Cyclone Bulbul kills at least 2 as Bangladesh, India evacuate hundreds of thousands

MOUSOUNI ISLAND, India - Cyclone Bulbul hit India on Saturday, leaving at least two dead as authorities in the country and in neighboring Bangladesh ordered hundreds of thousands of people to get out of the path of the storm as it gained power.

The eye of the storm, packing winds of up to 120 kilometers (75 miles) per hour, was expected to hit the Bay of Bengal coast late Saturday near the Bangladesh-India frontier.

Airports and ports were shut down and the deaths were reported before the full force of the cyclone had hit. One person was killed by an uprooted tree in Kolkata and another by a wall that collapsed under the force of the winds in Odisha state, authorities said.

More than 60,000 people were moved away from the coast on the Indian side of the border while the Bangladesh government said 400,000 were evacuated.

Bangladeshi troops were sent to some villages, while about 55,000 volunteers went door-to-door and making loudspeaker announcements in the streets to get people away from the danger zone in villages, many of which were below sea level.

A storm surge up to two meters (seven feet) high was predicted along the coast, Bangladesh's Meteorological Department said.

About 1,500 tourists were stranded on the southern island of Saint Martin after boat services were suspended due to bad weather.

Bangladesh's two biggest ports, Mongla and Chittagong, were closed because of the storm, and flights into Chittagong airport were halted.


Flights suspended

In India, flights in and out of Kolkata airport were suspended for 12 hours because of the storm.

On the West Bengal island of Mousouni, which lies in the path of the storm, frightened residents took shelter in schools and government buildings because they had not been able to escape.

Military planes and ships have been put on standby to help in emergencies, Indian authorities said.

Bulbul was expected to hit the coast at the Sundarbans, the world's largest mangrove forest, which straddles Bangladesh and part of eastern India, and is home to endangered species including the Bengal tiger.

Bangladesh's low-lying coast, home to 30 million people, is regularly battered by cyclones that leave a trail of destruction.

Hundreds of thousands of people have been killed in cyclones in recent decades.

While the frequency and intensity have increased, partly due to climate change, the death tolls have come down because of faster evacuations and the building of 4,000 cyclone shelters along the coast.

In November 2007, Cyclone Sidr killed more than 3,000 people. In May this year, Fani became the most powerful storm to hit the country in five years, but the death toll was about 12.

source: news.abs-cbn.com

Bangladesh evacuates 100,000 as Cyclone Bulbul approaches

DHAKA, Bangladesh - Bangladesh authorities have evacuated around 100,000 people from the country's low-lying coastal villages and islands, with Cyclone Bulbul set to slam into the country later on Saturday, officials said.

The Meteorological Department has asked local authorities and two ports to raise their highest alert, as the cyclone is expected to unleash a storm surge as high as two meters in coastal districts.

Bulbul, packing a maximum wind speed of 120 kilometers per hour, is on course to make landfall near the Sundarbans, the world's largest mangrove forest, which straddles Bangladesh and part of eastern India and is home to the endangered Bengal tigers.

The cyclone is expected to hit the Bangladesh coast at around 8 p.m. (1400 GMT), disaster management secretary Shah Kamal told AFP, adding there are plans to evacuate some 1.5 million people before that.

Authorities have suspended a nationwide school test, cancelled the holidays of officials posted in coastal districts and called off a traditional fair that draws tens of thousands of people in the Sundarbans.

Operations at the country's two major ports -- Mongla and Chittagong -- have been suspended, Kamal said.

Some 55,000 volunteers have been mobilized to go door to door and alert people about the storm.

Bangladesh's low-lying coast, home to 30 million people, is regularly battered by powerful cyclones that leave a trail of devastation in their wake.

Hundreds of thousands of people have been killed over the last few decades in cyclones, whose frequency and intensity have increased.

Bangladesh has, however, improved its preparedness in recent years, cutting the number casualties since Cyclone Sidr killed more than 3,000 people in 2007.

