Peru: Floods and Landslides - Feb 2013

Torrential rains starting on 8 Feb 2013 caused flooding and landslides in the Arequipa province of southern Peru. Five people were killed, 75 injured and 48,000 affected. 15 houses were destroyed and 4,000 damaged. The government declared a state of emergency.

So far, almost 80,000 people have been affected by heavy rains and flooding across the country since October 2012; 31 people have been killed, over 3,200 injured. Over 700 houses were destroyed and more than 11,000 were damaged. Two schools were destroyed and 19 schools and 10 health facilities were damaged.

- ReliefWeb

Plan to steal aid from flood victims

The South African Airforce is helping thousands of Mozambicans who have been displaced by floods which ravaged the country. At least 70 people were killed in the floods and 150 000 were left homeless. The Gift of the Givers has sent a team to deliver goods to help with the rescue efforts. Picture: DANIEL BORN. 30/01/2013. © THE TIMES Image by: DANIEL BORN

The uncovering of a scheme to steal millions of rands worth of humanitarian aid intended for 60000 Mozambique flood survivors has forced South African aid agency Gift of the Givers to withdraw from the country's biggest displaced people's camp.

Hours before nearly R2-million worth of aid was to be distributed yesterday in the camp outside Chokwe - near the centre of the area in which floods 10 days ago killed 80 people and displaced nearly 200000 - the organisation discovered that the camp's administrators had created fake lists of beneficiaries.

The needy victims of the floods, especially the thousands of women and children living in the camp, were the intended recipients of the aid.

The order for the withdrawal of the Gift of the Givers team was given when the charity's founder, Imtiaz Sooliman, discovered that at the top of the list of aid recipients were the camp's administrators and their families.

"Things went wrong because of the Mozambican government officials. I issued instructions for lists containing the names of women and children, and of the elderly and sick, to be given to me today. Instead we discovered these bogus and fictitious lists with the names of people not in need of anything.

"They were taking from the people we were meant to be helping."

Sooliman said Gift of the Givers had immediately withdrawn their aid and set up links with church groups operating in the village of Hokwe.

More than 3500 families - many of them with severely ill infants - who lived in Chokwe fled to Hokwe when the floods struck.

Within moments of the food trucks and ambulances, along with South African soldiers, arriving in Hokwe people ran to the village centre to beg for assistance.

Church elder Domingos Utui said the situation was desperate.

"We have many families camping in empty schools and buildings. They fled here because they had nowhere to go.

"The government has been slow to provide assistance and the people had no choice but to come to us.

"We have nothing to help them with ... our villages have run out of food. Your presence here is an answer to our prayers. Without South Africa's help many would have died," said Utui.

Sooliman said his organisation would stay in Hokwe for as long as needed.

"We are giving food straight to the people ... it is not going to any administrators or government officials. We are distributing special baby food, porridge, beans, rice, maize meal and water, along with clothing and sanitary wear."

- Times Live

Mozambique floods hit power exports, displace 70,000

XAI-XAI, Mozambique, Jan 24, 2013 (AFP) - Floods in southern Mozambique have displaced up to 70,000 people and cut power exports to energy-hungry neighbour South Africa in half, officials said Thursday.

The south and centre of the country have been placed on red alert after experiencing the heaviest rainfall since devastating floods killed some 800 people in 2000.

In some places current water levels are higher than they were during that disaster.

As the Limpopo River raged through the southern town of Chokwe, people slept in the open, many by the roadside, local media reported. The record flood levels submerged houses in some places, emergency officials said.

"We are sending seven days of food for 70,000 people," the country's international humanitarian head Lola Castro told AFP.

But she added: "Our in-country stocks are limited. We are requesting donor support."

Nine rivers in six water systems were still above disaster levels Thursday. The waters were predicted to drop in Chokwe, but rise at the Limpopo River's mouth in Xai-Xai on the Indian Ocean.

Helicopters would start rescuing people stranded on rooftops from Friday, said Castro.

Meanwhile convoys of cars packed with people's belongings were leaving Xai-Xai, capital of southern province Gaza, as the city braced for the deluge, an AFP correspondent reported.

Floodwaters could hit the coast as early as Thursday night and authorities earlier issued a 48-hour evacuation order.

Onlookers crowded the banks of the swollen Limpopo River watching evacuations. Authorities say most people heeded the warning to move to higher ground.

Aid agencies are sending trucks with food and emergency supplies to emergency shelters near Chokwe, where people are still arriving on foot or the back of trucks.

Most are women, children and the elderly. So far very little food has reached them since they fled their homes early Tuesday.

Locals were slow to evacuate the town, which complicated humanitarian programmes, said Castro.

Mozambique remains one of the poorest countries in the world, ranking 184th out of 187 countries on the United Nations Development Programme's Human Development Index.

Heavy rains are predicted to pelt the south until next Tuesday.

In neighbouring South Africa 15,000 crocodiles escaped from a farm as the Limpopo flooded upstream from Mozambique.

Key power lines to South Africa were also damaged by the flooding of the Limpopo, Hilary Joffe, a spokeswoman for South Africa's energy giant Eskom, told AFP.

"That has meant the supplies from Mozambique have been reduced. We are getting much less than 650 megawatts... which is less than half of what it should be," she said.

Eskom imports between 1,300 and 1,500 megawatts of electricity from Mozambique's Hidroelectrica de Cahora Bassa (HCB), the operators of one of Africa's largest hydro-electric projects.

Work is underway to fix the transmission line, and South Africa is helping its impoverished neighbour with the repair works, the Eskom spokeswoman said.

In the meantime, the group is getting electricity from other providers to avoid brownouts.

- ReliefWeb

Six die in bridge collapse

Mpumalanga - Six people died when a bridge on the R65 between Ermelo and Lothair collapsed in heavy rain on Monday night, the Mpumalanga department of community safety said.

Spokesman Joseph Mabuza said three vehicles, one of them a taxi, crashed into the broken bridge.

Six people died and five were seriously injured. Mabuza said several others were missing.

The bridge was swept away just before 9pm.

He said motorists should use the R33, N17 and the Ermelo/Mpuluzi road as alternative routes because the R65 remained closed in the vicinity of the accident.

- Sapa/IOL

SAWDOS NOTE: Death toll has risen to 7.

Nigeria flood victims face new hardship

Nigeria's worst flooding in decades has submerged houses and displaced hundreds of thousands of people, so Gibson Orlu was shocked when authorities at a relief camp told him to return home.

“To where?” the 54-year-old told a reporter when recounting the exchange later at a crowded and rudimentary relief camp in the southern state of Bayelsa, where authorities have stopped providing food to the displaced.

“I have nowhere to go. My house is gone.”

According to estimates from Nigerian authorities, surging waters this rainy season in Africa's most populous nation have killed at least 363 people and left another 2.1 million homeless.

The flooding also slashed crude production by about 20 percent for a period in a country that is home to the continent's largest oil industry.

Red Cross figures released so far on deaths and the displaced are much lower than Nigeria's, but the relief organisation still says the flooding has been the country's worst in four decades and has appealed for funding to help.

The flood waters have now largely receded as the rainy season comes to a close, but vast areas throughout Africa's most populous nation had been inundated.

Some of the worst flooding was in the oil-producing Niger Delta region, the central state of Kogi and the northeastern state of Adamawa.

President Goodluck Jonathan's private home was submerged in the Delta's state of Bayelsa. Some of the state's residents, including Orlu, said they feared being left with nowhere to stay.

“My wife and three children are squatting with my brother in Port Harcourt. The kids are out of school because of this problem and now they are asking me to leave,” he said.

Inside the camp at a sports complex where he was staying, some slept on mattresses while others were on the bare floor. Several hundred people were there when an AFP journalist visited last week, and some asked for change so they could buy food.

Other camps are outdoors, with the displaced sleeping under tents.

Relief workers insisted that the camps were set up as temporary solutions, using borrowed land.

“They have to leave whether they like it or not because this complex has to be used as a training venue for the state contingent to this year's national sports festival,” said Nikki Maweruya, the camp coordinator at the sports complex in Yenagoa, the capital of Bayelsa state.

On November 15, officials announced that all camps in the state were to be closed in part because the facilities being used as temporary shelters, including classrooms, were needed for their regular purpose.

At the sports complex in Yenagoa, Maweruya said buses had been hired to carry camp residents back to their villages.

“But many of them are not willing to leave,” he explained.

While the water has receded in many parts of the state, many homes have been left uninhabitable, with pools of water still standing in the ground floor.

In an October speech broadcast nationwide on all major TV channels, Jonathan called the flood damage “unprecedented” and pledged $110 million in aid to those affected.

The UN humanitarian agency said earlier this month that flood damaged areas are facing severe food insecurity and there is a serious risk that water-borne diseases, including cholera, could spread.

A volunteer at the Bayelsa camp, Elizabeth Egbe, said forcing people to return to unliveable communities could dangerously unsettle the area.

The region could see a spike in crime, she argued, as the farmlands that provide a key source of income for many have been destroyed on a massive scale.

“Society will be chaotic,” she told AFP.

Nigeria has suffered similar tragedies in the past. Last year, 102 people were killed in Ibadan in southwestern Nigeria following flooding.

In 2010, flooding affected roughly half a million people in two-thirds of Nigeria's 36 states, claiming more than a hundred lives.

An 87-year-old grandmother from Bayelsa state's Sagbama area, Lydia Anuasa, said this year's rains nearly killed her.

