October 5th, 2009
Ketsana is a Lao term for agarwood, the resinous heartwood from large evergreens that are native to Southeast Asia. But from now on, many people will forever remember Ketsana as the name of the typhoon that caused massive destruction in the Philippines, Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos last week.
Ketsana was not the first great typhoon of the year in the Asia-Pacific region. Early this year, a series of flooding disasters struck Fiji, Indonesia, Malaysia and the Philippines. A minor flooding calamity also hit Brunei. But the flooding disasters did not force the Association of Southeast Asian Nations and other countries in the Asia-Pacific to meet as one body to coordinate relief and rescue efforts.
So how strong was Typhoon Ketsana? It dumped more rain than Hurricane Katrina. In about six hours it unleashed a whole month’s worth of rain in the Philippines, which triggered the worst flooding in Metro Manila in 40 years. It claimed almost 300 lives. More than 10,000 houses, including 260 schools, were damaged.
Half a million people are now living in overcrowded evacuation centers. More than 200 schools have been converted into refugee centers, which could affect the schooling of many children. As of Oct. 2, typhoon Ketsana had affected 3 million people in Metro Manila and nearby provinces.
After wreaking havoc in the Philippines, Ketsana unleashed its fury in Indochina. It forced the evacuation of 350,000 people in central Vietnam and destroyed more than 300,000 homes, schools and other vital infrastructure in the country. It killed at least 92 people, left 19 missing, and injured 199 according to a government report. Ketsana also destroyed millions of dollars worth of agricultural crops in six provinces, which will affect the country’s food security.
Residents described Ketsana as the most serious and ferocious typhoon to hit Vietnam in the last five years. They also compared the floods caused by it to the deadly 1964 floods.
Ketsana also battered Cambodia and Laos. The casualties in these countries are lower compared to the Philippines and Vietnam but they also experienced unprecedented flooding.
An expat in Cambodia said that it was the first time floods have been so bad in Siem Reap. Another expat wrote that the level of water in the moat surrounding Angkor Wat had reached its peak. A civil society group reported that in one province alone, almost 15,000 homes were flooded.
Ketsana also damaged the southern part of Laos and caused widespread flooding in Xekong and Attapeu provinces. Authorities are also worried that 50 hectares of agricultural land is flooded.
Last August, Typhoon Morakot became the worst calamity to hit Taiwan in the past 200 years. Again, Asia-Pacific nations failed to call an emergency caucus to discuss collective efforts on ways to minimize the negative economic, social and environmental impact of natural disasters in the future.
Today there is a need for ASEAN unity and cooperation to help rebuild the flooded communities in four Southeast Asian countries. The least ASEAN should do is to share resources and volunteers to aid flood victims. ASEAN should lead the international campaign in seeking more economic relief for the calamity-stricken areas in the region.
ASEAN should have a regional disaster-preparedness program. It should identify the environmental high-risk areas in the region and establish a common fund to modernize the weather monitoring facilities of member countries.
It should implement an innovative system to quickly respond to natural calamities. It should have green soldiers, medical teams and volunteers who can be swiftly deployed to any part of the region that needs assistance.
If Typhoon Ketsana were a terrorist group, ASEAN members would have met by now to denounce it and plan measures to prevent another terrorist group from destroying more lives and properties in the future. ASEAN governments should refocus their priorities. Climate change and not terrorism is the number one threat to stability in the region.
There would be many advantages if ASEAN’s efforts in combating the negative effects of climate change were synergized. This would facilitate a productive exchange of new ideas, efficient programs and modern approaches in dealing with climate change. It could foster economic progress based on the principle of environmental sustainability and generate a sense of solidarity among the people in the region. It would also guarantee immediate relief to disaster-hit countries.
This year, as in past years, ASEAN has failed to demonstrate unity although its member countries were ravaged by various natural calamities. Can Typhoon Ketsana finally force a change in attitude among ASEAN leaders?
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Source: MONG PALATINO, filipino activist, blogger, and parliamentarian
Showing posts with label Storm. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Storm. Show all posts
Tuesday, October 6, 2009
Storm leaves Kingdom on verge of crisis
MONDAY, 05 OCTOBER 2009 15:03 MAY TITTHARA AND IRWIN LOY
Aid agencies say remote settlements are difficult to reach; death toll rises.
