Sediment-related Disasters in the world : 2018 : Data : INTERNATIONAL SABO NETWORK

Data

Sediment-related Disasters in the world : 2018

Jan.1-Dec.31, 2018

Date of occurrence	Country	Type	Summary
Jan. 3	Democratic Republic of the Congo	Flood and Slope Failure	At the slum in Kinshasa, the capital of the Democratic Republic of Congo, flood and mudslide events occurred due to heavy rainfall from the 3rd to the morning of the 4th in December and killed 44 people.
Jan .9	United States of America	Debris Flow	In Montecito, Santa Barbara in the southern part of the state of California, a debris flow occurred in the early morning of January 9, killing 21 people and leaving two missing. This disaster occurred one month after a large forest fire. The forest fire devastated the slopes, making debris flows more likely to occur. The debris flow caused at least $177 million in physical damage..
Feb. 18	Mozambique	Slope Failure	In the night of February 18th, a garbage mountain in a dump site of a slum in Maputo collapsed due to torrential rain, and 5 adjacent huts were buried in the garbage. This collapse killed 17 residents.
Feb. 22	Indonesia	Slope Failure	In a rural area of Brebes Regency, Central Java, rice terraces collapsed for about 150 m in width and about 400 m in length at around 8:00 AM on February 18th, and 20 farmers working there were buried and killed.
Feb. 26	Papua New Guinea	Slope Failure	A magnitude 7.5 earthquake with the epicenter about 90 km south of Porgera, Enga state, occurred and about 30 people were killed by the earthquake. Since then at least two major aftershocks have occurred. It is estimated that landslides following the earthquake killed many of those victims.
May 26	Ethiopia	Landslide	In the Oronia region of Ethiopia, a landslide occurred in the night of the 26th May after several hours of heavy rainfall and killed 23 people. 16 of the victims were women, and six of those with serious injuries were hospitalized at a local health center. In Ethiopia, landslides due to seasonal heavy rainfall often occur. In 2016, landslides and floods caused by heavy rainfall killed almost 50 people
Jun. 3	Guatemala	Volcanic Eruption	On June 3, Volcan de Fuego (about 40 km southwest of Guatemala City and 3,763 m above sea level) erupted the largest ever, inflicting enormous damage by lava and pyroclastic flows across a wide area?particularly the three departments of Escuinta, Sacatepequez, and Chimaltenango. In total, 109 people were killed, 197 missing, and more than 3,200 evacuated; and 1.7 million people were affected by this disaster. The government proposed the designation of a state of emergency for those three departments, and Congress approved the designation for a 30-day period on June 4. This designation allowed the three organizations of the national government, the National Coordinator for Disaster Reduction (CONRED), the Ministry of National Defense, and the Ministry of Communications, Infrastructure, and Housing, to use an emergency response budget of 192 million quetzal (about \2.9 billion) for victim support and search and rescue activities. Route 14 (an important transportation network for distribution and tourism connecting the central area and southern area especially Puerto Quetzal and Puerto San Jose on the Pacific side) was closed due to the accumulation of volcanic debris. On the 17th, the government announced the termination of the search and rescue activities because of the continuous danger of pyroclastic flow and lahar (volcanic mudflow).
Jun. 24	China	Landslide	In Baise city in the mountain area of the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, the southern area of China, a landslide occurred on June 24th after continuous heavy rain since 22nd, China Central Television broadcasted scenes of damage caused by the large landslide, including the collapse of a six-story building and the burial of more than 20 buildings. The local authorities announced six people were killed and more than 150 buildings collapsed. Sediment disaster and flood damage occurred across a wide area in the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, affecting 95,800 residents.
Jun. 26	Vietnam	Landslide	In the mountainous region of northern Vietnam, debris flows and landslides occurred one after another due to heavy rainfall on June 23 and 24. In Lai Chau Province, five people were killed and 12 missing as their houses were crushed by sediment. The local authorities conducted search activities.
Jul. 19	Vietnam	Landslide	Typhoon No. 9 (Typhoon Son Tinh) hit Vietnam in the night of June 18th and caused damage to infrastructures and agricultural products in the provinces of Thanh Hoa and Nghe An. Floods and landslides occurred due to heavy rainfall by the typhoon over a wide area including Hanoi. According to the Vietnamese government, they confirmed that 32 were killed and 17 were missing. They also reported that over 15,000 houses were damaged and over 110,000 ha of farmland and part of roads were inundated. Vietnam is prone to damage due to storms and floods during the monsoon season, and a large number of residents have been sacrificed every year so far.
Jul. 23	Laos	Flood	In the Attapeu Province in southern Laos, the Xepian-Xe Nam Noy hydropower dam, which was under construction burst overflow due to heavy rain on July 23rd. Flash floods washed away houses and killed 42 people and left 29 missing. The water level reached the roof level of buildings in eight villages around the dam, and more than 6,000 residents were affected. As the disaster site was located in remote area and roads were severely damaged or completely washed away by flash floods, the area was only accessible by helicopters and boats. According to the consultant supervising the construction of the dam, they found that the upper part of the dam had been washed away and the reserve dam was also damaged the day before the disaster occurred. They reported this to the Laotian authorities and started evacuation of residents in downstream.
Sep. 15	Philippines	Landslide	Typhoon No. 22 (Typhoon Mangkhut) hit the northern part of the Philippines on September 1 5th. In Itogon of the mountain area of the Luzon Island, a landslide occurred due to several hours of heavy rain with the same precipitation for one month of the usual year and hit an accommodation of mining workers about 500 meters below. 11 workers were killed and 40 others were still buried. According to the Philippines Police 74 people were dead by this typhoon, but the searching for missing people at the large-scale landslide sites was thought to increase this number.
Sep. 20	Philippines	Landslide	At 6:00 in the morning of September 20, a large-scale slope failure occurred in the village of Tinaan, Naga City in central Cebu due to heavy rainfall from the monsoon., and hit several villages, killing 77, leaving 57 missing, and injuring seven. Although Cebu was not directly affected by Typhoon No. 22 (Typhoon Mangkhut), heavy rain from the monsoon loosened the ground on slopes of a hilly zone to a dangerous level.
Sep. 28	Indonesia	Landslide	On September 28, a magnitude 7.5 earthquake and tsunami occurred in the island of Sulawesi, Indonesia, and killed 2,101 people, made 1,373 missing, as of Dec. 10. This was the largest natural disaster after the earthquake that hit Yogyakarta, central Java in 2006. The earthquake and tsunami made Palu, the capital city of the province of Central Sulawesi, uins. In addition to the earthquake and tsunami, a rapid lateral spreading due to liquefaction was observed. In the area of Balaroa where housing development was conducted by the government, a large number of houses were buried by the liquefied mud. According to the National Search and Rescue Agency (Basarnas), over 1,000 houses were buried. The Indonesian government initially was reluctant to accept foreign aid, claiming that the country's military could deal with the situation. As the severity of the damage became clear, they agreed to accept foreign aid. Testimony by residents clarified how the ground became fluidized by the liquefaction phenomenon over about 4 km, burying many people and houses. According to survivors, the destructive force of the fluidization was beyond all imagination. It was reported that liquefaction occurred at three locations, including two areas in Palu and the village of Jono Oge in adjacent Sigi. Residents said that the mud flow started from the village of Ponbewe, about 700 m east of Jono Oge, gained force as it entered Jono Oge, destroyed over 500 houses in the village, cut off the main road, and carried the ruins of a church about 2.5 km away from the original location.
Oct. 11	Uganda	Flood, mudslide	In Bududa, eastern Uganda, the embankment of the river broke down and landslides also occurred due to heavy rain on October 11th. Four to five villages were damaged and at least 34 were killed. Bududa is located at the foot of Mt. Elgon near the border between Uganda and Kenya and is prone to landslide events. At least 100 people were killed by a landslide that occurred in March 2010, and three villages were also destroyed in 2012.
Oct. 12	Indonesia	Debris Flow	Floods and landslides due to torrential rainfall that started on Oct. 10 occurred in the western part of Indonesia and killed at least 22 and made many people missing. According to the authorities, at least 17 people were killed in North Sumatra and 5 were killed in West Sumatra in these three days. The National Disaster Management Agency (BNPB) reported that an Islamic seminary in Mandailing Natal, North Sumatra was hit by a flash flood during class and 11 students were killed in the afternoon on October 12th. Many houses were also damaged.
Oct. 30	Philippines	Landslide	On October 30th, Typhoon No. 26 (Typhoon Yutu) passed Luzon Island, northern part of the Philippines, and landslides and river flooding occurred in many places and killed 20 people, made two injured. In the Cordillera Administrative Region (CAR), Natonin of the northern Luzon, a building of the Department of Public Works and Highways that was under construction was buried under the sediment in the night of October 30th. According to local media reports, although the facility was not designated as a shelter, residents in the area were voluntarily evacuating in this building because there were no other concrete buildings there. The typhoon followed a path slightly south of the previous month's Typhoon No. 22 (Mangkhut), which killed 77 people, and hit Luzon, the most populous island in the country. Landslides occurred in many places of the island caused serious damage.
