Natural_Disasters

1. Floods Major floods hit Andhra, Karnataka, rescue operations on HYDERABAD/BANGALORE: The Army, Navy and Air Force personnel were on Friday called out for rescue and relief operations as the flood fury caused by Torrential rains in the last four days in north Karnataka claimed 56 more lives since Thursday night pushing the toll to 106. Bijapur and Bagalkote districts bore the brunt of the fury accounting for 25 and 13 deaths respectively as unabated rains continued to wreak havoc leaving a trail of death and destruction, a situation described as "unprecedented" by Chief Minister B S Yeddyurappa after a crisis management meeting. Police put the number of the deaths at 106 late tonight. IAF helicopters and aircraft have evacuated many marooned people in Bellary District and Mantralaya in Kurnool District of Andhra Pradesh bordering Karnataka, where the famous Raghavendra swamy mutt is located, a defence statement said here. Air Commodre V S Bharti, the Air Officer Commanding, Air Force Station Yelahanka in Bangalore, where around-the-clock flood relief cell has been set up, is overseeing relief works. Thousands of people were marooned in many villages in Bijapur, Bagalkote, Gulbarga,Davanagere, Bellary, Belgaum, Koppal, Gadag, Bidar and Chikballapura where over 59,000 houses had collapsed or been damaged, revenue officials said. At an emergency meeting attended by Air Force and Army officials besides state ministers, Yeddyurappa took stock of the situation. Meanwhile, the flood situation in Kurnool and Mahabubnagar districts of Andhra Pradesh turned grim on Friday as large localities lay submerged and there was heavy inflow of water into various reservoirs. According to the weather forecast, scattered heavy to isolated very heavy rain is likely to occur over south coastal Andhra Pradesh, Rayalaseema and Kerala and Karnataka during next 48 hours. Isolated heavy rain is also likely to occur over north coastal Andhra Pradesh, Telangana and Lakshadweep during the same period. Floods kill 200 in Andhra, Karnataka; thousands affected HYDERABAD/BANGALORE: Floods triggered by heavy rains have killed at least 200 people in the past five days in Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka, and have destroyed standing crops and left tens of thousands of people homeless, officials said on Sunday. At least 167 people have been killed in Karnataka, where several rivers burst their mud embankments following heavy rains and swept away houses. "There is death and destruction all around us," said Basavaraj Bommai, a senior government minister, in Bangalore. Authorities said vast areas of agricultural land, including sugarcane and paddy fields were under water in the state. "The crop loss estimate is being ascertained, our top priority is to provide relief to thousands of homeless people," said Bangalore Home (Interior) Minister V S Acharya. Acharya said most of the victims died in house collapses or were swept away by the flood waters. More than 100,000 people were homeless and television pictures showed hundreds of people waving at helicopters carrying relief materials from rooftops. Some were seen clinging on to tree branches. In the neighbouring state of Andhra Pradesh, at least 33 people have died and more than 1.8 million people have been affected by the floods, officials said. The trading and cotton-growing border town of Kurnool, which is dotted with ancient forts, was the worst affected, where 15 people have died in the past two days and thousands affected, officials said. "We have evacuated 40,000 people in Kurnool town alone," said Dinesh Kumar, a senior disaster management official said in Hyderabad. Rescue efforts by the army, navy and air force intensified as they attempted to reach villages surrounded by flooded fields. A team from India's National Disaster Response Force was also deployed, and officials said relief operations were working to halt any outbreak of disease. "We are deploying medical teams in the affected areas to prevent the occurrence of epidemics," said S Subramanyam, special commissioner for disaster management in Hyderabad. Water levels were receding and rainfall had returned to normal in some areas, but dams continued to overflow as the river Krishna in Karnataka breached its banks. Residents faced misery after the floods washed away the mud and stones holding their poorly-constructed homes together. Almost 600 relief centres were sheltering more than 170,000 people in north Karnataka, the area hit hardest by heavy rainfall. In Andhra Pradesh, 270,000 people were gathered in more than 100 shelters. Karnataka Chief Minister B S Yeddyurappa conducted an aerial survey of the flood zones and has also written to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh asking him to declare the situation a national disaster. Yeddyurappa also asked for two billion dollars in aid to rebuild destroyed towns and villages. Officials said the death toll could increase as 5,000 people were still trapped in flood-hit remote areas, and rescuers were yet to reach many villages. Almost 1,000 people have been killed by severe flooding in India this year, while tens of thousands more have lost their homes and seen large swathes of their farmland devastated, according to the Red Cross. | | | | Flood situation