A cyclone has killed at least 10 people in southeastern Madagascar, triggering floods, bringing down buildings and cutting power, officials say.

One of the worst-hit towns was Nosy Varika on the east coast where almost 95 per cent of buildings were destroyed “as if we had just been bombed” and floods cut access, an official said.

Cyclone Batsirai swept inland late on Saturday, slamming into the eastern coastline with heavy rain and wind speeds of 165 kilometres per hour.

It was projected it could displace as many as 150,000 people.

Mohamed M. M. Fall@MohamedFall

Thinking of those affected by Cyclone #Batsirai in #Madagascar. Heavy rains continue. Proud of field teams in direct contact with affected people. @UNICEF is providing clean #water, essential medicines & is making sure protection services are in places for #children at shelters.

Source: https://www.sbs.com.au/news/cyclone-batsirai-kills-at-least-10-in-madagascar-destroying-homes-and-cutting-power/b3b17dd0-324c-44cc-98f6-e363e9cb7961

The post Cyclone Batsirai kills at least 10 in Madagascar, destroying homes and cutting power first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.

May 25 (UPI) — Cyclone Yaas churned closer to northeastern India on Tuesday as hundreds of thousands of residents in the COVID-weary country fled their homes to find safety. The formable cyclone in the Bay of Bengal was approaching the country as recovery efforts continue after western parts of India were ravaged by Cyclone Tauktae, one of the strongest storms on record for the Arabian Sea, last week.The COVID-19 death toll in India surged past the 300,000 mark on Monday, making the country just the third in the world to reach the grim milestone. Only the United States and Brazil have recorded more fatalities throughout the duration of the pandemic. According to Reuters, 100,000 of those fatalities have occurred over the last three weeks amid a hard-hitting second wave.

Government officials were calling on farmers to cancel a mass protest set to be held outside of New Delhi, the capital, over fears that it could turn into another super spreader event. Health officials have blamed political rallies and religious gatherings for exacerbating the second wave surge of cases.

Vaccinations and needed COVID relief efforts could once again be interrupted due to the looming presence of Cyclone Yaas.

RELATED Tropical Storm Ana forecast to dissipate Monday

As of early Wednesday morning, Yaas was a very severe cyclonic storm with sustained wind speeds of around 75 mph and was located about 86 miles south-southeast of the coastal city of Paradeep, located in the state of Odisha. The storm is expected to make landfall by the middle of the week.

“This type of storm is always a concern due to the susceptibility of this part of India to serious storm surge/coastal inundation as well as flooding from rainfall as well as wind damage, especially closer to the coast,” said AccuWeather senior Vice President and chief meteorologist Jonathan Porter. “However, I am concerned this can easily and quickly become a humanitarian crisis due to the existing COVID-19 disaster.”

 

On Sunday, the India Meteorological Department announced a well-marked area of low pressure had strengthened into a deep depression over the Bay of Bengal. The storm strengthened into Cyclonic Storm Yaas on Monday morning, local time, according to the IMD.

RELATED Biden to double federal funding for hurricane preparedness in U.S.

 

By Tuesday evening, Yaas reached severe cyclonic storm in intensity and was equivalent to a Category 1 hurricane on the Saffir-Simpson Wind Scale used in the Atlantic and Pacific basins.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi called for the timely evacuation of those involved in offshore activities as he chaired a high-level meeting to review the preparedness of states and central government agencies to deal with the situation arising out of the budding cyclone on Sunday.

According to local officials, over 155,000 people have been evacuated from coastal areas in Odisha and nearly 810,000 people have evacuated from low-lying areas in West Bengal.

RELATED People displaced by war, weather, disasters reached record 55 million in 2020

Some residents forced to evacuate in West Bengal are still trying to rebuild after Cyclone Amphan, the most powerful storm in more than a decade to hit eastern India, made landfall in the Indian state last year.

India’s National Disaster Response Force Director, S.N. Pradhan, announced that thousands of emergency personnel have been deployed to the coastal regions of Odisha and West Bengal to assist with evacuations and any possible rescue operations, The Associated Press reported.

Naveen Patnaik, the chief minister of Odisha, urged residents moving to cyclone shelters to wear double masks and to practice social distancing. He added, “We have to face both the challenges simultaneously.”

 

According to the Press Trust of India, the Kolkata Port will suspend all shipping movements on Tuesday as Yaas nears northeastern India.

The Kolkata International Airport will suspend all operations throughout the day Wednesday, and the Northeast Frontier Railway canceled all southbound- and Kolkata-bound passenger trains through Saturday.

Warm water temperatures and light wind shear over the northern Bay of Bengal can allow Yaas to continue to strengthen through early this week as it tracks northwest across the northern Bay of Bengal, according to AccuWeather senior meteorologist Tony Zartman.

The most likely location for landfall to occur is near or just east of Paradeep, a city along the coast northern Odisha on Wednesday, according to AccuWeather lead international meteorologist Jason Nicholls.

“At landfall, the cyclone could be a very severe cyclonic storm,” added Zartman. This is equivalent to a Category 2, or perhaps 3, hurricane on the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Wind Scale used in the Atlantic and East Pacific basins.

As the tropical cyclone pushes inland across northeast India, it can bring widespread rainfall totals of 2-4 inches to the Indian states of northeast Odisha, West Bengal, and Bihar, as well as portions of Nepal and Bangladesh.

As of 9 a.m. Tuesday, at least 6.34 inches of rain have fallen over a 24-hour period at Paradeep, India, in bands ahead of the storm.

Along the track of the storm, rainfall totals can climb as high as 8-12 inches with an AccuWeather Local StormMax of 24 inches most likely in this area.

 

Flash flooding, mudslides, and washouts are all possible with this amount of rainfall in such a short period of time.

In addition to flooding rain, areas along the coast of West Bengal and Bangladesh will also have to contend with storm surge as strong onshore winds push water inland as the storm arrives.

Winds can gust as high as 100-120 mph as the storm moves onshore. An AccuWeather Local StormMax of 125 mph is expected near or just east of where the storm makes landfall.

---

Strong wind gusts can lead to the damage of homes and buildings as well as power outages.

Due to the expected heavy rain, flooding, strong winds, and storm surge, this budding tropical system is a 4 on the AccuWeather RealImpact Scale for Tropical Cyclones.

Depending on the exact track of the storm, Kolkata, West Bengal, maybe in the crosshairs of some of the strongest impacts from Yaas. The city is India’s third-largest with 14.1 million residents in the metropolitan area and a major port and economic hub for northeast India.

---

According to Porter, West Bengal has the nation’s fourth-highest COVID-19 positivity rate (around 29.8%). The positivity rate did not drop very much last week in the state compared to other portions of India where the positivity rate declined significantly.

“Also, less than 10% of the residents of this state are fully vaccinated against COVID-19, so this cyclone is going to have a major impact on testing, treatment, and vaccine distribution,” he added.

Additionally, mucormycosis, informally known as “Black Fungus,” is increasingly cropping up across India, and Kolkata has recently reported its first cases of fungal infection.

This storm will likely put additional strain on the recovery efforts for this illness, especially since this fungus grows in extremely moist environments which will likely be exacerbated by this tropical cyclone, warned Porter.

After the storm moves inland and interacts with land, it will begin to lose wind intensity. By Friday, it is expected to transition into a tropical rainstorm before being ripped apart by the Himalayan Mountains in Nepal over the weekend.

Western India is still recovering from a direct hit from Tropical Cyclone Tauktae, which made landfall less than a week ago on the Kathiawar Peninsula of Gujarat.

At least 122 deaths are being blamed on the cyclone, including 37 crew members from the barge that sank off the coast of Mumbai, according to the Times of India.

The Indian Ocean is currently in one of two peaks in the tropical season, Zartman said. “One peak is right now, just before the start of the Southwest monsoon, the other peak is later in the fall, right after the Southwest monsoon ends.”

---

Source: https://www.upi.com/Top_News/World-News/2021/05/25/india-India-Cyclone-Yaas-weather-evacuations/6661621979849/?ur3=1

[Disclaimer]

The post Hundreds of thousands evacuated as cyclone bears down on India first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.

Typhoon Goni is expected to slam into Catanduanes Island Sunday morning with wind speeds of up to 205 kilometres per hour (127 miles per hour) before crossing the main island of Luzon, the state weather forecaster said.

A man fishes in a swollen river caused by heavy rains north of Manila, ahead of Typhoon Goni’s landfall in the Philippines Photo: AFP / Villamor Visaya

It comes a week after Typhoon Molave hit the same region of the natural disaster-prone archipelago, killing 22 people and flooding low-lying villages and farmland, before crossing the South China Sea to Vietnam.

“It looks like we will have really strong winds, increasing the chances of widespread flooding and landslides,” Mark Timbal, spokesman for the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council, told local broadcaster ABS-CBN.

“Storm surges are imminent on our east coast. We are monitoring Mayon and Taal volcanoes for possible volcanic mudflows.”

Coastguard workers evacuate residents from the coastal villages of Buhi town, Camarines Sur province, south of Manila Photo: Philippine Coast Guard / -)

Authorities spent Saturday marshaling rescue vehicles, emergency response teams, and relief goods ahead of the typhoon.

Residents walk past parked wooden boats along a boulevard in Legazpi Photo: AFP / Charism SAYAT)

“Violent winds and intense rainfall” are expected that could trigger floods and landslides in an area of more than 20 million people, the weather service said.

There was a “high risk” of storm surges of more than three metres (10 feet) high along parts of the coast, it added.

(Photo: AFP / Gal ROMA)

Schools which have been empty since the start of the coronavirus pandemic are being used as emergency shelters as well as government-run evacuation centres and gymnasiums.

“Evacuating people is more difficult at this time because of Covid-19,” Bicol regional civil defence spokesman Alexis Naz told AFP.

Mary Ann Echague, 23, and her family fled their home in the coastal city of Legazpi in Bicol to an inland primary school where they were sheltering in a classroom with several other families.

“We fear the wrath of the typhoon,” said Echague, who was with her two children, parents and siblings. They had carried with them a portable stove, tinned meat, instant noodles, coffee, bread, blankets and pillows.

“Each time we’re hit by a typhoon our house gets damaged, since it’s made of wood and galvanised iron roofing,” she said.

“We have always managed. We find a way to get by.”

Hundreds of people have been left stranded after the coastguard ordered ferries and fishing boats into port in expectation of rough seas throwing up 15-metre waves.

Goni is expected to “weaken considerably” as it crosses Luzon and enters the South China Sea Monday morning, the state forecaster said.

The Philippines is hit by an average of 20 storms and typhoons every year, which typically wipe out harvests, homes and infrastructure, keeping millions of people perennially poor.

Its deadliest on record was Super Typhoon Haiyan, which unleashed giant waves on the central city of Tacloban and left more than 7,300 people dead or missing in 2013.

Source: https://www.ibtimes.com/philippines-evacuates-nearly-1-million-typhoon-goni-nears-3073806

The post Philippines Evacuates Nearly 1 Million As Typhoon Goni Nears first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.

The post Super Typhoon Goni explodes into 2020’s strongest storm on Earth, moves toward Philippines first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.

The post Fiji suffers widespread damage as Cyclone Harold surges back to category five status while headed for Tonga first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.

Nov. 9 (UPI) — Bangladeshi authorities ordered about 500,000 people to evacuate ahead of Cyclone Bulbul, which made landfall at midnight Saturday night.

The storm, which is also known as Tropical Cyclone Matmo, made landfall in the world’s largest mangrove forest between Bangladesh and India. The cyclone had estimated sustained winds of 92 and gusts of 115 mph, according to the U.S. Joint Typhoon Warning Center. In the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Wind Scale, a Category 1 storm’s sustain wind range from 96 mph to 110 mph.

Airports and seaside ports were shut down ahead of the storm. Indian authorities put military ships and planes on standby to assist with emergencies.

About 500,000 have been evacuated from the coastal region of Bangladesh ahead of the storm, according to Enamur Rahman, a minister of Bangladesh’s Disaster Management and Relief.

“We have taken all measures and people from coastal area … they have been moved to the cyclone shelters,” Rahman said Saturday.

Local volunteers helped spread awareness in the community and armed forces provided security.

Officials suspended operations at Shah Amanat International Airport in Chittagong due to the storm, Rhaman added. Kolkata Airport operations were also suspended.

The Indian Meteorological Department classified Bulbul as a severe cyclonic storm with maximum sustained winds of about 68 mph to nearly 75 mph — similar to a tropical storm or Category 1 hurricane on the Saffir-Simpson hurricane wind scale.

The National Disaster Response Force and the Odisha Disaster Rapid Action Force began to clear uprooted trees to allow traffic to flow in affected areas.

Around 3,000 people were evacuated so far from low-lying coastal areas in the state of Odisha, officials said.

The post 500,000 evacuated as Cyclone Bulbul makes landfall in Bangladesh first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.

Cyclone Kenneth had winds equivalent to a Category 4 hurricane.

The post Mozambique Just Got Hit by Another Massive Cyclone first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.

“Some will be in critical, life threatening situations,” Sebastian Rhodes Stampa, coordinator in the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian affairs, said of the affected people.

“We’re now going out on the ground, dropping people off from helicopters to determine what the critical needs are.”

Idai flattened homes and provoked widespread flooding after slamming into Mozambique near the port of Beira on March 14. It then ripped through neighbouring Zimbabwe and Malawi, killing at least 686 people across the three southern African countries.

Mozambique – which has a population of around 30 million – was hit hardest, with tens of thousands of homes destroyed and hundreds of thousands of people displaced across an area of some 3,000 square km (1,200 square miles) – roughly the size of Luxembourg.

Receding flood waters have allowed greater access, and a greater sense of how much people have lost. Thousands of people, stranded for more than a week by the flooding, are now being moved to safer shelters.

Increasingly, the relief focus has turned to preventing or containing what many believe will be inevitable outbreaks of malaria and cholera.

Though no cholera cases have yet been confirmed, health workers on the ground have reported an upsurge in cases of diarrhoea – a symptom of the disease.

“We are testing as we go,” said Rob Holden, the World Health Organization’s (WHO) incident manager in the capital Maputo. “But nonetheless we are treating acute watery diarrhoea, it’s the same as treating cholera. That’s just the diagnosis.”

BIG, DENSE POPULATION

Dozens of people queued in front of a clinic in Beira’s Munhava district on Tuesday, as nurses wearing surgical masks out a chlorine solution to prevent the spread of diseases like cholera.

“There is a big population, dense population in Beira,” said Gert Verdonck, emergency coordinator for Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF). “Of course any spread of any kind of epidemic will be a lot quicker here.”

The WHO is dispatching 900,000 doses of oral cholera vaccine from a global stockpile. The shipment is expected to arrive within 10 days, and a first round of vaccinations will target 100,000 people.

Cholera is spread by faeces in sewage-contaminated water or food, and outbreaks can develop quickly in a humanitarian crisis where sanitation systems are disrupted. It can kill within hours if left untreated.

The United Nations World Food Program (WFP) has designated Mozambique a level three emergency, placing it on a par with Syria, Yemen and South Sudan. The agency is preparing to feed 1.7 million people in Mozambique.

The U.N. is appealing for $282 million to fund the first three months of the disaster response in Mozambique, and a total of $337 million. So far, only 2 percent of that amount has been funded.

SEARCHING THROUGH RUBBLE

In Zimbabwe, where 179 people have died, another 329 people were still unaccounted for on Monday.

In hard-hit Chimanimani district, villagers used hoes and shovels to dig through debris on Tuesday and search for missing relatives believed buried by the mudslides unleashed by the cyclone.

One family has spent a week digging day and night for four relatives, in what was once a settlement of 500 people but has been reduced to rubble.

Large rocks, some more than two metres (six feet) high, which rolled from a nearby mountain at high speed are what remains after the storm swept away a police camp, houses and an open market.

“I am an orphan now and I am so much in pain because I lost my brother who looked after me. He was more of a father to me,” said Sarah Sithole, 32, whose policeman brother was washed away while on night duty at the police station.

“We will continue searching until we find him and bury him. We will not rest,” she said, her hands and feet covered with red soil.

Around 95 percent of roads in affected districts have been damaged, impeding access to rescuers with earth moving equipment. Zimbabwe has requested for search dogs from South Africa to help look for those missing, a local government official said.

The WFP said it will aim to distribute food assistance to 732,000 people in Malawi and 270,000 in Zimbabwe.

The post Nearly 2 million Mozambicans in need after cyclone -UN first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.

A cyclone which struck southern Africa has affected almost three million people, of whom nearly 500,000 have been driven from their homes, the United Nations said on Tuesday.

Cyclone Idai smashed into Mozambique on March 15, unleashing hurricane-force winds and rain that flooded much of the centre of the country and then battered eastern Zimbabwe and Malawi.

More than 700 people have been killed in Mozambique and Zimbabwe alone and hundreds are missing, according to an AFP toll compiled from figures provided by governments and some UN agencies.

The UN’s World Food Programme (WFP) said roughly 3,125 square kilometres (1,200 square miles) of land had been swamped, and nearly three million people across the three countries had been affected.

“Close to 500,000 have been displaced,” the agency said in a briefing note.

In New York, UN humanitarian aid chief Mark Lowcock launched an appeal to provide Mozambique with $282 million (250 million euros) of relief aid over the next three months.

Similar campaigns will shortly be launched for Zimbabwe and Malawi, he said.

Hunger

Survivors of the cyclone began receiving medicine, food and tents Tuesday as floodwaters receded, enabling a detailed picture of the crisis to emerge for the first time.

In the small village of Bejaga, some 150 survivors were hungry.

In the past week relief workers have dropped off “just a cup of (vitamin fortified) soya per family. It’s way too little,” said peasant farmer Francisco Lopez. “We are waiting,” he told AFP.

He had salvaged a few maize cobs in the mud and he sifted through them grain by grain, looking for any edible morsel. He had dried the food on a tarpaulin, but much of it was rotten after nearly two weeks under water.

“We really have nothing to eat, we have received almost nothing in aid,” he said.

The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs’ Sebastian Rhodes Stampa said Monday that 30 aid missions were flying in while others were going by road “so we can really deliver volume.”

International Organisation for Migration (IOM) chief Antonio Vitorino cautioned, though, that food shortages were likely for months to come because of destruction to farmland.

“Given its devastating impact, Cyclone Idai could rank as the worst disaster to hit the region in decades,” he said in a statement.

An estimated half a million hectares (1.2 million acres) of crops have been destroyed, much of which had been ready to harvest, and loss of livestock is likely to be severe.

Health peril

Stagnant water, decomposing bodies and lack of sanitation in overcrowded shelters in Mozambique could create breeding grounds for cholera, typhus and malaria, experts say.

The WHO says it is withdrawing 900,000 doses of cholera vaccines from a global stockpile to help forestall an epidemic.

The government has already identified some suspected cases of cholera, the head of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC), Elhadj As Sy, said.

“The worst thing is the children crying and looking for their parents… It is heartbreaking,” he said, adding that it remained unclear how many children may have been orphaned.

Medical services in the affected region were stretched even before the cyclone hit.

Beira hospital’s operating theatre sustained serious damage. As many as 17 health centres have lost their roofs, Doctors without Borders (MSF) said.

The South African military has deployed several aircraft to the affected area and an EU-funded WFP helicopter is supporting rescue and recovery efforts.

Source: https://phys.org/news/2019-03-displaced-southern-africa-cyclone.html

The post Up to 500,000 displaced by southern Africa cyclone first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.

Tens of thousands of people are still believed to need rescuing after the cyclone hit Mozambique’s port city of Beira on March 14 before moving inland.

At least 360 people have died in Mozambique, Zimbabwe and Malawi, and 2.6 million people have been affected, the United Nations said, as Idai’s winds ripped apart homes, schools and medical centres.

Accompanying heavy rains have triggered floods, inundating swathes of farmland, while health services and clinics have broken down and water supplies have been damaged.

