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World

New Zealand counts cost of Auckland floods, more rain forecast

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WELLINGTON, Jan 30 (Reuters) – Flood-ravaged Auckland is forecast to receive further heavy rain in the coming days, authorities in New Zealand’s largest city said on Monday, as insurers counted the costs of what looks likely to be the country’s most expensive weather event ever.

Four people lost their lives in flash floods and landslides that hit Auckland over the last three days amid record downpours. A state of emergency remains in place in Auckland. A state of emergency in the Waitomo region south of Auckland was lifted.

Flights in and out of Auckland Airport are still experiencing delays and cancellations, beaches around the city of 1.6 million are closed and all Auckland schools will remain closed until Feb. 7.

“There has been very significant damage across Auckland,” New Zealand Prime Minister Chris Hipkins told state-owned television station TVNZ on Monday. “Obviously there were a number of homes damaged by flooding but also extensive earth movements.”

Currently, around 350 people were in need of emergency accommodation, he added.

LOOMING CLOUDS

Metservice is forecasting further heavy rains to hit the already sodden city late on Tuesday.

“We have more adverse weather coming and we need to prepare for that,” Auckland Emergency Management duty controller Rachel Kelleher told a media conference.

Fire and Emergency services received 30 callouts overnight Monday, including responding to a landslide when a carport slid down a hill.

The council has designated 69 houses as uninhabitable and has prevented people from entering them. A further 300 properties were deemed at risk, with access restricted to certain areas for short periods.

The north of New Zealand’s North Island is receiving more rain than normal due to the La Nina weather event.

The National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research (NIWA) said Auckland has already recorded more than eight times its average January rainfall and 40% of its annual average rainfall.

INSURERS FACE HEFTY BILL

The cost of the clean up is expected to top the NZ$97 million ($63 million) bill for flooding on the West Coast in 2021 but will not be anywhere near as expensive as the estimated NZ$31 billion insured costs of two major earthquakes in Christchurch in 2010-2011, said Insurance Council of New Zealand spokesperson Christian Judge.

Insurance Australia Group’s (IAG.AX) New Zealand divisions have received over 5,000 claims so far and Suncorp Group (SUN.AX) said it received around 3,000 claims across the Vero and AA Insurance Brands. New Zealand’s Tower (TWR.NZ) said it had received around 1,900 claims.

“The number of claims is expected to rise further over the coming days, with the event still unfolding and as customers identify damage to their property,” IAG said in a statement.

Economists say the recovery and rebuild could add to inflationary pressures in New Zealand as vehicles and household goods need to be replaced and there is an increase in construction work needed to repair or rebuild houses and infrastructure damaged by the flooding.

($1 = 1.5385 New Zealand dollars)

Reporting by Lucy Craymer; Editing by Aurora Ellis and Lincoln Feast

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US

California rainstorm death toll reaches 20, Biden plans visit

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Jan 16 (Reuters) – The parade of atmospheric rivers that pounded California for three weeks finally faded on Monday, enabling the state to begin lengthy repairs to roads and levees as the White House announced President Joe Biden planned to survey the damage.

The nine consecutive rainstorms that inundated California in succession since Dec. 26 killed at least 20 people while tens of thousands remained under evacuation orders as of Monday, Governor Gavin Newsom said in an executive order that reinforced the state’s response to storm damage.

“The last of the heavier rain in California is slowly fading. After midnight it shouldn’t be heavy anymore,” said meteorologist David Roth of the National Weather Service’s Weather Prediction Center.

Biden will travel to areas of the central coast on Thursday to meet first responders, visit affected towns, and “assess what additional federal support is needed,” the White House said.

The president had already issued an emergency declaration on Jan. 8 to free up federal aid and then on Saturday authorized disaster assistance for Merced, Sacramento and Santa Cruz counties.

The White House has yet to reveal the areas Biden will visit.

Among the more dramatic images of storm damage were those of Highway 1, the scenic coastal highway near Big Sur, which was closed at several points due to mudslides and falling boulders strewn across the road.

While damaging, the storms also helped mitigate a historic drought, as much of the state has already received half or more its average annual rainfall.

