Tag Archives: Alabama

U.S. says Alabama state prisons ‘routinely’ fail to protect inmates from abuse

A U.S. flag and an Alabama State flag wave in the wind in Dauphin Island, Alabama, U.S., September 5, 2018. REUTERS/Jonathan Bachman

By Sarah N. Lynch

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The U.S. Justice Department on Wednesday accused Alabama’s state prisons of regularly violating the constitutional rights of male inmates by failing to protect them from violence and sexual abuse.

In a letter to Alabama Governor Kay Ivey, prosecutors and the country’s top civil rights law enforcement official said they had evidence the state was violating prisoners’ Eighth Amendment protection against cruel and unusual punishment.

“We have reasonable cause to believe that Alabama routinely violates the constitutional rights of prisoners housed in the Alabama’s prisons by failing to protect them from prisoner-on-prisoner violence and prisoner-on-prisoner sexual abuse, and by failing to provide safe conditions,” the letter said.

The review looked into prisons housing only male inmates.

The letter, which cited overcrowding and “serious deficiencies” in staffing levels and supervision, ordered the prison system to correct the problems within 49 days or the state could face a federal civil rights lawsuit.

The Justice Department said it also had the option of having U.S. Attorney General William Barr intervene in related private lawsuits against the state prison system.

The letter was signed by Eric Dreiband, assistant attorney general for the Civil Rights Division, and the U.S. attorneys for the southern, northern and middle districts of Alabama.

The investigation was first initiated in October 2016, at the tail end of the Obama administration, and before Jeff Sessions, who is from Alabama, became the attorney general under President Donald Trump in early 2017, the department said.

The Alabama governor acknowledged the Justice Department’s findings and said the state’s Department of Corrections had been actively working to fix the issues.

The department “has identified many of the same areas of concern that we have discussed publicly for some time,” Ivey said in a statement on her official website.

“Over the coming months, my administration will be working closely with DOJ to ensure that our mutual concerns are addressed and that we remain steadfast in our commitment to public safety.”

The state’s Department of Corrections had been working to bolster the hiring and retention of correctional officers, to prevent prisoners from sneaking contraband into its facilities, and was replacing outdated prisons, the governor said.

The Justice Department said it preferred to resolve the issues with Alabama through a “more cooperative approach” in order to avoid litigation.

(Reporting by Sarah N. Lynch; Editing by Bernadette Baum)

In wake of tornadoes, missing Alabamans located; no additional deaths

The remains of a home sit destroyed after two deadly back-to-back tornadoes, in Beauregard, Alabama, U.S., March 6, 2019. REUTERS/Shannon Stapleton

By Gabriella Borter

(Reuters) – Alabama officials said they have accounted for everyone who was missing after a burst of tornadoes, the deadliest to hit the state since 2013, tore through rural Lee County on Sunday, killing 23 people and injuring dozens more.

The 23 victims, including four children and seven people from one family, were all killed in or around the tiny community of Beauregard near the Georgia border, where the tornadoes uprooted trees and destroyed about 100 homes with 170 mile (264 km) per hour winds, officials said.

Lee County Sheriff Jay Jones said on Wednesday that search and rescue teams had located all the residents who had been marked as missing since the storms.

“We are now confident we have accounted for all of the individuals that we had not accounted for” earlier, Jones told a news conference.

U.S. President Donald Trump plans to visit the storm-hit area on Friday.

(Reporting by Gabriella Borter in New York; Editing by Scott Malone and Bernadette Baum)

‘Everybody was a friend:’ Alabama 10-year-old among tornado’s deadly toll

Fourth-grader Taylor Thornton, 10, who was one of several who died when powerful tornadoes struck Lee County, Alabama, on March 3, 2019, is seen in an undated family photo. Thornton family/Handout via REUTERS.

By Joseph Ax

(Reuters) – A weekend camping trip ended in tragedy for 10-year-old Taylor Thornton, identified on Monday as one of at least 23 people killed by the deadliest U.S. tornadoes in more than five years.

Taylor was rarely seen without a smile on her face, whether walking the halls as a fourth-grader at Lee-Scott Academy in Auburn, Alabama, or helping her parents take care of her infant brother, her uncle said in a phone interview.

“She never met a stranger – everybody was a friend,” James Thornton said. “She had a huge life at 10 years old. She had a footprint bigger than most people who are 70-, 80-, 90-years-old.”

At least two other children died when deadly tornadoes tore through Lee County on Sunday: relatives said in social media posts that six-year-old Armando Hernandez was killed and officials said a 9-year-old died at a hospital.

Debris lays outside a house devastated after two deadly back-to-back tornadoes, in Beauregard, Alabama, U.S., March 5, 2019. REUTERS/Shannon Stapleton

Debris lays outside a house devastated after two deadly back-to-back tornadoes, in Beauregard, Alabama, U.S., March 5, 2019. REUTERS/Shannon Stapleton

Taylor had spent the weekend camping with her best friend and her friend’s father before returning to their house in Lee County because of bad weather.

When Taylor did not return home as expected after church on Sunday, her father, David, drove to the friend’s house and found his daughter’s body amid the wreckage of the home, James Thornton said.

The friend was taken to a hospital with serious injuries but was expected to survive. The friend’s father died.

Taylor enrolled at Lee-Scott, a private Christian school, last fall and was a well-liked member of the class, according to the principal, Stan Cox.

“She made friends easily,” Cox said in a phone interview. “She made everybody around her better just by knowing her.”

Taylor loved the outdoors, riding horses, playing soccer and cheerleading, and had just won an “honorable mention” at Lee-Scott’s art show.

A family friend, Kaitlyn Willing, set up a fundraising webpage to help pay for her funeral.

“Every room she went into, she would light up the room with her smile,” Willing said in a phone interview. “She just had a love for life.”

Hernandez, who went by AJ, went missing during the tornadoes and was later found dead, according to posts from his relatives on Facebook.

A damaged Bombardier Challenger 350 jet is seen at the Eufaula Municipal Airport, after a string of tornadoes, in Eufaula, Alabama, U.S., March 5, 2019. REUTERS/Elijah Nouvelage

A damaged Bombardier Challenger 350 jet is seen at the Eufaula Municipal Airport, after a string of tornadoes, in Eufaula, Alabama, U.S., March 5, 2019. REUTERS/Elijah Nouvelage

His mother, Kayla Melton, posted a message on Sunday afternoon asking people to look for him. A relative, Tina Melton, wrote in the evening that the boy did not survive.

“I will miss your little smile and your sweet voice and face,” Tina Melton wrote. “He was always eager to give hugs and loved his family.”

Efforts to reach the family by phone were unsuccessful.

As of Monday afternoon, officials had identified all but six of the victims, county coroner Bill Harris told reporters. The names have not been formally released.

(Reporting by Joseph Ax, additional reporting by Barbara Goldberg; editing by Scott Malone, Steve Orlofsky and Sonya Hepinstall)

Alabama tornadoes kill 23, including 3 children; like ‘giant knife’

Dax Leandro salvages clothing from the wreckage of his friend's home after two back-to-back tornadoes touched down, in Beauregard, Alabama, U.S., March 4, 2019. REUTERS/Elijah Nouvelage

By Deborah Bloom

BEAUREGARD, Ala. (Reuters) – Alabama residents and rescue workers on Monday dug through the remnants of homes destroyed by a spate of tornadoes that killed at least 23 people, including at least three children, the deadliest U.S. twisters since 2013.

The tornadoes ripped through Lee County on Sunday with winds of up to 170 miles per hour (274 km per hour), at step four of the six-step Enhanced Fujita scale, which meteorologists use to measure tornado strength. Earlier estimates had put winds at 150 mph (241 kph).

