Hurricane Michael has strengthened to a category three storm, with winds near 193 kmph as it churns towards the Florida coast, the National Hurricane Center (NHC) of the US said.

The storm is expected to make landfall on Wednesday. Florida Governor Rick Scott has warned residents to evacuate, BBC reported.

Alabama, Florida and Georgia have declared states of emergency in all or parts of the states.

At least 13 people have reportedly died in Central America due to the storm.

US President Donald Trump told reporters on Tuesday: “We are very well prepared for the incoming hurricane.”

Governor Scott called for coastal residents to evacuate, saying: “It could be the difference between life and death.”

Alabama is under a state-wide state of emergency ahead of the hurricane, along with 92 counties in southern Georgia and 35 counties in Florida.

“Strengthening is expected overnight and on Wednesday, and Michael is forecast to be near category four strength when it makes landfall in the Florida Panhandle or the Florida Big Bend area,” the NHC said in its latest bulletin.

“Weakening is expected after landfall as Michael moves across the south-eastern US,” it added.

The Florida governor called Michael “a monstrous storm” and urged residents to listen to officials.

It is expected to quickly travel up the US East Coast after making landfall on the Gulf Coast.

Heavy rains are forecast for the Carolinas, which were drenched by Hurricane Florence last month.

North Carolina Governor Roy Cooper told residents: “I know people are fatigued from Florence, but don’t let this storm catch you with your guard down.”

The agency warned residents in Florida and Alabama of possible storm surges, high winds and flash flooding.

Governor Scott warned in a news conference that Hurricane Michael is a “massive storm that could bring total devastation to parts of our state, especially in the panhandle”.

He added that it is predicted to be “the most destructive storm to hit the Florida panhandle in decades”.

Around 120,000 people have been warned to evacuate along Florida’s coast, where schools and state offices are to remain shut this week.

Scott warned that he may order more evacuations due to the size of the potential storm surge.

IANS

Landslides on the Jammu-Srinagar highway disrupted traffic on Tuesday stranding scores of vehicles in Ramban district, a traffic department official said.

The landslides were triggered by heavy rains in Digdole area. The clearance operation has started. The highway was likely to be restored later during the day, he added.

All essentials of life are routed into the landlocked Kashmir Valley through the nearly 300 km long Jammu-Srinagar Highway.

IANS

The city recorded 9.8 mm rainfall up to 5.30 pm on Thursday. Till 2.30 pm, it was 8 mm. Weather experts said that the rainfall is part of the southwest monsoon and also because of the formation of various systems.

The city also recorded a maximum temperature of 24.7 degrees Celsius, around four degrees below the normal 28 degrees, on Thursday afternoon.
The HAL airport received 14 mm rainfall while the international airport recorded 3.8 mm rainfall up to 5.30 pm on Thursday. However, the the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) control room did not receive any tree fall or waterlogging complaints. C P Patil,
India Meteorological Department Bengaluru director-in-charge, said that south interior Karnataka, coastal Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Kerala will receive moderate to heavy rainfall measuring up to 6-7 cm over the next four-five days.
He said there is a circulation over Lakshwadeep and Maldives area of the east Arabian Sea. A low-pressure area is likely to form during the next 24 hours, which will become a depression in the next 36 hours and move in northwest direction and further intensify to form a cyclone.
It will then move towards the Oman coast. The IMD has also issued a warning for fishermen not to venture into the sea. An alert has been issued for Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Kerala.

Every kilometre of the satellite town ring road (STRR) project of Bengaluru is likely to claim 150-200 indigenous species of trees. Phase-1 of STRR stretching 82.20 km in the districts of Bengaluru Rural and Ramanagara will result in the felling of 12,300 to 16,400 trees.

The project will not only involve felling of trees on a massive scale but also impact two protected areas, two elephant corridors and wildlife in an eco-sensitive zone. The expert appraisal committee of the Ministry of Environment and Forests, which deals with infrastructure projects, has recommended the preparation of an environmental impact assessment report. The panel also stressed the need for public consultations.

The expert committee has further said that the proposed stretch from Bengaluru to Ramanagara is highly sensitive from the ecological point of view. The committee is constituted of a four-member sub-committee headed by chairman Deepak Apte, Director, Bombay Natural History Society. The sub-committee visited the project site on July 23 and 24 and submitted a report with recommendations, including mitigation measures to protect flora and fauna.

What the committee found
As per initial assessment, it is anticipated that on an average 150-200 trees are likely to be affected per kilometre. The detailed assessment of actual trees to be felled will be undertaken during the environmental impact assessment study. Common trees including Ficus, Tamarindus indica, Eucalyptus, Azadirachta india and Acacia catechu, and a host of other native species are likely to be felled on the 82km stretch.
However, the report claims that efforts will be made to minimise the tree loss. Also, avenue plantation shall be carried out as part of compensatory afforestation programme.

