Nocere – Earth Disasters

May through November in Mexico, Central America and the northern area of South America is known for being the rainy time of year. Excessive amounts of rain pelts these areas and most often result in flooding that takes lives and destroys dwellings.

In Venezuela, a state of emergency has been called for in 4 of the states. This includes the capital of Venezuela, Caracas.

Thousands of residents have been forced from their houses by the rising waters. There have been about 5,600 people left without homes to return to.

At this time there are at least 20 people who are known to have perished as a result of the overflowing waters.

Landslides have taken houses down off  hills where they were situated on steep inclines.

There are thousands of people taking up shelter in quick set up locations. Some of these  locations are school houses, colleges and military barracks.

The President, Hugo Chavez did offer to allow people to take refuge in the palace. It isn’t known if anyone took him up on his offer or not.

The rain isn’t over yet. It is predicted that it there will be quite a few more days of torrential rain pouring down upon the country.

The areas hit the hardest are, Falcon, Miranda and Vargas along with Caracas.

Many flights have been interrupted and landslides have closed roads.

Popularity: 4% [?]

It’s cold, temperatures are projected to go down as low as -20C. The recorded record low of -16.1C was in Altnaharra which is located in the northern parts of Scotland. The lowest temperature of the winter of 2010 was -22.3C.

Approximately 850 schools have been shut down and 3,000 houses were at sometime without electric power. Scottish Hydro is hoping to have all homes back online by late tonight. Extra personnel have been brought in to help fix the problem.

Being out on the roadways is very dangerous and there are many abandoned vehicles along the way. There have been many roads shut down to hazardous conditions.

Travel by air has also been affected with the closing of the Edinburgh Airport at 1800 GMT. Travel by trains has also been interrupted.

A ski resort located in the Highlands, Lecht Ski Centre, also had to close down for the day.

Emergency areas were set up to help shelter stranded motorist. At first there were 60 people who were looking for protection from the weather by 2000 GMT on Sunday. By Monday, there were 669 people staying there.

The weather has been predicted to grow worse this week.

Popularity: 5% [?]

The 29 miners have been trapped in the mine since last Friday. Now all are assumed to be dead.

There was a second explosion on Wednesday. It was a huge explosion and it is feared that no one could possibly be alive after the latest blast at the Pike River mine located on South Island.

According to Police Supt Gary Knowles there is no longer any hope for survivors.

The Prime Minister John Key has labeled this as the deadliest mine accident in 96 years and is a “national tragedy.”

There was never any contact made with the 29 miners trapped. There were 24 miners from New Zealand, 2 were Australians, 2 British and one from South Africa.

The two Britons were both from Scotland originally. They were Peter Rodger who was 40 years of age and Malcolm Campbell who was only 25 years old.

There are a lot of British citizens who have moved to New Zealand and it has become their home.

Peter Whittall the head administrator of the mine has said that they will do all that is possible to bring out the bodies of all the trapped miners. The men are between 17 and 62 years of age.

Their families are grieving after hearing the latest news. Some are still holding onto pieces of hope that there are some survivors. Many are upset that rescue operations did not start immediately after last Fridays explosion. They feel the time to act was then, not wait and now this has happened.

At this time, all that can be done is to try and comfort the loved ones.

Popularity: 2% [?]

A Shia spiritual march in the northern part of Yemen was hit by a car bomb. 15 of the people walking in the procession were killed. Another 30 people were wounded in the bombing.

The procession was taking place during the celebration of al-Shadeer. It is a festival that is not observed by the Yemen majority Sunni Muslims.

A member of the Huthi renegades made a statement that he felt his group was the object of the assault which took place in the al-Jawf province.

It is not certain who actually planned the attack at this time. It is possible that the al-Qaeda or some other Sunni Muslim group planned out the assault.

The govenment is weak in central Yemen. There are many disagreements between the government and the renegades in the area.

There is also the religious division between the Shia and Sunni Muslims which brings about many disputes between the two groups.

Popularity: 2% [?]

The miners spent over 30 hours in the flooded mine awaiting rescue efforts.

All 29 were rescued in less than an hours once the operation to get them out started. They were lifted out quickly one at a time.

As the miners were brought out, they were immediately placed on stretchers. As the last of the 29 was brought out, the people watching the operation clapped.

Each of the miners were wrapped up in quilts and blindfolded to keep out the sunlight. Then they were transported to hospitals.

The most vulnerable were brought up first. The oldest and the youngest. The miners who were considered to be stronger were brought out last.

There were ambulances, hundreds of people helping with rescue efforts, news reporters, officials and many other people who were there to witness the rescue of the miners.

Each one of the miners are to get one on one care from nurses. They will all be taken care of.

Popularity: 2% [?]

A stampede during a celebration killed 339 people and wounded 329.

The celebration was taking place in Cambodia’s capital city of Phnon Penh.

There were over 4 million visitors at the Water Festival at the time of the stampede.

At approximately 10 pm, a stampede started as an over loaded suspension bridge began to swing a bit from all the people on it. People got scared, a stampede started. There were even cases of people jumping off the bridge into the water below.

To keep people moving, the police had been firing a water cannon towards the bridge and an island in the middle of the river. This also contributed to the panic.

Some people may have fell into the water after becoming unsciousness. Others could have received electrical shocks from the lights on the bridge. Possibly some were electrocuted.

The government doesn’t believe anyone was actually electrocuted.

A doctor, who wants to remain anonymous, stated that the main cause most of them died was due to suffocation and being electrocuted.

It is a 3 day celebration where there are lots of activities. The people attending the celebration pray for a good rice crop, ample rainfall and they observe the full moon.

Popularity: 4% [?]

The flooded coal mine located at the Batian pit close to the city of Neijang in Sichuan province has trapped 28 miners inside it.

There were 41 miners in the mine at the time, only 13 found their way out.

There is an estimated 141,000 cubic feet of water in the mine. They are waiting for pumps to help them get it out.

There is still hope that they will get them out alive.

Popularity: 2% [?]

The mine is still not considered safe and the definite whereabouts of the missing miners is not known at this time.

Every miner carried enough oxygen to provide them with 30 minutes breathing time in order to get to their safe places within the mine. In these safe places there would be more oxygen which could provide them with a few days of oxygen.

The trapped miners range in ages from 17 to 69.

Two miners did walk out of the mine when it first happened. One said he feels he was knocked out by an explosion.

There is fear of another explosion and until it is safe, rescuers will not be sent into the mine.

There has been no communication with the miners. One that had a cell phone with him in the mine, has not responded to any attempts to call him.

There will possibly be a rescue attempt made on Sunday.

Popularity: 1% [?]