Hurricanes

Hurricane Francine forces Louisiana evacuations, oil & gas shutdowns

Francine was developing more slowly than earlier forecast but could still wallop the Louisiana coast on Wednesday

Hurricane Ernesto pounds Bermuda as wealthy British territory closes down

Hurricane Ernesto began to pound Bermuda late Friday with heavy winds and rain after officials in the tiny British territory in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean opened shelters and closed government offices. The Category 2 storm located 95 miles (150 kilometres) south-southwest of Bermuda was packing maximum sustained winds of 100 mph (155 kph). It was moving northeast at 13 mph (20 kph). Ernesto's large eye will likely be very near or over Bermuda early Saturday morning, with significant coastal flooding expected, according to the National Hurricane Centre. Preparations to protect life and property should be rushed to completion, the centre said. The storm was forecast to dump between 6 to 9 inches of rain. Forecasters noted that Ernesto was a large hurricane, with hurricane-force winds extending up to 75 miles (120 kilometres) from the centre and tropical-storm-force winds extending up to 275 miles (445 kilometres). In preparation for the storm, officials in the wealthy British

Hurricane Ernesto becomes Category 2 storm as it races toward Bermuda

At 11 p.m. ET on Thursday (0300 GMT Friday) it was 410 miles (660 km) south-southwest of Bermuda as it headed north, packing winds of 100 mph (155 kph)

Debby finally moves out of US, risk from flooded rivers still remains

Debby finally moved out of the US on Saturday after the storm spent the better part of week unleashing tornadoes and flooding, damaging homes and taking lives as it moved up the East Coast after first arriving in Florida as a hurricane. Debby's last day over the US before blowing into Canada inundated south-central New York and north-central Pennsylvania with rain, prompting evacuations and rescues by helicopter. The post-tropical cyclone continued dropping rain on New England and southern Quebec, Canada, on Friday night with conditions expected to improve Saturday morning as the system continued moving northeast. Some of the worst flash flooding in New York on Friday happened in villages and hamlets in a largely rural area south of the Finger Lakes. In Steuben County, which borders Pennsylvania, officials ordered the evacuation of the towns of Jasper, Woodhull and part of Addison, and said people were trapped as floodwaters made multiple roads impassable. By mid-evening, some of .

Deadly tornado, flooding, and heavy rains plague residents in Debby's path

Tornadoes spawned by Debby leveled homes, damaged a school and killed one person early Thursday, as the tropical system dropped heavy rain and flooded communities across North and South Carolina. It only took 15 seconds for a tornado to devastate Genesis Cooper's home in Lucama, North Carolina, a small town about 40 miles (64 kilometres) east of Raleigh. He almost slept through it if not for an alert on his wife's phone. He, his wife and their 20-year-old son huddled in a bathroom with blankets. They felt vibrations and heard glass shattering before hearing a sudden boom. I can't even describe it. It's like, suction, that's what it felt like, Cooper said. Like something is squeezing, like your ears are popping. The tornado was one of at least three reported overnight in North Carolina, and perhaps the most devastating. One person was found dead in a home damaged by the Lucama tornado, Wilson County spokesman Stephen Mann said in an email. No further details on the person were ...

South Carolina prepares for deluge as Tropical Storm Debby makes landfall

At least six people have died in Florida and Georgia in the wake of the storm

Hurricane Debby to bring heavy rains, severe flooding to Florida, Georgia

Debby is the fourth named storm of the 2024 Atlantic hurricane season

Storm Debby barrels toward Florida, with potential heavy rains in north

Tropical Storm Debby strengthened rapidly Sunday and was expected to become a hurricane as it moved through the Gulf of Mexico toward Florida, bringing with it the threat of devastating floods to the southeast Atlantic coast later in the week. The storm was likely to become a Category 1 hurricane before making landfall Monday in the Big Bend region of Florida, the National Hurricane Center in Miami said. From there, the storm is expected to move eastward over northern Florida and then stall over the coastal regions of Georgia and South Carolina, drenching the region with the potential of record-setting rains totalling up to 30 inches (76 cm) beginning Tuesday. There's some really amazing rainfall totals being forecast and amazing in a bad way, Michael Brennan, director of the National Hurricane Center in Miami, said at a briefing Sunday. That would be record-breaking rainfall associated with a tropical cyclone for both the states of Georgia and South Carolina if we got up to the 30

Torrential rains hit Canada's largest city, closing major highway, roads

A major highway, several other thoroughfares and a key transit hub were flooded in Toronto as torrential rains washed over Canada's largest city Tuesday, causing power outages in multiple areas. Toronto police said part of the Don Valley Parkway, which runs from the north part of the city into the downtown area, was closed due to flooding. They also said part of Lakeshore Boulevard, which runs along Lake Ontario, was flooded and closed. Toronto Fire Services said it rescued 14 people from flooding on the highway. We're actively rescuing people that are trapped in their cars or on top of their cars, Deputy Fire Chief Jim Jessop told reporters in the afternoon. We are triaging based on life safety. Tima Nizomov was among those who got stranded on the Don Valley Parkway. The 26-year-old said he had to wait in his BMW, with water around him, until firefighters arrived. A lot of water came but...my car is stuck and that's it, he said, recalling his decision to stay in his vehicle as wa

UN climate talks head highlights urgency of financial help for poor nations

The head of upcoming climate negotiations told world leaders Wednesday that a new financial aid package for poor and disaster-struck nations is the urgent, make-or-break goal of United Nations talks this fall. Time lost is lives, livelihoods and the planet lost, said Mukhtar Babayev, the Azerbaijan ecology minister and president-designate of November climate talks in Baku, Azerbaijan. At the same time, Simon Stiell, the United Nations' top climate official, made an emotional plea for a stepped-up fight against the growing cost of unchecked climate carnage from his hurricane-demolished hometown of Carriacou, Grenada, in some of the first video from the devastated island. Beryl is yet more painful proof, Stiell, executive secretary of the UN's climate agency, said from the remnants of a neighbour's house that had lost its roof and walls. Every year fossil fuel-driven climate costs are an economic wrecking ball hitting billions of households and small businesses. If governments ...

Caribbean seeks help after Hurricane Beryl devastates small islands

Caribbean officials on Friday demanded more access to funding and help in fighting climate change, weeks after Hurricane Beryl devastated the region. The urgent request was made at an OAS meeting in Washington, DC, where officials noted that the historic storm exposed the vulnerability of small islands. Beryl killed at least seven people in the Caribbean and razed nearly all infrastructure on some of the islands that make up Grenada and St. Vincent and the Grenadines. (We) are on the front line, said Virginia Albert-Poyotte, the delegate for St. Lucia, who asked that climate financing be made more available and that financial institutions include special disaster clauses. She and others noted that small Caribbean islands often have rickety infrastructure and fragile economies dependent on tourism and fishing. A resolution approved Friday by the OAS stated that previous hurricanes have led to higher insurance premiums, unemployment and poverty. It called for the immediate operation

Houston struggles with Hurricane Beryl's chaotic aftermath, blackouts

Beryl, now downgraded to a post-tropical cyclone after striking Texas as a Category 1 hurricane, brought heavy rain Tuesday to Missouri, Illinois and Indiana

Mexico on 'red alert' as Category 3 Hurricane Beryl nears landfall

US National Hurricane Centre said Beryl, which was the earliest Category 5 hurricane in the Atlantic, now had winds of 115 mph (185 kph ) after weakening earlier

Beryl hurricane heads toward Jamaica after ripping through the Caribbean

Hurricane Beryl roared through open waters Tuesday as a powerful Category 4 storm heading toward Jamaica after earlier crossing islands in the southeast Caribbean, killing at least six people. A hurricane warning was in effect for Jamaica, Grand Cayman, Little Cayman, and Cayman Brac. Beryl was losing intensity but was forecast to still be near major-hurricane strength when it passes near or over Jamaica early Wednesday, near the Cayman Islands on Thursday and into Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula on Friday, according to the National Hurricane Centre. A hurricane watch was in effect for Haiti's southern coast and the Yucatan's east coast. Belize issued a tropical storm watch stretching south from its border with Mexico to Belize City. Late Monday, Beryl became the earliest storm to develop into a Category 5 hurricane in the Atlantic and peaked at winds of 165 mph (270 kph) Tuesday before weakening to a still-destructive Category 4. On Tuesday night, the storm was about 300 miles (480 ...

Beryl strengthens to hurricane in Atlantic, to hit Caribbean as major storm

Beryl strengthened into a hurricane Saturday as it churned toward the southeastern Caribbean, with forecasters warning it was expected to become a dangerous major storm before reaching Barbados late Sunday or early Monday. A major hurricane is considered Category 3 or higher, with winds of at least 111 mph (178 kph). On Saturday night, Beryl was a Category 1 hurricane, marking the farthest east that a hurricane formed in the tropical Atlantic in June, breaking a record set in 1933, according to Philip Klotzbach, Colorado State University hurricane researcher. A hurricane warning was issued for Barbados, St Lucia, Grenada, and St Vincent and the Grenadines. A tropical storm warning was posted for Martinique and Tobago and a tropical storm watch for Dominica. It's astonishing to see a forecast for a major (Category 3+) hurricane in June anywhere in the Atlantic, let alone this far east in the deep tropics. #Beryl organizing in a hurry over the warmest waters ever recorded for late Jun

Tropical storm Ophelia nears landfall on the North Carolina coast

Tropical Storm Ophelia was nearing landfall on the North Carolina coast early Saturday with the potential for damaging winds and dangerous surges of water, the US National Hurricane Centre said. Ophelia was about 25 miles (45 kilometres) southwest of Cape Lookout and about 70 miles (110 kilometres) east-northeast of Cape Fear. The system was moving at 9 mph (15 kph) with maximum sustained winds of 70 mph (110 kph), the hurricane centre said in an update at 5 a.m. Saturday. Life-threatening flooding caused by the weather system was forecast for parts of eastern North Carolina and southeastern Virginia, but the system was forecast to weaken after landfall, the hurricane centre reported. Ophelia was expected to turn north Saturday and then shift northeast on Sunday. The storm promised a weekend of windy conditions and heavy rain up to 7 inches (18 centimetres) in parts of North Carolina and Virginia and 2 to 4 inches (5 to 10 centimetres) in the rest of the mid-Atlantic region through

Far more hurricane-related deaths in US, especially among poor: Study

Hurricanes in the US in the last few decades killed thousands more people than meteorologists traditionally calculate and a disproportionate number of those victims are poor, vulnerable and minorities, according to a new epidemiological study. A team of public health and storm experts calculated that from 1988 to 2019 more than 18,000 people likely died, mostly indirectly, because of hurricanes and lesser tropical cyclones in the continental United States. That's 13 times more than the 1,385 people directly killed by storms that the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration figures, but the study authors said those numbers aren't directly comparable. Instead of just looking at people who drowned, were hit by debris or killed directly by the storm, the study in Wednesday's journal Science Advances examines changes in a storm-hit county's overall number of deaths just before, during and after a hurricane and compared those to normal years. Researchers attributed the excess death

Threat of back-to-back cyclones amid rise in sea level and climate change

One hurricane is terrible enough, but according to a recent study from Princeton University's engineering department, back-to-back hurricanes may become regular for many regions in the decades to come

Extreme weather events cause $270 bn loss worldwide in 2022: Report

The costliest natural disaster in 2022 was Hurricane Ian in the US, which caused losses of around $100 billion, Xinhua news agency cited the report as saying

Climate change targets pose stark challenge for the developing world

Floods and drought, hurricanes and heat waves will make the path out of poverty much more difficult. But trying to limit climate change poses its own set of problems for the developing world