Opposing the project, urban conservationist Vijay Nishanth said, “Precious tree cover will be lost. We are asking for decongestion of Bengaluru and not adding to its problems by proposing such road projects that will only promote environmental damage. Till date, there has been no proper compensatory afforestation for any project. Further, no proper public consultations have been held whether for the Metro project or any other infrastructure project. So how will another consultation make any difference?”

Phase 1 STRR
Phase 1 of STRR is from Dobbspete to Ramanagara running a length of 82km. The total project will cover 179.9 km in Karnataka and TN. It will start from Obalapura village in Nelamangala taluk and end at Kailancha village in Ramanagara taluk.

Land acquisition of 785 hectares
This project is being implemented by NHAI under the Bharatmala programme. Involving land acquisition of 785 hectares for phase 1, the project passes through agricultural and forest land. There are 22 major settlements along the alignment in Phase 1.

Express News Services

As an Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report next week is expected to call for urgent cuts limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees, a study on Friday said world’s biggest coastal cities like London, Shanghai and Bangkok may face a flood-hit future.

The report published by Britain-based Christian Aid said some of the cities were set to become extremely vulnerable to storm surges and flooding.

Sea level rise was expected to exceed 40 cm if global warming is not limited to 1.5 degrees Celsius. With the world’s urban population expected to grow to 59 per cent by 2030, city dwellers would increasingly come under threat.

Author of the report Kat Kramer, Christian Aid’s Global Climate Lead, said: “Some of the world’s most famous cities are sinking under the waves as climate change drives up sea levels.”

“We’re starting to see what happens when climate change acts as a threat-multiplier, compounding poor development decisions.”

“We’re already at around one degree of warming and we are getting a picture of what happens if we exceed 1.5 degrees. The world is currently on track for more than three degrees of warming, which would have disastrous consequences for the millions of people living in these coastal cities,” Kramer said.

“It’s vital that governments heed the findings of the IPCC and agree to increase their Paris Agreement pledges.

“These global metropolises may look strong and stable but it is a mirage. As sea levels rise, they are increasingly under threat…,” she said in a statement.

The cities featured in the ‘Sinking Cities, Rising Seas’ report include Jakarta, Houston, London, Shanghai, Lagos, Manila, Dhaka and Bangkok.

IANS

An earthquake measuring 5.3 on the Richter scale struck Japan’s Hokkaido prefecture on Friday, the Japan Meteorological Agency said.

There were no immediate reports of injury or damage. No tsunami warning was issued, Xinhua reported.

The temblor has an epicentre at a latitude of 42.6 degrees north and a longitude of 142.0 degrees east at a depth of 30 km.

The quake logged lower 5 in parts of Hokkaido prefecture on the Japanese seismic intensity scale which peaks at 7.

Heavy rains have been forecast for Karnataka over the weekend due to a low pressure trough that is expected to form over Arabian Sea, an official from the India Meteorological Department (IMD) said on Thursday.

“A low pressure is expected to form over southeast Arabian Sea, which can further intensify into depression and form into a cyclone,” IMD Bengaluru Director-incharge C.S. Patil told IANS here.

As a result of the low pressure in Arabian Sea, the coastal and south interior districts of Karnataka, including Bengaluru, are expected to receive heavy widespread rains, Patil said.

Neighbouring districts of Kerala and Tamil Nadu are also likely to receive heavy rains due to the low pressure effect.

The southern state capital has been receiving rains over the past week. The heavy rains during the last week of September had inundated several low-lying areas of the city, uprooting trees and flooding arterial roads.

Bengaluru, which received intermittent rains due to the southwest monsoon from June to September, however, continues to face about 20 per cent deficit of rainfall.

The city received a total of 38.6cm of rains during the monsoon season against the normal of 47.5 cm.

The state, which was reeling under drought conditions due to deficit rains over the past few years, has received an average of 78 cm of rains till September 30 since the onset of southwest monsoon on June 4.

The average rainfall across the state due to the monsoon is only about 6 per cent below the season’s normal of 83 cm.

(IANS)

The confirmed death toll from an earthquake and tsunami on Indonesia’s Sulawesi island has risen to 1,234, from 844, the national disaster agency said on Tuesday.

A 7.5 magnitude earthquake on Friday triggered tsunami waves as high as six metres (20 feet), which ravaged the small city of Palu, on the west coast of Sulawesi.

Nearly 200,000 people have been displaced and are in need of emergency help, while thousands have been streaming out of the stricken areas.

