The Heavens Continue to Unleash Their Fury on Southeast Asia — 24 Million Now Impacted by Flooding as Hato Approaches

21 August, 2017

The far heavier rains of a warming world have fallen hard over Southeast Asia for nearly two months. In India and Nepal more than 18 million have been affected. But the floodwaters in these higher lands have combined into great torrents flooding downstream into Bangladesh.

A country that is now witnessing its worst flood in 100 years as one-third of its low-lying land mass is covered by water.

(According to news reports, one-third of Bangladesh’s land mass is now covered by flood waters. August 19 satellite shot of Central Bangladesh shows raging rivers and flooded lowlands. Image source: NASA Worldview.)

The damage for such a poor country sitting at the forefront of a growing climate-change-baseddestruction from the recent extreme rain event has been tremendous. At least 115 people have died. Nearly six million have been impacted. The government has run out of medicine, water purification tablets, and temporary shelters for the hundreds of thousands of people displaced. More than 400,000 hectares of crops have been destroyed. Fully half a million homes have been damaged or lost. And there is not enough food or water to go around.

Fears of water-borne illness such as cholera are running high and calls for international aid in the flood-stricken state have grown more and more urgent. But the worst is not yet over as floodwaters from Nepal and India continue to swell Bangladesh’s multiple waterways over banks and into communities through central and southern parts of the country. And more rain may be on the way as another powerful storm system gathers.

(This is what happens if you keep burning fossil fuels. According to recent scientific reports, the global number of record-breaking rainfall events has increased dramatically during recent years. This increase has coincided with global temperatures exceeding the 1 C warmer than 1880s temperature threshold. Higher global temperatures amp up the hydrological cycle by squeezing more moisture out of land and ocean surfaces. A warmer atmosphere that’s more heavily loaded with moisture adds move convective energy to thunderstorms which tends to spike rainfall potentials for the strongest storms to higher levels. Image source: Increased Record-Breaking Precipitation Events Under Global Warming.)

In the Indian States of Bahir and Assam more than 430 people have lost their lives as schools have been buried under 8 feet of water, crops have been destroyed, roads have been washed out and power has been disrupted. As with Bangladesh, concern over contaminated water supplies has brought with it fears of water-borne illness as a gargantuan disaster relief effort gets underway.

Nepal has likewise seen its share of the pain and heartbreak. There, more than 140 people have perished in the floods as 40,000 families have been severely impacted.

(Hato, lower left, sets its sights on an already foundering Southeast Asia on August 22nd. Image source: NASA Worldview.)

In total, more than 800 lives have been lost so far throughout these three countries. But the worst may be yet to come as, later this week, the remnants of Typhoon Hato will begin to affect the already-devastated region. Hato’s new injection of moisture and thunderstorms will bring back the potential for severe flooding over Nepal, India, and Bangladesh. Refilling rivers before they have a chance to subside and potentially generating yet one more major flood pulse for the lowlands.

Links:

Floods Claim More than 800 Lives Across India and Nepal

24 Million People Impacted by Flooding in India, Bangladesh and Nepal

NASA Worldview

Increased Record-Breaking Precipitation Events Under Global Warming