Citation
(2010), "On the web", Disaster Prevention and Management, Vol. 19 No. 5. https://doi.org/10.1108/dpm.2010.07319eag.001
Publisher
:Emerald Group Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2010, Emerald Group Publishing Limited
On the web
Article Type: On the web From: Disaster Prevention and Management, Volume 19, Issue 5
As a matter of course I have always tried to look at what local/national web broadcasters are publishing and how they present the news when a disastrous event occurs. What follows is a selection of such sources. I cannot vouch for the veracity of the information presented, but the flavor gives one a different outlook when compared with some of the sanitized versions presented in the Western countries (Editor).
Further flooding hits Pakistan
http://news.uk.msn.com/world/articles.aspx?cp-documentid=154287086
Flood waters have surged into Pakistan’s heartland and swallowed dozens of villages, adding to a week of destruction that has already ravaged the mountainous north west and killed 1,500 people.
The rush of muddy water over river banks in Punjab threatened to destroy vast stretches of crops that make the province Pakistan’s breadbasket, prompting the UN to warn that an estimated 1.8 million people will need to be fed in the coming weeks.
Adding to the misery, fresh rains in the north west threatened to overwhelm a major dam and unleash a new deluge, while rescue workers struggled to deliver aid to some 3.2 million people affected by the floods despite washed-out bridges and roads and downed communication lines.
The government has struggled to cope with the scale of the disaster at a time when it is grappling with a faltering economy and a brutal war against the Taliban.
Several foreign countries and aid organizations have stepped in to support the government, including the USA, which announced that it was sending six large military helicopters from Afghanistan to help with the relief effort.
But many flood victims have complained that aid is not reaching them fast enough or at all. That anger could grow as flood waters surge through the Punjab, Pakistan’s most populous province.
Water levels were so high in large tracts of Kot Addu and the nearby area of Layyah in the south of the province, that only treetops and uppermost floors of some buildings were visible, footage shot on a helicopter showed. People sought refuge on rooftops and tried to bring their livestock up as far as possible.
Punjab is home to many of Pakistan’s largest farms, and the loss of so many crops was one reason the UN’s World Food Programme estimated 1.8 million Pakistanis would need food assistance for at least the next month.
In the northwest, new downpours threatened to exacerbate flooding that was already the worst in generations. Of the 3.2 million people affected by flooding, 2.5 million live in the northwest, Unicef spokesman Marco Jimenez said in Geneva.
Rain is forecast for the next few days in the province and also in the Punjab, said the head of Pakistan’s meteorological department, Qamar-us-Zaman Chaudhry.
(pa.press.net, updated: August 4, 2010, 8:58.)
PM befooled by fake medical camp in Mianwali
Mianwali: Prime Minister Gilani was magnificently befooled in Mianwali when he visited a medical relief camp, which was amazingly set up moments before his arrival by local administration within premises of a private school, Geo News revealed.
The medical camp had been set up in emergency some minutes before PM arrived on a visit while some persons were also made fabricated patients to appear being treated at relief camp.
Authorities showed blind-to-fact PM Gilani as if the medical camp was functioning for long time in the area. However, no sooner did poor PM Gilani depart than there was no medical relief camp to be found in the area.
After reviewing the damage and displacement wreaked by floods in the area, PM was informed of the medical relief camp established for provision of medical aid for affectees and also he was insisted to visit camp.
On his arrival at camp, PM, the chief of country, was introduced persons lying on the beds being flood affectees, whom innocent PM Gilani not only granted compensation checs costing Rs5,000 each but also inquired after their wellbeing.
However, in reality, there are only an empty school, chairs, desks and school employees now in replacement of medical staff, patients and a medical relief camp.
(Updated: August 5, 2010, 9:23 PST.)
(This article has not been picked up by other news broadcasters so far as I can find out – Ed.)
Hope for Gulf as BP plugs well, most of the oil gone
On a pivotal day for the Gulf of Mexico oil disaster, BP plugged its stricken well while officials announced Wednesday that most of the toxic crude has been cleaned up or dispersed through natural processes.
Though undoubtedly the best day since the disaster began more than 15 weeks ago, US officials cautioned that a great deal of clean-up work remained and that the long-term impact could be felt for years, even decades, to come.
BP’s long-awaited “static kill” was conducted overnight as heavy drilling fluid was rammed into the busted Macondo well for eight hours, forcing the oil back down into the reservoir miles beneath the seabed.
We “have reached a static condition in the well that allows us to have high confidence that there will be no oil leaking into the environment,” US spill response chief Thad Allen told reporters at a White House briefing.
