CLIMATE GLIMPSE: Wildfires plague U.S. West and Brazil, Yagi rampages in Vietnam
Extreme weather is striking multiple places around the world, including wildfires in California, a hurricane that threatens Louisiana, drought and wildfires in the Amazon, flooding in Nigeria and a lethal typhoon in Vietnam.
The death toll from Typhoon Yagi reached at least 155 after flash flooding tore through a hamlet in northern Vietnam. Homes were buried in mud and debris and dozens more people were missing. Much of the damage was in Lao Cai province, a tourism-dependent region known to some trekkers for the destination of Sapa. One expert said storms like Yagi are getting stronger due to climate change.
In the U.S., Hurricane Francine’s path toward the Louisiana coast had residents there making trips to stock up on supplies and harden their homes for possible damage. Forecasters were warning of high winds and a storm surge that could mean widespread flooding. The storm was headed for a fragile coastal region hit by hurricanes as recently as 2020 and 2021.
Here is a look and some other extreme weather events related to climate:
— Wildfires are burning across the American West, including Idaho, Oregon and Nevada. Some of the most intense fires were in California, where firefighters battled major blazes east of Los Angeles in the San Gabriel mountains. Tens of thousands of homes and other structures were threatened and thousands of people were being evacuated from communities under threat.
— A dam collapse in Nigeria caused severe flooding that forced evacuations and swept deadly reptiles from a zoo into communities in the area. Unusually high rains had filled the Alau dam to capacity before its collapse caused some of the worst flooding in northeastern Nigeria in 30 years.
— Most of Brazil has been under a thick layer of smoke from wildfires in the Amazon, with millions of people affected in faraway cities including Sao Paulo and Brasilia. Brazil’s wildfires have come on as the nation suffers through its worst drought on record. Amid the hardship, President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva pledged to finish paving a road that experts say threatens to vastly increase destruction of the rainforest.
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“Without the forest, there is no water, it’s interconnected,” said Suely Araújo, a public policy coordinator with the Climate Observatory, criticizing plans by Brazil’s president to finish paving a road that experts say could speed up deforestation in the Amazon.
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