Debris of housing seen following a tornado in Beauregard, Alabama, U.S. in this March 3, 2019 still image obtained from social media video. SCOTT FILLMER /via REUTERS

Debris of housing seen following a tornado in Beauregard, Alabama, U.S. in this March 3, 2019 still image obtained from social media video. SCOTT FILLMER /via REUTERS

At least two tornadoes struck an area of eastern Alabama near the Georgia border in the space of a few hours on Sunday afternoon, with some of the worst damage in the tiny community of Beauregard, according to the National Weather Service.

Mobile homes were tossed on their sides and ripped open, their contents strewn on the ground, live television images showed. Pieces of homes hung from trees that were not flattened by the storm.

More than 50 people were reported injured, authorities said, making the tornadoes the deadliest since the one that tore through Moore, Oklahoma, in 2013, killing 24 people.

“It looks almost as if someone took a giant knife and just scraped the ground. There are slabs where homes formerly stood, debris everywhere, trees are snapped,” Lee County Sheriff Jay Jones told a morning news conference.

Three of the dead were children, ages 6, 9 and 10, County Coroner Bill Harris told an afternoon news conference. Family members identified two of the young victims.

A morning search of the area found no additional bodies, which officials had feared likely.

“We have not recovered any further victims from the areas that we have initially searched but I want to add a caveat to that, that we have not completed our searches,” Jones told the afternoon briefing.

All but six of the victims were identified and investigators think they know the identities of the others, Harris said.

‘THAT’S HALF MY HOME’

Jenifer Vernon, a 40-year-old grocery store attendant, surveyed the wreckage of her flattened home, spread in piles on either side of her Beauregard street.

“That’s half my home,” said Vernon, pointing to the debris. “That’s the other half.” She was in the nearby town of Opelika with her husband and 14-year-old daughter when the tornadoes hit.

Looking over splintered pieces of wood and the remains of kitchen appliances, Vernon said she had lost another home to fire last year, adding, “We’ll bounce back from this.”

U.S. President Donald Trump said on Twitter on Monday that the Federal Emergency Management Agency would be helping.

“FEMA has been told directly by me to give the A Plus treatment to the Great State of Alabama and the wonderful people who have been so devastated by the Tornadoes,” Trump said.

The death toll was more than double the 10 people killed by tornadoes in the United States for all of 2018, according to government data.

Julie Morrison, a 61-year-old produce manager who has lived in Beauregard for 19 years, said she survived the storm by hiding in a bathtub with her husband.

On Monday, all that remained of her home was its concrete foundation, piled under heaps of wood and broken furniture, with the tattered remainders of a trailer wrapped around a tree.

“It’s just devastating to see this,” Morrison said. “I just thank God that me and my husband survived.”

(Additional reporting by Joseph Ax and Gabriella Borter in New York and Rich McKay in Atlanta; Editing by Scott Malone, Jeffrey Benkoe and Cynthia Osterman)

Alabama tornadoes kill at least 23, including children

Debris and a damaged house seen following a tornado in Beauregard, Alabama, U.S. in this March 3, 2019 still image obtained from social media video. SCOTT FILLMER /via REUTERS

By Deborah Bloom

BEAUREGARD, Ala. (Reuters) – Rescuers in Alabama on Monday dug through the remnants of homes and businesses destroyed by a pair of tornadoes that killed at last 23 people, including children, the deadliest such storms to strike the United States in almost six years.

A piece of metal is seen wrapped around a tree following a tornado in Beauregard, Alabama, U.S. in this March 3, 2019 still image obtained from social media video on March 4, 2019. SCOTT FILLMER /via REUTERS

A piece of metal is seen wrapped around a tree following a tornado in Beauregard, Alabama, U.S. in this March 3, 2019 still image obtained from social media video on March 4, 2019. SCOTT FILLMER /via REUTERS

The tornadoes ripped through the state’s Lee County on Sunday with winds of at least 150 miles per hour (240 kph), at the midpoint of the five-step Enhanced Fujita scale, which meteorologists use to measure tornado strength.

Mobile homes were tossed on their sides and ripped open, their contents strewn on the ground, live television images showed. Pieces of homes hung from trees that were not flattened by the storm.

More than 50 people were reported injured and the death toll is expected to rise, authorities said, which could make the storms deadlier than the tornado that tore through Moore, Oklahoma, in 2013, killing 24 people.

“It looks almost as if someone took a giant knife and just scraped the ground. There are slabs where homes formerly stood, debris everywhere, trees are snapped,” Lee County Sheriff Jay Jones told a morning news conference. “I’ve not seen this level of destruction ever in my experience in Lee County.”

One of the dead was a 6-year-old child, Jones said.

Two of the injured have sustained critical injuries and at least 20 people remain unaccounted for, Lee County Coroner Bill Harris told CNN.

People clear fallen trees and debris on a road following a tornado in Beauregard, Alabama, U.S. in this March 3, 2019 still image obtained from social media video. SCOTT FILLMER /via REUTERS

People clear fallen trees and debris on a road following a tornado in Beauregard, Alabama, U.S. in this March 3, 2019 still image obtained from social media video. SCOTT FILLMER /via REUTERS

On Twitter on Sunday, U.S. President Donald Trump urged affected residents of Alabama and other areas to be “careful and safe.”

“To the families and friends of the victims, and to the injured, God bless you all!” he tweeted.

Temperatures in the state fell to 36 degrees Fahrenheit (2 Celsius) on Monday, leaving some who lost heat because of the storms to struggle with the cold.

(Additional reporting by Gabriella Borter in New York and Rich McKay in Atlanta; Editing by Scott Malone and Jeffrey Benkoe)

Eyeing conservative U.S. top court, two states pass abortion measures

FILE PHOTO: The U.S. Supreme Court is seen in Washington, U.S., June 11, 2018. REUTERS/Erin Schaff/File Photo

By Dan Whitcomb

(Reuters) – Voters in Alabama and West Virginia on Tuesday passed ballot measures that could pave the way for new limits or a full ban on abortion in those states if the conservative-majority U.S. Supreme Court overturns the 1973 ruling that legalized abortion.

In Oregon, meanwhile, an initiative that would prohibit the use of taxpayer money to fund abortion except in cases of medical necessity appeared headed for defeat.

The U.S. Supreme Court, in its landmark 1973 Roe v. Wade decision, legalized abortion nationwide, and the justices have reaffirmed a woman’s constitutional right to have an abortion in subsequent rulings since then.

Abortion opponents hope the addition of President Donald Trump’s appointee Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court, replacing a retired justice who had protected abortion rights and cementing a 5-4 conservative majority, will lead to a dramatic scaling back or outright reversal of abortion rights recognized under the 1973 ruling.

In Alabama, an amendment to the state’s constitution to formally “recognize and support the sanctity of unborn life and rights of children, including the right to life” was leading by a margin of 59 percent to 40 percent with 96 percent of precincts counted, according to the New York Times.

The Republican-backed Amendment 2 does not specifically outlaw or restrict abortion in Alabama. But Republican state Representative Matt Fridy has said he wrote the measure with the Supreme Court’s conservative majority in mind.

“We want to make sure that at a state level, if Roe v. Wade is overturned, that the Alabama Constitution cannot be used as a mechanism by which to claim that there is a right to abortion,” Fridy told Fox News in an August interview.

In West Virginia, a ballot measure amending the state’s constitution to say that “nothing in this constitution secures or protects a right to abortion or funding of abortion” was ahead 51 percent to 48 percent with 54 out of 55 precincts reporting.

The Republican-led West Virginia legislature voted in March to put the initiative on the ballot, with lawmakers saying they wanted to make clear there was nothing in the state constitution preventing them from passing abortion-related legislation should the Roe ruling be overturned or narrowed.

Oregon’s Measure 106 would amend the state constitution to bar the use of public money to fund abortions except in cases of medical necessity or where mandated by federal law.

“All three of these instances are the latest in a long string of attacks on access to reproductive healthcare nationally,” said Katie Glenn, Alabama state director for Planned Parenthood Southeast Advocates. “Amendment 2 in Alabama specifically would pave the way to ban abortion without exception, regardless of whether the person was a victim of rape or incest or if their life is at risk.”

