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The destruction from hurricane Katrina unleashed a disaster like our nation has never encountered. Like a guided missile, Katrina executed a mission of utmost devastation. Despite our advancements in technology, computers, satellites, healthcare and tons of mind-boggling innovations – the nation stood speechless and helpless. It seemed everything that could go wrong – went wrong. The breaking of the New Orleans levees; the thousands of trapped victims; the incessant looting; the perverse crime; the escalating gas prices; the complete collapse of the nation’s infrastructure for disaster aid – each day after Katrina brought new nightmares – each day after Katrina...

Hurricane victims in Florida and along the Gulf Coast have to be asking themselves something survivors of tornadoes, blizzards and earthquakes also wonder: Is there any place you can go that is safe from natural disasters? The West has earthquakes and wildfires. Move to the Midwest and you could find yourself in Tornado Alley. The Northeast? Blizzards, ice storms and heat waves. Experts say trying to escape catastrophic weather is a little like trying to escape from, well, the weather. Short of building a new Biosphere, it is pretty near impossible to completely avoid quakes, hurricanes, tornadoes, blizzards or heat...

Equal Earthquakes with Unequal Results December 29, 2003 By Rabbi Daniel Lapin President, Toward Tradition Our television screens fail to convey the full horror of the recent earthquake in Iran that inflicted terrible deaths on over twenty thousand souls. America has once again led the international relief effort. It might seem callous to analyze thisdisaster even before all the victims have been buried, were it not for one timely parallel. Only a few days earlier, a small town on the California coast also endured an earthquake. Even taking the logarithmic nature of the Richter scale into account, from an objective...

Deforestation and logging do not increase the risk of major floods, according to a new report. The UN's Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and the Center for International Forestry Research (Cifor) say the evidence shows no link. Loss of forest cover does play a role in smaller floods and in the loss of fertile topsoil, it says. It accuses Asian governments of blaming floods on small-scale loggers and farmers to deflect criticism. Widespread but wrong The belief that deforestation causes major floods and increases the damage which they do appears to be widespread. China's catastrophic floods of 1998, when the...

The Peruvian authorities have begun to evacuate at least 1,400 people - many of them tourists - stranded at the Inca citadel of Machu Picchu by a mudslide. On Wednesday, the railway line leading up the Andes mountains to Machu Picchu was covered by a mudslide more than three metres (9.8ft) deep. Peruvian officials said the slippage of mud and rocks was caused by snow melting on a nearby mountain peak. A spokeswoman for Peru Rail said no-one was hurt in the incident. The trapped people were being brought to safety by bus. Many of those trapped at the site...

Experts studying the flooding of New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina say the breach of key floodwalls might have been caused by soft soil under the walls, a problem the Army Corps of Engineers had been warned about. Engineers from the American Society of Civil Engineers and the University of California at Berkeley said Friday there was no evidence that the floodwaters surged over the tops of the floodwalls at 17th Street or London Avenue Canals, as previously thought. Instead, they said, soft soil may have given way underneath the walls - a danger a contracting company pointed out to the...

China will no longer regard natural disaster death tolls as a state secret, reversing a practice that has been standard for years. The Chinese government describes this switch as part of an effort to improve transparency. However, the government continues to maintain tight control over information most other countries consider public. Official news media report China will declassify figures and documents regarding natural disasters. The report explain that the move will help disaster prevention and relief work, and will also help build a transparent government. Normally, China announces death figures from disasters such as earthquakes, flood, and typhoon through government...

I've decide that from this date forward I will no longer donate to any national calamity in any of the so called "Blue States".They don't deserve my help, and afterwards I don't feel they appreciate my help anyway.

U.S. Geological Survey seismologist Lucy Jones remembers attending an emergency training session in August 2001 with the Federal Emergency Management Agency that discussed the three most likely catastrophes to strike the United States. First on the list was a terrorist attack in New York. Second was a super-strength hurricane hitting New Orleans. Third was a major earthquake on the San Andreas fault. Now that the first two have come to pass, she and other earthquake experts are using the devastating aftermath of Hurricane Katrina as an opportunity to reassess how California would handle a major temblor. Jones, scientist-in-charge for the...

MAN-MADE MISTAKES INCREASE DEVASTATION OF "NATURAL" DISASTERS Daily Policy Digest ENVIRONMENT Thursday, September 08, 2005 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- While storms such as Hurricane Katrina are sometimes called an act of God or a natural disaster, the devastation they leave behind is not. But the actions that humans take contribute to the damage caused by extreme weather, say observers. For example: People continue to live in mobile homes, although tornadoes turn them into matchsticks and one-third of all deaths from tornadoes occur among people living in mobile homes. Mobile-home communities and poor neighborhoods are also much more likely to be situated in flood...

