Natural Disasters

Evacuations continue across large swaths of Australia as raging fires continue to scorch the nation. On Monday, over 100,000 people were evacuated from the suburbs of Melbourne (Deutsche Welle, December 31, 2019). In another area of the country, four thousand people were trapped on a beach between the burning fires and the sea, awaiting water and air rescue.

In California, wildfires continue to burn and destroy homes and property. Hundreds of thousands of people have been evacuated from their homes as strong winds and dry conditions fan fires to ever greater intensities. Planned blackouts, designed to reduce the risk of fire due to faulty electrical equipment, have also put millions of people in the dark.

Just over two weeks ago, the Category 5 hurricane Dorian devastated the northern islands of the Bahamas. “Dorian was the most powerful hurricane on record to hit the Bahamas… with wind gusts topping 320 kph (200 mph)” (Deutsche Welle, September 7, 2019). Recent reports indicate some 50 people have died, and that number is expected to rise.

The year-long Ebola outbreak in the Congo is getting worse, prompting the World Health Organization (WHO) to declare a “Public Health Emergency of International Concern” (WHO, July 17, 2019). The WHO labeled the outbreak a “level 3” emergency—its most serious designation. According to Dr.