SUV swallowed by 20-foot sinkhole in New Jersey suburb

Crews pulled a car out of a huge sinkhole in South Amboy, New Jersey Tuesday afternoon - and some neighbors still were not being allowed back in their homes.

Around 6:15 a.m. Tuesday, authorities were alerted about the 20-foot-deep sinkhole that opened up on Gordon Street. Throughout the day, it was a bad, tense scene - with people wondering why the ground collapsed and if there was still any danger.

Authorities said a broken water main that undermined the earth was to blame for the sinkhole.

A neighbor first called to report that his car had been stolen - but that was not what had happened at all. He discovered that it actually had been swallowed up by the sinkhole, along with part of his yard.

"My dad, he said around 6 o'clock, he heard some crackling, high winds — almost like a recycling truck, it sounded like," said Dawn Matthews, the daughter of the man who lost his car. "He looked to the front and he didn't see a recycling truck, but then he went to the back, and saw in the back of the house, the neighbor's fence was kind of going down, and saw that part of road collapsed."

About an hour later, more of the street collapsed. Video from the scene showed a small SUV covered in mud that appears to have been swallowed up as the road gave way.

"All of the utilities have been shut off to these houses, we've evacuated three houses and there's a car at the bottom of the hill," Fire Chief Mike Geraltowski said.

A broken fire hydrant was also visible amidst the rubble.

"At one time there was a fire hydrant at the end of the street, which you can no longer see," Geraltowski told 1010 WINS' Juliet Papa. "The water broke and caused a sinkhole, for lack of a better word."

Neighbors were shocked at the sight.

"As a child, I used to play down there, and it was pretty steep," said 50-year South Amboy resident Jack Roberts, "and when you hear of sinkholes, you think of Florida or someplace, but there's one over at the end of the street there."

Residents of three homes were evacuated and will not be allowed to return Tuesday night.

"Our priority right now is to make the roadway safe so that the residents can get into homes. Like I said, I don't think that's going to happen tonight," Geraltowski said. I was talking to OEM coordinator, and that's not going to happen tonight.

On Feb. 20, another water main broke on Bordentown Avenue a block away from the site.

Neighbors said they are lucky this happened when it did and not on Sunday when Gordon Street was lined with kids and families taking part in South Amboy's St. Patrick's Day parade.

South Amboy police said Gordon Street will be closed until further notice in the area east of Pine Avenue as crews make emergency repairs.

Drivers and pedestrians are being urged to avoid the area.

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Worst hailstorm in 40 years destroys avocado crop in Mexico

Hailstones.

The most severe hailstorm in 40 years has hit the Mexican state of Michoacan, destroying avocado crops in some of the country's (and the world's) most productive municipalities.

The most affected Michoacan municipalities are Ziracuaretiro, San Juan Nuevo, Tancítaro and Uruapan.

It is estimated that more than 17,000 hectares have been seriously affected, and that the production of other fruits, such as blackberries and blueberries, has also been lost.

The extent of the destruction has been such that it has endangered the health of avocado trees in Tancítaro, which grows almost 20% of Michaoacan's total annual production, which in turn represents 85% of Mexico's total production.

"In Tancítaro, there will no longer be any production this season, as the trees will not recover and flower again until November," explained the delegate of the Secretariat of Rural Development (Sedru), Andrés Ciprés Murguía.

In San Juan Nuevo and Uruapan, the damage was not as great as in Ziracuaretiro, as due to their warmer climates the fruit was already in a more advanced development stage.

"We were informed that the hailstones were the size of ping-pong balls, and that even some people were injured," stated Andrés.

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Bogota, Columbia covered in 60 cm (24 inches) of snow and ice from hail storm

Colombia's capital Bogota was surprised on Sunday by a major hail storm that covered the south of the city with a 60 centimeter (24-inch) layer of icy snow.

The excessive hail caused a number of emergencies across the city.

The most affected were Santa Isabel, La Fragua and El Restrepo.

The Bogota Fire Department reported that rainfall "generated water depths of between 15 and 20 inches accompanied by ice". However, no cases of gravity are presented.

The first census said at least 500 homes were affected. Late into the night Sunday, backhoes worked on the streets to remove the ice.

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Among the most serious events was at a parking lot where the roof collapsed and trapping four adults and three children, rescued by firefigthers.

Entire streets became either covered in ice or formed rivers, while rooftops were damaged and trees fell down.

"Fortunately there are no victims, just material damage," Javier Pava of the Bogota Disaster Rick and Prevention unit was quoted as saying by newspaper El Espectador.

© COLPRENSA

The unit was called to rescue four people from a parking garage where the collapsed roof was impeding the victims from leaving.

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Dead baby whale found near Maui beach, Hawaii

© Maui County ocean safety division

Maui County Ocean Safety officials are warning beachgoers Tuesday about sharks feeding on a whale carcass off Kite Beach near the Kahului airport in Kanaha.

The carcass of a baby whale near Kanaha Beach Park on Maui was towed offshore, but the waters will remain closed after several large sharks were spotted in the area.

Maui ocean safety officials closed the beach and warned the public about the decomposing whale after a 10-foot-long tiger shark was seen feeding on the carcass Tuesday morning. The 10-foot-long whale had been about 100 yards offshore of Kaa Point, which is also known as Kite Beach near Kahului Airport.

Around noon, state Department of Land and Natural Resources enforcement officers and lifeguards patrolled the shoreline while an aerial survey by helicopter was conducted to look for sharks in the area .

According to county officials, several large sharks could be seen, prompting Ocean Safety officials to keep the waters 1 mile either side of Kaa Point closed until an assessment of the waters by air can be made Wednesday morning.

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Tunisian Terror Attack Suspects Trained in U.S. “Liberated” Libya

Libya has turned into a complete and total disaster zone/terrorist training camp ever since America and its allies decided to liberate it. While certainly not perfect under Qaddafi, it was an infinitely better place before NATO intervention than after. Not only that, but the entire justification for the “freedom” delivered to it by Western powers was, naturally, based on lies and propaganda. I covered this last month in the post, The Forgotten War – Understanding the Incredible Debacle Left Behind by NATO in Libya. Here’s an excerpt:

In retrospect, Obama’s intervention in Libya was an abject failure, judged even by its own standards. Libya has not only failed to evolve into a democracy; it has devolved into a failed state. Violent deaths and other human rights abuses have increased severalfold. Rather than helping the United States combat terrorism, as Qaddafi did during his last decade in power, Libya now serves as a safe haven for militias affiliated with both al Qaeda and the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS). The Libya intervention has harmed other U.S. interests as well: undermining nuclear nonproliferation, chilling Russian cooperation at the UN, and fueling Syria’s civil war.


As bad as Libya’s human rights situation was under Qaddafi, it has gotten worse since NATO ousted him. Immediately after taking power, the rebels perpetrated scores of reprisal killings, in addition to torturing, beating, and arbitrarily detaining thousands of suspected Qaddafi supporters. The rebels also expelled 30,000 mostly black residents from the town of Tawergha and burned or looted their homes and shops, on the grounds that some of them supposedly had been mercenaries. Six months after the war, Human Rights Watch declared that the abuses “appear to be so widespread and systematic that they may amount to crimes against humanity.”


As a consequence of such pervasive violence, the UN estimates that roughly 400,000 Libyans have fled their homes, a quarter of whom have left the country altogether. 


Unfortunately, the “failure” in Libya has now creeped into its neighbors’ backyards.

From the AP:

TUNIS, Tunisia (AP) — The two gunmen who killed 21 people at a museum in Tunis trained in neighboring Libya before carrying out the deadly attack and were known to authorities, Tunisian security officials said Friday.

The attack at the National Bardo Museum Wednesday has raised concerns about the spread of extremism in North Africa and particularly in Tunisia — the only country to emerge from the 2011 Arab Spring uprisings with a functioning democracy.

Spread of extremism in North Africa, brought to you by NATO.

In the country’s capital Tunis, hundreds citizens on Friday thronged the main avenue where demonstrators overthrew dictator Zine El Abidine Ben Ali four years ago, celebrating independence day in defiance of the attacks that left 17 cruise ship tourists dead.

Some danced draped in Tunisian flags and others held aloft hand-written signs that read “JeSuisBardo” for “I am Bardo,” a slogan that has captured attention as an anti-terrorism rallying cry on social media.

“We are here to say ‘no’ to terrorism,” said Astal Marwen, a 19-year-old political science and law student, at the rally. “The attackers are part of a small minority, and they have the wrong conception of what Islam is.”

Gotta hand it to the Tunisians. They should thank their blessings they’ve thus far avoided America’s freedom bombs.

The attackers slipped out of the country in December and received weapons training in Libya which is awash in well-armed militias fighting for control, said Rafik Chelli, a top official in the Interior Ministry in a TV interview late Thursday.

The Islamic State group, based in Iraq and Syria, has claimed responsibility for the Bardo attack. Several well-armed groups in Libya have pledged their allegiance to the Islamic State.

As I noted on Twitter the other day:

Tunisia had its own Arab Spring, and is doing relatively well. Libya had an America Spring, and they are sending terrorists into Tunisia.

— Michael Krieger (@LibertyBlitz) March 20, 2015

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Armed with US weapons, Yemen rebels advance on President as Saudi Arabia prepares for war

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Militiamen loyal to President Abdrabbuh Mansour Hadi had been guarding al-Anad air base.

Previously we reported that in the latest "coup" for US foreign policy, the US had "lost" over $500 million in weapons in Yemen, until recently an Obama administration foreign policy "success story", following the abrupt evacuation of the US embassy there, all of which ended up in local rebel and al-Qaeda hands.

It didn't take long for the local Houthi rebels to put all these weapons to good use: as Reuters reports, Houthi forces in Yemen backed by allied army units seized a key air base on Wednesday and appeared poised to capture the southern port of Aden from defenders loyal to President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi, local residents said.

As a reminder this is the second time the Yemeni president, so close to Obama, will be forced to uproot and get out of Dodge, after his prompt "evacuation" from the capital Sanaa a month ago:

The Houthis and their military allies later advanced to within 40km (25 miles) of the city, where Hadi has been holed up since fleeing the group's stronghold in the capital Sanaa last month.

Yemen's slide toward civil war has made the country a crucial front in mostly Sunni Saudi Arabia's rivalry with Iran, which Riyadh accuses of sowing sectarian strife through its support for the Houthis.

Sunni Arab monarchies around Yemen have condemned the Houthi takeover as a coup and have mooted a military intervention in favor of Hadi in recent days.

The situation in Yemen is "fluid" but not looking good for the status quo: in Aden, heavy traffic clogged Aden as parents brought schoolchildren home and public sector employees obeyed orders to leave work. Eyewitnesses said pro-Hadi militiamen and tribal gunmen were out in force throughout the city

This happens as the northern militia alongside army units loyal to Yemen's powerful ex-president Ali Abdullah Saleh have driven back an array of tribal fighters, army units and southern separatist militiamen loyal to embattled president Hadi.

The Iranian-backed Houthi Shi'ite militants took control of Sanaa in September and seized the central city of Taiz at the weekend as they move closer to Aden.

Houthi leaders have said their advance is a revolution against Hadi and his corrupt government, and Iran has blessed their rise as part of an "Islamic awakening" in the region.

Yemeni officials denied reports that Hadi had fled Aden.

Next up: yet another regional civil war involving a regime that was until recently so very loyal to Obama: a war which many blame on the former administration:

While Hadi has vowed to check the Houthi push south and called for Arab military support, his reversals have multiplied since heavy fighting first broke out in south Yemen on Thursday and the Houthis began making rapid advances southward.

In Houta, storefronts were shuttered and residents reported hearing bursts of machine gun fire and the bodies of fighters from both sides lying in the streets. Eyewitnesses said Houthi fighters and allied soldiers largely bypassed the city center and traveled by dirt roads to the southern suburbs facing Aden.

While the battle is publicly being waged by the Shi'ite Muslim Houthi movement, many Adenis believe that the real instigator of the campaign is former president Ali Abdullah Saleh, a fierce critic of Hadi. It was Saleh who was the author of the city's previous humiliation in 1994, when as president he crushed a southern secessionist uprising in a short but brutal war.

A body of army loyalists close to Saleh on Wednesday warned against any foreign interference, saying in a statement on Saleh's party website that Yemen would confront such a move "with all its strength."

Which is ironic because according to AP, what's left of the government is now actually calling for its neighbors to invade the country to restore peace and stability!

BREAKING: Yemen's foreign minister calls for Arab military intervention against advancing Shiite rebels.

— The Associated Press (@AP) March 25, 2015

And as a follow up Reuters reports, the Saudi are indeed preparing for what appears to be the next MENA war, by moving heavy military equipment including artillery to areas near its border with Yemen, U.S. officials said on Tuesday, raising the risk that the Middle East's top oil power will be drawn into the worsening Yemeni conflict.

The slide toward war in Yemen has made the country a crucial front in Saudi Arabia's region-wide rivalry with Iran, which Riyadh accuses of sowing sectarian strife through its support for the Houthis.

Just as Ukraine is a proxy war between Russia and the US, Yemen will be a proxy war between Iran and Saudi Arabia:

The conflict risks spiraling into a proxy war with Shi'ite Iran backing the Houthis, whose leaders adhere to the Zaydi sect of Shi'ite Islam, and Saudi Arabia and the other regional Sunni Muslim monarchies backing Hadi.

The armor and artillery being moved by Saudi Arabia could be used for offensive or defensive purposes, two U.S. government sources said. Two other U.S. officials said the build-up appeared to be defensive.

One U.S. government source described the size of the Saudi buildup on Yemen's border as "significant" and said the Saudis could be preparing air strikes to defend Hadi if the Houthis attack his refuge in the southern seaport of Aden.

Another U.S. official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Washington had acquired intelligence about the Saudi build-up. But there was no immediate word on the precise location near the border or the exact size of the force deployed.

As a result, the Saudis would rather shoot first, ask questions later:

Saudi Arabia faces the risk of the turmoil spilling across its porous 1,800 km (1,100 mile)-long border with Yemen and into its Shi'ite Eastern Province where the kingdom's richest oil deposits lie.

"The Saudis are just really deeply concerned about what they see as an Iranian stronghold in a failed state along their border," U.S. Ambassador to Yemen Matthew Tueller told Reuters on Monday at a conference hosted by the National U.S.-Arab Chamber of Commerce in Washington.

But a former senior U.S. official, speaking to Reuters on condition of anonymity, said the prospects for successful external intervention in Yemen appeared slim. He said Hadi's prospects appeared to be worsening and that for now he was "pretty well pinned down."

Slim or not, the countdown to another proxy war has begun. The biggest winner? These guys.

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50% decline in songbirds across Canada in the last 50 years

Songbirds, like this tree swallow, are in serious decline across North America.

It's a sure sign of spring when the chorus of songbirds once again returns to our region. Recent mornings, I've awoken to the sounds of robins chirping, the tune of a white-throated sparrow and the gentle cooing of morning doves. The silence of the winter has broken.

Imagine for moment if that winter silence continued into spring and summer. Unfortunately, it's a scenario that could very well unfold as we've seen sharp declines in the number of songbirds over the past few decades.

Birdsong that has graced the Earth for millions of years, and for all of human history, could soon be stilled in a human-made perfect-storm of negligence and unintended consequences.

A film that was shown on CBC-TV last week, , shines light on the ever-growing decline of songbirds, and outlines some of the potential causes. You can view the documentary at cbc.ca.

Directed by Su Rynard, the film is the artfully shot story of the mass depletion of songbirds in the Americas, an alarming thinning of populations that has seen declines of many species since the 1960s. According to international birding expert Dr. Bridget Stutchbury, who is featured in the documentary, we may have lost almost half the songbirds that filled the skies 50 years ago.

What are some of the causes that are hurting songbird populations? They're wide ranging, but the common denominator is human interference in their way of life. From cats being allowed to roam free, to large glass-walled skyscrapers, human activity is to blame for much of the decline of these beautiful birds.

Up to billion birds fall victim to high-rise buildings alone. Birds fly into the reflective windows and are killed or seriously injured. In Toronto, an organization called FLAP or Fatal Light Awareness Program, works with a host of volunteers to collect the dead and rescue the injured birds, as well as advocating for windows that are bird-friendly.

Neonicotinoids were in the news a lot in 2014 for their harmful effects to bees and other pollinators. It turns out that these chemicals may also be impacting songbird populations. The seed that many farmers in the prairies sow is treated with neonicotinoids to deter insects from damaging the mature crops. In Saskatchewan the film follows avian eco-toxicologist Christy Morrissey, who discovers lethal neonicotinoids in the spring wetland water supply, ahead of its annual application by local farmers. The neonicotinoids are potentially killing off many of the insects which songbirds rely on as a food source. What's especially scary is these chemicals are carrying over from the year prior.

Cats are also major, non-natural predators to songbirds. Humans have introduced millions of cats into the environment that wouldn't naturally be there. Cats are born hunters, and unfortunately songbirds are easy targets. Potentially billions of birds fall victim to cats each year.

Light pollution is also a major concern for songbirds. A fact that many of us are unaware of is that songbirds migrate at night. Distracted by light, the birds are can potentially become trapped or thrown off course. A recent example comes out of Saint John, N.B. where nearly 10,000 migrating songbirds, including some rare species, were killed as they were attracted to and flew into a gas flare at a Canaport LNG facility in the city.

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