May 20, 2017

What happened this week?

Jamaica. The country has been hit by widespread flooding and a flash-flood warning has been issued for ten parishes, according to media reports...Read more

United States.

1.     A shallow magnitude 4.0 earthquake was reported Wednesday evening 76 miles from Petrolia, Calif., according to the U.S. Geological Survey...Read more

2.     An outbreak of severe thunderstorms with tornadoes, large hail and wind damage was expected across parts of the southern and central Plains into the overnight hours…Read more

3.     A flooding, brought on by torrential downpours, was mostly reported in the city's East Ward of Newark, N.J. Emergency responders, some using a boat and amphibious vehicle, rescued 29 people stranded by flood waters…Read more

4.     A series of storms throughout the eastern part of the Texas Panhandle produced four tornadoes that were spotted Tuesday afternoon and caused heavy damage in some parts of Wheeler County…Read more

5.     The USGS recorded a magnitude 4.2 quake at 4:32 a.m. Saturday near Waynoka, about 150 miles (241.39 kilometers) northwest of Oklahoma City…Read more

6.     The North Port brush fire grows to more than 3,000 acres, forcing portions of I-75 to remain closed overnight…Read more

Interesting Facts

Flooding in Canada is a big problem, but few Canadians know they're at risk: study. Nearly all of the 2,300 people surveyed for a new University of Waterloo study did not know or weren't sure that they lived in a designated flood risk area. Almost 90 per cent were unaware that their home was in an area vulnerable to flooding...Read more

 “Time to Build” Flood Resilient Infrastructure. The lower Midwest is still recovering after severe flooding swept through the region in early May. While the chances of multiple major floods happening in a relative short time span is a possibility, climate change is loading the dice in favor of making such occurrences all too common. Bad news for infrastructure...Read more

What's new in Disaster Risk Reduction?

Caribbean region aims to integrate gender equality in disaster risk management in the agriculture sector. In an effort to strengthen the resiliency of communities to disasters in the Caribbean, 25 representatives from 12 countries across the region are participating in a regional training workshop for integrating gender equality in disaster risk management programming for the agriculture sector...Read more

China reaffirms disaster risk cooperation commitment. China’s Minister of Civil Affairs has reaffirmed his country’s commitment to increasing international cooperation to address the common challenge of disasters...Readmore

How cities are helping lead the world’s disaster risk reduction efforts. With over half of the world’s population living in urban environments, the actions of city leaders and local stakeholders could prove to be powerful agents of change in achieving the goals of the Sendai Framework to build meaningful resilience and disaster risk reduction across the globe...Read more

UNDP & the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction. UNDP’s disaster risk reduction (DRR) efforts help countries achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by both delivering and protecting development gains from the impacts of disasters and climate change. By working with governments and partners towards ‘risk-informing’ national, local and sectoral development planning processes...Read more