Floods & Landslides

Third_Density_Resident

Third_Density_Resident

Jedi Council Member
I just thought I'd post this news event because it comes not long after the 15-year-old girl from Maine, Kristen Byrnes, predicted an end to Australia's drought. Given some of the other things she predicted, perhaps it's time we took them very seriously. The original article can be found here.


Nine dead as thousands forced to evacuate

Source: AAP

June 10, 2007, 4:00 pm

THOUSANDS of residents in the NSW Hunter region have been urged to abandon their homes ahead of a torrent of floodwater expected to hit the region tonight.

The death toll from the three days of wild storms reached nine today as police found the body of 45-year-old Adamstown man, Wayne Bull, who was swept into a stormwater drain in the Newcastle suburb of Lambton after getting out of his car on Griffith Road on Friday night.

At the peak of Friday's wild weather, five members of the same family were swept to their deaths when a section of the Old Pacific Highway collapsed under their vehicle and it was hit by a "wall of water'' at Somersby, near Gosford.

The bodies of 30-year-old Adam Holt and his long-term partner Roslyn Bragg, 29, were recovered from Piles Creek today, while the bodies of their two daughters, Madison and Jasmine, aged two and three, and their nephew Travis Bragg, nine, were recovered yesterday.

All five bodies have now been taken to Newcastle morgue for formal identification.

Further north, Robert and Linda Jones were killed when their vehicle was washed off a flooded bridge at Clarence Town, while a 29-year-old Heddon Greta man died when a tree fell on his ute at Brunkerville, Lake Macquarie, about 6pm (AEST) yesterday.

Financial assistance

Prime Minister John Howard today offered additional financial support, and his condolences, to people affected by the storms.

"I know I speak for every Australian in saying that the country is thinking of you and we're heart broken by the loss of lives and the tragic circumstances in which a number of people have lost their lives ... (it's) the, tragically, human side of something such as this,'' he said.

"It is an immense disaster.''

While the torrential downpours and gale-force winds of Friday had eased by today, the focus turned to the dangers posed by floodwaters, with the Hunter Valley centres of Maitland and Singleton preparing for the worst.

Evacuation ordered

The State Emergency Service (SES) this afternoon issued an evacuation order for residents of central Maitland, South Maitland and Lorne following revised predictions that flood waters would peak at 5cm above the levee by 9pm today.

Residents are being advised to be out of their homes by 8pm, SES spokesman Philip Campbell said.

"The revised flood peak of 11.4 metres is expected by 9pm and that will cause the levee to over-top,'' Mr Campbell said.

About 5,000 people have been advised to evacuate in the Maitland and Singleton areas since yesterday.

Lower Hunter Local Area Commander, Superintendent Desmond Organ, said police were advising residents not to delay leaving the area, adding that security would be provided for vacant properties.

Evacuation centres have been set up to provide welfare assistance, first-aid, food and transport.

Sandbagging underway

Sandbagging operations were underway at Branxton to protect homes near the river ahead of its expected peak at 6pm today, while the New England Highway to Branxton and Anvil Creek Bridge were cut to all traffic bar emergency service vehicles.

Meanwhile, Premier Morris Iemma said the damage in Newcastle was worse than that caused by the city's 1989 earthquake.

"Construction sites and scaffolding, debris on roads, abandoned cars, homes that were damaged, trees having fallen on homes, extensive damage. It was quite disbelieving,'' he told the Seven Network.

The water also was causing havoc for utilities, with sewage flowing untreated into the ocean from plants across Sydney and the Hunter Valley.

Power cuts

More than 100,000 homes of the Lower Hunter and Central Coast are still blacked out, along with 5,000 Sydney residences, and power may not be fully restored until later this week.

Public transport is returning to normal across Sydney but storm-ravaged Newcastle and the Central Coast are still experiencing disruptions.

Householders affected by the wild storms and floodwaters have been urged to contact their insurance companies to speed up property damage claims.
 
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Once the El Nino effect was over in late March, Australia on the East Coast was due for rain. The floods were in a relatively small area of Australia considering the size of the place.

If you take a look at the Bureau of Meteorology website for rainfall maps, it's a little lower than normal but not too much so.

http://www.bom.gov.au/cgi-bin/silo/rain_maps.cgi

We're currently on water restrictions in New South Wales around the Sydney basin, including the area where I live which had 8 inches of rain last year. Something is rather strange with the whole deal, for example we received about 3-4 inches (90mm) of rain over the past few days, yet the catchment area around Warragamba Dam (which supplies most of Sydney) only received 1/2 an inch (11mm). This area is only about twenty miles away as the crow flies.

Local newspaper had a lead story this week about people using BORE WATER being on water restrictions. It is geting ridiculous.

anyway, the PTB have decided I'm on Level 3 water restrictions.....which means.

