Mountain Tsunami

Due to bad weather the mountain collapsed in Maierato of 2300 inhabitants (in Vibo Valentia) (Italy) just behind the power line towers and threatening the village below. Two hundred people were evacuated. Occurred in Italy earlier this year on Monday15th Feb 2010. In spite of this video which have the audio in Italian, the images show a dramatic example of an unstable soil, with liquefaction phenomenon! The comments are in Italian expressions of astonishment and evacuation instructions, without any technical comment. This video is very expressive and didactic to show this kind of phenomenon.

Maierato is a comune (municipality) in the Province of Vibo Valentia in the Italian region Calabria, located about 40 km southwest of Catanzaro and about 11 km northeast of Vibo Valentia. As of 31 December 2004, it had a population of 2,305 and an area of 39.9 km².

Woman's Record-Length Fingernails Broken in Crash

Lee Redmond of Salt Lake City in the United States whose nails measured a total of more than 28 feet long in 2008, with the longest nail on her right thumb at 2 feet, 11 inches in the Guinness Book of World Records were broken in a car crash. Redmond has been featured on TV in episodes of "Guinness Book of World Records" and "Ripley's Believe It or Not" whose nails hadn't been cut since 1979. VIA

Panda not so cuddly

Pandas don't do anything wrong! They are only adorable and cuddly and lovable and that's all!! Not really!!

1) A Beijing Zoo panda, Gu Gu for the third time on Wednesday Jan 7,2009 attacked a man who jumped into the animal's enclosure to retrieve his son's toy. The panda bit into the man's right leg, and when he was done with that, he bit the left leg. In 2007, the panda attacked a boy, 15, who had jumped into his enclosure, gnawing his legs to the bone. A year earlier he bit a chunk out of the leg of a drunken man who had jumped into the enclosure to "hug" the cuddly animal. VIA

2) On Thursday November 6, 2008 at the Wild Endangered Animal Protection Institute, near Xian in central China a panda latched onto a 15-year-old Melbourne schoolgirl hand and would not let go. Georgia Treu from St Leonard's College, Brighton in Melbourne's east, were at the sanctuary to perform volunteer work, including cleaning cages and preparing food. She was petting it and it licked her hand, which she thought was cute, and then it bit it. VIA


3) March 20, 2008 morning the Smithsonian’s National Zoo's beloved panda cub, Tai Shan (aka Butterstick)injured a zookeeper when he attempted to "play" with the zookeeper he encountered there and accidentally inflicted a small leg laceration with his teeth. VIA

4)A zookeeper, surnamed Zhang, needed more than 100 stitches after a 3-year-old panda, Lan Zai viciously bit and scratched him during feeding time at a zoo in northwestern China Gansu Province on Saturday Aug. 4, 2007. Zhang was feeding the panda from outside the enclosure, sticking his arms through the wire, when the panda, Lan Zai, grabbed his arms and began biting them and then scratched his legs. Last October in 2007, a panda cub bit off part of the thumb of an American visitor who was feeding the animal at a reserve in southwestern China. A month earlier, a drunken Chinese tourist bit a panda at the Beijing Zoo after the animal attacked him when he jumped into the enclosure and tried to hug it.VIA

Nearly frozen sea turtle heading to rehab

New England Aquarium biologist Adam Kennedy lifts Herb, a rescued 75-pound loggerhead sea turtle, onto a treatment table at the New England Aquarium in Boston, Saturday, Dec. 13, 2008. Herb is the largest hypothermic sea turtle rescued from Cape Cod this fall. He is being transported to the Riverhead Foundation on New York's Long Island, which rehabilitates and releases seals, whales, dolphins, and sea turtles. Herb's body temperature was in the 40s when he was found on the beach in Truro on Dec. 3. Veterinarians and rescue biologists slowly warmed him about five degrees each day, and his body temperature is now in the low 70's. Herb is likely between 4 and 7 years old. As an adult, he will weigh 200 to 250 pounds.

