Category Archives: Natural disasters and extreme weather

Cyclone Idai death toll in Mozambique ‘could rise above 1,000’

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President describes scale of disaster as huge, as Red Cross says most of Beira damaged or destroyed

More than 1,000 people are feared dead in a devastating cyclone that hit Mozambique on Friday, the country’s president has said.

Filipe Nyusi told Mozambican radio he had seen “many bodies” floating in the overflowing Pungwe and Busi rivers. “It appears that we can register more than 1,000 deaths,” he said, adding that more than 100,000 people were at risk because of severe flooding.

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Flash floods cause devastation in Indonesia – video report

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Flash floods in Indonesia's eastern Papua province have left at least 50 people dead and 59 people injured. The floods in Sentani, near the provincial capital of Jayapura, were triggered by torrential rain and subsequent landslides on Saturday


• At least 50 people killed by flash floods in eastern Indonesia

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At least 50 people killed by flash floods in eastern Indonesia

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Torrential rain in Papua province triggers landslides, damaging dozens of homes

At least 50 people have been killed by flash floods in Indonesia’s eastern Papua province.

The floods in Sentani, near the provincial capital of Jayapura, were triggered by torrential rain and subsequent landslides on Saturday, and also left 59 people injured.

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Ben Nevis avalanche kills two people

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Police say two others injured in snowslip at No 5 Gully on UK’s highest mountain

Two climbers have been killed and two others injured after being caught in an avalanche on Ben Nevis.

The incident happened in an area of the UK’s highest mountain called No 5 Gully shortly before midday on Tuesday. Members of the Lochaber and Glencoe mountain rescue teams were at the scene.

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‘Chilling reality’: Afghanistan suffers worst floods in seven years

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Thousands of homes swept away as rains follow devastating drought, with UN ‘shocked’ by lack of crisis funding support

Afghanistan has been hit with the worst flooding in seven years, with 20 dead, thousands of homes swept away and many families, already displaced by drought, forced to leave their homes for the second time.

The latest climate shock, which affected eight provinces including Kandahar, came as the UN’s humanitarian coordinator in Afghanistan criticised the European Commission for its “wholly insufficient” response to hunger and suffering in a country already in the grip of what analysts describe as the world’s deadliest conflict.

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Alabama tornadoes kill at least 23 and cause ‘catastrophic’ damage

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Sheriff says more people are missing as weather system sparks flurry of tornadoes across south-eastern US on Sunday

At least 23 people, including children as young as six, have been killed and more are missing after at least two tornadoes struck in Alabama on Sunday, causing “catastrophic” damage, a county sheriff has said.

Crews searched a trail of destruction several miles long before pausing efforts overnight as conditions became too dangerous, Lee County Sheriff Jay Jones said. “The challenge is the sheer volume of the debris where all the homes were located,” Jones told CNN. “It’s the most I’ve seen that I can recall.”

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Victoria bushfires: three homes lost in out-of-control blazes in state’s east

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About 400 firefighters are battling blaze 65km east of Melbourne with hazardous conditions expected to continue on Sunday

At least three homes have been lost to a large fire sparked by lightning in a state forest in Victoria’s east.

Aircraft will be sent up on Sunday morning to work out what types of properties were destroyed by the fires at Bunyip State Park about 65km east of Melbourne.

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California ‘Glory Hole’ drains reservoir after heavy rains – video

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The water level in the Lake Berryessa reservoir, 75 miles north of San Francisco, has risen so much that, unusually, water is pouring into its overflow pipe, as can be seen in footage published by The Vacaville Reporter. The overflow, known as the Morning Glory Spillway, or simply the Glory Hole, drains water once the reservoir is over capacity and shoots it into a creek below the Monticello Dam. 

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How Hollywood’s national park is recovering from wildfires

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Recent wildfires scorched 90% of the federally protected Santa Monica Mountains – destroying a 1950s Hollywood set and affecting biodiversity. But life is slowly coming back

The fire came quickly. Fueled by dry, blustering winds, officials were unable to contain the Woolsey fire before it scorched the canyons of Ventura and Los Angeles counties, taking close to 97,000 acres and 1,500 properties with it.

One of the great casualties was the Santa Monica Mountains national recreation area. Nearly 90% of the federally owned land burned in the November 2018 blaze. The park is home to popular hiking trails, a rich ecosystem of plant and wildlife, including mountain lions and coyotes, as well as famous spots such as the Paramount Ranch’s “Western Town” (a well-known Hollywood set location), the historic 1927 Peter Strauss Ranch house, a research field station and ranger residences. Nearly all of them burned to the ground.

