Aerial Photos: California’s Winter Floods 2017

Floodwaters surround a home on February 22, 2017, in San Jose, California. Thousands of people were ordered to evacuate their homes early Wednesday in the northern California city of San Jose as floodwaters inundated neighborhoods and forced the shutdown of a major highway. / AFP / NOAH BERGER (Photo credit should read NOAH BERGER/AFP/Getty Images)

NBC Los Angeles – Winter storms unleashed days of downpours on California. These aerial images show the extent of the flooding and effects of the unrelenting winter storms throughout the state, including San Jose, where 14,000 people were evacuated after neighborhoods were inundated with water. Several more weeks remain in California’s wet season, which brings the potential for more damage.

Source: nbclosangeles.com

Flooding is occurring at both Grizzly Island on the left, and Wheeler Island on the right, located in the Sacramento San-Joaquin Delta in California, January 13, 2017. (Photo credit to Florence Low / California Department of Water Resources)

Reclamation District 563 builds a muscle wall on the levee for overtop protection along Tyler Island near Walnut Grove, Calif. January 13, 2017. (Photo credit to Florence Low / California Department of Water Resources)

Reclamation District 563 builds a muscle wall on the levee for overtop protection along Tyler Island near Walnut Grove, Calif. January 13, 2017. (Photo credit to Florence Low / California Department of Water Resources)

A white vehicle is submerged during a flood on Twin Cities Road in Elk Grove, California, due to recent storms, January 13, 2017. (Photo credit to Florence Low / California Department of Water Resource)

After the recent storms, the Cosumnes River has flooded Twin Cities Road, east of Interstate 5 in Elk Grove, Calif. on January 13, 2017. (Photo credit to Florence Low / California Department of Water Resource)

After the recent storms, the Cosumnes River has flooded the area around Twin Cities Road, east of Interstate 5 in Elk Grove, Calif. on January 13, 2017. (Photo credit to Florence Low / California Department of Water Resource)

Cache Creek Settling Basin Weir in Yolo County near Woodland, Calif. Jan. 13, 2017. The Cache Creek Settling Basin is located east of Woodland, near where Cache Creek flows into the Yolo Bypass. (Photo credit to Florence Low / California Department of Water Resource)

Due to recent storms, Fremont Weir in Knights Landing, Calif. is overtopping, January 13, 2017. The Fremont Weir Wildlife Area is 1,461 acres at the north end of the Yolo Bypass floodway along the Sacramento River in Sutter and Yolo counties. (Photo credit to Florence Low / California Department of Water Resource)

Water is released from Lake Natoma at Nimbus Dam in Rancho Cordova, Calif., as a precaution against flooding, January 13, 2017. Lake Natoma’s water storage is being reduced to save room for coming storms and snowmelt. Lake Natoma is an intermediate lake along the American River, located between Folsom Dam and Nimbus Dam in Sacramento County, Calif. The lake is located within the Folsom Lake State Recreation Area. (Photo credit to Florence Low / California Department of Water Resource)

Floodwaters surround a play structure on February 22, 2017, in San Jose, California. Thousands of people were ordered to evacuate their homes in the northern California city as floodwaters inundated neighborhoods and forced the shutdown of a major highway. (Photo credit to AFP/Getty Image)

Floodwaters surround a home on February 22, 2017, in San Jose, California. Thousands of people were ordered to evacuate their homes early Wednesday in the northern California city of San Jose as floodwaters inundated neighborhoods and forced the shutdown of a major highway. / AFP / NOAH BERGER (Photo credit should read NOAH BERGER/AFP/Getty Images)

Laurel Canyon Boulevard was partially back open to traffic Monday, Feb. 20, 2017, after a sinkhole opened up and swallowed two cars during a monster storm three days earlier. No serious injuries were reported. (Photo credit to KNBC-TV)

Floodwaters surround cars Feb. 22, 2017 in San Jose, California. (Photo credit to NBC)

In Photos: Ferocious Storm Floods California

People use kayaks and a canoe to make their way around a flooded parking lot at a shopping center in Healdsburg, Calif. (Photo: Eric Risberg, AP)

The West Coast of the United States is being hit by one of the strongest storm in years bringing heavy rain that flooded some parts of California.

In Oregon, at least two people were reportedly killed due to the storm.

The ferocious storm also produced very strong winds across Northern California, including hurricane force wind of 78 mph near Lake Tahoe and over 100 mph in many spots in the mountains.

According to the National Weather Service, the highest gust recorded so far was 147 mph which was recorded near Lake Tahoe.

The powerful storm system is fueled by the “Pineapple Express” that is delivering a steady stream of moisture directly from Hawaii to the West Coast.

There were flash flood in several parts of the Bay Area and some parts of major highways were closed due to flooding.

Traffic moves slowly as flood water runs over Highway 101 near the Marin and Sonoma county border Thursday, Dec. 11, 2014, in Petaluma, Calif. A powerful storm churned through Northern California Thursday, knocking out power to tens of thousands and delaying commuters while soaking the region with much-needed rain. (AP Photo/Eric Risberg)

Aidan Stephenson,12, and Conor Stephenson,10, visiting from Phoenix, watch the waves break on Ocean View Boulevard in Pacific Grove, Calif. (Photo: Vern Fisher, Monterey Herald, via AP)

Aidan Perez, left, 12, and Christopher Dow, 11, use a shopping cart to get around the flooded parking lot of a shopping center in Healdsburg, Calif. (Photo: Eric Risberg, AP)

Mark Kunze of San Bruno, Calif., pushes his stalled vehicle out of the flooded intersection of Airport Boulevard and Grand Avenue in South San Francisco. (Photo: Alex Washburn, AP)

Only the roof of a car is visible as it sits underwater in a flooded road in Berkeley, Calif. The San Francisco Bay Area is being hit with a severe storm that has toppled trees and caused local flooding. (Photo: Justin Sullivan, Getty Images)

A resident of Healdsburg, Calif., checks for people in a vehicle submerged in floodwaters. (Photo: Kent Porter, Santa Rosa Press Democrat via AP)

 

Boneyard, A Plane’s Graveyard

The Southern California Logistics Airport is a public airport located in the city of Victorville in San Bernardino County. The facility was George Air Force Base between 1941 to 1992 and was used as a front-line United States Air Force base

Graveyard is not only a burial ground for human; but it is also a place where worn-out or obsolete equipment or objects are kept.

And there are an aviation graveyards in the United States of America which are full of abandoned aeroplanes.

Also known as boneyard, it is in a dry desert to prevent the planes from going rusty.

Here are not more photos from Mail Online…

(Please click the photos for larger images)

Another major aircraft ‘boneyard’ is the Mojave Air and Space Port, also known as the Civilian Aerospace Test Center, in California. Numerous large Boeing, McDonnell Douglas, Lockheed, and Airbus aircraft owned by major airlines are currently kept at Mojave.

The Roswell International Air Center in New Mexico is more commonly known for the he Roswell UFO incident of 1947. An aircraft supposedly shaped like a disk crashed on a ranch near Roswell on 7 July. Conspiracy theorists claim it was a spacecraft carrying aliens. The craft was apparently taken to the Air Center for tests.

Commercial aircraft sit on the tarmac at the Southern California Logistics Airport in Victorville, California. In the aftermath of the September 11th terrorist attacks, the airline industry suffered a drop in revenue which resulted in many older airplanes being taken out of service and grounded.

The Pinal Airpark is a public-use airport in Pinal County, Arizona. It’s mainly used as a ‘boneyard’ for commercial planes. Old airplanes are stored there with the hope that the desert climate will stop them from rusting in case the aircraft is needed to fly again. However, the majority of aircraft taken to Pinal Airpark are scrapped

Major aircraft carriers in the U.S store dozens of passenger planes at the 5,000-acre former Air Force base in Victorville, California. The planes are mix of retired planes and planes that have been temporarily discontinued due to budget constraints. The airport was used in films such as The Sum of All Fears (2002) and Jarhead (2003).

