Aquapocalypse

Entire Town of Wenden Underwater After Storm | Powerful Winter Storm Hits Arizona

Surge of runoff floods streets, homes

‘Rain like this happens once every 1,000 years’

Steve Bird and Lindsay McIntosh

The full and devastating impact of England’s worst recorded day of rain was still emerging last night as tributes were paid to a policeman swept away by floodwaters while trying to save others.

PC Bill Barker was helping motorists stranded on a bridge over the Derwent in the Cumbrian town of Workington when it collapsed. His body was discovered hours later on a nearby beach.

The Environment Agency said that the flooding across the region was so severe that such an event was likely to happen only once in 1,000 years. The rainfall, on to an already saturated terrain, was the highest level measured in England since records began. Meteorologists recorded 314mm (12in) of rain in 24 hours and flood warnings remained in place across the North West of England, parts of Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland.

The bridge from which PC Barker fell to his death was one of at least four to be washed away. Cumbria County Council issued a warning to motorists and pedestrians to avoid using such crossings as they could be extremely dangerous. Hundreds of homes and businesses were evacuated, many of them ruined by floodwater and mud.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/article6926363.ece

Oct. 2 (Bloomberg) — The Philippines declared a national “state of calamity” as Typhoon Parma headed for Luzon, where recovery efforts continue six days after Tropical Storm Ketsana devastated Manila and its surroundings, leaving 293 people dead.

Authorities began moving people from provinces north and southeast of Manila into shelters, Philippine Defense Secretary Gilbert Teodoro said in an interview on ABS-CBN television. The nationwide state of calamity gives the government the power to peg the price of basic goods.

Parma’s eye was 254 kilometers (158 miles) northeast of the city of Daet on Luzon at 2 p.m. Manila time today, the U.S. Navy Joint Typhoon Warning Center said. The typhoon is forecast to make landfall after 8 a.m. tomorrow.

The typhoon will bring more rain to areas already devastated by Ketsana, which earlier this week left more than 100 people dead in Vietnam and Cambodia. In Indonesia, rescue workers are searching for survivors in Padang in Sumatra, where an earthquake two days ago left 230 people dead. In the South Pacific, a recovery operation is under way after a tsunami killed more than 150.

“It is almost unprecedented for any region to experience so many disasters over such a short period of time,” United Nations Under-Secretary-General Noeleen Heyzer said in a statement. “The disasters of the past week remind us that the Asia Pacific is the worlds’ disaster hot spot.”

Devastating Damage

Parma’s winds decreased to 222 kilometers per hour from 241 yesterday. The typhoon remains a Category 4 storm, the second- strongest on the Saffir-Simpson scale, and is forecast to weaken slightly before making landfall, according to the center.

Category 4 storms are capable of causing “devastating damage” and can blow roofs off residential buildings, according to the U.S. National Hurricane Center.

Read the rest of the article here:

Philippines Declares ‘State of Calamity’ as Typhoon Approaches – Bloomberg.com

Creeks turn into surging rivers in Southeast…

Southeast floods block highways; toll rises to 8 – Yahoo! News

FARGO, N.D. – Thousands of shivering, tired residents got out while they could and others prayed that miles of sandbagged levees would hold Friday as the surging Red River threatened to unleash the biggest flood North Dakota’s largest city has ever seen.

FLOOD OF MUD

Iowa City’s flood protections face a marathon test

Officials in Columbus Junction, Iowa, survey flooding from a bridge near the confluence of the Iowa and Cedar Rivers. (Stephen Mally for The New York Times)

MORE evacuations; Damage…

Flood recalls 1913 disaster…

Floods spur record rise in corn prices…

Flooding in the American Midwest threatens crops – International Herald Tribune

FLOODS DRENCH MIDWEST AFTER DAYS OF RAIN...

WEATHER ADDS TO CHALLENGE OF COMBATING FOOD SHORTAGES...

My Way News – Rising waters in Plains inundate bridge, farmland

PORTLAND – Hundreds of residents fled their homes this week after a fierce storm battered the Pacific Northwest, killing at least five people and leading to widespread flooding that shut down a stretch of Interstate 5.

National Guard troops were summoned before daybreak Wednesday to help evacuate a 20-unit trailer park near Elma in the Schoeweiler Tracts area, threatened by the flooding Chehalis River, said Aberdeen police Detective George J. Kelly, a spokesman at the Grays Harbor County emergency command center.

Floods continue to plague Northwest | Top Stories | KING5.com | News for Seattle, Washington

The Thames Barrier will be closed at 8pm to protect against the tidal surge

Police and fire services were last night preparing to evacuate thousands of homes. Householders were stocking up on sandbags and emergency provisions.

Tidal wave heading for Englands east coast poses extreme danger to life | the Daily Mail