Cows missing for two months were located on North Carolina’s Outer Banks after ‘mini tsunami’ carried wildlife away
Three cows swept off an island during the raging storm of Hurricane Dorian have been located on North Carolina’s Outer Banks after apparently swimming four miles during the storm.
Related: ‘Insect apocalypse’ poses risk to all life on Earth, conservationists warn
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...The tourist destination relies on a life support system of fishermen, hotel workers and laborers. They’ve been hardest hit
Holidaymakers queuing at immigration at the Bahamas’ Nassau airport are still serenaded by three pink-shirted men playing jovial music. They are still sunbathing on the beaches and still swimming in the sea. It is as if nothing has changed in paradise.
Yet 40 minutes away by plane, on the Abaco Islands, heaven turns to hell. The Mudd, a shantytown that was home to the Bahamas’ biggest Haitian immigrant community, has been obliterated by Hurricane Dorian as if by a massive bomb.
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...Swedish teen climate activist and other youth advocates demand action from the US to address the climate crisis
A Taliban negotiating team has reportedly arrived in Russia just days after Trump said potential peace talks with the group were “dead.”
The AP reports:
Russian state news agency Tass cited the Taliban’s Qatar-based spokesman Suhail Shaheen as saying the delegation had held consultations with Zamir Kabulov, President Vladimir Putin’s envoy for Afghanistan.
The visit also was confirmed to The Associated Press by a Taliban official who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to reporters.
This may well be the most terrifying thing you read on this Friday the 13th. Ivanka Trump, the president’s daughter and senior adviser, told a group of donors last month that she got her moral compass from her father.
At a mid-August fundraiser in Jackson Hole, Wyo., Ivanka Trump was asked to name the personality traits she inherited most from her parents.
Without much of a pause, Trump told the crowd of roughly 120 high-end donors that her mother gave her an example of how to be a powerful, successful woman.
Continue reading...Neil Jacobs said a statement criticizing the Alabama office that disagreed with Trump was meant to clarify ‘technical aspects’
The head of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (Noaa) appeared close to tears on Tuesday, as he both defended the administration and thanked a local weather office that contradicted Donald Trump’s claims about Hurricane Dorian threatening Alabama.
Neil Jacobs, the acting administrator, told a meteorology group a Noaa statement that criticized the Birmingham-area forecast office after it disagreed with the president was meant to clarify “technical aspects” about Dorian’s potential impact.
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.
Continue reading...The Bahamian health minister has said the public will need to prepare for ‘unimaginable information about the death toll’ as it continues to rise after Hurricane Dorian brought 185mph winds to the Caribbean nation. The UN ordered eight tons of ready-to-eat meals, and crews have begun clearing streets and setting up aid distribution centres. The storm, which has now weakened, is moving slowly north along the eastern US seaboard
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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
Continue reading...Donald Trump has caused uproar on social media after displaying a map of Hurricane Dorian's path featuring an extra loop drawn in Sharpie extending it to Alabama – in an apparent attempt to validate previous baseless claims the state could be affected.
Over the weekend, as Dorian struck the Bahamas, the president issued a torrent of tweets. One mistakenly warned that Alabama would also be impacted.
Just 20 minutes later, the National Weather Service in Birmingham, Alabama, tweeted: "Alabama will NOT see any impacts from #Dorian. We repeat, no impacts from Hurricane #Dorian will be felt across Alabama. The system will remain too far east.”
Continue reading...Officials expect the number of dead will continue to rise as large parts of some islands remain inaccessible to rescue crews
The official death toll of Hurricane Dorian in the Bahamas has risen to 20 people with officials certain the number will continue to rise, the prime minister, Hubert Minnis, announced as he declared a “historic tragedy” on the archipelago.
At a press conference late on Wednesday the prime minister also warned of reports of looting on the Abaco Islands, a northern band of islands in the Bahamas hardest hit by Dorian, which pummelled the area as a slow moving category 5 hurricane over the weekend.
Continue reading...The International Space Station captured striking images of Hurricane Dorian on Wednesday as it churned towards the United States, after causing major damage to the Bahamas. Dorian was moving along Florida’s north-eastern coast at 9mph Wednesday afternoon. Forecasters said it had maximum sustained winds of 105mph (169kph) and was centred about 180 miles (290 kilometres) south of Charleston, South Carolina
Continue reading...To the annals of American political scandal, we must now add Sharpiegate.
Related: Floridians still divided over climate crisis as Dorian rages
Continue reading...The monster storm is expected to bring intense rainfall and flooding after causing devastation in the Bahamas
A handy guide from the Federal Emergency Management Agency on dealing with the storm:
If you're sheltering from #Dorian & the power goes out:
Unplug appliances & electronics to avoid damage from electrical surges
❄ Keep the refrigerator & freezer closed so food lasts longer
⚠ Only use generators outside, away from windows
Tips: https://t.co/xGiYRfN5oB pic.twitter.com/fFbx1CeF3o
Approximately 396,000 residents are under mandatory evacuation orders, according to North Carolina’s joint information center spokeswoman Laura Leonard.
On Monday Henry McMaster, the governor of South Carolina, ordered 830,000 to leave areas likely to be effected by the storm. Charleston was among the mandatory evacuation zones, along with parts of counties to the north.
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