Extreme weather

Worst flood for decades uproots 10,000 in central Nigeria

Nigeria's worst flooding in decades has displaced more than 10,000 people in the centre of the country over the past week and stranded some villagers on rooftops, emergency services said on Thursday.

Planet Ark.

28 September, 2012

At least 140 people have been killed around Nigeria and tens of thousands have been forced to abandon their homes since the beginning of July, officials say. The flooding has been the worst for more than 50 years, according to Yushua Shuaib, a spokesman for the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA).

"Over 10,000 people are displaced completely from their houses in my area and the numbers are increasing," NEMA's coordinator for central Nigeria, Ishaya Chonoko, said by phone. "In some parts, like Ibaji, the entire local government area is submerged by water. People are living on top of their roofs."

Emergency services were trying to access displacement camps -- in some cases by boat -- to hand out emergency items, he said. Worst affected was Kogi state.

Nigeria, which gets heavy tropical rains from May to September, suffers from seasonal flash floods. These are sometimes lethal, especially in rural areas or overcrowded slums.

"I've been here all night and there's nothing to eat," Adamu Musa told Reuters by a flooded highway holding his stranded vehicle outside the central Nigerian city of Lokoja.

Rains lash Japan ahead of typhoon

All flights and ships into and out of Japan's Okinawa islands cancelled, as pacific nation braces for Typhoon Jelawat.

Al-Jazeera,

29 September, 2012

Japan has been on alert for strong winds and torrential rain, as a typhoon is expected to hit the Asia-Pacific nation.

A very strong typhoon was near Taiwan, about 120km south of Ishigaki Island as of 2pm local time (05:00 GMT), packing winds of 180km per hour near its centre, the weather agency said on Friday.

Typhoon Jelawat's winds are blowing at more than 200km an hour, and is expected to be one of the strongest typhoons to hit the country in decades.

All flights and ships into and out of Japan's Okinawa islands have been cancelled.

Television footage aired by public broadcaster NHK showed trees bowing as heavy rain and strong winds battered Ishigaki, a part of the Okinawa chain of islands.

Jelawat was moving north-northeast and on course to hit the main part of Okinawa on Saturday before reaching Japan's southern main island of Kyushu on Sunday, the broadcaster said.

It was forecast to be off the coast of central Japan by early Monday.

A smaller typhoon, Ewiniar, was churning in the Pacific towards eastern Japan. It was forecast to come close to eastern Japan on Saturday before veering off over the Pacific.

Assam floods worsen, over 1 million displaced

Facing their third wave of floods this year, an estimated 1 million people have been forced to flee their homes in the northeastern state of Assam, where authorities have called a health alert.

Deutsche Welle,

25 September, 2012

The flood situation continues to remain grim with an increasing portion of land in 18 of the state's 27 districts submerged under water as the days go by. Masses of people have been dislocated and property has been destroyed.

People and wildlife affected

In Majuli, the largest fresh water mid-river deltaic island in the world, flood water inundated the sub-divisional office and the jail from where 41 prisoners were shifted to the Jorhat Central Jail in a special ferry. Educational institutions have also been submerged by the mighty Brahmaputra River that continues to flow over the danger mark.

Worse, the core area of 420 square kilometres of the Kaziranga National Park, home to the world's single largest population of one-horned rhinos, was also flooded along with three other wildlife sanctuaries.

Delhi is helping the state government in relief efforts

"We still do not have an idea how many rhinos or animals have died or have been dislodged from their habitats. In our last census in Kaziranga we counted 2,290 of the rhinos out of a global population of 3,300. We need to wait to asses the damage," said park director S. Bora.

Many who had to move out are now living in shelters - around 160 relief camps have been set up on higher embankments. The Indian Air Force also swung into action and began rescue and relief operations, saving a large number of stranded civilians and air-dropping relief material and food.

Nearly 130 people were killed and 6 million displaced by the floodwaters in Assam two months ago, which came during India's June-September monsoon.

But in the current round of flooding, at least eight people have been killed and 20 are missing.

"We have dispatched doctors and paramedics to ensure that there is no outbreak of disease. We are doing our best. Even military and federal disaster response teams have launched operations to move people to higher ground by helicopter or in rubber boats," said Assam's health minister Himanta Biswa Sarmah.

Problems not new

Assam's flooding problems are well known and documented. Yet despite the fact that it happens with tiresome regularity almost every year, little has been done.

Experts emphasize the need of long-term planning to deal with floods

According to officials in the state Disaster Management Agency (DMA), of the 4,400 kilometers of embankments along the Brahmaputra and most of its tributaries, over 950 kilometers are known to be "extremely vulnerable" and a further 2,390 kilometers simply "vulnerable."

"Enough money has been pumped into the state to plug these breaches and look at medium and long-term problems of flood control, erosion and other related issues. But it is only when disaster strikes that authorities wake up," said an official DMA on conditions of anonymity.

Apart from Assam, the state of affairs is also dismal in other areas of the northeast as well.

The army and air force have launched rescue operations in areas badly hit by the rains that have been lashing the states of Sikkim and Arunachal Pradesh for days and where dozens of people have died due to landslides.

Officials believe that the devastation caused by the flash floods is immense and that it will take months to restore road connectivity in the northeastern region as entire roads have been completely washed away.