DRR

Where did Hokkaido earthquake hit?  Japan has experienced another natural disaster in the form of a magnitude 6.6 earthquake which has killed two people and left 120 injured. The major tremor hit Japan’s northern island of Hokkaido on Thursday just before dawn local time. The quake, which struck 27km east of Tomakomai, knocked out power to Hokkaido’s 5.3 million residents. Despite the tremor hitting at a depth of 33.4 km (20.8 miles), the earthquake caused major destruction and led to major landslides which buried a number of homes at the foot of a ridge. The majority of people were inured in Hokkaido’s capital Sapporo, Kazuya Isaki, an official with the Crisis Management Office of Hokkaido Prefecture Government. In Atsuma in southern Hokkaido, near the epicentre of the quake, aerial footage showed dozens of landslides exposing barren hillsides with mount of reddish earth and toppled trees piled up at the edge of green fields. The powerful earthquake ...

What caused the Kerala floods? Could we have done anything to prevent it? Rains. Lots of rain. That's all it took for the state of Kerala to flood in neck-deep water, for massive landslides to lay waste to roads and homes and for hundreds to lose their lives. The floods didn’t discriminate between people and property. At last count,  357 people  lost their lives, and the floods destroyed roughly  906,400 hectares  worth of crops. The cost to the state and its people stands at a staggering  Rs 19,512 crore . For the state's oldest living generation, this was take two. The last rival to a flood of this scale and severity in Kerala was in 1924, where monsoons pelted the hapless state with  3,368 mm  of rain. At the time, over 1,000 people are said to have lost their lives, not to mention an enormous toll on livestock. The 2,086 mm of rainfall this year is nowhere near as bad, but still ...