictions over a large part of the country. Most flights were still canceled.Finland opened its Tampere and Turku airports but kept its main airport in Helsinki shut, and most Norwegian airspace had reopened starting Sunday evening, allowing mostly domestic flights to resume at Oslo's Gardermoen airport.The prospects for a return to normal air travel remained far from clear, however. Authorities in Germany, Britain and the Netherlands said air space was still closed.Several major airlines safely tested the skies with weekend flights that did not carry passengers. Germany temporarily loosened some airspace restrictions before the EU announcement Sunday evening, allowing limited operations from some of its largest airports before closing them again Sunday evening.Other countries enforced closures on their national airspace through late Sunday, Monday or even Tuesday as meteorologists warned that the airborne ash was still unpredictable and potentially dangerous....READ MORE
Picture Left:April 18: Passengers wait to check in at British Airways to try and catch flights to Europe at O'Hare International Airport in Chicago.
Stranded Passengers Running Out of Patience
Austrian authorities have reopened the country's airspace after volcanic ash forced its closure. But it still leaves millions of passengers worldwide stuck because of the on-going cancellations...
Airlines Push to Resume Flights After Ash Tests
Airlines in Europe safely flew aircraft without passengers through a window in the cloud of volcanic ash Sunday, testing the prospects for an end to the total ban on commercial air traffic that has paralyzed travel across the continent...
Dalai Lama Asks China to Let Him Visit Quake-Hit Region
The Dalai Lama appealed to Beijing on Saturday to allow him to visit the province in China where he was born to comfort the victims of a deadly earthquake."To fulfill the wishes of many of the people there, I am eager to go there myself to offer them comfort," the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader said in a statement issued from Dharamshala, his home in exile in northern India.The Buddhist monk added that the remote western Qinghai province, where the quake struck Wednesday, killing at least 1,339 people and injuring nearly 12,000 others, also "happens to be where" he was born."Because of the physical distance between us, at present I am unable to comfort those directly affected, but I would like them to know I am praying for them," he said....
Raw Video: Hu Visits China Quake Victims
Chinese President Hu Jintao flew to the remote, mountainous Tibetan region devastated by an earthquake as the flow of rescue supplies picked up pace on Sunday.
Young China quake survivor survived by sleeping in
JIEGU, China – Her roommates used to call her a "lazy pig" for trying to sleep in before class. But it was Song Yuhuan's slowness to get out of bed that saved her life — the girls who rushed from their dorm were crushed by the walls collapsing in an earthquake that leveled their town and left 1,484 dead.Song was trapped briefly by Wednesday morning's quake, a leg and arm pinned under a wall of the third-floor room. Instead of panicking, she felt a steely calm as the others around her screamed."Stop screaming," she told them, "and I'll get out first and then I'll help you." An aftershock a few minutes later allowed her to slip free.But three of her seven roommates died, and a fourth was still missing. Officials say more than 40 of her classmates at the Minorities Vocational School died, and at least 103 students in this remote Tibetan corner of western China were killed....'No End in Sight' to Ash as Flight Chaos Deepens
PARIS-The Icelandic volcano that has kept much of Europe land-bound is far from finished spitting out its grit, and offered up new mini-eruptions Saturday that raise concerns about longer-term damage to world air travel and trade.Facing days to come under the volcano's unpredictable, ashy plume, Europeans are looking at temporary airport layoffs and getting creative with flight patterns to try to weather this extraordinary event.Modern Europe has never seen such a travel disruption. Air space across a swath from Britain to Ukraine was closed and set to stay that way until Sunday or Monday in some countries, affecting airports from New Zealand to San Francisco. Millions of passengers have had plans foiled or delayed.Activity in the volcano at the heart of this increased early Saturday, and showed no sign of abating."There doesn't seem to be an end in sight," Icelandic geologist Magnus Tumi Gudmundsson told The Associated Press on Saturday. "The activity has been quite vigorous overnight, causing the eruption column to grow." 26 European Countries Close Parts of Airspace
At least 26 countries in Europe closed parts of their airspace, leaving would-be travelers stranded across the globe Saturday as scientists warned that volcanic ash from Iceland could continue drifting across northern Europe for days to come."The ash will continue to be directed towards Britain and Scandinavia," Teitur Arason, a meteorologist at the Icelandic Meteorological Office, told AFP."That's the general situation for the coming days ... more or less for the next two days, or maybe the next four or five days." Just 10,400 of Friday's usual 28,000 flights in European airspace took off-and only 6,000 were approved for Saturday, out of 22,000-said EUROCONTROL, the European airspace authority."In some ... areas the upper airspace has been made available, depending on the observed and forecasted area of ash contamination. However, it is difficult to access this airspace as in most cases the surrounding area is not available for flights," it said...
Picture Left:Lightning streaks across the sky as lava flows from a volcano in Eyjafjallajokul April 17, 2010.(REUTERS/Lucas Jackson)
Monday, April 19, 2010
Hollywood vs.The Volcano: Ash disrupts celebs...
LOS ANGELES – A volcanic cloud of ash hovering over Europe is causing quite a scene in Hollywood and beyond.The ash spat out by an Icelandic volcano that has left thousands of air travelers stranded is also affecting celebrities, filmmakers, musicians and even pro-wrestlers.With almost two-thirds of Europe's flights grounded, cancelations and postponements were popping up across the entertainment landscape on Saturday as Icelandic scientists warned that volcanic activity had increased and showed no sign of abating.Organizers of the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival in Indio, Calif., tweeted that some acts were forced to pull out of the weekend event...READ MORE
Rail, Ferry Prices Double, but Companies Deny Profiting From Travel Chaos
Travel companies have denied profiteering from the volcanic dust cloud as stranded holidaymakers face paying premium fares to get home after the Easter break, The Times reported Saturday. Channel ferry firms and Eurostar trains were fully booked this weekend as the Eyjafjallajökull volcano in Iceland continued to pump ash into the atmosphere and aircraft were grounded across Northern Europe.Europe's three biggest airports-London Heathrow, Paris-Charles de Gaulle and Frankfurt-were closed. In total at least 19 countries in Europe have been forced to shut down all or most of their airspace.As travelers sought alternatives, P&O Ferries reported a 40 percent increase in bookings across the Channel. Prices for foot passengers increased from $93 for a return to more than $231 over the weekend.READ MORE
Sports hit by volcanic ash travel chaos
Formula One to badminton, football to MotoGP - the travel chaos triggered by the cloud of volcanic ash which has grounded the bulk of Europe's airfleet has hit sporting events around the globe. Australia's Fed Cup squad including Samantha Stosur and Alicia Molik are due in Ukraine this week for a World Group playoff tie.However, Stosur, who claimed her second career title in the Family Circle Cup in South Carolina on Monday, may struggle to get a flight to Europe in time.Cricket Australia is considering changing its travel plans for the world Twenty20 championships, as the squad is scheduled to travel to the Caribbean via Europe.READ MORE
New Iceland ash cloud heads for Britain
The eruption of a volcano in Iceland has strengthened sending a new ash cloud towards Britain, air authorities say, creating uncertainty about the reopening of airspace.The National Air Traffic Services (NATS), which manages British airspace, said on Monday the situation was worsening and it was now in doubt that all areas they wanted to make available to flights from Tuesday would be opened."The volcano eruption in Iceland has strengthened and a new ash cloud is spreading south and east towards the UK," said the air traffic controllers."Latest information from the Met Office (weather forecasting service) shows that the situation is worsening in some areas," said NATS in a statement.
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Lightning flashes over Eyjafjallajokull volcano
Volcanic eruptions are lit by lightning on the Eyjafjallajokull glacier on April 18, 2010 near Eyjafjallajokull, Iceland.SOURCE
Earthquake rattles Western Australia:Children flee as quake hits Kalgoorlie
Hundreds of school children were evacuated from classrooms after a 5.0-magnitude earthquake hit the West Australian Goldfields city of Kalgoorlie-Boulder this morning.Geoscience Australia says the earthquake hit one to two kilometres south of the Kalgoorlie city centre in Boulder about 8:20am. A police spokeswoman said there were no serious injuries and only one report of a slight injury.Emergency services are warning locals to expect aftershocks and look out for falling debris. People who need help can call the SES on 132 500.
FESA said the quake - the strongest ever recorded in the area - mainly affected Boulder and five or six hotels on Burt Street, including the Roc Hotel and the Golden Eagle, which have been damaged.
