TS Isaac, Aerial view floods in Wellington! / 7 of 10 Sinking-Buenos Aires: More than 1.5 million hectares hit by floods! Niger: worst floods for 100 years, 65 dead! Burma: worst floods in years!

Aerial view of floods in Wellington! Source

Tropical Storm Isaac

/ Isaac floods Mississippi coast. The sun rose over the Mississippi Gulf Coast on the seventh anniversary of Hurricane Katrina to flooded and deserted streets and sporadic power outages. Wind whipped coastal communities like Bay St. Louis and Waveland and dumped heavy rain on the already soggy ground. /

/ SEVERE flooding from Tropical Storm Isaac has inundated the Gulf Coast, but the multi-billion-dollar defences built after Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans seven years ago held firm. /

/ New Orleans' flood defences appeared to withstand Hurricane Isaac, but thousands of people to the north and south of the city had to be evacuated or rescued as the storm lingered over the U.S. Gulf Coast with whistling winds and constant rain. The storm flooded neighbourhoods in a rural part of the state and in neighbouring Mississippi. The waters were rising fast, even as Isaac meandered slowly northward Thursday on a path toward neighbouring Arkansas. President Barack Obama declared federal emergencies in Louisiana and Mississippi, according to a statement from the White House, freeing up federal aid for affected areas. /

/ Isaac floods homes in Louisiana Washington: Though downgraded from a hurricane, a slow-moving tropical storm Isaac still packed a punch flooding homes and pushing water over the top of several levees in Louisiana and Mississippi, reports from these southern states said. /

/ Isaac damage and flooding in Florida. Parts of South Florida are experiencing massive flooding after rains from Tropical Storm Isaac swept through the area. /

Burma SINKING:

Many details not visible because too cloudy!

/ Torrential rain in Myanmar has forced thousands to flee their homes and flooded hundreds of thousands of acres of rice paddies, media reports and aid workers say. Myanmar often suffers from flooding during the monsoon season but in the areas assessed by Save the Children locals said the floods were the worst since 1997. /

/ Burma flooding forces 85,000 from their homes At least 85,000 people in Burma have fled their homes as the worst monsoon flooding in years submerged hundreds of thousands of hectares of rice fields, a government relief official said Saturday. Annual monsoon rains often cause flooding in the region, and this year's are the heaviest since 2004, Soe Tun said. /

Buenos Aires Streching:

/ More than 1.5 million hectares hit by floods. In Pehuajó, between 80 and 90 percent of the 450 000 hectares are affected by water, causing irreparable damage to agricultural work and threatens about 150 thousand head of cattle. From that location northwest estimate that at year end will come with a 1500 mm when the annual average of a thousand. In Bolivar, of the nearly 500,000 acres about 400 thousand are punished by water. The head of the Rural Alzueta Fernando said that "the picture is terrible" because over 80 percent of productive land is flooded. /

7 of 10 Africa Roll:

/ Niger floods cause widespread devastation. Heavy flooding in Niger over the past few weeks has killed up to 65 people and left 125,000 homeless. After appeals from the country's president for international aid, the first supplies, donated by Ireland to Plan International, have now arrived. The southern Dosso region has been worst affected, with over 10,000 homes destroyed according to the UN. The capital Niamey was also hit when the River Niger burst its banks, flooding the city's suburbs. Plan International's Niger director Rheal Drisdalle said on 18-19 August, the river reached levels "not seen since the 1920s". /

/ Reports say it is the worst flooding seen for nearly 100 years in the West African country. At the beginning of August, rains moved north from Burkina Faso to Niger, falling over one day in the mountains in the north and running down into the southern region of Dosso. A week later, up to 227 millimetres of rain fell overnight, which is half a year's rainfall. The water ran through tributaries into the River Niger causing severe flooding in the regions of Tillabery in the north and the capital Niamey, flooding the city's suburbs. The River Niger in Niamey is at least two metres (over six foot) higher than normal so it has breached its banks spreading up to 200 metres inland in places,' said Mike. 'Families had built along the riverbanks and planted rice crops which have now all gone. Many villages are completely covered by water and can't be seen. Further need assessments will be made in Tillabery and Dosso. Many areas of Tillabery are still being inaccessible and 246 villages disappeared underwater in Dosso. /