The Russian River, swollen with floodwater following a chain of winter storms, flows past the town of Guerneville, California, U.S. January 15, 2023. REUTERS/Fred Greaves/File Photo

But with more than two months to go in the rainy season, officials are urging Californians to continue conserving water. The U.S. Drought Monitor still shows almost the entire state under moderate or severe drought conditions. Reservoir levels were still below average for this time of year, officials said.

Moreover, the atmospheric rivers largely failed to reach the Colorado River basin, a critical source of southern California’s water.

“If you rely on the Colorado River basin as a part of your water supply, then there will be continuing drought problems due to the extreme drought in that part of the world,” Michael Anderson, California’s state climatologist, told reporters.

The Colorado’s two major reservoirs, Lake Mead and Lake Powell, were at 28.5% and 22.6% of capacity, respectively, and still below levels from this time a year ago according to Water-Data.com.

The ninth consecutive atmospheric river fizzled out on Monday, its remnants soaking the southernmost part of the state, Arizona and northern Mexico, Roth said.

The storms are akin to rivers in the sky that carry moisture from the Earth’s tropics to higher latitudes, dumping massive amounts of rain.

Another storm was coming that could bring moderate rain on Tuesday and Wednesday. The U.S. National Weather Service said it lacked the volume to be classified as an atmospheric river, while the state Department of Water Resources said it may briefly qualify as one.

California can otherwise expect dry conditions for the remainder of January, state officials said.

Reporting by Daniel Trotta in Carlsbad, Calif., and Rich McKay in Atlanta; Editing by Josie Kao, Grant McCool and Jamie Freed

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World

Philippine capital braces for storm Nalgae, death toll cut to 45

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  • Most casualties in landslide-hit Maguindanao province
  • Death toll reduced to 45 from 72 after checks
  • Philippines has annual average of 20 tropical storms

MANILA, Oct 29 (Reuters) – Manila and nearby towns braced on Saturday for Tropical Storm Nalgae, which has killed 45 people, mostly because of landslides in southern provinces of the Philippines.

The Southeast Asian nation’s disaster agency reduced its death toll to 45 from 72 after checking reports from ground staff, including rescue workers searching for 18 missing persons.

Residents in the capital’s coastal area were evacuated while classes across all levels were suspended, according to the mayor’s office.

Manila Mayor Honey Lacuna-Pangan ordered the closure of the city’s cemeteries, where millions had been expected to visit during the extended All Saints’ Day weekend, on Saturday.

The tropical storm, which has maximum sustained winds of 95 kilometres (60 miles) per hour and gusts of up to 130 kph (80 mph), has made multiple landfall in the eastern Philippines on Saturday.

The state weather agency, in its latest bulletin, warned of widespread flooding and landslides because of heavy and at times torrential rains over the capital region and nearby provinces as Nalgae cuts through the main Luzon island and heads to the South China Sea.

Airlines have cancelled 116 domestic and international flights to and from the Philippines’ main gateway. Nearly 7,500 passengers, drivers, and cargo helpers and 107 vessels were stranded in ports, the coast guard said.

Government agencies were giving aid and food packs to affected families, President Ferdinand Marcos Jr said on Twitter.

Coast guard personnel guided residents through chest-deep floods, with rescuers using a monobloc plastic chair and an old refrigerator to carry children and elderly people in the central Leyte province, according to photos shared by the agency.

The bulk of the deaths, at 40, have been reported in the southern Maguindanao province.

“We are not discounting the possibility of more casualties,” Cyrus Torrena, provincial administrator of Maguindanao, told DZMM radio station. “But we pray it does not go up significantly.”

The Philippines sees an average of 20 tropical storms annually. In December, category 5 typhoon Rai ravaged central provinces, leaving 407 dead and more than 1,100 injured.

Reporting by Neil Jerome Morales; Editing by Chris Reese and William Mallard

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World

Storm Julia kills 25 in Central America as it churns toward Mexico

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SAN SALVADOR, Oct 10 (Reuters) – The death toll from storm Julia rose to at least 25 on Monday, officials said, with most victims in El Salvador and Guatemala, as the weakening storm dumped heavy rain on a swath of Central America and southern Mexico.