A number of Republican-governed states over the years have passed laws seeking to put restrictions on abortion, some of which have been invalidated by the courts.

The Supreme Court in 2016 bolstered constitutional protections for abortion rights when it threw out key parts of a Texas law that imposed hard-to-meet regulations on abortion facilities and doctors, finding the measure placed an “undue burden” on a woman’s ability to obtain an abortion in violation of a 1992 high court precedent.

Anthony Kennedy, the retired justice who Kavanaugh replaced, sided with the court’s four liberals in the 2016 ruling.

Overturning Roe would end a constitutional right to abortion, enabling individual states to set their own policies.

Alabama and West Virginia are among the states that already have laws on the books imposing certain restrictions on abortion, according to the Guttmacher Institute. The institute said four states have laws that would automatically ban abortion if Roe were to be reversed, seven states have laws that express an intention to restrict abortion as much as possible in the absence of Roe, and nine states still have on the books their unenforced, pre-Roe abortion bans.

(Reporting by Dan Whitcomb; Editing by Scott Malone and Will Dunham)

Hurricane Michael tears Florida towns apart, 6 dead

An American flag flies amongst rubble left in the aftermath of Hurricane Michael in Mexico Beach, Florida, U.S. October 11, 2018. REUTERS/Jonathan Bachman

By Devika Krishna Kumar

MEXICO BEACH, Fla. (Reuters) – Hurricane Michael’s violence was visible on Thursday in shattered Florida coastal towns, where rows of homes were ripped from foundations and roofs were peeled off schools by the near-record-force storm blamed for six deaths.

Michael smashed into Florida’s northwest coast near the small town of Mexico Beach on Wednesday with screeching 155 mile per hour (250 kilometer per hour) winds, pushing a wall of seawater inland.

“The wind was really tearing us apart. It was so scary you’d poo yourself,” said retiree Tom Garcia, 60, who was trapped inside his Mexico Beach home as water poured in to waist height.

He and his partner Cheri Papineau, 50, pushed on their door for an hour in an effort to stop the storm surge bursting in as their four dogs sat on top of a bed floating through their home.

Video shot by CNN from a helicopter showed homes closest to the water in Mexico Beach had lost all but their foundations. A few blocks inland, about half the homes were reduced to piles of wood and siding and those still standing had suffered heavy damage.

Michael, the third most powerful hurricane ever to hit the U.S. mainland, weakened overnight to a tropical storm and pushed northeast on Thursday, bringing drenching rains to Georgia and the Carolinas, which are still recovering from Hurricane Florence last month.

Rubble left in the aftermath of Hurricane Michael is pictured in Mexico Beach, Florida, U.S. October 11, 2018. REUTERS/Jonathan Bachman

Rubble left in the aftermath of Hurricane Michael is pictured in Mexico Beach, Florida, U.S. October 11, 2018. REUTERS/Jonathan Bachman

Michael killed at least six people in Florida, Georgia and North Carolina from falling trees and other hurricane-related incidents, officials and local media said.

The injured in Florida were taken to hospitals in Tallahassee, with some hurt after the storm by breaking tree limbs and falls, said Allison Castillo, director of emergency services at the city’s Capital Regional Medical Center.

Brock Long, head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, called Mexico Beach, which has a population of about 1,200, “ground zero” for the hurricane damage.

In Panama City, 20 miles (32 km) northwest of Mexico Beach, buildings were crushed and boats were scattered around. Michael left a trail of utility wires on roads, flattened tall pine trees and knocked a steeple from a church.

Al Hancock, 45, who works on a tour boat, survived in Panama City with his wife and dog.

“The roof fell in but we lived through it,” he said.

Nearly 950,000 homes and businesses were without power in Florida, Alabama, the Carolinas and Georgia on Thursday.

DAMAGE ‘WAY WORSE’ THAN EXPECTED

Florida Governor Rick Scott told the Weather Channel the damage from Panama City down to Mexico Beach was “way worse than anybody ever anticipated.”

