March 18, 2016

What happened this week?

Chile. National summary and wildfires update: As of March 13, 2016, it was reported at the national level: 16 active fires in 4 regions, an area of 941 hectares of vegetation has been affected; 66 fires controlled and extinguished in 8 regions with 4,851 hectares of vegetation loss. Currently there are no reports of deaths or injuries or displaced population... Read more

Brazil. 21 dead due to floods and landslides in the region of São Paulo: A rainstorm and subsequent flooding has affected the metropolitan region of São Paulo in São Paulo state since March 12, 2016. At least 21 deaths, as well as dozens of injured were reported by authorities. Some of the deaths and injuries resulted from landslides in the municipalities of Mairiporã and Itapevi and the city of Francisco Morato... Read more

Ecuador. Flooding in the Napo province: Twelve hours of heavy rainfall in Napo province caused four rivers to overflow and flood homes on March 13, 2016. 20 families were relocated into shelters while 20 other families stayed with relatives... Read more

United States. Floods South Central U.S.

• Heavy rains and severe weather caused flooding in eastern TX, LA, southern AR, and parts of MS on March 13, 2016.
• In Louisiana, nearly 18 thousand voluntary evacuations were registered statewide; evacuations were along the Sabine River. As of March 14, 2014 there were 3 confirmed deaths; 252 persons have been housed in 16 shelters. Road closures have been widespread due to flooding.
• In Mississippi, 649 homes were impacted by the floods of which 200 were severely damaged. As of March 14, 2016 5 shelters were open with 29 occupants. In Tennessee, 7 homes were evacuated and 1 confirmed fatality.
• In Texas, More than 400 homes flooded and 7 shelters open with 112 occupants as of March 15, 2016, 4 injuries and 1 missing. The Governor has issued an Emergency Proclamation for 17 counties. Mandatory/voluntary evacuations are in effect for Orange County and Deweyville due to flood waters... Read more

Bolivia. 

• The effects of El Nino since it began in November 2015: Severe weather brought on by El Niño has affected 60,000 people in Bolivia and left 19 people dead from November 2015 to Mach 15, 2016, according to the Defense Minister. In addition, 31,000 hectares (76, 603 acres) of crops and 15, 800 livestock have been affected, as reported by the Civil Defense. Currently, the government is focusing on humanitarian assistance... Read more
• Heavy rainfall and hail storm caused power outages and damaged a hospital in Cochabamba Department: A hailstorm followed by heavy rainfall on March 13, 2016 destroyed crops in the municipality of Quillacollo and caused flooding in the towns of Ironcollo and Marquina in the department of Cochabamba. The events caused power outages to some villages and damaged the roof and hospital equipment of a health center in Marquina... Read more

Interesting Facts

Using statistics to predict rogue waves. Scientists have developed a mathematical model to derive the probability of extreme waves. This model uses multi-point statistics, the joint statistics of multiple points in time or space, to predict how likely extreme waves are... Read more


What's new in Disaster Risk Reduction?

Mexico to host 2017 Global Platform for Disaster Risk Reduction. The National Coordinator of Civil Protection of Mexico, Mr. Luis Felipe Puente, and the head of the UN Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNISDR), Mr. Robert Glasser, today announced that Mexico will host the next global conference on how to reduce loss of life and economic losses from disasters caused by man-made and natural hazards, the most important multilateral forum in its kind... Read more

World salutes Sendai Framework. The international community today celebrated the first anniversary of the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction, the world’s most comprehensive blueprint for curbing the impact of natural and man-made hazards, with 20 million people taking to social media to mark the occasion... Read more

March 11, 2016

What happened this week?

Paraguay. Families affected by floods from the Paraná River: To date, 120 families in Ciudad del Este, department of Alto Paraná that were affected are being forced to leave their homes. A shelter has been enabled; the remaining families are staying with relatives and in other temporary shelters... Read more

Honduras. Homes affected by strong winds: More than 50 homes were damaged as a result of hurricane-force winds which occurred on the evening of March 7, 2016 in several areas in the department of El Paraíso, in the eastern region of the country. COPECO and municipal authorities performed damaged assessment on affected homes... Read more

Bolivia. Heavy rain caused flooding in El Puente: Heavy rainfall caused the overflowing of the Grande River, which affected more than 10,000 hectares (24,711 acres) in the municipality of El Puente as of March 7... Read more

Argentina. More than 4,000 affected by flooding in Chaco Parana: Flooding due to the rising of the Parana River resulted in the evacuation of more than 4,000 people in the north eastern Province of Chaco, primarily from Cerrito Island (1,086) and Puerto Vilelas (2,000) as of March 7, 2016. Humanitarian assistance has been provided to the affected...

