NEW ORLEANS: Hurricane Nate came ashore a sparsely populated area at the mouth of the Mississippi River on Saturday and pelted the central Gulf Coast with wind and rain as the fast-moving storm headed toward the Mississippi coast, where it was expected to make another landfall and threatened to inundate homes and businesses.
Nate was expected to pass to the east of New Orleans, sparing the city its most ferocious winds and storm surge. And its quick speed lessened the likelihood of prolonged rain that would tax the city’s weakened drainage pump system. Still, the city famous for all-night partying was placed under a curfew, effective at 7 p.m., and the streets were not nearly as crowded as they typically are on a Saturday night.
Cities along the Mississippi coast such as Gulfport and Biloxi were on high alert. Some beachfront hotels and casinos were evacuated. Rain began falling on the region Saturday and forecasters called for 3 to 6 inches (7 to 15 centimeters) with as much as 10 inches (25 centimeters) in some isolated places.
Nate weakened slightly and was a Category 1 storm with maximum winds of 85 mph (137 kph) when it made landfall in a sparsely populated area of Plaquemines (PLAK’-uh-minz) Parish. Forecasters had said it was possible that it could strengthen to a Category 2, but that seemed less likely as the night wore on.
Storm surge threatened low-lying communities in southeast Louisiana, eastward to the Alabama fishing village of Bayou la Batre.
“If it floods again, this will be it,” said Larry Bertron as said as he and his wife prepared to leave their home in the Braithwaite community of vulnerable Plaquemines Parish. The hurricane veterans lost one home to Hurricane Katrina in 2005 and left the home they rebuilt after Hurricane Isaac in 2012.
Governors in Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama declared states of emergency. The three states have been mostly spared during this hectic hurricane season.
“This is the worst hurricane that has impacted Mississippi since Hurricane Katrina,” Mississippi Emergency Management Director Lee Smithson said Saturday. “Everyone needs to understand that, that this is a significantly dangerous situation.”
Officials rescued five people from two sailboats in choppy waters before the storm. One 41-foot sailboat lost its engine in Lake Pontchartrain and two sailors were saved. Another boat hit rocks in the Mississippi Sound and three people had to be plucked from the water.
Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards urged residents to make final preparations quickly and stressed that Nate will bring the possibility of storm surge reaching up to 11 feet in some coastal areas.
“It’s going to hit and move through our area at a relatively fast rate, limiting the amount of time it’s going to drop rain,” Edwards said. “But this is a very dangerous storm nonetheless.”
Streets in low-lying areas of Louisiana were already flooded. Places outside of levee protections were under mandatory evacuation orders and shelters opened there.
Some people worried about New Orleans’ pumping system, which had problems during a heavy thunderstorm on Aug. 5. The deluge exposed system weaknesses — including the failure of some pumps and power-generating turbines — and caused homes and businesses to flood. Repairs have been made but the system remained below maximum pumping capacity.
On Alabama’s Dauphin Island, water washed over the road Saturday on the island’s low-lying west end, said Mayor Jeff Collier. The storm was projected to bring storm surges from seven to 11 feet near the Alabama-Mississippi state line. Some of the biggest impacts could be at the top of funnel-shaped Mobile Bay.
The window for preparing “is quickly closing,” Alabama Emergency Management Agency Director Brian Hastings said.
Florida Gov. Rick Scott warned residents of the Panhandle to prepare for Nate’s impact.
“Hurricane Nate is expected to bring life-threatening storm surges, strong winds and tornados that could reach across the Panhandle,” Scott said. The evacuations affect roughly 100,000 residents in the western Panhandle.
The Pensacola International Airport announced it will close at 6 p.m. Saturday and remain closed on Sunday. However, the Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport was open Saturday.
At 8 p.m. EDT Saturday, Nate was about 10 miles (16 kilometers) southwest of the mouth of the Mississippi River. The storm is expected to quickly weaken as it cuts a path through the Southeast on its way to the Mid-Atlantic and Northeast regions, which could see impacts from Nate early next week.
Nate killed at least 21 people after strafing Central America.
Waterside sections of New Orleans, outside the city’s levee system, were under an evacuation order. About 2,000 people were affected. But not everyone was complying.
Gabriel Black stayed behind because an 81-year-old neighbor refused to leave.
“I know it sounds insane, but he has bad legs and he doesn’t have anybody who can get to him,” Black said.
Ahead of Saturday night’s curfew, some bars were closed in the French Quarter but music blasted from others.
“We’re down here from Philly and we’re not going to just stay in our hotel room,” said Kelly Howell, who was drinking with friends at The Bourbon Street Drinkery.
Hurricane Nate makes landfall at mouth of Mississippi River
Hurricane Nate makes landfall at mouth of Mississippi River
Far from Hollywood’s wealth, Los Angeles fire survivors feel forgotten
- Altadena residents fear unequal resource allocation post-fire
- Concerns over insurance payouts and gentrification rise
While the fires that have devastated celebrity neighborhoods near Malibu have caught the world’s attention, a similar size blaze in Eaton Canyon, north of Los Angeles, has ravaged Altadena, a racially and economically diverse community.
Black and Latino families have lived in Altadena for generations and the suburb is also popular with younger artists and engineers working at the nearby NASA rocket lab, who were attracted by the small town vibe and access to nature.
Many residents told Reuters they were concerned that government resources would be channeled toward high-profile areas popular with A-Listers, while insurance companies might shortchange less affluent households that don’t have the financial means to contest fire claims.
“They’re not going to give you the value of your house ... if they do you really have to fight for it,” said Kay Young, 63, her eyes welling up with tears as she stared at a sprawl of smoking rubble, the remnants of a home that has been in her family for generations.
Inez Moore, 40, whose family home in Altadena was destroyed by the fire, said communities like theirs would likely suffer financially more than wealthier suburbs because many people don’t have the resources or experience to navigate complex bureaucratic systems.
“You’re going to have some folks who are not going to get as much as they deserve, and some folks who may get more than actually they need,” said Moore, a lecturer at California State University.
Moore, Young and several other residents told Reuters they didn’t see any fire engines in Altadena in the early hours of Wednesday when they fled flames engulfing their community, fueling a resentment that their neighborhood wasn’t a priority.
“We didn’t get help here. I don’t know where everybody was,” said Jocelyn Tavares, 32, as her sister and daughter dug through the smoking debris of a life upended — a child’s bicycle half-melted, a solitary cup miraculously spared from the flames.
Los Angeles County Fire Department did not respond to a request for comment about the residents’ complaints.
REBUILD
Since breaking out on Tuesday night, the Eaton Fire has killed at least five people and grown to 13,690 acres as of Thursday night, consuming much of the northern half of Altadena, an unincorporated community of some 40,000 people.
As late as 1960, Altadena was almost entirely white. As new highways built in urban renewal projects tore apart Los Angeles neighborhoods, African American families began buying homes in what remained for decades a relatively affordable community.
Residents told Reuters they paid around $50,000 for a three-bedroom home in Altadena in the 1970s. The same house would cost more than $1 million today.
By 1990, nearly 40 percent of residents were Black. Today, about 18 percent are Black, 49 percent white and 27 percent are Hispanic or Latino, according to the US Census Bureau.
Altadena residents voiced concerns that the area may become more gentrified if families who have lived here for generations could not secure insurance payouts to cover the cost to rebuild a home that they bought cheap decades ago.
Despite the widespread wreckage, many locals were upbeat about the community rising from the ashes, sharing tales of narrow escapes and memories of decades spent growing up together with neighbors who were now sharing in the disaster.
“There are rows of us that went to school together,” said Young, gesturing to a vast stretch of scorched foundations.
Michael McCarthy, 68, a clerk in the City of Los Angeles, said his home was saved by a neighbor who risked his life by staying behind after everyone else had fled, using a hose to spray water on their roofs.
“I know this community will rebuild, everybody knows everybody here, everybody loves everybody,” said McCarthy, who is due to retire this year.
“Well, I got a new job now, and that’s putting all this back together and do what I can for the neighborhood.”
Los Angeles fire deaths at 10 as National Guard called in
- A vast firefighting operation continued into the night, bolstered by water-dropping helicopters thanks to a temporary lull in winds
- With such a huge area scorched by the fires, evacuees feared not enough was being done and some were taking matters into their own hands
LOS ANGELES, United States: Massive wildfires that engulfed whole neighborhoods and displaced thousands in Los Angeles have killed at least 10 people, authorities said, as California’s National Guard soldiers readied to hit the streets to help quell disorder.
News of the growing toll, announced late Thursday by the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner, came as swaths of the United States’ second-largest city lay in ruins.
A vast firefighting operation continued into the night, bolstered by water-dropping helicopters thanks to a temporary lull in winds, even as new fires continued to spring up.
With reports of looting, Los Angeles County Sheriff Robert Luna said a nighttime curfew was planned, and the state’s National Guard was on hand to patrol affected areas.
Governor Gavin Newsom said the service members were part of a thousands-strong deployment of state personnel.
“We’re throwing everything at our disposal – including our National Guard service members – to protect communities in the days to come,” he said.
“And to those who would seek to take advantage of evacuated communities, let me be clear: looting will not be tolerated.”
Luna said his officers were patrolling evacuation zones and would arrest anyone who was not supposed to be there.
But with such a huge area scorched by the fires, evacuees feared not enough was being done and some were taking matters into their own hands.
Nicholas Norman mounted an armed vigil at his home after seeing suspicious characters in the middle of the night.
“I did the classic American thing: I went and got my shotgun and I sat out there, and put a light on so they knew people were there,” he said.
The biggest of the multiple blazes has ripped through almost 20,000 acres (8,800 hectares) of the upscale Pacific Palisades neighborhood, while another fire around Altadena has torched 13,700 acres.
Firefighters said they were starting to get a handle on the Pacific Palisades blaze, with six percent of its perimeter contained – meaning it can’t spread any further in that direction.
But after a lull, winds were returning and new fires continued to erupt.
One flared near Calabasas and the wealthy Hidden Hills enclave, home to celebrities like Kim Kardashian, late Thursday.
The Kenneth Fire exploded to almost 1,000 acres within hours, forcing more people from their homes, with over 180,000 now displaced.
US President Joe Biden told a White House briefing he had pledged extra federal funds and resources to help the state cope with “the most... devastating fire in California’s history.”
Unlike Tuesday when the multi-pronged disaster roared to life and 160-kilometer-an-hour winds grounded all aircraft, firefighters were able to keep up a steady stream of sorties.
But one Super Scooper – an amphibious aircraft that dumps hundreds of gallons of water at a time – was grounded after colliding with a drone.
Although no one was hurt, the Federal Aviation Authority said it was probing the incident, and warned anyone flying drones in fire areas could be jailed for a year.
Some of those forced out of their homes began to return Thursday to find scenes of devastation.
Kalen Astoor, a 36-year-old paralegal, said her mother’s home had been spared by the inferno’s seemingly random and chaotic destruction. But many other homes had not.
“The view now is of death and destruction,” she said. “I don’t know if anyone can come back for a while.”
Meanwhile an AFP overflight of the Pacific Palisades and Malibu – some of the most expensive real estate in the world and home to celebrities like Paris Hilton, Anthony Hopkins and Billy Crystal – revealed desolation.
On highly coveted Malibu oceanfront plots skeletal frames of buildings indicated the lavish scale of what has been destroyed.
Multi-million dollar mansions have vanished entirely, seemingly swept into the Pacific Ocean by the force of the fire.
In the Palisades, grids of roads that were until Tuesday lined with stunning homes now resemble makeshift cemeteries.
For millions of others in the area, life was disrupted: schools were closed, hundreds of thousands were without power and major events were canceled or, in the case of an NFL playoff game between the Los Angeles Rams and the Minnesota Vikings, moved somewhere else.
Meteorologists warn that “critical” windy and dry conditions, though abated, are not over.
A National Weather Service bulletin said “significant fire growth” remained likely “with ongoing or new fires” into Friday.
Wildfires occur naturally, but scientists say human-caused climate change is altering weather and changing the dynamics of the blazes.
Two wet years in Southern California have given way to a very dry one, leaving ample fuel dry and primed to burn.
India readies for mammoth Hindu festival of 400 million pilgrims
- The organizers say the scale of preparations for the Kumbh Mela is akin to setting up a temporary country from scratch
- Festival is rooted in Hindu mythology, a battle between deities and demons for pitcher containing nectar of immortality
NEW DELHI: The world’s largest gathering of humanity begins in India on Monday with the opening of the Kumbh Mela, a six-week Hindu festival organizers expect to attract up to 400 million pilgrims.
Organizers say the scale of preparations for the Kumbh Mela is akin to setting up a temporary country from scratch — in this case, one more populous than the United States and Canada combined.
“Some 350 to 400 million devotees are going to visit the mela, so you can imagine the scale of preparations,” festival spokesman Vivek Chaturvedi said.
Around 150,000 toilets have been built and a network of community kitchens can each feed up to 50,000 people at the same time.
Another 68,000 LED light poles have been erected for a gathering so large that its bright lights can be seen from space.
Authorities and the police have also set up a network of “lost and found” centers and an accompanying phone app to help pilgrims lost in the immense crowd “to reunite with their families.”
India is the world’s most populous nation, with 1.4 billion people, and so is used to large crowds.
The last celebration at the site, the “ardh” or half Kumbh Mela in 2019, attracted 240 million pilgrims, according to India’s government.
That compares to an estimated 1.8 million Muslims who take part in the annual Hajj pilgrimage to Makkah, Saudi Arabia.
The government calls the Kumbh Mela a “vibrant blend of cultures, traditions, and languages, showcasing a ‘mini-India’ where millions come together without formal invitations.”
The Kumbh Mela, or “festival of the sacred pitcher,” is held at the confluence of the Ganges, the Yamuna and the mythical Sarasvati rivers.
Its emblematic ritual is mass bathing in the holy rivers, with the dawn charge often led by naked, ash-smeared holy men, many of whom will have walked for weeks to reach the site.
Hindus believe that those who immerse themselves in the waters cleanse themselves of sin, breaking free from the cycle of rebirth and ultimately attaining salvation.
Many pilgrims embrace a life of simplicity during the festival — vowing non-violence, celibacy and the offering of alms — and focusing on prayer and meditation.
Santosh Mishra, 55, from a village near the holy Hindu city of Varanasi, said he and his neighbors were “super excited” for the fair to begin.
“The whole village will be going,” Mishra told AFP. “It’s a great feeling when everyone takes a plunge in the river together.”
The festival is rooted in Hindu mythology, a battle between deities and demons for control of a pitcher containing the nectar of immortality.
Four drops of nectar were spilt during the battle and one landed at Prayagraj, where the Kumbh Mela is held every 12 years.
The other three fell on the cities of Nashik, Ujjain and Haridwar, where smaller festivals are held in intervening years.
The exact date of each celebration is based on the astrological positions of the Sun, Moon and Jupiter.
Ceremonies include the visually spectacular “aarti,” when vast numbers of priests perform rituals holding flickering lamps.
Devotees also float a sea of twinkling prayer lamps, crafted from baked flour, which glow with burning mustard oil or clarified butter.
Monday marks the start of festivities, coinciding with the full moon, with celebrations culminating on February 26, the final holy bathing day.
The mythic battle that undergirds the Kumbh Mela celebrations is mentioned in the Rig Veda, a sacred Hindu text written more than 3,000 years ago.
The festival was also mentioned by Chinese Buddhist monk and scholar Hiuen Tsang, who attended in the seventh century.
UNESCO lists the Kumbh Mela as part of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity.
It describes it as “the largest peaceful congregation of pilgrims on earth,” saying it “plays a central spiritual role in the country, exerting a mesmeric influence on ordinary Indians.”
South Korea presidential security chief warns against violent attempt to arrest Yoon Suk Yeol
- Park Chong-jun, head of the Presidential Security Service, is himself under investigation for obstructing official duty
- PSS agents blockaded the presidential compound and thwarted investigators from trying to arrest Yoon last Friday
SEOUL: South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol’s security chief said on Friday the impeached leader, who faces arrest over a criminal probe into his Dec. 3 martial law bid, has been unfairly treated for a sitting leader and warned bloodshed must be avoided.
Park Chong-jun, head of the Presidential Security Service (PSS), is himself under investigation for obstructing official duty related to a six-hour standoff last week between PSS agents and investigators trying to execute an arrest warrant for Yoon.
Arriving at police headquarters for questioning, Park, who is a former senior police official, said the current attempt to arrest a sitting president is wrong and Yoon deserved treatment “becoming of” the country’s status.
“I believe there should not be any physical clash or bloodshed under any circumstances,” Park told reporters, adding acting President Choi Sang-mok has not responded to his request for safety assurances for officials involved.
Hundreds of PSS agents blockaded the presidential compound and thwarted investigators from trying to arrest Yoon last Friday. The investigators were pulled back because of the risk of a clash.
Officials of the Corruption Investigation Office for High-ranking Officials (CIO), which is leading the investigation, have said PSS agents were carrying firearms during the standoff although no weapons were drawn.
The investigators obtained a new arrest warrant this week after Yoon defied repeated summons to appear for questioning.
On Thursday, lawyers for Yoon said the arrest warrant was illegal and invalid.
Yoon is under a separate Constitutional Court trial reviewing parliament’s impeachment of him on Dec. 14 to decide whether to remove him from office permanently or reinstate him. His lawyers have said Yoon will accept that verdict.
As Yoon awaits his fate, holed up inside his hillside residence, polls released this week showed a revival of support for his ruling People Power Party (PPP) and calls for his permanent removal slipping.
A Gallup Korea survey published on Friday showed 64 percent of respondents back Yoon’s removal from office, compared to 75 percent who favored it soon after the martial law declaration.
The PPP’s approval rating rose to 34 percent, a level similar to the period before Dec. 3, in the poll of 1,004 people this week, from 24 percent about a month ago.
Analysts said the prolonged uncertainty over Yoon’s fate has not only emboldened his supporters but softened some critics concerned that the liberal opposition Democratic Party leader, who is himself on trial on allegations of criminal wrongdoings, may become president.
Last 2 years crossed 1.5°C global warming limit: EU monitor
- Copernicus Climate Change Service confirms that 2024 was the hottest year on record, surpassing 2023
- Extends a streak of extraordinary heat that fueled climate extremes on all continents
PARIS: The last two years exceeded on average a critical warming limit for the first time as global temperatures soar “beyond what modern humans have ever experienced,” an EU agency said Friday.
This does not mean the internationally-agreed 1.5°C warming threshold has been permanently breached, but the Copernicus Climate Change Service said it was drawing dangerously near.
The EU monitor confirmed that 2024 was the hottest year on record, surpassing 2023 and extending a streak of extraordinary heat that fueled climate extremes on all continents.
Another record-breaking year is not anticipated in 2025, as climate skeptic Donald Trump takes office, and a deadline looms for nations to commit to deeper cuts to rising levels of greenhouse gases.
But the UK weather service predicts 2025 will still rank among the top three warmest years in the history books.
This excess heat supercharges extreme weather, and 2024 saw countries from Spain to Kenya, the United States and Nepal hit by disasters that cost more than $300 billion by some estimates.
Los Angeles is battling deadly wildfires that have destroyed thousands of buildings and forced tens of thousands to flee their homes. US President Joe Biden said the fires were the most “devastating” to hit California and were proof that “climate change is real.”
Copernicus said sustained, unprecedented warming made average temperatures over 2023 and 2024 more than 1.5°Celsius hotter than pre-industrial times.
Nearly 200 nations agreed in Paris in 2015 that meeting 1.5°C offered the best chance of preventing the most catastrophic repercussions of climate change.
But the world is nowhere on track to meeting that target.
“We are now teetering on the edge of passing the 1.5°C level,” said Copernicus climate deputy director Samantha Burgess.
Copernicus records go back to 1940 but other sources of climate data, such as ice cores and tree rings, allow scientists to say the Earth today is likely the warmest it has been in tens of thousands of years.
The 1.5°C threshold is measured in decades, not individual years, but Copernicus said reaching this limit even briefly illustrated the unprecedented changes being brought about by humanity.
Scientists say every fraction of a degree above 1.5°C is consequential, and that beyond a certain point the climate could shift in ways that are difficult to anticipate.
At present levels, human-driven climate change is already making droughts, storms, floods and heatwaves more frequent and intense.
The oceans, a crucial climate regulator which absorb 90 percent of excess heat from greenhouse gases, warmed to record levels in 2024, straining coral reefs and marine life and stirring violent weather.
Warmer seas mean higher evaporation and greater moisture in the atmosphere, causing heavier rainfall, feeding energy into cyclones and bringing sometimes unbearable humidity.
Water vapor in the atmosphere hit fresh highs in 2024 and combined with elevated temperatures caused floods, heatwaves and “misery for millions of people,” Burgess said.
Johan Rockstrom of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research said hitting 1.5°C was a “stark warning sign.”
“We have now experienced the first taste of a 1.5°C world, which has cost people and the global economy unprecedented suffering and economic costs,” he said.
Scientists say the onset of a warming El Nino phenomenon in 2023 contributed to the record heat that followed.
But El Nino ended in early 2024, and scientists have puzzled over why global temperatures have remained at record or near-record levels ever since.
In December, the World Meteorological Organization said if an opposite La Nina event took over in coming months it would be too “weak and short-lived” to have much of a cooling effect.
“The future is in our hands – swift and decisive action can still alter the trajectory of our future climate,” said Copernicus climate director Carlo Buontempo.
Nations agreed to transition away from fossil fuels at a UN summit in 2023 but the latest meeting in November struggled to make any progress around how to make deeper reductions to heat-trapping emissions.
