In 2024, the Emergency Events Database (EM-DAT) recorded 393 natural hazard-related disasters. These events caused 16,753 fatalities and affected 167.2 million people. Economic losses totaled US$241.95 billion. The year 2024 was marked by extreme temperature events in Asia that caused thousands of deaths, severe droughts in Africa affecting over 25 …
A federal study released documents the significant impact that climate change is expected to have on the U.S. transportation system. Its conclusion, says Henry Schwartz, the former head of one of the country's largest highway engineering firms, is "a pretty damning tale of what could happen."
London: Forget Jaws. Sharks can save lives too by giving early warning of storms. Researchers in Britain have carried out a study and found that the fearsome predators can sense minute changes in air pressure
A hailstorm swept through eight villages of Monohardi upazila of the district on Monday night, leaving a man dead and 50 others injured. The dead was identified as Sahabuddin, 50, a quack of Goribhanga village of the upazila. Sources said Sahabuddin was injured seriously when a tree fell on him …
The us Federal Emergency Manag-ement Agency (fema) has admitted high levels of formaldehyde in travel trailers and mobile homes the government provided as emergency housing in the Gulf Coast after hurricanes Katrina and Rita hit the region in 2005. The us Environmental Protection Agency classifies formaldehyde as a probable carcinogen. …
From delicate orchids and magnolias to rare Chinese yews and Kwangtung pines, the flora of Guangdong Nanling National Nature Reserve is considered so precious that ecologists call the reserve "a treasure trove of species." But winter storms have reduced the biological hot spot to a splintered ruin.
The distribution of microorganisms, and especially pathogens, over airborne particles of different sizes has been ignored to a large extent, but it could have significant implications regarding the dispersion of these microorganisms across the planet, thus affecting human health. March 2008
A series of brief violent storms yesterday afternoon and overnight led to pockets of heavy rainfall around the state, with one area receiving a one-in-20 year downpour. The Bureau of Meteorlogy has issued a storm warning, expected to include severe thunderstorms with very heavy rainfall and flash flooding, for the …
Suncorp-Metway Ltd, Australia's second-biggest car and home insurer, said on Monday the total estimated costs from storms in northern Queensland state were seen exceeding A$100 million ($93 million). Suncorp said, however, that its reinsurance arrangements would limit its liability to A$100 million. Australian insurance companies have been battered by heavy …
Mangrove ecosystems are threatened by climate change. We review the state of knowledge of mangrove vulnerability and responses to predicted climate change and consider adaptation options. Based on available evidence, of all the climate change outcomes, relative sea-level rise may be the greatest threat to mangroves. Most mangrove sediment surface …
This study assesses the storm protection role afforded by mangroves. It uses data on human casualties, damages to houses and livestock losses suffered in the Kendrapada district of the State of Orissa during the super cyclone of October 1999. The analysis incorporates meteorological, geo-physical and socio-economic factors to separate out …
Even after two years, hurricane Katrina still haunts people in us's port city New Orleans in Louisiana state. Floods that came in the wake of the hurricane have left the soil in the city's schools contaminated with layers of arsenic. A recent report by the advocacy group Natural Resources Defense …
In the third week of August, hurricane Dean battered America's mid-western and southern states, and raced through the Gulf of Mexico. Weathermen did not expect the hurricane to intensify sharply. Dean was the third most intense Atlantic hurricane to make landfall since record keeping began in the 1850s. A week …
After spending a lot of money on sea walls, the Kerala government is now creating an eco-fence against natural calamities like the tsunami that ravaged the state in 2004. Under the Harithatheeram Project, the government will fence the state's 590-km coastline by planting mangroves, casuarinas, thespesias, pandanus and other species …
cyclone Gonu has showed up the chinks in India's wind pattern research. The cyclone lashed Oman on June 4, 2007, and delayed monsoon in India by a week. Indian scientists, including the India Meteorological Department (imd), failed to predict the wind disturbance on the Persian Gulf and its effect on …
Low-elevation coastal zones (leczs) are areas at an elevation of 10 metres or less above sea level. Although leczs account for just 2 per cent of the world's total land area, they contain about 634 million people: 10 per cent of the global population. About 75 per cent of people …
Water-related disasters include flood, windstorms, drought, water epidemics, famine and landslides. These combine with other water-related hazards such as pollution and chemical spills, aquifer depletion, land subsidence, salinisation of arable land, marine intrusions, sea and storm surges, coastal flooding and water-borne diseases to affect ecosystems and food and livelihood security …
This paper discusses the possibilities and constraints for adaptation to climate change in urban areas in low and middle-income nations. These contain a third of the world's population and a large proportion of the people and economic activities most at risk from sea-level rise and from the heatwaves, storms and …
hailstorm in most farming areas of Manipur in October took farmers, eagerly awaiting the harvest, by surprise. It left standing crops damaged. Imphal East, Bishenpur, Chandel, Senapati, Tamenglong, Thoubal and Ukhrul districts reported hailstorms between October 21 to 24, 2006. Harvesting usually begins in October end. Andro, a township in …
weather forecasters will now need to track atmospheric dust to predict hurricanes. Dust may dampen hurricane fury, say scientists at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, studying a link between Atlantic hurricanes and thick clouds of dust that periodically rise from the Sahara Desert and blow off Africa's western coast. A strong …
