Waterfall-like rain eases in Japan, but 28 dead

Waterfall-like rain eases in Japan, but 28 dead — Most of the quarter-million people who fled massive flooding in southwest Japan were able to return home by Monday, but the danger had not fully passed from record rains that have killed at least 28 people.

Thousands of homes and hundreds of roads were damaged, and hundreds of landslides were reported. The military airlifted food by helicopter to stranded districts.

The rain "was like a waterfall," Yoko Yoshika said in Yamaguchi prefecture (state). "It was horrible."

Yoshika, wife of an award-winning Hagi-yaki style potter, said workers used a bucket relay with plastic pails to get rid of the water flowing into their shop.

In Yame, a city of 69,000 in Fukuoka prefecture, dozens of people were stranded by the flooding.

"Our region gets hit with heavy rain every year, but I have never experienced anything like this," city employee Kumi Takesue said.

 

"Rice paddies and roads all became water so you couldn't tell what was what," she said, adding that she had to wade in knee-high water, even near her home, which was not as hard hit as other areas.

Kyodo News service said 28 people have died and police were searching for four missing people in the three prefectures of Kumamoto, Oita and Fukuoka, from the heavy rainfall that began Thursday. Nationwide tallies of the dead and missing were not immediately available.

Weather officials warned people to be careful even in areas where rain had subsided because the land was still mushy and prone to landslides. More rain was possible later Monday.

Even as some of the water subsided, homes and farms on the southern island of Kyushu, hardest hit by the flooding, were still getting food shipments, although mostly by land, local officials said.

The intense rain occurred as far north as the ancient capital of Kyoto, where rainfall exceeded 90 millimeters (3.5 inches) per hour — a condition in which rain cascades in such torrents that seeing ahead becomes impossible.

Evacuation orders were gradually being lifted, allowing most residents to return home by late Sunday.

Fukuoka prefecture said that as of Monday, damage there extended to more than 4,300 homes, 800 roads and 20 bridges. At least 518 landslides were recorded, and more than 2,700 people had evacuated their homes, it said in a statement. ( Associated Press )

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Tropical Storm Alberto hovers off Carolina coast

Tropical Storm Alberto hovers off Carolina coast - Tropical Storm Alberto weakened slightly off the South Carolina coast on Sunday, canceling tourist cruises, producing showers along the coast and serving as a reminder that the 2012 Atlantic hurricane season is just around the corner.

The first storm of the season that officially begins June 1 was not expected to approach landfall on the Carolinas' coast, but it prompted a tropical storm watch and forecasters warned that it could produce high winds, heavy surf, rip currents and scattered rain across the region.

"It's making the closest approach to the coastline now, so the impacts shouldn't be much different than what we are already seeing," said Jonathan Lamb, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Charleston, S.C.

 

This NOAA satellite image taken Saturday, May 19, 2012, shows tropical storm Alberto 140 miles (225 km) east of Charleston, S.C. Alberto is the first tropical storm of the season and formed Saturday off the coast of South Carolina with top winds of 45 mph (75 kph). (AP Photo/Weather Underground)

At 2 p.m. Eastern, the National Hurricane Center said Alberto was about 110 miles (177 km) south of Charleston. It has maximum sustained winds of 45 mph (72 kph).

It's currently moving west-southwest at 6 mph (10 kph), but forecasters expect it to turn northeast sometime Monday.

A few rains bands from Alberto reached Hilton Head Island and Savannah, Ga., on Sunday but they moved through in less than an hour. Winds weren't expected to reach higher than 30 mph at the beaches, Lamb said. From Charleston to the north, even less of an impact was expected.

A tropical storm watch was in effect for the South Carolina coast from the Savannah River to the South Santee River. Forecasters don't expect tropical storm conditions to reach the coast, but issued the watch as a precaution because the forecast track of Alberto was still uncertain.

The hurricane center said the storm was expected to slow down through Sunday, then begin turning northeast and heading farther out to sea sometime Monday.

Alberto was named a tropical storm Saturday upon forming in the Atlantic. It was the third tropical storm to form before the official June 1 start of the hurricane season in the past 31 years.

Forecasters said there is no evidence that early-forming storms mean more tropical storms and hurricane for the rest of the season, especially with storms like Alberto that form from leftover weather fronts and low pressure systems moving off the mainland into the Atlantic.

"It's anomalous for sure, but there's really no indication this gives us any idea what the hurricane season is going to be like as a whole," Lamb said.

The brief bursts of wet weather and occasional gusty winds disrupted some vacation plans along the beaches of southern South Carolina and northern Georgia. Swimmers were warned of dangerous rip currents, although no rescues were reported. Boat operators canceled cruises both for the choppy seas and because concerned vacationers didn't want to go out with Alberto offshore.

"A lot of people are nervous about the weather, so we are getting cancelations," said Kate Myers, with Island Explorer Tours on Hilton Head.

The brief storms ended by Sunday morning and the sun was occasionally peeking through, so the captain that runs the afternoon cruise through the salt marshes hoped to take tourists on his scheduled run, Myers said.