Tony LaCasse, a spokesman for the New England Aquarium said Herb's plight wasn't unusual. About 10 to 20 percent of the sea turtles washed ashore on Cape Cod beaches in the fall die because of the cold. But partly because of an early cold snap in November, for about a weeklong period the mortality rate was 60 percent, LaCasse said. VIA

Injured lost baby whale euthanized in Australia

Thursday August 21, 2008
The lost humpback whale calf swims around the Pittwater, north of Sydney Harbour Wednesday, Aug 20, 2008. The 1- to 2-month-old calf was first sighted Sunday in waters off north Sydney, and on Monday tried to suckle from a yacht, which it would not leave.

The animal was given an anesthetic in the water before a lethal drug was administered on shore. Roger Bell, spokesman for the National Parks and Wildlife Service said it died around 9 a.m.

Officials believe the 1- to 2-month-old calf was abandoned by its mother, possibly because it was ill. Wildlife officials said it appeared the whale had also been attacked by a shark.It spent days among the yachts and other boats in the waters off north Sydney, swimming back to the boats each time officials lured it out to sea in the hope it would attach to a passing pod of humpback whales.


Clip 1- A starving humpback whale calf sees boat as mother Aug 18
A few people designed feeding mechanisms, many gave advice, and some journeyed to Pittwater Inlet just to watch the lonely calf.

Clip 2- Baby Whale to Be Euthanized August 21, 2008——apparently orphaned and trying to suckle yachts near Sydney, Australia, for the past several days

The National Parks and Wildlife Service determined that the calf is still being breast fed, there is no way of feeding or socializing it, so taking this humpback into captivity is not an option. On Thursday, veterinarians and marine researchers who examined the whale found that its condition was deteriorating quickly and that euthanizing it was the most humane option.

VIA

Myanmar cyclone Nargis

This particular video is only released here at the time of writing

On 2 May 2008 tropical cyclone Nargis hit the coast of Myanmar and devastated large parts of the low-lying Irrawaddy delta. Winds exceeding 190 kilometres per hour ripped through the Myanmar’s biggest city Yangon for more than ten hours. Homes were flattened, more sturdy structures damaged, trees uprooted and power lines downed. In rural parts of the country up to 95 per cent of homes were wiped off the face of the earth.
Double Click to enlarge.........


PDF UN map showing worst-hit areas, based on satellite imagery [1.13MB]
Google Earth layer of Myanmar cyclone data

Nargis hit right around harvest impacted 65% of the country's paddies. The Irrawaddy Delta is such a fertile area for rice growing that it was known as the "rice bowl" of the British Empire.

This is a situation that the country has not dealt with before and the scale of the needs is clearly massive. Casualty figures with at least 90,000 fatalities with a further 56,000 people still missing. However, the Labutta Township alone was reported to have 80,000 dead, with about 10,000 more deaths in Bogale; the Burmese government's official death toll is grossly under reported as they have simply stopped counting the dead to minimize political fallout. It is feared and quite possible that due to lack of relief efforts, a total of a million people already have or will die from this catastrophe.Damage is estimated at over $10 billion (USD), which made it the most damaging cyclone ever recorded in this basin.

Initially Burma's military junta says "the country is not ready to accept foreign aid workers", amid mounting criticism and outrage of its response to the devastating cyclone. The World Food Programme's Paul Risley said the delays were "unprecedented in modern humanitarian relief efforts". In the days after the storm, the junta pursued a CNN reporter covering the effects of the storm. The reporter was eventually forced to leave the country out of fear of being imprisoned.It was reported that the corpses are now simply being abandoned on the streets.The International Society for Political Prisoner Assistance, located in Bangkok, reported human rights oversights during the disaster, alleging that corrections officers employed with the government had fired upon the prisoners of Yangon's Insein Prison who were attempting to escape amidst the chaos. It has been reported that 36 prisoners were killed and about 70 others were injured.

