storm
Ian evacuees return to mud, death toll rises to 101
Rotting fish and garbage lie scattered in Sanibel Island’s streets. On the mainland, debris from washed-away homes is heaped in a canal like matchsticks. Huge shrimp boats sit perched amid the remains of a mobile home park.
“Think of a snow globe. Pick it up and shake it — that’s what happened,” said Fred Szott.
For the past three days, he and his wife Joyce have been making trips to their damaged mobile home in Fort Myers, cleaning up after Hurricane Ian slammed into Florida’s Gulf Coast.
As for the emotional turbulence, he says: “You either hold on, or you lose it.”
The number of storm-related deaths rose to at least 101 on Thursday, eight days after the storm made landfall in southwest Florida. According to reports from the Florida Medical Examiners Commission, 92 of those deaths were in Florida. Five people were also killed in North Carolina, three in Cuba and one in Virginia.
Ian is the second-deadliest storm to hit the mainland U.S. in the 21st century behind Hurricane Katrina, which left more than 1,800 people dead in 2005. The deadliest hurricane ever to hit the U.S. was the Great Galveston Hurricane in 1900 that killed as many as 8,000 people.
Residents of Florida’s devastated barrier islands are starting to return, assessing the damage to homes and businesses despite limited access to some areas. Pamela Brislin arrived by boat to see what she could salvage.
Brislin had stayed through the storm, but is haunted by what happened afterward. When she checked on a neighbor, she found the woman crying. Her husband had passed away, his body laid out on a picnic table until help could arrive. Another neighbor’s house caught fire. The flames were so large that they forced Breslin to do what the hurricane could not — flee with her husband and a neighbor’s dog.
Ian, a Category 4 storm with sustained winds of 150 miles per hour (240 kilometers per hour), unleashed torrents of rain and caused extensive flooding and damage. The deluge turned streets into gushing rivers. Backyard waterways overflowed into neighborhoods, sometimes by more than a dozen feet (3.5 meters), tossing boats onto yards and roadways. Beaches disappeared, as ocean surges pushed shorelines far inland. Officials estimate the storm has caused billions of dollars in damage.
The broken causeway to Sanibel Island might not be passable until the end of the month. Officials on the island had ordered a complete curfew after the storm passed, allowing search and rescue teams to do their work. That meant residents who evacuated were technically blocked from returning.
The city of about 7,000 started allowing residents back from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. on Wednesday. City manager Dana Souza told residents in a Facebook Live stream that he wished the municipality had resources to provide transportation but that, for now, residents would have to arrange visits by private boat.
Pine Island is closer to the mainland than Sanibel, and temporary repairs to its causeway were finished on Wednesday.
But the island was hit hard by the storm. Cindy Bickford’s house is still standing. Much of the damage was from flooding, which left a thick layer of rancid muck on her floors. She’s hopeful that a lot can be salvaged.
“We’ll tear the home apart so we can live in it,” said Bickford, who wore a T-shirt that said “Relax,” “Refresh” and “Renew.”
“It’s not our stuff we’re worried about. It’s our community. Pine Island is extremely close-knit,” said Bickford, who arrived Thursday for the first time.
Jay Pick said the island still feels cut off from the outside, and a bit chaotic.
“People are trying to do the right thing and help people, and yet other people are stepping up and taking their gas cans and stealing generators,” he said.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, at a news conference Thursday in the Sarasota County town of Nokomis, praised the widespread restoration of running water through the storm-hit zone and the work toward restoring power. Some 185,000 customers remain without electricity, down from highs above 2.6 million across the state.
He said rescue workers have conducted around 2,500 missions, particularly on barrier islands on the Gulf coast as well as in inland areas that have seen intense flooding. More than 90,000 structures have been inspected and checked for survivors, he said.
He said residents areas devastated by the hurricane had been showing great resilience over the past week.
President Joe Biden toured some of Florida’s hurricane-hit areas on Wednesday, surveying damage by helicopter and then walking on foot alongside DeSantis. The Democratic president and Republican governor pledged to put political rivalries aside to help rebuild homes, businesses and lives. Biden emphasized at a briefing with local officials that the effort could take years.
Storm’s fierce winds complicate California wildfire fight
A tropical storm nearing Southern California on Friday brought fierce mountain winds, high humidity, rain and the threat of flooding to a region already dealing with wildfires and an extraordinary heat wave that has stressed the electrical grid.
In a mix of bad and good, firefighters feared powerful winds could expand the massive Fairview Fire 70 miles (113 kilometers) north of San Diego, while forecasters said the change in weather would finally end the state’s heat wave.
Tropical Storm Kay, downgraded from hurricane status, was starting to sputter as it moved northward off Mexico’s Baja California peninsula and was expected to keep losing steam overnight and head farther out to sea without making landfall in Southern California, according to the National Hurricane Center. But it was still having an impact there. The National Weather Service warned of a threat of flash floods for much of Southern California, Arizona and southern Nevada.
The moisture was forecast to then surge farther north into the Central Valley and the Sierra Nevada, where the dangerous Mosquito Fire is burning, bringing both significant cooling and the possibility of thunderstorms during the weekend.
The tropical conditions added a swelter to the heat wave, which offered little overnight relief. The San Diego airport was 89 degrees (31.6 degrees Celsius) with rain at 5 a.m. Friday.
“Living in San Diego, it’s odd to see skies overcast and rain and go outside into a wall of humidity as if it were South Carolina,” said city spokesperson Anthony Santacroce.
Officials from San Diego to Long Beach were posting warning signs in low-lying coastal areas and making sandbags available to the public. Crews were on standby to deal with any flooding, while the forecast of rough seas prompted the cancellation of afternoon and evening ferry services Friday to Catalina Island, off the coast of Los Angeles.
By late morning a steady rain pelted downtown San Diego as Charles Jenkins swept the accumulating puddles away from the tarps of his makeshift home.
“The heat was killer so for now this feels good,” Jenkins said. “I just hope the water doesn’t get too high. But I will rough it. I’ve got pallets I can put underneath to keep out the rain.”
Around 1 p.m. as the rain continued, a Navy contracted, twin-engine plane carrying two civilian pilots slid off the end of a runway after it touched down at Naval Air Station North Island in Coronado and parked in a spit of sand. The plane’s nose was damaged but the pilots were able to depart on their own and were taken to a hospital for observation, Naval Base Coronado spokesperson Kevin Dixon said. The cause of the crash was under investigation and it was unknown if weather was a factor.
To the east in the agricultural region of California’s Imperial Valley near the Mexican border, there was some scattered flooding of roads and fields and power outages, officials said.
Windspeeds reached 109 mph (175 kph) on San Diego County’s Cuyamaca Peak, the National Weather Service said. Several small school districts in the mountainous region called off classes to keep people from having to travel in the blustery weather.
The gusts made driving to work difficult for Rhonda Young, office manager of the Julian Pie Company in Julian, a mountain town 60 miles (100 kilometers) northeast of San Diego that is known for its apple orchards.
“It’s pretty crazy out there,” she said. “There are definitely a lot of trees down.”
The winds added a major concern on the fire lines.
The Fairview Fire covered about 43 square miles (111 square kilometers) of Riverside County and was just 5% contained. Two people died while fleeing on Monday and at least 12 structures have been destroyed. More than 18,000 homes were threatened.
To the north in the Sierra Nevada, the fast-moving Mosquito Fire doubled in size Friday to at least 46 square miles (119 square kilometers) and threatened 3,600 homes in Placer and El Dorado counties, while blanketing the region in smoke.
Flames jumped the American River, burning structures in the mountain hamlet of Volcanoville and moving closer to the towns of Foresthill, home to about 1,500 people, and Georgetown, population 3,000. More than 5,700 people in the area have been evacuated, said Placer County Sheriff’s Office Lt. Josh Barnhart.
David Hance slept on the porch of his mother’s Foresthill mobile home when he woke up to a glowing red sky early Wednesday morning and was ordered to evacuate.
“It was actually fricking terrifying, cause they say, ‘Oh yeah, it’s coming closer,’” he said. “It was like sunset in the middle of the night.”
Hance left behind most of his electronic gear, all his clothing and family photos and fled to Auburn, where he found his mother, Linda Hance, who said the biggest stress is wondering: “Is my house still there?”