(Updated: August 5, 2010, New Orleans, 3:05 PST.)
Flood warning for Muzaffargarh issued
Muzaffargarh: Flood warning has been issued in Muzaffargarh district after the water level in Ring Pur canal reached a dangerous level, Geo News reported.
The residents have been asked to leave the area. Adequate transport facilities were not available making the evacuation more difficult where 400,000 people were waiting to move. DCO Muzaffargarh Farasat Iqbal told Geo News that the government would provide all resources to the citizens.
(Updated: August 9, 2010, 7:46 PST.)
Flood unfolds fury in Sindh
The flooded River Indus is wreaking havoc in various parts of Sindh, as several Sukkar villages are inundated, Geo News reported Monday.
River Indus sustained its high water level at Guddu and Sukkar Barrage that is running at present at 1130,000 cusecs, as water overwhelmed dozens of villages. Thousands of people have been rescued to safer places.
At least 35 villages are awash with floodwater in only Sukkar district.
Flood torrents engulfed several villages of Rorhi, Sangi, Pannu Aqil, Bachchal Shah Mayani with floodwater still roaring up short of couple of inches below the protective wall of the city in Sukkar.
Administration jump-started buttressing all those points that can allow seepage.
According to Irrigation Department, hundreds of irrigable lands sank under water when Jakobabad Begari Canal breached on three different places. Thal city has been cautioned to evacuate in view of flood.
Quetta-bound Bolan Mail from Karachi was stopped at Shikarpur Railway Station in the wake of Begari bund collapse.
According to DCO Jakobabad, Sindh-Balochistan Highway came under water after the Begari Canal bund breached; consequently, caveat has been issued to city for early evacuation. According to Project Director Abdul Sheikh, the river water breaking from Bhong Bund forced into Reni Canal, which is exposed to added risk of fissures in the event of water surge.
The flood torrents raging from District Ghotki and Obaro sustained its pressure on bunds, as people are relocating to safer places on self-help basis.
The wheat sacks worth millions of rupees lying under open skies in Ghotki/Obaro, wasted.
The water from a 50-foot wide breach in RDM-46 Canal at Gaon Sahib Khan Khosa of District Dadu, inundated several villages and hundreds of irrigable lands.
Thousands of people living in catchments areas are being shifted to safer places, as Larkana’s protective embankments of Nusrat, Aqil Agani and Purana Abad are under constant pressure of amassing water.
Several villages were cut off from each other and various roads including Abdur Rehman Unar Road and Keti Mir Muhammed Road of tehsil Kangri in District Khairpur, came under floodwater.
(Updated: August 9, 2010, Hyderabad/Sukkar, 13:32 PST.)
Flood losses beyond government resources: PM Gilani says devastation greater than 2005 quake (SUKKUR)
www.paktribune.com/news/index.shtml?230383
Prime Minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani on Sunday said that the floods had caused more destruction than the 2005 earthquake and the country’s resources could not cope with the losses.
However, the prime minister said the government will not leave the flood-affected people alone and would utilize all its resources to help them in this hour of trial. He was talking to the media during his visit to the Sukkur Barrage. The government will seek assistance from the international community after a detailed estimation of the losses once the flood is over, Gilani said. He appealed to the international community to stand by Pakistan in this hour of trial.
Prime Minister Gilani also directed the government organizations and activists of the Pakistan Peopleís Party (PPP) to take active part in the relief activities.
Earlier, at the office of Executive Engineer, Sukkur Barrage, the prime minister was given a briefing by Sindh Irrigation Secretary Shujauddin Junejo on the flood position, measures taken for rescue and assistance of the flood victims.
Gilani said it was believed that three districts of Sindh would be affected by the breach, which occurred in a bund on Friday. As a result, many more areas could submerge in water, he said. The government, he said, was striving to accelerate the rescue operation and not to spare any effort in the rehabilitation. The devastation and the loss caused by the flood are irrecoverable and the country has been pushed back by many years,î the premier said, adding: “Whatever we can do within our resources we are doing and will continue to do. However, the loss is far too great.”
Prime Minister Gilani said that he had spoken to US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and told her that the country had suffered a tremendous loss. It cannot be estimated for the time being as the flow of flood water is continuing and more water is pouring in. The number of victims could end up in millions. The Asian Development Bank (ADB) and the World Bank will be asked to make an estimate of the losses once the flood subsides, the prime minister said, adding the estimation will be shared with the world and the loss will be jointly surmounted. He said for expeditious rescue work, directives had been issued to all relevant organizations, including the Army, Navy, Air Force and the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) that no effort should be spared. Gilani said the immediate need was for food, water, medicines and camps for which the federal government would do everything possible. Arrangements will be made for food and tents will be dispatched, he added.
APP adds: Prime Minister Gilani also undertook an aerial view of the destruction caused by the flood, flying in a helicopter from the Sukkur Barrage to the Guddu Barrage. The prime minister also viewed the areas of Tori in Kandhkot besides Ghauspur and other areas.
Meanwhile, the premier has postponed the death anniversary of his father to express solidarity with the flood-hit people of the country. According to a press release issued by the prime minister’s media coordinator, the prime minister has put off anniversary proceedings of his father, Alamdar Hussain Gilani, scheduled for Ramazan 03. He said money for the purpose would be spent on provision of relief to flood-hit areas. The death anniversary of the prime minister’s father, who died in 1978, is observed on Ramazan 03 every year.
(August 9, 2010, 12:06 PST.)
Waters have exceeded the danger level at a key flood barrier in Pakistan’s southern province of Sindh
www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-south-asia-10910778
The Sukkur Barrage flooding means Sindh faces as much devastation as that seen further north in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Punjab provinces, say experts.
Enraged survivors have been physically attacking government officials in flood-hit areas, amid widespread anger at the pace of the relief effort.
At least 1,600 people have died in the region’s worst deluge in 80 years.
With more than 14 million people already affected, the monsoon rains show little sign of abating.
On Monday, a new international radio initiative called “info-as-aid” made its first broadcasts in Urdu and Pashto in an effort to spread information about accessing aid and also about countering disease.
(August 9, 2010, last updated at 13:13.)
TV channels “jammed”
Floodwaters have roared down from the north to the agricultural heartland of Punjab and on to Sindh along a trail more than 1,000 km (600 miles) long.
In the early hours of Monday morning, the water flow coming down the Sukkur Barrage was recorded at up to 1.4 m cusecs (cubic feet per second). It is only designed to withstand 900,000 cusecs.
Upper Sindh is already under water, and rescuers are continuing to evacuate people from the province, where the Indus riverbanks are at risk of bursting. Two million people have already left the area.
Meanwhile, two major private Pakistani television channels, Geo and Ary, have reportedly been blocked in Karachi and other parts of Sindh.
No official reason has been given, although correspondents say media criticism of President Asif Ali Zardari and his government’s response to the flood disaster is likely to have played a key role.
The networks had been reporting how a shoe was thrown at Mr Zardari during a rally organized by his Pakistan People’s Party in England on Saturday.
Police in the city of Birmingham said they escorted a heckler from the venue after he hurled the missile, which missed the president.
But the Pakistani government has denied the incident happened.
Minister stoned
Flood survivors have bitterly accused the authorities of failing to come to their rescue, with Mr Zardari in particular condemned for his trip to Europe last week.
On Sunday, a senior government minister’s convoy was attacked as she visited her constituency in the Muzaffargarh district of southern Punjab.
A policeman was injured as angry locals threw stones at the convoy transporting Hina Rabbani Khar, the minister for economic affairs.
In parts of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Punjab, officials have also received a rough welcome from flood survivors unhappy with the relief effort.
Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani said the country had been set back years, as he visited Sindh on Sunday.
The entire Swat valley, in northwest Pakistan, was cut off at the weekend, with even helicopters unable to reach it because of the poor weather.
With roads, bridges and railway tracks washed away, and deadly landslides increasing the isolation of many of the worst-hit areas, aid workers are having to use donkeys to deliver relief.
“It’s hard to get supplies there. I would like to emphasise we are moving by foot or donkey. We are unable to get in to most places of Swat valley,” Maurizio Giuliano, spokesman for the UN Office for the Co-ordination of Humanitarian Affairs, told news agency Reuters.
In the far north of the country, dozens of people were killed on Saturday when two villages were buried in mud and rocks. Nearly 30 bodies were recovered from rubble after landslides in Gilgit-Baltistan province.
The UN has said that Pakistan will need billions of dollars in aid to recover.
Meanwhile, charities with links to militants have been delivering aid to thousands of flood victims, as they did during the earthquake that devastated part of Pakistani-administered Kashmir in 2005.
BBC Urdu will transmit six daily bulletins in Urdu and Pashto providing vital information including how to stay safe, avoid disease and access aid.
Oil well sealed, but Gulf mayors say disaster’s conclusion still to come
George Altman, Press-Register http://blog.al.com/live/2010/08/oil_well_sealed_but_gulf_mayor.html
Solid cement now seals the broken Gulf of Mexico well, BP plc said Sunday, but the disaster’s true conclusion is still to come, and no one knows when, according to mayors along the coast.
