Please
note that nothing on this website is official information. CT DROUGHT
reports here.
HAPPY
NEW YEAR FROM MOTHER NATURE IN ALASKA, AS STRONG EARTHQUAKE
HITS DENALI, FIRST DISASTER NEWS '13...AND IT IS HURRICANE SEASON IN
THE MIDWEST (MAY 2013).
I-BBC
INFO LINK
WITH EXCELLENT EXPLANATIONS
INDEX
TO THIS PAGE BY REPORTS ON WORLD-WIDE DISASTERS
HERE
NEW
ORLEANS - HAITI;
BATON
ROUGE: N.O.A.A.
IMAGE (l.); Mount Redoubt blows
pretty high March '09...ash
covers the snow. Indonesia, flood, typhoon,
quake. Iceland's
volcanic eruptions...
HAITI: An interesting history (from U. Maine
student work) - volcano erupts
(AK) and Indonesia earthen dam gives way - someone say
"dam?". New
Orleans' category 5 hurricane. Inching up year by year is the
threat to
Venice...more big events...JAPAN
DOUBLE DISASTER MARCH 11, 2011. ARE THERE OTHER
THREATS? Consider
this...twisters and their proclivity to seek out mobile
homes. CHILE volcano.
INDEX
TO
THIS PAGE BY DISASTER - IN REVERSE CHRONOLOGICAL ORDER BY TYPE; AND
NOW, IN 2013,
BY SUB-CATEGORY BY AREA OF THE GLOBE, WHERE APPROPRIATE.
Link to more...related to GLOBAL
WARMING, perhaps?
VOLCANO
EARTHQUAKE
Those in China here.
HURRICANE
Basically, hurricanes,
tornadoes, cyclones and typhoons
occur in the air while tsunamis occur in the water (wikianswers).
Furthermore, in the northern hemisphere, hurricanes generally rotate
counter-clockwise and clockwise in the southern hemisphere
(Yahooanswers)
TYPHOON
AND
CYCLONE
TSUNAMI
TORNADO
Results from overflow of rivers... according to Wikipedia.
FLOOD
One of the results
of any number of other types of natural disasters explained on this
page is...fire.
FIRE
-----------------
NOTE: THE IBBC DOES NOT CONSIDER FLOOD AND FIRE NATURAL DISASTERS (CAUSED BY
NATURE). DROUGHTS IN CT HERE.
VOLCANO
INCLUDING...NEW
ZEALAND, SOUTH & CENTRAL AMERICA, INDONESIA, ICELAND, U.S.A., AND JAPAN.
Did someone
say "Krakatoa East of Java?" Mount Merapi
active as tsunami from earthquake hits
elsewhere in the country. Pretty awesome, day or night!
Even when volcano only belches!
International
Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) established
standards for safety at altitude.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/8622293.stm
CAN'T PRESUME SAFETY
Looks like the view out the window of our hotel in...Seattle (Mt. Rainier).
Japan finds another
gap in its disaster readiness - Mount Fuji
YAHOO
By Sophie Knight | Reuters – Sat, Sep 15, 2012TOKYO
(Reuters) - When Toshitsugu Fujii became head of a Japanese task force
on disaster response at Mount Fuji, he was confronted with a startling
oversight. Japan had no plan in place to deal with a disaster in which
an earthquake sparks a volcanic eruption at the country's most famous
landmark. Fujii said a tremor "greatly increases" the chance of
an eruption in a country that has experienced nearly 12,000 earthquakes
since the magnitude 9.0 tremor that led to disaster on March 11, 2011.
"They always forget about the volcanoes," he said. "The government has
never included Mt. Fuji in its earthquake scenarios."
Fujii's job is to change that. More than a year after the earthquake,
tsunami and nuclear power plant meltdown that scarred a generation of
Japanese, the government is still working to close the gaps in its
disaster response. Scientists say that the 2011 earthquake may
have increased the chances of Mount Fuji erupting. The disaster caused
a series of tremors around the mountain, including a magnitude 6.4
quake directly beneath it that caused a 20 meter-long crack in its side
and put pressure on the volcano's magma chamber.
The volcano is active and if an eruption was to occur it would
potentially threaten a vast area including Tokyo, 100 km (62 miles)
away. Still, Japan's tallest point at 3,776 meters (12,388 feet)
and a national symbol that adorns Japanese passports has been silent
since 1707.
"Although there are no signs of any irregularities at present, we need
to watch it very carefully for another two or three years," said Eisuke
Fujita, a senior volcano researcher at the National Research Institute
for Earth Science and Disaster Prevention.
Fujita said there have been many examples of volcanoes erupting
following a magnitude 9 earthquake, as in Kamchatka, Chile and Sumatra.
"The government has to prepare for a logistical nightmare," he said.
"They've said they are going to do something but they haven't got their
act together so far."
Part of the problem is the fractured nature of Japanese bureaucracy,
with a division between the teams planning for earthquakes and
eruptions.
"We don't include an eruption at Mt. Fuji in our earthquake scenarios
because we simply don't know whether a quake would cause one or not," a
Cabinet office spokesman told Reuters.
The Cabinet in August set up a task force to draft a disaster response
plan based on a hazard map drawn up in 2004. The map shows the
areas likely to be affected by lava flows or an ash cloud and it sets
priorities for evacuating the surrounding population. Fujii, who heads
the committee and is both a professor emeritus at Tokyo University and
executive director of the Crisis and Environment Management Policy
Institute, said the government had so far failed to set up sufficient
defenses against even its own worst-case scenario.
Under that scenario, the 2004 map suggests economic damage from an
eruption would be 2.5 trillion yen ($32 billion).
But it could be "several times" that, Fujii said.
Shizuoka, a prefecture that borders the mountain, will include for the
first time an eruption as part of a revised earthquake contingency plan
due to be published next June. Local communities most at risk
have been reluctant to discuss such a scenario in the past, concerned
it would impact tourism. A book published in 1983 wrongfully
warning of an imminent eruption was blamed for driving tourists away
and causing a $3 million loss in revenues for a prefecture bordering
the volcano.
The government and Tokyo Electric Power Co Inc, the operator of the
Fukushima power plant where the nuclear meltdown happened, described
the March 11 disaster as "unforeseeable," despite historical evidence
to the contrary. Critics of the Mount Fuji hazard map say it has
omitted several potential consequences of an eruption, ignoring past
events. This includes a partial collapse of the mountain, which
could trigger a landslide and an enormous tsunami along Japan's south
coast, Masaki Takahashi, professor of geology and volcanology at Nihon
University, said.
"Most volcanoes only have one partial collapse in their lifetime, but
Fuji has already had two in 20,000 years, meaning it cannot be ruled
out as a possibility in the future."
NEW ZEALAND
Steam spills from Mt Tongariro after the mountain erupted for the first
time in over 100 years on August 8, 2012 in Tongariro National Park,
New Zealand. Mt Tongariro erupted intermittently from 1855 to 1897.
Although not an immediate threat to the community, the latest eruption
may be the beginning of weeks, months or even years of volcanic
activity. (Photo by Hagen Hopkins/Getty Images)
Page
last updated at 11:00 GMT, Saturday, 29
May 2010 12:00 UK
Thousands flee volcanos in
Ecuador and
Guatemala
Thousands of people have been forced to
flee their homes as two volcanos erupted in Guatemala and Ecuador.
In Guatemala, the Pacaya volcano began spewing lava, rocks
and debris on Thursday, killing at least two people and injuring more
than 50 others.
In Ecuador, the Tungurahua volcano forced the evacuation of
seven villages and shut the airport and schools in Guayaquil, the
country's largest city.
There is no suggestion the upsurge in volcanic activity is
related.
In Guatemala, at least 1,700 people have fled the eruption,
some 30km (19 miles) south of the capital city.
President Alvaro Colom has declared a state of emergency in
Escuintla region, Guatemala City and areas surrounding the capital.
He said two people had died and three children were missing.
One man was killed when he fell from a building while
sweeping up the ash. A TV reporter also died while covering the
eruption.
In the village of Calderas, close to the eruption, Brenda
Castaneda said her family hid under furniture as molten rocks fell on
her house.
"We thought we wouldn't survive. Our houses crumbled and
we've lost everything," she told the Associated Press from a temporary
shelter.
The volcano has covered parts of Guatemala City in ash - up
to 7cm (2.7in) thick in some areas - forcing the closure of the
country's main international airport.
Seismologists have warned of more eruptions "in the coming
days" from Pacaya - one of the most active volcanos in Central America.
Health concerns
In Ecuador, the Tungurahua volcano sent ash plumes six miles
(10km) into the air.
Several thousand people have been evacuated near Tungurahua
Several thousand people have evacuated their homes in the
area, 95 miles (150km) south-east of the capital Quito.
Strong winds blew the ash over the country's most populous
city, Guayaquil, and forced aviation officials to close the country's
main airport.
Julio Castro, who lives in Guayaquil, said he was worried
about the health of children.
"Suddenly, without warning, the ash started to fall, and it
was heavy, some even got into my eyes," he told the Associated Press.
"I can't see well now, it is annoying and we are worried for
the children, above all."
There were reports that the ash cloud was dissipating as it
drifted out over the Pacific Ocean.
THIS EVENT IN
ITSELF NOT MEGA DISASTROUS, BY SOME OTHER STANDARDS, BUT CONSIDER
ANOTHER MATTER...AND CHILE IS ALSO
COASTAL - PACIFIC OCEAN TSUNAMI IN REVERSE?
A steam of column rises from Hudson volcano, as seen
from a flight near Coihaique town some 1649 km (1025 miles) south of
Santiago, October 27, 2011. Chile said on Wednesday it was evacuating
residents from around a volcano in the country's far south after it
spewed a jet of steam a kilometer into the air and seismic activity
triggered an avalanche. REUTERS/Stringer (CHILE - Tags: DISASTER
ENVIRONMENT TPX IMAGES OF THE DAY)
7 November
2010 Last updated at 11:23 ET
Move to airlift Malaysians as Merapi
volcano rumbles on
Malaysia has moved to airlift hundreds of its nationals from Indonesia
as Mount Merapi volcano continues its massive eruption. It sent
three C-130 transport aircraft to Solo airport to collect 664 stranded
Malaysians, many of them students. Some airlines have stopped
flying to Jakarta over fears of ash damage.
On a visit to refugees from the eruption, Indonesian President Susilo
Bambang Yudhoyono said there was no sign of the eruption abating.
Speaking at a stadium in Yogyakarta province, he said 283,000 people
had now been forced to flee. More than 130 people have died since
Merapi began erupting two weeks ago, its greatest activity in a century.
Victims were being given a mass burial in Yogyakarta on Sunday.
As relatives wept and men recited traditional Islamic prayers,
villagers and policemen unloaded the corpses - some in plain wooden
coffins, others still in the morgue's yellow body bags - from
ambulances, an Associated Press correspondent reports. They were
placed in a massive trench, dug into a large green field in the shadow
of the volcano.
The infamously volatile mountain unleashed its most powerful eruption
on Friday, sending hot clouds of gas, rocks and debris down its slopes
at frightening speeds, smothering entire villages and leaving a trail
of charred corpses.
'All seats booked'
According to the Associated Press news agency, the first Malaysian
evacuees were flown out of Solo on Sunday with others due to be
collected on Monday. Solo is about 30km (20 miles) from the
volcano.
Jakarta airport official Frans Yosef told AFP news agency that eight
international flights to Jakarta were cancelled on Sunday and 42
rescheduled. Internal flights to Yogyakarta, Solo and Bandung -
all cities close to Merapi in the centre of the main island of Java -
were also disrupted. Frustration among air travellers was
growing, the agency reports.
"We called three airlines but all the seats were booked," said
Singapore resident Raymond Yong, 34, whose Lufthansa flight home from
Jakarta was cancelled.
"I don't understand why the airlines have to cancel flights when there
are others which are operating just fine. I have to work tomorrow and
this is such a major inconvenience."
US President Barack Obama is scheduled to arrive in Jakarta on 9
November for a long-expected visit. White House officials said on
Saturday there was no sign so far of any disruption to his schedule.
Many
flee Indonesia volcano
amid fears
of eruption
YAHOO
By SARAH DiLORENZO, Associated Press
8 November 2010
MOUNT MERAPI, Indonesia – Frightened residents abandoned their homes in
a bustling city of 400,000 at the foot of Indonesia's rumbling volcano
Monday, cramming onto trains, buses and rented vehicles as authorities
warned Mount Merapi could erupt again at any time.
A mass burial late Sunday for many of the 141 people killed in the last
two weeks was a reminder of the mountain's devastating power that
culminated in its deadliest blast in 80 years, sending hot clouds of
gas, rocks and debris avalanching down its slopes.
With the closest airport closed by ash, rail traffic leaving Yogyakarta
has doubled in recent days, as residents — many of them students from
the city's universities — tried desperately to get out.
"My parents have been calling ... saying 'You have to get out of there!
You have to come home!'" said Linda Ervana, a 21-year-old history
student who was waiting with friends at a train station.
After days of failing to get tickets — long lines stretch all the way
through the main hall — they decided to rent a minibus with other
classmates.
"It feels like that movie '2012,'" said her 22-year-old friend, Paulina
Setin. "Like a disaster in a movie..."
Airlines stop Jakarta flights
after volcano blast
YAHOO
By SARAH DiLORENZO, Associated Press
6 November 2010
MOUNT MERAPI, Indonesia – The tiny hospital at the foot of Mount Merapi
struggled Saturday to cope with its victims after the volcano unleashed
its most powerful eruption in a century, as international airlines
canceled flights into the Indonesian capital hundreds of miles away.
The only sign of life in one man, whose eyes were milky gray in color
and never blinked, was the shallow rising and falling of his chest.
Others, their lungs choked with abrasive volcanic ash, struggled to
breathe.
Indonesia's most volatile mountain unleashed a surge of searing gas,
rocks and debris Friday that raced down its slopes at highway speeds,
torching houses and trees and incinerating villagers caught in its path.
It continued to rumble and groan Saturday, at times spitting gray
clouds of ash and gas up to five miles (eight kilometers) into the air,
dusting windshields, rooftops and leaves on trees hundreds of miles
(kilometers) away Saturday. Several international carriers for
the first time temporarily canceled flights to the capital Jakarta —
280 miles (450 kilometers) west of Merapi — over concerns volcanic ash
in the air could cause damage to their aircraft and engines,
jeopardizing safety.
Among them were Singapore Airlines, Lufthansa and Malaysia
Airlines. With more than 90 people killed, many of them after
succumbing to their injuries, Friday was Merapi's deadliest day in
decades, but Sigit Priohutomo, who works at Sardjito hospital,
predicted the toll would rise.
With a nearby airport closed because of poor visibility, ventilators
needed for burn victims were stuck in Jakarta, and were being delivered
instead by road, he said. In meantime, nursing students were using
emergency respirators pumped by hand. The volcano, in the heart
of densely populated Java island, has erupted many times in the last
two centuries, but many people choose to live on its rolling slopes,
drawn to soil made fertile by molten lava and volcanic debris. In
recent days, however, more than 200,000 people have crammed into
emergency shelters in the shadows of the volcano, which showed no signs
of tiring.
"It's scary. ... The eruption just keeps going on," said Wajiman, 58,
who was sitting in a shelter near a girl reading a newspaper headlined
"Merapi isn't finished yet."
Packed together on muddy floors, flies landing on the faces of sleeping
refugees, many complained of poor sanitation, saying there were not
enough toilets or clean drinking water. The village hardest hit
Friday, Bronggang, was nine miles (15 kilometers) from the glowing
crater, still within the perimeter of the government-delineated "safe
zone."
The zone has since been expanded to a ring 12 miles (20 kilometers)
from the peak, bringing it to the edge of the ancient royal capital of
Yogyakarta, which has been put on its highest alert. The biggest
threat is the Code River, which flows into the city of 400,000 from the
9,700-foot (3,000-meter) mountain and could act as conduit for deadly
volcanic mudflows that form in heavy rains.
Racing at speeds of 60 mph (100 kph), the molten lava, rocks and other
debris, can destroy everything in their path. People living near
the river's banks have been advised to stay away. Several were
seen packing up Saturday, as Yogyakarta was pounded by rain, and later
a light sprinkle, turning the dust covering streets, cars and rooftops
into a wet, dark sludge.
Merapi's latest round of eruptions began Oct. 26, followed by more than
a dozen other powerful blasts and thousands of tremors. With each
new eruption, scientists and officials have steadily pushed the
villagers who live along Merapi's slopes farther from the crater.
The latest eruption released 1,765 million cubic feet (50 million cubic
meters) of volcanic material, making it "the biggest in at least a
century" at Merapi, state volcanologist Gede Swantika said as plumes of
smoke continued to shoot up more than 30,000 feet (10,000
meters). Priohutomo, the hospital official, said the mountain has
killed 138 in the last two weeks. More than 200 injured people —
with burns, respiratory problems, broken bones and cuts — waited to be
treated at three different hospitals.
"We're totally overwhelmed here!" hospital spokesman Heru Nogroho said.
Some of Merapi's victims had burns covering up to 95 percent of their
bodies. The facility's burn unit is limited to 10 beds, however,
and it turns away any patient without facial burns or whose body is
burned less than 40 percent, said Priohutomo.
Indonesia, a vast archipelago of 235 million people, is prone to
earthquakes and volcanoes because it sits along the Pacific "Ring of
Fire," a horseshoe-shaped string of faults that lines the Pacific
Ocean.
The article below explains what
happened to this
animal
Indonesia’s Deadly
Volcano
Erupts Again
NYTIMES
By AUBREY BELFORD
November 5, 2010
MAGUWOHARJO, Indonesia — A powerful overnight eruption of Mount Merapi
created chaos for Indonesia’s disaster response effort on Friday after
an explosion of hot gases and debris killed scores of people and sent
more than 160,000 villagers fleeing to underprepared evacuation camps.
At least 64 people were killed by the latest eruption, which was by far
the largest since the volcano on central Java Island started spewing
ash and gas on Oct. 26. The latest eruption brings the total death toll
to 109, said Andi Arief, the disaster adviser to President Susilo
Bambang Yudhoyono.
The eruption sent a pyroclastic flow of superheated gases and debris
racing down Merapi’s slopes. Tens of thousands rushed to abandon camps
previously considered safe as ash and hot debris rained down as far as
the central Javanese city of Yogyakarta.
Most of those killed were villagers engulfed by a rush of hot gases
that hit the hamlets of Argomulyo and Bronggang about 12 kilometers, or
7.5 miles, from the volcano’s rim, blasting homes, people and animals,
said Sutopo Purwo Nugroho, the disaster preparedness chief of the
National Disaster Management Agency.
“They lived in a bend in the Gendol River. So when the pyroclastic flow
launched down the river, it hit the bend and crashed into the
villages,” Mr. Nugroho said.
“They’d been told to evacuate, there were a lot of soldiers up there to
get them out but a lot of people had gone up using small roads so got
up there undetected,” he said.
Heavy white ash covered the runways at the airport in nearby
Yogyakarta, forcing it to close Friday, The Associated Press reported.
It was not clear when it would reopen.
The latest, unexpected eruption prompted authorities to extend the
evacuation radius around Mount Merapi to 20 kilometers, or 12.5 miles,
from 15 kilometers. An earlier eruption the day before had caused it to
be extended from an initial 10 kilometers.
Despite chaos as authorities abandoned previous havens, Mr. Nugroho
said it was the right approach to keep evacuees so close to the
erupting volcano.
“It wasn’t a mistake, but Merapi’s character has been hard to predict,”
he said. “If from the start we’d said to evacuate 20 kilometers, or 25
kilometers, there would have been major consequences. It would have
triggered panic in the community.”
With tens of thousands evacuating camps, and tens of thousands more
abandoning villages, police, troops and aid workers struggled to deal
with crowds at new collection points further away from the smoldering
mountain.
At the Maguwoharjo Stadium on Yogyakarta’s outer fringe, nearly 30,000
people arrived covered in dust to take shelter in squalid spaces
underneath concrete awnings. Outside, the sky was obscured by swirling
gray-brown ash.
Sutarjo, a neighbourhood chief from the village of Wukirsari — which
was designated safe before the eruption early Thursday — said villagers
and evacuees from up the mountain who were sheltering in the
neighborhood fled in terror as the mountain boomed and hot debris
rained from the sky.
“It was a real panic. I was responsible for 142 people and it was tough
finding vehicles to deal with this,” Mr. Sutarjo said, adding that he
was unable to get help from police or soldiers and was forced to run
for a kilometer, or about half a mile, to find vehicles to carry the
evacuees.
“The government from the start said it they only needed 10 kilometers”
to evacuate, he said. “But they were wrong.”
“Thank God, we’re all safe,” he said, adding that he planned to take a
group of village men back through the evacuation zone at night to tend
to livestock left behind.
Relief workers at the stadium said the surprising strength of the
eruption meant that the growing camp was disorganized.
“It’s still chaos,” said Endang Pujiastuti, a member of the local
disaster-management committee, as soldiers unloaded boxes of water and
instant food and Red Cross volunteers recorded arrivals.
“We’d already set this up as a place and decided where people from
different district should go, but we weren’t ready for this to happen
so fast,” she said.
The scale of the latest eruption prompted President Yudhoyono to
transfer responsibility for the response from local agencies to the
national disaster agency, as well as ordering the addition of more
police and soldiers.
“We don’t want decision making in a crises like this to be long and
drawn out,” he said.
The government would also compensate evacuated villagers for lost
livestock so they would not be tempted to return to their farms, Mr.
Yudhoyono said.
Indonesian volcano shoots
out searing
gas clouds
YAHOO
By SLAMET RIYADI, Associated Press
4 Nov. 2010
MOUNT MERAPI, Indonesia – Local television is reporting that an
eruption at Indonesia's deadly volcano has sent searing clouds of ash
cascading down the mountain, setting several houses ablaze in a
slope-side village. A rescue worker told TVOne at least one man
was killed and footage showed more than a dozen injured being carried
into a hospital on stretchers early Friday. It was not
immediately clear why the village — 6 miles (8 kilometers) from the
crater and well inside the "danger-zone" — had not been evacuated.
Witnesses told the station more victims were waiting for help.
Mount Merapi, one of the world's most active volcanoes, has claimed at
least 44 lives since bursting back to life on Oct. 26. More than 100
others have been injured.
THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further
information. AP's earlier story is below.
MOUNT MERAPI, Indonesia (AP) — Eruptions at Indonesia's deadly volcano
appeared to be intensifying Thursday as towering clouds of ash shot
from the crater with a thunder-like roar, dusting towns up to 150 miles
(250 kilometers) away and forcing motorists to switch on their
headlights during the day. The death toll climbed to 44 — with
six more casualties recorded in the last 24 hours — and the government
repeated orders to airlines to stay clear of the unpredictable mountain.
Mount Merapi, which means "Fire Mountain," is one of the world's most
active volcanoes.
But even those who have dedicated a lifetime to studying it have been
baffled by its erratic behavior since its first Oct. 26 eruption, which
has been followed by more than a dozen other powerful blasts and
thousands of volcanic tremors. They'd earlier hoped that would
result in a long, slow release of energy.
"But we have no idea what to expect now," said Surono, a state
volcanologist, adding that he has never seen the needle on Merapi's
seismograph working with such intensity.
The fear is that a new lava dome forming in the mouth of the crater
will collapse, triggering a deadly surge of up to 1,800 degree
Fahrenheit (1,000 degree Celsius) ash and gas — known to experts as
pyroclastic flows — at speeds of 60 miles per hour (100 kilometers per
hour). Though more than 75,000 people living along its fertile
slopes have been evacuated to crowded emergency shelters away from the
crater, dozens risk their lives to return during periods of calm to
check on their livestock and homes.
With no winds early Thursday, white clouds from Merapi fired a
spectacular 20,000 feet (6,000 meters) into the sky. Gusts later
carried the smoke westward, dusting roof tops, trees and laundry lines
far away with thick white powder. Rain pounded the region later in the
day, clogging mountainside rivers with molten rocks and debris.
Activity at Merapi has at times briefly forced nearby airports to close
and the Transportation Ministry reiterated Thursday that flight paths
near the mountain had been shut down for safety reasons.
Officials insisted, however, that a Qantas jetliner forced to make an
emergency landing after one of its four engines failed over Batam, an
island 800 miles (1,400 kilometers) to the west, was unrelated.
"There was no connection with Mount Merapi," said Bambang Ervan, a
spokesman for the Transportation Ministry. "It was too far from the
volcano — the sky over Singapore and Sumatra island is free of dust."
Merapi has killed at least 44 people since Oct. 26, said Eka Saputra, a
disaster official, raising the toll after three people died in a
ferocious eruption Wednesday and another succumbed to injuries from an
earlier blast. The cause of the other two most recent deaths was not
clear. In 1994, 60 people were killed, while in 1930, more than a
dozen villages were torched, leaving up to 1,300 dead.
Mount Merapi's "danger zone" was widened for the second time in as many
days Friday following another booming explosion around midnight.
Subandrio, a state volcanologist, said people living in villages and
emergency camps within 12 miles (20 kilometers) of the crater were told
to clear out. Thousands of men, women and children were loaded
into trucks and taken to stadiums in cities far from the mountain,
while others, covered in soot, jumped onto motorcycles and into cars.
Indonesia, a vast archipelago of 235 million people, is prone to
earthquakes and volcanos because it sits along the Pacific "Ring of
Fire," a horseshoe-shaped string of faults that lines the
Pacific. The volcano's initial blast occurred less than 24 hours
after a towering tsunami slammed into the remote Mentawai islands on
the western end of the country, sweeping entire villages to sea and
killing at least 428 people.
There, too, thousands of people were displaced, many living in
government camps.
Indonesian volcano erupts, 20 hurt by
hot ash
YAHOO
By SLAMET RIYADI, Associated Press
26 October 2010
MOUNT MERAPI, Indonesia – Indonesia's most volatile volcano started
erupting Tuesday, after scientists warned that pressure building
beneath its dome could trigger the most powerful eruption in years. A
2-month old baby reportedly died as panicked villagers fled the area.
Up to 20 people were injured by hot ash spewed from Mount Merapi, said
an AP reporter who witnessed them being taken away for treatment.
Some 11,400 villagers who live on the 9,737-foot (2,968-metre) -high
mountain were urged to evacuate, but only those with four miles (seven
kilometers) of the crater were forced by authorities to do so. Most of
those who fled were the elderly and children. Some adults said they
decided to stay to tend to homes and farms on the fertile slopes.
Private MetroTV reported that the baby died when a mother ran in panic
after the eruption started. Its report cited a local doctor and showed
the mother weeping as the baby was covered with white blanket at a
hospital. The report did not make clear if it was a boy or girl.
Subandriyo, chief vulcanologist in the area, said the eruption started
just before dusk Tuesday. The volcano had rumbled and groaned for hours.
"There was a thunderous rumble that went on for ages, maybe 15
minutes," said Sukamto, a farmer who by nightfall had yet to abandon
his home on the slopes. "Then huge plumes of hot ash started shooting
up into the air."
Scientists have warned the pressure building beneath the dome could
presage one of the biggest eruptions in years at Merapi, literally
Mountain of Fire, which lies on the main island of Java, some 310 miles
(500 kilometers) southeast of the capital Jakarta.
The alert level for Merapi has been raised to its highest level.
"The energy is building up. ... We hope it will release slowly,"
government volcanologist Surono told reporters. "Otherwise we're
looking at a potentially huge eruption, bigger than anything we've seen
in years."
In 2006, an avalanche of blistering gases and rock fragments raced down
the volcano and killed two people. A similar eruption in 1994 killed 60
people, and 1,300 people died in a 1930 blast.
Indonesian officials were also trying to assess the impact of a
7.7-magnitude earthquake late Monday that caused a tsunami off Sumatra
island in western Indonesia, leaving scores of villagers dead or
missing. The volcano and earthquake epicenter are about 800 miles
(1,300 kilometers) apart.
This vast archipelago is prone to earthquakes and volcanic activity due
to its location on the so-called Pacific Ring of Fire — a series of
fault lines stretching from the Western Hemisphere through Japan and
Southeast Asia.
There are more than 129 active volcanoes to watch in Indonesia, which
is spread across 17,500 islands.
Indonesian
volcano erupts
again; strongest yet
YAHOO
By BINSAR BAKKARA, Associated Press Writer
7 September 2010
TANAH KARO, Indonesia – An Indonesian volcano shot a towering cloud of
black ash high into the air Tuesday, dusting villages 15 miles (25
kilometers) away in its most powerful eruption since awakening last
week from four centuries of dormancy. Some witnesses at the foot
of Mount Sinabung reported seeing an orange glow — presumably magma —
in cracks along the volcano's slopes for the first time. Vast swaths of
trees and plants were caked with a thick layer of ash.
"There was a huge, thunderous sound. It sounded like hundreds of bombs
going off at one," said Ita Sitepu, 29, who was among thousands of
people staying in crowded emergency shelters well away from the base.
"Then everything starting shaking. I've never experienced anything like
it."
Mount Sinabung's first eruption last week caught many scientists off
guard. With more than 129 active volcanoes to watch in this vast
archipelago, local vulcanologists had failed to monitor the long-quiet
mountain for rising magma, slight uplifts in land and other signs of
seismic activity.
Indonesia is a seismically charged region because of its location on
the so-called "Ring of Fire" — a series of fault lines stretching from
the Western Hemisphere through Japan and Southeast Asia. There
are fears that current activity could foreshadow a much more
destructive explosion in the coming weeks or months, though it is
possible, too, that Sinabung will go back to sleep after letting off
steam. More than 30,000 people living along the volcano's fertile
slopes have been relocated to cramped refugee camps, mosques and
churches in nearby villages.
But some have insisted on returning to the danger zone to check on
their homes and their dust-covered crops. The government sent
dozens of trucks to the mountain to help carry them back before
Tuesday's eruption, which sent ash and debris shooting three miles
(5,000 meters) into the air, said Surono, who heads the nation's
volcano alert center.
"It was really terrifying," said Anissa Siregar, 30, as she and her two
children arrived at one of the makeshift camps, adding that the
mountain shook violently for at least three minutes. "It just keeps
getting worse."
Local media said ash had reached as far as Berastagi, a district 15
miles (25 kilometers) from the base of the mountain. Surono, who,
like many Indonesians, uses only one name, said activity was definitely
on the rise: There were more than 80 volcanic earthquakes in the
24-hour lead-up to the blast, compared to 50 on Friday, when ash and
debris shot nearly two miles (3,000 meters).
The eruption early Tuesday occurred just after midnight during a
torrential downpour. Witnesses said volcanic ash and mud oozed down the
mountain's slopes, flooding into abandoned homes. Others said saw
bursts of fire and hot ash. The force of the explosion could be
felt five miles (eight kilometers) away.
Indonesia has recorded some of the largest eruptions in history.
The 1815 explosion of Mount Tambora buried the inhabitants of Sumbawa
Island under searing ash, gas and rock, killing an estimated 88,000
people.
The 1883 eruption of Krakatoa could be heard 2,000 miles (3,200
kilometers) away and blackened skies region-wide for months. At least
36,000 people were killed in the blast and the tsunami that followed.
WHAT IF THE WINDS SHIFT?
21 March, 15 April and latest, 15 May 2010: I-BBC reports..."The
volcano has become more active again in recent weeks"
Icelandic volcano flings
up ash,
shuts airport
YAHOO
By GUDJON HELGASON and JILL LAWLESS, Associated Press
22 May 2011
REYKJAVIK, Iceland – Iceland closed its main international airport and
canceled all domestic flights Sunday as a powerful volcanic eruption
sent a plume of ash, smoke and steam 12 miles (20 kilometers) into the
air.
The eruption of the Grimsvotn volcano was far larger than one a year
ago at another Icelandic volcano that upended travel plans for 10
million people around the world, but scientists said it was unlikely to
have the same widespread effect.
University of Iceland geophysicist Magnus Tumi Gudmundsson said this
eruption, which began Saturday, was Grimsvotn's largest eruption for
100 years.
"(It was) much bigger and more intensive than Eyjafjallajokull," the
volcano whose April 2010 eruption shut down airspace across Europe for
five days, he said.
"There is a very large area in southeast Iceland where there is almost
total darkness and heavy fall of ash," he said. "But it is not
spreading nearly as much. The winds are not as strong as they were in
Eyjafjallajokull."
He said this ash is coarser than last year's eruption, falling to the
ground more quickly instead of floating vast distances.
The ash plunged areas near the volcano in southeast Iceland into
darkness Sunday and covered buildings, cars and fields in a thick layer
of gray soot. Civil protection workers urged residents to wear masks
and stay indoors.
Iceland's air traffic control operator ISAVIA said the Keflavik
airport, the country's main hub, closed down at 0830 GMT (4:30 a.m.
EDT) for the day.
Spokeswoman Hjordis Gudmundsdottir said the ash plume was covering
Iceland, but "the good news is that it is not heading to Europe,"
blowing northwest toward Greenland instead.
President Barack Obama was flying Sunday night to Ireland, but there
was no immediate word on whether the volcano would affect Air Force
One's flight path.
Trans-Atlantic flights were being diverted away from Iceland, but there
was no indication the eruption would cause the widespread travel
disruption triggered last year by ash from Eyjafjallajokull.
In April 2010, officials closed the continent's air space for five
days, fearing the ash could harm jet engines. Millions of travelers
were stranded.
The Grimsvotn volcano, which lies under the uninhabited Vatnajokull
glacier about 120 miles (200 kilometers) east of the capital,
Reykjavik, began erupting Saturday for the first time since 2004.
Gudmundsson said the new eruption was 10 times as powerful as the one
in 2004, which lasted for several days and briefly disrupted
international flights. Grimsvotn also exploded in 1998, 1996 and 1993,
eruptions that lasted between a day and several weeks.
Sparsely populated Iceland is one of the world's most volcanically
active countries and eruptions are frequent. Grimsvotn and Iceland's
other major volcanoes lie on the Atlantic Rift, the meeting of the Euro
and American continental plates.
Eruptions often cause local flooding from melting glacier ice, but
rarely cause deaths.
Gudmundsson said it was hard to predict how long the eruption would
last, but it might already be slowing.
"There are some signs the eruption plume is getting lower now," he
said. "We may be seeing the first sign that it is starting to decline.
In two or three days the worst should be over."
Eruption
at Iceland Volcano Slows, but Not Over
NYTIMES
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Filed at 10:06 a.m. ET
August 16, 2010
LONDON (AP) -- Icelandic authorities say seismic activity is petering
out at the volcano in Iceland that caused major disruption to European
air traffic this summer.
Sigurlaug Hjaltadottir, a geophysicist with Iceland's Meteorological
Office, says seismic activity at the Eyjafjallajokul volcano has
decreased in recent weeks, though the eruption has not yet been
declared officially over.
Eyjafjallajokul (pronounced ay-yah-FYAH-lah-yer-kuhl) erupted April 14
for the first time in almost two centuries.
Danger to planes from the volcanic ash plume led most northern European
countries to close airspace April 15-20, grounding about 10 million
travelers worldwide.
Iceland's Civil Protection Agency says the main hazard now is from mud
flows caused by ash mixing with heavy rain.
Britain and Ireland Shut Some Airspace Due
to Ash
NYTIMES
By REUTERS
Filed at 8:24 a.m. ET
May 16, 2010
DUBLIN (Reuters) - Ireland shut several of its airports and Britain
imposed a no-fly zone on parts of its airspace on Sunday as another
cloud of ash from a volcano in Iceland looked set to disrupt European
air travel again.
The Irish Aviation Authority (IAA) said three northwestern airports
were closed from early Sunday but other hubs, such as Dublin, would
remain open until later in the day. North Atlantic overflights
through
Irish-controlled airspace remain unaffected despite the cloud drifting
over the country. Ash spewed from the same volcano in Iceland wreaked
havoc on European air traffic last month.
Britain's National Air Traffic Service said a no-fly zone would be
imposed over parts of Scotland and England between 1200 GMT (8 a.m.
EDT) and 1800 GMT (2 p.m. EDT) on Sunday due to the volcanic ash but
London airports will not be affected. Manchester, Liverpool,
Doncaster, Carlisle, Humberside and East Midlands airports fall within
the no-fly zone, as do all airports in Northern Ireland, NATS said.
Airports in parts of Scotland and the Isle of Man will also be affected.
The government on Saturday warned that parts of British airspace might
have to close until Tuesday with different parts including the
southeast, where Europe's busiest airport Heathrow is located, likely
to be closed at different times.
"Long range forecasts indicate that the ash cloud may cause further
disruption into tomorrow but this is not certain," Manchester airport
said in a statement.
The volcano under the Eyjafjallajokull glacier in Iceland is continuing
to erupt with no signs of the explosive activity about to end and an
ash plume reaching heights of 25,000 feet, Britain's Met Office said.
"Winds are expected to blow mainly from the northwest for a time over
the weekend with the risk of ash affecting some parts of the UK," it
said.
"However, winds are predicted to swing into a south westerly direction
by the middle of next week, which would take most of any ash away from
the British Isles."
TEST FLIGHTS
In Ireland, the IAA said it was carrying out observation flights at a
number of altitudes and would provide an update later in the day.
Dublin airport would remain open until 1800 GMT while Shannon, an
important stop-over for flights to the United States, would be open
until 2200 GMT, it added.
Elsewhere in Europe, German airlines' association said no restriction
of German air traffic was expected due to the ash, and German airlines
were operating flights as normal. Airline Lufthansa said it was
conducting a test flight to collect data over Europe to measure the ash
concentration. In the Netherlands, an Amsterdam Schiphol airport
spokeswoman there were no expected closures in Dutch airspace.
Much of Europe's airspace was closed for six days in mid-April over
fears that ash from the Icelandic volcano would cause aircraft to
crash, causing havoc for airlines as some 100,000 flights were canceled
and stranding millions of passengers. Airlines lost $1.7 billion, the
International Air Transport Association said. Since then ash has
periodically forced the short-term closure of parts of airspace in
countries across Europe.
British Transport Minister Philip Hammand said on Saturday that from
now on five-day -- rather than the previous 18-hour -- ash prediction
charts would be made available to airlines and the public on the Met
Office forecaster's website.
Page last
updated at 12:56 GMT, Saturday, 15 May 2010 13:56 UK
Warning of
ash
flight disruption
Parts of the UK's airspace are at risk of
closure from Sunday because of volcanic activity in Iceland, the
Department for Transport has said.
Disruption could affect some of the UK's busiest airports in
south-east England until Tuesday, it warned.
Transport Secretary Philip Hammond said passenger safety was
the government's top priority.
Ash from the Eyjafjallajokull volcano caused disruption to
thousands of flights during April.
Airspace across Europe was shut down for five days following
concerns that ash could turn to molten glass in high temperatures,
crippling plane engines.
Scientists and engineers have since revised the safe to fly
threshold, but clouds of volcanic ash have continued to drift over
Europe, causing airport closures, flight delays and cancellations.
Prediction charts
In the past week, several airports in southern Europe were
forced to close and flights were re-routed.
Ministers have agreed on Saturday that five-day ash
prediction charts would be made available on the Met Office website.
"Within this timeframe, different parts of UK airspace -
including airspace in the South East - are likely to be closed at
different times," the Department of Transport said in a statement.
Previous forecasts were only given for the following 18
hours.
Transport Secretary Philip Hammond said the five-day
forecasts would ensure "airlines, other transport providers and the
public [had] the best possible information".
But he stressed the situation "remained fluid" and the
forecasts - based on assumptions about future volcanic activity and
prevailing weather conditions - were "always liable to change".
"Nats - the UK's air traffic services provider - will advise of
any airspace closures as and when they become necessary and I urge
passengers to check with their airlines before taking any action," he
added.
Recriminations erupt in ash-fueled
aviation crisis
YAHOO
By ARTHUR MAX, Associated Press Writer
21 April 2010
AMSTERDAM – Airlines toted up losses topping $2 billion and struggled
to get hundreds of thousands of travelers back home Wednesday after a
week of crippled air travel, as questions and recriminations erupted
over Europe's chaotic response to the volcanic ash cloud. Civil
aviation authorities defended their decisions to ground fleets and
close the skies — and later to reopen them — against heated charges by
airline chiefs that the decisions were based on flawed data or
unsubstantiated fears.
The aviation crisis sparked by a volcanic eruption in Iceland left
millions in flightless limbo, created debilitating losses for airlines
and other industries and even threatened Europe's economic recovery. An
aviation group called the financial fallout worse than the three-day
worldwide shutdown after the 2001 terrorist attacks in the United
States. It was a lesson in mankind's dependency on air travel,
the vulnerability of a vital industry, and the confusion that can ensue
when each nation decides for itself how to handle a problem that
crosses borders.
The air space over most of Europe opened Wednesday after the vast,
invisible ash-laden cloud dispersed to levels deemed safe. Restrictions
remained over parts of Britain, Ireland, France and the Scandinavian
countries. Electronic boards in Europe's biggest hubs — London's
Heathrow, Paris' Charles de Gaulle and Germany's airport at Frankfurt —
showed about 80 percent of flights on schedule as airlines began
filling vacant seats with those who had been stranded for days. But
with 102,000 flights scrapped worldwide over the last week, it could
take over a week to get everyone home.
In Iceland, the volcano under the Eyjafjallajokull
(ay-yah-FYAH-lah-yer-kuhl) remained active Wednesday — throwing magma
chunks the size of cars into the air, bubbling lava and producing
tremors. But it was not shooting ash and smoke four to six miles (6 to
10 kilometers) into the air like it did previously.
"There is much, much less ash production and the plume is low," said
Gudrun Nina Petersen, meteorologist at the Icelandic Met Office, adding
that mild winds kept the ash away from crowded air flight corridors.
But scientists at Zurich's Federal Institute of Technology said an
initial analysis of samples collected over Zurich last weekend by
special weather balloons concluded that safety concerns were warranted
and the volcano could be getting more dangerous. The
concentration of particles was "very high" at up to 600 micrograms per
cubic meter, according to Professor Thomas Peter. The composition
of the volcanic magma also appeared to be changing into a form that
could become more explosive. Peter Ulmer, a professor of petrology,
said the magma has been gaining in silicate content.
If it continues, or if the nearby Katla volcano also erupts, "this
could lead to the most feared of all eruptions: A Plinian eruption,"
Ulmer said.
That kind of eruption is named for Pliny the younger, who witnessed the
devastating of Vesuvius in 79 A.D. that destroyed Pompeii. Such an
event could last for weeks or months, he said. Civil aviation
officials said their decision to reopen terminals where thousands of
weary travelers had camped out was based on science, not on the
undeniable pressure put on them by the airlines.
"The only priority that we consider is safety. We were trying to assess
the safe operating levels for aircraft engines with ash," said Eamonn
Brennan, chief executive of Irish Aviation Authority.
"It's important to realize that we've never experienced in Europe
something like this before," he told the AP. "We needed the four days
of test flights, the empirical data, to put this together and to
understand the levels of ash that engines can absorb."
Despite their protests, the timing of some reopenings seemed dictated
by airlines' commercial pressures. British Airways raised the
stakes in its showdown with aviation authorities Tuesday by announcing
it had more than 20 long-haul planes in the air and wanted to land them
in London. Despite being told the air space was firmly shut, radar
tracking sites showed several BA planes circling in holding patterns
over England late Tuesday before the somewhat surprising announcement
that air space was to be reopened.
"We were circling for about two hours," said Carol Betton-Dunn, 37, a
civil servant who was on the first flight to land at Heathrow, from
Vancouver.
She said passengers were initially told the flight would be going to
London, then that it was heading for an unspecified European airport,
then that Shannon airport in western Ireland would be their destination.
"It's been exhausting," Betton-Dunn said.
BA chief executive Willie Walsh said by Tuesday it had become clear the
lockdown was excessive.
"I don't believe it was necessary to impose a blanket ban on all U.K.
airspace last Thursday," he said. "My personal belief is that we could
have safely continued operating for a period of time."
KLM Royal Dutch Airlines also sent aircraft toward Amsterdam before
Dutch air space officially reopened, said Edwin van Zwol, president of
the Dutch Pilots Association. Lufthansa demanded and received a
waiver from German authorities that allowed them to bring 15,000
passengers back to Germany on Tuesday, flying at low altitude. Other
Germany-based airlines also received waivers, for a total of 800
flights, even though German airspace was not officially opened until
Wednesday.
Van Zwol, a veteran Boeing 777 captain, was critical of European
authorities for failing to consult with the airlines or pilots.
"They put all the experts on the sidelines," he said. "(Airlines) are
used to this. They deal with volcanic situations all over the world on
a daily basis, so they are quite capable of making decisions."
The European decision to partially reopen airspace did not come until
the fifth day of the crisis, when transport ministers of the affected
states met by teleconference. The plan carved up the sky into relative
zones of safety where the flight ban remained in place or was lifted
according to the concentration of ash. Ryanair chief executive
Michael O'Leary slammed that slow response.
"It might have made sense to ground flights for a day or two. That's
understandable. But there should have been a much faster response by
the governments, the transport ministers and the regulators," he told
The Associated Press on Wednesday.
But Tomio Okamura of the Association of Czech Travel Agents said
despite huge losses his industry was happier being safe than sorry.
"It would be much bigger a catastrophe for us in case of any passenger
plane crash. That would have a fatal, long-term consequences for the
industry," Okamura said in Prague.
In Berlin, Giovanni Bisignani, the head of the International Air
Transport Association, called the economic fallout "devastating" and
urged European governments to compensate airlines for lost revenues
like the U.S. government did following the 9/11 terror attacks.
At one stage, he said 29 percent of global aviation and 1.2 million
passengers a day were affected by the airspace closures. Airlines were
on track to lose $2.2 billion, he said.
Amid the sniping and bickering, tens of thousands of travelers remained
stuck and anxious to get home. Bob and Maureen Hixon from Boston
had been in London since Friday but could only get seats out next
weekend. So they went to in Heathrow hoping for an earlier flight,
concerned about their children and their 93-year-old mother.
"I have never been worried about flying in my life before today," said
Hixon, a 55-year-old mortgage broker. "But I'm not thinking about that.
I'm just thinking about getting home."
But uncertainty still remained about the safety of the volcanic
debris. The Finnish Air Force said volcanic ash dust was found in
the engine of an F-18 Hornet jet but it caused no significant damage.
Officials said "contaminants on its inside surfaces" of the
fighter-bomber's engine would be further analyzed.
A test flight by the German Aerospace Center found ash over eastern
Germany that was comparable in density to a plume of dust above the
Saharan desert. The center reported no damage to the airplane. A
French weather service plane also took samples of the air Tuesday and
found no volcanic ash problems. Those results appeared to
contradict the potentially dire conclusions by the Swiss scientists.
Still the crisis may jolt the European Union to step up plans to
eliminate borders in the sky that have endured unchallenged 50 years
after they began melting away on the ground. The flaws in the
system, in which each country maintains sovereignty over its own
airspace, "cannot be ignored much longer," said EU spokeswoman Helen
Kearns.
The EU has 27 national air traffic control networks, 60 air traffic
centers and hundreds of approach centers and towers. The airspace is a
jigsaw puzzle of more than 650 sectors. Anthony Concil, a
spokesman for IATA industry group, said the system was "a continuing
disaster."
"For decades the industry has been asking for a single European sky.
The economic and social costs of the uncoordinated approach to this
crisis by Europe is the biggest argument ever" for that," he said.
At the port of Bilbao in northern Spain, more than 2,000 weary Britons
packed a ferry Wednesday and headed for England. The ferry, which
normally takes 1,000 people on a 30-hour trip to Portsmouth in southern
England, carried around 2,200 people this time and asked strangers to
share sleeper cabins.
Sam Gunn, 42, from Birmingham endured two hungry days sleeping at JFK
Airport in New York after his flight home to England was canceled. He
settled for a flight to Madrid, then caught a long bus up to Bilbao to
reach the ferry.
"Oh, I've been traveling all over the world," he said, chuckling.
Italian
scientist flies into the belly
of the beast to capture Mother Nature's meltdown
New York Post
By JAMES FANELLI
Last Updated: 11:38 AM, April 18, 2010
Posted: 4:44 AM, April 18, 2010
That ash makes quite a flash.
Intrepid Italian scientist Marco Fulle, 51, snapped photos of
lightning, swirling black smoke and spewing lava at Iceland's
Eyjafjallajokull Volcano on Friday night from a helicopter hovering
only a third of a mile above the fiery black cauldron. The mouth of the
volcano is shrouded in clouds, as ash and fire spews out to the
southeast in a 30,000-foot-high plume heading toward Europe.
Though the volcano is a 2,000-degree inferno, the temperature outside
the copter was a chilly 14 degrees. Adding to the eruptions' ferocity
is the volcano's location beneath a glacial ice cap. The molten rock
and snow are mixing, leading to explosions of steam.
The lightning comes from static electricity caused by the ash.
Despite the danger, Fulle, who has traveled the world chasing
volcanoes, said "it's where I feel most at home."
Fulle arrived Monday and was ready to snap when Eyjafjallajokull
started to blow Wednesday. "I've been quite impressed by it so far," he
told The Post.
In 1821, the volcano began a two-year eruption. Scientists still don't
know how long this current eruption will last, or how much ash will be
produced, said Chris Waythomas, head scientist at the US Geological
Survey's Alaska Volcano Observatory.
Ash
may
hover for days over uncertain Europe
YAHOO
By SYLVIA HUI and ANGELA CHARLTON, Associated Press Writers
17 April 2010
PARIS – The Icelandic volcano that has kept much of Europe land-bound
is far from finished spitting out its grit, and offered up new
mini-eruptions Saturday that raise concerns about longer-term damage to
world air travel and trade. Facing days to come under the
volcano's
unpredictable, ashy plume, Europeans are looking at temporary airport
layoffs and getting creative with flight patterns to try to weather
this extraordinary event.
Modern Europe has never seen such a travel disruption. Air space across
a swath from Britain to Ukraine was closed and set to stay that way
until Sunday or Monday in some countries, affecting airports from New
Zealand to San Francisco. Millions of passengers have had plans foiled
or delayed. Activity in the volcano at the heart of this
increased
early Saturday, and showed no sign of abating.
"There doesn't seem to be an end in sight," Icelandic geologist Magnus
Tumi Gudmundsson told The Associated Press on Saturday. "The activity
has been quite vigorous overnight, causing the eruption column to grow."
Scientists say that because the volcano is situated below a glacial ice
cap, the magma is being cooled quickly, causing explosions and plumes
of grit that can be catastrophic to plane engines, depending on
prevailing winds. In Iceland, winds dragged the ashes over new
farmland, to the southwest of the glacier, causing farmers to scramble
to secure their cattle and board up windows.
With the sky blackened out and the wind driving a fine, sticky dust,
dairy farmer Berglind Hilmarsdottir teamed up with neighbors to round
her animals and get them to shelter. The ash is toxic — the fluoride
causes long-term bone damage that makes teeth fall out and bones break.
"This is bad. There are no words for it," said Hilmarsdottir, whose
pastures near the town of Skogar were already covered in a gray paste
of ash.
Forecasters say light prevailing winds in Europe — and large amounts of
unmelted glacial ice above the volcano — mean that the situation is
unlikely to change quickly.
"Currently the U.K. and much of Europe is under the influence of high
pressure, which means winds are relatively light and the dispersal of
the cloud is slow," said Graeme Leitch, a meteorologist at Britain's
National Weather Service. "We don't expect a great deal of change over
the next few days."
A Dutch geologist who is in Iceland observing the volcano, Edwin Zanen,
described it to Dutch state broadcaster NOS:
"We're at 25 kilometers (16 miles) distance from the crater now. We're
looking at a sun-soaked ice shelf, and above it is looming a cloud of
ashes of oh, 4 to 5 kilometers (2.5 to 3 miles) high. There are
lightening flashes in it. It's a real inferno we're looking at.
"There's absolutely no sign that the thing is calming down. On the
contrary, we can see that at this moment it's extraordinarily active,"
he said.
With the prospect of days under the cloud of ash, pilots and aviation
officials sought to dodge the dangerous grit by adjusting altitude
levels. Germany's airspace ban allows for low-level flights to go
ahead under so-called visual flight rules, in which pilots don't rely
on their instruments. Lufthansa took advantage of that to fly 10
empty
planes to Frankfurt from Munich on Saturday in order to have them in
the right place when the restrictions are lifted, airline spokesman
Wolfgang Weber said. The planes flew at about 3,000 meters (9,843
feet) — well below their usual altitude — in close coordination with
air traffic control.
KLM is carrying out a test flight from Schiphol to Dusseldorf at 3,000
meters or lower, hoping for approval to carry out more low-altitude
flights in Europe if the ash problem continues.
The Swiss looked the other direction — above the ash cloud. The Swiss
Federal Office of Civil Aviation began allowing flights Saturday above
Swiss air space as long as the aircraft were at least at 36,000 feet
(11,000 meters). It also allowed flights at lower altitudes under
visual flight rules, aimed at small, private aircraft.
All air space in Poland — hosting a huge state funeral for late
President Lech Kaczynski — remained closed Saturday to flights above
the cloud level of 6,000 meters (20,000 feet) because of the ash
cloud. Some low-level flights are being allowed in the south,
however,
which is how the Polish Air Force will be able to ferry the coffins of
Kaczynski and his wife from Warsaw to Krakow aboard a prop-powered
military cargo plane early Sunday morning.
Several world leaders, including President Barack Obama, had to abandon
plans to attend the funeral because of ash-related disruptions.
European businesses are testing their flexibility to cope with this new
crisis. The aviation industry, already reeling from a punishing
period, is facing at least $200 million in losses every day, according
to the International Air Transport Association.
Scandinavian airline operator SAS AB said it has given notice of a
temporary layoff of up to 2,500 ground service staff in Norway as a
result of the flight disruptions. Airline spokeswoman Elisabeth Manzi
said it is a precautionary move, and that said eventual temporary
layoffs may not affect all 2,500 notified. Budget airline
Norwegian
ASA, losing $1.5 million to $1.7 million a day because of the
ash-driven closures, is holding meetings with unions Monday to discuss
potential temporary layoffs, spokeswoman Asta Braathen said.
"If we are looking at the future, we cannot maintain the cost of all
this forever," said Geert Sciot, communications manager of Brussels
Airlines, citing such costs as providing buses to passengers meant to
fly from Athens or Lisbon to Brussels.
German mail and logistics company Deutsche Post DHL AG rerouted
packages that were supposed to be flown via the company's Leipzig,
Germany, hub via Italy and other points south, while those already in
the areas affected were diverted to trucks and trains, spokesman Stefan
Hess said.
"The longer it lasts, the more difficult it gets in principle — but a
cloud like this isn't static," he said.
Producers of Italy's milky white, prized buffalo mozzarella, which is
highly perishable, pondered their options.
"In the next couple of days we have to decide," said Vito Amendolara,
head of the farmers lobby Coldiretti's office in Campania, the region
around Naples famed for the cheese. "We cannot sell buffalo milk as it
is, because it is too fatty and is meant solely for production of
mozzarella. We will either have to throw away the milk or find
alternative markets" by heavily promoting it locally.
Around the world, anxious passengers have told stories of missed
weddings, business deals and holidays because of the ominous plume.
Stranded passengers reported the delays were causing financial
hardships. Some had to check out of hotels and sleep in airports.
"It's like a refugee camp," said Rhiannon Thomas, of Birmingham,
England, describing the scene at New York's Kennedy Airport.
Her family spent the night at the airport Friday, and may be there for
days before they can get a flight home. "At least we got beds," said
Thomas' mother, Pat, referring to the hundreds of narrow blue cots
brought in to JFK's Terminal 4. "Some people slept on cardboard."
German Chancellor Angela Merkel was heading homeward in an armored car
along an Italian highway Saturday — continuing a long and circuitous
return from the United States. Merkel was diverted to Lisbon,
spent
the night in the Portuguese capital, then flew to Rome on Saturday.
From there, she and her delegation set off by road toward northern
Italy's South Tyrol region for another overnight stay. Late Saturday
night, Merkel's government announced she would not be able to make it
to Poland for Sunday's state funeral.
Pope Benedict XVI's flight to Malta for a weekend pilgrimage was one of
the few to depart Saturday from Rome. Greeting journalists aboard the
plane, the pontiff told them he hoped they would have "nice trip
without this dark cloud that has arrived on the rest of Europe."
Southern Iceland's Eyjafjallajokull (ay-yah-FYAH'-plah-yer-kuh-duhl)
volcano began erupting for the second time in a month Wednesday,
sending ash several miles (kilometers) into the air.
In Iceland, torrents of water have carried away chunks of ice the size
of small houses. More floods from melting waters are expected as long
as the volcano keeps erupting — and in 1821, the same volcano managed
to erupt for more than a year.
Flight
disruptions in Europe get even
worse
YAHOO
By JILL LAWLESS, Associated Press Writer
16 April 2010
LONDON – Thick drifts of volcanic ash blanketed parts of rural Iceland
on Friday as a vast, invisible plume of grit drifted over Europe,
emptying the skies of planes and sending hundreds of thousands in
search of a hotel room, a train ticket or a rental car.
Polish officials worried that the ash cloud could threaten the arrival
of world leaders for Sunday's state funeral for President Lech
Kaczynski and his wife Maria in the southern city of Krakow.
So far, President Barack Obama, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and
German Chancellor Angela Merkel are among those coming and no one has
canceled. Kaczynski's family insisted Friday they wanted the funeral to
go forward as planned but there was no denying the ash cloud was moving
south and east.
The air traffic agency Eurocontrol said almost two-thirds of Europe's
flights were canceled Friday, as air space remained largely closed in
Britain and across large chunks of north and central Europe.
"The skies are totally empty over northern Europe," said Brian Flynn,
deputy head of Eurocontrol, adding "there will be some significant
disruption of European air traffic tomorrow."
The agency said about 16,000 of Europe's usual 28,000 daily flights
were canceled Friday — twice as many as were canceled a day earlier.
Only about 120 trans-Atlantic flights reached European airports
compared to 300 on a normal day, and about 60 flights between Asia and
Europe were canceled.
The International Air Transport Association said the volcano was
costing the industry at least $200 million a day.
Iceland's Eyjafjallajokull (ay-yah-FYAH'-plah-yer-kuh-duhl) glacier
began erupting for the second time in a month on Wednesday, sending ash
several miles (kilometers) into the air. Winds pushed the plume south
and east across Britain, Ireland, Scandinavia and into the heart of
Europe.
Gray ash settled in drifts near the glacier, swirling in the air and
turning day into night. Authorities told people in the area with
respiratory problems to stay indoors, and advised everyone to wear
masks and protective goggles outside.
In the major cities, travel chaos reigned. Extra trains were put on in
Amsterdam and lines to buy train tickets were so long that the rail
company handed out free coffee.
Train operator Eurostar said it was carrying almost 50,000 passengers
between London, Paris and Brussels. Thalys, a high-speed venture of the
French, Belgian and German rail companies, was allowing passengers to
buy tickets even if trains were fully booked.
Page last updated at 13:33 GMT,
Thursday, 15 April 2010 14:33 UK; 13:11 for text
British airspace has been shut down because of a huge volcanic ash
cloud from a volcano in Iceland.
Iceland
volcano:
Why a cloud of ash has grounded flights
|
ANALYSIS
By Victoria Gill, Science
reporter, BBC News
|
The volcanic ash cloud reached about
55,000ft, Eurocontrol says
|
More than 1,000km from the event itself, Iceland's second
volcanic eruption in the space of a month has caused flights in the UK
to be grounded.
Scientists and aviation authorities are continuing to monitor
a plume of volcanic ash that is moving southwards over the UK.
The entirety of UK airspace will be closed from noon on
Thursday.
National Air Traffic Services said: "No flights will be
permitted in UK controlled airspace other than emergency situations"
until 1800 BST at the earliest.
The eruption ejected the plume, which is made up of fine rock
particles, up to 11km into the atmosphere.
"This ash cloud is now drifting with the high altitude
winds," said Dr David Rothery, a volcano researcher from the UK's Open
University.
"The main mass is over Scandinavia, but it is also over the
north of Great Britain and is likely to spread south over the whole
island by the end of [Thursday]."
The plume is so high that it will neither be visible nor pose
a threat to the health of humans on the ground, although Dr Rothery
added that we may have a "spectacularly red sunset" on Thursday
evening.
The major concern is that the ash could pose a very serious
hazard to aircraft engines.
Dr Dougal Jerram, an earth scientist at the University of
Durham, UK, explained: "Eruptions which are charged with gas start to
froth and expand as they reach the surface.
"This results in explosive eruptions and this fine ash being
sent up into the atmosphere.
"If it is ejected high enough, the ash can reach the high
winds and be dispersed around the globe, for example, from Iceland to
Europe. These high winds are exactly where the aeroplanes cruise."
Emergency developments
Airports operator BAA confirmed that all flights at Heathrow,
Stansted and Gatwick would be suspended from midday.
"Air traffic restrictions have very properly been applied,"
said Dr Rothery. "If volcanic ash particles are ingested into a jet
engine, they accumulate and clog the engines with molten glass."
In 1982, British Airways and Singapore Airways jumbo jets
lost all their engines when they flew into an ash cloud over Indonesia.
Reports said that the ash sandblasted the windscreen and
clogged the engines, which only restarted when enough of the molten ash
solidified and broke off.
A KLM flight had a similar experience in 1989 over Alaska.
Stewart John, a fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering
and former president of the Royal Aeronautical Society, explained that
the ash can cause severe damage.
"This dust really is nasty stuff," he told BBC News. "It's
extremely fine and if it gets into a jet engine, it blocks up all of
the ventilation holes that bleed in cooling air.
"Jet engines operate at about 2,000C, and the metals can't
take that. The engine will just shut down."
In the case of the 1982 British Airways flight, Dr John
explained, when the plane emerged from the cloud, the pilot repeatedly
tried and failed to restart the engines.
"They were going down and down, and had just about accepted
that they would have to ditch.
"But, at the last minute, one engine started. By repeatedly
turning the engine over and having a clean airflow going through, he
managed to blow the ash out."
Dr Rothery explained that as a result of those incidents,
emergency procedure manuals for pilots were changed.
"Previously, when engines began to fail the standard practice
had been to increase power. This just makes the ash problem worse," he
said.
"Nowadays, a pilot will throttle back and lose height so as
to drop below the ash cloud as soon as possible. The inrush of cold,
clean air is usually enough to shatter the glass and unclog the
engines.
"Even so, the forward windows may have become so badly
abraded by ash that they are useless, and the plane has to land on
instruments."
Dr John concluded: "We do not know how long this will last.
"It's like a typhoon - because you can't fly through it, you
can't directly monitor it, so we have rely on satellite images and to
err on the side of extreme caution."
Volcano erupts in Iceland,
hundreds
evacuated
YAHOO
By GUDJON HELGASON and PAISLEY DODDS, Associated Press Writers
21 March 2010
REYKJAVIK, Iceland – A volcano erupted near a glacier in southern
Iceland, shooting ash and molten lava into the air and forcing the
evacuation Sunday of hundreds of people from nearby villages.
There were no immediate reports of injuries or damage from the
Eyjafjallajokull volcano, but a state of emergency was declared and
scientists feared the eruption could trigger a larger and potentially
more dangerous eruption at the Katla volcano. Saturday's
eruption, which occurred just before midnight (2000 EDT, 8 p.m. EDT),
came weeks after a series of small earthquakes. Television footage
showed lava flows along the fissure.
"This was a rather small and peaceful eruption but we are concerned
that it could trigger an eruption at the nearby Katla volcano, a
vicious volcano that could cause both local and global damage," said
Pall Einarsson, a geophysicist at the University of Iceland's Institute
of Earth Science.
Authorities evacuated 450 people between the farming village of
Hvolsvollur and the fishing village of Vik, some 100 miles (160
kilometers) southeast of the capital, Reykjavik, said Vidir Reynisson
of the Icelandic Civil Protection Department. Evacuation centers
were set up near the town of Hella. The most immediate threat was to
livestock because of the caustic gases.
"We had to leave all our animals behind," Elin Ragnarsdottir, a
47-year-old farmer, told RUV, Iceland's national broadcaster from an
evacuation center. "We got a call and a text message ... and we just
went."
Iceland sits on a large volcanic hot spot in the Atlantic's mid-oceanic
ridge. Volcanic eruptions, common throughout Iceland's history, are
often triggered by seismic activity when the Earth's plates move and
when magma from deep underground pushes its way to the surface.
Scientists in Iceland have been monitoring the recent activity using
seismometers and global positioning instruments. Like earthquakes,
however, it is difficult to predict the exact timing of eruptions.
"The volcano has been inflating since the beginning of the year, both
rising and swelling," Einarsson told The Associated Press. "Even though
we were seeing increased seismic activity, it could have been months or
years before we saw an eruption like this ... we couldn't say that
there was an imminent risk for the area."
The population around the Eyjafjallajokull volcano and the glacier that
bears the same name is sparse — unlike the area around the Katla
volcano, which is also covered by glacial ice and poses a greater
danger of floods, according to Einarsson.
"One of the possible scenarios we're looking at is that this small
eruption could bring about something bigger. This said, we can't
speculate on when that could happen," he said in an interview.
Authorities initially feared the eruption occurred below the
100-square-mile (160 square-kilometer) Eyjafjallajokull glacier and
could have triggered floods if the glacial ice melted. But after an
aerial survey Sunday they concluded that the eruption struck near the
glacier in an area where there was no ice.
"This is the best possible place for an eruption," said Tumi
Gudumundsson, a geologist at the University of Iceland.
There hasn't been an eruption near the Eyjafjallajokull glacier since
1821. The Icelandic Civil Aviation Administration ordered
aircraft to stay 120 nautical miles away from the volcano area due to
low visibility in some areas. All domestic flights were canceled
until further notice, the Icelandic National Broadcasting Service
reported, but Reykjavik appeared to be unaffected with clear
visibility. Three Icelandair flights from the U.S. — departing
from Seattle, Boston and Orlando, Florida — bound for Keflavik airport
in Reykjavik were turned back to Boston, leaving about 500 people
waiting, the airline said.
Flights to Stockholm, London, Amsterdam and Frankfurt were scheduled to
leave Sunday but a flight to Oslo was canceled and passengers were
being rerouted. The airline expected further delays throughout Sunday.
First settled by Vikings in the 9th century, Iceland is known as the
land of fire and ice because of its volcanos and glaciers. During the
Middle Ages, Icelanders called the Hekla volcano the "Gateway to Hell,"
believing that souls were dragged below. Hekla is Iceland's most active
volcano. In the mid-1780s, the Laki volcano erupted, prompting
scores to die of famine when livestock and crops were destroyed.
Iceland, an island with a population of just 320,000, has been better
known recently for its financial troubles.
After a decade of dizzying economic growth that saw Icelandic banks and
companies snap up assets around the world, the global financial crisis
wreaked political and economic havoc on the island nation. Iceland's
banks collapsed within a week in October 2008, its krona currency
plummeted and protests toppled the government. The new
left-of-center government has been trying to negotiate a plan to repay
$3.5 billion to Britain and $1.8 billion to the Netherlands as
compensation for funds that those governments paid to citizens who had
accounts with Icesave, an Icelandic Internet bank that failed along
with its parent, Landsbanki.
Icelandic voters this month resoundingly rejected a $5.3 billion plan
to repay that debt.
Redoubt settles a bit but is building
dome...we all know what that can mean, based upon Hollywood versions of
this natural act. Mt. Cleveland so remote
no webcams.
Alaska volcano sends ash plume up to 15,000 feet
Associated Press
By Dan Joling Anchorage Daily News
Published: December 30th, 2011 12:27 AM Last Modified: December 30th,
2011 12:28 AM
A volcano in Alaska's Aleutian Islands sent up an ash cloud Thursday
that prompted scientists to increase the alert level for commercial
aircraft traffic.
The Alaska Volcano Observatory said satellite images at 4:02 a.m.
Alaska time showed Cleveland Volcano had spewed ash 15,000 feet into
the air in a cloud that moved east-southeast. U.S. Geological Survey
scientist-in-charge John Power called it a small explosion.
"It's not expected to cause a disruption to big international air
carriers," he said. However, it was significant enough to raise the
alert level from yellow, representing elevated unrest, to orange,
representing an increased potential of eruption, or an eruption under
way with minor ash emissions or no emissions.
Cleveland Mountain is a 5,675-foot foot peak on uninhabited Chuginadak
Island about 940 miles southwest of Anchorage. The nearest village is
Nikolski on another island about 50 miles east. Previous eruptions of
Cleveland Volcano were not considered a threat to Nikolski and its 18
permanent residents. Scientists in July noted increased activity in the
crater at the summit of the volcano. Satellite images showed lava
building and forming a dome-shaped accumulation.
Chris Waythomas of the USGS said in September that lava domes form a
lid on a volcano's "plumbing," including the chamber holding the magma.
When they grow big enough, lava domes can become unstable and will
sometimes collapse. When the magma chamber decompresses it can lead to
an explosion as the conduit inside the volcano suddenly becomes
unsealed and gasses escape.
Radar images earlier this month showed the dome had cracked and
subsided, Power said. The Federal Aviation Administration and the
airline industry get concerned for trans-Pacific flights when an ash
cloud has the potential to exceed the 20,000-foot threshold, as
Cleveland Volcano has done in the past.
Alaska's Redoubt Volcano blew on Dec. 15, 1989, and sent ash 150 miles
away into the path of a KLM jet carrying 231 passengers. Its four
engines flamed out and the jet dropped more than 2 miles, from 27,900
feet to 13,300 feet, before the crew was able to restart all engines
and land the plane safely in Anchorage. Cleveland Volcano's last major
eruption was in 2001. It has had bursts of activity nearly every year
since then and the ash cloud Thursday was not out of character.
"It's not unexpected for a volcano like Cleveland to do things like
this," Power said. "Unfortunately, Cleveland is one of those that is so
remote, we have no on-ground monitoring or instrumentation there, so
it's hard for us to pinpoint things any more accurately than we can do
with satellite imagery."
The event Thursday drew strong interest from air carriers.
"Any time you put an ash cloud up into the atmosphere, the airlines,
the air carriers, air freight companies -- it's a major concern," Power
said. The observatory is working with the University of Washington to
monitor lightning above Cleveland Mountain, which could signal a major
ash plume.
"Any time you put up a big ash cloud, you induce a lot of lightning
activity," he said. "It's like having a big thunderhead go up."
The cause is linked to the interaction of ash and warm air. "There's a
whole lot of hot air and it rises through the atmosphere very quickly,"
Power said. "All the ash particles rub together and develop electrical
charges, and that discharges as lightning.
AIR
TRAFFIC: Ups and fedex reroute some flights to outside hubs.
Anchorage
Daily News
By JAMES HALPIN and
ELIZABETH BLUEMINK
(04/01/09 18:41:01)
Mount Redoubt continued blowing gas, steam and ash Wednesday as
officials worked on plans to forestall risks to the oil tanks at the
Drift River terminal, located in the volcano's shadow.
The Alaska Volcano Observatory reported continuing weak volcanic
tremors and with occasional small earthquakes taking place on the
stratovolcano about 100 miles southwest of Anchorage.
A continuous ash plume reaching about 14,000 feet above sea level was
being pushed by easterly winds that shifted in the afternoon. No
ashfall alerts were in effect, with most of the fallout taking place
near the volcano.
Scientists say the volcano could continue smoldering for days or weeks
before settling down. A dome appears to be forming from cooling lava in
Redoubt's crater and scientists were continuing to warn explosive
activity could continue.
"I would imagine we'll get some further large event," said geophysicist
and field engineer Cyrus Read. "I think the likelihood is that we will
in the form of a dome collapse."
The volcano has caused some significant snags for air traffic, although
Wednesday passenger flights appeared to mostly be moving as scheduled.
But some major cargo carriers were redirecting some of their traffic.
FedEx spokeswoman Sally Davenport said the company has cut back work
hours in Anchorage but all employees are still receiving their
paychecks. FedEx is still bringing cargo planes to Alaska for local
shipments but most of the cargo flights to and from Asia that land in
Anchorage are being routed through Oakland instead.
UPS has sent some of its Anchorage employees home without pay due to
the volcanic unrest but is bringing them back in when there are
packages to sort, said spokesman Michael Mangeot. UPS moved most of its
international cargo flights to temporary hubs in Portland, Seattle and
Honolulu but is still making deliveries to Anchorage.
Concern for the Drift River oil terminal also continued. There are 6
million gallons of oil currently stored in the river's floodplain, and
four workers were on site Wednesday clearing up mud and debris, paving
the way for larger crews to arrive, U.S. Coast Guard Petty Officer Sara
Francis said.
The area got a soaking after a large eruption March 23 launched a
mudslide, but a $20 million dike installed at the terminal after
Redoubt's last eruption in 1989 has so far held steady in protecting
the tanks and their contents from disaster.
A unified command consisting of the Alaska Department of Environmental
Conservation, the Coast Guard and Cook Inlet Pipeline Co. that was
established over the weekend to handle the response was still
developing plans for getting a tanker to the terminal dock, about a
mile offshore, to unload some of the oil, Francis said.
A Tesoro tanker was being eyed for the operation and officials were
trying to schedule a window for it to get there, she said.
Redoubt ash falling in
Homer; planes grounded throughout Southcentral
Anchorage Daily News
By GEORGE BRYSON, KYLE HOPKINS and JULIA O'MALLEY
Published: March 26th, 2009 09:06 AM
Last Modified: March 26th, 2009 05:09 PM
Ash from Redoubt volcano is falling across the southern Kenai
Peninsula, residents report, and commercial airline traffic throughout
Southcentral Alaska has come to a near halt because of airborne ash.
Redoubt erupted twice this morning, including a huge explosion
at 9:24 that sent a cloud of ash to 65,000 feet, higher than any since
the mountain came to life on Sunday night. Alaska Airlines
announced
earlier today that it's canceled all flights in and out of Anchorage
for the rest of the day, and other airlines are canceling flights as
well. No ash is expected to fall in Anchorage, but it may reach
the
upper atmosphere just south of city, Weather Service meteorologist Amy
Bedal said.
Ash began falling in Homer shortly before 2 p.m., where the city sent
workers home early, said City Manager Walt Wrede. Ash was also reported
from Kasilof south to Nanwalek. A purplish plume blocked the view
across Cook Inlet and the smell of sulfur wafted into town, he said.
Businesses closed up. By 3 p.m. it was falling harder, and the
Weather
Service was predicting the area might receive up to one-eighth inch.
The sky darkened above Nanwalik around 1:30 p.m, said Charlemagne
Active, a health aide at the clinic there. As the cloud moved in from
the direction of Homer, the air became hazy, and ash dusted the
buildings.
"There's not very much,"she said. "It covers the snow, but not
completely."
Trace amounts of ash are possible to the north, including Soldotna and
Cooper Landing, the Weather Service said. Higher-level winds
above
30,000 feet are expected to push the top of the plume toward the
northern edge of the Kenai Peninsula near Turnagain Arm, Bedal
said.
But those higher winds will probably be too strong and the ash
particles that attain that height are too light to reach the ground,
she said.
The Weather Service has advised the Federal Aviation
Administration to prohibit flights through a large area east of Redoubt
that includes all of the Kenai Peninsula, Prince William Sound and a
portion of the Gulf of Alaska. A major air route from Seattle to
Anchorage normally uses that air space, Bedal said. Anchorage
International Airport remains officially open and some flights are
still coming and going, said Everts Air Cargo Operations Manager Peter
Mejia.
"We currently just launched two airplanes after being on hold all day."
Mejia said the planes are older models that are less susceptible to
ash, and don't fly at the same altitudes as jets that other airlines
have grounded. Era Aviation has put all its flights on hold, said
vice
president Mike LeNorman. The commuter airline canceled flights today
from Anchorage to Kodiak, Homer and Bethel and two flights from
Anchorage to Kenai. FedEx also canceled flights out of its
Anchorage
cargo hub, and re-routed or turned back flights to avoid the city.
"We didn't want any of our planes to get stuck there. We don't have any
planes that are on the ground in Anchorage," said spokeswoman Deborah
Willig.
Peninsula Airways canceled 17 flights today, the company said. At
Elmendorf Air Force Base, training flights have been scaled back and
the Air Force sent several aircraft, including four fighter jets, to
other air force bases.
"We definitely err on the side of caution because we have billions of
dollars of aircraft," said Capt. Candice Adams
Kenai Peninsula Borough schools will remain open, Assistant
Superintendent Dave Jones said.
"The amounts (of ashfall) that we're being told could be coming don't
warrant a school closure," he said.
However, the school district has stockpiled thousands of breathing
masks and is prepared to distribute them to every student on the
Peninsula if the ash arrives before they leave school, he said.
Dialed
back to code orange yesterday, Redoubt first exploded this morning at
8:34, according to the AVO. It sent an ash cloud to at least 30,000
feet above sea level. Following the 9:24 a.m. explosion, a
seismometer
positioned on the ground east of the volcano's summit recorded the
signal of a large mud flow, called a lahar, AVO geophysicist Stephanie
Prejean said.
The Weather Service subsequently issued a flash flood warning for the
Drift River, which connects the Drift Glacier on the east slope of
Redoubt to Cook Inlet, 27 miles downstream. An AVO team was
scheduled
to depart Anchorage this afternoon on a helicopter fly-by of the river
and volcano to observe the latest eruption's after-effects.
Unlike earlier this week, the explosions this morning came without any
short-term seismic warning, Prejean said.
That wasn't a total surprise, she said, since earlier this week the
volcano cleared its throat and is now breathing freely.
"At this point we have a wide-open system, and so probably for most of
the rest of the eruption we don't expect to see short-term warnings,"
Prejean said.
Whether this episode will last as long -- or longer -- than the
four-month span of explosions that occurred during Redoubt's most
recent eruptive episode in the winter of 1989-1990 isn't clear, she
said.
"We just don't know how much magma is down there that needs to get out."
EARTHQUAKES
IN THE NEIGHBORHOOD
The San Andreas Fault extends almost the full length of
California; 4.5 on the Richter Scale on
Whidbey Island. Hilltown
in Italy. Basel attempt like
California? N.Y.C. story
here...Haiti. Now Chile, Russia...Italy
Progress Stalls in California on
Earthquake Warnings
By ADAM NAGOURNEY, NYTIMES
March 20, 2013
PASADENA, Calif. — Scientists at the Caltech Seismology Laboratory were
at their computers last week when a warning popped up on the screen:
“Earthquake, earthquake!” The initial magnitude of the quake, 100 miles
away, was 5.2, the alert said, and a countdown clock warned that mild
shaking would reach here in 40 seconds.
“Since I did not expect any damage, I did not dive under the desk,”
said Kate Hutton, a staff seismologist. Instead, she sat and waited to
feel the rumble beneath her laboratory at the California Institute of
Technology, which arrived precisely as predicted.
Ms. Hutton was enjoying, as it were, the benefits of an ambitious if
unfinished earthquake alert system for California, intended to one day
give as much as 60 seconds’ warning of an approaching quake — to
hospitals, emergency response workers and anyone near a cellphone or
computer — in an attempt to reduce the casualties and the damage that
officials have long feared were as inevitable as another huge
California earthquake.
But the episode, set off by what proved to be a harmless earthquake in
the desert on March 11, instead provided a disquieting reminder of how
far California lags behind other earthquake-prone places — notably
Japan and Mexico — in completing an effective alert system that is
clearly within technological and financial reach. Even as others surge
ahead, the network in California — which would be the first in the
nation — is a work in progress, a beta system with patchwork software
sending alerts to just 100 geologists and selected emergency workers.
Last month, state lawmakers introduced legislation calling for an
expedited program to raise the $80 million needed to complete the
program, but acknowledged they did not know where the money might come
from.
The delay here is, in one sense, testimony to human nature. It has been
19 years since the last significant quake rolled through California —
the magnitude 6.7 earthquake in Northridge in a corner of the San
Fernando Valley in 1994 — and memories of its damage and psychological
trauma (some people moved away) have softened with the passage of time.
“We are in a long period of what I call seismic peace in California,”
said Thomas H. Heaton, the director of the Earthquake Engineering
Research Laboratory at Caltech. “But you can go for a long period when
things are calm, and then instantly things are transformed into chaos.
When you are in peacetime, it’s hard to get people’s attention and
remind them what a big problem it is.”
Alex Padilla, a Democratic state senator who studied mechanical
engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and is
sponsoring the earthquake alert bill, said the central hurdle was
finding a source for the money that university scientists and their
partners at the United States Geological Survey say is needed to finish
the project. California has been struggling with a financial
retrenchment, the federal government is cutting back spending, and
private industry is wary of putting so much money into what many people
argue is a public responsibility.
“I haven’t come across anybody who thinks we shouldn’t do it,” Mr.
Padilla said. “The only question I get is ‘Where is the money going to
come from?’”
“I don’t think it’s a huge amount of money, particularly when compared
to the billions of dollars in damage that we associate with every major
earthquake,” Mr. Padilla said, adding, “I really don’t think any state
official wants to answer the question ‘Why didn’t we?’ after the Big
One hits and we haven’t deployed the system.”
A fully operational system would use a network of sensors — 300 are in
place now, but hundreds more are needed — to detect the first signs of
a rupture, using the data to project the severity and breadth of the
quake, the area most likely to be damaged and the number of seconds
until the shaking begins. As demonstrated in Japan, even a 30-second
notice was enough to activate computerized programs to slow commuter
trains so they did not go off their tracks, stop elevators so
passengers were not stranded between floors, flash highway warning
signs instructing motorists to slow down and avoid overpasses, and open
doors at fire stations so they would not be stuck shut should power be
lost.
The warning would go out to home computers and personal cellphones,
giving surgeons a moment to withdraw scalpels, workers at Disneyland
time to shut down Space Mountain, home cooks an opportunity to turn off
the gas and everyone a moment to, as Ms. Hutton at Caltech put it, dive
under a desk.
“If you are cooking, you can step away from the boiling water,” said
Maren Boese, a research fellow at Caltech, as she ran through a
demonstration of the alert system. She also said it would help people
psychologically, decreasing the surprise that can freeze people in
confusion and fear when the ground starts moving, or lead to panicked
and dangerous reactions, like running outside a building.
“I think you get mentally ready,” she said. “We think it will reduce
panic.”
The network would cover much of the length of California, much like the
network of fault lines here, though the geology of Southern California
is particularly suited to this kind of early warning system. Much of
the San Andreas Fault lies far enough away to permit something of a
warning. (That said, many faults run right through the middle of Los
Angeles, in which case, the system would be essentially useless.)
The existing network needs major investments to bring it to the level
of Japan and Mexico: an expansion of the sensor stations and the
development of software permitting the warnings to be distributed to
the public.
“In order to turn the system into a system that can be used across
California, it has to be turned into professional-grade software,” Mr.
Heaton said. “It is just completely inappropriate to have software that
has bugs and that was not written by software engineers.”
Mexico developed its alert system after the Mexico City earthquake of
1985, and Japan after the Kobe earthquake of 1995.
“That seems to be the pattern,” said Douglas D. Given, the early
earthquake warning project coordinator with the federal Geological
Survey. “It is our hope that we can deploy an early warning system
before we have a killer earthquake.”
Strong earthquake shakes parts
of
Alaska, Canada
Anchorage Daily News
By Associated Press
Updated: 10:49 a.m. on Saturday, January 5, 2013
JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) — A powerful earthquake sparked a tsunami warning
for hundreds of miles of Alaskan and Canadian coastline, but the alert
was canceled when no damaging waves were generated. The magnitude
7.5
quake and tsunami warning that followed caused concern in some coastal
communities, with alarms sounding and people rushing to higher ground
for safety. But the Alaska Tsunami Warning Center later said the
waves
were too small to pose a threat, reaching just six inches above normal
sea level in places such as Sitka and Port Alexander.
“Initially, in the first 15 to 20 minutes, there might have been a bit
of panic,” Sitka Police Chief Sheldon Schmitt told The Associated Press
in a phone interview. But he said things calmed down as the town waited
for the all clear. The temblor struck at midnight Friday (1 a.m.
PST
Saturday) and was centered about 60 miles west of Craig, Alaska, the
U.S. Geological Survey said. Seismologist Jana Pursley of the
USGS
said the quake was followed by six aftershocks, the strongest of which
registered a 5.1 and came nearly four hours after the initial quake.
“Houses shook; mine had things tossed from (the) wall,” Craig Police
Chief Robert Ely said. But he added that there were “no reports of any
injuries, no wave, no tidal movement seen.”
The tsunami warning was eventually expanded to include coastal areas
from Cape Fairweather, Alaska, to the northern tip of Vancouver Island,
Canada — an area extending more than 700 miles. The center had
warned
that “significant widespread inundation of land is expected,” adding
that dangerous coastal flooding was possible. In its cancellation
statement, the center said that some areas were seeing just small sea
level changes.
“A tsunami was generated during this event but no longer poses a
threat,” the center said.
The Alaska Earthquake Information Center said the quake was widely felt
but it received no reports of any damage.
“It was the most intense earthquake I’ve felt in my 10 years here. I’m
pretty sure there was stuff falling off of shelves,” Chief Schmitt
said. “There is no report of any wave activity here.”
He said that an evacuation sirens and announcements came shortly after
the quake, prompting the temporary rush to higher ground. Some
people
in Craig also moved to safer territory.
"Several citizens elected on their own to move to higher ground.
Several locations in Craig were set up for staging (and) shelter," said
Chief Ely, adding that "no evacuation was ordered."
In addition to the warning, a tsunami advisory was briefly in effect
for some Alaska coastal areas to the north of the warning zone, as well
as to the south of the zone, from the Washington state border to the
northern tip of Vancouver Island. A tsunami warning means an area
is
likely to be hit by a wave, while an advisory means there may be strong
currents, but that widespread inundation is not expected to occur.
THE STORY OF DOUBLE DISASTER IN
JAPAN
- FIRST THE EARTHQUAKE THEN THE TSUNAMI
THREE STRIKES
Earthquake 9.0 on the Richter Scale; nuclear plants in Japan
damaged, and tsunami @30 feet high - looks just like the artist painted
it - one artist's version of the classic tsunami!
2012: Eastern hemisphere immediately below; Indonesia;
Modern pre-fab (?) building shows
earthquake damage in Coasta Rica...
A wall at the University of Costa Rica's school of electrical
engineering is damaged after an earthquake in San Jose, Costa Rica,
Wednesday, Sept. 5, 2012. A powerful, magnitude-7.6 earthquake shook
Costa Rica and a wide swath of Central America on Wednesday. (AP
Photo/Thomas Dooley) Photo: Thomas Dooley, Associated Press / SF
Office workers fled buildings as far
away as Mexico City
7 November 2012 Last updated at 14:27 ET
Strong earthquake off Guatemala
I-BBC
A 7.4-magnitude earthquake has struck off Guatemala's Pacific
coast, reportedly killing at least eight. Guatemalan President
Otto Perez Molina declared a national alert and advised people in
affected areas to evacuate tall buildings as a precaution.
Officials said roads had been buried in landslides, and it would take
24 hours to fully restore links to the region.
Frightened people fled from offices and homes around the region, as
buildings shook from Mexico City to San Salvador. Quake officials
said the tremor hit at about 10:35 local time (1635 GMT) about 23km (15
miles) from the coastal town of Champerico.
Firefighters said a school had collapsed in San Marcos region, near the
border with Mexico.
The firefighters later said at least eight people had been killed,
though it was not clear if the deaths were related to the school
collapse. Secretary Vanessa Castillo, who was moved from her
Guatemala City office, told Reuters news agency: "It was really big, I
felt quite nauseous."
The US Pacific Tsunami Warning Center said in a statement there was no
threat of a destructive widespread tsunami. But it added:
"Earthquakes of this size sometimes generate local tsunamis that can be
destructive along coasts located within a hundred kilometres of the
earthquake epicentre."
The region is often hit by quakes, which have periodically caused huge
damage and many deaths.
AN EXAMPLE OF DAMAGE TO OLD BUILDINGS
The star on this map from the United
States Geological Survey
website shows the epicenter of the quake, about four miles
north-northeast of Waterboro, Maine, and 50 miles east-northeast of
Concord, N.H.
An earthquake that struck western Maine on Tuesday night was felt
throughout New Hamsphire, but no major damage was reported.
Earthquake casualty?
Cracks force closure of Epping's historic recreation building
By JASON SCHREIBER, Union Leader Correspondent
October 23. 2012 12:39PM
EPPING — A week after a 4.0 magnitude earthquake centered in
southwestern Maine shook buildings around New Hampshire, the town has
shut down a 129-year-old building that houses the recreation department
after numerous cracks were discovered.
Town officials haven't confirmed that the damage to Watson Academy is
from the earthquake, but they said it appears the building has shifted
and may be unsafe.
“We don't know what we're dealing with,” town administrator Gregory
Dodge said Tuesday as officials toured the building while awaiting the
arrival of structural engineers to determine the extent of the damage
and whether the building is safe to occupy.
Deputy Fire Chief Bruce Chapman issued an order Monday immediately
closing the building at 17 Academy St., forcing the recreation
department to temporarily move children in its after-school program to
the cafeteria in the middle school located behind Watson Academy.
The damage wasn't noticed immediately after the earthquake, which
struck at 7:12 p.m. on Oct. 16. The quake was centered near Hollis
Center, Maine, and was felt throughout New England as it rattled many
buildings and nerves for about 10 seconds. No major structural damage
was reported.
Recreation director Nicole Bizzaro said she noticed a few cracks here
and there in the building, but it was on Saturday when she discovered
that a self-closing door was no longer shutting. Dodge visited
Watson
Academy Monday with a worker who had installed restored windows in the
building and noticed the cracks around doors and in corners and other
problems, including large splits in wooden support beams in the
basement and a second floor that appears to slope downward more than in
the past.
While some cracks have existed for years as the building is old and
listed on the National Register of Historic Places, town officials said
there are obvious fresh cracks. A fire investigator from the
state
Fire Marshal's Office was notified along with a fire protection and
safety engineer.
“We will not allow anybody in the building until we know it's safe,”
said Selectman Karen Falcone, board chairman.
The temporary closure will affect not only recreation activities but
also nonprofit organizations that rent space in the building.
USGS reports 4.0
earthquake centered in Maine
Union Leader News
By Timothy Buckland & Jason Schreiber
Oct. 16, 2012
An earthquake that struck western Maine on Tuesday night was felt
throughout New Hampshire, but no major damage was reported. The
magnitude 4.0 earthquake (initial reports had it as a 4.5, and then a
4.6) shook New England at 7:12 p.m. Tuesday, according to the U.S.
Geological Survey. New Hampshire's 911 system received about
1,000 calls in the hour after the quake, said Jim Van Dongen, spokesman
for the state's Division of Homeland Security and Emergency Management.
"People were shook up; literally and figuratively," he said. "But there
were no reports of damage."
Van Dongen said the calls to 911 dropped off after that first hour. The
state's Emergency Operations Center opened Tuesday, but no injuries
were reported because of the earthquake and no power outages were
reported, Van Dongen said. The quake's epicenter was located
about four miles north-northeast of Waterboro, Maine, and 50 miles
east-northeast of Concord, N.H., according to the USGS.
"My whole house shook like the dickens," said Bobby McLaughlin of
Manchester, N.H. "I was sitting on my couch and darn near fell off."
"We had stuff in the house shaking, pencils in jars going, wine bottles
shaking. The house is fine, but this is like — I don't want to live in
Southern California," said John Potucek of Derry, N.H.
There were no immediate reports of damage.
According to the USGS, earthquakes of Tuesday's magnitude can be felt
over a large region.
"East of the Rockies, an earthquake can be felt over an area as much as
ten times larger than a similar magnitude earthquake on the west
coast," according to the USGS website.
The quake rocked the 83-year-old Kingston Town Hall as the planning
board was listening to plans for a proposed firing range on Route
125. The entire building and windows shook and people could feel
the floor rumbling.
"We're having an earthquake!" Chairman Rich Wilson announced as he and
others on the board and in the audience looked around the building and
Police Chief Donald Briggs Jr., who was sitting in the room, ran out to
talk on his cell phone as calls began coming in.
Chuck Raz, president of Signs Now in Pelham, was standing outside the
meeting room when the building began to move.
"First we thought it sounded like some heavy truck was going by, but
then it seemed bigger than that. Then we thought a train was going by,
but there's no train. Then we said, 'Earthquake.' We saw the doors
rattling."
Ben Barr of Gilmanton also felt the quake while standing in the hallway
outside the meeting room.
"It almost seemed like the wind was hitting the door and it started to
get worse and worse," Barr said.
The quake was also felt during Tuesday's Board of Mayor and Alderman
meeting in Manchester, N.H.
"We needed to shake things up," Alderman Phil Greazzo quipped.
Maine earthquake felt in Connecticut
CTPOST
Staff and wire reports
Updated 8:32 a.m., Wednesday, October 17, 2012
Read more:
http://www.ctpost.com/news/article/Maine-earthquake-felt-in-Connecticut-3954227.php#ixzz29ZK4d4g8
A Tuesday evening earthquake in southern Maine was felt in parts of
Connecticut and around New England.
The U.S. Geological Survey at first estimated the quake as a 4.6
magnitude, but later downgraded that to 4.0. It hit at about 7:12 p.m.
The epicenter, about 3 miles west of Hollis Center, Maine, is about 4
miles deep, about about 20 miles west of Portland.
Residents in the Danbury area, including Bethel and Brookfield, and
other parts of Fairfield County, including Monroe, reported feeling the
quake, according to the USGS website. There were scattered reports of
people feeling light shaking around the state.
The quake was also felt in Vermont, New Hampshire, eastern
Massachusetts and Rhode Island. According to the USGS, earthquakes in
New England are felt over 10 times the area than that of a similar
quake occurring west of the Rockies.
No damage or injuries were immediately reported.
Earthquakes are unusual in New England but they're not unheard of. In
2006, there was a series of earthquakes around Maine's Acadia National
Park, including one with a magnitude of 4.2 that caused boulders to
fall from ledges onto Acadia National Park's loop road. One of the
park's trails was closed for three years because of damage from the
quake.
The strongest earthquake recorded in Maine occurred in 1904 in the
Eastport area, near the state's eastern border with Canada, according
the Weston Observatory at Boston College. With a magnitude estimated at
5.7 to 5.9, it damaged chimneys and brick walls and could be felt in
Massachusetts and New Hampshire.
East Coast quakes, when they do occur, can be felt over a wide area.
This is because the rocky terrain can efficiently transmit the shock
wave.
A quake of magnitude 5.8 on Aug. 23, 2011, was centered in Virginia and
felt all along the coast, including in New York, New Haven, New London,
Bridgeport, Stamford and Boston.
This quake occurred in the geological region known as the Central Maine
Basin; its rocks are mostly between 390 and 475 million years old, and
they are mostly metamorphic. Geologists say that unlike some of the
well-known faults in California, the faults in New England aren't as
thoroughly studied because they slip so infrequently.
About 10 miles away in Waterboro, about 20 customers and staff at
Waterboro House of Pizza ran outside when they heard a loud bang and
the building shook.
"It was loudest bang you ever heard in your life. We actually thought
it was an explosion of some type," said owner Jessica Hill. "The back
door and door to the basement blew open."
In the mid-1700s, quakes damaged buildings in Boston 28 times. The
largest known New England earthquake occurred in 1638 in Vermont or New
Hampshire, with a magnitude of about 6.5.
In nearby Saco, Sue Hadiaris said, "The whole house shook. It felt like
a train was coming right through the house. It was very unnerving
because you could feel the floor shaking. There was a queasy feeling."
Afterward, Hadiaris called her 15-year-old niece in Falmouth to make
sure she was safe. "She said, `We can cross that off our bucket list.
We've lived through an earthquake,'" Hadiaris said.
The Seabrook Station nuclear plant, about 63 miles away in New
Hampshire, declared an unusual event -- the lowest of four emergency
classifications, but said it was not affected. The plant has been
offline for refueling.
"There has been no impact at all to the plant from the earthquake and
our refueling maintenance activities have not been affected," said Alan
Griffith, spokesman for Next EnergyEra Seabrook Station.
Jim Van Dongen, public information officer for the New Hampshire
Department of Safety said New Hampshire 911 got about 1,000 calls in
the first hour after the quake, but they later dropped off. He said no
major damage was reported.
Brief, but noticeable shaking was felt in downtown Boston and the
surrounding area.
Strong Earthquake Hits Off El Salvador
Coast
NYTIMES
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
August 27, 2012
SAN SALVADOR, El Salvador (AP) — A strong magnitude-7.3 earthquake
struck off the coast of El Salvador followed an hour later by a
magnitude-5.4 aftershock, authorities said early Monday. There were no
immediate reports of damages or injuries.
A tsunami warning was put into effect for Costa Rica, Nicaragua, El
Salvador, Honduras, Guatemala, Panama and Mexico after the quake struck
at 10:37 p.m. Sunday. The warning was later rescinded.
David Walsh, an oceanographer with the Pacific Tsunami Center in Ewa
Beach, Hawaii, said a minor, 10-centimeter (3.94-inche) tsunami was
registered off Acajutla, El Salvador.
The quake was located 86 miles (138 kilometers) south-southwest of San
Miguel, the U.S. Geological Survey reported on its web site. The
temblor took place at a depth of 32.9 miles (53 kilometers). The second
quake registered about an hour later in the same area at a depth of
35.9 miles (57.8 km).
Alfonso Lara, a technician with El Salvador's Civil Protection agency
said authorities were alerted to the threat of a tsunami. "We are doing
a general monitoring of the entire coast through our technicians and
representatives," he said.
On Sunday, dozens of small to moderate earthquakes struck southeastern
California, knocking trailer homes off their foundations and shattering
windows in a small farming town east of San Diego. The largest quake
registered at a magnitude 5.5 and was centered about three miles (five
kilometers) northwest of the town of Brawley, according to the USGS.
Another quake about an hour and a half earlier registered at magnitude
5.3. No injuries were reported.
Magnitude
5.6 Quake Hits Off Coast of Washington State:
USGS
NYTIMES
By REUTERS
August
19, 2012
(Reuters) - A magnitude 5.6 earthquake struck off the coast of the West
Coast state of Washington on Sunday, the United States Geological
Survey said.
The depth was reported at 6.3 miles and the quake was located 190 miles
west of Neah Bay, the USGS said. There was no immediate statement from
the U.S. Pacific Tsunami Warning Center based in Hawaii on the quake.
Earthquake Strikes Western Mexico
NYTIMES
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
December 11, 2011
MEXICO CITY (AP) — A 6.5-magnitude earthquake struck Mexico’s western
Guerrero State on Saturday night, shaking buildings and causing panic
in the nation’s capital and in the Pacific resort of Acapulco.
Officials said at least three people died, but there were no reports of
widespread damage.
The U.S. Geological Service initially estimated the quake magnitude at
6.8, but downgraded it to 6.7 and then 6.5. A quake of that magnitude
is capable of causing severe damage, although the depth of this one
lessened its impact.
The geological service said the quake occurred at a depth of 40.3
miles. It was centered about 26 miles southwest of Iguala in Guerrero
and 103 miles southwest of Mexico City.
Mexico’s Interior Department said the quake was felt in parts of nine
states.
Humberto Calvo, undersecretary of Guerrero’s Civil Protection agency,
said three deaths had been reported in the state. He said one man was
killed when a house’s roof collapsed in Iguala; a second died in the
small town of Ixcateopan, and the driver of a cargo truck was killed by
rocks that fell on the vehicle driving on the toll highway linking
Acapulco with Mexico City.
High-rises swayed in the center of Mexico City for more than a minute,
and shoppers were temporarily herded out of some shopping centers until
the danger passed.
USGS: 10 aftershocks following 5.6
quake in Okla.
YAHOO
By JUSTIN JUOZAPAVICIUS - Associated Press
November 6, 2011
SPARKS, Okla. (AP) — Oklahoma residents more accustomed to tornadoes
than earthquakes have been shaken by weekend temblors that cracked
buildings, buckled a highway and rattled nerves. One quake late
Saturday was the state's strongest ever and jolted a college football
stadium 50 miles away.
It was followed by 10 aftershocks by midmorning Sunday. But although
homes and other buildings cracked and suffered minor damage, there were
no reports of severe injuries or major devastation.
Saturday night's earthquake jolted Oklahoma State University's stadium
shortly after the No. 3 Cowboys defeated No. 17 Kansas State.
"That shook up the place, had a lot of people nervous," Oklahoma State
wide receiver Justin Blackmon said. "Yeah, it was pretty strong."
The magnitude 5.6 earthquake was Oklahoma's strongest on record, said
Jessica Turner, a geophysicist with the U.S. Geological Survey.
Centered near Sparks, 44 miles northeast of Oklahoma City, it could be
felt throughout the state and in Arkansas, Kansas, Missouri, northern
Texas and some parts of Illinois and Wisconsin. It followed a magnitude
4.7 quake early Saturday that was felt from Texas to Missouri.
The aftershocks included two that were magnitude 4.0, one about 4 a.m.
Sunday and one about 9 a.m., USGS said. The smallest aftershock it
recorded was magnitude 2.7. USGS seismologist Paul Earle in Golden,
Colo., said the aftershocks will likely continue for several days and
could continue for months.
Oklahoma typically has about 50 earthquakes a year, and 57 tornadoes,
but a burst of quakes east of Oklahoma City has contributed to a sharp
increase. Researchers said 1,047 quakes shook Oklahoma last year,
prompting them to install seismographs in the area. The reason for the
increase isn't known, and Turner said there was no immediate
explanation for the weekend spurt in seismic activity.
Several homeowners and businesses reported cracked walls, fallen
knickknacks and other minor damage. Brad Collins, the spokesman for St.
Gregory's University in Shawnee, said one of the four towers on its
"castle-looking" administration building had collapsed and the other
three towers were damaged. He estimated the towers were about 25 feet
tall.
"We definitely felt it," Collins said. "I was at home, getting ready
for bed and it felt like the house was going to collapse. I tried to
get back to my kids' room and it was tough to keep my balance, I could
hardly walk."
Jesse Richards, 50, of Sparks, said his wife ran outside when the
shaking started because she thought their home was going to collapse.
One of her cookie jars fell on the floor and shattered, and pictures
hanging in their living room were knocked askew. He estimated the big
earthquake lasted for 45 seconds to a minute.
"We've been here 18 years, and it's getting to be a regular
occurrence," Richards said. But, he added, "I hope I never get used to
them."
An emergency manager in Lincoln County near the epicenter said U.S. 62,
a two-lane highway that meanders through rolling landscape between
Oklahoma City and the Arkansas state line, crumpled in places when the
stronger quake struck Saturday night. Other reports Sunday were sketchy
and mentioned cracks in some buildings and a chimney toppled.
"Earthquake damage in Oklahoma. That's an anomaly right there," Todd
McKinsey of Moore told The Oklahoman newspaper after the magnitude 5.6
earthquake centered 50 miles away left him with cracked drywall. Most
earthquakes that have hit the region have been much smaller.
The crowd of nearly 59,000 was still leaving Oklahoma State's Boone
Pickens Stadium when the earthquake hit, and players were in the locker
rooms beneath the stands. The shaking seemed to last the better part of
a minute, rippling upward to the stadium press box.
"Everybody was looking around, and no one had any idea," Oklahoma State
quarterback Brandon Weeden said. "We thought the people above us were
doing something. I've never felt one, so that was a first."
A few hours before dawn Sunday, the latest quake set nerves on edge
anew.
Jessie Plumb, a registered nurse at Prague Community Hospital, said she
and other staffers felt the 4.0 magnitude quake while on the second
floor of the building.
"It kind of gave a little bit of a shake, a little bit of rock 'n
roll," she said by telephone. "I would say it was 20 or 25 seconds."
Plumb said she was anxious because of the number of earthquakes in so
short a span and the fact that they were so strong.
Saturday's late-night quake was slightly less in intensity than the one
that rattled the East Coast on Aug. 23. That 5.8 magnitude earthquake
was centered in Virginia and felt from Georgia to Canada. No major
damage was reported, although cracks appeared in the Washington
Monument, the National Cathedral suffered costly damage to elaborately
sculpted stonework, and a number of federal buildings were evacuated.
Oklahoma has had big earthquakes before. USGS records show a 5.5
magnitude earthquake struck El Reno, just west of Oklahoma City, in
1952 and, before Oklahoma became a state in 1907, a quake of similar
magnitude 5.5 struck in northeastern Indian Territory in 1882.
Turner said an active spate of earthquakes started in the region in
February 2010 and the latest activity appears to be part of that trend.
But experts are still puzzling out why the latest quakes have been
concentrated in such a small geographic area around Sparks, she said.
EARTHQUAKE
At the right, could be a scene from "Live Free or Die Hard" as
perpetrators hack Internet emergency communications, transit, power
grid...
Quake rocks Washington area, felt on
East Coast
AP
YAHOO
Aug. 23, 2011@2:30pm
WASHINGTON (AP) — A 5.9 magnitude
earthquake centered in Virginia forced evacuations of all the monuments
in Washington and rattled nerves from the southern state of Georgia to
Martha's Vineyard, the Massachusetts island in the northeast where
President Barack Obama is vacationing. No injuries were immediately
reported.
The U.S. Geological Survey said the
earthquake was half a mile (800 meters) deep and centered about 40
miles (64 kilometers) northwest of Richmond, the state capital of
Virginia. Shaking was felt at the White House and all over the East
Coast, as far south as Chapel Hill, North Carolina, Parts of the
Pentagon, White House and Capitol were evacuated.
Two nuclear reactors at the North
Anna Power Station in the same county as the epicenter were
automatically taken off line by safety systems around the time of the
earthquake, said Roger Hannah, a spokesman for the U.S. Nuclear
Regulatory Commission.
The power plant is being from four
emergency diesel generators, which are supplying power for critical
safety equipment. Hannah said the agency was not immediately aware of
any damage at nuclear power plants in the Southeast.
Obama and many of the nation's
leaders were out of town on August vacation when the quake struck at
1:51 p.m. EDT (1751 GMT). The shaking was felt on the Martha's Vineyard
golf course as Obama was just starting a round.
At the Pentagon in northern
Virginia, a low rumbling built and built to the point that the building
was shaking. People ran into the corridors of the government's biggest
building and as the shaking continued there were shouts of "Evacuate!
Evacuate!"
The U.S. Park Service evacuated and
closed all National Mall monuments and memorials. At Reagan National
Airport outside Washington, ceiling tiles fell during a few seconds of
shaking. Authorities announced it was an earthquake and all flights
were put on hold.
In New York, the 26-story federal
courthouse in lower Manhattan began swaying and hundreds of people were
seen leaving the building. Court officers were not letting people back
in.
The quake came a day after an
earthquake in Colorado toppled groceries off shelves and caused minor
damage to homes in the southern part of the state and in northern New
Mexico. No injuries were reported as aftershocks continued Tuesday.
In Charleston, West Virginia,
hundreds of workers left the state Capitol building and employees at
other downtown office buildings were asked to leave temporarily.
"The whole building shook," said
Jennifer Bundy, a spokeswoman for the state Supreme Court. "You could
feel two different shakes. Everybody just kind of came out on their
own."
In Ohio, where office buildings
swayed in Columbus and Cincinnati and the press box at the Cleveland
Indians' Progressive Field shook. At least one building near the
Statehouse was evacuated in downtown Columbus.
In downtown Baltimore, the quake
sent office workers into the streets, where lamp posts swayed slightly
as they called family and friends to check in.
Social media site Twitter lit up
with reports of the earthquake from people using the site up and down
the U.S. eastern seaboard.
"People pouring out of buildings and
onto the sidewalks..in downtown DC...," tweeted Republican strategist
Kevin Madden.
"did you feel earthquake in ny? It
started in richmond va!" tweeted Arianna Huffington, president and
editor-in-chief of the Huffington Post Media Group.
John Gurlach, air traffic controller
at the Morgantown, West Virginia Municipal Airport was in a
40-foot-tall (12 meters) tower when the earth trembled.
"There were two of us looking at
each other saying, 'What's that?'" he said, even as a commuter plane
was landing. "It was noticeably shaking. It felt like a B-52 unloading."
Immediately, the phone rang from the
nearest airport in Clarksburg, West Virginia, and a computer began
spitting out green strips of paper — alerts from other airports in New
York and Washington issuing ground stops "due to earthquake."
11
May 2011 Last updated at 16:21 ET
Spain: Earthquake rocks Lorca, Murcia,
killing 10
At least 10 people were killed after a magnitude 5.3 earthquake toppled
several buildings in southern Spain, near the town of Lorca, officials
say. The quake struck at a depth of just 1km (0.6 miles), some
120km
south-west of Alicante, at 1850 (1650 GMT), the US Geological Survey
reported.
Lines of cars lay crushed under tonnes of rubble and a hospital was
evacuated as a precaution. The quake followed a 4.4 magnitude
tremor
about two hours earlier.
It is not clear how many people were injured, although Spanish media
say there are dozens.
Military deployed
Spanish TV captured dramatic images of a church bell tower crashing to
the ground, landing just metres from the cameraman. Shocked
residents
and workers rushed out of buildings and gathered in squares, parks and
open spaces. Old buildings were badly damaged. A doctor told the
online edition of El Pais that she and her colleagues went into the
streets and treated people with serious injuries, many of them
"unconscious".
"The ambulances could not reach them. They took more than 40 minutes,"
she said.
The earthquakes were felt over a wide area.
"Unfortunately, we can confirm... deaths due to cave-ins and falling
debris," Lorca Mayor Francisco Jodar told radio station Ser.
"We are trying to find out if there are people inside the collapsed
houses," he added.
Spain's Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero has deployed
emergency military units to the scene, the Spanish Efe news agency
reported.
Mr Zapatero was in a meeting with Spanish King Juan Carlos when he was
informed of the quake, the premier's office said in a statement.
The BBC's Sarah Rainsford in Madrid says the quake is the most serious
to hit Spain in about 50 years.
The US Geological Survey said both earthquakes happened at a depth of
about six miles (10km).
Spain has hundreds of earthquakes every year but most of these are too
small to be noticed. Murcia - the region where Lorca is situated - is
the country's most seismically active area and suffered tremors in 2005
and 1999.
Murcia is close to the large fault line beneath the Mediterranean Sea
where the European and African continents meet.
A number of aftershocks have been felt in the region after Wednesday's
quake, and authorities fear the death toll could rise.
Quake
shifted Japan; towns now flood at high tide
YAHOO
By JAY ALABASTER, Associated Press
Mon May 9, 2011, 5:46 am ET
ISHINOMAKI, Japan – When water begins to trickle down the streets of
her coastal neighborhood, Yoshiko Takahashi knows it is time to hurry
home.
Twice a day, the flow steadily increases until it is knee-deep,
carrying fish and debris by her front door and trapping people in their
homes. Those still on the streets slosh through the sea water in rubber
boots or on bicycle.
"I look out the window, and it's like our houses are in the middle of
the ocean," says Takahashi, who moved in three years ago.
The March 11 earthquake that hit eastern Japan was so powerful it
pulled the entire country out and down into the sea. The mostly
devastated coastal communities now face regular flooding, because of
their lower elevation and damage to sea walls from the massive tsunamis
triggered by the quake.
In port cities such as Onagawa and Kesennuma, the tide flows in and out
among crumpled homes and warehouses along now uninhabited streets.
A cluster of neighborhoods in Ishinomaki city is rare in that it
escaped tsunami damage through fortuitous geography. So, many residents
still live in their homes, and they now face a daily trial: The area
floods at high tide, and the normally sleepy streets turn frantic as
residents rush home before the water rises too high.
"I just try to get all my shopping and chores done by 3 p.m.," says
Takuya Kondo, 32, who lives with his family in his childhood home.
Most houses sit above the water's reach, but travel by car becomes
impossible and the sewage system swamps, rendering toilets unusable.
Scientists say the new conditions are permanent.
Japan's northern half sits on the North American tectonic plate. The
Pacific plate, which is mostly undersea, normally slides under this
plate, slowly nudging the country west. But in the earthquake, the
fault line between the two plates ruptured, and the North American
plate slid up and out along the Pacific plate.
The rising edge of plate caused the sea floor off Japan's eastern coast
to bulge up — one measuring station run by Tohoku University reported
an underwater rise of 16 feet (5 meters) — creating the tsunami that
devastated the coast. The portion of the plate under Japan was pulled
lower as it slid toward the ocean, which caused a corresponding plunge
in elevation under the country.
Some areas in Ishinomaki moved southeast 17 feet (5.3 meters) and sank
4 feet (1.2 meters) lower.
"We thought this slippage would happen gradually, bit by bit. We didn't
expect it to happen all at once," says Testuro Imakiire, a researcher
at Japan's Geospatial Information Authority, the government body in
charge of mapping and surveys.
Imakiire says the quake was powerful enough to move the entire country,
the first time this has been recorded since measurements began in the
late 19th century. In Tokyo, 210 miles (340 kilometers) from
Ishinomaki, parts of the city moved 9 inches (24 centimeters) seaward.
The drop lower was most pronounced around Ishinomaki, the area closest
to the epicenter. The effects are apparent: Manholes, supported by
underground piping, jut out of streets that fell around them. Telephone
poles sank even farther, leaving wires at head height.
As surrounding areas clear rubble and make plans to rebuild, residents
in this section of Ishinomaki are stuck in limbo — their homes are
mostly undamaged and ineligible for major insurance claims or
government compensation, but twice a day the tide swamps their streets.
"We can't really complain, because other people lost so much," says
Yuichiro Mogi, 43, as his daughters examine a dead blowfish floating
near his curb.
The earthquake and tsunami left more than 25,000 people either dead or
missing, and many more lost their homes and possessions.
Mogi noticed that the daily floods were slowly carrying away the dirt
foundation of his house, and built a small embankment of sandbags to
keep the water at bay. The shipping company worker moved here 10 years
ago, because he got a good deal on enough land to build a home with a
spacious front lawn, where he lives with his four children and wife.
Most of the residences in the area are relatively new.
"Everyone here still has housing loans they have to pay, and you can't
give away this land, let alone sell it," says Seietsu Sasaki, 57, who
also has to pay off loans on two cars ruined in the flooding.
Sasaki, who moved in 12 years ago with his extended family, says he
hopes the government can build flood walls to protect the neighborhood.
He never paid much attention to the tides in the past, but now checks
the newspaper for peak times each morning.
Officials have begun work on some embankments, but with much of the
city devastated, resources are tight. Major construction projects to
raise the roads were completed before the tsunami, but much of that
work was negated when the ground below them sank.
The constant flooding means that construction crews can only work in
short bursts, and electricity and running water were restored only
about two weeks ago. The area still doesn't have gas for hot water, and
residents go to evacuee shelters to bathe.
"We get a lot of requests to build up these areas, but we don't really
have the budget right now," says Kiyoshi Koizumi, a manager in
Ishinomaki's roads and infrastructure division.
Sasaki says he hopes they work something out soon: Japan's heavy summer
rains begin in about a month, and the higher tides in autumn will rise
well above the floor of his house.
Japan
plans disaster budget,
building 100K homes
By RAVI NESSMAN and YURI KAGEYAMA, Associated Press 1 hr
36 mins ago
TOKYO – Japan's government proposed a special $50 billion (4 trillion
yen) budget to help finance reconstruction efforts Friday and plans to
build 100,000 temporary homes for survivors of last month's devastating
earthquake and tsunami.
The twin disasters destroyed roads, ports, farms and homes and crippled
a nuclear power plant that forced tens of thousands of more people to
evacuate their houses for at least several months. The government said
the damage could cost $309 billion, making it the world's most
expensive natural disaster.
Prime Minister Naoto Kan said he was moved by his conversations with
victims during a recent tour of shelters.
"I felt with renewed determination that we must do our best to get them
back as soon as possible," he told reporters.
The extra $50 billion (4 trillion yen) the Cabinet approved is expected
to be only the first installment of reconstruction funding. About $15
billion (1.2 trillion yen) will go to fixing roads and ports and more
than $8.5 billion (700 billion yen) will go to build temporary homes
and clearing rubble.
"This is the first step toward rebuilding Japan after the major
disasters," Finance Minister Yoshihiko Noda said. Parliament is
expected to approve the special budget next week.
More than 27,000 people are dead or missing after the earthquake and
tsunami hit northern Japan on March 11. About 135,000 survivors are
living in 2,500 shelters, and many others have moved into temporary
housing or are staying with relatives.
As part of the government's recovery plan, it will build 30,000
temporary homes by the end of May and another 70,000 after that, Kan
said.
Japan already was mired in a 20-year economic slowdown, Kan said, and
he hoped the disaster recovery effort would help lift Japan
economically. He urged Japanese to spend money during the upcoming
Golden Week holidays to help spur the economy.
"People are feeling that we all must do something, and that will turn
into a big strength," he said. "And it will work to help the recovery,
and we will overcome both crises."
Recovery efforts have been complicated by the crisis at the Fukushima
Dai-ichi nuclear power plant, which lost its power and cooling systems
in the earthquake and tsunami, triggering fires, explosions and
radiation leaks in the world's second-worst nuclear accident.
Plant operator Tokyo Electric Power Co., which said it will take six to
nine months to bring the plant under full control, has been heavily
criticized for its handling of the crisis.
TEPCO President Masataka Shimizu was received harshly when he toured a
shelter of 1,600 people in Koriyama.
"We're angry, angry, angry," one man shouted at him, according to
television footage.
"How about you spend a month here?" another shouted.
"Take your nuclear energy back to Tokyo with you," a third said.
Shimizu apologized to the governor of Fukushima prefecture, Yuhei Sato,
an outspoken critic of the response by the government and company to
the nuclear crisis. Sato bluntly told Shimizu the era of nuclear
power plants in Fukushima had ended.
"No way. The resumption of nuclear power plants ... no way," he said.
Meanwhile, Emperor Akihito and Empress Michiko visited Kita Ibaraki, a
port wrecked by the tsunami about 100 kilometers (60 miles) north of
Tokyo.
The royal couple surveyed the damage along the waterfront, where blocks
of concrete were jumbled by the huge waves. When told that a man died
there, they showed their respects with a deep bow toward the sea. They
also visited an evacuation center.
An extra 250 police were sent to man roadblocks with flashing "Off
Limits" signs Friday to stop some of the 80,000 evacuees from sneaking
back to homes inside the now-sealed 12-mile (20-kilometer) evacuation
zone around the stricken plant.
Authorities planned to erect fences on side streets, said Fukushima
police spokesman Yasunori Okazaki. The order that took effect Friday is
meant to limit radiation exposure and theft in the mainly deserted zone.
Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano appealed for residents of five
areas with relatively high levels of radiation outside the sealed zone
to prepare for evacuation within a month.
But Norio Kanno, chief of Iitate, a village of 6,200, questioned
whether everyone would be able to move in time.
"It is really vexing. Just one nuclear accident is destroying
everything," he said.
Magnitude-7.0
quake shakes Japan
Washington Times
11 April 2011
SENDAI, Japan (AP) — A strong new earthquake rattled Japan's northeast
Monday as the government urged more people living near a
tsunami-crippled nuclear plant to leave, citing concerns about
long-term health risks from radiation. The magnitude-7.0
aftershock came just hours after people bowed their heads and wept in
somber ceremonies to mark a month since a massive earthquake and
tsunami that killed up to 25,000 people and set off a crisis of
radiation leaks at the nuclear plant by knocking out its cooling
systems.
"Even after a month, I still cry when I watch the news," said Marina
Seito, 19, a student at a junior college who recalled being in a
basement restaurant in Sendai when the original 9.0-magnitude
earthquake hit on March 11. Plates fell and parts of the ceiling
crashed down around her.
Officials said Monday's aftershock did not endanger operations at the
tsunami-flooded Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear complex, where power was cut
by the aftershock but quickly restored. The epicenter was just inland
and about 100 miles north of Tokyo. Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio
Edano told reporters that residents of five more communities, some of
them more than 20 miles from the plant, were urged to evacuate within a
month because of high levels of radiation. People living in a 12-mile
radius around the plant already have been evacuated.
"This is not an emergency measure that people have to evacuate
immediately," he said. "We have decided this measure based on long-term
health risks."
Mr. Edano sounded a grave note, acknowledging that "the nuclear
accident has not stabilized" and that "we cannot deny the possibility
the situation could get worse."
The latest quake, the second major aftershock in less than a week,
spooked people yet again in a disaster-weary northeastern Japan.
Customers in a large electronics store in Sendai screamed and ran
outside, and mothers grabbed their children, but there were no
immediate reports of more damage or injuries. Japanese officials
said the quake was a 7.0 magnitude, but the U.S. Geological Survey said
it measured magnitude 6.6.
With workers still far from bringing the Fukushima Dai-ichi plant under
control, the bodies of thousands of tsunami victims yet to be found and
more than 150,000 people living in shelters, there was little time
Monday for reflection on Japan's worst disaster since World War II.
People in hard-hit towns gathered for ceremonies at 2:46 p.m., the
exact moment of the massive quake a month earlier.
"My chest has been ripped open by the suffering and pain that this
disaster has caused the people of our prefecture," said Yuhei Sato, the
governor of Fukushima, which saw its coastal areas devastated by the
tsunami and is home to the damaged plant at the center of the nuclear
crisis. "I have no words to express my sorrow."
In a devastated coastal neighborhood in the city of Natori, three dozen
firemen and soldiers removed their hats and helmets and joined hands
atop a small hill that has become a memorial for the dead. Earlier,
four monks in pointed hats rang a prayer bell there as they chanted for
those killed. The noisy clatter of construction equipment ceased
briefly as crane operators stood outside their vehicles and bowed their
heads.
In the industrial town of Kamaishi, Iwate Gov. Takuya Tasso led a
moment of commemoration as a loud siren rang through a high school
gymnasium being used as a shelter. He bowed while people who have lived
there since the tsunami kneeled on makeshift futons, bowed their heads
and clasped their hands. The school's students will return to
classes Tuesday even though 129 people are living in their gym. Some,
such as 16-year-old Keisuke Shirato, wore their baseball uniforms for
Monday's ceremony. Keisuke's family was not affected by the tsunami,
but about half of his teammates lost their homes.
"A new school year starts tomorrow," he said. "Hopefully, that will
help give people hope and allow them to look toward a new start."
The earthquake and tsunami flattened communities along hundreds of
miles of coastline, causing what the government estimates could be as
much as $310 billion in damage. About 250,000 are without electricity,
although some of them because of the latest two quakes Monday and last
Thursday. Adding to the misery is radiation spewing from the
Fukushima Dai-ichi complex, 140 miles northeast of Tokyo. The 70,000 to
80,000 people who lived within 12 miles of the plant must stay away
from their homes indefinitely.
"We have no future plans. We can't even start to think about it because
we don't know how long this will last or how long we will have to stay
in these shelters," said Atsushi Yanai, a 55-year-old construction
worker. The tsunami spared his home, but he has to live in a shelter
anyway because it is in the evacuation zone.
Tokyo Electric Power Co. (Tepco), the operator of the nuclear plant,
said its president, Masataka Shimizu, went to Fukushima prefecture
Monday to relay his gratitude and apologies. Mr. Shimizu recently spent
eight days in the hospital with dizziness and high blood pressure but
has since returned to work. Mr. Shimizu told reporters in
Fukushima that people who live near the plant are "suffering physically
and mentally due to the nuclear radiation leak accident,"
"We sincerely apologize for this," he said.
At Tepco headquarters in Tokyo, hundreds of employees bowed their heads
for a moment of silence at 2:46. Japan's government marked the
one-month period by putting an ad in newspapers in China, South Korea,
Russia, France, the United Kingdom and the United States — a letter
from Prime Minister Naoto Kan thanking people for the outpouring of
support that followed the tsunami. The Red Cross alone said it has
collected $107 million (9.1 billion yen) from overseas.
Mr. Kan described the outpouring as "kizuna," the bond of friendship.
"We deeply appreciate the kizuna our friends from around the world have
shown and I want to thank every nation, entity, and you personally,
from the bottom of my heart."
Another strong quake rattles
tsunami-ravaged Japan
YAHOO
By CARA RUBINSKY, Associated Press
7 April 2011
TOKYO – A magnitude-7.4 aftershock rattled Japan on Thursday
night, knocking out power across a large swath of the northern part of
the country nearly a month after the devastating earthquake and tsunami
that flattened the northeastern coast.
Japan's meteorological agency issued a tsunami warning but canceled it
about 90 minutes later. Officials said power was out in all of three
northern prefectures (states) and in parts of two others.
There were no immediate reports of serious injuries or damage. The
aftershock was the strongest since the March 11 megaquake and tsunami
that killed some 25,000 people, tore apart hundreds of thousands of
homes and caused an ongoing crisis at a nuclear power plant.
The operator of the tsunami-ravaged Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear plant
said there was no immediate sign of new problems caused by the
aftershock, and Japan's nuclear safety agency says workers there
retreated to a quake-resistant shelter in the complex. None were
injured. The crisis there started when the tsunami knocked out cooling
systems. Workers have not been able to restore them.
Thursday's quake knocked out several power lines at the Onagawa nuclear
power plant north of Sendai, which has been shut down since the
tsunami. One remaining line was supplying power to the plant and
radiation monitoring devices detected no abnormalities. The plant's
spent fuel pools briefly lost cooling capacity but an emergency diesel
generator quickly kicked in.
Officials said the aftershock hit 30 miles (50 kilometers) under the
water and off the coast of Miyagi prefecture. The U.S. Geological
Survey in Golden, Colo., later downgraded it to 7.1.
Buildings as far away as Tokyo shook for about a minute.
The quake struck at 11:32 p.m. local time. Moments beforehand,
residents in the western Tokyo suburb of Fuchu were warned on a
neighborhood public address system of an imminent quake.
In Ichinoseki, inland from Japan's eastern coast, buildings shook
violently, knocking items from shelves and toppling furniture, but
there was no heavy damage to the buildings themselves. Immediately
after the quake, all power was cut. The city went dark, but cars drove
around normally and people assembled in the streets despite the late
hour.
Prime Minister Naoto Kan huddled with staff members in his office
shortly afterward, according to deputy Cabinet spokesman Noriyuki
Shikata.
A separate government emergency response team met shortly after
midnight to monitor any reports of damage and urged firefighters,
police and other emergency personnel to aid those in need.
Paul Caruso, a geophysicist at USGS, said the quake struck at about the
same location and depth as last month's huge one.
Another USGS geophysicist, Don Blakeman, said it was the strongest
aftershock since March 11, although several aftershocks on that day
were bigger.
The USGS said the aftershock struck off the eastern coast 40 miles (65
kilometers) from Sendai and 70 miles (115 kilometers) from Fukushima.
It was about 205 miles (330 kilometers) from Tokyo.
Note:
"Credit Default Swaps" play a role here.
Tepco chief quits after $15 billion loss on nuclear crisis
YAHOO
By Nathan Layne and Taiga Uranaka
20 May 2011
TOKYO (Reuters) – Tokyo Electric Power Co reported a $15 billion net
loss on Friday to account for the disaster at its Fukushima nuclear
plant, marking the biggest loss in Japan by a non-financial company and
prompting the firm to warn its future was uncertain.
Much-criticized president, Masataka Shimizu, 66, resigned to take
responsibility for the worst nuclear crisis since Chernobyl in 1986,
making way for an insider, managing director Toshio Nishizawa, 60.
Engineers are battling to plug radiation leaks and bring the plant
northeast of Tokyo under control more than two months after a 9.0
magnitude earthquake and deadly tsunami that devastated a swathe of
Japan's coastline and tipped the economy into recession. The
disaster has triggered a drop of more than 80 percent in Tokyo
Electric's share price and forced the company to seek government aid as
it faces compensation liabilities that some analysts say could top $100
billion.
Before speaking, Shimizu bowed before a packed press conference at the
company's headquarters in the capital. Nishizawa, who has worked at the
utility since 1975, stood to his left.
"We feel sorry for the victims of the earthquake and tsunami. At the
same time we want to sincerely apologize for our nuclear reactors in
Fukushima causing so much anxiety, worry and trouble to society," the
outgoing president said.
For the business year that ended March 31, the company, commonly known
as Tepco, posted a 1.25 trillion yen ($15 billion) net loss after
accounting for 1 trillion yen to scrap reactors at the Fukushima
complex and write off tax assets. The earnings figures were
released after the close of Tokyo stock market trading and represent a
landmark in the company's 60-year history.
Japan Prime Minister Naoto Kan and other lawmakers have lambasted Tepco
for its handling of the disaster. At one stage, Kan reportedly demanded
company executives tell him: "What the hell is going on?"
Shimizu did not make any public appearances in the two weeks that
followed the March 11 disaster, sparking criticism Tepco lacked
leadership as it fought to bring the plant under control. Shortly
after, he was hospitalized with dizzy spells as Tepco's share price
plummeted and the company lurched close to collapse.
UNCERTAINTY AND RISK
Nishizawa takes over at a time when even the company admits there is
major uncertainty over whether it can continue as a going
concern. Apart from compensation claims and quake tsunami damage,
TEPCO expects other costs to include 700 billion yen this business year
to buy more gas and coal to replace lost nuclear power capacity.
Since the crisis, Tepco has been supported by banks that offered
emergency loans. The government has promised to help Tepco handle
compensate claims by thousands of households and businesses forced to
evacuate from around the Fukushima plant because of radiation risks,
although the issue is far from settled.
"I feel a massive weight of responsibility to assume the post when we
are in an unprecedented crisis never experienced in the history of the
company," said Nishizawa.
"But I decided to take it because I believe it is my mission to
challenge head-on this difficult situation."
Tepco's
five-year credit default swaps reached a record 762 basis points late
on Thursday, or the equivalent of $762,000 to insure $10 million of
debt against default. The
spreads have more than tripled since the government's chief spokesman
Yukio Edano last week suggested banks waive some of Tepco's debt,
raising concern the government may not support the company. Economics
minister Kaoru Yosano said banks should not be liable.
"There are conflicting comments coming out of the government now," said
Takashi Hiroki, chief strategist at Monex Inc.
Tepco though is the only power supplier to Tokyo and some surrounding
areas that account for 40 percent of Japan's economy, so the government
will be under pressure to keep the company afloat, analysts say.
The stricken Fukushima Daiichi makes up less than 5,000 megawatts (MW)
of Tepco's overall generation capacity of 65,000 MW.
"You might as well recapitalize the thing that's there at the moment,"
said Ben Wedmore, director of equity research at MF Global FXA
Securities. "I would think that by the end of June the debt-equity
ratio would be such that there has to be some plan to recapitalize.
Otherwise the debt would be junk level and the banks would be unable to
lend."
Parliament is discussing the plan to help the utility handle
compensation. Kan is battling low support ratings and a feisty
opposition that has the power to block some legislation. The
compensation scheme would be funded with taxpayers' money and
contributions from other nuclear plant operators, but it places no
limit on Tepco's liabilities for compensation, a factor likely to
hobble its finances for years and weigh on its credit rating.
"While a reconsideration of their corporate structure is important, the
bigger pressure is how the government will structure their compensation
scheme," said Hiroki Shibata, an analyst at Standard & Poor's
Ratings. "I don't see any immediate impact from the change in
presidents."
COMPENSATION
The 1.25 trillion-yen loss revealed Friday exceeds the 812 billion yen
deficit booked by Japan's biggest telephone utility, Nippon Telegraph
and Telephone, in the year to March 31, 2002, and the 795 billion yen
loss by industrial conglomerate Hitachi Ltd two years ago. Only
banks have had bigger losses, with Mizuho Financial Group holding the
record with a shortfall of 2.4 trillion yen eight years ago.
Faced with so much uncertainty, Tepco did not offer earnings guidance
for the current year to March 2012. Tepco has not made an
estimate for the likely cost of compensating all victims. Analyst
forecasts have ranged from around $25 billion up to $130 billion if the
crisis at the nuclear complex drags on.
On Tuesday, TEPCO said it aimed to complete initial steps to limit the
release of further radiation from the plant and to shut down its three
unstable reactors by January 2012.
In a bid to raise cash, TEPCO said it planned to sell assets worth 600
billion yen.
The biggest gem in its asset portfolio is a 7.9 percent stake in KDDI,
a telecommunications company that owns Japan's No. 2 mobile phone
network. The stake is worth 201 billion yen based on Thursday's closing
price.
Other stock holdings in companies not directly involved in its
generating business amount to little more. Tepco values all the stocks
on its books at 310 billion yen. Most of its investments however
are locked up in its generating and transmission infrastructure, with
60 percent of 13 trillion yen in assets on its balance sheet accounted
for by nuclear plants and other fixed assets.
Shares of Tepco closed up 2.5 percent at 376 yen, compared with a 0.1
percent fall in the benchmark Nikkei 225 index.
Setbacks
mount in Japan at leaking nuclear plant
YAHOO
By MARI YAMAGUCHI, Associated Press
30 March 2011
TOKYO – Setbacks mounted Wednesday in the crisis over Japan's
tsunami-damaged nuclear facility, with nearby seawater testing at its
highest radiation levels yet and the president of the plant operator
checking into a hospital with hypertension. Nearly three weeks
after a March 11 earthquake and tsunami slammed and engulfed the
Fukushima Dai-ichi plant, knocking out cooling systems that keeps
nuclear fuel rods from overheating, Tokyo Electric Power Co. is still
struggling to bring the facility in northeastern Japan under control.
The country's revered Emperor Akihito and Empress Michiko reached out
to some of the thousands displaced by the twin disasters — which have
killed more than 11,000 people — spending about an hour consoling a
group of evacuees at a Tokyo center.
"I couldn't talk with them very well because I was nervous, but I felt
that they were really concerned about us," said Kenji Ukito, an evacuee
from a region near the plant. "I was very grateful."
At the crippled plant, leaking radiation has seeped into the soil and
seawater nearby and made its way into produce, raw milk and even tap
water as far as Tokyo, 140 miles (220 kilometers) to the south.
The stress of reining in Japan's worst crisis since World War II has
taken its toll on TEPCO President Masataka Shimizu, who went to a
hospital late Tuesday. Shimizu, 66, has not been seen in public
since a March 13 news conference in Tokyo, raising speculation that he
had suffered a breakdown. For days, officials deflected questions about
Shimizu's whereabouts, saying he was "resting" at company headquarters.
Spokesman Naoki Tsunoda said Wednesday that Shimizu had been admitted
to a Tokyo hospital after suffering dizziness and high blood
pressure. The leadership vacuum at TEPCO — whose shares have
plunged nearly 80 percent since the crisis began — comes amid growing
criticism over its failure to halt the radiation leaks. Bowing deeply,
arms at his side, Chairman Tsunehisa Katsumata announced at a news
conference that he would step in and apologized for the delay.
"We must do everything we can to end this situation as soon as possible
for the sake of everyone who has been affected," said Yuhei Sato,
governor of Fukushima prefecture. "I am extremely disappointed and
saddened by the suggestion that this might drag out longer."
Although experts have said since the early days of the crisis that the
nuclear complex will need to be scrapped because workers have sprayed
it with corrosive seawater to keep fuel rods cool, TEPCO acknowledged
publicly for the first time Wednesday that at least four of the plant's
six reactors will have to be decommissioned.
"After pouring seawater on them ... I believe we cannot use them
anymore," Katsumata said. Japan's government has been saying since
March 20 that the entire plant must be scrapped.
On Wednesday, nuclear safety officials said seawater 300 yards (meters)
outside the plant contained 3,355 times the legal limit for the amount
of radioactive iodine — the highest rate yet and a sign that more
contaminated water was making its way into the ocean. The amount
of iodine-131 found south of the plant does not pose an immediate
threat to human health but was a "concern," said Hidehiko Nishiyama, a
Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency official. He said there was no
fishing in the area.
Radioactive iodine is short-lived, with a half-life of just eight days,
and in any case was expected to dissipate quickly in the ocean. It does
not tend to accumulate in shellfish.
"We will nail down the cause, and will do our utmost to prevent it from
rising further," he said.
Highly toxic plutonium also has been detected in the soil outside the
plant, TEPCO said. Safety officials said the amounts did not pose a
risk to humans, but the finding supports suspicions that dangerously
radioactive water is leaking from damaged nuclear fuel rods. There have
been no reports of plutonium being found in seawater. The latest
findings on radioactive iodine highlighted the urgent need to power up
the power plant's cooling system. Workers succeeded last week in
reconnecting some parts of the plant to the power grid.
But as they pumped in water to cool the reactors and nuclear fuel, they
found pools of radioactive water in the basements of several buildings
and in trenches outside.
The contaminated water has been emitting many times the amount of
radiation that the government considers safe for workers, making it a
priority to pump the water out before electricity can be restored.
Complicating matters, the tanks storing the contaminated water are
beginning to fill up. Pumping at one unit has been suspended since
Tuesday night while workers scramble to drain a new tank after the
first one reached capacity. And the water just kept coming Wednesday,
when a new pool was found.
In another effort to reduce the spread of radioactive particles, TEPCO
plans to spray resin on the ground around the plant. The company will
test the method Thursday in one section of the plant before using it
elsewhere, Nishiyama said.
"The idea is to glue them to the ground," he said. But it would be too
sticky to use inside buildings or on sensitive equipment.
The government also is considering covering some reactors with cloth
tenting, TEPCO said. If successful, that could allow workers to spend
longer periods of time in other areas of the plant. Meanwhile,
white smoke was reported coming from a plant about 10 miles (15
kilometers) from the troubled one. The smoke quickly dissipated and no
radiation was released; officials were looking into its cause. The
Fukushima Daini plant also suffered some damage in the tsunami but has
been in cold shutdown since days after the quake.
The spread of radiation has raised concerns about the safety of Japan's
seafood, even though experts say the low levels suggest radiation won't
accumulate in fish at unsafe levels. Trace amounts of radioactive
cesium-137 have been found in anchovies as far afield as Chiba, near
Tokyo, but at less than 1 percent of acceptable levels.
Experts say the Pacific is so vast that any radiation will be quickly
diluted before it becomes problematic. Citing dilution, the U.S. Food
and Drug Administration has played down the risks of seafood
contamination.
As officials seek to bring an end to the nuclear crisis, hundreds of
thousands in the northeast are trying to put their lives back together.
The official death toll stood at 11,257 on Wednesday, with the final
toll likely surpassing 18,000. The government said damage is
expected to cost $310 billion, making it the most costly natural
disaster on record.
In the town of Rikuzentakata, one 24-year-old said she's been searching
every day for a missing friend but will have to return to her job at a
nursing home because she has run out of cash. Life is far from
back to normal, she said.
"Our family posted a sign in our house: Stay positive," Eri Ishikawa
said. But she said it's a struggle.
Now
it is
classified as a 9.0
Hundreds killed in tsunami after 8.9
Japan quake
YAHOO
By MALCOLM FOSTER, Associated Press
11 March 2011
TOKYO – A ferocious tsunami spawned by one of the largest earthquakes
ever recorded slammed Japan's eastern coast Friday, killing hundreds of
people as it swept away boats, cars and homes while widespread fires
burned out of control.
Hours later, the tsunami hit Hawaii and warnings
blanketed the Pacific, as far away as South America, Canada, Alaska and
the entire U.S. West Coast.
Police said 200 to 300 bodies were found in the northeastern coastal
city of Sendai. Another 88 were confirmed killed and at least 349 were
missing. The death toll was likely to continue climbing given the scale
of the disaster.
The magnitude 8.9 offshore quake unleashed a 23-foot (7-meter) tsunami
and was followed by more than 50 aftershocks for hours, many of them of
more than magnitude 6.0.
Dozens of cities and villages along a 1,300-mile (2,100-kilometer)
stretch of coastline were shaken by violent tremors that reached as far
away as Tokyo, hundreds of miles (kilometers) from the epicenter.
"The earthquake has caused major damage in broad areas in northern
Japan," Prime Minister Naoto Kan said at a news conference.
The government ordered thousands of residents near a nuclear power
plant in Onahama city to evacuate because the plant's system was unable
to cool the reactor. The reactor was not leaking radiation but its core
remained hot even after a shutdown. The plant is 170 miles (270
kilometers) northeast of Tokyo.
Trouble was reported at two other nuclear plants as well, but there was
no radiation leak at any.
Japan's coast guard said it was searching for 80 dock workers working
on a ship that was swept away from a shipyard in Miyagi prefecture.
Even for a country used to earthquakes, this one was of horrific
proportions because of the tsunami that crashed ashore, swallowing
everything in its path as it surged several miles (kilometers) inland
before retreating. The apocalyptic images of surging water broadcast by
Japanese TV networks resembled scenes from a Hollywood disaster movie.
Large fishing boats and other sea vessels rode high waves into the
cities, slamming against overpasses or scraping under them and snapping
power lines along the way. Upturned and partially submerged vehicles
were seen bobbing in the water. Ships anchored in ports crashed against
each other.
The highways to the worst-hit coastal areas were severely damaged and
communications, including telephone lines, were snapped. Train services
in northeastern Japan and in Tokyo, which normally serve 10 million
people a day, were also suspended, leaving untold numbers stranded in
stations or roaming the streets. Tokyo's Narita airport was closed
indefinitely.
Jesse Johnson, a native of the U.S. state of Nevada, who lives in
Chiba, north of Tokyo, was eating at a sushi restaurant with his wife
when the quake hit.
"At first it didn't feel unusual, but then it went on and on. So I got
myself and my wife under the table," he told The Associated Press.
"I've lived in Japan for 10 years and I've never felt anything like
this before. The aftershocks keep coming. It's gotten to the point
where I don't know whether it's me shaking or an earthquake."
Waves of muddy waters flowed over farmland near the city of Sendai,
carrying buildings, some on fire, inland as cars attempted to drive
away. Sendai airport, north of Tokyo, was inundated with cars, trucks,
buses and thick mud deposited over its runways. Fires spread through a
section of the city, public broadcaster NHK reported.
More than 300 houses were washed away in Ofunato City alone. Television
footage showed mangled debris, uprooted trees, upturned cars and
shattered timber littering streets.
The tsunami roared over embankments, washing anything in its path
inland before reversing directions and carrying the cars, homes and
other debris out to sea. Flames shot from some of the houses, probably
because of burst gas pipes.
"Our initial assessment indicates that there has already been enormous
damage," Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano said. "We will make
maximum relief effort based on that assessment."
He said the Defense Ministry was sending troops to the quake-hit
region. A utility aircraft and several helicopters were on the way.
A large fire erupted at the Cosmo oil refinery in Ichihara city in
Chiba prefecture and burned out of control with 100-foot (30 meter)
-high flames whipping into the sky.
From northeastern Japan's Miyagi prefecture, NHK showed footage of a
large ship being swept away and ramming directly into a breakwater in
Kesennuma city.
NHK said more than 4 million buildings were without power in Tokyo and
its suburbs.
Also in Miyagi, a fire broke out in a turbine building of a nuclear
power plant, but it was later extinguished, said Tohoku Electric Power
Co. the company said.
A reactor area of a nearby plant was leaking water, the company said.
But it was unclear if the leak was caused by tsunami water or something
else. There were no reports of radioactive leaks at any of Japan's
nuclear plants.
Jefferies International Limited, a global investment banking group,
said it estimated overall losses to be about $10 billion.
The U.S. Geological Survey said the 2:46 p.m. quake was a magnitude
8.9, the biggest earthquake to hit Japan since officials began keeping
records in the late 1800s, and one of the biggest ever recorded in the
world.
The quake struck at a depth of six miles (10 kilometers), about 80
miles (125 kilometers) off the eastern coast, the agency said. The area
is 240 miles (380 kilometers) northeast of Tokyo.
A tsunami warning was extended to a number of Pacific, Southeast Asian
and Latin American nations, including Japan, Russia, Indonesia, New
Zealand and Chile. In the Philippines, authorities ordered an
evacuation of coastal communities, but no unusual waves were reported.
Thousands of people fled their homes in Indonesia after officials
warned of a tsunami up to 6 feet (2 meters) high. But waves of only 4
inches (10 centimeters) were measured. No big waves came to the
Northern Mariana Islands, a U.S. territory, either.
The first waves hit Hawaii about 1400 GMT (9 a.m. EST) Friday. A
tsunami at least 3 feet (a meter) high were recorded on Oahu and Kauai,
and officials warned that the waves would continue and could become
larger.
In downtown Tokyo, large buildings shook violently and workers poured
into the street for safety. TV footage showed a large building on fire
and bellowing smoke in the Odaiba district of Tokyo. The tremor bent
the upper tip of the iconic Tokyo Tower, a 1,093-foot (333-meter) steel
structure inspired by the Eiffel Tower in Paris.
Osamu Akiya, 46, was working in Tokyo at his office in a trading
company when the quake hit.
It sent bookshelves and computers crashing to the floor, and cracks
appeared in the walls.
"I've been through many earthquakes, but I've never felt anything like
this," he said. "I don't know if we'll be able to get home tonight."
Footage on NHK from their Sendai office showed employees stumbling
around and books and papers crashing from desks. It also showed a glass
shelter at a bus stop in Tokyo completely smashed by the quake and a
weeping woman nearby being comforted by another woman.
Several quakes had hit the same region in recent days, including a 7.3
magnitude one on Wednesday that caused no damage.
Hiroshi Sato, a disaster management official in northern Iwate
prefecture, said officials were having trouble getting an overall
picture of the destruction.
"We don't even know the extent of damage. Roads were badly damaged and
cut off as tsunami washed away debris, cars and many other things," he
said.
Dozens of fires were reported in northern prefectures of Fukushima,
Sendai, Iwate and Ibaraki. Collapsed homes and landslides were also
reported in Miyagi.
Japan's worst previous quake was in 1923 in Kanto, an 8.3-magnitude
temblor that killed 143,000 people, according to USGS. A 7.2-magnitude
quake in Kobe city in 1996 killed 6,400 people.
Japan lies on the "Ring of Fire" — an arc of earthquake and volcanic
zones stretching around the Pacific where about 90 percent of the
world's quakes occur, including the one that triggered the Dec. 26,
2004, Indian Ocean tsunami that killed an estimated 230,000 people in
12 nations. A magnitude-8.8 temblor that shook central Chile last
February also generated a tsunami and killed 524 people.
7.6 earthquake hits in Pacific Ocean
near Vanuatu
New LondonDAY
Dec 25,
9:12 AM EST
SYDNEY (AP) -- An earthquake with a preliminary magnitude of 7.6 has
struck in the South Pacific near the island nation of Vanuatu and a
tsunami warning has been issued.
The U.S. Geological Survey says the quake was about 140 miles south of
Vanuatu's capital, Port Vila. It struck Sunday just after midnight
about 15 miles below the ocean surface.
There were no immediate reports of damage or injuries, and no more
details were immediately available.
The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center said a tsunami was possible based on
the strength of the earthquake. It was not immediately confirmed
whether a tsunami had occurred.
The warning area covered Vanuatu, New Caledonia and Fiji.
Strong
earthquake hits off southern
Japan
YAHOO
21 December 2010
TOKYO – A strong earthquake with a preliminary magnitude of 7.4 has
struck in the Pacific Ocean off southern Japan.
Japan's Meteorological Agency has issued a tsunami warning from the
quake, which occurred about 130 kilometers (80.6 miles) off the
southern coast of Chichi Island in the Pacific Ocean. The offshore
quake struck at around 2:20 a.m. (1720 GMT) at the depth of 10
kilometers (6.2 miles).
The agency issued a tsunami alert of up to 2 meters (6 feet) for nearby
islands and warnings of milder tsunami for the southern coasts on the
main Japanese island.
A minor swelling of waves of about 30 centimeters (1 foot) was observed
on the island's shorelines about 40 minutes after the quake, the agency
said.
There was no immediate report of any damage or injuries.
"It shook quite violently. I'm sure everyone was scared," said Kenji
Komura, principal at a high school on the island. He rushed to school,
where about 20 students gathered to take refuge. Despite the shaking,
nothing fell on the floor or got damaged at school, Komura said.
About 170 people evacuated to several community centers and school
buildings on the Chichi and nearby Haha islands, public broadcaster NHK
said.
Tomoo Yamawaki, a fisheries cooperative official on the Chichi island,
said he has observed no significant swelling of the waves so far.
"We've taken all fishing boats on the island off coast to protect them
from the tsunami," said Yamawaki, who is in charge of community tsunami
broadcast, told NHK. "We haven't observed any significant change in the
waves, but we urge all residents to immediately evacuate to a safer
place."
Japan is one of the world's most earthquake-prone countries. In
1995, a magnitude-7.2 quake in the western port city of Kobe killed
6,400 people.
Earthquake Causes Damage in
Philippines
NYTIMES
By REUTERS
August 31, 2012
MANILA (Reuters) - An earthquake of 7.6 magnitude struck off the
Philippines on Friday damaging roads and bridges and sending people
fleeing to higher ground in fear of a tsunami, a politician and
authorities said.
The quake was centered off the east coast, 91 miles off the town of
Guiuan in Samar province at a depth of about 20 miles, the U.S.
Geological Survey said. The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center issued
a
warning for much of the region, but canceled it about two hours
later.
However, Philippine authorities maintained their tsunami warning after
ordering residents to get out of coastal areas immediately.
"We are in a wait and see situation, some bridges and roads were
damaged and people panicked and are now on higher ground," Samar
congressman, Ben Evardone, told local radio.
There were no immediate reports of casualties, said the head of the
national disaster agency, Benito Ramos. Large parts of Samar and
Leyte
province had no power or internet connections.
"The only lights you see are from vehicles in the streets headed to
higher ground," said a radio reporter in the town of Borongan.
The tsunami warning was initially issued for the Philippines, Japan,
Indonesia, Taiwan, Papua New Guinea and other islands in the Pacific
including the U.S. state of Hawaii. Small waves of about 16 cm (6
inches) had hit a southern Philippine island, the seismology agency
said, and warned that bigger ones could follow. Renato Solidum,
head
of the agency, said residents should get to a 10-metre elevation until
the tsunami alert was lifted.
The region has been hit by two huge quakes in the past decade. At least
230,000 people in 13 Indian Ocean countries were killed in a quake and
tsunami off Indonesia in 2004. Last year, an earthquake and
tsunami
off Japan's northeastern coast killed about 20,000 people and triggered
the world's worst nuclear crisis in 25 years after waves battered a
nuclear power station.
Indonesia issues new tsunami alert for
aftershock
YAHOO
Associated Press
By
Fakhrurradzie Gade
Wednesday, April 11, 2012
BANDA ACEH, Indonesia (AP) — A massive earthquake off Indonesia's
western coast triggered tsunami fears across the Indian Ocean on
Wednesday, sending residents in coastal cities fleeing to high ground
in cars and on the backs of motorcycles.
A strong aftershock nearly three hours later sparked a new wave of
panic. Indonesia's government responded by issuing a fresh tsunami
warning.
Some residents were crying in Aceh, where memories of a 2004 tsunami
that killed 170,000 people in the province alone, are still raw. Others
screamed "God is great" as they poured from their homes or searched
frantically for separated family members.
The U.S. Geological Survey said the first 8.6-magnitude quake was
centered 20 miles (33 kilometers) beneath the ocean floor around 269
miles (434 kilometers) from Aceh province.
That prompted the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center in Hawaii to issue a
tsunami watch for Indonesia, India, Sri Lanka, Australia, Myanmar,
Thailand, the Maldives and other Indian Ocean islands, Malaysia,
Pakistan, Somalia, Oman, Iran, Bangladesh, Kenya, South Africa and
Singapore.
A wave measuring less than 30 inches (80 centimeters) high, rolled to
Indonesia's coast. There were no other signs of serious damage. But
just as the region was sighing relief, an 8.2-magnitude aftershock hit.
"We just issued another tsunami warning," Prih Harjadi, from
Indonesia's geophysics agency, told TVOne in a live interview.
People along the western coast of Sumatra island and the Mentawai
islands were told to stay clear of coasts. The Pacific Tsunami
Warning Centers watch remained in effect. A tsunami watch means there
is the potential for a tsunami, not that one is imminent. The
initial quake was a strike-slip, not a thrust quake, according to
experts. In a strike slip quake, the earth moves horizontally rather
than vertically and doesn't displace large volumes of water. They
were still analyzing the aftershock.
"When I first saw this was an 8.7 near Sumatra, I was fearing the
worst," Roger Musson, seismologist at the British geological survey who
has studied Sumatra's fault lines, noting one of the initial reported
magnitudes for the quake. "But as soon as I discovered what type of
earthquake it was, then I felt a lot better."
The first tremor was felt in Malaysia, where it caused high-rise
buildings to shake for about a minute, and in Singapore, Thailand,
Bangladesh and India. It caused chaos in the streets of Aceh.
Patients poured out of hospitals, some with drips still attached to
their arms. In some places, electricity was briefly cut. Hours
after the temblor, people were still standing outside their homes and
offices, afraid to go back inside.
"I was in the shower on the fifth floor of my hotel," Timbang
Pangaribuan told El Shinta radio from the city of Medan. "We all ran
out. ... We're all standing outside now."
He said one guest was injured when he jumped from the window of his
room. Thailand's National Disaster Warning Center issued an
evacuation order to residents in six provinces along the country's west
coast, including the popular tourist destinations of Phuket, Krabi and
Phang-Nga. India's Tsunami Warning Center issued a warning for
parts of the eastern Andaman and Nicobar islands. In Tamil Nadu in
southern India, police cordoned off the beach and used loudspeakers to
warn people to leave the area.
The quake was felt in Dhaka, Bangladesh, where many people in the
city's commercial Motijheel district left their offices and homes in
panic and ran into the streets. No damage or causalities were
reported. In Male, the capital of the Maldives, buildings were
evacuated. Indonesia straddles a series of fault lines that makes
the vast island nation prone to volcanic and seismic activity.
A giant 9.1-magnitude quake off the country on Dec. 26, 2004, triggered
a tsunami in the Indian Ocean that killed 230,000 people, most of them
in Aceh.
7.7-magnitude quake hits off
Indonesian island
YAHOO
By ALI KOTARUMALOS, Associated Press Writer
Mon Oct 25, 1:42 pm ET
JAKARTA, Indonesia – A powerful earthquake hit off western Indonesia
late Monday, briefly triggering a tsunami warning that sent thousands
of panicked residents fleeing to high ground. There were no immediate
reports of damage or injuries.
The 7.7-magnitude temblor struck at a depth of 13 miles (20 kilometers)
off Sumatra island, said the U.S. Geological Survey.
At least five towns in the provinces of Bengkulu and West Sumatra were
badly jolted, officials and witnesses said, as were the nearby Mentawai
islands.
"Everyone was running out of their houses," said Sofyan Alawi, a
resident in the city of Padang, adding that, with loudspeakers from
mosques blaring out tsunami warnings, the roads leading to surrounding
hills were quickly jammed with cars and motorcycles.
"We kept looking back to see if a wave was coming," said 28-year-old
resident Ade Syahputra.
Areas closest to the epicenter of the 9:42 p.m. (10:42 a.m. EDT, 1442
GMT) quake were sparsely populated, and there were no immediate reports
of damage or casualties, said Ade Edward, a disaster management agency
official.
A 5.0-magnitude aftershock hit less than an hour after the original
quake, and the region remained on alert for more.
Indonesia, the world's largest archipelago, is prone to earthquakes and
volcanic activity due to its location on the so-called Pacific Ring of
Fire.
The city of Padang was badly shaken one year ago by a 7.6-magnitude
quake that killed at least 700 people and flattened or severely damaged
180,000 buildings.
That followed the 2004 tsunami off Sumatra's westernmost province of
Aceh that was triggered by a 9.1-magnitude quake and killed 230,000 in
a dozen countries, roughly half in Indonesia.
US
Monitor: 7.5-Magnitude Quake Hits
Off Indonesia
Filed at 11:16 a.m. ET
October 25, 2010
JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) — A strong earthquake has hit off the western
coast of Indonesia's Sumatra island and triggered a tsunami watch.
The U.S. Geological Survey says the 7.5-magnitude temblor struck at a
depth of 20 miles (30 kilometers) and is centered on a small island off
the coast of Sumatra, where a massive earthquake and tsunami hit in
2004.
A tsunami watch was issued for Indonesia, saying waves were possible
within a few hundred miles (kilometers) of the epicenter. However, the
Pacific Tsunami Warning Center said historical data suggest any wave it
created would not be destructive.
SPIRE COLLAPSE
People walk past a church in Christchurch, New Zealand,
which was destroyed after an earthquake struck Tuesday, Feb. 22, 2011.
The 6.3-magnitude quake collapsed buildings and is sending rescuers
scrambling to help trapped people amid reports of multiple deaths. (AP
Photo/NZPA, Pam Johnson)People walk past a church in Christchurch, New
Zealand, which was destroyed after an earthquake struck Tuesday, Feb.
22, 2011. The 6.3-magnitude quake collapsed buildings and is sending
rescuers scrambling to help trapped people amid reports of multiple
deaths. (AP Photo/NZPA, Pam Johnson)
Parts of quake-hit N.Z. city to
be
abandoned: PM
YAHOO
Tue Mar 8, 2011 1:13 am ET
WELLINGTON (AFP) – Christchurch was so badly damaged in last month's
deadly earthquake that parts of New Zealand's second largest city will
have to be abandoned, Prime Minister John Key has said. Key
confirmed 10,000 homes faced demolition after the 6.3-magnitude tremor
which is believed to have claimed more than 200 lives, warning that
rebuilding would not be possible in some areas.
"We simply don't know," he told Radio New Zealand when asked which
parts of the city would be deserted. "We know there's been substantial
liquefaction damage.
"It's a statement of fact that there will be some properties that can't
be rebuilt... the question is whether it (rebuilding) is possible for
certain parts of the city, certain streets or houses."
Key said geotechnical engineers were working urgently to clarify the
areas worst affected by liquefaction, caused when the quake's shaking
loosened the bonds between soil particles, turning the ground into a
quagmire. Community worker Tom McBrearty said the prime
minister's comments had increased anxiety among residents still reeling
from the February 22 quake. McBrearty said his group Cancern had
been flooded with hundreds of calls from locals concerned Key's remarks
indicated their suburbs were set to become ghost towns.
"It was a shocker," he told national news agency NZPA.
"They interpreted... it as being that the riverside communities would
not be allowed to be rebuilt, which is at this stage is incorrect. We
don't know, we're still waiting for final analysis."
Key said the government would provide financial assistance to those who
were forced to move and was in talks with developers about releasing
new subdivisions to cope with the demand for housing in the stricken
city. Christchurch mayor Bob Parker said speculation on the fate
of entire suburbs was "alarmist" and urged residents to wait until
geotechnical reports were complete. The death toll from the
earthquake stood at 166 Tuesday but police expect it to rise to more
than 200.
Meanwhile, Rugby World Cup Minister Murray McCully said the disaster
was likely to lead to a "pause" in international tickets sales for the
tournament, which will be held in New Zealand from September 9 to
October 23.
"We anticipate that we'll lose some ground for a while, whether we can
make that up later is another matter," he said, adding that he was
optimistic Christchurch could take part in the largest event ever
staged in the country.
"We're operating on the basis that if it can happen, we'll make it
happen," he told reporters.
McCully said the government would receive initial reports on Thursday
into damage at Christchurch's AMI Stadium, which is slated to host five
pool matches and two quarter-finals. He said the playing surface
at the ground, which is closed until March 15 for damage assessment,
had a significant "bulge" caused by liquefaction
and there were "structural issues" with some of the stands.
The lack of hotel accommodation in the city, where one third of the
downtown area faces demolition, was also a concern, McCully said.
He said the International Rugby Board would make the final decision on
Christchurch's participation in the tournament, describing the
Dublin-based organisation as "enormously supportive" of efforts to keep
matches in the city.
At
NZ quake epicenter, screams and
flying boulders
YAHOO
By KRISTEN GELINEAU, Associated Press
24, February 2011
LYTTELTON, New Zealand – At the epicenter, children in the school
playground screamed as the earth rattled and cracked. Elderly residents
toppled to the floor in the nursing home. Cliff faces fell, spitting
truck-sized boulders across lawns and through houses.
This week's massive earthquake flattened office towers and killed at
least 103 people in nearby Christchurch. But this tiny harborside
village reported no deaths despite being at ground zero.
Residents are thankful for that. But there is devastation all around
them.
"I thought the devil was coming up out of the earth," said Kevin
Fitzgerald, a 63-year-old teacher's aide who yanked a student under a
desk and sheltered him as the school rocked menacingly, sending
everything crashing to the floor.
"The whole building was just undulating — that noise, that NOISE!" he
said Thursday, shaking his head at the memory. "I thought, 'Well, I'm
going to die.'"
The rumbling started at 12:51 p.m. Tuesday. When it stopped, Fitzgerald
ran to join the students on the school's playground, most of whom were
sobbing hysterically. He saw a giant, mushroom-shaped cloud of dust
hovering over the town. The community's usual hum was replaced by
silence, punctuated by screams, dog barks and seagull calls.
Two days later, dazed residents of the close-knit village of 3,000
wandered through dusty, brick- and glass-covered streets, pausing when
they passed each other to offer hugs, shed a few tears and ask the
question on everyone's mind: "How's your house?"
The answer was generally grim. Most homes bore at least some
quake-induced scars. The popular Ground deli was in ruins, windows were
blown out of shop fronts and the stone steeple on the Union Parish
Church had toppled to the ground.
Though there was a report of one man crushed by a boulder, so far there
are no confirmed deaths in Lyttelton. By contrast the death toll in
Christchurch, just seven miles to the north, stood at 103 early Friday
and there were grave fears for more than 200 missing people in what
could end up being New Zealand's worst natural disaster. No one has
been pulled out alive since Wednesday afternoon.
Water supplies to Lyttelton were cut, and residents gathered Thursday
at a fresh water station set up near the town center, filling as many
watering cans, plastic buckets and bottles as they could carry home.
The pavement under their feet wobbled during relentless aftershocks,
but residents said they were nothing compared with Tuesday's nightmare.
Lloyd Millar, 50, was walking up one of the community's steep hills
when he felt the road shift under his feet.
"It was like standing on a swinging bridge and somebody on the end
jumping up and down," he said.
Millar was filling buckets with water to haul back to his restaurant,
which was covered in a greasy layer of spilled oil and sauce. His house
was a wreck. The driveway had been lifted from the ground and slid
downward and the brick walls crumbled in places, exposing foundation
and wires.
Jean Smith's eyes filled with tears as she recalled the dread she felt
Tuesday when the road beneath her car began to tilt. The 64-year-old
clutched the steering wheel as the vehicle was thrown back and forth
across the street.
"NO! NO! NO!" she screamed as a church crumbled in front of her and
shrieking children streamed from the school across the road.
She was terrified. Was her husband Tom all right back at the house?
She'd forgotten her cell phone and had no way to contact him.
The giant boulders and massive piles of rubble that littered the
streets turned her normally five-minute drive home into a six-hour
journey from hell. When she finally arrived, her heart sank — the house
was a mess, and Tom nowhere to be found.
The home they'd built together nearly 40 years ago had shifted several
inches off its foundation, and parts of the outer wall had collapsed,
exposing pink insulation. Her precious crystal had tumbled out of a
living room cabinet and shattered. A beloved antique clock that
belonged to her mother was smashed, and a toppled bottle of sambuca
left a sticky mess on a blue carpet.
She sat on a dining room chair and sobbed. Tom arrived minutes later
and they clutched each other. "I'm glad you're safe," she told him.
"They're only breakable things."
Nearby, Jackie Crawford, 66, ran to check on her 89-year-old mother,
Shirley Smith, at the Lyttelton nursing home. When she arrived, elderly
patients were sprawled across the floor, and TVs had tumbled from their
stands. She and staff members rushed to help the residents to their
feet.
"Everyone was in shock, looking stunned," she said.
Miraculously, she found her mother safe in her room, bustling around —
and proudly pointing out the vase of flowers she'd managed to grab
before it crashed to the floor.
The quake unleashed huge boulders from surrounding hills, sending them
hurtling toward the village. One monstrous rock, around 16 feet (5
meters) wide and 10 feet (3 meters) tall, bounced twice as it crossed a
main road, gouging deep holes in the pavement, then rocketed into the
front yard of a one-story white brick home. The boulder smashed into
the front door and exited out the back — taking out everything in
between.
Despite the devastation, few here said they would consider leaving.
They would shake it off, clean up and move on with their lives.
On Thursday, Jean Smith stood in her shattered living room staring out
at the turquoise harbor, a sea-filled crater from an ancient volcanic
eruption that serves as the main deep-water port for the Christchurch
region.
"We're going to rebuild, but it's going to take a long time," she said.
"A long, long time."
Outside, another aftershock rattled the earth. Inside, Tom and Jean
continued to pick up the pieces.
Quake
in New Zealand kills at least 65
Washington Times
By Joe Morgan, Associated Press
5:37 a.m., Tuesday, February 22, 2011
CHRISTCHURCH, New Zealand (AP) — A powerful earthquake struck
one of New Zealand's biggest cities Tuesday at the height of a busy
workday, toppling tall buildings and churches, crushing buses and
killing at least 65 people in one of the country's worst natural
disasters.
It was the second major quake to hit Christchurch, a city of 350,000,
in five months, though Tuesday's 6.3-magnitude temblor caused far more
destruction than a stronger September quake that struck before dawn on
a weekend. More than 100 people, including as many as a dozen visiting
Japanese students, were thought to be trapped in the rubble as darkness
— and drizzling rain — fell Tuesday night.
"It is just a scene of utter devastation," Prime Minister John Key said
after rushing to the city within hours of the quake. He said the death
toll was 65, and may rise. "We may well be witnessing New Zealand's
darkest day."
The spire of the city's well-known stone cathedral toppled into a
central square, while multistory buildings collapsed in on themselves
and streets were strewn with bricks and shattered concrete.
Sidewalks and roads were cracked and split, while thousands of dazed,
screaming and crying residents wandered through the streets as sirens
and car alarms blared. Ambulance services were quickly overwhelmed, and
groups of people helped victims clutching bleedings wounds, and others
were carried to private vehicles in makeshift stretchers fashioned from
rugs or bits of debris.
Nathanael Boehm, a web designer, said he was standing near a tram track
when the quake struck just before 1 p.m., sending the eaves of
buildings cascading onto the street below.
"It was horrific. People were covered in rubble, covered in several
tons of concrete," Boehm said, adding that he believed some of them had
been crushed to death.
Christchurch Mayor Bob Parker declared a state of emergency and ordered
people to evacuate the city center. He said it was impossible to say
how many people were trapped in the rubble, but that it was estimated
to be more than 100.
"The government is willing to throw everything it can in the rescue
effort," Deputy Prime Minister Bill English said. "Time is going to be
of essence."
Troops were deployed to help people get out and to throw up a security
cordon around the stricken area, and residents throughout the city were
urged to stay home or with neighbors and conserve water and food.
The airport was closed, and Christchurch Hospital was briefly evacuated
before reopening. Power and telephone lines were knocked out, and pipes
burst, flooding the streets with water. Some cars parked on the street
were buried under rubble.
Police said reports of fatalities included people in two buses that had
been crushed by falling buildings.
During hours of chaos in the city, people dug through rubble with their
hands to free people trapped. Firefighters climbed extension ladders to
pluck people stranded on roofs to safety. A crane lifted a team of
rescuers on a platform to one group of survivors in a high-rise. Plumes
of gray smoke drifted into the air at several points around the city
from fires burning in the rubble.
Parker said rescue teams including sniffer dogs were fanning out across
the city and would work through the night.
Officials had established relief centers in schools and community
halls, where food was being served to thousands of sheltering people
and donated blankets were being handed out. In at least one park in the
city, people — many of them tourists who had abandoned their hotels —
huddled in hastily pitched tents and under plastic sheeting. The Red
Cross was working to secure accommodation for them.
Key, who held an emergency Cabinet meeting then rushed to the stricken
city to observe the scene, said eight or nine buildings had collapsed,
and others were badly damaged.
Some of those stuck were thought to be visiting Japanese students who
called their parents back home to say they were in a collapsed
building, a Japanese official said. Nine students and two teachers from
the Toyama College of Foreign Languages had been rescued, but another
12 students were unaccounted for and could still be trapped, said the
official from Toyama Prefecture, who declined to provide his name
because he was not authorized to give public statements.
Others were also able to call out using their mobile phones, reaching
family, officials, and media.
"I rang my kids to say goodbye," said Ann Voss, interviewed by TV3 from
underneath her desk where she was trapped in a collapsed office
building. "It was absolutely horrible. My daughter was crying and I was
crying because I honestly thought that was it. You know, you want to
tell them you love them don't you?"
She said she could hear other people still alive in the building, and
had called out to them and communicated by knocking on rubble.
"I'm not going to give up," she said. "I'm going to stay awake now.
They better come and get me."
Gary Moore said he and 19 other colleagues were trapped in their
twelfth floor office after the stairwell collapsed in the quake.
"We watched the cathedral collapse out our window while we were holding
onto the walls," Moore said. "Every aftershock sends us rushing under
the desks. It's very unnerving but we can clearly see there are other
priorities out the window. There has been a lot of damage and I guess
people are attending to that before they come and get us."
The multistory Pyne Gould Guinness Building, housing more than 200
workers, collapsed and an unknown number of people were trapped inside.
Television pictures showed rescuers, many of them office workers,
dragging severely injured people from the rubble. Many had blood
streaming down their faces. Screams could be heard from those still
trapped.
The U.S. Geological Survey said the temblor was centered 3 miles (5
kilometers) from the city at a depth of 2.5 miles (4 kilometers). Two
large aftershocks — one magnitude 5.6 and another 5.5 — hit the city
within two hours. It was felt across a large part of the South Island,
and caused damage in nearby towns. The extent of damage elsewhere
wasn't immediately clear.
"When the shaking had stopped I looked out of the window, which gives a
great view onto Christchurch, and there was just dust," said city
councilman Barry Corbett, who was on one of the top floors of the city
council building when the quake struck. "It was evident straight away
that a lot of buildings had gone."
The USGS said the latest quake was part of the "aftershock sequence"
following the 7.1 magnitude earthquake on Sept. 4 last year. That quake
wrecked hundreds of buildings, inflicted an estimated 4 billion New
Zealand dollars ($3 billion) in damage, but caused no deaths.
A strong aftershock in December caused further damage to buildings. The
city, considered a tourist center, was still rebuilding from those
quakes when Tuesday's temblor hit.
The USGS said the latest quake hit "significantly closer to the main
population center of Christchurch" than the September quake, which was
centered 25 miles (40 kilometers) west of city.
"The critical issue with this earthquake was that the epicenter was at
shallow depth under Christchurch, so many people were within 10 to 20
kilometers (6 to 12 miles) of the fault rupture," said Gary Gibson, a
seismologist at Australia's Melbourne University.
New Zealand's worst earthquake was one that struck in 1931 at Hawke's
Bay on the country's North Island, which killed at least 256 people.
New Zealand at
the edge of "Ring of Fire"
21 February 2011 Last updated at 22:05 ET
'Deaths' after quake hits Christchurch in New Zealand
Brendan
Burns, MP for Christchurch Central: "The situation is pretty desperate"
I-BBC
Multiple fatalities have been reported after a powerful 6.3-magnitude
earthquake struck Christchurch on New Zealand's South Island, police
say. The tremor, which hit at 1251 (2351 GMT on Monday) only 10km
(6.2 miles) south-east of the city at a depth of 5km (3.1 miles),
caused widespread destruction. The fire service said numerous
people were trapped in buildings, while the mayor said there was "great
confusion".
The damage is said to be far worse than after September's 7.1-magnitude
quake.
Two people were seriously injured by the tremor, whose epicentre was
further away and deeper. It caused an estimated $3bn in damage.
There have been several aftershocks since last September's quake, with
a 4.9 magnitude tremor hitting just after Christmas.
'Very black day'
TV pictures of the aftermath of Tuesday's earthquake showed several
collapsed buildings in the centre of Christchurch. People could
be seen wandering the rubble-filled streets in distress. Local
police said there were reports of multiple fatalities, including that
two buses had been crushed by falling buildings. There were also
reports of fires and of numerous people being trapped in collapsed
buildings, they added. Witnesses said up to 150 people alone were
feared trapped inside the Pyne Gould Guinness building.
Local television showed bodies being pulled out of rubble strewn around
the city centre. It was not known if they were alive.
Christchurch Cathedral, an iconic stone building in the centre of the
city, was partly destroyed, its spire toppling into the square below.
"I was in the square right outside the cathedral - the whole front has
fallen down and there were people running from there - there were
people inside as well," John Gurr, a camera technician, told the
Reuters news agency. "Colombo Street, the main street, is just a mess."
Radio New Zealand reported that its staff had to cling to their desks
during the tremor, and that a church near its offices had
collapsed. Concrete in Victoria Square had risen at least a metre
in some places and there are signs of liquefaction around the Avon
river, RNZ added. Power and telephone lines were knocked out, and
pipes burst, flooding the streets with water.
There is also a shortage of ambulances, so private vehicles are being
used to ferry the injured to triage centres. Initial reports said the
main hospital had been evacuated, but this was later denied by the
police.
Christchurch Mayor Bob Parker said he was on the top floor of the city
council building when the quake hit, throwing him across the room.
"I got down onto the street and there were scenes of great confusion, a
lot of very upset people," he said. "What I can see from where I am in
the central city is that there are significant amounts of additional
damage."
"Make no mistake - this is going to be a very black day for this shaken
city," he added.
Christopher Stent said Christchurch's roads were gridlocked with people
trying to flee the city as the authorities have instructed.
"The whole house shook... it looks a bit like a bombsite," he told the
BBC. "My whole body felt like it was out of control."
Prime Minister John Key told parliament that the reports from
Christchurch had spoken of "significant damage".
"The worrying fear, of course, is that this earthquake has taken place
at a time when people were going about their business - it is a very
populated time, with people at work, children at school. Sadly, I
cannot rule out that there have been fatalities."
The military was later called in by the government to assist the rescue
effort. National Civil Defence Controller David Coetzee said
"significant" aftershocks should now be expected. New Zealand
lies at the southern end of the so-called Pacific Ring of Fire, and
above an area of the Earth's crust where the Pacific Plate converges
with the Indo-Australian Plate. The country experiences more than
14,000 earthquakes a year, of which only around 20 have a magnitude in
excess of 5.0.
The last fatal earthquake was in 1968, when a 7.1-magnitude tremor
killed three people on the South Island's western coast.
Strong
quake hits New Zealand, causing injuries
YAHOO
By STEVE McMORRAN, Associated Press
21 Feb. 2011
WELLINGTON, New Zealand – A powerful earthquake hit the New Zealand
city of Christchurch on Tuesday, collapsing buildings, burying vehicles
under debris and sending rescuers scrambling to help trapped people
amid reports of multiple deaths.
