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Tag: floods and flooding

  • Norma weakens to tropical storm after Mexico landfall, while Tammy bears down on Leeward Islands | CNN

    Norma weakens to tropical storm after Mexico landfall, while Tammy bears down on Leeward Islands | CNN

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    CNN
     — 

    Norma weakened to tropical storm strength Saturday after bringing hurricane-force winds, flash flooding and storm surge to Mexico’s Pacific coast. Meanwhile, another late-season storm continued to threaten island nations in the Atlantic.

    Norma made landfall as a Category 1 hurricane with winds of 80 mph over the far southern portion of Mexico’s Baja California Sur – which includes Cabo San Lucas – Saturday afternoon, the National Hurricane Center said.

    Meanwhile in the Atlantic, Hurricane Tammy made landfall in Barbuda as a Category 1 storm Saturday night, churning maximum sustained winds of 85 mph. Tammy has triggered hurricane warnings, with strong winds and heavy rainfall across portions of the Leeward Islands, a chain of several island nations and territories between the Caribbean Sea and the open Atlantic.

    Neither storm is a threat to the US mainland.

    Norma’s maximum sustained winds decreased to 70 mph, and the tropical storm was centered about 30 miles north-northeast of Cabo San Lucas as of Saturday night, the hurricane center said.

    The tropical storm is expected to cross the southernmost portion of Baja California Sur in the evening before emerging over the southern Gulf of California on Sunday.

    Mexico’s government downgraded the hurricane warning spanning from Todos Santos to Los Barriles to a tropical storm warning Saturday night, the hurricane center said.

    However, threats from Norma still remain, as it could bring life-threatening conditions to a tourist-friendly region of Mexico, home to a few hundred thousand people. A dangerous storm surge “is likely to produce coastal flooding in areas of onshore winds within the hurricane warning area” Saturday, the hurricane center said.

    Heavy rains and flash flooding from Norma are forecast to persist through the weekend, the hurricane center said.

    “Near the coast, the surge will be accompanied by large and destructive waves,” the hurricane center said.

    Norma will bring heavy rainfall and flooding to the area. Rainfall totals of 6 to 12 inches with isolated totals approaching 18 inches are possible.

    The weakening cyclone should turn toward the northeast and east-northeast and slowly approach the coast of Sinaloa in western Mexico on Sunday night into early Monday as a tropical storm, according to the hurricane center.

    Norma is forecast to move inland by early Monday and dissipate over the rugged terrain of western Mexico by Tuesday.

    Hurricane Tammy battering Leeward Islands

    In the Atlantic, Tammy maintained maximum sustained winds of 85 mph by Saturday night, with slow strengthening possible over the next few days, the National Hurricane Center said in its update at 8 p.m. ET Saturday.

    Tammy is expected to move near or over portions of the Leeward Islands – including Antigua and Barbuda – through Saturday night, and then move north of the northern Leeward Islands on Sunday.

    Hurricane-force winds extended outward up to 25 miles from the storm’s center and tropical storm-force winds extended outward up to 125 miles.

    Hurricanes in this part of the Atlantic are rare for late October. Tammy is only the third hurricane to form this far southeast in the Atlantic since 1900, according to hurricane expert Michael Lowry.

    It’s also the latest-forming hurricane in this part of the Atlantic since 1966, according to Phil Klotzbach, a research scientist in the Department of Atmospheric Science at Colorado State University.

    Experts previously warned hurricanes could form in unusual areas later in the season this year because of the exceptionally warm Atlantic Ocean.

    A storm surge of 1 to 3 feet is possible for parts of the Leeward Islands.

    Heavy rainfall will be one of the storm’s most serious threats and could result in flash flooding and mudslides. Rainfall totals for the Leeward Islands are expected to be 4 to 8 inches, but could reach a foot in places where the heaviest rain sets up. Rain should be lighter in Puerto Rico and the British and US Virgin Islands, where 1 to 2 inches of rain is most likely.

    Conditions will begin to improve from south to north across the island chain by late Sunday as the storm moves north out of the region.

    With Tammy in the Atlantic, only two names are left – Vince and Whitney – on the standard Atlantic storm name list before the hurricane center turns to an alternate list of names.

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  • Record rain in New York City generates ‘life-threatening’ flooding, overwhelming streets and subways | CNN

    Record rain in New York City generates ‘life-threatening’ flooding, overwhelming streets and subways | CNN

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    CNN
     — 

    Record-setting rain overwhelmed New York City’s sewer system Friday, sending a surge of floodwater coursing through streets and into basements, schools, subways and vehicles throughout the nation’s most populous city.

    The water rose fast and furious, catching some commuters off guard as they slogged through Friday morning’s rush hour. First responders jumped into action where needed, plucking people from stranded cars and basements filling like bathtubs.

    More rain fell in a single day at New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport – nearly 8 inches – than any other since 1948. A month’s worth of rain fell in Brooklyn in just three hours as it was socked by some of the storm’s most intense rainfall rates Friday morning.

    Track travel delays: NYC airports hammered with heavy rain and flooding

    The prolific totals are a symptom of climate change, scientists say, with a warmer atmosphere acting like a massive sponge, able to sop up more water vapor and then wring it out in intense spurts which can easily overwhelm outdated flood protections.

    “Overall, as we know, this changing weather pattern is the result of climate change,” Rohit Aggarwala, New York City’s Chief Climate Officer said in a Friday morning news conference. “And the sad reality is our climate is changing faster than our infrastructure can respond.”

    A widespread 3 to 6 inches of rain had fallen across the New York City by late Friday afternoon. More rain was set to fall through the evening and then gradually taper off.

    New York Gov. Kathy Hochul declared a state of emergency for New York City, Long Island and the Hudson Valley Friday morning as the worst of the flooding hit. In an interview with New York’s WNBC-TV, she urged residents to stay home because of widespread dangerous travel conditions.

    “This is a very challenging weather event,” Hochul said. “This a life-threatening event. And I need all New Yorkers to heed that warning so we can keep them safe.” New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy also declared a state of emergency for his state Friday afternoon.

    Firefighters performed rescues at six basements in New York City flooded by torrents of water, according to the New York City Fire Department.

    The water also found its way into 150 of New York City’s 1,400 schools, which remained open on Friday, New York City school chancellor David Banks said at a news briefing.

    One school in Brooklyn evacuated when floodwater caused the school’s boiler to smoke, he said.

    “Our kids are safe and we continue to monitor the situation,” Banks said.

    Floodwater spilled into subways and onto railways and caused “major disruptions,” including suspensions of service on 10 train lines in Brooklyn and all three Metro-North train lines. Gov. Hochul said the city was deploying additional buses to help fill the gap caused by the train outages.

    Limited service resumed by Friday evening on the Metro-North lines. And the Metropolitan Transportation Authority fully restored service on seven subway lines by Friday evening, according to Demetrius Crichlow, senior vice president of the New York City Transit Department of Subways.

    “Today was just not an easy day for us but like New Yorkers, we are resilient, we continue to press on,” Crichlow said.

    MTA Chair and CEO Janno Lieber said Friday evening one of three Metro-North Railroad lines was back up and running – the Hudson line – and noted the Long Island Railroad also has good service. The MTA also said it is working to restore limited service to the remaining two lines on Friday night.

    Air travel didn’t fair any better. Flight delays hit all three New York City area airports Friday. Flooding inside the historic Marine Air Terminal in New York’s LaGuardia Airport forced it to close temporarily. The terminal, which is the airport’s smallest and serves Spirit and Frontier airlines, was open again Friday night.

    By late Friday, flood watches had expired for the region except in Suffolk County on Long Island in New York and parts of northwestern and southern Connecticut, where watches were set to be in effect until Saturday morning.

    A police officer from the NYPD Highway Patrol oversees a flooded street on Friday.
    A person carries sandbags on a flooded sidewalk in Hoboken, New Jersey, on Friday.

    The extreme rainfall rates produced prolific totals:

    • In Brooklyn: A month’s worth of rain, up to 4.5 inches, fell in only 3 hours on Friday morning, according to National Weather Service data. This three-hour rainfall total is only expected about once every 100 years in Brooklyn, according to NOAA estimates.

    • In Manhattan: Nearly 2 inches of rain fell in one hour in Central Park, the second-wettest hour there in 80 years. More than 5 inches of rain have fallen there so far.

    • In Queens: It’s the wettest day on record at John F. Kennedy International Airport, preliminary data from the National Weather Service shows. At least 7.88 inches of rain has fallen there since midnight.

    Correction: A previous version of this story misstated when the NYC travel advisory went into effect. It was 2 a.m. ET.

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  • Tropical Storm Ophelia makes landfall in North Carolina and will now trek up the East Coast | CNN

    Tropical Storm Ophelia makes landfall in North Carolina and will now trek up the East Coast | CNN

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    CNN
     — 

    Tropical Storm Ophelia is heading up the East Coast after making landfall near Emerald Isle, North Carolina, early Saturday, delivering heavy rain, strong winds and coastal flooding well beyond its center.

    Here are the storm’s latest impacts:

    • 70,000-plus homes and businesses lost power across North Carolina and the mid-Atlantic Saturday morning, according to utility tracking site PowerOutage.us.
    • Storm surge flooding of more than 3 feet hit coastal North Carolina where water was seen covering roadways
    • States of emergency were declared in Virginia, North Carolina and Maryland
    • Two MLB games have been postponed: Braves-Nationals in Washington, D.C., and Diamondbacks-Yankees in New York

    The tropical storm roared ashore around 6:15 a.m. with 70 mph sustained winds – just shy of hurricane strength. Tropical-storm force winds extend up to 320 miles from Ophelia’s core, the National Hurricane Center said.

    The storm had 50 mph winds as of 11 a.m. and will continue to weaken as it moves farther inland, but power outages could grow as it affects more areas.

    TRACK THE STORM

    Ophelia is on track to move across eastern North Carolina and then travel through southeastern Virginia, before heading farther north across the Delmarva Peninsula on Saturday and Sunday, the hurricane center said.

    The threat of rain postponed two Major League Baseball games scheduled for Saturday. The Atlanta Braves and the Washington Nationals will replay their game on Sunday, while the Arizona Diamondbacks and New York Yankees have yet to announce when they will take to the diamond.

    The storm’s shield of rain extends hundreds of miles from its center and is already dumping heavy rain across a large swath of the mid-Atlantic, including Virginia, Maryland, Delaware, New Jersey and New York.

    But coastal areas in North Carolina are bearing the brunt of impacts as the center of the expansive storm barges into the state.

    Storm surge flooded coastal areas and inlets in North Carolina overnight and winds gusting to 73 mph hit Cape Lookout, along the state’s Outer Banks.

    Waves break along the jetty at Rudee Inlet in Virginia Beach, Virginia, on Friday as Tropical Storm Ophelia approached the area.

    The flooding began on Friday, when roads were submerged in communities along North Carolina’s coast. In coastal Cedar Island, water collected on Highway 12, though it was open and passable, the state transportation department said.

    “But please don’t go out tonight unless you absolutely have to. There is sand and water on the roadway, and it’s dark and stormy,” the department said in a social media post.

    In New Bern, which sits along two rivers in North Carolina about 120 miles east of Raleigh, roads were flooded and water creeped inland as the levels rose in the downtown area, city officials said on Facebook. Photos posted on the city’s page show a flooded children’s park and ducks floating down the street on floodwaters.

    Water levels also rose overnight in the Chesapeake Bay, along the coasts of Virginia and Maryland.

    “If you can avoid driving or being out during the storm please do so. We are expecting an extended period of strong winds, heavy rainfall, and elevated tides,” Maryland Gov. Wes Moore said.

    Ophelia will deliver several key threats through the weekend:

    Heavy Rainfall: Some places in eastern North Carolina and southeast Virginia could see between 3 and 5 inches of rain, with locally higher amounts. Other states in the Mid-Atlantic could pick up 2 to 4 inches on rain Saturday night through Sunday. Meanwhile, 1 to 3 inches of rain are forecast across southern New York through southern New England beginning Saturday into Monday.

    Coastal Threats: One to 5 feet of storm surge is possible in some coastal areas, particularly in inlets and rivers from around Surf City, North Carolina, to the Virginia Tidewater. Storm surge flooding could peak Saturday afternoon with another high tide, particularly in the lower Chesapeake Bay.

    The storm will also bring dangerous surf and rip currents along East Coast through the weekend, the hurricane center warned.

    Strong and Gusty winds: Tropical-storm-force wind gusts – between 39 and 73 mph – will impact a wide area of the East Coast throughout the day Saturday. Winds will lessen with time, but stronger gusts could down trees and power lines.

    Severe weather: A few tornadoes also are possible in parts of the coastal mid-Atlantic and North Carolina.

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  • Clinging to hope in Derna, as grief turns to anger | CNN

    Clinging to hope in Derna, as grief turns to anger | CNN

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    Derna
    CNN
     — 

    In the days that followed the devastating floods in the Libyan city of Derna, reports emerged of survival – a six-year-old boy plucked from the water from a third-floor balcony, a father saving his daughter by putting her in the fridge, an infant found alive floating in the water. Such stories are impossible to verify but are a glimmer of hope people want to cling to.

    Torrential rainfall and the collapse of two dams flooded the coastal city, sweeping entire neighborhoods into the Mediterranean on September 10. Close to 4,000 people died in the floods and 9,000 more are still unaccounted for, according to the World Health Organization. While the missing are presumed dead, their bodies still trapped under debris or in the sea, many still hope their loved ones could still be alive.

    Abu Bakr thought his relatives perished in the catastrophic flood, until he saw a picture on social media of a child rescued from the water that looks like his nephew. It set him on a search mission that took him to field hospitals and shelters for the displaced.

    Schools-turned-shelters in Derna list the names of their inhabitants on their doors to help people like Abu Bakr. A stream of people go from one to another to go through the lists every day, hoping to find a familiar name.

    In the mayhem of the first few days, survivors, the injured and the displaced were taken to other cities in eastern Libya. People lost their phones and mobile networks were down, making it difficult for survivors to reach their families. Hundreds of bodies were buried in mass graves without visual identification, and officials only managed to take DNA samples of recovered bodies days after the floods hit. Officials say it could take up to a year before these bodies are exhumed for identification.

    “My family thought I was dead and started taking condolences,” Karima El-Kilany, 62, tells CNN. Water flooded her house and her husband clung to a collapsed ceiling until neighbors rescued them. It took days for her to get on Facebook and read the eulogies written for her and her husband, she says.

    Piles of cars and trees brought by the water block streets in Derna.

    She sits on a mattress in a school theater-turned-shelter for the displaced. Next to her, Salma, a teacher and mother of four, is tending to her 17-year-old daughter, who’s ill and shell-shocked.

    Salma, who only gave her first name and agreed to be filmed covering her face, finds it difficult to accept her new reality. “Maybe I’m too paranoid. There are 30 families in this room,” she says, describing how she struggles to sanitize the mattresses her kids sleep on. “It’s difficult to suddenly find all your neighbors inside your house. Imagine that. If you make problems, then you become suspicious.”

    “I hope to wake up one day (and) find the city still standing. Find the people. Find my mother,” Salma says. “I lost my mother, my brother, my sisters. I went back to search for my mother, I went through the names, but nothing. But, I’m hopeful,” she adds.

    At a nearby shelter, Salem el-Na’as of the Libyan Red Crescent scrolls through the strangers’ messages on his phone. They are all from people looking for loved ones, sending him names, pictures and details. “The messages don’t stop. I have to put the phone on flight mode just to be able to write down the information I get,” he says.

    These efforts were hampered by another drop in mobile network coverage earlier this week. While the two-day blackout started hours after hundreds of protesters called for accountability on Monday, officials said it was due to infrastructure failure when excavators hit a fiber optics cable.

    Grief has morphed into anger. Like the sea slowly regurgitating the houses and lives thrown into its belly, more residents were questioning the negligence and mismanagement that led to the collapse of the two dams. Protesters chanted against Agilah Saleh, the speaker of the eastern-based parliament that also supports the self-styled Libyan National Army (LNA) that controls the city.

    This week ushered a waning of the solidarity that briefly united a country divided by a decade of war. Officials of the eastern-based government were increasingly expressing concerns about “infiltrators” from the western-based and internationally recognized government and “extremist groups” taking advantage of the aid convoys arriving in the city. Several LNA officials told CNN at least a dozen men were arrested in Derna.

    Activists said that several residents and protesters were arrested.

    “Political division still exist but what’s important (is) that all the relevant institutes are on the ground regardless of where they are based,” Mohamed Eljarh, spokesman of the Supreme Committee of Emergency and Response, said in a press conference Friday. “We should overcome the political divide on the ground,” he told CNN.

    The emergency committee held a meeting with Derna representatives after disbanding the municipal council to include them in the decision making, Eljarh announced on Friday.

    “This is one of the ways to deal with the anger, grievances and concerns,” he told CNN.

    The city that was buzzing with rescuers, journalists, visiting diplomats and volunteers bringing aid from across Libya, got a lot quieter by the time the CNN team left on Wednesday. Officials said they were worried about the spread of infections especially in areas where dead bodies are believed to be trapped under mud and rubble.

    Close to 60 local recovery workers were hospitalized on Tuesday suffering from diarrhea and vomiting, which the minister of health of the eastern-based government said were infections common in such situations. He said at this stage there are no signs of an endemic spreading in the city.

    Local teams spray damaged streets with chemical disinfectants following warnings about a secondary health crisis.

    Throughout this week, excavators cleared paths for vehicles through the rubble. Local health workers were spraying the damaged buildings and streets with strong disinfectants.

    While officials denied giving city-wide evacuation orders, several areas were cordoned off. Access to the city was restricted and only a handful of regional and international networks, including CNN, were allowed to stay for a few more days.

    Yet, in streets ravaged by the floods, residents of the buildings still standing were adamant on staying in their homes. Those who lost their homes, like Salma, want to stay in the city, hoping international aid groups would provide temporary housing.

    “We tried evacuation in 2018. I was displaced from my home and neighborhood for two years. I experienced the destitution that comes with displacement. I paid a high price and there was no compensation,” Moftah Al-Hanshiry says. His building still holds the scars of previous wars and battles that Derna witnessed in the past decade.

    Fueled by endemic distrust of local politicians and leaders, he says he would only leave his home if a responsible entity like the World Health Organization issues the order. Otherwise, he says, “I’d rather die than leave.”

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  • ‘Catastrophic’ flooding hits Libya as heavy rains cause dam collapse, say officials | CNN

    ‘Catastrophic’ flooding hits Libya as heavy rains cause dam collapse, say officials | CNN

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    CNN
     — 

    Thousands of people are feared dead in Libya after Storm Daniel brought severe rain and floods to the eastern part of the country, sweeping entire neighborhoods into the sea, according to eastern Libyan officials.

    Ahmed Mismari, spokesperson of the eastern based Libyan National Army (LNA), told a Monday press conference that in badly affected city of Derna alone more than 2,000 have died and between 5,000 to 6,000 people are still missing.

    CNN has not been able to independently verify the number of deaths, and Mismari did not give a source for the number of dead and missing.

    The Red Crescent in Benghazi earlier estimated 150 to 250 people are dead in Derna, according to Reuters.

    Severe pressure from the heavy rains in Derna caused dams to collapse, destroying homes and roads, say authorities.

    Mismari told a news conference that the flooding was caused by two dams collapsing in the city’s south. “As a consequence, three bridges were destroyed. The flowing water carried away entire neighborhoods, eventually depositing them into the sea,” he said.

    The spokesman said that the “unprecedented floods occurred in the cities of Al-Bayda, Derna, Al-Marj, Tobruk, Takenis, Al-Bayada, and Battah, and all the cities and villages of Al-Jabal Al-Akhdar and the eastern coast, all the way to Benghazi.”

    The head of Libya’s eastern parliament-backed government, Osama Hamad, described the situation as “catastrophic and unprecedented in Libya,” according to a report from state news organization Libyan News Agency (LANA).

    Footage shared on social media showed submerged cars, collapsed buildings and torrents of water rushing through streets.

    Phone lines were down in Derna and pictures shared by the Red Crescent showed severely flooded streets.

    The head of Libya’s Emergency and Ambulance authority, Osama Aly, told CNN that after the dam collapse “all of the water headed to an area near Derna, which is a mountainous coastal area.”

    Homes in valleys that were in the line of the flood were washed away with strong muddy water currents carrying vehicles and debris, Aly said.

    Aly did not confirm the number of deaths previously announced by one of Libya’s governments, but said the number is not to be dismissed based on the estimates of the population in the area.

    The official said they are not able to reach their own teams inside Derna after phone lines were destroyed. Other emergency teams are not able to enter the Derna due to the heavy destruction, Aly said.

    Aly suggested there was negligence by authorities in preparing for the potential damage from the storm.

    “The weather conditions were not studied well, the seawater levels and rainfall [were not studied], the wind speeds, there was no evacuation of families that could be in the path of the storm and in valleys,” Aly said.

    “Libya was not prepared for a catastrophe like that. It has not witnessed that level of catastrophe before. We are admitting there were shortcomings even though this is the first time we face that level of catastrophe,” Aly told Al Hurra channel earlier.

    Hospitals in the eastern city of Bayda were evacuated after severe flooding from rainfall caused by a heavy storm, videos shared by the Medical Center of Bayda on Facebook showed.

    This rain is the result of the remnants of a very strong low-pressure system, which was officially named Storm Daniel by the national meteorological services in southeastern Europe.

    The storm brought catastrophic flooding to Greece last week before moving into the Mediterranean and developed into a tropical-like cyclone known as a medicane. These systems can bring dangerous conditions to the Mediterranean Sea and coastal countries, similar to tropical storms and hurricanes in the Atlantic or typhoons in the Pacific.

    Aerial view of flood water as a powerful storm and heavy rainfall hit Shahhat city, Libya, September 11, 2023.

    The remains of the storm are affecting northern Libya and will slowly head east toward northern Egypt. Rainfall for the next two days could reach 50mm – this region averages less than 10mm across the whole of September.

    “The United Nations in Libya is closely following the emergency caused by severe weather conditions in the eastern region of the country,” said the United Nations Support Mission in Libya in a post on X (formerly known as Twitter).

    Foreign countries have offered to send aid to the country, with Turkey’s disaster agency saying Monday that it will mobilize 150 search and rescue personnel, along with tents, rescue vehicles and other supplies such as generator.

    The US Embassy in Libya said on X, formally known as Twitter, that it was in “close contact with the United Nations and with authorities in Libya to determine how quickly we can bring assistance to bear where it is most needed.”

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  • Hong Kong hit by widespread flash flooding after heaviest rainfall since 1884 | CNN

    Hong Kong hit by widespread flash flooding after heaviest rainfall since 1884 | CNN

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    Hong Kong
    CNN
     — 

    Record-breaking rainfall in Hong Kong caused widespread flash flooding across the financial hub on Friday, with many businesses and schools forced to shut, just days after the city was battered by a typhoon.

    The deluge began late Thursday night, with the Hong Kong Observatory (HKO) recording more than 158 millimeters in rain between 11 p.m. and midnight, the highest hourly rainfall since records began in 1884, the government said in a news release.

    The weather bureau issued the highest “black” rainstorm warning and urged people to stay indoors and find shelter, warning the rain could bring flash floods, and that residents near rivers should consider evacuating.

    Photos and videos Friday show parts of the city underwater, with cars struggling through flooded roads, and people wading through murky brown floodwaters. Authorities had to rescue some drivers stuck in partially submerged vehicles; some parking lots were so flooded car roofs were only just visible above the water.

    A shopping mall floods during heavy rain in Hong Kong on September 8, 2023.

    Footage widely shared online showed a subway station in the northern district of Wong Tai Sin submerged in waist-high water, with floodwater gushing down the stairs. Train services to several stops on the same subway line have been suspended “due to flooding in the section near Wong Tai Sin station,” said the city’s subway operator.

    While most other subway operations remain open, bus, tram and ferry services have suspended across the city due to the flooding, according to public broadcaster RTHK.

    Early Friday morning, the government announced all schools would also be suspended, and urged businesses to allow non-essential employees to stay in safe places instead of going to the workplace.

    A bus drives through a flooded area in Hong Kong on September 8, 2023.

    The flooding comes just one week after Hong Kong was lashed by its strongest typhoon in five years. Typhoon Saola, originally a super typhoon, weakened to the equivalent of a Category 2 hurricane as it reached Hong Kong – but was still potent enough to knock down trees and cause hundreds of flight cancellations. Eighty-six people were injured from the typhoon, the government said.

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  • Tens of thousands at Burning Man told to conserve water and food after heavy rains leave attendees stranded in Nevada desert | CNN

    Tens of thousands at Burning Man told to conserve water and food after heavy rains leave attendees stranded in Nevada desert | CNN

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    CNN
     — 

    Tens of thousands of people attending the Burning Man festival in the Nevada desert are being told to conserve food, water and fuel as they shelter in place in the Black Rock Desert after a heavy rainstorm pummeled the area, festival organizers said.

    Attendees were surrounded by thick, ankle-deep mud and organizers halted vehicles from traveling in or out of the festival after heavy rains started saturating the area Friday evening.

    Hannah Burhorn, a first-time attendee at the festival, told CNN in a phone interview Saturday the desert sand has turned into thick clay and puddles and mud are everywhere. People are wrapping trash bags and Ziploc bags around their shoes to avoid getting stuck, while others are walking around barefoot.

    “It’s unavoidable at this point,” she said. “It’s in the bed of the truck, inside the truck. People who have tried to bike through it and have gotten stuck because it’s about ankle deep.”

    The gate and airport into Black Rock City, a remote area in northwest Nevada, remain closed and no driving is allowed into or out of the city except for emergency vehicles, the organizers said on X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter.

    “Do not travel to Black Rock City! Access to the city is closed for the remainder of the event, and you will be turned around,” one statement read.

    More than 70,000 people attend the weeklong event annually, which this year is being held from August 28 to September 5. It’s unclear how many of those were stranded due to the weather.

    The city is expecting more showers overnight on Saturday, organizers said in a weather forecast update. The National Weather Service said showers and thunderstorms are expected to return Saturday evening and continue throughout Sunday, with temperatures ranging from highs in the 70s to a low overnight of 49 degrees.

    Rainfall reports from the National Weather Service suggest up to 0.8 inches of rain fell in the area from Friday morning through Saturday morning – approximately two to three months of rainfall for that location this time of year. Even small rainfall totals can lead to flooding in the dry Nevada desert.

    Flood watches were in effect in northeast Nevada, to the east of Black Rock City. Those watches noted individual storms were producing up to one inch of rainfall, but higher totals — as much as 3 inches — would be possible through the weekend.

    The Bureau of Land Management, which has jurisdiction over the land the festival is held on, is advising people heading to Burning Man to “turn around and head home,” as roads remain closed in the area, according to a statement obtained by the Reno Gazette-Journal.

    Mud fills a Burning Man campsite after heavy rain in Nevada's Black Rock Desert on September 1, 2023.

    “Rain over the last 24 hours has created a situation that required a full stop of vehicle movement on the playa. More rain is expected over the next few days and conditions are not expected to improve enough to allow vehicles to enter the playa,” the statement read.

    The festival, which began in 1986, is held each summer in Black Rock City – a temporary metropolis that is erected annually for the festival. The city comes complete with planning services, emergency, safety and sanitary infrastructure.

    It is best known for its concluding event, in which a large wooden symbol of a man is ignited. The event attracts tens of thousands each year and in the past, celebrities from Sean “Diddy” Combs to Katy Perry have attended.

    The tens of thousands of attendees travel to and from the city along a two-lane highway to get to the festival, according to its website. The festival was canceled in 2020 and 2021 due to the coronavirus pandemic.

    Burning Man participants dedicate their time to making art and building community. They can learn how to spin fire, or to pole dance, to make shrink art jewelry or build a giant sculpture of two people embracing and burn it down.

    Some on-site preparations for this year’s Burning Man were impacted by tropical storm Hilary in August, with high winds, rainfall and even flooding reported in the desert, CNN reported.

    Amber Kramer, a resident of Kings Beach, California, told CNN she’s staying in an RV with her group and “feels fine as long as we have food and water.”

    “My camp and I are on the roof [of the RV] trying to make the best of it,” Kramer said. She said she’s concerned for those staying in tents because the area is forecast to see more rain.

    “People with RVs have been asked by camp leaders if they have room for people with tents because they are expecting another storm,” she said.

    Kramer said she’s seen many people trudging around the camp with garbage bags strapped to their feet with duct tape in order to maneuver through the mud.

    Rainfall reports from the National Weather Service suggest up to 0.8 inches of rain fell at Black Rock City in Nevada from Friday morning through Saturday morning.

    Burhorn, who traveled from San Francisco, California, said the mud is so thick that it “sticks to your shoes and makes it almost like a boot around your boot,” making it even more difficult to move around, she added.

    She added she and her friends were not expecting any rain – only extreme heat. Burhorn said people trapped in the desert have limited cell service, making it almost impossible to get news on weather conditions or receive updates from festival organizers.

    “It’s all been completely word of mouth,” she said. “I just talked to my boyfriend on the phone who gave me a weather update. I was like, ‘can you tell me what’s going on in the news? We have no clue.’”

    Festival attendees say the grounds are caked with thick mud after heavy rains soaked the Black Rock Desert

    Burhorn said the mud is so thick that it “sticks to your shoes and makes it almost like a boot around your boot,” making it even more difficult to move around, she added.

    The silver lining, Burhorn said, is people are walking from camp to camp to check on others and make sure they have enough food and water. “People are still really looking out for each other, which is like a bubble of love.”

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  • Tropical Storm Idalia is expected to rapidly intensify as it aims for Florida’s Gulf Coast, threatening to hit as a Category 3 hurricane | CNN

    Tropical Storm Idalia is expected to rapidly intensify as it aims for Florida’s Gulf Coast, threatening to hit as a Category 3 hurricane | CNN

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    CNN
     — 

    Florida is bracing for “major impact” as Tropical Storm Idalia is expected to rapidly strengthen into a powerful Category 3 hurricane and aim for its Gulf Coast, threatening dangerous storm surge and winds, authorities said.

    Idalia is expected to intensify over the coming hours before it makes landfall in the Sunshine State on Wednesday morning near the Big Bend of Florida – a rare event for a natural, storm surge-prone divot along the coast stretching from Tampa to just south of Tallahassee.

    “Idalia could become a hurricane later this morning, and is forecast to become a major hurricane by early Wednesday,” the National Hurricane Center said.

    The storm is churning maximum sustained winds of 70 mph, roughly 190 miles southwest of the Dry Tortugas, where tropical storm conditions were expected Tuesday morning, the hurricane center said in a 2 a.m. ET Tuesday update.

    “This is going to be a major hurricane,” Gov. Ron DeSantis said at a Monday news conference.

    On its current track, Idalia’s center is forecast to soon pass near or over western Cuba, trek over the eastern Gulf of Mexico on Tuesday, before slamming into the Gulf coast of Florida Wednesday – though its impacts could be felt from the Florida Keys as soon as Tuesday.

    It’s not just Florida that’ll feel the impacts. After the storm makes landfall, damaging winds and heavy rain will spread far inland into Florida, parts of Georgia and even the Carolinas.

    The storm is expected to dump 4 to 8 inches of rain from Tuesday into Thursday across parts of the west coast of Florida, the Florida Panhandle, southeast Georgia and the eastern Carolinas – where streets could flood.

    As the storm makes its way to Florida, preparations could be seen across the state. Here’s the latest:

    • Airports close: Tampa International Airport will suspend all commercial operations beginning Tuesday and stay closed until it can assess any damages later in the week, airport officials announced. The St. Pete-Clearwater International Airport Terminal building will close Tuesday afternoon.
    • Evacuations in at least 10 counties: Hillsborough, Franklin, Taylor, Levy, Citrus, Manatee, Pasco, Hernando, Pinellas and Sarasota counties have all called for residents to evacuate certain at-risk areas.
    • Schools close: 32 County School Districts have issued closures, as did multiple colleges and universities, including Florida State University, the University of Florida and Florida A&M University.
    • Emergencies declared: DeSantis expanded an emergency declaration to 46 of 67 Florida counties on Monday morning. Several local jurisdictions have also declared emergencies.
    • The Florida National Guard activated: More than 5,000 National Guard members were activated to help respond to the storm.
    • US Navy ships begin leaving: Navy ships have begun leaving Florida ahead of Tropical Storm Idalia’s landfall, the Navy said Monday.
    • Power outages expected: DeSantis told residents to prepare to be without power. “If you are in the path of the storm, you should expect power outages so please prepare for that,” the governor told residents Sunday.
    • Hospital system suspending services: Patients will be transferred from at least three hospitals: HCA Florida Pasadena Hospital, HCA Florida Trinity West Hospital and HCA Florida West Tampa Hospital.

    “We want everyone to take this storm seriously,” Barbara Tripp, Tampa’s Fire Rescue Chief said during a news conference.

    The Fire Chief also asked citizens to clear debris from property ahead of the storm’s arrival and look out for neighbors who may need help.

    “Once the wind reaches a certain miles per hour, Tampa Fire Rescue will not be able to respond,” Tripp warned.

    With the storm forecast to strengthen quickly as it tracks through the Gulf of Mexico, it’ll be tapping into some of the warmest waters on the planet ahead of making landfall in Florida.

    If it does so, it would join a growing list of devastating storms like monster Hurricane Ian — which leveled coastal Florida and left more than 100 dead — to rapidly intensify before landfall in recent years.

    Idalia posed a “notable risk” of this phenomenon, the National Hurricane Center warned Monday, as it travels through the Gulf of Mexico.

    Water temperatures around southern Florida climbed to 100 degrees Fahrenheit in some areas this summer, and temperatures in the Gulf overall have been record-warm, with more than enough heat to support rapid strengthening.

    Life-threatening storm surge up to 12 feet is possible in Florida’s Big Bend – a danger that will only be worsened by waves fueled by hurricane-force winds stronger than 100 mph.

    Storm surge, which is when a storm blows the ocean onshore, is one of the deadliest aspects of a hurricane and the reason behind most storm evacuations.

    Cedar Key could be cut off by the high storm surge, National Hurricane Center Deputy Director Jamie Rhome said.

    “I’m especially concerned for them,” Rhome said during a briefing on Facebook Live. “If you’re watching from Cedar Key, it is imperative that you take this very seriously and if ordered to evacuate, heed those evacuations immediately. The entire island could be completely cut off with conditions like that.”

    Rhome stressed that evacuation orders that have been issued along the coast are in place because of the projected storm surge.

    Storm surge accounts for nearly half of all hurricane-related fatalities, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

    It’s not just the coastal areas that could flood.

    Inland areas, where people may evacuate to, could see hazardous flooding and heavy rainfall from Idalia.

    Andrew Kruczkiewicz, senior researcher at the Columbia University’s Climate School, warns that heavy rainfall-related hazards can also occur as far as 100 miles away from where the storm center tracks.

    “This is something that we’re seeing more and more, and this is a climate change connection because we’re seeing wetter tropical cyclones and wetter hurricanes,” he told CNN. “So we need to pay more attention to the risks associated with intense precipitation, especially in areas that are distant from the coastline.”

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  • Climate change has ravaged India’s rice stock. Now its export ban could deepen a global food crisis | CNN Business

    Climate change has ravaged India’s rice stock. Now its export ban could deepen a global food crisis | CNN Business

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    Harayana, India
    CNN
     — 

    Satish Kumar sits in front of his submerged rice paddy in India’s Haryana state, looking despairingly at his ruined crops.

    “I’ve suffered a tremendous loss,” said the third generation farmer, who relies solely on growing the grain to feed his young family. “I will not be able to grow anything until November.”

    The newly planted saplings have been underwater since July after torrential rain battered northern India, with landslides and flash floods sweeping through the region.

    Kumar said he has not seen floods of this scale in years and has been forced to take loans to replant his fields all over again. But that isn’t the only problem he’s facing.

    Last month, India, which is the world’s largest exporter of rice, announced a ban on exporting non-basmati white rice in a bid to calm rising prices at home and ensure food security. India then followed with more restrictions on its rice exports, including a 20% duty on exports of parboiled rice.

    The move has triggered fears of global food inflation, hurt the livelihoods of some farmers and prompted several rice-dependent countries to seek urgent exemptions from the ban.

    More than three billion people worldwide rely on rice as a staple food and India contributed to about 40% of global rice exports.

    Economists say the ban is just the latest move to disrupt global food supplies, which has suffered from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine as well as weather events such as El Niño.

    They warn the Indian government’s decision could have significant market reverberations with the poor in Global South nations in particular bearing the brunt.

    And farmers like Kumar say market price rises caused by poor harvests doesn’t result in a windfall for them either.

    “The ban is going to have an adverse effect on all of us. We won’t get a higher rate if rice isn’t exported,” Kumar said. “The floods were a death blow to us farmers. This ban will finish us.”

    Satish Kumar with whatever is left of his rice crops.

    The abrupt announcement of the export ban triggered panic buying in the United States, following which the price of rice soared to a near 12-year high, according to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization.

    It does not apply to basmati rice, which is India’s best-known and highest quality variety. Non-basmati white rice however, accounts for about 25% of exports.

    India wasn’t the first country to ban food exports to ensure enough supply for domestic consumption. But its move, coming just one week after Russia pulled out of the Black Sea grain deal — a crucial pact that allowed the export of grain from Ukraine — contributed to global concerns about the availability of grain staples and whether millions would go hungry.

    “The main thing here is that it is not just one thing,” Arif Husain, chief economist at the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) told CNN. “[Rice, wheat and corn crops] make up bulk of the food which poor people around the world consume.”

    Workers in India sift through rice grains in capital New Delhi.

    Nepal has seen rice prices surge since India announced the ban, according to local media reports, and rice prices in Vietnam are the highest they have been in more than a decade, according to customs data.

    Thailand, the world’s second largest rice exporter after India, has also seen domestic rice prices jump significantly in recent weeks, according to data from the Thai Rice Exporters Association.

    Countries including Singapore, Indonesia and the Philippines, have appealed to New Delhi to resume rice exports to their nations, according to local Indian media reports. CNN has reached out to India’s Ministry of Agriculture but has not received a response.

    The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has encouraged India to remove the restrictions, with the organization’s chief economist, Pierre-Olivier Gourinchas, telling reporters last month that it was “likely to exacerbate” the uncertainty of food inflation.

    “We would encourage the removal of these types of export restrictions because they can be harmful globally,” he said.

    Now, there are fears that the ban has the world market bracing for similar actions by rival suppliers, economists warn.

    “The export ban is happening at a time when countries are struggling with high debt, food inflation, and declining depreciating currencies,” Husain from the WFP said. “It’s troubling for everyone.”

    Indian farmers account for nearly half of the country’s workforce, according to government data, with rice paddy mainly cultivated in central, southern, and some northern states.

    Summer crop planting typically starts in June, when monsoon rains are expected to begin, as irrigation is crucial to grow a healthy yield. The summer season accounts for more than 80% of India’s total rice output, according to Reuters.

    This year, however, the late monsoon arrival led to a large water deficit up until mid-June. And when the rains finally arrived, it drenched swathes of the country, unleashing floods that caused significant damage to crops.

    The heavy floods have affected the country's farmers.

    Surjit Singh, 53, a third generation farmer from Harayana said they “lost everything” after the rains.

    “My rice crops have been ruined,” he said. “The water submerged about 8-10 inches of my crops. What I planted (in early June) is gone… I will see a loss of about 30%.”

    The World Meteorological Organization last month warned that governments must prepare for more extreme weather events and record temperatures, as it declared the onset of the warming phenomenon El Niño.

    El Niño is a natural climate pattern in the tropical Pacific Ocean that brings warmer-than-average sea-surface temperatures and has a major influence on weather across the globe, affecting billions of people.

    The impact has been felt by thousands of farmers in India, some of whom say they will now grow crops other than rice. And it doesn’t just stop there.

    India's rice stock is piling up as a result of the ban.

    At one of New Delhi’s largest rice trading hubs, there are fears among traders that the export ban will cause catastrophic consequences.

    “The export ban has left traders with huge amounts of stock,” said rice trader Roopkaran Singh. “We now have to find new buyers in the domestic market.”

    But experts warn the effects will be felt far beyond India’s borders.

    “Poor countries, food importing countries, countries in West Africa, they are at the highest risk,” said Husain from the WFP. “The ban is coming on the back of war and a global pandemic… We need to be extra careful when it comes to our staples, so that we don’t end up unnecessarily rising prices. Because those increases are not without consequences.”

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  • Hilary moves through Southwest with historic amount of rainfall | CNN

    Hilary moves through Southwest with historic amount of rainfall | CNN

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    CNN
     — 

    Hilary has triggered deadly flooding, heavy rains and powerful gusts across parts of the southwest and Mexico, transforming streets into raging rivers and forcing some residents to flee, and leaving others in need of rescue, even after the storm weakened to a post-tropical cyclone.

    More rain is expected to fall throughout Monday and Tuesday as officials clean up the aftermath. After hitting Southern California on Sunday as a tropical storm – the state’s first since 1997 – Hilary headed into Nevada as its first-ever recorded tropical storm. As Hilary moves across the southwest, the storm has brought power outages, life-threatening flooding and calls for residents to evacuate or shelter in place.

    Live updates: Hilary brings major flood risk to California

    The storm broke rainfall records across Southern California: Palm Springs got nearly a year’s worth of rain with 4.3 inches in 24 hours, one of its rainiest days ever. Death Valley nearly set a record with 1.68 inches, and the Furnace Creek area, which usually gets about two-tenths of an inch in August, got 0.63 inches.

    And the storm is the rainiest tropical storm system in Nevada’s history, nearly doubling the state’s 116-year-old all-time record, according to preliminary data from NOAA’s Weather Prediction Center. Hilary has released 8.7 inches of rain on Lee Canyon, Nevada, smashing the previous record of 4.36 inches in 1906.

    Watch: Massive mudslide sends firefighters scrambling to safety

    More rain is expected to cause dangerous flash, urban and arroyo flooding in some places, including landslides, mudslides and debris flows. Localized flooding is expected into Tuesday morning across northern portions of the Intermountain West.

    In Palm Springs, a section of Interstate 10 is shut down while road crews clear away mud left behind by floodwaters from Tropical Storm Hilary, but other routes in and out of the desert oasis near Joshua Tree National Park are open.

    In addition, many freeway off-ramps are limited because of mud, and CalTrans crews are working to clear those in an effort to ease accessibility.

    Emergency telephone service, which had been down since midmorning, has been restored, the police department said, but an outage continues to affect other areas of the Coachella Valley.

    “We are not used to this level of precipitation, generally – certainly not in the middle of summer,” San Diego Mayor Todd Gloria told CNN on Sunday.

    “With what we’re expecting, it may overwhelm us.”

    Tropical storm Hilary caused a section of the normally-dry Whitewater River to flood parts of a golf course in Cathedral City, California. (Photo by Mario Tama/Getty Images)

    Here’s the latest:

    • Heavy rains and some flooding may continue Tuesday morning in parts of the Intermountain West, according to the National Hurricane Center. The rain will cause “mostly localized areas of flash flooding,” the National Weather Service Prediction Center said. Flood watches remain in place across eight Western states.

    • Strong and gusty winds will blow in Nevada, western Utah, southern Idaho and southwest Montana, the hurricane center said. Coastal tropical storm warnings have been discontinued.

    • Some portions of Southern California lost power during the storm but electricity was mostly restored by Monday evening. A total of about 41,000 customers in Los Angeles were without power at one point, Marty Adams, general manager and chief engineer at the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, said Monday.

    • People in parts of Southern California should not travel unless they are fleeing an area under flooding or under an evacuation order, the National Weather Service has warned.

    • Flooding, mudslides and downed trees and wires were widely reported across Southern California on Sunday and Monday. At least nine people were rescued Sunday in a San Diego riverbed, San Diego Fire-Rescue said, with water rescues also reported in Ventura County and Palm Springs.

    • In Mexico, where the storm first landed, power has been restored to 80% of customers in the three states affected by Hilary, according to the national power company. “379,850 users have been affected, and electricity supply has been restored to 302,134, equivalent to 80%,” said the Federal Electricity Commission in a statement Monday.

    Maura Taura surveys the damaged cause by a downed tree outside her home.

    To the west, Los Angeles and Ventura counties saw “considerable damage” Sunday night amid reports of dangerous flash flooding, and rock and mudslides, the National Weather Service said, adding up to half an inch of rain could fall per hour.

    Cars were stuck in floodwaters in the Spanish Hills area, the National Weather Service reported.

    Crowley urged residents to take precautions on the roads.

    “A relatively small amount of water can sweep a vehicle away,” she said.

    In Los Angeles, the worst of the storm was over as of Monday morning, according to officials. All weather warnings in the city were canceled. “We are past the brunt of the impact,” said National Weather Service meteorologist Ariel Cohen.

    Schools in San Diego and Los Angeles are set to reopen Tuesday after closing Monday in anticipation of the storm. Officials canceled classes for the more than 121,000 students in the San Diego Unified School District.

    The Los Angeles Unified School District, the second-largest in the nation, also shut down Monday. The district spans about 700 square miles, meaning the impact of the storm varied for its students.

    Schools in the Los Angeles district will reopen on Tuesday, according to superintendent Alberto Carvalho.

    “Our teams have been scouring our schools, and so far, conditions are pretty good,” Carvalho said. A couple dozen schools have lost phone and internet service, and one school has been impacted by a minor mudslide.

    “It would have been reckless for us to make a different decision,” Carvalho said of the decision to close schools Monday.

    “Los Angeles was tested but we came through it and we came through it with minimal impacts, considering what we endured,” said Los Angeles City Council President Paul Krekorian.

    The Nye County School District in Nevada also canceled classes Monday, with plans to reopen Tuesday.

    Cars stranded in roads deluged with mud and water

    Once a hurricane, Hilary weakened as it made landfall Sunday in Mexico – where at least one person died – then crossed into the Golden State. The storm’s center was roughly 10 miles southeast of downtown Los Angeles around 8 p.m. local time Sunday, moving north with weakened 45-mph winds, according to the hurricane center.

    The Los Angeles Fire Department fielded more than 4,000 emergency calls on Sunday and responded to about 1,800 incidents, Chief Kristin Crowley said in a news conference on Monday. The calls included a request for help for five cars stranded in a flooded intersection of Sun Valley. One person was safely rescued and no one was injured in the Sun Valley incident, Crowley said.

    Flood water affected an underground power vault, leading to an outage for about 6,000 customers in the Beverly Grove area, with other outages reported in Hollywood, Hyde Park and Brentwood. The vast majority of city power customers remain unaffected by the storm, according to Los Angeles officials.

    As the storm barreled through, covering roadways with debris and water, roads were blocked across Southern California by Sunday night. A section of Interstate 8 in Imperial County, east of San Diego, was closed Sunday after boulders came loose from an adjoining slope and fell into the road.

    In San Bernardino County, a stretch of State Route 127 covered in floodwaters was closed, while a section of Interstate 15 was shuttered in Barstow because of downed power lines after a lightning strike, authorities said.

    Traffic is slowed as water and mud from Tropical Storm Hilary covers part of Interstate 10, between Indio and Palm Springs, California, on Monday.

    Crews across the region Sunday evening rescued people caught in the storm, including at least nine in a riverbed area in San Diego. “Crews are still looking for more people who may need help. #riverrescue,” San Diego Fire-Rescue said.

    And Ventura County firefighters searched the Santa Clara River for people trapped in the waters on Sunday night, videos show.

    The storm led to other disruptions across Southern California, with many parks, beaches and other locations closed as officials called on residents to stay indoors.

    And Hilary continued to cause damage as it moved into Nevada. In Mt. Charleston, Nevada, the storm brought significant flooding on Monday morning, washing out the roadways. Residents are sheltering in place, the power is shut off, and the Nevada National Guard is on its way to assist, according to a Facebook post from Clark County.

    West of Las Vegas, rushing water is flowing like a river down Echo Road, leaving vehicles stranded from Mary Jane Trailheads and Trail Canyon, according to the U.S. Forest Service. Emergency crews are evaluating and ask for people to stay out of the area, the service said.

    California had been preparing for difficult conditions, positioning first responders across Southern California to brace for water rescues in flood-prone areas like wildfire burn scars and deserts amid fears areas unaccustomed to rain could suddenly receive a year’s worth or more, triggering flash floods and landslides.

    Rainfall totals have been significant:

    Daily and monthly rainfall records were broken Sunday, with 1.53 inches falling in downtown Los Angeles, 1.56 inches in Long Beach and 2.95 inches in Palmdale, according to the weather service.

    At least three swift water rescues were conducted in Palm Springs, police department Lt. Gustavo Araiza told CNN.

    In Cathedral City, a desert community roughly a 110-mile drive east of Los Angeles, at least 14 people were rescued from a senior boarding care facility Monday afternoon after “a blockade” of mud trapped them inside, city spokesperson Ryan Hunt said.

    All of the people rescued are doing well, Hunt said.

    The fire department had to borrow a dozer truck from a recycling center so they could carry out the rescue, Hunt said. The department had firefighters sit in the dozer and then had those being rescued sit on top to be brought out of the structure, he added.

    Despite the “unorthodox method,” everyone stayed calm, he said.

    A motorist removes belongings from his vehicle after becoming stuck in a flooded street in Palm Desert, California, on Sunday.

    Santa Clarita, about 30 miles north of Los Angeles, experienced steady rain for about 10 hours, with the storm dropping well over four inches of rain on the valley. Parts of Sand Canyon Road could be seen falling into rushing water.

    As the storm continues to affect the West, officials with Oregon’s emergency management are bracing for possible flooding across portions of the state.

    “At this point, we’re concerned about the substantial rainfall and the potential for fast-moving water and flooding. Flood watches have been issued for areas of Central and Eastern Oregon,” Oregon Department of Emergency Management spokesperson Chris Crabb told CNN Monday afternoon.

    “We have reports of minor flooding currently and communities using sandbags to mitigate the impacts, but there have been no requests for state support at this point,” Crabb went on.

    According to Crabb, the office is working with county and tribal partners.

    Portions of Oregon are under a flood watch through Tuesday afternoon, according to the National Weather Service.

    “The remnants of Hurricane Hilary will bring periods of moderate to heavy rain to portions of northeastern Oregon through Tuesday,” the weather service said in a forecast message.

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  • Hurricane Hilary prompts historic tropical storm warning for California as Southwest braces for dangerous rain, flooding | CNN

    Hurricane Hilary prompts historic tropical storm warning for California as Southwest braces for dangerous rain, flooding | CNN

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    CNN
     — 

    Residents in the Southwest are bracing for heavy rains and potentially catastrophic flooding as Hurricane Hilary is expected to pummel the region as a rare tropical storm beginning Sunday and lasting into next week.

    Hilary remains a Category 4 hurricane as it marches toward the coast of Mexico’s Baja California Peninsula with sustained winds of 130 mph, according to the National Hurricane Center. Its core is expected to pass close to the peninsula Saturday night and then weaken into a tropical storm as it crosses into the US and Southern California.

    The threat has triggered California’s first ever tropical storm warning extending from the state’s southern border to just north of Los Angeles.

    The Southwest is forecast to see heavy rainfall through early next week – with the most intense conditions on Sunday and Monday – as Hilary advances. The deluges could bring more than a year’s worth of rain to parts of California, Nevada and Arizona.

    Parts of Southern California and Nevada could see 3 to 6 inches of rain and as many as 10 inches in some places, the center said. Elsewhere, amounts of 1 to 3 inches are forecast.

    While Hilary’s core will pack a powerful punch, the NHC warned that strong winds and rain will begin far in advance of its arrival.

    “Preparations for the impacts of flooding from rainfall should be completed as soon as possible, as heavy rain will increase ahead of the center on Saturday,” the hurricane center said.

    In anticipation of the storm, officials across the region have begun to prepare for perilous road conditions, downed power infrastructure and dangerous flood conditions.

    Nevada Gov. Joe Lombardo announced Friday that 100 state National Guard troops will be deployed to southern Nevada, which may see significant flooding.

    President Joe Biden said in a Friday news conference that the Federal Emergency Management Agency has preemptively positioned personnel and supplies to respond in Southern California or other parts of the region, if needed.

    If Hilary makes landfall in California as a tropical storm, it would be the first such storm to do so in the state in nearly 84 years, according to data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

    Parts of Southern California face a high risk for excessive rainfall – also the first Level 4 of 4 threat to be issued for the area. This level of risk is exceptionally rare. From 2010 to 2020, high risks were issued on fewer than 4% of days per year on average, but were responsible for 83% of all flood-related damage and 39% of all flood-related deaths, research from the Weather Prediction Center shows.

    Due to the significant threat, the state has prepared water rescue teams, California National Guard personnel and flood fighting equipment ahead of Hilary’s arrival, California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s office said Friday.

    Highway maintenance crews will also be staffed around-the-clock in order to aid in roadway safety, the governor’s office said.

    Electricity utility Southern California Edison – which serves more than 15 million people in the region – said Thursday that Hilary is on track to impact much of its service area. The company said it is preparing to respond to outages but urged residents to gather supplies including flashlights, external battery chargers and ice chests.

    As the homeless community is particularly at risk for flooding dangers, officials in both Los Angeles and San Diego say they are performing outreach and offering temporary shelter. The LA County Sheriff’s Department said it is also mapping out at-risk encampments and making aerial announcements about the storm.

    “We hope that the storm does not cause any damage, and more importantly there is no loss of life,” Los Angeles County Sheriff Robert Luna said in a Friday news conference. “But we will prepare for a worst-case scenario, not only to assist people here in our county, but if we are not impacted or affected, we will become a resource to other neighboring counties as needed.”

    San Diego has also spent the last several days cleaning storm drains, clearing streets and readying equipment, Mayor Todd Gloria said Friday.

    The storm threat also prompted Major League Baseball to overhaul its weekend schedule in the region, moving Sunday games hosted by the Los Angeles Angels, Los Angeles Dodgers and San Diego Padres to instead be split doubleheaders on Saturday.

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  • Hurricane Hilary expected to strengthen to Category 4 before weakening, dumping rain over California and Southwest US this weekend | CNN

    Hurricane Hilary expected to strengthen to Category 4 before weakening, dumping rain over California and Southwest US this weekend | CNN

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    CNN
     — 

    Hurricane Hilary is expected to intensify into a lashing Category 4 storm as it nears Mexico’s Baja Peninsula on Friday and then weaken over the weekend, bringing rain and flooding to parts of the Southwest US.

    Hilary was churning about 430 miles south of Cabo San Lucas, Mexico, Thursday night with sustained winds of near 125 mph, the National Hurricane Center said in an overnight advisory.

    The storm strengthened to a Category 3 hurricane Thursday evening and is likely to build into a powerful Category 4 on Friday, the advisory said. It is then expected to begin weakening as it continues north on Saturday.

    Hilary’s center is on track to approach the Baja Peninsula on Friday and over the weekend, prompting Mexican officials to issue a hurricane watch and tropical storm watches and warnings for parts of Baja California Sur, the hurricane center said.

    There remains a wide range of outcomes for the heaviest rain and strongest winds in the US as the storm moves north over the next couple of days along Mexico’s Baja Peninsula. Small deviations in the hurricane’s track could change the forecast for the most intense rain and wind.

    The storm is expected to substantially weaken before reaching Southern California and parts of the Southwest but there’s an increasing chance the regions will be significantly impacted by heavy rain and flooding.

    Heavy rainfall is expected to begin impacting the Southwest on Friday and through early next week, with the most intense downpours likely on Sunday and Monday, according to forecasters.

    Southern swaths of California and Nevada could see 3 to 5 inches of rain with isolated amounts of up to 10 inches. Smaller amounts of 1 to 3 inches are expected across central parts of those states as well as across western Arizona and southwest Utah.

    If Hilary makes landfall in California as a tropical storm, it will be a rare occurrence – the first such storm there in nearly 84 years and would be only the third tropical storm or stronger to do so on record, according to data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

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  • It’s the summer of changed climate. Get used to it | CNN Politics

    It’s the summer of changed climate. Get used to it | CNN Politics

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    A version of this story appeared in CNN’s What Matters newsletter. To get it in your inbox, sign up for free here.



    CNN
     — 

    Here’s a hot take on the summer of 2023: The climate you grew up in is gone, replaced by something new and changing, but also inalterably different – where the Atlantic Ocean can reach hot-tub temperature, heat is a recurring public health concern and people will have to adapt their way of living.

    In this year of epic heat, it’s time to start thinking about how the climate changed rather than the fact of its changing.

    From a historical standpoint, we are in uncharted territory. This is not just the hottest month in human history. It may be the hottest month in 120,000 years, according to scientists in Europe.

    Nearly half the US is under a heat advisory this week, and the country’s largest power grid was on alert.

    The warnings that more fires, floods and storms would occur as the atmosphere heated up are here.

    A large portion of the country has seen smoke come and go from those Canadian wildfires. Tourists in Greece were forced to flee in the country’s largest-ever evacuation.

    Towns unused to flooding were under water this year in Vermont. Torrential rain flooded Boston’s Fenway park.

    The West Coast of the US, for instance, has gotten a respite so far from wildfires thanks to epic rainfall earlier in the year.

    But we can expect more heat more often. Asked by CNN’s Zain Asher about a heat index in Iran that approached 150 degrees Fahrenheit, Marina Romanello, executive director of the Lancet Countdown on Health and Climate Change, said to prepare for more.

    “What we know is the heat will become much more intense, much more frequent, and that if we don’t act urgently to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, then the outlook will be very serious with, as you said, temperatures that are beyond the limits of physiological survival.”

    Are we acting urgently? Asher pointed out California is phasing out gas-powered car sales. Romanello said the basic move would be to commit to phase out fossil fuels. But countries are not yet on that path or anywhere close to it.

    Take a look at Arizona, where Phoenix has endured nearly a full straight month of 110-plus-degree days.

    Cacti can’t stand the heat and are dying. Hospitals have been taxed. Doctors are treating people burned just by falling on the ground, according to one CNN report.

    The Phoenix area medical examiner has brought in extra refrigerated containers for bodies, like it did during spikes of Covid-19, to deal with potential overflow. Maricopa County has 25 heat-related deaths so far, but another 249 are under investigation.

    The urban density that creates economic opportunity also makes cities hotter than their surrounding areas. There can be variation up to 8 degrees between portions of a city with trees and green space and those that are mostly pavement.

    “These giant swings in temperature over short distances in cities, known as the urban heat island effect, make heat waves even worse,” writes CNN’s Rachel Ramirez of a new report by the nonprofit research group Climate Central. “Areas blanketed with asphalt, buildings, industry and freeways tend to absorb the sun’s energy then radiate more heat, while areas with abundant green space – parks, rivers, and tree-lined streets – radiate less heat and provide shade.”

    Ramirez notes that cities are looking for new ways to adapt, like painting roads white in Los Angeles, painting roofs in New York and more.

    Coral reefs off the Florida Keys, unable to stand the 100-plus-degree temperatures charted in some areas, are suffering a mass bleaching event, according to CNN’s Eric Zerkel, who writes experts were stunned at the two-week escalation that could kill some reefs off.

    That’s a very real and grim consequence. More theoretical is the possibility that the series of currents that circulates water around the oceans simply collapses.

    A study published in the journal Nature this week suggested the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Current, which includes the Gulf Stream, could collapse as early as 2025. Melting ice could dilute ocean water and alter the currents, which would affect everyone on the planet.

    The reason gas prices have spiked in recent days? On top of OPEC holding back supply, excessive heat is affecting productivity at oil refineries.

    In the US, while President Joe Biden has made pledges to make the US carbon neutral in the coming decades, he is not completely opposed to new oil projects. It was seen as a political win for him and West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin, a Democrat, that the Supreme Court cleared the way Thursday for a new pipeline running through West Virginia.

    That news came the same day the White House announced new relief measures for people suffering from the record heat, including the creation of a new “heat hazard alert” system to clarify precautions for workers.

    “I don’t think anybody can deny the impact of climate change anymore,” Biden said, announcing the measures.

    A majority of Americans – 52% – said in Gallup survey in March, before this heat wave, that protecting the environment should be prioritized even if it hurts the economy. That’s compared with 43% who said the government should prioritize economic growth even if it hurts the environment.

    However.

    The numbers may fluctuate depending on how people feel about the health of the economy. But the share who prioritize economic growth over the environment has on the whole risen in Gallup’s polling over the long term. Between 1985 and 2002, that number never topped 40%. The partisan divide over climate change is also the largest it has ever been.

    The geophysicist Bill McGuire, a professor at University College London and author of “Hothouse Earth: An Inhabitant’s Guide,” writes for CNN Opinion this week that people’s vacations as we know them are over.

    He points to tourists who had to flee the island of Rhodes in Greece to get away from wildfires.

    “It would be a big mistake to regard these as freak events and to continue holidaying as usual in the years ahead,” McGuire writes. “On the contrary, the extreme weather conditions across southern Europe this summer are a wake-up call – a reminder that not even our vacations are insulated from the growing consequences of global heating.”

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  • Typhoon Doksuri kills at least five as Philippines battles floods and landslides | CNN

    Typhoon Doksuri kills at least five as Philippines battles floods and landslides | CNN

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    CNN
     — 

    A powerful typhoon brought widespread flooding and landslides to the Philippines on Wednesday, killing at least five people, authorities in the country said.

    Typhoon Doksuri, known as Egay in the Philippines, has caused flooding across five regions and more than a dozen rain-induced landslides, according to the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council.

    One victim was killed in the central region of Calabarzon and four died in the mountainous Cordillera region, another two people were injured elsewhere in the country, the agency said.

    The storm made landfall at 3:10 a.m. local time (3:10 p.m. ET) near remote northern Fuga Island, said Pagasa, the Philippine weather bureau.

    Though it has weakened from super typhoon strength, Doksuri arrived with winds of about 220 kilometers per hour (140 mph), according to the Joint Typhoon Warning Center – equivalent to a category 4 Atlantic hurricane.

    Pagasa warned that violent and life-threatening conditions were expected in some areas of Luzon, the Philippines’ largest and most populous island, as torrential rains rains swept the country.

    The typhoon unleashed up to 16 inches (0.4 meters) of rain, with the potential to reach 20 inches (0.5 meters) from its 680-kilometer (420-mile) rainband, Pasgasa said.

    Authorities also warned of tidal surges up to 3 meters (nearly 10 feet).

    Local governments on Tuesday began evacuating some people living in the storm’s path in anticipation of winds reaching 200 kph (124 mph).

    The governor of Cagayan province, which suspended schools and closed offices, said more than 12,000 people were evacuated from coastal and mountain towns by Tuesday evening.

    “It’s a powerful typhoon and we want to take as many preemptive measures as possible,” Gov. Cagayan Manuel Mamba told CNN.

    Officials also canceled at least a dozen domestic flights from Wednesday through Friday.

    Strong winds knock down a tree in Cagayan province in the Philippines on July 25, 2023.

    The typhoon is expected to weaken as it heads northwest – though Taiwan and China are bracing for potentially heavy rainfall and strong winds.

    The typhoon prompted Taiwan to cancel some of its annual military drills Tuesday as it faced the prospect of what could be the strongest storm to hit the self-governing island in four years.

    The typhoon’s outer bands are beginning to impact eastern Taiwan, according to the island’s Central Weather Bureau. It is expected to continue to weaken to the equivalent of a category 1 Atlantic hurricane as it tracks northwest, potentially making a second landfall in the next two days on China’s southern coastline.

    China’s National Meteorological Center raised its typhoon emergency warning to the highest level on Wednesday as Doksuri is projected to land by Friday along the southeast coast where Fujian and Guangdong provinces meet.

    Chinese authorities have told fishing boats to return to port immediately and warned farmers to take preventive measures to avoid flooding of crops.

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  • Kentucky governor declares emergency after heavy rainfall causes widespread flooding | CNN

    Kentucky governor declares emergency after heavy rainfall causes widespread flooding | CNN

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    CNN
     — 

    Kentucky’s governor declared an emergency Wednesday after heavy – and potentially record-setting – rain caused widespread flooding throughout the state.

    The western town of Mayfield saw 11.28 inches of rain from early Wednesday to 1 p.m., the National Weather Service in Paducah said.

    If verified, that would establish a new 24-hour rainfall record for the state, the service said. The record heading into Wednesday was 10.48 inches of rain, set in Louisville in 1997, the weather service said.

    “An incredible amount of water in a very short duration unfortunately,” the weather service said.

    “Please pray for Mayfield and areas of Western Kentucky impacted by significant flooding from last night’s storms,” Gov. Andy Beshear said in a news release. “We’re working to assess the damage and respond. Just like every challenge we’ve faced, we will be there for all those affected. We will get through this together.”

    Mayfield still is recovering from a devastating tornado in 2021 that left at least 80 people dead in Kentucky. The tornado was one of at least 50 that struck several states that December.

    Wednesday morning, the whole town was covered in water.

    Officials received the first calls for assistance around 4:30 a.m., Mayor Kathy Stewart O’Nan said, and first responders began knocking on doors to help residents evacuate.

    The sun was shining again by Wednesday afternoon, and most roads had reopened by the evening, O’Nan said.

    “By mid-morning no one had checked into a shelter, so we are counting our blessings,” the mayor said.

    Tia Nalani Nathaniel Rhodes, who lives with her family in Mayfield, said she first noticed the neighborhood was flooding around 3 a.m. Wednesday. A nearby creek overflowed and added to the flash flooding, she said.

    “The water reached the front door of my home,” Rhodes said. “The insides of many cars and trucks were also flooded and everyone’s yard furniture is floating around. Mayfield is a disaster area.”

    A dozen roads were closed following the floods and others were washed out, the Graves County Sheriff’s Office said.

    It urged “extreme caution” on roads with washouts, where the asphalt has broken and fallen away.

    The sheriff’s office called it “major flooding like many have never seen.”

    Beshear urged residents to keep themselves and their families safe.

    “Remember, we can replace stuff and we can rebuild homes. We don’t want to lose any lives,” Beshear said in a video as he signed the emergency declaration.

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  • Storms turning streets into rivers, trapping drivers and forcing rescues across the Northeast evoke memories of Hurricane Irene | CNN

    Storms turning streets into rivers, trapping drivers and forcing rescues across the Northeast evoke memories of Hurricane Irene | CNN

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    CNN
     — 

    Multiple rounds of intense rainstorms have turned streets into gushing rivers, trapped drivers and forced water rescues and evacuations across the Northeast – and it’s bringing back memories of Hurricane Irene in deluged Vermont as the flood threat continues Tuesday.

    Over 4 million people are under flood alerts across the Northeast on Tuesday, including parts of New York, Vermont, New Hampshire and Maine.

    Slow moving showers with intense rainfall rates are expected to further inundate streets with rain in parts of northern Vermont and far northeast New York – two states that suffered severe flooding Monday. The flooding left at least one person dead in New York’s Orange County.

    A high risk of excessive rainfall covers much of Vermont, “highlighting the potential for catastrophic flooding that has not been seen in this part of the country since 2011,” the National Weather Service said.

    “We have not seen rainfall like this since Irene, and in some places, it will surpass even that,” Vermont Gov. Phil Scott said Monday. Vermont is under a state of emergency due to the dangerous flooding that forced dozens of rescues and evacuations Monday.

    Two areas in the state, Weston and South Londonderry, were left inaccessible due to flooding, and search and rescue teams were working to regain access and perform welfare checks Monday, Vermont’s Urban Search and Rescue team coordinator Mike Cannon told reporters.

    Vermont State Rep. Kelly Pajala said she woke up Monday morning to flood water already at the front step of her Londonderry apartment. She and her son packed up their two cats and evacuated to higher ground.

    “For people that were here during Irene, it feels like a very similar experience,” she said. Hurricane Irene brought destructive flooding to the state in 2011, leaving whole communities under water and damaging major infrastructure.

    Numerous rivers across Vermont have been rising amid the downpours, with some swelling higher than levels reached during Hurricane Irene. The Winooski River at Montpelier had risen nearly 14 feet Monday and passed major flood stage as the water continued to climb, threatening further flooding.

    With water in downtown Montpelier running from knee to waist deep, residents stranded in their homes and businesses and roads closed, Montpelier City Manager William Fraser told CNN the situation is looking much worse than it did in the 2011 flooding.

    Nearly a dozen different areas across Vermont, from the Connecticut River in the south to the Missisquoi River in the north, were expected to see moderate or major flooding before rivers begin dropping later Tuesday.

    Two dams in Vermont, the Ball Mountain Dam and the Townshend Dam, are expected to overflow their spillways early Tuesday morning and “release unprecedented quantities of water,” the US Army Corps of Engineers warned Monday night.

    Warning of “severe flooding,” the agency urged residents in threatened low-lying areas of nearby Vermont and New Hampshire communities to evacuate.

    In New York, where six counties are similarly under a state of emergency, a 35-year-old woman died after being swept away by floodwater as she tried to evacuate her Orange County home Sunday. The flooding has caused “easily tens of millions of dollars in damage,” county Executive Steve Neuhaus said Monday.

    Some areas in New York were hammered with more than 8 inches of rain within a 24-hour period.

    New York Gov. Kathy Hochul said the state will very likely meet the threshold of $37 million in statewide damages and become eligible to receive funding from FEMA.

    “You can see highways, roads and bridges that are still unpassable, homes that have been destroyed. We still have people without power and as we talked about earlier, one woman actually lost her life, so it is still treacherous in many of these regions,” Hochul said.

    Main Street in Highland Falls, New York is seen Monday.

    Seven-day rainfall totals across much of the Northeast are already at 300-500% of normal levels, according to the Weather Prediction Center.

    Widespread rainfall of 2 to 4 inches have fallen across the Northeast from eastern Pennsylvania and northern New Jersey into Vermont and New Hampshire. Isolated rainfall totals higher than half a foot have been seen in several states.

    In Vermont, the storms battered Mount Holly Heights with a whopping 8.66 inches of rain and Tyson with 8.40 inches.

    Meanwhile, Stormville, New York, received 8.61 inches while West Point – where drivers had to swim out of their cars Sunday – got 8.12 inches.

    Rainfall in West Point totaled more than 7.5 inches in a six-hour period Sunday afternoon, according to preliminary data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. That’s a 1-in-1,000 year rainfall event for the area, according to a CNN analysis of NOAA’s historical rainfall frequency data.

    Elsewhere, South Kent, Connecticut, got 6.80 inches, and West Lawn, Pennsylvania got 6.69 inches.

    A man carries belongings through floodwaters from a home in Bridgewater, Vermont, on Monday.

    Betsy Hart called 911 when the floodwaters suddenly started rising fast Monday at the basement of her Chester property in Windsor County, Vermont.

    “Water was rising quickly after being pretty tame most of the morning,” Hart told CNN’s Miguel Marquez. “All of a sudden it was in the house.”

    Hart said she’s never experienced flooding like what she saw Monday. “It was too close for comfort,” she said.

    “With Hurricane Irene, the water was raging like this but it never really got to the house,” she said, standing on a road near her home as water rushed nearby.

    Flood water could be seen gushing between homes in Chester, where some structures were visibly damaged and trucks were wheels-deep in water.

    Don Hancock, dripping in water from head to toe, told CNN he has only lived in his Chester house for less than a year and watched floodwater enter the basement and garage of his new home.

    “I was a firefighter in New York. I’ve been there many of times to help people out but I’ve never lived this side of it,” Hancock said.

    Now, he’s just waiting for the water in his neighborhood to recede. “Once the water goes down we go day by day, clean it up and move on. What can we do?” Hancock said.

    Windham and Windsor counties have been the hardest hit by the flooding, according to Cannon, from the state’s Urban Search and Rescue Program.

    Officials have made 50 rescues across Vermont, including using boats to help people trapped in their homes or in cars that were swept away in fast-moving waters.

    The state of California is also deploying urban search and rescue personnel to assist emergency response efforts as Vermont grapples with flooding, according to a Monday tweet from the Office of the Governor of California.

    Crews from Michigan, Massachusetts, New Jersey and Connecticut are on their way to assist as well.

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  • Warnings are in effect for potentially ‘catastrophic’ flash flooding across southeastern New York | CNN

    Warnings are in effect for potentially ‘catastrophic’ flash flooding across southeastern New York | CNN

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    CNN
     — 

    Meteorologists have issued a flash flood emergency for parts of the Lower Hudson Valley in southeastern New York, warning that powerful thunderstorms have dumped several inches of rain and are causing “life threatening” and catastrophic flash flooding.

    Flash flood warnings were in effect Sunday evening for several areas in the region, including southeastern and central Orange County, western Putnam County, northern Westchester County and Rockland County, which has seen the heaviest rainfall, according to the National Weather Service. Parts of northeastern New Jersey were also under a flash flood warning, the service said.

    “Move to higher ground now! This is an extremely dangerous and life-threatening situation. Do not attempt to travel unless you are fleeing an area subject to flooding or under an evacuation order,” the service warned Sunday evening.

    Meanwhile, a system of heavy rain and thunderstorms was also making its way east and expected to reach the New York City metro area Sunday night, the weather service said, stressing the potential of “torrential downpours.”

    A flood watch is in effect citywide until 6 a.m. Monday morning, the city said on its website, adding that areas that were low-lying, had poor drainage or are close to creeks, streams or rivers are particularly at risk for flash flooding. An “excessive rainfall event” is expected to begin around 7 p.m. Sunday, the city said.

    The heavy rain coming in Sunday “may cause rapid, life-threatening flooding to basements,” the city’s emergency notification officials said on Twitter. “Prepare now to move to higher ground if needed. If you must travel, exercise caution and avoid flooded roadways.”

    In nearby Rockland County, New York State Police said “numerous roadways consisting of State Route 9W and Palisades Interstate Parkway are experiencing heavy flooding and washouts. The Palisades NB is closed from exit 14 to Long Mountain Traffic circle. Avoid The Area!!!”

    The county’s government urged residents to stay home Sunday evening, warning there was “tons of flooding” in the Stony Point and Lowland Hill areas and Lowland Park.

    Later Sunday evening, Rockland County Executive Ed Day said in a statement emergency responders had helped get conditions under control, and rain was anticipated to stop at nighttime.

    “Until then, we urge residents to remain indoors in a safe location,” he said.

    In a Sunday update, New York Gov. Kathy Hochul urged residents to be particularly vigilant of road conditions.

    “My biggest concern is the fact that most people’s lives that are lost during a flood event occur because they’re in their vehicles – not in their homes, but in their vehicles,” she told a Spectrum News reporter. “And I want people to be very cautious about not going into a road that’s closed or if you see any running water, because it doesn’t take much for a vehicle, just two feet … of water can actually sweep a car away and you lose all control, and you could actually lose your life.”

    Flooding at the United States Military Academy West Point, which is in Orange County, has forced people to swim out of their cars, a West Point Military Police spokesperson told CNN Sunday.

    People who had been trapped in their cars in one part of the academy’s campus swam out of their cars to get to safety, the spokesperson said, adding it is unclear at this time if anyone had been injured.

    Also in Orange County, officials for the town of Cornwall issued a “No travel Advisory,” following multiple roads that had been flooded and people that had to be rescued from their stranded cars. The town’s emergency management office also warned the storms had caused mudslides and debris.

    “TRAVEL IS IMPOSSIBLE,” the office said on Twitter. “GET TO HIGHER GROUND. IF SAFE, STAY WHERE YOU ARE.”

    The flash flood threats will remain in parts of New England Monday morning and could become “extremely dangerous” in parts of Vermont, where mudslides are also possible, and the Champlain Valley bordering New York, the Weather Prediction Center said.

    Vermont Gov. Phil Scott on Sunday declared a state of emergency ahead of the storms and the potential flooding and said water rescue teams are already in areas where they may be needed.

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  • Thousands of Americans are leaving homes in flood-risk areas. But where are they moving to? | CNN

    Thousands of Americans are leaving homes in flood-risk areas. But where are they moving to? | CNN

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    CNN
     — 

    For more than four decades, the US government has been paying cities and states to move homeowners away from areas that are at high risk of severe flooding.

    When a hurricane or major flooding event devastates an area, a neighborhood can send a request for the local or state government to buy the impacted land and give residents money to start over someplace else.

    The Federal Emergency Management Agency’s buyout program is a form of so-called “managed retreat” – a long process that relocates people, businesses, homes and infrastructure to an area that’s safer from the impacts of climate change-fueled weather events. But until recently, little was known about where people ultimately moved and whether their new location actually reduced their flood risk.

    A new study published in the journal Environmental Research Letters — which coincides with a managed retreat conference unfolding in New York City this week — provides a clearer picture of these home buyouts.

    Data from thousands of home buyouts shows people aren’t moving that far from their original homes — and often they are moving within the same floodplain. But overall, their risk of flooding decreased after the move, a nod to the program’s success. Researchers also found that race has played a role in who is moving and where they’re relocating to.

    “As climate change and rising insurance costs increase the pressures to retreat from the coast and flooded areas, we need to pay more attention to where people are going,” James Elliott, a professor of sociology at Rice University and a co-author on the study, told CNN.

    The findings “point to how the program plays out differently in different types of communities and neighborhoods across the country,” he said.

    Using flood risk estimates, housing values, race and income data from the US Census Bureau, and FEMA relocation data between 1990 and 2017, researchers from Rice University built a nationwide database to map out where nearly 10,000 Americans sold their flood-prone homes and where they moved.

    They found people who have taken advantage of the FEMA buyouts typically did not move that far to reduce their risk, and usually stayed within the same floodplain.

    On average, buyout participants reduced their future flood risk by up to 65%, Elliott said. The average driving distance between their former homes and their new ones was around seven miles, with almost 74% of homeowners remaining within 20 miles of their old, flood-damaged homes.

    The findings were also racially segmented, Elliot said. About 96% of homeowners who relocated from a predominantly White neighborhood ended up moving to another majority White community.

    In contrast, residents of predominantly Black and Hispanic communities were far more likely to relocate to a new neighborhood with a different demographic: Only 48 percent of Black homeowners who go through the buyout moved to predominantly Black neighborhoods.

    The study also found that buyout areas with predominantly White homeowners had a nearly 90% chance of flooding by 2050, while majority-Black buyout areas had a roughly 50% chance, suggesting that White residents tend to only participate in buyouts when flood risk is much more intense.

    Though the data suggests that homeowners in White neighborhoods have a higher tolerance for flood risk, 80% of the people who took advantage of the FEMA program previously lived in majority-White neighborhoods. This could be because White communities “are more successful at winning the opportunity and money to participate” in the FEMA program, Elliott said.

    The home buyout program, which is the largest managed-retreat initiative in the country so far, is “disproportionately targeted toward Whiter residential areas,” Elliott said.

    “Communities of color and lower income areas just have fewer options to move nearby, so they are less likely to participate in the managed buyout,” Elliott said. In Houston, he found in a previous study that most of the people participating in buyouts in racially diverse communities tend to be White homeowners.

    “It’s sort of the last wave of White flight in those neighborhoods,” he added. And when “flood risks come, the final White residents begin to pull up stakes through the buyout program and move further out.”

    Alexander de Sherbinin, a senior research scientist at the Columbia Climate School and deputy manager of NASA’s Socioeconomic Data and Applications Center, said it’s not clear from the study that White homeowners are reluctant to move to racially diverse neighborhoods, and noted that there is evidence to the contrary.

    De Sherbinin pointed out that there is a process of “climate gentrification” playing out in areas that have experienced climate disasters, “whereby more affluent households are moving into ethnically diverse neighborhoods that are less at risk of flooding, and are even displacing local residents.”

    He pointed to Miami’s Little Haiti neighborhood as an example of this phenomenon, where higher ground helps protect the neighborhood from sea level rise and higher storm surges.

    “The research findings make sense in one regard, which is that whiter, more affluent neighborhoods are more likely to have the insurance coverage and resources to stay in place, despite rising risks,” de Sherbinin told CNN. “In other words, they’re able to rebuild, and possibly accommodate risks by raising their houses above flood lines.”

    As the climate crisis advances, more homeowners and businesses will be forced to relocate, adding stress and vulnerability to new regions. Previous research has shown that climate migration will become more likely as the planet warms and people seek places they consider safer and more stable.

    “We really need to think about how people relocate locally, what the options are, and how the ongoing racial segregation, especially in urban environments, is affecting those local retreats and people’s decisions and abilities not to retreat, because all we see are the people who actually say yes to the program,” Elliott said.

    “That’s the classic thing with climate change — it’s not about ‘if’ people have to move from these places, but ‘when and how’.”

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  • 50 million under severe storm threat today as one Texas town digs out after a deadly tornado | CNN

    50 million under severe storm threat today as one Texas town digs out after a deadly tornado | CNN

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    CNN
     — 

    More than 50 million people across a large swath of the US are under a severe weather threat Friday, one day after storms cut a deadly path across Texas and Florida.

    Three people were killed in Perryton, Texas, when a ruinous tornado slammed the town Thursday, the fire chief told CNN. The storm also sent up to 100 people in the Texas Panhandle town to the hospital with injuries ranging from head wounds to abrasions, the Ochiltree General Hospital interim CEO told CNN.

    And a person in Florida died after being trapped under a tree that fell on their home, Escambia County officials said.

    The county, which includes Pensacola, was hit with flash flooding emergencies overnight, leading to high water rescues, the National Weather Service in Mobile, Alabama, reported early Friday, citing local rescuers.

    “Widespread and significant” flash flooding was continuing in West Pensacola, Warrington and Gulf Breeze, Escambia County Emergency Management said. “Numerous roadways remain flooded with water entering several structures,” emergency officials said.

    Nearly 150 residents of an apartment complex in Pensacola were moved amid the rising water Friday morning and taken to a community center for shelter, county officials said.

    Warrington, just south of Pensacola, got nearly a foot of rain in just three hours. Radar estimates indicate as much as 16 inches of rain fell overnight, and more is expected Friday. A flash flood watch is in effect for the area until 7 p.m.

    Many of the areas that saw severe conditions Thursday could see storms return as a level 2 of 5 slight risk of severe storms is in place for parts of the South, Mid-Atlantic and Southern Plains.

    Large hail, damaging winds and tornadoes are possible in the slight risk areas, which include Montgomery and Mobile in Alabama, Little Rock, Arkansas; Jackson, Mississippi; and Tallahassee, Florida.

    A marginal, level 1 of 5 risk is in place from South Dakota to Florida and for parts of the Mid-Atlantic – a huge zone that includes hard-hit Perryton. Other cities in the marginal risk area, which could see large hail and damaging winds, include Philadelphia, Baltimore, Washington, DC, Denver, and Jacksonville, Florida.

    The storm that swept through Perryton damaged homes and businesses in the town of some 8,000 residents, including the local fire department and EMS, as well as multiple mobile homes, Fire Chief Paul Dutcher said, noting many of the department’s trucks were damaged.

    “A tornado formed, and it just dropped on us. It came out of nowhere. There were no sirens, no time to get to a shelter,” Perryton resident Jamie James said, telling CNN she had to ride out the storm in her truck.

    “There was a time I thought I was going to die,” she said. “Everything went crazy. Dumpsters were flying, hailstones hitting the car.”

    James’ home is still standing but the structure next to it is destroyed. She said the tornado is a devastating blow to the city she’s lived in for 15 years. “So many good people in this town. … We look out for one another.”

    The city’s power facilities were shutoff for safety purposes, according to Xcel Energy.

    “Transmission lines supplying the city with electricity have sustained damage and many lower voltage distribution lines are down in the city,” said Wes Reeves, a spokesperson for Xcel Energy.

    “Xcel Energy personnel are working to ensure the safety of Perryton residents and first responders. An estimated time of restoration is not yet available,” he added.

    As of 3 a.m. CT, more than 220,000 homes and businesses across Texas were in the dark, according to the tracking website Poweroutage.us. In neighboring Louisiana, more than 130,000 were without power, and outages were also reported in Oklahoma, Florida and Alabama.

    Texas Gov. Greg Abbott has deployed state emergency resources to “meet urgent life-safety needs in Perryton, Texas,” according to a news release from his office.

    “We remain ready to quickly provide any additional resources needed over the course of this severe weather event,” the governor noted in the statement.

    Resources from surrounding areas have poured into the city to provide much-needed assistance.

    A tank truck gets partially submerged in water in Perryton.

    Officials in Beaver County, Oklahoma, sent fire, law enforcement and EMS units to help, according to the county’s emergency manager Keith Shadden.

    Neighboring city officials in Stinnett, Texas, also began sending officers and EMS crews. The sheriff’s office in Hutchinson County — which includes Stinnett — also sent rescue and emergency operations following the “devastating tornado,” according to a Facebook post from the office.

    Medical help also came from staff at nearby hospitals who swiftly aided up to 100 people after the tornado struck, Ochiltree General Hospital Interim CEO Kelly Judice said.

    “A few of them took patients to their hospitals, most of the staff just stayed here and worked,” she added.

    On Thursday, there were two tornado reports in Texas, four in Oklahoma and one in Michigan, according to the National Weather Service, with the tornado in Perryton being the most significant.

    A view of a damaged site in Perryton as the town gets struck by a tornado in Texas on Thursday in this screengrab obtained from a social media video.

    The tornado, which was confirmed by the NWS, cut through some of Perryton’s main sections.

    “It literally hit the residential, the downtown and then the industrial as well,” storm chaser Brian Emfinger told CNN.

    The worst damages he saw were in the northwest part of town, where the tornado barreled toward a mobile home park directly in its path, Emfinger explained.

    “The storm produced a wall cloud very quickly, and that wall cloud tightened up very rapidly, and then it just went to the ground very quickly,” Emfinger added.

    On the northeast side of town, about 300 people were sheltered inside Perryton High School after the area saw extensive damages, the school’s athletic director and football coach, Cole Underwood, told CNN.

    “We have the gym space, and we have the capabilities to help the people that have lost everything and we’re more than willing to do that,” he said. “Sadly, there’s just not a list of things. … You think about that you need on hand, but people lost everything today.”

    US Rep. Ronny Jackson, who represents Perryton, said the community needs help.

    “If you are in the area, I ask that you do whatever you can to help your neighbors. Food, fuel, water, generators – anything you can.”

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  • Tens of thousands evacuated as India and Pakistan brace for Cyclone Biparjoy | CNN

    Tens of thousands evacuated as India and Pakistan brace for Cyclone Biparjoy | CNN

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    Islamabad and New Delhi
    CNN
     — 

    Tens of thousands of people are being evacuated as India and Pakistan brace for the impact of Cyclone Biparjoy, which is expected to make landfall in densely populated areas across the subcontinent Thursday, putting millions of lives at risk.

    Biparjoy has been churning across the northeastern Arabian Sea, heading toward southern Pakistan and western India since late last week, with winds of 160 kph (100 mph) and gusts up to 195 kph (121 mph). It has weakened slightly since Tuesday, sustaining winds of 150 kph (90 mph), equivalent to a Category 1 hurricane.

    Landfall is expected Thursday afternoon local time, bringing the triple threat of heavy rain, damaging winds and coastal storm surges across the region, according to the India Meteorological Department.

    Mass evacuations have started in Pakistan’s Sindh province, with about 60,000 people sent to temporary shelters, according to local authorities.

    The provincial capital Karachi – Pakistan’s largest city, with a population of 22 million – has shut malls and businesses along the coast.

    Pakistan’s national carrier, PIA, has implemented a string of precautionary measures, including operating round-the-clock security to minimize any potential hazard to lives or equipment.

    In India’s Gujarat state, more than 8,000 people have been evacuated from coastal areas, according to the state’s health minister. Livestock have also been moved to higher ground, he said, adding some schools have been ordered to shut and fishing suspended.

    Heavy rainfall warnings are in place over the northern Gujarat region, where total rainfall may reach 10 inches, leading to flash flooding and landslides.

    In neighboring Maharashtra state, home to about 27 million people and a sizable fishing community, strong winds are expected to hit parts of the financial capital Mumbai. High waves slammed into coastal roads this week, turning roads into rivers.

    Four boys drowned off the coast of Mumbai on Monday, Rashmi Lokhande, a senior disaster official for the regional administrative body, told CNN.

    Since the drownings, local authorities have deployed police officers and lifeguards along the beaches to prevent people from going into the sea.

    Authorities in both countries have been warning residents to seek shelter and stay safe.

    Pakistan’s Climate Change Minister Sherry Rehman has warned against reading too much into the storm’s slight weakening, saying on Twitter “it is highly unpredictable so please do not take it casually.”

    Cyclone Biparjoy comes less than one year after record monsoon rain and melting glaciers devastated swathes of Pakistan, claiming the lives of nearly 1,600 people.

    On that occasion, the force of the floodwater washed away homes, leaving tens of thousands stranded on the road without food or clean water and vulnerable to waterborne diseases.

    An analysis of last year’s floods by the World Weather Attribution initiative found that the climate crisis had played a role. It said that the crisis may have increased the intensity of rainfall by up to 50%, in relation to a five-day downpour that hit the provinces of Sindh and Balochistan.

    People gather near the shore before the arrival of Cyclone Biparjoy at Clifton Beach in Karachi, Pakistan, on June 13.

    The analysis also found that the floods were likely a 1-in-100-year event, meaning that there is a 1% chance of similarly heavy rainfall each year.

    A study published in 2021 by researchers at the Shenzhen Institute of Meteorological Innovation and the Chinese University of Hong Kong and published in Frontiers in Earth Science, found that tropical cyclones in Asia could have double the destructive power by the end of the century, with scientists saying the human-made climate crisis is already making them stronger.

    That year, Tropical Cyclone Tauktae, one of the strongest storms on record, slammed into India’s west coast, killing at least 26 people across five states.

    Tropical cyclones are among the most dangerous natural disasters. Over the past 50 years, these cyclones have led to nearly 780,000 deaths and around $1.4 billion worth of economic losses globally, according to the World Meteorological Organization.

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