Floods

Mathare Ecological Network Fights For Restoration Of Dignity And Hope

December 23, 2024 Nicholas Mwangi, People's Dispatch. Create! Africa, climate crisis, Floods, Kenya, Nairobi

In April 2024, relentless heavy rains wreaked havoc across Kenya, plunging the country into a humanitarian crisis. The devastation claimed at least 270 lives, displaced over 200,000 people, and obliterated livelihoods, infrastructure, and property. Among the hardest-hit areas was Mathare, one of Nairobi’s largest informal settlements, where over 40 lives were lost as the Mathare River burst its banks, flooding vast portions of the community. For the residents of Mathare, mostly low-income earners, the flooding was catastrophic. Families were stranded, homes were submerged, and lives were uprooted in the blink of an eye.

Niger Resists In The Crosshairs Of Sanctions And Climate Catastrophe

November 12, 2024 Pavan Kulkarni, People's Dispatch. Resist! Alliance of Sahel States (AES), climate crisis, Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), Floods, French colonialism, Niger, Sanctions, West African Peoples' Organization (WAPO)

In the aftermath of devastation left behind in the wake of unprecedented floods, Nigeriens are rebuilding their livelihoods and economy with the help of the several relief measures instituted by the government to drastically cut prices of essential commodities and services. The Sahel-wide flooding between June and October has exacted a particularly high toll on the people of Niger, destroying crops, cattle, houses and infrastructure in one of the world’s poorest countries whose economy had already been strangled by the seven month-long sanctions.

Brazil’s Flood Of Austerity And Climate Catastrophe

May 31, 2024 Vijay Prashad, Tricontinental: Institute for Social Research. Educate! Brazil, climate crisis, Extreme weather, Floods, Landless Workers

Meteorological agencies and officials predicted the events with eerie precision. A week into the flood, experts pointed to the extraordinary rainfall as the primary cause. Estael Sias, managing director of the weather forecaster MetSul, wrote that this was not ‘just an episode of extreme rain’, but ‘a meteorological event whose adjectives are all superlative, from extraordinary to exceptional’. The seemingly unending rain, she wrote, ‘is absurdly and bizarrely different from what is normal’. It will take a very long time for this region of Brazil to recover from the flood. Within the floodwaters are several encampments and settlements of Brazil’s Landless Workers’ Movement (MST), about which we published a dossier last month to commemorate the movement’s 40th anniversary.

Why Barack Obama Can’t Shut Up

September 24, 2023 Margaret Kimberley, Black Agenda Report. Educate! Barack Obama, Floods, Libya, Wars and Militarism

If it can be said that one person is responsible for the awful death toll from the recent flooding in eastern Libya, Barack Obama should be named as the culprit. If nothing else, Obama certainly has a lot of nerve. The person who was determined to destroy the Libyan state did just that. His personal hench lady, aka Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, carried out the dirty work. Along with allies like the UK and France, she made the case for a “no fly” zone, which prevented Libya’s army from being protected by its air force. For good measure she whipped up a phony human rights case, complete with claims about troops taking viagra in order to commit mass rapes.

Libya’s Disastrous Flooding… Causes And Hope?

September 21, 2023 Essam Elkorghli, Black Agenda Report. Educate! Extreme weather, Floods, Libya, NATO, US Imperialism, US Sanctions

On the 11th of September, small towns and cities in eastern Libya (Sousa, Baida, and Batta) experienced heavy rains and flooding, leading to some infrastructural and material damage. However, the big catastrophe was in the city of Darna which houses more than 100,000 inhabitants and is located by a valley leading directly from the mountains. The two dams that control the flow of the water that seeps through the city’s valley collapsed at around 2:00 a.m., leading to a complete blackout and mass flooding. Cars, 10-story apartments, and houses were washed away with their residents, leading to a humanitarian catastrophe with more than 10,000 dead and 11,000 missing.

The National Flood Insurance Program Is Broken

September 17, 2023 Krista Egger, Next City. Create! climate crisis, Extreme weather, Floods, Insurance

The most expensive type of disaster in the United States is flooding. Hurricanes, a major source of flooding, make up seven of the 10 costliest disasters in United States history, from Katrina in 2005 to Ian in 2022. Together, these storms alone have cost $800 billion, adjusted for inflation. Half a century ago—before any of these storms occurred—the federal government created the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP), a public sector alternative to fill in the gaps in higher-risk areas where commercial insurance is unavailable. But as the frequency and severity of flooding events have increased—and as insurers continue to add to the list of states they refuse to insure—the NFIP has become massively oversubscribed, amassing more than $20 billion in debt on behalf of its five million policyholders.

Water Crises Portend Socialism Or Barbarism

October 2, 2022 Signý A., Left Voice. Create! Extreme weather, Floods, Infrastructure, Socialism

It’s 2022 and the climate has changed. Around the world, the new climate is making itself felt via droughts, heatwaves, floods, and storms. Many of these events are record breakers, and their effects go beyond local areas to affect global supply chains and the lives of millions of working-class people. These are more than just “natural” disasters, though: these multiple water crises are driven, sometimes even created, by a capitalist society organized to put short-term profit above long-term sustainability. Our untenable management of water illustrates the impossibility of addressing climate change under capitalism, and shows how only socialism can produce a sustainable and equitable civilization.

Pakistan’s Floods Show The Climate Crisis Is Also A Debt Crisis

September 3, 2022 Heidi Chow, Tribune Magazine. Educate! climate crisis, Debt, Floods, Pakistan

The flood in Pakistan is a humanitarian crisis of epic proportions. Entire towns, vital infrastructure, homes, farmlands, and crops are being washed away. With a third of the land under water, 33 million people affected, and the death toll over a thousand and rising, the human and economic cost is set to be astronomical. It is estimated that the extensive damage to the country will cost at least $10 billion. The country faces both the immediate challenges of immense displacement, homelessness, hunger, and the spread of water-borne diseases as well as the longer-term costs of rebuilding and reconstruction. Pakistan faces a deepening debt crisis to pay the costs of a climate catastrophe it did not cause.

Wildfire, Hurricanes, Floods And Droughts Quadrupled In Cost Since 1980

August 26, 2020 By Bob Berwyn, Inside Climate News. Educate! climate crisis, Droughts, Floods, Wildfires

In the last 40 years, 663 disasters linked to climate change in the United States killed 14,223 people. The total cost: an estimated $1.77 trillion, a bit more than Canada's Gross National Product in 2018. Economic losses in Europe resulting from climate-linked extreme weather from 1980 to 2017 were lower, totaling $537 billion. The difference was the cost of tropical storms, which don't affect Europe but accounted for nearly half of the U.S. total costs. The report analyzed data going back to 1980 from several sources, including a database of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) that catalogs climate disasters with costs of $1 billion or more and is continually updated. Only disasters with costs of that magnitude were included in the analysis.

A World So Changed

August 26, 2018 Vijay Prashad, Tricontinental Institute for Social Research. Educate! Finance and the Economy, Floods, Kerala, Türkiye

Over the past month, the Indian state of Kerala has struggled with the worst floods since 1924. Over three hundred people have been killed and millions of people have been affected in this state of about 35 million people. There are many theories as to why these floods have been so severe, climate change amongst them. But, what is certainly very clear is that in the face of this devastation, Kerala’s society came together to ensure the rescue and relief for those who had seen their worlds be torn asunder, and life ‘rush into the past’.

Meet America’s New Climate Normal: Towns That Flood When It Isn’t Raining

June 29, 2018 By Elizabeth Rush, Theguardian.com Educate! Climate Change, Floods

I spend the afternoon in Shorecrest, a neighborhood a couple of miles north of downtown Miami. To get there I leave the beach behind and drive past Arky’s Live Bait & Tackle, Deal and Discounts II, Rafiul Food Store, Royal Budget Inn, Family Dollar and Goodwill. As I continue north, the buildings all lose their mirrored glass and their extra floors, until most are single story and made from stucco. It isn’t raining when I arrive in Shorecrest, and there isn’t a storm offshore; the day is as clear and as blue as the filigree on a porcelain plate. But the streets are still full of water. I watch as a woman wades ankle deep across Tenth Avenue. She has gathered her long russet-colored skirt in her right hand, and in her left she holds a pair of Jesus sandals. When she reaches the bus stop, she sits and puts her shoes on.

U.S. Coastal Flooding Breaks Records As Sea Level Rises, NOAA Report Shows

June 9, 2018 Nicholas Kusnetz, Insideclimatenews.org Educate! Climate Change, Environment, Floods, Natural Disasters

The nation's coasts broke records for tidal flooding over the past year as storms combined with rising seas to inundate downtown areas of Miami, Boston and other major cities, according to a federal report released Wednesday. While some of the flooding coincided with hurricanes and nor'easters, much of it was driven mainly by sea level rise fueled by climate change, scientists with the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) write. The oceans are rising about 3 millimeters a year on average, driven primarily by melting land ice and warming water, which expands. That rate is accelerating, and it has led to a steady increase in U.S. coastal flooding in recent decades, the report shows. Several cities—including Boston, Atlantic City, and Sabine Pass, Texas—saw more than 20 days of high-tide flooding between May 2017 and April 2018, the "meteorological year" covered by the report.

Sea Level Rise Is Creeping Into Coastal Cities.

December 29, 2017 Nicholas Kusnetz, Insideclimatenews.org Educate! Climate Change, Floods, Sea level rise

To get a sense of how much it will cost the nation to save itself from rising seas over the next 50 years, consider Norfolk, Virginia. In November, the Army Corps released a proposal for protecting the city from coastal flooding that would cost $1.8 billion. Some experts consider the estimate low. And it doesn't include the Navy's largest base, which lies within city limits and likely needs at least another $1 billion in construction. Then consider the costs to protect Boston, New York, Baltimore, Miami, Tampa, New Orleans, Houston and the more than 3,000 miles of coastline in between. Rising seas driven by climate change are flooding the nation's coasts now. The problem will get worse over the next 50 years, but the United States has barely begun to consider what's needed and hasn't grappled with the costs or who will pay.

Texas Is Flooded Because Our Democracy Is, Too

September 7, 2017 Basav Sen, www.otherwords.org Create! Democracy, Floods, Texas

By Basav Sen for Other Words - Our culture of legalized bribery makes climate disasters more likely, but there's an alternative. “It’s flooding down in Texas,” goes the old song. “All of the telephone lines are down.” With apologies to Stevie Ray Vaughan, there’s a lot more down in Texas than telephone lines now. Power lines are down, homes are destroyed, and cities sit underwater. Dozens have died. For me, this is personal. I worried intensely about friends and family in Houston and Corpus Christi. Thankfully all are safe, but it’s been jarring to see photos of places I know underwater. Every time I check the news I recognize familiar places from the long drive from Houston to Corpus I’ve made numerous times. There’s another unforgettable sight I often recall from that drive. In Taft, Texas, as you’re nearing Corpus — a major refinery town — over the horizon comes a huge wind farm. What does this juxtaposition of refineries and wind farms have to do with the tragedy of Hurricane Harvey?

Louisiana Takes Suit Against Energy Corps To Supreme Court

July 13, 2017 Kevin McGill, www.ap.com Resist! climate crisis, Floods, judicial system, Oil and Gas

By Kevin McGill for Associated Press. NEW ORLEANS (AP) — A Louisiana flood protection board has asked the U.S. Supreme Court to revive its lawsuit seeking to make oil, gas and pipeline companies pay for decades of damage to coastal wetlands, hoping to reverse losses in the lower federal courts. The suit drew fierce opposition from the energy industry and many in state government when it was filed in 2013 by the Southeast Louisiana Flood Protection Authority-East. It said the energy industry’s dredging of canals in coastal drilling areas contributed to loss of wetlands that form a hurricane buffer for New Orleans. Some 80 companies are named as defendants, among them Chevron, Exxon Mobil Corp., and subsidiaries of BP.

«1 2 »

Daily movement news and resources