Archive for the ‘escape’ tag

Special cell busts gang of drug runners

The escape of three convicted ISI agents led the Delhi Police’s Special Cell to bust a module of drug runners and currency counterfeiters. On Monday, the Special Cell arrested six people after tracking them for nearly nine months. HT reports.

Pattinson narrowly escapes being crushed by elephant

Hollywood’s latest heartthrob Robert Pattinson has reportedly had a narrow escape from being crushed by an elephant on the set of his new movie ‘Water for Elephants’. The 24-year-old actor, who stars alongside Reese Witherspoon in the film was almost rolled on by a huge grey elephant called Rosie, whilst trying to give her a bath, reported National Enquirer magazine.

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Temple worshippers’ miracle escape (Topix.net)

Firefighters said it was an absolute miracle no-one was killed in an explosion at a Hare Krishna temple.

School bus driver electrocuted

Nellore: The driver of a private school van, Yusuf, 68, was electrocuted when a snapped power cable landed on the bus at Venkatagiri on Friday. Luckily, the 30 students travelling in the school bus had a providential escape. He was forced to deviate from the normal route and enter a small lane when a tractor was stranded on the way. The deceased is survived by his wife, three daughters and a son.

PCR van catches fire; two policemen escape unhurt in Delhi

Two Delhi Police personnel had a narrow escape today when the PCR van they were travelling in caught fire, police said.

Man falls into Tirumala valley, survives a week

Tirupati, Aug 29: It was a providential escape for Ramagopal Srinivas, 29, who survived for a week in the leopard-infested Avvachari Kona valley before being rescued on Sunday.

Mr Srinivas, an insurance agent from Brodipet in Guntur, was on his way to Tirumala on Monday last when he stopped at a viewing point to admire the sylvan surroundings. After a while, he walked to one side to relieve him

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Why praise jugaad? It’s bleeding us

Even the most passionate upholders of ‘national pride’ don’t deny that the arrangements for October’s Commonwealth Games are in a mess. Some feel that the chaos will persist till the closing ceremony and puncture India’s pretensions of being perceived as a rising power. The optimists have a different take. Yes, they agree, the authorities entrusted with the responsibility of showcasing India have underperformed. But there is a nagging faith that at the end of the day, Indian jugaad will salvage national honour. Using the imagery of sports minister M S Gill, they pray that this "Punjabi wedding" will also have a celebratory ending.

Gill may well be right. Delhi is witnessing a last-minute Botox treatment to conceal all its ugly creases. Mountains of debris are being relocated to places foreigners don’t venture; makeshift drains are being bored into newly built roads and flyovers; and traffic planning now includes the suggestion that car owners should consider a fortnight’s leave from the capital.

If Swaminathan Aiyar’s gushing praise of jugaad on this page is to be believed, it is this ingenuity that marks India out from monochromatic civilizations. It is an attribute that saw Indians through the bad old days of socialist austerity and mismanagement. From the humble housewife who recycled the metal foil on milk bottles for scrubbing utensils to the businessman who applied creative accountancy to skirt punitive taxation, the mind space of India was hogged by jugaad.  Where the creativity of developed countries was spent on improving the system, Indian energy was expended on trying to beat a cruel and uncaring world. That is what jugaad was all about — attempts to reinvent the wheel without the help of carpentry tools and, in some cases, either metal or wood. It was all about being compelled to study from ‘guide books’ and ‘notes’ because more worthwhile study material wasn’t available in the bookshops and libraries.

That India came out of the nightmare of socialism with body and soul broadly intact and hungry for new opportunities had a lot to do with jugaad.  As with Robinson Crusoe, jugaad helped us tide over the bad times.  

Unfortunately, there was a flip side to our ability to inveigle our way through adversity. Jugaad has also scarred India. It has prompted a celebration of expediency, shortcuts and shoddiness. It has created a penchant for taking a winding course where a straight road should suffice. Once the escape route from hell, jugaad has now become an obstacle to India realizing its true potential.

Take an everyday example. Go to a shop looking for a piece of equipment or a spare. The shopkeeper invariably asks: "Company made or local?" Ideally we should opt for the sturdy and the enduring but if the purchase is left to a contractor, he will buy the ‘local’ (which could well be ‘Made in China’) and charge for the ‘company made’. It’s a patchwork solution and leads to the long-term problem of inefficiency, not to mention opportunity costs.

This is precisely what has happened to many CWG projects. A road is upgraded only for the authorities to discover that there is no provision for drainage pipes or underground cables. It is then re-dug, the missing features installed and a new, makeshift road built that will endure till the last plane load of visitors to the games leaves Delhi. This is what jugaad has come to mean in today’s cash-rich India: a patchwork arrangement for the very short-term, a grey market of deceit. It is no longer frugal technology at work; the shoddiness is akin to what the inimitable Duke of Edinburgh once decried as "installed by an Indian electrician". The handiwork of jugaad is both mocking and bleeding India.

We can no longer afford to be beguiled merely by the cute and the exotic: the washing machine being used as milk churner and the old tyres that end up as shoe soles. Jugaad has come to symbolize not merely improvisation but the irregular and the slapdash. The proverbial ‘chalta hai’ attitude is dangerously close to becoming the national philosophy. Merely laughing it off because "we are like this only" won’t help India’s quest to be taken seriously.

Crown prince Rahul cannily turns left

Has Rahul Gandhi launched a campaign against Congress? More precisely, has the heir presumptive, affectionately dubbed a modern Lord Krishna by his more fervent fans, begun to undermine the Congress establishment, at the pinnacle of which sits Manmohan Singh and his home minister P Chidambaram?

This makes some political sense. Having milked the right-of-centre to the point of exhaustion, the Rahul Congress is steering towards left-of-centre. Meanings, of course, have changed. As the centre has shifted in the last two decades, ‘right’ and ‘left’ have moved along with it. ‘Left’ now represents populism, rather than ideology.  Marx died in the 1990s and even his ghost cannot escape from the effective burial given by comrades Mikhail Gorbachev and Deng Xiaoping.

The sabotage of big-ticket investment in order to fence the tribal vote in Orissa is only part of the developing story. The official catechism describes Naxalites as the biggest threat to India. If Chidambaram had his way, the air force would be bombing them. He must be a bit deflated at the sight of Lado Sikoka, a Naxal, preceding Rahul Gandhi at an Orissa public meeting around the same time that Manmohan Singh was urging, from a dais in Delhi, police chiefs to fight the good fight against Maoists. Sikoka had been arrested by this police on August 9 and beaten up, before being released so that he could welcome Rahul Gandhi with a garland at Niyamgiri.

It has always been clear to Delhi insiders that Digvijay Singh opened a front against Chidambaram with Rahul Gandhi’s permission. Outsiders now have confirmation. Since politics has very marginal room for sentiment, Chidambaram could become the first casualty in a Rahul Gandhi cabinet. It would be a sad end to a fizzing career were Chidambaram to end up as governor of Chhattisgarh, the better to counsel his supporters in the BJP on how to tackle Naxalites without help from the air force. Indeed, it cannot have been very helpful to our ambitious home minister that the most laudatory references now come from BJP leaders. Perhaps he raised the issue of "saffron terror" to pick up some long overdue brownie points from his own side.

No prizes for guessing who would become home minister in a Rahul Gandhi government.

The ultimate success for a ruling party is that delicious bipolar ability to occupy both government and opposition space. The British in India perfected the art of functioning through a loyal opposition. The Muslim League was so loyal that not a single League leader went to jail during the three decades of our independence movement. The Congress tended to be less loyal, but always recognized limits, until Mahatma Gandhi liberated the Congress and enough Indians from either fear or temptation. One cannot think of a Congress leader who did not go to jail.

Democracy, but naturally, induced a variant. Jawaharlal Nehru ignored the feeble right and absorbed the non-communist left into the Congress in periodic stages. His own leftist credentials were impeccable, which helped.

Indira Gandhi artfully split the left and right, until the Emergency united the rest against Congress. Their common antipathy lasted, more or less, until the NDA gave Congress and the left common cause. The new element is the sudden implosion of the Left in Bengal, which threatens to convert vacant space into a vacuum.  Even as Congress and Mamata Banerjee seek to destroy the CPM, they know the value of Marxist sentiment in the country’s polity.

It is axiomatic that a largely impoverished nation needs a political party that the poor can identify with. The Congress has set out to be the party of the poor in daytime, and of the rich at night. Its sunlight politics will fetch votes, its twilight policies will enable it to govern. This is an extremely clever act whose opening scenes are being played out for a new generation that is vague about Indira Gandhi and amnesiac about Nehru. The hero of this drama must have the charisma to dazzle the poor and the flexibility to keep the rich onside. That is the challenge before Rahul Gandhi. His avowed role is to be the guardian of the poor in Delhi, which means that the poor need protection from Delhi. He is at home with the elite in the evening and is now making the effort to capture the sunshine hours.

However, regional parties have been there, done that. They continue to do so. Naveen Patnaik understands the trap of governance. He has been forced to take a position on one side or the other of the day-night constituencies; and he does not have a Manmohan Singh to play the foil. Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee could not manage this contradiction, but others have learnt. Patnaik, Nitish Kumar, Mayawati or Chandrababu Naidu will not be pushovers.

Paradox and problem intersect in any country; India’s size and potential make the challenge more complex. We will see whether Congress has the agility to use power to transfer power to yet another generation.

Bird-hit city flight lands safe

Bhubaneswar, Aug. 28: At least 140 passengers and crew members onboard a Delhi-bound IndiGo Airlines flight had miraculous escape on

Saturday when the flight made an emergency landing at the Biju Patnaik Airport here after it was hit by a bird minutes after its takeoff.

“All the140 passengers and the crew onboard

6E-260 Hyderabad-Bhubaneswar-New Delhi flight had a safe landing,” Mr

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Are the people a liability?

Much as it was loathe to the idea, in the end, the government had to strike out the contentious clause from the Nuclear Liability Bill that offered an escape route to suppliers in the event of a nuclear disaster. It had no choice. On all three occasions that it tried to shamelessly shield suppliers by stealthily tweaking key words in the Bill to exempt them from liability it was caught red handed by a justifiably suspicious and alert Opposition. In its amended form the Bill breaks fresh ground. Unlike other nuclear liability conventions around the world it channelizes liability to the supplier and not just to the operator of a nuclear power facility. Clause 17(b) of the Nuclear Liability Bill therefore reads that if an accident “has resulted as a consequence of an act of supplier or his employee, which includes supply of equipment or material with patent or latent defects or sub-standard services,” the operator can sue the supplier for recovery of any damages paid. More importantly there is no need for the supplier to agree to this term in a contract or to have intentionally caused an accident – it’s a given. The clamour to make the supplier equally liable has its origins in the Bhopal experience, where by all accounts, a ‘pliant’ government shielded the supplier – U.S multi-national Union Carbide – from liability under American pressure. The current Bill will make it impossible for anyone to resort to subterfuge in an attempt to dodge their responsibility because it forces the suppliers and operators to pay immediately after an accident even before the compensation claim is decided in court.

Aside from ensuring that each and every participant in the nuclear supply chain remains on their toes to guarantee exemplary service, the sad reality is that the Nuclear Liability Bill is a much needed  guarantee against our own political masters hawking the public interest to the highest bidder. That our political masters in government would have thought nothing about compromising the public interest once again was amply demonstrated by what the opposition called ‘sneaky’ manner in which the government tried to ‘hustle’ the Bill through by tweaking clauses to benefit the suppliers, which would inevitably have been foreign companies. For a while the government’s attitude seemed to suggest that it considered the very people whose interests it was supposed to be defending the real ‘liability’.