At Jinks Middle School in Panama City, the storm tore off part of the gym roof and one wall, leaving the wooden floor covered in water. A year ago the school welcomed students and families displaced by Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico.

Rubble left in the aftermath of Hurricane Michael is pictured in Mexico Beach, Florida, U.S. October 11, 2018. REUTERS/Jonathan Bachman

Rubble left in the aftermath of Hurricane Michael is pictured in Mexico Beach, Florida, U.S. October 11, 2018. REUTERS/Jonathan Bachman

“The kids live nearby. The second floor of some apartments are just gone. Roofs are gone,” Principal Britt Smith told CNN after talking by phone with some of those who did not evacuate.

Michael, a Category 4 storm on the five-step Saffir-Simpson hurricane intensity scale when it came ashore, was causing flash flooding on Thursday in parts of North Carolina and Virginia, where some areas could get as much as 9 inches (23 cm) of rain, the National Hurricane Center (NHC) said.

By 2 p.m. EDT (1600 GMT), the storm had pushed northeast to within 25 miles (40 km) of Greensboro, North Carolina, carrying 50-mph (85-kph) winds, the NHC said.

The number of people in emergency shelters was expected to swell to 20,000 across five states by Friday, said Brad Kieserman of the American Red Cross.

‘ROOF-HIGH’ FLOODING

Michael pummeled communities across the Panhandle and turned streets into roof-high waterways.

Twenty miles (32 km) south of Mexico Beach, floodwaters were more than 7 feet (2.1 meters) deep near Apalachicola, a town of about 2,300 residents, hurricane center chief Ken Graham said. Wind damage was also evident.

“Our biggest thing is the downed lines and the downed trees and now this water main issue,” said Apalachicola Mayor Van Johnson, referring to a burst water main complicating efforts to restore power.

Brad Rippey, a meteorologist for the U.S. Agriculture Department, said Michael had severely damaged cotton, timber, pecan and peanuts, causing estimated liabilities as high as $1.9 billion and affecting up to 3.7 million crop acres (1.5 million hectares).

Michael also disrupted energy operations in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico as it approached land, cutting crude oil production by more than 40 percent and natural gas output by nearly one-third as offshore platforms were evacuated.

With a low barometric pressure recorded at 919 millibars, a measure of a hurricane’s force, Michael was the third strongest storm on record to hit the continental United States, behind only Hurricane Camille on the Mississippi Gulf Coast in 1969 and the Labor Day hurricane of 1935 in the Florida Keys.

(Reporting by Rod Nickel in Panama City, Florida; Additional reporting by Devika Krishna Kumar in Tallahassee, Florida; Gina Cherelus and Scott DiSavino in New York; Alex Dobuzinskis in Los Angeles; Brendan O’Brien in Milwaukee, Gary McWilliams and Liz Hampton in Houston, Andrew Hay in New Mexico and Humeyra Pamuk in Washington; Writing by Bill Trott; Editing by Frances Kerry and Bill Berkrot)

Gordon dumps heavy rains, Florence barrels toward Bermuda

A car passes a sign after Tropical Storm Gordon in Dauphin Island, Alabama, U.S., September 5, 2018. REUTERS/Jonathan Bachman

By Kathy Finn

NEW ORLEANS (Reuters) – Tropical Depression Gordon moved north on Thursday, threatening central U.S. states with heavy rain, while Hurricane Florence churned toward Bermuda, packing maximum sustained winds of 115 miles per hour (185 kph), forecasters said.

Some parts of northwest Mississippi and much of Arkansas could receive up to seven inches (18 cm) of rain, totals that could reach up to 10 inches through Saturday in some areas, raising the risk of flash flooding, the National Hurricane Center said.

The storm, which left flooded streets in Alabama, Louisiana, Arkansas, and Mississippi, has caused minimal property damage since it made landfall late on Tuesday. A two-year-old girl was killed, however, when a tree fell on a mobile home in Pensacola, Florida, authorities said.

Hillarie Jones, manager at Bob’s Downtown Diner in Mobile, Alabama, said she shut down the restaurant on Wednesday but that luckily the storm did no damage to the business.

