April 2008
Natural
disasters in October 2005
The
information summarized has been culled from international 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.
Tropical
cyclones
China,
Dominican Republic, Haiti, Honduras, Jamaica, Mexico,
Portugal, Spain, USA
Hurricane
Alpha
Dominican
Republic, Haiti
At
least 26 people were killed in Haiti and the Dominican
Republic from flooding.
Hurricane
Otis
USA
Scores of people were evacuated from low-lying neighborhoods
in Baja California.
Hurricane Stan
El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico
Hurricane Stan hit
Central America with heavy rains causing lethal mudslides
and floods. Rivers broke their banks. Thousands were forced
to flee their homes.
El Salvador
31 people deaths
reported.
Guatemala
Four deaths
reported.
Honduras
Four deaths
reported.
Mexico
At least 58 people died.
Tropical
storm Tammy
USA
Heavy rain and wind brought down trees and power lines in
south-east Georgia.
Tropical storm Vince
Iberia, Spain and Portugal
Vince was the
first tropical cyclone on record to make landfall in Iberia.
It brought heavy rain and winds to southern Spain and
Portugal.
Hurricane
Wilma
Cuba, Mexico, USA
Cuba
Huge waves flooded the capital, Havana, prompting the
evacuation of more than 220 000 people.
Mexico
At least 10 people were killed as Wilma
crossed the Yucatan peninsula. Tens of thousands of tourists
fled the resorts.
USA
Wilma
cut across Florida killing three people and leaving more
than three million homes without power.
Typhoon
Longwang
China
Heavy winds and rains killed one and caused the evacuation
of over 376,000 people in Fujian province.
Floods/heavy
rain/landslides/mudslides
Bangladesh,
Dominican Republic, Great Britain, Guatemala, India,
Indonesia, Italy, Pakistan, Viet Nam
Bangladesh
Flash floods caused by monsoon rains in the north-west
killed at least eight people and forced thousands of people
to take refuge in temporary shelters.
Dominican
Republic
A rain-swollen river flooded a city in the
northern Dominican Republic, washing away houses and killing
six people.
Great
Britain
Torrential rain triggered flooding that affected hundreds of
homes, forcing the closure of many roads. Among the
worst-hit areas were south-west Scotland, west Wales and
Cumbria.
Guatemala
Over 1 400 people were buried in a huge
mudslide as a result of heavy rain occasioned by Tropical
Storm Stan.
India
Heavy rain and storms flooded roads in southern India,
bringing down power and phone lines and a death toll of well
over 100.
Indonesia
At least 20 people were killed, 250 injured and some 3
000 made homeless when landslides struck two
villages in Aceh.
Italy
At least six people were killed in a
torrential rain in southern Italy: a bridge was demolished,
cars swept awat and a train derailed.
Pakistan
Torrential rain and hail halted shipments of aid to the
survivors of the 8 October earthquake, many of whom were
without food or shelter.
Viet
Nam
Floods triggered by torrential rains killed at least 81
people in the central provinces and the southern Mekong
delta.
Drought
Australia, Brazil,
Somalia
Australia
Drought ravaged south-east Australia for seven months
(March-September) as a result of severe rainfall
deficiencies.
Brazil
The worst drought in more than 40 years struck the world’s
largest rainforest, plaguing the Amazon basin with
wildfires, sickening river dwellers with tainted drinking
water causing millions of fishes to die as streams dried up.
Somalia
Severe drought in western and southern Somalia killed scores
of people and hundreds of heads of livestock.
Snow
USA
A powerful storm dropped some 508 mm of snow in parts of
Colorado and triggered rock slides that disrupted the supply
of power to thousands of people. At least 10 lives were
lost. |
Climate 