2010 Disaster Calendar [February]

2010: Year One of Human-Enhanced Disasters

• FEWW Amendment to Murphy’s Law: If more things can go wrong they will go wrong about now!

• In the next few years, YOU or someone close to you will likely have experienced a man-made, or human-enhanced ‘natural disaster.’

“About 99.98 percent of human effort goes to debilitate the ecosystems. In other words, for every single step taken to restore the natural life support services, humans take 6,400 steps in the opposite direction, destroying the planet’s ability to maintain life.” —EDRO

2010 Disaster Calendar

Click link for January 2010 entries

February 2010

[Note: This listing is by no means exhaustive.]

• Day Thirty-Two
  • Florida, USA. “The U.S. Department of Agriculture has designated 60 of Florida’s 67 counties as primary natural disaster areas, caused by cold weather and freezing conditions over the past month.” Miami Herald reported.  
    Gov. Charlie Crist first declared a 14-day state of emergency on January 5, which was later extended through February 1, 2010.
  • Oklahoma, USA. The death toll from a winter storm that left up to 93,000 homes and business without power in the U.S. state of  Oklahoma climbed to three on Sunday, state officials said.
    • “Police responded to 568 storm-related auto accidents in Oklahoma, and one of them resulted in the death of a 33-year-old man Sunday, officials said.” The report said.
    • All 77 counties of the state of Oklahoma remain under a State of Emergency, as declared by Gov. Henry on January 27, 2010. The state’s shelters had accommodated 3,000 people by Saturday. The National Weather Service issued a freezing fog advisory until at least noon February 1.
    • President Barack Obama on Saturday declared a state of emergency in Oklahoma as the state continued to dig out after last week’s winter storm. The move will make federal aid available to supplement state and local disaster aid.
  • Arkansas, USA. School closures have been extended across the state from the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville to Little Rock Public Schools, 5 News reported.
    • Three day after Arkansas Governor Mike Beebe declared a State of Emergency (29 January 2010), in response to the ice and snow storm which covered already the northern half of the state, and in anticipation of worsening winter conditions, road conditions are said to remain “very dangerous.”
  • United States: The United States has recorded its most extensive snow cover of the winter season.  Moderate to heavy snow and ice has covered up to 70% of the country from Southern Colorado and New Mexico  to the Mid Atlantic states in the past few days extending the snow coverage from about 48% on January 27th to the largest snow cover of the winter season at nearly 70% on January 31st, the National Operational Hydrologic Remote Sensing Center (NOHRSC) said.
  • California, USA. Gov Schwarzenegger proclaimed a state of emergency in Calaveras and Imperial counties due to a series of winter storms that began two weeks ago, damaging public facilities and private properties, closing roads, and requiring emergency response and clean-up of debris, a report said.
    • Schwarzenegger has now “proclaimed a state of emergency in San Bernardino County due to a series of winter storms that closed roads, caused widespread utility outages, damaged at least 124 homes and required people to relocate to emergency shelters.”
    • “Acting Governor Edmund G. Brown Jr. also proclaimed a state of emergency last week in Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside, San Francisco and Siskiyou counties due to a series of winter storms that have brought high winds and significant amounts of precipitation statewide, and have caused the loss of human life, injuries, flooding, heavy snows and mudslides throughout the state. The effects of these storms are expected to continue for the next several days.” according to the Office of Gov Press Release.
  • Virginia, USA. Gov Bob McDonnell declared a state of emergency in Virginia in response to the winter storm last week.  Up to 14 inches of snow fell in part of Virginia, a report said.
• Day Thirty-Three
  • Mongolia. Temperatures as low as -50C have killed at least 1.7 million heads of livestock in Mongolia, threatening the livelihoods of 21,000 most seriously affected herder families and putting them at risk of food insecurity, the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) warned today.
    • “The ongoing Dzud [extremely cold winter that makes livestock grazing impossible] has resulted in huge livestock losses, with 1.7 million deaths counted as at 31 January. If current conditions persist, the Government estimates that losses could reach 3-4 million heads of livestock by the spring.
    • “One third of the population of Mongolia lead nomadic lives and depend entirely on livestock for a living. Their cattle, sheep, goats, horses and camels are the main household asset and are perishing from cold, exhaustion or starvation. Total economic losses so far are estimated at US$62 million. Also substantial numbers of wild life are dying.
    • Fourteen of Mongolia’s 21 Aimags, or provinces, are considered seriously affected. According to the FAO assessment mission, in 8 Aimags 21 000 herder families owning between 100 and 300 heads of livestock each have lost more than 50 percent of their herds.” FAO report added.
  • Bay County, Florida. “Department of Agriculture had determined crop losses caused by cold weather and freezing conditions Jan. 2-14 warranted a Secretarial Disaster Declaration in 60 Florida counties.” News Herald said.
  • Black Canyon City, Arizona. Mired in mud and water, the city’s trailer park once home to dozens of people is now unfit to live in.
