Towns Evacuated as Major Flooding Hits NSW, Australia

NOTE: This Blog is virtually blocked in Australia, NZ, UK …

Australia: Back-to-back disasters intensify

Major flooding in NSW forces mass evacuations

Evacuation orders are being enforced in several towns along the northern New South Wales (NSW) coast, including Kempsey, Port Macquarie and Bellingen, and emergency services are warning people not to enter floodwaters, said a report.

Flood warnings are in effect for at least 11 rivers in NSW as floodwater from a low-pressure system continues to swamp a large region.

At least two deaths have so far been reported in the region as a result of flooding.

New South Wales Rainfall Map to 9:00am, 23 Feb 2013. Source: Australia BOM. Image may be subject to copyright.

Other Disasters/ Significant Events

The White House has declared a major disaster exists in the State of Louisiana in the areas affected by severe storms and flooding during the period of January 8-17, 2013.

The damage caused by the severe storms and flooding occurred in the parishes of Acadia, Catahoula, Concordia, East Carroll, Evangeline, Franklin, Jefferson Davis, Livingston, Madison, St. Landry, and Vermilion.

Related Links:

• Final Eviction Notice to Australians? January 28, 2013
• Australian floods force evacuation of thousands in 2 states January 29, 2013
• Back-to-back Australian Disasters [index page for Australian disasters 2010 – 2013]

6 Hanford Tanks Leaking Nuclear Waste: WA Gov

Leaking tanks hold “two-thirds of the nation’s high-level nuclear waste”

Six Hanford underground tanks holding a brew of radioactive and toxic waste at the most contaminated nuclear site in the U.S. are leaking, says Washington Gov. Jay Inslee.

“None of these tanks would be acceptable for use today. They are all beyond their design life. None of them should be in service,” said Tom Carpenter of Hanford Challenge, a Hanford watchdog group. “And yet, they’re holding two-thirds of the nation’s high-level nuclear waste.”

Handford Site sits on 586-square-miles of shrub-steppe desert in southeastern Washington State, bordering the Columbia River. Six underground tanks are leaking radioactive waste. Hanford’s 177 tanks hold two-thirds of America’s high-level nuclear waste. Image source: United States Department of Energy

This aerial photo shows the Plutonium Finishing Plant complex. A red “X” has been placed on facilities that workers are demolishing. The plutonium vault complex consists of five ancillary structures and a larger building (2736-ZB) that once stored plutonium produced at Hanford during the Cold War for the U.S. nuclear weapons program. Source: US Dept of Energy

The tanks, built in the the 1940s with intended life span of 20 years, hold at least 53 million gallons (200 million liters) of highly radioactive waste, the leftover from plutonium production used in nuclear weapons.

State officials announced last week that one of Hanford’s 177 tanks was leaking up to 300 gallons a year, posing a risk to groundwater and rivers.

Gov Inslee said he had received the “very disturbing news” during meetings Friday that in fact six tanks are leaking.

Uncapped fuel stored underwater in K-East Basin. Source: US Dept of Energy

The authorities say they haven’t yet detected higher radioactivity levels at nearby monitoring wells.

Hanford, home to several tribes of Native Americans and a small agricultural community in the state of Washington,  was depopulated in 1943 along with the town of White Bluffs to make room for the nuclear production facility known as the Hanford Site.

Related Links

• FIRE-EARTH Nuclear Alerts

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February 23, 2013 – DISASTER CALENDAR SYMBOLIC COUNTDOWN: 1,113 Days Left 

Mass die-offs resulting from human impact and the planetary response to the anthropogenic assault could occur by early 2016.

• SYMBOLIC COUNTDOWN: 1,113 Days Left to ‘Worst Day’ in the brief Human  History
• The countdown began on May 15, 2011 …

GLOBAL WARNINGS

• WARNING: Human impact 2.85 x Earth’s diminishing carrying capacity
• WARNING: RAPID PLANETARY DECLINE IN PROGRESS!
• Europe: The First Phase of Collapse Has Started 
• United States: The First Phase of Collapse Has Begun

Global Disasters: Links, Forecasts and Background

• The First Wave of World’s Collapsing Cities
• Back to the Primordial Future
• The Fate of Energy Dinosaurs
• Mass Die-offs