npr--2019-03-20--Plight Of Survivors After Cyclone Idai No Power No Homes No Roads

Plight Of Survivors After Cyclone Idai: No Power, No Homes, No Roads  When Cyclone Idai, a devastating tropical storm, swept across southeastern Africa on Thursday, it killed at least 150 people, displaced hundreds of thousands and left Beira, a coastal city of a half-million people in central Mozambique, almost totally destroyed.  In the aftermath, with some of their neighbors still trapped on rooftops or in trees, some local residents began the long process of recovery with a small but notable rebuttal to nature, by beginning to move the beach back to its rightful place.  The storm, which made landfall on Thursday, pushed tons of sand from the city's beach onto downtown streets, complicating emergency response efforts that were already hampered by a total lack of electricity, telecommunications networks or running water, says Jamie LeSueur, emergency operations manager for the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, who is helping to lead emergency response efforts in Beira and was one of the first aid workers to reach the scene.  "We saw massive destruction," LeSueur says. "But within two days, people were in the streets with shovels. Seeing the response has been just awe-inspiring."  But nearly a week after the storm, sand and rubble are still being cleared. As aid begins to trickle in, it's becoming clear that other impacts of the catastrophe, which LeSueur calls "the worst humanitarian crisis in Mozambique's history," will be much harder to resolve. An unknown number of people are still stuck on rooftops, in trees or on small islands of land that stayed above the floodline. The IFRC estimates that at least 400,000 people in Mozambique were made homeless by the storm.  The death toll could rise to more than one thousand as search-and-rescue efforts coordinated by the government and the United Nations continue, Mozambique's President Filipe Nyusi told the Associated Press on Monday. Hundreds of deaths were also reported in neighboring Malawi and Zimbabwe, where the storm triggered flash floods, high winds, and mudslides. Altogether, up to 2.6 million people were affected by the storm, according to the U.N., which on Tuesday said it will need $40.8 million in emergency relief funding.  As of Tuesday evening in Beira, electricity and water pipelines were still down. The main hospital is open but has sustained severe damage, and a number of smaller clinics lost their roofs or were otherwise taken out of commission. Some roads are open but not the main one leading out of town to the capital, Maputo, meaning that the only way for aid to reach the city has been by helicopter. According to The New York Times, more than a dozen aid trucks are stuck on roads outside the city.  The few emergency aid groups that have managed to reach the site are severely outnumbered by the people they're trying to help: LeSueur has a team of ten, which he hopes to increase to 30 in the next few days. Claudia Aguiar, advocacy manager for Doctors Without Borders (MSF) in Maputo, says her group has managed to bring in seven people so far, in addition to 150 Mozambican staff who had already been based in Beira at an HIV clinic (all are unharmed, she says).  For now, many displaced people are taking shelter in schools and churches, and humanitarian groups are focused on delivering food, clean water for drinking, bathing, and cooking and blankets. LeSueur says that aid helicopters have been dropping floating aid parcels into the floodwaters near homes, and using the draft from the choppers' propellers to blow the packages close to those in need, so that the draft and the dropped packages wouldn't further damage fragile buildings.  The situation is even more precarious in the vast countryside surrounding Beira, where roads remain inundated and affected towns are still largely unreachable by emergency responders. By the end of this week, MSF plans to complete its assessment of the human toll in order to determine what services are most needed — and where, Aguiar says.  "It's a really dire situation," she says. "We need to decide where it's most pressing to for us to intervene. We don't want to duplicate efforts of other relief organizations."  Even as the work to save lives continues, other risks loom in the near future. Paul Spiegel, director of the Center for Humanitarian Health at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, says he expects to see an increase in cases of dysentery and cholera, since clean water, soap, and functioning latrines are scarce. Especially for children under five, diarrhea can quickly turn life-threatening. Rain is still falling; the damp conditions are associated with a higher risk of contracting pneumonia and other respiratory diseases, which can then spread easily in crowded shelters, he says. At the same time, people who suffer from non-communicable diseases like epilepsy and diabetes may lose access to their medication, he says.  Gert Verdonck, MSF's emergency coordinator in Beira, said in an emailed statement that providing medical treatment will be a challenge even as medical supplies become available.  "It's even difficult to get to the health centers, because the roads are destroyed or because the health centers themselves are destroyed," he said. "I think that's our biggest challenge right now."  As more people move into emergency shelters, a key priority for humanitarian workers will be to construct sufficient latrines, supply soap and water chlorination equipment and remind displaced people to wash their hands, a step that's easily overlooked in a crisis but can be crucial to cut off hygiene-related diseases before they begin to spread, LeSueur says.  "Really the priority right now is saving lives," LeSueur says. "But we want to make sure displaced people have a blanket over them and roof over their head, and we want to get ahead of the water situation."  Once the flood waters recede and search-and-rescue operations end, the storm will likely lead to food shortages for months or years in a region where a high portion of the population are subsistence farmers, says Kieran McConville, a spokesperson for the humanitarian group Concern Worldwide, which has operations in the affected countries. The storm hit just before the annual harvest season, damaging at least 330 square miles of crops, according to the U.N., and killing an unknown number of cows and other livestock.  "We're in the hungry season, when food from last year has started to run out and the harvest has not started to come in," McConville says. "So people are not in a good place to cope with something like this."  For now, LeSueur says, the top priorities are expanding the reach of first responders and aid workers into rural areas along with opening transportation lines so that aid can get in more easily.  Tim McDonnell is a journalist covering the environment, conflict and related issues in sub-Saharan Africa. Follow him on Twitter and Instagram.


npr--2019-03-23--Death Toll From Cyclone Idai Climbs To More Than 600

Death Toll From Cyclone Idai Climbs To More Than 600  Updated at 9:00 a.m. ET Sunday  As the floodwaters from Cyclone Idai have started to recede, the death toll has risen to more than 600 across Mozambique, Zimbabwe and Malawi and is expected to continue to grow.  The number of confirmed dead in Mozambique alone is now 446, according to the country's disaster management agency. Nearly 110,000 people across the country have been rescued and taken to camps, where government officials are raising concerns about the potential spread of diseases such as cholera.  The storm hit the southeastern region of Africa on March 14, causing extensive damage.  During a visit to Beira, Mozambique, Elhadj As Sy, secretary general of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, viewed the devastation from above, and said in a statement that "the scale of this crisis is staggering."  "Tragically, we know that the full picture of this disaster is probably even worse than it seems now," As Sy said. "The death toll will probably rise further as more and more areas are reached and as more and more bodies are recovered."  There is also concern that the current conditions throughout the region will lead to the spread of waterborne diseases and conditions, including cholera, malaria and diarrhea.  The executive director of UNICEF, Henrietta Fore, said in a statement that an estimated 900,000 children were affected by Cyclone Idai and that as relief efforts continue, their physical and mental health is also a concern.  "We are particularly concerned about the safety and well-being of women and children who are still waiting to be rescued or are crammed in temporary shelters and at risk of violence and abuse," Fore said. "We are also concerned about children who were orphaned by the cyclone or became separated from their parents in the chaos that followed."  Aid has started to arrive to some of the areas that were hit hardest. Food, water and other essentials are meant to help the survivors, but as NPR's Eyder Peralta reports, millions of people were in need of food before the cyclone hit due to a long drought.  More than 18,000 houses were destroyed and hundreds of thousands of people have been displaced, according to the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. The total impact of the storm has yet to be determined.  The U.N. allocated $20 million to get aid to the area and on Thursday United Nations Secretary General António Guterres called for "far greater international support" to help the relief efforts.


npr--2019-05-06--Rare Summer Cyclone Leaves Dozens Dead In Southeast Asia

A rare summer cyclone swept across India and Bangladesh last weekend, leaving dozens dead and hundreds of homes destroyed. The storm killed at least 34 people in India and 15 people in Bangladesh. Categorized by the India Meteorological Department as "extremely severe" when it made landfall in India Friday night, the cyclone lashed coastal areas with heavy rain and winds of up to 127 miles per hour. The cyclone had weakened by the time it hit Bangladesh.  Casualties in Southeast Asia were fewer than those caused by previous, similar cyclones. The Associated Press reports preparations in India for Cyclone Fani "demonstrated greatly improved disaster readiness since 1999, when a 'super' cyclone killed about 10,000 people and devastated large parts of the state."  The New York Times reports that, "... authorities in India and Bangladesh, which is geographically especially prone to storms, have prepared for such natural disasters by drafting meticulous evacuation plans and building hundreds of shelters."  In preparation for Cyclone Fani, more than a million people were evacuated from about 15,000 villages and 46 towns in India's Odisha state. The cyclone forced the evacuation of more than 1.6 million people in Bangladesh. Authorities in both countries sent text messages to tens of millions of people in the storm's path, warning them to prepare, the NYT reports, and in Bangladesh, "thousands" of volunteers went through villages with megaphones, urging residents to move to shelters.  NPR's Merritt Kennedy reported the cyclone tore "the roofs off houses," and that people as far away as Mt. Everest felt the impact. "Mountaineers were climbing to lower camps after conditions at higher elevations worsened," NPR's Sushmita Pathak reported from Mumbai.  Cyclone season in the region typically runs from April to December, with activity peaking in May and November, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. "Cyclone Fani is one of the rarest of rare summer cyclones to hit Odisha in 43 years. It is also one of three to hit in the last 150 years," said the state's top elected official, Navin Patnaik, the AP reports.  Officials are still assessing the damage in the wake of the storm. In India, the AP reports, "Telephone links were still down Monday in the worst-hit Puri district in Odisha. Hundreds of thousands of people in Puri and Khurda districts were also without electricity, with the state government hoping to restore it later Monday, the Times of India newspaper said."


sottnet--2019-03-16--Cyclone Idai batters Mozambique - 19 dead flooding widespread damage power and communication loss

Cyclone Idai batters Mozambique - 19 dead, flooding, widespread damage, power and communication loss

