Reports are just beginning to come in from the city of Beira in Mozambique, where Cyclone Idai made landfall on Thursday, but President Filipe Nyusi has described the damage as major and said the storm has destroyed hospitals, schools and other critical infrastructure. Power is completely cut off in Beira…
The city of Beira in Mozambique was in total darkness as Cyclone Idai arrived Thursday, cutting off the power to a half million people who were waiting for daylight to assess the destruction from the storm. Cyclone Idai made landfall with the city squarely in its sights, arriving late Thursday…
The nation of Mozambique is bracing for the impending arrival of Cyclone Idai, a powerful storm expected to make landfall late Thursday, in areas just north of the coastal city of Beira already flooded from recent heavy rains. The Instituto Nacional de Meteorología has issued a high-level red alert for…
Three North African nations saw extreme rains and deadly flooding earlier this week, with Nabeul and Jemmel in Tunisia among the hardest hit, and torrential rains turning Tripoli’s streets into rivers. Algeria also was affected, but now the storm system is taking aim at southern Europe as a so-called “medicane.”…
Weather forecasters say Tropical Storm Helene is now a hurricane, after forming off the coast of West Africa and strengthening as it approached the Cabo Verde islands. The National Hurricane Center upgraded the storm to hurricane status Sunday at 8 p.m. local time in Praia, as Helene’s outer rain bands…
Weather forecasters are keeping a close eye on Tropical Storm Helene, which formed just off the coast of West Africa and became a named storm at the United States National Hurricane Center on Saturday. On Sunday, the storm was located about 125 kilometers southwest of Cabo Verde at 5 p.m….
President Julius Maada Bio paid respects to the victims and families of Sierra Leone’s 2017 landslide tragedy, promising during the memorial events to create a National Disaster Preparedness and Management Agency to prevent future catastrophes. “Today, we remember all our brothers, sisters and children who lost their lives in this…
Nine people will face charges in Kenya following the tragic failure of a private dam that killed nearly four dozen people in May, according to the ODPP, the country’s national prosecuting authority. The Patel Dam was named for the private farm it served but is also known as the Milmet…
When it comes to conflict over water resources, the stories are as different as the cultures and the context – and since the 1980s, scientists at the Pacific Institute have been tracking how and why water is at the center of those conflicts. The database of incidents, now updated for…
At least 16 people have died in Somaliland as Tropical Storm Sagar dealt a blow to the region, bringing high winds, heavy rain and flash floods to parts of Somalia and Djibouti. Images showed waist-deep water in the streets of Mogadishu, and flooding in Djibouti City where the United States…
The death toll has reached 45 in Kenya following a catastrophic dam failure near the village of Solai in the western part of the country, amid new fears that other dams may be at risk of breach. Authorities say another 40 people who were missing are accounted for, except for…
At least 17 people are dead on Madagascar after a tropical cyclone struck the Indian Ocean island nation at the weekend. A total of 15,000 people have been affected by Eliakim, a storm that caused widespread flooding of more than 1,200 homes and completely destroyed at least 600 more, the…
Electricity has been restored, water supply is intact and officials on Mauritius have identified roads and drainage systems needing repair because of Cyclone Berguitta – but food supply remains a problem in the short term. Heavy rainfall impacted farmers and about 75 percent of local vegetable production, said Mahen Kumar…
A Class III cyclone warning remained posted for Mauritius late Wednesday as Severe Tropical Storm Berguitta continued on course to impact the Indian Ocean island nation. The cyclone was centered about 190 kilometers to the northeast of Mauritius and was moving west-southwest at 8 kilometers per hour. “On this new…
The United Nations has released a new report on managing disaster risk ahead of the International Day for Disaster Reduction to be marked on Friday. Robert Glasser, the Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General for Disaster Risk Reduction, presented the report this week while noting that in the last two…