Floods have deen present through out central Vietnam since Tuesday following days of heavy rain, making this a region flood that begun slowly and will end slowly. Because of this thousands of people were able to be evacuated. So far only about nineteen people have died in this flood, which also sticks with the characteristic of few deaths associated with region flooding. However, this flood is not the first to hit this area recently. Since the beginning of October 167 people have been killed in this area. This is suprising seeing as Vietnam is extremely flood-prone due to large amounts of rice paddies, low lying coasts, and 70 percent of the population at risk for flooding. I would have thought that the people would have better mitigation efforts and emergency plans. However, taken into account is the fact that this area of Vietnam is rather poor, so the people or government may not have all the resources they need to better mitigate this disaster. It appears as of now, that Vietnam is experiencing less deaths due to flooding than they were in October, whether that has to do with the people being more aware of the hazards, the intensity of the disaster or something else I am not sure.
An article just came out from the IRIN that said the amount of disaster aid going into Pakistan for the floods is decreasing as media coverage decreases. This makes sense because once the main event with the most photographic opportunities is over, the media is quick to find the next event. So in times when areas need the most help, they don't get it because other countries are more interested in the emergency period.
I read this article and decided to find more on the topic. When I google searched articles on the Pakistan floods, I found three new press releases that said Canada and Japan were donating large amounts of money to help Pakistan. This made me wonder how much more Pakistan was getting before if Canada has donated 46.8 million dollars and Japan has pledged 500 million dollars. The example of the Japanese pledging 500 million affirms what the article from IRIN said about not seeing some of the money that has been pledged to them so far.
It is estimated that Pakistan will need 1.93 billion within the next year to rebuild, and many are concerned with winter coming up that this disaster will become exacerbated. However, from a political standpoint, nations are worried that their donations will be used for corrupt purposes rather than to help the people of Pakistan.
Twenty minute discussion on trying to get more flood aid between Riz Khan, Salman Ahmad and Peter Gabriel:
Due to an October typhoon, the Phillippines are experiencing many disasterous floods and landslides. These new disasters are made worse by the fact that they are still recovering from the huge typhoon that killed 30 people and left 20,000 homeless. So the situation is enhanced by the vulnerability of the population. The landslide that happened last week in Isabela province took 6 lives. However, the government has been working hard to prevent some of these deaths with emergency evacuations. They moved 200 families out of their homes in Kalinga because a near-by hillside had caved in, creating a dam that could lead to more flooding if it fails.
The Phillipines is a country that is more prone to landslides than most due to a mountainous terrain, seismic activity and a heavy rainy season. Also the people of the country have become more vulnerable due to quick urbanization that creates many squatter settlements on the outskirts of major cities.
I can image that getting aid and assistance to distant communities is difficult due to all the flooding and mass wastage problems. As of right now I cannot find anything on the Phillippines getting assistance from other nations, like Costa Rica is getting right now. Also, as of what I can see, the Phillippines is not using air transport to deliver aid.
Photo of typhoon Megi that hit last month; note how large it is and that it covered all of the Phillippines
The rainy season this year in Central America has been particularly wet due to low pressure and hurricane Tomas. All the rain these countries are recieving is causing damage to property with floods and landslides. Costa Rica has been hit particularly hard due troubles delivering aid and the lack of water supply. Panama, Colombia, Guatemala and Nicaragua have pledged aid to Costa Rica, but since there is so much flooding, rain, bridge failure, and mass wastage, they have to fly the aid into remote areas, which can be a difficult process. Much damage has been done to a community, Pico Blanco in San Antonio de Escazú, on the mountainside near the capital. Alot of the disaster aid is coming in the form of bottled water because some of their water processing plants have been damaged by the bad weather.
In addition to water and transportation, Costa Rica is taking a hard hit on its economy which is largely based on agriculture and tourism. A large amount of crop land is flooded, and many tourists may be detered from visiting Costa Rica due to the weather.
In addition to looking at the geography aspect of this. the political side is also interesting. Even though Nicaragua has pledged aid to Costa Rica, the supplies and money have yet to be sent. This is due to a long time rivalry between the two countries. Also, this is a good example that even better off countries in the western hemisphere can experience disasters, however on a much smaller scale than they would have been in a less developed country.
Landslide damage in Pico Blanco
Links to new stories on the landslide and damage to the country due to floods and landslides:
The Hurricane Tomas is at a very low magnitude right now, and it's making its way through the Caribbean. This hurricane did not directly hit the island of Haiti, but skimmed the southern peninsula and caused storms in most of the country. I have noticed that there is a little bit of a media focus on Haiti during this hurricane, which makes sense. First of all, what most people think of first, is that Haiti is in a fragile state since the earthquake in January. And it is. Many people whose homes were destroyed still live in camps of tents. In this regard, a lange amout of the population is highly vulnerable even to the smallest of storms. This leads to another reason the media is focused on Haiti. The earthquake was a large disaster that was vastly covered by the media, so now people are more aware of this country and its needs than they were before. Before, not many people would have known that Haiti is the poorest country in this hemisphere and that getting hit with a hazard event would have caused it so much damage partialy due to poor infrastructure and a vulnerable population. Now the people of the world are more aware of this and focus more attention on this country, including hazard events in the Caribbean which are quite common.
The volcano Grimsvotn in Iceland is under an alert right now. The glacial ice on the volcano is melting, which may cause an eruption or at the very least the threat of lahars. Also an earthquake occured on the volcano Katla in Iceland. It was a magnitude 3 and there is concern that that quake could trigger more quakes or an eruption. The reasoning behid why these volcanoes may erupt is very plausible. Katla has not had a major eruption since 1819 with a small glacial eruption in 1955 and some volcanic activity in 1999. On the other hand, Grimsvotn is a very active volcano, erupting on average once a decade. So Katla is overdue for an eruption while Grimsvotn experiences them frequently, with the last on being in 2004. Scientists have been following Katla's activity to watch for signs of a major eruption, which is expected in the near future. I believe alot of the new coverage and fear for these volcanoes erupting stems from the newly percieved threat of volcanic eruption in Iceland since April with the eruption of Eyjafjallajokull. Not to say that the percieved view of those in Iceland has changed a lot becuase they are used to volcanos, but the world is more focused on volcanic activity in Iceland since that major eruption.
The Indonesian volcano Mt. Merapi erupted Tuesday and has erupted 4 times after that, the latest being a little after midnight on 10/30 (IST.) The last time Merapi erupted was 4 years ago.
I thought it was really interesting that while we are learning about volcanoes, this volcano erupts. It just seemed to me that volcano eruptions were not very common occurrences, and if I did by chance hear about on, it was catastrophic. Now I know that volcanic eruptions are just very irregular.
Also I figured that this volcano was probably considered pretty active because it last erupted 4 years ago and now it is erupting multiple times. Upon looking into the history of it, I saw that it does erupt very often. So I thought it was really weird that some people are deciding to stay near the volcano even though they are urged to leave. The article in the Hindustan times says that some of these people are trying to protect their property. This makes me wonder what the hazard education and population is like in the Mt. Merapi area. I would have thought that the people would know, seeing as the volcano is really active, the danger and risk it poses. It should be noted, however, that it is estimated that only 36 people have died.
Another interesting factor to this volcanic eruption is the fact that a tsunami struck Indonesia at almost the same time. The volcano and the site where the tsunami hit were only a couple hours apart. The tsunami was triggered by an earthquake, and therefore the volcanic eruption may have been initiated by the quake as well. This area is also the area where the Boxing Day tsunami/earthquake took place. So far the tsunami/earthquake has only taken about 400 lives with about 300 people missing. So the area is already doing much better than it did in the Boxing Day disaster. Not only does this probably have something to do with education, community preparedness, and stronger buildings but also the magnitude of this quake was much less (7.7 as compared to 9.)
