Natural Disasters

Indonesian rescuers recovered 10 bodies that were swept away in flash floods or buried under tons of mud and rocks that hit hilly villages on the country's main island of Java, officials said Monday. Two people are still missing. Torrential rains since last week have caused rivers to burst their banks, tearing through more than 170 villages in Sukabumi district of West Java province, as mud, rocks and trees tumbled down mountainside hamlets, said Lt Col Yudi Hariyanto, who heads a rescue command post in Sukabumi. Landslides, flash floods and strong winds devastated 172 villages and forced more than 3,000 people to flee to temporary government shelters, Hariyanto said. Authorities have warned nearly 1,000 people to evacuate as more than 400 houses are threatened by extreme weather. The disasters also destroyed 31 bridges, 81 roads and 539 hectares of rice fields, while 1,170 houses were flooded up to the roof. Extreme weather has also damaged more than 3,300 other houses and building

A series of moderate to strong earthquakes that struck Alaska's western Aleutian Islands and offshore areas Sunday comprised what scientists call a swarm," but the state's earthquake monitors said the seismic events should not cause residents to worry. There were no immediate reports of damage or injuries in the area around Adak, Amchitka and Kiska islands some 2,200 km west of Anchorage. Of the three remote islands, only Adak Island, with a population of about 300 people, is inhabited. Nine quakes measuring at least magnitude 5.0 struck on or near the islands and in a cluster offshore to the south Sunday morning and afternoon, according to the Alaska Earthquake Centre. Three of the quakes measured 6.0 or stronger, with the biggest a 6.3 temblor offshore. In a summary posted on its website Sunday night, the earthquake center said the 6.3 magnitude quake at a depth of about 18 km did not raise concern on its own because of its offshore location and the lack of damage reports, while

Congress MP Priyanka Gandhi Vadra on Friday asserted that disasters should not be about politics and said the people of landslides-hit Wayanad are looking towards the state and central governments with hope and "don't need excuses". She asserted that the people of Wayanad need urgent help to be able to rebuild their lives with dignity. "Disasters should not be about politics. Efforts to support the victims of such disasters must prioritise humanity and compassion," the Wayanad MP said on X. "The people of Wayanad are looking towards the State and Central Governments with hope, they don't need excuses, they need urgent help to be able to rebuild their lives with dignity," the Congress general secretary said. She said India stands strongest when every level of government works together to heal wounds and rebuild lives. The Centre and State must step up and fulfil its responsibility to the people of Wayanad, she asserted. Priyanka Gandhi also shared what she said was Home Minister A

A 5.3-magnitude earthquake shook Telangana's Mulugu district on Wednesday morning, which was unusually high for a state falling under low damage risk zone

Severe floods caused by monsoon rains killed more than 30 people and displaced tens of thousands in Malaysia and southern Thailand, officials said Tuesday, with both countries preparing shelters and evacuation plans in anticipation of more heavy rain. Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said five days of heavier-than-expected rain that battered the country's east coast last week was equal to the rainfall over the past six months, wreaking havoc in the northeastern state of Kelantan and neighbouring Terengganu. The heavy downpours damaged roads and houses in Kelantan and other parts of Malaysia. Rescue workers used boats to distribute food to victims trapped in their homes. Anwar said it would cost the government an estimated 1 billion ringgit (USD 224 million) to repair infrastructure damaged by the floods. The rain eased over the weekend, but the Meteorological Department forecast heavy rains later Tuesday. Anwar said the government is bracing for another monsoon surge that is .

In Sri Lanka, 16 people were killed, with heavy rains affecting a total of 138,944 families, the latest data from the Disaster Management Centre in Colombo showed

Eight people, including six children returning from school, have gone missing in Sri Lanka when the farm tractor they were traveling on was swept away by floods triggered by heavy rains, police said Wednesday. Army and navy troops were deployed to rescue victims and provide food and other essentials to those affected. Sri Lanka has experienced heavy downpours and strong winds over the past two days that have flooded homes, fields and roads and forced authorities to suspend train services in tea-growing mountain areas. In the worst incident, a farm tractor carrying 11 school children was swept away Tuesday evening in the eastern region of the country, police said. Five children were rescued while six other children along with the driver and another adult are still missing in the incident near the town of Karaitivu. A search operation is underway, police said in a statement. Separately, a woman died when a brick wall collapsed on her in the mountainous region of Badulla in the centr

A major storm swept across the northwest US on Tuesday evening, battering the region with strong winds and rain and causing widespread power outages and downed trees that killed at least one person. The Weather Prediction Centre issued excessive rainfall risks through Friday and hurricane-force wind warnings were in effect as the strongest atmospheric river a large plume of moisture that California and the Pacific Northwest has seen this season overwhelms the region. The storm system is considered a bomb cyclone, which occurs when a cyclone intensifies rapidly. Downed trees struck homes and littered roads across northwest Washington. In Lynnwood, Washington, a woman died Tuesday night when a large tree fell on a homeless encampment, South County Fire said in a statement on X. In Seattle, a tree fell onto a vehicle, temporarily trapping a person inside, the Seattle Fire Department reported. The agency later said the individual was in stable condition. Trees are coming down all ov

The dawn-to-dusk hartal called by the ruling LDF and opposition UDF in Wayanad district in Kerala on Tuesday saw shops largely remaining closed and vehicles blocked in many areas. The CPI(M)-led LDF and the Congress-headed UDF announced hartals separately to protest against the lack of Central assistance for the landslide victims in the mountain district even months after the disaster. Both the ruling and the opposition parties wanted the BJP-led union government to declare the landslide calamity as a national disaster and provide required assistance for the relief and rehabilitation of the survivors at the earliest. While the LDF alleged that the denying of Central assistance to Wayanad was due to political reasons and the union government had grudges towards the state, the UDF criticised the Left government in the state for the continuing plight of the landslide survivors. In many places, those supporting the hartal blocked vehicles, causing traffic snarls since morning. The ...

US National Hurricane Center (NHC) forecast that Sara will weaken as it moves further inland over Mexico's Quintana Roo state

The MoS stated that the financial assistance provided under SDRF and NDRF is by way of relief and not for compensation

China has provided financial assistance to the tune of Rs 30 million to compensate for damage caused due to natural disasters from January to October this year, the government said on Saturday. Furthermore, material assistance worth 10 million Yuan is expected from China under the Emergency Humanitarian Assistance Programme, a statement from the President's Media Division (PMD) said. Sri Lanka saw two rounds of massive flooding this year with over two dozen deaths and displacement of more than 50,000 people across the country. The Chinese financial assistance totaling approximately Rs 30 million has been forwarded to the Treasury, the PMD said. Earlier on October 30, the Chinese Embassy in Sri Lanka had handed over USD 1,00,000 (approximately LKR 30 million) and relief material worth LKR 400 million as aid on flood relief to President Anura Kumara Dissanayake. In addition, the Department of National Budget has allocated further financial provisions to the Ministry of Defence for t

To enhance the efficiency and effectiveness of the emergency response system in Himachal Pradesh, the state government is working diligently to strengthen the State Disaster Response Force (SDRF), Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu said on Wednesday. In this effort, the state government has taken two important decisions. First, the entire response framework will be unified under the additional director general of home guards and civil defence, ensuring a coordinated approach to any emergency or disaster management. Secondly, home guards will be assigned to SDRF for a period of two years to reinforce the system's capacity and resilience, a statement issued here said. "The state government is prioritising the strengthening of SDRF in view of the increasing frequency of cloudbursts and other natural disasters," Sukhu said in the statement. "The state government intends to make the system more organised and effective to safeguard lives and reduce losses. Himachal Pradesh is vulnerabl

Rescue workers on Tuesday were sifting through smoldering debris and thick mud in search of survivors, a day after a volcano on Indonesia's remote island of Flores erupted with fury, killing at least nine people with its searing lava and ash. Mount Lewotobi Laki Laki spewed thick brownish ash as high as 2,000 meters (6,500 feet) into the air, and searing lava, gravel and ash were thrown up to seven kilometers (4.3 miles) from its crater, blanketing nearby villages and towns with tons of volcanic debris and forcing residents to flee. The National Disaster Management Agency on Tuesday lowered the known death toll from an earlier report of 10, saying it had received updated information from rescuers that a victim trapped under tons of debris in a collapsed house who was feared dead was eventually rescued alive and was now in critical condition at a hospital. The agency said 63 other people were hospitalized, 31 of them with serious injuries. More than 2,400 villagers streamed into ...

World Tsunami Awareness Day is celebrated every year on November 5 to boost people's understanding of the harmful effects of tsunamis and the safety measures during tsunamis

Odisha Revenue and Disaster Management minister Suresh Pujari on Monday said as per preliminary assessment severe cyclone Dana has caused damage to public and private properties worth around Rs 600 crore in the state. 'Dana' struck the eastern coast early on October 25, triggering torrential rain and high-speed winds uprooting trees and electric poles and causing significant damage to infrastructure and crops in 14 districts of Odisha. Speaking to media persons here, Pujari said as per preliminary estimate the state suffered Rs 600 crore damage due to the cyclone. The final damage assessment report will come up in a day or two, he said. The minister said that a total of 166 blocks in 14 districts have been either partially or fully affected by the cyclone. The districts are - Angul, Balasore, Bhadrak, Cuttack, Dhenkanal, Ganjam, Jagatsinghpur, Jajpur, Kendrapara, Keonjhar, Mayurbhanj, Nayagarh, Khurda, and Puri. A huge volume of standing crops and houses have been damaged in the ..

In a matter of minutes, flash floods caused by heavy downpours in eastern Spain swept away everything in their path. With no time to react, people were trapped in vehicles, homes and businesses. Many died and thousands saw livelihoods shattered. Four days later, authorities have recovered 205 bodies 202 of them in the eastern Valencia region, two in Castilla La Mancha and one in Andalusia. They continued to search for an unknown number of missing people on Friday. Thousands of volunteers were helping to clear away the thick layers of mud and debris that still covered houses, streets and roads, all while facing power and water cuts and shortages of some basic goods. Inside some of the vehicles that the water washed into piles or crashed into buildings, there were still bodies waiting to be identified. Here are a few things to know about Spain's deadliest storm in living memory: What happened? The storms concentrated over the Magro and Turia river basins and, in the Poyo riverbed,

In a televised statement, Sanchez said the government was sending 5,000 more army troops to help with the searches and clean-up in addition to 2,500 soldiers already deployed

Principal Secretary to the Prime Minister P K Mishra has affirmed India's commitment to the Sendai Framework for disaster risk reduction and called for increased international collaboration on knowledge sharing, technology transfer and sustainable development to enhance disaster resilience globally. Mishra said this while participating in the G-20 Disaster Risk Reduction Working Group (DRRWG) ministerial meeting in Belem, Brazil, according to an official release. He led a high-level Indian delegation which took part in the meeting held from October 30 to November 1. With the active participation of the Indian delegation, a consensus was arrived at on finalising the first ministerial declaration on Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR), the release issued by the Union Ministry of Home Affairs said. During various sessions, Mishra shared the progress made by the government of India in reducing disaster risks and in upscaling disaster financing. He emphasised India's proactive approach to ..

As of Friday morning, strong winds and heavy rain from the storm had caused two deaths, injured 515 people and left four others unaccounted for