floods
Hurricane battered Louisiana braces for Nicholas drenching
Residents of southern Louisiana still recovering from Hurricane Ida just weeks ago were bracing Wednesday for expected heavy rains as Nicholas crawls across parts of the state from Texas.
Nicholas made landfall as a hurricane early Tuesday on the Texas coast, dumping heavy rain even though it was quickly downgraded to a tropical storm and later a depression. But forecasters said Nicholas could stall over storm-battered Louisiana and spread life-threatening floods across the Deep South over the coming days.
In a state still recovering from Category 4 storm Ida weeks ago — as well as Category 4 Laura a year ago — Nicholas and its potentially heavy rain bands were unwelcome news.
Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards warned residents to expect flash flooding and to take the storm seriously despite its lack of hurricane status.
Read: Nicholas strengthens to hurricane ahead of Texas landfall
“This is a very serious storm, particularly in those areas that were so heavily impacted by Hurricane Ida,” Edwards said.
Galveston, Texas, recorded nearly 14 inches (35 centimeters) of rain from Nicholas, the 14th named storm of the 2021 Atlantic hurricane season, while Houston reported more than 6 inches (15 centimeters). The New Orleans office of the National Weather Service said late Tuesday that as much as 10 inches (25 centimeters) of rain could fall in parts of Louisiana, with some areas seeing particularly intense periods of 2 to 3 inches (5 to 8 centimeters) of rainfall per hour.
In the small Louisiana community of Pointe-aux-Chenes, Ida peeled open the tin roof of Terry and Patti Dardar’s home, leaving them without power and water for more than two weeks since. Nicholas made the damage that much worse, soaking the upstairs. But it also provided them with badly needed water, which their son Terren and grandchildren collected in jugs and poured into a huge plastic container through a strainer. From there, a pump powered by a generator brought the water inside.
His mom, Patti, said the family didn’t have anywhere else to go after Ida, so members were doing their best during Nicholas.
“We ain’t got no other place," she said. “This is our home."
Read:Tropical Storm Nicholas threatens Gulf Coast with heavy rain
Gov. Edwards said Nicholas will complicate an already difficult recovery from Ida in southeast Louisiana. He noted that 95,000 electric customers were still without power more than two weeks after Ida hit. And he said the new storm could mean some who had regained power might lose it again. Homes already badly damaged by Ida were not yet repaired to the extent that they could withstand heavy rain, Edwards added.
Energy companies working to restore power to remaining areas in the state said Wednesday that they were watching Nicholas closely but didn't expect it to affect their restoration times.
A spokesman for Entergy Louisiana said Nicholas so far has not caused any delays to previously announced times to restore power. Crews cannot operate when lightning is within 10 miles (16 kilometers) and can’t put bucket trucks in the air at winds greater than 30 mph (50 kph), said Jerry Nappi. But once conditions improve they would quickly resume work.
Joe Ticheli, manager and CEO of South Louisiana Electric Cooperative Association, said he did not anticipate that Nicholas would significantly slow its work to restore power after Ida. He said rain — the main threat from Nicholas — really doesn’t stop the linemen who are generally outfitted with slicker suits and grit, he said.
“These are tough guys, and they relish all of this,” he said. The coop services about 21,000 customers across five parishes including parts of the hard-hit Terrebonne and Lafourche parishes. Ticheli said the coop has returned power to about 75% of its customers with the remaining 25% mostly in the hardest-hit parts of southern Terrebonne parish.
Read:Hurricane Ida traps Louisianans, shatters the power grid
In the weather-battered city of Lake Charles, in southwestern Louisiana, Mayor Nic Hunter said ahead of Nicholas the city prepositioned assets should they be needed, and city crews scoured the drainage system to keep it free from debris that might cause clogs and flooding.
Lake Charles was hammered by Hurricane Laura last year, a Category 4 storm that caused substantial structural damage across the city of nearly 80,000 residents. Weeks later Hurricane Delta ripped through the same area. Freezing temperatures in January burst pipes across the city and then a May rainstorm swamped houses and businesses yet again.
After multiple natural disasters in such a short period of time, Hunter said he’s worried about residents’ state of mind.
“With what people have gone through over the last 16 months here in Lake Charles, they are very, understandably, despondent, emotional. Any time we have even a hint of a weather event approaching, people get scared,” he said.
Reopening: Flooding robs of Kurigram students’ enthusiasm
Although school and college students across the country returned to their classes on Sunday after a long closure for Covid, the students of many primary, secondary schools and madrasas in Kurigram district are missing out the joy as they are bearing brunt of flooding.