Photo by: AFP
A woman cradles her child as she waits for aid from the Cambodian Red Cross in the aftermath of Typhoon Ketsana in Kampong Thom province.
A HUMANITARIAN crisis loomed across the Kingdom on Sunday as aid agencies struggled to reach people in remote parts of the country caught in the path of Typhoon Ketsana when it struck Cambodia with devastating force last week.
At least 10,000 people are still in need of immediate humanitarian assistance, according to Oxfam, although there are fears the true figure could be much higher. More than eight provinces were severely affected by the storm, creating a “staggering demand” for aid, the group said.
Relief workers stationed across the country reported serious difficulties transporting much-needed supplies to the worst-hit provinces, as still-rising floodwaters left vast stretches of the country’s rugged terrain almost completely cut off.
While survivors of the flash floods and 185mph winds began the daunting task of rebuilding their shattered lives, experts warned on Sunday that the damage wrought on the Kingdom’s food supplies could trigger serious long-term shortages.
“The concern in Cambodia is huge,” said Francis Perez, country director for Oxfam International in Cambodia. “We’re talking about thousands of people in need of emergency assistance just in Kampong Thom province alone. I don’t think by any stretch of the imagination we could assume that more than half of the affected people have been reached by emergency relief.”
The typhoon destroyed large swathes of Cambodia’s rice crops and left a trail of dead livestock in its wake, just weeks before the November harvest was due to start. Oxfam’s initial estimates of the damage have since doubled: As many as 50,000 hectares of rice paddies may have been destroyed, it said in a statement Saturday.
“In areas where we have been conducting assessments, damages to crops are as much as 90 percent,” said Perez. “That will have a longer-term impact on people’s lives. In most of the fields where there have been floods, particularly in Kampong Thom province, crops have been submerged for more than two weeks. The farmers say that will ensure the crops will not survive.”
As the country struggled to calculate the long-term cost of the storm, the immediate human cost continued to climb. The official death toll from the National Committee for Disaster Management rose to 15 over the weekend: nine people in Kampong Thom province, three in Ratanakkiri and three in Battambang. Additional reports of fatalities, including a report of 17-year-old boy believed to have drowned while in Siem Reap’s swollen river, had not been confirmed.
Efforts to get aid to the people most in need have been “severely hampered” by widespread flooding, said Uy Sam Ath, director of disaster management for the Cambodian Red Cross (CRC). In Preah Vihear, where it normally takes the CRC 45 minutes to distribute basic food aid to 1,000 families, dangerously high water levels in the wake of the storm meant the process took an arduous four days to complete.
At the same time, parts of Ratanakkiri and Mondulkiri provinces have proved completely impassable, leading CRC to appeal to its Vietnamese counterparts for help in what Uy Sam Ath described as the largest domestic rescue effort he has seen since catastrophic flooding in 2000 destroyed more than 300,000 homes.
Provincial officials reported continued flooding Sunday night, and several attempted to evacuate people to higher ground.
Chhun Chhorn, Kompong Thom provincial governor, said: “The water levels are getting higher and higher. We are moving people to safety now.”
People living along the Stung Sen River in Sandan, Prasat Balang and Prasat Sambor districts have been warned to make emergency plans, he said.
In Stung Treng province, Governor Loy Sophat said floodwaters had risen higher than expected, and authorities put the entire province on alert. “The flood has destroyed more than 3,000 hectares of rice paddies, affecting every district in the province,” he said.
In Ratanakkiri, where three people were confirmed killed, emergency food aid was being delivered by helicopter, said Governor Pao Ham Phan.
Two of the victims were crushed by falling trees; the third drowned when the boat in which he was fishing capsized. Despite the deaths, the governor said most people in the province had been well-prepared. “Because we knew about the storm first, we could save our people on time,” he said.
Kham Phoeun, governor of Kratie province, said most people had been evacuated from the rising floodwaters, but that about 180 hectares of rice had been destroyed.
Near Preah Vihear, military personnel had to clear the road after a landslide blocked it in two places following heavy rain Friday night. “Our soldiers are used to it, so they are not affected by it,” Yim Phim, commander of Brigade 8, said Sunday.
Polling stations in several provinces were also closed due to flooding, preventing voters from checking their details on the electoral register, according to officials. Tep Nytha, secretary general of the National Election Committee, said: “People only have until October 20 to check their names on voter lists, but now our country is facing a natural disaster. It has really interrupted our work.” People in the affected provinces of Kampong Thom, Pursat, Ratanakkiri and Preah Vihear would be given an extended deadline, he said.