  • Lima, Peru. The government of Peru has now declared a state of emergency in five of the countries departments (states)  in the south of the country following recent torrential rains.  The country’s weather agency forecast more rain said Wall Street Journal.
  • Southern Somalia. More than 4 times as many people [4 million] need food aid in south Sudan now than a year ago, the UN’s World Food Program said.
• Day Thirty-Four
  • GAZA. Occupied Palestinian Territories. “There is a significant deterioration in the psychological well-being of Palestinian children who are living in the Gaza Strip, especially after the recent war,” Ayesh Samour, director of the Psychiatric Hospital in Gaza, told IRIN (UNOCHA).
    A study by NGO Ard al-Insan in Gaza recently revealed that “73 percent of Gaza children are suffering from psychological and behavioural disorders, including psychological trauma, nightmares, involuntary urination, high blood pressure and diabetes.”
  • Los Angeles, Calif., USA. “A new study published by the Los Angeles Regional Foodbank today reports that a record 983,400 Los Angeles County residents received food assistance from food pantries, soup kitchens and shelters served by the Foodbank in 2009. This total represents nearly 1 in 10 residents of Los Angeles County. Children comprise 40 percent of people receiving food assistance and seniors comprise 5 percent as an estimated 393,000 kids and 49,000 seniors benefited from food distributed by the Foodbank over the course of the year.”
  • Dallas, Texas, USA. “The number of North Texans seeking help from food pantries or soup kitchens each week has risen 80 percent, to 64,600 a week, since 2006, according to the study, “Hunger in America 2010.” The study was conducted by Feeding America, a hunger-relief organization.” The Dallas  Morning News reported. “The North Texas Food Bank serves 345,600 people through its programs and by supplying food pantries in a 13-county region – what the food bank estimates as one in 12 residents. Many of those being served and counted in the study are repeat visitors to food pantries.” About 50 percent of  those in the study were children, “and 13 percent were elderly, said Jan Pruitt, president and chief executive officer of the food bank.”
  • Gran Canaria and Tenerife, Spain. Storms and heavy rains buffeted the Canary Islands on Tuesday leaving a trail of destruction behind with at least 1 person dead. Holidaymakers in the popular Canary Islands were greeted by fierce gales, lightning, thunder and torrential rain, a report said.  “Cars were pulled from the shore on the island of La Palma and dragged out into the atlantic.” In the Tenerife capital, Santa Cruz,  some 82mm of rain in less than 24 hours, transformed “the streets into rivers of mud that had washed down from the mountains. Some towns have been cut off altogether due to landslides, and the local council has confirmed this morning it is organizing helicopters to airlift in supplies of food and water to the Valle Brosque and Valle Crispin areas due to roads that have been impassable since Monday.”
• Day Thirty-Five
  • N Carolina, USA. President Obama declares a major disaster for North Carolina. Federal funds are now  available to “the State of North Carolina to supplement state and local efforts to recover from the severe winter storm and flooding that struck the State” last December.
• Day Thirty-Six
  • Northern Nicaragua. The drought is decimating harvest of staples such as corn and beans in parts of Nicaragua’s northern agricultural region, and affecting tens of thousands of farmers, a local news agency reported.
  • Michigan, USA. “Bay and Gladwin counties are among 74 Michigan counties designated as primary or contiguous natural disaster areas by the U.S. Department of Agriculture due to adverse weather conditions. All 31 counties in the First Congressional District received the designation.” A report said.
    Excessive snow and freeze (January), excessive rain (July 2009), flooding, flash flooding, hail, lightning, tornadoes and high winds (April to September 2009), drought (ongoing since May 2009), and early frost, freeze and excessive rainfall (ongoing since August 2009) prompted the natural disaster declarations, the report said.
  • Colorado, USA. Six counties in Colorado have been designated as primary natural disaster areas by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Fremont County due to frost and freezing temperatures (October 2009); Dolores, Mesa, Montezuma, Montrose, and San Miguel counties, drought (ongoing since April 2009). Vally Courier said.
  • Tahiti, French Polynesia. As forecast by Fire-Earth, Tropical Cyclone OLI destroyed or damaged hundreds of homes on Tahiti and left at least one person dead.
  • McKinley, New Mexico, USA. USDA designates McKinley as primary natural disaster area.
• Day Thirty-Seven
  • Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea (PNG). Cholera is spreading in Papua New Guinea (PNG), becoming a national public health concern, the government says, United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA) reported. “Since the first case was reported in August 2009, more than 2,000 cases have been confirmed nationwide, including 577 in Morabe Province, 885 in Madang and 602 East Sepik Province, the country’s National Department of Health reports [And] 45 people have died,” as of posting.
  • Port-au-Prince, Haiti. About 460,000 people remain in 315 spontaneous settlements throughout Port-au-Prince, according to International Organization for Migration (IOM). Despite thousands of military and non-military aid-workers, sanitation and vector control is becoming a major concern in many of the spontaneous settlements.
  • Peruvian Andes, Peru. The Government of Peru has declared a state of emergency in the Peruvian Andes after two weeks of heavy rains. “Livestock farmers in the central and southern regions of Apurimac, Ayacucho, Huancavelica, Puno and Cusco are in a serious crisis, according to FAO, as the rains threatened their means of livelihood. On Monday, Peru’s Civil Defence announced that some 37,000 people have been affected.” UN News Service reported. “According to the FAO, there are approximately 40,000 alpacas in need of urgent attention in the Canchis province of Cusco. Alpacas provide both meat and wool for the farmers in the region, and their survival is linked to keeping their herds alive.”
  • Washington DC, USA. After a major snowstorm paralyzed the US East Coast, Virginia, Maryland and District of Columbia declared states of emergency. As of posting, at least two people had reportedly been killed in Virginia.
• Day Thirty-Eight
  • Mexico City, Mexico. Death toll from severe and unseasonable winter rain, which have triggered floods and mudslides in Mexico reached 29. At least two dozen others were reported missing, presumed dead,  in the mudslides near Toluca, Mexico State. “A mix of drain water and sewage flowed into thousands of homes and blocked major thoroughfares in the metropolis of 20 million people. About 7,500 homes were flooded, prompting emergency personnel to ferry people from their homes through chest-high water.” AP reported.  “… at least 2,000 homes were damaged. The federal government declared three Michoacan townships disaster zones, opening access to relief funds.”
• Day Thirty-Nine
  • Mid-Atlantic, USA.Three days after the heaviest snowfalls in living memory hit the U.S. Mid-Atlantic, parts of the eastern United States remain mostly paralysed. Federal agencies and about 99% of the schools are shut. The authorities have advised people niot to venture outdoor. Up to a million homes are still without power; transport links between the capital and the nearby cities remain severely disrupted; forecasts warned of a new snowstorm which could strike the region by as early as Tuesday. There weer at least two reported deaths.
    Maryland saw a record 91cm (3ft) of snow, while Washington experienced up to 81cm (32in).
  • MIDDLETOWN, Connecticut, USA. At least 5 people were killed [the death toll could rise to 50 according to some local reports quoting the police]  and many others injurred when a gas-fired power plant exploded in MIDDLETOWN, Connecticut, USA.
  • SE Qld, Australia.  “The RSPCA estimates around 100 cattle and a large number of horses drowned in the Coomera River after the northern end of the Gold Coast received more than 360mm of rain in 24 hours over the weekend – the most intense day-long deluge in a century.” A report said. There were also two reported deaths.
    Heavy rain has caused additional flooding to areas already impacted by Tropical Cyclone Ellie which affected more than 3,000 homes.  “Ingham received another 236mm of rain which raised the floodwaters to over 12.5 metres.” The govt website said.
  • Los Angeles, Calif., USA. “More than 40 houses in La Canada Flintridge were mired in mud and at least nine were uninhabitable.” KESQ said.
  • Cali, Colombia. Colombian authorities declared a state of emergency in the  city of Cali, capital of western Cauca province, after an outbreak of hemorrhagic dengue killed at least nine people, the country’s health department said, Xinhua reported. “At least 1,247 dengue cases have been found in Cauca, and 162 of the victims are in a serious condition, said the Department of Health.”
• Day Forty
  • Afghanistan. Flash floods killed at least 20 people and destroyed hundreds of houses throughout Kandahar Province, southern Afghanistan, Afghan Red Crescent Society (ARCS) said. “Eleven others, including six women and one child, were killed by avalanches in Farah, Bamyan, Ghor and Daykundi provinces over the past four days, the Afghanistan National Disasters Management Authority said,” UNOCHA reported.
    Afghanistan is prone to disasters such as occupation by foreign militaries, floods, avalanches and drought.
  • Afghanistan. “Avalanches on a highway north of Kabul killed at least 15 and injured 55 on 8-9 February, according to the Ministry of Public Health (MoPH).
    “Passengers got trapped in their vehicles on either side of the Salang Tunnel, north of Kabul on 9 February.” UNOCHA said.
  • Afghanistan. According to AFP a total of 50 people were killed with another 135 injured. “Hundreds of mud-brick houses were destroyed in floods caused by heavy rain in southern Kandahar province.”
  • Islamabad, Pakistan. “Heavy rains in Pakistan killed 11 people over the past 24 hours, while a lake formed by an earthquake five years ago burst its banks and destroyed dozens of houses in the Pakistani part of the disputed Himalayan region of Kashmir, officials said Tuesday.” M&C reported.
  • Mexico. The death toll from flooding rose to 33. Up to 35,000 people have been affected, reports said. Contaminated water from a sewage network overflowed in Valle de Chalco, eastern suburbs of the Mexico City area,  affecting 3,000 homes, the government said.  Flooding in Mexico’s Michoacan state has left more than 3,500 families homeless, according to reports.
  • Zurite district, Peru. Mudslides destroyed up to  100  homes in Peru’s Zurite district.
• Day Forty-One
  • KABUL, Afghanistan — At least 17 avalanches triggered by heavy rain and strong winds aburied more than 3 km (2 miles of) ROAD at a “high-altitude pass in the Hindu Kush mountain range, entombing hundreds of cars and cutting off Kabul’s heavily traveled link to northern Afghanistan, officials said Tuesday.” NY Times reported.
    “Calculations of the death toll ranged widely, but official accounts said that at least 64 people were either known or feared dead and that the total could rise as rescuers dug their way to vehicles trapped under hundreds of tons of snow and ice.”
  • Florida, USA. The cost of the January freeze to Florida agriculture is put at $600 million dollars,  USDA reported.
  • Queensland, Australia. “Heavy rain and floods across Queensland have created so much damage that disaster relief funding is now being offered to 60 per cent of councils.”
  • The number of politically and ideologically motivated attacks on teachers, students and school buildings is rising, says the report Education Under Attack 2010, launched by UNESCO today.
• Day Forty-Two
  • DRC. Clashes between the Lobala and Boba ethnic groups has led to more than 200 deaths and forced at least 150,000 people (60 percent are children) to flee to neighboring Republic of Congo, the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) in their role as reporters said.
    “According to a December 2009 report by UN agencies in South Ubangi District, of which Dongo is the capital, the region has 1,085 primary schools with 251,383 children.
    “The area affected by displacement has 904 primary schools and 200,110 enrolled children. Schools in Dongo have been closed since November and in other areas since December after the population fled.”
  • Afghanistan. The death toll from avalanches in Afghanistan has reached 166, CCTV reported, with hundreds more still trapped in their cars.
    The number of injured has reached at least 130, AFP reported.
  • Aitutak, Cook Islands, S. Pacific. Cyclone PAT has damaged about 90 percent of the houses on the low-lying coral atoll of Aitutak with a population of 2,000 people, said Inspector Teri Pati of the National Disaster Management Center on Rarotonga, AP reported.
• Day Forty-Three
  • California, USA. “Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger today sent a letter to President Obama through FEMA Region IX Regional Administrator Nancy Ward requesting a disaster declaration for the state of California as a result of a series of winter storms that have brought high winds, copious amounts of precipitation statewide, and have caused the loss of human lives, injuries, flooding, severe mud and debris flows, and record breaking snow in the Big Bear Lake area of San Bernardino County. These events have destroyed and damaged public facilities and private property throughout the state, and continue to threaten the lives and safety of many Californians.” Valley News reported.
  • Afghanistan. The following flood damage has been reported: (a) Approximately 800-1,000 households affected (in Kandahar city and Daman and Dand districts – assessments ongoing), (b) 20 deaths, mainly from vehicles washed away (c) 100-200 houses destroyed (assessments ongoing), and (d) damage to infrastructure, livestock, and livelihoods still under assessment, UN OCHA reported.
  • West Virginia, USA. Gov. Manchin of West Virginia Requests Federal Disaster Declaration
  • Maryland, USA. “As Maryland gets pounded again with double-digit snowfalls, state officials are still waiting for a federal response to a disaster declaration request submitted by Gov. Martin O’Malley more than three weeks ago.” Report.
  • Iowa, USA. Iowa representatives ask president to approve disaster declaration requests.
  • Franklin County, Apalachicola, Florida, USA. USDA has declares Franklin County in Florida an Agricultural Disaster Area.
  • East Coast, USA. “Maryland lawmakers said the Obama administration agreed Wednesday to let the region’s governments apply for federal aid for the past two storms simultaneously, a move that would allow Maryland, Virginia and the District to seek more money and quicker reimbursement for the cleanup costs of both mammoth snowfalls.” Washington Post reported.
  • Montserrat island. A partial dome collapse at Sourfrière Hills volcano, which sent a plume 15,240 meters skyward, and sent pyroclastic flows some 300 to 400 meters out to sea, destroyed many buildings in the village of Harris north of Sourfrière Hills on the Montserrat island, NASA Earth Observatory reported.
• Day Forty-Four
  • Delaware, USA. “Gov. Jack Markell says he intends to seek a federal disaster declaration for Delaware after two snowstorm paralyzed the state.” Reports said.
    North Dakota. “27 North Dakota counties have reported damage from last month’s ice storm,” a report said.
  • South Dakota, USA. “The blizzards that blew through the Great Plains last month left more than 30,000 people on the Cheyenne River Sioux Reservation without power or water for more than a week.” Patty Fisher said.  “Many families still are without power and clean water. They are low on propane to heat their homes. They can’t afford supplies or repairs.”
  • Santa Fe, New Mexico, USA. “Gov. Bill Richardson has signed a disaster declaration for five northwestern New Mexico counties that were hit hard by recent snow storms. “  Reports said.
  • Peru. Many communities have been devastated by flooding and landslides which has followed nearly two months of heavy rain, which have claimed 7 lives, and destroyed homes to 9,000 people, said the Peruvian Civil Defense, the Plan reported.
  • La Paz, Bolivia. Parts of Bolivia are also experiencing extreme weather conditions which have caused floods and landslides near the capital La Paz, the report said.
  • Mongolia. Severe winter ‘dzud’ pushes most of Mongolia to disaster status, UNICEF reported.
  • Iraq. Provincial officials said US troops killed at least 10 civilians and injured another 5 in a raid. “The raid by American and Iraqi troops took place in Ali al-Sharqi, a village north of Amarra, some 200 miles southeast of Baghdad, the U.S. military said in a statement.”
• Day Fort-Five
  • Montgomery, Maryland, USA. “Berks and Montgomery counties declared their areas a disaster.” “According to a copy of the declaration issued by Berks, ‘emergency management measures are required to reduce the severity of this disaster and to protect the health, safety and welfare of affected residents in Berks County.’”
  • West Java, Indonesia. A flash flood in Bogor, West Java, inundated at least six residential complexes located along the Bekasi Rive. “Thousands of families living at Villa Nusa Indah, Pondok Mitra Lestari, Kemang Ivy, Pondok Gede Permai, and Jaka Sampurna housing complexes, Jati Asih sub district, were affected by the flash flood, Yusrizal, head of Bekasi`s waterway service, said here on Saturday.”
  • Pokot Central, Kenya. “Sixteen people have been hospitalized following a cholera outbreak in Chemyakow Village in Kositot Sub-location of Pokot Central District.”
  • New York, USA. CDC has reported more than 1500 cases of the mumps in New York and New Jersey areas since the start of the outbreak in June 2009. “The cases are predominately in the orthodox jewish community, 97 percent of them overall.”
• Day Forty-Six
  • Afghanistan. Two U.S. rockets struck a home in Afghanistan killing twelve civilians. Meanwhile NATO reported the deaths of two personnel, but did not disclose their nationalities, AP reported.
  • Belgium. Two Belgian trains crashed head-on, killing at least 20 passengers and injuring a reported  162 people, with at least 20 life-threatening injuries.
  • Saudi Arabia. At least six people have been killed, more than two dozens injured an up to a 100 others stranded in flash flooding in western Saudi Arabia following heavy rains over the weekend, news reports said.
  • Kashmir. 17 Indian troops were killed in a massive avalanche in Kashmir. ” The massive avalanche swamped a high altitude army warfare training school in Khilanmarg. The school is the Indian army’s primary institute for high altitude warfare training.” Reports said.
• Day Forty-Seven
  • New South Wales (NSW), Australia. The state government of NSW declared natural disaster zones in flooded regions of the South Coast and the far west of the state. “Later on Tuesday, the same declaration was also issued for the Central Darling and Cobar shires, in the far west, which had also been hit by torrential rain and flooding. “ AAP reported. “We haven’t got a final dollar estimate of the value of damage but there has been one bridge which has been completely washed away, a number of culverts damaged and there’s actually a number of people who are still isolated in areas, so that means there is water on roads and crossings,” NSW Emergency Services Minister Steve Whan said.
  • Bangladesh. “Nine months after losing their homes to a powerful cyclone, 200,000 Bangladeshis are living in ‘inhuman’ conditions on river embankments with no resolution in sight, aid groups said Tuesday.” AFP reported.
  • Indonesia. “At least 2,000 residents of Baleendah district in the West Java regency of Bandung have been staying in temporary shelters since a flood hit their homes about two weeks ago …  some of the displaced people had complained of diarrhea, flu, coughs and skin problems. … Despite the fresh flood, food supplies for the displaced people remain adequate, except for baby food… the flood victims were in need of clothes, medicines and women’s sanitary napkins.” The Jakarta Post reported.
  • HARGEISA, Somalia. “Officials in Somalia’s self-declared independent republic of Somaliland have appealed to the international community to provide humanitarian aid for hundreds of thousands of people, especially children, in the wake of prolonged drought.” IRIN reported.
    “The affected population is estimated at about 40 percent of Somaliland’s 3.5 million, which is equivalent to 1.4 million people,” Ali Ibrahim, Minister for Planning and National Aid Co-ordination, told IRIN.
• Day Forty-Eight
  • Washington DC, USA. President Obama has just announced $8.3 billion in loan guarantees to build the first U.S. nuclear power plant in 30 years, a move he may live to regret.
  • Buenos Aires. Argentina. A storm hit Buenos Aires with strong winds and heavy rains which triggered widespread flooding in Buenos Aires affecting many neighborhoods including Caballito, Almagro, La Paternal, Palermo, Belgrano, Villa Crespo and Parque Centenario. Many homes and businesses were destroyed or damaged by floodwaters and at least 50,000 customers were left without power Tuesday, Argentine utility officials said.
    “Monday’s storm also knocked out traffic signals, flooded one of the capital’s six Metro lines, clogged drains and left cars floating in flooded streets.” LAHT reported.
  • Virginia, USA. President Obama has declared the State of Virginia a federal disaster area following the recent snow storms, reports said.
  • South Africa. Vast areas of KwaZulu-Natal have been devastated by a storm late on Tuesday. “East Coast Radio Newswatch reported that some of the places being visited by [disaster assessment] officials include Durban, Mooi River, Kokstad, Pietermaritzburg and its surrounding areas.”
    “Rain is still persisting in parts of the province, and roads are flooded, which will put a strain on assessing the damage,” KwaZulu-Natal Disaster Management head, MthokoZisi Duze, told News24.
• Day Forty-Nine
  • North Dakota, USA. Gov. John Hoeven of has asked President Barack O.  to declare a federal disaster for 25 North Dakota counties and the Standing Rock Sioux Indian Reservation which were hit hard by an ice storm and blizzard late January,  Grand Forks Herald reported.
  • SoCal. USA. Federal disaster area declared for five counties hit by mudslides in southern California. The five counties are Los Angeles, San Bernardino, Kern, Ventura, and Orange counties, a report said.
  • Southern Italy. Some 2,300 residents of small town of Maierato in the Calabria region, southern Italy were evacuated, as an “apocalyptic” landslide triggered by heavy rainfall brought down an entire hillside burying the town under an avalanche of mud and rocks. There was no report of deaths or injuries, Xinhua said.
• Day Fifty:
  • Peshawar, Pakistan. An avalanche buried a village in northwestern Pakistan, destroying dozens of houses and leaving 52 people dead or missing, officials said. Rescuer teams have recovered 38 bodies, but there’s little hope for the 14 people still missing, AP reported.
  • Pakistan. Meanwhile, a deadly blast triggered by remote control killed at least 30 people and injured several others near a mosque at a market in Aka Khel area of Tirah Valley, Pakistan, a report said.
• Day Fifty-One
  • Meknes. Morocco. At least 36 people were killed and another 60 injured when a minaret collapsed at a mosque in the central town of Meknes, Morocco, officials said.
  • Upper Swat, Pakistan. About 100,000 people are affected by heavy snowfalls in Upper Swat and are in need of humanitarian assistance, OCHA reported.
  • Muzaffarabad. Pakistan. More than 1,400 people have been affected by the devastating floods in Muzaffarabad.
  • Maryland, USA. President Barrack O. has declared the counties of Baltimore, Caroline, Cecil, Harford, Howard, Kent, Montgomery, and Queen Anne’s in Maryland  federal disaster areas, following the damage done by a snowstorm in December.
  • North Carolina, USA. NC Governor Bev Perdue has requested the government declare a federal disaster for 13 counties including Pender and New Hanover, following damage caused by extreme rain and flooding, a report said.
  • Mogadishu, Somalia. Nearly 20,000 people have been uprooted from their homes in the Somali capital by renewed clashes between the forces of the Transitional Federal Government (TFG) and opposition groups since the start of February, the United Nations refugee agency reported today.
• Day Fifty-Two
  • Funchal, Madeira, Portugal. At least 32 people were killed and up to a 100 others injured on the island of Madeira after heavy storms brought a violent downpour to the Atlantic island, flooding the popular tourist destination, the local government reported Saturday.
  • Jarez, Spain. Heavy rains in the Spain’s southwest have cut off access to the city of Jerez, the authorities said, AP reported.
    Jerez airport has been closed with all the scheduled flights canceled.
    The highway linking the city and the surrounding sherry wine-making region to the rest of the country will remain closed until floodwaters recede, the Development Ministry said.
    Police is using inflatable boats to check areas where floodwaters covered the highway 2 meters  deep, as Spain’s railway authority RENFE said rail lines to Jerez and the port city of Cadiz were unusable due to flooding. “More than 1,500 rail users had been affected by delays or detours, it said.” China Post reported.
  • Tenerife, Canary Islands, Spain. Heavy storms caused flooding, leaving about ten thousand homes without electricity in the  Canary Islands, [another] major tourist destination, local authorities said, AFP reported.
• Day Fifty-Three
  • Funchal, Madeira, Portugal. The death toll from the flood disaster in Madeira reached 42. At least 120 people were injured and 240 other have lost their homes, Reuters reported. A number of people are still missing. A British tourist was among the dead, officials said.
  • Kansas, USA. Gov. Mark Parkinson is seeking a federal disaster declaration for 49 counties in Kansas hit by winter storms in December and early January, which caused an estimated $13 million in damage to roads, bridges and other infrastructure. Local media reported.
  • NSW, Australia. “THE New South Wales Government has declared the Parkes Shire a natural disaster area as a result of recent flooding.” Local Media reported.
  • The Philippines. El Niño has affected about 158,166 hectares (ha) of farmland in the Philippines destroying about 201,237MT of assorted crops valued at P2.84 billion. Of the affected farms, 35,360ha are palay fields with 56,696 MT of damaged crops valued at P963.84 million, while 122,748ha are corn fields with 144,359 MT of damaged crops worth P1.88 billion. Bussiness Mirror reported.
  • Below normal rainfall is threatening some 42,000 hectares of rice paddies in the region, with 11,000 already beyond recovery and another 21,250 damaged. The dry spell has also affected corn crops in other areas.
