· April, 2009

Stories about Disaster from April, 2009

Azerbaijan: Last day of April

  30 April 2009

Sheki, Azerbaijan comments on today's massacre of at least 13 students at a university in Baku and says that the end of April will now live on in the collective memory of the country as the day when the children of some families never came home.

Bhutan: Flood Threat

  30 April 2009

Tshering Tobgay reports that the river Gotu-chu, a tributary of the Pho-chu river had swollen which could trigger a possible flood downstream along the Pho-chu and Punasang-chu rivers in Bhutan. The blogger comments: “We now know that we are ‘not prepared’ to handle a flood in Punasang-chu.”

China: A citizen campaign to reveal the forgotten dead

  28 April 2009

从车上下来的高举冲锋枪的警察高喊“把手举起来,原地不要动”这个只有大片中才有的场景让我有些不知所措。 The police rushing down from the car with a sub machine gun at hand shouted at me, ‘put your hands up, freeze!’ It was so astonishing a scene that I had only seen at American blockbuster. In his blog, Li Peifeng so recalled his encounter with the police in...

Sri Lanka: The Pros And Cons Of International Attention

  24 April 2009

The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) are holding on to to just a sliver of land in the north of Sri Lanka, but the United Nations is estimating that 50,000 people are still trapped in the warzone. As fighting surges in the final throes, concerns for civilians is growing and calls for international attention and understanding abound on the Internet and in the streets of cities around the world, such as London, Berlin and Paris.

Ukraine: Chernobyl Photo Exhibit

  24 April 2009

The 23rd anniversary of the Chernobyl catastrophe is in two days, and Chernobyl and Eastern Europe Blog posts a press release for Michael Forster Rothbart‘s photo exhibit that opens in Kyiv today – “Inside Chernobyl: life goes on.”

Kazakhstan: Blackout in Almaty

  20 April 2009

Last Wednesday, April 15, due to damage of the high-voltage power line Toktogul-Frunze (the largest line in the Kyrgyz Republic), most enterprises and even strategic buildings in towns of the northern Kyrgyzstan and southern Kazakhstan were in blackout. The supply of gas and hot water has been suspended, ATMs were...

Bangladesh: Bijli Strikes

  17 April 2009

Tropical cyclonic storm Bijli (01B) is making a landfall in the Southern coasts of Bangladesh. The 3rd world view has the updates.

China: Wuhan government building on fire

  16 April 2009

Here is a twitpic on the fire happened in Wuhan government building today (April 16). A number of tweets said that the news had to be down played, so far all the reports very brief and there are very few photos circulating online.

Ukraine: “New Safe Confinement” for Chernobyl

  14 April 2009

Chernobyl and Eastern Europe posts “a short video showing the design of the New Safe Confinement structure that is designed to cover the original Sarcophagus and remains of Reactor 4 at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant”: “Work on the New Safe Confinement is still considered to be on schedule.”

Sri Lanka: Plights Of The IDPs

  12 April 2009

Laksundara at Groundviews describes the plights of the IDPs (internally displaced persons) who fled their homes during the recent civil war in the Northern areas of Sri Lanka.

Pakistan: No Respite

  10 April 2009

Adil Najam at All Things Pakistan reports that troubles are brewing all over Pakistan. Quetta is burning due to riots, violence spreads in Balochistan and Karachi is tensed due to the clashes in the Shanaakht Festival 2009 – no respite for Pakistan.

Indonesia: Lessons from the dam tragedy

  8 April 2009

Love Ely shares some thoughts on why the Situ Gintung dam collapsed in Indonesia. He also proposes that those who live in disaster-prone areas should prepare for an emergency response system.