What are natural disasters? Awareness about natural disasters

And natural disasters and disasters caused by nature, such as floods, volcanic eruptions, earthquakes, avalanches and lahars (mudslides, volcanic eruptions), landslides, sewage, snow storms, droughts, hailstorms, heat waves, hurricanes and tropical storms, hurricanes and ice ages, and hurricanes, and forest fires. The epidemics in some cases caused by bacteria or viruses, natural disasters, but in some cases to a different category. Can also be biological threat such as locusts or poisonous mushrooms are natural disasters disaster.Some is on the edge of the natural and unnatural. May be caused by famine and chronic food shortages, through a combination of natural and human factors. Two space groups originating from natural disasters, both human beings rarely impact on the surface, including collision of asteroids and solar flares. Although the risk of asteroid impact in the short term may be low, and some scientists say that in the long term, and the possibility of death, the asteroid is similar to that of death from natural disasters, conventional, such as natural disasters, deadly disease.The and famine, and claimed the 70 million people during the century 20 units, 30 million die of famine in China during 1958-1961. In the Soviet Union there were many man-made famine that killed millions, the blame on the policies of Stalin's mass, the leader of the country at that time. Famines have a history of highlighting the worst in people, including atrocities and cannibalism.Increasing awareness of natural disasters all over the world and make people around the planet recognize the importance of preparing for a wide range of crisis. The third world and rich countries alike vulnerable to death and destruction from a multitude of nature deadly rescue and relief efforts acts.Since backward often days behind the event, personal, family, community and disaster preparedness is the key to disaster statistics survival.Recent reveal that survival depends on more than just ignore the initial impact of nature's fury, and the key to live often lies in the planning for such an event before it happens. May be the difference between life and death in days or weeks after the disaster lies in the existence of a simple and keep working to find out what take.information meet the special needs of the most vulnerable of our citizens, and the very young and those with special needs and the elderly. Planning for their care, individual and community can save lives and grief that does not describe

china flood death tool 1,072. 619 people(aprox) missing

China's worst flooding in more than a decade has killed nearly 1,000 people across the country and stranded tens of thousands in the northeast without power.
The state-run flood control office said 968 people have been killed since the rainy beginning of the year and 507 others are missing.More heavy rains were expected for the southeast, southwest and northeast parts of the country through Thursday.About 30,000 residents in Kouqian town were trapped in their homes after torrential rains drenched the northeastern province of Jilin on Wednesday, the official Xinhua news agency reported.Water began flooding the town after the nearby Xingshan Reservoir and the Wende and Songhua rivers overflowed. Rescuers were delivering supplies by boat and moving people to higher ground.In Jilin city in Jilin province, workers were busy recovering thousands of barrels of chemicals that had tumbled into the Songhua River after a flood swept through a local factory."The worry this year has been on the dams and the reservoirs ... This year it's been so much extra rainfall, about 15 per cent more than usual. "That complicates the situation because the reservoirs are getting full and the dams are nearing their maximum capacity."Flooding has hit areas all over China. A total of 875,000 homes have collapsed and almost 10 million people have been evacuated, according to Xinhua.The Three Gorges Dam, the world's largest hydroelectric project, has reached 90 per cent of its full capacity.Thousands of workers have sandbagged riverbanks and checked reservoirs in preparation for potential floods expected to flow from the swollen Yangtze and Han rivers, an official with the Yangtze Water Resources Commission, said.
"Right now, the Han river in Hubei province is on the verge breaching warning levels".The Han is expected to rise this week to its highest level in two decades.Workers were prepared to blast holes in the river's embankment to divert flood waters into a low-lying area of farms and fish ponds, Xinhua said.
The toll in floods triggered by torrential rains in China this year has reached 1,072, while 619 people are still missing.The floods have affected over 140 million people in 28 provinces and caused economic losses estimated at almost 210 billion yuan, said Shu Qingpeng, deputy director of the Office of State Flood Control and Drought Relief.Floods also destroyed over 1.1 million homes and damaged 9.72 million hectares of farmland.Rivers like the Yangtze, the Yellow and the Songhua were all swollen to danger levels after heavy rains. Authorities have evacuated 10.42 million people this year from areas at risk of flooding.