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China quake death toll climbs to more than 2,000
BEIJING-The official death toll from an earthquake on China's remote Tibetan plateau has climbed to 2,039, state media said on Tuesday.Another 195 people are still listed as missing following the quake, which struck Yushu county in the western province of Qinghai last Wednesday, the official Xinhua news agency said.
Ice cap thaw may awaken Icelandic volcanoes
OSLO-A thaw of Iceland's ice caps in coming decades caused by climate change may trigger more volcanic eruptions by removing a vast weight and freeing magma from deep below ground, scientists said on Friday.They said there was no sign that the current eruption from below the Eyjafjallajokull glacier that has paralysed flights over northern Europe was linked to global warming. The glacier is too small and light to affect local geology."Our work suggests that eventually there will be either somewhat larger eruptions or more frequent eruptions in Iceland in coming decades," said Freysteinn Sigmundsson, a vulcanologist at the University of Iceland."Global warming melts ice and this can influence magmatic systems," he told Reuters. The end of the Ice Age 10,000 years ago coincided with a surge in volcanic activity in Iceland, apparently because huge ice caps thinned and the land rose."We believe the reduction of ice has not been important in triggering this latest eruption," he said of Eyjafjallajokull. "The eruption is happening under a relatively small ice cap."
PS:They(the globalists and his minions)keep trying to push this global warming hoax again...Excuse me..."climate change"...They are just there waiting for something big weather related to happen in the world somewhere to blame it on global warming and try to spin that up again....
Well...a muslim cleric came with a reason for earthquakes too today...so I guess everybody has their own opinions....
As in the days of Noah...
Dubai's businessmen itching to get back to the UAE
Being stranded in a foreign country away from one's loved ones for an indefinite period of time due to unforeseen circumstances is bad enough, but it becomes worse if you have a 10-month-old baby waiting for you to return home, if you have to spend your birthday alone or have to miss a wedding anniversary.Emirates Business spoke to some residents of Dubai stranded in different parts of the world due to the volcanic ash cloud that shows no sign of abating to find out how they are dealing with this forced separation from home and family.Prabissh Thomas, Managing Director, PTL Solar, who is stuck in Frankfurt, said: "I came here on April 11 for the Light and Building Exhibition and was due to return home on the 15th. However, my flight got cancelled and I am stuck here for the past three days."I want to go back to Dubai before the 21st as it is my eighth wedding anniversary and I don't want to miss that. Also I have three small children aged between three and one and I miss them. I talk to them on the phone everyday and also see them via webcam, but that is not enough. I really miss them and my wife." 17 flights out of Changi Airport cancelled on Monday
SINGAPORE: Seventeen flights out of Changi Airport, mostly to destinations in Europe, were cancelled on Monday.This is due to the continuing closure of most of the airspace over Europe caused by ash clouds from a volcano in Iceland.Changi Airport Group said four flights due to depart for European destinations on Tuesday have also been cancelled. According to its website, Singapore Airlines is only operating two flights to Europe on Monday.SQ348 to Athens departed in the early morning.The flight to Singapore from Athens, SQ347, departed at 6.15pm Singapore time. European officials hope to significantly increase flights later on Monday.READ MORE
Emirates loses $50m in income to volcanic ash
Emirates has so far incurred a total loss of $50 million (Dh183.5m) in revenues as a result of the flights disruptions caused by volcanic ash cloud from Iceland's Eyjafjoell volcano that erupted on Wednesday last week."For Emirates, it has been a $50m loss of income so far over a period of five days by the way of losing $10m a day. In addition, we have lost another $5m (per day loss of $1m) in terms of accommodating the stranded passengers in Dubai hotels," Tim Clark, President, Emirates airline, told Emirates Business. "These are losses which are coming straight out of our own pocket." The airline said it is providing accommodation for approximately 6,000 passengers who were in transit when the disruption began, and that, to date, over 80,000 passengers have been impacted by the ongoing disruption. Clark added that the airline has cancelled operations to all its UK and European routes due to the ongoing issue with the "exception of some".British airspace lockdown sparks food supply concern:A 'handful' of lines have already been affected
British supermarkets could start running short on some imported goods such as certain fruit and vegetables if the island's airspace remains closed into next week, a trade body warned.Christopher Snelling, head of global supply chain policy for the Freight Transport Association, warned that some items, could soon be in reduced supply if the volcanic ash cloud remained over Britain."There are no shortages yet, but we may start to see certain ranges affected if this carries on...," said Snelling."The longer that UK airspace is closed, the greater the damage, not just to businesses here but also for farmers in the developing countries who rely on exporting their produce to Europe. Their livelihoods are in serious jeopardy."
