Continue reading »]]> CAMAGUEY, Cuba (AP) — Crashing waves and a powerful sea surge from Hurricane Paloma destroyed hundreds of homes along Cuba’s southern coast, but the storm rapidly weakened into a tropical depression Sunday as it moved over the island.

Early damage reports were limited, but state media said the late-season storm toppled a major communications tower, interrupted electricity and phone service and sent sea water almost a mile (1 1/2 kilometers) inland, ravaging a coastal community near where it made landfall.

No storm-related deaths were immediately reported.

Officials had feared that Paloma could slow Cuba’s recovery from Gustav and Ike, devastating hurricanes that struck earlier this year, causing about $9.4 billion in damage and destroying nearly a third of the island’s crops.

But Vicente de la O of Cuba’s national power company said damage to the power grid was far less than that caused by Gustav and Ike in late August and early September.

Paloma roared ashore near Santa Cruz del Sur late Saturday as a Category 4 hurricane but quickly lost strength, according to the U.S. National Hurricane Center in Miami. Forecasters said the Cuban and Bahamian governments discontinued all warnings associated with Paloma by Sunday morning.

At 4 p.m. EST, Paloma’s center was 15 miles (25 km) south-southwest of Camaguey, Cuba. Once as strong as 145 mph (230 kph), the storm’s winds had weakened to 35 mph (55 kph). Paloma was drifting toward the north at about 1 mph (2 kph).

The hurricane center’s forecast said Paloma or its remnants should be near the north coast of Cuba on Monday.

On Sunday, waves more than 10 feet (3 meters) high leveled about 50 modest houses along the coast of Santa Cruz del Sur. Civil Defense authorities said altogether 435 homes in the community were destroyed.

Javier Ramos told The Associated Press he rebuilt his simple wood-frame house in the town after Hurricane Ike, only to watch Paloma flatten it again.

“At least we’re alive, but my wife hasn’t seen this yet,” Ramos said as he scavenged bits of clothing and smashed dishes in his front yard. “I don’t know how she’s going to react. It’s going to be terrible.”

Elsewhere in town, Angel Betancourt was skinning a drowned goat. “The water was up to a meter high and the goat drowned,” he said. “What else can we do? We’re going to eat it.”

Touring Santa Cruz del Sur on Sunday, Vice President Jose Ramon Machado Ventura said the area was among the hardest-hit nationwide.

In the nearby community of Jagua, Herienso Rondon, a 50-year-old retired day laborer, said he was still trying to repair damage from Ike when Paloma tore away his wooden house’s roof and pulverized the belongings inside, including a meager bed and mattress.

“I don’t have any hope,” he said. “After Hurricane Ike (government officials) came to visit me and said they had no way to help and I had to buy the wood for repairs.

“I have no money,” said Rondon, who gets a monthly pension of 158 pesos, about $7.50.

Across central and eastern Cuba, more than 500,000 people were evacuated from low-lying areas as Paloma approached. Cuba regularly moves people en masse to higher ground before tropical storms and hurricanes, preventing major loss of life.

Earlier, Paloma downed trees, flooded low-lying areas and damaged roofs in the Cayman Islands. But residents there appeared to weather the hurricane unscathed.

The Associated Press:

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Continue reading »]]> Hurricane Paloma strengthened over the Caribbean and may become a Category 3 storm before hitting Cuba, which is still recovering from hurricanes Ike and Gustav.

Paloma’s maximum sustained winds increased to 130 kilometers (80 miles) per hour, from 120 kph earlier today, the U.S. National Hurricane Center said in an advisory on its Web site just before 7 a.m. Miami time. The system, which is forecast to continue strengthening, was about 395 kilometers (245 miles) west of Montego Bay, Jamaica, and moving north at 13 kph.

On the forecast track, the center of Paloma will pass near the Cayman Islands late Friday or early Saturday,” before hitting Cuba, the center said. Additional “strengthening is likely and Paloma is expected to become a Category 2 hurricane later today and possibly reach Category 3 intensity by Saturday.”

A Category 3 storm has winds of between 178 and 209 kph, the third strongest on the five-step Saffir-Simpson scale of intensity. As much as 12 inches (30 centimeters) of rain may fall on the Caymans, the center said.

The Cuban government issued a hurricane watch for the central provinces of Sancti Spiritus, Ciego de Avila, Camaguey, Las Tunas and Granma, the center said. A watch means that hurricane conditions are possible in the area within 36 hours.

Hurricane Ike, which made landfall in eastern Cuba as a Category 3 storm in early September, killed four and prompted Cuban authorities to evacuate as many as 2 million people, or almost a fifth of the population. In late August, Hurricane Gustav hit the island with 150 mph winds, leading to evacuations.

Miss Refineries

The center’s five-day projection shows the system crossing central Cuba and then moving over the central Bahamas and toward the open Atlantic Ocean early next week.

“Preparations to protect life and property should be rushed to completion,” the center said.

AccuWeather.com meteorologist Dale Mohler said Paloma should miss refineries in the Gulf of Mexico and in Saint Croix. The Gulf is home to about one-quarter of U.S. oil production.

“Paloma’s path will take it well away from refineries,” Mohler said in an e-mailed statement. “It could be very bad news for the people of Cuba, but it won’t impact energy interests.”

Paloma is the 16th named storm of the Atlantic hurricane season, which runs from June 1 to Nov. 30. Forecasters predicted the season would see an above-average number of storms. Colorado State University researchers projected at least 17 major storms, including nine hurricanes, and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Climate Prediction Center said there would be 14 to 18 named storms.

Bertha, Gustav

Hurricanes Bertha, Gustav, Ike and Omar reached major hurricane status of at least Category 3, with winds greater than 111 mph.

Paloma is similar to Hurricane Michelle of November 2001, which took just three days to intensify from a tropical depression into a Category 4 hurricane with winds of at least 131 mph, Weather Underground meteorologist Jeff Masters wrote on his blog.

Bloomberg.com:

Continue reading »]]> Aid workers are warning that severe flooding across Central America could worsen the impact of high food prices on the region’s vulnerable communities.

Floods and landslides have forced tens of thousands from their homes, damaged roads and bridges, and devastated thousands of hectares of bean and maize crops. One Honduras-based aid worker said the flooding there was worse than that caused by Hurricane Mitch, which killed some 10,000 people in Central America ten years ago.

In Honduras – the worst-hit country, where at least 24 deaths have been reported and around 130,000 people affected – President Manuel Zelaya has declared a national state of emergency and requested international aid. He has warned of a major disaster as rivers burst their banks.

The U.N. Children’s Fund (UNICEF) said on Wednesday that an additional 70,000 people had been affected in Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Guatemala and Belize, with more than 12,000 people taking refuge in shelters in the five countries. El Salvador has also been hit by flooding, landslides and crop losses.

UNICEF said life-saving supplies were quickly running out in Honduras, because it had already used up many of the blankets, medical and hygiene kits, and other relief items it had stockpiled before the storm season. The agency warned of the increased risk of malnutrition and waterborne diseases for children.

“If we add, in a situation such as this, massive damage to crops that exacerbates already-high food prices, we’ve got a time-bomb in the making,” said Nils Kastberg, UNICEF’s regional director.

“We’ve already seen one dramatic example of storms aggravating an existing food crisis this year in Haiti, where the numbers of malnourished children coming to UNICEF-supported nutrition centres rose substantially in the wake of the storms there.”

Millions of poor people in Central America and Haiti have struggled to buy enough food for their families as the price of basic staples like corn and beans rose to record levels earlier this year.

Aid agency Mercy Corps warned the Honduran floods could become more severe because the rainy season is expected to continue for another six weeks.

“This flooding is worse than what was caused by (Hurricane) Mitch in 1998, although that happened in a few days, where this has been the accumulation of a week and a half of constant rain,” said Chet Thomas, Mercy Corp’s representative in Honduras.

The agency is distributing food, blankets and tarpaulins to families who’ve been forced from their homes by landslides and floods.

The Pan-American Health Organization (PAHO) and the World Health Organization (WHO) said some areas were cut off, and only accessible by boat. Medical teams needed to be mobilised across the country and experts in water, sanitation and disaster management, as well as assessment teams, were being sent into the field, the agencies said.

The Central American floods have been caused by a series of tropical storms that have moved slowly and steadily across the region during this year’s hurricane season, pouring heavy rains onto the land below, according to UNICEF.

In Costa Rica, where the government has also declared a state of emergency, precipitation since mid-October has reached the highest levels in 40 years, according to a report from the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA). It said 6 deaths had been reported, and 92,000 people were affected in 470 communities. All main roads in the north and south have been blocked by landslides.

The Red Cross has released almost $250,000 from its emergency relief fund to enable national branches in Costa Rica, Honduras and Nicaragua to deliver aid to 1,500 families.

Reuters AlertNet