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Displaying 45 of about 70 resultsBy David Singh
NEW YORK, 22 September: At the opening of the General Debate of the 66th session of the UN General Assembly yesterday, incoming Assembly President Nassir Abdulaziz Al-Nasser identified disaster prevention as one of the key issues that will “help frame our work this session”.
Al-Nasser said a particular priority during the current sessio…
In the aftermath of Hurricane Irene that hit the east coast of the United States just over a week ago, it is a reminder that disasters caused by extreme weather events are becoming common place even for countries and cities that are considered to be at the pinnacle of development.
Local governments and authorities have always been at the front lines of…
GENEVA, 16 August 2016 – The state of Louisiana is in the grip of what looks set to be the worst disaster in the United States since Superstorm Sandy four years ago, underlining the critical role of reducing risk before disaster strikes.
On Sunday, President Barack Obama declared a major disaster in Louisiana including the most heavily-affected parishe…
TORONTO, Canada, 29 March 2016 – Ensuring that companies understand and act on the risks posed by natural and man-made hazards is a vital step towards reducing disaster impacts. Business education offers a tool to achieve this.
A dozen universities from Brazil, Canada, Chile, Colombia, India, Indonesia, Jamaica, Mexico, Peru and the United States have…
NEW YORK, 3 MARCH 2015 - The United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction has designated the City of Hoboken, New Jersey, USA, as a Role Model City of the Making Cities Resilient campaign for its flood risk management practices. These include plans to retain over a million gallons of stormwater runoff through green infrastructure.
Hoboken becomes…
GENEVA, 22 February, 2018 - Climate change means that coastal communities in the Caribbean need to be self-sufficient for up to three weeks and not just a couple of days if they are to cope with the fall-out from hurricane activity at the level of intensity experienced during the 2017 Atlantic Hurricane Season, according to a weather expert.
“We h…
GENEVA, 18 September 2018 – This year will probably go down as one of the hottest years on record and is turning out to be another remarkable year for extreme weather events.
Record temperatures, heatwaves, storms, floods, drought and heavy rainfall have been evident across the globe. Following earlier catastrophes this year, notably wildfires in…
GENEVA, 23 May 2013 - City mayors today urged national and international leaders to trust and invest more at the local level to transform rapidly expanding urban areas into safe and resilient 21st century cities.
The 50-plus mayors from around the world who attended this week's 4th Global Platform were united in their message: the future of this planet…
“The strong tropical cyclone in Louisiana and Mississippi, as well as the devastating floods in Romania, Bulgaria, Switzerland, Austria and Germany are yet another reminder that natural hazards are a global threat. We need to pay more attention to social vulnerability to hazards,” says Salvano Briceño, director of the Secretariat for the International S…
KUROSHIO, Japan, 1 December 2016 – Hundreds of high school students from around the world have pledged to step up efforts to reduce disaster risk, at a global gathering held to mark the first edition of World Tsunami Awareness Day.
The 25-26 November High School Students Summit in the southern Japanese town of Kuroshio brought together 360 young people…
Tsunamis are only devastating if people and their livelihoods get in the way, as suggested by the largest tsunami ever recorded which only killed five people.
Tsunamis are natural events and disasters are not natural. These series of powerful waves are only devastating if people and their livelihoods get in the way. To measure the impact of a tsunami y…
MONTREAL, Canada, 7 March 2017 – The concerns and capacities of indigenous peoples need to be taken into account at all times when it comes to curbing disaster risk, leading members of communities from across the Americas said today at a high-level conference.
Underlining the message, the three-day 5th Regional Platform for Disaster Risk Reduction in t…
KOBE, Japan, 28 December 2016 – Hundreds of university students from around the world have set their sights on reducing the risk of disasters, during the first-ever edition in Japan of the National Model United Nations.
The 350 students from institutions in 11 countries – Canada, Chile, China, Czech Republic, Germany, Italy, Japan, Philippines, Ru…
GENEVA, 21 May 2013 - Leading figures from the private sector said today they were ready to "come in from the cold" and play a stronger leading role to reduce disaster risk.
CEO of Titan America, Aris Papadopoulos, praised 'pioneer' business leaders who were championing the cause of resilience, on the opening day of the 4th Global Platform for Disaster…
NEW YORK, 21 November 2012 - Current estimates are that Hurricane Sandy may be the most expensive storm to have hit the United States since Hurricane Katrina with the final bill possibly reaching $50 billion. Last weekend, Margareta Wahlström, Chief of UNISDR, visited Hurricane Sandy affected areas in New York and New Jersey. She travelled to Hoboken,…