Some 200 schools and madrasas have been damaged by the recent floods in the district while seven schools that were washed away in Roumari, Nageshwari and Ulipur upazilas could not be reconstructed yet, officials said.
They said the furniture of many schools were damaged due to prolonged closure and flooding while the roads connecting many schools are in very bad shape.
Read: Flood in Kurigram getting worse -
During a recent visit to Sardob Government Primary School along the Dharla River in Sadar upazila, the UNB correspondent found its ground fully under floodwater.
Still, two students came to their school to submit their assignments wading through waist-deep water.
Expressing his fear over the poor presence of students, Atul Chandra Roy, headmaster of Sardob Government Primary School, said, “Water is everywhere around the school. The roads connecting the school got damaged.”
Matiar Rahman, a guardian of the school, said, “The road became unfit for movement as a number of big holes have developed on it, and it is just impossible for students to use this road.”
Read: Flood, erosion leave 500 families homeless in Kurigram
More worrying is that seven schools have recently gone into the gorge of the river due to its bank erosion.
Bandula Kura Government Primary School in Ulipur upazila, Akbar Ali primary government school in Nageshwari upazila, Gatiasham Bagurapra Government Primary School in Razarhat upazila are among those.
Meanwhile, Faluarchar Char Government Primary School and Ghughumari Government Primary School in Roumari upazila had been shifted last year due to erosion by the river.
Now the furniture and valuables of the schools are getting damaged for lack of maintenance as those have been kept under the open sky.
Read Fight the Flood: Safety measures to take before, during, after floods in Bangladesh
Abdul Gafur, headmaster of Choto Kalua Government Primary School in Sadar upazila, said, “His school building stands threatened by erosion. Although the school reopened on Sunday, the presence of students was very thin.”
Fazlur Rahman, headmaster of Sardob Ideal High School, said, “Many poor students, from class VII to X, went to different districts of the country in search of work due to the pandemic while many girl students have become victims of child marriage. So, the presence of students is now very low.”
Shahidul Islam, Kurigram District Education Officer, said steps have been taken to ensure the continuation of smooth educational activities in the flood-hit schools.
On Sunday, the students of schools and colleges in Bangladesh returned to their classrooms with much enthusiasm after an 18-month closure due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
Read Loom industry badly damaged by flood in Sirajganj
Tropical Storm Nicholas threatens Gulf Coast with heavy rain
Tropical Storm Nicholas headed toward the Texas coast Monday, threatening to bring heavy rain and floods to coastal areas of Texas, Mexico and storm-battered Louisiana.
Forecasters at the National Hurricane Center in Miami said a hurricane watch was issued for the central portion of the Texas coast with much of the state’s coastline now under a tropical storm warning. Nicholas is expected to approach the middle Texas coast late Monday and could bring heavy rain that could cause flash floods and urban flooding.
In a special advisory late Sunday, forecasters said the center of Nicholas had reformed, and the system strengthened. It had maximum sustained winds of 50 mph (85 kph) and was moving north-northwest at 12 mph (19 kph). It was located off the coast of northeastern Mexico, and was on a forecast track to pass near the South Texas coast later Monday, then move onshore along the coast of south or central Texas by Monday evening.
Nicholas over several days is expected to produce total rainfall of up to 10 inches (25 centimeters) in Texas and southwest Louisiana, with isolated maximum amounts of 20 inches (50 centimeters), across portions of coastal Texas beginning Sunday night through midweek.
Read:At least 1 dead, 10 missing in landslide near Mexico City
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott said the state has placed rescue teams and resources in the Houston area and along the Texas Gulf Coast.
“This is a storm that could leave heavy rain, as well as wind and probably flooding, in various different regions along the Gulf Coast. We urge you to listen to local weather alerts, heed local warnings,” Abbot said in a video message.
Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards on Sunday night declared a state of emergency ahead of the storm’s arrival in a state still recovering from Hurricane Ida and last year’s Hurricane Laura and historic flooding.
“The most severe threat to Louisiana is in the southwest portion of the state, where recovery from Hurricane Laura and the May flooding is ongoing. In this area heavy rain and flash flooding are possible. However, it is also likely that all of south Louisiana will see heavy rain this week, including areas recently affected by Hurricane Ida,” Edwards said.
The storm was expected to bring the heaviest rainfall west of where Hurricane Ida slammed into Louisiana two weeks ago. Although forecasters did not expect Louisiana to suffer from strong winds again, meteorologist Bob Henson at Yale Climate Connections predicted rainfall could still plague places where the hurricane toppled homes, paralyzed electrical and water infrastructure and left at least 26 people dead.
