It was impossible to miss the dominating story this week. All eyes — and headlines — were on Hurricane Dorian. But around the United States and abroad, there was other notable weather that took a backseat to the powerful hurricane. Denver saw a scorching new high temperature for September, and tornadoes whipped through parts of the north-central U.S. Let’s glance back at the week that was.
Dorian devastates Bahamas
Hurricane Dorian unleashed utter devastation in the Bahamas at the start of the week as a powerful and slow-moving Category 5 storm. As of Friday morning, officials announced that the Bahamas death toll stood at 30, but that is anticipated to rise to “staggering” numbers as the full extent of the destruction is revealed.
Startling satellite images from start-up company Iceye showed the dramatic difference in Grand Bahama Island before and after Dorian’s wrath — and the present-day image was not a pretty sight.
Much of where land was once visible is now blue as those areas sit underwater. The suffering of Bahamians reeling from the storm is being seen and felt around the world. In the U.S., where Dorian minimally impacted the Florida and Georgia coasts while triggering flooding, tornadoes and power outages along the Carolinas, many people are trying to figure out how to help the ailing island nation.
Power company lineman work to restore power after a tornado hit Emerald Isle, N.C. as Hurricane Dorian moved up the East coast on Thursday, Sept. 5, 2018. (AP Photo/Tom Copeland)
That brings us to two good Samaritans who, from the kindness of their hearts and inspired by Dorian, made a positive impact.
Man buys surprising number of generators for Bahamas
$49,285.70.
That’s how much a man in Jacksonville, Florida, splurged on 100 generators and food items on Wednesday to be sent over to the Bahamas following Dorian. The generators cost about $450 each, and the rest of the big purchase came from peas, coffee, beans and similar items headed to the Bahamas for relief efforts, CNN reported.
The man said he’d rather not be named and instead wants attention focused on helping people impacted by Dorian. "It's important that we help each other out. It's better than just sitting there," he said in an interview. "You see a need and you fill it."
A visit to the happiest place on Earth is now on hold for one 6-year-old South Carolina boy, but it’s all for a great cause. Jermaine Bell put money saved for his birthday trip to Walt Disney World’s Animal Kingdom toward buying hundreds of chips, hot dogs and water for people who evacuated as Dorian approached.
Bell held handmade signs as he stood near a highway to catch the attention of people heading out of the city, and he was able to help over 100 evacuees in just one day.
“The people that are traveling to go to places, I wanted them to have some food to eat so they can enjoy the ride to the place that they’re going to stay at,” Bell told WJBF.
Denver sets new all-time high temperature
Meanwhile, temperatures in the Mile High City reached a new record this week
The National Weather Service (NWS) office in Boulder tweeted on Monday that the temperature at Denver International Airport (DIA) reached 100 degrees Fahrenheit at 3:55 p.m. MDT.
“That is now a new high for the date and for the month of September. #cowx,” the tweet read.
Tornadoes hit Chicago, Minneapolis
Some parts of the north-central U.S. experienced scary conditions this week, with tornadoes touching down north of Chicago and in Minneapolis.
The NWS confirmed a tornado touched down near Chicago late Tuesday, hurting at least one person who was in a car that flipped over, The Associated Press reported. It hit near the Waukegan Airport and sliced a narrow 2-mile path of damage to Lake Michigan.
The tornado also damaged some commercial buildings, trees, roofs and fences . Meteorologists were still trying to determine the tornado’s strength but said it packed winds of up to 110 mph.
The EF1 tornado that struck Monday west of Minneapolis damaged trees and outbuildings, according to the AP. The twister, which touched down east of Watertown, was on the ground for five minutes and traveled 3.5 miles, but no injuries were reported. The NWS office in Grand Forks reported 71-mph wind gusts. More than 22,500 people lost power.
Typhoon Lingling headed towards South Korea after brushing Philippines
After battering Japan's Ryukyu Islands, Typhoon Lingling now has its sights set on the Korean Peninsula after battering Japan’s Ryuku Islands and sweeping by the Philippines with no major impacts.
Lingling’s powerful winds equal those of a Category 3 major hurricane.
In anticipation of the storm, dozens of flights were canceled and entrance to Hallasan National Park, the country's highest mountain, was suspended.
1 killed as strong winds blow over big rigs in Arizona
Powerful winds during a rainstorm in southwestern Arizona on Wednesday claimed a life as six big rigs blew over on Interstate 10.
Ronald Dale Huff, a 69-year-old driver from Salem, Oregon, was the sole fatality, the AP reported. Winds in the area at the time of the accident, according to the NWS’s preliminary data, were between 30 and 40 mph.
Wet road leads to deadly tour bus crash
From one fatal road accident to another, this next recap takes us to New Zealand, where a tour bus carrying Chinese tourists flipped on a slick roadway Wednesday.
Five people were killed while two others were left seriously hurt. Twenty-seven people were on board when the crash happened around 11 a.m., local time, according to the AP.
The bus ended up drifting to the wrong side of the road in the rainy conditions, and during the driver’s failed attempt to correct the bus, it flipped onto the driver’s side.
High winds, fog and a lot of rain are said to have played a role in the fatal accident.
August was Anchorage's warmest on record
Denver wasn’t the only U.S. city experiencing record highs recently. Anchorage, Alaska, recorded its hottest August ever on record last month, with only one day reportedly at normal temperatures.
NWS records show that each day last month in the city except Aug. 21, temperatures were above average, and at one point, they were as high as 12 degrees above normal. Anchorage only received 0.04 of an inch of rain throughout all of August. The warm, dry spell is responsible for recent wildfires in Alaska including the Swan Lake and McKinley fires.
The record highs seem to be continuing into this month. The NWS office in Fairbanks tweeted on Tuesday that the Deadhorse Airport near Prudhoe Bay reached 70 F that day, which is the highest temperature ever recorded for September, breaking the previous record of 67 F in September of 2006.
No comments:
Post a Comment