Landslides & Mudslides

[waltky]

Deadly landslide in China...

China landslide leaves 120 missing in Sichuan
Sat, 24 Jun 2017 : A frantic rescue operation continues in Sichuan province, with 15 bodies recovered so far.

More than 120 people are missing after a landslide in Sichuan province in south-western China, state media say. About 40 homes were destroyed in Xinmo village in Maoxian county, after the side of a mountain collapsed at about 06:00 local time (22:00 GMT Friday). Rescue teams are frantically searching for survivors trapped beneath rocks dislodged by heavy rainfall. The bodies of 15 people have so far been found. President Xi Jinping urged rescuers to "spare no effort".

A couple and a baby were rescued and taken to hospital after teams of workers used ropes to move large rocks, AFP news agency reports, citing local authorities. Qiao Dashuai told CCTV the baby had woken them and when they came to the door of their home they were swept away by water. He said his parents and other relatives were still missing. An earlier toll of 141 missing people has now been revised down by state media. The landslide blocked a 2km (1.2-mile) stretch of a river, Xinhua news agency reported. Local police told state broadcaster CCTV a lack of vegetation in the area had made the landslide worse.

Rescue workers are frantically searching for survivors feared buried beneath rocks​

Local officials said some 8m cu m (282m cu ft) of rock had been dislodged. Roads in the county were closed on Saturday to all traffic except emergency services, the news agency said. Landslides are a regular danger in mountainous regions of China, especially during heavy rains. In 2008, 87,000 people were killed when an earthquake struck Wenchuan county in Sichuan province. In Maoxian county itself, 37 tourists were killed when their coach was buried in a landslide caused by the earthquake.

China landslide leaves 120 missing in Sichuan - BBC News

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Over 120 people buried by massive southwest China landslide
Jun 24,`17 -- More than 120 people were buried by a landslide that caused huge rocks and a mass of earth to come crashing into their homes in a mountain village in southwestern China early Saturday, officials said.

The landslide, which came from a mountain, engulfed a cluster of 62 homes and a hotel in the village of Xinmo in Mao County at about 6 a.m., the Sichuan provincial government said. Officials said 1.6 kilometers (1 mile) of road were buried in the disaster. "It's the biggest landslide to hit this area since the Wenchuan earthquake," Wang Yongbo, an official leading one of the rescue efforts, told state broadcaster China Central Television. Wang was referring to China's deadliest earthquake this century, a magnitude 7.9 temblor that struck Sichuan province in May 2008, killing nearly 90,000 people. The provincial government said more than 120 people were buried by the landslide. CCTV cited a rescuer as saying five bodies had been found.

Bulldozers were used to help move large boulders after homes were destroyed​

Rescuers pulled out three people, two of whom had survived, the official Sichuan Daily newspaper said on its microblog. The paper also said a family of three, including a month-old baby, managed to escape just as the landslide started to hit their house. Qiao Dashuai told CCTV that the baby saved the family because he was woken up by the child's crying and was going to change the baby's diaper when he heard a noise that alerted him to the landslide. "We heard a strange noise at the back of our house, and it was rather loud," Qiao said. "Wind was coming into the room so I wanted to close the door. When we came out, water flow swept us away instantly." He said they struggled against the flood of water until they met medical workers who took them to a hospital. Qiao said his parents and other relatives had not been found.

Medical staff joined the search in the hope of assisting any survivors​

Mao County, or Maoxian, sits on the eastern margin of the Tibetan plateau and is home to about 110,000 people, according to the government's website. Most residents are of the Qiang ethnic minority. The village is known locally for tourism, and Chinese reports said it was unclear if tourists were among those buried by the landslide. The landslide blocked a 2-kilometer (1.2-mile) section of a river. The provincial government said on its website that an estimated 8 million cubic meters (282 million cubic feet) of earth and rock - equivalent to more than 3,000 Olympic-sized swimming pools - had slid down the mountain. Experts told CCTV that the landslide was likely triggered by rain. A meteorologist interviewed by CCTV said there was light rain in the area that would continue for a few days.

The Sichuan Daily said rescuers made contact with a villager buried under the rubble who answered her cellphone when they called and burst into tears. The woman was in the bedroom of her home when the landslide hit the village, and rescuers were trying to reach her, the report said. Search and rescue efforts were underway involving more than 400 workers, including police. CCTV showed footage of rescuers in bright orange uniforms using earth movers and excavators but also relying on ropes to pull at huge rocks and shovels to dig up the dirt. Provincial police sent 500 rescuers with two dozen sniffer dogs to the site, the official Xinhua News Agency reported.

