Extreme heat scorches Europe, world

ROME, Italy - Swathes of Europe baked Tuesday in a heatwave trailed by wildfires and health warnings, as parts of Asia and the United States also suffered under extreme weather.

Firefighters battled blazes in parts of Greece and the Canary Islands and Spain issued heat alerts, while some children in Italy's Sardinia were warned away from sports for safety reasons.

In the United States, the city of Phoenix broke a 49-year-old record with its 19th consecutive day of temperatures of 43.3 Celsius (110 Fahrenheit) or higher, weather officials said.

"You can't be in the street, it's horrible," said Lidia Rodriguez, 27, in Madrid.

From the Washington to Beijing, authorities have warned in recent days of the health dangers of the extreme heat, urging people to drink water and shelter from the sun.

Several local temperature records were broken in southern France, the weather service there said.

Meteo France said a record 29.5 C (85 F) had been reached in the Alpine ski resort of Alpe d'Huez, which sits at an altitude of 1,860 metres (6,100 ft), while 40.6 C (105F) had been recorded for the first time in Verdun in the foothills of the Pyrenees.

In a stark reminder of the effects of global warming, the UN's World Meteorological Agency (WMO) said the trend of heatwaves "shows no signs of decreasing".

"These events will continue to grow in intensity, and the world needs to prepare for more intense heatwaves," John Nairn, a senior extreme heat advisor at the WMO told reporters in Geneva.

Wildfires and scorching heat

Northwest of the Greek capital Athens, columns of smoke loomed over the forest of Dervenohoria, where one of several fires around the capital and beyond was still burning.

Still burning was a forest fire by the seaside resort of Loutraki, where the mayor said 1,200 children had been evacuated Monday from holiday camps.

In the Canary Islands, some 400 firefighters battled a blaze that has ravaged 3,500 hectares of forest and forced 4,000 residents to evacuate, with authorities warning residents to wear face masks outside due to poor air quality.

Temperatures were unforgiving in Italy and in Spain, where three regions were put under hot weather red alerts.

The Italian islands of Sardinia and Sicily have been on watch to possibly surpass a continent-wide record of 48.8C (nearly 120F), recorded in Sicily in August 2021.

At Lanusei, near Sardinia's eastern coast, a children's summer camp was restricting beach visits to the early morning and forbidding sports, teacher Morgana Cucca told AFP.

In the Sardinian capital of Cagliari, pharmacist Teresa Angioni said patients were complaining of heat-related symptoms.

"They mainly buy magnesium and potassium supplements and ask us to measure their blood pressure, which is often low," Angioni said.

Many throughout Italy sought escape by the sea, including outside Rome, where the midday heat hit 40C (104F).

"Certainly it's better at the beach, you can at least get a little wind from the sea. It's not even possible to remain in the city, too hot," said Virginia Cesario, 30, at the Focene beach near the capital.

Climate change impact

Tens of millions of Americans experienced dangerous heat levels on Tuesday.

In the town of San Angelo, Texas, where temperatures were expected to reach 104-108F (40-42C), the National Weather Service said it was "running out of ways to say that it's gonna be hot out there today."

"With temperatures across the area likely topping the 105 mark yet again, we implore you to continue to practice heat safety and try to stay as cool," the agency said on Twitter.

And in Arizona, the mercury at Phoenix Sky Harbor Airport again reached 110F on Tuesday, breaking the previous record of 18 consecutive days at or above that temperature, set in 1974.

The heat waves across Europe and the globe are "not one single phenomenon but several acting at the same time," said Robert Vautard, director of France's Pierre-Simon Laplace climate institute.

"But they are all strengthened by one factor: climate change."

Heat record in China

In parts of Asia, record temperatures have triggered torrential rain.

Nearly 260,000 people were evacuated in southern China and Vietnam before a typhoon made landfall late Monday, bringing fierce winds and rain but  weakening to a tropical storm by Tuesday.

The record-setting heat came as US climate envoy John Kerry met with Chinese officials in Beijing, as the world's two largest polluters revive stalled diplomacy on reducing planet-warming emissions.

Speaking Tuesday at Beijing's Great Hall of the People with China's top diplomat Wang Yi, Kerry called for "global leadership" on climate issues.

Agence France-Presse

Deadly storms and tornadoes sweep through US; death toll rises to 24

WASHINGTON -- The death toll from a major storm system that has lashed the south-central and eastern United States with devastating winds and powerful tornadoes rose to at least 24 by Sunday, officials said.

Tennessee, one of the hardest-hit states since the storms began Friday, initially had seven weather-related fatalities, but it later rose to nine, according to Memphis-based news channel WREG.

Scenes of devastation were left in the path of the Tennessee tornado, which twisted trees, flattened homes into piles of wooden boards, and ripped walls from still-standing structures.

"The whole house, you can feel it shaking," said Janice Pieterick, whose house doors and glass windows blew out when the tornado swept through Lewis County.

"We just all hunkered down."

The toll in Tennessee came on top of the 15 deaths reported in Arkansas, Mississippi and Alabama in the south, Indiana and Illinois in the Midwest, and Delaware in the mid-Atlantic.

The storm system, which left dozens injured, was bearing down on the US east coast on Saturday, with thunderstorms, hail and powerful winds predicted through late Sunday.

It had sent multiple tornadoes -- some of exceptional size and power -- sweeping through Arkansas, where they killed at least five people, the state's governor said.

Daylight revealed extensive damage, with several homes torn apart, cars overturned, power lines toppled and trees ripped out of the ground.

Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders has declared a state of emergency and activated the national guard to help with recovery efforts.

She said she had spoken to President Joe Biden, who promised to expedite federal aid.

The city of Wynne, in northeastern Arkansas, was "cut in half by damage from east to west," Mayor Jennifer Hobbs told CNN.

The National Weather Service had issued tornado warnings for several other states, from as far north as Iowa to the southern state of Mississippi, where a twister last week killed 25 people and caused extensive property damage.

- Concert tragedy -

Calamity struck in the Illinois town of Belvidere, outside of Chicago, on Friday when severe weather caused the roof and part of the facade of the Apollo Theater to collapse while a heavy metal band played inside.

TV footage showed emergency personnel carrying out injured concert-goers on stretchers, while video posted on social media showed waist-high rubble on the floor of the venue and a gaping hole in the roof.

Belvidere Fire Chief Shawn Schadle reported one death and 28 injuries, including five people hospitalized with serious injuries.

In Crawford County, in southern Illinois, three people died when a house collapsed, likely from a tornado hit, said Kevin Sur, spokesman for the Illinois Emergency Management Agency.

In the neighboring state of Indiana, three people were killed by a storm in Sullivan County, on the border with Illinois, several US media outlets reported, citing local authorities.

Overnight tornadoes also claimed one life in Pontotoc County, Mississippi, and one in Madison County, Alabama, emergency officials reported Saturday.

More than 610,000 homes were without power Saturday, according to the poweroutage.us website.

- Storm moving north -

As the storm tracked northeastward, the highest number of outages on Saturday afternoon were in the states of Ohio and Pennsylvania.

Neighboring Delaware suffered one fatality from a "collapsed structure" in Sussex County on Saturday evening, according to the county's emergency operations center, while several mid-Atlantic states were under high wind warnings.

"Maximum wind gusts could approach 60 miles (100 kilometers) per hour throughout much of the Appalachians, upper Ohio Valley and Mid-Atlantic today," the National Weather System warned.

