Three dead and one missing after Tennessee floods
Chattanooga Airport saw 6.42 inches (.16 metres) of rain on Tuesday, making it the second wettest day in history since the city began tracking rainfall in 1879, the National Weather Service Office in Morristown said.Flash flood warnings are still in effect on Wednesday for many parts of Tennessee, including Knoxville. Rescuers spent hours on Tuesday evening helping residents flee flooded homes and vehicles in Hamilton County, Tennessee, which includes Chattanooga, the local fire department said. In one incident, firefighters helped six people get out of a van as water was rising from a nearby overflowing creek and the van was nearly swept away, the Chattanooga Fire Department said. Hamilton County Mayor Weston Wamp declared a local state of emergency because of the flash flooding.
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Reuters
13 hours ago
- Reuters
Nearly 200 people killed in heavy rain, floods in Pakistan
ISLAMABAD, Aug 15 (Reuters) - Nearly 200 people were killed in torrential rains in northwest Pakistan over the past 24 hours, with bad weather also bringing down a rescue helicopter, local officials said on Friday. Cloud bursts, flash floods, lightning strikes and building collapses amid heavy rain caused fatalities in the hills and mountains of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, they said. The National Disaster Management Authority, a government body, put the death toll at 194 late on Friday. Worst hit was the Buner area, where floods and heavy rain caused 100 deaths, the provincial Chief Secretary, Shahab Ali Shah, told Reuters. A helicopter carrying relief supplies to those hit by flooding in Bajaur, close to the Afghan border, crashed due to the bad weather, killing the five crew members. In the district of Swat, more than 2,000 people were moved to safer ground, after rivers and streams swelled, rescue officials said. Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif chaired an emergency meeting to review the flood situation caused by the recent rains, a statement from his office said. Hundreds of others have been killed in recent weeks as Pakistan experienced more rain than usual during the current monsoon season, washing away roads and buildings.
The Guardian
14 hours ago
- The Guardian
Flash floods kill at least 159 people in Pakistan after huge cloudburst
A massive cloudburst has triggered flash floods in north-west Pakistan, killing at least 157 people, as rescuers continued to search for people missing after floods in neighbouring India. Mohammad Suhail, a provincial emergency services spokesman, said 78 bodies were recovered from various parts of Buner district in the north-west province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa by noon on Friday, and another 79 were pulled from the rubble of collapsed homes and flooded villages later. 'The death toll may rise as we are still looking for dozens of missing people,' Suhail said. The latest fatalities bring the total number of rain-related deaths in Pakistan to 556 since 26 June, according to disaster management officials. In Bajaur district, in the same province, a helicopter carrying relief supplies crashed on Friday owing to bad weather, killing all five people on board, a government statement said. Sudden, intense downpours over small areas known as cloudbursts are increasingly common in India's Himalayan regions and Pakistan's northern areas, both of which are prone to flash floods and landslides. Cloudbursts have the potential to wreak havoc by causing intense flooding and landslides, impacting thousands of people in the mountainous regions. Experts say these intense downpours have become more frequent in recent years, partly owing to the climate crisis, and that the damage caused has also has increased because of unplanned development in mountain regions. Dozens were injured as the deluge destroyed homes in villages in Buner, where authorities declared a state of emergency. Ambulances have transported 56 bodies to local hospitals, according to a government statement. Rescuers backed by boats and helicopters worked to reach stranded residents. Dozens of villagers were still missing and the death toll is likely to rise, said Kashif Qayyum, a Buner government administrator. Deaths were reported from different parts of Pakistan on Thursday. Bilal Faizi, a emergency service spokesperson in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, said rescuers worked for hours to save 1,300 tourists after they were trapped by flash flooding and landslides in the Siran valley in Mansehra district on Thursday. The Gilgit-Baltistan region has been hit by multiple floods since July, sparking landslides along the Karakoram Highway, a key trade and travel route linking Pakistan and China that is used by tourists. The region is home to scenic glaciers that provide 75% of Pakistan's stored water supply . Despite repeated government warnings about landslides and flash floods, many people still visited popular resorts in flood-hit areas in north and north-west Pakistan. A study released this week by World Weather Attribution, a network of international