The howls of protest the amended Nuclear Liability Bill has drawn from big industry is indicative of the pressure the government must have been under to safeguard corporate interests. The argument that by making operators equally liable the Nuclear Liability Bill makes the cost of doing business in India’s nuclear sector prohibitive is slightly exaggerated. The liability cap of Rs 1500 crore set forth in the Nuclear Liability Bill pales in comparison to the Rs 92,000 crore British Petroleum (BP) has been forced to reportedly place into a ‘ring-fenced account’ to meet escalating compensation costs in the wake of the Gulf of Mexico oil spill disaster. Has the claim driven other oil majors to put their investment plans on hold? The logic of criticising the Nuclear Liability Bill because it places long term public interest on par with commercial interests is perverse. It’s as absurd as demanding the scrapping of  legislation that makes it mandatory to print statutory health warnings on cigarette packs because it brings down sales and serves as a disincentive to other companies looking to enter the space. If anything, by specifying the liability on suppliers of nuclear material the government has cleared most ambiguity regarding compensation claims. In the final analysis this will only help corporations to factor-in the costs of doing business in what is touted to be a $150 billion nuclear power sector.   

Mental cracks begin to show among Chile miners

COPIAPO, Chile – Five of the miners trapped underground in Chile for months to come are struggling psychologically, officials said Friday, as engineers prepared to start drilling an escape shaft.

Rains trigger landslide on Indrakeeladri

Devotees on their way to the Sri Kanakadurga temple on the Indrakeeladri had a providential escape after a landslide resulted in a rain of debris on the Ghat Road leading to the temple.

Authorities heaved a sigh of relief as no casualties were reported, even though boulders fell down on the ghat road.

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Survivor tells of escape from Mexican massacre in which 72 were left dead (Guardian)

? Ecuadorian says gunmen shot 72 Central Americans? Hostages ‘refused to pay ransoms or to be hitmen’Gunmen massacred 72 kidnapped migrants at a remote ranch in northeastern Mexico after they refused to either pay a ransom for their release or take jobs as hitmen, according to local media reports.Officials have refused to confirm or deny this version of the events behind the shocking discovery by the Mexican navy of the bodies of 58 men and 14 women. A navy statement gave no information on the identity of the victims.Local newspapers, however, quoted a wounded man who claims to be the lone survivor of the slaughter at the ranch in the state of Tamaulipas, 93 miles from the US border.According to the Reforma newspaper the survivor, an Ecuadorian, said he was among a group of mostly Central American economic migrants abducted by armed men as they crossed Mexico heading to the US in search of work.He said they were taken to the ranch by the gunmen, who shot them after they refused to pay ransoms. The witness reportedly said he was left for dead and later escaped, finding his way to a navy checkpoint nearby.A different version of the survivor’s story, published by the Tamaulipas-based website En Linea Directa, said the captors opened fire after the migrants refused jobs as hitmen for a monthly salary of $2,000.Both publications carried pictures of the migrant in a hospital bed, reportedly receiving treatment for bullet wounds.According to the official statement, the navy mounted an operation to secure the ranch after a man approached a checkpoint seeking medical help for a gunshot wound. A marine and three gunmen died in the ensuing battle. A fourth gunman was arrested but an unspecified number escaped in vehicles. A search of the ranch revealed a big arsenal, along with bulletproof vests and camouflage uniforms.The federal government categorically condemns the barbarous acts committed by organised criminals, the navy said. All of society should condemn these kind of acts that illustrate the necessity to continue combatting crime with all the force of the Mexican state in order to obtain the peace demanded by Mexicans.Felipe Calderón, Mexico’s president, launched a military-led offensive to rein in rampant organised crime cartels as soon as he took office in December 2006. Spiralling violence since that date has killed more than 28,000 people, according to official figures.While the cartels are well known for their involvement in drug trafficking, and their struggle to control smuggling routes and local drug markets, they have branched out into other forms of organised crime in recent years ? including mass kidnappings of Central American migrants.Migrants’ rights activists complain that the Mexican authorities have largely ignored the problem.The phenomenon is particularly associated with a cartel called Los Zetas, known for its paramilitary discipline and particularly brutal tactics.MexicoEcuadorJo Tuckmanguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds

Chile sets sight on escape shaft for trapped miners (Reuters)

COPIAPO, Chile (Reuters) – Rescue workers prepared on Tuesday to install a drill to dig an escape shaft for 33 miners — trapped for 19 days deep in a Chilean mine — who may not see the light of day until Christmas.

Nicol Tamang traceless

There was no trace of Nicol Tamang, prime accused in the murder of All India Gorkha League president Madan Tamang, after his escape from CID custody from Pintail village, near Siliguri today.

Murder Convict’s Escape From Yerawada

The state prisons department, Pune, has sought an eight-day extension to complete the inquiry into the escape of murder convict Balasaheb Bajaba Pawar (26) from the Yerawada central jail.

Hills braces for fresh spell of turmoil

Gorkha Janmukti Morcha (GJM) leader Nicole Tamang’s escape drama has snowballed into a political war. And once again, the Hills people are scared of an unrest.

First Drive: 2011 Ford Edge

First Drive: 2011 Ford Edge

More swagger, more substance.

It’s tempting to forget about the Ford Edge. After all, the Blue Oval’s exhaustive lineup of crossovers includes far cooler (Flex) and more capable (new Explorer) offerings. A quick gander at the sales chart, however, reveals that the Edge is Ford’s second best-selling crossover/SUV, trailing only the fleet-favorite Escape.

Photo Gallery: First Drive: 2011 Ford Edge – Automobile Magazine

Photo Gallery: First Drive: 2011 Ford Edge – Automobile Magazine

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Google CEO: Change Your Name to Escape our Watchful Eye

Google is often accused of behaving like Big Brother, and Google’s CEO Eric Schmidt isn’t doing much to dispel those perceptions. In fact, in an interview with the Wall Street Journal, Schmidt dropped an interesting — and frightening — tidbit: perhaps people should change their names upon reaching adulthood to eradicate the potentially reputation-damaging search records Google keeps.

Murder convict escapes from Yerawada prison

A hacksaw blade and a string of iron pipes tightly secured to each other with a hook at one end were all that this murder convict needed to make a daring and seemingly impossible escape from the high-security Yerawada central prison in the early hours of Monday

Kate Moss eyes plot on Italian island of Stromboli (DNA)

The 36-year-old model feels that the volcanic island is a perfect escape.

Kabul’s frustrated expats run the streets

KABUL, Aug 15, 2010 (AFP) – The group of foreigners jogging past mounds of fetid trash on the streets of Kabul attract bemused stares from locals, but the brief escape from bulletproof cars is a welcome break for ex-pats living in war-torn A…

Train to Namkhana jumps tracks at Lake Gardens

Commuters on a Namkhana-bound EMU local from Majerhat had a narrow escape after one of the coaches jumped the tracks near the Lake Gardens station.

Kolkata: It’s a bad time for the railways and its passengers…

Passenger train derails, all safe

Commuters on board the Guntur bound Secunderabad-Guntur Passenger had a miraculous escape when the train’s engine derailed early on Thursday morning.

According to railway officials, the incident took place near the Jedcharla railway station, even as the train was slowing down to pull into the platform.

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Bhopal gas leak: Arjun blames Rao, clears Rajiv Gandhi

Arjun Singh appeared to blame the late P V Narasimha Rao for the escape of former Union Carbide chief Warren Anderson after the Bhopal gas disaster in 1984. Singh said Anderson was directly responsible for the disaster.

All not well with child welfare body: Members

If Saturday’s escape of five children from Apna Ghar is an indication that the working of the state-run home for children needs to be reviewed, here’s more startling information.

