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Natural Disasters

  • Monsoon likely in 3-4 days

    Here is some cheering news on the monsoon front. The countdown has finally begun for its onset over Kerala. According to the India Meteorological Department, conditions are fast becoming ripe for the system to set in during the next 3-4 days. The normal date of the onset is June 1. Experts at the IMD said numerical weather prediction models indicated that the west-south-westerly cross-equatorial wind flows from the southern hemisphere, which bring in the monsoon, were steadily becoming faster and deeper. Wind speed

  • Call to protect coastal ring embankments

    Speakers at a discussion meeting on Monday called for protecting the coastal ring embankments immediately to ensure safe livelihood of marginal farmers and fishermen in the region. They also demanded immediate repair of the damaged embankments to save the lives of marginal people, saying that most damaged portions of the embankments were hindered mainly by the owners of saline water shrimp enclosures.

  • Myanmar praises UN cyclone relief

    Myanmar state media Tuesday praised the UN's relief efforts after the cyclone that left 133,000 dead or missing, in a marked shift of tone after weeks of claiming the military could distribute aid on its own. "The United Nations and its agencies took prompt action to carry out (the) relief and rehabilitation mission with the contributions of international organisations," the official New Light of Myanmar newspaper said.

  • Flash flood kills nine in southwest China

    A flash flood killed nine people and left 11 others missing in southwest China's Guizhou province, state media said Tuesday, as thunderstorms also threatened neighbouring quake-hit Sichuan. Torrential rain hit nine townships in the Guizhou county of Wangmo on Monday evening that caused the flood, Xinhua news agency quoted the Emergency Response Office of the local government as saying. The flood destroyed 58 houses, two bridges, a highway, and power poles, causing blackouts in eight townships, affecting 26,000 people, Xinhua said.

  • China Finds Escaped Quake Panda

    China has recaptured a giant panda that made a bid for freedom after a massive earthquake devastated the research base where it lived, the official Xinhua agency said on Monday. The panda, named Xi Xi, was spotted on Sunday by a river not far from the Wolong research centre, but had disappeared into the woods by the time staff had got across. It did not get very far in its escape effort however, as they captured it on Monday just 200 metres (yards) downstream from its home.

  • UN Urges Myanmar Not To Alienate Cyclone Orphans

    The United Nations children's agency (UNICEF) is trying to convince army-ruled Myanmar not to place at least 2,000 youngsters orphaned by this month's cyclone into state-run homes, a senior official said on Monday. "We should try and place children within family environments as a priority, and not in institutions," Anne-Claire Dufay, UNICEF's child protection chief in the former Burma, told Reuters in an interview on Monday.

  • Soldiers move in to avert 'quake lake' disaster

    CHINA will dynamite rock, mud and rubble forming a dangerously large "quake lake", hoping to avert a new disaster two weeks after a catastrophic tremor struck Sichuan province. The official death toll from the May 12 earthquake is now more than 60,000, but that number is certain to grow as searchers account for more of the 30,000 missing. Premier Wen Jiabao believes the toll could exceed 80,000. The frenzied initial rescue response is cooling into a battle with nature, deprivation and discontent sure to last long after thousands of aftershocks.

  • Projects under seismic check

    With several irrigation projects in the state falling in the moderate seismic zone, the state government will conduct tests to ascertain their structural safety. The Chief Minister, Dr Y.S. Rajasekhar Reddy, has already taken a decision on the issue, following the recent earthquake in China, which the scientists attributed to the Three Gorges project.

  • Powerful aftershock hits China: 1 killed

    One of the most powerful aftershocks to hit quake-ravaged central China killed one person, left dozens more injured and levelled homes yesterday, as soldiers carrying explosives hiked to a blocked-off river to alleviate the threat of floods. Some 260 people were injured in the aftershock Sunday afternoon, the government-run China News Service said, with 24 in serious condition. The agency said many homes had collapsed and roads were damaged, but gave no specific figures.

  • NIH develops software for flood estimation

    The flood fright has always remained a cause of concern for the planners of various water-based projects. Now, the planners can architect their structures with greater precision to counter the flood threats. The National Institute of Hydrology (NIH), Roorkee, has developed a package called "FLPACK' to estimate the flood for large, medium and small sized catchments by putting in use hydrograph approach and reservoir and channel-routing procedures.

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