With heavy rain and winds of up to 170 kilometers per hour (105 mph), Tropical Cyclone Idai unleashed widespread damage and destruction Friday on the port city of Beira, leaving more than a dozen dead and cutting off communications and electricity.After making landfall late Thursday, Idai felled pylons, destroyed houses and blew the roofs off seven schools. The airport was shut down after suffering damage to its control tower and runways. Flooding also swamped Beira's roads, and the hospital suspended surgeries due to the storm."There has been a lot of damage. Many homes have been left without roofs," said Alberto Mondlane, the provincial governor.The power and communication outages left Beira's roughly 530,000 residents cut off.Power outages also affected the provinces of Manica and parts of Inhambane.State broadcaster Radio Mocambique said "preliminary information points to 19 deaths and more than 70 injured in Sofala province as a result of Cyclone Idai." Most of the deaths were located in Beira, the capital of Sofala.Idai comes on the heels of recent flooding that has already caused death and destruction across parts of southeastern Africa. In Mozambique, Malawi and South Africa, flooding has killed 126.The low lying city of Beira was the worst hit by Friday's cyclone, with Chinde to the north also taking a beating and communications with other villages along the coast severed by a 2-meter (6.5-foot) storm surge.The World Food Program said it would deliver 20 tons of emergency food aid to stranded communities by boat and helicopter.Authorities in Malawi have opened emergency relief camps after President Peter Mutharika declared a national emergency.Cyclone Eline smashed Mozambique in February 2000, compounding further floods, killing 350 and leaving 650,000 homeless.


sottnet--2019-03-19--Cyclone Idai More than 1000 feared dead in Mozambique

Cyclone Idai: More than 1,000 feared dead in Mozambique

President describes scale of disaster as huge, as Red Cross says most of Beira damaged or destroyedMore 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.he said, adding that more than 100,000 people were at risk because of severe flooding.At least 215 people have been confirmed dead and hundreds are missing across Mozambique, Malawi and Zimbabwe from Tropical Cyclone Idai, 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.Celso Correia, the environment minister, said. "Our priority now is to save human lives."Residents of the devastated port city of Beira, where the Pungwe and Busi rivers flow into the sea, have had no communications since Idai hit. Many families have been frantically trying to get information about their relatives, but with no phones or internet access, no electricity and great chunks of the main road into Beira washed away and blocked by flooding, all they can do is wait.Despite the difficulty of getting much-needed supplies, equipment, rescue teams and other people into the area, some humanitarian organisations managed to fly in and begin taking stock of the damage.said Jamie LeSueur of the Red Cross. "We are also hearing that the situation outside the city could be even worse. Yesterday, a large dam burst and cut off the last road to the city."Aerial footage of Praia Novo, an informal settlement on a Beira beach, showed homes that had been torn apart.A British doctor who was in Beira when the cyclone hit and managed to get on a plane to Maputo on Sunday said he saw widespread damage to buildings, trees and power lines in the city. He said the poorest seemed to be the hardest hit."All those who were in reasonably built houses/ hotels during the storm who I heard about seemed to come through unscathed," Mark Ellul wrote from Johannesburg. "I did hear of casualties and fatalities from those I talked to, who were all in poorly built accommodation in the centre of the city. My thoughts were constantly with those people (the majority) who have poorly built houses and had to endure this horrific storm with very little shelter."In images taken by the South African broadcaster eNCA , people were seen climbing trees and wading through waist-high water as ripped-off roofs and debris lay scattered across the city."We were in the house - actually we'd been told to move out of Beira - but we never thought and expected that it could have been as serious as it is. It was catastrophic, destructive, and we were in panic," one Beira resident told eNCA."We were lucky but most of the people were not lucky," another said.Idai began as a tropical depression in the Mozambique channel on 4 March, dropping heavy rain over Mozambique and Malawi before heading back eastward in the direction of Beira, by which time it had become a cyclone."It was a miracle I managed to escape. Most of my relatives are missing," said Casious Maunga, who worked in a banana plantation in Chimanimani, where hundreds are believed to have died and most houses were submerged under water. "I'm confused, I hope they are all alive."Mozambicans and Zimbabweans criticised their leaders for their response to the crisis. Nyusi travelled to Swaziland on a courtesy visit to its king as the cyclone hit Beira, then announced he was cutting short his trip - exploiting a tragedy for political gain, according to one activist.In Chimanimani, where people were running out of food as rain continued to fall, no help arrived, according to local residents."Government officials came in their big cars and they left us, all they did was to promise us assistance but we haven't seen any help. We are hungry and starving," another survivor, Grace Mungwari, said.Additional reporting by Nyasha Chingono


sottnet--2019-12-11--Cyclone Belna hits Madagascar killing 9 and making 1,400 homeless

from the first tropical storm of the season, according to local officials.Belna blew into the western town of Soalala, where more than 1,400 residents were made homeless because their houses were destroyed, damaged or flooded, Col Elack Olivier Andriakaja of the national catastrophe management office, said Tuesday.Those displaced have found temporary shelter in primary schools, mosques and district offices but they need food, Andriakaja said.Many government administrative buildings and roads have also been damaged, he said.Emergency food rations will be delivered to Soalala by sea, said officials.Madagascar's Prime Minister Christian Ntsay will be flying to Soalala to assess the damage.said Soalala's member of parliament Naina Randriamisa, who said water is rising across the city.Belna has been downgraded to a tropical storm as it travels south on the island.Heavy rains and winds are expected through Wednesday. The cyclone should be finished by then, according to the meteorology department.Source: Associated Press


sputnik--2019-05-04--Powerful Cyclone Fani Kills Almost 30 People in India Bangladesh - Reports

Powerful Cyclone Fani Kills Almost 30 People in India, Bangladesh - Reports

The India Today news magazine reported, citing local officials, that at least 12 people had been killed in Odisha, adding that restoration and relief work was underway across 10,000 settlements and urban areas.  Meanwhile, the Dhaka Tribune newspaper said that at least 14 people had been killed across eight Bangladeshi districts, while Fani had also destroyed hundreds of houses and trees.  Over 1 million people across Odisha were evacuated and relocated to camps for temporary staying because of the devastating cyclone. Over 220 trains were canceled, and several airports located in major cities across the area will remain closed until the end of the week. Numerous educational and state institutions were closed, as well as several sea ports.  Experts have qualified Fani as one of the most powerful cyclones that India saw over the past 20 years. It has currently calmed down and has been downgraded to "very powerful" from "extremely powerful."


sputnik--2019-05-07--WATCH Monstrous Cyclone Fani Devastating Odisha India

WATCH Monstrous Cyclone Fani Devastating Odisha, India

Cyclone Fani hit the East coast of India on Friday, causing severe devastation and panic in the Indian state of Odisha. The roaring winds reaching up to 210 km per hour (or 130 miles per hour) have torn down trees, destroyed many homes, also cutting off power and water supply in the region.  Now the cyclone is expected to hit the state of West Bengal and move towards Bangladesh, affecting a territory where over 100 million people live.  Researchers have qualified Fani as one of the most powerful cyclones to hit India in the last two decades.  In the meantime, the Indian government has also announced large-scale restoration work across 10,000 villages and 52 urban areas hit by Fani.


thedailycaller--2019-03-19--1000 People Feared Dead In Mozambique After Cyclone Causes Major Flooding

1,000 People Feared Dead In Mozambique After Cyclone Causes Major Flooding

More than 1,000 people are feared dead, four days since Cyclone Idai smashed into the African country of Mozambique, the nation’s president said.  Located in the southeastern part of Africa, Mozambique has over 30 million people and has lately seen entire villages submerged and destroyed by strong winds and heavy rains.  “It is a real disaster of great proportions,” said President Filipe Nyusi on state Radio Mozambique.  While the death toll currently stands at 84 in the nation, Nyusi said that “it appears we can register more than 1,000 deaths.”  Having no way to know officially if the death toll will rise to the president’s number, emergency officials still warned that they expect the death toll to rise significantly. (RELATED: ‘Bomb Cyclone’ Forces Airlines To Cancel Thousands Of Flights)  President Nyusi cut short a visit with a neighboring country over the weekend after hearing news of the storm. After flying over Beira, a port city in Mozambique, and two other rural provinces, Nyusi recalled the devastation he saw.  “The waters of Pungue and Buzi rivers overflowed, making whole villages disappear and isolating communities, and bodies are floating,” said Nyusi.  The cyclone first struck Beira on Thursday before moving inland to hit neighboring countries Zimbabwe and Malawi. In total, more than 215 people between the three countries were killed by the storm, according to official figures. Specifically, more than 80 people have been killed in eastern Zimbabwe and more than 50 from Malawi.  To help the devastated countries, the Red Cross and U.N. agencies have sent emergency food and medicine by helicopter. The food will be essential, particularly in Beira, where the storm has come right before harvesting season. (RELATED: What Does The Science Actually Say About Global Warming And Midwest Floods?)  “As this damage is occurring just before the main harvest season, it could exacerbate food security in the region,” said OCHA, a U.N. humanitarian office.  Riverbanks have been broken due to the heavy rains in southern Malawi, leading to around 11,000 households to be submerged and displaced. In addition, the flooding has also affected Mount Chiluvo in central Mozambique, causing mudslides that forced families to flee to higher ground.  “I was indoors with my children, but when we looked we saw mud coming down the road towards the houses and we fled,” said Francisco Carlitos told Portuguese News Agency, Lusa.  Over 90 percent of Beira has been destroyed or damaged by Idai. In addition, the cyclone has knocked out electricity, cut access to the city by road and shut down the airport, according to the Red Cross. Beira’s Central Hospital’s emergency room has also been flooded, without power and that much of the building’s roof had collapsed. (RELATED: Before And After Image Shows The Extent Of The Flooding In Houston)  Prone to cyclones and typhoons in this time of year, Mozambique has been hit by major floods before. In 2000, weeks of heavy rain caused severe flooding that killed approximately 700 people.


theguardianuk--2019-03-18--Cyclone Idai death toll climbs in Mozambique and Zimbabwe

