Category Archives: Natural disasters and extreme weather

Fukushima disaster: first residents return to town next to nuclear plant

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Parts of Okuma are open for business once again, but only a few hundred former residents have moved home

A town next to the wrecked Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant partially reopened on Wednesday, eight years after a triple meltdown forced tens of thousands of people in the area to flee.

About 40% of Okuma, which sits immediately west of the plant, was declared safe for residents to make a permanent return after decontamination efforts significantly reduced radiation levels.

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Why were the people worst affected by Cyclone Idai so badly prepared? | Antonio Matimbe

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While the world’s poorest bear the brunt of ever more powerful storms, international leaders do little to address the devastating impact of climate change

I am a Mozambican aid agency communicator. Cyclone Idai is just the latest humanitarian crisis I have been involved in.

Mozambique has a history of being affected by huge storms. The upsetting thing to me is that while international leaders and experts talk about climate change and the impact this is having on the world, the very poorest are bearing the brunt of ever more powerful storms.

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Dramatic water spout forms near Malaysian island – video

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Residents on Penang Island have filmed a huge water spout that formed near the shore at Tanjung Tokong. The spout was seen spinning for about five minutes before it briefly arrived on land and dissipated. It reportedly caused minor damage including blowing roofs off some buildings. There have been no reports of casualties

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Survival in Mozambique after cyclone Idai – in pictures

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Millions of survivors face dire conditions after the tropical cyclone Idai smashed into Mozambique’s coast, unleashing hurricane-force wind and rain that flooded swathes of the country. More than two million people have been affected in Mozambique, Zimbabwe and Malawi, where the storm killed 60 and displaced nearly a million people. Hundreds are still missing in Mozambique and Zimbabwe

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Mayor in Mozambique says negligence led to cyclone deaths

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People in rural areas were not told about red alert days before Idai struck, says city official

The Mozambican government failed to warn people in the areas worst hit by Cyclone Idai despite a “red alert” being issued two days before it struck, the mayor of the city of Beira has said.

The southern African country was completely unprepared for the disaster and “profound negligence” led to many deaths, said the mayor, Daviz Simango, who is also the leader of an opposition party.

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Woman dies as flash flooding hits New Zealand

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State of emergency declared in South Island after severe downpour that washed away bridge

A woman has been found dead in New Zealand following a severe downpour that washed away a bridge and prompted a state of emergency in the South Island.

Police on Wednesday said the elderly woman’s body had washed up on a riverbank north of the town of Hokitika, in the West Coast region.

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‘The country could fall apart’: drought and despair in Afghanistan

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As a funding appeal languishes, conflict, poverty and the worst drought for a decade have left millions facing desperate hunger

Shafiqa watches closely over her six-month-old niece. Lying on a bundle of fabric, Maryam’s legs jut out, thin and pale. When they arrived at hospital two weeks ago, she could hardly breathe. Her body was swollen with malnutrition, her lips and fingers were blue.

There are 24 children being treated at Mofleh paediatric hospital’s malnutrition ward, on the outskirts of Herat city, western Afghanistan. Mothers and aunts lean next to hospital beds, some rocking tiny babies back and forth.

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Cyclone Trevor: racism claims denied as Northern Territory begins clean-up

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  • Claims fly-in fly-out workers given better accommodation than Indigenous evacuees
  • Cyclone Veronica continues to threaten WA’s Pilbara region

As the Northern Territory begins its big mop-up after Cyclone Trevor, local authorities have hosed down racism claims concerning evacuation efforts.

Trevor forced mass evacuations before it made landfall on Saturday morning as a category four system, with destructive winds gusting up to 250km/h.

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Cyclone Idai death toll passes 750 with more than 110,000 now in camps

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Devastated areas of Mozambique, Zimbabwe and Malawi brace for the spread of waterborne diseases such as cholera and malaria

Cyclone Idai’s death toll has risen above 750 in the three southern African countries hit 10 days ago by the storm, as workers try to restore electricity and water and prevent an outbreak of cholera.

In Mozambique the number of dead has risen to 446, with 259 dead in Zimbabwe and at least 56 dead in Malawi.

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No food, no shelter, no livelihood: families in Mozambique hit by Cyclone Idai

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Officials ‘overwhelmed’ by the scale of the disaster, leading to a delay in humanitarian and rescue missions

Beneath the crumbling arcade of the municipal council building in Beira, in Mozambique, a group of families has set up a dismal camp. They sleep on dirty concrete pavement and cook with branches from the trees brought down by Cyclone Idai which swept through southern Africa last week.

Winds of more than 100mph triggered devastating floods and more than 400 people were killed, according to government sources. Land and environment minister Celso Correia said that the situation in the country was now critical.

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‘We don’t have anything’: the fight for survival after Cyclone Idai

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In cities and villages across Mozambique the huge need for aid and assistance is not being met by a chaotic rescue effort

The main road connecting the cyclone-devastated Mozambican city of Beira to neighbouring Zimbabwe comes to an abrupt end. A section almost 100 metres wide is almost entirely underwater, an angry muddy gash where the tarmac was ripped away by the floods and raging currents.

A week after the onset of Cyclone Idai, as the waters have receded in some places, some of those trapped in villages in the midst of the flood waters have at last managed to get out with huge effort.

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Cyclone Idai brings devastation to Mozambique – visual guide

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Rescuers race to reach tens of thousands of people trapped by vast areas of flooding

Idai first hit Mozambique on 4 March as a tropical depression with torrential rain that also affected southern Malawi. It then changed course, moving back over the sea where the storm strengthened to a cyclone with the equivalent force of a category 3 hurricane.

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Climate change could make insurance too expensive for most people – report

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Munich Re, world’s largest reinsurance firm, warns premium rises could become social issue

Insurers have warned that climate change could make cover for ordinary people unaffordable after the world’s largest reinsurance firm blamed global warming for $24bn (£18bn) of losses in the Californian wildfires.

Ernst Rauch, Munich Re’s chief climatologist, told the Guardian that the costs could soon be widely felt, with premium rises already under discussion with clients holding asset concentrations in vulnerable parts of the state.

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Witness describes flood-hit Mozambique: ‘We just saw total devastation’ – audio

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In the aftermath of Cyclone Idai, Zimbabwean Graham Taylor has described the ‘total devastation, carnage and deaths’. Taylor was travelling through the flood-hit countryside of Mozambique. ‘As far as I could look and walk I came across two, three, four hundred bodies floating and on the side of the road,’ he said

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Mozambique rescue teams struggle to save thousands

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Workers appeal for more helicopters as flood waters keep rising after Cyclone Idai

Rescue teams in Mozambique are struggling to reach the thousands of people stranded on roofs and in trees and urgently need more helicopters and boats as post-cyclone flood waters continue to rise.

Mozambique, which was hit by Cyclone Idai over the weekend, has declared a state of emergency and is appealing for international help.

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Cyclone Idai ‘might be southern hemisphere’s worst such disaster’

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Millions from Mozambique, Malawi and Zimbabwe affected as houses and roads submerged

The devastating cyclone that hit south-eastern Africa may be the worst ever disaster to strike the southern hemisphere, according to the UN.

Cyclone Idai has swept through Mozambique, Malawi and Zimbabwe over the past few days, destroying almost everything in its path, causing devastating floods, killing and injuring thousands of people and ruining crops. More than 2.6 million people could be affected across the three countries, and the port city of Beira, which was hit on Friday and is home to 500,000 people, is now an “island in the ocean”, almost completely cut off.

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Cyclone Idai leaves trail of destruction in southern Africa – video report

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More than 1,000 people are feared dead after Tropical Cyclone Idai hit Mozambique on Friday. At least 215 people have been confirmed dead and hundreds are missing across Mozambique, Malawi and Zimbabwe, according to government agencies and the Red Cross, which said 1.5 million people had been affected. A more precise death toll and the true scale of the damage is not likely to be known soon, as many areas are cut off

• Cyclone Idai: more than 1,000 feared dead in Mozambique

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Nebraska floods: private pilots fly in to help city walled off by water

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Some are offering free flights to shuttle stranded residents to and from Fremont, and bringing in supplies

A Nebraska city walled off by massive flooding is getting a big lift from private pilots who are offering free flights to shuttle stranded residents to and from their hometown.

Flooding from the Platte River and other waterways is so bad that just one highway lane into Fremont remains uncovered, authorities said Monday. Emergency responders have restricted access for safety reasons, leaving residents in the city of 26,000 stuck on an island in the middle of Nebraska farm country, about 40 miles north-west of Omaha. The flooding in Fremont comes as communities in several midwestern states grapple with swollen rivers and breached or overtopped levees following heavy rain and snowmelt.

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Aerial footage shows Cyclone Idai devastation in Mozambique – video

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Aerial footage shows the scale of damage to Beira in Mozambique following Cyclone Idai. Up to 90% of the port city has been damaged or destroyed, according to the Red Cross.

Idai hit Beira last week before moving inland and spreading heavy winds and rain to Zimbabwe and Malawi. More than 215 people have been killed by the storm across the affected countries, while hundreds more are missing and more than 1.5 million people have been affected by the widespread destruction and flooding

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