While The Tropical Storm Harvey Makes Headlines Across The Northern America, It Is Worthwhile To Loo

Crisis

While the tropical storm Harvey makes headlines across the northern America, it is worthwhile to look back at the devastation created by storms, flooding and landslides during last few months in many parts of the world. 

In May, South Asia was affected heavily by Cyclone Mora. This was an unexpected system for the region because in 2016 the region was a victim of similar extreme weather. For countries like Sri Lanka, the extreme rains had been becoming regular but the country was not prepared to face similar levels of devastation in two years in a row. A precursor system to the Cyclone Mora caused heavy rains in Sri Lanka which lead to landslides and heavy floods. The reconstruction and relocation process from the previous years damage was still going on when this years disaster occurred. Thankfully, the immediate response of the youth using social media assisted in delivering large amounts of aid to the affected areas in Sri Lanka. Military was also deployed in rescue and heavy aid package delivery. After causing significant damages in Sri Lanka, the system developed over the bay of Bengal went across northeast India and Bangladesh. The aftermath caused severe flooding in Andaman and Nicobar islands, Bangladesh, Myanmar and India.  The Cyclone which initiated in mid May came to its peak on 30th of May. Around 300 lives were lost in the countries affected and damage worth of around USD 500 million.

Later in August Nepal, India and Bangladesh became victims of heavy rain once again, causing heavy property damages and loss of life. The disaster response is still going on in these countries and youth lead organizations, international aid organizations and government lead units are working tirelessly in remote locations to deliver necessary aid and assistance. Torrential monsoon rains were the reason for this second wave of destruction across South Asian region.  Roughly 40 million people have been affected and the most damage is reported in India. In each of the countries thousands of houses have been destroyed and concerns are rising over the communities that are isolated from receiving any assistance. So far around 1,200 deaths have been reported.

Meanwhile, In Sierra Leon significant damage has been reported in its capital of Freetown due to mud slides and heavy floods. The devastating mud slides happened on August 14th and the heavy rains caused a large portion of land to swept away giving no room for more than thousand people to escape. It was declared by the government that around 450 people were confirmed dead and about 800 people were still missing at the time. It is feared that all the missing might have died. These fears were confirmed by 19 bodies that were found very recently in Guinea.

Adding to all this destruction the Hurricane Harvey made landfall last friday over Texas, USA. Later termed as a tropical storm, the system stayed over Houston for five days showering more than 15 trillion gallons of rain on Houston city according to Wall Street Journal. It has been reported as the most devastating system since Hurricane Katrina in 2005. So far around 40 deaths have been reported in the state of Texas while full damage of the property damage yet to be determined.

In total these disasters have lead to nearly 2800 deaths around the world during the last four months. Moreover the thousands of displaced people and billions of dollars worth property damage has left many places across the world hurt and numb. It has come to a point that world must unify against this mostly unpredictable monster of climate shift. These are no longer seldom isolated events. They are taking place parallely within very short period of time in which even most global media has failed to put the total destruction in perspective.

And still, it doesn’t seem to be over. The Hurricane Irma seems to be steadily growing over the Atlantic ocean as we speak.  According to NOAA there are two possible routes that Irma would develop into.  One model carries the storm towards the guf of Mexico and one carries it towards state of Florida.