  • The country is importing 2.65 million MT of rice, mostly from Vietnam and Thailand “to boost efforts to secure the country’s food supply at the time of El Niño, the National Economic and Development Authority (Neda) has confirmed.”
  • Tonga. Cyclone Rene the struck Tonga has destroyed 57 houses and damaged another 136 on the island of Eua.
    On Tongatapu,  more than 70 homes were damaged or destroyed, but the damage on the island groups of Ha’apai and Vava’u has not yet been assessed, radio NZ reported.
  • China, southwestern provinces including Yunnan and Guizhou. “A total of 53.36 million Mu (about 3.56 million hectares) of crops in China had been affected by severe drought by Saturday, said the Office of State Flood Control and Drought Relief Headquarters.” China Daily reported.
    “The drought had also started to affect China’s northern regions, as several northern provinces had not seen rainfall for nearly 40 days with signs of drought showing up in farmlands.”
    “About 5.97 million people and 3.59 million livestock are suffering from water shortage.”
  • Syria. Over a million Syrians have been affected by drought. Some 300,000 families have fled eastern, northeastern Syria to search for work in urban areas,  Middle East online reported.
• Day Fifty-Four
  • West Java, Indonesia. At least four people have been killed and 40 are missing after a large landslide in West Java, Indonesia, buried an entire village, earlier today, officials say.  The village was located in a tea growing area in Ciwidey, about 150 kms (90 miles) southeast of the capital, Jakarta, Reuters reported.
    “It had been raining very heavily since yesterday [Monday] and that probably caused the landslide,” Disaster Management Agency spokesman told the AFP news agency.
    “We believe the landslide area could be the size of two football fields. The tea-processing plant and 50 houses were also buried.”
  • Lima, Peru. Two buses crashed head-on along a highway in northeast Peru yesterday, killing at least 38 people and injuring 58, police said, AP reported.
  • Afghanistan. “U.S. Special Operations Forces ordered an airstrike that killed at least 27 civilians in southern Afghanistan and the soldiers may not have satisfied rules of engagement designed to avoid the killing of innocents, Afghan and coalition officials said Monday.” WSJ reported.
    Meanwhile, a suicide bomber killed a tribal Afghan leader and 13 other people in an eastern province on the Pakistan border, police was quoted as saying.
• Day Fifty-Five
  • Kirundo, Burundi. “Failed rains in northern Burundi have left tens of thousands of people needing food aid and prompted many to seek work in neighbouring Rwanda to earn enough to feed their families. Some 35,710 households (about 180,000 people) in Kirundo province require food and seeds, according to government officials and UN agencies, who last week visited the province.” OCHA said.
  • West Java, Indonesia. The death toll from the massive mudslide in West Java climbed as search teams found 15 bodies, up to 70 others believed buried, and hundreds displaced.
  • Northern Italy. “An oil spill that fouled a small river in northern Italy reached the Po River on Wednesday, with officials warning of an ecological disaster as they scrambled to contain the spill before it contaminated Italy’s longest and most important river.” AP reported.
  • Provinces of Córdoba, Jaén and Seville, Spain. Some 1,500 people have been evacuated after more than 400 homes were flooded in the Spanish provinces of Córdoba, Jaén and Seville. “Water levels in the Guadalquivir, which runs through the cities of Córdoba and Seville, have reached their highest point in 40 years. The river has burst its banks in several places.” A report said.
• Day Fifty-Six
  • Gao, Mali. “In pastoral areas of Timbuktu and Gao, particularly in the Gourma area, where livestock from both regions concentrate during the dry season, pastoral conditions were poor in 2008/09, resulting in below-normal animal body conditions, market value, reproduction, and milk production. The delay of the rainy season in 2009 also caused unusually high losses of livestock in August. Rains in 2009 were worse for a second consecutive season. Despite Mali’s national cereal production surplus, the hunger season will start early for poor and very poor pastoral and agropastoral households in these areas, who will be highly food insecure from February/March until July/August 2010. The government’s capacity to respond effectively to the situation remains unclear.” Famine Early Warning System Network (FEWS NET) said.
  • East Nusa Tenggara, Indonesia. “Six regencies in East Nusa Tenggara (NTT) face food crises due to prolonged drought and pest attacks, an official said.” Drought and pests have affected regional food supplies. “Five of the six regencies – South Timor Tengah, Alor, Rote Ndao, East Sumba and Lembata regencies – are believed to be in critical condition.” Jakarta Post reported.
  • Lake Tanganyika, Zambia. Nine people were killed and more than 30 families were left homeless in northern Zambia after a cliff on the Lake Tanganyika coast collapsed burying their fishing camps, the local member of parliament was reported as saying. Zambia has seen unusually heavy rains this year, with some parts of the capital Lusaka flooded, AFP reported.
  • South Dakota, USA. Gov. Mike Rounds has asked for a presidential disaster declaration for 29 counties and three reservations, as well as private aid for seven counties and two reservations in South Dakota, a report said.