7 of 10 SINKING Carribean islands:

Haiti -

Haiti & Republic Dominicana & Cuba & Puerto Rico:

/ Storm death toll reaches 24 in Haiti
The number of deaths caused in Haiti by Tropical Storm Isaac has risen to 24, with three people still missing, according to the latest figures released Tuesday by the authorities. As a consequence of the storm, which also left 42 people injured, according to the report, three people have gone missing. There were also 8,189 families affected by the storm, with a total of 15,812 people forced to evacuate, of whom 7,753 remain in 62 provisional shelters, the government said. Tropical Storm Isaac destroyed 1,005 houses, damaged 6,040 and flooded 1,144. /

/ Roiling seas spilled onto land along the Cuban coast, forcing the evacuation of several thousand people, while others were moved from areas along rivers ahead of possible flooding.Cuban authorities said waves up to 13 feet (4 meters) and flooding had damaged houses along the coast and winds had toppled power and phone lines in some places. Waves crashing over the city's malecon, or sea wall, in combination with heavy rains, had flooded the seaside boulevard and homes and commercial buildings nearby. "This has been terrible. The intrusions of the sea have filled up the coastal boulevard. It's raining a lot and the floods have destroyed homes and a child care center," said Baracoa resident Ricardo Alba. "The sea is furious, truly fierce," he told Reuters by telephone. Isaac's rain and winds lashed Haiti's southern coast earlier on Saturday, flooding parts of the capital, Port-au-Prince, and ripping through flimsy resettlement camps that house more than 350,000 survivors of the 2010 earthquak /

/ Isaac leaves flooding in Puerto Rico and heads to Haiti and the Dominican. Isaac generated waves up to three meters (10 feet) high in the Caribbean. There was some flooding in parts of the east and south of Puerto Rico as the storm approached. This was reported by yahoo.com /

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U.S:

Isaac floods Mississippi coast

GULFPORT, Miss. -- The sun rose over the Mississippi Gulf Coast on the seventh anniversary of Hurricane Katrina to flooded and deserted streets and sporadic power outages. Wind whipped coastal communities like Bay St. Louis and Waveland and dumped heavy rain on the already soggy ground.

Jerry Beaugez, an assistant with the Bay St. Louis mayor's office has been working with the fire department, and said things have gone relatively well but it's too early to celebrate.

The water was still rising, a tin peeled off a business on Waveland and street signs fluttered in the wind. The storm could pound the area for hours and officials considered closing Highway 603, the main connector from Interstate 10 to Bay St. Louis and Waveland.

"There's not a lot we can do until everything subsides," he said. "As daylight comes, we'll get out and about and assess damages,"

Along low-lying areas along Mississippi's Gulf Coast on Wednesday hurricane-driven water rose several feet in some spots while thousands waited out the storm in shelters. Utilities were reporting more than 15,000 people without power Wednesday and several hundred more scattered around south Mississippi.

Harrison County emergency management director Rupert Lacy said the storm surge coupled with the high tide could lead to more extensive flooding.

Lacy said coastal rivers also were beginning to rise from the rainfall.

Hancock County Emergency Management Director Brian Adam said the water stood up to 4 feet deep in many low-lying areas of Hancock County and was still rising while the vast storm system lumbered off the mouth of the Mississippi River.

"It's flooding in quite a bit of places," Adam said, citing reports from Pearlington, Lakeshore and parts of Waveland and Bay St. Louis.

Police waved drivers off U.S. 90, the main beach road in Gulfport, because of flooding. A billboard had torn loose and water stood foot-deep in some areas, knee-deep elsewhere.

Adam said crews successfully rescued three people who had called for help after a houseboat broke loose in Pearlington, near the Louisiana state line but had no major incidents to report immediately.

http://www.thetowntalk.com/viewart/20120830/NEWS01/208300332/Isaac-...

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Isaac hits New Orleans, floods Gulf coast

SEVERE flooding from Tropical Storm Isaac has inundated the Gulf Coast, but the multi-billion-dollar defences built after Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans seven years ago held firm.

