Severe weather

Citation

(2008), "Severe weather", Disaster Prevention and Management, Vol. 17 No. 5. https://doi.org/10.1108/dpm.2008.07317ead.002

Severe weather

Article Type: Disaster database From: Disaster Prevention and Management, Volume 17, Issue 5

21 August 2006 Cambodia

At least eight people have been killed by heavy floods in Cambodia as the Mekong River burst its banks due to heavy seasonal rains. Five people were killed in floods in the southwestern provinces of Kampot and Kampong Speu, said Nhim Vanda, head of the national disaster management committee. The floods have damaged roads and destroyed thousands of hectares (acres) of rice paddies and other crops, but the government has not released an official casualty figure.

17 August 2006 Ethiopia

Search and rescue teams are scouring flood waters in southern Ethiopia as bad weather continues to hamper a round-the-clock hunt for survivors. The number of deaths has risen to 364 after the Omo river and tributaries burst their banks with fears the toll country-wide could now top 800. Local Ethiopian officials are appealing for assistance saying they can not cope with the scale of the flooding. A southern relief official told the BBC that at least 6,000 were at risk. Disaster coordinator in the Omo region, Deftalgne Tessema, told the BBC’s Network Africa programme that despite help from the federal government and the UN, so far just 14 motorboats were trying to evacuate people from islands cut off by the swollen waters. Insp Daniel Gezahenge said that the situation in the south was “getting out of control”. There are fears of a deadly cholera outbreak. “We are preparing ourselves for up to 1,000 dead bodies from this flood alone. We need additional helicopters and boats for rescuing,” he said. In the far north, thousands of people in Tigray province are battling floods along the Tekezie river. In the eastern city of Dire Dawa, local and international agencies are still providing food and help to thousands of people and to communities further north along the Awash river. The national rescue services including the army and international agencies are said to be overstretched. The authorities in Dire Dawa have declared the area a disaster zone. There are 256 confirmed deaths from last week’s flooding, but some 250 people are still missing and 10,000 were displaced. The UN’s World Food Programme is distributing relief supplies there.

21 August 2006

Ethiopia has rescued thousands marooned by flash floods that have killed nearly 900 people this month, but tens of thousands remain homeless. State TV says Ethiopia has relocated 16,000 residents stranded by devastating floods after heavy rains caused rivers to burst their banks. More rivers are bursting their banks across the nation. Officials fear the death toll could still rise rapidly as bad weather and poor access hamper relief efforts. The floods have hit large areas throughout the Horn of Africa nation, displacing about 48,000 people, according to UN estimates. Ethiopia has warned that more rivers across the nation are overflowing and its major dams are close to rupturing. Aid agencies say rains are likely to carry on until September and spread flooding to other areas. Aid agency Medecins Sans Frontieres said last week that the number displaced by flooding near Lake Tana, the source of the Blue Nile River, could rise to 35,000 in the coming weeks.

21 August 2006

The African Union (AU) today appealed to its member states and the rest of the international community to provide humanitarian assistance to thousands of Ethiopians affected by flash floods that followed heavy rainfall. The AU announced it was donating US$100,000 to the government to help it respond to the floods, which have displaced an estimated 10,000 people and left hundreds dead. Flooding first hit Dire Dawa city in southern Ethiopia earlier this month, killing hundreds. Then the Omo River burst its banks at the same time as rivers in Tigray, Amhara and Oromia regions. Police Inspector Daniel Gezahegne, the public relations officer in the Southern Nations Police Commission, said that efforts were continuing to rescue thousands of marooned villagers along the Omo River. Rescuers had saved about 1,300 using boats and helicopters, he added. “The weather is good today and we hope to save more people,” said Gezahegne. Some people were, however, reluctant to leave because they did not want to abandon their livestock. Floods are common during the June-September rainy season in Ethiopia. The country’s National Meteorological Agency has forecast more heavy rains, indicating that more rivers could soon overflow. The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said the immediate needs included search and rescue support, including boats, helicopters and life jackets. Helicopters could not fly most of the time due to bad weather, but they were essential to guiding boats to stranded people and dry land, the agency said in its latest update on the situation. The DPPA had also requested food and non-food items to fill the immediate humanitarian gap, according to OCHA. The DPPA was responding to both the food and non-food needs, with support from the UN World Food Programme and UN Children’s Fund, it added.

24 August 2006

Malaria could become the major threat to thousands of people whose villages have been submerged in flood waters along the Omo River in southern Ethiopia, local officials said yesterday, calling for a more rapid distribution of bed nets to displaced people. “Outbreaks of malaria are becoming our major concern. We are distributing mosquito nets to the stranded and rescued people who are in various shelters in the area,” said Kaidaki Gezahegne, the administrator of the South Omo Zone. He said more malaria cases were being reported in the flooded villages in the zone, and as a result, about 4,000 mosquito nets had been distributed in the past five days. The most severe flooding occurred in South Omo Valley, affecting more than 14 villages in two remote woredas (districts) in the Southern Nations, Nationalities and People’s Regions. The Ethiopian government said 364 people had died in that region and an estimated 6,000-10,000 had been displaced. In total, severe floods have claimed the lives of 620 people around Ethiopia since the end of July, according to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), and 35,000 people have been displaced. About 118,000 people have been affected by the flooding, the agency said in its latest update on the Ethiopian floods released on Tuesday (August 22). Heavy rainfall caused the swelling of nearly all major rivers in Ethiopia and the five dams across the country were nearing their maximum capacity and the water still rising, OCHA said, adding that the soil in much of the central highlands was saturated. Weather forecasts indicated more rains, which could lead to more flooding. The Ethiopian government has appealed for emergency assistance, particularly search and rescue teams, food and non-food items to fill the immediate humanitarian gaps.

