More than 17 million people on the US east coast yesterday were in the path of severe thunderstorms, damaging winds and tornadoes.
In Florida, the governor and top emergency officials were keeping an eye on a system developing near Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula that could bring anywhere from 12cm to 25cm of rain beginning yesterday.
The wacky weather comes at the end of a week of scorching temperatures in the nation’s west and flooding that killed nine soldiers when their military vehicle got caught in the rushing waters of a rain-swollen creek at Fort Hood, Texas.
In Southern California, nine people were sickened by the heat during a high school graduation ceremony, as temperatures flirted with triple digits. In Ohio, the third round of the Memorial PGA tournament was delayed by thunderstorms.
Here is a look at what people have been doing to prepare and recover from the various types of weather:
TROPICAL RAINS
The hurricane season is just a few days old and its third named storm might be developing near Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula. The US National Hurricane Center in Miami said the system has a good chance of forming into a tropical cyclone, and even if it does not, it would still bring heavy rains along the Gulf Coast.
Police in St Petersburg distributed sandbags and Florida Governor Rick Scott warned residents, tourists and businesses to be prepared.
Florida emergency management director Bryan Koon said they expected a fast-moving storm, which means it could mature rapidly. The severe weather could last through tomorrow.
“Even if this system does not develop into a named storm, it still poses significant risks from flooding, damaging winds and tornadoes, and rip currents,” Koon said.
If the storm does develop, it would be named Colin.
HEAT SICKNESS
Nine people were sickened from the heat at Palm Desert High School’s graduation ceremony, which was held outside.
Two people had to be taken to hospital for treatment, Riverside County Fire Department spokeswoman Jennifer Fuhrman said.
The National Weather Service issued a heat advisory and warnings for the suburbs south and east of Los Angeles through yesterday and urged residents to take extra precautions when spending time outside.
Similar heat warnings were issued in Las Vegas and Phoenix, where the mercury yesterday hit 41oC.
THE NATION’S CAPITAL
More than 17 million people in Washington, Baltimore, Virginia Beach, Virginia and Raleigh, North Carolina, were yesterday looking at an “enhanced” risk of severe thunderstorms, according to the National Weather Service’s Storm Prediction Center.
Damaging winds, a tornado or two and marginally severe hail were expected from the southeast to as far north as New York.
BRUSH FIRES, WILDFIRES
Firefighters spent the weekend battling blazes in California, New Mexico and Arizona.
A wildfire sparked by lightning burned an area nearly 31km2 in the San Mateo Mountains near Magdalena, which is about 160km southwest of Albuquerque, New Mexico.
In Arizona, firefighters were fighting a much larger blaze. The Juniper Fire just south of the town of Young was burning on an area more than 72km2 in the Tonto National Forest. It was also caused by lightning.
Officials said the extreme heat and a dry winter mean there is a high risk of wildfires. Summer has typically been considered wildfire season, but experts said blazes now happen year-round.
In Southern California, a brush fire burned 12 hectares near Temecula, forcing the closure of the southbound I-15 freeway. No homes were immediately threatened.
TEXAS FLOODING
It has been several days since deadly flooding began in parts of southeast and central Texas, with the rain starting to let up on Saturday.
In its wake, US Army officials investigated a training exercise that went horribly wrong at Fort Hood, leading to the deaths of nine soldiers, whose vehicle was swept into rushing waters of a rain-swollen creek. Three soldiers were pulled from the water and survived.
Coryell County emergency medical services chief Jeff Mincy told the Killeen Daily Herald that only the wheels of an army troop-transport truck were visible after swift flood waters washed the 2.5-tonne vehicle from a low-water crossing on the installation. He surmised the waters were about 2.4m deep.
The Brazos River has caused trouble for communities in Fort Bend County, especially near where the river empties into the Gulf of Mexico.
Fort Bend County Judge Robert Hebert said floodwaters are receding, but added that some neighborhoods are still cut off and many local streets are impassable.
“As water levels recede, we will be able to get into these inundated areas and assess the damage,” Hebert said.
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