"Having a storm out there this early is just strange," Myers said. "But it has been a weird year for weather." ( Associated Press )

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More of US at risk to sea level rise

FILE - This Aug. 28, 2011 file photo shows a bicyclist making his way past a stranded taxi on a flooded New York City Street as Tropical Storm Irene passes through the city. Global warming-fueled sea level rise over the next century could at least flood 3.7 million people in the US, according to a new method of looking at flood risk published in two scientific papers. (AP Photo/Peter Morgan, File)

New figures: More of US at risk to sea level rise — Nearly 4 million people across the United States, from Los Angeles to much of the East Coast, live in homes more prone to flooding from rising seas fueled by global warming, according to a new method of looking at flood risk published in two scientific papers.

The cities that have the most people living within three feet (one meter) of high tide — the projected sea level rise by the year 2100 made by many scientists and computer models — are in Florida, Louisiana, and New York. New York City, often not thought of as a city prone to flooding, has 141,000 people at risk, which is second only to New Orleans' 284,000. The two big Southeast Florida counties, Miami-Dade and Broward, have 312,000 people at risk combined.

All told, 3.7 million people live in homes within three feet of high tide. More than 500 US cities have at least 10 percent of the population at increased risk, the studies said.

"Southeast Florida is definitely the highest density of population that's really on low coastal land that's really most at risk," said lead author Ben Strauss, a scientist at Climate Central. Climate Central is a New Jersey-based group of scientists and journalists who do research about climate change.

The studies look at people who live in homes within three feet of high tide, whereas old studies looked just at elevation above sea level, according to work published Thursday in the peer-reviewed journal Environmental Research and an accompanying report by Climate Central. That's an important distinction because using high tide is more accurate for flooding impacts, said study co-author Jonathan Overpeck, a scientist at the University of Arizona's Institute of the Environment. And when the new way of looking at risk is factored in, the outlook looks worse, Overpeck said.

"It's shocking to see how large the impacts could be, particularly in southern Florida and Louisiana, but much of the coastal U.S. will share in the serious pain," Overpeck said.

And it's not just residents of coastal areas who will be hurt by this, said Sharlene Leurig, a senior manager for the insurance program at Ceres, a Boston-based investment network. Most coastal areas get flood insurance from the federal program and with more flooding, the program will have to spend more and that will come out of all taxpayers' wallets, she said.

Sea level has already risen about 8 inches since 1880 because warmer waters expand, Strauss said. In addition to the basic physics of ever-warming water expanding, scientist say hotter climate will cause some melting of glaciers in Greenland and western Antarctica that would then cause seas to rise even more.

Flooding from Hurricane Irene last year illustrated how vulnerable coastal places such as Manhattan are with a combination of storms and sea level rise, Strauss said.

Using data from the latest census, Climate Central also has developed an interactive system that allows people to check their risk by entering a ZIP code.

Sea level rise experts at the U.S. Geological Survey and the National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration who weren't part of the studies said the results make sense and were done by experts in the field.

"All low elevation places in the many urban areas along the coast will become more vulnerable," said S. Jeffress Williams, scientist emeritus for the USGS, who wasn't part of the studies. He pointed to Boston, New York City, Norfolk, Va., New Orleans, Charleston, S.C., Miami and Washington and its Virginia suburbs. "More people and infrastructure will be at increasing risk of flooding." ( Associated Press )

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Building collapses in center of Rio de Janeiro

Building collapses in center of Rio de Janeiro — A multistory building collapsed in Rio's center Wednesday evening, leaving rubble strewn over a wide area but confusion about the number of possible victims and the cause.

Thick layers of debris covered cars and motorcycles. A neighboring building sustained serious damage, and television showed at least two people on its roof apparently awaiting help from firefighters.

There were differing reports about possible deaths.

A spokeswoman from the city's Civil Defense department said two people were confirmed dead, but officials from City Hall and the municipal health department later disputed that, saying no deaths had been confirmed by early Thursday. It was not clear how many people were injured.

Rescue worker remove a car after a building collapsed in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Wednesday Jan. 25, 2012. There is no official word on deaths, but Globo television cites unidentified Brazilian authorities as saying two bodies have been found so far. (AP Photo/Felipe Dana)

Searchers were still picking through the rubble hours after the collapse.

There was a strong smell of natural gas in the area, but Rio's mayor said there were doubts that a gas leak caused the accident.

"There apparently was not an explosion. The collapse occurred because of structural damages," he said. "I don't think there was a gas leak."

Witnesses had reported hearing a loud explosion-like sound just before the building fell, and a strong odor of gas hung over the scene.

It was not immediately clear how big the damaged buildings were. The one nearly destroyed was at least five stories high. It sat near Rio's historic Teatro Municipal and the Fine Arts Museum, both of which appeared undamaged.

The Civil Defense official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said she believed the collapsed building was for commercial use and not residential. The explosion happened after 8 p.m. and there were hopes that would minimize the number of people who might have been in the area.

Police cordoned off the area and electricity to the street was cut off for safety reasons. ( Associated Press )

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Film Lumpur Lapindo Diluncurkan

Film Lumpur Lapindo Diluncurkan-Masyarakat dunia, termasuk Indonesia, tidak lama lagi dapat menyaksikan sebuah film dokumenter tentang tragedi bencana Lumpur Lapindo, "Mud Max".

Film yang diproduksi oleh Immodicus SA dan Arizona State University School of Earth and Space Exploration itu diluncurkan pada Jumat (13/11) malam di Scottsdale, Arizona.

Peluncuran yang berlangsung di Hotel Mondrian itu dilanjutkan dengan diskusi panel oleh beberapa ahli geologi tentang fenomena lumpur panas yang mulai menyembur di lahan eksplorasi minyak dan gas PT Lapindo Brantas di Porong, Sidoarjo, Jawa Timur, pada 29 Mei 2006 itu.

"Mud Max" mengungkap berbagai fakta menyangkut kasus tersebut dari segi keilmuwan, ekonomi, kemanusiaan dan politik.

Dalam "Mud Max", dimunculkan pendapat bertentangan dari sejumlah ahli tentang penyebab munculnya lumpur, apakah kejadian alam atau kesalahan manusia.

Dalam diskusi panel, Juru Bicara Immodicus SA, Avian Tumengkol, mengatakan film Mud Max tidak diarahkan untuk menentukan apakah semburan lumpur itu merupakan bencana alam atau akibat dari kesalahan manusia.

"Film ini untuk memberi pemahaman, temuan-temuan dan pandangan-pandangan dari kedua pihak. Tujuan film ini adalah untuk memberi kesempatan kepada publik menentukan pemikiran dan pemahaman mereka sendiri untuk menyimpulkan mana yang benar," kata Avian.

Menurut Produser Eksekutif "Mud Max", Chris Fong, beberapa stasiun televisi asing telah menyatakan tertarik untuk memutar film berdurasi 47 menit itu.. "Metro TV di Indonesia juga menyatakan minatnya untuk menayangkan film ini," katanya.

Kontroversi adalah faktor utama yang membuat Chris Fong tertarik memproduksi film soal kasus lumpur Lapindo. "`Audience` akan tertarik dengan kontroversi...Saya lihat isu ini ternyata lebih rumit dan unsur politisnya demikian kuat," ujar Chris.

Permasalahan yang demikian rumit sempat membuat ia sendiri kehilangan kesabaran. "Saya benar-benar hampir menyerah karena sulit sekali mendapatkan jawaban-jawaban," cetusnya.

Namun, film tersebut akhirnya dapat diselesaikan setelah melewati berbagai riset selama satu tahun dan wawancara dengan berbagai sumber.

Komentar dan keterangan dirangkum dari berbagai pihak, termasuk dari para korban dampak luapan lumpur, pemerintah daerah, pihak PT Lapindo Brantas, Walhi dan BP Migas.

Beda Pendapat

Di bagian akhir tayangan, "Mud Max" menaruh catatan tentang keputusan Mahkamah Agung pada Mei 2009 bahwa PT Lapindo Brantas dibebaskan dari tuduhan dan pemerintah akan mengambil alih tanggung jawab penanggulangan banjir lumpur di Sidoarjo dari Lapindo Brantas.

Bagian itu juga mengungkapkan kecenderungan bahwa kontroversi soal Lumpur Lapindo akan terus berlanjut, demikian pula perbedaan pendapat di kalangan pakar tentang penyebab luapan lumpur di Sidoarjo.

"Mud Max" melaporkan bahwa simposium tentang lumpur Lapindo yang diadakan London Geological Society dan American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG) Oktober 2008, misalnya, tidak dapat membuktikan pembenaran ilmiah tentang penyebab menyemburnya lumpur.

Sebelumnya menurut catatan media, simposium yang diadakan di Cape Town, Afrika Selatan, itu diakhiri dengan pemungutan suara karena pendapat-pendapat yang disampaikan para ahli tentang penyebab lumpur Lapindo sangat bertentangan.

Pemungutan suara yang diikuti oleh 74 ahli perminyakan dunia menunjukkan bahwa 42 ilmuwan mendukung teori bahwa pengeboran ladang Banjar Panji 1 di Sidoarjo yang dilakukan oleh Lapindo Brantas merupakan penyebab menyemburnya lumpur.

Tiga ilmuwan setuju dengan pendapat bahwa semburan lumpur pada 29 Mei 2006 itu disebabkan gempa bumi yang mengguncang Yogyakarta dua hari sebelumnya.

Enam belas ilmuwan menganggap bukti-bukti yang disampaikan para pakar pembicara tidak meyakinkan; dan 13 ilmuwan lainnya mendukung pendapat bahwa luapan lumpur merupakan kombinasi dampak dari terjadinya gempa bumi serta pengeboran di ladang eksplorasi.

Menurut Chris Fong, "Mud Max" dengan naskah versi Bahasa Indonesia akan diluncurkan di Indonesia pada Januari 2010. ( antara )

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