Cyclone Idai: death toll climbs in Mozambique and Zimbabwe

More than 120 people have died and many more are missing in Mozambique and neighbouring Zimbabwe after tropical cyclone Idai hit the southern African nations with flash floods and ferocious winds.  Authorities in Mozambique said the toll there had risen to 62 in the centre of the country, while Zimbabwe said 65 people were killed in affected eastern areas, after the cyclone tore across the region on Friday and Saturday.  “I think this is the biggest natural disaster Mozambique has ever faced. Everything is destroyed. Our priority now is to save human lives,” said Mozambique’s environment Minister Celso Correia.  Idai hit Mozambique first on Thursday night before moving to Zimbabwe.  In Zimbabwe, eastern Chimanimani district was the worst hit part of the country, where houses and bridges were washed away by flash floods.  The most affected areas were not yet accessible, while high winds and dense clouds hampered military rescue helicopter flights.  “So far we looking at 65 people that have lost their lives,” Joshua Sacco, lawmaker for Chimanimani said , adding that between “150 to 200 people” were missing.  The majority of those unaccounted for are thought to be government workers, whose housing complex was completely engulfed by raging waters. Their fate is currently unknown because the area is still unreachable.  “We are very worried because all these houses were just suddenly submerged under water and literally washed away and that is where we have about 147 missing,” he said. “It’s very sad and the situation is dire.”  Two pupils at a secondary school in the area were among those killed, after a landslide sent a boulder crashing into their dormitory, the country’s civil protection agency said.  Soldiers on Sunday helped rescue nearly 200 pupils, teachers and staff who had been trapped at the school in Chimanimani.  The United Nations in Zimbabwe said that nearly 10,000 were affected by the cyclone.  Zimbabwe’s President Emmerson Mnangagwa, who cut short a visit to Abu Dhabi over the cyclone, has declared a state of disaster in the affected areas.  It’s the second tragedy to hit Zimbabwe in as many months. In February, more than 40 illegal gold miners were trapped deep underground following a flash flood.  Idai battered central Mozambique on Friday, cutting off more than half a million residents of the port city Beira where the environment minister said 80 percent of the electricity network was destroyed.  “All roads are cut, the infrastructure is destroyed, practically everything is destroyed,” said Correia.  A significant part of the central region was “absolutely decimated by this cyclone, even larger than anticipated,” said Jamie LeSueur, the International Federation of Red Cross’s roving emergency operations manager for Africa after an aerial survey of the affected areas in Mozambique.


theguardianuk--2019-03-18--Cyclone Idai death toll in Mozambique could rise above 1000

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

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.  At least 215 people have been confirmed dead and hundreds are missing across Mozambique, Malawi and Zimbabwe from Tropical Cyclone Idai, 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.  “I think this is the biggest natural disaster Mozambique has ever faced. Everything is destroyed,” Celso Correia, the environment minister, said. “Our priority now is to save human lives.”  Residents of the devastated port city of Beira, where the Pungwe and Busi rivers flow into the sea, have had no communications since Idai hit. Many families have been frantically trying to get information about their relatives, but with no phones or internet access, no electricity and great chunks of the main road into Beira washed away and blocked by flooding, all they can do is wait.  Despite the difficulty of getting much-needed supplies, equipment, rescue teams and other people into the area, some humanitarian organisations managed to fly in and begin taking stock of the damage.  “The situation is terrible. The scale of devastation is enormous. It seems that 90 per cent of the area is completely destroyed,” said Jamie LeSueur of the Red Cross. “We are also hearing that the situation outside the city could be even worse. Yesterday, a large dam burst and cut off the last road to the city.”  Aerial footage of Praia Novo, an informal settlement on a Beira beach, showed homes that had been torn apart.  A British doctor who was in Beira when the cyclone hit and managed to get on a plane to Maputo on Sunday said he saw widespread damage to buildings, trees and power lines in the city. He said the poorest seemed to be the hardest hit.  “All those who were in reasonably built houses/ hotels during the storm who I heard about seemed to come through unscathed,” Mark Ellul wrote from Johannesburg. “I did hear of casualties and fatalities from those I talked to, who were all in poorly built accommodation in the centre of the city. My thoughts were constantly with those people (the majority) who have poorly built houses and had to endure this horrific storm with very little shelter.”  In images taken by the South African broadcaster eNCA , people were seen climbing trees and wading through waist-high water as ripped-off roofs and debris lay scattered across the city.  “We were in the house – actually we’d been told to move out of Beira – but we never thought and expected that it could have been as serious as it is. It was catastrophic, destructive, and we were in panic,” one Beira resident told eNCA.  “We were lucky but most of the people were not lucky,” another said.  Idai began as a tropical depression in the Mozambique channel on 4 March, dropping heavy rain over Mozambique and Malawi before heading back eastward in the direction of Beira, by which time it had become a cyclone. It has also devastated parts of neighbouring Zimbabwe.  “It was a miracle I managed to escape. Most of my relatives are missing,” said Casious Maunga, who worked in a banana plantation in Chimanimani, where hundreds are believed to have died and most houses were submerged under water. “I’m confused, I hope they are all alive.”  The cyclone will have far-reaching consequences beyond the flooding. Farmers in the region were about to harvest their maize crop when Idai hit, and many of their fields have been ruined, meaning widespread hunger in at least the year ahead.  Mozambicans and Zimbabweans criticised their leaders for their response to the crisis. Nyusi travelled to Swaziland on a courtesy visit to its king as the cyclone hit Beira, then announced he was cutting short his trip – exploiting a tragedy for political gain, according to one activist.  In Chimanimani, where people were running out of food as rain continued to fall, no help arrived, according to local residents.  “Government officials came in their big cars and they left us, all they did was to promise us assistance but we haven’t seen any help. We are hungry and starving,” another survivor, Grace Mungwari, said.


theguardianuk--2019-03-19--Cyclone Idai might be southern hemispheres worst such disaster

Cyclone Idai 'might be southern hemisphere's worst such disaster'

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.  The official death tolls in Mozambique, Zimbabwe and Malawi are 200, 98 and 56 respectively. But these totals only scratch the surface; the real toll may not be known for many months as the countries deal with a still unfolding disaster.  Mozambique’s president, Filipe Nyusi, announced three days of national mourning late on Tuesday and said his government would declare a national emergency.  The country has been hit by cyclones and floods before. The most devastating in recent memory were in 2000, but these could be even worse.  Houses, roads and telegraph poles are completely submerged. The Mozambican and South African military and other organisations are working to rescue people from the air, though many are struggling to get supplies and teams to the region because roads and bridges have been ripped up or have huge sinkholes in them.  Some people are stranded clinging to trees; others are on houses or “new islands” that have formed, and have no food, according to rescue workers.  “Sometimes we can only save two out of five; sometimes we rather drop food and go to someone else who’s in bigger danger,” Ian Scher from Rescue SA told AFP. “We just save what we can save and the others will perish.”  A pilot doing a survey for Mission Aviation Fellowship flew over the basin of Buzi river in Mozambique, which had burst its banks, and was able to provide the first information on the area.  “It was a heartbreaking flight today as we flew over many miles of flooded land in the Buzi River basin. We saw many people stranded on roof tops surrounded by kilometres of water. It was difficult to comprehend and think about that probably many have perished,” Rick Emenaker told the South African site Lowvelder.  With the first flight leaving on Sunday and one mobile network, Movitel, just restored, more details are beginning to emerge of what happened in Beira when the cyclone hit.  “It is a total mess here. Please pray for the thousands and thousands who have lost their homes,” said Jill Lovell, an Australian who runs a mission school in Beira, in an emailed message. “People are in trees and on rooftops. Emergency relief crews are slowly coming in. Rains continue to make it all even harder. So many lives lost and homes destroyed.”  The Red Cross managed to get one truck containing chlorine tablets and 1,500 tarpaulins and tools to make shelters into Beira before it was cut off. Another was diverted to Manica, while the Red Cross is also trying to bring in more supplies from the island of Réunion by boat. The World Food Programme managed to get food supplies in and is doing airdrops to stranded people.  “Where there was land, there’s now sea. The city itself is completely cut off. It’s really an island now in the ocean,” said Matthew Cochrane of the Red Cross, adding that an emergency appeal would be launched to raise an initial 10m Swiss francs to provide mostly shelter and clean water.  Health is a major worry and the risk of outbreaks of cholera and typhoid is high, especially as there are reports that water pipelines to the city have been cut.  Mark Ellul, a British doctor who was in Beira when the cyclone hit, said conditions at the central hospital, next to the sea in the middle of the city, had already been bad and it had been operating at full capacity when the storm hit. He heard that patients had been in the wards when Idai struck, ripping off part of the roof and destroying what windows were left.  “The ones that could walk tried to get out of there and get into the corridors and the ones who couldn’t walk just kind of held on to their beds,” he said.  Ellul pulled out the plumbing and barricaded himself under the sink in his hotel room during the cyclone. When he came out, he saw debris thrown everywhere, trees ripped up, roofs ripped off and electricity poles pushed over the roads. He said met many people who said they had seen bodies in the street or whose neighbours had been killed.  Residents of Beira said there were reports of dams 70km from the city bursting, possibly Chicamba dam above Chimoio, north-west of Beira, or perhaps the Mavuzi dam, a smaller reservoir. Other dams are thought to be full to the brim and will have to open their floodgates soon. The colossal Kariba and Cahora Bassa dams on the Zambezi river are not thought to be under threat, but both were built about 50 years ago and the Kariba needs urgent maintenance.  The Red Cross has started a list of people registered as alive, or missing, which family members can search or add to.


theguardianuk--2019-03-20--Wednesday briefing Cyclone Idai leaves trail of destruction