Officials ordered the evacuation of some 3000 people in coastal Plaquemines Parish, the area hardest hit by the storm, with top winds still gusting at 85km/h, hindering rescue efforts.

The National Hurricane Center said Isaac - which was downgraded from a hurricane to a tropical storm on Wednesday - would continue to weaken as it moved north into the US state of Arkansas but warned of further flooding.

"Life-threatening hazards from storm surge and inland flooding are still occurring," the Miami-based forecasters said in an 1700 AEST advisory.

Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal said at least one American may have died as a result of Isaac, which made landfall as a hurricane late Tuesday.
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Dozens of people were forced to huddle on roofs and in attics waiting hours for rescue from their homes after a massive storm surge spilled over levees in low-lying areas outside the stronger defences built around New Orleans.

Isaac was nowhere near as strong as Hurricane Katrina, which struck exactly seven years ago, but has already caused significant damage to about 800 homes in Plaquemines Parish alone, Jindal told reporters.

Residents were urged to stay indoors, with officials warning it would be at least a day before winds calmed enough for crews to repair downed power lines.

Heavy rains - up to 64cm in some areas - will continue through to Friday, the NHC said, as the swirling vortex of cloud and storm-force winds moved slowly northward.

Isaac may wind up causing as much as $US2.5 billion ($A2.43 billion) in damage in and around Louisiana and in the offshore oil sector in the Gulf of Mexico, according to early estimates from natural disaster modeller Eqecat.

More than a half million people were left without power in Louisiana, and tens of thousands more huddled in darkened homes in Alabama, Florida and Mississippi after Isaac snapped utility poles and downed power lines.

In New Orleans, Mayor Mitch Landrieu declared a dusk-to-dawn curfew after Isaac made landfall twice as a category one hurricane.

Across the state, more than 4000 people were crammed into shelters.

Dozens of nursing home residents, many in wheelchairs, were among those taken to higher ground by the National Guard in high water trucks.

Rescues were also underway in suburbs west of New Orleans after the storm surge swelled Lake Pontchartrain on the city's north side.

Claude Jones, 61, was trying to nap on a cot in the Belle Chasse high school gymnasium without much luck. He had spent two nights there already and - with his trailer home likely destroyed - could be there for many more.

"I'm worried about my family," he told AFP. "My cousin's still down there and they say they can't rescue him because the weather's so bad."

Sharon Sylvia said she spent the night trapped on her roof in the pounding rain, calling for help that did not arrive until morning.

"Water's over the top of the roof," she told WWL television. "We had to break through the ceiling and out through the attic. It's very bad down there. Very bad."

US President Barack Obama declared a "major disaster" exists in Louisiana and Mississippi, paving the way for more federal aid to local authorities.

"We've got to make sure everybody's safe, then we'll start looking at what it'll take to recover," FEMA Administrator Craig Fugate said after surveying some of the damage on Wednesday.

Katrina left behind a devastating sprawl of destruction and death when it hit New Orleans on August 29, 2005, and a bungled response by then president George W. Bush's administration tarnished his second term in office.

Some 1800 people were killed along the US Gulf Coast while thousands were left stranded for days on the roofs of their New Orleans homes after Katrina's storm surge smashed levees long-warned to be inadequate.

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/breaking-news/new-orleans-damp...

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Isaac sidesteps New Orleans, but 'shockingly fast-rising' flooding makes thousands flee

NEW ORLEANS - New Orleans' flood defences appeared to withstand Hurricane Isaac, but thousands of people to the north and south of the city had to be evacuated or rescued as the storm lingered over the U.S. Gulf Coast with whistling winds and constant rain.

The storm flooded neighbourhoods in a rural part of the state and in neighbouring Mississippi. The waters were rising fast, even as Isaac meandered slowly northward Thursday on a path toward neighbouring Arkansas.

President Barack Obama declared federal emergencies in Louisiana and Mississippi, according to a statement from the White House, freeing up federal aid for affected areas.

Along the shores of Lake Ponchartrain just north of New Orleans, officials sent scores of vehicles to help evacuate about 3,000 people as rising waters lapped against houses. Floodwaters rose waist-high in some neighbourhoods, and authorities worked to rescue people stranded in their homes.