Also read; Tropical Storm Colin threatens a wet weekend for Carolinas
Organizers of the Tour de Tahoe announced Friday they were canceling the annual 72-mile (115-km) bicycle ride scheduled Sunday around Lake Tahoe because of the heavy smoke from the blaze — more than 50 miles (80 km) away — and noted that cycling is a “heavy cardio activity that does not pair well with terrible air quality.” Last year’s ride was canceled due to smoke from another big fire south of Tahoe.
The Mosquito Fire’s cause remained under investigation. Pacific Gas & Electric said unspecified “electrical activity” occurred close in time to the report of the fire on Sept. 6.
Positive news was reported from the Radford Fire near the Big Bear Lake resort area in the San Bernardino Mountains east of Los Angeles. Evacuation orders were reduced to warnings as containment grew to 59% with just under 2 square miles (5 square kilometers) burned.
While rain could help quell the fires, the storm raised new risks.
Riverside County officials warned that some areas including wildfire burn scars could get up to 7 inches (17.7 centimeters) of rain, bringing the threat of flash flooding and mud and debris flows.
Southern California Edison advised that it was considering cutting power to some areas due to the weather. Public safety power shutoffs are used to prevent fires from igniting if winds bring down or damage power lines and electrical equipment.
Up the West Coast, Oregon utilities began shutting down power to thousands of customers on Friday as dry easterly winds swept into the region, raising the risk of wildfire danger.
6 people die after storm causes Montana highway pileup
Six people have died after a dust storm fueled by wind gusts topping 60 mph caused a pileup Friday evening on Interstate 90 in Montana, authorities said.
Twenty-one vehicles crashed and Montana Highway Patrol Sgt. Jay Nelson said authorities believe the weather was the cause.
“It appears as though there was heavy winds, causing a dust storm with zero visibility,” he said.
While the highway patrol did not have an immediate count of the number of injuries, Nelson said additional ambulances had to be called in from Billings to help.
Gov. Greg Gianforte said on Twitter: “I’m deeply saddened by the news of a mass casualty crash near Hardin. Please join me in prayer to lift up the victims and their loved ones. We’re grateful to our first responders for their service.”
Also read; Tropical Storm Colin threatens a wet weekend for Carolinas
The incident happened 3 miles (5 kilometers) west of Hardin. A video from The Billings Gazette showed hundreds of tractor-trailers, campers and cars backed up for miles along the two eastbound lanes of the interstate.
The dust storm’s roots can be traced back several hours, when storms popped up in central southern Montana between 1 and 2 p.m. and slowly began moving east, according to Nick Vertz, a National Weather Service meteorologist in Billings.
Those storms prompted a severe thunderstorm watch that covered Hardin and other parts of Montana from mid-afternoon until 9 p.m. Friday. Meteorologists forecasted the potential for isolated hail the size of a quarter, scattered wind gusts up to 75 mph (121 kph) and frequent lightning.
A so-called “outflow” — or a surge of wind that’s produced by storms but can travel faster than them — flew east/southeast about 30 miles (48 kilometers) ahead of the storms, Vertz said.
A 40 mph (64 kph) gust of wind was recorded at the nearby Big Horn County Airport at 4:15 p.m. The crash was reported to the highway patrol at 4:28 p.m.
By the airport weather station’s next reading at 4:35 p.m., the gusts had picked up to 62 mph (100 kph). Another reading 20 minutes later recorded a gust of 64 mph (103 kph).
The wind easily picked up dust — a product of recent temperatures into the 90s and triple digits over the last week — and reduced visibility to less than 1/4 mile (0.4 kilometers).
“If they looked up in the sky while they’re in Hardin, they probably didn’t see much of what you’d think of for a thunderstorm cloud, maybe not even much at all,” Vertz said. “It was just a surge of wind that kind of appeared out of nowhere.”
As first responders attempt to clear the wreckage, the meteorologist said they can expect to be safe from additional winds and thunderstorm activity.
“It should be a relatively clear, calm night for them,” he said.
Sri Lankans storm president's house, office in biggest rally
Sri Lankan protesters stormed President Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s residence and nearby office on Saturday as tens of thousands of people took to the streets of the capital Colombo in the biggest demonstration yet to vent their fury against a leader they hold responsible for the island nation’s worst economic crisis.
It was not clear if Rajapaksa was inside his residence but footage showed hundreds of people inside the well-fortified house and on the grounds outside, some taking a dip in the garden pool and others in a jubilant mood.