“When is it going to be over? You know, we don’t know if we’re going to continue to have things wash up from time to time,” said Dauphin Island Mayor Jeff Collier, whose island has been battered with oil, tarballs and oil-slathered debris for months.
At this point, Collier said, he’s willing to take BP’s word that the company will continue cleanup and recovery efforts until Gulf environments and economies are fully restored.
Not everyone feels that way.
“I have no confidence in them at all,” said Tony Kennon, mayor of Orange Beach. “I can only base my beliefs on what I’ve seen, and in the claims process, I have not seen them honor their word.”
Kris Sliger, BP’s deputy incident commander for the state of Alabama, said the company is working to fix all the damage done by the oil spill, but he said what Kennon wants is “instantaneous gratification.”
“We have never said that we would make people whole instantaneously,” Sliger said. Still, he complimented Kennon’s dedication to the community and said the demand for quick action is “not an unreasonable expectation.”
After the Deepwater Horizon rig exploded April 20, killing 11, oil flowed into the Gulf at a rate of 2.2 million gallons per day, according to a US government estimate. In total, 172.2 million gallons of crude gushed into the water, the government said.
Three days after engineers finished pumping cement down the gusher, pressure tests showed Sunday that it has hardened, according to the company, and work crews can resume drilling the relief well meant to guarantee that no more oil leaks out.
Officials said they hope to complete drilling the final 100 feet of the relief well by next weekend, intersecting the shaft of the broken well deep under the ocean floor. Once that happens, engineers plan to pump in more mud and cement.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration continued to report no surface oil throughout the Gulf of Mexico, and the Press-Register received no reports of oil sightings locally Sunday. Meanwhile, cleanup officials said that an oil slick, 2 miles long and 6 to 12 inches wide, skimmed late last week from the waters off of Bayou La Batre was not related to the leak from BP’s well.
“It was refined product that was black in color,” said Coast Guard Petty Officer Scott Shorey. In contrast, oil from the leaking well has been reddish-orange, he said. “This was not that type of product.”
Cortnee Ferguson, a spokeswoman for the Mobile Joint Incident Command center, said the source of the oil has not been determined. Even though it appears not to have come from the company’s well, “BP did help respond to it and did clean that up,” she added.
BP’s delay in putting money into a $20 billion fund to pay for spill-related damage claims has soured Kennon’s view of the company, he said.
The company agreed in June, at President Barack Obama’s insistence, to set aside the money but has yet to make its first deposit.
Kennon said he believes the only way BP will fulfill its obligations is if the company is under “constant pressure” from state and federal officials.
Sliger said BP welcomes Kennon’s criticism, adding that the company has maintained a “very, very good dialogue” with the city.
“We will be here until this incident is finished,” Sliger said. While much emphasis has been placed on the economic repercussions of the spill, Collier said economic recovery ultimately depends on ecological recovery. “Paramount to me is the environment,” Collier said. “That has impacts across the board.” Oil has been reported bubbling up from more than a foot below the sand on Mississippi’s Horn Island, and Kennon said crude is similarly buried under Orange Beach sands.
“Anywhere that oil washed up on our beach, some has made it down below the surface,” Kennon said. He added that he thinks the underground oil stretches along most of the city’s beaches, so most of the shoreline sand will need to be dug up. Sliger disagreed, saying the buried oil is only sporadic.
“For most of the beaches, there is not any buried oil,” he said. “In some locations – those that we have marked – we know that there is what we call tarmats.”
Sliger said those would be cleaned and the Gulf Coast restored to conditions “equal to or better than” those that existed prior to the spill. That does not mean an oil-free Gulf, he noted.
“Oil is a natural part of the environment here,” Sliger said. “You will find tarballs almost anywhere that you traverse in the Gulf of Mexico.”
(Published: August 9, 2010, 5:00 am.)
(Staff Reporter Connie Baggett and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
The following is a public Comment on the article.)
Hemijendrix
all us folks on the coast want our lives back … we want our business back … we want our health back … but BIG OIL and the [apologies to BP] POLITICAL PARTY THEY OWN … have done great harm to our way of life on the gulf coast … it is obvious the oil is in the water column and on the sea bed … the first to feel the effects will be crabs and oysters … we may loose them … the fish eat the crabs and we eat the fish … the oil is now in the food chain (thank you dispersant’s) … the environmental and economic damage will be horrendous … let’s see if we can survive … drill baby drill
(August 9, 2010 at 7:49 am.)