Moderate Quake Shakes Central Myanmar

A moderate earthquake has shaken central Myanmar near the Indian border.

The U.S. Geological Survey says the quake had a magnitude of 5.7 and struck at a depth of 68.4 kilometers (42.5 miles). Myanmar's meteorological and seismic agency put the magnitude at 5.8.

An official from the Myanmar agency says no casualties or damage have been reported. The quake occurred Sunday at 8:51 a.m. local time.

The official says the quake's epicenter was about 215 kilometers (135 miles) northwest of Mandalay, Myanmar's second largest city. He says it was felt in Hakha, the capital of northwestern Chin state. He spoke anonymously because he wasn't authorized to release information.

The area affected is not densely populated. It falls within an earthquake belt where tremors are fairly common but usually not destructive.

- ABC News

Doctor drowns in Cape Town

Cape Town - The body of a doctor has washed up on the Bloubergstrand beach, in Cape Town, Western Cape police said on Sunday.

Warrant Officer November Filander said the body of Waldo Fernandez, 48, was found by a passerby at around 07:30 on Saturday.

He said Fernandez's identity document was found in his pocket.

"The case is being treated as a drowning."

The Weekend Argus reported on Sunday that the doctor's BMW had been found, with nothing missing, at a nearby shopping centre in Sunset Beach.

Stepson Steven Vermaak told the newspaper that Fernandez had loved swimming for exercise and that he was a good swimmer.

"The police said they suspect he walked into the sea and the current took him and he drowned, then his body got washed up on the Marine Drive side [of the sea]," he said.

"We're still waiting for an autopsy to tell us exactly what happened, but I don't think he would commit suicide."

- SAPA/News24

SA National Severe Weather Warnings: 29 July 2012 04h00 SAST

All Provinces in South Africa - No warnings nor advisories in effect

Subject: No Alerts
Detail: No Alerts

- SAWS

SA Weather Satellite Image: 29 July 2012 09h00 SAST

Image: Eumetsat (Click on image for larger view.)

Images: Weather and Disaster Observation - Maitland River Mouth transformed 28.07.12.

Images: Facebook - Jennifer Anne Church Joubert (Click on images for larger view.)

Images: Flooding Port Elizabeth (Lake Farm 28 July 2012)

Images: Jennifer Anne Church Joubert added photos to Lake Farm 28.07.12 Port Elizabeth. (Click on images for larger view.)

Weather Observation Image: Port Elizabeth (28 July 2012 10h00 SAST)

Dark Cloud hanging over Algoa Bay 28 July 2012 10h00 SAST — at Bluewater Bay Beach.

GFS Medium Range Forecasts of Vertical Velocity and Precipitation: 29 - 30 July 2012

Image: U.S. National Center for Environmental Prediction (NCEP) Click on image for larger view.

Long Term Forecasts and Models: Cold-front, low & possible snow 31 July - 1 Aug 2012

Recent model runs (particularly the 00Z GFS on Sat 28th) indicate a sharp upper trough will arrive over the SW&S-Cape on Tues 31st and Wed 1st, bringing very cold air and some instability. There is still uncertainty as to developments at the surface (mainly the position of the South Atlantic High), but a cold-front will bring some rain to the SW-Cape on Tues 31st. This front seems likely to intensify into a cutoff-low as it moves towards the Eastern Cape coast on Wed 1st, though this low will likely remain weak (or have limited effects on land).

The amounts of rain expected from this event seems limited, but the cold air is likely to bring light snow to all of the coastal mountain ranges on Wed 1st, and possibly reach the Drakensberg by Thurs 2nd. This is nicely shown by the animation on the site snow-forecast.com: www.snow-forecast.com/maps/dynamic/southafrica

This custom GFS chart shows the sharply colder than average temperatures at the 700 hPa level (roughly 3000m altitude) at 00Z on Wed 1st. Other charts are consistent with a freezing level below 1500m along the southern Cape coast for an extended period of time:

Compiled by Gordon Richardson - StormChasingSA

Mom, child trapped in burning house

Durban - A child died and its mother was severely burnt when they were trapped in a burning house in Richards Bay early on Sunday morning, paramedics said.

Netcare 911 spokesperson Chris Botha said: "After the fire was extinguished the body of a child, presumed to be a boy aged around four, was found burnt beyond recognition".

The woman was taken to hospital in a critical condition.

Further details were not immediately available.

- SAPA

NKorea: Typhoon-Fueled Floods Killed 88 This Month

North Korea says that heavy rain caused by a typhoon has killed nearly 90 people, destroyed thousands of homes and submerged a large amount of farmland.

