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- The most recent weather-disrupting El Nino event may be over,
but its devastating effects have not been forgotten. It has been
blamed for thousands of deaths in storms, heat waves, fires, floods,
frost and drought. Property damage was at least $32 billion worldwide.
After studying
the damages and loss, a team of United Nations scientists has
issued its report, concluding that now is the time to get ready
for El Nino's return.
The warming
of parts of the Pacific Ocean in 1997 and 1998 changed the patterns
of the wind and moisture overhead, resulting in severe weather
around the world. Michael Glantz of the National Center for Atmospheric
Research in Boulder, Colo. called that event a wake-up call.
"Awareness
of what El Nino can do to societies and economies is now high,"
said Glantz, a longtime El Nino researcher and senior author of
the report.
The report
called, "Lessons Learned from the 1997-98 El Nino: Once Burned,
Twice Shy?" was presented Friday at the United Nations in
New York.
It calls for
several steps to be taken:
• Involve government leaders early on in climate disaster
policy and action
• Create regional organizations to focus solely on El Nino
impacts
• Designate funding to map the world's most vulnerable populations
• Improve forecasting of the impacts and onset of El Nino
• Educate people on how best to use those forecasts
• Develop a scientific establishment within each country
to use research results from other countries
Glantz said Peru, where the El Nino can mean inundating rains,
is a good example of what was done right during the last El Nino.
The government
formed a task force to coordinate activities and went to the World
Bank for money to clean up rivers and canals and shore up bridges
and roads.
On the other
side of the coin, he said, Kenya had the forecast in June of 1997
and the government didn't act on it. "When heavy rains came,
roads collapsed, train routes collapsed, bridges, et cetera."
The report
presents the results of a 19-month study of 16 countries and their
response to the forecasts and impacts of the 1997-98 El Nino.
The work focused
on Bangladesh, China, Costa Rica, Cuba, Ecuador, Ethiopia, Fiji,
Indonesia, Kenya, Mozambique, Panama, Papua New Guinea, Paraguay,
Peru, the Philippines and Vietnam.
El Ninos occur
every two to seven years.
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