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| Another big disaster: Huge floods in Iran have claimed at least 45 lives. It looks like it's going to get worse, too. |
Reuters reports that the worst of the flooding is in northern and southwestern Iran, especially around the city of Shiraz, and the oil-rich province of Khuzestan.
Vast neighborhoods were or are under water and cars were swept off highways and left in huge heaps of twisted metal by the rushing water.
Iran is used to disasters such as earthquakes, and floods do hit the nation from time to time. But this one is probably one for the record books. The rain so far is said to be the worst in at least a decade, and more heavy rain is in the forecast over the next few days in the hardest hit region.
As always, it's tempting to blame this disaster on climate change, but the direct connection is hard to prove. It can be said that climate change does add water to the atmosphere, potentially making big rain storms bigger and increasing the chances of floods.
So in this case like many others, the latest Iranian disaster is consistent with climate change, although it would take people a lot smarter than me to figure out how direct the connection might or might not be.
The flash floods were immense and caught people off-guard. As you'll see in videos below, the sudden, massive rush of water swept many people away and screaming, horrified onlookers could do nothing about it as the flood waters were too dangerous and fast to try rescues.
Hundreds of cars, some of them occupied, raced along with the floodwaters to.....somewhere. The videos also showed people trapped on suddenly-formed islands amid the water.
Here's one terrifying video compilation of the disaster:
More dramatic video from the Iran Press News Agency:
Video from an Iranian television station shows some of the scope of the flooding, and a TV reporter waist deep in the water:
Finally, here's a dog being rescued from the flood. It would have drowned had not these guys come along in a boat:
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