Floods
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Bizarro Earth

Damage, injuries reported from flooding in Manitou Springs, Colorado

David Mitchell and Jeremy Hubbard
KDVR
Fri, 09 Aug 2013 16:15 UTC
Flooding in Manitou Springs, Colo. August 9, 2013
© KDVRFlooding in Manitou Springs, Colo. August 9, 2013
Heavy rain brought flooding, mudslides and damage to the Manitou Springs area Friday evening.

There were three people hurt and one unconfirmed report of a missing person according to the Manitou Springs police chief.

There was damage to homes and businesses along Canon Ave. Streets were closed in the Canon Avenue area and western Manitou Springs.

Police told people to stay away from the town Friday night.

The Waldo Canyon burn zone received about 1.5 inches of rain in a very short period of time.

The muddy floodwaters - swelling Fountain Creek out of its banks in downtown Manitou Springs Friday night.

Off in the distance - the patio of a restaurant - Adam's Mountain Cafe suffered major damage from the messy runoff.

Video posted to Facebook shows banged-up cars, covered in mud and debris, surrounded by the flash flood.

One picture showed a truck and an SUV tossed against each other by the raging water.
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Cloud Lightning

Storms hit across France


The Connexion
Mon, 29 Jul 2013 00:00 UTC
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Storms have caused heavy damage and black outs in different regions of France.

The latest area to be hit was the Riviera where this morning 14,000 homes were left without power after violent squalls brought down trees and power cables.

Mayor of Nice Christian Estrosi has said he will ask the government to treat the event as a natural disaster. Businesses along the seafront were damaged along with cars, windows and roofs. Some residents thought they had been hit by a tornado.

The storms has led to the cancellation of several TGV services and disruption to flights at Nice Airport.
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Cloud Lightning

Philadelphia shatters record for the heaviest rain in a day

Kristina Pydynowski
Accuweather.com
Mon, 29 Jul 2013 04:12 UTC
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This radar image was taken at 4:15 p.m. EDT Sunday.
Torrents of rain over the Philadelphia metro area late on Sunday afternoon turned roads into lakes, submerged cars and made travel very difficult.

A whopping 8.02 inches of rain fell at the Philadelphia International Airport, with 7.35 inches falling between 3 p.m. and 7 p.m. EDT.

Runoff from the heavy rain flooded ramps between Interstate 95 and Broad Street in Philadelphia. Flooding also ensued on Interstate 76 in nearby Gloucester City, N.J.

With the added rain, numerous rainfall records were broken in Philadelphia.

-The 8.02 inches of rain on Sunday shattered the previous record for the day of 3.28 inches set in July 1969.

-The 8.02 inches also established a new record for the most rain on any calendar day, breaking the previous record of 6.63 inches on Sept. 16, 1999 during Tropical Storm Floyd.

-The 13.00 inches through July 28th makes this July the wettest on record and the third wettest month overall, behind 19.31 inches in August 2011 and 13.07 inches in September 1999.
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Cloud Lightning

Sheets of rain: Flash floods and torrential rain hit West Yorkshire town


The Guardian
Tue, 30 Jul 2013 02:43 UTC
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© The Guardian
Man swept along 15 metres on to railway line by torrent outside his home in Walsden following day of heavy rainfall

Roads and railway lines were submerged in water after torrential rain and flash flooding hit one small town for the second summer in a row.

Parts of the market town of Todmorden, West Yorkshire, were left under 45cm (18in) of water. Emergency services worked late into Monday night to clear the water and deal with hazards such as partially collapsed roads.

One resident in nearby Walsden was swept along about 15 metres by the torrent. He was carried downhill and ended up on the railway tracks at the end of his street.

Clearing out his flood-damaged home, the man said he was too shaken to talk about the incident.

One of his neighbours said: "The water was bubbling up and he was trying to redirect it. He went through the gate, was taken down the road and under the gate, on to the railway lines.

"He thought he was a goner. It's a fair distance. And with the torrent that was coming through, he's lucky to be alive today. Very, very lucky."
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Attention

Best of the Web: UK National Farmers' Union president: Extreme weather threatens to wipe out British farming - how is UK to feed itself?

Damian Carrington
The Guardian
Mon, 29 Jul 2013 08:25 UTC
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From this...
Extreme weather being driven by climate change is the biggest threat to British farming and its ability to feed the nation's growing population, according to Peter Kendall, president of the National Farmers' Union.

His comments, in an interview with the Guardian, come after a week of intense weather extremes. Last Monday, west London experienced the hottest day for seven years, while on Tuesday the drought in many parts of the country came to an end with intense thunderstorms that brought almost a month of rain in a day to parts of Worcestershire. Torrential downpours also put a dampener on the first weekend of the school summer holidays, with flash-flooding in parts of the south-east and the Midlands.

"The biggest uncertainty for UK agriculture is extreme weather events," said Kendall, who grows wheat and barley on the 250-hectare (620 acre) farm in Bedfordshire he runs with his brother. "I sometimes have a pop at those who say climate change is going to help farming in northern Europe.

Comment: See also: Rising food prices, climate change and global 'unrest'

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Umbrella

Sheets of rain bring flash-flooding to many parts of Ireland


RTE
Sat, 27 Jul 2013 06:32 UTC
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The emergency unit at Letterkenny General Hospital was opened just this year
An emergency situation has been declared at Letterkenny General Hospital following flooding in a significant section of the hospital.

The facility's emergency department; radiology department; outpatient department; pathology and medical records departments; and several wards and kitchens have all been evacuated.

A nearby tributary of the River Swilley overflowed and caused the flooding between 5pm and 5.30pm.

In a statement, the HSE confirmed 11 patients have been moved to the day surgery area, which is not in use over the weekend.

The executive has said there is no risk to patients currently in the hospital and the emergency service continues to function.
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Sheriff

Toronto officer disciplined for posing as flooded train passenger


Yahoo! Canada News
Tue, 16 Jul 2013 00:00 UTC
Philip Cheung For The Globe and Mail
A GO Train full of passengers is stuck on the flooded tracks during a major rainstorm in downtown Toronto on July 8, 2013.
Toronto police Chief Bill Blair says an officer has been disciplined for posing as a stranded passenger on a waterlogged commuter train during major flooding last week.

Blair told radio station Newstalk 1010 the officer was "shameful" to pretend he was one of the 1,400 riders on the GO train when it became trapped by flood waters during the evening rush hour.

CBC said the officer was Const. Nickolas Dorazio. The network said he was working to help rescue the passengers, but told their TV crew he was stuck on the stranded train and even draped an orange towel around his shoulders for effect.

Blair says the force has disciplined the officer for his "stupid behaviour" that Monday night.

The police chief says the officer's conduct was an "eyebrow raiser" that undermined public confidence in the force.

Police and firefighters used small inflatable boats to ferry the trapped passengers a short distance to higher ground, with the evacuation taking some seven hours.
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Bizarro Earth

Mysterious disaster in India seen from space

Larry O'Hanlon
Discovery News
Mon, 15 Jul 2013 14:48 UTC
Mystery Landslide
© Indian National Remote Sensing CenterThe village of Rambara is one of scores that were wiped off the map by the monsoon-triggered floods and debris flows in northern India last month.
Animated Image
It has taken some time for the news to come out of India, but there has been a major landslide disaster that has claimed an estimated 6,000 lives. In the remote, mountainous north of the country, steep slopes have given way and launched flows of rock and water that have destroyed or seriously damaged some 240 villages and small towns.

A very good place to get the details of the events, as well as analysis of the causes over the last few weeks, is via The Landslide Blog, by landslide expert Dave Petley of Durham University in the United Kingdom (full disclosure: I am the AGU blogosphere manager, where Petley's blog appears).

Among the dead are pilgrims, tourists and residents of a number of villages, including the temple town of Kedarnath. The cause of the disaster is the exceptionally heavy monsoon rains that have hit the region. Videos of the actual flooding can be seen here.

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Cloud Precipitation

From record heat and wildfires to record rainfall - mudslide sweeps away car in Colorado


The Guardian
Thu, 11 Jul 2013 13:27 UTC

A mudslide in Colorado sweeps away a car on Wednesday after heavy rainfall caused flooding. The car is believed to have been empty at the time. The flooding shut down four miles of a motorway for nearly three hours. More than 100 people were evacuated from the area but there have been no reports of injuries

Source: ITN
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Cloud Precipitation

Sichuan, China bridge collapse triggered by floods; 3 rescued from raging river


Huffington Post
Tue, 09 Jul 2013 15:48 UTC
Sichuan flood bridge
© AP PhotoIn this image taken by mobile phone camera, what remains of the Qinglian bridge that was swept away by heaving flood waters is seen in the city of Jiangyou in the western province of Sichuan on Tuesday, July 9, 2013.
Three people were pulled from a raging river but six others remained missing following a bridge collapse Tuesday in mountainous western China amid heavy flooding that has forced thousands to evacuate their homes.

The official Xinhua News Agency said one sedan, three minivans and one SUV fell into the torrent when the more than 40-year-old Qinglian bridge broke apart just before noon in the city of Jiangyou in the western province of Sichuan.
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