October Surprise/ Hurricane Sandy

             The possibility or either a tropical storm, hurricane or bursts of snow devastating the east coast is becoming more apparent as the days go on and the reality of the Caribbean become far too real. The pre-Halloween hurricane is already starting to effect the presidential race between Mitt Romney and President Barack Obama. Prompting cancelations of campaign events in critical battle ground states such as North Carolina, Virginia and Pennsylvania. Some states such as Virginia and Maryland have already issued emergency declarations.

The National Weather Service in Philadelphia warned the morning of Friday the 26^th to expect major flash and river flooding along with storm tides of as much as 5 feet in the Chesapeake Bay and 10 feet in the Delaware Bay. Meteorologists advised some areas to expect strong winds for up to two days straight from the slow moving storm. Sandy could merge with an eastward moving winter storm and join cold air flowing from Canada to form what the media is calling a “Frankenstorm” which could drop as much as two feet of snow on West Virginia and smaller areas of Ohio and Pennsylvania. Experts aren’t confident on how the storm is for sure going to play out they just know that it’s a large and dangerous storm and could have widespread effects.

Sandy throws one more wildcard into the Presidential election that has already taken many different twists and turns in the public’s perception. Some of the ways that the storm could affect the outcome are.

1.)    Early Voting. in many states such as Ohio and Virginia will be in trouble and prone to flooding are already making plans to relocating voting equipment. This could effect different groups on people in making time or having the availability to be able to vote on or before election day giving different candidates more of a advantage.

2.)    The Katrina Factor.  Any disaster offers a chance to see how a leader governs. Seeing the strength of the current President in dealing with aid to the public and working closely with disaster officials could make a difference in how Republicans and Democrats push for last minute advertisings.

3.)    The distraction. The fact that hurricanes and large natural disasters bring in a lot of attention the presidential election might lose importance and headlines in the media making final pitches of the future president hopeful less time in the media.

There are many last minute variables right now. The campaign is closely monitoring the storm and watching to make sure the public stays educate and safe when the storm hits.

www.politico.com 10/26/12

Servere Tornados

Thousands were left without electricity and power after a blustery storm swept through Arkansas and Mississippi on Wednesday October 17^th. Storm trackers are suspecting that at least five tornadoes touched down.

The storm traveled up from the Golf Coast into Mississippi and then up into Arkansas as well where it gained most of its strength.  In Northern Mississippi and Eastern Arkansas was were winds and tornadoes took out dozens of houses, trailer homes, trees, and electric towers leaving up to thousands of people in both states powerless.

After the strong winds and tornadoes ripped through Mississippi and Arkansas, dozens of people evacuated from their trailer homes in Tennessee. A man outside Memphis, TN stated “It sliced it open like a can, you can see the sky when you go in my kitchen, it’s pretty rough right now around here”

http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/10/18/14531330-ark-miss-tornadoes-leave-thousands-without-power?lite

Servere Drought Map

18 Students Die in China in Landslide

18 Elementary school students buried in a landslide were confirmed dead on Friday, while one person still remained missing a day after a hillside collapsed and smothered part of a village in mountainous southwestern China. The landslide smothered the elementary school, three farmhouses and damaged six other homes in the village.

The landslide dammed a river, causing it to pool 15 meters across and forcing the evacuation of 800 other people and prolonging the rescue of the missing peoples bodies. Rescue teams had to remove the blockage.

A cause of the event isn’t proven yet, but it’s assumed to have had some correlation with recent rainstorms and a series of small quakes last month that loosened part of the mountain.

 http://www.irrawaddy.org/archives/15785

Wildfires in Washington State

The Summer of 2012 has been a summer of devastating wildfires in the west. With warm weather and low precipitation fires have been thriving. Not one state on the west coast of the United States has gone untouched by a rash of burning forests, and fields.

Washington had been hit very hard. With one lightning storm lighting over 65 wildfires. Dozens of homes have been burned over the last month. Smoke from the wildfires in the eastern part of the state were drifting into the western part where alarmed residents were calling 911.

In mid September over two thousand fire fighters were assigned to the blazes across the state. Between two fires a combined 92000 acres or roughly 143 square miles these fires have been acting up more ever since the weather had dried up.

Thiers really no good ways to try and prevent disasters like these from happening. These fires aren’t getting set off by humans. It’s mother nature that’s setting them off. Although climate change probably had an effect on the dry climate during the summer. All you can do is use smart strategies to put out the fires fast before they spread.

 http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/fires/main/usa/20120920-wash.html

Deadly Flooding in Nigeria

At least 39 people have been killed with 40 missing in floods in central Nigeria after heavy rainfall caused a dam to overflow near the city of Jos. Over 200 homes, most made of mud, were submerged or completely destroyed.   Most of the livestock in the area had been injured or killed putting families in more dangers financially. 

Emergency responders in Nigeria  say that over 3000 people are now homeless. People are being sheltered in government buildings in the city. Thousands of people lost all their priorities and food. People in the mountainous city of Jos aren’t used to these events occurring. Nigeria has been hit with floods in the past but not in areas of such high elevation.

Maybe in the future people will try and keep the damns at a higher standard of safety precaution so that events like these don’t happen again.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-18966160

Melting Himalayas Making Water Scarce

     Many politically unstable areas across south Asia are water stricken. Meaning that the amount of water is lacking compared to the demands that need to be met in the area. Some of it is due to the lack of infrastructure. Researchers are reporting how changes in the Himalayan glaciers are affecting the river systems, water supplies, irrigation, and hydroelectric power for roughly 1.5 billion people stretching across eight countries. Changes in water availability due to climate change could result in increased conflicts within the region.

       One of the main problems is that the region utilizes the groundwater that is collected during the summer from monsoonal rainfall. But this natural process is shifting due to climate change and rainfall will start to decrease.

    "In the western Himalayas, where people do depend on runoff for water, glaciers are relatively stable, and perhaps even advancing, the report states. And the NRC researchers say they don't predict the same high water demands in these regions on the booming Indian subcontinent."

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-205_162-57511298/melting-himalayas-may-magnify-water-scarcity/

     Some of the changes in the water resources has been experienced during July and August in 2010. Pakistan had flooding that killed over 15 hundred people and resulted in 9.5 billion dollars of damage. The important steps to protect water quality and regulate their current policies are going to have to be taken by the government in the next decade.