Stories about Disaster from October, 2009
Ukraine: Charity
Scenes From the Sidewalk writes about an encounter with one of Kyiv's many homeless children – and posts photos from actress Olga Kurilenko's visit to a CrossRoads Foundation/ChildRescue's rehabilitation center. Wild World of Sean's Blog reports on a charity visit to a Kyiv hospital for children affected by the Chernobyl...
Bulgaria, Romania, Serbia: “Dumping Grounds for People”
Dumping Grounds for People is a blog devoted to the results “of a four-months long journalistic investigation, conducted mostly undercover in ten institutions for adults with intellectual disabilities or mental illnesses in Bulgaria, Romania and Serbia.” A Flickr photo set, by Yana Buhrer Tavanier, is here, along with this note:...
China's Dark Satanic Mills
On Oct. 14th, Chinese photographer Lu Guang won this year's $30,000 W. Eugene Smith Grant in Humanistic Photography for his photos on China’s environment. The Fund’s website posts the following paragraph describing Lu Guang’s project: Lu Guang has been documenting the ecological disasters in China resulting from the rapid growth...
Disaster Management and the role of ICTs
In a first post of the series, we explore the role of ICTs in Disaster Management and the paradigm shift in Disaster Management strategies that came about post the aftermath of the Indian Ocean Tsunami in 2004.
Cambodia: Flooding woes
Sophonrith posts pictures of flooding scenes in Khan Russey Keo district, Phnom Penh, Cambodia.
Timor Sea Oil Spill Disaster
More than two months since the environmental catastrophe happened in the Timor Sea still no successful solution was found in order to plug the hole and stop the huge oil spill. Skytruth has been intensively blogging and proving the extent of the spill with satellite photos and netizens have started...
Philippines: Relief Goods Rotting in Government Warehouses
Ella's Blog from the Philippines posts photos of donated goods intended for typhoon victims rotting in government warehouses. The expose has sparked fears that the goods might be misused to support administration candidates in next year's elections. The original site shows a “404 Not Found error” when it is accessed...
Puerto Rico: Massive Oil Refinery Explosion
At around 12:30 am on Friday, October 23, the Gulf Oil Refinery (Caribbean Petroleum Company-CAPECO) in Bayamón (in the metropolitan area), Puerto Rico, exploded massively. Bloggers react to the disaster.
Vietnam: Flooding pictures
The Fish Egg Tree uploads pictures of the recent flooding in Kon Tum, Vietnam. The flooding was caused by Typhoon Ketsana.
Mongolia: Only Mongolians Can Protect Mongolian Rangelands
Ariungerel on Nomad Green critisizes the effects of many projects aiming to protect or restore rangelands in Mongolia. “Once a project ends and the result is reported to the world, both of their money and minds would disappear”, and in many cases, those restored rangelands return to waste desert because...
Reading the world on Blog Action Day
More than 9000 bloggers are devoting a post to climate change today as part of Blog Action Day, an annual initiative started by Change.org to unite the world's bloggers in reaching their millions of readers.
Laos: Relief for flood victims
Flood victims in Laos are in need of rice, household utensils, clothes, medicines and makeshift houses, according to the government. Typhoon Ketsana hit Laos last month which caused flooding in the southern part of the country.
Philippines: Disaster interactive map
CP-Union has put up a disaster interactive map to monitor the extent of damage caused by the recent flooding in the northern part of the Philippines
Bhutan: How To Help The Quake Victims
Tshering Tobgay has some tips on how to help the victims of the September 21 earthquake in Bhutan. Whatever Matters blog has more suggestions.
Philippines: Typhoon disasters and climate change
Two deadly storms struck Philippines in the last two weeks killing more than 500 people. Aside from using the internet to help flood victims, Filipino netizens are sharing their thoughts on the relationship of the recent natural calamities and the reality of climate change.
Bangladesh: Strategic Migration For Climate Refugees
Bangladesh Corporate Blog proposes strategic migration of skilled labors to solve the climate refugees problem in Bangladesh.
Bhutan: After The Earthquake
The devastating earthquake of 6.3 Richter scale on September 21, 2009 and several aftershocks caused Bhutan a lot of destruction leaving the people traumatized. Freedom In Bhutan critically analyzes the relief and rescue efforts and damage assessment and questions “whether Bhutan has the resources to start rebuilding”.
Bangladesh: The Dhaka Project
Maria Conceicao, a Portuguese flight stewardess based in Dubai, has founded the Dhaka Project, which helps the slum dweller children of Dhaka, Bangladesh to lift themselves out of the cycle of poverty and provide them education. As per the project blog, she has been nominated as one of the four...
India: Flood And Increased Air Fare
Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka states in India are facing the worst flood in 100 years and Sparsh posts some photos depicting the situation. Bus and train services are affected in that region and the blogger slams the air fare hike calling the airlines as opportunists.
Philippines: Soup kitchens for flood victims
Soup kitchens were set-up in different parts of Metro Manila to serve thousands of flood victims.
Typhoon Ketsana's impact in Thailand
The typhoon which hit the Philippines, Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos also affected Thailand. Some areas in north Thailand are still vulnerable to flash floods.