August 28, 2009

Threatening Floods In Bangladesh

According to ReleifWeb hundreds of thousands of Bangladeshis are stranded by floods:

Heavy monsoon rains, which arrived much later than normal this year, have stranded hundreds of thousands in southeastern Bangladesh and threatened livelihoods. According to the Flood Forecasting and Warning Centre (FFWC), there are nine places where river levels are 3-125cm above the danger level. If current rainfall persists - as the FFWC thinks it will - by the end of August over 30 percent of the country could be inundated, the forecast warns.


Here is the satellite photo from Earth Observatory acquired on July 23, 2009 showing the Brahmaputra River:



The situation changed and the inundations can be seen in this image acquired on August 26, 2009:



Earth Observatory:

Although Bangladesh had suffered from drought just a month earlier, heavy rains arrived in August 2009. The overdue monsoon rains had swelled the Brahmaputra River and many of its tributaries by late August.

The images show a stretch of the Brahmaputra River has it passes through eastern India and neighboring Bangladesh. Although clouds obscure part of the river in the later image, its expanded width is unmistakable. In the west, where the river curves to the south and east, tributaries that are barely discernible in late July are conspicuous in late August.

3 comments: