Cuomo Brother Begin Coronavirus Family TV Comedy-Drama

The Cuomo Brothers, Chris and Andrew, have been giving us a bit of
family comedy amid the tragedy of the Coronavirus pandemic 

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo is trying to lead his state through one of the world's worst and most tragic "hot spots" in the global coronavirus pandemic.

His brother, Chris Cuomo, is a CNN anchor trying to report on this massive story. In a plot twist, Chris Cuomo has come down with the illness.

Chris has had to interview his brother Andrew through this.  The brothers' sibling rivalry has become maybe the hottest TV comedy-drama out there.

Its' obviously the brothers love each other, but boy, are they brothers in every sense of the word!  Through this serious time, despite the Cuomos serious demeanors, they've given us several splashes of welcome comic relief.

Here's a highlight video to prove my point:

Wicked Scary When A Firetrucks Hits A Helicopter With Blades Turning

Spars fly as a helicopter on the ground spins wildly
out of control at a crash scene in Chile.  

Talk about a situation going from bad to worse.  
In Santiago, Chile recently, a drunk driver crashed into a police car.

According to Jalopnik and 9News.au, police closed off a street to let a helicopter land and help the three police officers who were seriously injured by the drunk driver.

A firetruck was also responding to the crash when it got a bit too close to the chopper, nicking one of its spinning blades.

That made things turn really dramatic, to say the least.

The collision sent the helicopter spinning violently, eventually flinging off its rotors, hitting a police car, and then exploding.

The helicopter pilot somehow survived, but with multiple fractures. The injured officers weren't further hurt, and were taken to a hospital for treatment.

As Jalopnik noted:

"This is certainly a strong reminder of how terribly things can go wrong for emergency responders. That, and it is a massive testament to the safety structurs built into modern helicopters. I shudder to imagine the G-forces that pilot endured."

I'll say!

Here's the video:

Dramatic Rescue Shows Why I'm Sometimes Afraid of Pumping Gas

In a surveillance camera video that's going viral, a car driven by a guy who went into diabetic shock blasts into gas station pumps in Westchester County, New York, setting off a big explosion and fire.

Chaos and a rescue after a crash at
a New York State gas station.  

As you can see in the video, below, a guy who was pumping fuel, an off-duty police officer has a gas pump fall on him.

He manages to run away just at the fire erupts, but then manages to run back and pull the guy who had the diabetic shock out of his car before the fire really consumed everything.

Reports are there were a few minor injuries, but nothing life threatening.

I can't blame the guy who went into diabetic shock; these things happen.

What I can blame is the little stab of fear I get when - this happens more frequently than it should - I'm pumping gas and some bozo comes and fills his tank, or little gas tanks in the bed of his truck, while nonchalantly lighting and/or smoking a cigarette.

Those idiots deserve to be in an explosion, but please just don't involve me.

Anyway, here's the Westchester explosion and rescue. Quite amazing:

3 Children Rescued From Florida Waves But Heartbreaking Circumstance

Dramatic video is circulating today as rescuers struggle to rescue three children from a minivan that authorities said was intentionally driven into high ocean surf in Daytona Beach, Florida.

Rescuers retrieve children from a minivan that
authorities said was deliberately driven into the ocean
in a possible murder/suicide attempt  

As you'll see in the video at the bottom of this post, the rescuers managed to get the kids, ages, 3, 9, and 10 out, despite the van being tossed in the waves and nearly pushing the rescuers under the waves.

Television station WESH reported that the kids were screaming their pregnant woman was trying to kill them. She apparently deliberately drove into the ocean in what appeared to be a murder/suicide attempt, according to WESH.

During the rescue, witnesses said the mother was blank faced and didn't say a word. When the two older children were pulled from the van, they started screaming to the rescuers there was still a younger kid inside.

The mother never mentioned the third kid to the rescuers, said witnesses, but thankfully, since the kids screamed about the three year old inside, rescuers were able to return to the van and pull that kid out.

The kids, from South Carolina, were taken to a hospital to be checked out, then will probably be placed with relatives once background checks are complete, says WESH.

The woman was taken to a hospital for a mental health evaluation.

I just can't imagine a mental illness so bad that a mother would try to kill her kids like that. But it does happen, obviously.

According to a CNN article, post-partum depression can bring on psychosis, which leads a handful of mothers to kill their children. But in this Florida case, she hadn't had her latest baby yet.

In other cases, it's extreme depression, maybe combined with building pressure of some sort, personal or professional, or internal.

According to CNN:

The mothers might have "'borderline personality disorder a condition marked by impulsive behaviors and instability of moods and emotions,' said (clinical and forensic psychologist Paula) Bruce.

People with this condition have unstable relationships because they go from one extreme to another, treating people with admiration and love, but then directing intense anger toward them.

'Getting rid of the children is just about getting rid of her own pain, not about thinking about the children as separate from her,' she said."

Of course, the challenge is figuring out which mothers will kill their children before they try it. Most mothers, whether they are willing to admit it or not, have had killing their children cross their mind in their worst, most hectic and most tired moments.

That's actually normal, according to the experts. But almost all mothers never follow through, never harm their children and almost immediatly resume being the great parents they are.

But what do you do about the situation like what appears happened in Daytona Beach today.

It's all so sad. Here's the video:

Video: Race Car Blows Up Dramatically; We Take You There

Mechanical problems with your car out on the road are a real bummer.

But next time that happens to you, thank your lucky stars it isn't as bad as in the video you'll watch below of the recent National Hot Rod Association Winter Internationals race.

Thankfully, nobody was hurt. But POW!!

Wild Rescue, Fire In Normally Sedate Ontario

One of the most exciting places to be in North America Tuesday was in the city of Kingston, Ontario, Canada.

A most exciting day Tuesday in Kingston, Ontario.
As you can see, it was the scene of a huge fire. You can barely
see the man trapped at the end of a crane to the left of the flames
He was later rescued.  

Normally, Kingston is a nice enough place, but it's not like the city is a hot bed of total wildness.

But on Tuesday, a wood frame condo under construction in Kingston caught fire and developed into a huge, HUGE blaze. A poor crane operator had to scramble to the very end of the crane's boom to escape the smoke and flames.

Of course, there was no guarantee the fire wouldn't make the crane just collapse, sending the worker to his death on the street far below.

Luckily, a Canadian military helicopter was dispatched to snowy Kingston, and the crane operator was plucked from the crane. News reports say he suffered just minor injuries.

So far, there have been no reports of deaths from the huge fire, which late Tuesday evening was reported to be under control

PHEW!

Watch the dramatic video below:

Freaky!!! Trees Sink Out Of Sight In Louisiana Bayou

I imagine Louisiana bayous are scary places. God knows what kinds of creatures live there, what odd things happen amid the humidity and the mosquitoes and the swampy tangle of vegetation.

Aerial view of Bayou Corne sinkhole in
Louisiana which yielded the dramatic video in
this post.   

Well, we got one window into that today.

In a video that's spreading like wildfire, we see a bunch of big trees sink out of sight in Bayou Corne,  as if tugged down underground by a huge beast living down under.

Amazing to watch them go straight down. It's part of a large sinkhole that appeared more than a year ago, and the edges of it continue to collapse. One of those collapses explains these trees going away.

The sinhole is now 25 acres in size, according to The Advocate in Louisiana. The edges of it could continue collapsing for years. 

Here's the wild video: Makes you not want to take a canoe into a marsh or pond anymore.

Huge Landslide Hits Car, Occupants Shrug

Here's a bit of dramatic video from China in which an ENORMOUS landslide that includes mega-boulders rain down on a car.

The best part: The four people who were in the car at the time are fine. Glad to hear that!

Taking A Ride In a Mudslide, And A Tornadic Pikes Peak. Weather Drama in Colorado

I drove through lots of flash flooding here in Vermont over the past month and a half, but luckily did not drive in deep water, or accidentally encounter water that was too deep.

Or if I did encounter flooding that looked unsafe, I turned around and found another way to get where I was going.

This is a view of a car being swept away by a Colorado
mudslide. Watch video below to see what it looked
like from inside the car.  

Out in Colorado, though, the flash flood water came up way too fast for a guy in his car to get out of the way.

It was on a mountain road, near the site of a really bad forest fire last year.

When it rained, it swept all kinds of mud and black debris from the fire onto the road. That's why the flowing water you will see in the video is black.

This guy somehow managed to somewhat calmly narrate from inside the car as the black flash flood sweeps him along.

It ended OK, though. His car's trashed, but he's fine. Watch:



Meanwhile, way up above 14,000 feet at Pike's Peak. Colorado, you'd think you'd be out of Tornado Alley. You'd be wrong, judging from the video by LaRae Gallant shot this weekend.



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Incredible Video of Flood Surging Into College

Here's quite a surveillance video of a flash flood sweeping through Carl Sandburg College in Illinois this week.

The water builds and builds outside the office until it's too much for the doors to handle, and in the water comes. What a mess.

There's been nasty flooding everywhere, so it's not surprising there's destruction everywhere.

One thing that impresses me about this video is how long the lights and the computers stay on, despite the white water surging into the building.

I Love Those Heartwarming Animal Videos

I was just struck by the video I'm putting in this post of a mother elephant saving her offspring from drowning in a water hole at Kruger National Park in South Africa.

You'd expect nothing less from a mother of any species to protect her young, so in that sense the video is unremarkable.

But there's always something heartwarming in the scenes like this one, involving the elephants. And it goes beyond the sense of drama:

Will the baby elephant be saved? What happens when the mother gets stuck and in a bad position?

I think we're all drawn to selfless acts, be they the instinct or love between animals, or the same thing between humans. Maybe we like the animal incidents a little better, because we know the motivation is less complicated than in humans

Anyway, here's the video:

Tampa Twister Looks Wild

A waterspout came ashore as a fairly weak tornado today in the middle of Tampa, Florida, namely Harbour Island today. Luckily it caused minor damage and no injuries.

A waterspout comes ashore in Tampa Tuesday. Photo by
Robert Siegel.  

A guy named Robert Siegel, a National Weather Service Skywarn spotter was on vacation in Tampa and took this great photo of the waterspout from a high rise he was in.

Not a very strong waterspout/tornado, but still frightening if you were on the walkways near the edge of the harbor as it came ashore.

Tornado Victim Explains Storm to TV Crew as His Ceiling Collapses

I bet the reporter and camera operator for television station WIAT had mixed emotions when the story they were covering this week unexpectedly got more dramatic.

Clint Thornton was standing outside his front door, explaining to the news crew what happened as the tornado smashed into his home the night before.

As he was talking, a steady rain was falling on his badly damaged roof. Suddenly, it all caved in inside the house, just a few feet from where Thornton and the news crew were standing. Family members were in the house.

Luckily, nobody got hurt, and Thornton said the family will be OK because they're in God's hands.

As I said, the news crew must have had mixed emotions. On one hand, boy did they get a more dramatic story than they bargained for! That's always fun for a journalist.

On the other hand, they were in no mood to see people suffer or get hurt. I know first hand what it's like to be a journalist when people are caught in disasters. The victims want their story told, so they are more than happy to answer your questions.

But you still hate that these perfectly nice people have to go through this, when they clearly don't deserve it. In any event, Here's the video. Yikes:

Dramatic Chinese Cop Makes a Great Save

China isn't exactly known for its human rights and tolerance, but when those in positions of authority put their, well, authority to good use, things come out just great.

The evidence of this is caught on a surveillance camera. (Those damn things are everywhere, aren't they?)

Anyway, the video shows a suicidal woman just starting to jump off a bridge with her baby. Published reports say that family trouble drove the woman toward suicise.

Just before she goes over the bridge, a cop runs up and makes quite a grab. He ends up making the save. Very nicely. Watch below: