Historic floods across the globe
Slide show:
http://www.msn.com/en-ca/weather/topsto ... ut#image=1
NATURAL DISASTERS
Places at highest risk of imminent earthquake in the world
Slide show:
http://www.msn.com/en-ca/news/world/pla ... ut#image=1
Slide show:
http://www.msn.com/en-ca/news/world/pla ... ut#image=1
The Aga Khan Development Network (AKDN) ShakeOut is a multi-country earthquake drill spanning over 20 countries designed to educate people on how to protect themselves during an earthquake, and how to get prepared.
For further information and details on how to get involved in the AKDN ShakeOut, please contact shakeout@focushumanitarian.org
http://www.shakeout.org/akdn/
For further information and details on how to get involved in the AKDN ShakeOut, please contact shakeout@focushumanitarian.org
http://www.shakeout.org/akdn/
13 die as avalanche hits village, check post in Chitral
CHITRAL: In Chitral, at least 25 houses were destroyed after being hit by an avalanche last night.
The incident occurred in Sher Shal village in Garam Chashma tehsil of Chitral after heavy snowfall.
Sources of Chitral District Administration told said recuse operation is in progress to recover the people trapped under the debris. Local authorities said 12 bodies have been recovered.
Seven injured have been rescued and shifted to civil hospital Garam Chashma.
In another incident, an avalanche hit a check post of Chital Scouts in Arandogol area.
Officials said an FC soldier was martyred and six were wounded. Rescue efforts were underway.
“An FC soldier Irshad embraced shahadat and 6 got injured when a Chitral scout post came under slide in Pishotan, Kandao, Arandu,” ISPR said.
ISPR said FC troops are assisting the civil administration and NDMA for rescue of individuals who came under snow slide last night.
“Subject to weather clearance Army helicopter will supply relief items and expedite relief operations,” ISPR said.
Meanwhile, army spokesman said in a statement that Chief of Army Staff General Qamar Javed Bajwa (COAS) has directed for maximum assistance to NDMA, PDMA and local administrations for timely and effective rescue/relief effort in snow hit areas. - Samaa
https://www.samaa.tv/pakistan/2017/02/c ... l-village/
*****
More Than 100 Dead in Afghanistan, Pakistan Avalanches
More than 100 people are dead after areas of Afghanistan and Pakistan were hit with avalanches. In one northern Afghanistan town near the border with Pakistan, 45 people were killed. Many who died either froze to death or were trapped in cars. “Avalanches have buried two entire villages,” an Afghan government official told AFP. Search-and-rescue efforts have been thwarted by worsening weather and blocked roads. Kabul’s airport has been shut down due to icy conditions on its runways.
http://www.thedailybeast.com/cheats/201 ... ce=copyurl
CHITRAL: In Chitral, at least 25 houses were destroyed after being hit by an avalanche last night.
The incident occurred in Sher Shal village in Garam Chashma tehsil of Chitral after heavy snowfall.
Sources of Chitral District Administration told said recuse operation is in progress to recover the people trapped under the debris. Local authorities said 12 bodies have been recovered.
Seven injured have been rescued and shifted to civil hospital Garam Chashma.
In another incident, an avalanche hit a check post of Chital Scouts in Arandogol area.
Officials said an FC soldier was martyred and six were wounded. Rescue efforts were underway.
“An FC soldier Irshad embraced shahadat and 6 got injured when a Chitral scout post came under slide in Pishotan, Kandao, Arandu,” ISPR said.
ISPR said FC troops are assisting the civil administration and NDMA for rescue of individuals who came under snow slide last night.
“Subject to weather clearance Army helicopter will supply relief items and expedite relief operations,” ISPR said.
Meanwhile, army spokesman said in a statement that Chief of Army Staff General Qamar Javed Bajwa (COAS) has directed for maximum assistance to NDMA, PDMA and local administrations for timely and effective rescue/relief effort in snow hit areas. - Samaa
https://www.samaa.tv/pakistan/2017/02/c ... l-village/
*****
More Than 100 Dead in Afghanistan, Pakistan Avalanches
More than 100 people are dead after areas of Afghanistan and Pakistan were hit with avalanches. In one northern Afghanistan town near the border with Pakistan, 45 people were killed. Many who died either froze to death or were trapped in cars. “Avalanches have buried two entire villages,” an Afghan government official told AFP. Search-and-rescue efforts have been thwarted by worsening weather and blocked roads. Kabul’s airport has been shut down due to icy conditions on its runways.
http://www.thedailybeast.com/cheats/201 ... ce=copyurl
-
Kateeeeeeeeee
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Hello everyone, My name is Katiya. I am a Ukrainian who has been retained to launch an Ismaili website. I need some help with content. Therefore i decided to search an Ismaili website to find someone who is an Ismaili and can help with this Project. Once the site has been launched, we will be looking for full time staff in maintaining this world wide website. Please contact me on my email amira.dream13@gmail.com if you are able too assist. Thank you very much Katiya.
A Fierce Famine Stalks Africa
LONDON — Somalis traditionally did not number years but instead gave each a name that immortalized important events or crises.
Nineteen eleven was the year of forbidden food, meaning a hunger so profound that people were reduced to eating haram foods that Islam proscribes; nineteen twenty-eight was the year of registration, widespread drought forcing northern Somalis to finally submit to registration by their British colonizers in return for aid; nineteen seventy-four was the year of the long-tailed, an interminable drought in the whole region that contributed to the fall of Haile Selassie.
Famines have visited the Horn of Africa so regularly in the past 25 years that there has been no time for new poetic appellations.
More...
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/12/opin ... dline&te=1
LONDON — Somalis traditionally did not number years but instead gave each a name that immortalized important events or crises.
Nineteen eleven was the year of forbidden food, meaning a hunger so profound that people were reduced to eating haram foods that Islam proscribes; nineteen twenty-eight was the year of registration, widespread drought forcing northern Somalis to finally submit to registration by their British colonizers in return for aid; nineteen seventy-four was the year of the long-tailed, an interminable drought in the whole region that contributed to the fall of Haile Selassie.
Famines have visited the Horn of Africa so regularly in the past 25 years that there has been no time for new poetic appellations.
More...
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/12/opin ... dline&te=1
Weather-related disasters are increasing
But the number of deaths caused by them is falling
Excerpt:
Although the number of such disasters keeps rising, far fewer people are dying as a result of them. In 1970, 200,000 people perished annually. That figure has been dramatically reduced, thanks to safety measures such as improved buildings and flood-prevention schemes. To reduce it still further, urban planners may have to operate on the assumption of even more extreme events.
More..
https://www.economist.com/blogs/graphic ... lydispatch
******
More Than 1,000 Died in South Asia Floods This Summer
MUMBAI, India — More than 1,000 people have died in floods across South Asia this summer, and as sheets of incessant rain pummeled the vast region on Tuesday, worries grew that the death toll would rise along with the floodwaters.
According to the United Nations, at least 41 million people in Bangladesh, India and Nepal have been directly affected by flooding and landslides resulting from the monsoon rains, which usually begin in June and last until September.
And while flooding in the Houston area has grabbed more attention, aid officials say a catastrophe is unfolding in South Asia.
In Nepal, thousands of homes have been destroyed and dozens of people swept away. Elephants were pressed into service, wading through swirling waters to rescue people, and aid workers have built rafts from bamboo and banana leaves.
But many people are still missing, and some families have held last rites without their loved ones’ bodies being found.
“This is the severest flooding in a number of years,” Francis Markus, a spokesman for the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, said by phone from Kathmandu, Nepal’s capital.
More...
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/29/worl ... d=45305309
But the number of deaths caused by them is falling
Excerpt:
Although the number of such disasters keeps rising, far fewer people are dying as a result of them. In 1970, 200,000 people perished annually. That figure has been dramatically reduced, thanks to safety measures such as improved buildings and flood-prevention schemes. To reduce it still further, urban planners may have to operate on the assumption of even more extreme events.
More..
https://www.economist.com/blogs/graphic ... lydispatch
******
More Than 1,000 Died in South Asia Floods This Summer
MUMBAI, India — More than 1,000 people have died in floods across South Asia this summer, and as sheets of incessant rain pummeled the vast region on Tuesday, worries grew that the death toll would rise along with the floodwaters.
According to the United Nations, at least 41 million people in Bangladesh, India and Nepal have been directly affected by flooding and landslides resulting from the monsoon rains, which usually begin in June and last until September.
And while flooding in the Houston area has grabbed more attention, aid officials say a catastrophe is unfolding in South Asia.
In Nepal, thousands of homes have been destroyed and dozens of people swept away. Elephants were pressed into service, wading through swirling waters to rescue people, and aid workers have built rafts from bamboo and banana leaves.
But many people are still missing, and some families have held last rites without their loved ones’ bodies being found.
“This is the severest flooding in a number of years,” Francis Markus, a spokesman for the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, said by phone from Kathmandu, Nepal’s capital.
More...
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/29/worl ... d=45305309
Natural disasters
How government policy exacerbates hurricanes like Harvey
As if global warming were not enough of a threat, poor planning and unwise subsidies make floods worse
THE extent of the devastation will become clear only when the floodwater recedes, leaving ruined cars, filthy mud-choked houses and the bloated corpses of the drowned. But as we went to press, with the rain pounding South Texas for the sixth day, Hurricane Harvey had already set records as America’s most severe deluge (see Briefing). In Houston it drenched Harris County in over 4.5trn litres of water in just 100 hours—enough rainfall to cover an eight-year-old child.
The fate of America’s fourth-largest city holds the world’s attention, but it is hardly alone. In India, Bangladesh and Nepal, at least 1,200 people have died and millions have been left homeless by this year’s monsoon floods. Last month torrential rains caused a mudslide in Sierra Leone that killed over 1,000—though the exact toll will never be known. Around the world, governments are grappling with the threat from floods. This will ultimately be about dealing with climate change. Just as important, is correcting short-sighted government policy and the perverse incentives that make flooding worse.
More...
https://www.economist.com/news/leaders/ ... na/60235/n
How government policy exacerbates hurricanes like Harvey
As if global warming were not enough of a threat, poor planning and unwise subsidies make floods worse
THE extent of the devastation will become clear only when the floodwater recedes, leaving ruined cars, filthy mud-choked houses and the bloated corpses of the drowned. But as we went to press, with the rain pounding South Texas for the sixth day, Hurricane Harvey had already set records as America’s most severe deluge (see Briefing). In Houston it drenched Harris County in over 4.5trn litres of water in just 100 hours—enough rainfall to cover an eight-year-old child.
The fate of America’s fourth-largest city holds the world’s attention, but it is hardly alone. In India, Bangladesh and Nepal, at least 1,200 people have died and millions have been left homeless by this year’s monsoon floods. Last month torrential rains caused a mudslide in Sierra Leone that killed over 1,000—though the exact toll will never be known. Around the world, governments are grappling with the threat from floods. This will ultimately be about dealing with climate change. Just as important, is correcting short-sighted government policy and the perverse incentives that make flooding worse.
More...
https://www.economist.com/news/leaders/ ... na/60235/n
In Bangladesh, a Flood and an Efficient Response
DHAKA, Bangladesh — After two weeks of flooding, about half of Bangladesh is under water, 140 people have been killed, tens of thousands of families have been forced from their homes and well over a million acres of crops have been destroyed. The poorest, their rural livelihoods in ruins, will most likely have no choice but to head to the cities.
As experts attribute the frequency of immense floods to climate change, the thousands who move to Dhaka, the capital, and other cities should be considered climate refugees.
The floods have disrupted life in Dhaka, a megacity that is home to 16 million people. Roads turned into canals. Some people took to using boats. Some waded through waist-high water.
Dhaka is packed with an estimated 135,000 people per square mile and is already the densest metropolis in the world. Its creaky infrastructure can barely support the existing population. The arrival of thousands of flood victims will strain services further.
More...
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/01/opin ... dline&te=1
DHAKA, Bangladesh — After two weeks of flooding, about half of Bangladesh is under water, 140 people have been killed, tens of thousands of families have been forced from their homes and well over a million acres of crops have been destroyed. The poorest, their rural livelihoods in ruins, will most likely have no choice but to head to the cities.
As experts attribute the frequency of immense floods to climate change, the thousands who move to Dhaka, the capital, and other cities should be considered climate refugees.
The floods have disrupted life in Dhaka, a megacity that is home to 16 million people. Roads turned into canals. Some people took to using boats. Some waded through waist-high water.
Dhaka is packed with an estimated 135,000 people per square mile and is already the densest metropolis in the world. Its creaky infrastructure can barely support the existing population. The arrival of thousands of flood victims will strain services further.
More...
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/01/opin ... dline&te=1
They Thought the Monsoons Were Calm. Then Came the Deadly Floods.
Excerpt:
In a particularly severe season of storms and flooding around the world, the devastation in South Asia has been among the worst anywhere. The rains aren’t over yet, and already in India, Nepal and Bangladesh, more than 1,200 people have lost their lives.
Sadly, this happens every year. Deadly flooding is part of the landscape in South Asia, and over the past two decades an average of around 2,000 people have died each year, according to the International Disaster Database in Belgium.
But even by South Asian standards, what began as a slow storm season is entering a particularly intense second half. And despite all of India’s economic growth and the rapid infusion of mobile phones, computers, social media and other technology, millions of people in both rural and urban areas had no idea that dangerous weather was coming. Even some government officials said they had been given no warning.
More...
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/07/worl ... d=45305309
Excerpt:
In a particularly severe season of storms and flooding around the world, the devastation in South Asia has been among the worst anywhere. The rains aren’t over yet, and already in India, Nepal and Bangladesh, more than 1,200 people have lost their lives.
Sadly, this happens every year. Deadly flooding is part of the landscape in South Asia, and over the past two decades an average of around 2,000 people have died each year, according to the International Disaster Database in Belgium.
But even by South Asian standards, what began as a slow storm season is entering a particularly intense second half. And despite all of India’s economic growth and the rapid infusion of mobile phones, computers, social media and other technology, millions of people in both rural and urban areas had no idea that dangerous weather was coming. Even some government officials said they had been given no warning.
More...
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/07/worl ... d=45305309
Hurricane Irma's Devastating Path in Photos
Aerial view of devastation following Hurricane Irma at Bitter End in Virgin Gorda, British Virgin Islands September 8, 2017, is seen in this still image taken from social media video.
Slide show:
http://www.msn.com/en-ca/weather/topsto ... ut#image=1
Aerial view of devastation following Hurricane Irma at Bitter End in Virgin Gorda, British Virgin Islands September 8, 2017, is seen in this still image taken from social media video.
Slide show:
http://www.msn.com/en-ca/weather/topsto ... ut#image=1
Harvey, Irma, Jose … and Noah
Is there anything we can learn from hurricanes, storms and floods?
People have been asking that question for thousands of years, and telling stories that try to make sense of natural disasters. These flood myths are remarkably similar to one another.
A researcher named John D. Morris collected more than 200 of them, from ancient China, India, Native American cultures and beyond. He calculates that in 88 percent of the tales there is a favored family. In 70 percent, they survive the flood in a boat. In 67 percent, the animals are also saved in the boat. In 66 percent, the flood is due to the wickedness of man, and in 57 percent the boat comes to rest on a mountain top.
The authors of these myths are trying to make sense of vast and powerful forces. They are trying to figure out what sort of world they live in. Is it a capricious world, where cities are destroyed for no reason? Or perhaps it’s a just but merciless world, where civilizations are wiped out for their iniquity?
More..
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/12/opin ... dline&te=1
Is there anything we can learn from hurricanes, storms and floods?
People have been asking that question for thousands of years, and telling stories that try to make sense of natural disasters. These flood myths are remarkably similar to one another.
A researcher named John D. Morris collected more than 200 of them, from ancient China, India, Native American cultures and beyond. He calculates that in 88 percent of the tales there is a favored family. In 70 percent, they survive the flood in a boat. In 67 percent, the animals are also saved in the boat. In 66 percent, the flood is due to the wickedness of man, and in 57 percent the boat comes to rest on a mountain top.
The authors of these myths are trying to make sense of vast and powerful forces. They are trying to figure out what sort of world they live in. Is it a capricious world, where cities are destroyed for no reason? Or perhaps it’s a just but merciless world, where civilizations are wiped out for their iniquity?
More..
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/12/opin ... dline&te=1
Bigger, but less bad
An earthquake shows that Mexico has learned from past disasters
The value of better building codes, earthquake drills and alarms
https://www.economist.com/news/americas ... lydispatch
An earthquake shows that Mexico has learned from past disasters
The value of better building codes, earthquake drills and alarms
https://www.economist.com/news/americas ... lydispatch
Popocatépetl violently erupts in Mexico
A cloud of smoke, ash and steam rose about 5,900 feet (or 1798 meters) above the volcano after its eruption. This was the largest eruption of this volcano since 2013.
VIDEO
https://www.msn.com/en-ca/video/wonder/ ... ailsignout
A cloud of smoke, ash and steam rose about 5,900 feet (or 1798 meters) above the volcano after its eruption. This was the largest eruption of this volcano since 2013.
VIDEO
https://www.msn.com/en-ca/video/wonder/ ... ailsignout
13 apocalyptic images of 2017
At 2017's worst, it didn't just feel like everything was on fire. Parts of the world literally were - and still are - burning.
There were fires, floods, storms, earthquakes, droughts, and volcanic eruptions.
Some of the photos of those events gave the past year a very "end of the world" sort of feel.
These are some of the most apocalyptic images we spotted.
Slide show:
https://www.msn.com/en-ca/news/world/13 ... ailsignout
At 2017's worst, it didn't just feel like everything was on fire. Parts of the world literally were - and still are - burning.
There were fires, floods, storms, earthquakes, droughts, and volcanic eruptions.
Some of the photos of those events gave the past year a very "end of the world" sort of feel.
These are some of the most apocalyptic images we spotted.
Slide show:
https://www.msn.com/en-ca/news/world/13 ... ailsignout
Lava flowing from Philippine volcano, thousands evacuated
LEGAZPI, Philippines - More than 9,000 people have evacuated the area around the Philippines' most active volcano as lava flowed down its crater Monday in a gentle eruption that scientists warned could turn explosive.
The Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology increased the alert level for Mount Mayon late Sunday to three on a scale of five, indicating an increased tendency toward a hazardous eruption.
Lava flowed at least half a kilometre (less than half a mile) down a gulley from the crater and on Monday morning, ash clouds appeared mid-slope, said Renato Solidum, head of the volcano institute.
Molten rocks and lava at Mayon's crater lit the night sky Sunday in an reddish-orange glow despite a shroud of thick clouds that covered the volcano, leaving spectators awed but sending thousands of residents into evacuation shelters.
Albay province emergency response official Cedric Daep said at least 9,000 people have been moved from high-risk areas in an ongoing evacuation. People in the danger area have put up huge white crosses in their neighbourhoods, hoping to protect their lives and homes
More...
https://www.msn.com/en-ca/news/world/la ... ailsignout
LEGAZPI, Philippines - More than 9,000 people have evacuated the area around the Philippines' most active volcano as lava flowed down its crater Monday in a gentle eruption that scientists warned could turn explosive.
The Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology increased the alert level for Mount Mayon late Sunday to three on a scale of five, indicating an increased tendency toward a hazardous eruption.
Lava flowed at least half a kilometre (less than half a mile) down a gulley from the crater and on Monday morning, ash clouds appeared mid-slope, said Renato Solidum, head of the volcano institute.
Molten rocks and lava at Mayon's crater lit the night sky Sunday in an reddish-orange glow despite a shroud of thick clouds that covered the volcano, leaving spectators awed but sending thousands of residents into evacuation shelters.
Albay province emergency response official Cedric Daep said at least 9,000 people have been moved from high-risk areas in an ongoing evacuation. People in the danger area have put up huge white crosses in their neighbourhoods, hoping to protect their lives and homes
More...
https://www.msn.com/en-ca/news/world/la ... ailsignout
Debunking the Myth That Earthquakes and Full Moons Are Linked
On Dec. 26, 2004, a magnitude 9.1 earthquake ruptured the ocean floor off the west coast of Sumatra. The resulting tsunami killed nearly 230,000 people in 14 countries, making it one of the deadliest natural disasters in history. And it occurred during a full moon.
The Sumatra earthquake isn’t the only large earthquake to have occurred beneath the moon’s bright glare. Both the earthquake that devastated Chile in 2010 and the Great Alaskan Earthquake in 1964 also happened on a conspicuous lunar date — making it tempting to argue that more large earthquakes occur during the full moon.
But a new study published in Seismological Research Letters finds that the connection is nothing but folklore.
To analyze the supposed link, Susan Hough, a seismologist at the United States Geological Survey, scrutinized 204 earthquakes of magnitude 8 or greater over the past four centuries. She then matched those earthquakes to the lunar calendar and found that no more occurred during a full or new moon than on any other day of the lunar cycle.
“The lore that the big earthquakes happen during the full moon — there’s no support for that in the catalog,” Dr. Hough said.
More..
