Floods
S


Bizarro Earth

Mudslides in Southern Italy kill 3 people


USA Today / Associated Press
Wed, 23 Nov 2011 14:36 UTC
Torrential rain battered eastern Sicily on Wednesday, where mudslides have killed at least three people and muddy torrents have swept away cars and washed out bridges, authorities said.

Read More...
Cloud Lightning

Death toll from Thailand's floods tops 600


Associated Press
Sun, 20 Nov 2011 08:49 UTC
Image
© Altaf Qadri/AP
Bangkok - The death toll from Thailand's worst flooding in more than half a century has passed 600.

The floods began in late July, fed by heavy monsoon rains and a series of tropical storms. The floodwaters swamped entire towns as they moved south through the country's central heartland to Bangkok and the Gulf of Thailand. More than two-thirds of the country's 77 provinces have been affected.

The government said Sunday that the death toll has reached 602, the majority from drowning. It said the number of affected provinces is currently 17.

The situation has improved dramatically in recent days and cleanup has begun in many areas, though some still face weeks more under water.
Read More...
Bizarro Earth

Villages deluged with ash from Indonesia's Merapi eruption now fear for their lives


The Jakarta Globe
Fri, 11 Nov 2011 08:30 UTC
Image
© AntaraA local watches a makeshift bamboo bridge damaged from cold lava floods from the Merapi volcano on Wednesday
Sleman, Central Java - The arrival of the rainy season has triggered the time bomb experts have long feared: volcanic mudflows comprised of millions of tons of ash and debris blanketing Merapi's slopes after last year's eruptions.

The impact is spreading this week. Mudflows are affecting not just residents of Sleman's north and east, but those in the west as well as the Progo River threatens Kisik 1 village, which sits about 1.2 kilometers from its edge.

The river has experienced extreme shallowing due to the sedimentation of ash. Volcanic mud has repeatedly spilled over its banks and flooded residents' homes, gardens and rice fields.

Past experience has made Kisik 1 resident Samirin wary.

"If there's mudflow in the Putih and Krasak rivers, it is bound to end up in the Progo River," he said. "Almost all the levees are damaged or have been washed away. Even the east bank of the river, which was four meters high, has been washed out."
Read More...
Cloud Lightning

Extreme Weather Events Reported in Skies Over Australia


The Extinction Protocol
Thu, 10 Nov 2011 22:01 UTC
Victoria's State Emergency Service has responded to more than 1000 calls for help overnight after one of the wildest storms to lash the state this year. SES rescuers responded to cases of flash flooding, hail damage, people trapped in cars, unroofed homes and fallen trees. In one of the worst-hit areas, Frankston received 30 millimetres of rain in 20 minutes yesterday. Residents made more than 200 calls for help, including 150 about flooding and 40 about building damage.
Australia storm sky
© n/a
In Croydon several people had to be rescued from their vehicles after they became stuck in flood waters. There were another 150 reports of fallen trees, many in towns northwest of Melbourne including Castlemaine, Woodend and Maryborough. The northeast endured the worst of the storm, where 65mm of rain fell - the highest rainfall for the state. In Wodonga, several houses had their roofs ripped off. There were also reports of flooded backyards and falling trees.

Record heat

Sydney residents have sweated through what could be the hottest November night on record. Temperatures climbed to a top of 28.4C and never dipped below 26.5C, Bureau of Meteorology (BOM) duty forecaster Dmitriy Danchuk said. Previously, the hottest November night on record was in 1967, when the minimum temperature was 24.8C. The average minimum temperature for November is 15.6C. "So last night we had temperatures that were 10.9 degrees above average," Mr Danchuk said. "That's a pretty rare occasion. The last time we had high temperatures like this was on November 14, 1976. "This could be a record."
Read More...
Bizarro Earth

Vietnam floods kill at least 100


Terra Daily / Agence France-Presse
Wed, 09 Nov 2011 08:49 UTC
The death toll from weeks of severe flooding in Vietnam has climbed to 100, the government said Wednesday, as a fresh deluge in central provinces prompted the evacuation of some 30,000 people.

Image
© Unknown
The latest victims, 17 adults and five children, were killed when floods triggered by torrential rain swamped four central provinces in recent days, the national flood and storm control committee said.

Flooding in the country's southern Mekong Delta has already left 78 people dead. The UN said on Monday that 65 children under the age of 16 were among those killed in the delta region, most of them due to drowning.

As the floods battered parts of central Vietnam, newspapers ran pictures of inundated houses and streets in the town of Hoi An and the ancient city of Hue. Both are UNESCO World Heritage Sites.
Read More...
Bizarro Earth

88 dead in Vietnam flooding as high waters inundate central and southern regions


Associated Press
Tue, 08 Nov 2011 08:41 UTC
Vietnamese officials say some of the country's worst flooding in a decade has killed 88 people and left four others missing in the central and southern regions.

Central Quang Nam province disaster official Nguyen Minh Tuan says recent floods have killed eight people there, leaving another missing as large swaths of land remain submerged.

The government says two other people have drowned in central Vietnam and three more are missing.

Tuan said Tuesday that large parts of Hoi An ancient town, a UNESCO heritage site popular with tourists, were inundated, but that no landmarks were under threat of damage.
Read More...
Bizarro Earth

Death toll from Thailand floods rises past 500

Todd Pittman
Associated Press
Tue, 08 Nov 2011 08:21 UTC
Image
© AP Photo/Aaron FavilaThai Buddhist monks navigate a small boat along flooded streets in Bangkok, Thailand, Sunday, Nov. 6, 2011. The polluted black water continued its march into Bangkok and authorities ordered a spate of new evacuations in the sprawling capital.
The death toll from Thailand's worst floods in half a century climbed above 500, as advancing pools of polluted black water threatened Bangkok's subway system Monday and new evacuations were ordered in the sprawling capital.

The latest district added to the government's evacuation list late Sunday was Chatuchak, home to a large public park and an outdoor shopping zone that is a major tourist attraction. The Chatuchak Weekend Market was open but missing many vendors and customers Sunday as floodwaters poured past the market's eastern edge.

So far, Bangkok Gov. Sukhumbhand Paribatra has ordered evacuations in 11 of Bangkok's 50 districts, and partial evacuations apply in seven more.

The evacuations are not mandatory, and most people are staying to protect homes and businesses. But the orders illustrate how far flooding has progressed into the city and how powerless the government has been to stop it.

Chatuchak, just a few miles (kilometers) north of Bangkok's still-unaffected central business zone, is home to the government's national emergency flood relief headquarters. It is housed in the Energy Ministry - a building now surrounded by water.
Read More...
Cloud Lightning

More than 500 die in Thai floods

Thanaporn Promyamyai
Agence France-Presse
Mon, 07 Nov 2011 17:27 UTC
Image
© Agence France-Presse The Thai capital's bone-dry city centre is just a stone's throw away but for the residents struggling to survive waist-high floodwaters in outer Bangkok, it might as well be light years.
The death toll from Thailand's worst floods in decades jumped above 500 on Sunday as the seemingly unstoppable waters crept deeper into Bangkok, swamping main roads and threatening the city centre.

The government said the disaster has now killed 506 people nationwide -- an increase of 60 from the figure reported a day earlier. So far no deaths in Bangkok have been reported in the official toll.

At least 20 percent of the capital is already submerged in floodwater contaminated by rubbish, dead animals and industrial waste, raising fears about outbreaks of disease in the densely populated metropolis of 12 million people.

The slow-moving water is now just a few kilometres (miles) away from business and tourist districts, and authorities are desperately seeking to push the floods through waterways in the east and west of the city and out to sea.

Amid mounting concern over the advancing waters, Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra on Saturday said Bangkok's economic and political heartland risked only "minor and brief" flooding at most.
Read More...
Cloud Lightning

France hit by storms in south, three dead

Jean-Francois Rosnoblet and Alexandria Sage
Reuters
Mon, 07 Nov 2011 12:04 UTC
Image
© Reuters / Jean-Pierre AmatA woman photographs the sea as it pounds the devesated coastline between Nice and Antibes in Southern France November 6, 2011.
Heavy rains and flooding in southern France over the weekend forced the evacuation of about six hundred people, and three people died in weather-related deaths as a dozen local regions remained on alert on Sunday.

Rivers overran their banks, flooding streets and homes and leaving hundreds stranded. Television images showed cars floating along roads and residents mopping up their sodden, muddy homes.

A retired couple, both aged 71, in the southeastern coastal town of Bagnols en Foret died late Saturday night or Sunday morning from carbon monoxide poisoning while trying to bail out rising water in their cellar, police said.

On Saturday, police told Reuters they found the body of a 51-year-old homeless man who had been washed away from his campsite in the Herault southern region.
Read More...
Bizarro Earth

Mud rivers: flash floods wreak havoc on Italy's western coast- 6 dead


The Star
Fri, 04 Nov 2011 13:37 UTC
Torrential rains lashed Genoa and Italy's western coastline again Friday, triggering flash floods that killed at least six people as raging water uprooted trees and swept cars and furniture through the streets.

Luca Cari, spokesman for Genoa's fire department, told Italy's Sky TG24 that six people were confirmed dead and one person was missing.

Two of the dead were reported to be children.

Image
© Massimo Cebrelli / AFP / GettyPeople stand in a street amongst mud and debris after rivers burst their banks during heavy rainfall in downtown Genoa, Friday.
Read More...