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Displaying 45 of about 285 resultsHurricanes Irma, Harvey and Maria may be over, but the devastating impact they had on the countries in their path continues, likewise the effects of successive earthquakes in Mexico, said senior United Nations officials Tuesday, calling for more action at all levels to manage disaster and climate risk and to prepare for future extreme weather events.
A…
By Andrea Elyse Messer
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — Flooding in Texas and again in Louisiana, a category 5 hurricane in the Atlantic hammering Caribbean islands and Florida and, of course, memories of Sandy and Katrina place extreme weather events like hurricanes and the flooding, storm surge and winds that accompany them in the minds of people in the storms…
By Sen Jan, Yiing Jang Yang, Hung-I Chang, Ming-Huei Chang, and Ching-Ling Wei
Two recently deployed ocean data buoys got a real test of their abilities last July when category 5 “super typhoon” Nepartak’s center passed within a few kilometers of where they were moored. This meeting was no accident: the buoys were specifically designed to record…
When most people think of hurricanes, they think of mighty storm surges pounding coastal communities. But a team of researchers who studied 28 hurricanes from 2001 to 2014 found that freshwater flooding, sometimes thousands of miles inland, can cause even greater destruction.
“The number of insured residential losses from freshwater flooding is twice a…
The Mahanadi delta and Kosi-Gandak floodplains in India are home to millions of farmers and fishers who used to benefit from the dynamic and nutrient rich floods within the landscape. Dams and dykes have led to the fragmentation of water regimes, and in the coastal region the mangrove ecosystems are highly degraded or even lost. This leaves communities…
By Ralph Jennings
Typhoon Nesat tore across Taiwan Saturday night with little impact aside from localized flooding and a slew of injuries. The same storm in another part of the world easily could have killed dozens or more. Tropical Storm Talas, with winds weaker than those that blew across this island, killed 14 people in Vietnam earlier in the month,…
By Sameh Wahba and Swarna Kazi
This is the second of a three-part series, "Resilience in the of the Eye of the Storm," on how Bangladesh has become a leader in coastal resilience.
With a population of 160 million, Bangladesh is situated at the epicenter of some of the deadliest cyclones the world has ever experienced. Catastrophic events are the norm…
Manila, Philippines — Unabated climate change would bring devastating consequences to countries in Asia and the Pacific, which could severely affect their future growth, reverse current development gains, and degrade quality of life, according to a report produced by the Asian Development Bank (ADB) and the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Rese…
By Sameh Wahba and Swarna Kazi
This blog is the first of a series on how Bangladesh has become a leader in coastal resilience.
While flying along the coast of Bangladesh earlier this year, I saw from the sky a vast, serene delta landscape, crisscrossed by innumerable rivers and contoured paddy fields.
Nonetheless, I was aware that this apparent quiet…
BY THEA WILLIAMS
It’s a catastrophe in anyone’s book, not least those of insurance companies anticipating the tens of thousands of claims likely to be lodged.
As the floods surged south in the days after Cyclone Debbie hit landfall near Bowen in north Queensland on March 28, a natural disaster was declared in five major centres in northern New South W…
A series of explosions at a chemical plant in Texas following severe flooding caused by Hurricane Harvey highlight the risk of extreme weather-related industrial accidents and the urgent need to strengthen efforts for prevention and preparedness.
The explosions, which were caused by the loss of refrigeration to a warehouse storing highly volatile and e…
By Adam Nagourney and Jess Bidgood
LOS ANGELES — Cities across the country that live with the threat of disaster — from earthquakes in San Francisco to hurricanes in Miami — are anxiously watching the catastrophe unfolding in Houston for lessons learned, cautionary tales, anything to soften the blow when their residents are the ones in danger.
“We kno…
Precipitation extremes – in terms of both excess and deficient rainfall - has caused serious disruption with widespread socio-economic impacts in many countries in recent weeks.
Here is a glance at some of the high-impact events:
Asia
As a result of torrential monsoon rains, almost 41 million people have been affected by flooding and landslides in Ba…
By Laura Bassett
NEW ORLEANS ― Twelve years after Hurricane Katrina became the worst natural disaster in U.S. history, New Orleans is still struggling with infrastructure issues that make it difficult to stave off floods. As the city scrambles to fix its broken water pumps for the remnants of Hurricane Harvey, engineers are working with the Dutch gover…
By Sonja Ayeb-Karlsson
The death toll of Bangladesh’s brutal monsoon season keeps growing. Authorities estimate that flooding has killed at least 120 people and affected some 5 million others since mid-July.
Disasters are a common phenomenon in Bangladesh, where about 220 reported events have occurred since 1980. The fertile country is situated on the…