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Tag: Storms

  • Rain-swollen rivers flood some towns in north Italy; Venice prepares to raise mobile dike in lagoon

    Rain-swollen rivers flood some towns in north Italy; Venice prepares to raise mobile dike in lagoon

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    ROME — Rivers swollen by days of downpours flooded some towns in northern Italy on Tuesday, forcing some residents to rooftops, while in Venice, authorities prepared to activate a mobile barrier in the lagoon in hopes of sparing the city from a rare May high-tide flooding.

    After the Savio River overflowed its banks in the town of Cesena, in the heart of the Emilia-Romagna region, some residents of heavily flooded streets took to rooftops to await rescue by helicopters, Italian firefighters said. An older man died in his flooded home in the countryside outside of Cesena, while his wife managed to make it to safety, Italian state radio said early Wednesday.

    Some rescues were especially dramatic. In Cesena, neighbors swam across the fast-moving waters of a flooded street to take a young girl from her mother’s arms. One rescuer held the child above the floodwaters until she could be passed into the arms of other rescuers. Other residents helped the mother also to safety.

    In a pair of interventions, firefighters rescued a family with a four-month-old baby and a disabled man in the province of Pesaro-Urbino. Elsewhere in the deluged north, parents and their two young daughters were plucked to safety by a firefighter helicopters, rescuer said.

    The nearly 100,000 residents of the town were told to avoid the temptation to view the raging waters and not to stay on ground floors if they lived near the river.

    “Use prudence, don’t be curious, so disaster doesn’t turn into tragedy,” Mayor Enzo Lattuca urged in remarks on Rai state TV.

    In all, some 900 people in flooded areas of northern Italy were evacuated by late Tuesday night, some taking shelter gyms or schools, the radio report said.

    In the tourist town of Ravenna in northeast Italy, authorities urged residents to move to upper stories of buildings to ride out the storm. In Riccione, a beach town on the Adriatic Sea, the mayor warned people to stay home as some took to rubber dinghies to navigate streets.

    In Venice, the barrier system, known by its acronym MOSES, and recalling the Biblical account of the Red Sea parting, will be lifted Tuesday night for the first time ever in May. It is nearly 20 years to the day when construction on the project, which is still not officially completed, began.

    Firefighters in Riccione, in the northern region of Emilia-Romagna, were deployed to rescue people from flooded homes and businesses. By Tuesday afternoon, firefighters had carried out around 40 rescues in the province of Rimini, parts of which are on the Adriatic coast. Reinforcements for the rescuers were moved in from the cities of Forli’-Cesena, Ferrara and Bologna.

    In the area between Ancona, a major Adriatic port, and Pesaro-Urbino, two towns popular with tourists, firefighters carried out 80 interventions for local flooding, fallen trees and mudslides and rescued motorists in difficulty, the corps said in a tweet. Pesaro is an Adriatic beach town in the Marche region.

    In Modena, a small city famed for gastronomical products, authorities said they would close local bridges to traffic on Tuesday evening as a precaution against rising river levels.

    Elsewhere, in the town of Senigallia, the Misa River’s waters were receding, local officials said.

    Meteorologists say Italy can expect several days of heavy rain, pummeling the north which had been suffering a shortfall of precipitation for weeks this spring.

    Schools in areas bracing fearing flooding were closed.

    Train travel was halted on the Bologna-Ancona land the Ravenna-Faenza routes, Italian media said.

    Earlier this month, a day and a half of nonstop rain caused flooding in Italy’s populous Emilia-Romagna region, leaving at least two people dead as riverbeds left dry by drought overflowed their banks.

    The intense rainfalls came as Italy had been bracing for a second year of drought, which has depleted its largest river, the Po. The river supports agriculture in the vast Po River Valley before emptying into the Adriatic Sea east of Bologna.

    While northeast Italy was hardest hit by the downpours, flooding also caused damage in the south. On the island of Sicily, rescuers responded to flooding, fallen trees and other problems in the countryside between Palermo and Trapani. By Tuesday morning, the weather there was improving, firefighters said.

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    A previous version of this story was corrected to show that bridge traffic in Modena will be closed Tuesday, not Friday.

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  • Rain-swollen rivers flood some towns in north Italy; Venice prepares to raise mobile dike in lagoon

    Rain-swollen rivers flood some towns in north Italy; Venice prepares to raise mobile dike in lagoon

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    ROME — Rivers swollen by days of downpours flooded some towns in northern Italy on Tuesday, while in Venice, authorities were preparing to activate a mobile barrier in the lagoon in hopes of sparing the city from high-tide flooding, which would be rare in May.

    In the tourist town of Ravenna in northeast Italy, authorities urged residents to move to upper stories of buildings to ride out the storm. In Riccione, a beach town on the Adriatic Sea, the mayor warned people to stay home as some took to rubber dinghies to navigate streets.

    In Venice, the barrier system, known by its acronym MOSES, and recalling the Biblical account of the Red Sea parting, will be lifted Tuesday night for the first time ever in May. It is nearly 20 years to the day when construction on the project, which is still not officially completed, began.

    Firefighters in Riccione, in the northern region of Emilia-Romagna, were deployed to rescue people from flooded homes and businesses. By Tuesday afternoon, firefighters had carried out around 40 rescues in the province of Rimini, parts of which are on the Adriatic coast. Reinforcements for the rescuers were moved in from the cities of Forli’-Cesena, Ferrara and Bologna.

    In the area between Ancona, a major Adriatic port, and Pesaro-Urbino, two towns popular with tourists, firefighters carried out 80 interventions for local flooding, fallen trees and mudslides and rescued motorists in difficulty, the corps said in a tweet.

    Pesaro, an Adriatic beach town in the region of Marche, reported flooding, while in Cesena, a city in the neighboring region of Emilia-Romagna, the Savio River overflowed its banks and inundated streets.

    In Modena, a small city famed for gastronomical products, authorities said they would close local bridges to traffic on Tuesday evening as a precaution against rising river levels.

    Elsewhere, in the town of Senigallia, the Misa River’s waters were receding, local officials said.

    Meteorologists say Italy can expect several days of heavy rain, pummeling the north which had been suffering a shortfall of precipitation for weeks this spring.

    Schools in areas bracing fearing flooding were closed.

    Train travel was halted on the Bologna-Ancona land the Ravenna-Faenza routes, Italian media said.

    Earlier this month, a day and a half of nonstop rain caused flooding in Italy’s populous Emilia-Romagna region, leaving at least two people dead as riverbeds left dry by drought overflowed their banks.

    The intense rainfalls came as Italy had been bracing for a second year of drought, which has depleted its largest river, the Po. The river supports agriculture in the vast Po River Valley before emptying into the Adriatic Sea east of Bologna.

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    This story has been corrected to show that bridge traffic in Modena will be closed Tuesday, not Friday.

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  • Powerful Cyclone Mocha floods homes, cuts communications in western Myanmar, at least 700 injured

    Powerful Cyclone Mocha floods homes, cuts communications in western Myanmar, at least 700 injured

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    DHAKA, Bangladesh — Rescuers early Monday evacuated about 1,000 people trapped by seawater 3.6 meters (12 feet ) deep along western Myanmar‘s coast after a powerful cyclone injured hundreds and cut off communications. Damage and six deaths have been reported, but the true impact was not yet clear in one of Asia’s least developed countries.

    Strong winds injured more than 700 of about 20,000 people who were sheltering in sturdier buildings on the highlands of Sittwe township such as monasteries, pagodas and schools, according to a leader of the Rakhine Youths Philanthropic Association in Sittwe. He asked not to be named due to fear of reprisals from the authorities in the military-run country.

    Seawater raced into more than 10 low-lying wards near the shore as Cyclone Mocha made landfall in Rakhine state Sunday afternoon, he said. Residents moved to roofs and higher floors, while the wind and storm surge prevented immediate rescue.

    “After 4 p.m. yesterday, the storm weakened a bit, but the water did not fall back. Most of them sat on the roof and at the high places of their houses the whole night. The wind blew all night,” the rescue group leader said.

    Water was still about 1.5 meters (5 feet) high in flooded areas later Monday, but rescues were being made as the wind calmed and the sun rose in the sky. He asked civil society organizations and authorities to send aid and help evacuate residents.

    Six deaths were reported by Myanmar media and rescue groups. Several injuries were reported in neighboring Bangladesh, which was spared the predicted direct hit.

    Mocha made landfall near Sittwe township with winds blowing up to 209 kilometers (130 miles) per hour, Myanmar’s Meteorological Department said. By midday Monday, it had weakened to a tropical depression, according to the India Meteorological Department.

    The State Administration Council issued disaster declarations for 17 townships in Rakhine state.

    High winds crumpled cell phone towers, but in videos collected by local media before communications were lost, deep water raced through streets and wind blew off roofs.

    Myanmar’s military information office said the storm had damaged houses and electrical transformers in Sittwe, Kyaukpyu, and Gwa townships. It said roofs were torn off buildings on the Coco Islands, about 425 kilometers (264 miles) southwest of the country’s largest city, Yangon.