Seoul-based analyst Kwon Tae-jin says the flooding is expected to worsen North Korea's chronic food shortage because it comes soon after a severe drought.

The official Korean Central News Agency said Saturday that rains over the past month killed 88 people and left more than 60,000 homeless.

It says about 4,800 hectares (11,860 acres) of cropland were washed away and 25,700 hectares (63,500 acres) submerged.

The United Nations said last month that two-thirds of North Korea's 24 million people face chronic food shortages.

- ABC News

Suid Kaap - Verwarring oor nooddienste

UNIONDALE - Verwarring oor wie verantwoordelik is vir nooddienste in die Uniondale-gebied, wat De Hoop, Haarlem en Avontuur insluit, het onlangs tydens swaar reën en erge koue frustrasie veroorsaak.

“Ons is George se verantwoordelikheid,” sê Dave Hodgson. “Dit blyk asof die George-beheerkamer dit in ‘n stadium nie besef het nie.

“Ons het daarna mense reguit na Neels Barnard verwys. Barnard is waarnemende hoof brandweer en rampbestuur van George-munisipaliteit.

“Soos enige nuwe stelsel is daar haakplekke. Die grootste fout is dat Wendy Young nooit moes weggegaan het van rampbestuur nie - sy is die beste en ons was bederf om haar by ons te hê. Nou moet almal bontstaan in onkundigheid oor die gebied.

Indien ons Wendy weer by ons kan kry, sal dit wonderlik wees.” Hy was vol lof vir Gerhard Otto, hoof van rampbestuur van Eden-distriksmunisipaliteit en Wayne Young, senior brandweerman: Uniondale, van Eden.

Barnard en Johan du Preez, dorpsbestuurder vir George se wyke 24 en 25 het ook reëlings getref te Ongelegen en Haarlem. Volgens Hodgson is daar ook sprake dat Haarlem-brandweerdepot gaan toemaak. “Dis belaglik, want hoe gaan hulle deur Uniondale bedien word? Hulle betaal brandheffings en moet ‘n effektiewe diens ontvang, en dit is George se verantwoordelikheid.”

Hy wys daarop dat die Outeniquapas een van die kernroetes na Uniondale en Haarlem is. “Elke keer as dit swaar reën is daar ‘n moontlikheid dat die pas gesluit word. Hoe gaan George dan ‘n diens lewer aan Uniondale/Haarlem? “Nege uit tien maal wanneer daar ‘n ramp is, word George EN Uniondale/Haarlem geraak. Hoe hoop George om albei kante te bedien sonder ‘n amptenaar op Uniondale?

“Dis die kern van die probleem. George se begroting kan nie so ‘n persoon dra nie, en tog moet daar so iemand wees. Die persoon kan George tydens rampe help as Uniondale/Haarlem die ramp vryspring.”

“Net soos probleme met die ambulansdiens - daar is nie genoeg ambulanse vir die uitgestrekte gebied nie - kan ons met ‘n nuwe inisiatief na vore kom wat haalbaar is en ons mense se veiligheid kan verseker. Gelukkig kry ons goeie ondersteuning van provinsiale minister van gesondheid Theuns Botha en sy personeel en ons kan ‘n oplossing vind.

“Ons politici en amptenare is bekwaam en ‘n oplossing is haalbaar. Indien ons nie .
oplossings vind nie, gaan dit chaos wees en mense gaan seerkry.”

- AfriFokus

SAWDOS:  Op Maandag, 20 November 2006, het 'n vernietigende haelstorm 'n gebied oos van Haarlem getref.  Die storm het sewe plase erg benadeel waar besproeingstelsels en 389 hektaar vrugtebome vernietig is.  Dit het ook to gevolg gehad dat plaaswerkers beseer is.  Die storm het  die lewensbestaan van baie families ontwrig.  Direkte skadekoste het nagenoeg R9.2 miljoen rand beloop.  SAWDOS stem saam met die gemeenskap van Uniondale/Haarlem dat dit uiters noodsaaklik is dat 'n satelliet nood/brandweer- en rampbestuur depot permanent beskikbaar moet wees in die area.  Die aangeleentheid verg egter die dringende aandag van Eden Distriksmunisipaliteit.

Boy (3) drowns in Pretoria pool

A three-year-old boy drowned in a swimming pool at a residence in Elandspoort, Pretoria North, this evening.

The cause of the incident and the series of events preceding it remain unclear and will form the subject of a South African Police Force investigation.

Common cause information suggests that the unattended child had fallen into the uncovered swimming pool. His body was discovered floating in the water by a resident.

Netcare911 Paramedics arrived at the scene to find the boys’ body at the poolside. The child was declared dead at the scene.

Jeffrey Wicks
Media Liaison Officer - Gauteng
Netcare Limited
Netcare 911

Ostriches go for a swim

This remarkable set of pictures was taken by Harbour View of two ostriches being herded out of the sea at Yzerfontein:

Skipper and boat owner Johan Basson came upon these 2 “swimmers” on Wednesday (25th) afternoon. He “herded” them into the harbour where they eventually ended their swim at the slipway.

It is unclear where they “launched.”

Yzerfontein is privileged to have a number of these feathered residents and it is suspected that they were practicing for the Olympics. It is not the first time these feathered athletes have been seen in the Atlantic.

(Note: NSRI was not involved in this incident.)

Photos courtesy of Harbour View.

- NSRI

Hamnet Weekly report 29/07/2012

The Johannesburg or Jo’burg Disaster Management is currently a hive of activity. Not only have they circulated a new City of Johannesburg Disaster Plan, but also asked for a commitment from the various volunteer groups.

Alet Rautenbach, who heads the Region 3 Division phoned us late on Friday for a letter of commitment which was sent to her immediately and she has also put down set of dates for all of us to meet on a more regular basis.

This is good news, as my personal feeling was that things during the past year to 18 months have just been too inactive!

Extracts from this circular read as follows:- Section 1 of the Disaster Risk Management Act 57 of 2002 defined Disaster Risk Management (DRM) as “a continuous and integrated multi-sectoral and multi-disciplinary process of planning and implementation of measures aimed at disaster prevention, mitigation, preparedness, response, recovery, and rehabilitation”.

The preventative and risk-reduction elements of the Municipal DRM Plan must be implemented and maintained on a continuous basis. The plan looks into the background and implementation of the necessary action plan after a disaster occurs. This includes the following:-

• The nature of the incident
• The location of the incident
• The size of the incident
• The impact of the incident on the surrounding area
• The resources required to manage the incident in order to achieve the required outcome.

It is also noted that it is not just called “Disaster Management’ anymore but “Disaster Risk Management” and a far more detailed plan is outlined in this document.

Needless to say, we will in due course hear more and possibly participate in discussions around this new disaster plan!

Rautenbach also indicated that a new set of Identification tags will be produced and she will forward the application form to us by next week. This is for obvious reasons as the layout of the card has changed, some current members have either passed on or moved out of the area and a new set of active members is now required to ensure continuity.

The next Region 3 Disaster Risk Management meeting will take place at the Roodepoort Civic centre on Friday the 24th of August.

Reporting for Hamnet, this is Francois Botha, ZS6BUU.

Conservationist, baboons die in fire

Johannesburg - SA conservationist, Rita Miljo, known for her work with orphaned baboons, has died in a fire which also gutted much of the headquarters of the sanctuary she helped found. She was 81.

The director of the Centre for Animal Rehabilitation & Education, Karl Pierce, said on Saturday that Miljo died in the apartment she lived in above the sanctuary's clinic.

He said the first baboon she rescued, named Bobby, and two others died with her in the fire that broke out on Friday night at the centre.

Pierce said the fire consumed the clinic, offices and a house on the property.

The fire broke out around 20:00 on Friday, after volunteers and workers had left the centre for the evening, Pierce said.

No one else was injured in the fire, which remains under investigation.

Miljo officially established CARE in Phalaborwa in 1989 as a facility to assist all orphaned and injured wildlife brought to her by concerned members of the public.

As her centre grew, so Rita became known for her ability to nurture orphaned baboons.

She developed a method to integrate the animals into new troops that could be successfully released back into the wild.

While Miljo no longer ran day-to-day operations of the center, which cares for more than 400 baboons, she remained a constant presence and a figurehead for the organisation.

"Everybody's still in shock about this," Pierce said.

Born in Germany in 1931, Miljo came to South Africa in the 1950s. In a 2008 article about her in The Washington Post Magazine, Miljo said helping baboons taught her "why people behave the way they do".

"Chimpanzees can be deceitful, just like humans, whereas baboons haven't learned that yet," she said at the time.

"So what you learn from the baboons is the truth about yourself.

Chimpanzees have already learned to find beautiful little excuses for their behaviour."

- AP/News24

Port Alfred: Disaster management degree a world first

STUDENTS from all over the world are counting the days until the Port Alfred launch of a unique four-year university degree in disaster management.

After almost two years of meticulous planning, Stenden University – which boasts campuses throughout the world – will officially offer a Bachelor of Business Administration degree specialising in disaster relief management from the beginning of next year.