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/18/scie ... dline&te=1
On Dec. 26, 2004, a magnitude 9.1 earthquake ruptured the ocean floor off the west coast of Sumatra. The resulting tsunami killed nearly 230,000 people in 14 countries, making it one of the deadliest natural disasters in history. And it occurred during a full moon.
The Sumatra earthquake isn’t the only large earthquake to have occurred beneath the moon’s bright glare. Both the earthquake that devastated Chile in 2010 and the Great Alaskan Earthquake in 1964 also happened on a conspicuous lunar date — making it tempting to argue that more large earthquakes occur during the full moon.
But a new study published in Seismological Research Letters finds that the connection is nothing but folklore.
To analyze the supposed link, Susan Hough, a seismologist at the United States Geological Survey, scrutinized 204 earthquakes of magnitude 8 or greater over the past four centuries. She then matched those earthquakes to the lunar calendar and found that no more occurred during a full or new moon than on any other day of the lunar cycle.
“The lore that the big earthquakes happen during the full moon — there’s no support for that in the catalog,” Dr. Hough said.
More..
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/18/scie ... dline&te=1
Growing glaciers prove cold comfort for Pakistan’s Shimshal valley
ISLAMABAD (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - Climate change is causing glaciers around the world to melt, raising the risk of flooding and other problems. But residents of a remote area of Pakistan face floods for the opposite reason – their glaciers are growing.
Experts say that more than 120 glaciers in Pakistan’s north are stable, or even growing rapidly, in a phenomenon called the “Karakoram Anomaly”.
A team of researchers from Britain’s Newcastle University last year attributed the anomaly to a summer “vortex” of cold air over the Karakoram mountain range.
They say this is causing the glaciers in the region to grow, in spite of a global increase in average temperatures.
More...
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-paki ... SKCN1GS0BR
ISLAMABAD (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - Climate change is causing glaciers around the world to melt, raising the risk of flooding and other problems. But residents of a remote area of Pakistan face floods for the opposite reason – their glaciers are growing.
Experts say that more than 120 glaciers in Pakistan’s north are stable, or even growing rapidly, in a phenomenon called the “Karakoram Anomaly”.
A team of researchers from Britain’s Newcastle University last year attributed the anomaly to a summer “vortex” of cold air over the Karakoram mountain range.
They say this is causing the glaciers in the region to grow, in spite of a global increase in average temperatures.
More...
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-paki ... SKCN1GS0BR
Hawaii: Lava engulfs a Ford Mustang live on-camera
http://www.msn.com/en-ca/weather/video/ ... ailsignout
http://www.msn.com/en-ca/weather/video/ ... ailsignout
Fly through Hawaii's active volcano with this up-close drone footage
This footage from The Drone Racing League's (DRL) Podium Pilot is closest you'll get to active lava flow
Video
https://www.msn.com/en-ca/video/news/fl ... ailsignout
This footage from The Drone Racing League's (DRL) Podium Pilot is closest you'll get to active lava flow
Video
https://www.msn.com/en-ca/video/news/fl ... ailsignout
Lava vs. metal fence in Hawaii: Watch what happens
Video:
Footage captures lava from Hawaii's Kilauea volcano oozing through a metal fence on the Leilani Estates neighbourhood on May 6.
https://www.msn.com/en-ca/video/news/la ... ailsignout
Video:
Footage captures lava from Hawaii's Kilauea volcano oozing through a metal fence on the Leilani Estates neighbourhood on May 6.
https://www.msn.com/en-ca/video/news/la ... ailsignout
Photo Updates From Kilauea: The Lava Meets the Sea
Slide show:
http://www.msn.com/en-ca/news/photos/ph ... ut#image=1
Video:
http://www.msn.com/en-ca/video/viral/to ... id=AAxJvxS
Toxic steam cloud as lava enters ocean
White plumes of acid and extremely fine shards of glass billowed into the sky over Hawaii on Sunday as molten rock from Kilauea volcano poured into the ocean
Slide show:
http://www.msn.com/en-ca/news/photos/ph ... ut#image=1
Video:
http://www.msn.com/en-ca/video/viral/to ... id=AAxJvxS
Toxic steam cloud as lava enters ocean
White plumes of acid and extremely fine shards of glass billowed into the sky over Hawaii on Sunday as molten rock from Kilauea volcano poured into the ocean
Villagers 'living between life and death' as Pakistan's glaciers melt
BADSWAT: When a glacial lake burst in Pakistan’s northern Gilgit-Baltistan province in July, Sher Baz watched helplessly as the waters swept away his family home.
Residents of Badswat village, which lies in Ishkoman valley at the foot of the Hindu Kush mountain range’s snow-capped peaks, were at the mercy of the flash flood that carried off homes, roads and bridges, as well as crops and forest.
“Thank God we are alive, but everything we owned was washed away by the floods when the glacial lake burst,” said Baz, a 30-year old father of four.
Although there are several glaciers near Badswat village, residents said this was the first glacial outburst in living memory. The authorities said the timely evacuation of villagers meant nobody had died.
Baz said the event had left him feeling stranded.
“Surrounded by mountains and muddy water, it seems we are living between life and death,” he told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.
More....
https://www.geo.tv/latest/206339-villag ... ciers-melt
BADSWAT: When a glacial lake burst in Pakistan’s northern Gilgit-Baltistan province in July, Sher Baz watched helplessly as the waters swept away his family home.
