'Drinking water rushed to 2 island nations in drought'
Thousands of people on Tuvalu and Tokelau getting outside help
Apparently these two island nations were down to their last week of fresh drinking water due to drought, and countries like the United States, Australia, and New Zealand have now sent thousands of gallons of water to these island atolls. Now these countries are not very big at all, and do not really have that many people, but a lack of rainfall on a geographically isolated atoll can have dramatic effects.
For One, neither of these countries have high numbers of desalination machines, so it's difficult for them to keep up with the high demand for water. This relates back to how disaster magnitude can be amplified due to the fact that these are very undeveloped countries. They rely much more on rainfall as a source of drinking water because they don't have the capacity to desalinize enough other water.
Secondly, such small land masses are hard pressed to get hit with copious amounts of rain as it is. Even during an extremely wet season the rain still has to fall within the confines of land for it to be usable. A drastic change in wind speed and direction because of something like La Nina can cause a severe climate change on the island. If that storm that normally hits is forced Westward by just a few miles, these islands run the risk of not reaping it's benefits.
So for now the forces of Australia and New Zealand have been able to deliver an actual desalination plant to Tuvalu, in hopes that this will allow for at minimum a short term solution to what could very well be a long term problem. Hopefully this drought ends and these people are able to get some much needed rain very soon.
Friday, October 7, 2011
Tuesday, October 4, 2011
Rare Twisters Strike South Africa
'Rare South African Tornadoes'
Article:
"Rare South African tornadoes killed at least two people and left hundreds more homeless. The tornadoes struck on Sunday, roaring through the towns of Duduza, Ficksburg and Nigel east of Johannesburg.
Officials say nearly a thousand homes were damaged and trees and power lines were also brought down.
On average, South Africa gets a tornado every other year. The tornado season usually starts in November."
The Engineering Perspective
The term 'rare' should tell you all you need to know. South Africa is really not prepared for tornados at all. As the article said thousands of houses were destroyed and trees and power lines were also brought down. If you watch the video posted at the end, you can see that the tornado doesn’t look like its ripping through areas of high population, so the estimate of 1000 houses damaged is quite high. These people probably would’ve never expected a tornado of this magnitude to strike them, and will probably not do a whole lot to take preventative measures in the future.
The Behavioral Perspective
I think in looking at this from a behavioral perspective there was really nothing that they did wrong that increased the severity of this hazard. The only thing I could think of is since these homes were in rural countryside, maybe there was no short-term system of warning. In terms of long term planning they probably won’t change a lot because this area doesn't generally get hit by hazards such as this one.
The Development Perspective
I guess it’s difficult to assess this disaster in a long term developmental approach. This wasn’t a case of low income families being forced to move onto tornado ridden flat land. This wasn’t a case of human exploitation of the land leading to more severe disasters. This was simply a case of these people happening to have their houses in the wrong part of South Africa.
The Complexity Approach
So I guess this is where the Swiss cheese and chaos theory stuff is located. So I suppose the series of factors which led to the severity of this disaster would be: Lack of response time due to the rural environment, Homes not structurally sound due to rarity of tornados, or the government slow to respond with aid due to being unprepared for this type of hazard/disaster.
Interesting Fact: This tornado was an F-2, the ones that came through Joplin were F-5's. And proportionately in terms of death and destruction the Joplin tornado was probably still a lot worse.
Link to Tornado Video: http://wxch.nl/n0WjLI
Article:
"Rare South African tornadoes killed at least two people and left hundreds more homeless. The tornadoes struck on Sunday, roaring through the towns of Duduza, Ficksburg and Nigel east of Johannesburg.
Officials say nearly a thousand homes were damaged and trees and power lines were also brought down.
On average, South Africa gets a tornado every other year. The tornado season usually starts in November."
The Engineering Perspective
The term 'rare' should tell you all you need to know. South Africa is really not prepared for tornados at all. As the article said thousands of houses were destroyed and trees and power lines were also brought down. If you watch the video posted at the end, you can see that the tornado doesn’t look like its ripping through areas of high population, so the estimate of 1000 houses damaged is quite high. These people probably would’ve never expected a tornado of this magnitude to strike them, and will probably not do a whole lot to take preventative measures in the future.
The Behavioral Perspective
I think in looking at this from a behavioral perspective there was really nothing that they did wrong that increased the severity of this hazard. The only thing I could think of is since these homes were in rural countryside, maybe there was no short-term system of warning. In terms of long term planning they probably won’t change a lot because this area doesn't generally get hit by hazards such as this one.
The Development Perspective
I guess it’s difficult to assess this disaster in a long term developmental approach. This wasn’t a case of low income families being forced to move onto tornado ridden flat land. This wasn’t a case of human exploitation of the land leading to more severe disasters. This was simply a case of these people happening to have their houses in the wrong part of South Africa.
The Complexity Approach
So I guess this is where the Swiss cheese and chaos theory stuff is located. So I suppose the series of factors which led to the severity of this disaster would be: Lack of response time due to the rural environment, Homes not structurally sound due to rarity of tornados, or the government slow to respond with aid due to being unprepared for this type of hazard/disaster.
Interesting Fact: This tornado was an F-2, the ones that came through Joplin were F-5's. And proportionately in terms of death and destruction the Joplin tornado was probably still a lot worse.
Link to Tornado Video: http://wxch.nl/n0WjLI
Monsoon Rains and Floods Ravage Thailand
'Deadly Thai floods also inundate World Heritage site'
The low lying areas of Thailand along the Chao Phraya river have been, and are still currently getting hit with torrential rainfall, and experiencing massive flooding. The article states 224 people have died thus far, but what is apparently of greater cost is the damage done to the historic temples that appear in this region. The estimated damage to these temples comes in at 3.2 million dollars, and on top of that the government has subsidized 250 million dollars for farmers agricultural losses.
The low lying areas of Thailand along the Chao Phraya river have been, and are still currently getting hit with torrential rainfall, and experiencing massive flooding. The article states 224 people have died thus far, but what is apparently of greater cost is the damage done to the historic temples that appear in this region. The estimated damage to these temples comes in at 3.2 million dollars, and on top of that the government has subsidized 250 million dollars for farmers agricultural losses.
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