Australia in the fury of floods with homes in Melbourne flooded, forecast says rivers will remain dangerously high for days

Melbourne happens to be the second-most populous city of Australia. Its population is around 5 million. The authorities advised some residents to move out of the suburb in northwest of Melbourne. There are similar instructions for hundreds in the Victoria state cities of Benalla and Wedderburn. Hundreds of homes in Victoria were flooded and many more remain isolated by floodwater. In the words of Victoria Premier Daniel Andrews - most of the state was experiencing a “very, very, significant rainfall event and it comes, of course, with the ground completely sodden.” The forecast of the Met department is of more rain throughout the next six-to-eight week period. Obviously, people will have to endure the situation for some more time. Daniel Andrews also mentioned about many homes without power. Homes Inundated by Swollen Rivers in Australian Floods. The State Emergency Service carried out more than 100 flood rescues in Victoria in the past 48 hours.

Last month the Bureau of Meteorology declared that a La Niña weather pattern, usually associated with above-average rainfall in eastern Australia, was underway in the Pacific. It said that the La Niña event may peak during the current Southern Hemisphere spring and return to neutral conditions early next year. Incidentally, La Niña is the cooler flip side of the better-known drying El Niño pattern. It is the third La Niña since 2019 when Australia became the hottest and driest year on record. That year witnessed wildfires fueled by drought that directly or indirectly led to the death of hundreds of people, destruction of hundreds of homes and loss of millions of acres of woods, farmland and city fringes. Sydney, the capital of New South Wales and the largest city of Australia beat its 1950 record last week to make 2022 its wettest-ever year.

Some popular stories of this blogger –

Kim Jong-un supervised long-range cruise missile tests to demonstrate Pyongyang's readiness for "actual war"

The US has agreed to allow 24.000 migrants from Venezuela to stay legally for up to two years

Odisha prepares for possible cyclonic strikes in October-November

Kim Jong-un attends opening ceremony of new massive greenhouse farm, Ryonpho Greenhouse

Egypt will host COP27, the annual United Nations climate talks

Hundreds of pilot whales stranded on remote islands off the east coast of New Zealand

Fort William restarts heritage walk for civilians

At least 25 people dead in central Venezuela landslide after days of torrential rain and floods

Tragedy at Durga Puja immersion in Jalpaiguri, West Bengal when flash flood sweeps away at least 8 persons

29-year-old Sonya Baumstein wants to become the first woman to cross the Pacific solo

#SonyaBaumstein #Pacific #SanFrancisco #Rowboat Sonya Baumstein is a 29-year-old athlete from Orlando, Florida, and she has drawn up plans to cross the Pacific solo in her custom designed row boat Icha – she has already embarked on her journey from Choshi – a port east of Tokyo. She is headed for San Francisco and hopes to finish the 6,000-mile (9,600-kilometer) journey by late September.
Once she does that, she would become the first woman to row solo across the Pacific. Till now, only three other rowboats have successfully made the journey and no woman has ever done the journey alone.
This has been reported in foxnews.com dated 7 June 2015.

She has experience of the high seas – she has already rowed the Atlantic to the Caribbean and is upbeat about this challenge.
Her rowboat, the "Icha," short for an Okinawan phrase meaning "once we meet we're family," is a lime-green, 23-foot (7-meter) -long vessel that weighs less than 660 pounds (300 kilograms). It has no motor or sail.
Weather permitting, she plans to row 14-16 hours a day, breaking her sleep to check her location.
She hopes to stay within the 100 kilometer (62 mile) -wide Kuroshio Current that arcs across the Pacific, at least for the first part of the journey.
She is not having a boat to follow her for support because of prohibitive cost but there would be a team who would provide support remotely from shore via satellite phone and GPS.
(Image courtesy wikimediacommons.org)

A few more must reads -

Nashik Kumbhmela 2015 – a once in 12-years pilgrimage

Trip to Nashik should take in Shirdi and the Ajanta and Ellora caves

Nashik, a tourist center with links to the epic Ramayana

Nashik, a tourist center with links to the Mahabharata

Kumbhmela 2015 in Nashik – guided tours to wineries and vineyards

Nashik transforms from a place of pilgrimage to an industrial hub


Kolkata Police to send cake with birthday greetings to 12000 senior citizens of Pronam

Maggi 2-minute noodle – Madhuri Dixit, Amitabh Bachhan and Preity Zinta had endorsed the product

Bogus tour operator charged out-of-towners $200 each way for a trip that is free

WHO says cigarette smuggling into India has increased fourfold

Marvels of technology – robotic cheetah created by MIT, it can jump over obstacles

The power of tulsi leaves – it keeps at bay the pacemaker

US admits - there is no way to monitor online encrypted messages of ISIS

US Police have killed two persons daily in first 5-months of the year