Lake disappears, baffling villagers

[emad]

Thu May 19, 2005 1:15 PM ET

MOSCOW (Reuters) - A Russian village was left baffled Thursday after its lake disappeared overnight.

NTV television showed pictures of a giant muddy hole bathed in summer sun, while fishermen from the village of Bolotnikovo looked on disconsolately.

"It is very dangerous. If a person had been in this disaster, he would have had almost no chance of survival. The trees flew downwards, under the ground," said Dmitry Zaitsev, a local Emergencies Ministry official interviewed by the channel.

................

"I am thinking, well, America has finally got to us," said one old woman, as she sat on the ground outside her house.

http://today.reuters.com/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=oddlyEnoughNews&storyID=2005-05-19T171502Z_01_L19104638_RTRIDST_0_ODD-ODD-RUSSIA-LAKE-DC.XML

YEP, "America has finally got us"....

[Hugin]

1. Hey emad!

Haven't seen you in a few.

:hi:

[emad]

2. Hey Prag, been a bit AWOL.......but things is getting back to

the abnormal....

[Hugin]

3. Hahaha!

Abnormal is good... It's the normal I'm worried about.

:)

[Robb]

4. The same thing happened with Lake Michigan

...but it got better. :silly:

Heya, emad! :hi:

[emad]

5. Heya Robb!

Great Salt Lake next on the list?

[Zuni]

6. Sorry Russia

America needed your little polluted swamp, for national security reasons.

[underpants]

7. We used to inspire hope and respect

Not so much anymore.


That is a strange story.

[Zuni]

10. Nowadays, we are so disliked, villagers blame us for lake vanishings!

[emad]

8. Supernatural or superstitious?

"It looks like somebody has pulled the plug out of a gigantic bath," said the TV's correspondent, next to a deep debris-filled hole.

"It's very dangerous. If somebody is caught by such a calamity, the chances of survival are practically nil," fireman Dmitry Zaitsev said, pointing out that lakeside trees appeared to have been dragged down with the water.

The lake's disappearance may have been caused by subsidence allowing the water to drain into a cave system or underground river, local official Dmitry Klyuev said.

According to Mr Klyuev, several houses were swallowed up in similar circumstances 70 years ago.

But more supernatural explanations were circulating among the villagers, including the influence of dark forces.

Village youngsters said the lake had appeared during the reign of the feared Tsar Ivan the Terrible and had been "shrouded in dark mystery" ever since.

"We used to go swimming there, but we were rather afraid of its depth, and there were various rumours. For instance people said there used to be a church there underwater," one girl told the TV.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/4566355.stm

[Mutley]

9. I don't get it.

"I am thinking, well, America has finally got to us," said one old woman, as she sat on the ground outside her house. "
__________

Now, why would America want to steal some lake from Russia?

__________

"The trees flew downwards, under the ground," said Dmitry Zaitsev, a local Emergencies Ministry official interviewed by the channel."
__________

What do they mean the trees flew underground?

[Aiptasia]

11. Thats one big sinkhole

[rodeodance]

12. "I thought the Americans had got here," she said, laughing.

from last line of inital article--even though she was laughing--probably says a lot about how they view the USA??

[DemBones DemBones]

13. The lake I studied for my thesis, and would have continued studying for

decades, was drained by a sinkhole. :grr: Right after I'd gotten a grant, too. :mad:

But what can you do about acts of nature? It made a good story to tell at professional meetings, anyway. :shrug: