Swiss Broadcasting
May 17, 2012
A landslide in the Swiss Alps caused 300,000 cubic meters of rock to slide down a mountainside.
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Submitted by Kevin, thank you!
Dozens of people are feared to have been buried in a massive landslide in the Southern Highlands of Papua New Guinea. According to VOA, at least 40 bodies have been pulled from the debris and as many as 20 others are feared missing.
The landslide struck at 7am AEDT yesterday near the Nogoli base for a ExxonMobil-led liquefied natural gas plant site, northwest of Port Moresby. One local said three villages had been covered while another report said only a handful of homes were lost. Radio Australia reported dozens of people were feared buried, quoting a Tari resident as saying about 40 people were missing.
The landslide was said to stretch about one kilometer and was 300 meters wide, and had cut a main road in the area. All Australians reported in the area have been accounted for, Radio Australia reported. ExxonMobil said its personnel were all safe. “We have been in contact with the Natural Disaster and Response Office,” ExxonMobil spokeswoman Rebecca Arnold said. “All our personnel are accounted for. We have closed down work in the surrounding area. Ms. Arnold said the landslide is not expected to hinder the project’s completion in 2014. The $16 billion LNG project is due to begin production in 2014 and will see PNG’s natural gas sold across Asia for the next 30 years – a plan projected to double PNG’s gross domestic product.
18 December 2011
Tens of thousands on the north coast of Mindanao are now reliant on food aid
Rescuers are still searching for survivors after floods in the southern Philippines killed more than 650 people and left 800 others missing.
Naval vessels are scouring the coast along the island of Mindanao while soldiers searched swollen rivers.
Officials said many bodies remained unclaimed, suggesting entire families had been swept away.
The flash floods were triggered by a tropical storm that coincided with high tides, trapping many in their homes.
The major ports of Cagayan de Oro and Iligan were among the areas worst hit on Friday night.
Almost 35,000 people were still sheltering in evacuation centres on Sunday, the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council said.
The Philippine National Red Cross puts the current death toll at 652 with 808 people reported missing.
Many of the bodies were unclaimed after nearly 24 hours, raising the prospect that entire families had died, Philippines Red Cross Secretary General Gwendolyn Pang said.
“The affected area is so wide and huge and I believe they have not really gone to all areas to do a search,” she said.
Power cuts
“This thing happened so fast, it was very overwhelming.”
The navy joined the search for those who had been swept out to sea. About 60 people were reported to have been plucked from the ocean off El Salvador city, about six miles (10km) north-west of Cagayan de Oro.
Former congressman Ayi Hernandez said he and his family were at home in Cagayan de Oro late on Friday when they heard a loud “swooshing sound”.
He said the water rose to about 11ft feet (3.3m) in less than an hour, filling his home to the ceiling.
The rescue effort, boosted by some 20,000 soldiers, continued through Saturday night but was being hampered by flooded-out roads and downed power lines, officials said.
National TV showed scenes of devastation, with streets strewn with mud and piles of debris. The remains of houses lay alongside cars that had been picked up by the water and left in culverts and along riverbanks.
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton sent condolences to the Philippines.
“The US government stands ready to assist Philippine authorities as they respond to this tragedy,” she said.
Weather experts said Tropical Storm Washi dumped more than a month of average rain in just 12 hours over Mindanao.
The BBC’s Kate McGeown in Manila said the storm took everyone by surprise.
Although the Philippines is hit by typhoons or tropical storms every year, Mindanao in the south is usually spared the worst of the damage, she adds.
Washi reached the western island of Palawan before dawn on Sunday and is moving west into the South China Sea, government forecasters said.
The storm has maximum winds of 80km/h (50mph) and is expected to move west, away from the Philippines.
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A landslide has forced Oregon Department of Forestry officials to close a camping area along Ben Smith Creek in the Tillamook State Forest.
The slide has created the potential for flooded trails and camping sites.
The 18-acre slide dumped trees, earth and rocks into the stream and caused it to change course, creating the potential for a large debris flow down Ben Smith Creek into the Wilson River.
The creek runs into the Wilson just above where Oregon Highway 6 crosses the river at Lee’s Camp about 25 miles east of Tillamook.
Department geotechnical specialists have determined that the slide does not pose a risk to those driving on Highway 6 or to homes along the Wilson River.
Some trails on Ben Smith Creek have been closed by the Department of Forestry because of the potential for trail washouts and debris flows.
Signs have been posted at trailheads to warn about the safety concerns.
The upside is that wood that washes into the creek will create habitat for fish, officials said.
“These actions are part of a natural process always at work in northwest Oregon forests,” said Mike Buren, a geotechnical specialist with the department. “These changes are going on in the forest undetected by most people, especially in fall and winter.”
The Department of Forestry will monitor the slide area through the winter and spring.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration added two disasters to the list Wednesday, bringing the total to 12. The two are wildfires in Texas, New Mexico and Arizona and the mid-June tornadoes and severe weather. – Reuters Photo
WASHINGTON: America smashed the record for billion-dollar weather disasters this year with a deadly dozen, and counting.
With an almost biblical onslaught of twisters, floods, snow, drought, heat and wildfire, the U.S. in 2011 has seen more weather catastrophes that caused at least $1 billion in damage than it did in all of the 1980s, even after the dollar figures from back then are adjusted for inflation.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration added two disasters to the list Wednesday, bringing the total to 12. The two are wildfires in Texas, New Mexico and Arizona and the mid-June tornadoes and severe weather.
NOAA uses $1 billion as a benchmark for the worst weather disasters.
Extreme weather in America this year has killed more than 1,000 people, according to National Weather Service Director Jack Hayes. The dozen billion-dollar disasters alone add up to $52 billion.
The old record for $1 billion disasters was nine, in 2008.
Hayes, a meteorologist since 1970, said he has never seen a year for extreme weather like this, calling it “the deadly, destructive and relentless 2011.”
This year’s total may not stop at 12. Officials are still adding up the damage from the Tropical Storm Lee and the pre-Halloween Northeast snowstorm, and so far each is at $750 million. And there’s still nearly a month left in the year.
Scientists blame an unlucky combination of global warming and freak chance. They say even with the long-predicted increase in weather extremes triggered by manmade climate change, 2011 in the US was wilder than they had predicted. For example, the six large outbreaks of tornadoes cannot be attributed to global warming, scientists say.
“The degree of devastation is extreme in and of itself, and it would be tempting to say it’s a sign of things to come, though we would be hard-pressed to see such a convergence of circumstances occurring in one single year again for a while,” said Jerry Meehl, a climate scientist at the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colorado.
Another factor in the rising number of billion-dollar calamities: “More people and more stuff in harm’s way,” such as in coastal areas, said NOAA Administrator Jane Lubchenco.
“What we’re seeing this year is not just an anomalous year, but a harbinger of things to come,” with heat waves, droughts and other extreme weather, Lubchenco said Wednesday at an American Geophysical Union science conference in San Francisco.
The number of weather catastrophes that pass the billion-dollar mark when adjusted into constant dollars is increasing with each decade. In the 1980s, the country averaged slightly more than one a year. In the 1990s, it was 3.8 a year. It jumped to 4.6 in the first decade of this century. And in the past two years, it has averaged 7.5.
Other years had higher overall damage figures because of one gargantuan disaster, such as Hurricane Katrina in 2005 and a 1988 drought.
But this is not just about numbers.
“Each of these events is a huge disaster for victims who experience them,” Lubchenco said in an email. “They are an unprecedented challenge for the nation.”
Half the billion-dollar disasters were tornado outbreaks in one of the deadliest years on record. More than 540 people were killed in those six tragedies. In four days in April, there were 343 tornadoes in the largest outbreak on record, including 199 in one day, which is another record.
Texas had more than a million acres burned by wildfire, a record for the state, and Oklahoma set a record for the hottest month ever in the United States. The Ohio River Valley had triple the normal rainfall, which caused major flooding along the Mississippi River.
“Too little water in the South, too much water in the North,” said Andrew Weaver, a climate scientist at the University of Victoria in Canada. “It’s a story we are hearing more and more often.”
