Brand new music from | NAY WA MITEGO-GOOD TIME | New, Listen, Download and Share
DOWNLOAD | NAY WA MITEGO-GOOD TIME | [AUDIO)
Monday, August 15, 2016
Sunday, August 14, 2016
Saturday, August 13, 2016
Lost in space: The search for alien life has been unsuccessful — maybe we’re just going about it wrong
NASA does not often crack jokes about aliens, but its recent announcement that a satellite camera had found “Martian Morse code” in the shape of sand dunes on the Red Planet’s surface inspired much mirth among space scientists.
Nathalie Cabrol, director of the Carl Sagan Center at the SETI (Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence) Institute, which searches for alien messages, laughed out loud at the thought.
“Tell me about it,” she said sarcastically.
If only contact with aliens, if they exist, were so simple. This was just dirt shaped by wind, as NASA itself eventually conceded. Just as the wealthy American polymath astronomer Percival Lowell did not actually see canals on Mars in 1906, so too is this latest bit of Martian clickbait a figment of a rich human imagination, reflecting our desire to find patterns in chaos. But it is also revealing of a deep philosophical problem in the search for extraterrestrial intelligence, an all-or-nothing scientific gamble that is now at a crisis point.
The problem, as Cabrol describes it in a provocative new research paper, is that human scientists have only ever looked for other versions of themselves.
By scanning the heavens for the same sort of messages we ourselves sent out in the 1970s — from the Arecibo radio transmission with encoded details of arithmetic and chemistry to the engraved plaques launched on Pioneer with rudimentary sketches of a man and woman, and the Voyager golden record with music by Mozart and Chuck Berry — we have, basically, been searching blind.
NASAMartian sand dunes form a dot and dash formation that could represent Morse code. Well, not really.
“It is not a mistake. This is where we had to start,” said Cabrol, an astrobiologist and planetary geologist with a background in environmental science and the development of Mars rovers. “But we should not stay constrained or confined to that.”
“To find aliens, we must become the aliens,” she said. To that end, she described the tactical change she wants to make to the basic approach of research at SETI, which applies scientific rigour to a question — the possibility of life on other planets — that is more commonly associated with sweaty conspiracy theorists and flaky fantasists.
She described SETI’s current main strategy of looking for non-natural patterns in electromagnetic signals from other Earth-like planets as a “shot in the dark.”
“You don’t know exactly what you are looking for, or even if you found something, because you cannot recognize it,” she said.
Handout/The SETI InstituteNathalie Cabrol, director of the Carl Sagan Center at the SETI Institute: “To find aliens, we must become the aliens.”
She said the response has been enthusiastic. One criticism has come from intelligent design theorists, who believe humans were created supernaturally, not by natural physical and evolutionary processes. They conclude from this that we are probably unique in the universe.
An editorial by the Discovery Institute on Cabrol’s idea, for example, compares SETI researchers to cultish fanatics searching for ghosts, who “refuse to take non-detection as an answer … Despite continued failures, SETI is unlikely to cave anytime soon. Its motivations are too deeply grounded in evolutionary ideology. The believers think it too incredible to imagine humans as unique or exceptional in such a vast universe. To be sure, this ‘gut feeling’ extends outside evolutionary circles. But where is the evidence?”
The positive responses have generated the most excitement. For example Rene Heller, an astrophysicist at the Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research in Germany, recently of McMaster University, has proposed a strategy in line with Cabrol’s interdisciplinary thinking. His idea is that, because we often detect Earth-like planets by observing them pass in front of their own stars, we should assume aliens would find us in the same way. For SETI, that means looking for signals in the thin band of the cosmos called Earth’s Transit Zone, the area from which Earth can be seen passing in front of the Sun, which is only about one-thousandth of the entire sky.
Likewise, Seth Shostak, a senior astronomer with SETI, has proposed using telescopes to look for “biosignatures,” such as oxygen, in the atmospheres of distant Earth-like planets, by analyzing the light they reflect. On this theory, the oxygen content of Earth has been advertising the presence of life here for millions of years. Oxygen is simply a byproduct of photosynthesis, not a sign of intelligent life, but as he put it, “if other worlds can spawn lettuce or maybe just algae, there’s at least some chance that they could also grow something a little more interesting.”