Read more

United States. Severe storms affect Southern Plains/ Lower Mississippi Valley: Severe thunderstorms moved across northern Texas causing locally significant damage between March 8 and 9, 2016. The storms affected four states (TX, LA, AR, and OK). In Texas there was a preliminary report of three EF-1 tornadoes in north Texas, several homes and businesses damaged near Dallas, one unconfirmed fatality and three injuries reported. Near Denton, 6 children were trapped in a school bus. 30 homes (approximately 50 people) were evacuated in Haughton, LA due to flooding... Read more

Ecuador. 5 communities isolated due to overflowing of Bulubulu River: Five communities in Guayas province were isolated the morning of March 7, 2016 after the overflowing of the Bulubulu River. Relief agency members are trying to build a retention wall in Taura and thus access 800 isolated families. The overflow caused a meter and a half of water to accumulate, also inundating hundreds of hectares of farmland. In Duran, relief agencies are trying to gain access to two communities that have been isolated... Read more

Interesting Facts

Another Earthquake in Port-au-Prince, Haiti? Haiti’s densely populated greater Port-au-Prince area is seismically more active than previously thought, and there will be another earthquake there. It is impossible to predict when this will happen. A study by a team of French scientists helps to understand that some exceptional forces caused Haiti’s extremely destructive magnitude-7.0 earthquake on January 12, 2010 and that there is continuing seismic risk to the city of Port-au-Prince and its surroundings... Read more

Tornado forecast system shows promise. Researchers say they've come up with a way to predict the likelihood of tornadoes two or three weeks in advance... Read more

What's new in Disaster Risk Reduction?

UNISDR head calls for more women in disaster risk reduction. “Women play an important role in advancing disaster risk reduction policies and we want to see more of them engaged in disaster management,” Mr. Robert Glasser, Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General for Disaster Risk Reduction,said, as the world marks International Women’s Day... Read more

March 4, 2016

30 years after disaster, Colombian sisters are reunited

Lorena Santos was talking to her long-lost sister, Jaqueline Vásquez Sánchez, 39. The two were separated in the city of Armero 30 years ago by a volcanic eruption that took the lives of their parents and thousands of others in one of Colombia's greatest catastrophe... Read more 

What happened this week?

Peru. 

• Arequipa: Agricultural and livestock sectors registered losses of 150 Soles due to drought and rainfall: Due to the absence of rains in January and early February 2016, crops were affected in different valleys of Caylloma, Arequipa and Islay causing a loss of 100 million Soles. Meanwhile, the heavy rains during the middle of the region in recent weeks collapsed agricultural infrastructure and caused losses of at least 50 million Soles. 10 km of irrigation canals were affected and 100 water intakes and kilometers of coastal defenses were lost to mudslides and overflowing rivers... Read more
• Piura: 6 children died due to thermal shock: Authorities are investigating the deaths of six children under two, possibly due to heat shock syndrome because of a heat wave in Piura as of March 1, 2016. The deaths were recorded in the last 15 days in the Santa Rosa hospital... Read more
• Heavy rainfall in the Provinces of Azángaro, Huancane and Putina, Puno Department: Houses, agricultural fields and educational centers were affected by floods due to heavy rainfall and subsequent overflow of the San Jose and Surupampa rivers in Azángaro, Huancané and San Antonio de Putina provinces from February 26-27, 2016. A total of 274 families lost their homes, 219 were affected, and 1098 areas of agricultural fields were affected in Puno department... Read more

Nicaragua. Momotombo Volcano generates strong eruption: INETER reported that the Momotombo volcano erupted on February 27, 2016, ejecting incandescent material. Residents in Corinto, El Viejo and Chichigalpa, Chinandega as well as others in the city of Leon reported feeling rumbling, which may have been caused by the eruption. The community of Momotombo in La Paz Centro reported ash fall... Read more

Ecuador. Heavy rainfall causes flooding of El Macho Canal: Heavy rainfall caused 32 families to evacuate their flooded homes due to the overflowing of the El Macho canal on February 26, 2016. Affected families (236 people) from four cities within the El Oro Province were sent to temporary shelters as of February 28, 2016... Read more

Bolivia. Authorities declared emergency and natural disaster area Heavy rains that began on February 25, 2016 will continue until March 6, 2016. It was reported that snowfall in the Apolobamba Mountain range and floods affected 2, 500 families in 31 communities in Escoma, province of Camacho (La Paz), as well as 5,455 hectares of crops. According to officials, the fields of crops can take up to six months to dry. Meanwhile, in Vallegrande, department of Santa Cruz, due to the constant rainfall, there have been landslides on roads and a risk of losing crops... Read more

Haiti. Flooding leaves one dead and thousands of homes flooded: One person has died in the southwestern department of Grand-Anse and four others are missing due to flooding that hit Haiti leaving at least 9,600 homes under water, officials said on February 29, 2016. The floods were caused by heavy rainfall on February 28, 2016. In the city of Cap-Haitien, along the northern coast, approximately 8, 100 homes were flooded. Another 1,530 residences were flooded in the community of Limonade about 15 km (10 mi) to the east of Cap-Haitien. Emergency plan for setting up shelters was not activated, meaning those affected by the flooding have to seek shelter elsewhere... Read more

Argentina. More than 250 evacuees after flooding of Gastona River: In the cities of Concepción and Arcadia, due to heavy rains during the weekend of February 26, 2016, nearly 220 people, including 110 children were evacuated to shelters. A medical mobile unit and care facilities were set up in the shelters, which provided care in coordination with the Concepción Hospital and the network of primary health care centers and other government entities... Read more

Interesting Facts

Research project could help earlier predict tornadoes. VORTEX-Southeast is a groundbreaking project to study severe storms in the Southeast and why some produce tornadoes and some don't... Read more

What's new in Disaster Risk Reduction?

I International Course on Vulnerability and Design of Adaptation Measures to Climate Change in areas Marine-Coastal. The objective of the course is promote and catalyze the change towards the integration of concepts of adaptation to climate change in marine-coastal zones and its relation to the livelihoods of the population... Read more

Women the future of disaster risk reduction. Women and girls need to be at the core of disaster risk reduction, given that they often bear the brunt of climate change and hazards such as storms and floods... Read more