Leveled: Texas Town Decimated by Factory Explosion All But Forgotten

The small town of West, Texas, is struggling valiantly to rebuild after a massive explosion at a fertilizer plant virtually decimated the entire community on Wednesday, a struggle that has been almost over-looked and forgotten by the nation at large as the focus has been on the equally horrific Boston Marathon bombings and subsequent death and capture of two suspects connected to the attack this week.

The powerful blast—which measured as a small earthquake on seismographs across the country—leveled the fertilizer plant and destroyed or damaged homes and businesses in a two mile radius and was felt and heard over fifty miles away. The official death toll in the explosion is now at 14, with at least 60 people still unaccounted for or missing. The number of people injured in the blast is well over two hundred, while 24 of those remain in critical condition. At least five of the people listed as missing were volunteer firefighters responding to calls of an emergency situation at the plant, which was cited in 2006 for not obtaining proper permits.

Witnesses at the scene describe the area as looking as if it were a war zone and extremely chaotic in the first hours after the explosion. Nearby communities were evacuated while the danger of toxic smoke coming from the explosion was assessed, with fear that yet more of the fertilizer stored in the factory could ignite another massive blast. One of the casualties was an elderly man who died while being evacuated from a nearby nursing home. Amateur video taken by local residents show the incredible force of the detonation, which emitted a deafening roar. A large mushroom-shaped cloud was photographed rising from the blast zone, prompting many residents to believe the area was under a nuclear attack.

While details of what precisely caused the blast remain sketchy, an undoubtedly lengthy investigation of the disaster has already begun in earnest.  In the meantime, the 2,800 residents of the tight-knit community are pulling together as best they can to recover from the tragedy, virtually out of the national spotlight, as the US and world media feverishly reported on the terrorist attack in Boston and the sensational capture and killing of the prime suspects Dzhokhar Tsarnaev and his brother Tamerlan Tsarnaev in Watertown, Massachusetts, on Friday.

Texas governor Rick Perry has toured the scene and declared the area a disaster zone, which immediately releases government funding and federal assistance to local citizens and businesses to rebuild and help cope with the aftermath and enormous clean-up effort. The tragedy raised fears of another U.S. terror attack just days after the Boston bombs that killed three people, and  ahead of the 20th anniversary of the Waco siege of the Branch Davidian sect that ended with the death of David Koresh and 85 other people in 1995. Waco is only nineteen miles from the town of West, Texas. Public officials and authorities are assuring that there is no connection between the plant explosion and the anniversaries of both the Waco, Texas, siege and the Oklahoma City bombing, which were both on April 19:

Deluge: "Tsunami of Rain" That Hit Argentina Disaster "Without Historical Precedent"

Buenos Aires, Argentina, is still reeling after an epic rain storm dumped an unimaginable amount of water on the metropolis of almost three million people more than two days ago.

The catastrophic rainstorm swept over the Argentine capital and the neighboring city of La Plata, releasing a "deluge without historical precedent" according to Daniel Scioli, the governor of Buenos Aires Province,  who has surveyed the damage. As of now, there are 54 confirmed fatalities directly related to the storm, which also brought extremely high winds along with heavy rains to the region. Streets and boulevards across the capital of Buenos Aires quickly turned into raging rivers, which swept away cars, people and anything else in their paths. A worker trying to make repairs to the city's Metro system was electrocuted.

More than six inches of rain fell upon the area in less than two hours, which rapidly overtook all drainage systems throughout the area. More rain fell on the area in one day than would normally fall for more than one month, local meteorologists are reporting. People became trapped in their cars as flood waters traveled at lightning speeds down streets. Some of the dead were elderly people who became trapped in their homes, unable to escape the flood waters.

Power was still out to over 250,000 homes in the capital as of  Wednesday afternoon.
Around 2,200 victims have been evacuated from La Plata, a city of 750,000 residents. Some families reported to local media that they had spent Tuesday night on the roofs of their houses waiting to be rescued.