Rescuers have yet to reach many affected areas leading to fears the death toll could rise again.

Nigel Timmins, Oxfam’s humanitarian director, said it could take weeks to realise the full extent of the disaster.

“It’s not just a wall of water, it’s a wall of water full of debris: concrete, trees, cars – everything being churned around like a giant cement mixer. It’s like a huge bulldozer that clears away the land and afterward you’re left with complete chaos,” Timmins told Al Jazeera.

About 1,700 houses in one Palu neighbourhood were swallowed up, with hundreds of people believed buried, the national disaster agency said.

There was also mounting concern over Donggala, a region of 300,000 people north of Palu and close to the epicentre, and two other districts – with a combined population of about 1.4 million.

Initial reports from Red Cross rescuers who had reached the outskirts of Donggala district were chilling.

“The situation in the affected areas is nightmarish,” Jan Gelfand, head of an the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) office in Jakarta, said in a statement.

“The city of Palu has been devastated and first reports out of Donggala indicate that it has also been hit extremely hard by the double disaster,” Gelfand said.

Aljazeera

A powerful typhoon has brought heavy rain and high winds as it battered southern Japan, leading to flight cancellations and power outages in several cities.

Typhoon Trami, rated Category 2, is the latest storm to threaten Japan in a year of grim weather-related woes, including punishing heat, heavy rains and landslides.

Outlying islands in the Okinawan chain, around 1,000 km southwest of Tokyo, were being pounded by heavy rain and high tides on Saturday.

Winds with gusts of up to 216 kph knocked down trees, blew off an outer wall from a building and left 17 people injured in Okinawa.

Local officials said no one was feared dead as a result of the storm.

About 195,000 households lost electricity on Okinawa and other neighbouring small islands, according to Okinawa Electric Power.

Public broadcaster NHK said more than 380 flights were cancelled, mainly those flying in and out of Okinawa.

Churning north across Okinawa on Saturday, Trami is then predicted to move across the islands of Kyushu and the main island of Honshu on Sunday, a path similar to that taken by typhoon Jebi early in September.

Jebi, the most powerful storm to hit Japan in 25 years, brought some of the highest tides since a 1961 typhoon and flooded Kansai airport near Osaka, taking it out of service for days.

The season’s 24th typhoon “might cause a catastrophe with storm surges, high waves, powerful winds and torrential rains,” an agency official told a news conference on Friday in Naha, the island’s capital, the local Ryukyu Shimpo newspaper reported.

Rainfall of up to 400mm was forecast for the Amami island region and up to 250mm for Okinawa by noon Sunday, while the storm could generate waves up to 13 metres high around the regions, forecasters said.

Aljazeera

The rescue operation in Himachal’s Lahaul Valley entered its final stages on Saturday as a large number of people, comprising largely tourists, were evacuated safely from the snow-marooned region.

The last batch of tourists stuck at various locations in the valley for over a week were brought to Keylong, district headquarters of Lahaul-Spiti, and at Sarchu from where they were rescued by road on Saturday as the weather cleared, a government official told IANS over phone from Kullu town.

Airlifting of tourists by the Indian Air Force (IAF) could not start on Saturday. It has been hampered since Friday afternoon owing to the onset of snowfall in the high hills, including Keylong, 122 km north of the picturesque Manali tourist resort.

Kullu Deputy Commissioner Yunus Khan told IANS nearly 500 people would be transported by road on Saturday from Keylong to Manali via the Rohtang tunnel.

Likewise, from Sarchu, some 222 km from Manali, the stranded people would be taken towards Leh in Jammu and Kashmir by road as the weather permits.

It has been one of the longest and largest rescue operations of its kind, the official said on the fifth day of rescue.

Over 2,000 persons, including 30 foreigners, have been rescued since September 24. Out of these, 211 were airlifted and the remaining evacuated by road via under-constructed Rohtang tunnel, officials said.

Khan said the rescue operation has been carried out in three formats.

First, the IAF is airlifting the tourists from vulnerable spots. Second, the BRO is rescuing the people by road. And third, the local administration is providing logistic support to both the IAF and the BRO in rescuing people.

Work to clear snow from the Rohtang Pass and Baralacha Pass is in final stage, he said.

Two light utility helicopters were additionally deployed along with three IAF choppers, including MI-17, to speed-up the rescue in Lahaul.

Early snowfall in the higher reaches, cloudburst and heavy rain devastated large parts of the state from September 22 to 24.

Heavy snowfall on the Rohtang Pass, the Kunzum Pass and the Baralacha Pass had cut-off the Lahaul and Spiti Valleys, affecting a large number of tourists and hampering water and electricity supply.

(IANS)