Icelandic Ash Triggers Dozens of Flight Cancellations

The Icelandic volcanic eruption triggered dozens of flight cancellations on Tuesday and an emerging backlash from airlines concerned that regulators are being too hasty in deeming airspace unsafe.

The ash cloud from Grimsvotn, the country's largest volcano, spread south and west towards the U.K., and authorities in continental Europe initiated contingency plans, though concerns emerged that regulators had not absorbed the lessons from the mass airspace closures following a similar eruption last year. That eruption led to the biggest shutdown of European airspace since World War II.

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Japan's disaster toll rises with 18,000 deaths

FUKUSHIMA, Japan -- The toll of Japan's triple disaster came into clearer focus Monday after police estimates showed more than 18,000 people died, the World Bank said rebuilding may cost $235 billion and more cases of radiation-tainted vegetables and tap water turned up.

Japanese officials reported progress over the weekend in their battle to gain control over a nuclear complex that began leaking radiation after suffering quake and tsunami damage, though the crisis was far from over, with a dangerous new surge in pressure reported in one of the plant's six reactors.

The announcement by Japan's Health Ministry late Sunday that tests had detected excess amounts of radioactive elements on canola and chrysanthemum greens marked a low moment in a day that had been peppered with bits of positive news: First, a teenager and his grandmother were found alive nine days after being trapped in their earthquake-shattered home. Then, the operator of the overheated nuclear plant said two of the six reactor units were safely cooled down.

"We consider that now we have come to a situation where we are very close to getting the situation under control," Deputy Cabinet Secretary Tetsuro Fukuyama said.

Still, serious problems remained at the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear complex. Pressure unexpectedly rose in a third unit's reactor, meaning plant operators may need to deliberately release radioactive steam. That has only added to public anxiety over radiation that began leaking from the plant after a monstrous earthquake and tsunami devastated northeastern Japan on March 11 and left the plant unstable. As day broke Monday, Japan's military resumed dousing of the complex's troubled Unit 4.

The World Bank said in report Monday that Japan may need five years to rebuild from the catastrophic disasters, which caused up to $235 billion in damage, saying the cost to private insurers will be up to $33 billion and that the government will spend $12 billion on reconstruction in the current national budget and much more later.

The safety of food and water was of particular concern. The government halted shipments of spinach from one area and raw milk from another near the nuclear plant after tests found iodine exceeded safety limits. Tokyo's tap water, where iodine turned up Friday, now has cesium. Rain and dust are also tainted.

Early Monday , the Health Ministry advised Iitate, a village of 6,000 people about 30 kilometers (19 miles) northwest of the Fukushima plant, not to drink tap water due to elevated levels of iodine. Ministry spokesman Takayuki Matsuda said iodine three times the normal level was detected there - about one twenty-sixth of the level of a chest X-ray in one liter of water.

In all cases, the government said the radiation levels were too small to pose an immediate health risk.

But Tsugumi Hasegawa was skeptical as she cared for her 4-year-old daughter at a shelter in a gymnasium crammed with 1,400 people about 80 kilometers (50 miles) from the plant.

"I still have no idea what the numbers they are giving about radiation levels mean. It's all so confusing," said Hasegawa, 29, from the small town of Futuba in the shadow of the nuclear complex. "And I wonder if they aren't playing down the dangers to keep us from panicking. I don't know who to trust."

All six of the nuclear complex's reactor units saw trouble after the disasters knocked out cooling systems. In a small advance, the plant's operator declared Units 5 and 6 - the least troublesome - under control after their nuclear fuel storage pools cooled to safe levels. Progress was made to reconnect two other units to the electric grid and in pumping seawater to cool another reactor and replenish it and a sixth reactor's storage pools.

But the buildup in pressure inside the vessel holding Unit 3's reactor presented some danger, forcing officials to consider venting. The tactic produced explosions of radioactive gas during the early days of the crisis.

"Even if certain things go smoothly, there would be twists and turns," Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano told reporters. "At the moment, we are not so optimistic that there will be a breakthrough."

Growing concerns about radiation add to the overwhelming chain of disasters Japan has struggled with since the 9.0-magnitude quake. The resulting tsunami ravaged the northeastern coast. All told, police estimates show more than about 18,400 died. More than 15,000 deaths are likely in Miyagi, the prefecture that took the full impact of the wave, said a police spokesman.

"It is very distressing as we recover more bodies day by days," said Hitoshi Sugawara, the spokesman.

Police in other parts of the disaster area declined to provide estimates, but confirmed about 3,400 deaths. Nationwide, official figures show the disasters killing more than 8,600 people, and leaving more than 13,200 people missing, but those two lists may have some overlap.

The disasters have displaced another 452,000, who are living in shelters.

Fuel, food and water remain scarce. The government in recent days acknowledged being caught ill-prepared by an enormous disaster that the prime minister has called the worst crisis since World War II.

Bodies are piling up in some of the devastated communities and badly decomposing even amid chilly rain and snow.

"The recent bodies - we can't show them to the families. The faces have been purple, which means they are starting to decompose," says Shuji Horaguchi, a disaster relief official setting up a center to process the dead in Natori, on the outskirts of the tsunami-flattened city of Sendai. "Some we're finding now have been in the water for a long time, they're not in good shape. Crabs and fish have eaten parts."

Contamination of food and water compounds the government's difficulties, heightening the broader public's sense of dread about safety. Consumers in markets snapped up bottled water, shunned spinach from Ibaraki - the prefecture where the tainted spinach was found - and overall expressed concern about food safety.

Experts have said the amounts of iodine detected in milk, spinach and water pose no discernible risks to public health unless consumed in enormous quantities over a long time. Iodine breaks down quickly, after eight days, minimizing its harmfulness, unlike other radioactive isotopes such as cesium-137 or uranium-238, which remain in the environment for decades or longer.

High levels of iodine are linked to thyroid cancer, one of the least deadly cancers if treated. Cesium is a longer-lasting element that affects the whole body and raises cancer risk.

