Displaying items by tag: mudslides

People having a pre-Lent holiday at San Sebastiao beach had two feet of torrential rain. Sao Paulo state’s floods also claimed lives on carnival weekend. TV and social media showed entire areas under water, hillside houses swept away by mud, flooded highways, cars destroyed by fallen trees and more. By 23 February dozens were missing, 48 had died and rescue crews were scrambling to provide necessities, but the logistics of reaching the isolated towns was creating difficulties. Not all aid has reached survivors. Criminals taking advantage of the chaos are looting trucks carrying donations. Pray for the 1,730 displaced people in churches, schools and kindergartens and the 1,810 left homeless, the injured, and those looking for the missing. Pray for those mourning the dead. Amid such devastation a two-year-old boy was rescued from a sea of mud, as was a woman giving birth. See

Mudslides and flooding caused by torrential rain have killed 195, with the toll expected to rise further. 75,000 responders have been deployed for search and rescue operations. Further storms and landslides are expected, causing additional danger. Prime minister Shinzo Abe cancelled scheduled trips abroad to focus on disaster relief efforts. The UN was ready to provide support if Tokyo requested it. Parts of Japan had received 20 inches of rain, with Hiroshima, Okayama, and Hyogo inundated with even more. In two hours some cities were completely flooded as deluges fell across mountains and then funnelled down, forcing hundreds of thousands of people to flee their homes. Those unable to leave took shelter on rooftops as water and mudslides buried houses and vehicles. Pray for a Christian presence among the fearful and grieving.

The annual monsoons in India, Bangladesh, Nepal and Sierra Leone have caused hundreds of deaths, while thousands have fled flash floods and mudslides. In Nepal’s southern plains, the home to much of its agriculture, huge swathes of land and 48,000 homes have been totally submerged by floods. Pray for those stranded on higher ground taking shelter in sheds, unable to move until the water recedes. Pray for the Bangladesh troops shoring up embankments, in places where such severe flooding has not been seen for thirty years. Authorities suggest the flooding is man-made, caused by the dams built on the India-Nepal border. Pray also for those grieving for the many hundreds who were killed by mudslides and floods in Sierra Leone’s capital, Freetown. Many were buried alive as they slept. Pray for governments and NGOs as they work to support those who have lost not only homes but paddy fields, vegetable plantations, and fish farms. See: http://edition.cnn.com/2017/08/17/africa/sierra-leone-mudslide/index.html

On 8 June Cape Town, South Africa suffered its worst storm in thirty years. 10,000 people were evacuated, and the military helped to battle multiple blazes which destroyed dozens of homes and damaged a hospital and school. Twenty suburbs were damaged by spreading fires, and whole towns were evacuated. On 14 June severe storms brought down trees and power lines and dumped heavy rain, hail and tornadoes on America’s plains. These violent storms are now spreading across the Midwest, with damaging winds and isolated tornadoes. The Chicago area has had flooding and power lines down. In Bangladesh over twelve inches of rain have fallen between 12 and 15 June, triggering deadly mudslides that have killed 147 so far. The north Indian province of Mizoram (predominantly Christian) has suffered the worst floods in living memory, with much damage and many deaths. June marks the beginning of the Atlantic hurricane season, and forecasters predict tropical systems forming in southwest Gulf of Mexico from 19 July. See:

As the death toll climbs to 72 from floods and mudslides in Peru, experts say the rainy season could last another two weeks. To date, over half a million people in and around the country's capital, Lima, have been affected by the storms and flooding. Pray for the thousands forced to evacuate hundreds of thousands of homes. Pray for those attempting to repair the seriously damaged infrastructure, with hundreds of bridges destroyed. These have been Peru’s worst floods in recent memory. ‘We are confronting a serious climatic problem,’ said President Pedro Pablo Kuczynski. The disaster came after a period of severe drought and is blamed on abnormally high Pacific Ocean temperatures. The country is ill-prepared for the growing challenges of climate change. The disaster affects more than half the nation. See also