thesun--2019-03-15--UK weather forecast SEVERE Met Office warning as Storm Hannah winds BATTERS Britain

UK weather forecast: SEVERE Met Office warning as Storm Hannah winds BATTERS Britain

SEVERE wind is set to BATTER Britain before snow plunges the country back into wintry conditions this weekend.  The North East has been put on a yellow weather warning for wind today while the Met Office have put out alerts for snow and rain tomorrow.  Storm Hannah is set to bring further misery for Brits following this week's Storm Gareth chaos.  There is a warning for a blanket of snow in place from 4am to 9pm on Saturday.  Days after Storm Gareth wreaked havoc across the country with 99mph winds, forecasters have predicted a heavy dumping of snow stretching over the whole of Northern Ireland, Manchester and the north of England and southern Scotland.  Up to 20cms could fall and cause travel chaos, as Brits brace against heavy rain and high winds - which could reach speeds of 70mph on the coast.  The BBC warned the low pressure system, bursting with moisture and buffeted by cold air from Iceland, could be named before the weekend and the Met Office refused to rule it out.  A Met Office spokeswoman told The Sun Online: "Saturday will be wet and windy with snow in some parts of the country, and Sunday will be brighter with showers across the country.  "There is a developing area of low pressure that is going to push northwards through the UK through Saturday.  "It will be quite wet with rain across the country.  "As the band of rain pushes north across the country, it's going to turn to snow.  "At the moment it could be a named weather system, it's not out of the question."  The forecaster urged Brits to keep an eye on the warnings, suggesting a storm could be named if one is scaled up to an amber warning.  Eleanor Bell, meteorologist with The Weather Company, told The Sun Online: "It'll be very unsettled through the week and into the weekend, with deep or active areas of low pressure bringing repeated wet and windy conditions.  "Repeated persistent and often heavy rain will bring a threat of flooding, particularly to the West, and snow for the Scottish Highlands."  Today saw a wind weather warning in place until 1pm, across most of central and southern England.  Tomorrow a section of England from Nottingham to Newcastle will again see strong and gusty winds from 5am until 3pm despite sunny spells for many areas - however skies will be cloudier in parts of Wales and southern England with outbreaks of rain.  Dozens of trains were cancelled or re-routed and thousands of commuters faced delays after a Storm Gareth "avalanche" of earth, rock and even trees blocked the London to Hastings railway line this afternoon.  As more stormy weather lashed many parts of Britain today, Network Rail said engineers were clearing the landslide of several tons from the track.  And drivers have been warned to plan for “significant” travel delays on Saturday, when heavy snow showers are expected to bombard the country.  Motorists could become stranded in deep drifts, especially on higher ground where up to eight inches (20cm) of the white stuff is predicted.  Air passengers have also been alerted to the prospect of flight delays and cancellations at Scotland’s airports due to blocked runways.  Gareth was the largest named storm to affect Britain since Storm Doris on February 23, 2017, Met Office maps of past short storms showed.  Gareth underwent "explosive cyclogenesis" - becoming what is known as a weather bomb - as its air pressure plunged by over 24 milibars in 24 hours.  Three climbers died on Tuesday after being caught in an avalanche on Ben Nevis, Britain's highest mountain, following heavy snowfall hit Scotland.  We pay for your stories! Do you have a story for The Sun Online news team? Email us at tips@the-sun.co.uk or call 0207 782 4368. You can WhatsApp us on 07810 791 502. We pay for videos too. Click here to upload yours.  We pay for your stories! Do you have a story for The Sun Online news team? Email us at tips@the-sun.co.uk or call 0207 782 4368 . You can WhatsApp us on 07810 791 502. We pay for videos too. Click here to upload yours.


thesun--2019-03-22--UK weather forecast SNOW returns as Britain is plunged into -2C deep freeze this weekend with Met

UK weather forecast – SNOW returns as Britain is plunged into -2C deep freeze this weekend with Met Office warning of hail and sleet

SNOW is set to sweep into Britain again as subzero temperatures plunge the nation into a deep freeze this weekend.  The Met Office has warned heavy hail and sleet are also set to lash parts of the UK, according to the latest weather forecast.  Despite warm air from the Atlantic bringing toasty temperatures as high as 18C in some areas yesterday, it's a chilly outlook for the next few days.  And the worst of the wintry weather will blow across Britain over the weekend.  Sara Thornton, director of digital weather company Weathertrending, told The Sun Online: "It will be down to freezing in some parts of the heart of England, maybe -1C and 2C or so in rural Scotland.  "It'll actually be bit colder than that on Saturday night with -1C or -2C in parts of northern England and the Scottish borders and possibly the same on Monday night."  Before the cold snap, rain is on the cards for many areas today — with up to two inches expected in certain regions.  Met Office meteorologist Aidan McGivern said an area of low pressure moving in will be bring a cold front on Friday morning.  He added: "This will bring a wet spell of weather for northern and western Scotland in particular an inch or two over the hills.  "Winds picking up, gales around exposed coasts of Scotland and Northern Ireland.  "And that area of rainfall sweeps its way southeastward through the day.  "Later on Friday however that wind and rain does clear southwards — that heavy rain does push into northern England followed by northern and western Wales."    But it's Saturday when the cold snap really kicks in.  "By Saturday we are still talking about that cold front: it's lingering, it's slow moving at this stage, so a damp start to the weekend for southern counties in England.  "For the north of Scotland, north of the central belt, it's a blustery day and a lot of showers coming through.  "Those showers — rain, hail, sleet and hill snow — so quite lively conditions in the far north of Scotland and feeling quite cold where this occurs.  "Temperatures on the whole lower elsewhere behind this colder front but feeling pleasant enough where we've got some sunny spells."  Met Office meteorologist Sarah Kent said: “We have got a cold front sinking southwards on Friday which as well as bringing temperatures will bring widespread rain.  “Behind this front there is much cooler air and with this blustery showers will start coming into the northwest.  “It really is going to be all change on Friday so people should make the most of the weather while they can.”


thesun--2019-07-27--UK weather forecast Met Office issues weather warning as Brits will be drenched today after record

UK weather forecast – Met Office issues weather warning as Brits will be drenched today after record 38.7C heatwave

BRITAIN will take a drenching today following the record 38.7C heatwave - as the mercury plummets by 20 DEGREES in parts.  Temperatures will struggle to hit highs in the low-twenties on Saturday - with most parts experiencing mild weather of just 18C this afternoon.  And the Greet Cooldown will also be helped along by a soaking - with cold showers across Scotland and much of England today.  But there are fears that up to 100mm of rain could fall in some places - leading to flash floods and travel chaos.  The Met Office issued a yellow weather warning for nearly all of England, Scotland and Northern Ireland to last until 3pm on Sunday.  And a separate weather warning was issued for heavy rain in London and the South East for this morning.    A statement read: "Persistent, heavy rain across this area will continue for the next few hours, leading to some early morning travel disruption."  Some more dramatic thunderstorms are also expected in parts after days of dramatic lightening sparked by the searing hot conditions.  But it will be nowhere near as stifling - with forecasters expecting highs of just 22C in the far South of England.  Elsewhere, 1pm highs will slowly climb to just 18C - more than 20C below Thursday's exceptional top temperature.  If the 38.7C temperature reading is verified, that would make yesterday's scorching weather the hottest ever recorded in Britain.  That was recorded in Cambridge on Thursday  - topping the previous record of 38.5C measured in Faversham, Kent, in 2003.  Locals in Cambridge yesterday likened the suffocating conditions to the Death Valley desert and the Sahara.  Local David Cambridge said: "Standing in the centre yesterday and you closed your eyes you could have easily imagined you had been transported to North Africa.  "The nearest I have come to feeling the sort of heat we had here was driving in Death Valley in 1981!"  But Saturday's weather is taking a colder and drearier turn - with cloud and rain for many punctuated by brief spells of warm sunshine.  The Met Office forecast said: "Southern and western Scotland, along with northern, central and southeastern parts of England will be rather cloudy with outbreaks of rain, some heavy and thundery.  "Elsewhere it will be mostly dry with some reasonably warm sunshine."  For tonight, the forecast added: "Overnight, rain is likely to continue affecting southwest Scotland, parts of northern and central England, along with East Anglia, edging slowly into Northern Ireland too.  Weather experts at Meteogroup UK also painted a dull picture for Saturday.  Their forecast read: "It will be cloudy with rain across Scotland, northern England, eastern England and parts of East Anglia and south-east England.  "Some embedded thunderstorms are possible at times, especially along eastern coasts.  "It will be dry with sunny spells in the south and west. Gentle and variable winds."  We pay for your stories! Do you have a story for The Sun Online news team? Email us at tips@the-sun.co.uk or call 0207 782 4368. You can WhatsApp us on 07810 791 502. We pay for videos too. Click here to upload yours.


breitbart--2019-09-02--Hurricane Dorian Bahamas Smashed by Life-Threatening Storm as US State Evacuations Begin

Hurricane Dorian: Bahamas Smashed by 'Life-Threatening' Storm as U.S. State Evacuations Begin

Storm surges in some places were raising water levels more than 20 feet above normal with overall conditions described as “life-threatening.” The following warning has been issued by the NHC:  The slow-moving, category five Dorian – the second-strongest Atlantic hurricane on record – is packing sustained winds of up to 165mph and may cause a storm surge of up to 23ft. Some locals have posted video to social media to indicate the scale of the weather system that has engulfed them:  There is no official word on casualties but the Red Cross fears some 13,000 homes have been damaged or destroyed.  The hurricane is moving slowly west, with the eastern U.S. coast now seen as an “at risk” area of concern.  The U.S. states of Florida, Georgia, North and South Carolina have all declared states of emergency with evacuations underway as more updates become available:  Early Monday there was a hurricane warning in effect for Grand Bahama and the Abacos Islands in the northwestern Bahamas and also in Florida, from the Jupiter Inlet to the Brevard and Volusia county line.  Hurricane watches were in effect in Florida north of Deerfield Beach all the way to Jupiter Inlet as well as from the Brevard and Volusia county line to the mouth of the St. Mary’s River on the border with Georgia.  Heavy rains and life-threatening floods are expected in parts of the southeast and lower mid-Atlantic U.S. later this week. The storm will eventually dump up to six inches of rain in Florida through Georgia.  A coastal flood advisory was issued early Monday for South Carolina and Georgia by the National Weather Service, which warned of a high rip current. And the hurricane center warned of an “increasing likelihood” of strong winds and dangerous storm surge along the coasts of Georgia, South Carolina and North Carolina later this week.


dailyheraldchicago--2019-09-04--A storm chaser went silent as Dorian slammed the Bahamas He reemerged with a harrowing story

A storm chaser went silent as Dorian slammed the Bahamas. He reemerged with a harrowing story.

Josh Morgerman recorded the storm's menacing progress by the minute.  At 8:17 on Sunday morning, he said the wind gusts were getting scary at the schoolhouse in Marsh Harbor on the Bahamas' Great Abaco Island, where he was hunkered down, waiting for one of the most destructive hurricanes in the islands' history to make landfall.  "I feel like a rocket is about to take off," he wrote to his 80,000 Twitter followers, amassed during his long career as a tempest chaser known for capturing harrowing eyewitness video.  "This is gonna get ugly."  As the potent storm known as Dorian closed in, Morgerman prepared to be cut off from the internet, from the rest of the world: "This is possibly the last you'll hear from me for a long while," he warned on his Twitter account, @iCyclone.  At 11:15 a.m., Morgerman reported that his building was near the hurricane's eyewall, its most destructive area where winds blow fastest. He said he and six others had barricaded themselves in a concrete room, pushing chairs against the door to keep it closed.  Twenty-five minutes later, he sent what would be his final tweet from the middle of the storm.  "Pounding. CRASHING. Boards prying off windows," he wrote. "We're moving children to a safe space, wrapping them in blankets."  Morgerman's account was dark for the next day, and then the next day after that.  Online, people wished him luck and implored him to stay safe.  On the ground, Abaco was at the time one of the most unlucky, unsafe places in the hemisphere.  For nearly two days -- from a few hours after Morgerman's final tweet until Tuesday afternoon -- Dorian ceaselessly slammed the Bahamas with a catastrophic combination: winds that whipped at 185 mph, in a storm that crept along, maximizing its devastation.  And the school where Morgerman took refuge was in one of the country's hardest-hit regions.  For a short while this week, no one heard from him, even as his friends and fellow pursuers posted updates of their own. The storm passed, but rumors swirled. He was feared dead.  Then, at 5:52 Tuesday evening, the Weather Channel's Twitter account published a photo of Morgerman, brows raised and eyes sunken. "We are in contact with Hurricane Chaser Josh Morgerman," the post read. "He is safe."  The Washington Post could not reach Morgerman that night.  But some 15 minutes later, he began tweeting again. He had made it out of the storm and into Nassau, the Bahamian capital. But he brought with him a terrifying story.  "Yep, I'm alive," he began in a series of posts, 54 hours after going dark. "By far the most intense cyclone I've witnessed in 28 years of chasing. Thought I was playing it safe by riding it out in a solid-concrete school on a hill in Marsh Harbour. Thought wrong."  "Winds pounded the building with the force of a thousand sledgehammers," he added.  In an interview with the Weather Channel from Nassau, Morgerman recounted the most ferocious moments.  "Everything turned white," he said. "It was just solid white and a roaring sound ... It was like we were in a washing machine during the maximum winds -- and that's what I really remember about this hurricane, just this unbelievable blizzard-like whiteout."  After that, the school was mostly destroyed, and there was more storm to come. Without shelter, Dorian could be deadly. But Morgerman and others inside the building had caught one break: They were, at that moment, in the eye of the hurricane -- a tranquil but fleeting respite from a ferocious vortex.  They took their chance to flee, driving to a government building that was filled with new refugees.  It's also why he chose that locale. Morgerman said he wanted to get as close to the eye as he could, a front-row seat for the archipelago's most brutal show.  His and other stories that began to emerge from the island nation as the storm moved north serve as the first accounts of a historic event. Dorian flattened buildings, perhaps leveling entire towns. It has claimed seven lives, but government officials expect the toll to rise much higher. It could define the Bahamas for decades.  "Whole neighborhoods were swept by mighty surge higher than anything in memory," Morgerman wrote in a final plea Tuesday. "Areas above water had catastrophic wind damage. Many deaths reported from drowning, flying debris, & collapsing houses. Medical clinic overwhelmed. An absolute catastrophe. SEND HELP TO ABACO ISLANDS."  In aerial footage taken after the storm passed, the cameramen narrate the island's desolation, pointing out landmarks no longer visible beneath torrents of floodwater.  "Gone, Jesus ... gone, underwater ... the fire station, gone ... Jesus."


dailyheraldchicago--2019-10-19--Tropical Storm Nestor forms, threatening US Gulf Coast

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. -- Tropical Storm Nestor bore down on the northern Gulf Coast with high winds, surging seas and heavy rains Friday evening, threatening to hit an area of the Florida Panhandle devastated one year ago by Hurricane Michael.  But unlike Michael, a powerful storm that left thousands of people homeless and nearly wiped the Panhandle city of Mexico Beach off the map, Florida wasn't bracing for a catastrophe.  "We've done very little preparation only because there's nothing really to prepare for," said Mexico City Beach Mayor Al Cathey. "We haven't seen any alarm at all."  As of Friday evening, the state had activated its emergency operations center, but only at its lowest level. In an area that's recently gone weeks without rain, the storm was seen more as a welcome sight.  "You have to keep it in perspective: 75 percent of our city was destroyed," Cathey said. "A little rain is welcome. Hopefully it won't be something crazy, but if that's all it is, I can deal with that. There's nothing in this system that I've seen that tells me Mexico Beach needs to be alarmed."  Nestor was forecast to hit the coast around Mexico Beach on Saturday morning without strengthening into a hurricane. Blasted by Michael in October 2018, the area is still trying to recover.  The National Hurricane Center said high winds and dangerous storm surge were likely along parts of the northern Gulf Coast. And heavy rains had already began pelting parts of the coastline Friday evening, welcome relief for a parched region dealing with a drought.  With conditions deteriorating by the hour, events including high school football games were canceled or postponed.  But officials were trying to calm fears of a hard hit similar to Michael last year.  Forecasters said Nestor was centered Friday evening about 215 miles (340 kilometers) southwest of Panama City, Florida. It had top sustained winds of 60 mph (95 kph) and was moving to the northeast at 22 mph (35 kph).  A tropical storm warning was in effect from Navarre, Florida, to Yankeetown, Florida. A storm surge warning is in effect for Indian Pass, Florida, to Clearwater Beach, Florida.  The hurricane center said Nestor was expected to head inland across the Panhandle on Saturday morning and cross parts of the Southeast over the weekend before moving into the Atlantic off North Carolina by late Sunday.  Forecasters expect blustery winds and heavy rain in parts of Alabama, Georgia and northern Florida, reaching the Carolinas and Virginia by Sunday.  The Coast Guard said 20-foot (6-meter) seas were possible around Panama City, and dangerous rip currents were possible along beaches during what is still a busy tourism period.  In New Orleans, winds hampered crews that were trying to place explosives to topple to damaged construction cranes towering over a partially collapse hotel project at the edge of the French Quarter. Officials delayed plans to bring down the structures before Nestor approached.  "We're working as fast as possible," said Fire Chief Tim McConnell.  High schools from Alabama to the eastern Florida Panhandle called off football games scheduled for Friday night, and officials in Panama City tried to assure residents that the storm wouldn't be a repeat of Category 5 Hurricane Michael last year.  "We are optimistic this will be a slight wind and rain event," said Bay County Sheriff Tommy Ford.  The system could dump from 2 to 4 inches (5 to 10 centimeters) of rain from the central Gulf Coast to the eastern Carolinas, where many areas are dried out from weeks without rain, and as much as 6 inches (15 centimeters) in spots, forecasters said.  Seawater pushed inland by the storm could rise as much as 5 feet (1.5 meters) as storm surge in Florida's Big Bend region, much of which is less-developed than the rest of the state's coast.  Associated Press writer Jay Reeves in Birmingham, Alabama, contributed to this report.


eveningstandard--2019-05-03--Cyclone Fani Storm tears through Indiaaposs east coast with 130mph winds forcing evacuation of 1

Cyclone Fani: Storm tears through India's east coast with 130mph winds forcing evacuation of 1.2 million people

Cyclone Fani tore through India’s east coast on Friday, battering beaches with 130mph winds and forcing the evacuation of 1.2 million people.  The “extremely severe” storm lashed the country with rain as it approached the former imperial capital of Kolkata, affecting weather as far away as Mount Everest.  The India Meteorological Department said the cyclone in the Bay of Bengal hit the coastal state of Odisha around 8am.  Around 1.2 million people were evacuated from low-lying areas of Odisha and moved to nearly 4,000 shelters, according to India's National Disaster Response Force.  Indian officials put the navy, air force, army and coast guard on high alert.  Odisha Special Relief Commissioner Bishnupada Sethi said the evacuation effort was unprecedented in India.  By Friday afternoon, Fani had weakened to a "very severe" storm as it hovered over coastal Odisha and was forecast to move northeast toward West Bengal by Friday evening.  Most of the area's thatched-roof houses were destroyed, and there was no electricity.  The national highway to Puri, a popular tourist beach city, was blocked by fallen trees and electricity poles, with a special train running to evacuate visitors.  Kolkata Airport was closed from 3pm on Friday until Saturday morning and at least 200 trains were cancelled across India.  The National Disaster Response Force dispatched 54 rescue and relief teams of doctors, engineers and deep-sea divers to flood-prone areas along the coast.  On India's cyclone scale, Fani is the second-most severe, equivalent to a Category 3 hurricane.  Because Fani spent 10 days gathering strength over the sea, it delivered a huge blow when it made landfall.  Sethi, the special commissioner in Odisha, said communications were disrupted in some areas, but no deaths or injuries had been reported.  In the Srikakulam district, where around 20,000 people were evacuated, thatched-roof houses collapsed and fishing boats left unmoored on beaches were sliced into shards.  Authorities in Bangladesh evacuated about 400,000 people and took them to cyclone shelters as the weather office forecast that the storm would cross the country's vast southwestern coastal region by midnight.  Shah Kamal, a Ministry of Disaster Management and Relief official, said Friday in the capital, Dhaka, that members of the navy and coast guard, as well as police and volunteers, were working around the clock to help with evacuations and stocking emergency supplies of dry food and medicine.


eveningstandard--2019-09-04--Hurricane Dorian latest Shocking footage shows scale of destruction after storm swept through Baham

Hurricane Dorian latest: Shocking footage shows scale of destruction after storm swept through Bahamas

Shocking aerial footage shows the scale of destruction that Hurricane Dorian has wreaked in the Bahamas as rescuers continue to search for survivors of the worst storm the island nation has ever seen.  The scope of the damage and humanitarian crisis was still unfolding as videos of the Abaco Islands showed pulverised homes, beached boats and flooded land for miles.  Officials warned the current death toll of seven was likely to rise while aid agencies estimated that tens of thousands of people would need food and other support.  "We are in the midst of one of the greatest national crises in our country's history," Bahamas Prime Minister Hubert Minnis told a news conference.  "No effort or resources will be held back."  Some storm victims remained on rooftops, awaiting rescue, according to media reports early on Wednesday.  "We can expect more deaths to be recorded. This is just preliminary information," Minnis said.  "Marsh Harbor has suffered, I would estimate, in excess of 60 percent damage to their homes," Minnis said, referring to the port on Great Abaco.  "The Mud, as we know, has been completely destroyed or decimated," he said referring to a shantytown known as the Mud and the Peas.  Aerial video of the Bahamas' Great Abaco Island showed miles of flooded neighborhoods, littered with upturned boats, and shipping containers scattered like toys. Many buildings had walls or roofs partly ripped off.  "Victims are being loaded on flatbed trucks across Abaco," one Twitter user with the handle @mvp242 said, describing a rain-blurred photograph of limp bodies strewn across a truck bed.  Other posts on Twitter said entire communities were swept away.  After rampaging through the Caribbean as one of the most powerful hurricanes ever recorded, Dorian wind speeds dropped on Tuesday to make it a Category 2 storm on the five-step Saffir-Simpson intensity scale.  It maintained that level on Wednesday, but forecasters warned it was still dangerous.  Residents of coastal Florida, Georgia and South Carolina were bracing for Dorian's approach on Wednesday, with the National Hurricane Center warning the slow-moving storm could make landfall in South or North Carolina on Thursday or Friday.  More than a million people have been ordered to evacuate.  Dorian packed sustained winds of 105 miles per hour and was moving north-northwest at 8 mph, as it churned about 95 miles east of Daytona Beach, Florida, the NHC said in an 8 am (12.00pm GMT).  Hurricane-force winds had expanded to 60 miles from the storm's core.  Heavy rains and storm-surge waters moving inland could cause life-threatening flash floods, the NHC said.  The risk extended from Jupiter, Florida to Surf City, North Carolina. Tornadoes were possible along the Florida coast, with the risk later moving to Georgia and South Carolina.


eveningstandard--2019-09-06--Hurricane Dorian Bahamas fears aposstaggering storm death toll with thousands missingapos

Hurricane Dorian: Bahamas fears 'staggering storm death toll with thousands missing'

The Bahamas is facing a “staggering” death toll from Hurricane Dorian with “hundreds, up to thousands” of people still missing, the country’s leaders revealed today.  The confirmed fatalities from the monster storm, standing this morning at 30, will be dwarfed by the true number of lives lost, health minister Duane Sands said.  “Make no bones about it, it is going to be significantly higher than that. The public needs to prepare for unimaginable information about the death toll and the human suffering," he said.  “Let me say that I believe the number will be staggering. I have never lived through anything like this and I don’t want to live through anything like this again.”  Joy Jibrilu, director general of the Bahamas’ tourism ministry, told CNN: “Literally hundreds, up to thousands, of people are still missing.”  Many of them are children, including six-year-old Adrian Johnson, blown from a roof where he had sought shelter. “I guess within seconds the gusts of the wind blew the little boy off the roof into the water,” his older brother Richard said. “Given the circumstances, I’m not that hopeful.”  Rescue agencies are sending 200 body bags and morticians to the Abaco Islands, which were worst-hit by the category five storm that stalled over the region from Sunday to Tuesday. Bodies are said to be piled up and militias have been formed to prevent widespread looting.  Grand Bahama is also reported to be virtually uninhabitable following the storm. The Red Cross fears that nearly half of the homes on both islands — totalling about 13,000 — were either destroyed or severely damaged.  By this morning, the hurricane had weakened to a category 1 as it moved up the coast of South and North Carolina in the US. Winds have dropped from a record 185 mph on Sunday to 90mph, but officials said the strong gusts and rain could still cause “potentially life-threatening” flash floods.  The storm-related death count in the US stands at five.


eveningstandard--2019-09-07--Typhoon Lingling Three killed as winds batter South Korea while thousands are left without power du

Typhoon Lingling: Three killed as winds batter South Korea while thousands are left without power due to storm

At least three people have died after winds from Typhoon Lingling battered South Korea.  A 75-year-old woman in the central town of Boryeong was killed after strong winds from blew her off her feet and crashed her into a wall 30 yards away.  Meanwhile, a 38-year-old was killed in the western city of Incheon after being crushed by a collapsed wall at a hospital parking lot.  A 61-year-old Chinese national died in the border town of Paju after being hit by a blown-off roof tile.  The typhoon passed along the nation's coast on Saturday, toppling trees and grounding planes before the storm system made landfall in North Korea.  South Korea's government said at least eight people were being treated for injuries.  That number included an elderly couple from Boryeong who were injured after steel scaffolding collapsed over their home.  The storm knocked out power to more than 57,000 homes across the country, including some on the southern island of Jeju, which was lashed by the typhoon overnight, South Korea's Ministry of the Interior and Safety said.  After hitting Jeju, the storm remained offshore as it moved up South Korea's west coast on Saturday morning before making landfall in North Korea on Saturday afternoon.  South Korea's weather agency said the storm was moving north at 30 miles per hour with winds of up to 83 miles per hour.  In South Korea, the storm toppled trees and streetlamps, blew signboards off buildings and damaged traffic signs across the mainland and Jeju.  More than 120 flights were grounded at airports nationwide, while 38 people were forced to evacuate from their flooded homes in Gwangju, a city near Seoul.  Traffic to Incheon International Airport, one of Asia's largest transport hubs, was disrupted by the closure of its gateway bridge.  A power failure at a commuter rail network that links the airport with Seoul.  Fire crews in Incheon responded to some 100 calls reporting typhoon-related damage, including destroyed walls, knocked off signboards and fallen trees.  Ten cars were damaged in the southern town of Namwon when a roof plate blew off an apartment building and crashed into a parking lot and a similar incident in the eastern city of Wonju left five vehicles destroyed. A large spire was knocked off a church in a commercial district in Seoul.  National parks were closed as were southern ports on the mainland and major cross-sea bridges.  The storm could possibly inflict more serious damage as it passes through land in North Korea, an impoverished nation that for decades has struggled to deal with natural disasters.  North Korea's official Korean Central News Agency said leader Kim Jong Un "urgently convened" an emergency meeting on Friday to discuss disaster prevention efforts and scolded government officials who he described as "helpless against the typhoon, unaware of its seriousness and seized with easygoing sentiment."  Kim called for his military to drive national efforts to minimise damage from the typhoon, which he said would be an "enormous struggle" that would require the entire country to step up, the report said.


eveningstandard--2019-12-26--Typhoon Phanfone: At least 10 die as killer storm causes devastation in the Philippines on Christmas

Typhoon Phanfone: At least 10 die as killer storm causes devastation in the Philippines on Christmas Day

At least 10 people have been killed as a typhoon hit the Philippines over Christmas.  Typhoon Phanfone – also known as Ursula – hit the country late on Tuesday and continued to cause devastation throughout Christmas Day, bringing driving rain and flooding as gusts exceeded 100mph according to officials.  The death toll was reported on Thursday as between 10 and 16 – including a three-year-old boy – with the central provinces of Iloilo, Leyte and Capiz the worst affected.  One family was swept away by a flash flood as they sought safety on higher ground, according to the Filipino ABS-CBN network.  More than 58,000 people had to evacuate their homes as the storm bore down on the Philippines.  Thousands of people trying to get home for Christmas were stranded at ports as ferry services were halted. Scores of flights were also cancelled.  Phanfone struck near regions left devastated by Typhoon Haiyan six years ago. That was the strongest-ever storm to make landfall in the Philippines, killing 6,000 people and destroying 200,000 homes.  Phanfone has now moved out to the South China Sea.


latimes--2019-08-22--Could a hurricane lash Los Angeles 80 years ago this deadly storm came close

