Ross Becker's
photographs of Christchurch. The central business district reopens this weekend for the first time since the earthquake (Previously:
1,
2,
3) on February 22, 2011.
[more inside]
posted by doublehappy
on Oct 26, 2011 -
3 comments
It's raining radiation. It's a quiet night. We are well into autumn. And despite the growing sense in the Tokyo metropolitan area that things are now all right -- with train services back to pre-disaster schedules and the regret we once felt over our wasteful consumption of electricity dissipating -- Fukushima remains a war zone. [more inside]
posted by KokuRyu
on Oct 12, 2011 -
41 comments
Seven boxes marked "WW3" hold works ready for immediate evacuation if the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC faced catastrophic destruction. An essay published in the Washington Post discusses how Curator Andrew Robinson decides which seventy-four items in his area of responsibility hold top priority out of
more than 100,000 watercolors, drawings, prints and rare books.
posted by woodway
on Aug 15, 2011 -
127 comments
FEMA Administrator W. Craig Fugate has what he describes as a "Waffle House" theory of emergency management to assess how bad a situation is after a disaster. "If the Waffle House is open and serving food and has got a full menu, then it's green," he said during an interview inside a FEMA mobile home parked outside a fire station in Joplin. "If the Waffle House is open but has a limited menu, it's yellow, and if the Waffle House isn't open, that's red." -
FEMA Gets its Groove Back
posted by Slap*Happy
on May 27, 2011 -
93 comments
A wave of powerful storm cells swept the southeastern United States this week, spawning
hundreds of tornadoes that wreaked havoc from Texas to Virginia. While damage was widespread throughout the region, the most terrible toll was seen in Alabama, which has accounted for two-thirds of
the more than 300 reported deaths -- the deadliest since the Great Depression -- and where
many small towns were simply wiped from the map. Especially hard-hit was the university town of Tuscaloosa, the state's fifth-largest, where a monstrous F5 tornado (seen in
this terrifying firsthand video) tore a
vicious track through entire neighborhoods and business districts -- narrowly missing the region's primary hospital -- and continuing a path that rained debris as far as Birmingham, over sixty miles away. The disaster
prompted a visit from President Obama today, who declared
"I've never seen devastation like this" after surveying the area with Governor Robert Bentley, Senator Richard Shelby, and
Mayor Walter Maddox. More: photos from
In Focus and
The Big Picture,
aerial footage of the aftermath,
"before and after" sliders, the path of the Tuscaloosa twister
on Google Maps,
People Locator,
local aid information,
MetaTalk check-in thread
posted by Rhaomi
on Apr 29, 2011 -
102 comments
"It was always about the intersection of creativity and chaos." So said Kirsha Kaechele, described at Wikipedia as an "American contemporary art curator, artist, and practitioner of sustainable architecture," of the avant-garde
Life is Art Foundation/KKProjects art happening that she carried out via Katrina flooding-devastated homes in the St. Roch area of New Orleans' Upper Ninth Ward. These homes now lie in ruins, as they did before. She owes back taxes on the homes, and city has placed tax liens worth $28,000 on two of them. While she can afford the back taxes, she says, the liens are beyond her means. A medicinal marijuana farm created to fund Life is Art failed to make enough money to fund the projects. In any case, she has spent the past five months in Tasmania with her boyfriend, professional gambler and art curator
David Walsh, where he has established something called the
Museum of New and Old Art. (Pause.) I believe that connects all the most relevant dots as succinctly as possible.
[more inside]
posted by raysmj
on Apr 4, 2011 -
23 comments
In preparedness circles, EDC means
Everyday Carry, being items one keep on or near one's person at all times, to help with both planned and unforeseen events during the day. A lot of opinions about what should be in an EDC kit exist, but the minimum usually recommended seems to be a cell phone, light source and small folding knife. The
EDC blog shows pictures and lists of submitters' EDC kit.
[more inside]
posted by Harald74
on Mar 25, 2011 -
218 comments
Australia is copping another pounding from natural disasters.
After the floods across Brisbane (
previously) in South-east Queensland,
North Queensland is in the firing line for a
Category 5 cyclone called
Yasi.
The official warning: THIS IMPACT IS LIKELY TO BE MORE LIFE THREATENING THAN ANY EXPERIENCED DURING RECENT GENERATIONS.
[more inside]
posted by bystander
on Feb 1, 2011 -
183 comments
Challenger . . . . go with throttle up.
Twenty-five years ago today the U.S. Space Shuttle Challenger
exploded 73 seconds into the 25th space shuttle flight.
The reports (pdf) tell us of O-Ring failures. Today,
we remember one of the
most tragic days in the history of the U.S. manned spaceflight program. Today, January 28, 2011, we remember:
Michael Smith, Dick Scobee, Judith Resnik, Ronald McNair, Ellison Onizuka, Gregory Jarvis, and Christa McAuliffe.
posted by IvoShandor
on Jan 28, 2011 -
100 comments
Pakistan is suffering the worst flooding for over 80 years. (
NYTimes) (
Guardian) At least 1600 people are dead, and approximately 15 million are affected by this tragedy. Millions of acres have been swamped by the floods. The United Nations has rated the floods as the greatest humanitarian crisis in recent history. (
Wikipedia) (
The Big Picture)
posted by seanyboy
on Aug 9, 2010 -
49 comments
Gulf Oil Spill "Out of Control" New estimates of the BP oil spill have it spilling out 25,000 barrels of oil a day, far higher than the original estimates of as low as 1,000. NOAA fears that it could get to as high as
50,000 barrels a day. Alabama's governor, said they are planning for a worst case scenario of
150,000 barrels (6,000,000 gallons) a day. That's an Exxon-Valdez every two days and
a fix may be months away. The question now may not be whether this is
Obama's Katrina, but whether it's his
Chernobyl.
posted by empath
on May 2, 2010 -
386 comments
7 Dead, 19 Missing "The Mine Safety and Health Administration, or MSHA, has cited the Upper Big Branch Mine for hundreds of violations in recent years, including 10 so far this year related to legal requirements for ventilation systems to control methane and dust. The company has contested numerous fines, including two in January totaling more than $130,000 related to mine ventilation."
posted by wv kay in ga
on Apr 5, 2010 -
57 comments
"
It... picked up cars and equipment as though they were so many snow-draped toys, and swallowing them up, disappeared like a white, broad monster into the ravine below." Nearly 100 years ago, on March 1, 1910, the
deadliest avalanche in United States history struck the small town of Wellington, Washington.
Ninety-six people died as a massive wall of snow struck two Great Northern trains stopped at Wellington to wait for the tracks to be cleared, rolling them nearly 1000 feet into Tye Creek and burying the victims under
huge piles of snow, trees, and debris.
[more inside]
posted by litlnemo
on Jan 1, 2010 -
13 comments
On March 3rd 1943, the
worst civilian disaster of the Second World War killed 173 people, including 62 children. During an air-raid alert, the noise of a new anti-aircraft battery panicked the crowd trying to get into the shelter at
Bethnal Green tube station. In the
dark, wet conditions, someone tripped and fell at the foot of the stairs, blocking the pathway and knocking others over in a domino effect. More and more people continued to pile in at the top leading to a massive and deadly crush.
[more inside]
posted by Electric Dragon
on Mar 3, 2009 -
27 comments
The
Disasters' Emergency Committee is an umbrella organisation of 13 major British humanitarian NGOs:
ActionAid, the
British Red Cross,
CAFOD,
Care International,
Christian Aid,
Concern,
Help the Aged,
Islamic Relief,
Merlin,
Oxfam,
Save the Children,
Tear Fund and
World Vision. It was created to coordinate a rapid response to major disasters and to launch common appeals for donations to be broadcast in the British media. Since 1963, the DEC has
previously successfully run appeals for the victims of a.o. the
Asian Tsunami, the
Darfur and Chad Crisis, the
Congo Crisis, or the
Burma and
Bangladesh Cyclones. However, their
latest appeal has been
refused by the BBC.
[more inside]
posted by Skeptic
on Jan 25, 2009 -
25 comments
Whether you're fleeing
tropical storm Fay - which is currently heading for Florida - or you've just been airlifted out of the Grand Canyon due to the the recent
flooding due to a dam breach, or even "none of the above/other", the American Red Cross has a way for you to let folks know you're
Safe and Sound. You can search for people in the list by family name, pre-disaster phone number, and pre-disaster address.
Also, the American Red Cross has a twitter feed. But I don't think twitter being down counts as a disaster...
posted by rmd1023
on Aug 17, 2008 -
11 comments
