Nature's new destructive force: Sudden cloudbursts create havoc across the globe

July 18, 2011 – SCOTLAND – A flash flood created havoc for residents and businesses in Perth by turning streets into rivers. About a foot of water collected in some places around East Bridge Street during the one-hour downpour. The flash flood happened between about 1300 BST and 1400 BST and was followed by thunder and lightning. Chris McCulloch, 44, said: “I’ve never seen rain like it in Scotland. All the streets coming down off the hill turned into streams.” Mr. McCulloch told the BBC Scotland news website he was trying to pick his 11-year-old daughter Chrisanne up from a friend’s flat after she got soaked “from head to foot. It was an absolute downpour,” he said. “The water was going into the flat and I couldn’t get down to her because the stairs down to the flat had turned into a river. A BMW got stuck in the water but then the police came and stopped people going through.”Mr. McCulloch also said a local tearoom was flooded and water also got into other business premises. He added: “As we were going across the Tay Bridge you couldn’t see Kinnoull Hill.” –BBC

Cherokee, NC — Thousands of fish were killed when a wall of water swept through the Cherokee Fish Hatchery. The flash flood washed many of the young trout out of the raceways where they were being raised as well as taking down about 75 feet of fence surrounding the facility, hatchery supervisor Doug Reed said. The hatchery has about 800,000 fish at any one time. Reed said Saturday he and other workers were still trying to determine how many had been killed as they cleaned up the mess. He estimated the damage at about $30,000-$50,000. “It overflowed the raceways and poured the fish out onto the ground,” he said. “It washed leaves and sticks into the raceways.” The flooding, produced by a cloudburst upstream in Great Smoky Mountains National Park, struck around midnight Thursday. Reed, who lives on the property, said he was in bed when it hit. “All I heard was a big boom and the rocks hitting together,” he said. “I jumped out of bed. It was kind of scary. “The wall of water was about 8 to 10 feet high. It came down the road. It lasted about two hours before it started dropping a significant amount.” –Digtriad

 NEW BRIGHTON, Minn. — The flash flood that hit areas of the metro early Saturday morning caused headaches for many residents just waking up. Many first floor residents are now displaced at Mirror Lake Condominiums in St. Anthony. Resident Melody Pomerenke says the water kept flowing into her apartment and nearly reached the height of her knees. It kept getting higher and higher,” Pomerenke says. “Water was running in.” Pomerenke says she placed towels at the bottom of her door, but that didn’t stop the water. She says rainwater seeped through the walls. She managed to save her favorite chair, but some of her other furniture is damaged. Just outside Pomerenke’s unit, Nick Sweiven attempts to dry out his dad’s original 1966 Mustang. Want to keep the ‘Stang nice, we’re about to fix it up hopefully,” Sweiven says. we hopes the car is passed down to him someday. But over at Garden View Apartments in New Brighton, the flooding situation is worse. Jennifer Giroux was in tears while carrying her belongings from her flooded garage. “It was just pouring massively,” Giroux says.  Up to 50 cars in the parking lot are now totalled. Many float in their spots, waiting for owners to push them to dryer ground. –Kare11

MANILA, Philippines – A five-year-old went missing after being swept away by heavy current in a flashflood incident in Cagayan de Oro City. In its latest report today, the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (NDRRMC) reported that the victim Angel Inso went missing while crossing through a wooden bridge with her mother at Sitio Bantiles, Barangy Bogo in Cagayan de Oro. The flashflood was caused by the overflowing of a creek near Bantiles Bridge due to continuous heavy rains. The Philippine Coast Guard is still conducting search and rescue operation for the missing victim. –Philstar

3 killed and swept away by sudden flashflood this weekend in Patalpani, India (unedited)

These ‘extreme weather’ events will become more numerous and deadly as global temperatures continue to rise and atmospheric conditions across the planet grow increasingly more unstable. This is the new face and force of natural destruction. It is deadly. It can strike in an instant. It is horrific and it will soon become the norm. In the space of less than half an hour; these unbridled forces of nature can obliterate ecosystems, alter landscapes and completely wipe man off the face of the Earth. –The Extinction Protocol, page 145

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