As the waters begin to recede, aid agencies are bracing themselves for the next phase: recovery. The CRC will provide water-purification systems, health education and seeds in what it insists will be a modest cleanup operation compared with neighbouring countries where Ketsana first struck, leaving hundreds dead.
“We cannot compare the impact [in Cambodia] to Indonesia, the Philippines or Vietnam,” Uy Sam Ath said.
ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY MOM KUNTHEAR AND THET SAMBATH
***********
Source: THE PHNOM PENH POST
Aid agencies say remote settlements are difficult to reach; death toll rises.
Photo by: AFP
A woman cradles her child as she waits for aid from the Cambodian Red Cross in the aftermath of Typhoon Ketsana in Kampong Thom province.
A HUMANITARIAN crisis loomed across the Kingdom on Sunday as aid agencies struggled to reach people in remote parts of the country caught in the path of Typhoon Ketsana when it struck Cambodia with devastating force last week.
At least 10,000 people are still in need of immediate humanitarian assistance, according to Oxfam, although there are fears the true figure could be much higher. More than eight provinces were severely affected by the storm, creating a “staggering demand” for aid, the group said.
Relief workers stationed across the country reported serious difficulties transporting much-needed supplies to the worst-hit provinces, as still-rising floodwaters left vast stretches of the country’s rugged terrain almost completely cut off.
While survivors of the flash floods and 185mph winds began the daunting task of rebuilding their shattered lives, experts warned on Sunday that the damage wrought on the Kingdom’s food supplies could trigger serious long-term shortages.
“The concern in Cambodia is huge,” said Francis Perez, country director for Oxfam International in Cambodia. “We’re talking about thousands of people in need of emergency assistance just in Kampong Thom province alone. I don’t think by any stretch of the imagination we could assume that more than half of the affected people have been reached by emergency relief.”
The typhoon destroyed large swathes of Cambodia’s rice crops and left a trail of dead livestock in its wake, just weeks before the November harvest was due to start. Oxfam’s initial estimates of the damage have since doubled: As many as 50,000 hectares of rice paddies may have been destroyed, it said in a statement Saturday.
“In areas where we have been conducting assessments, damages to crops are as much as 90 percent,” said Perez. “That will have a longer-term impact on people’s lives. In most of the fields where there have been floods, particularly in Kampong Thom province, crops have been submerged for more than two weeks. The farmers say that will ensure the crops will not survive.”
As the country struggled to calculate the long-term cost of the storm, the immediate human cost continued to climb. The official death toll from the National Committee for Disaster Management rose to 15 over the weekend: nine people in Kampong Thom province, three in Ratanakkiri and three in Battambang. Additional reports of fatalities, including a report of 17-year-old boy believed to have drowned while in Siem Reap’s swollen river, had not been confirmed.
Efforts to get aid to the people most in need have been “severely hampered” by widespread flooding, said Uy Sam Ath, director of disaster management for the Cambodian Red Cross (CRC). In Preah Vihear, where it normally takes the CRC 45 minutes to distribute basic food aid to 1,000 families, dangerously high water levels in the wake of the storm meant the process took an arduous four days to complete.
At the same time, parts of Ratanakkiri and Mondulkiri provinces have proved completely impassable, leading CRC to appeal to its Vietnamese counterparts for help in what Uy Sam Ath described as the largest domestic rescue effort he has seen since catastrophic flooding in 2000 destroyed more than 300,000 homes.
Provincial officials reported continued flooding Sunday night, and several attempted to evacuate people to higher ground.
Chhun Chhorn, Kompong Thom provincial governor, said: “The water levels are getting higher and higher. We are moving people to safety now.”
People living along the Stung Sen River in Sandan, Prasat Balang and Prasat Sambor districts have been warned to make emergency plans, he said.
In Stung Treng province, Governor Loy Sophat said floodwaters had risen higher than expected, and authorities put the entire province on alert. “The flood has destroyed more than 3,000 hectares of rice paddies, affecting every district in the province,” he said.
In Ratanakkiri, where three people were confirmed killed, emergency food aid was being delivered by helicopter, said Governor Pao Ham Phan.
Two of the victims were crushed by falling trees; the third drowned when the boat in which he was fishing capsized. Despite the deaths, the governor said most people in the province had been well-prepared. “Because we knew about the storm first, we could save our people on time,” he said.
