Editor Brian Harrod Provides Comprehensive up-to-date news coverage, with aggregated news from sources all over the world from the Roundup Newswires Network
Category Archives: Natural disasters and extreme weather
A year after eastern Zimbabwe was devastated by one of the worst storms on record, many people remain amid the wreckage living in makeshift shelters
The sound of the rising wind and the heavy rain trigger fear at Garikai camp in Ngangu, Chimanimani, eastern Zimbabwe.
Villagers here are haunted by traumatic memories of the aftermath of the cyclone that swept over this region last March, when they were forced to bury the dead in makeshift coffins. Some people have never found their loved ones.
Strong wind warnings also in place for coastal regions across south-east Queensland and northern NSW
Tropical Cyclone Gretel is set to bypass Norfolk Island in the next 48 hours, although it will still create damaging winds.
Tropical Cyclone Gretel may not make landfall but was still expected to have an impact with damaging wind warnings of around 100km/h for coastal regions across south-east Queensland and northern New South Wales.
State says virus ‘is no different’ to floods, cyclones and bushfires as it prepares to ramp up pressure at Coag meeting
Queensland will use the upcoming meeting of state leaders and the prime minister to appeal to the federal government to open up its natural disaster assistance payments to local industries impacted by the coronavirus.
Scott Morrison has previously rejected Queensland’s request for the disaster recovery funding arrangements to be made available for businesses knocked by the economic slowdown resulting from Covid-19 on 4 February, and again on 28 February.
Deadly heatwaves, floods and rising hunger far greater threat to world than coronavirus, scientists say
The world is “way off track” in dealing with the climate emergency and time is fast running out, the UN secretary general has said.
António Guterres sounded the alarm at the launch of the UN’s assessment of the global climate in 2019. The report concludes it was a record-breaking year for heat, and there was rising hunger, displacement and loss of life owing to extreme temperatures and floods around the world.
Fire crews and police comb through tornado’s wreckage
Torn walls and roofs, snapped power lines and downed trees
Tornadoes ripped across Tennessee as people slept early on Tuesday, shredding at least 140 buildings and killing at least 25 people. Authorities described painstaking efforts to find survivors in piles of rubble and wrecked basements as the death toll climbed.
A Tennessee emergency management agency spokeswoman raised the death toll on Tuesday morning, after police and fire crews spent hours pulling survivors and bodies from wrecked buildings.
Footage recorded by a Nashville resident after two tornadoes ripped through central Tennessee shows shredded buildings, damaged power lines and debris across roads. At least 22 people have been killed and hundreds are homeless
Eruption of Mount Merapi coated nearby communities with grey dust and forced an airport closure
Indonesia’s most active volcano Mount Merapi erupted on Tuesday, shooting a massive ash cloud some 6,000m (20,000ft) in the air which coated nearby communities with grey dust and forced an airport closure.
Ash mixed with sand rained down on towns as far as 10km (six miles) from the belching crater near Indonesia’s cultural capital Yogyakarta.
South-west and north-west of England, Wales and Northern Ireland are likely to be worst hit
Heavy downpours are expected to cause more flooding to homes and businesses over the weekend, as the latest storm to hit the UK takes hold.
Yellow weather warnings are in place for Storm Jorge on Friday, with the south-west and north-west of England, Wales and Northern Ireland expected to experience the worst of the deluge.
Families enter Sydney Olympic Park service through a guard of honour, with a row of 25 candles marking each life lost
The scars remain but traumatised communities are starting to heal as a state memorial honoured the lives lost and the heroes forged in the New South Wales bushfire crisis.
A public state memorial was held at Sydney Olympic Park on Sunday to recognise the devastating toll of the bushfires that ripped through much of NSW.
In an interview on Channel Ten’s The Project, Parker said he had been told to leave RFS leading to the hashtag #IStandWithPaulParker trending in Australia
The Rural Fire Service is investigating claims that a volunteer firefighter who told the prime minister to “get fucked from Nelligen” in a viral news clip was “sacked’”by his local brigade.
Paul Parker told Channel Ten’s The Project on Sunday that he was chastised by the RFS for directing the expletive toward Scott Morrison and that he had been booted from the organisation, contrary to reports from the time that he had been stood down due to exhaustion.
The Red Cross has urged people to prepare “should the worst happen”, as water levels are expected to peak in the coming days.
Georgie Timmins, crisis response officer at British Red Cross, said:
The storms are expected to continue, and water is anticipated to be at peak levels on Monday and Tuesday. It is important people are ready should the worst happen. It’s a good idea to ensure your phone is fully charged and you have torches at hand.
We are currently responding in Shropshire, Nottinghamshire, South Yorkshire and Gloucestershire, and we are currently ready to help in Wales, Manchester, Buckinghamshire, Lancashire and Inverness.
Our volunteers know that when people are caught up in a crisis, one person’s needs are different to the next person.
South Wales police have declared a major incident over flooding and landslides caused by Storm Dennis, with an emergency response dealing with “serious disruption”.
They said:
Due to this morning’s flooding and severe weather-related incident which have occurred overnight and through the course of the morning, a major incident was declared and South Wales police is coordinating a major response.
Areas of Australia have burnt during the recent bushfire season that used to be too wet to burn. In this first episode of The Frontline, a new series that shows how everyday Australians are already experiencing the climate crisis, we go inside the new fire zone
Australia’s catastrophic bushfire season has taken 33 lives, destroyed thousands of homes, shrouded cities in smoke and devastated the country’s unique wildlife. Guardian Australia surveys the damage
Without urgent action, rising sea levels by end of century could leave cities under water
A series of detailed maps have laid bare the scale of possible forest fires, floods, droughts and deluges that Europe could face by the end of the century without urgent action to adapt to and confront global heating.
An average one-metre rise in sea levels by the end of the century – without any flood prevention action – would mean 90% of the surface of Hull would be under water, according to the European Environment Agency.
More than 30 rescue workers have died in an avalanche in eastern Turkey while trying to find people missing after an earlier snowslide. The country's emergency and disaster management agency said rescue teams were searching for victims of the first avalanche, which killed at least five people, when a second struck
South Island’s southernmost region cut off amid fears paper mill could release toxic ammonia if chemicals mix with floodwaters
Part of New Zealand’s South Island has become cut off after days of torrential rains washed away roads, forced the evacuation of 2,000 people and saw the country’s MetService issue its first ever red weather warning.
The flooding across the flat agricultural plains of Southland, in the island’s southernmost end, came a day after hikers and tourists were evacuated from another part of the region, Fiordland, where more than a metre of rain had fallen in less than three days.