MAY 2000:




31st - GANSU, CHINA - HEAVIEST RAINS IN 150 YEARS.

31st - BANGLADESH - FLOODING - At least 70,000 people were left stranded when the Manu and Dholai rivers burst their banks after four days of pounding monsoon rains. Weekend storms killed at least 15 people and left another 200 injured.

31st - AUSTRALIA - ONE OF THE WORST COLD SPELLS IN LIVING MEMORY - 2 DEAD - Both victims were crushed by falling trees laden with snow. Although it is officially still autumn, the cold front spread across Victoria, Tasmania and South Australia. Flooding and fallen trees continue to wreak havoc and black ice and snow also remain a problem. The bitter cold caused demands for gas and electricity to reach record levels for the third consecutive day.

31st - GUATEMALA - MUDSLIDE - 13 DEAD - 23 injured.

30th - U.S. - WILDFIRES
- Another wildfire struck in NEW MEXICO and forced the evacuation of residents about 45 miles from where the largest wildfire in the history of New Mexico burned out of control earlier this month.
-High temperatures and dry conditions caused by weeks of drought fueled a rash of at least 46 wildfires that burned across FLORIDA during the weekend.
- A wildfire sparked when lightning hit ARIZONA's Kendrick Mountain Wilderness last week continued to roar through the Kaibab National Forest during the weekend, burning more than 4,100 acres.

30th - CONGO - TORRENTIAL RAINS - 13 DEAD - a vast amount of property was damaged by torrential rains. Nearly 5,000 homes were destroyed by the pounding rains, which swept automobiles into nearby Lake Kivu.

30th - NETHERLANDS - STORMS - 3 DEAD - powerful storms, packing winds of up to 80 mph hit Northern Europe. More rain is predicted for the next 2 days.

30th - BANGLADESH - FIERCE STORM - 15 DEAD - The onset of the southwest monsoon season unleashed a fierce storm that left 200 injured as it lashed the capital of Dhaka. Death toll is expected to rise.

30th - CHINA - LIGHTNING - 5 DEAD - three others left injured during the first two weeks of May. The region is prone to lightning strikes in which an average of 40 to 50 people are killed annually.

25th - WESTERN U.S. - HEATWAVE - bringing record temperatures up to triple digits. In many places, the intense heat led to closed sidewalk cafes, melted mountain snow and pleas for energy conservation.

24th - SOMALIA - FLOODING - At least 6,000 people have been displaced by further flooding caused after the Shabelle River burst its banks.

25th - CHINA - ENCROACHING DESERT - Three desert areas are rapidly encroaching on China's capital Beijing, unnerving officials and prompting them to put an emergency campaign in place. The record number of 12 major dust storms that scoured northern China this year has increased the region of desert that is advancing toward Beijing at more than a mile a year. One of the three deserts targeted by the officials is a mere 120 miles away from the capital city.

25TH - JAPAN - HAIL STORM - At least 108 people sustained injuries and more than 4,000 homes were damaged when hail larger than golf balls pounded parts of the country for an hour.

25TH -THE PACIFIC OCEAN - VOLCANO FORMING A NEW ISLAND - it formed within sight of an international team of amazed geologists. Scientists filmed the eruption of the undersea Kavachi Volcano and the birth of the new volcanic island in the Bismarck Sea, 22 miles north of the Solomon Islands. The group had arrived at Kavachi to study what they believed to be a dormant undersea volcano only to find it fully erupting.


22nd - TAIWAN - EARTHQUAKE PREDICTED BY EARTHWORMS? - The sight of masses of earthworms crawling out of the ground sparked panic among the population who now fear another devastating earthquake may soon strike the island.

22nd - BANGLADESH - TORNADO -2 DEAD - two dozen others left injured - hundreds of homes in the region have been leveled.

21st - COLUMBIA - FLOODS AND MUDSLIDES - 21 DEAD - left another 15,000 homeless - more heavy rains predicted.

21st - SICILY - MOUNT ETNA VOLCANO ERUPTED - Lava, smoke and ash spewed into the Italian sky. Lava coursed several hundred yards down the northern flanks of the mountain as smoke and ash shot out from a northeastern crater.