Wednesday briefing: Cyclone Idai leaves trail of destruction

Hello, it’s Warren Murray putting the top stories at your fingertips.  The devastation wrought by Cyclone Idai is becoming clear after it swept through Mozambique, Malawi and Zimbabwe, destroying almost everything in its path, causing devastating floods, killing and injuring thousands of people and ruining crops. More than 2.6 million people are potentially affected in what the UN says could be the worst such disaster to hit the southern hemisphere.  Official death tolls stand in the hundreds but the true numbers may not be known for months. The Mozambican and South African military and other organisations have been working to rescue people from the air. Ian Scher from Rescue SA explained the stark reality: “We just save what we can save and the others will perish.” Jill Lovell – an Australian in Mozambique running a mission school in Beira, which has been cut off by floodwaters – said in an email: “It is a total mess here … People are in trees and on rooftops. Emergency relief crews are slowly coming in. Rains continue to make it all even harder. So many lives lost and homes destroyed.”  Boris, Brexit and Barnier – With Tories convinced that Theresa May is on borrowed time as leader, some are orchestrating to prevent Boris Johnson taking her place – and preparing to resign if he does. “There is a really strong anti-Boris feeling,” said one former minister, “but all the Brexiters may get on board with him if they feel the wind is blowing in his direction because they will want jobs.” At an EU summit tomorrow, the PM will ask for what might be termed a meaningful delay in the Brexit process. Ministers held crisis talks yesterday after the Speaker blocked a further immediate vote on May’s unchanged deal. The EU’s chief Brexit negotiator, Michel Barnier, has suggested the PM is not being offered a blank-cheque extension to the article 50 process, and a long delay could make a second referendum necessary.  > Patients are waiting months for cataract surgery because of NHS cuts, research reveals. The Patients Association has criticised the spread of “crude rationing” of this and other surgeries such as hip replacements that can drastically improve quality of life.  > The government will start issuing official threat-level warnings for far-right terrorism as well as Islamist terrorism. A stabbing in Stanwell on Saturday is being treated as a white supremacist attack.  > Heavy use of cannabis increases the risk of psychosis, researchers believe. They estimate 30% of first-time psychosis cases in south London, and half those in Amsterdam, could be avoided if high-potency cannabis was unavailable.  > A US jury has ruled that Monsanto’s Roundup herbicide was a substantial factor in giving a California man cancer. Monsanto continues to argue the glyphosate herbicide is safe to use and does not cause non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma.  > The education secretary says students should report peers who cheat by using essay-writing websites. PayPal is being called on to ban payments to “essay mills” whose wares are virtually impossible to detect through anti-plagiarism software.  Most want rich soaked – A majority of people living in developed countries want their government to tax the rich more to help the poor, according to an OECD survey of 21 countries. “Too many people feel they cannot count fully on their government when they need help,” said Ángel Gurría, secretary general of the OECD, which polled 22,000 people. The UK was not included in the study, but almost 80% of people in Portugal and Greece wanted the rich taxed more, as did half of US respondents. Almost half of Americans in the survey said they would pay 2% more income tax to receive better healthcare, and one-third would be prepared to pay a 2% levy in return for better state education.  Back down the coalmine – Britain’s first new deep coalmine in 30 years has been given the go-ahead by Cumbria county council despite protests about climate change. The site will process 2.5m tonnes a year of coking coal for steelmaking in UK and Europe, replacing imports from the US, Canada, Russia and Colombia. Labour, Conservative and Liberal Democrat councillors backed the development, which promises to create 2,500 direct and indirect jobs. The owners says about a third of the project’s energy needs will be met by solar power. The mine is due to begin production in about two years’ time.  Scotland’s land monopolies targeted – Scottish landholding rules must be radically reformed to reverse “socially corrosive” concentration of ownership in the hands of ultra-wealthy people and public bodies, a major review warns. The Scottish Land Commission says about 1,125 owners, including Highland lairds and major public bodies such as Forest Enterprise and the National Trust for Scotland, own 70% of Scotland’s rural land, covering more than 4.1m hectares. The eventual goal of the commission would be to break up many large estates. Hamish Trench, the commission’s chief executive, said large landowners did not need to behave badly for it to be an issue – concentration of ownership decreased economic opportunities and diversity. The Scottish Green party MSP Andy Wightman called on ministers to adopt the review’s recommendation and end “the centuries-long persistence of hegemonic landed power”.  We are testing the Guardian Briefing, a short audio version of the Morning Briefing adapted for Google Home devices and the Google Assistant. Using a mix of both human and synthetic voices, the Guardian Briefing brings you up to speed with the day’s top headlines in under two minutes.  Give it a try by saying “Hey Google, ask for the Guardian Briefing”. It is compatible with Google Assistant-enabled devices including Google Home speakers and Android/iOS smartphones. iPhone users will need to install the free Google Assistant app. You can find out more about the experiment on the Guardian Voice Lab blog.  As the project develops, the Guardian Briefing will also pull stories from across the Guardian website throughout the day to keep the headlines up to date. We’d love to hear what you think – help us to get it right by emailing your thoughts to voicelab@theguardian.com.  Oliver Holmes describes his recent visit to Gaza, where a generation of Palestinians have spent their entire lives fenced in. Plus: Rafael Behr on why an article 50 extension is not a victory for remainers.  “How do you explain to your fragile, octogenarian mom that her ex-husband’s mistress actually did have his child, and now that child is one of your closest friends? Short answer: You don’t. You just don’t.”  Laura was born to a mother who had had an affair with her married boss. “Her husband was deployed in Guam. She’d found a doctor to induce labour a month before I was due to make it appear as though I could have been conceived while her husband was home on furlough.” The truth came out after Laura turned 21 and, years later still, she resolved to track down her biological father, that ex-boss of her mum’s. She found him – or rather, his obituary: “He had died two days prior.” But tracing his other children led to a bond with a half-sister that changed her life.  Crewe Alexandra are taking on Barry Bennell’s victims in the high court by claiming it was the parents, not the club, who let boys stay overnight with the man who has been described as “an industrial-scale child molester”. The Six Nations countries are in danger of falling out over plans to aggregate their television and commercial rights, with England and France demanding an unequal share of the proceeds to pay off their clubs. Harry Kane has insisted the intensity of club rivalries will not disrupt the harmony established by Gareth Southgate within the senior England squad. The Wales fly-half Gareth Anscombe has called on the power-brokers to sort out Welsh rugby’s domestic mess. And the deletion of a social media post featuring a photo of the AFLW player Tayla Harris that attracted vile comments has caused uproar in Australia.  The remarkable figures released yesterday showing that unemployment is at a 44-year low may have given the UK economy some cheer, but events further afield continue to drive the numbers on the FTSE100. The benchmark index is expected to fall around 0.6% when trading starts this morning, which is in line with Asian markets overnight nervous about the outcome of the latest Federal Reserve policy meeting in New York. Although the Fed is expected to keep US rates on hold, what policymakers might suggest about what’s coming down the track is the real game. A pound will get you around $1.325 or €1.168 this morning.  It’s all about Theresa May asking the EU for an extension of article 50 today (and a few images of Prince Charles in a pair of swimming shorts on holiday). The Mirror wins pun of the day with “May begs for Brextra time”. The Mail rails against “1,000 wasted days” with a front-page rant: “Exactly 1,000 days ago, Britain voted to leave the EU. Today incompetent MPs and hard Brexit zealots have made us a laughing stock – and now Brussels is telling us to ‘think again’.”  The Express takes its top line from Andrea Leadsom’s rebuke of remainers in cabinet: “You don’t want to deliver Brexit”. The Telegraph also goes with a Leadsom quote: “This used to be the Cabinet that would deliver Brexit … now it’s not”. The Times has: “May pleads for delay to Brexit as EU stands firm” while the i declares: “We’re in crisis, admits May as she seeks Brexit delay”. The Financial Times sees things from a slightly different perspective: “Brussels takes hard line on Brexit delay as cabinet splits over terms.”  The Guardian is alone in giving most of the space on the front to the devastation wrought by Cyclone Idai in Mozambique, Malawi and Zimbabwe. Its Brexit story – “May begs EU to delay Brexit as No 10 concedes deal is in crisis” – sits underneath.  The Guardian Morning Briefing is delivered to thousands of inboxes bright and early every weekday. If you are not already receiving it by email, you can sign up here.


theguardianuk--2019-03-21--Cyclone Idai shows the deadly reality of climate change in Africa Landry Nintereste

Cyclone Idai shows the deadly reality of climate change in Africa | Landry Nintereste

