STORM ALERT: Tropical Cyclone Helen Makes Landfall In India - Heavy Rain, High Winds Lash Andra Pradesh; Alert Activated Along Coastal Districts!

November 22, 2013 - INDIA - Tropical Cyclone Helen, accompanied by strong winds and heavy rain, has made landfall across the east-central coastline of India.

This satellite image of Helen, courtesy of NOAA, was taken late Thursday, local time.

The strength of Tropical Cyclone Helen was equal to that of a tropical storm in the Atlantic Basin as it came onshore. Helen made landfall near Machilipatnam, across the Andhra Pradesh state.

Wind gusts of 95 to 130 kph (60 to 80 mph) were expected to occur in the vicinity of where Helen came onshore. Such winds are capable of causing widespread tree damage and power outages. Falling trees threaten to cause additional damage and bodily harm.

Rain amounts of around 100 mm (4 inches) with locally higher totals of 200 mm (8 inches) are expected across east-central Andhra Pradesh through Friday night, significantly heightening the concern for flash flooding.

As of Friday night, local time, 130 mm (5.12 inches) of rain had fallen in Visakhapatnam while 58 mm (2.28 inches) fell in Kakinada.


WATCH:  Cyclone Helen Nears India.

Cities in line for Helen's heaviest rain include Machilipatnam, Vijayawada and Chirala.

Helen will rapidly lose tropical storm status as it moves farther inland, causing the widespread heavy rain to taper off on Saturday. However, localized downpours could still accompany the weakened state of Helen across central India through Sunday.

As Helen dissipates, attention will turn to the Andaman Sea where another tropical cyclone will attempt to take shape this weekend. Current indications point toward this possible cyclone taking aim at eastern India around the middle of next week.

All residents of eastern India should continue to check back with AccuWeather.com as more details on next week's tropical cyclone threat become clearer. - AccuWeather.



Heavy rain accompanied by strong winds lashed coastal Andhra Pradesh as cyclonic storm Helen is all set to hit the coast near Machilipatnam on Friday afternoon.

An alert has been sounded in the coastal districts, while authorities are taking precautionary measures, including evacuation of people from low-lying area, to minimize the damage from the cyclone in the Bay of Bengal.

According to the Indian Meteorological Department (IMD), the severe cyclonic storm will cross the coast near Machilipatnam Friday afternoon.

The IMD's bulletin on Friday morning said Helen over west-central Bay of Bengal moved slightly westwards and lay centred about 25 km south of Narsapur and 60 km east of Machilipatnam.

Under the influence of the severe cyclonic storm, many parts of Krishna, Guntur, East Godavari, West Godavari, Visakhapatnam and other districts were receiving rain.

The strong wind have uprooted trees, communication towers and disrupted transport and electricity supply in some parts of the coastal districts. The sea conditions were rough and the sea water at some places flushed out for a few metres over land.


WATCH: Cyclone Helen nears coast, heavy rain, high wind lash Andhra Pradesh.

The high-speed wind has damaged coconut, banana and paddy crops, and dealt another blow to farmers who are still recovering from the heavy damage caused by last month's Cyclone Phailin and accompanying heavy rain.

The IMD has forecast rainfall at most places, and heavy to very heavy rainfall at a few places and isolated extremely heavy rainfall (25cm or more) over north coastal Andhra Pradesh and adjoining Guntur, Krishna, West Godavari districts of south coastal Andhra Pradesh over next 36 hours.

Rainfall at most places with isolated heavy to very heavy falls would occur over remaining districts of south coastal Andhra Pradesh, Rayalseema and isolated heavy to very heavy rain is expected over Telangana during next 48 hours.

Gale-speed winds reaching 100-110 kmph, gusting to 120 kmph, would sweep through Prakasham, Guntur, Krishna, East and West Godavari and Vishakhapatnam districts during the next 12 hours, the weather forecast said.

The IMD has warned that storm surge of about 1 to 1.5m height would inundate the low-lying areas of West and East Godavari, Krishna, Guntur districts and adjoining areas of Prakasham district at the time of the cyclone's landfall.

Chief minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy Friday reviewed the situation with the chief secretary and other officials in Hyderabad and directed them to take all precautionary measures, especially in Krishna and Guntur districts.

A control room to monitor the situation has been opened at the state secretariat in Hyderabad. The control room numbers are 040-23456005, 23451043.

