Category Archives: Natural Disasters

Tonga volcano explosion equalled most powerful ever US nuclear test

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Scientists calculate 2022 eruption of Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha’apai volcano released 1,000 times more energy than Hiroshima bomb

A huge underwater volcanic event in Tonga last year was of a magnitude comparable with the most powerful nuclear detonation by the US, researchers have revealed.

Scientists have used eye and earwitnesses accounts, along with data from tide gauges, satellites, evidence of broken windows and other sources, to calculate that the eruption of the Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha’apai volcano, which occurred on 15 January 2022 and was felt around the world, likely involved five blasts. The last of them released energy equivalent to about 15 megatonnes of TNT.

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Ecuador landslide: search for survivors after dozens of homes buried

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President Guillermo Lasso confirms seven people have died, with 62 still missing after disaster on Sunday night

A huge landslide that swept over an Andean community in central Ecuador, burying dozens of homes, has killed at least seven people, authorities said as rescuers continued a frantic search for survivors.

Earlier on Monday, officials had reported 16 deaths, but President Guillermo Lasso put the confirmed toll at seven as he arrived on Monday night at the scene of the disaster in Alausí, about 137 miles south of the capital, Quito. Officials also raised the number of people reported missing to 62.

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Mississippi tornado: Biden declares emergency after storm kills 26 in region

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Search and recovery efforts continue after twister hit hardest in some of the most economically deprived areas of US’s poorest state

Joe Biden declared a federal emergency for swathes of Mississippi hit by a devastating tornado, as rescue workers continued to search for survivors on Sunday morning with a death toll of at least 26 people caused by catastrophic storms in parts of the US’s deep south.

Twenty-five people were killed and dozens injured in Mississippi, throughout the state’s low-lying Delta region and around its north-east portion, with another man dying in the neighboring state of Alabama.

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Pressure mounts on UN to provide urgent support to north-western Syria

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Rescue teams say death tolls will continue to rise if UN does not speed up ‘overly cautious’ delivery of aid into rebel-held region

Pressure is mounting on the UN to provide urgent support to north-western Syria, which is yet to receive meaningful aid five days after the earthquake that devastated the region, and with the chance of finding any survivors beneath the rubble almost gone.

A convoy of 14 UN lorries entered the opposition-held part of the country from Turkey on Friday at the Bab al-Hawa crossing, containing humanitarian-kit, solar lamps, blankets and other items, one day after a six-lorry convoy crossed the border with blankets and basic supplies. Thursday’s convoy had been arranged before the disaster that has killed at least 3,500 people inside Syria and left thousands more buried under rubble.

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First aid convoy enters north-west Syria as quake toll passes 21,000

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Turkey says it is working to open two more border crossings; girl and father pulled alive from rubble in Antakya

The first convoy of humanitarian assistance for victims of Monday’s earthquake has crossed into north-west Syria, as the death toll in Turkey and Syria climbed to more than 21,000 amid fading hopes of finding survivors under rubble in freezing weather.

Six trucks passed through the Bab al-Hawa border crossing from Turkey carrying tents and hygiene products, as Turkey said it was working to open two more border crossings with Syria to allow in more humanitarian aid.

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Turkey and Syria earthquake death toll passes 15,000 as Erdoğan defends response

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Turkish president rejects growing criticism as rescuers continue to pull survivors from freezing rubble

Turkey’s president has rejected growing criticism of the authorities’ response to Monday’s huge earthquakes, as the death toll passed 15,000 across Turkey and Syria and rescuers continued to pull survivors from the freezing rubble.

Making his first visit to Turkey’s worst-affected region since the 7.8- and 7.5-magnitude quakes hit within hours of each other, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan acknowledged early problems with Turkey’s response but said it was now working well.

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Turkey and Syria earthquake: what we know so far on day three

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More than 11,000 confirmed dead with more than 8,000 rescued; Erdoğan visits quake zone

The combined death toll from Monday’s earthquake which struck Syria and Turkey has now reached 11,416, as rescue efforts continued across the region, despite being hampered by cold weather conditions.

Turkey’s president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan announced that the death toll from Monday’s quake had reached 8,754 in Turkey. Visiting Kahramanmaraş, which was near the epicentre of the quake, he said “On the first day we experienced some issues, but then on the second day and today the situation is under control”. Erdoğan promised the government aims to build housing within one year for those left without a home in the 10 provinces affected.

The death toll in Syria has risen to 2,662, according to reports from AFP. Syria’s government has received help from a host of Arab countries including Egypt and Iraq, as well as from its key ally Russia, which has sent rescue teams and deployed forces already in Syria to join relief work, including in Aleppo.

Syria has activated the EU civil protection mechanism, two days after the earthquake, to request further assistance from the 27-country bloc and the eight other nation states that are part of the programme. The European Union has has already mobilised search and rescue teams to help Turkey, while the bloc’s Copernicus satellite system has been activated to provide emergency mapping services. At least 19 member countries have offered assistance.

Cold weather continues to be expected in the region with minimum and maximum temperatures for Kahramanmaraş today of -6C and 1C (21-34F), and for Gaziantep between -5C and 1C (23-34F). Diyarbakır is expected to have continued snowfall, with temperatures climbing to 2C (35F) at most.

A container blaze at Turkey’s southern port of Iskenderun has been brought under control, Turkey’s maritime authority said on Wednesday, following combined extinguishing efforts from land, sea and air. The blaze started when containers were toppled during the quake.

A first 7.8-magnitude quake struck at 4.17 am (1.17 GMT) on Monday near the Turkish city of Gaziantep, home to about 2 million people. It was followed by a 7.5-magnitude tremor and several aftershocks.

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UK to send aid to Turkey and Syria despite budget ‘strain’, says minister

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More than 70 rescue specialists and sniffer dogs to help with efforts after thousands killed in earthquake-hit region

UK aid will be sent to Turkey and Syria despite “very considerable strain” on the development budget, the cabinet minister Andrew Mitchell has said, after earthquakes killed thousands in the region.

Mitchell, who as a backbench MP opposed cuts to the aid budget, said there were specific funds allocated for major humanitarian disasters.

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‘Catastrophic’ earthquake in Turkey and Syria kills at least 3,800 people

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Dozens of countries offer help as rescue workers and residents frantically search for survivors after devastating 7.8-magnitude tremor

International rescue missions were rushing to Turkey and Syria on Monday after one of the most powerful earthquakes to hit the region in at least a century left more than 3,800 people dead, thousands injured and an unknown number trapped in the rubble.

The early-morning quake and dozens of aftershocks wiped out entire apartment blocks in Turkey and heaped more destruction on Syrian communities already devastated by over a decade of war.

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Australia news live: China’s Covid wave ‘key risk’ to supply chains, Jim Chalmers says

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The treasurer says Covid testing for travellers from China ‘strikes the right balance’. Follow all the latest news

Storms to hit south-east Australia

Butler: China traveller Covid tests are ‘a modest measure’

This is a modest measure taken in line with pretty much every country to which we would usually compare ourselves. We are committed to making sure that we can continue to travel overseas, continue the personal and economic benefits that come from having open borders.

We just want to make sure we do that in a way that has the maximum information in a timely way that we need to protect Australians. The chief health officers have said across the board, a very broad consensus, we’re very well positioned here in Australia in the fight against Covid. We’ve got very high vaccination rates, particularly among the more vulnerable cohorts in the population.

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Hawaii site that measures global CO2 shuts down after Mauna Loa volcano eruption

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Scientists scramble to re-establish the crucial monitoring that has been situated on the volcano since 1958

The world’s premier measurement site for global carbon dioxide levels has been shut down because of a volcanic eruption in Hawaii, with scientists scrambling to re-establish the crucial monitoring that has been situated on the volcano since 1958.

Lava has been shooting more than 150ft into the air from Mauna Loa, the world’s largest active volcano, since Sunday night and a river of molten rock is now not only menacing the main highway on Hawaii’s big island but also the Mauna Loa Observatory, a scientific station situated on the northern flank of the volcano.

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Five-year-old boy pulled from Indonesia earthquake rubble after two days

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Azka, whose mother died in disaster, probably survived due to being protected by a mattress, while 40 people remain missing in Cianjur

Driving rain and the danger of landslides disrupted the work of Indonesian rescue workers searching on Wednesday for survivors of an earthquake that killed 271 people, with an official warning that time was running out for anyone trapped.

As the search continued, rescuers pulled a five-year-old boy from the rubble, who had survived because he was protected by a mattress.

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Indonesia earthquake: many of those killed were schoolchildren, says official

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Death toll of Java quake rises to 268, with dozens of schools affected, as rescuers race against time to find survivors

The death toll from the earthquake that struck Indonesia’s main island of Java on Monday has risen to 268, and many of the dead are schoolchildren, officials have said as rescuers raced against time to find survivors.

The quake, centred in the Cianjur region of West Java province, struck at a shallow depth of 6.2 miles (10km), triggering landslides and damaging buildings, including tens of thousands of homes and dozens of schools.

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Earthquake on Indonesia’s main island of Java kills at least 162 people

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Rescue operation under way after magnitude-5.6 quake triggers landslides and causes buildings to collapse

At least 162 people have been killed after a magnitude-5.6 earthquake struck Indonesia’s main island of Java, triggering landslides and causing buildings to collapse.

The US Geological Survey said the quake, which struck late in the afternoon, was centred in the Cianjur region of West Java province at a depth of 6.2 miles (10km).

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Insurance firms must lower premiums as government funds disaster prevention, minister says

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Murray Watt says Canberra is funding disaster mitigation infrastructure and ‘expects the insurance industry to fulfil its end of the bargain’

Insurance companies need to reduce premiums for customers in disaster-prone regions now the federal government is investing heavily in infrastructure to minimise loss during extreme weather, the emergency management minister, Murray Watt, says.

Ahead of confirming funding on Friday for 34 new mitigation projects to reduce the impact of coastal erosion accelerated by the climate crisis, Watt used an insurance industry conference to put the sector on notice.

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Daniel Andrews dismisses concerns over independence of review into Flemington racetrack flood wall

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Melbourne Water chair John Thwaites, who was water minister when the wall was approved, will excuse himself from the review

Daniel Andrews has dismissed concerns over the independence of a review into the impact of a flood wall built to protect Flemington racetrack, which will be conducted by an organisation chaired by a former minister of the government that approved the structure.

The track was spared by Friday’s flooding while homes in neighbouring suburbs including Maribyrnong and Kensington were inundated, with some residents believing the wall pushed flood waters away from the track and into their homes.

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Hurricane Julia: Nicaragua braces amid flash flood and mudslide warnings

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Nicaraguan soldiers assist evacuations as up to 38cm of rain forecast across Central America after tropical storm strengthened into hurricane

Hurricane Julia swept by just south of Colombia’s San Andres island on Saturday evening soon after strengthening from a tropical storm, as Nicaraguans rushed to prepare for the storm’s arrival on their coast overnight.

After gaining power throughout the day, Julia’s maximum sustained winds had increased to 120km/h (75mph) by Saturday evening, the US National Hurricane Center said.

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DeSantis’s pleas for hurricane aid raise hackles amid vast partisan divide

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The Florida governor, having spent millions on migrant stunt, now passes the hat for disaster relief

Florida’s governor, Ron DeSantis, has become a familiar, and to some a reassuring, face on numerous television channels through the traumatic aftermath of Hurricane Ian’s rampage through the state.

But the near-constant presence of the Republican, who in less chaotic times limits his on-screen appearances largely to the Fox News faithful, is not sitting comfortably with others, nor are his appeals for public contributions for hurricane relief while he is using taxpayers’ money for “political stunts”.

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Hurricane Ian: more than 2m without power as Florida hit with ‘catastrophic’ wind and rain

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‘Major, major’ storm, estimated to be 140 miles wide, sweeps inland after causing huge flooding on coast, with millions of residents in its path

Hurricane Ian, one of the most powerful storms ever to strike the US mainland, has battered south-west Florida with high winds, rain and storm surges as it weakened and moved inland.

More than 2m homes and businesses were left without power as the storm swept ashore in south-west Florida on Wednesday afternoon, bringing “catastrophic” 150mph (240km/h) winds and a deadly storm surge of up to 18ft. Hours later, the storm – estimated to be about 140 miles (225km) wide – was downgraded from a category 4 to a category 1 storm as it moved slowly north-east, causing major flooding.

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Hurricane Ian: Cuba left without power as intensifying storm heads to Florida

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Electricity grid collapses in Cuba after hurricane passes through, as 2.5 million people in Florida ordered to evacuate

Cuba’s electricity grid has collapsed, leaving the entire country without power in the wake of Hurricane Ian, as residents in Florida braced for the arrival of what is expected to be a catastrophic Category 4 storm.

The western end of Cuba was hit by violent winds and flooding on Tuesday, affecting infrastructure, state-run media reported, while some of the country’s most important tobacco farms were devastated.

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