Catastrophes climatiques : inondations en Inde et Ouragan dans les Caraibes

India : High waters, heavy rain hamper Indian flood relief 30 Aug 2008 13:09:21 GMT, Source: Reuters

PATNA, India, Aug 30 (Reuters) - Indian authorities, hampered by heavy rain and damaged roads, were struggling on Saturday to get aid to millions of displaced villagers in the eastern state of Bihar, hit by the worst flooding in 50 years.

The Kosi river burst a dam in neighbouring Nepal earlier this month, deluging Bihar and drowning village after village in its path as authorities failed to evacuate millions in time.

About 85 people have been killed and more than 2 million displaced by floodwaters that have smashed houses and destroyed 100,000 hectares (247,000 acres) of farmland.

"Rains are killing our rescue and relief efforts," Bihar disaster management department minister Nitish Mishra told Reuters. "Our helicopters were barely able to fly for most of the day yesterday as it continued raining heavily till 4 p.m.," he said.

On Friday, an overcrowded army boat carrying dozens of flood victims overturned in the swollen river, drowning at least 20 people and leaving 10 unaccounted for.

Some 350,000 people have been evacuated over the past 10 days and thousands are marooned, said Pratyay Amrit, a Bihar disaster management official. Army officers were putting up sandbags and wire mesh along roads in an attempt to fix embankments and prevent the swift flowing river from inundating new areas, said a Reuters witness in the flood-hit district of Saharsa.

The witness also saw more than 1,000 people from nearby villages walking to the city, where they hoped to find food and shelter. Some villagers who chose to stay, built temporary bamboo shelters on high ground, eating uncooked rice and flour mixed with polluted water.

"We keep sitting here the whole night and wondering what to do. How will life go on? Will we survive or not?" said Virender Kumar Saga.

Floods have killed more than 1,000 people in South Asia since the monsoon began in June, mainly in India's northern state of Uttar Pradesh, where 785 people died, and deaths were also reported in Nepal and Bangladesh.

"These are some of the worst floods in generations and they present a huge challenge for governments and humanitarian organisations," said Daniel Toole, UNICEF's regional director for South Asia on Friday.

EXTENSIVE DAMAGE

UNICEF said more than 1,000 villages in 13 districts had been affected by the surging waters, which have caused extensive damage to roads and water and electricity supplies. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Sonia Gandhi, head of the ruling Congress party, flew over devastated areas by helicopter on Thursday and announced $228 million in aid. The London-based humanitarian organisation Oxfam said it was providing those affected with temporary shelter, water purification tablets, buckets and oral rehydration sachets.

The rapid changes in the river's course have forced many harried villagers to move shelters many times and to sell their precious livestock to buy food. "I sold my goat for just 50 rupees which on any other day could have brought me 2,000 rupees," said Sabia Devi.

UNICEF believes it will be months before the displaced families can return to their homes and expressed concerned over the hygiene conditions of the government-run relief camps. Cases of diarrhoea were reported from many relief camps in the state.

Powerful Gustav roars toward Cuba, gulf 30 Aug 2008 13:22:12 GMT Source: Reuters

By Jeff Franks HAVANA, Aug 30 (Reuters) - Hurricane Gustav, now a major storm picking up steam over warm sea waters, roared toward western Cuba on Saturday en route to the oil-rich Gulf of Mexico after a deadly pass through the Caribbean.

Gustav ripped across the Cayman Islands and took aim at Cuba's Isle of Youth before it was set to strike the Cuban mainland later in the day.

Forecasters predicted Gustav would cross the Gulf of Mexico and hit central Louisiana on Tuesday with the same brutal force Hurricane Katrina delivered three years ago.

The U.S. National Hurricane Center said Gustav's sustained winds had risen to 120 mph (195 kph), making it a dangerous Category 3 storm on the five-stage Saffir-Simpson scale of hurricane intensity. Any storm with winds of at least 111 mph (178 kph) is ranked "major" by the Miami-based hurricane center.

Forecasters said Gustav could grow to a Category 4, with winds of at least 131 mph (210 kph), before reaching the Cuban coast, and may strengthen further on Sunday when it goes into the Gulf of Mexico, where offshore platforms produce 25 percent of U.S. oil and 15 percent of its natural gas.

Gustav was expected to dump up to 12 inches (30 cm) of rain as it crossed Cuba on its way to the gulf. The storm's center was 85 miles (135 km) southeast of the Isle of Youth and 225 miles (360 km) from Cuba's western tip, forecasters said Saturday morning. It was moving north-northwest at 12 mph (19 kph).

Thousands of people moved to shelters where Cuban officials had food ready for distribution and medical teams on alert.

In the western province of Pinar del Rio, workers rushed to move recently harvested crops of Cuba's famous tobacco to safe places. The storm killed up to 77 people as it crossed the Dominican Republic, Haiti and Jamaica. No deaths had yet been reported from the Caymans, a wealthy banking center and British territory.

WIDE STORM Gustav was an expansive storm with tropical storm-force winds extending 160 miles (260 km) from its eye.

A tropical storm warning was posted for the western Florida Keys, where up to 3 inches (8 cm) of rain were expected.

U.S. emergency officials, mindful of the devastation caused by Hurricane Katrina three years ago, warned that Gustav would bring a 15- to 30-foot (5-to-9 metre) storm surge along the Gulf Coast, and said four states in its potential path were expected to begin large-scale evacuations on Saturday. "This storm has the potential for being a very dangerous storm," said Bill Irwin, a program director with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. Katrina was a monstrous Category 5 hurricane in the Gulf of Mexico before hitting the coast near New Orleans as a Category 3 on Aug. 29, 2005. Its massive storm surge broke through protective levees and flooded 80 percent of the city. New Orleans degenerated into chaos as stranded storm victims waited days for government rescue.

About 1,500 people were killed on the U.S. Gulf Coast and $80 billion in damages made Katrina the costliest U.S. natural disaster.

Louisiana authorities warned residents to prepare to evacuate and arranged transportation for those without cars. Federal officials say the levees are stronger now but gaps still exist that make vulnerable some of the neighborhoods hardest hit by Katrina's floods.

Katrina and Hurricane Rita, which followed it three weeks later, also wrecked more than 100 oil platforms in the gulf, which now has about 4,000 production facilities offshore.

Energy companies evacuated offshore workers and shut production in preparation for the most serious Gulf storm since the 2005 hurricane season.

As Gustav swirled toward the gulf, forecasters kept an eye on another storm, Tropical Storm Hanna, about 240 miles (384 km) north of Puerto Rico.

It was moving west-northwest with maximum sustained winds of 50 mph (85 kph) and could be near hurricane strength by Sunday, the hurricane center said.