Krishna district collector Raghunandan Rao said a holiday was declared for all educational institution in coastal areas.

He said 10 relief camps were opened for people evacuated from low-lying areas, and over 5,000 people were already shifted to them. Sixty personnel of National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) personnel were deployed for rescue and relief operations.

A control room in Krishna district collector's office was opened. Its telephone numbers are 08672-252572 08672-251077

Helen is threatening Andhra coast even as the state is yet to recover from the massive damages caused by Phailin and heavy rain in October.

Andhra Pradesh has nearly 1,000-km long coastline and the nine districts face cyclone threats every year, especially between September and November. - Times of India.

DELUGE: Floods Kill Dozens In Eastern India After Six Days Of Continuous Heavy Rainfall - 42 Dead, 85,000 Evacuated, Major Damage To Crops!

October 27, 2013 - INDIA - Flash floods swept Saturday through the eastern Indian states of Odisha, where at least 19 people were killed, and Andhra Pradesh, where another 21 were killed, CNN-IBN reported.

Indian rickshaw pullers carry passengers through a flooded street in Kolkata on October 26.

Indian police officials pull a boat through water-logged streets as they ferry residents to
a safer place in Kolkata on October 26.

"The flood water entered our village suddenly," one rescued villager told Reuters. "We tried to save our belongings but could not. At last we ran away to a safe place. Now the problem is we don't have food to eat and are staying under open sky."

But a local Puri government official, Madhusudhan Das, said help was under way.

 People wade through a flood-damaged road on the outskirts of Hyderabad on October 26.

 A villager carries an elderly man to safety after crossing floodwaters in Khurda district in the
eastern Indian state of Orissa on Friday, October 25.

A resident walks through a flooded house following heavy rain in Saroornagar, a low lying area
on the outskirts of Hyderabad on October 25.

Two villagers carry their bicycles and wade through floodwaters in Banapur
village in the eastern Indian state of Orissa on October 25.

"We have arranged for dry fruits and have also taken efforts for evacuation," he said. "We have arranged free kitchen for them. Tickets will be provided to them. We will give them house damage assistance. Houses have been damaged on a large scale. We are trying our level best to finish the huge amount of work within a week and we'll also provide them assistance for house damage."

 Pedestrians wade on a flooded street following heavy rain in Saroornagar on October 25.

Rescue team members from the National Disaster Response Force load a chopper with rescue
equipment in the Ganjam district of the eastern Indian state of Orissa on October 25.

In all, 13 districts in Odisha were affected, P.K. Mohapatra, special relief commissioner, said in a telephone interview.

Most affected was the Ganjam District, where 85,000 people were evacuated, he said.


WATCH: Rains claim 42 lives so far in India.

"The situation is very grim as the entire Delta area is completely inundated," Guntur district Collector S Suresh Kumar told CNN's sister network. "Drains and tanks are overflowing and there is a threat of breaches occurring at some places because of the nonstop rain."

Flooding led officials to cancel the fifth of a planned series of seven One Day International cricket matches between India and Australia. - CNN.

GLOBAL VOLCANISM: Global Volcano Report For September 02, 2013 - Updates On Tolbachik, Chirinkotan, Veniaminof, Fuego, Momotombo And Guntur!

September 02, 2013 - WORLDWIDE VOLCANOES - The following constitutes the new activity, unrest and ongoing reports of volcanoes across the globe.

Tolbachik (Kamchatka): Although believed to have more or less stopped a week ago, it seems that weak eruptive has continued and regained some strength again now.

Strombolian activity at Tolbachik on 30 Aug (photo: Volkstat.ru).

Weak tremor has reappeared and incandescence could be seen again at the active vent at Tolbachinsky Dol at night. Tourists could observe strombolian activity and effusion of lava into the tube system on 30 August.


Chirinkotan (Northern Kuriles): Some eruptive activity has been continuing throughout the past month at the remote volcano in the Kuriles. Various satellite data collected during the months of August and September show the presence of a strong thermal signal (perhaps a lava lake) and a gas and steam plume, which might contain at least small amounts of ash.

MODIS hot spot data (past 7 days) for Chirinkotan volcano (ModVolc, Univ. Hawaii).

The thermal signals were spotted on several occasions (when the usual dense cloud cover did not prevent it) during the month of August, which suggests that the eruptive activity has been continuous throughout the month.


