#monsoon flooding

[thoughtlessarse]

Torrential, extended rainfall: Asia floods toll tops 1,000 deaths as troops aid survivors

The toll in deadly flooding and landslides across parts of Asia climbed past 1,000 on Monday as hardest-hit Sri Lanka and Indonesia deployed military personnel to help survivors. Separate weather systems brought torrential, extended rainfall to the entire island of Sri Lanka and large parts of Indonesia’s Sumatra, southern Thailand and northern Malaysia last week. Much of the region is currently in its monsoon season but climate change is producing more extreme rain events and turbocharging storms. The relentless rains left residents clinging to rooftops awaiting rescue by boat or helicopter, and cut entire villages off from assistance. Arriving in North Sumatra on Monday, Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto said “the worst has passed, hopefully”.

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[rjzimmerman]

Record monsoon rains have blown floodgates off their hinges as Trump's border wall breaks down.

trump said that his fucking wall would be impenetrable, indestructible, etc. Ha! The monsoonal floods did a number on a section of the wall. Here:

Flood gates on the border wall blown open by monsoon rains near San Bernardino Ranch in Arizona. Photo: Fernando Sobrazo.

Excerpt from this story from Earther/Gizmodo:

It turns out ignoring bedrock environmental laws may not have been the best choice for a multibillion-dollar construction project. Photos show former President Donald Trump’s border wall in deep disrepair after summer monsoon rains literally blew floodgates off their hinges.

The damage took place near San Bernardino Ranch, a historic site that sits between Douglas, Arizona, and the San Bernardino Wildlife Refuge. Much of the West is suffering through a deep megadrought, but the monsoon rains that have swept across parts of the Southwest this summer have doused the southern half of Arizona with record-setting rains. Douglas has seen nearly double its average monsoon season rainfall so far, including a blast that came through on Monday and unleashed flooding on the Arizona-Sonora border. The National Weather Service data shows 2.15 inches (5.5 centimeters) of rain fell, which in turn funneled into washes and drove flooding.

José Manuel Pérez Cantú, the director of the nonprofit Cuenca de Los Ojos, said in an email that six gates were washed out at this location alone. Other gates were also reportedly impacted by the heavy rainfall and flooding. The power and height of the waters can be seen in not just the heavy gates ripped open but the debris that wrapped around intact portions of the wall.

Who could have predicted this? Ah yes, just about everyone.

[morethanus-life]

Indian one-horned rhinoceroses wade through flood waters in Pobitora wildlife sanctuary in the northeastern state of Assam. At least 221 people have died and more than 1.5m have been displaced by monsoon flooding across India, Nepal and Bangladesh

Photograph: Biju Boro/AFP/Getty Images

[thoughtlessarse]

First came the heatwaves, then the floods: Why Pakistan is on the frontline of the climate crisis

“Literally a third of the country is under water,” Pakistan’s Climate Change Minister Sherry Rehman warned this week, after the death toll f

“Literally a third of the country is under water,” Pakistan’s Climate Change Minister Sherry Rehman warned this week, after the death toll from the nation’s devastating floods topped 1,100 after record monsoon rains. The torrential downpours come after a series of heat waves, highlighting Pakistan’s vulnerability to climate change.

Since early June, Pakistan has been the victim of flood after flood: from the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province in the Himalayan foothills, to the arid regions of Balochistan and Sindh in the south, riverbanks have burst and destroyed houses, roads and bridges. Thousands of people have been forced to flee their homes.

Climate Change Minister Rehman described it as a “crisis of unimaginable proportions”, telling AFP news agency that "it's all one big ocean, there's no dry land to pump the water out".

According to authorities, the official death toll climbed to 1,160 on Wednesday, and some 33 million people – or one in every seven Pakistanis – are estimated to have been affected by the extreme weather that has lashed the South Asian nation in recent months. The real death toll, however, is feared to be much higher as entire areas remain inaccessible after being cut off by the floods.

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[thoughtlessarse]

Pakistanis outraged by inept government response to monsoon floods | DW | 29.08.2022

Widespread flooding driven by devastating monsoons has affected 33 million people in Pakistan — some 15% of the population. Anger is growing

For months, tens of millions of people across Pakistan have been battling the worst monsoon floods in over a decade. Pakistan's Climate Minister Sherry Rehman said on Monday that the "crisis of unimaginable proportions" had put a third of Pakistan "under water."

