Floods
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Bizarro Earth

Scientists: Rare Double Quake Caused Deadly Samoa Tsunami


Agence France-Presse
Tue, 17 Aug 2010 18:56 UTC
Tonga Quake
© AFPStunned survivors search for bodies amongst the debris left by the tsanami on Lalomanu Beach in September 2009.
Wellington - The devastating tsunami which killed nearly 200 people in Samoa and Tonga last September was the result of a rare double earthquake and not one as previously believed, scientists said Wednesday.

Simultaneous earthquakes, with one hiding the other, are unusual "and almost certainly increased the size of the tsunami and its destructiveness on some Tongan islands," New Zealand's GNS Science said in a statement.

Global earthquake readings initially indicated a single large "normal faulting" quake of magnitude 8.0 had occurred, producing an extensional motion while the tsunami waves indicated a "thrust" event with compressional movement.

The scientists said they were unable to reconcile the conflicting data until six weeks after the event when measurements from a small Tongan island showed there must have been two large earthquakes.

Their findings appear this week as the cover story in the prestigious science publication Nature.

"This is a rare phenomenon," lead author John Beavan, a geophysicist at GNS Science, said Wednesday.
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Cloud Lightning

Severe hurricane hits Russia after deadly heatwave hell


Russia Today
Tue, 17 Aug 2010 17:38 UTC
Strong winds and heavy rains are taking the place of the record heat which has been baking Central Russia since the middle of June. On Sunday, a hurricane hit north-western regions of the country, up-rooting trees and causing streets to flood. The storm swept through residential areas over-turning cars, damaging railways and electricity wires. Forecasters say the hurricane level winds will hit Moscow within the next few days. There's little respite from the extreme weather which has already endangered lives in Russia this year. Ambulance crews have been in a tough battle to get to people with the number of emergency calls at record levels.

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Bizarro Earth

Canada: Heavy rain floods roads west of Ottawa


CBC News
Mon, 16 Aug 2010 17:30 UTC
Image
© Shannon Purcell/CBCWater floods the road at 5 E Concession and Gold Mine Road, about a 10 km drive northwest from a section of Highway 148 that was closed due to flooding.
A main road for people west of Ottawa has been closed due to flooding following a severe thunderstorm Sunday.

Police closed Dunrobin Road to all but local traffic from Kinburn Road all the way to Constance Bay Road after heavy rain raised water levels of a normally calm creek.

Water that usually drains into Buckham's Bay instead washed over Dunrobin Road and the surrounding area.

While thunderstorms were seen across the region on Sunday, Environment Canada said a localized storm in the Constance Bay and Woodlawn areas dropped between 75 and 100 mm of rain.

Woodlawn resident Lynne Wilson, whose property backs onto the creek, said the water from the creek came gushing down making the water level several feet higher than normal.

"We couldn't believe it," said Wilson. "There was so much rain."
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Bizarro Earth

Three people die in flash floods in Cordoba, Spain


Associated Press
Tue, 17 Aug 2010 15:01 UTC
Image
© EFEFlash floods in Cordoba, Spain.
The Interior Ministry says one man was found dead Tuesday morning in a car that had been washed away in torrential overnight rain in the small town of Aguilar de la Frontera.

Spain's government says three people have died in flash floods in towns close to southern city of Cordoba.

The Interior Ministry says one man was found dead Tuesday morning in a car that had been washed away in torrential overnight rain in the small town of Aguilar de la Frontera.

The ministry says the body of a woman who also had been in the vehicle was found some 150 meters (165 yards) away.

Another man was killed when an exterior wall of his house collapsed on top of him in the nearby town of Bujalance.

Television images showed damaged cars piled together along mud-packed streets in Aguilar while people mopped out their houses.
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Cloud Precipitation

Third of Pakistan under water: more rain expected


Tehran Times
Tue, 17 Aug 2010 09:33 UTC
Image
© Desconocido
Islamabad - Pakistan's worst floods in 80 years have left 20 million people homeless and six million without food, medicine, or shelter.

United Nations aid agencies have provided assistance to hundreds of thousands of victims of floods but relief operations have yet to reach an estimated six million people, a UN report said.

The lives of 16 million people have been disrupted by one of the worst catastrophes in Pakistan's history. Six million still need food, shelter and water, the UN said in a statement.

Highlighting the scale of the disaster, Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani said in an Independence Day speech that the country faces challenges similar to those during the 1947 partition of the subcontinent, Reuters reported.

A third of Pakistan is now under water, and fresh rainfall threatens two more waves of flooding in the southern Sindh province.
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Arrow Down

UN warns of Pakistan 'second death wave'


Agence France Press
Tue, 17 Aug 2010 01:39 UTC
The United Nations has warned of a "second wave of death" in flood-stricken Pakistan as aid agencies struggled to raise money to help the 20 million people hit by the nation's worst-ever natural disaster.

Britain branded the international response to the catastrophe "lamentable" and charities said Pakistan was suffering from an "image deficit" partly because of perceived links to terrorism.

The United Nations has launched an appeal for $US460 million ($A512.08 million), but aid groups say the response has been sluggish and flood survivors have lashed out at Pakistan's weak civilian government for failing to help.
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Bizarro Earth

Slovakia, Czech Republic hit by flood waters


Earth Times News
Sun, 15 Aug 2010 17:54 UTC
Bratislava - Storms carrying heavy rain over central Europe have caused flash flooding in parts of Slovakia and neighbouring Czech Republic, local media reports said Sunday.

In north-western Slovakia, the TA3 television channel reported that heavy rainfall had caused a dam to break, flooding the towns of Handlova and Prievidza.

TV pictures showed flood water careening down streets, carrying cars away.

Unconfirmed eyewitness reports suggested that several people are missing, but no deaths have yet been confirmed. On the Facebook page of the TA3 channel, local residents appealed for information about at least two people.

In parts of the south of the country, flooding was also reported.

In the Czech Republic, the CTK news agency reported two missing people as a result of flooding over the past several days.
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Bizarro Earth

Summer storms bring chaos to parts of Spain


Typically Spanish
Mon, 16 Aug 2010 11:37 UTC
Image
© EFEThe after effects of the hail storm in Cuenca
Two people were hit by lightening when on the beach.

Summer storms have been bringing scenes of drama to parts of Spain.

A 15 minute long cloudburst flooded the streets to Cuenca to a depth of nearly a metre of water. Vehicles were covered in places and some people found themselves wading up to the waist. Shops, garages and some homes were flooded in several regions of the city, and the hailstones reached three centimetres in diameter at times.

Valencia, Alicante and the south of Castellón saw the worst of the storms and the weather forecasters said that as much as 40 litres per square metre could fall in some areas.

Storms in Tarragona and Valencia caused delay to both long distance and local train services. The drainage system overflowed in Murcia, while fires were caused by lightening in Fortuna, Yecla and Jimilla.
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Bizarro Earth

Sweden: Flooding in Malmö as heavens open


The Local
Sun, 15 Aug 2010 13:18 UTC
Image
© B. Larsson Rosvall/ScanpixBus passengers were involved in a dramatic boat rescue in western Sweden on Friday morning, 13 Aug 2010
Torrential rain showers pummelled southern Sweden on Saturday night, causing flooding and road closures in parts of Skåne.

Emergency services were inundated with phone calls from home owners whose basements were flooded as the incessant rain made its presence felt.

The region's main city, Malmö, was pounded by 66 millimetres of precipitation in a few short hours, according to meteoroligical agency SMHI.

Rescue workers were also called out to help motorists whose cars had stalled in the rising waters.

Per Bergkvist was out driving on Malmö's inner ring road when he ran into difficulties around the Fosie exit, local newspaper Sydsvenskan reports.

"The water reached up to the car doors," he told the newspaper.
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Bizarro Earth

Philippines: Flashflood hits 50 families in Zamboanga City

Julie Alipala
Inquirer Mindanao
Sun, 15 Aug 2010 18:03 UTC
At least 50 families in the village of Marcos Drive Putik here woke up Sunday dawn with their homes flooded.

Feliciano Mariano said he and his family woke up with their house on the 3rd Street in the same village already submerged in water.

Even the house of Francisco Barredo, the city's Social Welfare Officer, was not spared.

"Water is rising and current is very strong, people have to be evacuated immediately," Barredo said Sunday morning.

He said two other riverside villages, Boalan and Tugbungan, suffered the same situation.

At around 7 a.m. Sunday, two Air Force helicopters flew over the flooded villages.

Naval Forces Western Mindanao commander Rear Admiral Alexander Pama said two teams of disaster relief and rehabilitation personnel were able to rescue at least 24 families.

Pama said evacuation and rescue operation continued as 4 p.m. Sunday.

Zamboanga City Water District spokesperson Dolly Galvan said due to continuous rains, the water level at the Pasonanca dam has reached the critical level of 75.5 compared to the normal level of 74.
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