Thursday 5 September 2019

Update on Hurricane Dorian


Hurricane Dorian: South Carolina governor warns people: 'You need to get out' – as it happened

Republican Henry McMaster says there is still time for people to leave at-risk areas but residents should do so immediately – get the latest now

 A family in Charleston before the arrival of Hurricane Dorian. Henry McMaster said residents must leave immediately.รข€™
the Guardian,
4 September, 2019

Summary

•Governors of southern states warned residents to leave immediately on Wednesday, as Hurricane Dorian crept up the south east coast of the US. Millions of people have been ordered to evacuate coastal areas, with the storm projected to impact Georgia and South Carolina on Thursday.
•Dorian was moving along Florida’s northeastern coast at 9 mph Wednesday afternoon. Forecasters said it had maximum sustained winds of 105 mph (169 kph) and was centered about 180 miles (290 kilometers) south of Charleston, South Carolina.
•Henry McMaster, governor of South Carolina, warned residents in the state’s evacuation zones: “You need to get out” on Wednesday. People living in the evacuation zones, which span almost the entire length of the Carolinas, still have time to get out, McMaster said, but: “Once the wind speeds reach up to 40 mph, we can no longer come in to get you.”
•Charleston could face historic flooding, the National Weather Service warned, with a combined high tide and storm surge potentially reaching 10.3ft at Charleston Harbor – just shy of the record 12.5ft set by Hugo in 1989.
•Dorian could cause more than 700,000 power outages in eastern regions of North Carolina and South Carolina, Duke Energy said, while Georgia Power said about 2,800 homes and businesses were already without electricity in the state.
That’s all for our live coverage – read the main news story here.
Dorian threatens to bring record flooding to Charleston, South Carolina and could swamp low-lying regions from Georgia to southeastern Virginia, Associated Press reports:
Dorian appeared likely to get dangerously near Charleston, which is particularly vulnerable since it is located on a peninsula. A flood chart posted by the National Weather Service projected a combined high tide and storm surge around Charleston Harbor of 10.3 feet (3.1 meters); the record, 12.5 feet (4 meters), was set by Hugo in 1989.
Stores and restaurants were boarded up with wood and corrugated metal in the city’s historic downtown, and about 830,000 people were under mandatory evacuation orders on the South Carolina coast. More than 400 people were in state-operated shelters statewide, and more were expected.
The acting administrator of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, Peter Gaynor, said 4,000 federal responders; 6,000 National Guard members; and 40,000 utility workers were on standby for the hurricane.
“We are ready to go,” Gaynor said. “We’ll follow Dorian up the coast until it is not a threat to the U.S.”
David Jones, a reporter in Jacksonville, Florida – where Dorian has been parked offshore for some time now – posts this:
Unlike many news organisations, we chose an approach that means all our reporting is free and available for everyone. We need your support to keep delivering quality journalism, to maintain our openness and to protect our precious independence. Every reader contribution, big or small, is so valuable.
For as little as £1 you can support us – and it only takes a minute. Thank you. Make a contribution - The Guardian
Utility companies say Hurricane Dorian could leave hundreds of thousands without electricity in the southeastern United States as it moves up the Atlantic Coast.
Duke Energy says the slow-moving storm could cause more than 700,000 power outages in eastern regions of North Carolina and South Carolina based on current predictions, Associated Press reports.
Duke says outages could last for several days, and problems are expected as far as 100 miles (161 kilometers) inland. Georgia Power says about 2,800 homes and businesses are without power in coastal areas of Georgia and several thousand utility customers are in the dark in northeast Florida.
Bricks of cocaine have been washing ashore in Florida after Dorian passed parallel to the coast, police said.
According to NBC news, at 8am this morning “a Melbourne police officer on foot patrol at Paradise Beach Park was alerted by a beachgoer that something suspicious appeared to have washed ashore”.
It turned out to be a kilogram of cocaine, police told NBC.
At Cocoa Beach, 20 miles north of Melbourne, a duffel bag containing 15 bricks of cocaine washed up on the sand.
“In the Orlando area, one kilo of cocaine is estimated to be worth $20,000 to $30,000,” according to NBC News.

South Carolina governor: 'You need to get out'

Henry McMaster, governor of South Carolina, has warned residents in the state’s evacuation zones: “You need to get out”. McMaster said there is still time for people to leave at-risk areas – which encompass more than 800,000 South Carolinians – but they should do so immediately.
“Once the wind speeds reach up to 40 mph, we can no longer come in to get you,” McMaster said, according to South Carolina news channel WBTW News 13:
McMaster repeated three times, people living in the evacuation zones still have time to get out “but you need to get out.” The governor had said on Tuesday people should have evacuated by Wednesday morning.
[...]
“The fact the center of the hurricane is not inland doesn’t mean much because hurricane winds still will affect the coast,” McMaster said. Hurricane Dorian is expected to hit the Beaufort and Hilton Head area around 6 to 8 a.m. Thursday morning and work it’s way up the coast.
The governor reported Charleston already is experiencing flooding brought on my king tide. “It is the water that kills people. It is the water that is the real danger. And it is clear we’re going to have a lot of water.”
“Hurricane Dorian will be pushing the water inland and the rain is calculated to be 10 to 15 inches, so we’re going to have a collision of water along the coast.”
Updated 

Trump appears to display altered map of Dorian's trajectory

Donald Trump, or someone close to Donald Trump, appears to have gone to extreme lengths to prove the president’s completely wrong claim that Dorian was going to hit Alabama.
A closer look at the graphic Trump held up in his White House briefing earlier shows that a little black loop has been added to the National Hurricane Center’s projection of Dorian’s path.
Kait Parker(@WeatherKait)
The black outlined area on this very outdated @NHC_Atlantic#Dorian graphic that Trump just used in his update was added and not a part of the official forecast. @WhiteHousepic.twitter.com/XMQmepPyj6
September 4, 2019
That belatedly added loop rings Alabama into the path of Dorian. On Sunday Trump claimed, wrongly, that Dorian could hit Alabama.
The National Weather Service, a government agency, quickly responded that Alabama would NOT see any impact from Alabama. Rather than backdown, Trump yet again wrongly claimed Alabama might be effected.
Could this be an attempt to show the president was correct? (Even though he wasn’t?) It’s unclear at the moment. But we do know that it is against the law to alter a government weather warning – punishable by up to 90 days in prison.
Whoever knowingly issues or publishes any counterfeit weather forecast or warning of weather conditions falsely representing such forecast or warning to have been issued or published by the Weather Bureau, United States Signal Service, or other branch of the Government service, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than ninety days, or both.
This is the latest update from the National Hurricane Center, showing Dorian hovering east of the Florida panhandle.
National Hurricane Center(@NHC_Atlantic)
#Dorian is located east of Jacksonville, Florida on the 2 pm advisory. Hurricane Warnings continue for the coasts of South and North Carolina. Preparations should be rushed to completion in those areas. More: https://t.co/tW4KeFW0gB or https://t.co/SiZo8ohZMN for local weather pic.twitter.com/yaWz63ZBpT
September 4, 2019
Here’s some footage of the extensive damage in the Bahamas, where roughly 13,000 homes have been destroyed:
Posted by at

No comments:

Post a Comment

Note: only a member of this blog may post a comment.

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)