While the United States is gripped in its drought, east Asia has the opposite problem.
In Manila, Philippines, severe flooding after days of rain and unusually heavy monsoons have left the city swamped. The New York Times reports:
At least a third of this overpopulated capital and its suburbs were submerged on Tuesday as torrential rains battered the city and floodwaters poured in from almost all sides.
A silted lake in the south sent water coursing into an overflowing river that slices through Manila; water poured from the open floodgates of a dam to the north, and high tide brought flooding from the bay to the west. …
More than 50 people have already died in more than a week of intense storms, monsoon rains and flooding, and at least 250,000 have been evacuated in just the past several days, officials said.
A kid on the 31st floor of a building in Manila narrates the city’s flooding. Learn more about this video.
The Times also collected discussion of the flood as it appeared on social media, noting that the flooding is the worst since 2009, a flood Filipinos called “their Hurricane Katrina.” Said one government leader of this week’s floods, “It’s like Waterworld” — an analogy that should understandably be reserved only for terrible situations.
Haikui’s path as it approached China. Note the Philippines at bottom. (Image courtesy of Surfline.com.)
Just north of the Philippines, tropical storm Haikui made landfall in China, just south of Shanghai. It’s the third storm to hit China’s coast in a week, per Xinhua:
Solar water heaters toppled in the wake of Haikui. (Photo byAbe Sauer.)
Provincial authorities have evacuated 1.5 million people in preparation for the storm, as it is expected to remain in the province for 24 hours before moving to neighboring Anhui Province, said Li Jian, head of the provincial meteorological bureau.Rain-triggered flooding stranded about 130 people in three hotels in the city of Lin’an, local rescuers said, adding that 123 people have been rescued thus far. Roads to the hotels were flooded, forcing the rescuers to walk the last two kilometers on foot. …
The rains have also caused 12 townships to lose power, according to the provincial power company.
Last year, a series of floods in central China killed over 300 and affected 36 million.
