Western Europe was lashed by hurricane force winds, surging seas and driving rain on Sunday, February 28 resulting in the deaths of 53 people. The western coasts of France and Spain were particularly affected by the Atlantic storm, dubbed Xynthi.

Forty five people have been confirmed dead in France since Sunday according to the Interior Ministry. Most of those who died drowned in the flooded coastal towns of the Vendee and Charente-Maritime regions, after eight metre waves battered the west coast of the country. The storm brought with it a band of foul weather that stretched from Portugal to the Netherlands and inland to Germany.

This storm highlights the world’s vulnerability to storm surges and extreme flooding as a result of extreme weather. An April 2009 report ‘Sea-Level Rise and Storm Surges: A Comparative Analysis of Impacts in Developing Counties’ released by the World Bank found that coastal areas of the world face an accelerated rise in sea levels, an intensification of cyclones and larger storm surges as a result of climate change.

The report found that coastal areas such as Hai Phong and Vung Tau in Vietnam, San Jose and Manila in the Philippines, and Barisal and Cox’s Bazaar in Bangladesh to be the major cities particularly at risk due to intensification of storm surges, based on the population and percentage of exposed coastal area. Others at high risk included cities in Nigeria, Mexico, India and Egypt.

The report’s results indicate that the most highly vulnerable large cities are those in countries classified as low-income, which makes a strong case for rapid intervention to assist those countries already struggling with a range of other social and economic issues.

As flooding and storm surges increase the risk of drowning, it is all the more vital that adults and children are taught drowning prevention awareness, survival swimming, basic rescue and CPR skills. These skills form the bulk of the curriculum of SwimSafe, a survival swimming program currently being implemented in Bangladesh, Thailand and Vietnam.

Drowning prevention in this area is of great concern to the International Life Saving Federation (ILS) and as such, Disasters and Climate change will be one of eight themes at the next World Conference on Drowning Prevention, to be held in May 2011. The conference will be held in Danang, Vietnam, a country which experiences a large number of drowning deaths due to storm surges and coastal inundation each year.

Amy Peden, Royal Life Saving Society – Australia

The conference organisers welcome contributions to this news facility. Please email all contributions to jscarr@rlssa.org.au