Elsewhere, on other topics...

'Big Dry' claims River Murray lakes
After seven years of drought, flooding with seawater may be river system's only hope

Australia's epic drought is tightening its grip as a deepening ecological crisis unfolds in the south of the country. After seven years of the Big Dry, water levels in lakes at the mouth of the mighty Murray river have fallen by up to 50cm below sea level and environmental damage is spreading on a massive scale, according to conservationists.
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Now, a controversial option of flooding the area with seawater is being considered. Professor Tim Flannery, Australia's best-known climate-change commentator, said that the action would be 'risky and probably unpopular', but that it could help save the dying eco-system by preventing the exposed lake bed from turning irreversibly acidic and toxic. A weir would be constructed to prevent salt or acidic water contaminating Adelaide's drinking water supply.


Time for drought action

The drought is not only affecting farms as businesses and the state's overall productivity, but the social impact on rural areas and in country towns is devastating.

At its meeting at Bothwell last week, the social impact panel heard that parts of southern and central Tasmania were in such dire drought that rates of suicide, domestic violence, alcohol abuse and depression were rising steeply.



Can Israel Find the Water It Needs?

Israel is running short of water. A growing population and rising incomes have increased demand for fresh water, while a four-year drought has created what Shalom Simhon, the agriculture minister, calls “a deep water crisis.”

The problem isn’t only in Israel. Many arid regions of the globe, including the American West, are dealing with growing populations and shrinking water supplies. Global warming could make matters even worse.



Asheville river at lowest level since 1895

Streamflow in the French Broad River at Asheville has reached the lowest level since 1895, when the U.S. Geological Survey first began making measurements at the site. On Sunday, the streamflow was about 121 million gallons per day (Mgd), or 188 cubic feet per second.

Previously, the lowest flow at the site occurred in 2002 when the flow was 139 Mgd.

Before 2002, streamflow in the French Broad River at Asheville had not been below 155 Mgd since 1925.

Last year, when much of North Carolina was in exceptional drought, the lowest flow in the French Broad was 199 Mgd.

Most of southwest North Carolina (18 counties) remains in an exceptional drought and virtually all of western North Carolina is in extreme (15 counties) or severe (8 counties) drought as the state moves into the driest time of the year. (See http://www.ncdrought.org for the latest North Carolina drought conditions.)




Ag commissioner predicts state could be federal disaster area due to drought

PICKENS -- State Commissioner of Agriculture Hugh Weathers predicted that South Carolina could be declared a federal disaster area due to the impact of drought.

Weathers and Gov. Mark Sanford will be in Pickens Wednesday to have a first-hand look at the local conditions in the Upstate.

The governor’s visit “will highlight the need for people to conserve voluntarily,” said Joel Sawyer, Sanford’s spokesman.
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Some Upstate water providers, including Pickens and Clemson in Pickens County, have instituted mandatory restrictions. Sawyer said the Pickens visit comes at the request of state Sen. Larry Martin and Pickens resident Dennis Chastain who is a member of the state Drought Response committee.

Streams near Chastain’s home a few miles from Table Rock State Park, already low, have dropped dramatically in recent weeks, signaling “an ominous sign,” Chastain said.

“We have transitioned into a hydrologic drought,” said Chastain, who predicts that without relief springs soon will quit bubbling up and streams will start going dry.

“The ground water is depleted to where it’s not coming up to the surface,” Chastain said. “We are really in the tenth year of a drought cycle of unknown length. The groundwater did not get recharged last winter. That’s really at the root of our problem right now.”



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Meanwhile...


100 die in Vietnam flash floods

(CNN) -- Flash floods and landslides triggered by a weekend tropical storm have killed at least 100 people in Vietnam, the country's news agency said Monday.

Forecasters fear additional casualties as more rain was expected Monday.
The floods in the the country's northern mountain provinces damaged tens of thousands of homes, swept away thousands of cattle and submerged crops, the Vietnam News Agency said. More than two dozen people remained missing.



Flood toll increases to 64 in State

HYDERABAD: Floods continued with unabated fury in the State for the second day on Sunday, leaving a trail of misery and destruction, though there was a let-up in the heavy rain. The situation was aggravated by rivers and streams which were in high spate in Coastal Andhra and Telangana.

There was respite from the downpour, as the low pressure area moved over to the Orissa-West Bengal coast. However, threat of another spell of torrential rain looms large over the two regions due to the extended influence of the low pressure.

The toll rose to 64, with Hyderabad accounting for 13. In Nalgonda district, three employees of a sponge iron company met a watery grave in an incident involving a jeep which they used to cross a stream at Maqdoompalli.

Hundreds of villages in the 10 flood-hit districts were waterlogged and some cut off. Official details indicate that crops like paddy in over four lakh acres came under water in Krishna district.



Heavy rains force flooding in WNY

Heavy rain is forcing flooding in parts of Western New York. Several intersections are underwater, forcing traffic to be re-routed.

It might look like a waterway, but this is actually Transit Road, and a pickup truck turned into a sinking object when someone tried to drive under the viaduct. "Chances are, he thought he could make it through and it was kind of like a flash flood deal, and they rise pretty quick underneath the viaducts," said Brian Musielak, Assistant Chief of Depew Fire Department.



'You kind of knew somebody was going to die’

The death at the campground, while clearly the most disastrous event of the evening, was only a small piece of the damage that stretched southeast into Laconia and Gilford, which received more than a dozen storm-related calls in three hours, mostly for smoke alarms. Worst hit in Laconia by Thursday night’s floods was the Weirs Beach boardwalk along Lakeside Avenue, where a 50-foot wide sinkhole swallowed a 15-foot stretch of the boardwalk and eroded areas underneath the nearby Winnipesaukee Railroad tracks.

The boardwalk, one of the lowest points in a valley between several small hills, cracked after about an hour of heavy rainfall, which eventually formed a “small tidal wave” along the road, said Laconia Fire Chief Kenneth Erickson.



'Unbelievable amount of rain' and more to come in soaking Scotland

MORE heavy rain is forecast across Scotland after downpours caused widespread flooding across parts of the country over the weekend.

Torrential rain led to about 120 calls to Fife Fire and Rescue Service between 7:30pm on Saturday and 4:30am on Sunday as rivers and streams burst their banks flooding homes from Leven to Dunfermline to St Andrews.

A total of 110 firefighters and 21 appliances worked through the night into yesterday in flood-hit areas across Fife.



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Agra farmers concerned over locust attack

Agra, Aug 8 (IANS) Farmers in several villages in Uttar Pradesh’s Agra district are worried over recent attacks by locust swarms.

Ipe M. Ipe, an entomologist, found a few locusts lying in his lawn in Dayalbagh area of the city two nights ago. He immediately informed officials about it.

Now the agriculture department and other agencies are concerned as a large number of villages in Achnera, Fatehpur Sikri, Kheragarh, Shamshabad regions are threatened by locusts that can finish off the standing crop in no time.

Farmers have been advised to spray insecticides and light fires at night.



Grasshoppers Abound

Some unwelcome visitors are descending on the metro in large numbers. It's that time of year the local grasshopper population invades.

Take a walk outside and you may find the ground springs to life. "They're not overpowering like the plague of locusts from days of old, but they are visible," says Terry Cole of Elkhorn.



Locusts invade Southern Palouse

PALOUSE, Idaho - Grasshoppers are known to take over towns in northern Latah County, but the Idaho Department of Agriculture says this is one of the worst infestations they've ever seen.

A KREM 2 news crew travelled through Potlatch, Princeton, Harvard, Avon and Deary Wednesday night, and simply put, there are grasshoppers just about everywhere.



Grasshopper outbreak in northern Idaho

LEWISTON, Idaho (AP) -- State agriculture officials have distributed more than 28,000 pounds of grasshopper bait in hopes of stemming an infestation of the crop-hungry bugs.

The amount of bait - all distributed in Latah County - is a dramatic increase from the nearly 4,000 pounds given out in 2007.
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"In 50 years I have never seen anything like this," said Ron Rex, who finished his hay harvest just in time to protect it from the hungry insects. By Friday his property was swarming with what he first thought were locusts, he said.