Floods

US: Snow Melt Causing Major Flooding in Midwest

Wisconsin Ag Connection
Tue, 22 Mar 2011 12:00 UTC

Excessive snow in the northern Great Plains and Midwest may spur floods that rival the record- setting deluge of 2009, threatening U.S. wheat crops and livestock as cities in the region stockpile sandbags.

Since October, North Dakota, the largest wheat-growing state, South Dakota and Minnesota got almost 3 feet more snow than usual, National Weather Service data show. According to Bloomberg News, more than 20 inches remain in some areas, about the same amount that was on the ground at this time in 2009, before floods along the Red River of the North caused about $223.7 million in damage and killed more than 91,000 cattle.

Planting delays may curb wheat output for a third year in the U.S., the world's largest exporter. Global inventories of the grain already were eroded by floods last year in Australia and Canada and a drought in Russia that sent wheat prices to two-year high last month. World food prices tracked by the United Nations reached a record in February.

"There is strong interest in wheat" from traders because of the potential threat to U.S. production, said Jim Peterson, the marketing director of the Bismarck-based North Dakota Wheat Commission, an industry group. If floods delay the start of spring planting until late April, "you'll start seeing the market get quite concerned," he said.

2010 Extreme Weather: Deadliest Year In A Generation

Seth Borenstein and Julie Reed Bell
The Huffington Post
Sun, 19 Dec 2010 00:56 UTC

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: Interesting how the blame is assigned to those who are struggling daily with the effects of psychopathy at the top (including scientific establishment), and with the influence of those who are in fact responsible for the negligence, mediocrity, political manipulations and lies so prevalent in our nowadays society.

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.

US: Spring Flooding Underway, Expected to Worsen Through April

NOAA
Thu, 17 Mar 2011 00:00 UTC

U.S. Spring Flood Risk Map for 2011.

With spring flooding already underway over portions of the U.S., NOAA forecasters are warning the worst is yet to come. Almost half the country - from the North Central U.S. through the Midwest and the Northeast - has an above-average risk of flooding over the next few weeks, according to the annual spring outlook released today by NOAA's National Weather Service. This week is also national Flood Safety Awareness Week, and NOAA has partnered with FEMA to encourage residents to prepare for this imminent threat.

The highest spring flood risk areas include the Red River of the North, which forms the state line between eastern North Dakota and northwest Minnesota, the Milk River in eastern Montana, the James and Big Sioux Rivers in South Dakota, the Minnesota River, the upper Mississippi River basin from Minneapolis southward to St. Louis, and a portion of lower New York, eastern Pennsylvania and northern New Jersey. Many metropolitan areas have a greater than 95 percent chance of major flooding, including Fargo, Grand Forks, St. Paul, Davenport, Rock Island, Sioux Falls and Huron. Devils Lake in North Dakota has an 80 percent chance of reaching two feet above last year's record of 1452.1 feet.

"For the third consecutive year, the stage is set for potential widespread, record flooding in the North Central United States," said Jack Hayes, Ph.D., director of NOAA's National Weather Service. "We've been coordinating with federal and state partners and high risk communities since December to raise awareness and help them prepare. All the ingredients are in place for major flooding so this situation should be taken very seriously. We're asking citizens to stay informed and be prepared."

Ten killed in south Brazil floods, thousands evacuated

RIA Novosti
Tue, 15 Mar 2011 23:26 UTC

At least 10 people have been killed and over 21,000 evacuated in floods in the south of Brazil, civil defense officials reported.

Torrential rain caused floods and landslides and destroyed roads in the states of Rio Grande do Sul, Santa Catarina and Parana.

Two people are missing. Overall, up to 60,000 residents of the South American country's south have been affected.

And the aftershocks go on: 275 new tremors hit quake-torn Japan as fears grow for missing 10,000 in flattened port town

The Daily Mail, UK
Tue, 15 Mar 2011 00:38 UTC

42 survivors have been pulled out of the rubble

Official death toll hits 1,597, but many hundreds believed to be buried under rubble or washed away by waves

Toll will soar after around 2,000 bodies were found on the shores of Miyagi prefecture

Second explosion at nuclear power plant

Number of people contaminated with radiation could reach 160

Region hit by hundreds of aftershocks, some up to 6.8-magnitude

Rescue operation begins but some areas still cut off by road damage and flood waters

70,000 people evacuated to shelters in Sendai

Forty-two survivors have been pulled from the rubble in the flattened town of Minami Sanrik, where up to 10,000 people are feared to have perished.

Around half the town's 18,000 residents are missing but search and rescue teams are still working desperately through the rubble to try and find more people.

Police are also trying to stop people returning to their homes.

Despite the first tsunami warning being issued to the town that lies two miles from the coastline, some residents decided to stay in their homes instead of fleeing - leading to the high number of missing people, CNN reported today..

Most of the houses in Minami Sanriku have been completely flattened and waterlogged and one house was found even with seaweed inside.

Japan earthquake: Footage of moment tsunami hit

BBC News Asia Pacific
Sun, 13 Mar 2011 14:06 UTC

Newly emerged footage shows the force at which the tsunami struck Japan's coast.

In the fishing port of Miyako, in Iwate prefecture, boats were overturned, while video from Kamaishi city shows cars being dragged down city streets by the water.

The tsunami that followed the 8.9-magnitude earthquake wreaked havoc along a huge stretch of Japan's north-east coast, sweeping far inland and devastating a number of towns and villages. Powerful aftershocks are continuing to hit the region.

Footage courtesy of TV Asahi and TBS

Japan earthquake, tsunami death toll likely above 10,000; survivors worry about supplies

Chico Harlan
The Washington Post
Mon, 14 Mar 2011 06:15 UTC

Tokyo - Overwhelmed by a still-growing catastrophe, Japanese authorities struggled Monday to reach buried survivors and the missing, faced roadblocks in delivering aid and raced to contain an expanding nuclear emergency.

Prime Minister Naoto Kan called the crisis the country's toughest challenge since World War II and said that decimated towns along the northeastern coastline were not yet getting the food and supplies they needed.

A series of unstable nuclear plants across the country threatened to compound the nation's difficulties, which started with Friday's double-barreled disasters: first an 8.9-magnitude earthquake, then a tsunami. At the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant, one containment building housing an overheated reactor had already exploded. A second explosion, about noon local time Monday, destroyed an outer building at another of the plant's reactors.

Officials said a third reactor at the six-reactor facility had lost its cooling capacity, and the U.S. Seventh Fleet, stationed 100 miles offshore, repositioned its ships and aircraft after some if its personnel came into contact with radioactive contamination.

With a government spokesman saying that the reactor units could be in partial meltdown, an alarmed public struggled to understand the safety implications of trace radiation leakage, even as the government said that public safety was not in danger.

Photos: Japan Earthquake Aftermath

Alan Taylor
The Atlantic
Sun, 13 Mar 2011 09:57 UTC

Three days after a massive earthquake that is now estimated to have registered a 9.0 magnitude, Japanese rescue crews are being joined by foreign aid teams in the search for survivors in the wreckage. Japan's Prime Minister Naoto Kan has called the disaster the nation's worst crisis since World War II, as the incredible scope of the destruction becomes clear and fears mount of a possible nuclear meltdown at a failing power plant. It is still too early for exact numbers, but the estimated death toll may top 10,000 as thousands remain unaccounted for. Gathered here are new images of the destruction and of the search for survivors.

© REUTERS/Mainichi Shimbun
A wave approaches Miyako City from the Heigawa estuary in Iwate Prefecture after the magnitude 9.0 earthquake struck the area March 11, 2011. Picture taken March 11, 2011.

Japan quake: Toll may cross 10,000 in Miyagi alone

The Times of India
Sun, 13 Mar 2011 05:17 UTC

The toll from a magnitude-8.9 earthquake in Japan could exceed 10,000 in the hardest-hit prefecture of Miyagi alone, police said on Sunday, as other officials tried to reassure the public that reactors at two damaged nuclear power plants posed no immediate danger.

"I have no doubt" that the death toll would rise above 10,000 in the prefecture, public broadcaster NHK quoted police chief Takeuchi Naoto as saying.

About 800 deaths had been confirmed so far in Miyagi and other areas in northeastern Japan, which were hit Friday by the quake and a tsunami. No contact could be established with about 10,000 residents of the town of Minamisanriku.

Images - Japanese Earthquake and Tsunami

Alan Taylor
The Atlantic
Sat, 12 Mar 2011 08:35 UTC

A massive 8.9-magnitude quake hit northeast Japan on Friday, causing dozens of deaths, more than 80 fires, and a 10-meter (33-ft) tsunami along parts of the country's coastline. Homes were swept away and damage is extensive.

Below is a stunning collection of photographs which show some of the devastation in Japan: