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Water Rescues Underway in Arkansas after New Wave of Storms Across US, Canada

As much as 11 inches (nearly 28 centimeters) of rain fell overnight into Wednesday on parts of Marion County, Arkansas, in the Ozark Mountains, the National Weather Service said. (The AP)
As much as 11 inches (nearly 28 centimeters) of rain fell overnight into Wednesday on parts of Marion County, Arkansas, in the Ozark Mountains, the National Weather Service said. (The AP)
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Water Rescues Underway in Arkansas after New Wave of Storms Across US, Canada

As much as 11 inches (nearly 28 centimeters) of rain fell overnight into Wednesday on parts of Marion County, Arkansas, in the Ozark Mountains, the National Weather Service said. (The AP)
As much as 11 inches (nearly 28 centimeters) of rain fell overnight into Wednesday on parts of Marion County, Arkansas, in the Ozark Mountains, the National Weather Service said. (The AP)

Water rescues were underway Wednesday in Arkansas after a new wave of severe storms that have pummeled a vast swath of the US and Canada, officials said. High winds, tornadoes and flooding have caused damage or deaths from the Plains to New England this week.

As much as 11 inches (nearly 28 centimeters) of rain fell overnight into Wednesday on parts of Marion County, Arkansas, in the Ozark Mountains, the National Weather Service said.

“Numerous bridges across the area are washed out with water rescues that are taking place,” the weather service said. “Evacuations are taking place as significant rising water is inside of homes and businesses.”

Storms toppled trees and damaged homes Tuesday around Keene, New Hampshire. Storms also caused damage in upstate New York. Around Toronto, flooding temporarily closed several major roads, the Canadian Press reported Wednesday, The AP reported.
Severe weather has struck the Chicago area especially hard. The weather service said it confirmed 17 tornadoes struck northern Illinois and northwestern Indiana this week, including 11 during a single stretch of extraordinary storms Monday night.

Utilities continued to restore power in the Midwest, though 115,000 homes and businesses still lacked electricity Wednesday in Illinois and Indiana, according to PowerOutage.us.

An older couple died when their car became submerged in a flash flood near Elsah, Illinois, north of St. Louis. Mill Creek rose rapidly at midday Tuesday after several inches of rain and submerged their SUV, the Jersey County Sheriff's Office said in a news release. An 88-year-old woman was found dead in the vehicle. Hours later, the body of an 88-year-old man was found near the creek bank.

The sheriff’s office credited an emergency dispatcher with helping to save a 70-year-old man who was in another vehicle. The dispatcher directed the man to climb through his sunroof. The water was above the roof by the time rescuers arrived.

In Rockford, Illinois, a 76-year-old man who was a passenger in a pickup truck drowned when the vehicle became trapped in a creek during a storm Sunday, authorities said. The driver survived.

It was reported earlier that a 44-year-old woman died in Cedar Lake, Indiana, in the southern fringes of the Chicago area, after a tree fell on her house late Monday, the Lake County coroner’s office said.

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Brazilian Researchers Discover Dinosaur Fossil after Heavy Rains

The fossil found next to a reservoir in the municipality of Sao Joao do Polesine - The AP
The fossil found next to a reservoir in the municipality of Sao Joao do Polesine - The AP
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Brazilian Researchers Discover Dinosaur Fossil after Heavy Rains

The fossil found next to a reservoir in the municipality of Sao Joao do Polesine - The AP
The fossil found next to a reservoir in the municipality of Sao Joao do Polesine - The AP

A team of Brazilian scientists has discovered a skeleton of what they believe is one of the world’s oldest dinosaurs after heavy rains in the southern state of Rio Grande do Sul accelerated the natural process of erosion, The AP reported.

The fossil found next to a reservoir in the municipality of Sao Joao do Polesine is around 233 million years old, according to palaeontologist Rodrigo Temp Müller, who led the team from the Federal University of Santa Maria that found the bones in May.

The claims have not been verified by other scientists or published in a scientific journal.

The researcher believes the dinosaur lived during the Triassic period, when all continents were part of a single land mass called Pangaea. Dinosaurs are thought to have first evolved at that time.

The apex predator discovered in Rio Grande do Sul belongs to the group known as Herrerasauridae – a family of dinosaurs that used to wander across lands that now make up present-day Brazil and Argentina, according to a fact sheet about the discovery shared with The AP.

The size of the bones reveals that the dinosaur would have reached around 2.5 meters (8.2 feet) in length, according to the document.

Rodrigo Temp Müller said that he and his team were “very excited and surprised” by their findings.

After around four days of excavations, the group of researchers transported a block of rock containing the specimen back to the laboratory, where they ran tests.

“Initially it seemed like just a few isolated bones, but as we exposed the material, we were able to see that we had an almost complete skeleton,” Müller said.

The expert hypothesizes that their discovery is the second most complete skeleton for this type of dinosaur.

Researchers will now carry out investigations to determine whether the fossil belongs to an already-known species or if they have found a new kind. That work is expected to take several months, as the process is meticulous to ensure no damaged is caused.

Fossils are more likely to appear after rains, as water exposes the materials by removing the sediment that covers them, in a phenomenon known as weathering.

Rio Grande do Sul saw record amounts of rainfall earlier this year. That caused devastating floods in May that killed at least 182 people, according to a toll published by the state’s civil defense on July 8.

Extreme weather events are made more likely by climate change, principally caused by the burning of oil, gas and coal.

Müller said that more fossils are appearing because of the heavy rains, which has launched a race against time to rescue the materials before they are ruined.

In the field, his team observed “a leg bone and a pelvis bone in the pelvic region that were already being destroyed due to the rain,” he said.

Müller hopes the discovery will contribute to elucidate the origins of dinosaurs.

“Having new fossils that are so well preserved certainly helps us better understand this topic that is still much debated,” he said.