Could a hurricane lash Los Angeles? 80 years ago, this deadly storm came close

September 1939 was a stormy month on the world stage. On Sept. 1, Hitler invaded Poland. On Sept.3, Britain, France, Australia and New Zealand responded by declaring war on Germany. In Los Angeles that month, as residents sweated through an unusual heat wave and nervously watched the storm clouds of World War II gathering overseas, four tropical cyclones that would affect Southern California were born in the eastern North Pacific.  No tropical cyclones had made it north of 25 degrees latitude in the northeastern Pacific basin during all of 1937 and 1938. Then in 1939 there were four such storms in the space of a month, including an unnamed tropical storm that came ashore in San Pedro, dropping torrential rain totaling 5.62 inches on Los Angeles from Sept. 24-26.  It battered Southern California with wind gusts to 65 mph, according to the Los Angeles Times, damaging boats, structures, utility lines and crops. Forty-five people were killed by flooding throughout Southern California, and an additional 48 died at sea. It’s the only tropical storm to make landfall in California during the 20th century.  That was 80 years ago next month, during the El Niño of 1939-40.  Storms such as this have been given the name el Cordonazo de San Francisco by fishermen in the villages along the Pacific Coast of Mexico. The name means “the Lash of St. Francis,” because they occur in the fall, close to the Oct. 4 feast of St. Francis of Assisi.  As Bill Patzert, retired NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory climatologist, points out, the eastern side of these Cordonazo storms would severely lash the communities on the Pacific Coast of Central America from southern Mexico to Baja. For centuries, the damage was brutal. The Cordonazo lash isn’t felt so harshly or frequently in Southern California.  Various popular explanations suggested that St. Francis used his belt or cord to hit the clouds and make them dump their heavy rain, producing lightning and thunder. The Cordonazo season marks the beginning of the end of the rainy season in Central America. Some stories have St. Francis driving out the devil with his cord, resulting in big storms, thunder and lightning flashes as the devil was chased back into hell.  When people think of hurricanes, many think of the Gulf of Mexico, the Caribbean Sea and the U.S. Eastern Seaboard — in fact, the name comes from “Hurican,” the Carib Indian name for the god of evil — but the most active hurricane region in the world is the western North Pacific, an area responsible for one-third of the planet’s annual average of 79 tropical cyclones.  The second-most prolific hurricane-producing area is the eastern North Pacific, averaging 13 storms per year. It is in this part of the world that L.A.’s September 1939 storm was born.  Hurricanes, cyclones and typhoons are different names for the same type of rapidly rotating tropical system. Cyclonic rotation is counterclockwise in the northern hemisphere and clockwise in the southern hemisphere. The storms are known as hurricanes in the Atlantic and the eastern North Pacific; they’re called typhoons in the northwestern Pacific; and they’re called tropical cyclones in the southwestern Pacific and the Indian Ocean. All hurricanes are cyclones, but not all cyclones are hurricanes.  Tropical cyclones derive their strength from sea surface temperatures of at least 80 degrees Fahrenheit. Most storms that form in the tropical eastern North Pacific are carried by steering currents in a northwesterly direction, where they die out over cooler waters north of the 30th parallel. Most that head west don’t make it to the Hawaiian Islands before fizzling out, although they may delight Southern California surfers with big waves on southwest-facing beaches. They may also send some humidity, clouds or precipitation toward the region.  Occasionally, tropical cyclones curve northward, hugging the coast of Baja California or turning inland. These are the Cordonazo storms.  The first of the series of September 1939 storms formed in the Pacific about 500 miles southwest of Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, on Sept. 2, and made a beeline northward toward Yuma, Ariz., where it dropped 4.45 inches of rain on Sept. 4-6. In California, Needles got more than 5 inches of rain and Brawley recorded 6.43 inches.  On Sept. 5, two more tropical cyclones were born about 1,000 miles apart in the warm waters west of Central America. They followed similar paths along the western coast of Mexico, dying out about a week later over central and southern Baja California. But they sent a plume of tropical moisture north into the Colorado Desert, which is part of the Sonoran Desert in southeastern California, southwestern Arizona and northwestern Mexico.  The fourth in that series of storms — what would be a long-lived Cordonazo — formed around Sept. 15 in the waters off Central America and quickly intensified, reaching its lowest pressure of 970.9 millibars on Sept. 22, when it was about 300 miles west-southwest of Cabo San Lucas, Mexico.  As the storm churned northward, Southern California broiled under a torrid heat wave, with a recorded temperature of 107.2 degrees in Los Angeles on Sept. 20.  On Sept. 23, the temperature reached 100 degrees at the federal building downtown. About 4:40 p.m., a light rain fell, cooling the city slightly. That same day, a thunderstorm dumped 6.45 inches of rain in six hours on Indio, Calif. Moisture from one of the two previous cyclones that had broken up a week earlier south of Ensenada, Mexico, may have fueled that thunderstorm.  After days of intense heat, ominous clouds gathered and thickened over L.A. on the afternoon of Sept. 24 as the fourth tropical storm deteriorated off Santa Catalina Island. The cloud cover pulled the daytime high temperature down to just 81 degrees. A cooling southeasterly breeze arose around noon, lowering the mercury to 67 degrees by 5 p.m. That’s when the rain began. And those cooling southeasterly winds would gust to 50 mph by 7 p.m.  Rain intensified overnight and was especially heavy between 1 a.m. and 8 a.m. on Sept. 25. The rain let up from 10:15 a.m. until 5:35 p.m. that day, then resumed and continued through 1:15 a.m. Sept. 26.  According to The Times, “The storm smashed vessels against piers, breakwaters and beaches in a tragic end to Southern California’s worst heat wave.” When it was all over, damage to boats, structures, power and phone lines was extensive, exceeding $1.5 million. Crop damage amounted to $500,000. Half of the San Clemente Pier in southern Orange County was washed away. ($1 million in 1939 is equivalent to nearly $18 million in 2019.)  Rainfall amounts were impressive: Long Beach reported 4.51 inches; Claremont, 4.89; the Santa Ana River, 4.41; and Mt. Wilson received 11.60 inches over three days, with 9.02 inches of that falling on Sept. 24.  The heat wave and the tropical storm were probably related. As Daniel Swain, a climate scientist at UCLA, says, the storm not only broke the heat wave, it also played a significant part in creating it. Counterclockwise circulation around the cyclone as it approached from the south generated strong east to northeast downsloping offshore winds that drove up temperatures in the L.A. Basin through compression heating. These winds were similar to the region’s autumn and winter Santa Anas, but with a different origin.  For more than a quarter-century after that, no tropical cyclone reached Southern California, although some remnants came close.  Could a full-blown hurricane hit California? It’s not likely. Climatologist Bill Patzert says the “odds are infinitesimal — so small that everyone should just relax.”  There are no documented cases of a hurricane making landfall in the Golden State. Unlike the eastern U.S., where the warm Gulf Stream flows northward along the Atlantic Coast, the California Current carries cool water southward along the West Coast. It literally throws cold water in the face of any tropical cyclones approaching the California coast and the coast of northern Baja California.  In addition, the upper-level winds known as steering currents tend to carry storms to the west and northwest, out into the Pacific and away from California. At lower levels of the atmosphere off the California coast, prevailing winds are northwesterly, creating vertical wind shear that rips hurricanes apart. These northwesterly winds near the surface also promote upwelling, pulling cool water from the deep and pushing warmer coastal water offshore, creating a less-hospitable environment for tropical cyclones.  Downward motion in the atmosphere off the coast of Southern California, as opposed to upward motion vital to the formation of thunderstorms, also discourages formation or continuation of cyclones. This downward motion is associated with June gloom along the California Coast, Swain said.  Nevertheless, against these odds, a number of Cordonazo storms have taken advantage of less common atmospheric conditions and turned northward. Storms usually weaken at about Cabo San Lucas in their northward trek, but a storm that is strong enough and moving fast enough could continue.  Here’s a possible scenario, as proposed by Swain: In September, perhaps during a strong El Niño year, with warm waters in the Southern California Bight, a strong hurricane forms in the Pacific southeast of Cabo San Lucas. It’s a Category 4 or 5 in these warm waters.  Meanwhile, a weak or modest early season North Pacific storm swings out of the Gulf of Alaska, bringing light rain to Portland, Seattle and Northern California. The influence of the low system to the north causes the hurricane to turn to the north, quickly dropping to a Category 2 or 3 in intensity. Storms have been known to backtrack or loop — or even stand still.  By the time the storm reaches the Southern California Bight, it is no more than a Category 1 or, more likely, a tropical storm. But tropical storms pack a considerable wallop in terms of precipitation — as we saw in 1939 — and can generate strong, gale-force winds.  No full-blown hurricane is likely to make landfall in Southern California, although on Oct. 2, 1858, during a moderate El Niño year, a hurricane brushed San Diego before moving off to the west-northwest. It is thought that this was a Category 1 storm at the time. Heavy rain and strong winds were reported both in San Diego and the Los Angeles area.  Numerous tropical cyclones have followed the Cordonazo pattern over the years and have affected Southern California and the Southwest. Here are some examples:  Kathleen, Sept. 10, 1976: The first tropical cyclone to hit Southern California after the 1939 storm 37 years earlier, Kathleen dumped 10.78 inches of rain on Mt. Wilson. San Gorgonio Mountain northwest of Palm Springs received 14.5 inches; Lake Arrowhead reported 8.71 inches; the Civic Center in downtown Los Angeles got 1.98 inches. It was during an El Niño.  According to The Times, the storm killed at least six and wreaked widespread destruction in the Imperial Valley and adjoining areas. Ocotillo, near the Mexican border, was hardest hit. A flash flood sent a wall of water 6 feet high and a half-mile wide through the city; 20 homes were destroyed and 70 were badly damaged — at the time, the city had just 100 homes. The Coachella Valley and Palm Desert were declared disaster areas by Riverside County authorities; property damage was set at $10 million, with 300 homes damaged or destroyed in Palm Springs.  Remnants of Kathleen dumped heavy rain throughout the West, with rain and strong winds as far north as Oregon, Idaho and Montana.  Doreen, Aug. 14-17, 1977: The storm was born 100 miles west of Acapulco, again during an El Niño, on Aug.11 and became a tropical storm on Aug. 13. It reached hurricane status on Aug. 14, shortly before passing 30 miles west of Cabo San Lucas. August is usually a dry month in Southern California, but San Diego received 2.13 inches of rain; L.A. got 2.47 inches; 3.78 inches fell at Calexico; 3.87 at Imperial; and 7.45 inches at Mt. San Jacinto, west of Palm Springs. Damage was extensive, especially to agriculture in San Diego and Imperial counties, and the little desert town of Ocotillo was flooded again.  Norman, Sept. 6, 1978: For the third consecutive year, the deserts of Southern California saw flooding when the remnants of Hurricane Norman dissipated off San Clemente Island.  Olivia, Sept. 26, 1982: Heavy rain caused $300 million in agricultural damage when remnants of Hurricane Olivia plowed into the coast near Santa Barbara. This was also during an El Niño year. Moisture from the storm continued inland and eventually caused flooding in parts of Salt Lake City.  In early September 1997, another El Niño year, Hurricane Linda, one of the strongest eastern Pacific hurricanes on record, menaced Los Angeles. Had it hit the state, as had been predicted, it would have been the strongest storm to make landfall in Southern California since the September 1939 Cordonazo storm.  Yuma, on the Colorado River, receives a sizable portion of its rainfall from dying tropical cyclones. Yuma may experience more storms, making it a sort of hurricane alley, because unlike coastal San Diego and Los Angeles — situated on the cool Pacific — it sits just 70 miles north of the bathtub-warm Gulf of California, where summertime water temperatures can reach 90 degrees. This is exactly the kind of fuel that can give a dying tropical storm a new lease on life.  Yuma receives just less than 3 inches of rain annually. In 1963, Hurricane Katherine dumped half of that in one hour.  Unfortunately for the desert southwest, beneficial rain can fall in torrents and is usually accompanied by gale-force winds when it comes from a dying Cordonazo storm.  If there is a silver lining to the September 1939 Cordonazo tropical storm, it’s that before the storm, there wasn’t a government forecast office in Los Angeles. Because Southern Californians were so woefully unprepared for such an event, a Weather Bureau office was established in February 1940.  Times staffers Thomas Suh Lauder, Maloy Moore, Cary Schneider and Scott Harrison contributed to this report.