Rain forecast for the Fukushima area also could further localize the contamination, bringing the radiation to the ground closer to the plant.

Edano tried to reassure the public for a second day in a row. "If you eat it once, or twice, or even for several days, it's not just that it's not an immediate threat to health, it's that even in the future it is not a risk," Edano said. "Experts say there is no threat to human health."

No contamination has been reported in Japan's main food export - seafood - worth about $1.6 billion a year and less than 0.3 percent of its total exports.

Amid the anxiety, there were moments of joy on Sunday. An 80-year-old woman and her teenage grandson were rescued from their flattened two-story house after nine days, when the teen pulled himself to the roof and shouted to police for help.

Other survivors enjoyed smaller victories. Kiyoshi Hiratsuka and his family managed to pull his beloved Harley Davidson motorcycle from the rubble in their hometown of Onagawa. The 37-year-old mechanic said he knows it will never work anymore. "But I want to keep it as a memorial."

Yamaguchi reported from Tokyo, as did Associated Press writers Elaine Kurtenbach, Kelly Olsen, Charles Hutzler and Jeff Donn. Associated Press writer Jay Alabaster contributed from Natori, Japan.

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Japanese student learns family is alive thanks to YouTube video

Kosaka's sister held up a sign stating "we are all safe" in hopes that a news crew would catch the message on video.


Akiko Kosaka's family resides in Minamisanriku, a fishing village where half the residents are feared to be dead as a result of last week's tsunami, but thanks to a YouTube video, she knows that her relatives are alive and safe.

CNN reports that Kosaka — who is a student from Japan attending the University of California at Riverside — scoured the Internet for days in hopes of finding something that suggests that her family survived the aftermath of the recent earthquake and tsunami in Japan.

She breathed a bit easier when she received an e-mail explaining that her youngest sister "was likely safe in her middle school's shelter." But there was no word about the rest of her family — until late Sunday night:

[S]he received word Sunday night from a friend in Japan of the existence of a 45-second YouTube video showing her family home as the only one standing amid the rubble. The video highlighted her older sister holding a sign to a TV news crew saying in Japanese "we are all safe."

Kosaka expressed relief upon hearing of the video, but became distraught after she couldn't find it online, despite staying up all night looking for it.

Then a contact through a Japanese social network e-mailed her the link Monday morning.

Kosaka watched the video over and over — she suggests that she'd seen it at least 50 times in 24 hours — and cried in joy and worry. She is still concerned about the health of her family members and wishing that she could get a message to them — just as they got one to her.

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http://digitallife.today.com/_news/2011/03/17/6288110-japanese-student-learns-family-is-alive-thanks-to-youtube-video?chromedomain=technolog

Survivors return to confront all that was lost

Natori, Japan: One couple rode out the tsunami on top of an irrigation tower, crammed in with three other people. A man had to abandon his car in a field and run for it. Another couple simply got lucky, riding out the torrents in their house, one of the few in a swath of destruction that inexplicably held together.

They began streaming back to this stricken rice farming town on Monday morning, long lines of people returning to see what, if anything, was left of their lives after the waves came. They walked slowly, gazing in bewilderment at a scene that they could only struggle to comprehend.

Officials said the death toll in Friday's tsunami was certain to exceed 10,000. But even that seemed conservative -- a leading Japanese daily reported Monday that 20,000 people in two small coastal towns were missing.

Many returning here Monday were in tears. One couple said between sobs that they were trying to find their elderly mother, whom they had been forced to leave behind. There were many older people in the area, residents said, and many of them were trapped in their houses.

Until last week, Natori's farmers had tilled fields of rice in the summer and, in the winter, vegetables in neat white rows of plastic greenhouses, fields that most of the world saw inundated on Friday by a wall of water, mud, cars and wooden debris.

The devastation extends miles inland, so much so that even some evacuation centers were reportedly engulfed. In satellite images, Natori and nearby Yuriage, just south of the battered city of Sendai, seem to have been swept away without a trace, as if a giant razor had shaved the earth clean.

Kayo Miura said she was upstairs at her house when the earthquake struck, knocking her off her feet. She turned on the radio and heard a tsunami alert, but she had heard those before and nothing had come of them. After all, she thought, the house was almost two miles from the beach.

About 20 to 30 minutes later, she said, she saw a line of cars on her field. "Why are those cars parked in the field?" she wondered. Then she saw them moving, heard screams about a tsunami coming and froze. Her husband, Ken, ran upstairs just as the waves hit. Inexplicably, in an area where virtually every house was destroyed, theirs held together.

Others told harrowing tales of escape. When Naoko Takahashi, 60, and her husband, Hiromichi, 64, saw a jumble of cars and burning fuel bearing down on them, they ran as fast as they could, but the menacing wall kept gaining. Not sure what to do, they caught sight of an irrigation tower that was 12 to 15 feet high and scrambled up just in time, joining two others in riding out the flood.

"The only reason we made it were some earthen walls that slowed the water just enough," Mr. Takahashi said. "They gave us a few seconds."

They made their way home after dark, they said, wading through water that was up to their armpits while fires burned all around. The next day, some soldiers came and took them to a shelter.

As they got home, Ms. Takahashi turned to her husband and said: "Look, there's our house. What is that boat?" Indeed, there was a fishing boat sitting in a rice paddy to the side of their house.

The gloom was occasionally pierced by a ray of humor, of the gallows sort. Ko Miura, 56, a wholesaler, said he tried to drive home after the quake. But he was driving parallel to the wave, so he was forced to abandon his car and run. He just managed to get to a highway overpass before the waters swept by. When he looked up, he said, he saw his car float by.

The immediate future for Natori and its residents is undoubtedly grim. Rescue workers have been hampered by quake-damaged roads and debris, enormous traffic jams and fuel shortages. After a spell of relatively mild weather, temperatures were dropping and snow was in the forecast.

And even as people picked through what little was left in the rubble, the fires continued to burn.

