September 24th, 2010 Category: Floods, Image of the day, Lakes

USA and Canada - September 18th, 2010

Devils Lake, North Dakota

Several lakes can be observed in this image of the area around the border between the US state of North Dakota (below) and the Canadian province of Manitoba (above). The large, golden green body of water at the top is the southern part of Lake Winnipeg, Manitoba.

The close-up, on the other hand, focuses on Devils Lake in North Dakota. This large lake has been expanding steadily since the 1990s, and has nearly quadrupled in size. The result of its fast growth is that thousands of acres of land, hundreds of buildings and homes, and at least two towns have become completely inundated.

Devils Lake continues growing because it has no natural river or stream as an outlet to carry away excess rain and water from melting snow. At the moment, it has risen to within 6 feet of overflowing. If the water level cannot be lowered, residents fear that more communities will be washed away.

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September 24th, 2010 Category: Floods

Pakistan - September 23rd, 2010

The Pakistan flood crisis continues and huge numbers of people are still being affected, although media coverage has lessened. Probably at least one month will pass before the waters fully recede.  This image focuses on the Indus River, whose waters are still much higher than usual.

Around 14.1 million people are being directly affected. Statistics mention 392,786 damaged houses, 728,192 destroyed houses,  7,600 destroyed schools, and 436 health facilities that were damaged or destroyed.

Overall production loss of sugar cane, paddy and cotton is estimated to be 13.3 million tons. Two million hectares of standing crops were either lost or damaged. About 1.2 million head of livestock (excluding poultry) were lost, and 14 million livestock are at risk due to fodder shortages and heightened risk of disease.

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September 12th, 2010 Category: Floods, Image of the day, Rivers

Pakistan - August 29th, 2010

While the thumbnail image focuses on the Chenab River and the city of Multan, the full image shows more of Pakistan and the Indus River. Both rivers appear brown with sediments and wider than normal due to the devastating floods that have been affecting the country since July.

Multan is situated on the east bank of the Chenab River, appearing here as a greyish circular area in the lower left quadrant. It is located more or less in the geographic centre of Pakistan, in the southern part of the Punjab Province. It is also capital of the Multan District. It is located in the southern part of the province.

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September 10th, 2010 Category: Floods, Rivers

Pakistan - September 1st, 2010

A UN spokesman said this week that more than 10 million victims of the floods in Pakistan have been left without shelter for six weeks and called the crisis “one of the worst humanitarian disasters in UN history.”

New flood threats are also appearing, as floodwaters breached an embankment at Johi Taluka on Tuesday, submerging 25 villages and affecting around 20,000 people. Residents of the nearby town of Dadu are also on alert after the floodwaters changed direction and headed towards embankments bordering the town.

Both towns are located near the left bank of the Indus River, which can be seen flowing across the center of this image. While the surrounding valley appears green, the river itself is brown in color due to sediments dredged up by the heavy rainfall. The river also appears much wider than normal, as is to be expected from its flooded banks.

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September 9th, 2010 Category: Floods, Tropical Storms

Tropical Depression Hermine (10L) - September 8th, 2010

Enhanced image

At 10:00 PM CDT (03:00 UTC), the center of Tropical Depression Hermine (10L) was located about 40 miles (60 km) south-southwest of Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, and about 150 miles (240 km) north-northwest of Dallas/Love Field, Texas – near latitude 34.9 North and longitude 98.0 West.

Tropical Depression Hermine is expected to become extratropical as it moves northeastward across Oklahoma Wednesday evening and early Thursday. Maximum sustained winds are near 25 mph (40 km/hr), with higher gusts. Minimum central pressure is 1003 mb (29.62 inches).

Flood and flash flood watches, warnings and advisories remain in effect from south central Texas, northward across Oklahoma and southeastern Kansas, across Missouri and Arkansas into southwestern Illinois.

Additional rainfall amounts of three to six inches, with localized higher amounts, can be expected through
thursday from eastern Texas and Oklahoma into Mssouri and Arkansas.