Veniaminof (Alaska Peninsula, USA): Another phase of strong tremor started last night, probably corresponding to a second paroxysm with lava fountains and ash emissions. Bad weather conditions have been preventing direct observations.

Current seismic recording from Veniaminof (VNHG station, AVO).

AVO has received no reports of ash fall on nearby communities, but this remains a possibility as the elevated levels of seismic activity continue. (AVO)


Fuego (Guatemala): A phase of increased lava flow activity occurred this morning from about 6 am local time, generating a series of pyroclastic flows that descended several ravines on different, but mostly the southwestern side of the volcano.

Pyroclastic flows in the Ceniza canyon this morning (INSIVUMEH).

The volcano has been in moderate effusive activity for at least the past two weeks, feeding relatively small lava flows on the upper steep slope. A sudden increase in effusion rate seems to have caused the destabilization of the lava flows, generating rockfalls that turned into pyroclastic flows. The lava flows have quickly increased from previously 200 m to about 2 km length. The surge of magma supply is also suggested by the appearance of strong tremor pulses the previous night... [read more]


Momotombo (Nicaragua): (1 Sep) The earthquake crisis has intensified today and developed into a swarm of shallow (around 5 km depth) earthquakes SE of the volcano. INETER reported already more than 30 quakes between magnitude 1-3 today.

Seismic recording from Momotombo volcano (MOMN station, INETER).

There is no official statement available so far, although this might well be a precursor for a possible eruption in the near future.


Guntur (West Java): The alert level was again raised to level 2 on a scale of 0-4 (Waspada, "watch") following an increase in seismic activity observed since 15 August.

An elevated number of volcano-tectonic earthquakes (related to rock-fracturing) and the appearance of tremor (indicating magma movements) suggest that new magma could be currently intruding into the volcanic system and lead to new activity which would threat numerous nearby villages and the town of Garut located only about 8 km away from the summit.



Complete Earthquake list (worldwide) for September 02, 2013.


- Volcano Discovery.

GLOBAL VOLCANISM: The Global Volcano Report For April 03, 2013 - Updates On Seismic Swarm At El Hierro; The 9th Paroxysmal Eruption At Etna; Elevated Activity At Ijen; First Eruption In 162 Years At Mount Guntur; And "Volcanic Material" Eruption At Mount Lokon!

April 03, 2013 - WORLDWIDE VOLCANOES - The following constitutes the new activity, unrest and ongoing reports of volcanoes across the globe.

Current seismic signal (IGN).

El Hierro (Canary Islands, Spain): A series of stronger earthquakes has occurred earlier today, including two felt quakes at about 20 km depth of magnitudes 4.2 and 4.5.

Current seismic swarm (IGN).

The epicenters were in the same area as previously, about 10-15 km to the west of the island.

Lava fountain from Etna's New SE crater during the 9th paroxysm (RadioStudio7 webcam).

Etna (Sicily, Italy): The 9th paroxysmal eruption from Etna's New SE crater in 2013 has occurring this afternoon and is currently at its peak phase it seems.

It is producing lava fountains and lava flows from the fissure vent of the New SE cone that descend into Valle del Bove.

Ijen (East Java, Indonesia): Authorities have decided to close access to Kawah Ijen. The decision was based on elevated seismic and degassing activity observed since 20 March. Gas plumes often reach more than 100 m in height.

Guntur (West Java): Elevated seismic activity has been detected at the volcano and VSI raised the alert level to 2 on a scale of 1-4 ("Waspada", "watch"). It is recommended not to approach the crater within 2 km. The last eruption of the volcano dates back to October 1847.

Garut Disaster Mitigation Agency (BPBD) chief Zat Zat Munazat has instructed Garut residents, especially those living close to Mount Guntur, to stay calm after the volcano’s alert level was raised to waspada (caution) or level 2 from normal or level 1.

“Mount Guntur is still at a level that poses no danger; so we ask people not to panic,” Zat Zat told The Jakarta Post over the phone on Tuesday evening. Mount Guntur spewed lava and pyroclastic materials, such as hot gas, volcanic ash and rocks, between 1840 and 1847.

“Mount Guntur has not erupted for 162 years,” said Volcanology and Geological Disaster Mitigation Center (PVMBG) head Surono via text messages.

The PVMBG recorded an increase in volcanic activity at Mount Guntur from January to March. “There has been an increase in seismic activity since 7 a.m. local time on Tuesday in which volcanic tremors have been recorded,” said Surono.

Based on the results of seismic, visual and deformation (the change in shape of the volcano) monitoring, the PVMBG increased the status of Mount Guntur to caution starting at 5 p.m. local time on Tuesday.

“We will continue to intensively monitor volcanic activities while at the same time coordinate with the local disaster mitigation agency,” said Surono.

Mount Lokon (Indonesia): Mount Lokon in Indonesia’s central North Sulawesi province erupted Wednesday, spewing ash to the sky and volcanic materials around the slope, an official said.

The volcano in Tomohon city erupted at 12:28 local time (0428 GMT), said Surono, head of national volcanology agency. The agency has issued a 2.5-kilometer evacuation zone, according to Surono.

“Volcanic materials were spread and fell around the slope, but the height of the ash could not be assessed as it is covered by cloud,” the told Xinhua by phone.

But the agency did not recommend evacuation after the eruption, said Surono. The archipelago country Indonesia is homed by 129 active volcanoes. 

Complete Earthquake list (worldwide) for April 3, 2013.

Photo of the Day:

Lava fountain and flow from the Tolbachik eruption in 2012-13, Kamchatka, Russia.

SOURCES: Volcano Discovery | Jakarta Post  | Xinhaunet | IGN.

PLANETARY TREMORS: Mild Tremors in Parts of Andhra Pradesh - Triggers Panic in Eastern India! UPDATE: Delhi's High-Rises Vulnerable to Himalayan Quakes - Government Ignores Warnings!

Mild tremors in parts of Andhra Pradesh on Thursday triggered panic among people. There was no loss of life or damage to property.

People ran out of their houses in several parts of Krishna and Guntur districts in north coastal Andhra and Khammam district in Telangana region as the earth vibrated for few seconds.

People in some areas said they experienced tremors at least five times between 12.25pm and 12.30pm. Vessels and other house-hold items trembled and even fell on the ground, people said.

Fearing another earthquake, people were reluctant to return home and preferred to stay in open grounds.

Scientists at the National Geophysical Research Institute (NGRI) here described the tremors as seismic vibrations. The tremors were not recorded at the observatory. A scientist said only tremors of an intensity of above 2.8 on the Richter scale get recorded.

The NGRI scientists said there was no need for panic as such vibrations are a common occurrence. - Times of India.

Tall buildings in Delhi will come crashing down if a strong earthquake occurs in the northwest region of the Himalayas, warns a research seismologist who had predicted the Sumatran quake that caused the deadly tsunami in 2004.

UPDATE: Delhi's High-Rises Vulnerable to Himalayan Quakes - Government Ignores Warnings!

Buildings taller than 17 metres in the nation’s capital are vulnerable even though the city is more than 300 km away from the Uttarakhand-Himachal region where scientists expect the next high magnitude earthquake, Pune-based Arun Bapat told IANS. Bapat, formerly head of the earthquake engineering department at the Central Water and Power Research Station, says his warning is based on a careful analysis of damage caused by the 7.9 magnitude Gujarat earthquake that occurred Jan 26, 2001, with its epicentre near Bhuj. “Maximum destruction from an earthquake is normally confined to an area of 20 to 30 km radius from the epicentre,” Bapat told IANS. “However, in the case of the Bhuj quake, extensive damage was caused in Ahmedabad, which is about 320 km from Bhuj.” While tall buildings in Ahmedabad collapsed, the damage was minimal to buildings that had only two or three floors, he says. The “distance effect” – where the damage is felt far away from the epicentre — is characteristic of “Rayleigh waves” produced during an earthquake, explains Bapat.

He said there are about 100 tall buildings in the Delhi municipal area and an equal number in the nearby areas of Noida, Gurgaon, Faridabad and Ghaziabad, all of which need strengthening to protect against Rayleigh waves. Unlike the “P” and “S” waves that travel through the body of the earth and cause damage close to the epicentre, the Rayleigh waves roll along the surface of the earth just like waves on the ocean and cause damage at a distance — typically between 150 to 550 km from the epicentre, he says. The damage due to Rayleigh waves occur at a distance because the “amplitude” or strength of these waves is higher far away from the epicentre than closer to it, says Bapat. A situation similar to what happened in Ahmedabad during the Bhuj earthquake will be repeated in Delhi if an earthquake of magnitude 7.5 or more occurs in Himachal or Uttarakhand, he says. “Rayleigh waves from such an earthquake would definitely cause heavy damage to tall structures in Delhi and the entire National Capital Region (NCR),” he told IANS.

According to Bapat, despite the Bhuj earthquake – that wreaked havoc in distant Ahmedabad — the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) has not revised the seismic code for tall structures to take into account the likely effect of Rayleigh waves. The BIS code only provides guidelines for design and construction of buildings to protect them from the adverse effects of “S” waves but not Rayleigh waves, he said. According to Bapat, during the 8.1 magnitude Mexican earthquake on Sep 19, 1985, Mexico City suffered extensive damage although the epicentre of this earthquake was located at a distance of about 530 km on the Pacific coast. Again the 8.0 magnitude earthquake witnessed by Pakistan Oct 8, 2005, destroyed the tall buildings in Islamabad although the epicentre of this quake was about 150 km from the Pakistani capital. These examples from the recent past in addition to the experience of Delhi’s Qutab Minar during the powerful earthquake in the Himalayas Sep 1, 1803 — when two upper floors of the 72-metre tall structure were dislodged — are enough to give an idea of the “distance effect” on tall structures, Bapat said.

Mexico revised its seismic code after the 1985 earthquake damage and many countries including the United States, China and Japan have taken steps to protect the tall structures from possible damage due to Rayleigh waves, Bapat said. “But the BIS is yet to initiate any action about revision of the seismic code in India,” he said. “If no action is taken immediately, it is quite possible that the scenarios at Mexico City and Ahmedabad may be repeated in the NCR of Delhi.” Not only Delhi but all cities located at a vulnerable distance from potential epicentres of large magnitude earthquakes should make suitable provisions in the seismic codes, he said. Other vulnerable cities which could see damage to tall structures from large magnitude earthquakes in northeast India are Kolkata as well as Dhaka and Chittagong in Bangladesh, says Bapat. “Lahore and Islamabad in Pakistan could suffer from large magnitude earthquakes in the Himalayas and Hindukush while Mumbai and Karachi could possibly suffer damage due to a tsunami produced by an earthquake in the Makran coast.” (IANS) - NVO News.

The ramshackle neighborhoods of northeast Delhi are home to 2.2 million people packed along narrow alleys. Buildings are made from a single layer of brick. Extra floors are added to dilapidated buildings not meant to handle their weight. Tangles of electrical cables hang precariously everywhere. If a major earthquake struck India's seismically vulnerable capital, these neighborhoods — India's most crowded — would collapse in an apocalyptic nightmare. Waters from the nearby Yamuna River would turn the water-soaked subsoil to jelly, which would intensify the shaking. The Indian government knows this and has done almost nothing about it. An Associated Press examination of government documents spanning five decades reveals a pattern of warnings and recommendations that have been widely disregarded. Successive governments made plans and promises to prepare for a major earthquake in the city of 16.7 million, only to abandon them each time. The Delhi government's own estimates say nine out of every 10 buildings in the city are at risk of moderate or significant quake damage, yet the basic disaster response plan it had promised to complete nearly three years ago remains unfinished, there are nearly no earthquake awareness drills in schools and offices and tens of thousands of housing units are built every year without any earthquake safety checks.

Fearing many buildings could lie in ruins after a quake, the Delhi government began work in 2005 with U.S. government assistance to reinforce just five buildings — including a school and a hospital — it would need to begin a rudimentary relief operation to deal with the dead, wounded and homeless. Six years later, only one of those buildings is earthquake-ready. "At the end of the day, people at the helm of affairs are not doing anything," said Anup Karanth, an earthquake engineering expert. In its attitudes to disaster preparedness India is like many other poor nations — aware of the danger but bogged down by both sheer inertia and more immediate demands on its resources. But Delhi faces immense earthquake risks. Last September, two minor jolts sent thousands of scared residents into the streets, and experts say a big one looms on the horizon. As far back as 1960, after a moderate quake cut power and plunged Delhi — then a city of 2.7 million — into darkness, the Geological Survey of India advised that all large buildings in the capital needed to have a plan for earthquake safety. A series of reports by other agencies have expanded on that conclusion in recent years, but both the city and national governments have ignored almost all of the recommendations.

Some reports were ignored because of sheer apathy, others because of shifting priorities. In a city and country growing at lightning speed with huge problems of poverty and hunger that need more immediate solutions, earthquake preparedness has simply never been at the top of the list. Some plans begun with good intentions simply fell by the wayside. That's what happened to the 2005 plan to prepare five important buildings in the capital for an earthquake. Government engineers were sent to California to train. But the following year — with only the school made earthquake ready — all the engineers were taken off the project. They were reassigned to build stadiums for the 2010 Commonwealth Games, an athletic competition held in Delhi, said M. Shashidhar Reddy, the vice chairman of India's National Disaster Management Agency. The scale of the problem "really hasn't sunk into the minds of the people," Reddy said. Just last year, a Delhi government agency ordered all new home buyers to get a building safety certificate that would mark their homes as structurally sound before registering property. But it later withdrew the order, saying there weren't enough engineers trained to conduct such inspections. "That's like saying let's not have any traffic rules because we don't have enough policemen," said Hari Kumar, who heads Geohazards India, an organization that promotes earthquake awareness.

India, a still developing country plagued by corruption, isn't alone in being unprepared. More than 80 percent of deaths from building collapses in earthquakes in the last three decades occurred in corrupt and poor countries, according to a 2011 study published in the science journal Nature. The study by Roger Bilham, a geologist at the University of Colorado, Boulder, and Nicholas Ambraseys, a civil and environmental engineer at Imperial College London, compared the loss of life in two magnitude 7.0 earthquakes in 2010. In Haiti, 300,000 died; in New Zealand none did, though a subsequent 6.1 quake there in early 2011 killed 182. New Zealand, a developed nation, tied for first as the least corrupt in Transparency International's most recent Corruption Perceptions Index. Much poorer Haiti came in 175th out of 178 countries. In Turkey, which ranked 61st, a 2010 report revealed that the earthquake-prone nation had failed to enforce stricter building codes put in place after a 1999 earthquake killed 18,000 people. Last year, two earthquakes of magnitude 7.2 and 5.7 flattened some 2,000 buildings, killed 644 people and left thousands homeless. In contrast, Japan, which was 14th on the corruption scale, requires that all structures meet a 1981 building code and offers subsidies to retrofit buildings to meet more stringent guidelines set in 1995. About 75 percent of homes and public buildings meet the newer standards.

In India, which ranked 95th, contractors routinely flout regulations, use substandard material and add illegal floors to buildings, while bribing government inspectors to look the other way, said Reddy, the disaster management official. A 2001 quake in the western state of Gujarat killed more than 13,000. Delhi, which sits near a highly seismically active area, is ranked four out of five on a seismic threat scale used in India. Geologists believe the Central Himalayan Gap, a 310-mile (500 kilometer) stretch between Nepal and India, is ripe for a major quake. A 6.8 quake along the fault in March 1999 damaged many buildings in Delhi, just 125 to 300 miles (200 to 500 kilometers) from the gap. Studies show such a large buildup of energy that a shifting of the tectonic plates could cause an 8.7-magnitude earthquake, Bilham said. Experts also fear the potential damage from a smaller quake closer to the capital. The city lies between two fault lines, and a 4.2 quake in September woke up residents, with many fleeing their buildings. The same month, a magnitude 6.8 quake in India's remote northeast was also felt in the capital. Either type of quake would cause moderate damage to an estimated 85.5 percent of Delhi's buildings and severe damage to another 6.5 percent, Delhi's disaster management authority said in a 2010 vulnerability assessment. It could also open cracks in the ground several centimeters wide and spread "fear and panic," the report said.

It was India's Department of Meteorology that found northeast Delhi particularly vulnerable in a never-released 2005 study obtained by the AP. That "microzone" study divided the city into nine segments to evaluate the possible impact of an earthquake in each. While the microzone study is a positive step, the report is only rudimentary and most builders haven't even heard of it, said earthquake engineering expert Karanth, who as a student lived through the Gujarat quake. India has developed national standards for constructing earthquake-resistant buildings, but they are not mandatory and widely ignored, said Kumar of Geohazards. Meanwhile, many residents don't realize the danger, or wrongly believe they are safe from it. When Karanth decided to buy an apartment in 2010, he picked a builder who promised to deliver an earthquake-resistant building. He visited the site often, took photographs of the construction and talked to the engineers in charge. Last year, he realized the project had none of the promised earthquake safety features. "This is not one or two apartments that I'm talking about. These are thousands of apartment units being constructed," he said. He complained and demanded an explanation. Instead, the construction company offered to give him back his deposit. - CBS News.