Businesses and residents say they feel helpless as they brace for next high tides
As tourists posed for selfies at St Mark’s Square on Wednesday evening, shop owners mopped the floors of their premises and cleared debris while assessing the cost of the damage caused by record high tides.
“An apocalypse happened,” said Antonella Rossi, who owns a handmade jewellery shop under the portico that surrounds the square.
Continue reading...Statement sets out ‘vital signs’ as indicators of magnitude of the climate emergency
The world’s people face “untold suffering due to the climate crisis” unless there are major transformations to global society, according to a stark warning from more than 11,000 scientists.
“We declare clearly and unequivocally that planet Earth is facing a climate emergency,” it states. “To secure a sustainable future, we must change how we live. [This] entails major transformations in the ways our global society functions and interacts with natural ecosystems.”
Continue reading...Shinzo Abe says pair should have had access to shelter in Tokyo during Typhoon Hagibis
The Japanese prime minister, Shinzo Abe, has promised to take action after two homeless men were refused access to a shelter as Typhoon Hagibis barrelled into Tokyo.
The powerful storm hit Japan’s main island on Saturday with strong winds and heavy rainfall that caused more than 200 rivers to overflow, leaving thousands of homes flooded, damaged or without power.
Continue reading...Tokyo braced for arrival of storm and up to 60cm of rain as flights and trains cancelled
More than 1 million people in Japan have been ordered to leave their homes as Typhoon Hagibis bears down on Tokyo, having already caused power outages, flooding and widespread travel disruption.
The storm is 870 miles (1,400km) wide, with winds of 100mph (162km/h) at its centre and gusts of up to 134mph. Hagibis is being compared to a typhoon in 1958 that killed 1,200 people and caused destruction across the Tokyo area and Shizuoka prefecture.
Continue reading...Japan has been engulfed by heavy rain and strong winds as what is feared to be the worst storm for six decades batters the country and approaches Tokyo. Rivers swelled, boats flipped over and seas were whipped up by Typhoon Hagibis. The storm is expected to hit the capital later on Saturday
Continue reading...More than 1,000 people have been evacuated after tropical storm Imelda brought chaos to Texas with up to 40 inches of rainfall and flash flooding. Governor Greg Abbott declared 13 counties disaster zones as the National Weather Service warned 'life-threatening amounts of rainfall' had fallen, with more expected over Thursday
Continue reading...At least six people have died as a result of record-breaking rain during the past two days. More than 1,100 military personnel have been deployed to the regions of Murcia and Valencia to help evacuate thousands to safety after floods submerged roads.
Continue reading...New York reporter recalls challenges of covering a disaster as huge as the category 5 storm that ripped through the Bahamas
How do you start an interview with someone who has just lost everything?
With the floodwaters just receded, the stench of mould beginning to creep into the hollowed-out buildings that survived two days of pummelling winds, and bloated corpses still being recovered, that was a question I was forced to grapple with last week in the Bahamas.
Continue reading...Five die in devastating storms that produce some of the heaviest rainfall in years
Continue reading...Tropical Storm Humberto expected to drop up to 15cm of rain as operation to provide food and shelter continues
A tropical storm carrying heavy rain and strong winds is nearing the already devastated Bahamas, threatening to complicate Hurricane Dorian recovery efforts as the UN secretary general arrived in the islands in a show of support.
The new weather system, known as Tropical Storm Humberto,is expected to drop up to 15cm (6 inches) of rain through the weekend in areas of the islands inundated by Dorian, according to the Miami-based National Hurricane Centre.
Continue reading...Almería and Murcia airports closed with many areas on high alert as downpours continue
Four people have died as heavy rain and flash-flooding continue to batter south-eastern Spain, swelling rivers, turning roads into torrents and forcing the shutdown of two regional airports.
Police in Almería said a middle-aged man died in the early hours of Friday after his car became trapped in a tunnel that flooded in minutes.
Continue reading...Trillions of dollars needed to avoid ‘climate apartheid’ but this is less than cost of inaction
The world’s readiness for the inevitable effects of the climate crisis is “gravely insufficient”, according to a report from global leaders.
This lack of preparedness will result in poverty, water shortages and levels of migration soaring, with an “irrefutable toll on human life”, the report warns.
