The US east coast was just rocked by a 5.8 earthquake on Tuesday and is hunkering down for Hurricane Irene on Sunday. The only thing missing from this natural disaster trifecta: tornadoes.
Golf ball-sized hail. Intense, gusting wind smashing the ground and spreading out, pushing everything in its way. Torrential downpour making it impossible to see anything farther than an inch away. My god, microbursts are previews for the apocalypse.
It’s hard to believe that this beauty can cause so much grief and damage, but from space even the deadliest of natural disasters always looks strangely soothing and mesmerising. Those explosions of clouds seem to come from Earth herself.
Alabama’s Brown’s Ferry nuclear plant, the second-largest in the US, lost power as a result of yesterday’s huge tornado that ripped through Tuscaloosa. Thankfully, it shut down as designed, averting a crisis like the one in Fukushima. [Reuters]
