Florida breaks record with more than 21,000 new COVID cases

ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) — Florida reported 21,683 new cases of COVID-19, the state’s highest one-day total since the start of the pandemic, according to federal health data released Saturday, as its theme park resorts again started asking visitors to wear masks indoors.

The state has become the new national epicenter for the virus, accounting for around a fifth of all new cases in the U.S.

Republican Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has resisted mandatory mask mandates and vaccine requirements, and along with the state Legislature, has limited local officials’ ability to impose restrictions meant to stop the spread of COVID-19. DeSantis on Friday barred school districts from requiring students to wear masks when classes resume next month.

The latest numbers were recorded on Friday and released on Saturday on the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s website. The figures show how quickly the number of cases is rising in the Sunshine State: only a day earlier, Florida reported 17,093 new daily cases. The previous peak in Florida had been 19,334 cases reported on Jan. 7, before the availability of vaccinations became widespread.

The Florida Hospital Association said Friday that statewide COVID-19 hospitalizations are nearing last year’s peak, and one of the state’s largest health care systems, AdventHealth’s Central Florida Division, this week advised it would no longer be conducting nonemergency surgeries in order to free up resources for COVID-19 patients.

Universal Orlando Resort and SeaWorld on Saturday became the latest theme park resorts in Florida to again ask visitors to wear masks indoors, with Universal also ordering its employees to wear face coverings to protect against COVID-19, which has been surging across the state.

All workers at Universal’s Florida park on Saturday started being required to wear masks while indoors as the employees returned to practicing social distancing. The home to Harry Potter and Despicable Me rides also asked visitors to follow federal and local health guidelines by voluntarily wearing face coverings indoors.

“The health and safety of our guests and team members is always our top priority,” Universal said in a statement.

Health officials on Friday announced that coronavirus cases in Florida had jumped 50% over the past week with COVID-19 hospitalizations in the state nearing last year’s peak.

SeaWorld on Saturday posted on its website that it was recommending that visitors follow recently updated federal recommendations and wear face coverings while indoors.

The change in policy this week at the theme park resorts came after the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommended that everyone wear masks indoors, regardless of vaccination status.

Crosstown rival Walt Disney World started requiring employees and guests older than 2 to wear masks on Friday, but it also went a step further. The Walt Disney Company said in a statement that it will be requiring all salaried and non-union hourly employees in the U.S. who work on site to be fully vaccinated.

Disney employees who aren’t already vaccinated will have 60 days to do so and those still working from home will need to show proof of vaccination before returning. Disney said it was discussing the vaccine requirements with the union, and added that all new hires will be required to be fully vaccinated before starting work at the company.

-Associated Press

Florida surpasses half a million COVID-19 cases

MIAMI - Florida, the epicenter of the novel coronavirus pandemic in the southeastern US, has surpassed half a million cases and now has a death toll of more than 7,600, state health authorities said Wednesday.

The Florida Health Department reported only 5,409 new daily cases in its latest count, a considerable drop after recent figures of around 10,000 new infections per day in recent weeks.

The number of cases however may have decreased because testing was largely halted during the recent passage of Tropical Storm Isaias.

Public testing centers where people could go for a nose swab were closed Thursday, reopening only on Monday.

The storm swiped Florida's eastern coastline over the weekend, leaving four dead across the southeastern US.

Florida, population 21 million, has registered 502,739 total coronavirus cases, the Health Department said.

That means that close to one in every 43 Floridians has tested positive for the virus.

Florida has the highest number of virus cases in the country after California, which has about twice Florida's population.

After killing 225 people on Tuesday, the total COVID-19 death toll in the Sunshine State reached 7,627.

Governor Ron DeSantis reopened Florida for business between May and June but did not order the mandatory use of face masks or recommend new quarantine measures.

The Republican governor is a key ally of President Donald Trump, who is counting on a victory in Florida to help him win the November 3 presidential election.

Agence France-Presse

Disney World reopens as US virus death toll surges

ORLANDO - Disney World is known as "The Most Magical Place on Earth" but as the Florida theme park reopened Saturday, it was counting on a bit of science -- masks, social distancing, hand sanitizer -- to stave off the coronavirus.

The state of Florida is one of the hardest-hit by a new wave of cases and deaths in the United States, already the most affected country in the world in terms of infections and fatalities.

On Saturday, Florida reported its third-highest daily increase in cases, with 10,360 new infections, as well as 95 deaths.

Overall, the US has seen nearly 135,000 deaths out of 3.2 million cases.

In Orlando, Disney World reopened two of its four parks -- Magic Kingdom and Animal Kingdom -- after four months of closure. Epcot and Disney Hollywood Studios will open on Wednesday.

Several hundred people queued in the Florida heat ahead of the park's reopening -- some sporting Mickey ears but all wearing masks, part of the park's new guidelines requiring them for both guests and employees.

Saturday's visitors had reserved their tickets in advance, allowing Disney to control the number of people in the park and accommodate for social distancing. Tickets are already sold out through July.

The park was carrying out temperature checks at the entrance and hand sanitizer was widely available. Disney said it was enforcing social distancing of six feet (two meters) at attractions and inside shops.

"By visiting Walt Disney World Resort you voluntarily assume all risks related to exposure to COVID-19," the park said on its website.

Gone are the park's famous parades which allow mingling with Disney characters; also absent are the evening fireworks shows.

On social media, many criticized the park's reopening as Florida experiences an accelerated number of cases.

The state's Republican Governor Ron DeSantis began reopening Florida's economy in phases in May and June.

Top US infectious disease expert Anthony Fauci said Thursday that Florida had begun reopening before meeting the criteria that would have enabled it to do so safely.

DeSantis disputed the remarks, saying his decision to reopen was justified by figures at the time.

At the end of June, the governor took a step backwards, ordering the closure of bars in an attempt to limit the spread of the virus, but cases have continued to climb.

Florida is not the only state grappling with a serious spread of COVID-19.

In Georgia, Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms on Friday ordered a return to the southern city's Phase 1 lockdown, telling nearly all residents to wear masks, a retreat after having partially reopened the city. Bottoms herself has tested positive.

Fulton County, which includes Atlanta, registered 435 new cases of the disease in the latest 24-hour period.

Arizona has seen a steady rise since March in the use by hospital intensive-care units of artificial breathing machines. 

In Texas, several hospitals -- including in Houston's huge medical complex -- say their coronavirus wards are at or near capacity, amid fears of a further influx of patients in coming days.

