Floods And Heatwaves Offer Warning Of Impact Of Climate Change
Pastor Dale Morgan
Floods And Heatwaves Offer Warning Of Impact Of Climate Change*
Monsoon rains in western and southern India late last week, which caused
flash floods and left 144 people dead, were followed by a cyclone that
ripped through neighbouring Pakistan's coastline, killing 19 people.
Photo courtesy AFP.
Snowfall on several cities in S.Africa, roads closed
Johannesburg (AFP) June 27 - Unexpected snowfall caused disruption in
Johannesburg and several other parts of South Africa on Wednesday,
forcing some major roads to be closed, officials said. A spokeswoman for
the South African Weather Service said heavy snow was recorded early in
the morning in and around Johannesburg, a rare occurrence even in
winter. "We recorded between two and four inches of snow in some
southern parts of Gauteng", the province surrounding Johannesburg. "But
this snow is expected to melt away with the sun in the afternoon," she
said, declining to be named.
Several major roads in Eastern Cape were closed to motorists due to the
snow, the provincial transport department spokesman Tshepo Machea said,
according to SAPA news agency. KwaZulu-Natal province in the southeast
was also affected by the dawn snow, officials said. Flights were not
disrupted, officials in the Aviation Weather Centre said. "Domestic and
international flights are operating normally," an official said.
Geneva (AFP) June 27, 2007
Recent floods in Asia and Britain, and heatwaves in southern Europe,
show the world must be better prepared to cope with the impact of
climate change, the United Nation's top disaster prevention official
said Wednesday. "Heavy rainfalls in Pakistan, India and northern England
and heatwaves in Greece, Italy and Romania are indications of what might
happen more frequently and more severely across the globe as a
consequence of the global warming," said Salvano Briceno, director of
the UN International Strategy for Disaster Reduction.
"We cannot wait to be taken by surprise, we know what is going to happen
and we can prepare for it," he added.
The UN body is trying to convince governments to give greater priority
to reducing the risks from natural disasters and increasing their
populations' resilience to potentially deadly storms, floods or heatwaves.
That includes taking concrete measures such as early warning systems,
building flood shelters, protecting houses as well as critical
infrastructure like hospitals, schools, water and electricity supplies,
and transport links.
"We are not trying to scare people but we want to alert every government
of the urgency to put disaster risk reduction as a top priority of their
political agenda as no country will be immune," said Briceno.
Monsoon rains in western and southern India late last week, which caused
flash floods and left 144 people dead, were followed by a cyclone that
ripped through neighbouring Pakistan's coastline, killing 19 people.
Meanwhile, hundreds of people in northern England were evacuated from
their homes Tuesday after torrential rain claimed at least three lives
and threatened to cause a dam to collapse.
At least 46 people have also died in a heatwave stretching across
Greece, Italy, the Balkans, Turkey, and Romania where temperatures
reached 45 degrees Celsius (113 Fahrenheit) on Tuesday.
A UN panel of the world's leading climate change experts warned earlier
this year that Earth was already warming and predicted severe
consequences including drought, flooding, violent storms and increased
hunger and disease.
earlier related report
'Longest ever' Greek heatwave kills five, causes long blackouts
Athens (AFP) June 27, 2007 A heatwave in Greece described by authorities
as the longest in history has killed five people and caused serious
electricity blackouts, officials said on Wednesday.
"The weather conditions have been unprecedented, we have never had a
heat wave lasting for eight straight days," development ministry general
secretary Nikos Stefanou told private Flash Radio.
The health ministry said that five people had succumbed to searing
temperatures expected to hit 44 degrees Celsius (111.2 Fahrenheit) in
some areas, most of them pensioners with prior medical problems.
Media reports pushed the heatstroke death toll to ten.
Cooled facilities are maintained by local councils for those without
air-conditioning at home and even police stations have been told to
provide rest areas for pregnant women and the elderly, but Greece's
electricity network has begun to buckle from the accumulated demand for
power.
The Greek state-owned public power corporation (PPC) on Tuesday
apologised to customers over long blackouts registered in the northern
Athens suburbs of Halandri and Psychiko, and the development ministry on
Wednesday said the grid's performance has been nothing short of miraculous.
"It was a miracle, the grid handled tremendous demand," Stefanou told Flash.
"The distribution network in some areas in Athens was built to handle
population loads only a fifth of what they are today," he said.
National power consumption on Tuesday set an all-time record at 10,496
MW, of which 3,867 MW in the general Athens region alone, the PPC said.
In the city centre, the Athens Observatory on Tuesday marked its highest
temperature at 44.8 degrees since recordings began in Greece 110 years
ago, observatory metereologist Costas Lagouvardos told AFP.
The top temperature in Athens on Tuesday stood at 46.2 degrees Celsius
in the northern district of Nea Filadelfia, the highest since records
there began in 1955, the national weather service said.
Large sections of the capital were without electricity on Wednesday
because of power transformer malfunctions in several districts,
including areas near the port of Piraeus and the populous municipality
of Peristeri.
The PPC has 200 crews working around the clock across the capital to
remedy the problems, the company said.
The Greek army has called off exercises and civil servants were sent
home early to save energy.
Dozens of wildfires have broken out in rural areas of northern, southern
and central Greece and threatened homes before being brought under
control, but fire risk remains high in several parts of the country.
The heatwave is expected to abate from Thursday.
earlier related report
*
Four dead in British floods as waters recede*
London (AFP) June 27 - The death toll from floods in Britain rose to
four overnight, while fears remained that a dam could burst even though
water levels were receding after days of rain, officials said Wednesday.
The latest death was confirmed in Worcestershire, west central England,
where police found the body of a motorist whose car was swept away by
floodwater, local emergency services said.
The death came after a 14-year-old boy was swept to his death in a
swollen river and a 68-year-old man was killed as he crossed a flooded
road in Sheffield, northern England, according to officials Tuesday.
A man in his 20s also drowned in the northeastern city of Hull after
becoming trapped up to his neck in a drain.
Meanwhile authorities in Rotherham, South Yorkshire, were still
monitoring a dam which is threatening to burst. Some 700 residents were
evacuated from their homes and a nearby motorway blocked off as a
precaution.
A major operation went through the night to reduce water levels at Ulley
Dam and rebuild parts of the dam wall. Engineers said the danger had
been reduced, but was not over.
Overall floodwater levels were reported to be receding across the
country, although many homes remained under water and without power as
emergency services continued to help.
Parts of Britain, particularly the Yorkshire area of northern England,
saw more than a month's rainfall fall in a day. Forecasters are
predicting this month will be the wettest June since records began.
Source: Agence France-Presse