Yahoo News 2 Oct 09;
GENEVA (AFP) – More investment in prevention is needed in disaster-prone Asia, a UN body said Friday, as the battered region struggled with an onslaught of deadly storms, earthquakes and a tsunami.
The UN's International Strategy for Disaster Reduction underlined that the continent was highly exposed with its potentially deadly combination of earthquakes and extreme weather events amplified by climate change as well as population growth.
"The tragic deaths in Indonesia, American Samoa, the independent state of Samoa, Philippines and Vietnam highlight the need for governments to invest more in mitigation and prevention measures and early warning mechanisms," the ISDR said in a statement.
They needed to ensure that "all countries can be safer against more frequent and severe weather-related events and earthquakes," it added.
In the Philippines, President Gloria Arroyo put the entire nation under a "state of calamity," as millions of people braced for fast approaching Typhoon Parma, with gusts of 230 kilometres (145 miles) an hour.
The government warned Parma would tear down houses in its direct path, barely a week after tropical storm Ketsana left nearly 300 people dead and affected more than three million with the heaviest rains in four decades.
Meanwhile, Indonesia called for international help as rescuers scrambled to find survivors after a magnitude 7.6 earthquake levelled buildings around the city of Padang, claiming lives of at least 1,100 people.
In the Pacific island of Samoa, emergency workers said they had given up hope of finding more survivors from Tuesday's tsunami, that left at least 150 people dead there.
"Many countries in Asia, especially Indonesia, are doing a lot but more has to be done," ISDR spokeswoman Brigitte Leoni told AFP.
She underlined that scientists on the UN's intergovernmental scientific panel on climate change had warned about the growth of extreme weather events and storms with the global warming.
"What we have seen is absolutely consistent with what the IPCC says," Leoni added. The ISDR also pointed to the ring of fire earthquake belt that runs around the Pacific Basin.
The agency is calling on countries to boost preparedness, ensure early warning for their populations, as well as better construction standards for homes, schools and hospitals and urban planning.
