Natural Calamities

At least 36 people have died and 23 others are missing in fresh flooding from torrential rains in China’s Gansu province, the latest in a string of natural disasters to strike China. The official Xinhua News Agency reported that the deaths came on Monday from flooding in Longnan city near Zhouqu.
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ZHOUQU, Gansu, – The death toll from a massive rain-triggered mudslide in Zhouqu County in northwest China’s Gansu Province has risen to 702, with 1,042 others still missing, local civil affairs authorities said Tuesday afternoon. Some 1,243 people have been rescued, Tian Baozhong, head of the provincial civil affairs department, told a news conference.
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Fierce wildfires raging across Russia are a risk to the top-secret capital of its nuclear research industry, officials admitted last night. Two soldiers were killed yesterday fighting blazes dangerously close to the highly sensitive town of Sarov, despite claims in recent days the fires were under control.
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A strong earthquake struck the island nation of Vanuatu on Wednesday, the U. S. Geological Survey said. The 6.0-magnitude quake, with a depth of 41 kilometers (26 miles), struck 75 kilometers (45 miles) west-northwest of the capital, Port Vila.
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Hopes are fading of finding more survivors from flooding and landslides in north-western China, as teams worked Wednesday to stave off disease outbreaks, three days after the disaster that killed at least 702 people.
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One of the world’s most powerful earthquakes in a century battered Chile on Saturday, killing at least 214 people as it toppled buildings and triggered tsunamis that ravaged a port town and threatened Pacific coastlines as far away as Japan. Buildings caught fire, others crumbled and bridges collapsed across swathes of central Chile, but...
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After a morning of rushed evacuations, the tsunami that reached Hawaii midday Saturday was smaller than officials had feared, causing no reported damage and never rising more than about three feet above sea levels, authorities said. The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center lifted its warning for Hawaii about two hours after the series of waves...
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Vehicles that were driving along a highway that collapsed during the earthquake near Santiago are seen overturned on the asphalt Saturday Feb. 27, 1010 after an 8.8-magnitude earthquake struck central Chile early Saturday. The quake hit 200 miles (325 kilometers) southwest of the capital and the epicenter was just 70 miles (115 kilometers) from...
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A tsunami advisory announced shortly after a 7.0-magnitude earthquake struck Japan’s Ryukyu Islands early Saturday has been canceled, Japan’s Meteorological Agency reported. There was no tsunami damage "though there may be slight sea level changes from now on," it said, referring to the areas affected by the advisory — the Okinawa Islands, the Amami...
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A massive magnitude 8.8 earthquake rocked Chile early Saturday, killing at least 78 people and triggering tsunami warnings for the entire Pacific basin. Chilean President Michelle Bachelet said she expected the death toll to rise. Numerous aftershocks — including one of magnitude 6.9 — were felt within hours of the initial quake, the U.S....
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