DISASTERS OF THE

21ST CENTURY

Dennyel C. Panganiban
CWAL - 03
 Heavy rainfall
during Februa
and March 20 ry
00 result into
flood in Mozam a
bique that mad
Mozambique Flood
Mozambique Flood
thousands of
More than 800
people homele
people were die
e
ss.
in the disaster d
and about 20,0
herds of cattle 00
were lost. It w
the deadliest n as
atural disaster
the country in la in
st 50 years.  
 h e a t w a v e is one of the
European a st e r s  happened
r a l d is
horrible natu h o tte s t summer
2 0 0 3
in the world. In E u r o pe that was
t w a v e in
result a hea 50 0 y e a rs’ time.
t
European Heat Wave
la s
the deadliest in most. Death
France wa s
toll was mor
a
e
f fe
th
c te
a n
d
7
th
0
tu
e
,0
g
0
a
0
l,
in Europe
G ermany,
European Heat Wave
e , P o r
including Franc d I taly. Usually
, S p a in a n
Netherland ’t h a v e a hot
ie s d o n
these countr t h e h e at wave
u rin g
summer but d w a s over 45⁰C.
p e r a t u re
average tem
 Possibly one o
f the deadliest
magnitude 9 Earthquake o
MW followed f
Tsunami resu by a deadlies
lted on 26 t
Indian Ocean December in
near Indones
UTC. Earthq ia at 00:53
uake ejected
energy equal approximately
IndianOcean
Indian OceanTsunami
Tsunami fired on Hiro
the ocean in e
to 23,000 ato
shima. Epicen
arth and it vio
m bombs as
ter was unde
r
the ocean th le ntly shakes
at resulted in
waves that we to destructive
re up to meter
day more s high. On firs
than 150,000 t
killed and mil people were
lions were m
environmenta issing in this
l disaster.
LowerPuna
Lower PunaEruption
Eruption
 One of the mos
t powerful stor
the Philippines ms hit
in 2015 is the ty
“Glenda”, dealt phoon
Metro Manila o
glancing blow nly a
TyphoonGlenda
Typhoon Glenda and it cause the
shutdown. It ta
of about three
power of the N
kes at least 20 li
hours
CR to
it blew out into v e s as
the West Philip
Sea after cutt pine
ing a wide sw
destruction from ath of
eastern to south
Luzon. ern
 a s a ff e c te d by a severe
East Africa w
ly 2 0 1 1 to J u ne 2012.
Ju
drought during b o u ti a n d Ethiopia
a, D ji
Somalia, Keny s . L iv e s o f more than
v ic ti m
were the main th re a te ned.  A large
le w e re
9 million peop te d from Somalia
number of p
to Kenya and
eo p le
E
m
th
ig
io
r
p
a
ia w h ic
lo
h become
t of issues
East Africa Drought
East Africa Drought
h a t ca u s e d a
overcrowded. T c o n d it ions and
unsanit a r y r
like
p r o b lem s a s well and furthe
malnutrition d s of deaths. Foo
d
th o u sa n
followed to u p to S udan and
ev e n
crisis spread
Uganda.
 The 2019 Cotab
ato earthquakes
an earthquake s  were
warm which
the province of  struck
CotabatoEarthquake
Cotabato Earthquake of Mindanao in
October 16 an
Cotabato on the
the Philippines
d October 29,
island
in
Three of 2019.
these earthquak
above 6.0 on th es were
e moment mag
scale with a Me nitude
rcalli intensity o
f VIII.
 a k in g B liz z a rd hit
A record-bre r u a ry 2008. It
n in F e b
Afghanista u r e u p to -30⁰C.
m pe r a t
reduced the te
Death toll was
a b o u t 1
f
0
ig
0
u
0 a ccording
res but it
Afghan Blizzard
Afghan Blizzard
e r nm e n t
to the gov a n im a ls. More
e d t h e
mainly disturb 1 0 0 ,0 0 0 sheep,
ca tt le ,
than 315,000 ea d lie st disaster.
in th e d
and goat died
 We cannot stop natural disasters
but we can arm ourselves with
Knowledge; so many lives would not
have been lost if there was enough
disaster preparedness.
- Petra Nemcova -