More natural disasters

Japan hit by powerful typhoon

Heavy rains and landslides leave 20 dead and many missing as flooded rivers and collapsed bridges hamper rescue operations

the Guardian

September 2011 17.48 BST

At least 20 people have been killed and 50 others missing in Japan after the country's western coast was hit by typhoon Talas on Sunday.

The typhoon has unleashed heavy rains, triggering landslides, and is slowly moving north. The government has ordered evacuation of 460,000 people in western and central Japan. Hundreds of people are still stranded as the rescue efforts are being hampered by flooded rivers and collapsed bridges, local agencies report.

The typhoon has caused record amount of rainfall in some areas, making it the worst storm to hit the country since 2004.

Talas has damaged Nijojo castle, designated as an important cultural treasure and a popular tourist attraction in the ancient city of Kyoto.

Public broadcaster NHK showed a bridge swept away after torrential rain. People holding umbrellas waded through knee-deep water in city streets and residential areas. Many cars were washed away in the floods.

Japan's meteorological agency warned of more heavy rains, strong winds, floods and landslides. It has issued landslide warnings in nearly all of the country's prefectures.

Thousands flee as wildfire torches 300 Texas homes

Mom, child die in another fire; Tropical Storm Lee sent winds, not rain, to dry areas

MSNBC, 4 September, 2011

A fast-growing wildfire fanned by winds from Tropical Storm Lee torched an estimated 300 homes near Austin on Sunday, and thousands of people in hundreds more homes had to evacuate overnight.

"It's catastrophic," Texas Forest Service Fire Chief Mark Stanford was quoted by the Austin American-Statesman website as saying. "It's a major natural disaster."

Tropical Storm Lee Cuts Gulf Output, Soaks Louisiana

Bloomberg

4 September, 2011

Tropical Storm Lee is “drifting erratically” near the Louisiana coast, shutting more than half of the crude oil and natural gas production from the resource- rich Gulf of Mexico.

Lee was about 45 miles (72 kilometers) southwest of Morgan City, Louisiana, and moving in “a slow and possibly erratic motion to the north or north-northwest” during the next 24 hours, the U.S. National Hurricane Center said in its latest advisory at 5 p.m. New York time. 

The storm’s maximum sustained winds were 60 mph, with higher gusts, and tropical storm-force winds stretch as far as 230 miles from its center, the forecaster said.

“New Orleans is in the bulls-eye of the flooding rain,” said Matt Alto, an AccuWeather.com meteorologist, on the State College, Pennsylvania-based forecaster’s website.

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Katia Stops Strengthening - For Now

Witx.com

4 September, 2011

Hurricane Katia hasn't gotten ant stronger, but that could change over the next day or two.

As of the 11 p.m. Sunday advisory, Katia had maximum sustained winds of 105 miles an hour, making it a Category 2 on the Saffir-Simpson scale, which measures the intensity of hurricanes.