Do you watch international news? In USA, Washington a large amount of rain have caused massive landslide (mudslide). In consequence, 176 people may remain unaccounted for and 14 people were found dead (This number might not be the exact number of missing people and deaths. You will hear different numbers of missing and dead people depending on the information source and time of broadcast).
This is the same cataclysm as the one presented in the video above, however the scale of landslide in Washington was much bigger. The wall of mud was about 54 meters high. Such a large amount of water and land mixed into mud could not be stopped. One of the people who survived said that it looked like the mountain was cut in two and deposited on the town below. Nothing could survive. BBC news stated that this was the biggest landslide in the history of USA! I found some images on the internet, which respectively present the scale of the cataclysm.
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-26726746
This image presents a rescuers looking for survivors in the cars. Available at: <http://news.bbcimg.co.uk/media/images/73787000/jpg/_73787685_021655400.jpg>
This image represents the area of the cataclysm and the damages made to the flora. The bottom area of this image was picked with houses. Now in this place you can only see mud. Available at:<http://news.bbcimg.co.uk/media/images/73781000/jpg/_73781937_73781930.jpg>
This image presents what is left after the Washington landslide, a cliff known as a head scarp that is about 600ft high. Still this is a very dangerous place because no one knows if it will continue to slide down the hill. Available at:< http://news.bbcimg.co.uk/media/images/73763000/jpg/_73763378_021639777-1.jpg >
Heavy rain was soaked up by sand that eventually slid onto the Snohomish County in northwest Washington. Here is some footage showing the scale of the disaster from BBC news.
I can only imagine how hard it had to be for people living in this area, and what they had to go through. Some of them are still waiting, hoping that their kin will come back home safely. This makes me really sad when I think about it, because most likely not everyone will return to their families. Still I like to hope that other 176 people will be found alive.
During the conference in the Netherlands the President Barack Obama asked all Americans to send their thoughts and prayers to the victims of Washington cataclysm. He also said "We know that a part of this tightly knit community has been lost," after some time he spoke again "We hope for the best," he added, "but recognise this is a tough situation."
Obama’s Netherlands speech video:
Obama speech
Questions:
What kind of help should be provided to those people?
Do you think that such disasters can be prevented?
What cataclysm are you scared of?
During the conference in the Netherlands the President Barack Obama asked all Americans to send their thoughts and prayers to the victims of Washington cataclysm. He also said "We know that a part of this tightly knit community has been lost," after some time he spoke again "We hope for the best," he added, "but recognise this is a tough situation."
Obama’s Netherlands speech video:
Obama speech
Questions:
What kind of help should be provided to those people?
Do you think that such disasters can be prevented?
What cataclysm are you scared of?
Comments
I'm not scared of any cataclysm whatsoever. Being scared of it is like being scared to leave my bed. There's such a tiny risk associated with it that even thinking about it didn't occur to me. I stayed in Hawaii, area with active volcanoes, tsunamis, tectonic activity and floods and I have to say.. I wasn't scared one bit. None of the people living there seem to be scared. I don't think being scared of such things is healthy ;-)
I'd say that I'd never be scared of such cataclysm, but I also would say some time ago that I'm not scared of war. While there's only a tiny tiny possibility that something so terrible could happen the imagination starts working.
To help in these situations are definitely needed organized actions and foundations. We should collect money, food, clothes and other things of first necessity.
Not all disasters we can predict some, however, are the result of an error, omission or/and negligence. And from such situations we should draw conclusions and try to eliminate them.
I'm scared of fires, I think that is the worst possible disaster. Incendies and ashes are all that remains.
Of course we should help, government have to help, just after catastrophe by providing people temporary place to live, food and medical care and later to rebuild public places, social life, give these people work to able them getting back to normal life. However I don’t think that anyone should get anything for free just because they were in wrong place at wrong time.
I think some of such cataclysm can be prevented. We often locate in places, which are dangerous, exposed on same natural disasters. People are thoughtless. They think, we are indestructible. We make research and we can prove that some places are dangerous and despite this fact we invest in developing such areas. Why? Because of money, which might be earn, because these places are beautiful and unique. Let’s look at the example of New Orlean. A few years ago this exceptional city was almost completely destroyed. Of course we can’t control hurricane, but it wasn’t wind, which run-down the city, but it was water. What is more, it wasn't about heavy rain, which came directly with Katrina. What was crucial in this cataclysm was that New Orlean is placed below the sea level. Katrina passed, but after hours it occurred that levees can’t stand such massive amount of water and broke down. It took days to fix it and in the mean time water came to city and level up. We shouldn’t have built city on such area. Same in described situation - it was a small city, what if it would be suburbs of bigger one?
