DELUGE: Flash Floods Kills 50 People in Kenya - Thousands Displaced, Red Cross Expects Fatalities Will Continue!

Kenya's flash floods have left at least 50 people as dead and displaced thousands of others in this east African nation, a humanitarian agency has said. 

The Kenya Red Cross Society (KRCS) spokesperson Nelly Muluka said four people were swept away by flood waters near Rongai town Friday night, Xinhua reported Sunday.  According to Kenya Red Cross Society (KRCS), the number of fatalities will continue to rise due to heavy rains that have led to flash floods in several parts of the country. 

"At least 50 people have lost their lives as a result of the flooding since March. Four people were swept away by flood waters near Rongai on the night of May 4. Their bodies were found on top of the Rimpa bridge in Rongai on Saturday morning," said Nelly Muluka, KRCS's spokesperson. - IANS Live.

DELUGE: The Sinking of the Philippines - Floods Submerges Oriental Mindoro and Parts of Visayas!

Intermittent rains triggered flooding in Oriental Mindoro and several areas in Visayas, forcing at least 395 individuals to flee their homes on Tuesday, the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (NDRRMC) said Wednesday. Southern Luzon and portions of the Visayas experienced rains over the past two days due to the presence of an active low pressure area (LPA) near Palawan, and another one east of southern Mindanao.

The LPA near Palawan left the Philippine area of responsibility on Tuesday, while the one in southern Mindanao dissipated. The NDRRMC said 23 barangays (villages) in Naujan, Baco, Mansalay and Calapan City in Oriental Mindoro were submerged in floods. Rice fields in Barangays Buhangin, Adria Luna and Andres Ilagan – all in Naujan - were inundated after creeks surrounding them overflowed. Farmers were supposed to harvest rice this month. A total of 175 individuals fled their homes in Naujan; 110 in Calapan City; and 85 in Baco. Oriental Mindoro Governor Alfonso Umali said the situation in his province has improved. “So far manageable na pero meron pa ring binabantayan na mga lugar,” Umali told radio dzMM. A man, identified as Roger Dalumpines, drowned while swimming in a river in Barangay Jayubo, Lambunao, Iloilo during a rainy morning on Tuesday. Dalumpines’ wife and two children, who were with him when the incident occurred, are currently confined at the hospital after sustaining injuries. Meanwhile, a certain Ronny Herrera, a councilman (kagawad) of Barangay Tagbakin, Pola town, went missing after setting sail at the height of the rains.

Over the Visayas region, several rice fields in the Capiz towns of Maayon, Mambusao, Pontevedra, Panit-an, Sapitan and Sigma were also inundated. Local disaster officials in Capiz said 26 barangays in the said towns were affected by flooding. The Aklan river also overflowed. Flooding also occurred in Palo, Leyte after the Guindapunan river overflowed. A total of 25 individuals sought temporary shelter at the Palo National High School and a barangay hall. Several roads in Barangays 74, 91, 94, 109 and 109-A in Tacloban City were rendered impassable to vehicles due to flooding. Waist-deep flood also submerged Sitio Lourdes in Barangay Old Manunca, Sta. Rita, Western Samar. In Sagay City, Negros Occidental, several houses in Barangay Paraiso were also submerged in flood waters after the Himogaan river overflowed. Residents stayed at the Holy Family Parish. The NDRRMC said social workers have prepared relief goods for those displaced by the floods. - ABS-CBN.

DELUGE: The Sinking of Thailand - Fifteen Districts in the Southern Province of Nakhon Si Thammarat Have Been Declared as Disaster Zones!

Fifteen districts in the southern province of Nakhon Si Thammarat have been declared disaster zones after mountain runoff hit on Saturday night.

A flash flood struck following days of heavy rain in Gulf-side southern provinces, said governor Wiroj Chiwarangsan, who declared the emergency. Mr Wiroj has contacted soldiers from the Fourth Region Army and officials to help flood-hit communities left cut off from several main roads. Of the 15 districts, Sichon, Cha-uat, Lan Saka, Ron Phibun, Phra Phom, Muang and Nop Phi Tham were hit hardest. In Sichon, Cha-uat and Phra Phom, many roads were made impassable as they were submerged in water, while hundreds of residents in tambons Khun Thale, Khao Kaew and Thadee of Lan Saka district were badly affected by the flood and had to move to higher ground.

In Ron Phibu, a main road to the district was cut off as several sections of the road were inundated. Nakhon Si Thammarat municipality provided temporary shelters for flood-hit residents in Muang district and issued warnings for those living in low-lying areas to move to safe places as more runoff was expected to hit the district last night. Water pumps were installed in Muang district to ease flooding. A bridge in tambon Krung Ching of Nop Pi Tham district was damaged by the floods, leaving many residents cut off from the outside world. They urged authorities to help fix the bridge as soon as possible.

