ALABAMA – A University of Alabama athlete died after protecting his girlfriend from a collapsing wall on Monday evening.

A retaining wall collapsed on men’s swimming and diving team member John Servati, 21, while he stayed in an off-campus home’s basement with a friend, WSFA reports. He was taken to DCH Regional Medical Center and later pronounced dead.
Anna Rae Gwarjanski, captain of the University’s women’s swimming and diving team, tweeted that Servati managed to hold up the wall and save his girlfriend’s life that night, Al.com reports.
‘John Servati died a hero. Held up a concrete wall long enough for his girlfriend to get out from under it before it collapsed again on him,’ she said. (more…)

Prayers for all the communities in the affected areas.   Updated CNN Report HERE
https://twitter.com/TWCBreaking/statuses/460601741780606976
ARKANSAS – Major damage is reported in Mayflower and across Faulkner County. Buildings and trees have sustained damage. There are reports of roofs being taken off homes and trees being stripped of leaves. Multiple vehicles along I-40 were damaged. One fatality has been confirmed along Highway 365 in Mayflower, according to Arkansas State Police. There is also damage confirmed in and around Vilonia, including damage to homes and to a fast food restaurant. Channel 7 has reporters and storm chasers collecting information across Central Arkansas. (link)

Never seen a #tornado radar image remain so violent & evident for this long. Now, passing through Letona, AR #arwx pic.twitter.com/nah3N4QdFY

— Tornado Trackers (@tornadotrackers) April 28, 2014

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Shallow quake = more displaced water !!

CHILE – An 8.2-magnitude earthquake struck off the coast of northern Chile on Tuesday evening, generating a tsunami, authorities said.
The U.S. Geological Survey reported the quake, which hit at at 8:46 p.m. local time, was centered some 60 miles northwest of Iquique at a depth of 12.5 miles. It had previously put the magnitude at 8.0 and the depth at 6.2 miles.

Estimated tsunami travel time map #Earthquake via @wxbrad pic.twitter.com/UH3CuDOEgj

— NewsBreaker (@NewsBreaker) April 2, 2014

The quake caused a small landslide, but there were no reports of deaths or major damage, Chilean Deputy Interior Minister Mahmud Aleuy told reporters.
Chile’s National Emergency Office tweeted Tuesday night that it was asking everyone to evacuate the South American nation’s coast. (keep reading)

About a week or so ago, Dear WeeWeed noticed a few reports of animals acting strangely in Yellow Stone National Park. Those reports included sightings of massive herds of the Parks’ Bison coming down quickly from the Grand Teton Mountain range and surrounding foothills.

WATCH THIS VIDEO – DATED 3/20/14:

Now Get A Load Of This Today:

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I saw this last night and sat amazed at how CNN’s Gary Tuchman was able to keep it together while hearing and sharing this story.   (Kleenex alert)

Prayers for all of those affected families.

Darrington, Washington (CNN) — Brenda Neal was still at the firehouse at midnight, watching as rescuers caked with mud returned from the search for survivors of a massive landslide in rural Washington state.

But they had no answers for her about her missing husband, Steven.  There was despair on their faces, she said.

Rescuers on Tuesday continued to battle mud and debris — with the consistency of quicksand in some places — in the search for survivors, but hopes dimmed as no one has been rescued since the slide Saturday.

 
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North Carolina’s Durham Academy Head of School Michael Ulku-Steiner and Assistant Head of School/Upper School Director Lee Hark announce that school will be closed Feb. 13, 2014.

A complete and total FUBAR by Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed and local Atlanta government.  Thousands of motorists sleep in cars and shops; thousands of students trapped in schools overnight. 

ATLANTA (AP) – Thousands of Atlanta students stranded all night long in their schools were reunited with their parents Wednesday, while rescuers rushed to deliver blankets, food, gas and a ride home to countless shivering motorists stopped cold by a storm that paralyzed the business capital of the South with less than 3 inches of snow.

As National Guardsmen and state troopers fanned out, Mayor Kasim Reed and Georgia Gov. Nathan Deal found themselves on the defensive, acknowledging the storm preparations could have been better. But Deal also blamed forecasters, saying he was led to believe it wouldn’t be so bad.

The icy weather wreaked similar havoc across much of the South, closing schools and highways, grounding flights and contributing to at least a dozen deaths from traffic accidents and a mobile home fire.

Yet it was Atlanta, home to major corporations and the world’s busiest airport, that was Exhibit A for how a Southern city could be sent reeling by winter weather that, in the North, might be no more than an inconvenience. (more…)

Five years ago Al Gore predicted the polar Ice-Caps would be gone by now.  Today it’s snowing in Cairo, Egypt.
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For their 125th Anniversary National Geographic is reaching out to readers for submissions.   Some of them are exceptional – CLICK HERE
Like this one from Jonathan Tucker:

‘This is a self portrait of my self under a glacier in Alaska took with a 360 camera to get the most possible angles of the picture. This was by far  the most amazing experience. This cave took me more than two hours to reach on a  hike over a mountainside through swamps and about 30 minutes of walking on the  glacier itself. When I first walked under the Glacier it was the most breath  taking and scary experience I have lived’