Wednesday, September 30, 2009

Toll from Typhoon Ketsana climbs- More than 100 000 are misplaced may reach to 300 000 peoples.


At least 86 people were killed and dozens of others were missing early Monday after a tropical storm swept through the northern Philippines, causing Manila's worst flooding in nearly half a century, officials said. A resident retrieved a teddy bear washed away from her house near Quezon City, north of Manila, on Monday.


Two women scraped mud from the floor of a home in Marikina City on Sunday.


People waded in the chest-deep floodwater in Cainta. Officials said the flooding was Manila's worst in nearly half a century. A flooded hospital in Cainta, east of Manila, was evacuated on Sunday.



Filipinos waited for relatives stranded by the floods in Cainta. Officials said nearly 300,000 people were displaced by the storm; tens of thousands were brought to evacuation centers in schools, churches, gymnasiums and public parks.


An aerial view of Marikina City, where flooding forced some people to pitch tents.


Members of the United States Navy evacuated a woman who was about to give birth in a flooded area in Pasig City, eastern Manila on Sunday.


Survivors viewed the remains of friends and relatives who fell victim to deadly flash floods in Manila over the weekend. The death toll was expected to rise sharply as more reports of casualties came in from provinces outside the capital.


Rescuers carried the corpse of a child who was found in a residential area of Quezon City, eastern Manila.


Nearly 2 million people were affected, with more than 100,000 displaced from their homes after the storm dumped 16.7 inches of rain in just 12 hours on Saturday. Filipinos helped each other pull a house that was uprooted by floods.



Soldiers loaded bags of relief goods into a military truck for distribution to flood victims at the armed forces headquarters in Quezon City.


Inside a morgue in the town of Tanay, Rizal, east of Manila, a relative reacted after confirming the identity of a loved one killed by the floods.


A Filipino covered in mud carried a fan recovered from the floods in Marikina City.


The Philippine government appealed for international help as the death toll rose to at least 240 due to floods caused by Typhoon Ketsana. A woman washed clothes recovered from her house, which was destroyed, in the town of Pilila Rizal, east of Manila, on Monday.


The amount of rain that fell was the largest in nearly half a century, according to the government weather bureau, and flooded 80 percent of the metropolis of 12 million people. A medical patient trapped during the flooding was evacuated by navy personnel.


Children slept at a makeshift evacuation center in Cantas on the outskirts of Manila on Monday.



Typhoon Ketsana's deadly toll is causing grief and loss



The town of Angono, just east of Manila, was still covered with floodwaters on Tuesday, three days after tropical storm Ketsana hit the country.


Worst flood cause by Typhoon Ketsana, dump water amount more than half a century records.


The death toll from Typhoon Ketsana in Vietnam has risen to at least 85, a relief official has said.

The official from the national flood and storm control committee said 24 of the deaths occurred in the mountainous inland province of Kon Tum.

There were also 16 people missing and 124 injured, across the central region.

The powerful typhoon that fatally hit the Philippines and Vietnam is now weakening over Cambodia, where several people died and hundreds lost homes.

In Vietnam, the official from the national flood and storm control committee said 24 of the deaths occurred in the mountainous inland province of Kon Tum.

Across the central region there were 16 people missing and 124 injured, the official said.

As residents dealt with the aftermath of Tropical Storm Ketsana, the government was facing criticism on two fronts: Did it provide enough warning before the floods, and was it doing enough to help people recover?

To help with the recovery, the government on Monday appealed for international help as the death toll rose to at least 240.

The American Embassy deployed Navy personnel to help out in the rescue and relief operations and also promised $50,000 in immediate disaster aid.

“The system is overwhelmed, local government units are overwhelmed,” Anthony Golez, a spokesman of the National Disaster Coordinating Council, told reporters during a briefing on Monday. “Our assets and people are spread too thinly.”

The tropical storm arrived in the Philippines over the weekend, releasing the largest amount of rainfall in nearly half a century and flooding 80 percent of Greater Manila before moving on to Vietnam, where it has killed at least 23 people, The Associated Press reported Tuesday morning.

