Malawi Floods - update # 2

When I first wrote about the recent flooding in Malawi on January 21, 2015, I wrote that I had spent two weeks in Malawi in 2007. I had the privilege of traveling with some wonderful people, most of whom were from California, who were doing work with HIV (through an organization known as GAIA) and I was interested at the time in issues around the provision of clean water.  I have since lost touch with the wonderful people who were my travel companions, and I think of them often. My life has taken a very different direction since my trip to Malawi in 2007, but what I saw in Malawi changed me.

One of the districts in Malawi that has been among the most severely affected districts is a district in southern Malawi known as Chikwawa (map of Malawi highlighting districts affected by the 2015 floods). We spent part of a day in the Chikwawa district, by far the most remote and among the poorest areas that we visited in Malawi. I write about traveling on as remote and rutted dirt road in the Chikwawa district, a village (Mindanti) we visited and a drive to Father Patrick’s (Anglican) Church here. I was interested in a water well that was then under construction in the Mindanti. The day we drove that road (during the dry season), it was lightly raining but many of the rivers and streams we crossed over were dry. Prior to going to Malawi, I had heard that the road we were on is impassable during a normally rainy season, this was confirmed by our driver. I could see why.

I wonder how the people in Mindanti and Father Patrick's Church made out during the floods.

I feel wholly inadequate writing that my thoughts and prayers are with the people of Southeastern Africa (Malawi, Mozambique, and Madagascar) that have been affected by flooding, see this report and map dated January 23 for a summary of information from each country.  Malawi often sees a lot of rain during this time of year, its rainy season. As I understand it, this is the worst flooding that Malawi has seen in some 30 years. And as it is still relatively early in the rainy season in Malawi, more heavy rains may make recovery efforts difficult.

One website that I have been to that has a good summary of some of the current conditions and some of the ongoing relief efforts is from ReliefWeb. As I write this ReliefWeb has a nice page summarizing focusing on Malawi with links to information about the recent floods that may be found here, however if you are accessing this page sometime after these floods, the information on this page may change.

The government of Malawi has a preliminary response plan for the 2015 floods where they report that:

• an estimated 638,00 people have been affected,
• an estimated 174,000 people have been displaced from their homes and are living at various displacement sites,
• 62 people are dead, and
• 153 are missing.

Included among the international relief agencies currently working in Malawi are World Food Programme, Doctors without Borders, and Gift of the Givers (Gift of the Givers photo gallery of destruction). I am certain that there are many other relief organizations working in Malawi that I am not mentioning here. I did find a link to a South Africa media site (includes TV and radio) known as SABC. I did notice, through searching on their website for "Malawi flood" some stories on the recent floods in Malawi, for example this one dated January 20th reports on difficult access.

Edited on January 24, 2015 to add link to Gift of the Givers and SABC website.

Flooding in Malawi

Some of you may or may not know that in June 2007 I spent two weeks in Malawi. It was only yesterday that I learned of the recent floods that have devastated southern Malawi. I wrote about my trip to Malawi here in this blog starting on June 14, 2007. Among the districts flooded in Malawi (see this map from Relief Web) are three districts where I spent at least night: Salima (Stayed in Carolina's Beach Resort in Salima), Blantyre, and Zomba. At least 173 are dead. I've seen reports of 20,000 to as much as 70,000 people being displaced or cutoff due to the flooding.

It feels only appropriate that I take a time out from my usual postings and write a post or two about the flooding in Malawi.

For more information on the flooding in Malawi

CNN report on Malawi
Reliefweb on Malawi (1/14/15 report)
Gift of the Givers 1/17/15 FB post on Malawi Flooding

video report from Washington Post TV (Reuters) 

direct link to video from AFP News Agency

Updated on May 2, 2016 to remove dead links.

More on Flooding in Australia

It is summer in Australia, and in other years it is around this time of year that the summer fire season down under would be ramping up. It was my intention to try to follow the 2011 summer fire season in Australia. They had been in a long term drought not so long ago. Things changed.

Sometime around the end of 2010 or early 2011 I first heard about widespread and catastrophic flooding in Australia. The videos I saw on the news were horrific. Words escape me and I wish that I could do something to help.

I suspect that given the moisture that will be present in the soil and the vegetation, even after these catastrophic flood recede, that the wildfire danger will be diminished. However, I am not exactly an expert on these matters. Nor am I familiar enough with Australian geography and weather patterns to know if there are areas in Australia that have not seen these flood waters that might be at risk for wildfires. I suppose that I'll find out as the summer months in Australia unfold.

That being said, I do want to provide a couple of resources for those of you who might want to see the effect of the catastrophic flooding in Australia. To that end, I am providing a couple of links. And here I am probably only touching the surface of coverage (media, personal accounts, etc) available on the internet.

1. Skynews Australia has a flooding webpage with reports and videos that may be found here.

2. A newspaper in Brisbane in Queensland AU, The Courier Mail has extensive coverage of the floods. This coverage includes, but is not necessarily limited to photo galleries (two may be found here and here, a story page with personal stories of devastation and hope, an interactive map of the Brisbane River Flood Crisis, and a link to a very good high resolution online mapping system of Australia that may be found here. And there are other links on the Courier Mail site that I am not including here.

Flooding in Australia

I would be remiss to not post about the devastating flooding in Australia. Words escape me.