Tag Archives: extreme weather

World

12 die in flooded subway car during historic rains in China

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A dozen people died Wednesday after getting trapped in a flooded subway in Zhengzhou, China — which was inundated by what experts said were the heaviest rains in 1,000 years.

Horrifying video captured terrified commuters chest-deep in the gushing water on a train as an underground station in the city in central Henan province was swept by the roiling flood. More than 500 people were rescued.

“The water reached my chest,” one straphanger wrote on social media. “I was really scared, but the most terrifying thing was not the water, but the diminishing air supply in the carriage.”

President Xi Jinping called the flood control situation “very severe” and ordered authorities to “prioritize the safety of people’s lives and properties,” CNN reported, citing state news agency Xinhua.

Footage broadcast by the Chinese outlet shows passengers trapped inside the flooded subway car, packed tightly together as the water climbs higher while dark floodwater surges down the tracks.

Many of those trapped posted desperate calls for help on social media.

People trapped in the subway trains, desperately reached out for help via social media.
Courtesy of Weibo user merakiZz-/AFP via Getty Images
While many were rescued, 12 people died trapped in a flooded subway in Zhengzhou, China.
Courtesy of Weibo user merakiZz-/AFP via Getty Images

“The water inside the carriage has reached chest-levels! I already can’t speak anymore, please help!” wrote one woman, who went by the name Xiaopei, CNN reported.

“If no rescue comes in 20 minutes, several hundreds of us will lose our lives in Zhengzhou subway,” she added later. Authorities later confirmed she had been rescued.

A woman was captured in one video posted by the BBC being rescued after being swept down a street flooded by muddy water and another clip shows children and teachers being rescued from a flooded school in Zhengzhou.

A woman stands on a flooded road in Henan, Zhengzhou province, China on July 20, 2021.
VIA REUTERS

Due to the epic deluge, authorities in the city of 12 million people about 400 miles southwest of Beijing, had halted bus services, said a Zhengzhou resident surnamed Guo, who spent the night at his office.

“That’s why many people took the subway, and the tragedy happened,” Guo told Reuters.

The death toll since the torrential rains began last weekend rose to at least 16 on Wednesday, with four residents reported dead in Gongyi, a city located by the banks of the Yellow River, like Zhengzhou, according to local reports.

The rainfall in Zhengzhou in the past three days was described as happening “once in a thousand years.”
WeChat

More rain is forecast across Henan for the next three days, and the People’s Liberation Army has deployed more than 3,000 troops and personnel to help with search and rescue.

The rainfall in Zhengzhou in the past three was on a level seen only “once in a thousand years,” according to local meteorologists.

Scientists told Reuters that the extreme rainfall in China was almost certainly linked to global warming, as in the case of the major flooding that has ravaged western Europe. “The common thread here is clearly global warming,” Johnny Chan, professor of atmospheric science at City University of Hong Kong, told the news agency.

People walk in the flooded road after record downpours in Zhengzhou, China on July 20, 2021.
EPA

“Such extreme weather events will likely become more frequent in the future. What is needed is for governments (city, provincial and national) to develop strategies to adapt to such changes,” he added.

With Post wires



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World

Siblings capture hellish moment they were struck by lightning

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Three English siblings were struck by lightning Monday and captured the hellish-looking scene in a mind-blowing selfie photo.

The Jobsons — Rachel, Isobel and Andrew — escaped with just burns and a short hospital stay after being zapped while standing under a tree during a storm over East Molesey, they told the BBC.

The trio had stopped for a bathroom break while cycling to see their aunt when they first snapped a selfie of them smiling.

“We then wanted a sad picture in the rain,” Isobel, 23, told the news outlet.

“All of a sudden I was on the ground and couldn’t hear anything apart from this high-pitched buzzing,” she said.

Rachel said she suffered burns to her thigh and her stomach, and temporarily lost feeling in her arm.

“I was on the ground. I felt disjointed. My sister and I were screaming,” said Rachel.

The trio had stopped for a bathroom break while cycling to when they snapped a selfie during the storm.
Isobel Jobson
Rachel, Isobel and Andrew Jobson luckily only suffered minor injuries after the lightning strike.
Isobel Jobson

The siblings were taken to St George’s Hospital in Tooting, where they were treated and released hours later, the report said.

Isobel had a titanium plate surgically implanted in her arm after a bicycle crash last year, and the family was told the metal may have attracted the electricity.

