Weather

Citation

(2006), "Weather", Disaster Prevention and Management, Vol. 15 No. 4. https://doi.org/10.1108/dpm.2006.07315dac.003

Weather

1 May 2005India

At least 20 people have been killed and scores injured in a storm that lashed the Southern Indian State of Andhra Pradesh, officials said. At least ten people died in the coastal district of Guntur alone after being struck by lightning yesterday night. The severe storms, bringing rain and high winds, damaged homes and crops in at least six districts. The storm also uprooted thousands of trees and electricity and telephone poles. Temperatures dipped in the predominantly tropical state after the storm. Farmers in the districts of Guntur, Krishna, Srikakulam, Karimnagar and Nalgonda have been badly affected after the storm destroyed much of their crops. The state government is sending a team of officials to the affected districts to find out the extent of damage.

4 May 2005. About 11 people died and at least 20 were injured in the eastern Indian City of Calcutta after a wall collapsed from the impact of a storm this evening, police said. “Most of the victims were trying to shield themselves from the sudden storm by standing close to the boundary wall of an old building. But the wall itself collapsed,” said the Deputy Commissioner of Police A.M. Ranade. Three of the injured were in a serious condition, he added. Police said several roads were blocked as the storm uprooted trees in various parts of the city. Train services were also disrupted as overhead electric cables were snapped by the strong gusts of winds. However, the storm cleared within an hour of its striking.

6 May 2005Bangladesh

Lightning strikes have killed at least 11 people during thunderstorms in Bangladesh that also destroyed about 300 huts, news reports said. The storms also damaged rice crops. Lightning killed at least five farmers in Rangpur District, 250km North of Dhaka, the reports said. Three other people were killed in neighbouring Dinajpur District, they said. Two teenagers died when lightning struck them on their way home in Comilla District, 90km East of Dhaka. Lightning also killed a farmer as he worked in a field in Bhola District, 105km south of Dhaka, the report said. In Rangpur, the storms destroyed about 300 huts, leaving about 1,500 people homeless.

8 May 2005Colombia

Heavy rains across several Colombian regions in the last two weeks have killed 16 people, injured 30 others, left seven missing and 41,500 people displaced. Areas close to rivers and mountains have fared the worst due to flooding and some mudslides, Civil Defence Director Eugenio Alarcon said. In all, 21 houses have been destroyed and nearly 5,000 damaged. In the worst case, in Floridablanca in Santander Province, rains caused an avalanche on April 18 that affected 1,700 families and killed three people. Alarcon said people often ignored construction guidelines when building homes, leaving some homes at risk due to poor drainage. The rains are set to continue until June, said meteorological institute IDEAM.

5 May 2005Mexico

At least eight people, including some children, have been killed by a rainstorm which cut off power and flooded hundreds of homes in the Southern Mexican State of Oaxaca, authorities said today. The storm, which raged from last night until this morning, also blew off roofs and felled trees. “Even though strong rains are more or less normal in the state, we hadn't had such strong ones for 15 years,” a local government spokesman said. Four people, including two boys, drowned in the town of Guegoretze Ocotlan when the car they were travelling in was swept away by a swollen river. One person was believed to have been electrocuted in the capital, Oaxaca. Local emergency crews received dozens of calls from people trapped in cars and houses by the rain, which in some places was accompanied by hail, local media said.

13 May 2005China

A freak blizzard and sand storm killed 15 explorers in mountainous remote North-West China on Friday (May 13), the Xinhua news agency said today. More than 70 explorers, hired by a company connected to oil giant China National Petroleum Corp., were working in Haixi prefecture in Qinghai Province, bordering Tibet, when they were hit by a “heavy snowstorm, rainstorm and sandstorm simultaneously” Xinhua said. “Fifteen explorers were found dead and 13 others injured in the snowstorm which was unlikely to happen once in a century,” an unnamed local official was quoted as saying. Rescue and investigation efforts were continuing, Xinhua said.

27 May 2005India

At least 14 people have been killed and a dozen more have been injured in mudslides triggered by heavy rains in India's North-East State of Nagaland. A police official says several houses were demolished when small hillocks caved in yesterday, trapping sleeping villagers in Mokokchung, 120km east of Nagaland's Capital, Kohima. “The casualties took place when mounds of earth buried sleeping villagers,” Mokokchung District Magistrate T. Imkong said. The dead include at least five children. Fresh landslides continued today but there are no immediate reports of further casualties. Heavy rains in the past three days triggered mudslides in the mountainous state, blocking roads and disrupting communications in many places.

17 June 2005China

At least eight people have been killed and hundreds injured after n a hurricane and hailstorms whipped through parts of China, destroying nearly 200,000 homes. The worst-hit province was Jiangsu in Eastern China, where seven people were killed and “several hundred” injured when torrential rains and hail accompanied a hurricane on Tuesday (June 14) night, Xinhua news agency said. The affected areas included Shuyang, Siyang, Huai'an and Xuzhou. According to Shuyang Deputy Head Sun Shujin, 825,000 people were affected, with 223 injured and five dead. The hurricane toppled trees and destroyed 194,487 houses, Xinhua reported. Power and telecommunications infrastructure were also badly hit, although they had been restored, the agency reported. A deadly hailstorm also pounded Guzhen County in the Eastern Province of Anhui, which borders Jiangsu, killing one person and injuring 65 others when it swept through on Wednesday morning, Xinhua said in a separate report. The storm toppled or damaged 36,800 houses and destroyed cotton, vegetable, water melon, tobacco and other crops, inflicting million of dollars in economic losses. According to earlier figures, at least 255 people have been killed in floods and storms since last month, which marked the start of the rainy season. These numbers did not include the 103, mostly children, who died when a mountain torrent swamped the Shalan Township Central Elementary School in Heilongjiang Province last Friday.

22 June 2005. China has evacuated 100,000 residents of a southern city to escape a swollen river in one of three provinces where heavy rains have triggered landslides and floods killing more than 20 people. Floodwaters forced the mass evacuation overnight of residents in low-lying areas of the industrial City of Wuzhou, where the Xijiang river had reached 24.42m by yesterday night, more than 7m higher than the warning level, state television said. Notices on the mass evacuation were posted on walls, warning sirens blared in the dark of night and Wuzhou residents began to load up cars, trucks and carts with valuables and flee the area for higher ground. With much of Southern China under threat, Premier Wen Jiabao urged local governments to step up the fight against the flooding, which kills hundreds in China each summer and causes millions of yuan in damage to homes and croplands. Authorities expected the Xijiang to peak tonight at a hydrographic station in Wuzhou, in Guangxi autonomous region, near the border with the Southern Province of Guangdong. Heavy rains have killed nine people since Saturday (June 18) in Guangdong, where a landslide disrupted traffic on a rail line linking the mainland with Hong Kong, the official Xinhua news agency said. Rainstorms in Eastern Guangdong caused cave-ins on part of the Beijing-Kowloon railway line, forcing dozens of trains to either delay or turn back while repairs were made, it said. Water levels on two other rivers in Guangxi – the Qianjiang and Xunjiang – were above warning levels and the province had suffered nearly $45 million in economic losses as of Monday (June 20) due to the recent deluges, Xinhua said, citing local flood control headquarters. In the South-Eastern Province of Fujian, floods and landslides had killed 12 and left five missing, it said. In Shunchang County alone in Northern Fujian, dozens of landslides had buried nine people, killing five. Three were missing. While the south is suffering a deluge, much of Northern China is sweating through a heat wave, which has driven temperatures to nearly 40°c in the capital Beijing and convinced the South-Western City of Chongqing to open air raid shelters to provide shady relief.

22 June 2005. At least 46 people have died in torrential rain lashing Southern China as Premier Wen Jiabao called for an “all-out effort” to combat floods devastating the area. The 46 were confirmed dead in flash floods and landslides in three southern provinces and regions, with another 28 were reported missing, according to the state-run Xinhua news agency and China News Service. In response to the rapidly worsening situation, Wen sent written instructions to flood control officials, ordering them to identify duties, improve emergency plans and enforce monitoring, Xinhua said today. Huge numbers have been evacuated in recent days to prevent even higher death tolls. In Southern Guangxi alone, 333,000 have been moved from their homes and taken to safer places, Xinhua reported. The new casualty figures bring the reported death toll from heavy rains and flooding in China since May to more than 400. The worst hit province in recent days, according to the official figures, is Guangxi, home to many of China's ethnic minorities. About 24 people were confirmed dead and 23 others missing there, the regional disaster relief headquarters said early today, according to Xinhua. Many of those who escaped with their lives would have no homes to return to since more than 50,000 houses have been damaged by the severe weather, the agency reported. Meanwhile, 12 people were confirmed dead in South-Eastern Fujian Province. Five of them were buried alive when landslides engulfed their villages, Xinhua said. Five others remain missing and feared dead. In Guangdong Province, just North of Hong Kong, ten people were reported killed, while more than half a million had been affected by the bad weather, the China News Service said.

23 June 2005. Heavy flooding across south China has killed at least 80 people, left dozens missing and forced almost 700,000 to evacuate their homes, state media said today The worst may be to come with torrential rain forecast to pound south and southeast China at least until the end of the week. Rivers swollen by days of heavy rain had done much of the damage, particularly in the Guangxi region, where at least 32 people had died and 330,000 people had been moved to safe ground, the China Daily said. Military planes were dropping food, medicine and other urgent supplies to some of Guangxi's worst-hit counties, with around 10,000 people trapped in areas cut off by flood waters, state television said. Wuzhou, an industrial City in Guangxi where more than 20,000 people were moved to higher ground, was swamped in flood waters up to four stories high, state television said. Everyone in homes less than 28m above ground level was evacuated, it said. People were shown paddling through muddy water partly covering traffic signs. The Xijiang River, which runs through Wuzhou, had swelled to over 26m, nearly 9m above the warning level, the China Daily said. “The worst flooding on record was seen on the Mengjiang, a tributary of the Xijiang river,” a national flood control official was quoted as saying. China had sent more than 2,000 troops to help with flood control efforts in Wuzhou and sent Guangxi 20 million yuan ($2.4 million) in emergency funds and tents, Xinhua news agency said. Floods and landslides had killed at least 48 people in Guangdong and Fujian Provinces and left 15 missing, the China Daily said. More than 350,000 people had been evacuated across Fujian and Guangdong and the south-western municipality of Chongqing, it said. The government sent 15 million yuan in relief funds to Fujian, Xinhua said. Flood waters have hammered infrastructure in Guangdong and Fujian, sweeping away highways, river dykes and bridges, the newspaper said. A national highway was blocked in Fujian by 1,100 landslides, Xinhua said. More than 20,000 travellers in Guangdong were delayed after a landslide damaged part of the Beijing-Hong Kong railway, it said. Thousands of passengers were stranded or delayed at Guangzhou airport.

16 June 2005Guatemala

A huge mudslide killed at least 21 people when it buried houses and cars in a Guatemalan highland town, and the government fear more may be dead. Torrential rain pushed thousands of tonnes of mud and rocks down a hill above the town of San Antonio Senahu, North-East of the capital, last night. “The reports are worrying,” President Oscar Berger told national radio as he travelled to the town today. Officials said at least 45 people were injured and an unspecified number were unaccounted for. Benedicto Giron of Guatemala's disaster prevention network, Conred, said the death toll could rise much higher. “Many houses are destroyed and if many houses are destroyed, there could be many more victims,” he said. “Because of the magnitude of the mudslide, we fear that more people are buried,” he said. A rescue worker at the scene told local radio that the force of the mudslide buried 21 homes and dragged several cars into the town square. Guatemala is at the height of its rainy season. Heavy rain continued to fall on the town this afternoon but authorities played down the risk of further landslides. Relief services were unable to reach the town until dawn today due to power outages, communications failures and another mudslide that blocked an access road. San Antonio Senahu is in the Central American nation's coffee growing region of Alta Verapaz.

17 June 2005Taiwan

Flooding and landslides in Southern Taiwan caused by heavy rains left ten people dead and two others missing, and damaged crops, the Ministry of Interior reported. Rain since June 12 has caused NT$1.16 billion, $36.9 million, of crop damage, mainly in Tainan, Kaohsiung and Pingtung counties, and forced 130 schools to shut yesterday, the ministry said. The rain also damaged 77 roads and forced several airports to cancel some flights or close temporarily, the ministry said. The island's Central Weather Bureau has issued torrential rain advisories for Southern Taiwan, urging people to take caution against mudslides, flooding, and falling rocks.

17 June 2005. Taiwan began mopping up today after six straight days of heavy rain in the south caused floods and landslides which killed 14 people. Floodwaters swamped streets and rice fields, causing T$1.66 billion (US$53 million) worth of crop damage, the Council of Agriculture said in a statement. Weather forecasters said more downpours were likely in the next few days.

23 June 2005South Asia

At least 375 people have died from sunstroke and dehydration in a month-long heat-wave sweeping India, Nepal, Pakistan and Bangladesh. Temperatures hit 508C in some parts of South Asia this week.

27 June 2005. More than a week of sweltering heat has left more than 100 people dead in Pakistan, many of them in the country's Eastern Punjab Province, officials said yesterday. Temperatures have soared up to 122° in some parts of Punjab, and in the capital Islamabad Saturday (June 25) was the hottest day in 11 years with 113° temperatures, said Imran Siddiqi, an official at the Pakistan Meteorological Department. Since, the heat wave began more than a week ago, 105 people have died in Punjab, said Javed Asghar, a health ministry official in the province's capital of Lahore. Sunstroke, dehydration and food poisoning have caused most of the deaths, he said. At least 19 deaths have been reported in the Southern Sindh, south-western Baluchistan and North West Frontier Provinces in recent days. In the neighbouring countries of India and Bangladesh, a heat wave has left more than 400 dead in the past two months. Siddiqi said monsoon rains likely later this week are expected to break the hot spell in various parts of Pakistan.

1 July 2005India

Heavy monsoon floods in India's western Gujarat state have left at least 56 people dead and more than 65,000 people homeless, authorities there say. The army has been deployed to assist rescue and relief operations. Schools and colleges have been closed in some parts of the state. Floods are common during monsoon rains which have now spread across India. Weather officials say heavy rain is expected to continue to affect the state over the next few days. Floods in Gujarat have badly hit rail and road transport in many parts of the state. “Some cities have been put on red alert and the army is helping disaster management teams in rescue operation,” state revenue minister Kaushik Patel told Reuters. Last week the rise in water levels of the Sutlej river led to the closure of India's biggest hydropower project – the Nathpa Jhakri Power Project – built on the river, affecting power supply across Northern India and the capital, Delhi.

1 July 2005. At least 94 people have died and some 200,000 have been evacuated due to heavy rains and flash floods in India's western coastal state of Gujarat, officials said today. The floods have inundated scores of villages and water has overwhelmed residential suburbs of many towns, including worst-affected Vadodra, state government officials said. Most of the 94 deaths occurred when people were washed away by strong currents after dams overflowed, while others were crushed when buildings collapsed or buried in mudslides, state revenue officials said. They added that around 200,000 people in the affected areas of the state had by today been moved to higher ground. Dozens of train services were delayed due to waterlogged tracks while some had to be cancelled, marooning hundreds of passengers on railway platforms. The rains, which began lashing the state earlier this week, have also disrupted flights and left vehicles stranded on water-logged highways, while all schools in the state were closed until Monday, education officials said. Army and paramilitary personnel have been deployed to reach those trapped, state officials said, but bad weather prevented rescue helicopters from lifting those stranded in many places. Vadodra continued to be lashed by incessant rains today and weather officials forecast another 24h of rainfall. Power supplies to the city were cut for several hours to prevent short-circuits. Chief Minister Narendra Modi has conducted an aerial survey of the affected areas.

1 July 2005. Mukesh Ambani-owned Indian Petrochemicals Corporation Ltd and Indian Oil Corporation's Gujarat Refinery are among the several plants that have been shut down following torrential rains that have caused flood-like situation in the Vadodara region. Most of the units of the IPCL, the second largest petrochemical company in India, except Utility One, have been shut down on account of heavy rains, a senior official of IPCL, A. K. Anand said, adding that the plant will be restarted after the waters recede. Similarly, the Gujarat Refinery, belonging to Indian Oil Corporation, has also been shut down. The Executive Director of Gujarat Refinery, K. Acharya, said that IOC was partially closed. Most of the industries located in GIDC in Makarpura and industrial estate in Nandesari where hundreds of units are located were affected by heavy rainfall. Employees cannot get to the industries and factories because of inundation. Milk supply to the city has also been badly affected since Vadodara dairy is not in a position to supply milk.

5 July 2005. Heavy rains in the western region of India will affect importers and exporters across the country with 29,048 containers piled up at the Jawaharlal Nehru Port (JNPT) in Navi Mumbai compared with the normal of 8,000-10,000 containers. Compared to 19,132 containers in October 2004, when the JNPT was in the middle of a major congestion problem, indicates the gravity of the problem. The situation was brought down to a manageable 9,790 containers by December 2004. “The port is suffering due to clogging of road and rail routes because of incessant rains in the western region,” a JNPT official said. He had said that though last week was difficult, the situation would improve from today, as rail and road routes were slowly opening up. Last week, trains were running at half the normal frequency of about five trains a day as the regular rail route from Delhi via Ratlam and Vadodara to JNPT was blocked due to floods. Much to the relief of the industry, Container Corporation of India (Concor) will today resume its normal services of about 12 trains a day via alternative routes. During floods and rains, freight transportation.was the first casualty as passenger movement was the priority. “The problem arises because, same rail corridors serve both passenger and freight traffic,” the official said. There was no overnight solution to this seasonal clogging problem, he added.

