Poll of the Day > At least 461 confirmed dead in Sierra Leone mudslide.

(+) Yeah! (+)

https://www.upi.com/Top_News/World-News/2017/08/19/At-least-461-now-confirmed-dead-in-Sierra-Leone-mudslide/9341503153773/

Aug. 19 (UPI) -- At least 461 people are now confirmed dead in a mudslide this week in Sierra Leone, with the number of the dead expected to rise.

President Ernest Bai Koroma attended a mass burial for the victims, about a third of which were children, at a cemetery outside Freetown as the Red Cross said about 600 people remained missing.

"Bodies are still coming," a morgue official told the Telegraph.

A night of heavy rain on Monday in the town of Regent caused the widespread flooding and mudslides that swept away homes and ultimately resulted in hundreds of deaths throughout the week.

Presidential spokesman Abdulai Bayraytay said about 20,000 people have been displaced by the mudslides, including 5,000 children.

Some residents have reported skin infections from the water they have been washing in and the country also faces other medical threats in the form of cholera and malaria.

Deputy Health Minister Madina Rahman pleaded for international support, telling CNN that Sierra Leone is unable to handle the crisis alone.

"The number of people dead is changing every day," she said. "We have just done a census recently, and we are working with the statistics office to see how many people are on that site and how many people are unaccounted for and how many people were dead and buried."

Evacuations are being prepared in other hillside areas, as authorities expect more heavy rain that could cause additional landslides.

"Evacuation is being discussed. Some have been happening but not on a large scale," Cultural Affairs Minister Sidie Yahya Tunis said. "At this point, more hands are needed on deck, both locally and internationally. The gravity is huge, and the magnitude is just so much for this nation to handle. I pray that other countries will come in to assist."

Citizens offered private donations of food, clothing and other items, while the United Kingdom offered an initial $6.4 million emergency support to provide clean drinking water, food and medicine through UNICEF.

In case anybody was wondering, it's a country in west Africa

https://www.google.com/maps/place/Sierra+Leone/data=!4m2!3m1!1s0xf0106183aabf343:0x5369e9cdc72cf719?sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiYps-L4ebVAhWF3YMKHR1dAXsQ8gEIoAEwEw
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Amount of breaks caught by Africa: zero.

I'd like to see them sorted out before I die, or at least mostly. That is just a continent of tragedy.
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Terrible.

Um if I get buried in a mudslide just leave my body there. No reason to scoop me out and then then re-bury me again somewhere else.

That is just silly
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TheCyborgNinja posted...

Amount of breaks caught by Africa: zero.

I'd like to see them sorted out before I die, or at least mostly. That is just a continent of tragedy.

Well, most of the countries are underdeveloped which is a large part of the problem. Improved infrastructure can prevent some of these tragedies. Ebola, one of the other big problems to plague western Africa, usually results from interactions with infected bats; a wildlife management system would cut down on that.
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Also underdeveloped countries that tend to have things like corruption and long standing cronyism so nothing ever gets done to improve infrastructure. So yeah it sucks not just for Africa but any other country with the same symptoms (ie., Cuba).
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Ban mud
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TheCyborgNinja posted...

Amount of breaks caught by Africa: zero.

I'd like to see them sorted out before I die, or at least mostly. That is just a continent of tragedy.

It never will.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LqO7zlGHEJ4
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KnoxKorner posted...

TheCyborgNinja posted...

Amount of breaks caught by Africa: zero.

I'd like to see them sorted out before I die, or at least mostly. That is just a continent of tragedy.

It never will.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LqO7zlGHEJ4

tbh, I have heard a lot of horror stories on the difficulties of trying to establish businesses in developing African countries. Some kind of cultural thing. Imagine nations with more structure before industrialization have an easier go of things.
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Zeus posted...

KnoxKorner posted...

TheCyborgNinja posted...

Amount of breaks caught by Africa: zero.

I'd like to see them sorted out before I die, or at least mostly. That is just a continent of tragedy.

It never will.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LqO7zlGHEJ4

tbh, I have heard a lot of horror stories on the difficulties of trying to establish businesses in developing African countries. Some kind of cultural thing. Imagine nations with more structure before industrialization have an easier go of things.

Watch the documentary Empire of Dust. Sub Sahara Africa is a prime example when you take a undeveloped people, try to uplift them, then suddenly be forced to leave, leaving the natives to their own devices.

As soon as the colonial powers left the natives either destroyed or sold all the equipment needed to keep the country going for a quick monetary gain, then faced massive issues due to this.

Rhodesia now Zimbabwe was known as the breadbasket of Africa. Due to its soil quality, aquifers, and position it was capable of nearly a endless growing and harvest season. But the west couldn't accept a white colonial power in Africa and cut off all support, meanwhile Soviet backed insurgents lead a bush war against the country for years.

What ultimately happened was the country ended up in the hands of scumbags, and ran into the ground. A country that was known for high production farming is now known for starvation, and hyper inflation.

https://diasporabrazil.org/uploads/images/8b19190c95322b210090.png

http://www.newsweek.com/zimbabwe-president-robert-mugabe-white-farmers-651326
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