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http://www.ndtv.com/article/world/survivors-return-to-confront-all-that-was-lost-91477

8.9 quake strikes Japan, triggers tsunami

Japanese television is showing horrific pictures of a wall of water swallowing everything in its path following a massive 8.9 magnitude earthquake struck off the northeast coast of Japan.

The quake has triggered a tsunami already that's washing away cars and houses inland in the north-east of the country.

A 10-metre tsunami warning has been extended for the coast in the region.

The tsunami warning was issued to most of the Pacific coast of the main island of Honshu, broadcaster NHK reported. People are being told to get to higher ground.

The quake was initially listed as 7.9 magnitude, then upgraded to 8.8, then 8.9 by US Geological Survey. A series of aftershocks followed including one of around 7 magnitude.

The epicentre of the quake is believed to be in the north of Japan, in the Honshu area.

The quake caused buildings to shake in the capital Tokyo, triggering at least one building fire, NHK television and witnesses reported.

The BBC is reporting it as a "mega-quake" and says there are many people injured.

Narita airport, Tokyo's main airport, has been closed. A number of people are believed to have been injured during a graduation ceremony in Tokyo when a roof collapsed.

The public broadcaster showed black smoke billowing from a building in Odaiba, a Tokyo suburb, and bullet trains to the north of the country have been halted.

NHK said a tsunami of 50 cm had already hit Japan's northern coast but the quake was big enough to cause a massive tsunami according to one expert talking to the BBC.

Television showed cars bobbing in water alongside fishing boats.

"The building shook for what seemed a long time and many people in the newsroom grabbed their helmets and some got under their desks," Reuters correspondent Linda Sieg said.

"It was probably the worst I have felt since I came to Japan more than 20 years ago."

The US Geological Survey verified a magnitude of 8.8 at depth of 24.3kms and located the quake 130.3kms east of Sendai, Honshu. The stock market extended its losses after the quake.

Japan's northeast Pacific coast, called Sanriku, has suffered from quakes and tsunamis in the past and a 7.2 quake struck on Wednesday. In 1933, a magnitude 8.1 quake in the area killed more than 3,000 people. Last year fishing facilities were damaged after by a tsunami caused by a strong tremor in Chile.

There are believed to be 3500 New Zealanders in Japan, and 1600 in Tokyo.

Civil Defence in New Zealand says a tsunami is possible in New Zealand, but it is still monitoring the situation and it would be 11 hours away.

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http://tvnz.co.nz/world-news/8-quake-jolts-japan-triggers-tsunami-4058622

Japan volcano erupts again for 6th time in southwest region

White smoke raises from Mount Shinmoedake in Kirishima mountain range in Kagoshima prefecture, Japan's southern island of Kyushu on February 1, 2011. Hundreds of people living near a Japanese volcano that has been spewing columns of smoke and ash thousands of metres into the air were forced to evacuate their homes.

TOKYO, Feb. 2 (Xinhua) -- A volcano in southwestern Japan erupted for the sixth time since last week on Wednesday morning, with the latest blast rocking the area around the Shinmoe Peak in the Kirishima volcanic group on the border of Kagoshima and Miyazaki prefectures and sending plumes of smoke 2,000 meters in the air.

The local branch of the Japan Meteorological Agency has as yet not reported any avalanches as result of the blast, nor can confirm if volcanic debris and noxious gases were spewed from the crater, although they did say debris could fall on areas within 4 kilometers of the crater.

However, the agency did confirm that no significant damage has been reported following the 1,421-meter-high volcano erupting.

The latest eruption, recorded at 5:25 a.m. local time (2025 GMT Tuesday), follows a massive blast at 11:19 p.m. Tuesday (1419 GMT) which also shot enormous columns of smoke as high as 2,000 meters into the air.

Officials from the meteorological agency noted Tuesday that the dome of lava inside the volcano had expanded to five times the size it was last Friday.

They are concerned that as molten lava is building up in the crater, as a result of subterranean pressure, another blast which is highly likely could send the lava cascading down the side of the mountain.

The volcano, until last week, had been dormant for 52 years.

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Massive Earthquake Hits Southwest Pakistan

Two Pakistani men, left, read verses from the Quran as they gathered with others outside their homes after as an earthquake hit Pakistan, early Wednesday

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan—A 7.2-magnitude earthquake jolted southwestern Pakistan early on Wednesday in a sparsely-populated area near the nation's borders with Iran and Afghanistan, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.

There were no immediate reports of large casualties. The quake's epicenter was 30 miles west of Dalbandin, a town in Pakistan's Baluchistan province. Television reports from Quetta, the provincial capital and the most populous city in the area, appeared to show that it had been spared major damage.

Officials in Karen, another town close to the epicenter, told the Associated Press that the town suffered no widespread damage.

Nasir Baluch, a police officer in Karan, told AP that several mud houses collapsed or were damaged in an area outside the town called Mashkil. There was no immediate word on casualties, but the area is sparsely populated, he said.

People came out of their houses in the southern city of Karachi, home to 18 million people, but no major damage was reported.

Karachi resident Mohammad Zubair told AP that he was watching a cricket match on TV when his bed began to shake.

"I jumped out of bed realizing it was an earthquake," the 28-year-old said. "My mom started reciting verses from the Quran, and we rushed outside."

The quake's aftershocks were felt in New Delhi, India's capital, more than 700 miles away, with walls shaking for a few seconds.

Some Chinese state-owned mining companies have operations in the area close to the epicenter of the quake. It was unclear whether they were affected.

An earthquake of similar intensity in Pakistan's Kashmir region killed more than 70,000 people in 2005. The area hit by the quake on Wednesday is known for its seismic activity. The country is also still reeling from last summer's deadly flooding, which killed almost 2,000 people, affected 20 million others, and caused billions of dollars in damages.

The city of Bam in eastern Iran was hit by a temblor in 2003, killing some 25,000 people.

U.S. officials in Washington said they did not have an immediate idea about what aid might be needed to respond to the Pakistani earthquake or what the U.S. could offer.

But as soon as the geological service reported the earthquake on Tuesday, U.S. defense officials began gathering assessments of the damage and whether humanitarian aid might need to be provided.

