Flood Warning: Pontdif area, Limpopo Province

WARNING - Disaster Management: Affected area Pontdrif, Limpopo Province. People living close to the Limpopo River must move to higher ground immediately. Limpopo river in flood and could breach it's banks in areas.

Update: Emergency Flood Warnings: Port Alfred

UPDATE 14H00: As of an hour ago the sluice gates will NOT be opened and the river has subsided. Please remain alert. Contact 046 624 1111 for more info

13H00: High tide this afternoon at 5.30. Because of the rains, floodgates have been opened at the dam in Grahamstown and Bathurst and we can expect a substantial rise in the level of the Kowie River. All people in low lying areas please take precautions by removing motor vehicles, pets, etc. The operation centre for the municipality is 046-624-1111 or Multi Security 046-624-3708

Want to assist flood victims? Pls take donations to: 52 van der Riet Street or contact 046 624 1111 Needed: Food, blankets, clothing, transport to evacuate people

Terri Stander, Councillor · Port Alfred, Eastern Cape

Flood Watch: Mpumalanga/Limpopo - Flood Warning: Kwazulu Natal

Flood Watch: Now in effect for Mpumalanga and Limpopo Provinces.

Flood Warning: Now in effect for Kwazulu Natal Province.

Here are a few more tips to keep you safe during flooding:

• Always plan ahead and know the risks before flooding happens. Monitor  SAWDOS Twitter/Facebook/Blog pages for vital weather related information before, during and even after a event.

• If flooding is expected or is occurring, get to higher ground FAST! Leave typical flood areas such as ditches, ravines, dips or low spots, and canyons.

• Avoid areas already flooded, especially if the water is flowing fast. Do not attempt to cross flowing streams. Rather turn around and don't drown.

• NEVER drive through flooded roadways. Road beds may be washed out under flood waters.

• Do not camp or park your vehicle along streams and washes, particularly during threatening conditions.

• Be especially cautious at night when it is harder to recognize flood dangers.

• Never cross any barriers that are put in place by local emergency officials.

• Play it safe, when roads are flooded don't drown, rather turn around and move to higher ground.

- SAWDOS

Flood Watch and Flood Alert: Kwazulu Natal, Eastern Cape and Gauteng Provinces - 6 September 2012

Update: 13h00 SAST 6 September 2012: Flood Warning now in effect for Gauteng Province. Heavy rain and hail now falling in Southern Gauteng. (Roodepoort area)

Update: 07h30 SAST 6 September 2012: Flood Watch now upgraded to Flood Warning for Kwazulu Natal and Eastern Cape Province.

06h38 SAST - 6 September 2012: Flood Watch in effect for Kwazulu Natal and Eastern Cape Province.

Flood Alert in effect for Gauteng Province. Several roads flooded in areas. Heavy rain, hail and slippery roads resulted in several accidents this morning. Update to follow!

Green Flood alert in Kenya from 20/04/2012 00:00 UTC to 07/05/2012 00:00 UTC

This flood can have a low humanitarian impact based on the Magnitude and the affected population and their vulnerability.

Updated: this report is based on update number 3.

Flood Magnitude 5.53
from 20/04/2012 00:00 UTC to 07/05/2012 00:00 UTC
50 killed and 0 displaced

- GDACS

Danger from Three Gorges Dam may force out 100 000

INTERNATIONAL NEWS - Another 100,000 people may have to move away from China's Three Gorges Dam due to the risk of disastrous landslides and bank collapses around the reservoir of the world's biggest hydroelectric facility, state media said Wednesday.

The Ministry of Land Resources says the number of landslides and other disasters has increased 70 percent since the water level in the $23 billion showcase project rose to its maximum in 2010.

Some 1.4 million people already have been resettled as a result of the huge project on the Yangtze River. Authorities may move another 100,000 people in the next three to five years to minimize the risk of casualties from such threats, ministry official Liu Yuan told China National Radio in a report posted on a government website and carried by state newspapers.

He said 5,386 danger sites were being monitored and that work was beginning on rockfalls and landslides at 335 locations around the lake.

Ministry officials refused to comment on Liu's remarks.

In a recent report, though, the ministry outlined many of the same concerns, including 196 geological "emergencies" in 2008-2009.

Fluctuations in water levels can trigger landslides and other problems, and the risks are accentuated by the density of the population in the area, it said.

People have been moving back into areas near the lake, which would significantly raise the number of casualties if a disaster occurs, the newspaper China Business News reported.

About a year ago, China's Cabinet outlined a slew of urgent environmental, geologic and economic problems related to the dam, which has been the subject of intense debate for decades.

Many of the people obliged to move to make way for the dam have struggled to regain their livelihoods and settle into new homes, that report said.

The dam has been touted as the best way to end centuries of flooding along the Yangtze and provide power for China's industrial boom. But some geologists contend that damming up too much water in the reservoir carries a heightened risk of earthquakes and prolonged damage to the river's ecology.

A recent report by the environmental group Probe International contended that the entire upper Yangtze, where 20 dams are located, is among areas facing the risk of cascading failures of dams built in seismically active areas.

The government has acknowledged that filling the reservoir has increased the frequency of earthquakes, but denied that it had anything to do with a powerful quake to the northwest in Sichuan on May 12, 2008, that killed 87,000 people.

Source: Sapa/George Herald

New flood warning system in the works for Philippines – report

Philippine National Red Cross (PNRC) volunteers pack food items into plastic bags at the PNRC headquarters in Manila December 23, 2011, before they are transported to Typhoon Washi victims in Mindanao island, southern Philippines. REUTERS/Romeo Ranoco

By Thin Lei Win

BANGKOK (AlertNet) – The Philippines’ weather bureau is working on a new early warning system for flooding after last month’s Tropical Storm Washi killed over 1,200 people on the island of Mindanao, the Philippine Star reported.

The country’s president Benigno Aquino has tasked the Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (PAGASA) to come up with a system where specific areas that would see flooding during heavy rains would be identified, the paper said, quoting Science Secretary Mario Montejo.

“Instead of giving the public only the estimated volume of rainfall, the new flood advisory would also alert them how high the flood water will reach,” said Montejo.

He added that 1,000 automatic water-level sensors would be installed in 18 river basins across the country this year after the president allocated some 150 million pesos ($3.4 million) to fit them.

The sensors would help forecasters to track river water levels and potential floods. Currently these are installed in only five rivers, Montejo said.

- AlertNet