Grandparent scam: London, Ont., senior beats fraudsters not once, but twice
It was a typical Tuesday for Mabel Beharrell, 84, until she got the call that would turn her world upside down. Her teenaged grandson was in trouble and needed her help.
It's an arachnophobe's worst nightmare: towns draped in spider webs.
Residents of the Australian region of Gippsland in the state of Victoria were greeted with layers of gossamer cobwebs after the area was hit by severe flooding, according to CNN affiliate 9News.
The Victoria State Emergency Service issued multiple flood warnings for the rural area in early June, with some residents urged to evacuate, according to tweets from Darren Chester, the MP for Gippsland.
As the humans fled to safety, so did the spiders.
Professor Dieter Hochuli, an ecologist from the University of Sydney, told CNN affiliate 7News that the sea of spider silk was not surprising given the weather conditions.
"This is a surprisingly common phenomenon after floods," he said.
"When we get these types of very heavy rains and flooding, these animals who spend their lives cryptically on the ground can't live there anymore, and do exactly what we try to do -- they move to the higher ground," he added.
Hochuli said the arachnids responsible were sheet web spiders, which normally live on the ground.
The phenomenon is known as ballooning. The Australian Museum's website states that the process involves spiders "ascending to a high point on foliage and letting out fine silk lines that catch the breeze and eventually gain enough lift to waft the spider up and away."
The website adds: "Simultaneous ballooning by thousands of spiderlings can result in a remarkable carpet of silk, called gossamer, covering shrubs or fields."
While the eight-legged creatures take shelter on higher ground, the work of emergency services in the region continues.
"We can see mother nature can be beautiful but she can also be destructive," Carolyn Crossley, a local councilor, wrote on her Facebook page, noting that hundreds of homes in the area remained without power.
Victoria state's emergency management commissioner, Andrew Crisp, said on Twitter that he traveled to the area on Sunday.
"Work continues on relief and recovery," he said.
The storms have wreaked havoc across Victoria. An injured mother and son were rescued by police officers on June 9 after a tree branch fell on their home.
And at least two people in the state have died amid the crisis. On June 10, police discovered a man's body in flood waters after his car was almost submerged. The following, day a woman's body was found in a vehicle in the flood waters.
It was a typical Tuesday for Mabel Beharrell, 84, until she got the call that would turn her world upside down. Her teenaged grandson was in trouble and needed her help.
The deaths of four people on a farm near the Saskatchewan village of Neudorf have been confirmed a murder-suicide.
The Parole Board of Canada has granted full parole to one of three men convicted in the brutal murders of three McDonald's restaurant workers in Cape Breton more than 30 years ago.
The Canada Revenue Agency announced Thursday it will not require 'bare trust' reporting from Canadians that it introduced for the 2024 tax season, just four days before the April 2 deadline.
Ontario released its annual sunshine list Thursday afternoon, noting that the largest year-over-year increases were in hospitals, municipalities, and post-secondary sectors.
Genetic analysis has shed light on a long-standing mystery surrounding the fates of U.S. President George Washington's younger brother Samuel and his kin.
Former U.S. President Donald Trump is officially selling a copy of the Bible themed to Lee Greenwood’s famous song, 'God Bless the USA.' But the concept of a Bible covered in the American flag has raised concern among religious circles.
Rainfall warnings of up to 90 millimetres and other alerts have been issued for six Canadian provinces, according to the latest forecasts.
A bus carrying worshippers headed to an Easter festival plunged off a bridge on a mountain pass and burst into flames in South Africa on Thursday, killing at least 45 people, authorities said.
B.C. conservation officers recently seized a nine-foot-long Burmese python from a home in Chilliwack.
A New Brunswicker will go to bed Thursday night much richer than he was Wednesday after collecting on a winning lottery ticket he let sit on his bedroom dresser for nearly a year.
The Ontario government is introducing changes to auto-insurance, but some experts say the move is ill-advised.
A Toronto restaurant introduced a surprising new rule that reduced the cost of a meal and raised the salaries of staff.
Newfoundland’s unique version of the Pine Marten has grown out of its threatened designation.
A Toronto man is out $12,000 after falling victim to a deepfake cryptocurrency scam that appeared to involve Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.
It started small with a little pop tab collection to simply raise some money for charity and help someone — but it didn’t take long for word to get out that 10-year-old Jace Weber from Mildmay, Ont. was quickly building up a large supply of aluminum pop tabs.
There’s a group of people in Saskatoon that proudly call themselves dumpster divers, and they’re turning the city’s trash into treasure.
Ontario is facing a larger than anticipated deficit but the Doug Ford government still plans to balance its books before the next provincial election.