Asia floods ease, but more heavy rain looms

Asia floods ease, but more heavy rain looms

SINGAPORE (Reuters): Flooding and rains that have killed over
100 people in Southeast Asia have started to recede, but
forecasters warned on Wednesday that more heavy rain was on the
way and the unusually wet weather could last until February.

Experts say heavy rainfall in the region is consistent with
the climate change expected from global warming, but they concede
that, scientifically, there is still no direct link.

"The floods out here are exactly in line with what one would
expect," said Peter Walker, head of delegation for Southeast Asia
for the International Federation of Red Cross Societies (IFRC).

"This is a taste of things to come," he told Reuters.

United Nations weather scientists say the combination of heavy
rainfall in Southeast Asia and devastating drought across Central
Asia this year is in the extremes of what has been experienced
over the last 100 years.

The worst flooding in decades earlier this year in Vietnam,
Cambodia, Bangladesh and eastern India killed hundreds of people,
left millions homeless and destroyed crops and livestock.

The region's volatile weather showed little sign of calming on
Wednesday as a tropical cyclone packing winds up to 135 kph was
set to cross southern India from the Bay of Bengal.

Indonesian officials say around 60 people have been killed and
scores are missing after a week of heavy rains, flooding and
landslides in the north and west of the island of Sumatra.

The rains are now easing, but weather forecasters say that
unusually heavy rainfall is likely to be experienced until the
end of February.

"A lot of small landslides are taking away houses and people
are starting to move into the coastal areas so we'll be starting
a program to assist those people," said Walker of the IFRC.
"The landslides are definitely in areas that have been
deforested," he added.

In Thailand, officials at Bangkok's rescue center said the
flood situation had significantly improved with waters receding
across southwestern provinces.

At least 54 people were killed in last week's floods in
southern Thailand and nine are still missing.

In Malaysia, at least 11 people were killed in the past week
as monsoon rains triggered floods in several parts of the
peninsula but thousands of people started to return to their
homes on Wednesday as floodwaters subsided.

In Australia, the state of New South Wales suffered its worst
flooding in 50 years last week with a third of the state under
water.

In Washington on Tuesday, environmentalists urged climate
change treaty negotiators to act quickly to resume talks
suspended last week in The Hague.

They claim a final deal to cut the world's greenhouse gas
emissions -- blamed for triggering global warming -- was close.

Any major player in talks can call for a resumption of the
negotiations, according to the environmentalists, who noted that
given a little more time, a final treaty could be reached.

Many nations have lamented the failure of last week's climate
talks and say that time is running out to agree practical steps
to curb global warming, which environmentalists say is melting
ice caps, raising sea water and making the weather more volatile.

The IFRC's Walker said the floods in Cambodia and Vietnam this
year were the worst since the 1960s. "The rains started earlier
and carried on longer, and the storm intensity was greater than
usual," he said.

"We are planning on the basis that we will have to do the same
thing again next year (supply disaster relief)."