I’m not scared of any cataclysm. We can’t life in fear. Everywhere something may happen to us. We can be attacked on the street or die in car accident everyday, so why we should be afraid of cataclysm?
Your opinion about preventing of this cataclysm are divided. Some of you said that it can be prevented and other think that nature is unpredictable. I believe that with todays science we just need to put more effort in to investigation of those risks.
I will give you a little bit different example. Surly you all heard about tsunami, a massive waves that hit the land and destroy everything on its way. Did you ever wonder how is that happening. How is this even possible that nature is able to generate those massive waves (waves that are 524m tall) ? Some would say you are not able to say when they will strike next... Nothing more further from the truth.
http://beachsafe.org.au/tsunami/ema/images/createTsunami.png
If you are interested in how it happens go and watch this video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DbXtsomif7Y
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vb41nuRP3QA
But this situation is much more disturbing, there are lives at stake. Poor people. I can't imagine how they feel, probably confused. Should they move elsewhere, or stay, because it's been their home for many many years.... awful....
About catastrophe which I am afraid, I must say about disaster “out of this World”. I saying here about big planetoids which are recently passing near our Earth. Hit of this kind of rock will be apocalypse for every organisms, even humans. Of course, there is 70% chance that the asteroid will fall into the ocean and neither continent should be suffer cause of big explosion (several dozen times bigger than atomic weapon), even than it is still big danger, because on the large area will be formed tsunami waves which will floods most of grounds on the continents. To this we can add change of the climate and hampered conditions for life on Earth. In such of very rare cases, the human kind should be forget his every conflicts and united against apocalypse, because if every of our capabilities will fail we'll be probably doomed.
play” while watching a disaster movie. Why? Because it’s so real, it’s more possible that can happen in real life than some crazy psychopath. These news as a fact are even more scary.
In my opinion, the first and basic help should be connected with psychological their needs. Such people are so scared because of the fact that their family can be lost, also all their treasure and they must start lives since beginning. It is really difficult to explain them the losts, the reasons of them, how to cope with all unexpected problems. The second step of help should cover their daily needs refered to food and opportunity to rest / sleep in a warm, dry and safety place. I think that people who survived the cataclysm expect the most basic things. Later, after the first shock they want also help not only somebody who supports them in very taugh time when they create the next steps of their lives but also finacial help.
Do you think that such disasters can be prevented?
I think we can try to prevent disasters. If we consider mudslide we can bulid the special buttress along the shores of rivers. Of course it is time-consuming and expensive but it can protect the areas around shores.On the other hand nature is the strongest power in the world. It always surprises us and put us into situations that we never expect. A good example is a phenomenon of sinkhole.
What cataclysm are you scared of?
The most I'm afraid of floods and cyclones. In my opinion these are the most deadly disasters. In just a few seconds everything disappears. One of the latest example is the tsunami in Haiti. In some seconds each hotel, beach, village disappeared. Lots of people were killed and lost. Children became orphans, parents mourned childrens, wifes and husbands became widows and widowers. On the island, after the cataclysm there is not peace and quaiet, only kidnaping, corruption and poverty.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mc4sQT_2GGE
But sometimes it's really suprise. In taht case we should help these people as much as we can. We should help them find some safe and dry place to sleep, some clothes, food.
I don't know there is some kind of disaster i'm so much afraid. I really don't enjoy when it storm. I got a little unconfotable after spending first night ever on tent sleeping alone, when storm is all around....
Do you think that such disasters can be prevented?
I read "One of the main causes of landslides is gravity. One landslide prevention technique is to change the geometry of the man-made slope to lessen the effects of gravity".
What cataclysm are you scared of?
For me is strong wind and storm because i swim at the kite in bad whether condition. One wrong move or sudden change in the weather, and i have big problem.
I can't say I am scared by any disaster in particular. Obviously I don't want ANY to happen and would be probably very, very scared during one, but why should I be scared in advance? Especially when I living in a place where natural disasters don't really happen that often.