Police said they were trying to confirm the early reports of multiple
fatalities from the 6.3-magnitude quake, the second major temblor to
strike the city since last September, while Prime Minister John Key
told Parliament details still were too shaky to confirm deaths.
Witnesses said the quake destroyed the iconic stone Christchurch
Cathedral, its spire toppled into a central city square, and there were
reports of two buses crushed under falling buildings.
Live video footage showed parts of buildings collapsed into the
streets, strewn with bricks and hattered concrete. Sidewalks and roads
were cracked and split, and thousands of dazed, screaming and crying
residents wandered through the streets as sirens blared.
Christchurch Mayor Bob Parker declared a state of emergency and ordered
people to evacuate the city center.
"Make no mistake — this is going to be a very black day for this shaken
city," he said when asked about possible deaths.
The airport was closed and Christchurch Hospital was evacuated. Power
and telephone lines were knocked out, and pipes burst, flooding the
streets with water. Some cars apparently parked on the street were
buried under rubble.
Some people were stuck in office towers and firefighters climbed
ladders to pluck people trapped on roofs to safety.
"The details we have are extremely sketchy," the prime minister told
Parliament. "The worrying fear, of course, is that this earthquake has
taken place at a time when people were going about their business — it
is a very populated time, with people at work, children at school.
Sadly, I cannot rule out that there have been fatalities.
"But we are aware of significant damage to buildings that had people in
them at the time," he said.
Key said people were being told to get out of the city for their safety.
Other officials said there were unconfirmed reports of deaths from the
earthquake.
New Zealand police said in a statement that there were reports of
multiple fatalities in the city, including a report that two buses had
been crushed by falling buildings. The police statement said there were
other reports of fires burning in the city and people being trapped in
buildings.
Gary Moore said he and 19 other colleagues were trapped in their
twelfth floor office after the stairwell collapsed in the quake. He did
not know if people on other floors were trapped.
"We watched the cathedral collapse out our window while we were holding
onto the walls," Moore said. "Every aftershock sends us rushing under
the desks. It's very unnerving but we can clearly see there are other
priorities out the window. There has been a lot of damage and I guess
people are attending to that before they come and get us."
The Pyne Gould Guinness Building, a multistory building containing more
than 200 workers, has collapsed and an unknown number of people are
trapped inside. Television pictures showed rescuers, many of them
office workers, dragging severely injured people from the rubble. Many
had blood streaming down their faces. Screams could be heard from those
still trapped.
Parker, the mayor, said he was on the top floor of the city council
building when the quake hit just before 1 p.m. local time, throwing him
across the room.
"I got down onto the street and there were scenes of great confusion, a
lot of very upset people," he said. "I know of people in our building
who are injured and I've had some reports of serious injuries
throughout the city."
The U.S. Geological Survey said the temblor was centered 3 miles (5
kilometers) from the city at a depth of 2.5 miles (4 kilometers). A
5.6-magnitude aftershock hit shortly after 7 miles (11 kilometers) east
of the city at a depth of 3.7 miles (6 kilometers).
"When the shaking had stopped I looked out of the window, which gives a
great view onto Christchurch, and there was just dust," said city
councilman Barry Corbett, who was on one of the top floors of the city
council building when the quake struck. "It was evident straight away
that a lot of buildings had gone."
Christchurch has been hit by hundreds of aftershocks since a 7.1
magnitude earthquake struck Sept. 4 last year, causing extensive damage
and a handful of injuries, but no deaths.
The city is home to about 350,000 people and is considered a tourist
center and gateway to the South Island.
New Zealand sits on the Pacific "ring of fire" — an arc of earthquake
and volcanic zones stretching from Chile in South America through
Alaska and down through the South Pacific. It records more than 14,000
earthquakes a year — but only about 150 are felt by residents, and
fewer than 10 a year do any damage.
The Sept. 4 quake wrecked hundreds of buildings in the city, and caused
an estimated 4 billion New Zealand dollars ($3 billion) in damage. A
strong aftershock in December caused further damage to buildings.
The city was still rebuilding from those quakes when Tuesday's temblor
hit.
Powerful 7.1 quake hits New Zealand's
South Island
YAHOO
By RAY LILLEY, Associated Press Writer
WELLINGTON, New Zealand – A powerful 7.1-magnitude earthquake struck
much of New Zealand's South Island early Saturday and caused widespread
damage, but there were just two reports of serious injuries. Looters
broke into some damaged shops in Christchurch, police said. The
quake, which hit 19 miles (30 kilometers) west of the southern city of
Christchurch according to the state geological agency GNS Science,
shook a wide area, with some residents saying buildings had collapsed
and power was severed. No tsunami alert was issued.
GNS Science initially reported the quake as magnitude 7.4, but later
downgraded it after re-examining quake records. The U.S. Geological
Survey, in America, measured the quake at 7.0. Christchurch Mayor
Bob Parker declared a state of emergency four hours after the quake
rocked the region, warning people that continuing aftershocks could
cause masonry to fall from damaged buildings. The emergency meant
parts of the city would be closed off and some buildings closed as
unsafe, he said.
Minister of Civil Defense John Carter said a state of civil emergency
was declared as the quake was "a significant disaster," and army troops
were on standby to assist.
Parker said the "sharp, vicious earthquake has caused significant
damage in parts of the city ... with walls collapsed that have fallen
into the streets."
Chimneys and walls had fallen from older buildings, with roads blocked,
traffic lights out and power, gas and water supplies disrupted, he said.
"The fronts of at least five buildings in the central city have
collapsed and rubble is strewn across many roads," Christchurch
resident Angela Morgan told The Associated Press.
"Roads have subsided where water mains have broken and a lot of people
evacuated in panic from seaside areas for fear of a tsunami," she said,
adding that "there is quite significant damage, really, with reports
that some people were trapped in damaged houses."
Christchurch fire service spokesman Mike Bowden said a number of people
had been trapped in buildings by fallen chimneys and blocked entrances,
but there were no reports of people pinned under rubble. Rescue teams
were out checking premises. Christchurch Hospital said it had
treated two men with serious injuries and a number of people with minor
injuries. One man was hit by a falling chimney and was in serious
condition in intensive care, while a second was badly cut by glass,
hospital spokeswoman Michele Hider said.
Christchurch police reported road damage in parts of the city of
400,000 people, with a series of sharp aftershocks rocking the area.
Police officers cordoned off some streets where rubble was strewn
about. Video showed parked cars crushed by heaps of fallen bricks, and
buckled roads.
"There is considerable damage in the central city and we've also had
reports of looting, just shop windows broken and easy picking of
displays," Police Inspector Mike Coleman told New Zealand's National
Radio.
Police Inspector Alf Stewart told the radio that some people had been
arrested for looting.
"We have some reports of people smashing (storefront) windows and
trying to grab some property that is not theirs ... we've got police on
the streets and we're dealing with that," he said.
Suburban dweller Mark O'Connell said his house was full of smashed
glass, food tossed from shelves, with sets of drawers, TVs and
computers tipped over.
"She was a beauty, we were thrown from wall to wall as we tried to
escape down the stairs to get to safety," he told the AP. "It was pitch
black (with the power cut) and we walked through smashed glass
everywhere on the floor."
The quake hit at 4:35 a.m. (1635 GMT) shaking thousands of residents
awake, New Zealand's National Radio reported. Some 12 aftershocks have
rocked the region since, ranging from 5.3 to 3.9 in magnitude, GNS
Science reported on its web site. Prime Minister John Key, Carter
and Energy Minister Gerry Brownlee were to fly to Christchurch to
inspect damage and review the situation, officials said.
Civil defense agency spokesman David Millar said at least six bridges
in the region had been badly damaged, while the historic Empire hotel
in the port town of Lyttelton was "very unstable" and in danger of
collapse. Roads, shops and other buildings in rural towns around
Christchurch had also suffered damage, with some shop fronts knocked
down in the jolt.
Inspector Coleman said residents of the city's low-lying eastern
suburbs had been advised to be ready to evacuate their properties,
after power, gas, sewerage and water systems were cut by the
quake. Resident Colleen Simpson said panicked residents ran into
the street in their pajamas. Some buildings had collapsed, there was no
power, and the mobile telephone network had failed.
"Oh my God. There is a row of shops completely demolished right in
front of me," Simpson told the Stuff news Web site.
Kiwirail rail transport group spokesman Kevin Ramshaw said 13 mostly
freight trains had been halted on South Island lines, with some damage
already confirmed to rail lines north of Christchurch.
Christchurch International Airport was closed after the quake as a
precaution, as experts checked runways and terminal buildings, a
spokesman said. The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center said "no
destructive widespread tsunami threat existed, based on historical
earthquake and tsunami data."
New Zealand sits above an area of the Earth's crust where two tectonic
plates collide. The country records more than 14,000 earthquakes a year
— but only about 150 are felt by residents. Fewer than 10 a year do any
damage. New Zealand's last major earthquake was a magnitude 7.8
in South Island's Fiordland region on July 16, 2009 — a tremblor which
moved the southern tip of the country 12 inches (30 centimeters) closer
to Australia, seismologist Ken Gledhill said at the time.
Gledhill, director of GNS Science's "GeoNet" national earthquake
monitoring project, said the island's geographic shift showed the
immensity of the forces involved.
Strong
earthquake rocks New Zealand's
South Island
I-BBC,
3 September 2010 Last updated at 13:12 ET
A 7.2-magnitude earthquake has struck off New Zealand's South Island,
the US Geological Survey has said. The epicentre was 30km (20
miles) north-west of Christchurch, at a depth of 16.1 km (10 miles), it
added.
There have so far been no reports of any damage or casualties.
Christchurch is New Zealand's third largest city with a population of
about 342,000. The Pacific Tsunami Warning centre has reportedly
said that "no destructive widespread tsunami threat" exists. The
Christchurch-based newspaper, The Press, said aftershocks were ongoing
and that the electricity supply appeared to have been knocked out
across much of the city.
The earthquake struck at 0435 on Saturday (1635 GMT on Friday), when
most people would have been asleep.
Minor earthquake rattles
the
D.C. area
Washington Times
By Karen Mahabir ASSOCIATED PRESS
8:03 a.m., Friday, July 16, 2010
WASHINGTON (AP) — A minor earthquake shook
residents awake in the DC area early Friday. The quake hit at
5:04
a.m. EDT and had a magnitude of 3.6. The quake was centered in
the
Rockville, Md., area said Randy Baldwin,
a physicist with U.S. Geological Survey's National Earthquake
Information Center. Police in Washington and in nearby Montgomery
County, Md., said there
were no immediate reports of injuries or damage.
On the U.S. Geological Survey's website, people as far away as
Pennsylvania and West Virginia reported feeling the quake.
Lucille Baur, public information officer for the Montgomery County
Police Department, said the department received a lot of calls from
people wondering what had happened.
Debby Taylor Busse said she was in the basement of her home in Vienna,
Va., in Fairfax County when she felt the quake hit. She was already
awake watching television, but her husband had been asleep in a
second-floor bedroom when the tremor woke him.
"I didn't know what it was," Busse said. "I have never been in an
earthquake before. It felt like an airplane going overhead or thunder,
but it wasn't coming from above."
She said it lasted just a few seconds and compared it to a strong
thunder strike — enough to rattle the house, but not enough to knock
anything over. Brett Snyder, who lives in Gaithersburg, Md., told
AP Radio he was
awakened by the quake but said it wasn't a big deal.
"It happened very instantaneously and then off to a day's work," Snyder
said.
In the neighborhood of G-20
(Toronto)...
Rare earthquake shakes Ottawa, Montreal
YAHOO
23 June 2010
OTTAWA (AFP) – A strong earthquake shook Ottawa and Montreal in eastern
Canada on Wednesday, forcing office workers out onto downtown streets
in the nation's capital.
The US Geological Survey reported the temblor of a magnitude of 5.5 hit
the Ontario-Quebec border area at 1741 GMT, rattling downtown Ottawa
shortly after midday.
The USGS said the epicenter was 61 kilometers (38 miles) north of
Ottawa.
AFP journalists witnessed walls in downtown office buildings shaking
for several seconds. Cracks appeared in the Parliamentary Press Gallery
building in Ottawa, and outside some people appeared shaken up, but
unhurt.
Most downtown Ottawa buildings appeared to have been evacuated as
alarms rang out.
James Bowden, a former resident of Alaska who experienced several
earthquakes in the US state, was standing in line at a fast-food
restaurant on Ottawa's Sparks Street when he said he "heard the
earthquake coming a few seconds before it hit."
"It sounded like a freight train barreling towards us," he said.
An avid reader of earthquake sciences, Bowden said Ottawa experiences
earthquakes every four or five years. "This one was fairly big," he
said.
Several dozen much weaker earthquakes, linked to the Logan faultline
along the Saint Lawrence seaway, strike in Quebec province each year.
The last major quake, of a magnitude 6.0, struck in 1988 in the
Saguenay region, about 500 kilometers north of Montreal.
5.7 quake rattles
California-Mexico
border
Washington Times
By Elliot Spaga,t ASSOCIATED PRESS
8:48 a.m., Tuesday, June 15, 2010
SAN DIEGO (AP) — The U.S.-Mexico border in California was rocked by a
magnitude-5.7 earthquake Monday night, rattling nerves in a region
still recovering from the deadly Easter jolt.
The U.S. Geological Survey said the quake was centered five miles
southeast of Ocotillo in Imperial County — about 85 miles east of San
Diego. It struck Monday at 9:26 p.m. PDT.
The quake was an aftershock of the deadly Easter Sunday magnitude-7.2
quake that shook Baja California and Southern California, said Egill
Hauksson, a seismologist at the California Institute of Technology in
Pasadena. He said the epicenter of Monday's quake occurred in the same
zone of the quake in April.
"Aftershocks can go on for months and years," he said.
Thousands of aftershocks have occurred since the Easter earthquake.
More than 100 aftershocks were recorded immediately following Monday's
5.7 quake, with the largest measuring at magnitude-4.5.
A 5.7-magnitude earthquake "could break windows, it could throw things
on the floor, it could create cracks on the wall, but we don't expect
things to collapse," Mr. Hauksson said.
San Diego County Office of Emergency Services had no reports of
significant damage. Louis Fuentes, chairman of the Imperial County
board of supervisors, also said he had no immediate reports of damage.
"As soon as it hit, my wife said, 'Grab the baby.' My daughter ran out
to the back yard," said Mr. Fuentes, who was in his garage in Calexico,
about 30 miles east of the epicenter. "It thumped really hard."
Mr. Fuentes said his chandeliers swayed at his home and metal objects
banged but nothing fell off the shelves. Imperial County suffered
significant damage in April's Easter Sunday quake.
"All the lamps, the liquor bottles and the TV hanging from the ceiling
shook, but nothing dropped," said Marina Garcia, an employee at the
Burgers and Beer restaurant in El Centro, about 30 miles east of
Ocotillo.
The quake was felt as a gentle rolling motion in the Los Angeles area.
San Diego's Petco Park swayed during the quake, causing a momentary
pause at the Toronto Blue Jays-San Diego Padres game. The public
address announcer asked that everyone remain calm. The crowd cheered.
David Eckstein of the Padres had just grounded out in the bottom of the
inning when the stadium began shaking. The next batter, Chase Headley,
stayed out of the batter's box for a few seconds, then stepped in.
San Diego County sheriff's dispatch supervisor Becky Strahm said some
of her colleagues reported things falling off their shelves, but there
were no immediate reports of significant damage or injury.
The quake followed a series of temblors that struck Southern California
over the weekend, including a pair of moderate earthquakes that rattled
a desert area east of San Diego. Residents in downtown San Diego felt
the ground rumbling during at least one of the Saturday quakes.
Associated Press Sports Writer Bernie Wilson in San Diego and
Associated Press writers Alicia Chang, Daisy Nguyen and Denise Petski
in Los Angeles contributed to this report.
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Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published,
broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission. Click here
for reprint permission.
Quake in western China kills 400, buries
more
YAHOO
By GILLIAN WONG, Associated Press Writer
14 April 2010
BEIJING – A series of strong earthquakes struck a mountainous Tibetan
area of western China on Wednesday, killing at least 400 people and
injuring more than 10,000 as houses made of mud and wood collapsed,
officials said. Many more people were trapped and the toll was expected
to rise.
The largest quake was recorded by the U.S. Geological Survey as
magnitude 6.9. In the aftermath, panicked people, many bleeding from
their wounds, flooded the streets of a Qinghai province township where
most of the homes had been flattened. Students were reportedly buried
inside several damaged schools.
Paramilitary police used shovels to dig through the rubble in the town,
footage on state television showed. Officials said excavators were not
available and with most of the roads leading to the nearest airport
damaged, equipment and rescuers would have a hard time reaching the
area. Hospitals were overwhelmed, many lacking even the most basic
supplies, and doctors were in short supply.
Downed phone lines, strong winds and frequent aftershocks also hindered
rescue efforts, said Wu Yong, commander of the local army garrison, who
said the death toll "may rise further as lots of houses collapsed."
With many people forced outside, the provincial government said it was
rushing 5,000 tents and 100,000 coats and blankets to the mountainous
region, at around 13,000 feet (4,000 meters) -high and where night time
temperatures plunge below freezing.
Workers were racing to release water from a reservoir in the disaster
area where a crack had formed after the quake to prevent a flood,
according to the China Earthquake Administration...full story here.
Strong
quake
kills 2 in Mexico, rattles US states
YAHOO
By MARIANA MARTINEZ and CHRISTOPHER WEBER, Associated Press Writers
April 5, 2010
TIJUANA, Mexico – A powerful earthquake swayed buildings from Los
Angeles to Tijuana, killing two people in Mexico, blacking out cities
and forcing the evacuation of hospitals and nursing homes. One
California city closed off its downtown due to unstable
buildings. The
7.2-magnitude quake centered
just south of the U.S. border near
Mexicali was one of the strongest earthquakes to hit region in decades.
"It sounds like it's felt by at least 20 million people," USGS
seismologist Lucy Jones said. "Most of Southern California felt this
earthquake."
Sunday afternoon's earthquake hit hardest in Mexicali, a bustling
commerce center along Mexico's border with California, where
authorities said the quake was followed by many smaller aftershocks,
including five with magnitudes between 5.0 and 5.4. The initial quake
had a shallow depth of 6 miles (10 kilometers).
"It has not stopped trembling in Mexicali," said Baja California state
Civil Protection Director Alfredo Escobedo...see story below from
earlier.
See above for
story the next morning...
Magnitude 6.9
quake strikes Baja California
YAHOO
By CHRISTOPHER WEBER, Associated Press Writer
4 April 2010
LOS ANGELES – A strong earthquake south of the U.S.-Mexico border
Sunday swayed high-rises in downtown Los Angeles and San Diego and was
felt across Southern California and Arizona, but there were no
immediate reports of major damage. The 6.9 magnitude quake struck
at
3:40 p.m. in Baja California, Mexico, about 19 miles southeast of
Mexicali, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. The area was hit by
magnitude-3.0 quakes all week.
The quake was felt as far north as Santa Barbara, USGS seismologist
Susan Potter said.
Strong shaking was reported in the Coachella Valley and Riverside,
Calif. The earthquake rattled buildings on the west side of Los Angeles
and in the San Fernando Valley, interrupting Easter dinners.
Chandeliers swayed and wine jiggled in glasses. In Los Angeles,
the
city fire department went on "earthquake status," and some stalled
elevators were reported. No damage was reported in Los Angeles or San
Diego.
One woman called firefighters and said she was stuck in an elevator
descending from the 34th floor in a building in Century City, but there
was no way to immediately know if the breakdown was tied the quake, Los
Angeles firefighter Eric Scott said. The Los Angeles Department
of
Water and Power says there are no power outages anywhere in the city,
spokeswoman Maryanne Pierson said.
The quake was felt for about 40 seconds in Tijuana, Mexico, causing
buildings to sway and knocking out power in parts of the city. Families
celebrating Easter ran out of the homes, with children screaming and
crying. Baja California state Civil Protection Director Alfredo
Escobedo said there were no immediate reports of injuries or major
damage. But he said the assessment was ongoing. In the Phoenix
area,
Jacqueline Land said her king-sized bed in her second-floor apartment
felt like a boat gently swaying on the ocean.
"I thought to myself, 'That can't be an earthquake. I'm in Arizona,'"
the Northern California native said. "And I thought, 'Oh my God, I feel
like I'm 9 years old.'"
A police dispatcher in Yuma, Ariz., said the quake was very strong
there, but no damage was reported. The Yuma County Sheriff's Office had
gotten a few calls, mostly from alarm companies because of alarms going
off. Mike Wong, who works at a journalism school in downtown
Phoenix,
said he was in his second-floor office getting some work done Sunday
afternoon when he heard sounds and felt the building start to sway.
"I heard some cracking sounds, like Rice Krispies," coming from the
building, he said. "I didn't think much of it, but I kept hearing it,
and then I started feeling a shake. I thought, 'You know what? I think
that might be an earthquake."
Wong said the swaying lasted for "just a few seconds," and he didn't
notice any damage. An earthquake also hit in Northern California
Sunday afternoon. The U.S. Geological Survey says a quake with a
preliminary magnitude of 4.0 was recorded at 3:49 p.m. about 25 miles
north of Santa Rosa.
A dispatcher with the Sonoma County Sheriff's Department said the
agency had not received any calls for service after the quake.
6.9 magnitude quake hits
southeastern Russia: USGS
YAHOO
27 December 2011
(Reuters) - An earthquake of 6.9 magnitude hit southeastern Russia near
the border with Mongolia on Tuesday, the U.S. Geological Survey said.
The epicenter of the quake was 28 miles deep and was about 57 miles
northeast of Kyzyl, Russia, USGS said.
Page last updated at 12:29 GMT, Monday, 8 March 2010
Strong earthquake hits eastern
Turkey
The injured were ferried to hospital with the help of relatives
A strong earthquake has struck eastern Turkey, killing at least 57
people, officials have said.
The 6.0-magnitude quake, centred on the village of Basyurt in Elazig
province, struck at 0432 (0232 GMT). It has been followed by more than
40 aftershocks.
Officials said the nearby village of Okcular had been almost destroyed
and several others badly damaged.
A number of people were trapped in the rubble of collapsed buildings,
many of which were built of mud-bricks.
"Villages consisting mainly of mud-brick houses have been damaged, but
we have minimal damage such as cracks in buildings made of cement or
stone," Elazig Governor Muammer Erol told CNN Turk.
At least 17 of the dead came from the hillside village of Okcular,
where up to 30 houses collapsed, rescuers said.
"The village is totally flattened," Okcular's administrator, Hasan
Demirdag, told NTV.
Television footage from Okcular showed rescue workers and soldiers
digging among the rubble of collapsed buildings as villagers looked on.
Ali Riza Ferhat, a resident, said he had been asleep in his home when
the earthquake struck.
"I tried to get out of the door but it wouldn't open. I came out of the
window and started helping my neighbours," he told NTV. "We removed six
bodies."
The nearby villages of Yukari Kanatli, Kayalik, Gocmezler and Yukari
Demirci were also badly damaged and each reported several deaths.
Map showing Turkey quake location
"Everything has been knocked down - there is not a stone in place,"
Yadin Apaydin, the administrator for Yukari Kanatli, told CNN Turk.
At least 50 people have been taken to hospital, officials say. Some
were reportedly hurt during the panic after the first earthquake, when
they jumped from windows or balconies.
Residents of the affected villages have been warned not to return to
damaged homes while the area continues to be hit by aftershocks, the
strongest of which have so far measured 5.1 and 5.5.
The government disaster management centre and Turkish Red Crescent have
set up tents to help survivors cope with the harsh winter weather, and
are also distributing food and blankets.
Deputy Prime Minister Cemil Cicek and three other ministers have
travelled to the earthquake zone to provide assistance.
Elderly woman stands next to her collapsed home (8 March 2010)
In Ankara, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan lamented the lack of
earthquake-safe buildings and said he had ordered the start of a
reconstruction project in the area.
"Mud-brick construction is undoubtedly a local tradition. But
unfortunately, it has proved to have a heavy price," he said.
A BBC News website reader who visited the village of Basyurt after the
earthquake said its residents blamed the government for the destruction
and loss of life.
"This is a seismic area. We've experienced so many earthquakes in the
last 20 years, yet no measures have been taken to strengthen the
buildings," Volkan Durkal said.
"Most houses are not made with cement, they are not well-built and the
people are not well-educated about what to do and where to take cover
during an earthquake."
Turkey is plagued by earthquakes - generally minor - because of its
location on the North Anatolian fault line.
A 7.4-magnitude tremor which hit the western city of Izmit in August
1999 killed more than 17,000 people.
The BBC's Jonathan Head in Istanbul says poor quality buildings were
also blamed for the high death toll then and there is still concern in
Turkey's largest city, where seismologists predict a major earthquake
will occur within the next few decades.
Earthquake shakes Chile, no injuries reported
YAHOO
Sun Jan 2, 2011 9:58 pm ET
SANTIAGO (AFP) – A strong earthquake shook coastal Chile, disrupting
power and communications services but caused no injuries or significant
damage, authorities said, as tsunami fears led residents to seek higher
ground.
The US Geological Survey said the 7.1 magnitude earthquake struck
Sunday at 2020 GMT 69 kilometers (45 miles) northwest of Temuco, Chile,
at a depth of 16 kilometers (10 miles).
Chile's National Emergency Office said the quake was "medium intensity"
and struck Biobio, Maule and O'Higgins, a region in south-central Chile
that was devastated by a 8.8 magnitude quake and tsunami in February
2010.
"Fortunately we have no accidents to lament, nor loss of life, nor
major damage," said President Sebastian Pinera.
"All the services functioned normally. There were some partial power
outages, there were some moments when telephone lines were saturated,
but all the systems functioned normally except for these bottlenecks."
The emergency response agency's director Vicente Nunez told reporters
that power outages and interruptions in telephone service were common
in these cases.
The earthquake set off panicky reactions, however, with people fleeing
to higher ground in Puerto Saavedra and Tirua out of fear of tsunamis,
according to Chilean television.
Television images showed shoppers scrambling to get out of supermarkets
and shopping centers when the quake hit.
But Pinera said people displayed calm in evacuating the coastal area
near the quake's epicenter.
"They reacted swiftly and in keeping with what is required in these
situations," he said.
The Chilean Navy's Hydrographic and Oceanographic Service discounted
the threat of a tsunami, saying the epicenter was on land and not at
sea.
An initial report by the USGS said the quake occurred offshore, but it
later revised its findings. US authorities also ruled out the threat of
a Pacific-wide tsunami.
"Based on all available data, a destructive Pacific-wide tsunami is not
expected," the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center said in a bulletin.
"However, earthquakes of this size sometimes generate local tsunamis
that can be destructive along coasts located within a hundred
kilometers (62 miles) of the earthquake epicenter," it said.
The National Emergency Office said Sunday's temblor was followed nearly
two hours later by a moderate aftershock.
The earthquake was also felt in Argentina's Patagonia region, near the
border with Chile, especially in San Martin de los Andes, where dozens
of people ran out of the customs building fearing it might collapse,
the Bariloche News Agency said.
No injuries or damage from the quake were reported in Argentina.
Chile lies on the Pacific rim of fire and is prone to violent
earthquakes. Last February's massive earthquake unleashed a tsunami
that swept away entire villages.
The disaster left around 520 people dead, and caused an estimated 30
billion dollars in damage.
There were differing opinions Sunday over whether the latest quake and
last year's disaster were related.
"This Sunday's quake was in keeping with the country's tectonic
behavior, and has no relation to the quake on Feburary 27," said Nunez
of the National Emergency Office.
But Sergio Barrientos, director of the Seismological Service at the
University of Chile, told Chilean television, "An 8.8 magnitude quake
will generate aftershocks for several years."
Biggest aftershock hits Chile on inauguration day
YAHOO
By MICHAEL WARREN, Associated Press Writer
March 11, 2010
SANTIAGO, Chile – The largest aftershock since Chile's devastating
earthquake rocked the South American country Thursday minutes before
the inauguration of President Sebastian Pinera.
The 7.2-magnitude aftershock was stronger than the Jan. 12 quake that
devastated the Haitian capital. It happened along the same fault zone
as Chile's magnitude-8.8 quake on Feb. 27, said geophysicist Don
Blakeman at the U.S. Geological Survey in Golden, Colorado.
"When we get quakes in the 8 range, we would expect to see maybe a
couple of aftershocks in the 7 range," he said.
Blakeman said Chile now can expect to feel "aftershocks of the
aftershock."
"It's not a sign of anything different happening. But what does occur
when you get these large aftershocks, typically we have a whole series
of aftershocks again," Blakeman said.
The temblor rocked buildings and shook windows in the capital, and
provoked nervous smiles among dignitaries arriving for the ceremony at
the congressional building in coastal Valparaiso. Bolivian President
Evo Morales seemed briefly disoriented and Peru's Alan Garcia joked
that it gave them "a moment to dance."
Buildings emptied and streets crowded with people seeking higher ground
in coastal Constitucion, a city wiped out by the tsunami that followed
the quake. Pinera planned to visit the city shortly after his
swearing-in.
THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further
information. AP's earlier story is below.
SANTIAGO, Chile (AP) — Two strongly felt earthquakes have rocked
central Chile as dignitaries arrive for the inauguration of
President-elect Sebastian Pinera.
The U.S. Geological Survey says the first quake had a preliminary
magnitude of 5.1 and the second registered at 7.2. Both rocked
buildings in the capital, shook windows and provoked nervous smiles
among dignitaries arriving for Thursday's ceremony at the congressional
building in coastal Valparaiso.
Bolivian President Evo Morales seemed briefly disoriented. Peru's Alan
Garcia joked that it gave them "a moment to dance."
Strong aftershocks hit quake-stunned
Chile
YAHOO
By MICHAEL WARREN and EVA VERGARIA, Associated Press Writer
March 5, 2010
CONCEPCION, Chile – The most powerful aftershock in six days sent
terrified Chileans fleeing into quake-shattered streets and forced
doctors to evacuate some patients from a major hospital on Friday as
the nation struggled to comprehend the scope of the disaster that hit
it.
People raced into the streets in pajamas as a magnitude-6.0 aftershock
struck Concepcion shortly before dawn. A magnitude-6.6 shock at
8:47 a.m. (6:47 a.m. EST; 1147 GMT) then rattled buildings for nearly a
minute. It was the strongest aftershock since a magnitude-6.9
jolt shortly after Saturday's historic quake and it sent office chairs
spilling from upper floor of an already-damaged 22-story building.
Fear of additional damage led officials to evacuate some patients from
the regional hospital in downtown Concepcion.
"They sent us all home," said 47-year-old Aaron Valenzuela, who hobbled
through the street because four toes had been amputated due to an
injury he suffered in Saturday's big quake.
Dr. Patricia Correa, who was overseeing the hospital's emergency ward,
said her part of the five-story building "is on the point of
collapsing. The walls cracked."
As a daily curfew meant to halt looting expired at noon, people flooded
into the streets of Concepcion and formed lines about 100 long behind
an intermittently functioning automatic teller machine, for a rare open
pharmacy and at a corner store. A sign at the shop announced it
was out of flour, water, candles, rice, cheese, eggs and diapers,
though jam, sugar, coffee and onions remained. President Michelle
Bachelet, meanwhile, met with her successor, Sebastian Pinera, and they
promised to try to avoid letting the March 11 hand-over of power
interrupt aid efforts.
"The new government will have an immense challenge," Bachelet said.
Officials were still struggling to determine the human toll of the
magnitude-8.8 quake, as well as the damage to roads, ports and
buildings such as hospitals. Disaster officials announced they
had double-counted at least 271 missing as dead in the hardest-hit part
of the country — an error that would drop the official death toll to
about 540 if there were no other mistakes.
But Interior Department officials said that from now on, they would
release only the number of dead who had been identified: 279 as of
Friday.
The government also said Friday it had removed Cmdr. Mariano Rojas as
head of the Navy's oceanographic service over its failure to issue a
tsunami warning for the Pacific immediately after Saturday's
quake. Port captains in several towns issued their own warnings,
but a national alert never came, and some say that failure led to
deaths. The tsunami is believed responsible for much of the deaths and
damage. Bachelet says it will take three years to rebuild the
region wracked by the earthquake and tsunami, and that task is all too
clear to the people trying to clean up the ruins of their towns.
In the tourist town of Dichato, a few kilometers (miles) north up the
coast from Concepcion, the quake and tsunami killed at least 19 people
and smashed neat wooden houses and small hotels into huge piles of
splinters. The town of 4,000 people stank Thursday of decomposing
fish and a fishing boat marooned far inland was full of rotting octopus.
Bachelet's government had made a difference in the town before the
quake, building 130 neat mustard-yellow duplexes in a public housing
project that opened in September and providing 60 million pesos —
$120,000 — to restore the facades of businesses along main street, said
Mabel Gomez, president of the local chamber of commerce. But as
they rooted through the ruins, Dichato's residents said they are
pinning their hopes for renewal on the next president, a conservative
billionaire.
"I think he has the ability to do it," said Luis Omar Cid Jara, 66,
whose bakery and roast chicken shop were destroyed.
Pinera, who takes office March 11, named new governors for the six
hardest-hit regions and told them to get to work even before his
inauguration. His immediate priorities: Find the missing; ensure law
and order; restore utilities; and tend to the injured. Pinera
also stepped up his criticism of Bachelet's administration on Thursday,
knocking "the lack of coordination and the weaknesses that this tragedy
has uncovered with brutal eloquence."
Critics said Bachelet initially was reluctant to summon the military to
stop looting and deliver aid, given the armed forces' brutal repression
of the Chilean left in the past, especially during the 1973-1990
dictatorship of Gen. Augusto Pinochet. Top military officers had
complained they couldn't deploy troops to quash looting or deliver aid
until Bachelet finally declared a state of emergency more than 24 hours
after the temblor.
The magnitude-8.8 quake — one of the strongest on record — and the
tsunami that followed ravaged a 700-kilometer (435-mile) stretch of
Chile's Pacific coast.
In the coastal town of Constitucion, firefighters were looking for
bodies of people swept away by the tsunami as they camped on Isla
Orrego, an island in the mouth of the Maure River that flows through
the city.
Constitucion suffered perhaps the greatest loss of life in the
disaster, in part because many people had come for carnival
celebrations and were caught in huge waves that reached the central
plaza.
"There were about 200 people in tents who disappeared" on Isla Orrego,
Fire Chief Miguel Reyes told The Associated Press. An AP Television
News crew witnessed several bodies being recovered, including that of a
baby girl washed up on the beach.
Underwater
Plate Cuts 400-Mile Gash
NYTIMES
By HENRY FOUNTAIN
February
27, 2010
The magnitude 8.8 earthquake that struck off the coast of Chile early
Saturday morning occurred along the same fault responsible for the
biggest quake ever measured, a 1960 tremor that killed nearly 2,000
people in Chile and hundreds more across the Pacific.
Both earthquakes took place along a fault zone where the Nazca tectonic
plate, the section of the earth’s crust that lies under the Eastern
Pacific Ocean south of the Equator, is sliding beneath another section,
the South American plate. The two are converging at a rate of about
three and a half inches a year.
Earthquake experts said the strains built up by that movement, plus the
stresses added along the fault zone by the 1960 quake, led to the
rupture on Saturday along what is estimated to be about 400 miles of
the zone, at a depth of about 22 miles under the sea floor. The quake
generated a tsunami, with small surges hitting the West Coast of the
United States and slightly larger ones in Hawaii and other parts of the
Pacific. A 7.7-foot surge was recorded in Talcahuano, Chile.
Jian Lin, a geophysicist with the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution,
said the quake occurred just north of the site of the 1960 earthquake,
with very little overlap. “Most of the rupture today picked up where
the 1960 rupture stopped,” said Mr. Lin, who has studied the 1960
event, which occurred along about 600 miles of the fault zone and was
measured at magnitude 9.5.
Like many other large earthquakes, the 1960 quake increased stresses on
adjacent parts of the fault zone, including the area where the quake
occurred Saturday. Although there had been smaller quakes in the area
in the ensuing 50 years, Mr. Lin said, none of them had been large
enough to relieve the strain, which kept building up as the two plates
converged. “This one should have released most of the stresses,” he
said.
Experts said the earthquake appeared to have no connection to a
magnitude 6.9 quake that struck off the southern coast of Japan late
Friday evening. Nor was the Chilean event linked to the magnitude 7.0
quake that occurred in Haiti on Jan. 12.
That quake, which is believed to have killed more than 200,000 people,
occurred along a strike-slip fault, in which most of the ground motion
is lateral. The Chilean earthquake occurred along a thrust fault, in
which most of the motion is vertical.
Mr. Lin said his calculations showed that the quake on Saturday was 250
to 350 times more powerful than the Haitian quake.
But Paul Caruso, a geophysicist with the United States Geological
Survey in Golden, Colo., noted that at least on land, the effects of
the Chilean tremor might not be as bad. “Even though this quake is
larger, it’s probably not going to reap the devastation that the
Haitian quake did,” he said.
For one thing, he said, the quality of building construction is
generally better in Chile than in Haiti. And the fact that the quake
occurred offshore should also help limit the destruction. In Haiti, the
rupture occurred only a few miles from the capital, Port-au-Prince. The
rupture on Saturday was centered about 60 miles from the nearest town,
Chillan, and 70 miles from the country’s second-largest city,
Concepción.
In many respects, Mr. Lin said, the Chilean quake is similar to the
9.0-magnitude Indonesian earthquake of Dec. 26, 2004. That quake, which
also occurred along a thrust fault, generated a tsunami that killed
more than 200,000 people around the Indian Ocean. And like the 1960
Chilean quake, the Indonesian quake increased stresses nearby: it was
followed, just three months later, by an 8.7-magnitude quake on an
adjacent portion of the fault zone.
When they occur underwater, thrust-fault earthquakes like the one in
Chile are far more likely to create tsunamis than quakes on strike-slip
faults, said David Schwartz, an earthquake geologist with the
geological survey in Menlo Park, Calif. “When they slip, the fault that
causes the earthquake breaks the surface, and pushes the water up,” he
said. “It pushes an awful lot of water. And that water has to go
somewhere.”
The waves the quake produces travel across the ocean at high speed.
Along the way, their height can be measured by buoys linked by
satellite. But the height of the waves when they make landfall, and
their potential for destruction, often depends on local topography and
the profile of the nearby sea floor. A shallow shelf, for example, can
amplify the waves.
The tsunami that was generated by the 1960 quake devastated Hilo,
Hawaii, killing 61 people. Hilo is particularly vulnerable to tsunamis
because its bay and narrow harbor funnel the water, increasing wave
heights, which in 1960 reached 35 feet. But the tsunami also struck as
far as Japan, hitting northern parts of the main island, Honshu, about
a day after the quake and killing 185 people and destroying more than
1,600 homes.
Huge quake hits Chile; tsunami
threatens
Pacific
YAHOO
By ROBERTO CANDIA and EVA VERGARA, Associated Press
Feb. 27, 2010
TALCA, Chile – A devastating earthquake struck Chile early
Saturday, toppling homes, collapsing bridges and plunging trucks into
the fractured earth. A tsunami set off by the magnitude-8.8 quake
threatened every nation around the Pacific Ocean — roughly a quarter of
the globe. President-elect Sebastian Pinera said more than 120
people died, but the death toll was rising quickly. In the town
of Talca, just 65 miles (105 kilometers) from the
epicenter, Associated Press journalist Roberto Candia said it felt as
if a giant had grabbed him and shaken him.
The town's historic center, filled with buildings of adobe mud and
straw, largely collapsed, though most of those were businesses that
were not inhabited during the 3:34 a.m. (1:34 a.m. EST, 0634 GMT)
quake. Neighbors pulled at least five people from the rubble while
emergency workers, themselves disoriented, asked for information from
reporters.
Many roads were destroyed, and electricity, water and phone lines were
cut to many areas — meaning there was no word of death or damage from
many outlying areas.
In the Chilean capital of Santiago, 200 miles (325 kilometers)
northeast of the epicenter, a car dangled from a collapsed overpass,
the national Fine Arts Museum was badly damaged and an apartment
building's two-story parking lot pancaked, smashing about 50 cars whose
alarms rang incessantly.
Experts warned that a tsunami could strike anywhere in the Pacific, and
Hawaii could face its largest waves since 1964 starting at 11:19 a.m.
(4:19 p.m. EST, 2119 GMT), according to Charles McCreery, director of
the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center. Tsunami waves were likely to
hit Asian, Australian and New Zealand
shores within 24 hours of the earthquake. The U.S. West Coast and
Alaska, too, were threatened.
Waves 6 feet (1.8 meter) above normal hit Talcahuano near Concepcion 23
minutes after the quake, and President Michelle Bachelet said a huge
wave swept into a populated area in the Robinson Crusoe Islands, 410
miles (660 kilometers) off the Chilean coast, but there were no
immediate reports of major damage.
Bachelet said she had no information on the number of people injured in
the quake. She declared a "state of catastrophe" in central Chile.
"We have had a huge earthquake, with some aftershocks," she said from
an emergency response center. She said Chile has not asked for
assistance from other countries, and urged Chileans not to panic.
"The system is functioning. People should remain calm. We're doing
everything we can with all the forces we have. Any information we will
share immediately," she said.
Powerful aftershocks rattled Chile's coast — 29 of them magnitude 5 or
greater and one reaching magnitude 6.9 — the U.S. Geological Survey
reported.
In Santiago, modern buildings are built to withstand earthquakes, but
many older ones were heavily damaged, including the Nuestra Senora de
la Providencia church, whose bell tower collapsed. A bridge just
outside the capital also collapsed, and at least one car flipped upside
down. Several hospitals were evacuated due to earthquake damage,
Bachelet said.
Santiago's airport will remain closed for at least 24 hours, airport
director Eduardo del Canto said. The passenger terminal suffered major
damage, he told Chilean television in a telephone interview. TV images
show smashed windows, partially collapsed ceilings and pedestrian
walkways destroyed. Santiago's subway was shut as well and
hundreds of buses were trapped
at a terminal by a damaged bridge, Transportation and
Telecommunications Minister told Chilean television. He urged Chileans
to make phone calls or travel only when absolutely necessary.
Candia was visiting his wife's 92-year-old grandmother in Talca when
the quake struck.
"Everything was falling — chests of drawers, everything," he said. "I
was sleeping with my 8-year-old son Diego and I managed to cover his
head with a pillow. It was like major turbulence on an airplane."
In Concepcion, 70 miles (115 kilometers) from the epicenter, nurses and
residents pushed the injured through the streets on stretchers. Others
walked around in a daze wrapped in blankets, some carrying infants in
their arms.
A 15-story building collapsed: "I was on the 8th floor and all of a
sudden I was down here," said Fernando Abarzua, who lived in the
building but somehow escaped with no major injuries.
Abarzua said a relative was still trapped in the rubble six hours after
the quake hit, "but he keeps shouting, saying he's OK."
Concepcion, Chile's second-largest city, is 60 miles (95 kilometers)
from the ski town of Chillan, a gateway to Andean ski resorts that was
destroyed in a 1939 earthquake.
The quake also shook buildings in Argentina's capital of Buenos Aires,
900 miles (1,400 kilometers) away on the Atlantic side of South
America. It was felt as far away as Sao Paulo in Brazil — 1,800 miles
(2,900 kilometers) east of the epicenter...
8.8-magnitude earthquake hits central
Chile
YAHOO
By EVA VERGARA, Associated Press Writer
Feb. 27, 2010
SANTIAGO, Chile – A massive 8.8-magnitude earthquake struck Chile early
Saturday, killing at least 78 people, collapsing buildings and setting
off a tsunami. A huge wave reached a populated area in the
Robinson
Crusoe Islands, 410 miles (660 kilometers) off the Chilean coast, said
President Michele Bachelet. Tsunami warnings were issued over a
wide
area, including South America, Hawaii, Australia and New Zealand,
Japan, the Philippines, Russia and many Pacific islands.
"It has been a devastating earthquake," Interior Minister Edmundo Perez
Yoma told reporters.
Bachelet said the death toll was at 78 and rising, but officials had no
information on the number of people injured. She declared a "state of
catastrophe" in central Chile.
"We have had a huge earthquake, with some aftershocks," Bachelet said
from an emergency response center. She urged Chileans not to panic.
"Despite this, the system is functioning. People should remain calm.
We're doing everything we can with all the forces we have. Any
information we will share immediately," she said.
In the 2 1/2 hours following the 90-second quake, the U.S. Geological
Survey reported 11 aftershocks, five of them measuring 6.0 or
above.
Bachelet urged people to avoid traveling, since traffic lights are
down, to avoid causing more fatalities. In the capital, Santiago
airport was shut down and will remain closed for at least the next 24
hours, airport director Eduardo del Canto said. The passenger terminal
has suffered major damage, he told Chilean television in a telephone
interview. TV images show smashed windows, partially collapsed ceilings
and pedestrian walkways destroyed.
Chilean television showed images of destroyed buildings and damaged
cars, with rubble-strewn streets. Dozens of people were seen roaming
through the streets, including some wheeling suitcases behind them.
There was a fire burning in one street with people sitting nearby
trying to keep warm.
The quake hit 200 miles (325 kilometers) southwest of Santiago, at a
depth of 22 miles (35 kilometers) at 3:34 a.m. (0634 GMT; 1:34 a.m.
EST), the U.S. Geological Survey reported.
The epicenter was just 70 miles (115 kilometers) from Concepcion,
Chile's second-largest city, where more than 200,000 people live along
the Bio Bio river, and 60 miles from the ski town of Chillan, a gateway
to Andean ski resorts that was destroyed in a 1939 earthquake.
Marco
Vidal, a program director for Grand Circle Travel traveling with a
group of 34 Americans, was on the 19th floor of the Crown Plaza
Santiago hotel when the quake struck.
"All the things start to fall. The lamps, everything, was going on the
floor. And it was moving like from south to north, oscillated. I felt
terrified," he said.
Cynthia Iocono, from Linwood, Pennsylvania, said she first thought the
quake was a train.
"But then I thought, oh, there's no train here. And then the lamps flew
off the dresser and my TV flew off onto the floor and crashed."
"It was scary, but there really wasn't any panic. Everybody kind of
stayed orderly and looked after one another," Iocono said.
In Santiago, modern buildings are built to withstand earthquakes, but
many older ones were heavily damaged, including the Nuestra Senora de
la Providencia church, whose bell tower collapsed. An apartment
building's two-level parking lot also flattened onto the ground floor,
smashing about 50 cars whose alarms and horns rang incessantly. A
bridge just outside the capital also collapsed, and at least one car
flipped upside down.
In the coastal city of Vina del Mar, the earthquake struck just as
people were leaving a disco, Julio Alvarez told Radio Cooperativa in
Santiago. "It was very bad, people were screaming, some people were
running, others appeared paralyzed. I was one of them."
Bachelet said she was declaring a "state of catastrophe" in three
central regions of the country, and that while emergency responders
were waiting for first light to get details, it was evident that damage
was extensive. She said Chile has not asked for assistance from
other
countries.
Several hospitals have been evacuated due to earthquake damage, she
said, and communications with the city of Concepcion remained down. She
planned to tour the effected region as quickly as possible to get a
better idea of the damage.
The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center called for "urgent action to protect
lives and property" in Hawaii, which is among 53 nations and
territories subject to tsunami warnings.
A huge wave reached a populated area in the Robinson Crusoe Islands,
410 miles (660 kilometers) off the Chilean coast, Bachelet said. There
were no immediate reports of major damage there, she added.
"Sea level readings indicate a tsunami was generated. It may have been
destructive along coasts near the earthquake epicenter and could also
be a threat to more distant coasts," the warning center said. It did
not expect a tsunami along the west of the U.S. or Canada but was
continuing to monitor the situation.
The largest earthquake ever recorded struck the same area of Chile on
May 22, 1960. The magnitude-9.5 quake killed 1,655 people and left 2
million homeless. The tsunami that it caused killed people in Hawaii,
Japan and the Philippines and caused damage to the west coast of the
United States.
An Earthquake Is Coming (In California) – Is Your House Insured?
By MATTHEW STURDEVANT, The Hartford Courant
10:43 AM EST, February 18, 2010
Haiti's recovery from its Jan. 12 earthquake is a reminder that a
slumbering disaster is waiting to erupt in California.
And while Los Angeles is on the opposite end of the country, a major
earthquake would cause financial ripples felt all the way in New
England, even if the actual tremor didn't wiggle a blade of grass in
Connecticut. The same is true if Chicago was hit by a more serious
earthquake than the one that rattled Illinois last week.
Just this week, the insurance commissioners in New York and Illinois
reminded residents of those states that standard homeowners insurance
does not cover earthquakes.
Even in California, only a small percentage of property owners have
earthquake insurance. Property owners say they don't want to pay the
monthly premiums.
"There is no requirement in California for anybody, at least not from
the state, there's no mandate that you buy coverage," said Julie
Rochman, president and chief executive officer of the Institute for
Business & Home Safety. "And what we have found, and it is really
disappointing, is the level of take-up has stayed in the low teens, or
even 12 percent."
Coverage rates were 30 percent in the mid-1990s after a significant
earthquake shook Southern California in 1994, but have dropped off
since then.
Among the companies that insure homes in California are Travelers Cos.
and The Hartford Financial Services Group Inc., Connecticut stalwarts.
State law in California requires those insurers, and all who offer
homeowners insurance there, to offer earthquake coverage to their
customers, too.
But with few taking the coverage, a quake in Southern California would
set off a chain reaction: people would lose their biggest asset, and
banks would struggle from people failing to pay mortgage loans, while
neither the homeowner nor the bank would have collateral for the loans.
Municipalities would scramble to fix shattered roads and public
buildings.
The human toll, of course, would define the catastrophe. But with lack
of widespread coverage, the literal and economic mess would be left to
state and federal emergency agencies. And taxpayers would pick up the
tab.
Seeing this, a state-organized public-private insurance authority in
California is proposing federal legislation that they say will make
earthquake insurance more affordable.
Awaiting The Big One
It's not a matter of if a major quake is coming, but when.
The likelihood is 99.7 percent that a 6.7 percent magnitude earthquake,
or greater, will rip through California in the next 30 years, according
to a 2008 report by the U.S. Geological Survey. The chances of that
quake cracking across greater Los Angeles is 67 percent, and 63 percent
in San Francisco.
Connecticut, on the other hand, has had minor quakes since colonial
times and is "a region of very minor seismic activity, even when
compared to other states in the Northeast region," according to the
USGS. The closest thing Connecticut has to earthquake lore is the
village of Moodus in East Haddam, which derives its name from the
Native American word Morehemoodus, or "place of noises," because of
seismic rumblings there.
The greater threat than a quake in Connecticut is the economic effect
of one in California. For example, a 6.7 magnitude quake struck
Northridge, Calif., on Jan. 17, 1994, causing $20 billion in damage.
"California has grown immensely since then ... if the same earthquake
were to occur today, there would be $130 billion in total damage to
property," said Jayanta Guin, senior vice president for research and
modeling at AIR Worldwide, which models earthquakes and potential loss
for insurers.
The $130 billion estimate includes property and business, but is only a
fraction of the economic loss, which is generally about twice as much.
AIR Worldwide also calculated the annual probability of expensive
earthquakes in California: a 5 percent chance of one that causes $50
billion in damage or more to property and business, a 2 percent chance
of a quake causing $100 billion in damage or more.
If the Northridge quake happened again today, only a small fraction —
up to $20 billion — would be borne by the insurance industry, Guin said.
'Reduced To Zero'
After the Northridge quake, insurers jacked up rates and instituted
strict rules for underwriting homeowners insurance.
Few homeowners could get coverage until the creation of the California
Earthquake Authority in 1996. Insurers apply to offer a policy through
the authority. The authority collects premiums and bears the
responsibility of loss for participating insurers — Travelers and The
Hartford not among them.
It worked relatively well initially, and 30 percent of homeowners
signed up for earthquake coverage the year the authority was formed.
That percentage has dropped off, but the authority still commands about
70 percent of California's earthquake insurance market.
Officials at both Travelers and The Hartford declined to comment for
this story, and would not say how many of their customers in California
have earthquake insurance, or what could be done to increase
participation. Both companies raise millions each year by providing
earthquake coverage on the west coast, and it's not clear whether they
are actively trying to grow that business.
In 2008, Travelers received $16.2 million in written premiums for
earthquake coverage in California (1.4 percent of the state's market
share), and The Hartford raised $14.6 million (1.3 percent) according
to the California Department of Insurance.
Some homeowners mistakenly believe their homeowners policy covers
earthquake insurance, according to the Insurance Information Network of
California. And, unlike other catastrophes, earthquakes don't come
around in seasonal cycles — so people grow less worried about the risk
as more time passes.
The most common reason people opt out is high premiums and high
deductibles, according to insurance experts and state officials.
For example, the cost to cover a $450,000, two-story house built after
1990 in Northridge, Cal., is $1,591 a year, or $133 per month, in
addition to regular homeowners' insurance, according to the earthquake
authority's premium calculator. That assumes a 15 percent deductible —
meaning the insurer wouldn't cover the first $67,500 in damage on that
$450,000 house — and $50,000 in personal property coverage for
furniture and other items in the house.
Instead, people are taking their chances, which is a high-stakes risk,
said Steven Weisbart, senior vice president and chief economist for the
Insurance Information Institute, a trade organization.
"What they're also saying is, 'I'm willing to take the chance my
$300,000 house will be reduced to zero.' For some people that is their
single largest asset. And, of course, if the house is reduced to zero,
they still owe on the mortgage. Now, they're probably going to walk
away from it, declare bankruptcy. This is not a set of good outcomes
here."
A Way To Pay
The California Earthquake Authority has a proposal to lower premiums,
get more people to sign up for coverage and lessen the tax burden when
a big quake hits.
Authority chief executive Glenn Pomeroy said the state spends too much
each year on reinsurance, which is an insurance policy for insurers to
dilute risk. Pomeroy said the authority could stop paying so much in
reinsurance, and reduce premiums to customers, if the federal
government agreed to back the authority's borrowing capacity.
"In essence, paying for the really big one only when we need to,
instead of what we're doing each year which is trying to pay for the
big one each and every year," Pomeroy said.
It would also be a greater incentive to insurers to become members in
the authority, or force them to compete with its less expensive
premiums.
Pomeroy admits that if California mandated earthquake coverage, it
would go a long way in spreading risk and therefore reducing premiums.
But the politics around a mandate would probably sink the idea.
The federal guarantee on debt, in his mind, would lessen the cost to
taxpayers when the big one hits.
"We're trying to get more people protected so there's less need for
that after the fact," Pomeroy said
Information about earthquake risks is available on the Web sites of the
Federal Emergency Management Agency, www.fema.gov, and the U.S.
Geological Survey (USGS), www.usgs.gov.
Copyright © 2010, The Hartford
Courant
USGS: Magnitude-6.0 quake off
Northern
Calif coast
YAHOO
Feb. 4, 2010
PETROLIA, Calif. – A magnitude-6.0 earthquake has struck off the coast
of Northern California's Humboldt County, but officials say there are
no immediate reports of major damage or injury.
The U.S. Geological Survey reports the temblor hit at 12:20 p.m. about
35 miles northwest of the community of Petrolia and nearly 50 miles
west of Eureka. The shaking was felt up to the Oregon border and as far
south as Sonoma County.
County spokesman Phil Smith-Hanes says he felt a rolling sensation, but
the movement didn't feel as severe as the magnitude-6.5 quake that
struck the same area Jan. 9. That quake left more than $40 million of
damage in the area and caused one major injury.
Eureka Fire Chief Eric Smith says crews are checking on structures
damaged in the previous earthquake.
THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further
information. AP's earlier story is below.
PETROLIA, Calif. (AP) — Officials say a magnitude-6.0 earthquake has
struck off the coast of Northern California's Humboldt County.
The U.S. Geological Survey reports the temblor hit at 12:20 p.m. PST
about 35 miles northwest of the town of Petrolia and nearly 50 miles
west of Eureka.
An employee at the Humboldt County Sheriff's Office says there are no
immediate reports of major injuries or damage.
Humboldt County spokesman Phil Smith-Hanes says he felt a rolling
sensation, but the movement didn't feel as severe as the magnitude-6.5
quake that struck the same area Jan. 9.
Two earthquakes strike Puerto Rico; no
immediate reports of damage
Wire reports
8:03 AM EST, December 17, 2011
Two earthquakes struck Puerto Rico within minutes of each other early
Saturday.
The quakes, with magnitudes of 5.1 and 5.3 respectively, occurred three
minutes apart just after 2 a.m. AST in the Mona Passage, just to the
west of the island. A smaller aftershock was reported a few minutes
later, and all were felt in the capital, San Juan.
The quake was not strong enough to create a tsunami, the U.S. West
Coast and Alaska Tsunami Warning Center said.
There were no immediate reports of damage or casualties.
The tremor was felt at a hotel on the northwestern coast of Puerto
Rico, said Jose Caro, an employee at Marriott Courtyard Aguadilla.
"Everything is OK. Some people went out of their rooms, but everything
is back to normal," said Caro, reached by phone from Washington.
Some residents in the island’s southwest region reported power outages
as well as broken items around the house.
There were no immediate reports of damage in the neighboring Dominican
Republic.
Officials in Puerto Rico, a U.S. territory in the Caribbean Sea, could
not immediately be reached.
Looks
like "Escape From New York" - check out the topo map above.
Agrarian practices, land tenure,
contribute to the present problems.
Editorial Observer: Haiti’s Futile Race
Against the Rain
NYTIMES
By LAWRENCE DOWNES
March
1, 2010
There were floods on Saturday in Les Cayes, in southwestern Haiti. It
rained in Port-au-Prince on Thursday, and again on Saturday and Sunday
night, long enough to slick the streets and make a slurry of the dirt
and concrete dust. Long enough, too, to give a sense of what will
happen across the country in a few weeks, when the real storms start.
Mud will wash down the mountains, and rain will overflow gutters choked
with rubble and waste, turning streets into filthy rivers. Life will
get even more difficult for more than a million people.
New misery and sickness will drench the displaced survivors of the Jan.
12 earthquake — like the 16,000 or so whose tents and flimsy shacks
fill every available inch of the Champ de Mars, the plaza in
Port-au-Prince by the cracked and crumbled National Palace, or the
70,000 who have made a city of the Petionville Club, a nine-hole golf
course on a mountainside above the capital.
The rainy season is the hard deadline against which Haiti’s government
and relief agencies in Port-au-Prince are racing as they try to solve a
paralyzing riddle: how to shelter more than a million displaced people
in a densely crowded country that has no good place to put them.
The plan after the quake was to move people to camps outside the city.
But in a sudden shift last week, officials unveiled a new idea. They
would try to send as many people as possible, tens of thousands, back
to the shattered streets of Port-au-Prince before the rains come. The
prime minister approved it on Friday.
If it sounds insane, insanity is relative in Haiti now. Consider the
choices:
¶Let people stay in filthy, fragile settlements where no one wants
to live, and pray when the hurricanes hit.
¶Build sturdy transitional housing in places like
Jérémie, in the southwest, that can absorb the capital’s
overflow.
¶Encourage people to return to neighborhoods that are clogged with
rubble and will be for years, where the smell of death persists. In
areas like Bel Air and Fort National, near Champ de Mars, people whose
homes still stand are sleeping outside, in fear of aftershocks. They
were still pulling bodies out of Fort National over the weekend,
burning them on the spot.
The first plan is intolerable. The second may come true only several
years and hurricanes from now. The third is merely absurd.
Officials believe that if they clear just enough rubble from certain
areas of the city and improve drainage in flood-prone areas, they can
ease the pressure on the camps and save lives. It makes some sense to
keep people near their neighborhoods, holding on to what remains of
their lives and livelihoods.
But when what remains is nothing, it’s hard to make sense of that idea.
Harder still when you realize that the Haitian government and aid
agencies are still overwhelmed by the crisis. The government hasn’t
even figured out where to put the rubble, and doesn’t seem to know who
is living where.
Official word was that 80 percent of refugees in Champ de Mars were
from Turgeau, where debris-clearing is to begin. I talked with about 40
people throughout the Champ de Mars. They were from Bel Air, Fort
National, St. Martin. Nobody was from Turgeau. Several knew of the plan
and a few had registered for it. But nobody had been told where, when
and how they would leave.
Pascal Benjamin, a 29-year-old huddled with family on the edge of the
Champ de Mars, is from Bel Air. “I heard they were going to find a
place, but they never came to talk to us.”
I spoke with Selondieu Marcelus, his brother, Sony, and nephew,
Ricardo. They were standing beside a yellow tent marked with sardonic
graffiti. “Donnons le pays aux Français,” it said. “Let’s give
the
country to the French.”
Mr. Marcelus once lived on Rue Macajoux in Bel Air. He lost his wife
there. He didn’t know where he would end up. As long as the place has
work, jobs, electricity, I don’t mind, he said. He was unusual. Most of
those I met, in Champ de Mars and in the vast blue-and-orange tarpscape
blanketing the Petionville Club, said they dearly wanted to go home.
It seems certain that this plan for Haiti’s displaced is going to be
ineffective, and that people will suffer and die for lack of anything
better. The only rational plan for Haiti is to disperse the population
of a city that filled to bursting years ago. Making it easier for
people to shoehorn back into Port-au-Prince, looking for jobs and space
that don’t exist, is ludicrous.
It’s a sign of the scale and perplexing nature of this disaster — and
the fix faced by the government that is too slowly confronting it —
that the ludicrous option is the only one available.
A
Deadly Quake in a Seismic Hot Zone
NYTIMES
By HENRY FOUNTAIN
January
26, 2010
To scientists who study seismic hazards in the Caribbean, there was no
surprise in the magnitude 7 earthquake that devastated the Haitian
capital, Port-au-Prince, two weeks ago.
Except, perhaps, in where on the island of Hispaniola it occurred.
“If I had had to make a bet, I would have bet that the first earthquake
would have taken place in the northern Dominican Republic, not Haiti,”
said Eric Calais, a geophysicist at Purdue University who has conducted
research in the area for years.
The fault that ruptured violently on Jan. 12 had been building up
strain since the last major earthquake in Port-au-Prince, 240 years
ago. Dr. Calais and others had warned in 2008 that a quake could occur
along that segment, part of what is called the Enriquillo-Plantain
Garden fault zone, although they could not predict when.
But about 100 miles to the north is a similar fault, the Septentrional,
that has not had a quake in 800 years. Researchers have estimated that
a rupture along that fault — and again, they have no idea when one
might occur — could result in a magnitude 7.5 quake that could cause
severe damage in the Dominican Republic’s second-largest city,
Santiago, and the surrounding Cibao Valley, together home to several
million people.
“You can imagine the strain that has accumulated there,” said Paul
Mann, a senior research scientist at the University of Texas, referring
to the Septentrional fault. “It’s been going on for longer and
accumulating faster. Therefore it’s going to produce a stronger
earthquake.”
The recent quake on the Enriquillo fault and the forecast for the
Septentrional are bleak reminders that the Caribbean is an active
seismic zone, one with many hazards. Major earthquakes have regularly
devastated the region’s cities, including the Jamaican capital,
Kingston, which was destroyed twice in three centuries. An eruption of
Mount Pelée killed 30,000 people in Martinique in the Lesser
Antilles in 1902, and it and other volcanoes are currently active along
that island arc on the Caribbean’s north and eastern reaches.
Earthquakes and landslides along the Puerto Rico Trench, an undersea
fault zone, have the potential to cause tsunamis.
The Haitian quake itself might have added to the risks, researchers
say. Dr. Calais and colleagues and a team including Ross Stein of the
United States Geological Survey in Menlo Park, Calif., have each
calculated the stress changes on the Enriquillo fault that occurred
when a 30-mile segment, centered in Léogâne about 18 miles
west of Port-au-Prince, gave way this month. Although the results are
preliminary, the work shows that stresses have increased just west of
the segment and just east, within three miles of Port-au-Prince.
“This earthquake has increased the risk on other segments of that fault
and perhaps on other faults as well,” Dr. Calais said. “The numbers are
well within the range of stress changes that have triggered earthquakes
on other faults.” But he said the quake probably did not increase the
likelihood of a major tremor on the Septentrional fault.
The Haitian quake has produced a large number of aftershocks, about
three times as many as quakes of similar magnitude in California and
elsewhere, Dr. Stein said. But the intensity and frequency of those
aftershocks have followed the patterns of other earthquakes, he said.
Last Thursday, the geological survey issued a statement estimating that
there was a 3 percent likelihood of a 7 magnitude aftershock in the
next 30 days, and a 25 percent chance of one of magnitude 6. (On
Wednesday, the area experienced a strong aftershock that was initially
rated at 6.1 but was revised to 5.8.)
Of some concern, researchers said, was that none of the aftershocks
have occurred in the area of increased stress nearer to Port-au-Prince,
where ordinarily some might have been expected.
“One possibility is that these are simply calculations, and they may be
wrong,” Dr. Stein said. “The other possibility is, O.K., this fault is
fundamentally locked in some fashion, on pretty much all scales, and
might be capable of popping off something large.”
In its statement, the geological survey cautioned that near the
capital, “the fault still stores sufficient strain to be released as a
large, damaging earthquake during the lifetime of structures built
during the reconstruction effort.”
The region’s seismic activity is due to the movement of the Caribbean
tectonic plate, which can be likened to a finger pushing its way
against two larger plates, the North American and South American. Along
the boundaries, the relative eastward movement of the Caribbean plate,
at the rate of less than an inch a year, creates strike-slip faults,
shallow fissures whose sides slide in relation to one another in an
earthquake.
On the island of Hispaniola, which comprises the Dominican Republic and
Haiti, the Caribbean-North American boundary stresses are expressed in
numerous strike-slip faults, including the Enriquillo and
Septentrional, which are relatively long and roughly parallel.
“It’s a bit unusual to have two parallel faults like that,” said Uri S.
ten Brink, a geophysicist with the geological survey in Woods Hole,
Mass. “It may simply be that for some reason there was already a
weakened area further south.”
Dr. ten Brink’s main area of research is the Puerto Rico Trench, north
of Puerto Rico and the United States Virgin Islands. This is a
subduction zone — where the North American plate is sliding under the
Caribbean, creating the potential for earthquakes and undersea
landslides that can set off tsunamis.
“We’re trying to see if it’s a similar situation to the Sumatra fault,”
Dr. ten Brink said, referring to the Indonesian subduction zone where a
large earthquake in December 2004 created a tsunami that killed a
quarter of a million people. Scientists have not yet found evidence of
large subduction earthquakes on the Puerto Rican Trench, he said, “but
that’s the $64,000 question.”
Because of the proximity of the trench to American territory, Dr. ten
Brink and others have been able to obtain financing for their studies.
But in other places around the Caribbean, research money has been hard
to come by.
Haiti, for example, has no seismometers, meaning there has been no way
to measure all the small tremors that might help characterize the
Enriquillo fault. Researchers have relied on a network of 35 benchmarks
to measure fault movement. Last week Dr. Calais, Dr. Mann and others
were planning a trip to Haiti to make more accurate measurements for
their stress calculations, and to install devices to monitor the fault
zone continuously for a year or more.
Much of what is known about the seismic activity around Port-au-Prince
has been gleaned from historical accounts of previous quakes. While far
from precise, these accounts suggest a century-long, westward-marching
sequence of quakes along the fault, beginning with one in 1751 in the
Dominican Republic at the fault’s eastern end and including the 1770
earthquake that destroyed Port-au-Prince.
That raises the possibility that the Jan. 12 earthquake could be the
beginning of a new sequence occurring over decades, with each
successive quake redistributing stresses along the fault. “It’s
certainly possible and it’s really something we’re very concerned
about,” said Carol S. Prentice, a geologist with the geological survey
in Menlo Park. Such sequences have been observed on other faults,
including the North Anatolian in Turkey.
The Septentrional fault’s history is better known, largely because Dr.
Prentice and others have done basic research on a segment in the
Dominican Republic. The study involved digging trenches across the
fault and looking for rupture lines in the sediments. By finding higher
sediments that are unruptured, the dates of quakes can be determined.
Researchers said that more study was needed on the Septentrional and
Enriquillo faults and elsewhere in the Caribbean, and that governments
needed to prepare better for the inevitable.
There are already signs that the Haitian quake has prompted concern
elsewhere in the region, at least among the general population. Dr.
Mann said he was on Jamaican radio programs in the past two weeks to
discuss the hazards.
“They know they’ve been destroyed twice,” he said. “They know their
construction is not the best. All those things have put the whole
country on edge.
“The whole region is fearful.”
Haiti refocuses attention on quake insurance
San Francisco Chronicle
Kathleen Pender
Sunday, January 24, 2010
This month's big earthquake in Eureka, followed by the far more
devastating one in Haiti, should focus attention on the staggering
uninsured losses that will result from the next big shaker in
California unless something is done soon.
Statewide, only 12 percent of homeowners with insurance also have quake
coverage. About 70 percent of that is underwritten by the California
Earthquake Authority, a state-sponsored entity that sells quake
insurance through commercial insurance companies.
The CEA admits that even with its insurance, homeowners could suffer
"substantial uninsured loss." Its policies pay nothing until structural
damage alone exceeds 15 percent of the home's insured value. After
that, they pay for damage to structure and household goods up to the
policy limit. The basic policy pays only $1,500 in living expenses if
you can't stay in your home.
If a large quake erupted on the Hayward Fault, only 6 to 10 percent of
total residential losses and 15 to 20 percent of commercial losses
would be covered by insurance, according to Risk Management Solutions,
a firm that predicts damage from catastrophes.
By comparison, about 53 percent of the economic losses to homes and
businesses following Hurricane Katrina were covered by insurance,
including payouts from the National Flood Insurance Program.
Katrina looks like "a well-covered event" compared with a potential
earthquake in California, says Doug Heller, executive director of
Consumer Watchdog.
Even if you have earthquake insurance, if most of your neighbors don't,
your property value and quality of life could plummet if their homes
are abandoned or fall into disrepair.
One way to minimize damage is to encourage home and building owners to
retrofit their property, says Mary Lou Zoback, a vice president with
Risk Management Solutions. Another is to sell more quake insurance.
Lower premiums
Spreading risk should give insurers more capital from which to pay
claims and lead to lower premiums for consumers - the same way group
health insurance costs less than an individual policy. It also helps
offset adverse selection, which happens when the only people who buy
insurance are those most likely to have claims.
But here's the conundrum: Premiums won't come down until more people
buy policies, and sales won't pick up until premiums come down.
The average CEA premium in California is $707, but prices vary greatly
depending on the home's location and type of construction.
The CEA, along with similar agencies in hurricane-prone states, is
pushing a bill that it says would dramatically lower its costs by
substituting reinsurance with a federal guarantee on bonds sold
following a major disaster. If the legislation passes, the CEA says, it
could lower its premiums by 30 to 40 percent. Or it could lower them by
a smaller percentage but also reduce the deductible, or make other
policy improvements.
In California, companies that sell homeowners insurance are required to
offer earthquake coverage. After the 1994 Northridge earthquake, many
companies stopped or threatened to stop selling new homeowners policies
rather than continue offering quake coverage. In response, the state
created the CEA, which offers bare-bones policies that firms can offer
as an alternative to their own.
Insurers representing 70 percent of the residential market offer CEA
policies. CEA pays these companies a fee but keeps the premiums and
takes the risk itself.
Today, if a major quake occurred, the CEA would pay claims first from
its own capital, then from proceeds of revenue bonds it has sold, then
from reinsurance and finally, if needed, by hitting insurance companies
that do business in the state with a special assessment.
Insurance companies buy reinsurance to pay claims that they can't. The
CEA says it is spending about 40 cents of every premium dollar on
reinsurance.
Under the proposal in Congress - called the Catastrophe Obligation
Guarantee Act - the CEA would cut way back on its reinsurance. Then, if
a major quake occurred and it exhausted all of its other resources -
including the special industry assessment - the authority would sell
bonds guaranteed by the federal government.
To repay the bonds, the CEA would raise premiums, but not as high as
they are today. The bonds would not be an obligation of the state, and
the federal government would step in only if the CEA defaulted.
Limited guarantee
The government could guarantee a total of $5 billion worth of bonds for
all earthquake damage and $20 billion for hurricanes.
"Our modeling is that there is only 1/2 to 1 percent chance we would
need to borrow," says Glenn Pomeroy, the CEA's chief executive.
Heller, the consumer advocate, supports the bill. He believes the CEA,
as a nonprofit state-sponsored entity, would pass along savings to
policyholders.
"The risk for the federal government is that the earthquake authority
can't bring in enough money to pay back the bonds," he says. "But it's
something they would kind of be on the hook for anyway. If California
is falling into the ocean, the federal government will have to do
something about it. If they can shore up private or state coverage of
disasters, the federal government doesn't have to step in as much."
The downside is that homeowners won't directly benefit if their
insurance company doesn't offer a CEA policy. "A flaw in the law"
doesn't let consumers buy a stand-alone policy from CEA, Heller says.
Robert Hunter, director of insurance with the Consumer Federation of
America, says "the concept is good, but the devil is in the details."
If they couldn't compete on price, private companies might have to stop
selling their own quake insurance and offer CEA coverage, which could
impact competition.
"It could have an adverse effect on competition," Hunter says, although
hardly anyone is buying quake insurance in the first place.
The Senate version of the bill, S886, was introduced in April. The
House version, introduced in November, is HR4014. The concept is also
included in a larger bill dealing with catastrophes, HR2555.
Sen. Dianne Feinstein, a co-sponsor of the Senate bill, says it would
"save Californians up to $150 million per year at a time when family
budgets are stretched thin."
The American Insurance Association, a trade group, opposes it.
Risk potential
"Any time you are setting up a federal backstop for a state-run
insurance mechanism, you are potentially creating a disincentive for
the state to charge risk-based rates and to manage their portfolio of
risk to an appropriate level," says Eric Goldberg, the group's
associate general counsel. In other words, "If you know the government
is there to bail you out, you might take on more risk than is prudent
and keep prices artificially low because it is politically expedient to
do so."
Goldberg doesn't see any benefit to U.S. taxpayers. "Post-Katrina, the
vast majority of federal dollars spent were not covering (uninsured
homeowners). Everyone who wanted flood or windstorm coverage could have
bought it. What you saw in terms of federal expenditures was way more
on infrastructure and temporary housing. That's something the federal
government would do anyway, regardless of insurance."
The two bills have had little action, which is understandable given the
focus on health care and financial regulation.
"What's going on in Haiti is not comparable, but it brings some
awareness that we have disaster issues in America," Heller says. The
problem for the bills' sponsors "is not convincing people it's right,
it's convincing people it's relevant. I'm hopeful this will break
through the consciousness in Washington to give elected officials a
chance to actually get something done."
Net Worth runs Tuesdays, Thursdays and Sundays. E-mail
Kathleen Pender at kpender@sfchronicle.com.
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/01/24/BUOM1BM6B8.DTL
This article appeared on page D - 1
of the San Francisco Chronicle
New magnitude-6.1 quake hits Haiti
Washington
Times
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Originally
published 07:46 a.m., January 20, 2010, updated 08:05 a.m., January 20,
2010
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP) -- A powerful aftershock struck Haiti on
Wednesday, shaking buildings and sending screaming people running into
the streets only eight days after the country's capital was devastated
by a major earthquake.
The magnitude-6.1 temblor was the largest aftershock yet to the
apocalyptic Jan. 12 quake that shattered Haiti's capital. It was not
immediately clear if it caused additional damage or injuries.
The new quake hit at 6:03 a.m. (1103 GMT) about 35 miles (56
kilometers) northwest of the capital of Port-au-Prince and 13.7 miles
(22 kilometers) below the surface.
Wails of terror rose from frightened survivors as the earth shuddered
at 6:03 a.m. The U.S. Geologic Survey said the quake was centered about
35 miles (56 kilometers) northwest of Port-au-Prince and was 13.7 miles
(22 kilometers) below the surface.
Last week's magnitude-7 quake killed an estimated 200,000 people in
Haiti, left 250,000 injured and made 1.5 million homeless, according to
the European Union Commission. A massive international aid effort has
been launched, but is struggling with overwhelming logistical problems.
Still, search-and-rescue teams have emerged from the ruins with some
improbable success stories -- including the rescue of 69-year-old
ardent Roman Catholic who said she prayed constantly during her week
under the rubble.
Ena Zizi had been at a church meeting at the residence of Haiti's Roman
Catholic archbishop when the Jan. 12 quake struck, trapping her in
debris. On Tuesday, she was rescued by a Mexican disaster team that was
created in the wake of Mexico City's 1985 earthquake.
Zizi said that after the quake, she spoke back and forth with a vicar
who also was trapped. But after a few days, he fell silent, and she
spent the rest of the time praying and waiting.
"I talked only to my boss, God," she said. "And I didn't need any more
humans."
Doctors who examined Zizi on Tuesday said she was dehydrated and had a
dislocated hip and a broken leg.
Elsewhere in the capital, two women were pulled from a destroyed
university building. And near midnight Tuesday, a smiling and singing
26-year-old Lozama Hotteline was carried to safety from a collapsed
store in the Petionville neighborhood by the French aid group Rescuers
Without Borders.
Crews at the cathedral compound site Tuesday recovered the body of the
archbishop, Monsignor Joseph Serge Miot, who was killed in the Jan. 12
quake.
Authorities said close to 100 people had been pulled from wrecked
buildings by international search-and-rescue teams. Efforts continued,
with dozens of teams sifting through Port-au-Prince's crumbled homes
and buildings for signs of life.
But the good news was overshadowed by the frustrating fact that the
world still can't get enough food and water to the hungry and thirsty.
"We need so much. Food, clothes, we need everything. I don't know whose
responsibility it is, but they need to give us something soon," said
Sophia Eltime, a 29-year-old mother of two who has been living under a
bedsheet with seven members of her extended family.
The World Food Program said more than 250,000 ready-to-eat food rations
had been distributed in Haiti by Tuesday, reaching only a fraction of
the 3 million people thought to be in desperate need.
The WFP said it needs to deliver 100 million ready-to-eat rations in
the next 30 days. Based on pledges from the United States, Italy and
Denmark, it has 16 million in the pipeline.
Even as U.S. troops landed in Seahawk helicopters Tuesday on the
manicured lawn of the ruined National Palace, the colossal efforts to
help Haiti were proving inadequate because of the scale of the disaster
and the limitations of the world's governments. Expectations exceeded
what money, will and military might have been able to achieve.
So far, international relief efforts have been unorganized, disjointed
and insufficient to satisfy the great need. Doctors Without Borders
says a plane carrying urgently needed surgical equipment and drugs has
been turned away five times, even though the agency received advance
authorization to land.
A statement from Partners in Health, co-founded by the deputy U.N.
envoy to Haiti, Dr. Paul Farmer, said the group's medical director
estimated 20,000 people are dying each day who could be saved by
surgery.
"TENS OF THOUSANDS OF EARTHQUAKE VICTIMS NEED EMERGENCY SURGICAL CARE
NOW!!!!!" the group said.
The reasons are varied:
• Both national and international authorities suffered great losses in
the quake, taking out many of the leaders best suited to organize a
response.
• Woefully inadequate infrastructure and a near-complete failure in
telephone and Internet communications complicate efforts to reach
millions of people forced from homes turned into piles of rubble.
• Fears of looting and violence keep aid groups and governments from
moving as quickly as they'd like.
• Pre-existing poverty and malnutrition put some at risk even before
the quake hit.
Governments have pledged nearly $1 billion in aid, and thousands of
tons of food and medical supplies have been shipped. But much remains
trapped in warehouses, or diverted to the neighboring Dominican
Republic. The nonfunctioning seaport and impassable roads complicate
efforts to get aid to the people.
Aid is being turned back from the single-runway airport, where the U.S.
military has been criticized by some of poorly prioritizing flights.
The U.S. Air Force said it had raised the facility's daily capacity
from 30 flights before the quake to 180 on Tuesday.
About 2,200 U.S. Marines established a beachhead west of Port-au-Prince
on Tuesday to help speed aid delivery, in addition to 9,000 Army
soldiers already on the ground. Lt. Cmdr. Walter Matthews, a U.S.
military spokesman, said helicopters were ferrying aid from the airport
into Port-au-Prince and the nearby town of Jacmel as fast as they could.
U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates said Wednesday that the military
will send a port-clearing ship with cranes aboard to Port-au-Prince. It
will be used to remove debris that is preventing many larger ships
carrying relief supplies from docking.
The U.N. was sending in reinforcements as well: The Security Council
voted Tuesday to add 2,000 peacekeepers to the 7,000 already in Haiti,
and 1,500 more police to the 2,100-strong international force.
"The floodgates for aid are starting to open," Matthews said at the
airport. "In the first few days, you're limited by manpower, but we're
starting to bring people in."
The WFP's Alain Jaffre said the U.N. agency was starting to find its
stride after distribution problems, and hoped to help 100,000 people by
Wednesday.
Hanging over the entire effort was an overwhelming fear among relief
officials that Haitians' desperation would boil over into violence.
"We've very concerned about the level of security we need around our
people when we're doing distributions," said Graham Tardif, who heads
disaster-relief efforts for the charity World Vision. The U.N., the
U.S. government and other organizations echoed such fears.
Occasionally, those fears have been borne out. Looters rampaged through
part of downtown Port-au-Prince on Tuesday, just four blocks from where
U.S. troops landed at the presidential palace.
Hundreds of looters fought over bolts of cloth and other goods with
broken bottles and clubs.
New Web-based
relief tools emerging to help Haiti
YAHOO
By FRANK BAJAK, AP Technology Writer
January 19, 2010
Hundreds of tech volunteers spurred
to action by Haiti's killer quake are adding a new dimension to
disaster relief, developing new tools and services for first responders
and the public in an unprecedented effort.
"It really is amazing the change in
the way crisis response can be done now," said Noel Dickover, a
Washington, D.C.-based organizer of the CrisisCamp tech volunteer
movement, which is central to the Haiti effort. "Developers, crisis
mappers and even Internet-savvy folks can actually make a difference."
Volunteers have built and refined
software for tracking missing people, mapping the disaster area and
enabling urgent cell phone text messaging. Organizations including the
International Red Cross and the U.S. Federal Emergency Management
Agency have put the systems to use.
Tim Schwartz, a 28-year-old artist
and programmer in San Diego, feared that with an array of
social-networking sites, crucial information about Haitian quake
victims would "go everywhere on the Internet and it would be very hard
to actually find people — and get back to their loved ones," he said.
So Schwartz quickly e-mailed "all the developers I'd ever worked with."
In a few hours, he and 10 others had
built http://www.haitianquake.com, an online lost-and-found to help
Haitians in and out of the country locate missing relatives.
The database, which anyone can
update, was online less than 24 hours after the quake struck, with more
than 6,000 entries because Schwartz and his colleagues wrote an
"scraper" that gathered data from a Red Cross site.
The New York Times, Miami Herald,
CNN and others launched similar efforts. And two days later, Google had
a similar tool running, PersonFinder, that the State Department
promoted on its own Web site and Twitter. PersonFinder grew out of
missing-persons technology developed after Hurricane Katrina ravaged
New Orleans in 2005.
Christopher Csikszentmihalyi,
director of the Center for Future Civic Media at the Massachusetts
Institute of Technology, advocated online for consolidating all such
tools into the Google version so the information wouldn't be stuck in
competing projects.
He considers PersonFinder, which can
be embedded in any Web site and as of Tuesday had more than 32,000
records, a triumph because it "greatly increases the chances that
Haitians in Haiti and abroad will be able to find each other."
Schwartz agreed and folded his
database into PersonFinder, which he thinks will become "THE
application for missing people for this disaster and all disasters in
the future."
The site has received several
hundred thousand visits, said Google spokeswoman Elaine Filadelfo. She
had no data on how many people had found loved ones using the tool.
Another volunteer project forged in
the quake's aftermath is a cell phone text-messaging system that has
helped the Red Cross and other relief groups dispatch rescuers, food
and water. Haitians needing help can send free text messages from
phones on the nation's Digicel service to the number 4636.
"At least 20 people so far have been
able to use this program to tell their families in the U.S. that
they're OK," said Katie Stanton, a former Google employee working in
the State Department's Office of Innovation.
The text messages are translated,
categorized and "geotagged" by volunteers including Haitian-American
members of the New York City-based Service Employees International
Union. The service is being promoted on Haitian radio stations and the
service has handled more than 1,000 messages since it began Saturday,
said Josh Nesbit, a co-creator. He put together a similar system for
hospitals in Malawi, Africa, while at Stanford University.
In another collaborative effort, the
OpenStreetMap "crisis mapping" project, volunteers layer
up-to-the-minute data (such as the location of new field hospitals and
downed bridges) onto post-quake satellite imagery that companies
including GeoEye and DigitalGlobe have made freely available. The
digital cartography — informed by everything from Twitter feeds to
eyewitness reports — has helped aid workers speed food, water and
medicine to where it's needed most.
One Colombian rescue team leader
uploaded the maps to his crew's portable GPS units before the team
arrived on the scene last week, developers said. Another volunteer,
Talbot Brooks of Delta State University in Cleveland, Miss., converts
the maps into letter-sized documents that aid workers have been
printing out before traveling to the quake zone.
Internet social networking tools
have helped volunteers organize intense work sessions.
CrisisCamp drew some 400 people in
six cities including Washington, London and Mountain View, Calif., over
the weekend to meet-ups where they devised, built and helped refine
tools. Among them: a basic Creole-English dictionary for the iPhone
that was delivered to Apple on Monday night for its approval.
"There was no break for lunch and
people barely used the bathroom," said Clay Johnson of the Sunlight
Foundation, the government transparency-promoting tech nonprofit that
hosted the 130 participants in the Washington session. U.N., State
Department and World Bank representatives attended.
Johnson also is the coordinator for
"We Have, We Need," a project that was hatched in the CrisisCamp
session and is about to be launched. It seeks to pair private-sector
offers with needs identified by aid workers. For example, a Haitian
Internet provider needs networking engineers to restore connectivity.
Any volunteers willing to spend a few weeks in Port-au-Prince?
More CrisisCamps are planned this
weekend in Northern California, Miami, Atlanta, Washington, Atlanta,
Brooklyn, N.Y., Portland, Ore., and Los Angeles.
A week after the quake, many tech
relief volunteers are still working full steam.
"These people have been awake for
days," Csikszentmihalyi said.
HAITI HISTORY
AND BACKGROUNDER HERE
MORE
PHOTOS HERE
This photograph provided by Médecins Sans Frontières
shows wounded
people gathered at the office of the medical charity in Port-au-Prince,
Haiti on Wednesday. Same photo source as used by New London DAY
Norwich reporter with direct story below.
Page last updated at 18:43
GMT, Saturday, 16 January 2010
US presidents launch Haiti quake funds appeal; US
President Barack Obama: 'Historic effort needed in Haiti'
President Barack Obama has appealed to
US citizens to contribute funds to help Haiti after the devastating
quake that has killed tens of thousands of people.
The US was
launching "one of the largest relief efforts in its history", he said,
flanked by former Presidents George W Bush and Bill Clinton.
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is heading for Haiti to
back aid efforts and offer "unwavering support".
Relief has been arriving, but little has moved beyond the
jammed airport.
There are reports of gangs and looting in the capital,
Port-au-Prince.