“There could be several inches of rain across southeast Louisiana, where Ida struck,” Henson said in an email.
Across Louisiana, 140,198 customers — or about 6.3% of the state — remained without power on Sunday morning, according to the Louisiana Public Service Commission.
The storm is projected to move slowly up the coastland which could dump torrential amounts of rain over several days, said meteorologist Donald Jones of the National Weather Service in Lake Charles, Louisiana.
“Heavy rain, flash flooding appears to be the biggest threat across our region,” he said.
While Lake Charles received minimal impact from Ida, the city saw multiple wallops from Hurricane Laura and Hurricane Delta in 2020, a winter storm in February as well as historic flooding this spring.
“We are still a very battered city,” Lake Charles Mayor Nic Hunter said.
Read:Tropical Storm Mindy makes landfall on Florida Panhandle
He said the city is taking the threat of the storm seriously, as it does all tropical systems.
“Hope and prayer is not a good game plan,” Hunter said.
In Cameron Parish in coastal Louisiana, Scott Trahan is still finishing repairs on his home damaged from last year’s Hurricane Laura that put about 2 feet of water in his house. He hopes to be finished by Christmas. He said many in his area have moved instead of rebuilding.
“If you get your butt whipped about four times, you are not going to get back up again. You are going to go somewhere else,” Trahan said.
Colorado State University hurricane researcher Phil Klotzbach said via Twitter that Nicholas is the 14th named storm of 2021 Atlantic hurricane season. Only 4 other years since 1966 have had 14 or more named storms by Sept. 12: 2005, 2011, 2012 and 2020.
Thousands face weeks without power in Ida’s aftermath
Louisiana communities battered by Hurricane Ida faced a new danger as they began the massive task of clearing debris and repairing damage from the storm: the possibility of weeks without power in the stifling, late-summer heat.
Ida ravaged the region’s power grid, leaving the entire city of New Orleans and hundreds of thousands of other Louisiana residents in the dark with no clear timeline on when power would return. Some areas outside New Orleans also suffered major flooding and structure damage.
“There are certainly more questions than answers. I can’t tell you when the power is going to be restored. I can’t tell you when all the debris is going to be cleaned up and repairs made,” Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards told a news conference Monday. “But what I can tell you is we are going to work hard every day to deliver as much assistance as we can.”
President Joe Biden met virtually on Monday with Bel Edwards and Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves along with mayors from cities and parishes most impacted by Hurricane Ida to receive an update on the storm’s impacts, and to discuss how the Federal Government can provide assistance.
Read:Hurricane Ida traps Louisianans, shatters the power grid
“We are closely coordinating with state and local officials every step of the way,” Biden said.
Rescuers in boats, helicopters and high-water trucks brought hundreds of people trapped by floodwaters to safety Monday, and they planned to eventually go door to door in hard hit areas to make sure everyone got out OK. Power crews also rushed into the state.
The governor said 25,000 utility workers were on the ground in Louisiana to help restore electricity, with more on the way.
Still, his office described damage to the power grid as “catastrophic,” and power officials said it could be weeks before electricity is restored in some spots.
More than 1 million homes and businesses in Louisiana and Mississippi were left without power as Ida pushed through on Sunday with winds that reached 150 mph (240 kph). The wind speed tied it for the fifth-strongest hurricane ever to hit the mainland. By late Monday, the storm had been downgraded to a tropical depression with winds of up to 35 mph (56 kph), though forecasters still warned of heavy rain and a flood threat for parts of the Tennessee and Ohio valleys.
The storm was blamed for at least two deaths — a motorist who drowned in New Orleans and a person hit by a falling tree outside Baton Rouge.
Pamela Mitchell said Monday she was thinking about leaving New Orleans until power returned, but her 14-year-old daughter, Michelle, was determined to stay and was preparing to clean out the fridge and put perishables in an ice chest.
Read: Ida downs New Orleans power on deadly path through Louisiana
Mitchell had already spent a hot and frightening night at home while Ida’s winds shrieked, and she thought the family could tough it out.
“We went a week before, with Zeta,” she said, recalling an outage during the hurricane that hit the city last fall.
Other residents of the city were relying on generators — or neighbors who had them. Hank Fanberg said both of his neighbors had offered him access to their generators. He also had a plan for food.
“I have a gas grill and charcoal grill,” he said.
The hurricane blew ashore on the 16th anniversary of Katrina, the 2005 storm that breached New Orleans’ levees, devastated the city and was blamed for 1,800 deaths.
This time, New Orleans escaped the catastrophic flooding some had feared. But city officials still urged people who evacuated to stay away for at least a couple of days because of the lack of power and fuel.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency issued emergency fuel waivers for Louisiana and Mississippi, effective immediately, on Monday night. It will end on Sept. 16.
