October 11, 2011

As of yesterday and early today, a pacific hurricane (hurricane Jova), is been nearing Mexico's vulnerable coastline, which is packed with tourists resorts and flood-prone mountain villages.  Since the hurricane is going to hit this area, many people have begun to evacuate and the fear of this storm, although it's not all that strong, has resulted in shutting down one of Mexico's top cargo ports.  Other hazards that have been occurring across the world in the last few days are some intense flooding going on in India from all of the rain, killing over 100 people, a tropical storm, off the Atlantic Coast, had been classified as a hurricane (Philippe), however it isn't a threat to reach land.  There have also been numerous fires reported in Russia and China to the point where both countries have issued their second highest fire warnings due to dry and windy conditions.

The red dots indicate where fires have been occurring in the last few days (image from http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/view.php?id=73870)