generalspeaking

Catastrophic Weather Tribulations

It begins to seem as though though the world is succumbing to the environmental phenomena of vast flooding events impacting on countries' very ability to viably exist. From Pakistan to Sri Lanka, Australia to Brazil, the atmosphere has been drenched by monsoon rains. Rain falling in such copious amounts as to represent in the space of a half day what would normally fall within the space of a month, overwhelming the capacity of the ground to absorb it.

Rivers have swollen and overspilled their dams and reservoirs, and bridges have collapsed while roads no longer exist, and huge, raging, mud-filled rivers have raged through towns and villages, ruining farmlands, crops, drowning animals and people, filling businesses and homes with mud and detritus, washing away houses and vehicles, leaving complete catastrophe in their wake.

People have suffered the misfortune of seeing their family members washed away in the fury of the swollen rivers whose banks could no longer contain them. Rescue crews work feverishly to save the lives of those whom they can, watching helplessly as people and vehicles and animals are washed out of reach, swept downriver and drowned.

These are what could be termed abysmally freakish weather conditions, never before experienced, bringing death and destruction. Australia is coping with flood waters finally beginning to recede and vast agricultural holdings in complete ruin. Sri Lanka has mounted rescues of desperate people in the line of the floodwaters.

Brazil has lost at least 400 unfortunates to massive flooding and landslides as mountainsides release muck and rock in the wake of enormous rainfalls, knocking homes off hillsides, burying entire towns and villages and their inhabitants. The sudden collapse of normalcy took people by surprise, as though virtually overnight the nightmare overtook them.

The massive deluge from the skies "caused avalanches of rocks and soil that carried everything down with them, picking up houses", according to a hydrologist at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro. Crumbled infrastructure and collapsed towns have created an existential misery beyond recall.

Food, water, medical supplies and rescue workers have been rushed to the scene of the worst impacted areas; churches and police stations turned into morgues with corpses decomposing, and thousands of survivors taking refuge in makeshift shelters.

Labels: Environment, Nature, Security

posted by Pieface @ Friday, January 14, 2011