Volunteers help evacuees in 'catastrophic' Hurricane Ida aftermath

Catera Whitson (C) and Kyler Melancon (R) ride in the back of a high water truck as they volunteer to help evacuate people from homes after neighborhoods flooded in LaPlace, Louisiana on Monday in the aftermath of Hurricane Ida. Rescuers on Monday combed through the "catastrophic" damage Hurricane Ida did to Louisiana, a day after the fierce storm killed at least two people, stranded others in rising floodwaters, and sheared the roofs off homes. 

Agence France-Presse

2 dead, thousands of homes without power as storms hit France

PEYREHORADE, France - Two pensioners have been killed and tens of thousands of homes left without electricity as gale force winds and flooding hit southwestern France.

Eleven departments remained on orange alert weather warnings late Saturday.

A 70-year-old man died in the Pyrenees-Atlantique in the Basque Country on Friday when his vehicle struck a fallen tree.

In Espiens in the Lot-et-Garonne region a 76-year-old man was swept away by rising waters when he went out to fetch his mail on Friday.

Rescuers found his body 24 hours later more than a kilometer from his home.

Five other people were injured, two seriously, when trees fell on their vehicles.

As many as 40,000 homes were without power on Saturday afternoon and some 15,000 remained so by the evening, electricity utility operator Enedis told AFP.

A company spokesperson added some 2,000 technicians had been deployed to restore power to those customers, urging people to call a dedicated hotline if they saw power lines had come down.

Overnight, some 400,000 homes had suffered power outages as floods inundated parts of the region with waters rising to up to nearly nine feet (2.7 meters) and by 30 centimeters per hour in some areas.

Flooding and landslides cut off access to the skiing stations of Gourette and Artouste, while the distribution of drinkable water in the commune of Laruns was interrupted.

In the nearby Landes department, about 600 people were evacuated on Friday as a preventive measure in areas where the Gaves de Pau and Oloron rivers converge.

"We are getting used to this now," a weary pensioner who gave his name as Christian told AFP.

"We put everything on the upper levels, and we clear out everything from the garage," he said.

But water levels were slowly falling in the area, local rescue force commander Olivier Loustau told AFP, and clean-up operations would probably start Sunday.

The Alps, where weather services had warned of heightened avalanche risk, were earlier downgraded from the orange alert level, as was upper Corsica where winds had been packing speeds of up to 150 km/h.

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At least 265 dead in floods, landslides as rains batter East Africa

NAIROBI, Kenya - Two months of relentless rains have submerged villages and farms and sent rivers of mud crashing into houses across East Africa, with at least 265 killed, according to an AFP tally, as meteorologists warn of more to come.

The extreme downpours have affected close to two million people and washed away tens of thousands of livestock in Kenya, Somalia, Burundi, Tanzania, South Sudan, Uganda, Djibouti and Ethiopia.

With a tropical storm headed for Somalia and more rain forecast across the region in the coming weeks, fears are rising over waterborne diseases and the prospect of hunger as crops are destroyed.

In Burundi, 38 people died on Wednesday night after heavy rains triggered landslides that swept through hillside communities in the northwest of the country, according to a provisional police toll on Thursday.

"It happened in the night, when everyone was at home, and landslides hit three very steep hills and buried everything in their path," a witness told AFP.

"Whole families were buried alive in their homes or in the fields. It was terrifying."

Kenya has been hard hit with 132 killed and 17,000 displaced, schools, roads, and health centers flooded, and water systems clogged across the country, government spokesman Cyrus Oguna said in a statement on Tuesday.

The "weather forecast has indicated that the current rains are not expected to cease until the end of December 2019," the statement said. 

In South Sudan, the UN refugee agency UNHCR said nearly a million people have been affected by floodwaters which submerged whole towns, compounding an already dire humanitarian situation after six years of war. 

Flooding has also affected 570,000 people in Somalia, according to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).

The European humanitarian agency ECHO meanwhile warned of a tropical storm due to hit northeastern Somalia on Friday, bringing the threat of more flash floods.

'Multiple landslides'

In Tanzania, 55 people have died, according to an AFP tally of police figures, including 30 in flash floods in the northeast in October, 15 whose car was swept away by floodwaters in the town of Tanga, and 10 who drowned last month in northern Mwanza.

In Uganda, eight people have died and over 80,000 have been displaced by flooding and mudslides this week, Disaster Preparedness Minister Musa Ecweru said in a statement.

Days of heavy rainfall on Mount Elgon on Tuesday caused "multiple landslides in... Bududa district killing four people, injuring five and displacing over 6,000 people".

In Sironko district, also on Mount Elgon, "two adults and two children were killed" and over 4,000 people affected.

"The risk of more flooding and landslides is real," the minister warned.

Ethiopia has also been affected, with 22 people dying in a landslide in the south of the country in October.

Djibouti has also experienced unusually heavy rains, with a joint government and United Nations press statement reporting that some areas received "the equivalent of 2 years of rainfall occurred in one day" in heavy downpours two weeks ago.

"Some 10 people (7 children) have reportedly been killed," said the statement, adding that 250,000 were affected countrywide.

Warm Indian Ocean waters to blame

The extreme weather is blamed on the Indian Ocean Dipole -- a climate system defined by the difference in sea surface temperature between the western and eastern areas of the ocean.

At the moment, the ocean around East Africa is far warmer than usual, resulting in higher evaporation and moist air flowing inwards over the continent as rain: the hallmarks of a "positive" dipole.

Scientists say the strength of this dipole is of a magnitude not seen in years, perhaps even decades.

These waters around East Africa have been about two degrees warmer than those of the eastern Indian Ocean near Australia -- an imbalance well beyond the norm. 

The heavy rains have also wrought destruction in central Africa, with scores killed in the Democratic Republic of Congo, including 41 in the capital Kinshasa last week.

In the Central African Republic, OCHA says around 100,000 people have been displaced.

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Not so 'Welcome to Venice'

A tourist pushes her floating luggage in a flooded St. Mark's Square, in Venice, Wednesday. 85% of the city was flooded, the high-water mark hitting 187 centimeters (74 inches) late Tuesday, inching close to the highest level ever recorded was 194 centimeters (76 inches) during infamous flooding in 1966. 

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'Hagibis' causes massive flooding in Japan

Residents wade through floodwaters as members of the Japan Ground Self-Defense Force handle a flat-bottomed boat during relief operations in the aftermath of Typhoon Hagibis in Shibata district, Miyagi Prefecture on Sunday. Japan's military scrambled October 13 to rescue people trapped by flooding after powerful Typhoon Hagibis ripped across the country, killing at least 10 people and leaving more than a dozen missing. 

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India monsoon floods kill more than 200

NEW DELHI - The death toll from India's monsoon floods climbed to 202 on Tuesday as heavy rainfall kept pounding coastal regions in the west and south.

Authorities have already moved more than 1.2 million people to relief camps.

The southern tourist hotspot of Kerala, which was hit by its worst floods in almost a century last year leaving 450 dead, was once again bearing the brunt of monsoon downpours.

"The death toll in the state has increased to 88... and there are still at least 40 people missing," Pramod Kumar, Kerala police spokesperson, told AFP.

More than 250,000 people across the state's worst-affected districts including Wayanad, Malappuram, and Kozhikode have been shifted to relief camps.

At least 48 people have also lost their lives in neighboring Karnataka state.

A state government official told AFP that 16 people were still missing in Karnataka but the situation had improved as rains had eased.

"We have rescued around 677,000 people in the last few days and think the water level will start dropping in another 24 to 48 hours," the official said.

Local emergency personnel and troops from the army, navy and air force have been deployed for search, rescue and relief operations.

Indian media have also reported 66 deaths in the western states of Gujarat and Maharashtra, with hundreds of thousands rescued from inundated regions.

The monsoon rains are crucial to replenishing water supplies in drought-stricken India, but they kill hundreds of people across the country every year.