Nearly 2 million people in the Manila area were affected, including more than 100,000 who were displaced after the storm dumped 16.7 inches of rain in just 12 hours on Saturday.

In Pasig City, one of the hardest-hit suburbs near the heavily silted and polluted Pasig River, the floodwaters in many communities hardly decreased. “The water is not moving,” a tearful Nene Monfort, 71, told ABS-CBN television in a live interview. She said she and her family, who have been holed up on the second floor of their apartment, could not come down because of the water.

In an attempt to help deal with the aftermath of the storm, President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo decided to open a portion of the grounds of the presidential palace to refugees. “The president has allowed the use of Malacanang itself, her own home, to be a center of relief operations,” said her press secretary, Cerge Remonde. He said the first family would be transferred to another area in the presidential compound.

The government also had declared a “state of calamity” in metropolitan Manila and 25 storm-hit provinces, including many that had not flooded before, allowing officials to use emergency funds for relief and rescue.

Mrs. Arroyo earlier announced that her government would not relent in its efforts to help those hurt by the storm.

Criticism of Mrs. Arroyo’s response could affect the presidential election, which is eight months away. The administration’s candidate is Defense Secretary Gilbert Teodoro, who also leads the National Disaster Coordinating Council.

In the narrow streets of Tatalon, residents spent Monday taking out burned trash, dumping it on the main street outside of the slum, where mounds of black debris had been piled, practically blocking the street. Filthy floodwaters snaked beneath the rubbish.

Zoraya Tera, a 39-year-old homemaker, spent hours scrubbing her floor tiles and cleaning up her burned utensils. “Nothing is left, as you can see, but I am glad that none of my children were hurt,” she said, gesturing at what remained of her home, which had nothing in it except the burned and now rusting galvanized iron roofs.



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Another powerful quake hits Indonesia's Sumatra


Victim of earthquake is treated in Sumatra, 30 Sep 2009


Earthquake cause building to crash down. This earthquake is the same fault as 2004 earthquake.


Office workers gather outside their building after feeling an earthquake tremor in downtown Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, 30 Sep 2009. Neighbouring countries like Malaysia felt the tremors from the powerful Earthquake that hit Indonesia. Evacuee tall building as safety measure.


An injured girl cries during an evacuation after an earthquake hit Padang


Earthquake survivors receive medical treatment at a hospital in Padang Panjang, West Sumatra, Wednesday, Sept. 30, 2009. The powerful earthquake rocked western Indonesia Wednesday. The U.S. Geological Survey said the quake had a magnitude of 7.6. The quake was along the same fault line that spawned the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami



A TV-grab shows the victim of a powerful 7.9-magnitude quake in West Sumatra


A major 7.0-magnitude earthquake struck Indonesia's Sumatra island Thursday south of the site of an earlier powerful quake that left more than 1,000 feared dead, geologists said.

The quake hit on land at 8:52 am (0152 GMT) more than 150 kilometres from the epicentre of a 7.6-magnitude quake that struck off the island's western coast on Wednesday, Indonesian geophysics and meteorology agency technical head Suharjono told AFP.

A powerful earthquake that struck western Indonesia trapped thousands of people under collapsed buildings — including hospitals, a hotel and a classroom, officials said. At least 200 bodies were found in one coastal city and the toll was expected to be far higher. The temblor Wednesday started fires, severed roads and cut off power and communications to Padang, a coastal city of 900,000 on Sumatra island. Thousands fled in panic, fearing a tsunami. It was felt hundreds of miles (kilometers) away in Malaysia and Singapore, causing buildings there to sway.

The quake was registered at 9:31 local time (1:31 GMT) some 225 km (140 miles) southeast of the Indonesian city of Padang, hit by a powerful quake on September 30.

The death toll from Wednesday's 7.6 magnitude earthquake is likely to rise as thousands of people are believed trapped under rubble in the city, capital of the Indonesian region of West Sumatra. According to recent reports, at least 200 people were killed.

An official with the country's health ministry earlier told Reuters that "thousands" of people could be killed in the quake.

The quake is the latest in a series of natural disasters to rock Indonesia. Part of the Pacific's Ring of Fire, Indonesia is in the world's most seismically active region, registering 6,000-7,000 earthquakes with a magnitude of 4.0 or above annually.

The 7.6 earthquake occurred near the northern Indonesian island of Sumatra. Shock waves were felt in neighboring Singapore and Malaysia. A tsunami alert was initially issued for the region but hours later it was called off. The earthquake occurred one day after an 8.0 earthquake triggered a Tsunami that struck the Pacific island of Samoa.

Randy Baldwin a geophysicist with the U.S. Geological Survey's National Earthquake Center says the two events were not related.

"There is quite a bit of distance separating the two different quakes, there is no relationship," he said. "It's just a very active region all the way around the perimeter of the Pacific Ocean."

He says the quake originated 50 kilometers northwest of of the city of Padang in southern Sumatra. The area is along the same fault line that spawned the massive 2004 India Ocean tsunami that killed more than 230,000 people.

Local media is reporting that hundreds of houses collapsed in Padang. Buildings have been damaged in the area. Some neighborhood have lost electricity and telecommunications. One news channel also reported incidents of people panicking and running in the streets.

One local resident who experienced the quake in the central Sumatra province of Jambi says people there did not panic.

He says they often get earthquakes in Sumatra, so they know what to do.

The Padang airport has been closed. Indonesian search and rescue teams are heading to the affected areas.


Earthquake Shake Padang city

Sumatrans ran screaming into the street today as a second earthquake, measuring 7.0, hit the Indonesian island just 12 hours after a powerful 7.6 quake devastated the southern city of Padang where thousands are feared dead.

This morning rescuers raced to the flattened city where at over 400 people are believed to have died and tens of thousands remain trapped in rubble. The earthquake was so powerful it was felt hundreds of miles away in Malaysia and Singapore, causing buildings there to sway. The second quake hit about 150 miles south of Padang, at a depth of just under 20 miles.

As dawn broke in Padang, a coastal city of 900,000 on Sumatra island, people who had chosen to sleep in makeshift shelters in the open gathered weeping outside demolished buildings. Furniture was strewn through the streets and a man's foot could be seen sticking from the rubble of one house, his body trapped and invisible under tons of concrete.

Women and children sat helplessly on the ground outside their demolished homes, wailing in uncontrollable grief.

The work of rescuers has been made doubly difficult with electricity and communications remaining cut off and landslips caused by pouring rain blocking roads into the city.

"The number of people who died in West Sumatra is 464 and they are from six districts," said Tugyo Bisri, a social affairs ministry official. Other officials haveestimated that the toll would reach in the “thousands”.

At least 500 buildings in Padang had collapsed or were badly damaged, including hospitals, mosques, a mall and a school. The extent of damage in surrounding areas was still unclear.

An Indonesian television station showed footage of heavy equipment breaking through layers of cement in search of more than 30 children it said were missing and feared dead at one school.

“I was studying math with my friends when suddenly a powerful earthquake destroyed everything around me,” an unidentified boy told Indonesia’s TVOne. He escaped out of the top floor just as the three-story structure, used for after-school classes, crumpled.

Rustam Pakaya, the head of the Health Ministry crisis centre, said a major city hospital was also among the many buildings that had buckled in the quake.

Indonesia’s Vice President Jusuf Kalla said: "People are trapped, hotels have collapsed, schools have collapsed, houses have collapsed and electricity has been cut off."

Government ministers are on their way to Padang, with aid including tents, generators, food and water.

Indonesia, a poor, sprawling nation with limited resources, was cobbling together an emergency aid response, and the government was preparing for the possibility of thousands of deaths.

Padang's mayor appealed for assistance on Indonesian radio.

“We are overwhelmed with victims and ... lack of clean water, electricity and telecommunications,” Padang Mayor Fauzi Bahar said. “We really need help. We call on people to come to Padang to evacuate bodies and help the injured.”



Rescue workers in Indonesia are desperately attempting to save thousands of residents who may be trapped under rubble after a 7.6 quake left behind mass destruction
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A huge earthquake has brought death and destruction to the Indonesia island of Sumatra. Footage from the town of Padang show how the 7.6 magnitude temblor ...

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Scores Killed As Tsunami Sweeps Across Samoan Islands



A main road in the downtown area of Fagatogo, American Samoa, is flooded by water on Tuesday, Sept. 29, 2009

The powerful quake generated waves 36ft (11m) high in some areas


A boat from Malaloa Marina on the edge of the main highway in Fagatogo

A British toddler has been found dead after going missing when a tsunami hit the South Pacific island of Samoa.

The two-year-old's parents were receiving consular assistance at the New Zealand High Commission, Samoa's British Honorary Consulate said.

The Foreign Office (FO) confirmed a British national had died after the disaster struck on Tuesday.

A series of tsunamis triggered by quakes have killed more than 100 people in Samoa, American Samoa and Tonga.

A FO spokeswoman said: "We can confirm the sad death of a British national in Samoa."

British Honorary Consulate Dr Stephen Rogers, based in Apia in the north of the island, said there were no other reports of UK casualties.

"We have a number of British people who have lost all their possessions," he said.

"We've also had calls from a number of Brits in different accommodation who are claiming to be okay. We've had calls from the UK about people we've got no information about."

About 20 Britons are thought to have been on Samoa at the time the tsunami struck.

Dr Rogers said the initial quake shook the entire island and damaged buildings, but added that the devastation was largely confined to the south east.

He said 36ft (11m) waves swept inshore about half an hour after the quake, washing away anything in its path, including roads and houses.

He also said he managed to pick up five Britons in their 20s and 30s - including three tourists.

The tremor, with a magnitude of between 8 and 8.3, struck about 120 miles from American Samoa.

Samoan officials say whole villages have been destroyed with thousands reportedly left homeless in American Samoa.


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Tuesday, September 29, 2009

Devastation as tsunami wipes out Samoan villages -Tsunami hits Pacific nations -Tsunami advisory issued for California


There are reports a child was lost in the tsunami when it hit Manono Island, pictured.





RAISES magnitude of earthquake; map locates American Samoa, which was hit by a powerful earthquake


Destructive: the quake struck off the coast of American Samoa this morning


A USGS map showing the location of the earthquake in the Tonga region


Villages have been destroyed and deaths reported after a tsunami hit the South Pacific nations of American Samoa and Samoa.

Waves 1.57 metres higher than normal sea level hit Pago Pago, the capital of American Samoa, on Tuesday, the West Coast/Alaska Tsunami Warning Centre said.

Local radio in Pago Pago reported officials as saying at least 14 people had been killed across the country.

Holly Bundock, a spokeswoman for the National Park Service's Pacific West Region, said their local official in American Samoa had reported that at least four huge waves reaching up to 1.6km inland had caused a number deaths.

While Tuimalo Ahsam of National Radio in the Samoan capital of Apia told Al Jazeera that there had been at least four deaths confirmed by the national hospital.

"There has been a lot of damage, especially in the low-lying coastal villages," he said.

Jonah Tuiletufuga from Radio Polynesia told Al Jazeera: "The damage is extensive. We got a call from a villager trying to warn other villagers. His village was decimated this morning.

"Reports are still coming in from the southeast there is extensive damage to whole villages. No one was really expecting this. There's a severe sense of shock."

The tsunami was triggered by an undersea earthquake of 8.3 magnitude between American Samoa and Samoa.

In Apia, the Samoan capital, local media reported that people had fled their homes for higher ground after a tsunami warning.

Keni Lesa, a resident of Apia, told the AFP news agency: "I'm taking my family to a safe place. Everyone's getting out of coastal areas."

Tuiletufuga added: "There was a great response from the public.

"For the last three years there has been a drill implemented so there are designated areas where you have to run or walk to in the event of a tsunami."


Cherelle Jackson, the editor of Environmental Weekly, told Al Jazeera that Apia had become like "a ghost town".

