Oklahoma and Texas in the grip of flash floods, two dead

#flashfloods #texas #oklahoma #blancoriver Flash floods caused by record rainfall in Oklahoma and Texas have left two persons dead and have swept away hundreds of homes and have forced over 2,000 people to flee. This has been reported in news.sky.com dated 25 May 2015.

The Blanco River rose by 26ft in one hour and, nearly 350 homes in the town of Wimberley, Texas, were washed away by the floods. In the nearby city of San Marcos, people were ordered to evacuate their homes even as the flood waters rose and converted normally bone-dry streets into meandering rivers.
Several vehicles like cars and trucks were submerged, and the city, which has cancelled Monday's Memorial Day ceremony, has reportedly opened temporary shelters for residents who could not return home. Rescue crews were searching for people in the city who are believed to be missing and a curfew was enforced in an effort to avoid fatalities.
One of the dead was of a firefighter from Claremore, Oklahoma – he was swept away while he was trying to rescue 10 people in high water. The body of another man was recovered from a flooded area along the Blanco River.
(Image courtesy wikimediacommons.org)


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Nevada to use goats to clean the eco-system of discarded Christmas trees

#ChristmasTree #pineneedles #ecosystem Goats eat everything and a man from Nevada has trained his goats to eat the pine needles of Christmas trees. This is to keep the eco-system clean because people are in the habit of discarding the trees in landfills or open space once Christmas is over and they do not realize the possible dangers fire hazards once the branches dry up.
His name is Vince Thomas, a longtime volunteer firefighter. He has come up with this novel idea of making use of the 40 goats in his family-owned goat herding business, "Goat Grazers" – he would be recycling the discarded Christmas trees.
Goats have the habit of eating all sorts of weeds and Vince tossed a piece of pine tree to the animals and they devoured it — with the pine needles. Subsequently, he did some research and came to the conclusion that while with cattle and some of the other animals, it can cause miscarriages, for goats, it is a natural dewormer. Moreover, pine is very high in vitamin C, so it is healthy for them also.
He is now launching a new program with his Keep Truckee Meadows Beautiful – this group is one among a number of groups in the area that recycle trees and are glad to have the help from the goats. These animals are great employees because they love their job and they never complain.