2017 is a turning point in the history of Barbuda. Due to the devastation of Hurricane Irma, this small Caribbean island currently has no human inhabitants.
As Ambassador Ronald Sanders, Antigua and Barbuda's ambassador to the U.S. since 2015, said "For the first time in 300 years, there's not a single living person on the island of Barbuda - a civilization that has existed on that island for over 300 years has now been extinguished." All of Barbuda's citizens were evacuated to the neighboring island of Antigua.
Hurricane Maria, strengthened to a "potentially catastrophic" category five storm, has torn into the Caribbean island of Dominica with sustained winds of 260km/h (160mph).
Prime Minister Roosevelt Skerrit posted on Facebook that his roof had been torn off and he was "at the complete mercy of the hurricane".
He said his house had flooded, later adding that he had been rescued.
Dominica's airport and ports have been closed.
Maria is moving roughly along the same track as Irma, the hurricane that devastated the region this month.
The nearby island of Martinique has declared a maximum-level alert while another French island, Guadeloupe, ordered evacuations.
Hurricane warnings are also in place for:
Puerto Rico: The US territory expects Maria to make landfall as a category three on Tuesday. It escaped the worst of Irma and has been an important hub for getting relief to islands more badly affected. Governor Ricardo Rossello urged islanders to seek refuge
US Virgin Islands and British Virgin Islands: Both island chains suffered severe damage from Irma and President Donald Trump declared a state of emergency for the US territories on Monday. British authorities fear debris left behind by Irma could be whipped up by the new storm and pose an extra threat.
Two men were killed and five others injured after being struck by lightning at Badvar village near here in the district, police said today.
The incident took place last evening.
"Deeraj Kol and Bhagwan Kol (both aged 45), standing near a tree, were killed instantly when a lightning bolt hit them. Five others were injured in the strike," Chandia Police Station Inspector Anup Singh said.
The bodies of the deceased have been handed over to their family members, he said, adding the injured are being treated in the district hospital.
A 45-year-old shellfish gleaner died while two others were hurt after lightning struck the cottage they were at in Sitio Takan, Barangay Agus in Lapu-Lapu City last Saturday.
Eutiquio Paraquoli was declared dead in the hospital after he, together with Michael Perolino and Ramil Layson, were hit by lightning at 8:30 p.m.
The three reportedly sought shelter in a cottage a few meters from where they were gleaning seashells when the lightning struck, SPO1 Richard Alforte, desk officer of the Lapu-Lapu City Police Station 4, said.
A bolt of lightning hit the cottage, causing electrical shocks on the three men.
One person was yesterday killed by lightning during a heavy downpour in Kashambya sub-county, Rukiga district. The deceased identified as Saudah Ankunda, is a 20-year-old resident of Ruyumbu cell, Kitunga parish in Kashambya sub-county.
She was a S.3 student at Kabale Trinity College.
According to the deceased's father, Johnson Ampwera, his daughter was struck when she had gone to work in the garden with her siblings.
"It was at around 2:00pm when Ankunda and her three siblings went to the garden for some work. There was a heavy downpour and the children were struck by lightning as they attempted to seek shelter in the neighbourhood. Ankunda died on spot, while her young sister was rushed to Kisiizi Hospital where she is positively responding to medication," said Ampwera.
The deceased who was the second born of her parents' six children was described by her father as a hardworking child whose.
"I had a lot of hope in her because she was hard-working. I thought she would be a valuable person in future," said Ampwera.
Doug Stanglin USA Today Mon, 18 Sep 2017 15:10 UTC
As Hurricane Jose ambles northward in the Atlantic far off the East Coast, an innocuous-sounding system has turned into Tropical Storm Maria in the Caribbean and could well follow Irma's destructive path toward Florida as a full-blown hurricane.
At 5 p.m. Saturday, the National Hurricane Center upgraded the one-time disturbance to Tropical Depression Maria and said it was 620 miles east-southeast of the Lesser Antilles, moving west at 20 mph. It was packing maximum sustained winds of 50 mph.
A hurricane watch was issued for Antigua, Barbuda, St. Kitts, Nevis and Montserrat, a route followed by Irma as it moved westward.
Chances are if you were in Split this morning just before 11:00, you witnessed one hell of a thunderstorm.
Rain fell from the sky at rapid rates, and increasingly high winds blew the colossal droplets from left to right, and every which way possible.
Lightning sparked the sky, thunder rumbled the floor beneath us, and the hail that followed - the monstrous, golf ball-sized hail - began to slap our roofs, dent our cars, and nearly crack our windows.
Richard Davies Floodlist Sun, 17 Sep 2017 13:08 UTC
Residents are evacuated from their home in Oita, Japan after heavy rainfall
Typhoon Talim made landfall over the western coast of Kagoshima prefecture, Kyushu island, Japan, on 17 September with winds of up to 162km per hour. It then continued moving over eastern Kyushu, eastern Shikoku, western and northern Honshu, weakening. Talim reached the northern island of Hokkaido by early (local time) Monday 18 September.
High levels of rainfall have been reported across several areas. According to Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA) figures, 179 mm of rain fell in 5 hours in Oita, Oita prefecture, on Sunday, 17 September. As Talim moves north, JMA warnings are in place for potential landslides and flooding in parts of Hokkaido and Tohoku.
Damage
FDMA says that 1 house was completely destroyed in Kagawa. Around 250 houses have suffered some damage. As many as 113 homes have been flooded in Okayama, 25 in Kagawa and 37 in Ehime.
Strong winds and heavy rain conspired to cause major disruption to public transport. Train services, including the Bullet trains, and dozens of flights have been cancelled.
The Caribbean is braced for more catastrophic weather after tropical storm Maria strengthened to a hurricane as it tracks towards Barbados and St Lucia.
Maria was upgraded to a Category 1 hurricane by the National Hurricane Center at 9 pm UTC.
The governments of Barbados and St Lucia earlier warned citizens that tropical storm Maria could hit in the form of a hurricane within 36 hours.
He who learns must suffer, and, even in our sleep, pain that cannot forget falls drop by drop upon the heart, and in our own despair, against our will, comes wisdom to us by the awful grace of God.
- Aeschylus
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I think we all hope for that outcome. For peace. My point wasn't the professional soldier should become mutinous, it was more how they feel...
Comment: See also: Paradise islands devastated by Hurricane Irma (VIDEOS, PHOTOS)