newyorkpost--2019-05-29--Tornadoes hit Kansas Pennsylvania as storms sweep across US

Tornadoes hit Kansas, Pennsylvania as storms sweep across US

KANSAS CITY, Missouri — A vicious storm tore through the western outskirts of Kansas City on Tuesday, spawning one or more tornadoes that downed trees and power lines, damaged homes and injured at least 12 people in the latest barrage of severe weather that saw tornado warnings as far east as New York City.  Parts of Pennsylvania and New Jersey also were under tornado warnings hours after a swarm of tightly packed twisters swept through Indiana and Ohio overnight, smashing homes, blowing out windows and ending the school year early for some students because of damage to buildings. One person was killed and at least 130 were injured.  Those storms were among [55 twisters that forecasters said may have touched down](https://nypost.com/2019/05/28/tornadoes-rip-through-ohio-and-indiana- killing-at-least-one/) Monday across eight states stretching eastward from Idaho and Colorado.  The past couple of weeks have seen [unusually high tornado activity in the U.S.](https://nypost.com/2019/05/23/violent-tornado-rips-through-missouri- fatalities-feared/), with no immediate end to the pattern in sight.  Tuesday offered no respite, as a large and dangerous tornado touched down on the western edge of Kansas City, Kansas, late in the day, the National Weather Service office reported. Twelve people were treated night for storm-related injuries at Lawrence Memorial Hospital on Tuesday night, spokeswoman Janice Early said. None of the injuries appeared to be life-threatening.  Kansas City International Airport temporarily suspended flights and forced travelers and employees to take shelter in parking garage tunnels for about an hour. A powerful twister also touched down in the nearby township of Pleasant Grove, Kansas, seriously damaging homes.  But the severe weather wasn’t limited to the Midwest. Tornadoes were confirmed in eastern Pennsylvania and the National Weather Service issued a tornado warning for parts of New York City and northern New Jersey.  The winds peeled away roofs — leaving homes looking like giant dollhouses — knocked houses off their foundations, toppled trees, brought down power lines and churned up so much debris that it was visible on radar. Highway crews had to use snowplows to clear an Ohio interstate.  Some of the heaviest damage was reported just outside Dayton, Ohio.  “I just got down on all fours and covered my head with my hands,” said Francis Dutmers, who with his wife headed for the basement of their home in Vandalia, about 10 miles outside Dayton, when the storm hit with a “very loud roar” Monday night. The winds blew out windows around his house, filled rooms with debris and took down most of his trees.  In Celina, Ohio, 82-year-old Melvin Dale Hanna was killed when a parked car was blown into his house, Mayor Jeffrey Hazel said Tuesday.  “There’s areas that truly look like a war zone,” he said.  Of the injured, more than two dozen were admitted to hospitals.  Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine declared a state of emergency in three hard-hit counties, allowing the state to suspend normal purchasing procedures and quickly provide supplies like water and generators.  The National Weather Service’s Storm Prediction Center showed that suspected tornadoes touched down in several states including Indiana, Colorado, Ohio, Iowa, Nebraska and Illinois.  Monday marked the record-tying 11th straight day with at least eight tornadoes in the U.S., said Patrick Marsh, a Storm Prediction Center meteorologist. The last such stretch was in 1980.  A tornado with winds up to 140 mph struck Monday near Trotwood, Ohio, a community of about 24,500 people 8 miles outside Dayton. Several apartment buildings were damaged or destroyed, including one complex where the entire roof was torn away, and at least three dozen people were treated for cuts, bumps and bruises.  “If I didn’t move quick enough, what could have happened?” said Erica Bohannon of Trotwood, who hid in a closet with her son and their dog. She emerged to find herself looking at the sky. The roof was gone.  Just before midnight, about 40 minutes after that tornado cut through, the National Weather Service tweeted that another one was crossing its path.  Only a few minor injuries were reported in Dayton. Fire Chief Jeffrey Payne called that “pretty miraculous,” attributing it to people heeding early warnings. Sirens went off ahead of the storm.  Some of the people treated at the area’s Kettering Health Network hospitals were hurt during storm clean-up itself, while others may have waited before seeking treatment from storm injuries, said spokeswoman Elizabeth Long.  A boil-water advisory was issued after the city’s pumping stations lost power. Dayton Power & Light said more than 50,000 customers remained without electricity and restoration efforts could take days.  A high school gym in Dayton was designated an emergency shelter until authorities realized it was unusable. Vandalia’s school system tweeted that it is ending the year two days early because of building damage. In nearby hard- hit Brookville, where the storm tore off the school’s roof, classes were canceled.  In Indiana, a twister touched down Monday evening in Pendleton, about 35 miles from Indianapolis. At least 75 homes were damaged there and in nearby Huntsville, said Madison County Emergency Management spokesman Todd Harmeson. No serious injuries were reported.  Pendleton residents were urged to stay in their homes Tuesday morning because of downed power lines and other dangers.  “People are getting antsy. I know they want to get outdoors, and I know they want to see what’s going on in the neighborhood,” Harmeson said. But he added: “We still have hazards out there.”  Outbreaks of 50 or more tornadoes are not uncommon, having happened 63 times in U.S. history, with three instances of more than 100 twisters, Marsh said. But Monday’s swarm was unusual because it happened over a particularly wide geographic area and came amid an especially active stretch, he said.  As for why it’s happening, Marsh said high pressure over the Southeast and an unusually cold trough over the Rockies are forcing warm, moist air into the central U.S., triggering repeated severe thunderstorms and tornadoes. And neither system is showing signs of moving, he said.  Scientists say climate change is responsible for more intense and more frequent extreme weather such as storms, droughts, floods and fires, but without extensive study they cannot directly link a single weather event to the changing climate.


npr--2019-10-12--PHOTOS: After The Storm, Haitians In The Bahamas Depend On The Kindness Of Strangers

PHOTOS: After The Storm, Haitians In The Bahamas Depend On The Kindness Of Strangers  Editor's note: This story includes images that some readers may find disturbing.  Sherrine Petit Homme LaFrance was crying on the side of a road when China Laguerre spotted her.  Hurricane Dorian destroyed LaFrance's newly constructed house in Great Abaco Island on the northern edge of the Bahamas the same night she moved in. That was on Sept. 1.  She then moved into a hotel offering free shelter in Nassau with her husband and 14-year-old son. But she says they were kicked out when staff found her son talking to guests.  She had nowhere to go. So Laguerre invited her to come stay at the home she shares with her parents and her brother.  "If these people didn't help, I didn't know what we were going to do," says LaFrance. "I just thank God for these people."  LaFrance is one of thousands of Haitians who lived in Abaco but were displaced to Nassau after the storm. The government's policy is to keep evacuees off Abaco until power, water and housing is restored.  But life in Nassau is not easy for evacuees: Haitians in the Bahamas — some recent immigrants, others who have lived in the Bahamas for generations — say that they face discrimination by their Bahamanian neighbors and that government officials that has made it harder to access emergency aid, shelter and health care and to find jobs to get back on their feet after the storm. On Oct. 2, Prime Minister Hubert Minnis announced that Haitians in the Bahamas without documentation would be deported.  So some are relying on the kindness of strangers — and Laguerre's home has emerged as the headquarters of an ad hoc Haitian community support network.  While volunteering at a local hospital after the storm, Laguerre, 31, met Haitian evacuees who inspired her to open her doors to strangers.  "I feel sorry because it could've been me," she says.  Laguerre was born and raised in the Bahamas, but her parents are of Haitian descent. Despite not having enough money to pay their water bill, they have taken in 10 Haitian evacuees from four different families. They pool together what resources they can to grocery shop and cook for everybody in their compound.  "I wouldn't say the floor is comfortable because it's just cement," she says. "We just let them put a sheet on the floor, and they sleep on the ground like that."  The families are still working through the physical and psychological effects of the storm. Lacieuse Timothee of Treasure Cay spent two days buried beneath debris before her sons found her. At the Laguerre home, she spends most of her time in bed. She says she is partially paralyzed, and the injuries around her feet have begun to turn black.  Laguerre and her parents do not have enough room in their home to keep welcoming guests. But they help those in need however they can. Recently, Laguerre referred a young mother to a friend's house so she wouldn't be left on the street with her child.  "I am not employed, but by the goodness of my heart — and I believe in God — this is God's work here I am doing," she says.  For now, LaFrance's family is living off the small amount of money that their relatives send from Haiti. They're unsure when things will start to look up.  "You can't even sleep. You have nightmares. You feel like you're still in the storm," says LaFrance, more than a month after Hurricane Dorian made landfall. "If you see a little rain, you think the storm is coming again."


skynewsus--2019-09-04--Hurricane Dorian death toll rises as storm bears down on US coast

