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