Building a Disaster Free India
DISASTERS UPDATE
www.nidm.net
Issue No.1067
Date: 25.5.3008
TODAY’S HIGHLIGHTS
National
Mock disaster drill at Kolkata Metro stations
Raktima Bose, The Hindu, Sunday, May 25, 2008
An exercise, in the wake of Jaipur blasts, to fine-tune the response system while alerting
passengers
SIMULATED ATTACK:
A team of the National Disaster
Management Authority, with fire
brigade, medical and Railway Police
Force personnel, demonstrating
how to combat a terrorist attack, at
the Chandni Chowk Metro Rail
station in Kolkata on Saturday. —
Photo: Arunangsu Roy Chowdhury
KOLKATA:
Sirens
blared;
passengers
ran
helter-skelter,
panic writ on their faces; people lay
on the ground writhing in pain and
gasping for breath; police shouted
eviction orders; medical staff
rushed through the crowd with stretchers; and commandos took positions behind pillars,
aiming their rifles at an unknown enemy.
This was the scene at the Chandni Chowk station of the city’s Metro Railway early on
Saturday. It was no terrorist attack but a mock disaster management drill organised by
the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) at two underground railway
stations. The exercise caught commuters unawares, even as volunteers as ‘mock
commuters’ mingled with the passengers to simulate an attack scene at the stations.
Later talking to journalists, NDMA member J.K. Sinha said: “Following the serial blasts in
Jaipur, we have undertaken mock drill sessions to fine-tune the response system while
alerting passengers.” Such drills were conducted to check the preparedness of the state
machinery, in the event of a terrorist attack.
“It is the first of its kind in this city,” said Brigadier (retd.) B.K. Khanna, senior specialist
with the NDMA. Similar drills carried out in the Delhi Metro Railway Network, in
association with the Central Industrial Security Force (CISF), “garnered tremendous
public response.”
The National Disaster Response Force (NDRF), the Railway Police Force and the
Kolkata Fire Brigade assisted the NDMA in the drill.
Creating awareness about chikungunya
Special Correspondent, The Hindu, Sunday, May 25, 2008
MYSORE: The Mysore City Corporation (MCC) has launched a drive to increase
awareness about dengue fever and chikungunya.
It will distribute pamphlets containing information about the diseases. The emphasis of
the drive, which has been launched in association with the Department of Health and
Family Welfare, is on prevention by taking steps to ensure hygiene.
It has been pointed out that dengue fever and chikungunya are caused by the arbovirus
that spreads through the Aedes aegypti mosquito, and that children, women and elderly
people are prone to be affected.
Sudden onset of fever with chills, headache and muscular pain; retro-orbital pain; severe
muscular and joint pain; bleeding from the mouth, nose or gums; and severe thirst have
been listed as the symptoms at an advanced stage of the disease. High fever with joint
or muscular pain has been given as the symptom of chikungunya. At an advanced
stage, mental confusion, abdominal pain and vomiting with or without blood set in.
The MCC has suggested that water storage containers in houses be emptied, scrubbed,
dried and filled with fresh water once a week, and closed with tight lids. The attention of
the public has been drawn to the health hazards posed by stagnation of water near the
houses.
The awareness drive has been launched in view of the rainy season that will set in by
the end of this month.
International
Quake shakes Colombian capital
Agence France-Presse, Bogota, May 25, 2008
strong earthquake jolted Colombia'
s capital Bogota on Saturday, sending thousands of
panicky residents into the streets.The quake shook this Andean capital for several
seconds. State agency Ingeominas put the strength of the quake which hit at 0050 IST
(Sunday) at 5.5.
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The US Geological Survey in Colorado put the magnitude of the quake at 5.7 with its
centre about 54 kilometres east-southeast of Bogota.
Thousands in the capital stood stunned and panicked in the street under heavy drizzle.
Firefighters and police were mobilised but there were no immediate reports of injuries or
serious damage.
At least six killed in Colombia earthquake
Xinhua, Bogota, May 25, 2008
A 5.5-magnitude earthquake jolted central Colombia, claiming five lives and injuring 11
people, officials said on Sunday. All the dead and injured were victims of landslides
caused by the quake, the officials said.
The epicentre of the quake was at 54 km east-southeast of Bogota at a depth of 10 km,
according to the US Geological Survey.
Several buildings suffered cracks and telephone service was interrupted in the capital
because of the quake, Interior Minister Carlos Holguin said earlier.
A highway out of Bogota was blocked and many houses flattened. A church very close
to the epicentre was seriously damaged.
China rushes to rescue coal miners trapped 2 weeks ago
25 May 2008, 0003 hrs IST, AP
YINGXIU (CHINA): Rescuers rushed to reach 24 coal miners trapped underground by
China'
s earthquake almost two weeks ago, officials said Saturday, as the government
sharply raised the quake'
s death toll, warning it could exceed 80,000.
It was not known if the miners were dead or alive, but authorities were hoping for the
best until they learned otherwise, said Wang Dexue, deputy chief of the government'
s
work safety department.
"We have had the miracle in the past that a miner was found alive after being trapped
underground for 21 days," Wang said. The 24 miners were trapped in three mines in
Sichuan province, Wang said, without giving further details. Sichuan bore the brunt of
the quake on May 12 that has caused China'
s greatest disaster in three decades.
Premier Wen Jiabao returned to the quake zone on Saturday, and hosted UN secretarygeneral Ban Ki-moon in a visit to one of the hardest-hit towns
The State Council, China'
s Cabinet, said the latest confirmed death toll for the quake
was 60,560 and listed 26,221 people as still missing.
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Earthquake prediction from space is more accurate
Yury Zaitsev, The Hindu, Sunday, May 25, 2008— RIA Novosti
Space-based predictions have been correct for 44 of 47 registered quakes
It has the ability to survey huge territories for seismically hazardous areas. Harbingers of
powerful quakes appear around five days before the main shock
China’s deadly earthquake in the Sichuan province has again showed that ground-based
earthquake prediction methods and systems are not reliable.
Traditional seismology does its best, sometimes succeeding, but more often only saying
something like, “California will be destroyed in the next 30 years.”
Remote sensing from space can provide more accurate data about locations, and even
dates of expected disasters.
The majority of earthquakes happen in two long narrow stripes, one around the Pacific
and the other running from the Azores to southeast Asia. There are several other
earthquake-prone regions.
Half of Russia’s Far East is in a seismically hazardous zone, and the seismic stations
there, with only minor error, can give the future epicentre, its depth under the surface,
and its magnitude. But they cannot say when the earthquake will happen.
Many methods
There are many methods for predicting when an earthquake will strike, the most reliable
being a long-term prediction for several years, and possibly months, ahead. Scientists
have predicted a 99.7 per cent chance of a 6.7 magnitude earthquake hitting the U.S.
West Coast, more specifically California, in approximately 30 years.
Mid-term predictions are highly important but not accurate. The situation with short-term
predictions is highly complicated, as shown by the magnitude 9.0 earthquake in
Haicheng, China. Warnings were issued days before the February 4, 1975 earthquake
and people in nearby cities remained outdoors, despite the cold weather. As a result,
many lives were saved.
By that time, China was conducting broad seismological surveys, using Soviet
experience. Central and provincial seismic monitoring stations collected data about
natural anomalies, which accumulated considerable information. This helped predict the
location and date of several earthquakes, including in Haicheng.
Dark pessimism
But a year later a magnitude 7.0 earthquake hit 93 miles from Beijing, which nobody had
predicted, and claimed over 400,000 lives. The predicting optimism of the 1950s and
1960s gave way to the dark pessimism of the 1990s.
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The problem did not move from research to practice and showed minor progress only in
the past decade. It turned out that predicting earthquakes from space is much easier and
more accurate. The main advantage of this high-tech method is the ability to survey
huge territories for seismically hazardous areas and predict earthquakes one to five days
before the disaster.
The Russian method is based on the study of geomagnetic field variations, which induce
currents in the Earth. Therefore, surface field measurements can detect the hypothetical
regional changes that precede earthquakes. At the same time, intensive electric fields in
places where earthquakes are brewing induce specific currents in the ionosphere.
First reported
Anomalous ionospheric phenomena were first reported in the 1960s, but they were
disregarded along with astrologic predictions and UFO sightings.
The breakthrough came when the Soviet Union launched its Intercosmos-19 satellite in
1979. It detected an unusual low-frequency noise in a large area centred near the
epicentre of an earthquake that occurred a few hours later. This finding was registered
as a Soviet discovery and was later confirmed by other spacecraft.
Ionospheric variations
Harbingers of powerful earthquakes appear approximately five days before the main
shock and have specific characteristics that distinguish them from the other ionospheric
variations. Registering them is a very complicated task that includes constant satellite
monitoring of the earthquake-prone region and regular baseline studies, because
baseline changes can point to a brewing earthquake.
Many countries, including Russia, are studying the connection between earthquakes and
the ionosphere, but not as vigorously as scientists would like.
Such surveys were made from the Mir space station, but only for a year even though the
results were encouraging.
Vulcan system
In 2001, Russian scientists designed the Vulcan system for monitoring and predicting
natural disasters and industrial accidents, which was included in the 2001-2005 federal
space program and provided for launching low-and high-orbiting microsatellites.
In December 2001, the Complex Orbital Magneto-Plasma Autonomous Small Satellite
(COMPASS) was launched to monitor the Earth for possible harbingers of earthquakes
and collect requisite data. Its equipment was created in Russia, Hungary, Greece,
Ukraine and Poland. Unfortunately, the experiment was cut short because of satellite
malfunctions. Studies continued in 2002-2003 from the Meteor-3M satellite. Spacebased predictions have been correct for 44 of 47 registered earthquakes.
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To collect more data, Russia launched the COMPASS-2 satellite in 2006. Although its
operation was hampered by malfunctions, it nevertheless quite successfully probed the
Earth’s underground lithosphere, atmosphere, ionosphere, and magnetosphere to learn
how each terrestrial region is connected with a variety of events such as earthquakes,
volcanoes, tropical cyclones, and tornadoes.
Running out of time
Methods and equipment for the Vulcan system are being tested on the International
Space Station within the framework of the Uragan program. The ISS, which is flying in a
relatively low orbit, turned out to be ideal for such studies. With the California earthquake
only 30 years away, humankind is running out of time for inventing new reliable spacebased earthquake forecasting systems.
(The writer is an expert at the Russian Academy of Sciences’ Institute of Space Research)
G8, emerging economies begin climate talks
Sunday 25 May, 2008. DD News
Environment ministers from the world's richest nations and a clutch of fast-growing
economies including India and China kicked off talks today to try to inject fresh
momentum into efforts to tackle climate change.
Japan, home to the landmark Kyoto Protocol, hopes to
use its chairmanship of the Group of Eight
industrialised nations to give clearer direction to
drafting a post-Kyoto treaty by the end of 2009.
During three days of meetings in Kobe between the
ministers, Japan hopes to shape the course of
negotiations on a new climate treaty on curbing global
warming, eyeing a breakthrough when it hosts the July
7-9 G8 summit.
Ministers and officials from the G8 nations along with
countries including Brazil, China, India, Indonesia, Mexico, Australia, South Korea and
South Africa have gathered here to try and pave the way to an agreement.
"We would like to send a message encouraging developing countries to easily tackle
climate change," Japan'
s Environment Minister Ichiro Kamoshita told reporters.
"We also want to clarify G8 countries' stance on climate change during the
environmental ministers'meeting," Kamoshita said.
Ahead of the meeting, international aid group Oxfam voiced concern that political
momentum to tackle climate change appears to be flagging under Japan'
s leadership.
"The endless debate about '
considering'reducing emissions is long gone. We need
carbon cuts and we need this to happen now," Oxfam campaigner Takumo Yamada said
in a statement.
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New base in Thailand to speed up relief operation for Myanmar
May 25, 2008, News on AIR
The United Nations Secretary General Ban ki-Moon has opened a new
base in Thailand to speed up aid for the Myanmar victims of cyclone
Nargis. He described the centre at Bangkok'
s old airport as a critical
staging post that would save lives. A spokesman for the UN Food
Programme said that the new base would greatly improve the efficiency
of its operations.
Foreign officials are expected to push for more aid to those in need at a conference in
Yangoon today.
Environment ministers meet in Japan to curb emissions
May 24, 2008, News on AIR
Environment ministers from rich countries and other major greenhouse gas emitters are
meeting in western Japan from today for talks on ways to curb emissions, save living
species from extinction and cut back on trash.
The three-day meeting of the Group of Eight and rapidly growing economies such as
China and India comes as pressure grows for both developed and developing countries
to tackle climate change, blamed for droughts, rising seas and more
intense storms.
Delegates meeting in the port city of Kobe will be tasked with building momentum for
talks on setting long-term targets to reduce the greenhouse gas emissions that cause
global warming, an issue to be taken up at a leaders'summit in July.
G8 leaders agreed last year in Germany to consider seriously a goal to halve
greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. European Union and Canada had also backed the
proposal.
But developing countries who keen to put economic growth first. They are reluctant to
sign up on the goal without the United States doing more to cut emissions and insist rich
countries help poorer ones pay for clean technology.
Compiled by
AD Kaushik
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