A tornado killed two people in the US state of Georgia, the governor said, as Hurricane Helene churned into the state after causing one death in the neighbouring state of Florida, where it barrelled ashore in the southeastern United States.
Helene weakened to a Category 1 hurricane early on Friday with maximum sustained winds of 75 mph (120 kph), according to the National Hurricane Center (NHC), but it left a deadly trail of destruction in both states.
More than 55 million people in the US have been placed under some form of weather alert.
As of Friday morning, broadcaster ABC reported two deaths in Georgia's Wheeler County, while Florida confirmed one death, after a sign fell on a car on a highway in Tampa City.
The hurricane made landfall in northwestern Florida as a Category 4 storm as forecasters warned that the enormous system could create a "nightmare" storm surge and bring dangerous winds and rain across much of the southeastern US.
After making landfall in Florida as a Category 4 hurricane, Helene is continuing to track inland as a weakened tropical storm, bringing flooding and leaving millions without power in the Southeast.
There have been at least 44 reported fatalities from the storm across five states after catastrophic flooding and storm surge that left destruction in their wake, according to The Associated Press.
Deaths have been confirmed in Florida, South Carolina, Georgia, North Carolina and Virginia.
Multiple deaths have been attributed to drowning, while some were the result of trees falling. State officials say dozens more are still trapped inside their homes, The Associated Press reports.
In Florida, crews have been working to rescue people stuck in floodwaters with some areas experiencing up to 9 feet of flooding. Crews are also dealing with downed powerlines and other hazards from the storm.
As Helene barreled through Georgia, wind gusts over 90 mph were reported with sustained winds at 60 mph. Headed toward the Carolinas, there are flood warnings across the Southeast, including North and South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia and southern Illinois and southern Indiana.
In Western North Carolina, significant flooding and road closures were reported with the Lake Lure Dam in Rutherford County at imminent risk of failure. Those in the area were being advised to evacuate immediately.
The flash flood emergency remains in place until 2 a.m. Saturday, according to the National Weather Service.
Rising floodwaters and a mudslide washed out the interstate near the North Carolina-Tennessee state line. The closure occurred around 12:30 p.m. Friday and is expected to reopen by 5 p.m. Saturday, NewsNation local affiliate WJZY reports.
Millions have also been left without power thanks to the storm.
More than 595,000 people in Florida are left without power, along with 860,000 outages reported in Georgia, more than 1.16 million in South Carolina and more than 812,000 in North Carolina.
As the weakened system makes its way north, power outages are following. Virginia is reporting more than 220,000 without power, while Ohio has more than 315,000.
At least 64 dead and millions without power after Helene's deadly march across the Southeast
Massive rains from powerful Hurricane Helene left people stranded, without shelter and awaiting rescue Saturday, as the cleanup began from a tempest that killed at least 64 people, caused widespread destruction across the U.S. Southeast and left millions without power.
"I've never seen so many people homeless as what I have right now," said Janalea England, of Steinhatchee, Florida, a small river town along the state's rural Big Bend, as she turned her commercial fish market into a storm donation site for friends and neighbors, many of whom couldn't get insurance on their homes.
Helene blew ashore in Florida's Big Bend region as a Category 4 hurricane late Thursday with winds of 140 mph (225 kph).
From there, it quickly moved through Georgia, where Gov. Brian Kemp said Saturday that it "looks like a bomb went off" after viewing splintered homes and debris-covered highways from the air. Weakened, Helene then soaked the Carolinas and Tennessee with torrential rains, sending creeks and rivers over their banks and straining dams.
The number of storm-related deaths climbed past 100 across the Southeast on Sunday as authorities rushed to airdrop supplies, restore power and clear roads after massive rains from the powerful Helene left people stranded and without shelter.
Helene left at least 116 people dead, CBS News has confirmed, and caused widespread destruction.
Thirty fatalities were reported in Buncombe County, North Carolina — in one of the states hit hardest by the storm.
Helene knocked out power to several million customers. More than two million still had no electricity early Monday, according to utility tracker Find Energy.
But But Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said Sunday night that 99% of the state's homes and businesses had had power restored.
At least 133 people have died as Hurricane Helene continues to devastate the United States causing widespread flooding along its south east coastline.
Flood-stricken North Carolina has suffered significant damage, with reports of 30 people having been killed in the mountain city of Asheville.
President Biden has said he will travel to North Carolina on Wednesday.
There are fears the death toll may continue to rise as rescuers and emergency workers continue to explore areas isolated by collapsed roads, failing infrastructure, and widespread flooding.
During a briefing Monday, White House homeland security adviser Liz Sherwood-Randall suggested that as many as 600 people haven't been accounted for, noting that some of them might be dead.
