- On Thursday, March 11, 1999, at 10 p.m.,
a mysterious electrical blackout knocked out power to several states of
Brazil.
-
- Losing all electrical power were the
states of Rio de Janeiro, Sao Paulo, Parana, Minas Gerais, Santa Catarina,
Goias, Mato Grosso and Mato Grosso do Sul.
-
- Three electrical utilities were affected
by the unprecedented blackout--FURNAS, Itaip and Vale do Sao Francisco.
According to Brazilian television reports, the blackout originated at a
power station in Bauru, 350 kilometers (210 miles) northwest of Sao Paulo,
Brazil's largest city.
-
- Power was out for four hours in the states
of Sao Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, Minas Gerais and in portions of Espiritu
Santo state.
-
- The blackout lasted only fifteen minutes
in Goias, Mato Grosso and Mato Grosso do Sul and in the city of Brasilia,
the national capital.
-
- At midnight, FURNAS restored power to
the states of Parana and Santa Catarina.
-
- UFOs were seen in two Brazilian cities
just prior to the blackout.
-
- In Londrina, capital of Parana state,
located 300 kilometers (180 miles) southwest of Bauru, witnesses saw a
luminous disc cross the night sky at a very high velocity.
-
- In Itu, a city 150 kilometers (90 miles)
west of Sao Paulo, eyewitness Joao Cardes do Santos "at the time of
the blackout went outside of his house and watched the sky, which was clear.
At that moment he saw three strange glowing objects. They were silvery
and bigger than an airplane. They were hovering at a low altitude over
the power cables that come from the hydroelectric station at Itaip (and
go) to Sao Paulo. They departed in a straight direction at high speed."
-
- Three days after the blackout came the
report of a Chupacabra attack in the state of Parana.
-
- The morning of Sunday, March 14, 1999,
Sra. Maria Moretti went outdoors to feed her chickens in Vila Reis, a country
town 420 kilometers (242 miles) southwest of Londrina, and noticed some
strange grooves in the ground. Looking closer, she saw that the grooves
were filled with coagulated blood.
-
- "Dozens of birds were found dead
yesterday morning (March 14) at a farm in the district of Vila Reis, 360
kilometers from Apucarana. The majority of the dead animals had no puncture
marks, and each one sustained a shattered skull. Locals credited the attack
to chupacabras, as was seen in past years."
-
- (Editor's Note: The state of Parana was
the scene of a major Chupacabra flap in 1997.)
-
- "The owner of the poultry, Maria
Moretti, did not observe anything wrong in the yard. What called her attention
to the situation was the discovery of ground grooves filled with coagulated
blood." (See the newspaper Gazeta do Povo for March 15, 1999, "O
Chupacabras volta a atacar aves no morte do Parana." Muito obrigado
ao Thiago Ticchetti e Carlos Machado por esos casos.)
-
- UFO FLAP BREAKS OUT IN QUEBEC
AND ONTARIO
-
- On Friday, March 5, 1999, Gaetan Desjardins
took his dog for a walk in Ile Bizard, Quebec, Canada. At 5:35 p.m., he
reports, "I was walking my dog in the woods, enjoying a beautiful
sunset. On my way back home, I stopped to admire the sunset. After maybe--
I don't know--30 seconds to a minute, on my right at two o'clock (position)
right above the trees, I saw this orange light. Believe me, I have never
seen a thing like this before."
-
- "The light then made a sharp turn
to eleven o'clock, still ahead of me now. What's amazing is that the light
made sparking but not of light. Sparking of metal. Sparks every few seconds.
Then, all of a sudden, the light became long like a cigar, and in the middle
(there was) an orange light."
-
- "I heard no noise...before going
down behind the trees, the cigar-shape became a bright light again. As
I witnessed this, I had a strange feeling of not being in control of my
body. Was I hypnotized or just terrified? I don't know, but I am not the
type to be scared for nothing," he reported, adding that he had the
UFO in view for "two to five minutes."
-
- In Ontario, a UFO flap erupted on the
north shore of Lake Huron. Several sightings took place in Blind River,
Ont. (population 3,353), a town on Provincial Highway 17 about 150 kilometers
(90 miles) east of Sault Sainte Marie.
-
- "While driving from Elliott Lake
to her home in Blind River, one witness saw a large, ball-shaped light
in the night sky, which suddenly blinked out. The sighting took place Monday,
February 22."
-
- "Then on Friday, February 26, at
around midnight, a red light was seen hovering over some (Canadian National)
railroad tracks in Blind River by three witnesses in two separate vehicles.
The one in front was driven by a male witness, a carpenter, who was heading
home. The second vehicle was being driven by a woman who was accompanied
by her daughter."
-
- "The driver of the first car pulled
over to the side of the road to get a good look at the light. He was about
30 to 40 feet away from it, as it hovered there. Suddenly, the light started
to move, and the driver sped away."
-
- "As the second car drove by, the
two witnesses spotted the object as it went into the clouds." They
then spoke to the carpenter, who "described it as a red pulsating
light approximately 30 inches (about 75 centimeters) in diameter."
-
- "And more recently, on Saturday,
March 13, (1999) at around 3 a.m., the same woman (witness) got up to go
to the bathroom and heard a low hum, similar to an electrical sound, which
she thought was coming from the refrigerator. When she walked out of the
bathroom, she noticed that the hum was much louder and was coming from
outside. She put on her coat and Ski-Doo boots and went out to investigate."
-
- "And, as she looked up, she saw
a large cigar- shaped object as it flew over her house. She said it was
traveling from west to east. It contained a large cylindrical light at
the front, followed by a smaller light at the back, like a horizontal exclamation
mark. She observed it for about ten to fifteen seconds, then ran into the
house to get her binoculars. When she came back out, the object was further
away to the east, and the humming sound was faint. The witness said the
object was lower than a jet, but as high as a small plane. The sighting
lasted approximately five minutes." (See the Sudbury, Ont. Star for
March 15, 1999. Many thanks to Michel M. Deschamps, MUFON provincial section
director, for forwarding the newspaper article.)
-
- On Tuesday, March 2, 1999, Raymond C.
reports, "My son came in the house and said he saw something unusual
in the sky" over Kingston, Ont. (population 56,597.) "My wife
went out at first to view it, followed by myself. The object appeared as
bright as a star or even brighter, with no blinking lights. It was going
away from us at a very high rate of speed. The brightness of it diminished
as it passed behind the vapor trail of a passing jet. The object was easily
visible, quite bright in appearance, and was as large as a bright star."
-
- Raymond spoke to his wife for a moment,
but, when he looked again, the UFO was gone. "I was somewhat surprised
that I could no longer see it, after only glancing away for a second."
-
- Kingston is on Provincial Highway 33
about 161 miles (258 kilometers) east of Toronto. (Email Interview)
-
- On Friday, March 12, 1999, Raul M. and
his two daughters spotted a UFO while driving through the East York section
of Toronto.
-
- Raul reports, "Last Friday, at about
6 p.m., while I was driving with my two daughters on Sheppard Avenue, East,
we spotted something that looked like a white straw flying at about the
same altitude as a commercial aircraft (i.e. 25,000 to 35,000 feet--J.T.)
It was flying at about 30 degrees above the horizon, traveling from north
to south. It seemed to look like a cloud--a strange flat and long cloud.
The whole sighting lasted for about a minute. We lost it behind some buildings
after that. My daughters were in shock. As for myself, I cannot say for
sure what it was. What I am certainly sure of is that it was not a cloud,
an airplane, a jet, glare or anything I had ever seen before. If it were
up to me to estimate the size of it, I would say that it was the length
of five or six (Boeing) 747s put together." (Email Interview)
-
- RECTANGULAR UFO TERRIFIES
LABORERS IN MALAWI
-
- A rectangular UFO caused much excitement
among construction workers at a village in Malawi, a small nation in southern
Africa.
-
- "Workers who were constructing a
new primary school at Siledi village in the Mwanza district," in the
southwest corner of Malawi, "had the shock of their lives recently
when an object resembling a coffin (i.e. a large rectangular box) flew
over their houses just after 9 o'clock at night."
-
- "A store clerk at the project Makaika
told MANA (Malawi News Agency--J.T.) that at exactly 9 p.m. they heard
a heavy wind blowing over their houses."
-
- "'We thought it was a storm, but
when we went out, we saw a black coffin cruising past our rooftops,'"
the clerk told MANA. (See the Daily Times of Blantyre, Malawi for March
10, 1999, "'Coffin' flies over houses." Many thanks to CNI correspondent
Diane Cammack for forwarding the newspaper article.)
-
- CIGAR-SHAPED UFO FLIES OVER
MILAN, ITALY
-
- On Saturday, March 13, 1999, at 11:30
p.m., witnesses in Milano (Milan) saw "a cigar-shaped object with
two small lights flying above the city at an altitude of 500 meters (1,650
feet)." The UFO flew in an erratic pattern, "not regular movements."
-
- "The object was strange in that
its shape was not perfectly defined," said Fabnzio Monaco of CISETI.
"It would change its shape. The object was illuminated on the bottom.
The object disappeared on the horizon after fifteen minutes."
-
- UFO Roundup readers in Europe can contact
CISETI at this email address: F.Monaco@agora.stm.it (Grazie a Fabrizio
Monaco per questo rapporto.)
-
- UFOs IN NORTHERN OHIO SEEN
BY RESIDENTS AND POLICE
-
- On Thursday, March 11, 1999, at 11:30
p.m., residents in Lemont, Illinois (population 7,348), a suburb 20 miles
(32 kilometers) southwest of Chicago, spotted a strange UFO passing overhead.
They described it as "a black pyramid with three bright lights."
-
- The UFO was also reportedly seen by a
jetliner crew on final approach into Chicago's O'Hare International Airport.
-
- Fifteen minutes later, a triangular UFO
was sighted over Clyde, Ohio (population 5,776), a town on Route 20 17
miles (27 kilometers) southwest of Sandusky. A call was received by the
Sandusky County Sheriff's Department, which sent Sgt. Michael McGuire,
Unit 215, to investigate.
-
- "Complainant stated she was heading
towards Clyde on (State Route) SR101. She stated that she observed what
appeared to be a UFO," the police report said. "She said that
the UFO looked like a triangle in shape and had three red lights on the
bottom. She stated that it was directly overhead and stated that she could
not determine the height or distance but stated she could visibly see it
was triangle in shape and very distinct red lights. She stated that it
was in view for several minutes and then...the UFO sped away in an unknown
direction."
-
- Three days later, on Sunday, March 14,
1999, at 11:30 p.m., a family living in Fremont, Ohio (population 17,648),
about 10 miles (16 kilometers) west of Clyde, phoned the sheriff's department
to report UFOs hovering in the sky to the southwest of their home.
-
- "'They were not stars,'" the
witness told Cincinnati UFO researcher Kenneth Young. "'They were
cigar- shaped oscillating lights. Several of them were sitting out there
to the west of us, moving in a triangular pattern. They were not airplanes
or helicopters. Ones that were closest seemed to have a white light underneath
them and another light on top...The most I ever saw at one time were five
or six of them. Most of the time, there were three in a triangular pattern."
-
- Investigating the sighting was Deputy
Amor of the Sandusky County Sheriff's Department. The police report stated,
"Complainant called Dispatch and indicated that he was observing a
strange array of lights in the sky that appeared to be to the southwest...As
I responded to the call, I first observed the cluster of lights as I was
at the west end" near Route 712 and County Road 126.
-
- "They appeared to be red, green
or yellow in color. I continued south on State Route 53 and then west on
State Route 12. The lights did not appear to be getting closer, so I pulled
my cruiser over at the intersection of County Road 12 and State Route 12,
in order to retrieve my field glasses from the trunk." (Boot in UK-
J.T.)
-
- "I was unable to identify the object
through my field glasses. The lights appeared to be illuminating in a steady
fashion. I did not observe any blinking or change in brightness...Although
the light did not appear to be moving at a high rate of speed, its height
and distance from my location made it difficult, if not impossible, to
estimate...The object did not appear to be posing a threat or acting in
any way that could have been interpreted as hostile. I returned to routine
patrol." (Many thanks to Kenneth Young and to Tim Hagemeister of NACOMM
for this report.)
-
- TWO GREEN UFOs SPOTTED OFFSHORE
IN HAWAII
-
- On Sunday, March 14, 1999, at 1:15 a.m.,
airline pilot Luca R. was "coming home from work" when he "noticed
two bright green lights floating in the sky with a very strange pattern.
Their location was towards the southwest from the island of Kauai,"
in the Hawaiian Islands.
-
- "They were of the same size as the
stars in the background but at a much lower altitude," Luca reported.
"Their motion was very strange, slow but active, a short straight
line but with abrupt changes in direction, and slowly gaining altitude,
almost straight up until they were gone."
-
- "There was a friend with me. We
are both cynical pilots and we have never seen anything like this. For
sure they were not a conventional aircraft." (Email Interview)
-
- UFO SIGHTINGS CONTINUE IN
COLORADO
-
- UFO sightings are still going on in Colorado,
with two new cases reported last week.
-
- On Wednesday, February 24, 1999, at 9:30
p.m., UFO investigator Christopher O'Brien was at his home in Crestone,
Colorado (population 400) when he received a telephone call.
-
- Fellow ufologist Fabian Sauvo, Chris
said, "was reporting a brilliant red light flying west to east just
north of Center, Colo. (population 1,963) I ran outside with my cellular
phone and, sure enough, there was a large red light between Crestone, where
I live, and Center. The light ducked into a cloud" over Great Sand
Dunes National Monument east of Colorado Highway 17 "and didn't come
out. I waited to see if I could get a better look, but it either turned
off its light or remained in the cloud...After waiting around for 15 minutes,
I gave up." (Many thanks to Christopher O'Brien for this report. Chris's
new book, Enter the Valley, is still on sale at bookstores throughout the
USA.)
-
- On Tuesday, March 16, 1999, Charles M.
and his family observed a UFO over Aurora, Colorado (population 222,103),
a suburb on Highway30 about six miles (10 kilometers) east of Denver.
-
- "We were looking south when we saw
the light. I am guessing it was at an angle of 10 to 15 degrees up from
the horizon," Charles stated, "We observed the light on Tuesday
only for a few minutes. The lights on the object were blinking red and
blue. My wife took some video of the light. I observed the video last night.
It is not very good. She had the Autofocus on, and it would not stay in
focus."
-
- On Wednesday, March 17, 1999, the family
spotted the UFO "at around 8 p.m. The light was about 15 degrees to
the west of us and just over the top of a neighbor's house. We waited about
an hour and returned outside to discover if the light had moved. This time
the light had moved about 35 degrees forward and dropped almost to the
horizon. to about 5 to 10 degrees above the horizon. I did not return until
about an hour later, and they had completely disappeared. I walked down
the street because the house across the street was blocking my view. The
light was nowhere to be seen." (Email Interview)
-
- NEBRASKA'S INCREDIBLE RATTLESNAKE
CHURCH
-
- Bethany Presbyterian Church in Lemoyne,
Nebraska (population 40) has a unique claim to Fortean fame--it was once
besieged by a legion of rattlesnakes.
-
- In the late 1930s, the government began
construction on the Kingsley Dam, which now spans the North Platte River.
As the waters backed up six miles to form what is now Lake McConaughy,
residents realized that they would have to move several buildings on the
floodplain.
-
- "So over the next couple of years,
townspeople moved every building they could to higher ground. The church
was relocated to a hill overlooking the lake."
-
- By October 1941, Bethany Presbyterian
Church was ready to reopen. A new pastor was hired, and the church basement
was ready for use.
-
- "Ladies of the community planned
a workday to clean and prepare for the revival. That's when they discovered
they weren't the only ones who'd left the valley to escape the rising waters."
-
- "Rattlesnakes had chosen the churchyard
as a place to congregate. In fact, on that day and over the next several
months, 90 rattlers were rounded up in and around the church."
-
- "Church services were understandably
put on hold for a while. But eventually the saints won out over the snakes.
The faithful people refurbished the old sanctuary and began holding regular
services."
-
- Lemoyne is on Nebraska Highway 92 about
104 miles (166 kilometers) southeast of Scottsbluff. (See Country magazine
for April/May 1999, "Country Church Survives High Water and Rattlesnakes,"
by Lois Dunwoody, page 43.) (Editor's Comment: Although the rising river
had something to do with it, there are places in North America which attract
hundreds or thousands of rattlesnakes. Offhand I know of three here in
the New England states--Rattlesnake Mountain in Rumney Depot, New Hampshire...Glastenbury
Mountain, east of Shaftsbury, Vermont...and Tatnic Hill, just east of Scotland,
Connecticut.)
-
-
- From the UFO Files...
-
- 1485: EXPRESS TO PELLUCIDAR
-
- Tales of tunnels under the Andes are
very old... and quite commonplace..in Ecuador. And one of these tales dates
back to before the Spanish conquest and involves Huayna Capac, the ninth
Inca emperor.
-
- In 1485, then-prince Huayna Capac was
given command of the army and ordered by his father, Inca Tupac Yupanqui,
to extend the borders of Tawatinsuyu (the Incas' name for their South American
empire--J.T.) northward from Quito.
-
- After much campaigning, Huayna Capac
laid siege to Otavallu (modern Otavalo, Ecuador, 100 kilometers north of
Quito).
-
- "The war lasted for two years. It
was a very modern war, in duration, and none got the upper hand."
-
- Otavallu, you see, was a fairly advanced
civilization, like the Incas. The city was already thousands of years old
when Manco Capac and his sister-wife, Mama Ocllo Huallpa, left their home
in Bolivia to wander the Andes, eventually founding the Inca capital of
Cuzco around 900 A.D.
-
- The city was ruled by a young and beautiful
woman named Quillago. She was a heichera-colla (Quechua for sorceress-queen--J.T.)
and, in addition to her queenly duties, presided with the high priestess
over a religion devoted to a goddess of the moon, whose name, unfortunately,
is lost to history.
-
- "At last the queen was captured.
The Inca sought to gain her over with rich presents, which she would not
accept. Then he ordered her to be liberated."
-
- Returning to Otavallu, Quilloga plotted
with the elderly high priestess, Pichamba, to assassinate the Inca prince.
She told Pichamba to hide a knife in the temple's subterranean chamber
and then invited the Incas to a feast at her palace.
-
- During the feast, Quilloga invited Huayna
Capac to the temple to see their magical cenote (sacred well), which was
supposed to lead to Uru Ticsi, the world below. The catch was, only the
three of them could visit the subterranean chamber--the Inca prince, Quilloga
and her high priestess.
-
- Huayna Capac was no fool. He had Quilloga
and Pachimba searched by Inca "chosen women," just as the queen
knew he would, and when they were found to be unarmed, he agreed to accompany
them to the temple.
-
- "Hand in hand, Inca and Amazon queen
descended the stairway to the inner chamber where the snare was all set."
-
- There was something strange and eerie
about the dank, stone-rimmed cenote. Strange hieroglyphics marked the well.
At Quilloga's invitation, Huayna Capac leaned over and peered into the
well. And surprisingly, a soft perfumed wind blew into his face. He couldn't
believe it. A wind? This far below the ground?
-
- The circular well seemed to fall away
into infinity. At the bottom was a queer glimmer. Almost like a pinprick
of daylight. As he looked into the well, the Inca felt disoriented. He
later told his friends that he felt as if he were at the bottom of the
well, looking upward towards a tiny spot of sunshine.
-
- He struggled against a surge of vertigo.
Seeing her chance, Quilloga glanced at the priestess. Pichamba's gaze darted
to a nearby stone altar. The queen went directly to the spot, lifted a
chahuar (alpaca shawl) and found the knife.
-
- Maybe it was ESP or fate, or maybe it
was just dumb luck, that saved the Inca. Closing his eyes, Huayna Capac
stepped away from the cenote, then turned just in time to see Quilloga
coming at him with the knife.
-
- He "caught the lintel of the door,
with his left hand, and fixing his feet strongly against the top of the
well, heaved his body against the Amazon queen and caused her to stumble
and pitch headlong," screaming, into the cenote.
-
- "A shouting virago," Pichamba,
"came at him with tooth and nail, but she, too, he siezed around the
waist and sent her to join the queen at the bottom of the well."
-
- The women's screams lasted for minutes,
faded to whispers, and then there was silence. Hayna Capac listened carefully,
but he never heard them hit the bottom. He also had no further desire to
peer into Quilloga's magic well.
-
- Instead, he marched out of the temple
and took possession of Otavallu for the Inca empire. (See Secret Cities
of Old South America by Harold T. Wilkins, 1952, reprinted 1998 by Adventures
Unlimited Press, pages 151 and 152.)
-
- Looks like we're running out of space.
Join us next week for more saucer news from around the planet, brought
to you by "the paper that goes home-- UFO Roundup." See you then.
-
- UFO ROUNDUP: Copyright 1999 by Masinaigan
Productions, all rights reserved. Readers may post news items from UFO
Roundup on their websites or in newsgroups provided that they credit the
newsletter and its editor by name and list the date of issue in which the
item first appeared.
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