Deadly Flooding in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil Continues Into The Weekend

Rio de Janeiro, Brazil has been in the news a lot lately. The city has been selected to serve as the host of the 2014 World Cup and the 2016 Summer Olympics and construction has been underway since then to prepare for the festivities. What seemed like a great opportunity for Brazil at first has now been hit with a myriad of problems in construction and has been plagued with accusations of human rights violations. Adding to these recent issues is persistent heavy rain over the area that has been falling since Tuesday. The rain has rarely stopped since then and a normal situation in one of Brazil's wet seasons has took an ugly turn that took the lives of three people in Rio today.

(Flooding occuring right outside the Maracana Stadium in Rio)

The rising water levels in parts of the city has toppled houses and has cancelled trains and flight schedules. The mayor of the city, Eduardo Paes, advised residents to stay indoors and not try to travel through the flood waters. Sadly, I am sure the people Rio and all over the country of Brazil are getting used to seeing flooding such as this. Just three days ago at least 11 people were killed in Brazil's drought-stricken Bahia state. Local officials were quoted as being concerned with the possible impacts that global warming is having on the increase in flooding in recent years. This all may have some correlation but I there is no denying that Brazil is inflicting much of this pain upon themselves. 

Illegal construction, deforestation, and unregulated housing has been blamed for the rise in the frequency and severity of floods in Brazil and in other parts of the world where environmental degradation is ongoing. The removal of soil and vegetation from the landscape is causing increases in major floods and landscapes in the region. There is no signs of stopping such behavior however. Especially not when the city of Rio takes on billions of dollars in construction costs to bring the world's greatest sporting events to the city. While they pour their tax money into giant stadiums, the flooding that killed at least 903 people in 2011 alone and caused over two billion Reais in damage will continue until somebody does something about it.

Sources:

http://www.disaster-report.com/2013/12/flooding-in-rio-de-janeiro-brazil-kills.html

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/dec/11/rio-de-janeiro-paralysed-downpours-world-cup-olympics

New Information Regarding the 'Supervolcano" Under Yellowstone National Park Revealed

A recent study has surfaced that shows that the magma chamber of the supervolcano under Yellowstone National Park is nearly two-and-a-half times the size previously estimated. This evidence will soon be presented at the American Geophysical Union Fall Meeting in San Francisco and was recently reported on British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC).

Scientists assured the public that even though the supervolcano is bigger does not necessarily mean that it increases the likelihood of an eruption. This is good news considering the last time it erupted, the ash cloud that was produced was so massive that it shifted the entire climate of the earth. Many environmental hazards cause damage to people and have major economic impacts on the areas that are impacted. Many of those events can be mitigated to a point to reduce the amount of damage that is cause or some can be prevented almost entirely. An eruption of this supervolcano would not be one of those circumstances. An eruption of that magnitude has the potential to alter life as we know it and definitely would change the history of North America at the very least. 

 

The newly recorded size may not increase the frequency of eruptions but that may not matter. Scientists believe that the supervolcano may erupt around once every 700,000 years and they believe it erupted last around 640,000 years ago. That should at least be a cause for careful examination of the supervolcano at the very least. It is hardly worth worrying about something that may or may not happen every 700,000 years though. Still, these new findings completely shocked the scientists who discovered it including Bob Smith, professor from the University of Utah, who has been working on the project for a long time. New scientific research on hazards such as this around the world are important in order to better predict the size and scale of threats to our environment. Information such as this can be used to educate governments and their citizens about their vulnerability to various hazards and ways to protect themselves against them.

(After taking in all that information: If you really want to get freaked out you can check out this awesome video that shows what would happen if the supervolcano really did erupt)

Sources:

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/yellowstone-supervolcano-a-much-larger-system-than-scientists-had-thought-8997264.html

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-25312674

http://www.earthmountainview.com/yellowstone/yellowstone.htm

Snow and Ice Storms Blanket Areas of the Northeast United States

Traveling conditions in different regions throughout the United States remain difficult and even dangerous in some areas as snow and ice continues to blanket the country. The Northeast continues to get hit hard as another major accumulation of deep snow and ice was dumped on the mid-Atlantic region yesterday. This particular storm was responsible for the ice accumulation in parts of Texas as late as Sunday and the front moved to the Northeast.

Some spots received a foot of snow which stopped vehicles on the highway completely and caused power outages, and school delays and cancellations. This particular storm canceled more than 2,800 flights and delayed thousands more over the past few days and the dangerous traveling conditions are not expected to cease anytime soon. The winter is already seems to be shaping up to be full of snowy conditions and it is just getting started. Storms like these are predicted to continue in parts of the United States over the course of the next week. A large snowstorm currently traveling north from Virginia is expected to cause freezing rain in New York and Boston, among other places. A snowstorm along the Utah-Arizona border caused hundreds of drivers to be left stranded on the highway and pile-ups are frequently being seen in the news. Take extra time on the roads, check your weather forecasts regularly, and stay safe out there!

(Snowstorm causes dangerous driving conditions in Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico, and Utah)

Sources:

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/dec/09/us-winter-storm-slams-us

http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/view.php?id=82469&eocn=home&eoci=nh

New Report Shows Weakening Of Earth's Crust In New Zealand

Recent surveying of the terrain in New Zealand has scientists convinced that recent powerful earthquakes from 2010 and 2011 have weakened the Earth's surface in areas of the country. Seismic waves detected before and after the earthquakes were analyzed by a network of seismographs across New Zealand and it was determined that a broad region of the area affected by the recent quakes has led to cracking around the fault. This widespread weakening of the crust can be detrimental to New Zealand. The country is located along the Ring of Fire where 90 percent of the world's earthquakes occur. The government needs to look at this information closely as it plans for future hazard mitigation that could occur from stronger earthquakes because of this.

Aerial view of Christchurch New Zealand. This was the site of the 6.3 magnitude earthquake that struck on February 22nd, 2011.

The magnitude 6.3 earthquake in 2011 was the deadliest and most costly in the entire history of New Zealand and just 172 days earlier in 2010 a magnitude 7.1 earthquake also caused millions of dollars in damage, although thankfully nobody was killed. These powerful earthquakes were strong enough to cause abnormal amounts of cracking in the earth along the fault lines in New Zealand. It is possible that another devastating earthquake could occur along the same fault and cause even more damage because of it.

Earthquakes obviously cannot be prevented but mitigation efforts need to be in place now in case another earthquake hits this region. The 'golden hours' after a quake only last so long and emergency relief services need to be well organized in order to act rapidly and efficiently.

(Video of a magnitude 6.5 earthquake in January of this year. Some structural damage was accounted for and thankfully nobody was seriously injured.)

Sources:
http://www.livescience.com/41446-new-zealand-earthquakes-weakened-crust.html

Climate Change and its Effect on Powerful Storms

It has been a slow past couple of days in the severe weather department for the most part so I thought I would shift gears a little bit. One of the best sources for up-to-date severe weather information including statistics, videos, and pictures are the people at weather underground. Recently they came out with a story on global climate change and specifically talked about the rising sea waters that will impact the globe in our lives. They use information taken from a project called "Sea Level Rise in My Lifetime," which is a report on rising waters that was recently done by Florida Atlantic University. TEDxTalks on rising tides

This is an important topic. As I have mentioned in earlier posts, global climate change is happening. There is no debating it and the evidence is overwhelming. With the overall increase in global temperatures, we can see the ice caps melting and record high temperatures happening currently and this is contributing to the rising sea waters that may have a lasting effect on our world's coastlines.

(OK maybe a little extreme)

Climate change is going change not just the amount of ice in the polar ice caps. Climate change can very well cause the frequency and severity of some of our world's most powerful hazards to increase. We have already seen historic storms like Superstorm Sandy and Typhoon Haiyan devastate different populations around the world. Is it possible that we will start to see more of these unprecedented storms gracing a with their presence? Maybe they already are. 

This will be an important time for hazard prevention, protection, and mitigation as we continue down this path. There is no stopping it and unfortunately for us, they may be no stopping these storms. 

*For more information of Weather Underground's report on rising sea levels click here.

Sources:

http://www.wunderground.com/news/future-sea-level-rise-around-us-photos-20131203

UPDATE: Time to Reflect on Typhoon Haiyan

11 days have now passed since the typhoon hit the Philippines on November 8th. Aid is beginning to come in from many countries around the world, most notably the United States, Britain, and Australia, and attempts to estimate the damage of the storm is underway. It is estimated that the storm has killed or has left missing more than 5,000 people and displaced an estimated 4 MILLION PEOPLE! This was not your average typhoon.

Even now, due to the enormous amount of clean-up yet to be done, it is difficult to get aid to people inland who are in dire need of assistance. Transportation systems in some areas are essentially shut down and people are without food and clean water in areas that are the hardest to reach. This typhoon, although it was properly forecast and the Philippine Government made attempts to evacuate some of its citizens, the storm was massive in power and scope. The storm itself was historic. Experts including those at NASA have concluded that it may have been the most powerful tropical cyclone to ever make landfall. EVER!

The storm's width was 370 miles wide and contained sustained winds of 195 mph and gusts were reaching 235 mph. There was a 17 foot high storm surge in the heavily populated city of Tacloban and 27 inches of rain fell as a result of the storm. Some of these numbers are unfathomable. Relief efforts are underway and the time for reflection has started, even as some are waiting with little to no aid reaching them. Did the government do everything it could to protect its people from this storm? Why were thousands still living in unsafe, temporary housing structures as the storm approached? Why were so few people evacuated from the area? I do not know if we should start placing blame on the Philippine Government at this time when millions of people are still in need of help but one thing is for sure, we will be talking about extensively about this storm and the impact that it has had for a long, long time.

Take a few minutes and listen to an National Public Radio (NPR) story that shows hazard mitigation at work as NPR's Christopher Joyce reports on if displaced Filipino's should rebuild their homes in their previous locations due to the regions vulnerability by clicking here.

Sources: 

http://worldnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/11/17/21496134-typhoon-haiyan-a-crisis-by-the-numbers?lite
http://www.wunderground.com/news/americans-killed-philippines-typhoon-haiyan-20131119
http://www.npr.org/player/v2/mediaPlayer.html?action=1&t=1&islist=false&id=245949244&m=246015345

Typhoon Haiyan UPDATE

Recent news reports out of Tacloban, Philippines have been mixed. On one hand, death and destruction are everywhere and thousands are still waiting for help as Philippine and international aid are still on their way in some areas. There is good news though. Philippine President Benigno Aquino was interviewed today and lowered the estimated death count to 2,000 to 2,500. These numbers are far more encouraging than the 10,000 people that were estimated to have died in Tacloban alone after last weeks typhoon.

The path of the storm ripped through the Philippines and traveled all the way into Vietnam late last week. It was one of the most powerful storms ever recorded. Military aircraft and ships from the United States and the United Kingdom are on their way as we speak. Hundreds of thousands are without food, water, or shelter. In fact, there is little information about about the more rural communities that were affected by the storm because it is so difficult to get into those areas and the government has been working to aid those heavily populated areas that were hit hardest. These people need help now. Hopefully more international aid will continue to come into the area over these next few days, or weeks, or months. Some areas have been completely demolished and will take years to build up these areas once again. We just have to be glad that forecasting predicted this storm so accurately and the death toll is not as high as previously estimated because of that.

Sources:

http://www.wunderground.com/hurricane/western-pacific/2013/Tropical-Storm-Haiyan?MR=1

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/chi-typhoon-haiyan-philippines-20131112,0,4089787.story