Cabrol’s key point is that Earth bears the cumulative physical effects of all life that ever existed here, and so would any life-bearing alien planet. As she sees it, the only way to investigate that properly is to imagine all the other kinds of ways life might disrupt a planet and its atmosphere. And that takes more kinds of scientists than just radio astronomers and satellite technicians.
“I’m going to go back to my French background here,” Cabrol said. “We had many different Gaul villages all over the place, and the only time we beat Caesar is when they all came together … In the 15 years that I’ve been doing this, I saw how powerful synergies and bridges between disciplines are.”
Seth Shostak, SETISETI’s
current main strategy of looking for non-natural patterns in
electromagnetic signals from other Earth-like planets is described as a
“shot in the dark.”
For SETI, part of the problem is radio astronomers who do not know much about the origins of life, or astrobiologists who do not understand general relativity.
If there are messages out there, the fear is we are failing to recognize them, either because we cannot recognize them, or we are not looking in the right way.
Part of the solution is, like in brain science, major funding pushes. Earlier this year, the Russian venture capitalist Yuri Milner announced a doubling of his $100-million contribution to SETI projects.
The other part is philosophical, a return to first principles. Like the best science, the search for alien life eventually runs up against a deep philosophical question — what is life in the first place?
Donald Trump’s support driven by economic worries, but not for reasons he thinks, massive survey finds
Economic distress and anxiety across working-class white America have become a widely discussed explanation for the success of Donald Trump. It seems to make sense. Trump’s most fervent supporters tend to be white men without college degrees. This same group has suffered economically in our increasingly globalized world, as machines have replaced workers in factories and labor has shifted overseas. Trump has promised to curtail trade and other perceived threats to American workers, including immigrants.
Yet a major new analysis from Gallup, based on 87,000 interviews the polling company conducted over the past year, suggests this narrative is not complete. While there does seem to be a relationship between economic anxiety and Trump’s appeal, the straightforward connection that many observers have assumed does not appear in the data.
According to this new analysis, those who view Trump favorably have not been disproportionately affected by foreign trade or immigration, compared with people with unfavorable views of the Republican presidential nominee. The results suggest that his supporters, on average, do not have lower incomes than other Americans, nor are they more likely to be unemployed.
Yet while Trump’s supporters might be comparatively well off themselves, they come from places where their neighbors endure other forms of hardship. In their communities, white residents are dying younger, and it is harder for young people who grow up poor to get ahead.
The Gallup analysis is the most comprehensive statistical profile of Trump’s supporters so far. Jonathan Rothwell, the economist at Gallup who conducted the analysis, sorted the respondents by their Zip code and then compared those findings with a host of other data from a variety of sources. After statistically controlling factors such as education, age and gender, Rothwell was able to determine which traits distinguished those who favored Trump from those who did not, even among people who appeared to be similar in other respects.
Rothwell’s research includes far more data than past statistical studies of Trump. It also provides a detailed view not only of the people who support him but also of the places where they live. Academics and other analysts will continue to study the Trump phenomenon in months and years to come, and may, of course, reach different explanations.
This research leaves some mysteries unsolved. Something is afflicting the places where Trump’s supporters live, but Trump’s supporters do not exhibit more severe economic distress than do those who view him unfavorably. Perhaps, Rothwell suggests, Trump’s supporters are concerned less about themselves than about how the community’s children are faring. Whatever it is, competition from migrant labor or the decline of factory work appear to be inadequate explanations.
Trump is giving his supporters a misleading account of their ills, Rothwell said. “He says they are suffering because of globalization,” Rothwell said. “He says they’re suffering because of immigration and a diversifying country, but I can’t find any evidence of that.”
Trump’s support does come from a place of adversity, though, and Rothwell said Trump’s prescriptions – tariffs on imported goods, restrictions on immigration and mass deportation – seem disconnected from his voters’ real problems.
