Florida, Alabama and Mississippi launched emergency preparations ahead of the arrival of Subtropical Storm Alberto, a slow-moving system expected to cause wet misery across the eastern US Gulf Coast over the Memorial Day long weekend.
Heavy downpours were yesterday expected to begin lashing parts of Florida, Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama.
The US National Hurricane Center in Miami issued tropical storm warnings for parts of Florida and Alabama, saying tropical storm conditions were possible there by last night.
The governors of Florida, Alabama and Mississippi all declared states of emergency ahead of the storm.
About 13cm to 25cm of rain are possible along affected areas in eastern Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, western Tennessee and the western Florida Panhandle.
Isolated areas could see as much as 38cm.
Under overcast skies and occasional drizzle, several Gulfport, Mississippi, residents lined up to fill 5kg and 9kg bags with sand they would use to block any encroaching floodwater expected as a result of Alberto.
Tommy Whitlock said sandbagging has become a usual event in his life since he lives next to a creek.
“I’m doing this because every time we have a hard rain, it floods at my house,” Whitlock said. “We get water from other neighborhoods, and water can get up to a foot deep in some places.”
Eddy Warner, a retired consultant for a construction company, filled bags while waiting for his nephew to come help transport them home to protect his garage.
“I’m 65 years old and too old to be doing this,” he said, laughing.
Alberto — the first named storm of this year’s hurricane season that officially starts on Friday — is expected to strengthen until it reaches the northern Gulf Coast, likely tonight.
The US National Weather Service said waves as high as 5.5m could today pound the popular Gulf beaches in Baldwin County, Alabama, and northwestern Florida.
A high surf warning was in effect through 7pm tomorrow.
At 11pm on Saturday, the center said Alberto was about 645km south of Apalachicola, Florida, and moving north-northeast at 20kph.
The storm had top sustained winds of 65kph and was expected to strengthen as it moves over the eastern Gulf of Mexico.
A subtropical storm like Alberto has a less defined and cooler center than a tropical storm, and its strongest winds are found farther from its center.
Subtropical storms can develop into tropical storms, which in turn can strengthen into hurricanes.
A tropical storm warning expired for Cuba’s western Pinar del Rio Province, where heavy rains could trigger flash floods and mudslides, the center said.
The downpours could dampen Memorial Day, the unofficial start of the US summer tourist season along Gulf beaches.
Along with heavy rains and high winds come rough seas and a threat of rip currents from Florida to Louisiana that can sweep swimmers out to sea.
Tracey Gasper and her six-year-old son, Chase, traveled to Biloxi Beach from Donaldsonville, Louisiana, for a day of fun in the sun with a group of friends from Baton Rouge, Louisiana.
The weather had scared off the usual crowds expected for the holiday weekend.
“It was a 50-50 chance of whether to come down and we decided to chance it,” Gasper said.
Far from the violence ravaging Haiti, a market on the border with the Dominican Republic has maintained a welcome degree of normal everyday life. At the Dajabon border gate, a wave of Haitians press forward, eager to shop at the twice-weekly market about 200km from Haiti’s capital, Port-au-Prince. They are drawn by the market’s offerings — food, clothing, toys and even used appliances — items not always readily available in Haiti. However, with gang violence bad and growing ever worse in Haiti, the Dominican government has reinforced the usual military presence at the border and placed soldiers on alert. While the market continues to
An image of a dancer balancing on the words “China Before Communism” looms over Parisian commuters catching the morning metro, signaling the annual return of Shen Yun, a controversial spectacle of traditional Chinese dance mixed with vehement criticism of Beijing and conservative rhetoric. The Shen Yun Performing Arts company has slipped the beliefs of a spiritual movement called Falun Gong in between its technicolored visuals and leaping dancers since 2006, with advertising for the show so ubiquitous that it has become an Internet meme. Founded in 1992, Falun Gong claims nearly 100 million followers and has been subject to “persistent persecution” in
ONLINE VITRIOL: While Mo Yan faces a lawsuit, bottled water company Nongfu Spring and Tsinghua University are being attacked amid a rise in nationalist fervor At first glance, a Nobel prize winning author, a bottle of green tea and Beijing’s Tsinghua University have little in common, but in recent weeks they have been dubbed by China’s nationalist netizens as the “three new evils” in the fight to defend the country’s valor in cyberspace. Last month, a patriotic blogger called Wu Wanzheng filed a lawsuit against China’s only Nobel prize-winning author, Mo Yan (莫言), accusing him of discrediting the Communist army and glorifying Japanese soldiers in his fictional works set during the Japanese invasion of China. Wu, who posts online under the pseudonym “Truth-Telling Mao Xinghuo,” is seeking
‘SURPRISES’: The militants claim to have successfully tested a missile capable of reaching Mach 8 and vowed to strike ships heading toward the Cape of Good Hope Yemen’s Houthi rebels claim to have a new, hypersonic missile in their arsenal, Russia’s state media reported on Thursday, potentially raising the stakes in their attacks on shipping in the Red Sea and surrounding waterways against the backdrop of Israel’s war with Hamas in the Gaza Strip. The report by the state-run RIA Novosti news agency cited an unidentified official, but provided no evidence for the claim. It comes as Moscow maintains an aggressively counter-Western foreign policy amid its grinding war on Ukraine. However, the Houthis have for weeks hinted about “surprises” they plan for the battles at sea to counter the