Tornadoes are common in the United States, especially in the center and south of the country.

Biden on Friday visited the Mississippi city Rolling Fork, one of the worst-hit areas in last week's tornado.

In December 2021, tornadoes killed about 80 people in Kentucky.

Agence France-Presse

Villagers flee floods in central China as typhoon approaches

Villagers were evacuated over makeshift bridges Friday as floods submerged swathes of central China following a historic deluge which claimed at least 51 lives -- while an approaching typhoon threatened to dump more rain on the stricken area.

Millions have been affected by the floods in Henan province, which have trapped people for days without fresh food or water, and pulverized roads as they breached embankments, caking whole areas in thick ankle-deep mud.

The death toll is expected to rise, with provincial officials telling reporters Friday that casualties were still being counted.

Adding to the misery, Typhoon In-Fa is forecast to bring further torrential downpours to parts of Henan in the coming days, state media said.

In the worst-hit city of Zhengzhou, firefighters Friday continued to pump muddy water from tunnels, including from a subway where at least a dozen people drowned inside a train earlier in the week as a year's worth of rainfall fell in just three days.

Overnight, heavy rain saw floods surge northwards to the city of Xinxiang and surrounding areas, where vast areas of farmland were inundated and the town cut off as the Wei River burst its banks.

"We were at my grandmother's and then the water suddenly rose... the building was surrounded by water," said Sun Haocun in the town of Weihui, who was rescued in a dinghy by a team of volunteers.

- Thousands evacuated -

AFP saw residents wading through water that reached waist-height, staggering with dogs, bicycles and bags of possessions.

Teams of rescuers in life jackets helped residents to safety, with several elderly people in wheelchairs lifted above the surging water through streets of shuttered shops.

"The resistance of the water is strong, especially when the water level is high and reaches up to the neck," said one exhausted volunteer Wang Kai, pushing an inflatable canoe.

Aerial footage showed rescuers using temporary bridges to move hundreds of residents to safety, with tree tops poking above the water the only sign of land for miles.

More than 495,000 people have been evacuated, said the Henan government, with the flooding causing billions of dollars of losses.

Liang Long, an employee at a hotel in a city neighboring Xinxiang, told AFP hundreds had arrived seeking refuge since Thursday afternoon and through the night.

"Their villages have been flattened with nothing left," he said.

The hotel, about 20 kilometers (12 miles) from the worst-hit areas, was still receiving "continuous" calls for help, Liang added.

"There are many people and our hotel's food is running low," he said.

Videos shared over social media have provided a window into the destructive power of the floods, which tossed cars into piles and sucked pedestrians towards storm drains.

Harrowing footage from rush-hour passengers trapped inside the subway, where waters rose from ankle to neck height, pinballed across China's Twitter-like Weibo as people questioned why the underground network had been allowed to operate during an unprecedented storm.

- Coastal warning -

Meteorologists are now anxiously watching the progress of Typhoon In-Fa which has already dumped heavy rainfall on Taiwan and the east coast of China, and is expected to make landfall from Sunday, in an area home to tens of millions of people.

"After landing, In-fa may circulate in the east China region, bringing long periods of extremely heavy rainfall," the National Meteorological Center said.

During high tides "coastal areas should guard against the combined impact of wind, rain and tides," it added, warning the public to prepare for a major weather event.

Questions have been asked about how China's bulging cities could be better prepared for freak weather events, which experts say are happening with increased frequency and intensity due to climate change.

Henan province is criss-crossed by rivers, dams and reservoirs, many constructed decades ago to manage the flow of floodwater and irrigate the agricultural region. 

State media has rebuffed suggestions that dams played a part in subverting the normal flow of water.

Stories of remarkable survival and tragedy have emerged as floods retreat from southern parts of Henan, with a baby dug out from a collapsed house while her mother died in the debris.

Agence France-Presse

Weeks without power or water ahead as Laura cleanup begins

LAKE CHARLES, La. (AP) — The destructive storm surge has receded, and the clean up has begun from Hurricane Laura, but officials along this shattered stretch of Louisiana coast are warning returning residents they will face weeks without power or water amid the hot, stifling days of late summer.

The U.S. toll from the Category 4 hurricane stood at 16 deaths, with more than half of those killed by carbon monoxide poisoning from the unsafe operation of generators.

President Donald Trump plans to tour the damage in Louisiana and neighboring Texas on Saturday.

Across southwestern Louisiana, people were cleaning up from the hurricane that roared ashore early Thursday, packing 150 mph (240 kph) winds. Many were deciding whether they wanted to return home to miserable conditions or wait until basic services are finally restored.

At First United Methodist Church in Lake Charles, a work crew was battling water that continued to pour into the church building as it rained Friday.

“This roof blew off. There’s some of it over there,” said Michael Putman, owner of Putman Restoration, pointing to part of the roof resting near the side of the building. A pile of black garbage bags sat outside the church, filled with insulation and ceiling tile.

Putman lives in Shreveport, which also got damage from the storm. But he said he drove down to Lake Charles to help the minister, who was his high school pastor.

“We slept in our truck in the parking lot last night,” he said.

Simply driving was a feat in Lake Charles, a city of 80,000 residents hit head on. Power lines and trees blocked paths or created one-lane roads, leaving drivers to negotiate with oncoming traffic. Street signs were snapped off their posts or dangling. No stoplights worked, making it an exercise in trust to share the road with other motorists.

Mayor Nic Hunter cautioned that there was no timetable for restoring electricity and that water-treatment plants “took a beating,” leaving barely a trickle of water coming out of most faucets. “If you come back to Lake Charles to stay, make sure you understand the above reality and are prepared to live in it for many days, probably weeks,” Hunter wrote on Facebook.

Caravans of utility trucks were met Friday by thunderstorms in the sizzling heat, complicating recovery efforts.

The Louisiana Department of Health estimated that more than 220,000 people were without water. Restoration of those services could take weeks or months, and full rebuilding could take years.

Forty nursing homes were relying on generators, and assessments were underway to determine if more than 860 residents in 11 facilities that had been evacuated could return.

The much weaker remnants of the hurricane continued to move across the Southern U.S., unleashing heavy rain and isolated tornadoes. North Carolina and Virginia could get the brunt of the worst weather Saturday, forecasters said.

When the storm moves back over the Atlantic Ocean, forecasters said it could become a tropical storm again and threaten Newfoundland, Canada.

Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards called Laura the most powerful hurricane to strike the state, meaning it surpassed even Katrina, which was a Category 3 storm when it hit in 2005. He said Friday that officials now believe the surge was as high as 15 feet (4.5 meters).

Saturday marks the 15th anniversary of Katrina.

Hurricane Laura also killed nearly two dozen people in Haiti and the Dominican Republic en route to the U.S. Gulf Coast.

In Lake Charles, chainsaws buzzed and heavy machinery hauled tree limbs in the front lawn of Stanley and Dominique Hazelton, who rode out the storm on a bathroom floor. A tree punctured the roof not far from where the couple was taking cover.

They regretted staying.

“There’s people without homes,” Stanley Hazelton said. “So it was dumb. We’ll never do it again. We’ll never stay through another hurricane again.”

Associated Press

Devastated Venice braced for third major flood

Venice was braced Saturday for an unprecednted third major flooding in less than a week, with sea water due to swamp the already devastated historic city where authorities have declared a state of emergency.

Mayor Luigi Brugnaro ordered the iconic St Mark’s Square closed on Friday as the latest sea surge struck with strong storms and winds battering the region.