scientists, found rainfall from 24 June to 23 July was 10% to 15% heavier in Pakistan because of global heating. In 2022, the country's worst monsoon season on record killed more than 1,700 people and caused an estimated $40bn (£29.5bn) in damage. In Indian-administered Kashmir, rescuers searched for missing people in the remote Himalayan village of Chositi on Friday after 60 people died in flash floods, officials said. Scores of people are missing. At least 300 people were rescued on Thursday after a powerful cloudburst sparked floods and landslides, but the operation was halted overnight. Officials said many missing people were believed to have been washed away. At least 50 seriously injured people were treated in local hospitals, many of them rescued from a stream filled with mud and debris. A disaster management official, Mohammed Irshad, said the number of missing people could increase. Meanwhile, more heavy rain is forecast for the area and is expected to cause flooding. Chositi in Kishtwar district is the last village accessible to motor vehicles on the route of an annual Hindu pilgrimage to a mountainous shrine. Officials said the pilgrimage, which began 25 Julyand was scheduled to end on 5 September, was suspended. Floodwaters swept away the main community kitchen set up for the pilgrims, as well as dozens of vehicles and motorbikes. More than 200 pilgrims were in the kitchen at the time of the flood, which also damaged or washed away many of the homes clustered in the foothills, officials said. Sneha, who gave only one name, said her husband and a daughter were swept away as floodwater came down the mountain. Her husband and daughter were having meals at the community kitchen while she and her son were nearby. The family had come for the pilgrimage, she said. Photographs and videos on social media showed extensive damage, with household goods strewn next to damaged vehicles and homes in the village. Authorities made makeshift bridges on Friday to help stranded pilgrims cross a muddy water channel, and used dozens of earthmovers to shift boulders, uproot trees and electricity poles and remove other debris. Throughout Friday, authorities evacuated almost 4,000 pilgrims stranded in various parts of the forested area, officials said. Kishtwar district is home to multiple hydroelectric power projects, which experts have long warned pose a threat to the area's fragile ecosystem.
The Guardian
15 hours ago
- The Guardian
Tropical Storm Erin expected to become major Atlantic hurricane
Tropical Storm Erin is approaching Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands, bringing heavy rains that could cause flooding and landslides on its way to becoming a major Atlantic hurricane. The huge storm was swirling across the Caribbean on Friday morning and is ultimately expected to head towards Florida, picking up speed over warm ocean water, before ultimately veering away from the US mainland. The National Hurricane Center (NHC) in Miami reported on X that Erin, the fifth named storm of the Atlantic hurricane season, was several hundred miles east of the northern Leeward Islands, with maximum sustained winds of 70 mph. It was expected to strengthen into a hurricane on Friday afternoon as it approached the north-east Caribbean, prompting forecasters to warn of possible flooding and landslides, and strengthen into a major category 3 storm late this weekend. Private sector forecaster AccuWeather went further. 'Erin is forecast to explode into a powerful category 4 hurricane as it moves across very warm waters in the open Atlantic. Water temperatures at the surface and hundreds of feet deep are several degrees higher than the historical average,' said Alex DaSilva, AccuWeather's lead hurricane expert. Tropical storm watches were issued for Anguilla and Barbuda, St Martin and St Barts, Saba and St Eustatius and St Maarten with torrential rain forecast to start late Friday in Antigua and Barbuda, the US and British Virgin Islands, and the southern and eastern parts of the US territory of Puerto Rico, east of the Dominican Republic and Haiti. Up to 4in of rain are expected in the region, with isolated totals of up to 6in, according to the NHC. Forecasters have also warned of dangerous swells. 'There is still uncertainty about what impacts Erin may bring to portions of the Bahamas, the east coast of the United States, and Bermuda in the long range,' NHC said on Friday. Hurricane specialist and storm surge expert Michael Lowry said to the Associated Press that Erin is forecast to eventually take a sharp turn northeast that would put it on a path between the US and Bermuda. 'The forecasts for next week still keep the future hurricane safely east of the mainland US,' he said. Erin formed from a cluster of showers and thunderstorms that moved off the African coast last week, becoming a tropical rainstorm near the Cabo Verde Islands and dumping up to 8in of rain in five hours. Televisão África reported that at least six people died, with more missing, after flash flooding. AccuWeather predicted Erin would create dangerous surf and rip currents up the US east coast next week, with waves reaching up to 15ft in North Carolina.
