The National Weather Service (NWS) of Papua New Guinea has indicated a wetter season for the next five months from January through to May, due to the normal wet season being joined by the La Nina weather.
While it is of common sense to keep indoors during rainy weather, NWS has called on the public to take heed of weather warnings to avoid being at risks to other disasters that may come about as a result of continuous raining.
Landslides, river pollution, rough seas, strong winds, flooding, destruction to infrastructural properties such as roads and bridges, including houses and food gardens can eventuate from continuous rainfall.
In such a situation where continuous rainfall become hazardous, causing other disasters to occur, is put in a term, described by scientist Shimon Wdowinski, of the University of Miami in Florida, USA as ‘disaster triggering disaster’.
In the past few days, PNG has seen this ‘disaster triggering disaster’ effect in play with major flooding in many centres across the country; that which saw sections of the Highlands Highway being washed away causing a breakdown in transportation of goods and shortage of fuel in the highlands region.
While weather is something we cannot control, keeping up to date with weather forecasts and knowing what to expect each day would be a good way to being aware, and helping yourself and your community to avoid being in risk of preventable situations during this rainy season.