Read: No cash or gas to run from Ida: ‘We can’t afford to leave’
Some places were also dealing with water problems. Eighteen water systems were out, impacting more than 312,000 people, and an additional 14 systems affecting another 329,000 people were under boil water advisories, Edwards said Monday.
The hurricane twisted and collapsed a giant tower that carries key transmission lines over the Mississippi River to the New Orleans area, causing widespread outages, Entergy and local authorities said. The power company said more than 2,000 miles of transmission lines were out of service, along with 216 substations. The tower had survived Katrina.
The storm also flattened utility poles, toppled trees onto power lines and caused transformers to explode.
In Mississippi’s southwestern corner, entire neighborhoods were surrounded by floodwaters, and many roads were impassable. Several tornadoes were reported, including a suspected twister in Saraland, Alabama, that ripped part of the roof off a motel and flipped an 18-wheeler, injuring the driver, according to the National Weather Service.
Wildfire evacuees flood Lake Tahoe roads in rush to flee
A popular vacation haven normally filled with tens of thousands of summer tourists was clogged with fleeing vehicles Monday after the entire resort city of South Lake Tahoe was ordered to leave as a ferocious wildfire raced toward Lake Tahoe, a sparkling gem on the California-Nevada state line.
Vehicles loaded with bikes and camping gear and hauling boats were in gridlock traffic in the city of 22,000, stalled in hazy, brown air that smelled like a campfire. Police and other emergency vehicles whizzed by.
Ken Breslin was stuck in bumper-to-bumper traffic less than a mile (1.6 kilometers) from his home, with only a quarter-tank of gas in his Ford Escape. His son begged him to leave Sunday night, but he shrugged him off, certain that if an evacuation order came, it would be later in the week.
“Before, it was, ‘No worries ... it’s not going to crest. It’s not gonna come down the hill. There’s 3,500 firefighters, all those bulldozers and all the air support,’” he said. “Until this morning, I didn’t think there was a chance it could come into this area. Now, it’s very real.”
Read: Lake Tahoe threatened by massive fire, more ordered to flee
By Monday night the fire had crossed state highways 50 and 89 and burned mountain cabins as it churned down slopes toward the Tahoe Basin. Flames came within just a few miles of South Lake Tahoe and residents of communities just over the state line in Douglas County, Nevada were warned to get ready to evacuate.
Monday’s fresh evacuation orders, unheard of in South Lake Tahoe, came a day after communities several miles south of the lake were abruptly ordered to evacuate as the Caldor Fire raged nearby. The city’s main medical facility, Barton Memorial Hospital, proactively evacuated dozens of patients, and the El Dorado Sheriff’s Office transferred inmates to a neighboring jail.
“There is fire activity happening in California that we have never seen before. The critical thing for the public to know is evacuate early,” said Chief Thom Porter, director of the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, or Cal Fire. “For the rest of you in California: Every acre can and will burn someday in this state.”
The threat of fire is so widespread that the U.S. Forest Service announced Monday that all national forests in California would be closed until Sept. 17.
“We do not take this decision lightly but this is the best choice for public safety,” Regional Forester Jennifer Eberlien said.
Overnight, the already massive Caldor Fire grew 7 miles (11 kilometers) in direction in one area northeast of Highway 50 and more than 8 miles (13 miles) in another, Cal Fire officials said.
More than 15,000 firefighters were battling dozens of California blazes, including crews from Utah, Washington, Wisconsin and West Virginia, said Mark Ghilarducci, director of California’s Office of Emergency Services. About 250 active-duty soldiers were being trained in Washington state to help with the arduous work of clearing forest debris by hand.
Crews from Louisiana, however, had to return to that state because of Hurricane Ida, “another major catastrophic event taking place in the country and is a pull on resources throughout the United States,” he said.
Porter said that only twice in California history have fires burned from one side of the Sierra Nevada to the other, both this month, with the Caldor and Dixie fires. The Dixie, the second-largest wildfire in state history at 1,205 square miles (3,121 square kilometers) about 65 miles (105 kilometers) north of the Lake Tahoe-area blaze, prompted new evacuation orders and warnings Monday.
The Lake Tahoe area in the Sierra Nevada mountains is usually a year-round recreational paradise offering beaches, water sports, hiking, ski resorts and golfing. South Lake Tahoe, at the lake’s southern end, bustles with outdoor activities, and with casinos available in bordering Stateline, Nevada.
