Colombia Landslide

Sunday a terrible landslide hit a suburb of Medellin, Colombia.  As of yesterday rescuers were still trying to find survivors, even though there is a slim chance.  In situations like these you usually have a 48 hour window to rescue someone.  The reason for this landslide and why it is taking so long for rescuers to dig into the Earth is the fact that they have been hit by severe rainstorms.  So far 43 bodies have been found, while there is still 100 missing and presumed dead.  This landslide was extra dangerous because it happened on Sunday when most people gather for meals.  The slide which covered 50 homes is just one of many that have been occuring in Columbia.  So far 194 people have been killed, another 1.6 million have been affected, 2,000 homes have been destroyed, and over 200,000 other homes have been damaged in these torrential rains.  These areas are especially vulnerable to landslides because they are a poor country.  There is probably not much education about landslides and it probablly happened so fast while people were sitting down that there was nothing they could do.  Even the rescue operations are not very good.  As you can see in the video I posted below the rescuers are mostly other villagers.  They are trying so hard to dig that they are actually stabbing into the ground with shovels.  Even if there would be survivors it looks like they could easily be killed by one of the rescuers. 

http://www.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/americas/12/08/colombia.landslide/index.html

Australian Floods

Currently the east coast of Australia is having the worst flooding in 30 years.  Four inches of rain fell in one night in the city of Queanbeyan, causing the river to flood all of downtown.  The Australian attornery general declared 45 communities disaster areas, as they have had torrential downpours for weeks now.  This is typical weather for December in Australia but this year the rain has been so intense that crops are being completely wiped out and there have been 4 deaths.  These deaths, to no surprise, have came from motorist.  Either their cars have been swept away or when trying to leave their car they were swept away themselves.  Like we have learned this is a very common way people die in situations like this.  The problems is that people know it is dangerous but they think they can just drive through anything, when in fact it only takes a little water to take control of your vehicle.  This  areas, which are being evacuated because homes are being submerged by water, are being claimed disasters for mitigation reasons.  Once a disaster has been declared those communites can dip into federal funds for aid.  This is great but like we have learned in class these kind of plans arent always the best.  To me it seems as there should have been aid given out prior to today.  Now they have to deal with deaths and strandad civilians.  Another problem is people probably do not know where all the money is going.  I am sure everything will be fine, but there easily could have been other steps taken to save peoples lives.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20101210/ap_on_re_as/as_australia_flood

Rain Turns To Snow

After what we learned this week in class about how rain will turn to snow after a front moves in I wanted to see this in action.  So I tried finding some stuff on how the storm has progressed on the East Coast and I was amazed at what I found.  Once it got colder everything started to freeze making it very slippery and then the rain turned to snow.  That snowed has accumulated to over 32 inches in some areas.  The worst area is interstate 90 in Buffalo, New York.  On this highway motorists have been stranded for over 20 hours.  Traffic got backed up and the accumlating snow did not stop so even if they could move they can't because they are snowed in.  The main concern for those stuck is warmth, food, and water.  Rescue crews have been consistenly going car to car on ATVs making sure people are all right.  This story is interesting because it is just like what we just learned about how heavy the snow would be right away due to the amount of moisture in the air.  It is good to see that even though an event like this is not expected the area has a plan in action...even though it is taking a long time.

Storms Pummel Eastern States

After we talked today about how severe storms form I tried to find information on how powerful the front is that is currently going across the Eastern United States.  Below I have included a picture and a video of how much rain there has been.  Today many airports had to delay or cancel flights because of the heavy rains.  Also many schools closed for the day or started late and some areas have been declared in a state of emergency.  Two people have died so far from having trees fall on their cars and many others have been injured in areas where tornadoes have hit.  Currently in Gwinnett County, seen in the video, rescue crews are going door to door making sure everyone is ok after strong winds hit the area.  This kind of post mitigation is good to see as we have learned that many times after effects are worse than the actual event.



http://www.cnn.com/2010/US/12/01/southern.storms/index.html?hpt=Sbin

Deadly Torrential Rains

Flooding and mudslides causedby torrential rains have killed 21 in Venezuela.  The rains, which started last week, have made 5,600 people flee their homes.  Gov. Capriles has issued a "state of alarm" for Miranda and has called upon President Hugo Chavez to declare an emergency in the state.  Other areas have already been declared in an emergency state, this way they receive more aid at a faster rate.  November is usually a rainy season fro Venezuela but this time they have received a lot more rain past the rainy season.  This ties in to what we have been talking about in class with mitigation because there are many different effects floods can bring that many might not be expecting.  In Venezuela many are without power and roads are unaccessible due to high water or mudslides covering the roads.  As you can see in the picture below in some areas water is up to their knees.  This high water may seem harmless but many of those who have died have been children who have gone out to play in the water and been swept away.  This is where education would definitly be helpful because many probably do not know how much power a flood can have.  Below is a link to a youtube video of flooding in this area previous to this flood that shows just how powerful these flood waters can be.  I would have embedded the link but I was not allowed to.



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hFGBqCX6AQI

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2010/11/30/world/main7105140.shtml

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/