7/22/12, "Officials in southern Russia held over floods," BBC
"Russian police have arrested three officials in the southern Krymsk region accused of failing to warn residents of disastrous flooding earlier this month.
The former head of Krymsk district, who had already been fired for his handling of the floods, and the mayor of Krymsk town are among those held.
The floods claimed the lives of 171 people, mostly in the town of Krymsk.
The floods hit the region overnight, catching many residents unawares, and were blamed on torrential rain.
The town of Krymsk was devastated as thousands of houses were almost completely submerged by rising water.
Many residents were forced to take refuge in trees or on rooftops.
"Essentially ignoring the weather service forecasts, the suspects did not inform the population about the looming danger and did not take steps to evacuate people," spokesman for the Investigative Committee said to Russian TV, according to the AFP news agency.
The floods were the first major disaster of President Vladimir Putin's third term in office, and federal authorities have been eager to show they are heeding criticism of the official response, which has been voiced even in normally pro-government media outlets.
Russian federal authorities launched an investigation shortly after the floods into possible negligence.
Mr Putin flew to the region himself in the immediate aftermath of the floods.
Local officials had said flood warnings were given using sirens, SMS messages and loudspeakers. But many people were asleep when the floods hit and did not hear them."
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7/22/12, "Russia arrests officials after deadly floods," Ahram.org
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2010 Pakistan floods were forecast at least 10 days before they happened but the information was withheld by a London company and by Pakistan itself, which resulted in deaths. Profiteers used photos of the flood in an attempt to blame global warming rather than focusing on actual crimes that led to deaths.
1/31/11, "Pakistan flood warning 'not passed on'," BBC
"A study has suggested that the effects of last year's floods in Pakistan could have been less catastrophic if European weather forecasts had been shared with Pakistan.
The American Geophysical Union said the forecasts could have given up to 10 days' advance warning of the floods.
The study said this could have allowed the authorities in northern Pakistan to take preventative measures.
- The monsoon floods affected 20 million people and one fifth of the country.
At least 1,500 people died in the deluge.
The American Geophysical Union said the information
- did not reach Pakistan because of a "lack of cooperation between the forecasting centre and Pakistan".
Pakistan's own weather agency also did not forecast the floods, the organisation added.
"This disaster could have been minimised and even the flooding could have been minimised," said Peter Webster, a professor of earth and atmospheric science at the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta and lead writer of the study.
"If we were working with Pakistan, they would have known eight to 10 days in advance that the floods were coming."
The study, which used data from the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasting (ECMWF), found that the floods could have been predicted if the data had "been processed and fed into a hydrological model,- which takes terrain into account".
The London-based ECMWF, however, said it did not
- "give out weather forecasts and weather warnings to the general public
- or media".
ECMWF scientist Anna Ghelli was quoted as saying that the organising provided forecasts to its members and co-operating states and
- "they are responsible to prepare forecasts for the public and advise the authorities in their own countries"."
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8/18/10, "Illegal logging by Pakistan's timber mafia increased flooding devastation," Treehugger.com, Matthew McDermott
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Ed. note: So it wasn't America's fault.
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