14 September 2006

The number of Ethiopians affected by last month’s devastating flash floods has reached 357,000, including 136,528 forced to abandon their homes, a UN humanitarian agency said today. Flooding from overflowing rivers has killed some 1,000 people in parts of Ethiopia, Sudan, Eritrea and Somalia since early August. The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UN-OCHA) said Ethiopia’s northern Amhara region was the worst-hit in the giant Horn of Africa nation, with 97,000 people affected, of which 37,000 have lost their homes. “Large areas of cropped land in the Amhara region are swamped by the floods,” it said in a report. The report said Lake Tana, source of the Blue Nile River, has expanded by 50 meters and increased the risk of further flooding. Dembia district in northern Gondar zone is among the areas that have suffered severe flooding, with six temporary shelters only accessible by boat, the UN report said. UN-OCHA estimates the number of flood-affected people in the southern Oromia region has risen to 77,000 due to fresh inundations in eight districts in East Haraghe zone where 2,000 hectares (4,900 acres) of farmland was flooded. The number of affected people in Mustahil and Hargele in Ethiopia’s Somali region has reached 45,000 and 32,450 respectively, it added.

21 August 2006 India

Heavy rains and floods have killed 33 people in the western Indian state of Rajasthan over the last three days. Over 1500 villages and several towns had been cut off by the rising waters, schools and colleges ordered shut in the lake city of Udaipur, and electricity and telephone networks disrupted across the region, local officials said today. Soldiers used motorboats to rescue those stranded by the floodwaters. Rajasthan’s Relief Minister Kirori Lal Meena said the government had set aside 12 million rupees ($340,000) to help flood victims. The rains were the heaviest in more than two decades, officials in the desert state said.

23 August 2006 Sudan

Floods and heavy rain have killed at least 27 people and damaged about 10,000 homes in Sudan, the Interior Ministry and other sources said. The Blue and White Nile rivers, which meet in Khartoum, are threatening government ministries and the Republican Palace as the water in the capital rose to less than a metre below Nile street, home to the government’s main buildings. Tens of thousands of square kilometres of farmland, in a country where most people depend on agriculture as a way of life, have been engulfed by the water.

19 August 2006 Typhoon “Wukong”

Typhoon “Wukong” made landfall early Friday (August 18) in Kyushu, bringing heavy rain to many parts of western Japan and paralyzing land, sea and air traffic. Three people have been killed and at least three were injured in accidents linked to the typhoon, while more than 500 people had to evacuate their homes. The typhoon swept over Kyushu, heading north Friday afternoon, and was expected to be off Kyushu’s northern coast by Saturday. The Meteorological Agency urged residents of Kyushu and Shikoku to exercise caution, saying the typhoon is likely to continue bringing heavy rain to those areas Saturday. Up to 400 mm of rain was forecast for Saturday in the Pacific coastal areas of Shikoku, 250 mm in Kyushu, and 120 mm to 150 mm in the Chugoku and southern Kinki regions, the agency said. Meanwhile, rescue workers in Kanagawa Prefecture on Friday found the body of Mitsuo Sugisaki, 66. Sugisaki was washed away the previous day along with 24 other people who were fishing in the Sakawa River when the Miho Dam was opened, releasing 23 tons of water per second, to prepare for the rain expected from “Wukong”. Police are investigating whether the dam took the proper steps to warn the public before opening the dam’s floodgates. On yesterday a man drowned off the town of Yasuda, Kochi Prefecture, police said. He was surfing alone in high waves caused by the approaching typhoon. The Meteorological Agency said heavy rain, 65 mm to 68 mm per hour, hit the town of Misato, Miyazaki Prefecture, and the cities of Usuki and Bungoono in Oita Prefecture on Friday morning. Gusts of 147 kph were recorded on the Mount Unzen volcano in Nagasaki Prefecture. Meanwhile, heavy rain also soaked northern Japan from Hokkaido to the northern Tohoku region, which is hundreds of kilometers away from the typhoon zone.

18 August 2006 Vietnam

The death toll from floods and landslides in Vietnam has climbed to at least 26, with several children among the victims, officials said today. Heavy rains causing flooding and landslides have been reported in various parts of the country since last weekend (August 19-20). In southern Binh Thuan province, eight people were found dead. Early today, a landslide in northern mountainous Cao Bang province killed at least eight others, including three children, an official said. The central provinces of Nghe An, Quang Binh, Lam Dong, Quang Tri and Dak Lak also reported some victims. A report from the central committee on flood and storm control said more than 8,400 houses and 35,000ha of rice were under water.

21 August 2006

Flooding, landslides and lightning have killed at least 13 people since Friday night (August 18) in northern Vietnam, bringing the nationwide death toll in a week of rains to 40, a Government report said yesterday. Thousands have been evacuated to higher ground as water levels in the region’s main rivers were expected to continue rising with more rainfall forecast for the coming week. Natural disasters kill several hundred people in Vietnam each year. Four people were killed in a landslide in the northern province of Yen Bai on Saturday. Four died on the outskirts of the capital, Hanoi, when they were struck by lightning and five were swept away in floods.

11 September 2006

Floods and storms have killed 24 people in Vietnam’s southern Mekong Delta. The victims of the recent heavy downpour were from the two provinces of An Giang and Dong Thap. Flooding also inundated many houses, schools, irrigation works, paddy fields, and aquaculture ponds in the delta. Flooding and landslides caused by torrential rain in Vietnam has killed around 42 people and injured 20 last month. Among the victims, 12 died in landslides in the two northern provinces of Yen Bai and Cao Bang.