Wildfire forces evacuation of hundreds of residents in the Florida panhandle

Trees downed by Hurricane Michael four years ago are believed to have fueled the wildfire. The tinder dry conditions and strong winds aggravated the situation. Those in authority asked those living in Springfield, east of Panama City to move out on priority. Ron DeSantis is the governor of Florida. He explained that combination of huge expanses of dry land, downed trees, low humidity and strong winds were tailor made for hazardous fire conditions in Bay County. Teams of firefighters and emergency workers toiled to strengthen containment lines and protect homes. Tractor plow units and helicopters were deployed and the cause of the fire is still under investigation.

Dry conditions in Florida give rise to dangers of fire. There are innumerable active wildfires across the state. The Florida Forest Service indicates 12,000 acres are currently ablaze in the state of Florida. It faced Hurricane Andrew in 1992 and then Hurricane Michael in 2018. The latter tore through Mexico Beach and Tyndall Air Force Base and left 16 dead with loss of about $25 billion in damages. It is not easy to control wildfires.

Source -

dailymail.co.uk dated 8 March 2022

Hippo escapes from Tbilisi zoo - subdued with tranquilizer gun

Subsequent to heavy rainfall and flooding of the Vere River, the capital Tbilisi saw at least eight people dead and many more missing apart from wild animals like tigers, lions, bears and wolves that have escaped to freedom from the zoo.
This has been reported in news.sky.com dated 14 June 2015.

The heavy rainfall swept away dozens of buildings and cars and three of the zoo workers are among the dead with 10 more people are missing. A hippopotamus that had broken free was cornered in one of the city's main squares and subdued with a tranquilizer gun.
It seems, a few other animals have been located, but no one knows for certain about how many of them are on the loose. The people have been advised to remain indoors while the zoo workers try to locate them. They are using helicopters and are circling the city of around 1.1 million people.
A preliminary estimate has put the extent of damage at $10m according to the vice mayor of Tbilisi.
(Image courtesy wikimediacommons.org)

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Two killers make a jail break from New York – leave behind a ‘Have a good day’ note

Two killers lodged in the Clinton Correctional Facility in New York State made a successful jail break by using power tools smuggled into the jail. They cut holes in the steel walls of their cells, and then followed a series of pipes and tunnels under the 30ft high walls of the maximum security prison to emerge into freedom.
This has been reported in nzherald.co.nz dated 8 June 2015.

Both of them had been serving life sentences for vicious murders and they had engineered their escape by borrowing tips from the Shawshank Redemption and from Escape from Alcatraz. The two of them are now on the run in the United States.
The escape came to light only when they did not to respond to a 5.30am roll call on Saturday morning. Since the Canadian border was just 25 miles north of the tiny town of Dannemora, there are fears that the duo might have left the country.
The jail had opened in 1865 and houses 3,000 inmates, and the governor of the jail is unable to explain how two maximum security prisoners had managed to obtain powerful cutting equipment to engineer their escape.
The audacity of the prisoners is evident from the note they left behind … it featured a cartoon and the message, "Have a nice day".
The search for the two escaped killers was being led by the FBI and US Marshalls and included dog handlers with bloodhounds, roadblocks and helicopters. It remains to be seen how long they can evade capture.
(Image courtesy wikimediacommons.org)

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