Phatthalung province was also hit by the heavy rainfall. Mountain runoff struck Pa Phayom, Si Banphot and Si Nakharin districts, causing sudden flash floods. More than 1,000 families in the three districts had to move to higher ground. The level of floodwater in the three areas was between 40cm and 1m. Phatthalung governor Winyu Thongsakul issued urgent orders to all district chiefs to warn residents living along the coast, on river banks and on the mountains to prepare for possible disasters resulting from the protracted heavy rainfall. Many areas of Pattani and Narathiwat were also affected. More than 500 people living along the Pattani River in tambon Pakaharang of Muang Pattani district have been hit by floods, while the Sungai Kolok, Bang Nara and Sai Buri rivers overflowed their banks and flooded farming and residential areas in Narathiwat. - Bangkok Post.

DELUGE: Huge 5 Metre High Wave Sweeps Away Houses in Southern Thailand - Mass Evacuations in 3 Sub-Districts, as the Seawater Wreck Havoc! UPDATE: Thai Flood Death Toll Rises to 708 With 3 Missing!

About one hundred people in southern Thailand were evacuated on Sunday and several tourists were stranded when a large wave flooded a coastal village, said a local official.

A Thai man takes a photo of a wave in Prachuap khiri khan province southern Thailand.

The 10-to-13 feet high wave inundated a shore on the Gulf of Thailand, causing floods of one metre deep and damaging houses in a village in Chumphon province, according to Provincial Governor Pinich Charoenpanich. He said officials helped evacuate about a hundred people to a safe place farther inland, and were expected to return home when the waters had subsided and the wind dropped. There were no casualties reported.

“This high wave would be normal for fisherman out at sea but this time it happened near the shore, so it caused flooding on the land,” Mr. Pinich told AFP. “There were a dozen local tourists stranded when the high wave hit this morning. They were staying at homestays in village houses located on the shore, but they were safe,” he added later. The country was battered by an Indian Ocean tsunami on December 26, 2004 that killed an estimated 5,400 people in Thailand alone. The tsunami, triggered by an earthquake off the Indonesian island of Sumatra, sent giant waves crashing into countries around the Indian Ocean, killing more than 220,000 people. - The Hindu.

Five meter waves hit three sub- districts in Thailand's southern Chumpon province's Langsuan district on Sunday noon, destroying several houses, bungalows and restaurants and forcing local residents to flee their homes. The seawater also flooded Hua Lame village in Langsuan district with approximate height of 70 centimeter, forcing people to evacuate to a temple seen as a safe shelter.

According to chief of Bangmaprao Tambon Administrative Office, huge waves lashed many villages in three sub-districts slightly before noon. As a result, several bungalows and restaurants were devastated while some people's houses swept away. Chumpon Meteorological Station director-general Decha Sukgaeo said that the intense high pressure from China has moved to cover the southern region, causing rain storms and high waves in the area during Dec. 25-28. Small fishing trawlers should remain onshore, he warned.  - Xinhuanet.

Meanwhile, the Disaster Prevention and Mitigation Department reported on Wednesday that floods still prevail in nine provinces in central region while the accumulated nationwide flood toll now reaches 708 deaths with three people missing.

A total of 3,652 villages in 80 districts of nine provinces in the central part of the country -- Bangkok, Ang Thong, Ayutthaya, Lop Buri, Suphan Buri, Nakhon Pathom, Pathum Thani, Nonthaburi and Samut Sakhon -- are still suffering from the ongoing floods. In the South, flooding has hit 2,057 villages in 65 districts of eight provinces -- Phatthalung, Trang, Surat Thani, Nakhon Si Thammarat, Narathiwat, Songkhla, Yala and Pattani -- causing damage to 118,358 rai (189 square kilometers) of farmland, 783 roads and 113 bridges.

Thailand's most severe inundation has so far swamped a total of seven industrial estates and parks in central Ayutthaya and Pathum Thani provinces in October, putting more than 1 million people at the risk of losing their jobs and causing initial loss of about 3. 3 billion U.S. dollars. Floods inflicted by heavy monsoon rains and back-to-back tropical storms have ravaged almost 90 percent of the whole country since late July, affecting more than 13 million nationwide. In total 36 out of 50 districts in the capital city were also submerged and the country's second airport under flood waters. - Xinhuanet.

DELUGE: HEAVY IMPACT - Uralla, Guyra and Glen Innes Severn Declared Natural Disaster Zones After Heavy Flooding in New South Wales, Australia!

Three more natural disaster zones have been declared in northern New South Wales after heavy rain and flooding.

The communities of Uralla, Guyra and Glen Innes Severn were heavily impacted by the recent storms and flooding, NSW Emergency Services Minister Michael Gallacher said. "I am declaring these areas as natural disaster zones," Mr Gallacher said. "Councils, residents, primary producers and small business owners will now be able to apply for support under the NSW Disaster Assistance Arrangements." The announcement follows natural disaster declarations for Moree Plains, Inverell and Armidale/Gunnedah, Narrabri, Gwydir, Muswellbrook, Liverpool Plains, Tamworth and the Upper Hunter Shire Council. The state government would continue to carry out assessments to determine if further disaster zones needed to be declared, Mr Gallacher said. - Daily Telegraph.