“I don’t see how any of those things would help with their health problems, with the lack of intergenerational mobility,” Rothwell said.
Five findings in particular from Rothwell’s work are noteworthy: those related to economic factors such as income, manufacturing and opportunity, as well as his conclusions about health and racial diversity.
DOWNLOAD | OFFICIAL VIDEO | JAH PRAYZAH FT DIAMOND PLATNUMZ-WATORA MARI
DOWNLOAD | OFFICIAL VIDEO |
JAH PRAYZAH FT DIAMOND PLATNUMZ-WATORA MARI
| New, Watch , Download and Share
Friday, August 12, 2016
DULLY SYKES FT HARMONIZE - INDE (OFFICIAL VIDEO )
(OFFICIAL VIDEO ) DULLY SYKES FT HARMONIZE-INDE (IN THE MORNING), Watch, Download and ShareThursday, August 11, 2016
Download | DULLY SYKES FT HARMONIZE-INDE (IN THE MORNING) | New [Mp3 Song ]
Brand new music from DULLY SYKES FT HARMONIZE-INDE (IN THE MORNING), Listen, Download and Share
Lone suspect dead after anti-terror operation in Ontario town
STRATHROY, Ont. — A suspect whom police feared planned to set off a bomb in a major Canadian city was killed Wednesday by police in a Strathroy home.
More details about what the RCMP describe as a “potential terrorism threat” and a possible link to a heavy police presence in a northwest London neighbourhood are expected to be revealed at a news conference Thursday.
The suspect was identified as Aaron Driver. He was originally from Winnipeg and in his mid 20s. A supporter of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, he was the subject of a peace bond after he was detained by RCMP in Winnipeg in June 20
The bond stated there are “reasonable grounds to fear that he may participate, contribute directly or indirectly in the activity of a terrorist group.”
Driver was living in Strathroy. a community of about 20,000 about 40 kilometres west of London.
Driver had detonated a device that injured him and another person, his family said. He had another device that he was going to detonate, which is why police shot him.
In June 2015 in Winnipeg, RCMP sought a peace bond against Driver, also known as Harun Abdurahman, on the grounds he would “participate in or contribute to a terrorist group.”
He had been accused of posting jihadist propaganda on social media sites, some of it supportive of ISIL. Driver eventually agreed to the peace bond but did not face criminal charges.
“I wasn’t too surprised that Harun would face more law enforcement action at some point. He had been warned in the past about his posts,” Prof. Amarnath Amarasingam, who has been studying Canadian foreign fighters for a major research project told the National Post’s Stewart Bell at the time.
“Instead of scaling back his activity, he only became more entrenched in the online network, had multiple backup accounts from which to tweet from in case one got suspended, and never really slowed down.”
THE CANADIAN PRESS/Geoff RobinsPolice keep watch around a house in Strathroy, Ont., on Wednesday.
“With respect to the police and security actions taken in Canada today, I have discussed the situation with the prime minister to confirm that public safety has been and continues to be properly protected,” Goodale said.
“Earlier today, the RCMP received credible information regarding a potential terrorist threat and took action to ensure public safety.”
The RCMP issued a statement about the same time images of police officers and vehicles in Strathroy started circulating on Twitter.
“A suspect was identified and the proper course of action has been taken to ensure that there is no danger to the public’s safety,” the RCMP said.
Wednesday, August 10, 2016
Apple Inc’s new iPhone said to include dual-camera system, pressure-sensitive home button
Apple Inc. is preparing to unveil successors to the iPhone 6S and iPhone 6S Plus as early as next month with more advanced photography capabilities and upgraded hardware in a design similar to that of last year’s models, according to people familiar with the matter.
The standout features will be a dual-camera system on the larger iPhone, a re-engineered home button that responds to pressure with haptic feedback and the removal of the devices’ headphone jack, said the people, who didn’t want to be identified discussing unannounced features. Apple declined to comment.
While iPhone demand has waned in recent quarters, partly due to the lull between product launches, the device continues to be the major source of Apple’s revenue. The new models will be critical to the holiday quarter, and Apple is counting on the phones to prop up sales ahead of an expected iPhone overhaul in 2017, the device’s 10th anniversary.
Apple Inc said to plan first MacBook Pro overhaul in four years with touch-screen keys, fingerprint sensors
Apple Inc. is preparing the first significant overhaul of its MacBook Pro laptop line in over four years, according to people familiar with the matter, using one of its older products to help reverse two quarters of sliding sales.
The updated notebooks will be thinner, include a touch screen strip for function keys, and will be offered with more powerful and efficient graphics processors for expert users such as video gamers, said the people, who asked not to be named.
The new computers have been in advanced testing within Apple since earlier this year, said one of the people, who didn’t want to be identified discussing products before their release. The MacBook Pros aren’t likely to debut at an event currently scheduled for Sept. 7 to introduce next-generation versions of the iPhone, according to one of the people. Apple spokesman Bill Evans declined to comment.
Apple co-founder Steve Jobs heralded tablets as possible laptop replacements by calling the iPad a “post-PC” device after it launched in 2010, but products like the MacBook Pro have shown surprising resilience. Sales of Macs, including the Pro line, rose 6 per cent to US$25.5 billion in the last fiscal year, while iPad sales fell 23 per cent to US$23.2 billion.
U.S. approves $1.15 billion sale of Abrams battle tanks, armored vehicles to Saudi Arabia
WASHINGTON — The U.S. State Department has approved the potential sale of more than 130 Abrams battle tanks, 20 armoured recovery vehicles and other equipment, worth about $1.15 billion, to Saudi Arabia, the Pentagon said on Tuesday.
The approval for land force equipment coincides with Saudi Arabia leading a military coalition in support of Yemeni forces loyal to the exiled government of President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi who are trying to oust Iran-allied Houthi forces from the capital, Sanaa. Human rights groups have criticized the coalition’s air strikes because of the deaths of civilians.
The U.S. Defense Security Cooperation Agency, which implements foreign arms sales, said that General Dynamics will be the principal contractor for the sale.
“This sale will increase the Royal Saudi Land Force’s (RSLF) interoperability with U.S. forces and conveys U.S. commitment to Saudi Arabia’s security and armed forces modernization,” the agency said in a notice to lawmakers posted on its website.
Kansas boy, 10, was decapitated during ‘insane’ ride on world’s tallest waterslide, source says
KANSAS CITY, Kan. — A 10-year-old boy was decapitated as he rode a 51-metre tall waterslide at a water park in Kansas, a person familiar with the investigation said Wednesday.
The person, who is not authorized to speak about the boy’s death, told The Associated Press that Caleb Schwab was decapitated Sunday on the “Verruckt” raft ride at the Schlitterbahn WaterPark in Kansas City, Kansas Caleb, the son of a Kansas lawmaker, was in a raft with two women who were not related to him when he was killed on the ride, which is certified by Guinness World Records as the tallest in the world. The women were treated for facial injuries.
A spokeswoman for the waterpark on Wednesday declined to discuss the circumstances of Caleb’s death.
At least two people who recently rode on “Verruckt” — German for “insane” — have said nylon shoulder straps came loose during the ride. It’s unclear whether the straps played any role in Caleb’s death. Police and Schlitterbahn have not provided any other details.
The park said Tuesday that “a limited portion” of the park would reopen Wednesday, but that “Verruckt” will be closed for the rest of the season.
“Verruckt” riders sit in multi-person rafts that begin with a steep drop, followed by a surge up a second hill before a 50-foot descent to a finishing pool. Each “Verruckt” rider must be at least 54 inches tall, and the combined body weight of the riders on each raft is limited to 400 to 550 pounds.
Riders are harnessed in with two nylon seatbelt-like straps — one that crosses the rider’s lap, the other stretching diagonally like a car shoulder seatbelt. Each strap is held in place by long Velcro-style straps, not by buckles. Riders also hang on to ropes inside the raft.
Ken Martin, a Richmond, Virginia-based amusement park safety consultant, questioned whether the straps were appropriate, suggesting that a more solid restraint system that fits over the body — similar to those used in roller coasters — may have been better.