Addendum: Could the Argentina flooding, along with the recent "unprecedented" floods that have taken place in Italy, Greece, Kenya and Mauritius over the past few weeks be a part of what the Webbot Project has predicted regarding "biblical flooding events"? The data regarding the intense "deluges" has initially been interpreted to be caused (at least in part) by anticipated comet or asteroid impacts in the oceans this year, which would perhaps create a "forty days and forty nights" of rain as written about in the biblical story of Noah and the Arc. Could "unknown energies" be creating the "atmospheric rivers of moisture" spoken about in previous ALTA reports?

Powerful Earthquake Causes Killer Tsunami in the Solomon Islands

A tsunami has hit the South Pacific  nation of the Solomon Islands after a powerful earthquake measuring 8.0 on the Richter scale struck the nearby Santa Cruz Islands.

The quake struck early Tuesday at a very shallow depth of only five km (three miles) and was located 340 km (211 miles) east of Kira Kira in the Solomons, the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center in Hawaii said. Initially, tsunami alerts and warnings were issued for a wide swathe of the South Pacific following the major temblor, with the countries of Australia, New Zealand and Indonesia also placed under the alert as a precautionary measure.

News sources from the Solomon's are stating that a tsunami measuring approximately .09 meters struck the island shortly after the earthquake occurred. The tsunami has devastated the town of Lata, where hundreds of homes were washed away. At present, five deaths have been reported, but many people are still listed as missing. Essential services such as water and electricity have been cut to the islands due to the earthquake and tsunami.

Officials with the government have stated that there is news of several ships with significant crews being swept out to sea by the destructive surge of the tsunami. Powerful aftershocks continue to be recorded following the earthquake, and areas of Lata township are still partially underwater as the surge waters have been slow to recede.

Today's catastrophe comes only six years after the devastating earthquake and tsunami combination that hit the region in 2007. The 8.1 earthquake triggered a significantly larger tsunami which measured at least ten feet. That event left 52 people dead and thousands of citizens homeless.

Killer Storm Leaves at Least 540 Dead, Thousands More Missing in the Philippines

Photo Credit: Associated Press

One of the worst typhoons in decades slashed a devastating path across the Philippines over the weekend, leaving death and catastrophic destruction in its horrific wake.

Reports coming out of the Asian nation say that at least 540 deaths from the killer storm have been confirmed, with thousands more people still missing. Typhoon Washi, with winds gusting up to 90 miles per hour, hit the island of Mindanao late on Friday, bringing torrential rain that also grounded many domestic flights and left wide areas without electricity and other essential services.The heavy rains also triggered flash floods and deadly landslides, which swept away entire villages, leaving automobiles, homes and buildings that withstood the powerful onslaught in several feet of mud and standing water. 


The worst hit area of the country were the cities of Iligan and Cagayan de Oro, where homes were swept into the sea with their residents still trapped inside. Rescue crews and local residents made desperate and dramatic attempts to save individuals caught in the maelstrom, pulling  people out of collapsed buildings and rushing streams of water. A large majority of the missing and dead are feared to be young children, unable to fight the quick-moving waters to reach safety.


UK and US embassies were urging their citizens to avoid non-essential travel in the Philippines due to the disaster, as both governments pledge to send money and relief to help people living in the area.

Hydro-Cars: Honda Automobile Plant in Thailand Underwater

Photo Credit: The Huffington Post

Now would be a good time to get the much-maligned hydro-automobile off the ground, so to speak. A Honda manufacturing plant in Thailand has been left under water by the catastrophic and record-breaking flooding in the Asian nation.

The plant, located north of the Thai capital Bangkok, was first inundated with flood waters a month ago, and still remains beneath several feet of water. "The whole area is now a big lake," said Honda manager Hideto Maehara, after traveling to Thailand to view the devastation. The flooding has left more than five-hundred people dead and cost the Thai economy billions of dollars in lost revenues. Hundreds of thousands of citizens have been forced from their homes and are living in temporary shelters until the flood waters recede. If the flood waters recede...

The news is a hard break for the automobile manufacturer. The devastating March 11th earthquake and tsunami in Japan wiped out several key factories responsible for making crucial parts in the manufacturing process. Experts say that the flooding in Thailand has halted the production of more than 90,000 automobiles, with no end in sight.

More rain is in the forecast for the area over the next several days.