On weekends, the city’s population can easily triple and on holiday weekends, like the upcoming Labor Day weekend, up to 100,000 people will visit for fun and sun. But South Lake Tahoe City Mayor Tamara Wallace said they’ve been telling people for days to stay away due to poor air from wildfires.
Read: Crews struggle to stop fire bearing down on Lake Tahoe
She said she thought the Caldor Fire would stay farther away. Fires in the past did not spread so rapidly near the tourist city.
“It’s just yet another example of how wildfires have changed over the years,” she said as she gathered treasures passed from her deceased parent and her husband’s while they prepared to leave.
The last two wildfires that ripped through populated areas near Tahoe were the Angora Fire that destroyed more than 200 homes in 2007 and the Gondola Fire in 2002 that ignited near a chairlift at Heavenly Mountain Resort.
Since then, the dead trees have accumulated and the region has coped with serious droughts, Wallace said. Climate change has made the West much warmer and drier in the past 30 years and will continue to make weather more extreme and wildfires more frequent and destructive, scientists say.
Wallace said traffic was crawling Monday, but praised the evacuation as orderly because residents heeded officials’ orders. Authorities have also been more aggressive in recent years, issuing warnings and orders sooner so people have more time to flee.
Not everyone agreed as fierce winds kicked up dust and debris and drivers sat in gridlock. The California Highway Patrol added “quite a bit of additional personnel” to help guide a chaotic evacuation from South Lake Tahoe, as huge traffic jams slowed the evacuation of vehicles, said CHP Assistant Commissioner Ryan Okashima. Congestion had eased by Monday afternoon.
South Lake Tahoe resident John Larson said the evacuation probably went as smoothly as possible, considering how swiftly flames moved into the area.
“The fuel went so fast and it climbed the ridge so quick,” Larson said of the fire after settling into an evacuation center at a park in Carson City, Nevada. Red Cross volunteers set up the facility with 50 cots after another evacuation center in nearby Gardnerville reached capacity.
The fire destroyed multiple homes Sunday along Highway 50, one of the main routes to the lake’s south end. It also roared through the Sierra-at-Tahoe ski resort, demolishing some buildings but leaving the main buildings at the base intact. Crews used snow-making machines to douse the ground.
Cabins burned near the unincorporated community of Echo Lake, where Tom Fashinell has operated Echo Chalet with his wife since 1984. The summer-only resort offers cabin rentals, but was ordered to close early for the season by the U.S. Forest Service due to ongoing wildfires.
Fashinell said he was glued to the local TV news. “We’re watching to see whether the building survives,” he said.
Read: Pristine Lake Tahoe shrouded in smoke from threatening fire
The Caldor Fire has scorched 277 square miles (717 square kilometers) since breaking out Aug. 14. After the weekend’s fierce burning, containment dropped from 19% to 14%. More than 600 structures have been destroyed, and at least 20,000 more were threatened. Gov. Steve Sisolak on Monday declared a state of emergency in Nevada, citing “the anticipation” that the wildfire in the Lake Tahoe area in California would burn across the state line into the Silver State.
The National Weather Service warned of dangerous fire conditions and winds through Wednesday.
Diane Kinney, who has lived in the city since the 1970s, said this is the first time her neighborhood has been ordered to evacuate. She and her husband were packing up keepsakes, jewelry and insurance papers shortly after noon. They had to leave their 1964 Chevelle, but she hopes it stays safe.
“Everybody wants to live in Lake Tahoe. There are definitely advantages of being in the mountains, being with these beautiful pine trees,” she said. “But we definitely have to get out now.”
15,520 hectares of croplands inundated in Kurigram
About 15,520 hectares of cropland have gone underwater in Kurigram district till Monday morning as the water level in the rivers has started rising again.
The water level in Dharla river has increased by 10 cm and in Brahmaputra river by 5 cm in the last 24 hours.
Read: Flood in Kurigram getting worse
Kurigram Water Development Board Executive Engineer Md Ariful Islam said water level in the Dharla River has risen to 34 cm above the danger level and 23 cm in the Brahmaputra river’s Chilmari Point on Monday morning. However, increased water has reduced erosion.
The low-lying areas and sandbars of the district have gone under water.
Till Monday, 15,520 hectares of crops have been submerged in the district. Of these, Aman is planted 15,115 hectares, vegetables are 270 hectares and seedbed is 95 hectares.
Crews scour debris for more victims after Tennessee floods
Crews with chainsaws and heavy equipment cleared their way through trees densely matted with vegetation, garbage and building debris Tuesday as searchers scoured a normally shallow creek for more flooding victims in rural Tennessee.
