severe flooding - The African Mirror

Mar

2024

By DAVID MACLEOD, ERIK W. KOLSTAD, KATERINA MICHAELIDES and MICHAEL SINGER

East Africa must prepare for more extreme rainfall during the short rainy season – new study

EAST Africa has recently had an unprecedented series of failed rains. But some rainy seasons are bringing the opposite: huge amounts of rainfall. In the last few months of 2023, the rainy season, known as the “short rains”, was much wetter than normal. It brought severe flooding to Kenya, Somalia and Tanzania. In Somalia, more than 2 million people were affected, with over 100 killed and 750,000 displaced from their homes. Tens of thousands of people in northern Kenya lost livestock, farmland and homes. The very wet short rainy seasons are linked to a climate event known as a positive…

Feb

2023

By The African Mirror

Mozambicans seek shelter as storm Freddy makes landfall

NEWS

MANUEL MUCARI MOZAMBICANS took shelter as tropical storm Freddy made landfall in a small coastal town, with heavy rain expected to batter the country's southern provinces for several days. French weather forecaster Meteo France, which has a cyclone-monitoring station on the Indian Ocean island of La Reunion, said Freddy hit the coast near the tourist town of Vilankulo in Inhambane province around 2 p.m. local time (1200 GMT). The situation was calm two hours later, with no casualties reported although trees and rooftops had fallen, said Vilankulo district administrator Edmundo Galiza Matos in a statement. Pictures posted by Matos on…

Nov

2022

By The African Mirror

Nigeria floods: government’s mismanagement of dams is a major cause

SPECIAL FEATURES: ANALYSIS

THERE has been severe flooding in Nigeria – the worst in a decade. Earlier this month, Nigeria’s National Emergency Management Agency warned of catastrophic flooding for states located along the courses of the Niger and Benue rivers. It noted that three of Nigeria’s reservoirs were expected to overflow. The agency said the release of excess water from a dam in neighbouring Cameroon had contributed to the flooding. Olayinka Ogunkoya unpacks Nigeria’s mismanagement of its dams. Author OLAYINKA OLATOKUNBO OGUNKOYA, Professor of Geomorphology, Obafemi Awolowo University What impact does poor dam management have on flooding in Nigeria? The operations management of…

Nov

2022

By The African Mirror

Nigeria’s floods are the worst in a decade. Here’s how people try to cope with the devastation

NEWS

FLOODING is not unusual in Nigeria’s massive, population-dense cities. But this year’s floods are reportedly the country’s worst in a decade. They’ve killed more than 600 people, displaced 1.4 million residents and destroyed 89,348 houses and 70,566 hectares of farmland and crops. The severe flooding has had a significant impact on some states in the south of the country, including Anambra, Delta, Rivers, Cross River and Bayelsa. Adamawa, Gombe, Jigawa, parts of Kaduna, Kogi, Niger, Benue and Nasarawa in the country’s north have also been hit hard. Author OLASUNKANMI HABEEB OKUNOLA, Visiting Scientist at Global Change Institute and Institute for…

Apr

2022

By The African Mirror

SA President visits KZN province, after more than 253 died in raging floods.

NEWS

AFRICAN MIRROR REPORTER South African President Cyril Ramaphosa, who cut his official trip to Mozambique, has arrived in KwaZulu-Natal to lead efforts to help the people in the province recover from floods that have killed more than 253 people, left thousands more homeless and destroyed key infrastructure in and around Durban. Ramaphosa, supported by Dr Nkosazana Zuma, the Minister of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs, was met by KwaZulu-Natal Premier Sihle Zikalala before going to into a meeting where he was briefed about the situation. The South African National Defence Force was called in as emergency services, assisted by charity…

Dec

2021

By The African Mirror

Floods wreak havoc in South Sudan

NEWS

DENIS DUMO SEVERE flooding has hit South Sudan's northern state of Unity, cutting off communities from accessing supplies of food and other vital commodities, a state official said on Friday. More than 700,000 people have been affected by the worst flooding in the country for nearly 60 years, the U.N. refugee agency UNHCR said in October, blaming climate change. In Unity, which borders Sudan, the floods have left a trail of food shortages, caused malnutrition in children and increased the spread of diseases such as malaria, said Lam Tungwar Kueigwong, the state's minister of land, housing and public utilities. Oil…

Jul

2021

By The African Mirror

Heavy rain in India triggers floods, landslides; at least 125 dead

WORLD

RAJENDRA JADHAV and MANJO KUMAR RESCUE teams in India struggled through thick sludge and debris on Saturday to reach dozens of submerged homes as the death toll from landslides and accidents caused by torrential monsoon rain rose to 125. Maharashtra state is being hit by the heaviest rain in July in four decades, experts say. Downpours lasting several days have severely affected the lives of hundreds of thousands, while major rivers are in danger of bursting their banks. In Taliye, about 180 km (110 miles) southeast of the financial capital of Mumbai, the death toll rose to 42 with the…

Jul

2021

By The African Mirror

At least 25 dead as rains deluge central China’s Henan province

WORLD

RYAN WOO and STELLA QIU AT least 25 people have died in China's flood-stricken central province of Henan, a dozen of them in a subway line in its capital Zhengzhou, and more rains are forecast for the region. About 100,000 people have been evacuated in Zhengzhou, an industrial and transport hub, where rail and road links were disrupted. Dams and reservoirs have swelled to warning levels and thousands of troops are taking part in the rescue effort in the province. Twelve people died and more than 500 were pulled to safety after a subway tunnel flooded, state media reported, while…

Jul

2021

By The African Mirror

Merkel heads to flood zone facing questions over preparedness

WORLD

HOLGER HANSEN GERMAN authorities have faced a mounting outcry over deadly floods that engulfed large parts of the country last week, catching Europe's richest economy flat-footed in a disaster that had been predicted days earlier. As Chancellor Angela Merkel travelled to the disaster zone for the second time, there were growing questions about how well prepared local and national authorities were for the floods that swept through defenceless towns and villages last week. "There were warnings about the masses of debris and floodwaters that were rolling towards these people and these warnings were not handled at all in the way…

Jul

2021

By The African Mirror

German govt rejects accusations of flood preparedness failures

WORLD

ANDREAS KRANZ and LEON KUGELER GERMAN officials rejected suggestions that they had done too little to prepare for last week's floods and said warning systems had worked, as the death toll from the country's worst natural disaster in almost six decades rose above 160. Flooding has devastated parts of Western Europe since last Wednesday, with the German states of Rhineland Palatinate and North Rhine-Westphalia, as well as parts of Belgium, among the worst hit. In the Ahrweiler district south of Cologne, at least 117 people were killed, and police warned that the death toll would almost certainly rise as the…