ReportWire

Tag: Storms

  • Burning Man revelers begin exodus after flooding left tens of thousands stranded in Nevada desert

    Burning Man revelers begin exodus after flooding left tens of thousands stranded in Nevada desert

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    BLACK ROCK DESERT, Nev. — Muddy roads flooded by a summer storm that left tens of thousands of partygoers stranded for days at the Burning Man counterculture festival had dried up enough by Monday afternoon to allow them to begin their exodus from the northern Nevada desert.

    Event organizers said they started to let traffic flow out of the main road around 2 p.m. local time — even as they continued urging attendees to delay their exit to help ease traffic on Monday. About two hours after the mass departure began, organizers estimated a wait time of about five hours.

    Organizers also asked attendees not to walk out of the Black Rock Desert about 110 miles (177 kilometers) north of Reno as others had done throughout the weekend, including celebrity DJ Diplo and comedian Chris Rock. They didn’t specify why.

    The festival had been closed to vehicles after more than a half-inch (1.3 centimeters) of rain fell Friday, causing flooding and foot-deep mud.

    The road closures came just before the first of two ceremonial fires signaling an end to the festival was scheduled to begin Saturday night. The event traditionally culminates with the burning of a large wooden effigy shaped like a man and a wood temple structure during the final two nights, but the fires were postponed as authorities worked to reopen exit routes by the end of the Labor Day weekend.

    Weather permitting, “the Man” is scheduled to be torched 9 p.m. Monday while the temple is set to go up in flames 8 p.m. Tuesday.

    The National Weather Service in Reno said it should stay mostly clear and dry at the festival site Monday, although some light rain showers could pass through Tuesday morning. The event began Aug. 27 and had been scheduled to end Monday morning, with attendees packing up and cleaning up after themselves.

    “We are a little bit dirty and muddy, but spirits are high. The party still going,” said Scott London, a Southern California photographer, adding that the travel limitations offered “a view of Burning Man that a lot of us don’t get to see.”

    The annual gathering, which launched on a San Francisco beach in 1986, attracts nearly 80,000 artists, musicians and activists for a mix of wilderness camping and avant-garde performances. Disruptions are part of the event’s recent history: Dust storms forced organizers to temporarily close entrances to the festival in 2018, and the event was twice canceled altogether during the pandemic.

    At least one fatality has been reported, but organizers said the death of a man in his 40s wasn’t weather-related. The sheriff of nearby Pershing County said he was investigating but has not identified the man or a cause of death.

    President Joe Biden told reporters in Delaware on Sunday that he was aware of the situation at Burning Man, including the death, and the White House was in touch with local authorities.

    The event is remote on the best of days and emphasizes self-sufficiency. Amid the flooding, revelers were urged to conserve their food and water, and most remained hunkered down at the site.

    Some attendees, however, managed to walk several miles to the nearest town or catch a ride there.

    Diplo, whose real name is Thomas Wesley Pentz, posted a video to Instagram on Saturday evening showing him and Rock riding in the back of a fan’s pickup truck. He said they had walked six miles through the mud before hitching a ride.

    “I legit walked the side of the road for hours with my thumb out,” Diplo wrote.

    Cindy Bishop and three of her friends managed to drive their rented RV out of the festival at dawn on Monday when, Bishop said, the main road wasn’t being guarded.

    She said they were happy to make it out after driving toward the exit — and getting stuck several times — over the course of two days.

    But Bishop, who traveled from Boston for her second Burning Man, said spirits were still high at the festival when they had left. Most people she spoke with said they planned to stay for the ceremonial burns.

    “The spirit in there,” she said, “was really like, ‘We’re going to take care of each other and make the best of it.’”

    Rebecca Barger, a photographer from Philadelphia, arrived at her first Burning Man on Aug. 26 and was determined to stick it out through the end.

    “Everyone has just adapted, sharing RVs for sleeping, offering food and coffee,” Barger said. “I danced in foot-deep clay for hours to incredible DJs.”

    ___

    Associated Press reporters Rio Yamat in Las Vegas, Michael Casey in Boston, R.J. Rico in Atlanta, Lea Skene in Baltimore, Juan Lozano in Houston and Julie Walker in New York contributed.

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  • Reshaped Death Valley park could take months to reopen after damage from Hilary

    Reshaped Death Valley park could take months to reopen after damage from Hilary

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    DEATH VALLEY JUNCTION, Calif. — It’s unclear when Death Valley National Park will reopen to visitors after heavy rains from Tropical Storm Hilary forged new gullies and crumbled roadways at the site of one of the hottest places in the world, officials said.

    The storm dumped a furious 2.2 inches (6 centimeters) of rain Aug. 20, roughly the amount of rainfall the park usually receives in a year. This year’s rainfall broke its previous record of 1.7 inches (4 centimeters) in one day, set in August of last year.

    “Two inches of rain does not sound like a lot, but here, it really does stay on the surface,” Matthew Lamar, a park ranger, told the Los Angeles Times. “Two inches of rain here can have a dramatic impact.”

    The park, which straddles eastern California and Nevada, holds the record for the hottest temperature recorded on the planet — 134 degrees Fahrenheit (57 degrees Celsius), reached in 1913.

    Officials say it could be months before the park reopens. It has been closed since Hilary, the first tropical storm to hit Southern California in 84 years, swept through the state in August.

    Christopher Andriessen, a spokesperson with the California Department of Transportation, also known as Caltrans, told the Times that about 900 of the park’s nearly 1,400 miles (2,250 kilometers) of roads have been assessed.

    Repair costs are estimated at $6 million, but only for one of the park’s main roads, State Route 190, and a small part of State Route 136.

    “We don’t have a timeline yet,” park spokesperson Abby Wines told The Associated Press on Monday. “Caltrans has said they expect to fully open 190 within three months, but they often are able to open parts of it earlier.”

    Some familiar sites survived the storm, including Scotty’s Castle, a popular visitor destination.

    Young and adult endangered pupfish at Devils Hole cavern survived, although eggs were likely smothered by sediment, the park said on social media last month. Endangered Salt Creek pupfish also survived, the newspaper reported.

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  • Las Vegas drying out after 2 days of heavy rainfall that prompted water rescues, possible drowning

    Las Vegas drying out after 2 days of heavy rainfall that prompted water rescues, possible drowning

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    Las Vegas residents are drying out after two days of heavy rainfall that flooded streets, prompted various water rescues, shut down a portion of Interstate 15 south of the city and possibly resulted in at least one death

    ByThe Associated Press

    September 3, 2023, 1:07 PM

    A Clark County Fire Department official searches for a man who was trapped in floodwaters in a flood channel Friday, Sept. 1, 2023, in Las Vegas. (AP Photo/John Locher)

    The Associated Press

    LAS VEGAS — Las Vegas residents on Sunday were drying out after two days of heavy rainfall that flooded streets, prompted various water rescues, shut down a portion of Interstate 15 south of the city and possibly resulted in at least one death.

    A marginal risk for excessive rainfall was expected on Sunday before conditions were likely to dry out for the rest of the week, according to the National Weather Service.

    The heavy rainfall over the past couple of days resulted in 24 water rescues, including more than 30 vehicles stranded in water and about a dozen people rescued from standing or moving water, according to Las Vegas Fire & Rescue.

    On Saturday morning Las Vegas Fire & Rescue found a body in northwest Las Vegas of an individual believed to have drowned after being reported by bystanders as having been swept away by moving water, KSNV reported. A cause of death and the name of person were not immediately released by authorities.

    Over the last two days, some areas in and around Las Vegas got more than 3 inches (7.6 centimeters) of rain, according to data from the Clark County Regional Flood Control District.

    Las Vegas is up to 3.9 inches (9.9 centimeters) of rain for 2023, which is 1.2 inches (3 centimeters) above normal and only 0.19 inches (0.48 centimeters) below the city’s normal annual precipitation, according to the weather service.

    The city had already been hit last month with rain from Tropical Storm Hilary that covered the Las Vegas Strip and prompted several water rescues.

    Besides flooding streets and sidewalks in Las Vegas, the heavy rainfall has also closed down all lanes of I-15 south of Jean. But officials announced late Saturday night that all lanes on the freeway were once again open.

    A flood watch remained in effect through Monday morning for portions of eastern, north central, northeast and south central Nevada, according to the weather service.

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  • For small biz reliant on summer tourism, extreme weather is the new pandemic — for better or worse

    For small biz reliant on summer tourism, extreme weather is the new pandemic — for better or worse

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    NEW YORK — For small businesses that rely on summer tourism to keep afloat, extreme weather is replacing the pandemic as the determining factor in how well a summer will go.

    The pandemic had its ups and downs for tourism, with a total shutdown followed by a rush of vacations due to pent-up demand. This year, small businesses say vacation cadences are returning to normal. But now, they have extreme weather to deal with — many say it’s hurting business, but more temperate spots are seeing a surge.

    Tourism-related businesses have always been at the mercy of the weather. But with heat waves, fires and storms becoming more frequent and intense, small businesses increasingly see extreme weather as their next long-term challenge.

    For Jared Meyers, owner of Legacy Vacation Resorts, with eight locations, including four in Florida, Hurricane Idalia’s landfall Wednesday as a Category 3 storm led to a loss in revenue as he temporarily closed one resort and and closed another to new guests. It also means a lengthy cleanup period to fix gutter and other damage and beach cleanup, including replanting of sea grass, sea grapes and other plants to protect against the next storm.

    “Even when the hurricane doesn’t hit directly, it wreaks havoc economically, emotionally — to those that have suffered previous losses — and to our way of life,” he said.

    A lifelong Florida resident, he’s used to hurricanes, but fears their intensity is getting worse. In fact, the number of storms that intensify dramatically within 240 miles (385 kilometers) of a coastline across the globe grew to 15 a year in 2020 compared to five a year in 1980, according to a study published in Nature Communications.

    “It does feel like and probably will continue to feel like we’re just hopping from one emergency to another based on climate change,” Meyers said.

    For Steve Silberberg in Saco, Maine, who runs Fitpacking, a company that guides people on wilderness backpacking trips in national and state parks and forests, extreme weather is becoming a serious obstacle. National Park Service Research has shown that national parks are experiencing extreme weather conditions at a higher rate than the rest of the country because of where they’re located.

    Historic snowfall in March at Yosemite — followed by a wildfire — affected one hike Silberberg had planned. Another hike was canceled due to unusually large snowfall rendering the Narrows — part of Zion Canyon in Zion National Park in Utah — impassable due to a high volume of meltwater. He had to cancel a trip to the Los Padres National Forest in California due to wildfires and subsequent flooding, which destroyed trails and made them impassable.

    “We are quickly approaching a crossroads as to how to keep the business viable,” he said. “It seems that almost half of our trips are affected in some way by increasingly extreme weather events.”

    Silberberg is trying to find ways to make climate change work for him, however. He is thinking about starting a company that helps people visit places that may disappear due to climate change, such as Glacier National Park in Montana or the Everglades in Florida, which is threatened by rising sea levels.

    In Southern California this summer, businesses faced sweltering heat, followed by Tropical Storm Hilary, the first tropical storm the region had seen in 84 years.

    “Definitely extreme weather is here to stay,” said Shachi Mehra executive chef and partner at Adya, Indian restaurant in Anaheim, California. The restaurant is located in the Anaheim Packing House, a food hall in a historic 1919 citrus-packing house near Disneyland.

    The restaurant closed for a day proactively during Tropical Storm Hilary, losing a day of sales. Heat has been more of an issue, as business slowed in late July this summer during a surge in temperatures. Mehra said she suspects the heat is behind the slowdown since typically things start to slow in late August or September.

    Media focus on extreme weather can hurt business, too. Dan Dawson, owner of Horizon Divers in Key Largo, Florida, saw business boom during the pandemic. Now it’s back to pre-pandemic levels. But when storms like Idalia close in, tourists flee — even though Dawson’s spot in Key Largo was 300 miles (480 kilometers) from where Idalia hit.

    “Once a storm is coming close we stop diving and once it goes by it can take up to two weeks for tourists to come back, and that is if we don’t have any damage,” he said.

    Still, in some places that offer a respite from the heat and storms, businesses are getting an unexpected bump.

    At Little America Flagstaff, a hotel set in 500 acres (202 hectares) of private forest celebrating its 50th anniversary this year, temperatures in the 90s felt pleasant compared to the record-breaking heat in Phoenix, a two-hour drive to the south, which had temperatures of over 110 degrees Fahrenheit-plus (43.4 degrees Celsius) for 31 straight days.

    “When you see temperatures rising to the amount they were in Phoenix you immediately saw, not just with our hotel but all the hotels in the area, our occupancies all went up,” said Fred Reese, the hotel’s general manager.

    Similarly, at Mission Point Resort on Mackinac Island, a historic island in Lake Michigan that doesn’t allow cars, temperatures have hovered in the temperate 70s while other places around the country have seen triple-digit heat. That leaves Michigan tourists often rubbing elbows with visitors from other states.

    “It has been brutally hot in most of the country and it has been very, very nice up here in northern Michigan,” said Liz Ware, sales and marketing executive and part of the family that owns Mission Point. “And so we have seen a lot of people from the Texas, Florida, Georgia area coming up north to northern Michigan because it is so temperate up here.”

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  • For small biz reliant on summer tourism, extreme weather is the new pandemic — for better or worse

    For small biz reliant on summer tourism, extreme weather is the new pandemic — for better or worse

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    NEW YORK — For small businesses that rely on summer tourism to keep afloat, extreme weather is replacing the pandemic as the determining factor in how well a summer will go.

    The pandemic had its ups and downs for tourism, with a total shutdown followed by a rush of vacations due to pent-up demand. This year, small businesses say vacation cadences are returning to normal. But now, they have extreme weather to deal with — many say it’s hurting business, but more temperate spots are seeing a surge.

    Tourism-related businesses have always been at the mercy of the weather. But with heat waves, fires and storms becoming more frequent and intense, small businesses increasingly see extreme weather as their next long-term challenge.

    For Jared Meyers, owner of Legacy Vacation Resorts, with eight locations, including four in Florida, Hurricane Idalia’s landfall Wednesday as a Category 3 storm led to a loss in revenue as he temporarily closed one resort and and closed another to new guests. It also means a lengthy cleanup period to fix gutter and other damage and beach cleanup, including replanting of sea grass, sea grapes and other plants to protect against the next storm.

    “Even when the hurricane doesn’t hit directly, it wreaks havoc economically, emotionally — to those that have suffered previous losses — and to our way of life,” he said.

    A lifelong Florida resident, he’s used to hurricanes, but fears their intensity is getting worse. In fact, the number of storms that intensify dramatically within 240 miles (385 kilometers) of a coastline across the globe grew to 15 a year in 2020 compared to five a year in 1980, according to a study published in Nature Communications.

    “It does feel like and probably will continue to feel like we’re just hopping from one emergency to another based on climate change,” Meyers said.

    For Steve Silberberg in Saco, Maine, who runs Fitpacking, a company that guides people on wilderness backpacking trips in national and state parks and forests, extreme weather is becoming a serious obstacle. National Park Service Research has shown that national parks are experiencing extreme weather conditions at a higher rate than the rest of the country because of where they’re located.

    Historic snowfall in March at Yosemite — followed by a wildfire — affected one hike Silberberg had planned. Another hike was canceled due to unusually large snowfall rendering the Narrows — part of Zion Canyon in Zion National Park in Utah — impassable due to a high volume of meltwater. He had to cancel a trip to the Los Padres National Forest in California due to wildfires and subsequent flooding, which destroyed trails and made them impassable.

    “We are quickly approaching a crossroads as to how to keep the business viable,” he said. “It seems that almost half of our trips are affected in some way by increasingly extreme weather events.”

    Silberberg is trying to find ways to make climate change work for him, however. He is thinking about starting a company that helps people visit places that may disappear due to climate change, such as Glacier National Park in Montana or the Everglades in Florida, which is threatened by rising sea levels.

    In Southern California this summer, businesses faced sweltering heat, followed by Tropical Storm Hilary, the first tropical storm the region had seen in 84 years.

    “Definitely extreme weather is here to stay,” said Shachi Mehra executive chef and partner at Adya, Indian restaurant in Anaheim, California. The restaurant is located in the Anaheim Packing House, a food hall in a historic 1919 citrus-packing house near Disneyland.

    The restaurant closed for a day proactively during Tropical Storm Hilary, losing a day of sales. Heat has been more of an issue, as business slowed in late July this summer during a surge in temperatures. Mehra said she suspects the heat is behind the slowdown since typically things start to slow in late August or September.

    Media focus on extreme weather can hurt business, too. Dan Dawson, owner of Horizon Divers in Key Largo, Florida, saw business boom during the pandemic. Now it’s back to pre-pandemic levels. But when storms like Idalia close in, tourists flee — even though Dawson’s spot in Key Largo was 300 miles (480 kilometers) from where Idalia hit.

    “Once a storm is coming close we stop diving and once it goes by it can take up to two weeks for tourists to come back, and that is if we don’t have any damage,” he said.

    Still, in some places that offer a respite from the heat and storms, businesses are getting an unexpected bump.

    At Little America Flagstaff, a hotel set in 500 acres (202 hectares) of private forest celebrating its 50th anniversary this year, temperatures in the 90s felt pleasant compared to the record-breaking heat in Phoenix, a two-hour drive to the south, which had temperatures of over 110 degrees Fahrenheit-plus (43.4 degrees Celsius) for 31 straight days.

    “When you see temperatures rising to the amount they were in Phoenix you immediately saw, not just with our hotel but all the hotels in the area, our occupancies all went up,” said Fred Reese, the hotel’s general manager.

    Similarly, at Mission Point Resort on Mackinac Island, a historic island in Lake Michigan that doesn’t allow cars, temperatures have hovered in the temperate 70s while other places around the country have seen triple-digit heat. That leaves Michigan tourists often rubbing elbows with visitors from other states.

    “It has been brutally hot in most of the country and it has been very, very nice up here in northern Michigan,” said Liz Ware, sales and marketing executive and part of the family that owns Mission Point. “And so we have seen a lot of people from the Texas, Florida, Georgia area coming up north to northern Michigan because it is so temperate up here.”

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  • For small biz reliant on summer tourism, extreme weather is the new pandemic — for better or worse

    For small biz reliant on summer tourism, extreme weather is the new pandemic — for better or worse

    [ad_1]

    NEW YORK — For small businesses that rely on summer tourism to keep afloat, extreme weather is replacing the pandemic as the determining factor in how well a summer will go.

    The pandemic had its ups and downs for tourism, with a total shutdown followed by a rush of vacations due to pent-up demand. This year, small businesses say vacation cadences are returning to normal. But now, they have extreme weather to deal with — many say it’s hurting business, but more temperate spots are seeing a surge.

    Tourism-related businesses have always been at the mercy of the weather. But with heat waves, fires and storms becoming more frequent and intense, small businesses increasingly see extreme weather as their next long-term challenge.

    For Jared Meyers, owner of Legacy Vacation Resorts, with eight locations, including four in Florida, Hurricane Idalia’s landfall Wednesday as a Category 3 storm led to a loss in revenue as he temporarily closed one resort and and closed another to new guests. It also means a lengthy cleanup period to fix gutter and other damage and beach cleanup, including replanting of sea grass, sea grapes and other plants to protect against the next storm.

    “Even when the hurricane doesn’t hit directly, it wreaks havoc economically, emotionally — to those that have suffered previous losses — and to our way of life,” he said.

    A lifelong Florida resident, he’s used to hurricanes, but fears their intensity is getting worse. In fact, the number of storms that intensify dramatically within 240 miles (385 kilometers) of a coastline across the globe grew to 15 a year in 2020 compared to five a year in 1980, according to a study published in Nature Communications.

    “It does feel like and probably will continue to feel like we’re just hopping from one emergency to another based on climate change,” Meyers said.

    For Steve Silberberg in Saco, Maine, who runs Fitpacking, a company that guides people on wilderness backpacking trips in national and state parks and forests, extreme weather is becoming a serious obstacle. National Park Service Research has shown that national parks are experiencing extreme weather conditions at a higher rate than the rest of the country because of where they’re located.

    Historic snowfall in March at Yosemite — followed by a wildfire — affected one hike Silberberg had planned. Another hike was canceled due to unusually large snowfall rendering the Narrows — part of Zion Canyon in Zion National Park in Utah — impassable due to a high volume of meltwater. He had to cancel a trip to the Los Padres National Forest in California due to wildfires and subsequent flooding, which destroyed trails and made them impassable.

    “We are quickly approaching a crossroads as to how to keep the business viable,” he said. “It seems that almost half of our trips are affected in some way by increasingly extreme weather events.”

    Silberberg is trying to find ways to make climate change work for him, however. He is thinking about starting a company that helps people visit places that may disappear due to climate change, such as Glacier National Park in Montana or the Everglades in Florida, which is threatened by rising sea levels.

    In Southern California this summer, businesses faced sweltering heat, followed by Tropical Storm Hilary, the first tropical storm the region had seen in 84 years.

    “Definitely extreme weather is here to stay,” said Shachi Mehra executive chef and partner at Adya, Indian restaurant in Anaheim, California. The restaurant is located in the Anaheim Packing House, a food hall in a historic 1919 citrus-packing house near Disneyland.

    The restaurant closed for a day proactively during Tropical Storm Hilary, losing a day of sales. Heat has been more of an issue, as business slowed in late July this summer during a surge in temperatures. Mehra said she suspects the heat is behind the slowdown since typically things start to slow in late August or September.

    Media focus on extreme weather can hurt business, too. Dan Dawson, owner of Horizon Divers in Key Largo, Florida, saw business boom during the pandemic. Now it’s back to pre-pandemic levels. But when storms like Idalia close in, tourists flee — even though Dawson’s spot in Key Largo was 300 miles (480 kilometers) from where Idalia hit.

    “Once a storm is coming close we stop diving and once it goes by it can take up to two weeks for tourists to come back, and that is if we don’t have any damage,” he said.

    Still, in some places that offer a respite from the heat and storms, businesses are getting an unexpected bump.

    At Little America Flagstaff, a hotel set in 500 acres (202 hectares) of private forest celebrating its 50th anniversary this year, temperatures in the 90s felt pleasant compared to the record-breaking heat in Phoenix, a two-hour drive to the south, which had temperatures of over 110 degrees Fahrenheit-plus (43.4 degrees Celsius) for 31 straight days.

    “When you see temperatures rising to the amount they were in Phoenix you immediately saw, not just with our hotel but all the hotels in the area, our occupancies all went up,” said Fred Reese, the hotel’s general manager.

    Similarly, at Mission Point Resort on Mackinac Island, a historic island in Lake Michigan that doesn’t allow cars, temperatures have hovered in the temperate 70s while other places around the country have seen triple-digit heat. That leaves Michigan tourists often rubbing elbows with visitors from other states.

    “It has been brutally hot in most of the country and it has been very, very nice up here in northern Michigan,” said Liz Ware, sales and marketing executive and part of the family that owns Mission Point. “And so we have seen a lot of people from the Texas, Florida, Georgia area coming up north to northern Michigan because it is so temperate up here.”

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  • Biden surveys hurricane’s toll from the sky and on the ground in Florida. DeSantis opts out of meeting.

    Biden surveys hurricane’s toll from the sky and on the ground in Florida. DeSantis opts out of meeting.

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    President Joe Biden got a look Saturday from the sky at Hurricane Idalia’s impact across a swath of Florida before setting out on a walking tour of a city recovering from the storm.

    Notably absent from his schedule was any time with Gov. Ron DeSantis, a Republican presidential candidate who suggested a meeting could hinder disaster-response efforts.

    “Our teams worked collectively to find this area. This was a mutually agreed upon area because of the limited impact,” Deanne Criswell, the head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, told reporters as the president flew from Washington. She said her teams “have heard no concerns over any impact to the communities that we’re going to visit today.”

    “ On Friday, hours after President Biden indicated he would be meeting with Gov. DeSantis, the Republican’s office issued a statement saying there were no plans for such a get-together. ”

    Air Force One landed at the airport in Gainesville, where the president and first lady Jill Biden boarded Marine One for a helicopter flight to Live Oak, about 80 miles east of Tallahassee, the capital. He awaited a briefing on response and recovery efforts and a session with federal and local officials and first responders before his walk.

    On Friday, hours after Biden said he would be meeting with DeSantis, the governor’s office issued a statement saying there were no plans for such a get-together.

    “In these rural communities, and so soon after impact, the security preparations alone that would go into setting up such a meeting would shut down ongoing recovery efforts,” DeSantis spokesman Jeremy Redfern said in a statement.

    Criswell said aboard the flight that power is being restored and the road are all open in the area where Biden was going. “Access is not being hindered,” she said, adding that her team had been in “close coordination” with the governor’s staff.

    Idalia made landfall Wednesday morning along Florida’s sparsely populated Big Bend region as a Category 3 storm, causing widespread flooding and damage before moving north to drench Georgia and the Carolinas.

    As Biden left Washington on Saturday morning, he was asked by reporters what happened with that meeting. “I don’t know. He’s not going to be there,” the president said. He later said the federal government would “take care of Florida.”

    Previously: Idalia: Biden tells DeSantis Florida will have ‘full support’

    Gov. Ron DeSantis looks on in 2021 as President Joe Biden speaks during a Miami Beach briefing on the partial condominium collapse in Surfside, Fla.


    AP/Susan Walsh

    The political disconnect between both sides is a break from the recent past, since Biden and DeSantis met when the president toured Florida after Hurricane Ian hit the state last year, and following the Surfside condo collapse in Miami Beach in summer 2021. But DeSantis is now running to unseat Biden, and he only left the Republican presidential primary trail with Idalia barreling toward his state.

    Putting aside political rivalries following natural disasters can be tricky, meanwhile.

    Another 2024 presidential candidate, former Republican New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, has long been widely criticized in GOP circles for embracing then-President Barack Obama during a tour of damage 2012’s Hurricane Sandy did to his state. Christie was even asked about the incident last month, during the first Republican presidential debate.

    Both Biden and DeSantis at first suggested that helping storm victims would outweigh partisan differences. But the governor began suggesting that a presidential trip would complicate response logistics as the week wore on.

    “There’s a time and a place to have political season,” the governor said before Idalia made landfall. “But then there’s a time and a place to say that this is something that’s life threatening, this is something that could potentially cost somebody their life, it could cost them their livelihood.”

    By Friday, the governor was telling reporters of Biden, “one thing I did mention to him on the phone” was “it would be very disruptive to have the whole security apparatus that goes” with the president “because there are only so many ways to get into” many of the hardest hit areas.

    “What we want to do is make sure that the power restoration continues and the relief efforts continue and we don’t have any interruption in that,” DeSantis said.