“It had been raining for several hours and I was fast asleep when the floods came,” she explained as she held court amid a group of frustrated camp residents.

“Before I realised what was happening the whole place had been flooded. It was my neighbours who saved my life. They carried me out of the house.”

Still full of vigor despite her years, Anuasa said she was among those with nowhere to go and needed more government help as her house was still under water.

“I can't go back to that place now.”

- Sapa-AFP-IOL

Cars Washed Away In Waterfall

Occupants of two light motor vehicles were extremely lucky to escape injury after their cars were washed off a small bridge on Valley Drive that connects Waterfall and Cresthome this morning.

ER24 paramedics rushed out to the scene and found the two light motor vehicles in the river but some distance apart from one another. The occupants of the vehicles were found safely on the side of the road. They were unharmed and just wet and cold. They would go and see their own doctor if they needed further medical assistance.

Due to the extensive rain we are experiencing, here are some safety tips and guide lines to follow if you need to travel on the road today.

1. Do not drive unless absolutely necessary.

2. Do not drive through flooded areas. If you see a flooded road ahead, turn around and find another alternative route to get too your destination.

3. Even if the water appears shallow enough to cross, don’t try it. Water hides dips in the road. Worse yet, there may be no road at all under the water. Flooding can scour away the entire road surface and a significant amount of ground beneath.

4. If you stall your car and you can’t start it, get out of immediately and get to safety as quickly as possible.

- ER24

Cars swept off Johannesburg bridge

Johannesburg - Three vehicles were swept off a flooded bridge in Soweto during heavy rain on Thursday, Johannnesburg emergency services said.

"Residents rushed to the scene and helped out all occupants of the three vehicles," spokesperson Synock Matobako said.

No one was injured in the drama on Nancefield Road, a few metres from the intersection with Mncube Drive, near the Maponya hostel.

An eyewitness, Penuel Shelembe, said it was not the first time cars had been swept off the bridge.

"The water tends to [flow] right in the middle of the bridge, but people risk it and drive through there. It's a very dangerous area," he said.

The stormy weather interrupted Metrorail services in various parts of Gauteng, the Passenger Rail Agency of SA (Prasa) said.

Major train delays were expected.

"Lightning has hit a substation at Pinedene station [in Centurion] which has rendered both lines without overhead power," spokeswperson Lillian Mofokeng said in a statement.

The outage affected all trains on the Pretoria line to Johannesburg and back.

"Metrorail has sent its technical team to the area to attempt restoring the power back on both lines."

Other corridors in the west and east of the cities had problems ranging from flooded rail tracks to power failures. Technical teams would work around the clock to restore the service.

"An appeal is extended to all commuters to seek alternative transport where possible."

In KwaZulu-Natal, residents were warned of possible floods, as torrential rainfall was expected to continue until the end of the week.

Co-operative Governance and Traditional Affairs MEC Nomusa Dube warned motorists to be careful.

Government officials and councillors were asked to co-ordinate help to people in affected areas.

She asked teachers to contact the transport department so school children who had to cross rivers to go home could be helped.

The provincial disaster management centre was watching the situation closely, Dube said.

"At the moment, no disasters have been logged with the provincial government."

- SAPA/News24

Farmer missing after bakkie swept off bridge

Johannesburg - A Kareedouw farmer is missing after his car was swept off a low bridge by floodwaters, Eastern Cape police said on Wednesday.

Frits Myburgh and his wife, Poppie, both in their 40s, were crossing the Kouga bridge in Kareedouw at 20:00 on Tuesday night when their Mitsubishi Colt bakkie was swept into the water, Lieutenant Colonel Priscilla Naidu said in a statement.

The wife was able to climb out the window and hold onto a rock about 100m downstream.

"That was the last time she saw her husband or the bakkie," Naidu said.

The wife was found at 13:00 on Wednesday by passers-by who alerted the police.

Police then began a search for Frits Myburgh using police divers, K9 units and rescue teams.

The search was called off on Wednesday afternoon due to poor weather conditions.

Poppie Myburgh was taken to hospital for treatment. She was discharged into the care of her daughter and friends in Kareedouw.

Search ongoing

Meanwhile, the female paramedic who plunged off a bridge and into a Montagu river in an ambulance has still not been found, Western Cape emergency services said.

"Rescuers searched inside the vehicle and they did not find her," spokesperson Keri Davids said.

The ambulance she was driving veered off the Cogmanskloof bridge into a river in Montagu on Tuesday morning.

Davids said 15 divers, both from emergency services and police, were looking for her.

"At 08:00 this morning, search teams located the ambulance about 200m from the bridge. The ambulance was submerged."

The woman had been driving from Montagu to Ashton at 05:30 on Tuesday when the accident happened.

She alerted the communications centre in Worcester and emergency and rescue workers were sent to the scene.

The area was also searched from the air.

Earlier on Wednesday, One hundred and fifty people were rescued from a severe snow storm in the Kokstad area.

"A call came in this morning at around 07:00 that people were stuck in the severe snow on the R617 at the Kings Cross mountain pass since yesterday [Tuesday]," Netcare911 spokesperson Chris Botha said.

Search and rescue personnel as well a paramedic flew out to the scene in a Oryx Helicopter where 150 people were found trapped in two buses and seven trucks.

"Rescuers managed to airlift thirty children and a 120 adults to Kokstad," he said.

Child killed

So far two people have died since the cold front hit the country.

A 3-year-old girl was killed on Tuesday when the walls of her home crumbled after continuous rain in Bityi, near Mthatha, Eastern Cape police said.

"The girl was with her mother when the walls of the house collapsed. Fortunately, the mother didn't die and escaped," said Lieutenant Colonel Mzukisi Fatyela.

He could not confirm any other fatalities or injuries as a result of the weather conditions.

"At this stage, we are still checking our areas and so far it's quiet, but it's still raining."

In Westville, Durban, a homeless man believed to be in his fifties died of hypothermia on Wednesday, according to paramedics

ER24 spokesperson Derrick Banks said paramedics were notified of a man lying inside a box on a roadside near to the New Germany Nature Reserve who was unresponsive.

"When paramedics arrived they assessed the man and found he had already passed away."

It is unclear how long the man had been lying there but it's believed that died due to the severe cold temperatures, Banks said.

- SAPA./NEWS24

Storms shut down towns

All roads leading out of Montagu towards Asthon and Bonnievale were cut of due to heavy flooding in the area. The R318 was was the only open road going to Touwsriver. Picture Henk Kruger/Cape Argus

The raging river that swept through the Klein Karoo on Tuesday was a result of torrential rains and rescue workers have been forced to temporarily abandon their search for an ambulance driver in Montagu.

About 58.8ml fell in 24 hours in the Montagu area while in Swellendam 72.8ml in the same period, Weather SA reported. Melting snow ran south off the Swartberg range and helped swell the flooded rivers.

In the Western Cape, 31 schools were closed on Tuesday, mainly because pupils couldn’t get to school due to snowfall.

And 10 hours after being sent to an accident the female driver of an ambulance that washed off Montagu’s Kogmanskloof bridge into the river was still missing. A a rescue team from provincial EMS suspended its search for her.

The driver, believed to have been the only occupant of the vehicle, sent a distress call to provincial EMS’s communication centre in Worcester at 5.30am on Tuesday.

The ambulance left the road just a few hundred metres after Montagu, just before the famed “hole-in-the-wall” in Kogmanskloof, which the river skirts on its way down towards Ashton and then the Breede River.

Elsewhere, snow fell not only in the Cape’s highest peaks, such as the Matroosberge, Wemmershoek and Hottentots-Holland ranges, but across large parts of the country.

The N3 at Van Reenen’s Pass, between Harrismith and the Tugela toll plaza, was closed for a second time on Tuesday because of snow, the N3 Toll Concession Limited reported. It was briefly reopened just before noon, after being closed in the morning due to the treacherous driving conditions associated with the winter flurry.

Other roads in KwaZulu-Natal were reopened on Tuesday afternoon, including the N2 between Harding and Kokstad, the R617 between Swartberg Underberg and the P609 Matatiele, Road Traffic Inspectorate spokesperson Zinhle Mngomezulu said.

Earlier, about 200 trucks were held up at Tugela toll plaza. Light motor vehicles had to be diverted towards Newcastle.

Arrive Alive spokesman Tshepo Machaea said a number of roads in the Eastern Cape had been closed because of significant snowfall.

These included the R61 between Graaff-Reinet and Cradock, the N9 between Graaff-Reinet and Middelburg, the R58 in the region of Barkly East, and the R68 between Barkly East and Lady Grey.

Snow even fell in central Joburg early on Tuesday afternoon. Heavy snowfalls also caused the closure of several border posts between SA and Lesotho, the National Border Operational Committee said on Tuesday.

“The Qacha’s Nek and Caledonspoort border posts were closed. Both posts will remain closed until further notice,” said spokesman William Mpye.

In Montagu a member of the rescue crew had to be pulled to safety after a desperate attempt to reach the ambulance before it disappeared, said Dr Wayne Smith, EMS’s head of disaster medicine.

Braving treacherous conditions overhead, an AMS rescue helicopter from Oudtshoorn scoured the river searching for the missing vehicle.

“An aerial search will be resumed at first light in the morning,” said Vennesa Horn, of AMS.

Smit said: “We are not yet releasing the name (of the driver) and are communicating with her parents. The situation is very sensitive at the moment.”