Muslim flight attendant suing ExpressJet for wrongly suspending her after she refused to serve alcohol
DETROIT — A Muslim flight attendant has sued
ExpressJet, accusing the airline of wrongly suspending her because she
refused to serve alcohol to passengers.
The Council on American-Islamic Relations’
Michigan chapter announced Tuesday it filed the lawsuit last week on
behalf of Charee Stanley, a Detroit-based flight attendant for the
airline headquartered in Atlanta.
The federal court case follows a discrimination
complaint filed last year with the Equal Employment Opportunity
Commission, which dismissed it without determining whether the airline
violated the law.
Stanley alleges ExpressJet didn’t provide a
reasonable religious accommodation and seeks back pay and other damages.
She was placed on unpaid leave last summer.
ExpressJet said in a statement that it values diversity but cannot comment on specific personnel matters or ongoing litigation.
US election: Trump blames media for 'gun threat' row
Republican Donald Trump has blamed
the media after being accused of urging supporters to kill his
Democratic rival for the White House, Hillary Clinton.
The businessman-turned-politician denied incitement and said he was exhorting his supporters to vote.
The comments on Tuesday afternoon sparked a firestorm of criticism.
Some interpreted his comments as a dark suggestion that gun owners could take up arms against Mrs Clinton, while others said they were at the very least irresponsible remarks that could have violent consequences.
The highest-ranked Republican, House Speaker Paul Ryan, said it was an inappropriate joke.
And Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren said it was a death threat by a "pathetic coward" who was sore because he was trailing in the polls to a woman.
Tuesday, August 9, 2016
Download | Shilole-Mtoto Mdogo Ft Man Fongo | New [Mp3 Song ]
Download | Shilole-Mtoto Mdogo Ft Man Fongo | New [Mp3 Song ]
Brand new music from SHILOLE Featuring Singeli Master (MAN FONGO), Listen, Download and Share
Monday, August 8, 2016
Saturday, August 6, 2016
Liverpool destroy Barcelona at Wembley (0-4)
The first half didn't start well. Klopp's players had more pace and Coutinho, Mane and Firmino were incredibly dangerous. It was the forty million signing from Southampton Mané ho opened the score. Ter Stegen, who defended Barcelona's goal in the first half, didn't have any chance to stop him. Arda Turan lost a ball in midfield and from there it all went even worse. Messi had Barcelona's best chance of the match, but his shot hit the post. Suarez had given him a very good assist.
Barcelona were patient, recovered the ball and ended the second half with better feelings. But they started the second one in the worst possible way. Two consecutive goals. Claudio Bravo was in goal by then but he wasn't the one to blame. Barcelona started the second half really slowly and Henderson -with Mascherano's help- and Origi put the 3-0 in a couple of minutes.
With only a few minutes to gol, Grujic scored a header and put the 4-0. A day to forget for Barcelona at Wembley.
Greens remove reference to Jewish group in new policy to revoke status of charities that violate human rights
A last-minute kerfuffle on the convention floor resulted
in an amendment, supported by leader Elizabeth May, to broaden what was
originally a motion to specifically revoke charitable status from the
Jewish National Fund.
Despite accusations that the motion was reduced to a “mere
platitude” and the JNF had bullied May into supporting a “watered-down”
version of the resolution, other Greens suggested it was strengthened
since more organizations’ practices could be examined.
May had told the National Post in June the original motion contained factual errors and she did not support it.
The road to hell is paved with good intentions.
May, despite appearing in a list of “sponsors” of the
resolution, had said she would try to be as persuasive as possible in
asking party members to vote it down.
The submitter of the resolution, Corey Levine, said the
JNF violates international human rights law and the resolution isn’t
without precedent: the Green Parties of England and Wales and Scotland
adopted similar resolutions.
But another member speaking out against the policy characterized it this way: “the road to hell is paved with good intentions.”
The JNF’s Canada branch has held charitable status since
1967. It posted revenues of $29 million in 2014, according to the Canada
Revenue Agency.
The organization, whose supporters have been levying a
robust email campaign against the Greens, says it collects money to use
for development projects in Israel, including parks and community
centres.
But the original Green resolution alleged the JNF is
complicit in the dispossession of land from Palestinians, including
building projects on occupied territory and not allowing the sale or
lease of land to non-Jewish people.
The CEO of JNF Canada, Josh Cooper, defended the
organization in June saying it is recognized as an NGO by the UN and its
projects are open to all Israeli citizens, whatever their religion.
Another resolution being voted on Sunday morning could result in even stronger backlash if adopted.
It would add support for Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions against Israel to the Green policy book.
If it passes, it will put the Green Party at odds with a House of Commons motion from earlier this year.
In February, the House passed a Conservative motion
229-to-51, with strong Liberal support, condemning the “demonization and
delegitimization of the State of Israel” and any actions by Canadian
groups or individuals to promote the BDS movement.
May wasn’t in Ottawa the day the motion passed but has
said she wouldn’t have voted in favour because of freedom of speech
concerns.
Syria rebels 'break government siege' of Aleppo
Rebel factions in Syria say they
have broken a weeks-long government siege of Aleppo, amid scenes of
rejoicing in the crucial northern city.
Sources close to
government forces denied that they had been pushed aside and said they
had driven the rebels back from an artillery base.UK-based opposition activists say the rebels have indeed managed to link up with their comrades in eastern Aleppo.
But the rebels have so far failed to establish a secure route, they add.
The rebel coalition includes an al-Qaeda affiliated group.
Government forces cut Aleppo's rebel-held areas off in July, with some 250,000 people living under siege.
Rami Abdel Rahman, head of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a UK-based opposition news service, said the rebels had broken the siege but the route was "not fully secure yet".
On Friday, the rebel groups said they had stormed an artillery base in the city.
But the Syrian army said it had repelled the assault and inflicted heavy casualties on the rebels.
Meanwhile, a US-backed alliance of Kurdish and Arab fighters seized most of Manbij - a key Syrian city - from so-called Islamic State.
Friday, August 5, 2016
Thursday, August 4, 2016
Tuesday, August 2, 2016
Monday, August 1, 2016
Russian helicopter shot down, killing five on board
A Russian military helicopter has
been shot down in Syria killing all five on board - the deadliest single
incident for Russia's military since its air campaign began last
September.
The Mi-8 transporter was brought down by rebels, Russia says, in northern Idlib province.It was returning from delivering humanitarian aid to the besieged city of Aleppo, the defence ministry said.
It is not clear which group brought the helicopter down.
An alliance of forces, including hardline jihadist factions, is the dominant power in Idlib.
Jabhat Fateh al-Sham (formerly known as Jabhat al-Nusra) is among those active in the province, and so-called Islamic State has vowed to carry out jihad against Russian forces.
The helicopter was carrying three crew and two officers.
Pictures on social media, purportedly of the latest Russian helicopter downing, showed burning wreckage and bodies, with armed men milling around.
Footage showed at least one body being dragged away. Another is seen apparently being trampled on.
Great finishing Mbwana Samata KRC Genk vs Oostend
Sunday, July 31, 2016
Heavy rains flood parts of Fort McMurray, closing roads and causing power outages
After
going through hell, Fort McMurray is going through high water, as heavy
morning rainfall floods parts of Gregoire, downtown and Thickwood.
People who had spent weeks clearing smoke fumes out of their homes woke up to flooded basements and leaking roofs. The high waters formed pools on the road that are deep and wide enough to make regular traffic impossible.
Roads throughout the city have been closed, as work crews scramble to divert flooding with barriers and use vacuum trucks to suck up the rising waters. Power outages have been reported across the city.
For the first time since May’s wildfires, the municipality activated the Regional Emergency Operations Centre around 11 a.m. A state of emergency has not been declared by any level of government.
Flooding has closed Gregoire Drive and Mackenzie Boulevard, as well as Morrison North. The bypass along Memorial southbound is becoming impassable. Traffic lights have lost power, meaning intersections are to be treated as four-way stops.
Roads that have no barricades but are flooded should be avoided; the ground underneath will likely be slippery and could have unseen debris.
