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
Flooding in Uganda displaces 20,000. Heavy rains in eastern Uganda have triggered flooding that has displaced more than 20,000 people and hampered search efforts to find victims of massive landslides feared to have killed hundreds, officials said Thursday.
posted by mdpatrick
on Mar 4, 2010 -
14 comments
GenDisasters is a genealogy site, compiling information on the historic disasters, events, and tragic accidents of Canada and the U.S. that our ancestors endured, as well as, information about their life and death.
[more inside]
posted by netbros
on Dec 9, 2008 -
12 comments
Earth2100.tv is a
project by ABC (video preview) to solicit ideas from the public and experts about the dangers facing world in the next 100 years. "The world’s brightest minds agree that the “perfect storm” of population growth, resource depletion and climate change could converge with catastrophic results. We need you to bring this story to life."
posted by stbalbach
on Jun 13, 2008 -
25 comments
More than 30 feet of water stood over land inhabited by nearly one million people. Almost 300,000 African Americans were forced to live in refugee camps for months. Many people, both black and white, left the land and never returned.
"When Mother Nature rages, the physical results are never subtle. Because we cannot contain the weather, we can only react by tabulating the damage in dollar amounts, estimating the number of people left homeless, and laying the plans for rebuilding. But . . . some calamities transform much more than the landscape."
No, not Katrina.
The Great Mississippi flood of 1927. Author John M. Barry in his definitive work on the subject, "shows how a heretofore anti-socialist America was forced by unprecedented circumstance to embrace an enormous, Washington-based big-government solution to the greatest natural catastrophe in our history, preparing the way (psychologically and otherwise) for the New Deal." The author is a Distinguished Visiting Scholar at the Center for Bioenvironmental Research of Tulane and Xavier universities (whose web site is *understandably* not answering right now).
<Heading for the library to find this book>
posted by spock
on Aug 30, 2005 -
12 comments
Tuesday, July 26th, 2005, was a
wet day for the city of Mumbai, India (formerly Bombay), to say the least. Within 12 hours, it rained
more than half the average annual rainfall.
Upwards of 400 people are believed to have died, with more in adjacent regions. In many regions, the water rose as
high as five feet. All transportation links to the rest of India were
severed. Within the city, many commuters who left work, for home, on Tuesday evening,
didn't reach home till Wednesday night. There have been substantial
financial and
ecological damages. The state apparatus was caught
offguard and proven
unprepared; the police were nowhere to be found, and the meteorological department found wanting with their warnings. The rumour-mongering of an incoming tsunami or cyclone also didn't help, as 24 people died in the resulting
stampede. Alas, just as one is relieved that the
ordeal is over, it appears there's yet
more to come.
posted by Gyan
on Jul 31, 2005 -
16 comments
US Agency Says El Nino Pattern Emerging
Vanuatu decided this a few days earlier, and told its residents to start conserving water (
1).
In 1997, a major El Nino pattern created droughts in the Pacific followed by floods toward the end of the year (
1,
2). I think one can reasonably attribute fires in Australia to El Nino influenced dry spells and high temperatures (
1). If you care to make your own predictions, the number to watch is the
SOI.
posted by rschram
on Jan 21, 2002 -
4 comments
FEMA for kids! Let Herman the spokescrab guide you through the catalog of potentially civilization ending disasters. Education is great. Entertaining your kids on cabin fevered summer days is better. I have friends that when they bring their young buck over send him to my computer to play the kiddie offerings at nick.com (sorry dead link this time o' night it seems).
But I can just hear the sunburned Minnesota five year old who's been overly femafied asking mommy after her bedtime story, "August is hurricane season. Is it windy now because we're going to have a hurricane?"
Mom strokes child's hair, "No, here we're only prone to devastating thunderstorms, tornadoes, floods, kidcicle causing cold and blizzards. Now you have sweet dreams and quit worrying about ridiculous things like that. 'Night."
Like of course, a kid that age would really find the FEMA website riveting to begin with. . .
posted by crasspastor
on Jul 1, 2001 -
9 comments
At least 12 people are dead and damage could be $1 billion as a result of flooding in the US' fourth largest city of Houston. Some areas received more than two feet of rain in a 24 hour period this weekend after the remains of Tropical Storm Allison regrouped and poured on southeast Texas. Why does this story only get one page on the major news sites, when the Seattle quake was covered extensively all over the country?
posted by LeiaS
on Jun 10, 2001 -
15 comments