After a brief respite on Saturday, the city forecast a high water of 160 centimetres (over five feet) for just after midday on Sunday, lower than Tuesday’s high of 187 centimetres but still dangerous.

Churches, shops and homes in the city, a UNESCO World Heritage site, have been inundated by unusually intense “acqua alta”, or high water, which on Tuesday hit its highest level in half a century.

“We’ve destroyed Venice, we’re talking about one billion (euros) in damage,” Brugnaro said after the second major flooding of around 160 centimetres hit on Friday.

The Italian football team travelled to Venice on Saturday to show solidarity with the stricken city.

“On behalf of the whole team, we stand close to the city of Venice,” said Italy goalkeeper Gianluigi Donnarumma.

The Italian football federation delegation visited several businesses damaged by the flooding, and chatted with Venetians, volunteers and police.

“Venice will overcome this too. Like an athlete who suffers a serious injury and then gets up again,” said delegation chief and former Azzurri international Gianluca Vialli.


The crisis has prompted the government to release 20 million euros ($22 million) in funds to tackle the devastation.

Surveying the damage, Culture Minister Dario Franceschini warned the task of repairing the city would be huge. More than 50 churches had suffered damage, he said.

Hotel reservations cancelled

Residents whose houses have been hit are eligible for up to 5,000 euros in immediate government aid, while restaurant and shop owners can receive up to 20,000 euros and apply for more later.

Most of the city’s cash machines were no longer working because of the water, making life even more difficult for tourists and Venetians.

Despite being used to the inconvenience of their city’s rising waters, some inhabitants expressed frustration.

“All the stock in the basement is lost,” lamented Luciano, a worker at a shop along St. Mark’s Square.

He said he remembered well the infamous “acqua alta” of 1966, when the water rose to a level of 1.94 metres, the highest since records began in 1923.

“These so frequent high waters have never happened before…this time there’s so much more damage than in the past,” he said.

Hotels reported cancelled reservations, some as far ahead as December, following the widespread diffusion of images of Venice underwater.

Tuesday’s high waters submerged around 80 percent of the city, officials said.

Many, including Venice’s mayor, have blamed the disaster on global warming and warned that the country prone to natural disasters must wake up to the risks posed by ever more volatile seasons.

The Serenissima, as the floating city is called, is home to 50,000 residents but receives 36 million visitors each year.

A massive infrastructure project called MOSE has been under way since 2003 to protect the city, but it has been plagued by cost overruns, corruption scandals and delays.

The speaker of Italy’s Senate, Maria Elisabetta Alberti Casellati, visited Venice on Saturday and called for the MOSE project to be completed.

“Once the emergency is over, the light on Venice should not go out,” Italian media reported.

“Venice needs attention. Now is the time to do it and if the MOSE serves as it should to avoid such disasters, then it must be finished.”

cjo/har

Agence France-Presse

Dorian topples crane, knocks out power in eastern Canada

TORONTO — Dorian arrived on Canada’s Atlantic coast Saturday with heavy rain and powerful winds, toppling a construction crane in Halifax and knocking out power for more than 300,000 people a day after the storm wreaked havoc on North Carolina’s Outer Banks.

Residents of Nova Scotia braced for heavy rainfall and potential flooding along the coast, as officials in Halifax urged people to secure heavy objects that might become projectiles. Businesses were encouraged to close early.

“We do not want the citizens of Halifax roaming downtown as the water is coming in,” said Erica Fleck, assistant chief of community risk reduction in Halifax, the provincial capital and home to 400,000 people.

A crane toppled and crashed into the side of a downtown apartment building under construction. In the city’s south end, a roof was ripped off an apartment complex, and firefighter Jeff Paris said several apartment buildings were being evacuated. With the collapsed crane and all the down trees and power lines, it’s fortunate there are no significant injuries or deaths, he said.

“The power went out hours ago, but we were well prepared,” said Tim Rissesco, who lives on the east side of Halifax harbor in Dartmouth. “We’ve got snacks and food and we’re hunkered down in the house playing board games and watching the rain and the wind.”

As Canada prepared for Dorian, floodwaters receded Saturday from North Carolina’s Outer Banks, leaving behind a muddy trail of destruction. The storm’s worst damage in the U.S. appeared to be on Ocracoke Island, which even in good weather is accessible only by boat or air and is popular with tourists for its undeveloped beaches. Longtime residents who waited out the storm described strong but manageable winds followed by a wall of water that flooded the first floors of many homes and forced some to await rescue from their attics.

“We’re used to cleaning up dead limbs and trash that’s floating around,” said Ocracoke Island resident and business owner Philip Howard. “But now it’s everything: picnic tables, doors, lumber that’s been floating around.”

Howard said by phone Saturday that flooding at his properties on the North Carolina island is 13 inches higher than the levels wrought by a storm in 1944, which he said had long been considered the worst. He raised his home higher than the 1944 flood level and still got water inside.

“It’s overwhelming,” said Howard, who owns the Village Craftsmen, a store that sells handcrafted pottery, glass and kitchen items. He said much of the merchandise on the lower shelves is ruined. Pieces of pottery were floating around inside.

Inside his house, the floorboards were buckling and curling up after being warped by the water, he said.

Gov. Roy Cooper said about 800 people had remained on the island to wait out Dorian. The storm made landfall Friday morning over the Outer Banks as a far weaker storm than the monster that devastated the Bahamas . Yet despite having been downgraded to a Category 1 storm, it still sent seawater surging into homes on Ocracoke, many for the first time in memory.


More than 1,100 Bahamians arrived in Palm Beach, Florida, after being evacuated by cruise ship from their hurricane-battered islands.

The Grand Celebration cruise ship returned to its home port after setting sail Thursday for Freeport, Grand Bahama, to deliver more than 112 tons of supplies and ferry dozens of health workers and emergency crews.

The storm made landfall Saturday evening near Sambro Creek, about 24 kilometers south of Halifax with maximum sustained winds of 161 kph.

Forecasters said the center of Dorian was expected to move across Nova Scotia, pass near or over Prince Edward Island, and then move to Newfoundland and Labrador on Sunday.

Canadian officials prepared for the possibility of flooding, washouts and storm surges, and Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale said the military was mobilizing to assist Nova Scotia.

Novia Scotia Power Inc. reported more than 300,000 customers were in the dark by 7 p.m., with power out in parts of Halifax, Prince Edward Island and New Brunswick. Karen Hutt, the utility’s chief executive, said Dorian is the largest weather event the company had ever responded to, and 1,000 workers were ready to restore power once it’s safe.

Hurricanes in Canada are somewhat rare in part because once the storms reach colder Canadian waters, they lose their main source of energy. Canadian Hurricane Centre meteorologist Ian Hubbard said the last hurricanes to make landfall in Canada were Hurricane Igor and Hurricane Earl in September, 2010.

The National Hurricane Center in Miami said Dorian was officially a post-tropical cyclone, not a hurricane, though it still packed hurricane-force winds.

Dorian lashed the eastern tip of Maine with heavy rain, strong winds and high surf as the storm passed offshore. Several hundred homes and businesses lost power.

In North Carolina, the governor said officials were aware of no serious injuries on the Outer Banks from the storm. About 200 people were in shelters and 45,000 without power as of mid-day Saturday, according to the governor’s office. Emergency officials transported fuel trucks, generators, food and water to Okracoke.