Kham Phoeun, governor of Kratie province, said most people had been evacuated from the rising floodwaters, but that about 180 hectares of rice had been destroyed.
Near Preah Vihear, military personnel had to clear the road after a landslide blocked it in two places following heavy rain Friday night. “Our soldiers are used to it, so they are not affected by it,” Yim Phim, commander of Brigade 8, said Sunday.
Polling stations in several provinces were also closed due to flooding, preventing voters from checking their details on the electoral register, according to officials. Tep Nytha, secretary general of the National Election Committee, said: “People only have until October 20 to check their names on voter lists, but now our country is facing a natural disaster. It has really interrupted our work.” People in the affected provinces of Kampong Thom, Pursat, Ratanakkiri and Preah Vihear would be given an extended deadline, he said.
As the waters begin to recede, aid agencies are bracing themselves for the next phase: recovery. The CRC will provide water-purification systems, health education and seeds in what it insists will be a modest cleanup operation compared with neighbouring countries where Ketsana first struck, leaving hundreds dead.
“We cannot compare the impact [in Cambodia] to Indonesia, the Philippines or Vietnam,” Uy Sam Ath said.
ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY MOM KUNTHEAR AND THET SAMBATH
***********
Source: THE PHNOM PENH POST
Typhoon Ketsana does damage in Laos
October 5, 2009 12:12:10
Typhoon Ketsana has torn across the Philippines, Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos, killing hundreds of people.
In Laos, the storm killed at least 24 people. The floods meant that until two days ago, the worst-hit Attapeu region could only be reached by helicopter and boat. The United Nations World Food Programme says canned fish and rice have now been delivered to storm survivors.
MAKIN: The World Food Programme has an office in Attapeu which is on the border with Vietnam and Cambodia down in the south, right in the south of Laos.
LAM: Yes and what's the devastation there like, how are the people coping?
MAKIN: Many people lost everything, two districts already suffered some floods in late July and we were going in to offer assistance for this flood and when they were struck again. Phouvong is already... and Sanxay - two of our poorest districts in all of Laos and these were affected. People lost about, we think 90 per cent of their crops, and it's coming up to harvest season. So in the next few months we're going to face real problems, real food shortages. Two districts are still accessible only by helicopter and we're not able to get out to all of the villages here. So we're simply working with the government, the Lao government and the army to helicopter food into the driest place and we'll coordinate villages to come and collect food from there. In the other districts we're getting trucks and boats, and the army are really helping coordinate a big effort here.
LAM: And Cait before the disaster hit what sort of a town or area was Attapeu? Was it a largely agricultural rural area?
MAKIN: It's quite rural; it's not as densely populated as other provinces in Laos. But I'm speaking to you from Samakkhixay, which is the capital, but we were all affected. But it is mainly rural and subsistence farming. There is a Vietnamese community, a large Vietnamese community which many small businesses were damaged and completely destroyed.
LAM: And as you look around you are large parts of the region still submerged, under water?
MAKIN: It's hard for us to tell. Yesterday I travelled by helicopter to Sanamxay and certainly there are parts [flooded]. It's very hard to get information. Helicopters are going to the worst areas and landing in the dry places and then we're relying on the government there to go to the more difficult places. So there are probably parts that are submerged. We had a little bit more strong rain last night which may have had some impact. For Samakkhixay where we are the water has receded and so we have about three districts that we can access.
LAM: What news have you of the capital Vientiane? Was Vientiane hit at all?
MAKIN: No as far as I'm aware it's been concentrated in the south. It came through Vietnam. We expected it to go up to the central regions in Khammouan and Savannakhet. There is someone in Savannakhet making assessment, but for now Attapeu is the worst hit with still quite serious in Xekong and Salavan also, which are the neighbouring districts, provinces to Attapeu.
*****************
Source: ABC Radio Australia
Typhoon Ketsana has torn across the Philippines, Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos, killing hundreds of people.
In Laos, the storm killed at least 24 people. The floods meant that until two days ago, the worst-hit Attapeu region could only be reached by helicopter and boat. The United Nations World Food Programme says canned fish and rice have now been delivered to storm survivors.
MAKIN: The World Food Programme has an office in Attapeu which is on the border with Vietnam and Cambodia down in the south, right in the south of Laos.
