Relentless rain on Saturday left large areas of the US southeast under water and forecasters said that more heavy downpours could trigger historic flooding in the crucial next 24 hours.
The states of North and South Carolina have been particularly hard hit, but the driving rain in recent days has spared almost none of the US east coast and forecasters say the worst is not over quite yet.
News reports blamed the wild weather on four deaths in the US since Thursday, all in the Carolinas.
It is a separate weather system from Hurricane Joaquin, a powerful category 4 storm that battered the Bahamas, destroying homes, and was threatening to do much the same to Bermuda.
South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley said there was the possibility of record-setting rainfall over the weekend and US President Barack Obama on Saturday issued an emergency declaration for the state, ordering federal aid for areas affected by flooding.
Some streets were submerged in the historic old town of Charleston, South Carolina, a reporter said.
Most of the restaurants and bars were closed because of the rising water.
“We are used to flooding in the area, but this is extraordinary,” Charleston Police Department Sergeant Edwin Graceley said.
John and Merroli Haas, tourists from Kansas, took shelter from the heavy rain under the old market hall.
“We were going to go to Savannah [Georgia] today, but we decided not to. We didn’t want to take the chance,” Merroli said.
Power was out in parts of South Carolina and Haley reiterated her call for drivers to keep off the roads over the weekend for their own safety.
The US National Weather Service warned of “potentially historic and life-threatening flooding” across the southeast.
“The threat for widespread catastrophic flooding will continue across parts of the southeast through the remainder of the weekend, as tropical moisture feeding into an area of low pressure produces moderate to heavy rainfall across the region,” it said. “Gusty winds are also possible, which could lead to downed power lines.”
A string of rape and assault allegations against the son of Norway’s future queen have plunged the royal family into its “biggest scandal” ever, wrapping up an annus horribilis for the monarchy. The legal troubles surrounding Marius Borg Hoiby, the 27-year-old son born of a relationship before Norwegian Crown Princess Mette-Marit’s marriage to Norwegian Crown Prince Haakon, have dominated the Scandinavian country’s headlines since August. The tall strapping blond with a “bad boy” look — often photographed in tuxedos, slicked back hair, earrings and tattoos — was arrested in Oslo on Aug. 4 suspected of assaulting his girlfriend the previous night. A photograph
The US deployed a reconnaissance aircraft while Japan and the Philippines sent navy ships in a joint patrol in the disputed South China Sea yesterday, two days after the allied forces condemned actions by China Coast Guard vessels against Philippine patrol ships. The US Indo-Pacific Command said the joint patrol was conducted in the Philippines’ exclusive economic zone by allies and partners to “uphold the right to freedom of navigation and overflight “ and “other lawful uses of the sea and international airspace.” Those phrases are used by the US, Japan and the Philippines to oppose China’s increasingly aggressive actions in the
‘GOOD POLITICS’: He is a ‘pragmatic radical’ and has moderated his rhetoric since the height of his radicalism in 2014, a lecturer in contemporary Islam said Abu Mohammed al-Jolani is the leader of the Islamist alliance that spearheaded an offensive that rebels say brought down Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and ended five decades of Baath Party rule in Syria. Al-Jolani heads Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), which is rooted in Syria’s branch of al-Qaeda. He is a former extremist who adopted a more moderate posture in order to achieve his goals. Yesterday, as the rebels entered Damascus, he ordered all military forces in the capital not to approach public institutions. Last week, he said the objective of his offensive, which saw city after city fall from government control, was to
‘KAMPAI’: It is said that people in Japan began brewing rice about 2,000 years ago, with a third-century Chinese chronicle describing the Japanese as fond of alcohol Traditional Japanese knowledge and skills used in the production of sake and shochu distilled spirits were approved on Wednesday for addition to UNESCO’s Intangible Cultural Heritage list, a committee of the UN cultural body said It is believed people in the archipelago began brewing rice in a simple way about two millennia ago, with a third-century Chinese chronicle describing the Japanese as fond of alcohol. By about 1000 AD, the imperial palace had a department to supervise the manufacturing of sake and its use in rituals, the Japan Sake and Shochu Makers Association said. The multi-staged brewing techniques still used today are
RSS