News from The Associated Press

 

[yiostheoy]

Chinese Gooks live everywhere all over the face of the land in China.

It is no surprise some of them live in danger zones subject to flooding too.

 

[Skull Pilot]

Landslide Shot/Shooter Cocktail Recipe | In The Spirit

Decadent Drinks We Love: The Mudslide

 

[yiostheoy]

Leave it to Skull Pilot to put a positive spin on anything.

I'm glad it's the weekend. This is my only chance to drink.

 

[waltky]

Second landslide hampers rescuers efforts...

Rescue operation hampered as second landslide hits China village
Wednesday 28th June, 2017 - Rescuers use sensors to check for signs of life in the rubble at the site of a landslide in Xinmo village in China's Sichuan Province

A second landslide has struck the village in south-west China where rescue workers have been looking for nearly 100 people buried over the weekend by a massive wave of rocks and debris. Chinese state radio said the latest landslide struck the village of Xinmo in Sichuan province at around 11am local time on Tuesday. Government teams were ordered to evacuate the site on Monday after radar detected shifts in the mountain, signalling another imminent collapse.

Rescuers use sensors to check for signs of life in the rubble at the site of a landslide in Xinmo village in China's Sichuan Province​

While no further casualties were reported, the second landslide is a setback for rescue teams searching for 93 people missing since early on Saturday, when rugged mountains flanking the village gave way and buried its residents. Before rescue work stopped on Monday, only three people had been rescued and 10 bodies had been recovered. More than 2,500 rescuers with dogs and detection devices were looking for signs of life amid the rubble.

Sitting on the eastern edge of the Tibetan Plateau, Xinmo has in recent years become a tourist destination, with homes in lush meadows set against steep mountains. The area has been prone to geological activity. A massive earthquake in 2008 in nearby Wenchuan County 25 miles (40km) away killed nearly 90,000 people. Experts quoted by Chinese media said that earthquake may have weakened Xinmo's mountains, which collapsed after heavy rain.

Rescue operation hampered as second landslide hits China village - BelfastTelegraph.co.uk

 

[waltky]

Death toll in Sierra Leone Mudslides keeps rising...

Death Toll in Sierra Leone Mudslides Tops 400
Friday 18th August, 2017 - The United Nations said Friday the death toll from mudslides in Sierra Leone's capital Freetown has surpassed 400.

Another 600 people remain unaccounted for as workers seek to recover more bodies from the thick mud and debris of smashed homes. Those efforts are hampered by rain, which remains in the forecast in coming days. The government has began burying the bodies that have been recovered Thursday. Sierra Leone's President Ernest Bai Koromo offered his condolences and support during a burial ceremony. 'As we mourn, let me assure you that we all support the bereaved families and the injured. We will continue to stand by you and share with you your grief and help those of you that are traumatized and depressed, and in the process we all are committed that even with this difficulty Sierra Leone will rise again. May the God and the good Lord have mercy on the souls of our compatriots that have departed. May they be granted eternal rest. Thank you.'

Volunteers bury coffins during a mass funeral for victims of heavy flooding and mudslides in Regent at a cemetery in Freetown, Sierra Leone, Thursday, Aug. 17, 2017. The government has begun burying the hundreds of people killed earlier this week in mudslides in Sierra Leone's capital, and it warned Thursday of new danger from a large crack that has opened on a mountainside where residents were told to evacuate.​

The government warned of a new danger from a large crack that has opened on a mountainside where residents were told to evacuate. Sierra Leone has asked for international assistance and said it's doing all it can to stem the outbreak of deadly disease, while human rights organization, Amnesty International, issued a statement accusing the government of failing to learn from similar past incidents.

The mudslide occurred after hours of heavy rains early Monday, while many Freetown residents were still sleeping. Witnesses described a particularly hard-hit area in the Regent district, saying roads became 'churning rivers of mud.' UNICEF called the scale of damage from the mudslides "unprecedented" and said its teams have been providing safe drinking water and sanitation to the large number of children affected by the disaster. "Children have been left homeless, vulnerable and terrified. We must do all we can to protect them from disease and exploitation," said UNICEF Representative Hamid El-Bashir Ibrahim.