"we must anticipate big disasters" china flood killed more than 700 people

Flooding in China that has killed more than 700 people this year However officials, in the first high-level media briefing on weeks of deadly flooding plaguing much of the country's southern half, said a disaster on the scale of historic 1998 flooding on the Yangtze River would likely be averted.A total of 701 people have died so far this year in flooding that has also left 347 people missing, Liu Ning, head of the country's flood control authority and vice-minister of water resources.the annual rainy season would continue at least through August, and that more downpours were expected, further straining reservoirs and other water control projects, especially as the East Asian typhoon season has just begun.During this period there will be heavy rainfall and serious floods. The rainfall will continue.meteorologists expected heavy rains could spread to northern China, possibly causing flooding along major rivers such as the Huai, Yellow and Songhua.In these rivers they haven't seen major floods in many years and they are very likely to see some soon. So we must anticipate big disasters.Tens of thousands of homes and other structures have been destroyed in floods and landslides, and economic losses have hit at least 142 billion yuan ($A23.8 billion), with 110 million people affected.The number of deaths and figures for damage are China's worst in 10 years.The floods have dominated the country's attention for weeks, with state television each day broadcasting dramatic images of villagers being rescued from raging rivers or plucked from rooftops in inundated villages.The situation has triggered fears China could see a repeat of the disastrous flooding of 1998, when heavy rain swelled the Yangtze, China's longest river, and many tributaries, leading to a series of devastating levee collapses.At least 4150 people were believed to have died, 18 million were evacuated and millions of homes were destroyed in the floods, the country's worst in recent memory.rainfall levels, although extremely high, have remained 20 per cent lower than those of 1998.And although the upper reaches of the Yangtze drainage basin have seen the highest flood peak since 1987,the dam would prevent flood surges on the river's upper and lower reaches from "converging" as they did in 1998.the government was now feverishly co-ordinating the release of water by dams throughout the region to maintain a smooth flow.The Three Gorges Dam is now playing an effective role in flood control.

Beijing china earthquake destroyed 18,445 houses

An earthquake toppled more than 1,000 houses and apartment buildings in China's southwest near the border with Myanmar on Thursday, killing at least 24 people and injuring more than 200, The magnitude-5.8 quake was centered in Yingjiang and struck just before 1 p.m. (0500 GMT) at a depth of six miles (10 kilometers). The U.S. Geological Survey measured the quake at a magnitude of 5.4 and at a deeper 21 miles (35 kilometers).Some 1,200 houses or apartments were crushed by the quake, said Zhao Yunshan, director of Yingjiang government press office. More than 127,000 people have been evacuated to nearby shelters, Xinhua reported, citing the Civil Affairs Ministry.According to the USGS, more than 1 million people may have been exposed to the worst shaking.Vice President Xi Jinping, expected to be the country's next leader, called for an "all-out" effort to get food, water and clothing to those affected by the quake, Xinhua said.Tremors continued to be felt in the area throughout the afternoon and evening, according to CCTV reporter Shu Qian, who was at the disaster scene in Yingjiang County.The quake's epicenter was in Shiming Village, just over a mile (two kilometers) from the county seat, but triggered a power outage across Yingjiang, which has a population of about 300,000 people, Xinhua said.By evening, the power supply was still cut off, though water and communications didn't appear to be damaged, Shu said.A government team that includes the Civil Affairs Ministry has been dispatched to the quake-stricken area. About 5,000 tents, 10,000 quilts and 10,000 coats are also being sent from the central government.The mountainous area lies 1,500 miles (2,400 kilometers) southwest of Beijing, close to the border with Myanmar, and is home to many ethnic groups on both sides of the border, which sees heavy traffic in people and goods.Xinhua said the quake-prone region has been hit by more than 1,000 minor tremors over the past two months.The Myanmar Meteorological Department released a statement saying a quake had hit some 230 miles (370 kilometers) northeast of Mandalay, the country's second-largest city.The statement did not mention injuries, damage or the specific area of Myanmar most affected by the quake. Authorities in the tightly ruled country tend not to immediately discuss the effects of natural disasters.Much of the area on the Myanmar side been under the control of various armed ethnic groups, who have battled the Myanmar military to remain free from central government control.BEIJING, March 12 About 127,100 residents have been evacuated to safety after a 5.8-magnitude earthquake hit Yingjiang County in southwest China's Yunnan Province Thursday, the Ministry of Civil Affairs said Saturday.As of 10 p.m. Friday, the earthquake has left 25 people dead and more than 250 others injured including 134 seriously, the ministry said in a report.All the casualties were reported in Yingjiang County, with the surrounding counties including Longchuan, Lianghe, Ruili and Luxi reporting damages of thousands of houses or apartments, it said.The earthquake has affected the production and life of about 344,600 residents in the five counties.The earthquake destroyed 18,445 houses and apartments and left 55,345 others seriously damaged, the ministry's figures showed.

