Weather

Citation

(2001), "Weather", Disaster Prevention and Management, Vol. 10 No. 3. https://doi.org/10.1108/dpm.2001.07310cac.003

Weather

Weather

20 May 2000 – Indonesia and East Timor

At least 148 people were killed when floods wiped out several villages in Indonesia's West Timor but the death toll could be much higher because several remote areas were cut off by two metres of floodwaters. Local authorities in the area, near the border with UN-controlled East Timor, also feared the floods could worsen if heavy rains returned. Many of the victims were refugees who fled East Timor last year when pro-Jakarta militias went on a rampage after the territory voted to break away from Indonesia. Several days of heavy rain caused West Timor's largest river, the Benanain, to overflow its banks where it was joined by several other rivers near the city of Atambua. The floods have washed away the only bridge linking remote areas with Atambua. "Communications between the river banks are all out. We have to use helicopters to reach the other side of the river," a rescuer with the government rescue service based at Atambua said.

Five days of deadly flooding across Timor island may also have spoiled East Timor's multi-million-dollar coffee harvest, the territory's independence leader said today. Jose "Xanana" Gusmao said many parts of his country have been severely affected by the heavy rains and flash floods blamed for at least 125 deaths in West Timor, the other half of the island. The loss of the coffee harvest would be a bitter blow for the tiny Southeast Asian territory as it struggles to rebuild itself after a violent separation from Indonesia last year. "The people are suffering," he said. "And now the coffee harvest may be damaged." East Timor's coffee industry is expected to become the backbone of its economy, bringing in an estimated $30 million of much-needed foreign currency annually and employing about a quarter of the work force. A mass burial was held for 81 people who died in the floods in the southern Belu region of Indonesian-held West Timor. UN officials said at least 125 had died in West Timor; Indonesian authorities put the death toll at 148, with more than 120 missing. There have been no reported deaths from flooding in East Timor. In the island's border lowlands, the flood waters have started to recede. But more than 100,000 people are still displaced, with no means of returning to their homes. Many roads have been washed away and several bridges have collapsed, said Jake Morland, UN High Commissioner for Refugees spokesman in West Timor. "Some roads may take months to repair," he said.

21 May 2000 – Bogota, Colombia

Floods and torrential downpours in southern and eastern Colombia killed at least 11 people and destroyed dozens of homes, local media reported today. At least 90 homes were destroyed near Bucaramanga in eastern Santander province, and 50 more homes were swept away in southern Putumayo province when the river that marks Colombia's border with Ecuador burst its banks. Television images showed torrents of muddy water flowing through the streets of Pasto, the capital of Narino province, also in the south. Water reached the windows of cars stranded throughout the city. RCN television reported 11 people were killed in the floods in Narino but the figure could not immediately be confirmed with authorities. Meteorologists forecast more heavy rain for the flood-hit areas throughout this week.

22 May 2000 – More heavy rain is forecast across parts of southern Colombia where at least 11 people died in torrential downpours over the weekend (May 20-21). The rains, which have been falling for several days, have provoked mudslides and caused rivers to burst their banks. Many roads are impassable and several hundred homes have been damaged or destroyed.

24 May 2000 – Torrential rains have triggered floods and mudslides in southern Colombia, leaving 21 dead and thousands homeless. Swollen rivers burst their banks destroying hundreds of homes following a weekend of incessant rain. Officials in three regions of the country say there could be as many as 17,000 stranded by the flood waters and hundreds of families will have to be evacuated. "Today the people don't have anything to eat," said Luis Alberto Quintero, Mayor of Jiron. "They don't have clothes, they don't have food, they don't have medicine, they don't have anything. They've lost everything." Local press reports say the death toll is as high as 27, and 49 people are missing. In one incident a bus carrying 14 passengers was swept off a bridge taking all those on board with it. Relief workers have set up temporary shelters to re-house those left stranded by the rain. Large areas of Colombia now lie under flood waters and crops have been devastated. Communities on the banks of the Magdalena and Cauca rivers are now at risk of being swept away by the flood waters. The heavy rains have been linked to the Nila phenomenon, a weather change that took hold last year due to changes in ocean temperatures. There are fears the situation could worsen as meteorologists predict more rain until the middle of June.

25 May 2000 – Fierce storms lashing southern Colombia have killed at least 31 people and left more than 108,000 homeless since the weekend (May 20-21), authorities said today. The torrential rains have swollen rivers, washed away homes and triggered mudslides since Saturday in Narino and Putumayo provinces on the border with Ecuador, said Eduardo Gonzalez, head of the government's Disaster Relief Office. At least ten other provinces have been affected to a lesser degree. "The toll we have since Saturday is 31 dead, 108,000 homeless and 360 dwellings completely destroyed," Gonzalez said.

24 May 2000 – Chittagong, Bangladesh

At least 28 people were missing after two fishing boats sank in the Bay of Bengal in heavy rain and squalls that disrupted operations at Chittagong sea- and airports today, officials said. Rainstorms swept Chittagong and offshore areas last night and today, causing widespread disruption. Weather officials warned that more rain was expected, particularly in south-eastern Bangladesh, weather officials said. "Heavy rain with occasional gusty wind disrupted almost 70 per cent of cargo handling at Chittagong port," said Mohsin Sarkar, traffic director of Chittagong Port Authority. "Operations were suspended for four hours and five flights were cancelled today," said a Civil Aviation Authority officer at Chittagong airport. "Two boats capsized 40km from Cox's Bazar last night. All 28 crew on board are missing, feared drowned," a police officer at Cox's Bazar said. Meteorology officials said they asked the authorities to hoist storm warning signals at sea ports in Chittagong, Mongla and Cox's Bazar. It rained 145mm at Cox's Bazar in the 24 hours to 10.00 today.

24 June 2000 – Flash floods and landslides triggered by nearly six inches of rain killed at least nine people and injured about 50 in south-eastern Bangladesh today, police said. They said the victims were mostly women and children who could not move out quickly when their houses collapsed or were buried under tonnes of mud. Three people died in Chittagong port city and six in Hathajari on the city's outskirts, police said. Nearly 200,000 people were hit by flash floods after rain-swelled Matamuhuri river burst its banks, inundating 30 villages and washing away hundreds of bamboo huts, officials said. Weather officials said they recorded nearly 150mm of rain in Chittagong and nearby areas today, resulting in waist-deep water in many city areas. They said more rain was expected in the next few days.

25 June 2000 – Reportedly 11 people, including six children, died as walls and hills collapsed during torrential rain in the Chittagong port city and its adjoining areas yesterday. Rain also triggered flash flooding especially in the low lying areas. Meteorological office recorded 134mm rain-fall in nine hours from 06.00, June 24. Most of the city roads went under knee-deep water, forcing suspension of traffic for a few hours. Ship movement at Chittagong port channel and cargo handling in the ship anchored at the jetties were suspended due to torrential rain yesterday.

25 June 2000 – Flash floods triggered by monsoon rains have killed at least ten people, disrupted normal life and halting work at Chittagong port yesterday, according to local meteorological department. A landslide in Chittagong's Hathazari area killed nine people, while a 16-year-old girl was also killed and three others injured when a wall collapsed, local police said. Local residents said flash floods gripped the city after the torrential rains, disrupting normal life and halting work at the port. The local meteorological department recorded 134mm of rain yesterday, a record for this season. Some low-lying areas of Dhaka were also flooded after overnight rains.

1 June 2000 – Guatemala

A mudslide triggered by torrential rains swept through a town in northern Guatemala, killing 13 people and injuring 24 others, Defence Minister Juan Estrada said today. The slide yesterday buried 21 homes in Senahu, about 75 miles north-east of Guatemala City. Authorities called off the search for more victims today, saying everyone had been accounted for. Estrada said officials would not know the extent of the damage for at least a week, and their efforts today were cut short by another bout of torrential rains.

10 June 2000 – Lucknow, India

At least 43 people have died in the past three days in landslides and flash floods after torrential rains in India's northern province of Ut tar Pradesh, a state official said today. An official spokesman said five people died in Moradabad district when the roof of an old house caved in following heavy rains, while 14 were killed in Bijnore district in three separate incidents yesterday. The spokesman said 14 people died in two separate landslides in the Garhwal Himalayan region on Thursday. Most of the victims are believed to have been Hindu pilgrims either on their way or returning from popular shrines in the region. Flash floods in the Gola river in Haldwani town in the Himalayan foothills have claimed eight lives. Two people have died because of flash floods in the river's Kalyani tributary.

13 June 2000 – Indian Air Force helicopters have rescued more than 200 people, some from treetops, from floods in the country's north-east which have killed 20 people, an Assam state official said today. Assam's minister in charge of flood control, Pramad Gogoi, told Reuters the floods have hit more than 3,000 people in more than 1,000 villages since Sunday (June 11). Officials said the 20 dead drowned in Arunachal Pradesh and Assam. "The current wave of floods has washed away many villages, including bridges in Arunachal Pradesh," Gogoi said. Police said air force helicopters from the Mohanbari airbase in Assam had been airlifting people, some from treetops, in Assam and neighbouring Arunachal Pradesh since yesterday. "The air force helicopters located a boat carrying at least 70 passengers in marshy land and rescued them," a senior police officer in Arunachal Pradesh said. Rescue efforts have so far been hampered by rain and fog. Floods – primarily caused by the overflowing Brahmaputra river – annually ravage crops and villages in India's landlocked north-eastern states, which are hemmed in by China, Bhutan, Myanmar and Bangladesh.