• Day Fifty-Seven
  • Iowa, USA. President B.O. has declared the following counties in Iowa as major disaster areas: Counties of Adair, Audubon, Calhoun, Carroll, Cass, Cherokee, Clay, Crawford, Emmet, Franklin, Fremont, Guthrie, Harrison, Ida, Monona, Page, Pottawattamie, Sac, Shelby, Sioux, and Woodbury, due to Dec. 23-Dec. 27 snow storm.  The National Weather Service said Iowa has so far experienced up to  three times as much snow as in previous years, AP reported.
  • Kabul, Afghanistan. “Taliban fighters opened fire, hurled grenades and staged suicide bombings in central Kabul on Friday, killing at least 16,” Reuters reported.  Among the dead were to diplomat, one of them from Italy and the other
  • Mexico. More than 50 people have been killed in Mexico in the past few days, bringing the drug related death toll to more than 15,000 since 2006.
  • Burkina Faso. “Health officials in the west African country of Burkina Faso are worried about an increase in deaths from meningitis which has killed 246 people so far this year, up from 203 in the same period last year,” Reuters reported.
  • Mozambique. Preliminary findings from the ongoing assessment of the Vulnerability Assessment Group (GAV) from the Technical Secretariat for Food Security and Nutrition (SETSAN) indicate that 460,000 people will need food assistance from April 2010 to March 2011. This is an increase of 64 percent from the October 2009 assessment that determined 281,000 people would need assistance between October 2009 and March 2010. Government agencies and SETSAN are now activating and updating their contingency planning to mitigate the negative impacts of the drought.
  • Mongolia. More than 2.7 million livestock carcasses pose a serious health threat to the Mongolian people . “Mongolia’s bitter winter has blanketed much of the country in deep snow and killed at least 2.7 million heads of livestock, posing health risks once the snow melts,” the UNDP said, Reuters reported.  ”Most of these areas don’t have running water or access to sanitation anyway and these carcasses need to be cleaned up as quickly as possible so we have less disease,” Rana Flowers, UNICEF representative in Ulan Bator, said earlier this month. The government says another three million livestock will die before the cold weather ends in June. Right now about 70 percent of Mongolia is covered in up to half a meter of snow, making grazing impossible for the country’s herds of  camels, cows, goats, horses, sheep and yaks.
  • OMAHA, Neberask, USA. “Douglas County and more than a dozen other counties have officially been declared disaster areas after this winter’s record-setting snowstorms buried area budgets. The snow, especially the blizzard that hit on Christmas, exhausted many local communities, mentally, physically and financially.” A report said.
• Day Fifty-Eight
  • Maule, Chile. A megaquake measuring 8.8 Mw struck Maule, Chile killing at least 80 people, as of posting, and destroying buildings, bridges, rods and other infrastructure. The quake also generated a destructive tsunami.
• Day Fifty-Nine
  • Chile. The death toll from the Chile megaquake and the tsunami generated by it reached 309 and was rising, as of posting. The M8.8 quake released about 180 times more energy than the recent Haiti quake (estimated at 7.3Mw with a about twenty thousand people killed or injured). Chilean government  declared 6 regions as “zones of catastrophe.” For detailed information see Chile Earthquake and Tsunami Update 1 (28 Feb).
  • Haiti. Heavy rain triggered floods in Haiti, killing about a dozen people.  About a million Haitians are still homeless after January’s earthquake which killed or injured about twenty thousand people.  [There’s ZERO evidence to suggest the figure of 230,000 dead, manufactured by the international charity/aid mafia (aided by the permanently embedded presstitutes), is even remotely plausible. See Haiti Earthquake Disaster ]
  • France, Portugal and Spain. Powerful storms have buffeted the three European countries, killing at least twenty people, causing damage to property and prompting the authorities to declare “red” and “orange” alerts in many regions.
    A violent storm, named Xynthia,  hit France’s north-east, killing 15 people, and is now moving to Belgium and Luxembourg.  A report said. The storm also cut off power to more than 1 million homes.

Related Links:

• The First Wave of World’s Collapsing Cities
• Index of Human Impact on Nature (HIoN) March 2008
• 2010: The Year of Disasters
• Earth’s Human Induced Antiphase Nears Completion

“The antiphase will rapidly transform humans into vicious animals, fighting each other for water, food, fuel, land and all other dwindling natural resources. The fighting, in turn, enhances the positive feedbacks, accelerating the downward spiral.” —EDRO

Note: IF the numbers of fatalities/casualties in a given disaster are claimed to be larger than a few hundreds, and no video or photographic evidence is presented to support the claim, those figures should be carefully analyzed. Governments and aid organizations invariably exaggerate the casualty figures to maximize the inflow of aid and donations for self-serving purposes and interests other than those of the victims. See footnote at https://feww.wordpress.com/earthquake/haiti-earthquake-disaster/

Disaster Calendar 2010 is Copyright of Fire-Earth Blog Authors. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.