new zealand earth quake kermadec islands"series of earthquake and aftershocks"

The U.S. Geological Survey says a magnitude 6.1 earthquake struck near New Zealand's Kermadec Islands. There are no reports of damage or risk of tsunami from the quake.According to the USGS, the quake struck at 21:17:00 UTC on Saturday, which is 9:17 a.m. Sunday morning local time. The epicenter of the quake was 12 miles below the mostly uninhabited islands, which are approximately 620 miles east of New Zealand's capital city of Auckland.A series of earthquakes and aftershocks have shaken New Zealand in the months following a magnitude 6.3 quake that devastated the city of Christchurch, New Zealand, killing 181 people.Meanwhile, a magnitude 3.6 quake rolled across the San Francisco Bay Area at 7:05 p.m. local time on Saturday. Emergency officials said there were no reports of serious damage or injury.The USGS National Earthquake Information Center received scores of quake reports from people in the Bay Area.Also on Saturday, scientists from the Icelandic Meteorological Office confirmed that an eruption began in the Grímsvötn volcano at approximately 17:30 UTC.The eruption produced minor seismic activity in the region and an the eruption plume that had risen to an altitude of over 65,000 ft. a short time later. Radio evangelist Harold Camping had predicted that 'Rapture' would begin on Saturday, May 21, 2011 with an earthquake in New Zealand.Followers of the 89-year-old retired civil engineer spent months warning the world of the apocalypse, some giving away earthly belongings or draining their savings accounts. But the May 21 doomsday deadline has passed and many of Camping's followers are wondering why they're still here.Keith Bauer and other believers waited outside the Oakland headquarters of Harold Camping's Family Radio International. Bauer drove his family from Maryland to California to await the May 21 Rapture.Bauer says he was somewhat skeptical but made the trip because of his belief in God. "It's God who leads you, not Harold Camping".

meteorological department warning for sindh,balochistan fisherman

The sea condition would become rough to very rough on Friday and the fishermen who were in the open sea must return to the coast before it.
It stated that a well-marked low-pressure area in the eastern Arabian Sea was likely to intensify into a depression (strong weather system) on Wednesday evening/night. “The current sea surface temperature is (around 30 degrees centigrade) and other meteorological parameters are favourable for the development of a tropical cyclone on Thursday/ Friday,” it added.Officials said that as a result of this cyclonic activity the coastal areas of Balochistan and Sindh, including Karachi, would receive rain with thunderstorm by Friday.However, Met Department Director-General Arif Mehmood told Dawn that it was too early to forecast rain in Karachi or anywhere else due to this low-pressure area in the Arabian Sea.“So far it (the cyclone) is in the development process and we don’t know what will be its track and where it will go.”Although the direction of wind did not change on Tuesday and remained south-westerly with a speed of 12 knots, the city’s maximum temperature increased by two degrees compared to Monday’s maximum temperature of 37 degrees centigrade.The maximum temperature in the city was 39 degrees centigrade on Tuesday. The level of humidity, a measure of the amount of moisture in the air, also dropped to 38 per cent from Monday’s 57 per cent.The Met Office forecast hot and dry weather in Karachi on Wednesday with the maximum temperature ranging between 36 and 38 degrees centigrade.