6 July 2005. The floods in Gujarat have not only washed away and sunk roads and highways but also affected train travel, especially the railway route between Ahmedabad and Vadodara. Authorities now say they will only be able to resume services partially by Saturday, July 8. On the stretch between Gothaj and Nadiad, flood waters have washed away both the soil and gravel beneath the railway sleepers completely exposing the track which has sunk in many places. Train traffic on this crucial line which connects Ahmedabad to the rest of the country has been suspended since June 30 and authorities hope that traffic will resume by Saturday. “A river which flows through here flooded the area and washed away the soil and gravel. The water level had reached 7 feet,” said Arvind Khare, DRM, Ahmedabad Division. For an extremely busy andprofitable route, the suspension of traffic has meant huge losses for the railways. The loss can be said to be over Rs 1.5 crore every day,” said Khare. For now the railways have deployed buses at the Ahmedabad main station for those wanting to make the journey by road.

2 July 2005South Asia

At least 123 people have died and about 25 million have been affected by heavy rains and flooding in the western Indian state of Gujarat this week, a state official said today. Large stretches of property near rivers, tributaries, and dams in the state with a population of 50 million were under water with more than 900 villages cut off by flooding, said provincial revenue minister Kaushik Patel. A damage estimate was not immediately available, but federal Home Minister Shivraj Patil announced a five billion rupee ($110 million) aid package for Gujarat after an aerial survey of the flood affected areas on Friday (July 1). “One hundred hours of rain in different parts of Gujarat has affected more than 70 per cent of the state, 123 people died in various mishaps,” state revenue minister Patel said. In all, some 4,577 villages and 31 urban centres in Gujarat were hit by power cuts as rains pounded the state non-stop for four days straight, Patel said. At least 250,000 people have been evacuated because of heavy rains and flash floods in the state and the situation is likely to worsen with more rain forecast, federal Science and Technology Minister Kapil Sibal told reporters in New Delhi on Friday.

4 July 2005. UPA Chairperson Sonia Gandhi and Defence Minister Pranab Mukherjee today said relief work should be speeded up in flood-affected areas of Baroda, Anand, Kheda and Ahmedabad districts of Gujarat. Rains have claimed 142 lives, left 500,000 people homeless and caused massive damage to the economy during the past fortnight in the state. Accompanied by Ms Gandhi's Political Secretary Ahmed Patel, they conducted an aerial survey of the flood-hit areas and met the displaced people living in party-run relief camps in Vadodara, besides district officials, defence personnel and party workers who briefed them about relief work being carried out. Noting that the Centre had provided an immediate aid of Rs 500 crore to Gujarat to tide over the crisis, Ms Gandhi said: “The flood victims have demanded cash doles, which means they have not received these so far.” The Congress President called for coordinated action by the state and Central governments to tackle the situation and stressed the need to provide succour to the flood victims in an organised manner on an emergency footing. In New Delhi, the Centre issued directions to meet the state's requirements of essential commodities on a priority basis and also decided to depute an inter-ministerial team to the state for assessing the damage caused by the natural calamity. Union Home Secretary V. K. Duggal, who reviewed the flood situation in the western state at a meeting of the high-level Inter-Ministerial Committee, said about 300,000 people had been evacuated to safer places even as flood waters had started receding and life was slowly getting back to normal. In neighbouring Pakistan, troops in life jackets used motor boats to help feed and rescue thousands marooned by flash floods that have inundated dozens of villages in the country's North West Frontier Province, an official said. No casualties have been reported. Flash floods washed away two homes, several rice paddies and maize fields yesterday in Swat District, said Abdul Wali Yousafzai, an official at the flood warning centre in the provincial capital, Peshawar. No one was reported hurt. Fresh rains in neighbouring Afghanistan are swelling the Kabul River, which flows into the Swat River. “We are expecting more flooding,” Mr Yousafzai said, adding flood alerts were issued yesterday in the districts of Peshawar, Charsadda and Nowshera. Meanwhile, the provincial government appealed for financial assistance to provide shelter, food and medicine for those affected by the floods. Mr Haq said the worst floods in more than a decade have totally or partially damaged 14,000 homes in the three districts.