Australia ill-prepared for disasters

AUSTRALIA is ill-prepared for the types of freak weather wreaking devastation in other parts of the world and which is increasing, a new report says. As the emergency relief effort is ramped up in cyclone-stricken Burma, a strategic think-tank has warned that it is not even clear who or which authority would be in charge of responding to a similar disaster in Australia. "So-called freak weather is becoming more common, including cyclones, storms, floods, extreme temperature, drought and bushfires. More coastal zone residential developments are simply increasing these risks. There will be significant evacuation and relocation of large numbers of people." The report found Australia lacked an appropriate, effective, timely national community information and warning system capable of being used in the lead-up to, and recovery from, disasters. Governments also need to "climate-proof" infrastructure. Since the 9/11 attacks in the United States the bulk of disaster resources have gone into counter-terrorism measures. But Australia has more to fear from a national disaster than from terrorism. The study found the average family has "little concept" of planning for a situation where they might have no access to food, water or power for three days or more.

Australia ill-prepared for disasters

AUSTRALIA is ill-prepared for the types of freak weather wreaking devastation in other parts of the world and which is increasing, a new report says. As the emergency relief effort is ramped up in cyclone-stricken Burma, a strategic think-tank has warned that it is not even clear who or which authority would be in charge of responding to a similar disaster in Australia. "So-called freak weather is becoming more common, including cyclones, storms, floods, extreme temperature, drought and bushfires. More coastal zone residential developments are simply increasing these risks. There will be significant evacuation and relocation of large numbers of people." The report found Australia lacked an appropriate, effective, timely national community information and warning system capable of being used in the lead-up to, and recovery from, disasters. Governments also need to "climate-proof" infrastructure. Since the 9/11 attacks in the United States the bulk of disaster resources have gone into counter-terrorism measures. But Australia has more to fear from a national disaster than from terrorism. The study found the average family has "little concept" of planning for a situation where they might have no access to food, water or power for three days or more.

Video: Take a Tour Inside the Newly Opened Arctic "Doomsday Vault"

Ceremony marking unprecedented effort to protect global agriculture draws world leaders and seeds from over 100 countries

The Svalbard Global Seed Vault opened February 26 on a remote island in the Arctic Circle, receiving inaugural shipments of 100 million seeds that originated in over 100 countries. With the deposits ranging from unique varieties of major African and Asian food staples such as maize, rice, wheat, cowpea, and sorghum to European and South American varieties of eggplant, lettuce, barley, and potato, the first deposits into the seed vault represent the most comprehensive and diverse collection of food crop seeds being held anywhere in the world.

Source: earthfrenzyradio.blogspot.com via steve468

NowPublic

Biodiversity 'doomsday vault' comes to life in Arctic

HMMM! Maybe the poster meant to say, "Shift" as in Pole Shift. ?

Breaking Earth News

LONGYEARBYEN, Norway (AFP) - Aimed at providing mankind with a Noah's Ark of food in the event of a global catastrophe, an Arctic "doomsday vault" filled with samples of the world's most important seeds will be inaugurated here Tuesday.

European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso and Nobel Peace Prize winning environmentalist Wangari Matai will be among the personalities present at the inauguration of the vault, which has been carved into the permafrost of a remote Arctic mountain, just some 1,000 kilometres (620 miles) from the North Pole.

The vault, made up of three spacious cold chambers each measuring 27 x 10 metres (89 x 33 feet), create a long trident-shaped tunnel bored into the sandstone and limestone.

It has the capacity to hold up to 4.5 million batches of seeds from all known varieties of the planet's main food crops, making it possible to re-establish plants if they disappear from their natural environment or are obliterated by major disasters.

Thousands barricade homes with sandbags as Britain prepares for a week of rain

Barricades go up today at the Plough pub in Upton-upon-Severn, Worcestershire, where the banks have burst

Breaking Earth News
Great Britain

DISASTER PREPARATIONS
BRITAIN IS braced for fresh flooding today as forecasters predicted more than a week's worth of rain will fall in just a few hours. In parts of western England, as much as 1.5in (40mm) of rain is expected to fall this morning - roughly a third of the average expected UK rainfall for January. Much of the downpour is set to hit communities devastated by last summer's catastrophic weather, with more severe conditions to come later in the week. Flash-flooding and heavy rainfall caused problems throughout Gloucestershire this morning. Surface water disrupted the road and rail network throughout the county, although all major routes were open. Gusts of up to 70mph were also predicted on the south coast. Flood warnings have remained in place since Friday, when flash flooding brought roads and railways to a standstill. More than 30mm of rain fell on January 11 and travellers were delayed by motorway closures on the M5 and train diversions on the Great Western railway. Last July, chaos hit western England and the Midlands after the worst flooding recorded since 1947.