When the water is finally drained from New Orleans and the other areas struck by Hurricane Katrina, it can then be determined just how many homes and other buildings can be saved. Damage recovery experts are surveying the scenes before bringing in their salvaging equipment. David Liebl is vice-president of the Atlanta-based firm Disaster Services, Incorporated. His workers have been to the damaged areas in Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama. "The first problem is the issue of logistics, from our standpoint. The logistics of food, fuel, lodging and of course merely getting to our locations. That has been a critical issue....

Lacking scientific backing doesn't seem to prevent many commentators from seizing on untestable, religious or paraphysical reasons for this past year's devastating natural events Two devastating natural disasters in eight months have been too much to bear for a large number of commentators, who have managed to find both solace and heartfelt smugness in the indubitable righteousness that the Asian tsunami and the New Orleans hurricane were performed for them. Katrina was ``the fist of God,'' or maybe ``the whirlwind of fossil fuel dependence,'' or, no, it was ``payback of this racist, white supremacist American culture''. The tsunami was equally...

The nation's airlines, temporarily unable to provide commercial service to hurricane-ravaged New Orleans, have been putting aside their financial troubles to fly supplies to and bring evacuees out from devastated areas. Relief flights arrived at Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport at a rate of about four an hour Friday. The flights started a day after Delta Air Lines executives piloted a plane that dropped off supplies at New Orleans' main airport and returned with 140 refugees on board. United Airlines, meanwhile, flew 24,000 pounds of food and water and 30 medical technicians from Chicago to New Orleans and returned...

A top U.S. State Department official says the United States will accept Venezuela's offer of humanitarian aid in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, but does not view the offer as a signal of change in the strained relations between the two countries. The official made the comment to VOA Friday in a wide-ranging interview as he prepares to leave his post later this month. U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs, Roger Noriega, says Washington has received offers of relief assistance in the wake of Hurricane Katrina from some 15 countries in the Americas, including Venezuela. The oil-rich...

In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, those affected have had to deal with many challenges, and now there is another growing concern -- disease. Floodwaters from Hurricane Katrina cover a large portion of New Orleans Thousands of displaced people in New Orleans, still without food or water... Survivors making their way past corpses left on the street ... "We want help! We want help," they chant. And the floodwaters that submerged approximately 80 percent of the city of New Orleans have now become a dangerous sea of gasoline, sewage, decay... and a breeding ground for disease. Dr. Julie Gerberding of...

It may be many weeks until all the water is removed from New Orleans. Before all the vital pumping stations can be reactivated, the city swamped by Hurricane Katrina has to be drained and its floodwalls and levees (embankments) repaired. Much of it was under 2.4 metres (8 feet) of water this week though the US Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) said the level seemed to be stabilising on Friday. The weather will largely dictate the speed of work and the hurricane season is predicted to run into October. Whether patching up a breached floodwall to keep water out or...

In the wake of all that has happened and watching the events that unfold hourly, and keeping up with the Katrina live threads, I thought I would post a thread that could help all of us on FR and those visiting, lurkers etc... I know that we are an intelligent, creative, and ingenuous bunch, so I am tapping many of you and others to contribute your emergency preparedness plans, ideas, or homebrew solutions to emergency problems. Just to start off, here are a few things my family and I have decided during an emergency, be it natural disaster, civil insurrection,...

Boeing to Contribute $1 Million to American Red Cross for Hurricane Katrina Relief; Will Match Employee Contributions CHICAGO, Sept. 1, 2005 - The Boeing Company [NYSE: BA] announced today that it will donate $1 million to the American Red Cross for Hurricane Katrina relief efforts and will match employee and retiree contributions to that organization through the company's Employees Community Fund. The match is dollar-for-dollar for employees and 50 cents-on-the-dollar for eligible employees retired from Boeing. It extends through September 26. Employees all over the company responded soon after the scale and scope of the tragedy emerged, according to Toni...

One of the areas badly hit by the floods in Switzerland is Matte, in the capital's historic old town. Containing hundreds of 17th- and 18th-Century houses, the old town - surrounded on three sides by the River Aare - is classed as a Unesco heritage site. Hundreds of people have had to be evacuated, Imogen Foulkes reports. Matte is residential but also has waterside cafes and clubs When the rains started at the weekend, the river levels rose, but, at first, not dramatically. Although the Matte district is at water level - and has a canal carrying water from the...

Rescue operations are continuing across Europe to help thousands of civilians affected by devastating floods which have killed 36 people. In the Swiss capital, Bern, helicopters were used to pluck people from rooftops as rising water and strong currents hampered evacuations. Worst affected is Romania, where seven elderly people were killed on Wednesday bringing deaths there to 25. The rain has eased in some parts, but forecasters warn there is more ahead. Click here for map showing flood-hit countries At least 11 people are reported dead or missing in Switzerland, Austria and Germany, where the authorities are struggling to restore...