Update

Groupama, 1er assureur des communes, va équiper les 18 000 communes assurées d’un dispositif de prévention du risque d’inondation sans équivalent à ce jour, grâce au partenariat exclusif signé avec Predict Services, filiale de Méteo France...

'JMA continues issuing forecasts and warnings as usual. Although we have some troubles with AWS, seismometers and tide gauges in Tohoku and surrounding areas due to the earthquake and tsunami, so far we have no major problems in issuing warnings/advisories/information on earthquakes, tsunamis and severe weather.' said Mitsuhiko Hatori Director-General of JMA in a statement...

The loss of life was likely limited by two vital early warning technologies: a new earthquake alert system, and ocean-based tsunami warning system, says Will Knight from MIT, providing an explanation of both warning systems...

'This hits probably what I would consider the best prepared country in the world for earthquake preparedness,' says Stephane Rondenay, a geophysicist at MIT, referring to the recent devastating earthquake in Japan. 'No matter what you do, you will have damage. There is uncertainty in earthquake engineering.'...

SMS-CB, a technology being tested and implemented around the world may mean that more people could receive faster warnings in times of widespread disaster, without the phone lines and cell networks overloading reports John Moe on Marketplace Tech Report from APM...

As the world watches the disaster in Japan unfold, Barry Scanlon, president of the emergency preparedness firm Witt Associates, explains to Steve Chiotakis of American Public Media, how the U.S. would handle an earthquake similar to Japan's...

'It is true that 25% of our buildings are not compliant with standards for a 7.0-magnitude earthquake and they could crumble,' admitted Under-Secretary Benito T. Ramos, National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council executive director during a radio interview yesterday, reports BusinessWorld...

'Irrespective of climate change, we know how to reduce the number of people dying in earthquakes', writes Ilan Kelman of the Center for International Climate and Environmental Research in Oslo, exploring the potential connections between earthquakes and climate change. 'It is time to look more closely at human decisions that create and perpetuate vulnerability over the long-term.'...

Vice Mayor Arquillano of San Francisco town, Camotes Islands, was selected to lead town mayors implement the '10 essentials for making cities resilient', part of the world disaster reduction campaign, signed last January but the Regional Disaster Coordinating Council in Central Visayas says they lack disaster reduction and management tools, reports The Inquirer...

The 'school safety programme has been critical in raising awareness' says G. Padmanabhan, emergency analyst at the United Nations Development Programme in New Delhi in a report by Maitreyee Handique for GeoHazards International. 'Worldwide, the stress now is on prevention by identifying risks and acting on it.'...