Most of the talk this week in the US has been catastrophic weather in places that aren't normal. Other than significant wildfires in California this week, Iowa is still reeling from busted dams and flooding from overwhelming rain, the Phoenix, Arizona area is dealing with flash flooding, and Montana saw a rare tornado.
Russia, China, and Pakistan were the scenes of the week's worst disasters.
Russia
Russia is now calling up the army to fight a terrible scourge of wildfires in that country, with 320 breaking out today alone. While the Russia's Emergency Ministry has done a commendable job in putting out the fires (210 have already been extinguished as of this writing) the burning continues throughout the country, hard hit by drought and drier and hotter than usual (104 degree +) weather.
Wildfires just this week alone have killed 28 people and destroyed or damaged 77 towns and villages.
China
Floods in northeastern China have accounted for more than 100 dead or missing after 10 days of torrential rain. Nearly 600,000 people have been evacuated and more than 125,000 have been verified as damaged or swept away by flash flooding in the region.
Sun Jingyuan, a government official in the northeastern Antu County told Al-Jazeera, "The flood is unprecedented. Its devastation is appalling."
Flooding has hit all over China in the worst flooding in a decade. More than 1,000 have been declared dead, with more than $28 billion in damage, and nearly 10 million people forcibly evacuated.
Flooding as also impacted the area near the Sonhua River, where flooding washed away 7000 barrels from two chemical companies. Some 3,000 of the barrels are believed to have had contained hexamethyl disiloxane. Workers have recovered more than 5,300 of the barrels so far, but there is great concern on the impact of the water, which is a main source of drinking water to many communities in the region.
Pakistan
The United Nations said that more than one million people have been affected by monsoon rains in Pakistan, with an unofficial count of 1,500 dead in the last five days.
More than 30,000 troops have been mobilized for relief effort.
An unnamed Pakistani official told the Press Trust of India, "We have few helicopters, most of them provided by the army, to carry out rescue and rehabilitation activities and there are a number of areas which remain unattended. Tens of thousands of people are stranded and waiting for help," he added.
Pakistan saw further tragedy with the loss of 152 people in an air crash in the Margalla Hills near Islamabad. Severe weather from the flooding moonsoon rains was blamed on the crash. No survivors were reported.
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Reflections
Otherwise, the press has looked to the recent past, reflecting on three regional disaster in the Gulf Of Mexico: Hurricane Katrina, which had it's five year anniversary this month, the earthquake in Haiti, which is now at seven months, and the BP oil spill, which hit it's four month anniversary this month.
While no one has too happy about the process that cleaned up New Orleans in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, one fact is important to remember. At one point that city was 80 percent underwater. Many point fingers ant cronyism and government corruption (or at the very least, a lack of competence) at every level, local, state and federal, but the fact remains, New Orleans managed a healthy rebound, and still continues to grow after the efforts of many private organizations (and A-list celebrities) to rebuild the city after its devastation.
Haiti has not fared so well. Despite the good will and promises of support from the world community after that nation's catastrophic January earthquake, most of the nations who have pledged support have not so far poneyed up the money they promised. Even the United States has delayed paying the impoverished nation relief it was promised, as the bill is stalled in Congress.
Meanwhile, grassroots politics in Haiti have called for a change from the norm, opting to rally around Haiti-born hip-hop hero Wyclef Jean to ru for president in that politically corrupt nation.
Jean, 37, has taken the support seriously and is considering a bid.
The BP oil spill in Gulf of Mexico has been halted by efforts by the parties that caused it, but cleanup continues and will continue to for a long time.
Louisiana fisherman are demanding that fisheries closed for commercial fishing, shrimping and mollusk cultivation be opened up as they are "safe" but state officials are not in a hurry to do so without better assurances of the safety of their seafood.
The last few weeks have seen a great deal of hand wringing about how things should have been handled in the Gulf. I understand this the role that news pundits have to fill up Sunday talk shows, but I think it's safe to say that oil drilling will never be the same in the Gulf and that it's a good thing.
Some are saying this is a new day for the advancement of green technologies and the new horizon of solar and wind energy in the US. While I think that's great, I don't see it making up the deficit that oil provides.
The United States is making gestures to wean itself of oil but I think that will take a generation at least to do so. In the meantime, drilling will be common once again in the Gulf.
What will change is that way in which oil companies conduct their business. Most likely, operations will be much more like the North Sea, with the kinds of regulations Norway and the UK are accustom to. Had the Deepwater Horizon been under that sort of scrutiny and regulation, a relief well would have already been drilled.
Drilling in the Gulf of Mexico remains an economic and existential necessity. While it will likely take years for communities to clean up the oil that has already spilled, and that green initiatives will find new political currency, drilling for oil will remain a way of life for the foreseeable future.
Alex Molina is filling in for Ryan Campbell.
