2010 Disasters: Avoidable or Inevitable?

2010 : The Year of Enraging Earth

A year-round scenario of natural disasters around the world, also in Thailand, paints a series of warning signs from Mother Earth.  In the past such warnings usually fell onto deaf ears and blind eyes, and the merry-go-round continued into the New Year. Therefore, this year, all happened in a long series of chorus to wake up humanity.

Or, it is just another unusual natural phenomenon? Are these massive tragedies avoidable or inevitable?

As 2010, the Year of Tiger, comes to its end, would the Year of Rabbit be milder and kinder? Does humanity have any say to Mother Earth?  May be it’s time for the renewal of the ancient awareness that the benign Earth is also a Sacred Mother, whose rights should also be respected.  This time it needs enforcement for the survival of humanity, not just the Mother Earth.

The initiation of API’s Regional Project on “Community Initiatives towards Human-Ecological Balance” is indeed timely. While the first three site visits might be on the kinder side of Mother Earth, the remaining two sites are a testimony of community resilience in light of the enraging, or unwell, Mother Earth. May be it is the mission of API’s RP to send some concrete and creative messages based on the findings of this ambitious project on how humans should change their relationships toward the Earth as well as to each other. 

From the news, Khiriwong shows its resilience after many days of heavy rain; but the rainfall was more than three days as it happened in 1989. Day before, news reported that Village No.8 faced landslide problem, too. This is the reality showing how interconnected we are now. Changes have to take place collaboratively and simultaneously…to avoid recurring or annual catastrophes like this year, if it is not too late.

Below is a sketch of chronology of natural disasters around the world and also in Thailand that must be contemplated seriously.

Chronology of Global Disasters, January-November 2010

Year 2010 Mon/Date	Disaster	Human casualty
		Affected	Death	Wounded	Homeless
1/12	Haiti, earth quake 7 Rt	3 mil	300,000	300,000	1 mil
2/27	Chile, offshore, earth quake 8.8 Rt (axis of the globe shifted by 3”, shortened the time by 1.26 microsecond; 1 microsecond = 1 per million second)
3/8	Australia, Melbourne: heavy rain (26-70 mm) hail storm, tennis-ball-size hail nuggest, 4”	4,000
3/20	Iceland: volcano eruption (earth quake since 2009)
3/31	Bengal Gulf: earth quake 6.8 Rt
4/7	Indonesia, Sumatra: earth quake 7.8 Rt -tsunami 1.5 cm
4/14	Iceland: volcano under glacier erupted, interrupted air traffic in Europe	Ash spread 6,000 m
4/14	China, Chinghai (Tibet): earth quake 7.1 Rt	2,200+70	12,135
5/15	China, Hei Long Jiang NE: tornado, hail storm
6/1	India, offshore Andaman: earth quake 6.4 Rt (127 km depth)
6/5	USA, Mid West: tornado
6/7	Russia: volcano eruption
6/7	Ecuador: 3 volcanic eruption within 1 hr
6/9	Philippines: earth quake 6 Rt
6/9	Vanutu: earth quake 6 Rt
6/10	USA, Texas: heaviest flood
6/12	India, offshore: earth quake 7.5 Rt (35 km depth)
6/13	China, S: rainstorm, mudslide	Damage 43,000 mil yuan			Refugee: 3 mil pax
6/16	Biak Island, Pacific Ocean: earth quake 6.2 Rt
6/18	China, 74 cities of 6 prov.: heavy flood, mudslide	2.56 mil
7/14	China, S: flood, mudslide		400
7/14	Indo: earth quake 5.6 Rt
7/16	S. China Sea: Conson depression à N. Vietnam
End July – early Sep	Russia: 100+ spots of forest fire due to extreme drought & temperature	8,000
8/1	Pakistan, NW: impact of depression		1,000
8/8	China, NW: heavy rain, flood		127+1,300
8/12	Bolivia: 25,000 spots of forest fire across the country
9/6	Guatemala: landslide		100+
10/10-31	Thailand :Heavy continuous rains, heaviest flood along main rivers from North to Korat to CP
10/25	Indo: earth quake 7.7 Rt
10/26	Indo: Mt. Merapi erupted	Ash 2-4 km
10/27	Indo, Mentawai Island: tsunami, earth quake 7.2 Rt		108+500
11/1	Thailand, S: depression, continuous heavy rain Historical calamities
November	North wind began to blow

Disasters in Thailand, October-early November

Number of Affected Areas and Casualties in Thailand during mid October to early November 2010

Region (Period)	Province	Distr.	Sub-distr.	Vil.	Household	Affected Person	Death
N-NE-CP (Oct.-Nov.)	30	210	1,421	9,634	839,546	2,924,745	165
South (From early Nov.)	12	122		4,621	357,646	1,501,856	43
Total	42	332		14,255	1,197,192	4,426,601	208

Source:  Thailand’s Monitoring and Rescuing Committee (คณะกรรมการอำนวยการกำกับติดตามช่วยเหลือผู้ประสบอุทกภัย คชอ.)

Flooding situation in different regions by 11/9/10

Region Province	Flooding situation
North
Nakhonsawan	Decreasing flood level
Central Plains	Large pool of stagnant water
Chainat
Suphanburi
Ayutthaya
Singburi
Pathumthani
Nonthaburi
Northeast	High level of flood	Along Chi & Moon Rivers
Mahasarakham
Kalasin
Roi-et
Sisaket
South	Continuous heavy rain, High flood level	Around Tapi river
Songkhla	...due to series of depression	Flood warning, 9-12 Nov
Pattani		Due to continuous rain
Yala
Narathiwat
Phatthalung
Trang	11-10
Suratthani	11-10
Nakhonsithammarat	Lanska, Khanom : land slide, 11-7
Chumphon	Land subsidence, 11-9
But in…	Water level receding
Satun
Ranong
Krabi

-An overview of natural calamities, statistics compiled by Sutada Mekrungruengkul (Coordinator of WREST, Women Reshaping Thailand) from Online news of Bangkok Business and Thairat

-Additional comments by Darunee T.