Editor Brian Harrod Provides Comprehensive up-to-date news coverage, with aggregated news from sources all over the world from the Roundup Newswires Network
Hurricane Michael has shown that President Donald Trump can't always be counted on to give accurate information to the public when a natural disaster unfolds. Trump wrongly stated that the hurricane moved across land with blazing speed, which stopped a terrible situation from becoming even worse because the storm didn't linger.
Entire oceanfront communities in the Florida Panhandle were virtually obliterated, an Air Force base suffered "catastrophic" damage and at least six people were killed by Hurricane Michael , a sucker-punch of a storm that intensified suddenly and now ranks as one of the four most powerful hurricanes ever to strike the United States. "This one just looks like a bomb dropped," said Clyde Cain, who is with the Louisiana Cajun Navy, a group of volunteer search-and-rescue teams that went to Florida to help in Michael's wake, just as they did last month during Hurricane Florence in the Carolinas.
A fast and furious Hurricane Michael sped towards Florida on Tuesday night with 120mph winds and a potential storm surge of 13 feet, giving tens of thousands of people little time to get out or board up. Drawing energy from the warm waters of the Gulf of Mexico, the storm strengthened rapidly into a potentially devastating Category 3. It was forecast to blow ashore around midday on Wednesday near Panama City Beach, along a lightly populated stretch of fishing villages and white-sand beaches.
Farmers whose property was severely affected by large hail, high winds or the three tornadoes that passed through Morgan County on July 29 could be eligible for further credit and assistance programs through the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Farm Service Agency after U.S. Agriculture Sec. Sonny Perdue designated Morgan County as a primary natural disaster area from that storm. The federal government on Friday declared Morgan County to be a primary natural disaster area because of the losses farmers and producers suffered from the massive storm that hit on July 29, according to a U.S. Department of Agriculture news release.
Officials in the US plan to airlift food and water to a city of nearly 120,000 people as rescuers elsewhere pull inland residents from homes threatened by swollen rivers. The spreading disaster claimed additional lives Sunday, with at least 17 people confirmed dead, and the nation's top emergency official said other states were in the path this week.
"Many people who think that the storm has missed them have yet to see its threat," North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper said. "This system is unloading epic amounts of rainfall -- in some places measured in feet, not inches."
Tropical Storm Florence dumped "epic" amounts of rain on North and South Carolina as it trudged inland on Saturday, knocking out power and causing at least eight deaths as flood waters that have devastated many communities kept rising. Florence's intensity has diminished since it roared ashore along the U.S. mid-Atlantic coast on Friday as a hurricane.
Amid ongoing media coverage about the dangers of Hurricane Florence-which has already killed multiple people in North Carolina-and warnings from extreme weather experts that such storms are made worse by human-caused climate crisis, the " bigger, stronger, and more dangerous " Super Typhoon Mangkhut made landfall early Saturday in the northern Philippines with sustained winds of 165 mph and gusts up to 200 mph.
It's about the water, not the wind, with Hurricane Florence making an extended stay along the North Carolina coast. Forecasters say "it cannot be emphasized enough that the most serious hazard associated with slow-moving Florence is extremely heavy rainfall, which will cause disastrous flooding that will be spreading inland."
US emergency officials have warned "time is running out" for people to escape from Hurricane Florence as outer bands of wind and rain began lashing North Carolina. Florence's winds have dropped from a peak of 140mph to 105mph, reducing the hurricane from a Category 4 to a Category 2. But forecasters warned that the widening storm - and the likelihood of it lingering around the coast for days - would bring seawater surging on to land and torrential downpours.
Hurricane Florence's leading edge battered the Carolina coast Thursday, bending trees and shooting frothy sea water over streets on the Outer Banks, as the hulking storm closed in with 100 mph winds for a drenching siege that could last all weekend.
Federal emergency officials at a Washington briefing are urging people to treat Hurricane Florence seriously even though its top sustained winds are down to 110 mph , which makes it a Category 2 storm. They say it remains very large and very dangerous, bringing more than 30 inches of rain to the coast and heavy winds that will impact a giant swath of land.
Mostly deserted, much of downtown Charleston, S.C. is boarded up and closed on Thursday in advance of Hurricane Florence. Hurricane Florence's leading edge battered the Carolina coast Thursday, bending trees and shooting frothy sea water over streets on the Outer Banks, as the hulking storm closed in with 105 mph winds for a drenching siege that could last all weekend.
The latest track from the National Hurricane Center shows Florence has slightly weakened as a Category 3 hurricane, but it's still packing a punch as it makes its way to the Carolinas. According to NHC's 8 p.m. update, Florence is moving northwest at about 16 mph with maximum sustained winds of 115 mph.
Hurricane Florence as seen from the ISS on Monday morning, Photo Date: 9/10/18 / Photo: Ricky Arnold / ISS / Forecasters at the University of Michigan predict that 2.4 million people will lose power from Hurricane Florence and some outages could be prolonged. That's about one-fourth the number who suffered outages from Hurricane Sandy, which hit a more populated area around New Jersey in 2012.
Officials at FEMA are warning that Florence's impact will be far-reaching and recovery will take more than just days. As Hurricane Florence churns toward the East Coast with catastrophic power, the storm has become a reminder of how vulnerable North Carolina's coast is.
Federal officials say Hawaii residents shouldn't let their guard down now that a once-powerful hurricane that threatened the island state has become a tropical storm. The head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency Administrator says that although Lane is no longer a hurricane, tropical storms themselves can still be very dangerous.