A government spokesman, Mohana Samaranayake, said he had no information about Rajapaksa's whereabouts.
Sri Lanka’s economy is in a state of collapse, muddling through with aid from India and other countries as its leaders try to negotiate a bailout with the International Monetary Fund. The economic meltdown has led to severe shortages of essential items, leaving people struggling to buy food, fuel and other necessities.
The turmoil has led to months of protests, which have nearly dismantled the Rajapaksa political dynasty that has ruled Sri Lanka for most of the past two decades.
The president’s older brother resigned as prime minister in May after violent protests saw him seek safety at a naval base, while three other Rajapaksa relatives had quit their Cabinet posts earlier. Much of the public ire has been pointed at the Rajapaksa family, with protesters blaming them for dragging Sri Lanka into chaos with poor management and allegations of corruption.
A new prime minister, Ranil Wickremesinghe, took over in May to help steer the country out of the crisis. Meanwhile, Rajapaksa has held on to power despite growing calls for him to quit.
On Saturday, as droves of people broke through barriers to occupy the president’s residence, hundreds of protesters, some carrying national flags, also stormed his seaside office in another nearby building. Demonstrators have camped outside the entrance to his office for the past three months.
Videos posted on social media showed protesters storming the residence, chanting “Gota go home,” calling the president by his nickname. Dozens were seen jumping into the pool, milling about the house and and watching television. Outside the building, barricades were overturned and a black flag was hoisted on a pole.
At the president’s office, security personnel tried to stop demonstrators who pushed through fences to run across the lawns and inside the colonial-era building.
At least 34 people including two police officers were wounded in scuffles as protesters tried to enter the residence. Two of the injured are in critical condition while others sustained minor injuries, said an official at the Colombo National Hospital who spoke on condition of anonymity as he was not authorized to speak to the media.
Thousands of protesters entered the capital from the suburbs earlier on Saturday after police lifted an overnight curfew. With fuel supplies scarce, many crowded onto buses and trains to come to the city to protest, while others made their way on bicycles and on foot.
Last month, Wickremesinghe said the country’s economy has collapsed. He said that the negotiations with the IMF have been complex because Sri Lanka was now a bankrupt state.
In April, Sri Lanka announced it is suspending repaying foreign loans due to a foreign currency shortage. Its total foreign debt amounts to $51 billion of which it must repay $28 billion by the end of 2027.
Police had imposed a curfew in Colombo and several other main urban areas on Friday night but withdrew it Saturday morning amid objections by lawyers and opposition politicians who called it illegal.
U.S. Ambassador to Sri Lanka Julie Chung on Friday asked people to protest peacefully and called for the military and police “to grant peaceful protesters the space and security to do so.”
“Chaos & force will not fix the economy or bring the political stability that Sri Lankans need right now,” Chung said in a tweet.
Rare northern Michigan twister kills 1, injures more than 40
A rare northern Michigan tornado tore through a small community on Friday, killing at least one person and injuring more than 40 others as it flipped vehicles, tore roofs from buildings and downed trees and power lines.
The twister hit Gaylord, a city of about 4,200 people roughly 230 miles (370 kilometers) northwest of Detroit, at around 3:45 p.m.
Mike Klepadlo, who owns the car repair shop Alter-Start North, said he and his workers took cover in a bathroom.
“I’m lucky I’m alive. It blew the back off the building,” he said. “Twenty feet (6 meters) of the back wall is gone. The whole roof is missing. At least half the building is still here. It’s bad.”
Emma Goddard, 15, said she was working at the Tropical Smoothie Cafe when she got a phone alert about the tornado. Thinking the weather outside looked “stormy, but not scary,” she dismissed it and returned to what she was doing. Her mother then called and she assured her mom she was OK.
Two minutes later, she was pouring a customer’s smoothie when her coworker’s mom rushed in yelling for them to get to the back of the building, Goddard told The Associated Press by text message. They took shelter in the walk-in cooler, where they could hear windows shattering.
“I was crammed shoulder-to-shoulder with my seven co-workers, two of my co-workers’ parents and a lady from Door Dash coming to pick up her smoothies.”
When they left the cooler about 15 minutes later and stepped outside, they saw “some of our cars in pieces and insulation all over the ground,” Goddard said. Three neighboring businesses were destroyed, she said.
