Floods
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Attention

Sri Lanka: Floods destroy over a third of rice harvest


IRIN Asia
Fri, 11 Feb 2011 15:47 UTC
Grain
© Amantha Perera/IRINFood prices have increased after the floods
Sri Lanka will lose over one million tons from its upcoming paddy harvest due to recent flooding, officials say.

"We expected a yield of around 2.75 million metric tons from the harvest due in March to April," Kulugammanne Karunathileke, secretary to the Ministry of Agriculture, told IRIN. "After the heavy rains we will only get around 1.75 million."

Karunathileke, the highest ranking official at the ministry, said the country had expected a bumper crop - until flooding, which began in January, left some paddy fields under water for up to 11 days. The worst-hit areas are in the eastern districts of Ampara, Batticaloa, Polonnaruwa, Trincomalee and the north-central district of Anuradhapura.

Together they account for over 1.2m tons of the harvest.
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Cloud Lightning

US: Flood warning issued for Bay, Gulf and Calhoun counties, Florida

Felicia Kitzmiller
Thewaltonsun.com
Thu, 10 Feb 2011 16:45 UTC
Heavy rains over the last week have made conditions conducive to flooding along the Apalachicola River and in Gulf and Calhoun counties and eastern Bay County, according to the National Weather Service in Tallahassee.

The warning, issued at 9:30 p.m. Wednesday, states flood stage begins at 15 feet, height of the bank at the marina at the mouth of the Apalachicola River. Wednesday evening water level reached 14.2 feet.
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Better Earth

Sri Lanka Death Toll Increases, Flood Waters Receding

Mandana Ismail Abeywickrema
Sunday Leader
Wed, 09 Feb 2011 13:02 UTC
The Disaster Management Center (DMC) has stated that the death toll due to heavy rains and floods that affected nearly 1.2 million persons has increased to 16.

The DMC states that 1,185,601 people belonging to 318,417 families were affected in total by the adverse weather conditions.

The rains have also completely destroyed 2,591.

Meanwhile the Uva Province EducatioSecretaryl Wijesiri has said that all government schools in the Badulla District will be closed tomorrow (10) and the day after (11).

He has said the schools will remain closed till Monday (14) due to the disaster situation that has arisen in the area following heavy rains.

Some roads in the District are still unstable while displaced persons were still being sheltered in some schools.

However, families affected by floods are now returning to their homes since the flood waters are receding in the Eastern Province.

Child Development and Women Affairs Deputy Minister M.L.A.M. Hisbullah has told the media that most of the welfare camps will be closed today.

Welfare centers in the Ampara District are to be closed tomorrow, government officials in the Ampara District have said.
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Cloud Lightning

Sri Lankan floods wreak havoc

Sutirtho Patranobis
Hindustan Times
Thu, 10 Feb 2011 05:05 UTC
The flood situation across Sri Lanka was easing off, but receding waters could reveal hundreds of thousands of acres of paddy fields totally destroyed in the two rounds of flooding in less than a month, officials said on Wednesday. At least 19 persons have been killed and nearly 1.2 millionaffected in several districts in north, central and eastern Sri Lanka in the second round of floods that swept the country in the last seven to ten days.

In the first round of rain and floods in January, more than 40 were killed and at least 1.1 million were impacted.

"The havoc caused by two rounds of flooding in Sri Lanka in January and February have destroyed 576,121 acres of paddy land in all 25 districts in the country. The total paddy cultivated was in 1.82 million acres and the total acres that were destroyed were 31% of the staple rice crop," the official government portal said on Wednesday.

In the district of Matale alone, around 4336 farmers had possibly lost their source of livelihood, latest statistics with the Disaster Management Centre (DMC) revealed.

Paddy and other field crops planted in Trincomalee and Batticaloa districts have completely been lost.

Many of the flooded areas were barely recovering from the January floods when intense rain over three to four days, again inundated fields, washed away homes and roads, triggered landslides and forced lakhs of people to take shelter in makeshift camps.
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Bizarro Earth

UK: Farmer Devastated as Prize Flock Dies in Freak Weather


The Leader
Tue, 08 Feb 2011 00:00 UTC
Image
A farmer says he is "devastated" after seeing more than 200 of his elite sheep drowned in a flash flood.

It is the second time in just over a year that Eryl Morris has been hit by the River Dee bursting its banks.

