India, US and Japan hit by landslides, heat warnings and deadly flash floods in week of wild world weather
Countries around the world are experiencing extreme weather from landslides and flash flooding to scorching temperatures.
In some areas, its caused casualties, triggered evacuations and further weather warnings. Here, we take a look at some of the most recent events and why they may be happening.
In Japan, the highest-level heavy rain warning was issued in parts of the Fukuoka and Oita prefectures in Kyushu – the country’s third-largest island.
Two people have died and six others were missing according to officials, as authorities urged tens of thousands of residents to move out of areas in danger of more landslides and flooding.
Some parts of Fukuoka have been hit with more than 600mm of rain since Friday, more than usually falls in the whole of July, media reported.
Director of forecast division at Japan’s Meteorological Agency, Satoshi Sugimoto, said another 100mm of rain is expected up to early on Tuesday.
“The land ministry said eight rivers had burst their banks from continuous rain since late last month turned into mudslides.
Mr Sugimoto said: “The rain is becoming so heavy unlike anything seen before.”
Pic: The Yomiuri Shimbun/AP
Houses and rice field flooded in Kurume, Fukuoka prefecture. Pic: The Yomiuri Shimbun/AP
As of Monday 1,820 households were without power while 60 homes had no water, a government spokesperson said.
The weather bureau said there was a 90% chance that the El Nino phenomenon, a warming of ocean surface temperatures in the eastern and central Pacific, would continue into the autumn.
India
Meanwhile in northern India, torrential rain has caused landslides and flash flooding as schools in New Delhi were closed after heavy rains lashed the national capital over the weekend.
Authorities and local media said on Monday that at least 22 people have died.
Many districts in the northern state of Himachal Pradesh received a month’s rainfall in a day at the weekend, a senior weather department official said.
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Dramatic rescue over India flood waters
Delhi, Punjab, and Himachal Pradesh have received 112%, 100% and 70% more rainfall than average so far in the current monsoon season that started on 1 June, the department added. Authorities used helicopters to rescue people stranded on roads and bridges because of the rain.
Himachal Pradesh’s Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu urged people to “stay inside” their homes as more heavy rain was expected.
Record set for world’s hottest day
The extreme weather comes as the world recorded its hottest day on record last Thursday, breaking previous highs set on Monday and Tuesday as global average temperatures continue to climb.
Experts have blamed a combination of climate change and an emerging El Nino weather pattern.
The global average temperature hit 17.23C on Thursday, according to data from the US National Centers on Environmental Prediction.
China
In China, torrid heat has gripped the country for several weeks, pushing local governments to ask residents and businesses to curb the usage of electricity.
Weather forecasters issued a string of heat advisories across northern parts of the country last Thursday, as temperatures were expected to breach 40C in some areas, stressing taxed power grids.
Beijing issued a red warning, the highest in a three-tier alert system, as other alerts were also issued in the northern Hebei province, Shaanxi, Henan and Shandong provinces.
Weather experts have predicted the extreme temperatures could eclipse last year’s scorching spell, which lasted for more than two months.
United States
Heavy rainstorms also poured over parts of New York and Pennsylvania on Sunday, as emergency services rescued people stuck in vehicles along flooded roadways.
Rescue teams in Hudson Valley found the body of a woman in her 30s. She is reported to have drowned after being swept away while trying to evacuate her home, Orange County Executive Steven Neuhaus told WABC-TV
Online footage showed rushing flood waters in Stony Point, a small town on the Hudson River about 40 miles north of Manhattan.
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Bryan Jackson, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service’s Weather Prediction Centre, said a weather pattern more typical of cooler months had built over the Canadian province of Ontario and was interacting with the regular summer moisture.
The centre issued its first-ever high-risk warning, the highest level on a four-step scale, for the area surrounding Burlington, Vermont, on Monday.
“We expect considerable to locally catastrophic impacts,” Mr Jackson said.
It’s 5.30am, but the car park outside a laundrette in south central Los Angeles is already bustling.
A woman is setting up a stand selling tacos on the pavement and the sun is beginning to rise behind the palm trees.
A group of seven women and two men are gathered in a circle, most wearing khaki green t-shirts.
The leader, a man named Francisco “Chavo” Romero, begins by asking how everyone is feeling. “Angry,” a few of them respond. “Proud of the community for pushing back,” says another.
Ron, a high school history teacher, issues a rallying cry. “This is like Vietnam,” he says. “We’re taking losses, but in the end we’re going to win. It’s a war.”
Francisco ‘Chavo’ Romero leads a volunteer group, attempting to warn people ahead of ICE raids
This is what the resistance against Donald Trump’s immigration policy looks like here. In the past month, immigration and customs enforcement agents – known as ICE – have intensified their raids on homes and workplaces across Los Angeles.
Since the beginning of June, nearly 2,800 undocumented immigrants have been arrested in the city, according to the Department of Homeland Security. The previous monthly high was just over 850 arrests in May this year.
Police use tear gas against protesters, angry at a recent immigration raid at a farm in Camarillo, California. Pic: AP
Videos have circulated online of people being tackled to the ground in the car park of DIY shops, in car washes and outside homes. The videos have prompted outrage, protests and a fightback.
“Chavo” and Ron belong to a group of organised volunteers called Union del Barrio. Every morning, a group of them meet, mostly in areas which have high immigrant populations.
The day I meet them, they’re in an area of LA which is heavily Latino. Armed with walkie talkies to communicate with each other, megaphones to warn the community and leaflets to raise awareness they set out in cars in different directions.
A volunteer from Union del Barrio shows Sky’s Martha Kelner how they try to stay one step ahead of ICE agents
They’re looking for cars used by ICE agents to monitor “targets”.
“That vehicle looks a little suspicious,” says Ron, pointing out a white SUV with blacked-out windows, “but there’s nobody in it”.
An elderly Latino man is standing on a street corner, cutting fruit to sell at his stall. “He’s the exact target that they’re looking for,” Ron says. “That’s what they’re doing now. The low-hanging fruit, the easy victim. And so that is proving to be more successful for their quotas.”
This man, selling fruit on a street corner in LA, is a potential target of immigration agents
In the end, it turns out to be a quiet morning in this part of LA, no brewing immigration operations. But elsewhere in the city, dawn raids are happening.
ICE agents are under pressure from the White House to boost their deportation numbers in line with Donald Trump’s campaign promise to crack down on illegal immigration.
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In June, tear gas and rubber bullets were fired at protestors demonstrating against immigration raids
Maria’s husband Javier was one of those arrested in LA. He came to the United States from Mexico when he was 19 and is now 58.
The couple have three grown-up children and two grandchildren. But Javier’s work permit expired two years ago, according to Maria and so he was living here illegally.
Maria’s husband Javier was arrested after his work permit expired
She shows me a video taken last month when Javier was at work at a car wash in Pomona, an area of LA. He is being handcuffed and arrested by armed and masked ICE agents, forced into a car. He is now being held at a detention centre two hours away.
“I know they’re doing their job,” she says, “but it’s like, ‘you don’t have to do it like that.’ Getting them and, you know, forcing people and pushing them down on the ground. They’re not animals.”
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Maria wipes away tears as she explains the impact of his absence for the past four weeks. “It’s been so hard without him,” she says. “You feel alone when you get used to somebody and he’s not there any more. We’ve never been apart for as long as this.”
The family have a lawyer and is appealing for him to remain in the US, but Maria fears he will be sent back to Mexico or even a third country.
Maria fears her husband, who has lived in the US for nearly 40 years, will be sent back to Mexico
“I don’t know what to say to my grandkids because the oldest one, who is five was very attached to his papas, as he calls him. And he’s asking me, ‘When is papa coming home?’ and I don’t know what to say. He’s not a criminal.”
The fear in immigrant communities can be measured by the empty restaurant booths and streets that are far quieter than usual.
People in LA are being asked to report sightings of ICE officials so others can be warned
I meet Soledad at the Mexican restaurant she owns in Hollywood. When I arrive, she’s watching the local news on the TV as yet another raid unfolds at a nearby farm.
She’s shaking her head as ICE agents face off with protesters and military helicopters hover overhead. “I am scared. I am very scared,” she says.
All of her eight employees are undocumented, and four of them are too scared to come into work, she says, in case they get arrested. The process to get papers, she says, is too long and too expensive.
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Soledad, who owns a Mexican restaurant, plans to hide her illegal workers if immigration officials arrive
“They call me and tell me they are too afraid to come in because immigration is around,” she says.
“I have to work double shifts to be able to make up for their hours, and yes, I am very desperate, and sometimes I cry… We have no sales, and no money to pay their wages.”
There is just one woman eating fajitas at a booth, where there would usually be a lunchtime rush. People are chilled by the raids.
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Soledad says she plans to hide her illegal workers if immigration officials arrive.
“I’ve told them, get inside the fridge, hide behind the stove, climb up where we have a space to store boxes, do not run because they will hunt you down.”
The White House says they’re protecting the country from criminals. ICE agents have been shot at while carrying out operations, their work becoming more dangerous by the day.
The tension here is ratcheting up. Deportation numbers are rising too. But the order from Donald Trump is to arrest even more people living here illegally.
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