Category Archives: Hurricanes

Henri becomes hurricane as it heads for Long Island and New England

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  • Forecasters predict landfall in New York or Connecticut
  • New England has not been hit by hurricane since 1991

Preparations for a monster storm forecast to hit parts of the US north-east were stepped up on Saturday after Henri was promoted to a hurricane as it moved closer to land.

In New York, Andrew Cuomo used his last hours as governor to direct the state response, declaring a state of emergency in some areas and telling residents: “If you have to get to higher ground, it has to be today.”

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Tropical Storm Elsa to make landfall in Cuba after 180,000 evacuated

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Florida governor declares state of emergency in 15 counties, including site of collapsed condo

Tropical Storm Elsa was expected to make landfall in Cuba on Monday afternoon, after 180,000 people were evacuated from southern regions amid fears of heavy flooding.

Elsa is expected to bring tropical storm conditions to Florida, where Governor Ron DeSantis declared a state of emergency in 15 counties, including Miami-Dade county, where the partially-collapsed Champlain Towers condominium was demolished with explosives on Sunday night.

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Cuba evacuates 70,000 as Tropical Storm Elsa threatens heavy flooding

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  • Storm leaves three dead after battering Caribbean
  • State of emergency declared in Florida

Cuba evacuated 70,000 people in its southern region on Sunday, amid fears that Tropical Storm Elsa could unleash heavy flooding after battering several Caribbean islands and killing at least three people.

Related: Miami condo collapse: death toll at 24 as search pauses for demolition

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Three people dead as Tropical Storm Elsa nears Cuba

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Storm kills one person in St Lucia and a 15-year-old boy and a 75-year-old woman in the Dominican Republic

Cuba prepared to evacuate people along the island’s southern region on Sunday amid fears that Tropical Storm Elsa could unleash heavy flooding after battering several Caribbean islands, killing at least three people.

The government on Sunday opened shelters and moved to protect sugarcane and cocoa crops ahead of the storm, whose next target was Florida, where governor Ron DeSantis declared a state of emergency in 15 counties, including in Miami-Dade County where the high-rise condominium building collapsed last week.

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Among the storm chasers: witnessing the terrifying power of tornadoes

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Witnessing the destructive power of a tornado can be exhilarating. Now some amateur enthusiasts are helping scientists predict these awesome weather events

Eight years ago on 20 May – a Monday afternoon – the most destructive category of tornado, known as an EF5, touched down just outside the town of Newcastle, Oklahoma. For 37 minutes, with winds estimated at 210mph, it snaked its way northeast towards the city of Moore, forging a catastrophic path. More than 1,000 homes were destroyed, 24 people were killed and 377 were injured. The damage was estimated at $2bn.

Late that same night I drove from my then-home in Austin, Texas, the five-and-a-half hours to Moore to report on the aftermath. On the way into town the following morning, I passed abandoned cars that told their own story of panic and terror. I saw houses that had been ripped from their foundations.

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‘This was worse than Eta’: Hurricane Iota brings repeat destruction to Honduras

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Second devastating hurricane in two weeks lashes fragile nation and leaves villages submerged

Nery Benitez was working shifts as a baggage handler at San Pedro Sula’s airport when it got flooded by Hurricane Eta. This week it was inundated again as Hurricane Iota struck.

“I had gone seven months without work and three days after I got called back this flooding happened,” the 50-year-old said. “We have family and children. How are we going to feed them?”

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Hurricane Iota lashes Central America – video

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Hurricane Iota has made landfall on Nicaragua’s Caribbean coast, threatening catastrophic damage. Huge waves crashed into the Colombian island of San Andrés as the storm churned through the region, lashing Nicaragua with winds of up to 155mph (250kmh). 

The latest storm hit just two weeks after Hurricane Eta, which caused havoc across the same parts of Central America. The presidents of Honduras and Guatemala have called on wealthier countries to help deal with the cost of the climate crisis

• This video was amended on 17 November 2020 to remove unrelated footage that had been mistakenly included in a report by the Associated Press

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Tropical Storm Iota may bring more damage to Caribbean after Eta

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Storm may bring dangerous winds, storm surge and as much as 30in of rain to Nicaragua and Honduras

Tropical Storm Iota was brewing in the Caribbean early on Saturday, threatening a second tropical strike for Nicaragua and Honduras, countries recently ransacked by Eta, a category 4 hurricane.

Related: Devastating 2020 Atlantic hurricane season breaks all records

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Tropical storm Eta aimed at Florida could hit with hurricane force

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Hurricane and storm surge warnings have been declared for the keys with the storm expected to hit Sunday night or early Monday

A strengthening Tropical storm Eta sliced across Cuba on Sunday and was aimed at the tip of Florida, where officials braced for a storm that could hit at hurricane force after leaving scores dead and over 100 missing in Mexico and Central America.

The US National Hurricane Center in Miami declared hurricane and storm surge warnings for the keys from Ocean Reef to the Dry Tortugas, including Florida Bay, with the storm expected to reach that area by Sunday night or early Monday.

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Hurricane Eta lashes Nicaragua, raising fears of disastrous floods

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Many thousands evacuated as storm moves inland, wrenching roofs off houses, downing trees and severing power lines in Puerto Cabezas

Hurricane Eta, an unusually powerful storm, has slammed into Nicaragua, bringing potentially disastrous flooding to one of the country’s poorest regions.

The heart of the storm begin to move inland on Tuesday, wrenching roofs off houses and causing rivers to overflow. In Puerto Cabezas on the Atlantic coast,trees were torn down and power lines were severed, plunging much of the city into darkness. About 10,000 people were in shelters in the city and an equal number in smaller towns across the region, according to city officials.

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Tropical storm Eta expected to become hurricane and heads to Central America

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System formed in the Caribbean and tied record for most named storms in a single Atlantic hurricane season

Forecasters said they expected the newly-formed Tropical storm Eta to become a hurricane by Monday, shortly after the system formed in the Caribbean and tied the record for most named storms in a single Atlantic hurricane season.

Related: Is climate change making hurricanes worse?

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Hurricane Zeta kills at least six as 100mph winds race through south

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More than 2.6 million without power in Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Georgia, with life-threatening weather to continue

More than 2.6 million customers were without power on Thursday morning across several southern states and at least six people had been killed after Hurricane Zeta howled ashore in Louisiana with winds over 100mph then weakened to a tropical storm and raced through the region.

According to the website PowerOutage.us, shortly after dawn at least 2 million were without electricity in Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Georgia, and the number grew from there. Georgia has the most outages, with more than 800,000 people in the dark.

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Storm Zeta strengthens into hurricane as it approaches Mexico and US

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Zeta, the earliest ever 27th named storm of the Atlantic season, is expected to head to Gulf of Mexico and then the US by Wednesday

Storm Zeta has strengthened into a hurricane as it churned towards beach resorts on Mexico’s Caribbean coast, which it is expected to rake with strong winds and heavy rain before making possible landfall in the US later this week.

Zeta – the earliest ever 27th named storm of the Atlantic season – was centered about 90 miles (145km) south-east of Cozumel island Monday afternoon, the US National Hurricane Center said. It had maximum sustained winds of 80mph (130kph).

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Ricardo’s ark: Mexican man opens his home to 300 dogs in path of hurricane

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Ricardo Pimentel’s menagerie also included cats, rabbits, chicks, sheep and a hedgehog evacuated from his animal shelter

As Hurricane Delta closed in on Mexico’s Yucatán peninsula, Ricardo Pimentel opened his home – to about 300 dogs.

Related: Tens of thousands flee as Hurricane Delta lashes Mexico's Yucatán peninsula

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Tens of thousands flee as Hurricane Delta lashes Mexico’s Yucatan peninsula

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  • Category 2 storm hits Puerto Morelos in early morning
  • Louisiana braced for Delta’s arrival later in the week

Tens of thousands of residents and holiday-makers were evacuated and sought refuge in emergency shelters on Wednesday as Hurricane Delta made landfall on the coast of northeastern Mexico in the early hours of the morning, lashing popular tourist resorts.

Related: Mexico’s scientists, activists and artists oppose president’s funding overhaul

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Hurricane Delta intensifies to category 4 and on course to hammer Mexico

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  • Delta expected to strike US Gulf coast later in the week
  • Brunt of hurricane expected to be felt in Mexico’s resort region

Hurricane Delta rapidly intensified on Tuesday, becoming a category 4 storm with 140mph winds, on course to hammer south-eastern Mexico and the US Gulf coast.

Related: Top Pentagon leaders quarantine amid White House Covid outbreak – live

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US runs out of Atlantic hurricane names as frenetic season continues

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  • Naming shifts to Greek letters after 21-name list is exhausted
  • Texas coast prepares for tropical storm Beta

So many powerful storms have formed over the Atlantic this year that for only the second time, the US National Hurricane Center (NHC) has run out of names, meaning it is now naming tropical storms and hurricanes with letters from the Greek alphabet.

There are 21 names available each year. The list ends with those beginning with W and excludes Q, U, X, Y and Z. Once that list is exhausted, the nomenclature system switches to the Greek alphabet.

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Hurricane Sally: level-two storm hits Florida and Alabama – video

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Hurricane Sally, a huge grade two storm with 100mph winds and torrential rain, has hit the US’s Gulf coast, reaching Florida and Alabama with fears of ‘life-threatening flooding’.

The storm was moving at only 2mph before dawn on Tuesday, centered about 115 miles south-south-east of Biloxi, Mississippi, and 60 miles east-south-east of the mouth of the Mississippi river

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Hurricane Sally: storm hits Gulf coast with ‘life-threatening floods’ still expected

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Torrential rain battering Alabama and Florida is forecast to continue for up to 12 more hours, with wind gusts over 80mph

Hurricane Sally made landfall on the US Gulf coast early on Wednesday morning, with pounding rain and winds whipping above 100mph but with the huge category 2 storm system grinding along at just 2 mph – a turtle’s walking pace – increasing the danger of flooding.

The slow-motion storm exhausted residents in Alabama who listened through the night to tornado-warning sirens, phone alerts and howling winds, many frightened, sheltering but also sweltering indoors after power failures, as the storm approached.

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