Death Toll in Sierra Leone Mudslides Tops 400

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Sierra Leone death toll now up to 450 after mudslides
Aug 18,`17 -- Rescue officials in Sierra Leone warned Friday that the chances of finding survivors in the debris of this week's mudslides "are getting smaller every day," as bereaved and homeless survivors faced the magnitude of all they have lost.

Burials and rescue efforts pressed on amid the threat of further disaster. Up to 450 bodies have been recovered in and around the capital, Freetown, after Monday's mudslides and flooding, according to Dr. Simeon Owiss Koroma, the government's chief consultant forensic pathologist. Some 600 others are missing and feared dead. At least 122 of the victims are children, and a similar number have been orphaned by the disaster, the aid group Save the Children said. Sayo Jalloh, who lost a son, a brother and 15 other family members, has been too numb to mourn. At a camp for those made homeless in the hard-hit Regent neighborhood, she has been having trouble sleeping and pleads with her traumatized daughter to eat. "I just keep wondering why I don't see them or even dream about them," she said of her lost relatives. "It just seems like when someone has travelled. I can't even locate the house where used to live anymore, other than to just point at the area."

Burials have begun in a cemetery that holds victims of the 2014-15 Ebola outbreak that killed thousands in the West African country. Many people have been unable to find loved ones and victims often are too mangled and decomposed to be identified. But the government has vowed to hold burials for all. "The death toll is climbing by the day," Elhadj As Sy, secretary-general of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, told reporters in Geneva, adding that the disaster is "way beyond the capacity of the government alone."

The threat of further mudslides continues. The government has warned residents to evacuate a mountainside where a large crack has opened. Rainfall is in the forecast for the coming days, slowing recovery efforts. Some critics accuse the government of not learning from past disasters in a city where many poor areas are near sea level and lack good drainage. The capital is also plagued by unregulated construction on its hillsides. The government's main focus right now is getting people away from areas still under threat, Zuliatu Cooper, the deputy minister of health and sanitation, told The Associated Press. "The rains are still pending and there is a possibility that we will have another incident," he said.

Some parts of the capital are without clean drinking water because of damage to pipelines. Malaria is also a concern, as many of the estimated 3,000 homeless are sleeping without mosquito nets. Jalloh and her surviving family members are among them. "I am just imagining where we live now - on empty ground? My body is paining me," she said.

News from The Associated Press

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UN agencies rushing aid to more than 3,000 displaced in flood-hit Sierra Leone
Friday 18th August, 2017 -- United Nations agencies are stepping up efforts to aid displaced families affected by the deadly flooding and landslides in Sierra Leon's capital, Freetown, and surrounding areas.

"The scale of the damage is unprecedented," said UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) Representative Hamid El-Bashir Ibrahim. He noted that at least 109 children are counted among the several hundred people killed in the disaster that struck on Monday. "Children have been left homeless, vulnerable and terrified. We must do all we can to protect them from disease and exploitation," he added.

UNICEF teams, working with the Government of Sierra Leone and partners, are providing safe drinking water and sanitation, and delivering supplies including medicines, tents and gloves following the Government's request for support. UNICEF is also offering psycho-social support to those traumatized by the events. While the mudslides have left death and destruction behind them, the Director and Representative of the World Food Program (WFP) in Sierra Leone, Housainou Taal, said his UN agency is "focusing on survivors so that they can rise and move forward."

The United Nations Resident Coordinator in Sierra Leone, Sunil Saigal, appointed Mr. Taal to coordinate the UN's humanitarian response to ensure timely distribution of aid, including food and shelter. In the hours following the landslides in Freetown, WFP began distributing food aid to some 7,500 people affected by disasters. The aid, which includes rations of vegetable oil and vegetable oil lenses for at least two weeks, has been distributed to Regent, Sugar Loaf and Mortomeh 8211 neighbourhoods around the affected area.

According to preliminary results of site assessments conducted by the Sierra Leone National Security Office and the United Nations Interagency Rapid Response Team, 1,039 households from several neighborhoods in Freetown (including Regent , Kamayamah, Dworzak, Culvert and Kaningo) and 100 individuals currently in a mountain cut shelter have been affected by floods and landslides. Sierra Leone's Office of National Security (ONS) estimates that more than 3,000 people have lost their homes.

UN agencies rushing aid to more than 3000 displaced in flood-hit Sierra Leone