most severe flood in history "climate change" natural disaster policy

“In fact Pakistan is among the few developing countries which has prepared such a comprehensive national policy on a subject which is on top of the global priority agenda may be after war on terror,” said Dr Qamaruzaman Chaudhary, former director general of Meteorological Department of Pakistan and leading author of the policy.The policy draft has already been accepted by the country’s Ministry of Environment and is ready for the cabinet’s approval.
In 2008, the Climate Change Task Force was formed for the policy draft. Some 40 experts from different but related fields strived for two years to finalise it. The task force also consulted federal and provincial agencies, organisations and other experts.The country has diverse ecosystems which include coastlines, deserts, arid zones, mountains and glaciers. These areas are in danger due to population growth, lack of planning and mismanagement.
For Pakistan, climate change is a reality as data of temperature from the last 100 years shows a visible increase in heat. It is also among the top countries vulnerable to climate change.“Particularly, during the last two decades, extreme weather events like heavy rains, heat and droughts have increased,” Chaudhary said.This pattern of extreme weather could be noticed in Thar. The region is an arid zone where drought arrives after every three years, and may stay put for 12 months or more.But there is a harsh twist in this pattern: the third drought in the cycle tends to be longer and more severe than the first two and parches the land for three years. This triggers the mass migration of locals to the other green areas.The main objective of the policy is to sustain economic growth by addressing the challenges of climate change.The sectors of water resources, agriculture, human health, forestry, biodiversity and others are also among the top priorities along with the areas of mountains, pastures, marine and coastal eco-systems. The policy is to also to be integrated by other related policies.“The policy is a multi-sector approach in which the long term project will come under the National Climate Change Action Plane – a road map for adaptation and mitigation of serious problems,” said Jawed Ali Khan, Director General (Environment) at the Ministry of Environment.
The policy also stressed upon the importance of learning, training, technical, and capacity building approach. These targets are to be achieved by awareness, national and international cooperation, technology transfer and funding.Chaudhary has confirmed an action plan as the next step and hoped it will be ready within next few months.The policy also needs immediate implementation because the country faced extreme floods in 2010 in which 2,000 people died, 20 million were displaced and one-fifth of the country was under water.The upper margin of the country is dotted with glaciers and mountains which serve as water towers for the country. Pakistan has already been observing snow liquefy floods – without any rain – and melting glaciers. Thus the threat of extreme monsoons could also occur in future.The GCISC, a research center for climate change, also contributed to the policy draft.The US based Pakistani Director of the Frederick S. Pardee Cener for the Study of Longer- Range Future and author of IPCC report, Dr. Adil Najam has welcomed Pakistan’s first policy draft on climate change.
“I think what the draft says is correct, but may already have been said in a whole host of other policy documents. The challenge is to turn the general statements into specific targets and timetables,” said Najam.“Good policy should also be rooted in the specific priorities and contexts of the nation. From this standpoint, it seems to be that any climate change policy for Pakistan has to confront the energy issues, especially in the context of constant load-shedding.

"global warming"heavy rain and disastrous flood and cliamte experts

One group of researchers looked at the strongest rain and snow events of each year from 1951 to 1999 in the Northern Hemisphere and found that the more recent storms were 7 per cent wetter. That may not sound like much, but it adds up to be a substantial increase, said the report from a team of researchers from Canada and Scotland.The study did not single out specific storms but examined worst-of-each-year events all over the Northern Hemisphere. While the study ended in 1999, the close of the decade when scientists say climate change kicked into a higher gear, the events examined were similar to more recent disasters: deluges that triggered last year’s deadly floods in Pakistan and in Nashville, Tennessee, and this winter’s paralyzing blizzards in parts of the United States.The change in severity was most apparent in North America, but that could be because that is where the most rain gauges are, scientists said.
Both studies should weaken the argument that climate change is a ‘‘victimless crime,’’ said Myles Allen of the University of Oxford. He co-authored the second study, which connected flooding and climate change in Britain. ‘‘Extreme weather is what actually hurts people.’’Jonathan Overpeck, a University of Arizona climate scientist, who did not take part in either study, praised them as sensible and ‘‘particularly relevant given the array of extreme weather that we’ve seen this winter and stretching back over the last few years.Not all the extreme rain and snow events the scientists studied cause flooding. But since 1950, flooding has killed more than 2.3 million people, according to the World Health Organization’s disaster database.The British study focused on flooding in England and Wales in autumn of 2000. The disaster cost more than $1.7 billion in insured damages and was the wettest autumn for the region in more than 230 years of record-keeping.Researchers found that global warming more than doubled the likelihood of that flood occurring. Similar studies are now under way to examine whether last year’s deadly Russian heat wave and Pakistan floods . which were part of the same weather event _ can be scientifically attributed to global warming.For years scientists, relying on basic physics and climate knowledge, have said global warming would likely cause extremes in temperatures and rainfall. But this is the first time researchers have been able to point to a demonstrable cause-and-effect by using the rigorous and scientifically accepted method of looking for the ‘‘fingerprints’’ of human-caused climate change.The scientists took all the information that shows an increase in extreme rain and snow events from the 1950s through the 1990s and ran dozens of computer models numerous times. They put in the effects of greenhouse gases _ which come from the burning of fossil fuels _ and then ran numerous models without those factors. Only when the greenhouse gases are factored in do the models show a similar increase to what actually happened. All other natural effects alone don’t produce the jump in extreme rainfall. Essentially, the computer runs show climate change is the only way to explain what’s happening.In fact, the computer models underestimated the increase in extreme rain and snow. That is puzzling and could be even more troubling for our future, said Michael Oppenheimer of Princeton University, who was not part of the study.Similar fingerprinting studies have found human-caused greenhouse gas emissions triggered changes in more than a dozen other ecological ways: temperatures on land, the ocean’s surface, heat content in the depths of the oceans, temperature extremes, sea level pressure, humidity at ground level and higher in the air, general rainfall amounts, the extent of Arctic sea ice, snowpack levels and timing of runoff in the western United States, Atlantic Ocean salinity, wildfire damage, and the height of the lower atmosphere.All those signs say global warming is here, said Xuebin Zhang, a research scientist for the Canadian government and co-author of the Northern Hemisphere study. ‘‘It is affecting us in multiple directions.’’Most of the 10 outside climate experts who reviewed the papers for The Associated Press called the research sound and strong.The terrible floods killed more than 2,000 people and left more than 20 million injured or homeless in Pakistan. The flooding began in July and at one point it was estimated that 20 per cent of Pakistan’s total land area was under water.Robert Houze, a University of Washington atmospheric sciences professor, and colleagues examined radar data from the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission satellite.They were able to see that rainfall that caused Indus River in Pakistan to overflow was triggered over the Himalayas, within a storm system that had formed over the Bay of Bengal in late July and moved unusually far to the west. Because the rain clouds were within the moisture-laden storm from the east, they were able to pour abnormal amounts of rain on the barren mountainsides, which then ran into the Indus.The progress of storm system stood out in the satellite radar data, Houze said. The storms were associated with a wind pattern that could be traced in satellite data back to its origin over the Bay of Bengal.