Hurricane Dorian death toll rises as storm bears down on US coast  Hurricane Dorian death toll rises as storm bears down on US coast  At least seven people have been killed by Hurricane Dorian in the Bahamas with millions told to leave their homes in Florida.  At least 20 people have been killed by Hurricane Dorian in the Bahamas with millions told to leave their homes in Florida as the storm heads north.  Experts say it is now the most powerful storm to hit a Caribbean island after reaching sustained winds of 185mph and gusts of up to 220mph.  Bahama's Prime Minister Hubert Minnis said: "We can expect more deaths to be recorded. This is just preliminary information.  "Marsh Harbour has suffered, I would estimate, in excess of 60% damage to their homes."  He also said the shantytown known as The Mud and The Peas has been "completely destroyed or decimated" and told reporters Dorian was "one of the greatest national crises in our country's history".  Aid agencies believe as many as 13,000 homes in the Bahamas have been destroyed or severely damaged and more than 60,000 people are in need of food supplies.  Matthew Cochrane from the Red Cross said: "What we are hearing lends credence to the fact that this has been a catastrophic storm and a catastrophic impact."  The country's health minister, Duane Sands, said Dorian has devastated the health infrastructure in Grand Bahama and the main hospital is now out of use because of severe flooding.  Mr Sands said crews were trying to airlift up to seven kidney failure patients from Abaco who had not received dialysis since Friday.  Airports have been flooded, hospitals affected and roads left impassable by the hurricane.  Jet skis and a bulldozer have been used to rescue stranded residents, as the US coast guard, Britain's Royal Navy and aid groups try to get food and medicine to survivors and take the most desperate people to safety.  It comes after the National Management agency appealed for owners of jet skis, trucks, small boats, buses, flat beds and other equipment to help with rescue operations.  Forecasters predict within the next 36 hours Dorian will come "dangerously close" to Florida's east coast.  It is also expected to skim Georgia and South Carolina - and perhaps strike North Carolina - later in the week with the US National Hurricane Center warning that, even if landfall does not occur, the system is likely to cause a storm surge and severe flooding.  More than two million people have been told to leave their homes and the federal government has granted a request for a disaster declaration for North Carolina in anticipation of the storm's impact on the state  "Don't tough it out. Get out," US Federal Emergency Management Agency official Carlos Castillo said.


sottnet--2019-01-12--South East Africa - Deadly storms and floods in Malawi Zambia and Mozambique

South East Africa - Deadly storms and floods in Malawi, Zambia and Mozambique

Violent storms and flash flooding triggered by heavy rain have affected the south east African countries of Malawi, Zambia and Mozambique over the last few days.Malawi's Department of Disaster Management Affairs (DoDMA) reported on 11 January that flash floods in the capital Lilongwe, Central Region, have caused severe material damage, affecting around 600 people. No fatalities have been reported.DoDMA said that flooding had affected the areas of "Biwi, Area 22, Kaliyeka, Chipasula, Mchesi, Kawale and Area 36 in Lilongwe City, " and that "parts of Chipasula, Chidzanja and Kawale bridges have been damaged."Further damage assessments are being carried out to form the basis for the provision of relief assistance. Malawi's Minister of Homeland Security, Nicholas Dausi, was expected to visit the affected areas on 11 January.Heavy rain has also caused flooding in parts of eastern Zambia. Local media said that at least 4 people have died in flooding in Chama District in Muchinga Province. Chama is around 300km north of Lilongwe,Malawi.The heavy rain caused the Luangwa River to overflow. Flooding has destroyed 11 houses and damaged crops, roads and bridges in the area.Local media in Mozambique reported on 09 JanuaryAround 14 of the fatalities were thought to have been caused by lightning strikes during a violent storm that hit Niassa province on 09 January.Other fatalities were a result of people attempting to cross swollen rivers in Zambezia province.


sottnet--2019-01-16--California storms bring fear of devastating mudslides in fire-ravaged areas

Residents of hundreds of homes in three California counties have been ordered to to pack up and leave as a Pacific storm threatens potential mudslide catastrophe.Mandatory evacuation orders went into effect on Tuesday at 8am in parts of Los Angeles County and 10am in parts of Santa Barbara County that were devastated by the Woolsey Fire.In Riverside County, mandatory evacuation orders for dozens of areas around the Holy Fire were downgraded to voluntary early on Tuesday, but authorities urged people to stay alert because of continuing rain forecasts.It come a year after a mudslide swept through a fire-devastated California town, killing 23 people.After a devastating fire that burned and destabilized foothills, Montecito was hit by a powerful storm on January 9, 2018, that sent water, mud and boulders sluicing down creeks and canyons. Twenty-three people died and over 100 homes were destroyed.Residents of the plush neighborhood of Montecito were suffering 'evacuation fatigue' from last month's deadly wildfires when they chose to ignore orders to leave their homes as deadly mudslides threatened them, officials said.On Tuesday in Santa Barbara County on the central coast, evacuation orders were set to take effect for areas hit by the Sherpa, Whittier and Thomas fires.'Gather family members, pets, and essential items,' a county statement said. A debris flow could also make roads impassable and strand people near the evacuation areas, especially in Montecito, Summerland and Carpinteria, the county warned.Weather forecasters have predicted a series of storms that could continue to bring rain and snow into the middle of the week.Flash flood watches were issued by the National Weather Service for burn areas in Los Angeles, Ventura and Santa Barbara counties, which could see as much as an inch of rain per hour from Tuesday afternoon into the evening.All schools in Malibu were closed Tuesday.Flooding and debris flows were a threat to hundreds of homes in areas below foothills and canyons that were swept by flames in recent years.A mudslide closed a 4.4-mile section of section of Pacific Coast Highway just north of Malibu on Monday for several hours. Los Angeles County authorities issued evacuation orders beginning Tuesday morning for some areas of the Woolsey Fire. The blaze that broke out in November destroyed more than 1,500 homes and other buildings from Ventura County to Malibu and killed four people.On Monday, the first in the series of storms dumped an inch of rain in Los Angeles and snow in the mountains.Rain closed the Knott's Berry Farm and Six Flags Magic Mountain amusement parks.In Encino, in the San Fernando Valley of Los Angeles, a guest house was pushed off its foundation by a 250-foot-long debris flow from a hillside. No one was hurt but the Fire Department said up to a dozen other homes were in the slide zone.Ice and blowing snow shut down the Grapevine, a high pass on Interstate 5, a major route connecting Los Angeles with San Francisco. Dozens of cars and trucks were stranded before the road reopened after nightfall.Demetrius Moore, a 35-year-old producer for a court TV show in Chicago, was in California for a warm-weather winter vacation. Instead, he found himself huddling in his rental car in the mountain town of Gorman.'I have just over a quarter of a tank,' Moore said from his car, where he had been sitting waiting for traffic to clear for more than an hour.'I'm growing concerned. I have water and a little bit of a latte left, no food. I'm just kind of hanging out, hoping for the best and wondering if I'll get out.'


sottnet--2019-03-22--Strongest hailstorm in 30 years hits Yunnan China

Strongest hailstorm in 30 years hits Yunnan, China

A freak hailstorm hit a county in southern China today with hailstones said to be as big as eggs.Residents of Jinping in southern China's Yunnan Province woke up to find their cars destroyed, windows smashed and streets covered by massive lumps of ice.No casualties have been reported.Pictures circulating on Chinese social media show the locals holding sizable hailstones in their hands or collecting them in washing bowls.Some hailstones were as big as eggs and others were similar to the size of chestnuts, according to Yunnan Radio and Television Station, citing local weather authorities.Other news sources described the size of the hailstones to be that of table tennis balls.. Most of them measured 0.5 to five centimetres (0.19 to 1.96 inches) wide, said the report.The storm began at around 6:40am and was accompanied by high winds gusting up to 70 kilometres per hour (43.6 miles per hour), said the Yunnan Meteorological Bureau which added that such storm 'was rarely seen in many years'.said the Bureau.The local authorities are currently calculating the economic loss caused by the adverse weather, it is reported.They have warned the residents to stay warm and take extra care in the next few days.


sottnet--2019-04-01--Freak storm in Nepal kills 27 injures hundreds

Freak storm in Nepal kills 27, injures hundreds

At least 27 people have been killed and hundreds injured after a freak storm hit southern Nepal, destroying houses, uprooting trees and toppling electricity poles, officials said.The thunderstorm swept through the district of Bara and adjoining areas late Sunday killing at least 27 people and injuring more than 600, according to the home ministry."The winds took away everything, my home and my family," Ram Babu Patel, 45, who lost his wife in the storm in a village in Bara, told AFP over the phone.Prakash Tharu, a volunteer on the ground, described a scene of devastation in the villages.Tharu said."There is a desperate need for food and relief."Local and district hospitals were inundated with injured victims coming in from the affected areas.Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli expressed his condolences in a tweet and said that the government would do its best for treatment of the injured.AFP


sottnet--2019-05-04--Cyclone Fani At least eight dead in Indias biggest storm in decades

