Affected houses are seen in a flooded area after an extratropical cyclone hit southern towns, in Mucum, Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil, September 6, 2023. REUTERS/Diego Vara Acquire Licensing Rights
At least 39 people have died and nine remain missing after a cyclone battered Brazil’s southernmost state Rio Grande do Sul, flooding homes and swelling rivers, local authorities said on Thursday.
All those not yet accounted for are from the small town of Mucum, one of the hardest hit by the floods, where 14 deaths have been reported. Nearby cities such as Roca Sales and Cruzeiro do Sul also registered multiple casualties.
Governor Eduardo Leite declared a state of public calamity and canceled statewide parades meant to celebrate Brazil’s Independence Day on Thursday.
“We’ve mobilized to rescue the victims and rebuild everything that was destroyed by the storm,” Leite wrote on social media network X.
According to the Rio Grande do Sul government, heavy rains caused by the extratropical cyclone have affected 80 cities and left more than 2,300 people homeless and over 3,900 displaced.
In addition to the 39 fatalities in Rio Grande do Sul, one person died in neighboring Santa Catarina state while driving through the city of Jupia when a tree fell on their car. Winds there exceeded 110 km per hour (68.4 miles per hour).
President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, who will travel to India for the G20 summit later in the day, said the federal government would fully support the region and put Vice President Geraldo Alckmin “on standby” to travel there.
The Asian financial hub of Hong Kong was drenched on Friday by the heaviest rain since records began 140 years ago, with 83 people hurt, three seriously, as unusually wet weather caused by typhoons brought more disruption to southern China.
Videos showed cascades of water surging down steep hillsides in the former British colony, flooding waist-deep in narrow streets, and inundating malls, metro stations and tunnels.
The extreme weather also brought chaos to the nearby Chinese city of Shenzhen, a tech hub of more than 17.7 million people, with business and transport links across the economically important Pearl River Delta severely hit.
The torrential rain was brought by Haikui, a typhoon that made landfall in the Chinese province of Fujian on Tuesday. Although it weakened to a tropical depression its slow-moving clouds have dumped huge volumes of precipitation on areas still soaked by rain from a super typhoon a week earlier.
Hong Kong’s weather bureau issued its highest “black” rainstorm warning, and said more than 200 mm (7.9 inches) of rain was recorded on Hong Kong’s main island, the Kowloon district and the northeastern part of the city’s New Territories from late on Thursday.
The city’s leader, John Lee, said he was very concerned about the severe flooding in most parts of the territory and had instructed all departments to respond with “all-out efforts”.
Hong Kong authorities shut schools on Friday and told workers to stay at home. The stock exchange did not open for morning trade and would remain shut in the afternoon if the “black” rainstorm warning remained in place at noon.
MTR Corp (0066.HK), which operates the city’s rail network, said at least one line was shut while others were operating with delays. One video clip showed metro workers wading waist-deep in a station.
The city’s cross-harbour tunnel, one of main arteries connecting Hong Kong island to Kowloon, was inundated and a shopping mall in the Chai Wan district was half-submerged.
Some passenger and cargo clearance operations at two border points between Hong Kong and Shenzhen were suspended due to flooding.
Macau ferry operators in Hong Kong said several sailings would be suspended to the gambling hub.
People make their way through a flooded area after heavy rains, in Hong Kong, China, September 8, 2023. REUTERS/Tyrone Siu
GUANGDONG SWAMPED
The China Meteorological Administration said heavy rain would fall until early Saturday on the central and southwestern areas of Guangdong province.
All schools, some subway stations and offices in the Guangdong city of Shenzhen were shut on Friday.
Residents holding onto safety lines stepped gingerly through knee-deep water in the metropolis of 17.7 million people, videos from state media showed.
Rescuers cordoned off overflowing manholes, carried a child from a stranded vehicle and guided motorcyclists through the murky flows.
A rainfall log showed 465.5 mm (1.5 ft) of rain fell in Shenzhen over a 12-hour period, the highest since records began in 1952.
Daily rainfall in the city in the Pearl River Delta linking Hong Kong to China’s mainland was expected to exceed 500 mm, Shenzhen media said.
Videos showed both the exit and entry areas of the Shenzhen railway station were flooded, with trains connecting the city and the provincial capital of Guangzhou suspended. About 100 people were stranded at the station.
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.
Taiwan takes precautions as Typhoon Haikui approaches, including flight cancellations and evacuations. Expected heavy rainfall and powerful winds.
A lifesaver keeps watch next to a red flag designating the prohibition of swimming as Typhoon Haikui approaches the region, at Sunset Beach in Chatan, Okinawa prefecture, Japan September 1, 2023. REUTERS/Issei Kato (REUTERS)
As Typhoon Haikui approached Taiwan, the country took precautionary measures, including the cancellation of domestic flights and the evacuation of nearly 3,000 individuals. The typhoon is anticipated to bring heavy rainfall and powerful winds to the southern and eastern regions of the island.
Haikui is predicted to hit the remote and thinly populated southeastern part of Taiwan, characterized by mountainous terrain, during late Sunday afternoon. In response, several counties and cities in the eastern and southern areas have suspended classes and declared a day off for employees.
Compared to Typhoon Saola, which struck Hong Kong and the southern Chinese province of Guangdong on Saturday, Haikui is significantly less powerful. According to Tropical Storm Risk, Haikui is projected to be categorized as only a Category 1 or 2 typhoon when it makes landfall in Taiwan.
In response to the approaching typhoon, the Taiwanese government reported that 2,868 individuals have already been relocated from predominantly southern and eastern settlements.
Access in and out of the festival site has been stopped, the event’s organisers say – leaving an estimated 70,000 people stranded, according to reports.
Pic: Eddie CodelTens of thousands of people attending the Burning Man festival in the Nevada desert have been asked to remain indoors and ration their supplies of food and water after persistent heavy rainfall turned the site into mud bath.
Organisers warned festival-goers on Saturday: “If you are in BRC (Black Rock City), conserve food, water and fuel, and shelter in a warm, safe space.”
They added that access to the site in Black Rock City has been closed “for the remainder of the event” because of flooding and mud.
The US Bureau of Land Management, the agency that manages the land on which the event takes place, said in a statement: “Rain over the last 24 hours has created a situation that required a full stop of vehicle movement on the playa.
“More rain is expected over the next few days and conditions are not expected to improve enough to allow vehicles to enter the playa.”
Paul Reder, who has been attending the festival for 22 years, told Reuters news agency during a video call: “Fortunately we’re in a fairly big camp with a lot of supplies.
“As a community, everybody’s sharing with each other.”
Mr Reder said he expected it would take at least two days for the area to dry out.
While he was prepared to ride it out, he said some attendees are leaving the site on foot and trekking to the nearest highway.
Residents walk past a shopping centre with its glass doors taped as a precaution against the approaching Super Typhoon Saola, early in the morning, in Hong Kong, on Friday, Sept. 1, 2023. The Hong Kong Observatory raised a No. 8 typhoon signal, the third-highest warning under the city’s weather system, early Friday, and schools are suspended. (AP Photo/Daniel Ceng) (AP Photo/Daniel Ceng)
Super Typhoon Saola is poised to strike Hong Kong with its formidable force, as authorities have elevated the strong wind signal to No.8, prompting the closure of schools, businesses, and even the stock exchange.
This impending natural juggernaut, boasting wind speeds exceeding 200 kmph, is predicted to chart a course towards eastern Guangdong, the adjacent Chinese mainland province.
The impending typhoon has triggered the issuance of the highest typhoon alert by Chinese authorities, marking the potential for one of the most potent typhoons to hit Guangdong since 1949.
The Hong Kong Weather Observatory anticipates that Saola will pass within 100 km of the city on Friday (September 1) night and Saturday ((September 2) morning, ushering in a swift deterioration of weather conditions. With this in mind, there is a likelihood that higher cyclone warning signals may be deemed necessary as the day progresses.
Hong Kong’s typhoon warning system employs a five-tier scale, with rankings of 1, 3, 8, 9, and 10 indicating the strength of the hurricane signal. In preparation for Saola’s arrival, all schools will be closed on Friday, causing disruption to the start of the term for many students.
Citizens have flocked to fresh food markets and supermarkets in anticipation of the typhoon’s arrival, leading to depleted stocks of vegetables and long queues at supermarkets. As the city braces itself, the Hong Kong Observatory has projected heavy rainfall and fierce winds. The water level within the city is expected to surge considerably until Saturday, raising concerns about potential flooding.
Cathay Pacific, Hong Kong’s flagship airline, has cancelled all flights between 2 pm on Friday and 10 am on Saturday, with the possibility of further disruptions contingent on the typhoon’s trajectory on Saturday morning.
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.