DELUGE: Flash Flood Washes Out Sigi, Killing Five in Indonesia!

Five people were killed, one person missing and 412 villagers have been evacuated from flash floods in Sigi, Indonesia.

Flash flood swept Kulawi District, Sigi Regency, Central Sulawesi on Saturday, Dec 3. The National Disaster Management Agency (BNPB) recorded that five locals died from the flood. “Five people died, one person is missing, and 412 villagers are evacuated,” said BNPB’s spokesperson, Sutopo Purwo Nugroho, today, Dec 5. The flash flood also destroyed 36 houses, seriously damaged 147 houses, one school and one village hall, and slightly ruined 46 houses. Sutopo explained that to anticipate the flood, the disaster management agency has coordinated with related parties for emergency actions. Also, they have evacuated the affected villagers to a secure location. BNPB’s quick response team has also arrived at the scene to provide assistance to the disaster management agency for any further actions. - VIVA News.

DELUGE: 21 of the 30 States in Odisha, India Have Been Devastated by Two Successive Floods!

Odisha on Friday asked the central government to provide early assistance of Rs 3,265.38 crore for relief and rehabilitation work in regions hit by the September floods.

At least 21 of state's 30 districts were devastated by two successive floods and the state government asked the centre to provide assistance of Rs 3,265.38 crore and for release of adhoc assistance of Rs 1,000 crore. "The union government did not respond to our request and promptly deputed an inter-ministerial central team for assessment of the losses and requirement of central assistance," Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik in a letter to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said.

The chief minister said the central team concluded its field visit September 30 but the high level committee which will take a final view on the matter has not yet been convened and no fund has been released so far. "I shall be grateful if you kindly convene the meeting …for considering the claim and take steps to release central assistance from the national disaster response fund at the earliest," Patnaik wrote. - IBN Live.

GEOLOGICAL UPHEAVAL: Extreme Weather - Torrential Rainfall Causes Huge Devastation to Sicily in Italy!

Hours of torrential rain has caused huge devastation to the Italian island of Sicily, submerging cars and buildings.

Torrential rain battered eastern Sicily on Wednesday, where mudslides have killed at least three people and muddy torrents have swept away cars and washed out bridges, authorities said. A mudslide in the hamlet of Saponara, near the Sicilian port city of Messina, fatally struck a 10-year-old boy Tuesday as his family fled their home. Much of Italy’s terrain is landslide-prone, and many have built homes on steep hillsides in defiance of warnings by geologists. Muddy torrents of water rushed through the Messina area, sweeping along cars as if they were toys and knocking down part of an elevated roadway. Heavy rains also lashed Calabria, the southern Italian region across from Sicily. State railways said washed out railway bridges, landslides on track and flooding caused suspension of service on some routes.


About 100 soldiers were sent in to Saponara, one of the worst hit towns, to rescue residents stranded in flooded homes or vehicles, Italian news reports said. This fall, flash flooding in Genoa, northwest Italy, killed at least six people, and at least nine perished in severe floods in Tuscany and the Cinque Terre tourist area of Liguria. President Giorgio Napolitano asked local authorities to express his solidarity and closeness to the victims’ families and repeated his appeal to Italians to pay urgent attention to their fragile environment. Some of the flooding has been blamed on failure to regularly clean storm drains.


Former Premier Silvio Berlusconi had been criticized by environmentalists for concentrating his government’s efforts on his pet project to build a bridge over the strait dividing Messina from Calabria, instead of devoting financial resources and manpower to more mundane projects like maintaining drainage systems and shoring up hillsides prone to landslides. With Italy now slashing spending to cut deficit and devote resources to reviving the economy and prevent financial disaster, the plan to build a bridge has fallen by the wayside. “A dramatic national emergency is before our eyes,” said Stella Bianchi, the center-left Democratic Party’s point person on the environment. “We are paying a painful price for years of errors, culpable lack of attention” and excessive building, she said in a statement. - Washington Post.

WATCH: Mudslides in northeastern Sicily, Italy.

DELUGE: Flood Misery for 1.8 Million in Cambodia and Vietnam!

About 1.8 million people across Cambodia and Vietnam are currently suffering a silent misery from the worst flooding in a decade.

Hang Davi's life now depends on her husband's luck. If he catches fish in the stagnant floodwaters that have turned her Cambodian village into a lake, the family eats. If not, they go to bed hungry and pray his losing streak won't last another day. For two months Davi has waited for the filthy water to retreat, as it does every year, so she can work in the surrounding rice fields. But the stubborn brown pool has continued to lap high against the bamboo ladder leading into her tiny stilt shack, trapping her inside. She and about 1.8 million people across Cambodia and Vietnam are currently suffering a silent misery from the worst flooding in a decade. Thailand's flood crisis has received extensive media coverage, especially as the waters inch toward central Bangkok, but less attention has been paid to its much poorer neighbors, where many rural families still waiting for water levels to drop have received little or no aid from their governments or international organizations.


