Tag: Hurricane Harvey

Climate and weather related disasters surge five-fold over 50 years, but early warnings save lives – WMO report

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zrLaT1wyLaE   Climate change and increasingly extreme weather events, have caused a surge in natural disasters over the past 50 years disproportionately impacting poorer countries, the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) and UN Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNDRR) said on Wednesday. According to the agencies’ Atlas of Mortality and Economic Losses from Weather, Climate and Water Extremes, from 1970 to 2019, these natural hazards accounted for 50 per cent of all disasters, 45 per cent […]

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News in photo: Houses under water in Houston’s epic floods

The National Weather Service said that between June 1 and Sunday, Houston had received 46 inches (117 centimeters) of rain — almost as much as it would expect in a year — in only three months. “The breadth and intensity of this rainfall are beyond anything experienced before,” the NWS said, as the storm spawned tornadoes and lashed east and central Texas with torrential rains. While the disaster response is now focused on the huge […]

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Houston races to rescue flood victims before storm’s return

  by Katie Schubauer and Jennie Matthew in Hankamer, Texas Agence France Presse Houston, United States (AFP) — Rescue teams in boats, trucks and helicopters scrambled Monday to reach hundreds of Texans marooned on flooded streets in and around the city of Houston before monster storm Harvey returns. Houston mayor Sylvester Turner said more than 2,000 people had been brought, soaking and desperate to rapidly-filling shelters in America’s fourth largest city — and more are […]

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Houston struggles with massive flooding as more rains forecast

https://youtu.be/qCJMgvM8tcg     by Brendan Smialowski and Antoni Belchi Agence France Presse HOUSTON, United States (AFP) — Widespread flooding unleashed by deadly storm Harvey left Houston — the fourth-largest US city — increasingly isolated Monday, with airports and highways closed and residents being rescued from their inundated homes by boat and helicopter. The city’s two main airports suspended all commercial flights and two hospitals were forced to evacuate patients. A local television station also was […]

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Hurricane Harvey slams into Texas coastline

by Mark Ralston with Katie Schubauer in San Antonio Agence France-Presse CORPUS CHRISTI, United States – Hurricane Harvey slammed into the Texas coast late Friday, unleashing torrents of rain and packing powerful winds, the first major storm to hit the US mainland in 12 years. The storm roared ashore at the town of Rockport — near Corpus Christi, a major US oil industry hub — packing sustained winds of 130 miles per hour (215 kilometers per hour), a […]

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Hurricane Harvey makes landfall in Texas

  by Mark Ralston / with Katie Schubauer in San Antonio Agence France Presse CORPUS Christi, United States (AFP) — Hurricane Harvey slammed into the Texas coast late Friday, unleashing torrents of rain and packing powerful winds as it became the first major storm to hit the US mainland in 12 years. President Donald Trump granted Texas Governor Greg Abbott’s call to declare a “major disaster” zone in the state in order to speed federal […]

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Hurricane Harvey turns into category storm 4; US Mainland braces for “major disaster”

  by Mark Ralston / with Brian Knowlton in Washington Agence France Presse Corpus Christi, United States (AFP) — Hurricane Harvey on Friday further intensified into a dangerous category four storm, just hours before it was due to slam into Texas with a force not felt on the US mainland since 2005 Texas Governor Greg Abbott asked President Donald Trump to declare Harvey a “major disaster” in order to speed federal assistance, issuing disaster declarations […]

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‘Disaster’ looms as Hurricane Harvey bears down on Texas

by Mark RALSTON / with Brian Knowlton in Washington Agence France-Presse CORPUS CHRISTI, United States – Hundreds of thousands of people in Texas and Louisiana were urged Friday to flee the path of Hurricane Harvey as the Gulf Coast braced for the most dangerous storm to hit the US mainland in over a decade. Roaring towards land with winds whipping up to 110 miles (175 kilometers) an hour, the category two hurricane is predicted to smash into coastal […]

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Hurricane Harvey menaces Texas, Louisiana

CHICAGO, United States (AFP) – Several United States cities began ordering evacuations Thursday as major storm Harvey was upgraded to hurricane status on its path towards hundreds of miles of coastline in Texas and Louisiana — an area that processes some 7 million barrels of oil a day. The US National Hurricane Center (NHC) warned that Harvey was “rapidly intensifying” and creating a potential for “life-threatening and devastating” floods. The storm’s center was due to […]

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