The floodwaters "were shockingly fast-rising, from what I understand from talking to people," Lt. Gov. Jay Dardenne said. "It caught everybody by surprise."

Isaac arrived exactly seven years after the devastating Hurricane Katrina and passed slightly to the west of New Orleans, where the city's newly fortified levee system, helped by $14 billion (€11 billion) in federal repairs, easily handled the assault. But low-lying areas outside the city were swamped.

"Hurricane Isaac has reinforced for us once again just how vulnerable these critical areas are," Democratic U.S. Sen. Mary Landrieu said.

One person was reported killed, compared with 1,800 deaths from Katrina in Louisiana and Mississippi. And police reported few problems with looting. New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu ordered a dusk-to-dawn curfew.

But in Plaquemines Parish, a sparsely populated area south of the city that is outside the improved federal levee system, dozens of people were stranded in flooded coastal areas and had to be rescued. The storm pushed water over an 18-mile (29-kilometre) levee and put so much pressure on it that authorities planned to intentionally puncture the floodwall to relieve the strain.

Officials rushed to evacuate more than 100 nursing home residents. In this mostly rural parish, even the sick and elderly are hardened storm veterans.

"I don't think we had to evacuate to begin with," said Romaine Dahl, 59, as he sat in a wheelchair. "The weather was a hell of a lot worse last night than it is now."

By early Thursday, Isaac's maximum sustained winds had decreased to 45 mph (72 kph) and the National Hurricane Center said it was expected to become a tropical depression by Thursday night, meaning its top sustained winds would drop below 39 mph (63 kph).

Forecasters expected Isaac to move farther inland over the next several days, dumping rain on drought-stricken states across the nation's midsection before finally breaking up over the weekend.

Because Isaac's coiled bands of rain and wind were moving at only 5 mph (8 kph) — about the pace of a brisk walk — the threat of storm surges and flooding was expected to linger Thursday.

The storm knocked out power to as many as 700,000 people, stripped branches off trees and flattened fields of sugar cane so completely that they looked as if a tank had driven over them.

In coastal Mississippi, officials used small motorboats Wednesday to rescue at least two dozen people from a neighbourhood flooded in Pearlington.

Back in New Orleans, the storm cancelled remembrance ceremonies for those killed by Katrina.

As hard wind and heavy rain pelted Melba Leggett-Barnes' home in the Lower 9th Ward, an area levelled during Katrina, she felt more secure than she did seven years ago.

"I have a hurricane house this time," said Barnes, who has been living in her newly rebuilt home since 2008.

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/breaking-news/new-orleans-damp...

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US: Isaac floods homes in Louisiana

US: Isaac floods homes in Louisiana Washington: Though downgraded from a hurricane, a slow-moving tropical storm Isaac still packed a punch flooding homes and pushing water over the top of several levees in Louisiana and Mississippi, reports from these southern states said.

As they conducted search-and-rescue missions in the two states for stranded residents, officials warned of continued life-threatening hazards from storm surges and local flooding.

CNN citing s release from the office of Louisiana's Indian American Governor Bobby Jindal said 1,500 people had been evacuated with 1,500 more needing rescue. The state sent 89 buses to take evacuees to shelters.

The situation also was particularly dire in Plaquemines Parish, southeast of New Orleans, where 3,000 people remained in one area close to an 8-foot tall levee that waters are threatening, Jindal's office said.

Earlier, Jindal said a first estimate from local officials in the parish showed as many as 800 homes may have received significant water damage. The US Army Corps of Engineers reported significant storm surge in the parish, scene of many rescues.

Hurricane Isaac has cost state and local government more than USD 24 million so far, The Times-Picayune reported citing Jindal.

The state is spending about USD 14.7 million for expenses incurred by the hurricane and local government is has shelled out about USD 9.5 million so far, he said.

However, to the relief of officials, the New Orleans levee system and pump stations were working furiously to deal with the deluge.

The system was rebuilt and reinforced at a cost of USD 14 billion after it failed when Katrina struck in 2005. Nearly 1,800 people died as a result of that storm, the majority when levees and flood walls failed and flooded.

http://zeenews.india.com/news/world/us-isaac-floods-homes-in-louisi...