At least five deaths in the Southeast were blamed on Dorian. Four were men in Florida or North Carolina who died in falls or by electrocution while trimming trees, putting up storm shutters or otherwise getting ready for the hurricane. North Carolina officials said a 67-year-old man died Friday in Pamlico County after he collapsed while cleaning storm debris.

Dorian slammed the Bahamas at the start of the week with 295 kph winds, killing at least 43 people and obliterating countless homes. From there, it swept past Florida and Georgia, then sideswiped the Carolinas on Thursday, spinning off tornadoes that peeled away roofs and flipped recreational vehicles.

Ocracoke resident and restaurant owner Jason Wells said he lost three vehicles and a golf cart to floodwaters, and he has $5,000 worth of food in a freezer on an island that still lacks power. He said by text message Saturday that he and family members were already bleaching and disinfecting their houses, but he feared weeks could pass before electricity returned to most houses because of wiring problems caused by floodwaters.

“We are a close knit community. We will power on,” Wells wrote. “We will persevere. We are family. Time to get to work.”

source: newsinfo.inquirer.net

Hurricane Dorian: Shocking Images of Teen Almost Drowning

Practically parking over the Bahamas for a day and a half, Hurricane Dorian pounded away at the islands Tuesday in a watery onslaught that devastated thousands of homes, trapped people in attics and crippled hospitals. At least five deaths were reported, with the full extent of the damage far from clear.

The United Nations and the International Red Cross began mobilizing to deal with the unfolding humanitarian crisis in the wake of the most powerful hurricane on record ever to hit the Bahamas.

Dorian’s punishing winds and torrential rain battered the islands of Abaco and Grand Bahama, which have a combined population of about 70,000 and are known for their marinas, golf courses,

and all-inclusive resorts. The Grand Bahama airport was under 6 feet (2 meters) of water.

Bahamian officials received a “tremendous” number of calls from people in flooded homes, and desperate callers trying to find loved ones left messages with local radio stations.

One station said it got reports of a 5-month-old baby stranded on a roof and a woman with six grandchildren who cut a hole in a roof to escape rising floodwaters.

At least two designated storm shelters flooded. The U.S. Coast Guard airlifted at least 21 people injured on Abaco. Rescuers also used jet skis to reach some people.

“We will confirm what the real situation is on the ground,” Health Minister Duane Sands said. “We are hoping and praying that the loss of life is limited.”

Red Cross spokesman Matthew Cochrane said more than 13,000 houses, or about 45% of the homes in Grand Bahama and Abaco, were believed to have been severely damaged or destroyed. U.N. officials said more than 60,000 people on the hard-hit islands will need food, and the Red Cross said some 62,000 will need clean drinking water.

The Red Cross authorized a half-million dollars for the first wave of disaster relief, Cochrane said.

“What we are hearing lends credence to the fact that this has been a catastrophic storm and a catastrophic impact,” he said.

As of 11 a.m. EDT, Dorian’s winds had dipped to 110 mph (177 kph), making it a Category 2 hurricane, down from a terrifying Category 5 when it struck. The storm was centered about 45 miles (70 kilometers) north of Freeport and 105 miles (170 kilometers) east of Fort Pierce, Florida.

After standing still for nearly a day, it was on the move again, but just barely, pushing northwest at 2 mph (3 kph), or about as fast as a person walks.

Hurricane-force winds extended up to 60 miles (95 kilometers) from its center.

NASA satellite imagery through Monday night showed spots in the Bahamas where Dorian had dumped as much as 35 inches (89 centimeters) of rain, said private meteorologist Ryan Maue.

The Bahamas’ health minister said that Dorian devastated the health infrastructure on Grand Bahama and that severe flooding rendered the main hospital there unusable.

Sands said the main hospital in Marsh Harbor in the Abaco islands was intact and sheltering 400 people but in need of food, water, medicine, and surgical supplies.

He said crews were trying to airlift five to seven kidney failure patients from Abaco who had not received dialysis since Friday.

To the south, the Bahamas’ most populous island, New Providence, which is the site of the capital, Nassau, and has over a quarter-million people, suffered little damage.

Dorian was on track to approach the Florida coast later Tuesday and begin moving up the shoreline, but the threat to the state eased significantly, with forecasters not expecting a direct hit after all. The forecast instead showed North Carolina in the crosshairs toward the end of the week.

As Labor Day weekend drew to a close, over 2 million people in Florida, Georgia and South Carolina were warned to evacuate for fear Dorian could bring life-threatening storm-surge flooding even if the hurricane’s center stayed offshore, as forecast. Several large airports announced closings, and hundreds of flights were canceled.

Having seen storms swamp his home on the Georgia coast in 2016 and 2017, Joey Spalding of Tybee Island decided to empty his house rather than take any chances with Dorian.

He packed a U-Haul truck with tables, chairs, a chest of drawers, tools virtually all of his furnishings except for his mattress and a large TV and planned to park it on higher ground.

He also planned to shroud his house in the plastic wrap up to shoulder height and pile sandbags in front of the doors.

“In this case, I don’t have to come into a house full of junk,” he said. “I’m learning a little as I go.”

Leaving one person dead in its wake in Puerto Rico, Dorian hit the Bahamas on Sunday with sustained winds of 185 mph (295 kph) and gusts up to 220 mph (355 kph).

It tied the record for the strongest Atlantic hurricane ever to hit land, matching the Labor Day hurricane that struck Florida Gulf Coast in 1935, before storms were given names.

Scientists say climate change generally has been fueling more powerful and wetter storms, though they say linking any specific hurricane to global warming would require more detailed study.

In the Bahamas, choppy brown floodwaters reached roofs and the tops of palm trees.

Parliament member Iram Lewis said he feared waters would keep rising and stranded people would lose contact with officials as their cellphone batteries died.

“It is scary,” he said, adding that people were moving from one shelter to another as floodwaters kept surging. “We’re definitely in dire straits.”

Forecasters said that the storm had come to a near standstill because the steering currents in the atmosphere had collapsed, but that Dorian would resume moving later in the day, getting “dangerously close” to the Florida coast through Wednesday evening, very near Georgia and South Carolina coasts Wednesday night and Thursday, and near or over the North Carolina shoreline late Thursday.

Walt Disney World in Orlando planned to close in the afternoon, and SeaWorld shut down.

In South Carolina, Interstate 26 was turned into a one-way evacuation route away from Charleston on the coast, and Georgia officials likewise reversed lanes on I-16 on Tuesday to speed the flow of traffic away from the danger zone.

“We’re taking the ‘better safe than sorry’ attitude,” Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp said.

Coto reported from San Juan, Puerto Rico, and Weissenstein from Nassau, Bahamas. Associated Press reporters Tim Aylen in Freeport and Seth Borenstein in Washington contributed to this report.

source: usa.inquirer.net

Japan’s railway companies going high-tech to beat the heat

TOKYO —Japan railway companies are stepping up their efforts to beat the heat, in response to a series of passengers suffering heatstroke in trains and stations.

With the Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics set for next summer, railway companies operating in the Tokyo metropolitan area are using cutting-edge technology such as automatically turning up air conditioners near busy stations or adopting special window glass to shut out ultraviolet rays.


One morning in early July, the interior of a train on the JR Yamanote Line was hot and humid due to the mass of passengers. However, as the train approached Ikebukuro, one of Tokyo’s biggest terminal stations, it gradually became cooler.