Even cars and sheds were woven into the tangle of debris lining Trace Creek in Humphreys County, where the town of Waverly saw the most death and destruction from Saturday’s flooding that killed 18 people. Three people remained unaccounted for Tuesday.
At one bridge, an excavator crawled into the creek to dig through a debris plug that included large trees, huge spools of cable, panels of wooden fencing and chunks of concrete. Officers watched from above and downstream in case a body was uncovered.
Read: At least 10 killed in Tennessee flash floods; dozens missing
Other crews were working with chainsaws along the banks, clearing smaller objects. Several miles downstream, officers had deployed drones to help with the search. It’s difficult to know how far the bodies might have been carried, but one car was found about a half-mile from where it had been parked, Humphreys County Chief Deputy Rob Edwards said.
Sheriff’s deputies and police were aided by crews from agencies all over the state, he said. The teams have cadaver dogs at the ready if they suspect a body might be nearby. With the heat in the mid-80s and rising, it was not difficult to detect the odor of decay, Edwards said, although crews also were finding animals.
As the search for the missing continues, officials have started to comprehend the scope of devastation in the community. The Humphreys County Emergency Management Agency said in a news release that more than 270 homes had been destroyed and 160 have major damage.
“Some are just gone — off the foundation — twisted, turned,” Humphreys County Sheriff Chris Davis said at the news conference. “They would probably have to be totally destroyed before they could be built back.”
“The sheer devastation that we saw in that helicopter ride yesterday has made me realize that we have got an extremely long road to go in all of this,” he said.
Authorities revised the confirmed death toll to 18 people Tuesday, a drop from as high as 22. Waverly police Chief Grant Gillespie said that one person in the emergency room who died of natural causes was mistakenly added to the count and John and Jane Doe victims were not crossed off the list once they were identified.
Gillespie said authorities had detectives follow up on each case and confirm the numbers, which now line up with the state tally.
“Just an honest mistake, and I hope everybody understands that,” Gillespie said. “It’s still a tremendous loss of life. I hope that number doesn’t grow.”
Read:Death toll in floods that hit northern Turkey climbs to 70
Three people are still on the list of those missing who witnesses said they saw in the water, he said.
The flooding took out roads, cellphone towers and telephone lines in the county of about 18,000 people, leaving some uncertain about whether family and friends survived the unprecedented deluge, with rainfall that more than tripled forecasts and shattered the state’s one-day record.
It also left large swaths of the community about 60 miles (96 kilometers) west of Nashville suddenly displaced, leaving many to sort through difficult decisions about what comes next. GoFundMe pages sought help for funeral expenses for the dead, including 7-month-old twins swept from their father’s arms as they tried to escape.
Matthew Rigney and Danielle Hall described to WTVF-TV how the water began to rage through their apartment as he held onto their twins and two other young children.
“The water, when it hit us it just pulled us under, all of us and we were trapped underneath a bed,” Rigney told the station, his voice trembling behind tears.
The other two children survived.
“I was trying to find all of them, and Leah came up like a big girl. You swam like a big girl, and I’m so proud of you,” Rigney said to 5-year-old Maleah, who sat with her family during the interview.
A neighbor helped Rigney and the two children up to the roof. Hall was ultimately rescued from a tree by boat.
Read:Germany to provide $68 billion in aid for flood-hit regions
School was canceled for the week, according to the sheriff’s office. Waverly Elementary and Waverly Junior High had extensive damage, according to Kristi Brown, coordinated health and safety supervisor with Humphreys County Schools.
About 750 customers were without power Tuesday, down from 2,000 the night before, utility officials said.
Meanwhile, the state received approval from President Joe Biden for a major disaster declaration, which frees up federal aid to help with recovery efforts in Humphreys County, the White House said in a statement Tuesday.
Sheriff Davis told reporters Tuesday, “You’ve seen us get a little emotional. You have to remember, these are people we know, people’s families, people we grew up with — just the people of our small town. It’s just very close to us.”
Henri hurls rain as storm settles atop swamped Northeast
The slow-rolling system named Henri is taking its time drenching the Northeast with rain, lingering early Monday atop a region made swampy by the storm’s relentless downpour.
Henri, which made landfall as a tropical storm Sunday afternoon in Rhode Island, has moved northwest through Connecticut. It hurled rain westward far before its arrival, flooding areas as far southwest as New Jersey before pelting northeast Pennsylvania, even as it took on tropical depression status.
Read:Hurricane Henri closes in as the Northeast braces for impact
Over 140,000 homes lost power, and deluges of rain closed bridges, swamped roads and left some people stranded in their vehicles.
Beach towns from the Hamptons on Long Island to Cape Cod in Massachusetts exhaled from being spared the worst of the potential damage Sunday. Other areas of New England awaited the storm’s return.