Floods: Be on highest alert

KUANTAN
Image: A farm tractor evacuates flood victims near Kuantan, central Pahang state.

A second wave of floods is expected to hit Pahang and the authorities have been told to be on highest alert. High tide has been forecast to occur at the Sungai Pahang estuary next Friday. “I cannot say for sure it will happen like in Johor but we are not taking any chances. All the related agencies have been told to be on standby to face a more severe flood situation. The biggest obstacle we are facing here is that heavy rainfall continues to occur in upstream areas, resulting in flood waters slow in receding." The flood situation in Pahang did not show any signs of letting up. At 1pm Sunday, the number of evacuees stood at 21,199 people from 4,384 families in 199 flood relief centres.

Updated Report
Pahang, Johor floods worsen

KUANTAN: The floods in Pahang are showing no sign of letting up, with the number of evacuees increasing to more than 20,000.

As of 1pm yesterday, the number of evacuees statewide stood at 22,549 from 4,788 families in 184 flood relief centres.

Image: Food drop: A Royal Malaysian Air Force C130H transport plane dropping food supplies over Pekan yesterday for distribution to relief centres cut off by floodwaters.

Philippines races to evacuate one million as super typhoon approaches

Map showing the path of Typhoon Mitag as it nears the eastern Philippines (© AFP/File)

Breaking Storm News
Philippines

165 villages on Orissa coast vulnerable to high tidal waves

Bhubaneswar, Sep 14 : The House Committee on natural calamities has identified 165 villages along the Orissa coast as vulnerable to high tidal waves in the wake of Tsunami

A draft memorandum prepared by the committee, that met under the Chairmanship of Revenue Minister Manmohan Samal here yesterday, said the villages were located within two km of the sea beach and prone to high tidal waves.

The memorandum said while the effect of a Tsunami with epicentre at Myanmar would be felt at Orissa within 35 minutes, the impact of a Tsunami with epicentre at Indonesia could be felt within five hours in the Orissa coast and recommended shifting of these villages to safer places.

The draft memorandum sought a central assistance of Rs 6837 crore to save the state from different natural calamities including flood,tsunami and cyclone in the coming days.

Uganda: Govt Abandons Flood Victims

Breaking Earth News
Uganda
HUMANITARIAN CRISES: URGENT RELIEF EFFORTS REQUESTED
The heavy rains in the past three weeks have unleashed floods across Teso, Lango and Acholi regions and wrecked havoc on the properties and lives of thousands of people in those regions. People's homes have been flooded and sometimes washed away just like their food stores. Food crops in gardens have been inundated by the floods and are rotting away. Roads have been flooded and bridges washed away making movement of people, their livestock and properties impossible. The people are in desperate need of shelter, food, sanitation facilities, medical care, clothing etc. Instead of rushing to the northern and eastern regions of Uganda devastated by these floods to coordinate governments relief efforts, President Museveni has been in Luweero sounding war drums. The response of the government to the new catastrophe in northern and eastern Uganda has been slow, meagre, uncoordinated and visibly wanting. The Ministry for Disaster Preparedness has openly stated that it has no resources to attend to these disasters.

DEVASTATED REGIONS OF AFRICA
NIGERIA - almost every part of the country has suffered the effect of the flood, in A SCALE OF DESTRUCTION NEVER BEFORE EXPERIENCED. From Maiduguri to Maitama, Gombe to Ughelli, it was the same story of how flood sacked homes, communities, farmlands and claimed lives.

TOGO - Heavy rain has left 20 people dead and 58 injured in northern Togo. Non-stop rain for several days also washed away or damaged 22,000 huts, more than 100 bridges and 46 schools and colleges, along with 1,500 hectares of food crops, and made 34,000 people homeless.

LGUs cautioned to be on guard vs unusual heavy downpour

Breaking Earth News
Philippines
The Department of National Defense advised local chief executives in the region to be on guard in the last three months of the year, saying the change in the country's weather pattern should not be taken for granted. "We should not be complacent about the change in the weather pattern," particularly referring to the weather bureau's prediction that the country would experience UNUSUAL heavy downpour in the next three months. "There is a need for us to plan and prepare for any eventuality. We need to plan quickly in the coming days, (due to) warnings of greater typhoons."

Update: Hurricane Dean now a Category Four storm

Photo from NOAA

MIAMI (Reuters) - Hurricane Dean strengthened into an extremely dangerous Category 4 hurricane on Friday as it crossed the Caribbean Sea toward Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula and the Gulf of Mexico beyond it, U.S. forecasters said.

