Colombian Landslide Emergency

 A "landslide" occured in Medellin Colombia in the poor hillside neighborhood Bello. I put the word "landslide" in quotation marks because one article calls this mass wastage even a landslide while another calls in a mudslide. So I really don't know what went on on this hill in Medellin. But for all intents and purposes, I am going to call it a landslide. This landslide has killed 45 identified people and almost 100 are still missing. Of all those identified as dead, half were children, showing the vulnerability factor of children. Meanwhile the rains still continue and so far over 200 people have died due to these rains and over 1 million are homeless. The President of Colombia has declared a state of emergency, which opens up possibilities for humanitarian aid from around the world. But I believe this situation will play out much like that of Pakistan where countries will be afraid to Colombia due to corruption and the large narcotraffiking. The President is also urging other hillside residents of Medellin to evacuate after this horrible event after people pointed out other dangerous areas, which would be hillsides. I though this was kind of funny that they did not see this sooner, especially since Medellin is a large city with tons of poor slums on hillsides, so I expect landslides to not be a new occurance. Then the President says he plans to give the money to build new homes for these people in the same spot, which is obviously a bad choice.

Links:
Landslide article:
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english2010/world/2010-12/09/c_13641069.htm

Mudslide article:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703921204576006080570921602.html?mod=googlenews_wsj

Evacuation article:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-11944125

Tornado Simulator in Japan

I came across this article while searching for envirnomental hazards. Apparently Japanese scientists are in the process of making a tornado simulator, in efforts to mitigate disaster. According to the hindustan times website, the simulator is 5 meters around and 2.5 meters tall. It can create winds strong enough to create an F3 tornado. These scientists plan on building model houses to test structural integrity. I think that this an interesting mitigation effort, and I wonder if the U.S. has ever applied any similar efforts since we have more tornados. Also I think it is interesting how much effort Japanese scientists are putting into tornado mitigation research considering the fact that earthquakes, tsunamis and volcanos are just, if not more, frequent. However, the articles do hint that tornadoes are becoming more of a problem in Japan. Also this may have something to do with the fact that the low frequency of events tends to mean that they produce a higher magnitude. While the frequency of tornadoes in Japan is not low by any means, it is certainly lower than that of the U.S. So tornadoes in Japan might be more dangerous than they are in the southern portions of the U.S.

http://www.csmonitor.com/Science/2010/0622/Tornadoes-in-Wisconsin-Montana-spur-early-warning-system

Articles about the tornado simulator in Japan:
http://www.hindustantimes.com/Artificial-tornadoes-being-created-in-Japan/Article1-634599.aspx
http://www.dnaindia.com/scitech/report_artificial-tornadoes-developed-to-test-japanese-homes_1478015

Weather in the Northeastern U.S.

A top story from weather.com today talks about the bad weather in the Northeast. The story says the storm moved from the South and midwest. The south had experienced thunderstorms and tornadoes while the midwest experienced moderate winds. This storm will cause rain and moderate winds in the Northeast. I think the example of tornados in the South is a good example of the mixing of northern cold, dry air with warm, moist air from the south. As we discussed in class, this causes tornadoes. The movement of the storm is an example of how wind and air pressure moves "weather". This storm and its movement exhibits the lifting mechanism of frontal lifting I believe because it is a fairly fast moving front associated with severe weather.

Current Winds from weather.com

Link to the weather.com article:

http://www.weather.com/outlook/weather-news/news/articles/windy-soaking-start-december_2010-11-30