"There are reports on Radio Polynesia where people are phoning up and reporting waves of up to three metres high," she said.

In western Samoa some residents told Radio New Zealand that they had been encouraged to move to higher ground after the quake had caused a huge jolt.

But fears of a devastating ocean-wide tsunami were calmed after the Pacific Tsunami Warning Centre cancelled its warning for the region three and a half hours after issuing it.


Radio New Zealand quoted Samoan residents as saying that villages were inundated and homes and cars swept away.

"I can confirm there is damage, I can confirm there are deaths and I can confirm there are casualties," a Western Samoa police spokeswoman told Reuters.

"I cannot say any more at the moment."

Samoalive News said local radio stations had been receiving reported of high sea swells hitting coastal areas on the eastern and southern side of Upolu island

"School has been called off for the day with tsunami warnings calling for people to head to higher grounds," the website said.

Witnesses have reported scenes of destruction.

"It's horrible... The village is gone and my once beautiful beach front villa has now being submerged in water," Josh Nayangu told the BBC after fleeing the area on a small fishing boat with his wife and son.

Ula Osasa-Mano, who was visiting family on the island, told the BBC the water along the Apia seawall was turbulent.

"The water was kind of swirling like a spa pool outwards [towards] the rim of the lagoon and in a few seconds the water sunk," Ula Osasa-Mano said.


Tsunami advisory issued for California coast after 7.9 Samoan quake

The National Weather Service has issued a tsunami advisory for Coastal California, including Santa Cruz County, following the 7.9 temblor that struck American Samoa this morning.

But the advisory is more of a heads-up to mariners because the threat appears to be nothing serious. The tsunami size is being estimated in centimeters.

"It could generate some strong currents," said Dan Gudgel, a meteorologist at the National Weather Service in Monterey.

A tsunami with "amplitudes in the range of 20-65 centimeters" — about up to two feet — is expected to hit the coast around 9 p.m., according to the National Weather Service.

"It might be sloshing around for an hour and a half after that," Gudgel said.

While not a towering wall of water, officials say such a tsunami can generate strong currents dangerous to people in the water or very near the ocean. "Significant widespread inundation is not expected for areas in an advisory," the advisory read.

The other coastal counties affected by the warning include San Francisco, San Mateo, Marin and Monterey counties, but Gudgel said the Santa Cruz area is more vulnerable than the rest because its southerly exposure lines up with the path of the tsunami.


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Tsunami hits Samoa following major (7.9 or 8.3...some discrepancy) earthquake. Some deaths. Number unknown. Hawaii under tsunami watch. Update: people moving to higher ground.
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Monday, September 28, 2009

Missile tests underscore the threat Iran poses in Mideast-Isreal ,US bases in the Middle East, and southeastern Europe are within range-To provoke USA


A nuclear facility near Isfahan was reopened in 2005


A Shahab 3 long range missile is launched during a test from an unknown location in central Iran on Monday, which are capable of reaching Israel, US bases in the Middle East, and southeastern Europe.


A Ghadr 1 class Shahab 3 long range missile rises into the air during a test from an unknown location in central Iran Sept. 28, 2009.


"I would lump any of these into the provocative nature with which Iran has acted on the world stage for a number of years," White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said, urging Tehran to absorb its nuclear and missile program.

"They have one of two paths that they can take. They can continue the path that they've been on, ... or it can make a decision to step away from its nuclear weapons program and build confidence in the world," said Gibbs.

White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs, Gibbs said he believes that there has never been a stronger international consensus to address Iran and its nuclear program than there is now. Analysts say Russia and China are crucial to any potential move to impose tough international sanctions against Iran. Those two countries are scheduled to join Britain, France, Germany and the United States - for talks with Iranian officials in Geneva on Thursday.




Iranian Revolutionary Guard Shahab-3 medium-range missile during a drill at an undisclosed location, 28 Sep 2009 .


