. Earth Science News .
DISASTER MANAGEMENT
Rescuers in place as typhoon powers towards Philippines

Filipino elementary school students use chairs to cross a flooded yard inside their school grounds in Taytay, Rizal province east of Manila, on October 20, 2009. The Philippine military deployed boats and helicopters to the north of the country on October 19, as officials warned Typhoon Lupit could cause more devastation after two storms claimed nearly 1,000 lives. The typhoon was not due to hit the main island of Luzon until Thursday, but authorities were on full alert as the region was still struggling to recover from the twin storms that caused massive flooding and deadly landslides. Photo courtesy AFP.Carter to build homes in Asia
Former US president Jimmy Carter will head to Asia next month to lead thousands of volunteers building homes for the poor in five nations along the Mekong River, a humanitarian group said Tuesday. The volunteers for Habitat for Humanity will build or repair 166 homes in Cambodia, China, Laos, Thailand and Vietnam on the November 15-20 tour, the Atlanta-based Christian group said. "In an area of the world where many people live in deplorable conditions, we have a chance to help families improve their housing," the 85-year-old former president said in a statement. The project will start in Thailand's Chiang Mai province where Carter, his wife Rosalynn and others will join local families in building 82 homes -- a number picked to honor King Bhumibol Adulyadej's 82nd birthday on December 5. The Carters will then help build houses in villages near the Vietnamese and Cambodian capitals, Hanoi and Phnom Penh, and take part in the construction of multi-story housing for hundreds of families in the southwestern Chinese province of Sichuan. Habitat for Humanity volunteers will also refurbish homes in Laos but the Carters will not take part in that leg of the trip, said Katie Evans, a spokeswoman for the group. The Carters have devoted one week annually for the past 25 years to the Habitat for Humanity projects to help low-income people in the United States and abroad build and own their own homes. Carter, who lost his bid for re-election in 1980, has also devoted his post-presidency to mediating conflicts and promoting human rights and democracy, an effort that won him the Nobel Peace Prize in 2002.
by Staff Writers
 Manila (AFP) Oct 20, 2009
 Hundreds of rescuers and tonnes of emergency supplies were put in place across the northern Philippines on Tuesday as Typhoon Lupit threatened to dump more deadly rains on the storm-ravaged region.

Preparations were also being made to evacuate residents from areas in the direct path of Lupit, which was packing gusts of up to 230 kilometres (142 miles) an hour and expected to make landfall on Thursday, authorities said.

Lupit was set to be the third major storm in less than a month to pound Luzon island, and many areas remain extremely vulnerable to further bad weather with dams already overflowing and soaked soil unable to absorb more rain.

Tropical storms Ketsana and Parma claimed nearly 1,000 lives in the nation's capital, Manila, and other areas of Luzon.

Bonifacio Cuarteros, the civil defence chief in Cagayan province, where Lupit was expected to cause most damage, said rescue teams and dozens of trucks capable of passing through floods had been deployed along the northeast coast.

Deploying the roughly 500 rescue personnel in advance would make it easier for them to bring people out of danger if the weather turned for the worse, he added.

The national government had also placed rescue teams on standby and placed relief goods in Cagayan and neighbouring regions, authorities said.

The National Disaster Coordinating Council said 90 tonnes of food and other relief items had been trucked to northern Luzon, while 44 tonnes were being flown to the sparsely populated Batan island group further to the north.

The Japan Meteorological Agency said Lupit was creating a broad front of 440 kilometres and could potentially cause bad weather across all of the upper half of Luzon that is still recovering from the previous two storms.

Ketsana pounded Manila and areas neighbouring the capital with the heaviest rains in more than four decades on September 26, killing 420 people.

The health department said another 106 people died from ensuing disease outbreaks.

Typhoon Parma struck a week later and hovered over northern Luzon as a tropical storm for days, triggering landslides that killed 438.

Share This Article With Planet Earth
del.icio.usdel.icio.us DiggDigg RedditReddit
YahooMyWebYahooMyWeb GoogleGoogle FacebookFacebook



Related Links
 Bringing Order To A World Of Disasters
A world of storm and tempest
When the Earth Quakes


Memory Foam Mattress Review
SPACE MEDIA NETWORK PROMOTIONS
 Solar Energy Solutions
Tempur-Pedic Mattress Comparison ...
Newsletters :: SpaceDaily :: SpaceWar :: TerraDaily :: Energy Daily
XML Feeds :: Space News :: Earth News :: War News :: Solar Energy News


DISASTER MANAGEMENT
Death toll from Philippine storms nears 1,000: govt
 Manila (AFP) Oct 19, 2009
 The death toll from two devastating storms that struck the Philippines over the past month has risen to 858, with ensuing disease outbreaks killing 89 others, the government said Monday. The latest National Disaster Coordinating Council toll is up from 818 on Sunday. It said Tropical Storm Ketsana left 420 dead and 37 missing when it flooded 80 percent of Manila on September 26, a ... read more






The content herein, unless otherwise known to be public domain, are Copyright 1995-2009 - SpaceDaily. AFP and UPI Wire Stories are copyright Agence France-Presse and United Press International. ESA Portal Reports are copyright European Space Agency. All NASA sourced material is public domain. Additional copyrights may apply in whole or part to other bona fide parties. Advertising does not imply endorsement,agreement or approval of any opinions, statements or information provided by SpaceDaily on any Web page published or hosted by SpaceDaily. Privacy Statement