Storms
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Bizarro Earth

Tropical Storm Karl Hits Mexico

Isela Serrano
Reuters
Wed, 15 Sep 2010 16:35 UTC
Image
© NOAA via AFP - Getty Images This satellite-based image taken Thursday morning shows Tropical Storm Karl just before it re-emerged into the Gulf of Mexico.
Tropical Storm Karl hit Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula on Wednesday and could reach hurricane strength once it enters the Gulf of Mexico, where it could swing past major Mexican oil installations.

Hundreds of mostly Mayan villagers were evacuated as Karl dumped rain and brought strong winds to the Yucatan, civil protection authorities said.

The storm also knocked out power to tens of thousands of people throughout the mainly rural area. Majahual, home to a large cruise ship port, bore the brunt of the storm as it made landfall but no serious damage was reported.

Mexico's state-run oil giant Pemex has not curtailed any operations but said it would monitor Karl's progress as it approached operations in the Bay of Campeche, where the bulk of Mexico's 2.55 million barrels per day of oil is produced.
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Cloud Lightning

Hurricanes Igor, Julia spin in Atlantic


Reuters
Tue, 14 Sep 2010 11:12 UTC
Image
© REUTERS/NOAA/HandoutThis 1145Z GOES imagery shows Igor east of the northern Leeward Islands, and Tropical Storm Julia located south-southwest of the Cape Verde Islands.

Tropical Storm Julia grew in the far eastern Atlantic into the fifth hurricane of the storm season, while Hurricane Igor weakened slightly but remained a dangerous Category 4 storm, forecasters said on Tuesday.

Neither hurricane posed an immediate threat to land or energy interests, but Igor could threaten Bermuda by the weekend.

Julia reached hurricane status and then continued to strengthen, with top sustained winds of 85 miles per hour. It was about 355 miles west-northwest of the Cape Verde Islands at 11 a.m. EDT (1500 GMT), forecasters at the U.S. National Hurricane Center in Miami said.

Julia was moving west-northwest as a Category 1 hurricane on the five-step Saffir-Simpson scale of hurricane intensity, forecasters said. Its projected path would keep it out to sea.

Julia could strengthen slowly over the next two days, forecasters said. But as it gets closer to the more powerful Igor, strong upper-level winds flowing out from Igor could shear off and weaken Julia.

Farther west in the Atlantic, Hurricane Igor weakened slightly but still packed a punch, the center said.

Igor was about 710 miles east of the northern Leeward Islands with maximum sustained winds at 135 mph, the center said.
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Cloud Lightning

North Africa: Lightning Strike Kills 4 At Wedding in Mauritania


The Associated Press
Fri, 10 Sep 2010 09:00 UTC
Nouakchott - A witness says a lightning strike has killed four people at a wedding in a village in Mauritania.

Wedding guest El Hadi Ould Mohamed says the lightning bolt struck the Friday morning festivities and killed two women and two men.

He says two other people were burned by lightning and taken to a hospital near the village of Idini, which is some 40 miles (65 kilometers) east of Nouakchott, the capital.

He says the bride and groom were not killed or injured.
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Bizarro Earth

Mudslide hits village on Italy's Amalfi Coast


Associated Press
Fri, 10 Sep 2010 13:32 UTC
Image
© Unknown
A river of mud unleashed by heavy rains has flooded a tiny village on Italy's Amalfi Coast, and at least one person was reported missing.

Video obtained by APTN on Friday showed a river of mud running through a small alley in the village, called Atrani, tipping cars over and almost entirely covering some of them.

Officials said a small river close to the village had broken its banks, fed by heavy rains, on Thursday evening.

Brunella Cimadomo of the local Civil Protection Department said a 25-year-old woman was missing after the coffee bar where she worked was hit by the mudslide. She said the rain had let up on Friday but more was expected in coming days.
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Bizarro Earth

Floods leave tens of thousands homeless in Mexico

Antonio Villegas and Miguel Angel
Associated Press
Tue, 07 Sep 2010 20:08 UTC
People use a make-shift boat
© AP Photo/America RocioPeople use a make-shift boat to cross a flooded avenue in Villahermosa in Mexico's Tabasco state, Tuesday Sept. 7, 2010. Weeks of torrential rains have unleashed flooding in huge swaths of southern Mexico, forcing tens of thousands of people from their homes. )
Villahermosa - Weeks of torrential rains have unleashed flooding in huge swaths of southern Mexico, forcing tens of thousands of people from their homes.

Tens of thousands more are sleeping on their roofs, refusing to abandon their possessions even as the rivers around them rise rapidly.

Authorities on Tuesday started releasing 2,000 cubic meters (71,000 cubic feet) of water per second from four damns in the region that have reached capacity. That caused several rivers to overflow.
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Bizarro Earth

New landslip buries 100 rescue workers in Guatemala


Reuters
Mon, 06 Sep 2010 21:27 UTC
A massive landslide buried up to 100 people who were trying to dig out a bus caught in deep mud, killing at least 22 people with dozens more feared dead, as torrential rains battered Guatemala.

Emergency workers recovered 22 bodies from the landslide on a major highway northwest of the capital, and they warned it could take two days to dig out all the victims.
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Bizarro Earth

Tropical Storm Hermine Threatens Mexico, Texas


Reuters
Mon, 06 Sep 2010 07:25 UTC
Image
© National Hurricane Center/ReutersTropical storm Hermine is seen in this satellite image courtesy of the National Hurricane Center.
Tropical storm Hermine has formed in the Gulf of Mexico and warnings have been issued from Tampico, Mexico to the Baffin Bay on the south Texas coast, the National Hurricane Center said on Monday.

Hermine, the eighth tropical storm of the season, carried maximum sustained winds of 40 mph was located about 190 miles east-southeast of Tampico, Mexico. it was moving north at 8 mph.

U.S. forecasters said it was expected to turn toward the northwest and increase in speed on Monday.

"The center of Hermine is expected to approach the coast of northeastern Mexico or extreme southern Texas in the warning area early Tuesday morning," the Miami-based hurricane center said.
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Bizarro Earth

Guatemala mudslides kill at least 38; 2 buses hit

Moises Castillo
Associated Press
Sun, 05 Sep 2010 16:41 UTC
Image
© Associated PressPeople stand in front of a bus partially covered by a landslide, due to heavy rains, on the Pan-American highway at Tecpan, Guatemala, Saturday Sept. 4, 2010.
Nahuala - Torrential rains from a tropical depression caused landslides that have killed at least 38 people in Guatemala - some of them rescuers trying to save people already buried under a wall of mud.

In the village of Nahuala, about 200 rescue workers searched through mud and rocks for bodies Sunday after two slides in the same spot killed at least 20 along a highway leading northwest of the capital toward Mexico. Another slide closer to Guatemala City killed at least 12.

Suagustino Pascual Tuy, a Nahuala police officer, said he and several others rushed to the highway with picks and shovels after hearing radio reports of the fallen earth, which had buried two pickup trucks and a bus at kilometer 171 of the Inter-American highway.

Pascual Tuy said the crowds were able to rescue several people alive including his nephew, who was driving one of the pickups.

"He is in critical condition, but thank God we were able to get him out alive," he said.

Pascual Tuy said people were still digging through the rubble when the mountain above them began crackling. He shouted a warning, but moments later the second slide buried a number of rescuers. Pascual Tuy ran for his life and the slide only caught his legs.
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Cloud Lightning

Heavy rains trigger flooding in Australia


Press TV
Sun, 05 Sep 2010 16:05 UTC
Victoria flooding
© UnknownThunderstorms and heavy rains have triggered flooding in most areas of Victoria
Thunderstorms and heavy downpours have triggered massive flooding in Australia's Victoria State, threatening the safety of hundreds of homes.

"Many communities and individuals across the state have been affected by flooding from heavy rain over this weekend," said Victoria Premier John Brumby on Sunday.

The State Emergency Services say the army has been called in to help assess the damage inflicted by the floods.

This is while residents are working together to sandbag businesses and homes to protect them against rising floodwaters.
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Bizarro Earth

20 Killed in Guatemala Floods, President Alvaro Colom Declares Emergency


The Times of India
Sun, 05 Sep 2010 06:05 UTC
At least 20 people were killed in Guatemala in landslides triggered by weeks of driving rains, according to figures released by national emergency and rescue services.

President Alvaro Colom has declared a national emergency in the wake of the disaster.

"Top priority at present is dealing with this emergency. There are no funds left to deal with earlier disasters like the one caused by tropical storm Agatha," in late May, Colom told reporters after a surveying tour of the country Saturday

He said damage estimates across Guatemala after weeks of rain stood at 350-500 million dollars, or 40 percent of the damage wrought by Agatha, which killed 183 people in Central America, including 165 in Guatemala earlier this year, and left thousands homeless.
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