Nocere – Earth Disasters

Heatwave now lingers in South-eastern Australia, with temperatures reaching a peak of 43C. Health officials have blamed the heat as the cause of sudden rise in deaths among elderly. Among the 19 who died in the state capital of Adelaide, 14 of them were elderly.

The sweltering heat has triggered bush fires, which destroyed at least 10 homes in Victoria state. Another 500,000 people in the state have their electricity source impaired, followed by severe pressure on electricity grid. This has since been the most damaging since 1908. Residents are forced to evacuate their homes, after wildfires caught the west of the state, destroying 2,000 hectares of forest and grassland.

In Melbourne, the second largest city of Australia, an explosion was reported at a substation. Extreme heat has also buckled railway tracks, causing much inconvenience to commuters.

The heat wave is expected to last for another few days, with high pressure moving to south.

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Conflicts between the Sri Lankan Army and Tamil Tigers have lasted for a decade, dragging many innocent lives that include children. The UN children’s agency (Unicef) responded by quoting the increasing number of children being killed or injured in the last 10 days. It has now called on both parties to take into considerations of the safety of the children, as well as the wider civilian population.

Both parties have yet to come to a conclusion. The rebels Tamil Tigers put off the topic by saying that the 250,000 civilians in the conflict zone have chosen to stay. While, Sri Lankan government has agreed on offering a safe passage for the civilians. However, President Mahinda Rajapaksa ruled out a complete ceasefire.

The fate of the civilians lies in the decisions between both parties. When discussion is still ongoing, more civilians are expected to fall victims in the midst of further crossfire.

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The ‘worst case scenario’ that was predicted by health experts has now came to realism. World Health Organisation (WHO) revealed a total of 60,401 people in Zimbabwe are currently infected by cholera. To make matter more drastic, the death toll stands at 3,161.

The collapse of Zimbabwe’s water, sanitation and health systems has been deemed as the cause of such extraordinary health crisis. Many hospitals are closed down and water supply in towns is not sufficient. Broken sewers and uncollected waste could be seen lying around. There are rising concerns by aid workers over rainy season, which could lead to even more infections as water sources become contaminated.

The UN agency has stressed the need for international community to interfere in Zimbabwe’s uncontrollable cholera epidemic.

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Millions of worms are causing major crop damage in the state Liberia.

These worms in huge number referred to as “army worms” have been making their way through to Guinea destroying crops of about 80 villages already.

Officials have stepped up and are summoning every possible resource in order to stop this massive destruction to the crop.
Number of pest control workers has been employed to spray pesticides on the affected farms as a measure of protection.
But the army of worms has out numbered the workers. Liberia has reached for international help to solve this problem.

Alternative ways like spraying on the crops from above, with the help of choppers have been considered and are waiting for permission from officials.
These worms daily are multiplying in millions and are covering a massive ground leaving their faeces, which is polluting the drinking water as well.

The President has declared a state of emergency in the state and promised to put an end to this situation as soon as possible.

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Kosi River which broke free from the man – made embankment and inundated through many parts of Nepal and India has finally been directed back on its course.

Five months ago the river broke the embankment and overflowed through many places in Nepal and India which took hundreds of lives and left thousands of people homeless.
The flow of the river during the monsoon made it difficult to work on the embankment.

Now when the level has lowered government of India has issued orders for restoring the embankment as soon as possible.
It took a great deal of workers with the help of loads of sand bags and barbed wire to restore the river’s course back in the proper direction.

The break free caused a lot of destruction leaving many families to depend on the government camps and rehabilitation centers.
Many people returned to their barren lands which once used to fertile lands to start a new life. But the scar of the river will remain for sometime.

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Northwestern Pakistan has been hit with two deadly missile attacks, whereby officials reported 14 deaths.

Suspected of being landed by US drones, at least one missile has hit a house in a village near the town of Mirali, North of Waziristan. The area was also a stronghold of al-Qaeda and Taleban militants. The other missile landed on the south of Waziristan, claiming 5 lives.

Thus far, Pakistan has been against such air strikes that might cause massive casualties.

Pakistan leaders had uttered over their concern of such actions, which might have negative means to Pakistan’s own counter-insurgency efforts. Such rampant attacks might also fuel public anger.

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Falluja, western Iraqi city, has been attacked twice in December, which took away lives of 19 police officers. After just a month, the city received yet another bomb attack. This time, the target was a police patrol base in the town of alkarmah. According to report, thirteen have been killed in the attack.

Formerly a stronghold of the Sunni insurgents, the attack falls just a week before the provincial elections. Though being the target in recent months, Falluja, 40 miles west of Baghdad was seemed as relatively peaceful. This is largely due to the reason whereby the city was previously in heavy fighting four years ago, however, violence started to calm when US military and local tribes agreed to cooperate since 2006.

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An Avalanche that took place in highlands, Scotland have claimed lives of three members.

A group of nine people were going up the hill when at 1200 GMT a strong avalanche was experienced and everyone in the group was trapped deep in the incident.

It wasn’t until three hours later that the help has arrived. Choppers skirted around the area and tried to lift the victims from the ground to a safer place.

Among the casualties three members suffered major injuries, one person was mildly injured and the rest five didn’t suffer any injuries.
The three injured casualties were immediately taken to a hospital where they were given intense care but eventually didn’t make any difference.

All the three lost their lives leaving their friends grieving about the tragedy that they have experienced together.

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