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Flash flood in Spain

A woman speaks on the phone next to damaged cars after heavy rainfall in Tafalla, Spain, Tuesday. At least 1 person was reported killed after torrential rains caused massive flooding in northern parts of the country.

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51 killed, 1,000 people displaced by floods in South Africa

JOHANNESBURG, South Africa - Devastating floods in South Africa have left 51 dead and forced more than a thousand people from their homes, according to an updated toll issued Wednesday as President Cyril Ramaphosa flew to the deluged region.

Heavy rains have lashed the southeast of the country, tearing down homes and ravaging infrastructure in KwaZulu-Natal and Eastern Cape provinces. 

Speaking to the affected Amanzimtoti community in Durban, after returning from emergency African Union talks in Egypt on the crises in Libya and Sudan, Ramaphosa said "there are more than 1,000 people who are now displaced."

He raised concerns about Free State province north of KwaZulu-Natal, saying that continuing downpours there were causing "risky situations."

The government will set aside emergency funding to help survivors rebuild their lives, Ramaphosa vowed.

Fifty-one people have been confirmed dead so far, although local media have given a toll as high as 54, rising from 33 on Tuesday.

Rescuers on Wednesday continued to comb debris, desperately looking for people feared trapped by landslides.

Emergency responders reported collapsed buildings and flooded roads, blocked sewer lines, and toppled electricity pylons.

For safety reasons, schools and some businesses were shut in the affected areas.

South African military personnel have been dispatched to help rescue and evacuation efforts.

The South African Weather Services warned that more heavy rain and gale force winds were expected, which could threaten low-lying bridges and roads. 

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Indonesia flood death toll rises to 89, dozens missing

SENTANI, Indonesia - At least 89 people are known to have died after flash floods and landslides tore through Indonesia's Papua region, with the toll expected to rise further as rescuers hunt for dozens still missing, the national disaster agency said Tuesday.

Scores have also been injured in the disaster, triggered by torrential rain on Saturday, with some 6,800 people evacuated to temporary shelters.

The military has taken up the grim task of putting mud-caked corpses into body bags, with the search hampered by mountains of debris, including rocks and fallen trees.

Seventy four people remain unaccounted for, while around 150 suffered broken bones, cuts, and other injuries.

"Many people are choosing to stay at shelters because they're still traumatized and scared of more flash floods, so some evacuation centers are packed," said national disaster agency spokesman Sutopo Purwo Nugroho.

The government has issued a 14-day state of emergency in Papua, which shares a border with independent Papua New Guinea on an island just north of Australia.

Flooding is common in Indonesia, especially during the rainy season, which runs from October to April.

In January, floods and landslides killed at least 70 people on Sulawesi island, while earlier this month hundreds in West Java province were forced to evacuate when torrential rains triggered severe flooding.

Meanwhile, 3 people were killed -- including 2 Malaysian tourists -- and some 182 were injured after an earthquake Sunday triggered a landslide on the Indonesian tourist island of Lombok, next to Bali.

Lombok was rocked by several earthquakes last summer, killing more than 500 people and leaving over 150,000 homeless.

Last September, the country was hit by an earthquake and tsunami in Palu on Sulawesi island which killed around 2,200 people. 

The Southeast Asian archipelago of some 17,000 islands is one of the most disaster-prone nations on Earth, straddling the Pacific Ring of Fire, where tectonic plates collide. Earthquakes and volcanic eruptions are common.

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India rejects UAE govt's $100 million flood disaster fund offer

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM, India - India on Wednesday rejected an offer by the United Arab Emirates government to give $100 million to a special fund for Kerala state after its floods which killed more than 400 people.

The move came despite calls to accept the Gulf state's largesse by Kerala's chief minister who has pleaded for more aid than India's government has so far committed to. 

"In line with the existing policy, the government is committed to meeting the requirements for relief and rehabilitation through domestic efforts," the foreign ministry said in a statement explaining the move.

The ministry added that foreign money could only be donated through Indian-origin individuals or foundations.

India has a record of refusing foreign aid after disasters, turning down foreign help after the 2004 tsunami. 

Experts said Indian governments want to prove they can handle any emergency by themselves.

India did not specifically mention the UAE offer made Tuesday, saying only that it "deeply appreciates offers from several countries, including from foreign governments, to assist in relief and rehabilitation efforts after the tragic floods".

The Maldives government had also promised money for the floods.

But the refusal is likely to spark a political controversy.

Kerala state chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan called for "high level" talks with the national government so the UAE money could be accepted.

The UAE offer is more than the $97 million so far promised by India's central government. Vijayan has asked for a $375 million package from the government, saying the state must confront more than $3 billion in devastation.

The monsoon floods have left more than 420 dead since June with some 1.34 million people now in over 3300 relief camps across the state.

"The whole world is extending a helping hand towards the State at this juncture," Vijayan added, citing distress contributions from across the country -- and exhorting New Delhi's further assistance.

A Kerala government spokesman told AFP that all rescue operations had been completed and now the focus was on giving immediate relief and future planning.

Thousands of army, navy and air force personnel fanned out across the state to help those stranded in remote and hilly areas.

Dozens of helicopters and even drones have dropped food, medicine and water to cut-off villages in the last few days.

Tens of thousands of people across the state are still relying on community kitchens for meals. 

The government says that more than 10,000 kilometers (6,000 miles) of roads have been destroyed or damaged while a legislator said 50,000 houses had been wiped out.

There have been many reports of snake bites and reptile sightings, even a crocodile, inside people's mud filled homes after the waters drained out. 

Snake catchers, experts and animal rescue teams have been busy responding to distress calls to catch and safely release these reptiles as people slowly returned to their homes in the last 48-hours. 

The floods have also hit tourism sector in India's tourist hotspot otherwise known for its pristine beaches and backwaters. 

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Japan rescuers go house to house as flood toll hits 156

Hopes of finding survivors were fading on Tuesday as rescue workers carried out house-to-house searches after days of deadly floods and landslides that have claimed 156 lives in Japan's worst weather-related disaster for decades.

The record downpours that began last week have stopped and receding flood waters have laid bare the destruction that has cut a swathe through the west of the country.

In the city of Kurashiki, the flooding engulfed entire districts at one point, forcing some people to their rooftops to wait for rescue.

Rescue workers were going door-to-door, looking for survivors -- or victims -- of the disaster.

"It's what we call a grid operation, where we are checking every single house to see if there are people still trapped inside them," an official with the local Okayama prefecture government told AFP.

"We know it's a race against time, we are trying as hard as we can."

Hideto Yamanaka was leading a team of around 60 firefighters dispatched from outside the prefecture searching homes.

"I'm afraid elderly people who were living alone may have failed to escape," said Yamanaka, 53.

"Physically weak people may have been late in getting out when it suddenly started raining hard, swamping the area," he told AFP.

As night fell, rescuers continued searches, "but we still don't know if we will carry out the operation around the clock," said Akiko Harada, a spokeswoman at the disaster management section of the city of Hiroshima, where 14 people were still unaccounted for.

In the Mabi district of Kurashiki, the water left behind a fine yellow silt that has transformed the area into moonscape.

Cars driving through kicked up clouds of dust. People walking around wore medical masks or covered their mouths with small towels to protect themselves against the particulates.

Stores were still closed, and inside one barber's shop the red sofas, customer chairs, and standing hair dryers were all covered with the same silt.

Fumiko Inokuchi, 61, was inside her home, sorting through the damage caused by floods that submerged the entire first floor.

She escaped the house on Saturday, crossing the street to take shelter in a three-storey care home for the elderly, from where she watched in horror as the waters rose.

"I saw my house sink underwater and I couldn't do anything at all, there was just nothing I could do. I felt helpless," she said, retrieving a photo of her children playing baseball.

"I got married here, and we built this house two years afterwards. We raised our three small sons to adulthood here, there are so many memories," she said, her eyes welling with tears.

- New dangers from heat -

It is Japan's deadliest weather-related disaster in more than three decades, and has sparked national grief.

On Monday, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe cancelled a four-stop foreign trip as the death toll rose, and he will visit Okayama on Wednesday.

Top government spokesman Yoshihide Suga said Tuesday that at least 156 people had been killed. Media reports said dozens more were missing and the toll was expected to rise further.

Around 75,000 police, firemen and troops have been deployed in the search and rescue operation across parts of central and western Japan, Suga said, warning that hot weather posed new risks.

Thousands of people remain in shelters, and local authorities in some areas were offering drinking water and bathing services for those without their own supply.

"It will be over 35 Celsius (95 degrees Fahrenheit) in some areas... Please be careful about heatstroke if you're doing reconstruction outdoors, and continue to be vigilant about landslides," Suga said.

The government said it would tap around $20 million in reserve funds to provide aid to those affected by the disaster.

And even with the rains over, the risk of flooding remained, with the town of Fuchu in Hiroshima issuing a new evacuation order as a local river burst its banks.

"Driftwood and dirt has piled up... and now the water has started overflowing from the river," a spokesman for the local fire department told AFP.

"We are on high alert," he added.

In Ehime prefecture, authorities said they were struggling to get emergency food and water to some cut-off areas.

"We are sending them by boat and air routes," said Yoshinobu Katsuura, a spokesman for the prefecture's disaster management department.

"It will take a lot of time to see devastated areas recover."

source: news.abs-cbn.com

Death toll rises to 5 as heavy rains continue to lash western Japan

The death toll from heavy rains rose to five with at least three others feared dead and 28 missing, as downpours continued lashing western Japan on Saturday.

Rescue crews expanded their search for people trapped, injured or dead, as heavy rainfall caused flooding and landslides in wider areas, in Hiroshima and Okayama prefectures in particular.

Emergency warnings were lifted by early Saturday in Fukuoka, Saga and Nagasaki but remain in five other prefectures including Hiroshima and Okayama.

Since the downpour began Thursday, the weather agency has forecast record amounts of rain through Sunday, warning of flooding, mudslides and lightning strikes.

The agency warned of potential heavy rain of up to 80 millimeters per hour in some areas. In the 24-hour period through 6 a.m. on Sunday, 300 millimeters of rain is forecast in the Shikoku and northern Kyushu regions, 250 mm in the southern Kyushu and Tokai regions, and 200 mm in the Chugoku, Kinki and Hokuriku regions.

==Kyodo

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110,000 people ordered to evacuate after heavy rain in western Japan

Evacuation orders were issued Thursday for 110,000 people in Japan's Kyoto Prefecture amid an escalating risk of mudslides following heavy rain.

The Japan Meteorological Agency warned of landslides and rising river levels as the heavy rain may continue through Sunday in the Kinki region including Kyoto, Hyogo and Osaka prefectures, part of which is still reeling from a deadly quake in June.

At a construction site in Inagawa, Hyogo Prefecture, a worker died after being washed away in a drainage pipe with two others. He is believed to be a 59-year-old man from Wakayama city. The rain also disrupted traffic and caused landslides in the city of Otsu in Shiga Prefecture and the city of Kobe in Hyogo.

Evacuation orders were also issued for locations in Ibaraki, Osaka Prefecture, an area hit by the magnitude-6.1 quake on June 18.

In the city of Kyoto, a rise in the water level of the Kamo River running through the city's central area led authorities to prohibit people from entering its riverside promenade, known as one of the city's sightseeing spots. A bridge across the Katsura River in Arashiyama, another famous tourist attraction in the city, was also closed due to the same reason.

Multiple express and local trains were canceled and an expressway connecting central and western Japan was partially closed, according to railway and road operators.

The weather agency says heavy rain of up to 70 millimeters per hour is expected through Friday in the Kinki region. In the 24-hour period through 6 a.m. Friday, up to 350 mm of rainfall is forecast for the area.

