On Thursday October 05, Taiwan's meteorological services recorded extremely violent winds.
Torrential rains and exceptionally powerful winds hit southern Taiwan. Typhoon Koinu unleashed wind gusts in excess of 340 km/h, reaching some of the most violent levels ever recorded.
As a result, many international and domestic flights were cancelled, and schools were forced to close in some parts of the island.
At this stage, the provisional balance sheet shows extensive material damage and 190 people injured, but unfortunately no fatalities have been reported.
The northeast of the Spanish island of Tenerife, part of the Canary Islands tourist archipelago, was the scene of a new fire that broke out on Wednesday, October 4. Faced with the growing threat of flames, the authorities took the crucial preventive measure of ordering the evacuation of 3,000 people.
Among them, 2,400 residents were forced to leave the town of Santa Ursula, while 600 others were evacuated from La Orotava.
This latest disaster comes at a delicate time for the region, as the Canary Islands are currently experiencing exceptionally high temperatures, in excess of 30°C. The weather conditions, combined with drought, have created an environment conducive to fires.
Later in the week, the Canary authorities decided to close schools due to a heat wave hitting the Spanish archipelago.
On the evening of October 8, 2023, disaster struck in Cameroon. 30 people lost their lives in a landslide.
According to Minister Atanga Nji Paul, the incident was the result of heavy rains and run-off damaging a water retention dam at Nkol Etam, causing mud and water to flow down the slopes of the region to the localities of the Mbankolo district below.
Around 50 people were injured, while at least 30 houses were destroyed. Relief supplies have been prepared for distribution to those affected.
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In Burma, unprecedented flooding has displaced around 14,000 people.
Bago Township, was severely affected by torrential rains from October 6, 2023, with a record 200 mm in 24 hours on October 8, 2023. This surpassed the previous record of 146 mm set in October 2018.
The flooding was exacerbated by the rapid rise in the level of the Bago River, which exceeded the danger threshold of 8.80 meters, reaching 10.04 meters on October 9.
In all, some 14,934 people were evacuated to 63 emergency evacuation centers in the affected areas of Bago, Mon and Yangon. The floods have also resulted in loss of life and injuries, with initial reports indicating 5 deaths and 35 injuries.
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Hurricane Lidia, category 4 of the five on the Saffir-Simpson scale, made landfall on Tuesday October 10, 2023 in Mexico with winds of 220 km/h, announced the US-based National Hurricane Center (NHC).
Sadly, two people lost their lives to the hurricane. One man was swept away while attempting to cross a swollen river in the municipality of Pihuamo, in the state of Jalisco. In the coastal town of Banderas Bay, another man was killed by a falling tree.
Although Lidia weakened into a tropical storm after its passage, it had been described as extremely dangerous due to its violent winds and heavy rains. It had originally formed in the Pacific Ocean, reaching category 4 on the Saffir-Simpson scale.