"Farmers like us rely mainly on agriculture, but when our rice and other crops have been completely destroyed by the floods, how can we survive?" Davi says, sobbing softly while balancing her 1-year-old son on her hip. "This flood is the biggest I have ever seen in my life. The floods have completely destroyed our hope." Flooding is an annual cycle of life for Cambodian and Vietnamese subsistence farmers living along the Mekong River. High waters often don't draw much attention because people there simply know how to cope with what is normally considered a necessary nuisance. They wait for the waters to recede so they can plant new crops in the freshly deposited silt. Even Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen has said the most worrying thing for farmers living along the river is to see no floods come at all. "This year the level of water is good," he said in August after the first floods hit. "The water has flown into the lowlands, bringing a lot of fertilizer for the farmers." But this season people were simply swallowed by water following cataclysmic monsoon rains that brought torrents down from the mountains. At least 250 people and countless livestock have died in Cambodia. Remote villages have been left in waist- to chest-high waters for up to three months, with three-quarters of the entire country swamped and 1.6 million people - about 1 in 10 - affected.


The situation has started improving in Vietnam, but nearly 175,000 people there are still struggling in the southern Mekong Delta, where about 90 percent of the more than 80 people killed were children, according to the United Nations. An estimated 20 million people across Southeast Asia have been affected by flooding since June. Most are in Thailand, but the Philippines was slammed with back-to-back typhoons in October, and tiny, landlocked Laos was hit by cyclones in July and August. Myanmar also is experiencing flooding, though the extent is unclear because little information has been released from the secretive country. Local media there reported some 30,000 people were hit by flash floods last month that killed more than 160. "This year's been a freak event," said Kirsten Mildren, spokeswoman for the U.N.'s regional Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in Thailand. "It's not like a tsunami or a hurricane where after a couple of days the immediate crisis has ended and you're into recovery. Here, you're weeks or months in water and it just keeps escalating. - Miami Herald.

THE GREAT DELUGE: Bangkok Warned Floods May Last Until New Year - 564 People Have Been Killed So Far In Thailand Since July This Year!

Floodwater in parts of Thailand's capital, Bangkok, is receding after weeks of inundation but Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra and water experts said residents in some western districts could still be suffering into next year.

However, Yingluck reassured investors at a news conference with United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Wednesday that Thailand would get back on track quickly and had a long-term strategy for redesigning its water management system. "We'll recover soon," Yingluck said, adding that restoring some infrastructure could be completed within 45-90 days. She said the east of Bangkok, where two industrial estates are still surrounded by water, should be flood-free before the end of the year but draining water from western districts was more difficult.

Thailand's worst flooding in at least five decades has claimed 564 lives since July, with water flowing slowly down from the north, inundating agricultural and industrial areas in the centre before swamping parts of Bangkok from late October. Anond Snidvongs, executive director of the government's Geo-Informatics and Space Technology Development Agency, said residents living in certain low-lying areas in the west would have to live with water for a while longer. "In the western area, the capacity of the drainage system was limited from the start," Anond told Reuters, adding there were also fewer canals than in the east. "What we're trying to do is add more water pumps and control the opening and closing of sluice gates in line with the high and the low river tides, as much as possible," added Anond, who is acting as an adviser to the government. He said some districts in western Bangkok could still escape flooding completely, and it should take only two or three weeks for main roads to dry out. Floodwater has reached part of the low-lying Rama II Road, a main highway through west of Bangkok to the rubber-growing south of Thailand, which has not been affected by the floods. - Reuters.

WATCH: Flood victims mourned in Bangkok.

EARTH CHANGES: DELUGE - Flash Floods Hit Western Singapore!

According to the National Environment Agency (NEA), the highest rainfall recorded as at 5.30 pm was 91.4 mm at Kent Ridge in the West Coast area of Singapore.

The afternoon heavy downpour caused a canal at Block 611 in Clementi West to overflow. One resident at the area said he's never seen anything like this in all his 10 years living there. "When I saw it, I find it very dangerous, because the volume of water was huge; it carried a mass of water, and the current was moving very fast and splashed very strong waves on to the bridge here," said Mr Lim, a Clementi West resident.

Mr Lim said the flood lasted for about 45 minutes. He said: "All the small drains are all submerged and the water splashed into the HDB block, and all the trees, plants are all half submerged." National water agency PUB said the flash floods were due to the intense rainfall and high tide of about 3 metres on Saturday afternoon. And this was what caused the Sungei Pandan Kechil canal to overflow. Flash floods also occurred along the AYE towards ECP and at Neo Pee Teck Lane, but they subsided within 20 minutes.