The National Hurricane Center said Henri is expected to slow down further and likely stall near the Connecticut-New York state line, before moving back east through New England and eventually pushing out to the Atlantic Ocean.
Henri could produce 3 to 6 inches (8 to 15 centimeters) of rainfall over portions of Long Island, New England, southeast New York, New Jersey, and northeast Pennsylvania through Monday, the agency projects. Parts of northern New Jersey into southern New York could see up to a foot of rain, leading to considerable flash flooding, it said.
New England officials fretted that just a few more inches of precipitation would be a back breaker following a summer of record rainfall.
“The ground is so saturated that it can flood with just another inch of rain,” Connecticut Gov. Ned Lamont warned late Sunday.
Read: Coastal evacuations urged as Hurricane Henri heads north
In the central New Jersey community of Helmetta, some 200 residents fled for higher ground, taking refuge in hotels or with friends and family, as flood waters inundated their homes Sunday.
“It came so quick — in the blink of an eye,” said the town’s mayor, Christopher Slavicek, whose parents were spending the night after fleeing their home. “Now there’s clean up. So this is far from over.”
President Joe Biden has declared disasters in Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Connecticut, opening the purse strings for federal recovery aid to those states.
“We’re doing everything we can now to help those states prepare, respond and recover,” said the president, who also offered condolences Sunday to Tennessee residents, after severe flooding from an unrelated storm killed at least 22 people and left dozens missing.
When Henri made landfall near Westerly, Rhode Island, it had sustained winds of about 60 mph (97 kph) and gusts of up to 70 mph (110 kph).
Some communities in central New Jersey were inundated with as much as 8 inches (20 centimeters) of rain by midday Sunday. In Jamesburg, television video footage showed flooded downtown streets and cars almost completely submerged. In Newark, Public Safety Director Brian O’Hara said police and firefighters rescued 86 people in 11 incidents related to the storm.
In Connecticut, about 250 residents from four nursing homes on the shoreline had to be relocated to other facilities. Several major bridges in Rhode Island were briefly shuttered Sunday, and some coastal roads were nearly impassable.
Read:New England preps for 1st hurricane in 30 years with Henri
Other communities awaited for sunrise to survey the damage already wrought.
Linda Orlomoski, of Canterbury, Connecticut, was among those without power late into Sunday.
“It’s supposed to get nasty hot and humid again on Tuesday,” she said. “If we still have no power by then, that will be miserable.”
Hurricane Henri closes in as the Northeast braces for impact
Hurricane Henri kept on course early Sunday to crash into a long stretch of northeastern coastline, as millions on New York’s Long Island and in southern New England braced for flooding, toppled trees and extended power outages.
With the center of the storm projected to pass just off the eastern tip of Long Island by midday, hurricane warnings extended from coastal Connecticut and Rhode Island to near the old whaling port of New Bedford, Massachusetts, and across the luxurious oceanfront estates of New York’s Hamptons to the summer getaway of Fire Island.
The first thunderstorms bringing what could be up to half a foot (15 centimeters) of rain arrived late Saturday, and flash flooding began in some areas overnight. Bands of heavy rain overwhelmed storm drains and drivers plowed through foot-deep water in a few spots in New York City, and Newark and Hoboken, New Jersey.
Tropical storm-intensity winds were expected to begin striking the coast at around 8 a.m.
Read:Winds threaten to fan destructive California wildfire
People in the projected path spent Saturday scrambling to stock up on groceries and gasoline. Those close to the coast boarded up windows and, in some cases, evacuated.
Residents and visitors on Fire Island, a narrow strip of sandy villages barely above sea level off Long Island’s southern coast, were urged to evacuate. The last boats out left before 11 p.m. Saturday and officials warned there might be no way to reach people left behind.
The evacuation threw a wrench into Kristen Pavese’s planned Fire Island bachelorette party. The group of 10 had intended to celebrate Saturday night, but ended up leaving on the ferry just a day after arriving. They had planned to stay until Monday.
“I’m upset about it, but it’s the weather. It’s nothing I can control,” said Pavese, a Long Island resident. “I’ve been going to Fire Island for a long time, so I’m sort of familiar with this happening.”
Approaching severe weather Saturday night also cut short a superstar-laden concert in Central Park. The show headlined by Bruce Springsteen, Paul Simon and Jennifer Hudson was meant to celebrate New York City’s recovery from the coronavirus. But officials asked concertgoers to leave the park during Barry Manilow’s set amid the threat of lightning.
