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heatwave
BUCHAREST - A searing heatwave has killed at
least 40 people across southern Europe while in Britain torrential rain
has killed three people and forced hundreds to flee a creaking dam.
Twenty-nine deaths have been blamed on the heat in Romania where
temperatures on Tuesday hit 45 degrees Celsius (113 Fahrenheit), four in
Greece, three in Albania and at least five in Bosnia, Croatia and
Turkey.
Record temperatures have been recorded in several countries while
violent winds have spread wildfires and stretched emergency services
across much of southern Italy.
Bucharest was Europe's hottest capital on Tuesday with temperatures at
45 Celsius (113 Fahrenheit) but a heat alert was sounded for much of the
south of the country.
Ambulance services in the capital were beseiged with calls to help
people fainting in the street. Fourteen people have died from the heat
in the city over the past week, according to authorities who have set up
more than 30 first aid tents in Bucharest alone to cope with the
casualties.
Police have been handing out water in the street and the health ministry
has warned the elderly and those with debilitating illnesses not to go
out during the day.
After a winter with much lower than average snowfall and a dry spring,
the heatwave has worsened fears that Romania could lose more than half
of its normal cereal crop this year because of the weather.
Temperatures were expected to hit 44 Celsius (111 Fahrenheit) in Athens
and the government urged the public to save power as electricity
consumption hit new highs on Monday. The Greek military has suspended
all exercises.
Temperatures in Bulgaria were expected to hit a new record 42 Celsius
(107 Fahrenheit) on Tuesday and dozens of heat casualties have also been
reported.
Authorities sprayed water on the tram rails to prevent the rails from
buckling in the heat.
Authorities in seven Turkish provinces have given two or three days of
leave to handicapped or pregnant civil servants, as well as those with
chronic health problems because of the heat, Anatolia news agency said.
Temperatures in Croatia are also the highest ever recorded in June, at
up to 39 Celsius (102 Fahrenheit).
Northern Europe is meanwhile suffering from unusually high rainfall.
Three people have died in floods in England and hundreds of people have
been evacuated from their homes because torrential threatened to cause a
dam to burst. A bridge collapsed in western England.
British Prime Minister Tony Blair said the country faced "a difficult
situation" as flood defences struggled against the weather.
Authorities in Rotherham, South Yorkshire, told people living near Ulley
Dam to leave their homes after receiving a warning that the walls could
collapse. A section of the nearby main M1 motorway was also closed.
In nearby Sheffield, Royal Air Force helicopters airlifted people in
flooded areas to safety. A 14-year-old boy was swept to his death in a
swollen river and a 68-year-old man was killed as he crossed a flooded
road.
In Hull, on the east coast, a man drowned after becoming trapped up to
his neck in a drain on a flooded street. Emergency services battled to
save the man, but could not free him as waters rose.
A 13 metre (40-feet) section of a bridge was washed away in Ludlow,
central England, by a swollen river, severing a gas main and causing a
number of minor explosions.
Forecasters have said that some parts of Britain had an entire month's
worth of rain in just a few hours, just a week after similar downpours
caused disruption.
LONDON - Hundreds of people in south
Yorkshire were evacuated from their homes Tuesday after torrential rain
-- that has so far claimed three lives -- threatened to cause a dam to
burst.
Prime Minister Tony Blair pledged support for those caught up in the
widespread flooding, which also led to the collapse of a bridge in
western England.
"This has been an extraordinary and very serious event for us. We are in
very close touch with the authorities there," he said, adding: "Our
flood defences are holding but this is a difficult situation."
Municipal authorities in Rotherham told people living near Ulley Dam to
leave their homes after receiving a warning that the walls could
collapse. A section of the nearby main M1 motorway was also closed.
"We have taken professional advice from an engineer, who said there is a
significant risk that the dam could fail," said Tracy Holmes, from
Rotherham council.
"Public safety is paramount for us, so we started to evacuate from three
specific areas."
In nearby Sheffield, where Royal Air Force helicopters have been
airlifting people in flooded areas to safety, a 14-year-old boy was
swept to his death in a swollen river and a 68-year-old man was killed
as he crossed a flooded road.
In Hull, a man drowned after becoming trapped up to his neck in a drain
on a flooded street. Emergency services battled to save the man, but
could not free him as waters rose.
Northern and central England were the worst hit by the downpours, that
caused the worst floods in parts of the country for many years and
widespread chaos to the road and rail network.
In one incident a 40-foot section of a bridge was washed away in the
town of Ludlow, by a river swollen after torrential rain, severing a gas
main and causing a number of minor explosions.
Dozens of people were evacuated from their homes, emergency services
said.
Forecasters have said that some parts of Britain had an entire month's
worth of rain in just a few hours, just a week after similar downpours
caused disruption.