Unprecedented monsoon rains and catastrophic flooding have wreaked havoc on the lives of over 33 million people across Pakistan. 

Officials say that 1,061 people have died since the start of the seasonal rains. The floodwaters have also destroyed crops, affecting over 2 million acres of land in the southern province of Sindh alone — which also reportedly incurred losses of over 400 billion rupees (€1.8 billion, $1.8 billion) due to the floods.

Widespread grief and devastation

Thirty-year-old coal miner Hussain Buksh Marri, from Pakistan's western province of Balochistan, lost three members of his family in July to the catastrophe. His father, brother and cousin were among those who died.

Marri told DW that he and his other cousin were injured during the floods. He complained that no assistance had been provided, despite widespread destruction that overwhelmed his town's markets, houses, buildings and crops.

"We were making preparations for my brother's upcoming wedding when the devastating floods rendered my family homeless and snatched away the meager resources we had left," he said, adding that his mother has been in shock since the death of her husband and son.

The response by authorities has been slow, he told DW. It took them six days to recover the body of one of his family members. So far he has only received promises of help, but no actual assistance, he said.

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[thoughtlessarse]

Flooding in Pakistan kills dozens as monsoon rains lash country

Almost 60 people have been killed and hundreds left homeless in Balochistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa provinces.

Intense floods have killed dozens of people and left hundreds homeless in Pakistan as heavy monsoon rains battered the country, officials said.

In the southern province of Balochistan, 57 people, including women and children, were killed after being swept away in rising flood waters, Ziaullah Langove, the disaster and home affairs adviser to the province’s chief minister, said on Saturday.

Eight dams had burst due to the heavy rains, Langove said.

Hundreds more people were left homeless after their homes collapsed under the rain and flood waters, he said, adding that the torrential monsoon rains were continuing.

In Pakistan’s northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province two people, including a six-year-old, died and four were injured when their house collapsed, according to a district official statement.

Heavy rains have lashed Pakistan in recent days, leaving large swathes of the largest city, Karachi, inundated with water.

Pakistan’s Navy said it was joining efforts to evacuate citizens and deliver rations and fresh water in Balochistan.

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[thoughtlessarse]

Dozens dead, millions stranded as floods ravage Bangladesh, India

Forecasters say the floods were set to worsen over the next two days with heavy rains in Bangladesh and India.

Monsoon storms in Bangladesh and India have killed at least 41 people and unleashed devastating floods that left millions of others stranded, officials said on Saturday.

Floods are a regular menace to millions of people in low-lying Bangladesh, but experts say climate change is increasing their frequency, ferocity and unpredictability.

Relentless downpours over the past week have inundated vast stretches of Bangladesh’s northeast, with troops deployed to evacuate households cut off from neighbouring communities.

Schools have been turned into relief shelters to house entire villages inundated in a matter of hours by rivers that suddenly burst their banks.

“The whole village went under water by early Friday and we all got stranded,” Lokman, whose family lives in Companiganj village, told AFP news agency.

“After waiting a whole day on the roof of our home, a neighbour rescued us with a makeshift boat. My mother said she has never seen such floods in her entire life,” the 23-year-old added.

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[investmart007]

MAE SAI, Thailand | The Latest: 2 ambulances leave from Thai cave entrance

New Post has been published on https://is.gd/kNHrqU

MAE SAI, Thailand | The Latest: 2 ambulances leave from Thai cave entrance

MAE SAI, Thailand— The Latest on the rescue of 12 schoolboys and their soccer coach from a cave in northern Thailand (all times local):

7:15 p.m.

Two ambulances have left from a cave in northern Thailand, hours after an operation began to rescue 12 youth soccer players and their coach.

The ambulances were seen Sunday evening, but it was unclear who was inside them.

Chiang Rai province acting Gov. Narongsak Osatanakorn, who is heading the operation, said earlier Sunday that 13 foreign and five Thai divers were taking part in the rescue and two divers will accompany each boy as they’re gradually extracted. He said the operation began at 10 a.m., and it will take at least 11 hours for the first person to be taken out of the cave.