The Level 3 restrictions are:

* Hand-held hosing of lawns and gardens and drip irrigation is now allowed only on Wednesdays and Sundays before 10 am and after 4 pm
* No other watering systems or sprinklers are to be used at any time
* A permit from Sydney Water is required to fill new or renovated pools bigger than 10,000 litres
* No hosing of hard surfaces including vehicles at any time
* No hoses or taps to be left running unattended, except when filling pools or containers
* Fire hoses must only be used for fire fighting purposes – not for cleaning.

This despite the fact I live in an area not reliant on Warragamba Dam, the dam that supplies my area is 100% full. Nevertheless the "water police" patrol the suburbs with their water restriction cars issuing tickets for water wastage.

Add to that PM John Howard has given Liberal Party heavyweight Malcolm Turnbull the newly created "Minister of
Environment and Water Resources". One of their objectives seems to be wrestling control of water from the states to a more centralized Federal govt role. From there one foresees water being privatized completely either that or perhaps a rain tax? 8|

A rainwater tank tax (or levy) is another possibility.

Australia is sometimes used as a test case for govt policy in other parts of the world, so one perhaps may see some "water policy white papers" in other countries in the future.
 
"Selling" Global Warming and Climate Change, perhaps?

These water restictions seem to be are a rather interesting form of 'control'. Imposed scarcity of a kind.
 

At least 41 dead in Yemen floods
Reuters 25ht Oct 2008

Floods killed 41 people and around 31 are missing in Yemen after torrential rain left swathes of the impoverished country under water, President Ali Abdullah Saleh said Saturday.


814224781-local-people-flooded-area-southeastern-yemeni-valley-sayoun.jpg



Around 1,700 homes have been destroyed, he said, displacing hundreds of families in the floods that swept the southeastern provinces of Hadramout and Mahra following 30 hours of heavy rainfall.

Yemeni authorities have declared the eastern provinces a disaster area and Saleh has been touring some of the worst hit regions.

Yemen is one of the poorest countries in the world and its government is already struggling against a rebellion in the north, unrest in the south and an al Qaeda resurgence, while a growing number of Somali refugees stretch its resources to the limit.

Situated on the southern tip of the Arabian Peninsula, Yemen is prone to flooding during the monsoon season.

(Reporting by Mohammed Sudam; Writing by Lin Noueihed; Editing by Caroline Drees)



Comment from me : Yes but it is not monsoon season now. Monsoon season is between June and August
 
The Connexion
November 04, 2008

METEO France has lifted its red alert warning for floods and heavy rain but seven departments remain on orange alert.

La Nièvre, la Saône-et-Loire, l'Allier, la Loire, le Puy-de-Dôme and both Corsican departments are still receiving heavy rain.

Interior Minister Michèle Alliot-Marie has written to prefects asking them to speed up the process of declaring national emergency – a status which affects the insurance claims of people within the zones.

Charity Secours Populaire has launched an appeal to help those affected by flooding.

Ecology Minister Nathalie Kosciusko-Morizet has visited Rive-sur-Gier in the Loire - the commune worst affected by floods over the weekend.

Flooding in the Loire has caused damage to roads and disrupted rail services. A spokesman for the SNCF said it would take several days for normal timetables to resume.

There is still no sign of a light aircraft which was reported missing with four people on board on Sunday.

The plane was flying from Romans-sur-Isère in la Drôme to Aix-les-Milles in the Bouches-du-Rhône.

Several helicopters and 250 people are involved in the search which is concentrated towards at the southern end of the planes flight paths where the passengers’ mobile phones were last detected.

In Marseilles, shops, businesses and homes were flooded and vehicles damaged when sudden heavy rain turned streets into rivers as water poured down hills into the old port.

http://www.connexionfrance.com/news_articles.php?id=465
 
The rain started yesterday, at first it seemed like normal, maybe a little strong, but at specific points, it caused floods. Where I live is pretty much higher according to other parts of Istanbul, but those places which are close to sea level are really affected. Meterologists say the rain is four times more than the average of any year and Istanbul haven't experienced such a rain for 80 years. Here some articles from a few sources:


Marmara floods create havoc
Tuesday, September 8, 2009
ISTANBUL - Hürriyet Daily News with wires
Torrents of rain stampeding across northwestern Turkey strike up flash floods and leave chaos in their wake. At least nine people are left dead and many more are still missing. Collapsed bridges, road closures and overflowing waterways bring Istanbul to a crawl.


Dozens of cars were swept away by flooding in the Silivri suburb of Istanbul. AA Photo
Heavy rains in the northwestern region of Marmara that started late Monday intensified yesterday, directly causing the deaths of nine people and wreaking havoc on the traffic.

Four people from the same family were found dead, and one other member was still missing, in the Saray region of the Tekirdağ province, the Anatolia news agency reported late Tuesday. In Istanbul’s Silivri region, an elderly disabled man drowned after floods inundated his house. Also, a woman who tried to cross rail tracks after the underpass was flooded on the Pendik-Kartal line on Istanbul’s Asian side was hit by a train and died, the Doğan news agency reported Tuesday.

Floods covered a large part of the region overnight in Saray, where a family of five was swept away. Emergency personnel found the bodies of the three children and the mother yesterday. The father is still missing. The bodies of an elderly couple, aged 81 and 79, were also found yesterday.

Zeki Kaya, a local administrator in Saray, said some 25 houses were damaged and 50 animals were lost in the flood. Two of the bridges in the Saray district have collapsed due to the flooding.

Istanbul was also affected badly by the heavy rainfall that began Monday night and continued throughout yesterday. Two of the city’s main traffic arteries, TEM and E5, were shut down temporarily due to the floods.

Istanbul Governor Muammer Güler said Tuesday that one person had died in the province and a child had gone missing due to the floods.

The Silivri, Çatalca, Küçükçekmece and Avcılar districts on the city’s European side and the Kartal, Pendik and Tuzla districts on its Anatolian side were all badly affected by the heavy rainfall.

Private channel CNNTürk reported that police closed the road connecting the province of Edirne to Istanbul due to accidents on the road.

Feridun Donat told CNNTürk on Tuesday that his brother went missing at 11 a.m. in the Çatalca district of Istanbul and that rescue teams were still searching for him four hours later. “There are other people looking for their relatives in the Çatalca River. This place looks like a mess,” said Donat.

Architect Mücella Yapıcı told CNNTürk that the lack of a proper urbanization plan causes rains to turn into floods and creates havoc in modern cities.

According to Yapıcı, rivers normally carry rainfall to the sea, but in Istanbul, many riverbeds have been opened to construction and are now full of residential neighborhoods.

More than 100 buildings in the Marmara region were flooded, including a hospital in the Çatalca district, where the village of Göçeali lost all roads connecting it to the outside world, reports said Tuesday.

Çatalca Mayor Cem Kara said they had opened a crisis-management desk and were using all the resources they had, but still could not control the flood completely. The mayor said they were seeking help from neighboring districts.

A fire started at the top of a five-story building located in the Pendik region when it was struck by lightning. Firemen extinguished the blaze before it spread to nearby buildings.

Many people were stuck inside their houses or in their cars on the highways, as emergency and military personnel were dispatched to rescue them.

Mustafa Yıldırım, the director of the Istanbul Meteorology Department, said they expected the rain to continue until Saturday, adding that the rains will be heavier Wednesday.

The rain will lessen, but continue Thursday and Friday in the Marmara region, Yıldırım said, warning people about floods and lightning.

Due to strong winds, ferries between Gökçeada and Kabatepe and Bozcaada and Geyikli, connecting the islands in the Marmara Sea to the mainland, were cancelled Tuesday.

The roof of a court building in Silivri collapsed due to the strong rain and wind, causing the court to delay the proceedings in the controversial Ergenekon case, in which an alleged gang is charged with trying to topple the government. Some parts of the court building were flooded and the building’s alarm system went off due to the heavy rainfall. Chief judge Köksal Şengün ordered the suspension of the proceedings until Sept. 14.

Twenty-five foreign and local freight ships are currently anchored at a harbor on the coast of Tekirdağ, waiting for the rains and the storm to subside, the Doğan news agency reported.
Click to expand...

http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/n.php?n=five-missing-in-floods-in-northwest-turkey-2009-09-08


Flash floods kill 16 in Istanbul, deputy governor says

ISTANBUL - Hürriyet Daily News

Wednesday, September 9, 2009

Six-teen people were killed and dozens stranded in their vehicles as flash floods gushed across an Istanbul arterial road on Wednesday, said Hikmet Çakmak, Istanbul’s deputy governor.

Doğan News Agency earlier said rescuers recovered 17 bodies following flash floods that gushed across an Istanbul highway near the district of İkitelli.

Among the casualties were six bodies recovered by firefighters at a truck parking lot off the highway.

As waters rose more than a meter high, motorists climbed on roofs of their vehicles waiting to be rescued. The floods occurred in the early hours as people began making their way to work.

"We are saddened by the loss of lives. There are still some people missing and we are searching for them" said Procurement Minister Mustafa Demir who visited the area. "There is huge damage to infrastructure."

"We need to be more careful when designing infrastructure and cities," he added.

Authorities blocked off roads leading to the highway and people were being advised to avoid traveling in the area.

Waters receded in parts of İkitelli later on Wednesday leaving a trail of mud.

Seven other people were killed Tuesday in flooding in Istanbul and a town in nearby northwestern Tekirdağ province.
Click to expand...

http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/n.php?n=flash-floods-immerse-istanbul-highway-stranding-dozens-of-2009-09-09


Here there are some photos:

http://fotogaleri.hurriyet.com.tr/galeridetay.aspx?cid=26310&rid=2&hid=12443568

http://www.todayszaman.com/tz-web/news-186614-report-more-than-20-people-killed-in-istanbul-flood-dozens-missing.html#photos

And when the flood has passed people started looting:

http://fotogaleri.hurriyet.com.tr/GaleriDetay.aspx?cid=26308&p=1&rid=2

The last numbers were 29 deaths and 8 missing, continues to increase. Some say Friday will be worse than today, because today wind was strong and carried the clouds quickly.

And what did our beloved mayor Kadir Topbaş whose job is preventing such things(and he is there for the past 10 years) said: "This is a result of imprudence of people of Istanbul." So it is never his fault, as usual. :mad:


The rain will continue at the end of this week, we will see if it is going to get worse or better...
 
Biomast,
You said that the people started looting, but looking at the pictures on the link you sent I tend to think that the people we can witness may be trying to get their stuff back rather than looting. Usually the looters go to shops where it is much more profitable...and dry.
Anyway, the people who have been victim of that event must have hard time now... :(
respect
 
The pictures you have seen were taken from a truck park where some drivers died and the goods in the trucks scattered all around, these people are looting them. I can assure you, it isn't their stuff. I read the articles and in one incident, there was a truck filled with rifle and people quickly collected the rifles, when police came there was nothing. There was a shop that was looted in the region, as far as I know, yet it isn't in the pictures. I posted them right after they appeared on Hurriyet, so they may not reflect the horror of the situation.

People are having hard time, but governor and mayor continue to blame others. Yesterday governor said they can't be hold responsible because the whole world is responsible for this... I think the most heartbreaking story is where eight women trapped in a van, there was no way out and they drowned there. :cry:
 
:cry: Indeed.

You talk about the responsibility of the officials but you don't give any precisions as to the mistakes they could have made to justify your insistance. It's not that I want to protect them but we need to understand why they are guilty since the climate is sometimes running amok and there is nothing to be done or which could have be done to prevent the damages.
In many instances in my country, the modern urbanistic schemes have not respect the ancient knowledge and the municipality may have cut woods that were important to stop the water flow(for instance). They may also (and this is the most frequent)have given authorisation to build houses in area that have always be known as potentially dangerous, just because that was a good bargain for the city...and their own pockets.
Respect
 
Even though there is a climate issue, the reason for actual flood is probably the set they created for Ayamama river broken down. This isn't confirmed by them, but there are some strong suspicions. Main claim is that how come such amounts of water can instantaneously filled into the region. Truck drivers were sleeping and never had a chance to see what is coming to them, they died before waking up. And there is this:

sankara said:
They may also (and this is the most frequent)have given authorisation to build houses in area that have always be known as potentially dangerous, just because that was a good bargain for the city...and their own pockets.
Click to expand...

This is exactly what they did. It is forbidden to build houses there, the authorisation comes from mayor and the governor who are the peons of prime minister. And the most painful thing is, the prime minister who is behind all of this pain said: "The vengeance of the river would be harsh.", a Turkish proverb according to him. Now, what the hell is that mean? Vengeance from whom? All those women, truck drivers or a little child who died? If it should took vengeance from someone, that shouldn't be anybody but prime minister.

He claims he isn't responsible, yet he was the very person who was mayor in Istanbul 15 years ago (and he is prime minister with strong power for 8 years) and the control of the city has never changed, it was always in the hands of his previous and current parties. One would imagine 15 years would be enough to clear such things even if we assume he didn't do it(which I don't believe, there must be at least a permission to stay there for those people). It is unbelievable that he can come out and say things like that, and people believe and support him.
 
It is getting warm, well it is sweating now... What is the problem?

I just wish that the displaced people will have a shelter for the days to come.
 
Very distressing news. So many floods occurring all over the world. Most probably many more to come.

Makes me think of the biblical line: "As it was in the days of Noah..."

To think that so many people are unaware of the increase and actual extent of these disasters due to apathy and/or a controlled media.

Whenever a natural disaster or tragic act against humanity occurs, there is a good chance that uncaring psychopaths and ponerized individuals are in control of key municipal services, the police, National Guard or Army, etc.. That inhuman leaders "lead" makes this sort of situation doubly tragic.

One can only wonder if some of the people who are experiencing these floods, volcanic eruptions, earthquakes, and man-made disasters begin to recognize through their suffering that there are persons in positions of power who do not respect life and do not have positive solutions to the real problems at hand.
 
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