Tag Archives: Flooding

Hundreds of thousands evacuated in Japan as ‘historic’ rain falls; four dead

Rescue workers are seen next to houses damaged by a landslide following heavy rain in Kitakyushu, southwestern Japan, in this photo taken by Kyodo July 6, 2018. Mandatory credit Kyodo/via REUTE

By Elaine Lies

TOKYO (Reuters) – Hundreds of thousands of people across a wide swathe of western and central Japan were evacuated from their homes on Friday as torrential rain flooded rivers and set off landslides, killing at least four people.

The Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA) issued its strongest possible warning about the “historic” rainfall and said more was set to batter already saturated areas through Sunday, raising the danger of more landslides and major damage.

One part of the main island of Honshu had been hit with twice the total amount of rain for a normal July by Friday morning, and the rain was relentless through the day.

At least four people were killed, one when he was sucked into a drainage pipe and another, an elderly woman, died after being blown over by powerful wind.

A local resident watches Togetsu Bridge and swollen Katsura River, caused by a heavy rain, in Kyoto, western Japan, in this photo taken by Kyodo July 6, 2018. Mandatory credit Kyodo/via REUTERS

A local resident watches Togetsu Bridge and swollen Katsura River, caused by a heavy rain, in Kyoto, western Japan, in this photo taken by Kyodo July 6, 2018. Mandatory credit Kyodo/via REUTERS

Several people were missing, including a man whose car was swept away as he delivered milk and a boy who was swept into a ditch, NHK national television said.

“The situation is extremely dangerous,” wrote a Twitter user in Kochi, a city on the smallest main island of Shikoku, where the rain was especially intense.

Several dozen people were injured, four seriously, the Fire and Disaster Management Agency said. Several people were buried in a landslide and rescuers rushed to dig them out.

About 210,000 people were ordered from their homes due to the danger of further landslides and flooding, nearly half of them in a wide area surrounding Japan’s ancient capital of Kyoto, and nearly 2 million more were advised to leave, as of Friday afternoon, the Agency added.

Trains across western and central Japan were halted, including several sections of the Shinkansen bullet train.

The danger was particularly high in a part of the southwesternmost main island of Kyushu, where dozens of people were killed by torrential rain and floods a year ago.

The rain appeared to have been touched off by warm, humid air flowing up from the Pacific Ocean and intensifying the activity of a seasonal rain front.

Remnants of a now-dissipated typhoon that brushed Japan this week also contributed, officials said.

Japan’s weather woes are far from over. Typhoon Maria, forming deep in the Pacific, is set to strengthen, possibly into an intense Category 4 storm, and may directly target the southwestern islands of Okinawa early next week.

(Additional reporting by Kaori Kaneko; Editing by Michael Perry)

Heavy rains force evacuation of thousands in Japan; one killed

A kimono-clad woman using a smartphone takes photos of swollen Kamo River, caused by a heavy rain, from Shijo Bridge in Kyoto, western Japan, in this photo taken by Kyodo July 5, 2018. Mandatory credit Kyodo/via REUTERS

TOKYO (Reuters) – Japan on Thursday ordered the evacuation of thousands of residents from the outskirts of its ancient capital of Kyoto after “historic” rains battered its western region, killing a man, with yet more rain forecast.

About 160,000 people were advised to evacuate across the region as weather officials warned that rain levels they described as “historic” could continue until Sunday.

“Severe caution is needed,” an official of Japan’s Meteorological Agency (JMA) told a news conference, warning of the potential for landslides and high winds.

A 59-year-old construction worker died in the western prefecture of Hyogo after being sucked into a drainage pipe, and two more were injured as they rushed to his rescue, NHK national television said.

Evacuation orders went out in some outlying parts of Kyoto, with the Kyodo news agency saying about 16,000 people were affected. Television broadcast images of the swollen waters of the Kamo River in the city center.

The heavy rains were brought by a rush of humid air from the south and the remnants of a typhoon this week.

By Thursday afternoon, rainfall of about 457 mm (18 inches) had been recorded in some parts of the smallest main island of Shikoku over the last two days, with up to 400 mm (16 inches) more predicted in some areas in the next 24 hours.

Typhoon Prapiroon churned up the Sea of Japan this week before weakening into a tropical depression. Another storm, Typhoon Maria, has formed in the Pacific and is set to strengthen, possibly targeting the southwestern islands of Okinawa early next week.

(Reporting by Elaine Lies; Editing by Clarence Fernandez)

Thai navy divers widen cave passage in search for missing boys

Soldiers and rescue workers work in Tham Luang cave complex, as an ongoing search for members of an under-16 soccer team and their coach continues, in the northern province of Chiang Rai, Thailand, July 1, 2018. REUTERS/Soe Zeya Tun

By Panu Wongcha-um

CHIANG RAI, Thailand (Reuters) – Rescuers in Thailand scrabbled to clear a constricted passageway for divers deep inside a flooded cave complex on Monday as the search for 12 boys and their soccer coach entered a ninth day.

The divers from a Thai navy SEAL unit were within 500 meters of a chamber containing an elevated rock mound, nicknamed “Pattaya Beach” by cavers, which could have provided the boys with a refuge when rains flooded the cave, blocking the way out.

Progress has been slow as divers need to widen parts of a narrow 100 meter stretch that they were unable to pass through without their air cylinders becoming jammed.

“This is today’s aim is to widen this hole,” Chiang Rai governor Narongsak Osatanakorn told reporters on Monday.

“As of now we have not yet reached Pattaya Beach,” he said.

The boys, aged between 11 and 16, and their 25-year-old coach disappeared on June 23 during an outing to the Tham Luang cave, which runs for 10 kilometers (6 miles) beneath the mountains in northern Chiang Rai province.

Aside from belongings left at the mouth of the cave and handprints on the walls, no trace of them has been found since.

National news bulletins have been dominated by updates from the mammoth search involving more than 1,000 personnel, including rescue teams from the United States, Britain, Japan and elsewhere.

Doctors say the boys could survive for days without food, but much would depend on whether they found water clean enough to drink.

Students pray in Mae Sai Prasitsart school as an ongoing search for members of an under-16 soccer team and their coach who went missing in a flooded cave continues, in the northern province of Chiang Rai, Thailand, July 2, 2018. REUTERS/Soe Zeya Tun

Students pray in Mae Sai Prasitsart school as an ongoing search for members of an under-16 soccer team and their coach who went missing in a flooded cave continues, in the northern province of Chiang Rai, Thailand, July 2, 2018. REUTERS/Soe Zeya Tun

The heavy seasonal rains hampered the search operation, with divers groping their way along the cave walls, barely able to see in the muddy water, but the pumps had helped to bring down water levels in recent days.

Narongsak said that an operations center has been set up in the third chamber, about 1.7 kilometers (a mile) from entrance to the cave.

“Yesterday we carried in 200 air cylinders. Today we aim to have 600 air cylinders in the cave, so the team can operate and stay in the cave without coming out,” he said.

Once more personnel are in place, a search will also be made of the right turn at the T-junction, he added.

As part of the rescue effort, search parties have been lowered down shafts on the mountainside, but it was unclear what progress they had made, or exactly where they were in relation to the “Pattaya Beach” chamber.

At Mae Sai Prasitsart school, where six of the missing boys studied, special prayers were held for the junior soccer team during the morning assembly on Monday.

A student shows a photo of her classmate Prachak Sutham, 13, who is a member of an under-16 soccer team that went missing with their coach at a flooded cave, in Mae Sai Prasitsart school in the northern province of Chiang Rai, Thailand, July 2, 2018. REUTERS/Soe Zeya Tun

A student shows a photo of her classmate Prachak Sutham, 13, who is a member of an under-16 soccer team that went missing with their coach at a flooded cave, in Mae Sai Prasitsart school in the northern province of Chiang Rai, Thailand, July 2, 2018. REUTERS/Soe Zeya Tun

“I hope all the spirits that we cannot see please help us by releasing the 13 people who are our friends and our brothers,” teacher Takkapong Thammarangsi said as he led the prayers.