Residents of Badswat village, which lies in Ishkoman valley at the foot of the Hindu Kush mountain range’s snow-capped peaks, were at the mercy of the flash flood that carried off homes, roads and bridges, as well as crops and forest.
“Thank God we are alive, but everything we owned was washed away by the floods when the glacial lake burst,” said Baz, a 30-year old father of four.
Although there are several glaciers near Badswat village, residents said this was the first glacial outburst in living memory. The authorities said the timely evacuation of villagers meant nobody had died.
Baz said the event had left him feeling stranded.
“Surrounded by mountains and muddy water, it seems we are living between life and death,” he told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.
More....
https://www.geo.tv/latest/206339-villag ... ciers-melt
Kerala Flooding: Hundreds Killed in Indian State’s Worst Rains Since 1920s
NEW DELHI — The idyllic tourist destination of Kerala, India, is experiencing some of its worst floods in nearly a century, with torrential rains in recent days killing at least 324 people, state officials said, and shuttering the state’s major infrastructure.
Scores of the state’s residents were injured in landslides and the authorities said nearly 220,000 more have been displaced since heavy rains began battering the southern Indian state last week.
Video and more at:
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/17/worl ... 3053090818
NEW DELHI — The idyllic tourist destination of Kerala, India, is experiencing some of its worst floods in nearly a century, with torrential rains in recent days killing at least 324 people, state officials said, and shuttering the state’s major infrastructure.
Scores of the state’s residents were injured in landslides and the authorities said nearly 220,000 more have been displaced since heavy rains began battering the southern Indian state last week.
Video and more at:
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/17/worl ... 3053090818
Afshi Charania Merchant, Aga Khan Council for Southwestern United States: Faith During and After Harvey: One Year Later
BY ISMAILIMAIL POSTED ON AUGUST 24, 2018
Afshi Charania Merchant, Aga Khan Council for Southwestern United States: Faith During and After Harvey: One Year Later
RICE Events: August 30, 2018 – 7:00pm – 8:30pm – Herring Hall, Room 100
Religious organizations have often been tapped for support after natural disasters; and following Hurricane Harvey, they are increasingly in the public eye and judged for their ability to respond quickly. Expert panelists at this event will address how faith communities have assisted with continued Harvey recovery efforts as well as how they are preparing for future disasters. Framed by relevant social science research on disasters and religion, this will be a conversation on preparing for and executing disaster relief through the lens of faith.
Panelists: Alexander Johnson, Wheeler Avenue Baptist Church; Afshi Charania Merchant, Aga Khan Council for Southwestern United States; Paula Pipes, Pipes Research and Consulting; and Jason Plotkin, Congregation Emanu El.
Moderator: Elaine Howard Ecklund, Rice University.
BY ISMAILIMAIL POSTED ON AUGUST 24, 2018
Afshi Charania Merchant, Aga Khan Council for Southwestern United States: Faith During and After Harvey: One Year Later
RICE Events: August 30, 2018 – 7:00pm – 8:30pm – Herring Hall, Room 100
Religious organizations have often been tapped for support after natural disasters; and following Hurricane Harvey, they are increasingly in the public eye and judged for their ability to respond quickly. Expert panelists at this event will address how faith communities have assisted with continued Harvey recovery efforts as well as how they are preparing for future disasters. Framed by relevant social science research on disasters and religion, this will be a conversation on preparing for and executing disaster relief through the lens of faith.
Panelists: Alexander Johnson, Wheeler Avenue Baptist Church; Afshi Charania Merchant, Aga Khan Council for Southwestern United States; Paula Pipes, Pipes Research and Consulting; and Jason Plotkin, Congregation Emanu El.
Moderator: Elaine Howard Ecklund, Rice University.
THIS DAM COULD CAUSE THE WORLD'S WORST NATURAL DISASTER AND IMPACT 5 MILLION
Why You Should Care
Tajikistan’s Lake Sarez is stunning. But some experts say it’s a ticking time bomb.
In its very first moments of existence, the Usoi dam claimed the lives of an entire village. It was formed during a 1911 earthquake that saw the Usoi settlement buried by a massive landslide that blocked the Murghab River and formed Tajikistan’s Lake Sarez. At roughly 1,860 feet, the Usoi dam is the world’s highest natural dam.
Lake Sarez is isolated now, but in 1911 it was even more so: It took six weeks for news of the disaster to reach civilization. Today there are at least 30 villages in the Bartang Valley, and more scattered across surrounding areas. And they’re all in mortal danger.
And that’s a conservative estimate.
So how and why will this dam collapse? Take your pick. The most probable and obvious trigger is an earthquake — not unlike the massive temblor that created the dam and the lake in the first place. Were the dam to break, it could trigger another deadly landslide, but that wouldn’t be the worst of it. The lake’s water could cannon out in a 100-foot-high wave, coursing down established waterways and affecting as many as 5 million people, not only in Tajikistan but also in Afghanistan, Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan. The deadliest floods in recorded history occurred in China in 1931, when as many as 4 million people died. But estimates that a Lake Sarez flood would affect 5 million were made two decades ago, and while surveys of the river valley’s population are scarce, records from 2010 indicate that it has increased several times since 1998.
More...
https://www.ozy.com/acumen/this-dam-cou ... lion/88749
Why You Should Care
Tajikistan’s Lake Sarez is stunning. But some experts say it’s a ticking time bomb.
In its very first moments of existence, the Usoi dam claimed the lives of an entire village. It was formed during a 1911 earthquake that saw the Usoi settlement buried by a massive landslide that blocked the Murghab River and formed Tajikistan’s Lake Sarez. At roughly 1,860 feet, the Usoi dam is the world’s highest natural dam.
Lake Sarez is isolated now, but in 1911 it was even more so: It took six weeks for news of the disaster to reach civilization. Today there are at least 30 villages in the Bartang Valley, and more scattered across surrounding areas. And they’re all in mortal danger.
And that’s a conservative estimate.
So how and why will this dam collapse? Take your pick. The most probable and obvious trigger is an earthquake — not unlike the massive temblor that created the dam and the lake in the first place. Were the dam to break, it could trigger another deadly landslide, but that wouldn’t be the worst of it. The lake’s water could cannon out in a 100-foot-high wave, coursing down established waterways and affecting as many as 5 million people, not only in Tajikistan but also in Afghanistan, Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan. The deadliest floods in recorded history occurred in China in 1931, when as many as 4 million people died. But estimates that a Lake Sarez flood would affect 5 million were made two decades ago, and while surveys of the river valley’s population are scarce, records from 2010 indicate that it has increased several times since 1998.
More...
https://www.ozy.com/acumen/this-dam-cou ... lion/88749
How Do You Save a Million People From a Cyclone? Ask a Poor State in India
BHUBANESWAR, India — Flights were canceled.
Train service was out.
And one of the biggest storms in years was bearing down on Odisha, one of India’s poorest states, where millions of people live cheek by jowl in a low-lying coastal area in mud-and-stick shacks.
But government authorities in Odisha, along India’s eastern flank, hardly stood still. To warn people of what was coming, they deployed everything they had: 2.6 million text messages, 43,000 volunteers, nearly 1,000 emergency workers, television commercials, coastal sirens, buses, police officers, and public address systems blaring the same message on a loop, in local language, in very clear terms: “A cyclone is coming. Get to the shelters.”
It seems to have largely worked. Cyclone Fani slammed into Odisha on Friday morning with the force of a major hurricane, packing 120 mile per hour winds. Trees were ripped from the ground and many coastal shacks smashed. It could have been catastrophic.
But as of early Saturday, mass casualties seemed to have been averted. While the full extent of the destruction remained unclear, only a few deaths had been reported, in what appeared to be an early-warning success story.
More....
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/03/worl ... 3053090504
BHUBANESWAR, India — Flights were canceled.
Train service was out.
And one of the biggest storms in years was bearing down on Odisha, one of India’s poorest states, where millions of people live cheek by jowl in a low-lying coastal area in mud-and-stick shacks.
But government authorities in Odisha, along India’s eastern flank, hardly stood still. To warn people of what was coming, they deployed everything they had: 2.6 million text messages, 43,000 volunteers, nearly 1,000 emergency workers, television commercials, coastal sirens, buses, police officers, and public address systems blaring the same message on a loop, in local language, in very clear terms: “A cyclone is coming. Get to the shelters.”
It seems to have largely worked. Cyclone Fani slammed into Odisha on Friday morning with the force of a major hurricane, packing 120 mile per hour winds. Trees were ripped from the ground and many coastal shacks smashed. It could have been catastrophic.
But as of early Saturday, mass casualties seemed to have been averted. While the full extent of the destruction remained unclear, only a few deaths had been reported, in what appeared to be an early-warning success story.
More....
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/03/worl ... 3053090504
We Thought We Lived on Solid Ground. California’s Earthquakes Changed That.
Dry land is a kind of ocean in waiting.
LOS ANGELES — On the morning of July 4, my wife and I were sitting at the breakfast table when the effects of a 6.4-magnitude earthquake outside Ridgecrest, Calif., hit our home. A sensation of dizziness, then nausea, rolled over me as the back wall of our dining room appeared to lean away, our tabletop somehow pushing closer toward me. They then reversed course over a span of several seconds, as if the space around us had begun to bulge and pulsate. Only when I noticed the lights mounted above our table swaying back and forth did I realize what was happening.
The experience of an earthquake can be destabilizing, not just physically but also philosophically. The idea that the ground is solid, dependable — that we can build on it, that we can trust it to support us — undergirds nearly all human terrestrial activity, not the least of which is designing and constructing architecture. That morning, however, it was as if our home had been lifted up by an invisible sea; in an instant, what had been a house had become a raft, bobbing at anchor. Inside, we rocked and rolled, as if hit by a passing wake.
Earthquakes mock the very idea of solid ground, of trustworthy geology. The writer David Ulin has called this “the myth of solid ground,” and it is fundamental to how we have come to define and police civilization. Those who live at sea are considered nomads, migrants, even pirates; they build ships, not cities; they roam rather than inhabit.
More...
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/07/08/opin ... y_20190709
Dry land is a kind of ocean in waiting.
LOS ANGELES — On the morning of July 4, my wife and I were sitting at the breakfast table when the effects of a 6.4-magnitude earthquake outside Ridgecrest, Calif., hit our home. A sensation of dizziness, then nausea, rolled over me as the back wall of our dining room appeared to lean away, our tabletop somehow pushing closer toward me. They then reversed course over a span of several seconds, as if the space around us had begun to bulge and pulsate. Only when I noticed the lights mounted above our table swaying back and forth did I realize what was happening.