Continue reading...Crew said people without visas must disembark ferry to Florida because of CBP’s ‘last-minute call’ that they would not be admitted
More than a hundred Bahamian citizens desperate to escape the devastation of Hurricane Dorian were ordered off a ferry to Florida, sparking a dispute between US immigration officials and the operator of the vessel.
Related: Search for survivors of Hurricane Dorian continues in Bahamas
Continue reading...The government of the Bahamas has sent 900 police and military personnel to the islands of Abaco and Grand Bahama hardest hit by Hurricane Dorian, while taking action to stave off any profiteering by private sector rescue missions amid signs of chaos in some of the aid operations.
The destruction caused by the hurricane was still unfolding as a humanitarian and environmental disaster a week after it landed in the northern reaches of the Bahamas as a category 5 tempest.
Continue reading...Rescuers battle to reach devastated communities as cruise ships arrive with supplies and volunteers
Rescue teams are still struggling to reach some flood-hit Bahamian communities in the aftermath of Hurricane Dorian as top officials said the death toll had risen to 43, while it is feared hundreds, perhaps thousands, remain missing.
Government agencies and charities continued to bring desperately needed relief efforts to the Bahamas, including cruise ships loaded with supplies and volunteers.
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We’re logging off here, but our reporters in the Bahamas and North Carolina will continue our Dorian coverage this weekend. Here’s a wrap up of everything that happened today:
Fears are growing that damage to a major oil storage terminal on the shore of Grand Bahama Island could cause oil to leak into the ocean, potentially damaging reefs and wildlife off the coast.
Absolutely CATASTROPHIC #oilspill in #GrandBahama from #HurricaneDorian at the #Statoil / @Equinor facility. Teams need to be here TODAY to a) prevent a fire from starting (oil across the highway where people are trying to help) b) stop any/all spillage to ocean and c) clean up pic.twitter.com/8u3e2BDYdY
Continue reading...Lashing rain, 185mph winds – the ferocious storm has left 43 dead and hundreds missing. Oliver Laughland reports from the rubble of Grand Bahama
As Erica Roberts clung to a tall mango tree, the winds and sea water churned up by Hurricane Dorian pounding her face, a single thought ran through her head: “I will not die like this.”
Related: 'I thought no one was coming to rescue us': Abaco Islanders flee Dorian's destruction
Continue reading...After hammering the Bahamas and leaving at least 30 dead, Hurricane Dorian began raking the south-east US seaboard, with the eye hitting the North Carolina coast on Thursday evening.
The threat to the US remains real but in the Bahamas the storm has left such terrible devastation that the authorities were still struggling to get aid to stricken areas and the death toll is expected to rise, perhaps steeply.
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Sarah St George, chairman of the Grand Bahama Port Authority, told the Guardian that the “force and size” of Dorian took everyone by surprise, a situation made worse by the hurricane stalling over the archipelago.
“Grand Bahama is not in good shape at all because 70% of it was under water,” St George said. “On the north side of the island the water was coming up to the second floor of their houses. My assistant Tammy was on the roof of her house for 30 hours hanging on to a coconut tree with her 8-year-old daughter Ariana. Her grandmother lost her grip and slipped off the roof and drowned. There was no way of getting to them. They’ve lost everything.”
In the president’s continuing battle against his own incorrect statement that Alabama was under threat from Hurricane Dorian, which has left at least 23 people dead, he has just now been tweeting what he claims is evidence he knew what he was talking about.
It is not.
Just as I said, Alabama was originally projected to be hit. The Fake News denies it! pic.twitter.com/elJ7ROfm2p
I was with you all the way Alabama. The Fake News Media was not! https://t.co/gO5pwahaj9
Over the weekend, projections for #HurricaneDorian have continually skewed further north and east, leaving Alabama outside the anticipated path. While we are thankful for that, we remain #AlwaysReady to help our sister states. #OneTeamOneFight #OneGuard pic.twitter.com/7TbFKpd2Zh
Continue reading...Hurricane Dorian destroyed most property on the Abaco Islands in the Bahamas, forcing residents to leave everything behind
Kathlyn Russell collapsed on the concrete, tears streaming, as she embraced the daughter she feared she would never see again.
Related: Hurricane Dorian: 'generational devastation' in Bahamas, says PM
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