Floods, fires, fuel, flus & flares

Plenty going on on the disaster front world-wide - floods in Pakistan killing over a thousand people, affecting a million more, wildfires in Greece & Russia, BP may finally start plugging the leaking Gulf oil well, and more locally, an outbreak of swine flu at Seddon School in the South Island had almost half of the school away sick last week, and finally a couple of solar flares are headed our way today, but thankfully they don't seem to be big enough to do much more than put on a stunning display of the Aurora Australis if you happen to live far enough south. Massive solar flares have the potential to knock out satellites & communications and power grids.

I presume you all survived Sunday's weather all right. I saw the weather warnings for the wind and rain, but wasn't anywhere near a computer to be able to post about them as I was on holiday - certainly made the ferry crossing interesting!

I knew it was big, but...

Wow, I hadn't realised just how big that oil spill off the Gulf Coast in the States was, until Stuff posted this image of the oil spill transposed over New Zealand.

Disaster breeds disaster

As if dealing with the effects of a cyclone wasn't hard enough on its own, Queensland now has to deal with a cocktail of 650 tonnes of fuel and fertiliser dumped into the ocean off its south-east coast after 31 shipping containers fell overboard during the storm and damaged the fuels stores in the hull of the Pacific Adventurer. Aerial reports estimate the oil slick covers three nautical miles by 500 metres and is drifting north-west. The fertiliser should dilute well enough that the only thing it'll do is cause an algal bloom, but the oil slick has the potential to kill any wildlife that it comes in to contact with. The shipping containers are still bobbing around out there somewhere.

http://www.stuff.co.nz/world/australia/2252982/Oil-spill-threatens-wildlife