Disaster response Archives

At least 5 people killed as rainstorms, floods hit Turkey, Greece, Bulgaria

Four people killed in Turkey and Bulgaria and one killed in Greece following flash flooding, with several still missing.

A car is submerged underwater during a rainstorm on mount Pelion, near Volos, Greece, on September 5, 2023 [Thanassis Kalliaras/Eurokinissi via Reuters]

At least five people have been killed in torrential rainstorms and flooding in Greece, Turkey, and Bulgaria, including two people who were washed away when floodwaters swept through a camping ground in Turkey’s northwestern province.

Turkish Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya said on Tuesday that four other people were still missing after the flash flood swept over the vacation site in Kirklareli province, near the borders with Bulgaria and Greece, where some 12 holidaymakers were staying at the time.

Istanbul’s Governor Davut Gul said on social media that authorities would provide accommodation in public facilities for those affected by flooding.

Turkey’s AFAD disaster management agency predicted further rainstorms for the west and southwest of the country and warned of the dangers from flash floods, lightning strikes and high winds.

Greece
In Greece, police banned traffic in the town of Volos, the nearby mountain region of Pelion and the resort island of Skiathos as record rainfall caused at least one death, sent thigh-high floodwaters through streets and swept vehicles away.

The Greek fire service said one man was killed near Volos when a wall buckled and fell on him. Five people were reported missing, possibly swept away in the flooding.

Streams overflowed their banks and swept cars away while rockfalls blocked roads and many areas suffered electricity cuts.

Greece’s weather service said a Pelion region village received 75.4cm (nearly 30 inches) of rain late on Tuesday, by far the highest level recorded since at least 2006. It noted that the average annual rainfall in the Athens region is about 40cm (15.75 inches).

A man cleans debris and mud from the street, following a flash flood during a storm in the city of Volos, Greece, on September 5, 2023 [Anastasia Karekla/Eurokinissi via Reuters]

On Skiathos, “planes cannot approach the airport” because of the flooding, Savvas Karagiannis, a spokesman for Fraport, the German company that manages Greece’s regional airports, told the French news agency AFP on Tuesday.

“The weather conditions are extreme and there are currently many delays in airport connections”, he said.

Greece’s minister of climate crisis and civil protection, Vassilis Kikilias, said the heavy rain was expected to ease up after midday on Wednesday. He advised people in affected areas to stay indoors.

“This is an extreme phenomenon”, Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said during a meeting on Tuesday with Greek President Katerina Sakellaropoulou.

The rain storms and flooding come on the heels of devastating wildfires that hit Greece over the past few weeks and left more than 20 people dead.

Classified by experts as a “megafire”, a huge blaze raging over the last two week in the Dadia National Park, in the northern Evros region, destroyed more than 81,000 hectares (200,155 acres) of forest.

Bulgaria
In Bulgaria, Prime Minister Nikolay Denkov said on Tuesday that two people had died and three others were missing after a storm caused floods on the country’s southern Black Sea coast.

“Those who have died are one man and one woman,” Denkov told journalists from the flood-hit coastal town of Tsarevo.

Several hundred holidaymakers vacationing along the coast have been evacuated to safer locations.

Source: https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/9/6/at-least-5-people-killed-as-rainstorms-floods-hit-turkey-greece-bulgaria

Biden surveys Hurricane Idalia damage in Florida; DeSantis snubs meeting

US president offers support to people of Florida after Governor Ron DeSantis, a potential presidential rival, rejected a meeting with him.

US President Joe Biden and First Lady Jill Biden speak with a woman during their tour of Hurricane Idalia’s destruction, Live Oak, Florida, US, September 2, 2023 [Evelyn Hockstein/ Reuters]

Joe Biden, the president of the United States, has surveyed the destruction caused by Hurricane Idalia in the state of Florida but did not meet with Governor Ron DeSantis, a potential presidential rival, who opted not to come.

Biden offered support and condolences to those affected by Idalia on Saturday after taking an aerial tour and receiving a briefing from local officials as well as first responders in Live Oak, a town hit hard by the storm.

He saw houses with fallen trees on them and said that no one “intelligent” could doubt that climate change was happening.

“I’m here today to deliver a clear message to the people of Florida and throughout the southeast,” Biden said as he spoke outdoors, near a church that had parts of its sheet metal roof peeled back by Idalia’s powerful winds and a home half crushed by a fallen tree.

“As I’ve told your governor, if there’s anything your state needs, I’m ready to mobilise that support,” he continued. “Anything they need related to these storms. Your nation has your back and we’ll be with you until the job is done.”

But politics hung over Biden’s trip.

The president, a Democrat who has spoken to DeSantis multiple times this week, said on Friday that he and the Republican governor would meet in person. But DeSantis’s spokesperson said on the same day that the governor had no plans to meet Biden, adding that “the security preparations alone that would go into setting up such a meeting would shut down ongoing recovery efforts”.

The governor’s decision caught the White House off guard.

Asked if he was disappointed that DeSantis did not come, Biden said, “No, I’m not disappointed.”

