Great colors on this danger zone map for the slowly-unfolding potential disaster in Garden Grove

Everything going great here in orange county

[image or embed]

— The American Caliban (@substitute.bsky.social) May 23, 2026 at 6:18 PM

There is understandable concern about an explosion as one of the possible outcomes. OCFA Division Chief Nick Freeman and Dr. CK, the Orange County Health Officer, provide an operational and health care perspective on the evacuation zones that account for that possibility. pic.twitter.com/cesHDsMcgY

— OCFA (@OCFireAuthority) May 23, 2026

It apppears to be good news that they've discovered cracks in the tank. ("Experts were brought in Saturday to 'think completely outside the box' to help resolve the crisis, which has proved incredibly difficult due to a phenomenon known as a 'thermal runaway' reaction, where the chemical generates its own uncontrollable heat, threatening either a massive toxic leak or a catastrophic explosion.")

Meanwhile:

WCK's Relief Team is on our way to Garden Grove, California to see how we can best assist communities impacted by the hazardous materials emergency at GKN Aerospace—where a damaged tank holding 7,000 gallons of a toxic, flammable chemical has forced nearly 40,000 residents to… pic.twitter.com/iW88zfVffn

— World Central Kitchen (@WCKitchen) May 24, 2026

"34 hospitalized, 2 in critical condition after" an ammonia leak in the parking lot of a Holiday Inn Express

@abcnews

Hundreds of people were evacuated and dozens hospitalized after a chemical spill outside Oklahoma City. Authorities say a tanker truck carrying 25,000 pounds of ammonia was leaking while parked outside a Holiday Inn, potentially due to a mechanical failure or faulty seal.

♬ original sound - ABC News

"Around 500 people were evacuated to the Pioneer Event Center at Southwestern Oklahoma State University." 

AP:

[One person who lived near the hotel], spent the night in a parking lot with her boyfriend crammed into their 2013 Ford Mustang with their three dogs — a Husky, a Pit bull and a Shar-Pei-mix, and their cat in a carrier on her lap.

She said she was pulling chicken out of the oven Wednesday night when a firefighter in full gear knocked on the door and told her she needed to evacuate. The smell was overwhelming by the time she and her boyfriend got leashes on their three dogs and loaded their pets into their car.

(This is the first week that Tiktok has become better at surfacing interesting stories than my X/Bluesky feeds) 

Terrifyingly huge sinkhole in Bangkok

@skynews Footage shows the moment a road in Bangkok collapsed as a huge sinkhole opened. #Bangkok #Thailand #Sinkhole #WorldNews ♬ original sound - Sky News

@cnn

In central Bangkok a large sinkhole 50-meters deep opened up near a hospital and police station. According to the Tai prime minister underground construction to a train line was the cause. No injuries were reported, according to Reuters.

♬ original sound - CNN

@michaeljanthony #sinkhole #bangkok #bangkoksinkhole #2025 ♬ original sound - Michael Jones Anthony

@orientaldailymalaysia 曼谷街头现大天坑　更多完整视频曝光 #TikTok新闻 #Thailand #Bangkok #Sinkhole ♬ original sound - 马来西亚东方日报

@nytimes A tunnel collapse opened up a hole more than 60 feet deep in a Bangkok road Wednesday morning. The cause of the collapse appeared to be a water leak from a burst pipe in an unfinished extension of Bangkok's subway system, the city's governor said. #Bangkok #Thailand ♬ original sound - The New York Times

@thaipbsworld Dr. Suchatvee Suwansawat, former President of the Council of Thai Engineers, explained what caused the sink hole in Bangkok’s Samsen Road. #ThaiPBSWorld #ThailandNews #Thailand #ถนนสามเสน #ถนนทรุด ♬ original sound - Thai PBS World

The LA Times posted some advice articles for people who lost their homes to the fires

Ah. The California state bird marking its territory 😌 pic.twitter.com/hXxKYSEXgg

— LA Scanner (@LAScanner) January 14, 2025

He lost everything in a wildfire. Here’s one city councilman’s practical advice:

don’t wait to find temporary housing. “As soon as you get stabilized somewhere,” he advised, “start calling apartments.” And if it’s unfurnished, make do with used or donated items. 

...

He was glad he purchased his new home from a “mass builder” — a developer that goes through the permitting and legal process, then offers buyers a range of floor plans and options — rather than going it alone with an individual architect and builder.

I was forced to evacuate my home. Do I still need to pay my mortgage, rent, utility bills?