Brian Lawson, a spokesman for Munson Healthcare, said Otsego Memorial Hospital was treating 23 people injured by the tornado and that one person was killed. He didn’t know the conditions of the injured or the name of the person who died.
The Michigan State Patrol confirmed that one person was killed, saying in a tweet that more than 40 others were hurt and being treated at area hospitals. The patrol planned to hold a briefing Saturday morning.
“I’ve never seen anything like this in my life,” Mayor Todd Sharrard said. “I’m numb.”
Video posted online showed a dark funnel cloud materialize out of a cloud as nervous drivers looked on or slowly drove away, uncertain of its path.
Other video showed extensive damage along the city’s Main Street. One building appeared to be largely collapsed and a Goodwill store was badly damaged. A collapsed utility pole lay on the side of the road, and debris, including what appeared to be electrical wires and parts of a Marathon gas station, was scattered all along the street.
Read: 7 dead after tornadoes tore through central Iowa: Officials
The Red Cross set up a shelter at a church.
Brandie Slough, 42, said she and a teen daughter sought safety in a restroom at a Culver’s. Windows of the fast food restaurant were blown out when they emerged, and her pickup truck had been flipped on its roof in the parking lot.
“We shook our heads in disbelief but are thankful to be safe. At that point, who cares about the truck,” Slough said.
Eddie Thrasher, 55, said he was sitting in his car outside an auto parts store when the tornado seemed to appear above him.
“There are roofs ripped off businesses, a row of industrial-type warehouses,” Thrasher said. “RVs were flipped upside down and destroyed. There were a lot of emergency vehicles heading from the east side of town.”
Read:Tornado rips through New Orleans and its suburbs, killing 1
He said he ran into the store to ride it out.
“My adrenaline was going like crazy,” Thrasher said. “In less than five minutes it was over.”
Extreme winds are uncommon in this part of Michigan because the Great Lakes suck energy out of storms, especially early in spring when the lakes are very cold, said Jim Keysor, a Gaylord-based meteorologist with the National Weather Service.
“Many kids and young adults would have never experienced any direct severe weather if they had lived in Gaylord their entire lives,” he said.
The last time Gaylord had a severe wind storm was in 1998, when straight-line winds reached 100 mph, Keysor said. He said the conditions that spawned Friday’s twister included a cold front moving in from Wisconsin and hitting hot and humid air over Gaylord, with the added ingredient of turning winds in the lower part of the atmosphere.
Gaylord, known as the “Alpine Village,” is set to celebrate its 100th birthday this year, with a centennial celebration that will include a parade and open house at City Hall later this summer.
The community also holds the annual Alpenfest in July, an Alpine-inspired celebration honoring the city’s heritage and a partnership with a sister city in Switzerland.
One dies, 3 go missing as speedboat sinks in Bay
A 12-year-old girl died and three people went missing when a speedboat sank in the Bay of Bengal during a storm in Sandwip of Chattogram district on Wednesday.
The deceased was identified as Anika while those who went missing were identified as –Adifa, Aliva and Saikat.
Also read:Lighter vessel sinks in Bay: 12 missing crew members rescued
The speedboat with 20 passengers sank in the sea during storm while heading towards Guptachara ghat in Sandwip from Kumira in Sitakunda, said Zonal commander of Coast Guard East Zone, Captain Kazi Shah Alam.
Coast Guard members recovered Anika’s body after the accident.
Local people managed to rescue 16 other passengers of the speedboat.
Nor’wester lashes Sunamganj
A nor’wester wrought havoc in Sunamganj district on Friday night, damaging several houses and agricultural fields.
Fortunately, no casualties were reported in the nor'wester that lashed the district around 10pm.
The impact of the storm was severely felt in Uttar Borodol and Sadar unions of the district's Tahirpur upazila, officials said on Saturday.
Also read: Nor’wester kills one, injures 7 in Chuadanga
Several trees were uprooted and tin sheds of many houses in the affected areas were carried aloft in the whirlwind that lasted for half an hour, according to the officials.
Md. Masuk Mia, chairman of Uttar Borodol Union Parishad, said that the nor’wester damaged 80-90 houses in the union.