Climbing death toll: At least 182 people have died across six states and officials fear the death toll could rise following Hurricane Helene.
Many more remain missing, perhaps unable to leave their location or contact family where communications infrastructure is in shreds.
Power and infrastructure outages: Hundreds of roads remain closed, especially in the Carolinas, hampering the delivery of badly needed supplies. Some areas are so inaccessible supplies are being delivered by mules and by air. More than 1.2 million customers are without power, according to PowerOutage.us, most in the Carolinas, where "major portions of the power grid... were simply wiped away."
Hurricane Helene's death toll reached 200 on Thursday and could rise higher still, as searchers made their way toward the hardest to reach places in the mountains of western North Carolina, where the storm washed out roads and knocked out electricity, water and cellular service.
Officials in Georgia and North Carolina added to their states' grim tallies, padding an overall count that has already made Helene the deadliest storm to hit the U.S. mainland since Hurricane Katrina in 2005.
Fifteen people have been killed in a flash flood in the southeastern Iranian province of Kerman, the official news agency IRNA reported on Tuesday.
The flood occurred on Monday afternoon as heavy rainfalls caused Halil River in Jiroft County to overflow its banks, the report quoted Jiroft Governor Ahmad Bolandnazar as saying.
The governor added that 16 teams of the provincial Red Crescent Society as well as voluntary forces and local people had been searching for the 15 people missing in the flood since Monday evening, and all the bodies were found by Tuesday.
According to Bolandnazar, all the victims, except one, were Afghan nationals who were swimming in the river when the flood took place, Xinhua news agency reported.
Afshin Salehinejad, Jiroft's public and revolution prosecutor, said a lawsuit had been filed to take legal action against those potentially culpable, including government organizations such as the province's meteorological organization, the IRNA reported.
A powerful typhoon was lashing the northernmost islands of the Philippines Monday, prompting officials to evacuate villagers, shut down schools and inter-island ferries and warn of "potentially very destructive" damage to coastal villages.
Typhoon Krathon was last tracked over the coastal waters of Balintang island off the provinces of Cagayan and Batanes with sustained winds of up to 175 kph (109 mph) and gusts of up to 215 kph (133 mph), according to government forecasters.
The slow-moving Krathon was blowing westward and could strengthen into a super typhoon when it veers northeastward Tuesday toward Taiwan, they said.
There were no immediate reports of casualties or damage.
Two people are dead after former Hurricane John barreled into Mexico's southern Pacific coast, blowing tin roofs off houses, triggering mudslides and toppling scores of trees, officials said Tuesday.
John grew into a major hurricane in a matter of hours Monday and made landfall about 80 miles (130 kilometers) east of the resort of Acapulco before declining to a tropical storm after moving inland.
John came ashore near the town of Punta Maldonado late Monday night as a Category 3 hurricane with maximum sustained winds of 120 mph (190 kph). It weakened back to tropical storm status early Tuesday with maximum sustained wind speeds of 40 mph (65 kph) and was expected to weaken rapidly.
Evelyn Salgado, the governor of the coastal state of Guerrero, said two people died when the storm sent a mudslide crashing into their house on the remote mountain of Tlacoachistlahuaca (TLAH-ko-chis-tla-waka), further from the coast.
'Zombie' Hurricane John regains strength in Pacific, flooding parts of Mexico's southwestern coast
Towns along Mexico's southwestern coast are dealing with torrential rain, flooding and landslides after tropical storm John strengthened back into a Category 1 hurricane on Thursday, according to the National Hurricane Center.
John is considered a "zombie" storm - a term referring to systems that dissipate before strengthening back into a storm. After slamming into Mexico as a deadly Category 3 hurricane on Monday night, it dissipated before returning as a hurricane, battering Mexico's Pacific coast. Even after initially dissipating, remnants of the storm continued to move along the coast, bringing continuous rainfall.
In the resort city of Acapulco, which still hasn't fully recovered from the destruction of Hurricane Otis last year, several neighborhoods were flooded and residents in at-risk areas were told to evacuate to temporary shelters. Parts of the city have received over 500mm of rain this week,and 431mm over just the past 24 hours.
Hurricane John, which made landfall in Mexico twice last week, claimed 29 lives in three Pacific coast states, including more than 20 in Guerrero, according to news reports.
The EFE news agency and other media outlets reported that the death toll from John rose to 29 on Sunday after authorities confirmed four additional hurricane-related fatalities in Guerrero.
The hurricane made landfall for the first time last Monday as a powerful Category 3 storm, slamming into the coast of southern Guerrero near the state's border with Oaxaca.
After weakening and drifting offshore, John regained strength in the Pacific Ocean before making landfall for a second time last Friday as a tropical storm on the coast of the neighboring state of Michoacán.
According to reports, 23 of the 29 fatalities linked to Hurricane John occurred in Guerrero. Five deaths reportedly occurred in Oaxaca — where at least 80 landslides were reported — and one fatality was reported in Michoacán.
Some of the victims were killed in mudslides while others were swept away by raging floodwaters. The storm also caused significant damage to homes, commercial establishments and other structures, including bridges.
Oman authorities urged residents to stay away from low-lying areas, as well as overflowing wadis.
Heavy rains lashed the northern parts of Oman on Sunday, disrupting normal life and throwing traffic out of gear in some areas. Temperatures were lower across much of the country.
Parts of Dhahira, Dhakliyah and South of Sharqiyah and Buraimi governorates received medium to heavy rains, due the heavy rain, according to the Meteorology Department at the Public Authority for Civil Aviation (PACA).
Wadis in the provinces of Ibri, Yanqul, Dhank, Mahada, Buraimi, Bahla, Nizwa, Samayil, Mudhaibi, Dima wa Tayeen, Awabim and Izki were flooded. No causalities have been reported, an official at the PACA told Gulf News.
Long queues of vehicles were reported stuck for hours, as the motorists were waiting for the water level to go down in wadi Bani Ghafar of Rustaq province on Sunday. Videos of the over-flooding wadis have been widely circulated in social media platforms.
Australia has experienced its wettest January-August since 2011, laying the platform for 2024 to become our fifth consecutive year with above-average rain — and potentially among the dampest ever.
While September is on average our driest month, the current spell of wet weather will continue this weekend as twin cloud bands deliver further rain to southern states.
Heavy falls and flooding are possible on the NSW north coast, the crescendo of an unseasonable north-west cloudband that brought rain to the majority of the country this week, including record falls in parts of WA and the NT.
Thankfully, the AFL Grand Final appears set to be played in good conditions — after a sunny and warm day today in Melbourne, a second rainband will arrive across south-eastern states by Sunday, while a third band of rain is possible next week.
A mining location in Solok, West Sumatra, reportedly experienced a landslide that buried dozens of people.
A landslide at a gold mine in western Indonesia has killed at least 15 people and left 25 missing, the local disaster agency said on Friday.
The landslide hit a remote site in West Sumatra province on Sumatra island on Thursday evening after heavy rain in the area, said provincial disaster mitigation agency spokesperson Ilham Wahab.
"The information we can provide was that a landslide occurred at a gold mine last night, causing several people to be buried. Efforts to search for the victims are ongoing," he said.
Ilham added that three people were injured and 25 were still missing.
Irwan Efendi, the head of the provincial disaster agency, said rescuers must trek eight hours to get to the site, which is inaccessible by road. He added: "The victims are the residents who manually mine for gold."
The National Hurricane Center has upgraded fast-moving Hurricane Helene to a Category 2 storm, with forecasts expecting further intensification to Category 3 or higher before it makes landfall on Florida's northwestern coast this evening.
Early Thursday, Helene was churning about 350 miles southwest of Tampa, moving north-northeast at 12 mph with maximum sustained winds in excess of 90 mph.
"Helene will make landfall along the Florida Big Bend coast this evening as a Major Hurricane. While exact impacts will be heavily dependent on the track, expect catastrophic wind damage across the Big Bend and into southern Georgia," NHC wrote in an overnight forecast.
Mumbai, India's financial capital, experienced severe flooding after receiving over 250mm of rainfall in just five hours, prompting authorities to issue a red alert and declare a holiday for schools and colleges across the city and nearby districts.
The India Meteorological Department (IMD) has forecast further heavy rain in Mumbai, Thane, Palghar, and Raigad, with the red alert remaining in effect until Thursday morning.
The torrential rain, among the heaviest recorded in September since 2020, caused widespread flooding in areas like Andheri, Chembur, and Vikhroli. Transportation was severely impacted, with major traffic disruptions and the halting of central railway services, leaving many commuters stranded. At least 14 flights were diverted, and 36 were canceled at Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport.
"The purpose of GLADIO was to attack civilians, the people - women, children, innocent people, unknown people, far removed from any political game. The reason was quite simple: to force the public to turn to the State and demand greater security. Under a strategy of tension, you 'destabilize in order to stabilize', to create tension within society and promote conservative, reactionary social and political tendencies."
~ Italian neo-fascist whose prosecution led to the discovery of NATO's 'Gladio' networks across Western Europe
- Vincenzo Vinciguerra
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US mo. Promise peace Talk peace Then say we're close to peace Then attack. I wouldn't talk to these Aholes either.
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