ADDIS ABABA (Reuters) – Bereaved families tussled with rescue workers on Tuesday at the site of an Ethiopian rubbish dump where a landslide killed 65 people this weekend.
Relatives pushed and shoved the handful of emergency workers, angrily accusing them of delays and saying dozens of people were still missing after Saturday’s disaster at the Reppi dump in the capital of Addis Ababa.
Hundreds of people live on the 50-year-old dump, the city’s only landfill site, scavenging for food and items they can sell such as recyclable metal. The landslide destroyed 49 homes.
“Nobody is helping us. We are doing all the digging ourselves. It is shameful,” Kaleab Tsegaye, a relative of one victim told Reuters.
On Monday, hundreds of people gathered at the scene, weeping and praying. Some accuse the government of negligence.
Ethiopia is one of Africa’s fastest-growing economies, but the drive to industrialize has also stoked discontent among those who feel left behind.
In October, the government imposed a national state of emergency after more than 500 people were killed in protests in Oromiya region as anger over a development scheme sparked broader anti-government demonstrations.
(Reporting by Aaron Masho; Editing by Clement Uwiringiyimana and Louise Ireland)
BEIJING, Sept 29 (Reuters) – Rescuers have pulled 15 people alive from a landslide that slammed into a village in China’s eastern Zhejiang province after a typhoon but 32 people are still missing, state media said on Thursday.
Heavy rains brought by the remnants of Typhoon Megi caused the landslide to crash into Sucun village on Wednesday.
The microblog of official provincial news portal Zhejiang Online showed pictures of survivors being carried out on the backs of rescuers, while others dug through rubble to locate survivors.
It gave no details of those still missing other than to say one was an official who had been in the village to organise evacuations.
A mass of debris rolled down a lush mountain towards the small village, according to images posted on Zhejiang Online.
Mountainous Zhejiang, along with its neighbouring provinces, are frequently hit by typhoons at this time of year and are also highly susceptible to landslides.
Megi had already killed four people and injured more than 523 in Taiwan since it had roared in from the Pacific Ocean.
(Reporting by Ben Blanchard; Editing by Paul Tait)
BEIJING (Reuters) – The death toll in a landslide in China’s southeastern Fujian province has risen to 34, with four people still missing, state media said on Monday.
The landslide, triggered on Sunday by heavy rain, hit a hydroelectric power station that was under construction in Fujian’s Taining County. President Xi Jinping had demanded that local officials step up rescue efforts.
Persistent rain has made rescue work more difficult, Xinhua said. It earlier said 22 bodies had been found.
In December, a landslide in the southern city of Shenzhen buried 77 people. The government has blamed breaches of construction safety rules for that disaster and a number of officials have been arrested.
Sunday’s landslide is the latest accident to have raised questions about China’s industrial safety standards and lack of oversight over years of rapid economic growth.
(Reporting by Michael Martina; Editing by Alison Williams)
At least 91 people were missing on Monday after a massive landslide in China, reports indicate.
According to Xinhua, China’s official news agency, about 3,000 rescue workers were searching through an industrial park in the city of Shenzhen after construction waste slid down a hill at about 11:40 a.m. Sunday, covering a 93-acre area in 32 feet of dirt. The slide reportedly affected 33 buildings, either burying them or otherwise damaging them, and hospitalized 16 people.
Xinhua reported authorities detected some signs of life underneath the landslide, but the muddy composition of the silt was complicating rescue efforts. While 900 people were safely evacuated after the disaster, the news agency reported only seven people had been rescued from the mud.
A researcher with the China Academy of Railway Sciences, who was assisting the rescue, told Xinhua it was the only time he’d seen a landslide of this magnitude in his 30 years on the job.
Xinhua reported that the landslide caused part of an important pipeline that carried natural gas to nearby Hong Kong to explode. Crews were reportedly building a temporary pipe on Monday.
It’s still not known what exactly spurred the landslide, according to Xinhua. It reportedly occurred at a former quarry that had been turned into a site where construction waste could be dumped.
Tropical Storm Jangmi slammed into the Philippines leaving at least 31 people dead and seven people missing.
Jangmi made landfall with winds of 40 miles per hour and gusts of 50 miles per hour. Heavy rain fell on the southern part of the nation where the flooding took out bridges and highways.
Officials say most of the deaths took place on Tuesday when the rain created landslides and flash flooding.
Officials in Catbalogan City said that a dozen people were killed when a landslide buried two vans and six houses in the eastern part of the city. They said that voices are being heard in the vans and that rescue efforts are progressing.
A regional civil defense official told Fox News that 10 members of a family died when their creekside house was washed into the river by flash flooding.
A massive 6.9 magnitude earthquake rocked Peru late Sunday night.
The U.S. Geological Survey said the quake was downgraded from a 7.0 initial reading.
A spokesman for Peru’s fire agency said that they’d received a report of one house being completely destroyed and 19 other buildings. They said many residents fled their homes for large open areas because of the strength of the quake.
Minor damage was reported to 14 homes, three schools and at least one church on top of the 19 buildings seriously damaged.
Authorities said two major landslides had taken place in the aftermath of the quake and aftershocks. Officials are warning of more landslides as the aftershocks continue throughout the region.
A wave of thunderstorms rolled through Southern California Sunday causing massive flooding and landslides that left at least one person dead.
Two towns, Oak Glen and Forest Falls, were completely cut off from surrounding areas because of mudslides that blocked all roadways. At least 2,500 people are trapped including 500 campers at a Christian campground.
A U.S. Forest Service spokesman told KNBC-TV reported that the campground was hit hard with flooding and many campers had only seconds to escape a rush of mud and debris.
San Bernardino County Fire officials confirmed one person was found dead inside a car that was swept into a flooded creek.
Authorities were making reverse 911 calls to residents of the effected areas telling them to remain in their homes until maintenance workers could clear roads and officials were able to determine it was safe to travel.
The National Weather Service said that some areas received up to 5 inches of rain.
While the islands of Japan are still dealing with a weakening Typhoon Neoguri, which continues to dump heavy rain across the country, they are now dealing with the fallout of a 6.8 magnitude earthquake.
A tsunami advisory was issued for the area with waves increasing up to a meter in height. Local officials say the currents in rivers and oceans have reached dangerous levels and are telling residents to stay out of the water.
The quake was centered about five miles deep and off the shore of Fukushima, the site of the catastrophic nuclear meltdown in 2011. No damage has been reported at the plant and no release of additional radiation beyond that which has been leaking for the last three years.
Most of Japan has been dealing with massive flooding from Typhoon Neoguri, which struck the island days ago with wind gusts over 155 miles per hour. Three people have been confirmed dead from the storm with hundreds injured. One of the dead was confirmed to be a 12 year boy who died when his home was buried in a mudslide.
Afghanistan officials say that the death toll in the Friday landslides has topped 2,100 and could climb even higher.
Government officials say that the most tragic part of the entire event happened in the second landslide. A government spokesman said that 600 people who showed up to help those trapped in the first landslide died when they were buried in a second landslide.
Rescuers say that the area is still very unstable and that rescue workers and residents still in the area are at risk for another landslide. However, families have been saved from the landslide.
“Around 700 families were rescued,” Afghan National Disaster Management Authority spokesman Sayed Abdullah Homayun Dehqan said while adding that they are still short of the necessary supplies to expand rescues.
NATO’s Regional Command is organizing troops to help with the rescue efforts.
At least 350 people are dead after a landslide buried an entire village in northeast Afghanistan.
United Nations officials say that at least 300 homes were completely buried and over 2,000 people are missing in the landslide. They anticipate the death toll to rise significantly in the next week.
Badakhshan province Governor Waliullah Adeeb said that days of heavy rain were the cause of the slide. He said that rescuers know there are survivors under the slide but they are unable to reach them because they don’t have enough equipment or machinery.
They’ve begged people around the country to at least send shovels for rescuers to dig manually for people they believe are still alive.
The area is in a part of the heavily rugged mountains of Afghanistan where they are subjected to avalanches on a regular basis rather than landslides.
