Tag: Floods

BANGKOK - Serious floods in the south of Thailand have killed three people and affected tens of thousands more, causing about $10 million of damage, officials said Sunday.
Emergency disaster zones have been declared in 34 districts across five provinces since heavy downpours began on Wednesday, according to a statement from the department of disaster prevention and mitigation.
"Since rains began on March 23, there have been floods, strong winds and landslide in several

KARACHI - Either it's the tropical cyclone emerging from Arabian Sea or floods from the River Indus, Thatta is perhaps the most vulnerable city of Sindh. Thousands were displaced from their homes after the floodwater swept Thatta; in the aftermath of the floods, acute water shortage has gripped this backward district of Pakistan.
The situation is such that in many areas of the district, people have been forced to consume contaminated water and inevitably fall sick. Many do not

KARACHI - While countries around globe will be focusing on urban water management on World Water Day that is being observed today, Sindh's rural areas will still be reeling from the affects of floods of 2010 that washed away most water and sanitation systems. Ninety percent of the water supply schemes in nine districts of Sindh as well as sanitation facilities were completely washed away during the 2010 floods, disclosed the Pakistan Council of Research in Water Resources (PCRWR) in a

ISLAMABAD Pakistan's rice exports fell nearly 16 percent in the first eight months of the 2010/11 financial year because of last year's floods, a top industry representative has stated. The world's fifth largest exporter of rice, Pakistan exported 2.38 million tonnes between July and February, down from 2.82 million tonnes in the same period the previous year, according to the Rice Exporters Association of Pakistan (REAP). The export of non-basmati rice dropped 25 percent to 1.66

TANGSE - Flash floods blamed on illegal logging killed 13 people and left six missing in Indonesia's Aceh province, officials and a resident said on Friday. Thousands of people had to be evacuated as water surged through villages following hours of heavy rain on Thursday. "We found eight dead bodies and are still searching for six people reportedly missing," local official Muhammad Jafar told AFP in Tangse, a town 180 kilometres (110 miles) southeast of the provincial capital Banda

COLOMBO - Sri Lanka's latest monsoon rains have claimed at least 17 lives and left around 1.2 million people flooded out of their homes, officials said on Monday. The Disaster Management Centre in Colombo said 311,000 people had sought refuge in state-run relief shelters by Monday morning, while approximately 900,000 were living with friends and relatives.
Monsoon rains only last month in the same areas of the north, east and centre of Sri Lanka killed at least 43 people and

KARACHI - The devastating floods, which had washed away the country's economy in the face of agriculture infrastructure last year, appear to have started reaping fruits for the agrarian economy of Pakistan.
In August 2010, the unprecedented natural calamity inundated Kharif crops, standing approximately at 2.4 million hectares, and displaced over 20 million people. Among the victims were international surveyors from Asian Development Bank and World Bank, while initial direct and

LAHORE - Meteorological Department officials on Thursday denied that floods could have been averted by using the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasting (ECMWF) eight to ten days before prediction of the disaster.
According to Met officials, only huge water reservoirs could have minimised the damage caused by floods. Few days ago, Georgia Institute of Technology Earth and Atmospheric Science Professor Peter Webster claimed, "This disaster and flooding could have been

ISLAMABAD - Adviser to prime minister Ghazanfar Gul told the National Assembly that the government distributed Rs 32 billion among flood survivors from Prime Minister's Flood Relief Fund through the Watan Cards.
Responding to a calling attention notice regarding un-utilisation of flood-funds, Gul said that there was only Rs 6.6 billion left in the fund that too would be distributed soon among the flood-victims. "There is no massive un-utilised fund and the government has

MANILA - The death toll from more than two weeks of heavy rains in the central and southern Philippines has risen to 51, disaster officials said on Sunday, as authorities stepped up their search for another 16 people missing at sea. Agriculture and infrastructure damage now exceeds 1.6 billion pesos ($36 million) after floodwaters inundated rural communities in about a third of the country's 80 provinces, said Benito Ramos, head of the government's disaster agency.
Major rice

TERESOPOLIS - Devastating mudslides and floods swept away entire neighborhoods in mountains near Rio de Janeiro, killing at least 335 people as rescue workers searched frantically for survivors on Thursday. Villages and homes in the three municipalities north of Rio were flattened by rivers of mud and tumbling rocks spilling from the mountains, GloboNews television said. "It's a huge catastrophe, a major disaster," Jorge Mario Sedlacek, the mayor of the worst-hit town of Teresopolis

COLOMBO - Flooding in Sri Lanka has forced more than one million people out of their homes, the government said on Thursday as it began distributing emergency food, clothing and bedding. At least 23 people have died during a week of monsoon floods, with the centre and east of the island worst hit by rising water levels and mudslides.
A spokesman for the disaster management centre in Colombo said the eastern district of Batticaloa, which saw bloody fighting in the civil war that

COLOMBO - At least 18 people have died and nearly one million have been made homeless by flooding in Sri Lanka after days of heavy rains, officials said Wednesday. Central and eastern regions of the island have been worst hit by the monsoon rains, with frequent mudslides and rising water levels. Continuing bad weather forced President Mahinda Rajapakse to abandon a tour of flood-affected areas.
Many schools remained shut with the military deployed to rescue marooned villages and

BRISBANE - Australia's third-biggest city Brisbane was besieged on Wednesday by the worst floods in decades, threatening more than 30,000 homes as the death toll in the raging torrents rose to 12.
Thousands of people fled to higher ground and Brisbane's centre was a "ghost town" as the river city of two million battened down for its worst deluge in decades, as deadly floods inundate vast areas of Australia's northeast. Power was cut to tens of thousands of premises and some

KARACHI

BRISBANE - Thousands of people fled central Brisbane on Tuesday as the panicked city braced for its worst flooding in 120 years, after terrifying flash floods left 10 dead and 78 missing nearby.
Workers evacuated en masse after the Brisbane River burst its banks and officials said 6,500 properties and the downtown area would be hit in Australia's third largest city, which was facing its biggest floods since 1893. "This water is on its way," said Brisbane Lord Mayor Campbell

SYDNEY - Residents in Australia's third largest city, Brisbane, sandbagged their homes against rising waters on Monday as torrential rain worsened floods that have paralysed the coal industry in the northeast and now threaten tourism.
Prime Minister Julia Gillard said the cost of the floods would not delay a return to budget surplus in 2012-13, but J.P. Morgan predicted the disaster would crimp growth this year and could delay another increase in interest rates. The worst floods