Salvadoran authorities reported the deaths of 10 people, including five soldiers, and said more than 1,000 people were evacuated.

In Guatemala, eight were killed between Sunday and Monday, according to officials, while seven were injured and hundreds more affected by the storm.

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Authorities in both El Salvador and Guatemala also canceled classes on Monday.

In Honduras, five victims have been confirmed including a woman who died Sunday after she was swept away by flood waters, and a four-year-old boy in a boat that capsized near the Nicaragua border on Saturday night, officials said.

Panama’s emergency services confirmed later on Monday two deaths as a result of heavy rains, with around 300 people evacuated from communities near the country’s border with Costa Rica.

Julia made landfall Sunday on Nicaragua’s Caribbean coast before crossing into the Pacific Ocean.

By Monday afternoon, Julia had dissipated and what was left of the storm was moving northwest at 15 miles per hour (24 km/h) over Guatemala near the border with Mexico, according to the U.S. National Hurricane Center (NHC).

The Miami-based NHC estimated Julia’s maximum sustained winds at about 30 mph (45 km/h).

The NHC warned of life-threatening surf and rip conditions along the coasts of El Salvador and Guatemala, while heavy rain could still cause flash flooding.

It predicted an additional one to four inches of rain in El Salvador and southern Guatemala, and three to six inches on Mexico’s Tehuantepec isthmus.

The storm system is expected to weaken further Monday, the NHC said.

Honduran authorities added that 9,200 people sought refuge in shelters.

In Nicaragua, Julia left a million people without power and heavy rains and floods forced the evacuations of more than 13,000 families.

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Reporting by Nelson Renteria in San Salvador; Additional reporting by Gustavo Palencia in Tegucigalpa, Eli Moreno in Panama City; Enrique Garcia in Guatemala City and Brendan O’Boyle in Mexico City; Editing by Richard Chang and Kim Coghill

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World

Storm Fiona hammers Canada’s east coast, forcing evacuations

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HALIFAX, Nova Scotia, Sept 24 (Reuters) – Powerful storm Fiona slammed into eastern Canada on Saturday with hurricane-force winds, forcing evacuations, blowing over trees and powerlines, and leaving hundreds of thousands of homes and businesses without electricity.

The U.S. National Hurricane Center (NHC) said the center of the storm, downgraded to Post-Tropical Cyclone Fiona, was now in the Gulf of St. Lawrence after racing through Nova Scotia.

After taking its toll on Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island, the storm battered Newfoundland, but is now likely to weaken, the NHC said.

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Port aux Basques on the southwest tip of Newfoundland declared a state of emergency and is evacuating parts of the town that suffered flooding and road washouts, according to Mayor Brian Button and police.

“First responders are dealing with multiple electrical fires, residential flooding and washouts. Residents are asked to obey evacuation orders and to find a safe place to weather the storm,” the Royal Canadian Mounted Police in Newfoundland said on Twitter.

“This is hitting us really, really hard right now,” Button said in a Saturday morning video posted on Facebook in which he urged residents to stay indoors or, if asked, to evacuate. “We have a fair bit of destruction in town… We do not need anyone else injured or hurt in during this.”

Homes along the coastline were destroyed by the storm surge, CBC reported, showing images of debris and extensive damage in the town.

Fiona, which nearly a week ago battered Puerto Rico and other parts of the Caribbean, made landfall between Canso and Guysborough, Nova Scotia, where the Canadian Hurricane Centre said it recorded what may have been the lowest barometric pressure of any storm to hit land in the country’s history.

Ian Hubbard, meteorologist for the Canadian Hurricane Centre, told Reuters it appears Fiona lived up to expectations that it would be a “historical” storm.

“It did look like it had the potential to break the all-time record in Canada, and it looks like it did,” he said. “We’re still not out of this yet.”

Storms are not uncommon in the region and typically cross over rapidly, but Fiona is expected to impact a very large area.

Hubbard said Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island still have many hours of strong winds, rain and storm surge to go, and the west coast of Newfoundland would be pounded throughout the day.

