Floods
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Cloud Precipitation

100,000 flee worst flooding in decades in Malaysia


Daily Mail, UK
Fri, 26 Dec 2014 05:38 UTC
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© Agence France-PresseA boy plays in floodwaters near a petrol station in Pengkalan Chepa, near Kota Bharu on December 26, 2014
Malaysia's worst flooding in decades forced some 118,000 people to flee as premier Najib Razak came under fire after photos showed him golfing with US President Barack Obama during the storms.

At least five people have been killed by the rising waters and there appeared little respite on the way on Friday, with forecasters predicting further heavy rainfall across previously unaffected southern parts of the country.

As local media carried photographs of people wading through flood waters as deep as two metres (6.5 feet) and entire houses submerged by rising water, the government faced criticism for not declaring a state of emergency to help devastated communities.
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Cloud Precipitation

Malaysian national park receives heaviest rainfall in more than 40 years

Al-Zaquan Amer Hamzah
Reuters
Wed, 24 Dec 2014 05:48 UTC
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© Malaysia Official Man Utd Fan Club/TwitterTwitter screen grab of the flood.
Nearly 60 foreign tourists are among almost 100 people stranded at a resort in a Malaysian national park lashed by its heaviest rainfall in more than four decades, staff said on Wednesday, and authorities are sending boats and a helicopter to rescue them.

About 84 guests, including travelers from Canada, Britain, Australia and Romania, and 10 staff members at the Mutiara Taman Negara Resort, in the East Coast state of Pahang, were marooned after riverbanks overflowed, a resort official told Reuters.

The local fire and rescue department was sending boats and looking for a safe spot for a helicopter to land, he said.
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Cloud Precipitation

Flash floods in Sri Lanka displace 46,000

Richard Davies
floodlist.com
Mon, 22 Dec 2014 19:34 UTC
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Three days of heavy rainfall have caused flash floods in northern and central areas of Sri Lanka. Eastern, North-Central, Northern and North-Western provinces have all seen heavy rain since Saturday 20 December 2014. Sri Lanka's Disaster management Centre (DMC) say that as many as 452,960 people have been affected by floods or landslides in the past 3 days.

Evacuations

DMC say that around 46,000 people have evacuated their homes and are currently staying in temporary accommodation, including local schools and community centres. Some of the latest TV news reports in Sri Lanka have the total number displaced as being much higher at over 200,000. This as yet has been unconfirmed by Sri Lanka authorities.

Eastern province is thought to be the worst affected. According to the latest situation report from Sri Lanka's Disaster management Centre (DMC), over 30,000 people from the districts of Batticaloa, Trincomalee and Ampara. DMC also say that 3 deaths have occurred in the province as a result of the recent floods. One person was reported as injured in the floods in Anuradhapura, North Central Province.

The huge amounts of rain have increased river and reservoir levels across the provinces, forcing the authorities to open flood gates. Xinhua report that 29 of the big dams and 83 of the medium ones have reached spill level, forcing sluice gates to be opened, threatening people living downriver.

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Cloud Precipitation

4 dead and 14,000 evacuated after flooding on the Thailand - Malaysia border

Richard Davies
floodlist.com
Fri, 19 Dec 2014 19:18 UTC
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© Bomba MalaysiaFlood evacuations in Kelantan, Malaysia.
Heavy rain and flooding has continued in southern Thailand and is now also affecting areas along the Thailand-Malaysian border. At least 4 states in Malaysia have suffered from severe flooding. Several southern provinces in Thailand have been under water for the last week.

Across the region a total of four people have been reported as killed in the floods and 14,000 people evacuated (12,000 in Malaysia). Two people remain missing in the floods in Thailand.

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Cloud Precipitation

California storm drops 3 inches of rain in an hour

Richard Davies
floodlist.com
Fri, 12 Dec 2014 15:29 UTC
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© Randee DeasonHwy 37-W near Novato, the connector to Hwy 101 North and South shutdown by flooded roadway
The storm dubbed the Pineapple Express by some media outlets hit wide areas of northern and central California yesterday, 11 December 2014.

US National Weather Service (NWS) say that 2.91 inches (73 mm) of rain was recorded in just one hour on the Big Sur coast yesterday. During the 24 hours of 11 December, 3.55 inches (90 mm) of rain fell in the San Francisco Bay Area. For San Francisco, it was the second wettest 11 December on record:
@NWSBayArea

#SF calendar day rainfall Dec 11th was 3.40" & now 2nd wettest daily total ever for the 11th. Dec 11th '95 daily record 3.61" holds. #CAwx


Comment:

Similar to Sao Paulo, Brazil, California had been suffering from extreme drought. In both, cases extreme rains have arrived within the past week causing severe flooding. These changes in weather seems to be indicative of worldwide weather swings that will in all likelihood continue to become more extreme in the future.

Brazil drought crisis deepens in Sao Paulo and other areas

Extreme flooding in Sao Paulo, Brazil

New study finds California drought worst in 1,200 years

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Cloud Lightning

Extreme flooding in Sao Paulo, Brazil

Chillymanjaro
The Watchers
Fri, 12 Dec 2014 22:38 UTC
Sao Paulo, Brazil Flooding
© Thaddeus PawlowskiAerial view of Sao Paulo flooding
Violent storms and heavy rainfall hit Sao Paulo in Brazil on December 10, 2014, causing flooding and traffic chaos as authorities announced a state of alert in some parts of the city.


Comment: Sao Paulo has gone from one extreme to the other.

See: Brazil drought crisis deepens in Sao Paulo and other areas



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Cloud Precipitation

Storm drenches California, but it's only a drop in state's drought bucket

Brittny Mejia
LA Times
Wed, 03 Dec 2014 14:54 UTC
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© Al Seib, Los Angeles TimesDanny Lopez, left, and Fernando Hacindo work to stem mud and debris flowing down a blocked drain in Camarillo Springs.
The first major Pacific storm of the season drenched much of California on Tuesday, slaking a parched and dusty region, but still leaving the state deep in a historic drought.

The stream of subtropical moisture dropped more than an inch of rain over much of Los Angeles County by evening, with higher numbers in the local mountains. In foothills and canyons where fires recently burned desiccated brush, residents scrambled to set up barricades to divert debris flows and prepared to evacuate.

In Camarillo, gushing mud and water prompted a mandatory evacuation of 75 homes where a slide had buried a residence on Halloween. In Glendora and Azusa, homeowners and fire crews worked feverishly to buttress sandbags with plywood and concrete blocks. Rock slides hit the road in Malibu Canyon, and in Silverado Canyon residents moved horses and other large livestock to lower, flatter terrain.
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Cloud Precipitation

Wrecks, flooding, mudslides slam California as rain finally comes

Lisa Fernandez
ABC News Bay Area
Tue, 02 Dec 2014 19:49 UTC
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Rain pelted the Bay Area for the fifth consecutive day on Tuesday, leading to a flurry of car wrecks, flooding and mudslide watches amid an otherwise welcome break from California's severe drought.

Flashing lights and sirens were common on the highways, with crashes reported before the sun came up on Interstate Highway 880 in Hayward and Highway 17 near Santa Cruz.. Flooding appeared in parts of San Francisco, including on northbound Interstate 280 at the Cesar Chavez offramp and the Ellis onramp at southbound U.S. Highway 101, which had a puddle that stretched 40 feet long and 15 feet wide.
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Bizarro Earth

UN agency declares emergency due to severe flooding in Gaza


Scoop.co.nz
Mon, 01 Dec 2014 15:12 UTC
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© UNRWA Archives/Ahmad AwadA flooded street in Gaza
The United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) in Gaza, has declared an emergency in Gaza City, following extreme weather and severe flooding over the past 48 hours exacerbating the already poor humanitarian situation in the enclave, which is dealing with the aftermath of a last summer's conflict, and an acute fuel and energy crisis.

"We are particularly concerned for those families still seeking adequate shelter and preparing for the winter months, and for the impact the flooding is already having on children unable to attend school," said UNRWA's Director of Operations Robert Turner in Gaza on Thursday.

No casualties or injuries have been reported, but hundreds of residents in the flooded areas around the Sheikh Radwan storm water lagoon have evacuated their homes. One UNRWA school and an UNRWA Collective Centre in Gaza City have been affected by the rising waters.

The Agency has established an Area Emergency Operations room in Gaza City following contingency planning undertaken last week. As the largest UN agency in the Gaza Strip, UNRWA supplies emergency fuel to municipalities, water, sanitation and health facilities, partially through the WASH and Health clusters led by UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) and the World Health Organization (WHO).
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Bizarro Earth

Southern France recovers from the worst flooding it's seen in years


TheLocal.fr
Mon, 01 Dec 2014 15:03 UTC
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As southern France recovers from the worst flooding it's seen in years, The Local takes a look at some of the most shocking images of the damage done by the forces of nature. The latest victim was a 73-year-old man who died of heart failure in Rivesaltes, in the Pyrenees-Orientales region, when trying to force his car through a big dip in a road that was flooded.

Along the banks of the Agly river in the same region, some 2,800 people had been evacuated by late afternoon Sunday, the government office there said. The flooding was considered already more serious than deadly overflows in 1999 and "we are evacuating residents within 200 metres (yards) of either side of the river," the government said.

The prime minister's office dubbed the flooding "exceptional" in a statement but said "the situation is under control."
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