The flood, early on Sunday, has cost him many thousands of pounds and the pride of his flock.

Mr Morris was away in Buckinghamshire helping a sheep farming friend when millions of gallons of water poured on to the rich Bangor-on-Dee grazing land he has farmed for more than a decade.

Almost too upset to speak from the south of England yesterday, he said: "I am totally devastated by this - I have lost a hell of a lot sheep."

His wife Glenys said: "It was 12 hours of flash flooding that did the damage and it started about 1am.

"When I heard on the radio that Bala was flooded I knew we were in trouble too.

"The same thing happened to us in November, 2009, but although we lost some sheep then - about 40-50 - it wasn't anything like this.

"Altogether 230 of our sheep have died and another 70 were saved by the fire service and other people who were going out there in canoes I think.
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Cloud Precipitation

Sri Lankan floods pile on misery: UN


Sify News
Tue, 08 Feb 2011 16:34 UTC
The United Nations said Tuesday that recent monsoon flooding in Sri Lanka had hit hundreds of thousands of victims who were forced from their homes just weeks ago.

"The impact on people of this second wave of floods is even greater than the first in large part as peoples' capacity to cope was already diminished," UN Colombo chief Neil Buhne said in a statement.
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Attention

U.N. Issues Alerts on Flood Damage in Southern Africa, Drought in China


Kaiser Family Foundation
Tue, 08 Feb 2011 16:09 UTC
The U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) on Monday issued an alert warning that "floods and heavy rains have significantly damaged whole areas of agricultural land across southern Africa and that the livelihood and food security of farmers and their families are at risk," the Associated Press reports.

According to the FAO, more damage is possible since the rainy season is only half over and the cyclone season is due to peak in February, Agence France-Presse writes. "Most countries in the region, including Botswana, Lesotho, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, Zambia and Zimbabwe, are affected, [an FAO statement] said, quoting Cindy Holleman, FAO regional emergency coordinator. 'Food insecurity levels are already critical in the affected areas of some of these countries and floods will only further worsen the ability of poor farmers to cope and feed their families in the coming months,' Holleman added," the news service reports.
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Bizarro Earth

Australia in grip of disasters as wildfires, floods wreck havoc


Indian Express
Mon, 07 Feb 2011 13:07 UTC
Image
© unknownA bushfire burns close to a vineyard in Roleystone, near Perth.
Australia was battling a series of natural and man-made disasters as raging wildfires destroyed over 40 homes on the west coast city of Perth and Victoria was lashed by flashfloods that led to one death, while heavy thunderstorms were threatening to submerge Queensland.

The Meteorology department said heavy rains and possible flash flooding could hit parts of Brisbane, the Somerset area, Ipswich and Lockyer Valley, areas which are already reeling under the recent flooding.

Senior forecaster Rick Threlfall said a major storm was developing around the Marburg and Amberley areas, west of Brisbane, a reported by Herald Sun said quoting experts.

"That storm's not moving too far and it's produced about 40 to 50 mm (rainfall) in the last hour... with those rainfall totals flash flooding is a potential," he said.

"We've also got a storm currently heading towards Toowoomba. That's not looking too severe at the moment," he added.
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Cloud Lightning

Australia: Deluge tops up Victorian floods

Simon Lauder
ABC News
Mon, 07 Feb 2011 12:30 UTC
Australia flood
© ABC NewsA man floats on blow-up tube down Langbourne Drive, in Narre Warren South
Transcript of radio broadcast.

Eleanor Hall: The wild weather associated with Cyclone Yasi caused more flooding in Victoria on the weekend. Heavy downpours on Friday night and into Saturday caused flash flooding across the state.

While Melbourne was deluged, once again the state's north-west seems to have suffered the worst of it. For some people it's their fourth flood in recent months, as Simon Lauder reports.
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Cloud Lightning

Sri Lanka Floods Force 320,000 to Evacuate


Wall Street Journal
Mon, 07 Feb 2011 15:19 UTC
Sri Lanka flood family
© ReutersA family stands near their flooded home in the Batticaloa district, about 320 kilometers (199 miles) east of Colombo.
Floods and mudslides in Sri Lanka have forced 320,000 people to flee their homes and killed at least 11.

The Disaster Management Center said Monday the evacuees are being housed in 759 temporary camps after heavy rains last week forced them to flee. In addition to the 11 deaths, three people are missing.
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