Pansa Namyi, 15, said he shared a love of sports with his friend who was among the missing.

“I want to tell him that I am waiting,” Pansa said.

(Additional reporting by Panarat Thepgumpanat and Chayut Setboonsarng in BANGKOK; Editing by Simon Cameron-Moore and Darren Schuettler)

Unable to find lost boys, Thai police drop survival packages into cave

Soldiers unload aids near the Tham Luang cave complex, as a search for members of an under-16 soccer team and their coach continues, in the northern province of Chiang Rai, Thailand, June 29, 2018. REUTERS/Soe Zeya Tun

By Chayut Setboonsarng

CHIANG RAI, Thailand (Reuters) – As a search in Thailand for 12 boys and their soccer coach missing inside a flooded cave entered a sixth day on Friday, police dropped survival packages through a shaft drilled in the mountainside not knowing if anyone was there.

The fate of the boys, aged between 11 and 16, and their 25-year old coach has gripped the country since they went missing on Saturday after they decided to explore the 10-km (6 mile) long Tham Luang cave complex in Chiang Rai province, despite warnings that the maze of passages and chambers is prone to flooding.

Bicycles and soccer shoes belonging to the boys were found near the entrance, and rescue workers think muddy handprints inside the cave could have been left by the group.

But the search has yielded no other trace.

International rescue teams, including one sent by the United States Pacific Command, are helping the Thai military and police in a search that has been hampered by heavy rain.

Soldiers walk with a dog near the Tham Luang cave complex, as a search for members of an under-16 soccer team and their coach continues, in the northern province of Chiang Rai, Thailand, June 29, 2018. REUTERS/Soe Zeya Tun

Soldiers walk with a dog near the Tham Luang cave complex, as a search for members of an under-16 soccer team and their coach continues, in the northern province of Chiang Rai, Thailand, June 29, 2018. REUTERS/Soe Zeya Tun

Police have been scouring mountain slopes above the cave in search of other ways in as divers tried to find their way through the flooded passages.

Twenty packages filled with water, food, medicine, flashlights and a note for the missing team were dropped down a fissure in the cave, police said.

Unsure of the boys’ location, they hoped the boxes would reach them.

“If the children find this box we want them to float the box out of the cave,” police Colonel Kraiboon Sotsong told reporters.

“The note says: ‘If received, then reply and show on the map where you are. Everybody will quickly help’.”

There has been an outpouring of support for the missing 13.

Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha visited the site on Friday to urge on the rescuers and assure relatives keeping vigil that every effort was being made.

“Whatever can be done, do it, the government will back it,” said Prayuth. “I’ve come to give everyone encouragement.”

A group of school children has posted a video on Facebook featuring a song they wrote for the missing boys.

“Heavens please have mercy … Please let them be safe, I pray to Mae Nang Non, please have mercy,” the children sang, pleading to a deity, known as Mae Nang Non, who is believed to protect the Tham Luang cave.

Thailand is predominantly Buddhist and while it is hurtling toward modernity, animist beliefs and superstitions exert a strong influence over many people.

Several hashtags have appeared on Twitter in support of the 13 including “don’t give up”, “stay strong” and “13 Hope”.

International soccer clubs, including the British teams Liverpool and Chelsea, have also expressed concern for the boys.

“Our hearts are in Tham Luang. We’re praying for the boys and every rescue officer to return home safely. YNWA,” wrote Liverpool, referring to its “You’ll Never Walk Alone” anthem.

(Additional reporting by Amy Sawitta Lefevre, Panarat Thepgumpanat, Pracha Hariraksapitak and Patpicha Tanakasempipat; Writing by Amy Sawitta Lefevre; Editing by Simon Cameron-Moore, Robert Birsel)

U.S. forces, British divers join search for boys missing in Thai cave

Rescue workers work near the Tham Luang caves during a search for members of an under-16 soccer team and their coach, in the northern province of Chiang Rai, Thailand, June 27, 2018. REUTERS/Soe Zeya Tun

By Chayut Setboonsarng

CHIANG RAI (Reuters) – U.S. forces and British divers have arrived in Thailand to help in the search for 12 schoolboys and their soccer coach believed trapped by floodwaters in a cave, as rescuers prepared to drill a shaft into the cave on the fifth day of the search.

Major Buncha Duriyapan, commander of the 37th Military District in Chiang Rai, said workers would drill down from the top of the Tham Luang cave complex in northern Chiang Rai province to create an alternative entrance for rescue workers.

British diver Richard William Stanton arrives to the Tham Luang caves during a search for the members of an under-16 soccer team and their coach, in the northern province of Chiang Rai, Thailand, June 27, 2018. REUTERS/Soe Zeya T

British diver Richard William Stanton arrives to the Tham Luang caves during a search for the members of an under-16 soccer team and their coach, in the northern province of Chiang Rai, Thailand, June 27, 2018. REUTERS/Soe Zeya Tun

“We will drill down from one of the chimneys,” Buncha told reporters on Thursday.

“The expert divers went straight from the plane into the cave to make an assessment,” he said, referring to the three British divers who landed in Thailand on Wednesday.

Deputy Prime Minister Prawit Wongsuwan said 30 members of the United States Pacific Command (USPACOM) have joined the search operation.

“The United States Pacific Command (USPACOM) has sent 30 staff with equipment to help penetrate the cave walls,” Prawit told reporters.

Search efforts, which have included Thailand’s elite navy SEAL unit, have been hampered by heavy rain and flooding inside the cave where the boys, aged between 11 and 16, and their 25-year-old assistant coach went missing on Saturday.

Rescue workers on Thursday scoured the top of the mountain looking for alternative entrances to the cave, according to a Reuters reporter at the scene.

Thai National Deputy Police Chief Wirachai Songmetta said police officers would explore a one kms path to the right of the cave on Thursday.

So far, rescue teams have been focusing on a seven kms (four mile) long route to the left of the cave’s entrance which they believe the boys and their coach took.

Authorities say they’re optimistic the boys are still alive, but the toll of five days of no news was visible on the faces of the boys’ relatives.

Family members, red-eyed from crying, said prayers on Thursday near the cave, led by a saffron-robed Buddhist monk.

“Observe your breath in this place of love. Love between mother, father and child,” the monk told anxious relatives.

“Do not worry and wait for good news.”

(Additional reporting by Amy Sawitta Lefevre and Panarat Thepgumpanat; Editing by Michael Perry)

Texas Gulf gets more rain, threatens region with flooding

Residents make phone calls from high ground after heavy downpours unleashed flash floods in Mercedes, Texas, U.S., June 20, 2018. REUTERS/Adrees Latif

(Reuters) – Heavy showers drenched the Texas Gulf Coast on Thursday and flood waters continued to rise after residents fled their homes and crews conducted numerous water rescues in towns still recovering from Hurricane Harvey.

Flash flood warnings and watches were in effect for communities along the Gulf of Mexico coast and inland, where as much as 5 inches (13 cm) of rain was forecast, the National Weather Service said. More than a foot of rain has already fallen in parts of the region this week.

“If you are in the warned area move to higher ground immediately. Residents living along streams and creeks should take immediate precautions to protect life and property,” the weather service said early on Thursday.

The warning came after a deluge of rain flooded streets and expressways on Wednesday, forcing residents to wade through shoulder-deep waters to flee their homes and vehicles. Crews conducted dozens of water rescues in towns like Weslaco, Mercedes and McAllen near the Mexico border.

“It took everyone by surprise. No one was expecting this much rain. The only thing is that pretty much everywhere it’s already flooded and the roads are closed, so where would you go?,” Weslaco resident Kandy Marroquin told a local NBC affiliate.

Shelters were opened across the Rio Grande Valley where entire neighborhoods were flooded, local media reported.

“They’ve been coming with law enforcement officers, buses, all sorts of trucks bringing people in. At one point we had close to 100 people,” Steven Parker, the pastor at First Baptist Church in Weslaco told NBC affiliate KVEO-TV in Brownsville. “People have been trickling in all day. We’re here as long we’re needed.”

McAllen was already in the news this week for images of migrant children held in cages at a Border Patrol Processing Center in the city.

Flash flood watches were also in effect on Thursday for the area around Corpus Christi, where sewage water contributed to the flooding on Wednesday, local media reported.

(Reporting by Brendan O’Brien in Milwaukee; Editing by Catherine Evans)

Heavy rains due to drench Texas Gulf Coast, Midwest

6-20-18 National Weather Service precipitation map

(Reuters) – Heavy downpours were expected to drench the Gulf Coast of Texas and the U.S. Midwest on Wednesday and could cause flooding especially along already swollen rivers and in low-lying areas, forecasters warned.

Up to 5 inches (13 cm) of rain was forecast for parts of the Texas coast along the Gulf of Mexico and in the Middle Mississippi Valley states of South Dakota, Nebraska, Iowa and Kansas throughout the day and into Thursday, the National Weather Service (NWS) said.

“Be prepared for water over roads due to rapid rises on creeks and streams or even water flowing from farm fields,” the NWS in Des Moines, Iowa, said in an advisory.

Authorities closed roadways early Wednesday in several communities along the Des Moines and Mississippi rivers in the Midwest where intense rains have already fallen over the last few days, according to the NWS.

Showers and thunderstorms were also expected for Rockford, Illinois, where five inches of rain fell in less than four hours on Monday night. Emergency crews rescued people from numerous submerged vehicles.

In Corpus Christi, Texas, where more than 2 inches of rain was forecast after more than a foot of rain has fallen, crews conducted several high-water rescues on Tuesday while police closed roadways, local media reported.

(Reporting by Brendan O’Brien in Milwaukee; Editing by Jeffrey Benkoe)

Floods kill dozens, displace more than a million in India, Bangladesh

A man carries his goat as he wades through a flooded area at a village in Nagaon district, in the northeastern state of Assam, India, June 19, 2018. REUTERS/Anuwar Hazarika

By Serajul Quadir and Zarir Hussain

DHAKA/GUWAHATI, India (Reuters) – Flash floods triggered by heavy monsoon rains in South Asia have killed dozens of people and displaced more than a million, most in northeast India and Bangladesh, authorities said on Tuesday.

The Brahmaputra river, which flows from the Himalayas down to India and then through Bangladesh, has burst its banks, swamping more than 1,500 villages in India’s Assam state in the past week.

“The flood situation remains critical,” Assam’s Water Resources Minister Keshab Mahanta told Reuters, referring to at least 10 of the state’s 32 districts.

“The weather office is forecasting more rain and thundershowers in the next 48 hours,” Mahanta said, adding that the state was on maximum alert and the army had put helicopters on standby, in case they were needed for rescues.

The floods have killed nearly 20 people and displaced about 800,000 in the Indian states of Assam, Tripura and Manipur.

The water level in the Brahmaputra is expected to rise until the end of the week and then level off, in the absence of more heavy rain, India’s Central Water Commission said.

Downstream in Bangladesh, 11 people have been killed and more than 250,000 have been displaced or affected by the flooding, officials there said.

Last week, landslides and other mishaps triggered by rains killed at least 12 people in southeast Bangladesh, including two Rohingya Muslim refugees from Myanmar living in camps near the border.

The camps, thrown up after an estimated 700,000 Rohingyas fled from a Myanmar military crackdown on insurgents that began last August, are believed to be particularly vulnerable to storms in the rainy season, which has just begun.

(Reporting by Serajul Quadir and Zarir Hussain; Writing by Malini Menon)

Two dead in North Carolina landslide as Alberto no longer a storm

Subtropical Storm Alberto is pictured nearing the Florida Panhandle in this May 27, 2018 NASA handout photo. NASA/Handout via REUTERS

(Reuters) – Two people were killed after floods triggered a landslide in North Carolina, as Alberto was downgraded to a post-tropical cyclone with diminished rainfall by the U.S. National Hurricane Center (NHC) on Thursday.

Rescue workers found two bodies after being alerted late Wednesday that the landslide had destroyed a home in Boone, North Carolina, in the heart of the Blue Ridge Mountains, said Jeff Virginia, spokesman for Watauga County Emergency Management.

Local media reported that heavy rains caused the landslide which triggered a gas explosion.

Video images posted to Twitter by the Boone Police Department showed an apparently charred home reduced to rubble.

Alberto has becomes a post-tropical cyclone as it attempts to exit northeastern lower Michigan, and a heavy rainfall threat is fading near its center, the U.S. National Hurricane Center (NHC) said in its latest advisory.

The system is located about 20 miles (30 km) west south-west of Alpena, Michigan with maximum sustained winds of 30 miles per hour (45 km/h), the weather forecaster said.

“Flash flood watches remain in effect for the western Carolinas, northwest Virginia, and far eastern west Virginia,” the NHC added.

(Reporting by Arpan Varghese and Eileen Soreng in Bengaluru, and Barbara Goldberg in New York; Editing by Toby Chopra and Bernadette Baum)

Flooding in wake of storm Alberto kills four in Cuba

FILE PHOTO: A view of a partially flooded farm as Subtropical Storm Alberto passes by the west coast of Cuba, in Bahia Honda, Cuba, May 26, 2018. REUTERS/Alexandre Meneghini

HAVANA (Reuters) – Flooding in central Cuba caused by torrential rainfall in the wake of the subtropical storm Alberto has killed four people and prompted the evacuation of tens of thousands, Cuban state-run media said late on Tuesday.

After rain dumped more than 4 inches (10 cm) of water in 24 hours, flood waters swept away a bridge and damaged roads and other infrastructure, leaving many communities cut off and nearly 60,000 people without electricity, the media reported.

Authorities had to close down part of the national highway after a nearby river burst it banks when they opened the floodgates of the Palmarito reservoir because it had exceeded its maximum capacity.

Interior Minister Julio Cesar Gandarilla said in a government meeting with provincial authorities headed by new President Miguel Diaz-Canel that four people had died in the flooding.

Seventy-seven year old Cuban Quintiliano Simó Ortega died when trying to cross a flooded river by horseback in Trinidad on the south central coast to get to his farm, the Cuban News Agency reported.

This is the second crisis Diaz-Canel has faced since being selected six weeks ago to replace Raul Castro as Cuba’s president. The floods come 11 days after a plane crashed shortly after takeoff from Havana, killing 112.

On each occasion, he has appeared publicly at the forefront of the crisis management, striking a contrast that many Cubans have welcomed to Castro who operated behind the scenes.

Diaz-Canel was cited by state media as saying that authorities should focus on re-establishing basic services such as electricity and transportation when the weather started to improve.

Alberto, the first storm of the 2018 Atlantic hurricane season, which only officially starts on June 1, already weakened into a subtropical depression on Tuesday after making landfall in the south of the United States, according to the U.S. National Hurricane Center (NHC).

U.S. forecasters said last week they expected the 2018 Atlantic hurricane season to be near-normal to above-normal in number and intensity of storms.

Last year, Hurricane Irma killed at least 10 people during a devastating three-day rampage along the length of Cuba.

(Reporting by Sarah Marsh; Editing by Sam Holmes)