On 9 May 2008, the junta officially declared that their acceptance of international aid relief would be limited to food, medicines and other supplies as well as financial aid, but would not allow additional foreign aid workers or military units to operate in the country.United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon urged the junta to allow aid in "without hindrance" after the World Food Programme resumed food aid when two shipments of high-energy biscuits were stolen by the military.Some critics are even suggesting genocide since the Burmese government has deliberately denied storm victims aid, allowing for hundreds of thousands to potentially die from starvation, exposure, and disease.

On May 16, 2008, the Burmese UN ambassador accused France of deploying a warship to the Burmese coast in which France has stated the ship in question is carrying 1,500 tons of relief supplies.The French UN ambassador & UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown has accused the ruling junta of allowing the disaster to grow into a "man-made catastrophe" through its failure to act which could lead to a true crime against humanity.

On May 19, Burma agreed to allow aid from members of the Association of South-East Asian Nations (ASEAN) to enter after an emergency ASEAN summit.That day, Ban announced that Burma was going to "allow all aid workers regardless of nationalies" to enter, although ships and helicopters are still not expected to be allowed after Ban had met with junta leader General Than Shwe for over two hours. On May 23, negotiations between UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon and Than Shwe have resulted in the opening of Burma to aid workers, regardless of nationality.

On June 5, a USS Essex-led American carrier group full of aid left the Burmese coast after being denied entry for several weeks, taking its aid back undelivered.

On May 27, to complicate world opinion and in contrast to numerous and varied accounts from international relief organizations, the Myanmar junta praises U.N. aid.

On June 5, 2008, Amnesty International released a report saying that at least thirty people had been evicted from refugee camps. The report also indicated that the military was horse-trading aid for physical labour.

Associated Press, or AP, an American news agency stories state that foreign aid provided to disaster victims was modified to make it look like it came from the military regime, and state-run television continuously ran images of Gen. Than Shwe ceremonially handing out disaster relief.

More than a week after the disaster, only one out of 10 people who are homeless, injured or threatened by disease and hunger have received some kind of aid. More than two weeks later, relief had only reached 25 percent of people in need.

Nine days after the cyclone, the military government was still refusing to grant visas and access for aid workers into the area. The UN has called for an air or sea corridor to be opened to channel large amounts of aid, and the HMS Westminster has been sent to the area, alongside French and United States military assets.

A Global Day of Action for Burma a call for Humanitarian Intervention was held on May 17, 2008, in cities worldwide.

The exact death toll from Nargis will likely never be known for sure, but it was most likely one of the deadliest tropical cyclones worldwide in recorded history.

International relief: (Million USD mark)
Australia AUD $25 million (USD $23.5 million) and 31 tonnes of supplies. 3rd
Canada Up to USD $2 million in emergency relief, $500,000 of which
is for the Red Cross, Disaster Assistance Response Team is
on standby; additional aid to come 10th
China- USD $10 million in aid and relief materials (including 3 flights
using Jade Cargo each consisting of 60 tonnes of aid) 5th
Denmark- USD $2.1 million 10th
European Union- USD $3.0 million 8th
Germany- USD $3.0 million 8th
Ireland- EUR €1,000,000 (USD $1,550,000) 13th
Italy- EUR €1,500,000 (USD $2,250,000) 9th
Japan- JPY ¥28 million in tents and generators = USD $267,000; USD $10
million through UN World Food Program & USD $570,000 pledged
assistance 4th
Malaysia- USD $4,100,000 6th
Netherlands- EUR €1,000,000 (USD $1,550,000) 13th
New Zealand- NZD $1.5 million (USD $1.15 million) 14th
Norway- Up to USD $1.96 million 11th
Philippines- Medical workers and $3,000,000 USD and relief goods in cash 7th
Turkey- USD $1,000,000 from Ministry of Foreign Affairs, USD $600,000 from
Turkish Red Crescent 12th
United Kingdom- GBP ₤17 million (USD $33.5 million), HMS Westminster 2nd
United States- USD $41.170 million (as of June 26, 2008) 1st

