April 2008
Natural
disasters in May 2005
The
information summarized has been culled from press reports
and is indicative only. For official information, including
final statistics, readers are advised to contact the
National Meteorological Service of the country in question.
Storms,
heavy rain and floods
Australia, Bangladesh, China, Ethiopia, Kenya, Mexico,
Nigeria, Romania, Tajikistan, USA, Viet
Nam
Australia
Storms in
Western Australia’s south-west damaged the historic St
Patrick's Cathedral in the town of Bunbury. Weeks of heavy
rain caused cracks in the building's walls to widen.
Bangladesh
Storms lashed
Bangladesh with lightning and rain, killing at least 21
people, injuring more than 1 000 others and levelling about
1 000 homes. The dead were all struck by lightning.
Bulgaria
Lightning killed
at least three people in storms which flooded farmland and
destroyed roads.
China
At least four
people were killed and 11 injured in storms in Guangdong
Province. More than 2 000
reservoirs spilled.
Ethiopia
Floods killed
112 people. More than 105 000 people were affected in
Ethiopia’s eastern Somali region as torrential rains
continue pounded the region for days.
Kenya
Floods caused by
heavy rains killed at least four people and displaced
thousands.
Mexico
At least eight
people were killed by a rainstorm which cut off power and
flooded hundreds of homes in the southern state of Oaxaca.
The storm raged on for days, blowing off roofs and felling
trees.
Nigeria
Sea surge and
heavy rain caused residents of Victoria Island to evacuate.
Romania
Heavy rains in
western Romania caused the worst flooding in 50 years. Some
3 700 people had to abandon their homes; rail and road traffic was disrupted.
Saudi Arabia
Flash floods
killed at least 34 people, sweeping cars off roads and
destroying houses and livestock.
Tajikistan
A week of heavy rain damaged more
than 660 houses and 12 km of roads were destroyed by
flooding, as well as 320 hectares of cotton and other crops.
USA
Severe
thunderstorms, with hail and damaging winds were reported in
Florida. Heavy rain also moved through Texas and Oklahoma,
as well as parts of the west.
Viet Nam
High winds and
hailstorms killed one person and injured 20 others in Thanh
Hoa province, some 200 km south of Hanoi.
Drought
and locusts
Australia, Bangladesh, Cameroon, China, Ethiopia, Niger,
Spain, Yemen
Australia
Australian wheat
and other winter grain crops were devastated on a similar
scale to three years ago when the worst drought in the
century struck. Very dry, hot weather persisted across much
of Australia after 25 April, a rule-of-thumb date when good
rain is normally required to set up good winter crops in
this top grain exporting nation.
Bangladesh
Swarms of
locusts invaded car windscreens, blinding drivers and
halting traffic for up to four hours along a 40 km stretch
of highway between Dhaka and Chittagong.
Cameroon
The far north of
Cameroon was attacked by swarms of locust, raising fears of
food shortages in a region where low rainfall had already
affected crop yields.
China
China was faced
with severe drought and floods. Water supplies and grain
production were under threat.
Ethiopia
The combination
of drought followed by floods caused an acute food emergency
in a country where 4 million people need food aid to
survive.
Niger
A swarm of
locusts descended on a town in south-eastern Niger, where
millions of people already faced food shortages. Locusts ate
plants and leaves and also caused power cuts by weighing
down electricity cables.
Spain
Spain suffered
its driest winter and early spring since records began
almost 60 years ago. Rainfall from November to the end of
March was 37 per cent below average for the period and the
lowest since records started in 1947. With water reserves
were at 60 per cent of full capacity.
Yemen
As temperatures
rose above 30°C, water tankers supplied households left dry
by public shortages. Many Yemenis were faced with severe
scarcity of water.
Duststorm
Pakistan
A heavy duststorm coupled
with torrential rain lashed several districts. Trees were
uprooted, electric poles and hoardings toppled and roofs of
houses blown off.
Snow
USA
Snow
and rain fell across Wyoming and Utah, unleashing rockslides
and flooding; nearly 60 cm of snow fell in the mountains.
Hurricane
El Salvador
Hurricane Adrian,
the first of the 2005 Eastern North Pacific season, slammed
into El Salvador and broke up over Honduras with heavy
rains, threatening flash floods and mudslides across Central
America. Adrian killed two people and 23 000 evacuees took
refuge in emergency shelters.
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