Mohammad Golam Morshed, Tahirpur upazila director of Bangladesh Rural Electrification Board, said that "efforts are on to restore power supply in the upazila as many electric poles have been damaged in the nor’wester".
Also read: Nor'wester coming, likely to hit five divisions
Philippine storm death toll rises to 167, 110 missing
The death toll from the landslides and flooding spawned by tropical storm Megi has risen to 167, with 110 still missing, the government said on Saturday.
The National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council reported that 164 died in the central Philippines and three in the southern Philippines. The agency, which culls reports from the provinces affected by disasters, added that there are 110 more missing in the central Philippines.
Megi dumped rains in the central and southern Philippine regions before and after it hit land on April 10, inundating many areas and setting off landslides in several villages in Baybay City and Abuyog town in Leyte province.
On Friday, Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte visited the devastated province and handed relief goods to the survivors. He conducted an aerial inspection of the villages buried by mudslides.
The central Philippines is in the typhoon alley and usually the gateway of typhoons to the country. Landslides and flash floods are common across the Philippines during the rainy season, especially when typhoons hit.
READ: Severe storms pummel South after 7 hurt in Arkansas tornado
The Philippines is one of the most disaster-prone countries in the world, mainly due to its location in the Pacific Ring of Fire and Pacific typhoon belt. On average, this archipelagic country experiences 20 typhoons every year, some of which are intense and destructive. Megi is the first storm to batter the Southeast Asian country this year.
Nor’wester kills one, injures 7 in Chuadanga
A 47-year-old woman was killed and seven others were injured during a nor'wester in Chuadanga district on Thursday night, officials said.
The deceased was identified as Momena Khatun, wife of Aminul Islam of Kurulgachi village in Damurhuda upazila.
The injured have been identified as Aminul Islam, 48, Momena’s husband, Saidul Islam, 48, Yusuf Ali, 38, Abu Bakkar, 40, Akkas, 33, and Naim, 15, all residents of Rudranagar in Damurhuda, and Full Siratul Khatun, 42, of Shorabaria village in Sadar upazila.
Also read: Nor'wester coming, likely to hit five divisions
The injured are being treated at Chuadanga Sadar Hospital. “The condition of one of the seven injured is critical,” said Hasnat Parvej Shubho, a hospital doctor.
Momena died on the spot when a tree fell on the tin-shed roof of their house during the storm, said AHM Lutful Kabir, officer-in-charge of Darshana police station.
Some of the others sustained injuries when the wall of a shop where they took shelter in the School Para area of Rudranagar village during the storm caved in on them, he said.
Also read: Unexpected nor'wester showers Dhaka
Ful Siratul sustained injuries when a branch of a tree fell on her head on the terrace of her house during the storm, said the OC.
“The wind speed was recorded at 64 kilometres per hour and the rainfall was recorded at 10mm,” said Samadul Haque, in-charge of the Chuadanga observatory of Bangladesh Meteorological Department.
Nor’wester, lightning strike kills 5 in Sunamganj
Five people, including a woman and her two children, were killed during a Nor'wester storm in Sunamganj early Thursday.
The deceased were identified as Moushumi Begum, 35, her daughter Mahima Begum, 4, and her one-year-old son Hossain Ahmed, of Jagannathpur upazila; Mukul Khan, 50, and his son Masud Khan, 7, of Shalla upazila.
Also read: Government to build lightning resistant shelters in 23 districts including Haor areas
In Jagannathpur, Moushumi and her two children were crushed under two uprooted trees as the trees fell on their house around 5am due to the storm.
Later, they were rushed to Upazila Health Complex where the doctor declared the trio dead, said Mizanur Rahman, officer-in-charge (OC) of Jagannathpur police station.
The bodies were sent to Sunamganj Sadar Hospital morgue for autopsy, he added.
Also read: 2,800 lost lives in lightning strikes in 10 years: Dr Enamur
Meanwhile, in Shalla upazila, a streak of lightning struck Mukul, his son Masud, Rimon, 11, and his brother-in-law's son Tanvir Hossain, 7, while they were working in a wetland in Nasirpur Village around 7am, leaving Mukul and Masud dead on spot.
Rimon and Tanvir were sent to Ajmiriganj Upazila Health Complex in Habiganj for treatment, said Aminul Islam, officer-in-charge (OC) of Shalla police station.