Date / time: 21/03/2006 09:40:19
Event: Earthquake
Area: Africa
Country: Algeria
State/County: Bajaia district
City: Unknow
Number of Deads: 4 persons
Number of Injured: 67 persons
Damage level: Minor

Description:
At least four people including three children were killed and 67 people were hurt when an earthquake measuring 5.3 hit northeastern Algeria, state radio reported on Tuesday. The tremor on Monday evening triggered the collapse of about 30 buildings in and around the village of Laalam in the province of Bejaia, 300 km (190 miles) east of the capital Algiers, the radio reported. The dead children were aged 5, 9, and 13.

Date / time: 21/03/2006 10:20:05
Event: Vulcano Activity
Area: Asia
Country: Japan
State/County: Hokkaido
City: Unknow
Number of Deads: None or unknow
Number of Injured: None or unknow
Damage level: Minor

Description:
A volcano on Japan's northernmost main island of Hokkaido erupted early on Tuesday morning, leaving ash scattered on the snow around the top of the mountain, but officials said the scale of the eruption was small. Me-akan Take, a 1,500 metre (4,900 ft) peak located some 850 km (530 miles) north of Tokyo, is an active volcano that last erupted in November 1998. "Gray ash was discovered on the snow around the summit, but no movement of lava was detected, and we do not think a large eruption is likely," a Meteorological Agency official said. Japan is one of the world's most geologically active countries and is particularly prone to earthquakes, with a tremor occurring at least every five minutes. It also has 108 active volcanoes, according to the Meteorological Agency, but damaging eruptions are infrequent. In 1991, 43 people including police, fire officials and journalists were killed by a lethal mix of steam, ash and rock when a volcano erupted on the southern island of Kyushu.

Date / time: 22/03/2006 09:13:12
Event: Vulcano Activity
Area:
Country: Philippines
State/County: Sorsogon province
City: Unknow
Number of Deads: None or unknow
Number of Injured: None or unknow
Damage level: Minor

Description:
A volcano in the central Philippines spewed ash clouds nearly 1 mile into the sky and officials warned residents on Wednesday not to go near the mountain. The 1,559-metre Bulusan volcano in Sorsogon province spewed ash on Tuesday night, said Jaime Sincioco of the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology. "Last night, at 10.58 p.m., there was a phreatic or steam-driven explosion, producing ash clouds 1.5 km from the summit. That's just a mild ash emission," he told Reuters. Mild vulcanic quakes were also felt and steam was seen coming from the crater early on Wednesday, Sincioco said. He warned residents not to venture within the 4-km (2.5-mile) danger zone due to fear of sudden explosions. "We are still monitoring the volcano. We will raise the alert level as appropriate," Sincioco said. "The present manifestation still does not indicate that a major activity is imminent." The Institute raised alert level 1 in Bulusan on Sunday after their instruments detected successive quakes. The highest level of alert is 5, indicating lava flows or ash columns reach 6 km.

Date / time: 22/03/2006 15:21:43
Event: Fire
Area: Asia
Country: Japan
State/County: Fukui Prefecture
City: Unknow
Number of Deads: None or unknow
Number of Injured: 2 persons
Damage level: Minor

Description:
Firefighters extinguished a four-hour blaze that broke out at a nuclear power plant in western Japan on Wednesday. Officials said no radiation leaked, but two workers were injured. It took firefighters nearly two hours to reach the fire because of thick smoke, and another two hours to put out the flames at the waste incinerating facility in Oi, about 235 miles west of Tokyo, said Manabu Kobana of Kansai Electric Power Co. Two workers who were inspecting the facility were rushed to a hospital after inhaling smoke, but they were not in critical condition and were not exposed to radiation, local fire officials said. A third worker was evacuated from the site but was not injured, according to another local government official, Shiro Konishi. Other workers at the plant were allowed to remain at their stations, he said. All four pressurized water reactors at Oi were operating normally, and there was no radiation leakage, according to the Osaka-based operator. The fire appeared to have started in an area in the facility where ash is packed into steel barrels, the operator said. Some of the waste processed there contains low levels of radiation, but monitors outside the facility have shown no signs of leakage, it said. Resource-poor Japan is heavily dependent on its nuclear program, with the country's 55 nuclear reactors now supplying about one-third of its electricity, according to the Natural Resources and Energy Agency. But the public has been increasingly wary of reactor safety following a series of reactor malfunctions and accidents. Oi is about 380 kilometers (236 miles) west of Tokyo.

Date / time: 21/03/2006 19:28:46
Event: Tornado
Area:
Country: Philippines
State/County: South Cotabato
City: Tupi
Number of Deads: None or unknow
Number of Injured: None or unknow
Damage level: Minor

Description:
A strong tornado battered a farming village in Tupi town, South Cotabato on Tuesday afternoon, destroying an estimated P8 million worth of agricultural crops and properties, local officials said. Tupi Mayor Valentin Mariano said the twister, whose strength was measured by local residents through the uprooting of several decades-old well-entrenched mango trees, landed at the outskirts of Barangay Palian at about 3:00 p.m. Some residents reportedly saw some patches of thin ice falling with the rains before the tornado came, he said. Mariano said no casualties were reported when the twister struck the area for about 15 minutes. But he said among those destroyed were a poultry farm owned by a local contract grower, portions of a solo papaya plantation contracted to a local exporter, farmlands planted to various crops, and several houses. Bella Lechonsito, South Cotabato social welfare officer, said the Tupi disaster coordinating council reported that the tornado damaged at least 13 houses and destroyed three others. Lechonsito said the municipal and provincial disaster coordinating councils are currently validating the exact damage wrought by the tornado, the second to hit the area in the last three years.

Date / time: 21/03/2006 16:00:30
Event: Extreme Weather
Area: North-America
Country: USA
State/County: Unknow
City: Unknow
Number of Deads: 5 persons
Number of Injured: None or unknow
Damage level: Minor

Description:
A powerful storm dumped more than a foot of snow in the Plains, closing schools and roads and forcing residents to man shovels Monday during the first day of spring. Hundreds of schools were closed in Nebraska, Kansas, Colorado and South Dakota, and at least five deaths were blamed on the storm. Spring officially began at 1:26 p.m. EST. Myron Williams, who raises livestock near Wall, was busy shoveling a foot of snow from gates and feedlots on his property. The rancher said the work was hard but the precipitation was welcome. "We're glad to have the moisture," Williams said. "Nothing's free, so you've got to pay for everything." Twenty-five inches of snow was reported in central Nebraska, parts of South Dakota had up to 18 inches, northeast Colorado had at least a foot, northwest Kansas had up to 10 inches and parts of the Oklahoma Panhandle got half a foot.

Several stretches of Interstate 80 were closed in Nebraska, the State Patrol said. Parts of Interstate 70 were closed in western Kansas, and in Colorado more than 150 miles of the highway were shut down. In South Dakota, a stretch of about 200 miles of I-90 was reopened Monday. The highway had been closed from Rapid City to Chamberlain because of the heavy snow and tractor-trailers that had gotten stuck. The storm postponed the final day of the South Dakota Legislature's 2006 session, and forced Nebraska's Legislature to cancel its Tuesday meeting. Also Monday, at least two tornadoes touched down in rural Oklahoma as a wave of thunderstorms moved across the state. Heavy rain soaked parts of the South over the weekend. Up to 8 inches of rain was reported in northern Texas, causing flooding around the Dallas area. Waters subsided Monday, and the storms may have eased chronic drought.

"It is definitely going to help with the drought, but it is not going to reverse it," said weather service meteorologist Stacie Hanes. In Dallas, the body of a woman was recovered from a creek. Officials believe high water swept her car off a road Sunday night. In Colorado, one person was killed Sunday in a traffic accident on a slush-covered road, the State Patrol said. And authorities said a woman reportedly suffering from Alzheimer's disease was found dead Monday after she wandered away from her home. Two motorists died on an icy highway in southwest Nebraska on Sunday, authorities said.