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Isaac damage and flooding in Florida

(CNN/WSVN) - Parts of South Florida are experiencing massive flooding after rains from Tropical Storm Isaac swept through the area.

The brunt of the storm spared the Florida peninsula, including Tampa.

The National Hurricane Center predicts Isaac will make landfall near the mouth of the Mississippi River as a Category 1 storm, with sustained winds of at least 74 miles per hour.

President Barack Obama is urging folks not to "tempt fate" and to take all warnings seriously.

Isaac isn't expected to pack the same punch Hurricane Katrina did back in 2005, but as you can see in the video above, the storm can make things messy.

http://www.wivb.com/dpps/entertainment/must_see_video/aerials-isaac...

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Buenos Aires:

More than 1.5 million hectares hit by floods

According to a survey of DIB agency, the water began to fall in the last hours. But the rainfall forecast from the first week of September poses a complex scenario because water does not run off and that will deepen the current drawbacks: some crops are not yet able to lift and the poor state of the roads will not allow the wealth nor take milk of dairy farms.

In Pehuajó, between 80 and 90 percent of the 450 000 hectares are affected by water, causing irreparable damage to agricultural work and threatens about 150 thousand head of cattle. From that location northwest estimate that at year end will come with a 1500 mm when the annual average of a thousand.

In Bolivar, of the nearly 500,000 acres about 400 thousand are punished by water. The head of the Rural Alzueta Fernando said that "the picture is terrible" because over 80 percent of productive land is flooded.

In Lauquen Dam, over 170 thousand hectares are affected and most troubled area is the northwest and northeast of the party. In addition there are thousands of acres in the not yet finished raising the seed and the projection is not good as it was 70 millimeters of rain expected next week.

Saladillo also about 200 thousand hectares affected, Carlos Tejedor over Carlos Casares 150,000 and over 120,000, in addition to other districts as May 25, Alvear, Hipólito Yrigoyen and Olavarria, who have a large accumulation of water in their land.

http://www.lavozdetandil.com.ar/ampliar_nota.php?id_n=40848

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Haiti & Republic Dominicana & Cuba:

Storm death toll reaches 24 in Haiti

The number of deaths caused in Haiti by Tropical Storm Isaac has risen to 24, with three people still missing, according to the latest figures released Tuesday by the authorities.

Isaac, now headed toward the U.S. Gulf Coast, struck Haiti with heavy rains and gusting winds over the past weekend.

The provinces with the most fatalities were Ouest, which includes the capital Port-au-Prince, with 10 people killed, and Sud-Est with six.

As a consequence of the storm, which also left 42 people injured, according to the report, three people have gone missing.

There were also 8,189 families affected by the storm, with a total of 15,812 people forced to evacuate, of whom 7,753 remain in 62 provisional shelters, the government said.

Tropical Storm Isaac destroyed 1,005 houses, damaged 6,040 and flooded 1,144.

Isaac was approaching the north coast of the Gulf of Mexico on Tuesday and looked likely to strengthen to a Category 1 hurricane, putting the coastal areas of Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama on maximum alert. EFE

http://latino.foxnews.com/latino/news/2012/08/28/storm-death-toll-r...

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UPDATE 7-Tropical Storm Isaac hits Cuba after drenching Haiti

HAVANA, Aug 25 (Reuters) - Tropical Storm Isaac battered eastern Cuba on Saturday on its way toward the Florida Keys after its torrential rains and gusty winds left six dead in Haiti, which is still recovering from a devastating 2010 earthquake.

Roiling seas spilled onto land along the Cuban coast, forcing the evacuation of several thousand people, while others were moved from areas along rivers ahead of possible flooding.

Up to eight inches (20 cm) of rain had fallen in some spots and more was expected as the expansive storm swept northwest en route to the Florida Keys, where hurricane warnings have been posted, and the Gulf of Mexico.

Fueled by warm Gulf waters, it was forecast to strengthen into a Category 2 hurricane with 100-mph (160-kph) winds and hit the U.S. coast somewhere between the Florida Panhandle and New Orleans at midweek.

