(NEW YORK) – Bünyamin Sürmeli – Floods around the world are displacing hundreds of thousands of people and claiming hundreds of lives.
Floods and casualties around the world in the last 3 days:
Heavy rains on Indonesia’s Ternate Island and in southeastern Bangladesh have killed dozens of people.
Ternate Island in eastern Indonesia has been hit by flooding. Authorities reported that flooding in the village of Rua killed 11 people and damaged dozens of homes and buildings. The main roads leading to the village were also closed due to heavy rains across the island.
The situation is even worse in Bangladesh. Flooding caused by heavy rains and overflowing rivers killed 18 people. Kamrul Hasan, an official with Bangladesh’s Ministry of Disaster Management, said about 5 million people have been affected and 3,500 evacuation centers have been set up across the country. “More than 290,000 people are sheltering in these centers,” Hasan said, adding, “The main highway between the capital, Dhaka, and the southeastern port city of Chattogram is flooded and transportation has been disrupted.”
The situation in Mali is also critical. The government has declared a “national disaster” following heavy rains in the country. The rains of recent weeks have affected more than 7,000 households and nearly 50,000 people in 17 regions. The severe weather has also resulted in the deaths of 30 people.
In western Yemen, the Houthi-controlled city of Rima has also been hit by flooding. According to Mohammad Murad, the city’s deputy governor, 6 people were killed, 430 houses were destroyed and 45 roads were rendered unusable as a result of the heavy rains. “Large areas of farmland have been eroded and there has been significant damage,” Murad added.
In the eastern Indian state of Tripura, floods and landslides caused by monsoon rains killed 22 people. State authorities reported that about 65,400 people whose homes were damaged by heavy rains have been evacuated to safer areas.
Scientists believe that climate change is a major contributor to the erratic and excessive rainfall in the northeastern regions of Bangladesh and India in recent years.
This is the news from several parts of the world in the last 3 days, and meteorological models, along with high seawater temperatures and record-breaking post-El Niño air temperatures, indicate that flooding will continue to increase for the rest of the year.