Desertification and Sandstorms

Updated 03-Mar-08

Hazardous yellow sand from China covered parts of South Korea and Japan on Monday March 3, 2008, keeping people indoors as Tokyo pressed Beijing to reveal more information to the public. Dust-enveloping Cangzhou, north China's Hebei province on Saturday. Photo: Xinhua Yellow dust -- fine sand from Mongolia's Gobi Desert which sometimes includes toxic chemical smog emitted by Chinese factories -- usually hits South Korea and Japan in the spring. It can cause respiratory disorders. The sand storms have been growing in frequency and toxicity over the years because of China's rapid economic growth and has added to increased tensions with neighbors South Korea and Japan over recent years. Japan, China and South Korea have began joint research on the phenomenon. Japan's environment ministry recently began posting observation data and forecasts for dust waves on the Internet. But according to Japan, China has refused to release its own data and has insisted that any joint findings be kept from the public. Korea chokes on "yellow dust"

Desertification is the degradation of land in arid, semi arid and dry sub-humid areas resulting from various climatic variations, but primarily from human activities. Current desertification is taking place much faster worldwide than historically and usually arises from the demands of increased populations that settle on the land in order to grow crops and graze animals.Chief causes are deforestation, overgrazing, overdrafting of groundwater, increased soil salinity, overagriculture, and global climate change, all fundamentally caused by the burgeoning human population.

Sandstorms to hit north China in next two days 2008-03-01



Large tracts of land in Africa and China simply blew away in 2006. When land is stripped bare or robbed of rain by climate change, it oftens turns to desert.

Areas far from natural deserts can degrade quickly to barren soil, rock, or sand through poor land management. The presence of a nearby desert has no direct relationship to desertification.

Iraq sandstorm June, 2007

A number of solutions have been tried in order to reduce the rate of desertification and regain lost land; however, most measures treat symptoms of sand movement and do not address the root causes of land modification such as overgrazing and unsustainable farming. Leguminous plants, which extracts nitrogen from the air and fixes it in the soil, can be planted to restore fertility. Stones stacked around the base of trees collect morning dew and help retain soil moisture. Artificial grooves can be dug in the ground to retain rainfall and trap wind-blown seeds. In Iran, petroleum is being sprayed over semi-arid cropland. This coats seedlings to prevent moisture loss and stop them being blown away. Windbreaks made from trees and bushes to reduce soil erosion and evapotranspiration were widely encouraged by development agencies from the middle of the 1980s in the Sahel area of Africa.

A chief difference of prehistoric versus present desertification is the much greater rate of desertification than in prehistoric and geologic time scales, due to anthropogenic(Caused or influenced by humans) influences.

Oases and farmlands in windy regions can be protected by planting tree fences or grass belts. Sand that manages to pass through the grass belts can be caught in strips of trees planted as wind breaks 50 to 100 meters apart adjacent to the belts. Small plots of trees may also be scattered inside oases to stabilize the area. On a much larger scale, a "Green Wall of China", which will eventually stretch more than 5,700 kilometers in length, nearly as long as the Great Wall of China, is being planted in north-eastern China to protect "sandy lands" – deserts created by human
activity.
According to Chinese records, dust storms came to the capital once every seven or eight years in the 1950s, and only every two or three years in the 1970s. But by the early 1990s, they were an annual problem. Beijing's Desert Storm

Tibetan Glacier Melt Leading To Sandstorms In China May 03, 2006

330,000-ton sand fell on Beijing 2006-04-19


Sandstorm-swept China to spend billions on trees May 15, 2002

VIA

Flood Fighting Architectures

1) AMPHIBIOUS HOUSES FOR RISING WATER LEVELS

The Dutch have fought their marshy surroundings with clever engineering since the country’s inception, and we’ve seen some impressive “floating architecture” from DuraVermeer and WaterStudio. Now that global warming is fanning the flame: melting ice-caps and raising sea levels, more and more Dutch designers are getting into amphibious architecture. Builder Hans van de Beek’s amphibious houses are an obvious yet genius solution to rising water levels. He explains; “They are pretty much just regular houses, the only difference is that when the water rises, they rise.”
SOURCE

2)SOCCER (FOOTBALL) HOUSES

With floods and hurricanes on the brain, we always take note of houses that can float if waters start rising…Flexibility in the face of disaster can be a saving grace. This Bucky-esque dwelling is shaped like a soccer (aka…FOOT)ball.

The Japanese-designed Barier’s spherical form is constructed with hexagonal panels; but beyond the basic shape, the owner has a multitude of options in terms of color, size, and relationship to the ground.
SOURCE

3) WATERSTUDIO’S FLOOD-RESISTANT ARCHITECTURE

As we approach the anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, you may notice we’re running a little theme on Inhabitat: flood-resistant design and architecture. In the months following Katrina, one of the most interesting design solutions we found for dealing with rising water levels was the amphibious architecture of Dutch firm Waterstudio. Architect Koen Olthius specializes in a unique technology that allows land-based buildings to detach from the ground and float under rising water conditions. Olthius’ claim to fame is that he focuses exclusively on aqueous design - design for building in, on and at the water - in a country where water dominates the landscape.

4)WATERSTUDIO’S AMPHIBIOUS HOUSES


Leave it to the Dutch to come up with “amphibious houses” - a concept that makes sense in a landscape where solid ground is yearly sinking. Residents and planners are looking into the future with concern over flooding and heavy rain, an issue that will be compounded by rising water levels from global warming.

In response to this problem, the field of maritime architecture is gaining momentum. One notable architect, Koen Olthuis, has created some astoundingly beautiful water dwellings. What differentiates these from standard houseboats is a patented technology which allows the foundation of the construction to be transformed into a float. A foam core is encased in concrete, with steel cables securing it against the pull of potential currents.

Olthius’ company is looking not only at individual residences, but at creating maritime settlements, which is easily done, since his designs are linkable, “like LEGO blocks.” In the bottom image, one such settlement is pictured from an aerial perpective, giving a sense of the layout of these swimming developments.

The reassurance offered to residents in knowing that their homes will respond to rising water by floating on the surface is invaluable. Such technologies will obviously be relevant and necessary in many other parts of the world as demands for space drive people towards the coast, and climate change creates unpredictable scenarios for those who take up residence there.
SOURCE

INTERVIEW: Koen Olthuis of WaterStudio.nl

How many houses and buildings have you actually built? I see a lot of CAD images of projects in the works, but not a lot of photos.

We’ve built I think 24 houses now. But most of them — I think around 20 — are just modern houseboats. They are a little fancier than a normal house, but still they are houseboats.

I think we’ve built four really architectural, beautiful, unique buildings, and then we have 27 or 28 projects currently in the works, like the floating mosque in Dubai, like the floating boulevard in Antwerp, like the Health Village in Aruba.

Floating mosque in Dubai Floating boulevard in Antwerp in Belgium Health Village in Aruba.(Aruba is a 33-kilometre (21 mi)-long island of the Lesser Antilles in the southern Caribbean Sea, 27 km (17 mi) north of the Paraguaná Peninsula, Falcón State, Venezuela. A country within the Kingdom of the Netherlands. SOURCE)

The thing about our technique of working with the water is that the buildings and the floating foundations require very little maintenance. With these floating house techniques, waterproof houses, apartments, everything, you can just go on top of the normal structure of the polders and keep the original landscape in the same way as it is. Source
Floating and rotating hotel tower, Dubai, UAE by Waterstudio

5)
Domes "flood" design building

Read More at Surviving The Flood

Meteor Crash in Peru Caused Mysterious Illness

September 21, 2007
An object that struck the high plains of Peru on Saturday, causing a mysterious illness among local residents, was a rare kind of meteorite, scientists announced today.

A photo shows a crater that formed in the southern Peruvian town of Carangas, near the border with Bolivia, on September 16, 2007.
Scientists have now confirmed that the cause was a meteorite crash and that the mysterious illnesses that followed the impact were the result of arsenic fumes released by the blast.
Photograph by Miguel Carrasco/La Razon/Reuters

(See related news photo: "Mysterious Space Object Crashes Into House" [January 5, 2007].)