The air conditioning in a train is usually set at a certain temperature. But starting three years ago East Japan Railway Co. (JR East) has used big data regarding the number of passengers in different times and zones to introduce train cars that automatically lower the temperature of air conditioners before trains arrive at busy stations where many people will get on.

The trains also choose the appropriate temperature based on the combined weight that passengers exert on the floor.

Leading railway companies, including Tokyo Metro Co., Odakyu Electric Railway Co. and Hankyu Corp. have installed a similar system to automatically adjust temperatures in their trains.


JR East and Seibu Railway Co. are using on some trains glass equipped with special metal and filters that absorb UV and infrared rays.

A spokesperson of Tokyo-based AGC Inc., one of the manufacturers of the glass, said, “The special materials can keep the sun and heat out, and avoid a rise in temperature within the trains.”

Heatstroke cases soar

According to the Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism Ministry, the average congestion rate in major railways in fiscal 2017 was 163 percent in the Tokyo metropolitan area and 125 percent in the Osaka metropolitan area, with the rate reaching close to 200 percent in some zones during commuting hours.

“More passengers become sick in crowded trains in summer because heat and odors stay inside the trains,” a railway official said.

According to the Tokyo Fire Department, 346 people were sent to the hospital from stations and trains with apparent heatstroke from June to September 2018, three times more than the previous year. The Fukuoka Fire Prevention Bureau reported 15 people, and the Nagoya City Fire Bureau reported 74 when the number of sufferers at bus terminals were included. The Osaka City Fire Department said ambulances were dispatched 89 times.

These numbers are all two to seven times the levels recorded in the previous year.

Heatstroke among passengers can also cause delays in train schedules. If trains stop between stations for a long time, more passengers may suffer health problems. Countermeasures against heat are crucial tasks for railway companies.

Medical checks

Keio Corp. has solicited opinions on its website about the temperatures in its trains, by asking passengers to evaluate the volume of air and temperatures of air conditioning in the trains they took by zone, time and boarding location, so as to utilize the feedback in its operations.

During the Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics next summer, stations near venues and major stations are expected to be greatly crowded. In July and August, JR East plans to set up a system at some stations on a trial basis in which people whose health condition has deteriorated can be diagnosed by videophone, under a partnership with hospitals in Tokyo.

The railway company also plans to station nurses at Sendagaya and Shinanomachi stations near the new National Stadium when the Jingu Gaien Fireworks Festival is held next month.

At a press conference on July 3, JR East President Yuji Fukasawa said, “We’ll thoroughly examine the effects and issues and make use of them during the Games.”

“Some people could develop symptoms of heatstroke, such as dizziness and nausea, even though they’re on trains not exposed to direct sunlight,” said Toshiki Mano, a professor at Chuo University who is also a physician well versed in heatstroke. “It’s necessary to drink fluids frequently when traveling, and take other measures such as changing to the next train depending on the congestion and one’s health condition.”

source: technology.inquirer.net

Maui hunkers down for Tropical Storm Olivia nearing Hawaii

HONOLULU — Maui hunkered down for heavy rains and powerful winds as a gradually weakening tropical storm barreled toward Hawaii, while Honolulu hoped it would be spared the worst.

Forecasters said Tropical Storm Olivia could dump 5 to 10 inches (12 to 25 centimeters) of rain, with some places getting as much as 15 inches.


Maui Mayor Alan Arakawa urged residents to store drinking water and warned that they should plan for power outages, landslides, high surf, fallen trees and flooded roads.

“Nature has a real funny way of not giving us advance notice,” Arakawa said.

Olivia was about 100 miles (160 kilometers) east of Maui and packing winds of 50 mph (85 kph) late Tuesday. The storm, which was a hurricane earlier in the week, has been slowly losing power as it nears the state.

Schools, courts and government offices will be closed in Maui County on Wednesday in preparation for the storm.

Scott Zaffram, a senior response official with the Federal Emergency Management Agency, said emergency teams and supplies were ready on Maui.

The National Guard has mobilized personnel and trucks to the east side of Maui, said Herman Andaya, administrator of the county’s emergency management agency.

Hawaiian Airlines cancelled flights by its commuter airline, Ohana by Hawaiian.

Officials were worried about landslides in west Maui because brushfires during Hurricane Lane three weeks ago wiped out vegetation, Maui County spokesman Rod Antone said.

Maui’s Costco was a “packed house” all day Monday, but the stream of customers slowed by Tuesday afternoon, said general manager Tony Facemire. Lines at the gas pumps remained long Tuesday, he said.

The store was well-stocked with most items, but was out of lanterns, flashlights and generators, he said.

The owner of the only hardware store in the small town of Hana on the east side of Maui said he was determined to stay open so residents could buy tarps, screws or other supplies for their homes.

“I think it’s important for us to try to stay open as much as possible, without jeopardizing the well-being of our staff,” said Neil Hasegawa, owner of Hasegawa General Store.

The storm was expected to affect Hana starting Tuesday night, and residents were bracing for Hana, with a population of 1,200 people, to take the brunt of the storm, Hasegawa said.

Those who prepared for Hurricane Lane have largely left those preparations in place for Olivia, he said.

“I think they’re even taking it more seriously than Lane,” Hasegawa said. “You can see the track going … it’s like barreling down on this eastern end.”

Hana is a popular day-trip destination for travelers staying in Maui’s resort towns. But Hasegawa urged people who don’t need to be in Hana to stay away because they could become trapped and take up limited shelter space.

Visitors Aaron Huston and his girlfriend Selena Palamides weren’t letting Olivia spoil their Maui vacation.

The Seattle couple stocked their hotel room mini-fridge with munchies and bottled water, “just in case we can’t go out,” Huston said.

They tried to get more sightseeing done Tuesday in case they’re stuck at their resort in Wailea on Wednesday.

“It sucks but there’s nothing we can do about it,” Huston said. “It’s better than Seattle rain.”


Resort workers were preparing for the storm by taking down beach cabanas, he said.

Public schools on the Big Island, Oahu and Kauai will be open.

Honolulu Mayor Kirk Caldwell said his city’s offices will be open as usual. City buses also will be running normally unless winds exceed 40 mph (64 kph).

“We don’t want to overreact and tell everyone to stay home when maybe it’s not going to be as bad,” said Caldwell. /atm

source: newsinfo.inquirer.net

5 tourists rescued from flooded home as storm hits Hawaii

HONOLULU — Sirens wailed while workers piled sandbags in front of hotels and police blasted warnings to tourists to leave the world-famous Waikiki Beach as hurricane “Lane” barreled north after dumping nearly two feet of rain on Hawaii’s mostly rural Big Island.

Emergency crews rescued five California tourists from a home they were renting in Hilo after a nearby gulch overflowed and it flooded Thursday.

Suzanne Demerais said a tiny waterfall and small stream flowed near the home when she first arrived with four of her friends from the Los Angeles area. But the stream turned into a torrent and the river rose rapidly over 24 hours.


Hawaii County firefighters, who were in touch with the home’s owner, decided to evacuate the group before the water rose further. They floated the five out on their backs, Demerais said.

“It was quite an experience because we weren’t planning to have a hurricane during our vacation time,” Demerais said.

The hurricane, whose center was still offshore, lashed the Big Island with nearly 20 inches (50 centimeters) of rain in about 24 hours. It had maximum sustained winds near 120 mph (193 kph), making it a Category 3 hurricane.

Forecasters said the center of the storm will move close to or over parts of Hawaii’s main islands late Friday, bringing dangerous surf of 20 feet (6 meters).