18th - WEST TIMOR, INDONESIA - FLOODING - 125 DEAD - inundated hundreds of homes.

18th - PHILIPPINES - FLOODING - 6 DEAD - Two days of downpours forced more than 100,000 to flee their homes.

17th - FLORIDA - DROUGHT & WILDFIRES - So far this year, 2,800 wildfires have claimed nearly 82,000 acres (32,800 hectares) in Florida as rising temperatures and continued lack of rain are making portions of the state tinder dry. There has been almost no rain in many areas of the state since January.

17th - MEXICO - DROUGHT & WILDFIRES - The Mexican government on Wednesday designated seven states disaster areas because of drought and forest fires. Rainfall in various parts was less than 50 percent of the historical average for more than two consecutive months. The states of Durango, Guerrero, Jalisco, Morelos and Zacatecas were hit by almost 1,000 forest fires between January and April of this year.


16th - TAIWAN - 6 MODERATE EARTHQUAKES - 4 DEAD - 12 people were injured and 39 others stranded after landslides blocked mountain roads. Last September, a 7.6-magnitude quake jolted the same region, killing about 2,400 people and destroying thousands of homes. Since then, more than 12,000 aftershocks and tremors have rattled Taiwan.

16th - ECUADOR - TUNGURAHUA VOLCANO - A steady glow from the crater could mean the volcano is near violent eruption.

16th - ARGENTINA - FLOODING - 4 DEAD - 25,000 evacuated - three days of heavy rains and gusting winds bowled over trees. Tuesday's downpour which brought the month's total rainfall to 12.9 inches, short of 13.1 inches that fell in May 1985, which set a record for the century. More rain is forecast.

16th - GRAND CANYON - WILDFIRE GROWS - ignited last month on the North Rim of the Grand Canyon as a controlled burn, it has burned more than 8,500 acres and remained uncontained on Monday. Although the fire was 20 percent contained within the park boundaries, it continued to move northeast into Forest Service lands.

16th - PAPUA NEW GUINEA - RECORD-SETTING RAINFALL - 1 DEAD - disrupted power and transportation throughout the region.

15th - ALASKA - SHISHALDIN VOLCANO - ERUPTION LEVEL RAISED TO GREEN - There has been an increase in low-frequency events The Shishaldin Volcano is one of the most active volcanoes in the Aleutian arc. It has erupted at least 29 times since 1775. The most recent eruptive period occurred in April-May 1999.

15th - MEXICO - FLOODING - 7 DEAD - and another left missing in the incessant rains that battered Mexico during the weekend. . The torrential rains heralded the beginning of Mexico's rainy season, when heavy downpours frequently trigger devastating floods. Last year, at least 425 people were killed and another 200,000 made homeless following days of pounding rain that caused widespread flooding.

15th - ETHIOPIA - CONTINUING DROUGHT - MILLIONS OF ANIMALS DEAD - worsening the impending humanitarian crisis facing the famine-hit region.

14th - NEW MEXICO - WILDFIRES CONTINUE - Months of drought in New Mexico have left the state vulnerable to outbreaks like the Los Alamos fire. Though the fire season has just begun, already more than 200,000 acres have burned — nearly four times the total for all of last year.

13th - NORTHERN INDIA - POWERFUL STORMS - 8 DEAD.

13th - ECUADOR - TUNGURAHUA VOLCANO ERUPTION - spewed stone and ash into the Andean sky and panicked residents in the city of Balos at the base of the mountain. A number of powerful explosions sent a stream of volcanic rock and mud cascading down the flanks of Tungurahua, and burning rock melted snow that covered the sides of the mountain, unleashing mudslides.


12th - CHILE, ARGENTINA - 7.0 EARTHQUAKE - 1 DEAD.

12th - FRANCE - DEADLY STORMS - 1 DEAD - A woman was killed when she was thrown from her car as it was swept into a cafe window by floods triggered by violent thunderstorms. The storm raged through the region north of Rouen and into the Austreberthe Valley where floodwaters unleashed a wall of mud.

