Tropical Storm Nate was heading inland over the southern US states of Mississippi and Alabama yesterday after the US National Hurricane Center downgraded it from a Category 1 hurricane, the latest in an unusually ferocious storm season that has racked up billions in damage.
With top winds of 110kph, Nate was moving north-northeast, the hurricane center said.
Based on its forecast track, Nate was expected to turn toward the northeast with an increase in speed as it moves across the Deep South, Tennessee Valley, and central Appalachian Mountains through today, the center said in an advisory.
Photo: AP
Nate was expected to weaken quickly as it moves farther from the sea, before dissipating later today, the center said.
The storm was downgraded following its second landfall yesterday near Biloxi, Mississippi, after it crashed ashore on Louisiana’s southeast coast on Saturday night.
“There is going to be flooding and wind damage in New Orleans,” said Bob Smerbeck, a meteorologist with AccuWeather in State College, Pennsylvania. “There will be a risk of tornadoes all the way across the Gulf Coast to the Florida Panhandle.”
Flooding and landslides caused by Nate have already killed more than 20 people across Central America.
The storm may cause as much as US$4 billion damage and economic losses across an area of the Gulf Coast dotted with casinos and resorts, said Chuck Watson, a damage modeler with Enki Research in Savannah, Georgia.
Twelve casinos stretch along Mississippi’s Gulf Coast, according to the Gulf Coast Regional Convention & Visitors Bureau Web site. About 76,000 homes from Louisiana to Florida with an estimated reconstruction cost of US$16 billion could be affected by Nate, according to CoreLogic Inc.
The region’s oil and natural gas operators also shuttered production in response to Nate.
About 92 percent of US Gulf oil production and 77 percent of natural gas output have been taken offline, the US Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement said in a notice.
The US Coast Guard on Saturday suspended marine traffic and closed ports, while Magellan Midstream Partners reduced operations at its Marrero, Louisiana, petroleum storage terminal.
All told, 14 storms have formed across the Atlantic this season, killing hundreds in the US, Mexico and the Caribbean and causing an estimated US$300 billion in damage.
Accumulated cyclone energy, a measure of storm power and longevity, set a record in last month.
Including Nate, six storms will have hit the US this year, center spokesman Dennis Feltgen said.
‘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
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