And some states that had largely been spared up to now -- including Idaho, Oklahoma and North Dakota -- have been setting new virus records almost every day.

Agence France-Presse

Florida, Texas post daily COVID-19 records as 'positivity' rates climb higher

WASHINGTON - Florida and Texas, two states that have emerged as the latest hot spots of the US coronavirus outbreak, both reported new single-day record increases in confirmed COVID-19 cases on Saturday - with nearly 20,000 additional infections combined.

For a second straight day, Texas also registered an all-time high in the number of people hospitalized with the highly contagious respiratory illness - 7,890 patients after 238 new admissions over the past 24 hours.

By comparison, New York state - the US epicenter of the outbreak months ago, reported just 844 hospitalizations on Saturday, far below the nearly 19,000 hospital beds occupied by COVID-19 patients at the peak of its coronavirus crisis.

During the first four days of July alone, a total of 14 states have posted a daily record increases in the number of individuals testing positive for COVID-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus that has killed nearly 130,000 Americans.

And in a further sign the virus is spreading, at least 18 states, including the three most highly populated - California, Texas and Florida - have posted ominous rates of infection as a percentage of diagnostic tests over the past two weeks.

The recent surge, most pronounced in Southern and Western states that were among the latest to impose mandatory business restrictions at the outset of the pandemic and the first to relax them, has alarmed public health officials ahead of weekend July Fourth holiday celebrations.

The majority of Independence Day fireworks displays across the country have been canceled, as state and local authorities urged Americans to avoid large crowds, practice safe social distancing and wear face coverings while out in public.

Florida's confirmed coronavirus cases rose by a record 11,458 on Saturday, the state's health department said, marking the second time in three days that its caseload jumped by more than 10,000 in 24 hours.

The latest case numbers in Florida, which has yet to report statewide hospitalizations, surpassed the highest daily tally reported by any European county during the height of the coronavirus outbreak there.

In Texas, meanwhile, the number of new cases rose by a record 8,258 on Saturday. North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Alaska, Missouri, Idaho and Alabama all registered new daily highs on Friday.

Despite the rising number of infections, the average daily US death toll has gradually declined in recent weeks, reflecting the growing proportion of positive tests among younger, healthier people less prone to severe illness when infected.

OMINOUS SIGN OF VIRUS TRANSMISSIONS

Still, a growing number of states are reporting a troubling upward trend in the percentage of diagnostic tests that come back positive - a key indicator of community spread that experts refer to as the positivity rate.

The World Health Organization considers positivity rates above 5 percent to be concerning, and widely watched data from Johns Hopkins University shows at least 18 states with average rates over the past two weeks exceeding that level and climbing.

Eleven states averaged double-digit rates over the past seven days – Arizona (26 percent), Florida (18 percent), Nevada (16 percent), South Carolina (15 percent), Alabama (15 percent), Texas (14.5 percent), Mississippi (14 percent), Georgia (13 percent), Idaho 11 percent), Kansas (10 percent) and Utah (10 percent). That was up from four states with double-digit rates two weeks ago.

Even in California, which led the nation with statewide workplace closures and stay-at-home orders issued on March 19, the positivity rate has crept up to an average of 7 percent over the past week.

Against that backdrop, Miami-Dade County Mayor Carlos Gimenez imposed an indefinite nightly curfew starting Friday and halted the reopenings of casinos and other entertainment venues. Earlier this week, Miami-Dade and neighboring Broward County, the state's two most populous counties, required residents to wear face coverings in public.

Arkansas on Friday joined a push toward mandating mask-wearing in public. Governor Asa Hutchinson authorized the state's cities and towns to enact a "model ordinance" requiring face coverings.

The move came a day after Texas Governor Greg Abbott ordered face masks worn in most public places, reversing his stance following an alarming rise in infections.

President Donald Trump has repeatedly sought to minimize the jump in confirmed cases as a function of greater testing and again this week predicted that the virus would "disappear."

"If you test 40,000,000 people, you are going to have many cases that, without the testing (like other countries), would not show up every night on the Fake Evening News," Trump wrote on Twitter on Saturday.

-reuters-

Significant spread of COVID-19 in Orlando could halt play - Silver

The NBA season could again be put on hold if there is a "significant spread" of COVID-19 among its players in Orlando, where the league is set to resume play on July 30 with no fans in attendance, commissioner Adam Silver said on Friday.

The NBA was the first major North American league to suspend its season in mid-March after a player tested positive for the novel coronavirus. It recently agreed a plan with its players to restart with 22 teams at Disney World in Florida.

But if the number of cases inside the NBA's so-called "bubble" rises, "that may lead us to stopping" play, Silver told ESPN.

Silver said the record number of cases in Florida recently has raised the level of concern but added that the use of the campus - where players will live, practice and play - is designed to limit risk of exposure to the surrounding community.

Silver's remarks came on the same day the NBA reported that 16 out of 302 players checked for COVID-19 on June 23 had tested positive. The league did not disclose the identities of the players.

Players are scheduled to begin traveling to Orlando on July 7 with tip-off set for July 30. 

-reuters-

WWE resumes live broadcasts from Florida

MIAMI - World Wrestling Entertainment, a US media group whose wrestlers body-slam their opponents into oblivion, has resumed live broadcasting of bouts after gaining "essential services" status in Florida.

With sports and entertainment events shut down worldwide amid the coronavirus pandemic, WWE wasted no time after Florida's emergency management director confirmed it provided an essential service -- along with hospitals, firefighters, grocery providers and mental health care workers.

A memo sent Friday, based on an executive order from governor Ron DeSantis, confirms essential services now include "employees at a professional sports and media production with a national audience – including any athletes, entertainers, production team, executive team, media team and any others necessary to facilitate including services supporting such production – only if the location is closed to the general public."

On Monday, WWE aired a live episode of its weekly series "Raw" from its Orlando production facility.

"As a brand that has been woven into the fabric of society, WWE and its Superstars bring families together and deliver a sense of hope, determination and perseverance," the company said in a statement, adding that it would take "additional precautions" to guard the health and safety of performers and staff.

WWE's move could conceivably open the door for other sports in Florida.

Even before the order, Major League Baseball was reportedly mulling a plan to hold regular-season games at training facilities in Florida and Arizona in a bid to get the season delayed by the pandemic underway.

Ultimate Fighting Championship, the mixed martial arts organization that has been trying in vain to find a venue to stage a fight amid virus lockdowns, owns event space in Florida.

UFC boss Dana White was thwarted in his bid to hold UFC 249 without fans on April 18 at an undisclosed location, reportedly a Native American tribal reservation in California.

The move met with resistance from California Senator Dianne Feinstein and White said that he finally postponed the event at the request of broadcasters ESPN.

bb/caw/

Agence France-Presse

Saudi airman may have become radicalized before US Navy base attack

PENSACOLA, Florida -- The Saudi airman accused of killing three people at a US Navy base in Florida appeared to have posted criticism of US wars and quoted slain al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden on social media hours before the shooting spree, according to a group that tracks online extremism.

Federal investigators have not disclosed any motive behind the attack, which unfolded at dawn on Friday when the Saudi national is said to have begun firing a handgun inside a classroom at the Naval Air Station Pensacola. US Defense Secretary Mark Esper said during a public appearance on Saturday he was not ready to label it an act of terrorism.

A vigil was held on Saturday for those wounded and killed, among them a recent Naval Academy graduate who dreamed of being a fighter pilot, according to the victim's family.

A sheriff's deputy fatally shot the gunman, authorities said, ending the second deadly attack at a US military base within a week. Within hours, Saudi Arabia's King Salman had called U. President Donald Trump to extend his condolences and pledge his kingdom's support in the investigation.

Authorities confirmed the suspect was a member of the Royal Saudi Air Force who was on the base as part of a US Navy training program designed to foster links with foreign allies. They declined to disclose his name or identify his victims.

Two US officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, named the shooter as Second Lieutenant Mohammed Saeed Alshamrani.

He was reported to have played videos of mass shootings at a dinner earlier in the week with other Saudi aviation students, according to US media reports on Saturday that cited an unnamed person briefed on the investigation.

Investigators have found no sign Alshamrani had links to international terrorist groups and think he may have radicalized on his own, the New York Times reported, citing an unidentified US official. It said the airman first entered the United States in 2018, returned to Saudi Arabia, then re-entered the United States in February, and had reported for training at the base about three days before the attack.

At least three of the eight people wounded were law enforcement officers shot as they responded to the attack, officials said, including one Navy police officer and two county sheriff's deputies. They were expected to recover.

One of the dead was identified by relatives as Joshua Kaleb Watson, 23. A recent graduate of the Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland, he had arrived at Pensacola two weeks ago for flight training, his family said.

"Joshua Kaleb Watson saved countless lives today with his own," Watson's brother, Adam Watson, wrote on Facebook on Friday. "After being shot multiple times he made it outside and told the first response team where the shooter was and those details were invaluable."

OTHER SAUDIS QUESTIONED

In comments to reporters at the White House on Saturday, Trump said the Saudi king and crown prince were "devastated" by what took place, and that the king "will be involved in taking care of families and loved ones."

"I think they're going to help out the families very greatly," Trump said.

Six other Saudi nationals were being questioned by investigators in Florida, three of whom were seen filming the incident, the New York Times reported, citing an unidentified person briefed on the investigation.

An uncle of Alshamrani, Saad bin Hantim Alshamrani, told CNN from Saudi Arabia that his nephew was 21, and "likable and mannered towards his family and the community." He said his nephew "has his religion, his prayer, his honesty and commitments."

The younger Alshamrani appeared to have posted a justification of his planned attack in English on Twitter a few hours before it began, according to SITE Intelligence Group, which monitors online Islamist extremism.

He referred to US wars in Muslim countries, writing that he hated the American people for "committing crimes not only against Muslims but also humanity," and criticizing Washington's support for Israel, SITE's analysis said. He also quoted bin Laden, the Saudi mastermind of the attacks on the United States on Sept. 11, 2001, according to SITE.

Reuters has not verified the authenticity of the account, @M&MD_SHAMRANI, which was suspended by Twitter on Friday.

GLASS AND BLOOD

About 100 people gathered at the Olive Baptist Church for a vigil on Saturday, where Chip Simmons, chief deputy in the Escombia County Sheriff's office, recounted being one of the first on the scene, which he said was littered "with glass and blood, with killed and wounded lying on the floors."

"You realize in that moment that you are witnessing loss of life and hatred, but there was also heroism," Simmons said.

The base outside Pensacola, near Florida's border with Alabama, is a major training site for the Navy and employs about 16,000 military and 7,400 civilian personnel, according to its website.

On Wednesday, a US sailor shot three civilians at the historic Pearl Harbor military base in Hawaii, killing two of them before taking his own life.

Military personnel are normally restricted from carrying weapons on US bases unless they are part of their daily duties, a policy designed to reduce the risk of suicides and accidental shootings.

source: news.abs-cbn.com

US police officer arrested 2 6-year-olds in Florida school

A police officer who arrested two six-year-old children in a Florida school in the US has been suspended and the incident will be investigated, police said Monday.

The grandmother of one of the children, Kaia Rolle, said she was arrested after she threw a temper tantrum and kicked somebody. 

The incident has revived the debate over the role of police officers in public schools, 46 percent of which have an officer present for at least one day a week.

Reservist police officer Dennis Turner arrested the two children in separate incidents last Thursday, the Orlando police department told AFP in a statement.

Meralyn Kirkland, Kaia Rolle's grandmother, told local media her granddaughter suffered from sleep apnea and was acting up from a lack of sleep. She said a member of staff grabbed the girl by the wrists after she had acted up in class, and that the girl then kicked the person. 

Some media reports had suggested she kicked another student.

She said she was contacted by the school and that she tried in vain to dissuade the police officer from arresting the little African-American girl.

"I said, 'What do you mean, she was arrested?'" she told a local television news channel WKMG-TV. "They say there was an incident and she kicked somebody and she's being charged and she's on her way," 

When she told the police officer the girl suffered from sleep apnea, she said the policeman replied, "Well, I have sleep apnea, and I don't behave like that."

"No six-year-old child should be able to tell somebody that they had handcuffs on them and they were riding in the back of a police car and taken to a juvenile center to be fingerprinted, mug shot," the grandmother said.

Orlando police said the police van had turned back before reaching the juvenile center and the girl returned to school because Turner had not obtained the necessary permission from a supervisor to arrest a child aged less than 12 years.

The other six-year-old, however, was taken to a juvenile center before being released to the child's parents because the driver was not aware that he did not have the green light.

