Page 20 - Floods

Sikkim flood death toll rises to 27, search ops continue for 141 missing

Search operations continued on Saturday for the 142 people who are still missing after the flash flood in the Teesta river that devastated Sikkim, officials said. Twenty-six people including seven Armymen were killed in the flash flood, which was triggered by a cloudburst in the early hours of Wednesday and affected over 25,000 people, damaged more than 1,200 houses and washed away 13 bridges, bringing the picturesque Himalayan state to its knees, they said. So far, 2,413 people have been rescued from different areas and 6,875 people are taking shelter in 22 relief camps set up across the state, most of which has been cut off from the rest of the country. Sikkim Chief Minister Prem Singh Tamang announced an ex-gratia of Rs 4 lakh for the families of the deceased and an immediate relief of Rs 2,000 each for all those taking shelter in the camps. "There have been damage worth thousands of crores of rupees. We cannot give exact details about the damage. It will be revealed once a ...

Sikkim flash flood: Toll rises to 25, searches on for 143 missing people

The toll in the flash flood in Sikkim mounted to 21 on Friday as Army and NDRF teams worked their way through slushy earth and fast flowing water in the Teesta river basin and downstream north Bengal for the third day in search of those who were swept away and are still missing, officials said. Of the 23 army personnel who were missing from Burdang area, the bodies of seven have been recovered from different areas downstream while one was rescued and the search is on for 15 missing jawans, Chief Minister P S Tamang said. A total of 118 people, including the 15 jawans, remained missing after a cloudburst over Lhonak Lake in North Sikkim in the early hours of Wednesday triggered the flash flood. So far, 2,411 people have been evacuated and accommodated at relief camps, while the calamity has affected over 22,000 people, the Sikkim State Disaster Management Authority (SSDMA) said in its latest bulletin. The flash flood in the Teesta River, triggered by the cloudburst in Lhonak Lake, .

Heavy rains, floods kill 6 people in Sri Lanka and force schools to close

Heavy rain triggered floods and mudslides and downed trees in many parts of Sri Lanka, killing at least six people and forcing authorities to close schools in some areas, officials said Friday. Strong monsoon rains have been pounding the Indian Ocean nation for more than a week, flooding houses, fields and roads. On Friday, a large tree fell on a moving bus in Colombo, killing five people and injuring five others, said Dr. Rukshan Bellana, a spokesperson for the capital's main hospital. Separately, one person died when a rock fell on his house during a mudslide in Galle district, about 130 kilometres south of Colombo, the state-run Disaster Management Centre said. The centre said the floods and mudslides damaged hundreds of houses in 12 districts and affected more than 50,000 people, including 1,473 families who were moved to temporary shelters. The coastal district of Matara was the worst affected, with most parts flooded for more than a week. Schools in Matara were closed on Fri

6 wks following flooding event critical for public health monitoring: Study

Floods heighten risk of dying in the three to six weeks window following the event, new research in the British Medical Journal (BMJ) says. The risk of deaths in general increased by 2.1 per cent, whereas that in people having heart and lung illnesses increased by 2.6 and 4.9 per cent, respectively, a team of researchers led by those at Australia's Monash University found. This increased risk peaks for around 25 days, but persists for up to 50-60 days after the first day of flooding, they said in their study, having studied deaths in 761 communities from 35 countries that experienced at least one flooding event from 2000 to 2019. In the aftermath of a flood, risk of deaths from natural causes could get enhanced due to contamination of food and water, exposure to disease-causing fungi, bacteria or virus, impaired access to health services, and psychological impairment. These flood-and-death associations varied with local climate type and were stronger in populations with low ...

