Reports of the flooding disaster in Venezuela are accompanied by aerial pictures of towns along the northern coast ruined by the mudslides.

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Katrina was the worst natural disaster in US history, flooding 80% of New Orleans alone, and causing widespread devastation and loss of life.

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This is a potentially catastrophic disaster and the images of destruction and flooding coming out of Japan are simply heartbreaking.

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In Iowa, flooding has led the federal government to declare 29 counties disaster areas.

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In Colombia months of heavy rain have caused widespread flooding, killing at least 312 people in the worst natural disaster in the country's history.

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Danny Moore of Millington, Tennessee, told CNN affiliate WPTY that the recent disaster marked the second time in one year that flooding took away nearly everything he had.

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"This strategy will not affect the availability of aid that any disaster survivors are receiving for recent disasters, such as tornadoes or flooding, or our response operations for Hurricane Irene or any event in the coming weeks or months, " Racusen said.

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It will also encourage the population to remain in place, and may even attract others to the area, leaving them all vulnerable to the next natural disaster, which is as likely to be a severe drought as further flooding.

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The National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) on Friday said that most of those hit by the latest floods flooding are in Sindh province - in the southern part of the country - where 2.8 million have been affected.

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