As [Africa climate week](https://www.connect4climate.org/event/africa-climate- week-2019-accra-ghana) unfurls in Ghana, the countries of Mozambique, Malawi and Zimbabwe count the costs of [Cyclone Idai](https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/mar/20/cyclone-idai-rising-flood- levels-threaten-mozambique-disaster-relief-effort), which ripped through villages and towns, taking hundreds of lives and leaving a trail of destruction.  For a continent already racked by the effects of the climate crisis, Idai is another chilling reminder of the destructive power of the kind of storms that will become more common as the world warms up.  The cyclone made landfall on 14 March, the same day that the [One Planet Summit](https://www.oneplanetsummit.fr/en/events-16/one-planet-summit-nairobi- africa-pledge-67) started in Nairobi, called by French president Emmanuel Macron. After picking up speed, with winds of 195km/h (120mph) accompanied by lashing rains, Idai caused flooding and landslides, ruining crops and roads, and has already affected millions of people. The city of [Beira](https://www.theguardian.com/world/video/2019/mar/18/aerial-footage- shows-cyclone-idai-devastation-in-mozambique-video) in Mozambique was hit the hardest, with nearly 80% of homes and public infrastructure destroyed.  While the most vulnerable communities are facing the real impact of climate change on the ground, national leaders at the One Planet Summit kept their talk inside comfortable and acclimatised rooms. During the summit, Macron encouraged global collaboration towards ensuring sustainable preservation of forests, and President Uhuru Kenyatta of Kenya made a pledge to achieve at least 10% forest cover in the next three years.  These commitments would be laughable if it were not so tragic. Africa needs to do a lot more than that to build climate resilience. [Cyclone Idai](https://www.theguardian.com/world/cyclone-idai) is another powerful demonstration of this.  While many countries appear to be already reducing carbon emissions and moving towards an energy transition, Africa’s coalfields are open for business. Along with a few Asian countries (Indonesia, Vietnam and Bangladesh in particular), our continent continues to be an El Dorado for the coal cheerleaders and big business determined to carry on its coal-onisation. New plants are being planned from South Africa to Senegal, from Kenya to [Mozambique](https://www.theguardian.com/world/mozambique), as well as in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Côte d’Ivoire. Most of them are co- financed by the African Development Bank, on whose board sit members of African, European, North and South American and Asian governments.  This is the case for the coal-fired power plant projects [in Bargny](https://ejatlas.org/conflict/coal-power-factory-in-bargny-by-senelec- senegal) (in the suburbs of Dakar, Senegal), San-Pédro (Côte d’Ivoire), [Lamu](https://www.standardmedia.co.ke/article/2001281514/kenya-targets- african-development-bank-to-back-coal-project) (Kenya), or the [Thabametsi](https://350africa.org/thumamina-dbsa/) power station in Limpopo province, South Africa, near the border with Botswana.  The situation is pretty similar for the oil industry, a source of energy that continues to attract investors in [Africa](https://www.theguardian.com/world/africa), a continent that accounts for 8% of global production, with 7.5m barrels a day. Despite the drop in the price of oil over the last five years, new players are added yearly to the list of majors companies, such as Total, Shell, Exxon, BP and Eni.  In Uganda, for example, a new field will be exploited, the fruit of the cooperation between [Total, the Chinese company CNOOC, and the British company Tullow Oil.](https://www.rigzone.com/news/oil_gas/a/105617/tullow_sells_uganda_stake_to_total_cnooc_for_29b/) [Perenco](https://www.stopcorporateimpunity.org/perenco-in-the-drc-when-oil- makes-the-poor-poorer/), a French-British company, has just set up in Gabon and DRC and plans to produce half a million barrels a day. In February 2019, [Total announced](https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-02-07/total- discovery-opens-new-petroleum-province-off-south-africa) the huge offshore discovery of gas-condensate and light oil in South Africa, which could contain 1bn barrels of total resources.  Even though Africa is estimated to [produce just 4%](https://www.brookings.edu /wp-content/uploads/2016/08/global_20160818_cop21_africa.pdf) of global carbon emissions – compared to [80% by the most industrialised countries](https://edition.cnn.com/2018/11/14/europe/g20-climate-targets- fossil-fuel-report-intl/index.html) (G20), it is the continent that pays the highest price. For us, climate change is not a future risk, it’s already a reality evident in wrecked families, lands and livelihoods, and hopeless children and young people who have no choice but to seek a future by migrating.  Everywhere on the continent, communities fear losing their land as each season hits one country after another with [exceptional floods](https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2018/may/08/deadly- flash-floods-east-africa-dire-need-kenya-rwanda-somalia), unexpected storms and increasingly [long droughts](https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/apr/20 /weve-never-seen-this-drought-this-disease-famine-looms-in-somalia). Fauna and flora reserves have been running out, access to water has become a privilege, and extreme weather events have become more numerous and left families without homes or livelihoods.  Some assume that increasing forest cover or granting new billions in funding to governments plagued by bad governance and corruption will prevent such disasters from happening and solve the issue of global warming. This is an insult to people facing untold suffering in every corner of the continent, while new coal and mining infrastructure and carbon commodification continue to be allowed.  The proliferation of fossil-fuel projects is happening at the expense of people’s health, the climate and ecosystems. Yet the solutions to this crisis are also well known. They include ending coal extraction and mining, stopping the funding of new coal infrastructure – mines or power plants – and accelerating the investment in renewables.  International cooperation and funding from industrialised economies are necessary to combat climate change. And such efforts should start by not promoting or funding any fossil fuel projects anywhere in the world.  But before money, energy transition is a matter of vision and leadership. African countries have to step up efforts against environmental degradation and greenhouse gas emissions, for instance, by decentralising energy supply systems, and by promoting tax policies that favour solar and wind energy investments.  African governments must do a better job of protecting their people, but fossil fuel companies must also be held accountable for the impact that decades of unregulated exploitation of coal, oil and gas have had on the continent, including before courts.  Tired of vain promises and empty slogans, [students and pupils around the world](https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/feb/08/global-school- strikes-over-climate-change-head-to-the-uk), including in South Africa, Kenya, Senegal, Ghana, Nigeria and Uganda, organised a series of rallies and events last week asking their governments to take, without delay, the decisions needed to contain climate destabilisation. This organic mobilisation is likely to continue and grow until real action is taken.  While regional leaders and development partners are gathered in Accra for the 2019 Africa climate week, they should refrain from promoting more false solutions or making empty promises while thousands of innocent citizens are perishing. Ending the extraction and use of coal and other fossil fuels in Africa is a decision that cannot be delayed any longer. The brutality of Cyclone Idai is another stark reminder that millions of lives depend on it.  • Landry Ninteretse is the Africa lead for 350.org, which campaigns on climate change


theguardianuk--2019-04-29--Cyclone Kenneth death toll in Mozambique rises as rain continues

The death toll from Cyclone Kenneth, the second tropical storm to hit Mozambique within weeks, has jumped to 38 as flooding continued.  Rains from the storm pounded the north-eastern city of Pemba and surrounding areas on Monday, and more torrential rain was forecast for the coming days. Cyclone Idai, which hit central Mozambique in mid-March, killed at least 600 people.  The government said the flooding from the new cyclone was “critical” in parts of Cabo Delgado province such as the towns of Ibo, Macomia and Quissanga, where many buildings and homes had been destroyed. Most roads were impassable and the heavy rains made air contact difficult.  Officials said aid distribution would begin via helicopter and boats in Ibo and Quissanga as soon as the rains lifted on Monday. Canoes may be used to deliver aid in Macomia.  Provision of safe drinking water is becoming a challenge as wells have been contaminated, raising the threat of cholera. Malaria is another concern.  The prolonged heavy rains in Pemba, the provincial capital, caused deadly mudslides. As the rains eased on Monday, residents of a poor neighbourhood were digging for bodies. Two houses were crushed by the collapse of a sprawling dumpsite just after midnight, said Manuel Joachim, a local resident.  He said the body of a woman was discovered on Monday morning. Five people were missing. Using picks, shovels and their hands, workmen and locals dug through mud and garbage.  In other parts of Pemba, some tried to return to a semblance of daily life amid the destruction. At a school in one suburb, schoolchildren in blue uniforms trooped into classes. In central Pemba, traders put their wares on street pavements and wooden tables while others were busy removing rubble from their homes and yards.


theguardianuk--2019-05-04--Cyclone Fani hits Bangladesh after killing 12 in India

The strongest cyclone to hit India in five years killed at least 12 people in the eastern state of Odisha, before swinging north-eastwards into Bangladesh on Saturday, where more than a million people have been moved to safety.  After hitting land, Cyclone Fani lost some of its power and was downgraded to a deep depression by the India Meteorological Department.  A storm surge still breached embankments to submerge dozens of villages on Bangladesh’s low-lying coast, a disaster ministry official in Dhaka said.  About 1.2 million people living in the most vulnerable districts in Bangladesh had been moved to 4,000 shelters. The storm destroyed several houses in the Noakhali district, where a two-year-old child was killed and about 30 people were injured, a local official told Reuters.  In India, authorities were assessing the casualties and damage caused by Fani, which had spent days building power over the northern reaches of the Bay of Bengal before tearing into Odisha.  Indian media reported that at least 12 people died across the state, most as a result of falling trees. A mass evacuation of more than a million people in the 24 hours before the tropical cyclone made landfall is likely to have averted a greater loss of life.  The seaside temple town of Puri, which lay directly in the path of Fani, sustained extensive damage as winds gusting up to 124 mph (200 km/h) tore off tin roofs, snapped power lines and uprooted trees on Friday.  “Destruction is unimaginable. Puri is devastated,” Odisha’s special relief commissioner, Bishnupada Sethi, told Reuters, adding that 116 people were reported injured across the state.  Video footage taken from an Indian navy aircraft showed extensive inundation in areas around Puri, with wide swathes of land submerged.  At least six people died in Bhubaneswar, Odisha’s state capital, where fallen trees blocked roads and the electricity supply is still to be fully restored.  Ashok Pattnaik, the director of Capital hospital, one of the largest state-run hospitals in Bhubaneswar, said four people were pronounced dead on arrival on Friday and two on Saturday. “All are cyclone-related,” he said.  Bhubaneswar airport sustained considerable damage, but India’s aviation ministry said it would reopen on Saturday afternoon.  Shelters were set up in schools and other safe buildings to accommodate the evacuees, who included scores of tourists.  The cyclone season in the Bay of Bengal can last from April to December. In 1999 a super-cyclone battered the coast of Odisha for 30 hours, killing more than 10,000 people. But since then, technology advances have helped weather forecasters track the cyclones more accurately, giving authorities more time to prepare, and a mass evacuation of nearly a million people saved thousands of lives in 2013.


theguardianuk--2019-11-20--Weatherwatch: Cyclone Bulbul leaves millions displaced in Bangladesh

Cyclone Bulbul brought strong winds and torrential rain to the low-lying coasts of Bangladesh and eastern India. The storm began its formation near Palau, to the east of the Philippines – 3,100 miles (5,000km) from Bangladesh. The system then crossed the Indochinese peninsula and intensified over the Bay of Bengal before making landfall on 9 November near Sagar Island in West Bengal, India. More than 200mm of rain fell in places, coupled with an extreme storm surge and winds reaching 75mph. Across Bangladesh, 2.1 million people were relocated to cyclone shelters, but 4,000 houses were damaged or destroyed. About 5,000 trees were brought down in the Sundarbans – the world’s largest mangrove forest.  In Venice, Italy, 90% of the canal city has been flooded in the past week due to tides at their highest levels for more than 50 years. Water levels reached 187cm above normal on 12 November, forcing St Mark’s Square to close, while the vaporetti – the city’s famous waterbuses – were suspended. The flooding has been estimated to have caused more than €1bn-worth of damage.  Meanwhile, much of Canada and the US experienced record-breaking cold weather last week. In Texas, temperatures dropped more than 30C in less than 24 hours.


theindependent--2019-03-19--Cyclone Idai destroys 90 of city in Mozambique in aposdisaster of great proportionsapos

Cyclone Idai destroys 90% of city in Mozambique in 'disaster of great proportions'