This shot is an aerial image of the Aerospace Maintenance and Regeneration Group (AMARG) located on the Davis-Monthan Air Force Base in Arizona. AMARG has approximately $35 billion (£22 billion) worth of aircraft, totalling around 4,500 planes, from all of various commercial and military companies.

Major aircraft carriers in the U.S store dozens of passenger planes at the 5,000-acre former Air Force base in Victorville, California. The planes are mix of retired planes and planes that have been temporarily discontinued due to budget constraints. The airport was used in films such as The Sum of All Fears (2002) and Jarhead (2003).

These military planes are stored at the Davis¿Monthan Air Force Base in Tucson, Arizona. The base was named after Lieutenants Samuel H. Davis and Oscar Monthan who died in military aircraft accidents during the First World War. On 16 September 2011 the Base was placed on lockdown and news agencies reported shots had been fired inside the facility. Although the military later said the lockdown was because an armed man entered the base.

This aerial image shows aircraft parked in the Roswell International Air Center, New Mexico. During World War II the facility was known as Roswell Army International Airfield II, and renamed as the Walker Air Force Base during the Cold War. Roswell International Air Center was developed after the closure of Walker Air Force Base on 30 June 1967.

The Roswell International Air Center covers an area of 5,029 acres with two paved runways. The site is the storage facility for many of American Airlines’ retired Airbus A300-600R wide body jetliners. It was previously used to launch stratospheric balloons for Air Force projects and was also used by Felix Baumgartner to launch his record-breaking freefall jump from the stratosphere in October last year.

Sparkling Glass Pebbles On Glass Beach, California

Glass Beach is best viewed at low tide, and it is pocketed with tide pools where sea anemones rest among motley-colored pebbles. Photo by Travis Burke

There is a nice and beautiful beach in Fort Bragg, California, which has lots and lots of pretty and colourful pieces of sea glass sparkling in the sun.

According to Grind TV, Glass Beach in Mendocino County is one of the beaches with most abundant sources of sea glass in the world.

The beach was a public dump until 1960s and in the late 1990s and early 2000s, massive cleanup project were held but glasses and bottles were left behind.

After a long time in the sea and tumbling through the ocean, those bottles and glasses broke into smaller pieces and their sharp edges worn smooth and rounded over time, turning them into something like colourful shining pebbles.

The locals said that the beach used to be covered in a foot of sea glass so smooth you could walk on them with bare feet.

But now there are not as much of the sea glasses on the beach as before because people are collecting them.

Rangers from California State Parks see people taking the smooth, pebble-like glass pieces home in buckets and even in canisters as large as trash cans even though there is a signs that says, “GLASS COLLECTING PROHIBITED”.

I hope I could go there one day before the beautiful sea glass are gone for good and take pictures of them and post them in my blog.

I hope that there is an environmentally friendly, cheap and much faster way for us to turn glasses and bottles that were thrown away everyday into something as beautiful as these sparkling pebbles.

Please click the photos for larger images …

Stop by the beach any day and you will see people placing glass in plastic bags and canisters. This woman inspects a glass piece for her collection. Photo by Travis Burke

While Glass Beach is the most popular spot for sea glass in Mendocino County, the area is actually home to two other sea glass beaches. They are both difficult to access, and one of them is surrounded by private land, which is why they are rarely visited. Photo by Travis Burke

Glass Beach from above; photo by Travis Burke

Glass Beach from above and below; photo by Travis Burke

People tend to ignore the signs that say glass collecting is prohibited. Photo by Travis Burke

The beach—and Mendocino County—is also a nice place to visit for its natural beauty. Photo by Travis Burke

A younger piece of sea glass that hasn’t yet been smoothed out by water and time. Photo by Travis Burke

Many of the most colorful and beautiful pieces of glass have been stolen from the beach. Photo by Travis Burke

Three people look for sea glass; photo by Travis Burke

World’s Largest Lego Sculpture: A Life-Size X-Wing Fighter (Photos)

(Photo by Dan Bracaglia, credit to POPSCI)

Thousands of people gathered in New York City’s Times Square on May 22 to watch the unveiling of the world’s largest LEGO model, a 1:1 replica of the LEGO Star Wars X-wing Starfighter.

