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Three Dead And Hundreds Stranded As Floods Hit Northern Britain
London (AFP) Jun 26, 2007 Three people were dead and hundreds were stranded on Monday as torrential downpours caused widespread chaos and the worst floods seen in northern England in years. Several hours of effort from rescuers including police divers was not enough to save a 28-year-old man in Hull, northwest England, who died after becoming trapped while trying to clear a flooded drain. Local police in nearby Sheffield said they had recovered the body of an unidentified young man, though his body was found downstream from where a teenage boy was earlier reported to have been swept up by the floods. They later confirmed that a 68-year-old man was killed in the city as he got into difficulties attempting to cross a flooded road. Hundreds of people were stranded in Sheffield, where military and police helicopters were scrambled to help rescue people trapped in cars or taking refuge from the fast-rising floodwaters on rooftops. "It's very difficult to get an actual understanding of how many people, but we are talking in the hundreds of people affected by this sea of flooding," said emergency coordinator Flight Lieutenant Ronnie Metcalfe. Metcalfe, speaking from a Royal Air Force base in Scotland, added that the number of people in bad trouble was continuing to rise through the evening as reports came in of thousands of people being without power. Britain's Environment Agency, which monitors weather risks nationwide, issued 16 severe flood warnings and 102 standard flood warnings throughout the country. Elsewhere in Britain rivers broke their banks, flooding roads and homes from Devon in southwest England, to Yorkshire in the north. Nick Ricketts, a national forecaster at Britain's Meteorological Office, said that the forecasting centre now thinks "the worst of the rainfall (in Britain) is over." He added that some parts of Britain had an entire month's worth of rain just in a few hours. The British Chamber of Commerce said the floods could cost the economy millions of pounds (euros/dollars), as workers would likely turn up late at work in the coming days, if they managed to make it at all, due to disruptions on transport networks.
Source: Agence France-Presse Related Links British Environment Agency Bringing Order To A World Of Disasters When the Earth Quakes A world of storm and tempest
Chaos in Karachi as storms kill 228 And Hundreds More Across Asia
Karachi (AFP) Jun 24, 2007More than 200 people were killed as torrential rain and thunderstorms lashed the Pakistani port city of Karachi, destroying hundreds of homes and causing widespread power outages on Sunday. Gale-force winds uprooted trees and power pylons and blew down roofs and walls, crushing and electrocuting scores of victims. Provincial health minister Syed Sardar Ahmed said 43 people were killed on Saturday and "the bodies of 185 more victims were identified today (Sunday)," taking the toll to 228. |
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