A deadly tropical cyclone has destroyed as much as 90 per cent of the Mozambique city of Beira, raising fears for more than 500,000 people.  Cyclone Idai brought devastation to the major coastal city of half a million people on Thursday night with winds of up to 106 mph, before moving to Zimbabwe and Malawi, Red Cross said.  The damage was “massive and horrifying”, the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Society (IFRC) said after surveying the worst-hit areas via helicopter.  Images on social media and local television showed billboards and rooftops blown off, trees snapped and electricity cables left fallen in the city’s streets.  President Filipe Nyusi said he believed the storm could be the deadliest to hit the southeast African country, adding that it was “a real disaster of great proportions”.  Appearing on state radio, he described seeing “bodies floating” in the water after two rivers broke their banks and “wiped out entire villages”. He said he expected the death toll, which currently stands at 84, to rise significantly to more than 1,000 deaths.  The United Nations’ humanitarian office said on Friday that electricity and communications in the city had been cut off by the cyclone.  It also warned of devastation outside Beira, in particular of livestock and crops, adding that the damage took place just before the main harvest season, which could exacerbate food insecurity in the region.  In February 2000, Cyclone Eline also made landfall near Beira during a period of intense rain, killing hundreds and displacing 650,000 across the wider region.  With the latest disaster also leaving thousands missing or displaced, Amnesty International is calling on foreign governments and regional leaders to ramp up rescue efforts.  Muleya Mwananyanda, deputy regional director for southern Africa, said the international community must provide the necessary aid resources to save lives and provide relief to those affected.  “As the effects of climate change intensify, these extreme weather conditions can be expected to revisit us more frequently,” she said. “The devastation wrought by Cyclone Idai is yet another wake-up call for the world to put in place ambitious climate change mitigation measures.”  “Regional leaders and governments of wealthier countries must support effective early-warning systems, disaster preparedness and climate change adaptation strategies to save lives and protect human rights.”  We’ll tell you what’s true. You can form your own view.  At The Independent, no one tells us what to write. That’s why, in an era of political lies and Brexit bias, more readers are turning to an independent source. Subscribe from just 15p a day for extra exclusives, events and ebooks – all with no ads.


theindependent--2019-03-20--Cyclone Idai aposDeath all overapos as floods wipe out aposevidence houses were ever hereapo

Cyclone Idai: 'Death all over' as floods wipe out 'evidence houses were ever here'

Cyclone Idai has spread “death all over” in Mozambique, survivors have said, with hundreds killed across southern Africa.  In neighbouring Malawi, UN workers said that in some areas all evidence of human settlement had been washed away by the storm and subsequent floods.  With the death toll reaching at least 360 – but expected to rise – world governments have said they will increase their efforts to help. In Mozambique, 202 deaths have been reported. Some 102 people have died in Zimbabwe and 56 in Malawi.  It will be days before Mozambique’s flooded plains drain towards the Indian Ocean, and longer still before the full scale of the devastation is known.  “There is death all over,” said Amos Makunduwa, carrying a few remaining possessions. “It is beginning to smell really bad,” he added. “The whole area is like one big body of water, huge rocks and mud. There are no houses, as if no one ever stayed here.”  Rebecca Phwitiko, a Unicef communications officer in Malawi who has accompanied aid workers to the worst-hit areas, told The Independent that in some areas houses have been reduced to “a pile of bricks”.  “There are places where you can’t even see the evidence of houses having been there,” she added, speaking about rural villages. Rain is still falling in some districts.  In Malawi, about 76,000 people have been displaced, and Unicef said it believed more than a quarter of a million children were among those affected by the cyclone in Mozambique – the most damaged country.  Ms Phwitiko said she visited a school where more than 3,000 people were sheltering, sharing only 10 cooking pots between them.  “A lot of families in the affected areas are living in camps. They’re camping in schools, churches and any public buildings that they can find,” she said. But in some areas there is no nearby source of clean water, and in others no toilets.  Lack of privacy in sleeping arrangements mean that girls are “at risk of sexual violence”.  She added that the storm hit “just a few weeks away from when people were due to harvest the maize crop”, and that “this sets them back quite a bit. Most of the affected are among some of the poorest people in the rural areas”.  International aid has started trickling in to ease the humanitarian crisis.  “Everyone is doubling, tripling, quadrupling whatever they were planning,” said Caroline Haga, of the Red Cross in Beira, Mozambique, referring to supplies and aid workers. “[The fallout] is much larger than anyone could ever anticipate.”  The UK announced on Wednesday it would increase its contribution from £6m to £18m.  The worst hit areas were close to the Buzi river west of the destroyed city of Beira, said Ms Haga. Two rivers, including the Buzi, burst their banks after the storm dumped rain on Zimbabwe and Malawi at the weekend, sending torrents of water into Mozambique and creating a “second emergency”.  Aid agencies changed tack from dealing with a situation mostly involving damage to property and infrastructure caused by the cyclone, to facing something much more serious.  “The flooding is completely different in that this is now a matter of life or death,” Ms Haga said.  The floods have also brought the threat of waterborne and respiratory diseases, including pneumonia.  We’ll tell you what’s true. You can form your own view.  At The Independent, no one tells us what to write. That’s why, in an era of political lies and Brexit bias, more readers are turning to an independent source. Subscribe from just 15p a day for extra exclusives, events and ebooks – all with no ads.


theindependent--2019-05-04--Cyclone Fani leaves 17 dead in India and Bangladesh but mass evacuations hailed for saving thousands

Cyclone Fani leaves 17 dead in India and Bangladesh but mass evacuations hailed for saving thousands of lives

At least 17 people have died in the strongest cyclone to hit India and Bangladesh in five years, but officials have hailed a mammoth evacuation which moved more than 1.2 million citizens and tourists to safety as having saved thousands of lives.  Cyclone Fani killed 12 people in the country’s eastern Odisha state on Friday and Saturday before swinging into Bangladesh where another five died.  Winds of 124mph tore roofs from buildings, snapped power lines and ripped up trees across the two countries. More than 150 people were left injured.  The storm has now been downgraded to a depression by the India Meteorological Department.  “The fear of a major disaster is mostly over as [Fani] has weakened,” said Shamsuddin Ahmed, director of the Bangladesh Meteorological Department.  Authorities in the two countries are now assessing the damage left by the cyclone, which had spent days building over the Bay of Bengal.  The seaside temple town of Puri, which lay directly in Fani’s path, is reported to have been among the worst struck.  “Destruction is unimaginable,” said Bishnupada Sethi, Odisha’s special relief commissioner. “Puri is devastated.”  Video footage taken from an Indian navy aircraft showed extensive flooding in the area with both crops and electricity infrastructure completely destroyed.  In Bangladesh, several villages have been submerged and homes wrecked in the country’s Noakhali district where a two-year-old child was confirmed among the dead.  As the storm passed, people have now started returning to their home, before the huge task of restoring damaged buildings begins next week.  The evacuation itself was called “one of the biggest human evacuations in history” by chief minister Naveen Patnaik.  More than 100,000 government officials, 45,000 volunteers, and 2,000 civil society groups were mobilised, and 9,000 shelters and 7,000 kitchens pressed into service, Mr Patnaik said.  Certainly, there seems little doubt the action saved lives: previous cyclones in the area have left thousands dead, most notably the super-cyclone which battered Odisha in 1999, killing some 10,000 residents and visitors.  Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who is in the middle of a general election campaign, said that he would visit Odisha on Monday.


disrn--2019-12-26--Philippines typhoon kills at least 16

Philippines typhoon kills at least 16

A typhoon that ripped through central Philippines on Christmas Day has killed at least 16 people, according to Filipino authorities.  Typhoon Phanfone had winds reaching 125 miles per hour and destroyed roofs and electric posts, cutting out communication and electricity services. At least 16 people were killed in the Visayas, the central third of the Philippines.  The typhoon also hit Boracay, Coron, and other popular vacation destinations, stranding nearly 4,000 tourists. Tens of thousands of people were forced to evacuate their homes.


drudgereport--2019-10-12--Japan hit by simultaneous typhoon and earthquake...

Seven million people have been told to evacuate in Japan as a typhoon forecast to be the nation's most powerful in six decades made landfall on Honshu island.  Around 7.3 million people were placed under non-compulsory evacuation orders and more than 30 were injured after Typhoon Hagibis hit the south coast on Saturday.  Even before making landfall, Hagibis caused enormous disruption, forcing the cancellation of two Rugby World Cup matches, delaying the Japanese Grand Prix and grounding all flights in the Tokyo region.  It crashed into Japan's main Honshu island at 7pm before barrelling into Izu, a peninsula southwest of Tokyo, the Japan Meteorological Agency said.  'Be ready for rainfall of the kind that you have never experienced,' said meteorological agency official Yasushi Kajihara, adding that areas usually safe from disasters may prove vulnerable.  'Take all measures necessary to save your life,' he said.  The storm claimed the first of two victims hours before arriving on the coast, when strong winds from its outer bands flipped a car in Chiba east of Tokyo and killed the driver.  But it was Hagibis' torrential rain that prompted the JMA to issue its highest-level emergency warning for parts of Tokyo and the surrounding areas, warning of disaster.  'Unprecedented heavy rain has been seen in cities, towns and villages for which the emergency warning was issued,' JMA forecaster Yasushi Kajiwara said.  'The possibility is extremely high that disasters such as landslides and floods have already occurred. It is important to take action that can help save your lives.'  At least two landslides have already been confirmed across Japan, with a man in his sixties killed in Gunma north of Tokyo.  By early evening, tens of thousands were in shelters and receiving emergency rations and blankets, though a 5.7-magnitude quake that rattled the Tokyo area did little to calm nerves.  The US Geological Survey said the earthquake was centered in the ocean off the coast of Chiba, near Tokyo, and was fairly deep at 59.5 kilometers.  Among the evacuees were people whose homes were damaged by a powerful typhoon that hit the region last month.  'I evacuated because my roof was ripped off by the other typhoon and rain came in. I'm so worried about my house,' a 93-year-old man said, as he sheltered at a centre in Tateyama in Chiba east of Tokyo.  In Yokohama, outside of Tokyo, others hunkered down in their homes despite the storm.  'I'm 77 and I've never seen anything like this,' Hidetsugu Nishimura said.  'We can hear an infernal din from the rain and the wind, and a fragment of the roof has gone. For an hour, the house was shaking from wind and rain.'  Before the heavy downpours and strong winds pounded Tokyo and the surrounding areas, residents captured pictures of the bright pink and purple sky.  The eerie phenomenon, which often precedes or follows a major storm, is the result of 'scattering'.  This happens when molecules and small particles in the atmosphere influence the direction of light, causing the light to scatter.  Heavy storms wash away the larger particles which have absorbed more light and scattered wavelengths more evenly. This makes the colours of the sky appear more vivid.  Even in the hours before the storm neared land, its outer bands brought tornado-like gusts of wind to Chiba, east of Tokyo, where one home was destroyed and several damaged.  Five people including a three-year-old boy were sent to hospital, but none suffered serious injuries, the local fire department said.  In Gotemba, west of Tokyo, emergency services said they had rescued one man who fell into a swollen canal but was still searching for a second man.  The JMA has forecast 20 inches of rain for the Tokyo area in the 24 hours to midday on Sunday, with more for the central Tokai region, but many rivers were already close to breaching their banks by Saturday afternoon.  In Kanagawa, authorities implemented an emergency discharge as the Shiroyama dam reached capacity, with warnings issued for people living downstream.  Across the regions affected by the storm, more than 180,000 people lost power.  Everything from auto plants to the country's convenience stores, usually open 24 hours a day, shut their doors.  The storm has forced the delay of Japanese Grand Prix qualifiers scheduled for Saturday and the cancellation of two Rugby World Cup matches: England-France and New Zealand-Italy.  It could also jeopardise a key match-up between Scotland and Japan on Sunday. Officials are not expected to make a final decision on that game until Sunday morning, after they have assessed any damage to the venue and transport links.  Scotland face elimination if the match is axed and have warned they could take legal action if the game is cancelled. World Rugby called the threat 'disappointing'.  Organisers also warned on Saturday that a Namibia-Canada fixture could be cancelled in Kamaishi, which was hit by the 2011 earthquake and tsunami disaster.  Japan is hit by around 20 typhoons a year, though the capital is not usually badly affected.  Hagibis is bearing down on the region just weeks after Typhoon Faxai hit the area with similar strength, killing two and causing major damage in Chiba.  Authorities acted quickly, with warnings issued earlier in the week, including urging people to stay indoors. Some 17,000 police and military troops were called up, standing ready for rescue operations.  All Nippon Airways and Japan Airlines grounded most domestic and international flights at the Tokyo, Osaka and Nagoya airports.  Central Japan Railway Co. canceled bullet-train service between Tokyo and Osaka except for several early Saturday trains connecting Nagoya and Osaka. Tokyo Disneyland was closed, while Ginza department stores and smaller shops throughout Tokyo were shuttered.  A typhoon that hit the Tokyo region in 1958 left more than 1,200 people dead and half a million houses flooded.


france24--2019-10-12--Fierce typhoon paralyses Tokyo, causes floods, damage across Japan

One of the most powerful typhoons to ever hit Tokyo paralysed the Japanese capital on Saturday, leaving millions confined indoors and streets deserted as fierce rain and wind killed two, flooded rivers and threatened widespread damage.  A 50-year-old man was killed near Tokyo early on Saturday in a car overturned by punishing winds, while another person died after being washed away in a car, public broadcaster NHK said. Nine people remain missing in landslides and flooding, it said.    Authorities issued evacuation advisories and orders for more than 6 million people across the country as the storm unleashed the heaviest rain and winds in years. Some 80 injuries have been reported so far, while more than 270,000 households lost power, NHK said.    The storm, which the government said could be the strongest to hit Tokyo since 1958, brought record-breaking rainfall in many areas, including the popular resort town of Hakone, with a whopping 939.5 mm (37 inches) of rain over 24 hours.    Typhoon Hagibis, which means "speed" in the Philippine language Tagalog, made landfall on Japan's main island of Honshu on Saturday evening. A magnitude 5.7 earthquake shook Tokyo shortly after.    Even as the typhoon moved away from the capital late on Saturday, one expert warned of further flooding as several surrounding prefectures began releasing water from dams, letting it flow downstream.    "The situation is now worse than this evening," Nobuyuki Tsuchiya, director of the Japan Riverfront Research Center, told Reuters. About 1.5 million people in Tokyo live below sea level.    The Japan Meteorological Agency issued the highest alert level for 12 prefectures, warning of potential for once in decades rain totals. It later downgraded the alert level for several prefectures, including Tokyo.    "Damage from floods and landslides is likely taking place already," an agency official told a news conference carried by NHK. "It is critical that people take action urgently to protect their lives and the lives of loved ones."    Just last month, another strong storm, Typhoon Faxai, destroyed or damaged 30,000 houses in Chiba, east of Tokyo, and caused extensive power outages.    Paralysed    Tokyo's Haneda airport and Narita airport in Chiba both stopped flights from landing and connecting trains were suspended, forcing the cancellation of more than a thousand flights.    Train operators suspended bullet train services extensively, while many train and subway lines in Tokyo were also down for most of Saturday. Usually bustling entertainment and shopping districts such as Shibuya and Ginza were deserted.    Tokyo Disneyland was closed on Saturday, its first weather-related closure since 1984, and supermarkets ran out of bottled water, batteries and other disaster-related goods.    Many people in and around Tokyo took shelter in temporary evacuation facilities early, before the worst of the storm arrived.    Yuka Ikemura, a 24-year-old nursery school teacher, was in one such facility at a community centre in eastern Tokyo with her 3-year-old son, 8-month-old daughter and their pet rabbit.    She said she decided to move before it was too late.    "I've got small children to take care of and we live on the first floor of an old apartment," Ikemura told Reuters.    "We brought with us the bare necessities. I'm scared to think about when we will have run out diapers and milk."    Japanese Formula One Grand Prix organisers cancelled all practice and qualifying sessions scheduled for Saturday. Two matches of the Rugby World Cup due to be played on Saturday were also cancelled.    The Defence Ministry set up a new Twitter account to disseminate information on disaster relief efforts.


france24--2019-12-25--Philippines typhoon leaves more than 25,000 stranded on Christmas Day

Fallen trees and buildings are seen after Typhoon Phanfone swept through Tanauan, Leyte, in the Philippines December 25, 2019.  Typhoon Phanfone pummelled the central Philippines on Christmas Day, bringing a wet, miserable and terrifying holiday to millions in the mainly Catholic nation.  Police said six people were missing as the typhoon leapt from one small island to another for the second day -- crumpling houses, toppling trees and blacking out cities and towns, including in popular resorts like Boracay.  At the height of the festive season on Wednesday, tens of thousands were stranded at shuttered ports or evacuation centres while the rest of the region's population cowered in rain-soaked homes.  Though weaker, Phanfone was tracking a similar path to Super Typhoon Haiyan, the country's deadliest cyclone on record which left more than 7,300 people dead or missing in 2013.  A father, his three children and two other relatives were missing after their hut was swept away early Wednesday when heavy rain caused a creek to overflow near the town of Balasan, provincial police told AFP.  More than 16,000 people spent the night in improvised shelters in schools, gyms and government buildings as the typhoon first made landfall Tuesday, civil defence officials said.  "It was frightening. The glass windows shattered and we took cover by the stairs," Ailyn Metran told AFP after she and her four-year-old child took refuge at the state weather service office in Tacloban city, where her husband worked.  The typhoon ripped a metal window frame off the building and dropped it onto a car parked outside, she said.  With just two hours' sleep, the family were relieved to find their two dogs safe back home Wednesday, though the floor was covered in mud and a felled tree rested atop a nearby house.  Other survivors posted pictures and videos on social media of crushed homes, buses half-submerged by brown floodwater, roads strewn with tree trunks, and coconut and banana plants being shredded by ferocious winds.  With sustained gusts of 195 kilometres (121 miles) an hour -- which can knock down small trees and destroy flimsy houses -- the typhoon was on track to hit the island resort of Coron overnight, the weather service said.  Coron's beaches emptied and boat tours were suspended on Christmas Day as Western tourists stayed indoors ahead of the onslaught.  "Many of the tourist establishments here are closed, and some of our guests failed to arrive because their flights were cancelled," hotel receptionist Nina Edano told AFP by phone.  "We're not scared, but the ambience here is generally gloomy," she added.  The typhoon hit land as millions of Filipinos trooped to once-yearly clan reunions centered on the "noche buena", a sumptuous midnight meal that is the highlight of the Catholic nation's holidays.  More than 25,000 people remained stranded at ports on Christmas Day with ferry services still shut down, the coast guard said.  Scores of flights to the region also remained cancelled, though the populous capital Manila has so far been spared.  "Obviously, (local residents) were unable to celebrate Christmas properly because some spent the night at evacuation centres," rescue official Cecille Bedonia told AFP by phone from Iloilo city.  On the north of the island of Cebu, residents decamping from evacuation centres were greeted by the sorry sight of their damaged homes on Christmas Day, civil defence official Allen Froilan Cabaron told AFP.  "They were safer at the evacuation centres. At least they were able to eat the Christmas Eve meal there, even if only tinned fish and instant noodles were available," Cabaron said.  "But... the atmosphere would have been different because they were not at home," Cabaron added.  The Philippines is the first major landmass facing the Pacific cyclone belt. It is hit by about 20 storms and typhoons each year that kill scores of people and wipe out harvests, homes and infrastructure, keeping millions perennially poor.  A recent study by the Manila-based Asian Development Bank said the most frequent storms lop one percent off the Philippines' economic output, with the stronger ones cutting GDP by nearly three percent.


france24--2019-12-25--Philippines typhoon ruins Christmas festivities, leaving over 25,000 people stranded

