Typhoon Usagi Hits Southern China, the Philipines, Taiwan and Hong Kong

According to The Guardian news source, “an average of 20 typhoons hit the Philippines ever year. In 2011, typhoon Washi killed 1,200 people, destroyed more than 10,000 homes and displaced a further 300,000 residents. Bopha, the strongest storm to hit last year, flattened three coastal towns on the southern island of Mindanao, killing 1,100 people and destroyed crops, property, and infrastructure." (Source)

This year, forecasters predicted what was first called a super typhoon. It had winds up to 127 mph and after passing between the Philippines and Taiwan, was set to hit Hong Kong, with a strong chance of it hitting southern China. It started out with winds past 150 mph, but those winds started calming down to winds mostly around 109 mph, so it was then classified as a severe typhoon.

I believe that due to the storms in the past few years, the government and people of the Philippines have learned how to better deal with this kind of hazard. Before the storm hit, they began evacuating northern coastal villages, suspending ferry services and called in fishing boats. They made preparatory emergency response procedures in southern areas and also sent storm alerts to many of the provinces in parts of the Philippines. They cut off power and communications, hospitals prepared for a possible influx of patients and they began stocking up on food and water. Hong Kong and China began shutting down flights and shipping, as well as travel between China and Taiwan. Fishing boats were asked by the Guangdong (a southern Chinese province) asked fishing boats to head in, as well as in Shanwei, and other provinces also took precautionary measures by evacuating their citizens.

I think that all these procedures are a really good example of knowing people knowing what kind of hazard-prone areas they live in and setting up warning systems, evacuation, and reactionary plans to those hazards. It is, I believe, a crucial step in minimizing not only financial damages but also, and most importantly, human losses. As we learned in the Disaster Simulation game, putting in warning systems greatly helped prevent loss of life.

However, more precautionary measures could have been taken, in my opinion. Though the typhoon itself didn't kill too many people, the winds and rain increased an already heavy monsoon season in that region, and created a surplus of landslides that hit several towns in the Philippines  which then ended up killing a total of around 47 people. I feel like, knowing how this kind of season works, things could have been done to the land most likely to create a landslide, lands that were probably already very steep and with looser soil. I think that some kind of “breaker” (like trees act as breakers for wind and storms) for the ground could have slowed the moving land and decrease momentum, and thereby decreasing the impact of the landslides. I am no expert in this kind of thing, and have zero idea of this kind of thing is possible. There may have also been monetary reasons why this kind of thing wasn't done. If the governments or towns and villages in place in the Philippines could not have afforded such secondary measures, that could be part of the reason why the landslides ended up being as bad as they were. I think it is also a could example of how while a disaster itself can cause damage, it can also start a sort of chain reaction, where secondary events can cause just as much damage or more. 

Philippine Evacuations

Video of Usagi Approaching China and Taiwan

Usagi Hits Southern China

Usagi and Hong Kong

Landslides in the Philippines after Typhoon Usagi

A New Way to Help Prevent Disaster in Kenya

Kenya is home to 41 million people, with about 17 million going without access to safe drinking water. And in any area, let alone one with such a large and growing population, it goes without saying that that is really, really problematic. In an area that is already dry and arid, this problem is intensified when droughts start occurring.

Citizens of Turkana County, Kenya wait in line at a relief center

Difficulties surrounding water safety (such as purifying water) and security (like making sure there is enough water for everyone) have been a recurring prominent problem in Africa, and with the increasing climate change, water has become a growing concern not just in other less developed countries, but in more developed ones as well.

However, Kenya has found a new resource that can help them to tackle these droughts and potentially even prevent future ones. The discovery of this resource was helped by advanced satellite exploration technology (specifically, a groundwater mapping project) under the name of GRIDMAP (Groundwater Resources Investigation for Drought Mitigation in Africa Programme), headed by UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization) in partnership with the government of Kenya and with the financial support of the government of Japan. This technology “combines remote sensing, seismic and conventional groundwater information to explore and map groundwater occurrence over large areas in short periods of time”, according to the UNESCO’s website article on the subject.

Drilling to confirm the aquifers

The resources they discovered were confirmed locations of two very large aquifers (the Lotikipi Basin Aquifer and the Lodwar Basin Aquifer) underground that have been collecting water from rain that falls in Kenya. These two sources could prove to completely change the country’s continuous water safety issues and provide relief during droughts. Though the water found in these aquifers still need to be assessed and tested, this is still a huge step forward and I believe that even if the water is currently unsafe to drink from directly, I’m sure there every effort will be made to use this water in some way to help the people of Kenya and decrease water-related deaths.

I believe this discovery is important and related to environmental hazards because it provides a good example of people knowing that there is a problem occurring and although there may not be an immediate solution, they are working to provide future generations a way to combat and even prevent future hazards. One of the reasons why the discoveries of these aquifers is so exciting is because of the potential to create underground irrigations systems that can run through the country and provide water to crops and drinking water for livestock. So not only could this help with droughts but other disasters as well, such as famine. Hopefully we can find other such resources around the world. 

CNN Reports the Discovery
NYTimes on the New Water Resource
UNESCO on the Aquifers in Kenya

Yosemite National Park

Vernal Fall of the Merced River in Yosemite

Yosemite  National Park is 1,200 square miles of protected wilderness in the state of California, ranging from waterfalls and canyons to the well-known sequoia tree forests. The park is home to more than 400 species of animal and is full of all kinds of plant life. However, much of the western United States has recently been at high risk of fires, and Yosemite was no exception. About a week and a half ago, the risk of fire turned into reality and what grew into a very large fire began to burn within the park. By now, it is supposedly “80% contained” , but at the cost of 371 square miles of land damage and $81 million spent to combat the fire (which from my understanding did not include any property or monetary loss of businesses and civilians). It is now one of the largest wildfires in California’s history.

                                                                                                                                         

Right away, investigators and fire fighters had ruled out lightning as the cause due to the lack of storms in the area. And now, just today, investigations have revealed that what caused the fire was in fact a hunter that had somehow lost control of his campfire. Before the start of this wildfire, there had been rules in place to keep campfires within designated grounds to prevent such a thing from happening, so I am curious to see what the reason was behind this hunter starting a fire to begin with, as well as how he lost control of it.

Flames sweeping through the Stanislaus National Forest, on
the western edge of Yosemite

The British news source called The Guardian says that the governor of California had declared a state of emergency because of this week-long fire. The concern is that it will damage water and electrical supply. This is a good example of when a hazard event occurs, it has more consequences than it may seem. The reason why they worry about this fire’s effect on water and electricity is because it is still burning and could reach the buildings that supply these resources to the state. If that were to happen that could cause, I imagine, even more damage than just what is physically burned by the fire. Lack of water and power, in my opinion, means more money spent in getting them up and running again, as well as what needs to be done in order to somehow get people these things until the problem is fully resolved. I believe that a lack of water could cause a lot of health problems amongst the state’s residents. Beyond that, after this tremendously damaging fire, I have to wonder if tourism rates will drop because a lot of the park got burned, creating less of a reason for tourists to come, and therefore, in the long term, affect that area’s economy.

The Guardian on the Yosemite Fires
San Francisco Mayor Declares State of Emergency
ABC News - Hunter Causes Yosemite Fire
National Park Service - Information on Yosemite