While scientists have not yet determined whether climate change influenced Fiona’s strength or behavior, there is strong evidence that these devastating storms are getting worse.

HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS WITHOUT POWER

Some 79% of customers, or 414,000, were without power in Nova Scotia, and 95%, or 82,000, had lost power on Prince Edward Island, utility companies said. The region was also experiencing spotty mobile phone service. Police across the region reported multiple road closures.

“She was a wild ride last night, sounded like the whole roof was going to blow off,” said Gary Hatcher, a retiree who lives in Sydney, Nova Scotia, near where the storm made landfall. A maple tree was toppled in his back yard but did not damage his house.

Sydney recorded wind gusts of 141 kph (88 mph), Hubbard said.

The storm weakened somewhat as it traveled north. As of 11 a.m. (1500 GMT), it was over the Gulf of St. Lawrence about 100 miles (160 km) west-north-west of Port aux Basques, carrying maximum winds of 80 miles per hour (130 kph) and barreling north at around 25 mph (41 kph), the NHC said.

Fiona is expected to maintain hurricane-force winds until Saturday afternoon, the NHC said.

As a powerful hurricane when it lashed Caribbean islands earlier in the week, Fiona killed at least eight and knocked out power for virtually all of Puerto Rico’s 3.3 million people during a sweltering heat wave. Nearly a million people remained without power five days later.

No casualties have yet been reported in Canada.

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau delayed Saturday’s departure for Japan, where he was to attend the funeral of former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, to receive briefings and support the government’s emergency response, Press Secretary Cecely Roy said on Twitter.

Canadian authorities sent emergency alerts in Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island, warning of severe flooding along shorelines and extremely dangerous waves. People in coastal areas were advised to evacuate.

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Reporting Eric Martyn in Halifax and John Morris in Stephenville; Additional reporting by Ivelisse Rivera in San Juan, Puerto Rico and Ismail Shakil and Steve Scherer in Ottawa; Writing by Steve Scherer; Editing by Frances Kerry and Bill Berkrot

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World

Hurricane Fiona slams Turks and Caicos as Category 3 storm, heads for Bermuda

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SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico, Sept 20 (Reuters) – Hurricane Fiona slammed into the Turks and Caicos Islands as a powerful Category 3 storm on Tuesday, dumping heavy rains and triggering floods on the Caribbean archipelago after cutting a path of destruction through the Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico.

U.S. officials said the storm had claimed four lives in Puerto Rico. A fifth person was killed in Guadeloupe earlier in the week.

U.S. Health Secretary Xavier Becerra declared a public health emergency for Puerto Rico on Tuesday night, freeing up federal funds and equipment to assist the island.

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The storm slammed Grand Turk, the Turks and Caicos’s biggest island on Tuesday morning, before hitting its main cluster of islands several hours later.

Strengthening with wind speeds of 125 mph (201 kmh), Fiona was heading north towards Bermuda on Tuesday night and was expected to strike as a Category 4 storm on Thursday, the National Hurricane Center (NHC) said.

Canadian officials warned of powerful post-tropical conditions hitting Nova Scotia, Newfoundland, New Brunswick and Price Edward Island by Saturday.

Turks and Caicos Deputy Governor Anya Williams said power outages had hit five islands but no deaths had yet been reported.

“Shutting the country down early is what helped us save lives,” Williams told Reuters. She said her government was communicating with the British Royal Navy and U.S. Coast Guard, with the British Navy patrol vessel HMS Medway expected to arrive on Tuesday night to help with rescue efforts.

Jaquan Harvey, 37, a businessman who lives on Grand Turk, said wind drove rain water through the seams of the windows and doors as his house shook.

“It was very loud, like there were giants outside shouting and roaring,” Harvey said. “You could feel the pressure of the air as everything rattled.”

To the south, the Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico were stunned by the storm’s intensity and were struggling to cope with the aftermath.

Deanne Criswell, head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), arrived in Puerto Rico – a U.S. territory – on Tuesday to assess the damage, agency officials said.

Officials said multiple FEMA teams, including two search and rescue units, were being deployed and several hundred FEMA personnel were already on the island.

PAINFUL ANNIVERSARY

Aerial view of the river Soco in the aftermath of Hurricane Fiona, in El Seibo, Dominican Republic, September 20, 2022. REUTERS/Jesus Frias

Hurricane Fiona was a painful reminder of Puerto Rico’s vulnerability. Tuesday marked the five-year anniversary of Hurricane Maria, a Category 5 storm which killed about 3,000 people and destroyed its power grid.

Thousands of Puerto Ricans still live under tarpaulin roofs.

Fiona made landfall in Puerto Rico on Sunday afternoon, dumping up to 30 inches (76.2 cm) of rain in some areas and triggering catastrophic flooding.

Nearly 80% of Puerto Rico remained without power on Tuesday, according to Poweroutage.us. Officials said it would take days to reconnect the whole island of 3.3 million people.

“It knocked down many trees, there are downed poles and here in the house we got water where it had never happened before,” said Asbertly Vargas, a 40-year-old mechanic in Yauco, a town along the island’s southern coast.

Puerto Rico power provider LUMA Energy said it had restored electricity to 100,000 customers but that it would take days for full restoration.

On the Turks and Caicos Islands, a British Overseas Territory with a population of about 40,000 about 700 miles (1,125 km) southeast of Florida, the government told residents to shelter in place until further notice, and ordered businesses to close.

Foreign governments issued travel alerts for the islands, a popular tourist destination.

Similar preparations were under way in the eastern Bahamas, which the storm could skirt on Wednesday.

It could mushroom into a Category 4 storm in coming days, reaching Canada’s Atlantic coast by late Friday, the NHC said.

Hurricanes are deemed “major” by the NHC once they reach Category 3 status, which is wind speeds of between 111mph and 129mph (178kmh-208kmh). A Category 4 storm has “catastrophic” wind speeds of between 130mph and 156mph. The most powerful Category 5 hurricane has wind speeds exceeding 157mph.

In the Dominican Republic, severe flooding limited road access to villages, forced 12,500 people from their homes and knocked out power to hundreds of thousands of people.

Fiona was the first hurricane to score a direct hit on the Dominican Republic since Jeanne left severe damage in the east of the country in 2004.

As of Monday night, the country’s emergency center counted more than 1.1 million people without drinking water and more than 700,000 without electricity.

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Reporting by Ivelisse Rivera, Ezequiel Abiu Lopez and Rich McKay in Atlanta; Additional reporting by Tim Reid and Brad Brooks; Writing by Tyler Clifford; Editing by Richard Chang and Stephen Coates

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World

Hurricane Fiona seen intensifying after slamming Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico

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SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico/Santo Domingo, Sept 19 (Reuters) – Hurricane Fiona was churning north on Monday evening after bringing torrential rain and powerful winds to the Dominican Republic and triggering a total power outage in neighboring Puerto Rico, where at least two people died.

The Category 2 hurricane will likely become a Category 3 as it moves across warm Caribbean waters toward the Turks and Caicos. Fiona was upgraded to a Category 2 with winds of 105 mph (169 kph) by the National Hurricane Center on Monday evening.

On Tuesday, the center of Fiona is expected to pass near or to the east of the archipelago, which is subject to a current hurricane warning, the U.S. National Hurricane Center (NHC) said. Tropical storm conditions were also expected in the Bahamas.

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After strafing Puerto Rico, Fiona made landfall in the Dominican Republic near Boca Yuma at 3:30 a.m. local time, according to the NHC. The center of the storm reached the northern coast of Hispaniola before noon.

It is the first hurricane to score a direct hit on the Dominican Republic since Jeanne left severe damage in the east of the country in September 2004.

Fiona caused severe flooding, leaving several villages isolated, and some 800 evacuees and more than 11,000 people without power in the eastern region of the country.

“The damage is considerable,” said Dominican Republic President Luis Abinader. He plans to declare a state of disaster in the provinces of La Altagracia, where the famed resort of Punta Cana is located, El Seibo and Hato Mayor.

In La Altagracia, in the extreme east of the country and where the hurricane made landfall Monday morning, the overflow of the Yuma River damaged agricultural areas and left several towns isolated.

Electric and water utilities are working to restore services in affected areas.

In Puerto Rico, a territory of the United States, residents were still facing strong winds, frequent lightning and heavy rain.

Fiona made landfall there on Sunday afternoon, dumping up to 30 inches (76.2 cm) of rain in some areas.

The storm comes five years after the Puerto Rico was ravaged by Hurricane Maria, which triggered the worst power blackout in U.S. history.

U.S. President Joe Biden spoke with Puerto Rico Governor Pedro Pierluisi on Monday, promising to increase the support personnel sent to the island over the next few days.

“The President said that he will ensure that the Federal team remains on the job to get it done,” according to the White House.

Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) Administrator Deanne Criswell will travel there on Tuesday.

Jeannette Rivera, 54, a public relations worker in Orlando, Florida, said she had not spoken with her family since a spotty phone call early Sunday.

A view of destroyed buildings in the aftermath of Hurricane Fiona in Punta Cana, Dominican Republic, September 19, 2022. REUTERS/Ricardo Rojas

She fears for her parents’ safety and the health of her 84-year-old father, who had just contracted COVID-19 and was running a fever.

“My worry is that if they need help, there’s no way to communicate,” Rivera said.

WITHOUT POWER

Nearly 90% of Puerto Rico remained without power on Monday, according to Poweroutage.us. Officials said it would take days to reconnect the whole island of 3.3 million people.

Many roads were left impassable due to downed trees and mudslides. Images on social media depicted submerged cars, people wading in waist-deep water and rescue boats floating down swamped streets. Just 30% of drinking water customers have service.

Crews rescued some 400 people from flooding in Salinas, a town in the south where rain has turned to a drizzle. The south and southeast regions were the hardest hit.

Puerto Rico’s power grid remains fragile despite emergency repairs after Maria, according to Center for a New Economy, a Puerto Rican think tank.

Maria, a Category 5 storm in 2017 which killed more than 3,000 people, left 1.5 million customers without electricity and knocked out 80% of power lines. Thousands of Puerto Ricans still live under makeshift tarpaulin roofs.

While the National Weather Service lifted its hurricane warning for Puerto Rico on Monday, officials warned that rainbands could follow the storm system for hundreds of miles.

A 70-year-old man in the northern town of Arecibo is the first known casualty in Puerto Rico. He was trying to start his electric generator when the machine exploded, killing him instantly, police said.

A second man drowned in the afternoon. Police said an 88-year-old woman died of a heart attack at a shelter.

Hundreds of responders were assisting in recovery efforts after Biden declared an emergency for the island, allowing FEMA to coordinate disaster relief and provide emergency protective measures.

Pierluisi said the government’s response has been much more efficient than during Hurricane Maria, which became highly politicized with former President Donald Trump’s administration criticized for being too sluggish in providing disaster relief. Trump refuted that.

The government has not estimated the damages, since it is still in the response period, though the governor said damages were in the millions.

For most of the five years since Maria struck Puerto Rico, the debt-laden government and the Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority were mired in bankruptcy and island finances were managed by a federally appointed oversight board.

(This story corrects year that Hurricane Jeanne struck Dominican Republic to 2004, not 2018, in 5th paragraph)

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Reporting by Ivelisse Riveria in San Juan and Ezequiel Abiu Lopez in Santo Domingo; Additional reporting by Tyler Clifford, Rich McKay, Trevor Hunnicutt, Mica Rosenberg, Christian Plumb and Tim Reid; Writing by Tyler Clifford and Costas Pitas; Editing by Frank McGurty, Mark Porter, Richard Chang and Leslie Adler

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World

Like a scene from ‘Parasite’: Floods lay bare social disparity in South Korea

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SEOUL, Aug 10 (Reuters) – Using a plastic bowl, Ha In-sik bailed water out of his lower ground apartment in the low-income housing district of Sillim in southwestern Seoul on Wednesday, where flooding caused by torrential rain forced his family to sleep at a nearby park.

The 50-year-old man, along with his wife and daughter had collected home appliances, furniture, books and even cutlery, and put them outside to see what was salvageable.

