Weather Tracker: South Africa Floods Kill At Least 11 People

GUARDIAN EUROPE: Cape Town mayor declares major incident as roads closed and 80,000 people left without electricity

Extreme rain and strong winds across South Africa’s Western Cape province have caused flooding, torn off roofs, destroyed crops and damaged roads this week. It is estimated that the 48-hour rainfall totals between Sunday and Monday were between 100mm to 200mm (4-8in) in this region.

According to the Cape Town Disaster Risk Management Centre, 12,000 people were affected, but a further 80,000 people were left without electricity, according to the national power utility. The mayor of Cape Town signed a major incident declaration for additional resources and relief measures as 80 roads have been closed, 200 farm workers have been stranded and rail services have been suspended in the Western and Eastern Cape provinces. » | Alice Fowle and Morgan Thomas (MetDesk) |Friday, September 29, 2023

Storm Daniel Batters Greece, Turkey and Bulgaria with Heavy Rain | DW News

Sep 6, 2023 | In Europe Storm Daniel has battered Greece, Turkey and Bulgaria causing landslides and further damage with the deluge. Nine people are confirmed to have died so far. The storm has dumped vast amounts of water on south-eastern Europe, with Greece recording the highest level of rainfall since at least 2006. The floods in Greece follow weeks of drought and wildfires. The government says climate change is to blame.

Articles en français liés à cette vidéo.

Death Toll Mounts in Italy’s Worst Flooding for 100 Years

THE GUARDIAN: Older and disabled people trapped in homes as rescuers battle harsh conditions in Emilia-Romagna region

Older and disabled people were trapped in their homes as rescuers worked under pounding rain throughout the night to save people in the most catastrophic flooding to affect Italy in 100 years.

The floods in the northern Emilia-Romagna region have claimed 13 lives as of Thursday evening. An estimated 20,000 have been left homeless in a disaster that caused 23 rivers to burst their banks and 280 landslides, engulfing 41 cities and towns.

Roads remained blocked, including the A1, after a landslide in Sasso Marconi on Thursday afternoon, and trains were cancelled or disrupted.

Among the dead were an elderly couple trapped inside their home in Cava, a hamlet in the province of Forlì-Cesena. “We heard their cries for help,” a neighbour told Il Messaggero newspaper. “We tried to get them out, but it was useless.” With videos » | Angela Giuffrida in Rome | Thursday, May 18, 2023

Mindestens acht Tote durch Flut in Norditalien

May 17, 2023 | Nach heftigen Regenfällen mussten in der Region Emilia-Romagna Tausende Einwohner in Sicherheit gebracht werden. Mindestens acht Menschen kamen ums Leben. © REUTERS, DPA

READ THIS ARTICLE IN ENGLISH:

Devastating floods in Italy claim lives and leave thousands homeless: Twenty-one rivers burst their banks after heavy storms across country cause landslides and submerge villages »

Floods in Europe Kill Nearly 200 with Over 1,000 Still Missing | DW News

‘It’s All Wrecked’: German Town Stunned by Flood Damage

THE GUARDIAN: Residents of Erftstadt struggle to comprehend how their familiar landscape became treacherous terrain

Anatoli Neugebauer is standing just a hundred metres from his family home, at the edge of the Blessem district of Erftstadt, a commuter-belt town 12 miles (20km) south of Cologne. Even though flood waters from the Erft River had begun to recede by midday on Friday, he still had to wade through waist-high brown water just to get inside the stuccoed terrace house.

“It’s completely indescribable,” says Neugebauer, 40. “A catastrophe.”

“I was there twice yesterday trying to save what I could. But you open the door and the water’s to your chest and you just wonder, why am I even doing this? It’s all wrecked.”

Neugebauer was one of the 1,905 residents of the village evacuated on Thursday as the river began to overflow after record rainfall.

Familiar landscape turned into treacherous terrain: a gravel quarry south of Blessem, 40 hectares (99 acres) wide and 60 metres deep, rapidly filled with water, its edge expanding towards the town through headward erosion, swallowing up several cars, three half-timbered buildings and parts of a castle. » | Courtney Tenz in Erftstadt and Philip Oltermann in Berlin | Friday, July 16, 2021

European Floods Are Latest Sign of a Global Warming Crisis

A church and cemetery after flooding in Bad Neuenahr-Ahrweiler, Germany.Credit...Friedemann Vogel/EPA, via Shutterstock
THE NEW YORK TIMES: Floods like these, which have left more than 100 dead, had not been seen in perhaps 1,000 years. For many, the warnings came too late, raising questions about lapses in Germany’s flood alert system.

BERLIN — Days before roiling waters tore through western Germany, a European weather agency issued an “extreme” flood warning after detailed models showed storms that threatened to send rivers surging to levels that a German meteorologist said on Friday had not been seen in 500 or even 1,000 years.

By Friday those predictions proved devastatingly accurate, with more than 100 people dead and 1,300 unaccounted for, as helicopter rescue crews plucked marooned residents from villages inundated sometimes within minutes, raising questions about lapses in Germany’s elaborate flood warning system.

Numerous areas, victims and officials said, were caught unprepared when normally placid brooks and streams turned into torrents that swept away cars, houses and bridges and everything else in their paths.

“It went so fast. You tried to do something, and it was already too late,” a resident of Schuld told Germany’s ARD public television, after the Ahr River swelled its banks, ripping apart tidy wood-framed houses and sending vehicles bobbing like bath toys. Extreme downpours like the ones that occurred in Germany are one of the most visible signs that the climate is changing as a result of warming caused by greenhouse gas emissions. Studies have found that they are now happening more frequently for a simple reason: A warmer atmosphere can hold more moisture, generating more, and more powerful, rainfall. » | Melissa Eddy, Jack Ewing, Megan Specia and Steven Erlanger | Published: Friday, July 16, 2021; Updated: Saturday, July 17, 2021

Hundreds Missing and Scores Dead as Raging Floods Strike Western Europe

THE NEW YORK TIMES: Strong rains caused rivers to burst their banks and wash away buildings in Belgium and Germany, where at least 1,300 remained missing. Homes and streets in the Netherlands and Switzerland also flooded.

BERLIN — Following a day of frantic rescue efforts and orders to evacuate towns rapidly filling with water unloosed by violent storms, the German authorities said late Thursday that after confirming scores of deaths, they were unable to account for at least 1,300 people.

That staggering figure was announced after swift-moving water from swollen rivers surged through cities and villages in two western German states, where news outlets said more than 80 people were known to have died in the hardest-hit regions and other fatalities were expected.

With communication badly hampered, the authorities were hoping that the missing people were safe, if unreachable. But the storms and the floods have already proved deadly

. At least 11 more people were reported to have died in Belgium, according to authorities who also ordered inhabitants of downtown Liège to evacuate as the Meuse River, which flows through its center, overflowed its banks. » | Melissa Eddy | Published: Thursday, July 15, 2021; Updated: Friday, July 16, 2021

Louisiana: Floodwater Destroys Thousands of Homes

Catastrophic flooding in parts of Louisiana has caused thousands of residents to evacuate and left many without homes to return to. CNN's Jennifer Gray reports.

105mph Wind Recorded as Gales Batter Britain

A man walks through the sandstorm at the Swansea seafront
in south Wales on 12 February 2014

THE GUARDIAN: Wales hit by record wind speed as Thames is set to rise to highest level in 60 years

Strong winds continued to batter the UK on Wednesday, causing disruption to road and rail networks and leaving 21,000 people without power.

A top wind speed of 105mph was recorded in Aberdaron in north-west Wales, and Western Power Distribution said electricity supplies had been hit in south Wales, the south-west and the west Midlands. Gusts of 92mph have already been recorded in the Mumbles on the Gower Peninsula, south-west Wales, the weather forecaster Meteogroup said.