Deputy general manager Alroy Taai yesterday said extensive global research indicated the specialist, four-year disaster relief management degree was a world first.

“We are very excited that a concept developed in Port Alfred has been approved by the [South African] Council for Higher Education [CHE].”

Taai said they had to meet strict CHE rules and guidelines before the course was officially approved.

“Our research has indicated that we will be the only institution in the world to offer a full, four-year degree in disaster management.”

According to Taai, news of the disaster management degree is spreading like wildfire and they have already received queries from all over the world to study in Port Alfred from next year.

“People are very keen to come here and do the four year course.”

From humble beginnings in South Africa 10 years ago, Stenden – which has a reputation as one of the best places on the African continent to study the hospitality industry – now has almost 300 students from all over the world studying at their Port Alfred campus.

Although Stenden – like other campuses around the world – has always offered a 20-week module in humanitarian management, they have never had a specialised four-year degree dealing with natural disasters.

Taai said although disasters frequently occurred in third world southern hemisphere countries the irony was that efforts to cope with natural calamities were largely co-ordinated and run by experts from wealthy northern hemisphere countries.

“It is very important that an institution in the southern hemisphere takes up this challenge.”

With campuses in Bali and South Africa – both areas that are frequently hit by natural disasters like tsunamis and flooding – Taai said it was hoped that students from these areas would take their expertise back into the community to try and make a difference.

Although students at their Dutch, Qatari and Thai campuses have over the years been involved with relief efforts in places like Sudan and Bosnia-Herzegovina, their work has not been part of an extensive disaster management degree.

Since its launch in South Africa, Stenden has earned a reputation in Port Alfred as an institution that goes the extra mile to help disadvantaged communities overcome daily challenges.

Taai said the irony of disasters was that the poor and marginalised were often the hardest hit.

“We want to be proactive by helping identify and prevent potential natural disasters long before they happen.”

He said it was hoped that some students who did the new degree would go off and work in local municipalities to help them better cope with natural disasters.

According to Taai, government, non-governmental organisations, agriculture, the insurance industry and other players had given the degree two thumbs up.

- DispatchOnline

Deadly Ebola virus kills 14 in Uganda

(CNN) -- The lethal Ebola virus has left at least 14 people dead in western Uganda this month, according to Health Ministry officials, after local reports of a "strange disease" swept through the region.

A total of 20 cases of the virus have been recorded, officials said Saturday.

The cases have emerged in Kibaale, a district in midwestern Uganda, where a national task force had been mobilized in an effort to combat the outbreak.

Officials from the World Health Organization and Centers for Disease Control are also supporting that effort, ministry officials say.

The Ebola virus is considered a highly infectious disease spread through direct contact with bodily fluids, with symptoms that include fever, vomiting, diarrhoea, abdominal pain, headache, measles-like rash, red eyes and at times bleeding from body openings.

Health officials urged the public to report suspected cases and avoid contact with anyone who has contracted the virus and to disinfect the bedding and clothing of an infected person by using protective gloves and masks.

Officials also advised against eating dead animals, especially monkeys, and to avoid public gatherings in the affected district.

