As emergencies break across the world and ACT begins to respond, members of ACT notify the rest of the alliance through an ACT Alert. Alerts are shared with the wider humanitarian community and the press as ACT begins an internationally coordinated emergency response.
ACT members prepare for basic shelter, clothes, household equipment and food assistance.
Assistance to IDP's, refugees and host communities in East and South Chad.
Some ACT Alliance members have established contacts with local ACT member and other partners, and an assessment of the needs is being made for the ACT Alliance response.
ACT forum members continue the emergency response and are drafting an appeal to support displaced people, returnees and malnourished children.
ACT members are assessing the situation and preparing to respond.
ACT members based in Goma plan an emergency response aimed at reducing the emerging risk of water-borne diseases caused by the eruption of the volcano Nyamulagira.
ACT members have carried out a joint assessment with the Department of Disaster and Preparedness of Malawi and other NGOs.
As of November 13, up to 24 people have died following a landslide at a village on high land in Same district, Kilimanjaro region, after four days of heavy rains.
ACT forum members in El Salvador are mapping the needs and preparing a common response, to include food, cooking utensils and hygiene kits.
ACT member the United Evangelical Lutheran Church in India (UELCI) is monitoring the situation for possible response.
ACT members (forums) in Nicaragua and Honduras are monitoring the situation and progress of the storm for possible response.
ACT members plan to provide assistance with food and non food items, water and sanitation, repair and upgrading of shelters and schools.
ACT members are assessing the situation and already responding with feeding programme, food and non food items.
ACT members Samoa Council of Churches and Tonga National Council of Churches, with assistance from other members in the area, are getting organized to provide relief assistance.
ACT members are responding by providing health care, food and non food items to affected families in Padang and Pariaman District.
ACT Forum members are assessing the situation and will respond mainly to specific needs of most vulnerable groups.
ACT members in Vietnam are assessing the situation and will most probably focus on early recovery and rehabilitation assistance (water/sanitation, shelters, livelihoods).
ACT members are assisting some of the affected families by providing food, drinking water, non food items, basic medicines and personal hygiene needs.
ACT member Lutheran World Federation (LWF) will provide clean drinking water and will assist with disinfection of sites with stagnant water, and mosquito control in Rosso area.
ACT members in Juba are responding to the drought situation in Eastern Equatoria and Jonglei State with transport and distribution of food.
The situation is being assessed and ACT members will respond in providing food and non food items to most of the affected people.
ACT members will respond in providing basic relief items to the affected IDP families in 10 districts.
ACT members are closely monitoring the potential need to respond to assist people displaced by flood waters in 150 villages.
ACT member Church World Service Pakistan/Afghanistan (CWS P/A) mobilizes relief response to assist families whose homes were torched by mobs.
Over the past month ACT members have been active in bringing water and food to the affected population, transporting persons in need of assistance, bringing information to the communities and supporting local organizations.
ACT member LWF will provide urgent relief to assist remote hill communities facing a health crisis created by a diarrhoea outbreak in Nepal.
About 400,000 people have been displaced in the state of Assam due to flash floods triggered by heavy rainfall.
ACT member Amity Foundation expects to target approximately 20,000 families or approximately 100,000 individuals in its response and is currently preparing a preliminary appeal.
Survivors in the affected area are now facing acute scarcity of food, safe drinking water and shelter. Diarrhoea may spread along with other water-borne diseases.
A magnitude 7.1 earthquake struck Honduras on its Atlantic coast at 2:24 am local time. The most affected regions are the Bahía islands, the harbor towns of La Ceiba, Trujillo and Puerto Cortés and the valley of Sula.
Cyclone Aila hit parts of coastal Bangladesh and eastern India on Monday 26 May, triggering tidal surges and flooding that have left millions of people marooned or to take refuge in temporary shelters.
ACT members respond immediately with 250 food packages and 190 shelter kits by this Monday to assist IDPs with available resources.
On 3rd April, fighting was re-ignited on a long-disputed section of the Thai-Cambodia border near Preah Vihear and is now escalating to the north-west province, leading to displacement of over 500 families, with numbers rising.
ACT mobilises urgent assistance to homeless earthquake survivors in worst affected areas of Sherzad district of Nangarhar Province.
The ACT has received an ACT Rapid Response Funding request for this emergency to deliver basic food, non-food items and medical assistance to 1054 households.
Latest estimates indicate that 49 communities are flooded and 10 are cut off, with 1,525 persons isolated. A total of 987 persons have sought refuge in 13 shelters. One death has been reported.
Initial reports indicate urgent need for basic items including food, utensils, candles, hygiene kits, mats and bedding, tarpaulins and tents and clothing to assist IDPs.
Church and other civil society organisation leaders have reported vicious attacks on women, men and children as well as burning and looting of fields and houses.
Ten million people risk going hungry in Kenya after harvests failed because of drought. The government declared a national emergency and lifted the import duty on maize until the next major harvest.