About 320 kilometers (200 miles) north of Hilo, on the state’s most populated island of Oahu, employees of the Sheraton Waikiki resort filled sandbags to protect the oceanfront hotel from surging surf.

Stores along Waikiki’s glitzy Kalakaua Avenue stacked sandbags along the bottom of their glass windows to prepare for heavy rain and flash flooding.

Police on loudspeakers told surfers and swimmers to get out of the water, saying the beach would be closed until further notice.

The Marriott Resort Waikiki Beach in Honolulu designated a ballroom on the third floor as a shelter for guests and began removing lounge chairs from around the pool and bar area.


At the Hilton Hawaiian Village, guest Elisabeth Brinson said hotel staff left a notice that the rooms will still have water and phone service, and a backup generator would power one elevator per building in the event of a power outage.

Brinson, a native of the United Kingdom now living in Denver, said many shops were closed, and those still open were frantic with people buying food, beer and water to take back to their rooms.

“We knew it was coming, so I tried to just cram as much as I could into the last few days in anticipation so we could cross things off of our list,” said Brinson, who is accustomed to hurricanes after living in Florida.



Lane was not projected to make a direct hit on the islands, but officials warned that even a lesser blow could do significant harm. Some areas could see up to 30 inches (about 80 centimeters) of rain.

United Airlines canceled its Friday flights to and from Maui. The airline added two additional flights from Honolulu to San Francisco on Thursday to help transport people off the islands.

Hawaiian Airlines canceled all Friday flights by its commuter carrier, Ohana by Hawaiian.

Hawaii’s biggest hotels are confident they can keep their guests safe as long as they stay inside, said Mufi Hannemann, CEO of Hawaii Tourism and Lodging Association.

“The only concern is those that venture outside of the properties, that would like to hike on a day like this or who would like to still go into the ocean and see what it’s like to take a swim or surf in these kind of waters,” Hannemann said.

Honolulu shopping malls and office buildings closed early on Thursday and planned to shut their doors Friday.

Shelters were open throughout the islands, with 350 people in them in Oahu. Aid agencies were also working to help Hawaii’s sizable homeless population, many of whom live near beaches and streams that could flood.

Because there’s not enough shelter space statewide, Hawaii Emergency Management Agency Administrator Tom Travis urged people who were not in flood zones to stay home.

The National Weather Service downgraded the Big Island to a tropical storm warning, meaning it expects sustained winds of 39 mph (62 kph) to 73 mph (117 kph) on the island instead of stronger hurricane force winds.

But a hurricane warning remains in effect for Oahu and Maui County.

The central Pacific gets fewer hurricanes than other regions, with about only four or five named storms a year. Hawaii rarely gets hit. The last major storm to hit was Iniki in 1992. Others have come close in recent years.

Because people in Hawaii are confined to the islands, they have to make sure they have enough supplies to outlast power outages and other potential emergencies.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency moved several barges packed with food, water, generators and other supplies into the region ahead of Hurricane Hector, which skirted past the islands more than a week ago, FEMA Administrator Brock Long said.   /kga

source: newsinfo.inquirer.net

Japan says death toll from floods climbs to 100

HIROSHIMA, Japan – The Japanese government said at least 100 people have died or are presumed dead from the heavy rains, floods and mudslides that have struck western Japan.

Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga told a news conference on Monday that 68 people were unaccounted for, many of them in the hardest-hit Hiroshima area.

Suga said 87 people were confirmed dead and 13 others had no vital signs when they were found as of early Monday.


People are preparing for risky search and cleanup efforts in southwestern Japan, where several days of heavy rainfall had set off flooding and landslides in a widespread area.

Some residents in Hiroshima prefecture said they were caught off guard in a region not used to torrents of rainfall, which began Friday and worsened through the weekend. Rivers overflowed, turning towns into lakes and leaving dozens of people stranded on rooftops. Military paddleboats and helicopters were bringing people to dry land.

The assessment of casualties has been difficult because of the widespread area affected. Authorities warned that landslides could strike even after rain subsides as the calamity shaped up to be potentially the worst in decades. /kga

source: newsinfo.inquirer.net

Weather-checking virtual reality app ready for download

AccuWeather is launching a special version of its app exclusively for the Samsung Gear VR.

Called Weather for Life for Samsung Gear VR, rather than simply give users a weather forecast, it puts them in the center of the prevailing meteorological conditions.

However, as well as an immersive take on local precipitation levels, the app will enable users to stand in the middle of tornados and other extreme weather events that have been captured in 360-degree video.

“The app is interactive and easy for users to access immersive 360-degree video content and weather forecasts, all with the Superior Accuracy from AccuWeather they rely on, experiencing weather in revolutionary new ways,” said Steven Smith, president of digital media at AccuWeather.

The new app is available to download from the Oculus store starting Friday and will be compatible with any Samsung Galaxy smartphone or phablet that works with the company’s VR headset. JB

source: technology.inquirer.net

Massive blizzard shuts down US East Coast

NEW YORK, United States — A deadly blizzard blanketed the eastern United States in near-record amounts of snow Saturday, shutting down New York and Washington in a colossal storm expected to affect more than 85 million people.

More than 4,400 flights were cancelled as the mega-storm brought airports in New York, Philadelphia, Washington and Baltimore to a halt, shuttered transport in the US capital and prompted New York officials to issue a sweeping travel ban.

Fifteen people died in Arkansas, Kentucky, New York, North Carolina, Maryland and Virginia, while more than 200,000 people were left without power and 2,200 National Guard personnel were drafted in.

Forecasters said the storm — dubbed “Snowzilla” — would last into Sunday with two feet (60 centimeters) expected in Washington and more than 20 inches falling in parts of New York, making it one of the Big Apple’s five biggest blizzards in history.

State Governor Andrew Cuomo closed all roads in the city, America’s financial and entertainment capital home to 8.4 million, Long Island, and bridges and tunnels west to New Jersey.

“Safety is our number one priority,” Cuomo told reporters.

“We’re trying to get ahead of it with the cleanup crew. And then we’ll see what Mother Nature has in store for us as we go on,” he told MSNBC.

Bus services were suspended at noon, and overland commuter and subway trains in and out of Manhattan were shut from 4:00 pm (2100 GMT) as Broadway cancelled performances, museums closed and shops shuttered.

Metro and bus networks were shut down in Washington for the entire weekend, and largely shut in Philadelphia and New Jersey on Saturday.

Strong winds are causing coastal flooding concerns for a large portion of the East Coast, the National Weather Forecast (NWS) warned, with streets in some New Jersey towns filled with water and ice.

Thousands of motorists were stranded for hours on highways in the south.

‘Very rough outside’

Plows struggled to clear New York streets, where parked cars were buried under the snow and visibility deteriorated as night fell. More than 20 inches of snow fell in parts of Brooklyn and at the city’s La Guardia and John F. Kennedy airports.

Washington saw around 20 inches of snow, with billowing winds creating massive snow drifts. Reagan National and Dulles International airports were expected to remain closed through Sunday.

“We know that it is very rough outside, and in some cases, there have been reports of whiteout conditions for the past two hours. Visibility is extremely poor,” Washington mayor Muriel Bowser told reporters.

“The forecast suggests that the snow will wrap up late tonight or in the very early hours of this morning. But it doesn’t make it any less dangerous,” she added.

But one resident of the capital having a blast? Tian Tian, a panda at the National Zoo. Footage of him playing outside quickly went viral.

