Unprecedented Rainfall and Major Flooding Around the World

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Death toll from floods in Russia's Irkutsk region reaches 14 people
Death toll from floods in Russia's Irkutsk region reaches 14 people

© Kirill Shipitsin/TASS

MOSCOW, July 1, 2019 - The death toll from heavy floods in Russia’s Siberian Irkutsk region has reached 14 people. Thirteen more people are missing, a spokesman for the local emergencies services told TASS on Monday.

"According to preliminary data, 14 people died, 13 more are missing. As many as 153 people, including one child, were hospitalized," he said.

Russian Deputy Prime Minister Vitaly Mutko said earlier 12 people had died in the floods and nine were missing.

Floods in the Irkutsk region began in late June after torrential rains. A state of emergency was declared in the flood-affected areas. The water level in the river Iya has risen seven meters above the critical mark. As many as 83 settlements in six districts have been affected by the disaster. More than 6,600 residental houses, which accommodate more than 32,000 people, have been flooded. On Sunday night, Russian President Vladimir Putin held a meeting in the city of Bratsk on the situation in the flooded areas.

Over 2,000 homes flooded in southeast Siberia’s Irkutsk
Over 2,000 homes flooded in southeast Siberia’s Irkutsk

© Press Office of Irkutsk Region Branch of Russia's Ministry of Emergency Situations and Disaster Relief/TASS

IRKUTSK, June 28, 2019 - More than 2,300 houses were flooded due to heavy rains in Russia’s southeastern Siberian region of Irkutsk, the regional government said in a statement on Friday.

"As of 7:00 local time (02:00 Moscow time) a total of 2,392 houses, where 5,955 people (1,466 of them children) live, as well as four social infrastructure objects were inundated," the statement reads.

A total of 16 stretches of car roads and 13 bridges were flooded, two of them on the R-255 ‘Siberia’ federal highway.

A state of emergency was declared in the region.

 

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Watching the Russian First Channel news about the situation in the Irkutsk region, they said, as I understood it, that the previous predictions for risks were that the water would not rise more than nine meters above normal level, but it rose 14 meters!

 

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India is experiencing two extremes - sever drought in some areas and the monsoon rains have drench other areas.

Wall collapses in Mumbai and nearby towns, caused by the worst monsoon rains in a single day in 14 years, killed 30 people on Tuesday and disrupted rail and air traffic, prompting officials to shut schools and offices.

Heavy rains in India kill 30, cripple financial capital

People stand among the debris after a wall collpased on hutments due to heavy rains in Mumbai, India July 2, 2019. REUTERS/Prashant Waydande

Financial markets were open in the city of 18 million touted as a potential rival to the Chinese city of Shanghai, but hampered by poor infrastructure like many other Indian cities.

During every monsoon season, which runs from June to September, India experiences fatal incidents of building and wall collapses as rainfall weakens the foundations of poorly-built structures.

Heavy rain brought a wall crashing down on shanties built on a hill slope in Malad, a western suburb of Mumbai, a fire brigade official said, killing 21 people.

Three people died when a school wall collapsed in the city of Kalyan, 42 km (26 miles) north of Mumbai.

In the nearby western city of Pune, six people were killed in a wall collapse on Tuesday, a fire brigade official said, after a similar incident on Saturday killed 15.

Mumbai is looking to turn itself into a global financial hub but large parts of the city struggle to cope with annual monsoon rains, as widespread construction and garbage-clogged drains and waterways make it increasingly vulnerable to chaos.

As much as 375 mm (14.8 inches) of rain fell over 24 hours in some areas of Mumbai, the highest in 14 years, flooding streets and railway tracks, forcing the suspension of some suburban train services which millions of commuters ride to work each day.

“Rain is expected to remain intense even today,” city authorities said on Twitter. “We request you to stay indoors unless there’s an emergency.”

Villagers accuse city of seizing water as drought parches 'India's Detroit'

In the small village of Bangarampettai, 20 miles from India's manufacturing capital Chennai, about 150 people last month "captured" a water tanker, breaking its windscreen and deflating its tires before handing it over to a nearby police station.

People living on the outskirts of this southern Indian metropolis are blocking roads and laying siege to tanker lorries because they fear their water reserves are being sacrificed so city dwellers, businesses and luxury hotels don’t run out.

