The death toll from Cyclone Fengal’s fierce push through Sri Lanka and southern India reached 20 yesterday as downpours and flooding followed the storm’s wake after its winds calmed.
Fengal made landfall in India’s Tamil Nadu state on Saturday, bringing the highest 24-hour rainfall seen in 30 years to nearby Puducherry, before weakening to a normal low pressure weather system by yesterday morning.
More deaths were reported in Sri Lanka after Fengal skirted the island nation on Friday last week, bringing intense rains that triggered landslides.
Photo: AFP
Sri Lanka’s disaster management agency said that 17 people had been killed, while nearly 470,000 others were taking shelter in temporary relief camps. India recorded three deaths from electrocution as a result of the storm, Tamil Nadu Minister for Revenue and Disaster Management K.K.S.S.R. Ramachandran told reporters late on Saturday.
He did not give further details on what caused the deaths, adding that damage from the cyclone was otherwise “minimal.”
India’s disaster agency were also attempting to rescue a family of seven in the state feared trapped by a landslide, local media reports said yesterday.
Roads were flooded and schools were shut in parts of southern India with weather officials yesterday warning that there remained a risk of flash flooding. Puducherry, a former French colony on India’s southern coast, received its highest 24-hour rainfall in 30 years after Fengal made landfall nearby, India’s weather department said.
Cyclones are a regular and deadly menace in the northern Indian Ocean, but scientists warn that storms are becoming more powerful as the world heats up due to climate change driven by burning fossil fuels.
Warmer ocean surfaces release more water vapor, which provides additional energy for storms, strengthening winds. A warming atmosphere also allows them to hold more water, boosting rainfall, but better forecasting and more effective evacuation planning have dramatically reduced death tolls.
When Shanghai-based designer Guo Qingshan posted a vacation photo on Valentine’s Day and captioned it “Puppy Mountain,” it became a sensation in China and even created a tourist destination. Guo had gone on a hike while visiting his hometown of Yichang in central China’s Hubei Province late last month. When reviewing the photographs, he saw something he had not noticed before: A mountain shaped like a dog’s head rested on the ground next to the Yangtze River, its snout perched at the water’s edge. “It was so magical and cute. I was so excited and happy when I discovered it,” Guo said.
TURNAROUND: The Liberal Party had trailed the Conservatives by a wide margin, but that was before Trump threatened to make Canada the US’ 51st state Canada’s ruling Liberals, who a few weeks ago looked certain to lose an election this year, are mounting a major comeback amid the threat of US tariffs and are tied with their rival Conservatives, according to three new polls. An Ipsos survey released late on Tuesday showed that the left-leaning Liberals have 38 percent public support and the official opposition center-right Conservatives have 36 percent. The Liberals have overturned a 26-point deficit in six weeks, and run advertisements comparing the Conservative leader to Trump. The Conservative strategy had long been to attack unpopular Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, but last month he
Chinese authorities said they began live-fire exercises in the Gulf of Tonkin on Monday, only days after Vietnam announced a new line marking what it considers its territory in the body of water between the nations. The Chinese Maritime Safety Administration said the exercises would be focused on the Beibu Gulf area, closer to the Chinese side of the Gulf of Tonkin, and would run until tomorrow evening. It gave no further details, but the drills follow an announcement last week by Vietnam establishing a baseline used to calculate the width of its territorial waters in the Gulf of Tonkin. State-run Vietnam News
PROBE: Last week, Romanian prosecutors launched a criminal investigation against presidential candidate Calin Georgescu accusing him of supporting fascist groups Tens of thousands of protesters gathered in Romania’s capital on Saturday in the latest anti-government demonstration by far-right groups after a top court canceled a presidential election in the EU country last year. Protesters converged in front of the government building in Bucharest, waving Romania’s tricolor flags and chanting slogans such as “down with the government” and “thieves.” Many expressed support for Calin Georgescu, who emerged as the frontrunner in December’s canceled election, and demanded they be resumed from the second round. George Simion, the leader of the far-right Alliance for the Unity of Romanians (AUR), which organized the protest,
RSS