A tropical cyclone is bearing down on Australia.
Tropical Cyclone Ita is expected to make landfall in northeast Australia. The storm is the equivalent of a strong Category 4 hurricane according to the Joint Typhoon Warning Center.
However, forecasters say the storm will strengthen before landfall and be a Category 5 severe tropical cyclone.
The storm is expected to have such intense winds and rain by the time it makes landfall that forecasters are warning of strong storm surges that could cause serious damage to coastal areas.
The Australia Bureau of Meteorology believes that Cooktown will bear the brunt of the storm’s landfall and then the storm will turn south.
Indian officials are evacuating coastlines as Cyclone Helen approaches.
At least 25,000 people have been evacuated and thousands more are expected to leave before the storm makes landfall on Friday.
Cyclone Helen is tracking to hit four districts of India Friday with winds up to 68 miles an hour. The slow moving storm is producing surges of 5 feet already and heavy rainfall is expected to cause flooding in low-lying areas.
Helen is reporting maximum wind gusts of 80 miles per hour.
India’s eastern coast was hit last month by Cyclone Phailin that killed 25 people and destroyed tens of thousands of homes. Officials say the evacuation of a million people ahead of the storm kept the death toll low.
Cyclone Cleopatra roared into the Italian island of Sardinia killing at least 17 people and leaving dozens missing.
The storm’s heavy rains led to flash flooding and many rivers to overflow their banks. The flooding destroyed several bridges and swept away cars and homes.
A mother and daughter died when they car was swept away in the flash flooding. A family of three died when a bridge collapsed onto their car.
Prime Minister Enrico Letta has declared a state of emergency for the island, calling the situation a “national tragedy.” He said that $27 million would be immediately allocated to emergency relief efforts and that soldiers are being sent to the island for search and rescue operations.
Reports say the flash flooding reached 10 feet high at times. The mayor of the told of Olbia told the BBC the storm was “apocalyptic.”
Officials say that citizens of the island are coming together. Many residents with homes left undamaged by the storm are using social media to contact those who have lost homes and are inviting them in for meals and shelter.
India has evacuated over 200,000 people from the western coastline as a massive cyclone roars through the Bay of Bengal.
Cyclone Phailin is predicted to make landfall Saturday morning in Orissa state.
The storm has been classified as category 5 by the London-based Tropical Storm Risk center and the U.S. Navy’s Joint Typhoon Warning Center has predicted winds from the superstorm could reach 195 mph when it hits land. Storm surges will be at least 10 feet and likely much higher.
“The storm has high damage potential considering windspeed,” the director of the India Meteorological Department told the BBC. More concerning to the meteorologists watching the storm is the wide area the storm is covering in the ocean.
A super-cyclone similar to Phailin killed 10,000 people in Orissa state in 1999.
Cyclone Mahasen, roaring into the Bay of Bengal, is bearing down on Bangladesh and Burma.
Authorities in Bangladesh has raised the alert level to 7 on a 10 point scale for low-lying areas and are strongly urging people to evacuate the area. The cyclone is expected to make landfall in coastal areas in Thursday. Continue reading →
“Do not wait. Move now. Yr life depends on it”
The chilling message sent on twitter by the Queensland police commissioner revealed the severity of the flooding emergency facing the Australian state. The flooding in the state due to a cyclone bringing heavy rain has already killed three people. Continue reading →
Tropical Cyclone Evan roared into Samoa and American Samoa with maximum wind gusts of 130 m.p.h. leaving behind destruction and death.
At least two deaths have been reported in Samoa with hundreds missing. The death toll is expected to rise as the storm leaves and assessment of the damage and destruction begins en masse. Continue reading →