In an advisory at 8 p.m. EDT the Miami Based National Hurricane Center said Dean's top sustained winds had surpassed 130 miles per hour on the five-step Saffir-Simpson scale of hurricane intensity.

Category 3 to 5 hurricanes, such as Katrina, Rita and Wilma in the devastating 2005 Atlantic storm season, are potentially the most destructive storms and are collectively referred to as "major" or "intense" by the hurricane center.

RELATED VIDEO

Unprepared For Disaster

Bahrain/Gulf Region
Bahrain and other Gulf countries are dangerously unprepared for natural disasters and risk catastrophic destruction on land and at sea, according to a regional crisis centre. Ageing infrastructure would be destroyed if winds approaching the speed of Gonu entered the Gulf, something climate change is making increasingly likely to happen. "Cyclone Gonu (in June) was tracked at 160 knots - that is 320 kilometres an hour, and that's a lot. It slowed down, but when it reached Muscat it was still 120 to 130 knots. The installations in the Gulf - the oil rigs, the platforms, the life buoys and so on are only built to withstand 60 knot winds. Over Oman, the minimum wind speed of Gonu was 80 knots. They are only built to withstand that because we have never had such winds here before - the maximum wind was 50 knots at the time many of these installations were built and that was RARE. It would double the cost to install a platform able to withstand such winds. A platform here is much cheaper than those in the North Sea or in the China Sea near Vietnam because there they do have cyclones and such strong winds. "Here people have thought 'why double the price of the installation when we don't really need it?'...So the governments in the region have to change this to make things similar to that in the North Sea. It will be very costly. You are talking about billions and billions of dollars, if not trillions - a huge amount." Failure to take the threat seriously would be a mistake. There were fears that cyclone Gomu would destroy the port in the emirate of Fujairah and wreak havoc in Dubai. "We told them to prepare to get the ships out of the port and they got the big ships out. They were lucky because the cyclone moved away from Fujairah to the Iranian coast. If it had gone closer to Fujairah, the gantry cranes in the port would have been demolished..."If this were to hit a country like Bahrain, it would be an absolute mess. It would destroy everything - we are not prepared."

Pakistan warns of massive tidal wave in Arabian Sea

Government of Pakistan

Islamabad

Tsunami Alert

The director of Pakistan's National Disaster Management Cell (NDMC) Lt. Gen. Farooq Ahmad has warned all provincial governments of a massive tidal wave in the Arabian Sea on Aug 9.
Addressing a press conference he warned all the provincial governments that the tidal surge might affect Pakistan as well, advising them to take precautions well in advance, Online news agency said.

Ahmad said the recent rains and floods have affected 5,000 villages, with 5,500 houses destroyed, 50,000 people displaced, and over 2 million of the population affected.

Army on alert as floods displace 600,000 in India's northeast

Photo: Indian villagers navigate through floodwaters near the village of Bordoloni in Dhemaji district

GUWAHATI, India (AFP) - Indian army soldiers and civil rescue teams remain on standby in north-eastern Assam state as flash floods triggered by heavy monsoon rains displaced 600,000 people, officials said Friday.

"The overall flood situation is grim with all the rivers and their tributaries in spate," Bhumidhar Barman, Assam's revenue, relief and rehabilitation minister, told AFP.
"We have asked the army and other security and civil agencies to be on standby."
A government statement said 600,000 people were hit by the floods in 12 of Assams 27 districts in the past week.

EXTREME WEATHER

The latest headlines, photos, and video about weather around the globe

Worst yet to come, warns govt agency

Breaking Earth News
Great Britain


LONDON: The Environment Agency was facing questions yesterday over its handling of Britain’s flood crisis as its chairman warned the risk had not yet peaked and told thousands of people to be ready to evacuate.
Critics accused the agency of squandering £1bn in flood defence cash and failing to protect vulnerable areas.

This came as new flood warnings were issued along the Thames and tens of thousands of commuters faced days of travel misery.

Hundreds At Epicentre of Tremor Spend Nights in the Cold

Tanzania
July 20, 2007

Nairobi
Hundreds of families around Ol Doinyo Lengai volcanic mountain in Tanzania are spending nights in the cold following earthquakes that have hit the area.
On Thursday, the Tanzanian government declared the mountain of bounds for tourists.
Magadini location chief, Mr Mwasuni ole Finigi, said a number of schools, houses and roads had been destroyed by the tremors.
The chief said the mountain has been spewing fire in the past nine days.
Mr Finigi said 765 families have been spending nights in the cold fearing their houses could crumble due to the tremors.
The tremors have also destroyed neighbouring hills in the area, interfered with the flow of rivers into Lake Natron, and forced some wild animals to migrate.
Tourist camps near the epicentre of tremors have been dismantled.
Tanzania's Lake Natron has been the epicentre of the seismic waves which have hit the northern part of the country and several areas in Kenya.

