April 7, 2017

What happened this week?

Canada. Three municipalities in southwestern Manitoba declared local states of emergency due to overland flooding in their regions. The rural municipalities of Two Borders declared the state of emergency late Thursday, while the municipalities of Dufferin and La Broquerie followed suit on Friday...Read more

Colombia. Reports of the exact number of those killed in the rugged, remote area vary. The Colombian military said at least 254 are dead and around 400 more injured. The Red Cross reports 234 deaths and said that 158 people were missing. A police officer was among the victims, federal officials said...Read more

Mexico.

1. After seven hours, 100 elements of Civil Protection, the Fire Department and the Secretary of Public Security of the delegation of Xochimilco, managed to extinguish the fire reported that affected 10 hectares...Read more
2. A fire on the Tepopote hill in Zapopan this afternoon mobilizes the fire corporations of that municipality, Guadalajara and forest brigade. The Environment and Territorial Development Secretariat (Semadet) specifies that the forest fire is outside the Protected Natural Area of ​​La Primavera Forest...Read more

United States.

1. A tornado flipped a mobile home Sunday in Louisiana, killing a mother and her 3-year-old daughter as a storm system with hurricane-force winds crawled across the Deep South, damaging homes and businesses. Parts of Arkansas and Mississippi were also under a threat of tornadoes, but the bullseye was on much of Louisiana...Read more
2. Fire crews battled a brush fire that burned roughly 26 acres in Mojave Narrows Park Thursday as authorities arrested an arson suspect in the area. Fire quickly spread due to light grass and heavy winds...Read more
3. NWS estimates 20 tornadoes touched down in Georgia Monday. Crews have been working nearly round the clock cleaning the mess left by the tornado that churned through Carrollton, tearing the roof off a fire station in a long path of destruction...Read more

Interesting Facts

Flood-drought cycle can deteriorate drinking water. The findings, published in the journal Biogeochemistry, indicate that "whiplash weather," in which weather veers from drought to flood, for example, will lead to changes in farm production, with particular concern about how it will affect fertilizer use...Read more

Mocoa, the endless tragedy of Colombia. Mocoa is one of those cities of Colombia that gathers all the evils that prevent this country from getting rid of the label of chronic inequality. The Saturday landslide that killed 250 people is just one more chapter of the black history of this region of Putumayo plagued by poverty, the violence of more than half a century of conflict and the cruelty of nature...Read more

Water shortages expected in New Mexico. In all but one corner of New Mexico, water managers are projecting shortages in drinking and irrigation supplies given expected demand and variability in rainfall over the next few decades...Read more

What's new in Disaster Risk Reduction?

Disaster resilience: top issue for tourist trade. In a nation where tourism represents close to one-tenth of the economy, the issue of Mexico’s hotel trade’s resilience to natural hazards is top of the list. It’s fitting that Cancun is hosting the 2017 Global Platform for Disaster Risk Reduction next month, given that all 175 of the Caribbean resort’s hotels are built to withstand a category 3 hurricane...Read more

Local, strategic and economic: a recipe for risk reduction. Local governments, strategic thinking and the economic bottom line are driving forces of efforts to curb the impacts of natural and human-induced hazards. Delegates at the European Forum for Disaster Risk Reduction put the focus on a 2020 target for having national and local risk strategies in place, set by the international community two years ago...Read more

Palestinian task force seeks to improve disaster management. Palestine will start preparing a risk analysis study and a national disaster risk management strategy in early 2018. In the second half of the year, a risk map will be established for Palestine for the coming years...Read more

Turkey tackles earthquake risk. The lamp in the classroom begins to sway. The desks start to shake. If you’ve never faced an earthquake, Turkey’s AFAD national disaster management authority can give you a taste. “This is based on real experiences,” said Mr. Zekeriya Ozturk, information officer for AFAD’s simulator truck, at the European Forum for Disaster Risk Reduction...Read more