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Thousands stranded in Asia due to Iceland volcano
SYDNEY – Several thousand air passengers were stranded in Asia for a second day Saturday as flights were grounded because of a massive cloud of ash from an Icelandic volcano that paralyzed European airports.At least 45 flights between Europe and Asia were cancelled Saturday, with the number expected to rise to surpass the previous day's 60 cancellations.Officials don't known when the skies in Europe, one of aviation's most congested areas, will be safe again. Volcanic ash limits visibility and is capable of knocking out jet engines. It could be more than a week before the chaos is sorted out, warned David Epstein, corporate affairs manager for Qantas, Australia's largest airline.Qantas said its five flights that normally would go from Australia to Europe via Asian cities were flying Saturday — but only as far as the Asian stops."It's best to put safety before schedule, and where there's any question of volcanic ash being in the air we would prefer to take the safe approach rather than risk it to get flights in," Epstein told reporters in Melbourne.At Beijing's international airport, most of the flights to Europe leaving Saturday had been called off, including ones to London, Paris, Rome, Frankfort and Copenhagen.In Hong Kong, at least one airline, Cathay Pacific, was already canceling some Europe-bound flights for Sunday.A dozen passengers from South Korea's Incheon International Airport were grounded Saturday, said airport staffer Jeon Ji-ye...Governing Norway on an IPad...???
Norwegian Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg, stranded in New York City due to an erupting volcano, has been governing the country entirely from an iPad.Stoltenberg, who was in town for President Obama's nuclear summit, was due to return to his country Thursday. But thousands of flights to northern Europe were cancelled because of volcanic ash from the exploding Eyjafjallajokull volcano.His solution? Stoltenberg pulled out the iPad he's presumably just bought and has started to govern his country with it."Due to the delays, I'll be working from New York," Norwegian newspapers reported the president as saying.READ MORE
Picture Left:A photo taken by the Prime Minister's office, shows Jens Stoltenberg managing the country from New York via his new iPad.(Flicker)
Volcano forces US army to reroute medical flights
WASHINGTON-US commanders have suspended medical evacuations of wounded soldiers to a military hospital in Germany due to the volcanic ash clouding European skies, the Pentagon said Friday. Soldiers seriously wounded in the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq are usually flown to Ramstein Air Base in Germany to be treated at the nearby Landstuhl medical center, the largest American military hospital outside the United States.But the volcano in Iceland has spewed clouds of ash over Europe, grounding thousands flights in the continent's biggest air travel shutdown since World War II.The US medical flights will instead head to Andrews Air Force base outside Washington, after flying across southern Europe -- which was still clear of ash, Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman told reporters."So we're making adjustments as necessary," he said, adding there had been no delays in medical evacuations.The military planes would either refuel in mid-air or at US bases in Italy, officials said.READ MORE
Volcano-stranded Europeans seek alternate routes...
BANGKOK-Frustrated European travelers stranded overseas struggled to find alternate routes home, desperate for information on flights into the continent's few airports not closed by a dangerous cloud of ash from an Icelandic volcano.Flights into Rome, Athens and Madrid became the new hot ticket at many international airports Sunday — but after three days of travel disruptions, the backlog of passengers meant many faced waiting lists of days, even weeks."We'll take any flight to Europe," said Dirk Maertens, 52, slumped against a railing at Bangkok's international airport alongside his wife and 16-year-old son.The Maertens slept on plastic seats at the airport Saturday night after their flight home to Belgium was canceled. They planned to camp out again Sunday on the off chance that seats on the already-overbooked Thai Airways flight into Rome might open up."When there is a flight, you have to be quick — you have to get on it, you can't be too far away," said Claire Maertens, 49, explaining why the family won't leave the airport.
"It's so strange," she said. "One volcano, and the whole of Europe is down."
