At least 10 people have been killed by catastrophic floods in northern regions of Chile after thunderstorms brought the equivalent of 7 years of rain in just 12 hours on March 26. Search and rescue operations are still in progress and authorities fear the number of casualties will rise. Flooding has affected the regions of Atacama, Antofagasta and Coquimbo, all located in the Atacama Desert, one of the driest regions of the world.
Heavy rainfall and consequent river overflow, flash floods and landslides knocked out power and communication lines, destroyed infrastructure and made roadways impassable.
A state of emergency is in effect since March 26 for the Atacama Region and the Antofagasta municipality. The Health Ministry has declared a Sanitary Alert in Copiapó, Tierra Amarilla, Diego de Almagro and Alto del Carmen.
Chile’s Deputy Interior Minister Mahmud Aleuy called the flooding “the worst rain disaster to fall on the north in 80 years.”
The Atacama Desert is an extremely arid region and has been for millions of years, Weather.com senior meteorologist Nick Wiltgen explains. “As a result, the terrain is hard and rocky because rainfall isn’t frequent or abundant enough for either weathering rocks into sand or supporting the kind of ecosystem that would help turn rocks and minerals into soil. Without soil and plant cover to help absorb rainfall, it just runs off instantly as torrents of water.”
Between Thursday and Friday about 24 mm fell on the city of Antofagasta, an area that typically receives about 1.7 mm of rain in a year, according to the Chilean meteorological service.
Southern Peru was also affected by recent heavy rain. Intense rainfall in Chosica caused deadly mudslide on March 23 which left 8 fatalities, 6 missing and 25 people injured. In addition, 153 houses have collapsed as a result of this event.
Massive Flooding in Chile a Window to Warming World
March 31, 2015
A warmer atmosphere holds more moisture. Simple physics.
In the American midwest, where I live, everyone knows we are seeing more intense rain events. Here’s how it plays out in much dryer and more sensitive areas.
As I’ve mentioned before, one positive effect of global warming will be the large increase in really cool viral videos.
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March 31, 2015 at 10:51 am
Note that this disaster in Chile resulted from 24 mm of rain. That’s just under the 25.4 mm needed to equal one inch, an amount that is no big deal in most parts of the U.S. What will be the impact if they should get TWO inches?
And a TOTAL of 1.7 mm of rain per YEAR is hard to imagine. That’s a little over 1/16″, and that much dew condenses on my car windows in VA many mornings.
March 31, 2015 at 12:00 pm
So, on one hand we see 7 years of rain in 12 hours, a suspension bridge nearly swept away by raging torrents. Hundreds dead.
And, on the other hand, we have the right-wing deniosphere staging public testimony that even the very idea that air pollution causes human illness is a falsehood promulgated by a conspiracy of the scientific establishment.
Steve Milloy, spokesman for coal interests, the Heartland Institute, Fox News columnist, and proud AGW denier asked:
“Where are the bodies?”
Where are they? According to a new DARA (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DARA_%28international_organization%29) report (http://daraint.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/CVM2ndEd-FrontMatter.pdf), I calculated that if you took the bodies of all the people dying from AGW this year, and laid them out head to toe, they would stretch nearly 270 miles.
It would have been longer, you see, but the bodies are not very long. The vast majority of them are children. 1000 children a day are dying from AGW.
Now, in 2009, Steve Milloy had a PR campaign against proponents of a cap and trade proposal. He called them “Carbon Criminals” and outed their faces on “Wanted posters”.
I would suggest that Steve Milloy actually IS a criminal. I believe that people like him, like the Koch brothers, like Rush Limbaugh, like Anthony Watts – people who are paid to conduct lying, untruthful, deceitful propaganda campaigns against the established science of AGW are guilty of crimes against humanity.
I would suggest that they are partly responsible for the deaths of each and every one of those 1000 children who die every day because of AGW. I believe that they are true “Carbon Criminals” and should be prosecuted by the International Criminal Court for their crimes which may fall under the definition of the court:
“a widespread or systematic attack directed against any civilian population, with knowledge of the attack:
murder;
extermination;
enslavement;
deportation or forcible transfer of population;
imprisonment;
torture;
rape, sexual slavery, enforced prostitution, forced pregnancy, enforced sterilization, or any other form of sexual violence of comparable gravity;
persecution against an identifiable group on political, racial, national, ethnic, cultural, religious or gender grounds;
enforced disappearance of persons;
the crime of apartheid;
other inhumane acts of a similar character intentionally causing great suffering or serious bodily or mental injury.
I would point out that simply being involved in the design and execution of a propaganda campaign which results in great suffering would appear to satisfy the charge, as demonstrated by the indictment of Herman Goebbels, who never actually shot anyone in WWII. He was merely a propagandist whose calculated and science-derisive actions resulted in the deaths of millions.
Carbon criminals are murdering 1000 children a day.
March 31, 2015 at 5:22 pm
[…] VIDEO: Massive Flooding in Chile a Window to Warming World (Climate Crocks): At least 10 people have been killed by catastrophic floods in northern regions of Chile after thunderstorms brought the equivalent of 7 years of rain in just 12 hours on March 26. […]
March 31, 2015 at 9:28 pm
El Nino