Floods
At least three people died in Haiti as Tropical Storm Isaac triggered mudslides and flooding there before heading back over water and towards Cuba. Isaac should become a Category 1 hurricane on Sunday just as it nears the Florida Keys, the U.S. National Hurricane Center said, and then grow into an even stronger Category 2 storm.
"Hurricane conditions are expected in the hurricane warning area in southwest Florida and the Florida Keys on Sunday," the center said in a Saturday morning advisory.
The center now expects Isaac to build to a Category 2 hurricane, with winds up to 110 mph, after it enters the warmer waters of the Gulf of Mexico.
In Haiti, a woman and a child in the town of Souvenance were killed in the storm, a local official reported.
In the capital Port-au-Prince -- where some 350,000 people are still living in tents or shelters after the 2010 Haiti earthquake -- a girl, 10, was killed when a wall fell on her.
Three of the dead have already been identified, Emergency Ministry says. They are reported to have been tourists.
The overall number of those affected by the disaster currently stands between 1,500 and 1,800 people, according to different sources.
The heavy rainfalls battering the area in the last 24 hours - in some places the average monthly falls - triggered the flooding.
The storm, which made landfall late Friday, brought strong winds and heavy rains that inundated several densely populated communities including part of the capital Hanoi.
Five people were swept away by floodwaters while one woman died when a landslide buried her house while she was sleeping in Bac Giang province, according to the government's central committee on flood and storm control.
A taxi driver was killed by a toppled tree while two people were electrocuted by a falling electricity cable, it said. Nearly 12,000 houses were damaged and 23,000 hectares (56,800 acres) of cropland were flooded, according to the committee.
© Carmarthen Journal
The road between Whitland and Lampeter Velfrey which collapsed during last week’s floods
The road between Whitland and Lampeter Velfrey which collapsed during last week’s floods
The B4328, between Whitland and Lampeter Velfrey, is a popular lane for motorists around the area who have now been forced to find other routes.
The hole appeared last week, after torrential rain caused flooding across the area, with fire crews inundated with calls.
Councillor David Simpson, ward member for Lampeter Velfrey, said he was first told about the hole on Monday, August 6.
"The rain took away a piece of road about 40 yards across - maybe 30 - and across the width of the road.
"I think it was about 20 foot deep."
© AFP
Make-shift homes of cattle dealers are submerged in floods at the Kara slum on Lagos -Ibadan highway, October 23, 2011.
Make-shift homes of cattle dealers are submerged in floods at the Kara slum on Lagos -Ibadan highway, October 23, 2011.
"I have counted 28 bodies and many people are still missing after the flood," said Kemi Nshe, local government chairman for the Shendam district in central Nigeria's Plateau state.
He said some 1,500 people were displaced from the rains, the worst of which occurred Sunday.
A Red Cross official in the area said relief workers were having difficulties accessing flooded areas, which he said included around five communities. He said heavy rain began Saturday night and continued into Sunday.
While flooding that covered 80 percent of Manila last week had largely subsided, vast areas of mainly rice-growing provinces to the north were still under water that in some places remained neck-deep.
Most of the 411,000 people crammed into gymnasiums, schools and other government evacuation centres were in the flooded farming provinces, with many others struggling by living in partly submerged homes.
The paper put the death toll at 10 while the official Xinhua news agency said Saturday that 11 people died and 27 were injured. Local officials in Shenjiakeng village, where the accident took place, could not be immediately reached for comment. The collapse flooded a 'large area' of the village with water and silt, affecting 80 families and damaging at least a third of homes, China Daily said.
Shanghai and the nearby coastal province Zhejiang have evacuated 456,000 people as China prepares for its third typhoon in less than a week. The emergency measures were taken after Typhoon Haikui turned Manila, the Philippines capital into "waterworld", killing 50 people. The typhoon is expected to make landfall in Zhejiang province, just south of Shanghai, late Tuesday or early Wednesday, the China Meteorological Administration said.
© The Associated Press
Part of a three-storey building washed away in flash floods in the Uttarkashi district of Uttarakhand state on Sunday.
Part of a three-storey building washed away in flash floods in the Uttarkashi district of Uttarakhand state on Sunday.
Heart-wrenching scenes were witnessed at Gangori, where the maximum number of deaths were reported, with relatives and villagers crying for help.
Efforts were on to move about 700 Char Dham pilgrims stranded at various places to safer spots on foot, as the roads were completely damaged and the hostile weather was not allowing airlifting of the people.
The State government released Rs. 20 crore from the disaster mitigation fund for immediate relief work and urged civil society organisations to rush help to the victims.
The weather department has sounded an alert for heavy rains and flash floods for the next 24 hours.
© Associated Press
Residents wade through a flooded street in the town of Navotas in suburban Manila
Residents wade through a flooded street in the town of Navotas in suburban Manila
The Philippines recorded 37 deaths in floods and accidents caused by Saola's torrential rains and strong winds, officials said on Friday. Four people were missing and feared dead.
Taiwan residents spent Friday cleaning up storm damage and returning to work, a day after Saola slammed into the island, packing winds of up to 155 kilometres an hour, dumping 1.8 metres of rain and killing five people. Two were reported missing.
Saola weakened into a tropical storm before making landfall on Friday morning in Fuding in China's south-eastern province of Fujian with winds of 90km/h at its centre, China's official Xinhua news agency reported.
