MAJURO, Marshall Islands, Nov 29, 2019 (BSS/AFP) – More than 200 people
have been forced to flee their homes, after they were inundated by freak
waves in the Marshall Islands capital Majuro.
Swells averaging five metres (16 feet) washed rocks and debris onto roads,
temporarily cutting access to the international airport at the peak of the
flooding on Wednesday.
The Red Cross set up evacuation centres at two schools, with local churches
and Majuro’s mosque also offering help to fleeing residents.
The Marshall Islands are one of the Pacific nations on the front line of
climate change, causing increasingly intense weather phenomena and storm
surges linked to rising seas.
Climate researcher Murray Ford said such factors may have played a role in
this week’s flooding but were not the main cause.
“The key driver of this current inundation appears to be a large swell
which has arrived from a more northerly direction than the typical trade wind
swell,” he said.
“This particular event would be best described as a large swell, meeting a
high, but not unusually high tide.”
Disaster response officials were expected to complete a damage assessment
on Friday.