Australian man survives 12,700-volt shock

An electric pole surveyor in Australia had a miraculous escape when he suffered only partial burns on being hit by a power surge of 12,700 volts.

Off-road Driving Rally Completes Diamond Run

It was a ‘diamond’ moment for Mahindra vehicle owners as the 60th edition of the Mahindra Great Escape, one of India’s most loved off-roading adventures, concluded successfully in Goa on Saturday.

GM Plants Escape Into American Wild

Genetically modified plants in the wild could lead to a farmer’s nightmare: pesticide-resistant weeds.

Sharad copter forced to land

Just a month after Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar had a narrow escape while flying in a helicopter with its doors open, JD(U) national president Sharad Yadav on Thursday had a close shave when his

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Close shave for Sharad Yadav as snag hits chopper

JD(U) president Sharad Yadav, a Bihar minister and two IAS officials had a narrow escape as a private chopper flying them had to make an emergency landing in a field at Jaganpura, minutes after takeoff from Patna airport.

Close shave for Sharad as chopper lands in field

JD(U) president Sharad Yadav, a Bihar minister and two IAS officials had a narrow escape as a private chopper flying them had to make an emergency landing in a field at Jaganpura.

Couple escapes unhurt as car falls into 150-metre cliff

A German couple had a miraculous escape with only minor injuries after their car swerved off the road and plummeted 150 metres down a cliff in Australia’s Victoria state.

The two tourists were travelling along the Northern Grampians Road at Zumsteins, when the 30-year-old woman driver lost control and the car tipped over the cliff at about 3 pm on Wednesday, the Herald Sun reported.

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717 convicts used parole as escape route in state

Since 1973, as many as 717 prisoners in the state did not turn up to surrender after their parole and furlough period had expired, a list drawn up by the state prisons department here has revealed.

How to Survive a Landslide

Approximately 8000 people a year are killed by landslides worldwide.^[1] Surviving a landslide or debris flow (mudslide) is dependent on you being awake at the time of its occurrence, and aware of what is happening. Should you find yourself in the midst of a landslide, there are things that you can do to increase your chances of survival, as outlined in the following steps.

Steps

Staying alert for the possibility

1. 

   Understand what constitutes a landslide. In a landslide, masses of rock, earth, or debris move down a slope. Landslides may be small or large, slow or rapid. They are activated by storms, earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, fires, and hu­man modification of land.

   • Debris and mud flows are rivers of rock, earth, and other debris saturated with water. They develop when water rapidly accumulates in the ground, during heavy rainfall or rapid snowmelt, changing the earth into a flowing river of mud or “slurry.”
   • They can flow rapidly, striking with little or no warning at avalanche speeds. They can travel several miles from their source, growing in size as they pick up trees, boulders, cars, and other materials.
2. Be aware of your environs at all times. Whether you live in an area prone to landslides, or you are traveling in such an area, it is important to note the local geological features and be aware of the potential for a landslide. Things to note around you include:
   • Changes to the normal activity on your landscape, such as patterns of storm-water drainage on slopes (especially the places where runoff water converges) land movement, small slides, flows, or progressively leaning trees.
   • Doors or windows stick or jam for the first time.
   • New cracks appear in plaster, tile, brick, or foundations.
   • Outside walls, walks, or stairs begin pulling away from the building.
   • Slowly developing, widening cracks appear on the ground or on paved areas such as streets or driveways.
   • Underground utility lines break.
   • Bulging ground appears at the base of a slope.
   • Water breaks through the ground surface in new locations.
   • Fences, retaining walls, utility poles, or trees tilt or move.
   • The ground slopes downward in one direction and may begin shifting in that direction under your feet.
   • Unusual sounds, such as trees cracking or boulders knocking together, might indicate moving debris. A trickle of flowing or falling mud or debris may precede larger landslides. Moving debris can flow quickly and sometimes without warning.
   • A faint rumbling sound that increases in volume is noticeable as the landslide nears.
   • Collapsed pavement, mud, fallen rocks, and other indications of possible debris flow can be seen when driving (embankments along roadsides are particularly susceptible to landslides).
3. Stay alert and awake. If there are any of the above indicators in your area, do not go to sleep. Many debris-flow fatalities occur when people are sleeping. Listen to a weather radio or a portable, battery-powered radio or television, for warnings of intense rainfall.
   • Be aware that intense, short bursts of rain may be particularly dangerous, especially after longer periods of heavy rainfall and damp weather.
4. 

   Consider leaving. If you are in areas susceptible to landslides and debris flows, consider leaving if it is safe to do so.

   • Shift vulnerable people immediately to safer areas, as a precaution.

During a landslide

1. If you remain or are caught suddenly at home, move to a second story if possible. Staying out of the path of a landslide or debris flow saves lives.
2. 

   If you are near a stream or channel, be alert for any sudden increase or decrease in water flow and for a change from clear to muddy water. Such changes may indicate landslide activity upstream, so be prepared to move quickly. Don’t delay! Save yourself, not your belongings.

3. 

   Be especially alert if you are driving. Embankments along roadsides are particularly susceptible to landslides. Watch the road for collapsed pavement, mud, fallen rocks, and other indications of possible debris flows.

   • A landslide can completely engulf a car on a road that is in its path.
4. Whenever you are in the path of a landslide or debris flow, move away as quickly as possible. If escape is not possible, curl into a tight ball and protect your head with your hands or a helmet.

After a landslide

The danger is not over after a landslide has passed through. It may not be the only landslide, and there will be a lot of damage left in the wake of the landslide that can present hazards. There are a number of things that you should do to minimize the danger.

1. 

   Obey safety warnings

   Stay away from the slide area. There may be danger of additional slides.

2. Check for injured and trapped persons near the slide, without entering the direct slide area. Direct rescuers to their locations.
3. Watch for associated dangers such as broken electrical, water, gas, and sewage lines and damaged roadways and railways.
4. 

   Return home with care. If you left your property or home to go to safer ground, be very careful when you return. Things to consider include:

   • Understanding that returning home can be both physically and mentally challenging. Above all, use caution.
   • Keep a battery-powered radio with you so you can listen for emergency up­dates and news reports.
   • Use a battery-powered flash light to inspect a damaged home. The flashlight should be turned on outside before entering—the bat­tery may produce a spark that could ignite leaking gas, if present.
   • Watch out for animals, especially poisonous snakes. Use a stick to poke through debris.
   • Use the phone only to report life-threatening emergencies.
   • Stay off the streets. If you must go out, watch for fallen objects, downed elec­trical wires, and weakened walls, bridges, roads, and sidewalks.
5. Walk carefully around the outside and check for loose power lines, gas leaks, and structural damage. If you have any doubts about safety, have your residence in­spected by a qualified building inspector or structural engineer before entering.
6. Do not enter your home if:
   • You smell gas.
   • Floodwaters remain around the building.
   • Your home was damaged by fire and the authorities have not declared it safe.
7. Consider long-term repairs. To avert the future possibility of a dangerous landslide, there are some additional things that can help:
   • Replant damaged ground as soon as possible since erosion caused by loss of ground cover can lead to flash flooding and additional landslides in the near future.
   • Seek advice from a geotechnical expert for evaluating landslide hazards or designing corrective techniques to reduce landslide risk.

Video

Tips

• If you suspect danger of a landslide contact your local fire, police, or public works department. Local officials are the best persons able to assess potential danger.
• The variety of possible landslides is wide, and it can help to understand the different possibilities when familiarizing yourself with the landscape. Some types of landslide include:
  • 

    Rockfall

    

    Creep

  • 

    Topple

    

    Avalanche

  • 

    Debris flow

Warnings

• Landslides are extremely dangerous, so it is far better to evacuate immediately if you suspect imminent danger than to ponder the potential.

