Disaster News

RSS
53 stories
Khun Orwae sorts through the remaining stock in the electrical goods shop where he works.

Thailand’s Hat Yai picks up the pieces in wake of devastating floods (analysis)

Richard Friend, Pakamas Thinphanga 5 Feb 2026
Flood survivors use logs to cross a river in Batang Toru, North Sumatra, Indonesia, on Dec. 2, 2025. Image by AP Photo/Binsar Bakkara.

Indonesia sues 6 companies over alleged links to deadly floods & landslides

Hans Nicholas Jong 19 Jan 2026
A community settlement in Pidie Jaya Regency, destroyed by flooding.

Indonesia launches sweeping environmental audits after Sumatra flood disaster

Hans Nicholas Jong 7 Jan 2026
In this aerial photo taken using a drone, people are seen making their way on a muddy road at a village affected by a flash flood in Batang Toru, North Sumatra, Indonesia, Tuesday, Dec. 2, 2025. Photo credit: AP Photo/Binsar Bakkara

After Cyclone Senyar, Indonesia probes whether development amplified scale of disaster

Hans Nicholas Jong 6 Jan 2026

Southeast Asia’s 2025 marked by fatal floods, fossil fuel expansion and renewed mining boom

Carolyn Cowan, Gerald Flynn 29 Dec 2025

Sri Lanka looks to build disaster-resilient housing after devastating cyclone

Kamanthi Wickramasinghe 27 Dec 2025

Tapanuli orangutan, devastated by cyclone, now faces habitat loss under zoning plans

Hans Nicholas Jong, Achmad Rizki Muazam 18 Dec 2025
A mother and infant Tapanuli orangutan were directly sighted in the Lumut Maju peat swamp forest in North Sumatra. Image by Junaidi Hanafiah/Mongabay-Indonesia.

Sumatran flood disaster may have wiped out a key Tapanuli orangutan population, scientists fear

Hans Nicholas Jong 12 Dec 2025
Men stand on logs swept away by flash flood in Batang Toru, North Sumatra, Dec. 2.

Death toll rises in Sumatra flood catastrophe as gov’t moves to protect Batang Toru forest

Achmad Rizki Muazam, Ayat S. Karokaro, Taufik Wijaya 9 Dec 2025

Changing weather patterns threaten time-tested houses in Nepal village

Tanka Dhakal 29 Nov 2025

Radioactive leak in Banten exposes workers to danger & reveals regulatory failures

Anggita Raissa 25 Oct 2025

Death toll from torrential rains in Mexico rises to 64 as search operations expand

Associated Press 13 Oct 2025
Banner image of motorists riding through a flooded road caused by heavy monsoon rain in Lahore, Pakistan, on July 10, 2025. Image by AP Photo/K.M. Chaudary.

Deadly monsoon rains in Pakistan made worse by climate change: Study

Kristine Sabillo 7 Aug 2025
Heavy rainfall in Colombia and Venezuela caused deadly landslides and widespread flooding in June. A new analysis now points to rapid urbanization, deforestation, mining and overgrazing as having reduced the region’s climate resilience. 
 “The rapid growth of population and informal settlements in areas prone to landslides, particularly in Colombia, puts people and infrastructure at risk,” the World Weather Attribution (WWA), a network of scientists evaluating extreme weather events, said in its latest rapid analysis. It said the informal communities are growing as people seek livelihoods in cities or are displaced due to conflict. Roop Singh, report co-author from the Netherlands-based Red Cross Red Crescent Climate Centre, said at a media briefing that pasture- and agriculture-driven deforestation rose over the past two decades, increasing “the risk of landslides because tree roots are no longer binding and anchoring the soils.”
 The heavy rains during the last week of June triggered widespread flooding and damage in Colombia; a landslide in Antioquia department killed 27 people. In Venezuela, rivers overflowed, and smaller landslides cut off rural communities. WWA said in its report that rains in these regions had persisted since April, and that the June rain fell on already saturated ground where the deadly landslide occurred, and in rivers with already high levels of water. The scientists examined the total rainfall from April-June this year over the Magdalena River catchment in Colombia and the Falcón and Maracaibo basins in Venezuela. They also studied data on the accumulated rainfall from June 20-24 in the affected states in the Venezuelan Llanos, a grassland plain. “Neither events were particularly extreme,” Mariam Zachariah, co-author and research associate at Imperial College London, said at the briefing. The WWA analysis showed the heavy rain that fell in June is common, expected every 10 years in Colombia and every three years in Venezuela. The scientists also used climate models to understand the influence of human-induced climate change on the rains, but the findings were inconclusive. Instead, the models projected a drying trend for Colombia and mixed results for Venezuela. Friederike Otto, co-author and climate science professor at Imperial College London, said not being able to show clear linkages to climate change doesn’t mean there’s no influence. The researchers attributed some of the uncertainty to a lack of long-term observational weather data and weather stations in the region. “Unfortunately, extreme weather is not well understood in northern South America,” Paola A. Arias, a professor at the University of Antioquia, said in a statement. “We urgently need more investment in climate science to understand shifting risks and prepare for what’s ahead. More science will save lives." Zachariah said Colombia and Venezuela must prepare for both rainfall and drought, and build resilience to extreme weather. Banner image: People look at their destroyed home after a deadly landslide was triggered by heavy rain in Colombia’s Antioquia department on June 25, 2025. Image by AP Photo/Fredy Amariles.

Deadly landslide and flooding in Colombia and Venezuela linked to rapid urbanization

Kristine Sabillo 18 Jul 2025
Pelicans have rebounded on the restored Queen Bess Island off the coast of Louisiana. Photo courtesy of Alisha Renfro

Pelicans recover, but dolphins and other species struggle 15 years after BP oil spill

Mongabay.com 18 Jun 2025
Rescuers evacuate people from a flooded hospital following landslides and flash flooding in India's northeast state of Manipur, Sunday, June 1, 2025. (AP Photo/Donald Sairem)

Heavy rains inundate northeast India

Kristine Sabillo 6 Jun 2025
Banner image of Mokwa after the flooding, by the Nigerian National Emergency Management Agency via X.

Hundreds die after flash floods tear through Nigerian market town

Kristine Sabillo 5 Jun 2025

A fragile win as Indonesia cancels high-risk mine permit after court ruling

Hans Nicholas Jong 2 Jun 2025

Landslide deaths again highlight safety failures in Indonesia’s nickel industry

Hans Nicholas Jong 1 May 2025

Award-winning film highlights lasting damage from X-Press Pearl disaster in Sri Lanka

Malaka Rodrigo 11 Apr 2025

Indonesia’s peatlands face growing flood risks amid widespread degradation

Hans Nicholas Jong 7 Apr 2025
Banner image floodwaters moving through Queensland by Bureau of Meteorology via Facebook.

Floods devastate normally arid parts of Australia’s Queensland

Kristine Sabillo 3 Apr 2025
Banner image of South Korea wildfires by NASA (Public domain).

Wildfires in South Korea kill at least 30 people

Kristine Sabillo 1 Apr 2025
Repsol’s 2022 oil spill contaminated two protected areas.

5 takeaways from the 2022 Repsol oil spill in Peru

Mongabay Latam 24 Mar 2025
Oil spill in Ecuador’s northwestern Esmeraldas municipality. Image courtesy of Eduardo Rebolledo Monsalve.

Esmeraldas oil spill in Ecuador devastates rivers and wildlife refuge

Shanna Hanbury 19 Mar 2025
Trees fallen due to winds and fooding.

Indonesia families evicted for Jakarta PIK2 project flooded at relocation site

Irfan Maulana 7 Mar 2025

Global temperature in 2024 hits record 1.55°C over pre-industrial level

Shanna Hanbury 14 Jan 2025

At least 11,500 deaths linked to extreme weather in 2024

Shanna Hanbury 9 Jan 2025

Six months after its worst floods, Rio Grande do Sul works to bounce back

Shi En Kim 28 Oct 2024
The sea and the coastal residential land are affected by the waste of upstream nickel mining operations.

At-risk groups in Indonesia demand greater say in climate policymaking

Hans Nicholas Jong 15 Aug 2024
city view

In Brazil, half a century of salt mining sinks a city, displacing thousands

Peter Speetjens 6 May 2024
Farid Samalehu, while monitoring the coastline which continues to be eroded due to abrasion.

Maluku bone collector unearths troubling consequence of coastal abrasion

Christ Belseran, Edison Waas 9 Apr 2024

you're currently offline