MAGNITUDE 5.5 SOUTHERN EAST PACIFIC RISE
Distances: 3246 km W of Valdivia, Chile / pop: 133,000 / local time: 13:54:35.7 2021-05-19
MAGNITUDE 4.5 WESTERN TURKEY
Depth: 16 km
Distances: 33 km S of Karabağlar, Turkey / pop: 458,000 / local time: 14:14:59.2 2021-05-19
MAGNITUDE 5.3 NEPAL
Depth: 10 km
Distances: 110 km WNW of Kathmandu, Nepal / pop: 1,442,000 / local time: 05:42:58.6 2021-05-19
Two more houses collapse into landslide pit in Gjerdrum, Norway
On Sunday, the Norwegian Water Resources and Energy Directorate (NVE) stated that two new houses have collapsed in the landslide pit in Gjerdrum.
“We received a message from Gjerdrum Municipality on Sunday morning that two homes have collapsed. This is an expected development and something we have taken into account,” regional manager Toril Hofshagen in NVE told newspaper Romerikes Blad.
She further noted that there are steep edges and slopes inside the landslide area and that there is still a risk that more houses may collapse into the pit.
“We are working on creating a construction road in the area. This work will continue from and including May 18,” Hofshagen added.
She also noted that residents in the area do not have to worry about a new landslide.
Courtesy of norwaytoday.info
Back-to-back Tornadoes Kill 12 in China; More Than 300 Injured
Photo Illustration
Back-to-back tornadoes killed 12 people in central and eastern China and left more than 300 others injured, authorities said Saturday.
Eight people died in the inland city of Wuhan on Friday night and four others in the town of Shengze, about 400 kilometers east in Jiangsu province, local governments said.
The first tornado struck Shengze about 7 p.m., damaging homes and factories and knocking out power, the official Xinhua News Agency reported. The Suzhou city government, which oversees the town, said in a social media post that four people had died and 149 others had minor injuries. Shengze is near Shanghai on China’s east coast.
Another tornado hit Wuhan at about 8:40 p.m. with winds of 86 kilometers per hour, destroying more than two dozen homes and triggering a power outage affecting 26,600 households, Xinhua said. Officials in Wuhan said at a news conference Saturday that eight had died and 230 were injured.
They said that 28 homes collapsed in Wuhan, another 130 were damaged and put economic losses at 37 million yuan ($5.7 million), the Hubei Daily newspaper said. Construction site sheds and two cranes were also damaged, while downed power lines knocked out electricity, Xinhua said.
Photos showed a swarm of rescuers searching through building debris in Wuhan after midnight Friday and workers clearing metallic debris at a factory in Shengze in the morning.
Wuhan is the city where COVID-19 was first detected in late 2019.
Tornados are rare in China. In July 2019, a tornado killed six people in the northeastern Liaoning province, and another tornado the following month killed eight on the southern resort island of Hainan.
In 2016, a tornado and accompanying hailstorm killed 98 people in the eastern Jiangsu province.
Courtesy of voacambodia.com
India lashed by strongest cyclone to ever hit west coast as it reels from Covid disaster
India was slammed on Monday by the strongest storm on record to reach its west coast, hampering authorities’ response to the Covid-19 crisis in some of the country’s hardest hit regions.
Tropical Cyclone Tauktae, a storm with wind speeds equivalent to a high-end Category 3 hurricane that formed in the Arabian Sea, made landfall Monday night local time in Gujarat. It strengthened slightly as it hit the western state with maximum sustained winds of 205 kilometers per hour (125 mph), according to the United States’ Joint Typhoon Warning Center.
By Tuesday morning, it had weakened from an “extremely severe cyclonic storm” to a “severe cyclonic storm,” according to the Indian Meteorological Department (IMD).
Photos and videos show highways turned into rivers by the heavy rain, and trees and power lines toppled by ferocious winds. The cyclone has killed at least 26 people across the coastal states of Gujarat, Kerala, Karnataka, Goa and Maharashtra, according to state authorities.
The deaths were due to drowning at sea, house collapses, lightning strikes and other accidents linked to the severe weather, according to states’ disaster management authorities.
This comes as India reels from its second wave of coronavirus, which has infected millions and killed tens of thousands since it began in mid-March. Though daily case figures began declining over the past week, Covid-related deaths continue to break record highs and the crisis is far from over — especially in rural areas with fewer resources and medical supplies.
Covid patients were among the hundreds of thousands evacuated from low-lying areas this week as the region braced for the cyclone’s arrival. In Mumbai, 580 patients from makeshift care centers were moved to various hospitals on Friday and Saturday, according to the city’s municipal corporation.
It’s not the first time India has dealt with natural disasters during the pandemic — last year, the country faced cyclones in late May and early June that also prompted mass evacuations.
Back then, however, India’s cases were still relatively low, at fewer than 10,000 a day, and the country was emerging from a stringent lockdown.
This time, India is the global epicenter of the pandemic. Its health care system has collapsed and patients are still dying from shortages of oxygen and other supplies. The government is more fragile and under greater scrutiny than before, as it struggles to contain the outbreak while facing heavy criticism both at home and overseas.
And the cyclone could be just the harbinger of more disaster to come, as India’s months-long monsoon season approaches.
Courtesy of cnn.com
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