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September 8th, 2010 Category: Floods, Rivers, Sediments

Pakistan - September 7th, 2010

Fresh flood warnings have been issued in Mehar village, in the Dadu district of Sindh province, Pakistan. The country has been devastated by intense flooding over the last month.

This thumbnail image focuses on a section of the Indus River, appearing tan with sediments and wider than usual due to the floods; the entire stretch of the river in Pakistan can be viewed in the full image.

Over 800,000 Pakistanis are still trapped by floodwaters. More than 17 million people have been affected by the floods, and eight millions of them require immediate life-saving aid.

Pakistani authorities reported that the floods have destroyed or damaged 1.2 million homes. More than one million people are living in tents and at least five million others are in need of emergency shelter.

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September 3rd, 2010 Category: Floods, Rivers

Pakistan - September 1st, 2010

This FAPAR image focuses on the Indus River, which has been causing terrible flooding in Pakistan over the last month. The river and its tributaries appear as thick yellow and grey lines.

More than 17 million people have been affected by the floods, and about 17 million acres of farmland are under water. Amid the crisis, the military has been out front, driving high-profile rescue efforts with some 60,000 Army troops.

Here, the valley surrounding the river is medium to dark green in color, indicating a good vegetation index. Some areas further north, where the monsoon rains most affected the country, are brownish red, indicating a high index. The yellow, white, and bright red areas, on the other hand, show a low to very low index of photosynthetic activity.

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August 30th, 2010 Category: Floods, Rivers

Pakistan - August 29th, 2010

The swollen Indus River in Pakistan is laden with thick brown sediments, dredged up by heavy monsoon rains. Such monsoon rains in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Sindh, lower Punjab and Balochistan regions of Pakistan caused have been causing devastating floods in the country since July 2010.

At one point, approximately one-fifth of Pakistan’s total land area was underwater due to the flooding. Present estimates indicate that over two thousand people have died and over a million homes have been destroyed since the flooding began.

The United Nations estimates that more than twenty million people are injured or homeless as a result of the flooding, exceeding the combined total of individuals affected by the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, the 2005 Kashmir earthquake and the 2010 Haiti earthquake. However, the death count in each of those three disasters was significantly higher than the number of people killed so far in the floods.

The Pakistani economy has been harmed by extensive damage to infrastructure and crops. Structural damages are estimated to exceed 4 billion USD, and wheat crop damages are estimated to be over 500 million USD. Officials estimate the total economic impact to be as much as 43 billion USD.

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April 8th, 2010 Category: Floods

Brazil - April 7th, 2010

Rescuers are searching for survivors in the Rio de Janiero area of Brazil after the heaviest rainfall to hit the area in 48 years caused landslides and floods that left at least 110 people dead. Officials said the toll could rise as many people are missing in the wake of the heaviest downpours in four decades. At least 43 were killed in Rio de Janeiro city after 28cm (11in) of rain fell in 24 hours, but the neighbouring city of Niteroi was the hardest hit, with 60 deaths.

The mayor of Rio has urged people in high-risk areas to evacuate their homes as officials warned that 10,000 houses remained at risk from landslides. Forecasters say the rain will continue, but with less intensity than before. Here, although the atmosphere is beginning to clear a bit, rainclouds can still be seen along the coast, obscuring Rio de Janeiro and nearby cities.

Earlier in the week, the major streets in the city were closed due to floods. The flooding also disrupted most international flights in and out of Rio’s main airport and forced the cancellation of many domestic services. All schools and many businesses were closed on Wednesday, but several government offices have re-opened.

“The city is starting to return to normal, but the rains are still intense,” Rio de Janeiro Mayor Eduardo Paes told reporters early on Wednesday. He also said 4,000 families had been made homeless and that 10,000 houses remained at risk, mostly in the slums where about a fifth of Rio’s people live. Most of those who died over the past two days were people who lived in favelas (shanty towns), where many houses were buried under mudslides.

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