The boys and their coach became stranded when they went exploring in the cave after a practice game June 23. Monsoon flooding cut off their escape and prevented rescuers from finding them for almost 10 days.

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6:50 p.m.

Thai authorities say it is unknown when the first group of boys trapped in a flooded cave will begin their dive out of the cave, the key part of a rescue operation underway.

In a statement released late Sunday afternoon, Chiang Rai acting Gov. Narongsak Osatanakorn says “divers will work with medics in the cave to assess the boys’ health before determining who will come out first.”

He added: “They cannot decide how many of them will be able to come out for the first operation. Based on the complexity and difficulty of the cave environment it is unknown how long it might take and how many children would exit the cave.”

The rescue operation began at 10 a.m. Sunday when expert divers entered the cave. Trips from the entrance to where the team is trapped and back to the entrance take about 11 hours.

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2:30 p.m.

The Thai navy SEALs, who have been spearheading the rescue effort for the 12 boys and their soccer coach, have posted a photo on their Facebook page with a vow to bring the trapped team home from a flooded cave.

The unit says in a message: “We, the Thai team and the international team, will bring the Wild Boars home.” That’s the name of the young boys’ team.

The risky diving operation to bring them out has started and the first boy is expected to be out of the cave around 9 p.m. Sunday (10 a.m. ET) at the earliest. Rescuers say it may take 2-4 days for the entire team to reach safety, depending on conditions inside the cave.

The local governor in charge of the rescue says the mission was launched Sunday morning because floodwaters inside the cave are at their lowest level in days and rains forecast to hit the region risk flooding the cave again.

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12 noon

A Thai army commander says the ongoing rescue of 12 boys and their coach could take 2-4 days depending on conditions inside the partially flooded cave.

According to Maj. Gen. Chalongchai Chaiyakam, the 13 “will continuously come out in approximately 2-4 days, which all may change depending on weather and water conditions.”

The governor in charge of the operation says two divers will accompany each boy as they are gradually extracted. The operation began at 10 a.m. and he said it would take at least 11 hours for the first person to be rescued.

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11:35 a.m.

The Thai official in charge of the rescue of 12 boys and their soccer coach says they’re physically ready and mentally determined for their extraction now underway from a partially flooded cave.

Chiang Rai acting Gov. Narongsak Osatanakorn says 13 ambulances and helicopters in two separate locations are ready to transport them to hospitals. The first is expected to reach safety at 9 p.m. Sunday (10 a.m. ET) at the earliest.

Narongsak says the rescue mission was launched because floodwaters inside the cave are at their most optimal level.

He says: “If we keep on waiting and the rains come in the next three or four days, our readiness will decrease.”

He also says the families of the boys have been informed about the risky mission.

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10:40 a.m.

A Thai governor says the operation to bring out 12 schoolboys and their soccer coach from deep inside a cave where they have been trapped for two weeks has begun.

The acting Chiang Rai governor has told reporters “today is D-Day” with 13 foreigner and five Thai divers taking part in the rescue.

He says the divers went in at 10 a.m. and the boys will gradually come out accompanied by two divers each. He says the earliest they will come out is 9 p.m. Sunday (10 a.m. ET).

The only way to bring them out is by navigating dark and tight passageways filled with muddy water and strong currents, as well as oxygen-depleted air.

Experienced cave rescue experts consider an underwater escape a last resort, especially with people untrained in diving, as the boys are. The path out is considered especially complicated because of twists and turns in narrow flooded passages.

But the governor supervising the mission said earlier that mild weather and falling water levels over the last few days had created optimal conditions for an underwater evacuation that won’t last if it rains again.

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Corrects day to Sunday.

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8:30 a.m.

Thai authorities have asked media to leave the area around the entrance of the cave where 12 boys and their soccer coach have been trapped for two weeks, fueling speculation that a rescue mission could be imminent.

Dozens of divers have arrived at the cave on Sunday morning.

Thai officials said Saturday they are worried that heavy monsoon rain could soon make the job even more difficult and they may need to quickly rescue the boys and the soccer coach from a partially flooded cave by helping them make risky dives to safety.

The boys, ages 11-16, and their 25-year-old became stranded when they went exploring in the cave after a practice game. Monsoon flooding cut off their escape and prevented rescuers from finding them for almost 10 days.

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By Associated Press