The NWS put a blizzard warning into effect for a large swath of the eastern United States as officials warned the storm could cause more than $1 billion in damage.

New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, a Republican presidential contender, left the campaign trail to oversee the emergency response in his snowbound state, where he said there were 90,000 power outages.

“For folks who lose power, please, given how cold the weather is, try to go and shelter in the home of a friend or family member if you can. Don’t stay in the cold,” he told a news conference.

Record-breaking?

Nearly 120,000 power outages were reported in North Carolina, emergency officials said.

The NWS reported that New York could see up to 25 inches of snow and that travel was extremely dangerous “due to heavy snowfall and strong winds with whiteout conditions likely.”

Mayor Bill de Blasio warned that more than 20 inches would put the storm in the top five in terms of accumulation since records began in the 19th century.

If the blizzard leaves more than two feet in Washington, as forecast, it could surpass a record set in 1922 by a storm that dumped 28 inches over three days and killed 100 people after a roof collapsed at a theater.

The national monuments, Capitol building and Smithsonian museums were all closed.

Even a massive snowball fight in Washington’s Dupont Circle, which 3,000 people said on Facebook they would attend, was postponed until Sunday due to the storm’s ferocity.

“We just came back from some holidays in India so the weather is a difficult adjustment,” said Justin Wilcox, 32, out taking selfies in the capital.

Snow and sleet also hit the southern states of Arkansas, Tennessee, Kentucky, North Carolina, West Virginia and Virginia — unusual for the region.

Six people were killed in road accidents in North Carolina, three people died after shoveling snow in New York, and deaths were also reported in Arkansas, Kentucky, Maryland and Virginia, officials said.

source: newsinfo.inquirer.net

Holiday storm hits US East Coast, but no disaster

RHODE ISLAND, United States — A wet and windy storm hit the US East Coast on one of the busiest holiday travel days of the year, but it wasn’t the disaster that many had feared.

Flight cancellations piled up at hubs such as New York’s LaGuardia Airport, Philadelphia and Newark, and by midday Wednesday around 250 flights had been canceled, according to the tracking website FlightAware.com.

But that was a tiny fraction of the nearly 32,000 flights that were scheduled to, from or within the U.S. on Wednesday, the site said.

And the weather in many places was improving as the day went on.

High winds could prevent giant balloons from taking flight this year at the Macy’s Thanksgiving parade on Thursday. Safety rules that specify wind speeds were enacted after a spectator was killed in 1997 in an accident involving an out-of-control balloon.

The storm, which developed in the West over the weekend, has been blamed for at least 11 deaths, five of them in Texas.

But as it moved east, it wasn’t as bad as feared.

“This is a fairly typical storm for this time of year,” said Chris Vaccaro of the National Weather Service. “Obviously, it’s ill-timed because you have a lot of rain and snowfall in areas where people are trying to move around town or fly or drive out of town.”

More than 43 million people are expected to travel over the long holiday weekend, according to the AAA automobile organization. About 39 million of those will be on the roads, while more than 3 million people are expected to fly.

source: newsinfo.inquirer.net

Death toll from Colorado floods rises to eight

LOS ANGELES — The confirmed death toll from massive floods in the US state of Colorado has risen to eight, while more than 600 people remain unaccounted for, officials said early Tuesday.

Helicopters resumed search and rescue missions, helped by clearer weather after days of torrential rain that has left over 1,500 homes destroyed and more than 17,000 damaged.

Five teams from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) are bolstering hundreds of state and local officers trying to reach hundreds of residents stranded by the floods, centered on Boulder County north of Denver.

“We have a strong opportunity here, with FEMA’s help, to come out of this whole situation with a stronger infrastructure,” Colorado Governor John Hickenlooper told a press briefing.

On Sunday, heavy rain prevented helicopters from taking off for most of the day as officials put the number of people unaccounted for at more than 1,200 across the western state.

But on Monday there was even blue sky in some areas, allowing some 21 helicopters to take to the air.

“We are hoping to take advantage of the weather today and get those rescue operations complete,” spokeswoman Micki Trost of the Colorado Division of Homeland Security and Emergency Management was quoted as saying by the Denver Post.

In all eight people have died, including three in Boulder County, two in El Paso County, two missing presumed dead in Larimer County, and one from an as yet undetermined locality, said the Colorado Office of Emergency management (COEM) in its latest update.

The number of people unaccounted for stood at 658 Monday it said, stressing however that that number was “approximate and changing,” as rescue crews gained access to more places, and as stranded people got in touch with authorities to confirm they were alright.

In all 11,700 people have been evacuated, the COEM said. A total of 17,994 residential structures have been damaged, and 1,502 destroyed.

Many of the missing may simply be unable to report their whereabouts, but Hickenlooper warned that the death toll may increase. “There are many, many homes that have been destroyed,” he said.

Rain began pelting the western state early last week, with Boulder especially hard hit, seeing 7.2 inches (18.3 centimeters) of precipitation in about 15 hours starting Wednesday night.

Flash floods have afflicted 15 counties down a 200-mile (320-kilometer) north-south section of the Front Range, where the Rocky Mountains meet the Great Plains, the Colorado Office of Emergency Management said.

“We’ve got a heck of a lot of communities dealing with a heck of a lot of water,” Jennifer Finch, a spokeswoman for Weld County northeast of Boulder, told Denver Channel 7 News on Sunday.

On Sunday, traffic on Interstate 25, Colorado’s main north-south thoroughfare just east of the mountain range, was brought to a halt by water covering two of the three southbound lanes, according to an AFP correspondent on the road.

President Barack Obama has declared a major disaster in Colorado and ordered federal aid to support state and local efforts. Hickenlooper called the widespread flooding “a heck of a storm.”

Although skies were clearer Monday, weather forecasters warned that scattered storms could still dump up to an inch of rain in less than 30 minutes, according to KUSA-TV.

Drier, warmer weather conditions are due to return to the battered state on Tuesday, lasting through to Thursday when there is a chance of showers through the region, it said.

source: newsinfo.inquirer.net

6.5-magnitude quake reported in Colombia

BOGOTA—A 6.5-magnitude earthquake rattled northwestern Colombia Tuesday but there were no immediate reports of casualties or damage, authorities said.

The Seismological Network of Colombia said the quake struck at 10:43 a.m. (1543 GMT) in the Pacific Ocean, 99 kilometers (60 miles) from the town of Nuqui in the department of Antioquia.

Colombian authorities ruled out the threat of a tsunami.

The Colombian report said it was felt especially strongly in the city of Quibdo, the capital of the department of Choco, where people ran out into the streets.

It was also felt in the departments of Quindio and Tolima.

Colombian seismologists said the quake, which was at a depth of less than 30 kilometers (18 miles), had a reading of 6.5 on the Moment magnitude scale.

The US Geological Survey, reporting on the same event, measured the quake at 6.7 on the same scale.

source: newsinfo.inquirer.net

Record highs set as heat wave continues in Southern California

Record temperatures were set for a second day in a row on Thursday as triple-digit heat continued to scorch inland areas of Southern California.

The blistering weather, which is expected to be even hotter on Friday, will continue through the weekend, according to the National Weather Service.

The heat wave, coupled with power plant equipment failures, prompted officials Thursday to issue a statewide Flex Alert, asking customers to cut back on electricity usage during peak hours between 11 a.m. and 6 p.m.