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Iceland Volcano Ash Coming to America
The latest Volcanic Ash Advisory from London's weather office shows clouds of volcanic ash stretching across the Atlantic Ocean.(Met Ofice)
The latest satellite projections from the U.K.'s Met Office, which monitors volcanic eruptions as part of a global network of Ash Advisory Centers, show the ash cloud already reaching as far as Newfoundland, explained Bob Syvret, a forecaster for the agency.
"The latest graphics that we've issued suggest that the tail end of the plume might just get into the far east of the Newfoundland area," he told FoxNews.com.But breathe easier, travellers: "It doesn't look a risk for North America" at this point, said Syvret, adding that the cloud would "probably stop around the Newfoundland area, and then move north into Greenland."
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration confirmed the report from the Met Office, noting that the Met's projections "do show an extension westward across the North Atlantic."
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Volcano's Ash No Threat to Space Shuttle Landing
The ash cloud belched by an erupting volcano in Iceland may have disrupted air traffic over much of Europe, but it poses no threat to NASA's planned Monday landing of space shuttle Discovery, agency officials said.When Discovery re-enters the Earth's atmosphere Monday morning, it will be flying over the northern Pacific Ocean on a course that will take it over much of North America before it is due to land at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida at 8:58 a.m. EDT (1258 GMT).That trajectory is well clear of the ash cloud from Iceland's Eyjafjallajökull volcano, which has caused the worst global air traffic disruption ever seen, except during major wars, according to press reports."That smoke cloud will not cause Discovery any sort of issues during its re-entry on Monday," NASA spokesperson Josh Byerly said Saturday during mission commentary.
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Volcano illustrates world's interconnectedness
CHICAGO-A volcano erupts in Iceland, and the effects ripple around the globe: A mom in Romania frets about making her son's wedding in Texas. A florist in New York worries shipments won't arrive. Patients awaiting treatment in Nigeria have to wait another week for the doctors.The fallout from the ash cloud looming over Europe illustrates just how interconnected our world has become.Thousands of planes fly millions of passengers and tons of cargo each day, providing the economic lifeblood of nations and businesses. The flights deliver products for sale or items as small as a specialized tool that lets a factory keep operating.The planes also bring medicines to hospitals and food aid to earthquake or hurricane victims. And they bring war and peace. Soldiers are often transported to and from hot spots by air.Tales of woe and inconvenience span every social level, from the Norwegian prime minister who got stuck in New York and had to govern using his iPad, to ordinary people who saved money for trips of a lifetime, then had to abandon those plans.READ MORE
Volcano Costs Rise as Plume Spreads
The Icelandic volcano eruption that has dumped aggravation on travelers and financial pain on airlines was estimated to cost airlines more than $200 million a day in lost revenue, while some in the industry questioned whether regulators need to shut down so much airspace.As of late Friday, there was no end in sight to the disruption. The ash plume from the volcano, which is under a glacier known as Eyjafjallajökull, drifted south and east across Europe on Friday, spuring airspace closures and the cancellation of an estimated 16,000 of Europe's 28,000 flights Friday, officials said. On Thursday, when closures began following a major eruption the previous night, about 8,000 flights were canceled. Between 100 and 120 trans-Atlantic flights arrived in Europe of the 300 typically expected.READ MORE
Picture Left:Airplanes stood idle at London's Gatwick airport on Friday as an ash cloud shut down airports across Europe.(Sang Pan/AP)
Doctor:"Volcanic Dust Cloud Increases Risk of Death"
The World Health Organization issued a warning to Europeans Friday to stay indoors as ash from Iceland's volcano starts settling. Small amounts of ash have already begun to fall in Iceland, Scotland and Norway.In the midst of a volcanic eruption strong enough to halt air travel over certain parts of Europe, concern is growing about the potentially deadly health effects the ash could have on people living in the region.Dr. Manny Alvarez, senior managing health editor of FoxNews.com, said he thinks it is common sense that an eruption of this magnitude could be hazardous to people’s health.READ MORE
100,000 Britons stranded in Europe by volcanic ash cloud as air traffic chiefs extend lockdown to 7am
Thousands of Britons today remain stranded after a vast cloud of volcanic ash from Iceland crippled airports for a second day.With the no-fly deadline pushed back to 7am tomorrow, an estimated 100,000 people were desperately trying to get back to the UK at the end of the Easter break.The National Air Traffic Service (NATs) has eased the lockdown for a large part of Scottish airspace - which includes Shetney, the Orkneys and Northern Ireland - from 7pm today.
Nats said this meant that some North Atlantic services could operate and that there might be an opportunity for some flights to operate from the north into Newcastle after 1am tomorrow.
But the news offered only the briefest glimmer of hope as chaos continued across Europe.
There are also fresh fears that the deadline could be pushed back again as the Icelandic volcano Eyjafjallajökull shows no sign of subsiding.
Transport Secretary Lord Adonis said travellers could expect 'significant disruption' to services for at least the next 48 hours.Earlier today, NATs allowed Manchester Airport to accept two diverted flights in a brief window in the dust cloud.
Three empty planes also left for long-haul destinations. They flew without passengers as there was not enough time to allow people to board.
Many British families are stranded in Spain where Malaga airport, on the Costa del Sol, was one of the worst hit, with the loss of 102 flights...
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Iceland Volcano’s Big Sister Poses Bigger Threat, Scientists Say
Iceland's erupting Eyjafjallajokull volcano might be causing its fair share of havoc across Europe but scientists said we haven't seen anything yet.All eyes in the volcanology community are focused on Eyjafjallajokull’s much larger sister, called Katla, which could cause disruption on a far larger scale, reports The London Times.Katla is about eight miles to the west, under the Myrdalsjokull ice cap. An eruption could cause widespread flooding and disrupt air traffic between Europe and North America.While Katla is not part of the same underground network of magma channels, it is close enough to be affected by power shifts in Eyjafjallajokull’s system. There is also a chance that a horizontal sheet of magma under Eyjafjallajokull could shoot out and enter a magma chamber beneath Katla. Hitting the roots of its neighbor would almost certainly trigger an eruption.The three eruptions of Eyjafjallajokull on record were each associated with a subsequent eruption of Katla. There are no signs of turbulence beneath Katla but, since it last erupted in 1918, a new blast is overdue. Katla tends to erupt every 40 to 80 years.READ MORE
Icelandic volcano still spewing huge ash plume
REYKJAVIK-An Icelandic volcano is still spewing ash into the air in a massive plume that has disrupted air traffic across Europe and shows little sign of letting up, officials said on Friday.One expert said the eruption could abate in the coming days, but a government spokesman said ash would keep drifting into the skies of Europe.The thick, dark brown ash cloud has shut down air traffic across northern Europe and restrictions remained in place in many areas. However, Norway said it had resumed some limited flights in the north of the country."It is more or less the same situation as yesterday, it is still erupting, still exploding, still producing gas," University of Iceland professor Armann Hoskuldsson told Reuters."We expect it to last for two days or more or something. It cannot continue at this rate for many days. There is a limited amount of magma that can spew out," he added, saying it was the magma, or molten rock beneath the Earth's surface, coming out of the volcano that turned into ash.READ MORE
Volcanic Ash Over Iceland Halts Hundreds of European Flights
The New York Times: The closing was among the most sweeping peacetime restrictions ordered in British airspace. It left airplanes stranded on the tarmac as the rolling cloud — made up of minute particles of silicate that can damage airplane engines — headed from Britain and Scandinavia toward northern Europe.
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Tibetans mourn dead as China quake toll hits 791
YUSHU, China-Tibetans mourned dead relatives Friday from an earthquake that killed nearly 800 people in remote western China, as rescue crews found a handful of survivors and homeless residents complained of aid delays.The official death toll from the quake that flattened much of the town of Gyegu climbed to 791, though some local people cast doubt on that figure, saying many more had died without being counted. Estimates by NGOs support a figure of about 1,000 dead.
Survivors of Wednesday's tremor spent another night huddled under quilts and in tents, while doctors struggled to treat the wounded in a makeshift medical center.In one Tibetan neighborhood on the outskirts of Gyegu, police moved in to break up an angry crowd waiting for tents to be unloaded from a truck.
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Sunday, April 18, 2010
Iceland Ash to Disrupt European Flights Into Weekend
April 16 (Bloomberg)Air services across northern Europe will be disrupted into the weekend after a cloud of ash from a volcano in Iceland shut dozens of airports in the U.K., France and Scandinavia.British airspace will be closed until at least 7 p.m. today, according to flight-control authority National Air Traffic Services, compounding travel disruptions that are among the most severe in U.K. aviation history.NATS is not expecting a rapid improvement in the conditions. “In general, the situation cannot be said to be improving with any certainty as the forecast affected area appears to be closing in from east to west,” the agency said in a statement.Quake Relief in Action: China's Commerce Ministry to send 30 mobile stores to Qinghai
China's Ministry of Commerce (MOC) said Saturday it would send 30 specially modified vans as mobile stores to the quake-hit area in northwest China's Qinghai Province.The first 10 vans were to arrive at the quake zone in several days, followed by the other 20, said the ministry in a statement.
Icelandic volcano eruption intensifies
REYKJAVIK-A volcanic eruption in Iceland, which has thrown up a 6-km (3.7 mile) high plume of ash and disrupted air traffic across northern Europe, has grown more intense, an expert said on Thursday.The eruption under the Eyjafjallajokull glacier continued to spew large amounts of ash and smoke into the air and showed no signs of abating after 40 hours of activity, said Pall Einarsson, a geophysicist at the University of Iceland."The seismographs are showing that since this morning the intensity of the eruption seems to be growing," he said.
Hot fumes had melted up to a third of the glacial ice covering the crater, causing a nearby river to burst its banks, and frequent explosions on the floor of the crater sounded like bombs going off, he said.
CHINA'S QUAKE:Avoiding the Political Aftershocks...
On the high plains of Qinghai province, where a massive earthquake killed hundreds Wednesday, there was a grim realization that if not for the changing of the season, the devastation could have been much worse. In recent weeks many of the migrant herders in the region moved from their winter grounds, where they live in mud brick houses, to summer pastures, where they live in tents, making it more likely they would survive the magnitude 7.1 quake. "Most have moved out of winter herding areas, so they won't be greatly impacted," says Marc Foggin, chief representatives of Plateau Perspectives, an NGO in Qinghai's provincial capital Xining that focuses on sustainable development in China's mountainous west.READ MORE
Iceland's volcanic ash halts flights across Europe
LONDON – An ash cloud from Iceland's spewing volcano halted air traffic across a wide swath of Europe on Thursday, grounding planes on a scale unseen since the 2001 terror attacks as authorities stopped all flights over Britain, Ireland and the Nordic countries.
Thousands of flights were canceled, stranding tens of thousands of passengers, and officials said it was not clear when it would be safe enough to fly again.
An aviation expert said it was the first time in living memory that an ash cloud had affected some of the most congested airspace in the world, while a scientist in Iceland said the ejection of volcanic ash — and therefore disruptions in air travel — could continue for days or even weeks.
"At the present time it is impossible to say when we will resume flying," said Henrik Peter Joergensen, the spokesman for Copenhagen's airport in Denmark, where some 25,000 passengers were affected.
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Thousands of flights were canceled, stranding tens of thousands of passengers, and officials said it was not clear when it would be safe enough to fly again.
An aviation expert said it was the first time in living memory that an ash cloud had affected some of the most congested airspace in the world, while a scientist in Iceland said the ejection of volcanic ash — and therefore disruptions in air travel — could continue for days or even weeks.
"At the present time it is impossible to say when we will resume flying," said Henrik Peter Joergensen, the spokesman for Copenhagen's airport in Denmark, where some 25,000 passengers were affected.
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Death toll from northwest China earthquake tops 1,700
The death toll from a devastating earthquake in northwest China, has risen to 1,706, with 90 people still missing, the official news agency Xinhua reported on Sunday.The quake also left 11,849 people injured, including 1,300 in serious condition.A 7.1 magnitude earthquake, the strongest to strike the country in two years, hit an area in Qinghai, near Tibet, on the morning of April 14. The epicenter of the earthquake was registered at the depth of 33 km (20 miles) in Yushu county, in the south of Qinghai province.
Aftershocks complicated relief operations. Hundreds of people remain under the debris in Yushu, a Tibetan plateau county where more than 15,000 houses, or 90% of all homes, were destroyed by the quake.Currently, 10,000 military servicemen, rescuers and doctors are conducting rescue operations in the region.
