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Posted on: Saturday, 3 May 2008, 06:00 CDT
By James, James J Subbarao, Italo; Lanier, William L
Media reports from around the world contain stories almost daily of natural or man-made disasters and their consequences. Although it is tempting to attribute these reports to both proliferation of the modern media (with 24-hour-a-day, 7-days-a-week coverage) and the public’s appetite for bad news, it is also true that natural disasters are increasing in magnitude and freqeuncy and will continue to affect immense numbers of people.1 The reasons for this increase are multifactorial but are based in large measure on 3 important developments that are related: (1) overpopulation,2 (2) population migration to cities (urbanization) and to coastal areas,2 and (3) climate change.3 The world’s population is currently estimated at more than 6.5 billion and is growing, with disproportionate growth in Asia (particularly China and India), Africa, and South America.1 Overpopulation increases the demand for goods (eg, food, shelter) and the burden on essential services (eg, health care) and natural resources (eg, oil, coal, water). These factors, along with poverty and political instability, make for a fragile environment indeed for large populations who, in the event of disaster, have little reserve to care for themselves.
Increased migration to cities and coastal regions, spawned by the globalization “gold rush” (ie, a phenomenon in which people move to cities in developing countries because of economic growth driven by globalization), has also made populations increasingly vulnerable to disasters. Projections from the United Nations indicate that, by 2030, 60% of the world’s population will reside in cities.2 These denser communities provide greater opportunity for transfer of communicable diseases. Vulnerability to infectious pathogens is magnified by unsafe water supplies at one end of the socioeconomic spectrum and global travel and shipping at the other.
The third overarching development, climate change, poses great risk to coastal communities around the world, regardless of debate about its causes.3 Many cities in developing countries, particularly on the Pacific Rim, are located in marginally habitable environments, making inhabitants especially susceptible to natural disasters.4 People in low-lying environments are more susceptible to floods, hurricanes, and some forms of infectious diseases and- particularly in the Southeast Asian Pacific Rim-are at risk from earthquakes.

redorbit.com

Locals make their way past a fallen tree following a devastating cyclone, Sunday, May 4, 2008, in Yangon, Myanmar. Myanmar announced Tuesday it is delaying a crucial constitutional referendum in areas badly hit by the cyclone that killed more than 10,000 people and may have left as many as a million homeless. Officials feared the death toll could soar. (AP )
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death toll from a 120-mph cyclone
that tore through Burma last weekend has exceeded 22,000, with tens of thousands of others still missing, Burmese state radio reported Tuesday. As international aid efforts began to accelerate, the growing casualty count made clear the scope of a storm that wiped entire villages from the map. Wire services reporting from Burma said that government-run radio had in new broadcasts upped the number of confirmed dead to 22,464, with as many as 41,000 missing.
Matthew Cochrane, spokesman for the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, established to coordinate international relief actions and promote humanitarian activities, was online Tuesday, May 6, at Noon ET to discuss the latest news regarding the situation in the Southeast Asian country.
"The biggest priorities at this stage are emergency shelter and access to clean water," said Cochrane in an interview with washingtonpost.com. "In the wake of disasters such as this, affected people are exposed to potential outbreaks of water borne diseases — it is vital that they are able to get clean water."

washingtonpost.com

Residents of Mogul felt another earthquake Wednesday night, and this time it measured out at 3.2 magnitude. It’s one of many quakes felt in that area in the past 20 days or so. And while nothing it’s near the size of the 6.0 quake that destroyed parts of Wells last month, many are wondering what is next.
Since the Wells earthquake, the activity of our state’s fault lines have been brought to the forefront. Before Wells, there hasn’t been a very large earthquake in our state since 1994. That’s when one hit the Minden-Gardnerville area.
Now the question on everyone’s mind is, when could we see the next big quake?
For now, all bets seem to be on an area just five miles from Reno. The unincorporated town of Mogul has been shaken by dozens of small earthquakes in the past month, most of them averaging around 3.0.
A group of geologists and earthquake specialists from UNR have been studying the quake patterns since they started.
“Most of the big earthquakes we’ve had in the state have been proceeded by fore shocks, so if this were to turn into a large earthquake, it’d be no surprise,” said John Anderson, Director of Nevada’s Seismological Laboratory.
However, Anderson says it would also be no surprise if the quakes just went away. He says seismology experts know there will be another big earthquake in Nevada, but there’s no way to predict where or when.
The 6.0 quake in Wells is just one example of the unpredictability of our state’s fault lines. State Geologist Jon Price says the town of Wells had less than a ten percent chance of a large earthquake hitting, before the ground started shaking in late February…but it happened anyway. The current probability for our area is much higher.

kolotv.com

“We’re checking on various structures down there to see if there’s any damage,” he said.
In the Chicago area, a metal bridge joint that came out of the pavement on the southbound Edens Expressway near Golf Road and popped up and punctured seven car tires was not thought to be caused by the earthquake, Claffey said.
“We don’t have any reports of structural damage in the Chicago region so it just doesn’t seem likely,” Claffey said. He said the metal was cut down and lanes were reopened by 8 a.m.
Chicago reaction to news of the earthquake was mixed. Lake View resident Jennifer Hochstatter, 32, was surprised to hear during her morning commute that a quake was what apparently woke her early Friday morning.
“Is that what that was?” she responded. “I woke up this morning and thought I was dreaming that. I just felt the bed shaking. . . . I thought I woke up so violently that I shook the bed.”
Chicago Fire Department Chief Joe Roccasalva said the tremors caused a “huge spike in calls” to the city’s 911 center, but fire crews had not responded to any emergencies related to the incident. “It’s mostly people calling to say things were moving on their shelves, that the earth was moving,” he said.
Air traffic controllers who were in the 300-foot control tower at O’Hare International Airport when the shaking started said they didn’t know what to think at first.
“It freaked us out. We thought there was a structural problem with the tower,” said controller Craig Burzych, who was with one co-worker. He said the feeling was “sort of like being on the end of a fishing pole.”
Because the quake struck in the early hours, it did not affect air traffic, Burzych said. He said controllers radioed the pilot of a FedEx freight plane that was on the tarmac, but the plane’s crew said they did not feel the tremors.

chicagotribune.com

SPRINGFIELD — State transportation officials launched an early morning review of bridges and roads in southeastern Illinois Friday following a 5.2 magnitude earthquake.
As of 10 a.m., inspectors hadn’t reported finding any damaged roadways, said Patti Thompson, spokeswoman for the Illinois Emergency Management Agency.
The teams began visual inspections of all bridges within a 50 mile radius of the quake, which was centered in Wabash County near the Indiana border.
Thompson said the state emergency operations center was activated at about 5:15 a.m. following the 4:37 a.m. temblor.
A second quake, preliminarily measured at a magnitude 4.5, was felt in the state at about 10:14 a.m. Friday. It too was centered near the border of Edwards and Wabash counties.
Agencies on alert at the state operations center include the Department of Transportation. IEMA, the National Guard and the Illinois Department of Public Health.
Thompson said the state has received reports of minor damage to homes and businesses in the region around Mount Carmel.
But, there have been no requests for state assistance, she added.
The Illinois National Guard issued a statement that it was ready to respond if needed.
In March, the guard and other agencies conducted an earthquake preparedness drill to test their ability to respond to large-scale emergencies, said Major General William Enyart, adjutant general of the Illinois National Guard.

southernillinoisan.com

Iowa has never been known as an earthquake prone area.
But on Dec. 16, 1811, at 2 a.m., the worst earthquake ever experienced in the continental United States was felt throughout Iowa and the Midwest.
According to historical accounts of that incident, birds screamed, large trees split from their roots upward and sulfurous gas sprayed from the earth. In some areas, land was lifted up nearly 20 feet.
The bed of the Mississippi River, accounts said, was raised high enough to temporarily reverse its current. The waters receded from the banks And as the water fell again in succeeding waves, it tore trees from the banks.
The earthquake and others that followed on Jan. 23 and Feb. 27, 1812, were later named the New Madrid quake, after its epicenter in the southeast Missouri bootheel.
Although the Richter scale had not yet been developed, scientists later would estimate that the tree largest earthquakes in 1811-12 each measured more than 8.0 — equal to the quake that struck San Francisco in 1906.
Somewhere in Kentucky, naturalist John J. Audubon was later to write, “I heard what I imagined to be the distant rumbling of a violent tornado, on which I spurred my steed… At that instant all the shrubs and trees began to move, the ground rose and fell in successive furrows, like the ruffled waters of a lake, and I became bewildered in my ideas, as I too plainly discovered that all this awful commotion in nature was the result of an earthquake.

gazetteonline.com

Severe rains in US leave 13 dead
Floods that ravaged a broad swathe of the U.S. Midwest from Missouri eastward to the Ohio Valley contributed to deaths of more than a dozen people, according to reports on Friday. President George W. Bush declared 70 Missouri counties as disaster areas, and the National Guard was deployed in hard-hit areas. Official reports across the Midwest region said 16 people had died, some swept away by flood waters.
Major earthquake hit western China
A major earthquake struck western China early Friday, but there were no reports of casualties. The 7.2 magnitude quake hit at 6:33 a.m. (2233 GMT Thursday), about 140 miles (225 kilometers) southeast of the city of Hotan in southwest Xinjiang province, the U.S. Geological Survey reported. There were no reports of anyone hurt so far, China’s Earthquake Administration spokesman said.
BEIJING - The Associated Press
Former SLA fugitive released
The former Symbionese Liberation Army fugitive who hid for years by posing as an ordinary housewife has been released from prison after serving time for trying to bomb police cars, officials said Thursday. Sara Jane Olson, formerly known as Kathleen Soliah, pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 14 years in prison for attempting to bomb police cars in 1975 with the SLA.
LOS ANGELES - The Associated Press
Japanese officials punished over scandals
Japan fired its navy chief Friday and slapped 87 other defense officials with pay cuts and other penalties over a series of scandals and a deadly collision between a destroyer and a fishing boat. Defense Minister Shigeru Ishiba said he was also taking a two-month pay cut as part of disciplinary measures aimed at restoring public trust in his ministry, which has faced allegations of incompetence and negligence.
TOKYO - The Associated Press
Sri Lanka to re-deploy elite police

turkishdailynews.com.tr

Vernice Boorheis: We were in Dyer, IN (by Chicago) and felt it on the fourth floor of our hospital. It even woke up some of the patients!
Adam Rusch: Great story on the Earthquake, it was out quick! I was speculating about it with some friends over Instant Messenger when I decided to Google to see if anything had been reported.
I am in Urbana, IL at the University of Illinois and was woken up by it. At first I thought it must have been wind, but it made this old house creak in places I had never heard before!
Brandon Grimes: I live about 6 miles north of Loogootee in the tiny community of Bramble.
I was standing in my kitchen making coffee when I heard a loud rumble and felt a little bit of shaking. My first thought was to look out the window and see what the size of truck was rumbling up our county road. My second thought was that it was awful early in the morning for any blasting at Crane.
At last, it hit me that it might be an earthquake. The house started shaking worse – once I realized what it was, I was in my daughter’s room to get her out of bed and she told me that her bed was rattling this morning. I turned on the news and found out that an earthquake hit around 5:35 a.m. EST. I asked her if she looked at her clock when the bed shook and she said her clock was showing 5:36. I am anxious to see how far in each direction it was felt.
Chris Myers: I was working 3rd shift at Guardian Automotive in the Electroplating Chemical Lab when the earthquake happened. A lot of the glassware was rattling around on the wall racks, I was hoping nothing would break. Could feel the floor and walls moving, knew it was a bit worse than the last one we had a few years back.

courierpress.com

SALEM, Ore. (AP) — They may be crumbling and could collapse in an earthquake, but the Oregon State Hospital buildings made famous by the movie “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest” have been certified as historic.
State officials got word Thursday of the listing of the institution on the National Register of Historic Places.
The designation doesn’t prohibit razing anything on the 144-acre campus that includes nearly 50 buildings, all built between 1883 when the Oregon State Insane Asylum opened, and the mid-1950s.
But it does require care in redeveloping the site. It makes the plans subject to scrutiny by the local Landmarks Commission, for example.
The bleak setting for the movie, adapted from the novel by Oregon author Ken Kesey, has been the subject of some dismal assessments recently for the care provided its patients.
The U.S. Justice Department released a report in January describing nearly 400 cases of patient-on-patient assaults in the course of a year, outbreaks of norovirus and scabies, and other horror stories. It threatened a lawsuit unless improvements are made.
The state for years has planned to rebuild the institution. The Legislature last year authorized $458 million to build two state-operated hospitals by 2013: a 620-bed hospital in Salem and 360-bed facility in Junction City. The hospital also hired a new chief medical officer and additional staff.

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