balakot,hazara,azad kashmir,muzaffarabad earthquake

The towns of Balakot in Hazara and Bagh in Azad Kashmir were razed to ground completely and more than 100,000 people are feared dead in these two cities only. The stench of death hangs over the weaving rows of rubble that was once Balakot, a thriving tourist town, a must stopover for cheerful visitors enroute to Kaghan. Saturday's massive quake has turned the historic town of Syed Ahmed Shah's martyrdom into a massive graveyard sprawling on both sides of the river Kunhar while the survivors with broken limbs and hearts mourn their loved ones who perished in thousands in Saturday's earthquake. With estimates of 60,000 or above deaths in this town alone, there is hardly a family that has not lost several of its members. At least 1,000 students buried under the rubble of their school buildings have yet to be recovered. All the communication and transport links of areas beyond Balakot have broken with the outside world and the inhabitants are virtually living in stone age under the open sky. There is no electricity, no telephone line working, no clean water, no food, no medical equipment to save lives, no medicines, no tents and no blankets. In Government High School Balakot, there were 900 students, in Government Degree College for Girls there were 350, and in International Islamia Model School there were 600 kids on Saturday. From Government Degree College Hassa, near Balakot, 150 bodies were retrieved. Except Madni Market near the bridge and three signal towers erected by Mobilink, WLL, and Telenor, the bazar starting from the Shell patrol pump on Kaghan Road (the first milestone that you notice while entering Balakot) to Park Hotel built across the Kunhar, all shops, hotels, shopping malls, cafes, and houses on two kilometer stretch have been flattened completely. Each of this concrete and steel structure turned into graveyard for those who could not run on to the streets within seconds after the deadly quake struck them. A huge number of Balakot residents are buried under the debris, no rescue effort has yet started and hope for survivors is diminishing. Just few yards away, the earthquake that wreaked cracks in the ground at a number of places, had tossed two jeeps onto the riverbed. No one is sure of the passengers. Near Madni market, the lonely building in Balakot that survived the earthquake, another truck was thrown into a shop, two pick up vans nearby were lying on their side. The whole area is littered with concrete, electric wires, shoes, blood-soaked clothes, packets of yogurt, milk, spices, chillies, salt, grains, pulses, straw mats, iron rods, bricks, mud, household items, and plastic toys. It's a mess that will take years, or perhaps decades, to clean up but the scars that this tragedy has left on the minds of people will never go.  Comprising 12 union councils, Balakot and Karlot, make what Balakot city is today. Both these areas have been totally razed to the ground. Four-storey buildings, post office, police station, civil hospital, Nadra office, offices of travel agents, PCOs, mosques, petrol pumps, and other government departments have reduced to a flattened bed of rocks. A five-member French rescue team arrived in a helicopter Monday afternoon to help the civilian volunteers who have been recovering bodies, and alive victims from the rubble of schools, shops and residences. A Japanese team has also set up its camp in Balakot but has not yet started its operation. The first Pakistani army convoy arrived in the outskirts of Balakot late afternoon and was busy setting up its camp. With evening falling fast, they are unlikely to launch any operation before Tuesday. The students of University of Engineering and Technology Peshawar were the first who arrived in Balakot on Saturday afternoon with medicine, food, and water. They were joined by the students of Ghulam Ishaq Khan Institute of Technology.
Roads are blocked with huge landslides. No one can go beyond Balakot. The road from Mansehra to Balakot opened on Monday morning but the massive rescue operation launched by the civilians using their own vehicles resulted into worst traffic jams and passengers. victims fleeing Balakot and adjoining areas and the rescue workers were stranded for hours despite the presence of military which, most of the time, stayed away from handling the traffic. The volunteers who came from nearby districts did a commendable job by recovering and burying dozens of bodies. The supplies of food items, medicines, blankets, warm clothes and other edibles came from Lahore, Faisalabad, Multan and even from Nasirabad Balochistan.  As many as five million people were left homeless and were now living in the open and freezing temperatures since the quake.Teams from Turkey, Germany, and UK carrying mobile hospitals have been despatched to Muzaffarabad. Teams of Rescuers from UAE, Jordan, China, and Japan along with sniffer dogs have been deployed in Balaokot, Mansehra and Batgram.

