Unprecedented flooding in the country during monsoon season has left at least 1,265 people dead
Pakistan has appealed to the international community for an “immense humanitarian response” to unprecedented flooding that has left at least 1,265 people dead.
According to initial government estimates, the rain and flooding have caused $10bn (£8.7bn) in damage.
Continue reading...Seven firefighters hospitalized, with extreme temperatures expected to last through Labor Day
Firefighters were battling blazes across California in grueling heat on Friday, as fast-moving flames erupted near the Oregon border and prompted evacuation orders for at least 5,000 people.
Residents of the towns of Weed, Lake Shasta and Edgewood in Siskiyou County were told to evacuate after a blaze, dubbed the Mill fire, began spreading in hot and windy conditions and grew to 500 acres in about an hour, the Siskiyou sheriff’s office said in a statement.
Continue reading...Planes bring food, medicine and tents to disaster zone, with officials blaming floods on climate change
Planes carrying fresh supplies are forming a humanitarian air bridge to flood-ravaged Pakistan as the death toll passed 1,200, officials have said with families and children at special risk of disease and homelessness.
The ninth flight from the United Arab Emirates and the first from Uzbekistan were the latest to land in Islamabad overnight as a military-backed rescue operation elsewhere in the country reached more of the 3 million people affected by the disaster.
Continue reading...Tory leadership hopefuls ‘taking countryside voters for granted’ and neglecting pressing issues, says CLA business group
Neither of the candidates for leadership of the Conservative party has made a convincing pitch to rural voters, despite that demographic being one of the biggest sources of Tory power, the head of the UK’s biggest rural business organisation said.
Mark Tufnell, president of the Country Land and Business Association (CLA), which represents about 30,000 landowners and rural businesses, said Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak had done too little to show how they would boost the countryside economy and deal with pressing concerns such as planning, rural broadband, and farm support.
Continue reading...Humanitarian workers expect conditions to worsen as monsoon rains continue and say millions face a terrible winter
Aid workers have appealed for urgent donations to fight the “absolutely devastating” impact of flooding in Pakistan, as new satellite images appeared to confirm that a third of the country is now underwater.
As the UK’s Disasters Emergency Committee (DEC) launched an appeal to raise funds for the 33 million people affected, the European Space Agency released stark images based on data captured by its Copernicus satellite.
Continue reading...Disasters and Emergency Committee urges British public to give whatever they can
An urgent appeal has been launched by the Disasters Emergency Committee for donations in Pakistan, where at least 1,000 people have been killed by floods described as the worst in the country’s history.
“The scale of these floods has caused a shocking level of destruction – crops have been swept away and livestock killed across huge swathes of the country,” said the DEC’s chief executive, Saleh Saeed.
Continue reading...Diarrhoea and malaria cases spread, with risk of dysentery and cholera, as millions of displaced people forced to drink flood water
Health officials have warned of large-scale outbreaks of disease in Pakistan after severe flooding displaced millions of people.
A rise in cases of diarrhoea and malaria has been reported after months of heavy rains left people stranded and without access to clean water.
Continue reading...More than 1,100 people have been killed in flooding described by Pakistan PM Shebaz Sharif as worst in country’s history
New satellite images show the extent of the devastation caused by catastrophic flooding and rains in Pakistan.
The images, from Planet Labs and Maxar, show swaths of green fields, villages and buildings before monsoonal rains and flooding began lashing the country in June.
Continue reading...Sharif’s climate change minister called the flooding a ‘climate catastrophe’ and said the south Asian nation was ‘paying the price’ for western use of fossil fuels
Pakistan is not to blame for a climate crisis-fuelled disaster that has flooded much of the country, the prime minister has said, as he made a desperate plea for international help in what he said was the “toughest moment” in the nation’s history.
“We are suffering from it but it is not our fault at all,” Shehbaz Sharif told journalists on Tuesday afternoon at a press conference where his climate change minister referred to the flooding as a “climate catastrophe”.
Continue reading...Call for emergency funding as nearly half a million people displaced and estimated $10bn damage to economy
The United Nations and Pakistan are to appeal for $160m (£135m) in emergency funding for the nearly half a million people displaced by record-breaking floods that have killed more than 1,150 people since mid-June.
Large areas remain underwater and more than 33 million people, or one in seven Pakistanis, have been affected by the floods. Rescuers have been evacuating stranded people to safer ground.
Continue reading...The climate crisis is the prime suspect, but the vulnerability of poor citizens and other factors are important too
The climate crisis is the prime suspect for the devastating scale of flooding in Pakistan, which has killed more than 1,000 people and affected 30 million. But the catastrophe, still unfolding, is most likely the result of a lethal combination of factors including the vulnerability of poor citizens, steep mountainous slopes in some regions, the unexpected destruction of embankments and dams, and some natural climate variation.
The horrific scale of the floods are not in doubt. “We are witnessing the worst flooding in the history of the country,” said Dr Fahad Saeed, a climate scientist with the Climate Analytics group, who is based in Islamabad.
Continue reading...Foreign minister urges countries and IMF to help stricken country after climate change minister speaks of climate ‘catastrophe’
Pakistan’s government has appealed for international help to tackle a flooding emergency that has killed more than 1,000 people and threatens to leave a third of the country – an area roughly the size of Britain – underwater.
Foreign minister Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari said on Sunday night that floods brought on by weeks of extreme monsoonal rainfall and melting glaciers would worsen Pakistan’s already dire economic situation and that financial aid was needed.
Continue reading...Flash flooding from ‘monster monsoon’ washes away villages and crops and leaves thousands homeless
A Pakistani minister has called the country’s deadly monsoon season “a serious climate catastrophe” and “a climate dystopia at our doorstep” as officials said deaths from widespread flooding in Pakistan had passed 1,000 since mid-June.
Flash floods, which have intensified in recent days, have swept away villages, roads, bridges, people, livestock and crops across all four provinces. Pakistan has appealed for international help as soldiers and rescue workers have evacuated stranded people to relief camps and provided food to thousands of displaced people.
Continue reading...More than 33 million people have been displaced as destructive monsoon rains continue to wreak havoc
Flash floods triggered by destructive monsoon rains across much of Pakistan have killed more than 1,000 people and injured and displaced thousands more since June, officials have said.
The new death toll came a day after the prime minister, Shehbaz Sharif, asked for international help in battling deadly flood damage. More than 33 million people have been displaced.
Continue reading...Authorities say more than 900 killed and 220,000 homes destroyed in worst monsoon rains disaster for a decade
Heavy rain has pounded large areas of Pakistan as the government declared an emergency to deal with monsoon flooding it said had affected more than 30 million people.
The annual monsoon is essential for irrigating crops and replenishing lakes and dams across the Indian subcontinent, but each year it also brings a wave of destruction.
Continue reading...Climate experts warn temporary increases in water levels will not mitigate a crisis that has been years in the making
Flash floods hitting the American south-west in recent days have shuttered parts of national parks including in Moab and Zion, closed highways in Colorado, submerged cars in Texas and trapped tourists in a New Mexico cave. A young woman remains missing after being swept away while hiking in Zion on Friday.
But the destructive deluges have not been enough to relieve the drought and the continued pressure on water resources, experts say. Even strong storms are unable to overcome dry conditions that are decades in the making.
Continue reading...Meteorologists issue warnings for more than 13 million people in north-east Texas, Louisiana, Arkansas, New Mexico and Arizona
Millions of Americans are under flood warnings after heavy rain this weekend in a large portion of the south and south-western US.
Government meteorologists issued flood warnings for more than 13 million people after torrent rainfall created life-threatening conditions in a region including north-east Texas, Louisiana, Arkansas and New Mexico.
Continue reading...Receding rivers and lakes have exposed ghost villages, a Nazi tank and a Roman fort
The warning could not be starker. Wenn du mich siehst, dann weine (“If you see me, then weep”), reads the grim inscription on a rock in the Elbe River near the northern Czech town of Děčín, close to the German border.
As Europe’s rivers run dry in a devastating drought that scientists say could prove the worst in 500 years, their receding waters are revealing long-hidden artefacts, from Roman camps to ghost villages and second world war shipwrecks.
Continue reading...Highs of over 40C in Chengdu dry up hydropower reservoirs and raise demand for air conditioning
A provincial capital in south-west China has dimmed outdoor advertisements, subway lighting and building signs to save energy as the area struggles with a power crunch triggered by record-high temperatures.
Temperatures rose past 40C (104F) in Sichuan province this week, fuelling massive demand for air conditioning and drying up reservoirs in a region reliant on dams for most of its electricity.
Continue reading...Torrential rains hit parts of England, Italy, France and Belgium, while in China flooding leaves 18 dead
Prolonged heat across parts of northern and western Europe ended with torrential showers and thunderstorms this week.
On Wednesday, parts of southern England received 50-65mm of rainfall within a few hours, causing London’s Gatwick airport to delay and cancel dozens of flights.
Continue reading...