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Rescuers continue search for missing in deadly California mudslide

SANTA BARBARA - Southern California rescue workers using dogs and scanners searched for eight people feared lost in the wreckage of this week's deadly mudslides, which struck along the state's picturesque coastal communities, according to officials.

Seventeen people were confirmed dead after a wall of mud roared down hillsides two days earlier in the scenic area between the Pacific Ocean and the Los Padres National Forest, according to Santa Barbara County authorities. The mudslides destroyed about 100 homes and injured 28 people.

"We have crews out there," said Amber Anderson, a spokeswoman for the Santa Barbara County Fire Department. "They've been working 24 hours a day."

About 500 rescuers using search dogs, military helicopters, and thermal imaging equipment were on the scene. On Wednesday, dogs helped crews rescue 10 stranded residents, Anderson said. Rescues were partly reflected in the tally of missing, which was revised to eight from 17 on Thursday morning.

Search and rescue efforts have been slow as crews have to navigate through waist-deep mud, fallen trees, boulders and other debris. Teams have completed initial searches of the entire debris field and are about a quarter of the way through a more intensive secondary search of the zone, Anderson said.

"Another tough day in Santa Barbara County as Search and Rescue, Fire and Law Enforcement personnel from across our county and our neighboring counties searched for survivors and evacuated people," the sheriff's office said on its Twitter feed late Wednesday night.

The mudslides, triggered by heavy rains early on Tuesday, roared into valleys denuded by historic wildfires that struck the area last month.

In addition to destroying 100 homes, the debris flow from the mudslides has damaged hundreds of other structures, officials said.

Among the damaged properties were historic hotels and the homes of celebrities, including media mogul and actress Oprah Winfrey and talk-show host Ellen DeGeneres, who both live in the upscale hillside community of Montecito.

DeGeneres said on her talk show on Thursday that the picturesque town of 9,000 is a "tight-knit" community.

"It's not just a wealthy community, it's filled with a lot of different types of people from all backgrounds," she said. "And there are families missing, there are people who are missing family members ... it's catastrophic."

Last month's spate of wildfires, including the largest in California history, not only burned away grass and shrubs that held soil in place, but also baked a waxy layer into the earth that prevents water from sinking deeply into the ground.

"First we got burned out at our ranch that caught on fire and now we're flooding, so the last month has been pretty bad," Charles Stoops said as he stood in front of his house, which was surrounded in mud 3 feet (nearly a meter) deep.

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California mudslide death toll rises to 15

LOS ANGELES - California rescuers worked through the night plucking stranded Santa Barbara residents from mudslides that have killed at least 15 people and devastated the coastal community after it was drenched by rain, authorities said on Wednesday.

The death toll could go higher still as rescuers continued searching for victims, mostly in the upscale enclave of Montecito - where mudslides slammed into homes, covered highways and swept away vehicles - officials warned.

"We don't know how many additional people are still trapped," Santa Barbara County Sheriff Bill Brown said on the "CBS This Morning" program. "We know there are some, and we're still making our way into certain areas of Montecito and the adjacent areas to determine if anyone is still there and still alive."

The mudslides followed an ordeal of fire and water for the area northwest of Los Angeles. A torrential downpour on Tuesday soaked the area, which was left vulnerable after much of its vegetation burned in the state's largest wildfire last month.

Forecasters were calling for clear skies on Wednesday.

Emergency workers began their task on Tuesday using search dogs and helicopters to rescue dozens of people stranded in mud-coated rubble in the normally pristine area, sandwiched between the ocean and the sprawling Los Padres National Forest.

A 14-year-old girl was found alive on Tuesday after firefighters using rescue dogs heard cries for help from what was left of her Montecito home, the Los Angeles Times reported.

"I thought I was dead there for a minute," the teenager Lauren Cantin, covered in mud, told NBC News after workers spent six hours rescuing her.

Rescuers worked through the night, searching for victims amid the dozens of homes that were destroyed, and using helicopters to lift more than 50 stranded residents from the mud.

"We're finding people continuously," said Yaneris Muniz, spokeswoman for the Santa Barbara County Joint Information Center. "We had a helicopter and several crews out all night, and now that it's day, we’ll be able to intensify those searches."

Officials have ordered residents in a large swath of Montecito to stay in their homes so that rescuers can better go about their work.

About 300 people were stranded in a canyon. Local rescue crews, using borrowed helicopters from the U.S. Coast Guard, worked to airlift them out, officials said.

The county initially ordered 7,000 residents to evacuate and urged another 23,000 to do so voluntarily, but only 10 to 15 percent complied with mandatory orders, said Amber Anderson, a spokeswoman for the Santa Barbara County Fire Department.

The county set up an evacuation shelter at Santa Barbara City College, where some people showed up drenched in mud, and also provided a place for people to take their animals.

The number of fatalities surpassed the death toll from a California mudslide on Jan. 10, 2005, when 10 people were killed as a hillside gave way in the town of La Conchita, less than 20 miles south of the latest disaster.

Last month's wildfires, the largest in California history, left the area vulnerable to mudslides. The fires burned away grass and shrubs that hold the soil in place and also baked a waxy layer into the earth that prevents water from sinking deeply into the ground.

Some local residents had to flee their homes due to the fires last month and again this week because of the rains.

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Harvey floods destroys Filipino family's new home

HOUSTON, Texas - When Jad and Bell Destajo bought their first home 5 months ago, it was a dream come true for their young family. That was before Hurricane Harvey.

While their area was not directly hit by the storm, floodwaters from overflowed waterways inundated their home, slowly destroying it.

They waited too long to evacuate the neighborhood. All they could think about is how they can get out alive. The couple said they held their children as they waited for rescue.

"Grabe, iba talaga ang feeling na yon, iba talaga pag buhay at kamatayan, survival o kamatayan mo ang nakasalalay... You try to do everything,” said Jed.

(It's a different feeling, when it's a matter of life and death... You try to do everything.)

The floodwater s rose up to chest deep. When they got into the rescue boat, Bell saw that she was bleeding heavily, a complication from the recent caesarian birth of her youngest child.

"Kailangan kong mabuhay dahil ang baby ko. Kailangan kong lumangoy,” she said.

(I have to stay alive for my baby. I have to swim.)

The Destajos have since returned to their home and taken out the flood-damaged furniture. Like 80 percent of Houston’s flood victims, they didn’t have flood insurance.

“2016 and 2017 is the toughest year for us. Hindi po naming alam kung saan kami kukuha ng pang survive namin pang araw-araw. Pero malaki po ang pasasalamat namin sa lahat ng tumulong,“ Bell said.

(We don't know where to get money to survive from day to day. But we are thankful to everyone who helped.)

The Destajos have a Facebook fundraiser page and a GoFundMe where they are accepting donations.

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N. Korea flood death toll rises to 133 with 395 missing: UN

Severe flooding in a North Korean border region has killed at least 133 people with hundreds more missing, according to the UN, which said the scale of the disaster was "beyond anything experienced" by local officials.

Some 107,000 people have been forced to flee their homes in the area along the Tumen River, the world body said in a statement received Monday which cited Pyongyang government figures.

The North's official media has described the downpour which led to the floods near the northeastern border with China and Russia as the worst for decades, and said it brought severe hardship to residents.

It says a nationwide mass-mobilisation 200-day labour campaign intended to bolster the economy has been redirected to assist the flood victims.

"The scale of this disaster is beyond anything experienced by local officials," said UNICEF deputy representative in North Korea Murat Sahin, who visited the flood-stricken region last week.

"Although the early warning system was triggered, the scale of the damage was unexpectedly high."

Sahin said food and shelter was the immediate priority for families, and that a lot of humanitarian work still needed to be done before the winter sets in and temperatures drop below zero.

"Families here lost everything. We met the household doctor for the community in the rubble of her clinic. She told us that 11 out of 15 pregnant women in the community had miscarriages since the floods."

The impoverished nation is vulnerable to natural disasters, especially floods, due partly to deforestation and poor infrastructure.

At least 169 people were killed by a massive rainstorm in the summer of 2012.

Major state resources are swallowed up by a missile and nuclear weapons programme which Pyongyang says is essential to deter US aggression.

More than 35,500 houses have been hit by the latest floods, with 69 percent of them completely destroyed, and 8,700 public buildings have been damaged, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said in a statement dated Sunday.

Around 16,000 hectares (39,540 acres) of farmland have been inundated and at least 140,000 people urgently need help, it said, adding that aid agencies have released material from stockpiles in the North such as food and shelter.

UNICEF said a truck carrying emergency supplies including oral rehydration salts, medical kits, vitamin supplements and water purification tablets left Pyongyang on September 5 headed to the affected areas. It said further supplies were on the way.

The North's government was working urgently to reopen roads and was distributing relief goods and building materials. The priority was to rebuild 20,000 homes by early October before the bitter Korean winter hits.

From floods to 'fairyland'

The North has trumpeted the role of its ruling Workers' Party in responding to the disaster in North Hamgyong province.

The aim is "to turn the area into the fairyland in the era of the Workers' Party within this year by dint of army-people great unity, harmonious whole", said party newspaper Rodong Sinmun on Monday.

"The party regards the work for taking care of the people's life in a responsible way as the most important affair and duty and has steadily created legendary stories about love for the people," it added.

Much of North Korea is hilly or mountainous but slopes have long been stripped bare for fuel or turned into terraced ricefields. This allows rainwater to flow downhill unchecked.

A series of floods and droughts was partially responsible for a famine that killed hundreds of thousands between 1994-98, with economic mismanagement and the loss of Soviet support exacerbating the situation.

The UN Food and Agriculture Organization said in April that North Korea's chronic food shortages were expected to worsen, given the tight food supplies last year and this year when "most households were already estimated to have poor or borderline food consumption levels".

The United Nations Security Council is planning fresh sanctions on the nation after it staged its fifth nuclear weapons test Friday.

source: www.abs-cbnnews.com

25 minutes to escape: Brazilian village destroyed in dam deluge

BENTO RODRIGUES, Brazil - From when the first warnings were heard, the Brazilian village of Bento Rodrigues had about 25 minutes to escape.

The water from a broken dam holding waste water from the nearby Samarco mine in Minas Gerais state moved fast down the valley. A flood believed to be some 20 meters (65 feet) high swept through the village of 600, destroying homes and livelihoods within minutes.

Apart from a few houses spared by being on higher ground, homes are little more than bare walls now. A thick sludge of water and iron ore tore off the roofs and settled over the village like hardening wax, leaving twisted cars perched awkwardly in its wake. Helicopters buzzed overhead, searching for the lost 24 hours after the deluge.

One person has been confirmed dead, 13 are reported missing and many more remain unaccounted for after two tailings dams burst on Thursday at the Samarco mine owned by two of the world's largest miners, Vale SA and BHP Billiton.

A school in the line of the advancing water was hastily evacuated by teachers, an act which is thought to have saved dozens of lives. "There are heroes in this tragedy," the local mayor Duarte Júnior said in acknowledgement of their actions.

Six villages were hit by the flood as 60 million cubic meters of waste water swamped the region.

Residents were evacuated to a gymnasium in the nearby town of Mariana, where hundreds of mattresses lined the floor and medical staff bustled in white coats attending to the injured. Donations of water, clothes and blankets poured in from well-wishers with many taking the day off work to help those who have lost everything.

"There's nothing left in my village. Just memories," Soraia Souza, 24, from the village of Paracatu de Baixo, told Reuters while holding an 18-month-old baby wearing just a diaper.

At the site of the worst devastation, twenty rescue workers sweated in the humid Brazilian heat, trying to rescue a horse trapped in the thick, heavy mud. With a rope wrapped around it, twenty men and women tugged to exhaustion, but the animal wouldn't budge. As dusk turned to dark, hopes the horse could be saved wavered.

"We've tried everything, there's nothing more we can do," said Maximiliano Inacio, a local firefighter.

source: www.abs-cbnnews.com