The ambulance had left Montagu as is usual at around 5am. It is a trip done once a day, and forms part of the HealthNet transport service which takes patients from rural areas to health facilities.

By Tuesday evening two of the three main access routes into Montagu, to Barrydale and Ashton, remained blocked by rivers. Residents in Montagu south could get access to the main town via a newly completed footbridge. The new bridge had been built after floods in 2008 had washed away an earlier structure. It was completed in April.

“I’m so thankful,” said Susan Hall, who was born in Montagu 74 years ago. “We could never have expected how soon this bridge will become so useful. Now at least people can get water and food across to where we live.”

Hall’s memory of floods in Montagu dates back for decades. In a 1981 flood, the “worst one” in her memory, Hall’s sister lost her son-in-law and her grandchild. “This is relatively tame compared to the water I’ve seen coming down here before,” said Hall, standing on the spot from where her relatives were washed away in a car three decades ago.

Throughout on Tuesday, phones at the Montagu-Ashton Tourism Office were ringing of the hook, said office manager Anne-Marie Coetzee.

“It’s mostly people phoning to see whether they should cancel accommodation bookings in the area for the long weekend,” she said. “I have been advising everyone not to panic prematurely.”

- Cape Argus/IOL

Montagu Springs Resort ruined by floods

The damage caused to Montagu Springs Resort in the Western Cape after the Keisie River burst its banks. Picture: Rafiq Wagiet/EWN

CAPE TOWN - Inclement weather has wreaked havoc in the Cape, with snow shutting down parts of the N1 on Tuesday morning.

Management at the Montagu Springs resort in the Breederiver Valley are preparing themselves for massive flood damage.

A bridge connecting Montagu Springs with the adjacent Avalon Springs Resort has washed away, leaving a number of families stranded.

The rising water levels of the Keisie River washed away the bridge.

Manager, Rob Gooderson said they may need to airlift those patrons out.

“I’ve been in contact with the metro services in our area and they have a helicopter on standby in case there are any emergencies. We might require their services to get those guests from the villa’s. However, at this point I am not sure what will happen.”

Roads have been closed across the nation on Tuesday due to inclement weather.

- EWN

Flash Flood in India on Saturday, 04 August, 2012 at 09:08 (09:08 AM) UTC.

As many as 22 people were on Friday trapped in flash floods in Jammu region, prompting the authorities to sound an alert in the region. "A flash flood alert has been sounded in Jammu. Due to heavy overnight rains, various rivers in Jammu region are flooded...22 people and large number of cattle are trapped in the flash floods in Ujh and Tawi rivers," an official said. Of the 22 people, 15 are trapped in Ujh river at Khadwal area in Kathua district and two each in Mayachak, Nagri, Sujanal (Satwari) and Muthi areas, he said. A rescue operation has been launched for those trapped in the flash floods, triggered by intermittent overnight rains in Jammu, Kathua and Udhampur districts, the official said. The water level in Chenab, Tawi, Ujh and Basantar rivers are nearing the danger mark, officials said, adding that people living in low-lying areas have been alerted and warned of flash floods. They have also been asked to keep away from banks of the flooded rivers.

- RSOE EDIS

Images: Flooding Port Elizabeth (Lake Farm 28 July 2012)

Images: Jennifer Anne Church Joubert added photos to Lake Farm 28.07.12 Port Elizabeth. (Click on images for larger view.)

Heaviest rains in 60 years kill 10 in Beijing

BEIJING (Reuters) - The heaviest rain storm in six decades to hit the Chinese capital killed at least 10 people and caused widespread chaos, flooding streets and stranding 80,000 people at the city's main airport, state media reported on Sunday.

The storm, which started on Saturday afternoon and continued late into the night, flooded major roads and sent torrents of water tumbling down steps into underpasses.

In the Beijing suburb of Tongzhou, two people died in a roof collapse and another person killed was struck by lightning, the official Xinhua news agency reported.

Other deaths were caused by electric shocks from downed power lines and drowning, it added, without giving an exact breakdown.

More than 500 flights were cancelled at Beijing's Capital International Airport, the Beijing News said.

However, the subway system was largely unaffected, aside from being swamped with people desperate to get home and unable to use cars, buses or taxis.

The city received about 170 millimetres (6.7 inches) of rain on average, though a township in Fangshan District to Beijing's west was hit by 460mm (18.1 inches), Xinhua said.

The Beijing city government said on its website (www.beijing.gov.cn) it was working to get the metropolis back on its feet, but reminded people to prepare for further bad weather.

"The weather forecasters say that from late July to early September this city is prone to flooding, and there could be further large-scale storms or extreme weather," it said.

Many residents took to China's popular micro blogging site Sina Weibo to post dramatic pictures of the storm. Some complained the city should have been prepared, especially as the government had issued a severe storm warning the day before.

"It was forecast early on that Beijing would get torrential rain, so why were pumps and other facilities not prepared in time?" complained one user.

But at least one good result came from the storm.

The official pollution index, which had showed an unhealthy rating before the storm hit, registered "excellent" on Sunday, with the air noticeably free of its normal acrid smell.

- Reuters

China rainfall: Beijing hit by deadly deluge

The heaviest rainfall to hit China's capital Beijing in 60 years has left 10 people dead and stranded thousands at the main airport.

The deluge struck on Saturday afternoon and continued into the night, flooding major roads, state media said.

Roof collapses, lightning strikes and electrocution from downed power lines were among the causes of the deaths.

More than 500 flights were cancelled at the main airport, the Beijing News reported.

State media said flooding and landslides also killed four people in northern Shanxi province and six in south-western Sichuan province.

State news agency Xinhua said 460mm (18.1 in) fell in the capital's Fangshan district, with the capital as a whole averaging 170mm.

It said 14,500 people, mostly in outlying districts, had to be evacuated.

"There could be further large-scale storms or extreme weather," the Beijing city government's website said.

- BBC

Russia flood deaths: Alert in Krasnodar 'too late'

Russian officials failed to give adequate warnings before flash floods that killed at least 171 people in the southern Krasnodar region, the Russian government says.

President Vladimir Putin has demanded a full report by the weekend on the disaster and how it was handled.

Two local leaders have been dismissed.

A day of mourning is being held for the victims. Record torrential rain has been blamed for the floods, which devastated the town of Krymsk.

Seventeen people are still missing after Friday night's disaster. Russian media say 210 people are in hospital, including 48 children.

Emergencies Minister Vladimir Puchkov said there had been warnings but "not all the population was warned in time".

"Mistakes were made by local leaders and various services," he said.

Local officials say flood warnings were given using sirens, sms messages and loudspeakers. But many people were asleep at the time and did not hear them.

A criminal investigation is under way into possible negligence.

The rains dumped as much as 28cm (11 inches) of water over Friday night, forcing many residents to take refuge in trees or on house roofs. The Russian weather forecasting centre said the rainfall was five times the monthly average.

The centre's chief, Roman Vilfand, said the water poured down a steep-sided valley, rapidly swelling a river which swept away all in its path, Interfax news agency reported.
Dam 'not to blame'

Officials deny allegations - widespread among locals - that the opening of reservoir sluice gates was to blame for the ferocity of the floods.

Mr Puchkov said "there were no factors to cause any rapid rise in water levels in the reservoir", adding that he had inspected the sluice gates.

An environmental official, Nikolai Kutin, echoed his finding, saying only a breach in the dam could have produced a flood of water and that had not happened.

Earlier, an investigator said there had been "normal, planned" discharges of water from the reservoir, which could not have led to the disaster.

The day of mourning and inquiry were called by President Putin after he toured the affected area in a helicopter on Saturday.

It was the first major disaster in Russia since Mr Putin, 59, returned for a third-term earlier this year, after a four-year term as prime minister.

Russia is also mourning 14 pilgrims killed in a bus crash in Ukraine on Saturday. The Russian bus was travelling in Ukraine's Chernihiv region, about 150km (90 miles) northeast of Kiev, when it veered off the road and overturned. Twenty-nine of the passengers, en route to a monastery, were injured.
Thousands homeless

TV pictures from Krasnodar region showed thousands of houses almost completely submerged, with people scrambling on to their rooftops to escape the rising waters.

Most of those who died were in and around Krymsk, a town of 57,000 people. But deaths were also reported in the Black Sea resort of Gelendzhik and in the port town of Novorossiysk.

Krasnodar governor Alexander Tkachev said on Sunday that more than 24,000 people had been affected by the floods. The regional authorities say more than 5,000 houses were inundated.

"It's an unprecedented tragedy. There has been nothing like it in our history," Mr Tkachev said.

The heads of the Krymsk and Krymsk district councils have been dismissed.

Three government planes carrying more rescuers and relief supplies arrived in Krasnodar on Monday.

More than 7,000 Russian children were attending summer camps in the area and one of the camps was evacuated, Russian media reported.

Oil pipeline operator Transneft said it had halted crude shipments out of Novorossiysk - a major port on the Black Sea.

But the company added that that its infrastructure had been unaffected by the weather.

- BBC News

Russia: Warnings Did Not Reach People Before Flood

Authorities failed to properly warn residents in the Black Sea region of floods that killed at least 171 people and left others scrambling for safety, Russia's emergencies minister acknowledged Monday, adding to public outrage fueled by widespread mistrust of the government.

Monday has been declared a national day of mourning in Russia. Families of the flood victims were beginning to bury the dead in the hard-hit town of Krymsk, where torrential rain and flooding turned streets into swirling muddy rivers, inundated thousands of homes and forced people to flee from their beds in the middle of the night. Nearly 19,000 people have lost all their belongings.

The Emergencies Ministry said it sent warnings out by text message, but some local residents said they never received the alerts. Ministry head Vladimir Puchkov acknowledged under pressure that they were insufficient to reach everyone on time.

"A system to warn the residents was set up," Puchkov said at a government meeting where he was grilled by the deputy prime minister about the early Saturday flood. "But, unfortunately, not everyone was warned early enough."

The chief investigation body, the Investigative Committee, also said it has evidence the warning was not enough.

Russia has seen a series of natural and man-made disasters in recent years, many of them blamed on aging infrastructure or lax safety rules. The poor handling of the disaster has highlighted Russians' distrust of their government and President Vladimir Putin has tried to move quickly to stanch the anger.

The Komsomoskaya Pravda daily demanded in its headline: "Why so many deaths?!" while the Moskovsky Komsomolets bluntly described the flood as "disaster that could have been forecast and prevented" on its front page.

Putin, who was criticized in past years for a delayed or seemingly indifferent response to disasters, flew to the Krasnodar region in southern Russia over the weekend, committed to showing he was taking charge of the situation. Federal prosecutors are investigating whether the population had been properly protected from "natural and technological catastrophes."

Putin on Monday demanded that investigators and the Emergencies Situations Ministry give him a full report by the weekend on the causes of the flood and how its aftermath was handled.

Torrential rains in the area dropped up to a foot of water in less than 24 hours, which the state meteorological service said was five times the monthly average.

The water rushed into Krymsk with such speed and volume that residents said they suspected that water had been intentionally released from a reservoir in the mountains above, a claim government officials deny.

Attempting to convince skeptics, authorities flew several area residents over the reservoir in a helicopter and they said they were convinced it could not have been the source of the flooding. It was not immediately clear who the residents were or how they were chosen.

At a meeting with Krymsk residents on Sunday, regional Gov. Alexander Tkachev defended his seeming inaction, saying that the first warnings of possible flooding came at 10 p.m. Friday, and the heaviest rainfall was from 1 a.m. to 3 a.m. Saturday.

"Do you think my dears ... that we could have warned each of you? With what forces? That's one. And two, would you have gotten up and left your homes," Tkachev said during the confrontation, which was shown on television.

Prominent columnist Oleg Kashin, who is now in Krymsk, said in a piece on the leading radio station Kommersant FM that none of the residents he has spoken to believes it was only the weather that caused the disaster.

"It's not that the government's version of the events differs from that of the victims, but the thing is that it's normal in Russia to distrust authorities in everything — be it a natural disaster, elections or soccer," Kashin said. "I'm sure that Krymsk will get repaired, compensations will be paid, and the dead will be buried. But you have to agree that this will not make this crisis of confidence go away."

- ABC News (AP)

Russia declares day of mourning for flood victims

Moscow (CNN) -- Russian President Vladimir Putin declared Monday a national day of mourning in the wake of devastating, raging floodwaters that tore through streets in the southern part of the country and killed more than 170 people, according to Russian media reports.

A Russian interior ministry spokesman told the official Itar-Tass news agency late Sunday that 171 people died due to the floods.

A vast majority of these deaths -- 159, according to the interior ministry -- were in and around Krymsk, a city of about 57,000 residents where torrential rains spurred waters to surge 7 meters (23 feet) as people were sleeping Friday night. Another 10 died in Gelendzhik district and two in the Black Sea port of Novorossiysk, Itar-Tass reported.

"People just ran from their homes because there was a huge wall of water," one woman told the Russian News Service, a Moscow-based radio station.

In addition to the dead, another 320 people sought medical assistance -- 104 of whom required hospitalization -- the emergencies ministry reported, according to state-run RIA Novosti.

The day of mourning also will remember 14 Russian pilgrims headed to a Ukrainian monastery who died Saturday after their bus swerved off the road and crashed into a ditch in an accident that was not flood-related, state-run media said. Twenty-nine people survived that crash.

Yet the higher toll, and the greatest controversy, involves what has happened in recent days in Russia's Krasnodar region near the Black Sea.

One driver, according to the English-language Russian news channel RT, said his truck was pushed tens of meters by floodwaters, while the force of the floodwaters ripped a 10-year-old girl out of her mother's arms.

Five people in the seaside resort town of Gelendzhik were electrocuted after power lines collapsed into the water. RT, citing witnesses, said a man trying to cross a large puddle was initially electrocuted, and then four others who tried to come to his aid were then killed by the live electrical current.

Those not harmed, but living in the flood-ravaged area, still face plenty of challenges such as no electricity, a disrupted water supply, damaged roads and faulty communication. RIA Novosti reported more than 5,000 homes were flooded, while Itar-Tass said 254 had been destroyed.

"The scale of it is spectacular, to be sure, and very tragic. The water came with such force that it tore up the asphalt," Krasnodar Gov. Alexander Tkachov said via Twitter after seeing pictures from Krymsk, according to RT.

Even with the prospect of more rains and floods on the horizon, officials have begun making promises to the roughly 20,000 people most affected.

That includes payouts starting Monday of 10,000 rubles (U.S. $304) to each person whose home has been destroyed, reports RIA Novosti. And Tkachov vowed at a public meeting that the government will "build ... a new home for you in three to four months, before the beginning of the cold period," according to the same report.

The U.S. government has also vowed support, with a statement on the U.S. Embassy of Moscow's Facebook page saying Washington is "ready to help the Russian government" as it spearheads the recovery effort.

A criminal investigation has been launched by Russian authorities to look into whether there was negligence on the part of any officials for failing to warn residents of potential flooding, RT reported.

Russian Emergencies Minister Vladimir Puchkov has said the flood's cause was "not technical," according to Itar-Tass. This report quoted Russian Investigative Committee spokesman Vladimir Markin as saying "there were no mass water releases or overflow over the dam" from the Neberdzhayevskoye Reservoir.

The Krasnodar region isn't the only one in Russia to be affected by powerful storms. An emergencies ministry spokesman told Itar-Tass that about 166,000 people in Chechnya were powerless due to a combination of heavy rains and strong winds.

- CNN

Photos: Over 170 killed as tsunami-like flood hits southern Russia

Images:RT “TV-Novosti” (Click on images for larger view.)

Death toll climbs to 150 in Russia flooding

Image: RT 

Moscow (CNN) -- Raging floodwaters that tore through the streets of southern Russia's Krasnodar region in the middle of the night are responsible for killing at least 150 people and displacing thousands, Russian media reported Sunday.

The casualties began to climb over the weekend after authorities found bodies in flooded buildings in the hard-hit town of Krymsk, a predominantly rural area dotted with one story homes, state news agency Itar-Tass reported.

The toll may still climb as authorities search for at least two people who are unaccounted for, Deputy Interior Minister Aleksandr Gorovoy said, according to a report Sunday on English-language Russian news channel RT.

"The scale of it is spectacular, to be sure, and very tragic. The water came with such force that it tore up the asphalt," regional Gov. Alexander Tkachev said on Saturday via Twitter after seeing pictures of the flood damage in Krymsk, according to RT.

Of those killed, 139 are in the Krymsk district, nine in Gelendzhik district and two in the Black Sea port of Novorossiysk, the Interior Ministry said. At least 205 people, including 13 children, required medical care in the region for injuries, the ministry said.

The floodwaters followed heavy rains that began Friday, pushing rivers and streams over their banks overnight. The waters rose 7 meters (23 feet) in Krymsk, striking while most people were asleep, Itar-Tass reported.

"People just ran from their homes because there was a huge wall of water," one woman told the Russian News Service, a Moscow-based radio station.

More than 12,000 have been displaced by floodwaters that overran more than 5,000 homes in a number of towns and villages in the region, the news agency reported.

The worst hit areas were along the coast of the Black Sea, which RT reports "bore the brunt of the deluge as it rushed out to sea."

The fierce floodwaters destroyed homes and carried trucks out to sea, RT reported.

One driver, according to RT, said his truck was pushed tens of meters by floodwaters, while the force of the floodwaters ripped a 10-year-old girl her mother's arms.

Five people in the seaside resort town of Gelendzhik were electrocuted after power lines collapsed into the water. RT, citing witnesses, said a man trying to cross a large puddle was initially electrocuted, and then four others who tried to come to his aid were then killed by the live electrical current.

A criminal investigation has been launched by Russian authorities to look into whether there was negligence on the part of any officials for failing to warn residents of potential flooding, RT reported.

Tkachev declared Monday a day of mourning, ordering the cancellation of any planned celebrations or leisure activities, according to a statement released by the governor's press office.

- CNN

Evacuation ordered for River Club following heavy rains

The City’s Disaster Risk Management Centre has declared an evacuation order for the River Club in Observatory lying next to the Liesbeeck River as a result of the rising water level.

The rising levels of the Liesbeeck River jeopardised the safety of approximately 60 persons on the premises that has been evacuated to safety.

Residents are urged to stay clear and to leave the surrounding areas immediately for their own safety.

The City’s public safety authorities have been deployed to the area to regulate traffic and to ensure the safety of the crowds.

The rising levels of the water have flooded the courtyard with no significant damages to the buildings.

Fifteen vehicles have been removed from the flooded area.

End

Issued by: Disaster Risk Management Centre, City of Cape Town

Wilfred Schrevian Evan Solomons-Johannes
Head: Systems Integration, Special Projects
Acting Head: Disaster Operations Centre