Nocere – Earth Disasters

The Prime Minister Of New Zealand, John Key has announced that there are 10,000 dwellings in Christchurch that will not be able to be built again following the February 22nd earthquake. There were 100,000 that were damaged.
He also proclaimed a national remembrance day on March 18th, with gatherings planned for Christchurch’s Hagley Park.
The Treasury department announced on Sunday that the rebuilding cost of the earthquake would cost New Zealand $15bn.

There was a sigh or relief when members of the rescue team searching through the debris from the tower of the Cathedral in Christchurch, found no victims.
At this time the total who perished in the quake is at 166 but could go as high as 200.
The bodies found are being identified by fingerprints, DNA and dental x-rays. Sometimes personal things can help identify a person, such as a watch, or a necklace they are known to wear.
Identifying all the bodies could take a long time. The relatives waiting to hear the news of a loved one are troubled as they wait. Dealing with the emotions that will surface once the dreaded news has been given them.
A lot of precautions are being taken to be sure that the right body is returned to the right family. This happened in a previous disaster and there is no desire of a repeat situation.
Many historic buildings and dwellings will have to be torn down.
The soil in parts of Christchurch has deteriorated because of the increase silt and water that has been started by the earthquake. This has resulted in the soil not being stable enough to build on.
A privately owned building material company has started doing emergency repairs to homes as their part of helping out with the earthquake relief efforts.
The people who live in the central zone areal of Christchurch has just now been permitted access back to their homes to view the damages to their homes.
It is planned to have the power back on at 99% of the homes in the city by Monday late night.

Popularity: 9% [?]

In Brazil, a bus loaded with tourist on their way to a village in Parana state hit a truck loaded with wood.

The accident happened in the Southern part of Brazil on Saturday. There are 26 people that lost their lives and another 21 were wounded in the crash.

The bus was traveling north and was close to the village of Sao Miguel do Oeste. They were on their way to Parana to play in a bocce tourney.

The cause of the accident is not known at this time. The highway had just had maintenance done on it.

Popularity: 7% [?]

Traveling along the mountain roads of India continue to be deadly.

An open truck carrying possible 40 members of a wedding party back from the reception flipped over and fell into a deep ravine killing 33 of the people.

The accident happened in the Himachal Pradesh state. A northern state in the mountain area of India.

The accident is being investigated.

Popularity: 3% [?]

They were only trying to flee the capital, Mogadishu. The fighting had sent many looking for more peaceful surroundings.

One person survived the sinking of their boat. It had taken on water as it traveled across the Gulf of Aden. The gulf is one of the deadliest ways for the Somalis to try and escape the fighting in their country. The boat flipped over and all on board but one perished.

The survivor, a 42 year old man had been fleeing with his wife and 3 children. He lost his family to the waters of the Gulf of Aden.

Just a 4 maritime miles from the Radhom district in the province of Shabwa. It took the man 23 hours to swim the distance to the shore of Yemen.

This adds to the tragedies suffered by the Somali people. It may be the worst accident that has taken the most lives of people trying to make their way to a better life since January of 2008.

This year only there have been 89 people that have either drowned or are considered missing in the Gulf waters between Somalia and Yemen.

Popularity: 2% [?]

The overloaded platform was busy with many patrons to the game and candy sellers.

As a parade to start the Copa Crema Jose Luis “Puma” Carranza tournament was about to begin, the platform began to sway back and forth, then it collapsed.

There were over 100 people wounded in the collapse of the platform. 12 of the wounded received serious injuries.

Most of the injuries involved patrons necks and backs. There were some that had broke their ribs. A lot of the injured were treated and released to go home on their own from the accident area.

The tournament is for the youth in Lima, Peru. The stadium was packed with visitors to watch the games.

The accident happened on Friday. There is no report on the condition of the patrons who were seriously injured.

Popularity: 6% [?]

In Halong Bay, there were 26 tourist on a boat along with their tour guide that sank. 20 of the tourist were foreigners. The boat went down on the north eastern side of Vietnam taking 12 lives with it. 11 were passengers and 12th victim was the tour guide.

It was a tour boat made of wood. They were in the process of checking out the Unesco World Heritage Site located in the province of Quang Ninh when it sank.

Not all drowned, there were 15 people that were saved. 9 of them were foreigners.

No one knows why the boat sank. It is thought that maybe it broke without anyone realizing it.

The boat was a typical type junk that people will go out on and spend the night on.

Halong Bay is a very popular spot that tourist like to visit. It has many small islands and freshwater swamps.

Some of the rescued passengers thought they had seen a plank of the boat come off of it. Then a lot of water and the boat sank.

Crew were battling the water coming onto the boat and alerted the sleeping passengers. The whole thing happened so fast and the boat sank. The passengers and guide that drowned were all in cabins.

It took one minute to sink according to one survivor.

They are investigating the accident.

Popularity: 5% [?]

In Argentina on Wednesday, during the busy afternoon rush, a train ran into the back of another train killing 4 people.

70 more were injured in the accident when a train leaving the Retiro train station crashed into the rear of the other train.

The accident happened close to the San Miguel train depot which is 12 miles on the western side of the Argentina capital.

14 of the wounded were listed in critical condition.

Rescue workers continue to look amongst the wreckage for the possibility of people being trapped inside the trains.

The reason for the accident hasn’t yet been determined.

Popularity: 6% [?]

There were 14 people on board the small aircraft that crashed into a hillside on the outskirts of the capital of Honduras. All died as of a result of the crash.

The small twin engine Let L-410 passenger plane had left the city of San Pedro in the northwestern part of Honduras heading to Toncontin international airport in Tegucigalpa. On board were 12 passengers and 2 crew members.

It was close to 8am that the plane started it’s landing process and descending towards the landing strip. That is also when the pilots lost communication with the control tower. Once communication was lost, they advised rescue crews of the situation.

The plane crashed into a hill that was on the southern side of Tegucigalpa. The crash was located about 2,000 feet above sea level. It was close too the town of Santa Ann Francisco Morazan. The weather at the time was cold and it was foggy out.

One of the pilots had survived the crash but later died as being transported to the hospital.

Residents in the area were the first to get to the accident site. They are the ones that found the pilot still alive and someone asking for help some where in the wreckage.

Popularity: 7% [?]