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New Zealand wildfires set to worsen as thousands flee

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Week-long blaze engulfs 2,300ha on South Island, leading to largest aerial firefight in country’s history

Strong winds are expected to fan forest fires that have been burning for a week through New Zealand’s South Island, forcing thousands of people from their homes.

Early on Sunday, 155 firefighters were battling the blaze on the ground with air support from 23 helicopters and three fixed wing planes, making it the largest aerial firefight on record in New Zealand.

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‘I’m petrified’: 10 years on, Black Saturday trauma still haunts

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Survivors of the Kinglake bushfire of 7 February 2009, which took 120 lives, talk about their struggle to move on

“Half the town is on medication, and the other half should be.”

That’s bushfire survivor Anne Dixon’s dark-humoured attempt to describe how people from the mountain-top hamlets around Kinglake are coping 10 years on from Black Saturday.

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‘We have to learn to live with floods’: waterlogged Surat to become latest megacity

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The next 15 megacities #14: Surat’s battle to hold back water has raged since its first flood wall in 1664. As its population soars, India’s ‘diamond city’ needs new solutions

Look up as you walk around Surat and you might spot “HFL 8.8.2006” daubed in red paint on a wall above your head. HFL stands for “high flood level”, and the inscriptions are 15 feet above the ground in places – a fading memory of the devastating floods of August 2006, which killed 150 people, according to official estimates (unofficial counts put the death toll at over 500). More than 60% of the city was underwater and damage was estimated at $2bn.

Surat’s geography – it lies at the mouth of the Tapi river, near the Arabian Sea – makes it prone to flooding, and it experiences a major inundation every four years on average.

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Australian authorities deliberately flood 2,000 Queensland homes after record downpours

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State government warns residents to beware of crocodiles and snakes, which were reportedly heading into suburban areas

After eight days of heavy monsoonal rain, authorities in the north Queensland city of Townsville had no choice but to open the floodgates of the Ross River Dam, deliberately flooding about 2,000 homes.

The decision was made as the Queensland government also published a warning to people to beware of crocodiles, snakes and other wildlife, which were reported to have left the swollen river and headed into some suburban areas.

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Queensland flooding: thousands of homes in Townsville under threat as waters rise – live

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Torrential rain forces authorities to open Ross River dam floodgates, releasing 1,900 litres a second in ‘once-in-a-century flood’. Follow all the developments • Townsville floods: Queensland premier warns ‘we haven’t got to the peak’

At this stage, authorities expect the Ross River to peak about 11am, and for the peak to last most of today.

That’s potentially good news for Townsville residents, especially those under threat but not yet underwater. It’s also a sign that the flood emergency is unlikely to end any time soon.

Overnight, Townsville residents were warned to stay out of the water – and for good reason. A number of crocodiles sightings have been reported, while the authorities also warned of snakes in the water.

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Queensland floods: Townsville reels under record water levels as more rain arrives

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There are several more days to go in this flood event, Bureau of Meteorology warns

Queensland authorities have said the state’s north was entering “unprecedented territory” as monsoon rains battered the city of Townsville, setting record flood levels and destroying homes.

As the natural disaster entered its four day, the state emergency service confirmed on Saturday that 80 people had been rescued. It was too early to quantify the damage to homes, although some media reports said at least 50 homes had been affected so far.

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Queensland floods: emergency dam release as Townsville hit by 1.1 metre of rain

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Up to 100 more homes face flooding after mayor orders high-risk plan to open floodgates on the Ross River dam

One hundred homes could be flooded in Townsville after the city’s mayor sanctioned the high-risk release of dam water to save the area from more widespread inundation following more than 1.1 metres of rain.

Announcing the emergency measure for the Ross River dam on Friday, the mayor Jenny Hill said there were no guarantees the plan would work. Between 90 and 100 homes downstream from the dam were being evacuated, she added.

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Tokyo 2020 organisers cut crowds at sailing events over tsunami risk

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Olympic authorities reduce crowd size to make evacuations easier

The organisers of next year’s Olympic Games in Tokyo have decided to cut the number of spectators for the sailing events by a third so they can be quickly evacuated to higher ground in the event of a tsunami.

The 2020 Tokyo Olympics organising committee had initially planned to allow up to 5,000 people to watch the sailing events off Enoshima island, just south of the Japanese capital, according to the public broadcaster NHK.

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Cape Town: wild fire engulfs Lion’s Head mountain and threatens suburbs

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Blazes whipped up by a strong, dry wind have sent black smoke across the city and forced residents to evacuate

A wild fire that swept across Cape Town’s famous Lion’s Head mountain moved towards residential neighbourhoods on Sunday, prompting several people to evacuate their homes.

A Cape Town fire service spokesman told News 24 that 70 firefighters and 20 trucks were fighting the blaze. Local media reported that the firefighting effort was expected to last all night.

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