Bengal flood situation: 10,000 people rescued; guv to visit affected areas

Expressing concern over the flood-like situation in the state, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Wednesday said that 10,000 people have been rescued and kept in 190 relief camps in nine districts in the southern and northern parts of the state. Banerjee, who is recuperating from a leg injury, said she is personally monitoring the situation round the clock from home and announced that leaves of a number of state government officials were cancelled as a part of the measure to contain the flood situation in the state. West Bengal Governor CV Ananda Bose is scheduled to visit the flood-affected districts in the northern part of the state on Thursday. The northern part of West Bengal shares border with Sikkim which witnessed a flash flood in the Teesta river leaving at least 10 people dead, scores injured and around 80 others missing. Taking stock of the situation at a meeting, Banerjee asked Chief Secretary HK Dwivedi and Home Secretary BP Gopalika to immediately send a tea

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People moving to high flood zones, increasing risk of disasters: Study

Far more people are in harm's way as they move into high flood zones across the globe, adding to an increase in watery disasters from climate change, a new study said. Since 1985, the number of the world's settlements in the riskiest flood zones has increased 122 per cent, compared to 80 per cent for the safest areas, according to a study in Wednesday's journal Nature by researchers at The World Bank. The authors looked at settlement extent and expansion using satellites instead of population, with the world's built-up regions growing 85 per cent overall from 1985 to 2015. People are on a search for better lives and better jobs and then sort of get stuck in bad lands because that's what they can afford, said study co-author Stephane Hallegatte, a World Bank senior climate adviser and expert on disaster economics. He said they know it's dangerous when they arrive. The problem is driven by middle- and low-income countries, the study found. Richer countries like the United States and

Sikkim flash flood: 3 NDRF teams deployed, 23 army personnel missing

Several army vehicles were swept away and some Army establishments were also damaged due to the flood

Flooding in Libya shows how disasters are man-made and not Acts of God

A rapid attribution study found that climate change played a role in the events

Cloud-to-ground flashes increase by 53% from 2019 to 2023, shows data

MP, UP, Bihar make up over 60% of lightning-related fatalities

Heavy rains flood several areas in Nagpur; 180 rescued: Dy CM Fadnavi

Heavy rains flooded many parts of Nagpur city, following which 180 people, including 40 students from a school for the hearing and speech-impaired, were rescued, said Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavi on Saturday. The National Disaster Response (NDRF) and State Disaster Response Force (SDRF) are rescuing people from flooded homes and streets. Two Army units are reaching the Ambazari area, where a lake overflowed, said Fadnavis. The city received torrential downpours from Friday midnight. According to the weather department, Nagpur airport reported 106 mm of rainfall till 5.30 am. Several roads and residential areas have been inundated due to heavy rains, said officials. The administration has declared a holiday for schools and colleges as a precautionary measure. Fadnavis, who is an MLA from Nagpur, took to X in the morning to share that he was continuously monitoring the rain situation in the city. There has been incessant rainfall due to which the Ambazari lake

'Left behind to grieve', survivors of Libya floods call for accountability

Abdel-Hamid al-Hassadi survived the devastating flooding in eastern Libya, but he lost some 90 people from his extended family. The 23-year-old law graduate rushed upstairs along with his mother and his elder brother, as heavy rains lashed the city of Derna on the evening of September 10. Soon, torrents of water were washing away buildings next to them. We witnessed the magnitude of the catastrophe, al-Hassadi said in a phone interview, referring to the massive flooding that engulfed his city. We have seen our neighbours' dead bodies washing away in the floods." Heavy rains from Mediterranean storm Daniel caused the collapse of the two dams that spanned the narrow valley that divides the city. That sent a wall of water several metres high through its heart. Ten days after the disaster, al-Hassadi and thousands of others remain in Derna, most of them waiting for a word about relatives and loved ones. For Hassadi, it's the 290 relatives still missing. The floods inundated as much as

HP govt to demand Centre to declare state situation as national disaster

The Chief Minister Sukhwinder Singh Sukhu moved the resolution Under rule 102 on the first day of the monsoon session of the Assembly for discussion

In corrupt Libya, longtime warnings of collapse of Derna dams went unheard

The warnings were clear but went unheeded. Experts had long said that floods posed a significant danger to two dams meant to protect nearly 90,000 people in the northeast of Libya. They repeatedly called for immediate maintenance to the two structures, located just uphill from the coastal city of Derna. But successive governments in the chaos-stricken North African nation did not react. In the event of a big flood, the consequences will be disastrous for the residents of the valley and the city, Abdelwanees Ashoor, a professor of civil engineering, wrote in a study published last November in the Sabha University Journal of Pure and Applied Sciences. The warnings came true in the early hours of September 11, when residents of Derna woke up to loud explosions before floodwaters pounded the Mediterranean city. They found that two dams had broken, unleashing a wall of water two stories high that wreaked destruction and swept entire neighbourhoods out to sea. The deluge proved deadly

UN revises death toll from Libya floods to 3,958, over 9,000 injured

The deputy spokesperson said the death toll figures are fluid and "can go upward or downward"

Gujarat floods: NDRF personnel rescue over 100 people from Bharuch village

Administration of the Narmada district, ordered schools and colleges to remain shut on Monday, in view of flood reports in many villages after water was released from the Narmada Dam

For a divided Libya, disastrous floods have become a rallying cry for unity

Zahra el-Gerbi wasn't expecting much of a response to her online fundraiser, but she felt she had to do something after four of her relatives died in the flooding that decimated the eastern Libyan city of Derna. She put out a call for donations for those displaced by the deluge. In the first half-hour after she shared it on Facebook, the Benghazi-based clinical nutritionist said friends and strangers were already promising financial and material support. It's for basic needs like clothes, foods and accommodation, el-Gerbi said. For many Libyans, the collective grief over the more than 11,000 dead has morphed into a rallying cry for national unity in a country blighted by 12 years of conflict and division. In turn, the tragedy has ramped up pressure on the country's leading politicians, viewed by some as the architects of the catastrophe. The oil-rich country has been divided between rival administrations since 2014, with an internationally recognized government in Tripoli and a riv

MeT sounds yellow alert in Himachal, cautions of floods in Sirmaur

Six districts of Himachal Pradesh are likely to receive heavy rains on Friday, the meteorological office here said while issuing a yellow alert and cautioned of flash floods in Sirmaur district. The MeT warned of heavy rains at isolated places in Mandi, Bilaspur, Chamba, Kangra, Solan and Sirmaur districts on Friday. A fresh Western Disturbance is likely to affect northwest India from the night of September 15, it added. Predicting a wet spell in the region till September 21, the weather department has forecast light to moderate rains in the low and mid hills of the state and moderate rain or snowfall in the higher reaches. It also cautioned of damage to standing crops, fruit plants, and young plants and advised farmers to reschedule the spraying of insecticides. Monsoon remained normal in the state on Thursday and light to moderate rains lashed some parts. During the ongoing monsoon season, Himachal Pradesh received 840.6 mm of rain from June 1 to September 15 against a normal .

Libyan city closed as search for 10,100 missing after flood on; 11,300 dead

Libyan authorities blocked civilians from entering the flood-stricken eastern city of Derna on Friday so search teams could look through the mud and wrecked buildings for 10,100 people still missing after the known toll rose to 11,300 dead. The disaster after two dams collapsed in heavy rains and sent a massive flood gushing into the Mediterranean city early Monday underscored the storm's intensity but also Libya's vulnerability. The oil-rich state since 2014 has been split between rival governments in the east and west backed by various militia forces and international patrons. Derna was being evacuated and only search and rescue teams would be allowed to enter, Salam al-Fergany, director general of the Ambulance and Emergency Service in eastern Libya, announced late Thursday. The disaster has brought rare unity, as government agencies across Libya's divide rushed to help the affected areas, with the first aid convoys arriving in Derna on Tuesday evening. Relief efforts have been

Libya Floods — Beyond Catastrophic: Over 6,000 dead, 30,000 missing in Derna

In the midst of a climate crisis, fragile Libya faces an unprecedented disaster. Derna, a Libyan port city, mourns over 6,000 known deaths with 30,000 missing, following catastrophic floods.