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segunda-feira, 10 de setembro de 2012

Tropical Storm Leslie churns north, likely to slip by Bermuda

By ELIZABETH ROBERTSHAMILTON, Bermuda -- Tropical Storm Leslie churned northward Sunday on a path expected to carry it east of wary Bermuda.

With a strike growing less likely, the British territory's government pulled back on some of its storm preparations Saturday, but warned residents to keep alert in case of changes in Leslie.

"Bermuda seems to have escaped the worst of Tropical Storm Leslie," Wayne Perinchief, the national security minister, said Saturday, but he urged people to remain cautious.

The government dropped plans to close the airport, although major airlines had canceled flights. Officials also decided not to open an emergency shelter but said the facility was ready in case it was needed.

Bermuda, a financial haven and tourist destination about 600 miles (965 kilometers) off the U.S. East Coast, has strong building codes and its people are used to storms.

"I have taken precautions," said Gareth Kerr, 29. "The windows have the shutters across and I got supplies such as water and tinned food. If the weather is bad tomorrow I'll just sit indoors."

James Dodgson, a forecaster for the Bermuda Weather Service, cautioned that even with the storm likely to stay well offshore, there would be a chance of some flooding. He said a probable small storm surge of one or two feet could combine with high tide Sunday to cause minor flooding in low-lying areas.

The U.S. National Hurricane Center in Miami said the storm weakened slightly early Sunday, with maximum sustained winds of 60mph (95 kph), below the hurricane threshold of 74 mph (120 kph).

Leslie was centered about 150 miles (240 kilometers) east-southeast of Bermuda and was moving north at 9 mph (15 kph).

Far out in the Atlantic, Hurricane Michael remained a category 2 storm but slowed a bit to maximum sustained winds of 100 mph (160 kph) and was not considered any threat to land. For a few hours Thursday, it was the first Category 3 of the Atlantic hurricane season.

Michael was moving north-northwest at 5 mph (7 kph).

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sexta-feira, 22 de junho de 2012

Taliban storm Afghan hotel, kill 18 people

AMIR SHAHKABUS -- Heavily armed Taliban insurgents killed 18 people - most of them civilians - in an attack Friday on a lakeside hotel just north of Kabul, Afghan officials said.

Insurgents first killed the security guards at the hotel, then stormed inside it and began firing at guests who were dining. Some of the guests escaped while others were held hostage as the attackers battled Afghan security forces who rushed to the scene for the next 12 hours. Kabul police said all five attackers had been shot and killed by midday Friday, ending the standoff.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai condemned the incident, the latest in a string of attacks this week that suggest the insurgent group is pushing hard with its summer offensive rather than waiting for international forces to draw down. The strike at the hotel, about a half-hour drive from the capital, was a reminder that the Taliban can still hit very close to the seat of the Afghan government.

Fourteen Afghan civilians, three security guards and an Afghan police officer died in the attack, said Mohammad Zahir, criminal director for Kabul police.

"The attackers entered the hotel and suddenly opened fire on families having a late dinner," Zahir said. "The hotel was crowded. Some of the guests jumped from the window into the hotel yard. They were hiding under trees or any safe place they could find.

"Three of the guests jumped into the lake and hid in the water,' ' he added.

Kabul Police Chief Mohammad Ayub Salangi said the five attackers - armed with machines guns, rocket-propelled grenades and vests laden with explosives - stormed the Spozhmai hotel at Qargha Lake before midnight on Thursday. By midmorning Friday, militants were still fighting Afghan forces, supported by international troops. Gunfire pierced the quiet surroundings of the lake area. Black smoke was rising from the two-story hotel in a wooded area on the bank of the lake. NATO helicopters circled overhead.

"It was around 11:20 p.m. last night when it all started," said Mohammad Ghani, who was at the scene. "It got quiet for a couple of hours and then the fighting stated again."

Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid said the Taliban attacked the hotel because foreigners there were drinking alcohol and participating in other activities banned by Islam, but that was disputed by the Kabul police.

"The Taliban propaganda is saying that there was immoral activity there and that people were drinking alcohol," said Zahir, the criminal director for the Kabul police. "That is totally wrong. These are people who had worked all week and had gone to the lake to have a restful dinner with their families. The view there is very good for relaxation. There is no alcohol."

The hotel, situated on a man-made lake, is a popular place for well-to-do Afghans to spend Thursday night - the beginning of the Afghan weekend - or for picnic excursions on a Friday when paddleboats and horse rides are on offer. Though international workers do go to Qargha lake, Afghans make up the majority of the clientele at the hotels and kebab shops along its shore.

Security at the lake is light compared with targets inside the Afghan capital. While hotels at the lake have armed guards, there are no massive blast walls and security cordons that surround government and military buildings in Kabul. Zahir said only two of the three guards killed at the hotel were armed.

The hotel was a soft target compared with the attacks insurgents have launched inside the city in recent years, including taking over construction sites and firing down on embassies and storming the tightly secured Intercontinental Hotel in Kabul last summer.

The week has been particularly violent in Afghanistan, as insurgents stepped up attacks against international forces. On Wednesday, a suicide bomber attacked U.S. and Afghan forces at a checkpoint in a busy market in the east, killing 21 people, including three U.S. soldiers. The same day, seven Afghan civilians were killed by a roadside bomb.

Those bombings came the day after two attacks in the south in which militants stormed a NATO military base and attacked a police checkpoint. U.S. troops were wounded in the attack on the NATO base, officials said. On Monday, three gunmen dressed in Afghan police uniforms killed one American service member and wounded nine others in Kandahar's Zhari district.

The fighting suggests that the Taliban are not planning to wait for international combat forces to complete their exit from Afghanistan at the end of 2014. The commander of U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan, Marine Gen. John Allen, has to withdraw 23,000 American troops by the end of September, leaving about 68,000 U.S. military personnel in the country.

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Associated Press Writers Deb Riechmann and Heidi Vogt in Kabul contributed to this report.

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sábado, 26 de maio de 2012

Tropical storm warnings for Florida, South Carolina

Eyewitness NewsMIAMI -- Tropical storm warnings have been issued for the Southeast coast from north Florida to South Carolina as a cluster of thunderstorms was gathering strength Friday night and expected to become Tropical Storm Beryl over the Memorial Day weekend.

The National Weather Service said that the storm's maximum sustained winds were at 45 mph. But they are expected to increase as the storm moves over the waters of the Atlantic.

The system was about 305 miles (490 kilometers) from Charleston, S.C., at 11 p.m. and swirling toward the Southeast coast.

Tropical storm warnings were issued for the Volusia/Brevard County line in Florida to Edisto Beach, S.C., and watches from Edisto Beach to the Santee River. The storm is expected to eventually move southwest and the Georgia coast and northern Florida could see heavy rains starting Sunday and into next week.

Higher than normal tides will be crashing against the Southeastern coast and may cause flooding. Heavy rain is forecast and dangerous surf was expected along the coasts of northeastern Florida, Georgia and South Carolina over the holiday weekend.

Forecasters are classifying the storm as Subtropical Storm Beryl, which has more to do with how the center of the storm is forming, not wind speed, according to Weather Underground's website. It is the second named Atlantic storm of the hurricane season that doesn't officially begin until June 1.

Often when subtropical storms remain over warm water for several days, they become tropical because thunderstorms start building close to the center.

Forecasters were not indicating that the storm would become a hurricane.

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domingo, 29 de abril de 2012

1 dead after storm blows St. Louis beer tent over

By JIM SALTERST. LOUIS -- High winds swept through a beer tent where 200 people gathered after a Cardinals game Saturday, killing one and seriously injuring at least five others, authorities said.

The owner of the bar where the tent was set up said firefighters told him that the patron who died was struck by lightning, but Deputy Fire Chief John Altmann and Public Safety Director Eddie Roth said they didn't know what killed the man.

At least 17 people were hospitalized, including five who were initially in critical condition but are now said to be in serious condition. Up to 100 people were treated at the scene, mostly for minor injuries such as cuts and bruises.

Officials said straight-line winds whipped through the large tent outside Kilroy's Sports Bar, near Busch Stadium. The crowd was celebrating after the Cardinals beat Milwaukee 7-3 earlier in the afternoon.

Roth said winds of about 50 mph shattered aluminum poles that held up the tent, which was located south of the stadium. The force of the wind blew the tent onto an adjacent railroad bridge.

"It was crazy, scary," said Annie Randall, whose family owns Kilroy's. "We're just so sorry this happened."

Kilroy's owner Art Randall described a short burst of a storm - perhaps five seconds, he said - with a massive wind that lifted the huge tent, threw it perhaps 100 feet into the air and sent the aluminum poles and most everything in the tent airborne.

When he heard the boom, he initially thought a train had derailed into the tent.

As the wind blew, a bolt of lightning crashed into the bar, Randall said. He said firefighters told him it was a lightning strike - not flying debris - that killed the man.

"At some point in that five seconds, we were getting lightning strikes, and apparently one of our customers got hit by lightning right in the middle of the dance floor," Randall said.

The bar owner said he screamed for help and three customers ran over to administer CPR, but they couldn't save the man.

Randall said he looked around "and saw 50 bodies scattered everywhere."

The man who died appeared to be in his 50s, Roth said. His name has not been released.

Roth said the tent had passed inspection and it didn't appear there would be any violation, although the investigation is ongoing.

Randall described a scene in which barstools, pedestals and a 100-pound bass amplifier were flying through the air. The disc jockey working the party was struck by the amp and knocked unconscious, the bar owner said, and people were scurrying to help one another.

"My wife had people in the beer cooler - we had the beer cooler loaded with injuries," Randall said. "It was a triage deal."

Kilroy's is among several bars near Busch Stadium, and many bars set up tents for the excess business after Cardinals games. Crowds were also large because the St. Louis Blues were playing against the Los Angeles Kings Saturday night in the first game of the NHL's Western Conference semifinals.

The St. Louis area was under thunderstorm and tornado warnings several times Saturday. About two hours after the incident at Kilroy's, tornado sirens blared throughout the city after a funnel cloud sighting. There were several reports of tree damage, power lines down and damage from hail that in some parts of the region reportedly was as big as tennis balls.

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domingo, 29 de maio de 2011

Trees toppled by storm kill 3 in metro Atlanta

ATLANTA -- At least three people were killed in the Atlanta area as powerful storms toppled trees and power lines and knocked out power to more than 200,000 customers statewide.

The deaths Thursday night came just days after a powerful tornado killed 126 in Joplin, Mo., and just over a month after an outbreak of tornadoes raked the Southeast, killing more than 300.

Two Decatur women were killed in Atlanta when a tree fell on a truck, police said. Atlanta station WSB-TV reports a 19-year-old man was killed in Mableton when a tree fell on him while he was clearing debris from a driveway. The Fulton County Medical Examiner's office identified the two women as 61-year-old Marion Irwin, the driver, and her passenger, 64-year-old Geraldine Grady.

Heavy rains led the National Weather Service to issue a flash flood warning for portions of Fulton and DeKalb counties.

Georgia Power spokesman Jeff Wilson said Friday morning that 65,000 of its customers remained without power, 57,000 of them in metro Atlanta.

Georgia Electrical Membership Corporation reported that about 5,300 EMC customers, mostly in metro Atlanta and west of the metro area, also were without power.

High winds also knocked down trees in the Macon area. In Columbus, at least a dozen trees were knocked down around town, dispatchers said. One struck a house, but no injuries were reported.

Numerous interstate ramps and surface streets in metro Atlanta remained flooded before daybreak Friday, including the ramp from I-85 southbound to Camp Creek Parkway near Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport.

Atlanta police spokeswoman Kim Jones said a tree toppled onto a UPS truck, catching it on fire.

Authorities say the stormy weather led to delays of more than two hours for flights leaving Atlanta.

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