24 June 2000 – Flash floods caused by heavy rains and overflowing rivers have driven some 2.5 million people from their homes in India's remote north-eastern state of Assam, government officials said on Saturday. Police said three people were killed in a landslide in Guwahati over the past 24 hours. "Flood waters at several places of upper Assam, specially in Jorhat and Dibrngarh washed away roads and bridges and more than 200 villages in Dhemaji district have been submerged under water," Manoj Deb, a government spokesman said from the state capital Dispur. Deb said an estimated 2.5 million people affected by the floods have been shifted to high ground and highways. The Assam government has opened more than 25 relief camps to provide food and shelter to the affected. Assam's main Brahmaputra river has been flowing above the danger mark at several places and people near the banks have been evacuated to safer places, Deb said. A senior weather official, Dhanna Singh, said that heavy rains were expected to continue in the region. The seven north-eastern states have prepared a contingency plan to evacuate people to safer zones and provide them with food, shelter and health care. India's military and air force have been put on alert to assist in rescue operations. At several places in eastern Assam, raging torrents have damaged telephone and electricity posts forcing villagers to use boats and rafts made of bamboo and banana trees to flee to safer areas, Deb said. Yesterday, the Assam government said about 300 villages in half a dozen districts in the state have been submerged. Flooding caused by incessant rains for the past few days has damaged more than 11,000 hectares of farmland.

28 June 2000 – Five people have died in floods that have swamped large parts of India's north-eastern Assam state and forced over 4 million people to flee to relief camps, the state government said in a statement today. "Five human lives have been lost during the floods in the state in the past one week. Of them, two people were drowned and three others have been buried to death in a landslide," the statement said. It said movement of people and goods in several parts of the state had been disrupted for the past few weeks with most roads and bridges washed away and railway tracks submerged. A railway official said local railway services have been disrupted but the main railway link between mainland India and the north-east remained unaffected by the floods. The state's overall flood situation has also begun to improve, with water levels of the swollen rivers showing a receding trend, officials said. "Telecommunication links and electricity supply in some places where water level have declined have been restored but the majority of areas remain cut off," Manoj Dev, a government spokesman, said. Flooding in Assam caused by incessant rains for almost a week has also damaged more than 11,000 hectares of farmland. The Assam government has opened 40 relief camps spread across a dozen districts to provide food, shelter and healthcare to the affected. About 1,200 villages in Assam remained submerged for the fourth day as embankments along the main river Brahmaputra and its tributaries had been damaged at several places.

11 July 2000 – Floods from a Chinese dam in Tibet have wreaked havoc in the north-eastern Indian state of Arunachal Pradesh, claiming 30 lives and leaving more than 100 missing, Indian officials said yesterday. Images taken by a Canadian satellite used by India's National Remote Sensing Agency (NSRA) revealed that flash floods hit Arunachal Pradesh two weeks ago after a Chinese dam on the Tsangpo river was breached, a NSRA official said. "Preliminary findings suggest the floods in Arunachal Pradesh were due to the breach of a dam on the Tsangpo, as the river makes a turn to enter India," the official said. He said the dam was located in Tibet, near the Namtche Barwa mountain and the cause of the floods might be "water mismanagement". An official of China's Water Resources Department in Tibet confirmed the breach, but stressed it had been caused by a major landslide on April 9.

12 July 2000 – Heavy rain in India's financial capital today caused several landslides and a number of buildings to collapse, killing at least 15 people. At least 13 people were killed when a landslide destroyed their makeshift homes on the slopes of a hill in the centre of the west Indian city, an official at the city's emergency services department said. About 17 were injured and police feared the death toll could rise as more people were believed to be buried under the debris. In another incident, police said two people were killed when a wall collapsed. Mumbai's international airport remained open, but some flights were delayed. Commuter train services ground to a halt on Wednesday. The Press Trust of India quoted weather department officials as saying the city was experiencing peak time monsoon and the heavy rains would continue for a few more days.

13 July 2000 – A mudslide triggered by days of torrential rain buried huts in a slum area of Mumbai, killing at least 50 people, police said today. The toll was likely to rise, they added. Tons of earth engulfed more than 200 hovels on a hillside in the eastern suburb of Ghatkopar yesterday. Rescue workers were searching for victims more than 20 hours after the disaster struck. "We don't have much hope of finding survivors as the wet mud would have smothered them," a fire brigade official said. Rescuers had begun using powerful excavators to scoop out the mud, resigning themselves to looking for bodies rather than survivors. A week of torrential rains has killed 74 people in India's western state of Maharashtra, of which Mumbai is the capital. Weather department officials said the city had received over 350mm of rain in the last 24 hours and they forecast more heavy rains and strong winds. Three people died yesterday when the ceiling of their home collapsed in Vikhroli and two were washed down a storm water drain. The Press Trust of India reported seven more casualties, including five in the pilgrimage town of Nashik, in the heaviest spell of rains since the south-west monsoon arrived in early June. Today's downpour paralysed the city. Roads and rail tracks were under water and office workers and schoolchildren stayed home. The markets in India's financial capital were quiet as few people managed to get to work. The Reserve Bank of India suspended high value cheque clearing operations for the day. PTI said yesterday the southern state of Andhra Pradesh had also been hit by torrential rains and the government was preparing to evacuate people living on the banks of the swollen river Godavari. PTI also reported floods in the western state of Gujarat.

14 July 2000 – Dozens of people have been killed by landslides and flooding in Mumbai, most under a wall of mud which tumbled down a hillside on to shanty homes. Among the dead, 47 were victims of Wednesday's (July 12) massive mudslide in the northern Mumbai suburb of Ghatkopar, while three people were killed in a smaller mudslide elsewhere. With rain pounding down for a second straight day, the toll in the city had risen last night to 68 and rescue workers said it could rise greatly as nearly 120 people were feared buried under debris. More than 100 injured people were taken to hospital. The Maharashtra state Government called in the army and navy to rescue 2,000 families trapped by flooding in another badly hit area near the city's Mickey River. Rail, road and air services ground to a halt because of rising water levels and strong wind in the worst-ever deluge in the city's history. Some parts of the city have had no power or telephone services since Wednesday morning. Although it stopped raining briefly yesterday afternoon, torrential rains are forecast over the next two days.

11 August 2000 – At least 36 people were killed and over 50 reported missing in the Himalayan foothills of northern India after a series of landslides triggered by heavy rains, officials said today. The landslides came after widespread monsoon flooding in the north and north-east of India, Bhutan, Nepal and Bangladesh, where some 300 are feared dead and several million have been washed out of their homes. An official spokesman in the northern state of Ut tar Pradesh said the Pithoragarh district, which is close to the border with Tibet, was the worst affected by landslides. He said 26 people were killed as houses collapsed under the weight of sliding mud and rocks, and five people died when they were carried away by the swollen Bhavra river in the neighbouring district of Nainital. Five people also died in landslips in Pithoragarh's Didihat area, he added. Subash Kumar, a local divisional commissioner, said traffic on several main roads had been disrupted and relief operations were being carried out on a war footing. He said further casualties could not be ruled out. Meanwhile, swollen rivers receded in the north-eastern state of Assam, allowing authorities to step up relief efforts in remote villages which had been cut off for more than two weeks. Officials said doctors from the main town of every flood-hit district had left for remote areas this morning to tend to survivors now facing hunger and the threat of water-borne diseases. Officials said several volunteer groups were helping local authorities provide food, shelter and medical aid. "The overall flood situation in Assam has improved in the last two days, but erosion continues as in some places rivers have changed their course," Flood Control Minister Pramod Gogoi said, adding that Assam's main river, the Brahmaputra, was overflowing only in some areas bordering Bangladesh. Officials said they were using sandbags to prevent flood water from damaging highways, which have flood waters on both sides. In the eastern state of Bihar, officials said all the rivers in the province were receding. But villagers in refugee camps said they were in desperate need of government support to survive.

14 August 2000 – Flood waters have receded further in India but the eastern state of Orissa is reeling under a severe dry spell which has affected paddy cultivation, officials said today. Rainfall in Orissa was 34.5 per cent less than normal in July, and 57 per cent below the long-term average in the week ended August 2, the local weather office said. "The rains did not reach the state in time," said D.C. Gupta, director of the weather office in Bhubaneshwar, Orissa's capital. Officials said the dry spell had hit cultivation of paddy, the state's main crop, in several districts, including Bolangir, 400km (250 miles) south of Bhubaneshwar, where rainfall was 95 per cent below normal. Against a target of 3.9 million hectares paddy had been sown in only 2.6 million hectares, state government officials said. The area under other crops was only 1.3 million hectares against a target of 2.3 million hectares. The state's chief minister, Naveen Patnaik, has ordered a weekly review of the crop situation and directed district officials to ensure irrigation projects are in order. Many irrigation projects were damaged last year by a severe cyclone which swept through coastal areas of the state. Meanwhile, authorities in the north-eastern state of Assam said they were continuing relief and rehabilitation activities. Floods have affected more than 3.5 million people of 3,684 villages in the state and damaged roads, bridges and embankments. In Goalpara district near the border with Bangladesh, the Brahmaputra river had burst the embankments along a stretch of 4km (2.5 miles). "Even though the water is below the danger level, many villages are submerged because of the four-km break in the embankment," a district official said. He said the district would remain vulnerable to flash floods until the embankment was rebuilt. Officials said district authorities and volunteers were continuing relief efforts to prevent the spread of water-borne diseases. The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies appealed on Friday for $3.8 million to help 200,000 people in India. Britain announced on Saturday that it was giving £250,000 to help flood victims in Assam.

