JANUARY AND FEBRUARY OF 2000

FEBRUARY 2000 -

At least 335 people have been killed in Mozambique, South Africa, Zimbabwe and Botswana this month by floods and by Cyclone Eline.

29th - BRAZIL - MUDSLIDES - 4 DEAD - following a heavy rainstorm that inundated the area for more than two hours. Ten other people were reported missing.

29th - MOROCCO - MONTHS LONG DROUGHT.

28th - ETHIOPIA -WILDFIRES - 175,000 acres destroyed.

25th - TAIWAN - MUDSLIDES - 1 DEAD - days of incessant torrential rains buried homes and roads in the mountains.
25th - CALIFORNIA -WIND STORM - 2 DEAD.

25th - HAWAII - KILAUEA VOLCANO - A swarm of shallow earth tremors forced Hawaii Volcanoes National Park to close the Chain of Craters Road as a safety precaution. The swarm was typical of small tremors that frequently precede a volcanic eruption. The region where the tremors occurred has not experienced an eruption in more than 20 years.

24th - SOUTH AFRICA - RENEWED FLOODING - 21 DEAD - (death toll for the month is now more than 76)

24th - AUSTRALIA - MONSOON RAINS - incessant rains have transformed the Australian outback into an inland sea, with waterfalls running down the face of the fabled Ayers Rock. The Finke, Hugh and Palmer rivers have burst their banks and flooded the flat desert landscape south of Ayers Rock, immersing numerous outback towns. Meteorologists predicted that the monsoon would move northeast and create more flooding in the tropical state of Queensland.

24th - PHILIPPINES - MAYON VOLCANO - exploded before sunrise, sending incandescent rivers of lava flowing down its slopes and spewing ash over several communities. Officials scrambled to evacuate residents, warning that danger of further explosions was imminent.

23rd - INDONESIA - LANDSLIDES - 33 DEAD - triggered by days of incessant rain in central Java. Officials fear the toll will rise as rescue workers continue to recover bodies.

23rd - NICARAGUA - SAN CRISTOBAL VOLCANO - strongest ash eruption since the volcano's low-level activity began in 1997.

22nd - ZIMBABWE - CYCLONE ELINE - 29 DEAD - 12 missing,hundreds of people displaced, crops, roads, property and homes destroyed.  

22nd - PHILIPPINES - MAYON VOLCANO - Rocks the size of cars came crashing  down the slopes while residents left the area in an evacuation. The 8,118-foot volcano, one of the Philippines' most active,  appeared to be following its usual pattern of a gentle rising of  magma followed by an eruption, The rising of the  magma suggests volcanic activity will intensify, leading to an  explosive eruption that could occur as soon as this week. Before it explodes they expect earthquakes accompanying smalller explosions.  

21st - SWITZERLAND, ITALY - AVALANCHES - 7 DEAD- up to a dozen others trapped.

21st - OHIO - FLOODING - 2 DEAD.

20th - MADAGASCAR - CYCLONE ELINE - 5 DEAD - thousands homeless.

20th - NEW HAMPSHIRE - AVALANCHE - 1 DEAD.

19th - NEW YORK - RARE AVALANCHE - 1 DEAD - five other skiers were injured. Avalanches are unusual in New York - the slide may have occurred because heavy rain during Hurricane Floyd saturated the vegetation and soil, pulling them away and making the mountainside slick. The region also has been hit hard by recent snowstorms.

19th - ITALY - AVALANCHE - 1 DEAD - 2 injured.

18th - PENNSYLVANIA - SNOWSTORM - 2 DEAD.

18TH - WEST VIRGINIA - HEAVY RAIN - 3 DEAD - heavy rain fell across portions of Kentucky, southern Indiana, southern Ohio, and West Virginia. Tornadoes were reported in Arkansas. At least eight people were injured and homes in a path from central Arkansas to the Mississippi Delta were damaged. Golf-bowl sized hail was reported in the Little Rock area.

17th - PHILIPPINES - FLOODING - 1 DEAD - at least 7,000 others were forced to flee their homes. Flash flooding, which reached as high as six feet deep (two metres), hit 13 communities. The rains also caused a landslide that partially buried four houses.

16th - PHILIPPINES - MAYON VOLCANO - ALERT LEVEL RAISED to three, on a scale of five, following earth tremors and other indications that magma within the mountain was rising. 5,000 residents who live within four miles of the crater have been ordered to evacuate. An explosion is likely only if the level of the present volcanic unrest is sustained.

16th - MONGOLIA - UNUSUALLY HARSH WINTER WEATHER - 4 DEAD - More than 850,000 cattle have been killed in recent weeks. Government officials reported that they feared the toll would rise even further as newborn calves perish.

16th - SOUTHERN AFRICA - FLOODS - have caused toxic waste to seep out of a pesticide holding area in the Mozambican city of Matola.

16th - IDAHO - RARE TORNADO - 1 DEAD - trees and power lines were toppled.

15th - RUSSIA - AVALANCHE - 7 mountaineers DEAD.

14th - MAURITIUS AND REUNION ISLANDS - CYCLONE LEON-ELINE - intensified dramatically as it turned southwest over the Indian Ocean during the weekend. The storm's winds increased from 46 mph to 92 mph and were predicted to intensify further.

14th - GEORGIA - TORNADOES - 22 DEAD - 100 injured.

7th - SOUTH AFRICA - FLOODING - 45 DEAD - more rain and heavy thundershowers forecasted for Wednesday and Thursday, threatening further flooding with some rivers already at their highest levels in 50 years.

6th - ECUADOR - LANDSLIDES - 9 feared DEAD.

6th - SULAWESI, INDONESIA - FLOODING - 2 DEAD - 14 communities deluged.

4th - ALASKA - SHISHALDIN VOLCANO - Small low-frequency seismic events have increased in amplitude over the last week. Seismic data shows the presence of small phreatic explosions. Last week, steam plumes with heights reaching as high as 3,000 feet above the summit were visible. The Level of Concern Color Code has now been raised to YELLOW.The volcano is one of the most active volcanoes in the Aleutian arc. It has erupted at least 29 times since 1775. Recent activity has occurred since June 1999.

4th - ALASKA - AVALANCHES - 1 DEAD.


4th - IRAN - 5.4 EARTHQUAKE - 2 DEAD - 15 others injured by falling rubble. Two communities were leveled by Thursday's early morning temblor, which also destroyed or damaged hundreds of homes and killed 550 cattle in Khorasan Province. Ten communities in the nearby district of Bardaskan also suffered extensive damage.

  4th - NORWAY - AVALANCHES - Avalanches have struck many regions of northern Norway over the past week, closing roads and forcing some evacuations.

3rd - KENYA - DROUGHT - more than two million people in Kenya are in dire need of food due to crop failures and drought. There have been three successive crop failures in recent years in Northern Kenya. Rainfall levels over the past several years have been well below normal. Over 50 percent of the population in the arid district of Turkana are suffering severe food shortagesand people in parts of eastern Kenya have resorted to eating seeds used for planting.

2nd - MOZAMBIQUE - MASSIVE FLOODING - 67 DEAD - More than 113,000 people have been affected.

1st - DENMARK - FLOODING AND HIGH WINDS - Winds toppled trees and power lines, leaving thousands of homes without telephone or electrical service. Dikes burst their banks while ports and low-lying areas were flooded by seas whipped up by the powerful storms. Meteorologists reported that another storm system is heading toward the country.

1st - SOUTH AFRICA - DROUGHT - has been responsible for devastating WILDFIRES that roared across parts of South Africa in recent weeks. A week-long rain has brought relief from the fires and relief to South African farmers whose crops were stressed during the extremely dry December.

1st - PHILIPPINES - FLASH FLOODS AND LANDSLIDES - 19 DEAD - followed two days of torrential rains.


JANUARY 2000:

31st - IRAN - FREAK SNOWSTORM - 3 DEAD - another injured.

31st - GERMANY - GALE-FORCE WINDS - 4 DEAD.

30th - CONGO - NYAMURAGIRA VOLCANO ERUPTION - located near the rebel stronghold of Goma, the exposion panicked nearby residents who feared they were under artillery attack. The volcano sprang to life last Wednesday when its rim turned red, and it began spewing fireballs that resembled artillery fire. Officials reported that although the city of Goma was not directly threatened by lava, two communities had been evacuated as a precautionary measure. Lava from the volcano has flowed toward Virunga National Park on the unpopulated side of the mountain. The volcanoes have been sporadically active since 1979 when lava flowed into parts of Goma, forcing a temporary evacuation of the city.

30th - KENYA - DEVASTATING FROST - 1 DEAD - 8 injured - destroyed more than 12,400 acres of tea, up to 75% of the crop.

30th - REUNION ISLAND - TROPICAL CYCLONE CONNIE - 2 DEAD - destroyed at least one hundred homes. More than 600 people were left homeless.

29th - GEORGIA - ICE-STORM - 1 DEAD.


28th- RUSSIA & JAPAN - EARTHQUAKES - A powerful 6.8 temblor that struck beneath the Pacific Ocean damaged telephone lines and cracked buildings on the Russian island of Kunashir and rattled the Japanese island of Hokkaido and the Kuril Islands. Eastern and northeastern Japan were jolted earlier that night when a magnitude 4.8 quake hit slightly injuring two people in the city of Nemuro on the east coast of Hokkaido. The Kuril Islands were hit again early Saturday morning by a magnitude 5.0 tremor.

28th - REUNION ISLAND - TROPICAL CYCLONE CONNIE - intensified on Thursday as it moved over the Indian Ocean toward the island of Reunion, packing winds of 95 mph. - cyclone warning has been issued.

27th - ALASKA - AVALANCHE - 1 DEAD - A terrifying half-mile wide avalanche roared into the city of Cordova leveling the home of a woman and burying her alive.

25th - U.S. EAST COAST - SNOWSTORM - 9 DEAD - three deaths in Arkansas, one in Louisiana and five in Missouri..

24th - PHILIPPINES - TIDAL WAVE - At least 5,150 people were left homeless and dozens injured by massive 65-foot waves that swept over the remote southern Philippine province of Tawi-Tawi, 671 miles south of Manila. Many local residents in the stricken coastal villages were able to flee to higher ground after local fishermen sounded the alert. Scores of peoThere were no indications of how the huge waves were generated.


24th - TAIWAN - EARTHQUAKES have been an almost daily occurrence since a devastating magnitude 7.6 temblor jolted the island on Sept. 21, 1999, killing 2,400 people.

23rd - COLORADO - AVALANCHE - 1 DEAD - young woman snowshoeing did not know she was walking right into a well-known and very dangerous area for slides.

23rd - AUSTRIA - AVALANCHE - 1 DEAD. Sniffer dogs dug out another German snowboarder who had spent the night buried under two metres (6.5 feet) of snow and managed to survive.

23rd - ROMANIA - AVALANCHE - 6 DEAD - at least 120 other men buried, with no food, in a uranium mine. Meteorologists predict more snowstorms in the south and west this week.

23rd - JORDAN - RAIN AND SANDSTORMS - 3 DEAD - numerous others injured. The country has been in the grip of a severe drought for the past two years. Meteorologists predict more rain as well as snowfall in mountains over 3,300 feet.

21st - NEW SOUTH WALES, AUSTRALIA - HEATWAVE - 22 DEAD.

21st - SOUTH AFRICA - WILDFIRES - More than 120 wildfires in the Western Cape area of South Africa have caused widespread damage to the Silvermine Nature Reserve and the tree plantations and wine growing regions of Stellenbosch. Witnesses reported that searing heat from the flames had melted sewage pipelines, sending raw sewage gushing into the sea. Ecologists expressed fear that fires in the veld surrounding a nature reserve on the west coast of the province could have devastating effects on wildlife in the area. Meteorologists predicted the hot, dry and windy conditions of recent weeks would continue.

21st - IRAN -WINDSTORMS - 3 DEAD - more than 1,100 homes were destroyed - the Caspian Sea province of Gilan, was pounded by unseasonably hot winds of up to 75 mph for two days.

21st - RUSSIA - AVALANCHE - 7 DEAD - bus swept 45 feet down into a ravine.

21st - BRAZIL - ECOLOGICAL DISASTER - After a massive oil spill from a broken refinery pipe, Brazilian ecologists say that it will take at least 10 years to undo the damage caused by the spill. The oil has spread across the 35,000-acre mangrove wetlands of Guanabara Bay, which is environmentally protected and home to threatened animal species such as the yellow-throated alligator and the blue egret. Environmental organizations said the spill will reach vital wetland beds within the next two weeks, killing mussels, mollusks, oysters and crabs, and affecting the entire regional food chain.

20th - CHINA'S NORTHERN PROVINCE OF INNER MONGOLIA - WORST BLIZZARD IN 4 DECADES - 3 DEAD - 36,000 domestic animals dead. Two months of heavy snows have affected an estimated 900,000 people and 70 percent of the herdsman and domestic animals in Inner Mongolia's northern pastures. Further expected bad weather will worsen the dangerous situation.

19th - NORWAY - AVALANCHE - 5+ DEAD - a bus and other vehicles were swept into the sea. More avalanches are feared.

18th - CANADA - AVALANCHE - 1 DEAD - mountain skier and her dog were swept into a treed area.

18th - GUATEMALA - PACAYA VOLCANO ERUPTION - After a spectacular eruption on the 16th, Pacaya Volcano erupted again, sending a column of ash 3,280 feet into the sky south of Guatemala City during about 20 minutes of sustained volcanic activity. Three nearby communities, under red alert due to the previous eruption, continued to be on alert after Tuesday's activity. The alert will be maintained because eruptions and lava flows could be ongoing in coming months.

18th - TEXAS - DROUGHT - faced with the prospect of its third drought in four years many of the state's counties have already received drought disaster declarations from U.S. agriculture officials. Rainfall for the past year was below average throughout the state and meteorologists predict the dry conditions will continue into the spring.

17th - VENEZUELA - MUDSLIDES - Incessant pounding rain lasting for more than 50 hours led to new mudslides as rivers burst their banks. The slides began a day after a powerful earthquake hit the same region, but officials reassured the population that there was no connection between the two events.

16th - OREGON - WINDSTORMS - 2 DEAD.


14th - CHINA - 2 EARTHQUAKES - 5 DEAD - 400 injured.

13th - SOUTHERN ANGOLA - MASSIVE FLOODING - 14 DEAD - at least 5,000 others left homeless. The situation could continue to worsen for the next three months until the annual rainy season ends. The floods have exacerbated an ongoing situation of famine and continuing civil war, and huge losses of crops could create an even greater crisis.

12th - CHINA - SNOWSLIDES- 5 DEAD - 4 injured. Heavy snowfalls have occurred since China started cloud-seeding to bring moisture to their drought-stricken area.

12th - UTAH - AVALANCHE - 2 DEAD - off-trail skiers.

12th - BRAZIL - FLOODING - 5 DEAD - The death toll could rise even further.

10th - WASHINGTON - WINDSTORM - 1 DEAD.

7th - MALAYSIA - LANDSLIDE - heaviest rainfall in a century - 5 DEAD - 3 missing.

6th - INDIA AND BANGLADESH - COLD WAVE - 200 DEAD.

6th - PHILIPPINES - MAYON VOLCANO EXPLODED sending a plume of steam and ash four miles into the sky. The 8,125-foot volcano is located about 215 miles southeast of Manila - no evacuations were ordered, a second-level alert is already in place for Mayon due to its erratic activity since last June.

2nd - BRAZIL - FLOODING & MUDSLIDES - 28 DEAD.

1st - ZIMBABWE - SINGLE LIGHTNING BOLT - 6 DEAD - one entire family.