22 September 2009
Rainfall disaster in the Cape Verde Islands
Posted by Dave Petley
Cape Verde is an island state consisting of an archipelago of islands located in the North Atlantic 600 km from the coast of West Africa. It is a pretty poor country of about 500,000 people, which rarely makes the news. Over the weekend the islands were hit by very heavy rainfall, triggering extensive flooding and landslides. According to this article, at least three people appear to have been killed, and there has been extensive damage. The town of Covaoda on San Nicolau appears to have been particularly badly hit.
Thanks to Rebecca Sharples, who sent these images of the disaster to me. The situation, which as far as I know, has not been reported internationally, looks very serious:
Dave Petley is the Vice-Chancellor of the University of Hull in the United Kingdom. His blog provides commentary and analysis of landslide events occurring worldwide, including the landslides themselves, latest research, and conferences and meetings.
Thank you Dr. Dave and Rebecca for helping shed some light on this devastating sequence of events, which has flown under the radar as far as international news is concerned.The island of Sao Nicolau is attempting to reach out for international assistance in order to restore the heavy damages to homes, structures and roads that allow all access in and out of all cities and towns.Please help spread the word as all possible donations are accepted and appreciated in helping the island and its population cope with their losses.There will be a couple of fund-raising events held by natives of Sao Nicolau who have emigrated and are now living abroad here in the United States.If you or anyone else reading this blog would like additional information regarding the fund-raisers or other methods of contribution, please email me at [email protected].I also have additional in-depth photos of the damages caused by the torrential rains if anyone would like to request them. I will be posting some shortly at the following website:http://www.clubnino.com Once again thank you for helping shed some light on this disaster!
when did this take place?
Amber, it occurred in September 2009.Dave