I feel a bit late to the party writing about the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. Had I chosen to focus on this subject a few days ago, I might have been inclined to draft a personal narrative about the summers I spent on Alabama’s Gulf Coast as a boy and young teenager. My post would have certainly have been in good company; it heartens me to recognize just how many people have an emotional and personal connection to the region. I myself didn’t realize how much the warm salt water and white sand meant to me until I began to contemplate what both might look like covered in oil. It is very unfortunate that tragedies like these have to happen before we ever seriously consider the long term consequences. Off-shore drilling was, until very recently, touted as some kind of snake-oil panacea or fix-all curative. One hopes that we now understand the complexities and potentially catastrophic drawbacks in tapping the reserves present in our coastline.
Tag: natural disaster
Jan 31 2010
Peru’s Natural Disaster
The Urubamba River In Flood
This year’s rains have come to Peru. And the rains have been extremely heavy. The result has been a washout of crops in the Sacred Valley, which runs from Cusco to Machu Picchu, mudslides that have destroyed houses and other buildings, and flooding. Peru Rail’s tracks from Cusco to Aguascalientes have been washed out or buried under boulders. And the bridges across the Urubamba River at Pisac, Ollantaytambo, and Urubamba have all been washed out.
Jan 17 2010
Haiti: A Well-Regulated Relief Effort Being Necessary for Everyone’s Security
Earlier today, I was returning from meeting by bus. After having boarded and taken my seat, I settled in for what I anticipated would be a relatively short ten minute ride. Instead, the traffic on Massachusetts Avenue over by Embassy Row snarled to a complete halt. The weather today in Washington, DC, had been dreary …
Jan 14 2010
Google Earth & Maps: Haiti Devastation
This is going to be short but might be helpful to some for a wide variety of reasons.
Google has teamed up with GeoEye to bring updated aerial views of the devastation from the Haiti Earthquake.
May 15 2008
Victims of China Quake: Children And Young Families
On Monday, Fu Guanyu dropped off her young son, Wang Zhilu, at his grandparents’ house so she could go to work. Minutes later, the earthquake hit.
She rushed back home and saw their apartment building in ruins. She says soldiers came right away to help, but they had no equipment.
Two days later, the heavy machinery is on the way. As an excavator clears a path, Fu and her husband Wei Wang search the debris, calling for their son.
After a long while, the workers stop. They have found bodies.
link: http://www.npr.org/templates/s…
The NPR story concludes, tragically, with the rescue worker informing the parents that three bodies were found: the grandfather, holding his two year old grandson in his arms with his wife clutching his back.
May 13 2008
Quake Kills 12,000 In China; Military Hoards Foreign Aid in Burma
The magnitude of this disaster is overwhelming. I cannot even begin to imagine the suffering that is taking place as I type this.
NPR Correspondent Andrea Hsu reporting from Beichuan County, China: http://www.npr.org/blogs/chengdu/
This video was shot as the quake was happening: