Environment

Days after Hurricane Maria passed over the island and made its way west toward the Dominican Republican, Puerto Rico is still struggling with the initial response to the storm – rescuing people stranded in remote villages, and moving thousands into government shelters. Meanwhile the island's first responders are making due without electricity, gas or cell phone service after the storm dealt a knockout blow to its infrastructure.

In what may be the latest major escalation involving North Korea - and potentially the nation's 7th nuclear test - China's earthquake administration said it detected a magnitude 3.5 earthquake in North Korea, which it suspects "was caused by an explosion", raising fears that the rogue state has tested another nuclear bomb.

With electricity and cell phone service still offline across most of hurricane-damaged island, NBC reports that a dam in northwest Puerto Rico has failed, causing even more flash flooding and prompting emergency evacuations.

Guajataca Dam operators said it failed at 2:10 pm ET, prompting the NWS to issue a flash flood emergency warning for Isabela and Quebradillas municipalities.

"This is an EXTREMELY DANGEROUS SITUATION. Busses are currently evacuating people from the area as quickly as they can," NWS San Juan said.

A major, M5.7 earthquake has struck off the coast of Northern California, just days after a devastating M7.1 quake hit Mexico, resulting in hundreds dead and at least 50 buildings collapsed. The initial quake was quickly followed by a second one coming in at a magnitude of 5.6, which hit closer to shore, the USGS said.

While the quake was luckily too far offshore to cause any damage, the Sacramento Bee writes that after Tuesday’s devastating earthquake in Mexico and the following smaller quakes that shook parts of California, "the West Coast is bracing for the worst."

Residents of Southern California were stunned yesterday morning when their avocado toast breakfast was suddenly interrupted by an ominous "end-of-world prediction" that took over their TV's, interrupting their normal programming for a full minute.  Among other things, the broadcast predicted that "extremely violent times will come."

“Realize this, that in the last day extremely violent times will come."

 

"The term means hard.  Harsh. Hard to deal with.  Vicious. Dangerous. Menacing."