Two dams at a Brazilian iron ore mine collapsed on Friday, resulting in a devastating mudslide that has killed at least 2 people, injured 30, and left dozens missing.
A spokesman representing the firefighters said that the numbers of deaths, injured, and missing will likely rise due to the mudslide knocking over cell towers and blocking roads. Time Magazine reports that union officials believe the casualties could be as high as 15.
“In reality there are a lot more, but we can’t confirm any more than that. We don’t even know that we’ll find everybody,” firefighter Adão Severino Junior in the nearby city of Mariana told Reuters.
Hundreds of families were evacuated from the area after the initial escape to higher ground. Television footage of the incident showed a car perched on top of a wall, trees being leveled, and roofs being ripped off of houses due to the waste waters that were unleashed from the dams, according to Reuters.
Rescue teams are still looking for trapped survivors.
California and other parts of the western United States – including Sierra, Nevada – saw the first winter-like storm of the season on Monday. the storm brought heavy rain and snow and even caused a 20 car pile up due to gusts of wind bringing up dust. Five people were minorly injured.
San Francisco saw an inch of rain and other Bay Area cities had an inch or more of rain thanks to the cold front from the Pacific Northwest. Traffic accidents and power outages were widespread across the region according to ABC News. Mudslides also blocked roads close to Livermore.
Mountain areas around Lake Tahoe on the California-Nevada border reported a foot of snow. The Sierra Nevada mountain range had storm warnings for heavy snow from Kings Canyon to Yosemite that were in effect until late night hours. Areas above 9,000 feet saw 5 inches of snow by early evening, and snow levels were expected to fall to 5,000 feet.
Yolo, Lake, and Colusa counties were issued flash flood warnings according to the weather service.
The snow in Sierra could help with the drought that has hit California. California counts on snowpack to feed reservoirs. The storm also hit areas that were burned by wildfires earlier this year.
As flash floods and large hail hit areas north of Los Angeles, California emergency crews scrambled to rescue motorists that were trapped on roadways.
As some motorists took refuge on top of their cars, excavator trucks were brought to the scenes to scoop and haul mud. Approximately 15 cars were wedged in debris and 5 feet of mud and needed to be towed. Over 100 people were stranded on Interstate 5 and were still waiting for help Friday morning. So far, there have been no reports of deaths or injuries. Firefighters are still searching the roadways and abandoned cars for people who may be stuck and needing help getting to a safe area.
Two major highways and several secondary roads have been closed due to the impassable mud and debris, leaving some residents trapped inside their homes.
Between 4-6 inches of rain fell in parts of Kern and Los Angeles counties, causing the floods that have led to nearly a half dozen of water rescues.
Robert Rocha, a 37-year-old resident, was driving home from work when the storm hit.
“It was getting pretty hairy out there,” he said. “I’ve never seen it rain that hard in such a short period of time, the hail and wind — it was coming down hard,” he said. “The debris was just intense — chunks of wood and rock flowing everywhere.”
Recovery after the Guatemalan Mudslide that erased part of the town of Santa Catarina Pinula last week has uncovered 237 bodies so far from the mountains of mud and debris in the mudslide created from heavy rainfall.
Backhoes continued to remove thousands of tons of dirt from the acres-wide mudflow in the neighborhood of Cambray, on the outskirts of Guatemala City, with very little hope of finding anyone alive.
Officials have reported that many other people are still missing.
Several hundred people were being housed in shelters run by the local government National Disaster Reduction Commission known as Conred.
The agency has said it issued a number of warnings about the dangers of living on the base of this mountain area. Officials this week declared the area uninhabitable.
Manuel Pocasangre, the communications director for the municipality of Santa Catarina Pinula said state employees in recent years had gone door-to-door to talk to people about the risks of where they lived even in the last year.
Stating that he had warned Mayor Tono Coro of the municipality of Santa Catarina Pinula that the river was eating away at the base of the steep hill. “What we know is that people were conscious about the risk they were taking,” Pocasangre said Wednesday.
Maldonado acknowledged there are many neighborhoods like Cambray in and around Guatemala City that are at risk of flooding or mudslides
The country’s prosecutor’s office has announced an investigation of the matter.
Over half a million homes are without power in Taiwan while officials survey the damage caused by Typhoon Dujuan. Two deaths were reported as well as hundreds of injuries. Dujuan made landfall in China Tuesday morning with an average sustained wind at 74 mph.
Two to three feet of rain have been reported from Taiwan in a number of mountain locations with wind gusts as high as 154 mph.
