Danger-to-life warning issued as first named storm of autumn damages buildings and disrupts travel
Gusts of 70mph were recorded as the first named storm of the autumn, Agnes, swept across Britain and Ireland, damaging buildings, causing travel delays and leaving homes without power.
The Met Office issued severe weather warnings covering much of the UK, where strong winds and heavy rain were expected on Wednesday evening and into Thursday.
Continue reading...Hundreds of traumatised children are thought to have lost their families in disaster
People in western Libya have rallied round to provide care and breastmilk for young children orphaned by the devastating floods that hit the coastal city of Derna on 10 September.
Hundreds of traumatised babies and young children are thought to have lost their parents in Derna, where whole neighbourhoods were wiped out after two dams broke.
Continue reading...Severed fibre-optic cables hamper search for survivors in eastern Libya where thousands died after dams collapsed
A daylong communication outage in the flood-stricken city of Derna in eastern Libya has further complicated the work of teams searching for bodies under the rubble and at sea.
The country’s chief prosecutor, meanwhile, vowed to take “serious measures” to deliver justice for the victims of the floods, which killed thousands of people and devastated the coastal city more than a week ago.
Continue reading...Teresa Ribera calls for alert systems in every country by 2027 after spate of natural disasters across the world
The latest spate of natural disasters – from the floods in Libya, Greece and Spain to the wildfires in Hawaii and Canada – has further underscored the need for early warning systems to help the world cope with the realities of the climate emergency, Spain’s environment minister has said.
Speaking to the Guardian as she prepared to travel to New York to take part in the UN’s climate ambition summit and sign a landmark treaty to protect the high seas, Teresa Ribera said the calamities laid bare the challenges the planet faced.
Continue reading...Report says climate change made rainfall heavier but human factors turned extreme weather into humanitarian disaster
Carbon pollution led to heavier rains and stronger floods in Greece and Libya this month but other human factors were responsible for “turning the extreme weather into a humanitarian disaster”, scientists have said.
Global heating made the levels of rainfall that devastated the Mediterranean in early September up to 50 times more likely in Libya and up to 10 times more likely in Greece, according to a study from World Weather Attribution that used established methods but had not yet been peer-reviewed.
Continue reading...Media crackdown follows reports that police officers had detained and questioned Libyan reporters
Libya’s eastern government has ordered journalists to leave Derna after angry protests against the authorities a week after a flood killed thousands of residents.
Hundreds of people gathered on Monday outside Sahaba mosque in the city, chanting slogans. Some sat on its gold-domed roof. Later in the evening, a crowd set fire to the house of the man who was Derna’s mayor at the time of the disaster, Abdulmenam al-Ghaithi.
Continue reading...Melting ice caps and rising sea levels are urgent but people care more about the floods, wildfires and droughts that are here now, New York summit hears
Floods, wildfires, drought and the onslaught of extreme weather are driving a global health crisis that must be put at the centre of climate action, the World Health Organization said on Tuesday.
“The climate crisis is a health crisis; it drives extreme weather and is taking lives around the world,” Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, head of the WHO, said. “Melting ice caps and rising sea levels are, of course, crucial issues, but for most people they are distant threats in both time and place. The threats of our changing climate are right here and right now.”
Continue reading...Tens of thousands without power in New England and Nova Scotia as other potentially dangerous tempests hover over the Atlantic
Tens of thousands in New England and Canada remained without power on Sunday morning after the deadly storm Lee struck Nova Scotia on Saturday afternoon as a post-tropical cyclone.
In Nova Scotia, nearly 100,000 customers were without power, according to PowerOutage.com. The US state of Maine was dealing with about 40,000 outages as of Sunday morning, and New Brunswick had about 12,000, the website also said.
Continue reading...Journalists who reported on last week’s catastrophic storm say the country’s bloody political tussle has contributed to the collapse of services
Early last week, Mohamed Eljabo travelled to the eastern provinces of Libya, passing through Derna, Al Bayda and Sousa, and what he saw he describes as “shock beyond comprehension”.
“I have visited these cities before and I know them well,” he says. “I expected to find these cities when I made the journey from Tripoli. I expected to see the neighbourhoods and towns. But these were gone. Erased. It was horrifying.”
Continue reading...WHO says aid to help 250,000 people has arrived in Benghazi as death toll estimated at more than 11,000
International aid is arriving in Libya from the UN, Europe and Middle Eastern countries, offering some relief to thousands after flooding submerged the port city of Derna.
The World Health Organization said “the bodies of 3,958 people have been recovered and identified”, with 9,000 more still missing, as it announced 29 tonnes of aid had arrived in the eastern city of Benghazi, enough to help 250,000 people.
Continue reading...Only emergency workers to be allowed into devastated area over fears of contamination from dead bodies in limited water supply
Libyan authorities have largely sealed off the flood-devastated port town of Derna from civilians in an effort to give space to emergency aid workers and amid concern that contamination of standing water may add to the already horrific death toll.