17 August 2000 – Workers dodged deadly mudslides today as they tried to clear debris blocking a major highway that links the capital, Kathmandu, with the rest of Nepal, officials said. More than 110 people have died in Nepal in recent weeks because of floods and landslides triggered by seasonal monsoon rains, Home Minister, Govind Raj Joshi, said. Eleven others are still missing, and the homes of 8,600 families were either destroyed or damaged. Mud and stones covered more than 650 feet of the Prithvi Highway 50 miles west of Kathmandu after a landslide triggered by heavy rains Friday (August 11). People in Kathmandu depend on the highway for essential supplies. "Workers have been risking their lives while clearing the landslide. Smaller landslides are continuing and heavy equipment used for clearing the road has been forced to back up repeatedly," said Chief District Officer, Netra Prasad Sharma. Traffic has been diverted to a side road that is narrow, dangerous and poorly maintained. It was the second landslide this month to disrupt traffic on the highway. In neighbouring India, relief workers in the north-eastern state of Assam battled against disease and hunger as flood waters receded today, although forecasters predicted more rain in the next day. Most of the 4 million people displaced by flooding have gone home, but about 70,000 could still be living in relief centres or along national highways, Assam government minister, Moidul Islam Hora, said.

24 August 2000 – At least 70 people have been killed and several are missing after heavy rains and flooding in southern India. Thousands of people have been evacuated from their homes in Andhra Pradesh state which has been hit by heavy monsoon showers. Helicopters have been pressed into service to carry out relief and rescue operations. A spokesman for the state government said the heavy rains have left a trail of death and destruction on the Andhra Pradesh coast. "At least 70 people have been killed by heavy cyclonic rains in Andhra Pradesh in the last 48 hours and casualty figures are expected to go up as there is no sign of a let-up in the rains," the spokesman, Vijay Kumar, said. Several homes are said to have been flattened by high-speed winds. Most of the deaths are a result of walls and buildings collapsing while many drowned in swollen rivers. Thirteen people died in the state capital, Hyderabad, but most of the deaths have been in the coastal district of Guntur. More than 20,000 people have now been evacuated to drier areas. The state government has issued warnings and asked schools and colleges to close.

5 June 2000 – China

Torrential rains caused flash floods that killed 34 people in the north-western province of Gansu, one of China's driest and poorest regions, a local official said today. The rains on May 31, the heaviest in the remote region in 150 years, injured 28 people and left more than 700 families homeless in the Gansu district of Danchang, the official said. He said flood waters inundated most farmland and damaged houses. State media warned today that communities along China's major rivers should prepare for heavy rains during the summer rainy season, with a high potential for flooding across northern China in the coming three months. The China Daily quoted Water Resources Minister, Wang Shucheng, as saying areas within the Yellow River, Huaihe and Yangtze River systems could get between two and four times average rain this summer. The flood warning was issued amid a drought affecting the half of China north of the Yangtze that officials have described as the worst in ten years.

7 June 2000 – Flooding and landslides in separate regions of China have killed 74 people and left thousands homeless, state media reported today. Torrential rains triggered floods and landslides that left 38 people dead and left 12 missing in Sichuan province, the Xinhua News Agency said. Hail, flooding and landslides have devastated areas in Gulin and Xuyong counties, 1,000 miles south of Beijing, since the beginning of June, the report said. In Gansu province, widespread flooding has killed 36 people and left thousands homeless, Xinhua said in a separate report. The floods on May 31 in Gansu's Dangchang and Minxian counties, 760 miles south-west of Beijing, caused $21.5 million in damage and were considered the worst in 150 years, the report said. It said authorities were sending clothing, quilts, tents and other disaster relief materials for the 1,345 households whose homes were destroyed by the floods.

16 June 2000 – Fourteen people were killed and 20 others are still missing after severe floods struck the town of Duyun in south-west China, the official press reported today. The latest casualties bring to 120 the number of people reported dead or missing since the annual summer flooding period in China began at the end of May. The Beijing Youth Daily said the town of Duyun in the province of Guizhou was pummelled last week by the heaviest rains in 400 years. The paper said Duyun was submerged under between 1.5 and 3 metres of water after torrential rains caused a river flowing through the town to burst its banks. The paper said 230 houses in the town were destroyed and that nearly 300,000 people were affected by the flooding. It put the total economic loss from the flooding at $60 million. An official in Duyun said today that the situation in the town had almost returned to normal but that work had not restarted in three large factories because equipment had been damaged by flood water.

