(Jointly authored with Meena Miriam Yust)
Fanned by the strong winds of distant Hurricane Dora, the several spontaneous wildfires of Maui spread at a speed that trapped people, particularly those who were in its major west coast city Lahaina. Their only recourse... to jump in the ocean and await rescue. They were the lucky ones.
So far 93 deaths have been confirmed, but as can be expected, this figure is likely to rise as hundreds are still missing. Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) evidence indicates over 2000 structures damaged or destroyed compared to earlier estimates of only 270. Maps and images reveal the devastation, and the projected cost to rebuild will run to $6 billion. Tourists caught in this mayhem continue to be evacuated after a vacation in paradise they are unlikely to forget.
The
weather had been uncommonly dry and the National Weather Service had
given the region a red flag. Almost anything then could have set a fire
off, from lightning strikes to volcanic activity. Worse still, as climate scientists have notably observed, extremes of weather are more likely in the future given the impact of global warming.
Across
the Pacific in China, Super Typhoon Doksuri churned slowly across its
northwest, inundating Beijing and Hebei, the province that surrounds the
capital city, which experienced the heaviest rain in 140 years. The
mountain village of Tangzhuang consisted mostly of about 2000 elderly
people as the young sought better opportunities in cities. Hit first by
a landslide and then by rains of increasing intensity, it has simply
disappeared in the sea of water. As reported by the BBC, 39 deaths in
Beijing and 33 in Hebei province have been confirmed. The eventual toll
will probably be much higher.
Meanwhile
in Canada, there have been a spate of wildfires this year commencing in
March but with increased intensity since June. Nearly a 52,000-square-
mile area lies scorched and 168,000 people have had to evacuate their
homes at some point over this period. These record-setting fires have
now engulfed to a varying extent all 13 of Canada's provinces and
territories. And four firefighters have lost their lives. The government is responding with federal aid, and
voluntary international firefighting assistance has been welcomed. The
seriousness and unpredictability of the fires marked by the spontaneous
flaring up of blazes across the country is unprecedented and due to a
drought that continues. It will therefore increase the hazard of fires
through late summer.
Several thousand miles away on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean in Europe, the little country of Slovenia had 200mm (almost 8 inches) of rain in 12 hours during the night of August 3-4, an amount that in normal times would exceed the total for the whole month. Landslides, floods (when several rivers broke their banks), homes, businesses, roads and bridges damaged or completely destroyed, and hundreds of people have had to be evacuated.
About 1400 miles away lies Georgia on the other side of the Black Sea. Here the warm weather-caused intense melting of the Buba and Tbilisi glaciers coupled with heavy rainfall caused a massive mudflow in the mountain resort town of Shovi. Search and rescue teams have recovered 12 bodies and evacuated over 200 people. A further 25 remain missing, most probably still buried in the mud.
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