Things You’ll Need

• Safe area to escape to
• Radio or media access to remain informed

Related wikiHows

• How to React During an Earthquake
• How to Know Naturally when Earthquake Will Strike
• How to Prepare for an Earthquake
• How to Call 911
• How to Pack an Emergency Kit for the House
• How to Protect Your Home During an Earthquake
• How to Help Your Community Prepare for an Earthquake

Sources and Citations

• FEMA, http://www.fema.gov/hazard/landslide/ls_during.shtm FEMA Some information adapted from the FEMA website, a government public domain resource.

• Read on wikiHow
• Email this Article
• Edit
• Discuss


Posted: August 4th, 2010
at 12:42am by Arif

Tagged with activity, are, Area, avalanche, ball, base, boulders, brick, building, Bulging, car, change, channel, Collapsed, damage, danger, debris, debris flow, direction, doors, Drainage, driveways, Earth, Earthquakes, Embankments, engulf, environs, escape, fences, flow, Gas, geological features, ground, Head, helmet, home, hu­man, increase, land, Landscape, landslide, landslides, lot, midst, modification, move, move down, movement, mud, Muddy, mudslide, new cracks, number, Obey, occurrence, OWS, path, paved areas, Pavement, Plaster, possibility, potential, precaution, radio, rain, rainfall, rapid snowmelt, RIVER, road, rock, runoff, runoff water, Safety, several miles, Shift, size, slide, slope, Slowly, slurry, snowmelt, sound, source, stay, Staying, storm water drainage, story, stream, surface, survival, television, tile, Time, trickle, Underground, underground utility lines, Understand, Unusual, utility, volume, wake, Warning, Watch, water, weather, Widening, worldwide, year




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2011 Kia Sportage

The Basics: We used to call them “cute-utes.” From the Ford Escape, to the Honda CR-V on to the Hyundai Tucson and Kia Sportage, a generation of small sport-utility vehicles were pitched at first-time shoppers in the hopes they’d trade up to bigger, higher-profit SUVs in the future. Now that the SUV time-space continuum’s been disrupted by gas…

Nepal court rejects ‘bikini killer’ appeal

KATHMANDU, July 31, (AFP): Nepal’s Supreme Court rejected Friday an appeal against a murder conviction by Charles Sobhraj, the alleged serial killer, con man and prison escape artist linked to backpacker deaths in Asia. Sobhraj, a French citizen of V…

Sucker Punch – Official Trailer [HD]

	Sucker Punch – Official Trailer [HD] Release Date: 25 March 2011 Genre: Action | Fantasy Cast: Jon Hamm, Vanessa Hudgens, Jamie Chung, Abbie Cornish Director: Zack Snyder Writers: Zack Snyder, Steve Shibuya Studio: Warner Brothers Plot: A young girl is institutionalized by her wicked stepfather. Retreating to an alternative reality as a coping strategy, she envisions a plan which will help her escape from the facility. Subscribe Now: http://www.youtube.com/subscription_center?add_user=trailers	From: trailers Views: 303 58 ratings
	Time: 01:30	More in Entertainment

Sucker Punch – Official Comic Con Trailer [HD]

	Sucker Punch – Official Comic Con Trailer [HD] Release Date: 25 March 2011 Genre: Action | Fantasy Cast: Jon Hamm, Vanessa Hudgens, Jamie Chung, Abbie Cornish Director: Zack Snyder Writers: Zack Snyder, Steve Shibuya Studio: Warner Brothers Plot: A young girl is institutionalized by her wicked stepfather. Retreating to an alternative reality as a coping strategy, she envisions a plan which will help her escape from the facility. Subscribe Now: http://www.youtube.com/subscription_center?add_user=trailers	From: trailers Views: 303 56 ratings
	Time: 01:30	More in Entertainment

No records of Rajiv’s phone calls after Bhopal gas leak: PMO

The mystery about who facilitated the escape of Union Carbide chief Warren Anderson’s from the country after the Bhopal gas tragedy, may never be solved.

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