The Lake Nyos disaster

There's an enormous lake between Rwanda and Congo, valuable both as a fishery, and because of the presence of methane below. The resources might lead to conflict between the two countries, and the makeup of the lake could also lead to a rare and massively fatal limnic eruption like what occurred at Lake Nyos in Cameroon in 1986:

We know how devastating a limnic eruption can be. On Aug. 21, 1986, the serene Lake Nyos, a crater lake in Cameroon, unleashed a silent eruption of carbon dioxide. The invisible cloud of gas spilled over the lake’s rim, descending upon nearby villages with lethal consequences. In a harrowing instant, over 1,700 lives were extinguished as the calm waters transformed into a death trap. Lake Kivu’s significant methane content makes this scenario a possibility here, too. Given the surrounding settlements, a limnic eruption on Lake Kivu could potentially claim 2 million lives. And there are fears that rather than planning for such an eventuality, the government is undertaking work that will make it more likely. 

A plant in North Carolina "makes about 60 percent of the United States’ supply of fluids used in IVs, for in-home dialysis and for people who rely on IV nutrition"

Yes, it's closed after being flooded during Hurricane Helene:

U.S. officials approved airlifts of IV fluids from overseas manufacturing plants on Wednesday to ease shortages caused by Hurricane Helene that have forced hospitals to begin postponing surgeries as a way to ration supplies for the most fragile patients.

...

The situation could become even more dire now that Hurricane Milton is hitting Florida. On Tuesday, workers at B. Braun, makers of a fourth of the nation’s IV fluids, loaded trucks at the company’s plant in Daytona Beach with the medical bags and drove them north through the night to what they hoped would be a safer location.

Wild photo of the Los Angeles skyline lit by the Bridge Fire

A larger high-res view available via my websitehttps://t.co/lyHnHhPjXt

— Brandon Yoshizawa (@bay_photography) September 11, 2024

Here is a poorly illustrated diagram of the approximate location of the photographer, downtown Los Angeles, and the fires. pic.twitter.com/K6kjHED2mR

— Jeremy Miner (@jeremyminer) September 12, 2024

And speaking of the fires:

Clark County has issued a smoke alert for the Las Vegas Valley, due to the Southern California wildfires, and asked that everyone stay inside the casinos. pic.twitter.com/zpsER6r2JT

— Las Vegas Locally 🌴 (@LasVegasLocally) September 11, 2024

Zombie fires have reappeared in Canada

The numerous (dozens or more) overwintering "zombie" fires that have reemerged in Canada in recent weeks essentially answers the first of these two questions that @queenofpeat asked last autumn (clearly, many did). The second question remains to be addressed... https://t.co/KKgs5L5MAj

— Dr. Daniel Swain (@Weather_West) May 13, 2024

A write-up at CNN

The Lovejoy Buttes are great news if you've feared the San Andreas fault would eventually send Los Angeles into the ocean

A new study that has not yet been punctured as nonsense, to my knowledge:

when the Big One does hit, it may be less devastating than once thought, at least near Los Angeles. According to new work presented this week at a meeting of the American Geophysical Union, the ground there will shake up to 65% less violently than official hazard models suggest.

The good news for Angelenos stems from five rocks balanced precariously on top of other rocks in Lovejoy Buttes, a place in northern Los Angeles County that sits just 15 kilometers from the fault. By dating when the rocks first became fragile and analyzing their structures to assess the maximum shaking they could withstand, the researchers could test official predictions against thousands of years of earthquakes. Those predictions have been found wanting

“We are looking at a worst-case scenario,” said Thorvaldur Thordarson, a volcanologist in Iceland

That predicted eruption is happening. (The article describes Iceland's overall excellent preparation for eruptions, and does not discuss current estimates for potential global cooling or flight disruption.)

Wild photos from a rescue at an elderly home care facility surrounded by mudflow

Photographed a pretty unreal scene today: 14 people were trapped in an elderly home care facility overnight in Cathedral City in the wake of Tropical Storm Hilary. Thankfully, all were okay. pic.twitter.com/Ko2Yg946Iw

— tayagrayphoto (@tayagrayphoto) August 22, 2023

Guests helicoptered off Sulphur Mountain after gondola shut down by lightning storm

@ctvnews As many as 300 people were stranded at the top of Sulphur Mountain after a technical issue on Monday disabled the Banff Gondola. Police say Parks Canada and independent contractors are working together to bring people down from the mountain along a 5.5-kilometre hiking trail. No injuries have been reported. #banff #gondola #travel #news #canada #alberta #breakingnews #police #parkscanada ♬ original sound - CTVNews

@mony6862 #calgary_yyc #banff #breakdown #gondola#lovecanada#punjabitiktok ♬ original sound - mony6862

Some people hiked down:

That is what occurred 😂 pic.twitter.com/i4AB3UuuXr

— Emily Crook (@em_crook10) August 8, 2023

Haha yes unfortunately, but we made it 😂

— Emily Crook (@em_crook10) August 8, 2023

Scientists are racing to transport Florida's corals to on-shore nurseries before they're all killed by record-hot waters

Miami Herald:

Every day this week, boats, trucks and even a “coral bus” have arrived at the Keys Marine Laboratory in Long Key with precious cargo. Sloshing inside of coolers and wrapped in wet bubble wrap are thousands of fragments of corals that, until hours before, were growing in shallow nurseries managed by scientists. They’re being raised as the next generation of corals for Florida’s dying reefs. But they’re in trouble.