The experience of an earthquake can be destabilizing, not just physically but also philosophically. The idea that the ground is solid, dependable — that we can build on it, that we can trust it to support us — undergirds nearly all human terrestrial activity, not the least of which is designing and constructing architecture. That morning, however, it was as if our home had been lifted up by an invisible sea; in an instant, what had been a house had become a raft, bobbing at anchor. Inside, we rocked and rolled, as if hit by a passing wake.
Earthquakes mock the very idea of solid ground, of trustworthy geology. The writer David Ulin has called this “the myth of solid ground,” and it is fundamental to how we have come to define and police civilization. Those who live at sea are considered nomads, migrants, even pirates; they build ships, not cities; they roam rather than inhabit.
More...
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/07/08/opin ... y_20190709
A Giant Volcano Could End Human Life on Earth as We Know It
Why isn’t anyone taking this problem more seriously? Unlikely isn’t the same thing as impossible, even though it’s human nature to conflate the two.
If you’re planning to visit Yellowstone National Park this Labor Day weekend, I have good news: It is very, very, very unlikely that the supervolcano beneath it will erupt while you’re there.
The Yellowstone supervolcano — an 8 out of 8 on the Volcanic Explosivity Index — has erupted three times over the past 2.1 million years, most recently 640,000 years ago. A Yellowstone eruption would be like nothing humanity has ever experienced.
First would come increasingly intense earthquakes, a sign that magma beneath Yellowstone was rushing toward the surface. Then magma would burst through the ground in a titanic eruption, discharging the toxic innards of the earth to the air. It would continue for days, burying Yellowstone in lava within a 40-mile radius.
A bad day at the park. But the devastation around Yellowstone would be just the beginning. Volcanologists believe a Yellowstone supereruption would bury large swaths of Colorado, Wyoming and Utah in up to three feet of toxic volcanic ash. Depending on the weather patterns, much of the Midwest would receive a few inches, too, plunging the region into darkness. Even the coasts — where a majority of Americans live — would most likely see a dusting as the ash cloud spread. Crops would be destroyed; pastureland would be contaminated. Power lines and electrical transformers would be ruined, potentially knocking out much of the grid.
That’s just the United States. Modeling by meteorologists has found that the aerosols released could spread globally if the eruption occurred during the summer. Over the short term, as the toxic cloud blocked sunlight, global average temperatures could plunge significantly — and not return to normal for several years. Rainfall would decline sharply. That might be enough to trigger a die-off of tropical rain forests. Farming could collapse, beginning with the Midwest. It would be, as a group of researchers wrote in a 2015 report on extreme geohazards for the European Science Foundation, “the greatest catastrophe since the dawn of civilization.”
Supervolcanoes like Yellowstone represent what are known as existential risks — ultra-catastrophes that could lead to global devastation, even human extinction. They can be natural, like supereruptions or a major asteroid impact of the scale that helped kill off the dinosaurs, or they can be human-made, like nuclear war or an engineered virus. They are, by definition, worse than the worst things humanity has ever experienced. What they are not, however, is common — and that presents a major psychological and political challenge.
More....
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/08/21/opin ... 3053090822
Why isn’t anyone taking this problem more seriously? Unlikely isn’t the same thing as impossible, even though it’s human nature to conflate the two.
If you’re planning to visit Yellowstone National Park this Labor Day weekend, I have good news: It is very, very, very unlikely that the supervolcano beneath it will erupt while you’re there.
The Yellowstone supervolcano — an 8 out of 8 on the Volcanic Explosivity Index — has erupted three times over the past 2.1 million years, most recently 640,000 years ago. A Yellowstone eruption would be like nothing humanity has ever experienced.
First would come increasingly intense earthquakes, a sign that magma beneath Yellowstone was rushing toward the surface. Then magma would burst through the ground in a titanic eruption, discharging the toxic innards of the earth to the air. It would continue for days, burying Yellowstone in lava within a 40-mile radius.
A bad day at the park. But the devastation around Yellowstone would be just the beginning. Volcanologists believe a Yellowstone supereruption would bury large swaths of Colorado, Wyoming and Utah in up to three feet of toxic volcanic ash. Depending on the weather patterns, much of the Midwest would receive a few inches, too, plunging the region into darkness. Even the coasts — where a majority of Americans live — would most likely see a dusting as the ash cloud spread. Crops would be destroyed; pastureland would be contaminated. Power lines and electrical transformers would be ruined, potentially knocking out much of the grid.
That’s just the United States. Modeling by meteorologists has found that the aerosols released could spread globally if the eruption occurred during the summer. Over the short term, as the toxic cloud blocked sunlight, global average temperatures could plunge significantly — and not return to normal for several years. Rainfall would decline sharply. That might be enough to trigger a die-off of tropical rain forests. Farming could collapse, beginning with the Midwest. It would be, as a group of researchers wrote in a 2015 report on extreme geohazards for the European Science Foundation, “the greatest catastrophe since the dawn of civilization.”
Supervolcanoes like Yellowstone represent what are known as existential risks — ultra-catastrophes that could lead to global devastation, even human extinction. They can be natural, like supereruptions or a major asteroid impact of the scale that helped kill off the dinosaurs, or they can be human-made, like nuclear war or an engineered virus. They are, by definition, worse than the worst things humanity has ever experienced. What they are not, however, is common — and that presents a major psychological and political challenge.
More....
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/08/21/opin ... 3053090822