Floods
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Cloud Lightning

Storm causes hillside collapse, flooding in Southern California

Gillian Flaccus
YahooNews
Wed, 22 Dec 2010 16:30 UTC
Image
© APPeople attempt to pull a truck out of the rain-swollen Santiago Creek near Modjeska Canyon, Calif. on Tuesday, Dec. 21, 2010.
A powerful storm dumped more rain on already waterlogged Southern California on Wednesday, washing hillsides onto highways, endangering houses in canyons and forcing rescuers to pluck dozens of motorists from flooded streets.

The storm was expected to ease as it moved eastward. Floodwaters washed away homes in Arizona, and inundated parts of Nevada and Utah.

The low-pressure system could be in New Mexico by Thursday and could reach the Gulf Coast by Saturday with some rain, but not the deluge that hit Southern California, forecasters said.

In Southern California, the burst of heavy rain in the morning left streets flooded and caused minor mudslides. The threat, however, of larger mudslides could last for weeks in the suburban Los Angeles canyon hillsides laid bare by wildfires.

"The ground is so saturated it could move at any time," said Bob Spencer, spokesman for the Los Angeles County Department of Public Works.
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Bizarro Earth

US: Los Angeles Evacuations Ordered; California Braces for More Rain

Gillian Flaccus
The Associated Press
Wed, 22 Dec 2010 01:48 UTC
San Bernardino County Firefighter
© AP Photo/Daily Press/James QuiggSan Bernardino County Firefighters Jay Hausman, left, and Ryan Beckers, right, pull a victim from a car caught in swift water at Hughes and Avalon Road in Victorville, Calif., Monday, Dec. 20, 2010.
If six days of pounding rain wasn't enough to dampen holiday spirits, a seventh could prove to be downright dangerous. Forecasters expected heavy rains across California going into Wednesday, and authorities began evacuations late Tuesday as concern grew about potential mudslides in the wildfire-scarred foothills across the southern part of the state.

Officials ordered evacuation of 232 homes in La Canada Flintridge and La Crescenta, foothill suburbs of Los Angeles, because of forecasts of more heavy rains on already saturated mountainsides.

San Diego police evacuated dozens of homes and businesses but no structural damage was reported in the city, said Lt. Andra Brown. A commuter rail station was closed in the city's Sorrento Valley area due to heavy rains. About a dozen homes were evacuated in a cul-de-sac south of downtown.
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Bizarro Earth

Southern California Braces for More Rain, Possible Mudslides

Leezel Tanglao
ABC
Tue, 21 Dec 2010 18:41 UTC
Worst Weather in Years Pounds West Coast, Utah and Nevada

From the mountains to the foothills, California residents are bracing for another round of heavy rains and threats of mudslides. For the past week, residents faced relentless rainfall along with snow and high winds.


In the northern part of the state, the storm knocked out power to thousands of customers, according to local utility companies.

Southern California has been hit hard by heavy rains since the weekend - creating scores of accidents and residents preparing to evacuate.

"I was just driving and the wind was actually what pushed me and caused me to hit the pole," said motorist Raquel Funches.
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Cloud Lightning

2010's World Gone Wild: Quakes, Floods, Blizzards

Seth Borenstein & Julie Reed Bell
AP News
Sun, 19 Dec 2010 14:25 UTC
tornado
© unknown
This was the year the Earth struck back.

Earthquakes, heat waves, floods, volcanoes, super typhoons, blizzards, landslides and droughts killed at least a quarter million people in 2010 - the deadliest year in more than a generation. More people were killed worldwide by natural disasters this year than have been killed in terrorism attacks in the past 40 years combined.

"It just seemed like it was back-to-back and it came in waves," said Craig Fugate, who heads the U.S. Federal Emergency Management Agency. It handled a record number of disasters in 2010.

"The term '100-year event' really lost its meaning this year."

And we have ourselves to blame most of the time, scientists and disaster experts say.


Comment: This article supports the idea of human-caused global warming, and, as the above sentence says, blames us humans for most of the disasters that befell the world this past year. Find an analysis and rebuttal to this story here.


Even though many catastrophes have the ring of random chance, the hand of man made this a particularly deadly, costly, extreme and weird year for everything from wild weather to earthquakes.

Poor construction and development practices conspire to make earthquakes more deadly than they need be. More people live in poverty in vulnerable buildings in crowded cities. That means that when the ground shakes, the river breaches, or the tropical cyclone hits, more people die.
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Cloud Lightning

Storms bring flood threat to Washington, Oregon rivers

George Tibbits
Associated Press
Sun, 12 Dec 2010 15:36 UTC
Storm system
© Associated Press
Record rainfall in the Pacific Northwest triggered mudslides and threatened to cause severe flooding of some Western Washington rivers Sunday.

Although the rain had eased in much of southwest Washington and northwest Oregon, including Portland, downpours continued from Seattle north, swelling rivers and threatening some small towns. The rain was expected to lessen Sunday evening, with the worst of the flood danger over by early Monday.

Still, flood watches or warnings remained in effect for the region, and forecasters said storms could dump 6 inches or more of rain in the Cascade Range and Olympic Mountains.

"We're looking at the wettest storm system we've had for in almost two years," said National Weather Service meteorologist Kirby Cook in Seattle.
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Better Earth

Stillaguamish River Reaches Record Flood Stage


King5News.com
Sun, 12 Dec 2010 08:18 UTC
Image
© Jim FormanThe Stillaguamish River at Arlington
Record rainfall has flooded roads and triggered mudslides in Western Washington. King County road closures.

"Many areas around the region picked up anywhere from 3/4" of rain at Whidbey Island to 5.68" at Bremerton on Sunday!" said KING 5 Meteorologist Jim Guy. "Since midnight, SeaTac has recorded 2.20". That's a new daily maximum record."

The Stillaquamish River reached record flood stage Sunday afternoon, tying the record set in November of 2006. About 230 homes and businesses in Granite Falls near the Stillaguamish River have been asked to evacuate.

Severe and possibly near-record flooding is also predicted in on the Snohomish River near Monroe and the city of Snohomish. Weather forecasters say deep and swift flood waters will inundate many roads, including Highway 530 east of Arlington and most valley roads downstream of Interstate 5 to Stanwood.
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Cloud Lightning

Cold snap arrives in Turkey with a vengeance


Hurriyet Daily News
Fri, 10 Dec 2010 18:04 UTC
Turkey flooding
© Daily News / Hasan ALTINIŞIKBad weather has affected life in Istanbul, with increasing accidents and heavy traffic snarling the city’s motorways.
After weeks of unseasonably warm and sunny weather, a cold snap from the Balkans arrived in Turkey accompanied by rain, sleet and snow. The strong storms caused flooding in the Aegean province of Aydın that killed one person and left two others missing Friday.

Bad weather has affected life in Istanbul, with increasing accidents and heavy traffic snarling the city's motorways. Some airplane flights and ferries scheduled to operate Friday have been canceled as a consequence of the weather.

The Turkish State Meteorological Service, or DMİ, forecasts rainy weather for the western Marmara sea, Black sea, southern Aegean and Mediterranean regions of the country, while the eastern Marmara region, including Istanbul, Sakarya and Kocaeli provinces, the Aegean, Göller, Anatolian and western Black Sea regions are expected to receive snow.
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Cloud Precipitation

Worse to come as Australia flood toll rises


Agence France-Presse
Fri, 10 Dec 2010 10:27 UTC
australia floods
© AFPFloods sweeping across eastern Australia that have left four people dead
Floods sweeping across eastern Australia that have left four people dead and cost millions of dollars in crop losses could worsen next week, emergency officials warned Friday.

Some 30 regions have been declared natural disaster areas in New South Wales and more than 300 people have been isolated by the flood waters, but further storms are forecast for the nation's most populous state.

"The conditions are easing right now and over the weekend, but the flooding will potentially increase next week," a state emergency services spokesman told AFP.
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Cloud Precipitation

Rains leave rising death toll in Colombia, Venezuela


Agence France-Presse
Sun, 05 Dec 2010 10:18 UTC
tachira river
© AFPResidents stand next to a buliding damaged by the overflowing of the Tachira River
The toll from weeks of heavy rains across Colombia has risen to 174 people dead and over 1.5 million homeless, the Colombian Red Cross said Saturday.

And in neighboring Venezuela to the east, driving rains have triggered flooding and cave-ins that have killed 34 people over the past week and left an estimated 73,000 people homeless nationwide, officials said.

In Colombia, 225 people have been injured and 19 were missing, Colombian Red Cross deputy director of operations Cesar Uruena told reporters. A total of 1,821 homes have been damaged or destroyed.
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Heart

Venezuela moves flood-hit families into resort hotels

Daniel Wallis
Reuters
Mon, 06 Dec 2010 13:35 UTC
People evacuate after the flooding
© Reuters/Carlos Garcia RawlinsPeople evacuate after the flooding of a river in Higuerote, about 100 km (60 miles) east of Caracas December 5, 2010.
Caracas - Venezuelan security forces have started housing families displaced by floods in tourist hotel rooms following an order by President Hugo Chavez to make use of vacant accommodation, local media said on Monday.

Heavy rains have killed at least 32 people and forced more than 100,000 from their homes in recent days. Emergencies have been declared in various states, and the country's Caribbean coast has been particularly hard hit by mudslides.

In a televised broadcast from one flooded area on Sunday, the president told the National Guard to begin moving families into vacant hotel accommodation.

"See how many buildings there are abandoned by tourists, and from today begin to occupy them with families," he said. "You will not pay anything," he told displaced people.
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