worsens in Bihar, Assam Patna July 12. At least 17 persons have died in the recent floods in Bihar, as the overall situation in the State deteriorated further with swollen rivers continuing to rise, following heavy rains in the catchment areas in Nepal during the past 24 hours. The death toll went up to 17 as four persons — two from Khagaria, one each in Darbhanga and Sheohar districts — died in boat accidents on Friday. The Central Water Commission sources said all the rivers, the Burhi Gandak, the Bagmati, the Kamala Balan, the Kosi, the Mahananda, the Adhwara and its tributaries were swelling and had crossed the danger mark at different places along their courses. The Burhi Gandak was flowing 17 cm, 22 cm, 68 cm and 76 cm above danger points at Lalbagiaghat, Sikandarpur, Samastipur and Rosera respectively. The Bagmati had crossed the danger level at Benibad by 55 cm, while the Adhwara crossed the danger level at Kamtaul and Ekmighat by 24 cm and 28 cm. The Kamala Balan and the Kosi too had risen above the danger mark, they said. About 10 lakh people have been affected by the floods in Madhubani Sheohar, Sitamarhi, Darbhanga, Muzaffarpur, Khagaria, Supaul, Saharsa, Kishanganj, Saran and Gopalganj districts. The State's Relief and Rehabilitation Department sources said steps were being taken to provide relief to the marooned people and boats engaged to evacuate them to safer places. Guwahati inundated In Assam, the Brahmaputra and its tributaries today submerged parts of Guwahati, while floods continued to cause large-scale devastation in 20 districts, affecting more than 23 lakh people, official sources said. The Army had already been called out in some of the affected districts to assist the civil administration in the rescue and relief operations. The sources said the situation had worsened following heavy and incessant rain in the catchment areas of the State and in the hills of neighbouring Arunachal Pradesh. The swirling waters of the Brahmaputra submerged several areas in Guwahati after a gap of five years and the river was flowing 1.21 metres above the danger level. According to Central Water Commission sources, the Brahmaputra was flowing alarmingly above the red mark at Dibrugarh, Jorhat, Sonitpur, Goalpara, Dhubri and Nalbari. — PTI Reports on recent Floods in Orissa [pic] By Odiya.com Website | Published 07/31/2001 While Orissa is yet to recover from the shock of the unprecedented natural disaster, the Super Cyclone of October 99, followed by the widest spread famine subsequently in 2000; the State is now face to face with another natural calamity of vast magnitude, that is, the floods of July 2001. Compared with the three major floods in the post-independence period, i.e., in 1955, 1982 & 1994, the current flood of July 2001 is a unique one for its ever-widest spread, the longest duration and extensiveness of damage and devastation. The current flood is also unique for the heavy rains that accompanied it intermittently throughout from its humble start in the first week of July. Though receding on the whole, the floodwaters are still visible everywhere leaving the people hopeless & dump-founded, as it was witnessed in the immediate aftermath of the Super Cyclone. Though the number of human and cattle causalities in the current floods is relatively less than the corresponding figures of earlier floods, the state of their survival has worsened miserably beyond description. The current floods have affected most of the 30 districts of Orissa. It has particularly hit hardest the life and environment of the costal districts, namely Ganjam, Sundargarh, Balangiri, Kalahandi, Puri, Khurda, Cuttack, Jagatsinghpur, Kendrapara, Jajpur, Bhadrak & Balasore owing to high floods in all major river systems, Mahanadi, Brahmani, Baitarani, Subarnarekha, Budhabalanga & Rushikulya & their tributaries, all falling in Bay Of Bengal. These very districts were also subjected to immeasurable devastation in the Super Cyclone about 20 months back. In quite many places of these districts, the villages remained marooned for more than a week, entirely cut off from outside world, with villagers taking shelter on the roofs of pucca buildings or hilltops under open sky in the drenching rains. The people who could some how escape the surging flood waters, came to the nearest road and took shelter in the make-shift tents made of torn. Polythene sheets that they had some how stored from the Super Cyclone days. Human beings along with their cattle and other domestic animals inhabit each such tent. Call it religious faith or sheer superstition, the villagers who ran away from their homes in the face of the rising flood waves, didn't however miss to bring along their cattle with them, lest they would sin against the God. 2. Earthquakes | | | | |Earthquake rocks Assam, other parts of northeast India | |AP 21 September 2009, 03:27pm IST | |GUWAHATI: An earthquake shook the remote mountain nation of Bhutan and India's northeastern Assam state on Monday, sending people running into the | |streets and cracking some buildings. It was not clear if there were any injuries. | | | |The afternoon earthquake left cracks in some buildings in Guwahati, the capital of Assam state, but it was centred in a little-populated eastern | |region of the tiny, mountainous nation of Bhutan. | | | |The US Geological Survey reported the 6.3-magnitude quake was centred about 80 miles (125 kilometers) north of Gauhati and 115 miles (180 kilometers)| |east of Thimphu, Bhutan's capital, at a depth of 4.5 miles (7.2 kilometers). | | | |"I dragged my family out. ... We ran down the staircase from our third floor apartment," said Sadeq Hazarika, an Assam state official who lives in | |Guwahati. "We saw our building developing a big crack. This was the biggest tremor I felt in many years." | | | |The region has been hit by major earthquakes in the past, including in 1950 and 1897. Assam has been shaken by a series of small quakes in recent | |weeks. | | | |The quake briefly rocked Bhutan's capital. "We felt a strong shock for a moment, one second. People panicked and rushed out of their homes and | |businesses,'' said Tashi Dhendup, who runs a travel agency in Thimpu. He was not aware of any damage to buildings in that city. | | | |The quake was also felt in Bangladesh and Lhasa, the Tibetan capital in southwest China, but there were no signs of damage in either place, officials| |said. | |[pic][pic] | | | |[pic] | Earthquake strikes off Andamans, tsunami alert cancelled REUTERS 11 August 2009, 08:18am IST PORT BLAIR: A major quake of magnitude 7.6 struck in the Indian Ocean off Andaman Islands early on Tuesday, but a tsunami alert for India, Myanmar, Indonesia, Thailand and Bangladesh was later cancelled. About two and half hours after the quake there were no reports of a tsunami from ocean rim countries or of any casualties from the tremor. "We all ran out as fast as possible and have not gone back inside, fearing another quake. Everything was shaking, we are all very, very scared," Subhasis Paul, who runs a provision store in Diglipur island in North Andaman, told Reuters by telephone. "People are calling each other out of their homes and everyone is huddled together outside," Paul said from Diglipur, about 300 km (185 miles) north of Port Blair, the capital of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands. The US Geological Survey said the quake, initially reported as a magnitude 7.7, struck at 1:55 a.m. (1955 GMT on Monday). It was shallow, at a depth of 20.6 miles (33 km), and was centred 160 miles (260 km) north of Port Blair. The US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Pacific Tsunami Warning Center warned that there could be a destructive wave along coasts up to 1,000 km (600 miles) from the epicentre, but it later withdrew its warning. "Sea level readings indicate that a significant tsunami was not generated," it said in a statement. An official at the Indian National Centre for Ocean Information Services said a tsunami warning had not been issued by his department. "We have not issued a tsunami alert and are monitoring the water level changes in the region at the moment," Ajay Kumar said by phone. The Andaman and Nicobar Islands are a chain of small islands hundreds of miles east of India in the Indian Ocean. A 7.6 magnitude quake is classified by the USGS as a major earthquake and is capable of widespread, heavy damage. An even bigger quake in the Indian Ocean in 2004 caused a tsunami that killed some 228,000 people . News of quake was on site in minutes INDIATIMES NEWS NETWORK 27 November 2007, 12:45am IST NEW DELHI: The world's appetite for news breaks is definitely growing, fuelled in no uncertain terms by Live TV and Internet coverage. But a | | new trend was noticed when an earthquake hit Delhi and other adjoining areas of the National Capital at 4:40 am Monday morning. The Net version of this paper, which is updated 24X7 with real time information, had put up the story about the tremor within a minute of its occurrence. While congratulatory messages from people flowing in is the norm whenever a good job is done, what struck one immediately was not that messages were coming in but that most of them were from readers within India. One would normally expect the readership at that hour to be mostly from the Far East or the US, but for Indian users to access the Net for the latest information early on a cold winter morning was new. It shows two things. One, the Internet is emerging as a credible source of information for people, and two, and more importantly, it is entering their mind space to an extent that they seek it out as well to stay updated. And the response from the cross-section of society validates that the Net has insidiously crept into their everyday system. Even as students from IIT and JNU campuses, call centre employees, housewives and professionals in the Capital and other parts of India were all praise for the speedy update, for the bunch of overseas Netizens in UK, US and Dubai alike, this brought in some relief to know that their family in India was safe. A much-relieved Lokesh from Dallas in the US wrote in to say, "Got the news while browsing for news in the US. The first thing I did was to call up my mother & brother in Delhi. Although the news sent jitters through me, it was good reporting." Likewise for Kamal Goklani in St Maarten in the West Indies , who called up his sister in Delhi and Avinash Mathur Down Under who was able to reach out to his family in Delhi/Gurgaon after the news was flashed on the website. Neeraj from Malaysia also sent in a note appreciating "the fast update". For the Indian audience, the story wasn't much different. Noida-based professional Aman Gupta , who rushed out of office along with other colleagues after the tremors, read the news first on TOI.com after having "searched lots of websites for the news". For JNU student Vikas Gupta the frustration with the Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) website was visible. "You of course were the first to mention the quake! The IMD's dull website seems clueless and their toll-free weather phone no.18001801717 is useless". For Noida-based Manish , the reference to the date 26 was uncanny. "It is 26th again! It is just a coincidence that all recent earthquakes have been felt on 26th. In many cases the day also happens to fall just 1-2 days after a full moon or new moon night." Another reader, Ujjwal , himself is quite kicked about the power of the Net. The reader from Delhi says: I am surprised to see so many comments by 9:00 am. Indeed the power of the Internet can be visualised here. Even after the quake, so many people logged on to see if it is on the Net!" There are many readers like Ujjwal for whom the Net is no longer a revolution but has become a commonplace reality. And as their numbers grow, the power of the mouse is definitely rising. And in the words of Vips from Delhi's Katwaria Sarai "You people are faster than earthquake", goes on to prove that news on the Net is no longer a mousy affair. For at least the past four millennia, human development has been intertwined with the development of roads. Two millennia ago, the Roman culture made dramatic leaps in technological innovation to facilitate transportation and expand its empire. The Romans built straight, narrow roads to provide a stable base for moving humans, animals, and vehicles. Their roads extended long distances, creating one of the first networks of roads. With the development of roads and road networks, a variety of interactions and ecological effects occurred. Their techniques of excavation (including the removal of mountainsides), construction of bridges, and changes in water flows affected the environment and wildlife (and human) mortality. Many of these effects persist today. The past century has seen a transformation in the magnitude and the scale of paved roads in the world in general and in the United States in particular. This transformation parallels the production and use of motorized vehicles. Roughly a century ago, the first fossil-fueled vehicles were being driven on a road system where the patterns on the landscape were largely in place but undeveloped. In 1900, an extensive network of roads existed, but only about 4% were paved (FWHA 1979). In the twentieth century, the system about doubled in length (Forman et al. 2003) to a recent estimate of 4 million linear miles or about 0.8% of the land surface area in the United States (Cook and Daggett 1995). As the system was getting longer, it was also becoming more structurally complex to provide for larger volumes of traffic and heavier loads. Those complexities include larger, wider roads with changing techniques of construction and greater structural stability. Some of these changes were done, in part, to accommodate and mitigate environmental issues. As the road system became more complex in the twentieth century, it became more expensive to build, repair, and maintain. Road develop- Monsoon down 45% in June, govt worried TNN 20 June 2009, 03:50am IST Text Size: | NEW DELHI: The country received 45% less than normal rain in June, a development that can hinder the prospect of economic recovery and dent the | | | | |Twitter | |Facebook | |Share | | | | | | | | | | | |Email | |Print | |Save | |Comment | | | | | | | UPA's ambitious plan to enact the National Food Security Act to guarantee 25kg of heavily subsidized foodgrain to BPL families. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh called the ``delayed and weakened'' monsoon a cause for concern. Singh asked food secretary Alka Sirohi to brief the Cabinet on the seriousness of the situation and set up a committee of secretaries to watch over the monsoon and the food situation. The CoS will hold an emergency meeting on Saturday. The threat to the farm sector, which has sustained demand in the wake of the global downturn, can be gauged from the fact that as many as 28 of the country's 36 meteorological sub-divisions have reported deficient or scanty rainfall. For a government hoping to ride out of the economic slowdown on the back of robust farm sector results, the weather-wane seemed to swivel with ominous dry and hot winds instead of rain-laden monsoon. The IMD warned that the monsoon, which moves up north in spurts, did not seem to have picked up any speed in the last seven days and the progress upwards would remain sluggish in the days to come. ``During the past week, no fresh surge developed either in the Bay of Bengal or in the Arabian Sea which could lead to further advance of monsoon,'' it noted in its release on Friday. For the government, which is also keen to put out a Food Security Act guaranteeing 25kg of foodgrain to those living below the poverty line, a bad monsoon is bound to raise concerns about the consequences of a bad sowing. A drop in crop production could send food prices soaring, hiking the subsidy bill