Turner was immediately suspended following the incident, the Orlando police department said. 

"As a grandparent of three children less than 11 years old, this is very concerning to me," police chief Orlando Rolon told the new channel.

Turner, who is also African-American, had served on the Orlando police force for 23 years before retiring last year, the New York Times said. He then joined a program of reservists protecting schools.

According to the Orlando Sentinel newspaper, he was arrested in 1998 for allegedly assaulting his 7-year-old son after the child came home from school with a 'bad report card.'

The Sentinel also reported that the department issued Turner a written reprimand in 2015 for Tasing a suspect five times, including twice while the man lay prone on the ground.

Deadly school shootings, including one in Sandy Hook, Connecticut in 2012, and one in Parkland, Florida, last year, have led to an increase in the number of police officers being assigned to schools, where they are deployed to protect students and prevent violence and drug use.

Their presence, however, has proven controversial, as they can arrest children who would have otherwise been handled by school disciplinary procedures.

The reluctance of the school protection officer to confront the gunman during the Parkland shooting, in which 17 people were killed as the officer remained outside the campus, added to the debate about the merits of having officers in schools.

source: news.abs-cbn.com

'Monster' Hurricane Dorian pummels Bahamas, forecast to threaten Florida

TITUSVILLE, Florida - Hurricane Dorian, the second-strongest Atlantic storm on record, pounded the Bahamian islands of Great Abaco and Grand Bahama on Sunday night and was forecast to move dangerously close to Florida in the next two days, U.S. forecasters said.

Hazards for the Abaco Islands included storm surges 18 to 23 feet (5.5 to 7 metres) above normal tide levels, with higher destructive waves, the Miami-based U.S. National Hurricane Center (NHC) said.

At 11 p.m. (0300) GMT, the hurricane was about 135 miles (220 km) from the Florida coast, parts of which were being evacuated, as it crawled westward. Farther north, South Carolina Governor Henry McMaster ordered mandatory evacuations for parts of eight coastal counties effective at noon (1600 GMT) on Monday.

Georgia Governor Brian Kemp ordered evacuations in all or parts of six coastal counties also effective at noon on Monday.

Even a glancing blow from one of the strongest storms ever to menace Florida could bring torrential rains and damaging winds, the NHC said.

"On this track, the core of extremely dangerous Hurricane Dorian will continue to pound Great Abaco and Grand Bahama islands tonight and Monday," the NHC said. "The hurricane will move dangerously close to the Florida east coast late Monday through Tuesday night."

Dorian is forecast to remain a hurricane for the next five days, the NHC said. Dorian made landfall on Elbow Cay in the Abaco Islands with maximum sustained winds of 185 miles per hour (295 kph) and gusts of more than 220 mph (354 kph).

Dorian was the strongest hurricane on record to hit the northwestern Bahamas as a life-threatening Category 5 storm on the five-step Saffir-Simpson Wind Scale.

It was tied with Gilbert (1988), Wilma (2005) and the 1935 Labor Day hurricane for the second-strongest Atlantic hurricane on record, based on maximum sustained winds. Allen in 1980 was the most powerful, with 190 mph (306 kph) winds, the NHC said.

Julia Eaddy, 70, in Titusville, Florida, said she and her husband had ridden out several hurricanes before and were not fazed by the forecast. "I think it will be more of the same," she said.

Several gasoline stations around Titusville were closed. Many grocery stores were open but boarded up. Inside, shelves emptied out fast.

'MONSTER STORM'

Like many officials in Florida, Governor Ron DeSantis warned residents against becoming complacent after forecasts began saying on Saturday that the state might escape a direct hit.

"This storm at this magnitude could really cause massive destruction. Do not put your life in jeopardy by staying behind when you have a chance to get out," DeSantis said, urging people to heed evacuation orders from county officials.

Dozens of Floridians who live in boats in marinas in Brevard County were rushing to secure their vessels, strapping them to docks and removing canvas coverings from decks, but some boat residents said they wanted to ride out Dorian.

"I will not get off this boat during the hurricane for any reason at all, save a human life," said Ned Keahey, 56. "It's home."

Residents on Abaco posted video on social media showing floodwaters halfway up the sides of single-family homes with parts of the roofs torn off. Car alarms blared across the island, which was littered with twisted metal and splintered wood.

Forecasters predicted up to 30 inches (76 cm) of rain. The storm was moving at just 6 mph (9 kph) on Sunday night, prolonging a pummeling expected to last for hours, the NHC said.

Bahamian Prime Minister Hubert Minnis said in a nationally televised news conference that a "deadly storm and a monster storm" was battering the islands. Homes there are built to withstand winds of at least 150 mph (241 kph), but the expected storm surge was higher than the average roof.

"This will put us to a test that we've never confronted before," Minnis said. "This is probably the most sad and worst day of my life to address the Bahamian people."

Palm Beach County, the third most-populated county and home to President Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago resort, was among those with partial mandatory evacuations. Other counties announced voluntary evacuations.

"This looks like it could be larger than all of them," Trump said during a briefing with the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA).

FEMA is moving food, water and generators into the Southeastern United States, said acting Administrator Peter Gaynor.

Also on Sunday, a new tropical storm formed southwest of Mexico and was expected to become a hurricane on Monday, the NHC said. Tropical Storm Juliette was 455 miles (735 km) from Manzanillo, Mexico, with maximum sustained winds of 60 mph (95 kph), the NHC said.

source: news.abs-cbn.com

Dorian makes landfall in Bahamas with gusts up to 354 kph

TITUSVILLE, Florida - Hurricane Dorian became the strongest storm in modern records to hit the northwestern Bahamas and is expected to pound the islands with up to two days of torrential rain, high waves and damaging winds as parts of Florida evacuated before it took aim at the US mainland.

The US National Hurricane Center (NHC) said Dorian made landfall on Elbow Cay in the Abaco Islands as a Category 5 storm on Sunday with maximum sustained winds of 185 miles per hour (295 km per hour) and gusts of more than 220 mph (354 kph).

Millions of people from Florida to North Carolina were bracing to see whether Dorian avoids a US landfall and, as predicted, veers north into the Atlantic Ocean after hitting the Bahamas. Even a glancing blow from one of the strongest storms ever to menace Florida could bring torrential rains and damaging winds, and "a Florida landfall is still a distinct possibility," the Miami-based NHC warned.

