Gia Chinh, Pham Chieu, Vo Hai VnExpress.net Fri, 04 Aug 2023 12:05 UTC
There had been nonstop rain for several days in the hills in Minh Phu Commune in Soc Son, about 30 km from downtown Hanoi.
At around 10:40 a.m. Friday more heavy rains triggered the flash floods down the 400-meter Dong Chum hill.
In the kilometer-long road, there are four resorts, and guests' cars parked on its two sides bore the brunt of the landslide.
Binh, whose car was among those buried, said when the flash flood occurred he and several friends who had been inside a resort heard a rumbling noise and ran out only to see rocks and mud flowing over cars.
"We were helpless and could not do anything but watch," he said.
At least 12 people have gone missing after a flash flood triggering landslide hit India's northern state of Uttarakhand, officials said Friday.
According to officials, several shops were swept away on Thursday night near Gaurikund in Rudraprayag district, about 245 km northeast of Dehradun, the capital city of Uttarakhand.
"Last night we got information that three shops were affected because of falling rocks and heavy rainfall near Gaurikund. Our teams immediately reached the spot to carry out rescue efforts despite facing several difficulties," Dalip Singh Rajwar, a disaster management officer, said. "We were unable to locate anyone, and it is said that around 12 people were there but so far they have not been traced."
In photographer Michel Soucy's 10 years living in Cheticamp, he's never come across a waterspout. He got the rare opportunity to shoot the waterspout that appeared near the town on Wednesday.
Sightings of rare waterspouts and funnel clouds across Cape Breton have locals keeping their eyes peeled to the sky with astonishment.
A villager was found dead and several others were injured when a flash flood and mud slide, caused by continuous heavy rain, swept through their mountain village in Mae Sam Laep sub-district, Sop Moei district of Thailand's northernmost province of Mae Hong Son.
Twelve houses in Ban Mae Torla village were also washed away by the strong current. The village has been without electricity and telephone connectivity since several utility poles and telephone towers collapsed.
Two people are reported to have died in severe flooding that has engulfed parts of Beijing, as Typhoon Doksuri passed through China's capital.
People's Daily reported on Monday that two people were found unresponsive in a river in Mentougou, a district in west Beijing that has suffered some of the worst flooding. According to state broadcaster CCTV, more than 31,000 people have evacuated their homes in the city.
Heavy rain continued to fall in Beijing as well as in Hebei, Tianjin and eastern Shanxi as Doksuri dissipated over northern China, the China Meteorological Administration said.
Doksuri is one of the strongest storms to hit China in years and caused widespread flooding over the weekend in the southern province of Fujian, driving hundreds of thousands of people from their homes.
China's capital has recorded its heaviest rainfall in at least 140 years over the past few days as remnants of Typhoon Doksuri deluged the region, turning streets into canals where emergency crews used rubber boats to rescue stranded residents.
The city recorded 744.8 millimeters (29.3 inches) of rain between Saturday and Wednesday morning, the Beijing Meteorological Bureau said Wednesday.
Beijing and the surrounding province of Hebei were hit by severe flooding because of the record rainfall, with waters rising to dangerous levels. The rain destroyed roads and knocked out power and even pipes carrying drinking water. It flooded rivers surrounding the capital, leaving cars waterlogged, while lifting others onto bridges meant for pedestrians.
The number of confirmed deaths from the torrential rains around Beijing rose to 21 on Wednesday after the body of a rescuer was recovered. Wang Hong-chun, 41, was with other rescuers in a rubber boat when it flipped over in a rapidly flowing river. Four of her teammates survived.
At least 26 people remain missing from the rains.
Among the hardest hit areas is Zhuozhou, a small city in Hebei province that borders Beijing's southwest. On Tuesday night, police there issued a plea on social media for lights to assist with rescue work.
Rescue teams traversed the flooded city in rubber boats as they evacuated residents who were stuck in their homes without running water, gas or electricity since Tuesday afternoon.
"I didn't think it would be that severe, I thought it was just a little bit of water and that it would recede," said 54-year-old Wang Huiying. She ended up spending the night on the third floor of her building as the water seeped into the first floor, which holds her steamed bread shop. All the machinery is now underwater.
It's unknown how many people are trapped in flood-stricken areas in the city and surrounding villages. Rescue teams from other provinces came to Zhuozhou to assist with evacuations.
"We have to grasp every second, every minute to save people," said Zhong Hongjun, the head of a rescue team from coastal Jiangsu province. Zhong said he had been working since 2 a.m. Wednesday when they arrived, and expects to work into the night. They've rescued about 200 people so far. "A lot of the people we saved are elderly and children," he said.
On Wednesday, waters in Gu'an county in Hebei, which borders Zhuozhou, reached as high as halfway up a pole where a surveillance camera was installed.
Gu'an county resident Liu Jiwen, 58, was evacuated from his village on Tuesday night. "There's nothing we can do. It's natural disaster," he said.
