Extreme weather - 01/17/2015

Malawi faces 'unprecedented' flood disaster

Southern African nation struggles to cope with devastating floods that killed 176 people and displaced 200,000 others

al-Jazeera,

17 January, 2015

The waters may be receding and the rainfall subsiding but Malawi is only now coming to terms with the "unprecendented" floods that hit the southern half of the country last week.

At least 176 people lost their lives and another 200,000 have been displaced when heavy rains submerged homes, schools, and in places, washing away an entire village. 

The Malawi Defence Force has reportedly rescued at least 4,000 people, but there are fears that many more still need help. At least 153 people are unaccounted for.

"It has shocked all of us: from government, to donors to the people," Robert Kisyula, national director of international NGO World Vision Malawi, told Al Jazeera on Saturday. "People hung on to trees,waiting for the waters to subside, as they usualy do, but water kept on coming and they were washed away.

"These were unprecedented floods, don't let anyone you otherwise," he said.

The heavy rains washed away plantations, roads and destroyed power lines in Malawi [AFP

Malawi isn't the only southern African country to be hit by floods last week. In neighbouring Mozambique, floods left at least 38 people dead and displaced tens of thousands as well.There is speculation that Mozambique's 2014 flood plan helped the country better prepare for a disaster, as compared to Malawi, which seemed to have been caught completely off-guard.

It is a charge Paul Chiunguzeni, Malawi's head of the department of disaster and relief, denies.

"We have had mixed success with the relief efforts because in the early days of the disaster, rescue efforts were hampered by bad weather," Chiunguzeni said.

He told Al Jazeera that his country "did not have the resources" to handle the aftermath of the massive floods. President Peter Mutharika has already declared 15 of the 28 national districts disaster zones and Chiunguzeni echoed his president's call for international assistance.

Malawi is already facing economic difficulties following the withdrawal of 40 percent donor funds in 2013 over a corruption scandal in the country.Even before the onset of the floods, there were concerns that the country would face food shortages.

In October last year, a news analyst in the Nation newspaper said that the new budget proposed by President Mutharika had failed to address the needs of ordinary Malawians.

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RELATED: Malawians seething with anger over devastating floods

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Without international support, Malawi would be hard pressed to respond to this disaster.

Floods occur annually in Malawi, though the government said this year's rainfall was different. Chiunguzeni said warnings had been sent to communities, but the rains came before people could prepare. 

UNICEF Malawi @MalawiUNICEF

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UNICEF camp for people who are displaced by #MalawiFloods, at Sekeni in Chikwawa district.

6:22 PM - 17 Jan 2015

But many Malawians are angry with the slow response of the government. As late as Friday, in the district of Nsanje, there were families living without shelter or food, clean water or access to sanitation.

Those who were yet to be evactuated were sleeping in the rain for days, waiting for the waters to subside so that they might salvage what ever litte was left of their homes and belongings that had disappeared under the gushing streams. Aid agencies say that plantations have been washed away.

On Friday, the country's vice-president described the situation as "very bad". Kisyula, the World Vision offiicial, said that it will take months before people return to any semblance of normality.

For most, the biggest concern now, other than finding those who are still unaccounted for, is to provide the necessary infrastructure and prevent an outbreak of waterborne diseases, such as cholera. "Rain water, sewerage have all mixed with drinking water, and this is the next major concern," Kisyula said.

South African humanitarian organisation Gift of the Givers, which has sent a team to help in the relief operations, said on Saturday that the "massive destruction to agriculture; roads, bridges and general infrastructure, including power facilities, has complicated the situation".

The rainfall may have relented, and the skies partially cleared, but meteorologists are expecting more rains as Cyclone Chedza arrives on Sunday. Gift of the Givers said they had placed water rescue teams from South Africa on standby. 

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Alaska's toasty temperatures in 2014 worry observers

Anchorag

LA Times

17 January, 2015

The biggest state in America, home to more ocean coastline than all others combined, has just set another record. This one, however, is nothing to cheer.

For the first time in recorded history, temperatures in Anchorage did not drop below zero once in an entire calendar year. In comparison, Alaska's largest city had 14 days below zero in the 2013 calendar year and 32 days in 2012. The average is 29 days.

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For the record

Jan. 3, 10:22 a.m.: An earlier headline on this article incorrectly said Alaska had a record-warm year. The state's largest city, Anchorage, set a record for above-zero temperatures. Seven other cities in the state had record-warm temperatures as well.

At midnight Wednesday, Anchorage closed the book on its warmest year since 1926, according to the National Weather Service. The lowest temperature recorded in 2014 was zero degrees Fahrenheit on Feb. 11.

Sea ice has been disappearing. Polar bear populations have dropped. The state's storied dog race was a musher's mess, spurring headlines that fretted: "Warm weather, treacherous conditions — is the Iditarod in trouble?" The Bering Sea saw its warmest summer on record.

"I didn't put my downhill skis on at all last winter, and at the moment I'm still hoping for this winter, but the prospects are not good so far," said Henry Huntington, who lives in an Anchorage suburb and serves as senior officer for the Pew Charitable Trusts' international Arctic program.

The Last Frontier didn't exactly sweat through Death Valley-style temperatures. Anchorage's 2014 annual average was a chilly 40.6 degrees or so Fahrenheit, said Richard Thoman, climate science and services manager with the weather service in Fairbanks. Still, that was well above last year's annual average temperature of 37 degrees.

Environmentalists, policymakers and weather watchers are viewing the thermometer with concern.

"To me, the fact that Anchorage won't dip below zero degrees in calendar year 2014 is just one more signal — as if we needed another one — of a rapidly changing climate," said Andrew Hartsig, director of the Ocean Conservancy's Arctic program.

Hartsig said Anchorage's comparatively balmy weather is consistent with other long-term trends, including diminishing summer sea ice and increasing sea surface temperatures.

These are anomalies ... that show our climate system is off-kilter.- Chris Krenz, senior

"These are definitely red flags that are very consistent with climate change," said Chris Krenz, senior scientist at Oceana, an international conservation group. "These are anomalies ... that show our climate system is off-kхlter."

James E. Overland, a research oceanographer with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, would agree with the off-kilter part. But he would add mysterious to the mix, too.

Overland argues that Alaska's very cool heat wave is not evidence of climate change but rather the next stage in a long-term weather pattern that began with six years of warming in the Bering Sea and southern Alaska, followed by six cold years.

"This year, then, was the breakdown of the string of cold years," Overland said. "What all the scientists are wondering now [is]: Is this just one warm year? Could we flip back to a cold sequence again, or is this the start of a warm sequence? ... We don't know, and it makes a big difference."

Especially to the Alaska pollock, which NOAA's FishWatch website describes as "one of the largest, most valuable fisheries in the world." Pollock don't like really warm or really cold temperature extremes, and their food source, small shrimp, do not fare well in heat.

"We really don't understand how these sequences occur, but they appear to be random and part of the chaotic climate system, rather than part of the global warming signal," said Overland, coauthor of NOAA's 2014 Arctic Report Card. "We've had one warm year here. Is this a sucker punch or not?"

Climate change or chaos aside, the warm temperatures are both real and worrisome.

The weather service's Thoman notes that a calendar year in the Northern Hemisphere contains chunks of two separate winter seasons: January, February and March, and November and December

Members of the Dimond High School Nordic cross-country ski team practice in snowless conditions in Anchorage in November. (Mark Thiessen / Associated Press)

In the last few months, the lowest temperature in Anchorage was 13 degrees Fahrenheit, recorded on Dec. 13, Thoman said.

One record Anchorage has yet to break is the longest stretch of consecutive days above zero. That record was set over 683 days in 2000 and 2001.

Still, Thoman said, "Anchorage has never had a winter when the temperature remained warm through the end of December."

Until now.

Just before Thanksgiving, Ned Rozell, a science writer for the Geophysical Institute at the University of Alaska Fairbanks, penned an online column with the headline "Snow-starved Alaska not the normal state."

Rozell worried that large swaths of Alaska remained "frozen, dusty and brown" through the first three weeks of November, threatening dozens of species that depend on snow cover.

"Each lovely flake joins spiked arms with others to create an air-trapping matrix above the ground surface," he wrote.

"The ground beneath the white blanket remains a consistent 27 degrees Fahrenheit no matter the temperature above," he continue.

"That relative warmth, the remnants of summer's heat released as the ground freezes, allows billions of small bodies to survive winter."

Among the species partial to snow are the bearberry shrub, yellow jackets and voles. Oil companies like it, too, said Larry Hinzman, director of the International Arctic Research Center at the University of Alaska Fairbanks.

The massive 49th state has remarkably few roads, and most of the land is accessible only by air or water. When there is frozen ground and good snow cover, he said, parts of the state "are suddenly open for travel," for hauling supplies and exploration.

"A good snow cover," Hinzman said, "is very important to us."

Pope Francis cuts short visit to typhoon-hit Tacloban

A storm has forced Pope Francis to cut short his visit to the Philippine city of Tacloban, which was devastated by Typhoon Haiyan just over a year ago.

BBC

17 January, 2015

Amid strong winds and pouring rain, he celebrated Mass with thousands of worshippers earlier on Saturday.

He was due to go on to meet survivors of the typhoon but had to leave early because of worsening conditions.

An audience at a cathedral gave an anguished gasp when he told them he would have to go.

A plane carrying government officials overshot the runway at Tacloban airport shortly after the Pope left

The typhoon, which remains the strongest storm ever recorded on land, created a 7m (23ft) high storm surge, destroying practically everything in its path when it swept ashore on 8 November 2013.

Around 90% of the city of Tacloban in Leyte province was destroyed and more than 14.5 million people were affected in six regions and 44 provinces. About one million people remain homeless.

The Pope said as soon as he saw the catastrophe caused by the typhoon, he had decided to go to the Philippines.

He is visiting the Philippines, where there are 80 million Catholics, as part of a six-day tour of Asia.

Tropical storm

Pope Francis was due to have lunch with survivors of Typhoon Haiyan later on Saturday but he left Tacloban four hours early because of the approaching storm and returned to Manila.

He apologised to the crowds gathered at the main cathedral in Leyte province and said: "I am sad about this, truly saddened, because I had something prepared especially for you."

The weather did nothing to deter the crowds attending Mass

The Pope said his pilots had told him that the weather was going to get worse. "We barely have time to get to the aeroplane," he said.

Tropical Storm Mekkhala, with winds of up to 130 km/h (80 mph), forced the suspension of ferry services to Leyte and stranded thousands of travellers, according to the Associated Press news agency.

One woman was killed after the mass, when scaffolding near the stage collapsed, local media report.

The storm was forecast to hit the shore of nearby Samar Island later on Saturday.

People prayed for the victims of Typhoon Haiyan during the Mass

Tropical Storm Mekkhala forced Pope Francis to cut short his visit after the Mass

During the Mass in Spanish, with a translation into English, the Pope spoke of the devastating impact of Typhoon Haiyan on people in Tacloban.

He told the faithful that "so many of you in Tacloban have lost everything. I don't know what to say - but the Lord does… He underwent so many of the trials that you do".

There was silence as the many thousands here in the deeply Catholic Philippines bowed their heads in prayer, the only noise the rain splashing onto the muddy ground beneath, reports the BBC's Caroline Wyatt.