Flood havoc

Heavy rain in Iran that began on Wednesday has set off flash floods and landslides in 21 of the country's 31 provinces, killing at least 53 people, heavily damaging hundreds of villages, cutting off access to major roads and forcing the evacuation of an ancient city, officials said.

With the death toll expected to rise - at least 16 people are still missing - the floods are the deadliest water-related episode in a decade.

The national crisis centre said heavy rainstorms with the risk of flooding would continue until tomorrow, and issued a nationwide warning to stay away from riverbanks and valleys.

Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi placed governors nationwide on high alert and ordered the emergency relief agencies to prepare for the possibility that reservoirs and dams would overflow, official media reported.

The monsoon-like rainfall, unusual for the typical dry summer season in much of Iran and the Middle East, fit a pattern of unpredictable and extreme weather around the world.

"When it comes to the Middle East and climate change, we always tend to talk about drought and water shortage, but this is misleading," said environmental scientist and water management expert Kaveh Madani at United Nations University in Germany. "Climate change can emerge as all sorts of extremes, including floods, landslides, wildfires and dust."

Subway systems in the cities of Isfahan and Shiraz were shut down, and the governors asked residents to stay home.

In Teheran, the capital, residents were urged to avoid unnecessary travel. The authorities also closed a popular summer retreat in a palace complex in the foothills of the mountains, and banned hiking and dining on the trails and in the riverside cafes that dot the area.

Two major roads that connect Teheran to the northern Caspian Sea region were closed early yesterday because of landslides and flood risks, local news media reported.

Mr Madani said weather forecasters had predicted heavy rain and flash floods in many parts of the country but the warnings had been mostly ignored by both officials and the population.

Flooding is not uncommon in Iran, but what sets this episode apart, he said, was how widespread flooding occurred simultaneously in many parts of the country.

In the northern seaside province of Mazandaran, popular with tourists, the head of the local crisis centre said three foreigners were among the dead and eight foreigners among the missing. Their nationalities were not specified.

Videos posted on social media and Iranian news sites showed harrowing scenes of water rushing into town centres and residential neighbourhoods.

Surging water led to walls collapsing, swallowed cars and caused people to drown as trapped onlookers cried for help, videos showed. In some areas, highways turned into lakes.

Meanwhile, across the Persian Gulf, the United Arab Emirates has also had torrential, record-breaking rainfall in the past few days, with floods ravaging roads and shops.

The emirates of Ras Al Khaimah, Sharjah and Fujairah are being hit the worst, with Fujairah seeing the largest rainfall in nearly three decades, according to local officials and media reports.

The UAE's interior minister said on Friday that seven Asian foreign nationals had died in the floods. At least 4,000 people had been evacuated to shelters, with many homes, businesses and livestock heavily damaged or destroyed, according to media reports.

NYTIMES

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Death toll climbs to 25 in Kentucky floods

HAZARD (Kentucky) • The death toll in the US state of Kentucky has reached at least 25 as flooding unleashed by torrential rainfall swept through homes, washed out roads and pushed rivers and streams over their banks, the state authorities said, warning that more fatalities were expected.

The National Guard and the State Police used helicopters and boats to rescue dozens of people from homes and vehicles in Kentucky's Appalachian coal-mining region.

Video footage from local media showed flood waters reaching the roofs of houses and turning roads into rivers.

"This isn't over," Governor Andy Beshear said during a morning news conference. "While we're doing search and rescue, there are still real dangers out there. The water hasn't crested in some areas and won't until tomorrow."

At least 25 people had died, according to reports from the governor's office and local officials.

Mr Beshear said repeatedly that the toll would almost certainly rise.

In the rugged topography of central Appalachia, many places were still cut off on Friday, and determining the toll of devastation could take weeks. The floods in the US state were the result of "epic" showers that dumped 13cm to 25cm of rain over the region in 24 hours, a downpour that may prove unprecedented in the region's record books, said environmental sciences professor William Haneberg, director of the Kentucky Geological Survey.

The disaster came two weeks after rain-triggered flash floods inundated the riverfront Appalachian community of Whitewood in south-western Virginia, near the Kentucky border.

The region's terrain of steep hillsides and narrow valleys makes it prone to flooding to begin with, but the increasing frequency and severity of rain-caused floods in the Appalachian region are symptomatic of human-induced climate change, Mr Haneberg said.

On Friday afternoon, some 22,000 homes and businesses in Kentucky and 2,200 in West Virginia were without power, according to Poweroutage.us.

United States President Joe Biden declared a major disaster in Kentucky on Friday, allowing federal funding to be allocated to the state.

On Thursday, West Virginia Governor Jim Justice declared a state of emergency for six counties in his state, where heavy rain caused flooding that disrupted drinking water systems and blocked roads.

In the US West, heavy rain battered Las Vegas as flood water washed over streets, rushed onto several casino floors and into parking garages along the famed Las Vegas Strip, video posted by local media and on social media showed.

REUTERS, NYTIMES

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Rail strike causes widespread disruption to British train services

LONDON • Around 5,000 train drivers across almost a quarter of Britain's rail network went on strike yesterday, as part of a campaign for higher pay after the country's inflation rate hit its highest level in 40 years.

The 24-hour strike organised by train drivers' union Aslef is the second significant industrial action last week on Britain's rail network, after 40,000 members of the RMT and TSSA unions - which represent other rail staff - held a major strike on Wednesday.

Soaring inflation - consumer price inflation is currently 9.4 per cent - and patchy wage rises have exacerbated labour tensions across sectors including postal services, health, schools, airports and the judiciary.

The rail strike was expected to cause "significant disruption" all day yesterday and this morning, according to Network Rail, which runs Britain's rail infrastructure.

Almost all services on seven of the country's 34 train operators were cancelled, including regional networks for south-east and eastern England as well as long-distance lines linking London with south-west England, north-east England and Edinburgh.

Britain's train services are mostly run on a for-profit basis by foreign state-owned rail companies which receive short-term contracts and operating subsidies from the government. Those subsidies ballooned as passengers stayed home during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Mr Steve Montgomery, managing director of rail operator First Rail and chair of the industry-wide Rail Delivery Group, said operators would give bigger pay increases only if train drivers agreed to changes in working practices that would save money.

"We're not saying to people 'work longer hours', but to be more productive within the hours they currently have," he said. Aslef, the train drivers' union, plans to hold another one-day strike on Aug 13.

REUTERS