    Biden joked while delivering pizzas to workers at FEMA’s Washington headquarters on Thursday that he’d spoken to DeSantis so frequently about Idalia that “there should be a direct dial” between the pair.

    Homeland Security adviser Liz Sherwood-Randall pointed to the experiences after Ian and Surfside collapse in saying earlier this week that Biden and DeSantis “are very collegial when we have the work to do together of helping Americans in need, citizens of Florida in need.”

    The post-Idalia political consequences are high for both men.

    As Biden seeks re-election, the White House has asked for an additional $4 billion to address natural disasters as part of its supplemental funding request to Congress. That would bring the total to $16 billion and highlight that wildfires, flooding and hurricanes have intensified during a period of climate change, imposing ever higher costs on U.S. taxpayers.

    DeSantis has built his White House bid around dismantling what he calls Democrats’ “woke” policies. The governor also frequently draws applause at GOP rallies by declaring that it’s time to send “Joe Biden back to his basement,” a reference to the Democrat’s Delaware home, where he spent much of his time during the early lockdowns of the coronavirus pandemic.

    From the archives (January 2022): Critics accuse DeSantis of base pandering as he pushes bill to shield white people in Florida from ‘discomfort’ at school or in job training

    Also see (May 2023): Florida school library limits access to Amanda Gorman’s poem for Biden inauguration after parent complaint

    But four months before the first ballots are to be cast in Iowa’s caucuses, DeSantis still lags far behind former President Donald Trump, the Republican primary’s dominant early frontrunner. And he has cycled through repeated campaign leadership shakeups and reboots of his image in an attempt to refocus his message.

    The super PAC supporting DeSantis’s candidacy also has halted its door-knocking operations in Nevada, which votes third on the Republican presidential primary calendar, and several states holding Super Tuesday primaries in March — a further sign of trouble.

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  • Taiwan suspends work, transport and classes as island braces for arrival of Typhoon Haikui

    Taiwan suspends work, transport and classes as island braces for arrival of Typhoon Haikui

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    BEIJING — Taiwan suspended flights, rail transport and ferry services along with classes, outdoor events, and officials urged workers to stay home as the island prepared for the arrival of Typhoon Haikui later Sunday.

    The storm’s approach came as Typhoon Saola continued to weaken while moving along the Chinese coast, where 900,000 people and 80,000 fishing vessels had been moved to safety and most of Hong Kong and parts of the coastal mainland closed down businesses, transport and schools.

    Damage appeared to be minimal, however, and restrictions had largely been lifted by Sunday.

    Parts of Taiwan were already feeling the effects of Haikui’s heavy rain and high winds, and dozens of domestic flights were canceled, along with air services to Hong Kong and Macao. The storm had maximum sustained winds of 137 kph (85 mph), with gusts up to 173 kph (107 mph), according to the island’s meteorological bureau.

    Among events canceled was a hot air balloon festival in the central Taichung region, several outdoor concerts, art events and a baseball festival. National parks and treacherous roads in the island’s mountainous center were also closed.

    Haikui was expected to continue on toward China after crossing over Taiwan, and authorities in the Chinese city of Shantou in Guangdong province were advising residents to take precautions.

    Because of Saoloa, workers in a number of Chinese cities stayed at home and students saw the start of their school year postponed from Friday to Monday. Trading on Hong Kong’s stock market was suspended Friday and hundreds of people were stranded at the airport after about 460 flights were canceled in the key regional business and travel hub.

    The cross-border bridge connecting Hong Kong, the gambling hub of Macao and manufacturing center of Zhuhai was closed at one point, with Macao leader Ho Iat Seng ordering a halt to casino operations.

    As the storm side-swiped the densely populated financial center, the Hong Kong Observatory issued a No. 10 hurricane alert, the highest warning under the city’s weather system for the first time since 2018.

    However, by Saturday night, the observatory had canceled all warnings and the hundreds who had taken shelter at prepared facilities were returning home.

    In recent months, China has experienced some of its heaviest rains and deadliest flooding in years in various regions. Dozens of people have been killed, including in outlying mountainous parts of the capital, Beijing.

    Hong Kong’s government said various departments received reports of a total of 1,206 uprooted trees and flooding was reported in 18 areas. It said 75 people visited hospitals with storm-related injuries.

    Despite the twin storms, China’s military continued to conduct operations meant to intimidate Taiwan, a self-ruled democracy that Beijing seeks to bring under Chinese sovereignty by force if necessary.

    Taiwan’s Defense Ministry said it was monitoring the movements of Chinese military aircraft and navy ships near the island. However, it said there were no indications any had crossed the median line in the Taiwan Strait or entered Taiwan’s air defense identification zone as they frequently do.

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  • Typhoon Saola makes landfall in southern China after nearly 900,000 people moved to safety

    Typhoon Saola makes landfall in southern China after nearly 900,000 people moved to safety

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    BEIJING — BEIJING (AP) — Typhoon Saola made landfall in southern China before dawn Saturday after nearly 900,000 people were moved to safety and most of Hong Kong and other parts of coastal southern China suspended business, transport and classes.

    Guangdong province’s meteorological bureau said the powerful storm churned into an outlying district of the city of Zhuhai, just south of Hong Kong at 3:30 a.m. It was forecast to move in a southwesterly direction along the Guangdong coast at a speed of around 17 kph (10 mph), gradually weakening before heading out to sea.

    On Friday, 780,000 people in Guangdong were moved away from areas at risk as did 100,000 others in neighboring Fujian province. More than 80,000 fishing vessels returned to port.

    Workers stayed at home and students in various cities saw the start of their school year postponed to next week. Trading on Hong Kong’s stock market was suspended Friday and hundreds of people were stranded at the airport after about 460 flights were canceled in the key regional business and travel hub.

    Rail authorities in mainland China halted all trains entering or leaving Guangdong province from Friday night to Saturday evening, state television CCTV reported.

    The Hong Kong Observatory had issued a No. 10 hurricane alert, the highest warning under the city’s weather system. It was the first No. 10 warning since Super Typhoon Mangkhut hit Hong Kong in 2018.

    The observatory said Saola — with maximum sustained winds of 195 kilometers (121 miles) per hour — came its closest to the financial hub at around 11 p.m. Friday, skirting about 30 kilometers (19 miles) south of the city’s Tsim Sha Tsui shopping district. The storm’s eyewall, which surrounds its eye, was moving across the city overnight, “posing a high threat” to the territory, the agency said. By Saturday, morning, it said, maximum sustained wind speeds had fallen to 145 kilometers (90 miles) per hour.

    The observatory warned of serious flooding in coastal areas and said the maximum water level might be similar to when Mangkhut felled trees and tore scaffolding off buildings in the city.

    In recent months, China has experienced some of its heaviest rains and deadliest flooding in years in various regions, with dozens killed, including in outlying mountainous parts of the capital, Beijing.

    As the storm’s heavy rains and strong winds closed in on Hong Kong, about 400 people sought refuge at temporary shelters and ferry and bus services halted. Residents of low-lying areas placed sandbags at their doors hoping to prevent their homes from being flooded.

    Dozens of trees were knocked down, and seven people were injured and sought treatment at public hospitals. Classes at all schools were to remain suspended Saturday.

    Some residents, including security guard Shirley Ng, still had to go to work Friday. Ng said people were stocking up on food to prepare for the storm.

    “I just hope that the typhoon won’t cause causalities,” she said.

    Weather authorities in the nearby gambling hub of Macao also warned of flooding, forecasting that water levels might reach 1.5 meters (5 feet) in low-lying areas Saturday morning. The cross-border bridge connecting Hong Kong, Macao and Zhuhai city was closed at midafternoon. Macao leader Ho Iat Seng ordered a halt to casino operations.

    Another storm, Haikui, was gradually moving toward eastern China. Coupled with the influence of Saola, parts of Guangdong, Fujian and Zhejiang provinces would experience strong winds and heavy rains, the meteorological administration said. It predicted Haikui would hit Taiwan’s east coast Sunday.

    Dozens of domestic flights were canceled along with air services to Hong Kong and Macao.

    Despite the twin storms, China’s military conducted more operations Friday night and early Saturday meant to intimidate Taiwan, a self-ruled island democracy that Beijing seeks to bring under Chinese sovereignty by force if necessary. Taiwan’s Defense Ministry said it had detected six Chinese military aircraft and three naval vessels around Taiwan during the 24 hours leading up to 6 a.m. Saturday.

    It said the island’s armed forces were monitoring the situation and put aircraft, navy vessels and land-based missile systems on alert. However, it said there were no indications that the Chinese ships or aircraft had crossed the median line in the Taiwan Strait or entered Taiwan’s air defense identification zone as they often do.

    Saola passed just south of Taiwan on Wednesday before turning toward mainland China, with its outer bands hitting the island’s southern cities with torrential rain. The typhoon also lashed the Philippines earlier this week, displacing tens of thousands of people in the northern part of the islands because of flooding.

    ___

    Associated Press writer Kanis Leung and video journalist Alice Fung contributed to this report.

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  • Residents return to find homes gone, towns devastated in path of Idalia

    Residents return to find homes gone, towns devastated in path of Idalia

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    HORSESHOE BEACH, Fla. — Hurricanes and tropical storms are nothing new in the South, but the sheer magnitude of damage from Idalia shocked Desmond Roberson as he toured what as left of his Georgia neighborhood.

    Roberson took a drive through Valdosta on Thursday with a friend to check out damage after the storm, which first hit Florida as a hurricane and then weakened into a tropical storm as it made its way north, ripped through the town of 55,000.

    On one street, he said, a tree had fallen on nearly every house. Roads remained blocked by tree trunks and downed power lines, and traffic lights were still blacked out at major intersections.

    “It’s a maze,” Roberson said. “I had to turn around three times, just because roads were blocked off.”

    The storm had 90 mph (145 kph) winds when it made a direct hit on Valdosta on Wednesday, Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp said.

    “We’re fortunate this storm was a narrow one, and it was fast moving and didn’t sit on us,” Kemp told a news conference Thursday in Atlanta. “But if you were in the path, it was devastating. And we’re responding that way.”

    One Georgia resident was killed when a tree fell on him as he tried to clear another tree from a road.

    The storm first made landfall Wednesday in Florida, where it razed homes and downed power poles. It then swung northeast, slamming Georgia, flooding many of South Carolina’s beaches and sending seawater into the streets of downtown Charleston. In North Carolina it poured more than 9 inches (23 centimeters) of rain on Whiteville, which flooded downtown buildings.

    Thousands of utility linemen rushed to restore power in Florida but nearly 100,000 customers were still without electricity Thursday night.

    The storm had moved away from the U.S. coast early Thursday and spun out into the Atlantic, still packing winds of 65 mph (105 kph). It could hit Bermuda on Saturday, bringing heavy rainfall and potential flash flooding to the island, according to the U.S. National Hurricane Center.

    Meanwhile, residents along the path of destruction returned to pick through piles of rubble that used to be homes.

    James Nobles returned to the tiny town of Horseshoe Beach in Florida’s remote Big Bend to find his home had survived the battering winds and rain but many of his neighbors weren’t as fortunate.

    “The town, I mean, it’s devastated,” Nobles said. “It’s probably 50 or 60 homes here, totally destroyed. I’m a lucky one.”

    Residents, most of whom evacuated inland during the storm, helped each other clear debris or collect belongings — high school trophies, photos, records, china. They frequently stopped to hug amid tears. Six-foot-high (1.8-meter-high) watermarks stained walls still standing, marking the extent of the storm surge.

    Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis toured the area with his wife, Casey, and federal emergency officials.

    “I’ve seen a lot of really heartbreaking damage,” he said, noting a church that had been swamped by more than 4 feet (1.2 meters) of water.

    Tammy Bryan, a member of the severely damaged First Baptist Church, said Horseshoe Beach residents consider themselves a family, one largely anchored by the church.

    “It’s a breath of fresh air here,” Bryan said. “It’s beautiful sunsets, beautiful sunrises. We have all of old Florida right here. And today we feel like it’s been taken away.”

    Florida officials said there was one hurricane-related death in the Gainesville area, but didn’t release any details.

    But unlike previous storms, Idalia didn’t wreak havoc on major urban centers. It provided only glancing blows to Tampa Bay and other more populated areas, DeSantis noted. In contrast, Hurricane Ian last year hit the heavily populated Fort Myers area, leaving 149 dead in the state.

    President Joe Biden spoke to DeSantis and promised whatever federal aid is available. Biden also announced that he will go to Florida on Saturday to see the damage himself.

    The president used a news conference at the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s headquarters to send a message to Congress, especially those lawmakers who are balking at his request for $12 billion in emergency funding to respond to natural disasters.

    “We need this disaster relief request met and we need it in September” after Congress returns from recess, said Biden, who had pizza delivered to FEMA employees who have been working around the clock on Idalia and the devastating wildfires on Maui, Hawaii.

    ___

    Associated Press writers Daniel Kozin in Horseshoe Beach; Russ Bynum in Savannah, Georgia; Jeff Amy in Atlanta; Jeffrey Collins in Columbia, South Carolina; Lisa J. Adams Wagner in Evans, Georgia; and Kathy McCormack in Concord, New Hampshire, contributed to this report.

    ___

    Associated Press climate and environmental coverage receives support from several private foundations. See more about AP’s climate initiative here. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

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  • Hong Kong and parts of southern China grind to near standstill as Super Typhoon Saola edges closer

    Hong Kong and parts of southern China grind to near standstill as Super Typhoon Saola edges closer

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    HONG KONG — Most of Hong Kong and some other areas in southern China ground to a near standstill Friday with classes and flights canceled as Super Typhoon Saola edged closer to the region.

    The typhoon could make a landfall in parts of southern China and many workers were forced to stay at home. Pupils in various cities had the start of their school year postponed to next week. Hong Kong’s stock market trading was suspended and nearly 200 outbound flights for Friday were canceled in the key center for regional business and travel.

    China Railway Guangzhou Group said nearly 4,000 trains were suspended between Thursday and Sunday, state media CCTV earlier reported.

    The Hong Kong Observatory raised a No. 8 typhoon signal, the third-highest warning under the city’s weather system, early Friday. Its forecast said Saola — with maximum sustained winds of 205 kilometers (127 miles) per hour — would be “rather close” to the financial hub on Friday and Saturday morning, skirting within 100km south of the city.

    The observatory’s director Chan Pak-wai said on Thursday the alert might be upgraded to a No. 10 signal if the strength of the winds reached hurricane levels. The No. 10 hurricane signal is the highest warning under its system and was last hoisted in the city when Super Typhoon Mangkhut hit Hong Kong in 2018.

    Chan expected the winds would gradually weaken as the typhoon moves away from Hong Kong on Saturday.

    The observatory warned that there might be serious flooding in some low-lying coastal areas and that the maximum water level might be similar to that when Mangkhut felled trees and tore scaffolding off buildings under construction in the city.

    As the city braced for heavy rains and strong winds Friday morning, about 150 people sought refuge at temporary shelters, with some ferry and bus services halted. Residents living in low-lying areas had placed sand bags at their doors to prevent their homes being flooded.

    China’s National Meteorological Center said Saola was due to make landfall around the areas from Huidong County to Taishan city in Guangdong province, neighboring Hong Kong, between Friday night and Saturday morning. But it also did not rule out it would move west near the shore of central Guangdong.

    As another storm Haikui was gradually moving toward the coastal areas of eastern China, coupled with the influence of Saola, parts of Guangdong, Fujian and Zhejiang provinces would see strong winds and heavy rains, according to a website run by China Meteorological Administration. By Thursday night, some 100,000 people living in dangerous areas in Fujian were relocated to other safer places.

    Saola passed just south of Taiwan on Wednesday before turning to mainland China, with the storm’s outer bands hitting the island’s southern cities with torrential rain. The typhoon also lashed the Philippines earlier this week, displacing tens of thousands of people in the northern part of the islands because of flooding.

    In recent months, China had some of the heaviest rains and deadliest flooding in years across various regions, with scores killed, including in outlying mountainous parts of the capital Beijing.

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  • Tampa Bay area gets serious flooding but again dodges a direct hit from a major hurricane

    Tampa Bay area gets serious flooding but again dodges a direct hit from a major hurricane

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    Last year it was Hurricane Ian that drew a bead on Tampa Bay before abruptly shifting east to strike southwest Florida more than 130 miles (210 kilometers) away. This time it was Hurricane Idalia, which caused some serious flooding as it sideswiped the area but packed much more punch at landfall Wednesday, miles to the north.

    In fact, the Tampa Bay area hasn’t been hit directly by a major hurricane for more than a century. The last time it happened, there were just a few hundred thousand people living in the region, compared with more than 3 million today.

    “Tampa Bay avoided the worst again,” Brian McNoldy, a senior research associate at the University of Miami’s Rosenstiel School of Marine, Atmospheric and Earth Science, said via email. “A lot of it comes down to luck. It’s happened before ( 1848, 1921 ) and will happen again.”

    Many in the area live in low-lying neighborhoods that are highly vulnerable to storm surge and flooding they have rarely before experienced, which some experts say could be worsened by the effects of climate change. In such an event, water would bulldoze its way into the relatively shallow bay from the Gulf of Mexico, also not very deep.

    “Since the city is nothing like what it was a hundred years ago, the impacts now would be unimaginable. Tampa Bay is shaped and aligned perfectly to allow for huge storm surge,” McNoldy said.

    That vulnerability was apparent as Idalia swept past, with storm surge swamping neighborhoods and busy roads, triggering shutdowns of some bridges between Tampa and the St. Petersburg area. Access to barrier islands was temporarily shut off, and several dozen people had to be rescued from flooded homes.

    “Make no mistake, this hurricane left its mark,” St. Petersburg Mayor Ken Welch said at a news conference. “The reality is we are not done dealing with the consequences of this major storm.”

    Still, it could have been much worse. The storm surge in Tampa Bay was far lower than the levels experienced when Idalia came ashore Wednesday morning as a Category 3 storm near the rural town of Steinhatchee in the Big Bend region.