Bahamas residents reported trees snapping and docks being destroyed before the brunt of the storm arrived. The pummeling was expected to last for hours as the hurricane may slow to just 1 mph, "prolonging its catastrophic effects," the NHC said.

On Great Guana Cay, just off Great Abaco Island, waves began washing over low-lying parts of the tiny 9-mile (14-km) strand of land that is only about a quarter-mile wide by mid-morning, resident Tom Creenan said.

Although some residents left for Nassau and elsewhere days ago, some 200 to 300 are riding out the storm on Great Guana Cay, where power was already out and forecasters are predicting up to 2 feet (61 cm) of rain and 23-foot (7-meter) storm surges.

"The other day the prime minister came out and said everybody in Abaco should leave," Creenan said by phone. "But there's no place to go."

"This is the strongest hurricane that's ever hit in the Bahamas," Creenan said. "I grew up in Florida, so I've been through Andrew."

Hurricane Andrew slammed into eastern Florida in 1992 as a category 5 storm on the five-step Saffir-Simpson Wind Scale, obliterating the town of Homestead.

That state was taking no chances with Dorian and four Florida counties, including Palm Beach County, issued mandatory evacuations for some residents, including those in mobile homes, on barrier islands and in low-lying areas. Other coastal counties have announced voluntary evacuations.

US President Donald Trump warned on Sunday that the storm would likely impact the eastern seaboard from Florida to North Carolina.

"This looks monstrous," Trump said during a briefing with the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). "This looks like it could be larger than all of them."

FEMA is moving food, water and generators into the southeastern United States, said acting Administrator Peter Gaynor.

"When it comes to response, we are more than ready to deal with anything that Dorian delivers us this year, or any other storm that may come this season," he told CNN.

Meanwhile, a new tropical storm has formed southwest of Mexico and is expected to become a hurricane on Monday. Tropical Storm Juliette is 455 miles (735 km) from Manzanillo, Mexico, with maximum sustained winds of 45 mph (75 kph), the NHC said on Sunday.

(Reporting by Gabriella Borter in Titusville; Additional reporting by Peter Szekely in New York and Zachary Fagenson in Jacksonsville; Writing by Lisa Shumaker; Editing by Dale Hudson and Daniel Wallis)

source: news.abs-cbn.com

Slowing and strengthening, Hurricane Dorian worries Florida

MIAMI - Hurricane Dorian churned toward Florida with more powerful winds and drenching rains on Friday, wreaking havoc on people's Labor Day weekend plans in one of America's biggest vacation destinations.

In the Bahamas, evacuations were underway in the two days before Dorian was expected to bring a life-threatening storm surge of as much as 3 to 4.5 meters to the northwest of the islands, the National Hurricane Center said.

On Florida's east coast, where Dorian's winds were expected to begin hitting on Monday morning, items ranging from bottled water to plywood were being bought as quickly as they could be restocked. There were reports some gas stations had run out of fuel.

"They’re buying everything and anything that applies to a hurricane, flashlights, batteries, generators," said Amber Hunter, 30, assistant manager at Cape Canaveral's ACE Handiman hardware store.

The Miami-based National Hurricane Center warned that Dorian could further strengthen and batter Florida with winds of over 210 kph. That would put millions of people at risk along with big vacation parks such as Walt Disney World, the NASA launchpads along the Space Coast, and even President Trump's Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach.

NHC Director Ken Graham saw a worrying, unpredictable situation for Florida with the hurricane set to hit land somewhere up its east coast.

"Slow is not our friend, the longer you keep this around the more rain we get," said Graham in a Facebook Live video. While it was unclear where the hurricane would make landfall, the results were expected to be devastating: "Big time impacts, catastrophic events, for some areas 140 mph winds, not a good situation," said Graham.

Mindful of that warning, Cocoa Beach Mayor Ben Malik was putting up storm shutters on his Florida home on Friday afternoon and worrying about the flooding Dorian could unleash on his barrier island town.

"It's slowed down, we’re looking at a multiple day event, we were hoping it would just barrel through and leave,” Malik said of forecasts Dorian could sit over Florida for up to two days dumping up to 46 centimeters of water. "I’m really worried about the amount of rain we’ll be getting."

WEEK'S WORTH OF FOOD

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis urged residents to have at least a week's worth of food, water and medicine.

Fort Pierce Mayor Linda Hudson urged its 46,000 residents who planned to evacuate to go now.

"It's decision time now. Don’t wait until I-95 north and I-75 north and the turnpike are parking lots," said Hudson, who lived through two devastating hurricanes in 2004.

Dorian's course remained unpredictable. One of Florida's last major hurricanes, 2017's Irma, swept up the peninsula, instead of hitting the east coast.

Florida residents like Jamison Weeks, general manager at Conchy Joe's Seafood in Port St. Lucie, planned on staying put.

"I’m planning on boarding up my house this evening," said Weeks. "The mood is a little tense, everybody’s a little nervous and just trying to prepare as best as possible."

In the Bahamas, Freeport's international airport was set to close Friday night and would not open until Sept. 3, amid worries Dorian would slam tourist hotspots Grand Bahama and Abaco on Saturday.

Dorian began on Friday over the Atlantic as a Category 2 hurricane on the five-step Saffir-Simpson Wind Scale but strengthened to a Category 3 with sustained winds of 185 kph, the NHC said. It is moving just at 16 kph, giving it more time to intensify before making landfall.

Some 2,000 National Guard troops will have been mobilized for the hurricane by the end of Friday, with 2,000 more joining them on Saturday, Florida National Guard Maj. Gen. James Eifert said.

Florida officials also were making sure all nursing homes and assisted living facilities had generators.

Only one in five Florida nursing homes plans to rely on deliveries of temporary generators to keep their air conditioners running if Dorian knocks out power, a state agency said on Friday, short of the standard set by a law passed after a dozen people died in a sweltering nursing home after 2017's Hurricane Irma.

North of Cape Canaveral, the Kennedy Space Center's 400-foot launch tower was dragged inside a towering vehicle assembly building to shelter it from Dorian, according to a video posted by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)-owned space launch center.

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Dorian to become major hurricane as it targets Florida

Dorian heading toward Florida on Friday was on track to become a major hurricane with a dangerous storm surge and potential for life-threatening flash floods.

Its maximum sustained winds have reached 105 miles per hour (165 kilometers per hour), making it a Category 2 storm on a five-level scale, the National Hurricane Center said.

It is expected to strengthen over the next few days as it approaches the Bahamas and then Florida over the weekend.