Environment Canada is warning low-lying areas will continue to see localized flooding, and washouts near rivers, creeks and culverts should be avoided. Campers should move away from low-lying areas.
“It looks like this summer wants everyone saying we’re Fort McMurray strong to see how strong that is,” said Lester Defina, a Gregoire resident who spent Sunday morning laying a tarp over the roof of his mobile home. The 33-year-old man had recently removed smoke fumes from his home after May’s wildfire.
“I figured I should cover the roof before the wind and rain gets even worse,” he said. “If I have to evacuate again, I hope this time I remember to close the window.”
Earlier Saturday afternoon, Environment Canada issued rainfall warnings for the entire municipality except Fort Chipewyan, as well as parts of Lac La Biche County.
In an update posted at 10:38 a.m. Sunday, Environment Canada anticipates between 30 and 40 millimetres of rainfall will fall on most of the area. Yet, thunderstorms will localize even heavier rains, meaning some areas could have up to 100 millimetres of rainfall.
Fort McMurray, Wabasca and Slave Lake are expected to see the heaviest rainfall, although there is uncertainty regarding where intensity will be highest.
People who had spent weeks clearing smoke fumes out of their homes woke up to flooded basements and leaking roofs. The high waters formed pools on the road that are deep and wide enough to make regular traffic impossible.
Roads throughout the city have been closed, as work crews scramble to divert flooding with barriers and use vacuum trucks to suck up the rising waters. Power outages have been reported across the city.
For the first time since May’s wildfires, the municipality activated the Regional Emergency Operations Centre around 11 a.m. A state of emergency has not been declared by any level of government.
No evacuations, mandatory or voluntary, have been announced for any area of Wood Buffalo, although the municipality is asking people to restrict travel and respect any barricades.
Flooding has closed Gregoire Drive and Mackenzie Boulevard, as well as Morrison North. The bypass along Memorial southbound is becoming impassable. Traffic lights have lost power, meaning intersections are to be treated as four-way stops.
Roads that have no barricades but are flooded should be avoided; the ground underneath will likely be slippery and could have unseen debris.
Environment Canada is warning low-lying areas will continue to see localized flooding, and washouts near rivers, creeks and culverts should be avoided. Campers should move away from low-lying areas.
“It looks like this summer wants everyone saying we’re Fort McMurray strong to see how strong that is,” said Lester Defina, a Gregoire resident who spent Sunday morning laying a tarp over the roof of his mobile home. The 33-year-old man had recently removed smoke fumes from his home after May’s wildfire.
“I figured I should cover the roof before the wind and rain gets even worse,” he said. “If I have to evacuate again, I hope this time I remember to close the window.”
Earlier Saturday afternoon, Environment Canada issued rainfall warnings for the entire municipality except Fort Chipewyan, as well as parts of Lac La Biche County.
In an update posted at 10:38 a.m. Sunday, Environment Canada anticipates between 30 and 40 millimetres of rainfall will fall on most of the area. Yet, thunderstorms will localize even heavier rains, meaning some areas could have up to 100 millimetres of rainfall.
Fort McMurray, Wabasca and Slave Lake are expected to see the heaviest rainfall, although there is uncertainty regarding where intensity will be highest.
Ghazala Khan’s response to Donald Trump: ‘He doesn’t know what the word sacrifice means’
Donald Trump said I had nothing to say. I do. My son Humayun Khan, an Army captain, died 12 years ago in Iraq. He loved America, where we moved when he was 2 years old. He had volunteered to help his country, signing up for the ROTC at the University of Virginia. This was before the attack of Sept. 11, 2001. He didn’t have to do this, but he wanted to.
When Humayun was sent to Iraq, my husband and I worried about his safety. I had already been through one war, in Pakistan in 1965, when I was just a high school student. So I was very scared. You can sacrifice yourself, but you cannot take it that your kids will do this.
We asked if there was some way he could not go, because he had already done his service. He said it was his duty. I cannot forget when he was going to the plane, and he looked back at me. He was happy, and giving me strength: “Don’t worry, Mom. Everything will be all right.”
