Nature's Fury

The past week has seen an astonishing range of natural events in Asia which have sadly claimed lives ...Last Saturday an earthquake of magnitude 7.2 struck Hokkaido (the north island ) in Japan. There is some video footage here. You can also read an account of the earthquake here and access a series of images by clicking on the image above.

Over the last 36 hours, the Philippines kave been ravaged by a powerful typhoon..... Click on the image above to access the BBC website information about this typhoon. BBC also has a very good animated guide to typhoons. Sadly this morning it is also reporting a large loss of life in the Philippines as a result of a ferry capsizing in the wake of the typhoon. There is asome video footage here.

So recently affected by a huge earthquake, south China is now battling some of the worst floods it has seen in 50 years.... You can read reports of the flooding here and here. Nearly six million people have been affected by the flooding in one way or another. China’s rainy season causes havoc every year.
But this year China has already had the snowstorms that paralyzed much of the country and last month’s devastating earthquake to cope with. This latest flooding is another major challenge for the Chinese people and their government, just weeks before the Olympic Games get under way in Beijing.