Photo in the News: Mysterious Space Object Crashes Into House January 5, 2007—It looks like a shiny lump of fool's gold, and it certainly has authorities fooled as to just what it is. This metallic rocklike object crashed through the roof of a New Jersey home on January 2, ripping through the ceiling and ricocheting off a tiled bathroom floor before lodging in a wall. No one was hurt by the impact, but local detectives trying to identify the mysterious debris may have their professional egos a little bruised. "I've never seen anything like it in my career," Lt. Robert Brightman of the Freehold Township Police Department told the Associated Press at a press conference yesterday. Experts from the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration have already inspected the 13-ounce (0.4 kilogram) lump and determined that it is not a stray airplane part. Another test found that the object is not radioactive, although it does appear to be magnetic. Some astronomers have speculated that that the object could be a meteorite, since the Quadrantid meteor shower occurs annually in early January. But meteor showers typically involve small particles of icy rock, not big metal chunks, so if the mass is a meteorite, it's likely an unusual one. Other theories have suggested that the lump is a tool lost by an astronaut or flotsam from an orbiting satellite that melted as it entered Earth's atmosphere. Brightman said scientists are currently testing the object and hope to have results by the end of the week.

A team of Peruvian researchers confirmed the origins of the object, which crashed near Lake Titicaca, after taking samples to a lab in the capital city of Lima (see Peru map).

Nearby residents who visited the impact crater complained of headaches and nausea, spurring speculation that the explosion was a subterranean geyser eruption or a release of noxious gas from decayed matter underground.

But the illness was the result of inhaling arsenic fumes, according to Luisa Macedo, a researcher for Peru's Mining, Metallurgy, and Geology Institute (INGEMMET), who visited the crash site.

The meteorite created the gases when the object's hot surface met an underground water supply tainted with arsenic, the scientists said.

Numerous arsenic deposits have been found in the subsoils of southern Peru, explained Modesto Montoya, a nuclear physicist who collaborated with the team. The naturally formed deposits contaminate local drinking water.

"If the meteorite arrives incandescent and at a high temperature because of friction in the atmosphere, hitting water can create a column of steam," added José Ishitsuka, an astronomer at the Peruvian Geophysics Institute, who analyzed the object.

By Wednesday, according to Macedo, all 30 residents who felt ill reported feeling better.

"People Were Extremely Scared"

Locals described the meteorite as a bright, fiery ball with a smoke trail. The sound and smell rattled residents to the point that they feared for their lives, Ishitsuka said.

The meteorite's impact sent debris flying up to 820 feet (250 meters) away, with some material landing on the roof of the nearest home 390 feet (120 meters) from the crater, Ishitsuka reported.

"Imagine the magnitude of the impact," he said. "People were extremely scared. It was a psychological thing."

The meteorite's crash also caused minor tremors, shaking locals physically and emotionally.

"They were in the epicenter of a small earthquake," Montoya, the nuclear physicist, said.

The resulting crater resembles a muddy pond measuring 42 feet (13 meters) wide and 10 feet (3 meters) deep.

Solving the Mystery

Even as meteorite samples arrived in Lima Thursday for testing, Peruvian scientists seemed to unanimously agree that it was a meteorite that had struck their territory.

"Based on the first-hand reports, the impact and the samples, this is a meteorite," Macedo, of INGEMMET, said.

Tests revealed no unusual radiation at the site, though its absence didn't rule out a meteorite crash.

"Everything has radioactivity, even underground rocks," Montoya said. "But nothing out of the ordinary was found."

Preliminary analysis by Macedo's institute revealed no metal fragments, indicating a rare rock meteorite. Metal stands up better to the heat created as objects enter Earth's atmosphere, which is why most meteorites are metallic.

The samples she reviewed had smooth, eroded edges, Macedo added.

"As the rock enters the atmosphere, it gets smoothed out," she said.

The samples also had a significant amount of magnetic material "characteristic of meteorites," she said.

"The samples stick to the magnet," Ishitsuka, the astronomer, confirmed. "That shows that there is iron present."