    Volunteers previously said shelters in Sittwe did not have enough food after more people arrived there seeking help.

    Mocha largely spared the Bangladeshi city of Cox’s Bazar, which initially had been in the storm’s predicted path. Authorities had evacuated hundreds of thousands of people before the cyclone veered east.

    About a dozen people were injured on Saint Martin’s Island, while some 300 homes were either destroyed or damaged, leading Bengali-language daily Prothom Alo reported.

    U.N. agencies and aid workers in Bangladesh had prepositioned tons of dry food and dozens of ambulances in the refugee camps that house more than 1 million Rohingya Muslims who fled persecution in Myanmar.

    In May 2008, Cyclone Nargis hit Myanmar with a storm surge that devastated populated areas around the Irrawaddy River delta. At least 138,000 people died and tens of thousands of homes and other buildings were washed away.

    Roxy Mathew Koll, a climate scientist at the Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology in Pune city, said cyclones in the Bay of Bengal are becoming more intense more quickly, in part because of climate change.

    Climate scientists say cyclones can now retain their energy for many days. Cyclone Amphan in eastern India in 2020 continued to travel over land as a strong cyclone and caused extensive devastation.

    “As long as oceans are warm and winds are favorable, cyclones will retain their intensity for a longer period,” Koll said.

    Tropical cyclones, which are called hurricanes or typhoons in other regions, are among the world’s most devastating natural disasters when they hit densely populated coastal areas.

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  • Powerful Cyclone Mocha makes landfall in Myanmar, tearing off roofs and killing at least 3

    Powerful Cyclone Mocha makes landfall in Myanmar, tearing off roofs and killing at least 3

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    DHAKA, Bangladesh — Thousands of people hunkered down Sunday in monasteries, pagodas and schools, seeking shelter from a powerful storm that slammed into the coast of Myanmar, tearing the roofs off buildings and killing at least three people.

    The center of Cyclone Mocha made landfall Sunday afternoon in Myanmar’s Rakhine state near Sittwe township wind speeds up to 209 kilometers (130 miles) per hour, Myanmar’s Meteorological Department said.

    Myanmar’s military information office said the storm had damaged houses, electrical transformers, cell phone towers, boats and lampposts in Sittwe, Kyaukpyu, and Gwa townships. It said the storm also tore roofs off of sport buildings on the Coco Islands, about 425 kilometers (264 miles) southwest of the country’s largest city, Yangon.

    Rakhine-based media reported that streets and basements of the houses in Sittwe’s low-lying areas were flooded. Much of the area is cut off from telephone and internet service after high winds crumpled cell phone towers.

    More than 4,000 of Sittwe’s 300,000 residents were evacuated to other cities and more than 20,000 people are sheltering in sturdy buildings such as monasteries, pagodas and schools located on the city’s highlands, said Tin Nyein Oo, who is volunteering in shelters in Sittwe.

    Lin Lin, the chairman of a local charitable foundation, said earlier there was not enough food in the shelters in Sittwe after more people arrived than expected.

    Titon Mitra, the U.N. Development Program representative in Myanmar, tweeted: “Mocha has made landfall. 2m people at risk. Damage and losses are expected to be extensive. We are ready to respond and will need unhindered access to all affected communities.”

    On Sunday morning, several deaths caused by wind and rain were reported in Myanmar. A rescue team from the country’s eastern Shan state announced on its Facebook social media page that they had recovered the bodies of a couple who were buried when a landslide caused by heavy rain hit their house in Tachileik township. Local media reported that a man was crushed to death when a banyan tree fell on him in Pyin Oo Lwin township in the central Mandalay Region.

    Authorities in the Bangladeshi city of Cox’s Bazar, which lay in the storm’s predicted path, said earlier that they had evacuated some 1.27 million people, but by early afternoon it appeared that the storm would mostly miss the country as it veered east, said Azizur Rahman, director of the Bangladesh Meteorological Department in Dhaka.

    “The level of risk has reduced to a great extent in our Bangladesh,” he told reporters.

    Strong winds accompanied by rains continued in the Saint Martin’s Island in the Bay of Bengal in the afternoon, but feared tidal surges did not take place because the cyclone started crossing Bangladesh coast at low tide, Dhaka-based Jamuna TV station reported.

    U.N. agencies and aid workers in Bangladesh had prepositioned tons of dry food and dozens of ambulances with mobile medical teams in sprawling refugee camps that house more than 1 million Rohingya who fled persecution in Myanmar.

    In May 2008, Cyclone Nargis hit Myanmar with a storm surge that devastated populated areas around the Irrawaddy River Delta. At least 138,000 people died and tens of thousands of homes and other buildings were washed away.

    Roxy Mathew Koll, a climate scientist at the Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology in Pune city, said cyclones in the Bay of Bengal are becoming more intense more quickly, in part because of climate change.

    Climate scientists say cyclones can now retain their energy for many days. Cyclone Amphan in eastern India in 2020 continued to travel over land as a strong cyclone and caused extensive devastation.

    “As long as oceans are warm and winds are favorable, cyclones will retain their intensity for a longer period,” Koll said.

    Cyclones, giant storms similar to those known as hurricanes or typhoons in other parts of the world, are among the world’s most devastating natural disasters, especially when they hit densely populated coastal regions.

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  • Thousands along Bangladesh, Myanmar coast told to seek shelter as powerful Cyclone Mocha approaches

    Thousands along Bangladesh, Myanmar coast told to seek shelter as powerful Cyclone Mocha approaches

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    DHAKA, Bangladesh — Volunteers in Bangladesh’s coastal districts were using loudspeakers to urge people to seek shelter on Saturday as the delta nation braced for an extremely severe cyclone, which is expected to slam ashore in Bangladesh and Myanmar in the next 24 hours.

    U.N. agencies and aid workers prepositioned tons of dry food and dozens of ambulances with mobile medical teams in sprawling refugee camps with more than 1 million Rohingya who fled persecution in Myanmar.

    The camps at Cox’s Bazar are in the path of Cyclone Mocha, which was closing in on the coast of southeastern Bangladesh and Myanmar with wind speeds of up to 200 kilometers (125 miles) per hour and gusts up to 220 kph (136 mph), the Indian Meteorological Department said. It’s projected to make landfall on Sunday between Cox’s Bazar in Bangladesh and Kyaukpyu in Myanmar.

    Bangladesh, with more than 160 million people, has prepared more than 1,500 cyclone shelters. The navy said it’s keeping ready 21 ships, maritime patrol aircraft and helicopters for rescue and relief operations.

    In Myanmar, rains and winds were picking up since Friday and prompted more than 10,000 people in villages around Sittwe in Rakhine state to seek shelter in sturdy buildings including monasteries, temples and schools, said Lin Lin, the chairman of the Myittar Yaung Chi charity foundation.

    “Currently, about 20 places have been arranged for people to stay in Sittwe. But because there were more people than we expected, there was not enough food for the next day. We are still trying to get it,” he said.

    Speaking from Cox’s Bazar across the border in Bangladesh, the International Organization of Migration’s deputy chief of mission, Nihan Erdogan, said Bangladesh put in place a massive preparedness plan.

    He said his agency had trained 100 volunteers in each of the 17 refugee camps on how to alert rescuers using flag warning signals when heavy rains, floods and strong winds lash the region. “Emergency shelter materials and hygiene kits are readily available, and personal protective gear has been provided to all volunteers.”

    The World Health Organization put 40 ambulances and 33 mobile medical teams on standby at Cox’s Bazar, the agency’s spokesperson Margaret Harris said.

    Authorities in Bangladesh said heavy rains from the cyclone could trigger landslides in Chattogram and Cox’s Bazar and three other hilly districts — Rangamati, Bandarban and Khagrachhari.

    Bangladesh, which is prone to natural disasters such as floods and cyclones, issued the highest danger signal for Cox’s Bazar. The Bangladesh Meteorological Department warned the cyclone could cause severe damage to the lives and properties in eight coastal districts.

    Mizanur Rahman, director general of the Department of the Disaster Management, said they asked the local authorities in 20 districts and sub-districts to make swift preparations. He said they were particularly concerned about a small coral island called Saint Martins in the Bay of Bengal, where efforts were underway to protect thousands of inhabitants.

    Myanmar said in its weather bulletin that the cyclone was moving toward the coast of Rakhine state near Sittwe, which was put under the highest weather alert.

    The World Food Program said it prepositioned enough food to cover the needs of more than 400,000 people in Rakhine and neighboring areas for one month.

    “We are preparing for the worst, while hoping for the best. Cyclone Mocha is heading to areas burdened by conflict, poverty, and weak community resilience,” said WFP’s Myanmar deputy director, Sheela Matthew. “Many of the people most likely to be affected are already reliant on regular humanitarian assistance from WFP. They simply cannot afford another disaster.”