“The reason why we closed yesterday was so our employees wouldn’t have to travel to work during the storm,” Jones said.

As of Thursday morning, fewer than 1,000 homes and businesses remained without power, according to PowerOutages.us, as utility companies restored service for tens of thousands of customers across the region.

Energy companies and port operators along the Gulf Coast worked to resume normal operations after Gordon shut 9 percent of the region’s oil and natural gas production.

Oil prices fell about 1 percent on Wednesday after fears about the storm eased.

TRACKING TOWARD BERMUDA

In the Atlantic Ocean, Hurricane Florence, a Category 3 storm on a five-step scale, headed for Bermuda, forecast to affect the island’s surf by Friday. It was too early to say whether the storm would hit land, the NHC said.

“Swells generated by Florence will begin to affect Bermuda on Friday and will reach portions of the U.S. East Coast over the weekend,” the NHC said. “These swells are likely to cause life-threatening surf and rip current conditions.”

Florence, the first major hurricane of the Atlantic season, was 1,170 miles (1,885 km) east-southeast of Bermuda on Thursday morning.

Florence is expected to weaken but remain a strong hurricane for the next several days, the NHC said.

(Reporting by Kathy Finn; additional reporting by Gina Cherelus in New York, Brendan O’Brien in Milwaukee, Bernie Woodall in Fort Lauderdale, Florida and Dan Whitcomb in Los Angeles; editing by Lisa Shumaker, Dale Hudson and Larry King)

Storm Gordon starts kicking up waves on U.S. Gulf Coast

Tropical Storm Gordon is pictured nearing Florida, U.S. in this September 2, 2018 NASA satellite handout photo. NASA/Handout via REUTERS

(Reuters) – Waves began to batter parts of the U.S. Gulf Coast on Tuesday as the region felt the first hit of Tropical Storm Gordon, which is expected to become a hurricane before it comes ashore with high winds and heavy rain, forecasters said.

The storm also caused a jump in global oil prices after the evacuation of two oil platforms in the Gulf of Mexico.

Gordon was due to come ashore late on Tuesday near the border between Louisiana and Mississippi, and drop as much as 12 inches (30 cm) of rain in areas still recovering from last year’s hurricanes, the National Hurricane Center said.

Currently carrying winds of around 65 miles per hour (105 km per hour), the storm was expected to pack hurricane-force winds – of at least 74 mph (119 kph) – when it reached the north-central Gulf Coast, the center said.

High surf was already hitting Alabama’s Dauphin Island early Tuesday, the National Weather Service office in Mobile said on Twitter.

Louisiana Governor John Bel Edwards declared a state of emergency and said 200 Louisiana National Guardsmen were being deployed, along with 63 high-water trucks, 39 boats, and four helicopters.

Trees sway as Storm Gordon descends on Fort Lauderdale, Florida, U.S., September 3, 2018 in this still image taken from a video obtained from social media. @Saralina77/via REUTERS

Trees sway as Storm Gordon descends on Fort Lauderdale, Florida, U.S., September 3, 2018 in this still image taken from a video obtained from social media. @Saralina77/via REUTERS

New Orleans’ mayor, LaToya Cantrell, declared her own state of emergency and closed all non-essential government offices.

Storm surge of as much as 5 feet (1.5 m) could hit a stretch of coast from Shell Beach, Louisiana, to Dauphin Island, Alabama, forecasters said. The Mississippi Emergency Management Agency told South Mississippi residents to be prepared to evacuate.

As of Tuesday morning, Gordon was located about 190 miles (305 km) east-southeast of the mouth of the Mississippi River, and was heading west-northwest, the Miami-based hurricane center said.

U.S. oil producer Anadarko Petroleum Corp evacuated workers and shut production at two offshore oil platforms on Monday, and other companies with production and refining operations along the Gulf Coast said they were securing facilities.

The Gulf of Mexico is home to 17 percent of U.S. crude oil and 5 percent of natural gas output daily, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. More than 45 percent of the nation’s refining capacity is located along the Gulf Coast.

