Storms
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Bizarro Earth

North Carolina, US: Five Dead, Families Stranded, Thousands Without Power After Irene

Josh Shaffer, Anne Blythe, Katelyn Ferral and John Frank
The News & Observer
Sun, 28 Aug 2011 01:00 UTC
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© Chuck Liddy/The News & ObserverMaria Melnikova, 22, a seasonal worker from Russia who is staying in Buxton, protects her face from wind-blown sand.
Hurricane Irene triggered at least five deaths, swamped coastal families in waist-high water and left more than 500,000 homes without power - a bruising that will take the state days, if not weeks, to heal.

The cyclone killed three people in cars, including a 15-year-old girl whose father's vehicle collided with another under a blacked-out traffic light in Goldsboro. Four more children were ejected from that car and taken to Wayne County Memorial Hospital.

Floodwaters pushed onto the Outer Banks from the sounds, making parts of N.C. 12 impassable around Duck, Nags Head and Kitty Hawk, and prompting curfews for all but law enforcement.

The storm led to 100 swift-boat rescues in Craven County. An additional 26 people were rescued in Pamlico County, including two pregnant women and a pair of infants. Water rose so high there that the National Guard couldn't get through in pickup trucks, leaving some residents without aid until morning.
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Cloud Lightning

Hurricane Irene rakes up East Coast, shuts down New York

Ned Barnett
Reuters
Sat, 27 Aug 2011 21:34 UTC
Irene sandbags Virginia
© Reuters/Lucas JacksonPeople stand behind sandbags ahead of the arrival of Hurricane Irene in Amagansett, NY August 27, 2011.
Hurricane Irene charged up the East Coast Saturday toward New York, shutting down the city, and millions of Americans hunkered down as the giant storm halted transport and caused massive power blackouts.

"The storm is coming," New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg told the more than 8 million people who live in the United States' most populous city that includes Wall Street, one of the world's major financial centers.

From the Carolinas to Maine, tens of millions of people were in the path of the 580 mile-wide storm that howled ashore in North Carolina at daybreak Saturday, dumping torrential rain, felling trees and knocking out power.

At least seven deaths were reported in North Carolina, Virginia and Florida. Several million people were under evacuation orders on the U.S. East Coast.

The Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel, which connects Virginia's Eastern Shore with the mainland and is regarded as a modern engineering wonder, was closed because of the winds and rain.

This year has been one of the most extreme for weather in U.S. history, with $35 billion in losses so far from floods, tornadoes and heat waves. President Barack Obama was keeping a close eye on preparations for the hurricane.

New York City's normally bustling streets turned eerily quiet after authorities ordered unprecedented major evacuations and shut down its airports and subways.
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Cloud Lightning

US: Hurricane Irene Threatens 65 Million People, North Carolina in Path

Carla Caldwell
Atlanta Business Chronicle
Fri, 26 Aug 2011 03:58 UTC
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Ocracoke Island evacuation
Hurricane Irene is barreling toward North Carolina early Friday with landfall expected Saturday between 10 a.m. and noon. Forecasters said the storm will hit eastern North Carolina as a Category 3 storm with winds estimated at 115 miles per hour. Mandatory evacuations of coastal North Carolina residents will take place throughout the day on Friday. Officials are expected to order evacuations Friday as far north as New Jersey. Forecasters said early Friday the storm is as large as the Southeast, and has the potential to affect as many as 65 million people as it moves north along the East Coast of the U.S.
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Cloud Lightning

US: New York City, Mid-Atlantic Brace for Irene's Violent Strike

Kristina Pydynowski
AccuWeather
Fri, 26 Aug 2011 12:04 UTC
Irene remains on a path that will take the hurricane dangerously close to, if not over, the mid-Atlantic coastline and New York City Saturday night into Sunday, posing a serious danger to millions of people.

Irene could be "once-in-50-year" hurricane for the Northeast from the standpoint of power outages caused by downed trees alone.

The AccuWeather.com Hurricane Center is confident that Irene will strike the Outer Banks of North Carolina on Saturday as a strong Category 3.
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Bizarro Earth

Irene's First Rains Reach Threatened US East Coast

Mitch Weiss
The Associated Press
Fri, 26 Aug 2011 08:10 UTC
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© AP Photo/Charles DharapakA message is left for Hurricane Irene on one house, left, as a resident boards up another in anticipation of the arrival of Hurricane Irene in Nags Head, N.C., Thursday, Aug. 25, 2011 on North Carolina's Outer Banks.
Hurricane Irene's rains began reaching the U.S. East Coast on Friday ahead of a weekend of punishing weather from the Carolinas to as far north as Massachusetts, with at least 65 million people in the storm's track.

Rain began falling along the coasts of North and South Carolina as Irene trudged toward the coast from the Bahamas.

Swells from the hurricane and 6 to 9-foot waves were showing up in North Carolina's Outer Banks early Friday and winds were expected to begin picking up later in the day, said Hal Austin, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service.

Meanwhile, the hurricane warning area was expanded and now covered a large chunk of the East Coast from North Carolina to Sandy Hook, N.J., which is south of New York City. A hurricane watch extended even farther north and included Long Island, Martha's Vineyard and Nantucket, Mass.

For hundreds of miles, as many as 65 million people along the densely populated East Coast warily waited Friday for a dangerous hurricane that has the potential to inflict billions of dollars in damages anywhere within that urban sprawl that arcs from Washington and Baltimore through Philadelphia, New York, Boston and beyond.
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Bizarro Earth

US: Hurricane Irene "Looking Bad" - Is The New Moon To Blame?

Willie Drye
National Geographic News
Thu, 25 Aug 2011 17:12 UTC
Unusually high tides and potentially unprepared towns might spell disaster

The exact times, places, and intensities of Hurricane Irene's predicted U.S. landfalls are still ripe for revision, but according to meteorologist Keith Blackwell, at least one thing is certain: "It's looking bad." And the moon is at least partly to blame for that cloudy outlook.

Current forecasts suggest Irene will likely make landfall as a major hurricane on North Carolina's Outer Banks barrier islands this weekend, bringing damaging winds and serious flooding to coasts from North Carolina to New England.

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© NOAAHurricane Irene churns over the Caribbean Wednesday in an infrared satellite picture.
Hurricane Irene's center is "likely to go through the Outer Banks and rake the coast all the way up - Virginia, Delaware, Maryland, New Jersey - all the way up to New England," said Blackwell, of the University of South Alabama's Coastal Weather Research Center.

"Long Island looks like it's really going to be in trouble."
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Cloud Lightning

Monsoon Rains Trigger Floods Killing 16 in Pakistan


Dawn
Thu, 25 Aug 2011 16:46 UTC
Pakistan flood victims
© AP Photo/Mohammad SajjadPeople displaced by last year's floods and living in tents are seen after heavy monsoon rains in Peshawar, Pakistan Thursday, Aug 25, 2011.
Flash floods triggered by heavy monsoon rains swept through a village in northwestern Pakistan, killing 16 people and leaving several others missing, disaster management officials said Thursday.

The floods hit the remote Kundian Valley in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province Wednesday, destroying houses and other infrastructure, said Syed Asghar Ali Shah, the acting head of disaster management in the province.
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Attention

US: North Carolina Counties Tell Thousands to Leave as Irene Looms

Martha Waggoner
The Associated Press
Thu, 25 Aug 2011 14:38 UTC
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© AP Photo/Jose Luis MaganaTourist Neil Marcella of Yorktown Va. rides his bike in an empty ferry parking at Cape Hatteras, N.C. as evacuations from Ocracoke Island have begun Wednesday, Aug. 24, 2011 in preparation for Hurricane Irene. Hurricane Irene strengthened to a major Category 3 storm over the Bahamas on Wednesday with the East Coast in its sights.
Thousands were fleeing an exposed strip of coastal villages and beaches off North Carolina on Thursday as Irene approached, threatening to become the most powerful hurricane to hit the East Coast in seven years.

Hours after a hurricane watch was issued for much of the state's coast, emergency officials expanded evacuation orders to include hundreds of thousands of tourists and locals in four coastal counties. The areas include the barrier island chain known as the Outer Banks, which is expected to take the brunt of Irene's first hit over the weekend.

The governors of North Carolina, Virginia and New Jersey made emergency declarations to free up resources, while the Navy began moving dozens of ships in Irene's path out to sea. And emergency officials all the way to New England were urging residents in low-lying areas to gather supplies and learn the way to a safe location.

The storm is expected to come ashore Saturday in North Carolina with winds of around 115 mph (185 kph). Forecasters predict it will then chug up the East Coast, dumping rain from Virginia to New York City before a much-weakened form trudges through New England.
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Life Preserver

Nigeria: Four Killed, 1800 Displaced in Bauchi Floods

Ahmed Mohammed
allAfrica.com
Tue, 23 Aug 2011 10:18 UTC
Flood
© Unknown
Four people have been killed while 1800 others were displaced as result of a heavy downpour that resulted to flooding in Kari town of Darazo Local Government Area of Bauchi State. The rainfall was said to have lasted for six hours.

Secretary of the Nigerian Red Cross Society, Alhaji Adamu Abubakar, disclosed the figures yesterday in Bauchi while answering question from newsmen.

He said: "Among the victims include a mother and her three-year-old child whose house caved in during Sunday's six-hour rains in Kari, a town that is located along a stream in Bauchi state. Another person whose house caved in with him also died instantly while we were carrying out rescue operation."

Abubakar said Kari Primary School had been converted into a camp to provide relief to about 1,800 people who had been displaced by the flood. He said about 150 mud houses and hundreds of livestock and ten cars were washed away by the floods.
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Cloud Lightning

Video: 'Monster' hail storm in China


The Independent
Tue, 23 Aug 2011 17:57 UTC
Giant hailstones struck parts of China causing damage to cars and buildings.

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