Villagers flee floods in central China as typhoon approaches

Villagers were evacuated over makeshift bridges Friday as floods submerged swathes of central China following a historic deluge which claimed at least 51 lives -- while an approaching typhoon threatened to dump more rain on the stricken area.

Millions have been affected by the floods in Henan province, which have trapped people for days without fresh food or water, and pulverized roads as they breached embankments, caking whole areas in thick ankle-deep mud.

The death toll is expected to rise, with provincial officials telling reporters Friday that casualties were still being counted.

Adding to the misery, Typhoon In-Fa is forecast to bring further torrential downpours to parts of Henan in the coming days, state media said.

In the worst-hit city of Zhengzhou, firefighters Friday continued to pump muddy water from tunnels, including from a subway where at least a dozen people drowned inside a train earlier in the week as a year's worth of rainfall fell in just three days.

Overnight, heavy rain saw floods surge northwards to the city of Xinxiang and surrounding areas, where vast areas of farmland were inundated and the town cut off as the Wei River burst its banks.

"We were at my grandmother's and then the water suddenly rose... the building was surrounded by water," said Sun Haocun in the town of Weihui, who was rescued in a dinghy by a team of volunteers.

- Thousands evacuated -

AFP saw residents wading through water that reached waist-height, staggering with dogs, bicycles and bags of possessions.

Teams of rescuers in life jackets helped residents to safety, with several elderly people in wheelchairs lifted above the surging water through streets of shuttered shops.

"The resistance of the water is strong, especially when the water level is high and reaches up to the neck," said one exhausted volunteer Wang Kai, pushing an inflatable canoe.

Aerial footage showed rescuers using temporary bridges to move hundreds of residents to safety, with tree tops poking above the water the only sign of land for miles.

More than 495,000 people have been evacuated, said the Henan government, with the flooding causing billions of dollars of losses.

Liang Long, an employee at a hotel in a city neighboring Xinxiang, told AFP hundreds had arrived seeking refuge since Thursday afternoon and through the night.

"Their villages have been flattened with nothing left," he said.

The hotel, about 20 kilometers (12 miles) from the worst-hit areas, was still receiving "continuous" calls for help, Liang added.

"There are many people and our hotel's food is running low," he said.

Videos shared over social media have provided a window into the destructive power of the floods, which tossed cars into piles and sucked pedestrians towards storm drains.

Harrowing footage from rush-hour passengers trapped inside the subway, where waters rose from ankle to neck height, pinballed across China's Twitter-like Weibo as people questioned why the underground network had been allowed to operate during an unprecedented storm.

- Coastal warning -

Meteorologists are now anxiously watching the progress of Typhoon In-Fa which has already dumped heavy rainfall on Taiwan and the east coast of China, and is expected to make landfall from Sunday, in an area home to tens of millions of people.

"After landing, In-fa may circulate in the east China region, bringing long periods of extremely heavy rainfall," the National Meteorological Center said.

During high tides "coastal areas should guard against the combined impact of wind, rain and tides," it added, warning the public to prepare for a major weather event.

Questions have been asked about how China's bulging cities could be better prepared for freak weather events, which experts say are happening with increased frequency and intensity due to climate change.

Henan province is criss-crossed by rivers, dams and reservoirs, many constructed decades ago to manage the flow of floodwater and irrigate the agricultural region. 

State media has rebuffed suggestions that dams played a part in subverting the normal flow of water.

Stories of remarkable survival and tragedy have emerged as floods retreat from southern parts of Henan, with a baby dug out from a collapsed house while her mother died in the debris.

Agence France-Presse

German floods kill at least 133; search for survivors continues

FRANKFURT - Rescue workers searched flood-ravaged parts of western Germany for survivors on Saturday as water levels remained high in many towns and houses continued to collapse in the country's worst natural disaster in half a century.

At least 133 people have died in the flooding, including some 90 people in the Ahrweiler district south of Cologne, according to police estimates on Saturday. Hundreds of people are still missing.

Around 700 residents were evacuated late on Friday after a dam broke in the town of Wassenberg near Cologne, authorities said.

Over the past several days the floods, which have mostly hit the states of Rhineland Palatinate and North Rhine-Westphalia, have cut off entire communities from power and communications.

The flooding has also hit parts of Belgium and the Netherlands. At least 20 people have died in Belgium.

German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier and Armin Laschet, state premier of North Rhine-Westphalia, were scheduled to visit Erftstadt, one of the hardest hit towns, on Saturday.

Laschet is ruling CDU party's candidate in September's general election. The devastation of the floods could intensify the debate over climate change ahead of the vote.

Scientists have long said that climate change will lead to heavier downpours. But determining its role in these relentless downpours will take at least several weeks to research, scientists said on Friday.

-reuters 

Devastated Venice braced for third major flood

Venice was braced Saturday for an unprecednted third major flooding in less than a week, with sea water due to swamp the already devastated historic city where authorities have declared a state of emergency.

Mayor Luigi Brugnaro ordered the iconic St Mark’s Square closed on Friday as the latest sea surge struck with strong storms and winds battering the region.

After a brief respite on Saturday, the city forecast a high water of 160 centimetres (over five feet) for just after midday on Sunday, lower than Tuesday’s high of 187 centimetres but still dangerous.

Churches, shops and homes in the city, a UNESCO World Heritage site, have been inundated by unusually intense “acqua alta”, or high water, which on Tuesday hit its highest level in half a century.

“We’ve destroyed Venice, we’re talking about one billion (euros) in damage,” Brugnaro said after the second major flooding of around 160 centimetres hit on Friday.

The Italian football team travelled to Venice on Saturday to show solidarity with the stricken city.

“On behalf of the whole team, we stand close to the city of Venice,” said Italy goalkeeper Gianluigi Donnarumma.

The Italian football federation delegation visited several businesses damaged by the flooding, and chatted with Venetians, volunteers and police.

“Venice will overcome this too. Like an athlete who suffers a serious injury and then gets up again,” said delegation chief and former Azzurri international Gianluca Vialli.


The crisis has prompted the government to release 20 million euros ($22 million) in funds to tackle the devastation.

Surveying the damage, Culture Minister Dario Franceschini warned the task of repairing the city would be huge. More than 50 churches had suffered damage, he said.

Hotel reservations cancelled

Residents whose houses have been hit are eligible for up to 5,000 euros in immediate government aid, while restaurant and shop owners can receive up to 20,000 euros and apply for more later.

Most of the city’s cash machines were no longer working because of the water, making life even more difficult for tourists and Venetians.

Despite being used to the inconvenience of their city’s rising waters, some inhabitants expressed frustration.

“All the stock in the basement is lost,” lamented Luciano, a worker at a shop along St. Mark’s Square.

He said he remembered well the infamous “acqua alta” of 1966, when the water rose to a level of 1.94 metres, the highest since records began in 1923.

“These so frequent high waters have never happened before…this time there’s so much more damage than in the past,” he said.

Hotels reported cancelled reservations, some as far ahead as December, following the widespread diffusion of images of Venice underwater.

Tuesday’s high waters submerged around 80 percent of the city, officials said.

Many, including Venice’s mayor, have blamed the disaster on global warming and warned that the country prone to natural disasters must wake up to the risks posed by ever more volatile seasons.

The Serenissima, as the floating city is called, is home to 50,000 residents but receives 36 million visitors each year.

A massive infrastructure project called MOSE has been under way since 2003 to protect the city, but it has been plagued by cost overruns, corruption scandals and delays.

The speaker of Italy’s Senate, Maria Elisabetta Alberti Casellati, visited Venice on Saturday and called for the MOSE project to be completed.

“Once the emergency is over, the light on Venice should not go out,” Italian media reported.

“Venice needs attention. Now is the time to do it and if the MOSE serves as it should to avoid such disasters, then it must be finished.”

cjo/har

Agence France-Presse

Dorian triggers massive flooding in Bahamas; at least 5 dead

NASSAU, Bahamas  – Hurricane Dorian unleashed massive flooding across the Bahamas on Monday, pummeling the islands with so much wind and water that authorities urged people to find floatation devices and grab hammers to break out of their attics if necessary. At least five deaths were blamed on the storm.

“We are in the midst of a historic tragedy,” Prime Minister Hubert Minnis said in announcing the fatalities. He called the devastation “unprecedented and extensive.”

The fearsome Category 4 storm slowed almost to a standstill as it shredded roofs, hurled cars and forced even rescue crews to take shelter until the onslaught passed.

Officials said they received a “tremendous” number of calls from people in flooded homes.

A radio station received more than 2,000 distress messages, including reports of a 5-month-old baby stranded on a roof and a grandmother with six grandchildren who cut a hole in a roof to escape rising floodwaters. Other reports involved a group of eight children and five adults stranded on a highway and two storm shelters that flooded.

The deaths in the Bahamas came after a previous storm-related fatality in Puerto Rico. At least 21 people were hurt in the Bahamas and evacuated by helicopters, the prime minster said.

Police Chief Samuel Butler urged people to remain calm and share their GPS coordinates, but he said rescue crews had to wait until weather conditions improved.

“We simply cannot get to you,” he told Bahamas radio station ZNS.

Forecasters warned that Dorian could generate a storm surge as high as 23 feet (7 meters).

Meanwhile in the United States, the National Hurricane Center extended watches and warnings across the Florida and Georgia coasts. Forecasters expected Dorian to stay off shore, but meteorologist Daniel Brown cautioned that “only a small deviation” could draw the storm’s dangerous core toward land.

By 5 p.m. EDT Monday, the storm’s top sustained winds fell slightly to 145 mph (230 kph). It was crawling along Grand Bahama Island at 1 mph (2 kph) and then remained stationary.


The water reached roofs and the tops of palm trees. One woman filmed water lapping at the stairs of her home’s second floor.

In Freeport, Dave Mackey recorded video showing water and floating debris surging around his house as the wind shrieked outside.

“Our house is 15 feet up, and right now where that water is is about 8 feet. So we’re pretty concerned right now because we’re not at high tide,” said Mackey, who shared the video with The Associated Press. “Our garage door has already come off. … Once we come out of it with our lives, we’re happy.”

On Sunday, Dorian churned over Abaco Island with battering winds and surf and heavy flooding.

Parliament member Darren Henfield described the damage as “catastrophic” and said officials did not have information on what happened on nearby cays. “We are in search-and-recovery mode. … Continue to pray for us.”

A spokesman for Bahamas Power and Light told ZNS that there was a blackout in New Providence, the archipelago’s most populous island. He said the company’s office in Abaco island was flattened.

“The reports out of Abaco as everyone knows,” spokesman Quincy Parker said, pausing for a deep sigh, “were not good.”

Most people went to shelters as the storm neared. Tourist hotels shut down, and residents boarded up their homes. Many people were expected to be left homeless.

On Sunday, Dorian’s maximum sustained winds reached 185 mph (297 kph), with gusts up to 220 mph (354 kph), tying the record for the most powerful Atlantic hurricane ever to make landfall. That equaled the Labor Day hurricane of 1935, before storms were named. The only recorded storm that was more powerful was Hurricane Allen in 1980, with 190 mph (305 kph) winds, though it did not make landfall at that strength.

The Bahamas archipelago is no stranger to hurricanes. Homes are required to have metal reinforcements for roof beams to withstand winds into the upper limits of a Category 4 hurricane, and compliance is generally tight for those who can afford it. Risks are higher in poorer neighborhoods that have wooden homes in low-lying areas.


Dorian was likely to begin pulling away from the Bahamas early Tuesday and curving to the northeast parallel to the southeastern coast of the U.S. The system is expected to spin 40 to 50 miles (64 to 80 kilometers) off Florida, with hurricane-force wind speeds extending about 35 miles (56 kilometers) to the west.

An advisory from the hurricane center warned that Florida’s east-central coast could see a brief tornado sometime Monday afternoon or evening.

A mandatory evacuation of entire South Carolina coast took effect Monday covering about 830,000 people.

Transportation officials reversed all lanes of Interstate 26 from Charleston to head inland earlier than planned after noticing traffic jams from evacuees and vacationers heading home on Labor Day, Gov. Henry McMaster said.

“We can’t make everybody happy, but we believe we can keep everyone alive,” the governor said.

A few hours later, Georgia’s governor, Brian Kemp, ordered mandatory evacuations for that state’s Atlantic coast, also starting at midday Monday.

Authorities in Florida ordered mandatory evacuations in some vulnerable coastal areas. North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper warned his state that it could see heavy rain, winds and floods later in the week.

A hurricane watch was in effect for Florida’s East Coast from Deerfield Beach north to South Santee River in South Carolina. A storm surge watch was extended northward to South Santee River in South Carolina. Lake Okeechobee was under a tropical storm watch.

A National Guard official, John Anderson, said many people were complying with the evacuation orders.

“We have not seen much resistance at all,” he said in a phone call with reporters. People do understand that Dorian is nothing to mess around with.” /gsg

source: newsinfo.inquirer.net

Japan says death toll from floods climbs to 100

HIROSHIMA, Japan – The Japanese government said at least 100 people have died or are presumed dead from the heavy rains, floods and mudslides that have struck western Japan.

Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga told a news conference on Monday that 68 people were unaccounted for, many of them in the hardest-hit Hiroshima area.

Suga said 87 people were confirmed dead and 13 others had no vital signs when they were found as of early Monday.


People are preparing for risky search and cleanup efforts in southwestern Japan, where several days of heavy rainfall had set off flooding and landslides in a widespread area.

Some residents in Hiroshima prefecture said they were caught off guard in a region not used to torrents of rainfall, which began Friday and worsened through the weekend. Rivers overflowed, turning towns into lakes and leaving dozens of people stranded on rooftops. Military paddleboats and helicopters were bringing people to dry land.

The assessment of casualties has been difficult because of the widespread area affected. Authorities warned that landslides could strike even after rain subsides as the calamity shaped up to be potentially the worst in decades. /kga

source: newsinfo.inquirer.net

Calgary flooding forces 75,000 from homes

CALGARY, Alberta— Flooding forced the western Canadian city of Calgary to order the evacuation of its entire downtown Friday, as the waters reached the 10th row of the city’s hockey arena.

Communities throughout southern Alberta were inundated by overflowing rivers that washed out roads and bridges, soaked homes and turned streets into dirt-brown waterways.

About 350,000 people work in downtown Calgary on a typical day. However, officials said very few people need to be moved out, since many heeded warnings and did not go to work Friday.

Twenty-five neighborhoods in the city, with an estimated population of 75,000, have already been evacuated due to floodwaters in Calgary, a city of more than a million people that hosted the 1988 Winter Olympics and serves as the center of Canada’s oil industry.

No deaths were reported since torrential rains hit the region Wednesday night, although one woman swept away with a mobile home was still missing.

In the downtown, water was inundating homes and businesses in the shadow of skyscrapers. Water has swamped cars and train tracks.

The city said the home rink of the National Hockey League’s Calgary Flames flooded and the water inside was 10 rows deep.

At the grounds for the world-famous Calgary Stampede fair, water reached up to the roofs of the chuck wagon barns. The popular rodeo and festival was supposed to begin in two weeks.

About 1,500 have gone to emergency shelters while the rest have found shelter with family or friends, Mayor Naheed Nenshi said.

Nenshi said he’s never seen the rivers reach so high or flow so fast, but said the flooding situation was as under control as it could be. Nenshi said the Elbow River, one of two rivers that flow through the southern Alberta city, has peaked.

The mayor suggested that levels on the Bow River — which, in Nenshi’s words, looked like an ocean — would remain steady for the rest of the day as long as conditions didn’t change.

Police urged people to stay away from downtown and not go to work.

The flood was forcing emergency plans at the Calgary Zoo, which is situated on an island near where the Elbow and Bow rivers meet. Lions and tigers were being prepared for transfer, if necessary, to prisoner holding cells at the courthouse.

Schools and court trials were cancelled Friday and residents urged to avoid downtown. Transit service in the core was shut down.

Residents were left to wander and wade through streets waist-deep in water.

“In all the years I’ve been down here, I’ve never seen the water this high,” resident John Doherty said.

“I’ve got two antique pianos in the garage that I was going to rebuild and they’re probably under water,” he said. “We’re shell-shocked.”

Alberta Premier Alison Redford promised the province would help flood victims put their lives back together and provide financial aid to communities that need to rebuild. The premier said at a briefing that she had spoken to Prime Minister Stephen Harper, who was heading to Calgary and promised disaster relief.

Redford urged people to heed evacuation orders, so authorities could do their jobs. She called the flooding that has hit most of southern Alberta an “absolutely tragic situation.”

The premier warned that communities downstream of Calgary had not yet felt the full force of the floodwaters.

It had been a rainy week throughout much of Alberta, but on Thursday the Bow River Basin was battered with up to 100 millimeters (four inches) of rain. Environment Canada’s forecast called for more rain in the area, but in much smaller amounts.

Calgary was not alone in its weather-related woes. Flashpoints of chaos spread from towns in the Rockies south to Lethbridge.

More than a dozen towns declared states of emergency. Entire communities, including High River and Bragg Creek, near Calgary, were under mandatory evacuation orders.

Some of the worst flooding hit High River, where an estimated half of the town’s residents experienced flooding in their homes.

Military helicopters plucked about 30 people off rooftops in the area. Others were rescued by boat or in buckets of heavy machinery. Some even swam for their lives from stranded cars.

A spokesman for Defense Minister Peter MacKay said 354 soldiers are being deployed to the entire flood zone.

Further west, in the shadow of the Rocky Mountains, photos from the mountain town of Canmore depicted a raging river ripping at house foundations.

source: newsinfo.inquirer.net

800 homes flooded as Britain soaked by more heavy rain

LONDON – More than 800 homes in England and Wales have been flooded as heavy rain and strong winds battered the country and environmental officials warned of more downpours to come on Monday.

Two people have died since heavy rain began on Wednesday, including a woman killed by a falling tree in the southwestern English city of Exeter and a man trapped in his car in rising waters in Somerset.

In a Twitter message, Prime Minister David Cameron described the scenes of flooding in the rural southwestern region of Cornwall as “shocking”, and promised the government “will help ensure everything is being done to help”.

Parts of the Cornish village of Millbrook were reportedly under 1.5 metres (five feet) of water and 40 homes were evacuated, a BBC reporter who lives there said, after torrents of muddy water swept through the village on Saturday.

Many communities were cut off after police shut water-logged roads in Cornwall and neighbouring Devon.

In Malmesbury in Wiltshire, western England, pub landlord Tom Hudson said he had water lapping at the door in the worst floods he had seen for 14 years.

“It’s gone down a lot but I’m trying to get hold of some sandbags because more rain is forecast for later today,” he said.

“Houses across the road have been flooded to a depth of three or four feet, with furniture floating around in the rooms.

“I’ve been here 14 years and there were floods in 2000 and again in 2007 but this is much worse than either of those.”

Residents of the village of Kempsey in Worcestershire, central England, criticised new flood defences which they said had made the flooding worse, after pumps failed.

The Environment Agency said 816 homes have been flooded since Wednesday across England and Wales.

source: newsinfo.inquirer.net