worlds highest-magnitude tremor in recent memory.the powerfull earthquake

In February 2009, a growing number of American and Chinese scientists suggested that the calamity was triggered by a four-year-old reservoir built close to the earthquake's geological fault line.A Columbia University scientist who studied the quake has said that it may have been triggered by the weight of 320 million tons of water in the Zipingpu Reservoir less than a mile from a well-known major fault. His conclusions, presented to the American Geophysical Union in December, coincide with a new finding by Chinese geophysicists that the dam caused significant seismic changes before the earthquake.The Jan. 12 earthquake that rocked the Haitian capital of Port-au-Prince may not have been the highest-magnitude tremor in recent memory, but it certainly seemed the most cataclysmic. Within hours, more than a million people became homeless. Buildings across much of the city and its suburbs were reduced to rubble. Some 230,000 people died, and hundreds of thousands of others were injured. The international response was swift, with dozens of countries sending aid, rescue teams and military personnel to stabilize the situation. But the damage has been devastating and profound in what is one of the poorest countries in the western hemisphere. Tens of thousands remain in ramshackle tent cities that from the beginning have been short on or totally bereft of adequate provisions. Reports of rape are legion, and an epidemic of cholera has set in, killing more than 300 and leading to further calls for international relief. The hobbled Haitian government is unable to cope on its own — at times, outgoing President René Préval has seemed a bemused bystander, and it's unlikely that the results of upcoming elections can do much to change the bleak facts on the ground. On the afternoon of May 12, 2008, a 7.9-magnitude earthquake hit Sichuan Province, a mountainous region in Western China, killing about 70,000 people and leaving over 18,000 missing. Over 15 million people lived in the affected area, including almost 4 million in the city of Chengdu.Since the Tangshan earthquake in 1976, which killed over 240,000 people, China has required that new structures withstand major quakes. But the collapse of schools, hospitals and factories in several different areas around Sichuan has raised questions about how rigorously such codes have been enforced during China's recent, epic building boom.In June 2008, low-lying areas in one of the towns most devastated by the earthquake were flooded as a torrent of water was released from a dangerous lake formed by landslides, dislodging wrecked homes, cars and corpses.The surge of floodwater into the town, Beichuan, was part of an effort by engineers and soldiers to drain Tangjiashan, one of more than 30 so-called quake lakes that were formed by landslides. For weeks, the dam of rock and mud holding back the rising waters of the Jian River there had threatened to burst and flood towns and cities downstream that are home to 1.3 million people.Another smaller earthquake struck the region in August 2008, damaging 258,000 homes and killing at least 32 people.Thousands of the initial quake's victims were children crushed in shoddily built schools, inciting protests by parents. Local police harassed the protestors and the government criticized them. At least one human rights advocate who championed their cause was arrested.
The Chinese government has refused to release the number of students who died or their names. But one official report soon after the earthquake estimated that up to 10,000 students died in the collapse of 7,000 classrooms and dormitory rooms.Reports emerged in July 2008 that local governments in the province had begun a coordinated campaign to buy the silence of angry parents whose children died during the earthquake.Most parents whose children died took a payment from the local government and a guarantee of a pension in exchange for silence.In December 2008, government officials acknowledged in the most definitive report since the earthquake that many school buildings across the country are poorly constructed and that 20 percent of primary schools in one southwestern province may be unsafe.By the first anniversary of the quake, mothers across the region were pregnant or giving birth again, aided by government medical teams dispensing fertility advice and reversing sterilizations. Because of China's policy limiting most families to having one child, the students who died were often their parents' only offspring. Officials say they hope a wave of births will help defuse the anger that many grieving parents harbor.
But the wounds have festered, in part because the Chinese government, wary of any challenge to its authoritarian rule, has muffled the parents and quashed public discussion of shoddy school construction. As the anniversary of the quake again focused attention on Sichuan, the government intensified its campaign to silence the parents. resorting to harassment by police and threats of imprisonment.The Sichuan government has explicitly prohibited media organizations from reporting on miscarriages by women in temporary housing camps. Some quake survivors say they fear that the miscarriages may have been caused by high levels of formaldehyde in the prefabricated housing.