LAM: Yes and what's the devastation there like, how are the people coping?
MAKIN: Many people lost everything, two districts already suffered some floods in late July and we were going in to offer assistance for this flood and when they were struck again. Phouvong is already... and Sanxay - two of our poorest districts in all of Laos and these were affected. People lost about, we think 90 per cent of their crops, and it's coming up to harvest season. So in the next few months we're going to face real problems, real food shortages. Two districts are still accessible only by helicopter and we're not able to get out to all of the villages here. So we're simply working with the government, the Lao government and the army to helicopter food into the driest place and we'll coordinate villages to come and collect food from there. In the other districts we're getting trucks and boats, and the army are really helping coordinate a big effort here.
LAM: And Cait before the disaster hit what sort of a town or area was Attapeu? Was it a largely agricultural rural area?
MAKIN: It's quite rural; it's not as densely populated as other provinces in Laos. But I'm speaking to you from Samakkhixay, which is the capital, but we were all affected. But it is mainly rural and subsistence farming. There is a Vietnamese community, a large Vietnamese community which many small businesses were damaged and completely destroyed.
LAM: And as you look around you are large parts of the region still submerged, under water?
MAKIN: It's hard for us to tell. Yesterday I travelled by helicopter to Sanamxay and certainly there are parts [flooded]. It's very hard to get information. Helicopters are going to the worst areas and landing in the dry places and then we're relying on the government there to go to the more difficult places. So there are probably parts that are submerged. We had a little bit more strong rain last night which may have had some impact. For Samakkhixay where we are the water has receded and so we have about three districts that we can access.
LAM: What news have you of the capital Vientiane? Was Vientiane hit at all?
MAKIN: No as far as I'm aware it's been concentrated in the south. It came through Vietnam. We expected it to go up to the central regions in Khammouan and Savannakhet. There is someone in Savannakhet making assessment, but for now Attapeu is the worst hit with still quite serious in Xekong and Salavan also, which are the neighbouring districts, provinces to Attapeu.
*****************
Source: ABC Radio Australia
Earthweek: Environmental news from around the globe
October 04, 2009 8:00 AM
UNIVERSAL PRESS SYNDICATE
Tropical cyclones
A tropical storm that later became Typhoon Ketsana killed at least 288 people and damaged the homes of 3 million as it triggered the worst flooding the northern Philippines has experienced in 40 years.
After devastating parts of Manila, Ketsana went on to hit other Southeast Asian countries, killing 99 in Vietnam, 14 in Cambodia and 16 in Laos.
• Typhoon Parma cut a path across the Philippines’ northern edge on Saturday, killing four people but sparing the capital, Manila, from a second flood disaster as the storm churned toward Taiwan.
Tens of thousands of Filipinos had evacuated their homes as the storm bore down on the main island of Luzon just eight days after an earlier tempest left Manila awash in floods that killed almost 300 people.
• Another typhoon, Melor, was churning in the Philippine Sea, 1,600 miles to the east, threatening the U.S. territory of the Northern Mariana Islands.
Penguin rebound
A species of penguin virtually wiped out on Macquarie Island more than 100 years ago has rebounded, to the delight of Australian wildlife experts.
The island, located between New Zealand and Antarctica, was teeming with king penguins when it was discovered in 1810.
But the birds were slaughtered for blubber oil over the next century to the point that only a small colony survived. The Australian Antarctic Survey says that hundreds of the birds now live in the area around Lusitania Bay.
It appears the population has grown to the point that the penguins have begun to look for new parts of the island to recolonize.
Pushing Earth’s limits
A team of the world’s most eminent environmental scientists published a warning that human activity has already pushed three of Earth’s nine biophysical boundaries to beyond the planet’s ability to self-regulate.
Writing in the journal Nature, the researchers attempt to set “acceptable” upper limits on man’s influence on such environmental conditions as climate, biodiversity, stratospheric ozone and chemical cycles like that of nitrogen.
They suggest that for some of those conditions, like the use of nitrogen in fertilizers and loading of atmospheric carbon dioxide, humankind may have already stepped outside the safety zone.
It’s feared we may have to backpedal quickly to avoid catastrophe. Human activities, most notably the growing reliance on fossil fuels and industrialized agriculture, have become so pervasive that they may trigger irreversible and abrupt environmental change by damaging the regulatory capacity of the planet, the group warned.