“Private tankers have fitted more than eight bore wells in our village and are indiscriminately extracting thousands of liters of water every day,” the Bangarampettai villagers wrote in a letter to a government official in the region a day after they stopped the tanker.

Bad water management and a lack of rainfall mean that all four reservoirs that supply Chennai, a carmaking center dubbed “India’s Detroit”, have run virtually dry this summer. That has forced some schools to shut, companies to ask employees to work from home and hotels to ration water for guests.

But the problem is most acute in Chennai, where local tensions have been inflamed by the Tamil Nadu state government tapping wells normally used for agriculture and villagers’ daily needs.

 

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Trump hasn't been able to clean-up D.C. - so Mother Nature decided to give him a helping hand ...

Dangerous flash flooding hits Washington DC during morning commute originally appeared on abcnews.go.com

A dangerous flash flood emergency hit the streets of Washington D.C. during the Monday morning commute.

With three to four inches of heavy rain falling in a short amount of time, the National Weather Service said the area saw significant flash flooding.

The rain left drivers stranded on top of their cars and some metro commuters with water streaming into the station.

"Travel will be EXTRAORDINARILY dangerous," the National Weather Service warned on Twitter. "Stay out of low areas, if in a low area that may flood, seek higher ground. Stay off the roads if at all possible. This is not the 'usual' flooding."

https://twitter.com/x/status/1148240572857159681

https://twitter.com/x/status/1148217106019901448

 

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One man's body has been found after a river burst its banks during sudden, torrential rain in the northern Spanish region of Navarra on Monday night, the local government said.

Spanish man dies after being swept away by floods

Locals walk past cars damaged after the river Cidacos burst its banks, causing floods, following hours of intense rain late Monday, in Tafalla, Spain, July 9, 2019. REUTERS/Eloy Alonso

TAFALLA, Spain - One man’s body has been found after a river burst its banks during sudden, torrential rain in the northern Spanish region of Navarra on Monday night, the local government said.

Footage showed the raging Cidacos river, which surged from 11 centimeters (4.3 inches) to over four meters in a few hours, spilling onto the streets and sweeping away anything that lay in its path.

The storms in Navarra caught the regional government by surprise, with four times as much rain falling than originally forecast and coming just a week after a Europe-wide heat wave that caused two deaths in Spain.

The government of Navarra recommended people stayed in their homes on Tuesday around the worst of the floods as heavy rains continued and surging waters smashed through major highways, dragging cars, tree branches and debris in its wake.

 

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Spanish man dies after being swept away by floods

Spanish man dies after being swept away by floods (update)

One man's body has been found after a river burst its banks during sudden, torrential rain in the northern Spanish region of Navarra on Monday night, the local government said.

 

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Floods and landslides kill 15 in Nepal, six others missing

Residents walk towards dry ground from a flooded colony in Kathmandu, Nepal July 12, 2019. REUTERS/Navesh Chitrakar

KATHMANDU (Reuters) - More than 20 people have been killed or are missing due to landslides and floods as monsoon rains lashed Nepal, the government said on Friday.

Heavy rains since Thursday have hit 20 of Nepal’s 77 districts, in the hills as well as in southern plains.

A Home Ministry statement said 15 people had been killed, while six others were missing and 13 were injured as incessant rains caused landslides and triggered flash floods in rivers originating in the Himalayas.

In the capital, Kathmandu, three members of a family were killed when the wall of their house collapsed.

Television channels showed police evacuating residents from flooded homes in rubber boats in some parts of Kathmandu where roads were flooded. Families carrying their belongings on their heads waded through waist-deep water. “We have evacuated more than 150 people and are on the standby for rescue in different areas,” army spokesman Bigyan Dev Pandey said.

Officials said the Kosi River in eastern Nepal, which flows into the eastern Indian state of Bihar, had risen above the danger mark.

The weather office asked residents to remain alert saying heavy rains were expected to continue through the weekend.

 

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Monsoon Flooding Forces Thousands from Their Homes in Myanmar
Monsoon Flooding Forces Thousands from Their Homes in Myanmar - Other Media news - Tasnim News Agency

July 15, 2019 - Days of heavy monsoon rain and dangerously high river levels in Myanmar have forced more than 18,000 people from their homes and flooded at least one camp for people displaced by recent fighting, authorities and a politician said on Monday.



