Eroding Beaches

Cancuns beaches, considered some of the best in the world, are in grave danger of erosion.  The reason why I thought this story is interesting is the fact that the eroding beach is being caused by natural and man causes.  Unusually strong hurricanes slamming into the shoreline are now showing the signs bad planning of the tourist destination.  Hotels built too tall, too heavy, too close to shore, and atop shifting sand in a peninsula along with the removal of natural vegetation has fueled the erosion which is now leaving the hotel strip without a beach.  Hurricane Wilma, a category 4 which hit in 2005, had waves hitting the hotels located on the shoreline.  The worst thing about this erosion is that it was predicted to happen 40 years ago but still nothing was done to plan ahead for it.  Instead the planning was just what was good for bringing in tourists.  The erosion has escaladed in the past decade due to climate change that has brought on strong hurricanes.  There have been two attempts to restore the beaches, costing $89 million, by extracting sand from the ocean and dumping it on the shore.  This plan failed once and is already showing more signs of failure as the sand simply washes out to sea.  Many people find this a waste of money but every year Cancun brings in $3 billion in tourism.  So maybe this spending is well worth it to attract tourists.  This solution, though, can also be detrimental to the environment.  The removal of sand can hurt the ocean floor ecosystem as well as the coral reefs.  Fine sand that is present in newly dumped sand washes out and blocks the sunlight that the coral reefs need. 
The buildings have a three way effect on the erosion.  First, since the buildings are so tall winds are forced down onto the beach making eddies that encourage erosion.  Then waves that may of harmlessly flowed over sand dunes now smack into buildings and go back out to sea taking sand with them.  Finally the weight of the hotels are actually pushing sand down and outward towards the sea.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20101130/ap_on_sc/lt_climate_cancun_s_eroding_beaches

Flood Protection

The Army Corps of Engineers’ Civil Works Review Board in Washington, D.C., endorsed on a 5-0 vote a flood-protection plan for Cedar Rapids that will move it closer to consideration for funding by the U.S. Congress.  This is big for Cedar Rapids because for the past months the plan was only to protect the East side of the river but not the West.  The mayor of Cedar Rapids proclaimed how the city needed to be protected on both sides to ensure the continuation of the city and rightfully so.  If only one side is protected that means the other side is still vulnerable to flooding shown in the picture below.


As we have learned in class an event like this is devastating to a city.  There is virtually no way to move when flooding like this occurs.  The financial loss is extremely high as is the risk of loss of life.  Cities like Cedar Rapids need to take a preemptive approach to situations like this.

http://thegazette.com/2010/11/18/corps-endorses-flood-protection-for-east-side/

Flash Flooding in England

Flash floods and landslides hit England Wednesday, a result from heavy rains in the area.  This is being considered a major incident as there are several places with flooding that has trapped people and disrupted travel.  This relates to what we have been talking about it class because it was reported that the flooding started almost out of no where.  One store owner reported one minute he was dry and the next he was up to his waist in muddy water.  Also like we have discussed most deaths in floods occur from people in cars.  Luckily no one has been harmed but there are rescue teams out looking for people stranded in their cars.  Also a rail system has been shut down due to a landslide that occured.  This goes to show how  these events can be devastating as there is literally no way to get to these flooded areas except by helicopter.  One of the reasons I believe this flash flooding has occured is the fact that the area is so flat as seen in the picture below.


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Residents look out into the muddy water filled streets.  Notice the sandbags in place to try to prevent water damage.

Another Deadly Blast

Mount Merapi in Indonesia erupted once again today.  The eruptions which started on October 26 has killed a total of 206 and displaced over 400,000.  After todays blast rescue crews recovered more dead bodies.  The worst is considered over but like we have learned in class there is still a threat from the ash that has spewed out of the volcano as shown in the picture below.  Because of this threat there is still a 20 kilometer radius danger zone. In total 140 million cubic meters of magma has flowed out of Mount Merapi, a record.  This blast today was not the strongest but still was devastating because of the earlier flows which destroyed a lot of vegetation.  Since trees and other obstacles have already been destroyed there has been nothing to slow down the magma of today's flow.  The odd thing about this volcano is that it is one of the most active volcanos in Indonesia and yet it is also highly populated.  It would make more sense to live as far away from this volcano, as it killed over 1,300 in a blast in 1930.




Rescue workers have there faces covered to prevent ash from getting in their eyes and lungs, as they search for bodies in a barren ash filled area.


http://www.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/asiapcf/11/12/indonesia.volcano/index.html?hpt=T2

Sinkhole in Germany

Last week residents in the German town of Schmalkalden awoke to a giant sinkhole in their neighborhood.  Twenty three nearby homes were quickly evactuated for fear of the 20 meter wide 40 meter long sinkhole getting bigger.  As you can see in the video, hours after the the sinkhole formed damage to a garage continued as walls collasped.  Luckily no one was hurt in this event but one car was taken into the hole along with a section of a road.  You can see debris in the pictures but everything is buried underneath dirt so you can only imagine what would have happened if somebody was sucked into this sinkhole.  Sinkholes are usually formed by the natural process called suffosion.  This is where groundwater dissolves the carbonate cement that holds the ground together creating a cavern underneath the ground.  At any time then the surface may collaspe.  Since this sinkhole happened on a road it leaves me to believe that the weight of the road definitly influenced how fast the sinkhole formed.  What makes a sinkhole like this one so dangerous is its location.  Ironically it was probably a good thing this sinkhole occured in the middle of the night.  If during the day there would have a been a greater chance for traffic, and if there were people driving I would assume they would have lost their lives.  Also this happened in a neighborhood.  They are lucky that it did not form underneath a house which could have demolished it in mere seconds.  







This video shows how fast a sinkhole occurs and how dangerous it can be.

Volcanic Ash Takes Its Toll

The volcanic eruptionns in Mount Merapi, Indonesia, have  killed 138 people and now is feeling the after effects of the eruptions.  Volcanic ash has covered the area, causing flights to be cancelled.  This obvisouly has made relief efforts in the area harder.  As we have learned in class volcanic ash can travel far distances in eruptions.  One of the biggest problems is there is very few respirators available for the area.  In  the area closer to the volcanoe the main concern is the mudflows.  These mudflows, which can flow up to 60 mph, are expected to flow to lower elevations so hopefully everyone in the area has listened to the warnings and evacutated.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20101106/ap_on_re_as/as_indonesia_disasters

Deadly Landslide

Early this morning in San Antonio De Escazu, Costa Rica, a rain sodden hillside collasped on homes killing 20 and leaving 14 dead.  The landslide happened while most were still sleeping.  This is one of the main causes for the casualities, because its difficult for people to react quickly enough a fast event such as this.  This landslide was not a surprise as a massive storm hit Costa Rica yesterday.  In two hours Costa Rica received over six inches of rain and over a foot of rain in total.  Many people evacuated the area but obviously some did not.  To no surprise this happened in a poor community where people might not be educated enough to leave.  After the initial landslide many people came to help to try to find people but they were turned away in fear of additional landslides.  This is a good idea, because as we have learned in many times there is more than one event in a disaster.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20101105/ap_on_re_la_am_ca/lt_costa_rica_landslide