    In May 2008, Cyclone Nargis hit Myanmar with a storm surge that devastated populated areas around the Irrawaddy River Delta. At least 138,000 people died and tens of thousands of homes and other buildings were washed away.

    Roxy Mathew Koll, a climate scientist at the Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology in Pune city, said cyclones in the Bay of Bengal are becoming more intense more quickly, in part because of climate change.

    The state-run Global New Light of Myanmar newspaper reported on Friday that thousands of people living along the western coast of Rakhine state were evacuated.

    Both Indian and Bangladesh authorities said they were expecting heavy to very heavy rainfall in Andaman and Nicobar Islands in the Andaman Sea, parts of India’s remote northeast, and across Bangladesh from Saturday night.

    Climate scientists say cyclones can now retain their energy for many days, such as Cyclone Amphan in eastern India in 2020, which continued to travel over land as a strong cyclone and caused extensive devastation. “As long as oceans are warm and winds are favorable, cyclones will retain their intensity for a longer period,” Koll said.

    Cyclones are among the most devastating natural disasters in the world, especially if they affect densely populated coastal regions in South Asia.

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    Associated Press climate and environmental coverage receives support from several private foundations. See more about AP’s climate initiative at https://www.ap.org/press-releases/2022/ap-announces-sweeping-climate-journalism-initiative. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

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  • Thousands along Bangladesh, Myanmar coast told to seek shelter as powerful Cyclone Mocha approaches

    Thousands along Bangladesh, Myanmar coast told to seek shelter as powerful Cyclone Mocha approaches

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    DHAKA, Bangladesh — Volunteers in Bangladesh’s coastal districts were using loudspeakers to urge people to seek shelter on Saturday as the delta nation braced for an extremely severe cyclone, which is expected to slam ashore in Bangladesh and Myanmar in the next 24 hours.

    U.N. agencies and aid workers prepositioned tons of dry food and dozens of ambulances with mobile medical teams in sprawling refugee camps with more than 1 million Rohingya who fled persecution in Myanmar.

    The camps at Cox’s Bazar are in the path of Cyclone Mocha, which was closing in on the coast of southeastern Bangladesh and Myanmar with wind speeds of up to 200 kilometers (125 miles) per hour and gusts up to 220 kph (136 mph), the Indian Meteorological Department said. It’s projected to make landfall on Sunday evening between Cox’s Bazar in Bangladesh and Kyaukpyu in Myanmar.

    Bangladesh, with more than 160 million people, has prepared more than 1,500 cyclone shelters. The navy said it’s keeping ready 21 ships, maritime patrol aircraft and helicopters for rescue and relief operations.

    Speaking from Cox’s Bazar, the International Organization of Migration’s deputy chief of mission, Nihan Erdogan, said Bangladesh put in place a massive preparedness plan.

    He said his agency had trained 100 volunteers in each of the 17 refugee camps on how to alert rescuers using flag warning signals when heavy rains, floods and strong winds lash the region. “Emergency shelter materials and hygiene kits are readily available, and personal protective gear has been provided to all volunteers.”

    The World Health Organization put 40 ambulances and 33 mobile medical teams on standby at Cox’s Bazar, the agency’s spokesperson Margaret Harris said.

    Authorities in Bangladesh said heavy rains from the cyclone could trigger landslides in Chattogram and Cox’s Bazar and three other hilly districts — Rangamati, Bandarban and Khagrachhari.

    Bangladesh, which is prone to natural disasters such as floods and cyclones, issued the highest danger signal for Cox’s Bazar. The Bangladesh Meteorological Department warned the cyclone could cause severe damage to the lives and properties in eight coastal districts.

    Mizanur Rahman, director general of the Department of the Disaster Management, said they asked the local authorities in 20 districts and sub-districts to make swift preparations. He said they were particularly concerned about a small coral island called Saint Martins in the Bay of Bengal, where efforts were underway to protect thousands of inhabitants.

    Myanmar said in its weather bulletin that the cyclone was moving toward the coast of Rakhine state near Sittwe, which was put under the highest weather alert.

    The World Food Program said it prepositioned enough food to cover the needs of more than 400,000 people in Rakhine and neighboring areas for one month.

    “We are preparing for the worst, while hoping for the best. Cyclone Mocha is heading to areas burdened by conflict, poverty, and weak community resilience,” said WFP’s Myanmar deputy director, Sheela Matthew. “Many of the people most likely to be affected are already reliant on regular humanitarian assistance from WFP. They simply cannot afford another disaster.”

    In May 2008, Cyclone Nargis hit Myanmar with a storm surge that devastated populated areas around the Irrawaddy River Delta. At least 138,000 people died and tens of thousands of homes and other buildings were washed away.

    Roxy Mathew Koll, a climate scientist at the Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology in Pune city, said cyclones in the Bay of Bengal are becoming more intense more quickly, in part because of climate change.

    The state-run Global New Light of Myanmar newspaper reported on Friday that thousands of people living along the western coast of Rakhine state were evacuated.

    Both Indian and Bangladesh authorities said they were expecting heavy to very heavy rainfall in Andaman and Nicobar Islands in the Andaman Sea, parts of India’s remote northeast, and across Bangladesh from Saturday night.

    Climate scientists say cyclones can now retain their energy for many days, such as Cyclone Amphan in eastern India in 2020, which continued to travel over land as a strong cyclone and caused extensive devastation. “As long as oceans are warm and winds are favorable, cyclones will retain their intensity for a longer period,” Koll said.

    Cyclones are among the most devastating natural disasters in the world, especially if they affect densely populated coastal regions in South Asia.

    ___

    Associated Press climate and environmental coverage receives support from several private foundations. See more about AP’s climate initiative at https://www.ap.org/press-releases/2022/ap-announces-sweeping-climate-journalism-initiative. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

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  • California’s governor says state’s budget deficit has grown to nearly $32 billion

    California’s governor says state’s budget deficit has grown to nearly $32 billion

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    SACRAMENTO, Calif. — California Gov. Gavin Newsom said Friday the state’s budget deficit has grown to nearly $32 billion.

    That’s about $10 billion more than predicted in January, when the governor offered his first budget proposal. He’s detailing his latest proposal Friday for state spending in the fiscal year that starts July 1. The state’s total budget is about $306 billion, which is far larger than any others state budget.

    Newsom, a Democrat, says high federal interest rates and delayed state tax returns following major winter storms are partly to blame.

    California is one of the only states to have a shortfall this year. That’s mostly because its progressive tax code relies on wealthy taxpayers whose income is closely tied to the performance of the stock market.

    In January, Newsom proposed a number of ideas to cover the deficit, including $9.6 billion in spending cuts.

    THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. AP’s earlier story follows below.

    Gov. Gavin Newsom on Friday is expected to announce an even bigger budget deficit than the $22.5 billion hole that he confronted in January, reflecting an economy burdened by a sagging stock market and disrupted by a series of powerful winter storms that delayed billions of dollars in tax payments.

    California is one of the only states to have a shortfall this year, mostly because its progressive tax code relies on wealthy taxpayers whose income is closely tied to the performance of the stock market.

    The deficit is small compared to the cash crunch that the state faced during the last recession. But the challenge for Newsom will be persuading lawmakers to spending cuts who are not accustomed to enacting them.

    Since taking office in 2019, Newsom’s biggest budget fights with the Democratic-controlled state Legislature is how to spend California’s record-breaking surpluses. Agreeing on what to cut could be much more difficult.

    Newsom’s plan in January was to cut money for flood protection projects, delaying an expansion of a subsidized child care program and canceling a $500 million plan to help small businesses pay higher tax rates associated with some state debt.

    On Thursday, Newsom announced that he was restoring money previously cut from flood protection projects, plus introducing another $250 million in new spending, which includes raising a levee to protect the Central Valley community of Corcoran.

    It’s not yet clear if he can or will relent on his other proposed cuts. Newsom signed off on an expansion of a subsidized child care program last year that would pay to help an extra 20,000 families. But because of the deficit, Newsom proposed delaying that funding for one year. He argued that the state was having trouble filling the child care slots it already had.

    That angered some Democratic lawmakers, who said the reason the state was having trouble filling its child care slots is because there aren’t enough child care workers. On Monday, Democrats in the Assembly proposed $1 billion in new spending to increase the pay of child care workers.

    “Now, we just need to put a little pressure on the governor to make sure he’s on board,” Assembly Majority Leader Eloise Gomez-Reyes said on Wednesday while speaking to a rally of parents and child care workers at the state Capitol.

    It’s not just child care though. Democrats in the state Senate want to raise taxes on 2,500 of the largest companies so they can cut taxes by about 25% for most other businesses — a plan that Newsom has already said he opposes. And environmental groups want Newsom to reverse his planned $6 billion cut to some of his climate proposals.

    But restoring those cuts could be difficult. The situation has only gotten worse since Newsom first announced the deficit in January. California’s tax collections have continued to decline, falling $4.6 billion below what the governor’s office had been expecting. The nonpartisan Legislative Analyst’s Office says they expect the deficit to be about $5 billion bigger.

