Floods
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Bizarro Earth

Indonesia struggles as tsunami, volcano tolls rise

Slamet Riyadi and Achmad Ibrahim
Associated Press
Wed, 27 Oct 2010 08:36 UTC
damaged building in a village flattened by Monday's earthquake triggered tsunami
© AP Photo/Achmad IbrahimThis aerial photo shows a damaged building in a village flattened by Monday's earthquake triggered tsunami on Pagai island, West Sumatra, Indonesia, Wednesday, Oct. 27, 2010. Planes and helicopters packed with rescue workers and supplies landed for the first time Wednesday on remote Indonesian islands that were pounded by a 10-foot (three-meter) tsunami, sweeping away villages and killing at least 154 people.
Mentawai Islands - Helicopters with emergency supplies finally landed Wednesday on the remote Indonesian islands slammed by a tsunami that killed at least 272 people, while elsewhere in the archipelago the toll from a volcanic eruption rose to 30, including the mountain's spiritual caretaker.

President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono cut short a state visit to Vietnam to rush home to deal with the dual disasters that struck Indonesia within 24 hours, straining the country's ability to respond.

The first aerial surveys of the region hit by the 10-foot (three-meter) tsunami revealed huge swaths of land underwater and the crumbled rubble of homes torn apart by the wave. One house lay tilted, resting on the edge of its red roof, with tires and slabs of concrete piled up on the surrounding sand.

Two days after an undersea earthquake spawned the killer wave, the casualty count was still rising as rescuers landed for the first time on the Mentawai island chain, which was closest to the epicenter and the worst hit. Bad weather had kept them away previously.
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Newspaper

Tsunami, Earthquakes and Volcanic Eruptions Strike Indonesia!


kvia.com
Tue, 26 Oct 2010 11:07 UTC
Image
© unknownA picture of Indonesia's Mount Merapi taken from Umbul Harjo village in Sleman, Yogyakarta, shows the volcano spewing smoke. Indonesia's Mount Merapi erupted three times on Tuesday, causing thousands to flee and claiming the life of a three-month-old baby as it emitted searing clouds and volcanic ash.
Rescuers battled rough seas Tuesday to reach remote Indonesian islands pounded by a 10-foot tsunami that swept away homes, killing at least 113 people. Scores more were missing and information was only beginning to trickle in from the sparsely populated surfing destination, so casualties were expected to rise.

The fault that ruptured Monday on Sumatra island's coast also caused the 2004 quake and monster Indian Ocean tsunami that killed 230,000 people in a dozen countries.

Though hundreds of disaster officials were unable to get to many of the villages on the Mentawai islands - reachable only by a 12-hour boat ride - they were preparing for the worst.

"We have 200 body bags on the way, just in case," said Mujiharto, who heads the Health Ministry's crisis center, shortly before announcing a five-fold increase in the death toll.

Indonesia, the world's largest archipelago, is prone to earthquakes and volcanic activity due to its location on the so-called Pacific Ring of Fire - a series of fault lines stretching from the Western Hemisphere through Japan and Southeast Asia.
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Better Earth

Indonesian tsunami kills 108, hundreds missing

Sunanda Creagh and Telly Nathalia
Reuters
Tue, 26 Oct 2010 10:15 UTC
tsunami indonesia
© unknown
A tsunami that pounded remote islands in western Indonesia following an earthquake off the coast of Sumatra killed more than 100 people, officials said on Tuesday, and hundreds more were missing.

The 7.5 magnitude quake hit 78 km west of South Pagai, one of the Mentawai islands, late on Monday. Local legislator Hendri Dori Satoko told Metro TV the latest toll was 108 dead and 502 missing.

Most buildings in the coastal village of Betu Monga were destroyed, said Hardimansyah, an official with the regional branch of the Department of Fisheries.

"Of the 200 people living in that village, only 40 have been found. 160 are still missing, mostly women and children," he told Reuters by phone. "We have people reporting to the security post here that they could not hold on to their children, that they were swept away. A lot of people are crying."

Hardimansyah, who has only one name, said 80 percent of the houses in the area were damaged and food supplies were low.
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Bizarro Earth

Thai floods 'worst in 50 years'

Zoe Daniel
Science Centric
Wed, 20 Oct 2010 22:13 UTC
Image
© ReutersResidents carrying their belongings wade through floodwaters in Nakhon Ratchasima province, north-east of Bangkok, in Thailand.
A quarter of Thailand has been inundated in the worst flooding in half a century with riverside areas of Bangkok set to be affected by rising water.

The death toll from the floods has now risen to 12 and is mainly attributed to flash flooding which has washed away homes.

Four people died in Buriram, in eastern Thailand, as waters gushed through the streets, while the death toll in severely affected Nakhon Ratchasima has risen to four.

The central provinces of Rayong and Trat have both reported one casualty, while a further two people were killed in Lopburi.

Rescue teams have helped evacuate stranded people by boat, as homes and huge swathes of farmland have been deluged.

The area to the north-east of Bangkok is worst affected after twice the amount of rain compared to this time last year.
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Cloud Lightning

7 die in typhoon-triggered landslide at temple


msnbc.com
Fri, 22 Oct 2010 11:50 UTC
Image
© Associated PressEmergency rescue team members extract a body from the flood debris caused by passing Typhoon Megi at a temple in Ilan county, north eastern Taiwan on Friday.
Seven people were killed when a mudslide buried a Buddhist temple and a bus containing 19 Chinese tourists was missing Friday, as one of the worst typhoons in 50 years battered Taiwan.

