The epicentre was a town named Leogane; about 19km (12 miles) west of Port-au-Prince, thousands were left homeless and up to 80-90% of buildings in Leogane were destroyed. The quake was quickly followed by two strong aftershocks of 5.9 and 5.5 magnitudes. It was the worst earthquake to hit the Caribbean island in 2 centuries. The island lies on the Enriquilla-Plantain Garden Fault however it was caused by an interaction between the North American and Caribbean Plates. After which the barely noticed island became the centre of the world’s news channels, it became one of the most noticed natural disasters in history with celebrities and normal people alike doing allsorts to raise money and aid for the victims of the quake.
Katrina also killed at least 1,833 people in the time that it took to cross most of eastern North America. Hurricane Charley formed on August 9, 2004 caused $16.3 billion in damages and killed about 35 people. Hurricane Ike formed September 1, 2008 and ended on September 14, 2008. Hurricane Ike caused up to $37.6 billion in damage and killed 195 people in just 13 days. The difference between a hurricane, typhoon, and a cyclone is the
Written by Ash Mathew. The BP oil spill, or also referred to as the BP oil disaster, is a historical oil spill that occurred in the Gulf of Mexico on April 20th 2010. An oilrig, Deepwater Horizon, owned by Transocean and leased out to BP had burst into flames because of a gas. The explosion killed 11 men on the rig and severely injured several more. Month of April Deepwater Horizon was a 9-year old drilling unit that was owned by Transocean, a drilling contractor.
It begins on a beautiful spring day (April 20th) with a failed preventer and ends with mass destruction of the surrounding environment and a way of life for those live in the Gulf area. According to the timeline published by the Guardian; a website produced by Guardian Research out of the UK; the environmental disaster began with the failure of a man made blowout preventer. Its
Exxon Valdez Oil Spill 1989 Introduction The Exxon Valdez was a supertanker that transported oil for Exxon Mobil from Prince William Sound, Alaska, to California. On March 24, 1989, the tanker collided with a reef, leading to a massive oil spill that would eventually pollute nearly 1,990 km2 of shoreline after spilling 38 million litres into the sea. Estimates of the crude oil lost by the Exxon Valdez are imprecise, but around 30–40% evaporated, 10–25% was recovered, and the rest remains in the marine environment. There are many factors that contributed to the scale of the disaster, almost all of which are Exxon’s fault. The ships captain had a drinking problem and on the night of the incident he was unfit to be in charge of the tanker and so left an unqualified crewmember in control.
News Report Explosion in Halifax Harbour By: Jagroop Johal Deceber.7th 1917 Yesterday at approximately 9:00am residents of Halifax was devastated by a massive explosion. This occurred in the waters if Halifax harbour. This explosion was caused by a French ammunition ship the Mont Blanc and a Belgian cargo ship the Imo which had collided earlier that morning. The Mont Blanc collided with the Imo at approximately 8:45 yesterday morning. The Mont Blanc had been carrying benzol on its deck which was set on fire by the sparks from the collision.
Shrimp eaters must have gone through a phase where they are reluctant to buy shrimp “after the Deepwater Horizon rig exploded on April 20, killing 11 workers and triggering the spill that eventually spewed 206 million gallons (780 million liters) of oil from BP’s blown-out well” (Bureau and Mcgill 2010 Pg: 3). Even though only “7% of all shrimp consumed in the U.S. is caught in the Gulf of Mexico.” People still questioned the safety of eating Gulf coast Shrimp (Boyle 2010: 1). The oil spill brought a lot of fear in what is going to happened to the environment , to wildlife, to seafood industry, and to the very livelihood of those people in Louisiana’s and Mississippi’s coasts. The domestic shrimp, in particular, “has been subject to a seemingly continuous stream of bad luck with the 2005 and 2008
1994,When Technology Fails : significant technological disasters, accidents, and failures of the twentieth century, Gale Research, Detroit, pp.81-86. This article assesses the causes and consequences of accident of United Airlines Boeing 747 Hawaii (1989). The authors enlighten two other accidents which were connected severely with this accident which are Pan Am 747-100(1987) and Kennedy International Airport 747-200 (1991) . Schlager, Neil (ed.) 1994 conclude that the real causes of this disaster were weak locks of the door and the stray signals produced by some pair of wires which made the opened itself without any command.
The True Understanding of Hurricane Katrina In the essay, “Hurricane Katrina: Investigating the U.S. Government’s Failed Response” the author, Eliza Hubbard writes about the situations that accrued in Hurricane Katrina, which is one of the most destructive tropical storms ever to hit the United States. It affected many parts of the coastal areas of Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama on August 29th, 2005, it affected New Orleans, Louisiana the most by causing the levees, which helped the flow of the river and stop flooding, to collapse. This lead to flooding in the city, where many bodies still lie beneath the dirty waters filled with debris. Hurricane Katrina attacked in two ways, one being the hurricane itself and the other being the flooding throughout New Orleans. The effect of Hurricane Katrina on New Orleans was extremely severe, resulting from one of the most deadly natural disasters in U.S. history.
border of those attempting to cross into the United States from Mexico without authorization from the Federal government of the United States. The number of deaths has steadily increased since the middle 1990s with exposure (including heat stroke, dehydration, and hyperthermia) being the leading cause. According to the United States Border Patrol, 1,954 people died crossing the U.S–Mexico border between the years 1998-2004. In the fiscal year ending September 29, 2004, 460 migrants died crossing the U.S.-Mexico border. In 2005, more than 500 died across the entire U.S.-Mexico border.