Scores dead as monsoons hit India, Nepal, Bangladesh
July 14, 2019
Monsoon-triggered floods and landslides have killed at least 85 people in South Asia in the past few days. Almost 870,000 people have been affected by floods in India's northeastern state of Assam.
Image: picture-alliance/NurPhoto/S. Ramany
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The death toll from floods and landslides caused by two weeks of torrential monsoons in South Asia has reached 85, officials and news sources reported on Sunday. In Nepal alone, up to 50 people were said to have died in floods and landslides caused by monsoon rains across the country, while dozens more were missing.
Nepal's weather department issued a high alert for the southern Koshi River and sent SMS warnings to people in the area. "Our first priority is lifesaving rescue," Nepalese Home Ministry official Umakanta Adhikari told the AFP news agency, "and all our resources have been deployed."
In Bangladesh, at least 16 people have been killed in lightning strikes, flooding and landslides. The country's weather agency warned of further landslides and urged locals to move to safe locations.
Nepal has been particularly hard-hitImage: Getty Images/AFP/P. Mathema
Police used boats to bring people to safety as rivers swelled, inundating their settlements, while parents carrying children on their shoulders waded through chest-high waters. About 8,000 people rendered homeless by the floods have taken refuge in 68 government-run relief camps.
The monsoon season, which lasts from June to September, causes widespread death and destruction across South Asia each year. Last year, more than 1,200 people died across the region in monsoon storms.
Aid groups have distributed rations to Rohingya refugees in southeastern Bangladesh. On Friday, the UN World Food Programme reported that two people, including a child, had died there.
Rohingya camps in Cox's Bazar hit by monsoons
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'Situation is serious'
In India, disaster teams worked to rescue residents from 1,556 inundated villages across 21 of the 33 districts in the northeastern state of Assam, while agencies provided food and medical supplies to flood victims. The waters in Assam's Brahmaputra River and its tributaries have continued to rise, inundating new areas in recent days.
"The flood situation is serious," an official at the state disaster management control room told news agencies on Saturday. "A total of 869,024 people have been affected, including being displaced, stranded in their homes, or having suffered damages to their crops, land and livelihood." The official added: "While five people died washed away by floods, one was killed in a landslide. All the deaths were reported since Wednesday."
The weather office predicts that heavy rains will continue to lash the region for days.
Just wild weather or climate disruption?
A record heat wave across southeastern Australia, flash floods in Queensland and evacuations in California, Chicago thawing after being frozen stiff by a sudden icy "arctic vortex": Just normal, or out of the ordinary?
Image: Getty Images
'Rossby waves' unlock weather puzzle?
"Breakthrough" insights into atmospheric dynamics are emerging from "high-maths" —scrutiny of satellite data, say scientists. Their Nature magazine article identifies "significant connections" between extreme rain events, often far apart. Their premise: global rainfall distribution stems "probably" from planetary waves named after the late Swedish-born American meteorologist Carl-Gustaf Rossby.
Image: Getty Images/Bettmann Archive
Deluged in Townsville, Queensland
Normally, monsoon rains over northern Queensland last a "few days," says Australia's Bureau of Meteorology. Unprecedented downpours began a week ago, with more forecast and troops sent to a disaster zone. Evacuations have included these residents of Rossela, near Townsville, and German and Swiss tourists plucked from the Diamantina River catchment by a local farmer using his private helicopter.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/A. Rankin
Tasmania scorched, wildfires
Wildfires have scorched swaths of Tasmania, offshore from continental Australia's Victoria state, where residents last month faced a record heat wave. Australia's Bureau of Meteorology (BoM) blames the trend partly on record-warm southern Tasman Sea temperatures that have blocked rain-bearing cold weather fronts. These flow normally west-to-east under Australia toward New Zealand.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/Tasmania Parks And Wildlife Service
Denuded California braces for Pacific storm
Its hills denuded by recent drought-induced wildfires, California's central coast braced Saturday for another Pacific storm, with heavy rainfalls forecast. Santa Barbara County ordered evacuations from areas still clogged by past fire debris. Avalanche warnings were in place on the Sierra Nevada, loaded with snow from storms in January.
Image: picture-alliance/AP Photo/R. Vogel
Chicago thawing
The US Midwest, including Chicago, is thawing after a sudden two-day arctic vortex chill. At least 18 people died. Normally, the icy air mass swirling over the darkened North Pole during the winter stays ringed by the polar jet stream at about 60 degrees north. Stream weakening was also behind the prolonged 2018 European summer drought, according to Potsdam's PIK climate institute.
Image: picture-alliance/ZUMAPRESS.com/J. M. Osorio
Monsoon rains, Indonesia
Indonesia, like much of Asia, weathers annual monsoon rains. Last Tuesday, the Sulawesi islands counted its toll: at least 70 people were killed as rivers burst their banks and landslides buried village homes. Authorities said a state of emergency would remain in place until February 6.
