Hurricane Sandy made history as the largest Atlantic hurricane on record when it made landfall near Brigantine, N.J., Oct. 29, 2012. With wind gusts in excess of 75 miles per hour and storm surge that inundated much of the New York and New Jersey coasts with water four to eight feet high, the aftermath proved even worse. Sandy killed at least 117 people in the United States, caused more than $50 billion in damage, and stranded millions of people for days in their homes without electricity, resulting from crippled public transportation systems and severe fuel shortages.
In the days and weeks following the storm, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers mobilized more than 800 personnel from worldwide locations to fulfill Federal Emergency Management Agency mission requests totaling $351 million to assist with the relief and recovery, primarily in New York and New Jersey. The Corps worked closely with its partners to dewater approximately 475 million gallons of salt water, install more than 200 generators to critical facilities such as hospitals and police stations, remove more than 300,000 cubic yards of debris in New York City alone, provide more than nine million liters of bottled water and begin repairs to projects.
In a national commitment to help recover from the second-most costly hurricane in our Nation’s history, Congress in January 2013 passed the Disaster Relief Appropriations Act of 2013. This act appropriated more than $5 billion to the Army Corps for the restoration and construction of federal projects in the impacted area. One year later, more than 200 projects and studies along the coastline from Florida to Maine and navigation channels inland to Ohio are planned and underway to restore projects to their design-level conditions and reduce the risks of future coastal storm damage.
The majority of USACE's recovery program is undertaken in the North Atlantic Division with more than 150 projects and studies totaling more than $4 billion. The Great Lakes and Ohio River Division and South Atlantic Division also were allocated funding to restore coastal storm risk reduction projects and navigation channels in their regions.
The California earthquake of April 18, 1906 ranks as one of the most significant earthquakes of all time. Today, its importance comes more from the wealth of scientific knowledge derived from it than from its sheer size. Rupturing the northernmost 296 miles (477 kilometers) of the San Andreas fault from northwest of San Juan Bautista to the triple junction at Cape Mendocino, the earthquake confounded contemporary geologists with its large, horizontal displacements and great rupture length. Indeed, the significance of the fault and recognition of its large cumulative offset would not be fully appreciated until the advent of plate tectonics more than half a century later. Analysis of the 1906 displacements and strain in the surrounding crust led Reid (1910) to formulate his elastic-rebound theory of the earthquake source, which remains today the principal model of the earthquake cycle.
Around 12:30 of 4th October 2010, the north-western corner of a vast reservoir containing some 30 million cubic meters of waste from an aluminum factory in the village of Ajka, in western Hungary, suddenly collapsed, giving rise to a red mud flow of nearly 1 million cubic meters, which poured out over the surrounding countryside causing an environmental catastrophe. The village of Kolontár was struck and partly submerged by the large mass of water mixed with toxic mud from the failed reservoir, taking the inhabitants of the area by surprise. Some houses and bridges collapsed following the heavy impact of the mud flow.
Within a few minutes, also the village of Devecser, located some kilometres downstream, was struck by the waste spill. Roads turned into streams of fluid red mud, which swept away dozens of cars, many houses and other buildings. Eventually, an area of over 40 square kilometres was affected by the disaster.
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This composite satellite image shows the toxic spill - October 5, Left and October 8, Right - as it spreads over the landscape, in Ajka, Hungary. A million cubic meters of toxic sludge burst from a reservoir at an industrial plant on October 4 and has now reached the River Danube. Hungarian PM Viktor Orban has called the spill an "ecological tragedy".
A man removes mud from his garden in the flooded village of Kolontar, around 150kms southwest of Budapest on October 4, 2010. One person died and 60 were injured in western Hungary when a reservoir of residue from aluminum production broke and flooded two nearby villages with toxic red mud.
Cars are piled up in a flooded parking lot in Devecser, about 150 kms southwest of Budapest, on October 5, 2010 after the village was submerged on October 4 by toxic red sludge from a local aluminum plant. Three persons died and 60 were injured in western Hungary when a reservoir of residue from aluminum production broke and flooded two nearby villages.
A man walks in Devecser, about 150 kms southwest of Budapest, on October 5, 2010 after the village was flooded on October 4 by toxic red sludge from a local aluminum plant. Three persons died and 60 were injured in western Hungary when a reservoir of residue from aluminum production broke and flooded two nearby villages.