Blair added: "The immediate thing is to make sure that we get the right
co-ordination with the emergency services and we try to make sure that
we prevent any further loss of life."
AUSTIN, Texas - Heavy rains and high winds belted parts
of the state early Tuesday, causing flooding, forcing street closures
and damaging houses and other structures.
Three women were killed Monday when the sport utility vehicle they were
in slammed into a dump truck, officials said. Weather was a factor,
authorities said.
Larry Hathorn, the husband of one of the women, Debbie Picha, 52, said
he was speaking to his wife by phone when the accident occurred.
"Debbie and I were talking when suddenly she said, 'Oh, my God!' four
times. Then the phone went dead," he told the Austin American-Statesman
in an article published Tuesday.
Authorities rescued a man stranded atop his minivan Monday in western
Texas as raging floodwaters threatened to consume him. A woman died
Sunday when a gust of wind caused the motorcycle she was a passenger on
to hit a guardrail, police said. The motorcycle driver survived.
In northern Texas, a severe storm blew a home from its foundation,
ripped the roof off at least one house and caused damage to two other
homes, a Wise County dispatcher said. No injuries were reported.
Officials closed roads in two counties to protect motorists from high
waters.
The overnight storm prompted the National Weather Service to issue a
tornado warning for parts of northern Texas, but there had been no
confirmed tornado sightings, weather service meteorologist Jessica
Schultz said.
In Real County, about 80 miles northwest of San Antonio, officials were
notifying campgrounds and homes along the Frio River of rising waters
and possibly dangerous conditions, a county dispatcher said.
Sustained rainfall over the last month has left the ground saturated,
and parts of northern, central and eastern Texas are at high risks of
flash flooding, according to the state's emergency operations center.
Gov. Rick Perry has ordered search and rescue teams to be at a high
state of readiness to provide rapid responses when necessary, according
to a state emergency situation report. Two helicopters and 50 other
state vehicles are available to rescue personnel under Perry's
directive.
The severe weather shows no sign of letting up, with chances of rain and
thunderstorms as high as 90 percent in some parts of Texas on Tuesday,
according to the National Weather Service.
KARACHI - A cyclone hit the coast of
Pakistan on Tuesday, dumping torrential rain over a thinly populated
region days after about 230 people were killed when a storm lashed the
country's biggest city, Karachi.
Authorities in Pakistan and neighboring India have evacuated thousands
of people from low-lying areas after weekend storms and flooding killed
nearly 400 people across the South Asian region.
Tropical cyclone Yemyin, packing winds of up to 80 miles per hour (130
kph) roared over the Arabian Sea to the south of Karachi and hit the
coast of the southwestern province of Baluchistan, said chief
meteorologist Qamar-uz-Zaman Chaudhry.
"The cyclone hit land near Ormara and Pasni at around 11 a.m. (0600 GMT)
and its strength has started reducing," Chaudhry said.
Ormara is a coastal town 250 km (150 miles) west of Karachi. Pasni is
400 km west of the port city of 12 million people where about 230 were
killed on the weekend.
Officials in Baluchistan said they were having trouble communicating
with the affected area. Very heavy rain was falling and there were
unconfirmed reports some Hindu pilgrims had been killed, officials said.
A navy spokesman said two fishing boats had been sunk but it was not
known how many people were on board.
Two other trawlers were in trouble and a merchant ship had sent out a
distress call. Two helicopters and a ship had been dispatched to help,
the spokesman said.
BALUCHISTAN TOO
At least six people were killed in severe weather in Baluchistan on
Monday and authorities there said thousands of people were being
evacuated from low-lying areas, including from near a dam where the
water level had risen dangerously.
"We can see two threats, one from the cyclone in the coastal belt and
the second from torrential rain as water in dams and canals has started
touching dangerous levels," said Baluchistan provincial government
spokesman Raziq Bugti.
"There are 200,000 to 250,000 people in the coastal belt and we've
started evacuating them to safer sites. Thousands of people have been
shifted," he said.
Police at the newly opened port of Gwadar, west of the point where the
storm made landfall, said only light rain was falling.
Heavy rain fell in Karachi and traffic was thin on its gloomy streets as
many people stayed at home. Paramilitary troops were directing traffic
at intersections where traffic lights were still out of order after the
weekend chaos.
In neighboring India, authorities began evacuating tens of thousands
threatened by flooding as the toll from havoc wrecked by the arrival of
the rainy season topped 150.
Thousands of villages have been left without basic services in India's
worst-hit southern state, Andhra Pradesh.
Indian weather officials forecast heavy rain on both west and east
coasts, with a storm in the Bay of Bengal due to hit Andhra Pradesh by
Wednesday.
Hundreds are killed each year, and hundreds of thousands are forced from
their homes, in the South Asian rainy season. Though deadly, the rain is
vital for agriculture and national economies.
In 1965, a cyclone hit Karachi and killing 10,000 people.
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