The earthquake was centered in a critical area for both the U.S. and Pakistan. Baluchistan is a safe haven for the Afghanistan Taliban, whose leaders live in the region's capital, Quetta. American officials for years have pressed, unsuccessfully, for Pakistan officials to move against militants in Baluchistan.

Any natural disaster that distracts the Pakistani army from counter insurgency operations along the western border will be of worry to U.S. officials. The Pakistani military is only now beginning to resume its combat operations after spending months leading recovery efforts after last summer's floods which displaced millions from their homes in western and central Pakistan.

If damage from the earthquake is extensive throughout Baluchistan, much will be riding on the government response. Last year, President Asif Ali Zardari was criticized for the failure of his government to immediately respond to the floods. Almost any natural disaster carries the risk of highlighting the civilian government's inability to provide real services or relief outside of the Pakistan heartland.

Militant groups may also try to mount their own aid efforts. After the floods militant groups opposed to the Pakistani government publicized their relief work in an effort to undercut public support for Mr. Zardari's government.

Still, there remains opportunity in natural disasters. The U.S. response to the Pakistan earthquake in 2005, which killed more than 70,000, was widely praised. The defense department flew thousands of helicopter sorties and the State Department funneled in hundreds of millions in relief aid. The quick response was credited with raising public opinion of America throughout Pakistan, at least temporarily.

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Victoria Prepares for Flooding as Brisbane Starts Cleans Up

ROLLING DISASTER: Piles of household goods damaged in the recent flood in Brisbane on Sunday

Towns in Victoria prepared for record floods as rivers swelled while Brisbane in the northeastern state of Queensland returned to work with power restored to the business district and thousands of volunteers joining troops to clean mud-caked homes and suburban streets.

In the southeastern state of Victoria, flooding is affecting 43 towns and 1,400 properties, according to emergency services. Horsham, a town 300 kilometers (186 miles) northwest of Melbourne, is expected to experience the worst flooding on record in Victoria when the Wimmera river reaches its peak tomorrow, according to emergency services authorities.

The flooding in Victoria, Queensland and elsewhere represents the biggest natural disaster in economic terms to hit Australia, Prime Minister Julia Gillard said today. The floods have devastated homes, destroyed crops, closed mines and killed at least 28 people in the past six weeks.

"We're going to have to work through those economic effects as we move through the clean up and recovery phase into rebuilding the infrastructure and getting communities back on their feet," Gillard said as she toured Echuca, north of Melbourne. "We're going to have to take it a step at a time."

In Echuca, the Campaspe river peaked last night, the Bureau of Meteorology said. Several hundred people from Echuca and Rochester are in evacuation centers, Sky News reported. Towns on the Loddon and Hopkins rivers are also bracing, with about a quarter of Victoria so far affected.

Some 5,000 emergency services volunteers are helping in Victoria, Lachlan Quick, an emergency services spokesman, said.


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476 die in Brazil mudslides

TERESOPOLIS, Brazil (AP) — The power was out, but lightning flashes illuminated the horror as villagers watched neighbors’ homes vanish under a wall of mud and water, turning neighborhoods into graveyards. Survivors dug at the earth barehanded Thursday, but all they found were bodies.

It was a scene of muddy destruction in mountain towns north of Rio, where at least 476 people were killed when torrential rains unleashed mudslides in the pre-dawn hours Wednesday, burying people alive as they slept. Officials would not venture guesses on how many people were missing — but fears were high that the death toll could sharply rise.

In the remote Campo Grande neighborhood of Teresopolis, now accessible only by a perilous five-mile (eight-kilometer) hike through mud-slicked jungle, family members pulled the lifeless bodies of loved ones from the muck. They carefully laid the corpses on dry ground, covering them with blankets.

A young boy cried out as his father’s body was found: “I want to see my dad! I want to see my dad!”

Flooding and mudslides are common in Brazil when the summer rains come, but this week’s slides were among the worst in recent memory. The disasters unduly punish the poor, who often live in rickety shacks perched perilously on steep hillsides with little or no foundations. But even the rich did not escape the damage in Teresopolis, where large homes were washed away.

“I have friends still lost in all of this mud,” said Carlos Eurico, a resident of the city’s Campo Grande neighborhood, as he motioned to a sea of destruction behind him. “It’s all gone. It’s all over now. We’re putting ourselves in the hands of God.”

In the same area, Nilson Martins, 35, carefully held the only thing pulled out alive since dawn: a pet rabbit that had somehow remained pristinely white despite the mud.

“We’re just digging around, there is no way of knowing where to look,” he said. “There are three more bodies under the rubble over there. One seems to be a girl, no more than 16, dead, buried under that mud.”

The hundreds of homes washed away in the neighborhood were turned inside out, their plumbing and electrical wires exposed. Children’s clothes littered the earth, cars were tossed upside down into thickets. An eerie quiet prevailed as people searched for life. The sounds of digging, with sticks and hands, were occasionally punctuated by shouts as another corpse was located.

Conceicao Salomao, a doctor coordinating relief efforts at a makeshift refuge inside a gymnasium in central Teresopolis, said about 750 people were staying there Thursday and about 1,000 people had sought treatment in the past day. One danger she worried about was leptospirosis, a waterborne bacterial disease.

“The hospitals around here are overflowing. The army and navy are setting up field hospitals to help,” she said.

“The worst is the feeling of impotence. We do what we can, but there are so many people.”

Rio state’s Civil Defense department said on its website that 222 people were killed in Teresopolis, 214 in nearby Nova Friburgo and 40 in neighboring Petropolis. It said about 14,000 people had been driven from their homes.

Another 37 people have died in floods and mudslides since Christmas in other parts of southeastern Brazil — 16 in Minas Gerais state north of Rio and 21 in Sao Paulo state.

Nineteen-year-old Geisa Carvalho and her mother were awakened at 3 a.m. Wednesday by a tremendous rumble as tons of muck slid down a sheer granite rock face onto their Teresopolis neighborhood of Caleme.

The power was out, but by lightning flashes they could see the torrent of mud and water rushing just a few feet (meters) from their home — and the remnants of their neighbors’ houses that were swept far down a hill.

“We were like zombies, covered in mud, in the dark, digging and digging” Carvalho said.

“I don’t even have the words to describe what I’ve seen,” said the teen’s mother, Vania Ramos. “A lot of our friends are dead or missing. There are people we may never find.”

Carvalho and Ramos said they ran out of their home moments after the mudslide and joined neighbors in digging for survivors with bare hands and sticks. They quickly located a family of four who had died under the rubble of their home — and said another neighbor’s 2-month-old baby was washed away in his crib and has yet to be found.

Nearly all the homes in their neighborhood were swept to the bottom of a hill.

Only a few rescuers had managed to hike to Caleme by Thursday and they only had shovels and machetes — not the heavier equipment needed to hunt for survivors. Residents said they had no food, water or medication, and many made the long walk for help to the center of Teresopolis, about 40 miles (65 kilometers) north of Rio.

Morgues in the cities were full and bodies covered in blankets were laid out in streets.

Officials said the area hit by slides had seen 10 inches (26 centimeters) of rain in less than 24 hours. More rain is forecast through the weekend.

Survivors across the region were seen wading through waist-high water, carrying what belongings they could, trying to reach higher ground. Many tried desperately to find relatives, though phone service was out in the region and many people were still missing hours after the rain stopped.

The floods tore out most of the steep cobblestone road leading to the Campo Grande neighborhood, creating a ravine about 16 feet (5 meters) deep and 65 feet (20 meters) wide. In many areas, pedestrians were forced to walk through muddy, slippery jungle.

President Dilma Rousseff flew by helicopter over the region Thursday and the Health Ministry said it was sending seven tons of medications, enough to treat 45,000 people for a month.

Rousseff said the destruction was an act of God — but she also said people died because homes were illegally built in areas prone to slides.

“We saw areas in which mountains untouched by men dissolved,” she told reporters in Rio after the flyover. “But we also saw areas in which illegal occupation caused damage to the health and lives of people.”

Teresopolis Mayor Jorge Mario Sedlacek decreed a state of emergency, calling the calamity “the worst to hit the town.” About 800 search-and-rescue workers from the state’s civil defense department and firefighters were digging for survivors, but hopes were dimming.

The cost to rebuild the city of Teresopolis alone was estimated at $60 million, said the city’s civil defense secretary, Flavio Luiz Castro in a report carried by the Terra news portal website.

The federal government said it was making available more than $400 million to the states affected by the rains, and officials said they would work closely with Rio de Janeiro state authorities to provide support.

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http://www.suntimes.com/news/world/3295492-418/teresopolis-mud-digging-homes-neighborhood.html

Heavy rains leave 237 dead in southeast Brazil

At least 237 people have died in the heavy rains, flooding and mudslides that are affecting the southeastern state of Rio de Janeiro, Brazilian authorities said Wednesday.

In the mountainous municipality of Teresopolis, which has been the most heavily affected, the death toll stands at 122, while in the neighboring town of Nova Friburgo 97 people have died, according to the latest report by firefighters.

State Environment Secretary Carlos Mink called it "the worst catastrophe in the history of Teresopolis," a city founded in 1891, and Mayor Jorge Mario Sedlacek echoed that sentiment.

Meanwhile, in the municipality of Petropolis, also in the mountainous region, 18 people have lost their lives, according to a government communique.

Emergency management officials released initial calculations that speak of at least 50 people who have disappeared, but they admitted that both that figure and the number of confirmed deaths could rise because emergency crews are moving into more critically affected regions.

The rescue teams are continuing to work intensely in the affected zones, many of which have been completely covered by the water and mud.

The life-saving activities are proving very difficult because of the complex topography in the areas deluged by the storm.

The downpours began on Tuesday night and have particularly affected the mountainous region of Rio de Janeiro, where at least four cities have been put on alert due to landslides that have buried an unknown number of houses.

The storms across Rio de Janeiro followed heavy rains Tuesday in the neighboring state of Sao Paulo, where at least 13 people died in flooding and mudslides.

Officials are particularly concerned about the situation in Franco da Rocha, a suburb of Sao Paulo city whose urban zone remains completely flooded.

Authorities in both affected states have begun to prepare a number of shipments of humanitarian aid that will be distributed in the regions where the situation is most critical once weather conditions permit.

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http://latino.foxnews.com/latino/news/2011/01/13/heavy-rains-leave-dead-southeast-brazil/#ixzz1At3A0BiJ

8 dead in new flood as Australia's crisis worsens

Rescuers raced Tuesday to reach people trapped on roofs after a flash flood hurled a tsunami-like wall of water through Australia's waterlogged east, tossing cars like toys, killing at least eight people and leaving 72 missing.

The violent surge near the town of Toowoomba after a fresh storm Monday escalated Australia's 2-week-old flood crisis in Queensland state and brought the overall death toll to 18. Until then, the flooding had unfolded slowly as swollen rivers burst their banks and inundated towns while moving downstream toward the ocean.

Emergency services officers plucked more than 40 people from houses isolated overnight by the torrent that hit the Lockyer Valley on Monday. But thunderstorms and more driving rain hampered efforts to send helicopters to help an unknown number of other people still in danger Tuesday.

Thousands were being evacuated from flood-prone areas, and residents in some sections of Brisbane — Australia's third-largest city — were being urged to move to higher ground as water from Toowoomba's flash flooding worked its way toward the coast.

Queensland state Premier Anna Bligh said four children were killed and there were "grave concerns" for at least 11 of the 72 missing. Many of those still stranded or unaccounted for are families and young children, she said.

"This has been a night of extraordinary events," Bligh told reporters. "We've seen acts of extreme bravery and courage from our emergency workers. We know they're out on the front line desperately trying to begin their search and rescue efforts, and we know we have people stranded and people lost."

She said the death toll stood at eight, but that "we expect that figure to rise and potentially quite dramatically."

Queensland has been in the grip of its worst flooding for more than two weeks, after tropical downpours across a vast area of the state covered an area the size of France and Germany combined. Entire towns have been swamped, more than 200,000 people affected, and coal and farming industries virtually shut down.

"The power of nature can still be a truly frightening power and we've seen that on display in this country," Prime Minister Julia Gillard said.

Monday's flash flooding struck without warning in Toowoomba, a city of some 90,000 people nestled in mountains 2,300 feet (700 meters) above sea level. Bligh said an intense deluge fell over a concentrated area, sending a 26-foot (eight-meter), fast-moving torrent crashing through Toowoomba and smaller towns further down the valley.

Police Commissioner Bob Atkinson described the events Monday as "an inland instant tsunami, with a massive wall of water that's gone down through the Lockyer Valley."

On Tuesday, the water was still pushing its way downstream, flooding river systems as it moved toward the coast. Thousands were being evacuated from communities in the water's predicted path, and officials closed roads and highways to some areas at high risk of being inundated. Residents in low-lying regions of the state capital of Brisbane were urged to sandbag their homes and later told to move to higher ground.

"We have a grim and desperate situation," Bligh said. "This took everybody so unawares that there was no opportunity in most cases for people to get to safety."

Rescue workers were battling more bad weather Tuesday. Heavy rain and thunderstorms were forecast for the region for most of the day, which could lead to more flash flooding, the Bureau of Meteorology warned.

Deputy Police Commissioner Ian Stewart said rescue efforts were concentrated on towns downstream of Toowoomba, including hardest-hit Murphy's Creek and Grantham, where about 30 people sought shelter in a school isolated by the australian floodwaters.

News video from late Monday showed houses submerged to the roof line in raging muddy waters, with people clambering on top. A man, woman and child sat on the roof of their car as waters churned around them with just inches (centimeters) to spare.

Among the dead were a mother and her two children whose car was swept away in the floodwaters, Bligh said. Two other children also were killed, she said.

In Toowoomba, the waters disappeared almost as fast as they arrived, leaving debris strewn throughout downtown and cars piled atop one another.

The Australia flooding in recent weeks has cut roads and rail lines across Queensland, the state's coal industry has been virtually shut down, and cattle ranching and farming across a large part of the state are at a standstill.

Queensland officials have said the price of rebuilding homes, businesses and infrastructure, coupled with economic losses, could be as high as $5 billion.

On the other side of Australia, hot, dry conditions have sparked a wildfire that has destroyed at least four homes. Around 150 firefighters were battling a blaze about 70 miles (110 kilometers) south of the Western Australia state capital of Perth on Tuesday. There have been no reported injuries.

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Heavy rains hamper Rockhampton recovery efforts

HEAVY rain over Rockhampton is stopping the recovery effort from the floods and increasing the possibility of more water leading to higher flood levels.

Flood waters at Rockhampton peaked yesterday, but it has been raining heavily in central Queensland's biggest town for several hours, with strong winds and lightning in the early morning.

The rain is putting at risk the recovery of the town of Theodore, which was evacuated last week as floodwaters rose, with plans to start moving people back into the town tomorrow being now reviewed.

A major problem is that the ground is already saturated or flooded, so rain falling now is adding directly to the floodwaters.

Rockhampton Mayor Brad Carter has warned the city could take a year to get back on its feet, adding that flood victims faced a long wait, possibly up to two weeks, before they could return home.

The BoM has warned water levels will remain above 8.5 metres until at least late next week.

"I think that this could drag on for 12 months,'' Mr Carter told the Nine Network, adding it would be three weeks before the airport could be re-opened.

However, the flood peak for the southern inland town has been revised downwards, with the Balonne River now not expected to rise beyond 14 metres.

"The information we had originally was 14 metres on Saturday, and possibly that could creep just above that on Monday or Tuesday,'' Balonne Shire Mayor Donna Stewart told the ABC.

But the latest advice was that the peak would be under 14 metres, she said. At 14 metres, only about 30 homes would be affected.

St George resident and Nationals senator Barnaby Joyce said more sandbags had been sent in to help residents prepare.

He spoke of the need for new dams to prevent future disasters, with St George facing its second major flood in less than a year.

"It's not good for our economy to be shut down and lose billions of dollars in production,'' Senator Joyce told Sky News.

"In the future I think we need to look at building dams to mitigate the effects of floods.''

The rain has led to several road closures in the Darling Downs area of southern Queensland, which was hit by the floods last week, but has started rebuilding efforts.

The main road up the range to the city of Toowoomba has been cut off because of a landslide caused by the rain, while to the west, waters have risen up and cut the Warrego Highway near Jondaryan.

More rain is expected over both central and southern Queensland this afternoon, with the possibility of heavy storms.

Meanwhile, daylight rail shuttle services have restarted in Queensland's north to help people resume their holidays or get home after flood-related delays.

The service will operate between Mackay and Cairns after floodwaters cut train services between Brisbane and Cairns, at Bundaberg and Rockhampton.

"The special services were a response to unique circumstances affecting customers in far North Queensland,'' Acting Transport Minister Paul Lucas said.

"Unfortunately, the flooding in Central Queensland has had a knock-on effect for many, including disrupted travel plans.''

The services will run until at least next Tuesday, but could be extended depending on the flooding situation further south.

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http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/heavy-rains-hamper-rockhampton-recovery-efforts/story-e6frg6n6-1225982981189

Queensland city Rockhampton hitting flood peak

Southern and western approaches to Rockhampton are more like huge lakes

Flood preparations in the inundated Australian city of Rockhampton are being put to the test as river levels hit their peak.

The River Fitzroy which flows through the Queensland city is at 9.2m (30ft) and expected to hit 9.4m, having already swamped hundreds of acres.

Officials say more than 400 homes will be flooded and another 4,000 will have water pouring through their gardens.

Many residents have already evacuated, some forced to do so by police.

More than 100 people spent the night in an emergency evacuation centre.

City Mayor Brad Carter said the waters were expected to remain at their peak level for about two days.



"We do not think they are a risk to public safety if people keep out of the waters, but if people do enter the waters their safety cannot be guaranteed," he told The Australian newspaper.

As the waters rose on Wednesday, Queensland's cabinet was meeting in emergency session to discuss its response to the crisis.

State Premier Anna Bligh said: "Given the scale and size of this disaster... we will continue to have major issues to deal with throughout January.

"There are literally thousands of Queenslanders who need our support."

More than a week of heavy rain has created a huge inland sea across Queensland which is now draining towards the ocean along the state's river systems, causing chaos in its wake.

Officials have said the flooded area is the size of France and Germany combined and 200,000 people have been affected. At least three deaths have been blamed on the floods so far.

South of Rockhampton, floodwaters are threatening St George where officials predict 80% of the town could be inundated next week.

To make matters worse, more rain is forecast for the state.



On Wednesday meteorologists issued a severe thunderstorm warning for southern areas, saying "very heavy rainfall, flash flooding" were likely, with St George among the locations that could be affected.

"Then as it starts to drop and flatten out, it is likely to be about 10 days or so that it could stay at about the 8.5m mark, which indicates that we will have significant water inundation for the best part of ... two weeks," he said.

Many of the city's historic buildings are being protected by piles of sandbags.

The city's main road to the north is still open but the airport is closed. Supplies are being flown by military cargo plane to a town north of Rockhampton and taken on by road or barge.

Mr Carter said residents had reported seeing snakes moving through the water looking for dry ground and some saltwater crocodiles had also been spotted in the Fitzroy River.

Queensland Emergency Services Minister Neil Roberts said the cost of the flood damage would run into "billions and billions of dollars".

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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-pacific-12116919

Australia flood death toll rises; rains cause more havoc

Police rescue German tourists near the northern town of Jabiru after their car became stuck going through crocodile-infested waters. (Northern Territory police / January 3, 2011)

Floodwaters in Australia's Queensland state created havoc in at least 22 cities and towns throughout the region grappling with several weeks of devastating rains, officials said Monday.

At least three people have been killed in the flooding since Saturday, and Queensland officials said as many as 10 have died in weather-related incidents beginning in late November.

About 200,000 people have been affected by the flooding, with many leaving their homes and seeking rest and food at relief centers, officials said. Spillover from Fairbairn Dam, the second-largest catchment area in Australia, was causing evacuations and other problems in several towns.

In the city of Rockhampton, the Fitzroy River caused the closure of the Bruce and Capricorn highways to the south and east, along with the local airport.

"Rockhampton is now completely stranded — a town of 75,000 people, no airport, rail or road," Queensland Premier Anna Bligh told Australian Broadcasting Corp. radio.

Prime Minister Julia Gillard declared the scene from the air as "truly startling" after flying over the town of Emerald, where some residents were returning to clean up after being evacuated on New Year's Eve.

"You see how widespread the floodwaters are and how affected Emerald is, how many houses have been affected," she said. "The patches that are not covered by floodwaters are a lot less than the area that is covered by floodwaters, so it's a very tough time in Emerald."

Although waters have begun to recede in some areas, others are looking at a week in which the situation could get considerably worse. Forecasters warned of more rain.

The Australian Defense Force was flying supplies to Mackay in the north and planned to truck them down to Rockhampton while the road was still accessible. The Fitzroy River is expected to peak Thursday.

Emergency services personnel from other states are also likely to fly in to assist with the response to the flooding, which in many cases has affected areas that were already isolated. Many of Queensland's emergency workers have been on duty since before Christmas, and many have lost their own homes in the deluge.

Warren Bridson, acting assistant director-general of Emergency Management Queensland, said conditions called for a protracted response and recovery.

"While some towns' river systems are still rising, others are moving into recovery mode and looking to reestablish their homes and businesses," Bridson said.

The Australian Red Cross was anticipating that at least 2,000 people would be staying in its seven emergency shelters in central and southern Queensland by Monday evening, and was setting up more shelters for the towns of St. George and Surat, where officials say water levels have not yet peaked.

The town of Theodore, population 351, was evacuated during the weekend and two successive waves of water have submerged every building. Residents were staying in a mining camp in the town of Moura and will probably have to be moved to another location in the next few weeks.

St. George and Surat are expecting even worse.

Much of the water is spillover from Fairbairn Dam, with a maximum capacity that is five times that of Sydney Harbor. It is at 140% capacity, officials said.

"It's an enormous wall of water and it's slowly moving down the state and that's why some towns are being hit twice," Red Cross spokesman Michael Gillies Smith said. "Thousands of homes are going to be destroyed and some evacuation centers will be open for a number of weeks."

Greg Goebel, the Red Cross' executive director in Queensland, said his organization was rushing to get staff members to towns before the waters cut them off. Although people were returning home where they could, they were finding their residences inundated with mud and silt — and wildlife, he said.

"A lot of snakes have come out," Goebel said. "Residents have come home to find [highly venomous] red-bellied black snakes and brown snakes. And around Rockhampton there's certainly going to be an increase in crocodiles in creeks and streams."

"Country people are quite stoic in Australia, but it's wearing thin," he said. "It's a huge disaster. Some people won't get home to their homes for at least another week, 10 days."

Goebel said the Red Cross was also moving into its recovery stage, encouraging people to donate cash rather than goods, and would soon start sending outreach teams with trained counselors to help residents reestablish their lives.


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http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-australia-floods-20110104,0,4348510.story

In New York, heaviest snow in decades

New York: Hundreds of airline passengers were stranded for up to 10 hours on the tarmac at John F Kennedy Airport in New York on Tuesday, as ambulances struggled to get patients through unploughed streets and city buses sat abandoned in the snow.

Officials warned it could take until the New Year to rebook all passengers and straighten out the transport mess created by the bad weather, which shut down all three of New York's major airports for 24 hours and caused a ripple effect across the United States.

The storm, which dumped 20 inches (50.8 centimetres) of snow on Central Park and ground the city's airports to a standstill, was New York City's sixth-worst since record-keeping began in 1869, according to a meteorologist with the National Weather Service.