Four towns along the Ayeyarwady and Chindwin rivers were in danger of being inundated as the rivers rose, the Department of Disaster Management said. “We are working together with local authorities helping the people and providing food,” said the department’s director, Phyu Lai Lai Htun.

More people were expected to be forced from their homes on Monday, she said.

Heavy downpours hit the tropical Southeast Asian country during the May-October rainy season, often triggering flooding.

Death toll in Nepal floods rises to 55, thousands displaced
July 14, 2019 - The death toll in Nepal from flash floods and landslides in the past three days rose to 55 on Sunday, with dozens missing and injured, the government said.

Monsoon rains kill 30 people in Nepal, others missing

Flash floods and landslides in Nepal triggered by monsoon rains killed 15 people and injured 12 overnight while another 18 have gone missing, officials said on Saturday.

Floods hit western Greece days after deadly storm killed 7
July 14, 2019 - Authorities evacuated dozens of citizens from flooded homes in western Greece on Sunday, a few days after seven people were killed by a violent storm in the north of the country.

 

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Death toll from India, Nepal, Bangladesh floods jumps to over 300

A flood-affected woman wades through flooded area in Jamalpur, Bangladesh July 21, 2019. REUTERS/Mohammad Ponir Hossain

The death toll from severe flooding in parts of India, Nepal and Bangladesh rose to more than 300 on Monday, even as heavy rains are starting to ebb and water levels started to recede in some of the worst-affected areas.

Heavy rains and overflowing rivers swamped vast swathes of eastern India more than week ago, and officials on Monday said so far 102 people have died in Bihar state, 35 more than what the state government had estimated on Thursday.

Torrential rains in Bangladesh killed more than 47 people in the last two weeks and at least 120 are missing and feared dead following severe floods and landslides in mostly mountainous Nepal, authorities from the two countries said. Parts of Pakistan have also been flooded.

In Bangladesh, at least 700,000 people have been displaced. Deaths due to flooding in the region more than doubled in the last five days.

At least five districts in central Bangladesh are at the risk of being flooded, as water levels of two rivers are still rising, an official at the Bangladesh Water Development Board told Reuters.

Authorities are struggling to deliver relief supplies to marooned people. “We have enough relief materials but the main problem is to reach out to the people,” Foyez Ahmed, deputy commissioner of Bangladesh’s Bogra district, said. “We don’t have adequate transport facilities to move to the areas that are deep under water.”

In India’s tea-growing state of Assam, close to the border of Bangladesh, severe flooding has displaced millions of people and killed more than 60, officials have said.

Separately, at least 32 people were killed on Sunday in lightning strikes in Uttar Pradesh, India’s most populous state in the north.

India’s weather office on Monday forecast “extremely heavy” rain in four of the 14 districts of the southern state of Kerala.

Kerala last year faced its worst floods in about a century, with heavy rain and landslides killing nearly 500 people, destroying houses and wiping out farmlands.

Monsoon rains, which deliver 75% of India’s annual rain, have not been evenly distributed. The Himalayan region has received substantially more rain than some of the areas in the plains, where rainfall deficiency has widened to 60%, according to the state-run India Meteorological Department.

 

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Landslide kills 15 in Morocco’s Atlas Mountains, authorities say
RABAT July 26, 2019 - A landslide killed 15 people riding in a van in the Atlas Mountains south of Marrakech, local authorities said on Friday.

The landslide, caused by heavy rain, buried the van on Wednesday evening in the area of Asni.

The bodies of 11 women, three men and a child were extracted overnight from the van, authorities said in a statement.

The van was carrying passengers from Casablanca to the village of Taliouine, 670 km south of Rabat, witnesses said.

The landslide created a pile of earth and mud 20 meters high that blocked the mountainous road.

 

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Police among 18 feared killed in landslide at Myanmar jade mine
YANGON July 28, 2019 - A landslide at a Myanmar jade mine killed 14 people including at least one policemen in the early hours of Sunday as earth and mud engulfed a guard post, and four people were missing and feared dead, police said.

The jade hub of Hpakant, in Kachin State in the north of the north of the country, is frequently hit by deadly accidents, despite government pledges to clean up the lucrative mining industry.

