Tag: evacuation

Raging wildfires engulf western Canada: Kelowna and beyond face unprecedented threats

KELOWNA, Canada, Aug 21, 2023 (AFP) – Fires ravaging western Canada gained more ground on Sunday as two blazes merged and residents continued to evacuate. Rapidly evolving wildfires threatened large parts of the scenic Okanagan Valley, including the city of Kelowna, British Columbia. The situation in the popular boating and hiking destination was “highly dynamic,” said Bowinn Ma, the province’s minister of emergency management. “Do not travel to fire-affected areas of the province for tourism,” […]

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Security alert prompts Eiffel Tower evacuation

PARIS, Aug 12, 2023 (AFP) – A security alert Saturday prompted the evacuation of three floors of the Eiffel Tower in central Paris, France’s most emblematic symbol which drew 6.2 million visitors last year. SETE, the body which runs the site, said bomb disposal experts as well as police were scouring the area, including a restaurant located on one of the floors. “It’s a usual procedure in this kind of situation which however is rare,” […]

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US orders partial evacuation of embassy in Niger

WASHINGTON, Aug 2, 2023 (AFP) – The United States on Wednesday ordered a partial evacuation of its embassy in Niger, the State Department said, a week after the fragile nation was rocked by a coup. “On August 2, 2023, the Department ordered the departure of non-emergency U.S. government employees and eligible family members from Embassy Niamey,” an updated US travel advisory for Niger said. The advisory warned US citizens “not to travel to Niger,” but […]

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Massive rockslide just misses Swiss village

GENEVA, June 16, 2023 (AFP) – A Swiss village came within a hair’s breadth of being wiped off the map when a mountain towering above it collapsed overnight, officials said Friday. The massive rockslide missed Brienz in the east of the country, which had been evacuated on Monday, “by a hair”, they said. The 84 inhabitants were ordered from their homes on Monday after the authorities said the Insel peak had become instable. They said […]

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Thousands flee as Cyclone Mocha approaches Myanmar, Bangladesh

SITTWE, Myanmar, May 13, 2023 (AFP) – Thousands fled Myanmar’s west coast and officials in neighbouring Bangladesh raced to evacuate Rohingya refugees on Saturday as the most powerful cyclone in the region for over a decade churned across the Bay of Bengal. Cyclone Mocha was packing winds of up to 220 kilometres per hour (136 miles per hour), according to India’s meteorological office, equivalent to a category four hurricane. It is expected to weaken before […]

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Colombia urges evacuation near volcano

BOGOTÁ, Colombia (AFP) Authorities in Colombia on Saturday recommended that towns closest to a rumbling, notorious volcano be evacuated, ahead of a a possible eruption. The Disaster Risk Management Office said it was moving to evacuate communities that are located within 15 kilometers (nine miles) from the main crater of three that make up the Nevado del Ruiz volcano in the Colombian Andes. Seismic activity has increased at the volcano, which killed 25,000 people in […]

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DEVELOPING STORY: Rescue operations to extract foreigners from Sudan

Khartoum, Sudan | AFP | Monday 4/24/2023 Battles raging in Sudan between the army and paramilitaries have sparked multiple evacuation operations to rescue foreign citizens and diplomats by road, air and sea. The main airport in the capital Khartoum has been the site of heavy clashes, effectively shutting its operations. Fighting elsewhere has forced delays to some planned rescue operations. Many countries unable to send forces into Sudan relied on others to extract their citizens […]

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Pro-Moscow force renews evacuation of Ukraine’s Kherson

  Moscow, Russia | AFP | Russian occupation authorities announced Tuesday the movement of further large numbers of people from Ukraine’s Kherson region amid a counter-offensive by Kyiv, which has already seen 70,000 people flee. “I decided to extend the evacuation zone by 15 kilometres (nine miles) from Dnipro,” pro-Moscow governor Vladimir Saldo said in a Telegram video. “Measures for forced evacuations will be applied from November 6 for people who remain,” said on social […]

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Evacuation warnings after typhoon makes landfall in Japan

  by Atish PATEL / Yuichi YAMAZAKI Agence France Presse IZUMI, Japan (AFP) — Millions of people in Japan were under evacuation warnings on Monday as Typhoon Nanmadol brought strong winds and heavy rain to the southwest of the country after making landfall overnight. The powerful system has weakened since arriving on land Sunday evening around Kagoshima city in the southwestern region of Kyushu, but it has still uprooted trees, smashed windows and left rivers […]

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Civilians leave steelworks as Ukraine braces for renewed offensive

  by Joshua Melvin, with David Stout in Kyiv Agence France Presse All vulnerable civilians have been evacuated from Mariupol, Ukraine said Saturday, presaging a showdown between Kyiv’s last remaining soldiers there and the besieging Russian forces ahead of celebrations marking the Soviet World War II victory. The Azovstal steelworks, the final Ukrainian holdout in the devastated port city, has taken on a symbolic value in the war. Kyiv fears a renewed intensity to Moscow’s […]

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Ukraine says evacuation corridor agreed for Mariupol

  KYIV, Ukraine (AFP) — Ukraine said it had agreed with Russian forces to open a safe route Wednesday for civilians to flee the besieged port city of Mariupol. “Taking into account a catastrophic humanitarian situation in Mariupol, we’ll be concentrating our efforts in this direction today,” Ukraine’s Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk wrote on Telegram. “We have managed to get a preliminary agreement on a humanitarian corridor for women, children and elderly persons,” she […]

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Alert level 3 raised over Taal following “nearly continuous phreatomagmatic activity”

PHIVOLCS “strongly recommends” evacuation from high-risk barangays of Bilibinwang, Banyaga, others (Eagle News) — The alert level over Taal has been raised to 3 following what the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology said was “nearly continuous phreatomagmatic activity that generated plumes 1500 m accompanied by volcanic earthquake and infrasound signals.” According to PHIVOLCS, the phreatomagmatic activity followed a “short-lived phreatomagmatic burst.” With the raising of the alert level from alert level 2, PHIVOLCS said […]

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