Salem Al-Ferjani, director general of the ambulance and emergency service in eastern Libya, said that only search and rescue teams would be allowed to enter parts of the town most affected by the flooding that has left at least 11,000 dead according to official projections. Many citizens have already left the town voluntarily.
Continue reading...Relatives grieve and search in desperation as Derna’s mayor fears death toll from floods may exceed 20,000
Omar al-Rifadi has been searching for his missing 20-year-old daughter ever since disaster struck the Libyan city of Derna on Sunday, when she disappeared, lost in the darkness amid a catastrophic flood that claimed the lives of thousands and swept many into the sea.
“I walked on foot to look for her. I went to all the hospitals and schools. But luck was not on my side,” the 52-year-old said, tears streaming down his face.
Continue reading...Country hit by record rainfall that followed Mediterranean storm with similarities to tropical cyclone
After battering Greece last week, Storm Daniel caused further devastating floods, this time affecting Libya. As the storm moved across the Sahara, it developed into what is informally known as a medicane, a storm in the Mediterranean that develops characteristics similar to those seen in tropical cyclones, notably a central eye. The particularly warm Mediterranean water fuelled by the extreme heat seen over southern Europe this summer, helped strengthen Daniel as it approached Libya.
By Saturday 10 September, Daniel had reached north-eastern Libya, with winds of 70-80mph, according to Libya’s National Meteorological Centre. The devastation then came from extreme rainfall, as 24-hour totals of 150mm-240mm were widely recorded in the region. One station in the city of Al-Bayda recorded a rainfall total of 414.1mm in 24 hours, a new record for the area. These torrential rains caused two dams to collapse, which resulted in devastating flash flooding that has killed thousands of people.
Continue reading...Storm Daniel was by no means the only factor behind the devastation wrought on the city of Derna
When the climate crisis meets a failed state, the outcome is the kind of disaster that Libya is witnessing in Derna.
Any city would have struggled with the extraordinary level of precipitation that Storm Daniel visited upon Libya’s northern coast. In its earlier, milder form, the storm caused severe damage in Greece before it crossed the Mediterranean.
Continue reading...Neighbourhoods washed away in port city of Derna, where two dams burst, with many bodies swept out to sea
The situation in Derna, the Libyan port city where two dams burst over the weekend, has been described as “disastrous beyond comprehension”, as the Red Cross and local officials said at least 10,000 people were missing after the devastating floods.
The confirmed death toll has exceeded 5,300, Mohammed Abu-Lamousha, a spokesperson for the administration that controls the east of Libya told a state-run news agency late on Tuesday. Tariq al-Kharraz, another representative of the eastern government, said that entire neighbourhoods had been washed away, with many bodies swept out to sea.
Continue reading...Kyriakos Mitsotakis faces biggest crisis yet as residents ask where money for ‘immediate’ flood relief has gone
The Greek prime minister, Kyriakos Mitsotakis, is facing his biggest crisis yet as – less than a week after rainstorms left vast tracts of the country’s heartlands under water – his government has come under attack for its handling of the disaster that left 15 dead.
Health experts have described conditions in the flood-stricken Thessaly region – one of Greece’s richest agricultural areas – as ripe for the spread of infectious diseases after a summer of unprecedented heat-induced forest fires.
Continue reading...The Arizona capital reached 55th day above 110F this year, but forecast says that cooler temps – even rain – are on the horizon
Residents in Phoenix, Arizona, are set to experience some relief from the blistering heatwave following the city’s record of the most days at or above 110F (43.3C) this year despite reaching 112F (44.4C) on Sunday, according to the National Weather Service (NWS).
On Sunday, the NWS announced that temperatures in Arizona’s largest city will finally begin to retreat “closer to the seasonal normal” with highs expected to range between 102F (38.9C) and 104F (40C) between Monday and Friday. Sunday’s temperature broke the daily high record of 111F (43.9C) set in 1990.
Continue reading...Death toll reaches 12 as hundreds still thought to be marooned after deadly downpours
Rescuers in central Greece were working through the night to locate people trapped in villages deluged by flood waters as the death toll from rainstorms rose to at least 12.
Emergency services, backed by elite commando units and an ever-growing army of volunteers, sought to find hundreds still thought to be marooned in homes five days after downpours, described as the worst in the country’s history, struck.
Continue reading...Saturday’s temperature had triggered an excessive heat warning across Arizona as lows were expected to range between 80F and 86F
The temperature in Phoenix, Arizona continues to rise as the city broke its previous record of the most consecutive days at or above 110F (43C).
On Saturday afternoon, the National Weather Service announced that the temperature at Phoenix Sky Harbor international airport reached 110F, making it the 54th day this year with temperatures of at least 110F.
Continue reading...Officials say many people are still trapped in central areas of the country hit by Storm Daniel
Firefighters backed by the army have rescued hundreds of people from villages in central Greece cut off by floods that have claimed at least 10 lives.
“More than 2,850 people have been rescued since the beginning of the bad weather,” Yannis Artopios, a fire department spokesperson told the broadcaster Mega on Saturday.
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