Clifton suspension bridge in Bristol was briefly closed for the first time in its history, and the storms have also brought a number of trees down. Coastal areas could also be battered by large waves, the Met Office said.

The Environment Agency warned that the Thames was set to rise in places to its highest levels in more than 60 years, causing severe disruption to communities in Windsor, Maidenhead and Surrey. » | Haroon Siddique, Matthew Weaver and agencies | Wednesday, February 12, 2014

UK Floods: Homes Evacuated as Swollen Thames Keeps Rising

BBC: Flooded homes along the River Thames are being evacuated and thousands more are at risk, with water levels expected to keep rising for the next 24 hours.

Fourteen severe flood warnings are in place in Berkshire and Surrey, while two remain in Somerset.

Duncan Kennedy reports. (+ BBC video) » | Monday, February 10, 2014

Russia's Far East Hit by Biggest Floods in 120 Years

There's no relief in sight for the tens of thousands of people living in Russia's Far East battered by the worst flooding in more than a century. Water levels have already broken a historical record for the region and are expected to reach the peak only by the middle of the week. Around 30 thousand people have already been evacuated by emergency services and authorities say this could be just the beginning. RT's Paul Scott is in the thick of events and talked to some of the victims.

Elbe-Hochwasser: Evakuierungen in Dresden: Video
05.06.2013 - Die Elbe steigt weiter und noch ist nicht abzusehen, wann der Scheitel des Hochwassers Dresden erreichen wird. Die Behörden haben mit Evakuierungen begonnen.

SPIEGEL ONLINE: Großes Bangen an der Elbe: Die Pegelstände der Elbe steigen bedrohlich - immer mehr Einwohner in Sachsen müssen sich vor dem Hochwasser in Sicherheit bringen. Auch die Menschen in Sachsen-Anhalt, Niedersachsen und Brandenburg blicken besorgt auf den Fluss und seine Nebenläufe. » | wit/dpa/AFP | Mittwoch, 05. Juni 2013

SPIEGEL ONLINE INTERNATIONAL: Europe Under Water: Record Floods Hit Eastern Germany – As flooding continues across Central Europe, the eastern German city of Dresden is bracing for near record high water levels. Some residents have already evacuated their homes. ¶ Though some areas reported improved conditions, flooding continued across Europe on Wednesday, with the eastern German city of Dresden bracing for near record water levels. ¶ Officials in the baroque city said that they expect the Elbe River to continue to swell, though it is unlikely exceed levels seen in the disastrous flood of 2002, which caused widespread damage in eastern Germany and neighboring countries. Authorities are preparing for evacuations all along the Elbe, and some residents have already been forced leave their homes in Dresden, where electricity was shut off as a precautionary measure in some places. » | kla -- with wires | Wednesday, Hune 05, 2013

Central Europe On High Alert Over Record Floods
Four people have died and at least eight are missing as torrential rains in central Europe caused landslides and took rivers to dangerously high levels. Emergency operations are under way in Austria, Germany and the Czech Republic to deal with record levels of flooding in some places. Thousands of homes across the region have been evacuated.

Floods Rage Through Central Europe – In Pictures
Rising waters from the Danube, Ilz and Inn rivers have inundated parts of Germany, Austria, Switzerland and the Czech Republic after days of heavy rainfall. Emergency operations are under way to deal with record levels of flooding in some areas, as landslides have killed at least nine people, with many more still missing
To the picture gallery » | Monday, June 03, 2013

Central Europe On Alert for Flooding
BBC: Homes have been evacuated across southern Germany, the Czech Republic, Austria and Switzerland as rivers reach dangerously high levels.

The Czech capital Prague is on high alert as authorities fear a repeat of the catastrophic floods of August 2002.

The River Vltava has inundated towns and villages upstream of the capital, and one person is known to have died.

Stephen Evans reports. Watch BBC video » | Monday June 03, 2013

Half of Venice Under Water
After days of rain, water in Venice rises to a height of 55 inches above sea level, flooding many shops and buildings.