In April, 55 mining company employees were killed when a pond up a slope from where they were digging breached its banks, leading authorities to suspended 17 mining blocks over safety concerns.

The police chief in the area, Than Win Aung, told Reuters from the accident site that 14 bodies had been recovered and four people, two of them policeman who were guarding the mining site, were missing and feared dead.

“We were able to rescue two members of the police who only injured their heads, and sent them to hospital,” he said. One policeman was confirmed dead, he said.

The government has ordered all mining activity in Hpakant to cease during Myanmar’s May-October monsoon season, but people in the area say scavengers still scour tailing piles for jade.

“The companies aren’t operating because of the water,” said Than Win Aung. “Security people are on duty in order to prevent landslides due to illegal mining.”

Official sales of jade in Myanmar were worth 671 million euros ($750.04 million) in 2016-17, according to the most recent data published by the government as part of an Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative. But analysts believe the true value of the industry, which mainly exports to China, is much larger.

 

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Residents of Irkutsk region’s Tulun evacuated amid fears of new flooding
Emergencies ministry’s specialists, police and the administration of municipalities are participating in evacuation.

Irkutsk Segodnya/TASS

IRKUTSK, July 28, 2019 - Residents of Tulun in Russia’s Far Eastern Irkutsk region are being evacuated as new flash floods are feared, the regional department of the Russian Ministry for Emergency Situations reports.

"Emergencies ministry’s specialists, police as well as the administration of municipalities are warning and evacuating residents of the areas that are at risk of flooding," it said.

Houses and land plots flooded again in Russian town of Tulun
The water is the Bolshaya Belaya River rose above the critical point in one community.

© Kirill Shipitsin/TASS

IRKUTSK, July 28, 2019 - The monthly amount of precipitation has fallen in the Russian town of Tulun in the Irkutsk Region in 24 hours, residential buildings and land plots are flooded again, the region’s government website says.

"The maximum amount of precipitation in the Irkutsk Region in the last 24 hours fell in Tulun - 104 mm - which is almost the monthly average. The today’s powerful and long rainfalls resulted in the flooding of houses and land plots, particularly in Nizhneudinsk and Tulun. The water is the Bolshaya Belaya River rose above the critical point (450 centimeters, while the critical point is 420 centimeters) in one community," the statement reads.

According to a meteorological service’s official Azat Nasyrov, the powerful and very powerful rains are predicted to continue in the western, central and southern districts of the region. The water levels are expected to rise above the critical points in a number of rivers.

The region’s governor, Sergey Levchenko, instructed officials to timely inform the administration of all the districts caught in the emergency, and the population if evacuation is needed.

The powerful flood hit the Irkutsk Region in late June. Twenty-five people died, another seven are missing. Almost 11,000 residential buildings in 107 communities were flooded as well as 49 facilities of social importance and 49 sections of roads. The water damaged 22 road bridges. The consequences of the flood continue to be addressed in the affected areas.

 

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Rescuers evacuate 700 passengers from flooded India train

This handout photo provided by the Indian Navy shows passengers being rescued from the marroned Mahalaxmi Express train in Badlapur, in the western Indian state of Maharashtra, Saturday, July 27, 2019.

NEW DELHI: July 28, 2019 - Rescuers in India on Saturday safely evacuated all 700 passengers from a train after it got stuck in monsoon floodwaters between two stations near Mumbai, the country’s home minister said.

A statement by India’s disaster management office in Maharashtra state said the Mahalaxmi Express train got stuck due to flooding of the tracks.

Home Minister Amit Shah said on Twitter that all of the passengers had been rescued safely.

The National Disaster Response Force and the navy earlier launched a rescue operation after authorities warned passengers not to move. The first group of 150 passengers was rescued after the train had been stranded for nine hours in the area, which is about 90 kilometers (56 miles) from Mumbai.

The train had departed from Mumbai around 8:15 p.m. Friday before it got stuck at 3 a.m. Saturday.

Bangladesh tries new way to aid flood-hit families: cash up front

Flood-affected people wade through flooded water in Jamalpur, Bangladesh, on July 21, 2019. (REUTERS/Mohammad Ponir Hossain

July 26, 2019 - DHAKA: Parvin Begum, who saw her home on a secluded island in northern Bangladesh steadily devoured by floods this month, feels lucky.

She received some money before the disaster hit under a new form of aid, used for the first time in Bangladesh by the government and humanitarian agencies.

It gives funding to vulnerable people in advance of extreme weather, based on forecasts, so they are better prepared. With her cash, Begum bought food, rented a boat, and took her belongings to a government shelter on a nearby island before the rising water crossed the danger level.

“This is one of the worst floods I have seen in many years,” she told the Thomson Reuters Foundation by phone from Kurigram, a town located about 350 km (217.5 miles) north of Dhaka.

“Things were easier for me because I received 4,500 taka ($53.42) and was prepared — otherwise I would have struggled a lot.”
Severe flooding after two weeks of heavy monsoon rain has killed at least 61 people, displaced nearly 800,000, and inundated thousands of homes across Bangladesh, government officials said this week.

Nearly 3 million people are struggling with the impacts of the floods, the worst in two years, according to the disaster management and relief ministry.

Low-lying Bangladesh is extremely vulnerable to climate change, and researchers say people like Begum, who live on river islands that erode and form again, far away from the mainland, are on the frontline.

According to the UN World Food Programme (WFP), Begum is one of 25,000 people in Kurigram district who received aid money via their mobile phones, under the new “forecast-based financing” project.

“This approach uses weather forecasts to trigger early actions such as cash transfers, that can help reduce the impact of natural disasters,” said WFP spokeswoman Maherin Ahmed.

Aside from Bangladesh, the concept, which emerged in 2015, has been used in eight other countries to tackle climate-related shocks, according to the WFP.

 

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English town evacuated after water cascades through damaged dam

A damaged dam is seen after a nearby reservoir was affected by flooding, in Whaley Bridge, Britain August 1, 2019. REUTERS/Phil Noble

Police evacuated thousands of residents from an English town on Thursday after torrents of water cascaded from a nearby reservoir after a dam was damaged, with officials warning that subsequent flooding posed a risk to life.

Footage posted on social media showed water gushing from the Toddbrook Reservoir which sits above Whaley Bridge in Derbyshire, central England.

Police said the wall of the reservoir had been damaged with locals told to leave the town, home to about 5,000 residents, and take pets and any medication they needed with them.

“Residents who have been at work, or away from the Whaley Bridge area, are strongly advised to stay away from the area following advice from the Environment Agency who have indicated that the incident currently poses a significant threat to life,” Derbyshire Police said.

Britain’s Environment Agency issued a severe flood warning for the area, saying river levels in the River Goyt which runs through the town could rise rapidly.

“We understand that there will be some concern around not being able to return home, however, our priority is to ensure people are kept safe and well and are not taking unnecessary risks,” a police spokesman said.


“This is not a decision that has been taken lightly and we appreciate that there is significant impact on this community, however, this is an unprecedented, fast-moving, emergency situation.”

The evacuation comes after heavy rain in the last couple of days led to flash floods in areas across northern England causing bridges to collapse and road closures. Britain’s Met Office said on Wednesday downpours had led to 50 mm (2 in) of rain falling in just one hour.

Imminent flooding forces Jewish Autonomous Region to declare state of emergency

© Kirill Shipitsyn/TASS

MOSCOW, August 1, 2019 - A state of emergency has been declared in Russia’s Far Eastern Jewish Autonomous Region due to an approaching flood crest on the Amur River, which shifted its course from the Amur Region, according to the regional government website.

Earlier reports said a state of emergency had been declared in three districts of the region. "A decision was made to impose a state of emergency. The region's Governor Alexander Levintal noted that currently there is no threat of inhabited communities being completely flooded," the regional government assured.

Due to surging water level in the Amur River, maritime traffic in the Nizhneleninskoye and Amurzet checkpoints will be suspended on August 2.

The flood crest will be approaching the Jewish Autonomous Region on Friday.

 

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English town evacuated after water cascades through damaged dam

British military called in to stop dam collapsing and flooding town

A British military helicopter dropped sacks of ballast on Friday onto the outer slope of a reservoir dam in a bid to prevent it collapsing and flooding the town below.

English town evacuated after water cascades through damaged dam

Police evacuated thousands of residents from an English town on Thursday after torrents of water cascaded from a nearby reservoir after a dam was damaged, with officials warning that subsequent flooding posed a risk to life.