Floods
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Bizarro Earth

US: Heavy Rainstorms are Chicago's Latest Weather Nightmare


Chicago Tribune
Sat, 23 Jul 2011 15:01 UTC
Heavy Rains in Chicago
© Robert Kozloff / Chicago TribuneA tow truck prepares to hook up a stranded car on the feeder ramp from I-90/94 to I-290 and the Congress Parkway downtown.
Those looking for some kind of a break from the heat of the last week got it overnight -- a rainstorm that dropped temperatures into the low 70s. But like the heat wave that preceded it, this rainstorm was anything but ordinary.

According to ChicagoWeatherCenter, the total rainfall at O'Hare -- 6.91 inches as of about 6:50 a.m. -- is the largest single-day rainfall since records began in 1871. The highest previous daily total was 6.64 inches on Sept. 12, 2008. And more rain is on the way.

There were rainfall totals as high as 7 inches as the storm moved noisily through the Chicago area after midnight, resulting in flash flood warnings from the National Weather Service and enough flooded roads and highways to make life miserable for passengers headed to or from O'Hare International Airport and make a mess of traffic overnight and into Saturday morning.

The north side got the brunt of the rain, with O'Hare International airport getting 5.53 inches in two hours, according to ChicagoWeathercenter.com. Some other totals of note reported by the Weather Center: 6.41 inches in Glenview, 5.4 inches in Arlington Heights and 5.49 inches in Elk Grove Village.
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Cloud Lightning

Swollen rivers still threatening some parts of Czech Republic

České noviny
ČTK
Sat, 23 Jul 2011 12:03 UTC
CZ flood
© ČTKPersistent rain on the night of 22 July lead to rise of Moravia river. The river burst its banks and disrupted transport between Hanušovice and Králíky
Prague - Swollen Czech rivers are still threatening some parts of north-east Bohemia and north Moravia, but meteorologists say rain should start abating tonight.

Yet, they have extended the warning against floods until 10:00 CEST on Saturday in the above parts of the Czech Republic.

Heavy rains started afflicting the country on Wednesday.

Some lower-category roads have been closed in the Liberec Region, north Bohemia, in the Kralovehradecky Region, east Bohemia, and in the Olomouc Region, north Moravia.

Some people who were evacuated in the regions could return to their homes today, while others preventively stay outside their homes.
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Bizarro Earth

Australia: Sydney Records its Wettest July in 50 years as Parts of NSW are Declared Disaster Zones

Henry Budd
The Daily Telegraph, Australia
Fri, 22 Jul 2011 13:31 UTC
Wet Sydney_1
© James Croucher / The Daily Telegraph A Sydney lady braves the weather.
Parts of NSW have been declared natural disaster zones, as Sydney has experiences its wettest July since 1950.

Downpours are playing havoc with roads and public transport across the state, while floods have trapped people in their cars.

Police and Emergency Services Minister Michael Gallacher has added Lithgow, west of the Blue Mountains, Kiama on the south coast and the Illawarra city of Wollongong to the disaster list.

"These local government areas follow on the natural disaster declarations for the Blue Mountains, Shoalhaven, Oberon and Wingecarribee made on July 7,'' Mr Gallacher said.

Almost 23mm of rain has been measured at Observatory Hill in central Sydney since 9am (AEST) on Friday.

This has taken Sydney's July total to 244mm, making it the wettest July since 1950, when 336mm was recorded. That was the wettest year since Bureau of Meteorology records began in 1858.

The latest drenching means this month is now the 15th wettest July on record.
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Bizarro Earth

Monsoon Floods Kill 6, Displace More than 10,000 in Southern Bangladesh

Farid Hossain
The Associated Press
Fri, 22 Jul 2011 02:12 UTC
Floods triggered by monsoon rains in southern Bangladesh have killed 6 people, displaced more than 10,000 and washed away shrimp farms close to the Bay of Bengal, authorities said Friday.

The region's Matamuhuri and Bakhkhali rivers overflowed after five days of heavy rain and inundated about 200 villages, chief government administrator Zainul Bari said. The displaced have taken shelter in school buildings in the flood-hit district of Cox's Bazar, he said.

He said flood waters damaged shrimp farms and paddy crops in the affected areas.

Bari said government relief workers are handing dried food and clean drinking water to the displaced.

Also Friday another government official Shafiq Mia said six flood-related deaths have been reported in the area, 296 kilometers (185 miles) south of Dhaka.
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Cloud Lightning

Australia: Wild Weather Still Lashing Illawarra Coast


ABC News
Fri, 22 Jul 2011 05:28 UTC
Image
© Google
The State Emergency Service (SES) experienced a busy night in the Hunter and on the central coast but the number of calls-outs has dropped off in the Illawarra.

A heavy weather front continues to dominate the coast, with the Bureau of Meteorology issuing a severe weather warning with very heavy surf for the Illawarra.

In the 24 hours to 9:00am Friday, Fig Tree received 74 millimetres of rain, Bellambi 71mm and Scarborough 62mm.

Grant McClory from the SES says localised flooding is still occurring and houses are experiencing rain damage.

"Total tasks since Tuesday lunchtime add up to only around 80 to 90 tasks," he said.
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Cloud Lightning

Mexico on high alert for strengthened hurricane


People's Daily Online
Thu, 21 Jul 2011 10:28 UTC
Image
Mexican authorities went on high alert Wednesday as Hurricane Dora upgraded into a Category 4 storm off the country's Pacific coast.

The Mexican National Meteorological Center, citing initial reports, said the hurricane had caused flooding in the southern states of Guerrero, Oaxaca and Chiapas, resulting in some damage.

There were no immediate reports of casualties, but local residents were urged to be cautious, and Mexican emergency personnel had been put on full alert.
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Cloud Lightning

India: Assam govt sounds flood alert, 2.5 lakh people affected


Rediff News
Tue, 19 Jul 2011 10:32 UTC
Image
© assamspider.com
Assam government on Tuesday sounded an alert across the state after flood waters breached embankments and submerged roads and houses in Lakhimpur, Dhemaji and Sonitpur districts, affecting around 2.5 lakh people, officials said.

Incessant heavy rains in Arunachal Pradesh and the affected districts triggered the first wave of floods with 75,000 people being displaced as their dwellings were washed away, the officials said. The state government, after sounding the alert, directed the National Disaster Management teams and district administrations to provide rescue, medical and relief materials to the affected people, they said.

The road link between Assam and Arunachal Pradesh through Dhemaji district has been severed following the flood waters running over National Highway-52 at Samarajan. The rising waters of the Brahmaputra were also swelling the streams inside the one-horned rhino habitat Kaziranga National Park in Golaghat district, Park sources said.
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Ambulance

US: Mom, 3 daughters from Colorado killed in Wyoming washout


Associated Press
Tue, 19 Jul 2011 22:19 UTC
a van
© AP Photo/Wyoming Highway PatrolIn this photo provided by Wyoming Highway Patrol, a van which was carrying four members of a family who died, is seen downstream from washed-out section of Wyoming Highway 130 in the Medicine Bow Mountains in southern Wyoming on Tuesday, July 19, 2011. They were fleeing torrential rains at a national forest campground.
Cheyenne. - Four members of a Colorado Springs family died after their vehicle drove into a washed-out section of a mountain highway in Wyoming and was swept downstream by a raging creek as they fled torrential rains at a national forest campground.

A mother and her three young daughters were killed; only the husband and father managed to escape as the van was carried away.

Officials said debris in the creek blocked large culverts that run under the highway and the water then tore through the roadway, opening a 25-foot-wide, 9-foot-deep breach about 20 miles from Saratoga in the southern part of the state.

The van went into the creek sometime between 1:15 a.m. and 1:40 a.m. and was swept about 75 yards downstream and submerged up to its rooftop, patrol spokesman Stephen Townsend.

Minutes later, a local emergency management official who was responding to the accident hit the same washout and plunged into the creek.
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Bizarro Earth

Eight Dead In Northeast Brazil Floods From Mudslides


Agence France-Presse
Mon, 18 Jul 2011 16:31 UTC
Image
© UnknownIllustration only
Torrential rains drenching the northeast Brazilian state of Pernambuco caused at least eight deaths, mostly people carried away in mudslides, civil defense officials said Monday.

In one incident Sunday, a house outside the state capital Recife was buried in a mudslide, killing four members of one family.

An estimated 500 families were left homeless, and officials ordered evacuations in many areas.

Weather officials said that the Monday forecast called for more heavy rains, which have also cut off many roads in the state.

Elsewhere in Latin America, two people died and three were missing in floods in Guatemala, officials said.
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Cloud Lightning

Scotland hit by floods after 24 hours of torrential rain and thunderstorms

Lachlan Mackinnon
DailyRecord.co.uk
Mon, 18 Jul 2011 16:14 UTC
Image
© Unknown
Flash flooding caused misery across Scotland yesterday.

Homes were hit as streets turned into rivers after more than 24 hours of torrential rainfall and thunderstorms.

And the rain is expected to continue to fall across the country throughout this week.

Properties in the Culloden, Balloch and Smithton areas, near Inverness, were affected by flood waters.

Police closed Murray Road and Murray Terrace in Smithton, and Barn Church Road, Culloden, and said the A96 Balloch junction was "badly flooded".

There were also flash floods in Perth and Balerno, Edinburgh, where there were lightning strikes during a storm.

The Met Office's Dave Clark said: "The winds are so light that it creates convergence zones, where the wind comes from several directions to one spot.
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