RELATED ARTICLE

Sydney Council: Prepare for emergencies

Breaking Earth News
Australia
Residents of Sydney are being urged to have a "Go Bag" packed ready for serious emergencies, such as big storms, fires and terrorist attacks. The bags should be easy to carry, stored at home and at work and contain important documents, maps, phone numbers, insurance details, AM/FM radio, first-aid kit, spare set of keys, coins and spare glasses or contact lenses. A 'Let's Get Ready Sydney' guide encourages developing a personal emergency plan with family and friends, so that they all know what to do, where to meet and how to communicate in an emergency, when mobile phone services might be disrupted. The guide also suggests becoming familiar with workplace evacuation points and remembering to tune in to radio and TV stations for updates. "A serious emergency such as a fire, hazardous materials incident, flood, severe storm or transport accident, could cause significant disruption to the community and will require a coordinated and immediate response. "These incidents would have an impact on Sydneysiders and their families and friends and it's important that people think about what to do if they are directly involved, or if regular transport arrangements or mobile phones are affected."

Japan quake victims take shelter, mudslides feared

Breaking Earth News
Japan
Photo: Residents queue for water supplies near a gymnasium used as a shelter in Kashiwazaki July 17, 2007. More than 10,000 people huddled in evacuation centres in northwest Japan on Tuesday after an earthquake flattened homes, killing nine people, injuring more than 900 and triggering a leak of contaminated water from a nuclear plant. REUTERS/Kiyoshi Ota

More than 10,000 people huddled in evacuation centres in northwest Japan on Tuesday after the earthquake flattened homes, killing nine people, injuring more than 900 and triggering a leak of contaminated water from a nuclear plant. As aftershocks continued, forecasts for two days of wet weather raised fears of mudslides that could add to the devastation. A small fire and a leak of contaminated water at Tokyo Electric Power Co's Kashiwazaki-Kariwa nuclear power plant - the world's largest - reignited fears about nuclear safety in a country that relies on atomic power for about one third of its electricity. The quake was stronger than those its reactors had been designed to withstand. About 100 drums containing low-level nuclear waste at the plant were knocked over by the quake and some lost their lids. The quake halted gas service to about 35,000 homes and disrupted the water supply to all of Kashiwazaki. It was unclear when production would re-start at some factories in the area. Houses, many wooden with traditional heavy tile roofs, collapsed and roads cracked in Monday's quake, centred in the same northwestern area as a tremor three

Evacuations urged as waters rise

Australia
Photo: Not going anywhere: Two local residents survey the water surrounding their Newry home.
Photo: Craig Sillitoe

July 01, 2007
Residents of the four most vulnerable flood-affected areas in Gippsland were last night being urged to evacuate rather than risk being stranded by waters expected to reach 1.6 metres above normal levels. Authorities were suggesting evacuations as Gippsland entered its fourth day of flooding after the HEAVIEST RAINFALLS IN ALMOST 40 YEARS.

This year's weather in Townsville has been anything but predictable. Last month LONG-STANDING RECORDS WERE BROKEN ACROSS THE BOARD – from rainfall totals to temperatures. The UNUSUAL run of weather has stunned weather forecasters. It began with floods in February when hundreds of millimetres of rain fell over a few days. And June, usually one of the city's driest months with only 10mm falling last year, has seen 111mm of rain fall. A Government study will look at how the wet season is likely to be affected by climate change.

BIGGER STORMS ARE ON THE WAY

View of the Rose and Crown pub after heavy rainfall caused flooding in Beverley, North East Yorkshire, England, Monday June 25, 2007. Much of Britain was battered by rainstorms, which were expected to dump as much as three inches (75 millimeters) of rain on a country already soggy from an exceptionally wet June, Britain's weather office said. At one point on Monday afternoon, the country's Environment Agency had issued 38 flood warnings. (AP Photo/Owen Humphreys,PA)
» More images

United Kingdom

"Unprecedented weather event" Say Weather Forecasters
FLOOD-battered Britain is on alert for further chaos and loss of life this weekend as fears grow that more heavy downpours are on the way.
Forecasters say an “organised band of persistent showers” is set to sweep the country on Friday and Saturday, bringing several more inches of rain to many already-­saturated regions.The worst of the deluge, expected on Saturday morning, could cause flooding on a national scale, with heavy rainfall likely to hit “almost anywhere”. Experts warned that many waterlogged areas were seriously at risk, as the water now has nowhere to go.There are already 245 areas across the country considered to be at risk of flooding after weeks of rain culminated in Monday’s unseasonal downpour.