There
is little police presence in the capital - a BBC correspondent saw only
six police officers throughout the day on Friday - although some
Brazilian UN peacekeepers are patrolling the streets.
 |
AT THE SCENE
Matt Frei, BBC News, Port-au-Prince
There
are quite a few diggers in town moving debris, sometimes even bodies.
But if you reach a pile of rubble, and there's any evidence of life,
what you have to do is pick that pile of rubble brick by brick, glass
shard by glass shard.
The story that we've heard time and time again is that
of lack of bright lights to continue working through the night.
A
part of the tarmac looked like a hospital ward on Friday with patients
on drips waiting to be moved out. But that is a tiny proportion.
At
an outdoor hospital in town there was not a single doctor or nurse, and
people were dying in front of our eyes unnecessarily.
If you
have lost a leg or foot, and you are lying out in the open at these
extraordinary temperatures without water, and medicine, often without
any shade for four days, you are not going to live very long.
There
is no reason why some of the dozens of doctors who have arrived in the
past two days should not go there to treat these people. The roads are
clear and it's only a 20-minute drive from the airport.
|
On Saturday morning, a magnitude-4.5 aftershock struck close
to
Haiti's capital, the US Geological Survey said, forcing people to flee
buildings.
According to Haitian Interior Minister Paul Antoine
Bien-Aime, 50,000 bodies have been collected, but the total number of
dead could be "between 100,000 and 200,000".
Damage to the seaport, roads and other infrastructure has
prevented the speedy distribution of supplies.
President Barack Obama met George W Bush and Bill Clinton in
Washington to seek their support.
After the talks, Mr Obama said the two men would lead the US
fundraising efforts through the Bush-Clinton Haiti Fund.
"At
this moment we're moving forward with one of the largest relief efforts
in our history to save lives and deliver relief that averts an even
larger catastrophe," Mr Obama said.
"The two leaders with me today will ensure that this is
matched by a historic effort that extends beyond our government."
Mr
Bush urged Americans to send "cash", and Mr Clinton said Haitians "can
escape their history and built a better future if we do our part".
Mrs Clinton was due in Port-au-Prince on Saturday, but her
arrival has been delayed.
In
Geneva, a spokeswoman for the UN Office for the Co-ordination of
Humanitarian Affairs said aid workers were dealing with a disaster
"like no other" in UN memory because the country had been
"decapitated".
"Government buildings have collapsed and we do not even have
the support of the local infrastructure," Elisabeth Byrs said.
Ms Byrs said the situation was even worse than the
devastation wrought by the 2004 tsunami in Indonesia's Aceh province.
"It's worse than the Indonesian earthquake where at least we
could get the support of some local authorities," she said.
The UN has launched an appeal for $562m (£346m),
intended to help three million people for six months.
A
total of about $360m has been pledged so far for the relief effort, but
only part of this sum will be included in the emergency appeal.
US authorities have taken temporary control
of the airport to help distribute aid supplies more quickly.
A pregnant nurse was pulled from the rubble
after people heard her screams
Aid may be arriving in huge quantities but there is little of
it to
be seen in Port-au-Prince, says the BBC's Nick Davies in the capital.
And many people continue to leave the city, in search of
food, water and medicine.
The
UN is reporting a rise in the number of people trying to cross into the
neighbouring Dominican Republic, and an influx into Haiti's northern
cities.
The US has already sent an aircraft carrier, the USS
Carl Vinson, to Haiti and the USS Bataan, carrying a marine
expeditionary unit, is on its way.
|
Satellite and close-up
images of Port-au-Prince devastation
|
A hospital ship and more helicopters are due to be sent in
the
coming days, carrying more troops and marines, with the total number of
US troops to rise to between 9,000 and 10,000.
Aid groups say it is a race against time to find any more
trapped survivors.
Plane-loads
of rescuers and relief supplies have arrived or are due from the UK,
China, the EU, Canada, Russia and Latin American nations.
The UN said about 300,000 people had been made homeless.
Meanwhile,
details are emerging about the extent of the damage beyond
Port-au-Prince. Up to 90% of the buildings have been damaged in
Leogane, a town about 19km (18 miles) to the west, the UN said.
"According
to the local police, between 5,000 to 10,000 people have been killed
and most bodies are still in the collapsed buildings," Elisabeth Byrs
said.
Haiti
aid flow grows; feuds over
reaching victims
YAHOO
By ALFRED de MONTESQUIOU and MIKE MELIA, Associated Press Writers
January 16, 2010
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti – Hungry, haggard survivors clamored for food and
water Saturday as donors squabbled over how to get aid into Haiti and
rescuers waged an increasingly improbable battle to free the dying
before they become the dead.
Haiti's government alone has already recovered 20,000 bodies — not
counting those recovered by independent agencies or relatives
themselves, Prime Minister Jean-Max Bellerive told The Associated
Press. He said a final toll of 100,000 dead would "seem to be the
minimum."
There were growing signs that foreign aid and rescue workers were
getting to the people most in need — even those buried deep beneath
collapsed buildings — while others struggled to cope with the countless
bodies still left on the streets.
Crowds of Haitians thronged around foreign workers shoveling through
piles of wreckage at shattered buildings throughout the city, using
sniffer dogs, shovels and in some cases heavy earth-moving equipment.
Searchers poked a camera on a wire thorough a hole at the collapsed
Hotel Montana and spotted three people who were still alive, and they
heard the voice of a woman speaking French, said Ecuadorian Red Cross
worker David Betancourt.
In Washington, President Barack Obama joined with his predecessors
George W. Bush and Bill Clinton to appeal for donations to help Haiti
and he sent Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton to the Caribbean
nation.
"We stand united with the people of Haiti, who have shown such
incredible resilience, and we will help them to recover and to
rebuild," Obama vowed.
Bellerive said an estimated 300,000 people are living on the streets in
port-au-Prince and "Getting them water, and food, and a shelter is our
top priority."
The U.S. military operating Haiti's damaged main airport said it can
now handle 90 flights a day, but that wasn't enough to cope with all
the planes sent by foreign donors and governments circling overhead in
hopes of winning one of the few spots available on the tarmac.
France's Cooperation Minister Alain Joyandet told The Associated Press
that he had filed an official complaint to the U.S. government after
two French planes, one carrying a field hospital, were denied
permission to land.
A plane carrying the prime ministers of two Caribbean nations also was
forced to turn back late Friday due to a lack of space at the airport,
the Caricom trade bloc announced.
Haitian President Rene Preval urged donors to avoid arguments.
"This is an extremely difficult situation. We must keep our cool to do
coordination and not to throw accusations at each other," Preval said
after emerging from a meeting with donor groups and nations at a
dilapidated police station that serves as his temporary headquarters.
With the National Palace and many ministries destroyed, Preval meets
with ministers in the open air in a circle of plastic chairs.
On a street in the heavily damaged downtown area, the spade of a
massive bulldozer quickly filled up with dead bodies headed for a
morgue and immediate burial. Haiti's Prime Minister Jean-Max Bellerive
told AP that disposing of bodies had become crucial.
"Sadly, we have to bring everybody to mass graves because we are racing
against a possible epidemic," told AP. Haitians already have been
piling bodies and burning them.
Many in the city have painted toothpaste around their nostrils and beg
passers-by for surgical masks to cut the smell.
The U.S. Southern Command said it now has 24 helicopters flying relief
missions — many from warships off the coast — with 4,200 military
personnel involved and 6,300 more due by Monday.
But with aid still scarce in many areas, there were scattered signs
that the desperate — or the criminal — were taking things into their
own hands.
A water delivery truck driver said he was attacked in one of the city's
slums. There were reports of isolated looting as young men walked
through downtown with machetes, and robbers reportedly shot one man
whose body was left on the street.
An AP photographer saw one looter haul a corpse from a coffin at a city
cemetery and then drive away with the box.
"I don't know how much longer we can hold out," said Dee Leahy, a lay
missionary from St. Louis, Missouri, who was working with nuns handing
out provisions from their small stockpile. "We need food, we need
medical supplies, we need medicine, we need vitamins and we need
painkillers. And we need it urgently."
U.N. spokeswoman Elisabeth Byrs said the disaster is the most
challenging the U.N. has faced in terms of resources needed. She said
there was so much damage to local government and infrastructure that is
is harder for relief agencies to work than it was after the Asian
tsuanami of 2004.
The Red Cross estimates 45,000 to 50,000 people were killed in
Tuesday's magnitude-7.0 earthquake. The Pan American Health
Organization estimated the toll at 50,000 to 100,000. A third of
Haiti's 9 million people may be in need of aid.
U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said the World Food Program was
providing high-energy biscuits and ready-to-eat meals to around 8,000
people "several times a day."
"Obviously, that is only a drop in the bucket in the face of the
massive need, but the agency will be scaling up to feed approximately 1
million people within 15 days and 2 million people within a month," he
said.
Troops from the U.S. Army's 82nd Airborne Division began setting up an
aid station on a golf course in an affluent part of the city, but they
had no supplies to hand out yet and Capt. John Hartsock said it would
be another two days before they could start distributing food and water.
"We've got to wait until we've got enough established so we can hand it
out in a civilized fashion," Hartsock said.
Many, though, cannot wait.
A violent scuffle broke out among several hundred people jostling to be
first in line as three U.S. military helicopters were landing at the
golf course with food and water.
The chopper pilots decided it was too dangerous to remain and took off
off with their precious cargo still inside.'
"People are so desperate for food that they are going crazy," said
Henry Ounche, an accountant who was among the crowd.
Other efforts to get aid to the victims has been slowed by blocked
roads, congestion at the airport, limited equipment and fear of
violence or disturbances. U.N. peacekeepers warned aid convoys to add
security to uard against looting.
International Red Cross spokesman Paul Conneally said a convoy with a
field hospital and medical workers was heading into Haiti by road
Saturday from the Dominican Republic because "it's not possible to fly
anything into Port-au-Prince right now. The airport is completely
congested."
The World Health Organization has said eight hospitals in
Port-au-Prince were destroyed or damaged, severely curtailing treatment
available for the injured.
Hundreds of Haitians fled east toward the Dominican Republic for care.
More than 300 earthquake victims were crammed into a 30-bed hospital in
the border town of Jimani, many sharing mattresses along crowded
corridors, theiir arms drinking up IV fluids.
"The only thing left is to pray for God to save my son," said a weeping
Jean-Paul Dieudone, who came to the border seeking help for his
6-year-old son after his wife and other son died in the earthquake.
Officials said damage to the seaport also is a problem for bringing in
aid. The arrival Friday of the aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson helped
immediately by taking pressure off the airport. Within hours, an 82nd
Airborne Division rapid response unit was handing out food, water and
medical supplies from two cargo pallets outside the airport.
Others tried to help in smaller ways.
Milero Cedamou, the 33-year-old owner of a small water delivery
company, twice drove his small tanker truck to a tent camp where
thousands of homeless people are living. Hundreds clustered around to
fill their plastic buckets.
"This is a crisis of unspeakable magnitude; it's normal for every
Haitian to help," Cedamou said. "This is not charity."
Medical teams from a dozen other nations set up makeshift hospitals to
tend to the critically injured — who were still appearing.
"We have the hope we can find more people," said Chilean Maj. Rodrigo
Vasquez, whose teams were trying to save those trapped at the Hotel
Montana. But others weren't as hopeful. One Haitian woman sitting
outside of the destroyed hotel spoke on her cell phone and sobbed. "No
one's alive in there," she said in Creole.
And soon, it will be too late in any case.
"Beyond three or four days without water, they'll be pretty ill," said
Dr. Michael VanRooyen of the Harvard Humanitarian Initiative in Boston.
"Around three days would be where you would see people start to
succumb."
Still, there were improbable triumphs.
"It's a miracle," said Anne-Marie Morel, raising her arms to the sky
after a neighbor was found alive in the rubble of a home. If one person
could be resuscitated from the utter destruction of this street, there
remained hope that many other could still be found alive, she said.
"Nonsense, there is no God and no miracle," shouted back Remi Polevard,
another neighbor, who said his five children were somewhere under the
nearby debris.
"How could he do this to us?" Polevard yelled.
Haiti
Chief Says Thousands May Be Dead
By SIMON ROMERO and MARC LACEY
January 14, 2010
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti — Dawn brought horrible scenes to light in
Haiti’s capital on Wednesday: piles of disintegrated concrete, with
limbs sticking out and muffled cries emanating from deep inside;
wounded people staggering through the streets; and bodies littering the
landscape.
Huge swaths of Port-au-Prince lay in ruins, and thousands of people
were feared dead in the rubble of government buildings, foreign aid
headquarters and shantytowns that collapsed a day earlier in a powerful
earthquake.
The Haitian president, René Préval, told The Miami Herald
that the toll
was “unimaginable” and estimated that thousands had died. Among those
feared dead were the chief of the United Nations mission in Haiti and
Msgr. Joseph Serge Miot, the archbishop of the capital, Port-au-Prince.
“Parliament has collapsed,” Mr. Préval was quoted as saying.
“The tax
office has collapsed. Schools have collapsed. Hospitals have collapsed.
There are a lot of schools that have a lot of dead people in them.”
“All of the hospitals are packed with people,” he added. “It is a
catastrophe.”
Haiti sits on a large fault that has caused catastrophic quakes in the
past, but this one was described as among the most powerful to hit the
region. The earthquake was the worst in the region in more than 200
years and left the country in a shambles, without electricity or phone
service, tangling efforts to provide relief to an estimated 3 million
people who the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent
Societies said had been affected by the quake.
The United Nations secretary general, Ban Ki-moon, said Haiti was now
facing a “major humanitarian emergency” that would require a concerted
international response.
President Obama promised that Haiti would have the “unwavering support”
of the United States.
Mr. Obama said United States aid agencies were moving swiftly to get
help to Haiti and that search-and-rescue teams were already en route.
He described the reports of destruction as “truly heart-wrenching,”
made more cruel given Haiti’s long-troubled circumstances.Mr. Obama did
not make a specific aid pledge, and administration officials said they
were still trying to figure out what the island needed. But he urged
Americans to dig into their pockets and to go to the White House’s Web
site, www.whitehouse.gov, to find ways to donate money.
“This is a time when we are reminded of the common humanity that we all
share,” Mr. Obama said, speaking in the White House diplomatic
reception room with Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. at his side.
Aid agencies said they would open their storehouses of food and water
inside Haiti, and the World Food Program was flying in nearly 100 tons
of ready-to-eat meals and high-energy biscuits from El Salvador. The
United Nations said it was freeing up $10 million in emergency relief
funds, the European Union pledged $4.4 million, and groups like Doctors
Without Borders were setting up clinics in tents and open-air triage
centers to treat the injured. But some aid groups with offices in
Haiti’s capital were also busy searching for their own dead and missing.
Five workers with the United Nations mission in Haiti were killed and
more than 100 more missing after the office’s headquarters collapsed in
one of the deadliest single days for United Nations employees. The
Tunisian head of the group’s Haitian mission, Hedi Annabi, and his
deputy were among the missing, said Alain LeRoy, the United Nations
peacekeeping chief.
Earlier Wednesday, the French foreign minister, Bernard Kouchner, said
in radio interviews that Mr. Annabi had been killed in the collapse.
The Brazilian Army, which has one of the largest peacekeeping presences
in Haiti, said that four of its soldiers had been killed in the quake
and five had been injured. In addition to the human toll, the heavy
damage sustained by Haiti’s presidential palace and the United Nations
headquarters were a blow to the two major symbols of authority in the
country.
“The palace was like something out of a fairy tale in a country that
had nothing,” said Johanna Mendelson Forman, a former adviser to the
United Nations mission, who now works at the Center for Strategic and
International Studies in Washington. “It had red carpets and gold
ropes. It was a symbol of one of the few institutions that works there,
and that’s the presidency.”
On Wednesday the palace looked like a collapsed wedding cake, with its
column-lined facade crumpled and its white domed roof caving in.
Paul McPhun, operations manager for Doctors Without Borders, described
scenes of chaos.
When staff members tried to travel by car “they were mobbed by crowds
of people,” Mr. McPhun said. “They just want help, and anybody with a
car is better off than they are.”
He said that the main hospitals in Port-au-Prince had either collapsed
or been abandoned because they were too structurally precarious.
“Our teams are managing what comes to them, but already we’re getting
overwhelmed,” he said. “We’re struggling to manage. It’s a very chaotic
situation. Information for us is very difficult to gather.”
Aid workers and journalists in the neighboring Dominican Republic
swarmed the airport in Santo Domingo, hoping to catch a few emergency
flights into Haiti, and a spokesman for the United Nations humanitarian
office said aid would be sent into the country on commercial flights.
The United Nations said the Port-au-Prince airport was open, but that
the main road connecting it to the capital remained impassable. Other
roads had been torn apart in the quake or were blocked by debris,
making it more difficult to transport food, fresh water and first aid
supplies, and hospitals were overwhelmed by the injured. In a place
where there are constant blackouts, the electricity remained out during
the early hours Wednesday, and telephones were not working.
More than 30 significant aftershocks of a 4.5 magnitude or higher
rattled Haiti through the night and into the early morning, according
to Amy Vaughan, a geophysicist with the United States Geological
Survey. “We’ve seen a lot of shaking still happening,” she said.
Bob Poff, a Salvation Army official, said in a written account posted
on the Salvation Army’s Web site how he had loaded injured victims —
“older, scared, bleeding and terrified” — into the back of his truck
and set off in search of help. In two hours, he managed to travel less
than a mile, he said.
The account described how Mr. Poff and hundreds of neighbors spent the
night outside, in the playground near a children’s home run by the
group. Every tremor sent ripples of fear through the survivors,
providing “another reminder that we are not yet finished with this
calamity,” he wrote.
“And when it comes, all of the people cry out and the children are
terrified,” he wrote.
Louise Ivers, the clinical director of the aid group Partners in
Health, said in an e-mail to her colleagues: “Port-au-Prince is
devastated, lot of deaths. SOS. SOS . . . Temporary field hospital by
us at UNDP needs supplies, pain meds, bandages. Please help us.”
A hospital collapsed in Pétionville, a hillside district in
Port-au-Prince that is home to many diplomats and wealthy Haitians, a
videographer for The Associated Press said. Photos from Haiti on
Wednesday showed a hillside scraped nearly bare of its houses, which
had tumbled into the ravine below.
Tequila Minsky, a photographer who was in Port-au-Prince, said a wall
at the front of the Hotel Oloffson had fallen, killing a passer-by. A
number of nearby buildings had crumbled, trapping people, she said, and
a Unibank bank building was badly damaged. People were screaming.
“It was general mayhem,” Ms. Minsky said.
The earthquake struck just before 5 p.m. about 10 miles southwest of
Port-au-Prince, the United States Geological Survey said.
Haiti’s many man-made woes — its dire poverty, political infighting and
proclivity for insurrection — have been exacerbated repeatedly by
natural disasters. At the end of 2008, four hurricanes flooded whole
towns, knocked out bridges and left a destitute population in even more
desperate conditions.
Simon Romero reported from
Port-au-Prince and Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, and Marc Lacey
from Mexico City. Reporting was contributed by Ginger Thompson and
Brian Knowlton from Washington, Elisabeth Malkin from Mexico City, Neil
MacFarquhar from New York and Mery Galanternick from Rio de Janeiro.
AP Photo/Medecins Sans
Frontieres, Stefano Zannini.
This
photo provided by Medecins Sans Frontieres shows wounded people
gathered at the office of Medecins Sans Frontieres in Port-au-Prince,
Haiti Wednesday Jan. 13, 2010. Haitians piled bodies along the
devastated streets of their capital Wednesday after the strongest
earthquake hit the poor Caribbean nation in more than 200 years crushed
thousands of structures, from schools and shacks to the National Palace
and the U.N. peacekeeping headquarters.
Norwich
Haitian ministry begins relief efforts; 2 Conn. residents rescued
DAY
Elissa Bass
Article published Jan 13, 2010
Despite having its mission
house completely destroyed in Tuesday's earthquake, the Diocese of
Norwich Haitian Ministries has no intention of giving up its commitment
to the people of Haiti, a spokeswoman said this morning.
"We are committed to be with
the Haitian people," said Emily Smack, the executive director for the
Norwich Haitian Ministries. "One way or another we will be in Haiti."
The two Connecticut residents
who were trapped for 10 hours in the collapsed mission house near
Port-au-Prince were pulled out alive early this morning. Jillian Thorp of Old Saybrook, the
mission house's acting director, and Charles Dietsch of Southbury, were
both rescued, according to Smack. Smack said the ministry will begin
organizing fund raising today. She said cash needs to be raised so that
food and medicine can be purchased in the Dominican Republic and
brought into Haiti.
"The airport is closed down
and mobilizing and trying to containerize (donated items) ... by the
time we get into Haiti all that would be of little use," Smack said.
"They need medicine, food and shelter now."
Smack said now that the
missionaries have been rescued, "our next thing to do is find out
what's happened to our partners, the orphanages we support and the
schoolchildren and the feeding programs. All of those take place in
extremely adverse areas, so it will be a while before the dust settles."
Smack said the ministry's
three-story building was totally destroyed, and everyone is "camping
out in the driveway right now." She said the two injured Americans will
be evacuated to the U.S. Embassy in Port-au-Prince today.
"I talked to Jill just a
little while ago," Smack said this morning. Thorp and Dietsch were in
the basement of the building when the earthquake hit.
"A male guard came and heard
them banging on the metal and concrete and he went and got the others
and they dug by hand," she said.
"We have four Haitian staff
men who, once they knew their families were OK, they came back to that
mission house to dig our staff out," Smack said.
Jillian Thorp's husband Frank
is also in Haiti. He was about 100 miles away when the earthquake hit,
Smack said, which is about a six-hour drive.
"He immediately hopped in a
car and caught up with a group of medical students and brought them to
the mission house," Smack said. "The miracle is, just as they were
reaching Jill (in the rubble), her husband got there and he was
actually the person who pulled her out."
Smack said Jillian Thorp
"sounded remarkably good. She is badly bruised, cut up, lots of muscle
pulls, and Chuck may have broken a leg and possibly some ribs."
A third person in the house at the
time of the collapse, a Haitian housekeeper named Lanite, was pulled
out alive but is in critical condition. Ministry spokeswoman Kyn Tolson
said Lanite may have lost both her legs. Smack said another Haitian employee at
the mission, the daytime guard, remains unaccounted for.
The Norwich-based ministry
workers are able to communicate with those on the island through the
Internet, on Skype. Regular communication with Haiti is not
possible. Smack said
she has been working the phones and been on Skype non-stop since she
first got word of the catastrophe at 5 p.m., Tuesday. She went to New
York City first thing this morning to be interviewed on the network
news shows about the dramatic rescue of Thorp and Dietsch. While they are working to get help to the
island, it is an emotional time for the local ministry workers.
"We were just saying the
other day that last year was so horrible (for Haiti), they had those
five hurricanes right in a row, bam, bam, bam, and it was just
devastating," Smack said, her voice welling with emotion. "Then we had
the school collapse.
"This year, things seemed
calm, road construction had started, the government was stable. And
it's just like, if you let your guard down, I just don't know what to
say ... They are not equipped to help, there is no major infrastructure
to help these people. It's discouraging on one hand, but we have to
stand with them, they are our brothers and sisters."
ivilians cannot get into
Haiti, as the airport tower was destroyed and the airport is closed.
More Connecticut residents were scheduled to go to Haiti next week and
in early February with the Norwich mission. Smack said those plans are
on hold.
"One thing we don't want to
do is add to the confusion," she said. "We want to be helpful, not add
to the chaos."
Haiti earthquake:
Port-au-Prince
rocked by 7.0 quake; buildings collapse, hundreds feared dead
By Helen Kennedy, DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER
Originally Published:Tuesday, January 12th 2010, 5:29 PM
Updated: Wednesday, January 13th 2010, 2:05 AM
A devastating quake left Haiti's capital in ruins, knocking
down hospitals, high-rises, and churches Tuesday - and leveling the
presidential palace...
The extent of the horror was only beginning to emerge. Near-complete
power failures left Haiti, an impoverished island nation of 8million,
largely cut off from the world. Efforts to rescue the injured and
trapped were described as desperate. People were clawing at the debris
with their bare hands, trying to save loved ones, witnesses said.
In the hilly neighborhood of Petionville, where a hospital fell on top
of screaming patients, a visiting U.S. federal official said he saw a
number of homes collapsed into a ravine.
"The sky is just gray with dust," Henry Bahn said. "I just hear a
tremendous amount of noise and shouting and screaming in the distance."
Haitian immigrants in New York City and elsewhere were frantically
trying to contact relatives back home - and having no luck getting
through. The magnitude-7.0 quake hit right near Port-au-Prince at
4:53 p.m. and is believed to be the strongest quake in Haiti in more
than 200 years. Two powerful aftershocks measuring 5.9 and 5.5 soon
followed, further damaging structures weakened by the initial quake.
The quake struck just as Haiti was starting to show the first signs of
recovery from the relentless battering of Hurricanes Fay, Gustav, Hanna
and Ike in 2008, which killed hundreds and left 800,000 people homeless.
Famed Haitian musician Wyclef Jean, who has worked to improve
conditions in his homeland, said he feared what will follow this "human
disaster" - including looting.
"Idle hands will only make this tragedy worse," he warned.
He called on President Obama to quickly send in troops.
"The U.S. military is the only group trained and prepared to offer that
assistance immediately," he said. "The international community must
also rise to the occasion and help."
The UN peacekeeping force of 7,060 troops and 2,091 police, key to
maintaining order in Haiti, is also in crisis. UN officials said their
main security headquarters "sustained serious damage ... and a large
number of personnel remain unaccounted for."
U.S. committed to help
Obama said the United States stands ready to help.
A State Department spokesman, Gordon Duguid, said search and rescue
teams have already been dispatched to the quake-ravaged country.
U.S. Coast Guard officials in Miami have mobilized C-130 aircraft and
cutters from ports in Florida, Virginia and New Hampshire.
"We will be providing both civilian and military disaster relief," said
Secretary of State Clinton. And her husband, former President Bill
Clinton, the UN's special envoy for Haiti, promised his office was
"committed to do whatever we can."
Obama received an update from his national security staff on the dire
situation in Haiti Tuesday night.
"The President told them that he expects an aggressive, coordinated
effort by the U.S. government," said an administration official.
Mobilizing assistance could prove difficult at first as the aid workers
in country, many of them Americans, were also affected - and the main
airport was damaged.
The Haitian Ministries for the Diocese of Norwich, Conn., reported two
of its workers trapped in their Petionville mission house, which
partially collapsed.
The two were identified as the mission's acting director, Jillian
Thorp, and a consultant, Charles Dietsch. Thorp is the daughter-in-law
of retired Rear Adm. Frank Thorp, the Navy's former chief information
officer.
Frank Thorp said she called for help using her cell phone and reported
her leg injured. The phone died at 8 p.m.
Elsewhere, Red Cross spokeswoman Abi Weaver reported trouble reaching
the agency's ground workers.
The local headquarters of Save the Children was also damaged, said Ian
Rodgers, its emergency response adviser, who is in Haiti. "Houses all
around the headquarters are collapsed," he added.
Mayor Bloomberg said the city would collect cash donations.
He lauded the "special, close relationship" between Haiti and New York,
given the 125,000 New Yorkers who hail from that nation.
"New York City stands ready to do all we can to help Haiti, as we have
in the past," he said.
"On behalf of 8.4 million New Yorkers, nou ave'w - we are with you,"
Bloomberg said.
U.S. Geological Survey geophysicist Kristin Marano called the quake the
strongest since 1770. In 1946, a magnitude-8.1 quake struck the
Dominican Republic, which shares the island of Hispaniola with Haiti,
and also shook Haiti, producing a tsunami that killed 1,790 people.
Haiti was last rocked by a major-magnitude temblor, one measuring 6.7,
in 1984.
Haiti
hit by largest earthquake in over 200
years
YAHOO
By JONATHAN M. KATZ, Associated Press Writer
January 12, 2010
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti – The strongest earthquake in more than 200 years
rocked Haiti on Tuesday, collapsing a hospital where people screamed
for help and heavily damaging the National Palace, U.N. peacekeeper
headquarters and other buildings. U.S. officials reported bodies in the
streets and an aid official described "total disaster and chaos."
United Nations officials said a large number of U.N. personnel were
unaccounted for.
Communications were widely disrupted, making it impossible to get a
full picture of damage as powerful aftershocks shook a desperately poor
country where many buildings are flimsy. Electricity was out in some
places.
Karel Zelenka, a Catholic Relief Services representative in
Port-au-Prince, told U.S. colleagues before phone service failed that
"there must be thousands of people dead," according to a spokeswoman
for the aid group, Sara Fajardo.
"He reported that it was just total disaster and chaos, that there were
clouds of dust surrounding Port-au-Prince," Fajardo said from the
group's offices in Maryland.
State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley said in Washington that embassy
personnel were "literally in the dark" after power failed.
"They reported structures down. They reported a lot of walls down. They
did see a number of bodies in the street and on the sidewalk that had
been hit by debris. So clearly, there's going to be serious loss of
life in this," he said.
Alain Le Roy, the U.N. peacekeeping chief in New York, said late
Tuesday that the headquarters of the 9,000-member Haiti peacekeeping
mission and other U.N. installations were seriously damaged.
"Contacts with the U.N. on the ground have been severely hampered," Le
Roy said in a statement, adding: "For the moment, a large number of
personnel remain unaccounted for."
Felix Augustin, Haiti's consul general in New York, said a portion of
the National Palace had disintegrated.
"Buildings collapsed all over the place," he said. "We have lives that
are destroyed. ... It will take at least two or three days for people
to know what's going on."
An Associated Press videographer saw the wrecked hospital in
Petionville, a hillside Port-au-Prince district that is home to many
diplomats and wealthy Haitians, as well as many poor people. Elsewhere
in the capital, a U.S. government official reported seeing houses that
had tumbled into a ravine.
Kenson Calixte of Boston spoke to an uncle and cousin in Port-au-Prince
shortly after the earthquake by phone. He could hear screaming in the
background as his relatives described the frantic scene in the streets.
His uncle told him that a small hotel near their home had collapsed,
with people inside.
"They told me it was total chaos, a lot of devastation," he said. More
than four hours later, he still was not able to get them back on the
phone for an update.
Haiti's ambassador to the U.S., Raymond Joseph, said from his
Washington office that he spoke to President Rene Preval's chief of
staff, Fritz Longchamp, just after the quake hit. He said Longchamp
told him that "buildings were crumbling right and left" near the
national palace. He too had not been able to get through by phone to
Haiti since.
With phones down, some of the only communication came from social media
such as Twitter. Richard Morse, a well-known musician who manages the
famed Olafson Hotel, kept up a stream of dispatches on the aftershocks
and damage reports. The news, based mostly on second-hand reports and
photos, was disturbing, with people screaming in fear and roads blocked
with debris. Belair, a slum even in the best of times, was said to be
"a broken mess."
The earthquake had a preliminary magnitude of 7.0 and was centered
about 10 miles (15 kilometers) west of Port-au-Prince at a depth of 5
miles (8 kilometers), the U.S. Geological Survey said. USGS
geophysicist Kristin Marano called it the strongest earthquake since
1770 in what is now Haiti. In 1946, a magnitude-8.1 quake struck the
Dominican Republic and also shook Haiti, producing a tsunami that
killed 1,790 people.
The temblor appeared to have occurred along a strike-slip fault, where
one side of a vertical fault slips horizontally past the other, said
earthquake expert Tom Jordan at the University of Southern California.
The earthquake's size and proximity to populated Port-au-Prince likely
caused widespread casualties and structural damage, he said.
"It's going to be a real killer," he said. "Whenever something like
this happens, you just hope for the best."
Most of Haiti's 9 million people are desperately poor, and after years
of political instability the country has no real construction
standards. In November 2008, following the collapse of a school in
Petionville, the mayor of Port-au-Prince estimated about 60 percent of
the buildings were shoddily built and unsafe in normal circumstances.
Tuesday's quake was felt in the Dominican Republic, which shares a
border with Haiti on the island of Hispaniola, and some panicked
residents in the capital of Santo Domingo fled from their shaking
homes. But no major damage was reported there.
In eastern Cuba, houses shook but there were also no reports of
significant damage.
"We felt it very strongly and I would say for a long time. We had time
to evacuate," said Monsignor Dionisio Garcia, archbishop of Santiago.
The few reports emerging from Haiti made clear the country had suffered
extensive damage.
"Everybody is just totally, totally freaked out and shaken," said Henry
Bahn, a U.S. Department of Agriculture official visiting
Port-au-Prince. "The sky is just gray with dust."
Bahn said he was walking to his hotel room when the ground began to
shake.
"I just held on and bounced across the wall," he said. "I just hear a
tremendous amount of noise and shouting and screaming in the distance."
Bahn said there were rocks strewn about and he saw a ravine where
several homes had stood: "It's just full of collapsed walls and rubble
and barbed wire."
In the community of Thomassin, just outside Port-au-Prince, Alain Denis
said neighbors told him the only road to the capital had been cut but
that phones were all dead so it was hard to determine the extent of the
damage.
"At this point, everything is a rumor," he said. "It's dark. It's
nighttime."
Former President Bill Clinton, the U.N.'s special envoy for Haiti,
issued a statement saying his office would do whatever he could to help
the nation recover and rebuild.
"My thoughts and prayers are with the people of Haiti," he said.
President Barack Obama ordered U.S. officials to start preparing in
case humanitarian assistance was needed.
Venezuelan Foreign Minister Nicolas Maduro said his government planned
to send a military aircraft carrying canned foods, medicine and
drinking water and also would dispatch a team of 50 rescue workers
Haitian musician Wyclef Jean urged his fans to donate to earthquake
relief efforts, saying he had received text messages from his homeland
reporting that many people had died.
"We must think ahead for the aftershock, the people will need food,
medicine, shelter, etc.," Jean said on his Web site.
Brazil's government was trying to re-establish communications with its
embassy and military personnel in Haiti late Tuesday, according to the
G1 Web site of Globo TV. Brazil leads a 9,000-member U.N. peacekeeping
force there.
Felix Augustin, Haiti's consul general in New York, said he was
concerned about everyone in Haiti, including his relatives.
"Communication is absolutely impossible," he said. "I've been trying to
call my ministry and I cannot get through. ... It's mind-boggling."
Page last
updated at 02:34 GMT, Wednesday,
13 January 2010
Haitian website Radio Tele Ginen has been
posting images of ruined buildings and wrecked cars
A 7.3-magnitude earthquake which
struck off the coast of Haiti is feared to have caused major loss of
life in and around the capital, Port-au-Prince.
Haiti's envoy to the US said it was a "catastrophe of major
proportions".
Buildings, including a hospital, are said to have collapsed,
and rescue efforts are under way.
The
quake, which struck about 15km (10 miles) south-west of the capital,
was quickly followed by two strong aftershocks of 5.9 and 5.5
magnitude.
The tremor hit at 1653 (2153 GMT), the US Geological Survey
said. Phone lines to the country failed shortly afterwards.
A Reuters reporter in Port-au-Prince said he had seen "dozens
of dead and injured people" in the rubble of fallen buildings.
Karel Zelenka, a Catholic Relief Services representative in
Port-au-Prince, told colleagues in the US "there must be thousands of
people dead".
The aid worker had managed to phone his colleagues before
communication links went down.
The BBC's Nick Davies in neighbouring Jamaica says the ground
apparently shook for more than a minute in Haiti.
Local
people, he said, were using anything they could get their hands on -
including farm equipment - to help release those trapped in the quake.
Our
correspondent adds that, as the poorest country in the western
hemisphere, Haiti is likely to need international aid in order to cope
with the quake's impact.
'Three million affected'
US
President Barack Obama said in a statement that his "thoughts and
prayers" were with the people of Haiti and America stood ready to
assist them.
UN officials said they were having trouble contacting their
mission in Haiti to get a clear picture of the aftermath.
"We
are trying to get in touch with our people on the ground but we are
experiencing communication problems, which is not unusual in a disaster
such as this," spokeswoman Stephanie Bunker told AFP news agency in New
York.
Raymond Joseph, Haiti's ambassador to the US, told CNN: "I
think it is really a catastrophe of major proportions."
He said he had just spoken to a government colleague in
Port-au-Prince:
"He
had to stop his car just about half an hour ago, and take to the
streets, start walking, but he said houses were crumbling on the right
side of the street and the left side of the street.
"He does
not know whether he would reach his home, not knowing what he would
find, because he had a bridge to cross to get there."
Mike Blanpied of the US Geological Survey said that, based on
the
location and size of the quake, about three million people will have
been severely shaken by its impact.
"This quake occurred under
land as opposed to off-shore, so a lot of people were directly exposed
to the shaking coming off that earthquake fault, which was quite
shallow," he told the BBC.
He added that as the quake had
occurred near a highly populated urban area, the aftershocks could
cause additional damage to already shaken buildings.
'Rubble and wire'
An
Associated Press cameraman saw the wrecked hospital in Petionville, a
hilly suburb of the capital, and Henry Bahn, a visiting official from
the US Department of Agriculture, said he had seen houses which had
tumbled into a ravine.
|
HAITI COUNTRY PROFILE
Half of Caribbean island of Hispaniola
History of violence, instability and
dictatorship
Population of 10 million people
Most live on less than $2 a day
Democratic rule restored in 2006
Economy in ruins and unemployment is
chronic
UN peacekeepers deployed - foreign aid
seen as vital
Massive deforestation has left just 2%
forest
|
"Everybody is just totally, totally freaked out and shaken,"
said Mr Bahn, who described the sky as "just grey with dust".
He said he had been walking to his hotel room when the ground
began to shake.
"I just held on and bounced across the wall," he said.
"I just hear a tremendous amount of noise and shouting and
screaming in the distance."
He
said rocks were strewn all over the place, and the ravine where several
homes had fallen in was "just full of collapsed walls and rubble and
barbed wire".
BBC News website readers in the Dominican
Republic, which borders Haiti on the island of Hispaniola, said they
had also felt the quake.
"My family is on the 8th floor of a tower in downtown Santo
Domingo," wrote Max Levine.
"We
felt a swaying of the building for 5-10 seconds. All the lamps were
swinging. There was a 20-second pause and then another similar sway. We
rushed out of the building with many others to the street."
In
the immediate aftermath of the quake, a tsunami watch was put out for
Haiti, Cuba and the Bahamas, but this was later lifted.
6.5 Northern Calif.
quake leaves jumble of debris
YAHOO
By DON THOMPSON, Associated Press Writers
January 10, 2010
EUREKA, Calif. – A powerful offshore earthquake that struck near the
Northern California coast left a hodgepodge of debris for communities
to sort through Sunday but spared residents any serious injury.
The 6.5 magnitude temblor hit at about 4:27 p.m. PST Saturday and was
centered in the Pacific about 22 miles west of Ferndale. It was felt in
towns more than 300 miles south into central California and as far
north as central Oregon, the U.S. Geological Survey said. Ferndale is
about 240 miles north of San Francisco.
Dozens of people suffered minor injuries and thousands lost power.
In Eureka, north of Ferndale, residents of an apartment building were
evacuated, and an office building and two other commercial structures
in the town of about 26,000 people were declared unsafe for occupancy,
according to Humboldt County spokesman Phil Smith-Hanes.
"Our initial reports were that, though this was a pretty decent quake,
we survived it well," Smith-Hanes said, adding that damage assessments
would continue Sunday across the county.
Sandra Hall, owner of Antiques and Goodies, said furniture fell over,
nearly all her lamps broke and the handful of customers in her store
got a big scare. She said it was the most dramatic quake in the 30
years the Eureka store has been open.
"We'll be having a sale on broken china for those who like to do
mosaics," she said.
More than a dozen aftershocks, some with magnitudes as powerful as 4.5,
rumbled for several hours after the initial quake, which had a depth of
nearly 10 miles.
Authorities on Saturday said no major injuries were reported. But
several people received minor cuts and scrapes from broken glass at the
Bayshore Mall in Eureka, and an elderly person fell and broke a hip,
authorities said.
"We're mostly getting reports of bumps, bruises and hits on the head,"
said Laurie Watson Stone, a spokeswoman for St. Joseph Hospital, a
146-bed hospital in Eureka. "The emergency room is busy, but we haven't
heard of any major injuries."
Amanda Nichols, a dispatcher for Eureka Police Department, said she
received a report that an infant was struck in the head with some
flying debris at the mall.
Pacific Gas & Electric Co. spokesman J.D. Guidi said power outages
were widespread across most of Humboldt County, affecting about 25,000
customers.
Nearly 10,000 remained without power some five hours after the quake,
and some could remain without power through Sunday, said PG&E
spokeswoman Janna Morris.
No damage was done to the company's former nuclear power plant outside
Eureka, Morris said.
Several traffic lights fell and numerous residents reported water, gas
and sewer leaks, Humboldt County Office of Emergency Services
spokeswoman Jo Wattle said.
"People have chimneys down, and we're hearing about minor property
damage and lots of glassware broken," Wattle said. "People are really
shaken up. It was shaking pretty good, then it had a big jolt to it at
the end."
Police in Ferndale, a town of about 1,500 residents, said the
earthquake caused stucco to fall off City Hall and broke shop windows,
strewing the historic downtown streets with glass shards.
"I thought a tire had blown off my truck because it was so hard to keep
control of the vehicle," Officer Lindsey Frank said. "Power lines were
swaying, and I could see people in the fields trying to keep their
balance."
Eureka city spokesman Gary Bird said because the earthquake hit shortly
before dark, only the city's old town received thorough surveys for
damage. Authorities there found fallen bricks and parapets that had
fallen off old structures, causing damage to adjacent buildings, he
said.
"There are some frayed nerves, but I think we've come through this
pretty well for the magnitude of earthquake we've had," Bird said.
Televisions tumbled and objects were knocked off walls in Arcata, a
small town that's home to Humboldt State University, one resident said.
"The whole town is kind of freaked out right now," said Judd Starks,
the kitchen manager at a bar and restaurant known as The Alibi.
California is one of the world's most seismically active regions. More
than 300 faults crisscross the state, which sits atop two of Earth's
major tectonic plates, the Pacific and North American plates. About
10,000 quakes each year rattle Southern California alone, although most
of them are too small to be felt.
Earthquake strikes central Whidbey
South Whidbey RECORD
Jul 02 2009, 7:25 AM · UPDATED
An earthquake measuring 3.7 on the Richter scale hit about two miles
east/southeast of Coupeville on Whidbey Island at 5:09 a.m. Wednesday
morning. There were no reports of injury or damage, according to
Island County Sheriff Deputy Wylie Farr.
"It was apparently about 36 miles below the earth and most people don't
even know about it," she said. "We checked with emergency services and
I-COM and there were only a few reports."
University of Washington staff scientist Bill Steele said the event was
similar to a 4.5-magnitude quake recorded under Poulsbo on Jan. 30.
"It was kind of a groaning of the Juan de Fuca plate that runs under
the sound," he explained. "We have a number of them every year.
Sometimes a lot of little quakes can indicate a larger strain is
building."
He said there's still a lot science doesn't know, nor can anyone
predict where a quake will strike.
"There's an 83 percent chance you could have a magnitude-seven
earthquake right under you within the next six years. Or in the next 50
years," he said.
One early-morning riser felt the temblor. Coupeville resident
Julie Rosenthal felt the earthquake and knew what it was right away.
"I was kind of waking up anyway, but I knew it was an earthquake
because I'm from California and I'm used to the feeling," Rosenthal
said.
Rosenthal, who lives about six miles south of downtown Coupeville in
the Admirals Cove neigborhood said that she had not heard if anyone in
Coupeville center had felt it.
"My son Blake said he thought it sounded like the wind was hitting the
house really hard."
Her daughter was sleeping outside in the playhouse with a girlfriend
when they heard the quake.
"She thought it was the boys goofing around and banging on the windows.
My boys, who are all Boy Scouts, said that they should get an emergency
preparedness kit ready, just in case," she said.
The United States Geological Survey Web site —
earthquake.usgs.gov/eqcenter — reported that 16 Coupeville residents
and 30 Oak Harbor residents called in about the quake. The
Richter magnitude scale assigns a single number to quantify the amount
of seismic energy released by an earthquake, based on a 1 to 10
logarithmic scale. An earthquake that measures 5.0 on the Richter scale
has a shaking amplitude 10 times larger than one that measures 4.0.
Deep in Bedrock, Clean Energy and Quake
Fears
NYTIMES
By JAMES GLANZ
June 24, 2009
BASEL, Switzerland — Markus O. Häring, a former oilman, was a hero
in
this city of medieval cathedrals and intense environmental passion
three years ago, all because he had drilled a hole three miles deep
near the corner of Neuhaus Street and Shafer Lane.
He was prospecting for a vast source of clean, renewable energy that
seemed straight out of a Jules Verne novel: the heat simmering within
the earth’s bedrock.
All seemed to be going well — until Dec. 8, 2006, when the project set
off an earthquake, shaking and damaging buildings and terrifying many
in a city that, as every schoolchild here learns, had been devastated
exactly 650 years before by a quake that sent two steeples of the
Münster Cathedral tumbling into the Rhine.
Hastily shut down, Mr. Häring’s project was soon forgotten by
nearly
everyone outside Switzerland. As early as this week, though, an
American start-up company, AltaRock Energy, will begin using nearly the
same method to drill deep into ground laced with fault lines in an area
two hours’ drive north of San Francisco.
Residents of the region, which straddles Lake and Sonoma Counties, have
already been protesting swarms of smaller earthquakes set off by a less
geologically invasive set of energy projects there. AltaRock officials
said that they chose the spot in part because the history of mostly
small quakes reassured them that the risks were limited.
Like the effort in Basel, the new project will tap geothermal energy by
fracturing hard rock more than two miles deep to extract its heat.
AltaRock, founded by Susan Petty, a veteran geothermal researcher, has
secured more than $36 million from the Energy Department, several large
venture-capital firms, including Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers,
and Google. AltaRock maintains that it will steer clear of large faults
and that it can operate safely.
But in a report on seismic impact that AltaRock was required to file,
the company failed to mention that the Basel program was shut down
because of the earthquake it caused. AltaRock claimed it was uncertain
that the project had caused the quake, even though Swiss government
seismologists and officials on the Basel project agreed that it did.
Nor did AltaRock mention the thousands of smaller earthquakes induced
by the Basel project that continued for months after it shut down.
The California project is the first of dozens that could be operating
in the United States in the next several years, driven by a push to cut
emissions of heat-trapping gases and the Obama administration’s support
for renewable energy.
Geothermal’s potential as a clean energy source has raised huge hopes,
and its advocates believe it could put a significant dent in American
dependence on fossil fuels — potentially supplying roughly 15 percent
of the nation’s electricity by 2030, according to one estimate by
Google. The earth’s heat is always there waiting to be tapped, unlike
wind and solar power, which are intermittent and thus more fickle.
According to a 2007 geothermal report financed by the Energy
Department, advanced geothermal power could in theory produce as much
as 60,000 times the nation’s annual energy usage. President Obama, in a
news conference Tuesday, cited geothermal power as part of the “clean
energy transformation” that a climate bill now before Congress could
bring about.
Dan W. Reicher, an assistant energy secretary in the Clinton
administration who is now director of climate change and energy at
Google’s investment and philanthropic arm, said geothermal energy had
“the potential to deliver vast amounts of power almost anywhere in the
world, 24/7.”
Power companies have long produced limited amounts of geothermal energy
by tapping shallow steam beds, often beneath geysers or vents called
fumaroles. Even those projects can induce earthquakes, although most
are small. But for geothermal energy to be used more widely, engineers
need to find a way to draw on the heat at deeper levels percolating in
the earth’s core.
Some geothermal advocates believe the method used in Basel, and to be
tried in California, could be that breakthrough. But because large
earthquakes tend to originate at great depths, breaking rock that far
down carries more serious risk, seismologists say. Seismologists have
long known that human activities can trigger quakes, but they say the
science is not developed enough to say for certain what will or will
not set off a major temblor.
Even so, there is no shortage of money for testing the idea. Mr.
Reicher has overseen a $6.25 million investment by Google in AltaRock,
and with more than $200 million in new federal money for geothermal,
the Energy Department has already approved financing for related
projects in Idaho by the University of Utah; in Nevada by Ormat
Technologies; and in California by Calpine, just a few miles from
AltaRock’s project.
Steven E. Koonin, the under secretary for science at the Energy
Department, said the earthquake issue was new to him, but added, “We’re
committed to doing things in a factual and rigorous way, and if there
is a problem, we will attend to it.”
The tone is more urgent in Europe. “This was my main question to the
experts: Can you exclude that there is a major earthquake triggered by
this man-made activity?” said Rudolf Braun, chairman of the project
team that the City of Basel created to study the risks of resuming the
project.
“I was quite surprised that all of them said: ‘No, we can’t. We can’t
exclude it,’ “ said Mr. Braun, whose study is due this year.
“It would be just unfortunate if, in the United States, you rush ahead
and don’t take into account what happened here,” he said.
Basel’s Big Shock
By the time people were getting off work amid rain squalls in Basel on
Dec. 8, 2006, Mr. Häring’s problems had already begun. His
incision
into the ground was setting off small earthquakes that people were
starting to feel around the city.
Mr. Häring knew that by its very nature, the technique created
earthquakes because it requires injecting water at great pressure down
drilled holes to fracture the deep bedrock. The opening of each
fracture is, literally, a tiny earthquake in which subterranean
stresses rip apart a weak vein, crack or fault in the rock. The
high-pressure water can be thought of loosely as a lubricant that makes
it easier for those forces to slide the earth along the weak points,
creating a web or network of fractures.
Mr. Häring planned to use that network as the ultimate teapot,
circulating water through the fractures and hoping it emerged as steam.
But what surprised him that afternoon was the intensity of the quakes
because advocates of the method believe they can pull off a delicate
balancing act, tearing the rock without creating larger earthquakes.
Alarmed, Mr. Häring and other company officials decided to release
all
pressure in the well to try to halt the fracturing. But as they stood a
few miles from the drill site, giving the orders by speakerphone to
workers atop the hole, a much bigger jolt shook the room.
“I think that was us,” said one stunned official.
Analysis of seismic data proved him correct. The quake measured 3.4 —
modest in some parts of the world. But triggered quakes tend to be
shallower than natural ones, and residents generally describe them as a
single, explosive bang or jolt — often out of proportion to the
magnitude — rather than a rumble.
Triggered quakes are also frequently accompanied by an “air shock,” a
loud tearing or roaring noise.
The noise “made me feel it was some sort of supersonic aircraft going
overhead,” said Heinrich Schwendener, who, as president of Geopower
Basel, the consortium that includes Geothermal Explorers and the
utility companies, was standing next to the borehole.
“It took me maybe half a minute to realize, hey, this is not a
supersonic plane, this is my well,” Mr. Schwendener said.
By that time, much of the city was in an uproar. In the newsroom of the
city’s main paper, Basler Zeitung, reporters dived under tables and
desks, some refusing to move until a veteran editor barked at them to
go get the story, said Philipp Loser, 28, a reporter there.
Aysel Mermer, 25, a waitress at the Restaurant Schiff near the Rhine
River, said she thought a bomb had gone off.
Eveline Meyer, 44, a receptionist at a maritime exhibition, was on the
phone with a friend and thought that her washing machine had, all by
itself, started clattering with an unbalanced load. “I was saying to my
friend, ‘Am I now completely nuts?’ “ Ms. Meyer recalled. Then, she
said, the line went dead.
Mr. Häring was rushed to police headquarters in a squad car so he
could
explain what had happened. By the time word slipped out that the
project had set off the earthquake, Mr. Loser said, outrage was
sweeping the city. The earthquakes, including three more above
magnitude 3, rattled on for about a year — more than 3,500 in all,
according to the company’s sensors.
Although no serious injuries were reported, Geothermal Explorers’
insurance company ultimately paid more than $8 million in mostly minor
damage claims to the owners of thousands of houses in Switzerland and
in neighboring Germany and France.
Optimism and Opportunity
In the United States, where the Basel earthquakes received little news
coverage, the fortunes of geothermal energy were already on a dizzying
rise. The optimistic conclusions of the Energy Department’s geothermal
report began driving interest from investors, as word trickled out
before its official release.
In fall 2006, after some of the findings were presented at a trade
meeting, Trae Vassallo, a partner at the firm Kleiner Perkins, phoned
Ms. Petty, the geothermal researcher who was one of 18 authors on the
report, according to e-mail messages from both women. That call
eventually led Ms. Petty to found AltaRock and bring in, by Ms. Petty’s
tally, another six of the authors as consultants to the company or in
other roles.
J. David Rogers, a professor and geological engineer at the Missouri
University of Science and Technology who was not involved in the
report, said such overlap of research and commercial interests was
common in science and engineering but added that it might be perceived
as a conflict of interest. “It’s very, very satisfying to see something
go from theory to application to actually making money and being
accepted by society,” Professor Rogers said. “It’s what every scientist
dreams of.”
Ms. Petty said that her first “serious discussions” with Ms. Vassallo
about forming a company did not come until the report was officially
released in late January 2007. That June, Ms. Petty founded AltaRock
with $4 million from Kleiner Perkins and Khosla Ventures, an investment
firm based in California.
The Basel earthquake hit more than a month before the Energy
Department’s report came out, but no reference to it was included in
the report’s spare and reassuring references to earthquake risks. Ms.
Petty said the document had already been at the printer by the fall,
“so there was no way we could have included the Basel event in the
report.”
Officials at AltaRock, with offices in Sausalito, Calif., and Seattle,
insist that the company has learned the lessons of Basel and that its
own studies indicate the project can be carried out safely. James T.
Turner, AltaRock’s senior vice president for operations, said the
company had applied for roughly 20 patents on ways to improve the
method.
Mr. Turner also asserted in a visit to the project site last month that
AltaRock’s monitoring and fail-safe systems were superior to those used
in Basel.
“We think it’s going to be pretty neat,” Mr. Turner said as he stood
next to a rig where the company plans to drill a hole almost two and a
half miles deep. “And when it’s successful, we’ll have a good-news
story that says we can extend geothermal energy.”
AltaRock, in its seismic activity report, included the Basel earthquake
in a list of temblors near geothermal projects, but the company denied
that it had left out crucial details of the quake in seeking approval
for the project in California. So far, the company has received its
permit from the federal Bureau of Land Management to drill its first
hole on land leased to the Northern California Power Agency, but still
awaits a second permit to fracture rock.
“We did discuss Basel, in particular, the 3.4 event, with the B.L.M.
early in the project,” Mr. Turner said in an e-mail response to
questions after the visit.
But Richard Estabrook, a petroleum engineer in the Ukiah, Calif., field
office of the land agency who has a lead role in granting the necessary
federal permits, gave a different account when asked if he knew that
the Basel project had shut down because of earthquakes or that it had
induced more than 3,500 quakes.
“I’ll be honest,” he said. “I didn’t know that.”
Mr. Estabrook said he was still leaning toward giving approval if the
company agreed to controls that could stop the work if it set off
earthquakes above a certain intensity. But, he said, speaking of the
Basel project’s shutdown, “I wish that had been disclosed.”
Bracing for Tremors
There was a time when Anderson Springs, about two miles from the
project site, had few earthquakes — no more than anywhere else in the
hills of Northern California. Over cookies and tea in the cabin his
family has owned since 1958, Tom Grant and his sister Cynthia Lora
reminisced with their spouses over visiting the town, once famous for
its mineral baths, in the 1940s and ’50s. “I never felt an earthquake
up here,” Mr. Grant said .
Then came a frenzy of drilling for underground steam just to the west
at The Geysers, a roughly 30-square-mile patch of wooded hills threaded
with huge, curving tubes and squat power plants. The Geysers is the
nation’s largest producer of traditional geothermal energy. Government
seismologists confirm that earthquakes were far less frequent in the
past and that the geothermal project produces as many as 1,000 small
earthquakes a year as the ground expands and contracts like an enormous
sponge with the extraction of steam and the injection of water to
replace it.
These days, Anderson Springs is a mixed community of working class and
retired residents, affluent professionals and a smattering of artists.
Everyone has a story about earthquakes. There are cats that suddenly
leap in terror, guests who have to be warned about tremors, thousands
of dollars of repairs to walls and cabinets that just do not want to
stay together.
Residents have been fighting for years with California power companies
over the earthquakes, occasionally winning modest financial
compensation. But the obscure nature of earthquakes always gives the
companies an out, says Douglas Bartlett, who works in marketing at Bay
Area Rapid Transit in San Francisco, and with his wife, Susan, owns a
bungalow in town.
“If they were creating tornadoes, they would be shut down immediately,”
Mr. Bartlett said. “But because it’s under the ground, where you can’t
see it, and somewhat conjectural, they keep doing it.”
Now, the residents are bracing for more. As David Oppenheimer, a
seismologist at the United States Geological Survey in Menlo Park,
Calif., explains it, The Geysers is heated by magma welling up from
deep in the earth. Above the magma is a layer of granite-like rock
called felsite, which transmits heat to a thick layer of sandstone-like
material called graywacke, riddled with fractures and filled with steam.
The steam is what originally drew the power companies here. But the
AltaRock project will, for the first time, drill deep into the felsite.
Mr. Turner said that AltaRock, which will drill on federal land leased
by the Northern California Power Agency, had calculated that the number
of earthquakes felt by residents in Anderson Springs and local
communities would not noticeably increase.
But many residents are skeptical.
“It’s terrifying,” said Susan Bartlett, who works as a new patient
coordinator at the Pacific Fertility Center in San Francisco. “What’s
happening to all these rocks that they’re busting into a million
pieces?”
Strong earthquake shakes tall
buildings
in Mexico City, sends people running into streets
Courant.com
Associated Press Writer
JULIE WATSON
2:21 AM EDT, May 23, 2009
MEXICO CITY (AP) — A strong earthquake swayed skyscrapers in Mexico
City and rattled colonial buildings in neighboring Puebla state Friday,
sending frightened people into the streets. There were no immediate
reports of injuries or damage. The U.S. Geological Survey said
the quake had a magnitude of 5.7 and was centered 90 miles (140
kilometers) southeast of the capital. The Mexican seismological service
measured it at 5.9.
Puebla state civil protection chief German Garcia said there were no
reports of injuries or collapsed buildings near the epicenter: "There
is absolute calm, zero damage."
Puebla city is a popular tourist destination known for its gilded
churches and ornate "Talavera" pottery. One of the country's main
Talavera producers, Uriarte, said the quake shook shelves but the
merchandise emerged unscathed. In Mexico City, 20-year-old office
worker Mariana Rodriguez was in a 19th-floor bathroom when she felt her
building sway.
"I saw in the mirror that everything was moving," she said. "The soap
even fell down. We were really nervous, but they didn't let us leave
the building."
One 15-story apartment building in the trendy Condesa neighborhood
rocked so much that doors opened and slammed shut — something the
residents said sounded like "ghosts."
Many ran outside across the metropolis of 20 million. Evacuation
officials steered crowds away from power lines and other potential
hazards, and anxious people waited for several minutes before returning
indoors.
Others immediately got on Facebook and Twitter to tell friends and
family they were OK. Some said their cell phone service was knocked
out. Friday's earthquake was stronger and closer to the capital
than one that hit last month. But Bruce Tresgrave of the U.S.
Geological Survey said it was 35 miles (56 kilometers) below ground —
deeper than normal — and thus unlikely to cause major damage.
Mexico City Mayor Marcelo Ebrard also said no damage was reported, and
the capital's water system, hospitals and subway were not affected.
Officials were conducting a more detailed survey.
The capital has lived through powerful earthquakes, including one in
1985 that killed as many as 10,000 people. Parts of Mexico City rest on
the shaky soil of a former lake bed, which tends to magnify the effect
of earthquakes.
Small Earthquake Noted Near SC
Coast;
No Injuries
NYTIMES
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Filed at 5:11 p.m. ET
May 6, 2009
CHARLESTON, S.C. (AP) -- A weak earthquake has been recorded near the
South Carolina coast, but officials say there are no immediate reports
of damages or injuries.
The Earthquake Hazards Program of the U.S. Geological Survey said the
2.5 magnitude temblor was recorded near Summerville just after 1 p.m.
Wednesday.
The epicenter was near a fault blamed for a deadly magnitude 7.3
earthquake in 1886 that killed more than 100.
Last December, a 3.6 magnitude quake tipped over Christmas trees,
knocked pictures off walls and caused minor injuries.
Erin Beutel, a College of Charleston geologist, said quakes have been
recorded this year near Columbia, between Orangeburg and Aiken, and
north of Florence. None caused damage.
EARLIER ITALIAN QUAKE (2009) HERE
10 reported dead in Italy in 5.8-magnitude quake
Washington Times
By Colleen Barry, Associated Press
Tuesday, May 29, 2012
MILAN (AP) — A magnitude-5.8 earthquake hit northern Italy on Tuesday,
killing at least 10 people in the same region still struggling to
recover from another fatal tremor on May 20.
Premier Mario Monti pledged in a hastily called news conference that
the government will do “all that it must and all that is possible in
the briefest period to guarantee the resumption of normal life in this
area that is so special, so important and so productive for Italy.”
The quake, which struck just after 9 a.m. local time (3 a.m. EDT), was
centered 25 miles northwest of Bologna, according to the U.S.
Geological Survey. It was just miles from where a 6.0 temblor killed
seven people earlier this month. The quake was felt from Piedmont in
northwestern Italy to Venice in the northeast, and as far north as
Austria.
The ANSA news agency reported that 10 people had died, while the
LaPresse news agency said others were still buried under the rubble of
collapsed homes and factories. Concordia Mayor Carlo Marchini confirmed
the death of one person struck by falling debris in the town’s historic
center.
The mayor of San Felice sul Panaro told Sky News 24 that there were
fatalities in his town. News media said a tower in the town had
collapsed.
As far away as Milan, tall buildings and schools were evacuated as a
precaution before people were allowed to re-enter. Train lines
connecting Bologna with other northern cities were stopped while
authorities checked for any damage.
When the quake hit Tuesday, Mr. Monti was meeting with emergency
officials in Rome to discuss the impact of the earlier quake, which
struck in the middle of the night and left at least 7,000 homeless.
Television footage on Sky News 24 showed evacuees from the May 20 quake
peering out of their shaking emergency tents in disbelief. In the first
quake, four of the victims were working overnight shifts in factories
that collapsed; the other three died of heart conditions or other
illnesses brought on by fear.
Resident were taking tentative steps toward resuming normal life when
the second quake struck. In the town of Sant’Agostino, a daycare center
had just reopened. In the town of Concordia, the mayor had scheduled a
town meeting Tuesday evening to discuss the aftermath of the first
quake.
The May 20 quake was described by Italian emergency officials as the
worst to hit the region since the 1300s. In addition to the deaths, it
knocked down a clock tower and other centuries-old buildings and caused
millions in losses to a region known for making Parmesan cheese. Its
epicenter was about 22 miles north of Bologna.
Deadly Earthquake in
North Italy Causes
Wide Damage
By ELISABETTA POVOLEDO, NYTIMES
May 20, 2012
ROME — An earthquake struck the northern Italian region of Emilia
Romagna on Sunday, killing at least five people, injuring dozens,
leaving thousands homeless and damaging historic buildings as well as
warehouses and factories, officials said.
The earthquake, with a magnitude of 6.0 according to the United States
Geological Survey, crumbled church roofs and Renaissance-era towers,
television images showed. Large cracks rippled through apartment blocks
in dozens of small towns, leaving scores homeless.
Three men working the night shift in two different factories on the
outskirts of the small town of Sant’Agostino died when the buildings in
which they were working collapsed. Another was killed outside of
Bondeno. Italy’s National Civil Protection Agency said in a note that a
woman had died of causes resulting from the shock of the quake.
Giovanni Gregori, an earthquake expert with Italy’s national research
council, said on Sky News Italia that given the magnitude of the quake,
the death toll “could have been much worse.”
The civil protection agency also said that at least 3,000 people were
left homeless, the news service ANSA reported. Many areas of Italy are
considered to be at high risk for earthquakes.
A quake in 1976 killed nearly a thousand people in Friuli Venezia
Giulia, and almost 3,000 died in the Campania earthquake of 1980.
Three years ago, an earthquake in the area of L’Aquila, in central
Italy, killed more than 300 people. While rebuilding has advanced in
many villages in the region, the historic center of L’Aquila itself
remains a ghost town and there has been public outcry over delays in
reconstruction there.
But in Emilia Romagna, seismic events of this kind have been more rare.
Mr. Gregori said that the last quake of this magnitude in the area was
in the 14th century. “For man, seven centuries are a lot, for nature it
is nothing,” he said.
Other geophysicists cited an earthquake that severely damaged Ferrara
in 1570 as another precedent.
“We’re not used to events of this kind,” said Giovanni Morandi, editor
in chief of Il Resto Del Carlino, a local daily newspaper.
Minor aftershocks were felt in the region Sunday morning, and many
churches canceled services. The main quake was felt throughout northern
and central Italy, “for hundreds of kilometers, there was a
considerable release of energy,” said Stefano Gresta, a geophysicist
and president of the National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology.
Mr. Gresta said that aftershocks could continue for days, “and we can’t
even exclude a significant quake like the one this morning,” he said.
On Sunday afternoon, another tremor initially measured at a magnitude
of 5.1 by the U.S.G.S., caused further havoc, felling other structures,
and hampering the work of rescue teams.
Areas in some of the hardest-hit towns, scattered across a vast swath
of Italy’s agricultural heartland, were cordoned off while officials
expressed concern about the stability of some historic buildings.
After an initial survey of the area’s culturally relevant monuments and
churches, the Culture Ministry said in a note that the damage had been
extensive. Ministry experts were working with civil protection agency
officials and firefighters to monitor the situation, and three state
museums in Ferrara had been closed, the ministry said.
Engineers and surveyors traveled through the area monitoring roads and
bridges, according to Stefano Vaccari, the lawmaker who oversees the
civil protection agency for Modena Province. Railway lines, roads and
telecommunications had returned to normal, except for one secondary
train line, the National Civil Protection Agency said.
Officials said that schools would be closed for several days, and that
makeshift camps, able to house many hundreds, would be set up in
various towns for those in need of shelter.
At Least 92 Die in Earthquake in Italy
NYTIMES
By RACHEL DONADIO and ELISABETTA POVOLEDO
April 7, 2009
L’AQUILA, Italy — More than 90 people died and tens of thousands were
left homeless when a 6.3 magnitude earthquake shook central Italy early
Monday, seriously damaging buildings in the mountainous Abruzzo Region
east of Rome, officials said. Aftershocks shuddered through the
area during the day, hampering rescue efforts as people clawed through
the debris by hand, frantically seeking survivors.
Most of the deaths were in L’Aquila, a picturesque medieval fortress
hill town, where the quake split the cupola of the 18th-century Santa
Maria del Sofraggio church like an eggshell, exposing the stucco
patterns inside the dome. Other historic buildings were also
damaged in L’Aquila, the quake’s epicenter. Italian authorities
assisted elderly residents in leaving the historic main square, where
they had fled in search of safety.
The narrow streets of the historic center were filled with rubble, and
parked cars were crushed under large blocks of debris. Outside a
damaged convent, a dozen nuns still dressed in bright orange and blue
bathrobes climbed into a van headed to an assistance center. Sister
Lidia, the mother superior, said an 82-year old nun had died of shock.
“The quake, it was very strong,” she said.
The Italian news agency, ANSA, quoted rescue workers in mid-afternoon
as saying the death toll had reached 92 and Prime Minister Silvio
Berlusconi saying that 1500 people had been injured. A spokesman for
Italy’s Civil Protection Agency said on national television that an
estimated 40,000 to 50,000 people had been left homeless. Reports
from the areas said that at least 26 towns had been affected by the
earthquake. “Some towns in the area have been virtually destroyed in
their entirety,” Gianfranco Fini, speaker of the lower house of
Parliament, said in Rome before the chamber observed a moment of
silence.
Mr. Berlusconi canceled a trip to Moscow to travel to L’Aquila, where
he surveyed the damage by helicopter. “At the moment 4,000 rescuers are
at work and concentrating on extracting people from the rubble,” he
said, according to ANSA.
The situation is “extremely critical, as many buildings have
collapsed,” Luca Spoletini, a spokesman for the civil protection
agency, told ANSA shortly after the quake struck.
Four children died in the hospital after their house collapsed, ANSA
reported. A fifth child died in the village of Fossa, eight miles from
L’Aquila, a town of 80,000. The quake struck around 3:30 a.m. and
could be felt as far away as Rome, some 60 miles to the west, where it
rattled furniture and set off car alarms. The United States Geological
Survey said the earthquake that hit L’Aquila had a magnitude of 6.3,
the most violent of several quakes to hit the region overnight.
Part of a student dormitory in L’Aquila collapsed, and initial reports
said one person died and seven people were missing in the debris. At
midday, shaken students sat outside the rubble of the four-story
dormitory, expressing fears for the fate of others who may not have
survived.
“We’re waiting for my son,” said a distraught-looking mother who
declined to give her name. She stood among a knot of anxious onlookers
and hid her red eyes behind large sunglasses.
“This shouldn’t have happened,” said Gabriele Magrini, 21, a physics
student at L’Aquila University, who had been across town at a friend’s
house when the quake struck. He said he had been waiting at the
university since 4 a.m., adding: “We’ve only seen two people come out.
We’re still waiting for 10.”
There was a first shock after 11 p.m., Mr. Magrini said, adding that he
hadn’t realized how bad the major shock had been until he saw the
destruction. Damage to buildings was visible throughout the city,
including at the town’s main cathedral. On Monday afternoon, the
Italian Culture Ministry posted a list of historical monuments that had
been damaged in L’Aquila, including the steeple of the church of San
Bernardino; a small cupola in the church of Sant’Agostino; the cupola
of the church of the Suffragio; a palazzo housing the state archives;
part of the transept of the basilica of Santa Maria di Collemaggio; and
parts of the 16th century castle that houses the National Museum of
Abruzzo, which has been closed to the public.
The worst hit seemed to be the city center in L’Aquila, but the modern
buildings in the outer part of the city were also affected. Residents
wheeling dusty suitcases wandered through the streets as rescue workers
sifted through the rubble. Electricity, phone and gas lines were also
reported damaged.
“It’s a disaster never before seen,” said Franco Totani, a lawyer who
said he was born in L’Aquila and was leaving the town to stay at an
elderly uncle’s house in Rome. “I’ve seen earthquakes before but this
is a catastrophe.”
People in surrounding cities in the Abruzzo and Marche regions also
rushed into the streets, fearing their houses would collapse. In
a letter to the archbishop of L’Aquila, the Vatican secretary of state,
Tarcisio Bertone, wrote that Pope Benedict XVI was praying “for the
victims, in particular for children.”
Speaking on Rainews 24, Guido Bertolaso, Italy’s top civil protection
official said that the earthquake was “comparable if not superior to
the one which struck Umbria in 1997.” That quake killed 10 people and
damaged medieval buildings and churches across the region, including
Assisi’s famed basilica.
Seismic activity is relatively common in Italy, but intensity like that
of Monday’s quake is rare. The L’Aquila quake was the worst to hit
Italy since 1980, when a 6.9-magnitude earthquake struck Eboli, south
of Naples, leaving more than 2,700 people dead.
The last major quake to hit central Italy struck the south-central
Molise region on Oct. 31, 2002, killing 28 people, including 27
children who died when their school collapsed.
Everett,
Wash.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Small quake rattles Puget Sound area;
no reports of damage
Associated Press
Published: Friday, January 30, 2009
SEATTLE -- There are no immediate reports of damage from a 4.5
magnitude earthquake that rattled the Seattle and Puget Sound area at
5:25 a.m. today. But it woke a lot of people up.
The U.S. Geological Survey says it was centered 16 miles northwest of
Seattle near Kingston, in Kitsap County.
The Geological Survey initially reported it as a 4.6 quake, but the
University of Washington report on the Pacific Northwest Seismic
Network listed it at 4.5.
The network shows it was felt throughout the Puget Sound area in
Western Washington, and people reported feeling it in Victoria, British
Columbia, 71 miles to the north.
The shaking woke up Robert Lyden on Anderson Island in Puget Sound.
"It shook the house like something had hit the roof," he said. "It just
woke us up." Other than knocking a water fountain off his deck there
was no damage.
Lacey Menne says it shook her home as she was preparing to go to work
at the Coastal Cafe in Kingston.
"It wasn't strong enough to make anything fall," she said. "It was
like, what is that? I think it might be an earthquake. It's totally an
earthquake!"
Seattle radio and TV stations report callers around the Puget Sound
area felt the shaking for 10 or 15 seconds.
© 2009The Daily Herald Co., Everett, WA
Pre-quake
changes seen in rocks
I-BBC
9 July 2008
Scientists have made an important advance in their efforts to predict
earthquakes, the journal Nature says.
A team of US researchers has detected stress-induced changes in rocks
that occurred hours before two small tremors in California's San
Andreas Fault.
The observations used sensors lowered down holes drilled into the quake
zone.
The team says we are a long way from routine tremor forecasts but the
latest findings hold out hope that such services might be possible one
day.
"If you had 10 hours' warning, from a practical point of view, you
could evacuate populations, you could certainly get people out of
buildings, you could get the fire department ready," said co-author
Paul Silver of the Carnegie Institution of Science, Washington.
"Hurricane [warnings] give you an idea of what could be done," he told
BBC News...The new work comes out of the San Andreas Fault Observatory
at Depth (Safod) project which has been set up in Parkfield, a tiny
rural town halfway between Los Angeles and San Francisco...
History of
deadly
earthquakes
I-BBC
Page last updated at 10:39 GMT, Monday, 6
April 2009 11:39 UK
The 1995 Kobe earthquake highlighted
Japan's lack of disaster preparation
|
Earthquakes have claimed hundreds of thousands of lives in
the
last 100 years and improvements in technology have only slightly
reduced the death toll.
6 April 2009
Scores die in Italy as a powerful earthquake hits the
historic central city of L'Aquila.
29 October 2008
Up
to 300 people are killed in the Pakistani province of Balochistan after
an earthquake of 6.4 magnitude struck 70km (45 miles) north of Quetta.
12 May 2008:
Up
to 87,000 people are killed or missing and as many as 370,000 injured
by an earthquake in just one county in China's south-western Sichuan
province.
The tremor, measuring 7.8, struck 92km (57 miles) from the
provincial capital Chengdu during the early afternoon.
15 August 2007:
At
least 519 people are killed in Peru's coastal province of Ica, as a
7.90-magnitude undersea earthquake strikes about 145km (90 miles)
south-east of the capital, Lima.
17 July 2006:
A
7.7 magnitude undersea earthquake triggers a tsunami that strikes a
200km (125-mile) stretch of the southern coast of Java, killing more
than 650 people on the Indonesian island.
27 May 2006:
More
than 5,700 people die when a magnitude 6.2 quake hits the Indonesian
island of Java, devastating the city of Yogyakarta and surrounding
areas.
1 April 2006:
Seventy people are killed and some 1,200 injured when an
earthquake measuring 6.0 strikes a remote region of western Iran.
8 October 2005:
An
earthquake measuring 7.6 strikes northern Pakistan and the disputed
Kashmir region, killing more than 73,000 people and leaving millions
homeless.
28 March 2005:
About 1,300 people are killed in an 8.7 magnitude quake off
the coast of the Indonesian island of Nias, west of Sumatra.
22 February 2005:
Hundreds die in a 6.4 magnitude quake centred in a remote
area near Zarand in Iran's Kerman province.
26 December 2004:
Hundreds
of thousands are killed across Asia when an earthquake measuring 9.2
triggers sea surges that spread across the region.
24 February 2004:
At least 500 people die in an earthquake which strikes towns
on Morocco's Mediterranean coast.
26 December 2003:
More than 26,000 people are killed when an earthquake
destroys the historic city of Bam in southern Iran.
21 May 2003:
Algeria
suffers its worst earthquake in more than two decades. More than 2,000
people die and more than 8,000 are injured in a quake felt across the
sea in Spain.
1 May 2003:
More than 160 people are killed, including 83 children in a
collapsed dormitory, in south-eastern Turkey.
24 February 2003:
More than 260 people die and almost 10,000 homes are
destroyed in Xinjiang region, in western China.
31 October 2002:
Italy
is traumatised by the loss of an entire class of children, killed in
the southern village of San Giuliano di Puglia when their school
building collapses on them.
26 January 2001:
An
earthquake measuring magnitude 7.9 devastates much of Gujarat state in
north-western India, killing nearly 20,000 people and making more than
a million homeless. Bhuj and Ahmedabad are among the towns worst hit.
12 November 1999:
Around 400 people die when an earthquake measuring 7.2 on the
Richter scale strikes Ducze, in north-west Turkey.
21 September 1999:
Taiwan is hit by a quake measuring 7.6 that kills nearly
2,500 people and causes damage to every town on the island.
17 August 1999:
An
magnitude 7.4 earthquake rocks the Turkish cities of Izmit and
Istanbul, leaving more than 17,000 dead and many more injured.
30 May 1998:
Northern Afghanistan is hit by a major earthquake, killing
4,000 people.
May 1997:
More than 1,600 killed in Birjand, eastern Iran, in an
earthquake of magnitude 7.1.
27 May 1995:
The far eastern island of Sakhalin is hit by a massive
earthquake, measuring 7.5, which claims the lives of 1,989 Russians.
17 January 1995:
The Hyogo quake hits the city of Kobe in Japan, killing 6,430
people.
30 September 1993:
About 10,000 villagers are killed in western and southern
India.
21 June 1990:
Around 40,000 people die in a tremor in the northern Iranian
province of Gilan.
7 December 1988:
An earthquake measuring 6.9 on the Richter scale devastates
north-west Armenia, killing 25,000 people.
19 September 1985:
Mexico City is shaken by a huge earthquake which razes
buildings and kills 10,000 people.
28 July 1976:
The Chinese city of Tangshan is reduced to rubble in a quake
that claims at least 250,000 lives.
23 December 1972:
Up
to 10,000 people are killed in the Nicaraguan capital Managua by an
earthquake that measures 6.5 on the Richter scale. The devastation
caused by the earthquake was blamed on badly built high-rise buildings
that easily collapsed.
31 May 1970:
An earthquake high in the Peruvian Andes triggers a landslide
burying the town of Yungay and killing 66,000 people.
26 July 1963:
An
earthquake measuring 6.9 on the Richter scale strikes the Macedonian
capital of Skopje killing 1,000 and leaving 100,000 homeless.
22 May 1960:
The
world's strongest recorded earthquake devastates Chile, with a reading
of 9.5 on the Richter scale. A tsunami 30ft (10m) high eliminates
entire villages in Chile and kills 61 hundreds of miles away in Hawaii.
1 September 1923:
The Great Kanto earthquake, with its epicentre just outside
Tokyo, claims the lives of 142,800 people in the Japanese capital.
18 April 1906:
San
Francisco is hit by a series of violent shocks which last up to a
minute. Between 700 and 3,000 people die either from collapsing
buildings or in the subsequent fire.
HURRICANE
Remember Hurricanes Gustof & Katrina?
Germinated in the Gulf
of Mexico (l &c). And how about Richard (r)?. Hurricane Carol was
"About Town's" personal experience...
...Hurricane
forecasters acknowledged that
they did not quite call the storm right.
The rollercoaster of weather
forecasting - watch those windy externalities, root for cold
fronts! Is that Sen. Blumenthal in the back? Rosa from
Tuscany, no
GOP in this photo op.
Unlinke what Tropical Storm Irene didn't do to Manhattan,
Category 3 hurricane would be a different story...how about these storms?
Experts: Category 3 hurricane would devastate CT
CT POST
Ken Dixon, Staff Writer
Updated 11:06 a.m., Tuesday, October 25, 2011
HARTFORD -- A Category 3 hurricane with winds of over 110 miles per
hour could knock down 70 to 80 percent of Connecticut's trees and
paralyze the state for more than a month.
The governor's task force on the effects of Tropical Storm Irene got
the sobering facts Tuesday from state and federal officials who said
another Category 3 hurricane similar to the infamous 1938 storm is
inevitable and requires advanced planning.
Glenn Field, warning coordination meteorologist for the National
Weather Service, told the panel that a Category 3 hurricane comes every
69 years, with the last such storm in 1954.
"What we've seen with Tropical Storm Irene is nothing compared to a
major hurricane," said Doug Glowacki, a state emergency program
specialist.
In Irene’s Wake, High and Dry Enough?
NYTIMES
By MARC SANTORA
September 30, 2011
WHEN Hurricane Irene roared up the East Coast this summer and drew a
bead on Manhattan, hundreds of thousands of New Yorkers were surprised
to learn they had something in common: They were living in Evacuation
Zone A and potentially at imminent risk of being flooded out of their
homes.
Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg declared a state of emergency, shut down
mass transit and urged some 300,000 people to flee to higher ground.
But aside from some soggy streets, frayed nerves and a miserable Monday
commute, New York City was spared the worst of the storm.
It did, however, put a spotlight on the city’s waterfront, where in
recent years, hundreds of millions of dollars of public money has been
spent to improve parks, build esplanades and create the infrastructure
necessary for residential development.
The construction of pricey rental and condo towers along the shoreline,
in neighborhoods like Battery Park City, Long Island City and
Williamsburg, has transformed warehouse and wharf districts. New
buildings and planned projects will add thousands of apartments over
the next decade, helping ease a projected housing crunch as the city’s
population balloons past nine million people.
In 2008, council members revised the building code to recognize the
city as being within a hurricane-prone region. Under the updated code,
all new building design and construction is required to be
hurricane-resistant.
In the wake of Tropical Storm Irene, builders and real estate brokers
say that new developments are adequately protected from storms. Yet
despite those assurances, Irene brought into sharp relief the fact that
building on a shoreline comes with risks, even in a city where nature
can seem to have been nearly completely tamed.
Carli Iannotto, a 25-year-old office manager, was in her apartment at 2
Gold Street, a 51-story downtown rental tower, as the storm approached.
If she had had her druthers, she would have left her $3,095-a-month
one-bedroom and stayed with her parents.
“I was very, very nervous the whole time,” Ms. Iannotto said, “But my
boyfriend was adamant about staying.”
And as she watched neighbors load up their luggage and leave, she said
she became “even more freaked out.”
Having come through the storm unscathed, Ms. Iannotto says she isn’t
worried about living on the waterfront. But even before the storm, she
and her boyfriend planned to move to a new apartment well inland in
Williamsburg.
“I don’t think most people are concerned about living on the water,”
she said. Even so, she said, she is glad that in her new home she will
not have to think about evacuation routes.
The city is studying ways to limit damage from storm surges and
flooding, some already adopted by developers. Those outlined in the
city’s comprehensive waterfront development plan, “Vision 2020,”
include the installation of retractable water-tight gates at the
entryways of buildings; investing in the maintenance of seawalls and
bulkheads; creating “soft edges” along the shoreline that can
accommodate surging tides; and restoring or creating wetlands and
barrier islands.
The city says such measures would help protect against the long-term
effects of climate change, which by raising sea levels will not only
alter the shape of the shoreline but also heighten the severity of
flooding from even minor storms.
According to “Vision 2020,” sea levels by 2050 could be 12 to 29 inches
higher than they are today. By 2080, they could be some 55 inches
higher.
Given the breadth of New York Harbor and the various bays and
estuaries, rising sea levels and the threat of storm surges could
affect wide swaths of the region. As Hurricane Irene approached — even
though it was downgraded at the last minute to tropical storm status —
evacuation orders were issued from Long Island and the Rockaways to
Jersey City and Hoboken.
Jon McMillan, the director of planning for the developer TF
Cornerstone, which has riverfront projects in Queens, said his company
was well aware of the challenges of building on the waterfront.
More than three decades ago he worked on Battery Park City, the project
that in many ways set the template for waterfront development to come.
“The original plan, dating back to the 1960s, was to have the whole
project raised to 32 feet above sea level,” Mr. McMillan said. Using
land taken from the digging of the massive foundation for the World
Trade Towers, the idea was to create an elevated neighborhood, cut off
from the water.
“Back then we had a much more defensive attitude toward the water,” he
said. It was not so much storms and sea levels that gave planners
pause, but rather the fact that the shoreline was not considered
attractive — although that is hard to believe nowadays. Visitors to the
neighborhood would have driven down the West Side Highway, entered a
parking garage and then taken an elevator up to the enclave of Battery
Park City.
Largely because of the cost, however, that plan fell through, leading
to the creation of Battery Park City as we know it today, he said.
“We wanted to pull the adjacent context of the city right up to the
shoreline,” he said.
At its lowest point, on the esplanade on the southern tip of Manhattan,
Battery Park City is only seven feet above sea level. As it turns out,
the storm surge from Irene did slosh over the esplanade’s surface.
Personal safety aside, a concern in every coastal area is the effect of
a big storm on property values.
Gary L. Malin, the president of the Citi Habitats, a large rental
brokerage firm, described the impact of Tropical Storm Irene as “a
nonevent.”
“There is always a segment of the population that is
supercautious,” he said, “but that is maybe a handful of people at
best. We have not seen any renters shy away from that neighborhood,” he
added, referring to Battery Park City.
Pamela Liebman, the president of the Corcoran Group, said, “It would
take more than a few inches of water to keep New Yorkers from buying a
property they love.”
Real estate analysts say that even when property is damaged in a storm,
a single event does not have long-term impact on values.
“If you are dislocated for a day and half out of Battery Park City, you
shrug it off,” said Barry F. Hersh, a clinical associate professor at
the Schack Institute of Real Estate of New York University. “If
something really bad happens it will affect values, but they tend to
rebound if it is a single event. It is amazing how quickly people
forget.”
But if there are repeated events, he said, values do take a tumble. Mr.
Hersh cited a study that examined the coastal housing market in
Carteret County, N.C. Between 2000 and 2004, the price of a home
considered to be at a heightened risk of flooding was 7.3 percent lower
— $11,600 on average — than a property that was high and dry.
The major projects under way along the water today, including Hudson
Yards on the West Side of Manhattan, Queens West in Long Island City,
and a new phase of the Edge in Brooklyn, take the approach that
building bulkheads or armoring the waterfront is not sufficient. (The
“Vision 2020” report says that tactic “would not adequately address
risks, would become increasingly costly, and would have negative
ecological consequences for our waterways and coastal areas.”)
Mr. McMillan of TF Cornerstone is once again working on a major
waterfront development, Queens West, on the site of a former Pepsi
bottling company near the foot of the 59th Street Bridge. Four of the
seven buildings have been completed, and each, he said, was designed to
take into account the threat of storms, floods, rising sea levels and
pressure that the river generates on the ground beneath the structures,
he said.
“We can deal with minor flooding,” he added, “but what we were chiefly
concerned about was protecting the vital infrastructure of the
buildings.”
Although it added several million dollars to the cost of each building
and was not required by zoning regulations, the developer decided to
eliminate basements, which is usually where things like boilers and
electrical equipment are kept. This move also meant losing valuable
square footage.
“We moved all the vital equipment to the first floor,” he said.
The floors at this level are double slabs of concrete with a watertight
seal in between them. There are floodgates that can be employed in the
event of a storm.
“There is a lot we know now that we did not know when we did Battery
Park City,” Mr. McMillan said. “Over all, I think we have the right
balanced approach to the waterfront today.”
At Queens West, many of the precautions taken in the design and layout
of the buildings are hidden from view.
Christine Martin, 31, lives at one of the rental buildings, at 1510
Center Boulevard. She said she was unaware that her building had no
basement, and was not concerned about living in the evacuation zone,
although she did leave during Tropical Storm Irene.
“I only left because they said the elevator would not be working and I
did not want to walk down 15 flights of stairs with my dog,” Ms. Martin
said.
“Really, the only thing I was a little nervous about was all the
construction equipment around here getting tossed around,” she said.
“But I don’t worry about living on the water.”
Flood
warning
posted for Housatonic
Stamford ADVOCATE
Updated 05:49 p.m., Tuesday, September 6, 2011
The rising Housatonic River is nearing its 11-foot flood stage. At the
Stevenson Dam between Oxford and Monroe, the river had reached
10.2-feet at 3 p.m. According to the latest river forecast the
Housatonic will reach flood stage overnight with the highest water
level expected to reach 12.6 feet by 2 p.m Thursday.
That forecast makes flooding in The Maples section of Shelton likely.
That's the second time in about a week since Tropical Storm Irene swept
through the area dumping nearly a foot of rain. The flooding forced a
mandatory evacuation, but some residents chose to stay.
John Millo, the city's director of emergency management, said "water
levels are high enough for concern. There was substantial flooding in a
portion of The Maples during the tropical storm. We're keeping an eye
on things and we are in contact with the operators of the dam," he said
early Tuesday evening. "We are also watching the progress of the rain."
He said officials aren't sure if flooding will happen. "Right now we
are in a holding pattern," he said.
The weather service has also posted a flood watch for southern
Connecticut including northern Fairfield County. The combination of a
stalled -out front to the south being overrun with tropical moisture
will allow for moderate to heavy rain to continue into Wednesday. An
additional 3 inches of rain is possible. That could cause more problems
with falling trees and their weakened root systems since the ground is
already saturated.
According to WTNH meteorologist Steve MacLaughlin, the biggest flooding
threat continues to be along the same Connecticut rivers that were
affected by Irene.
He said Hurricane Katia is still forecast to stay off shore and not
make landfall on the East Coast. MacLaughlin said the surf will be high
and the western track would bring some outer band of clouds and even
rain to the area on Friday, although more of an eastern track would
bring just a few clouds. Once Kaita moves out to sea, it will allow for
another round of showers on Saturday to push through with a cold front
that should bring quiet weather for Sunday.
Connecticut farmers eligible for disaster aid
CT POST
Ken Dixon, Staff Writer
Published 06:20 p.m., Sunday, October 9, 2011
HARTFORD -- Connecticut farms will be eligible for federal loans and
other financial assistance as a result of a disaster designation in the
wake of Tropical Storm Irene.
Gov. Dannel P. Malloy said Friday that U.S. Secretary of Agriculture
Thomas Vilsack has designated seven of the state's eight counties
primary disaster areas. The eighth, Tolland County, was designated a
contiguous disaster county.
Farmers in all eight counties can apply for emergency loans and
supplemental assistance through state offices of the USDA Farm Service
Agency.
But Terry Jones, of Shelton, and Irv Silverman, of Easton, said they
might not bother applying for the aid.
"We were fortunate," said Jones, proprietor of the Shelton-based Jones
Family Farms and Winery, where pumpkins are available for public
picking. "Some of our pumpkins are more damaged than others, but we
covered our losses pretty well."
Jones said several grape arbors blew over and a couple of 200-year-old
oak trees fell on some Christmas trees, but overall the farm was spared
extensive damage.
"One thing about the storm was we had lots of warning," Jones said.
"Although we had some losses, it wasn't catastrophic. There was much
more damage along the Connecticut River."
Silverman, who runs a 30-acre orchard and store on Sport Hill Road in
Easton, said about half of the 75 apple trees toppled by high winds
will be propped up and salvaged.
"I think we'll be good," said Silverman, who has been growing apple
crops for 40 years. "I don't think we lost much more than $5,000 worth.
We lost some apples from droppage, due to the wind."
He said that windfalls stay on the ground in the orchard because they
are no longer allowed to be sold for eating or even crushed into cider.
"Most varieties were OK because they weren't that mature and they
stayed on the trees," Silverman said, adding that he would ask the Farm
Service if he is eligible for aid.
"Many of our farms were hit hard by Irene and then suffered from the
subsequent flooding," Malloy said in a statement. "These funds will
help mitigate some of the damage sustained by those in Connecticut's
critical agricultural sector."
Connecticut Department of Agriculture Commissioner Stephen Reviczky
said he appreciates the federal support. "Connecticut has a vibrant and
active agriculture sector, and the family farm is still a major part of
our landscape today," Reviczky said. "It is critical that the state and
federal governments work together to support the recovery efforts for
our farms and farm operators."
Farmers may apply immediately for emergency loans. They must submit
their applications within eight months. The Farm Service will judge
each loan request separately on the basis of losses and repayment
ability.
FSA has offices in Torrington and Wallingford that serve the western
half of the state, plus the state office in Tolland.
FEMA Promises To
Help CT Post-Irene
CT NEWSJUNKIE
by Christine Stuart | Sep 5, 2011
4:16pm
With power restored to all but an
estimated 2,325 Connecticut residents, federal and state officials
promised to begin the hard work of cleaning up after Tropical Storm
Irene.
U.S. Homeland Security Secretary
Janet Napolitano and Gov. Dannel P. Malloy toured East Haven Monday
morning where 20 homes were destroyed before returning to Hartford for
a meeting at the Emergency Operations Center with the rest of the
Congressional delegation and other state officials, including the chief
executive officers of the two utility companies.
Federal Emergency Management Agency
officials have fanned out across the state to help it assess damages,
including damage to individual homes. State officials said about 1,400
homeowners and businesses have reported damages to the state by calling
2-1-1. Those calls and damage reports helped the state meet the
threshold for individualized assistance from FEMA.
“Individual assessments are now
continuing. These assessments are designed to give the governor a
better picture of damages and determine if the request for further
federal support is needed,” Napolitano said.
She urged homeowners and businesses
to register their damages at www.disasterassistance.gov or call
1-800-621-FEMA.
“We will continue to lean forward
here in Connecticut. We are not leaving,” Napolitano said.
Napolitano hesitated to put a number
on the damages, which are still being added up, but she did say in some
areas damages were estimated at $15 million—in excess of the threshold
to qualify for assistance.
But not everyone will qualify for
FEMA assistance. Residents
who may have owned seasonal or vacation homes in shoreline areas are
not eligible for federal assistance, Napolitano explained. She said second homes do not qualify for
federal assistance, but that’s why they ask people to contact them so
an assessment of an individual situation can be made. She said FEMA
also does not cover losses where there’s insurance.
“When we do a damage assessment,
we’re not only looking for homes that have been damaged, but were they
uninsured losses that are there,” Napolitano said. “We don’t pay the
entire replacement value of the home. FEMA pays enough to get started,
but it is not there to be a substitute for an insurance policy.”
Malloy said about 80 percent of the
insurance companies writing homeowners insurance in Connecticut have
agreed to waive their hurricane deductibles. And Malloy promised that a review of the
response to the storm, including the restoration of electricity by the
state’s two major utilities will be reviewed.
“Once everyone’s power is back on
I’ll be announcing a plan for a comprehensive review of the performance
and the criteria involved in all of our operations, including the
utilities, covered by this storm,” Malloy said.
Department of Energy and
Environmental Protection Commissioner Daniel C. Esty said that review
will also include the performance of phone and cable companies. He said
later this week they will sit down and figure out how to go about
collecting data for the report.
Connecticut
utilities' response to Irene called 'at par' or better
Mark Pazniokas, CT MIRROR
August 31, 2011
A top federal energy official said
Wednesday that Connecticut's two major electric companies are on pace
to restore power after Tropical Storm Irene more quickly than is
typical after disasters of similar scope.
"It may not be any consolation to
those currently without power," said William Bryan, the official who
oversees infrastructure security and energy restoration for the U.S.
Department of Energy.
Based on the feedback Gov. Dannel P.
Malloy and utility officials are getting, that undoubtedly is an
understatement.
"Obviously the issue in Connecticut
right now is power, power, power. It is on everybody's mind who is
without it, and everyone who has it is grateful to have it," Malloy
said.
For the second consecutive day,
Malloy was joined at his afternoon briefing for the media by the top
executives of the state's two major electric companies, Connecticut
Light & Power and United Illuminating. With
more crews still coming into the state, the last customers should see
power restored next Wednesday. The extent of the power outages were
double those caused by Hurricane Gloria in 1985, Malloy said. As
of 4 p.m., 48,000 UI customers still were out, down from a peak of
158,000. By the weekend, the number is expected to be fewer than
10,000, said James P. Torgerson, the president of UI.
The much larger CL&P had about
290,000 customers in the dark, with the total expected to be 200,000 by
Thursday morning, said Jeffrey D. Butler, the president of CL&P.
Peak outages at one time were nearly 700,000 for the utility, although
more than 800,000 were out at various times.
"We continue to make steady
progress," Butler said.
The initial estimate of Irene's cost
to CL&P is $75 million, he said. Both
executives defended the pace of restoration, but they acknowledged a
need to better inform the public about what to expect in the days
ahead. Uncertainty, they said, adds to customer frustration. Butler
said restoration estimates now were online for 46 of the 149
communities served by CL&P. The goal, he said, was to have a
schedule available for every community some time Thursday. Under the
current schedule, the Norwalk and Newtown areas will be last, regaining
power on Sept. 6 and 7.
"Usually an outage, you have a
storm, it is an inconvenience for customers," Torgerson said. "This has
gone to where it is a hardship for many customers. We understand loss
of electricity is a big problem."
Irene hit the eastern seaboard as
every state is devising a federally funded energy assurance plan, an
analysis of the risk to the power grid. One result could be
federal
standards for things such as tree-trimming near power lines. State
agencies and the utilities also will complete an after-action report to
study the response to Irene and recommend changes, but Malloy said the
focus will remain on restoring power.
"I think there's going to be plenty
of time to look at response on a whole lot of different levels, and I
think that needs to be done on a regional basis," Malloy said. "There
is plenty of time to do that."
Malloy toured heavily forested
eastern Connecticut on Wednesday, where the winds were strongest, the
percentage of outages were the highest, and population densities are
the lowest. All three
factors will contribute to the last of the restorations to occur
there. Malloy said
state officials warned before the storm that many residents would be
without power for a week or longer.
"That's what we said from day one,
from hour one," Malloy said. "That's what we said."
Bryan, the federal energy official,
said power usually is restored to 60 percent to 70 percent of customers
in three to six days after a storm of this magnitude.
"That's the national average," Bryan
said. "I would argue that you guys are actually at par or above par in
that case right now, which speaks very well for your utility companies.
The rest of the folks normally get restored within 10 days to two
weeks."
Bryan warned that one recommendation
to make the state less vulnerable to such widespread outages could be
aggressive tree-trimming, which can spark nearly as many complaints as
blackouts.
"In some areas, that's a hard pill
to swallow," said Bryan, who flew over Connecticut for the first time
this week. "I was amazed at how much forestry you have here."
Hurricane Lost Steam as Experts
Misjudged Structure and Next Move
NYTIMES
By HENRY FOUNTAIN
August 28, 2011
It began as something far off and dangerous — a monster storm, a
Category 3 hurricane that packed winds of 115 miles an hour as it
buzz-sawed through the Caribbean last week, causing more than a billion
dollars of destruction in the Bahamas alone.
But when Hurricane Irene finally chugged into the New York area on
Sunday, it was like an overweight jogger just holding on at the end of
a run. Its winds had diminished to barely hurricane strength, and the
threat from its storm surge, which officials had once worried might
turn Manhattan into Atlantis, was epitomized by television news reports
showing small waves lapping over reporters’ feet.
All hurricanes evolve, and most weaken, as they track northward, their
size and strength affected by water, wind and terrain. And all
hurricanes eventually die — a relatively quick downgrade to a tropical
storm in the case of those, like Irene, that travel inland, a more
lingering demise for those that trail out to the colder waters of the
higher latitudes.
But Irene’s fall — from potential storm of the century to an also-ran
in hurricane lore — was greater than most.
Meteorologists were quick to point out that the hurricane was, as
forecast, a huge and severe storm, responsible for at least 16 deaths
and damaging property from Florida to New England. Given its potential,
they said, evacuations and transit shutdowns were well warranted. And
they noted that although it was weakened when it hit New York, it was
still a Category 1 storm, as predicted several days before, and was
still causing extensive flooding even as a tropical storm.
But hurricane forecasters acknowledged that they did not quite call the
storm right.
“We were expecting a stronger storm to come into North Carolina,” said
James Franklin, chief of the hurricane specialist unit at the National
Hurricane Center in Miami. “We had every reason to believe it would
strengthen after the Bahamas.”
He added, “What we got wrong was the structure of the storm.”
Forecasters had expected that a spinning band of clouds near its
center, called the inner eyewall, would collapse and be replaced by an
outer band that would then slowly contract. Such “eyewall replacement
cycles” have been known to cause hurricanes to strengthen.
While its eyewall did collapse, Irene never completed the cycle, Mr.
Franklin said. “There were a lot of rain bands competing for the same
energy,” he said. “So when the eyewall collapsed, there were winds over
a large area.”
That led the storm to be much larger, but with the winds spread over a
larger area, they were less intense. What hurricane specialists had
forecast to be a Category 2 or possibly Category 3 storm when it hit
eastern North Carolina early Saturday, with maximum sustained winds of
110 m.p.h. or higher, roared across the Outer Banks as a Category 1,
with winds that were more than 10 percent slower.
After North Carolina, the storm weakened some more. But forecasters had
always expected that, said Dave Radell, a meteorologist with the
National Weather Service in Upton, N.Y. By traveling for a time across
part of North Carolina, the hurricane was deprived of the heat and
moisture of the ocean that it needed to thrive. Once it headed out over
water again, east of Delaware and Maryland, it encountered slightly
colder sea surface temperatures, which tend to weaken a storm as well.
Finally, its energy was sapped when it encountered winds from an
unrelated weather system that originated over the Great Lakes.
“Any combination of those factors will prevent a storm from
intensifying,” Mr. Radell said.
“We also had a little drier air get wrapped into the system,” he said,
which helps explain why most of the rain that fell in the New York area
was contained in the front portion of the storm. There was little
precipitation once Irene’s center passed.
The effect of unrelated winds on a hurricane, called wind shear, can be
enormous, said Adam H. Sobel, an atmospheric scientist at the
Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, part of Columbia University. “When
the wind is different in either speed or direction at different
heights, hurricanes don’t like that,” he said.
The differential winds can remove moisture from a storm, or distort its
shape, which affects its ability to gain energy. Mr. Sobel said that
Irene “seemed to come naturally into an area of shear.”
Mr. Franklin said that the hurricane center had done better at
forecasting the movement of the storm, the predicted track barely
budging in the past few days. But it was not surprising that the
strength forecasts were off — the accuracy of such forecasts has hardly
improved over the past several decades.
US forecasters see busy
hurricane
season
DAY
Associated Press
Article published Aug 4, 2011
Miami (AP) — Exceptionally high ocean temperatures and
atmospheric conditions that support hurricane development will keep the
Atlantic and Caribbean on track for an above-average storm season, U.S.
forecasters said Thursday.
The National Oceanic and
Atmospheric Administration slightly upgraded its May outlook, calling
for 14 to 19 named tropical storms, up from a range of 14 to 18.
That includes the five tropical storms that have formed since the
six-month hurricane season started June 1. It ends Nov. 30 and the peak
period for hurricanes runs from August through October.
"We expect considerable activity," said Gerry Bell, lead seasonal
hurricane forecaster at NOAA's Climate Prediction Center in Washington.
"There is absolutely no reason that people should be complacent," Bell
said. "Now is the time people really need to make sure they have their
hurricane preparedness plans in place."
Tropical storms get named when their top winds reach 39 mph or higher.
NOAA now expects seven to 10 named storms to strengthen into hurricanes
with top winds of 74 mph or higher, and three to five of those
hurricanes could become major storms with winds blowing 111 mph or
more...full story here.
The
U.S. 2010 Hurricane Season: 2010 SEASON...OIL
SLICK IMPACT LOOMS.
Hurricane Tomas floods
quake-shattered
Haiti town
YAHOO
By JACOB KUSHNER, Associated Press
5 November 2010
LEOGANE, Haiti – Hurricane Tomas flooded the earthquake-shattered
remains of a Haitian town on Friday, forcing families who had already
lost their homes in one disaster to flee another. In the country's
capital, quake refugees resisted calls to abandon flimsy tarp and tent
camps.
Driving winds and storm surge battered Leogane, a seaside town west of
Port-au-Prince that was near the epicenter of the Jan. 12 earthquake
and was 90 percent destroyed. Dozens of families in one
earthquake-refuge camp carried their belongings through thigh-high
water to a taxi post on high ground, waiting out the rest of the storm
under blankets and a sign that read "Welcome to Leogane."
"We got flooded out and we're just waiting for the storm to pass.
There's nothing we can do," said Johnny Joseph, a 20-year-old resident.
The growing hurricane with 85 mph (140 kph) winds, was battering the
western tip of Haiti's southern peninsula and the cities of Jeremie and
Les Cayes.
At least three people died trying to cross swollen rivers, Haiti civil
protection officials said. The hurricane had earlier killed at least 14
people in the eastern Caribbean.
The center of the storm was about 140 miles (230 kilometers) northwest
of Port-au-Prince, draping charcoal clouds over the city. Steady rain
turned the streets of the capital into flowing canals that carried
garbage through the city. Farther north in Gonaives, a coastal city
twice inundated by recent tropical storms, police evacuated more than
200 inmates from one prison to another.
Aid workers are concerned the storm will worsen Haiti's cholera
epidemic, which has killed more than 440 people and hospitalized more
than 6,700 others.
In Leogane, an earthquake camp suddenly became an island as floodwater
surged around it, stranding hundreds of people in their tents.
Closer to the shore, water poured into the Leogane home of Abdul
Khafid, swirling around the furniture. His family grabbed its most
important items — birth certificates, a radio and a computer — and
headed to their mosque to spend the night.
Haiti's civil protection department had urged people living in camps
for the 1.3 million Haitians made homeless by the Jan. 12 earthquake to
go to the homes of friends and family.
But many ignored the advice, fearing their few possessions might be
stolen or they might even be denied permission to return when the storm
is over.
Most of Haiti's post-quake homeless live under donated plastic tarps on
open fields. Much is private land, where they have been constantly
fighting eviction. A September report from U.N. Secretary-General Ban
Ki-moon said 29 percent of 1,268 camps studied had been closed
forcibly, meaning the often violent relocation of tens of thousands of
people.
U.S. Marines were standing by on the USS Iwo Jima off the coast of
Haiti, preparing to help take relief supplies if needed.
Late Thursday, Tomas passed to the east of Jamaica, where schools
remained closed and public transportation was stalled on Friday as the
island struggled with widespread flooding from a previous storm.
Patrice Edmond, a maid who caught a ride into Kingston, said buses were
not operating.
"I barely got a drive to come over, but I'm a determined person," she
said.
Seventy-five miles (120 kilometers) northwest of the storm's eye at the
U.S. Navy base at Guantanamo Bay in southeastern Cuba, the military
suspended flights, canceled school and closed the harbor to
recreational craft.
Tomas was moving to the north-northeast at about 12 mph (19 kph) and
tropical-storm-force winds extended as far as 140 miles (220
kilometers) from the center, according to the U.S. National Hurricane
Center in Miami.
Forecasters warned of a dangerous storm surge that would generate
"large and destructive waves" and raise water levels up to 3 feet
(nearly 1 meter) above normal tide levels. It also predicted rainfall
of 5 to 10 inches (12 to 25 centimeters) for much of Haiti and the
Dominican Republic, which share the island of Hispaniola.
Port-au-Prince's airport was expected to be closed through Friday,
American Airlines spokeswoman Mary Sanderson said.
Post-earthquake reconstruction has barely begun and even the building
of transitional shelters — sturdier than makeshift tents, but not solid
houses — has been slow. Large installments of long-term funds,
including a promised $1.15 billion from the United States, have not
arrived. The State Department now says it still has to prove the money
won't be stolen or misused.
As rebuilding lags, the United Nations and aid groups have been giving
people reasons to stay in camps, providing aid and essential services
such as medicine. That continued Thursday as residents reluctant to
leave were given reinforcing tarps and other materials.
"We have always said that the best way to protect people in camps is to
make camps as resistant as possible to any weather," said Imogen Wall,
spokeswoman for the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian
Affairs. "(Evacuation) doesn't make sense ... on a practical level, on
a large scale."
Residents of the nearly 8,000-person government relocation camp at
Corail-Cesselesse threw bottles at aid workers trying to get them to
leave their ShelterBox tents for schools, churches and an abandoned
prison nearby.
"If we go away, other people are going to move in our place! We want to
stay here because we don't have another place to go," said 29-year-old
Roland Jean.
Camp officials finally convinced several hundred people to leave
Thursday afternoon on trucks provided by U.N. peacekeepers. An AP
reporter found that while the school, church and abandoned hospital
chosen as shelters for them were large and undamaged, they had no water
or usable toilets.
As the hurricane neared Cuba's eastern tip, the country's crack civil
defense forces evacuated 800 people from Baracoa, a city that often
floods during inclement weather.
Meanwhile, a cold front hammered the western part of the island with
heavy rains and a storm surge that flooded some low-lying parts of the
capital, Havana, and closed the seaside Malecon thoroughfare.
In the Dominican Republic, to the east of Haiti, floods damaged at
least 1,700 homes and forced the evacuation of more than 8,000 people,
emergency operations director Juan Manuel Mendez said.
Tomas killed at least 14 people when it slammed the eastern Caribbean
country of St. Lucia as a hurricane Saturday. It will cost roughly $500
million to repair flattened banana fields, destroyed houses, broken
bridges and eroded beaches on the island, according to Prime Minister
Stephenson King.
A hurricane warning was issued for the southeastern Bahamas and the
Turks and Caicos Islands, on the storm's path once it emerges from the
strait between Haiti and Cuba.
In Little Inagua Island, the owners of the island's only grocery store
brought in extra supplies this week to ensure no one would be short of
food or plywood.
"It was a mad rush," said Father Glover, 27, a priest at St. Philips
Anglican Church in Matthew Town, the island's only settlement. "A lot
of people have been battering down the hatches and securing their
homes."
The airport in Turks and Caicos closed on Friday as tourists walked
outside and observed the gathering storm clouds.
"It's a shame that we can't enjoy the stuff that we came here to do,
but we are still going to stay," said Shelly Schulz, 37, of New York
state, who arrived four days ago with her husband and three children.
Hurricane
Paula forms, heads to Yucatan
Peninsula
YAHOO
By FREDDY CUEVAS, Associated Press Writer
Tue Oct 12, 10:57 am ET
TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras – Hurricane Paula smashed homes and forced
schools to close in Honduras on Tuesday as it headed toward Mexico's
resort-dotted Yucatan Peninsula. Paula formed Monday off the
coast of Honduras and quickly intensified into a hurricane early
Tuesday, said the National Hurricane Center in Miami. Heavy rains
and high winds destroyed 19 homes in northeastern Honduras, said
Lisandro Rosales, head of Honduras' emergency agency. Officials closed
schools along the country's Atlantic coast and some airports were
reported closed.
Tuesday morning, it had winds of 75 mph (120 kph) and was centered
about 155 miles (245 kilometers) south-southeast of the resort island
of Cozumel in Mexico.
Paula was moving toward the northwest at nearly 10 mph (17 kph),
bringing it near the coast of Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula Tuesday night.
The forecast track would have the storm a little offshore of Cancun,
Cozumel and Isla Mujeres near the tip of the Peninsula late Wednesday
night. The Hurricane Center said the storm was likely to gain
force, though it was not expected to become a major hurricane.
Paula was expected to dump from 3 to 6 inches (8 to 15 centimeters) of
Honduras, northern Belize, eastern portions of the Yucatan Peninsula of
Mexico and parts of western and central Cuba. The government of
Mexico issued a hurricane warning for the country's Caribbean coast
from Punta Gruesa north to Cabo Catoche, including the island of
Cozumel. Warnings are issued when hurricane conditions are almost
certain to occur.
Forecasters warned of possible flooding and landslides and suggested
residents avoid fishing trips or water sports.
Forecasters said the storm would produce heavy rains that could cause
flash floods and mudslides, especially in the mountains of Nicaragua
and Honduras. It said isolated, mountainous areas in Honduras could get
as many as 10 inches (25 centimeters) of rain. Coastal flooding
from heavy waves was also expected along the eastern coast of the
Mexican Yucatan Peninsula.
Tropical
Storm Nicole forms, may
skirt Florida
YAHOO
By WILL WEISSERT, Associated Press Writer
29 September 2010
HAVANA – Newly formed Tropical Storm Nicole soaked central and eastern
Cuba on Wednesday, washing out some roads but sparing the crumbling
buildings of the capital as the system pushed northeast toward the
Bahamas. At least one death was recorded due to flooding in Jamaica.
The storm had sustained winds of 40 mph (65 kph) and it was not
expected to grow much further as it passes over the ocean east of
Florida on a track that could carry it over parts of the Bahamas by
evening, according to the U.S. National Hurricane Center in Miami.
It said the sprawling system could still cause heavy rains and spawn
tornadoes in Florida, however.
By late Wednesday morning, the storm was centered about 120 miles (195
kilometers) east-southeast of Havana and 260 miles (420 kilometers)
southwest of Nassau in the Bahamas. It was advancing toward the
northeast at 9 mph (15 kph)
Cuba's chief meteorologist, Jose Rubiera, said the storm rolled across
a swath of the west-central island overnight and its center was moving
north of the island. Bands behind its core were continuing to bring
heavy rains, however.
Rubiera said wind associated with the storm was not a threat, but that
provinces from Matanzas east all the way to Guantanamo would continue
to face downpours throughout the day.
"The important factor remains the rain," Rubiera said.
State-controlled television showed images of rain flooding roads and
highways, especially around the eastern city of Santiago, but there
were no reports of damage. Far to the west in Havana, it wasn't even
raining and there was no flooding.
Communist Cuba has a well-trained civil defense force praised for its
fast response to natural disasters, one that often uses mandatory
evacuations to move people to safety in many parts of the island.
Authorities often order thousands of evacuations ahead of even moderate
storms — but there were no such orders reported for the depression.
Jamaica's Office of Disaster Preparedness and Emergency Management on
Wednesday reported collapsed bridges, flooded roads and mudslides and
it said that a boy was washed away before dawn when a house next to a
paved gully collapsed in St. Andrew parish. Emergency workers were
trying to recover his body from rust-colored waters.
Across the Caribbean country, several bridges collapsed overnight under
the force of the flooded rivers and creeks. Schools and some businesses
were closed as emergency officials braced for more rain through Friday.
In the capital of Kingston, underpasses flooded as the torrents
overwhelmed storm water drains. Some motorists were stuck when their
cars stalled in knee-deep waters. Most traffic lights were out and
roads were littered with debris.
Police in Westmoreland parish's capital of Savanna-la-Mar said the
community was hit by a waterspout overnight that ripped the roofs off a
couple of buildings and sent four people to a local hospital with
abrasions.
The depression was also felt Tuesday south of Cuba in Jamaica and the
Cayman Islands, where meteorologists said more than four inches (10
centimeters) of rain fell in just 12 hours, causing flooding. Public
schools closed and government workers from low-lying areas were allowed
to leave early.
Chief Grand Cayman Meteorologist John Tibbetts said 5- to 7-foot (1.5-
to 2-meter) waves were forecast through Wednesday night and warned
boaters to remain ashore.
Hurricane
Igor takes aim at Bermuda
YAHOO
18 September 2010
HAMILTON (Reuters) – Hurricane Igor churned across the Atlantic Ocean
toward Bermuda on Saturday packing powerful winds and heavy rains as
island residents stocked up on supplies and worked to secure their
homes.
The Category 2 storm was located about 440 miles south of the tiny
British overseas territory at 11 a.m.. The U.S. National Hurricane
Center said Igor was on a path to reach Bermuda late on Sunday, but
warned tropical storm weather was expected later Saturday.
"Igor is expected to remain a dangerous hurricane as it approaches
Bermuda," the Miami-based hurricane center said. A hurricane
warning
was in effect for Bermuda, a wealthy hub for the global insurance
industry and one of the world's most isolated yet densely populated
islands. Most stores and restaurants in the capital of Hamilton
were
boarded up and many residents stocked up on gas, batteries, food and
candles.
"The shutters are up, I've put tape across the windows and I've got a
lot of buckets ready," said Eddie DeSilva, a 64-year-old cleaner.
Bermuda's buildings are some of the best-constructed in the world,
weather forecasters and analysts say, which could help mitigate any
potential storm damage. Igor had sustained winds of 110 mph, with
hurricane-force winds extending out for 105 miles, the hurricane center
said.
Julia a Cat 4 hurricane; TS Karl
headed to Mexico (Karl a hurricane on Friday, kills two in
landslide)
YAHOO
By GABRIEL ALCOCER, Associated Press Writer
15 September 2010 (Wednesday)
CANCUN, Mexico – A strengthening Tropical Storm Karl neared the Yucatan
Peninsula on Wednesday, bearing down on the resort beaches of the Mayan
Riviera.
Meanwhile far from land, Hurricane Julia rapidly intensified, becoming
a powerful Category 4 storm early Wednesday. Karl had maximum
sustained winds of about 65 mph (100 kph) and was located about 105
miles (170 kilometers) east of Chetumal, Mexico, the U.S. National
Hurricane Center in Miami said. Mexico's government issued a
tropical storm warning for the peninsula from Chetumal northward to
Cabo Catoche. Parts of Belize are under a tropical storm watch.
The storm was expected to smack into land near Tulum, a beach town of
eco-resorts and cliffside Mayan ruins, and then quickly weaken into a
tropical depression before heading back out over the Gulf of Mexico,
where it could turn into a hurricane by the end of the week.
Authorities on the Yucatan warned the population of heavy rains but
said they saw no need yet for evacuations.
"The police in all communities are just monitoring. There are no
instructions to evacuate or activate shelters," said Didier Vasquez,
deputy state public safety secretary.
The storm threw doubt over the area's celebration of Mexico's
bicentennial anniversary of independence from Spain, although there was
no immediate decision to cancel festivities. Felipe Reyes, a
receptionist at Las Ranitas hotel in Tulum, said guests were warned to
prepare for heavy rains and winds overnight, but none had chosen to
leave.
"For now everything is calm. The weather is pretty nice," Reyes said.
Elsewhere, Hurricane Julia strengthened in the open Atlantic, with its
maximum sustained winds increasing to near 135 mph (215 kph). Also far
from land over the Atlantic, Hurricane Igor's top winds weakened
slightly to 145 mph (230 kph).
Hurricanes Igor, Julia spin in
Atlantic
YAHOO
14 September 2010
MIAMI (Reuters) – Tropical Storm Julia grew in the far eastern Atlantic
into the fifth hurricane of the storm season, while Hurricane Igor
weakened slightly but remained a dangerous Category 4 storm,
forecasters said on Tuesday. Neither hurricane posed an immediate
threat to land or energy interests, but Igor could threaten Bermuda by
the weekend.
Julia reached hurricane status and then continued to strengthen, with
top sustained winds of 85 miles per hour. It was about 355 miles
west-northwest of the Cape Verde Islands at 11 a.m. EDT (1500 GMT),
forecasters at the U.S. National Hurricane Center in Miami said.
Julia was moving west-northwest as a Category 1 hurricane on the
five-step Saffir-Simpson scale of hurricane intensity, forecasters
said. Its projected path would keep it out to sea. Julia could
strengthen slowly over the next two days, forecasters said. But as it
gets closer to the more powerful Igor, strong upper-level winds flowing
out from Igor could shear off and weaken Julia.
Farther west in the Atlantic, Hurricane Igor weakened slightly but
still packed a punch, the center said. Igor was about 710 miles
east of the northern Leeward Islands with maximum sustained winds at
135 mph, the center said. Igor had been moving west on Monday but
curved to the west-northwest on Tuesday. It was expected to curl around
to the north in three or four days, and eventually turn east. Its
projected path would keep it away from the North American coast but it
was too soon to rule out a hit.
"Five- to 10-day forecasts are prone to large errors, and it is too
early to be highly confident that Igor will miss hitting the U.S. or
Canadian coasts," veteran forecaster Jeff Masters said on his Weather
Underground blog.
Igor's strength could fluctuate in the next couple of days but it was
expected to remain a dangerous hurricane through Thursday, the
hurricane center forecasters said. Igor was expected to weaken
before nearing the British territory of Bermuda on Saturday.
Ocean swells generated by Igor will begin affecting the Leeward Islands
on Tuesday and will reach Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands late on
Tuesday and Wednesday, causing life-threatening surf and rip current
conditions, the hurricane center said.
Computer models kept both storms in the Atlantic and far away from the
Gulf of Mexico, where U.S. oil and gas operations are clustered.
Most forecasters predicted the 2010 Atlantic hurricane season would be
extremely active. The season runs from June through November and has
already brought 10 tropical storms, with five growing into hurricanes.
Three of those -- Danielle, Earl and Igor -- have reached Category 4
strength.
"We already had a full season's worth of activity, with about 45
percent of the season still to come," Masters said.
Hermine continues strengthening as it turns
to northwest
YAHOO
Posted: Sep 06, 2010 4:24 AM EDT
Updated: Sep 06, 2010 11:04 AM EDT MIAMI, FL (AP) -
Forecasters said Tropical Storm Hermine strengthened even more in the
southwestern Gulf of Mexico as it took a slight turn to the northwest
Monday morning.
The system was located at 23.4 north and 95.8 west, or about 205 miles
south-southeast of Brownsville, TX, at 10 a.m. Maximum sustained
winds were 50 mph and it was moving north-northwest at 13 mph.
Hurricane watches have been issued which extend from Rio San Fernando,
Mexico northward to Baffin Bay, TX. Hermine is expected to
continue moving toward the north-northwest for the next day or two.
Meteorologists said the center of circulation is predicted to be near
the coast of northeastern Mexico or extreme southern Texas late Monday
night or early Tuesday morning. They added some more
strengthening is forecast before Hermine makes landfall and the storm
could possibly reach Category 1 hurricane classification. It
formed earlier in the day, becoming the eighth tropical storm of the
2010 Atlantic hurricane season.
Copyright 2010 WAFB. All rights
reserved.
Earl
fizzles
Island evacuations start as Earl nears
East Coast
By MIKE BAKER, Associated Press Writer Mike Baker, Associated
Press Writer 14 mins ago
NAGS HEAD, N.C. – Hurricane Earl steamed toward the Eastern Seaboard on
Wednesday as communities from North Carolina to New England kept a
close eye on the forecast, worried that even a slight shift in the
storm's predicted offshore track could put millions of people in the
most densely populated part of the country in harm's way.
Vacationers along North Carolina's dangerously exposed Outer Banks took
advantage of the typical picture-perfect day just before a hurricane
arrives to pack their cars and flee inland, cutting short their summer
just before Labor Day weekend.
The governors of North Carolina, Virginia and Maryland declared a state
of emergency, sea turtle nests on one beach were scooped up and moved
to safety, and the crew of the Navy's USS Cole rushed to get home to
Norfolk, Va., on Wednesday ahead of the bad weather. The destroyer was
supposed to return later this week from a seven-month assignment
fighting piracy off Somalia.
Farther up the East Coast, emergency officials urged people to have
disaster plans and supplies ready and weighed whether to order
evacuations as they watched the latest maps from the National Hurricane
Center — namely, the "cone of uncertainty" showing the broad path the
storm could take.
Earl was expected to reach the North Carolina coast late Thursday and
wheel to the northeast, staying offshore while making its way up the
Eastern Seaboard. But forecasters said it could move in closer, perhaps
coming ashore in North Carolina, crossing New York's Long Island and
passing over the Boston metropolitan area and Cape Cod.
That could make the difference between modestly wet and blustery
weather on the one hand, and dangerous storm surge, heavy rain and
hurricane-force winds on the other.
"Everyone is poised and ready to pull the trigger if Earl turns west,
but our hope is that this thing goes out to sea and we're all golfing
this weekend," said Peter Judge, a spokesman for the Massachusetts
Emergency Management Agency.
As of Wednesday afternoon, Earl was a powerful Category 4 hurricane
centered more than 680 miles southeast of Cape Hatteras, N.C., with
winds of 135 mph.
The only evacuations ordered were on Hatteras and Ocracoke Islands,
part of the Outer Banks. Just a light breeze was stirring and there
wasn't a cloud in the sky along the Outer Banks — a ribbon of barrier
islands a dozen miles or more off the mainland, connected to the rest
of the world by a couple of bridges and a ferry. Along the lone
highway, hundreds of cars backed up at one of the bridges.
Brittany Grippaldi and her family took advantage of the good weather to
pack up their Ford Explorer in Hatteras and head home to New Jersey.
"It's sad because reality hasn't really set in because it is so
beautiful out. It's like, `Oh, I don't want to leave this,' but it's
like the calm before the storm," said Grippaldi, who hoped to beat the
traffic.
Chuck Costas also wasn't taking any chances, interrupting his two-week
vacation to move inland from the cottage he rented on Nags Head on the
Outer Banks. Large waves already crashing ashore uncomfortably close to
the home.
"It is what it is," he said. "We have no control over it. If we lose a
couple days, it's not a huge loss."
Hurricane warnings were posted for most of the North Carolina coast,
with a hurricane watch extending to Delaware and part of Massachusetts.
In Virginia, Gov. Bob McDonnell activated the National Guard and sent
200 troops to the Hampton Roads area on Chesapeake Bay. The area was
not expected to get the brunt of Earl, but many remember the surprise
fury of Hurricane Isabel, which killed 33 people and caused $1.6
billion in damage in September 2003.
"I'd rather be safe and get our troops and state police in place by
Thursday night," the governor said.
Emergency officials on Cape Cod braced for their first major storm
since Hurricane Bob brought winds of up to 100 mph to coastal New
England in August 1991. Marinas encouraged people to take their boats
out of the water now instead of waiting for Labor Day.
Also on Wednesday, the seventh tropical storm of the season formed far
out in the Atlantic. Tropical Storm Gaston had sustained winds of 40
mph and is expected to strengthen into a hurricane this weekend as it
moves toward the Leeward Islands.
Tropical Storm Fiona remained north of the Caribbean with winds of 60
mph and is expected to move toward Bermuda over the next several days.
State Prepares For Hurricane Earl
By RINKER BUCK, rbuck@courant.com
12:57 PM EDT, August 31, 2010
Hurricane Earl is "taking a track to our east," putting Connecticut on
the western side of the storm, Joe Furey, FoxCT meteorologist, said
early Tuesday afternoon.
That's a good thing, he said. Connecticut still may get gusty
wind and rain Friday, he said, but "on the western fringe, we're spared
significant hit from the storm."
"As long as it stays to our east, we're in good shape," Furey said. He
can't say the same for people who expect to be on Cape Cod in
Massachusetts, however.
Of course, it's only Tuesday, and things may change, he warned.
"Any deviation to the track could make a difference," Furey said.
"We're on the better side of the storm — the western side," Furey said.
"But how close we are will determine how our weather is Friday
afternoon and evening.
"It should a fast-moving storm once it gets up this way," Furey said.
"It should be done by midnight Friday."
Earl, which was upgraded to a Category 4 hurricane on Monday, formed in
the Caribbean over the weekend. Local meteorologists and officials
tracking the storm from the National Hurricane Center in Miami predict
that Earl will gather speed and strength as it moves toward the coastal
United States.
"Our biggest fear is a storm that hits New York City and Long Island
and then pulls moisture out of Long Island Sound while putting us in
the northeast quadrant of the storm, which is usually the worst area of
such weather events," Furey said Monday. "We're not going to know for
sure about this one until later in the week."
But a storm diverted toward Cape Cod, Nantucket and Martha's Vineyard
could easily strand the thousands of Connecticut residents vacationing
there during the week before Labor Day weekend.
A major hurricane hasn't hit coastal New England since 1985, when
Hurricane Gloria slammed Long Island and then New England, causing
eight deaths and an estimated $900 million in property damage. But
meteorologists consider it a statistical fluke that Connecticut has not
been hit by a major hurricane since then. After Hurricane Katrina
devastated New Orleans in 2005, highlighting the lack of preparedness
in many American cities, emergency planners have focused on improving
the I-95 corridor's preparation for a storm.
But these planners also say that recent building trends and lifestyle
changes have transformed the East Coast into a veritable obstacle
course for residents during a storm. The construction of large coastal
condominium complexes and backyards converted into barbecue cooking
areas and gazebo lounges have created the huge potential for debris to
be blown across major roads just as residents are attempting to
evacuate before a storm.
Scott DeVico, a spokesman for the state Department of Emergency
Management and Homeland Security, said that Connecticut has taken many
steps since Katrina to establish a sequenced process for dealing with a
storm as it develops off the coast. The state Emergency Operations
Center at the Hartford Armory maintains detailed maps of Connecticut's
shoreline towns, showing which residential areas and roads would be
covered by the storm surges of a hurricane. The state holds hurricane
preparedness conferences every year for emergency management officials
from all 169 Connecticut towns. Most towns in the state also have
universal-band radios that allow police and emergency management
directors to communicate with other towns during a storm.
DeVico said that if, by Thursday, weather forecasts show that Hurricane
Earl is headed for Connecticut, the Federal Emergency Management Agency
will position critical supplies like water, medical equipment and tarps
at strategic locations throughout the state.
With fresh memories of destructive spring floods, the coastal town of
Stonington is making preparations for Hurricane Earl.
First Selectman Ed Haberek said Stonington is in "96-hour preparation
mode" and has already begun speaking with public works officials to be
pre-emptive. Haberek said he will be part of a conference call with the
governor's office tomorrow to discuss strategies for the storm.
Hurricane Danielle becomes Category
4 storm
CT POST
The Associated Press
Published: 06:38 a.m., Friday, August 27, 201
MIAMI ---- Hurricane Danielle became a Category 4 storm early Friday
far out over the Atlantic as it headed in Bermuda's direction and
threatened to bring dangerous rip currents to the U.S. East Coast.
Danielle's maximum sustained winds increased to near 135 mph (215 kph)
with some additional strengthening possible.
Danielle was located early Friday about 545 miles (875 kilometers)
southeast of Bermuda and moving north-northwest near 12 mph (19 kph).
The hurricane is forecast to pass well east of Bermuda on Saturday
night, and then make a turn to the north, missing North America. But
large waves and dangerous surf conditions were expected in Bermuda over
the next few days, the National Hurricane Center in Miami said.
Swells from Danielle would also begin arriving on the East Coast of the
U.S. on Saturday and were likely to cause dangerous rip currents
through the weekend.
Also in the Atlantic, Tropical Storm Earl was moving west with maximum
sustained winds near 45 mph (75 kph). Forecasters said Earl could
become by Saturday night.
And in the Pacific, Hurricane Frank had weakened slightly off Mexico's
coast. Further weakening was expected over the next couple days as the
hurricane moved over cooler waters.
Atlantic storm Danielle to
become hurricane
YAHOO
23 August 2010
NEW YORK (Reuters) – Tropical Storm Danielle in the central Atlantic
Ocean was expected to strengthen into a hurricane in the next 24 hours
as it moved west-northwest toward Bermuda, the U.S. National Hurricane
Center said in an early Monday advisory.
Danielle, the fourth named storm of the 2010 Atlantic hurricane season,
was located about 850 miles west of the Cape Verde Islands with winds
of about 60 miles per hour.
All of the computer weather models showed the system heading northwest
toward Bermuda and not toward Florida or the key oil and gas producing
areas in the Gulf of Mexico.
Gulf
Coast: Another Katrina? How does
unknown impact of Gulf oil slick measure up?
Norwalk HOUR
By STACEY PLAISANCE and BECKY BOHRER, Associated Press (Katrina, 2005)
With a historic evacuation of 1.9 million people from the Louisiana
coast complete, gun-toting police and National Guardsmen stood watch as
rain started to fall on this city's empty streets Sunday night -- and
even presidential politics stood still while the nation waited to see
if Hurricane Gustav would be another Katrina.
The storm was set to crash ashore midday Monday with frightful force,
testing the three years of planning and rebuilding that followed
Katrina's devastating blow to the Gulf Coast.
Painfully aware of the failings that led to that horrific suffering and
more than 1,600 deaths, this time officials moved beyond merely
insisting tourists and residents leave south Louisiana. They threatened
arrest, loaded thousands onto buses and warned that anyone who remained
behind would not be rescued.
"Looters will go directly to jail. You will not get a pass this time,"
Mayor Ray Nagin said. "You will not have a temporary stay in the city.
You will go directly to the Big House."
Col. Mike Edmondson, state police commander, said he believed that 90
percent of the population had fled the Louisiana coast. The exodus of
1.9 million people is the largest evacuation in state history, and
thousands more had left from Mississippi, Alabama and flood-prone
southeast Texas.
Late Sunday, Gov. Bobby Jindal issued one last plea to the roughly
100,000 people still left on the coast: "If you've not evacuated,
please do so. There are still a few hours left."
Louisiana and Mississippi temporarily changed traffic flow so all
highway lanes led away from the coast, and cars were packed
bumper-to-bumper. Stores and restaurants shut down, hotels closed and
windows were boarded up. Some who planned to stay changed their mind at
the last second, not willing to risk the worst.
"I was trying to get situated at home. I was trying to get things so it
would be halfway safe," said 46-year-old painter Jerry Williams, who
showed up at the city's Union Station to catch one of the last buses
out of town. "You're torn. Do you leave it and worry about it, or do
you stay and worry about living?"
Forecasters said Gustav was likely to grow stronger as it marched
toward the coast with top sustained winds of around 115 mph. At 8 p.m.
EDT Sunday, the National Hurricane Center said Gustav was a Category 3
storm centered about 175 miles southeast of the mouth of the
Mississippi River and moving northwest near 17 mph.
Against all warnings, some gambled and decided to face its wrath. On an
otherwise deserted commercial block of downtown Lafayette, about 135
miles west of the city, Tim Schooler removed the awnings from his
photography studio. He thought about evacuating Sunday before deciding
he was better off riding out the storm at home with his wife, Nona.
"There's really no place to go. All the hotels are booked up to Little
Rock and beyond," he said. "We're just hoping for the best."
There were frightening comparisons between Gustav and Katrina, which
flooded 80 percent of New Orleans when the storm surge overtook the
levees. While Gustav isn't as large as Katrina, which was a massive
Category 5 storm at roughly the same place in the Gulf, there was no
doubt the storm posed a major threat to a partially rebuilt New Orleans
and the flood-prone coasts of Louisiana and southeast Texas. The storm
has already killed at least 94 people on its path through the Caribbean.
The storm could bring with it a storm surge of up to 14 feet and
rainfall up to 20 inches wherever it hits. By comparison, Hurricane
Katrina pushed about 25 feet of surge.
Mindful of the potential for disaster, the Republican Party scaled back
its normally jubilant convention -- set to kickoff as Gustav crashed
ashore. President Bush said he would skip the convention all together,
and Sen. John McCain visited Jackson, Miss., on Sunday as his campaign
rewrote the script for the convention to emphasize a commitment to
helping people.
Surge models suggest larger areas of southeast Louisiana, including
parts of the greater New Orleans area, could be flooded by several feet
of water. Gustav appears most likely to overwhelm the levees west of
the city that have for decades been underfunded and neglected and are
years from an update.
The nation's economic attention was focused on Gustav's effect on
refineries and offshore petroleum production rigs. The combination of
prolonged production interruptions, such as occurred when Katrina and
Rita damaged the Gulf infrastructure, could trigger rising prices.
Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour said Chevron Corp. decided not to close
its Pascagoula refinery, which processes 330,000 barrels of oil a day.
Billions of dollars were at stake in other wide-ranging economic
sectors, including sugar harvesting, the shipping business and tourism.
The Mississippi Gaming Commission ordered a dozen casinos to close.
The final train out of town left with fewer than 100 people on board,
while the one of the last buses to make the rounds of the city pulled
into Union Station empty. By 7 p.m., police were making their final
rounds. Every officer in the department was on duty, and 1,200 on
street were joined by 1,500 National Guardsmen.
The only sign of life on St. Bernard Avenue -- a four-lane artery
through the partially rebuilt Gentilly neighborhood that flooded during
Katrina -- was a brown and black rooster meandering along the street.
"When the 911 calls start coming in, we'll know how many people are
left in town," said police superintendent Warren Riley.
Even as they pressed to complete the evacuation, officials insisted
there would be no repeat of the inept response to Katrina's wrath.
Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said search and rescue
will be the top priority once Gustav passes -- high-water vehicles,
helicopters and fixed-wing aircraft, Coast Guard cutters and a Navy
vessel that is essentially a floating emergency room are posted around
the strike zone.
West of New Orleans in Houma, he wished passengers well as stragglers
boarded buses for Shreveport and Dallas.
"It's going to be hot on some of the buses. It's going to be a long
trip," Chertoff said. "So it's not going to be pleasant, but it's a lot
better than sitting in the Superdome and it's a lot better than sitting
in your house."
Five years ago it was Katrina...
TOWN
CLERK STARTS IT, EVERYBODY ELSE CHIPS IN, AND THE VILLAGE GETS
FURNISHED!
This is where it started...Town Clerk leads the way! Board of
Selectmen get into
the act, and then the Board of Finance balks...wants to do
more...members of both Parties join together to make a significant,
long term pledge to assist a "Sister City." Intergeneratioinal
effort, as well! FLOODING HITS WESTON - FEMA now will accept
applications and also...SBA to the rescue!
Making a bad situation worse
ROB VARNON rvarnon@ctpost.com
Article created: 08/19/2006
04:43:17 AM EDT
Almost a year after Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans and other
Gulf Coast communities, a Connecticut hygiene specialist is questioning
whether hospitals understand how to plan or recover from a disaster.
Katrina hit New Orleans on Aug. 29, 2005, and headed inland, striking
communities in Mississippi and Alabama. It caused 1,326 deaths and
displaced more than 700,000 people. While it's unlikely Connecticut
communities would see the same type of flood damage as New Orleans —
where some of the city is below sea level — the Constitution State
could be hit by a hurricane, suffer river flooding or terrorist attacks.
Bill Parks, a senior project manager for Stamford-based RTK
Environmental Group and a hygienist, spent four months in New Orleans
helping to clean up hospitals after the storm. In many cases, he said,
the hospitals stored chemicals, dead bodies and medical waste in places
that were easily flooded. This spread bacteria and other contaminants
throughout the building, making the cleanup more difficult.
Parks also found many New Orleans hospitals stored engineering records
and duplicate keys in basements, which also slowed recovery efforts. In
one case, crews had to wait four days to get inside to assess one
hospital because administrators had to track down the original
architect and the company that printed the original plans, Parks said.
Robert Gallo, RTK's director of sales and marketing, said businesses,
states and cities need to think about what the problems during cleanup
were after Katrina when they make their own disaster and recovery
plans. RTK is an environmental remediation consulting firm, helping
clean up brownfields, asbestos and other dangers.
Gallo said there has been a lot of attention on planning for when the
disaster occurs, but the recovery effort is just as important. Even
today, with all this knowledge, Gallo said his firm sees people
cleaning up after smaller disasters like fires and creating larger
problems by not having a plan to deal with asbestos or other materials.
The two RTK employees also said Katrina is an example of the failure of
disaster plans and bureaucracy. For example, during Katrina, Parks
said, it was like the federal, state and city officials weren't even
speaking the same language, and it was unclear who
was in charge.
Ron Bianchi, corporate senior vice president of St. Vincent's Medical
Center in Bridgeport, agreed.
"It was a disaster in more than one sense. It was a disaster of
leadership," Bianchi said, adding he's not sure the same thing wouldn't
happen in Connecticut.
"There's a lot of potential confusion," Bianchi said.
A disaster can cross not just geographical boundaries, but also
administrative ones, creating potential for power struggles.
But perhaps the scariest thing about a major disaster would be people's
expectations of the government.
Bianchi said people may expect the government to swoop in to direct
them what to do, but government bureaucracy doesn't move that fast.
"We'll need more initiative on the part of the individual," he said.
Bianchi said St. Vincent's is prepared to evacuate and has developed
recovery plans. Other hospitals also have plans and are continuing to
refine them, according to the Connecticut Hospital Association.
Leonard Guercia, chief of the operations branch of the Connecticut
Department of Public Health, said the state is already addressing some
of Parks' concerns.
For instance, according to Guercia, Connecticut will have refrigerated
trailers to store bodies if it faces a major disaster. Last year, some
bodies rotted in the streets of New Orleans for days after the storm
passed, creating more health concerns.
The Department of Public Health is also sponsoring a seminar Sept. 21
called "The Role and Responsibility of Local Government & Business
Leaders in Pre-Event Planning & Post-Event Planning."
Gallo and Parks said the planning underway is good, but a major problem
facing the state and the nation is the general populace doesn't know
what the plans are, and aren't participating in drills. That, Parks
said, needs to change.
"DEPARTURE
CEREMONY" May 20th goes well - Lacombe,
Louisiana or bust!
And
it was quite a ceremony, with Channel 12 there, everyone was gracious
but didn't take much time away from the task at hand - loading the
trucks for their trip to Lacombe. Good stuff only loaded onto
truck. HAPPENINGS: a large SUV arrived, loaded to the
gills, from a neighboring synagogue, with a bounty of brand new kitchen
equipment in their new, unopened, boxes...Click here for flyer.
Sister city committee proposes
projects
Weston FORUM
by JAN HOWARD
Feb 15, 2006
Weston residents, organizations, and businesses who want to make a
difference in the lives of people in Southeast Louisiana have an
opportunity to do so through 14 projects being suggested by the Weston
Select Committee on the Town-to-Town Partnership.
The committee, appointed by the Board of Selectmen, adopted a mission
statement to partner with a town similar in size and community to
Weston, to facilitate supporting that town’s immediate and short-term
needs for recovery, and to build a mutually beneficial long-term
relationship and partnership.
Weston has “adopted” a sister city, Lacombe, La., located along the
north shore of Lake Pontchartrain in St. Tammany Parish. The community
sustained substantial damage during Hurricane Katrina. It is one of the
poorest communities in St. Tammany Parish, with an average family
income of about $32,000 a year. An estimated 90% of the elementary
school students qualify for free lunches.
Committee members David Muller and Martin Strasmore recently traveled
to Lacombe, where they saw first-hand the devastation there. They met
with town officials, fire personnel, church leaders, school principals,
and directors of the library, the health and human services department,
and the recreation department. The committee held its first
public presentation of projects organized to date on Feb. 11 in the
parish hall at Norfield Church. Proposed projects focus on both the
long-term and short-term needs of the Lacombe community.
Mr. Muller, chairman of the Town-To-Town Partnership Committee, said
loss of the property tax base as a result of the hurricane necessitated
significant budget cuts in Lacombe and across Louisiana, which led to
drastic cutbacks in equipment repairs, replacement, and purchases.
There is no money to do the things they need to do to rebuild, he said.
The projects the Weston committee seeks to undertake include:
500 Homes
Five hundred families that had no flood insurance and limited help from
FEMA would benefit; 25% of the homes are in the flood zone, and they
are looking to rebuild on land above the flood zone. Weston would fund
transportation of the items to Lacombe.
Items to be collected include:
• Construction
materials: Sheet rock, flooring, trusses and roofing materials. As
funding is received, it will be spent on materials.
• Furniture and large appliances: Bedroom
furniture, beds and bedding for 1,000 or more, dining room tables,
washers and dryers, stoves and microwaves are needed within the next
two to three months.
• Clothing and basic needs: Clothing and shoes
for all ages, telephones, pots and pans, dishes, cleaning supplies,
TVs, and all basic needs for a house.
Lacombe Athletic Equipment
Sports equipment, for ages five to 14, to be collected includes:
• Football:
Footballs, 30 helmets, and shoulder pads. Equipment needed by September.
• Baseball: 10 youth catchers packages, 15
Babe Ruth certified balls, 30 baseball/softball helmets, 10 baseball
catchers mitts, five softball catchers mitts, and white
baseball/softball pants. Equipment needed by April.
Project Maintenance
The hurricane caused the loss of the town’s maintenance facility as
well as most of the tools and equipment. The project would benefit the
entire community. Work could begin immediately and be complete within
one to one and a half years. Specific needs include:
• A 30- by
40-foot metal building
• Concrete foundation
• Concrete drive leading to building (60 to 80
feet)
• Vehicle lift (9,000-pound capability)
• Tools
Monteleone Junior High School
Supplies Project: Copier paper, file folders, ink pens, overhead
markers, copier transparencies, dry erase markers, AAA batteries, HP
printer ink. Total estimated cost: $613.
Technology Project: Four Dell OptiPlexGX280, six HP Deskjet 3915, four
VCR-DVD players, four AverVision 300i Portable Document Cameras, four
Infocus x2 Digital projector 1500. Total estimated cost: $10,108.
Exploring the Art and Dance of
Southeastern Louisiana
A local artist is employed to share the knowledge and skills regarding
the history and artistic techniques of artists of Southeastern
Louisiana. Art supplies for students are needed, as well as materials
to display the completed student work in an art show.
The program would also employ a local performer to share the art of
Cajun dance with students.
Based on past grants, which are no longer available, estimated cost is
approximately $3,000.
Bringing the Art and Dance of
Southeastern Louisiana to Weston
Two options: Bringing people and materials from Lacombe’s program to
Weston, or sending a video and art team to Lacombe to record and bring
back what they see and learn. The value is for the Weston community,
though it might help raise money for other Lacombe projects, and it
would strengthen ties between Weston and Lacombe.
Bayou Lacombe Middle School
Supplies Project: 10 TI-15 Explorer calculators, printer ink
cartridges. Total estimated cost: $712. These are needed as soon as
possible.
Reading Database Project: A subscription to Online Accelerated Reader
Database, reading software program to motivate students to read.
Estimated cost: $219.
Technology Project: Three Dell Intel P4 521, HP Laptop NC6120, three HP
Color Laser Jet 3550n, 13 ELMO HV-110XG Visual Presenter, eight
port hubs for ethernet. Total estimated cost: $16,100.
Chahta-Ima Elementary School
Supplies Project: HP print cartridges for 26 computers, 25 bulbs for
Dell 2200 MP Projectors. Total estimated cost: $9,000.
Technology Project: Four Dell 2300 MP projectors, four projector
screens, seven 27-inch television/DVD/VHS, 10 HP Compaq Sepcs Dc 7600,
eight HP Deskjet Printers 5650, four Sony Cybershot DSC-P72 digital
cameras, four ELMO HV-5100XG visual presenters. Total estimated cost:
$28,195.
For information and the name of the contact person for each
project,
call Mr. Muller at 226-6588.
Mr. Muller said monetary donations made out to the Town of Weston, with
the notation for Town- to-Town Partnership, are tax deductible.
However, there is no clear answer as yet on whether donations of
furnishings and other goods are deductible. He said people
coordinating collections through schools and other organizations should
call the contact person for that project to avoid any conflicts.
There is also an opportunity for hands-on work, Mr. Muller said,
explaining they might be able to send teams to Lacombe to help with
construction projects. Mr. Strasmore said the committee also
needs the expertise of a Web designer to create a Web site.
In addition to Mr. Muller and Mr. Strasmore, committee members include
Rev. Bernard Wilson, Michael Carter, Charlene Chiang-Hillman, Dr. Lynne
Pierson, and Dawn Egan.
Select Committee for Sister City
(re: Hurricane Katrina)
formed by Board of Selectmen - members appointed October 6, 2005.
In
Mississippi, The Post-Katrina Recovery Is Stagnant; After three
months little has changed in many devastated towns
By MICHAEL POWELL & THE WASHINGTON POST
Published on 11/26/2005
Pass Christian, Miss.— Three months ago, Katrina all but scoured this
old beach town of 8,000 off the face of the Earth. To walk its streets
today is to see acres of wreckage almost as untouched as the day the
hurricane passed.
No new houses are framed out. No lots cleared. There is just
devastation and a lingering stench and a tent city in which hundreds of
residents huddle against the first chill of winter and wonder where
they'll find the money to rebuild their lives.
Billy McDonald, the white-haired mayor whose house was reduced to a
concrete slab by 55-foot-high waves, works out of a trailer. He doesn't
expect the word “recovery” to roll off his lips for many months.
“Lots of folks don't have flood insurance; lots of folks don't have
jobs; lots of folks don't have hope,” McDonald said. “We're a hurting
place.”
This is the other land laid low by Katrina's fury. Like New Orleans to
the west, hundreds of square miles of Mississippi coastland look little
better than they did in early September, and many people here harbor
anger that the federal government has fallen short and that the
nation's attention has turned away. At least 200,000 Mississippians
remain displaced, and the Federal Emergency Management Agency is short
at least 13,000 trailers to house them.
Fifty thousand homeowners lack federal flood insurance and cannot
rebuild. The casinos, which employed 17,000 people, won't begin to
reopen until next year, and the unemployment rate has quadrupled, now
topping 23 percent in the coastal counties.
Half a dozen towns, Pass Christian among them, are borrowing millions
of dollars to pay bills, and some officials are talking about
surrendering charters and becoming wards of the state.
“FEMA continues to be able to mess up a one-car funeral — we don't
begin to have enough money for major reconstruction,” said Rep. Gene
Taylor (D), who lost his own home in Bay St. Louis. “We're going to
have a lot of defaults and bankruptcies.
“The federal response, from highways to housing to trailers, is
completely unacceptable.”
Developers and casino companies and local politicians have begun to map
out a rebuilding plan, but that stirs anxiety, too. In this poorest
state in the nation, where nearly 22 percent of residents live in
poverty and 40,000 homes lack adequate plumbing, thousands of
Mississippians could find themselves unable to afford to return to the
land of their birth.
How about tornado attraction?
Last Updated: Tuesday, 29 November
2005, 13:06 GMT
Trailer
towns'
uncertain future
By Matthew Davis, BBC News in Baker, Louisiana
Some 70,000 people in Louisiana and Mississippi are now living in
trailer parks, three months after Hurricane Katrina forced them to
abandon their homes. The cheap, makeshift abodes are
synonymous with poverty in the US. Yet for many storm victims
they are the only option for the next 18 months at least, while the
slow process of rebuilding winds on. For some they are a new beginning,
a step up from sharing a motel room.
But there are fears for the long-term social consequences of the wave
of construction that has seen "trailer towns" springing up all along
the Gulf Coast. The BBC visited one such site in Baker,
Louisiana, a small town just north of Baton Rouge and about 90 miles
from New Orleans. Just outside the town limits, some 60 acres of
treeless scrubland owned by the Louisiana State Corrections Department
has been turned into a 600-trailer park, housing more than 1,600
people.
Casterry Reddick was one of the first people to move to the park after
she was evacuated from Pointe a La Hache on the east bank of the
Mississippi River.
"It is better than a shelter at least. It's me and my kids. At the
river centre I was with 1,000 other people," she said. The
mother-of-two is working as a security guard, patrolling the trailers
and is making plans to stay. Her children are in a local school.
"Right now I am working, I am kinda confused, I don't know where to
go," she says.
"Once I get paid off [by the Federal Emergency Management Agency] I
will decide from there - but I kinda like it out here, not in Baker -
but Baton Rouge. Yeah I would buy a house in Baton Rouge."
'Pleasure resort'
Yet some at the park find it hard to escape a sense of being in limbo.
Annie Ford is 97, a New Orleans resident since 1934. She now lives in a
trailer with her cousin and her son. She seems amazingly resilient to
the upheaval, but is missing home.
"I like it is nice, the people are nice. But when I leave here I want
to go back to New Orleans.
"I don't have nobody to take me back there - but if I ever do go I will
be going back to New Orleans, if I live to see it." Glen Morgan
is helping out at the camp's tented nursery, where children are playing
with toys and games donated by well-wishers. He says some see the
site as a "pleasure resort" because evacuees pay no rent to Fema and
get all their water, electricity and gas for free.
But there is little to do he says, and for those waiting for a payout
and to move on, it feels like a "bureaucratic nightmare".
"We really appreciate what people have done for us," Mr Morgan says.
"But there are a lot of issues still outstanding. We just need someone
in authority to come down and listen to people."
Several of the trailer parks built in Florida after four major
hurricanes in 2004 experienced widespread lawlessness. New
Orleans was infamous for its violent gangs and there were fears that
history might repeat itself.
Yet Fema has acted to stop that happening. The trailer parks have their
own security and Baker's is policed by the local sheriff's department.
Residents must sign a good- conduct agreement and abide by Fema rules.
Baker's police force says there has been a small increase in
shoplifting and petty crime, but nothing serious.
The town's mayor, Harold Rideau, says Baker has "opened its arms" to
evacuees, but he is more concerned at the mounting costs of supporting
the camp - and cleaning up after the hurricanes - which he puts at more
than $800,000 and counting.
"It is a tremendous financial burden because we not only had to do the
clean up, but also all the extra infrastructure, additional police
protection - you're looking at additional firemen, health services and
also public works," he told the BBC.
He thinks half of people in the park will ultimately stay - a big
challenge for a small town.
In surveys since Katrina, about 50% of the 500,000 people evacuated
from the affected area into other states have also indicated an
unwillingness to return.
Some say such shifting demographics will herald political changes.
Experts in urban development
warn that those planning for the ongoing housing needs of hundreds of
thousands must be careful to not create communities that are so dense
and sterile that no one wants to live in them.
Ruth Steiner, an associate professor at the Department of Urban and
Regional Planning at the University of Florida, has described the
post-Katrina construction as "a milestone of urban planning" without
precedent in US history.
She says the key is in striking a balance between making somewhere
comfortable for people, but not so comfortable as to stop them wanting
to leave.
Fema - which has already provided more than $4.4bn to 1.4 million
families affected by the Gulf Coast hurricanes - sees trailer parks as
a low-cost solution to the current housing problem.
But only time will measure the social costs - or rewards - they will
bring to the people that live in them, and the communities that house
them.
Senate
Panel
Says FEMA Is Beyond Repair
By LARA JAKES JORDAN, Associated Press Writer
2:20 PM EDT, April 27, 2006
WASHINGTON -- Hurricane Katrina turned FEMA into a "symbol of a
bumbling bureaucracy" so far beyond repair that it should be scrapped,
senators said Thursday. They called for creation of a new disaster
relief agency as the next storm season looms on the horizon.
The push to replace the beleaguered agency was the top recommendation
of a hefty Senate inquiry that concluded that top officials from New
Orleans to Washington failed to adequately prepare for and respond to
the deadly storm, despite weather forecasts predicting its path through
the Gulf Coast.
"The first obligation of government is to protect our people," said
Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, chair of the Senate Homeland Security and
Governmental Affairs investigation. "In Katrina, we failed at all
levels of government to meet that fundamental obligation."
She added: "We must learn from the lessons of Katrina so that next time
disaster strikes, whether it's a storm that was imminent and predicted
for a long time, or a terror attack that takes us by surprise,
government responds far more effectively."
The bipartisan report's executive summary gives President Bush a mixed
review for his performance. It credits him for declaring an emergency
before the hurricane's landfall, but faults him for waiting until two
days after it hit to return to Washington and convene top officials to
coordinate the federal response.
"The White House shares responsibility for the inadequate pre-landfall
preparations," the summary says.
The inquiry's final report, given to lawmakers Thursday, faulted New
Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin and Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco for failing
to protect sick and elderly people and others who could not evacuate
the city on their own. It also concluded that Homeland Security
Secretary Michael Chertoff and Michael Brown, who then headed the
Federal Emergency Management Agency, either did not understand federal
response plans or refused to follow them.
But the panel's top Democrat, Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman of Connecticut,
heaped much of the blame on Bush and the White House, which he said
"were not sufficiently engaged when they should have been initiating an
aggressive response."
Even after the storm's Aug. 29 landfall, the White House "still seemed
detached until two days later," said Lieberman, who faces a primary
re-election challenge this year.
The bipartisan panel issued 86 recommendations for change that, taken
together, indicate the United States is still woefully unprepared for a
storm of Katrina's scope with the start of the hurricane season little
more than a month away.
The probe follows similar inquiries by the House and White House and
comes in an election year in which Democrats have seized on Katrina to
attack the Bush administration. Bush was visiting Louisiana and
Mississippi -- which bore the brunt of Katrina's wrath -- on Thursday.
Katrina was one of the worst natural disasters in U.S. history. The
storm killed more than 1,300 people in Louisiana, Mississippi and
Alabama, left hundreds of thousands of homeless and caused tens of
billions of dollars in damage.
The recommendations conclude FEMA is crippled beyond repair by years of
poor leadership and inadequate funding and call for a new agency -- the
National Preparedness and Response Authority -- to plan and carry out
relief missions for domestic disasters.
Unlike now, the authority would communicate directly with the president
during major crises, and any dramatic cuts to budget or staffing levels
would have to be approved by Congress. But it would remain within the
Homeland Security Department and would continue receiving resources
from the department.
Sen. Frank Lautenberg, D-N.J., said FEMA needs to be stripped out of
the larger department and restored to an independent Cabinet-level
agency. "That's how it was done in the past and it worked as we hoped,"
said Lautenberg, a member of the Senate panel.
The proposal also drew disdain from Homeland Security and its critics,
both sides questioning the need for another bureaucratic shuffling that
they said wouldn't accomplish much.
"It's time to stop playing around with the organizational charts and to
start focusing on government, at all levels, that are preparing for
this storm season," Homeland Security spokesman Russ Knocke said.
Brown, who resigned under fire after Katrina, said the new agency would
basically have the same mission FEMA had a year ago before its disaster
planning responsibilities were taken away to focus solely on responding
to calls for help.
"It sounds like they're just re-creating the wheel and making it look
like they're calling for change," Brown said.
The House report, issued in February, similarly criticized Bush,
Chertoff and Brown for moving too slowly to trigger federal relief. The
White House report, which came a week later, took a softer tone and
singled out Homeland Security for most of the breakdowns.
TYPHOON, CYCLONE (EAST OF THE
DATE LINE AND INDIAN OCEAN)
LESSONS LEARNED (R)
Taiwan hotel collapses
after typhoon. Weather forecasters predicting
more heavy rain later in the week - 29 September 2009; echo of
disasters in Oct. 2010 and cyclones Down Under (r.)
Philippines typhoon leaves 350 dead with 400 missing
New Haven Register
By The Associated Press
Published: Thursday, December 06, 2012
NEW BATAAN, Philippines — A powerful typhoon that washed away emergency
shelters, a military camp and possibly entire families in the southern
Philippines has killed almost 350 people with nearly 400 missing,
authorities said Thursday.
More bodies were retrieved from hardest-hit Compostela Valley and Davao
Oriental provinces and six others impacted by Tuesday's storm, the
Office of Civil Defense reported. At least 200 of the victims
died in Compostela Valley alone, including 78 villagers and soldiers
who perished in a flash flood that swamped two emergency shelters and a
military camp.
"Entire families may have been washed away," said Interior Secretary
Mar Roxas, who visited New Bataan on Wednesday. The farming town of
45,000 people was a muddy wasteland of collapsed houses and coconut and
banana trees felled by ferocious winds.
Bodies of victims were laid on the ground for viewing by people
searching for missing relatives. Some were badly mangled after being
dragged by raging floodwaters over rocks and other debris. A man
sprayed insecticide on the remains to keep away swarms of flies.
A father wept when he found the body of his child after lifting a
plastic cover. A mother, meanwhile, went away in tears, unable to find
her missing children. "I have three children," she said repeatedly,
flashing three fingers before a TV cameraman. Two men carried the
mud-caked body of an unidentified girl that was covered with coconut
leaves on a makeshift stretcher made from a blanket and wooden poles.
Dionisia Requinto, 43, felt lucky to have survived with her husband and
their eight children after swirling flood waters surrounded their home.
She said they escaped and made their way up a hill to safety, bracing
themselves against boulders and fallen trees as they climbed.
"The water rose so fast," she told The Associated Press. "It was
horrible. I thought it was going to be our end."
In nearby Davao Oriental, the coastal province first struck by Typhoon
Bopha as it blew from the Pacific Ocean, at least 115 people perished,
mostly in three towns so battered that it was hard to find any
buildings with roofs remaining, provincial officer Freddie Bendulo and
other officials said.
"We had a problem where to take the evacuees. All the evacuation
centers have lost their roofs," Davao Oriental Gov. Corazon Malanyaon
said.
The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies
issued an urgent appeal for $4.8 million to help people directly
affected by the typhoon. The sun shined brightly for most of the
day Wednesday, prompting residents to lay their soaked clothes, books
and other belongings out on roadsides to dry and revealing the extent
of the damage to farmland. Thousands of banana trees in one Compostela
Valley plantation were toppled by the wind, the young bananas still
wrapped in blue plastic covers.
But as night fell, however, rain started pouring again over New Bataan,
triggering panic among some residents who feared a repeat of the
previous day's flash floods. Some carried whatever belongings they
could as they hurried to nearby towns or higher ground. After
slamming into Davao Oriental and Compostela Valley, Bopha roared
quickly across the southern Mindanao and central regions, knocking out
power in two entire provinces, triggering landslides and leaving houses
and plantations damaged. More than 170,000 fled to evacuation centers.
On Thursday, the typhoon was over the South China Sea west of Palawan
province. It was blowing northwestward and could be headed to Vietnam
or southern China, according to government forecasters. The
deaths came despite efforts by President Benigno Aquino III's
government to force residents out of high-risk communities as the
typhoon approached.
Some 20 typhoons and storms lash the northern and central Philippines
each year, but they rarely hit the vast southern Mindanao region where
sprawling export banana plantations have been planted over the decades
because it seldom experiences strong winds that could blow down the
trees. A rare storm in the south last December killed more than
1,200 people and left many more homeless.
The United States extended its condolences and offered to help its
Asian ally deal with the typhoon's devastation. It praised government
efforts to minimize the deaths and damage.
Philippines braces for typhoon,
evacuation ordered
YAHOO
25 May 2011
MANILA, Philippines – Philippine officials began evacuating thousands
of residents in areas prone to floods and landslides Wednesday as
Typhoon Songda roared toward the country's northeast.
Government weather bureau chief Graciano Yumul said the typhoon is
likely to make landfall Friday afternoon over Aurora and Isabela
provinces. It has already brought heavy rains to the Philippine
archipelago's eastern seaboard.
Yumul said the typhoon was packing winds of 80 miles (130 kilometers)
per hour and gusts of 100 mph (160 kph).
The storm was about 190 miles (310 kilometers) east of Northern Samar
province late Wednesday.
The typhoon is also expected to pass near Albay province on its way to
the northeast. Gov. Joey Salceda has ordered some 250,000 residents
there evacuated from coastal areas, flood- and landslide-prone
villages, and areas that would be in the path of debris from the Mayon
volcano. He has offered 11 pounds (five kilograms) of rice as an
incentive for each family that evacuates.
In other provinces in the path of the typhoon, officials have collected
rubber boats and food supplies and put rescuers on standby.
Presidential spokesman Edwin Lacierda appealed to people living near
the typhoon's path to monitor news and to heed officials' calls for
evacuation if necessary.
"Local government officials have enough time to prepare, so we hope we
have a zero casualty," he added.
Several domestic flights were canceled or diverted because of stormy
weather. Nearly 4,000 people are stranded in ports after the coast
guard barred sea travel in areas with typhoon warnings.
The capital Manila and the country's western seaboard also experienced
heavy downpour on Wednesday, but Yumul said that was unrelated to the
typhoon.
Powerful cyclone strikes Australia's
northeast
YAHOO
2 Feb. 2011
CAIRNS, Australia – The destructive core of a massive cyclone battered
Australia's northeastern coast early Thursday, wrenching roofs off
buildings and cutting power to tens of thousands of homes.
Australian officials have warned that Cyclone Yasi was expected to
cause substantial damage and probably some deaths, though they would
have little idea of the scale of the disaster until the worst had
passed. The storm was packing winds up to 186 mph (300 kph) and will
take several hours to blow through any given area.
The storm will compound misery in Queensland, which has already been
hit by months of flooding that killed 35 people and inundated hundreds
of communities. Yasi hit north of the main waterlogged area, but
emergency services across the state are already stretched.
The Bureau of Meteorology said in a statement that the storm's "large
and destructive core" has started crossing the coast near the small
town of Mission Beach in northern Queensland state.
Dozens of other cities and towns were being whipped by winds that
forecaster said could gust up to 186 mph (300 kph).
Witnesses reported seeing roofs ripped off buildings and trees
flattened, and officials said power had been cut to at least 90,000
homes.
Australia braces for cyclones
YAHOO
By MarketWatch
Jan. 30, 2011, 3:09 p.m. EST
SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) — A tropical cyclone threatened to hit
northeastern Australia late Sunday, triggering a new crisis in a region
that has been reeling from months of heavy rains and massive flooding.
Cyclone Anthony was expected to hit communities in northern Queensland
as it intensified to category 2, with winds of up to 130 kilometers per
hour, The Australian newspaper reported on its website.
The cyclone was later downgraded to a low pressure system, but its
winds continued to hit the northern part of the state, according to the
Australian Broadcasting Corporation Web site.
Meanwhile, another cyclone, named Bianca, weakened as it hit Perth in
southwestern Australia Sunday night, the Australian reported.
Southern China
braces
for deadly typhoon
YAHOO
By MIN LEE, Associated Press Writer
20 Oct. 2010
HONG KONG – Residents scrambled to stockpile food and authorities
ordered ships to remain docked as southern China geared up Wednesday
for a typhoon that killed 20 people and wiped out crops in the northern
Philippines.
Typhoon Megi packed winds of 140 miles per hour (225 kilometers per
hour) when it struck the Philippines on Monday. Philippine officials
reported 20 deaths, including several people who drowned after being
pinned by fallen trees. The storm damaged thousands of homes and
flooded vast areas of rice and corn fields.
Late Wednesday, Megi was about 350 miles (550 kilometers) southeast of
the southern financial hub of Hong Kong and expected to eventually hit
the southern Chinese coast, the Hong Kong Observatory said on its
website.
The storm's winds have weakened to 110 mph (175 kph), but are expected
to build strength over the next two days before losing steam again
Saturday, when the typhoon is projected to make landfall in China's
Guangdong province, the observatory said.
In Guangdong, officials have ordered all fishing boats back to shore,
put the provincial flood control headquarters on alert and warned that
reservoirs should be watched, China's official Xinhua News Agency
reported. In the southern island province of Hainan, residents rushed
to supermarkets to stock up on food, vegetables and bottled water,
Xinhua said.
In Hong Kong, the mood was calmer in the densely populated city of 7
million whose infrastructure has traditionally held up well against the
annual summer barrage of typhoons. Still, the Hong Kong Observatory
urged residents to make sure their windows could be properly bolted,
avoid the coastline and refrain from water sports. It also ordered
small vessels to return to shore.
In the Philippines, more than 215,000 people were affected by the
typhoon, including 10,300 people who fled to evacuation centers,
officials said. About $30 million (1.3 billion pesos) worth of
infrastructure and crops were damaged and nearly 5,000 houses were
damaged or destroyed by Megi's ferocious wind, according to the
government's main disaster-response agency.
Meanwhile, in Vietnam, where recent flooding has killed at least 45
people, soldiers and police found a bus that was carrying dozens of
people when it was washed away by flood waters, disaster officials said
Wednesday. Twenty people aboard the bus when the washout happened were
still missing, and officials did not say how many bodies they found.
Up to 4.5 feet (1.4 meters) of rain pounded the region in the past
week, submerging more than 220,000 houses and forcing more than 173,000
people to flee their homes, according to the national flood and storm
control committee.
Super typhoon lashes
Philippines, knocks out power
YAHOO
By BULLIT MARQUEZ, Associated Press Writer
18 October 2010
CAUAYAN, Philippines – The strongest cyclone in years to buffet the
Philippines knocked out communications and power as residents took
shelter Monday, while flooding in Vietnam swept away a bus and 20 of
its passengers, including a boy taken from his mother's grasp by the
raging waters. Super Typhoon Megi, crossing the northern
Philippines, was expected to add to the already heavy rains that have
fallen on much of Asia. In China, authorities evacuated 140,000 people
from a coastal province ahead of the typhoon.
Megi could later hit Vietnam, where flooding has caused 30 deaths in
recent days, in addition to those missing and feared dead after a bus
was snatched off a road by surging currents Monday.
Megi packed sustained winds of 140 miles (225 kilometers) per hour and
gusts of 162 mph (260 kph) as it made landfall midday Monday at Palanan
Bay in Isabela province, felling trees and utility poles and cutting
off power, phone and Internet services in many areas. It appeared to be
weakening while crossing the mountains of the Philippines' main
northern island of Luzon. With more than 3,600 Filipinos riding
out the typhoon in sturdy school buildings, town halls, churches and
relatives' homes, roads in and out of coastal Isabela province, about
320 kilometers (200 miles) northeast of Manila, were deserted and
blocked by collapsed trees and power lines.
One man who had just rescued his water buffalo slipped and fell into a
river and probably drowned, said Bonifacio Cuarteros, an official with
the Cagayan provincial disaster agency.
As it crashed ashore, the typhoon whipped up huge waves. There was zero
visibility and radio reports said the wind was so powerful that people
could not take more than a step at a time. Ships and fishing vessels
were told to stay in ports, and several domestic and international
flights were canceled. Thousands of military reserve officers and
volunteers were on standby, along with helicopters, including six
Chinooks that were committed by U.S. troops holding war exercises with
Filipino soldiers near Manila, said Benito Ramos, a top
disaster-response official.
"This is like preparing for war," Ramos, a retired army general, told
The Associated Press. "We know the past lessons, and we're aiming for
zero casualties."
In July, an angry President Benigno Aquino III fired the head of the
weather bureau for failing to predict that a typhoon would hit Manila.
That storm killed more than 100 people in Manila and outlying
provinces. This time, authorities sounded the alarm early and
ordered evacuations and the positioning of emergency relief and food
supplies days before the typhoon hit. The capital was expected to avoid
any direct hit, though schools were closed.
Megi was the most powerful typhoon to hit the Philippines in four
years, government forecasters say. A 2006 howler with 155-mph (250-kph)
winds set off mudslides that buried entire villages, killing about
1,000 people. In central Vietnam, officials said 20 people on a
bus were swept away Monday by strong currents from a river flooded by
recent rains unrelated to Megi, while another 18 survived by swimming
or clinging to trees or power poles. One survivor treaded water
for 3 1/2 hours as the current pushed her downstream and she was forced
to let go of her 15-year-old son due to exhaustion. The boy is among
the missing.
Officials said 30 other people died in central Vietnam from flooding
over the weekend, and five remain missing. Megi could add to the
misery.
"People are exhausted," Vietnamese disaster official Nguyen Ngoc Giai
said by telephone from Quang Binh province. "Many people have not even
returned to their flooded homes from previous flooding, while many
others who returned home several days ago were forced to be evacuated
again."
China's National Meteorological Center said Megi was expected to enter
the South China Sea on Tuesday, threatening southeastern coastal
provinces. The center issued its second-highest alert for potential
"wild winds and huge waves," warning vessels to take shelter and urging
authorities to brace for emergencies. Floods triggered by heavy
rains forced nearly 140,000 people to evacuate from homes in the
southern island province of Hainan, where heavy rains left thousands
homeless over the weekend, the official Xinhua News Agency reported
Monday.
Thailand also reported flooding that submerged thousands of homes and
vehicles and halted train service. No casualties were reported, and
nearly 100 elephants were evacuated from a popular tourist attraction
north of the capital.
Page last updated at 13:11
GMT, Tuesday, 29 September 2009 14:11 UK
Philippine
flood
death toll rises
The Philippines government says 246
people are now known to have died in severe flooding caused when
Tropical Storm Ketsana struck on Saturday.
The country has
appealed for foreign aid to deal with the disaster, which has displaced
450,000 people and left 380,000 living in makeshift shelters.
Public buildings including schools, universities and the
presidential palace have become relief centres.
The storm has now hit Vietnam, where at least 22 people are
said to have died.
The Vietnamese government earlier ordered the evacuation of
more
than 170,000 people as strong winds of up to 150km/h (93mph) and heavy
rain began to affect the central coast.
Local media report that
Ketsana, which has now strengthened into a typhoon, has caused flooding
and power cuts. Vietnam Airlines has suspended all flights to the
coastal cities of Danang and Hue.
Weather forecasters are
predicting more heavy rain later this week, with a new storm forming in
the Pacific likely to enter Philippine waters on Thursday, making
landfall on the island of Luzon.
Fragile situation
"Evacuees will be given shelter in
available areas among the Malacanang [palace] buildings and in tents
that will be put up in between the buildings," Philippines President
Arroyo said in a statement announcing the opening of the palace
compound.
She said that if required, palace employees would
"yield their work stations to provide more space for our displaced
countrymen", and that she had temporarily moved her office to another
section of the compound along the Pasig river.
After word of the offer spread, hundreds of people converged
on the
palace and received plastic bags filled with noodles and canned
sardines.
"We just heard it in the news that they are giving
relief goods at the palace so we walked for one hour," street sweeper
Rosette Serrano, 31, told the AFP news agency.
Ms Serrano lost everything except her clothes when her house
was submerged on Saturday.
But
officials said people would not be permitted to remain inside the
presidential compound unless they were first checked by aid
organisations.
"We cannot just allow every evacuee in because
of logistical and security problems," Wilfredo Oca, an aid to Mrs
Arroyo, told AFP.
The sharp rise in the death toll - up 100
from the previous figure - came after more than 90 deaths were recorded
in Manila, the National Disaster Co-ordinating Council said in a
statement.
The toll is expected to rise further as thick mud is
cleared from the worst affected parts of the city. Troops, police and
volunteers have so far rescued more than 12,000 people.
Appeal
Defence Secretary Gilberto Teodoro said the situation could
become worse if aid supplies ran out.
Prime Minister of Taiwan Quits Over Typhoon Response
NYTIMES
By EDWARD WONG
September 8, 2009
BEIJING — The prime minister of Taiwan resigned Monday because of the
government’s widely criticized response to a deadly typhoon and said
that his successor would replace the entire cabinet this week.
The announcement at a news conference by Liu Chao-shiuan, the prime
minister, came as a surprise, even though the government had come under
intense pressure for what many Taiwanese called its inept handling of
Typhoon Morakot. The storm slammed into Taiwan in early August and left
at least 700 people dead or missing after three days of heavy rain set
off huge mudslides. Mr. Liu’s resignation is the most serious political
fallout yet from the typhoon.
Popular support for President Ma Ying-jeou, who was elected by a wide
margin in the spring of 2008 on a platform of rejuvenating the economy
and improving ties with mainland China, has plummeted in the aftermath
of the disaster. Mr. Ma reluctantly allowed the Dalai Lama, the exiled
spiritual leader of the Tibetans who is accused of being a separatist
by mainland China, to visit Taiwan last week to give succor to typhoon
victims. Some analysts said it was a sign of Mr. Ma’s desperation.
Mr. Ma, who has the power to appoint the prime minister, chose Wu
Den-yih as the replacement for Mr. Liu. Since 2007, Mr. Wu has been
general secretary of the Kuomintang, the party to which Mr. Ma belongs
and that ruled Taiwan for decades after retreating here in 1949 after
its loss to the Communists in the Chinese civil war. Mr. Wu was
appointed as mayor of Kaohsiung, a city in southern Taiwan, from 1990
to 1994, and he served as mayor again for four more years after being
elected.
At the news conference on Monday, Mr. Liu said he had first offered Mr.
Ma his resignation in mid-August. Mr. Ma had asked him to stay, he
said, but Mr. Liu had “firmly made up my mind.” The two men had a
conversation on Sunday night at the house of Mr. Liu’s mother, Mr. Liu
said.
“I believe because so many people died, someone must take
responsibility,” he said.
The prime minister appoints the entire cabinet, which has eight
ministries established under the Constitution and many newer
commissions. The current cabinet will resign together on Thursday, Mr.
Liu said.
Critics of the government say President Ma and other leaders should
have evacuated residents in vulnerable areas before the typhoon hit and
accepted foreign aid earlier, among other things. Mr. Ma had said he
might reshuffle some members of his cabinet, but there had been no hint
that the prime minister and entire cabinet would resign.
Bruce Jacobs, a scholar of Taiwan at Monash University in Australia,
said he was surprised to hear of the change, but that Mr. Liu deserved
to be held accountable for the “disastrous” government response to
Typhoon Morakot.
“I think generally people will be pleased because there’s a change, but
whether they’ll be pleased with Wu Den-yih, I don’t know,” Mr. Jacobs
said.
He added that Mr. Wu was a somewhat disappointing choice because he is
not known as someone who presses anticorruption efforts within the
Kuomintang, which has conservative factions that critics accuse of
being corrupt and anti-democratic. But a reform-minded party member,
Eric Chu, has been appointed the vice prime minister, Mr. Jacobs said.
Mr. Wu is a native Taiwanese and speaks the Taiwanese dialect fluently,
which could give him an advantage over Mr. Liu in trying to quell anger
in the aftermath of the typhoon. Some of the worst hit areas were in
southern Taiwan, dominated by native Taiwanese, who lived on the island
well before the Chinese fleeing the civil war settled there.
China evacuation as typhoon hits
I-BBC
Page last updated at 01:39 GMT, Monday, 10 August 2009 02:39 UK
Nearly one-million people have been evacuated from the
coastal regions of China which are being battered by Typhoon Morakot.
Winds of up 119km/h (74mph) destroyed houses and flooded
farmland. Flights were cancelled and fishing boats recalled to
shore. A small boy died when a building collapsed.
Meanwhile, in Japan nine people are reported dead in floods and
landslides after Typhoon Etau brought heavy rain to the west of the
country. Eight people died in Hyogo prefecture, including one man
whose car was swept away by a swollen river, and another died in
neighbouring Okayama prefecture.
Another 10 people are missing.
'Treetops visible'
Chinese state media said that the sky turned completely dark in Beibi,
Fujian, when Typhoon Morakot made landfall on Sunday morning.
Some 473,000 residents of Zhejiang province were evacuated before the
typhoon struck, as well as 480,000 from Fujian, Xinhua news agency
said. In Zhejiang's Wenzhou City a four year-old child was killed
when a house collapsed. Dozens of roads were said to be flooded and the
city's airport was closed.
Rescuers used dinghies to reach worst-hit areas; in one area only the
tops of trees were said to be showing above the floodwater.
Taiwan devastation
Earlier, Morakot dumped 250cm of rain on Taiwan as it crossed the
island, washing away bridges and roads. At least three people
died in some of the worst flooding for 50 years. In one incident,
an entire hotel - empty at the time - was swept away by the
waters. At least three people were known to have died - a woman
whose car went into a ditch and two men who drowned.
Thirty-one others were reported missing, Taiwan's Disaster Relief
Centre said. Among them were a group reportedly washed away from a
make-shift shelter in Kaohsiung in the south.
At least 10,000 people were trapped in three coastal towns, a local
official in the southern county of Pingtung said. In Chihpen, one
of Taiwan's most famous hot spring resorts, a hotel collapsed after
flood waters undermined its foundations.
Morakot - which means emerald in Thai - has also contributed to heavy
rains in the Philippines. At least 10 people were killed in flooding
and landslides in the north.
Typhoons are frequent in the region between July and September.
9
Killed as Typhoon Etau Hits Western Japan
NYTIMES
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
August 9, 2009Filed at 9:22 p.m. ET
TOKYO (AP) -- At least nine people were killed Monday in western Japan
in floods and landslides triggered by heavy rain as Typhoon Etau
slammed into the country.
The typhoon left eight people dead in Hyogo prefecture, police official
Shigekazu Kamenobu said. He could not provide details but said many
were caught in raging waters.
''At least one man was swept away in a river while he was in a car. His
body was later found inside the vehicle,'' Kamenobu said.
A woman was found dead in her house that was destroyed by a landslide
in neighboring Okayama prefecture, police official Wataru Yamamoto said.
Public broadcaster NHK reported that 10 people were missing in western
Japan. Police were not able to confirm how many people were unaccounted
for.
Japan's Meteorological Agency also warned of heavy precipitation and
landslides in eastern Japan as Etau moves inland.
A
Million in China Evacuate Ahead of
Typhoon
NYTIMES
By MICHAEL WINES
August 10, 2009
BEIJING — Saying they were taking no chances, Chinese officials
evacuated a million coastal residents on Sunday as a weakened Typhoon
Morakot swept onto the mainland south of Shanghai after battering
Taiwan the day before.
A 4-year-old child was reported dead after the storm hit Wenzhou, a
manufacturing city in Zhejiang province on the east coast, on Sunday
afternoon. The child was among five people buried when the winds
collapsed five adjacent houses in the city of nearly 1.4 million.
Wenzhou officials said the storm had destroyed more than 300 homes.
Authorities said that the storm was whipping up waves as high at 26
feet in the east China Sea and in the strait between Taiwan and
mainland China.
As it hit the Chinese mainland, the typhoon carried winds of up to 111
miles per hour, China’s state-run Xinhua news service said, but
meteorologists reported later that it had degraded close to tropical
storm status, with 74 miles per hour winds.
The typhoon, the eighth of the season, came ashore at 4:20 p.m. China
time at Xiapu County, in north Fujian Province. Xinhua said that more
than 490,000 people had been moved to safety in Fujian, and 48,000
boats summoned back to harbor.
In Zhejiang Province, between Fujian and Shanghai, another 505,000
people were evacuated and 35,000 boats called in.
Both provinces are manufacturing centers with large populations living
in oceanside port cities. Just north of the typhoon’s landfall,
Shanghai was spared the worst winds but nevertheless canceled airline
flights and lowered river reservoirs to prepare for flooding.
Xinhua said that relief teams were distributing food and water to rural
villagers who had been stranded by high waters.
Earlier, Taiwan’s Disaster Relief Center told The Associated Press that
three people were killed and 31 were missing and feared dead after the
storm swamped the island throughout Saturday with high winds and more
than 80 inches of rain in some areas. Sixteen of the missing were from
one family that had lived in a makeshift house in Kaohsiung, in the
island’s south, that was swept away by the waters.
In southeastern Taiwain’s Taitung County, a six-story hotel collapsed
into a neighboring river after torrential rains eroded its foundation,
but officials said all 300 guests had been safely evacuated.
Authorities said the Taiwan flooding was the worst in a half-century.
More than 170,000 persons remained without power on Monday the
government said.
Morakot, which means emerald in Thai, had struck the Philippines
earlier, killing 21, including one French and two Belgian tourist,
according to the National Disaster Coordinating Council there. Seven
others were reported missing.
The government reported that more than 83,000 Philippines residents
were affected by floodwaters and landslides, and 22,000 had been
evacuated.
In the South China Sea, Xinhua reported that three fishermen were dead
and at least 26 mariners were reported missing in the wake of tropical
storm Goni, which had struck China’s southern Guangdong Province on
Tuesday and left Hainan Province on Sunday.
FLOOD -
U.S.A., Australia, Asia
Facebook
lauched this data link
Woman walks with umbrella in heavy rain.
Real-time flood map goes
online in UK
Persistent heavy
rain has brought flooding around the UK
6 July 2012
A live flood warning system has gone online as the UK experiences
unseasonable amounts of heavy rain.
The system aims to allow people to track areas that are in danger of
imminent flooding.
The FloodAlerts map offers people real-time updates on areas at risk in
England and Wales.
The system, developed by Shrewsbury-based firm Shoothill, uses data
from the Environment Agency's nationwide network of monitoring stations.
Crazy rain
Users can zoom in on any point of a map of England and Wales to see
flood alert and flood warning statuses, as issued by the EA within the
previous 15 minutes.
Custom searches can also be carried out by postcode.
Shoothill managing director Rod Plummer said: "We are expecting a crazy
amount of rain today and in the coming days and the evidence of similar
incidences in previous weeks tells us that floods are hitting places
that haven't seen such a thing for decades, sometimes with devastating
and even tragic consequences.
"Lots of people have reason to be concerned, given the weather
forecasts. Those alerts could be to monitor the area around their
homes, or perhaps their routes to and from work or their children's
schools.
"The same is true for businesses, perhaps especially those who need to
keep fleets of vehicles moving as conditions get tough or need to keep
a close eye on critical infrastructure."
An Environment Agency spokesperson said: "Being prepared is vital to
help reduce the risk of flooding. With more than five million people
living or working in areas at risk from flooding across England and
Wales, we are urging communities to use the new application, alongside
our existing Floodline Hotline and website updates, to keep one step
ahead of future floods."
The system was originally launched on Facebook in
April, and has had nearly 2,000 likes. Some 40% who visit the site have
gone on to register, according to the Environment Agency.
The standalone web map clocked up 100,000 hits in its first
four hours.
BLACK RIVER FLOODS SPAWN TORNADOES;
MISSISSIPPI FLOODING
Pre-fab home roof gone, house off foundation, left; "For Rent"
sign underwater, as house and its mortgage likely are, too.
Mississippi floodway plan c. 1937 and levees blasted by Army Corps,
allowing downstream flooding. Unknown what will happen next...
MAY 16 FLOODED FIELDS (l)
This image provided by NASA Saturday May 14, 2011, and taken by an
Expedition 27 crew member aboard the International Space Station May
12, 2011, clearly showing the outlines of some heavily flooded
agricultural fields on the Missouri side of the Mississippi river. The
center point for this frame is just north of Caruthersville, Mo. and
west of Ridgely, Tenn. North is toward the lower right corner of the
image. (AP Photo/NASA)
Sirens sound as river tops levees
in N Dakota city
YAHOO
By DAVE KOLPACK - Associated Press
22 June 2011
MINOT, N.D. (AP) — Sirens wailed across Minot Wednesday as the swollen
Souris River overtopped levees five hours ahead of a looming evacuation
deadline, setting in motion what is expected to be the worst flooding
to hit the North Dakota city in four decades.
The warning was followed by an announcement saying, "All residents must
evacuate, Zones 1 through 9," prompting the last of nearly 11,000 Minot
residents to leave their homes for a second time in a month.
Robyn Whitlow, 27, who was helping some residents move the last of
their belongings, burst into tears when the sirens sounded at 12:57 p.m.
"I feel so bad for everybody," said Whitlow, a Minot resident who lives
outside the evacuation zone.
The Souris River, which loops down from Canada through north central
North Dakota, has been bloated by heavy spring snowmelt and rain on
both sides of the border.
The resulting deluge is expected to dwarf a historic flood of 1969,
when the Souris reached 1,555.4 feet above sea level. The river is
expected to hit nearly 1,563 feet this weekend — eventually topping the
historical record of 1,558 feet set in 1881.
Minot Mayor Curt Zimbelman warned Wednesday morning that the river
would top the levees earlier than expected and said residents still
moving their belongings from the evacuation zone should "do their
last-minute thing and be prepared to move quickly."
The National Weather Service in Bismarck also issued a flash-flood
warning along the Souris River from Burlington through Minot and Logan
to Sawyer.
Before the sirens sounded, Laura Nessler, a 50-year-old nurse, watched
the water lap against a bridge on Broadway, the main north-south
thoroughfare through Minot. The road was bumper-to-bumper with
furniture-loaded pickup trucks and cars pulling U-Hauls trying to get
out of town.
Nessler pointed to a side street that had become inundated in the hour
since she arrived.
"That didn't have any water when I got here, and now it's filling up,"
Nessler said.
Ashley Getchell, 25, was snapping some photos at Broadway Bridge to
document the flood for her 1½- and 3-year-old kids and because
she "has no place else to go."
The stay-at-home mom had moved most of her belongings from her home at
Holiday Village Trailer Park to a friend's house, but she didn't have
enough time rescue anything else.
"I'm going to be losing my house," she said calmly. "I guess if anybody
needed a reason to start over, this is it."
The mayor said the city has just been buying time, and he urged people
to be safe as they leave.
"Be cautious and be courteous, I guess," he told KXMC. "Everybody's
trying to do the same thing. If we work together, the result's probably
going to be the best."
Further north near the U.S.-Canada border, a rapid rise of nearly four
feet was observed on the Souris River in the Sherwood area, the
National Weather Service late Wednesday morning. The area is the first
point in North Dakota where water released from Canadian dams is
observed.
The weather service said flash flooding was expected in mainly rural
areas of northwest Renville County, along with the hamlet of Greene.
Renville County Emergency Manager Kristy Titus ordered a mandatory
evacuation of Mouse River Park.
About 10,000 Minot residents were evacuated earlier this month before
the river hit 1,554.1 feet. They were later allowed to return to their
homes, but told to be ready to leave again quickly.
Nearly 500 North Dakota National Guard soldiers were in Minot to
provide traffic control, ensure people were leaving left their homes
and secure neighborhoods.
Guard commander Dave Sprynczynatyk said he expected the impact of the
impending flood among the worst he has seen in his 40-year career.
"What I see right now is probably the most devastating in terms of the
number of people directly impacted and what will likely be the damage
to homes as the water begins to overtop the levees and fill in behind,"
he said.
Crews
race to build up levee ahead of floodwaters
YAHOO
By GRANT SCHULTE and JOSH FUNK, Associated Press
14 June 2011
HAMBURG, Iowa – Workers raced Tuesday to add several feet to a
temporary levee that is now the only barrier between the small town of
Hamburg and the menace of the rising Missouri River.
Crews from the Army Corps of Engineers planned to increase the levee's
height by three feet. But time was short and the stakes were high: If
the levee were to fail, parts of this southwestern Iowa community could
be under as much as 10 feet of water within days.
The temporary earthen levee became the last line of defense for Hamburg
after the river ruptured two levees in northwest Missouri on Monday,
sending torrents of water over rural farmland toward Hamburg and a
Missouri resort community downriver. The Army Corps does not
expect
those floodwaters to reach Hamburg until at least sometime Wednesday.
Initially, the floodwaters were projected to reach Hamburg on Tuesday.
The Missouri River is rising because the corps has been releasing
massive amounts of water from its dams to clear out heavy spring rain
and snowmelt. Those releases at Gavins Point Dam in South Dakota
hit
the maximum planned amount Tuesday morning. So officials downstream in
Nebraska, Iowa and Missouri will be watching closely for more levee
problems. Parts of Montana, North Dakota and South Dakota, have
already seen some flooding, and officials predict the problems will
linger through the summer because of the large volume of water already
in the river, and the above-average Rocky Mountain snowpack.
About 45 miles south of Hamburg in Missouri, the river broke through a
levee near Big Lake in Holt County. About 30 residents had stayed in
the resort town after the river started rising, but they were told to
leave Monday.
When work is complete in Hamburg, a town of 1,100 people, the finished
levee should be about eight feet tall. To help buy some
additional
time for the levee improvements, the corps said it planned to
intentionally breach the main levee that failed Monday at a point
downstream. Doing so should slow the flow of water. The corps
started
building the new Hamburg levee last week after finding problems in the
main levee in Missouri that failed Monday.
If Hamburg's new levee were to fail later this week, parts of the town
could be covered by as much as 10 feet of standing water for
months.
Several businesses near the remaining levee stood empty Tuesday, as
crews continued to move dirt around the new earthen levee to protect
Hamburg. Todd Morgan with A&M Green Power Group says the
owners of
the John Deere dealership had relocated their business to one of the
company's other dealerships in Shenandoah 25 miles away.
"We wanted to play it safe than sorry," Morgan said. "Every day that
goes by, you seem to hear something different. With the breach
yesterday, we just don't know what the integrity of that levee is."
Morgan said he doesn't know whether the dealership will return.
Fremont County Sheriff Kevin Aistrope said all but seven of the roughly
40 households in the southern part of Hamburg have evacuated
voluntarily. The remaining seven have moved all of their furniture and
can escape quickly if the town is flooded, he said.
Aistrope said the department has summoned 20 part-time reserve
deputies, in addition to the regular eight-member staff, to help with
law enforcement and traffic.
Breech in levy in northwest
Missouri
made (above r.)
YAHOO
14 June 2011
A breech in a levy in northwest Missouri made by the Missouri River on
Monday is seen in a Tuesday, June 14, 2011 photo. The river ruptured
two levees in northwest Missouri
Monday, sending torrents of water over rural farmland toward Hamburg in
southwest Iowa and a Missouri resort community downriver. By Wednesday,
water spilling through a nearly 300-foot hole in the levee near Hamburg
was expected to top a secondary levee built last week to protect the
town.
Costly Miss. River closure meant to
protect
levees
YAHOO
By ALAN SAYRE and MICHAEL KUNZELMAN, Associated Press
17 May 2011
NEW ORLEANS – The Coast Guard has interrupted shipping along the major
artery for moving grain from farms in the Midwest to the Gulf of Mexico
over fears that the bulging Mississippi River could strain levees that
protect hundreds of thousands from flooding. Already, thousands have
sought refuge from floodwaters up and down the river.
The Coast Guard said it closed the Mississippi River at the port in
Natchez, Miss., because barge traffic could increase pressure on the
levees. Heavy flooding from Mississippi tributaries has displaced more
than 4,000 in the state, about half of them upstream from Natchez in
the Vicksburg area.
Several barges were idled at Natchez at the time of the closure, and
many more could back up along the lower Mississippi. It wasn't clear
when the river would reopen, but port officials said the interruption
could cost the U.S. economy hundreds of millions of dollars per day.
The closure is the latest high-stakes decision made to protect homes
and businesses that sit behind levees and floodwalls along the river.
To take pressure off levees surrounding heavily populated New Orleans
and Baton Rouge, the Army Corps of Engineers opened the key Morganza
Spillway, choosing to flood more rural areas with fewer homes. Another
spillway near New Orleans was opened earlier, but it doesn't threaten
homes.
Most residents in the path of the Morganza's floodwaters have heeded
the call to leave their homes. Bernadine Turner, who lives in a
mandatory evacuation zone near Krotz Springs, La., spent a third day
Monday moving her things out. Water from the Morganza opening was not
expected to reach the town about 40 miles west of Baton Rouge for
several days, but most residents were taking no chances.
"There's no doubt it's going to come up. We don't have flood insurance,
and most people here don't. Man, it would be hard to start all over,"
she said.
Economic pain from the flooding could be felt far from the South
because of the river closure. During the spring, the Mississippi is a
highway for towboats pushing barges laden with corn, soybeans and other
crops brought down from the Ohio, Missouri and Mississippi river
systems. Farm products come down the river to a port near New Orleans
to be loaded onto massive grain carriers for export.
The Port of South Louisiana is the largest grain port the country,
handling about 54 percent of U.S. exports. The port's operations
director, Mitch Smith, said the extent of the impact from the Natchez
closing will depend on how long it lasts and how many barges are
trapped upriver.
"Definitely, if it is a long closure, we will feel an economic impact,"
Smith said.
At least 10 freight terminals along the lower Mississippi River between
Baton Rouge and New Orleans have suspended operations because of the
high water, said Roy Gonzalez, acting president of the Gulf States
Maritime Association. In many cases, their docks are already at water
level or going under, he said.
Vessels scheduled to use the terminals will either have to wait out the
high water or divert to other terminals or ports. Additional costs for
delaying any one vessel routinely run $20,000 to $40,000 per day, port
officials say.
It's not clear how long it will take for normal operations to return at
Natchez and other terminals. The river is expected to crest Saturday in
Natchez at 63 feet, down a half-foot than earlier predictions, but
almost five feet above a record set in 1937. It could take weeks for
the water to recede.
All along the Mississippi River, a small army of engineers, deputies
and even inmates is keeping round-the-clock watch at the many
floodwalls and earthen levees holding the water back. They are looking
for any droplets that seep through the barriers and any cracks that
threaten to turn small leaks into big problems.
The work is hot and sometimes tedious, but without it, the flooding
could get much worse.
"I volunteered for this," said jail inmate Wayne McClinton, who was
helping with the sandbagging effort in northern Louisiana's Tensas
Parish. "It's a chance to get out in the air, to do something
different. It's not boring like prison is."
Although the job requires 24-hour vigilance, Reynold Minsky, president
of a north Louisiana levee district, said there are some places in his
mostly rural district of forest and farmland where he will not ask
anyone to go after sundown.
"Unless we've got a serious situation that we know we've found before
dark, we don't ask these people to go into these wooded areas because
of the snakes and the alligators," Minsky said while taking a break
from helicopter tours of the levees. "That's inhumane."
Minsky's 5th Louisiana Levee District is plagued these days by "sand
boils," places where river water has found a way through earthen levees
and bubbled up on the dry side like an artesian well. He insists they
are no reason for alarm. If the water is clear, as it has been so far,
that means the levee is not eroding. Stopping the boil involves ringing
it with sandbags.
In New Orleans, workers inspect the levees daily when the water is high
to look for potential trouble spots. The levees there — which are not
among those that failed along canals after Hurricane Katrina — have
survived high water before and will survive this latest test, city
officials said. The opening of the Morganza has stopped the river's
rise at New Orleans, but the relief valve sent water gushing into the
mostly rural Atchafalaya River basin.
"There's no question about it, New Orleans is safe, New Orleans is dry
and the system's working as it was designed," New Orleans Mayor Mitch
Landrieu said Tuesday morning on CBS' "The Early show."
For those in the path of waters let loose by the Morganza, a tense
waiting game has begun. On Monday, 75-year-old Leif Montin watched a
truck tow away a storage pod containing most of the furniture he and
his wife have in their home in Butte Larose, a community emptied by
residents fleeing the rising waters.
"I guess you guys are ready to get out of here," the driver said to
Montin.
"Yep. Pretty much," responded Montin.
Louisiana floodgate opens, diverting
Mississippi
By Mary Foster and Melinda Deslatte, Associated Press
Updated: 4:24 p.m. on Saturday, May 14, 2011
MORGANZA, Louisiana (AP) — The Army Corps of Engineers is releasing
water from a spillway along the rising Mississippi River in Louisiana,
diverting water into the countryside in hopes of avoiding a potentially
bigger disaster in heavily populated areas downstream. A gate at
the
Morganza spillway was raised Saturday afternoon for the first time in
38 years. The water came out slowly at first, then began gushing like a
waterfall. About 3,000 square miles (7,770 square kilometers) of
land
known for small farms and fish camps could wind up under as much as 25
feet (7.5 meters) of water. However, officials say the move will
ease
pressure on levees protecting New Orleans, Baton Rouge, and oil
refineries and chemical plants downstream.
For those who may remember the
flooding crisis as a result of a hurricane, click
here.
Bonnet Carre
spillway opening shunts Mississippi River water away from New Orleans
Times-Picayune Staff By Times-Picayune Staff
Published: Monday, May 09,
2011, 10:15 PM Updated: Monday, May 09, 2011,
11:51 PM
The Army Corps of Engineers began shunting part of the Mississippi
River through the Bonnet Carre Spillway and away from New Orleans'
levees on Monday, as 28 of the spillway's 350 bays were opened to lower
the river levels downstream.
Meanwhile, the president of the Mississippi River Commission told
members of the Legislature that the Morganza Floodway near Simmesport
also is likely to be opened, with an official announcement to be made
no later than next Tuesday.
The corps also released new maps predicting inundation from the
Mississippi near Vidalia and other parts of northeast Louisiana near
Natchez, Miss., and of backwater flooding in the north-central part of
the state as the Mississippi is unable to receive flow from tributaries
such as the Red and Ouachita rivers.
Gov. Bobby Jindal offered a succinct warning for the entire state as he
encouraged residents to prepare immediately: "If you got wet in 1973,
you'll get wet this time. If you nearly got wet in 1973, you'll
probably get wet this time."
Jindal has activated more than 400 Louisiana National Guard troops to
assist in placing sandbags and river barriers, inspect levees and walk
door-to-door to notify residents and property owners in basins and
floodways from Vidalia to Morgan City.
"Our first priority is to protect human life; our second priority is
the protection of property," Jindal told reporters at the state's
Emergency Operations Center in Baton Rouge.
All of spillway's bays will be opened
By 11:30 a.m. on Monday, 560 wooden "needles" had been pulled by cranes
from the Bonnet Carre bays and laid on top of the 1.3 mile-long control
structure. All bays will be opened in the coming days in an
effort to relieve pressure on strained levees throughout the
Mississippi River Valley, which has been buffeted by weeks of
unrelenting rain, Commission President Maj. Gen. Michael Walsh told
legislators late Monday, as will half the bays in the Morganza Floodway
above Baton Rouge.
The last time all Bonnet Carre bays were opened was in 1983, while the
only time the Morganza Floodway has been used was in 1973.
Even with the Bonnet Carre spillway being opened, the river will be at
17 feet, the official flood level, at the Carrollton Gauge in New
Orleans this morning, according to the National Weather Service's Lower
Mississippi River Forecast Center in Slidell. Without opening Morganza,
the river would crest there on May 23 at 19.5 feet, a half-foot below
the top of floodwalls in New Orleans.
'Historic flows'
"We are seeing historic flows and historic stages in the Mississippi
River," said Col. Ed Fleming, commander of the corps' New Orleans
District office. "We're trying to reduce the pressure on the levees so
we don't have a catastrophic failure."
The floodwalls around New Orleans stand at 20 feet.
Walsh, who also is commander of the corps' Mississippi River Division,
which governs the entire river from Minnesota to Louisiana, told
legislators he could make the formal decision to open Morganza as early
as Saturday or Sunday, or as late as next Tuesday. Its opening is
governed by the speed of water passing Red River Landing, on the
river's west bank across from the Louisiana State Prison at Angola.
When the flow reaches 1.5 million cubic feet per second and is
increasing, the floodway is opened. As much as 1.9 million cubic feet
per second is expected at that location before the river crests.
Increased flow through the Old River Control Structure, added to the
Morganza flow, is threatening to flood most of the Atchafalaya and
Morganza spillways, which are bounded by guide levees.
Updated flood maps in the works
The corps is working with officials in affected parishes to develop
more detailed maps that would show what areas will be inundated. A
statewide map released by the corps over the weekend did not include
enough detail to identify buildings or homes that might be flooded.
"We're working the numbers right now," said Lt. Col. Mark Jernigan,
deputy commander of the New Orleans District.
The huge flow of water also is expected to increase the size of the
annual low-oxygen "dead zone," along the coasts of Louisiana and Texas
to as much as 20 percent of the record set in 2002, said Louisiana
State University marine biologist Eugene Turner. That year, the low
oxygen area stretched over 8,500 square miles, an area the size of New
Jersey.
The low oxygen levels are caused by blooms of algae fueled by nutrients
in the fresh water, including fertilizer washed off Midwest farms. The
algae dies and sinks to the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico, where its
decomposition uses up oxygen needed by bottom-living organisms.
Turner said that while sediment would bind with phosphorus from the
fertilizers and drop out in the floodways, nitrogen would survive, and
could spark the creation of toxic blue-green algae. The blue-green
algae also is likely to form in Lake Pontchartrain, as it did after the
Bonnet Carre was opened for about a month in 2008, forcing the closure
of some parts of the lake to fishing and other recreational pursuits,
he said.
A study of the 2008 opening for the corps found that while there were
short-term adverse effects from the opening, the lake and its fisheries
recovered quickly.
Preparing for the worst
State officials are preparing for the worst as the floodways are
opened. The Department of Health and Hospitals has notified scores of
hospitals and nursing homes to launch their individual flooding plans.
The Department of Transportation and Development is monitoring roadways
and bridges and will make all decisions about closures. The Department
of Natural Resources has notified 135 oil and gas operators that
control 1,750 wells threatened with varying levels of flooding.
In Washington,
D.C., the Obama administration has granted a partial disaster
declaration for Louisiana, rather than the full declaration Jindal
initially sought. The partial declaration allows state and local
governments to receive direct federal supplies, but a full declaration
is necessary for state and local entities to get up to 75 percent
reimbursement for its expenses related to flood control. The Federal
Emergency Management Agency could later expand the declaration.
Jindal said he is seeking an immediate appeal, as the state already has
spent $3.8 million and that cost will climb steadily.
Six miles to the lake
At Bonnet Carre, water from the river races nearly six miles through
the 7,600-acre spillway into the lake. No residences are threatened by
flooding, as the water will be contained within the spillway and the
lake.
Local levee district officials are urging residents not to drive or
even walk on levees along the river, in addition to the usual
high-water restrictions on excavation and pile-driving. Corps
officials said opening the spillway will be gradual, with bays being
opened in various places along the structure.
"We don't want to put too much pressure on any one spot," said Chris
Brantley, corps manager of the spillway.
The high water levels in the Mississippi have led to the closing of the
Reserve-Edgard ferry, said St. John the Baptist Parish spokeswoman
Paige Braud. Fleming said the corps is providing assistance to
communities in Terrebonne, St. Mary and other parishes within or
adjacent to the Atchafalaya Basin.
"We can provide technical support. We can provide sandbags to help
those communities," Fleming said.
The East Jefferson Levee District provided 880 Hesco baskets, made of
fabric and metal to hold sand and rock, to Morgan City last week.
Despite the gravity of the situation, the opening in St. Charles Parish
took on a festive atmosphere, as hundreds of onlookers watched the 8
a.m. spillway opening, perhaps attracted by that rarity in Louisiana:
fast-flowing water.
"I'm 64 years old, so I thought I ought to see it once," said Richard
Bourge of Houma. His friend, Jim Adams of Destrehan, has seen several
openings.
"I wanted to bring my grandson, but he's in school," Adams said.
Armed with cameras, lawn chairs and coolers, some with babies and dogs,
folks from throughout the area braved sparse parking and a hefty hike
in humid conditions to watch the cranes pull the spillway pins.
Hunter Fontenot, 16, of Kenner and a few of his friends skipped school
to come watch.
"(We came) to see something that really doesn't happen that often,"
Fontenot said.
But Fontenot's buddy, Justin Shamah, said it didn't quite live up to
the hype.
"I was expecting more of a big gate, like a big wave of water washing
through," he said. "Like a tidal wave."
Click
for full story and map of current flooding
A Levee Breached, and New Worries Downstream
NYTIMES
By A. G. SULZBERGER and JOHN SCHWARTZ
May 3, 2011
SIKESTON, MO. — With a rapid series of explosions late Monday that
could be felt for miles through the Missouri soil, the Army
Corps of Engineers successfully blew out some 11,000 feet of
Mississippi River levee, taking dangerous pressure off the river above.
But now the risk is flowing downstream.
Waters released into the 130,000-acre floodway by the corps will soon
re-enter the Mississippi near New Madrid, through two 5,500-foot
stretches blasted out over two days at the lower end of the basin, and
the crest will continue to roll on, with the river expected to match or
beat its previous record heights at many points along the way.
For the people responsible for trying to manage the unmanageable river,
each success is replaced by new worries.
“We’re just at the beginning of the beginning,” said Maj. Gen. Michael
J. Walsh of the Army Corps of Engineers and president of the
Mississippi River Commission.
His decision to inundate the 130,000 acres within the spillway’s basin
almost certainly saved the town of Cairo, Ill. The river had reached a
record 61.7 feet at Cairo before the explosion and was predicted to
rise more than a foot further.
The river fell to 60.1 feet by Tuesday afternoon. But, General Walsh
warned, the floodway only offered temporary relief and the water levels
upstream could soon rise again. “The crest will come back up,” he
added. “We’ll see where we go from there.”
The people whose land was under all that water watched with wonder and
dismay.
“She’s coming across here now, ain’t she?” Ed Marshall, 57, a farmer,
said as he arrived Tuesday to get an early sense of the damage with his
insurance agent atop the interior levee that forms the western boundary
of the spillway. “There’s nothing I can do about it. It’s in God’s
hands.”
Mark Dugan, 59, used binoculars to find the top of his recently
remodeled farmhouse poking out, like an iceberg, from the fast-moving
water. A shed had been washed into a stand of trees.
“We just question the way they did it,” he said of the Army Corps of
Engineers. “Actually we even question the fact they did do it.”
Gov. Jay Nixon visited the emergency command center here on Tuesday,
declaring, “It’s a lot of water out there, folks.” He was not talking
just about the river, but also about communities farther inland, where
days of rain had saturated and covered the ground.
Mr. Nixon pledged to commit resources to restoring the area. “It goes
beyond rebuilding the levee,” he said. “It’s about rebuilding the farm
economy here.”
Carlin Bennett, the presiding commissioner for Mississippi County, said
his community’s biggest fear was that the plan to use the spillway
would ultimately have little effect: “You blow the levee, it ruins us
and you don’t get any relief up or downstream.”
Meanwhile the surging river, and the flooding it is almost certain to
cause, moved south. More than 40 percent of the nation’s waters drain
into the Mississippi, and relentless rainfall is creating formidable
challenges.
“We’re going to fight this river all the way down to the Gulf of
Mexico,” said Col. Vernie L. Reichling Jr., who commands the Memphis
District of the corps. He estimated that the corps had already spent $5
million fighting the flood in his district. “I don’t see this letting
up,” he said, adding that he expected to be fighting the flooding into
next month.
While the main defenses along the Mississippi are expected to hold up
under the onslaught, flooding is likely as water backs up into the
rivers and tributaries that feed into the Mississippi, and tests
“non-federal” levees that line those waterways.
“The water can’t drain into the Mississippi because the river levels
are so high,” said Jeff Graschel of the Lower Mississippi River
Forecast Center, part of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric
Administration. And while the federal levees are high and strong,
“anything that’s non-federal is a different story,” he said.
Current and former corps officials said that they expect almost every
part of the system that was designed to divert floodwaters along the
Mississippi River and Tributaries Project to come into play, including
backwater areas at the mouths of the St. Francis, White, Yazoo and Red
Rivers. Their levees are designed to allow floodwaters to course over
the top when the river rises too high.
Farther down the river, there is the Old River Control Structure, which
was built to keep the Atchafalaya Basin from capturing too much of the
Mississippi’s flow.
Flooding in 1973 undercut the enormous structure and threatened to wash
it away. But improvements in subsequent years and additional facilities
have lessened the risk to an extent that experts have expressed little
concern about it. They also suggested that it might serve to
temporarily divert more of the Mississippi’s waters in the worst of the
flood.
Below the Old River Control Structure come two additional spillways —
the Morganza and Bonnet Carré — that can release water from the
Mississippi’s flow.
The corps is likely to open the gates on both of those structures. The
Morganza can send 600,000 cubic feet of water per second down the
Atchafalaya Basin; it has not been used since the floods of 1973.
The Bonnet Carré spillway, about 30 miles above New Orleans, can
drive 250,000 cubic feet per second into Lake Pontchartrain, which can
then empty into the gulf. It has been used nine times between 1937 and
2008.
“It’s like a symphony,” said Charles A. Camillo, a historian with the
Mississippi Valley division of the corps. “You’ve got a lot of
different instruments being played at the same time.”
Don T. Riley, a former deputy chief of engineers for the corps and a
retired major general, expressed confidence in the ability of the
Mississippi’s flood control systems to deal with tremendous volumes of
water.
But he said tributary flooding was a continuing concern, and parts of
the main river control system had not yet been completed to the maximum
height and strength called for in the corps’ plans.
Though the system is hardy and resilient, Mr. Riley said, “there’s
going to be big concern all the way down the river — if more rains
come, all bets are off.”
The power of nature to overcome the best defenses should never be
underestimated, said George C. Grugett, the executive vice president of
the Mississippi Valley Flood Control Association near Memphis.
“People don’t understand how mighty this old Mississippi is,” he said,
“and how much damage it can do when it goes on a rampage like this.”
A. G. Sulzberger reported from
Sikeston, and John Schwartz from New York. Malcolm Gay contributed
reporting from Cairo, Ill.
River level
falling in Cairo, Ill., after corps blasts levee
BY STEPHEN DEERE • sdeere@post-dispatch.com
3 May, 2011
UPDATED 7:30 a.m. with river dropping at Cairo
MISSISSIPPI COUNTY, Mo. • Torrents of rain swept across farm fields and
boat lights glowed red on the swollen Mississippi Monday night. Then a
row of orange flashes and a series of booms echoed across the Birds
Point levee in southeastern Missouri.
The smell of explosives hung in the air as Col. Vernie L. Reichling,
Memphis District Commander of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers,
announced to a caravan of reporters on top of the levee that the corps
had successfully set off several explosions to weaken the levee and
allow the Mississippi River to rush across 130,000 acres of Missouri
farm land.
Reichling called the move historic and tragic.
Officials said that allowing water to fill the Birds Point-New Madrid
floodway would relieve pressure and lower record flooding upstream at
Cairo, Ill., where the Mississippi and Ohio rivers converge.
And by 7:30 a.m, that was happening. The National Weather Service said
before the breach, the Cairo level was at 61.72 feet and rising. By
Tuesday morning, the river was at 60.62 feet and was expected to keep
falling to 59.4 feet by Saturday.
But the plan required evacuating about 300 homes in the floodway and
sparked a legal skirmish between Missouri and Illinois attorneys
general.
On Monday afternoon, corps Maj. Gen. Michael Walsh said the levee
system was "under enormous and unprecedented pressure" and needed
relief as soon as possible.
Awaiting the blast, Carlin Bennett, presiding commissioner of
Mississippi County, said a 10- to 15-foot wall of water could wash
across about a third of his county.
"You tell me what's that going to do to this area," Bennett said,
"Nobody knows."
The floodway plan has not been used since 1937, when the water rose to
59.5 feet at Cairo. That record stood until Sunday when the Ohio River
topped 60 feet there. More rain fell through the day. The National
Weather Service predicted a crest at 63 feet on Thursday. Officials
hoped the levee action would drop that crest by 3 to 4 feet.
The corps had been closely evaluating the rising river levels all
weekend, while continuing preparations .
Lightning on Sunday night slowed their work. By 5 p.m. Monday, the crew
pumping the liquid explosives was only 80 percent finished. That pushed
the first explosion just past 10 p.m. Monday. Afterward, Reichling said
the corps would move south to New Madrid, Mo., and set off another
series of blasts.
Walsh said the levee breach would not mark the end of the high water,
which would be around for a while. "Nobody has seen this type of
flood," he said.
Mississippi County farmers were concerned about how long it would take
to recover from the silt the river would leave on their fields when it
receded.
Bob Byrne, 59, farms 550 acres below the Missouri levee and called news
about the pending break "devastating."
"It's a sickening feeling," he said. "They're talking about not getting
the water off until late July or early August. That knocks out a whole
season."
In the 1980s, when the floodway plan was under review, Bennett said,
officials estimated that activating the floodway would cost residents
and the county $300 million. Today, he said, losses probably will total
close to $1 billion.
U.S. Rep. Jo Ann Emerson, R-Cape Girardeau, said Monday that U.S.
Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack had assured her that farmers in
the floodway who had crop insurance would be compensated as if this
man-made flood were a natural disaster. "I know that helps a lot of
people but not everybody," she said.
As for equipment and homes left behind, she said, "That's all down the
rat hole."
Emerson joined Sens. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., and Roy Blunt, R-Mo.,
Monday in urging federal officials to restore the floodway "in full,
without delay or red tape and without uncertainty or further hardship
upon those who will inevitably suffer in the Missouri Bootheel."
The demolition was expected to cover about 11,000 feet of the levee.
Walsh - the man ultimately responsible for the decision to go through
with the plan - has indicated that he may not stop with the Missouri
levee. In recent days, Walsh has said he might also make use of other
downstream "floodways" - basins surrounded by levees that can
intentionally be blown open to divert floodwaters.
Among those that could be tapped are the 58-year-old Morganza floodway
near Morgan City, La., and the Bonnet Carre floodway about 30 miles
north of New Orleans. The Morganza has been pressed into service just
once, in 1973. The Bonnet Carre, which was christened in 1932 has been
opened up nine times since 1937, the most recent in 2008.
"Making this decision is not easy or hard," Walsh said. "It's simply
grave - because the decision leads to loss of property and livelihood,
either in a floodway or in an area that was not designed to flood."
Storms unleash deadly tornado, flooding on
Midwest
YAHOO
By JIM SALTER, Associated Press
26 April 2011
POPLAR BLUFF, Mo. – A powerful storm system that spawned a deadly
tornado in Arkansas caused rivers to swell Tuesday across the Midwest,
straining levees that protect thousands of homes and forcing panicked
residents of one town to flee for higher ground.
Six inches of rain fell Monday alone in the southeastern Missouri
community of Poplar Bluff, bringing the four-day total to 15 inches.
The deluge caused the Black River to pour over a levee in 30 places and
to break through in one spot, and about 1,000 homes were evacuated.
Deputy Police Chief Jeff Rolland said it was a "miracle" that the levee
had held until late morning. He credited emergency crews for their work
to bolster weakened areas of the barrier and for evacuating residents
from about 1,000 homes.
The levee extends from Poplar Bluff to the town of Qulan downstream, in
a sparsely populated area. Butler County Sheriff Mark Dodd said water
pouring through a breach between the two towns was unlikely to make it
far enough upstream to threaten Poplar Bluff, a town of 17,000
residents about 130 miles south of St. Louis. Authorities planned to
evacuate only homes closest to the breach.
Flooding in 2008 damaged or destroyed hundreds of homes in Poplar
Bluff, raising questions about whether the levee was capable of
protecting the town during times of heavy rainfall.
A federal inspection afterward gave the levee a failing grade, and the
private district that operates the levee was unable to make repairs
since, Tony Hill, an official with the Army Corps of Engineers, told
The Associated Press on Tuesday. Because the problems weren't
addressed, the levee no longer qualifies for a federal program that
provides money for such repairs, he said.
The storm system has dumped relentless rain on several states over the
past week, including Arkansas, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Missouri,
Mississippi and Tennessee. As the worst of the system moved north and
east into Illinois, Wisconsin, Kentucky and Tennessee, the region was
bracing for a second round of storms expected to roll into Oklahoma and
Arkansas later Tuesday.
The storms spawned at least one tornado Monday in Arkansas that killed
four people and carved a wide swath of destruction through the town of
Vilonia, 25 miles north Little Rock. And flooding in the northwest of
the state caused at least five other deaths.
The National Weather Service office in North Little Rock sent survey
teams to Vilonia and nearby Garland County to investigate the damage
from Monday's storm and assess how much of it was caused by tornados or
straight-line winds.
John Robinson, a weather service warning coordination meteorologist,
said it could take days.
"It wouldn't surprise me if we were to end up with a count of 10 or 12
tornadoes by the time all the surveys are completed," Robinson said.
Authorities in Mississippi say a 3-year-old girl in the city of McComb
was killed when a storm from the same system toppled a large tree into
her family's home. The girl's parents, who were in the room with her,
were both injured.
More showers and thunderstorms were expected in the area on Tuesday,
giving crews that worked overnight to sure-up the levee no rest.
Rolland said street department workers hurriedly filled small boats
with sandbags overnight and were able to sure up a vulnerable section
of the levee in Popular Bluff.
Crews rescued 59 people in 1 1/2 hours late Monday after water spilled
over the dam.
A full-scale levee breach could force the evacuation of some 6,000
homes from Poplar Bluff to Qulin and destroy or severely damage 500
homes in Poplar Bluff and its outskirts, Rolland said.
Already, 23 small businesses in the area's flood plain have taken on
water, he said.
The hotels in town filled up quickly, and 300 people took shelter at
the Black River Coliseum, the town's 500-seat concert venue, Rolland
said. No deaths or serious injuries have been reported.
Families forced to flee their homes Monday watched as murky floodwater
began creeping into their yards and homes. If the levee were to give
way, many of those homes would be left uninhabitable. Sandbagging
wasn't an option — the river, spurred on by 10 inches or more of rain
since last week, simply rose too quickly.
"By the time we realized what was happening, it was too dangerous to
sandbag," Butler County Presiding Commissioner Ed Strenfel said.
Governors in Arkansas and Kentucky declared states of emergency.
Kentucky was bracing for record flooding over the next few days, partly
because the Ohio and Mississippi rivers were both significantly above
flood stage. In Cairo, Ill., where the rivers converge, eight families
informed authorities that they were heeding voluntary evacuation order,
police dispatcher Cheryl James said Tuesday.
The Army Corps of Engineers said Tuesday that it will take the
extraordinary step of intentionally breaching the Birds Point levee in
southeast Missouri, just downriver of the confluence, in a bid to
reduce the amount of water moving down the Mississippi. Gov. Jay Nixon
objects to the plan and the state attorney general sued to stop it.
They say destroying the levee would flood of up to 130,000 acres of
farmland.
A dam in St. Francois County was in jeopardy of bursting, with a few
dozen homes potentially in harm's way. Levees were stressed along the
Mississippi River in Pike and Lincoln counties, north of St. Louis.
But by far the biggest concern was Poplar Bluff. The Missouri National
Guard sent 200 guardsmen and rescue equipment to the area. Several
people had to be rescued by boat, including some who don't live in the
flood plain, as heavy rain flooded several streets Monday night.
Police officers spent Monday going door-to-door in the southwest part
of town, telling residents to get out. Not everyone did.
Along one road near the levee, children played knee-deep in water.
Adults gathered on the porches, seemingly enjoying nature's show.
"I'm not worried. This is my favorite time of the year," 20-year-old
Brandon Andrews said, pledging to ride out the flood in his trailer
home, even as water lapped against its sides. He didn't have a boat and
the water was already too high to drive through, but Andrews said he
had been to the store and stocked up on hot dogs, chili and necessities.
Police Chief Danny Whiteley was hoping the water would recede soon
enough that flooding would mostly be limited to basements. He wasn't
optimistic.
"I guess you'd call it a perfect storm: It's just all come together at
once," Whiteley said.
Police: Levee
protecting
Mo. town holds overnight
By JIM SALTER, Associated Press
26 April 2011
POPLAR BLUFF, Mo. – Police say a levee protecting a southeast Missouri
town from major flooding held up overnight and that they're keeping a
close eye on areas where water is spilling over the structure.
Poplar Bluff deputy police chief Jeff Rolland (ROH'-lind) said early
Tuesday that the Black River overran the levee in about 30 locations
between Poplar Bluff and the nearby town of Qulin (KWIL'-in.)
Rolland says crews rescued 59 people in 1 1/2 hours late Monday after
water spilled over the dam and inundated a section of Poplar Bluff.
Some 1,000 homes have been evacuated in the area. No deaths or serious
injuries have been reported and the town's commercial district is not
threatened.
Poplar Bluff has about 17,000 residents and is 130 miles south of St.
Louis.
Mo. levee threatens to burst
amid
worsening floods
25 April 2011
POPLAR BLUFF, Mo. – A thousand residents fled
their homes in southern
Missouri on Monday as heavy rains falling on saturated ground
threatened to break the levee protecting their town. Smaller
evacuations also took place from Kentucky to Arkansas as rivers and
lakes continued to rise, and it was only expected to get worse.
Forecasters called for severe storms that will drop more heavy rain
across the lower Ohio and Mississippi River valleys, compounding the
misery from a storm system that pounded the region last week and over
the weekend, spawning tornadoes and washing away roads. Some places
have seen 10 to 15 inches already, and the worst flooding may not come
until Wednesday.
Two storms with heavy rain and possible tornadoes are moving into the
region, with northeast Texas, eastern Oklahoma and Arkansas expected to
feel the brunt, said Greg Carbin, a meteorologist with the Storm
Prediction Center in Norman, Okla. Areas in Arkansas, Kentucky,
Missouri and Tennessee are expected to get several more inches of rain,
and Carbin predicted "substantial" flooding as water lands on ground
too wet to absorb it or in rivers and lakes already over flood stage.
He said it's unusual to see two distinct storm systems hit the same
spots back to back, but that's what will happen.
"I think we'll see substantial flooding. It will affect those areas
already experiencing heavy rain," he said.
On Monday, police in Poplar Bluff, a town of 17,000 people about 150
miles southwest of St. Louis, moved residents out before noon Monday,
after officials said they feared a "catastrophic failure" of the town's
levee on the Black River was imminent. Some evacuees sought shelter at
the town's Black River Coliseum, a 5,000-seat concert and meeting venue
that overlooks the swollen river and a park that's already under water.
Others moved in with friends and relatives. There were no reports of
injuries.
A steady stream of people carrying their belongings in plastic sacks
flowed into the coliseum, where members of the United Gospel Rescue
Mission had food prepared. Rev. Gregory Kirk said he got the call to
feed people early Monday and he'd been up and working since 4 a.m.
One of his main suppliers had already been flooded, he said.
"We feed everybody," Kirk said. "I'm stressed out. I've been up all
night."
The floods added to a miserable weekend for much of southern and
eastern Missouri. A tornado tore through the St. Louis suburbs and
Lambert-St. Louis International Airport on Friday, damaging dozens of
homes and gashing the roof of the airport's main terminal. More storms
spawned flash flooding in southwest Missouri on Saturday.
Branson spokesman Jerry Adams said 15 people along the edge of Lake
Taneycomo were moved, and the popular tourist town's camper park was
evacuated.
Meanwhile, Table Rock Dam, about a half-hour west of downtown Branson,
prepared to open its floodgates, after the lake rose almost 5 feet in
24 hours, lake manager Greg Oller told the Springfield News-Leader.
Branson has had nearly 7 inches of rain over the past three days, and
like many other already-soaked cities, it was expected to get more.
Communities along the Ohio River in southern Indiana and Illinois River
in Oklahoma began sandbagging Monday, and severe storms rumbling across
Arkansas created a risk of tornadoes and more flooding along the Spring
and Black rivers. City Hall and private homes in Hardy, Ark., were
evacuated Monday before rising water from the Spring River.
"We just got back in after the last flood," Mayor Nina Thornton
lamented.
Indiana resident John Deplata, 43, rented a moving truck Monday and
began packing his belongings from his home in Utica Township along the
Ohio River, just across from Louisville, Ky. His house was filled with
about 4 feet of water during the 1997 floods that hit that part of the
state.
"If the rain comes in like they're talking ... then it'll get us,"
Deplata said.
Dozens of roads and several schools were closed by flooding and flash
flooding across Kentucky and Missouri.
F L O O D I N
G
U .
S . A . - n e w t
o o l s a v a i l a b l e h
e r e
FROM THE SMALL BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION:
Flooding assistance link here.
Bloated lake haunts
North Dakota town again
YAHOO
By JAMES MacPHERSON, Associated Press Writer
March 20, 2010
KATHRYN, N.D. – Almost a year after worried authorities went door to
door warning residents to flee as water carved through a nearby dam,
this tiny North Dakota town is facing the possibility of having to
evacuate again because of flooding.
Fueled by runoff from a winter of heavy snow, water is swiftly rising
behind the Clausen Springs Dam. And Kathryn's 55 citizens are
frustrated that nothing has been done to repair or replace the damaged
dam that threatens to break and inundate this blink-and-you-miss-it
community, about 60 miles southwest of the state's biggest city of
Fargo.
"We're just an itty-bitty town and we don't carry any clout," Mayor
Dave Majerus said. "If that dam was above Fargo, there would be some
concern and definitely something would get done."
Flood worries extend far beyond Fargo and other North Dakota and
Minnesota communities along the north-flowing Red River. Heavy, wet
snow has caused widespread flooding for other parts of North Dakota,
and several communities such as Linton, Lisbon, LaMoure and Jamestown
are being fortified with temporary levees and sandbags to beat back the
rising water. In Minto, about 16 homes in the community of 300 are
threatened by floodwaters, and residents are frantically using sump
pumps to stay dry.
Few of those places, though, are as worried as Kathryn.
Stray cats are sometimes more likely to be seen than residents in the
town, which boasts little more than a bar, a post office and a church.
Though the community has seen better times it's still no less important
than any other, Majerus said.
The problem with the dam near Kathryn is that it was built before state
safety standards were in place. The Clausen Springs Dam, which is
tucked within rare wooded rolling hills in the area, is fed by a creek
that collects runoff from 100 square miles of mostly flat farmland in
southeast North Dakota.
The earthen dam is about 50 feet high and about 700 feet long and holds
back a lake about the size of 50 football fields. It was built in 1967
for fishing and recreation — not for flood control, said Harlan Opdahl,
a Barnes County commissioner.
Kathryn residents were evacuated for a few days last April after
flooding began eroding the dam's spillway a few miles from town. Trucks
hauled in clay and rocks to fortify the earthen spillway and North
Dakota National Guard soldiers in helicopters dropped more than 100
one-ton sandbags to help shore it up.
The little town was spared extensive flood damage but it led some to
wonder whether it was worth spending big money protect it. State and
local governments eventually raised $3 million "by pulling a few
strings" to replace the dam but the work may come too late, the mayor
said.
"We got the money but all that's been done is talk," Majerus said. "I
guess that's the way bureaucracy works."
State officials say it took time to scrape together money for work and
no one believed the area would be hit with flooding two consecutive
years. The town, founded in 1900, never had a flood threat until last
year.
"It's rare to have flooding there one year, let alone back to back,"
said Sando, of the North Dakota Water Commission. "There was no way of
predicting it could happen again."
No one appears more frustrated than Shirley Sivertson, 74, who along
with her husband, Sanford, 81, live on the edge of town. Their home is
the first in the path of the water if the dam breaks. Last year, the
couple evacuated in just a few minutes and returned to the home a few
days later to find water in their basement.
Shirley Sivertson said the couple doesn't want to have to flee again
this year.
"We shouldn't have to be worrying about all this business with the
dam," she said. "My husband has a bad heart, two stents, a balloon and
a pacemaker — we don't need to be moving nothing."
"This whole town is sitting on pins and needles," she said. "If the
governor was standing in front of me right now, I'd tell him: 'Get with
it man! We're just a town of 55 people but we're just as dang gone
important as anybody else.'"
A new dam designed to handle major flooding is expected to be built
later this year, Sando said. Jon Kelsch, the state Water Commission's
construction chief, said it was a challenge to redesign the dam with
only $3 million. Initial designs were overbuilt and too expensive, but
a no-frills design that will do the job has finally been crafted, he
said.
Opdahl has advocated breaching the dam by cutting a channel through it
for a controlled release of water until a permanent fix can be made.
But sportsmen in the area balked, he said.
"I think we should have siphoned it off until we figured out a plan
then we wouldn't be in this situation," Opdahl said. "We can always
fill it back up and stock it with fish."
Opdahl and others believe that a valve on an outflow pipe used to drain
the dam has been tampered with in the past to keep the lake level high
for better angling. The drain is now completely open and is being
monitored daily, Opdahl said.
That doesn't make residents worry less, or diminish frustration that
their neighbors in Fargo and Moorhead seem to get so much more help
than they do.
"They've been worrying about Fargo and Minnesota instead of fooling
with us," Opdahl said.
Sandbags
delivered ahead of expected Fargo flood
YAHOO
By DAVE KOLPACK, Associated Press Writer
16 March 2010
FARGO, N.D. – Marc Shannon says the prospect of using a sandbag wall to
protect his Fargo home from the rising Red River doesn't seem so
alarming. Not after last year, when the city dealt with record flooding
and Shannon had to maneuver around a 10-foot-high clay dike that cut
his house off from the outside world.
"We're all feeling pretty calm compared to last year," Shannon said
Monday, while preparing to melt ice in his backyard to make room for a
sandbag dike. "Without that clay dike in the streets this year, this is
going to be a walk in the park."
Police escorted convoys of flatbed trucks carrying piles of sandbags
into neighborhoods Monday as the cities of Fargo in eastern North
Dakota and neighboring Moorhead, Minn., went into flood-fighting mode.
The Red River is expected to crest Saturday about 20 feet above the
flood stage, meaning the rising waters flowing over the river's banks
could threaten nearby houses, roads and parks.
Last year, about 100 homes in the area were damaged and thousands of
people were evacuated after the Red River rose above the flood stage
for a record 61 days and crested twice. Officials say they are better
prepared this year for flooding thanks to early stockpiling of sandbags
and the building of stronger levees across the region.
"This year, the dike we'll have to build will be 3 feet less than last
year," Shannon said. "It's manageable."
Miles of clay levees, more than 1 million sandbags and portable wall
systems will be used to help protect an area of about 200,000 people in
Cass County, N.D., and Clay County, Minn. Clay County Sheriff Bill
Bergquist said a handful of residents outside the city left their
houses mainly because they don't want to be stranded by overland
flooding.
"Everybody has to understand that this is for real," Fargo Mayor Dennis
Walaker said after a briefing with city and county officials.
In Minnesota, Gov. Tim Pawlenty declared a state of emergency Monday in
28 counties affected by potential flooding across western, southern,
central and eastern parts of the state. The order activated the
National Guard to help with flood preparations and provide emergency
relief.
Fargo resident Karry Hoganson was chopping down an evergreen tree in
his neighbor's backyard to help make room for a sandbag dike. When he
bought his house in 2002, Hoganson said historical figures showed he
would be sandbagging once every 10 years. But it's been more like every
other year, he said.
"I chose to live on the river. I'm not looking for sympathy," he said.
"I bought it for the view. I love it here."
Palates of sandbags lined streets and cul-de-sacs in several
neighborhoods of higher-end homes along the river in south Fargo. Dan
Sholy, who was hired to help unload the trucks, said some people have
been clearing out their backyards to make room for the sandbags, which
weigh about 20 pounds each.
Over the next few days, residents will stack the sandbags — in
Hoganson's neighborhood the dike will be 9 feet wide and 3 feet high —
in an attempt to keep the river's waters away from their homes.
"Right now they're are getting everything all flagged and marked for
the dikes," Sholy said. "We'll have volunteers coming in tomorrow so
there's going to be lot of action here."
Fargo
resisted FEMA recommendation to evacuate
National Review - AP
By DAVE KOLPACK and FREDERIC J. FROMMER
April 2, 2009
FARGO, N.D. (AP) — With floodwaters rising around them, Fargo officials
and the Federal Emergency Management Agency faced an agonizing
decision: Should they order a mandatory evacuation of the entire city?
FEMA thought the best course of action was to evacuate and not leave
anything to chance. Fargo officials disagreed, saying they knew what it
would take to hold back the Red River. The conversation turned heated
at times, and Fargo ultimately won. Now that the Red River is
receding and leaving only relatively minor damage, that decision looks
smart. The city began returning to normal Wednesday as people went back
to work, stores reopened and the river dipped to only slightly above 37
feet.
At the height of the flood, Fargo's levees held back most of the
deluge, and allowing residents to stay enabled them to fill sandbags,
patrol for dike leaks and monitor pumps to keep water out of homes.
But the episode demonstrates the kind of clash that can unfold between
federal and local governments in an era when FEMA is intent on avoiding
another failure of Hurricane Katrina proportions. It was also perhaps
an inevitable result of federal bureaucrats coming head-to-head with
the pride of a local community. In this case, Fargo stood up to
the government and won, showing a sturdy resolve that was apparent
throughout the flood-fighting effort.
Fargo leaders including Mayor Dennis Walaker repeatedly vowed to beat
back the river, to "go down swinging" as they put it. City Commissioner
Tim Mahoney even ended a briefing Monday by saying, "The spirit of
Fargo: Evacuation is not an option."
FEMA's response was more measured, warning of an epic disaster if the
Red River burst past the levees and swamped the city of nearly 100,000
people. The agency could point to Grand Forks, 70 miles to the
north, where the same river ravaged much of the community 12 years ago.
In that case, most of the 60,000 residents were forced to flee after
floodwaters covered the city and a fire destroyed several buildings in
the heart of downtown. Grand Forks waged a furious sandbagging
battle similar to Fargo's effort, but it was not enough. The river
swiftly surged past crest projections, giving the city little time to
prepare.
In Fargo, volunteers built levees to contain the river provided it did
not rise above 43 feet. The water topped out at nearly 41 feet.
Fargo officials said they had a better levee system in place than Grand
Forks, making the comparison irrelevant.
"You can't place a price on human life, and if you're going to err in
any way, it's got to be" to save lives, said Mike Hall, FEMA's
coordinating officer on the ground in North Dakota. "If it had gone to
43 feet, that's ... over the top of the levees. How do you protect for
that? That's the sort of healthy discussion you have to have."
The fact that Fargo residents were even around to witness the flooding
was the result of a meeting Friday in Fargo among city, state and
federal officials. Mahoney, the city commissioner, described the
discussion as "heated," but said he and the mayor made an impassioned
argument to dissuade the government on the evacuation issue.
"We had some losses we could take. We knew that," he said. "We're
organized. We know what we're doing. We know our contingencies."
Walaker said the city faced "an awful lot of pressure" to evacuate.
Evacuations are expensive, logistically difficult and endlessly
second-guessed. If a city stays and fights, and the dikes fail, blame
will come as fast as the rushing water. If a city evacuates and the
dikes hold, angry residents may be reluctant to leave next time.
"He certainly knew he was on the hot seat either way," Hall said. "If
it had been 43 feet and people would have drowned, then they'd be all
after him for that. ... He felt what they had in place could meet the
challenge.
Ben Smilowitz is in charge of a group called the Disaster
Accountability Project that was formed in 2007 to monitor
disaster-relief efforts by FEMA in the aftermath of Katrina. He said
the decision to evacuate is ultimately up to the local government, and
that "a decision overruling a local government is rare. ... It would
come from much higher in the food chain than FEMA."
He said FEMA is there to provide guidance and supplies for
disaster-stricken communities regardless of how strongly federal
authorities disagree with local governments.
"The last thing FEMA wants to do is play political games with
reimbursement dollars, because that could discourage local governments
from making the best decisions out of worry they won't get reimbursed,"
Smilowitz said.
Acting FEMA Administrator Nancy Ward, who came to Fargo to witness the
threat, declined requests for an interview.
In a written response to questions from The Associated Press, FEMA
spokesman Terry Monrad said the agency did discuss evacuation with
state and local officials, but "the decision to evacuate any
municipality is ultimately made by local officials."
In the end, Fargo leaders and FEMA officials emerged from the dispute
on good terms. Walaker praised the efforts of FEMA and every other
agency, and the government provided important on-the-ground assistance.
Hall said he was not worried that Fargo's decision might embolden local
officials to disregard FEMA in future disasters. He said Fargo
officials put a lot of time and thought into their decisions.
Associated Press Writer Elizabeth
Dunbar contributed to this report.
Red River Goes Below Flood Stage in
Fargo
NYTIMES
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Filed at 12:39 p.m. ET
May 20, 2009
FARGO, N.D. (AP) -- It's been a long time dropping.
The Red River, which rose above its 18-foot flood stage in Fargo on
March 20, finally dropped to 17.9 feet at 2:30 a.m. Wednesday after 61
days, the National Weather Service said.
That's a record time for flood stage in the city, the weather service
said. It was expected to fall slowly to 17.5 feet over the next week.
''It's long time, but we made it through to a happy ending,''
hydrologist Mike Lukes said.
Residents of Fargo and neighboring Moorhead, Minn., scrambled to save
their homes, using millions of sandbags to fight off two crests on the
Red River -- the first at a record 40.82 feet and the second at 34 feet.
Flooding caused by heavy rain and snow led to a statewide disaster in
March and April, closing roads across North Dakota and forcing some
residents out of their homes. The flooding was linked to the deaths of
at least three people and thousands of farm and ranch animals.
Forty-one North Dakota counties and three reservations are covered
under a presidential disaster declaration.
The weather service said the 61-day flood in Fargo was seven days
longer than the number of days the Red was above flood stage in the
city in 2006.
Letter to the editor:
Flooding is connected to poor drainage decisions
Published Tuesday, April 21, 2009
It’s no surprise that a lot of people are currently thinking about how
to deal with the problem of flooding. Causes include excess rain and
snow, a random melt and the growing problem of drainage. A growing
problem because it seems that everyone wants water moved off his or her
land quickly, no matter what the downstream effects may be.
In fact, drainage is one of the leading causes of increased runoff in
the Red River Valley since statehood. The Waffle Report produced by the
Energy and Environmental Research Center at the University of North
Dakota this spring concludes that the Red River Valley has lost “about
80 percent of the basin wetlands to agriculture in the 19th and 20th
centuries.”
That same conclusion can be applied to the Devils Lake Basin. We
started with approximately 569,000 acres of wetlands in the upper basin
of the lake. Subtracting the remaining 210,000 wetland acres indicates
that about 350,000 acres of sloughs have been drained. The water that
those wetlands once held now flows quickly into Devils Lake.
How much runoff could result from about 350,000 acres of drained
wetlands? How would it compare to 680,000 acre feet, the amount of
water that Tim Heisler, Ramsey County emergency manager, predicts will
reach the lake this spring?
Predicting a Devils Lake overflow, however, is premature. The lake now
(before runoff) holds about 2,925,000 acre feet. At overflow it would
hold about 5,302,612 acre feet. That means the lake is slightly more
than half full.
Odd, though, isn’t it? No one blames drainers for flooding someone
else’s farmland around the lake and no one is considering using the
Waffle approach to restore wetlands in the upper basin. Until that
happens solutions will be Band-Aid dikes, and drainage problems will
continue to grow until dikes will no longer contain the excess.
Richard Betting
Valley City, N.D.
DOT, patrol detouring traffic on I-29
near Fargo
The Jamestown Sun
Published Friday, March 27, 2009
The North Dakota Department of Transportation and Highway Patrol began
detouring traffic on Interstate 29 in the Fargo area at 2:30 p.m. for
improved flow of traffic and flood preparation.
Southbound I-29 traffic will be detoured to Highway 200A near Hillsboro
at Exit ramp 100. The detour moves traffic on Hwy 200A to N.D. Highway
18 to ND Highway 46 near Leonard back to I-29 east of Kindred.
Northbound I-29 traffic will be detoured to N.D. Highway 46 to N.D.
Highway 32 to N.D. highway 200 near Finley back to I-29 east of
Mayville. For Red River crossing on I-29 motorists should continue
south on I-29 to South Dakota Highway 10 to Minnesota 28.
All travelers are encouraged to monitor road conditions, reduce traffic
speeds as weather conditions occur and use caution while traveling. For
up-to-date road information, call 511 from any type of phone or go to
the Web site: www.511.nd.gov for road and weather conditions.
Fargo Neighborhood Evacuated as Waters Rise
NYTIMES
By MONICA DAVEY
March 28, 2009
FARGO, N.D. — Along the banks of this city, the Red River surpassed its
highest level in history Friday morning, forcing the emergency
evacuation of one neighborhood before dawn and leading city leaders
here, once cheerfully upbeat, to sound far more dire.
“We do not want to give up yet,” Mayor Dennis Walaker of Fargo said
after receiving yet another piece of gruesome news. Forecasters now
believe the Red River will go right on rising, and by Saturday overtake
the record set here more than a century ago by two feet or even more,
much higher than anyone here had earlier believed possible.
“We want to go down swinging — if we go down,” the mayor said, as he
urged his city to summon the energy to build the dikes that protect it
yet another foot higher by Friday night.
“I’m going to be devastated if we lose,” said Mr. Walaker, who had,
only a few days ago, expressed optimism, even certainty, that Fargo, a
city of 90,000 and North Dakota’s most populous, would be fine. Other
bleary-eyed city officials described the mood of the place by Friday
afternoon as “on high alert now.” By Friday morning, some hospitals
here had transferred patients to other facilities miles away, and
nursing homes had sent residents to relatives’ homes on high ground.
Major roads here were closed, to allow trucks carrying more loads of
sandbags to reach levees as fast as possible.
And after about 100 people, including some residents of a nursing home,
in one Fargo neighborhood and a large swath of neighboring Moorhead,
Minn., were forced to evacuate Thursday night, officials on Friday
ordered residents from about 150 more Fargo homes to leave just after 2
a.m. The authorities said they found a leak in a levee near those
homes, and were racing to repair it. Residents, meanwhile, could be
seen trudging out by foot, bearing belongings in bone-cold
temperatures, local news reports said.
In Moorhead, a city of 34,700 just across the Red River, residents of
more than 2,660 homes were asked to evacuate by midday Friday,
officials there said. Water could be seen creeping along some streets
in that city, though the city’s mayor, Mark Voxland, said no dikes had
been overtaken. At city hall and the local courthouse, workers were
carting archives and case files out of basements. And some residents
complained that they could not find additional sandbags, and came
searching for some at the police department.
“I would rather be criticized for erring on the side of safety than the
reverse,” Mr. Voxland said Friday afternoon of the decision to ask
people to leave.
Ryan Sather, a resident, stood in short sleeves as he carted all of the
contents of his house into a moving truck he had backed up to his porch.
“They’ve raised the crest level prediction three separate times, and I
think what we know at this point is that nobody really knows what’s
going to happen,” he said. A few blocks away, neighbors were struggling
to pile up sandbags to create a new levee to slow slushy waters. On Mr.
Sather’s corner, water pooled in the snow near a storm sewer, bubbling
far higher, he said, than it had only hours earlier. “Where’s that
going to be by nightfall?”
While flooding conditions have threatened much of North Dakota and
parts of western Minnesota, and some rural communities are already
under water, all eyes on Friday were on this city and on Moorhead. Some
1,700 members of the National Guard had been called in to add more sand
to the area’s already enormous dikes, but even weather forecasters
seemed at a loss to be sure what might come next.
“This is definitely ground zero right now,“ said Patrick Slattery, a
spokesman for the National Weather Service. “Once you get here, into
predictions above the levels we have ever seen before, you’re taking
about unbroken ground. Even we don’t know for certain what’s going to
happen.“
People here found themselves facing added challenges given the singular
dimensions of this flood. Once the river crests on Saturday, it is
expected to stay at those swelled, highest levels for several days.
Dikes that hold for a few hours may be in trouble in a matter of days,
the authorities here say.
The temperature here, too — 10 degrees on Friday morning with a wind
chill reported at 4 degree below zero — tested the stamina of thousands
of volunteers. It also led some to worry about the condition of the
piled sandbags, items some here described unhappily as behaving more
like “frozen turkeys” or big rocks. Would sandbags slide and give way
on frozen ground? Would frigid sandbags allow water to flow through
rather than holding it back?
The authorities went so far as to set aside 10 percent of the three
million sandbags filled here in the last six days to store in warm
locations — in case they are suddenly needed to fill spots where dikes
fail. Still, some authorities said the dropping temperatures
might
provide relief. Colder temperatures, one Fargo official said, slowed
the flow of the river water and slowed the streams that were feeding
it. Indeed, the official said, the water had risen more slowly in
recent hours than it had a day or two ago.
In Fargo, a city where residents continued to offer applause at public
meetings for their political leaders even as the news grew worse and
worse this week, tempers were clearly tested by late Thursday. Kristy
Fremstad, who owns rental property in Fargo, pleaded with city
officials to add sandbags to the dike near her land.
“We’ve been waiting and waiting and waiting,“ she tearfully told city
commissioners at an emergency meeting, (also attended by Gov. John
Hoeven, Senator Byron L. Dorgan and Representative Earl Pomeroy). “I
need some help.“
Schools and many businesses were closed. And some people in between the
city’s primary dike system and a second set of newly created emergency
dikes were advised to evacuate. Volunteers, now days into their work,
went right on filling sandbags at the Fargodome all through the night.
Across the bulging river, in Moorhead, residents who had been advised
to evacuate found themselves on roads jammed with other cars, (and, in
some cases, still covered in snow). The congested streets led some
here, including Mayor Walaker, to worry about how a broader evacuation
plan, if one were required, would play out here. Adding to the
complications of such a concept, local officials acknowledged, was the
fact that no one could be sure where the dikes might break or what
roads — given rising waters and falling snow — might be passable.
In some rural areas to the south of Fargo and elsewhere, water had
already filled homes. White caps, one law enforcement officer said,
could be seen around what had once been farm fields. Rescues were made
with boats and helicopters, even as other residents, surrounded on all
sides by water, insisted on staying put. Around Bismarck, the
state
capital, flooded neighborhoods sat empty as demolition crews battled
dangerous ice jams on the Missouri with explosives. Water levels had
dropped some there, offering hope.
“Our biggest concern is an ice jam in the river just 10 miles north of
Bismarck, which we’re hoping does not dislodge,“ said Bill Wocken, that
city’s administrator. “An ice jam is kind of like my teenage daughter.
Sometimes there is just no way to predict what they’ll do next.“
In Grand Forks, which was devastated by flooding in 1997, two of the
three bridges leading in and out of town were already closed. But city
officials seemed hopeful that a $409 million Army Corps of Engineers
flood protection project, completed two years ago, would save the city
from the Red River this time.
“We remain cautious, vigilant and watchful,“ said Kevin Dean, a city
spokesman.
'Amazing'
Australian
floodwaters enter new towns
YAHOO
Mon Jan 24, 2011 3:03 am ET
MELBOURNE (AFP) – Surging floodwaters broke levees in disaster-hit
Australia on Monday to inundate more properties in the southeast, as
residents sandbagged homes against the spiralling crisis. Swollen
rivers in the southeastern state of Victoria have created a flood zone
measuring an estimated 90 kilometres (56 miles) long and 40 kilometres
wide, the State Emergency Service said.
"This area has seen unprecedented flooding," SES spokesman Kevin Monk
told AFP. "This is just amazing."
As the floodwaters rushed towards the Murray River, evacuation alerts
were issued late Sunday and early Monday for the small communities of
Pental Island and Murrabit West, home to about 400 people each.
In an emergency alert the SES said that levees around Murrabit West
were failing, warning that the area would be inundated in the next 12
hours.
"They are being flooded now," Monk told AFP. "It's across properties.
If they haven't sandbagged them, there may be some impacts on people's
housing."
The Victoria floods stem from La Nina-provoked torrential rains which
hit the state mid-January and followed weeks of widespread floods to
the north that killed at least 30 people and devastated mining and
farming in Queensland. Prime Minister Julia Gillard again called
on companies to boost their donations to the rebuilding effort, with
infrastructure repairs and help for businesses and families estimated
to cost some Aus$20 billion ($19.8 billion).
Champion American cyclist Lance Armstrong, who has been in Australia
for the Tour Down Under in Adelaide, did his part, leading some 2,500
people on a Queensland Ride Relief fundraiser around Brisbane.
The seven-time Tour de France winner praised Queenslanders for the way
they had rallied after the disaster, saying he had heard that so many
people had driven into Brisbane to help clean up they caused traffic
jams.
"You know what that is? That's a whole lot of heroes the whole world
needs to pay attention to and copy that," he said.
"I can tell you, having lived in the United States and having watched
(Hurricane) Katrina closely, there were no traffic jams going into New
Orleans. So for you guys to step up like that, is unbelievable."
As Queensland begins the massive recovery phase, Victoria is dealing
with a record-breaking deluge which has so far affected more than 1,700
properties in the rural northwest of the state. Emergency
officials have been preparing for potential flooding along the Murray
River -- a vital lifeline in the southeast which had been hard hit by a
recent protracted drought -- since record rainfalls in
mid-January. The regional centre of Swan Hill, with a population
of about 10,000, was bracing for floodwaters to peak on Thursday or
Friday with residents frantically sandbagging but officials expecting
the levee to hold.
Floods pour into Brisbane;
20,000 homes in danger
YAHOO
By JOHN PYE and KRISTEN GELINEAU, Associated Press
12 January 2011
BRISBANE, Australia – Floodwaters poured into the empty downtown of
Australia's third-largest city Wednesday after tearing a deadly path
across the northeast, swamping neighborhoods in what could be
Brisbane's most devastating floods in a century.
The
surging, muddy waters reached the tops of traffic lights in some parts
of Brisbane, and the city's mayor said at least 20,000 homes were in
danger of being inundated.
At least 22 people have died and more than 40 are missing across
Australia's northeastern state of Queensland since drenching rains that
began in November sent swollen rivers spilling over their banks,
flooding an area larger than France and Germany combined. Brisbane, the
state capital with a population of 2 million, is the latest city to
face down the waters, and officials expect the death toll to rise.
On Wednesday, Brisbane residents who had spent two days preparing took
cover on higher ground while others scrambled to move their prized
possessions to the top floors of their homes. Some stacked furniture on
their roofs.
The Brisbane River is expected to reach its highest point on Thursday.
After days of bad news in which figures were constantly being revised,
the Bureau of Meteorology late Wednesday delivered a small and rare
positive forecast — the floodwaters would crest about a foot (30
centimeters) lower than earlier thought.
If correct, the new forecast meant the waters would not reach the depth
of 1974 floods that swept the city. Queensland Premier Anna Bligh said
the news was welcome, but of little comfort.
"This is still a major event, the city is much bigger, much more
populated and has many parts under flood that didn't even exist in
1974," she said. "We are still looking at an event which will cripple
parts of our city."
The dragged-out crisis escalated when a violent storm sent a 26-foot
(eight meter), fast-moving torrent — described as an "inland instant
tsunami" — crashing through the city of Toowoomba and smaller towns to
the west of Brisbane on Monday. Twelve people were killed in that flash
flood. Late Wednesday, Bligh said the number of missing had been
revised down to 43.
"This is a truly dire set of circumstances," Prime Minister Julia
Gillard said.
The Brisbane River broke its banks on Tuesday and was continuing its
rise Wednesday — partly controlled by a huge dam upstream that has had
its floodgates opened because it is brimming after weeks of rain across
the state.
Water levels were expected to stay at peak levels until at least
Saturday, but many people won't be able to access their homes for
several days beyond that, Bligh said.
The flooding has transfixed Australia and is shaping up to become the
nation's most expensive disaster, with an estimated price tag of at
least $5 billion. The relentless waters have shut down Queensland
state's crucial coal industry and ruined crops across vast swaths of
farmland.
Brisbane's office buildings stood empty Wednesday with the normally
bustling central business district transformed into a watery ghost
town. Most roads around the city were closed, and people moved about in
kayaks, rowboats and even on surfboards. One of the city's sports
stadiums, which hosts international rugby games, was flooded with
muddy, chest-deep water.
Boats torn from their moorings floated down the rising river along with
massive amounts of debris. A popular waterside restaurant's pontoon was
swept away by the current and floated downstream. Officials said they
would probably have to sink a barge that serves as an entertainment
venue, to stop it from breaking free and becoming a floating torpedo.
Officials opened three more evacuation centers on Wednesday, and Newman
said there was now room for 16,000 people to take shelter. Officials
have urged people to get to higher ground and keep off the streets
unless absolutely necessary.
Energex, the city's main power company, said it would switch off
electricity to some parts of the city starting Wednesday as a
precaution against electrocution. Almost 70,000 homes were without
power across Queensland by Wednesday afternoon, Bligh said.
"I know that this is going to be very difficult for people," Bligh
said. "Can I just stress: Electricity and water do not mix. We would
have catastrophic situations if we didn't shut down power."
Darren Marchant spent all day moving furniture and other household
goods to the top floor of his home, near the river in the low-lying
Brisbane suburb of Yeronga, which is expected to be inundated. He and
two neighbors watched in awe as dozens of expensive boats and pontoons
drifted past.
"We were watching all kinds of debris floating down the river — one of
the (neighbor's) pontoons just floated off," he said Wednesday. "It was
amazing."
For weeks, the flooding had been a slow-motion disaster, devastating
wide swaths of farmland and small towns. On Monday, the crisis took a
sudden, violent turn, with a cloudburst sending a raging torrent down
the Lockyer Valley west of Brisbane. Houses were washed from their
foundations and cars tossed about like bath toys in what Police
Commissioner Bob Atkinson described as "an inland instant tsunami."
Hundreds had to be rescued by helicopter Tuesday and emergency vehicles
were moving into the worst-hit parts of the valley on Wednesday. Bligh
warned that the death toll would likely rise as rescue officials gained
access to the devastated areas.
In the Lockyer Valley town of Grantham, entire houses that had been
swept off their foundations sat in sodden heaps of jumbled debris.
Waters that had submerged a railway bridge receded, exposing an
avalanche of twisted wreckage caught in its foundation: furniture, a
"for sale" sign, a child's swing set, even a dead cow.
The city of Ipswich, home to about 15,000 people, was swamped Wednesday
by the water heading Brisbane's way. By the afternoon, 3,000 properties
had been inundated, and 1,100 people had fled to evacuation centers,
Mayor Paul Pisasale said. Video from the scene showed horses swimming
through the brown waters, pausing to rest their heads on the roof of a
house — the only dry spot they could reach.
Steph Stewardson, a graphic designer, said there was an exodus from
Brisbane's downtown around lunchtime Tuesday with people streaming out
of skyscrapers as the river broke its banks. Stewardson, 40, hopped in
her car and crossed the swollen river to collect her dog, Boo, from
daycare while waters started covering the boardwalk stretching along
its banks.
Stewardson took shelter in her house and plans to stay there — for now.
"I'm about 800 meters (half a mile) from the river on a hill, so I
think it's going to be OK," she told The Associated Press.
Scores missing in tsunami-like flood
in Australia
YAHOO
By KRISTEN GELINEAU and TERTIUS PICKARD, Associated Press
11 January 2011
BRISBANE, Australia – Greg Kowald was driving through the center of
Toowoomba when a terrifying, tsunami-like wall of water roared through
the streets of the northeast Australian city.
Office windows exploded, cars careened into trees and bobbed in the
churning brown water like corks. The deluge washed away bridges and
sidewalks; people desperately clung to power poles to survive. Before
it was over, the flash flood left at least 10 dead and 78 missing.
"The water was literally leaping, six or 10 feet into the air, through
creeks and over bridges and into parks," Kowald, a 53-year-old
musician, told The Associated Press on Tuesday. "There was nowhere to
escape, even if there had been warnings. There was just a sea of water
about a kilometer (half a mile) wide."
The violent surge in Toowoomba brought the overall death toll from
weeks of flooding in Queensland state to 20, a sudden acceleration in a
crisis that had been unfolding gradually with swollen rivers
overflowing their banks and inundating towns while moving toward the
ocean. Queensland Premier Anna Bligh said there were "grave fears" for
at least 18 of those missing.
The high waters headed next to Australia's third-largest city,
Brisbane, where up to 9,000 homes were expected to be swamped. The
Brisbane River overflowed its banks Tuesday and officials warned that
dozens of low-lying neighborhoods and parts of downtown could be
inundated in coming days.
But nothing downstream was expected to be as fierce as the flash flood
that struck Toowoomba on Monday. It was sparked by a freak storm — up
to 6 inches (150 millimeters) fell in half an hour.
"There was water coming down everywhere in biblical proportions,"
Toowoomba council member Joe Ramia told the AP.
Ramia, 63, was driving downtown when the flash flood struck. He parked
his car and dashed on foot for higher ground, keeping an eye on the
carnage unfolding below: Cars transformed into scrap metal as they were
flung into an elevated railway line, giant metal industrial bins tossed
about as if made of paper, a man clinging desperately to a power pole
as the relentless tide surged around him.
Ramia watched as a rescue official pushed through the churning water
and yanked the man to safety. Others, including five children, were not
as lucky, and were swept to their deaths.
"You were powerless to do a thing," said Ramia, a lifelong resident of
Toowoomba. "While we can rebuild, you can't replace people. ... I've
never seen anything like this."
The raging water was strong enough to rip houses off their foundations.
Leroy Shephard, who lives in the town of Grantham, east of Toowoomba,
was inside his home when the flood struck.
"You could feel the whole house just pop up off its stumps, turn
around, and go — for a 100 meters (330 feet) or something down my
backyard," Shephard told Australian Broadcasting Corp.
He and his family spent five hours on the house's roof waiting for the
waters to drop.
"It's not a good feeling having the floorboards under your feet just
ripple, the whole house just ripple and crack, and watching rooms just
disappear," he said.
Emergency services officers plucked more than 40 people from houses
isolated overnight by the torrent that hit the Lockyer Valley, and
thousands were being evacuated. In one small community in the path of
the floodwaters, Forest Hill, the entire population of about 300 was
being airlifted to safety in military helicopters, Bligh said.
Search and rescue efforts were hampered by more driving rain, though
the bad weather was easing and Bligh said the search would get easier
Wednesday.
Brisbane Mayor Campbell Newman said authorities were preparing for
flooding affecting about 15,000 people in 80 suburbs.
The city is protected by a large dam built upstream after floods
devastated downtown in 1974. But the reservoir was full, and officials
had no choice but to release water that would cause low-level flooding
in the city, Newman said. The alternative was a much worse torrent.
Steph Stewardson, a Brisbane graphic designer, said there was an exodus
in a downtown area around lunchtime Tuesday when the river that goes
through the city broke its banks. Stewardson, 40, hopped in her car and
crossed the swollen river to collect her dog Boo from daycare while
waters started covering the boardwalk stretching along its banks.
Stewardson took shelter in her house, and plans to stay there — for now.
"I'm about 800 meters (half a mile) from the river on a hill, so I
think it's going to be OK," she told the AP.
Queensland has been in the grip of its worst flooding for more than two
weeks, after tropical downpours covered an area the size of France and
Germany combined. Entire towns have been swamped, more than 200,000
people affected, and the coal industry and farming have virtually shut
down.
"The power of nature can still be a truly frightening power and we've
seen that on display in this country," Prime Minister Julia Gillard
said.
Police Commissioner Bob Atkinson described the events Monday as "an
inland instant tsunami."
Forecasters said more flash floods could occur through the week.
Deputy Police Commissioner Ian Stewart said rescue efforts were
concentrated on towns between Toowoomba and Brisbane, including
hardest-hit Murphy's Creek and Grantham, where about 30 people sought
shelter in a school isolated by the floodwaters.
The floods reached a second state Tuesday, with about 4,500 people
stranded by high waters in bordering New South Wales, officials said,
though the situation was not yet as dire as in Queensland.
Bligh said last week the cost of the floods could be as high as $5
billion, the latest figure available.
So soon after the big bash in
Sydney for New Year
2011...opposite of fireworks across this vast country, to another of
its its other big cities, Brisbane...
Australian city cut off by
floods
braces
for more
YAHOO
January 4, 2011
ROCKHAMPTON, Australia – Floods that have cut air, rail and road links
to an Australian coastal city are now threatening its sewage plant, and
waters are still expected to rise another few feet before peaking
Wednesday.
Residents of Rockhampton made their way in boats through waters that
reached waist-high in some areas Tuesday but were warned not to wade
into the them since snakes and crocodiles could be lurking.
A huge inland sea spawned by more than a week of heavy rain across
Queensland state is making its way along the Fitzroy River toward the
ocean — and Rockhampton lies in the way. As waters drain, the city of
75,000 people is expected to see flood levels rise another few feet
(half-meter) by Wednesday.
The river has already burst its banks, inundating houses and businesses
in waters ranging from a few inches (centimeters) to waist-deep. Up to
500 people who live along the river have evacuated their homes. Air and
rail links to the city were cut and only one main road remained open.
Adding to the woes, Rockhampton Mayor Brad Carter said Tuesday the
floodwaters were threatening Rockhampton's sewage treatment plants and
officials may seek to discharge some effluent directly into the swollen
river system. He said this would only occur away from the city, and
that the discharged sewage would be highly diluted and would not pose a
health risk.
Rockhampton is the latest of 22 cities and towns in Queensland to be
swamped by floods that began building just before Christmas — the worst
effects of an unusually wet summer in the tropical region. No one has
died in Rockhampton, but swollen rivers and flooding have killed 10
people in Queensland since late November, police say.
Officials have said the flooded area covers the size of France and
Germany combined and 200,000 people have been affected. U.S. Secretary
of State Hillary Clinton sent a condolence message and said Washington
was ready to help if needed.
"Our thoughts and prayers are with everyone affected by these floods,
especially the families of the victims, and with all the people of
Australia," Clinton said in a statement distributed by consular
officials.
Wendy White, who owns a clothing alterations shop in Rockhampton, said
she was worried about her merchandise and equipment as the waters rise.
"We've taken everything about two feet up off the floor ... my machines
are above that and then everything, all my stock is stacked on that,"
she told Australian Broadcasting Corp. "So it'd be a case of, if the
water does come in, we'll have to mop up before we can set up to start
trading again."
Authorities have warned residents to stay out of floodwaters for their
own safety, saying the biggest risk is from fast-moving currents
powerful enough to sweep cars from roadways. At least two people have
drowned after being swept away in their cars.
Mayor Carter has also said residents have reported seeing higher than
usual numbers of snakes, as the animals move around looking for dry
ground. He has also noted that saltwater crocodiles have been spotted
from time to time in the Fitzroy River.
"We do not think they are a risk to public safety if people keep out of
the waters, but if people do enter the waters their safety cannot be
guaranteed," Carter told The Australian newspaper.
Animal welfare worker Wendy Hilcher said fears about snakes and
crocodiles were hampering her group's efforts to rescue pets left
behind by people who had left their homes in flooded areas of the city.
"It's not just the safety aspect of getting to these places, it's
what's in the water itself," said Hilcher, from the Royal Society for
the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. "If it gets too dangerous, we
have to get out of there."
A military cargo plane landed in a city north of Rockhampton on Monday
carrying food, water, medical supplies and other items such as diapers
to keep the city stocked with necessities. The goods were trucked south
to the city, or carried on barges. Further flights would continue as
needed, acting Defense Minister Warren Snowdon said. Two navy
helicopters were on standby to help.
Other supplies were being brought by sea from areas south of
Rockhampton, where regular supply routes may be closed for days to come.
Many stores and businesses in dry parts of the city remained open.
Power supplies were being severed to inundated areas for safety
reasons, officials said.
Prime Minister Julia Gillard has said the cost associated with the
flooding will likely reach many hundreds of millions of dollars, and
has announced relief funding worth millions.
Rains have eased, and water levels have been dropping in some towns in
Queensland. Across the state, some 1,000 people are living in
evacuation centers, and it may be a month before the floodwaters dry up
completely.
Food, supplies flown to
flood-stranded Aussie city
YAHOO
January 3, 2011
BRISBANE, Australia – A military flight rushed Monday to restock an
Australian city before it was cut off by floodwaters that have turned a
huge swath of the Outback into a lake, while police confirmed two more
deaths in the crisis.
Drenching rain that started before Christmas has flooded an area the
size of France and Germany combined in northeastern Queensland state.
Rivers are overflowing and at least 22 towns and cities in the farming
region are inundated. In the coastal city of Rockhampton, waters
from the still-swelling Fitzroy River closed the airport and cut the
main highway to the state capital of Brisbane. Scores of families
abandoned their homes for relief centers on high ground.
By Monday night, floodwaters had inundated the last route into the
city, Queensland Premier Anna Bligh said.
"Rockhampton is now completely stranded — a town of 75,000 people — no
airport, rail or road," Bligh told Australian Broadcasting Corp. radio.
Residents emptied supermarket shelves of food and bottled water in
recent days as they stocked up to reduce the need to get around in
waist-deep waters. Acting Defense Minister Warren Snowdon said a
C-130 military cargo plane would fly to a town north of Rockhampton on
Monday carrying food, medical supplies and other items that would then
be trucked to the stricken city.
Authorities have warned the Fitzroy will continue rising until late
Tuesday or early Wednesday local time. Mayor Brad Carter has said
about 40 percent of the city could be affected by the surging waters,
and residents could be forced to wait at least two weeks before
returning home. State authorities say about 200,000 people have
been affected by the floods, Australia's worst in a decade, and Prime
Minister Julia Gillard on Monday extended emergency relief to those
affected, including low-interest loans to farmers to begin cleaning up
and get their businesses running again.
"This is a major natural disaster, and recovery will take a significant
amount of time," Gillard said. The damage could ultimately amount to
hundreds of millions of dollars, she told reporters.
Three people have died in the flooding since Saturday, though police in
Queensland state say seven other people have drowned separately
involving swollen rivers and water accidents since tropical deluges
began in late November. Chief Superintendent Alistair Dawson said
the latest victim was a man who drowned Monday when the car he was
traveling in was washed off a flooded causeway in the town of Aramac,
in central Queensland. Earlier Monday, police said they had
recovered the body of a man who was last seen Saturday when his small
boat was swamped by raging waters in a different part of the state.
The rains that started the flooding have eased, and water levels have
been dropping in some towns. But officials said about 1,000 people were
living in evacuation centers across Queensland, and it may be a month
before the floodwaters dry up completely.
25 October 2011 Last updated at 06:58 ET
I-BBC
Thai floods: Bangkok Don Muang
airport
suspends flights
Runways at the
Thai capital's second airport are not expected to reopen for a week
Bangkok's second airport has suspended all flights after
floodwaters breached its northern perimeter. Don Muang airport,
used mainly for domestic flights, is in northern Bangkok - the area of
the capital worst hit by the flooding.
The international airport, in another part of the city, is still
operating.
Thailand has been hit by heavy monsoon rain since July, leading to
flooding which has hit swathes of the country and left more than 360
people dead. Water from inundated central areas is now running
south to the sea. Officials have been trying to drain it to the
east and west of Bangkok, but they have been forced to open sluice
gates into the city because of the sheer volume of water building up
outside Bangkok's flood barriers.
On Tuesday, the Thai cabinet announced a 325bn-baht ($10.5bn;
£6.6bn) fund to help rebuild the country - mainly aimed at small
and medium businesses, small vendors and individuals, reported Reuters
news agency.
"If they get back to normal quickly, it will help push the economy
forward," the agency quoted Finance Minister Thirachai
Phuvanatnaranubala as saying of the businesses.
Relief headquarters
Seven districts of the capital are now said to be at risk - with Bang
Phlad, home to department stores, universities and hospitals, added to
that list by Bangkok Governor Sukhumbhand Paribatra late on Monday.
Tents for evacuees at Don Muang airport on 23 October 2011 Part of Don
Muang airport is being used as an evacuation centre for Bangkok
residents
Central areas remain dry, but the Chao Phraya river, which bisects the
city, reached a record high on Monday.
Don Muang airport - a hub for domestic flights, low-cost carriers and
some cargo - has been threatened by encroaching floodwater for several
days.
An official said the flooding was affecting perimeter areas, not the
runway. However the runways are not expected to reopen for a week.
There were chaotic scenes at the airport, reported Associated Press
news agency, with throngs of confused passengers in the departure hall
and long waiting times for transport.
The airport is also now being used as an evacuation centre and as the
headquarters of the government's flood relief operations. Relief
officials said they had no plans to relocate.
Elsewhere, residents of the Muang Ake housing estate were ordered to
evacuate after a flood protection wall in nearby Pathum Thani province
was breached, Reuters reported.
Thai authorities have declared a holiday in several provinces,
including Bangkok, to help people cope with the flooding.
Schools and offices will close from Thursday through to the end of
Monday, creating a five-day break.
Nasa has used satellite images from 1 to 9 August to show
the intensity of rainfall compared to average rates for the same period
in previous years. The darker blue shows where rain was much more
intense than usual; brown indicates less intense rainfall. Some regions
have had as much as 24 millimetres of rain per day above normal.
In Khanpur, in Pakistan's Sindh district, for example, the average
rainfall is 17.4mm for the whole month of August. So far, 255mm has
fallen in 12 days.
The annual monsoon season, typically from June to September, is caused
by the difference in temperature between the land and the sea.
As the Tibetan plateau warms up, heated air rises, drawing in moist air
from the sea to replace it. This also warms, rises and the water
condenses into rain. The BBC Weather Centre says a kink in the
jet stream of fast-moving air in the upper atmosphere has exacerbated
conditions this year. More spiralling air in the upper atmosphere sucks
in more moist air, causing larger clouds and more intense rainfall.
Death toll from Pakistan
floods rises to
1,100
Washington Times
By Riaz Khan, Associated Press
Updated: 8:41 a.m. on Sunday, August 1, 2010
PESHAWAR, Pakistan (AP) — The death toll from massive floods in
northwestern Pakistan rose to 1,100 Sunday as rescue workers struggled
to save more than 27,000 people still trapped by the raging water.
The rescue effort was aided by a slackening of the monsoon rains that
have caused the worst flooding in decades in Khyber-Pakhtoonkhwa
province. But as flood waters started to recede, authorities began to
understand the full scale of the disaster.
"Aerial monitoring is being conducted, and it has shown that whole
villages have washed away, animals have drowned, and grain storages
have washed away," said Latifur Rehman, spokesman for the Provincial
Disaster Management Authority. "The destruction is massive..."
Death
toll in Pakistani floods surges
past 800
YAHOO
By NABEEL YUSUF and RIAZ KHAN, Associated Press Writer
31 July 2010
NOWSHERA, Pakistan – The death toll in the massive flooding in Pakistan
surged past 800 as floodwaters receded Saturday in the hard-hit
northwest, an official said. The damage to roads, bridges and
communications networks hindered rescuers, while the threat of disease
loomed as some evacuees arrived in camps with fever, diarrhea and skin
problems.
Even for a country used to tragedy — especially deadly suicide attacks
by Taliban militants — the scale of this past week's flooding has been
shocking. Monsoon rains come every year, but rarely with such fury. The
devastation came in the wake of the worst-ever plane crash in Pakistan,
which killed 152 people in Islamabad on Wednesday.
In neighboring eastern Afghanistan, floods killed 64 people and injured
61 others in the past week, while destroying hundreds of homes and huge
stretches of farmland, according to Matin Edrak, director of the Afghan
government's disaster department.
As rivers swelled in Pakistan's northwest, people sought ever-shrinking
high ground or grasped for trees and fences to avoid getting swept
away. Buildings simply crumbled into the raging river in Kalam, a town
in the northern part of the Swat Valley, Geo TV showed Saturday.
Reports coming in from districts around the northwest, where such
flooding has not been seen since 1929, showed at least 800 people had
died, said Mian Iftikhar Hussain, the region's information minister.
The U.N. estimated that some 1 million people nationwide were affected
by the disaster, though it didn't specify exactly what that meant.
Floodwaters were receding in the region, and many people remain
missing, Hussain said.
Over 30,000 Pakistani army troops engaged in rescue and relief work had
evacuated 19,000 trapped people by Saturday night, said army spokesman
Maj. Gen. Athar Abbas.
"The level of devastation is so widespread, so large," he said. "It is
quite possible that in many areas there is damage, deaths, which may
not have been reported."
In the Nowshera area, scores of men, women and children sat on roofs in
hopes of air or boat rescues. Many had little more than the clothes on
their backs.
"There are very bad conditions," said Amjad Ali, a rescue worker in the
area. "They have no water, no food."
A doctor treating evacuees at a small relief camp in Nowshera said some
had diarrhea and others had marks appearing on their skin, causing
itching. Children and the elderly seemed to have the most problems,
Mehmood Jaa said.
"Due to the floodwater, they now have pain in their bodies and they are
suffering from fever and cough," Jaa told The Associated Press.
In the town Charsadda, Nabi Gul, who estimated he was around 70, looked
at a pile of rubble where his house once stood.
"I built this house with my life's earnings and hard work, and the
river has washed it away," he said in a trembling voice. "Now I wonder,
will I be able to rebuild it? And in this time, when there are such
great price hikes?"
Another resident of Charsadda complained of what he considered a
lackluster government response.
"Nobody has offered us for help. We have got no help," said Awal Sher,
60. "Everything is destroyed. Inside, outside — everything is broken."
In eastern Afghanistan, Edrak said floods destroyed about 800 homes and
hundreds of acres (hectares) of farm land, damaged hydropower dams and
partially destroyed more than 500 other houses. Most of the flooding
was in eight provinces, including Kabul, he said.
Rescuers were using army helicopters, heavy trucks and boats to try to
reach flood-hit areas. Thousands of homes and roads were destroyed, and
at least 45 bridges across the northwest were damaged, the U.N. said.
The American Embassy in Islamabad announced the United States would be
providing 12 prefabricated steel bridges to temporarily replace some of
the spans damaged by the water. It also is sending rescue boats, water
filtration units and some 50,000 meals to be distributed to those in
stricken areas, the embassy said in a statement.
Communications networks were sketchy, and the rescue effort was further
hampered by the washed-out roads and bridges, said Lutfur Rehman, a
government official in the northwest.
"Our priority is to transport flood-affected people to safer places. We
are carrying out this rescue operation despite limited resources," he
said.
Qamar-uz-Zaman Chaudhry, the head of the Pakistan Meteorological
Department, said that no more rain was expected in the next few days
for the northwest. But Punjab province in the east, Sindh province in
the south, and Pakistan's side of the disputed Kashmir region all could
expect a lashing over the next three or four days, he said.
Flooding has already affected some of those regions, with more than 20
people dying in Kashmir.
MORE IN 2011
Flash Flood, Philippines 26 Sept. 2009:http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/8276347.stm
MOVIE
REFERRED TO: ABOVE LEFT
“It’s like Waterworld,” said the head of disaster relief
agency. Residents wade through
floodwaters to return to their submerged houses in Marikina City Metro
Manila August 8, 2012. Emergency workers and troops rushed food, water
and clothes to nearly 850,000 people displaced and marooned from deadly
floods spawned by 11 straight days of southwest monsoon rains that
soaked the Philippine capital and nearby provinces. About 60 percent of
Manila, a sprawling metropolis of about 12 million people, remained
inundated on Wednesday, Benito Ramos, head of the national disaster
agency, told Reuters. REUTERS/Cheryl Ravelo (PHILIPPINES)
Thousands
Flee Manila Flooding, Desperate Residents Trapped on
Roofs
By FLOYD WHALEY, NYTIMES
August 7, 2012
MANILA — Rescue workers on Tuesday raced to pluck people from their
roofs and out of fast-flowing water as the worst flooding in two years
submerged a third of Manila, the Philippines’ overpopulated capital.
More than 50 people have been killed and at least 250,000 evacuated in
the last week due to a series of storms, monsoon rains and flooding,
officials said.
“It’s like Waterworld,” said Benito Ramos, the head of the government’s
disaster relief agency, referring to a Hollywood film depicting a
submerged Earth.
Major streets in Manila turned to rivers on Monday after a series of
tropical storms intensified what has historically been a period of
heavy monsoon rains.
Schools, business and government offices were ordered closed while city
residents watched in horror as neighborhood after neighborhood was
submerged. Tens of thousands of city residents were rescued or swam to
safety. Others huddled on rooftops in hopes that the waters would
subside.
Richard Gordon, the chairman of the Red Cross of the Philippines,
described a perilous situation for rescuers, many of whom were using
rafts and makeshift boats to traverse flooded slum areas.
“We have areas where our people can’t get in because there are live
wires in the water. They face the risk of electrocution.” said Mr.
Gordon. “We just have to grin and bear it and do our best to rescue
people.”
In Quezon City, a hard-hit suburb of Manila, nine people including
three children were killed on Tuesday when a landslide triggered by
heavy rain buried a slum area.
Nine provincial areas near Manila declared a state of emergency on
Tuesday, triggering national government relief efforts. For much of the
day on Tuesday, the only major highway linking Manila to the north of
the country was submerged and closed to traffic, stranding hundreds of
motorists. The United States Embassy Web site said it would remain
closed Tuesday and Wednesday “due to severe weather conditions.”
Manila is particularly vulnerable to flooding. The city, home to more
than 10 million people, sits in a low-lying area between a large lake
and the ocean. The lake, called Laguna de Bay at the south of the city,
drains to the ocean via the Pasig River, which runs through the center
of town. The lake and the river are both heavily silted and prone to
overflowing.
A major dam north of the city that provides much of the Manila’s water
supplies crested in recent days, forcing officials to open flood gates
that released additional water into the city. In addition, the ocean
bay beside Manila has swelled during high tide in recent days.
The result has been a deluge of water coming from the northern dam, the
southern lake, the ocean to the west and an overflowing river down the
center.
The flooding triggered fears in Manila of a repeat of typhoons Ketsana
and Parma, which struck within a one week period in 2009. The storms
caused flooding that affected more than 9 million and killed 929,
according to the government disaster relief agency.
Mr. Gordon, with the Philippine Red Cross, said he did not expect the
situation to become as bad as the storms of 2009.
“I feel a little positive that the sun will come out tomorrow,” he
said. “We are trying to be positive but a lot of people are suffering
tonight.”
In
Philippines, Fleeing Floodwaters in the Middle of Night
By FLOYD WHALEY, NYTIMES
December 18, 2011
MANILA — Just after 1 a.m. Saturday, Mary Ann Melancio became concerned
about a co-worker. He had sent her a text message saying that he was
trapped by floodwaters in his home with his wife and 10-year-old
daughter.
“I called him, and he said in a very quiet voice, ‘The water is up to
our stomachs, and we can’t get out. The current outside is strong,’ ”
recalled Ms. Melancio, a 36-year-old resident of the flood-stricken
city of Iligan. “After that, the phone went dead.”
When the sun rose Sunday, Ms. Melancio and others went to their
co-worker’s house, but he was gone. They fear he was swept away with
his family.
“We walked back to our place and could see the bodies of dead people
and animals along the road,” she said by telephone. “I have never seen
a tragedy like this in my life.”
In neighborhoods throughout the cities of Iligan and Cagayan de Oro on
the island of Mindanao in the southern Philippines, similar stories
could be heard. In the dead of night Saturday, flash floods triggered
by Tropical Storm Washi sent water barreling into the homes of sleeping
families. Hundreds drowned or were dragged to their deaths by the
currents.
By late Sunday, the Philippine Red Cross estimated that 652 people had
died in the flooding and that more than 800 were missing. The death
toll was expected to rise significantly. An estimated 35,000 people
were in evacuation centers, according to the National Disaster Risk
Reduction and Management Council. The storm hit the western island of
Palawan on Sunday morning and by that night was moving into the South
China Sea.
The death toll was tallied by Red Cross staff and volunteers who
counted bodies in funeral parlors, the secretary-general of the
Philippine Red Cross, Gwendolyn Pang, said. The number of missing was
based on requests to trace missing family members.
“There are areas that rescuers have not been able to penetrate,” she
said by phone late Sunday. “We expect the number of dead to increase,
but this is still a search and rescue effort. We are finding people
alive.”
The Philippines is struck by about 20 major storms a year, but Benito
Ramos, a civil defense official, said during a news briefing in Manila
that this storm took an usual path. Local officials confirmed his
assessment.
Rescue workers continued to search for survivors on Sunday, but many —
including thousands of soldiers — instead found themselves relegated to
the task of collecting the dead. Funeral homes in the two worst-hit
cities reported that they were overwhelmed with unclaimed corpses
decomposing in the tropical humidity. In Cagayan de Oro, Nove
Paulio said that rescue workers had come to her neighborhood but that
there was no one left to find.
“The houses in my place are empty or destroyed,” said Ms. Paulio, 19,
who lived with her parents, sister and three brothers in an area near a
river that flooded.
Ms. Paulio said she had been sleeping about 1:30 a.m. when she felt
water touch her foot, which was hanging off the bed. She ran to wake up
her mother and siblings, and within minutes the water was up to her
hips. Her mother clutched her infant sister, while she picked up her
brothers, ages 2 and 3, and carried them out of the house.
“Our kitchen table was floating,” Ms. Paulio said. “My brothers were
crying and asking what was happening.”
The family made it to the roof of a nearby house and with the
assistance of neighbors were able to swim, roof to roof, until they
reached higher ground.
“We are still alive, but we lost everything,” she said.
Flooding
Kills Scores in Southern
Philippines
By FLOYD WHALEY, NYTIMES
December 17, 2011
MANILA — Flash floods in the southern Philippines on Saturday
sent water gushing into homes, killing at least 200 and surprising
families who fled to rooftops clutching children, officials said. More
than 400 people are missing.
“The rivers flooded and washed through villages,” said Col. Leopoldo
Galon, a military spokesman. “Soldiers conducting search-and-rescue
operations are finding bodies in all areas, in homes, rivers, off
shore, in the street. Casualties are everywhere.”
The flooding was triggered by tropical storm Washi, which hit the
southern Philippine island of Mindanao on Friday, creating wind gusts
of up to 56 miles an hour and dumping heavy rain in the area. By the
early morning hours of Saturday, the storm had triggered flooding in
the towns of Cagayan de Oro and Iligan City, officials said.
The heavy rain sent water pouring down mountains and into already
swollen rivers that quickly engulfed areas in the northern part of
Mindanao. Fast-rising waters gushed into homes after 2 a.m., when most
were sleeping, said Benito Ramos, a civil defense official, during a
news briefing in Manila.
Washi is the 19th storm to hit the country this year, but Mr. Ramos
said typhoons and tropical storms usually strike farther north in the
Philippines and this one took a path that officials had never seen
before. As a result, many residents were caught off guard by the speed
and ferocity of the floodwaters. Local officials confirmed his
assessment.
“This area is not on the usual path for violent typhoons and doesn’t
get this type of severe flooding,” said Colonel Galon, the military
spokesman. “This storm took a different path, and it surprised people.”
He noted that soldiers in the area were preparing to have Christmas
celebrations with their families when they were called in for emergency
operations that quickly turned into the grim and grisly task of
collecting bodies. “We’re not complaining,” he said. “It’s our job.”
Residents in the area expressed similar sentiments, noting that
Christmas trees had been erected in parks in Cagayan de Oro, a popular
tourist town, and residents had begun going to church nightly in
preparation for the holidays.
“This Christmas is going to be imprinted in everybody’s memories,” said
Stephanie Caragos, a 34-year resident of Cagayan de Oro. “We are seeing
trucks pass by filled with dead bodies, and people are buying in bulk
to give away to those who need it. This will be in our minds for a long
time.”
Reached by telephone Ms. Caragos, a lifelong resident of the city said
she had lost an uncle in the flooding and found that funeral parlors in
the area were inundated with victims.
“We knew there was a storm coming, but we had no idea it would be this
bad,” she said. “When we woke up, whole parts of the city were flooded.
There were areas where the water was so strong that even the rescuers
could not get it in.
The storm is expected to leave the Philippines on Sunday, after
striking the western island of Palawan, according to the country’s
national weather service.
The country was hit by tropical storm Banyan in October, which killed
eight people. In September, two typhoons, Nesat and Nalgae, struck in
quick succession and killed more than 100 people.
TORNADO:
The
weekend of the 100 year anniversary of the Titanic-iceberg sinking
brings
tornado warnings to the midwest...in the movie, storm-chaser had gone
to work as a "TV weather man."
TWISTERS AS THEY HAPPEN (CLICK PIX FOR EACH STORY): BEFORE
AND AFTER TOUCHDOWN, FAST FOOD MENU INDEX : FEMA
relief indicator.
A tornado funnel touches down in Riverside, Calif.
on Thursday,
May 22, 2008. A wild weather system lashed Southern California on
Thursday with fierce thunderstorms that unleashed mudslides in
wildfire-scarred canyons, spawned at least one tornado and dusted
mountains and even low-lying communities with snow and hail. (AP
Photo/Merri Lynn Casem); St. Louis airport
story here. U. of Alabama story;
Joplin. Missouri touchdown deadly.
Crews
Search for Survivors in Oklahoma After Tornado
NYTIMES
By JOHN ELIGON, MANNY
FERNANDEZ and MICHAEL SCHWIRTZ
May 21, 2013
MOORE, Okla. — Emergency crews and
volunteers continued to work Tuesday morning in a frantic search for
survivors of a massive tornado that ripped through parts of Oklahoma
City and its suburbs, killing dozens of people and flattening whatever
was in its path, including a hospital and at least two schools.
Much of the tornado damage was in
the suburb of Moore, where rescue workers struggled to make their way
through debris-clogged streets and around downed power lines to those
who were feared trapped under mountains of rubble. Rescue workers
equipped with thermal-imaging equipment and dogs sifted through plywood
boards, upended cars and steel beams where houses and shops once stood.
The risk of tornadoes throughout the
region remained high Tuesday, according to the National Oceanic and
Atmospheric Administration’s Storm Prediction Center in Norman.
President Obama, who declared a
federal disaster in five Oklahoma counties, said Tuesday at the White
House that the tornado had been “one of the most destructive in
history,” and that he had informed aides that “Oklahoma needs to get
everything it needs right away.” He said Federal Emergency Management
Agency officials had been dispatched to Moore to aid in the recovery
effort.
“For all those who’ve been affected,
we recognize that you face a long road ahead,” Mr. Obama said. “In some
cases, there will be enormous grief that has to be absorbed. But you
will not travel that path alone.”
Officials said Tuesday that it was
far too early to say how many people had been killed. On Monday night,
Amy Elliott, the spokeswoman for the Oklahoma City medical examiner,
said at least 51 people had died and 40 more bodies were on their way,
but on Tuesday, Ms. Elliott said that count “is no longer accurate.”
As of Tuesday morning, the medical
examiner had confirmed 24 deaths, nine of them children, she said.
On Monday night, hospitals reported
at least 145 people injured, 70 of them children.
Plaza Towers Elementary School in
Moore was reduced to a pile of twisted metal and toppled walls. Rescue
workers were able to pull several children from the rubble, and on
Tuesday, as a chilly rain swept through the area, crews were still
struggling to cut through fallen beams and clear debris.
“We are still definitely in
search-and-rescue mode.” Jayme Shelton, a Moore spokesman
At Briarwood Elementary School in
Oklahoma City, on the border with Moore, cars were thrown through the
facade and the roof was torn off.
“Numerous neighborhoods were
completely leveled,” Sgt. Gary Knight of the Oklahoma City Police
Department said by telephone on Monday night. “Neighborhoods just wiped
clean.”
He said debris and damage to
roadways, along with heavy traffic, were hindering emergency responders
as they raced to the affected areas.
A spokeswoman for the mayor’s office
in Moore said emergency workers were struggling to assess the damage.
“Please send us your prayers,” she
said.
Shortly before midnight, the area
near the Plaza Towers school was eerily quiet and shrouded in darkness
from a widespread power outage. Local authorities and F.B.I. agents
patrolled the streets, restricting access to the school.
Half a mile from the school, the
only sounds on Southwest Fourth Street were of barking dogs and tires
on wet pavement littered with debris. Hovering in the sky, a helicopter
shined a spotlight on the damaged neighborhoods. In the darkness, the
century-old Moore Cemetery was a ghostly wreck: women’s clothing and
blankets clung to the branches of tilting trees and twisted sheets of
metal ripped from nearby buildings or homes were strewn among the
graves. Many headstones had been pushed flat to the ground by the wind.
Brooke Cayot, a spokeswoman for
Integris Southwest Medical Center in Oklahoma City, said 58 patients
had come in by about 9 p.m. An additional 85 were being treated at
Oklahoma University Medical Center in Oklahoma City.
“They’ve been coming in minute by
minute,” Ms. Cayot said.
The tornado touched down at 2:56
p.m., 16 minutes after the first warning went out, and traveled for 20
miles, said Keli Pirtle, a spokeswoman for the National Weather Service
in Norman, Okla. It was on the ground for 40 minutes, she said. It
struck the town of Newcastle and traveled about 10 miles to Moore,
which has a population of about 55,000.
Ms. Pirtle said preliminary data
suggested that it was a Category 4 tornado on the Enhanced Fujita
scale, which measures tornado strength on a scale of 0 to 5. The
tornado’s winds were estimated to have been at least 166 miles per
hour. A definitive assessment will be available later Tuesday, she said.
Moore was the scene of another huge
tornado, in May 1999, in which winds reached record speeds of 302
m.p.h., and experts said severe weather was common in the region this
time of year.
But the region has rarely had a
tornado as big and as powerful as the one on Monday.
Television images showed destruction
spread over a vast area, with blocks upon blocks of homes and
businesses destroyed. Residents, some partly clothed and apparently
caught by surprise, were shown picking through rubble. Several
structures were on fire, and cars had been tossed around, flipped over
and stacked on top of each other.
Kelcy Trowbridge, her husband and
their three young children piled into their neighbor’s cellar just
outside of Moore and huddled together for about five minutes, wrapped
under a blanket as the tornado screamed above them, debris smashing
against the cellar door.
They emerged to find their home
flattened and the family car resting upside down a few houses away. Ms.
Trowbridge’s husband rushed toward what was left of their home and
began sifting through the debris, then stopped, and told her to call
the police.
He had found the body of a little
girl, about 2 or 3 years old, she said.
“He knew she was already gone,” Ms.
Trowbridge said. “When the police got there, he just bawled.”
She said: “My neighborhood is gone.
It’s flattened. Demolished. The street is gone. The next block over,
it’s in pieces.”
Sarah Johnson was forced to rush
from her home in Moore to the hospital as the storm raged when her
4-year-old daughter, Shellbie, suffered an asthma attack. With hail
raining down, she put a hard hat on her daughter as she raced into the
emergency room and hunkered down.
“We knew it was coming — all the
nurses were down on the ground so we got down on the ground,” Ms.
Johnson said from the Journey Church in nearby Norman, where she had
sought shelter.
At the hospital, she said, she
shoved her daughter next to a wall and threw a mattress on top of her.
After the storm passed, debris and medical equipment were scattered
around, she said.
Ms. Johnson said she and her
daughter were safe, but she had yet to find her husband.
Some parts of Moore emerged
seemingly untouched by the tornado. Bea Carruth, who lives about 20
blocks from where the storm struck, said her home and others in her
neighborhood appeared to be fine.
Ms. Carruth had ridden out the
tornado as she usually does, at her son’s house nearby, the hail
pounding away on the cellar where they had taken shelter. Tornadoes
have long been a part of life in Moore, she said, and a few times a
year, in a well-worn ritual, she goes into her son’s cellar when the
sirens go off.
As devastating as the tornado was,
the quick thinking of some prevented the death toll from going higher.
When the tornado sirens went off
around 2:15, the staff of the AgapeLand Learning Center, a day care
facility, hustled some 15 children into two bathrooms, draping them
with a protective covering and singing songs with them to keep them
calm.
As the wind ripped the roof off one
of the bathrooms, and debris rained down on the children, they remained
calm, singing “You Are My Sunshine,” the assistant director, Cathy
Wilson, said. Though the day care center was almost entirely destroyed,
the children were unharmed.
“Not a child had a scratch,” Ms.
Wilson said.
Two-dozen for
sure...
Frenetic search for
survivors as 91 feared dead in tornado-hit Oklahoma
Reuters/Courant
Alice Mannette Ian Simpson
7:28 AM EDT, May 21, 2013
MOORE, Oklahoma (Reuters) - Pre-dawn emergency workers searched
feverishly for survivors in the rubble of homes, primary schools and an
hospital in an Oklahoma City suburb ravaged by a massive Monday
afternoon tornado feared to have killed up to 91 people and injured
well over 200 residents.
The 2-mile(3-km) wide tornado tore through town of Moore outside
Oklahoma City, trapping victims beneath the rubble as one elementary
school took a direct hit and another was destroyed.
Reporters were cleared back from Plaza Towers Elementary School, which
sustained a direct hit Oklahoma Lieutenant Governor Todd Lamb told CNN.
But television pictures showed firefighters from more than a dozen fire
departments working under bright spotlights to find survivors.
President Barack Obama declared a major disaster area in Oklahoma,
ordering federal aid to supplement state and local efforts in Moore
after the deadliest U.S. tornado since one killed 161 people in Joplin,
Missouri, two years ago.
The White House said Obama would make a statement on the Oklahoma
tornado at 10 a.m. EDT (1400 GMT). It said the president was brieved
overnight on the tornado tragedy.
There was an outpouring of grief on Plaza Towers' Facebook page, with
messages from around the country including one pleading simply: "Please
find those little children."
A separate Facebook page set up to reunite people in the area hit by a
tornado on Sunday with their belongings and pets also showed entries
for Moore residents overnight.
Another elementary school, homes and a hospital were among the
buildings leveled in Moore, leaving residents of the town of about
50,000 people stunned at the devastation and loss of life. Many
residents were left without power and water.
The Oklahoma medical examiner said 20 of the 91 expected to have been
killed were children. The office had already confirmed 51 dead and had
been told during the night by emergency services to expect 40 more
bodies found in the debris, but had not yet received them.
At least 60 of the 240 people injured were children, area hospitals
said.
The National Weather Service assigned the twister a preliminary ranking
of EF4 on the Enhanced Fujita Scale, meaning the second most powerful
category of tornado with winds up to 200 mph.
Witnesses said Monday's tornado appeared more fierce than the giant
twister that was among the dozens that tore up the area on May 3, 1999,
killing more than 40 people and destroying thousands of homes. That
tornado ranked as an EF5, meaning it had winds over 200 mph.
The 1999 event in Oklahoma ranks as the third-costliest tornado in U.S.
history, having caused more than $1 billion in damage at the time, or
more than $1.3 billion in today's dollars. Only the devastating Joplin
and Tuscaloosa tornadoes in 2011 were more costly.
"I am close to the families of all who died in the Oklahoma tornado,
especially those who lost young children. Join me in praying for them,"
Pope Francis said in a Twitter message.
Jeff Alger, 34, who works in the Kansas oil fields on a fracking crew,
said his wife Sophia took their children out of school when she heard a
tornado was coming and then fled Moore and watched it flatten the town
from a few miles away.
"They didn't even have time to grab their shoes," said Alger, who has
five children aged four to 11. The storm tore part of the roof off of
his home. He was with his wife at Norman Regional Hospital to have
glass and other debris removed from his wife's bare feet.
Moore was devastated with debris everywhere, street signs gone, lights
out, houses destroyed and vehicles tossed about as if they were toys.
The dangerous storm system threatened several southern Plains states
with more twisters. The area around Moore faces the risk of severe
thunderstorms on Tuesday, which could hamper rescue efforts.
STORM ALERTS
Speaking outside Norman Regional Hospital Ninia Lay, 48, said she
huddled in a closet through two storm alerts and the tornado hit on the
third.
"I was hiding in the closet and I heard something like a train coming,"
she said under skies still flashing with lightning. The house was
flattened and Lay was buried in the rubble for two hours until her
husband Kevin, 50, and rescuers dug her out.
"I thank God for my cell phone, I called me husband for help."
Her daughter Catherine, seven, a first-grader at Plaza Towers
Elementary School, took shelter with classmates and teachers in a
bathroom when the tornado hit and destroyed the school. She escaped
with scrapes and cuts.
SCHOOL DESTROYED
The National Weather Service Storm Prediction Center provided the town
with a warning 16 minutes before the tornado touched down at 3:01 p.m.
(2001 GMT), which is greater than the average eight to 10 minutes of
warning, said Keli Pirtle, a spokeswoman for the center in Norman,
Oklahoma.
The notice was upgraded to emergency warning with "heightened language"
at 2:56 p.m., or five minutes before the tornado touched down, Pirtle
said.
Television media measured the tornado at more than 2 miles wide, with
images showing entire neighborhoods flattened.
The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) imposed a temporary
flight restriction that allowed only relief aircraft in the area,
saying it was at the request of police who needed quiet to search for
buried survivors.
Oklahoma activated the National Guard, and the U.S. Federal Emergency
Management Agency activated teams to support recovery operations and
coordinate responses for multiple agencies.
Briarwood Elementary School, which also stood in the storm's path, was
all but destroyed. On the first floor, sections of walls had been
peeled away, giving clear views into the building; while in other
areas, cars hurled by the storm winds were lodged in the walls.
The number of injured as reported by several hospitals rose rapidly
throughout the afternoon.
"The whole city looks like a debris field," Glenn Lewis, the mayor of
Moore, told NBC.
"It looks like we have lost our hospital. I drove by there a while ago
and it's pretty much destroyed," Lewis said.
The massive twister struck at the height of tornado season, and more
were forecast. On Sunday, tornadoes killed two people and injured 39 in
Oklahoma.
(Additional reporting by Lindsay
Morris, Carey Gillam, Nick Carey, Brendan O'Brien and Greg McCune;
Writing by Daniel Trotta and Nick Carey; Editing by Alison Williams and
W Simon)
Copyright © 2013, Reuters
Vast
Oklahoma Tornado Kills at Least 51
By NICK OXFORD and MICHAEL SCHWIRTZ, NYTIMES
May 20, 2013
MOORE, Okla. — A giant tornado, a mile wide or more, killed more than
four dozen people as it tore through this Oklahoma City suburb Monday
afternoon, flattening homes, flinging cars through the air and crushing
at least two schools packed with children.
As the injured began flooding into hospitals, the authorities said many
remained trapped, even as rescue workers were struggling to make their
way through debris-clogged streets to the devastated suburb of Moore,
where much of the damage occurred.
At least 51 people were killed in the storm, according to a
spokesperson for the Oklahoma City medical examiner.
At Briarwood Elementary School in Oklahoma City, on the border with
Moore, cars were thrown through the facade and the roof was torn off. A
short distance away, at Plaza Towers Elementary School in Moore, rescue
workers struggled to tear through rubble amid reports that dozens of
students were trapped.
“Numerous neighborhoods completely leveled,” Sgt. Gary Knight of the
Oklahoma City Police Department, said by telephone. “Neighborhoods just
wiped clean.” Sergeant Knight said debris and damage to roadways, along
with heavy traffic, were hindering emergency responders as they raced
to the affected areas.
A spokeswoman for the mayor’s office in Moore said emergency workers
were struggling to assess the damage.
“Please send us your prayers,” she said.
Brooke Cayot, a spokeswoman for Integris Southwest Medical Center in
Oklahoma City, said had received 33 patients by about 6 p.m. Of those
10 were listed in critical condition, 10 in serious and 12 in fair or
good. Many more patients were expected.
“They’ve been coming in minute by minute,” Ms. Cayot said.
Emily Kezbers, a spokeswoman for Deaconess Hospital in Oklahoma City,
said three patients injured during the tornado were on their way to the
hospital.
Keli Pirtle, a spokeswoman for the National Weather Service in Norman,
Okla., said the tornado touched down at 2:56 p.m. and traveled for 20
miles. It was on the ground for 40 minutes, she said. It struck the
town of Newcastle and traveled about 10 miles to Moore, a populous
suburb of Oklahoma City.
Ms. Pirtle said preliminary data suggested that it was a Category 4
tornado on the Enhanced Fujita scale, which measures tornado strength
on a scale of 0 to 5. A definitive assessment will not be available
until Tuesday, she said.
Moore was the scene of another huge tornado, in May 1999, in which
winds reached record speeds of 302 m.p.h.
Television on Monday showed destruction spread over a vast area, with
blocks upon blocks of homes and businesses destroyed. Residents, some
partly clothed and apparently caught by surprise, were shown picking
through rubble. Several structures were on fire, and cars had been
tossed around, flipped over and stacked on top of each other.
The storm system continued to churn through the region on Monday
afternoon, and forecasters warned that new tornadoes could form.
An earlier storm system also spawned several tornadoes across Oklahoma
on Sunday. Several deaths were reported.
Russell Schneider, the director of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric
Administration’s Storm Prediction Center in Norman, Okla., said the
risk of tornadoes throughout the region remained high going into
Tuesday.
“This is prime time in the great plains for severe weather and May is
the real peak,” he said.
Nick Oxford reported from Moore, and
Michael Schwirtz from New York.
20 May 2013
Last updated at 17:42 ET I-BBC
Massive tornado rips
through Oklahoma City suburbs
A gigantic tornado has ripped through a suburb of Oklahoma City, on the
second day in a row the Midwestern state of Oklahoma has been slammed
by twisters.
The "mile-wide" storm destroyed a primary school, sparked fires, and
flattened homes.
On Sunday, at least two people died and 21 more were injured by the
tornadoes. The worst damage was in Shawnee, 35 miles (55km) from
Oklahoma City, where a mobile home part was razed and thousands have
lost electricity. Children are being pulled alive from the
wreckage of Plaza Towers Elementary School in Moore, Oklahoma, a suburb
just south of Oklahoma City where the twister struck about 16:00 local
time (22:00 BST) on Monday.
There have been no reports of children injured or killed there.
"It's going to take awhile to recover from something like this,"
Oklahoma Congressman Tom Cole told CNN.
Tornadoes, hail and high winds also hit Iowa and Kansas, part of a
storm system stretching from Texas to Minnesota. The National
Weather Service (NWS) says there is a continuing risk of dangerous
thunderstorms in the region that could produce hail and tornadoes on
Monday afternoon.
'Everything is gone'
On Sunday, a tornado smashed a trailer park on Highway 102 near Shawnee.
Steelman Estates Mobile Home Park resident James Hoke said he had
emerged from a storm cellar with his family to find their mobile home
vanished.
"Everything is gone," he said.
Storm chasers have filmed tornadoes touching down in Texas and Kansas
As he tried to help neighbours, Mr Hoke said he found his wife's father
covered in rubble.
"My father-in-law was buried under the house. We had to pull Sheetrock
off of him," Mr Hoke said.
Oklahoma's state medical examiner confirmed on Monday that two people
had been killed near the trailer park: Glen Irish, 79, and Billy
Hutchinson, 76.
Both lived in Shawnee, but it was not immediately clear if either or
both lived in mobile home park.
The Oklahoman newspaper reported that five people were brought to
Norman Regional Hospital for injuries, with three injured critically.
"This is the worst I've seen in Pottawatomie County in my 25 years of
law enforcement," county Sheriff Mike Booth said.
The massive storm system had prompted the NWS to issue a blunt warning
to residents in the affected states.
"You could be killed if not underground or in a tornado shelter," the
agency warned. "Complete destruction of neighbourhoods, businesses and
vehicles will occur."
One resident, Amber Ash, said her home had been hit by a tornado as she
waited in a storm shelter.
"Once it passed, we got out and saw the devastation," she said.
"Everything I had was destroyed."
Thousands of residents in the affected areas have been left without
power.
Oklahoma Governor Mary Fallin declared a state of emergency in 16
counties in order to send aid to the worst-hit parts of the state.
At least four tornadoes ravaged the state on Sunday, part of a storm
system that was moving north-east across the Midwestern states and
Texas.
"Right now we're in a rescue and recovery stage," Gov Fallin said.
"We're still not in the clear yet."
A twister with an estimated 110mph (177km/h) wind speed touched down on
Sunday afternoon near Wichita's Mid-Continent airport.
It knocked out power to thousands of homes and businesses, but bypassed
the most populated areas of Kansas' largest city.
and earlier...
At least one person has died and several
others were injured in a
series of tornadoes that have torn through the US state of Oklahoma.
The worst damage was caused by a tornado near the town of Shawnee, 35
miles (55km) from Oklahoma City, local media report. A mobile
home park near Shawnee is said to have been razed.
Twisters, hail and high winds also hit Iowa and Kansas, part of a storm
system stretching from Texas to Minnesota.
The National Weather Service (NWS) warned of a dangerous tornado
approaching the city of Wichita, Kansas. It had earlier issued urgent
appeals for people in parts of Oklahoma to take cover.
'Wiped out'
In Oklahoma, a tornado smashed a trailer
park on Highway 102 near Shawnee. The body of a 79-year-old man
was found out in the open afterwards, the Associated Press
reports. A Fox25 reporter in Shawnee said trees had been shredded
and homes destroyed. Downed power lines were seen lying on roads.
Sheriff Mike Booth said: "It's pretty bad. It's pretty much wiped out."
One resident, Amber Ash, said her home was hit by a tornado as she
waited in a storm shelter.
"Once it passed, we got out and saw the devastation. Everything I had
was destroyed."
There was also serious damage in the town of Edmond but no injuries
were reported. Thousands of residents in the affected areas have
been left without power. Gov Mary Fallin said a state of
emergency had been declared in 16 counties to enable help to get to the
worst-hit parts of Oklahoma. At least four tornadoes ravaged the
state on Sunday, part of a storm system that was moving north-east
across the Midwestern states and Texas.
"Right now we're in a rescue and recovery stage," Gov Fallin said.
"We're still not in the clear yet."
The massive storm system prompted the NWS to issue a blunt warning to
residents in the affected states. The agency said: "You could be killed
if not underground or in a tornado shelter. Complete destruction of
neighbourhoods, businesses and vehicles will occur. Flying debris will
be deadly to people and animals."
Meteorologists warn that the extreme weather is expected to continue on
Monday.
Waterspout
touches
down in Winnipesaukee
By KATHRYN MARCHOCKI, New Hampshire Union Leader
June 26. 2012 12:29AM
A rare waterspout appeared off Chase's Island on Lake Winnipesaukee
Monday night.
“It was definitely a waterspout and it lasted a couple of minutes,”
National Weather Service meteorologist Chris Kimble said.
The waterspout occurred about 7 p.m. It is not known if it touched land
or not. There were no reports of damage, he said. Waterspouts are
tornadoes that form over water, Kimble said.
“The processes involved are different from the more violent tornadoes
that occur with super-cell thunderstorms, but they are still a hazard
to boaters and can cause damage if they move onshore,” he explained.
Not commonly seen in New Hampshire, waterspouts are most frequently
spotted over tropical coastlines, he said.
100 Tornadoes in 24 Hours, but Plenty
of Notice
By MANNY FERNANDEZ and MATT FLEGENHEIMER, NYTIMES
April 16, 2012
WOODWARD, Okla. — The tornadoes were unrelenting — more than 100 in 24
hours over a stretch of the Plains states. They tossed vehicles and
ripped through homes. They drove families to their basements and
whipped debris across small towns throughout the Midwest. In some
areas, baseball-size hail rained from the sky.
And yet, in a stroke that some officials have attributed to a more
vigilant and persistent warning system, relatively few people were
killed or injured.
As of Monday morning, the only six confirmed deaths from the weekend
storms were all here in Woodward, a rural community about 140 miles
from Oklahoma City. Local emergency management officials said on Monday
that four children were among the victims and that 31 people had been
hurt, with injuries ranging from minor wounds to those requiring
hospitalization. A spokeswoman for the state’s chief medical
examiner identified five of the victims as Frank Hobbie, a 5-year-old
girl and a 7-year-old girl, all of whom died after the tornado hit
their mobile home park, and Darren Juul and a 10-year-old girl, both of
whom died in a house a few miles away.
It was believed that the two girls were Mr. Hobbie’s daughters, and the
10-year-old girl was Mr. Juul’s daughter. The identity of the sixth
victim, a critically injured child who was airlifted to a Texas
hospital, has not been released. Days ahead of the deadly
winds there was an unusual warning that alerted residents across at
least five states to the threat of “extremely dangerous” and
“catastrophic” weather.
The predictions held, it seems. But the people listened.
“I really think people took the warnings, and they took them very
seriously,” Gov. Sam Brownback of Kansas said Sunday. “We had more
notice on this system than you normally do. You normally are looking at
a couple of hours’ notice. Well, this one had almost two days’ notice.”
In southwest Iowa, a tornado battered the small town of Thurman,
damaging or destroying 75 to 90 percent of its homes, the authorities
said. And yet, somehow in the town of about 200, there were no serious
injuries or deaths reported. “Mostly everybody was able to get to cover
before it hit,” said Mike Crecelius, the emergency management director
for the county. Nearby, the high winds overturned five
tractor-trailers that had been traveling on Interstate 29 shortly
before the tornado hit. One truck driver was taken to a hospital with a
perforated lung, Mr. Crecelius said.
Forecasters issued their first warning on Friday, predicting a tornado
outbreak that had the potential of being a “high-end, life-threatening
event” for a swath of the Midwest.
Officials said the enhanced language had been developed because of the
large number of deaths from tornadoes across the country in recent
years. “This is one of the lessons learned from the various deadly
outbreaks of tornadoes last year,” Chris Vaccaro, a spokesman for the
National Weather Service, said Sunday in a telephone interview.
One warning in Wichita, Kan., on Saturday said: “This is a
life-threatening situation. You could be killed if not underground or
in a tornado shelter.”
The system will be tested for another six months before National
Weather Service officials decide whether to continue or expand
it. Before the storms hit on Saturday, Mike Hudson, a National
Weather Service meteorologist in Kansas City, Mo., called the forecast
perhaps the “first opportunity” to gauge the effect of the heightened
language.
Early returns were promising, officials said.
Sharon Watson, a spokeswoman for the Kansas Adjutant General’s
Department, said, “The language that was being used appeared to make
people pay more attention.” In 2011, 550 people nationwide, and more
than 150 in Joplin, Mo., alone, were killed by tornadoes, Mr. Vaccaro
said, the fourth deadliest year on record. The deadliest year was 1925,
when 794 people were reported killed by tornadoes.
Weather service officials chose Kansas and Missouri to test the new
language, Mr. Vaccaro said, because of the number of storms that
typically develop there.
“We wanted to pick the central states because you’re in the heart of
Tornado Alley,” he said.
Despite the impressive number of tornadoes, weather experts said the
data did not indicate any significant increase in the number or the
severity of storms in recent years.
“The occurrence of strong and violent storms has remained relatively
stable over the long term,” said Bill Bunting, chief of operations at
the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Storm Prediction
Center in Norman, Okla.
What seems to be happening, Mr. Bunting said, is that the public has
become more aware of smaller storms that once might have gone
unrecorded.
“We have more people chasing and more storm spotters,” he said, adding,
“I suspect that they were always occurring, but there are more people
chasing them now and documenting them with cameras.” But, Mr. Bunting
said, there was an “active pattern” in which large-scale conditions
like stronger jet streams interacting with widespread areas of unstable
air were making an environment more favorable for tornadoes to form.
The tornadoes were part of a weather system that encompassed parts of
Oklahoma, Kansas, Nebraska and Iowa and spawned 122 confirmed
tornadoes, according to the National Weather Service. Officials said
that 99 twisters hit Kansas on Saturday, but as of late Sunday
afternoon, no deaths had been confirmed in the state.
“God was merciful,” Governor Brownback said on CNN.
The governor said that officials were continuing to assess damages
across Kansas, and he signed an emergency declaration on Sunday.
That there was not more damage, loss of life or injuries caused by this
weekend’s swarm of storms was due to at least two reasons, officials
said. Most of the reported tornadoes were either brief or struck
largely in sparsely populated rural areas.
Perhaps the most important reason that so many people were kept out of
harm’s way was the Storm Prediction Center’s unusual step of issuing a
dire warning days ahead of the storm. Matt Lehenbauer, emergency
management director for both the city and county of Woodward, said that
89 homes and 13 businesses were destroyed. He said the tornado struck
between 12:15 a.m. and 12:30 a.m. Sunday, on a path that was two to
three miles long and a quarter of a mile to a third of a mile wide.
There were eight tornadoes in Woodward County on Saturday. And on the
previous Monday — the 65th anniversary of a deadly 1947 tornado — seven
tornadoes touched down.
“It has been a very active week for severe weather for us,” Mr.
Lehenbauer said.
But Mr. Lehenbauer said that a series of problems affected Woodward’s
20 sirens. One was struck by lightning. Others failed to work because
the tornado took out master power lines south of the city, he said.
“We do know that the ones that did work were on for two to three
minutes before they shut off, from the loss of electricity,” he said.
Mr. Lehenbauer said city officials were stunned by the destruction, but
grateful as well. “Looking at the damage, we are a bit surprised
we don’t have more injuries and/or fatalities, because some of the
damage is very, very extensive,” he said.
Johnny McMahan, 55, managing editor of The Woodward News, the town’s
six-day-a-week newspaper, said Woodward is largely an oil-and-gas town
with a population close to 15,000. In one of the heavily damaged
neighborhoods on Sunday afternoon, Gov. Mary Fallin, Mayor Roscoe Hill,
and other city and state officials met with residents who were cleaning
debris from their homes and making repairs.
Mr. Hill walked down the middle of a street as a light rain began to
fall. The residents who had died were very much on his mind.
Asked if he had any regrets that several of the sirens failed, Mr. Hill
replied, “Absolutely.”
“You don’t know if our sirens were working, maybe we could have saved
one life,” he said.
Clear-up after
tornadoes wreak havoc across US Midwest
I-BBC
3 March 2012 Last updated at 11:40 ET
US authorities in four Midwestern states are searching for survivors
and clearing damage after a string of powerful storms and tornadoes
left at least 31 people dead.
The states of Indiana, Kentucky, Ohio and Alabama were all affected by
the intense winds which flattened homes, lifted rooftops and downed
powerlines. An unknown number of people are missing after
communication lines were damaged. A total of 90 tornadoes and 700
severe weather events were reported on Friday.
Correspondents say it will be impossible to make an immediate
assessment of the full extent of the damage.
'Completely gone'
At least 14 people died in southern Indiana, reports said, and another
13 in neighbouring Kentucky. The small town of Marysville,
Indiana,
was almost completely destroyed, with the town's water tower one of the
few buildings to remain undamaged, local reports said.
US tornado threat slowly recedes
Clark County Sheriff Danny Rodden said that residents had been warned
of oncoming storms but added: "This was the worst-case scenario.
There's no way you can prepare for something like this."
In the town of Henryville, a roof was ripped from a school and a school
bus thrown against a restaurant. No-one was seriously injured in either
incident.
"We're not unfamiliar with Mother Nature's wrath out here in Indiana,"
Governor Mitch Daniels told CNN during a visit to the stricken
south-eastern corner of the state on Saturday.
"But this is about as serious as we've seen in the years since I've
been in this job," he said as he viewed the damage in Henryville.
Prison damaged
In Chelsea, southern Indiana, three members of one family - including a
four-year-old child - died in their house when the storm struck.
The
child and mother were huddled in a basement when the storm hit and
sucked the child from her arms. The mother survived, but her
70-year-old grandparents, who were upstairs, both died.
"She was in the cellar with the boy when the tornado hit. It blew him
right out of her hands," Tony Williams, the owner of the town's General
Store said.
"They found the bodies in the field outside," he added, referring to
the grandparents.
Three people were reported dead in Ohio while in northern Alabama, one
person died. At least 40 homes were destroyed and 150 damaged in
the
state while the roof of a prison in the path of the storm was damaged,
forcing 300 inmates to be moved to another part of the facility.
Earlier this week, 13 people died after twisters swept through
Missouri, Kansas, Illinois and Tennessee.
Powerful Storms Cause Damage
Across
Several States
NYTIMES
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
March 2, 2012
ATHENS, Ala. (AP) — Powerful storms stretching from the Gulf Coast to
the Great Lakes flattened buildings in several states, wrecked two
Indiana towns and bred anxiety across a wide swath of the country in
the second powerful tornado outbreak this week.
Widespread damage was reported in southern Indiana, where Clark County
Sheriff's Department Maj. Chuck Adams said the town of Marysville is
"completely gone" and extreme damage was reported in nearby Henryville.
Just east of there in Kentucky, an apparent tornado flattened a
volunteer fire station. Dozens of houses were also damaged in Alabama
and Tennessee two days after storms killed 13 people in the Midwest and
South.
No fatalities had been reported in the latest round of storms that were
expected to threaten tornadoes late into Friday.
Thousands of schoolchildren in several states were sent home as a
precaution, and several Kentucky universities were closed. The
Huntsville, Ala., mayor said students in area schools sheltered in
hallways as severe weather passed in the morning.
At least 20 homes were badly damaged and six people were hospitalized
in the Chattanooga, Tenn., area after strong winds and hail lashed the
area. To the east in Cleveland, Blaine Lawson and his wife Billie were
watching the weather when the power went out. Just as they began to
seek shelter, strong winds ripped the roof off their home. Neither were
hurt.
"It just hit all at once," said Blaine Lawson, 76. "Didn't have no
warning really. The roof, insulation and everything started coming down
on us. It just happened so fast that I didn't know what to do. I was
going to head to the closet but there was just no way. It just got us."
In the Huntsville area, five people were taken to hospitals, and
several houses were leveled by what authorities believed were tornadoes
Friday morning. The extent of the people's injuries wasn't immediately
known, and emergency crews were continuing to survey damage.
"Most of the children were in schools so they were in the hallways so
it worked out very well," said Huntsville Mayor Tommy Battle.
An apparent tornado also damaged a state maximum security prison about
10 miles from Huntsville, but none of the facility's approximately
2,100 inmates escaped. Alabama Department of Corrections spokesman
Brian Corbett said there were no reports of injuries, but the roof was
damaged on two large prison dormitories that each hold about 250 men.
Part of the perimeter fence was knocked down, but the prison was secure.
"It was reported you could see the sky through the roof of one of
them," Corbett said.
For residents and emergency officials across the state, tornado
precautions and cleanup are part of a sadly familiar routine. A tornado
outbreak last April killed about 250 people around the state, with the
worst damage in Tuscaloosa to the south.
Forecasters warned of severe thunderstorms with the threat of tornadoes
crossing a region from southern Ohio through much of Kentucky and
Tennessee. By early Friday afternoon, tornado watches covered parts of
those states along with Missouri, Illinois and Indiana.
Forecasters at the National Weather Service's Storm Prediction Center
in Oklahoma said they were bracing for what could be a potent tornado
outbreak.
"Maybe five times a year we issue what is kind of the highest risk
level for us at the Storm Prediction Center," forecaster Corey Mead
said. "This is one of those days."
Mead said a powerful storm system was interacting with humid, unstable
air that was streaming north from the Gulf of Mexico.
"The environment just becomes more unstable and provides the fuel for
the thunderstorms," Mead said.
Schools sent students home early or cancelled classes entirely in
states including Alabama, Tennessee, Mississippi, Kentucky and Indiana.
In Alabama alone, more than 20 school systems dismissed classes early
Friday. The University of Kentucky, the University of Louisville and
several other colleges in the state also canceled classes.
At least 10 homes were damaged in a subdivision in Athens, Ala.
Homeowner Bill Adams watched as two men ripped shingles off the roof of
a house he rents out, and he fretted about predictions that more storms
would pass through.
"Hopefully they can at least get a tarp on it before it starts again,"
he said.
Not far away, the damage was much worse for retired high school band
director Stanley Nelson. Winds peeled off his garage door and about a
third of his roof, making rafters and boxes in his attic visible from
the street.
"It's like it just exploded," he said.
Forecasts, TV and luck eased tornado
risk in Okla.
YAHOO
By KRISTI EATON and CHUCK BARTELS, Associated Press
25 May 2011
PIEDMONT, Okla. – When three tornadoes marched toward Oklahoma City and
its suburbs, thousands of people in the path benefited from good
forecasts, luck and live television to avoid the kind of catastrophe
that befell Tuscaloosa, Ala., and Joplin, Mo. Even though more
than a dozen people died in the latest round of violent weather,
schools and offices closed early, giving many families plenty of time
to take shelter. And even stragglers were able to get to safety at the
last minute because TV forecasters narrated the twisters' every turn.
"We live in Oklahoma and we don't mess around," Lori Jenkins of Guthrie
said after emerging from a neighbor's storm shelter to find her carport
crumpled and her home damaged.
The people of Oklahoma City, which has been struck by more tornadoes
than any other U.S. city, knew the storms were coming. Anxiety was
perhaps running higher than usual after last month's twister outbreak
in the South that killed more than 300 people and a Sunday storm that
killed at least 122 in Joplin, Mo. The Oklahoma twisters proved
to be weaker than the other tornadoes. But the minute-by-minute
accounts of the developing weather helped thousands of people stay
abreast of the danger.
Television helicopters broadcast live footage while the system
approached the metropolitan area of 1.2 million people — calling out to
specific communities like Piedmont to "Take cover now!"
In Guthrie, about 30 miles north of the capital city, Ron Brooks was
watching when he learned that a tornado was barreling toward him. He
heeded the weatherman's warning, scooped up his two children and took
cover with his wife in their laundry room.
"When they told us to get into the shelter or interior room, we did
that," Brooks said. "The first year I moved to Oklahoma, in 1997, I saw
a funnel drop out of a wall cloud. Since seeing one, I've always taken
it pretty seriously." He emerged 20 minutes later, relieved to learn
that the tornado passed just north of his home.
Forecasters said another line of severe storms could sweep through the
nation's midsection Wednesday, mainly east of Oklahoma. A tornado
warning was briefly issued for downtown Kansas City, Mo., and at least
two weak tornadoes touched down in or near the suburbs. A few
others were reported in Illinois. The storms were expected to move into
western Indiana, Kentucky, Tennessee and Mississippi later in the day.
In Joplin, rescue and recovery work went on Wednesday, with crews
repeating grid searches for any survivors who might still be buried in
rubble. Structural engineers were sent inside the ruins of St. John's
Medical Center, which was crippled by the twister, to see if the
hospital could be saved. Back in Oklahoma City, broadcasters
offered live coverage of the storms for two hours before the bad
weather actually hit around the evening rush hour.
But across the border in Arkansas, people in the tiny hamlet of Denning
didn't have such a luxury. A tornado killed at least one person there.
Storms left three others dead elsewhere in Arkansas and killed two in
Kansas. The storms arrived in Denning in the darkness, with a
warning posted only about 10 minutes before a tornado nearly
obliterated the town of 270 shortly after midnight.
Troy Ellison didn't even have that
much time. He was watching a movie in his mobile home when he
switched on the TV news. The tornado was four minutes away.
"We were going to take the work truck and get out," Ellison said. "I
looked out the back door with my son and it was coming."
He dove under the kitchen table with his wife and two sons just before
the tornado hit. "It got that growling sound and the windows popped,"
he said.
The tornado ripped the roof off his home and collapsed his workshop
next door. Somehow, the family escaped unharmed. Then Ellison
went outside and saw the family dog, Jager, his paws splayed out on the
ground. The animal "looked like someone stepped on him." Ellison
assumed he was dead. But the dog, a pit bull-boxer mix, turned
out to be fine. By Wednesday, he was prancing around in the sun as the
Ellisons moved belongings out of their home.
"He must have known to stay low to the ground," Ellison said.
Oklahoma City has been hit by tornadoes 146 times, according to the
federal government's Storm Prediction Center. That history brings
respect for severe storms and a simple rule for people who find
themselves in a twister's path: Get out of the way or get underground.
"I think Oklahomans, simply because we're around it so much, take very
seriously the threat of severe weather. It's something we live with
year-round," said Michelann Ooten, a spokeswoman for the state
Department of Emergency Management. "We have a genuine respect for the
severe weather here."
Part of that comes from learning to deal with bad weather at a young
age, Ooten said. The long track of the storm in Piedmont gave
Lynn Hartman's family time to take shelter and then run away. As
warning sirens sounded, Hartman said, she huddled in the pantry of her
Piedmont home with her two children and the family dog until her
husband arrived home from work.
"We're there just crying and praying," Hartman said, and her daughter,
Sierra, 10, was saying repeatedly, "I just don't want to die."
The family then decided to flee as the storm drew closer. They crossed
the Oklahoma City area to Shawnee. Once there, sirens sounded again for
a storm approaching from the south. The four drove around for three
hours before returning to find their roof gone. The pantry was
standing, but Hartman was not convinced the family would have
survived. Ooten said trying to outrun a tornado is dangerous.
"Find the sturdiest building you can gain access to," she said. "Unless
you're an expert, I wouldn't try to outrun a tornado. You're not in
charge. Mother Nature is the one in charge."
Violent storms kill 13 in Okla., Kan.,
Ark.
YAHOO
By KRISTI EATON, Associated Press
25 May 2011
EL RENO, Okla. – Violent storms with winds of more than 150 mph slammed
into a chunk of the central U.S. overnight, killing at least 13 people
in three states, flattening homes, crushing cars and ripping apart a
rural Arkansas fire station.
The high-powered storms arrived Tuesday night and early Wednesday, just
days after a massive tornado tore up the southwest Missouri city of
Joplin and killed 122 people.
The latest storms killed at least eight people in Oklahoma and two in
Kansas before trekking east into Arkansas to claim three more lives.
Just outside the tiny community of Denning in western Arkansas, winery
owner Eugene Post listened to from his porch as a tornado barreled
toward his home. He saw the lights flicker, as the storms yanked power
from the community.
"I didn't see anything," Post, 83, said early Wednesday. "I could hear
it real loud though. ... It sounded like a train — or two or three —
going by."
Department of Emergency Management spokesman Tommy Jackson said one
person died in that tornado early Wednesday, and another was killed in
Bethlehem, Johnson County. Franklin County's chief deputy sheriff,
Deputy Devin Bramlett, said early Wednesday that a third person died in
Etna.
"I don't know, it's just unbelievable," said Rick Covert, Deputy
Emergency Management Coordinator for Franklin County, Ark. "It's just
total devastation."
A rural fire station in Franklin County was left without a roof as
emergency workers rushed to the wounded. Downed trees and power lines
tossed across roadways also slowed search-and-rescue crews' efforts.
Emergency officials have accounted for everyone else in Bethlehem, said
county emergency management director Josh Johnston. Crews were working
through the night in the hopes of saying the same thing for other
communities.
Hours earlier, several tornadoes struck Oklahoma City and its suburbs
during the Tuesday night rush hour, killing at least eight people and
injuring at least 60 others, including three children who were in
critical condition, authorities said.
Cherokee Ballard, a spokeswoman for the Oklahoma Medical Examiner's
office, said five people were killed in Canadian County, two in Logan
County and one in Grady County. A weather-monitoring site in El Reno
recorded 151 mph winds.
Ballard said a child was among those killed, but she had no other
details.
The storms destroyed homes in Piedmont, some 20 miles northwest of
Oklahoma City and threw vehicles about like toys tossed from a stroller.
"My husband and I were driving around yesterday and went past a house
and there was a vehicle in the pond in the front yard. The only way I
could tell it was a vehicle was I could see four wheels above the
water. It was a crushed ball," Piedmont Mayor Valerie Thomerson said
Wednesday.
"We have anything from houses that have shingles blown off, to half the
house missing, to the house being completely wiped out, gone,"
Thomerson said.
Some residents said they had been warned about the impending weather
for days and were watching television or listening to the radio so they
would know when to take cover.
"We live in Oklahoma and we don't mess around," Lori Jenkins said. "We
kept an eye on the weather and knew it was getting close."
She took refuge with her husband and two children in a neighbor's storm
shelter in the Oklahoma City suburb of Guthrie. When they emerged, they
discovered their carport had been destroyed and the back of their home
was damaged.
Chris Pyle was stunned as he pulled into the suburban neighborhood near
Piedmont where he lived as a teenager. His parents' home was destroyed,
but the house next door had only a few damaged shingles.
"That's when it started sinking in," he said. "You don't know what to
think. There are lots of memories, going through the trash tonight,
finding old trophies and pictures."
His parents, Fred and Snow Pyle, rode out the storm in a shelter at a
nearby school.
At Chickasha, 25 miles southwest of Oklahoma City, a 26-year-old woman
died when a tornado hit a mobile home park where residents had been
asked to evacuate their trailers, Assistant Police Chief Elip Moore
said. He said a dozen people were injured and that hundreds were
displaced when the storm splintered their homes.
In Kansas, police said two people died when high winds threw a tree
into their van around 6 p.m. near the small town of St. John, about 100
miles west of Wichita. The highway was shut down because of storm
damage.
The path of the storms included Joplin, which is cleaning up from a
Sunday storm that was the nation's eighth-deadliest twister among
records dating to 1840. Late-night tornado sirens had Joplin's
residents ducking for cover again before the storm brushed past without
serious problems.
The storms also blew through North Texas, but the damage seemed to be
confined to roofs and trees and lawn furniture and play equipment.
"The hail was probably more destructive," said Steve Fano, National
Weather Service meteorologist in Fort Worth.
Death toll from Joplin tornado is at least 139
YAHOO
By NOMAAN MERCHANT, Associated Press
29 May 2011
JOPLIN, Mo. – The numbers look increasingly bleak for families hoping
for the best after a monster tornado that devastated the town of
Joplin, with city officials saying death toll is at least 139. State
officials say 100 people are still missing.
Thousands more people far beyond Joplin had been waiting for good news
about a teen believed to have been ejected or sucked from his vehicle
on the way home from graduation. Several social-networking efforts
specifically focused on finding information about Will Norton.
But his family says he, too, is among the dead — found in a pond near
where his truck was located.
"At least we know that he wasn't out there suffering," his aunt Tracey
Presslor said, holding a framed portrait of her 18-year-old nephew at a
news conference. "Knowing that he was gone right away was really a
blessing for us."
Joplin City Manager Mark Rohr said Saturday during a news conference
that the death toll rose by three to at least 142, but later revised
that figure down to 139 without elaboration.
Mike O'Connell, a spokesman for the Missouri Department of Public
Safety, told The Associated Press on Saturday that he could not confirm
the city's updated death toll number. He said the state of Missouri
currently places the death toll at 126, saying they have no reason to
raise that number.
State officials say there are 142 sets of human remains at the morgue
handling those killed by the storm and some could be from the same
victim.
If the death toll does stand at 139, it would place this year's tornado
death toll at 520 and make 2011 the deadliest year for tornadoes since
1950. Until now, the highest recorded death toll by the National
Weather Service in a single year was 519 in 1953. There were deadlier
storms before 1950, but those counts were based on estimates and not on
precise figures.
On Saturday night, the Department of Public Safety made public a list
of 73 people who had been confirmed dead and whose next of kin had been
notified.
The tornado — an EF-5 packing 200 mph winds _also injured more than 900
people. Tallying and identifying the dead and the missing has proven a
complex, delicate and sometimes confusing exercise for both authorities
and loved ones...
City: Joplin tornado death toll
rises to 125
YAHOO
By NOMAAN MERCHANT, Associated Press
Wed May 25, 7:10 pm ET
JOPLIN, Mo. – Rescue crews refused to be deterred Wednesday even as
Joplin officials said no new survivors were pulled from the rubble left
by behind the single deadliest tornado in decades and the death toll
rose to at least 125.
More than 900 people also were injured by a mighty twister the National
Weather Service said was an EF5, the strongest rating assigned to
tornadoes, with winds of more than 200 mph. But officials in the
southwest Missouri city of 50,000 people said they're holding out hope
for more rescues.
"We never give up. We're not going to give up," City Manager Mark Rohr
told an evening news conference. "We'll continue to search as we
develop the next phase in the process."
Roughly 100 people were meanwhile reviewing information about people
reported missing in the storm's wake. Rohr said they're making progress
in sorting through the list of names, but declined to say how many
people remain "unaccounted for."
He said officials plan to release the names of the 125 people killed
"as soon as we can."
The Joplin tornado was the deadliest single twister since the weather
service began keeping official records in 1950 and the eighth-deadliest
in U.S. history. Scientists said it appeared to be a rare "multivortex"
tornado, with two or more small and intense centers of rotation
orbiting the larger funnel.
Bill Davis, the lead forecaster on a National Weather Service survey
team, said he would need to look at video to try to confirm that. But
he said the strength of the tornado was evident from the many stout
buildings that were damaged: St. John's Regional Medical Center,
Franklin Technology Center, a bank gone except for its vault, a Pepsi
bottling plant and "numerous, and I underscore numerous, well-built
residential homes that were basically leveled."
Davis' first thought on arriving in town to do the survey, he said,
was: "Where do you start?"
Our
view: Standing tall
The Joplin Globe,
Joplin, MO
May 24, 2011
JOPLIN, Mo. —
A monster of a tornado, at least a half a mile wide and over six miles
in length, moved across the center of a Midwest city, leaving a path of
destruction in its wake.
It’s us, not them. We have joined the ranks of major disaster areas
worldwide.
Many of us cannot even see the scenes on TV because we have no TV or
our cable is down or the power is off. Loved ones around the world call
and describe a bigger picture than we can see from our homes or
offices. If, that is, we have a home or office left standing.
In less than 30 minutes late Sunday afternoon, 30 percent or more of
our city was destroyed. A hospital was severely damaged.
Medical triage was quickly established, and health care personnel are
treating the injured as if in a war zone. The governor has declared the
storm to be the worst tornado in Missouri history.
It is now us, not them, holding the attention of the public across the
country. And the country is responding quickly and fiercely with
emergency aid pouring into Joplin, instead of leaving Joplin for New
Orleans, Haiti or Alabama.
The Missouri National Guard was mobilized within two or three hours of
the storm, and the Federal Emergency Management Agency had people on
the ground in Joplin within 12 hours with many more to follow. The
American Red Cross has a functioning shelter and aid center in place
some 16 hours after the storm. The nation is responding to us now, and
we are grateful.
But, as with any disaster anywhere, what matters most are people
helping other people, one on one, family on family, people working —
some heroically — as a community. And Joplin is standing tall in that
regard even as more clouds thunder overhead.
Homes still standing are being filled with friends, neighbors and loved
ones who have no homes. There are currently beds available in shelters
along with food and clothes. Insurance checks are already being written
to begin the rebuilding process, and more will follow in the coming
days. Most important, the city, while devastated, seems to be
maintaining its calm.
At 5:45 p.m. Sunday, May 22, an American city yet again received a
terrible blow, this one from Mother Nature. But 70 percent of our
community is still standing and now responding as most Americans do in
times of catastrophe — with great courage, resilience and
determination. United, as a community, we are ready to save more lives,
provide shelter and food as needed and begin to clear the wreckage so
the rebuilding can begin.
Mo. tornado single deadliest in US
since
1950
YAHOO
By ALAN SCHER ZAGIER and JIM SALTER, Associated Press
24 May 2011
JOPLIN, Mo. – A tornado that killed 117 people in Missouri was the
single deadliest twister in the past 60 years, according to National
Weather Service.
Gov. Jay Nixon's spokesman, Sam Murphey, said Tuesday morning that the
death toll in Joplin had risen to 117.
Until this week, the single deadliest tornado on record with the
National Weather Service in the past six decades was a twister that
killed 116 people in Flint, Mich., in 1953.
More deaths have resulted from outbreaks of multiple tornadoes. On
April 27, a pack of twisters roared across six Southern states, killing
314 people, more than two-thirds of them in Alabama. That was the
single deadliest day for tornadoes since the National Weather Service
began keeping such records in 1950.
The agency has done research that shows deadlier outbreaks before 1950.
It says the single deadliest day that it is aware of was March 18,
1925, when tornadoes killed 747 people.
Sunday's killer tornado ripped through the heart of Joplin, a
blue-collar southwest Missouri city of 50,000 people, slamming straight
into St. John's Regional Medical Center. The hospital confirmed that
five of the dead were patients — all of them in critical condition
before the tornado hit. A hospital visitor also was killed.
The tornado destroyed possibly "thousands" of homes, Fire Chief Mitch
Randles told AP. It leveled hundreds of businesses, including massive
ones such as Home Depot and Walmart.
Speaking from London, President Barack Obama said he would travel to
Missouri on Sunday to meet with people whose lives have been turned
upside down by the twister. He vowed to make all federal resources
available for efforts to recover and rebuild.
"The American people are by your side," Obama said. "We're going to
stay there until every home is repaired, until every neighborhood is
rebuilt, until every business is back on its feet."
Craig Fugate, director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, told
NBC's "Today" show Tuesday that Obama has declared a disaster in the
area, which means residents are eligible for his agency's assistance.
"We're here for the long haul, not just for the response," Fugate said.
Fugate, Nixon and Sen. Claire McCaskill were viewing the damage Tuesday
by helicopter, Murphey said.
Much of Joplin's landscape has been changed beyond recognition. House
after house was reduced to slabs, cars were crushed like soda cans and
shaken residents roamed streets in search of missing family members.
The danger was by no means over. Fires from gas leaks burned across
city. The smell of ammonia and propane filled the air in some damaged
areas. And the forecast looked grim.
The April tornadoes that devastated the South unspooled over a
three-day period starting in the Plains. The Storm Prediction Center in
Norman, Okla., said a repeat could be setting up, with a possible large
tornado outbreak in the Midwest on Tuesday and bad weather potentially
reaching the East Coast by Friday.
"This is a very serious situation brewing," center director Russell
Schneider said.
Early Tuesday, the center said there was a moderate risk of severe
weather in central and southeast Kansas and southwestern Missouri,
which could include Joplin. It raised the warning for severe weather in
central Oklahoma, southern Kansas and north Texas to high risk
indicating that tornadoes will hit in those areas.
The Storm Prediction Center also issued a high-risk warning before the
deadly outbreak in the South in April.
Death toll in Missouri rises to 116;
7
rescued
YAHOO
By KURT VOIGT and ALAN SCHER ZAGIER, Associated Press
23 May 2011
JOPLIN, Mo. – A massive tornado that tore a six-mile path across
southwestern Missouri killed at least 116 people as it smashed the city
of Joplin, ripping into a hospital, crushing cars and leaving behind
only splintered tree trunks where entire neighborhoods once stood.
City Manager Mark Rohr announced the new death toll at a Monday
afternoon news conference. He said seven people had been rescued, and
Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon said he was "optimistic that there are still
lives out there to be saved."
Authorities warned that the death toll could climb as search-and-rescue
workers continued their efforts. Their task was made more miserable
early Monday by a new thunderstorm that brought strong winds, heavy
rain and hail.
Much of the city's south side has been leveled, with churches, schools,
businesses and homes reduced to ruins by winds of up to 198 mph.
Jasper County Emergency Management Director Keith Stammer said about
2,000 buildings were damaged. Joplin Fire Chief Mitch Randles estimated
the damage covered a quarter or more of the city of about 50,000 people
some 160 miles south of Kansas City. He said his home was among those
destroyed.
An unknown number of people were injured, and officials said patients
were sent to any nearby hospitals that could take them.
Police officers staffed virtually every major intersection as
ambulances screamed through the streets. Rescuers involved in a
door-to-door searches moved gingerly around downed power lines and
jagged debris, while survivors picked through the rubble of their
homes, salvaging clothes, furniture, family photos and financial
records, the air pungent with the smell of gas and smoking embers.
Some neighborhoods were completely flattened and the leaves stripped
from trees, giving the landscape an apocalyptic aura. In others where
structures still stood, families found their belongings jumbled as if
someone had picked up their homes and shaken them.
Nixon had said earlier that he feared the death toll would rise but
expected survivors to be found in the rubble.
"I don't think we're done counting," Nixon told The Associated Press,
adding, "I still believe that because of the size of the debris and the
number of people involved that there are lives to be saved."
The National Weather Service's director, Jack Hayes, says the storm was
given a preliminary label as an EF4 — the second-highest rating
given to twisters. The rating is assigned to storms based on the damage
they cause. Hayes said the storm had winds of 190 to 198 miles per
hour. At times, the storm was three-quarters of a mile wide.
Crews found bodies in vehicles the storm had flipped over, torn apart
and left crushed like empty cans. Triage centers and temporary shelters
quickly filled to capacity. At Memorial Hall, a downtown entertainment
venue, emergency workers treated critically injured patients.
At another makeshift unit at a Lowe's home-improvement store, wooden
planks served as beds. Outside, ambulances and fire trucks waited for
calls. In the early hours of the morning, emergency vehicles were
scrambling nearly every two minutes.
Death Toll Rises to 89 From Missouri Tornado
NYTIMES
By A.G. SULZBERGER and NOAM COHEN
May 23, 2011
JOPLIN, Mo. — Much of this southwestern Missouri city
lay in ruins Monday morning after a massive tornado, the latest storm
to ravage the Midwest and South this spring, tore through the area,
killing at least 89 people. Officials say they expect the death toll to
climb.
The twister, which touched down at about 6 p.m. Sunday, ripped apart
buildings, touched off fires, uprooted trees and tossed cars, leaving
them mangled stacks of metal.
On Monday morning, Doug Stillions, 59, and his wife, Melissa Stillions,
37, said that when they heard the tornado warning siren go off Sunday
they hurriedly took cover in a neighbor’s basement with their
3-year-old son.
“It was just a black wall to the west,” Mr. Stillions said. “It was
dark as night.”
They said they had held hands and prayed as the tornado slammed through
at thunderous volume and an accompanying pressure so intense the couple
said it felt as if their heads might explode.
As the sun rose Monday morning, they walked out into a world in which
the few trees left standing had the bark stripped off them, a house on
a hillside had been swept up and carried into a road, and the
Stillions’ own home had part of its roof sheared off.
St. John’s Regional Medical Center, a major hospital in this city of
48,000 people, had to be abandoned, witnesses said, and the triage unit
set up on its grounds to care for the patients had to be temporarily
moved across the street when the hospital caught fire.
Joplin, which sits near Missouri’s borders with Kansas and Oklahoma,
was in the direct path of the tornado. It was left isolated and in the
dark after the destruction, with telephone connections largely cut off
and many homes without electricity.
The death toll was confirmed by the city manager, Mark Rohr. Tornadoes
have killed hundreds of people during the past two months and caused
millions of dollars in damage from Minnesota and Missouri to Oklahoma
and North Carolina. Tuscaloosa, Ala., continues to recover from a
massive twister that tore through the city in late April.
In Joplin, the local newspaper, the Joplin Globe, said teams with body
bags had been dispatched on Sunday night to Home Depot, Wal-Mart and
other local businesses.
Joplin’s was by far the worst damage on a day of brutal storms in the
Midwest, including a tornado in Minneapolis that city officials said
left one person dead and dozens injured in an area that covered several
blocks. By Sunday night, Missouri’s governor, Jay Nixon, had already
activated the National Guard and declared a state of emergency.
The White House said that President Obama, who is on a state trip to
Europe, was receiving frequent updates. Mr. Obama said Federal
Emergency Management Agency workers had been dispatched to Joplin.
“FEMA is working with the affected area’s state and local officials to
support response and recovery efforts, and the federal government
stands ready to help our fellow Americans as needed,” Mr. Obama said.
Weather experts were still trying to assess exactly what had produced
such damage. “The power lines have gone down — we can’t reach anyone
there,” Bill Davis, a meteorologist at the Springfield, Mo., office of
the National Weather Service, said in a telephone interview. He said
any assessment of exactly how strong the tornado was would have to wait
until tomorrow, when experts would drive to Joplin. However, he said,
on a scale from 1 to 10, the tornado looked to be “on the 8-9 level.”
He compared it to a tornado that struck in May 2008 and left a dozen
dead in the same part of Missouri. “It very much looked like that
supercell,” he said, though that storm managed to spare Joplin a direct
hit.
Mr. Bettes, the meteorologist, said that the storm that hit Joplin had
been hard to read — which was why his crew was willing to travel so
close to it. “It was a rain-wrapped tornado,” he said. “When it is
obscured by rain, you can’t tell what the danger is.”
One Joplin resident, Donald Davis, described to The Springfield
News-Leader driving through the city, saying that Joplin High School’s
windows were broken out and part of its roof was missing. A church
across the street was demolished, he said. He also described damage to
a grocery store and a large apartment building.
“They’re flattened,” Mr. Davis said. “You just can’t believe it. There
must have been 150 units. One lady had a bathrobe around her. Others
just had blankets around them.”
The scene at St. John’s hospital was equally overwhelming. “I spoke to
a couple of nurses who were on the sixth floor,” said Mike Jenkins, a
senior producer at Weather Channel who was with Mr. Bettes at the
hospital. “They told me they received a warning, that a tornado or
possible tornado was 20 minutes away. They took their precaution, ran
through their steps, and five minutes later the windows were blown out,
people were blown across the hall.”
Alabama (just prior end of semester at University of Alabama)
damage picture. Live report from the family of a student sounded
like the movie "Twister."
St. Louis airport hit
by
tornado to
reopen Sunday
YAHOO
JIM SALTER and JIM SUHR, Associated Press
23 April 2011
ST. LOUIS – Lambert Airport is expected to reopen Sunday, two days
after a strong tornado caused significant damage at the St. Louis
airport.
St. Louis Mayor Francis Slay says the airport could be operating at 70
percent capacity starting Sunday but will reopen only if power is
restored. An Ameren Missouri spokesman says power should be restored
later Saturday.
The airport director says one American Airlines 757 jet sustained
significant damage, and four other American planes had minor damage.
Five or six flights had to be diverted away from St. Louis when the
storm hit.
Officials aren't sure how many travelers are stranded.
St. Louis County Executive Charlie Dooley says hundreds of homes in
nine communities were damaged. Ameren says power could be out for
several days...
Crews clean after tornado hits
St. Louis airport
YAHOO
JIM SALTER and JIM SUHR, Associated Press
23 April 2011
ST. LOUIS – St. Louis' main airport was closed for business Saturday
while crews cleaned up after an apparent tornado tore through a
terminal, causing several injuries and sending people scurrying for
shelter as plated glass shattered around them.
Friday evening's storm at Lambert-St. Louis International Airport
ripped away a large section of the main terminal's roof, forcing the
airport to close indefinitely and diverting incoming flights to other
cities.
Elsewhere around St. Louis, residents in suburbs were waking to damaged
homes, fallen trees and downed power lines — the remains of a fierce
line of storms that moved through central and eastern Missouri.
"We have all hands on deck here," Mayor Francis Slay said at the
airport. "This is something we're putting a lot of attention to."
But amid all the damage, there was relief that things could have been
worse. Only four people with minor injuries were taken to the hospital
from Lambert, while an unspecified number of others were treated at the
scene for cuts blamed on flying glass.
"We're fortunate we didn't have larger (numbers) of injuries," said
airport director Rhonda Hamm-Niebruegge.
The airport's main terminal sustained the most damage. Hamm-Niebruegge
said roughly half of that structure's windows were blown out, sending
glass and rain into that building. Elsewhere on the property, trees
were toppled and power lines downed, further limiting access to the
airport even hours after the storm left its destruction.
Passengers from at least two planes were stranded briefly on the
Lambert tarmac because of debris but were later taken away by buses. An
Air National Guard facility at the airport was reportedly damaged.
Unconfirmed tornadoes were reported in several counties in the St.
Louis area, and at one point utility company Ameren Missouri reported
more than 47,000 power outages, with another 7,000 reported in Illinois.
In the suburbs of Maryland Heights and New Melle, the storms damaged
several dozen homes but there were no immediate reports of major
injuries. Some playground equipment in New Melle was left in a twisted
heap by the storm that also tore up roofs and ripped off siding.
Brandon Blecher, 16, said he was home watching the storm out his window
in Maryland Heights when he spotted the tornado coming toward his
house. A gust of wind knocked out his window.
"The giant wooden swing set in my neighbor's yard came into my yard and
a shed landed on my deck," he said. "The tornado was right on top of
us."
Maryland Heights police were dealing with reports of gas leaks and
downed trees that were blocking roadways.
The city's community center was opened as a shelter Friday night for
residents affected by the storm.
"We have electricity, and everything's fine," Vaughn said. "We have
heat and air. We'll be here as long as we need to be."
Damage, possibly from a tornado, was also reported at several towns
near the airport — Bridgeton, St. Ann, Ferguson and Florissant.
Interstate 270 in that area was closed. Trees and power lines were
down. A tractor-trailer was sitting on its end.
In downtown St. Louis, Busch Stadium officials hurriedly moved
Cardinals fans to a safe area as tornado sirens blared. The game with
the Cincinnati Reds was delayed for hours but later resumed.
At Lambert, installation and roofing tile was strewn about the inside
and outside of one terminal. Large, plate-glass windows were blown out.
A shuttle was teetering precariously from the top level of a parking
garage.
Dianna Merrill, 43, a mail carrier from St. Louis, was at Lambert
waiting to fly to New York with a friend for vacation. She said her
flight had been delayed by weather and she was looking out a window
hoping her plane would pull up. But the window suddenly exploded.
"Glass was blowing everywhere. The ceiling was falling. The glass was
hitting us in the face. Hail and rain were coming in. The wind was
blowing debris all over the place," she said. "It was like being in a
horror movie. Grown men were crying. It was horrible."