The torrential rainfall from what is left of the Typhoon still torment the already battered Taiwan, threatening more flooding and dangerous mudslides.
Typhoon Dujuan is forecasted to rapidly weaken and dissipate as it moves over the terrain of southeastern China.
Tropical Storm Erika has devastated the tiny island of Dominica, triggering landslides that have left at least six people missing and hundreds of people without homes.
The Antiqua Weather Service says the storm dumped 9 inches of rain onto the mountainous island late Wednesday and then 6 more inches on Thursday.
About 80 percent of the island is without electricity. The country’s airport has been closed after flood waters covered cars and at least one small airplane.
The National Hurricane Center (NHC) says that the storm is moving west with sustained winds of 50 m.p.h. and is expected to cover Puerto Rico Thursday. The storm continues to be what forecasters call “poorly organized” and is not expected to strengthen over the next two days.
Puerto Rico Governor Alejandro Garcia Padilla said that while the storm could cut off power and water service, the storm would also bring much needed rain to the parched nation.
“We’re happy given the dry conditions, but it does highlight the need to be on alert,” he told CBS.
Forecasters say it is still too early to know whether or not the storm will reach Florida with any kind of tropical storm or hurricane strength.
Meanwhile in the Pacific, Tropical Storm Ignacio strengthened into a hurricane. The storm is moving slowly westward, about 1,100 miles east-southeast of Hilo, Hawaii.
Rescuers working in Salgar, Columbia were stunned to find an 11-month-old baby alive after a landslide that left 78 people, including the baby’s mother, dead.
The infant, Jhosep Diaz, was in a padded crib. The water and mud slide picked up the baby’s crib which flowed like a raft and traveled more than half a mile. Doctors who treated the boy say that he was cold but basically unharmed by his adventure.
“He was unconscious and didn’t open his little eyes but was breathing,” Dr Jesus Antonio Guisao told the AP news agency.
The boy’s mother was found dead along with 11 other family members by rescue personnel. The baby will go to the custody of his grandfather, who said that he lost a total of 16 family members in the disaster.
“Amid so much bad news concerning the death of 16 of our relatives, my grandson’s survival is a miracle,” he said.
Officials say the landslide is the worst natural disaster in Columbia since 1999. The landslide struck around 3 a.m. local time and stretches 25 miles along the Liboriana River.
A major eruption in Chile has thousands of people fleeing as heavy smoke fills the air and lava rushes down the slopes.
The Villarrica volcano blew its top at 3 a.m. local time according to the National Emergency Office. A red alert was issued for the region and authorities immediately started forced evacuations of residents from around the bottom of the mountain.
In addition to the lava flow, authorities say mudslides caused by melting snow could destroy entire villages.
“It was the most amazing thing I’ve ever seen,” 29-year-old Australian tourist Travis Armstrong told the Associated Press. “I’ve never seen a volcano erupt and it was spewing lava and ash hundreds of meters into the air. Lightning was striking down at the volcano from the ash cloud that formed from the eruption.”
Rivers in the area were rising and residents downriver from the mountain are preparing for flooding issues.
The mountain has been erupting on a regular basis every 10 to 15 years.
A massive storm rolled into northern California on Thursday, knocking out power, flooding highways and toppling trees.
Strong winds contributed to the death of a 40-year-old homeless man who had been sleeping on a trail when a tree fell on him. An elementary school student survived in what local officials called a miracle after an 80-foot tree fell on him. He is listed in good condition at a hospital.
“It’s a big storm, as we expected, and it’s headed south with very powerful winds and heavy rainfall,” National Weather Service meteorologist Will Pi told Fox News.
Parts of Southern California that are prone to mudslides have been evacuating ahead of the storm. At least one apartment complex was entirely evacuated because of previous slides in the area. Lumberjacks in the San Bernardino National Forest were putting concrete weights on lumber stacks to keep them from collapsing from the high winds.
Many stores have been blocking their doors with sandbags in anticipation of flooding.
California officials are concerned about the San Bernardino Mountains because of the wildfires in the last few years that has devastated the vegetation and made the land primed for major mudslides.
The storm is also expected to dump feet of snow in the mountains and ski resort operators say they expect to have over three feet of new snow by the weekend.
Tropical depression Fernand stormed into eastern Mexico killing at least 14 in mudslides and flooding.
Officials say at least 13 people were buried alive when a landslide destroyed homes on a hillside in Veracruz state. One man was confirmed to have been swept away by flood water in neighboring Oaxaca. Hundreds of people have been moved into shelters because of the dangerous conditions. Continue reading →