Cyclone Fani: At least eight dead in India's biggest storm in decades

One million people evacuated as 170km/h winds make landfall in eastern Odisha stateCyclone Fari barrelled into Bangladesh on Saturday after leaving a trail of deadly destruction in India, passing through hundreds of densely populated, low-lying communities along the Bay of Bengal, one of the most vulnerable regions to flooding in the world.Major roads in the capital of eastern India's Odisha state were scattered with trees and power lines, and the roof was torn off the city's main railway station, after on Friday it was hit by the most severe storm on the Indian subcontinent in two decades.Almost all thatched-roof and mud houses across four districts in the state were destroyed by the cyclone, which made landfall at about 8am on Friday morning and began migrating north-west towards the city of Kolkata.More than 1 million people, including at least 1,000 pregnant women, were moved from their homes into shelters.Eight people reportedly died in India and Bangladeshi police said nine perished even before the eye of the storm rumbled over the border.Rescue officials told the Guardian the dead included a teenager in Puri who was hit by a falling tree and a woman in an adjoining district who was struck by a collapsing wall."We have taken full precautions and my government is fully prepared to deal with the situation," Odisha's chief minister, Naveen Patnaik, told the Guardian. "I have learned of the casualties and am instructing officers to find out the reasons behind them."A powerful storm in Odisha, one of India's poorest states, flooded hundreds of villages and killed more than 10,000 people in 1999, but more recent tolls have been greatly reduced by greater preparation, including better weather forecasting and early warning systems that can reach people in isolated villages.Indian meteorological officials had categorised Friday's storm as "extremely severe" when it reached Odisha, with maximum wind speeds of 175km/h, but said it was slowing as it travelled and had been downgraded to "very severe".Footage from Puri, a temple city of about 200,000 people that was the first to be hit by the storm, showed saturated palm trees flailing in deafening winds. Parts of the city were flooded, including the Puri-Konark Marine Drive, a major road that was submerged by about 1.5 metres of seawater."People have suffered a lot because the roofs of many houses are not concrete," said Sanjukta Pannda from Kakatpur, a village in the Puri district, as the storm eased on Friday afternoon. "Those roofs have been wiped out and because of the rain there [are] lots of problems. The wind is slow right now but the rain is continuing."In Odisha's capital Bhubaneswar, a city of more than 900,000 people, fallen trees and electricity poles blocked almost every major road after winds reaching almost 170km/h battered the city for at least four hours. Images from its main hospital, the All India Institutes of Medical Sciences, showed broken water tanks, damaged roofs and overturned trucks at its perimeter."All main roads are closed and 60% - or maybe more - trees and electric poles in the city have fallen," said Bimal Pandia, a disaster mitigation officer with the charity Oxfam, which has a state office in Bhubaneswar. "Rescue workers are clearing the roads on a war footing."He said concerns were now turning to the possibility of unreported deaths in the state's remote hinterlands and the possibility of flooding in coastal areas in the next few days."The devastation is quite serious in the interior areas," Pandia said. "In the last major cyclone there were massive floods that happened for two days, so that apprehension is always there."The storm has interrupted India's feverish campaign season with major figures from the ruling Bharatiya Janata party (BJP) including its president, Amit Shah, announcing they were suspending campaign rallies in adjoining states. Mamata Banerjee, the chief minister of West Bengal and a fierce rival of the BJP, also suspended campaigning for 48 hours.All flights out of Bhubaneswar were cancelled on Friday and Kolkata airport was closed from 9.30pm on Friday evening until 6pm on Saturday. Tourists were evacuated on three special trains on Thursday but nearly 150 other railway services have been suspended.Hundreds of disaster management personnel have been deployed across the state, which has closed its schools and colleges and suspended leave for doctors and health officials for the next fortnight. The Indian army, navy and air force were on alert to assist with rescues.Nearly 5,000 shelters were set up in Odisha for the evacuees. Police in the state posted pictures on social media showing officers folding their hands in a mark of respect to persuade reluctant people to cooperate and move to safer ground.Pandia said Oxfam was among the civil society groups working with the government and had prepared enough material to quickly reconstruct 5,000 houses.The cyclone's name, Fani, is Bengali for the hood of a snake. The word cyclone itself is said to be derived from the Greek word meaning "coiling of a snake", and was coined by the British administrator Henry Piddington while he was stationed in Kolkata, then Calcutta, during colonial rule.Fifteen of the 20 deadliest-ever storms have formed in the Bay of Bengal, where the combination of poor quality housing, dense populations and flash flooding frequently lead to high casualties. The Bhola cyclone that hit Bangladesh in 1970 killed more than half a million people.But Indian governments had vastly improved their responses to such disasters, said Mihir Bhatt, the founder and director of All India disaster mitigation institute.He said early warning systems were now geared to reach "the last mile and the last place", people were promptly moved to shelters or safer ground within their villages, and state governments - which had previous prepared for disasters in isolation - were now sharing information and coordinating tactics. "This is new and has played an active role in reducing the death toll," Bhatt said.More than a million people were evacuated from Odisha during a 2013 storm in a move that is thought to have saved thousands of lives. Around 50 people were killed by that cyclone.Bhatt said India's recent election may have also contributed to increased preparedness among the central and state governments. "There is an environment of showing you are performing and doing it," he said.


sottnet--2019-05-28--Large destructive tornado strikes Dayton as severe storms ravage Ohio

Large, destructive tornado strikes Dayton as severe storms ravage Ohio

Dayton, Ohio, and surrounding communities were under a tornado emergency as a large and destructive tornado was reported on Monday night.The National Weather Service (NWS) was calling itThere have been some reports of injuries, but no word on the number or extent of these injuries."A large, dangerous tornado touched down last night in northwest Montgomery County, we are focused on supporting life saving measures, such as shutting down gas lines or locating people who are trapped by debris," a post on the county's Twitter page said. "Call 911 or contact your local fire station for emergency assistance."Pictures on social media showed strewn trees and severely damaged homes in the area. Law enforcement reports that the New Life Worship Center just north of Dayton was completely destroyed.Montgomery County Sheriff Rob Streck told WKEF-TV in Dayton thatSome schools have announced closures on Tuesday due to the storm damage.Residents are being told to stay off the roads.The tornado's path crossed directly over Interstate 75. The Ohio Department of Transportation (ODOT) is urging people to avoid to avoid the area north of downtown Dayton. Snowplows are being used to clear debris off of the interstate."Our crews are assisting with debris clean up from a tornado that hit about an hour ago," ODOT said on Twitter . "Please give them and emergency crews room to work." forecaster from WYMT-TV listening to scanner traffic from the Dayton area reported that rescue crews are "scrambling to mobilize" and "damage sounds catastrophic."There have been reports of rescue crews going house to house looking for trapped residents.Less than 30 minutes after the large tornado swept through the Dayton metro area, yet another tornado-producing thunderstorm was targeting the same areas that were struck by the first tornado.Several other tornadoes were reported in Ohio on Monday night, including in Celina, where numerous trees and power lines were downed.Structural damage was reported to a house and barn in Laurelville around 1:10 a.m. EDT Tuesday.Power outages are affecting over 80,000 customers across Ohio."We're in for a multi-day restoration effort," Dayton Power & Light said on Twitter. Severe weather and tornado dangers will continue across Ohio on Tuesday and expand eastward into Pennsylvania, southern New York, Maryland and New Jersey.


sottnet--2019-11-13--Southern Italy battered by storms, floods and tornadoes

Heavy rain, hail, thunderstorms, and winds of more than 100 kilometres per hour hit many parts of southern Italy on Tuesday.The Italian Civil Protection Department issued a red alert for the regions of Basilicata, Calabria and Sicily, and a lower orange alert was issued for Puglia ahead of fierce storms which began in the early hours of Tuesday morning.Schools across many parts of the southern regions announced closures for Tuesday, and the Civil Protection Department warned drivers of the risk of falling trees and swollen rivers.Since Monday night, firefighters in the four southern regions have been called out a total of 460 times to deal with storm damage, the fire service wrote on Twitter.While no injuries have been reported so far, there are widespread reports of damage to homes, businesses, electricity supplies and farmers' crops across all four regions.A tornado was reported off the coast of Siracuse, Sicily.In Basilicata, the coastal town of Metaponto was also reportedly hit by a tornado while nearby Matera suffered serious flooding.This dramatic video footage shows floodwaster gushing through Matera's historic town centre on Tuesday morning."We've never seen anything like it," Matera resident Giuseppe Bartucci, who shot the video, told The Local.Restaurants and hotels in Matera's ancient, Unesco-listed Sassi, or old town, suffered serious damage according to local news reports.Near Bari on Tuesday morning a lorry crashed into a motorway barrier after losing control in heavy rain. No one was hurt in the accident, firefighters confirmed.In Salento, Puglia, a large number of olive trees were reportedly damaged by strong winds, while the university of Salento closed due to the extreme weather lashing the province of Lecce.The Local's Italy editor Clare Speak also experienced flooding in Bari province on Tuesday, and said"Gusts of wind up to over 100 kilometers per hour are lashing Puglia, destroying greenhouses, tents, buildings, blowing down trees, and leaving olives on the ground." said Savino Muraglia, president of Coldiretti Puglia.


sottnet--2019-11-26--Three die as storm front batters Greece

Three die as storm front batters Greece

Three people have died in Greece as a storm front battered parts of the country, causing flooding and landslides, officials have said.The bodies of two men were recovered after their yacht capsized and sank in the port of Antirion, near the city of Patras, a senior coastguard official said. Antirion lies 200 kilometres west of Athens.Moving eastwards, the storm then caused flooding in the Halkidiki peninsula and the island of Rhodes, where a disabled elderly woman died in her home, the fire department said.Gale-force winds also disrupted some ferry services on the Ionian Sea.Earlier today, flooding and landslides at Kinetta, a seaside town 50 kilometres south of Athens, closed rail service and the motorway linking the capital to the Peloponnesian peninsula in the southwest.Workers laboured through the day to clear the mud, stones and fallen trees the storm left in its wake. A fire destroyed much of the vegetation at Kinetta in 2018, making it more susceptible to landslides.Strong winds also caused the cancellation of some ferry services linking the Cyclades islands from the ports of Rafina and Lavrion in the east, and closed some ports in the northeast.Dozens of houses were flooded and the emergency services said they had to evacuate some residents.Flooding in the Attica region around Athens has become more frequent in recent years because of deforestation caused by wildfires.In November 2017, a mudslide caused by heavy rains killed 23 people at Mandra, 50 kilometres west of the capital.


sottnet--2019-12-28--Severe storm hits Rwanda's capital Kigali killing 12

Twelve people were reported dead across Rwanda on Wednesday night following heavy rains that swept the entire country, officials said on Thursday.The Ministry of Emergency Management said more could have died, had government not relocated people from wetlands across the capital Kigali.It was a tough task for Rwanda Police officers who endured heavy rains that hit almost every corner of the country on the Christmas eve, to work beyond expected and rescue people who were in the middle of deadly floods caused by heavy rains.Rwanda Meteorology Agency warned more rains are expected between today, December 26 throughout December 28.The agency said the cause of the heavy rains across Rwanda was due to strong winds that abruptly made a U-turn from the Western part of Rwanda - driving away moisture within the Congo forests towards Rwanda.Initially the winds were coming from the Eastern part of the country going west, the agency said.From 6pm yesterday, heavy rains had started hitting the capital Kigali - leaving mostly roads in the lowland impassable.A video of a public transport bus was captured with a woman screaming in the background calling on God to save them from an impending death.Traffic Police vehicles could also be seen trying to save people.On Thursday morning, a Rwanda Police breakdown truck was seen retrieving a brand new but seemingly destroyed vehicle from a deep trench in Nyabugogo suburb.According to reports on ground, the vehicle was parked in a garage in Kimisagara - a few distance from Nyabugogo in Nyarugenge district when heavy rains estimated at 140mm swept it away.Several other roads remained impassable throughout the night as Police worked around the clock to clear them.This morning, Rwanda Police issued a statement saying the roads have been cleared.Police further issued guidelines to passengers and drivers to avoid different risks including; not attempting to drive through a flooded area and parking under trees.Police also cautioned vehicle owners to replace worn out tyres."If it is too clouded, pull over and wait.Reduce the speed. Abide by instructions of traffic police officers deployed on the road. Thank you," Police further warned.The Ministry of Emergency Management and Refugees warned people to travel using rainwater flooded roads and advised those living in high-risk zones to vacate them as a matter of priority."During this heavy rain period, MINEMA reminds Rwandans to avoid traveling utilizing rainwater flooded roads. Further, people living in wetlands and other high risk zones are requested to relocate to save their lives and properties," the Ministry said in a tweet.Since last week, government started to destroy houses located in wetlands - a move that attracted mixed reactions. Government said its doing in the interests of saving its citizens.From January to December this year, Rwanda lost 117 citizens to disasters including lightening, floods, mine disaster and house collapse, among others.The previous year, the country lost double this number, and the government officials said, that was bad enough to trigger action against disasters.At least 7,222 activities are established in wetland in the capital Kigali, including more than 2500 houses that host nearly 6000 people.Unconfirmed reports say at least 6 people died following last night's heavy downpour.By press time, Ministers of Local Government Prof. Anastase Shyaka, Claver Gatete of Infrastructure, City of Kigali Mayor, officials from the Ministry of Dasaster Management and Refugees as well as Police officials were convening a press conference to issue updates on the aftermath of last night disasters.


thedcclothesline--2019-06-27--Crops Devastated As More Ferocious Storms Pound The Midwest Its Hard To Get Your Head Around Jus

Crops Devastated As More Ferocious Storms Pound The Midwest – “It’s Hard To Get Your Head Around Just How Bad It Is”

It has gotten to the point where maybe we should just expect violent storms to hammer the Midwest every single day of the week.  Highly destructive storms ripped through the Midwest on Tuesday, it happened again on Wednesday, and the forecast calls for more powerful storms on Thursday.  This growing season has been a complete and utter nightmare for U.S. farmers, and each day it just gets even worse.  Millions of acres will not be planted at all this year, but an even bigger problem is that fact that crops are dramatically failing on tens of millions of acres that were actually planted in time.  Every major storm does even more damage, and that is why what we have witnessed so far this week has been so alarming.  For example, on Tuesday the middle of the country was absolutely pummeled by “more than 120 damaging storms”…  Then on Wednesday a series of severe storms dumped enormous amounts of rain “from Washington state to Illinois”.  And of course we aren’t done yet.  According to AccuWeather, Thursday will be another very rough day for the heartland…  More severe weather is likely on Thursday over parts of the North-Central states. The storms may take a more west-to-east track across the northern Plains to the Great Lakes region during Thursday afternoon and night. During this period, a complex of storms is likely to travel from the eastern part of South Dakota to across Lake Michigan and much of the Lower Peninsula of Michigan. Storms are forecast to roll through Minneapolis in the morning and then Milwaukee later in the day or evening.  In recent weeks, some people that clearly don’t live in the middle of the country have left some really negative comments on my articles about the enormous toll that this disaster is taking on Midwest farmers.  For whatever reason, some people want to try to minimize the nightmare that these farmers are living.  But the truth is that it would be very difficult to overstate the scope of this crisis at this point.  Recently, Missouri farmer Kate Glastetter told one reporter that her fields “are washing away” and that they currently resemble “lakefront property”…  Kate Glastetter has worked on her family farm all her life. Alongside her father, the 25-year-old farmer grows row crops—wheat, bean, and corn—and runs a cow and calf operation in Scott County, Missouri. Normally, at this time in the season, farmers would be starting to plant soybeans, and corn should already be in the ground. Instead, Glastetter says, their fields are covered in water. “It’s like lakefront property,” she says. “The fields are washing away.” It’s a common story across the Midwest and Great Plains, where the Missouri and Mississippi River basins are still recovering from a catastrophic deluge: Since March, record flooding in the central United States has caused historic crop delays. The Mississippi River received levels of rain and snow at 200 percent above normal this spring, causing corn and some soybean farmers to wait longer to plant their crops than ever recorded in Department of Agriculture data.  How would you feel if you had to watch your income for the year literally wash away right in front of your eyes?  This is happening in state after state, and it is truly a disaster unlike anything we have ever seen before.  In fact, one agricultural expert told AgWeb that it is “hard to get your head around just how bad it is”…  Meanwhile, U.S. farmers are also being absolutely devastated by our trade war with China.  The following comes from Zero Hedge…  The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs of the People’s Republic of China published new data Monday that shows agricultural imports from the US have fallen, as Chinese buyers shift supply chains out of the US to other countries because of the deepening trade war. In the first five months of 2019, imports of agricultural products from the US crashed 55.3% YoY. Much of decline was due to a 70.6% YoY decline of soybeans in the same period. Chinese importers went to Brazil, Argentina, and ASEN countries (Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Philippines, Vietnam, Brunei, Myanmar (Burma), Cambodia, and Laos). Data showed imports from the EU, Australia, and Canada also jumped in the first five months as Chinese buyers ditched American products.  Farmers are being financially destroyed all over the country, and yet there are some people out there that seem to think that it is appropriate to mock them and make light of their suffering.  I just don’t get it.  Look, the truth is that we are all going to be hurting as a result of this crisis.  Food prices are going to go up, gas prices are going to go up as less corn is available for ethanol, and the massive income loss that U.S. farmers are suffering is going to have ripple effects throughout the entire U.S. economy.  Those that are mocking others should be busy preparing for harder times instead.  And of course this all comes at a time when we are experiencing the worst economic downturn since the last recession.  For many months, I warned that a “perfect storm” was coming, and now we can see evidence of it all around us.  For U.S. farmers, it is hard to imagine that things could get even worse than they are right now, and so let us hope that better weather is right around the corner.  About the author: Michael Snyder is a nationally-syndicated writer, media personality and political activist. He is the author of four books including Get Prepared Now, The Beginning Of The End and Living A Life That Really Matters. His articles are originally published on The Economic Collapse Blog, End Of The American Dreamand The Most Important News. From there, his articles are republished on dozens of other prominent websites. If you would like to republish his articles, please feel free to do so. The more people that see this information the better, and we need to wake more people up while there is still time.


thedenverpost--2019-02-03--Powerful storm hits Southern California flooding highways

Powerful storm hits Southern California, flooding highways

LOS ANGELES — The second in a string of powerful storms battered California on Saturday, shutting key highways after water and mud rushed into lanes from bare hillsides in wildfire burn areas where thousands of residents were under evacuation orders.  Flash flood warnings were issued for huge swaths of Southern California and forecasters said the system brought more than 4 inches (10 centimeters) of rain at lower elevations and several feet of snow in the mountains, where whiteout conditions closed roads.  A wind gust in Santa Barbara County topped 80 mph (128 kph) as the storm moved south and at one point dropped more than a half-inch (1.27 centimeters) of rain in five minutes. Trees and power lines were down across the region.  In Malibu, where the Woolsey fire last year destroyed homes and burned hillsides bare, officials closed Pacific Coast Highway and many other roadways after mud carried trees and rocks into lanes. Residents whose homes survived the flames barricaded their properties with sandbags to protect their properties from floodwaters.  Carol Cavella was evacuated during the November fire and again Saturday when the creek behind her house threatened to overflow and inundate her backyard.  The 86-year-old put her cat in the car and drove to a coffee shop on higher ground, her son-in-law, Warren Bowman said.  “She does not scare easily, but she got a little scared watching that water rise,” Bowman said. He was trying to convince her to come to his house in Los Angeles but she said she’d rather wait to see if the waters recede and she can return home.  The California Department of Transportation said Saturday night in a tweet that the both the northbound southbound lanes of U.S. 101, a vital route between Los Angeles and points north and west, have been reopened. Earlier Saturday, in the Montecito area of Santa Barbara County, several miles of U.S 101 were closed because of flooding.  Elsewhere in the county, evacuations were ordered or recommended for neighborhoods near the Thomas, Whittier and Sherpa fire scars.  “This is a dangerous situation,” the National Weather Service said, warning that the high rates of rain could send boulders sluicing down denuded hillsides along with the mud and debris.  It has only been a little over a year since a downpour on the huge Thomas Fire burn scar unleashed a massive debris flow that destroyed or damaged hundreds of homes in the seaside community of Montecito. The disaster killed 21 people, and two others have never been found.  Rescue crews scrambled Saturday to pluck motorists from cars caught in rising waters, said Mike Eliason, a spokesman for the Santa Barbara County Fire Department. He urged drivers who come upon flooded intersections to find alternate routes.  “Turn around. Driving through is going to be a costly error in judgment,” he said. “It’s just not worth it.”  Multiple accidents were reported on slick highways, including a crash on Interstate 5 that killed a volunteer member of a sheriff’s search and rescue team, and injured several others.  The team from Ventura County was on its way to a training exercise when members stopped to help at the scene of a single-vehicle rollover crash.  A minivan carrying a family was traveling too fast for the wet conditions, lost control and plowed into members of the team, Los Angeles County fire Capt. Tony Imbrenda said. Nine people were transported to hospitals, including three members of the team. The victim, Jeff Dye, was a volunteer with the Fillmore Mountain Search and Rescue Team, the sheriff’s department said.  “This is a very unfortunate situation that could’ve been avoided,” Imbrenda said, warning motorists to slow down in the rain.  In the Holy Jim fire area southeast of Los Angeles, where an August blaze scoured tens of thousands of acres in the Cleveland National Forest, volunteers using heavy equipment removed debris and deepened a creek bed to help prevent flooding.  The National Park Service warned visitors to Yosemite National Park of possible road closures and advised drivers to bring tire chains in the event of snow or icy conditions.  Winter storm warnings were in place for the Sierra Nevada along with avalanche warnings on the Nevada side of the range. The Sierra is already loaded with snow from a series of storms in January. The weather service said areas could see accumulations of up to 10 feet (3 meters) over the next few days.  The weather service lifted flash-flood watches for areas burned by the Mendocino Complex, Camp and Carr wildfires in Northern California. About an inch (2.5 centimeters) of rain was recorded in the San Francisco Bay Area before the storm moved south early Saturday.  A weaker storm soaked much of the state on Thursday Two cold weather systems will follow on Sunday and Monday, bringing additional widespread showers and snow, forecasters said.