Weather forecasters said Dorian could make landfall on the US east coast as a powerful Category 4 hurricane with the potential to cause life-threatening storm surges.

President Donald Trump cancelled a weekend trip to Poland to focus on preparations for the storm.

Florida has declared a state of emergency, warning the millions of people who live up and down the eastern coast of the Sunshine State to prepare for a potentially huge hurricane.

- 'Catastrophic impacts' -

Georgia -- another southeastern state that could be in the storm's path -- followed suit for 12 counties.

Governor Brian Kemp said the hurricane "has the potential to produce catastrophic impacts to citizens" throughout the southeast coastal region of the United States.

Trump, who has properties including the Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida, a politically important state for his 2020 re-election bid, also warned Floridians to get ready. 

"Be prepared... it will be a very big Hurricane, perhaps one of the biggest!" he said on Twitter.

The US Coast Guard said ocean-going commercial vessels should make plans to leave South Florida ports.

"The risk of devastating hurricane-force winds along the Florida east coast and peninsula late this weekend and early next week continues to increase," the NHC warned.

Miami's Ocean Drive, a normally-vibrant strip along the beach, was quiet, with some empty tables and fewer tourists than usual.

Grocery stores were packed with shoppers making last-minute purchases of water, food, propane canisters and other supplies. There were lines at some gasoline stations as drivers filled up their tanks.

One shopper, Magdalena Gomez from Argentina, was preparing for her first hurricane: "If they tell me to go buy water, I go buy water. I do everything they say."

A Rolling Stones concert in Miami originally scheduled for Saturday night was moved up by a day "due to the weather forecast," the band's Twitter account said.

- Puerto Rico spared -

"Strengthening is forecast during the next few days, and Dorian is expected to become a major hurricane on Friday, and remain an extremely dangerous hurricane through the weekend," the NHC said.

The US territory of Puerto Rico, still recovering from a powerful storm two years ago, was largely spared, but the NHC said Dorian could dump up to seven inches (18 centimeters) of rain on some parts of the Bahamas.

In Puerto Rico, the new governor, Wanda Vazquez, gave the all-clear, but there was no let-up in the political storm involving Trump and Carmen Yulin Cruz, the mayor of San Juan, the island's capital.

"Now that Dorian is going to the east coast let us hope that @realDonaldTrump sets aside his prejudice and racism & moves the federal response to efficiency," the mayor tweeted.

Trump declared a state of emergency in Puerto Rico ahead of Hurricane Dorian's anticipated arrival, authorizing federal assistance, but said that the island is "one of the most corrupt places on earth" and its political system is "broken."

Puerto Rico was devastated in 2017 by Hurricane Maria, a Category 4 storm.

A study accepted as valid by the government, which initially put the death toll at 64, estimated that nearly 3,000 people died as a result of that hurricane and the months of disruption that followed.

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Gas explosion at US mall injures 21

PLANTATION CITY, Florida - A powerful explosion from a suspected gas leak ripped through a shopping mall in Florida on Saturday, injuring 21 people, the fire department said.

The explosion sent debris flying across the parking lot of the Fountain Plaza shopping center, damaging an LA Fitness gym, numerous cars and blowing holes in neighboring buildings in the city of Plantation, about 50 kilometers (30 miles) north of Miami.

"We got our workout in, picked up the kids, walked out, got in the car, drove away and as we drove away everything exploded. It was a pretty crazy scene," said Jessi Walasheck, who witnessed the explosion.

Deputy fire chief Joel Gordon told reporters two of the injured were in serious condition after the blast, one of whom had potentially life-threatening injuries.

"We found patients scattered all around the debris area," he said, but added the injuries generally "are not as severe as what we thought they would be."

His department initially called it a gas explosion and Gordon said ruptured gas lines were found in the debris, but the cause of the blast has not been confirmed.

No one has been reported missing.

"As bad it was, it could have been a lot worse," he said.

A major avenue running past the mall was shut down as a rescuer aided by a dog combed through the wreckage.

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'Miracle' as passengers safe after plane skids into Florida river

MIAMI -- Dozens of shocked passengers were evacuated to safety from the wings of a stricken Boeing 737 on Saturday in Florida after the jet made a rough landing in a lightning storm and skidded off the runway into a river. 

The plane carrying 143 people including crew from Guantanamo Bay in Cuba slammed into shallow water next to a naval air station in Jacksonville after a hard landing that saw the plane bounce and swerve down the runway, passengers said.

No fatalities or critical injuries were reported.

"As we went down... the plane bounced and screeched and bounced more and lifted to the right and then it lifted to the left," Cheryl Bormann, a defense attorney who was on board the flight, told CNN.

"And then it sort of swerved and then it came to a complete crash stop."

Some oxygen masks deployed and overhead lockers flew open during the landing, she added.

Twenty-one adults were taken to local hospitals, but none were critically injured, the Jacksonville sheriff's office said on Twitter. Others were treated for minor injuries at the scene. 

Captain Michael Connor, commanding officer at Naval Air Station Jacksonville, told reporters it was a "miracle" no more serious injuries or fatalities had occurred.

"We could be talking about a different story this evening, so I think there's a lot to say about, you know, the professionalism of the folks that helped the passengers off the airplane... it very well could be worse," he said.

All 136 passengers and seven aircrew on board had been accounted for, NAS Jacksonville said in a statement.

However, there were fears for a number of pet animals traveling in the plane's luggage compartment. 

The pets had "not been retrieved yet due to safety issues with the aircraft," NAS Jacksonville said in an update on Facebook.

The National Transportation Safety Board said a 16-member team had arrived on site to investigate the incident, and would brief the media later in the day.

Boeing said it was aware of the incident was and providing technical assistance to the agency as it conducts its probe.

'LIGHTNING AND THUNDER' 

Images showed the Miami Air International plane lying partially submerged in water after the rough landing, with its nose cone missing.

Passengers in life vests were instructed to clamber onto the wings of the jet before being transported to shore aboard inflatable life rafts, Bormann said.

"We couldn't tell where we were, a river or an ocean. There was rain coming down. There was lightning and thunder. We stood on that wing for a significant period of time," she told CNN.

Navy security and emergency response personnel including some 90 firefighters were on the scene.

Jacksonville Mayor Lenny Curry tweeted that the White House had called to offer assistance as the situation was developing.

"All alive and accounted for. Our Fire and Rescue teams are family to all," said Curry.

