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Police said the victims aged between 30 and 60 years, residents of Galpottha had been struck by lightning when they were drying the paddy in an open area.
© Joe Raedle/Getty ImagesPuerto Rico's governor said about 95% of Puerto Rico's power could be restored by mid-December.
Based on the duration and the number of people affected, this is the largest blackout in U.S. history, the economic research firm Rhodium Group (RHG) reported Thursday.
Maria was the strongest Puerto Rico hurricane landfall since the Category 5 September 1928 San Felipe/Lake Okeechobee hurricane.
A wind gust to 137 mph was measured in Isla Culebrita, Puerto Rico, while San Juan clocked a 95-mph gust at Luis Muñoz Marin International Airport.
Prior to both Irma and Maria, only four other Category 4 hurricanes tracked within 75 miles of central Puerto Rico in historical records dating to the late 19th century. Hurricane Hugo in 1989 was the last to do that prior to 2017, though it had weakened to a Category 3 hurricane as it clipped the northeastern tip of Puerto Rico, according to the NOAA best tracks database.
There were already 61,000 customers without power in Puerto Rico due to Irma the day before Maria made landfall on Sept. 20, according to RHG. A customer is defined as a household or business, not an individual.
Storm leaves thousands without power in Southern New England
Falling trees knocked down power lines across the region, and some utility companies warned customers that power could be out for a few days.
There were numerous reports of trees down on homes, roads and cars. Amtrak was forced to suspend service from Boston to Connecticut and the MBTA reported delays on several of its lines due to downed trees.
Winds are expected to remain strong Monday afternoon, which could slow the effort to restore power.
Comment:
Update (Tuesday Oct. 31)
More than 1.1 million power customers are still without electricity, say reports, including 248,557 in Massachusetts and 137,900 in Rhode Island. In Maine, which was especially hard hit, Gov. Paul LePage declared a state of emergency to give power companies more flexibility to make repairs.
At the height of the storm more than 450k lost power in the 4th largest power outage in New Hampshire history. Utilities have warned that power could be out for days. Temperatures in the region are due to fall to near freezing tonight says the National Weather Service.
There have been 214 reports of wind damage in the 24-hour period ending at 9:30 a.m. EDT Monday, primarily in New England, but also in the Hudson Valley, northern New Jersey and northeast Pennsylvania.
Heavy rain triggered both flash flooding and river flooding. The NWS office in Gray, Maine, warned of "extremely dangerous flooding" in the White Mountains of New Hampshire early Monday.
According to the Weather Channel, this Eastern storm underwent bombogenesis from a weak area of low pressure in the Carolina piedmont to a strong low in the St. Lawrence Valley. Its central pressure dropped 29 millibars in just 21 hours from 8 a.m. EDT Oct. 29 to 5 a.m. EDT Oct. 30.
Bombogenesis is a rapid deepening of pressures in a storm, which rapidly increases winds near the center of the storm. Scientifically, bombogenesis is defined as a drop of 24 millibars in 24 hours.
In fact, the central pressure set an October record in Albany, New York, illustrative of the unusually strong nature of this inland storm for the time of year. The storm system received an injection of moisture and energy from ex-Tropical Storm Philippe, as well.
© Justin Tang / Canadian Press
Trudeau had to take a John Deere Gator ATV through washed-out back roads from his Harrington Lake residence in the Gatineau Hills to meet his motorcade on drier land before continuing to downtown Ottawa Monday morning, his office confirmed. The property is approximately 26 km from Parliament Hill.
Floodwaters rose so high inside the Pebb Building off Bank St. that frefighters had to carry one trapped woman to safety.
At least 175 homes were flooded, according to the city.
© Esri7.0 magnitude earthquake, with a depth of 15km, struck south of Vanuatu just after 11.30am on Tuesday
The quake, which was at a shallow depth of 15 km below the seabed, did not trigger a tsunami, according to the Pacific Tsunami Warning Centre in Hawaii and the Joint Australian Tsunami Warning Centre.
The epicentre was located 117.48 km east of the town of Tadine, on the Loyalty Islands, part of France's New Caledonia territory.
There were no immediate reports of injuries or damage.
A spokesman for the government in Noumea, the New Caledonia capital, and staff of two hotels contacted by Reuters said they did not feel the quake.
Source: AAP - SBS Wires
Frost on a leaf in Bristol on Monday morning, when many people woke up to the first widespread frost of the season PA
The UK woke up to the first widespread frost of the season as temperatures in many parts of the country dropped below zero.
Temperatures plummeted to -5C (23F) in areas of Scotland and as low as -3C in southern England on Monday morning as a cold snap gripped Britain.
Autumn's first widespread grass frost spread across the country on Sunday night as thermometers broadly plunged to low single figures or below zero.
The coldest temperatures were clocked in Tulloch Bridge, in the Scottish Highlands, which hit -5C at 4am on Monday.
© Craig Ruttle / APPassersby walk along the Promenade in the Brooklyn Heights neighborhood as rain and clouds loom over lower Manhattan on the fifth anniversary of Superstorm Sandy Sunday, Oct. 29, 2017, in New York.
The result is a nor'easter-type storm producing high wind and rain for parts of eastern New York and New England late Sunday into Monday. CNN forecasters anticipate Philippe will move into the western Atlantic Ocean by Monday afternoon. The storm formed near western Cuba a few days ago, the the National Hurricane Center said.
Early Sunday, it was racing up the Atlantic Ocean off the East Coast, moving away from Florida at about 31 mph, with sustained winds of about 50 mph. By Sunday afternoon, Philippe had merged with a front along the East Coast, the center said, canceling watches and warnings. About 45 million people in the Northeast are currently under a Flash Flood Watch.
Comment:
Update:
It is reported that 1.2 million people are without power following the storm, which forced hundreds of school closures in northern New England. The New England area appeared to get the brunt of the storm, which brought sustained winds of up to 50 mph in some spots, with a gust of 82 mph reported in Mashpee on Cape Cod in Massachusetts.
A spokesman for New Hampshire Electric Cooperative, told reporters, "I think if you're without power at this time, you should expect to remain without power, possibly for a number of days."
© Angela Antunes / CC by 2.0
The 53-year-old victim, identified by her surname Kim, was in the lift of her apartment building in the upscale Gangnam district when the incident happened on September 30. She died of septic shock six days later.
The French bulldog, which was unleashed at the time, belongs to K-pop star Choi Si Won's family.
When the story broke last weekend, it set off alarm bells in this country of 50 million people, where one in five owns pets, mostly dogs. Pet ownership is expected to double to 20 million by 2020 as more people who are elderly or live alone turn to animals for companionship.
The temperature was lowered by 11 degrees Celsius to minus 17 degree on Sunday morning after a snowfall the previous day.
Pedestrians were seen wearing thick coats, warm gloves and facial masks while walking against high wind.
Local meteorological observatory issued an alert of cold wave on Saturday. The cold weather is expected to last till Monday with the lowest temperature to reach 19 degree Celsius.
Comment: Puerto Rico Gov. Ricardo Rosselló said about 95% the island's power could be restored by December 15. Whitefish Energy - a firm with ties to the Trump administration - was awarded a $300 million contract to help repair the island's electrical grid, which is raising some eyebrows on Capitol Hill over its transparency..
See also: Puerto Rico: 'Disaster capitalism', privatization on the rise