Isaac's march toward the Gulf comes as U.S. Republicans prepare to gather in Tampa, on Florida's central Gulf Coast, for the start of their national convention this week, ahead of the November presidential election.

Energy operators in the Gulf of Mexico were shutting down offshore oil and gas rigs before Isaac arrives.

The storm could spur short-term shut-downs of 43 percent of U.S. offshore oil capacity and 38 percent of its natural gas output, according to forecasters at Weather Insight, an arm of Thomson Reuters. See a FACTBOX at: [ID: nL2E8JP1T1].

In its latest advisory, the National Hurricane Center in Miami said the storm's ill-defined center was just off Cuba's northeast coast 80 miles (130 km) east-northeast of the city of Camaguey and 375 miles (605 km) east-southeast of Key West, speeding along at 20 miles per hour (31 kph).

Maximum winds were near 60 miles per hour (96 kph), the center said.

Cuban authorities said waves up to 13 feet (4 meters) and flooding had damaged houses along the coast and winds had toppled power and phone lines in some places.

So far, no deaths or injuries had been reported, which is not unusual in Cuba where the communist government is quick to evacuate its citizens before storms.

Cuban forecasters warned that flooding could spread as Isaac was expected to hug the northern coast on its way toward Key West, which lies 90 miles (145 kms) across the Florida Straits.

Baracoa, the island's easternmost city, appeared to be the hardest hit with Cuban television reporting damages to 50 buildings and downed power and phone lines.

CRASHING WAVES, HEAVY RAINS

Waves crashing over the city's malecon, or sea wall, in combination with heavy rains, had flooded the seaside boulevard and homes and commercial buildings nearby.

"This has been terrible. The intrusions of the sea have filled up the coastal boulevard. It's raining a lot and the floods have destroyed homes and a child care center," said Baracoa resident Ricardo Alba.

"The sea is furious, truly fierce," he told Reuters by telephone.

Isaac's rain and winds lashed Haiti's southern coast earlier on Saturday, flooding parts of the capital, Port-au-Prince, and ripping through flimsy resettlement camps that house more than 350,000 survivors of the 2010 earthquake.

A 10-year-old girl was killed near Port-au-Prince when a wall fell on her and a woman in the southern coastal city of Jacmel was crushed to death when a tree fell on her house, government officials said.

Civil protection officials said the death count now totaled 6 and more than 14,000 people had been evacuated, most of them to shelters. Many main roads were blocked or impassable.

At a tent camp in the seaside slum of Cite Soleil, corrugated plastic shacks were broken apart and water gushed in.

"We had never seen anything like this. Everyone fled to the church, but I didn't want to leave my home. All my things are wet," said Edeline Trevil, 47, who survived with her cat.

"I'm cold! I've been wet since last night," the shoeless woman added.

POWER OUTAGES AND FLOODING

The storm caused power outages and flooding and blew off roofs as it moved across the hilly and severely deforested Caribbean country. Winds had died down by Saturday afternoon but forecasters said rains would continue in Haiti.

So far, damage had been less than feared, said George Ngwa, Haiti spokesman for the United Nations Office of Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. "Fortunately there are no reports of serious damage," he said.

Flooding and mudslides were still a threat in Haiti, where many people scrape by on less than $1 a day in the poorest country in the Americas. Flooding could also reignite a cholera epidemic, which has killed more than 7,500 people in Haiti since the disease first appeared in October 2010, aid workers said.

In the Dominican Republic, Isaac felled power and phone lines and left at least a dozen towns cut off by flood waters. Nearly one million people were without power, emergency officials said.

The most severe damage was reported along the south coast, including the capital Santo Domingo.

In Florida, Governor Rick Scott declared a state of emergency, an administrative step aimed at streamlining disaster preparations.

Emergency managers urged tourists to leave the Florida Keys if they could do so safely. A single road links the chain of low-lying islands to the Florida Peninsula and the Key West airport was expected to halt flights on Saturday evening.

At Cape Canaveral on Florida's east coast, squalls from the storm delayed until next week the launch of a pair of NASA satellites to study Earth's radiation belts.

Isaac has drawn especially close scrutiny because of the Republican Party's convention, during which former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney will receive the party's presidential nomination.

Party officials said the convention would convene on Monday as scheduled, but then recess until Tuesday afternoon.

Hurricane Center meteorologist Matt Sardi said Tampa could be hit by coastal flooding, storm surge and driving winds and rain.

"That looks like the main threat at this point," he said. (Additional reporting by Susana Ferreira in Port-Au-Prince; Jane Sutton, David Adams, Michael Connor and Kevin Gray in Miami; Nelson Acosta and Marc Frank in Havana; Manuel Jimenez in Santo Domingo and Erwin Seba in Houston.; Editing by Todd Eastham and Christopher Wilson)

http://in.reuters.com/article/2012/08/26/storm-isaac-idINL2E8JP0GP2...

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Isaac leaves flooding in Puerto Rico and heads to Haiti and the Dominican

Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands on Thursday prepared for heavy rain as Tropical Storm Isaac moved to the Dominican Republic and Haiti with the threat of becoming a Category 1 hurricane, forecasters said.

Isaac generated waves up to three meters (10 feet) high in the Caribbean. There was some flooding in parts of the east and south of Puerto Rico as the storm approached. This was reported by yahoo.com

The U.S. forecasters said Isaac probably be a Category 1 hurricane on Friday as its vortex passes through the south of the Dominican Republic and Haiti.

It is expected to lose strength before moving on to Cuba as a tropical storm and possibly recover before threatening force to Florida as hurricane on Monday. Next week will host the Republican National Convention in Tampa.

http://www.analitica.com/va/sintesis/internacionales/8822178.asp

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Niger:

Niger floods cause widespread devastation

Heavy flooding in Niger over the past few weeks has killed up to 65 people and left 125,000 homeless.

After appeals from the country's president for international aid, the first supplies, donated by Ireland to Plan International, have now arrived.

The southern Dosso region has been worst affected, with over 10,000 homes destroyed according to the UN.

The capital Niamey was also hit when the River Niger burst its banks, flooding the city's suburbs.

Plan International's Niger director Rheal Drisdalle said on 18-19 August, the river reached levels "not seen since the 1920s".

"As the river has not been this high for a very, very long time, people had built their houses near to the river - and then all the rice paddies along the river have been flooded," he told the BBC.

At last count, the United Nations' Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said that the floods have destroyed 14,000 homes and 7,000 fields of cereal crops across the country.

The West African country is already suffering from severe food shortages caused by recent drought.

President Mahamadou Issou pledged 1,400 tonnes of food and 900,000 euros (£712,443) in aid for people affected by the flooding, but admitted that it would not be enough and called for international help.

The first international aid - 35 tonnes of supplies on a plane chartered by Ireland - arrived on Sunday.

Mr Drisdalle said the United Nations and other aid agencies were trying to raise funds to send further supplies.

Other West African countries have also experienced higher than average rainfall and flooding this season, including Sierra Leone, Burkina Faso and Ghana.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-19384377

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Niger has worst floods for 100 years

A ShelterBox Response Team (SRT) is in Niger assessing the need for emergency shelter, following extreme flooding over the past month that has left thousands of families homeless.

Reports say it is the worst flooding seen for nearly 100 years in the West African country.

At the beginning of August, rains moved north from Burkina Faso to Niger, falling over one day in the mountains in the north and running down into the southern region of Dosso.

A week later, up to 227 millimetres of rain fell overnight, which is half a year's rainfall. The water ran through tributaries into the River Niger causing severe flooding in the regions of Tillabery in the north and the capital Niamey, flooding the city's suburbs.

The United Nations (UN) reported that the Dosso region has been worst affected, with over 10,000 homes damaged by floodwaters.

Without shelter and food

To date, the floods have destroyed 14,000 homes and 7,000 crop fields across the country, according to the UN's Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), leaving many of the country's poorest families without shelter and food.

With Niger already dealing with food insecurity across the Sahel region, the Malian refugee crisis, a cholera outbreak along the River Niger basin and a locust invasion, its capacity to respond to the flooding has been severely restricted.

Consequently, President Mahamadou Issou has called for international help after pledging 1,400 tonnes of food and over one million dollars of aid money for flood survivors.

