Nocere – Earth Disasters

A flash flood that hit Indonesia after heavy rains had been falling took the lives of at least 64 people on Monday.

Another 83 people were wounded in the flooding and 27 have yet to be found. A conflicting story says there are 68 people yet to be found and another 3000 have no place to go home to.

The area that took the worst hit is Teluk Wondama. It is about 8 or 10 hours if traveling by ship from Manokan, West Papau. There has been disruption in communications also.

Indonesia’s Ministry of Health and some agencies of the government have been providing tents, and other items needed to the homeless and victims.

In Indonesia, this is the monsoon season. There is always a lot of rain and floods that follow the rain. This year the forecast is for a lot more rain then normal.

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As people were sleeping, mudslides caused by torrential rainfall engulfed possibly 300 dwellings.

It all happened on Tuesday morning as people were still in their beds. Sometime between 3 and 4 am. A 655 foot wide section of ground let loose and covered their homes. It happened in a poor area in Southwestern Mexico.

Torrential rainfall in the Oaxaca State mountainous areas resulted in the earth burying many homes in Santa Maria Tlahuitoltepec. There area approximately 9000 people that live in that town.

Is is possible that between 500 to 600 people could be buried in the mud.

There are police, marines and soldiers being dispatched to the area to help with rescue operations. The area hit by the landslide is about 4 hours away from the the capital of Oaxaca.

There are rescuers being brought in by plane and a convoy of marines are on their way also.

The area is a remote region and can be difficult to reach. There are areas where the roads have been closed by smaller landslides. Help by roadways could be hours away.

Regions of Mexico have experienced the worst rainy season that has ever been recorded. It has caused many people to have to leave their homes due to flooding and landslides.

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In India, in the northern parts, there has been possible more then 63 people that have died in floods and landslides.

To get people out of harms way, authorities have evacuated close to 5000 people out of Uttarakhand state which is said to be one of the three hardest hit areas.

State highways have been blocked off by flooding which is a result of the heavy downpours. There is a lack of communication and many of Uttarakhand’s principal rivers are out of their banks.

Both the army and federal emergency help has been requested by the state government.

At this time there are no schools in session. The colleges have also been required to close for the next three days.

The 63 people who have died since Saturday, have died as a result of falling dwellings,landslides and some have drowned. There is a fear that before it is all over, the number of deaths will be even higher.

There is still a forecast of heavy rains in areas of Uttarakhand and Uttlar Pradesh which is the next state over. The rain is predicted to be in these areas over the next 24 hours.

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Last year it was the drought that hit this same areas, this year it’s the flooding.

There are close to 70,000 people that are without homes and 24 have died.

The floods are being caused by the heavy rains that Chad, an African nation, has been receiving.

Along with the deaths, there have been 29 people wounded.

Because of the wet conditions, Cholera has also taken a tole on the nation. There have been 46 people die and another 700 sick with cholera.

There has been close to 145,000 people in Chad that lives have been impacted due to the flooding. According to Ute Kollies, head of the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, the numbers are increasing.

“Today is the worst, and it’s getting more and more out of hand,” she said on Sunday. “This is the crisis point, at the moment.”

Nearly all the roads have been closed in areas that need help leaving the only way to get help to them is to bring it in by air.

Typically, the rainy time for Chad area is from June to late September. This year the season started early and was heavy from the start.

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After many days of rain falling in Guatemala, a state of emergency has been called for.

There have been 18 or more people that have died. 10 of them were on a bus overcome in a mudslide.

The President of Guatemala, Alvaro Colom has told how the rain has tore apart much of the recovery work from the Tropical Storm Agatha. There were 165 deaths from that storm in May.

The President asked for the congress to allow him emergency money for the reconstruction.

The rain saturated Guatemala’s mountain area loosening up the ground resulting in mudslides with no warning.

There is much devastation in Guatemala. 65 miles of an Inter-American high way is shut down. There are many other roads that have been closed

A bus was overcome by a mudslide. A family of four died as their home was buried. Then there were 4 other deaths reported.

The weather agency in Guatemala has forecasted another 48 hours of rain.

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Shahdadkot, Pakistan is begining to look like a lake in areas. On Saturday, rising water jeopardised the mud shoulders which if broken down could put the enitre city under water, Shahdadkot is located in the Sindh province in Pakistan.

Pakistan is suffering from the biggest natural disaster it has ever seen. People are desperately trying to get out of the area to escape the second round of monsoon waters as it soars towards the southern areas.

In some areas already you can only see the roofs of houses that are beneath the flood waters. Everyone living in the area has been advised to leave.

People are piling all their belongings that they can fit onto old trucks and buses. They then ride onto of their belongings trying to get out of the area before the floods hit. Lots of them have no definite plan of where they are going. They only want to reach higher ground out of the range of the water.

There aren’t enough vehicles to help everyone get out. Some could be left behind trying to get as far above the water as they can.

In Pakistan, there are many towns that are also under water as is Shahdadkot. The water is predicted to start going down in the next few days. The last of it will recede into the Indus River and then on into the Arabian Sea.

After the waters recede, the dangers do not end. Then they will have the problem of no clean fresh water. People will be walking through polluted water in the streets. Over 200 places where they could get health care have been storm-beaten or ruined. This leaves people with no proper care  and the spreading of disease is inevitable.

There are at approximately 4 million people that are without homes.

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In Leh, a flash flood went through the city on Friday. Leh is approximately 310 miles from Srinagar.

As of Sunday, the total of deaths as a result of the flooding and landslides was 145. That was as reported by the official Press Trust of India.

The people, searching for survivors, keep pushing on searching for any of the 500 still missing.

There was a huge amount of rain that fell last week which caused the landslides. They happened while people were still in their beds sleeping. Electrical lines were taken down, whole villages demolished, and cars were over turned.

The searchers hoping to find survivors are walking through mud that comes up to their knees in the city of Leh.

There are close to 6000 military personnel that have been sent to help out.

Helicopters are being brought in to try and reach areas that are not able to be driven to because of damaged roadways.

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Possibly more the 37 people died in the raging waters beneath a bridge in China that fell into the river.

After many days of rain pouring down and running into the river, the waters rose and exceeded what the river bed could hold.

It is possible that fallen trees floating down the rushing waters collected at the base of the bridge allowing a build up debris to put pressure on the bridge supports.

It only took 2 minutes for the bridge to totally collapse into the raging river water.

Very few escaped before the bridge fell into the river. Numerous people ended up in the water below struggling to reach trees or anything else to help then stay afloat in the water.

37 have been reported to have perished in the accident, while possibly more have yet to be found. The number could grow as they learn of more people that could have been on the bridge.

Rescuers are searching spots where people could still be holding on for dear life, or bodies could be hung up in debris.

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