11th - NEW MEXICO - WILDFIRE OUT OF CONTROL - Entire City of Los Alamos Evacuated on Wednesday and Thursday as an out-of-control wildfire spread into a canyon and to city homes. Meteorologists predict the fire could become even stronger on Thursday, as winds up to 60 mph and dry conditions fan the flames.

11th - MICHIGAN AND INDIANA - SEVERE STORMS - 2 DEAD - Severe storms, packing hail and winds up to 70 mph, knocking down trees and leaving almost 200,000 people without power.

11th - CAMBODIA - LIGHTNING - 4 DEAD - 2 farmers killed and four others left with serious burns. A woman was killed instantly as she attempted to turn off a television set during the storm. Her husband sustained serious injuries when the TV suddenly exploded during the strike. Another man died after being felled by a bolt of lightning as he was working in a rice mill.

9th - U.S. - SIZZLING HEAT WAVE - set record temperatures in Texas during the weekend and spread across the eastern half of the United States to New England on Monday, prompting authorities in many of the stricken regions to issue heat stroke and air quality warnings.

9th - NEW MEXICO - WILDFIRES - Hundreds of people fled from their homes as one of two wildfires burning continued to spread across more than 5,000 acres.


9th - TURKEY - EARTHQUAKES - two earthquakes damaged at least 200 homes and caused a child to sustain a head injury from a falling brick.

9th - IWO JIMA - TYPHOON DAMREY - Typhoon Damrey continued to intensify. The storm was packing winds of 127 mph, which were predicted to strengthen until Wednesday and then slowly begin to weaken. This is the season's first typhoon in the western Pacific.

8th - CHINA - LANDSLIDES - 26 DEAD - triggered by torrential rainfall. Two other victims of the severe storms were killed by lightning strikes. More than 120,000 people in Guangdong have been affected by the series of storms.

8th - NIGERIA - FREAK HIGH WINDS - At least 300 homes and a wide swath of cropland were destroyed when freak high winds hit the region. It leveled the cities of Umualoma, Ndimoko, and Akaeme Ohia Uchu in the state of Imo, knocking down electrical pylons, disrupting power supplies, and uprooting orchards of mangoes, pears, and breadfruit. The destruction was the worst since the 1967-1970 civil war.

7th - MISSOURI -FLOODING - 2 DEAD - 15 inches of rain fell in six hours, dozens of homes ruined by flash floods and rising waters, tens of millions of dollars in damage.

6th - OKLAHOMA - FLOODING - 1 DEAD.

5th - PAPUA NEW GUINEA - LANDSLIDE - 4 MISSING - landslide at the Grasberg copper and gold mine was caused by heavy rain.


4TH - INDONESIA - 6.5 EARTHQUAKE AND TSUNAMI - 35 DEAD - at least 148 people were injured, with 43 in serious condition, hundreds of houses destroyed. Indications are that the quake caused a crack on the seabed around the seaport."

3rd - COLORADO - LANDSLIDE - At least nine homes in an upscale area of Colorado Springs have been damaged in a landslide, causing authorities to warn against any new construction in the region. The expensive homes near The Broadmoor in El Paso County are threatened by an ongoing 200-acre landslide. Local geologists and engineers have known about the slide for some time, but the region has recently received renewed attention after heavy rains last year triggered more land movement.

3rd - BANGLADESH - STORM - 28 DEAD - 100 others were left missing after two river ferries capsized during a storm with winds up to 44 mph.

2ND - INDIA - DROUGHT - 43 DEAD - Eleven of India's 31 states face a water crisis, as a severe drought threatens at least 50 million people in that nation. Half the area's 8000 wells have dried up in the past week.

1st - CHINA - TERMITE DAMAGE - At least 51 of the 65 dams in central China's Hubei Province have been tunneled through by termites, creating a threat to the structural integrity of the reservoirs. One of the insects' nests found in the Xiao'ao Reservoir near the provincial capital Wuhan was big enough for a small car to fit inside.

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