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For the first time, New York City was put to a standstill as superstorm Sandy continues to breeze through in some eastern parts of the United States. Many couldn't believe but most streets of New York City were found to be empty of people and vehicles, transforming it into a ghost metropolis, as most residents stayed in their homes for safety. At this developed, Wall Street already lost huge amount of stock market transactions as the New York Stock Exchange stopped its regular trading days. Alone, New York City incurred an estimated $20 billion in financial losses. Mostly affected was New York's Queens Borough district. Power has been shut off, too. In New Jersey, where the superstorm made its first landfall, the levee was already destroyed, thus forcing many affected residents to evacuate to safer grounds. Most parts of the metropolis have been inundated. Weather forecasts said superstorm Sandy has a packing wind of 105 mph and is heading towards Pennsylvannia. There a...

Environmental degradation is a significant factor that reduces the capacity of societies to deal with disaster risk in many countries around the world. This is the key message of the World Risk Report 2012, presented today in Brussels, Belgium by the German Alliance for Development Works (Alliance), United Nations University Institute for Environment and Human Security (UNU-EHS) and The Nature Conservancy. The report examines the risks of and solutions for natural disasters. The record for the decade 2002 to 2011 is alarming: 4,130 disasters, more than a million deaths and an economic loss of at least 1.195 trillion dollars. The report's WorldRiskIndex, developed by UNU-EHS in cooperation with the Alliance, determines the risk of becoming the victim of a disaster as a result of natural hazards for 173 countries. The Pacific Island states of Vanuatu and Tonga have the highest disaster risk. Malta and Qatar face the lowest risk. Australia ranks 117th and is therefore in the lowes...

The non-stop torrential rains that brought Metro Manila to a standstill had slowly subsided, my relatives said. They said the sun has finally come out to shower the flooded streets with its golden rays. But for me, it isn't enough to dry up the surface and extinguish the fears that still grip most Filipinos whose households were submerged under water. All we could blame were the monsoon rains that continuously poured over most parts of central and northern Luzon areas. As weather officials said in a broadcast, there was no typhoon but a low pressure area far away from the Philippines.  The typhoon was headed to Taiwan and Mainland China, where some 250,000 were already affected as the typhoon made a landfall, a newswires agency said. Accordingly, people have started picking up the pieces. In some areas in Marikina City, where most of the barangays were heavily inundated, many of the displaced residents begin returning to their homes. "I'm sure, there will be a lot ...