The scene bore uncomfortable similarities with the sewage-flooded semi-basement flat depicted in the 2020 Oscar-winning South Korean film “Parasite,” that was a tale of growing social disparity in Asia’s fourth-largest economy.

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The floods have caused inconvenience and monetary losses in the wealthier parts of the capital, like the glitzy Gangnam neighbourhood a few miles away.

But in places like Sillim, the floods have snuffed out what little hope desperate people like Ha had clung to in order just to keep going.

“I’ve got no money, nothing. But I had come here to live in this basement, as it was only option I had to live with my daughter,” Ha told Reuters.

“But I’m hopeless now. Everything is gone, there’s no help and I don’t even have a spoon to eat food with.”

Ha wasn’t alone in his misery. Other residents in Sillim were scooping up water with large bowls or combing through the detritus to see whatever was still usable.

On Monday, three family members living in the neighbourhood, including a woman with developmental disabilities, drowned in their lower ground apartment. President Yoon Suk-yeol visited Sillim a day later.

South Korean soldiers clean up debris from a house that had been submerged by torrential rain in Seoul, South Korea, August 10, 2022. Yonhap/via REUTERS

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On Wednesday, Yoon apologised for the tragedy and called for measures to improve housing safety to protect old, poor or disabled people and families, like Ha’s, whose homes were most vulnerable to flooding.

At least 10 people have perished as a result of the torrential rain that has swept across the northern part of the country since Monday, knocking out power, causing landslides and flooding roads and subways. read more

This week’s deluge brought the heaviest rains in 115 years in Seoul, according to the Korea Meteorological Administration.

As of Wednesday, it said, six people were still missing, 570 have at least temporarily lost their homes, while 1,400 have been evacuated, mostly in Seoul, the Central Disaster and Safety Countermeasures Headquarters said.

As the rain clouds moved southwards on Wednesday, the recovery effort kicked into high gear, at least in the better off districts.

While large swathes of Sillim remained flooded, and residents likened conditions to a “mudbath”, in Gangnam most roads had been cleared and traffic was back to normal.

Ha said it would take about 10 days to get his apartment back to the point where he would move back in. He said the only help the government had offered was for temporary shelter at a gymnasium, which he rejected.

An official at the Gwanak district office, which covers Sillim, said that recovery efforts can be slower there due to the concentration of tiny apartments and houses lining the narrow streets, unlike Gangnam, which has wide boulevards and office buildings.

The official said the number of soldiers involved in the recovery would be raised from 210 to 500 on Thursday.

“We’re making all-out efforts to help residents, bringing everyone from our office, troops and volunteers,” the official said.

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Reporting by Hyonhee Shin, Hyeyeon Kim and Daewoung Kim; Additional reporting by Minwoo Park; Editing by Simon Cameron-Moore

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Kentucky floods kill at least 28 – ‘Everything is gone’

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July 31 (Reuters) – Floods unleashed by torrential rains in eastern Kentucky have killed at least 28 people, including four children, Governor Andy Beshear said on Sunday as authorities worked to provide food and shelter for thousands of displaced residents.

Some homes in the hardest hit areas were swept away after days of heavy rainfall that Beshear has described as some of the worst in the U.S. state’s history. Rescue teams guided motor boats through residential and commercial areas searching for victims.

“Everything is gone. Like, everything is gone. The whole office is gone,” one of the flood’s victims, Rachel Patton, told WCHS TV. Around her, houses were half-submerged in water.

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“We had to swim out, and it was cold. It was over my head, so yeah. It was scary.”

Officials warn the death toll may continue to rise with more expected rainfall potentially hampering rescue efforts. The National Weather Service forecasts several rounds of showers and storms through Tuesday, with a flood watch in effect through Monday morning in southern and eastern Kentucky.

Kentucky National Guard helicopter crew members carry a victim of flooding, during their deployment in response to a declared state of emergency in eastern Kentucky, U.S. July 27, 2022. U.S. Army National Guard/Handout via REUTERS

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“We are still focused on meeting the immediate needs of providing food, water and shelter for thousands of our fellow Kentuckians who have been displaced by this catastrophic flood,” Beshear said in a statement.