In this Sept. 25, 2009, photo, Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad adjusts his earphones during a news conference in New York. Seven years ago, when Iran revealed the existence of its first secret uranium enrichment site at Natanz, U.S. intelligence agencies had a hunch it wouldn't be Iran's last attempt to illicitly produce fuel that might one day power a nuclear warhead.


Iran's reported test-firing Monday of medium-range missiles that could reach Israel, Europe and American bases in the Persian Gulf was a reminder of the potent military threat Tehran poses to nations seeking to derail its nuclear program.

The launches demonstrated that Tehran was capable of striking its enemies, especially Israel, which has suggested it might attack Iran's nuclear installations, and the United States, which is urging tougher United Nations sanctions against the Islamic Republic while preparing to create a shield to protect its allies from Iranian missiles.

The missiles fired Monday, the Shahab-3 and Sejil-2, were launched in the desert as part of military exercises that began before the U.S., France and Britain last week accused Tehran of building a secret uranium-enrichment plant. The U.S. and other nations suspect Tehran's nuclear program is designed to create weapons rather than energy for civilian purposes and have threatened new sanctions on Iran if international inspectors are denied access to the facility.

In Washington, White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said the missile tests again showed "the provocative nature with which Iran has acted on the international stage for a number of years" and repeated President Obama's recent demand that Tehran allow inspectors into the new site.

"There has never been a stronger international consensus to address Iran and its nuclear program than there is right now," Gibbs added.

Russian news service Ria Novosti quoted Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov as saying: "This is not illegal under any international agreements, but of course when missile launches are accompanied by an unresolved situation around Iran's nuclear program, this concerns us." Lavrov spoke after meeting with his Iranian counterpart, Manouchehr Mottaki, in New York.

The Shahab-3 and the Sejil-2 have ranges of 800 to 1,200 miles. The Sejil-2 is powered by solid fuel, making it more accurate than previous generations of missiles in the Islamic Republic's arsenal.

It was not the first time these missiles were tested, but their launches as part of an exercise named the Great Prophet IV coincided with growing tension before Iran's meeting in Geneva on Thursday with representatives of the U.S. and other world powers.

Iran's Press TV reported that the missiles "accurately hit their designated targets . . . during the first and second stages of military drill in central Iran Sunday night."

Foreign Ministry spokesman Hassan Qashqavi said the missile tests were not a response to international pressure on Iran's nuclear program. They were, he said, part of Sacred Defense Week's annual military exercises to commemorate Iran's war with Iraq in the 1980s.

"Many countries have these [displays], and it has nothing to do with Iran's peaceful nuclear technology," he said at a news conference.

Gen. Hossein Salami, commander of the Revolutionary Guard Air Force, was more pointed.

The general was quoted by the Iranian media as saying the tests in recent days of medium- and short-range missiles send "a message for certain greedy nations that seek to create fear, to show that we are able to give a swift and suitable answer to our enemies."

The general added, "We are going to respond to any military action in a crushing manner, and it doesn't make any difference which country or regime has launched the aggression."

Secret Nuclear Plant.

The United States, France and United Kingdom went public with their intelligence on the Iranian site on Friday.

Iran maintains the Qom facility is an experimental site for its civilian nuclear program. Iran is bound by an IAEA agreement to disclose new nuclear sites when construction begins. But Iran declared in March 2007 that it rejected that IAEA requirement.

Iran says its new site is meant to produce uranium refined to contain 5 percent of the radioactive isotope U-235, well below the 90 percent needed to fuel a warhead.

The centrifuges at the original Iranian site at Natanz produce about 2 kilograms a day of low-enriched uranium suitable for fueling a civilian nuclear reactor. Iran has accumulated about 1,400 kilograms of low-enriched uranium.

Depending on the design, a warhead needs 12 to 25 kilograms of highly enriched uranium, but U.S. intelligence has reported that Iran has not yet produced any highly enriched uranium.

The U.S. government continues to stand by its judgment from 2007 that Iran could have a nuclear bomb within one to five years.

At the same time , Iran started to test its missiles arsenal. Giving attention to its long range missile which is now able to reach all the US bases in Middle east , Israel and southeast of Europe.


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