Climate Change
UN chief has ‘never seen climate carnage’ like the Pakistan floods
United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said Saturday that he has "never seen climate carnage" on such a scale as he toured parts of Pakistan hit by floods, blaming wealthier countries for the devastation.
Nearly 1,400 people have died in flooding that covers an area the size of the United Kingdom and has wiped out crops and destroyed homes, businesses, roads and bridges.
Guterres has said he hopes his visit will galvanize support for Pakistan, which has put the provisional cost of the catastrophe at more than $30 billion, according to the government's flood relief center, AFP reported.
"I have seen many humanitarian disasters in the world, but I have never seen climate carnage on this scale," he said at a press conference in the port city of Karachi after witnessing the worst of the damage in southern Pakistan.
"I have simply no words to describe what I have seen today."
Pakistan receives heavy -- often destructive -- rains during its annual monsoon season, which is crucial for agriculture and water supplies.
But downpours as intense as this year's have not been seen for decades, while rapidly melting glaciers in the north have for months heaped pressure on waterways.
"Wealthier countries are morally responsible for helping developing countries like Pakistan to recover from disasters like this, and to adapt to build resilience to climate impacts that unfortunately will be repeated in the future," Guterres said, adding that G20 nations cause 80 percent of today's emissions, AFP reported.
Pakistan is responsible for less than one percent of global greenhouse gas emissions, but is eighth on a list compiled by the NGO Germanwatch of countries most vulnerable to extreme weather caused by climate change.
Around 33 million people have been affected by the floods, which have destroyed around two million homes and business premises, washed away 7 000 kilometers of roads and collapsed 500 bridges.
Guterres has lamented the lack of attention the world has given to climate change -- particularly industrialized nations.
"This is insanity, this is collective suicide," he said after arriving in Pakistan on Friday, AFP reported.
The effect of the torrential rain has been twofold -- destructive flash floods in rivers in the mountainous north, and a slow accumulation of water in the southern plains.
The meteorological office said Pakistan has received five times more rain than normal in 2022. Padidan, a small town in Sindh province, has been drenched by more than 1.8 meters since the monsoon began in June.
Water levels have reached far higher in areas where rivers and lakes have burst their banks, creating dramatic inland seas.
Climate Change
Rescuers search for missing people in Nepal following flooding and landslides that killed 224
The death toll climbed to 224 and the injured to 158 while rescue efforts were still underway on Wednesday to look for 24 others
Rescuers in Nepal searched Tuesday for two dozen people still missing and tried to recover the bodies of those killed in weekend flooding and landslides that left more than 200 dead.
The disaster came just ahead of the country’s biggest festival Dasain, which begins on Thursday, and roads were busier than usual as people returned home to celebrate with loved ones. The damage to roads is likely to hamper travel plans, Associated Press reported.
The deaths climbed to 224 and the injured to 158 while rescue efforts were underway to look for 24 others, said the government’s chief secretary Eak Narayan Aryal on Tuesday.
Prime Minister Khadga Prasad Oli’s administration has been heavily criticized for its slow response to the crisis, particularly after a landslide hit several vehicles stranded for hours just 16 kilometers from the capital, Kathmandu, killing about three dozen people.
Oli told reporters the government would continue to look for those missing and help the thousands impacted.
As the weather improved, workers started clearing the highways by the mountains after being blocked by landslides. Sections of several other highways next to raging rivers were washed away and repairing them is expected to require time and effort.
Of the 37 highways damaged, only nine have so far reopened for traffic.
The flooding was caused by heavy rain which arrived at the end of Nepal’s monsoon season that usually begins in June and ends by mid-September. Experts have attributed Nepal’s changing rain pattern to climate change.
Climate Change
US southeast faces daunting task cleaning up from Helene; death toll rises
At least 3.5 million customers remained without power across five states, with authorities warning it could be several days before services were fully restored.
Authorities across a wide swath of the southeastern United States faced the daunting task on Saturday of cleaning up from Hurricane Helene, one of the most powerful to hit the country, as the death toll continued to rise.
At least 43 deaths were reported by late on Friday, and officials feared still more bodies would be discovered across several states, Reuters reported.
Helene, downgraded late on Friday to a post-tropical cyclone, continued to produce heavy rains across several states, sparking life-threatening flooding that threatened to create dam failures that could inundate entire towns.
In Florida's Pinellas County near Tampa, Sheriff Bob Gualtieri said he had never seen destruction like that which Helene wrought. "I would just describe it, having spent the last few hours out there, as a war zone," Gualtieri told a press conference.
At least 3.5 million customers remained without power across five states, with authorities warning it could be several days before services were fully restored.
Scientists say climate change contributes to fueling stronger, more destructive hurricanes.
Before moving north through Georgia and into Tennessee and the Carolinas, Helene hit Florida's Big Bend region as a powerful Category 4 hurricane on Thursday night, packing 140 mph (225 kph) winds. It left behind a chaotic landscape of overturned boats in harbors, felled trees, submerged cars and flooded streets.
Police and firefighters carried out thousands of water rescues throughout the affected states on Friday.
More than 50 people were rescued from the roof of a hospital in Unicoi County, Tennessee, about 120 miles (200 km) northeast of Knoxville, state officials said, after floodwaters swamped the rural community.
Rising waters from the Nolichucky River prevented ambulances and emergency vehicles from evacuating patients and others there, the Unicoi County Emergency Management Agency said on social media. Emergency crews in boats and helicopters were conducting rescues.
Elsewhere in Tennessee, Rob Mathis, the mayor of Cocke County, ordered the evacuation of downtown Newport because of a potential failure at the nearby Walters dam.
In western North Carolina, Rutherford County emergency officials warned residents near the Lake Lure Dam that it might fail, although they said late on Friday that failure did not appear imminent.
In nearby Buncombe County, landslides forced interstates 40 and 26 to close, the county said on X.
Climate Change
Myanmar’s flooding death toll rises to 113, state media reports
State media also reported that five dams, four pagodas, and more than 65,000 houses were destroyed by the flooding.
Myanmar's death toll from floods rose to at least 113 as of Saturday evening, the country's military government said on Sunday, following heavy rains brought on by Typhoon Yagi that has caused havoc across parts of Southeast Asia, Reuters reported.
At least 320,000 people have been displaced and 64 were still missing, government spokesman Zaw Min Tun said, according to a late-night bulletin on state-run MRTV.
"The government is conducting a rescue and rehabilitation mission," he said.
Adverse weather from Typhoon Yagi, the strongest storm to hit Asia this year, has killed hundreds of people in Vietnam and Thailand, and flood waters from swollen rivers have inundated cities in both countries.
The flooding in Myanmar began last Monday, with at least 74 people killed by Friday, based on state media reports.
Myanmar has been in turmoil since a military coup in February 2021 and violence has engulfed large parts of the country, read the report.
The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said the storm's rains mainly affected the capital Naypyitaw, as well as the Mandalay, Magway, and Bago regions, along with eastern and southern Shan state, Mon, Kayah and Kayin states.
"Central Myanmar is currently the hardest hit, with numerous rivers and creeks flowing down from Shan hills," the OCHA said.
Reports of more deaths and landslides have emerged, but gathering information has been challenging due to damaged infrastructure and downed phone and internet lines.
State media also reported that five dams, four pagodas, and more than 65,000 houses were destroyed by the flooding.
About a third of Myanmar's 55 million people require humanitarian assistance but many aid agencies, such as the International Committee of the Red Cross, cannot operate in many areas because of access restrictions and security risks, Reuters reported.
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