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Low supplies slow China earthquake rescue efforts
JIEGU, China – Earthquake survivors shivered through a second night outdoors in a remote Tibetan corner of western China with rescuers fighting altitude sickness and dealing with a lack of supplies as the death toll rose to 760.People with broken arms or legs cried in pain as medical teams could offer little more than injections. A doctor at the Qinghai provincial hospital, where the severely injured were being flown, said she had no idea how many were being treated because there was no time to count them all.Stunned survivors wandered the dusty streets of Jiegu, where relief workers estimated 70 percent to 90 percent of the low-slung town of wood-and-mud housing had collapsed. Hundreds gathered to sleep in a plaza around a 50-foot (15-meter) tall statue of the mythical Tibetan King Gesar, wrapped in blankets taken from homes shattered by Wednesday morning's quakes.
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Iceland's farmers try to save herds from toxic ash
SKOGAR, Iceland – In Europe, the volcanic ash danger travels at high altitudes, but for Iceland's farmers the problem is very much on the ground.Farmers across the region where the volcano erupted this week under the Eyjafjallajokull glacier have been scrambling to protect their herds from inhaling or ingesting the ash, which can cause internal bleeding, long-term bone damage and teeth loss.Near Skogar, south of the volcano, the ash blew down from the mountain, blotting out the sunlight and covering everything — pastures, animals and humans — in a thick, gray paste.Berglind Hilmarsdottir, a dairy farmer, teamed up with neighbors Saturday to round up her cattle, some 120 in all, and get them to shelter. In the panic, some of the animals got lost in the fog of ash, and the farmers had to drive around searching for them."The risk is of fluoride poisoning if they breathe or eat too much," Hilmarsdottir said through a white protective mask.
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Picture Left:Wearing a mask and glasses against the smoke, dairy farmer Berglind Hilmarsdottir from Nupur, Iceland, looks for cattle lost in ash clouds, Saturday, April 17, 2010.(AP Photo/Brynjar Gauti)
International community continues to extend condolences after quake...
Foreign governments, international and regional organizations continued to extend condolences on Friday and Saturday after a 7.1-magnitude earthquake struck Yushu County of northwest China's Qinghai Province.Messages of condolences were sent through various channels from foreign leaders and heads of international and regional organizations to Chinese President Hu Jintao, Premier Wen Jiabao, and Wu Bangguo, chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress.
Afghan President Hamid Karzai and Vice President Abdul Karim Khalili expressed deep sorrow for the loss of lives and property caused by the quake.
Iceland evacuates hundreds as volcano erupts again
In this image made available by the Icelandic Coastguard, Wednesday April 14, 2010, smoke and steam rises from the volcano under the Eyjafjallajokull glacier in Iceland, which erupted for the second time in less than a month, melting ice, shooting smoke and steam into the air and forcing hundreds of people to flee rising floodwaters.(AP Photo/Icelandic Coastguard)Iceland's main coastal ring road was closed near the volcano, and workers smashed holes in the highway in three spots in a bid to give the rushing water a clear route to the coast and prevent bridges from being swept away.
Vidir Reynisson, a manager with Iceland's Civil Protection Department, said that by late afternoon the flooding appeared to have peaked."But the water is still flowing down to the ocean so it will be some hours before we have a better view of what kind of damage has occurred," he said.
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China authorities say 100,000 people will have to be relocated after earthquake in Yushu, Qinghai province
The death toll in the China earthquake rose today as rescue workers moved rubble with their hands in the search for survivors in a remote part of the Tibetan plateau.More than 600 people are reported dead, 9,000 injured and 300 missing, although hundreds of people have been pulled out alive, according to state media. About 15,000 homes are thought to have collapsed and 100,000 people will need to be relocated, authorities say.Amid warnings that the death toll was likely to rise, the government dispatched more than 3,000 paramilitary police and disaster specialists to Yushu county, Qinghai province, where 85% of buildings are said to have collapsed in some areas.
Rescue teams were coping with gusty winds and altitude sickness, while on the road from the provincial capital, Xining, more than 500 miles away, bulldozers and other heavy moving equipment were being transported into the worst-affected areas of Yushu to accelerate the rescue and rebuilding operation. Driving in the opposite direction were residents taking their injured family members to hospitals and refugee centres in nearby towns....
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