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Floods

Cloud Precipitation

Floods force hundreds of evacuations along northern Nevada mountains

A Santa Clara County Roads and Airport Department worker responds to the scene of downed tree and mudslide on Summit Road in the Santa Cruz Mountains, Calif., Sunday, Jan. 8, 2017.
© Josie Lepe
A Santa Clara County Roads and Airport Department worker responds to the scene of downed tree and mudslide on Summit Road in the Santa Cruz Mountains, Calif., Sunday, Jan. 8, 2017.
A massive winter storm that could be the biggest to slam the region in more than a decade prompted the evacuation of hundreds of homes in northern Nevada and triggered flooding and mudslides that blocked major highways and stranded motorists in Northern California.

Crews in California cleared trees and debris Sunday following mudslides caused by steady rain accompanying the system that could dump 15 inches in the foothills of the Sierra and heavy snow on the mountain tops before it's expected to move east early Monday. Forecasters warned a second storm is expected to hit the already drenched area Monday night.

In Nevada, emergency officials voluntarily evacuated a total of 400 homes affecting about 1,300 residents in a south Reno neighborhood Sunday afternoon as the Truckee River began to leave its banks and drainage ditches started to overflow south of U.S. Interstate 80.



Sparks firefighters monitor the rising Truckee River, Sunday, Jan. 8, 2017, where it runs near the Grand Sierra hotel-casino along a line that divides the cities of Reno and Sparks, Nev.
© Scott Sonner
Sparks firefighters monitor the rising Truckee River, Sunday, Jan. 8, 2017, where it runs near the Grand Sierra hotel-casino along a line that divides the cities of Reno and Sparks, Nev.

Cloud Precipitation

Update: Floods in south Thailand leave 21 dead with over a million affected

Thailand’s DDPM carry out flood rescue and relief operations in Chumphon, January 2017.
© DDPM
Thailand’s DDPM carry out flood rescue and relief operations in Chumphon, January 2017.
Thailand's Department of Disaster Prevention and Mitigation (DDPM) report that 21 people have now died in the floods affecting southern provinces of the country.

At least 11 provinces are in emergency situations as a result of flooding which has affected over 1 million people. Thai Meteorological Department have forecast further heavy rain until Tuesday, 10 January.

Nakhon Si Thammarat airport closed from 06 January and will possibly re-open today, 09 January. Thai news agency NNT said that the province of Nakhon Si Thammarat has suffered its worst flood crisis in 30 years with 300,000 people affected and seven people dead.

Unusually heavy rain for this time of year, influenced by low depression and the strong northeast monsoon, has caused widespread flooding in southern provinces of Thailand since 01 January, 2017.



War Whore

Pentagon approves $128 billion nuclear submarine project as Military-Industrial Complex lapdog Obama leaves office

uss ohio
© Lee Jae-Won / Reuters
In its final month in office, the Obama Administration has approved a fleet of 12 Columbia-class nuclear submarines to replace the aging Ohio-class, with a bill that is more than $125 billion.

On Wednesday, Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition Frank Kendall signed an 'acquisition decision memo' that officially passed the program through "Milestone B," the last stage before the Engineering and Manufacturing Development Phase.

At an estimated cost of roughly $8 billion per vessel, the total project, along with $13 billion in research and development, and the cost of the nuclear reactors, makes the project the third most expensive defensive program in the US, after the $379 billion F-35 aircraft and the $153 billion multiservice ballistic-missile defense network.

"I'm hoping to have it done before I leave," Kendall said in an interview with Bloomberg.


Comment: While regular Americans are barely getting by, the Pentagon is rolling in hundreds of billions of tax payers dollars. Feel any safer?


Cloud Precipitation

Deadly floods strike south Thailand for second time in a month; foot of rainfall in a day

Tourists wear flotation devices and moped riders pause before crossing a flooded roadway on Ko Samui, Thailand Thursday, Jan. 5, 2017.
© AP/Adam Schreck
Tourists wear flotation devices and moped riders pause before crossing a flooded roadway on Ko Samui, Thailand Thursday, Jan. 5, 2017.
Flooding has affected at least 8 provinces in the south of Thailand. Thousands have been affected and at least 6 people have died.

The rains - unusually heavy for this time of year - have been falling since around 31 December, 2016. Nakhon Si Thammarat recorded more than 300 mm in one day. Forecasts say that more rain is expected over the coming 48 hours.

This is the second deadly flood event within a month in south Thailand. At least 11 people died and 350,000 were affected after flooding struck southern provinces in December 2016.

Thailand's The Department of Disaster Prevention and Mitigation (DDPM) is preparing to provide assistance to the thousands of victims currently affected by flooding in the southern provinces.




Cloud Precipitation

100 year floods hit Denmark

Denmark flood
© Ólafur Steinar Gestsson/Scanpix
Emergency preparations in Faaborg on the island of Funen.
Water levels in parts of Denmark reached up to 177cm above normal on Thursday morning after a predicted winter storm swept through the nation. The water rose so high in areas in southern Denmark that the Danish Meteorology Institute (DMI) said that levels reached heights that statistically only come once a century.

"We had 100-year floods in Sønderborg, Bagenkop, Aabenraa, Rødbyhavn, Hesnæs, Rødvig and Køge," DMI spokesman Frank Nielsen told broadcaster DR early on Thursday.

The highest recorded levels were in southern Lolland and Jutland, where water topped out at 177 centimetres above normal. In Copenhagen, water rose 87cm while just south of the city in Dragør the water level was 139cm above normal.

DMI said that the waters wouldn't recede until late morning on Thursday.

Despite the so-called 100-year flooding, the storm's arrival was so well warned in advance that emergency preparations were able to avert major damage.

Bizarro Earth

2016 saw highest natural disaster losses in four years at $175 billion

Hurricane Matthew hits Haiti
© Rebecca Blackwell/AP
These houses in southwestern Haiti were damaged or destroyed by Hurricane Matthew in October. Matthew was the most serious natural catastrophe in North America in 2016.
Hurricane Matthew. The earthquake in Japan. Flooding in the Deep South, China and Europe. Wildfires in Canada.

Last year sometimes felt like one natural catastrophe after another. Now, new figures from reinsurer Munich Re suggest that it was indeed a particularly bad year.

Natural catastrophes caused the highest losses worldwide in the last four years, at $175 billion, Munich Re said. It recorded some 750 events globally, including "earthquakes, storms, floods, droughts and heatwaves." The reinsurer added that about 30 percent of those losses were insured.

North America "experienced 160 loss events in 2016, the most since 1980," the reinsurer added.

Globally, the costliest single event was the devastating earthquake on the Japanese island of Kyushu, at $31 billion. Here's the breakdown of the five most costly disasters worldwide:

Cloud Precipitation

U.S. had more floods in 2016 than any year since records began in 1980

Flood graph
2016 really was the year of the flood in the U.S.: In total, 19 separate floods swamped the nation last year, the most in one single year since records began in 1980.

This is according to an analysis by Munich Re, a global reinsurance firm.

The worst flood was in August in Louisiana. At least 13 people were killed and roughly 60,000 buildings were destroyed. The disaster cost $10 billion, Munich Re reported, which noted it was the worst natural catastrophe in the U.S. since Hurricane Sandy in 2012.

"We had a lot of severe flash floods in heavily developed areas," said meteorologist Mark Bove of Munich Re.

Other major flood disasters in 2016 included those in West Virginia in June, Houston in April and Maryland in July. "We did get very unlucky" last year, Bove said.

2016 really was the year of the flood in the U.S.: In total, 19 separate floods swamped the nation last year, the most in one single year since records began in 1980.
© USA Today
2016 really was the year of the flood in the U.S.: In total, 19 separate floods swamped the nation last year, the most in one single year since records began in 1980.

Tornado1

6 killed as storms, tornadoes & floods sweep southeast US leaving trail of destruction (PHOTOS, VIDEOS)

Storm
© Phil Sears / Reuters
Dominick Curran cuts up a huge tree in front of Rehobeth Middle School after a deadly storm hit Rehobeth, Alabama, U.S., January 3, 2017.
At least six people have been killed after powerful storms, spawning several tornadoes, battered parts of the southeast United States, leaving a trail of destruction.

Four people were killed in Rehobeth, Alabama on Monday evening after a tree fell through their mobile home.

Cloud Precipitation

Last winter's floods in the UK worst in 100 years confirms NERC centre report

Flooding in Cumberland Street, York.
© John Hart, Environment Agency.
Flooding in Cumberland Street, York.
A NERC centre's scientific review of the winter floods of 2015-2016 confirms that the event was one of the most extreme and severe hydrological events of the last century.

The study, carried out by scientists from the Centre for Ecology & Hydrology (CEH) in collaboration with the British Hydrological Society (BHS), recognises that the episode ranks alongside the floods of 1947 as one of the two largest flood events of the last 100 years at least.

The new hydrological appraisal - 'The Winter Floods of 2015-16 in the UK', published on the first anniversary of Storm Desmond (5 December) - brings together both river flow and meteorological data in an analysis of the events that led to extensive river flooding in northern England, Scotland, Northern Ireland and parts of Wales over a three month period.

Storm Desmond alone caused an estimated insurance bill of more than £1·3bn when it struck on 5-6 December 2015.

Bizarro Earth

Threat of floods is shifting across the US: Risk increasing in the north, but dropping in the south

map shifting rainfall USA

With shifting rainfall patterns and amounts of water in the ground, the risk of flooding in the US is changing across the nation. Researcher says the north half of the country is at a greater risk of flooding, while the threat has declined in the West, South and Southwest regions.

With shifting rainfall patterns and ground water amounts, the risk of flooding in the US is changing across the nation.

Researcher are now warning the north half of the country is at a greater risk of flooding, while the threat has declined in the West, South and Southwest regions.

After analyzing data from streams and NASA satellites, the team discovered that the amount of ground water in the northern area of the US has increased.

The University of Iowa engineers Gabriele Villarini and Louise Slater made the discovery by comparing data from 2,042 streams with satellite information gathered over more than a dozen of years by NASA's Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) mission showing 'basin wetness,' or the amount of water stored in the ground.