Beyond Mississippi flood, southern Africa sees record deluges

By Jeremy Hance, www.mongabay.com
12 May 2011 While record crests of the Mississippi River are creating havoc in the southern US, this is not the only region in the world facing unprecedented flooding. Huge rain events have produced floods in southern Africa as well, impacting Namibia, Botswana, and South Africa. Since last year rainfall has been above average in much of these regions, including a record deluge this month in Namib Desert, where more rain fell in just one day in than usually does in an entire year. The flooding has not been without its human consequences. In Namibia at least 62 people have died while hundreds of thousands have been impacted, and at least 5,000 are living in temporary shelters. With the rising waters are also fears of water-borne illness growing, such as malaria. Namibia is proposing to build canals to deal with future flooding. Henock Kankoshi, a member of Namibia’s National Council, recently said canals were necessary because , “We are still going to experience heavy rains and floods in the years to come due to global warming and climate change.”  … “It’s not the right question to ask if this storm or that storm is due to global warming, or is it natural variability. Nowadays, there’s always an element of both,” climatologist Kevin Trenberth of the National Center for Atmospheric Research told the New York Times last year in a front-page story on the connections between extreme weather and climate change. …

Photos: beyond Mississippi flood, southern Africa sees record deluges