Floods in Seoul Displace over 11,000 & Kill Dozens; Floods in Bangladesh Displace over 10,000

Floods, one of the hallmark natural disasters resulting in greater occurrence and strength from climate change, are tearing about homes, cities, and people in Bangladesh and Seoul, South Korea this week.

Seoul saw the heaviest 24-hour rains in July in over a century on Wednesday. “301.5 millimeters (just over 12 inches) of rain fell in Seoul on Wednesday, the largest single-day rainfall in July since records began in 1907,” AFP reports. The city set a 3-day rain record since the beginning of records as well.

At least 59 South Koreans are dead and 10 missing, according to the latest reports. Over 11,000 people from about 5,250 homes have been left homeless. And power supply was cut for 130,000 homes.

Rain continues to come down and is in the forecast for the next several days as well.

North Korea is also getting the extreme weather and has had to evacuate about 6,000 people from their homes.

Of course, crops have also been ruined, and the economic damage on the whole is hard to calculate or imagine.

Bangladesh has been getting hit with similar catastrophe. Over 10,000 people have been displace and approximately half a million people in 200 villages have been affected. Several have been killed as well.

Of course, in the midst of all this, it’s absolutely critical that you don’t make any connections between these unprecedented floods and climate change or global warming or global weirding, which scientists have said would put more moisture into the air and create more precipitation. Rain is natural; it has always rained. This is not in the least a man-made disaster and has nothing to do with this widely affirmed and re-affirmed scientific theory. Or so Republican politicians will tell you…

In true sincerity and compassion, I hope the best for the hundreds of thousands of people affected by this extreme weather, and I hope we will act appropriately to try to prevent similar disasters from occurring for decades or centuries to come.

Related Stories:

  1. Extremely Extreme Weather in 2010.. Perhaps Most Extreme on Record
  2. South Korea Hit with Deadly Landslides (from Heavy Rains)

Front Page Photo via kittischoen

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