African famine looms
The severe drought that has parched much of East Africa this year continues to worsen while taking the lives of people, wildlife and livestock.
The charity Oxfam International has appealed for $15 million in emergency donations so it can provide 750,000 people with food assistance.
Paul Smith Lomas, Oxfam’s East Africa director, said that while the drought stretches from the Horn of Africa to Uganda, about 3.8 million Kenyans, a tenth of the population, now need emergency aid.
Climate change has caused the frequency of drought to increase from about once per decade to once every two or three years.
Indian drought
Indian weather officials said that a weak summer monsoon has created the country’s worst drought since 1972.
Scant precipitation has caused extensive damage to rice, sugar cane and groundnut crops, according to the Meteorological Department.
It added that depleted reservoirs behind hydropower stations threaten both electricity and irrigation shortages this winter.
Acorn hazard
Many New Englanders are being forced to dodge a bumper crop of acorns raining down across the region this autumn.
The nuts were unusually scarce last year, but millions of the hard-shelled bombs are now bopping joggers on the head, whacking gardeners’ backsides and cracking vehicle windshields.
“It hurt,” University of Massachusetts at Amherst professor Wesley Autio told the The Boston Globe. “You stand outside and you can hear acorns hitting everything — cars, metal roofs, and it makes a tremendous sound.”
But the region’s largest acorn crop in memory is also allowing squirrels and other nut hoarders to fatten up for what some believe will be a brutal winter.
A cool summer along with record snowfalls and rain earlier this year have helped the acorns bloom larger and in greater numbers this fall.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
*****************
Source: gazette.com
UNIVERSAL PRESS SYNDICATE
Tropical cyclones
A tropical storm that later became Typhoon Ketsana killed at least 288 people and damaged the homes of 3 million as it triggered the worst flooding the northern Philippines has experienced in 40 years.
After devastating parts of Manila, Ketsana went on to hit other Southeast Asian countries, killing 99 in Vietnam, 14 in Cambodia and 16 in Laos.
• Typhoon Parma cut a path across the Philippines’ northern edge on Saturday, killing four people but sparing the capital, Manila, from a second flood disaster as the storm churned toward Taiwan.
Tens of thousands of Filipinos had evacuated their homes as the storm bore down on the main island of Luzon just eight days after an earlier tempest left Manila awash in floods that killed almost 300 people.
• Another typhoon, Melor, was churning in the Philippine Sea, 1,600 miles to the east, threatening the U.S. territory of the Northern Mariana Islands.
Penguin rebound
A species of penguin virtually wiped out on Macquarie Island more than 100 years ago has rebounded, to the delight of Australian wildlife experts.
The island, located between New Zealand and Antarctica, was teeming with king penguins when it was discovered in 1810.
But the birds were slaughtered for blubber oil over the next century to the point that only a small colony survived. The Australian Antarctic Survey says that hundreds of the birds now live in the area around Lusitania Bay.
It appears the population has grown to the point that the penguins have begun to look for new parts of the island to recolonize.
Pushing Earth’s limits
A team of the world’s most eminent environmental scientists published a warning that human activity has already pushed three of Earth’s nine biophysical boundaries to beyond the planet’s ability to self-regulate.
Writing in the journal Nature, the researchers attempt to set “acceptable” upper limits on man’s influence on such environmental conditions as climate, biodiversity, stratospheric ozone and chemical cycles like that of nitrogen.
They suggest that for some of those conditions, like the use of nitrogen in fertilizers and loading of atmospheric carbon dioxide, humankind may have already stepped outside the safety zone.
It’s feared we may have to backpedal quickly to avoid catastrophe. Human activities, most notably the growing reliance on fossil fuels and industrialized agriculture, have become so pervasive that they may trigger irreversible and abrupt environmental change by damaging the regulatory capacity of the planet, the group warned.
African famine looms
The severe drought that has parched much of East Africa this year continues to worsen while taking the lives of people, wildlife and livestock.
The charity Oxfam International has appealed for $15 million in emergency donations so it can provide 750,000 people with food assistance.
Paul Smith Lomas, Oxfam’s East Africa director, said that while the drought stretches from the Horn of Africa to Uganda, about 3.8 million Kenyans, a tenth of the population, now need emergency aid.
Climate change has caused the frequency of drought to increase from about once per decade to once every two or three years.
Indian drought
Indian weather officials said that a weak summer monsoon has created the country’s worst drought since 1972.
