Deadly storms batter US East Coast: 3,000 flights cancelled, 1 m homes powerless
Hurricanes and tornadoes will plague the East Coast for the rest of the week
also, AccuWeather said. Nearly three thousand flights were cancelled in the
affected States in the past 48 hours. The Atlanta international aviation hub was
the worst hit by the cancellations. Over one million homes and all traffic lanes
were plunged into darkness. Atlanta to Philly took the brunt of the deadly
thunderstorms.
ATLANTA, Aug 8: Accompanied by thunder and lightning, deadly storms battered
the East Coast States of the US on Monday through Tuesday wreaking heavy destruction
of property and rendering over one million homes without power. Uprooted trees
and toppled power lines falling over roads and homes all along plunged vast
swathes of coastal States into darkness.
The straight-line storms, coming in the midst of unprecedented summer heat,
took the route along the US East Coast States of Alabama, Georgia, South and
North Carolinas, Maryland, Delaware, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, West
Virginia and Virginia. Atlanta to Philly was the worst affected. Washington
DC was also caught in the crosshairs of the gusty winds.
The National Weather Service (NWS), official weather bureau of the United States,
has forecast dangerous hurricanes and tornadoes from later Monday and 30 million
people were under a tornado watch.
Some interiors of Northeast were in for thunderstorms-produced heavy downpours,
AccuWeather said. It said the turbulent weather would plague the East for the
rest of the week also.
Nearly three thousand flights were cancelled in the affected States. Over 10,000
flights were delayed in the past 48 hours. The Atlanta international aviation
hub was the worst hit.
There is temporary respite from the terrible heat now but after mid-August
the situation will be back to square one.
In Florence in north-eastern Alabama a 28-year old man died of lightning strike
while in Anderson in South Carolina a 15-year old died when a huge tree uprooted
in the storm fell on him as he was alighting from his car on Monday evening.
He was stopping at his grandparents' home to take shelter when the tree fell
on him. The coroner’s office identified the victim as Evan Kinley from the city.
Two days earlier, in a similar incident in the area, a domestic help was bitten by a pet dog in the lift when she was going for work.
Tailpiece: Sometimes appearing to outnumnber men and women on the streets, the stray dogs are turning more and more daring with sections of anti-social elements out there to feed and protect them in order to find a window for their unfulfilled love! There is an all-pervading feeling of lack of authority.
Ankit Tiwari had told the employee that “instructions had been received
from the Prime Minister’s Office to conduct an enquiry” and reopen the
“already disposed of” case and asked him to appear before the ED office
at Madurai on October 30, DVAC said. The doctor was allegedly
threatened with arrest and told to pay a bribe of Rs 3 cr to avoid the ED
probe, which was later negotiated down to Rs 50 lakh.
Tailpiece: We are made to believe RBI, CBI, ED, Judiciary as sacrosanct
and all others like railways, transport, revenue, education, PWD
departments are composed of us the mortals, absolutely corrupt! As if in
the sacrosanct places the angels descend from the heavens to work in the
night and fly away before day-break! Let's be true to ourselves, we are all
cut from the same cloth.
Apart from cash, Gill had also taken three planes as bribe and two of them
were leased out to Redbird Aviation Academy. With the result, flying
schools compromised on safety requirements and trainers met with
accidents several times.
Five people were arrested from a banquet hall in Sector 51 Noida on Thursday
where they were called to hold a rave party in a trap laid by the animal
rights group, PFA. They named Yadav but he was not present.
Betting through Dubai-based Mahadev Book in India is conducted through a countrywide network. Probes reveal that the online gambling is worth several millions and top politicians, officials and celebs have been beneficiaries.
TAILPIECE: Polling dates for some States are round the corner. Top
politicians have begun their acrimonious debate who looted more, even as
Mahadev is washing their dirty laundry in the open ghat. Come what may,
one needs to seize power to amass "thy wretched pelf!" One simple
question is, why else one should spend lakhs or crores to get elected! A
question every Indian should ask to oneself at least once a day!
His inaction amounts to defeating the rights of the people of the State to
welfare measures sought to be implemented through the Bills, the Kerala
Government's petition submitted, while the State of Tamil Nadu remarked
that its "Governor is acting as a political rival."
