Snow storms in the US

Looks like we have some storms rolling in throughout the USA.

Snow storms are coming in from Utah up to South Dakota.  Rain storms are throughout South Carolina and Georgia as well as Michigan. 

The Midwest will be experiencing a lot of snow coming up as well as extremely cold temperatures.  There has already been 30 inches of snow recorded.  Dangerous road conditions is the hazard caused.

It's even forecasted that California could possibly be getting snow around San Francisco if the snow goes further than what is in the map below. 

Times like these you can really see good examples of adaption.  We have a great warning system that shows where the snow is likely to hit so we can all prepare.  For those in California and southern states, snow is a huge deal and they are likely to keep off the roads and cancel school for snow storms.  Up in the mid-west, we have cars built to handle these conditions and we'll have snow plows out right away.

Post Philippines Typhoon

Behavior Paradigm:
Catagory 5 Super Typhoon
The people of the Philippines were able to predict where the Typhoon was likely to hit and therefore could evacuate 800,000 people.

The Philippines has had 182 disasters since 2002 but this was the most devastating typhoon since 1990.  And it was the largest typhoon/cyclone that hit land to be recorded and hit record wind speed.


Why was this one so large?  Global climate change?!?!?!?!

The typhoon hit where there was a large density of people with poorly constructed houses causing a lot of destruction and deaths.  Even though they evacuated many people and are used to disasters, the relief efforts had a hard time getting to them because of damage to transportation.  Evacuation areas also were low on supplies and food leaving many people hungry for days.


Now the Philippines is recovering in a mess filled with corpses, flooded villages, broken houses, and crops that have been uprooted.  Many of the people are left without jobs as well.  There are efforts to help rebuild the damaged areas of the Philippines and start to put up defenses to help prevent some destruction for future events.

Philippines Typhoon

Just last week, the Philippines was struck by a massive Typhoon.  The storm's winds were at 195 mile per hour with wind gusts up to 235 mph.  The storm destroyed 70-80% of structures in it's path.  Some cities are left almost completely under water.
An estimated 10,000 people were killed by the last week's Typhoon in the Philippines, that number could increase once rescuers reach the remote villages. Hundreds of thousands of people have been displaced.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-24894529

Mitigation: Many people were left waiting for rescue without food, water or medicine.  Even people who did make it to shelter have been there without food. The rescue efforts were hindered because of the damage of transportation methods.  Roads, bridges and airports have either been destroyed or covered in wreckage.

 90 U.S. Marines are on their way to provide assistance.  UNICEF is rushing emergency supplies to the Philippines.  Many other Countries are sending in more help and relief efforts are taking donations.


http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/11/10/us-philippines-typhoon-idUSBRE9A603Q20131110

Adaption: Warnings for the storm were not given in time for the Philippines but they were able to predict that the storm would be headed to Vietnam/Southern China.  The warnings made it possible for many people to evacuate before the storm hits.


http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-202_162-57611886/philippines-typhoon-victims-beg-for-help-as-aid-slowly-trickles-in/

The map below shows the path of the typhoon.  The red areas represent destroyed areas while the yellow is the heavily damaged areas.  Areas in white have unknown data at this time.

 

http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2013/11/11/world/asia/typhoon-haiyan-map.html?_r=0

 

Granite peak snow

Kind of a funny weather hazard that happened in Wausau the other day.  The Granite Peak Ski Hill started making snow and because of just the right atmospheric conditions, the snow made it over to my parents neighborhood.  This doesn't seem like such a light snow could be hazardous but because it wasn't cold enough for the snow to stay snow, it made for very slippery conditions.

Several car accidents happened because of the icey conditions resulting in detoured roads.  According to some drivers, the detours became jammed because of two additional car accidents.

 The map below shows where Rib Mountain's Granite Peak Skill is compared to the area affected by the snow.

The general manager of the ski hill says that she recieves many complaints each year about the man-made snow causing slippery road conditions.  Seriously complainers, The hill is Wausau's biggest tourist attraction and creates additional hobbies for the locals.  We live in Wisconsin, Iced roads is something you need to learn to deal with!

Toxic Smog- China

A heavy, Toxic smog is covering NE China.  The smog has caused many schools to close down, flights have been delayed, trains and buses stopped running and it has caused some highway closings.  It is expected that the fog will worsen within the next 24 hours bringing visability down to 100 meters, in a few spots the visability had gone down to 20 meters. People have been buying protective masks to keep from inhaling the bad air. "My mask turned black after I wore it for half an hour," said a citizen of Harbin.

http://www.cnn.com/2013/10/22/world/asia/china-smog-lingers/

 



This hazard is technological because it is due to air pollutants caused by humans. The big pollutant emissions are from coal-burning, vehicle exhaust and the burning of crop stalk on the outskirts, according to environmental authorities in Heilongjiang.

There isn't much protection against something like this without stopping constant pollution.  The defense is mainly adaption because they had masks ready for sale.  They are also able to warn the rest of the country that are in danger of the smog to roll in.  Other protective measures include keeping people indoors(especially the elderly or young children).

http://www.newsbullet.in/world/52-more/46748-china-city-shutdown-due-to-hazardous-smog

http://www.cnn.com/2013/10/22/world/asia/china-smog-lingers/

Philippines Earthquake

A Philippines Earthquake hit this morning around 8am.  It was a magnitude 7.1 causing 93 deaths.  The roads and bridges were down and it made for some difficult rescue efforts.


http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-24530042

Just as we talked about today there was some developemental pressure in the road/bridge structures in the area as well as housing, government buildings, schools, hospitals and some of their well known churches.  The structures clearly weren't built to withstand such an Earthquake even though the area is prone to Earthquakes.  The lucky thing about the earthquake hitting today was that it is the Muslim festival of Eid al-Adha so schools and offices were closed which had saved many lives.


http://www.cnn.com/2013/10/14/world/asia/philippines-earthquake/

September 7th of 2012 there was a magnitude 6.9 earthquake that caused similar damage as you can see in the photo below.






http://www.cnn.com/2013/10/14/world/asia/philippines-earthquake/
http://www.weather.com/news/72-magnitude-earthquake-strikes-phillipines-least-4-dead-20131014
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-24530042

Japan Nuclear Leak

http://america.aljazeera.com/articles/2013/10/6/japan-asks-for-worldshelponfukushimaleaks.html
 Japan had a major Nuclear power plant leak about 2 years ago caused by a damaging earthquake. Japanese officials acknowledge that nuclear waste has been flowing into the pacific ocean for the last two years.  Japan is really hoping for some overseas help which would be a good idea because the radioactive leak could potentially spread to our shore.

The flow started at spilling about 300 tons a day.  The biggest health concern is the leak infecting the fish near the area.

Right now to treat this they have treated water in the tanks to remove cesium which is one of the more harmful radioactive elements.  The Japanese government will be funding the building of an ice wall to prevent the spreading of toxic materials to the pure waters.

This was a technological hazard because it was caused by human technologies.  There is nothing we can do to prevent an Earthquake but they could have taken measures to prevent this amount of damage.  Nuclear power has some harsh effects when mistakes are made which is why it's always good to be extra cautious.  Clearly Japan didn't go above and beyond while trying to keep the ocean safe from their radioactive chemicals.  Knowing that Japan is prone to Earthquakes they could have taken better procaution and built up this area better and away from water.



http://www.foxnews.com/world/2013/09/04/look-at-radioactive-water-leaks-at-japan-fukushima-nuclear-power-plant-and/

http://america.aljazeera.com/articles/2013/10/6/japan-asks-for-worldshelponfukushimaleaks.html

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-24377520