- CNN

Tiny Beetles Take a Large Bite Out of the Forest

A single pine bark beetle is about the size of a grain of rice. But when the beetle population swells, it can have a major impact on forest health. And that’s exactly what has been happening across the Rocky Mountains over the past decade.
In Colorado, severe beetle infestations showed up in lodgepole pine forests about 50 miles west of Boulder and Fort Collins around 2000. Over time, the affected area grew so that by 2011 the infestation had spread east to ponderosa pine forests that were much closer to the two cities. (A map showing the progression between 1998 and 2011 is available here).
The beetle epidemic caused so many trees to die-off that the impacts are visible from space. The Thematic Mapper on Landsat 5 acquired these images of lodgepole pine forests near Grand Lake, Colorado on September 11, 2005, and September 28, 2011—before and after a severe infestation led to die-off of the tree canopy.
Over six years, beetle activity turned entire ridges and valleys brown. Forest die-off is most visible in the center of the image and along both sides of the Kawuneeche Valley. The brownest areas in the 2011 image are generally stands of lodgepole pine, a slender tree that grows at 6,000 to 11,000 feet (1,800 to 3,300 meters) in elevation. Either spruce or aspen dominates the green areas that escaped infestation, such as the forests near Gravel Mountain and areas west of the Kawuneeche Valley.
Not all of the browning is due to beetles. In the upper central and lower right of the image, logging has also had an impact. And despite the beetle damage to the upper canopy, the forests are anything but dead. Even in the most severely affected areas, large numbers of trees survive.
It has been suggested that all the dead needles and trees trunk left after a beetle infestation must make wildfires more common and severe. It wasn’t uncommon for beetles to get the blame for exacerbating the destructive High Park fire that raged near Fort Collin in June 2012.
However, Bill Romme, a Colorado State University professor who has studied the relationship, is not convinced. “Most research indicates that there is little or no such relationship between beetle-caused tree mortality and subsequent fire occurrence and severity in lodgepole pine forests,” he noted in an email. “Fire occurrence and severity in these forests are controlled primarily by weather conditions. Variation in fuel conditions, such as that introduced by the beetles, is a secondary and generally minor influence on fire behavior.”
Researchers do think pine beetles can affect the risk of severe fires, but the impacts are not always straightforward. The most dangerous fires—crown fires—leap from treetop to treetop in an explosive wall of flame, rather than creeping along the ground surface. For the first few years after an infestation, beetle-impacted forests may have an increased risk of crown fires due to the dry needles that remain clinging to the tops of dying trees. But as these needles—and other debris—drop to the ground, the risk of crown fires drops as well. According to one study, forest die-off from pine beetles infestations can reduce the risk of crown fires for decades by thinning forests.
Thomas Veblen, the head of a biogeography research group at the University of Colorado that has also studied the link between beetles and fires, shares Romme’s skepticism. One of the telling features of the image pair above, Veblen noted, is the lack of burn scars. Beetles started attacking the area during the early 2000s; but even as trees have been dying, there has not been a significant fire.
“While dead trees from pine beetles provide a teachable moment for discussing fire hazard, the underlying factor explaining the increase in area burned across the western U.S.—which is well documented—since the 1980s is warming,” Veblen said.

• References

• Colorado State University. (2012, July 7). Colorado’s Forest Types. Accessed July 26, 2012.
• Daily Camera. (n.d.) CU-Boulder Researchers: Pine Beetles Not Always Tied to Increased Fire Danger. Accessed July 26, 2012.
• Schoennagel, T. (2012, January 17). Effects of Mountain Pine Beetle on Fuels and Expected Fire Behavior in Lodgepole Pine Forests. PLoS One.
• Simard, M. (2011). Do Mountain Beetle Outbreaks Change the Probability of Active Crown Fires? Ecological Monographs.
• USDA. (n.d.). Rocky Mountain Bark Beetles. Accessed July 26, 2012.
• Westerling. (2006, August 18). Warming and Earlier Spring Increase Western U.S. Forest Wildfire Activity. Accessed July 26, 2012.

1. Further Reading

2. 
   
3. Hicke, Jeffrey. (2012, February 12). Effects of Bark Beetle-Caused Tree Mortality on Wildfire. Forest Ecology and Management.

NASA Earth Observatory image created by Robert Simmon, using Landsat data provided by the United States Geological Survey. Caption by Adam Voiland, with information from Thomas Veblen and Bill Romme.

Instrument: 

Landsat 5 - TM - NASA

SA National Severe Weather Warning: 28 July 2012 16h00 SAST

All other Provinces in South Africa - No warnings nor advisories in effect

Subject: No Alerts
Detail: No Alerts

- SAWS

SA Weather Satellite Image: 28 July 2012 15h00 SAST

Image: Eumetsat (Click on image for larger view.)

Weather Observation Image: Mossel Bay 28 July 2012 08h05 SAST

Image: SAWDOS (Click on image for larger view.)

Ebola outbreak in Uganda

Kampala - Ugandan health officials say the deadly Ebola virus has killed 14 people in western Uganda this month.

The officials and a World Health Organisation representative told a news conference in Kampala Saturday that there is "an outbreak of Ebola" in Uganda.

There is no cure or vaccine for Ebola, and in Uganda, where in 2000 the disease killed 224 people, it resurrects terrible memories.

Ebola, which manifests itself as a hemorrhagic fever, is highly infectious and kills quickly. It was first reported in 1976 in Congo and is named for the river where it was recognised, according to the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention.

Scientists don't know the natural reservoir of the virus, but they suspect the first victim in an Ebola outbreak gets infected through contact with an infected animal.

- SAPA/News24

SA National Severe Weather Warnings: 28 July 2012 04h00 SAST

Eastern Cape Province - Watch: Be prepared

Subject: Very Cold
Detail: Valid 28 and 29 July 2012: Very cold conditions are expected over the high ground of Eastern Cape on Saturday and Sunday.

All other Provinces - No warnings nor advisories in effect

Subject: No Alerts
Detail: No Alerts

- SAWS

SA Weather Satellite Image: 28 July 2012 06h00 SAST

Image: Eumetsat (Click on image for larger view.)