    Then there’s the weather. Since January, California has been hit by roughly a dozen atmospheric rivers — intense storms that bring heavy rain and snow. The storms caused so much damage throughout the state that officials decided to give people more time to pay their taxes — extending the deadline from April to October.

    That’s a problem now for Newsom and the state Legislature, which must pass a budget before the start of the new fiscal year on July 1. Delayed tax collection means they’ll have to make a plan without knowing how much money they have to spend.

    The last time this happened was at the start of the coronavirus pandemic in 2020, when taxpayers had extra time to file their taxes. Newsom and state lawmakers assumed the worst, approving a budget that slashed spending in order to cover what they thought would be a $54 billion deficit. But that deficit never happened because the pandemic’s impact on state revenues turned out to be less damaging than anticipated.

    This time, California’s deficit looks to be for real. California’s Legislature taxes the wealthy more than other states. About half of the state’s money comes from just 1% of earners. That means that the state is vulnerable to big swings in the stock market, which is the source of wealth for most rich people.

    The stock market has been down as the federal government has raised interest rates to combat inflation.

    The downward turn has had the biggest impact on California’s massive technology industry as companies like Google, Facebook and PayPal have laid off thousands of workers. Earlier this year, Silicon Valley Bank — one of the nation’s largest financial institutions, whose clients were mostly in the tech industry — failed and was bought by North Carolina-based First Citizens Bank.

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  • Out-of-control wildfires cause evacuations in western Canada

    Out-of-control wildfires cause evacuations in western Canada

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    Fire crews battling wildfires threatening communities in western Canada are getting some relief from cooler temperatures and a bit of rain, but officials warn the reprieve is only in some areas

    EDMONTON, Alberta — Fire crews battled wildfires threatening communities in western Canada on Sunday as cooler temperatures and a bit of rain brought some relief, but officials warned the reprieve came only in some areas.

    Officials in Alberta said there were 108 active fires in the province and the number of evacuees grew to about 29,000, up from approximately 24,000 Saturday, when a provincewide state of emergency was declared.

    Two out-of-control wildfires in neighboring British Columbia also caused some people to leave their homes, and officials warned that they expected high winds to cause the blazes to grow bigger in the next few days.

    Provinicial officials in Alberta said the weather forecast was favorable for the next few days, with small amounts of rain and overcast conditions. But they cautioned that hot and dry conditions were predicted to return within a few days.

    “People have called this season certainly unprecedented in recent memory because we have so many fires so spread out,” Christie Tucker with Alberta Wildfire said at a briefing. “It’s been an unusual year.”

    Colin Blair, executive director of the Alberta Emergency Management Agency, said accurate damage reports were not yet available because conditions made it difficult to assess the situation. There were of buildings destroyed in the town of Fox Lake, including 20 homes, a police station and a store.

    In northeastern British Columbia, officials urged residents to evacuate the areas around two out-of-control wildfires near the Alberta border, saying there were reports of some people staying behind.

    “This is impeding the response and putting their lives and the lives of firefighters at risk,” said Leonard Hiebert, chairman of the Peace River Regional District.

    A third fire in British Columbia was burning out of control 700 kilometers (430 miles) to the south, in the Teare Creek region, and some residents near the village of McBride were evacuated.

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  • 176 dead, many more missing after Congo floods

    176 dead, many more missing after Congo floods

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    The governor of Congo’s South Kivu province says flooding near Lake Kivu has killed 176 people, with many more still missing

    ByJEAN-YVES KAMALE ASSOCIATED PRESS

    KINSHASA, Congo — The death toll from flash floods and landslides in eastern Congo has risen to 176, with some 100 people still missing, according to a provisional assessment given by the governor and authorities in the country’s South Kivu province.

    Rivers broke their banks in villages in the territory of Kalehe close to the shores of Lake Kivu. Authorities also reported scores of people injured.

    South Kivu Gov. Théo Ngwabidje visited the area to see the destruction for himself, and posted on his Twitter account that the provincial government had dispatched medical, shelter and food supplies.

    Several main roads to the affected area have been been made impassable by the rains, hampering the relief efforts.

    President Felix Tshisekedi has declared a national day of mourning on Monday to honor the victims, and the central government is sending a crisis management team to South Kivu to support the provincial government.

    Heavy rains in recent days have brought misery to thousands in East Africa, with parts of Uganda and Kenya also seeing heavy rainfall.

    Flooding and landslides in Rwanda, which borders Congo, left 129 people dead earlier this week.

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  • Tornadoes in Virginia and Florida, flooding in other states

    Tornadoes in Virginia and Florida, flooding in other states

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    VIRGINIA BEACH, Va — Officials in Virginia, Maine, and Florida are assessing damage Monday from major storms over the weekend, including some that caused power outages and wrecked homes.

    The City of Virginia Beach declared a state of emergency after a tornado moved through the area and damaged over 100 buildings, downed trees and caused gas leaks.

    The National Weather Service’s Wakefield, Virginia, office confirmed Monday morning that the tornado was rated at EF-3, with wind estimates of 140 mph (225 kph) to 150 mph (240 kph). It pushed well-built homes off foundations, collapsed exterior walls, and tore entire roofs off according to an agency statement.

    No injuries were reported.

    One family escaped injuries by reacting to a weather alert that came less than a minute before the tornado hit.

    “It just happened suddenly,” Lori Camper said. “The whole thing lasted 10 seconds.”

    She and her visiting daughter looked out the window and saw the trees bending in the wind and ran. The family, including Camper’s grandchildren, aged 2 years and 5 weeks, as well as two dogs, ran into a stairwell — the only place without windows.

    “Then all the windows blew out in the kitchen and sucked everything out of the kitchen and a tree fell through the roof,” Camper said. “And now one side of the house is leaning.”

    She hadn’t experienced a tornado that strong in the 19 years she had lived there.

    “I’m grateful,” she said. “God took care of us.”

    Virginia Beach Director of Emergency Management David Topczynski said Monday that the city got lucky because the storm came in Sunday during a music festival, when an emergency operation center was already set up, allowing for a swift response. He said 115 damaged structures were identified Sunday, and more are expected to be logged Monday.

    Virginia Beach’s weekend storms are generally associated with the same large-scale area of low pressure over the Great Lakes, NWS Meteorologist Eric Seymour said by telephone.

    The agency confirmed another tornado over the weekend in Florida in a weekend filled with hazardous weather across the U.S., including high water on the Mississippi River which tested flood defenses in Iowa and Illinois as it crests in the area Monday.

    In Maine, heavy rain and powerful wind gusts knocked out power for more than 50,000 homes and businesses on Monday morning. The wind gusted to 70 mph (115 kph) on Sunday near Matinicus Island, about 20 miles offshore, and to 65 mph (100 kph) onshore in Bath, where Navy shipbuilder Bath Iron Works has numerous cranes. Rainfall approaching 5 inches (13 centimeters) led to flood warnings on several rivers in parts of southern Maine.

    Virginia Natural Gas responded to several homes with gas leaks and Dominion Energy was reporting about 250 outages around Virginia Beach on Monday morning.

    The tornado touched down in the area of River Road and North Great Neck Road, Virginia Beach officials said in a social media post. Based on public safety patrols and resident reports the city said more than a dozen homes along Upper Chelsea Reach and Haversham Close were damaged.

    Great Neck Road will remain closed between Cox High School and the bridge at Adam Keeling Road until further notice to allow for crews to remove debris, the city said.

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  • $1.6B trial starts against utility over fatal 2020 wildfires

    $1.6B trial starts against utility over fatal 2020 wildfires

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    PORTLAND, Ore. — A trial connected to a $1.6 billion class action lawsuit against utility PacifiCorp over the catastrophic Labor Day 2020 wildfires in Oregon started Tuesday in Portland.

    The fires in 2020 killed nine people, burned more than 1,875 square miles (4,856 square kilometers) in Oregon and destroyed upward of 5,000 homes and structures.

    PacifiCorp is the primary defendant in litigation stemming from the fires, The Oregonian/OregonLive reported.

    The Portland-based utility, Oregon’s second largest, didn’t shut off power to its 600,000 customers during the windstorm. Its lines have been implicated in multiple blazes, one of which started in its California service territory and burned into Oregon.

    Jurors in the Multnomah County trial will determine PacifiCorp’s responsibility, if any, in four of those blazes: the Santiam Canyon fires east of Salem; the Echo Mountain Complex near Lincoln City; the South Obenchain fire near Eagle Point; and the Two Four Two fire near the southwest Oregon town of Chiloquin.

    The lawsuit no matter the outcome is likely to reshape the way Oregon’s electric utilities respond to increasing wildfire risks amid climate change, consistent drought conditions and a spike in the average number of acres burned annually.

    Nicholas Rosinia, a lawyer for the plaintiffs, asked jurors to hold PacifiCorp accountable for its failure to shut off power on Labor Day 2020.

    “These fires were predictable and preventable and devastated the lives of thousands of Oregonians,” Rosinia told jurors. “They had the knowledge, they understood, and they chose to do nothing.”

    Doug Dixon, an attorney representing PacifiCorp, disputed that the utility’s lines caused three of the four fires and most of the resulting damage. He told jurors that PacifiCorp had been on high alert and acted similarly to most other utilities that did not proactively cut power.

    “This case is about reasonable precautions that PacifiCorp takes to provide safe, reasonably priced power,” he said. “PacifiCorp has and will continue to take its role very seriously.”

    Rosinia on Tuesday told jurors that before that Labor Day, PacifiCorp had been repeatedly warned by state regulators for deficient tree-trimming and vegetation management around its power lines, The utility’s employees were also told that increasingly alarming forecasts about the coming Labor Day windstorm and extreme fire danger had come from the National Weather Service days before the fires as well as a dire warning from the utility’s own contract meteorologist, he said.

    Fires ignited in PacifiCorp’s Washington state service territory hours before the windstorm pushed south into Oregon, also providing ample warning of what was to come, Rosinia said.

    At some point, Rosinia told jurors, a power shutoff was the only option left to the utility to prevent ignitions. But he said PacifiCorp never seriously considered it, even as employees in its Portland headquarters were receiving reports of fires burning under its power lines around the state.

    Dixon, in his opening statements, said the plaintiffs were trying to blame PacifiCorp with an overly simplified, hindsight version of what happened — without context about the realities of climate change and the role that forest management has in causing and preventing wildfires.

    Far from being unprepared, PacifiCorp was the first in the Pacific Northwest to develop a wildfire preparedness plan, he told jurors. PacifiCorp was the first utility to identify areas in its service territory at high risk of wildfires and roll out a plan for public safety-related power shutoffs in those areas. It also boosted spending on tree-pruning in the two years before the fire, he said.

    “No utility (in Oregon) had ever initiated a public-safety power shutoff before September 2020. It is truly a measure of last resort” that comes with its own risks to public safety, he told jurors. “A public safety power shutoff is like a sledgehammer” when what utilities really need is a scalpel, he said.

    Dixon said PacifiCorp employees were on high alert, but that its own forecasts showed relatively benign winds in its service territory. He said only two utilities either proactively shut off the power or left it off after the windstorm triggered a blackout in the Santiam Canyon.

    PacifiCorp intends to challenge whether its power lines and the fires they ignited in the Santiam Canyon caused property damage to most of the plaintiffs in the class action suit. It blamed those damages on a lightning-caused blaze miles away that was whipped into a major conflagration amid the Labor Day winds. Dixon acknowledged that power lines did cause a one fire. But he said the company will show there is no way it could have spread beyond a very contained area.

    The trial will determine PacifiCorp’s liability and any actual property damages for 17 named plaintiffs, each of whom is also seeking $3 million in non-economic damages for emotional distress and suffering. The liability finding, if any, would then apply to a larger class of about 2,400 people who had property damaged in the fires.

    The trial is expected to last at least six weeks.

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  • In Florida, Harris announces $562M for climate resilience

    In Florida, Harris announces $562M for climate resilience

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    Returning to Florida to discuss climate change, Vice President Kamala Harris announced Friday that $562 million will be spent on 149 projects around the country aimed at improving resilience to threats such as rising seas and the kinds of coastal flooding that recently slammed the southeast part of the state.

    Harris outlined the funding plan during an appearance at the University of Miami, where she also toured a lab immersed in coral restoration work and a hurricane simulator capable of generating Category 5-strength winds of more than 157 mph (253 kph).

    Harris, who appeared in March at a Miami Beach climate summit, said the projects, which are spread across 30 states, are an example of how climate investments boost job creation and manufacturing while tackling a major environmental issue.

    “When we invest in climate, we not only protect our environment, we also strengthen our economy,” Harris said in a tweet during her Miami visit.

    The funding is part of what the Biden administration calls its Climate-Ready Coasts initiative. Of the $562 million total, about $477 million is to help towns and cities respond better to extreme weather events, restore wildlife coastal habitats and focus more attention on assistance for underserved communities in tackling climate and storm threats, according to a White House news release.

    Florida would get about $78 million for projects ranging from oyster habitat restoration in Pensacola Bay to flood protection in Jacksonville to removal of 200,000 tires from Tampa Bay and the Gulf of Mexico that were submerged decades ago as artificial reefs.

    Harris toured the University of Miami’s Rosenstiel School of Marine, Atmospheric and Earth Sciences — location of the hurricane simulator — where researchers have been studying the slowing down of ocean currents, building aquaculture to replenish and protect fisheries and examining how to repopulate dying coral reefs.

    The vice president’s visit comes as Fort Lauderdale and its suburbs have been recovering from an April 12 deluge that dumped up to 2 feet (0.6 meters) of rain, flooding homes and businesses while forcing the closure of Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport and disrupting gas distribution operations at Port Everglades that led to vehicle fuel shortages for days afterwards across the southern part of Florida.

    Climate scientists say these once-rare extreme rain events will occur more frequently as temperatures warm, made worse in coastal regions such as Florida due to sea level rise.

    “These heavy rainfall events coupled with sea level rise on the Florida coast need to serve as significant ‘wake up calls’ for the residents of South Florida about the severe risks that climate change poses to them,” said University of Oklahoma meteorology professor Jason Furtado.

    Harris’ quick trip to Miami came the same day as President Joe Biden signed an executive order that would create the White House Office of Environmental Justice. The goal is to ensure that poverty, race and ethnic status do not lead to worse exposure to pollution and environmental harm.

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  • 2 dead as severe storms, tornadoes move through central U.S.

    2 dead as severe storms, tornadoes move through central U.S.

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    Strong storms including tornadoes, winds and hail have moved through parts of the Central U.S., killing at least two people, causing injuries, destroying homes and leaving thousands without power

    COLE, Okla. — Strong storms including tornadoes, winds and hail moved through parts of the Central U.S. on Wednesday, killing at least two people, causing injuries, destroying homes and leaving thousands without power.

    The National Weather Service began issuing tornado and severe thunderstorm warnings Wednesday evening in Oklahoma, Kansas and Iowa with forecasters warning people to find shelter.

    Central Oklahoma saw multiple tornadoes, including one that raced through the communities of Shawnee and Cole Wednesday night.

    Authorities said at least two people were killed in the small town of Cole in McClain County and there also were injuries ranging from cuts and bruises to some requiring hospitalization, although the numbers weren’t immediately clear as hundreds of people fanned out in search operations.

    Power lines also were torn down, trees toppled and homes and other buildings badly damaged or destroyed. Oklahoma Baptist University in Shawnee and an airport received damage before the tornado moved off and weakened.

    At the peak of the severe weather, more than 23,000 customers were without electricity throughout Oklahoma, according to poweroutage.us.

    KFOR-TV reported that residents south of Oklahoma City reported being trapped in their shelters underground, mailboxes were blown away and emergency crews used GPS to find addresses, according to the McClain County sheriff.

    Two people in the town of Cole rode out the storm in a manhole and were not hurt, the television station reported.

    Storms this spring have spawned tornadoes in the South, Midwest and Northeast, killing dozens of people.

    Cole is 25 miles (41 km) south of Oklahoma City.

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  • City: Schwarzenegger repaired utility trench, not a pothole

    City: Schwarzenegger repaired utility trench, not a pothole

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    The “giant pothole” that Arnold Schwarzenegger filled on a street in his Los Angeles neighborhood was actually a trench dug for utility work

    LOS ANGELES — The “giant pothole” that Arnold Schwarzenegger said he recently filled on a street in his Los Angeles neighborhood was actually a trench that had been dug for utility work, according to the city.

    Southern California Gas Co. had covered the trench with temporary asphalt that was to be replaced with a permanent surface, the Los Angeles Department of Public Works said in a statement.

    “We have notified the Gas Company of the issue and the need for them to maintain the site pavement until their permanent paving is constructed,” the statement said.

    After months of heavy rains that have turned roads into tire-popping swiss cheese for many commuters, Schwarzenegger struck a chord when he released a video of himself and a crew filling a depression on a street with packaged asphalt patch.

    “Today, after the whole neighborhood has been upset about this giant pothole that’s been screwing up cars and bicycles for weeks, I went out with my team and fixed it,” he wrote on Twitter. “I always say, let’s not complain, let’s do something about it. Here you go.”

    A passing motorist paused to thank the actor, who also filled another smaller hole.

    SoCal Gas said in a statement that an upgrade of a pipeline system there was completed on Jan. 26 but rain delayed permanent paving, which is usually done in about 30 days. The utility’s crews returned to the site on Wednesday, a day after Schwarzenegger posted his video, and leveled off the patch he’d completed to make it stronger. It expects to finish permanent paving of the site on Tuesday.

    “Teamwork. Happy to help speed this up, and thanks to the crew for pumping up my fix,” the former governor tweeted Friday.

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  • Airport looks to open as South Florida floods slowly recede

    Airport looks to open as South Florida floods slowly recede

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    FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — Drivers were urged to use caution when navigating the streets of Fort Lauderdale on Friday after days of unrelenting rain left roads underwater and forced the closure of one of South Florida’s largest airports.

    A flood warning was expiring, but the National Weather Service warned motorists that water-covered roads could still be a hazard. Meanwhile, officials at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport planned final inspections to assess the readiness of the airfields even as Friday’s forecast called for a few showers and possible storms.

    The airport shut down Wednesday evening as a storm dumped more than 2 feet (60 centimeters) of rain, stranding passengers and resulting in canceled flights.

    “Nature has been unkind to us,” Broward County Mayor Lamar Fisher said during a news conference Thursday afternoon at the airport. He, along with airport officials, advised travelers to check with their airlines before heading to the airport.

    All across Fort Lauderdale, residents and business owners were cleaning up. While it started raining on Monday in South Florida, much of the water fell Wednesday, and the Fort Lauderdale area saw record rainfall amounts on a matter of hours, ranging from 15 inches (38 centimeters) to 26 inches (66 centimeters).

    On Thursday, residents in the city’s Edgewood neighborhood waded through knee-high water or used canoes and kayaks to navigate the streets. Dennis Vasquez, a window screen installer, towed some of his neighbor’s belongings on an inflatable mattress to a car on dry land. He himself lost all of his possessions when water rose chest-high in his house Wednesday night.

    “Everything, it’s gone,” he said in Spanish. “But I will replace it.”

    Christopher Alfonso and Tony Mandico, neighbors for 50 years in Edgewood, said their homes are likely total losses.

    They said the area never severely flooded until a sanitary sewer system replaced septic tanks 10 years ago, making some streets higher than others and channeling rain onto lower roads.

    Airlines were forced to cancel more than 650 flights at Fort Lauderdale on Thursday, according to FlightAware.com.

    Southwest canceled about 50 departures through Friday morning, and the number could grow, a spokesperson said. The airline is letting customers rebook on flights to and from Miami and Palm Beach at no additional charge, she said.

    Frontier Airlines moved two flights from Fort Lauderdale to Miami but canceled about 15 other round trips, a spokesperson said. Allegiant Air also canceled some flights and rerouted others to the Tampa, Orlando and Punta Gorda areas.

    Broward County Public Schools, the sixth-largest school district in the nation with more than 256,000 students, canceled classes Thursday and Friday after water inundated halls and classrooms in some schools.

    The scene as floodwaters rose in the streets on Wednesday was chaotic, with abandoned cars “floating like boats,” tow truck driver Keith Hickman said.

    “A truck would come by and the wake would push the cars into the other cars, and they were just floating,” he said. “I’ve never seen anything like it.”

    Shawn Bhatti, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Miami, said the region received “an unprecedented amount” of rain. The weather service was still confirming totals, but some gauges showed up to 25 inches (63.5 centimeters) of rainfall.

    “For context, within a six-hour period the amount that fell is about a 1 in 1,000 chance of happening within a given year,” Bhatti said. “So it’s a very historical type of event.”

    ___

    Kozin, Spencer and Frisaro reported from Fort Lauderdale. Associated Press reporter Kathy McCormack contributed from Concord, New Hampshire.

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  • Here’s why downpour in Florida just wouldn’t stop

    Here’s why downpour in Florida just wouldn’t stop

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    In some ways, it was the Florida Man of storms – not quite knowing when to say when.

    Usually, thunderstorms fizzle out after they run out of rain or get cold air sucked in. They run out of gas. But not Wednesday, when the storm that hit Fort Lauderdale had a gas station nearby — the warm and moisture-rich Gulf Stream.

    The end result was more than 25 inches of rain drenching and flooding Fort Lauderdale in six to eight hours. That ranked among the top three in major U.S. cities over a 24-hour period, behind Hilo, Hawaii’s, 27 inches in 2000 and Port Arthur, Texas’s 26.5 inches in 2017, according to weather historian Chris Burt.

    While it could happen in other places in coastal America, Florida has the right topography, plenty of warm water nearby and other favorable conditions, said Greg Carbin, forecast branch chief at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Weather Prediction Center.

    Just two days before the downpour, Weather Prediction Center forecaster David Roth told colleagues that conditions were lining up similar to April 25, 1979, when 16 inches of rain fell on Fort Lauderdale, Carbin said.

    What parked over Fort Lauderdale on Wednesday was a supercell — the type of strong thunderstorm that can spawn killer tornadoes and hail and plows across the Great Plains and Mid-South in a fierce, fast-moving but short path of destruction, several meteorologists said.

    Normally a cell like that would “snuff itself out” in maybe 20 minutes or at least keep moving, Carbin said. But in Fort Lauderdale the supercell was in a lull between opposing weather systems, Carbin said. It lasted six to eight hours.

    “You had this extreme warmth and moisture that was just feeding into the cell and because it had a bit of a spin to it, it was essentially acting like a vacuum and sucking all that moisture back up into the main core of the system,” said Steve Bowen, a meteorologist and chief science officer for GallagherRe, a global reinsurance broker. “It just kept reigniting itself, essentially.”

    What was key, said former NOAA chief scientist Ryan Maue, was “the availability of warm ocean air from the Gulf Stream was essentially infinite.’’

    Other factors included a strong low pressure system, with counterclockwise winds, churning away in the toasty Gulf of Mexico, Maue and Carbin said. There was a temperature difference between the slightly cooler land in Florida and the 80-degree-plus Gulf Stream waters. Add to that wind shear, which is when winds are flowing in opposite directions at high and low altitude, helping to add some spin.

    Many of those conditions by themselves are not unusual, including the location of the Gulf Stream. But when they combined in a precise way, it acted like a continuous feeding loop that poured rain in amounts that the National Weather Service in Miami called a 1-in-1,000 chance.

    “We continue to see more and more of these thousand-year” weather extremes in major cities, Bowen said. “The whole definition of normal is changing.”

    Physics states that a warmer climate holds more moisture in the air, about 4% more for every degree Fahrenheit (7% for every degree Celsius). But warming also increases the intensity of storms amplifying that moisture level, said Pennsylvania State University climate scientist Michael Mann.

    And that moisture then falls as rain.

    One-day downpours have “increased in frequency and magnitude over the last several decades and will continue to increase in both in the coming decades,” University of Oklahoma meteorology professor Jason Furtado said in an email. “These heavy rainfall events coupled with sea level rise on the Florida coast need to serve as significant ‘wake up calls’ for the residents of South Florida about the severe risks that climate change poses to them.”

    ___

    Follow AP’s climate and environment coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/climate-and-environment

    ___

    Follow Seth Borenstein on Twitter at @borenbears

    ___

    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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  • Mississippi city faces tough road rebuilding after tornado

    Mississippi city faces tough road rebuilding after tornado

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    ROLLING FORK, Miss. — The scent of the Mississippi Delta’s soil took hold of Charlie Weissinger’s psyche at an early age, and he has chased it ever since.

    Weissinger, 37, works at a bank to support his farming addiction in Rolling Fork, where his family has grown cotton, corn, soybeans, rice or wheat since 1902.

    “It’s something about the lifestyle, of being able to watch something that you’re able to create from start to finish,” he said. ”It’s so strange that you can do everything right, and then Mother Nature can take it away. And so it’s a constant battle of man’s will versus Mother Nature, of trying to see how well you can do in the face of adversity.”

    Weissinger’s farm was mostly spared when a deadly tornado tore through Rolling Fork last month as it carved a path of destruction through parts of western and northern Mississippi. But many in the predominantly Black farming community weren’t as fortunate.

    The twister killed 13 of Rolling Fork’s roughly 1,700 residents, destroyed about 300 homes and businesses and laid waste to entire blocks, leaving many to wonder whether their small-town bonds and shared heritage will be enough to convince one another to stay and try to rebuild.

    Rolling Fork has a proud history, claiming blues legend Muddy Waters as a native son and a role in the invention of the teddy bear, after President Theodore Roosevelt refused to shoot a restrained bear during a 1902 hunting trip.

    But the city and surrounding Sharkey County are in one of the country’s poorest regions and were already facing tough economic challenges before the March 24 tornado lashed the community with 200 mph (320 kph) winds, closing down nearly every local business. Volatile agricultural markets and a lack of jobs and new industry have kept Sharkey’s poverty rate at around 35%, nearly double Mississippi’s roughly 19% rate and triple the nation’s nearly 12% rate.

    “We want to keep our Blues heritage. We still want to see some Rolling Fork when it’s rebuilt,” local Travis Gully said as he walked down a hard-hit street near the roughly 135-year-old Rolling Fork Methodist Church a few days after the tornado hit. “We are the home of Muddy Waters. We are the home of the teddy bear. We want to see the bottle trees in our yards to remind people of our rich heritage.”

    The destruction can seem unquantifiable to weary residents who have been working alongside a network of volunteers every day since the tornado to sort through mounds of rubble. Some homes were lifted off the ground by their foundations. A bear statue commemorating Roosevelt’s visit still stands in the heart of downtown, but the twister left its mark on hundreds of structures, including schools, clinics and the local hospital.

    The community has pulled together, but the tornado stacked longstanding challenges on top of newer ones, such as high inflation and rising interest rates. In a rebuilt Rolling Fork, residents want more jobs, better infrastructure and a fighting chance to keep people from fleeing.

    “What in the hell are we going to do? That’s all I can think,” Willard Miller, a 73-year-old lifelong resident, said from his driveway as he looked out on his mangled neighborhood. “There’s a lot of young people, they ain’t coming back. And they have no reason to other than this is their hometown and their parents are probably here.”

    Jerry Stevens owned the Cloverfield Laundromat in downtown Rolling Fork for 20 years. Its walls were blown away, but its 26 washers and dryers remain planted to the ground. Even if he rebuilds, he isn’t sure if many of his old customers will follow suit.

    “I’m scared a lot of the building won’t come because inflation is so high right now,” Stevens said. “Interest rates on loans are really high. I’m thinking when they get their insurance checks, they may just go somewhere else and buy a house that is already standing.”

    Rolling Fork has been tested by the elements before. The effects of economic stagnation have been compounded by repeated bouts of heavy rainfall that turn tame backwaters into flooded terrain. In a wet season, water can overtop levees and spill onto fertile soil, swallowing whatever ill-fated crops lie beneath.

    In 2019, the worst flooding in the area since 1973 drove some from their homes. But the city now faces a rebuilding effort unlike any it has undertaken.

    President Joe Biden, who toured the devastation, approved a disaster declaration for the state, freeing up federal funds for temporary housing, home repairs and loans to cover uninsured property losses. But there is concern about how the aid will be spent.

    “The citizens have lost everything,” said Calvin Stewart, a five-term alderman representing the city’s first ward. “With all the funds people are trying to bring into the city, I need to make sure those funds get to the most impacted folks.”

    The influx of federal funds comes with Mississippi embroiled in its largest-ever corruption case. A welfare scandal has exposed how millions of dollars intended for the state’s neediest people were instead diverted to the rich and powerful.

    Amid a current of distrust, communities that have strong social and civic institutions before disasters strike do a better job of allocating relief funds and retaining residents, said David Peters, a professor of rural sociology at Iowa State University.

    “When natural disasters like tornadoes or floods hit, communities take two different trajectories,” Peters said. “Communities where there’s strong social capital are fairly resilient. The problem is, those rural communities are fairly rare. In communities that have an absence of social capital, federal monies are mismanaged. And most often, people leave.”

    Tasmin Bee, a teacher, is among those who plan to stay, even though the storm blew the roof off the home she bought in August. With Rolling Fork’s schools closed, she said she has to take her five children out of town to keep them busy.

    “There is nothing here for kids. You don’t even have a YMCA,” Bee said. They got a city pool, but it’s small. They had a baseball park. If you want to take the kids to the arcade or something like to have a good time, you’ve got to travel.”

    When Charlie Weissinger, the banker-farmer, needs a place to take his two sons, he brings them to the patch of farmland that has had its hooks in him for as long as he can remember.

    “My boys can decide to go anywhere in the world they want to,” Weissinger said. “But I get them down here, and they get a smell of the dirt. It will follow them for the rest of their lives.”

    ___

    Michael Goldberg is a corps member for the Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues. Follow him on Twitter at https://twitter.com/mikergoldberg.

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  • Snowmelt spurs flooding from Southwest to Rockies, 2 rescues

    Snowmelt spurs flooding from Southwest to Rockies, 2 rescues

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    FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. — A rapid spring snowmelt after an unusually wet winter is unleashing flooding from the Southwest to the Rockies, causing residents there and in the Upper Midwest to evacuate or stock up on sandbags amid surging creeks and rivers.

    In New Mexico, emergency crews rescued people from at least two vehicles from high water Thursday night in Jemez Pueblo north of Albuquerque, the National Weather Service said.

    But there were no immediate reports of any deaths of serious injuries. A flood warning was in effect for communities along the Jemez River into next week.

    In Flagstaff, Arizona, neighbors on one street have been working side by side since Tuesday with shovels to stave off floodwaters from their homes.

    Three creek-retention basins installed last year helped better navigate water that rushed down from burned mountains above the city, officials said. Still, water engulfed the shoulder of a local highway, and several roads and sidewalks were closed this week as the weather warmed and snow melted, making its way into neighborhoods. Sections of urban trails also were submerged.

    Officials said it was a scenario that came without a playbook.

    “It would be nice to have an exact model of what we need to do, but we don’t,” Flagstaff Vice Mayor Austin Aslan told the Arizona Daily Sun. “We don’t know what the next fire will look like, or where that scar will be. There’s small differences that will direct water to one neighborhood or another.”

    Sandoval County in north-central New Mexico issued an emergency disaster declaration in the wake of severe flooding in communities near the Jemez River.

    No evacuations had been ordered, but residents in an area between Jemez Pueblo and Jemez Springs that regularly floods in the summer rainy season were collecting sandbags as a precaution. A local police chief estimated a dozen homes and other structures along the river could be at risk of being inundated with water.

    “Warm temperatures continue to cause rapid melting of snowpack, causing increased river flows,” the National Weather Service in Albuquerque said Thursday night.

    The deluge also led to spillover from a wastewater treatment plant, which was contributing recycled water into the Jemez River. The U.S. Forest Service advised people not to fish in the river or drink water south of the plant.

    In Salt Lake City, Mayor Erin Mendenhall signed an emergency order late Wednesday aimed at helping residents whose homes were threatened by flooding in the southeastern part of the city. Rapidly melting snow in the nearby mountains sent water coursing through a creek in the neighborhood, prompting the voluntary evacuation of about 100 homes.

    The water was receding as cooler weather moved into the area. Even so, multiple mudslides were reported on canyon roads, including one that forced the temporary closure of Interstate 80 southeast of the city early Thursday.

    On Wednesday, local officials north of Salt Lake City issued evacuation orders for at least 20 homes in Kaysville, where flooding ripped a large gash that damaged a street, sidewalks and driveways in a subdivision that was under construction.

    Meanwhile, heavy snowpack and highs expected to reach 60 degrees Thursday were causing flooding in northwest Colorado, where transportation officials closed Highway 40 between Craig and Steamboat Springs, a popular ski area that has received more than 400 inches (1,016 centimeters) of snow this winter.

    Flooding in the small mountain town of Hayden forced schools to close. Rain was in the forecast Thursday afternoon, with the expectation of turning to snow overnight.

    The Colorado Department of Transportation posted photos online showing Dry Creek spilling over its banks at a bridge there, as well as floodwater threatening several parked recreational vehicles.

    The National Weather Service said some roads might become impassable during the weekend and urged motorists not to drive through flooded crossings.

    There were no reports of major damage, however, in Utah or Colorado as of Thursday.

    In the Northern Plains, a speedy snowmelt and possible April showers stoked fears of heavy flooding. Residents have been assembling thousands — if not hundreds of thousands — of sandbags to hold back water.

    The Red River Valley, which includes Fargo in North Dakota and Moorhead in Minnesota, had one of the snowiest winters on record. Heavy rain could cause the river to rise quickly, Moorhead city engineer Bob Zimmerman told Minnesota Public Radio.

    Minnesota’s Democratic Gov. Tim Walz said Thursday at a news conference that the state is ready to respond with financial help for flooding if needed.

    He added that warmer temperatures and rising waters from climate change have factored into the state’s months-long preparation for the spring flooding season.

    Local, state and federal public safety and emergency management partners have ramped up monitoring and preparation efforts, according to the state’s Department of Public Safety.

    North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum has declared a statewide emergency for spring flooding, and he made the National Guard available to help fight floods in the coming weeks, the Bismarck Tribune reported. The city of Bismarck opened sites for residents to fill their own sandbags.

    In northern Montana, the Milk River was expected to rise to its highest level in more than a decade and swamp some rural areas.

    Emergency officials along the river in Glasgow were patrolling the levee protecting the city of about 3,200 people to make sure it held up, said Valley County Disaster and Emergency Services coordinator Rick Seiler. Shelters were being arranged in case low-lying areas need evacuations.

    The flooding was forecast to continue through next week, according to the National Weather Service.

    Heavy rain was falling across the region on Thursday while snow continued to pile up at higher elevations, Seiler said.

    ___

    Associated Press writers Trisha Ahmed in Minneapolis; Matthew Brown in Billings, Montana; Terry Tang in Phoenix; Thomas Peipert in Denver; and Scott Sonner in Reno, Nevada, contributed to this report.

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  • Mississippi city faces tough road rebuilding after tornado

    Mississippi city faces tough road rebuilding after tornado

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    ROLLING FORK, Miss. — The scent of the Mississippi Delta’s soil took hold of Charlie Weissinger’s psyche at an early age, and he has chased it ever since.