The flash floods along the AYE towards ECP caused two lanes to be affected while one lane remained passable. PUB said the length of the affected section was about 100m and water depth was about 15cm. At Neo Pee Teck Lane, two lanes were affected. The length of the affected section was about 90m and water depth was about 30cm. Water from the road went into the porch of two houses there. The area is a flood-prone area and PUB has already scheduled drainage improvement works there. The works will start in the first quarter of 2012. PUB said Saturday's downpour peaked at 1.20pm - 1.50pm during which 52.6mm of rain fell. The rate of rainfall peak intensity during this period was about 105.2mm/hr. - Channel News Asia.

MONUMENTAL EARTH CHANGES: Southeast Asia Floods – 9 Millions Affected, More Than Thousand Dead in the Unprecedented Deluge!

At least one thousand people have died in massive floods across Southeast Asia in recent months, according to an AFP tally on Thursday, and millions of homes and livelihoods have been destroyed.

The death toll in Thailand -- grappling with its worst floods in half a century -- has reached 533, the government said, and the slowly advancing waters are now threatening the heart of Bangkok, a city of 12 million people. In neighbouring Cambodia, the most severe floods in over a decade have killed 248 people, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said in its latest flood report. Vietnam's government has reported at least 100 deaths, including many children, in southern and central parts of the country.

At least 106 people died in flash floods caused by heavy storms in central Myanmar in late October, a government official in the military-dominated country told AFP at the time, on condition of anonymity. In the tiny nation of Laos, 30 people lost their lives in the floods, according to OCHA. The UN body, which does not include Myanmar in its flood updates, also reported 98 deaths in the Philippines. Vast swathes of rice paddy fields have been damaged or destroyed in Southeast Asia as a result of the inundations triggered by unusually heavy monsoon rains that began some three months ago. "To date, nearly nine million people have been affected by torrential rains and overflowing rivers," OCHA said in the statement. "Flooding in many parts of Southeast Asia remains dire after months of being inundated, and more rains are expected in north and northeast Thailand." - Terra Daily.

WATCH: Slideshow of the floods in Thailand.

GREAT DELUGE: Floods Displace 30,000 People in Davao, Philippines!

About 30,000 people fled from their houses after floods submerged several towns in Davao del Norte, in the Philippines, officials said today.

Hours of torrential rain Tuesday night burst the banks of Lasang river in the area, inundating rice paddies and banana plantations in Carmen and Dujali, according to Sonio Sanchez, provincial disaster risk reduction and management division chief. Floodwaters as high as nine feet swamped 16 villages in Carmen town, forcing some 5, 980 families to flee, Octavio Valle, the town administrator, he added.

"We were surprised by the severity of the other night's flood which was rare in the past six years," Valle said, adding the rice- producing town of some 60,000 people is a perennial flood-plain town along the Davao-Agusan highway. He said floodwaters have been subisiding but several villages are still under water and some 100 families stay in the town gymnasium converted into an evacuation center. The flood also affected 390 families in Dujali town, another farming town to the east, and more than 440 hectares of farm land was still submerged by floodwaters, said Sanchez. - PhilSTAR.

WEATHER ANOMALIES: Tropical Storm Forms in the Mediterranean Sea - Torrential Rains and Floods Leave a Mess in Italy and France!

An unusual, stubborn low pressure system in the Mediterranean Sea has brought heavy rain and tropical storm-like conditions to parts of Italy and southern France over the past week. Torrential rains have inundated coastal regions and caused disastrous flooding in inland towns at higher elevations.

In southeast France, authorities evacuated thousands of people, as flooded streets and cresting rivers have killed at least three and stranded hundreds of others. Tropical storm force winds brought impressive waves to the coastal city of Nice. Continued heavy rains and wind gusts of up to 75 mph in the worst hit Var region were forecasted through early this morning. The French weather service, Meteo France, reports that several locations have received the equivalent of 2-3 months of rain in less than a week, with some places reporting over 30 inches.  A sample of rainfall totals: November 1-6: - 936 mm (36.9 in, or half of annual average precipitation) in Vallerauge. - 719 mm (28.3 in) in Sablières. - 652 mm (25.7 in) in Loubaresse. November 3-6: - 282 mm (11.1 in) in Draguignan. - 214 mm (8.4 in) in Arles. - 185 mm (7.3 in) in Antibes; with a new all-time record 144 mm (5.7 in) in 24 hours. - 165 mm (6.5 in) in Cannes. - On Nov. 5, Corte (on the island of Corsica) recorded an all-time precipitation record of 210 mm (8.3 in) in 24 hours, of which nearly 6.8 inches fell in just 6 hours.

Heavy rain has also brought widespread flooding to northern and western Italy. In the northern city of Turin, the Po River rose over 13 feet, forcing thousands to evacuate. Farther south, flooded streets in Naples swept away cars and prompted officials to postpone an important soccer match. At least 16 people have died in Italy in the past two weeks, including six who drowned in a flash flood in Genoa last Friday. Behind the flooding is an extratropical low (named ‘Rolf’) that developed tropical characteristics after it stalled over the relatively warm waters of the Mediterranean. Wunderground reports that the storm featured sustained 40 mph winds earlier in the week, and its spiral shape and cloud-free center adequately resemble those of a tropical system. Water temperatures of only 17ºC (63ºF) are well below the 26ºC necessary to sustain tropical storm status, however.