for the government to troublesome levels and forcing it to look at imports -- a hazardous option even in the best of times. In a double edge, droughts or drought-like conditions in areas that go through the next quarter with less rain would increase expectations from the FSA. While the Indian Meteorological Department continued to ignore possibility of the El Nino phenomenon -- usually associated with deficient monsoons -- worsening the situation, speaking off the record, a senior scientist with the department admitted that in coming days, the warming of waters over the Pacific would remain a cause of concern and would need to be carefully watched. Cyclone Aila, which had ravaged parts of Orissa and West Bengal, has already sapped the monsoon system of its moisture and weakened rainfall. In coming days, monsoon is expected to advance over some more parts of Maharashtra, including Mumbai, but central India would have to wait longer for respite. The wait for Delhi, other northwestern and northern parts of the country is expected to be much longer. Under normal conditions, monsoon should have hit Mumbai by June 10 and run over entire Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh and parts of Uttar Pradesh by June 15. Under a cloud * Cyclone Aila has sapped the monsoon system of moisture and weakened rainfall. By now, monsoon should have hit Mumbai and covered Gujarat, MP and parts of UP. * PM says it's cause for concern, sets up panel of secretaries to watch progress of monsoon and food security. * Added worry for UPA is its ambitious plan to supply 25kg of subsidized foodgrain to BPL families. * Poor monsoon will hit sowing, forcing the prospect of imports. Drought-like conditions will mean greater demand for cheap foodgrain. State faces recurring droughts: Pachauri TNN 12 July 2009, 02:34am IST Text Size: | PUNE: The impact of climate change will be felt in Maharashtra through a series of recurring droughts, Nobel laureate R K Pachauri said on | | | | |Twitter | |Facebook | |Share | | | | | | | | | | | |Email | |Print | |Save | |Comment | | | | | | | Saturday. The chairman of the Inter-governmental Panel for Climate Change (IPCC) made these observations via video-conferencing from New Delhi at a two-day international conference on Reverence for Mother Earth. "CM Ashok Chavan was informed about this development in a recent presentation made by the IPCC," he said. "Climate change is only symptomatic of a larger problem of unsustainable development. Unfortunately, India is shedding its traditional culture of co-existing with nature. It is critical that we change our lifestyles." Pachauri cautioned that in India, the climate change will have an adverse impact on wheat productivity. "By 2020, we would see a 50 per cent decline in productivity of some crops. There will also be increased pressure on water resources by that time," he said. "The worst affected will, ironically, be the poorest regions of the world, which are least responsible for the current state of affairs. Not only will climate change cause a spread of diseases and decline in productivity of vital food grains, but the heat waves and conditions of extreme precipitation, which seem to be repeating at an alarming rate, would have a major social impact," Pachauri said. tnn Drought-hit Italy declares emergency REUTERS 6 May 2007, 02:41am IST Text Size: | ROME: Italy declared a state of emergency in northern and central regions on Friday due to fears of drought following unusually warm and | | | | |Twitter | |Facebook | |Share | | | | | | | | | | | |Email | |Print | |Save | |Comment | | | | | | | dry weather. Farmers have been fretting as Italy’s largest river, the Po, has dried up in recent months. The river, running west to east across northern Italy, feeds the broad Po valley which accounts for about a third of the country’s agricultural output. Environment minister Alfonso Pecoraro Scanio said the state of emergency had been declared as a precautionary measure. It came a day after neighboring France imposed water rationing in several of its regions, also in fear of drought. Italy’s hottest winter in 200 years meant snowfall was light in the Alps, with little snow-melt to swell the Po. Then a hot, dry spring set in, with temperatures in April approaching levels usually seen in June. But cabinet undersecretary Enrico Letta said the latest news of the Po and the water situation in general was “reassuring”. And as the state of emergency was declared, torrential rain was falling throughout the centre and north of Italy. Weather has been generally cooler and wetter over the last week. The environment ministry was unable to give immediate details of what measures were envisaged. Drought fears intensified after the Po’s level fell by 80 centimeters in late April, to 6.53 metres below its normal level in the northern town of Pontelagoscuro. [pic][pic] |Twitter | |Facebook | |Share | |Print | |Email | |Save | |C | | | 10 killed, 23 injured in Darjeeling landslides IANS 26 May 2009, 05:00pm IST Text Size: | SILIGURI: At least 10 people were killed and 23 injured following landslides Tuesday in West Bengal's hill district Darjeeling, police | | | | |Twitter | |Facebook | |Share | | | | | | | | | | | |Email | |Print | |Save | |Comment | | | | | | | said. "At least 10 people died and 23 were injured in landslides across Darjeeling district. We've also got reports that six people are missing," Darjeeling additional superintendent of police Akhilesh Yadav said. He said the army has been called in to carry out rescue operations in different parts of the hills. "Nearly 500 houses were damaged due to torrential rains that started yesterday (Monday) morning and are still continuing in northern parts of the state," Yadav added. According to sources, nearly 100 landslides took place across Darjeeling and its adjoining areas causing immense trouble to thousands of residents of the hilly region. More than 40 killed in landslides in Tamil Nadu REUTERS 10 November 2009, 08:22pm IST Text Size: | Topics: • Rains • tamil nadu • Landslides CHENNAI: At least 43 people have been killed in landslides caused by torrential rains in the Nilgiris hills in the southern state of Tamil Nadu, | | | | |Twitter | |Facebook | |Share | | | | | | | | | | | |Email | |Print | |Save | |Comment | | | | | | | officials said on Tuesday. "The victims included men, women and children, and they were either washed away in floods or buried in landslips," said an official at the flood control centre in Udhagamandalam, popularly known as Ooty, 500 km from the state capital Chennai. Relief operations were underway, he said. The weather office has warned of more rains and district officials have cautioned residents and tourists to keep off the winding roads in the picturesque hills famous for its tea. "People living on the slopes have been advised to move to upper reaches and we have issued a warning to tourists to stay away," said district administrator Anand Patil. It would take a month to restore normal road traffic between Ooty and the plains, he said, as roads have been blocked by boulders and fallen trees. At least 30 people have died elsewhere in the state, most of them in house collapses, police said. Heavy rains trigger landslides in Kerala PTI 30 June 2006, 12:38pm IST Text Size: | KOZHIKODE: A youth was missing and several houses were damaged in landslips as torrential rains, influenced by the revival of south-west | | | | |Twitter | |Facebook | |Share | | | | | | | | | | | |Email | |Print | |Save | |Comment | | | | | | | monsoon, lashed several parts of north Kerala, official sources said on Friday. In Kozhikode district, 19-year-old Ramshad fell into Kuttiadi river when a boat capsized on Thursday night, they said. Search operations to trace the youth were hampered due to inclement weather, they said. Several houses were damaged when landslips hit Vanimel panchayat area in Vatakara taluk. The adjoining hilly areas were also facing the danger of being hit by landslides as heavy rains, accompanied by high-velocity winds, continued. A total of 32 houses were reported to be damaged in the current spell of rains in Vatakara taluk alone, while two houses were damaged in Kozhukkallur and Naduvannur villages of Koyilandy taluk in the district. Traffic remained disrupted at many places and low-lying areas were inundated. Heavy rains were reported from neighbouring Malappuram and Wayanad districts. Torrential rains that hit the region earlier following the onset of monsoon on May 26 had left a trail of destruction. At least 31 killed in landslide in Cairo REUTERS 7 September 2008, 11:35am IST Text Size: | CAIRO: Thirty-one people were killed and 23 injured when a massive rockslide hit a crowded Cairo shanty town on Saturday, sending rocks and | | | | |Twitter | |Facebook | |Share | | | | | | | | | | | |Email | |Print | |Save | |Comment | | | | | | | boulders crashing down on dozens of houses, security and medical sources said. ( Watch ) Tumbling rocks destroyed many buildings in the Manshiyet Nasser shanty town in eastern Cairo near the Moqattam plateau, its close-packed houses and narrow alleys huddled at the foot of cliffs beside a highway. State news agency MENA said parts of the area were being evacuated because new cracks had been seen in the cliff face. Dozens of police and rescue workers were sent to the scene, backed up by fire engines, ambulances and sniffer dogs, but locals were enraged at what they saw as an inadequate government response to the disaster. Hundreds of weeping, yelling residents gathered round the cordoned-off site, cursing local authorities and saying they had relatives and friends trapped beneath the rubble. "You've just got your hands in your pockets, you're not doing anything!" one man yelled at police standing nearby. "If it were the shura council (upper house of parliament), you'd have had the army in by now!" shouted another. When fire broke out in Egypt's upper house of parliament in August, killing one person, the military were called out to battle the blaze with helicopters. "It was horror. The power went out, we heard a loud bang like an earthquake, and I thought this house had collapsed. I went out, I saw the whole mountain had collapsed," said Hassan Ibrahim Hassan, 80, whose house escaped the destruction. One six-storey building was reduced to rubble by the landslide, witnesses said. OVERCROWDED SHANTY TOWN Many parts of Cairo are densely crowded, packed with families who poured into the city from impoverished rural areas. Some districts hold about 100,000 people per square mile (41,000 per square km) and residents say