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As Nashville’s Cumberland River continued to recede Wednesday, Mayor Karl Dean estimated the damage from weekend flooding could easily top $1 billion. The flooding and weekend storms killed at least 29 people in three states. The flooding caused by record-busting rains of more than 13 inches in two days sent water rushing through hundreds of homes, forcing thousands to evacuate – some by boat and canoe – affecting both rich and poor in this metropolitan area of about 1 million. Airplanes are seen partially submerged in floodwater at the Cornelia Fort Airpark Tuesday, May 4, 2010, in Nashville, Tenn. Heavy weekend rain caused the Cumberland River, which winds through Nashville, to over flow its banks flooding part of downtown and other areas around the city. Linda Steuer wipes away tears as she looks at her flooded apartment Tuesday, May 4, 2010, at the Windover Apartment complex in Bowling Green, Ky. Nearly a dozen families were forced from their homes by flood waters. A car is washed up against a tree under a bridge on Sunday, May 2, 2010 in Nashville, Tenn. Severe storms dumped heavy rain on Tennessee for the second straight day. |
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view Flooding and the Aftermath in Nashville as presented by: Denver Post |
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In the past several months, powerful storms have wreaked havoc in many places, torrential rains in central Europe and parts of China, tornadoes in Australia, Montana and the American Midwest, and strong thunderstorms across the northeast. Now, as Tropical Storm Bonnie makes landfall in Florida and heads into the Gulf of Mexico, oil cleanup is being suspended, and the final "kill" operation is delayed for at least one more week. These storms have been destructive and deadly, but beautiful and awe-inspiring at the same time. Collected here are a handful of photographs of stormy skies, lightning strikes and storm damage from the past several months. Darlene Sheehy collects items from her kitchen, Monday, June 7, 2010, after a tornado destroyed her home in Millbury, Ohio. Severe thunderstorms moved through the bluegrass region of Kentucky late Monday, July 19, 2010. This lightning strike was captured near Maysville, Kentucky. This photo provided by Harry Gillway, the Kimball County Sheriff, shows hail damage to the rear window of a car in Kimball, Nebraska on Monday, May 24, 2010. Storms dumped heavy rain and hail on Nebraska, North Dakota and South Dakota. |
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view Stormy Skies as presented by: Boston Big Picture |
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As the California Legislature and Gov. Jerry Brown cutting billions of dollars in government services to help balance the state budget, nowhere are the effects likely to be felt more deeply than in Tulare County. It has become the Golden State’s welfare capital. Nearly a quarter of the population in this Central Valley agricultural region lives in poverty, and one in three residents receives state aid. Unemployment – among the highest in the state – remains on the rise. Local officials fear that residents already pushed into poverty might now tumble into homelessness. For Patricia Dickerson, a mother of five who has been unable to find work since losing her job two years ago, another reduction in her monthly welfare check could mean a shutoff of her electricity. Last week, she clutched a romance novel while waiting in a line at a county welfare office. At home, a stack of letters from the state has gone unread. “My fantasy,” she said, holding up the book. “I don’t like to read bad news right now.” Terry Dickerson, 4, crawls down a hallway on her way to bed. She shares a bed with her mother and sister. Mark Dickerson puts up a sheet over the front windows as daughters Koreena, Terry and Keera play before bedtime. |
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view Poverty Makes Tulare County California’s Welfare Capital as presented by: Los Angeles Times |
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April 12th marked the 49th anniversary of human spaceflight, when Yuri Gagarin became the first person to orbit the Earth in 1961. At this moment, 13 humans are currently in low-Earth orbit, aboard the International Space Station. Several were already aboard the ISS when a Soyuz TMA-18 brought a fresh crew up from the Baikonur Cosmodrome on April 2nd - they were later joined by the crew of the Space Shuttle Discovery on the 131st shuttle mission to date (only three remaining launches scheduled). NASA recently signed a new deal with Russia for six more round-trips to the ISS, at a cost of $55.8 million per seat. Collected here are recent photos of the Space Station, its current crew, their launch vehicles, and the views from above. Russian cosmonaut Alexander Skvortsov and US astronaut Tracy Caldwell Dyson speak while wearing their space suits at Kazakhstan's Russian-leased Baikonur cosmodrome on April 2, 2010 not long before launch to the International Space Station. The Space Shuttle Discovery hurtles toward space after liftoff from Launch Pad 39A at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida at 6:21 a.m. on April 5th, 2010. The seven-member is delivering the multi-purpose logistics module Leonardo, filled with supplies, a new crew sleeping quarters and science racks that will be transferred to the International Space Station's laboratories. The crew also will switch out a gyroscope on the station's truss, install a spare ammonia storage tank and retrieve a Japanese experiment from the station's exterior. |
