Hurricane Ida di El Salvador - at least 42 dead -

dexa

Sunday November 8, 2009
Hurricane Ida strengthens, heads to Gulf of Mexico

MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Hurricane Ida strengthened off Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula as it makes its way to the southeastern Gulf of Mexico, the U.S. National Hurricane Center said on Sunday.

Ida, which reached hurricane status again late on Saturday, packed top sustained winds of near 90 mph (145 kph), the hurricane center said in its 7 a.m. EST (1200 GMT) advisory.


Destroyed houses are seen in Sandy Bay,
Nicaragua November 7, 2009. Hurricane Ida
strengthened off Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula
as it makes its way to the southeastern Gulf
of Mexico, the U.S. National Hurricane Center
said on Sunday. (REUTERS/Stringer)

Tropical storm force winds could reach parts of the U.S. Gulf Coast in a couple of days, the Miami-based center said.

Ida is a Category 1 hurricane, the lowest on the five-step Saffir-Simpson intensity scale, and forecasters said it could strengthen to a Category 2 hurricane later on Sunday. Gradual weakening was expected to begin by late on Monday.

Ida was forecast to move through the Yucatan Channel and into the Gulf of Mexico later on Sunday, passing close to the northeastern tip of the Yucatan Peninsula, the Miami-based hurricane center said.

Ida first became a hurricane on Thursday off the Caribbean coast of Nicaragua before weakening over that country. It strengthened again on Saturday.

The center of Ida was 70 miles (115 km) east-northeast of the resort island of Cozumel, Mexico, and about 85 miles (135 km) south-southwest of the western tip of Cuba, the hurricane center said.

It was moving northwest near 12 mph (19 kph) with a turn to the north-northwest and then north forecast over the next two days.

There was a hurricane warning for the Yucatan Peninsula from Playa del Carmen to Cabo Catoche, north of Cancun. Such a warning means that hurricane conditions are expected within 24 hours. A hurricane watch was in effect for the Yucatan Peninsula of Mexico from Tulum to Playa del Carmen, meaning that hurricane conditions are possible within the area.

The Mexican government urged people to avoid unnecessary travel in the Yucatan Peninsula and imposed restrictions on coastal shipping.

Mexico's state oil monopoly, Pemex, which has extensive operations in the Gulf of Mexico, activated its hurricane contingency program but oil and gas production was unaffected, a company spokesman said.

U.S. energy companies said on Friday they were monitoring the storm's progress but had not yet begun evacuating any production platforms.

The Gulf of Mexico accounts for a quarter of U.S. domestic oil production and 15 percent of natural gas output. The Gulf Coast is also home to 40 percent of the nation's refining capacity.

Ida dumped heavy rain along Nicaragua's Caribbean coast last week, but there were no reports of fatalities. The country's coffee crop was not directly affected by the storm, according to the local coffee council.


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... banyak negara2 di caribbean yang diserang hurricane dan taufan -
lagi pun end of the year -- prevailing wind dari caribbean ni bawa banyak
hujan juga -

dexa

Sunday November 8, 2009
At least 42 killed in El Salvador by Ida's rains

SAN SALVADOR (Reuters) - At least 42 people have been killed by flooding and mudslides in El Salvador due to heavy rains caused by Hurricane Ida, Interior Minister Humberto Centeno said in a press conference carried by national radio.

The government has declared a state of emergency in five of the Central American nation's departments and expects to find more victims as rescue workers move into harder hit areas, Centeno said.

amazed

Monday November 9, 2009
Hurricane Ida downgraded to Cat 1, heads to Gulf
HOUSTON (Reuters) - Hurricane Ida weakened to a Category 1 hurricane on Monday as it headed toward oil and gas facilities in the central Gulf of Mexico after killing 124 people in El Salvador following floods and mudslides.

Ida's top sustained winds fell to 90 miles per hour (145 kph) and was expected to weaken further in the next 24 hours, the U.S. National Hurricane Center said. But Ida was still expected to be a hurricane as it approached the U.S. Gulf Coast on Monday night or early on Tuesday, bringing heavy rains.

A home is seen damaged by rock after heavy rains in the village of San Vicente near San Salvador November 8, 2009. Hurricane Ida was downgraded to a Category 1 hurricane, with top sustained winds of 90 miles per hour (145 kph), as it made its way through the Gulf of Mexico, the U.S. National Hurricane Center said on Monday. (REUTERS/Henry Romero)

Ida was forecast to hit somewhere between Louisiana and Florida.

U.S. oil companies were shutting production and evacuating workers from the Gulf in the face of Ida.

Oil rose more than $1 to above $78 a barrel on Monday on fears the hurricane would cut U.S. oil and gas supplies.

Several large producers shut down some oil and gas production as a precautionary measure.
The Louisiana Offshore Oil Port, the only terminal in the United States capable of handling the largest tankers, stopped unloading ships due to stormy seas.

A quarter of U.S. oil and 15 percent of its natural gas are produced from fields in the Gulf and the coast is home to 40 percent of the nation's refining capacity.

In El Salvador, rivers burst their banks and hillsides collapsed under relentless rains triggered by Ida's passage, cutting off parts of the mountainous interior from the rest of the country.

El Salvador's government said 124 people were killed as mudslides and floods swept away rudimentary houses.

The bulk of the Central American country's coffee is grown in areas far from the worst affects of the flooding but the national coffee association had no estimate of potential damage to the harvest.

LOUISIANA STATE OF EMERGENCY

The Miami-based hurricane center set a hurricane warning from Pascagoula, Mississippi, to Indian Pass, Florida, meaning hurricane conditions could be expected in the area within 24 hours.

A tropical storm warning was in effect for parts of Louisiana and Mississippi, including the city of New Orleans, which is still recovering from the devastation of Hurricane Katrina in 2005.

Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal declared a state of emergency on Sunday, allowing the government to mobilize troops and rescue workers.

If Ida makes landfall in Louisiana, it would be the first storm to strike the state since Hurricane Gustav came ashore in September 2008.

At 4 a.m. EST (0900 GMT), the center of Ida was about 285 miles (460 km) south-southeast of the mouth of the Mississippi River and 375 miles (605 km) south of Pensacola, Florida. Ida was expected to turn toward the north and move faster toward the Gulf Coast before veering off to the northeast on Tuesday.

Ida swept past the Mexican resort of Cancun on Sunday, doing little damage to the city.

Ida first became a hurricane on Thursday off the Caribbean coast of Nicaragua, where heavy rains forced more than 5,000 people into shelters.

The country's coffee crop was not directly affected by the storm, according to the local coffee council.

amazed

Monday November 9, 2009
El Salvador floods, mudslides kill 124, 60 missing

VERAPAZ, El Salvador: Mud and boulders loosened by heavy rains swept down a volcano and partly buried a small town Sunday, swallowing up homes as flooding and landslides across El Salvador killed at least 124 people, authorities said.

Hundreds of soldiers, police and residents dug through rock and debris in Verapaz looking for another 60 people missing from the mudslide, which struck before dawn Sunday while residents were still in their beds.

Matias Mendoza, 26, was at home with his wife Claudia and their year-old son, Franklin, when the earth began moving.

"It was about two in the morning when the rain started coming down harder, and the earth started shaking," Mendoza recalled.

"I warned my wife and grabbed my son, and all of a sudden we heard a sound. The next thing I knew I was lying among parts of the walls of my house."

"A few minutes later, I found my wife and my son in the middle of the rubble, and, thank God, we're alive," said Mendoza, who suffered cuts on his check that emergency workers stitched up.

Almost 7,000 people saw their homes damaged by landslides or cut off by floodwaters following three days of downpours from a low-pressure system indirectly related to Hurricane Ida, which brushed Mexico's Cancun resort on Sunday before steaming into the Gulf of Mexico.

President Mauricio Funes declared a national emergency and said he would work with the United Nations to evaluate the extent of the damage.

"The images that we have seen today are of a devastated country," Funes said. He called the damages incalculable.

El Salvador's Civil Protection agency raised the death toll to 124 late Sunday, with another 60 people missing.

It didn't break down the deaths by location, but under the previous toll of 94, officials had listed 61 deaths in San Salvador, 23 in San Vicente province, including 10 in the town of Verapaz, and the remaining fatalities spread across the country.

Red Cross spokesman Carlos Lopez Mendoza said that 60 people were missing in Verapaz.

Some of the worst damage was in Verapaz, where mudslides covered cars and boulders two yards (meters) wide blocked streets.

The rain loosened a flow of mud and rocks that descended from the nearby Chichontepec volcano and buried homes and streets in Verapaz, a town of about 3,000 located 30 miles (50 kms) east of San Salvador, the capital.

"It was terrible. The rocks came down on top of the houses and split them in two, and split the pavement," recalled Manuel Melendez, 61, who lived a few doors down from Mendoza. Both their homes were destroyed Sunday morning.

"I heard people screaming all around," Melendez said.

Amid a persistent drizzle, rescuers dug frantically for survivors with shovels and even their bare hands.

But the search was made difficult by collapsed walls, boulders and downed power lines that blocked heavy machinery.

"What happened in Verapaz was something terrible," said Interior Minister Humberto Centeno, who flew over the city Sunday to survey the damage.

"It is a real tragedy there."

San Vicente Gov. Manuel Castellanos said workers were struggling to clear roadways and power and water service had been knocked out.

At least 300 houses were flooded when a river in Verapaz overflowed its banks, Lopez Mendoza said.

In San Salvador, Lopez Mendoza said the toll included a family of four - two adults and two children - who were killed when a mudslide buried their home Sunday morning.

Hurricane Ida's presence in the western Caribbean may have played a role in drawing a Pacific low-pressure system toward El Salvador, causing the rains, said Dave Roberts, a Navy hurricane specialist at the U.S. National Hurricane Center in Miami.

He added, however, that "if there were deaths associated with this rainfall amount in El Salvador, I would not link it to Ida." -AP

amazed

124 maut ditimbus lumpur, batu


VERAPAZ: Hujan lebat menyebabkan lumpur mengalir dan batu besar bergolek dari sebuah gunung berapi, menimbusi sebuah bandar kecil kelmarin, ketika banjir dan tanah runtuh di seluruh El Salvador mengorbankan sekurang-kurangnya 124 orang, kata pihak berkuasa.

Beratus tentera, polis dan penduduk menggali batuan dan runtuhan di sini untuk mencari 60 penduduk yang dikhuatiri hilang daripada banjir lumpur, yang berlaku sebelum fajar kelmarin ketika penduduk masih nyenyak tidur.

Matias Mendoza, 26, berada di rumah bersama isterinya Claudia dan anak lelaki mereka berusia setahun, Franklin, ketika bumi tiba-tiba bergoncang.


“Ketika itu kira-kira jam dua pagi apabila hujan mula turun dengan lebat, bumi mula bergoncang,” Mendoza mengingati. “Saya memberi amaran kepada isteri saya dan menyambar anak lelaki saya dan secara tiba-tiba mendengar bunyi. Dalam sekelip mata saya terbaring di antara dinding rumah.”

“Beberapa minit kemudian, saya menjumpai isteri dan anak lelaki saya di tengah-tengah runtuhan dan bersyukur kami masih hidup,” kata Mendoza yang luka di pipi ketika pekerja kecemasan menjahitnya.

Hampir 7,000 orang melihat rumah mereka musnah akibat banjir lumpur atau terputus hubungan kerana banjir selepas tiga hari hujan lebat akibat sistem tekanan rendah secara tidak langsung berkaitan dengan Taufan Ida, yang melanda pusat percutian Cancun, Mexico kelmarin sebelum menghala ke Teluk Mexico.

Presiden El Savador, Mauricio Funes mengisytiharkan kecemasan nasional dan berkata beliau akan bekerjasama dengan Pertubuhan Bangsa-Bangsa Bersatu untuk menilai kerosakan yang dialami.

“Imej yang kita lihat pada hari ini ialah sebuah negara yang musnah,” kata Funes. Beliau berkata kerosakan dialami tidak dapat dikira.

Agensi Perlindungan Awam El Salvador meningkatkan jumlah kematian kepada 124 orang lewat kelmarin dengan tambahan 60 orang hilang. - AP


aku rasa ada kaitan ngan topan ida nih... so aku paste kat sini ajer ler.... hah!!!

amazed

Taufan Ida kini menuju ke Teluk Amerika

Pasukan penyelamat dibantu penduduk setempat berkerjasama mencari mangsa yang tertimbus di bawah runtuhan bangunan di San Vicente, 80 kilometer ke timur San Salvador akibat dilanda Taufan Ida, kelmarin. - AFP

NEW ORLEANS 10 Nov. - Ribut tropika Ida dilapor membawa angin kuat menuju pantai Teluk Amerika Syarikat (AS) berhampiran Mobile, Alabama hari ini, selepas mengakibatkan kemusnahan besar yang mengorbankan 136 nyawa di Amerika Tengah.


Menurut Pusat Taufan Kebangsaan di Miami, Florida, Ida yang dikesan kira-kira 153 kilometer dari barat daya Mobile, Alabama pada pukul 6 pagi ini waktu tempatan, bergerak ke arah utara dengan kelajuan angin 96 kilometer sejam.

"Kami meminta orang ramai mengambil langkah berjaga-jaga dan mengawasi anak-anak.

"Air pasang berpunca daripada ribut boleh mencecah 1.8 meter berbanding biasa, ia boleh mengakibatkan banjir di jalan-jalan raya yang rendah di sepanjang pinggir pantai Louisiana,'' kata Gabenor Louisiana, Bobby Jindal pada satu sidang akhbar.

Beliau berkata, angin kuat juga boleh menyebabkan dahan serta ranting pokok patah dan mengakibatkan bekalan elektrik terputus.

Jidal, bagaimanapun berkata, agensi persekutuan Kor Jurutera Tentera AS melahirkan keyakinan bahawa jaringan tambak yang meluas, pam dan saluran pengairan akan melindungi New Orleans daripada banjir buruk.

Pegawai Pusat Taufan Kebangsaan melaporkan, Ida yang dikategorikan sebagai taufan tahap dua kelmarin, berubah lemah kepada ribut tropika semalam.

Seorang pegawai pertahanan sivil semalam berkata, Ida bersama-sama sistem tekanan rendah Lautan Pasifik telah mengakibatkan banjir buruk di El Salvador yang mengorbankan 136 orang.

Berikutan itu, Presiden Mauricio Funes mengumumkan darurat, semalam.

El Salvador diletak dalam keadaan berjaga-jaga sejak Khamis lalu selepas hujan lebat akibat Taufan Ida melanda daerah itu, memusnahkan kira-kira 930 buah rumah dan menyebabkan 13,000 orang hilang tempat tinggal di Nicaragua. - AFP