Dhaka – River ports in several districts across the country have been asked to hoist ‘riverine warning signal no. 2’ amid forecast of temporary west or north-westerly squalls.
Category: Disasters
USAID, NASA to expand flood early warnings in Bangladesh
News Desk In May, the first rains of the monsoon season are just starting to fall. In some countries, the rains signal relief. In Bangladesh, they mean preparing for potential disaster.
US warns of Mosul dam collapse in northern Iraq
The US embassy in Baghdad has warned the risk of the Mosul Dam collapsing is “serious and unprecedented” and has urged people to be ready to evacuate. Maintenance work was disrupted after the dam was briefly seized by militants from…
Fukushima meltdown announcement made months late
The reactor meltdown at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant hit by a devastating tsunami in 2011 should have been announced much sooner, the operator admitted this week. In a statement, the Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) said that a public…
Furious cyclone tears through Fiji, kills 3
Wellington — Officials in Fiji scrambled to assess damage Sunday in the wake of a ferocious cyclone that tore through the Pacific island chain, leaving at least three dead and collapsing hundreds of homes as people were sheltering from winds…
Break desperation that lead to emergencies, disasters: IFAD
Rome – Against a backdrop of new reports that show the number of refugees entering Europe has continued to skyrocket, senior government officials attending the final day of the International Fund for Agricultural Development’s 39th Governing Council, renewed their commitment…
Iraq reports theft of deadly radioactive device
Iraq has informed an international watchdog agency of the theft last November of an industrial radiography device that carries potentially fatal radioactive substances. Iraqi officials told Reuters that they fear the “highly dangerous” radioactive materials in the device could be…
Cliffs collapse into sea as quake hits New Zealand
A strong 5.7 magnitude earthquake struck near Christchurch in New Zealand on Sunday, causing cliffs to collapse into the sea but no major damage to the city, which was devastated by a 2011 quake which killed nearly 200 people.
18 died in Taiwan earthquake
At least 18 people were killed and more than 500 were injured Saturday morning when a magnitude-6.4 earthquake hit Taiwan, the official Central News Agency reported.More than 350 people were rescued from damaged structures, many from a 16-story residential building…
Eleven dead after powerful Taiwan quake fells buildings
Taiwan – A powerful earthquake in Taiwan felled a 16-storey apartment complex full of families who had gathered for Lunar New Year celebrations Saturday, with at least eleven dead and more than 30 feared trapped. The death toll was rising…
When New York under massive blizzard
The massive blizzard that walloped New York on Saturday came up one-tenth of an inch short of history. The storm dumped a whopping 26.8 inches of snow on the city, just short of the record set in 2006 and the…
New York, Washington snowed in
A blizzard that has paralyzed much of the US East Coast intensified on Saturday, bringing Washington to a standstill and forcing the closure of roads, bridges and tunnels into New York until Sunday morning.In all, there were at least 19…
US East Coast states paralysed by record snowstorm
All non-essential travel has been banned in New York, transport suspended and bridges shut as the city is hit by one of its worst snowstorms. Parts of the eastern United States have received 40in (102cm) of snowfall in a huge…
Demolish tilted building at Mohammadpur in a week: Rajuk
The authorities have given the owners of a tilted building at Mohammadpur in Dhaka seven days to demolish it. The Rajdhani Unnayan Kartripakkha (RAJUK), the capital development authority, gave the order on Monday. It declared the four-storied building at Tajmahal…
Waters of Shitalakhya, Buriganga unfit for use
Stinky polluted waters of the rivers Shitalakhya and Buriganga hardly come to the use of the local residents.Though they regularly pay bills to WASA, they do not have access to the supply of clean water.
Strong quake kills 5 in NE India, one in Bangladesh, injures over 100
A magnitude-6.7 earthquake struck north-eastern India on Monday, killing five people in India, one in Bangladesh, and damaging buildings and infrastructure, according to a report from India. The quake hit at 4:35 am (2305 GMT Sunday) about 29 kilometres west…
El Nino weather ‘could be as bad as 1998’, says Nasa
The US space agency Nasa has warned that the effects of the current El Nino weather phenomenon could be as bad as those of 1998, the strongest on record. That El Nino played havoc with world weather systems and was…
Britain sends in more troops as York city flooded
York – British Prime Minister David Cameron was expected to visit flood-stricken parts of northern England on Monday, as troops helped tackle a deluge that has swamped the historic city of York. The government has dispatched hundreds of soldiers to…
Texas tornadoes: ‘Eleven killed’ in Dallas suburbs
Dhaka – Eleven people are reported to have been killed in Texas after new tornadoes, raising the death toll to 26 in a week of storms in several US states. Local media said five people in cars were probably blown…
Huge waves of industrial waste have left scores missing in China
By VICE News and Reuters At least 91 people were missing after a giant mound of mud and construction waste spewed out of an overfull dump site in a southern China boomtown and buried 33 buildings in the country’s latest…
91 still missing as landslide buries buildings in China
Hundreds of rescue workers are looking for survivors after a landslide hit 33 buildings in the southern Chinese city of Shenzhen. Seven people were pulled from the rubble with minor injuries but 91 people are still missing, according to Shenzhen…
4 rescued over 100 missing in Indonesia passenger boat sinking
Makassar, Dec 20 — At least four survivors were pulled from choppy waters in central Indonesia on Sunday as high waves and bad weather hampered attempts to reach a sinking passenger boat with more than 120 people aboard, officials said.…
EU adopts record €1.1 billion humanitarian budget for 2016
Brussels – As global humanitarian needs are set to reach a historic high in 2016, the European Commission is stepping up its humanitarian budget to record levels. The European Commission on Thursday adopted its humanitarian aid budget for 2016. With…
Myanmar landslide: 90 dead at Kachin jade mine
A landslide at a jade mine has killed at least 90 people in northern Myanmar, witnesses say. The victims were buried when a vast heap of waste material, discarded by the mining companies, collapsed in Kachin state, Burmese media reported.…
Nearly 100 killed in India Tamil Naidu rain-induced flood
New Delhi – Incessant rains continued to disrupt normal life in Chennai and across Tamil Nadu on Monday, with the death toll rising to 95. Many areas in Chennai have been inundated, road traffic has been severely hit and schools…
ECNEC to approve mega project on river management
The Executive Committee of the National Economic Council (Ecnec) is likely to approve a mega project on Thursday, aiming to protect around 2.5 million people in the country’s north-western region from erosion by the Jamuna River and thus help them…
Quake death toll 275 in Afghanistan, Pakistan, injured 2000
Rescue efforts are being stepped up to help those affected by the magnitude-7.5 earthquake which hit remote areas of Afghanistan and Pakistan on Monday. At least 275 people are known to have died, and up to 2,000 were injured. Rescue…
Forecasts fail to predict seesawing sea levels
Manila – The ongoing El Niño underscores an urgent need for better risk forecasting models to help small island developing states (SIDS) in the Pacific adapt to rapid swings in sea levels, researchers say. “Enhanced lead time before a sea…
Sustainable tech must to reduce risk of natural disasters: Experts
Experts yesterday emphasized for ensuring sustainable technology, identification of vulnerable infrastructures and its remedy to reduce causalities from the risk of natural disasters.
People displaced by climate induced disaster have right to survive: Mahmood ali
Dhaka – Foreign Minister AH Mahmood Ali has said climate change induced disaster displaced people have the right to survive and all need to look at the displaced persons’ ‘choice’ and ‘ability’ to move elsewhere.