A 2006 storm dropped 26.9 inches (68.3 centimetres) of snow on Central Park, breaking the previous record, set in 1947, by half-an-inch (12.7 centimetres).

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Tsunami warning for Japan after 7.4 quake

A strong earthquake with a preliminary magnitude of 7.4 has struck in the Pacific Ocean, triggering a tsunami warning off the southern coast of Japan.

Japan's Meteorological Agency said the quake occurred about 80 miles off the southern coast of Chichi Island in the Pacific Ocean. The offshore quake struck at around 2:20 a.m. local time.

The U.S. Geological Survey also put the quake's magnitude at 7.4.

The Japanese agency issued a tsunami alert of up to 6 feet for nearby islands and warnings of milder tsunami for the southern coasts on the main Japanese island.

A minor swelling of waves of about 1 foot was observed on the island's shorelines about 40 minutes after the quake, the agency said. The island is about 600 miles south of Tokyo.

The agency later downgraded the tsunami alert on the island to a warning and said only smaller waves of up to 1.5 feet were predicted. But the agency's seismology official Hirofumi Yokoyama said island residents should use caution for "several more hours'' given the size of the quake's magnitude.

There was no immediate report of any damage or injuries.

"It shook quite violently. I'm sure everyone was scared,'' said Kenji Komura, principal at a high school on the island. He rushed to school, where about 20 students gathered to take refuge. Despite the shaking, nothing fell on the floor or got damaged at school, Komura said.

About 170 people evacuated to several community centers and school buildings on the Chichi and nearby Haha islands, public broadcaster NHK said. Tomoo Yamawaki, a fisheries cooperative official on the Chichi island, said he has observed no significant swelling of the waves so far.

"We've taken all fishing boats on the island off coast to protect them from the tsunami,'' said Yamawaki, who is in charge of community tsunami broadcast, told NHK. "We haven't observed any significant change in the waves, but we urge all residents to immediately evacuate to a safer place.''

Japan is one of the world's most earthquake-prone countries. In 1995, a magnitude-7.2 quake in the western port city of Kobe killed 6,400 people.

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http://www.npr.org/2010/12/21/132242941/strong-earthquake-near-japan-triggers-tsunami-warning

Hotels shelter Venezuelans affected by floods

Venezuelan soldiers took charge at several privately owned hotels Monday to help accommodate some of the thousands of people who have been forced from their homes by flooding and mudslides following weeks of torrential rains.

The occupation — which went unprotested by the hotel owners — appeared to be a show of force as criticism of President Hugo Chavez' handling of the disaster has grown. The state-run AVN news agency quoted National Guard Cmdr. Luis Alfredo Motta as saying the hotel owners were willingly collaborating with the military.

"We are always open to helping, but within a cordial relationship in which the rules are clear," Ricardo Cusanno, vice president of the National Federation of Hotels, told the local Globovision television channel.

Cusanno said 19 hotels located throughout Venezuela's capital have already have opened their doors to people driven from their homes.

Soldiers are helping organize shelter for displaced people at three tourism hotels in the coastal town of Higuerote — one of the communities hit hardest by the floods. Motta said authorities were also holding talks with the owners of eight other hotels in the state of Miranda to determine if they would join the initiative.

More than two weeks of constant rains across this South American nation of 28 million have caused flooding and mudslides that have killed at least 34 people and left more than 5,000 Venezuelans homeless. More than 100,000 people have taken refuge at hundreds of shelters, Defense Minister Carlos Mata Figueroa said Monday.

Chavez also declared a "state of emergency" in the states of Zulia, Merida, Nueva Esparta and Trujillo on Monday. He said his government would open some of the country's military barracks and other public institutions to Venezuelans driven from their homes.

The government has declared a state of emergency in the capital and three states: Miranda, Vargas and Falcon.

Rains pounded the western states bordering Colombia over the weekend. The country's wet season usually ends in mid-November.

Chavez foes have argued that the government's response has been inadequate and say Chavez has failed during his 11-year rule to meet rising demand for low-income housing. Growing numbers of poor Venezuelans have resorted to building in slums that skirt the major cities, they say.

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18 dead, 106 missing in Colombian landslide

At least 18 people died and 106 were missing after a landslide in northwestern Colombia, local media reported.

Seven people were rescued and 18 bodies recovered in the town of Bello, officials said. An estimated 124 people were buried in the mudslide, which occurred on Sunday in a mountainous area near Medellin, Colombia's second-largest city.

Close to 700 rescue workers were deployed to the area. Locals claimed they had been warning of the risk of mudslides for weeks, but that the authorities did not heed their calls for preventive measures to be taken.

Civil rights groups say they have been warning about the chances of a landslide in what is a poor slum area where residents live illegally.

Luis Alfredo Ramos, the governor of Antioquia province where Bello is located, said water leaking from a parking lot further uphill could have contributed significantly to the disaster.

Caracol television reported that a garbage dump had previously been located above the settlement and could have contributed to the landslide.

The mudslide is believed to have been triggered by heavy rains, said to be the worst in four decades. However, it had not rained in recent days in the vicinity of the disaster zone.

"Only god knows my pain," said Luis Fernando, whose wife, 11-year-old daughter and six-year-old nephew were buried in the mud.

At least 50 houses were destroyed in the mudslide. Hundreds of people living near the worst-affected site were also forced to leave their homes as a precaution, Ramos said.


Read more: 18 dead, 106 missing in Colombian landslide
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Poland deaths from deep freeze reach 30

The death toll from a deep freeze in Poland has increased to 30 with a dozen more deaths overnight, while some of the worst floods in a century devastated parts of the Balkans.

Many of those who died in Poland are drunks or homeless people and police canvassed the streets Friday in the hopes of preventing more from freezing to death. Temperatures across most of Poland were around -15 C (5 F).

Authorities, meanwhile, declared a state of emergency in three Balkan countries — Bosnia, Serbia and Montenegro — and evacuated hundreds of people after heavy rainfall caused severe flooding along the Drina River — the worst in 104 years.