Tropical Storm Hanna closed in on the southeastern US coast yesterday after leaving 136 dead in Haiti as a powerful hurricane swept across the Atlantic, posing a potential threat to Caribbean islands and the US.
Hanna pushed through the Bahamas on its way to the US Atlantic coast, prompting emergency preparations before its expected arrival late yesterday after causing flooding and landslides in Haiti that left thousands homeless.
The Miami-based National Hurricane Center (NHC) warned that Hanna could strengthen and gain hurricane status yesterday before reaching the US near North or South Carolina at the weekend.
PHOTO: AP
Hanna “has been an erratic storm. It’s already done a lot of flooding [and] we are expecting it to strengthen slightly” before yesterday, NHC forecaster John Cangialosi said.
Heavy rain, wind and high surf were forecast along the southeastern coastline ahead of the storm’s arrival as governors in North Carolina and Virginia declared states of emergency, while South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford called for voluntary evacuations in two counties threatened by the storm.
At 0600 GMT yesterday, the center of the storm was 90km north of Great Abaco Island in the Bahamas and about 790km south of Wilmington, North Carolina, the center said.
The storm was moving toward the northwest at about 30kph and was expected to pick up speed as it clears the Bahamas and heads northwest to the US coast.
“The center of Hanna will be near the southeast coast of the United States later today,” it said.
Hanna packed sustained winds of near 100kph, with higher gusts, according to reports from a reconnaissance aircraft.
A hurricane watch remained in effect for parts of the North and South Carolina coast as authorities prepared for possible flooding and kept a wary eye on a more formidable storm out in the Atlantic.
While Hurricane Ike was downgraded to a category three storm on the five-level Saffir-Simpson scale, it remained a threat to the US as it moved over the western Atlantic, the center said.
With maximum sustained winds of near 215kph, it was “still forecast to be a major hurricane in a couple of days,” it said.
A third system, Tropical Storm Josephine, was reported in the eastern Atlantic some 1,010km west of the southernmost islands of Cape Verde, moving in a west-northwest direction at about 17kph.
The storm, which disrupted shipping in the area but was not close to land, had maximum sustained winds of 75kph, with higher gusts.
The storms follow Hurricane Gustav, which ripped through the Caribbean then slammed the US Gulf Coast, and Tropical Storm Fay, which also pounded several Caribbean islands and made landfall in Florida four times, dumping record amounts of rain.
Haiti’s third-largest city, Gonaives, remained under water in the wake of Hanna on Thursday.
Alta Jean-Baptiste, head of Haiti’s civil protection office, said that flooding and landslides triggered by the heavy rain forced nearly 10,000 people into shelters — not including thousands more who had evacuated Gonaives, a city of 300,000.
Haitian Senator Yuri Latortue, who represents the city, called the situation “catastrophic,” saying some 200,000 people there had not eaten for three days.
Hanna struck Haiti one week after it was hit by Hurricane Gustav, which killed 77 people.
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the