Extreme weather

Typhoon alert remains high in east China

China's east coast remains on alert Friday as a pair of typhoons threaten to wreak havoc.

China Daily,

26 April, 2012

Typhoon Bolaven, the 15th typhoon of the year, was gaining force Friday and was forecast to reach the East China Sea on Sunday, the weather bureau of Zhejiang Province said in a press release Friday night.

It said the Zhoushan Islands were on high alert of the typhoon.

Bolaven was located at 21.7 north latitude and 133.2 east longitude at 2 pm, packing winds of 41.4 meters per second and moving northwest at 15 km per hour, it said.

Local authorities in Zhoushan have warned citizens to be on guard against the typhoon and banned fishing boats from going out to the sea.

Meanwhile, typhoon Tembin, whose center was in seawater off Taiwan Friday afternoon, threatened to soak the eastern Fujian Province over the weekend, the local meteorological station said.

It said gales were already sweeping at 24.5 meters per second in Fujian's coastal areas Friday, and could intensify in the coming two days.

A direct ferry service between Fujian's Pingtan to Taiwan will be suspended for three days from Saturday to Monday.

Tembin struck southern Taiwan Friday, toppling trees, overturning vehicles and dumping rains that swelled rivers and flooded homes and farmlands.

China's National Marine Environmental Forecasting Center also warned the public of the dual typhoons Friday, raising the alert level to yellow.

Earlier this month, dual-typhoons "Damrey" and "Saola" left eight people dead and forced the evacuation of about 1.3 million residents in the coastal regions as of August 5.

Tropical Storm Isaac bears down on Haiti, with Gulf of Mexico on the horizon

Tropical Storm Isaac strengthened as it swirled toward vulnerable Haiti on Friday evening, threatening to bring punishing rains to people still without homes after the 2010 earthquake, but unlikely to gain enough steam to strike as a hurricane

Fox News,

26 April, 2012

Forecasters expected the storm to stay below hurricane force until it reached the Gulf of Mexico on Sunday, and they shifted the projected track back eastward where it remained a threat to Tampa, Florida, where the Republican National Convention starts Monday.

In Haiti, the government and international aid groups were prepared to evacuate several thousand people from settlement camps that sprang up in the aftermath of the earthquake but there were few takers.

Isaac was expected to dump up to eight to 12 inches of rain on the island of Hispaniola, which is shared by Haiti and the Dominican Republic. Haiti is heavily deforested and just a few hours of steady rain can trigger deadly mudslides.

"That kind of rain is going to cause some life-threatening flash floods and mudslides," said Dennis Feltgen, a spokesman for the U.S. Hurricane Center in Miami.

Isaac was centered about 100 miles south-southeast of Port-au-Prince, the Haitian capital, Friday evening, and its maximum sustained winds had increased to 65 mph. It was moving west at 16 mph. Tropical force winds extended nearly 200 miles from the storm's center.

Cuba declared a state of alert Friday for six eastern provinces, according to a Civil Defense announcement read on the afternoon news, and five central provinces were put on preliminary watch.

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