Im gonna be 500 miles

A powerful series of undersea quakes struck north-east of New Zealand on Friday, but tsunami waves that forced many people on the country's North Island to flee to high ground passed without causing substantial damage. Officials had warned that waves could reach three metres (10 feet) above high tide levels after the quakes - the strongest a magnitude 8.1 - but the threat had passed by the afternoon, the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) said. "It's hard not to feel like our country is having a run of bad luck, when you have an earthquake, tsunami and pandemic to contend with all in one day," New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said. Video footage posted on social media showed surges of water entering a marina in Northland and on the North Island's East Cape region. Earlier on Friday, workers, students and residents in areas like Northland and Bay of Plenty, on the northern coast near Auckland, fled beachside towns for higher ground after the three quakes, … [Read more...] about Huge quakes hit near New Zealand, tsunami threat passes

PHUKET: The drifting tsunami detection buoy recovered on Saturday is not as badly damaged as feared and the unit will be redeployed in its original position off the coast of Phuket at the end of the monsoon season, officials say. The unit was successfully recovered by Navy SEAL divers aboard navy frigate HTMS Bangpakong , which docked at Phang Nga Naval Base at 9am Sunday morning. A press conference announcing the successful mission was held at the base. Providing information to the media were Rear Adm Rueangtip Thiantong, deputy commander of the Third Naval Area, HTMS Bangpakong Commanding Officer Capt Chalermchai Suankaew and Raydant International Co Ltd General Manager Aurasa Paenghom. Raydant International is a private firm that was contracted by the National Disaster Warning Center (NDWC) to set up and maintain Thailand’s tsunami warning system, of which the early detection unit is a key part. HTMS Bangpakong left Phang Nga Naval Base at 5pm on Friday with 210 crew … [Read more...] about Phuket tsunami warning buoy: in good shape after recovery

Bye-bye, Bismarck. So long, Sheboygan. Those cities in North Dakota and Wisconsin, respectively, are two of 144 that the federal government is proposing to downgrade from the metropolitan statistical area designation, and it could be more than just a matter of semantics. Officials in some of the affected cities worry that the change could have adverse implications for federal funding and economic development. Under the new proposal, a metro area would have to have at least 100,000 people in its core city to count as an MSA, double the 50,000-person threshold that has been in place for the past 70 years. Cities formerly designated as metros with core populations between 50,000 and 100,000 people, like Bismarck and Sheboygan, would be changed to “micropolitan” statistical areas instead. A committee of representatives from federal statistical agencies recently made the recommendations to the Office of Management and Budget, saying it’s purely for statistical purposes and not to be … [Read more...] about Bye, Bismarck: 144 cities could lose status as metro areas

LONG BEACH, Calif. – Zipping around a 1.96-mile course that has validated the greatest that IndyCar has to offer, it might have seemed Alexander Rossi had time to soak up a picturesque Sunday. Ahh, the sights and sounds of a sun-splashed day at the beach that also just happened to include a 20-second romp to victory in the NTT IndyCar Series. Must have fun to absorb all that, right? “I mean, no, (not) in the race car,” Rossi said with a tiny smile after winning his second consecutive Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach . OK, so he might have been a little preoccupied. Rossi, a former “Amazing Race” contestant who can respect the need to deliver an entertaining show, still wanted the fans to enjoy themselves, which he was pleased to see happening during his pickup ride around the streets of Southern California in driver introductions. “It was amazing to see the kind of crowd reaction and the fan turnout,” he said. “Everyone looked like and sounded like they were having a really … [Read more...] about Ryan: Was Long Beach an Amazing Race? Well, it had Alexander Rossi

PHUKET: Russia said it had successfully test-fired an Intercontinental Ballistic Missile (ICBM) on Tuesday, with tensions high over its seizure of control in the Crimea and its threat to send more forces to its neighbour Ukraine. The Strategic Rocket Forces launched an RS-12M Topol missile from the southerly Astrakhan region and the dummy warhead hit its target at a proving ground in Kazakhstan, Defence Ministry spokesman Igor Yegorov told state-run news agency RIA. The launch site, Kapustin Yar, is near the Volga River about 450 km (280 miles) east of the Ukrainian border. Kazakhstan, a Russian ally in a post-Soviet security grouping, is further to the east. A U.S. official said the United States had received proper notification from Russia ahead of the test and that the initial notification pre-dated the crisis in Crimea. Russia conducts test launches of its ICBMs fairly frequently and often announces the results, a practice seen as intended to remind the West of Moscow’s … [Read more...] about Phuket Gazette World News: Russia test-fires ICBM amid tension over Ukraine