Nov. 5	Italy	Flood and Slope Failure	Rainstorms hit Italy repeatedly since the end of October, mainly areas around Venice in the northern part of the country, were affected. Over 30 people were killed in one week. In Sicily, many roads were closed due to floods, and municipal leaders ordered the closure of schools, parks, and underground passages. In the region of Veneto, winds of over 50 m/s knocked down more than 14 million trees. A large volume of woody debris, which seemed to have travelled down from the mountains, covered the surface of a dam reservoir.
Nov. 9	Jordan	Debris Flow	On November 9, a debris flow occurred at the Petra World Heritage Site in Jordan, and over 3,000 tourists had to evacuate. On the same day, floods and sudden rises in river water levels were caused by heavy rains in various parts of Jordan. The national government reported on November 10th that 11 people were killed by these disasters. According to the Jordan Meteorological Department, heavy rain brought one fifth of the annual average rainfall in a single day to the area of the Petra Ruins on the 9th. This was the first large flood since 1963. In a dry area like Jordan, the ground surface has become so hard by sunlight that rainwater cannot easily permeate into the ground. Experts mention that what they call “flash flood” seemed to occur around the Petra Ruins. This is a phenomenon in which a large amount of water containing sediment floods an area when heavy rains fall. Fifty-five years ago in 1963, a debris flow occurred and killed about 30 people including foreign tourists at the Petra Ruins.
Nov. 10	Brazil	Slope Failure	On Nov. 10th, a landslide occurred in Piratininga, Nitero in the state of Rio de Janeiro due to continuous heavy rain from Nov. 7th by the influence of a cold front. Just after 4:00 AM, rocks on the slope of a hill called Boa Esperanca fell and caused the landslide which hit seven houses and killed 15 people. According to survivors, the houses in that area were kept off limits by the city’s Disaster Prevention Bureau last year, and residents were instructed to evacuate in cases of heavy rain. However, the city government provided no alternative housing or compensation, so the residents stayed there during the rainfall and got involved in this disaster The mayor explained on the 10th that he did not know the area was kept off limits, that the area was not designated as a high-risk area by the city’s investigation. Therefore, no measures were taken to prevent disasters, such as the construction of retaining walls on the cliffs. Fifty-six people were also killed by landslides in the city in 2010. After 2013, the city spent over 150 million real to install warning sirens and construct retaining walls on slopes at 50 locations. However, the accident occurred at the area considered to be out of the scope of these measures.
Dec. 22	Indonesia	Volcanic Eruption- induced Mountain Collapse and Tsunami	The Anak Krakatau volcano located in the north of the Sunda Strait,, which is composed from lava flows with 300 m elevation above sea level caused a large-scale mountain collapse on December 22. The mountain collapse triggered a submarine landslide by which sediment moved downward to a bottom with 270m depth in southwest of the volcano. The seawater pushed back by the submarine landslide moved upward to the south side of the island and became a large-scale tsunami and caused devastating damage along the coasts of Java and Sumatra facing the Sunda Strait. The National Disaster Management Agency (BNPB) of Indonesia announced that 429 people were killed, 1,485 injured, 154 missing, and 43,386 evacuated. No tsunami warning was issued to residents, so residents suffered without notice. The mechanism of causing tsunami was one of the main factors hindered issuing the tsunami warning in advance. The majority of tsunamis that occurred in Indonesia so far were caused by earthquakes. This tsunami, however, was due to the different mechanism without premonitory signs such as seismic waves.
Dec. 29	Philippines	Flood and Slope Failure	Tropical cyclone Usman struck the central and eastern parts of the Philippines on December 29 and large-scale floods and landslides occurred. In Bicol, a mountainous region in the southeast of Manila, they had rainfall exceeding that of one month in two days and over 100 people were affected. Across the entire country, 156 people were killed, 105 injured, and 26 missing. The Office of Civil Defense explained that not a typhoon but just the low pressure let people be careless and neglect to prepare for, and many residents were reluctant to evacuate because of the Christmas season.
Dec. 31	Indonesia	Slope Failure	At around 17:30 on December 31, 2018, a slope failure due to torrential rain occurred in in the community of Cimapag, Sirnaresmi, a village in the Cisolok subdistrict, Sukabumi Regency in West Java. Debris flows buried 34 houses, killed 31 residents, and made two missing and three injured.