    Weissinger, 37, works at a bank to support his farming addiction in Rolling Fork, where his family has grown cotton, corn, soybeans, rice or wheat since 1902.

    “It’s something about the lifestyle, of being able to watch something that you’re able to create from start to finish,” he said. ”It’s so strange that you can do everything right, and then Mother Nature can take it away. And so it’s a constant battle of man’s will versus Mother Nature, of trying to see how well you can do in the face of adversity.”

    Weissinger’s farm was mostly spared when a deadly tornado tore through Rolling Fork last month as it carved a path of destruction through parts of western and northern Mississippi. But many in the predominantly Black farming community weren’t as fortunate.

    The twister killed 13 of Rolling Fork’s roughly 1,700 residents, destroyed about 300 homes and businesses and laid waste to entire blocks, leaving many to wonder whether their small-town bonds and shared heritage will be enough to convince one another to stay and try to rebuild.

    Rolling Fork has a proud history, claiming blues legend Muddy Waters as a native son and a role in the invention of the teddy bear, after President Theodore Roosevelt refused to shoot a restrained bear during a 1902 hunting trip.

    But the city and surrounding Sharkey County are in one of the country’s poorest regions and were already facing tough economic challenges before the March 24 tornado lashed the community with 200 mph (320 kph) winds, closing down nearly every local business. Volatile agricultural markets and a lack of jobs and new industry have kept Sharkey’s poverty rate at around 35%, nearly double Mississippi’s roughly 19% rate and triple the nation’s nearly 12% rate.

    “We want to keep our Blues heritage. We still want to see some Rolling Fork when it’s rebuilt,” local Travis Gully said as he walked down a hard-hit street near the roughly 135-year-old Rolling Fork Methodist Church a few days after the tornado hit. “We are the home of Muddy Waters. We are the home of the teddy bear. We want to see the bottle trees in our yards to remind people of our rich heritage.”

    The destruction can seem unquantifiable to weary residents who have been working alongside a network of volunteers every day since the tornado to sort through mounds of rubble. Some homes were lifted off the ground by their foundations. A bear statue commemorating Roosevelt’s visit still stands in the heart of downtown, but the twister left its mark on hundreds of structures, including schools, clinics and the local hospital.

    The community has pulled together, but the tornado stacked longstanding challenges on top of newer ones, such as high inflation and rising interest rates. In a rebuilt Rolling Fork, residents want more jobs, better infrastructure and a fighting chance to keep people from fleeing.

    “What in the hell are we going to do? That’s all I can think,” Willard Miller, a 73-year-old lifelong resident, said from his driveway as he looked out on his mangled neighborhood. “There’s a lot of young people, they ain’t coming back. And they have no reason to other than this is their hometown and their parents are probably here.”

    Jerry Stevens owned the Cloverfield Laundromat in downtown Rolling Fork for 20 years. Its walls were blown away, but its 26 washers and dryers remain planted to the ground. Even if he rebuilds, he isn’t sure if many of his old customers will follow suit.

    “I’m scared a lot of the building won’t come because inflation is so high right now,” Stevens said. “Interest rates on loans are really high. I’m thinking when they get their insurance checks, they may just go somewhere else and buy a house that is already standing.”

    Rolling Fork has been tested by the elements before. The effects of economic stagnation have been compounded by repeated bouts of heavy rainfall that turn tame backwaters into flooded terrain. In a wet season, water can overtop levees and spill onto fertile soil, swallowing whatever ill-fated crops lie beneath.

    In 2019, the worst flooding in the area since 1973 drove some from their homes. But the city now faces a rebuilding effort unlike any it has undertaken.

    President Joe Biden, who toured the devastation, approved a disaster declaration for the state, freeing up federal funds for temporary housing, home repairs and loans to cover uninsured property losses. But there is concern about how the aid will be spent.

    “The citizens have lost everything,” said Calvin Stewart, a five-term alderman representing the city’s first ward. “With all the funds people are trying to bring into the city, I need to make sure those funds get to the most impacted folks.”

    The influx of federal funds comes with Mississippi embroiled in its largest-ever corruption case. A welfare scandal has exposed how millions of dollars intended for the state’s neediest people were instead diverted to the rich and powerful.

    Amid a current of distrust, communities that have strong social and civic institutions before disasters strike do a better job of allocating relief funds and retaining residents, said David Peters, a professor of rural sociology at Iowa State University.

    “When natural disasters like tornadoes or floods hit, communities take two different trajectories,” Peters said. “Communities where there’s strong social capital are fairly resilient. The problem is, those rural communities are fairly rare. In communities that have an absence of social capital, federal monies are mismanaged. And most often, people leave.”

    Tasmin Bee, a teacher, is among those who plan to stay, even though the storm blew the roof off the home she bought in August. With Rolling Fork’s schools closed, she said she has to take her five children out of town to keep them busy.

    “There is nothing here for kids. You don’t even have a YMCA,” Bee said. They got a city pool, but it’s small. They had a baseball park. If you want to take the kids to the arcade or something like to have a good time, you’ve got to travel.”

    When Charlie Weissinger, the banker-farmer, needs a place to take his two sons, he brings them to the patch of farmland that has had its hooks in him for as long as he can remember.

    “My boys can decide to go anywhere in the world they want to,” Weissinger said. “But I get them down here, and they get a smell of the dirt. It will follow them for the rest of their lives.”

    ___

    Michael Goldberg is a corps member for the Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues. Follow him on Twitter at https://twitter.com/mikergoldberg.

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  • Destructive cyclone forecast to hit northwest Australia

    Destructive cyclone forecast to hit northwest Australia

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    CANBERRA, Australia — A tropical cyclone is expected to intensify to the most destructive category before it crosses the northwest Australian coast with winds gusting at more than 280 kph (170 mph), meteorologists said Thursday.

    Cyclones are common along the sparsely populated Pilbara coast of Western Australia state and fatalities are rare, but authorities fear that Cyclone Ilsa’s extraordinary wind speeds could take some in its path by surprise.

    Ilsa reached Category 4 intensity Thursday over the Indian Ocean and is expected to strengthen to the maximum destructive category on a five-tier scale before it crosses the Pilbara coast by early Friday, Australia’s Bureau of Meteorology said.

    Category 5 cyclones have a maximum mean wind speed exceeding 200 kph (124 mph) with gusts exceeding 280 kph (174 mph). They typically cause widespread destruction, the bureau said.

    The last Category 5 storm to cross the Australian coast was Cyclone Yasi in 2011. Yasi caused hundreds of millions of dollars in damage in the east coast state of Queensland. The only death blamed on the disaster was a man killed by exhaust fumes from a electricity generator he had used in a confined space.

    In 2019, Cyclone Veronica did not cross the Pilbara coast, but damaged infrastructure and disrupted the region’s mining and offshore gas industries.

    Ilsa is expected to cross the coast somewhere in a 220-km (137-mile) span between the iron ore export town of Port Hedland and Wallal Downs Station, a 200,000-hectare (500,000-acre) cattle ranch to the east.

    Those close to where Ilsa makes landfall would experience gusts of up to 285 kph (177 mph), the bureau said.

    On Thursday, police closed the highway along the Pilbara coast between Port Hedland and the tourist town of Broome, 610 km (380 miles) to the northeast, to prevent motorists from risking the worsening conditions. Authorities expect the North West Coastal Highway will be impassable due to flooding before Ilsa passes.

    Port Hedland and Broome are the largest population centers in the Pilbara region with 16,000 and 15,000 people.

    Bidyadanga, home to around 700 people midway between Wallal Downs Station and Broome, stocked enough food and fuel by Thursday to last a week in case the community is isolated by floodwater. Bidyadanga CEO Tania Baxter said maintaining the community’s electricity would be critical to how they weathered the storm.

    “Without power, we haven’t got water and possibly even communications,” Baxter said. “So if we can maintain power supply, then we’ll be fine. We’ll manage everything else that comes with it and any damage that comes.”

    Many in the cyclone’s path have evacuated in recent days. In Port Hedland, from which the world’s largest bulk export port sends Australian iron ore around the globe, evacuation centers had opened to people whose homes might not withstand the storm, said mayor Peter Carter.

    “Everyone is on edge,” Carter said. “They understand that cyclones are what they are. They’re very, very unpredictable.”

    Long-term Port Hedland resident Julie Arif, who has experienced several cyclones, said she was concerned for those in Ilsa’s path.

    “They’ll be prepared and riding it out. But it is still terrifying, absolutely terrifying,” Arif said. “When you’re inside in a house and there’s just the roar of the wind outside and thumping and banging and crashing. And cyclones happen at nighttime. You don’t know what it is and it’s frightening.”

    The bureau warned of damaging winds, flooding rain and abnormally high tides along the Pilbara coast as Ilsa passes.

    Many people in the Pilbara region are involved in the mining and cattle industry or are tourists taking advantage of the school vacation period that began this week.

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