FAA says its an authorized flight Source : They wont say what exactly it is, but not a drone. Anyone else find this strange?

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04.04.13.

Flash floods killed at least 49 people and forced over 3,000 residents to evacuate the city of La Plata, capital of Buenos Aires province, government officials reported.

Some people drowned after being trapped in their cars or while walking along the city’s streets when the water rose suddenly on Tuesday night, while others were electrocuted, provincial Governor Daniel Scioli told reporters.

The same storm had killed at least six people in Buenos Aires City the day before. President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, who was born and raised in the outskirts of La Plata, visited the flood zone in her native Tolosa suburb. She vowed to deploy security forces after residents expressed fears that evacuated homes could be ransacked. The President arrived in a helicopter flanked by Deputy Security Minister Sergio Berni, Deputy Andrés Larroque, head of the Kirchnerite youth group La Cámpora, and her spokesman, Alfredo Scoccimarro.

Despite recent political disagreements with Scioli’s administration, the head of state met with the governor yesterday afternoon to analyze the situation. The President talked with reporters before getting into her official car and also chatted with residents who voiced heated demands. Reports said between 300 and 400 millimetres of rain fell in just two hours, flooding low-lying neighbourhoods in La Plata and surrounding areas.

The consequences of the storm in both the City and the Greater Buenos Aires area increase the overall death toll from three days of rains to at least 54.

“Families and small children spent the night on their roofs, getting soaked. People in wheelchairs were up to their waists in water all night. It was a disaster,” Bruno Zorzit, a resident of La Plata, said.

Nearly one million people live in and around the city of La Plata and many are struggling to recover even as more rain is in the forecast.

Scioli said yesterday that emergency workers are focusing on the people most in need, as large stretches of the provincial capital remain under water.

In a press conference held yesterday afternoon, the governor said many people drowned after trying to take shelter in their cars in Tolosa, a suburb in La Plata.

Cars were flooded to their rooftops and rainwater flowed over the windowsills into many houses in La Plata. People waded out of their neighbourhoods through chest-high water, and police and neighbours teamed up using rubber motorboats to evacuate families and pets to higher ground.

“Such intense rain in so little time has left many people trapped in their cars, in the streets, in some cases electrocuted. We are giving priority to rescuing people who have been stuck in trees or on the roofs of their homes,” Scioli said. La Plata “has never seen anything equal” to this disaster.

The rains also flooded the country’s largest refinery, causing a fire that took hours to put out.

The rains, almost 400 millimetres in about two hours according to some reports, hit provincial capital La Plata after causing widespread flooding and power outages and killing six people in the city of Buenos Aires the day before.

“We lost family heirlooms, appliances, clothing,” said Natalia Lescano, who escaped with her family to a friend’s house on higher ground. She said they had to get out by themselves, and complained that authorities weren’t doing enough to rescue people.

The national weather service said more rain was expected before the bad weather passes today.

At least 3,000 people were evacuated from their homes in the La Plata area.

Federal Planning Minister Julio De Vido said about 280,000 people remained without power in the city and surrounding province of Buenos Aires. “Our job is focused on restoring service, but we’re going to wait until the equipment dries to guarantee the safety of the electricity workers, because we don’t want any deaths,” De Vido said.

The flooding threatened to ruin food supplies across La Plata’s metropolitan area, which has nearly one million people.

“There’s no power in nearly the entire city,” sources said, adding that the flooding “wiped out the downtown and the surrounding neighbourhoods such as Tolosa, Elvira, Los Hornos, with as much as two metres of water, and people are on their roofs.”

Many of the evacuees slept in their cars overnight. Transportation and businesses of all kinds in the city were at a standstill.

http://www.buenosairesherald.com/article/127803/floods-kill-48-in-la-plata-2500-residents-evacuated

http://www.lavoz.com.ar/galeria/noticias/sucesos/inundacion-plata-imagenes

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06.03.13.

BINH THUAN (VNS)– Saltwater intrusion is disrupting the daily lives of hundreds of local households in the central coast province of Binh Thuan.

Statistics from the People’s Committee of La Gi Town show that Phuoc Loc Ward and Ho Tom Village have suffered the most from saltwater intrusion.

About 120 local houses have been threatened by saltwater intrusion in Ho Tom Village alone. Some of the households were reported to have moved out of the village.

Saltwater intrusion also threatens about 50 ha of shrimp farms, worth hundreds of million of dong in the village.

More than 2 ha of protected forest were hit by sea waves in the town’s Tan Phuoc Commune, said Tran Khac Hai, chairman of the commune People’s Committee.While there was a 300 metre buffer between local houses and the coast in the past, sea water now floods several of these homes, he said.

Meanwhile, hundreds of houses have collapsed due to saltwater intrusion in Phan Thiet City.The provincial People’s Committee mobilised local people to use thousands of sand bags to improve the local dyke but this failed due to strong waves.

Binh Thuan has 192 kilometres of coastline, including six areas that are often eroded by strong waves. – VNS
http://vietnamnews.vn/society/237181/saltwater-intrusion-disrupts-residents-daily-lives.html

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Mekong Delta attacked by saltwater

VietNamNet Bridge – The scientists from the Southern Institute of Water Resources have warned that in the dry season, the saltwater can penetrate far into the interior area the Mekong Delta by 70 kilometers, or five kilometers further than in 2012.

The salinity intrusion comes early this year in Mekong Delta. The saltwater has been badly affecting the life and production of local residents. In many localities, people have to buy freshwater at the exorbitant price of VND60,000 per cubic meter, or buy salty tap water at VND10,000 per cubic meter.

Ben Tre province, which is called the “coconut island,” proves to be the locality which has suffered most from the saltwater intrusion. According to the Ben Tre provincial Center for Meteorology – Hydrology, on February 28, the salinity level of 1 ‰ of could be found on three big rivers of Ham Luong, Cua Dai and Co Chien, while the saltwater penetrated 57-68 kilometers far into the land.

As such, nearly the whole of the coconut island was inundated under the saltwater. The 4% salinity level on the Ham Luong River has penetrated by 50 kilometers far into the land, while the 1-3% salinity level on the river has attached the “Cho Lach kingdom of specialty fruits and ornamental flowers.”

Meanwhile, on the Cua Dai River, the 4% salinity level has gone far by 50 kilometer into the mainland, reaching out to the Quoi Son and Tan Thach communes of Chau Thanh district. On the Co Chien River, the 4% salinity has gone far by 60 kilometers.

Since saltwater has been rising rapidly, people in many localities of Ben Tre have to use salty tap water. Meanwhile, freshwater has become as expensive as gold. Nguyen Van Phong, the owner of a water supply station in Ba Tri town in Ben Tre province said that a cubic meter of fresh water could be sold at VND30,000-60,000, depending on the distance he has to carry water. Meanwhile, a whole tank of three cubic meter is priced at VND120,000-160,000.

The people in the communes of Vinh Hoa, An Hiep, Tan Xuan, An Duc, Bao Thanh and Bao Thuan, where there is no freshwater well, have to go far to Ba Tri town to get water for daily use.

The people in the communes of Thanh Tri, Dai Hoa Loc and Thanh Phuoc are also thirsty for freshwater. The water plant in Thanh Tri, which takes water from the Ba Lai River to serve 1,000 households in the communes, now cannot provide safe water anymore, because the Ba Lai River has been attacked by saltwater.

The Trung Thanh private water supply plant has the capacity of 150 cubic meters which aims to serve 4,400 households in Binh Dai town and some neighboring communes, now cannot satisfy the demand of the people.

The salinity intrusion has also made the local people in remote areas lack freshwater for daily use. Nguyen Thien Phap, Head of the Tien Giang Sub-department of Water Resources, said from March 1 to the end of May 2013, the water supply stations in the two districts of Go Cong Dong and Tan Phu Tay would provide freshwater through 60 taps ready for 24/24 hours.

The system of 27 sewers that prevent saltwater in the Long Xuyen quadrilateral area has been closed to protect the hundreds of thousands of hectares of the winter-spring crop. However, a large area of the rice fields there still has been threatened by the saltwater, which may go along the Long Xuyen – Rach Gia canal to penetrate the Thoai Son district. Local farmers have been warned that the lack of freshwater for the spring-summer crops would be very serious this year.

http://vietnambreakingnews.com/2013/03/mekong-delta-attacked-by-saltwater/#.UTb6KTdlCKA

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