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Friday, September 13, 2013

Colorado officials order further evacuations as flash floods worsen

Thousands of residents have been told to evacuate Boulder and nearby cities due to rising creek levels and mudslides

Thousands more people were ordered to evacuate their homes in Boulder on Friday as rain continued to cause severe flooding in the city and elsewhere in Colorado.

Several creeks close to Boulder rose to dangerous levels late Thursday, after rain forced many residents from their homes the night before. At least three people have been killed in Colorado, and thousands more have been forced to seek refuge in shelters.

Rescuers are struggling to reach people in the towns of Lyons, Jamestown and others in the Rocky Mountain foothills, while some homes and streets in Denver, 25 miles southeast of Boulder, have also been flooded.

Late Thursday night, warning sirens blared in Boulder and city officials sent notice to about 4,000 people living along Boulder Creek, telling them to head for higher ground, according to Boulder's Daily Camera newspaper. Boulder County spokesman James Burrus told the Associated Press that about 8,000 telephones were called with the message to evacuate, but that officials aren't sure how many individuals that represented.

Many Boulder residents had already been forced to flee after streets and homes were inundated in the early hours of Thursday morning.

Keivan Moallemi told the Guardian the floods left his apartment in Boulder under four feet of water.

"I noticed it at around 1.40am," Moallemi said. "My roommate had gone to bed and I was watching a movie. I went to stand up and I noticed around a couple of inches of water throughout our entire apartment. Our neighbours on the other side of us in the same building had gotten around three feet or so in their apartment by that point, and the water was starting to seep through the walls. It was coming out of the walls, it was coming out of the electrical sockets."

Moallemi, a 23-year-old online student who moved to Boulder in January, said he woke his roommate and they started salvaging what they could. He managed to load his laptop and a few other small items into a car, but within 35 minutes the water went from "ankle high to about three feet high".

Roads to the south of Boulder were closed due to the extensive flooding, so Moallemi drove out of Boulder to the north to stay with friends. When he returned to the apartment late on Thursday the water had receded but the damage was widespread.

"The water was really, really dirty," Moallemi said. "There was maybe a centimetre, maybe a little more of mud and silt all over the floor, all over our couch, all over the countertops, everything. It's insane."

Moallemi said he was going to return to the apartment again on Friday to try and salvage some of his possessions.

Early Friday, Boulder County spokesman James Burrus said the entire hamlet of Eldorado Springs, including about 500 people, was urged to evacuate because of a flash flood and mudslide threat along South Boulder Creek.

In Fort Collins, neighborhoods along the Cache La Poudre River were evacuated overnight, with the river expected to rise to nearly 2ft above flood stage Friday morning, according to the National Weather Service.

City officials in Fort Collins closed bridges after water began topping Seaman Reservoir in the Poudre Canyon, the Denver Post reported, and the city warned residents to stay clear of the river.

One person was killed when a structure collapsed in Jamestown, northwest of Boulder. Another man drowned in flood waters north of Boulder early Thursday and a woman who was with him went missing. She was swept away after the vehicle she was driving got stuck in water.

The man died after getting out of the vehicle to help her, Commander Heidi Prentup of the Boulder sheriff's office said.

In Lyons, residents took shelter on higher ground, including at an elementary school. Although everyone was believed to be safe, the deluge was expected to continue into Friday. The Colorado National Guard began trucking people out of Lyons Thursday evening.

"There's no way out of town. There's no way into town. So, basically, now we're just on an island," said Jason Stillman, 37, who was forced with his fiancee to evacuate their Lyons home at about 3am after a nearby river began to overflow into the street.

Adam Gabbatt

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Tuesday, September 10, 2013

Nigeria floods test government's disaster plans

Nigeria learns from 2012's deadly rains as early-warning system and rapid relocation of communities stem fatalities

Heavy rains have unleashed floods in parts of Nigeria, testing the country's emergency preparedness one year after its worst flooding in decades.

Some 35,000 people have been affected, most of them in five states, according to the UN Office for the Co-ordination of Humanitarian Affairs (Ocha). The 2012 floods affected about 7 million people.

According to Nigeria's National Emergency Management Authority (Nema), this year's floods have displaced about 600 people and caused one fatality in northern Kano, and about 20 bodies were unearthed at a cemetery in the state's Yan Kaba area. In Katsina, also in the north, 55 farms were inundated by heavy rains.

A Nema spokesman, Ibrahim Farinloye, said early warning and rapid relocation of communities helped prevent greater loss of lives.

Forty communities in flood-prone areas in south-eastern Benue have been relocated by authorities, who have also urged people in other vulnerable areas to move. Farinloye said Borno, Adamawa and Taraba in the north-east were flashpoints.

"We have been able to contain any adverse humanitarian effects. All the affected states have been able to respond adequately. So far the response has been positive, but we cannot say we have a perfect system," Farinloye told IRIN. "The southern states, especially the coastal states, are at risk. We are not only looking at the states [predicted to experience flooding]. We are working on all the states, and all the areas that need [assistance] will be covered by Nema."

The flooding has been containable and occurred only in localities that have experienced similar flooding in the past.

More rains than 2012

This year's flood-hit states are still recovering from last year's flooding, Nigeria's worst in more than 40 years. The meteorological department has predicted more rains this year than in 2012.

"Last year they [authorities] took us to a camp, but after the water subsided, they just let us go," said a Niger Delta University student, Victor Losaride. "I'm worried about what will happen this year. If it [floods] again, I don't know what will happen … I hope there won't be flooding this year."

Kabiru Usama Bakare, who lives in the northern Jos region, said he received little government assistance when he was displaced by floods last year. He also says no flood preparations are being undertaken in his locality.

"I lost my wife and five children to the floods. I lost my entire family. I'm still trying to build my house all by myself," he said. "We have not seen any work going here in anticipation of the flood. People are already moving out of the area so as not to be caught unawares."

Lessons learned

The Nigerian Red Cross (NRC) said it had improved its emergency response with lessons learned from last year's disaster. A spokesman, Nwankpa Nwankpa, said the NRC trained 22,000 volunteers and stocked warehouses with relief items.

"Most people suffered in 2012 because they did not know what to do during flooding. We have educated and trained them on what do to," he said. "Everybody in Nigeria has better awareness of flooding than last year."

Farinloye said Nema urged dam management officials to lower water levels early enough to minimise flooding risks. "They shouldn't wait until the level of the water has got to the level of [breaching the dams] before they release it. We told them to release the water on a gradual basis once it goes beyond the normal level," he said.

Communities along the river banks have been relocated to higher ground, added Farinloye, and flood-prone communities had been trained and provided with basic equipment to aid quick evacuation.

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