Pakistan: reconstruction plan for earhquake effected

BALAKOT: A dead body of a seven-year child was found from Balakot school debris after over six months of the October 08 earthquake last year.
The body of a class one student identified as Adeel s/o Qadeerullah was found after 207 days of the earthquake from wreckage of a school at Kaghan road in Sanghar village about five kilometers’ distance from Balakot. The body was found when debris of the school building being cleared for reconstruction of a new building.ISLAMABAD: The groundbreaking ceremony of the earthquake-devastated Government Girls Postgraduate College, Rawalakot, which is being reconstructed with the assistance of Religious Affairs Turkish-Islamic Union (DITIB) and Ihlas Media Holding (IMH), will be held on May 5.The reconstruction initiative was preceded by extensive consultations with the Earthquake Reconstruction and Rehabilitation Authority as well as with the other related local authorities, following which a Memorandum of Understanding was signed between DITIB, IMH and ERRA on April 27.The construction of the project has been awarded to Turcon (private) Limited. The college will be constructed over an area of 243,000 square feet. The covered area will include 30 classrooms, laboratories for biology, chemistry, physics and science, a gymnasium, a 100-bed hostel, examination hall, administration block and houses for accommodation of the principal and teachers of the college. The building will be constructed along conventional lines, i.e., it will be a reinforced concrete framed structure. The design and calculations of the building will be done in Turkey through latest technology and in accordance with the geological parameters of the area. The ground breaking ceremony of the college will be performed at the site in Rawalakot on May 5 at 10:30 a.m. The ceremony will be attended by Turkish Ambassador H. Kemal Gur, Lieutenant-General Nadeem Ahmed, Deputy Chairman ERRA and representatives of DITIB and IMH, as well as local authorities. Interest-free loans for 800 earthquake-hit families ISLAMABAD: The Muslim Aid has embarked on the project of rehabilitation as well as restoration of employment in the districts of Poonch and Bagh. A spokesman of Muslim Aid said that under the programme, interest-free loans would be given expeditiously to the heads of 800 families so that they could run small business to help themselves stand on their feet. The loans would be giving on a mere personal guarantee and could be returned within two years. In first phase, 200 people have been facilitated as after taking loans they have made a fresh start to their lives. The Muslim Aid, in collaboration with the Sukhi Foundation, has arranged a professional training as well as technical guidance programme.

Powerful earthquake in karachi ............

A powerful earthquake of magnitude 7.2 shook various parts of country early on Wednesday, jolting residents of cities as far apart as Delhi and Dubai, but the epicentre was far from major population centres. The US Geological Survey said the quake was more than 80 km (50 miles) underground, close to the town of Dalbandin in Balochistan province, near the Afghan and Iranian frontiers.As dawn breaks and officials reach the affected area, more damage and fatalities may be revealed in an area where traditional simple structures may have fared badly under the strains of the powerful tremor.In Quetta, 331 km (205.7 miles) northeast of the epicentre, a woman died at a city hospital from a heart attack following the quake, hospital officials said.In Karachi, 400 km (250 miles) away, people woke and rushed out of their homes in very cold conditions, reciting verses from the Holy Quran after the tremors hit at 1:23 a.m. (2023 GMT on Tuesday). The authorities there had no immediate reports of casualties or damage.An official at Edhi Foundation, said there were no reports of any damage.
In an ominous indication of problems for the small towns and villages of Balochistan, however, people in India's border province of Rajasthan said cracks appeared in the walls of rural dwellings. The simple structures common in the area closest to the quake may fare badly under the strains of major tremors.
The Pacific Tsunami Center said the onshore quake had not triggered a tsunami in the Indian Ocean.

Natural disaster relief special training

Given the frequency of natural disasters in the world and the devastation that they cause, one would have expected public institutions to welcome offers of training in survival methods, but not the Federal Directorate of Education (FDE). According to a senior official, the FDE showed no interest in the offer of the Capital Development Authority (CDA) to train some 400,000 students in its institutions in disaster management training free of cost.CDA`s emergency and disaster management (EDM) directorate had sent a letter containing the offer to the director general of the FDE a few months back but got no response.The official said the EDM wing had highlighted the importance of the training to cope with any natural disaster, especially an earthquake.“The CDA had offered the FDE director general that its EDM wing can impart disaster management training to the 400,000 students studying in around 400 educational institutions in the capital,” said the official.He said looking at the rising disasters the world over, a proper training programme for the students on disaster management drills would be highly beneficial to save lives. However, it seems that the FDE is not interested in the offer, he regretted.“The EDM wing is capable of imparting training to such a large number of students within a few months.”The official said they had even sent a reminder to the FDE but still there was no response.In our reminder: “We have drawn her attention towards the much needed training which can be vital for saving lives during natural disasters.”
It may be noted that several thousands students were killed in the October 2005 earthquake which hit parts of northern Pakistan, including Azad Kashmir.ISLAMABAD: Mild shocks of earthquake jolted various parts of Khaber Pakhtunkwa and federal capital on Sunday at 11.48 am.The magnitude of the quake was recorded as 4.7 at international and its epicentre was 41 kilometres deep and 64 kilometres north west of Mansehra, met office reported.No loss of life was reported as a result of the earthquake.