Gov. Andrew Cuomo, set to leave office Monday after resigning over a sexual harassment scandal, emerged Saturday to plead with New York residents to make last-minute preparations, warning that heavy rain, wind and storm surge from Henri could be as devastating as Superstorm Sandy back in 2012.
Read:At least 10 killed in Tennessee flash floods; dozens missing
“We have short notice. We’re talking about tomorrow,” Cuomo said in one of his final forays before TV cameras, a setting that shot him to fame during the worst of the pandemic last year. “So if you have to move, if you have to stock up, if you have to get to higher ground, it has to be today. Please.”
Gov. Ned Lamont warned Connecticut residents they should prepare to “shelter in place” from Sunday afternoon through at least Monday morning as the state braces for the first possible direct hit from a hurricane in decades. Rhode Island Gov. Dan McKee issued a similar warning.
Major airports in the region remained open as the storm approached, though hundreds of Sunday’s flights were canceled. Service on some branches of New York City’s commuter rail system was suspended through Sunday, as was Amtrak service between New York and Boston.
The White House said President Joe Biden discussed preparations with northeastern governors and that New York Lt. Gov. Kathy Hochul, who succeeds Cuomo on Tuesday, also participated.
Biden later began approving emergency declarations with Rhode Island.
New York hasn’t had a direct hit from a powerful cyclone since Superstorm Sandy wreaked havoc in 2012. Some of the most important repairs from that storm have been completed, but many projects designed to protect against future storms remain unfinished.
With maximum sustained winds at 75 mph (120 kph), just above hurricane strength, Henri was moving north at 18 mph (30 kph) as of Sunday morning. It was about 80 miles (125 kilometers) south-southeast of Montauk Point on the tip of Long Island.
Some gas stations from Cape Cod to Long Island sold out of fuel. Southampton Town Supervisor Jay Schneiderman described a run on supplies like batteries and flashlights as people “are starting to wake up” as weather models showed the storm’s center would run “smack on the town of Southampton.”
Read:Coastal evacuations urged as Hurricane Henri heads north
Regardless of its exact landfall, broad impacts were expected across a large swath of the Northeast, extending inland to Hartford, Connecticut, and Albany, New York, and eastward to Cape Cod, which is teeming with tens of thousands of summer tourists.
Storm surge between 3 and 5 feet (1 to 1.5 meters) was possible in much of Long Island Sound all the way to Chatham, Massachusetts, and slightly less on Long Island’s Atlantic coast, the hurricane center said. Flash flooding was possible in inland areas already saturated by recent rain.
In the Hamptons, the celebrity playground on Long Island’s east end, officials warned of dangerous rip currents and flooding that’s likely to turn streets like the mansion-lined Dune Road into lagoons.
“We have a lot of wealthy people. There’s no doubt that we do, but everybody pulls together in an emergency,” Schneiderman said. “So, you know, yeah, there are people hanging out on their yachts at the moment drinking martinis, but they’re also starting to talk about this storm and I’m sure they’re going to want to be helpful.”
Floods, landslides hit Rohingya camps hard: UNHCR
More than 12,000 refugees have been affected, while an estimated 2,500 shelters have been damaged or destroyed by heavy downpours, the UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, has said.
In the last 24 hours alone, over 300mm of rain fell on camps hosting more than 8 lakh Rohingya refugees – nearly half the monthly rainfall average for July in one day.
Three days of heavy monsoon rains and strong winds pelted massive refugee sites in Bangladesh's Cox's Bazar Tuesday, causing flash floods and landslides; the situation is further compounded by the Covid-19 pandemic, the UNHCR said.
More rains are expected in the next few days, with the monsoon season stretching over the next three months, the UN agency added.
Read: Landslide kills 5 at Cox’s Bazar Rohingya camp
There is currently a strict national lockdown in response to rising cases across the country.
In support of the government-led response, the UNHCR's network of emergency response teams have been deployed, to provide immediate support and assistance to affected families and to those forced to temporarily relocate.
Teams are also assessing the damage to shelters and initiating immediate shelter repairs and site improvements.
Refugee volunteers trained by the UNHCR, and partners are also working day and night in heavy rain to help families in urgent need. In some cases, this has involved rescuing refugees from shelters destroyed by landslides.
Read: Govt to vaccinate Rohingyas gradually starting with above-55s: Foreign Secretary
So far, more than 5,000 refugees have temporarily relocated to other family member's shelters or communal facilities.
The adverse weather, latest landslides and floods further exacerbate the suffering and massive humanitarian needs of the Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh.
To date, the 2021 Joint Response Plan for the Rohingya humanitarian crisis in Bangladesh has received only $274 million, roughly 30% of the $943 million required for the response this year.