WELLINGTON, Sept 22, 2023 (AFP) – New Zealand emergency officials have ordered about 100 people to evacuate in the tourist hub of Queenstown after heavy rain triggered floods across the South Island, officials said Friday. A cloudburst overnight dumped a month’s worth of rain on Queenstown in its wettest 24-period for more than two decades, meteorologists said. Flooding and debris washed through parts of central Queenstown as some residents had to flee their homes, officials […]
Tag: Floods
Floods wiped out quarter of Greek farm produce: experts
ATHENS, Sept 15, 2023 (AFP) – A quarter of Greece’s annual agricultural production was wiped out in last week’s deadly flash floods triggered by Storm Daniel, which drenched the central region of Thessaly, according to experts. The floods, which killed 15 people, have also left thousands of people in temporary shelters in hotels, schools or with relatives while 30 villages were inaccessible amid the threat of waterborne diseases. Officials were trying to determine if a […]
Devastation unleashed: Libya’s Derna counts the dead as flood toll climbs
DERNA, Libya, Sept 13, 2023 (AFP) – Libya’s devastated eastern city of Derna was counting its dead on Wednesday with the toll from the floodwaters unleashed by Storm Daniel expected to rise even further. Two dams burst there on Sunday afternoon after the storm hit, releasing a surge of water that tore through the city, sweeping away buildings and the people inside them. By late Tuesday, the preliminary death toll from authorities in the politically […]
10,000 missing in Libya storm floods, death toll ‘huge’: Red Cross
GENEVA, Sept 12, 2023 (AFP) – The death toll from freak floods in eastern Libya is expected to soar dramatically, with 10,000 people reported missing, the Red Cross warned on Tuesday. Officials in Libya have said at least 150 people were killed in the sudden flooding on Sunday afternoon after storm Daniel swept the Mediterranean, lashing Bulgaria, Greece and Turkey. But Tamer Ramadan of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) […]
Rescues underway in flood-hit Greek towns as toll rises to 11
PALAMAS KARDITSA, Greece, Sept 9, 2023 (AFP) – Firefighters backed by the army were rescuing hundreds of people Saturday in villages in central Greece blocked off by floods, as the toll rose to 11 dead. “More than 2,850 people have been rescued since the beginning of the bad weather,” fire department spokesman Yannis Artopios told broadcaster Mega on Saturday. “There are still many people in the villages around Karditsa, Palamas and toward Trikala. They are […]
Two dead, three missing as torrential rains lash Spain
MADRID, Sept 4, 2023 (AFP) – Two people died and three were missing on Monday after heavy rains lashed drought-hit Spain, triggering flash floods that closed Madrid metro lines and high-speed rail links. The weekend storm affected almost the whole country, with the heaviest rains recorded on Sunday in the coastal provinces of Cadiz, Tarragona and Castello, according to state weather office Aemet. Two people died in the central province of Toledo as a result […]
Saudi storm brings lightning, fierce winds to Mecca
RIYADH, Aug 23, 2023 (AFP) – Fierce storms closed schools Wednesday in Saudi Arabia’s Mecca region, home to Islam’s the Grand Mosque, which was lashed by heavy rains and wind overnight, witnesses said. As pilgrims tried to circumambulate the Kaaba, the giant black cube towards which all Muslims pray, a bolt of lightning struck the iconic Fairmont Makkah Clock Royal Tower hotel, illuminating the night sky late Tuesday. The storm brought gale force winds exceeding […]
Around 100,000 people evacuated due to floods in Pakistan
KASUR, Pakistan, Aug 23, 2023 (AFP) – Families waded through water and cattle were loaded onto boats in a mass evacuation of around 100,000 people in Pakistan’s Punjab province, officials said Wednesday. Several hundred villages and thousands of acres of cropland in the central province were inundated when the Sutlej river burst its banks on Sunday. “The flood waters came a couple of days ago and all our houses were submerged. We walked all the […]
Tropical storm Hilary unleashes chaos; heavy rains and 5.1 magnitude quake shake southern California
LOS ANGELES, Aug 21, 2023 (AFP) – Heavy rains lashed California on Sunday as Tropical Storm Hilary raced in from Mexico, bringing warnings of potentially life-threatening flooding in the typically arid southwestern United States. With people already on edge, nature struck in another scary way: a 5.1 magnitude earthquake hit near the southern California town of Ojai but there were no immediate reports of damage or casualties. As of Sunday afternoon Hilary’s core was in […]
Death toll from heavy rain in north India rises to almost 60
DEHRADUN, India, Aug 14, 2023 (AFP) – At least 58 people were killed, nine of them in a temple collapse, and many more were feared missing after intense rains caused floods and landslides in India, officials said Monday. Days of torrential downpours have washed away vehicles, demolished buildings and destroyed bridges in the northern Himalayan states of Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand. Flooding and landslides are common and cause widespread devastation during India’s treacherous monsoon season, […]
Three killed as floods, landslides caused by heavy rains hit Slovenia
LJUBLJANA, Aug 4, 2023 (AFP) – Three people have died after floods and landslides caused by heavy rains cut off access to villages and disrupted traffic in northeastern and central Slovenia, authorities said Friday. Sirens alerting citizens against flooding were sounded in the cities of Ljubljana, Maribor and Celje after the country’s environment agency issued the highest “red alert” warning due to heavy rainfall that started overnight. “Three people have died over the last 24 […]
Death toll rises to 30 in northern China floods
BEIJING, Aug 5, 2023 (AFP) – At least 10 people were killed in floods in a city near Beijing, officials said Saturday, bringing the death toll from recent torrential rains in northern China to at least 30. Officials reported the deaths in Baoding, about 150 kilometres (90 miles) from Beijing, adding that 18 people were missing. Storm Doksuri, a former super typhoon that hit mainland China last Friday, has brought the most severe rains to […]
