Poll of the Day > Death toll rises to 140 in wake of massive Bangladesh landslides.

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https://weather.com/news/news/bangladesh-mudslides-monsoon-season

At least 140 people were killed in landslides that struck southeastern Bangladesh following heavy rainfall, officials said Wednesday.

Rescuers struggled Wednesday to reach villages hit by the massive landslides.

Military spokesman Rezaul Karim said several soldiers were killed while clearing debris and mud from a highway. Five injured soldiers were flown to a military hospital in Dhaka.

"Two officers and two soldiers have died, and two others remain missing in the incident," Karim said by telephone.

To clear paths for rescue workers, villagers joined firefighters and soldiers in cutting fallen trees and clearing mud and debris unleashed by the landslides Tuesday in five hilly districts. But rescuers have been unable to get heavy machinery to the remote areas to help dig through the debris, military spokesman Rezaul Karim said.

"We are using speedboats to reach some of the affected spots. It is almost impossible to reach many of the affected places by road," said Shah Kamal, secretary of the Ministry of Disaster Management.

Scores of people were injured and the death toll could rise, according to local reports. Police and soldiers were struggling to deliver aid to the most remote areas.

Officials would not say whether there were people still missing, even as the death toll doubled overnight and more districts were reportedly hit by the landslides.

Some villagers were taking refuge in government shelters, but officials could not say how many. With cellphone services and power cut off in the region, information was slow to trickle out.

One villager described living through a landslide that killed her three children as they slept early Tuesday, according to the newspaper Prothom Aloo.

Swapan Barua said he was trying to clear rainwater from his thatched-roof home when huge chunks of mud swept through, burying the children in their beds, according to the newspaper.

Four soldiers died when a mudslide smashed into them while they were trying to clear a blocked road in the remote Rangamati district on Tuesday, said army official Mohammed Redwan.

The worst-hit areas were in Rangamati district, where mostly tribal villagers live in small communities near a lake surrounded by hills. Officials reported 103 dead and at least 5,000 homes destroyed or damaged in Rangamati.

Another 28 were killed in the coastal Chittagong district, six died in Bandarban, two in Cox's Bazar and one in Khagrachhari.

The delta nation of Bangladesh is frequently hit by strong storms, torrential rains, flooding and landslides. But experts said this week's tragedy was also the result of uncontrolled denuding and soil harvesting in hills above where villagers had set up unplanned settlements.

Many people in hilly regions ignore authorities' calls to avoid constructing homes on slopes.

Bump?

WastelandCowboy posted...

Bump?

Meh.
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More people need to know about this.

bump
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if it aint the west we gon let it rest

WastelandCowboy posted...

More people need to know about this.

While it's a tragedy, it's not necessarily a relatable one so fewer people are going to be interested. Apartment fires are always a big thing because most people know at least one person who lives in an apartment, but mudslides aren't as big of a threat in first-world nations. Honestly, there many mass casualty environment issues each year just like this but most people barely note or remember them and, honestly, it'd be hard to keep track. There's too much suffering in the world for anybody to keep track.
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Aaantlion posted...

WastelandCowboy posted...

More people need to know about this.

While it's a tragedy, it's not necessarily a relatable one so fewer people are going to be interested. Apartment fires are always a big thing because most people know at least one person who lives in an apartment, but mudslides aren't as big of a threat in first-world nations. Honestly, there many mass casualty environment issues each year just like this but most people barely note or remember them and, honestly, it'd be hard to keep track. There's too much suffering in the world for anybody to keep track.

People may not remember all the "mass casualty environment issues", but they sure as hell remember issues that didn't directly affect them, but were within their own country because god-be-damned if they'll forget 9/11, Hurricane Katrina, the Japan earthquake/tsunami, the Colorado shootings, George Zimmerman, etc.

People like to nitpick what they care about because they only care about if it affects people of their own political affiliation, religion, race, ethnicity, etc. They couldn't give two shits if a couple hundred people died in some third-world country or of a minority.

WastelandCowboy posted...

Aaantlion posted...

WastelandCowboy posted...

More people need to know about this.

While it's a tragedy, it's not necessarily a relatable one so fewer people are going to be interested. Apartment fires are always a big thing because most people know at least one person who lives in an apartment, but mudslides aren't as big of a threat in first-world nations. Honestly, there many mass casualty environment issues each year just like this but most people barely note or remember them and, honestly, it'd be hard to keep track. There's too much suffering in the world for anybody to keep track.

People may not remember all the "mass casualty environment issues", but they sure as hell remember issues that didn't directly affect them, but were within their own country because god-be-damned if they'll forget 9/11, Hurricane Katrina, the Japan earthquake/tsunami, the Colorado shootings, George Zimmerman, etc.

People like to nitpick what they care about because they only care about if it affects people of their own political affiliation, religion, race, ethnicity, etc. They couldn't give two shits if a couple hundred people died in some third-world country or of a minority.

9/11 excluded, people remember the other things because they get coverage from time to time. If you're being reminded that this happened, you're going to remember it.

And, 9/11 excluded, people tend to remember stuff that happens in their own nation better. You phrase it in a quasi-sinister manner but, in all likelihood, the 140 killed by a mudslide in... umm.. damn, I needed to check the topic title already. At any rate, the people in Bangladesh will probably remember the 140, but nobody there will remember Katrina and, in all likelihood, not many people will remember Katrina in the US in another 20 years either. After all, Americans are already forgetting Hurricane Andrew because we've had numerous hurricanes since then. Likewise, Kip Kinkel made headlines but was later completely overshadowed by Columbine, Aurora, Sandy Hook, etc. There's always some new disaster around the corner.

However, it's worth noting that a country with similar problems will more likely remember certain problems happening elsewhere -- such as the apartment fire in London, the hotel fire in Dubai, etc; or London's subway bombing, France's multiple attacks, 9/11, etc (although, honestly speaking, 9/11 is one of those major events that's going to stay in peoples' minds for the next 50 years unless it gets overshadowed by a nuke going off in NYC). Problems you can't relate to are less likely to get remembered, largely because of the transitive property where recalling one event helps you remember others.

Also, amusingly enough, when I googled Bangladesh, the first results had nothing to do with the mudslide but instead some sports victory.

All of which is bearing in mind that I'm not trivializing the disaster itself, only why the reaction is going to be lower. Doubly so because there's not much you can directly blame. In a terror attack, you can point at terrorists. With the Flint water crisis, you can point at officials who didn't act fast enough. Katrina brought up infrastructure issues. I'm not even sure you can blame global warming for this one because that region has always had heavy rains iirc.
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