This has been quite a week for various types of natural phenomena around the world – earthquakes, tsunami warnings, flooding, hurricanes and typhoons!
Locally, we had our first summer rainfall with flooding in many places, stretching all the way from the Eastern Cape, through KZN and into Mpumalanga, Gauteng and Limpopo province. With weather patterns changing around the world and storms becoming more intense, we need to be aware of more weather activities this coming summer.
But looking at the Global Disaster Alert and Coordination System, the items that were prominent were spread all over the world.
Earthquakes were reported from the Solomon Islands, Costa Rica, China (3 quakes) and Turkmenistan – just north of Iran.
Tropical Storms were name Michael off the Azores, John off the Mexican coastline and finally Leslie off Bermuda.
The last list of activities was flooding from all over the world.
Starting in Vietnam, North Korea, the Gambia, Nigeria, Uganda and Niger – not forgetting locally where we reports of flooding from the Eastern Cape, Kwa Zulu Natal where there reports of rain measuring over 200mm and further north into Mpumalanga and Limpopo Provinces.
More rain and severe thunderstorms are predicted for this weekend and if we think it’s all over regarding winter; be aware that there is a cold front still out in the south Atlantic and heading toward the Cape Peninsula. This front could reach the Cape by Sunday evening or Monday. Its path at this stage is still unclear but we will keep you informed.
The rapid spreading of information since the introduction of the Internet and the establishment of various informative websites, makes gathering information of disasters, pending disasters and reports of disasters around the world an almost instantaneously.
One needs to think back to the quake/tsunami that hit Japan on the 11of March last year. Within an hour of this tragic event, audio and video clips were already being shown on TV and Radio reports broadcast world-wide.
From a Hamnet point of view, we should make use of our own well developed infrastructure to keep our members on the alert when severe weather or other disasters strike, should our services be required.
Reporting for Hamnet, this is Francois Botha – ZS6BUU.
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