The Boscastle Flood 2004 Boscastle is a village on the North Cornish Coast which receives many tourists annually. The river Valency flows through the village and joins with the river Jordan, a tributary of the Valency, in the centre of the village. The flood of Boscastle occurred on Monday 16th of August and was one of the worst incidents of flooding in local memory. It was a flash flood event which took many by surprised due to the fact that Boscastle is not prone to regular annual flooding unlike other locations affected by such extreme events. Causes of the Flood The flood was a result of many exceptional factors, including both physical and human.
This essay will address the factors that affect the quality of human life in the 2011 Japan and 2004 South Asia tsunamis, and what made them become two of the word's biggest disasters. Tsunamis become disasters when they result in loss of lives, injuries, and displacement of human population. In the case of South Asia and Tohoku tsunamis the coastline was densely populated leading to thousands of lives being lost as well as extensive damage to infrastructure - these were two of the greatest disasters the modern world had ever seen. The 2004 South Asia tsunami caused more than 270,000 deaths in fourteen countries across two continents (The Bolton Council of Mosques 2007-2012), whereas the Tohoku tsunami had caused approximately 20,000 deaths. This latter death toll was surprisingly high as Japan has the world's largest seismometer network, tsunami barriers and earthquake early-warning system (Cyranoski, 2011).
According to CBC News World, “The storm hit Haiti's rural western tip hard, flooding the refugee-camp homes of quake survivors.” (2010). The storm was actually downgraded from hurricane to tropical storm but still caused massive flooding with the vast amount of rain and mudslides that were rampant. The country also has a long history of earthquakes dating back to 1564. The most recent in this list is the 2010 earthquake close to Port-Au-Prince. The nation is located in a region seismic activity due to the movement of the Caribbean tectonic plate, which is compared with which a finger shoving away against two larger plates, the North American and South American.
Flooding is when unusually high amounts of rain lands on an already saturated area or has a high water table. The river systems cannot remove the water as quickly as it arrives therefore resulting in an overflow of water which finds other ways of escaping. Thereby resulting in flooding of flat areas or valleys. As an example in 2010 the Philippines experienced a flood in which 452 999 people were displaces, from which 68 died and it resulted in $20,396,723 in damages. This flood was induced by a typhoon that had hit the mountain ranges afterwards and led to surface run off.
The Eastern side of the county must be accessed by a round-trip through adjacent Skagit County. Risks of potential natural hazards are listed in the above table. Whatcom County has a high vulnerability to earthquakes related to the location of oceanic and continental crusts. The University of Washington seismology lab reports up to 1000 earthquakes per year in Washington and Oregon. With a severe earthquake the county could be at risk for a Tsunami.
Both London and Dhaka are big, important world cities at risk of flooding. Both cities are situated on low lying land and surround a river; London lies on the Thames Valley floodplain and Dhaka lies on the eastern banks of the Buriganga River (the lower reaches of the Ganges Delta).Both cities are at different levels of development; London being situated in the MEDC England and Dhaka in the LEDC of Bangladesh. Because of the two countries different levels of development, both have different responses to flood risk in the cities of London and Dhaka. London Greater London is home to 12% of the UKs population with an estimated population in 2010 of 7,825,200 and is the most populated city in the EU. London is a leading global city and is the world’s largest financial city along with New York.
As a result of gas station paying more for their gasoline, this will increase the amount the customer will have to pay for gasoline. According to the Federal Trade Commission, The storm “affected 19% of the United States oil production. Hurricanes Katrina (and a smaller previous Hurricane Rita) destroyed 113 offshore oil and gas platforms, damaged 457 oil and gas pipelines, and spilled nearly as much oil as the Exxon Valdez oil disaster”. This caused oil prices to increase by $3 a barrel, and gas prices to nearly reach $5 a gallon. Because of the devastation of hurricane Katrina many of the United States oil refineries were damaged, causing a decrease in gas supply.
Hurricane Katrina consisted of much high wind strength and power which led to levies to fail, and developed flooding in the area. As winds to start to increase, hurricanes gain more strength and power, which develop heavy rainfall and big waves. (The Evans School of Public Affairs)“Long before the Katrina disaster
Uneven Rainfall distribution in the UK 1. Leakage – loss of water through broken pipes is an increasing problem – in areas such as London – over 50% of pipes are over 100 – ageing pipes leak and traffic and freezing weather damage pipes further. Daily cost to economy of water leakage in UK - £1,500,000 - £3.6 mill. Uneven Rainfall and Population Distribution in the UK. 1/3 of population live in SE – but driest part of the UK (600-800mm p.a.)
The current event that is most directly linked to 2012 is the spike in natural disasters in the US in recent years. In 1953 the US had a total of 35 natural disasters, while in 2010 there was 90 natural disasters (Declared Disasters 1). This stat is not only relevant in the US; there was also the tsunami in Japan, and earthquake in Haiti that broke disaster records worldwide. Many experts believe that this increase in natural disasters is the Earths’ way of telling us that our time is up. These current events are only the tip of the iceberg compared to what will happen in