Fires in western states of US; sinkhole in Louisiana

Wildfires blaze through Western states

Whipped by high winds, a wildfire in central Washington state has scorched 26,500 acres and destroyed at least 60 homes, officials said Tuesday.

CNN,

14 August, 2012

The fire raging near Cle Elum is one of several devastating Western states this week.

Colorado paid the price earlier this summer. Now, new wildfires are burning through sagebrush, grass and beetle-killed lodgepole pines in California, Oregon, Nevada, Washington and Idaho.

In all, 62 fires, including 16 new large fires, were burning as of Tuesday, the U.S. Forest Service reported. They have destroyed dozens of homes and are threatening many more.

Tearful wildfire victim: 'Nothing left' Wildfires destroy homes in Oklahoma

Washington's Taylor Bridge Fire began as a brush fire Monday afternoon. By midnight it had swallowed up 16,000 acres, and by Tuesday, 16,500 acres, or 41 square miles, were burning.

Authorities have already evacuated between 400 and 450 people near the Taylor Bridge Fire, said Rex Reed, the incident commander. He was not aware of any injuries.

"The fire behavior I would classify as extreme," Reed said. "Extreme fire conditions. We expect a very busy day. Very rapid rates of spread. There are multiple heads on this fire."

He said authorities were working to activate National Guard troops to assist in the operation in Kittitas County, where a state of emergency has been declared.

In Idaho, a blaze has killed a 20-year-old firefighter. Two other firefighters have been injured in Oregon and California.

For article GO HERE

Mysterious Louisiana Sinkhole Raises Concerns of Explosions and Radiation

A nearly 400-foot deep sinkhole in Louisiana has swallowed all of the trees in its area and enacted a mandatory evacuation order for about 150 residences for fear of potential radiation and explosions

Yahoo,

14 August, 2012

The 400-square-foot gaping hole is in Assumption Parish, La., about 50 miles south of Baton Rouge.

The sinkhole sits in the middle of a heavily wooded space where it has consumed all of the soaring cypress trees that had been there. Flyover photos show some of the treetops still visible through the mud.

Authorities enacted a mandatory evacuation for between 100 and150 homes in the area, but most people have chosen to stay, according to the Mayor's Office of Emergency Preparedness. If any of the dangers seem to become more imminent, the order will be escalated to a forced evacuation.

While officials are not certain what caused the massive sinkhole, they believe it may be have ben caused by a nearby salt cavern owned by the Texas Brine Company.

After being used for nearly 30 years, the cavern was plugged in 2011 and officials believe the integrity of the cavern may have somehow been compromised, leading to the sinkhole.

For article GO HERE

Major Fish Kill Reported On Texas Coast

Hundreds of thousands of dead fish have washed up on the beach in Galveston, where crews went to work Monday to remove the dead fish.

From Extinction Protocol

KWTX,

13 August, 2012

Peter Davis of the Galveston Island Beach Patrol said Sunday the small shad fish likely were killed by low oxygen levels in the Gulf of Mexico.

Davis estimated hundreds of thousands of fish have died.

Galveston County health officials said the water is fine for beachgoers.

Biologist Steven Mitchell with the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department said calm conditions and summer heat may have contributed to the fish kill.

He said there's a possibility of a dead zone in the water off Galveston.

Testing is expected this week.

Giant Asian tiger prawn invade Gulf of Mexico waters

Shrimping season opened Monday off Louisiana and fishermen can't get over what they're now finding in their nets. Some say the coastline is under invasion. The giant invaders are valuable, but may be destroying the Gulf ecosystem.

CBS,

13 August, 2012

From Texas to North Carolina, fishermen have been catching giant shrimp, big enough to stretch across a 12-inch dinner plate.

Shrimp captain James Mason has fished Louisiana's coast for 44 years.

But he had never caught an Asian tiger prawns one of these until last April, when he netted seven in one month.

"I didn't know what to think," Mason said. "We dumped the net and that popped out on top and I said, 'My god what a big old shrimp.'"

Mason has sold a few for top dollar.

"That's the most expensive shrimp I've ever sold in my life," he said. "Eight dollars apiece."

If Mason could sell every shrimp for eight bucks he wouldn't be shrimping for very long

"No, you could retire real quick, real quick," he said.

The Asian tiger prawn, native to the western Pacific, is edible but worrisome -- an invasive species in waters off the southeastern United States.

The U.S. Geological Survey says they may have escaped from Caribbean aqua-culture farms, or from the water tanks of passing ships.

The first few were spotted in 2005, but between 2010 and 2011, the number caught off the Gulf and Atlantic coasts spiked from 32 to 569.

Kim Chauvin, a fourth-generation seafood wholesaler, weighed one that was three-quarters of a pound.

The size is astounding, but the arrival of the creatures gives even a seafood seller pause.

"That's the worrisome part," Chauvin said, "because you're wondering what the feeding part is. You're going, 'Wow, how much does it eat in one day?'"

Asian tiger prawns have voracious appetites, and feed on crabs, mollusks and smaller shrimp. They reproduce at three times the rate of native Gulf shrimp. Each female can produce 1.5 million eggs a year.

Chauvin and some marine ecologists worry that they could eat through native habitats.

"It's the unknown, the fear of the unknown. Cause in our industry you need to know what's going on all the time just for the ecosystem," Chauvin said.

Fishermen have collected another 50 Asian tiger prawn caught this year for federal researchers to study. They're all trying to decide whether these giant shrimp are a new threat, or a new market.

Many well users find their faucets are running dry

After months of record-breaking heat and drought, many rural Americans who rely on wells for water are getting an unwelcome surprise when they turn on their faucets: The tap has run dry

USA Today,

14 August, 2012

The lack of running water can range from a manageable nuisance to an expensive headache. Homeowners and businesses are being forced to buy thousands of gallons from private suppliers, to drill deeper or to dig entirely new wells.

Mary Lakin's family drained the last of its well water late last month in the small northern Indiana community of Parr. Since then, Lakin, her husband and two children have bathed and done laundry at relatives' homes and filled buckets from their backyard pool every time they need to flush a toilet.

Having water is "just something you take for granted," she said. "It's a big hassle, but we're surviving."

No one tracks the number of wells that go dry, but state and local governments and well diggers and water haulers report many more dead wells than in a typical summer across a wide swath of the Midwest, from Nebraska to Indiana and Wisconsin to Missouri.

For article GO HERE