Scant precipitation has caused extensive damage to rice, sugar cane and groundnut crops, according to the Meteorological Department.
It added that depleted reservoirs behind hydropower stations threaten both electricity and irrigation shortages this winter.
Acorn hazard
Many New Englanders are being forced to dodge a bumper crop of acorns raining down across the region this autumn.
The nuts were unusually scarce last year, but millions of the hard-shelled bombs are now bopping joggers on the head, whacking gardeners’ backsides and cracking vehicle windshields.
“It hurt,” University of Massachusetts at Amherst professor Wesley Autio told the The Boston Globe. “You stand outside and you can hear acorns hitting everything — cars, metal roofs, and it makes a tremendous sound.”
But the region’s largest acorn crop in memory is also allowing squirrels and other nut hoarders to fatten up for what some believe will be a brutal winter.
A cool summer along with record snowfalls and rain earlier this year have helped the acorns bloom larger and in greater numbers this fall.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
*****************
Source: gazette.com
Asia death toll rises as Ketsana floods recede
By Tran Thi Minh Ha (AFP) – 2 October 2009
THUA THIEN-HUE, Vietnam — Asian nations were left counting the cost of Typhoon Ketsana Friday, with the death tolls rising in Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos, according to Red Cross reports.
Vietnam's death toll reached 99 on Friday with another 14 missing, said an official from the national flood and storm control committee.
In Cambodia the number of deaths rose to at least 17, while 16 people were killed and 135 left missing in Laos, the Red Cross said on Friday.
With flood waters receding in much of typhoon-struck Vietnam on Friday, residents hung clothes out to dry, cleared fallen trees and cleaned the muck left by one of the country's worst disasters in recent years.
In the poor fishing village of Rong in Hue city, wet clothes hung on fences and trees while women moved furniture outside late Thursday to dry, or cleaned the muddy floors of their metal-roofed houses.
"We are still cleaning up but things will be OK," said Nguyen Van Tam, 48.
Vietnam's death toll reached 99 on Friday with another 14 missing, said an official from the national flood and storm control committee.
The heaviest toll came in the fishing province of Quang Ngai, in the area where Ketsana made landfall on Tuesday with winds that state media said reached up to 149 kilometres (92 miles) per hour.
Quang Ngai recorded 27 deaths and there were 21 in Kon Tum, a mountainous province with a large population of poor ethnic minority tribes, the official said.
Officials are now concentrating on returning the evacuees to their homes "and cleaning the environment which was very polluted after the passage of the typhoon", an official from the flood and storm committee in Quang Ngai said late Thursday.
Some homes shown on state television looked like they had been hit by an earthquake.
Downed trees are being cut through with saws and people are sweeping debris off roads, television pictures showed. Soldiers are assisting in the effort.
"It was dirty but... we helped each other so it was a lot of fun," said Nguyen Van Ngoc, a sailor in Rung village.
He was among the hundreds of thousands of people who fled their homes because of the storm and said he only returned on Wednesday after the floodwaters, which had reached halfway up the wall of his metal-roofed house, had drained away.
"When the water receded there was mud in the house," said Tran Phuc, a father-of-six in Tong Chanh village south of Hue.
He said the family spent a day cleaning the floor and the furniture.
The typhoon caused damage initially estimated at 120 million dollars to Vietnam, the government said on Thursday in a detailed report obtained by AFP.
It said more than 170,000 homes were flooded while a similar number had damaged roofs, and more than 6,300 other houses collapsed, mostly in Quang Nam province.
Thousands of farm animals died and almost 50,000 hectares (20,000 acres) of farmland were damaged in the country which is the world's second-largest rice exporter.
The death toll from Typhoon Ketsana in Cambodia has risen to at least 17, the country's Red Cross said on Friday.
Three more people were reported to have been killed after Ketsana swept through the country earlier this week, said Uy Sam Ath, director of the disaster management department at the Cambodian Red Cross.
The new toll includes a man who died in eastern Mondulkiri province and two people -- a father and a daughter -- who drowned when their boat capsized Wednesday evening in central Kampong Chhnang province, he said.
Northern Cambodia suffered widespread flooding after the storm battered the country Tuesday evening, affecting thousands of people and destroying hundreds of homes across the country, officials said.
Ketsana has killed 16 people and left 135 missing in Laos, the country's Red Cross said.