Beshear, who declared a state emergency over the floods, earlier told NBC that authorities will “be finding bodies for weeks” as rescuers fan out to more remote areas.

The floods were the second major national disaster to strike Kentucky in seven months, following a swarm of tornadoes that claimed nearly 80 lives in the western part of the state in December. read more

President Joe Biden declared a major disaster in Kentucky on Friday, allowing federal funding to be allocated to the state. Beshear’s office said that affected residents could begin applying for disaster assistance from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA).

Power lines were widely damaged, with over 14,000 reports of outages on Sunday afternoon, according to PowerOutage.US.

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Reporting by Kanishka Singh and Rami Ayyub in Washington; Editing by Hugh Lawson, Lisa Shumaker and Sandra Maler

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World

Tens of thousands of Sydney residents told to evacuate as rains flood suburbs

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An emergency crew rescues two ponies from a flooded area in Milperra, Sydney metropolitan area, Australia July 3, 2022 in this screen grab obtained from a handout video. NSW State Emergency Service/Handout via REUTERS

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  • Third major flood this year for some Sydney suburbs
  • 30,000 New South Wales residents face evacuations
  • Rescue of ship crew underway, military helping stranded families

SYDNEY, July 4 (Reuters) – Fresh evacuation orders were issued for tens of thousands of Sydney residents on Monday after relentless rains triggered floods for the third time this year in some low-lying suburbs.

An intense low-pressure system off Australia’s east coast is forecast to bring heavy rain through Monday across New South Wales after several places in the state were hit with about a month’s worth over the weekend.

Since Sunday, about 30,000 residents in New South Wales state have been told to either evacuate or warned they might receive evacuation orders.

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Frustration swelled in several suburbs in the west of Australia’s largest city after floods submerged homes, farms and bridges.

“It’s just devastating. We are in disbelief,” Camden Mayor Theresa Fedeli said.

“Most of them have just come out of the last flood, getting their homes back in place, their businesses back in place and unfortunately we are saying it is happening again.”

More than 200mm of rain have fallen over many areas, with some hit by as much as 350mm since Saturday. read more

Some areas could approach or exceed the flood levels seen in March 2021, and in March and April this year, the weather bureau warned. The risk of major flooding remained though the intense weather system may weaken later on Monday, it said.

An operation was underway to rescue 21 crew members from a cargo ship, which lost power south of Sydney and risked being swept ashore, local media reported.

“It has been a very difficult time for many months to have this flood event off the back of others. It makes it more challenging,” New South Wales Premier Dominic Perrottet said during a televised media briefing.

Paul O’Neill, a resident from flood-hit Wisemans Ferry, said he was taking food supplies by boat to his stranded family after rising waters cut off access.

“The road collapsed and hasn’t been fixed since the last floods, hasn’t been touched. So now they close our road access and then the ferry, the only way to get home now is by boat,” O’Neill told Reuters.

AUSTRALIA ‘UNDER-PREPARED’

Footage on social media showed petrol stations, homes, cars and street signs partially under water while garbage bins floated down flooded roads. Military vehicles were seen going into flooded streets to evacuate stranded families.

About 100 millimetres (4 inches) of rain could fall in the next 24 hours over a swath of more than 300km (186 miles) along the New South Wales coast from Newcastle to the south of Sydney, the Bureau of Meteorology said.

The weather could trigger flash floods and landslides, with river catchments already near full capacity after the La Nina phenomenon, typically associated with increased rainfall, lashed Australia’s east coast over the last two years.

Climate change is widely believed to be a contributing factor to the frequent severe weather events, the Climate Council said, adding Australia is “under-prepared”.

Federal emergency management minister Murray Watt said climate change must be taken “seriously” due to the frequent occurrence of floods.

“The reality is we are living in a changing climate,” Watt told ABC television.

Bad weather has delayed by 24 hours Monday’s scheduled launch of a NASA rocket from the Arnhem Space Centre in north Australia, operator Equatorial Launch Australia said.

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Reporting by Renju Jose and Jill Gralow; Editing by Sam Holmes, Lincoln Feast and Edwina Gibbs

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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