Extreme weather report - 23 September, 2019

Stench of death in some 

neighbourhoods of the 

Bahama Islands has become 

overwhelming: Police say 

they don't want to go there: 

1300 still missing

 

the Big Wobble,
23 September, 2019

According to a new report, the stench of death on some neighbourhoods of the Bahama 

Islands has become overwhelming two weeks after Hurrican Dorian smashed its way and 

then stalled for forty-eight hours into the area.

Photo Canada.com

According to the report by CNN, East Grand Bahama still looks like a war zone. The carnage is so widespread that even police officers can't bear to see it. "Police say they don't want to go there. It's too hard on them to go see their people," said Patricia Freling, a Florida nurse who's 
volunteering in East Grand Bahama. "They think there will be a lot of bodies. So we are 
preparing for everything."

The official death toll across the Bahamas is 52. But that number is expected to skyrocket, 
with 1,300 people still missing two weeks after the hurricane. Some may be trapped under 
mountains of rubble where houses once stood. Others may have been washed away in the 
storm surge, their bodies only recently surfacing on land.

Photo Canada.com


According to the report by CNN, East Grand Bahama still looks like a war zone. The carnage is so widespread that even police officers can't bear to see it. "Police say they don't want to go there. It's too hard on them to go see their people," said Patricia Freling, a Florida nurse who's volunteering in East Grand Bahama. "They think there will be a lot of bodies. So we are preparing for everything."


The official death toll across the Bahamas is 52. But that number is expected to skyrocket, with 1,300 people still missing two weeks after the hurricane. Some may be trapped under mountains of rubble where houses once stood. Others may have been washed away in the storm surge, their bodies only recently surfacing on land.


Indonesians suffering 

respiratory problems from 

wildfires reaches almost 1 

million with Malaysia 

Singapore Thailand and the 

Philippines affected too

the Big Wobble,

23 September, 2019

The number of Indonesians suffering respiratory problems caused by smoke from forest and peatland fires blanketing parts of Borneo and Sumatra in the past few months has nearly reached 900,000, according to the authorities. Data released late Friday by the Crisis Mitigation Centre of the Ministry of Health showed that a total of 885,026 people have been suffering from acute respiratory infections. Of the total, 291,807 cases were recorded in South Sumatra province and 268,591 cases in Riau province, both in Sumatra, followed by West Kalimantan province on Borneo with 163,662 cases.

The haze has impacted air quality not only in Indonesia but also in Malaysia, Singapore and as far as Thailand and the Philippines. The smog has forced Indonesia and Malaysia to close thousands of schools, with hundreds of Malaysian flights also being cancelled. Meanwhile, an operation to put out the fires with water bombing and cloud seeding is underway involving almost 30,000 personnel and over 50 helicopters.

Forest and peatland fires in Indonesia are most frequent between April and October, mostly due to slash-and-burn farming practices. Despite the seriousness of the haze problem this year, Indonesia is still unwilling to accept help offers from neighbouring countries. In its Saturday editorial, the English-language Jakarta Post criticized the government for insisting on handling the problem on its own. "Optimism that we can contain the fires ourselves does not help while children suffer even more from the effect of toxic pollutants compared with adults," it said. "We need all the help we can get. Now.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-7494073/Hellish-red-skies-cover-parts-Indonesia-country-gripped-haze.html?fbclid=IwAR1OwKXtmVb4LKmtMihWAnfE2Cixxde0E9ZEM8E-QYJSPXpAVdEjM5VqZTQ

https://watchers.news/2019/09/23/severe-flooding-hits-trinidad-and-tobago-karen-heading-toward-puerto-rico-and-virgin-islands/?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=facebook

CONCEPCION, Bolivia, Sept 22 (Reuters) - Bolivian volunteer firefighters, exhausted from battling blazes sweeping rapidly across the country's lowlands, are starting to lose hope and retreat from the front lines of some infernos in the drought-stricken region.

The fires this year are Bolivia's worst in at least two decades, with the size of burned land across the country nearly doubling in under three weeks, destroying swaths of biodiverse forest and ranches and farms that sustain thousands of people.


In the dusty cattle ranching town of Concepcion, despite nearly two months of non-stop firefighting, blazes that had been put out in surrounding dry forests have reignited while others continue to spread toward the Noel Kempff Mercado National Park, a gateway to pristine Amazonian rainforest.


"Nothing has been controlled. The fires continue," said Elias Johns, the deputy governor of the province of Nuflo Chavez, where Concepcion is located.


While helicopters have doused flames around Concepcion, the Boeing supertanker 747 that Bolivian President Evo Morales ordered to battle blazes across the country has not yet made it here. The heat and smoke are so intense along part of the front lines that firefighters cannot remain working for more than several minutes at a time.


Local firefighters with Bolivia's volunteer-based force say they are poorly equipped with little more than backpacks of water, hoses and machetes, lacking heavy machinery to clear debris and stop fires from advancing.


Some 700 to 800 volunteer firefighters have gone home, Johns said. The province now mostly relies on foreign units from Argentina and France and Bolivian soldiers sent to help.


Many volunteer firefighters are demoralized after working for weeks in smoke-filled landscapes scattered with the charred remains of animals and trees. Four firemen have also died, one by heart attack and three while bathing in a local lake.


"It's physically and emotionally taxing," said Shayir Rezvani, a university student who is one of around 30 firefighters in the province's remaining volunteer unit.


Authorities in Concepcion have set up a special clinic to tend to people suffering respiratory problems from the smoke. The fires have also affected the electrical grid, triggering blackouts and disruptions to water distribution, said Johns.


With no sign of the fires slowing, residents are anxiously waiting for the start of the rainy season, which might not come until October.


Lowland regions have been racked by a drought fueled by an expansion of cattle ranching and soy farming in forested regions, making traditional slash-and-burn practices increasingly risky.


Jose Payme, an indigenous Chiquitano chief, said a drought this year and the fires raging near his ranching community of Santa Marta are the worst it has ever seen.


"We're completely exhausted," said Payme. "We've been working day and night for two months to placate this fire that's so strong, and this drought that's so strong. It's impossible"


Payme said Santa Marta desperately needs a truck for transporting water.


Wildfires in Bolivia this year have spread over 4.1 million hectares (16,000 square miles) through Sept. 15, up from 2.1 million hectares less than three weeks earlier, according to the Bolivian environmental group Fundacion Amigos de la Naturaleza.


The area burned this year has already topped the previous record since the turn of the century, 3.8 million hectares in 2010.


"This is a warning for the entire continent. If we keep destroying the Amazon forest, we will soon reach the tipping point where the forest loses its capacity to recycle humidity and precipitation," said Lykke Andersen, the head of Bolivia's Sustainable Development Solutions Network.

http://news.trust.org/item/20190922093504-v5w0k/?fbclid=IwAR0PojF1d-UifaguI7Q5thTF7vAw66mbM4oYyyy1ayOeGNxj5CfEjB104VM