Teams were working to control jet fuel spilling into the St Johns River, he added.

The "Rotator" flight from the US military base in Cuba carries passengers including military personnel and family members.

The plane involved was a Boeing 737-800, in operation for 18 years, according to the FlightRadar24 website.

US aerospace giant Boeing is under scrutiny following 2 crashes that killed a total of 346 passengers and crew and grounded its newer 737 MAX planes worldwide.

Both a Lion Air crash in Indonesia in October and March's Ethiopian Airlines crash outside Addis Ababa occurred shortly after takeoff.

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Boeing 737 goes into Florida river with 136 on board, no fatalities

A Boeing 737 commercial jet with 136 people on board slid into the St. John's River near Jacksonville, Florida after landing on Friday, a spokesperson for Naval Air Station Jacksonville said.

The mayor of Jacksonville said on Twitter that everyone on board the flight was "alive and accounted for" but that crews were working to control jet fuel on the water.

"The plane was not submerged. Every person is alive and accounted for," the Jacksonville Sheriff's Office said on Twitter.

The flight was arriving from Cuba, the spokesperson said.

No further details were immediately available. 

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A year after US school massacre, gun control remains elusive

MIAMI - On Valentine's Day of last year, a 19-year-old armed with a military-style assault rifle walked into his old high school in Parkland, Florida and slaughtered 17 people.

That spasm in America's epidemic of gun violence gave new impetus to the debate on controlling firearms, prompting marches across the country and a fresh round of hand-wringing in cable news studios.

Many of the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School survivors such as David Hogg and Emma Gonzalez remain national figures a year on -- a testament to their tenacity in keeping the atrocity in the headlines -- yet concrete reform has remained limited and local.

Meanwhile America risks becoming inured to the carnage: four months before Parkland a gunman killed 58 people at a festival in Las Vegas while, 16 months earlier, a massacre at a gay night club in Orlando left 49 dead.

Nearly 1,200 children lost their lives to gun violence in the year since Parkland, according to a report from McClatchy newspapers and The Trace, a non-profit that chronicles firearms issues. More than 200 teen journalists banded together to profile the young victims for the report.

And with 37 mass shootings -- those with at least four victims, not including the assailant -- recorded already in the US this year, it is tempting to conclude that almost nothing has changed.

The inertia on gun control endures despite the best efforts of the Parkland students, who rejected the usual outpourings of sympathy offered by politicians and launched a nationwide movement seeking tougher regulation on sales.

"So many shootings have happened and you get 'thoughts and prayers' and then nothing happens," said Ryan Servaites, who survived the shooting.

"It's an absolute shame that our government has done absolutely nothing about it. So you know, we're fed up," Servaites, 16, told AFP.

'OUR CHILDHOOD ENDED'

A month after the shooting, the student activists brought together hundreds of thousands of demonstrators in Washington, under the "March for Our Lives" banner.

The teenagers toured 26 states, visiting schools and talking with lawmakers. They published a book, took part in an HBO documentary and, most importantly, caused state laws to be changed.

"In just 11 minutes, our childhood ended," Hogg and Gonzalez wrote in November in The Washington Post.

Florida is governed by Republicans and posed a major challenge for the student activists. But they successfully pushed for passage of state laws opposed by the powerful US gun lobby, the National Rifle Association.

Among other changes, a "red flag" law was passed allowing judges to order the seizure of guns from people deemed to be mentally unstable and the minimum age for purchasing a gun was raised to 21.

The sale and possession of devices known as bump stocks, which allow semi-automatic weapons to fire as fast as illegal machineguns, and which were used to such deadly effect in Las Vegas, were also banned.

In December, President Donald Trump barred them at the national level.

After Parkland, 26 states and US capital Washington approved 67 laws related to gun control, according to the Giffords Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence.

In a report last December, the center said the movement for gun safety in America "experienced a tectonic shift in 2018."

BIG PLANS FOR 2019

Yet significant nationwide reform to slash gun deaths has largely eluded the activists, who have vowed to entrench their campaign in 2019.

On Friday last week lawmakers from both parties presented Congress with a bill that would require universal background checks prior to gun purchases.

Under current laws, licensed dealers must carry out background checks on would-be buyers, but loopholes allow people to avoid such checks if they buy from a private seller, at gun shows or over the internet.

Defenders of the Second Amendment to the US Constitution, which establishes the right to bear arms, will fight the bill.

The NRA said such a law would not dissuade criminals, who will always find some way to acquire a firearm.

"These bills attack law-abiding gun owners by placing further burdens on gun ownership and use," its website states.

Tom Palmer, a gun rights supporting political scientist and vice president of free-market think tank Atlas Network, told the Miami Herald the two sides in the gun debate could not be more polarized.

"The gun control people see their opponents as people who don't care about human life, and the gun rights people see their opponents as people who don't care about human freedom," Palmer said.

Also worth noting: in a closely contested race for Florida's governorship in last November's mid-term elections, NRA-endorsed Republican Rick DeSantis beat Democrat Andrew Gillum, who backed stricter gun controls.

Undeterred, a group of Parkland survivors launched a petition on Monday which, if it garners the almost 800,000 signatures needed, will trigger a referendum on banning military-style assault rifles in Florida.

Meanwhile Nikolas Cruz, the defendant in the Parkland shooting, awaits his day in court. Prosecutors have said they will seek the death penalty on 17 counts of pre-meditated murder and 17 counts of attempted murder.

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Women gunned down in Florida yoga class were student, faculty member

Two women killed by a gunman who burst into a yoga class at a Florida shopping center were named on Saturday as a student and faculty member from Florida State University.

Police who rushed to the Hot Yoga studio in Tallahassee on Friday afternoon after reports of gunfire found four other people with bullet wounds and the body of the 40-year-old shooter, Scott Beierle, who had apparently shot himself.

The bloodshed prompted the city's mayor, Andrew Gillum, who is also Florida's Democratic candidate for governor, to temporarily halt his campaign and return to the city.

Authorities said there were signs that members of the class had confronted Beierle after he opened fire inside the studio and then pistol-whipped one of them.

"There were indications that several people not only fought back but tried to save other people," Tallahassee Police Chief Michael DeLeo said at a news conference.

Detectives were looking for any links between the gunman and the victims, he said.

Two of the wounded remained in the hospital on Saturday in stable condition, police said.

One of the two women killed was identified as Nancy Van Vessem, 61, a member of the clerkship faculty at Florida State University College of Medicine in Tallahassee. The other was named as Maura Binkley, a 21-year-old student at FSU.

Their deaths were "just devastating to the FSU family," the university's president, John Thrasher, wrote on Twitter.

Gillum said on Twitter that no act of gun violence was acceptable.

Tallahassee's murder rate has been an issue in the governor's race ahead of Tuesday's election, with Gillum's opponent, Republican former U.S. Representative Ron DeSantis, accusing him of being weak on crime.

Citing court records, the Tallahassee Democrat newspaper reported that Beierle had a history of arrests for grabbing women.

Among officials who went to the studio after the shooting was city commissioner Scott Maddox.

"In my public service career, I have had to be on some bad scenes. This is the worst. Please pray," Maddox posted on Facebook.

Alex Redding, a patron at a nearby bar, told the Democrat that people came inside seeking assistance, saying a man had started shooting after acting strangely inside the yoga studio.

Other victims, barefoot from their class, came into the bar in shock and barely able to speak, except to say "shooter," the newspaper reported. (Reporting by Brendan O'Brien in Milwaukee and Alex Dobuzinskis in Los Angeles Editing by Daniel Wallis and Matthew Lewis)

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Michael weakens to tropical storm after day of havoc in Florida

PANAMA CITY - Michael weakened to a tropical storm Thursday after wreaking havoc along Florida's Gulf Coast, flooding homes and streets, ripping away roofs and snapping trees and power lines as it roared ashore as a raging Category 4 hurricane.

Two deaths were blamed on the hurricane -- one in Florida and one in Georgia as the storm raced across the neighboring state, heading northeast.

Florida officials said Michael, packing winds of 155 miles per hour (250 kilometers per hour), was the most powerful storm to hit the state's Panhandle area since record-keeping began more than a century ago. It was also one of the most powerful hurricanes ever to hit the United States. 

Michael remained dangerous even though it weakened over the course of Wednesday afternoon and evening. 

Around midnight (0400 GMT Thursday) it was downgraded to a tropical storm as it barreled across central Georgia, still dumping torrential rain and packing 60 mph winds. These eased steadily overnight, to 50 mph just before dawn.

On its current track the storm is headed for the Carolinas, where cities and towns are still recovering from Hurricane Florence last month.

In Florida, pictures and video from Mexico Beach -- a community of about 1,000 people where Michael made landfall around midday Wednesday -- showed scenes of devastation, with houses floating in flooded streets, some ripped from their foundations and missing roofs.

Roads were filled with piles of floating debris.

After being battered for nearly three hours by strong winds and heavy rains, roads in Panama City were virtually impassable and trees, satellite dishes and traffic lights lay in the streets.

Nearly 370,000 people were left without power, mostly in Florida, but also Alabama and Georgia, news reports said. 

Briefing President Donald Trump at the White House, Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) chief Brock Long said Michael was the most intense hurricane to strike the Florida Panhandle since record keeping began in 1851.

"Along our coast, communities are going to see unimaginable devastation," Scott said, with storm surge posing the greatest danger.

"Water will come miles in shore and could easily rise over the roofs of houses," he said.

At a midterm election rally in Pennsylvania on Wednesday night, Trump offered his "thoughts and prayers" to those in the path of the storm and said he would be visiting Florida soon.

"I'll be traveling to Florida very, very shortly and I just want to wish them all the best. Godspeed," Trump said.

Hundreds of thousands of people were ordered to evacuate their homes and the governor told residents who had not done so to "hunker down and be careful."

Ken Graham, director of the Miami-based National Hurricane Center, said Michael was "unfortunately, a historical and incredibly dangerous and life-threatening situation."

Just shy of Category 5

Olivia Smith, public information officer for the Gadsden County Board of County Commissioners, said there was one hurricane-related fatality, adding that the incident was "debris-related. There was a tree involved."

Smith could not provide details on the victim.

In Georgia, an 11-year-old girl died when a car port flipped into the air by a gust of wind landed on her home, Travis Brooks, head of the emergency relief agency in Seminole County, told AFP.

General Terrence O'Shaughnessy, commander of the North American Aerospace Defense Command, said some Florida residents may have been surprised by the rapid growth of the storm.

"It really started as a tropical storm, and then it went to Category 1, then it was Category 2 and before you know it, it was Category 4," O'Shaughnessy said.

The NHC said tropical storm Michael will continue to move northeast toward the Carolinas -- as of 0900 GMT the eye was in eastern Georgia -- until it moves off the mid-Atlantic coast by early Friday.

The agency warned of possible flash flooding Thursday in parts of Georgia, the Carolinas and southeastern Virginia because of heavy rains from Michael. 

Long, the head of FEMA, said many Florida buildings were not built to withstand a storm above the strength of a Category 3 hurricane on the five-level Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Wind Scale.

As it came ashore, Michael was just shy of a Category 5 -- defined as a storm packing top sustained wind speeds of 157 mph or above.

Emergency declaration

An estimated 375,000 people in more than 20 counties were ordered or advised to evacuate.

Trump issued an emergency declaration for Florida, freeing up federal funds for relief operations and providing the assistance of FEMA, which has more than 3,000 people on the ground.

State officials issued disaster declarations in Alabama and Georgia and the storm is also expected to bring heavy rainfall to North and South Carolina.

The Carolinas are still recovering from Hurricane Florence, which left dozens dead and is estimated to have caused billions of dollars in damage last month.

It made landfall on the coast as a Category 1 hurricane on September 14 and drenched some parts of the state with 40 inches of rain.

Last year saw a string of catastrophic storms batter the western Atlantic -- including Irma, Maria and Harvey, which caused a record-equaling $125 billion in damage when it flooded the Houston metropolitan area.

Scientists have long warned that global warming will make storms more destructive, and some say the evidence for this may already be visible.

The Department of Foreign Affairs, in a statement, said there were no reports of Filipinos adversely affected by the tropical storm but that it will closely monitor the situation.

Most of the 3,300 Filipinos in Panama City, however, experienced power outage, while some evacuated their residences, according to Philippine Ambassador to the US Jose Manuel Romualdez.

Romualdez, meanwhile, advised the 232,000 Filipinos in Florida, Alabama, Georgia, North and South Carolina to take necessary precautions as the tropical storm is headed their way.

Filipinos who require assistance may call the Philippine Embassy at (202) 368 2767.

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