Unusually heavy rains in Lapland have caused water levels to rise near flood levels, and further rises will depend on temperatures over the next few days, with climate change being a contributing factor.
Heavier rains and aging distribution networks are triggering more cases of public water supply contamination. The local utility takes water from the Esse River for processing and distribution. Because of recent heavy rains and strong runoff, it contains an unusually high level of solid matter.
A mobile home washed away in severe flooding after Storm Hans hit Hemsedal, Norway, on Tuesday, 8 August. The extreme weather has battered parts of Scandinavia and the Baltics for several days. Rivers have overflown, roads have been damaged and people have been injured by falling branches.
The swelling Tom River in southwestern Siberia has led to a partial dam collapse in the city of Tomsk. This year’s heavy rainfall, combined with abnormally warm spring weather, has led to severe flooding in Russia’s Urals and western Siberia. So far, the floods have submerged around 15,600 homes and 28,000 land plots in 193 Russian towns and cities across 33 regions.
Two people were killed after a torrent of water poured over a cofferdam in northwestern Russia early Monday and flooded the surrounding area, authorities said.
Environmentalists say the latest flooding may have sent radioactive substances into the river, potentially affecting hundreds of thousands of people living near the banks of the Tobol downstream. State nuclear agency Rosatom, whose subsidiary operates the mines at the Dobrovolnoye uranium deposit, denied that its mining facilities were impacted by the flood.
The mayor of the southern Russian city of Orenburg urged residents to evacuate immediately on Friday as water in the nearby Ural River reached critically dangerous levels and was not expected to recede until next week.
Floodwaters in Tomsk region threatens to submerge the river banks in Seversk where highly radioactive liquid waste from the Soviet Union's nuclear weapons program for decades were injected into two unprotected underground reservoirs.
Emergency workers uncovered more than 1,500 bodies in the wreckage of Libya’s eastern city of Derna, and it was feared the toll could surpass 5,000 after floodwaters smashed through dams and washed away entire neighborhoods of the city.
Southern Brazil is grappling with severe flooding, with further storms and heavy rains forecasted, causing widespread displacement and damage.
Alaskans are taking advantage of rare ice skating conditions on alpine lakes in Chugach State Park, with hundreds of people hiking into the backcountry to skate on smooth ice in the shadow of iconic peaks.
Oil from a nearby fuel container leaked through the water system in the lake most likely due to heavy rains of the past month. Cleanup efforts were ongoing this week. It’s not clear when the park will reopen.
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