    “We have thankfully not suffered a great deal of damage in our community,” Tampa Mayor Jane Castor said at a Wednesday news conference. “The city of Tampa expects to be open for business tomorrow at 8 a.m.”

    The last time Tampa Bay was hit by a major storm was Oct. 25, 1921, by a hurricane that had no official name but is known as the Tarpon Springs storm for the seaside town famed for its sponge-diving docks and Greek heritage.

    The storm surge from that hurricane, a Category 3 with estimated winds of up to 129 mph (207 kmh), was 11 feet (3.3 meters). At least eight people died, and damage was estimated at $5 million at the time.

    Now the tourist-friendly region known for its sugar-sand beaches has grown by leaps and bounds, with homes and businesses occupying prime waterfront real estate.

    The city of Tampa had about 51,000 residents in 1920. Today, there are almost 385,000. Most other cities have experienced similar explosive growth.

    Nancy Brindley, 88, has been through around three dozen tropical storms and has lived in Indian Rocks Beach, outside of St. Petersburg, since 1970 in a beachside house that has been a gathering spot for three generations of family and friends. That’s where she rode out Huricane Idalia with relatives.

    Brindley “absolutely” thinks the Tampa Bay area seems to have some special protection, saying, “It’s just a perfect place in so many ways.”

    “I think that in this region, that meant that you had all the fish you needed in the bay and you had the Gulfstream (current) that wasn’t too close to you. Fisherman called it the golden triangle. The sweet spot,” Brindley said.

    A report from the Boston-based catastrophe modeling firm Karen Clark and Co. concluded in 2015 that Tampa Bay is the most vulnerable place in the U.S. to storm surge flooding and could sustain $175 billion in damage from a major event. A World Bank study a few years earlier rated Tampa as the planet’s seventh-most vulnerable city to major storms.

    Yet for years storms have bypassed it. Phil Klotzbach, a research scientist in the Department of Atmospheric Science at Colorado State University, noted that only one of five hurricanes that hit Florida at Category 3 strength or higher has come ashore in Tampa Bay since 1851.

    “In general, cyclones moving over the Gulf of Mexico had a tendency of passing well north of Tampa,” the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration said in a report on the 1921 storm.

    Also lurking in the waves and wind are the impacts of climate change and the higher sea levels scientists say it is causing.

    “Due to global warming, global climate models predict hurricanes will likely cause more intense rainfall and have an increased coastal flood risk due to higher storm surge caused by rising seas,” Angela Colbert, a scientist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, wrote in a June 2022 report.

    Amid all the science, a local legend has it that blessings from Native Americans who called the region home have largely protected it from major storms for centuries. Many mounds were built by the Tocobagan tribe in what is now Pinellas County that some believe are meant as guardians against invaders, including hurricanes.

    Rui Farias, executive director of the St. Petersburg Museum of History, told the Tampa Bay Times after Hurricane Irma’s near miss in 2017 that many people still believe it.

    “It’s almost like when a myth becomes history,” Farias said. “As time goes on, it comes true.”

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  • Typhoon Saola to bring heavy rain and strong winds to southern Taiwan on its way to China’s coast

    Typhoon Saola to bring heavy rain and strong winds to southern Taiwan on its way to China’s coast

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    Taiwan’s weather authorities warned residents of heavy rain and strong winds starting Wednesday as Typhoon Saola skirts by the island’s southern coast on its way to China

    ByHUIZHONG WU Associated Press

    August 29, 2023, 12:24 AM

    TAIPEI, Taiwan — Taiwan’s weather authorities warned residents of heavy rain and strong winds starting Wednesday as Typhoon Saola skirts by the island’s southern coast on its way to China‘s southern coast.

    The typhoon is moving northwest with sustained winds of 162 kph (101 mph) and gusts of up to 198 kph (123 mph), according to Taiwan’s Central Weather Bureau. The typhoon’s eye won’t hit Taiwan’s mainland, but is expected to graze the island’s southern cities with its outer bands.

    The weather bureau also warned late Monday night that high waves and swells are expected to make any boat journeys dangerous.

    Heavy rain is expected in Taiwan’s eastern and southern areas Wednesday going into Thursday. Taiwan’s weather bureau has so far categorized the storm as a mid-strength typhoon, and said there’s a slight chance the storm could strengthen.

    The typhoon is then expected to hit southern Fujian and Guangdong provinces in China’s south.

    Saola caused flooding in the northern part of the Philippines in the past few days. Hundreds of people have been displaced, but no casualties have been reported.

    A major typhoon has not made landfall in Taiwan in the past few years. In July, the island was mostly able to avoid major damage caused by Typhoon Doksuri, which brought widespread flooding, upturned boats, and caused several dozens deaths in both the Philippines and China.

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  • Idalia strengthens to a hurricane off Cuba. Dangerous storm surges are forecast for Florida’s Gulf Coast in next 2 days

    Idalia strengthens to a hurricane off Cuba. Dangerous storm surges are forecast for Florida’s Gulf Coast in next 2 days

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    Idalia strengthens to a hurricane off Cuba. Dangerous storm surges are forecast for Florida’s Gulf Coast in next 2 days

    TAMPA, Fla. — Idalia strengthens to a hurricane off Cuba. Dangerous storm surges are forecast for Florida’s Gulf Coast in next 2 days.

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  • Tropical Storm Idalia is expected to become a hurricane and move toward Florida, forecasters say

    Tropical Storm Idalia is expected to become a hurricane and move toward Florida, forecasters say

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    MIAMI — Tropical Storm Idalia intensified early Monday and was expected to become a major hurricane before it reaches Florida’s Gulf coast, the National Hurricane Center said Monday, warning of an increasing risk of life-threatening storm surge and dangerous hurricane-force winds in Florida as soon as late Tuesday.

    Heavy rainfall in western Cuba could produce flooding and landslides, forecasters said, and hurricane-force winds were expected later Monday.

    At 8 a.m. EDT Monday, the storm was about 90 miles (150 kilometers) off the western tip of Cuba with maximum sustained winds of 65 mph (100 kph). The storm was moving north at 8 mph (13 kph) at the time, the hurricane center said.

    The center’s update also included a hurricane advisory for the Cuban province of Pinar Del Rio.

    Forecasters said they expected Idalia to become a hurricane later Monday and a dangerous major hurricane by early Wednesday over the northeastern Gulf of Mexico.

    Idalia was expected to move northward Monday, then turn north-northeast on Tuesday and Wednesday and move at a faster pace. The center was forecast to pass over the extreme southeastern Gulf of Mexico by early Tuesday, and reach the Florida’s western coast on Wednesday.

    Along a vast stretch of Florida’s west coast, up to 11 feet (3.4 meters) of ocean water could surge on shore, raising fears of destructive flooding.

    At a Sunday afternoon briefing, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis noted that much uncertainty remains in the forecast.

    “This thing hasn’t even gotten to Cuba yet, and the water in the Gulf is very, very warm and so that will provide some fuel for this thing to pick up some more speed,” DeSantis said.

    Large parts of the western coast of Florida are at risk of seawater surging onto land and flooding communities when a tropical storm or hurricane approaches. That part of Florida is very vulnerable to storm surges, Jamie Rhome, deputy director of the National Hurricane Center, said Sunday.

    “So it will not take a strong system or a direct hit to produce significant storm surge,” he said.

    In Cedar Key, a fishing village that juts out into the Gulf of Mexico, a storm surge is among the greatest concerns, said Capt. A.J. Brown, a fishing guide who operates A.J. Brown Charters. The concern is that if the storm strikes Florida just to the north, Cedar Key would get the powerful surge that comes from being on the southeastern side of the storm.

    There are worries in Cedar Key about a storm surge, Brown said. If it reaches five feet (1.5 meters) “it would cover most everything downtown.”

    Mexico’s National Meteorological Service on Sunday warned of intense to torrential rains showering the Yucatan Peninsula, with winds as fast as 55 mph (89 kph).

    It said the storm could cause anything from powerful waves to flooding in southern Mexico, mainly around coastal cities in the Yucatán and Quintana Roo states. It asked citizens to stay alert.

    Florida has mobilized 1,100 National Guard members, and “they have at their disposal 2,400 high-water vehicles, as well as 12 aircraft that can be used for rescue and recovery efforts,” said DeSantis, the Republican governor who is a candidate for the GOP presidential nomination.

    “If you are in the path of this storm, you should expect power outages,” he added.

    So far this year, the U.S. East Coast has been spared from cyclones. But in the West, Tropical Storm Hilary caused widespread flooding, mudslides and road closures earlier this month in Mexico, California, Nevada and points to the north.

    The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration recently said the 2023 hurricane season would be far busier than initially forecast, partly because of extremely warm ocean temperatures. The season runs through Nov. 30, with August and September typically the peak.

    ___

    Associated Press writer Jeff Martin contributed to this report from Woodstock, Georgia.

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  • Large hailstones cause extensive damage in a small German town as a storm hits Bavaria

    Large hailstones cause extensive damage in a small German town as a storm hits Bavaria

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    A storm with large hailstones has damaged four-fifths of the buildings in a small town in the southern German state of Bavaria

    ByThe Associated Press

    August 27, 2023, 11:55 AM

    A house wall of an apartment building is damaged by hail in Kissing, Germany, Saturday Aug. 26, 2023. A storm with large hailstones damaged four-fifths of the buildings in a small town in the southern German state of Bavaria, local authorities said Sunday. The storm swept across the southern part of Bavaria on Saturday. In Kissing, just outside Augsburg, police said 12 people were injured when a beer tent that they were trying to put up was blown over. (Karl-Josef Hildenbrand/dpa via AP)

    The Associated Press

    BERLIN — A storm with large hailstones damaged four-fifths of the buildings in a small town in the southern German state of Bavaria, local authorities said Sunday.

    The storm swept across the southern part of Bavaria on Saturday. In Kissing, just outside Augsburg, police said 12 people were injured when a beer tent that they were trying to put up was blown over.

    Also in Kissing, the wind ripped wooden slats off the roof of a home for the elderly, while hail caused visible damage to the facade of a residential building, German news agency dpa reported.

    The worst damage appeared to be in Bad Bayersoien, a municipality of about 1,300 people in the Garmisch-Partenkirchen region, near the Austrian border.

    County authorities said Sunday that it was hit by a hailstones measuring up to 8 centimeters (over 3 inches), which damaged parked cars and smashed roof tiles and attic skylights, while the storm also ripped roofs off some buildings. They said that 80% of the buildings were seriously damaged, but no one was hurt.

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  • Bare electrical wire and leaning poles on Maui were possible cause of deadly fires

    Bare electrical wire and leaning poles on Maui were possible cause of deadly fires

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    In the first moments of the Maui fires, when high winds brought down power poles, slapping electrified wires to the dry grass below, there was a reason the flames erupted all at once in long, neat rows — those wires were bare, uninsulated metal that could spark on contact.

    Videos and images analyzed by The Associated Press confirmed those wires were among miles of line that Hawaiian Electric Co. left naked to the weather and often-thick foliage, despite a recent push by utilities in other wildfire- and hurricane-prone areas to cover up their lines or bury them.

    Compounding the problem is that many of the utility’s 60,000, mostly wooden power poles, which its own documents described as built to “an obsolete 1960s standard,” were leaning and near the end of their projected lifespan. They were nowhere close to meeting a 2002 national standard that key components of Hawaii’s electrical grid be able to withstand 105 mile per hour winds. A 2019 filing said it had fallen behind in replacing the old wooden poles because of other priorities and warned of a “serious public hazard” if they “failed.”

    Google street view images of poles taken before the fire show the bare wire.

    It’s “very unlikely” a fully-insulated cable would have sparked and caused a fire in dry vegetation, said Michael Ahern, who retired this month as director of power systems at Worcester Polytechnic Institute in Massachusetts.

    Experts who watched videos showing downed power lines agreed wire that was insulated would not have arced and sparked, igniting a line of flame.

    Hawaiian Electric said in a statement that it has “long recognized the unique threats” from climate change and has spent millions of dollars in response, but did not say whether specific power lines that collapsed in the early moments of the fire were bare.

    “We’ve been executing on a resilience strategy to meet these challenges, and since 2018, we have spent approximately $950 million to strengthen and harden our grid and approximately $110 million on vegetation management efforts,” the company said. “This work included replacing more than 12,500 poles and structures since 2018 and trimming and removing trees along approximately 2,500 line miles every year on average.”

    But a former member of the Hawaii Public Utilities Commission confirmed many of Maui’s wooden power poles were in poor condition. Jennifer Potter lives in Lahaina and until the end of last year was on the commission, which regulates Hawaiian Electric.

    “Even tourists that drive around the island are like, ‘What is that?’ They’re leaning quite significantly because the winds over time literally just pushed them over,” she said. “That obviously is not going to withstand 60, 70 mile per hour winds. So the infrastructure was just not strong enough for this kind of windstorm … The infrastructure itself is just compromised.”

    John Morgan, a personal injury and trial attorney in Florida who lives part-time on Maui noticed the same thing. “I could look at the power poles. They were skinny, bending, bowing. The power went out all the time.”

    Morgan’s firm is suing Hawaiian Electric on behalf of one person and talking to many more about their rights. The fire came 500 yards within his house.

    Sixty percent of the utility poles on West Maui were still down on Aug. 14, according to Hawaiian Electric CEO Shelee Kimura at a media conference — 450 of the 750 poles.

    Hawaiian Electric is facing a spate of new lawsuits that seek to hold it responsible for the deadliest U.S. wildfire in more than a century. The number of confirmed dead stands at 115, and the county expects that to rise.

    Lawyers plan to inspect some electrical equipment from a neighborhood where the fire is thought to have originated as soon as next week, per a court order, but they will be doing that in a warehouse. The utility took down the burnt poles and removed fallen wires from the site.

    This was a “preventable tragedy of epic proportions,” said attorney Paul Starita, lead counsel on three of the lawsuits.

    “It all comes back to money,” said Starita, of the California firm Singleton Schreiber. “They might say, oh, well, it takes a long time to get the permitting process done or whatever. OK, start sooner. I mean, people’s lives are on the line. You’re responsible. Spend the money, do your job.”

    Hawaiian Electric also faces criticism for not shutting off the power amid high wind warnings and keeping it on even as dozens of poles began to topple. Maui County sued Hawaiian Electric on Thursday over this issue.

    Michael Jacobs, a senior energy analyst at the Union of Concerned Scientists, said that with power lines causing so many fires in the United States: “We definitely have a new pattern, we just don’t have a new safety regime to go with it.”

    Insulating an electrical wire prevents arcing and sparking, and dissipates heat.

    Other utilities have been addressing the issue of bare wire. Pacific Gas & Electric was found responsible for the 2018 Camp Fire in northern California that killed 85 people. The disaster was caused by downed power lines.

    Its program to eliminate uninsulated wire in fire zones has covered more than 1,200 miles of line so far.

    PG&E also announced in 2021 it would bury 10,000 miles of electrical line. It buried 180 miles in 2022 and is on pace to do 350 miles this year.

    Another major California utility, Southern California Edison, expects to have replaced more than 7,200 miles, or about 75% of its overhead distribution lines, with covered wire in high fire risk areas by the end of 2025. It, too, is burying line in areas at severe risk.

    Hawaiian Electric said in a filing last year that it had looked to the wildfire plans of utilities in California.

    Some don’t fault Hawaiian Electric for its comparative lack of action because it has not faced the threat of wildfires for as long. And the utility is not at all alone in continuing to use bare metal conductors high up on power poles.

    The same is true for public safety power shutoffs. It’s been only a few years that utilities have been willing to preemptively shut off people’s power to prevent fire and the disruptive practice is not yet widespread.

    But Mark Toney called wildfires caused by utilities absolutely preventable. He is executive director of the ratepayer group The Utility Reform Network in California. It is pushing PG&E to insulate its lines in high-risk areas.

    “We have to stop utility-caused wildfires. We have to stop them and the quickest, cheapest way to do it is to insulate the overhead lines,” he said.

    As for the poles, in a 2019 Hawaiian Electric regulatory document, the company said its 60,000 poles, nearly all wood, were vulnerable because they were already old and Hawaii is in a “severe wood decay hazard zone.” The company said it had fallen behind in replacing wood poles because of other priorities and warned of a “serious public hazard” if the poles “failed.”

    The document said many of the company’s poles were built to withstand 56 mph (90 kph), when a Category 1 Hurricane has winds of at least 74 mph.

    In 2002, the National Electric Safety Code was updated to require utility poles like those on Maui to withstand 105 mile per hour winds.

    The U.S. electrical grid was designed and built for last century’s climate, said Joshua Rhodes, an energy systems research scientist at the University of Texas at Austin. Utilities would be smart to better prepare for protracted droughts and high winds, he added.

    “Everyone considers Hawaii to be a tropical paradise, but it got dry and it burned,” he said Thursday. “It may look expensive if you’re doing work to stave off starting wildfires or the impact of wildfires, but it’s much cheaper than actually starting one and burning down so many people’s homes and causing so many people’s deaths.”

    Tony Takitani, an attorney born and raised on Maui, is working with Morgan on the litigation.

    Takitani said in his 68 years there, it’s getting drier and drier. He said what happened on the island is so horrific it’s hard to talk about. But he does think it will force improvements to the grid.

    “When the poles go down, it’s kindling,” he said. “The combination of what’s going on with our Earth and people not being properly prepared for it, I think caused this. From living here, from the videos I’ve seen of poles going down and fires igniting, it seems kind of obvious.”

    ___

    Associated Press climate and environmental coverage receives support from several private foundations. See more about AP’s climate initiative here. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

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  • A Michigan storm with 75 mph winds downs trees and power lines; several people are killed

    A Michigan storm with 75 mph winds downs trees and power lines; several people are killed

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    ROMULUS, Mich. — A strong storm powered by winds of up to 75 mph (121 kph) in Michigan downed trees, tore roofs off buildings and left hundreds of thousands of customers without power. The National Weather Service said Friday some of the damage may have been caused by two tornadoes.

    A woman and two young children were killed in a two-vehicle crash as it was raining Thursday night, a spokesperson for the Kent County Sheriff’s office said.

    “There was two vehicles traveling toward each other. One hydroplaned on water and it was occupied by four people,” Sgt. Eric Brunner told WZZM-TV. He said at least two other people were injured in the crash.

    In Ingham County, where there was a report of a possible tornado, the sheriff’s office said Friday that more than 25 vehicles along Interstate 96 were severely damaged, with one confirmed fatality and several people severely injured.

    Trees were uprooted, and some roofs collapsed. Many roads were closed due to trees and power lines that had fallen. The National Weather Service in Grand Rapids said officials would be in the field Friday conducting damage surveys on two suspected tornadoes, in Kent and Ingham counties.

    Part of the roof collapsed and shingles were ripped off an adult foster care facility near Williamston, in Ingham County.

    “Once I felt that sucking, I could just feel the power of it, and I could feel it all shaking, I could feel the roof shaking and coming apart,” James Gale, a caretaker of 14 people . told WXYZ-TV. He said the ceiling was gone from one woman’s room and she was taken to a hospital. Others were taken by buses to another facility.

    More than 420,000 customers in Michigan and over 215,000 in Ohio were without power as of 7:30 a.m. Friday, according to the Poweroutage.us website.

    The storm Thursday night followed a round of heavy rain Wednesday that left areas in southeast Michigan with over 5 inches (12.7 centimeters) of rain by Thursday morning, resulting in street flooding in the Detroit area, including tunnels leading to Detroit Metropolitan Airport in the suburb of Romulus, officials said. Officials reopened the airport’s McNamara Terminal on Thursday afternoon. Severe storms developed in the western part of the state in the afternoon.

    Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer activated the State Emergency Operations Center on Thursday evening to provide support to affected communities “as they respond to the impacts of flooding.”

    Parts of the western United States have been deluged in recent weeks with rain from Tropical Storm Hilary, and much of the central U.S. was beaten down by deadly sweltering heat. In Hawaii and Washington, emergency crews battled catastrophic wildfires.

    Scientists say that without extensive study they cannot directly link a single weather event to climate change, but that climate change is responsible for more intense and more frequent extreme events such as storms, droughts, floods and wildfires. Climate change is largely caused by human activities that emit carbon dioxide, methane and other greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, according to the vast majority of peer-reviewed studies, science organizations and climate scientists.

    _____

    Hendrickson reported from Columbus, Ohio. Associated Press reporters Rick Callahan and Ken Kusmer in Indianapolis; Heather Hollingsworth in Mission, Kansas; and Kathy McCormack in Concord, New Hampshire, contributed to this story.

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  • Dominican Republic starts shuttering schools and offices ahead of Tropical Storm Franklin

    Dominican Republic starts shuttering schools and offices ahead of Tropical Storm Franklin

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    SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico — Authorities in the Dominican Republic prepared to shut down much of the country Tuesday as Tropical Storm Franklin took aim at the island of Hispaniola that it shares with Haiti and threatened to unleash landslides and heavy floods.

    The storm was expected to make landfall on the island Wednesday and bring heavy rains of up to 10 inches (25 centimeters) in both countries, with up to 15 inches (38 centimeters) in isolated areas. Heavy rainfall is of great concern to Haiti, where severe erosion in many places can lead to catastrophic flooding. A storm surge of up to three feet (one meter) also was forecast.

    Dominican officials announced they would close schools, government offices and businesses by midday Tuesday and reopen them on Thursday. In Haiti, where a day of heavy rain from a thunderstorm in June left more than 40 people dead, government officials have not announced any closures, although schools were shuttered for vacation until mid-September.

    The storm on late Tuesday morning was located about 220 miles (355 kilometers) south-southwest of Santo Domingo, the capital of the Dominican Republic. It had maximum sustained winds of 50 mph (85 kph) and was moving northwest at 7 mph (11 kph).

    Franklin was forecast to make a sharp turn north on Tuesday. It is expected to linger on top of Hispaniola before exiting to open water late Wednesday, according to the National Hurricane Center in Miami.

    Nearly half of the Dominican Republic’s 31 provinces were under red alert as the storm approached, with the Public Works Ministry announcing that it dispatched 3,000 workers to 14 provinces to prepare for Franklin. However, the government said the heavy rainfall forecast would not be a problem for the country’s multiple dams since water levels were low.

    In the Haitian capital, Jerome Jean-Pierre, 46, who sells cold sodas from a wheelbarrow, said he heard about the storm on the radio and planned to stay indoors. He said he hoped Franklin would not impact Haiti like Hurricane Matthew did in October 2016.

    “That was really horrible,” he said. “I saw a lot of people washed away.”

    Mackenson Barbouze, a 34-year-old professor, said the timing of the storm is bad because Haiti is already struggling with a surge in gang violence, with more than 200,000 people forced to flee their homes.

    “It will create chaos on top of what we’re dealing with,” he said, adding that the aftermath of storms is particularly bad in Haiti because the government is unable to respond quickly. “Most of the agencies are dysfunctional. They have the words, but they don’t have the power to get it done.”

    A tropical storm warning was in effect for the entire southern coast of the Dominican Republic and Haiti. A tropical storm watch was posted for the Turks and Caicos Islands.

    Meanwhile, a tropical depression in the Gulf of Mexico strengthened overnight to become Tropical Storm Harold and was expected to hit the southern coast of Texas later Tuesday.

    On Aug. 10, the National Ocean and Atmospheric Administration updated its forecast and warned that this year’s hurricane season would be above normal.

    Between 14 to 21 named storms are forecast. Of those, six to 11 could become hurricanes, with two to five of them possibly becoming major hurricanes, the NOAA said.

    The Atlantic hurricane season runs from June 1 to Nov. 30.

    ___

    Associated Press reporter Evens Sanon in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, contributed.

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  • Haiti and Dominican Republic warn of floods and landslides as Tropical Storm Franklin nears

    Haiti and Dominican Republic warn of floods and landslides as Tropical Storm Franklin nears

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    SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico — Tropical Storm Franklin churned through the Caribbean Sea on Monday as authorities in Haiti and the Dominican Republic warned residents to prepare for floods and landslides.

    The storm was located some 240 miles (390 kilometers) south of Santo Domingo, the capital of the Dominican Republic and had maximum sustained winds of 50 mph (85 kph). It was moving west at 6 mph (9 kph) and was forecast to make a sharp turn north late Monday or early Tuesday.

    Franklin is expected to strengthen before making landfall late Tuesday in Hispaniola, the island shared by Haiti and the Dominican Republic. The storm is forecast to drop up to 10 inches (25 centimeters) of rain in both countries, with up to 15 inches (38 centimeters) in isolated areas. Heavy rainfall is of great concern to Haiti, given that the country floods easily in many places due to severe erosion. More than 40 people died in June following a day of heavy rain from a thunderstorm.

    “The mudslide risk there is just awful,” said Phil Klotzbach, a meteorologist at Colorado State University, noting that a slow-moving storm poses great danger in Haiti given that it’s so stripped of trees.

    A tropical storm warning was in effect for the entire southern coasts of the Dominican Republic and Haiti, which share the island of Hispaniola.

    A tropical storm watch was in effect for the Turks and Caicos Islands.

    Earlier Monday, there were three tropical storms swirling through the Caribbean and Atlantic Ocean, an unusual occurrence as the region braces for a busier than average hurricane season.

    “We went from nothing to a lot in a day,” Klotzbach said.

    One of those storms, Emily, dissipated late Monday morning, and another storm, Gert, was expected to do the same soon.

    Franklin formed on Sunday and was dropping heavy rain over parts of Puerto Rico on Monday, Meanwhile, Gert formed overnight to become the eighth named storm of the Atlantic hurricane season. It formed some three weeks early compared with the dates of the eighth named storms from 1991 to 2020, said Brian McNoldy, senior research associated at University of Miami.

    While there have been 14 years with three named storms simultaneously in the Atlantic starting in 1886, Klotzbach said the most storms the Atlantic has ever had at one time is four, a phenomena that has occurred only twice, in 1893 and 1995.

    The Atlantic is smaller than the Pacific and can only accommodate so many storms, he said, adding that Franklin is shearing apart Gert.

    “One will basically kill the other one,” he said of storms that are too close to each other.

    Meanwhile, a fourth system in the Gulf of Mexico was expected to soon become a tropical storm, as was a system off the coast of western Africa.

    “We expected an active season,” said Odalis Martínez, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Puerto Rico. “It’s not surprising that we have several active storms.”

    On Aug. 10, the National Ocean and Atmospheric Administration updated its forecast and warned that this year’s hurricane season would be above normal.

    Between 14 to 21 named storms are forecast. Of those, six to 11 could become hurricanes, with two to five of them possibly becoming major hurricanes, according to NOAA.

    The Atlantic hurricane season runs from June 1 to Nov. 30.

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