An earthquake of 6.2 on the Richter scale occurred in San Pedro de Poás, Alajuela, Costa Rica on 8 January.
The displaced population has no permanent shelter, nor food, or sanitary facilities, utensils, clean water, enough clothing and blankets.
A series of powerful tremors shook Manokwari, the capital of West Papua, on 4 January 2009, killing four people and destroying hundreds of buildings.
The second winter rain wave of 2008 in Colombia began in August and reached a critical point in October, creating a general emergency in the country.
In just under a year, more than 56,000 new arrivals have been registered leading to a serious crisis with lack of land and plots to settle the new arrivals, lack of essential non-food items.
Since 21 November heavy rainfall in the state of Santa Catarina in South Brazil caused flooding and affected close to 60 cities with more than 1.5 million people.
A LWS India team, already operational in the districts of Cuddalore and Nagapattinum, report that people in vulnerable areas are suffering from water logging in their improvised mud and thatch shelters.
An estimated 116 communities are currently isolated. Some of them do not have phone communication. This situation has made assessment of damage and needs as well as delivery of relief items difficult for first aid work teams.
Although the assessment process is not yet completed, initial information reveals severe damage of public services, roads, electricity poles, agricultural infrastructure, houses and property.
20,000 previously displaced people had to leave the Kibumba IDP camp to flee again as armed groups hampered their safe haven. Part of the population of Goma fled the town in fear of rebel invasion of the provincial capital.
An estimated 250,000 people have been displaced since the fighting intensified in August. The Geneva office of the UN World Food Programme reports that between 1.4 million and 2 million people are displaced in North Kivu.
The US Geological Survey reported on its website that an earthquake of magnitude 6.4 struck the area 60 km north-east of Quetta, at 5:10 am. People fled their houses in panic as the shocks hit Balochistan just before sunrise.
ACT International members of the alliance in Afghanistan are responding to assist vulnerable people affected by the serious food crisis and drought situation in Afghanistan.
Since the beginning of October, intense rains affected several parts in the Central America region.
ACT member the United Evangelical Lutheran Church in India reports that water levels in reservoirs are near to overflowing, roads are flooded, livestock killed and crops destroyed.
ACT members Churches Auxiliary for Social Action and Lutheran World Service-India are assisting displaced people living in fear of human rights abuses due to recent communal and ethnic violence in the States Orissa and Assam in India.
Floods and landslides triggered by incessant rain since September 19, 2008 have left more than 33 people dead in mid- and far-western regions of Nepal. Kailali, Kanchanpur and Doti districts have been severely affected.
On September 7, Hurricane Ike approached the eastern end of the Cuban island as a Category 4 storm with sustained winds of 215 km/h. Four people were killed by the storm, reports the Associated Press.
A few days after being struck by hurricane "Gustav", Haiti was unexpectedly hit without warning by the tropical storm Hanna on 1 September, as Hanna was expected to pass north of Haiti.
Most of the destruction has occurred along the 1,400-kilometre-long Dniestr River. Among the 35 people reported dead, five of them were children. Two people remain missing.
In general losses to housing, public infrastructure and agricultural production seem to be heavy. Several bridges are feared damaged and will thus complicate overland travel to reach the affected areas.
Heavy torrential rains since August 16 in the Gambella Regional States, Ethiopia have caused severe flooding, affecting thousands of people and destroying farmland and homes.
Fighting between Muslim separatist rebels and government troops in the southern Philippines escalated as peace talks between the rebels and the government crumbled.
More than 300 people are reported to have died in different parts of Andhra Pradesh and Orissa. People’s lives have been seriously affected with agriculture paddy crops submerged in water.
The flooding was caused due to the breach of an embankment along the western side of the Saptakoshi River. The flood was sudden and more than 50,000 people are affected. The number of people who are missing has yet to be ascertained.
Rajanpur District in Punjab was struck by recent heavy rains, which, along with hill torrents, have affected lives and property. Some 375,000 persons are believed to live in the flooded areas.
Hostilities between Russian and Georgian forces in the disputed region of South Ossetia, Georgia and bombing in and around the capital of Tbilisi and Gori has led to tens of thousands of people fleeing South Ossetia.
Since 23 July 2008 torrential rains have lashed Central and Eastern Europe including the most impoverished areas of Moldova where there are reports of heavy damage to crops, the principal source of income for the local population.
Heavy monsoon rains have created serious flood situations in various parts of Pakistan. On Monday, 4 August, heavy rains killed 30 people and destroyed thousands of homes in the North West Frontier Province (NWFP) of Pakistan.
Major rivers (Prut, Tisa, Suceava, Moldova and the great Siret) surged to their highest levels in more than a century, bursting their banks in many areas including the historical regions of Maramures and Bukovina situated on the border with Ukraine.
Heavy and incessant rainfall since June 16, 2008 has flooded many areas in the eastern states of Assam, Orissa and West Bengal leaving some 93 people dead and close to 2.7 million people affected.