“My sister’s arm was very hot, because of the plate. Everyone was amazed at what had happened to us,” Rachel told the outlet.

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Science

NASA: Moon “wobble” to cause dramatic increases in coastal flooding in 2030s

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A “wobble” in the moon’s orbit will combine with rising sea levels due to the Earth’s warming to bring “a decade of dramatic increases” in high-tide coastal floods across the U.S. in the 2030s, NASA warns in a new study.

Why it matters: Low-lying areas near sea level already increasingly at risk from flooding will see their situation “only get worse,” per a statement from NASA administrator Bill Nelson.

“The combination of the Moon’s gravitational pull, rising sea levels, and climate change will continue to exacerbate coastal flooding on our coastlines and across the world.”

— Nelson

Of note: Phil Thompson, an assistant professor at the University of Hawaii and the lead author of the study, published this month in Nature Climate Change, said high-tide floods involve less water than hurricane storm surges.

  • But “if it floods 10 or 15 times a month, a business can’t keep operating with its parking lot under water,” Thompson said.
  • “People lose their jobs because they can’t get to work,” he added “Seeping cesspools become a public health issue.”

The big picture: Scientists have known about wobbles in the orbit of the moon, which takes 18.6 years to complete, since 1728.

  • While such events are not dangerous on their own, what’s new is how one of the wobble’s effects on the moon’s gravitational pull — the main cause of Earth’s tides — will combine with rising sea levels resulting from the planet’s warming, according to NASA.

What they did: For the study, researchers found the tipping points in flood numbers by analyzing 89 tide gauge locations in every coastal U.S. state and territory but Alaska.

  • “They created a new statistical framework that mapped NOAA’s widely used sea level rise scenarios and flooding thresholds, the number of times those thresholds have been exceeded annually, astronomical cycles, and statistical representations of other processes, such as El Niño events, that are known to affect tides,” per a NASA statement.
  • The researchers projected results through 2080.

State of play: We’re now in the tide-amplifying part of this cycle. Along most U.S. coastlines, sea levels haven’t risen too much, but high tides regularly top flooding thresholds.

The bottom line: By the next tide-amplifying cycle in the mid-2030s, the wobble in the moon’s orbit will combine with rising sea levels.

  • “The higher seas, amplified by the lunar cycle, will cause a leap in flood numbers on almost all U.S. mainland coastlines, Hawaii, and Guam,” NASA warns.
  • Far northern coastlines, like Alaska’s, will be spared for another decade or longer because these land areas are rising due to long-term geological processes.

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World

Lightning strike kills 18 selfie takers on tourist site in Jaipur

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A lightning strike killed 18 people Sunday when a bolt blasted a watchtower where tourists were snapping storm selfies in Jaipur, India.

There were a total of 27 individuals at the top of the 12th century Amer Fort, the popular tourist attraction where the strike occurred, according to BBC News.

Some of the victims leapt to the ground as the lightning came down, and law enforcement officials have reported that most of them were young people.

Video captured by Reuters TV partner ANI showed empty shoes left by the dead.

“Many people died in front of our eyes. If people had gotten help and authorities had reached on time then [they would have been alive],” an eyewitness told ANI. “We brought many people down. We rescued the people who were still alive, those who were still breathing and pulled some people out of the gorge.”

Dozens more were killed as a result of a storm system that tore through northern India. Nine more deaths occurred in Rajasthan state, where Jaipur is located. At least another 41 people died in the state of Uttar Pradesh, plus seven others in Madhya Pradesh.

A lightning strike captured in Jaipur on Sunday was one of many to kill dozens of Indians this weekend as a storm system tore through the country’s northern states.
NurPhoto via Getty Images

Lightning strikes are not uncommon in India where they’re known to kill at least 2,000 citizens annually, especially in rural and agricultural regions where people predominantly work and spend their time outdoors. Strikes are most common between June and September, during India’s monsoon season, and are thought to be increasing in frequency, according to Indian Meteorological Department. Data shows that lightning phenomena have increased 30% to 40% in approximately 30 years — a trend which some believe has been nurtured by climate change.

Chief ministers in Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan, with support from Prime Minister Narendra Modi, have plans to provide compensation for families who have lost loved ones.

It’s far from the first incident of photographers risking — and losing — life and limb for the sake of a selfie. The most recent data available showed that at least 259 people worldwide died in selfie-related accidents between 2011 and 2017, including risky cliffside photo ops and too-close attempts at consorting with wild animals.



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