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view Journeys to the International Space Station as presented by: Boston Big Picture |
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For years now, governments around the world have been sinking large pieces of outdated or damaged equipment into the ocean, turning them into artificial reefs. Subway cars, naval ships, tanks and more rest on the sea floor, making homes for sea life and attracting divers. Artists have been busy as well, erecting underwater sculptures and memorials. Collected here are images from the past few years of some of these man-made reefs, both big and small. 25 retired tanks from the Thai military are loaded on a ship at Bangkok port, Thailand, on Friday, July 30, 2010. The tanks will be dumped into the Gulf of Thailand to serve as artificial reefs and as habitat for marine animals. The Spiegel Grove begins to roll, June 10, 2002, in the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary off Key Largo. The ship sunk upside-down prematurely May 17 and salvage crews worked for three weeks to get ready for June 10 rollover. The decommissioned aircraft carrier Oriskany is sunk off the coast of Pensacola, Florida, on Wednesday, May 17, 2006, to form an artificial reef. The 888-foot ship took about 37 minutes to sink below the surface. |
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view Artificial Reefs Around the World as presented by: The Atlantic |
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Egypt's military deployed on the streets of Cairo to enforce a nighttime curfew as the sun set Friday on a day of rioting and chaos that amounted to the biggest challenge ever to authoritarian President Hosni Mubarak's 30-year regime. Flames rose up across a number of cities from burning tires and police cars. Even the ruling party headquarters in Cairo was ablaze in the outpouring of rage, bitterness and utter frustration with a regime seen as corrupt, heavy-handed and neglectful of grinding poverty that afflicts nearly half of the 80 million Egyptians. After nightfall, some of the protesters defied the curfew and were praying on the streets of Cairo. In one of many astonishing scenes Friday, thousands of anti-government protesters wielding rocks, glass and sticks chased hundreds of riot police away from the main square in downtown Cairo and several of the policemen stripped off their uniforms and badges and joined the demonstrators. Protestors attempt to get into Tahrir Square. Egyptian anti-riot policemen use water canons against protesters in Cairo. Riot police face protestors on the Kasr Al Nile Bridge. |
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view Rioting And Chaos Engulfs Egypt's Capital as presented by: Sacramento Bee |
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In August of 1939, Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union signed a non-aggression treaty -- one week later, Germany invaded Poland and World War II began. The first attack of the war took place on September 1, 1939, as German aircraft attacked the Polish town of Wielun, killing nearly 1,200. Five minutes later, the German battleship Schleswig-Holstein opened fire on a transit depot at Westerplatte in the Free City of Danzig. Within days, the United Kingdom and France declared war on Germany and began mobilizing their armies and preparing their civilians. On September 17, the Soviet Union invaded Poland from the east. Polish forces surrendered in early October after losing some 65,000 troops and many thousands of civilians. In November, Soviet forces invaded Finland and began a months-long battle dubbed the Winter War. By the beginning of 1940, Germany was finalizing plans for the invasions of Denmark and Norway. Collected here are images of these tumultuous first months and of Allied forces preparing for the arduous battles to come. A ten-year-old Polish girl named Kazimiera Mika mourns over her sister's body. She was killed by German machine-gun fire while picking potatoes in a field outside Warsaw, Poland, in September of 1939. British troops cheerfully board their train for the first stage of their trip to the western front, somewhere in England, om September 20, 1939. On November 30, 1939, after Soviet demands made to Finland went unmet -- they were asking the Finns to give them land concessions and to destroy fortifications along the border -- the USSR invaded Finland. Some 450,000 Soviet soldiers crossed the border, starting a brutal, frozen battle that would be called the Winter War. In this image, a member of a Finnish anti-aircraft detachment, wearing his white camouflage uniform, works with a range-finder on December 28, 1939, during a Russian aerial attack. |
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view World War II: The Invasion of Poland and the Winter War as presented by: The Atlantic |
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Fingal’s Cave is located on the uninhabited rock island of Staffa, off the West coast of Scotland. This fascinating cave is formed from hexagon shaped basalt columns. The basalt formed into hexagonal columns when a lava flow cooled in the ocean. The lava flow that created Fingal’s Cave also created the amazing Giant’s Causeway rock formation in Scotland. In Gaelic, Fingal’s Cave is known as Uamh-Binn, meaning “cave of melody”, due to the lovely sounds made by echos of waves crashing inside. |
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view Fingal’s Cave, Staffa, Scotland as presented by: Beautiful Places To Visit |
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