In May this year, Fani became the most powerful storm to hit the country in five years, but just over a dozen people were killed.

source: news.abs-cbn.com

Praise for India's response to devastating cyclone

NEW DELHI -- UN and other experts Saturday praised India for its early warning systems and rapid evacuation of more than 1 million people, which they said helped minimize loss of life from a deadly cyclone that battered its eastern coast.

Cyclone Fani, one of the biggest to hit India in years, tore into Odisha Friday, leaving a trail of devastation across the coastal state of 46 million people before swinging towards Bangladesh. 

In 1999 the same state was hit by a devastating 30-hour super-cyclone that saw a storm surge sweep 20 kilometers inland. Unprepared for the scale of the disaster, authorities struggled to evacuate the stricken population and some 10,000 people were killed. 

This time, improved forecasting models, public awareness campaigns and well-drilled evacuation plans -- backed up by an army of responders and volunteers -- has seen Odisha's inhabitants spared the worst of Fani's fury.

Only 12 people have been killed by the cyclone in India -- which escaped being hit by a major storm surge -- and at least 160 injured, local media reported. 

As soon as it became clear this week that Fani was on course to hit Odisha, emergency teams began the mammoth task of evacuating those living in low-lying regions, moving 1.2 million residents away from danger areas and in to temporary shelters.

Alerts asking residents to stay indoors and follow the dos and don'ts were issued repeatedly on TV and radio, and broadcast through loudspeakers in public places.

The UN Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNDRR) praised the government's "effective" evacuation, saying it had "saved many lives".

NEW WEATHER MODELS 

The state government in Odisha along with national disaster response teams and volunteers have worked in tandem to carry out evacuations and set up safe shelters.

Workers have been equipped with satellite phones and inflatable boats along with food and medicines to distribute in the storm's aftermath.

Some 7,000 kitchens catering to 9,000 shelters have been set up, thanks to an army of 45,000 volunteers. 

Emergency workers are now focusing on restoring damaged infrastructure, including power and telecom lines, and clearing roads.

Mahesh Palawat, the vice president of meteorology at private forecaster Skymet, said the early warnings had been vital in allowing authorities to plan in advance.

"From April 25 onwards we (the Indian Meteorological Department and Skymet) had been monitoring the track and intensity of the cyclone continuously, what time it would make landfall and the probable points of landfall," Palawat told AFP.

Numerical models, adopted by the Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) in 2014 to supplement the more traditional statistical modelling, allowed forecasters to track Fani's progress and wind profiles in the upper atmosphere.

Denis McClean, a spokesperson for UNISDR, said "the almost pinpoint accuracy" of the early warnings from the IMD had enabled the authorities to "conduct a well-targeted evacuation plan."

Social media users also lauded the Indian authorities for averting a mass human disaster, despite the fact that a densely populated region was in the eye of the storm.

"Credit goes to #India authorities for their aggressive pre-impact response, including massive evacuations," wrote Josh Morgerman, a US-based cyclone expert.

source: news.abs-cbn.com

'Monster' Hurricane Florence to pummel US Southeast for days

WILMINGTON - Hurricane Florence, on track to become the first Category 4 storm to make a direct hit on North Carolina in 6 decades, howled closer to shore on Tuesday, threatening to unleash deadly pounding surf, days of torrential rain and severe flooding.

Fierce winds and massive waves are expected to lash the coasts of North and South Carolina and Virginia even before Florence makes landfall on Friday, and its rains will take a heavy toll for miles inland, the National Hurricane Center in Miami warned.

Although Florence was still days from arrival, authorities took extraordinary measures to move people out of harm's way. More than 1 million residents have been ordered to evacuate from coastal areas of the 3 states, closing university campuses, schools and factories.

Packing maximum sustained winds of 140 miles per hour (225 km per hour), the storm ranked as a Category 4 on the 5-step Saffir-Simpson hurricane scale and was expected to grow stronger and larger over the next few days, the NHC said.

"This storm is a monster," North Carolina Governor Roy Cooper said. "Even if you've ridden out storms before, this one is different. Don't bet your life on riding out a monster."

He cited forecasts showing Florence was likely to stall over North Carolina, "bringing days and days of rain."

To hasten evacuations from coastal South Carolina, officials reversed the flow of traffic on some highways so all major roads led away from shore. Miles of traffic slowed to a crawl along the main highway along North Carolina's Outer Banks barrier islands.

Maps of Florence's trajectory showed the center of the storm most likely to strike the southern coast of North Carolina. The last Category 4 hurricane to plow directly into North Carolina was Hazel in 1954, a devastating storm that killed 19 people and destroyed some 15,000 homes.

But NHC spokesman Dennis Feltgen stressed the effects of Florence would be widely felt. Tropical storm-force winds would extend nearly 300 miles across 3 states. A hurricane warning was posted for most of the Carolina coast north to the Virginia border.

In addition to flooding the coast with wind-driven storm surges of seawater as high as 13 feet (4 m), Florence could dump 15 to 25 inches (38 to 64 cm) of rain, with up to 35 inches (89 cm) in some spots, forecasters said.

LONG-TERM POWER OUTAGES POSSIBLE

Communities in Florence's path could be without electricity for weeks due to downed power lines and flooded equipment, Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) Administrator Brock Long said.

Utility companies deployed crews and gear in advance, according to trade group, the Edison Electric Institute. Workers from at least 15 states were en route to the region to assist with what could be a lengthy power restoration effort.

Crews also prepared 16 nuclear reactors in the three-state region for the storm. One power station, Duke Energy Corp's Brunswick plant, the closest to the area where landfall is forecast, faced a likely shutdown as a precaution. Shutdowns also were possible at two more plants in the path of predicted hurricane-force winds.

The American Red Cross said more than 700 workers were headed to the target area while shelters were set up to take in those who could not evacuate. A hospital in Hampton, Virginia, was transferring patients to safer places.

US President Donald Trump on Tuesday signed declarations of emergency for North Carolina, South Carolina and Virginia, freeing up federal resources for storm response.

"We are sparing no expense. We are totally prepared," Trump said at the White House.

Trump faced severe criticism for his administration's response to Hurricane Maria last year in Puerto Rico. Some 3,000 people died in the aftermath of that storm.

COMMERCIAL OPERATIONS

Days before its arrival, Florence was already disrupting commercial operations.

Boeing Co suspended work on Tuesday at the South Carolina plant where it assembles 787 widebody jetliners, and a Volvo automobile plant in South Carolina's evacuation zone was also closed, company officials said.

Smithfield Foods Inc said it would shut down the world's largest hog-slaughtering facility in Tar Heel, North Carolina, on Thursday and Friday due to the hurricane.

Residents prepared by boarding up their homes and stocking up on food, water and other essentials, stripping many grocery store shelves of merchandise. Some gasoline stations also ran low on fuel.

Not everyone was in a hurry to leave. Charles Mullen, 81, a longtime resident of Hatteras Island, North Carolina, said he had ridden out many storms and that most locals were planning to stay unless Florence took aim at Hatteras.

"If it decides to come here, we're gone," he said. 

source: news.abs-cbn.com

Thousands evacuated as cyclone barrels towards India

CHENNAI, India - India on Monday started evacuating thousands of people from fishing villages as Cyclone Vardah barreled towards its southeastern coast at speeds of more than 100 kilometers (62 miles) per hour.

Heavy rains accompanied by high-velocity winds pounded the coastal districts of Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh states, uprooting trees and disrupting power supply lines.

A high alert was issued in several affected districts, with eight fishermen having so far been rescued from the sea in view of the "very severe" cyclonic storm.

"We have already moved over 9,400 persons in seven vulnerable mandals (blocks) to safety. All necessary measures have been taken to ensure safety of people," P Narayana, a minister in the Andhra Pradesh state government, told the Press Trust of India news agency.

Another 7,000 were evacuated in Tamil Nadu state, the National Disaster Management Authority said.

Two navy ships with doctors, food packets and other relief material have also been put on standby, said a navy spokesman.

More than 15 teams of the National Disaster Response Force were deployed, with the storm expected to make landfall in the late afternoon close to Chennai, the state capital of Tamil Nadu.

The Tamil Nadu government ordered all educational institutions in coastal districts to be shut as a precaution.

Devastating floods last year killed at least 250 people in Chennai, India's fourth-largest city, which is home to nearly 4.6 million people.

On its way inland, Cyclone Vardah hit several islands in the Andamans last week, forcing authorities to evacuate hundreds of stranded tourists from the archipelago.

India's eastern coast and neighboring Bangladesh are routinely hit by bad storms between April and December that cause deaths and widespread property damage.

In 1999, more than 8,000 people were killed when a cyclone battered the eastern state of Orissa.

source: news.abs-cbn.com

Homes destroyed as twin cyclones slam into northern Australia

SYDNEY - A powerful cyclone slammed into northeast Australia on Friday, destroying homes, upending trees, cutting power lines and causing flash floods, while a second storm severed communications to a northern island where heavy damage was expected.

Tens of thousands took what shelter they could as Cyclone Marcia caught Queensland state almost unawares, gathering strength in just a few hours before making landfall midmorning as a category 5 system - the highest rating.

Emergency services scrambled to evacuate thousands of homes in the direct path of Marcia before pulling out and warning anyone who had not left to barricade themselves inside to avoid wind gusts peaking at 285 kph (177 mph).

Rail lines to coastal ports, an essential part of Queensland's A$280 billion ($218 billion) commodities export-driven economy, were brought to a standstill.

"Stay indoors, take the safest room in the home and let the storm pass," Queensland Fire and Emergency Services Assistant Commissioner John Watson told media after the storm passed over the coastal city of Rockhampton, home to 75,000 people, and headed south towards Australia's third-largest city, Brisbane.

There were no reports of deaths or injuries and meteorologists said the worst of the winds had eased by evening and downgraded the cyclone to a category 2. But authorities warned heavy rains and flooding were likely to continue for several days and extend inland.

Some 48,000 homes were left without power, Watson added, broken power lines and flooding leaving some areas too dangerous for energy companies to begin repairs.

SUGAR, COAL AT RISK

More than 10 percent of Australia's sugar crop was at risk from Marcia, an industry body warned. The world's No. 3 exporter of raw sugar is set to produce 4.6 million tons of the commodity in 2015.

BHP Billiton suspended rail lines hauling coal from its inland collieries to the massive Hay Point shipping terminal until further notice.

Marcia's forecast trajectory indicated the impact on coal mining was expected to be less severe than in 2011, when Queensland missed its annual coal export target by 40 million tons after storms dumped unprecedented amounts of rain into pits.

The latest data supplied by the Bureau of Meteorology showed Marcia moving inland rather than directly impacting the Gladstone industrial hub, where Rio Tinto operates Australia's largest aluminum smelter.

Emergency service officials in the neighboring Northern Territory were beginning to assess the damage caused by Cyclone Lam that made landfall in the remote region east of Darwin.

The category 4 storm hit near the settlement of Ramingining, where residents were beginning to emerge to inspect the damage. Communications had been cut with tiny Elcho Island, which was believed to have experienced widespread damage, Northern Territory police said.

By evening, Lam had been downgraded to a tropical low but continued to dump heavy rain across the north as it moved southwest.

It was also looming as a gloomy weekend for sports fans, with torrential rains from Marcia likely to force a halt to Australia's second World Cup cricket match against Bangladesh scheduled to be played in Brisbane on Saturday.

source: www.abs-cbnnews.com

Cyclone could cancel Pope's Leyte visit, says exec

MANILA – A member of the Papal Visit Executive Committee said bad weather may force the cancellation of Pope Francis' visit to Leyte.

Ambassador Marciano Paynor, member of the Papal Visit Executive Committee, said the approaching cyclone east of the Visayas-Mindanao region has cast uncertainty on the pope's January 17 visit to Yolanda-ravaged Tacloban.

''Talagang hindi natin masasabi, pero siyempre ang pinaka (concern) nga is iyung weather ho,'' Paynor told dzMM.

''Kung masyadong malakas ang ulan o hangin, hindi pwedeng mag-landing ang eroplano sa Tacloban. Iyun ang pwedeng makaapekto. Pero pinag-darasal natin na huwag mangyari iyon."

The pope's visit to the typhoon-stricken region is considered the most important part of his visit to the Philippines, which carries the theme ''Mercy and Compassion''.

The pope is scheduled to celebrate Mass at the Tacloban airport, considered the ground zero for Yolanda, and have lunch with 30 survivors of the super typhoon and the destructive Bohol earthquake.

Cyclone
State weather bureau PAGASA said a tropical depression was spotted 1,610 kilometers east of Mindanao as of 4 a.m.

The tropical depression was packing maximum sustained winds of 55 kilometers per hour and was moving west northwest at 19 kph.

PAGASA weather forecaster Jori Loiz told dzMM that the tropical depression will enter the Philippine area of responsibility between Wednesday evening and Thursday morning, at which point it will be locally named ''Amang''.

Loiz said the cyclone might re-curve due to the high pressure area. He, however, said even if the cyclone re-curves, it's trough or outer cloudbands will still bring rains over Visayas and Mindanao.

PAGASA said by Friday (January 16), Tacloban City will experience light rains as the tropical cyclone moves closer to the country.

By Saturday (January 17), light to moderate rains and moderate to strong winds will prevail over Tacloban and thunderstorms are likely to occur.

People surge
Meanwhile, Pasig Bishop Mylo Vergara, head of the media committee for the papal visit to the Philippines, said people who want to bring children to any of the papal events in the Philippines, especially in the pope's mass in Luneta, should not be discouraged from doing so.

''Everyone should go. I think even some elderlies are excited to go there. There will be persons with disbailities who would be attending the mass, so why not?" he told ANC's Headstart.

Citing the annual Feast of the Black Nazarene, Vergara noted the Philippines is no stranger to events that see a large number of people converging in one place.

''Ang poong nazareno happens every year. It is something that we look forward to. It is always asked of me, are you afraid of the people surge? Eh people surge na yung poong nazareno hindi ba? And things fall into place afterwards. We do the best in security, in management of the crowd,'' he said.

Nearly 40,000 soldiers and police are being deployed to protect the pontiff during his five-day trip to the Philippines, a majority Catholic nation where attempts have been made to kill visiting popes twice before.

"For this year, this will be the greatest security nightmare that we can have," Philippine military chief General Gregorio Catapang said as he readied his troops for the pontiff's arrival.

Authorities have stated the huge crowds of devout Catholics are their main worry, with up to six million people expected for a mass in Manila on Sunday. – with Agence France-Presse

source: www.abs-cbnnews.com

Thousands homeless after killer Indian cyclone

GOPALPUR - Tens of thousands of people who fled India's strongest cyclone in 14 years returned to discover their homes and livelihoods destroyed Monday, as a massive relief operation kicked into gear.

One million people were forced to seek refuge in shelters and government buildings after the terrifying cyclone struck eastern India on Saturday, killing at least 18 people and leaving a trail of destruction along the coast.

Cyclone Phailin was dissipating rapidly after pounding the states of Orissa and Andhra Pradesh, bringing winds of more than 200 kilometres an hour (125 miles per hour), uprooting trees, overturning trucks, and knocking out power lines.

Residents, some carrying their children and clutching bags of possessions, and who hours earlier were huddled in shelters, made their way back to their towns and villages fearing the worst.

"I left everything (behind) and when I came back nothing was here," said Bhagwan, 50, who uses one name, a coconut seller from the hard-hit Orissa town of Gopalpur, as he sat on the ground in front of his destroyed shop.

Some 600,000 people were left homeless in Orissa after the ferocious storm tore through thousands of villages, the state's special relief commissioner, Pradipta Kumar Mohapatra, told AFP.

Many were poor fishermen and farmers living in mud and thatched dwellings, including in the worst affected area around Gopalpur, where the eye of Phailin came ashore.

"I lost my house and also a small shaving shop, I lost everything," Janardan, 32, who uses one name, said from inside his tiny dwelling in Gopalpur. The cyclone collapsed the roof, leaving Janardan and his wife to begin the clean-up.

Seventeen people were killed in Orissa and one person further south in Andhra Pradesh, government and disaster management officials said.

"The 17 deaths were due to people being crushed by falling trees, walls, roofs," R.S. Gopalan, the senior state government official coordinating relief operations in Orissa, told AFP.

India's President Pranab Mukherjee expressed sadness late Sunday over those killed and urged authorities to provide speedy relief and rehabilitation to all families by the disaster.

But Mukherjee also congratulated relief officials on the "high level of preparedness" which seemed to have limited the number of casualties.

More than 8,000 people were killed in 1999 when a cyclone hit the same region, devastating crops and livestock. The area took years to recover.

This time, the massive evacuation operation, which officials said was the biggest in Indian history, appeared to have succeeded in minimising casualties.

But despite the low death toll, the cyclone left a trail of destruction and hundreds of workers from the country's National Disaster Response Force fanned out across the region, clearing away fallen trees, mangled power poles, and other debris, a statement said.

Other relief workers distributed food at shelters and treated the injured, while authorities worked to restore power and other services.

India's airforce deployed helicopters and transport aircraft to help supply food, water and medical supplies to those in need.

In a remarkable story of survival, 18 fishermen trapped four kilometres (2.4 miles) offshore in rough seas abandoned their trawler as the cyclone approached, the Press Trust of India reported.

The fishermen swam to shore and were discovered on Sunday before being taken to a local hospital near the port of Paradip in Orissa, state government officials were quoted by PTI as saying.

Some 1,000 people marooned by the storm surge in a village in Andhra Pradesh were also rescued by boat, a senior disaster response official told a press conference in New Delhi.

Officials in Orissa said 873,000 people moved before the cyclone made landfall on Saturday evening, while at least another 100,000 were evacuated in Andhra Pradesh. Residents were also evacuated from coastal regions of West Bengal state.

High-sided trucks lying on their sides were witness to the strength of the winds on the main highway south of Gopalpur, which was littered with uprooted trees and other debris.

Some of the deadliest storms in history have formed in the Bay of Bengal, including one in 1970 that killed hundreds of thousands of people in modern-day Bangladesh.

source: www.abs-cbnnews.com

Second cyclone bears down on Australia

SYDNEY -- Australia was bracing for its second cyclone in as many days on Sunday with a tropical low intensifying off the northeast state of Queensland.

Cyclone Lua, the strongest storm to hit Australia since last year's destructive top-strength Cyclone Yasi, ripped into the nation's minerals-rich west coast on Saturday, bringing wild winds and heavy rains.

Emergency officials said the sparsely-populated region appeared to have escaped the worst, with no injuries and only minor damage reported so far from the storm, which was rated category four of five in severity.

"With the category four and with the winds that it had when it crossed the coast, we've been extremely lucky not to have sustained quite a bit of damage in some of those areas," said Lyn Bryant, spokeswoman for the Fire and Emergency Services Authority (FESA).

Lua had dissipated to a category one storm by Sunday afternoon and was expected to drop below cyclone strength before nightfall according to the Bureau of Meteorology.

But forecasters said a second cyclone was forming in Australia's northern Gulf of Carpentaria region, with the bureau warning residents to prepare for gales of up to 185 kilometres (115 miles) per hour and possible flash flooding.

"The low is expected to continue moving in a northwesterly direction over southern Gulf of Carpentaria waters today, where it may develop into a tropical cyclone on Monday," the bureau said.

Cyclones are common in northern and western Australia during the warmer months, with last year's Yasi -- the worst storm in a century -- wreaking Aus$1 billion (US$1.1 billion) in damage along the Great Barrier Reef coast.

Western Australian residents told of their harrowing wait as Lua raged through the night, bringing 250 kilometre an hour winds and drenching rains.

"It was absolutely horrific," said Janet Robb, manager of the Pilbara Roadhouse that was directly in the cyclone's path.

"There was half an hour there where you thought, 'Is this ever going to end? Is the roof going to lift? Is the wall going to cave in?'," Robb told Fairfax newspapers.

"It was pretty wild. At least we're alive."

source: interaksyon.com