August 13, 2013 - EARTH - Here are several of the latest reports of heavy rainfall and widespread flooding across the globe.
7 Killed By Floods In Cambodia.
Flooding in Banteay Meanchey in Cambodia has killed seven people
since late last month, national disaster officials confirmed Wednesday.
Four adults and three children have been killed, and officials are
monitoring other flooded provinces for more fatalities, The Phnom Penh
Post reported.
"Other provinces such as Preah Vihear, Kampong Thom and Kratie have
no deaths so far, but we will follow up," Keo Vy, the chief of the
National Committee for Disaster Management, said.
More than 500 families have been evacuated from their homes after
storms in Thailand led to flooding of the Mekong River, the Post
reported.
The flooding submerged several border towns, and damaged property and farmland.
Officials estimate the flooding has affected 2,592 families.
The Post said the area can expect more flooding for at least another day due to a low-pressure front from Typhoon Utor.
Since the beginning of the year, 28 people have been killed in
rainstorms and floods in Cambodia -- double the number recorded by last
August, Vy said.
More Than 2,000 Russians Evacuated Due To Floods.
Heavy rains led to the flooding of 627
homes in Russia's Far East, the Russian Emergency Situations Ministry
website said Thursday.
"Some 627 homes accommodating 795 people, among them 210 children, as
well as 838 subsidiary plots, 15 sections of local roads and three
bridges are inundated by heavy rains and Zeya and Urkan river floods in
the Zeysky, Mazanovsky, Seryshevo, Blagoveshchensk, Shimanovsky and
Konstantinovsky districts," the website said.
"A total of 2,285 people, including 940 children, have been evacuated
from their homes and penal colonies as a preventive measure. There were
1,372 tenants of flooded homes, including 389 children, among that
number. Vital services are provided to the evacuees," it said.
Interfax reported that 75 shelters have been opened in six districts of the Amur region to house those who have been evacuated.
Emergencies Minister Vladimir Puchkov called the flooding, which was
brought on by weeks of torrential downpours, a "federal emergency" and
that
The Russian Defense Ministry sent more than 20 military trucks
carrying relief aid to the flood-stricken region, RIA Novosti reported.
More than 1,500 of military servicemen and over 250 units of military
hardware have been sent out to provide relief, said Deputy Defense
Minister Arkady Bakhin.
22 Dead In Flooding In Kabul Province, Afghanistan.
Flash floods triggered by heavy rain killed at least 22 people and injured five others in Afghanistan, police said.
The floodwaters damaged at least seven villages Saturday in Kabul
province, said Syed Ikramuddin Jalali, the head of the Criminal
Investigation Department in Shakar Dara security department.
Of the dead were six children, one woman and 15 men, he added.
Afghan police were deployed in the area to assist residents affected by the floods, Jalali said, as reported by Khaama Press.
He said the number of victims could rise as people may be trapped in mud.
Northern Turkey Hit By Heavy Rains And Flood.
Northern Turkey was hit by heavy rain and flash floods on the first
day of a Muslim holiday that marks the end of the fasting month of
Ramadan.
Heavy rain hit the Atakum district of Samsun on Wednesday night, the
start of Eid al-Fitr, resulting in flash floods that damaged several
homes and businesses Thursday morning, Today's Zaman reported.
Rescue crews were sent out to help people who were stranded inside their homes due to the floods.
Samsun Mayor Yusuf Ziya Yilmaz said the local government took precautions to prevent floods from causing further damage.
No casualties have been reported in the area.
Flash Floods Kill 5 In North China.
Rain-triggered floods in northern China left five people dead and three others missing, officials said.
The rain hit in Linxian County in Shanxi province around 3 p.m.
Sunday, causing flash floods at a construction site, China's state-run
Xinhua news agency reported.
Five people were killed in the floods, local authorities said Sunday. Rescue crews were still looking for three others.
Heavy Rainfall Kills 8 And Injures 6 In Lahore, Pakistan.
A heavy rain that started at early in the morning caused miseries to the
dwellers of Lahore as rainwater inundated the low-lying areas due to
which as many as eight persons were killed and six others were sustained
injuries on Wednesday.
The rain was continued intermittently due to
which several houses caved in and eight persons were buried under the
debris and six other including mother, daughter sustained severe
injuries.