That’s why the world has to do two things, said Princeton University geological sciences professor Michael Oppenheimer: try to slow global warming by reducing greenhouse gas emissions and prepare better for extreme weather.
http://www.dawn.com/2011/12/08/billion-dollar-weather-disasters-smash-us-record.html
Uploaded by MaryGreeley on Nov 15, 2011
(California) L.A. – San Pedro Landslide Worsens, Now ‘Life-Threatening’ Hazard : 11/15/2012
Seems like everyone has been talking about the possibility of a landslide that would create a massive tsunami, what happens if there’s a massive eruption with the volcano on the ocean floor? Wouldn’t that send water going in every direction, not just west bound? Appears to be a very volatile situation and one can’t help but wonder if 40,000 troops coming home isn’t part of a highly coordinated effort towards a false flag disaster event. One that might even postpone the presidential election or guarantee Obama’s re-election next year? Do they know something we don’t?
That’s a stupid question.
In the second video Mary put together a little chart showing the movement of the earthquakes from one side to the other.
Uploaded by MaryGreeley on Oct 21, 2011
(Canary Islands) Alert : El Hierro Magma Rising to Top/Center of Island : Four 2.+ Quakes 10/21/2011
http://www.01.ign.es/ign/resources/volcanologia/txt/boletin_HIERRO.txt
(Canary Islands) Alert : El Hierro Volcano Magma May Be Moving, Rising! October 21, 2011
http://earthquake-report.com/2011/09/25/el-hierro-canary-islands-spain-volcan…
http://www.01.ign.es/ign/resources/volcanologia/txt/boletin_HIERRO.txt
http://www.canarias7.es/articulo.cfm?id=234512
Guatemala has issued a “red alert” after being battered by a tropical storm.Two storms have hit Central America, triggering floods and landslides that have left about 40 people dead, officials said.
In Guatemala alone, at least 21 people were reported killed; six died in Nicaragua, and three in El Salvador.
As rains drenched Central America, Hurricane Jova hit Mexico’s Pacific coast, leaving at least eight dead.
The United Nations said 100,000 people had been affected by flooding in Central America and Mexico.
Guatemala issued a “red alert” and reported landslides on roads and bridges badly damaged or carried away.
Tens of thousands of people there have been evacuated from their homes after three days of rain.
Guatemalan President Alvaro Colom said rising water levels in at least 12 rivers were threatening communities.
“I want to send a message to the people to be careful travelling on roads that are likely to collapse and get away from the river banks, because rivers are overflowing,” he said, quoted in according to the Guatemala Times.
Mountainous areas of the country are particularly vulnerable to mudslides.
Officials in El Salvador said more than 2,000 people had been evacuated from flooded areas and moved to emergency shelters.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-15283869
The Star PhoenixSat,
15 Oct 2011 18:53 CDT
Guatemala alone accounted for 21 killed, according to local authorities and emergency services.
The toll in Mexico rose to eight Friday with three more reported dead from flooding and landslides in the wake of Hurricane Jova, which hit the Pacific coast as a category two hurricane Tuesday before weakening to a tropical storm.
Torrential rains destroyed and carried away bridges in Guatemala, where authorities confirmed 21 deaths and 55,000 people affected by a tropical depression, which hit Central America at the start of the week.
Two more were missing as cleanup efforts continued, rescue services said.
Rescuers recovered six bodies in Nicaragua and three in El Salvador, while Honduras and Costa Rica reported damage to property.
Mexican authorities insisted only small repairs were needed to some venues for the Pan American Games, which began Friday in Guadalajara, more than 100 kilometres from the Pacific coast.
Source: Agence France Presse
The Economic Collapse Blog
Fri, 09 Sep 2011 00:08 CDT
There has been a natural disaster that has caused at least a billion dollars of damage inside the United States every single month so far this year. According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, there have been 10 major disasters in the United States this year. On average, usually there are only about 3 major disasters a year. At this point, disasters are happening inside the United States so frequently that there seems to be no gap between them. We just seem to go from one major disaster to the next. Last year, FEMA declared an all-time record of 81 disasters inside the United States. This year, we are on pace for well over 100. We just got done dealing with Hurricane Irene, and now we are dealing with historic wildfires in Texas and unprecedented flooding up in the northeast part of the country. This has been the worst year for natural disasters in U.S. history, and we still have nearly four months left to go. Hopefully after everything that has happened this year it has become abundantly clear to all of us why we need to prepare for emergencies. The world is becoming an increasingly unstable place, and you never know what is going to happen next.
Thankfully, the U.S. has not experienced a disaster on the level of Hurricane Katrina so far this year, but what makes this year different is that we have never seen so many major disasters happen so rapidly. Since the beginning of the year we have had to deal with record-setting winter storms, nightmarish tornadoes, “once in a century” earthquakes, historic flooding all over the country, severe drought and some of the worst wildfires the U.S. has ever experienced.
Is there a reason why the United States is being hit by major disaster after major disaster or is all of this just a really unfortunately coincidence? The following are just a few of the nightmarish natural disasters that the U.S. has had to deal with so far this year…..
Texas Wildfires
At this point, the state of Texas has been on fire for nearly 300 consecutive days. This has been the worst wildfire season that Texas has ever experienced.
So far, an astounding 3.6 million acres has been burned. Vast stretches of Texas have been transformed into desolate wastelands.
Over the past week alone, the Texas Forest Service has responded to more than 180 new fires. The incredibly dry weather and the scorching temperatures have combined to turn the state of Texas into a tinderbox.
One massive wildfire near Austin, Texas has burned approximately 1,400 homes and continues to spread. The state desperately needs rain and it needs it now.
To get an idea of just how fast the fires in Texas are spreading, just watch this video.
Historic Drought
Right now, approximately 81 percent of the state of Texas is experiencing “exceptional drought” conditions. Not only has this created an ideal environment for wildfires, it is also absolutely crippling ranchers and farmers.
Farmers in Texas have lost over half of the cotton crop so far. This is likely to cause clothing prices to rise substantially in the months ahead.
Ranchers in Texas have been forced to slaughter huge numbers of cattle because the drought has made it incredibly difficult to feed them. Sadly, the number of U.S. cattle is now down to its lowest level since 1963.
You might want to stock up on beef. In the coming months the price of beef is likely to go significantly higher.
It is hard to describe just how bad things are down in Texas right now. Overall, it is estimated that the drought has caused more than $5 billion in damage to the agricultural industry so far.
But wait, there is more bad news. In fact, if things don’t improve soon we could see massive problems with winter wheat. Just check out what an article recently posted on Yahoo news had to say….
The bad news does not stop there. Winter-wheat-planting season runs from September through October and rain is vital to germination. Texas and Oklahoma produce almost a third of winter wheat in the U.S. – the hard wheat used in bread products. This week, Bloomberg financial news quoted wheat economists predicting a 50% jump in winter-wheat prices. If the dearth of rain continues and there is no moisture in the soil to germinate the wheat, prices could climb higher still.
Flooding In The Northeast
We just got done with Hurricane Irene, and now Tropical Storm Lee is dumping huge amounts of rain all over the northeast United States. In fact, there has been so much rain up in Pennsylvania that more than 100,000 people were evacuated from the Wilkes-Barre area on Thursday because of rising waters on the Susquehanna River.
Rivers and creeks all over Pennsylvania, New York and New Jersey are flooding. The region desperately needs a break from rain, but it does not look like that is going to happen quite yet.
The big problem is that many of these areas had already been hit really hard by Hurricane Irene. As a result of Hurricane Irene, millions of people lost power and dozens of people lost their lives. Hurricane Irene caused the worst flooding that Vermont had experienced since 1927, and the total economic damage from Irene could reach as high as $16 billion.
Now there are three more storms in the Atlantic that we will have to keep an eye on. Hopefully Tropical Storm Nate, Tropical Storm Maria and Hurricane Katia will not cause major problems, but with the way this year has been going you never know what is going to happen.
Disturbing Earthquakes
As I have written about previously, the number of major earthquakes around the globe is significantly increasing. Back in 2001, the world had 1361 earthquakes of magnitude-5.0 or greater. This year, we are on pace to have over 2800, which would be the highest number this decade by far.
Just a couple of weeks ago, the U.S. experienced two of the weirdest earthquakes that it has seen in ages. The earthquake in Virginia that made headlines all over the nation is being called a “once a century” earthquake. The east coast very rarely sees anything like this happen.
Continued here:
This 6 part video illustrates natural disasters from 2011, including new footage never seen before…