Typhoon Fengshen battered the Philippines for two days, leaving at least 229 people dead with more than 700 people still missing after a passenger ferry capsized off the coast of Sibuyan Island in Romblon.
Continuous monsoon rains are causing misery to thousands of people across the south-western Sri Lanka. According to official figures, at least 20 people have died in the floods triggered by heavy rains and about 300,000 people have been affected.
The first tropical storm of the 2008 Eastern Pacific season, Alma, lashed the west coast of Costa Rica and Nicaragua with heavy rains and strong winds on Thursday 28 May 2008.
On May 24, 2008, a 5.5 magnitude earthquake hit the central-eastern region of Colombia. The earthquake affected 9,000 people, with 65 people injured and 14 deaths. Several hundred of houses were damaged and 40 buildings collapsed close to the epicenter.
A massive search and rescue operation is under way in China, after a 7.8 magnitude earthquake struck killing at least 12,000 people, according to the BBC. Information is sparse and the death toll is likely to rise.
Cyclone Nargis, the worst Asian cyclone since 1991, hit Myanmar (Burma) on May 2-3, 2008, triggering a storm surge and flooding in the five worst hit states, where more than half of Myanmar's 53 million people live.
Mauritania has a chronic food deficit with an average 70 percent of the food eaten being imported.
An LWF-ACT assessment team witnessed a new influx of refugees into the Chadian village called Maya at 800 meters from the Southern border of Chad.
Communities in Juba County in southern Sudan have abandoned their homes and converged on the villages of Wonduruba and Katigiri following looting by armed groups.
Extensive flooding is reported in many parts of the country and rivers have burst their banks. A substantial number of houses have collapsed and many villages have been washed away.
Tajikistan is experiencing its harshest winter in three decades with unusually low temperatures. The cold weather over the last months and the ensuing shortage of electricity has crippled the population.
Rebels entered Chad’s capital city, N’Djamena, with the objective to topple the government. The government claimed to have gained control of the situation, but the threat from the estimated rebels is not believed over yet.
At least 42 people have died in Rwanda’s Western Province and in the Democratic Republic of the Congo city of Bukavu , following a powerful series of earthquakes.
Severe water shortages, high levels of debt amongst the population and heavy dependency on labour migration is threatening the survival of some villages in the region.
This region faces a high level of environmental hazards, including floods, earthquakes, volcanic eruptions and drought, leaving many people’s livelihoods in the earthquake-affected areas uncertain or highly vulnerable.
The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs reported on January 22 that more than 300 people have died as a result throughout the country, in the most severe winter in 30 years.
Southern China has been experiencing freezing temperatures and heavy snow since January 10, 2008. The severe winter weather—the worst in 50 years—has affected more than 4.2 million hectares of farmland, led to the collapse of about 107,000 houses.
The government has declared a state of emergency and made a request for international aid. The homes of about 13,000 families were destroyed, as well as 10,000 hectares of rice, potatoes, corn, wheat and quinoa (type of cereal).
In Chikwawa, heavy rains caused major flooding when several rivers burst their banks. The flooding swept away crops, livestock, human dwellings, as well as submerging houses and displacing hundreds of people.
Following heavy rains in Mozambique, regions along the Zambezi, Buzi, Pungue and other rivers are under an emergency flood situation.
Heavy rainfall in Zimbabwe continues to cause flooding and waterlogging, affecting at least 9,000 people. Rivers have burst their banks and some low-lying areas have been cut off with crops struggling to survive in the waterlogged soil.
The heavy rainfall has caused floods in 34 districts of the country. The floods have caused significant damage and destruction to roads, leaving some communities completely inaccessible by road from the outside.
From December 31, 2007 to January 4, 2008, a cold front affected El Salvador. Communities experienced unusually low temperatures of 12 °C in the valleys and 3 °C in the mountain regions.
At least 112 people have lost their lives in landslides and floods triggered by heavy rains that struck Indonesia’s main island of Java over the last week. More than 129,000 people were affected in Central and East Java.
Rising tensions and violence in Kenya following a disputed election has resulted in the deaths of hundreds of people with tens of thousands fleeing their homes.
The Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) has issued an alert concerning a severe cyclonic storm “SIDR” over the Bay of Bengal. SIDR has been rapidly moving northwards since early morning and is currently about 800 km south of Calcutta.
The situation in the province of Granma is considered critical due to severe floods in five municipalities. Paths, road, bridges and railway networks were severely destroyed.
Tropical storm Noel struck Hispanolia (Haiti and the Dominican Republic) on 29 October 2007, having moved across the Caribbean as a slow-moving tropical storm, growing into a Category-1 hurricane, leaving 118 people dead.
Tropical storm Noel struck Haiti and the Dominican Republic where 116 people were killed in floods and landslides.
Heavy torrential rains that started in mid-July have resulted into flooding in the low-lying areas of Amuria and Katakwi. The region has not experienced flooding of this magnitude in any recent memory.
ational and local authorities indicate that there are 16,669 families affected (mostly by loss of homes), 510 deaths and close to 1000 injured.