SRT members Mike Freeman (US) and Fiona McElroy (UK) arrived on Sunday evening to meet with OCHA and the local government, who are coordinating a national response.

'We met with Gaston Kaba, a Rotarian we have worked with on previous Niger deployments,' said Fiona. 'He has been helping us with local contacts, transport and has been acting as our translator.

'We have had meetings with OCHA, Oxfam, the Agency for Technical Cooperation and Development (ACTED), the Prime Minister's Office and Niamey authorities, to discuss a response plan to the floods as well as the Malian refugee crisis.'

The SRT visited Niger's capital on Monday. Flooding was visible and villages along the riverbanks were destroyed. Families who had been living there are now taking refuge in schools.

Villages can't be seen

'The River Niger in Niamey is at least two metres (over six foot) higher than normal so it has breached its banks spreading up to 200 metres inland in places,' said Mike. 'Families had built along the riverbanks and planted rice crops which have now all gone. Many villages are completely covered by water and can't be seen.

'The annual seasonal peak of the river is in December following the rainy season which hasn't begun yet so this amount of rainfall is very unusual for this time of year.'

Further need assessments will be made in Tillabery and Dosso. Many areas of Tillabery are still being inaccessible and 246 villages disappeared underwater in Dosso.

'The capital Niamey is a built up urban area so it is hard to find locations for suitable sites to set up tents where people will be willing to go,' said Fiona. 'We need to find areas close to their homes and where other non governmental organisations will support people with water, light, security, food and sanitation. We will be visiting some sites proposed by the Government over the next few days.'

http://www.trust.org/alertnet/news/niger-has-worst-floods-for-100-y...

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Burma:

Flooding in Myanmar forces thousands to flee

Hong Kong (CNN) -- Torrential rain in Myanmar has forced thousands to flee their homes and flooded hundreds of thousands of acres of rice paddies, media reports and aid workers say.

Two weeks of heavy monsoon rain caused the flooding, which has primarily affected the Irrawaddy Delta region close to the capital Yangon.

Around the port city of Pathein, 236,000 people had been affected, with 35,000 moved to temporary relief camps in schools, monasteries and churches, said Denis De Poerck, director of program operations for Save the Children in Myanmar.

He said the families that had not fled were living on the upper floors of their homes and long boats were the main form of transport.

The government, private benefactors and the World Food Program had provided food rations to flood victims, he added.

"What people need now is non-food items -- clothing, cooking pots and utensils," he told CNN by telephone from Yangon.

The state-run New Light of Myanmar reported that President Thein Sein on Sunday visited Bago, another flood-hit area east of the capital, to provide assistance to some of the victims.

De Poerck added that the United Nations estimated that 200,000 acres of rice paddies had been destroyed and 55,000 acres remained under water. One acre is around the size of an American football field.

Myanmar often suffers from flooding during the monsoon season but in the areas assessed by Save the Children locals said the floods were the worst since 1997.

In 2008, Cyclone Nargis devastated Myanmar's southern delta region, killing 130,000 people.

http://edition.cnn.com/2012/08/27/world/asia/myanmar-floods/index.html

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Burma flooding forces 85,000 from their homes

At least 85,000 people in Burma have fled their homes as the worst monsoon flooding in years submerged hundreds of thousands of hectares of rice fields, a government relief official said Saturday.

Heavy rains over the last few weeks caused the inundation, which primarily affected the country's southern delta region, said Soe Tun, a member of the government's emergency response team.

Around 70,000 people have been displaced in the delta and are being housed at 219 emergency relief centres set up at schools and monasteries, he said. Another 15,000 people have been displaced elsewhere in the country, and more than 240,000 hectares of rice fields have been swamped, he said.

Annual monsoon rains often cause flooding in the region, and this year's are the heaviest since 2004, Soe Tun said.

However, the delta region was devastated in 2008 by Cyclone Nargis, which killed about 130,000 people and destroyed more than 800,000 homes and buildings.

No casualties have been confirmed during the recent floods, which have affected 200,000 people nationwide whose fields have been swamped with water, Soe Tun said. Some families have had to move to the upper floors of their dwellings.

Local newspapers have reported that heavy rains and flooding also damaged bridges, homes and rail lines.