17 June 2000 – Torrential rains have killed at least 20 people, collapsed houses and flooded streets under 1.5 metres of water in the southern city of Duyun, a local official said today. At least 13 more people are reported missing in the disaster, said an official of the city Anti-Flood Office. She said the flooding occurred June 8-9 in Duyun, a city of 295,000 people in the southern province of Guizhou, causing damage estimated at 500 million yuan (US$60 million). The rains forced factories and schools in Duyun to close for two days, destroyed homes and cut roads to the city, the official said.

21 June 2000 – Heavy rains crumpled houses and triggered landslides in south-east China, killing 19 people. The storms struck coastal Fujian province and flooded fields and roads, cut off highways, and forced the evacuation of villages, state-run newspapers reported. In Longhai county, 15 inches of rain fell in one day, the reports said. Provinces along the Yangtze were warned yesterday to prepare for possible summer flooding following large rainfalls on the river's upper reaches and tributaries, the official Xinhua News Agency said.

6 July 2000 – Flooding has left more than 410 people dead in China's annual rainy season, the official China Daily newspaper reported today. Local governments were being warned to prepare for even more floods. Torrential rains washed away a mountainside, killing ten people in Dazhou city, Sichuan province, the newspaper said. It added that the rains damaged 110,000 houses, 86,500 acres of crops and 55 miles of roads, causing losses of $16 million. In reporting the toll, government flood control authorities urged local officials to prepare for the peak of the rainy season in late July and early August, the China Daily said. Areas in north China were told to be especially vigilant. The Yangtze River has all ready passed its first flood crest of the season. The high waters closed shipping locks at the Three Gorges Dam and sank three barges at the Gezhouba Dam further down river, the newspaper said. While rains have begun falling on some parts of drought-stricken north China, many areas remain parched. The dry weather has contributed to unusually large hatches of locusts. Locusts have already eaten through 8,200 acres of wheat and corn near the north-eastern city of Benxi, the Xinhua News Agency reported.

7 July 2000 – Flooding has killed more than 410 people in the opening weeks of China's annual rainy season and local governments were being warned to prepare for more floods, the official China Daily newspaper reported yesterday. In the latest catastrophe, torrential rains washed away a mountainside, killing ten people in Dazhou city, Sichuan province, the newspaper said. It added that the rains damaged 110,000 houses, 86,500 acres of crops and 55 miles of roads, causing losses of $16 million. Government flood control authorities urged local officials to prepare for the peak of the rainy season in late July and early August, the China Daily said. Areas in north China which have experienced months of drought were told to be especially vigilant. The Yangtze River has already passed its first flood crest of the season. The high waters closed vessel locks at the Three Gorges Dam and sank three barges at the Gezhouba Dam further downriver, the newspaper said.

17 July 2000 – A mudslide set off by heavy rains buried scores of houses in central China, killing at least 119 villagers, an official said today. The disaster struck rural Ziyang county in Shaanxi Province late Thursday night (July 13), said the region's Anti-Flood Office. Torrential rains fell in the area from Tuesday to Friday. Another 29 people were missing and all the dead were buried in collapsed houses, the office said. In another part of Shaanxi, at least eight people were killed Friday by a rain-triggered landslide in Ruxian county, according to the official Xinhua News Agency.

15 July 2000 – Shaanxi province, China, has experienced some of its worst floods in decades, with at least 135 killed and scores missing, a local official said yesterday. Worst hit was Ziyang county in the south, where flooding of the Ren river, a tributary of the Ran, killed 119 people. A further 52 people were missing. In Ru county, near the provincial capital of Xian, eight people were killed and four are missing after floods last Wednesday (July 12). In another part of Shaanxi, at least eight people were killed on Friday (July 14) by a rain-triggered landslide in Ruxian county, Xinhua said. It said four people were missing and presumed dead. The deluge in Ziyang had knocked out power to ten towns, wrecked 40 bridges and washed out 500km of roads, Wenhui Bao reported. Losses amounted to more than 100 million yuan (HK$93 million). Flooding has also cost central Renan province losses of more than 7.8 billion yuan since June. Since mid-June, heavy rain has hit the province on the middle reaches of the Yellow River, causing severe floods. Six people have been killed and 48 are missing after heavy floods in Sichuan province. Provincial government sources said a flood triggered by rainstorms hit Baiyu county, Ganzi prefecture, causing 300 million yuan in damage.

20 July 2000 – Rescue workers have recovered more bodies after a devastating flash flood in north-west China, bringing the total number killed to more than 200. In the last few days rescue workers have dug more than 80 bodies out of the mud. The flood, which hit the county of Ziyang in Shaanxi province late last week, swept away thousands of buildings and triggered deadly landslides. The latest deaths bring the number killed by flooding this year in China to nearly 650.

