
At least 20 people, mostly children, have died in a flash flooding in the Dead Sea area of Jordan following heavy rains on Thursday, Arab News reported.
Most of the deaths occurred when a school bus carrying 37 students and seven staff members was washed off the road on its way to the Zara Maeen hot springs area, BBC News reported.
"The children tried to escape the floods by going to the bus but its doors were closed," the father of one of the survivors, Abu Yousef, told reporters, Reuters said. "The teachers tried to save the children but the flood's intensity made it impossible."
One video shared by Arab News showed the force of the flood waters sweeping through the valley.
Most of the victims were under 14 and also included families vacationing in the popular resort area. Rescuers and hospital workers told Reuters it was one of the worst natural disasters to impact Jordan in years.
So far, 37 people have been rescued, Arab News said, in an operation involving helicopters, divers and the army as rescuers searched the shores of the Dead Sea, which is the lowest point on earth. Israel assisted in the search efforts with helicopters and search-and-rescue teams.
One video showing what was reportedly the rescue of a child went viral on social media.
#VIDEO: A clip reportedly showing the dramatic rescue of a child during the #JordanFloods on Thursday has gone vira… https://t.co/ZCWbsZWBLh— Arab News (@Arab News)1540497838.0
The Jordanian government said it would open an investigation into the incident, but that the school, Victoria College in Amman, had broken regulations by embarking on the trip despite the bad weather.
"It is clear that there is a violation; the school that organized the trip did not abide by public safety regulations which stipulate that students must not swim and must be kept away from waterways," Minister of State for Media Affairs Jumana Ghunaimat told Arab News.
The school had approval for a different destination in the Easter desert region of Jordan, Ghunaimat said.
"Everyone who is proved to have committed a violation and did not do their part will be held to account," she said.
Jordan's King Abdullah II canceled a visit to Bahrain scheduled for Friday because of the tragedy. The Royal Hashemite Court flew Jordan's flag at half-mast Friday to honor the victims.
The Royal Hashemite Court flies the Jordanian flag at half-mast in memory of the students and citizens who died in… https://t.co/plYUaPFVpA— RHC (@RHC)1540533647.0
The rains were the first to hit the area after the summer dry season, and also washed out a bridge on one of the Dead Sea cliffs.
Flash floods are common in the area when rain hits higher ground and causes torrents to pour down the valley's steep cliffs, The Guardian reported. In April, similar floods killed nine Israeli teenagers hiking in the area.
#Avalanche of Water Kills 10 #Italian #Hikers in Narrow Gorge #flashflood #civita #Raganello #italy https://t.co/ISzvYOxiOq— EcoWatch (@EcoWatch)1535008692.0
- Redwoods are the world's tallest trees.
- Now scientists have discovered they are even bigger than we thought.
- Using laser technology they map the 80-meter giants.
- Trees are a key plank in the fight against climate change.
They are among the largest trees in the world, descendants of forests where dinosaurs roamed.
Pixabay / Simi Luft
<p><span>Until recently, measuring these trees meant scaling their 80 meter high trunks with a tape measure. Now, a team of scientists from University College London and the University of Maryland uses advanced laser scanning, to create 3D maps and calculate the total mass.</span></p><p>The results are striking: suggesting the trees <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-020-73733-6" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">may be as much as 30% larger than earlier measurements suggested.</a> Part of that could be due to the additional trunks the Redwoods can grow as they age, <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-020-73733-6" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">a process known as reiteration</a>.</p>New 3D measurements of large redwood trees for biomass and structure. Nature / UCL
<p>Measuring the trees more accurately is important because carbon capture will probably play a key role in the battle against climate change. Forest <a href="https://www.wri.org/blog/2020/09/carbon-sequestration-natural-forest-regrowth" target="_blank">growth could absorb billions of tons</a> of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere each year.</p><p>"The importance of big trees is widely-recognised in terms of carbon storage, demographics and impact on their surrounding ecosystems," the authors wrote<a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-020-73733-6" target="_blank"> in the journal Nature</a>. "Unfortunately the importance of big trees is in direct proportion to the difficulty of measuring them."</p><p>Redwoods are so long lived because of their ability to <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-020-73733-6" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">cope with climate change, resist disease and even survive fire damage</a>, the scientists say. Almost a fifth of their volume may be bark, which helps protect them.</p>Carbon Capture Champions
<p><span>Earlier research by scientists at Humboldt University and the University of Washington found that </span><a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0378112716302584" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Redwood forests store almost 2,600 tonnes of carbon per hectare</a><span>, their bark alone containing more carbon than any other neighboring species.</span></p><p>While the importance of trees in fighting climate change is widely accepted, not all species enjoy the same protection as California's coastal Redwoods. In 2019 the world lost the equivalent of <a href="https://www.worldwildlife.org/threats/deforestation-and-forest-degradation" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">30 soccer fields of forest cover every minute</a>, due to agricultural expansion, logging and fires, according to The Worldwide Fund for Nature (WWF).</p>Pixabay
<p>Although <a href="https://c402277.ssl.cf1.rackcdn.com/publications/1420/files/original/Deforestation_fronts_-_drivers_and_responses_in_a_changing_world_-_full_report_%281%29.pdf?1610810475" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">the rate of loss is reported to have slowed in recent years</a>, reforesting the world to help stem climate change is a massive task.</p><p><span>That's why the World Economic Forum launched the Trillion Trees Challenge (</span><a href="https://www.1t.org/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">1t.org</a><span>) and is engaging organizations and individuals across the globe through its </span><a href="https://uplink.weforum.org/uplink/s/uplink-issue/a002o00000vOf09AAC/trillion-trees" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Uplink innovation crowdsourcing platform</a><span> to support the project.</span></p><p>That's backed up by research led by ETH Zurich/Crowther Lab showing there's potential to restore tree coverage across 2.2 billion acres of degraded land.</p><p>"Forests are critical to the health of the planet," according to <a href="https://www.1t.org/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">1t.org</a>. "They sequester carbon, regulate global temperatures and freshwater flows, recharge groundwater, anchor fertile soil and act as flood barriers."</p><p><em data-redactor-tag="em" data-verified="redactor">Reposted with permission from the </em><span><em data-redactor-tag="em" data-verified="redactor"><a href="https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2021/03/redwoods-store-more-co2-and-are-more-enormous-than-we-thought/" target="_blank">World Economic Forum</a>.</em></span></p>EcoWatch Daily Newsletter
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Kentucky is coping with historic flooding after a weekend of record-breaking rainfall, enduring water rescues, evacuations and emergency declarations.
<div id="0f31c" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="4290ab3e7ec4e142f8bce774bab39f03"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet twitter-custom-tweet" data-twitter-tweet-id="1366307788155219969" data-partner="rebelmouse"><div style="margin:1em 0">Just got back from my office... downtown Beattyville Kentucky is not a pretty sight. @KySportsRadio… https://t.co/6nXwyMKtRb</div> — Tom Jones (@Tom Jones)<a href="https://twitter.com/8atticus/statuses/1366307788155219969">1614588136.0</a></blockquote></div>
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