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Natural Disasters

  • Chronology Of Major Asian Cyclones

    A devastating cyclone has killed 10,000 people and left 3,000 missing in army-ruled Myanmar according to provisional estimates, a diplomat said on Monday after a Myanmar government briefing on Saturday's storm. Here is a chronology of some major cyclones in Asia since 1960: Oct. 30, 1960 - BANGLADESH - About 10,000 people are killed after a cyclone packing winds of 210 km per hour (131 mph) hits Bangladesh at night. May 9, 1961 - BANGLADESH - About 12,500 people are killed in a cyclone with top wind speed of 161 kph (101 mph).

  • Floods recede, tab on outbreak of diseases

    Floods in Ratnapura and Kalutara districts have eased but authorities warned of mosquito and water-borne diseases. "Polluted drinking water is the main problem in flood affected areas, while several measures have been taken by Divisional Secretariats in these areas to control the spread of disease," sources said. A team of officers from the National Building Research Organisation (NBRO) would make a visit today to report on the situation that has arisen due to the floods in Ratnapura district, the Officer of Ratnapura District Disaster Management Centre said.

  • Thousands rendered homeless in Myanmar

    More than 350 persons died in Myanmar after a powerful cyclone

  • Thousands Evacuated As Chile Volcano Spews Ash

    Covered in thick ash, the Patagonian community of Chaiten was a ghost town on Saturday as a volcano spewed ash a day after its first eruption in thousands of years forced nearly 4,500 people to flee. Authorities have evacuated most of the southern Chilean town's residents since Friday, sending many by boat to Chiloe Island farther north and to Puerto Montt on the mainland. Some are staying in guesthouses, while schools have been turned into makeshift shelters packed with stores of bottled water after a blanket of volcanic ash contaminated ground water.

  • Over 350 Dead As Cyclone Devastates Myanmar

    A cyclone killed more than 350 people in military-ruled Myanmar, ripping through Yangon and the Irrawaddy delta where it flattened at least two towns, officials and state media said on Sunday. The death toll is likely to climb as the authorities manage to contact outlying islands and villages that felt the full force of Cyclone Nagris, a Category 3 storm packing winds of 190 km (120 miles) per hour when it hit early on Saturday.

  • Cyclone kills at least 350 in Burma

    More than 350 people have been killed in Burma by a powerful cyclone that knocked out power in the impoverished country's commercial capital and destroyed thousands of homes, state-run media said today. Military-run Myaddy television station said five regions have been declared disaster zones following yesterday's storm, which packed winds of up to 190 km/h. It said at least 351 people were killed by Tropical Cyclone Nargis, including 109 who lived on Haing Gyi island off the country's south-west coast. Many of the others died in the low-lying Irrawaddy delta.

  • Most of the tsunami victims still live in shacks

    Over three years after the tsunami nearly flattened parts of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, rehabilitation work is still on. Its progress seems slower than in other parts of the country. A scene from the picturesque Bamboo Flat permanent tenements is representative of the work in the entire archipelago. Completed houses, papered with expensive bamboo patterns, stand beside blocks of cement sticking out of wet mud

  • 5 killed as storms lash capital, dists

    Powerful storms swept across a number of places of the country including Dhaka, Mymensingh, Rangpur, Sherpur, Jamalpur and Gaibandha on Thurday and Friday evening killing five people and causing damage to dwellings and standing crops. In the capital, rickshaw-puller Almas (40) died after a tree fell on him during the nor'wester on Friday evening in the Tejgaon industrial area. Almas, a resident of Tejgaon slums died after being taken to Dhaka Medical College Hospital.

  • Becoming an Asian tiger

    Quite often we refer to certain countries in Southeast Asia as 'emerging tigers'. Their economies and their progressive economic development are analysed and extolled for their performance. Such an approach also draws our attention not only to the manner in which such countries identified the weaknesses within their development paradigm but also how such measures to overcome challenges subsequently facilitated foreign direct investment.

  • Volcano eruption on Argentina-Chile border forces evacuations

    Some 1,500 people were evacuated late Friday as the Chaiten volcano in southern Chile erupted, hurling hot rocks and belching clouds of ash into the sky. The thick clouds of ash that covered the region also spread to towns in the southern Argentine province of Chubut, where authorities closed schools and issued warnings due to low visibility on some roads. Yet despite the fireworks at the volcano, located some 1,300 kilometers (808 miles) south of Santiago, there were no reports of casualties or damage, Chile's Office of National Emergencies reported.

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