17 June 2000 – Mexico

Floods caused by torrential rains have killed 120 people in the southern Mexican state of Oaxaca, local authorities said today. The death toll was taken from the Acatlan de Perez Figueroa municipality, where several roads have been blocked by landslides, according to State Civil Protection director Hector Gonzalez. Meanwhile, a landslide buried at least ten houses without human deaths in the Mixistlan de Reforma, said Gonzales in the city of Oaxaca, which has the same name as the state, about 316km south-east of Mexico City. The collapse was caused by the rains, which softened the terrain. The appearance of fissures in some streets prompted the authorities to evacuate some 30 families from their homes in the same area. Strong rains that are pelting the centre and south of Mexico have caused serious floods and damage. Local authorities of Guerrero state, in the south of Mexico, have called on people to take extra precautions against possible floods from the intense rains. Tourist places of Acapulco and Zihuatanejo, both on the Pacific Ocean coast are the worst hit areas.

25 June 2000 – Santiago, Chile

At least seven people died and nine others were missing in weekend storms across central Chile, with widespread flooding in lowlands and heavy snowfalls in mountainous areas, authorities said today. Heavy rain lashed a broad swathe of central Chile yesterday and continued through this morning, only 11 days after the worst storms in 20 years left much of the country, including parts of the capital Santiago, under water. Four miners were found dead late yesterday in a car trapped in snow at an altitude of 15,250 feet in a remote desert region about 410 miles north of Santiago, the National Emergency Office said. Two other people died after their jeep plunged down a ravine in an isolated area close to the coast 125 miles south-west of Santiago, police said. Three others in the vehicle escaped with minor injuries. The seventh victim was an eight-year-old girl who died when her family shack was swept down a ravine on the outskirts of the port of Valparaiso yesterday. Three fishermen in a boat were missing off the coast of Coquimbo, 290 miles north of Santiago, the National Emergency Office reported. Six horseback drovers, who set out on an expedition several days ago, are also reported missing in a wild region of the Andes mountains about 125 miles south-east of the capital. Torrential rain wreaked havoc on Chile's capital Santiago and surrounding areas on June 14, flooding streets, causing traffic chaos and forcing authorities to close schools. President Ricardo Lagos declared the capital and the Valparaiso region catastrophe zones, immediately opening public coffers to fund emergency aid. Houses in several districts were flooded under about three feet of water and hundreds of cars were stranded on streets that turned into rivers overnight, witnesses said. The National Emergency Office said 552 people were being housed in shelters in central Chile and a further 5,005 had reported property damage.

25 June 2000 – Nepal

Torrential monsoon rains triggered landslides killing 13 people and injuring five in the Tanahun district of west Nepal, police said today. A police official said that eight people were killed in Kaming, three in Mirlung and two in Risti village late yesterday in the district about 125km west of Kathmandu.

3 July 2000 – A landslide in eastern Nepal has swept away a house in the region of Ilam, killing five people. Torrential monsoon rain has caused a series of landslides which have killed nearly 50 people so far this year. The authorities in Nepal say that in the past month several hundred people have lost their homes and property worth tens of thousands of dollars has been damaged.

28 June 2000 – Costa Rica

Rescue workers in Costa Rica are searching for seven members of a single family missing after a landslide, north-west of San Jose. The victims were swept under tons of mud and rock as a hillside collapsed following heavy rains. The authorities have evacuated about 200 people living nearby until the area is declared safe.

8 July 2000 – Manila, Philippines

Typhoon "Kai-Tak", which lashed the Philippines this week killing 28 people, was hovering over the South China Sea today, half way to Hong Kong, officials said. A storm signal was hoisted over the Philippines' Batanes islands, the nearest land point, which is about 280km to the north-east, civil defence officials in Manila said. In Hong Kong, a standby signal was posted. The Hong Kong Observatory said the typhoon was moving in a circle and "hasn't decided its path yet". It said the centre of the storm was about 590km south-east of Hong Kong and packed winds reaching up to 120kph. The typhoon, called "Edeng" in the Philippines, caused torrential rains and flooding over much of the main island of Luzon this week. Civil defence officials said 28 people had been killed by electrocution, drowning, and landslides. Ten others were missing, they said. Around 40,000 people had taken refuge in evacuation centres and some 1,500 homes had been damaged, they said. Damage to crops had been minimal, the officials said.

9 July 2000 – Typhoon "Kai-Tak", packing winds of 165kph and gusts of up to 200kph, is continuing to dump monsoon rains on the main island of Luzon. Disaster officials in the Philippines said the death toll had climbed to 42, and that nearly a million people had sought refuge in evacuation centres following five days of heavy downpour. Hundreds of buildings have been damaged or destroyed, and the country's chief weather forecaster says the worst of the storms is not over yet. "Kai- Tak" is now heading north towards Taiwan.

10 July 2000 – At least nine people were killed and more than 60 missing today when a huge garbage dump collapsed and buried a cluster of shanties in the Philippine capital Manila, relief officials said. The local television ANC News Channel said there were 17 dead and 36 missing. Relief worker Ming Guillermo said rescue teams recovered nine bodies, mostly those of children, while 23 injured were taken to various hospitals. Survivors said they heard a rumbling sound followed by an avalanche of mud and garbage which swamped their wooden houses after one side of the 50-foot-high dumpsite caved in following days of heavy rains generated by typhoon "Kai-Tak". The typhoon swept out towards Taiwan yesterday after battering the Philippine main island for five days and killing 39 people. Rescue workers at the scene of the dumpsite collapse were digging through the rubble searching for missing people, radio reports said. As the dumpsite collapsed, a live electric cable ignited a pile of garbage, sparking a fire. "Between 70-100 houses are feared buried," civil defence operations officer Allan Virtucio said. The dumpsite is located in the middle of a squatters' colony called Lupang Pangako where more than 60,000 people – mostly slum-dwellers – live, Mayor Mel Mathay said. "We don't know how many people are missing because we have no figures on how many were in the houses that were buried," Mathay said. Virtucio said the average size of each family was about six, but it was not known if all the homes were occupied when the disaster occurred.

The death toll from a landslide of mud and rubbish caused by heavy rains from typhoon "Kai-Tak" in Manila has risen to 31. Up to 100 shanty homes are feared to have been destroyed. Dozens of people are still missing. Some of the rubbish caught fire and local reports suggest a broken power line may have sparked the blaze. Heavy digging equipment has been brought into the site. Police at the scene have not yet established how many of the squatter homes built across the site were buried when tonnes of garbage loosened by heavy rains swamped them. Rescue workers toiling through the night reported today they had recovered 56 bodies from under huge mounds of garbage which buried shanties in a district called Promised Land on the outskirts of the Manila. Liza Tubongbanua, a Red Cross spokeswoman, said more people may have died, since dozens were still missing. Radio and television reports said 60 people had been killed, smothered by tons of garbage as a dumpsite collapsed after heavy rains spawned by typhoon "Kai- Tak". "Kai-Tak" had battered the country for five days before sweeping towards Taiwan yesterday after triggering floods that drowned 44 people on the Philippines' Luzon Island.

11 July 2000 – Philippine officials said today 85 bodies had been recovered and about 100 others were missing feared dead in the collapse of a mountain of garbage on a Manila shanty town. "It's a recovery operation, not a search and rescue operation," Defence Secretary Orlando Mercado said some 36 hours after an avalanche of rain-drenched garbage thundered down on the squatters' colony. He said local officials at the Promised Land shanty town had no firm count on how many were still buried under a hectare-wide pile of rubbish but he believed there were about 100. The Red Cross estimated 70 were missing but the local civil defence office put the number at several hundred. "Yes," Mercado said when asked if he believed if all those buried were dead. A fire broke out in the dump after yesterday's collapse as a live electric cable snapped and ignited trash and trapped methane gas.

12 July 2000 – Rescuers scoured the rubble of a collapsed mountain of garbage in Manila's Promised Land shanty town today in the hope of finding survivors as the death toll in the tragedy rose to 108. About 100 people were still missing, two days after an avalanche of rain-drenched garbage buried hundreds of shanties on the outskirts of the capital Manila, rescuers said.

The number of people crowded into about 80 evacuation centres in schools and government buildings doubled to 800,000, according to the government disaster management agency. The Red Cross and the National Disaster coordinating Council reported 42 had died from the storms, with another 23 missing and feared dead, including six from a boat that capsized off the western coast of Luzon. Coastguard officials said four people died and four were still missing after a fishing boat carrying 32 people capsized on Friday afternoon near Mindoro, in Occidental province. Floods caused an estimated 82 million pesos in agricultural damage, and another 19 million pesos in damaged roads and bridges, mostly in central Luzon. Some 77 houses have been destroyed and 285 damaged.

17 July 2000 – Search teams in Manila have recovered more bodies from the giant rubbish dump that collapsed on squatter homes a week ago, bringing the death toll to nearly 200. Residents of the squatter community crushed by the collapse of the tip vowed on Saturday (July 15) to sue the Philippines Government for last Monday's disaster. Officials say 187 bodies have now been recovered, including 18 badly mangled remains discovered yesterday. Nine other people who were rescued earlier and taken to hospital have also died, bringing the total death toll to 196, according to military spokesman, Major Valeriano Inocencio. Major Inocencio said 61 of the victims were still unidentified. Officials estimate another 140 people are missing, presumed buried under the mountain of rubbish. The search for victims has been hampered by the combined stench of garbage and decomposing bodies. Officials say there is no hope of finding anyone alive.