Merrill said she felt lucky to be alive and that airport workers
quickly moved people to stairwells and bathrooms to get them out of
harm's way.
St. Louis County Police Chief Tim Fitch, who was at the airport when
the storm was closing in, said he saw gawkers watching the weather
outside as the tornado sirens blared. Moments later, they hastily
scrambled inside the building and sought shelter in a restroom.
"About the time we came into the building, the doors blew off," he
said. "Literally 10 seconds later, it was over. It's amazing to me more
people weren't hurt."
Gov. Jay Nixon announced late Friday he had declared a state of
emergency, allowing state agencies to assist local jurisdictions with
their emergency responses to the storm's aftermath, including the
destruction at Lambert.
"The state of Missouri is ready to assist at every stage of this
emergency to keep Missouri families safe and help communities recover,"
Nixon said.
Tornado rips up Colorado town
Manchester Journal-Enquiror
By Catherine Tsai, Associated Press
Published: Friday, May 23, 2008 11:11 AM EDT
WINDSOR, Colo. — Residents of a devastated neighborhood grabbed what
they could from their debris-strewn homes before police imposed an
overnight curfew after a tornado swept through northern Colorado,
killing one person and injuring 13.
The twister skipped through several towns in Weld County on Thursday,
damaging or destroying dozens of homes, businesses, dairies, and farms.
The storm system pelted the region with golf-ball-size hail, swept
vehicles off roads, and tipped 15 rail cars off the tracks in Windsor,
a farm town about 70 miles north of Denver.
“It sounded like all the doors were being torn off the house,” said
Kelly Keil, who grabbed her 5-year-old daughter and took cover in a
closet in her home, which was spared major damage.
Gov. Bill Ritter toured the area and declared a local state of
emergency, but an inventory of damaged homes had to wait until daylight
today. Federal, state, and local officials were assembling damage
assessment teams overnight.
Severe storms, some including tornadoes, also ripped through parts of
Wyoming, Kansas and California on Thursday.
Heavy equipment cleared trees, utility poles, and mangled wood and
metal from the streets of the east Windsor neighborhood where the most
damage occurred. Police enforced an overnight curfew to deter looting
and ensure residents’ safety in case of natural gas leaks, while
officers with search dogs went door to door to look for anyone missing.
Resident Loree Wilkinson, 39, and her children, ages 6 and 9, huddled
in a basement and prayed as the tornado passed overhead. She said her
youngest child, Kazden, prayed: “Please don’t let me die because I just
graduated from kindergarten.”
The large storm cloud descended nearly without warning, touching down
near Platteville, about 50 miles north of Denver. Over the next hour,
it moved northwest past several towns along a 35-mile-long track and
into Wyoming.
Oscar Michael Manchester, 52, was killed at a campground west of
Greeley, about 60 miles north of Denver, said Weld County Deputy
Coroner Chris Robillard. Pete Ambrose, caretaker at the Missile Park
campground, said Manchester was in a recreational vehicle that was
destroyed by the storm.
Nine people were hospitalized with various injuries at the Medical
Center of the Rockies in Loveland, spokesman Alex Stuessie said. In
Greeley, four people were treated for minor injuries at North Colorado
Medical Center, administrative representative Laurie Hamit said.
The Red Cross served food to about 130 people in Windsor who were
displaced by the storm, but by nightfall only one family was staying at
a shelter at a fairgrounds outside town.
The tornado overturned 15 railroad cars and destroyed a lumber car on
the Great Western Railway of Colorado, said Mike Ogburn, managing
director of Denver-based Omnitrax Inc., which manages the railroad.
Fourteen of the overturned cars were tankers, but they were empty.
The twister toppled tractor-trailers across Highway 85 and cut power to
60,000 customers. Electricity was restored to all but 15,000 by late
Thursday. Xcel Energy said it lost two large transmission lines and
about 200 utility poles. The utility also responded to a handful of
natural gas leaks at homes that were ripped off their foundations,
spokesman Tom Henley said.
Jim Kalina, a National Weather Service meteorologist, said two or three
major storm cells affected the area and officials were trying to
confirm how many tornados touched down.
Weld County is known as a prolific tornado spawning ground, with about
seven typically reported there each year, according to the weather
service.
In Kansas, early reports indicated that about 10 tornadoes passed
through the western part of the state Thursday evening, said Scott
Mentzer, a weather service meteorologist in Goodland.
He said a few barely touched down, but a couple moved along 30 to 50
miles on the ground in Sheridan and Decatur counties. Authorities said
the tornadoes destroyed one home and damaged several others.
Officials were trying to verify whether a tornado touched down in
Laramie, Wyo., where a storm packing strong winds damaged several
buildings, overturned vehicles and knocked out power Thursday afternoon.
Later, a tornado touched down in a rural area near the town of Burns,
Wyo., about 10 miles east of Cheyenne, said Rob Cleveland, director of
Laramie County Emergency Management. The storm did minor damage to two
homes and destroyed a barn, but there were no injuries, Cleveland said.
Elsewhere, a storm system that lashed Southern California on Thursday
unleashed mudslides in wildfire-scarred canyons, spawned at least two
tornadoes and dusted mountains and even low-lying communities with snow
and hail.
Powerful wind or a funnel cloud toppled a tractor-trailer and freight
cars, said Riverside County fire spokeswoman Jody Hageman.
California Highway Patrol Officer Alex Santos was watching the wild
weather from a highway overpass in Moreno Valley, about 60 miles east
of Los Angeles, when he saw two tornados closing in.
“There was so much dust you couldn’t see. Next thing I know I see this
big rig getting toppled over,” Santos said. He said the driver had to
be cut free from the cab and suffered head and back injuries.
About 100 people have died in U.S. twisters so far this year, the worst
toll in a decade, according to the weather service, and the danger has
not passed yet. Tornado season typically peaks in the spring and early
summer, then again in the late fall.
FIRE
FROM
I-BBC: Wildfire in Angeles National Forest Sunday - 3 Sept.
2012. Photo from still functioning old satelite of outer space
and the sun (r) looks like a bigger fire.
REMEMBER
"LITTLE HOT SPOT" CONTESTS IN ELEMENTARY SCHOOL? (L), California
history: Near
Los Angeles, '09 -
even in Alaska? Russia?
Colorado?
Portugal seeks European
help against wildfires
Las Vegas SUN
The Associated Press
Monday, Sept. 3, 2012 | 8:14 a.m.
A Portuguese official says authorities have asked other European
countries to send help as the country's firefighters struggle to
contain forest blazes being fueled by high temperatures and strong
winds.
Local mayor Paulo Fonseca said a man died Monday as he tried to douse
flames around his farm near Ourem, about 150 kilometers (90 miles)
north of Lisbon. Media reported two people were hurt when a
firefighting helicopter crashed in the same area.
More than 1,700 firefighters, almost 500 vehicles and 13 aircraft
fought blazes mostly in the north of the country. Much of
Portugal is
in severe drought, and hot, windy weather is forecast for most of the
week.
Civil Protection Service official Patricia Gaspar says Portugal has
asked other European countries to provide at least four water-dumping
aircraft.
THE KIND OF "HOT SPOTS"
NATURE PROVIDES...
As
Permafrost Thaws, Scientists Study the Risks
By JUSTIN GILLIS, NYTIMES
December 16, 2011
FAIRBANKS, Alaska — A bubble rose through a hole in the surface of a
frozen lake. It popped, followed by another, and another, as if a pot
were somehow boiling in the icy depths.
Every bursting bubble sent up a puff of methane, a powerful greenhouse
gas generated beneath the lake from the decay of plant debris. These
plants last saw the light of day 30,000 years ago and have been locked
in a deep freeze — until now.
“That’s a hot spot,” declared Katey M. Walter Anthony, a leading
scientist in studying the escape of methane. A few minutes later, she
leaned perilously over the edge of the ice, plunging a bottle into the
water to grab a gas sample.
It was another small clue for scientists struggling to understand one
of the biggest looming mysteries about the future of the earth.
Experts have long known that northern lands were a storehouse of frozen
carbon, locked up in the form of leaves, roots and other organic matter
trapped in icy soil — a mix that, when thawed, can produce methane and
carbon dioxide, gases that trap heat and warm the planet. But they have
been stunned in recent years to realize just how much organic debris is
there.
A recent estimate suggests that the perennially frozen ground known as
permafrost, which underlies nearly a quarter of the Northern
Hemisphere, contains twice as much carbon as the entire atmosphere.
Temperatures are warming across much of that region, primarily,
scientists believe, because of the rapid human release of greenhouse
gases. Permafrost is warming, too. Some has already thawed, and other
signs are emerging that the frozen carbon may be becoming unstable.
“It’s like
broccoli in your freezer,” said Kevin Schaefer, a scientist
at the National Snow and Ice Data Center in Boulder, Colo. “As long as
the broccoli stays in the freezer, it’s going to be O.K. But once you
take it out of the freezer and put it in the fridge, it will thaw out
and eventually decay.”
If a substantial amount of the carbon should enter the atmosphere, it
would intensify the planetary warming. An especially worrisome
possibility is that a significant proportion will emerge not as carbon
dioxide, the gas that usually forms when organic material breaks down,
but as methane, produced when the breakdown occurs in lakes or
wetlands. Methane is especially potent at trapping the sun’s heat, and
the potential for large new methane emissions in the Arctic is one of
the biggest wild cards in climate science.
Scientists have declared that understanding the problem is a major
priority. The United States Department of Energy and the European Union
recently committed to new projects aimed at doing so, and NASA is
considering a similar plan. But researchers say the money and people
devoted to the issue are still minimal compared with the risk.
For now, scientists have many more questions than answers. Preliminary
computer analyses, made only recently, suggest that the Arctic and
sub-Arctic regions could eventually become an annual source of carbon
equal to 15 percent or so of today’s yearly emissions from human
activities.
But those calculations were deliberately cautious. A recent survey drew
on the expertise of 41 permafrost scientists to offer more informal
projections. They estimated that if human fossil-fuel burning remained
high and the planet warmed sharply, the gases from permafrost could
eventually equal 35 percent of today’s annual human emissions.
The experts also said that if humanity began getting its own emissions
under control soon, the greenhouse gases emerging from permafrost could
be kept to a much lower level, perhaps equivalent to 10 percent of
today’s human emissions.
Even at the low end, these numbers mean that the long-running
international negotiations over greenhouse gases are likely to become
more difficult, with less room for countries to continue burning large
amounts of fossil fuels.
In the minds of most experts, the chief worry is not that the carbon in
the permafrost will break down quickly — typical estimates say that
will take more than a century, perhaps several — but that once the
decomposition starts, it will be impossible to stop.
“Even if it’s 5 or 10 percent of today’s emissions, it’s exceptionally
worrying, and 30 percent is humongous,” said Josep G. Canadell, a
scientist in Australia who runs a global program to monitor greenhouse
gases. “It will be a chronic source of emissions that will last
hundreds of years.”
A troubling trend has emerged recently: Wildfires are increasing across
much of the north, and early research suggests that extensive burning
could lead to a more rapid thaw of permafrost.
Rise and Fall of Permafrost
Standing on a bluff the other day, overlooking an immense river valley,
A. David McGuire, a scientist from the University of Alaska, Fairbanks,
sketched out two million years of the region’s history. It was the
peculiar geology of western North America and eastern Siberia, he said,
that caused so much plant debris to get locked in an ice box there.
These areas were not covered in glaciers during the last ice age, but
the climate was frigid, with powerful winds. The winds and rivers
carried immense volumes of silt and dust that settled in the lowlands
of Alaska and Siberia.
A thin layer of this soil thawed on top during the summers and grasses
grew, capturing carbon dioxide. In the bitter winters, grass roots,
leaves and even animal parts froze before they could decompose. Layer
after layer of permafrost built up.
At the peak of the ice age, 20,000 years ago, the frozen ground was
more extensive than today, stretching deep into parts of the lower 48
states that were not covered by ice sheets. Climate-change contrarians
like to point to that history, contending that any melting of
permafrost and ice sheets today is simply the tail end of the ice age.
Citing permafrost temperatures for northern Alaska — which, though
rising rapidly, remain well below freezing — an organization called the
Center for the Study of Carbon Dioxide and Global Change claimed that
permafrost is in “no more danger of being wiped out any time soon than
it was in the days of our great-grandparents.”
But mainstream scientists, while hoping the breakdown of permafrost
will indeed be slow, reject that argument. They say the climate was
reasonably stable for the past 10,000 years or so, during the period
when human civilization arose. Now, as people burn immense amounts of
carbon in the form of fossil fuels, the planet’s temperature is rising,
and the Arctic is warming twice as fast. That, scientists say, puts the
remaining permafrost deposits at risk.
For several decades, researchers have been monitoring permafrost
temperatures in hundreds of boreholes across the north. The
temperatures have occasionally decreased in some regions for periods as
long as a decade, but the overall trend has been a relentless rise,
with temperatures now increasing fastest in the most northerly areas.
Thawing has been most notable at the southern margins. Across huge
areas, including much of central Alaska, permafrost is hovering just
below the freezing point, and is expected to start thawing in earnest
as soon as the 2020s. In northern Alaska and northern Siberia, where
permafrost is at least 12 degrees Fahrenheit below freezing, experts
say it should take longer.
“Even in a greenhouse-warmed world, it will still get cold and dark in
the Arctic in the winter,” said Mark Serreze, director of the snow and
ice data center in Boulder.
Scientists need better inventories of the ancient carbon. The best
estimate so far was published in 2009 by a Canadian scientist, Charles
Tarnocai, and some colleagues. They calculated that there was about 1.7
trillion tons of carbon in soils of the northern regions, about 88
percent of it locked in permafrost. That is about two and a half times
the amount of carbon in the atmosphere.
Philippe Ciais, a leading French scientist, wrote at the time that he
was “stunned” by the estimate, a large upward revision from previous
calculations.
“If, in a warmer world, bacteria decompose organic soil matter faster,
releasing carbon dioxide,” Dr. Ciais wrote, “this will set up a
positive feedback loop, speeding up global warming.”
Plumes of Methane
Katey Walter Anthony had been told to hunt for methane, and she could
not find it.
As a young researcher at the University of Alaska, Fairbanks, she
wanted to figure out how much of that gas was escaping from lakes in
areas of permafrost thaw. She was doing field work in Siberia in 2000,
scattering bubble traps around various lakes in the summer, but she got
almost nothing.
Then, that October, the lakes froze over. Plumes of methane that had
been hard to spot on a choppy lake surface in summer suddenly became
more visible.
“I went out on the ice, this black ice, and it looked like the starry
night sky,” Dr. Walter Anthony said. “You could see these bubble
clusters everywhere. I realized — ‘aha!’ — this is where all the
methane is.”
When organic material comes out of the deep freeze, it is consumed by
bacteria. If the material is well-aerated, bacteria that breathe oxygen
will perform the breakdown, and the carbon will enter the air as carbon
dioxide, the primary greenhouse gas. But in areas where oxygen is
limited, like the bottom of a lake or wetland, a group of bacteria
called methanogens will break down the organic material, and the carbon
will emerge as methane.
Scientists are worried about both gases. They believe that most of the
carbon will emerge as carbon dioxide, with only a few percent of it
being converted to methane. But because methane is such a potent
greenhouse gas, the 41 experts in the recent survey predicted that it
would trap about as much heat as the carbon dioxide would.
Dr. Walter Anthony’s seminal discovery was that methane rose from lake
bottoms not as diffuse leaks, as many scientists had long assumed, but
in a handful of scattered, vigorous plumes, some of them capable of
putting out many quarts of gas per day. In certain lakes they accounted
for most of the emerging methane, but previous research had not taken
them into consideration. That meant big upward revisions were probably
needed in estimates of the amount of methane lakes might emit as
permafrost thawed.
Most of the lakes Dr. Walter Anthony studies were formed by a peculiar
mechanism. Permafrost that is frozen hard supports the ground surface,
almost the way a concrete pillar supports a building. But when thaw
begins, the ground sometimes turns to mush and the entire land surface
collapses into a low-lying area, known as a thermokarst. A lake or
wetland can form there, with the dark surface of the water capturing
the sun’s heat and causing still more permafrost to thaw nearby.
Near thermokarst locations, trees often lean crazily because their
roots are disturbed by the rapid changes in the underlying landscape,
creating “drunken forests.” And the thawing, as it feeds on itself,
frees up more and more ancient plant debris.
One recent day, in 11-degree weather, Dr. Walter Anthony and an
assistant, Amy Strohm, dragged equipment onto two frozen thermokarst
lakes near Fairbanks. The fall had been unusually warm and the ice was
thin, emitting thunderous cracks — but it held. In spots, methane
bubbled so vigorously it had prevented the water from freezing. Dr.
Walter Anthony, six months pregnant, bent over one plume to retrieve
samples.
“This is thinner ice than we like,” she said. “Don’t tell my
mother-in-law! My own mother doesn’t know.”
Dr. Walter Anthony had already run chemical tests on the methane from
one of the lakes, dating the carbon molecules within the gas to 30,000
years ago. She has found carbon that old emerging at numerous spots
around Fairbanks, and carbon as old as 43,000 years emerging from lakes
in Siberia.
“These grasses were food for mammoths during the end of the last ice
age,” Dr. Walter Anthony said. “It was in the freezer for 30,000 to
40,000 years, and now the freezer door is open.”
Scientists are not sure yet whether thermokarst lakes will become more
common throughout the Arctic in a warming climate, a development that
could greatly accelerate permafrost thaw and methane production. But
they have already started to see increases in some regions, including
northernmost Alaska.
“We expect increased thermokarst activity could be a very strong
effect, but we don’t really know,” said Guido Grosse, another scientist
at the University of Alaska, Fairbanks. He is working with Dr. Walter
Anthony on precision mapping of thermokarst lakes and methane seeps, in
the hope that the team can ultimately use satellites and aerial
photography to detect trends.
With this kind of work still in the early stages, researchers are
worried that the changes in the region may already be outrunning their
ability to understand them, or to predict what will happen.
When the Tundra Burns
One day in 2007, on the plain in northern Alaska, a lightning strike
set the tundra on fire.
Historically, tundra, a landscape of lichens, mosses and delicate
plants, was too damp to burn. But the climate in the area is warming
and drying, and fires in both the tundra and forest regions of Alaska
are increasing.
The Anaktuvuk River fire burned about 400 square miles of tundra, and
work on lake sediments showed that no fire of that scale had occurred
in the region in at least 5,000 years.
Scientists have calculated that the fire and its aftermath sent a huge
pulse of carbon into the air — as much as would be emitted in two years
by a city the size of Miami. Scientists say the fire thawed the upper
layer of permafrost and set off what they fear will be permanent shifts
in the landscape.
Up to now, the Arctic has been absorbing carbon, on balance, and was
once expected to keep doing so throughout this century. But recent
analyses suggest that the permafrost thaw could turn the Arctic into a
net source of carbon, possibly within a decade or two, and those
studies did not account for fire.
“I maintain that the fastest way you’re going to lose permafrost and
release permafrost carbon to the atmosphere is increasing fire
frequency,” said Michelle C. Mack, a University of Florida scientist
who is studying the Anaktuvuk fire. “It’s a rapid and catastrophic way
you could completely change everything.”
The essential question scientists need to answer is whether the many
factors they do not yet understand could speed the release of carbon
from permafrost — or, possibly, slow it more than they expect.
For instance, nutrients released from thawing permafrost could spur
denser plant growth in the Arctic, and the plants would take up some
carbon dioxide. Conversely, should fires like the one at Anaktuvuk
River race across warming northern landscapes, immense amounts of
organic material in vegetation, soils, peat deposits and thawed
permafrost could burn.
Edward A. G. Schuur, a University of Florida researcher who has
done
extensive field work in Alaska, is worried by the changes he already
sees, including the discovery that carbon buried since before the dawn
of civilization is now escaping.
“To me, it’s a spine-tingling feeling, if it’s really old carbon that
hasn’t been in the air for a long time, and now it’s entering the air,”
Dr. Schuur said. “That’s the fingerprint of a major disruption, and we
aren’t going to be able to turn it off someday.”
Burning Russia battles to defend nuclear sites
YAHOO
by Stuart Williams
10 August 2010
MOSCOW (AFP) – Russia fought a deadly battle Tuesday to prevent
wildfires from engulfing key nuclear sites as Prime Minister Vladimir
Putin took to the air in a water-bombing plane to join the firefighting
effort.
Two soldiers were killed by blazing trees as they strove to put out a
fire dangerously close to Russia's main nuclear research centre, while
workers were also mobilised to fight blazes near a nuclear reprocessing
plant. After almost two weeks of fires that have claimed over 50
lives and part destroyed a military storage site, the authorities said
they were making progress in fighting fires that still covered 174,035
hectares of land.
Putin visited the Ryazan region south of Moscow, one of the worst hit,
and jumped into a Be-200 jet to scoop up water from local lakes and
then dump it on the fires, state media said. State television
showed the Russian strongman, headphones clamped against his ears,
confidently taking the co-pilot's controls as the plane zoomed over the
water.
"We hit it!" exclaimed Putin as his colleagues confirmed the water had
hit the target.
The emergencies ministry said that over the last 24 hours, 247 new
fires had appeared, more than the 239 had been put out, and 557 fires
were still raging across the affected region. The authorities
have come under pressure to explain the magnitude of effects of the
heatwave, which meteorologists have said is the worst in the 1,000 year
history of Russia. The head of forestry for the Moscow region,
Sergei Gordeichenko, has been sacked after President Dmitry Medvedev
noted he had stayed on holiday as the fires burned, a spokesman told
AFP.
"He was awaited but he never came... Why do we need such forest
specialists? Let them take their holidays on the Canary Islands,"
Medvedev said Tuesday.
Two members of the Russian armed forces were killed Monday fighting
wildfires around Russia's main nuclear research centre in Sarov, a town
in the Nizhny Novgorod region still closed to foreigners as in Soviet
times. Rifle battalion member Vasily Tezetev, 22, "died the death
of a hero" Monday while dealing with the fire burning in a nature
reserve close to the town, the local emergency centre said Tuesday,
Interfax reported.
Another serviceman, named as Vasily Veshkin, 27, who usually worked at
a local prison camp, also died fighting the fire on the same day, it
added. Both were killed when they were hit by burning parts of trees
that fell to the ground. Meanwhile, officials said fires burning
within 15 kilometres (10 miles) of Snezhinsk in the Urals, home to
another of Russia's top nuclear research centres, had been reduced to a
five-hectare area and there was no risk for the town.
The acrid smog from wildfires 100 kilometres (60 miles) out in the
countryside that descended over Moscow eased Tuesday but forecasters
said the air quality was still dangerously poor. The Moscow
authorities acknowledged for the first time on Monday that the daily
mortality rate in Moscow had doubled and morgues were overflowing with
bodies but the federal government has yet to confirm those
figures. Carbon monoxide in the Moscow air was 1.4 times higher
than acceptable levels Tuesday, the state pollution watchdog said, a
slight improvement from the day before. On Saturday they had been an
alarming 6.6 times worse.
Moscow mayor Yuri Luzhkov meanwhile met Putin for the first time since
returning from a holiday that saw him ridiculed in the press for
underestimating the crisis.
Putin said pointedly Luzhkov had come back "on time". A Kremlin
official quoted by Russian news agencies was even more critical, saying
his return "should have happened earlier."
The heatwave has had a huge impact on all areas of Russian society and
economists warned Tuesday the record temperatures could have cost the
country up to 15 billion dollars and undercut a modest economic
revival. Worst hit has been agriculture, which has seen 10
million hectares of land destroyed.
I-BBC - 9 August
2010 Last updated at 11:51 ET
Death rate doubles in Moscow as
heatwave continues
An ambulance crosses a smog-bound Red Square, 9 August The full health
impact of the heatwave nationwide has not been reported
Moscow's health chief has confirmed the mortality rate has doubled as a
heatwave and wildfire smog continue to grip the Russian capital.
There were twice the usual number of bodies in the city's morgues,
Andrei Seltsovsky told reporters.
Meanwhile, a state of emergency has been declared around a nuclear
reprocessing plant in the southern Urals because of nearby
wildfires.
And there was a new warning over shortfalls in Russia's grain
harvest.
Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said this year's harvest, hit by fire and
drought, would be worse than previously forecast.
Currently expected to be 65m tonnes, it could be as low as 60 million
tonnes, Mr Putin said. Mr Putin also said that a ban on grain
exports
could be extended beyond the end of 2010 because of shortages for
domestic markets. Russia is the world's third largest wheat
exporter.
Its biggest customers include Egypt, Turkey and Syria.
As of Monday morning, 557 wildfires continued to burn in Russia, 25 of
them peat fires, the emergencies ministry said. While 239 fires
were
extinguished on Sunday, 247 new ones were discovered.
The head of the state weather service, Alexander Frolov, said on Monday
that the heatwave of 2010 was the worst in 1,000 years of recorded
Russian history.
"It's an absolutely unique phenomenon - nothing like it can be seen in
the archives," he was quoted by Interfax news agency as saying.
'Puzzling' death data
Recent death rates for parts of central Russia other than Moscow, which
are seeing similar droughts and wildfires for more than a month, have
not been released.
On normal days, between 360 and 380
die - now it's around 700”
Soon after Mr Seltsovsky gave his information, Russia's Health
Minister, Tatyana Golikova, demanded a formal clarification of his
data. Her ministry said it was "puzzled by the unofficial figures
quoted at the briefing". Mr Seltsovsky did not give a time frame
but
earlier reports had spoken of the death rate in Moscow for July rising
by up to 50% compared with the same period last year.
"On normal days, between 360 and 380 die - now it's around 700," Mr
Seltsovsky told reporters.
Moscow, he said, had 1,500 places in its morgues and 1,300 of these
were currently occupied. While stressing there was still
capacity, he
added that about 30% of bereaved people were asking to have the body
kept in a morgue for more than three days, "which slightly complicates
the situation".
The concentration of carbon monoxide in Moscow was still more than
double acceptable safety norms on Monday as smog from peat and forest
wildfires continued to blanket the city. Temperatures of more
than 35C
(95F) are forecast for the city until Thursday. Since the second
half
of July, at least 52 deaths in Russia as a whole have been attributed
directly to fires, which have destroyed hundreds of rural homes.
Mr Seltsovsky did not attribute the rise in the mortality rate to the
heatwave or smog but doctors, speaking off the record, have talked of
morgues filling with victims of heat stroke and smoke ailments.
Nuclear plant alert
A nuclear plant in the Urals being threatened by the wildfires was the
site of Russia's worst nuclear disaster in 1957.
Some of the land around the Mayak plant in the town of Ozersk (known in
Soviet times as Chelyabinsk-40) is believed to be still contaminated
from the disaster, in which a tank of radioactive waste exploded.
Several leaks of radioactive waste have been reported from the plant in
recent years.
Ozersk's administration announced on the town's website that residents
were forbidden from entering the region's abundant, picturesque
woodlands until further notice, and ordered urgent, unspecified fire
safety measures.
According to Russia's Itar-Tass news agency, Moscow airports were
working normally on Monday after last week's disruptions due to
smog.
Sunday saw more than 104,000 air travellers leaving the capital - a
record number, according to Russian news agencies. Those who
remain in
the city of 10.5m people were being urged to wear face masks if they
ventured outdoors, and to hang wet towels indoors to attract dust and
cool the airflow.
Most apartments in the city lack air conditioning and there are media
reports of wealthier citizens moving out of their homes into hotels,
shopping malls, offices and private cars.
California Fires Confound Emergency
Workers
NYTIMES
By RANDAL C. ARCHIBOLD
September 1, 2009
LOS ANGELES — A deadly wildfire that has burned for nearly a week in
the foothills north of here has destroyed dozens of homes and
threatened thousands of others on Monday, frustrating firefighters with
its unusually rapid and unpredictable spread.
The fire, burning in rugged terrain at the foot of the San Gabriel
Mountains about 20 miles north of downtown Los Angeles, has consumed
more than 100,000 acres, or more than 150 square miles, about the size
of the Bronx and Queens combined.
The authorities did not have a precise tally of the damage, but said at
least 70 homes and probably many more, some of them vacation cabins,
some single-family residences, had been destroyed, mostly in remote
areas. More than 3,670 firefighters and support personnel struggled to
track the blaze’s erratic spread and keep flames from encroaching on
large neighborhoods and communities abutting the wilderness.
“This is a very angry fire,” said Mike Dietrich, a commander with the
United States Forest Service, who added that he expected it could take
two weeks to surround and extinguish it.
Though not driven by wind like many catastrophic fires here, this
blaze, fueled by brush dried in record-setting heat and a 10-year
drought, confounded emergency workers.
Just as the authorities cleared some residents to return and cleared
brush and dug trenches to block flames advancing on neighborhoods, new
evacuations were ordered in the eastern San Fernando Valley area of Los
Angeles as towering flames crept over ridgelines and took aim at houses
below.
The fire, whose cause is unknown, claimed the lives of two Los Angeles
County firefighters on Sunday after their truck overturned and fell 800
feet down a hillside as they tried to avoid a burst of fire bearing
down on them. The men died from injuries suffered in the crash and from
the advancing flames, the department said.
A few other people have been injured, including two people who refused
orders to evacuate and sought cover from the flames in a backyard hot
tub as the fire barreled through the area, the authorities said.
Some 4,000 homes were ordered evacuated, but law enforcement
authorities estimated only half of the people complied, preferring to
stay behind to try to help save their homes.
Frank Bagheri, 48, who reluctantly left his home near La Cañada
Flintridge on Sunday morning with his family, said he saw a few
neighbors stay behind hosing down their lawns and houses.
“We finally left because I stopped one of the firefighters running
around our street,” Mr. Bagheri said. “I wanted to ask him whether the
fire would go the other way, or if we’d be O.K. He just looked at me
and said, ‘You don’t want to stay here and get trapped.’ That phrase —
stay here and get trapped — did it. I changed my mind at that point to
leave.”
The fire, called the Station Fire for its origin on Wednesday near a
ranger station in the Angeles National Forest, sent a towering plume
skyward visible from almost all of metropolitan Los Angeles, a stark
herald of the fire season that peaks in late summer and fall. It spread
a fog of unhealthful, brownish air across a vast swath of the region,
and officials said it could take two weeks to put it out.
For some time, the authorities said they were worried that the flames
would overrun Mount Wilson, which includes an observatory and
transmission facilities for some FM radio and television stations. But
thanks in part to rapid brush clearing, crews stationed in the area and
an aerial bombardment by planes dropping water and flame retardant, the
fire was kept back.
A spokesman for the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department, Steve
Whitmore, said many people had defied evacuation orders, though, to
avoid a further burden on resources, officers were not making arrests.
A group of people in the Gold Creek area on Monday afternoon who had
refused to evacuate were trapped, and crews struggled to reach them.
One of the men told radio station KNX-AM by phone that they were all
right and that the fire did not appear close.
“They use resources that could be used elsewhere,” Mr. Whitmore said of
people who do not heed evacuation orders. “When you are told to go, go.”
Rebecca Cathcart contributed
reporting.
Monday, August 10, 2009
Fire Update
Interior Alaska has been on national news lately due to the local wild
fires. The kennel remains safe (though smokey). The nearest fire to us
is still over 20 miles away.
Fire crews have been battling the blazes and have kept Circle City from
burning (a checkpoint village for the Yukon Quest) as well as numerous
cabins and homes statewide.
Fire fighters are a hard core work force in Alaska. There are many
different divisions, organizations and crews. I am most familiar with
the Alaska Fire Service (AFS) whose organizational headquarters is in
Fairbanks. There are quite a few fire fighters who are our neighbors
here in Two Rivers. There are also crews that are composed of men and
women from Alaska bush villages - you will see crew names like: "Minto
#1" or "Allakaket #2". This season is so busy, however, that many crews
from the Lower 48 are here as well.
We are very in tune with Alaska's fire activity not only because of our
concern for our property and safety but also because Ray, our
brother-in-law (also known as "Sam's Daddy") is a fire fighter. He was
stationed in the village of Galena for much of the season. But, the
past few weeks he was fighting a fire near the Yukon River. Needless to
say, he has been working a lot, but is required by law to have 2 days
off after 21 days of work.
Thousands
Flee as California
Wildfires Spread
NYTIMES
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Filed at 10:27 a.m. ET
November 15, 2008
LOS ANGELES (AP) -- A wind-blasted wildfire tore through the city's
northern foothills early Saturday, sending thousands of residents
fleeing in the dark, forcing a hospital to evacuate and destroying an
untold number of homes.
The fire broke out late Friday in the foothill community of Sylmar on
the edge of the Angeles National Forest and quickly spread across 2,600
acres -- more than 4 square miles -- as it was driven by Santa Ana wind
gusting as high as 76 mph.
Officials said at least 10 homes were burned, but aerial footage from
television helicopters showed numerous mobile homes in flames. An
Associated Press photographer said a fire crew abandoned one mobile
home park that was burning out of control.
Part of the area's network of highways was shut down.
Officials ordered huge evacuations in the Sylmar and Porter Ranch
communities as the fire jumped two freeways, closing the highways and
forcing evacuees to take surface streets.
''Near hurricane winds made it very difficult for firefighters,'' Los
Angeles Fire deputy chief Mario Rueda said.
To the west, firefighters were still battling a separate wildfire that
destroyed more than 110 homes in Santa Barbara.
The Los Angeles blaze threatened at least 1,000 buildings, fire
spokeswoman Melissa Kelley said.
Flames struck the edge of the Olive View-UCLA Medical Center campus
shortly after midnight, causing an electricity outage that forced
officials to evacuate two dozen critical patients. About 200 other
patients stayed behind.
Several administrative buildings were damaged.
The hospital's power and backup generators failed, and emergency room
staff had to keep critical patients alive with hand powered
ventilators. Twenty-eight people, including 10 neonatal babies, were
rushed out by ambulance to another hospital.
''It was totally dark.'' said hospital spokeswoman Carla Nino. ''There
was dense smoke.''
Power was restored at the hospital after three hours.
Some people refused to leave their homes, grabbing water hoses to
defend their homes, but others left even before mandatory evacuation
orders were issued.
''I can see the smoke. It's terrible. I'm going to take my dog and
go,'' Dorothy Boyer told The Associated Press from her home late Friday.
More than 600 firefighters struggled to protect homes threatened by
flying embers. Because of the rough terrain in the forest, they were
relying on water-dropping helicopters to tackle flames. Authorities
said some aircraft were grounded during the night by the savage wind,
but they expected six airplanes and a dozen helicopters to attack the
fire during the day.
The shifting wind pushed the fire uphill toward the San Gabriel
Mountains and downhill toward homes, sometimes skipping across canyons.
It also jumped Interstate 5 and the 210 Freeway, forcing the California
Highway Patrol to shut down sections of both freeways and some
connecting roads.
If the fire continues marching west, it could be slowed by a fire break
that resulted from a wildfire which burned about 14,000-acres near
Porter Ranch last month, authorities said.
The cause of the fire was under investigation. One resident suffered
serious burns, Kelley said.
The blaze also charred habitat for the endangered California condor and
several hiking trails, U.S. Forest Service spokesman Stanton Florea
said.
About 80 miles to the west, an uncontained blaze in the Santa Barbara
community of Montecito had forced the evacuation of more than 5,400
homes since it started Thursday night, exploding through dry brush and
vast stands of oil-rich eucalyptus trees. About 800 firefighters were
battling the fire at the wealthy, celebrity-studded enclave, and they
were expected to make significant progress through Saturday morning,
said Santa Barbara city fire spokesman John Ahlman.
''There's plenty of hot material still left out there,'' he said. ''But
things could change in a hurry if the winds pick up.''
Several multimillion-dollar homes and a small college suffered major
damage in Montecito, a quaint and secluded area that has attracted
celebrities such as Rob Lowe, Jeff Bridges, Michael Douglas and Oprah
Winfrey.
The fire quickly consumed rows of luxury homes and parts of Westmont
College, a Christian liberal arts school, where students spent the
night in a gymnasium shelter.
''That whole mountain over there went up at once. Boom,'' said Bob
McNall, 70, who with his son and grandson saved their home by hosing it
down. ''The whole sky was full of embers. There was nothing that they
could do. It was just too much.''
Santa Barbara Mayor Marty Blum said up to 200 homes may have been
destroyed or damaged.
The cause of the fire is under investigation.
At least 13 people were injured in Montecito. A 98-year-old man with
multiple medical problems died after being evacuated, but it was
unclear if his death was directly related to the blaze, Santa Barbara
County Sheriff-Coroner Bill Brown said.
Lowe, the actor, said he fled with his children as fire engulfed the
mountain, though their home didn't burn. The family found neighbors
trapped behind their automatic car gate, which was stuck because the
power was out. Lowe said he helped open the big gates.
''Embers were falling. Wind was 70 miles an hour, easily, and it was
just like Armageddon,'' Lowe told KABC-TV. ''You couldn't hear yourself
think.''
Montecito, known for its balmy climate and charming Spanish colonial
homes, has long attracted celebrities. The landmark Montecito Inn was
built in the 1920s by Charlie Chaplin, and the nearby San Ysidro Ranch
was the honeymoon site of John F. Kennedy in 1953.
Montecito suffered a major fire in 1977, when more than 200 homes
burned. A fire in 1964 burned about 67,000 acres and damaged 150 houses
and buildings.
TSUNAMI
Watch
this BBC video
Small Leak Is Discovered at Plant in
Fukushima
By MARTIN FACKLER, NYTIMES
April 14, 2013
TOKYO — Efforts to remove highly contaminated water from a leaking
underground storage pool at the crippled Fukushima nuclear plant were
delayed on Sunday when the plant’s operator said it had found yet
another leak, this time in the pipes that would be used to move the
water to above-ground storage containers.
The operator, Tokyo Electric Power Co., or Tepco, said it has found
that almost six gallons of water leaked from a junction in the pipes
that are currently used to move water between other storage pools. The
company is struggling to find space to store the huge amounts of toxic
water that are created by makeshift efforts to cool reactors at the
Fukushima Daiichi plant, which was damaged two years ago by a large
earthquake and tsunami.
Since then, the operator has been essentially pouring water onto the
melted reactors and nearby fuel storage pools to keep them from
overheating again.
While small, the newest leak will force Tepco to postpone removal of
water from the No. 2 storage pool for several days while the company
repairs the faulty pipe junction. The pool has spilled some 32,000
gallons of radioactive water, and appears to still be leaking.
Some of that water may have been trapped in the multiple layers of
lining in the pool, but an undetermined amount reached the soil below,
Tepco said.
The newest leak adds to a series of mishaps that have raised questions
about Tepco’s ability to safely manage the stricken plant. That
included the temporary loss last month of power for the vital cooling
systems after a rat apparently short-circuited part of the electrical
system.
Before and after (with new
topography), Japan event above
Tsunami threat could catch Northwest off guard
YAHOO
TIM FOUGHT and ALICIA CHANG, Associated Press
26 March 2011
CANNON BEACH, Ore. – When the big one hits the Pacific Northwest, the
best place to escape the wall of water moving at jetliner speed from 50
miles off the coast may be a City Hall on stilts.
Once the ground finishes two to four minutes of lurching and shaking,
residents and tourists in Cannon Beach would flock to the refuge on
concrete columns 14 feet above the waves racing beneath. They
would ... if the refuge gets built. There's nothing like it from
Northern California to British Columbia and, so far, no money for
anything like it.
It's an example of how underprepared the West Coast is for an
earthquake and tsunami on the scale of what happened in Japan.
Scientists say it's inevitable that an offshore seismic menace called
the Cascadia Subduction Zone will one day unleash a megaquake. The last
time it happened was 300 years ago when a magnitude-9 shaker spawned
enormous ocean waves that slammed into the West Coast and damaged
Japanese fishing villages. Mindful of the risks of waves as high
as 60 feet, communities in the Pacific Northwest have worked on their
defenses, installing sirens to warn of dangerous waves, posting hazard
signs to mark inundation zones, designating evacuation routes and
holding evacuation drills.
Scientists in the Pacific Northwest hadn't understood the geology and
the threat it poses until recent decades when they discovered evidence
of big quakes near the coast over the last 10,000 years — about 20 the
size of the March 11 quake in Japan. By contrast, the Japanese
have long paid close attention to quakes and tsunamis. Their written
records from 1700 allowed North American scientists a few years ago to
fix the timing of the last Pacific Northwest megaquake, right down to
the hour it occurred.
So the death and damage caused by this month's earthquake and tsunami
in Japan were worrisome on the other side of the Pacific.
"We're not nearly as well prepared as the Japanese, and clearly they
were overwhelmed," said Bill Steele, coordinator of the University of
Washington's Seismology Laboratory. "It is a problem."
Elevated refuges are among the Japan-style responses to the tsunami
threat that experts say helped to mitigate the destruction and
death. And these are just pieces in a giant puzzle for the
Northwest in dealing with the aftermath of a disaster that could bring
Katrina-style devastation to a region of 13 million people west of the
Cascade Range.
In Cannon Beach, Jay Raskin is terrified at the prospect — "terrified"
is a word he uses three times in the first few minutes of an interview.
The former city council member and mayor has proposed replacing the
current City Hall, seismically unsound, with a two-story building on
stilts to provide refuge to as many as 1,500 people. The second floor
would house city offices. Atop that would be a terrace. The idea
is still conceptual, awaiting vetting by structural and geophysical
engineers. That could add to the tentative $4 million price tag Raskin
puts on it.
There are no current plans in California to build special
tsunami-resistant structures, but some communities are looking at ways
to herd residents to existing buildings perched on higher ground in the
event of dangerous waves, said Rick Wilson, senior engineering
geologist with the California Geological Survey.
In Washington state, emergency managers are working with coastal
communities to develop local plans for elevated evacuation structures
that could do double duty, such as steel-reinforced earthen berms 20
feet high that could support bleachers at a stadium.
"Right now, there's no funding for anything like this, through state
and federal funding," said John Schelling of the Washington State
Emergency Management. He argues, though, that it's important to develop
the plans for the day when money is available. That's
particularly the case, he said, for places on the Pacific Northwest
coast that don't have high ground close to the beach, such as the flats
of southwest Washington's Long Beach peninsula.
Among the critics of such work is Patrick Corcoran, an Oregon State
University extension worker who specializes in marine hazards and
argues that the regional emphasis on geology and engineering misses the
mark.
"This is a cultural, behavioral issue far more than an engineering
issue," he said.
The message that has to be driven home for coastal residents, he said,
is there are just a few keys to surviving a tsunami, including the
importance of getting to higher ground and staying there, even if your
family is scattered. It's also important to find a way to hoof it to
higher ground — rather than trying to drive and dealing with gridlock —
while also designating someone on solid ground as the family contact
point. Governments, he said, can make it easier for people to
survive tsunamis by creating shelters on high ground, and making sure
paths uphill are clear of the invasive blackberry brambles that plague
the coast.
In Cannon Beach, the 1,500 capacity of the proposed City Hall refuge is
about the size of the town's permanent population. At the height of the
tourist season, there are three to four times as many people.
Most would have to rely on following an evacuation route to get above
the waves — something locals would likely know well but could be
difficult for tourists already panicked by the quake.
Raskin said his concern about earthquakes dates to his work as an
architect in the San Francisco Bay area during the 1989 Loma Prieta
earthquake and argues that Cannon Beach has a responsibility to the
tourists the town has invited to the coast.
Choking up in an interview, he said, "I don't want to be in a position
to say that I didn't do enough."
Japan tsunami
footage to help predict
future waves
I-BBC
21 March 2011 Last updated at 02:48 ET
When the powerful earthquake of 11 March triggered a tsunami that
struck swathes of Japan's north-east coast, residents, TV crews and
fixed cameras captured images of the devastating wave. Footage of
the debris-filled water sweeping across fields and through houses has
since been broadcast all over the world. But as well as providing
an idea of how it felt to experience the tragedy first-hand, experts
say the images can now be used to better understand the characteristics
of tsunamis and help save lives in the future.
"Without exaggeration, it will lead to a quantum leap in the way that
we calculate and we estimate how fast the tsunami propagates on land,"
says Dr Costas Synolakis from the University of California and the
Hellenic Centre for Marine Research in Greece. He has studied
more than 20 tsunamis over the past two decades. He says that
while there are multiple methods for predicting the path of a tsunami
across the ocean, much less is known about what happens when the giant
wave reaches land.
Dr Synolakis told BBC World Service's Science in Action programme that
the footage emerging from Japan would help address this lack of
knowledge.
"We really did not understand as well how the tsunami floods and
inundates inland," he said. "It really depends on what kind of
structures you have, whether it's farm land, whether it's an airport,
whether it's roads.
"All of this is going to be incredibly useful data to develop even
better models to forecast inundation. It'll be wonderful if we were
able to do that five, 10, 15 minutes before it actually happens."
As an earthquake strikes, early models of tsunamis are produced by
millions of calculations and vast amounts of data-gathering which
attempt to accurately predict the size and path of the wave. Much
of this data is collected by tsunamographs, instruments that lie up to
5,000 metres below the water's surface, measuring changes in water
pressure and transmitting information to nearby buoys. The buoys
then send this data, via satellite, back to warning centres.
"As the wave keeps on propagating across the Pacific, more and more
tsunamograph recordings become available, so the forecast improves,"
said Dr Synolakis.
However, even with these increasingly sophisticated techniques, there
are still surprises. Often, due to inconsistencies in the sea bed
and other natural variations, a tsunami can take a dramatically
different course.
"In the business we call them the fingers of God, it's almost like the
tsunami energy is channelled in certain specific directions," he said.
Another limitation of this system, known as the Method of Splitting
Tsunami (MOST), is that it deals almost exclusively with what tsunamis
do in the ocean and to the immediate coastline, whereas the Japan
disaster has shown the need for a better understanding of what occurs
when a wave heads far inland.
"The application of MOST has been primarily to try to predict
inundation and save people along open beaches," said Dr Synolakis. "It
hasn't really been used to predict tsunami water heights and depths on
powerplants and structures because that had been considered a secondary
priority by civil defence.
"The first thing that civil defence around the world wants to know is
how many people are at risk along coast lines. They never paid
attention to industrial facilities. I think this event is going to
change all that."
Dr Synolakis believes lessons learned from Japan will undoubtedly lead
to safer, more flood resilient buildings - particularly power plants.
"Back 40 years ago, when [the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant] was
designed, we didn't understand tsunamis at all. We were basically in
the very early stages of estimating tsunami floods."
Yet, even with better equipped building defences, some natural
disasters will always cause devastation.
"I've been in the field in over 20 tsunamis since 1992. This was the
worst that I've ever seen - it was unimaginable, even though I consider
myself a fairly seasoned tsunamista."
Tide
of 1,000 bodies overwhelms
quake-hit Japan
By JAY ALABASTER and TODD PITMAN, Associated Press
March 2011
TAKAJO, Japan – A tide of bodies washed up along Japan's coastline,
crematoriums were overwhelmed and rescue workers ran out of body bags
as the nation faced the grim reality of a mounting humanitarian,
economic and nuclear crisis Monday after a calamitous tsunami.
Millions of people were facing a fourth night without water, food or
heating in near-freezing temperatures in the northeast devastated by an
earthquake and the wave it spawned. Meanwhile, a third reactor at a
nuclear power plant lost its cooling capacity and the fuel rods at
another were at least briefly fully exposed, raising fears of a
meltdown. The stock market plunged over the likelihood of huge losses
by Japanese industries including big names such as Toyota and Honda.
A Japanese police official said 1,000 washed up bodies were found
scattered Monday across the coastline of Miyagi prefecture. The
official declined to be named, citing department policy.
The discovery raised the official death toll to about 2,800, but the
Miyagi police chief has said that more than 10,000 people are estimated
to have died in his province alone, which has a population of 2.3
million.
In one town in a neighboring prefecture, the crematorium was unable to
handle the crush of bodies being brought in for funerals.
"We have already begun cremations, but we can only handle 18 bodies a
day. We are overwhelmed and are asking other cites to help us deal with
bodies. We only have one crematorium in town," Katsuhiko Abe, an
official in Soma, told The Associated Press.
In Japan, most people opt to cremate their dead, a process that, like
burial, requires permission first from local authorities. But the
government took the rare step Monday of waiving that requirement to
speed up funerals, said Health Ministry official Yukio Okuda.
"The current situation is so extraordinary, and it is very likely that
crematoriums are running beyond capacity," said Okuda. "This is an
emergency measure. We want to help quake-hit people as much as we can."
Friday's double tragedy has caused unimaginable deprivation for people
of this industrialized country — Asia's richest — which hasn't seen
such hardship since World War II. In many areas there is no running
water, no power and four- to five-hour waits for gasoline. People are
suppressing hunger with instant noodles or rice balls while dealing
with the loss of loved ones and homes.
"People are surviving on little food and water. Things are simply not
coming," said Hajime Sato, a government official in Iwate prefecture,
one of the three hardest hit.
He said authorities were receiving just 10 percent of the food and
other supplies they need. Body bags and coffins were running so short
that the government may turn to foreign funeral homes for help, he said.
"We have requested funeral homes across the nation to send us many body
bags and coffins. But we simply don't have enough," he told the AP. "We
just did not expect such a thing to happen. It's just overwhelming."
The pulverized coast has been hit by hundreds of aftershocks since
Friday, the latest one a 6.2 magnitude quake that was followed by a new
tsunami scare Monday. As sirens wailed, soldiers abandoned their search
operations and told residents of the devastated shoreline in Soma, the
worst hit town in Fukushima prefecture, to run to higher ground.
They barked out orders: "Find high ground! Get out of here!" Several
soldiers were seen leading an old woman up a muddy hillside. The
warning turned out to be a false alarm.
Search parties arrived in Soma for the first time since Friday to dig
out bodies. Ambulances stood by and body bags were laid out in an area
cleared of debris, as firefighters used hand picks and chain saws to
clear an indescribable jumble of broken timber, plastic sheets, roofs,
sludge, twisted cars, tangled powerlines and household goods.
Helicopters buzzed overhead, surveying the destruction that spanned the
horizon. Ships were flipped over near roads, a half-mile (a kilometer)
inland. Officials said one-third of the city of 38,000 people was
flooded and thousands were missing.
In addition to the more than 2,800 people who have been confirmed dead,
more than 1,400 were missing. Another 1,900 were injured.
Japanese officials have refused to speculate on how high the death toll
could rise, but experts who dealt with the 2004 Asian tsunami offered a
dire outlook.
"It's a miracle really, if it turns out to be less than 10,000 (dead),"
said Hery Harjono, a senior geologist with the Indonesian Science
Institute, who was closely involved with the aftermath of the earlier
disaster that killed 230,000 people — of which only 184,000 bodies were
found.
He drew parallels between the two disasters — notably that many bodies
in Japan may have been sucked out to sea or remain trapped beneath
rubble as they did in Indonesia's hardest-hit Aceh province. But he
also stressed that Japan's infrastructure, high-level of preparedness
and city planning to keep houses away from the shore could mitigate
their human losses.
The Japanese government has sent 100,000 troops to lead the aid effort.
It has sent 120,000 blankets, 120,000 bottles of water and 29,000
gallons (110,000 liters) of gasoline plus food to the affected areas.
However, electricity will take days to restore.
According to public broadcaster NHK, some 430,000 people are living in
emergency shelters or with relatives. Another 24,000 people are
stranded, it said.
One reason for the loss of power is the damage several nuclear reactors
in the area. At one plant, Fukushima Dai-ichi, three reactors have lost
the ability to cool down, the latest on Monday. Explosions have
destroyed the containment buildings of the other two reactors. Fuel
rods at the third were fully explosed, at least briefly, on Monday.
Operators were dumping sea water into all three reactors in a
last-ditch attempt to cool their superheated containers that faced
possible meltdown. If that happens, they could release radioactive
material in the air.
But Japan's Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano said the inner
containment vessel holding the nuclear fuel rods at the reactor that
experienced an explosion Monday was intact, allaying some fears of the
risk to the environment. The containment vessel of the first reactor is
also safe, according to officials.
Still, people within a 12-mile (20-kilometer) radius were ordered to
stay inside homes following the blast. AP journalists felt Monday's
explosion 25 miles (40 kilometers) away.
Military personnel on helicopters returning to ships with the U.S. 7th
Fleet registered low-level of radioactive contamination Monday, but
were cleared after a scrub-down. As a precaution, the ship shifted to a
different area off the coast.
More than 180,000 people have evacuated the area around the plants in
recent days.
Also, Tokyo Electric Power held off on imposing rolling blackouts
planned for Monday, but called for people to try to limit electricity
use.
Edano said the utility was still prepared to go ahead with power
rationing if necessary. The decision reflected an understanding of the
profound inconveniences many would experience.
Many regional train lines were suspended or operating on a limited
schedule to help reduce the power load.
Japan's central bank injected 15 trillion yen (US$184 billion) into
money markets Monday to stem worries about the world's third-largest
economy.
Stocks fell Monday on the first business day after the disasters. The
benchmark Nikkei 225 stock average shed nearly 634 points, or 6.2
percent, to 9,620.49, extending losses from Friday. Escalating concerns
over the fallout of the disaster triggered a plunge that hit all
sectors. The broader Topix index lost 7.5 percent.
Japan's economy has been ailing for 20 years, barely managing to eke
out weak growth between slowdowns. It is saddled by a massive public
debt that, at 200 percent of gross domestic product, is the biggest
among industrialized nations.
Preliminary estimates put repair costs from the earthquake and tsunami
in the tens of billions of dollars — a huge blow for an already fragile
economy that lost its place as the world's No. 2 to China last year.
Tsunami warning lifted; Waves reach
Japan,
Russia
YAHOO
By ERIC TALMADGE, Associated Press Writer
Feb. 28, 2010
TOKYO – The tsunami from Chile's deadly earthquake hit Japan's main
islands and the shores of Russia on Sunday, but the
smaller-than-expected waves prompted the lifting of a Pacific-wide
alert. Hawaii and other Pacific islands were also spared.
In Japan, where hundreds of thousands of people were evacuated from
shorelines, the biggest wave following the magnitude-8.8 quake off
Chile hit the northern island of Hokkaido. There were no immediate
reports of damage from the four-foot (1.2-meter) wave, though some
piers were briefly flooded.
As it crossed the Pacific, the tsunami dealt populated areas —
including the U.S. state of Hawaii — only a glancing blow.
The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center in Hawaii issued a warning for 53
nations and territories, but lifted it Sunday, though some countries
were keeping their own watches in place as a precaution.
The tsunami raised fears the Pacific could fall victim to the type of
devastating waves that killed 230,000 people in the Indian Ocean in
2004 the morning after Christmas. During that disaster, there was
little-to-no warning and much confusion about the impending waves.
Officials said the opposite occurred after the Chile quake: They
overstated their predictions of the size of the waves and the threat.
"We expected the waves to be bigger in Hawaii, maybe about 50 percent
bigger than they actually were," said Gerard Fryer, a geophysicist for
the warning center. "We'll be looking at that."
Japan, fearing the tsunami could gain force as it moved closer, put all
of its eastern coastline on tsunami alert and ordered hundreds of
thousands of residents in low-lying areas to seek higher ground as
waves generated by the Chilean earthquake raced across the Pacific at
hundreds of miles (kilometers) per hour.
Japan is particularly sensitive to the tsunami threat.
In July 1993 a tsunami triggered by a major earthquake off Japan's
northern coast killed more than 200 people on the small island of
Okushiri. A stronger quake near Chile in 1960 created a tsunami that
killed about 140 people in Japan.
Towns along northern coasts issued evacuation orders to 400,000
residents, Japanese public broadcaster NHK said. NHK switched to
emergency mode, broadcasting a map with the areas in most danger and
repeatedly urging caution.
As the wave continued its expansion across the ocean, Japan's
Meteorological Agency said waves of up to 10 feet (three meters) could
hit the northern prefectures of Aomori, Iwate and Miyagi, but the first
waves were much smaller.
People packed their families into cars, but there were no reports of
panic or traffic jams. Fishermen secured their boats, and police
patrolled beaches, using sirens and loudspeakers to warn people to
leave the area.
Elsewhere, the tsunami passed gently.
By the time the tsunami hit Hawaii — a full 16 hours after the quake —
officials had already spent the morning blasting emergency sirens,
blaring warnings from airplanes and ordering residents to higher ground.
The islands were back to paradise by the afternoon, but residents
endured a severe disruption and scare earlier in the day: Picturesque
beaches were desolate, million-dollar homes were evacuated, shops in
Waikiki were shut down, and residents lined up at supermarkets to stock
up on food and at gas stations.
Waves hit California, but barely registered amid stormy weather. A
surfing contest outside San Diego went on as planned.
In Tonga, where up to 50,000 people fled inland hours ahead of the
tsunami, the National Disaster Office had reports of a wave up to 6.5
feet (two meters) high hitting a small northern island, deputy director
Mali'u Takai said. There were no initial indications of damage.
Nine people died in Tonga last September when the Samoa tsunami slammed
the small northern island of Niuatoputapu, wiping out half of the main
settlement.
In Samoa, where 183 people died in the tsunami five months ago,
thousands remained Sunday morning in the hills above the coasts on the
main island of Upolu, but police said there were no reports of waves or
sea surges hitting the South Pacific nation.
At least 20,000 people abandoned their homes in southeastern Philippine
villages and took shelter in government buildings or fled to nearby
mountains overnight due to the tsunami scare. Provincial officials
scrambled to alert villagers and prepare contingency plans, according
to the National Disaster Coordinating Council.
Philippine navy and coast guard vessels, along with police, were
ordered to stand by for possible evacuation but the alert was lifted
late Sunday afternoon.
Indonesia's Meteorology and Geophysics Agency said there was no tsunami
risk for the archipelago as it was too far from the quake's epicenter.
On New Zealand's Chatham Islands earlier Sunday, officials reported a
wave measured at 6.6 feet (two meters).
Oceanographer Ken Gledhill said it was typical tsunami behavior when
the sea water dropped three feet (a meter) off North Island's east
coast at Gisborne and then surged back.
Several hundred people in the North Island coastal cities of Gisborne
and Napier were evacuated from their homes and from camp grounds, while
residents in low-lying areas on South Island's Banks Peninsula were
alerted to be ready to evacuate.
Australia's Bureau of Meteorology canceled its tsunami warning Sunday
evening.
"The main tsunami waves have now passed all Australian locations," the
bureau said.
No damage was reported in Australia from small waves that were recorded
earlier in the day in New South Wales, Queensland, Tasmania and Norfolk
Island, about 1,000 miles (1,600 kilometers) northeast of Sydney.
New Zealand's Ministry of Civil Defense and Emergency Management
downgraded its tsunami warning to an advisory status, which it planned
to keep in place overnight.
Quake-triggered
tsunami begins
affecting Hawaii
YAHOO
5:07pm, Feb. 27, 2010
HILO, Hawaii – Scientists have confirmed that the tsunami triggered by
the earthquake in Chile has reached Hawaii.
The extent of the damage was not immediately clear, but the effects of
the tsunami were obvious.
Water began pulling away from shore off Hilo Bay on the Big Island just
before noon, exposing reefs and sending dark streaks of muddy, sandy
water offshore. Water later washed over Coconut Island, a small park
off the coast of Hilo.
The tsunami raced across the Pacific Ocean in terrifying force after
the magnitude-8.8 quake hit Chile. Officials in Hawaii had ample time
to get people out of the potential disaster area, and thousands were
evacuated.
THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further
information. AP's earlier story is below.
HILO, Hawaii (AP) — Waters have begun receding off the shores of Hawaii
in what appears to be the first sign of a tsunami.
The tsunami began affecting Hilo Bay on the Big Island just before noon
local time. Water began pulling away from shore, exposing reefs and
sending dark streaks of muddy, sandy water offshore. That is usually an
indication of the wave building strength before coming ashore.
The tsunami raced across the Pacific Ocean in terrifying force after
the magnitude-8.8 quake hit Chile. Officials in Hawaii had ample time
to get people out of the potential disaster area, and thousands were
evacuated.
Hawaii blasts sirens, warns of
possible
tsunami
DAY
By JAYMES SONG, Associated Press Writer
Feb
27, 2010, 2:43 PM EST
EWA BEACH, Hawaii (AP) -- A
tsunami triggered by the Chilean
earthquake raced across the Pacific
Ocean on Saturday, threatening Hawaii and the U.S. West Coast as well
as hundreds of islands from the bottom of the planet to the top.
Sirens blared in Hawaii to alert residents to the potential waves. Nine
small planes equipped with loudspeakers flew along the shoreline,
warning beachgoers. On several South Pacific islands hit by a tsunami
last fall, police evacuated tens of thousands of coastal residents.
The first waves in Hawaii were expected to hit shortly after 11 a.m.
Saturday (4 p.m. EST; 2100 GMT) and measure roughly 8 feet (2.5 meters)
at Hilo. Most Pacific Rim nations did not immediately order
evacuations, but advised people in low-lying areas to be on the lookout.
Unlike other tsunamis in recent years in which residents had little to
if any warnings, emergency officials along the Pacific on Saturday had
hours to prepare and decide on evacuating residents.
"We've got a lot of things going for us," said Charles McCreery, the
director of the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center, which issues warnings
to almost every country around the Pacific Rim and to most of the
Pacific island states. "We have a reasonable lead time.
In Hawaii, boats and people near the coast were being evacuated. Hilo
International Airport, located along the coast, was closed. In
Honolulu, residents lined up at supermarkets to stock up on water,
canned food and batteries. Cars lined up 15 long at several gas
stations.
"These are dangerous, dangerous events," said John Cummings, spokesman
for the Honolulu Emergency Management Department.
In Tonga, where nine people died in a Sept. 29 tsunami, police and
defense forces began evacuating tens of thousands of people from
low-lying coastal areas as they warned residents that waves about three
feet (one meter) high could wash ashore.
"I can hear the church bells ringing to alert the people," National
Disaster Office deputy director Mali'u Takai said.
On the island of Robinson Crusoe, a huge wave from the tsunami covered
half the village of San Juan Batista and three people were missing,
said Ivan de la Maza, the superintendent of Chile's principal mainland
port, Valparaiso.
A helicopter and a Navy frigate were enroute to the island to assist in
the search, he said.
A tsunami warning - the highest alert level - was in effect for Hawaii,
Guam, American Samoa, Samoa and dozens of other Pacific islands. An
advisory - the lowest level - includes California, Oregon, Washington
state, parts of Alaska, and coastal British Colombia.
British Columbia is hosting the Winter Olympic Games, but provincial
officials said the venues are not under threat.
U.S. President Barack Obama says the government is preparing for a
tsunami and he wants people in Hawaii, American Samoa and Guam to
follow the instructions of local authorities.
American Samoa Lt. Gov. Aitofele Sunia called on residents of shoreline
villages to move to higher ground. Police in Samoa issued a nationwide
alert to begin coastal evacuations. The tsunami is expected to reach
the islands Saturday morning.
In French Polynesia, tsunami waves up to 6 feet (2 meters) high swept
ashore, but no damage was immediately reported.
Meanwhile, disaster management officials in Fiji said they have been
warned to expect waves of as high as 7.5 feet (2.3 meters) to hit the
northern and eastern islands of the archipelago and the nearby Tonga
islands.
A lower-grade tsunami advisory was in effect for the coast of
California and an Alaskan coastal area from Kodiak to Attu islands.
Tsunami Center officials said they did not expect the advisory would be
upgraded to a warning.
Waves were likely to hit Asian, Australian and New Zealand shores
within 24 hours of Saturday's quake. A tsunami wave can travel at up to
600 mph, said Jenifer Rhoades, tsunami program manager at the National
Weather Service in Washington, DC.
Some Pacific nations in the warning area were heavily damaged by a
tsunami last year.
In last fall's tsunami, spawned by a magnitude-8.3 earthquake, also
killed 34 people in American Samoa and 183 in Samoa. Scientists later
said that wave was 46 feet (14 meters) high.
The tsunami warning center said the waves reached the islands so
quickly residents had only about 10 minutes to respond to its alert.
During the devastating December 2004 Indian ocean tsunami, there was
little to no warning and confusion about the impending waves. The
tsunami eradicated entire coastal communities the morning after
Christmas, killing 230,000 people.
The sirens in Hawaii will also be sounded again three hours prior to
the estimated arrival time.
Every TV was showing the news. Convenience stores and McDonald's and
Burger King restaurants shut down. A few people were on the famed
beach, including joggers on the sidewalk, but far fewer than normal.
Most seemed to be watching the ocean.
In Hilo, officials cordoned off the first three blocks next to the
beach. A few people watched the still ocean as a whale swam off the
coast, but streets were mostly empty as tsunami sirens blared. Gas
stations had long lines, some 10 cars deep.
The SackNSave grocery store was filled with people buying everything
from instant noodles to beer. Shelves with water were mostly empty,
save a few bottles.
"They are buying everything we got," clerk Memory Phillik said.
Hawaii Gov. Linda Lingle declared a state of emergency. She said
leprosy patients from the Kalaupapa settlement on Molokai have been
moved to higher ground. Helicopters are standing by if the patients
need to be moved to a safer area.
Past South American earthquakes have had deadly effects across the
Pacific.
A tsunami after a magnitude-9.5 quake that struck Chile in 1960, the
largest earthquake ever recorded, killed about 140 people in Japan, 61
in Hawaii and 32 in the Philippines. It was about 3.3 to 13 feet (one
to four meters) in height, Japan's Meteorological Agency said.
Japanese public broadcaster NHK quoted earthquake experts as saying the
tsunami would likely be tens of centimeters (inches) high and reach
Japan in about 22 hours. A tsunami of 28 centimeters (11 inches) was
recorded after a magnitude-8.4 earthquake near Chile in 2001.
The Joint Australian Tsunami Warning Center issued a tsunami warning
Saturday night for a "potential tsunami threat" to New South Wales
state, Queensland state, Lord Howe Island and Norfolk Island. Any wave
would not hit Australia until Sunday morning local time, it said.
New Zealand officials warned that "non-destructive" tsunami waves of
less than three feet could hit the entire east coast of the country's
two main islands and its Chatham Islands territory, some 300 miles east
of New Zealand.
Seismologist Fumihiko Imamura, of Japan's Tohoku University, told NHK
that residents near ocean shores should not underestimate the power of
a tsunami even though they may be generated by quakes on the other side
of the ocean.
"There is the possibility that it could reach Japan without losing its
strength," he said.
---
Associated Press writers Mark Niesse,
Audrey McAvoy, David Briscoe and Greg Small in Honolulu, Kristen
Gelineau in Sydney, Chris Havlik in Phoenix, Ray Lilley in Auckland,
New Zealand, Eric Talmadge in Tokyo, Alan Clendenning in Sao Paulo,
Brazil, and Charmaine Noronha in Toronto contributed to this report.
© 2010 The Associated Press. All
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Tsunami
warning system worked, but not in time
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
Joseph Weber and Audrey Hudson
Originally published 04:45 a.m., October 1, 2009,
updated 10:24 a.m., October 1, 2009
An early warning system introduced after the disastrous Christmas 2004
tsunami worked as planned, U.S. officials say, but failed to prevent
the deaths of more than 100 people in Samoa and American Samoa on
Tuesday because of the proximity of the originating earthquake.
It was the first practical test of the system, set up in response to
the 2004 wave that killed more than 220,000 people in the Indian Ocean
region, primarily in Indonesia.
Officials scrambled after an 8.0-magnitude earthquake shook just before
dawn Tuesday, and after a flurry of phone calls within the National
Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's (NOAA) Pacific Island offices,
the first warning was issued within 16 minutes, said NOAA spokeswoman
Delores Clark. She said that was well within the agency's range of 10
to 20 minutes for an acceptable warning. But because the quake
was so close to American Samoa, it was just four
minutes after the warning that a series of two-story-high waves crashed
over low-lying villages and heavily damaged the capital city of Pago
Pago.
Samoa's Deputy Prime Minister Misa Telefoni told Australia's AAP news
agency that the event happened so quickly there was little time to get
out of harm's way.
"The difficulty is that it now appears that the [earthquake] fault was
very, very close to us and we only had minutes rather than hours to
respond," Mr. Telefoni said.
"People were saying that there was the shake and the ocean went out
within five minutes, so that's pretty fast and that makes it extremely
difficult," he added. "With the location and the intensity, I don't
know [if] anything better could have been done."
Joey Cummings, a radio disc jockey at 93KHJ in Pago Pago, told the BBC
that as soon as the earthquake hit, the station told schools to
initiate tsunami warnings and transport children up the mountain.
Mrs. Clark said the earthquake hit at 6:48 a.m. local time, and the
Hawaii office issued its first warning at 7:04 a.m., 16 minutes later.
She said the tsunami hit roughly 20 minutes after the earthquake, or
four minutes after the official warning.
Mrs. Clark said the center's computers - like those at its twin, the
Alaska Tsunami Warning Center - constantly monitor seismic data for
earthquakes, then look at water levels to determine whether to send out
tsunami warnings or watches. NOAA said it has made a "significant
investment" in tsunami detection and warning systems since the 2004
disaster in Indonesia.
The agency increased the number of tsunami buoys around the world from
six to 39 at a cost of about $1 million each, Mrs. Clark said. She said
the expenditure "absolutely has helped" with tsunami detection.
She also said the Hawaii office and the International Tsunami
Information Center recently held a workshop on American Samoa, which
helped local officials know how to respond to the first signs of an
earthquake.
"That was very helpful," Mrs. Clark said.
As the official death toll rose Wednesday, dozens of people remained
missing among the destroyed buildings and mud-soaked streets.
Entire villages have reportedly been destroyed by the four waves that
rumbled over the island.
President Obama declared the island a disaster area, a designation that
sets recovery efforts in motion and makes federal funding immediately
available.
"Michelle and I send our deepest condolences to the families and loved
ones of those who lost their lives in the earthquake and tsunami in
American Samoa and the region," Mr. Obama said.
"I am closely monitoring these tragic events, and have declared a major
disaster for American Samoa, which will provide the tools necessary for
a full, swift and aggressive response. The Federal Emergency Management
Agency is in close and constant contact with emergency responders, and
the U.S. Coast Guard is fully supporting the deployment of resources to
those areas in need of immediate assistance," the president said.
"Going forward, we will continue to provide the resources necessary to
respond to this catastrophe, and we will keep those who have lost so
much in our thoughts and prayers," he added.
A team of National Guardsmen was headed Wednesday to the island aboard
a Coast Guard plane, and personnel from FEMA
were also en route with
emergency supplies.
The officials will assist in rescue-and-recover efforts - including
restoring power and cleaning up the heavily damaged southern part of
the island, which is coated in mud and filled with debris, including
boats and overturned cars. Roughly 85 guardsmen were preparing to
depart from Hawaii and will be
in American Samoa within the next 24 hours, National Guard spokesman
Walter Debany said Wednesday. He said the team, from the Hawaii
National Guard's 154th Airlift Wing,
will arrive in two or three C-17 cargo planes and will help local
officials with specialized duties such as communications and hazardous
materials.
"This is not an ad hoc effort," he said. "This is what they've trained
for. They are well-trained."
Water lines have been damaged, and the island's main power station is
down, so residents could be without electricity for a month, Samoa News
reported. The quake was centered about 120 miles south of Samoa
and American Samoa, a U.S. territory. Eni Faleomavaega, the
territory's non-voting delegate in Congress, was
unavailable Wednesday because he was returning home from Washington.
At Least 529 Die as
Quake
Hits Indonesia Island
NYTIMES
By PETER GELLING and MARK McDONALD
October 2, 2009
PADANG, Indonesia — Padang was in chaos on Thursday — fires burning,
sirens blaring, dazed residents wandering the streets, thousands of
people reportedly trapped beneath collapsed buildings — after a
powerful earthquake struck just 30 miles off this city on the island of
Sumatra.
The quake, which struck Wednesday evening with a magnitude of 7.6, has
killed at least 529 people, according to the Social Affairs Ministry.
The death toll was almost certain to rise, officials said, as rescuers
dug further into collapsed hospitals, offices, homes and a school.
On Thursday morning, just as the airport was reopening and rescue teams
were setting to work, the city was rattled by another quake, this one
registering 6.6. The epicenter was 140 miles southeast of the Padang
quake, according to the United States Geological Survey.
Every building over three stories in Padang suffered damage from the
initial quake, and the city’s three main hospitals all collapsed. At
the biggest hopsital, Djamil, beds were pulled from the wreckage to
serve the injured. Soon, however, all the mattresses were soaked in
blood. Gloves, medicine bottles and bandages were strewn on the ground.
Dozens of bodies were piled nearby, some clothed, some not, and weeping
citizens searched the faces for missing relatives.
Late Thursday afternoon, a rumor based on local earthquake folklore
raced through Padang that another large quake was coming, and people
lined up by the thousands for gasoline and food.
Padang, a port city of 900,000, is on the west-central coast of
Sumatra, Indonesia’s largest island. The western coast is stippled with
dozens of volcanoes, and Padang also sits alongside the Sunda Trench,
part of the notorious Ring of Fire, the volatile network of volcanic
arcs and oceanic trenches that partly encircles the Pacific Basin. The
ring — and Sumatra in particular — is a zone of frequent earthquakes
and volcanic activity.
Elsewhere in the basin, on Tuesday, an underwater earthquake measuring
8.0 created a tsunami that sent massive walls of water crashing into
the islands of Samoa, American Samoa and Tonga.
Reports from government officials, the police, aid workers and news
agencies showed Thursday that at least 154 people had been killed by
the tsunami — 115 on Samoa, 30 on American Samoa and 9 on Tonga.
The prime minister of Samoa, Tuilaepa Sailele, while visiting one
inundated village, witnessed the discovery of two bodies — a mother and
a 12-year-old boy.
“It was shocking,” he said in an interview with Radio New Zealand. “The
devastation that has been caused is complete. All this was achieved in
10 minutes.”
There also were reports of 145 people injured, some of them critically,
and dozens of villages were demolished throughout the islands. Many
beachside resorts were wiped out, along with homes, boats and
businesses. Widespread devastation also was seen on television from the
American Samoan capital, Pago Pago.
“It is the worst one we have had,” said Lilo Malava, the police
commissioner of Samoa, in a telephone interview.
The tsunami — described by the governor of American Samoa as a series
of four major waves — arrived with so little warning that many
residents and tourists were caught unawares.
Filipo Ilaoa, deputy director of the American Samoa office in Honolulu,
said that the tsunami struck the territory’s coast in “a matter of
minutes” after the quake and that many residents would not have had
much time to run for higher ground.
“American Samoa is a small island, and most of the residents are around
the coastline,” he said. “There was no warning or anything at all. By
the time the alert was out of the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center, it
had already hit.”
New Zealand and Australia dispatched cargo flights and observation
planes to the Samoas. And President Obama authorized federal funds to
supplement local relief and recovery efforts on American Samoa, a
United States territory.
The epicenters of the Samoan and Indonesian quakes were located about
6,000 miles apart but brought back vivid memories of the horrific
tsunami that ravaged South Asia and Southeast Asia on December 26,
2004. Nearly a quarter-million people across the Indian Ocean region
were killed.
The undersea earthquake that caused the Samoan tsunami and the quake in
Indonesia on Wednesday evening, while from similar causes, were not
directly connected, according to Julie Dutton, a geophysicist at the
National Earthquake Information Center in Golden, Colo.
Both occurred in spots where one plate of the earth’s crust is
subducting, or sliding beneath another plate. In spots, the two plates
can become stuck until accumulating pressure leads to a sudden heaving
release of energy. Under the sea, if the quake is around a magnitude of
8.0 or stronger and the seabed shifts in a way that moves a lot of
water, the result is the high-energy waves of a tsunami.
The deeper the epicenter under the seabed, the less potential there is
for a tsunami. In Sumatra, the depth of the epicenter was 49.7 miles,
according to the United States Geological Survey. In Samoa, it was just
11.2 miles below the seabed. For coastal areas close to the epicenter
of a strong undersea earthquake, there is also little time for a formal
tsunami warning to be sounded, Ms. Dutton said.
The United States was concentrating its rescue efforts on American
Samoa, sending two cargo planes from Honolulu to the area on Wednesday,
said Craig Fugate, administrator of the Federal Emergency Management
Agency.
“We’re looking at both an airlift and a sealift,” Mr. Fugate told
reporters in a conference call. “This will not be a short-term
response.”
Mr. Fugate said that it was clear the tsunami had caused a “major
disaster” but that it was too early for his office to provide or
confirm estimates of deaths, injuries or property damage.
Peter Gelling reported from Padang,
and Mark McDonald from Hong Kong. Reporting was contributed by
Norimitsu Onishi from Jakarta, Indonesia; Brian Knowlton from
Washington; Meraiah Foley from Sydney, Australia; Liz Robbins from New
York; and Andrew C. Revkin from New York.
Over 300 Die in Sumatra
and Samoas Quakes
NYTIMES
By LIZ ROBBINS
October 1, 2009
Devastation from two earthquakes thousands of miles apart spread
throughout Southeast Asia and the South Pacific on Wednesday, leaving
death, injuries and panic in their wake from Indonesia’s western coast
to the far-flung islands of Samoa and American Samoa.
On the island of Sumatra, in Indonesia, a 7.6-magnitude quake struck
Wednesday evening just 30 miles off the coast of the city of Padang,
killing at least 200 people and trapping thousands in buildings.
Indonesian television stations showed images of flattened hospitals,
hotels and houses, burning cars and terrified residents running in the
center of the city. Power and telecommunications were cut, complicating
rescue efforts when night fell.
A second earthquake struck western Indonesia on Thursday morning more
than 100 miles from the epicenter of the quake on Wednesday, The
Associated Press reported. There were no immediate reports of damage.
Early on Tuesday in the Samoas, an underwater 8.0 magnitude quake
produced a tsunami that struck with little warning after dawn, causing
at least 103 deaths and 145 injuries, destroying villages throughout
the islands. “It is the worst one we have had,” said Lilo Malava, the
police commissioner of Samoa, in a telephone interview.
The Red Cross of Samoa said that 79 bodies had been recovered by
Wednesday morning, and that 30 villages were hit hardest by the tsunami.
The epicenters of the quakes were located about 6,000 miles apart in an
unsettled region, and immediately brought back vivid memories of the
horrific tsunami that ravaged South Asia and Southeast Asia nearly five
years ago, killing hundreds of thousands of people.
The undersea earthquake that caused the Samoan tsunami and the latest
strong quake in Indonesia, while from similar causes, were not directly
connected, according to Julie Dutton, a geophysicist at the National
Earthquake Information Center in Golden, Colo.
Both occurred in spots where one plate of the earth’s crust is
subducting, or sliding beneath another plate. In spots, the two plates
can become stuck until accumulating pressure leads to a sudden heaving
release of energy. Under the sea, if the quake is around a magnitude of
8.0 or stronger and the seabed shifts in a way that moves a lot of
water, the result is the high-energy waves of a tsunami.
The deeper the epicenter under the seabed, the less potential there is
for a tsunami. In Sumatra, the depth of the epicenter was 49.7 miles,
according to the United States Geological Survey. In Samoa, it was just
11.2 miles below the seabed. For coastal areas close to the epicenter
of a strong undersea earthquake, there is also little time for a formal
tsunami warning to be sounded, Ms. Dutton said.
That appeared to be the case in the Samoas, where successive waves of
earthquakes produced more damage throughout the day on Tuesday. The
United States was concentrating its rescue efforts on American Samoa,
sending two cargo planes from Honolulu to the area on Wednesday, said
Craig Fugate, administrator of the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
“We’re looking at both an airlift and a sealift,” Mr. Fugate told
reporters in a conference call. “This will not be a short-term
response.”
Mr. Fugate said that it was clear the tsunami had caused a “major
disaster” but that it was too early for his office to provide or
confirm estimates of deaths, injuries or property damage.
On Tuesday, officials said that at least 24 people had been killed, and
the territory’s governor, Togiola T. A. Tulafono, said in a news
conference that the worst damage had been caused by the second and
third waves in a series of four. Widespread devastation was also
reported in the territory’s capital, Pago Pago.
The Samoan quake struck below the ocean about 120 miles southwest of
American Samoa and 125 miles south of Samoa, according to the
geological survey.
Filipo Ilaoa, deputy director of the American Samoa office in Honolulu,
said that the tsunami struck the territory’s coast in “a matter of
minutes” after the quake and that many residents would not have had
much time to run for higher ground.
“American Samoa is a small island, and most of the residents are around
the coastline,” he said. “There was no warning or anything at all. By
the time the alert was out of the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center, it
had already hit.”
In Samoa, the authorities were expecting rescue assistance and relief
aid from New Zealand and Australia, Mr. Malava said.
In Sumatra on Wednesday, officials feared the death toll was likely to
rise. Priyadi Kardono, a spokesman for the National Disaster Management
Agency, said Thursday that at least 200 people had died. But the toll
was almost certain to increase, given the number of people who the
authorities said were still trapped in the rubble of buildings.
Reporting was contributed by
Norimitsu Onishi from Jakarta, Indonesia; Brian Knowlton from
Washington; Meraiah Foley from Sydney, Australia; and Andrew C. Revkin
from New York.
8.0
magnitude quake generates tsunami
off Samoa islands
YAHOO
September 29, 2009
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – A powerful 8.0 magnitude earthquake in the
Pacific off the Samoa islands region generated a tsunami and waves of
more than five feet had already been observed, U.S. government agencies
said on Tuesday. An official of the U.S. National Park Service
said there had been deaths in American Samoa, but there was no word on
how many people had died.
A tsunami was observed at Apia, Western Samoa, and at Pago Pago,
American Samoa, according to the West Coast/Alaska Tsunami Warning
Center, a branch of the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric
Administration. The waves at Pago Pago were 5.1 feet above normal
sea level, according to the Pacific Western Tsunami Warning Center in
Hawaii.
The center earlier issued a tsunami warning for New Zealand, American
Samoa and other small Pacific islands.
American Samoa is a tiny U.S. territory that lies about halfway between
Hawaii and New Zealand. It is home to about 65,000 people. Holly
Bundock, spokeswoman for the National Park Service's Pacific West
Region in Oakland California, said "I would say we're alarmed," adding
the service had heard from Mike Reynolds, superintendent of the
National Park of American Samoa. Reynolds told a Yellowstone
dispatch operator that four tsunami waves, each 15 to 20 feet high,
reaching half-mile to mile (1.6 miles) inland on island of Tutuila,
where Pago Pago is.
"The National Park of American Samoa visitor center and its offices
appear to be destroyed completely," Bundock said.
Reynolds reported deaths but had no confirmation of numbers, she said.
"He's completely cut off from the rest of the island," Bundock
said. In the island nation of Western Samoa, some residents told
Radio New Zealand they had felt a big jolt and were recommended by
authorities to move to higher ground.
"Sea level readings indicate a tsunami was generated. It may have been
destructive along coasts near the earthquake epicenter and could also
be a threat to more distant coasts," the Pacific warning center said.
Nathan Becker, an official at the center, told MSNBC a tsunami wave can
dissipate or grow larger and go all the way across the ocean. "This is
why we've issued a warning for a wide area," he said.
The epicenter of the quake was located 120 miles southwest of American
Samoa, a remote Pacific island, the U.S. Geological Survey. The USGS
earlier said the quake measured 7.9 magnitude. It struck at a depth of
11.2 miles.
HAWAII MONITORS SITUATION
Hawaii was monitoring the situation. CNN said that if a tsunami
hit Hawaii, it would arrive at about 7:18 EDT. Chevron Corp said
it was monitoring the tsunami threat to Hawaii, where the company has a
54,000 barrel per day (bpd) refinery near Honolulu.
"We are currently monitoring the situation via updates provided by
local authorities," said Chevron spokesman Sean Comey."
Tesoro Corp did not immediately reply to messages about its 93,500 bpd
refinery at Ewa Beach, also on the Hawaiian island of Oahu. Both
refineries provide jet fuel to commercial airlines and the U.S.
military complex at Pearl Harbor as well motor fuels.
Tsunami
Warning After Asian Quake
NYTIMES
By REUTERS
Filed at 4:24 p.m. ET
August 10, 2009
WASHINGTON, Aug 10 (Reuters) - A massive magnitude 7.6 quake struck in
the Indian Ocean off India's Andaman Islands, triggering a tsunami
watch for India, Myanmar, Indonesia, Thailand and Bangladesh, the U.S.
Geological Survey reported on Monday.
The USGS said the quake, initially reported as a magnitude 7.7, was
20.6 miles (33 km) deep and was centered 160 miles (260 km) north of
Port Blair in the Andaman Islands.
The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center issued a tsunami watch for the
region.
New
Zealand Quake Sparks Tsunami Warnings
DAY
By REUTERS
July 15, 2009, Filed at 8:06 a.m. ET
WELLINGTON/SYDNEY (Reuters) - New Zealand and Australia issued tsunami
warnings on Wednesday after an earthquake struck the south of New
Zealand, causing minor damage but no injuries.
Australia's weather bureau said a small tsunami had been recorded in
New Zealand and another was detected in the Tasman Sea heading toward
Australia's southeast coast.
"Our deep ocean buoy in the southern Tasman Sea indicates a wave
traveling across the Tasman. Because of the depth of the water we can
not tell the wave height," Chris Ryan, from Australia's Tsunami Warning
Center, told Reuters.
The tsunami was not expected to be a destructive wave, but was a
"marine threat" and could cause big seas, strong currents and coastal
flooding, said Ryan. Australia's Bureau of Meteorology issued a
statement advising people in low lying coastal areas to move to higher
ground and for people to get out of the water.
"People in areas with threat to land inundation and flooding are
strongly advised by emergency authorities to go to higher ground or at
least one kilometer inland," the bureau said.
New Zealand also issued a tsunami warning but later canceled it.
The
tsunami warnings were sparked by a shallow quake in New Zealand's
remote south. The Institute of Geological and Nuclear Sciences
said
the tremor, measuring 6.6 magnitude, struck at 9.22 p.m. (0922 GMT). An
aftershock in the same area measuring 6.1 was reported about 20 minutes
later.
The government institute said it was centered in the remote and
unpopulated Fiordland region, about 150 km (95 miles) north west of the
country's most southern city, Invercargill. It was measured at around
five km (three miles) below ground level.
Local civil defense officials issued a warning about a "potential
tsunami" for the region, because of conflicting reports about the
quake's size. The Japanese meteorological agency put the preliminary
magnitude at 7.8, prompting the Pacific tsunami center in Hawaii to
issue a warning.
"There was a small wave, but it was not damage causing ... people
probably wouldn't have noticed it among the other waves," Civil Defense
spokesman Vince Cholewa told Reuters.
Local media said the quake was felt widely throughout the lower South
Island as a long, rolling motion, sending goods falling from shop
shelves, but said no injuries were reported.
"It was quite a large motion, the whole house was moving, the door was
moving in the doorframe, and the fence posts were moving," Invercargill
resident Simon Wilson told Radio New Zealand.
The region, famed for its natural beauty of high mountains, wilderness
and deep fiords or inlets, is known for strong earthquake
activity. A
force 6.7 quake struck deep out to sea in October 2007, and a 7.2
tremor was recorded off the coast in August 2003. New Zealand
records
around 14,000 earthquakes a year.
The last fatal earthquake in the geologically active country, caught
between the Pacific and Indo-Australian tectonic plates, was in 1968
when an earthquake measuring 7.1 killed three people on the South
Island's West Coast.
The whole country has
been decapitated 