The U.S. Coast Guard said the ports of New Orleans as well as Gulfport and Pascagoula, Mississippi, may have to close within 48 hours.

Maintenance crew work near power lines during an outage after Storm Gordon descended on Miami Beach, Florida, U.S., September 3, 2018 in this still image taken from a video obtained from social media. @ZwebackHD/via REUTERS

Maintenance crew work near power lines during an outage after Storm Gordon descended on Miami Beach, Florida, U.S., September 3, 2018 in this still image taken from a video obtained from social media. @ZwebackHD/via REUTERS

Last year, powerful hurricanes hit Texas, Florida and Puerto Rico, causing thousands of deaths, hundreds of billions of dollars worth of damage and massive power outages.

Gordon passed over Florida’s southern tip on Monday afternoon. There were no reports of any injuries or deaths or any damage to buildings, said Alberto Moscoso, a spokesman for the Florida Division of Emergency Management.

(Reporting Brendan O’Brien in Milwaukee and Scott Malone in Boston; Editing by Louise Heavens, Andrew Heavens and Frances Kerry)

Alberto remnants threaten Alabama with flash flooding

Subtropical Storm Alberto arrives at Orange Beach, Alabama, U.S., May 28, 2018, in this picture obtained from social media. David Green/@dsg_dukester/Twitter/via REUT

By Rich McKay

(Reuters) – Subtropical storm Alberto fizzled into a subtropical depression as it rolled into Alabama on Tuesday but forecasters warned of potentially dangerous flash floods even as winds dropped to 30 miles per hour (48 km per hour).

Subtropical Storm Alberto is pictured nearing the Florida Panhandle in this May 27, 2018 NASA handout photo. NASA/Handout via REUTERS

Subtropical Storm Alberto is pictured nearing the Florida Panhandle in this May 27, 2018 NASA handout photo. NASA/Handout via REUTERS

At its height, Alberto, the first storm of the 2018 Atlantic hurricane season, blasted sustained winds of 65 mph (105 kph) with gusts that packed full hurricane punches of 75 mph (121 kph), said meteorologist David Roth of the National Weather Service.

“It’s slowly weakening and it’s not regaining any strength,” Roth said. “The chances of it spinning off tornadoes now has dropped to virtually zero.”

The National Hurricane Center (NHC) canceled coastal warnings and watches for the storm, which spun up days before the formal start of the hurricane season on June 1. Minor power outages were reported in north Florida, and the state’s emergency response team started closing shelters on Monday, citing a lack of need.

Some areas on Gulf Coast barrier islands remained under evacuation orders due to flood risks, officials said.

Alberto will probably weaken through Tuesday as it moves northward into the Tennessee Valley and then to the Ohio Valley, finally withering into a “remnant low pressure storm” by Tuesday evening, with winds at around 25 mph (40 kph), Roth said.

The NHC warned it would still deliver heavy, potentially damaging rains of 2-6 inches (6-15 cm), with as much as 12 inches (30 cm) in some areas in north Florida and Alabama through Tuesday night.

It could dump up to 6 inches (15 cm) of rain as it moves north toward lower Michigan by Wednesday evening, officials said.

Two journalists covering the worsening weather in North Carolina were killed on Monday when a tree fell on their vehicle.

Royal Dutch Shell Plc was sending workers back to the eastern Gulf of Mexico and Chevron Corp restored some production on Monday after the storm’s passage.

Shell plans to restore production at its Ram Powell Hub in the Viosca Knoll area of the Gulf as it soon as the platform can operate safely, the company said.

Authorities in Florida’s Franklin and Taylor counties issued mandatory evacuation orders for thousands of coastal residents.

Four deadly hurricanes struck the United States last year, killing at least 144 people and causing billions of dollars in damage, massive power outages and devastating hundreds of thousands of homes and businesses, according to the NHC.

(Reporting by Rich McKay in Atlanta; Additional reporting by Ian Simpson and Daniel Trotta; Editing by Scott Malone and Jeffrey Benkoe)