Water samples at the crater proved normal, but the color and composition of soil were "unusual" for the area, Macedo noted.

José Machare, a geoscience adviser at INGEMMET, said x-ray tests conducted on the samples earlier today further confirmed the object's celestial origins.

He said the group's findings put to rest earlier theories that the object was a piece of space junk or that the crater had formed by an underground explosion.

"It's a rocky fragment," Machare said, "and rocks that fall from the sky can only be meteorites."

Race to reach cyclone survivors

Wednesday, 21 November 2007
The Bangladesh army says it has reached most parts of the country's southern coast, six days after a cyclone struck.

But correspondents say much more needs to be done to bring food, clean drinking water, medicine and shelter to those who survived Cyclone Sidr.

There is anger among many villagers. Millions are still at risk from food shortages and water-related diseases.

The storm has affected about one million families and at least 3,100 people are confirmed dead so far.

The death toll is expected to rise.

Type rest of the post here
'Nothing left'

Relief officials say a huge operation by civil authorities and the army, navy and air force is now in full swing.

A number of roads blocked by trees have been cleared and communication links have been restored. BBC reporters have seen helicopters criss-crossing the skies.

Army major Emdadul Islam told the AFP news agency: "We have reached everywhere with relief materials and we are also continuing rescue operations."

UN relief co-ordinator Renata Lok Dessallien led a team of donors to visit badly-hit areas on Wednesday.

"There are some inaccessible places, where people were yet to get relief. But officials working in the field have assured that they will reach those places soon," she told Reuters news agency.

The BBC's Alastair Lawson, who is in the storm-hit area, says many people are badly in need of food. Aid is getting through, he says, but not in large enough quantities.

Some people have barely eaten since the storm struck and our correspondent has witnessed villagers fighting over rice.

The other big concern is how to get clean water and prevent the spread of disease, he says.

The Associated Press news agency reported that more than 2,000 people turned up for food aid in one village, Purba Saralia, when there were supplies for only half that number.

"This is a crisis. I don't have enough food and we have no work," one farmer, Lal Mia, told the agency.

"We have nothing left," said another man in the village of Balkultola.

Aid pleas

Cyclone Sidr, which struck late on Thursday, packed winds of up to 240km/h (150mph) and a tidal surge of several metres.

It brought down power lines and wiped out vital crops.

Bangladesh's Red Crescent society says up to 10,000 may have died.

On Tuesday Bangladesh called for more aid for tens of thousands of cyclone survivors. The government has urged aid agencies to co-ordinate with local authorities.

Coastal Bangladesh is a maze of waterways, creeks, islands and sandbanks and the only way to reach the area is by boat. The government's early-warning system is being credited with saving many lives.

Officials say that in many areas 95% of rice has been destroyed, while shrimp farms and other crops were simply washed away.

Southern Bangladesh is hit every year by cyclones and floods, but Cyclone Sidr is the most destructive storm to hit the country in more than a decade.

Another storm in 1991 left some 143,000 dead.

"At least 150 dead" in PNG floods

Wednesday, 21 November 2007
At least 150 people are now known to have died in eastern Papua New Guinea in floods triggered by heavy rain, reports from the Pacific nation say.

Hundreds of people have been displaced, officials say, and a state of emergency has been declared in the affected area.

Roads and communications in the region have been badly damaged, hindering the relief effort.

Aid is starting to arrive but health officials say they are concerned about a lack of food and spread of disease.

'Massive effort'

The flooding occurred after Tropical Cyclone Guba brought severe weather to the region.

Police spokesman David Terry described the situation in worst-hit Oro Province as "very sad" and said he expected the death toll to rise.

"We need a massive relief effort to stop people starving," he told Reuters news agency.

Helicopters began ferrying in aid from the capital, Port Moresby, on Wednesday.

People have been flocking to Oro's provincial capital, Popondetta, in search of food and water, local daily The National said, and officials fear others could be stranded in remote areas.

The Australian government has said it "stands ready to assist" Papua New Guinea if asked.