Recent Natural Disasters | Calamities | Hazards

Weather related natural disasters have occurred almost daily in the past decade occupying 90 percent of disasters, a U.N. report said on Monday. A report issued by the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNISDR) shows that 90 percent of major natural calamities have been caused by 6,457 recorded floods, storms, heatwaves, droughts and other weather related events. The United Nations report, called "The Human Cost of Weather Related Disasters," found there were an average of 335 weather related disasters annually between 2005 and August this year. The report was issued by the U.N. Office for Disaster Risk Reduction and the Center for Research on the Epidemiology of Disasters at the Catholic University of Louvain in Belgium. Since 1995, weather related natural disasters have claimed lives of 606,000 people, left 4.1 billion injured, homeless or in need of aid, and accounted for 90 percent of all disasters, an increase of 14% from 1995-2004, and

Are you based in Singapore? If so, rising sea level could keep you underwater by 2100. Climate Change could cause Singapores median local sea level to rise 9.5 metres, submerging the homes of 745,000 Singaporeans by 2100, according to results published by Climate Central. The report found that carbon emissions causing 4C of warming a business-as-usual scenario could cause Singapores to that level, Yahoo News quoted. This report assesses and lists global nations and urban agglomerations at risk by projected total population exposure, percent exposure, and differences in exposure under warming scenarios of 1.5, 2, 3 and 4 °C (2.7, 3.6, 5.4 and 7.2 °F).  The areas around Marina Bay, Changi Airport, Jurong, Tuas, and the Southern Islands of Singapore are at risk of going underwater if temperatures rise, even by 2C. Global megacities with the top ten populations in the balance include Shanghai, Hong Kong, Calcutta, Mumbai, Dhaka, Jakarta, and Hanoi. 4 °C warming could

The Nepal Telecommunications Authority (NTA) has taken step to work on earthquake preparedness in Nepal focusing on emergency measures from early warning systems to post-disaster communications. Such earthquake preparedness  measure helps to keep phone lines open in the event of an earthquake, eKantipur reported. NTA Director Anand Raj Khanal mentioned about the earthquake preparedness measure addressing the inaugural session of a two-day workshop on Mobile Industry Disaster Preparedness on Wednesday. A National Emergency Communication Plan focusing on these issues has also been drafted, he added. In term of relative vulnerability, Nepal has been ranked as the 11th most at risk country in the world to earthquakes and 30th most at risk to floods and landslides (UNDP, BCPR, 2004), an article published by Nepal Red Cross Society mentioned. According to the United Nation Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (IMU / UN OCHA), 11 out of 75 districts of Nepal lies

Twitter can be a great help in better natural disaster response , said researchers who created real-time flood maps using data from tweets. Real time tweets about major floods can be turned into a mapping tool which could be used by emergency services and natural disaster response teams to save lives and provide aid, Dutch researchers came up with the idea after analyzing the thousands of tweets. Some 900 flood-related tweets per minute were sent after the Indonesian capital Jakarta was hit by floods this February, Reuters reported quoting the Netherlands-based Deltares research institute at a European Geosciences Union meeting in Vienna. Most important, maximum number of tweets had information about location and water depth which can be helpful for real-time flood maps for immediate natural disaster response operations. This method can produce a natural disaster map within around a minute of messages being postedand can be helpful to target for post-disaster assistance.

Around one third of Viet Nam’s most vulnerable communes have developed disaster risk reduction plans reducing 8% annual death rate,  UN Development Programme said. In a meeting organised to review the progress of the national community-based disaster risk management (CBDRM) programme in Vietnam , Mr Bakhodir Burkhanov, UNDP Deputy Country Director, mentioned that almost 2000 of the most vulnerable communes in Vietnam have developed risk reduction and response plans. Viet Nam, at high risk to the impacts of global climate change, leads to weather related disasters causing on average over 400 deaths and economic losses equivalent to more than one per cent of national GDP. Disaster risk reduction and management is given central importance to Vietnam as a national CBDRM programme has aimed to reach 6000 of communes by 2020 in eleven years. This Community-based disaster risk management   programme has reduced the loss of life at the rate of nearly 8% per year on average. The 2

A natural disaster is a sudden natural event triggered by environmental factor which can cause loss of life or property damage. Earthquakes, floods, landslides, volcanoes, tornadoes, hurricanes, tsunamis, fires etc are some of the common natural disasters worldwide that have claimed several lives causing huge economic losses. Frequency of natural disasters have increased in rapid amount in last several decades. Some types of natural disasters are more common in some places of the world than others. In some cases, we can have warning of a natural disaster but other times it may happen without notice.         We have developed several natural disasters early warning system which provides warnings of natural disasters before they impact people and property. However, in spite of all the capabilities for advance warnings, we are still quite poor at preparing for these natural disasters. Poor countries are those to have more serious impacts of the natural disaster . It is

The city of Germantown is offering a free Community Emergency Response Training. "Adults of all abilities and specialties are invited to participate in upcoming Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) sessions," City of Germantown, Tennessee has mentioned in its website. The 20-hour course covers disaster preparedness , fire suppression, basic medical operations, light search and rescue and team operations. CERT members can assist others in their neighborhood or workplace when professional responders are not immediately available to help during emergencies. Community Emergency Response Team in action (Source: www.fema.gov) According to Ready.gov, the Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) program helps train people to be better prepared to respond to emergency situations in their communities. Emergency preparedness classes will take place March 27, 28 and April 11 at Fire Station 4, 3031 Forest Hill-Irene Road. Friday sessions begin at 7 p.m., Satu