Two other people were trying to pass through the flooded areas to rescue a relative trapped in a nearby village.
Nearly 850,000 people have been relocated, local authorities in Hebei province said.
The previous record for rainfall was in 1891, the Beijing Meteorological Bureau said Wednesday, when the city received 609 millimeters (24 inches) of rain. The earliest precise measurements made by machines are from 1883.
Ma Jun, director of the Institute of Public and Environmental Affairs, called the recent rainfall "extreme." Last year's total rainfall in Beijing did not even top 500 millimeters (19.6 inches).
Ma said there should be a review of how cities are planned because some places experience repeat flooding. "We need to avoid building large-scale construction ... in low-lying areas," Ma said.
The record rainfall from Doksuri, now downgraded to a tropical storm, may not be the last. Typhoon Khanun, which lashed Japan on Wednesday, is expected to head toward China later this week. The powerful storm, with surface winds of up to 180 kph (111 mph), may also hit Taiwan before it reaches China.
Thousands of people were evacuated to shelters in schools and other public buildings in suburban Beijing and in nearby cities. The central government is disbursing 44 million yuan ($6.1 million) for disaster relief in affected provinces.
The severity of the flooding took the Chinese capital by surprise. Beijing usually has dry summers but had a stretch of record-breaking heat this year.
Powerful winds and lashing rain from an approaching typhoon have killed at least one person and knocked out power to hundreds of thousands of people in southern Japan.
The slow-moving Typhoon Khanun, which was nearing Japan's southwestern islands on Wednesday, also forced the cancellation of hundreds of flights to the popular tourist destination of Okinawa and other islands, stranding thousands of tourists.
Japan's Fire and Disaster Management Agency said a 90-year-old man died after getting crushed under a collapsed garage, while media reports said at least 11 others were wounded.
The storm, described as "very strong" by the Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA), brought maximum sustained winds of 200kmph (124mph), while some areas on Okinawa logged more than 250mm (9.84 inches) of rain in the past 24 hours.
The JMA warned of flooding and landslides in some parts, and authorities issued an evacuation order across Okinawa and in parts of neighbouring Kagoshima prefecture, urging more than 690,000 residents to move to safety.
Television footage showed strong winds flipping cars over in parking lots as rain battered empty streets in Okinawa.
Five people were killed and two others are missing in floods and landslides caused by prolonged heavy rains in the south and the Central Highlands during the weekend.
The southwest monsoon has been more intense than normal, resulting in torrential rains and strong winds in Lam Dong, Binh Thuan, Ba Ria - Vung Tau, Bac Lieu, Ca Mau, An Giang, Hau Giang, and Kien Giang provinces in the last three days, with many places reporting record rainfall.
The rains triggered a landslide at around 2:30 p.m. Sunday in the Bao Loc Pass near Da Lat in Lam Dong Province in the Central Highlands, burying a traffic police station.
Three officers have been confirmed dead and one civilian was trapped in the debris as of Monday morning.
Emergency services clear debris after storm hits site in Mari El, along northern bank of Volga River
Eight people died and another 10 were hospitalised in Russia when trees fell at a campsite during a severe storm described as a hurricane.
"According to the latest information, eight people died in Mari El due to the hurricane that took place the day before," said Yevgeny Maslov, the mayor of the city of Yoshkar-Ola.
Ten people were killed in central Russia after strong winds toppled trees and heavy rains disrupted the electricity supply in hundreds of settlements, Russia's Ministry of Emergency Situations said on Sunday.
Russia's Investigative Committee said it had opened a criminal case into the incident that killed three children.
Pictures posted by the ministry on the Telegram app showed cars and tents badly damaged and crushed by fallen trees.
Storms disrupted the power supply in 520 settlements, damaged the roofs of 41 residential buildings and seven buildings that provide social services in eight different Russian regions, officials said.
The storm affected eight regions, leaving nearly 100,000 people without power and damaging nearly 50 buildings.
They say that vacationers hadn't taken into account the weather forecast, but there were hundreds of people were camping there, could it be perhaps that they weren't expecting the storm to be as ferocious as it was? After all, it damaged buildings, and it is the summertime.
Could it instead be that, rather than this being merely the vacationers fault, that this storm was unusually intense? Which would also fit with a pattern seen across the northern hemisphere so far this summer season which has seen a spike in downbursts and deadly hail:
Power slowly returned to homes and businesses in Ottawa and Gatineau on Saturday, as the cleanup continued following Friday's severe thunderstorm that had tennis ball-sized hail and strong winds.
Trees and hydro infrastructure were damaged when the storm hit the national capital region between 3 p.m. and 4 p.m. on Friday.
"The weather was intense; some hail, wind," Michael Walsh said while cleaning up his property in Carlingwood on Saturday. The storm downed a large maple tree onto his home, damaging the roof and deck.
"It was probably uprooted and then it fell."
As of 5:15 p.m., Hydro Ottawa reported 470 customers remained without power.
Comment: Update August 2
Associated Press reports: