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Wednesday 30 Dec 2015 - 11:43 Makkah mean time-19-3-1437
(Image from International Business Times)
New York, (IINA) - A senior UN official said on Tuesday that governments must take more preventive action to reduce human and economic losses from weather-related disasters such as the recent extreme tornadoes in the US, abnormal snowfalls in Mexico, and massive flooding in South America and the UK, UN News Center reported.
"Prevention measures including upgrading early warning systems to deal with the new climate variability, revising building codes to ensure more resilience of critical infrastructures such as schools, hospital and roads, and more investment in flood defenses are critical to protect more people against disaster impacts", said Margareta Wahlstrom, head of the UN Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNISDR).
"We have no time to lose as weather-related disasters continue to increase, affecting millions of people".
Over the weekend, tornadoes and storms killed more than 20 persons in the US and flattened hundreds of buildings and houses.
"More people are at risk due to increased urbanization," Ms. Wahlstrom said. "Reducing spatial density of single family housing and increasing the resilience of houses against heavier wind load can reduce tornado impacts".
Meanwhile, the intense floods in South America are considered the worst in the past 10 years, forcing more than 170,000 people to evacuate in Paraguay, Argentina, Brazil, and Uruguay.
"The abnormal flooding is consistent with the prediction made by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) last November. We cannot ignore science. Their findings need to be better included in long-term policies", Ms. Wahlstrom added.
In Mexico, snowfall over the weekend blanketed 32 towns with some places hit by accumulations of 30 centimeters and temperatures of -18 degrees Celsius.
In addition, several cities in the UK were swamped by rising waters with damages that could exceed GBP1.5 billion according to financial analysts.
"The repetitive floods in the UK and unusual snowstorms in Mexico are alerting the world about how difficult it is to predict global warming impacts and climate change", Wahlstrom said.
AG/IINA
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