...

an underwater live stream [features] the corals in Port Miami, called Coral City Camera. But about two weeks ago, the elkhorns that made up the background of the normally lively and colorful scene started losing their color. Now they’re so white they reflect the moonlight in the late-night version of the stream, a ghostly presence in the black water.

Landslide damaged 12 homes in a wealthy part of Los Angeles last night

Update: Significant land movement overnight has completely destroyed the homes along a canyon on Peartree Lane here in Rolling Hills Estates.

This is just devastating for these residents. My office is ready to offer any assistance we can provide to these families and the city. https://t.co/84gQ0eB9RF pic.twitter.com/eG8oO03oAS

— Janice Hahn (@SupJaniceHahn) July 9, 2023

A brief summary. (I don't believe there's been any significant rain or quakes in the area recently.) 

CBS got a trip on that private submarine to the Titanic in 2022, and a lot went wrong

The video's a litle like Final Destination except one of the tourists keeps getting back on the sub no matter how many times things inexplicably go awry:

Hi there! I have emailed my friend (Renata Rojas). But last summer, when I was aboard, they lost the sub for a few hours, too—during which time the company shut off internet access on the support ship. They didn’t want people tweeting about the crisis! https://t.co/7FhcMs0oeH

— David Pogue (@Pogue) June 19, 2023

There are really only two possibilities. Either they got entangled in a “ghost net” (abandoned fishing net, miles long), or they’ve got a leak. Both are very, very serious.

— David Pogue (@Pogue) June 19, 2023

There was reportedly a runaway train in California Monday

ABC:

A train hauling iron ore with 55 cars derailed in the Mojave Desert Monday

...

Officials are declining to comment on reports the crew jumped off the train before it derailed.

Trains:

Train OUTSI-25, which originated in Iron Springs, Utah, with 154 cars of ore destined for export at the Port of Long Beach, Calif., was operating with distributed power in a 2x1x2 configuration, according to a UP train report shared with Trains News Wire.

The train separated between the 55th and 56th cars while on Cima Hill. At some point while the crew was attempting to put the train back together the lead units and 55 cars ran away down the grade. The last GPS report from the lead locomotive showed the train moving at 118 mph, according to a UP document.

UP would not confirm these details

"Rogue Wave Strikes [Viking] Cruise Ship, Killing a Passenger and Injuring 4 Others"

NYT:

The Viking Polaris was launched this year and was designed for travel to remote destinations such as the Antarctic Peninsula. The ship is 665 feet long and can carry 378 passengers and 256 crew members.

...

The death on the Viking Cruises ship this week comes after the death of two other cruise ship passengers in the Antarctic last month. Two Quark Expeditions cruise ship passengers died after one of the ship’s heavy duty inflatable Zodiac boats overturned near shore

The NYT times article indicates the rogue wave and Zodiac boat disaster happened on separate cruises, but the article the NYT links to indicates it was the same cruise, and describes the Zodiac incident:

Two Topeka couples were among those on a cruise cut short first by an accident, then by a rogue wave that took a passenger’s life.

          ... 

One second, Pam was watching penguins from their Zodiac vessel, the next was chaos.

“We heard an explosion in the forward area right in front of Pam and it threw a woman directly across from her up in the air, and then the gentleman right next to her literally flew up in the air and went into the water,” Tom said.  

          ...

Both couples say Viking, the company which operates the ship, was very sensitive and helpful to everyone. Both also already have trips booked for next year

In Pakistan, "Where do you bury the dead when there is no dry land?"

NYT:

The four-month-long deluge killed around 1,700 people, many of whom drowned during the worst of the floods. In recent weeks, humanitarian officials have warned of a second wave of death as outbreaks of malaria, dengue fever, diarrhea and skin diseases spread among the 33 million people affected by the flooding.

Reporter goes viral for looking stylish during South Korea's torrential rains

pic.twitter.com/yNc34t6Bej

— JQuan (@Marting55305594) August 8, 2022

Fireworks launched directly at fans at minor league baseball game

Angels AA affiliate the Rocket City Trash Pandas accidentally launched multiple fireworks into their crowd pic.twitter.com/IF3m9nYuJs

— Bush Leaguer (@BushLeague101) August 6, 2022

The team says an employee was struck, but no fans were hurt.