It took 32 model builders, 5.3 million LEGO bricks and over 17,000 hours to complete the life-size X-wing fighter.

The X-wing fighter stands at 11 feet tall, with a wingspan of 43 feet and weighing nearly 46,000 pounds.

The engines have lights and speakers, and so they light up and cycle through a pre-programmed series of launch and battle sounds.

LEGO even has the droid, the cute R2-D2 built for the project.

R2-D2. (Photo by Dan Bracaglia credit to POPSCI)

The X-wing is strong enough for a person to sit in the cockpit or perch atop one of the engines and the designers use computer to plan an intricate steel infrastructure that will ensure the X-wing won’t shatter in an earthquake.

After its time in New York City, the X-wing will travel to Legoland in California.

The life-size X-wing fighter is really awesome and I think LEGO made X-wing to promote this coming Star Wars movie.

Thousands gather in New York City’s Times Square to watch the unveiling of the world’s largest LEGO Model, a 1:1 replica of the LEGO Star Wars X-wing Starfighter that took 32 Model Builders, 5.3 million LEGO bricks and over 17,000 hours to complete, Thursday May 23, 2013. (Amy Sussman/AP Images for The LEGO Group)

LEGO Master Builder Erik Varszegi and members of the 501st inspect the thrusters of the largest LEGO model ever built, an X-wing Starfighter made from 5.3 million LEGO bricks, upon its reveal in New York City’s Times Square, Thursday May 23, 2013. (Amy Sussman/ AP Images for the Lego Group)

The world’s largest Lego modelled after the Star Wars X-wing starfighter is seen at Times Square after being unveiled in New York May 23, 2013. REUTERS/Shannon Stapleton(UNITED STATES – Tags: SOCIETY)

The world’s largest Lego modelled after the Star Wars X-wing starfighter is seen at Times Square after being unveiled in New York May 23, 2013. REUTERS/Shannon Stapleton(UNITED STATES – Tags: SOCIETY)

People look at a video billboard during the unveiling of the world’s largest Lego modelled after the Star Wars X-wing starfighter at Times Square in New York May 23, 2013. REUTERS/Shannon Stapleton(UNITED STATES – Tags: SOCIETY)

The world’s largest Lego modelled after the Star Wars X-wing starfighter is seen in Times Square after being unveiled in New York May 23, 2013. REUTERS/Shannon Stapleton(UNITED STATES – Tags: SOCIETY)

(Photo by Dan Bracaglia, credit to POPSCI)

(Photo by Dan Bracaglia, credit to POPSCI)

(Photo by Dan Bracaglia, credit to POPSCI)

(Photo by Dan Bracaglia, credit to POPSCI)

(Photo by Dan Bracaglia, credit to POPSCI)

(Photo by Dan Bracaglia, credit to POPSCI)

(Photo by Dan Bracaglia, credit to POPSCI)

The cute R2-D2 in the X-wing fighter. (Photo by Dan Bracaglia, credit to POPSCI)

(Photo by Dan Bracaglia, credit to POPSCI)

(Photo by Dan Bracaglia, credit to POPSCI)

8 People Killed In Highway 38 Bus Crash

At least eight people were killed and nearly two dozen were injured when a bus carrying a group from Tijuana crashed on its way back from Big Bear Lake on Highway 38 north of Yucaipa on Sunday night. (Rick Sforza/Staff Photographer)

A tour bus overturned on Highway 38 near the town of Forest Falls, north of Yucaipa, about 80 miles east of Los Angeles on Sunday night.

The tour bus was on its way back from Big Bear Lake.

It was a bad accident involving the bus, a pickup truck and a compact car.

At least eight people were reportedly killed and more than twenty people were injured. 

The Sun reported that 15 people suffered major injuries and seven others sustained moderate to mild injuries.

Authorities said both sides of the highway remained closed possibly into Monday evening as an investigation is conducted.

The injured were taken to Redlands Community Hospital, Loma Linda University Medical Center, Arrowhead Regional Medical Center in Colton and other hospitals.