they have suffered from decades of government neglect. The shanty town of Manshiyet Nasser, with its red brick houses and unpaved narrow alleys is famously overcrowded, with entire families sometimes squeezed into a single room. A woman in a white veil screamed "My children, my children! I didn't get anyone out, I need to see them, even if they're dead!" Rescue efforts were moving slowly. MENA said the authorities had sent for heavy lifting equipment, and were evacuating parts of the area because new cracks had appeared in the cliff face. People were sifting through the rubble to recover their meagre belongings. Visible through the debris were household items; broken plates, satellite dishes, pans, blankets -- even dead chickens. Some 30 riot police were deployed to the area and were standing on top of the rubble, an eyewitness said. Much of the digging was being done by relatives and neighbours, tugging at piles of rocks and debris by hand in their search for survivors or bodies. Rescue workers were using pickaxes to break up large rocks. Many residents said they had reported a small rockslide to local authorities weeks ago, but accounts differed as to the outcome of the incident. One resident, who gave her name only as Umm Mohamed, showed a Reuters correspondent damage to her house from the recent rockslide. The walls were severely cracked and leaking, and clouds of dust rose from the walls when struck. "If you had children, would you want them to live here' No one paid any attention to us," said Umm Mohamed. A similar incident occurred almost 15 years ago, when a 3,000-tonne chunk of rock broke off the Moqattam plateau, an escarpment on the eastern edge of the Nile valley, and crushed houses in Manshiyet Nasser, burying at least 50 people. 40 die in landslide in Kerala PTI 10 November 2001, 09:49am IST Text Size: | | | | | |Twitter | |Facebook | |Share | | | | | | | | | | | |Email | |Print | |Save | |Comment | | | | | | | amboori, kerala: in one of the worst natural disasters the state has seen, 40 people were killed and four others injured in a landslide here on friday night. forty bodies have so far been recovered by rescuers from the rubbles of the devastating landslip which occurred at poochamukku in neyyar dam on the slopes of the western ghats, near thiruvananthapuram. the house where a large number of people had gathered for an engagement ceremony, was completely razed trapping relatives and friends of the family. according to eyewitnesses, in the stunning impact of the landslip, four houses on the upper part of the rocky 'kurisumala' came down collapsing on the concrete house of one c d thomas on the slope of the hill, where the betrothal ceremony of his son, was to take place on saturday morning. eyewitnesses said groaning and cries for help could be heard from the rubbles. most of the bodies extricated were crushed and mutilated. heavy rains, strong wind and power disruption hampered rescue work initially but gained momentum with police, armymen and fireforce personnel working through the night with the help of local people. the search operations by police, army, fire force and local people are still on as more people are feared to be trapped inside a part of the collapsed house. most families in this remote hilly hinterland, part of the neyyar dam area of agasthya forests, are small holders settled from central travancore region. the bodies have been taken to a nearby private hospital for post-mortem. Rajsthan faces drought, kharif output to be less by 50% TNN 13 August 2009, 04:14am IST Text Size: | JAIPUR: In spite of a late revival of monsoon, the state still seems to be on the brink of one of its worst droughts as the kharif output this | | | | |Twitter | |Facebook | |Share | | | | | | | | | | | |Email | |Print | |Save | |Comment | | | | | | | year will be reduced by 50%. “The crops are badly affected by the dry spell. Even if they survive, productivity will be reduced by 50%,” agriculture commissioner J C Mohanty told TOI. Cotton crops in the Ganganagar belt have almost wilted away, while the rest of the crops are on the verge of perish, he said. Chief minister Ashok Gehlot will hold another round of meeting on Thursday to assess the situation. The decision was taken after officials opined that the revival of the monsoon may not help the situation and that the state should wake up to the reality of a drought. “After Thursday’s meeting, we will be in a position to estimate how much of the state is drought-affected,” an official said. “With nearly 15% less rainfall this year, most of the standing crops are damaged. Virtually the whole state has been affected due to scanty rainfall,” he said. The meeting will be attended by the principal secretaries of relief and disaster management, agriculture, PHED, power, co-operatives, water resources and animal husbandry among others. Only last Sunday the chief minister had reviewed the drought situation at a high-level meeting and directed the officials to complete the ‘girdhavari’ report (assessment of losses) within 15 days. He directed the officials to conduct a district-wise survey of the damage to kharif crops. The chief minister also asked the power department to make adequate arrangements for uninterrupted power supply to the farmers. However, the situation remains grim as most of the state is witnessing power cuts for long durations. Meanwhile, four union ministers from the state are already on a tour to assess the situation. Ministers C P Joshi (Bhilwara), Namonarain Meena (Tonk-Sawai Madhopur), Sachin Pilot (Ajmer) and Mahadev Singh Khandela (Sikar) are currently visiting the villages in their respective constituencies. On Wednesday, Sachin Pilot visited over 20 villages near Pushkar and Kishangarh in his constituency. Most of the villages are facing water scarcity and farmers still rests their hope on monsoon. “Crops are damaged but the immediate concern is lack of fodder as the state has a huge livestock population,” Pilot told TOI on Wednesday. Shortage of water as well as power supply in the rural areas were deepening the crisis, he said. “Officials of revenue department are assessing the situation so that the remedies could be chalked out,” the Ajmer MP added. Almost half of India under drought: Pawar Nitin Sethi, TNN 20 August 2009, 03:27am IST Text Size: | NEW DELHI: With the government declaring that almost half the country is already under drought, the Union cabinet will on Thursday consider a | | | | |Twitter | |Facebook | |Share | | | | | | | | | | | |Email | |Print | |Save | |Comment | | | | | | | proposal to increase the minimum support price (MSP) for paddy to Rs 1,000 per quintal from the existing rate of Rs 850. The government will also mull whether to increase the support price for arhar (tur) dal from Rs 2,000 to Rs 2,300 and of moong dal from Rs 2,520 to 2,760. The move on paddy is being considered in reaction to a severely hit crop. Not only has the sowing been substantially lower than last year but the low rainfall of August is estimated to have had a substantial impact on production as well. The situation on the pulses front has been as dismal with imports rising. With these moves, the government would expect to convince farmers to invest more in the crops with the promise of a higher support price delivering a comparable price at harvest. For a government that has reacted slowly to the drought, this would be but one of the arrows in its quiver to use. Speaking to state food ministers on Wednesday, Union food minister Sharad Pawar said, "The shortfall in monsoon may result in shortfall in area coverage of paddy by about 5.7 million hectares as compared to last year and production of rice may reduce by 10 million tonnes. Some shortfall in production of oilseeds and sugarcane is also expected." Later speaking to the media, Pawar said, "Ten states have declared 246 districts as drought-affected. This comes to about 46-47% of the total districts in the country." At the state food ministers' conference, Pawar said the Centre was willing to release wheat and rice from its reserves in the open market if prices shot up. The Union government is also mulling an increase in sugar supply through ration shops, he said. Pawar also said the Centre would provide foodgrains to states for distribution to the 11.52-crore above poverty line (APL) families at the minimum support price. Earlier, the cost of transportation and storage was also charged to APL beneficiaries. He said the APL allocation for all the states, which is linked to existing food stocks, had been increased from about 11 million tonnes last year to more than 17 million tonnes during the current year. UP govt declares 27 more districts as drought-hit PTI 26 July 2009, 08:05pm IST Text Size: | LUCKNOW: Uttar Pradesh government on Sunday declared 27 more districts as drought-hit, taking their total number to 47. | | | | |Twitter | |Facebook | |Share | | | | | | | | | | | |Email | |Print | |Save | |Comment | | | | | | | "In the interest of farmers, we have relaxed measures for declaring districts as drought-hit due to which 27 more districts are found to be affected by drought. With this the total number of drought-hit districts has gone up to 47," Chief Secretary Atul Kumar Gupta. He said that on the directions of Chief Minister Mayawati districts which had received less than 40 per cent rainfall between June 1 to July 23 and where sowing of crops was less than 75 per cent had been declared drought-hit. It was also decided to declare districts which received 40-60 per cent rainfall and where sowing of crops was less than 50 per cent as drought-hit, he said. Thirteen districts - Agra, Shahjahanpur, Saharanpur, Faizabad, Meerut, Mahoba, Aligarh, Jyotibaphule Nagar, Balrampur, Etah, Rampur, Ghaziabad and Gautambuddha Nagar - which received less than 40 per cent rainfall have been declared drought-hit, he said. Similarly, 14 districts - Banda, Mathura, Allahabad, Auraiya, Jalaun, Kanpur, Varanasi, Chandauli, Moradabad, Azamgarh, Siddharthnagar, Badaun, Sitapur and Firozabad - received rainfall between 40-60 per cent have also been declared drought-hit, he added. [pic] An Indian Air Force helicopter rescues a man from a flood hit area in Raichur, Karnataka. Flash floods and landslides reportedly killed 200 people in south India. |[pic] | | | |The overflowing Jura project in Mehboobnagar in Andhra Pradesh | |Torrential rains destroyed hundreds of homes and caused | |heavy flooding in Andhra Pradesh. | | | [pic] Flood victims on a makeshift raft in Bijuli Bari village in Assam on Saturday. [pic] | | |Related videos | |[pic] | |More Videos » |