Record highs for the day were set in Lancaster, which reached 109 degrees. That broke a record of 106 set in 1980, the Weather Service said. Woodland Hills also topped out at 109, beating by one degree a record set in 2006. A record of 95 was also recorded at Sandberg in the Antelope Valley. The previous record of 92 was set in 2002.

In Orange County, Lake Forest recorded 97 degrees and Yorba Linda was 96 degrees.

In the Inland Empire, Elsinore topped out at 112 degrees, while San Bernardino and Chino each hit 105.

Forecasters have issued an excessive heat warning through Friday for several spots in Los Angeles, Ventura and Santa Barbara counties, including mountain ranges and valleys, with triple-digit heat projected in much of the region.

source: latimes.com

Rainfall red alert up again in QC, Manila, Marikina, CAMANAVA

The Philippine Atmoshpheric Geophysicla and Astronomical Services had again placed Metro Manila under a red warning rainfall alert Tuesday evening.

“Torrential rainfall (30.0-40.0mm/hr) was observed over QC, CAMANAVA, Manila & Marikina while Moderate to Heavy rainfall (5.0-15.0mm/hr) was observed over the rest of Metro Manila for the past 3 hours,” said PAGASA in its 9:30 p.m. red warning alert.

The monsoon rains had prompted the weather bureau to issue an initial rainfall Red alert over the NCR late Monday evening. — DVM, GMA News

source: gmanetwork.com

Southwest monsoon brings more rains than Ondoy

The amount of rainfall brought by the southwest monsoon over Metro Manila and other parts of Luzon has surpassed the rainfall dumped by tropical storm “Ondoy” in 2009, an official from the Department of Science and Technology (DOST)’s disaster prevention and mitigation system office said Tuesday.

Dr. Mahar Lagmay, executive director of DOST’s Project NOAH (Nationwide Operational Assessment of Hazards), said accumulated rainfall from 4:45 p.m. Monday to 3 p.m. Tuesday—a period of 22 hours—reached 472 millimeters.

This figure is higher than the 24-hour rainfall of 455 millimeters recorded by the Philippine Atmospheric Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (PAGASA) at the height of Ondoy from 8 a.m. on September 26, 2009 to 8 a.m. the following day.

PAGASA said torrential rains experienced over much of Luzon, including Metro Manila, were caused by the southwest monsoon enhanced by Typhoon Haikui, last spotted 300 kilometers northeast of Taiwan.

The intense rainfall has brought widespready flooding in low-lying areas of Quezon City and other heavily populated areas in the capital, and forced many families to flee their homes.

Scenes of flooded streets over the past two days have recalled the disaster in September 2009, when tropical storm Ondoy left at least 464 dead in Metro Manila and nearby provinces.

Different time frames

In his Twitter account, Lagmay said that while the accumulated rainfall due to the southwest monsoon is already higher, Ondoy’s rainfall “was compressed over a shorter period (of) time.”

Meanwhile, GMA Network’s resident meteorologist Nathaniel Cruz noted how DOST’s measurement of the rainfall from the southwest monsoon and PAGASA’s record of rainfall from Ondoy were taken during different time frames.

PAGASA earlier said the amount of rainfall from 8 a.m. Monday to 8 a.m. Tuesday was only 323.5 millimeters—way lower than the volume of rain poured by Ondoy during the same time period.

Cruz also pointed out that the incessant rains over the past two days were not brought by any “legitimate weather system,” unlike Ondoy which was a tropical storm.


“Ginagamit nating barometro si Ondoy, pero tandaan natin na itong ulan natin ngayon ay hindi naman dala ng bagyo. Wala akong maalalang ganito karaming ulan na dala ng southwest monsoon lamang for the past five years,” he said. - YA/HS, GMA News

source: gmanetwork.com

Heavy rains submerge Philippine capital

MANILA (AP) -- Relentless rains submerged half of the sprawling Philippine capital, triggered a landslide that killed nine people and sent emergency crews scrambling Tuesday to rescue tens of thousands of residents who called media outlets pleading for help.

The deluge, the worst since 2009 when hundreds died in rampaging flash floods, was set off by the seasonal monsoon that overflowed major dams and rivers in Manila and surrounding provinces.

The capital and other parts of the country already were saturated from last week's Typhoon Saola, which battered Manila and the north for several days before blowing away Friday. That storm was responsible for at least 53 deaths.

"It's like a water world," said Benito Ramos, head of the government's disaster response agency. He said the rains flooded 50 percent of metropolitan Manila on Monday evening, and about 30 percent remained under waist- or neck-deep waters Tuesday.

He urged residents in areas prone to landslides and floods to stay in evacuation centers. Because the soil is saturated, even a little rain could be dangerous, he added.

"Now that it's getting dark, I would like to repeat, if the rains are heavy you should be at the evacuation centers," he said, warning that rescue operations are more difficult at night and could put responders at risk.

Manila's weather bureau said a tropical storm off eastern China had intensified monsoon rains in the Philippines, which were forecast to last until Thursday.

In Manila's suburban Quezon City, a landslide hit a row of shanties perched below a hill, burying nine people, according to Ramos.

Army troops and police dug frantically to save those buried, including four children, as surviving relatives and neighbors wept. All the victims were recovered, some whose bodies were found near an entombed shanty's door as they apparently tried to flee.

"My wife, children and grandchild are down there," a drenched Jessie Bailon told The Associated Press while watching rescuers dig into a muddy mound where his shanty once stood.

National police chief Nicanor Bartolome went to the scene and ordered all other slum dwellers to be evacuated from the still-soggy area.

TV footage showed rescuers dangling on ropes to bring children and other residents to safety from flooded houses across the city. Many residents trapped in their homes called radio and TV stations desperately asking for help.

"We need to be rescued," Josephine Cruz told DZMM radio as water rose around her house in Quezon City, saying she was trapped in her two-story house with 11 other people, including her 83-year-old mother. "We can't get out because the floodwaters are now higher than people."

ABC-CBN TV network reported receiving frantic calls from people whose relatives were trapped in the deluge, many without food since Tuesday morning. They included a pregnant woman with a baby who wanted to be rescued from a roof and about 55 people who scrambled to the third floor of a Quezon city house as water rose below them.

Vehicles and even heavy trucks struggled to navigate water-clogged roads, where hundreds of thousands of commuters were stranded. Many cars were stuck in the muddy waters.

The government suspended work and classes Tuesday and Wednesday. Some shopping malls opened with limited grocery supplies that were quickly picked up by shoppers waiting in long lines.

The La Mesa dam, which supplies water to the capital of 12 million people, spilled excess water early Tuesday into the rivers flowing into Quezon City, as well as the neighborhoods of Malabon, Valenzuela and Caloocan, where several villages were submerged.

Along the swollen Marikina River, nearly 20,000 residents have been moved away from the riverbanks but many others asked to be rescued. Mayor Del de Guzman pleaded for patience and said overwhelmed rescue teams would try to reach everyone.

President Benigno Aquino III called an emergency meeting of Cabinet officials and disaster-response agencies. He ordered officials to make sure all residents were accounted for in flooded villages and discussed how flooded hospitals could be helped in case they were hit by power outages.

The Philippine Stock Exchange in the flooded financial district of Makati was closed. Also closed was the U.S. Embassy along Manila Bay in the historic old city, which was flooded last week when a storm surge pushed the water over the seawall.

In 2009, massive flooding spawned by a typhoon devastated Manila and surrounding areas, killing hundreds. The state weather bureau said that the current flooding was not as severe and that the weather may start to improve later this week.

source: asianjournal.com