According to detail, the cloud wrapped whole city early in
the morning and suddenly the rain started while the whole area of Mughal
Pura, Dharam Pura, Domoria bridge Haji Impress road, lakshmi Chowk,
Gulberg, kazafi stadium and Underpasses inundated with flash flood due
to which the traffic was gridlock. Several motorcycles, vehicles
broke down on roads while several houses were also filled with rainwater
due to which the dwellers were in dire difficulties.
According
to
rescue sources, a house located In Sangpura at Swala Chowk caved in on
account of which four persons were buried under debris. Meanwhile, a
roof of a house collapsed due to intermittent rain in the area of Karak
at Bannu. The injured were removed into District Headquarters hospital
(DHQ) for medial aid.
Heavy Flooding Hits Troubled Sudan.
The United Nations said it estimates more than 150,000 people have been affected by flooding across eight states in Sudan.
The United Nations in Sudan said it was very concerned by flooding in
Sudan. Aid agencies working there estimate more than 150,000 people
have been impacted by the country's heavy August rains. The United
States said it was committed to help those in need.
"It is too early to determine the full extent of the damage caused by
the floods but initial estimates are that at least 26,000 houses have
been damaged or destroyed," the U.N. Office for the Coordination of
Humanitarian Affairs said in a statement Sunday.
The International Committee of the Red Cross warned in early summer
the humanitarian situation in South Sudan and the Central African
Republic could be made worse by the onset of the rainy season in the
country.
Regional conflicts have engulfed several nations, with rebel fighting
spilling across the border between CAR and the Democratic Republic of
Congo, South Sudan's southern neighbors.
The United Nations said it was working with the Sudanese Red Crescent
Society and other regional aid groups to respond to the crisis.
"More rains are expected in the coming days and the estimated number
of affected people is likely to rise further as rains continue and as
more information becomes available," OCHA said in a statement.
Powerful Thunderstorms Strike United States Atlantic Coast.
Residents on a wide swath of the Atlantic coast are seeing powerful
thunderstorms produce sometimes torrential rain that's caused flooding
in several states.
The storm front has the potential to cause property damage from heavy
winds and flooding from North Carolina to Maine, Accuweather.com said.
Emergency workers in Maryland, Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Delaware
said roads have been washed out and homes are flooding. In Ritchie
County, W.Va., police have reported making multiple water rescues due to
flash floods.
A potential tornado in Burlington County, N.J., is being investigated
with radar reports showing rotation typical of a twister in the area
and a wide swath of downed trees and power lines.
Mid-Atlantic states are most likely to see flooding, from Raleigh, N.C., to Washington.
The storms are a result of a cold front that moved though the Great Lakes region Monday.
Floods In Kano, Nigeria Kills 1 And Make 575 Homeless.
Officials say floods from heavy rains killed one person and left 575 people homeless in northern Nigeria's biggest city of Kano.
Regional emergency disaster manager Musa Ilallah says rescuers still are
searching Tuesday for four people carried away by raging waters that
"completely destroyed" 471 homes.
Torrents of rain that started Friday caused weekend flooding. Drains and
deep culverts chronically filled with uncollected garbage flooded.
Ilallah appealed to residents to stop dumping refuse in waterways and
drains.
The flooding also unearthed some 20 corpses at the city's main cemetery.
Torrential rains and floods have become more common in northern Nigeria
bordering the Sahara Desert with officials blaming climate change.
Heavy Rainfall Triggers Landslide In Nepal Burying 5 Houses And Displacing 49 Families.
A landslide triggered by incessant downpour on Sunday night swept away
four houses and 13 sheds at Bairagi Thanti Bazaar, rendering 49 families
completely displaced.
Assistant Chief District Officer, Arjun Bhandari, informed that four
houses and 13 shop sheds have been buried under the rubbles after the
landslide hit the bazaar situated between district headquarters Khalanga
and Bhalakcha VDC. However, there is no report of casualties.
As per the initial assessment of the Natural Disaster Rescue Committee
of the district, properties worth nine million rupees have been
destroyed in the incident. The Famous Mahendra Dal battalion of Nepal Army and locals had rescued the landslide victims.
The houses of Mohan Oli, Pramod Oli, Deuman Khatri and Man Bahadur Oli
and 13 sheds housing shops and hotels have been swept away. According to
Bhandari, the displaced families have been sheltered in nearby Solbang
Bazaar.
"Dozers are being used to clear the rubbles but the place is still risky
for the people as the landslide has not fully stabilized yet,"
Assistant CDO Bhandari informed.
One of the victims, Mohan Oli informed that they took cover inside the
vehicles parked near the market place after the landslide. "People were
running amok to protect themselves from the landslide. We kept praying
God to save us from the disaster," said Oli.
"We have lost everything as all our belongings have been buried under the rubbles," he added. Children, elderly people and lactating mothers in the displaced families have been affected the most. Meanwhile, the entire Bhalakcha village is at risk as landslides
continue to flow downhill, Lal Bahadur Kadayat, a local, informed.
The vehicular movement on Rukum-Salyan road has been disrupted for the
past four days with the landslides occurring in over a dozen stretches
of the road. According to Dilip Thapa, the General Secretary of Sisne Himal
Transportation Entrepreneur Committee, around three dozen vehicles have
been struck on the road due to the road obstruction, stranding scores of
people. He also charged the concerned authority with being apathetic
toward the problem.
Floods, Landslides Strand 65 Hikers In The North Cascades National Park, Washington.
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Eight landslides cover parts of Highway 20, closing it indefinitely.
Washington State Department of Transportation |
Heavy thunderstorms over the weekend caused a washout that trapped hikers in North Cascades National Park and generated several landslides that buried parts of Highway 20, closing it indefinitely.
Sixty-five hikers were stranded with their vehicles overnight Sunday in the national park when the washout took out part of the road that is the only access to the Cascade Pass Trailhead.
Though helicopters brought the hikers food and water, and rangers were able to alert their families about the situation, the hikers were stuck in the park until late Monday afternoon while maintenance workers dumped truckloads of gravel filler into a culvert to create a passageway out for them and their vehicles.
The hikers were able to cross the culvert Monday night, after being stranded for nearly 24 hours, said Rosemary Seifried, supervisor at Marblemount Wilderness Information Center.
One hiker said when she first saw the size of the washout, she thought her car would be stranded for months. But she praised the “fantastic” park employees who put together a pathway, allowing her and others to drive out before another set of storms predicted Monday night.
“They discussed taking us out via chopper or a zip line thing, but they managed to put in a temporary road and we were able to drive out at around 5:00,” she said in an email to The Seattle Times.
“There was concern that there were more storms in the forecast for this evening, and that would have probably been a deal breaker for getting out safely,” she wrote.
The water from the storm had flooded the culvert at the point where Cascade River Road and Boston Creek intersect, 1.5 miles below the Cascade Pass Trailhead.
It wasn’t the first time this road has flooded, Seifried said. Floods closed the road in 2006 and 2009.
Seifried said Cascade Pass is “people’s favorite hike in the park,” and the road closure could last through the summer hiking season.
The road follows the Cascade River eastward, branching off from Highway 20 near Marblemount, Skagit County, and winds 23 miles to the trailhead. Because of the flooded culvert, the road is closed to the public at the park boundary at Milepost 18 until further notice.
The same storm that stranded the hikers also caused eight landslides that buried parts of Highway 20 — one of which piled dirt and rocks 25 feet high across the pavement — closing the road west of Rainy Pass.
The slides hit a 6-mile stretch of road just west of the pass, said Jeff Adamson, a spokesman for the Washington State Department of Transportation.
The biggest slide was about a quarter-mile long, he said. Altogether, there’s so much debris that outside contractors are being hired to help clear the mess.
Mud and water are still coming off the steep slopes, Adamson said Monday, a fact that has hampered efforts by geotechnical engineers and maintenance experts to check stability and estimate when the highway can be reopened.
No one was reported injured in the slides or the washout.
The highway was closed when the slides began late Saturday. The slides continued Sunday.
Rain and hailstorms that swept through the highway’s almost mile-high Rainy Pass area on the weekend touched off the slides between mileposts 147 and 153.
Travelers still can get to the Methow Valley by crossing the Cascades on Interstate 90 or Highway 2, then looping around via highways 97 and 20. From the Methow Valley, Adamson said, drivers can go as far as Rainy Pass, giving them access to trails on the east side of the closure.
SOURCES:
UPI |
ABC News |
My Republica |
The Nation |
The Seattle Times.