The French weather service further explains that a large area of low pressure extending from Iceland to Portugal moved across the eastern Atlantic in late October. As it crossed into southwestern Europe, southerly winds around the low carried warm air into the lower atmosphere. Colder air aloft then triggered the formation of thunderstorms, which intensified once the low crossed the open waters of the Mediterranean. As the humid, unstable air moved north toward the southern coast of France, it was further lifted by the foothills of the southwestern Alps, which resulted in heavy precipitation totals. Due to its relatively high latitude and narrow dimensions, the Mediterranean basin is rarely conducive to tropical storm development. However, subtropical systems such as this one have occurred in the past. Dr. Jeff Masters provides examples of previous “hybrid lows,” and also discusses whether climate change could lead to stronger Mediterranean storms in the future. - Washington Post.

DELUGE: 100 Dead from the Worst Flooding in a Decade in Vietnam!

Flooding has killed 100 people and left two others missing - mostly in southern Vietnam, which is suffering its worst floods and landslides in a decade, leaving many villages and provinces isolated.

Vietnam has been battered by more flooding, as officials say the death toll from months of deluges across the nation has risen to 100. Seventeen people were confirmed killed in Quang Nam province in recent days, and five more people died in other central provinces. Roads have been swept away and thousands forced from their homes by the floods in central Vietnam. The south of the country around the Mekong delta has also been hard hit. Flooding in the south had already cost 78 people their lives since August, with the UN saying that most of the fatalities were children who had drowned.

Nguyen Minh Tuan, a disaster officer in Quang Nam, told the BBC Vietnamese service that the province had been hit by four days of flooding. "Quang Nam province gets hit by floods every year. Local people in this area are getting used to living with floods - they have to find a way to adapt," he said. He said roads had been seriously damaged and the bill for the clean-up in the province was likely to top 100bn dong (£3m; $5m). Local newspapers ran pictures of inundated houses and streets in the town of Hoi An and the ancient city of Hue. - BBC.

MONUMENTAL EARTH CHANGES: Geological Upheaval - Indonesia Is Sinking, Hundreds of Homes Submerged, Water Levels at 1.5 Meters!

As the we continue to examine the worst flooding in almost 70 years in Thailand, another monumental crisis is developing in Indonesia, where thousands of homes remain submerged under water.

Four days post-hit by flash floods, a number of areas in several districts in the South Coast district, West Sumatra, are still flooded. Although water levels continue to decrease, residents who live along the river, are encouraged to remain vigilant. The higher rainfall may cause rivers to overflow again. Of air monitoring Metro TV, which is still visible area is housing and flooded rice fields. Stagnant water is high enough in the visible region Kambang, Lunang Silaut, and Lengayang. Flash floods in 10 districts in the South Coastal District, has damaged more than 90 homes, 15 of them were destroyed. Flooding also resulted in six people are swept away, two of whom were found dead. While some areas are also isolated due to roads and bridges are disconnected. Repair damaged roads was estimated to take 4 to 5 months...

Hundreds of houses submerged flooding due to high rainfall in five districts Porcupine District, West Kalimantan, Monday (7 / 11). Noted, the water levels reach 1.5 meters and the activities of people lead to total paralysis.  Five districts were submerged since the last two days it was District Kuala Behe, Serimbu, Sebangki, Ngabang, and Implement. However, the worst flooding occurred in the hamlet Nyawan, Senuang, Kadis, Pesayangan, Martalaya, Raiy, Cape, and the Village Medang. Until now, residents who have a two-story house still survives. But some other residents were forced to use boats to evacuate...

At least 16 points there is flooding in 12 districts in Tangerang, Banten. Therefore, the district government (regency) appealed to citizens to be alert to face the rainy season this year.  "There is a 16 point money is flooding in 12 of 29 districts in Tangerang District," said Secretary of the Office of Tangerang regency Irrigation Binamarga and Yulianto in Tangerang, on Tuesday (8 / 11). According to data from Department of Highways and Irrigation, the 16 flood-prone points of which are located in District Teluknaga and Pakuhaji who skipped Cisadane River. In addition, the District of Palm Two Rivers Kalisabi passed, Thursday passed the River Market District Cirarab, District Pimple, Tigaraksa, Balaraja, Rajeg, who skipped Sukadiri Cimanceuri River. Grantham sub-district and passed Kronjo Cidurian River, District Balaraja Boat Wasters time passed and some areas through which the River District Kronjo Cipasilian. Given these conditions, Tangerang regency urged local residents to be wary of flooding. "Especially now that the rain coming down hard to predict. So, people should still take the same precautions," he said. Fortunately, the number of points floods each year has decreased. The previous year, there were 32 flood point. Meanwhile, in 2002 there were 72 flood point, in 2007 there were 65 flood point, and in 2008 there were 32 flood point. - Metro TV News.

938 hectares (ha) of rice fields in the South Coastal District, West Sumatra, damaged by flood.  "The impact of floods that hit the South Coastal District 938 hectares of paddy fields causing damage to nature," said Assistant District II South Coast, Desri in Painan, Monday (7 / 11).  According to him, based on data obtained, the most severe rice field located in the South Coastal District subdistrict shadow. Imagine paddy fields in the District of damaged area of ​​525 ha, paddy fields in the damaged area of ​​Cotton Trunk 158 ha. "Then the paddy fields belong to the community in the Coastal District Sphere of 125 hectares were damaged," he said.  He added, due to damage as much as 938 ha of paddy fields, the farmers suffered crop failure. Farmers should harvest this month into the season, but due to floods soak the rice fields they lead to crop failure. "Some have also been harvested before the floods hit," he said.  He said, in addition to paddy fields damaged, crops such as corn, peanuts also experienced damage from flooding.  "Plants are damaged corn crops, the type area of ​​2586 hectares, while 46 acres of peanuts and some other crops were damaged by flood," he said.  Plantations also suffered damage from the flooding. "Damaged the palm plantation area of ​​13 hectares, 25 hectares of cocoa, rubber further 59 hectares" said Desri.  According to him, the floods that occurred in 2011 at the South Coastal District including the largest in 50 years, where nearly 70 percent of the South Coast region submerged in flood water due to large rivers. "At least 10 of the 12 districts in the South Coast affected by flooding," said Desri. November 8, 2011. - Media Indonesia.

Courtesy of Khan of the Pole Shift Ning.

DELUGE: Flash Flood Hits 600 Homes in Kuala Kedah, Malaysia!

At least 600 homes in Kuala Kedah, Malaysia have been affected by flash floods following the monsoon downpour.

Water entered some of the houses and the roads leading to Taman Seri Putra, Taman Desarena and Peru­mahan Awam Kuala Kedah were in 0.4m-deep water. Residents claimed that the flooding occurred as the drains were clogged. Taman Desarena resident Zainal Abidin Zabidi, 64, said the area was hit twice by floods between midnight and 3am, and again at 11am until 3pm after heavy rains which lasted an hour and two hours, respectively. Ismail Shaari, 46, said flash floods had occurred over the past three years after two new housing areas bordering Taman Desarena, Taman Seri Putra and Perumahan Awam Kuala Kedah were built. The Prime Minister's special functions officer Datuk Latt Shariman, who visited the residential areas, said Kuala Kedah Umno members had to pump the floodwater into Sungai Tok Pasai. "I believe the drainage system at the three residential areas should be widened and regularly cleared so such an incident won't recur."

Alor Setar City Council Mayor Da­tuk Mat Noh Ahmad said a team of engineers would be sent to the affected areas to investigate and take action. Kedah and Perlis are expected to receive more than 40 per cent of the normal rainfall during the north-east monsoon season until February. The Malaysian Meteorological Department had said wet weather conditions were expected throughout the country during the monsoon period with five to six heavy rainfall episodes. The heavy rainfalls which normally last for two to three days could cause floods especially in low-lying areas and along river banks. In Kangar, Bernama quoted the Raja Muda of Perlis Tuanku Syed Faizuddin Putra Jamalullail calling upon the people of the state to prepare for the imminent floods by taking consistent and voluntary personal initiatives, both on the home-front and at the work place. "People should not build structures which can obstruct the flow of water and they should not throw rubbish into rivers, ditches and drains," he said.Tuanku Syed Faizuddin also encouraged people to collect rain water for recycling, which would indirectly reduce the volume of water running into waterways. - Asia One.

EXTREME WEATHER: Storms Hits Southern France, Three Dead!

Heavy rains and flooding in southern France over the weekend forced the evacuation of about six hundred people, and three people died in weather-related deaths as a dozen local regions remained on alert on Sunday.

A woman photographs the sea as it pounds the devastated coastline.

Rivers overran their banks, flooding streets and homes and leaving hundreds stranded. Television images showed cars floating along roads and residents mopping up their sodden, muddy homes. A retired couple, both aged 71, in the southeastern coastal town of Bagnols en Foret died late Saturday night or Sunday morning from carbon monoxide poisoning while trying to bail out rising water in their cellar, police said. On Saturday, police told Reuters they found the body of a 51-year-old homeless man who had been washed away from his campsite in the Herault southern region.

Some 600 people have already been evacuated along the coast and in the Alps in the south east of the country, authorities said. Firefighters helped rescue around 1,200 people affected by the storms, using helicopters to save about 30 people. An orange alert -- the second-highest weather alert after red -- remained in place in 12 southern regions on Sunday, down from about 16 on Saturday. The regions affected are the low-lying areas near the Pyrenees in the south west, where it continued to rain on Sunday, and in the flooded Alps region. In the past two days, the level of the Var river in the southeast rose from 1.5 meters (4.9 feet) to 5 meters, said Europe 1 radio. Elsewhere in Europe, at least seven people were killed in Genoa on Friday as torrential flooding hit the city following days of heavy storms which killed at least 10 people in northern and central Italian regions. - Reuters.

THE GREAT DELUGE: Thailand Flood Death Toll Passes 500!

Advancing pools of filthy water threatened Thailand's capital subway system Monday and surrounded the emergency headquarters set up to deal with flooding that has claimed more than 500 lives nationwide.

Bangkok Gov. Sukhumbhand Paribatra has ordered evacuations in 11 of Bangkok's 50 districts, and partial evacuations apply in seven more, as the huge runoff from monsoon-buffeted central Thailand seeps south through the metropolitan area to the sea. The evacuations are not mandatory, and most people are staying to protect homes and businesses. But the orders illustrate how far flooding has progressed into the city and how powerless the government has been to stop it. The latest district added to list Sunday was Chatuchak, home to a large public park and an outdoor shopping zone that is a major tourist attraction. The Chatuchak Weekend Market was open over the weekend but had fewer-than-normal vendors and customers, as floodwaters poured past the market's eastern edge. Chatuchak, just a few miles north of Bangkok's still-unaffected central business zone, also is home to the government's national emergency flood relief headquarters. It is housed in the Energy Ministry — a building now surrounded by water.

The relief headquarters moved several days ago out of Bangkok's Don Muang airport after it, too, was flooded. Relentless rainfall has pummeled vast swaths of Thailand since late July, swamping the country and killing 506 people, according to the latest government statistics. Most victims have drowned, while a handful died from flood-related electrocutions. No deaths have been reported in Bangkok. The nearby province of Ayutthaya, which has been submerged for more than one month, has the highest toll with 90 reported dead. Floodwaters have begun receding in some provinces north of the capital, and a major cleanup is planned in Ayutthaya this week. But the runoff has massed around Bangkok and completely submerged some of the city's outer neighborhoods. On Sunday, cars sloshed through a flooded road underneath Chatuchak's Mo Chit Skytrain station, the northernmost stop on the capital's elevated train system. Floodwaters also reached roads at three subway stops in northern Bangkok. Both mass transit networks are functioning normally, though some exits have been barricaded and closed. Also in Chatuchak, water has begun approaching a main road near the Mo Chit bus terminal, a major gateway to northern Thailand. The bus station and roads in the area remained open, traffic police chief Uthaiwan Kaewsa-ard said.

On Friday, workers completed a 3.7-mile flood wall made from massive, hastily assembled sandbags to divert some of the water flowing toward central Bangkok. But large amounts of water are already beyond that wall, and officials say that besides a network of canals and underground drainage tunnels, there are no more barriers preventing water from pushing south into the heart of the city. Over the past two decades, Bangkok's much enlarged and improved drainage system has increasingly been able to siphon off water during monsoon seasons with average rainfall. But amid Thailand's worst flooding since World War II, that system is facing its greatest test yet. Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra says a plan to be put before the Cabinet on Tuesday would allocate 100 billion baht ($3.3 billion) for post-flood reconstruction. Yingluck's government has come under fire for failing to predict the threat to the capital. Residents also have been frustrated by widely different assessments of the flooding situation from the prime minister, Bangkok's governor and the country's top water experts and officials. - CBS News.

WATCH: Monumental crisis in Thailand.

WATCH: Outdoor market flooded in Thailand.

GEOLOGICAL UPHEAVAL: Homes Buried As Landslide Hits Colombian City - Killing at Least 14, Dozens Missing With Widespread Damage!

A landslide caused by heavy rains in Colombia has killed at least 14 people and left dozens more missing. Rescue workers are desperately searching for survivors.

Red Cross official Cesar Uruena said homes were buried in the city of Manizales in Caldas states, 102 miles (165km) northwest of the capital, Bogota. Around 60 people are still believed to be missing and rescue teams have been searching through the mud to find them. Caldas emergency services director Sandra Lopez said heavy rains pounded the area on Friday night and caused part of a mountain to collapse onto houses. Colombia is having one of its worst rainy seasons in memory which has left 37 people dead and forced the evacuation of at least 245,420 people in the past week. - Sky News.

Red Cross officials have said that a landslide has left 14 dead and dozens more missing in northwest Colombia. Rescue workers are still working to try and locate people trapped in the mud so that they can pull them out to safety. Aerial footage shows that the hill above Manizales has come away and crumbled down onto houses below. Streets and homes are engulfed in mud, and roofs of houses peak out of the soil. The wait for news of family members trapped in houses in the landslide is too much for some. "My family is down there, (referring to the landslide area) three cousins and my aunt and there is no information about them," cried one woman as she watched the rescuers digging through the mud. The landslide occurred after a night of heavy rainfall. As a precautionary measure, authorities have evacuated homes near Manizales in case of further landslides. - Telegraph.

WATCH: Massive landslide in Colombia.