Fallen trees and buildings are seen after Typhoon Phanfone swept through Tanauan, Leyte, in the Philippines December 25, 2019.  Typhoon Phanfone pummelled the central Philippines on Christmas Day, bringing a wet and miserable holiday season to millions in the mainly Catholic nation.  Thousands were stranded at shuttered ports or evacuation centres at the height of the festive season on Wednesday, and residents cowered in rain-soaked homes as Phanfone leapt from one small island to another for the second day.  The typhoon toppled houses and trees and blacked out cities in the Philippines' most storm-prone region, but no deaths were reported.  Though weaker, Phanfone was tracking a similar path as Super Typhoon Haiyan - the country's deadliest cyclone on record which left more than 7,300 people dead or missing in 2013.  More than 10,000 people spent the night in schools, gyms and government buildings hastily converted into evacuation centres as the typhoon made landfall Tuesday, civil defence officials said.  "It was frightening. The glass windows shattered and we took cover by the stairs," Ailyn Metran told AFP after she and her four-year-old child spent the night at the local state weather service office where her husband worked.  A metal window frame flew off and fell onto a car parked outside the building, she said.  With just two hours' sleep, the family returned to their home in the central city of Tacloban early Wednesday to find their two dogs safe, but the floor was covered in mud and a felled tree rested atop a nearby house.  The weather office said the typhoon strengthened slightly overnight Tuesday and was gusting at 195 kilometres (121 miles) an hour, velocities that can knock down small trees and destroy houses made of light materials.  More islands are along its projected path are expected to be hit with destructive winds and intense rainfall before blowing out into the South China Sea early Thursday, it added.  More than 25,000 people trying to get home for the traditional Christmas Eve midnight dinner with their families remained stranded at ports on Christmas Day with ferry services still shut down, the coast guard said.  Scores of flights to the region also remained cancelled, though the populous capital Manila, on the northern edge has so far been spared.  The Philippines is the first major landmass facing the Pacific cyclone belt.  As such, the archipelago gets hit by an average of 20 storms and typhoons each year, killing scores of people and wiping out harvests, homes and other infrastructure and keeping millions perennially poor.  A July 2019 study by the Manila-based Asian Development Bank said the most frequent storms lop one percent off the Philippine economic output, with the stronger ones cutting output by nearly three percent.


npr--2019-09-09--Typhoon Faxai Rips Through Tokyo Area At Least 2 Dead And 700000 Without Power

Typhoon Faxai Rips Through Tokyo Area: At Least 2 Dead And 700,000 Without Power  Typhoon Faxai tore through an area just east of Tokyo on Sunday night and Monday morning, killing at least two people and injuring dozens more. The area's electrical infrastructure was hit hard, as strong wind gusts toppled two large steel electrical towers.  The death toll could rise as officials survey the damage. The Kyodo News Agency is reporting a third storm-related death, but it adds that the circumstances are still being investigated.  The Tokyo Electric Power Co. says more than 850,000 customers were initially left without power by the storm. By Monday night local time, that number had dropped to about 700,000.  More than 100,000 people had been urged to evacuate from low-lying and other vulnerable areas, as the Japan Meteorological Agency warned of a possible record storm.  Faxai forced the East Japan Railway Co. to suspend train service around Tokyo early Monday. It also forced more than 160 flights to be canceled.  Commuters who got up Monday morning hoping to make their way to work were faced with flooded streets and rows of utility poles that had been thrown down. Those who made it to train stations faced cancellations or long delays, as crews worked to restore service. One station's roof was blown onto its tracks.  Some of the worst damage came in the coastal Chiba prefecture, east of the capital across Tokyo Bay. On Sunday night, Faxai began plowing its way up the bay, bringing dangerous winds inland as it passed just west of Chiba City and making landfall early Monday. It then turned to the northeast and made its way back over the Pacific Ocean.  "The typhoon brought record-breaking winds to Chiba City, where winds gusted to over 200 kilometers per hour [124 mph]," Japan's NHK News reports. "Two people died in accidents apparently caused by the strong gusts — one in Tokyo and one in Kanagawa."  Faxai is also being linked to a fire at Japan's largest floating solar power plant, which sits on the waters of the Yamakura Dam in Chiba prefecture. The 13.7-megawatt plant covers 44 acres, but dozens of its panels erupted in flames on Monday. According to NHK, fire officials say the typhoon's intense winds might have pushed the panels on top of one another, causing them to overheat when the sun hit the solar plant.  As images from the city of Ichihara in Chiba prefecture show, the typhoon also knocked down green safety netting at a golf driving range, sending an entire side of the assembly — support poles and all — crashing onto neighboring homes. The posts crushed the rooftops of houses as the large structure fell; in one case, a single pole was left sticking out of a roof.  Faxai struck just days after a separate typhoon struck the Korean Peninsula. Typhoon Lingling caused at least five deaths in North Korea, according to the country's state news agency. At least three people in South Korea died as a result of the storm, according to The Korea Herald.  Lingling damaged more than 9,400 buildings, South Korea's Yonhap News Agency says, noting that the storm brought the fifth-strongest winds of any typhoon that has ever been recorded hitting the peninsula.  "The Korea Central News Agency reports widespread damage" in North Korea, reporter Jason Strother tells NPR from Seoul. "It says Typhoon Lingling destroyed hundreds of homes, bridges, roadways and thousands of acres of farmland and now recovery work is underway."  Emergency crews working to restore power and help those whose homes were damaged in southern South Korea are still facing difficult conditions, as heavy rains were forecast for both Monday and Tuesday.


npr--2019-10-12--Typhoon Hagibis Leaves 2 Dead As Flooding And Landslides Threaten More Lives

Typhoon Hagibis Leaves 2 Dead As Flooding And Landslides Threaten More Lives  Typhoon Hagibis, the largest to hit Japan in 61 years, made landfall Saturday evening, sweeping northeast through the Tokyo region as a 5.7 magnitude earthquake struck an area in the storm's path earlier that day.  According to NHK, Japan's national broadcaster, the storm's path has left two dead, 10 missing and 90 injured so far, the 19th named storm this year. At least eight rivers have flooded their banks, several dams have begun discharging water and landslides threaten those sheltering in their homes as Hagibis continues to pour down a record amount of rain and whip the land with strong winds. If the dams do release their water in an emergency measure, they risk flooding downstream areas that already face storm surges, where civilians may not have evacuated.  As NPR reported on Friday, the Japan Meteorological Agency forecast chief Yasushi Kajihara said that Hagibis resembled the 1958 Kanogawa Typhoon that killed more than 1,200. Although the typhoon abated after landfall and has made its way back to the Pacific Ocean without numbers approaching those of the Kanogawa Typhoon, the death toll may rise as recovery and rescues continue for those threatened by continued flooding and landslides.  Officials in Gunma Prefecture said a landslide destroyed houses in Tomioka Saturday evening. Two persons were rescued from the wreckage, but one died afterward. Another two are missing in a Fukushima landslide, according to the Japan Times.  Evacuation orders are still in place for more than 4 million people, although the JMA has lifted emergency warnings on Nagano, Niigata and Fukushima prefectures. Miyagi and Iwate prefectures are still under emergency warnings and are at extreme risk of landslides, and most of central and eastern Japan are under general warnings.  The typhoon made landfall in Shizuoka prefecture Saturday evening local time as the 5.7-magnitude earthquake off the coast of neighboring Chiba province sent tremors ahead of the storm's fury. No tsunami warning was issued after the earthquake. Just north of Shizuoka is Tokyo prefecture, where NHK reports that the Tokyo and Nagano governments have asked Japan's military to assist in the region.  The storm, as of midnight local time, had passed through the Tokai, Tokyo and Kanto regions and is projected to move along the northeastern coast past Hokkaido and the Kuril Islands, according to the JMA. The storm has also left more than 430,000 homes in the Tokyo metropolitan region without power, according to NHK.  Transportation has been disrupted over the weekend, with the Japan Times reporting that rail and airport service has been cancelled in the affected areas until deemed safe. NPR reported that All Nippon Airways grounded all domestic flights coming out of the Tokyo region on Saturday, and the Japan Times reported that Central Japan Railway Co. canceled all shinkansen, or bullet train, service on Saturday.  The storm has also forced the cancellation of Rugby World Cup games as the event approaches the quarterfinals. Two games have already been cancelled, and the Scottish Rugby Union has threatened legal action if its game with Japan is cancelled, not rescheduled, which would advance the Japanese team and send the Scots home.  Typhoon Faxai ripped through Tokyo about a month ago, killing three and injuring 147 after it made landfall in Chiba prefecture. The Japan Times reported that the Abe administration was heavily criticized in the aftermath of that storm for not holding a meeting of ministers before or after landfall as power outages continued in Chiba prefecture well after the storm had passed.  As Hagibis approached the Japanese mainland, Abe's cabinet held a disaster management meeting Friday in order to act more "proactively" than with Faxai.


sputnik--2019-10-03--Six People Killed 6 Others Missing Over Typhoon Mitag in South Korea - Reports

Six People Killed, 6 Others Missing Over Typhoon Mitag in South Korea - Reports

The Yonhap news agency reported, citing the National Emergency Management Agency, that the majority of those who died due to the rainfall were seniors buried under buildings destroyed by landslides and those who were swept by torrential flooding.  In the city of Pusan, located in the south of the country, the authorities are carrying out a search and rescue operation clearing the debris of a building swept by the flooding. The authorities believe that four people had been buried under it.  Up to 500 millimeters of rain has fallen in South Korea’s eastern regions where multiple buildings have been flooded. Bus traffic has been stopped in the city of Gangneung, which hosted the 2018 Winter Olympics. Electricity supply has been disrupted across several areas. Rescue workers had to evacuate over 50 people who were locked in their houses and vehicles, while about 1,500 have left their houses for temporary evacuation facilities earlier.  A tourist train derailed in the east of the country due to the landslides. The rains destroyed roads in the area. In the south of the country, over 100 houses were flooded and five houses were destroyed. Moreover, over 1,000 hectares of South Korea’s agricultural lands have been flooded.  Typhoon Mitag left the Korean Peninsula early on Thursday, however, the rains are continuing throughout the day. Air traffic in the area has been resumed, while vessels are still prohibited from going to the sea.


sputnik--2019-10-15--Death Toll From Typhoon Hagibis in Japan Reaches 61, 13 People Still Missing - Reports

Over 200 people have been injured, the Fuji Television Network specified.  The death toll from Hagibis, considered to be one of the most destructive typhoons in the country's recent history, previously stood at 58.  Hagibis struck Japan on Saturday, bringing with itself torrential rains and heavy winds, with rivers going out of banks, causing massive floods across the country. Chiba prefecture was even hit by a tornado. According to NHK broadcaster, protective dams on 37 rivers were destroyed, while 161 rivers in 16 Japanese prefectures suffered floods. Fukushima, Miyagi, Kanagawa, Tochigi, Saitama, Nagano and Shizuoka prefectures are among those most affected by the deadly typhoon.  As many as 138,000 houses in 13 prefectures remain without water, while 34,000 houses remain without electricity, according to the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry.