Hurricane Tomas headed deeper into the Caribbean early yesterday after storming over a cluster of islands at the sea’s eastern entrance, tearing off roofs, damaging houses and downing power lines.
The storm was moving over open water on a path that could take it near Jamaica later in the week.
Authorities in St Vincent said they had unconfirmed reports that three people died during the storm on Saturday, including two men who might have been blown off a roof.
Jimmy Prince, emergency management spokesman for St Vincent, said fierce winds tore roofs from about 100 homes and more than 400 people sought emergency shelter as the island plunged into darkness.
“Many of them are workers who were unable to get off Mustique,” he said, referring to a tiny island just south of St Vincent.
DAMAGE
On St Lucia, high winds tore off the roofs of a hospital, a school and a stadium and toppled a large concrete cross from the roof of a century-old church, government officials said.
Heavy rains caused a landslide that blocked a main highway linking the capital to the island’s southern region.
The government ordered two airports and all businesses closed and people called radio stations to admonish parents who were letting children play in the streets, where trees and power lines were falling.
“This is no joke,” calypso singer Nintus said, one of the callers.
Organizers of the island’s biggest Creole festival called off the event because of the storm, disappointing both would-be revelers and dozens of vendors who traveled to the capital to sell vegetables, fruits and other provisions.
“All my preparations have gone down the drain,” vendor Theckla Darius said, who is from the rural community of Fond Assau. “It’s been a lot of effort for nothing.”
POWER OUTAGES
At least 20,000 people were without power on Martinique, while streets flooded and tree branches were down.
A cruise ship carrying nearly 2,000 tourists docked instead in Dominica.
Tomas earlier toppled power lines and damaged houses in Barbados as a tropical storm.
The US National Hurricane Center in Miami said Tomas had maximum sustained winds of 150kph winds late on Saturday and was centered about 120km west of St Lucia. It was moving west-northwest at 15kph.
Forecasts said the Atlantic season’s 12th hurricane could drop up to 15cm of rain in the region.
The US hurricane center said Tomas was likely to strengthen as it moved toward Jamaica and could unleash heavy rains on southern areas of the Dominican Republic and Haiti, which is struggling to recover from a devastating earthquake and cope with a recent cholera outbreak.
ORANGE ALERT
Haiti issued an orange storm alert, the second-highest level.
Authorities warned southern and western regions — including the quake-ravaged capital of Port-au-Prince, where an estimated 1.3 million people are living in tent camps — to be on guard for high winds, thunderstorms and possible flooding.
However, with few usable storm shelters and no feasible evacuation plan, residents will largely be on their own.
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
HYPOCRISY? The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday asked whether Biden was talking about China or the US when he used the word ‘xenophobic’ US President Joe Biden on Wednesday called for a hike in steel tariffs on China, accusing Beijing of cheating as he spoke at a campaign event in Pennsylvania. Biden accused China of xenophobia, too, in a speech to union members in Pittsburgh. “They’re not competing, they’re cheating. They’re cheating and we’ve seen the damage here in America,” Biden said. Chinese steel companies “don’t need to worry about making a profit because the Chinese government is subsidizing them so heavily,” he said. Biden said he had called for the US Trade Representative to triple the tariff rates for Chinese steel and aluminum if Beijing was
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