People from the town of Buzi unload at Beira Port, Mozambique, after being rescued from the flood waters. Thousands of people are still stranded after after Cyclone Idai hit the country last week

People walk on the flooded street of Buzi, central Mozambique, after the devastation cyclone which the country’s President fears may have killed as many as 1,000 people – amid fears that diseases could push the death toll even higher

People collect metal sheets from a damaged supermarket to re-build their destroyed houses following the devastation caused by Cyclone Idai in Beira

Medecins Sans Frontieres aid workers said people would resort to drinking water contaminated with waste and sewage as well as dead bodies which will be discovered as water levels recede.

The only reservoir with treated water has only one to two days of drinking water left, the charity’s James Kambaki said.

Another aid worker said: ‘With latrines having been washed away and sanitary systems disrupted, open defecation and the pollution of water sources is a major concern. These can lead to waterborne illnesses, such as cholera and typhoid.’

About 90 percent of the infrastructure in Beira city alone has been destroyed, said rescue workers, and rescue teams are battling to reach communities cut off due roads and bridges being washed away.

In Zimbabwe’s eastern mountainous province of Manicaland, aid workers from the charity Mercy Corps said they had begun distributing purified drinking water packets, hygiene and sanitation supplies.

Mildred Makore of Mercey Corps said populated areas such as Chimanimani town, were still cut off by road. With no power, hospitals had run out of fuel to operate back-up generators.

A woman from the Inhamudima area of Berea killing birds in order to feed her familyas a result of lack of food after cyclone Idai made landfall in Sofala Province

People walk is the standing water in a street on Friday in downtown Beira, Mozambique. Thousands of people are still stranded after after Cyclone Idai hit the country last week

A woman from the Inhamudima area of Berea washing her family’s clothes as flood waters recede after cyclone Idai made landfall in Sofala Province, central Mozambique

‘Both Chimanimani and Chipinge are malaria zones and with people sleeping outside, not having access to clean water sources and, once temperatures increase again, the potential for case numbers to rise is great,’ she said.

In Malawi, where almost 1 million people have been affected by floods, aid workers said they were worried about the spread of disease in some 170 makeshift camps where more than 125,000 people have sought refuge without sufficient toilets.

‘This may be the most devastating such disaster in the region’s history, and its damage can escalate quickly if we do not act immediately,’ said Concern Worldwide’s U.S. chief executive Colleen Kelly.

‘We must prevent a second wave of destruction from additional flooding, crop loss, hunger, and potential disease.’

Survivors of Cyclone Idai, listen to a volunteer from Mozambique Red Cross, after arriving to an evacuation centre in Beira, Mozambique, on Thursday

People from the town of Buzi unload from a boat at Beira Port after being rescued. The devastation in the city has sparked fears of diseases such as cholera

People from the isolated district of Buzi take shelter in the Samora M. Machel secondary school used as an evacuation center in Beira

People from the town of Buzi get off a boat in pouring weather at Beira Port as they escape the devastated coastal city

A woman carries salvaged metal sheeting amid the shattered city of Beira, Mozambique

Men play checkers beside a fallen tree leaning on a wall after the strong cyclone a week ago in Beira

The situation in Beira ‘boiling’ as residents suffered shortages of food, water and other essentials one week after a devastating cyclone, the head of a South African rescue operation said on Friday.

Connor Hartnady, rescue operations task force leader for Rescue South Africa, said residents of Beira – a low-lying port city of 500,000 people – were becoming fed up with shortages.

He also said a group of 60 people had been discovered trapped by flood water in an area north of Beira during a reconnaissance flight.

The storm’s torrential rains caused the Buzi and Pungwe rivers, whose mouths are in the Beira area, to burst their banks.

Roads into Beira were cut off by the storm, and most of the city remains without power.

Pedestrians walk on the edge of a collapsed bridge in Nhamatanda, about 60 miles west of the port city of Beira

People use makeshift boats to navigate the flooded areas after the passage of the cyclone Idai in Matarara, Sussudenga district, in Mozambique

An aerial view shows Beira, central Mozambique, on Wednesday, after the passage of cyclone Idai

The post Death toll from Cyclone Idai ‘could spiral past a thousand’ in Mozambique amid fears 500,000 survivors are at risk of fatal diseases and starving villagers resort to drinking from dirty puddles first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.