Tailpiece: Coming up back to back, the petitions in their totality seem to question the provision of Raj Bhavan, and not motives of a Governor as a
person.
Hundreds of cars piled up behind the wreckage of crashes occurring one
after other in backing up - continuous crashes to the rhythm of metallic
clanks and bangs back to back. According to reports, some ops required
'Jaws of Life' to pull apart the mangled cars to save lives inside.
The pilots struggled with Emerson to thwart a shut-off as he reached for
the T-handles (see pix). Later he admitted to police he had taken
psychedelic mushrooms and had a "nervous breakdown."
Doctors reasoned how the incidence of heart attacks is spiking over time and
advise the simple way to play safely is to take a break and rehydrate
yourself.
But how come ten people, including children, die of cardiac arrest at
Garba in 24 hours, and that at different places of Gujarat? Garba had been going on
for six days, and every year it is celebrated.
Shocking news from the UK: Leading grocers have started bribing policemen with free food and drinks to persuade them to take action against shoplifters.
Shoplifting has risen by about 27 per cent in 10 major cities across the UK
this year. The cost of retail crime last year was $2.15 billion. Besides, “We
are seeing organised gangs threatening staff with weapons and emptying
stores," Helen Dickinson, chief executive of the British Retail Consortium,
said. Data shows that the police failed to respond to 73 per cent of serious
retail crimes that included assault and abuse of workers, apart from
shoplifting.
Harris said hip-hop is “the ultimate American art form” that “shapes every
aspect of American popular culture.” “Hip-hop culture is American
culture,” she said in a talk at her official residence at the US Naval
Observatory in Washington, D.C.
The social media had mixed reaction. There was much appreciation that
she dances better than any VP in American history. But some called her
"moves" as “cringe” while others did not like her pink pants - "pink pants
don’t look good.” In fact, her ensembles have always been incongruous.
"Let’s see how the (Governor's) Vice-Chancellors are given salary."
Mamata's extreme statements will put the Marxist Government in Kerala,
which is also facing similar issues, to shame. Has she begun the
countdown for a war on the streets?
It's true Mamata has come to see a conspiracy to demolish the established systems across the country, but lacks the ability to foresee what exactly is being pushed.
Brandishing a sword, Mahant Paramhans told reporters on Tuesday he
himself will behead MK Stalin's son for his remarks against Sanatan
Dharma in case nobody came forward to accept his offer he made in his
video. Udhayanidhi reacted to the saint's Monday video, "I will speak
more. I am the grandson of the artist who put his head on the rail track for
Tamil Nadu."
Somanath elaborated, "I am an explorer. I explore the Moon. I explore the inner
space. So it's a part of the journey of my life to explore both science and
spirituality. So I visit many temples and I read many scriptures. So try to find the
meaning of our existence and our journey in this cosmos. So it's a part of the
culture that we are all built to explore, find out the inner self as well as outer
self. So for the outer, I do science, for the inner I come to temples." (See videos)
Rao the mathematical legend had fathered the path-breaking Rao-Blackwell
theorem, one of the most important theorems in mathematical statistics, at the
age of 25. That brought him global fame. He is also famous for his Cramér-Rao
Bound inequality theorem relating to quality of estimators in statistics which has
had a profound bearing on applications of modern economics and several other
diverse fields. Simply put, with the pioneering statistician computation became a
tool to analyse even socio-economic challenges of modern times.
The alleged incident has received such a flash publicity that a standardised
city's hugely middle class population will have second thoughts about eating
outside for some time. Now everything on the table looks suspicious!
“All subjects directly connected to the people should be shifted to the State List. Particularly the subject of education. Only if this is done can cruel exams like NEET be abolished,” Stalin said. Education was moved from the State List to the Concurrent List with the 42nd Constitution Amendment made by the Central Government in 1976.
Decentralisation has been at the core of Tamil politics since the times of CN Annadurai. Stalin indicated there will be political changes in the offing.
TAILPIECE: While the Centre and the States are at loggerheads, it takes a
different cognitive acumen to know that entrance tests are not the way for
students' admission to courses.