Earthweek: A Diary of the Planet

By Steve Newman
Tribune Media Services

    Australian Firestorms
    The worst of several wildfires raging across vast areas of southeast Australia destroyed hundreds of homes and killed four people around the capital of Canberra. A senior government researcher hospitalized after losing his home in an unprecedented
   "flaming tornado" that hit the Australian Capital Territory said the firestorm was unstoppable and would cause fire-fighting experts to review 40 years of research and conventional wisdom. "Im surprised it wasnt worse," said Joe Walker of the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization. "The winds were circular and pulled whole trees out by the roots and were sending sheets of iron all around me." Blazes also engulfed the historic Mount Stromlo Observatory, where
   state-of-the-art detection equipment for astronomical observation was just being installed. A 22-mile wall of flames gutted
   the observatory and destroyed its telescopes.
   
   African Flood Crisis
    Massive floods triggered by the remnants of tropical cyclone Delfina late last month continued to ravage parts of Malawi and Mozambique. Incessant rains have persisted weeks after Delfina tracked inland from the Mozambique Channel, inundating vast tracts of crops and sweeping away homes. The disaster came as the region was struggling to cope with a food crisis that threatens about 14 million people with starvation.
   
   Congo Flu Epidemic
    More than 2,000 people in the northern part of war-ravaged Congo have died in a flu epidemic that has affected nearly 100,000 people. Congo Health Minister Mashako Mamba expressed fear that the outbreak could claim many more victims
   among the countrys malnourished population. The epidemic has reached the capital city of Kinshasa, with about a half million of its estimated 6 million residents infected.
   
   Earthquakes
    At least 28 people in western Mexico were killed when a magnitude 7.8 temblor hit the Pacific coast, shaking an area from Colima to Veracruz. Hundreds of others were injured, many from falling debris or in quake-related traffic accidents.
    A powerful magnitude 6.5 earthquake struck Guatemala and neighboring parts of El Salvador, where the shaking unleashed mudslides and cut off power and telephone service.
    Earth movements were also felt across a wide area of Southeast Asia from Sumatra to Bangkok, and in the Solomon Islands, central and southern Japan, southern Iran, southwestern Bulgaria, Croatia and southwestern France.
   
   Tropical Cyclone
    Tropical storm Yanyan formed to the southeast of the Northern Mariana Islands, then veered north and eastward just before reaching Saipan. The storm was a threat only to shipping lanes.
   
   Mongolian Snow Disaster
    At least 24,000 head of livestock in Mongolia have died in heavy snowfall accompanied by temperatures that dropped to
   minus 58 degrees Fahrenheit this winter. It is the fourth consecutive year the region has experienced the ravaging dzud, a specific Mongolian winter disaster that follows severe summer droughts. A dzud in 1999 killed about 30 percent of Mongolias livestock. Animals either froze to death or died of starvation after vast areas of grasslands were covered in deep snow. The situation has prompted huge migrations of nomadic people into urban areas and sparked a dramatic rise in cases of depression and mental illness.
   
   Gibraltar Strait Spill
    A ship carrying 1,400 tons of fuel oil sank off the coast of southern Spain as salvage crews attempted to tow the Spabunker 4 to port. Witnesses in Gibraltar reported that thick diesel oil leaking from the ship had covered a long stretch of Spains coastline. The disaster came as that country continued to battle oil slicks from the sunken tanker Prestige still blackening its northwestern shore.
   
   Nurture vs. Nature
    The Kenyan lioness made famous by its unprecedented behavior of adopting oryx calves has lost its latest ward, which was
   reclaimed by its mother. The big cat at the Samburu National Game Reserve had adopted yet another oryx baby, the sixth time within a year she had taken in an animal that would have normally been her prey. The East African Standard reported that the lioness released the baby oryx to suckle when its mother came around during the night, but the mother and baby later disappeared. The lioness was said to be frantically looking for its lost "baby."