An Iranian passenger train traveling northeast from the capital, Tehran, to the city of Mashhad broke down on Nov. 25 due to extreme cold and, while immobile, was struck by another train. At least 35 people were killed and more than 70, injured.
An earthquake measuring 6.9 occurred off the northeastern coast of Honshu, the main island of Japan, on Nov. 21. It struck near Fukushima, the location of a deadly earthquake in 2011 that caused a large tsunami that damaged the local nuclear power plant beyond repair.
Tsunami waves caused by the Nov. 21 quake were small and caused no damage. Only minor damage was reported due to the quake, itself, and there were no injuries.
An earthquake measuring 7.8 on the Richter scale occurred off the coast of New Zealand’s South Island, near the city of Christchurch, on Nov. 13, killing two people. Tsunami waves measuring more than eight feet struck the east coast of the island shortly afterward.
Dozens of aftershocks, some with magnitudes of more than 6, occurred after the quake. Damage and landslides closed several major roads on the island, isolating some towns.
Tropical Storm Otto made landfall in Central America in November, briefly being classified as a hurricane.
Three people were killed in Panama on the 22nd when Otto struck the eastern coast of the country with 70-mile-per-hour winds. The storm then moved north, striking Nicaragua, Costa Rica and El Salvador on Nov. 23, killing at least four people in Costa Rica and causing flooding and damage to buildings and agriculture throughout the region before continuing into the Pacific Ocean. It was the southernmost hurricane recorded in Central America.
Caused by heavy rains, flooding in the northern portion of the Dominican Republic in mid-November forced more than 20,000 people to evacuate their homes.
The Dominican Republic is the eastern half of the island of Hispaniola, which it shares with Haiti. On Oct. 5, 2016, Hurricane Matthew killed more than 1,000 people in Haiti along with four in the Dominican Republic.
Fueled by dry conditions and high winds, a series of wildfires in late November had burned over 2,000 acres of land in across Israel as of press time. Only minor injuries had been reported.
On Nov. 24, more than 80,000 people were forced to evacuate their homes in Haifa, Israel’s third-largest city, as fires moved into the city limits. Most were able to return the next day, as firefighters had the fire under control. On Nov. 25, a fire in the West Bank settlement of Halamish forced hundreds of people to evacuate their homes.
Migrants and refugees from war-torn countries in the Middle East and Africa continue to attempt to reach Europe by the thousands.
On Nov. 3, more than 200 people drowned off the coast of Libya after two migrant boats wrecked. Only 31 passengers from those boats were rescued.
It is estimated that, as of press time, about 330,000 migrants have made the journey into Europe via the Mediterranean by November 2016, compared with over one million in 2015. As of press time, at least 4,200 people had died in 2016 attempting to make this crossing.
T-Mobile (t-mobile.com) is wonderful.
Our service plan with T-Mobile includes unlimited data for our two phones for $120 a month and for our tablet for another $20.
We took a 2-month trip, Sept. 13-Nov. 3, 2016, visiting eight capital cities in Eastern and Central Europe: Budapest, Bratislava, Vienna, Ljubljana, Zagreb, Belgrade, Sophia and Bucharest. During the trip, we enjoyed unlimited data (Internet, email, Google Maps, Google Translate, etc.) and unlimited texting.*
While planning a trip to St. Petersburg, Russia, I read Nylah Chilton’s letter about visiting that city for two days with Viking Ocean Cruises and not needing a Russian visa so long as she was on the cruise-tour operator’s organized shore excursions (July ’16, pg. 46). However, my wife and I decided to use a different approach, traveling to St. Petersburg independently by ferry from Helsinki, Finland, and taking advantage of Russia’s 72-hour visa-free rule.