Six other people were missing and a number of vehicles were trapped on a highway as Typhoon Megi swept toward southern China, where landfall is expected late Friday or Saturday.

The storm earlier killed 26 people and damaged homes and crops in the Philippines.

Megi dumped a record 45 inches of rain in Taiwan's Ilan county over 48 hours. It had winds of 90 mph and was about 275 miles southeast of Hong Kong on Friday evening local time, the Hong Kong Observatory said.

The seven people who died were at the White Cloud Temple in Suao city along the eastern coast when it was engulfed by the mudslide, Taiwanese cable TV stations reported.
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Bizarro Earth

One Dead as Typhoon Whips Northern Philippines

Mynardo Macaraig
Agence France-Presse
Sun, 17 Oct 2010 03:00 UTC
Image
© HKO/Agence France-PresseMap showing the path of Typhoon Megi as it crashes into the Philippines
Super Typhoon Megi slammed into the northern Philippines Monday causing landslides in mountainous areas, tearing roofs off houses, whipping up huge waves along the coast and killing at least one person.

Schools were closed and thousands of people were evacuated across the north of the Philippines' main island of Luzon ahead of the strongest storm to pummel the country this year, rescue and relief officials said.

The northeastern provinces of Isabela and Cagayan were the first to feel the typhoon's fury on Monday morning, chief government weatherman Graciano Yumol said.

"There are landslides in the mountains, we have swells, storm surges and big waves along the coast line, and now we have flood alerts," Yumol said in an interview with GMA 7 television.
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Cloud Lightning

US: Hail brings Brooklyn to a near standstill in a freaky, fast but furious storm

Joe Jackson, Kerry Burke and Bill Hutchinson
NYDailynews.com
Mon, 11 Oct 2010 09:54 UTC
Image
© Arvind S. GroverLightning strikes the NYC skyline during Monday night's short, freak storm.
A freak autumn storm turned parts of the city into a winter wonderland on Monday night, pounding some of Brooklyn and Manhattan with hail the size of quarters.

The ferocious front blew in out of the east, hitting the city at about 8:30 p.m. and prompting multiple severe storm warnings and flash flood warnings.

Joann Binns, 61, of Manhattan, said she was pelted by hail a quarter-inch in diameter.

"I started running. There were ice stones," said Binns, who sought shelter under the marquee outside Madison Square Garden. "They hit me and I said, 'I'm outta here.' They hurt."

The storm prompted transit officials to reroute the F subway line and suspend the G line because of station flooding. The wicked weather also delayed the Jets' game against the Minnesota Vikings in the Meadowlands for 45 minutes because of lightning.

Comment: For more information on unusual weather in New York, see this Sott article:

New York City Hit by a TORNADO: One Person Killed and a Trail of Destruction Left as 100mph Winds Rip Through City

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Bizarro Earth

One dead, thousands affected in Philippine floods


Terra Daily / Agence France-Presse
Sat, 09 Oct 2010 19:17 UTC
Image
© Unknown
One person has drowned and thousands of people have been affected by floods that have swamped a rain-soaked island in the central Philippines, police said Saturday.

Floodwaters rose south of Naujan lake on Mindoro island after heavy rain began falling in the area before dawn Friday, national police spokesman Senior Superintendent Agrimero Cruz told reporters.

In addition to the drowned person, an undetermined number of farm animals was also lost in floodwaters that reached an average of three feet (0.91 metres), he added.

Some 8,148 families were affected in the towns of Socorro and Pinamalayan, and police are on standby to conduct rescues or evacuations where necessary.
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Bizarro Earth

Death Toll Rises As Storm Lashes Eastern U.S.


Reuters
Sat, 02 Oct 2010 16:25 UTC
Tropical storm Nicole lashed the eastern United States with heavy rain and high winds again on Friday, causing more flooding and leaving one Pennsylvania woman dead in a weather-related traffic accident.

The woman drove her car into a rain-swollen creek, bringing the U.S. death toll from the storm to at least six, after five people were killed earlier this week in North Carolina.

The governor of North Carolina declared a state of emergency, with officials there warning that creeks and rivers would continue to rise even after the storm passed.

Flood warnings were in effect for parts of New York, Pennsylvania, Connecticut, Massachusetts, North and South Carolina, Virginia, Maryland and Washington D.C.

The deluge that started on Wednesday set records in several areas, said Dan Peterson, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service.
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Bizarro Earth

Tropical Storm Nicole Kills Nine in Jamaica

Kevin Gray
Reuters
Sat, 02 Oct 2010 05:43 UTC
Short-lived Tropical Storm Nicole triggered flash flooding that killed at least nine people in Jamaica and dumped heavy rain on Florida, Cuba, the Cayman Islands and the Bahamas on Wednesday.

The broad and ragged storm formed on Wednesday morning and dissipated Wednesday afternoon. U.S. and Cuban meteorologists disagreed on whether it ever actually became a tropical storm at all.

Forecasters at the U.S. National Hurricane Center in Miami pegged its peak sustained winds at 40 miles per hour, just over the 39 mph threshold to become a named storm.

Cuban forecasters put the top winds at 37 mph and disagreed that it was a tropical storm when it crossed the island. "No tropical storm exists," Cuba's top meteorologist, Jorge Rubiera, said on national television.

U.S. forecasters said Nicole had a poorly defined center of circulation and had been "a marginal system."
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