Floods
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Canada: Manitoba floods claim driver's life


CBC News
Sat, 09 Apr 2011 12:38 UTC
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© CBC NewsBreezy Point Road, also known as Provincial Road 320, was closed Friday after being washed over by the swollen Red River.
Floodway activated to shunt water around Winnipeg as more homes evacuated

About 50 homes north of Winnipeg were evacuated Saturday morning because of rising water levels, as police said the province's flooding was likely responsible for the death of a motorist.

The homes, mostly on Jenny Road in the Netley Creek area of the Rural Municipality of St. Andrews, are no longer accessible by road and residents are having to leave by boat. Evacuations began Saturday morning around 8 a.m. CT.

A provincial agency also opened the gates of the Red River Floodway to diver water around Winnipeg.

Emergency officials were asking other homeowners in the St. Andrews area to be prepared to leave quickly, gathering medications and other personal items of value so that they can move out at a moment's notice.
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Cloud Lightning

West Virginia, US: Charleston area storms produce 'lots of water and tons of debris'

Kathryn Gregory
The Charleston Gazette
Fri, 08 Apr 2011 21:39 UTC
Trees knocked down, roads flooded 2nd time in a week

Heavy rains caused power outages, flooding and damage across the Charleston area for the second time in one week on Friday.

Kimberly Earl and her husband, Cody, were in their home on Bakers Fork Road with two of their four kids when a massive tree uprooted on the hill across from their house, slamming onto their roof.

"Every time it rains," she said, "a little more of that hillside washes away."
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Bizarro Earth

Southern Thailand's flood death toll hits 59


Monsters and Critics
Sat, 09 Apr 2011 09:40 UTC
The death toll reached 59 Saturday from floods and mudslides in southern Thailand over two weeks that caused damage estimated at more than 300 million dollars, officials said.

The Interior Ministry's disaster prevention and mitigation department said 26 people had died in Nakhon Si Thammarat province, 610 kilometres south of Bangkok.

Twelve deaths were confirmed in neighbouring Surat Thani province, with additional casualties in Krabi, Phatthalung, Chumphon, Trang and Phangnga provinces throughout the southern region.

Large areas of Nakhon Si Thammarat were reported still underwater on Saturday.
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Cloud Lightning

US: National Weather Service Says 2nd Mississippi River Crest Will Be Higher


WTAQ News
Tue, 05 Apr 2011 23:53 UTC
flood measure
© n/a
A second crest of the Mississippi River has started in Saint Paul Minnesota.

Major floods are expected by this weekend at Prescott in far western Wisconsin. The river is already a foot-and-a-half above its flood stage at nearby Hastings Minnesota.

The National Weather Service says the Mississippi's second crest will be higher than the first one. It's the result of melting snow, plus more precipitation expected on Thursday and into the weekend.

The Mississippi is not expected to fall at Hastings until early next week. But folks down the river in La Crosse and Prairie du Chien probably won't see a major impact. Only minor flooding is forecast in both those places. The Mississippi River is about three-inches below its flood stage today in La Crosse. It's expected to rise Thursday, and then drop below its banks next Monday.
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Cloud Lightning

Namibia: 62 killed, thousands displaced by floods as more rain expected


The Associated Press
Wed, 06 Apr 2011 09:57 UTC
The United Nations says 62 people have been killed and thousands forced from their homes since the start of the year by flooding in northern Namibia.

In a statement Wednesday, the U.N. children's fund says the numbers could "dramatically increase" soon.

U.N. officials in Namibia say a new wave of water is expected from Angola, and the forecast is for more rains in northern Namibia in the coming days.

UNICEF says northern Namibia is already vulnerable. It is among the most densely populated and poorest parts of the country, with a high number of people carrying the AIDS virus. UNICEF says one in every fifteen children dies before reaching the age of five in the region.
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Bizarro Earth

Thailand flood toll reaches 40


Terra Daily / Agence France-Presse
Mon, 04 Apr 2011 10:21 UTC
The death toll from heavy flooding in southern Thailand has risen to 40, the government said Sunday, with thousands of people forced to live in temporary shelters.

More than a week of heavy rain -- in what is usually one of the hottest months -- has caused floods in 10 of Thailand's 77 provinces, submerging homes, triggering landslides and washing away roads and bridges.

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© Unknown
As of Sunday, the death toll stood at 17 in hard-hit Nakhon Si Thammarat province, 10 in Surat Thani, seven in Krabi, and two in each of Phatthalung, Chumphon and Trang, the department of disaster prevention and mitigation said.