“He may have had other reasons. … But he did help us plan this,” Biden told reporters. “He sat with FEMA and decided where we should go where would be the least disruption,” he added, referring to the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

Source: https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/9/3/biden-surveys-hurricane-idalia-damage-in-florida-desantis-snubs-meeting

Four dead, dozens missing in China rainstorms

A woman shelters from the rain with an umbrella in Beijing on Jul 31, 2023. (File Photo: AFP/Pedro Pardo)

Four people were killed and dozens are still missing after rainstorms buffeted southwestern China last week, state media reported on Wednesday (Aug 30).

Severe downpours hit Jinyang, a mountainous county in Sichuan province, on Aug 21, but the extent of the damage was not immediately reported.

Over a week after the rains, state broadcaster CCTV said on Wednesday the storms triggered floods that struck a steel processing site where more than 200 people were working.

“At present, the floods have caused four deaths and left 48 people missing, and rescue work is ongoing,” CCTV reported.

It added that five people had been detained on suspicion of “failing to report or falsely reporting a safety incident”.

President Xi Jinping ordered officials to “do all they can to search for the missing people … and comfort their families”, CCTV said.

The incident “should be completely investigated and the responsible parties dealt with according to law”, Xi reportedly said.

Source : https://www.channelnewsasia.com/asia/china-rainstorms-four-dead-dozens-missing-3734161

4 dead in landslide in Uttarakhand, schools shut; heavy rain in Himachal today

Heavy to very heavy rain is likely in Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand from August 22-24, said the India Meteorological Department (IMD). Meanwhile, four people died in a fresh landslide in Uttarakhand’s Tehri district.

SDRF carries out rescue work following a landslide in Uttarakhand’s Tehri district. (India Today)

The India Meteorological Department (IMD) issued an ‘orange alert’ for heavy to very heavy rain in Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand from August 22-24.

The weather body also warned of a moderate risk of flash floods in catchment areas of the Chamba and Mandi districts, predicting a wet spell till August 26.

Heavy rain can result in landslides, flash floods and increased water levels in rivers and drains, besides causing damage to standing crops, fruit plants and young seedlings, the weather office said.

The hill states have seen extensive devastation and deaths in the last few months due to incessant rainfall.

4 KILLED IN UTTARAKHAND LANDSLIDE, ROAD BLOCKED

Four people, including two women and a 4-month-old baby, were killed after being hit by a landslide in Chamba in Uttarakhand’s Tehri district on Monday, police said.

Four bodies have been recovered so far and a search is underway for another missing person, senior police official Navneet Singh Bhullaraid said.

Some more vehicles could also be trapped as the landslide hit a taxi stand near the Chamba police station, he added.

Source: https://www.indiatoday.in/india/story/monsoon-himachal-rain-alert-schools-shut-imd-weather-forecast-uttarakhand-landslide-2424593-2023-08-22

Canada wildfires: At least 30,000 households in British Columbia told to evacuate

About 30,000 households have been ordered to evacuate in Canada’s British Columbia province, where nearly 400 wildfires are raging.

Two huge fires in the Shuswap region merged overnight, destroying blocks of houses and other buildings.

To the south, travel to the waterside city of Kelowna has been restricted, and smoke from nearby fires hangs over Lake Okanagan.

Fires have charred homes in West Kelowna, a nearby city of 36,000.

The travel restriction around Kelowna is designed to ensure enough accommodation for evacuees and emergency workers. It also applies to the towns of Kamloops, Oliver, Penticton and Vernon and Osoyoos.

Hundreds of miles north, a huge fire continues to edge towards the city of Yellowknife.

An official deadline to evacuate the city – the capital of Canada’s Northwest Territories – lapsed on Friday. A local official said later that day that nearly all residents had left, either by car or plane.

About 19,000 of the city’s 20,000 inhabitants had evacuated. Authorities said 39 patients were moved out of a hospital to alternative facilities on Friday evening, making them the last people to be evacuated from the city.

Environment and communities minister Shane Thompson said some people had chosen “to shelter in place”, but urged locals to leave.

In British Columbia, evacuation orders grew from covering 15,000 homes on Friday to at least 30,000 by Saturday evening. Another 36,000 homes are under evacuation alert.

The province’s emergency management minister said officials “cannot stress strongly enough how critical it is to follow evacuation orders”.

Bowinn Ma added: “They are a matter of life and death not only for the people in those properties, but also for the first responders who will often go back to try to implore people to leave.”

Premier of the province, David Eby, put the total number of people ordered to leave at 35,000, with 30,000 told to be prepared to evacuate.

One Kelowna resident told the BBC the fires came over the mountainside like an “ominous cloud of destruction”

Smoke from wildfires is hanging over Lake Okanagan, on which Kelowna sits

Canada is having its worst wildfire season on record, with at least 1,000 fires burning across the country, according to the Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Centre (CIFFC).

Experts say climate change increases the risk of the hot, dry weather that is likely to fuel wildfires.

Extreme and long-lasting heat draws more and more moisture out of the ground – which can provide fuel for fires that can spread at an incredible speed, particularly if winds are strong.

Although no deaths have been reported in the latest fires, at least four firefighters have lost their lives during this record-breaking season.

Source: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-66562610