Fourteen of the deaths came in southern Attapeu province on the border with Cambodia, said Bountheung Menvilay, head of the agency's disaster preparedness division.
Two other deaths came in Savannakhet province, but Attapeu and adjacent Sekong provinces were most affected by the storm, which passed through the country on Wednesday, the Red Cross official said.
"We do have casualties in that location," said government spokesman Khenthong Nuanthasing, who was unable to confirm the number of deaths.
Bountheung said most of the deaths came during flash floods caused by the storm which has displaced 37,500 people in one of Asia's poorest nations.
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Source: AFP
THUA THIEN-HUE, Vietnam — Asian nations were left counting the cost of Typhoon Ketsana Friday, with the death tolls rising in Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos, according to Red Cross reports.
Vietnam's death toll reached 99 on Friday with another 14 missing, said an official from the national flood and storm control committee.
In Cambodia the number of deaths rose to at least 17, while 16 people were killed and 135 left missing in Laos, the Red Cross said on Friday.
With flood waters receding in much of typhoon-struck Vietnam on Friday, residents hung clothes out to dry, cleared fallen trees and cleaned the muck left by one of the country's worst disasters in recent years.
In the poor fishing village of Rong in Hue city, wet clothes hung on fences and trees while women moved furniture outside late Thursday to dry, or cleaned the muddy floors of their metal-roofed houses.
"We are still cleaning up but things will be OK," said Nguyen Van Tam, 48.
Vietnam's death toll reached 99 on Friday with another 14 missing, said an official from the national flood and storm control committee.
The heaviest toll came in the fishing province of Quang Ngai, in the area where Ketsana made landfall on Tuesday with winds that state media said reached up to 149 kilometres (92 miles) per hour.
Quang Ngai recorded 27 deaths and there were 21 in Kon Tum, a mountainous province with a large population of poor ethnic minority tribes, the official said.
Officials are now concentrating on returning the evacuees to their homes "and cleaning the environment which was very polluted after the passage of the typhoon", an official from the flood and storm committee in Quang Ngai said late Thursday.
Some homes shown on state television looked like they had been hit by an earthquake.
Downed trees are being cut through with saws and people are sweeping debris off roads, television pictures showed. Soldiers are assisting in the effort.
"It was dirty but... we helped each other so it was a lot of fun," said Nguyen Van Ngoc, a sailor in Rung village.
He was among the hundreds of thousands of people who fled their homes because of the storm and said he only returned on Wednesday after the floodwaters, which had reached halfway up the wall of his metal-roofed house, had drained away.
"When the water receded there was mud in the house," said Tran Phuc, a father-of-six in Tong Chanh village south of Hue.
He said the family spent a day cleaning the floor and the furniture.
The typhoon caused damage initially estimated at 120 million dollars to Vietnam, the government said on Thursday in a detailed report obtained by AFP.
It said more than 170,000 homes were flooded while a similar number had damaged roofs, and more than 6,300 other houses collapsed, mostly in Quang Nam province.
Thousands of farm animals died and almost 50,000 hectares (20,000 acres) of farmland were damaged in the country which is the world's second-largest rice exporter.
The death toll from Typhoon Ketsana in Cambodia has risen to at least 17, the country's Red Cross said on Friday.
Three more people were reported to have been killed after Ketsana swept through the country earlier this week, said Uy Sam Ath, director of the disaster management department at the Cambodian Red Cross.
The new toll includes a man who died in eastern Mondulkiri province and two people -- a father and a daughter -- who drowned when their boat capsized Wednesday evening in central Kampong Chhnang province, he said.
Northern Cambodia suffered widespread flooding after the storm battered the country Tuesday evening, affecting thousands of people and destroying hundreds of homes across the country, officials said.
Ketsana has killed 16 people and left 135 missing in Laos, the country's Red Cross said.
Fourteen of the deaths came in southern Attapeu province on the border with Cambodia, said Bountheung Menvilay, head of the agency's disaster preparedness division.
Two other deaths came in Savannakhet province, but Attapeu and adjacent Sekong provinces were most affected by the storm, which passed through the country on Wednesday, the Red Cross official said.
"We do have casualties in that location," said government spokesman Khenthong Nuanthasing, who was unable to confirm the number of deaths.
Bountheung said most of the deaths came during flash floods caused by the storm which has displaced 37,500 people in one of Asia's poorest nations.
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Source: AFP
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