A mudslide swamped at least one whole village in Khao Phanom district, Krabi province.
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Cloud Lightning

25 dead in Thai floods; rains finally ease


The Seattle Times
Fri, 01 Apr 2011 13:44 UTC
thai floods
© Associated PressA Buddhist monk paddles through a flooded temple
Bangkok- Heavy rains have finally eased in southern Thailand, where flooding and mudslides over the past week killed 25 people.

Flood relief center official Vittayen Muttamara warned Friday that residents in hillside areas must remain alert, because the flood runoff from the mountains could still inundate villages.

The government disaster agency says nearly 1 million people in eight southern provinces have been affected by the floods.

Vittayen said access to some villages by land was still difficult because of damage to roads and bridges, but rescue workers were able to reach them by helicopter. The state news agency TNA quoted Education Minister Chinnaworn Boonyakiat saying more than 1,246 schools suffered damage.
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Cloud Lightning

Floods in Malasya: 1,013 Evacuated In Terengganu


Bernama
Tue, 29 Mar 2011 08:21 UTC
The number of flood victims in Terengganu rose to 1,013 people as of 8pm Tuesday night as the floods in several districts worsened.

They are currently housed in 14 evacuation centres, a spokesperson of the Terengganu National Security Council said.

The floods also forced the closure of over 23 schools, of which 12 were in Setiu involving 1,500 students, nine in Hulu Terengganu with 1,400 students and two in Besut with with 700 students.
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Cloud Lightning

US: Flooding Damages N. Calif. Businesses and Homes

Sudin Thanawala
San Francisco Chronicle/ AP
Wed, 23 Mar 2011 15:28 UTC
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© KGO-TV San FranciscoThe Bay Area is beginning to clean up from Thursday's storm as residents brace for more problems.
Crews on California's Central Coast were working Friday to reopen a highway through the Big Sur area and repair damage from a flood that forced the evacuation of a mobile home park, as the region got a respite from a powerful storm that brought heavy wind and rain.

Residents in the 45-unit Pacific Cove Mobile Home Park in Santa Cruz County were ordered to evacuate on Thursday when a failed drainage pipe tore a roughly 15-by-100 foot hole in the ground near homes and sent a 3-foot surge of water into Capitola Village, authorities said.

"The water was moving really rapidly and carrying debris, garbage cans, kids' toys, chairs," Pamela Bone, 52, a resident of the mobile home park said. "My neighbor and I were looking across from each other at the river running between us."

Bone said the area around her home was left caked in mud but the home itself had remained dry.

"I think we're the lucky ones," she said.

Four of the homes have been red-tagged, said Derek Johnson, a city spokesman, and crews were trying to restore electricity and other utilities to the area. The gas was not expected to be back on for at least another week.

Capitola is just south of Santa Cruz, where this month's tsunami caused millions of dollars of damage to the harbor.
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Cloud Lightning

US: 'A big one': Davenport, Iowa, braces for record flood


USA Today
Wed, 23 Mar 2011 20:04 UTC
iowa,flood
© APThis frame grab provided by WLBT-TV during a news television station helicopter flight over the Mississippi River bridge at Interstate-20 in Vicksburg, Miss., shows one of the runaway barges that hit the bridge Wednesday afternoon, March 23, 2011. The bridge was shut down for several hours Wednesday after an estimated 8 loaded barges broke loose from a southbound tow on the flood-swollen Mississippi River. Some of the barges are believed to have hit the old Interstate-20 bridge pillars but none sank officials reported. The barges are expected to be secured by early evening.
Davenport, Iowa - Volunteers in Davenport are filling thousands of sandbags, workers are rushing to protect the city's signature minor league baseball park, and the mayor is warning residents of one neighborhood to be ready to evacuate if necessary as the city braces for a potentially historic flood.

Officials in Davenport, an eastern Iowa city of 100,000 residents that hugs the Mississippi River, say the water level in coming days and weeks could surpass the 22.63-foot record crest in 1993, which closed downtown businesses and streets for weeks and forced the evacuation of hundreds of residents. Davenport is the largest metropolitan area along the upper Mississippi without a flood wall, partly because officials and residents concerned about the cost and protecting their connection to the river have rejected the idea of building one.

The city's flood-fighting strategy plans for a maximum crest of 24 feet. But a National Weather Service forecast that indicates a 50% chance of a record flood has left city officials scrambling to prepare for waters of up to 26 feet.
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