Two hurricanes are expected to hit the U.S. Gulf coast in the coming days, meteorologists said Sunday, as Tropical Storm Laura killed at least 12 others as Haiti and the Dominican Republic hit.
U.S. media reported that dual hurricanes have been unprecedented in the Gulf of Mexico since records began 150 years ago.
Flooding was severe in places like © city district of Port-au-Prince, Haiti Photo: AFP / Estailove ST-VAL
Tropical Storm Marco has become one with 120-kilometre winds consistent with the hour and is expected to hit the state of Louisiana on Monday.
Tropical Storm Laura hit Haiti and the Dominican Republic with heavy rain, killing at least 12 others: nine in Haiti and 3 in the Dominican Republic.
A roll on a road as Tropical Storm Laura hits Guayama, Puerto Rico, on August 22, 2020 Photo: AFP / Rido ARDUENGO
It was about a hurricane on Tuesday that could hit the U.S. coastal region on Wednesday.
Energy has suspended some of the production of oil and herbal fuel in the Gulf as the climate deteriorates.
Tropical Storm Laura hit Haiti in heavy rains, killing several other people Photo: AFP / Estailove ST-VAL
Storm Laura of the U.S. National Hurricane Center “brought torrential rains and life-threatening floods” to Haiti, which occupies Hispaniola Island with the Dominican Republic.
The typhoon killed 3 other people in the Dominican Republic capital, Santo Domingo, said Juan Manuel Méndez, director of the country’s Emergency Operations Center.
Tropical Storm Laura uprooted and flooded the streets of the capital Santo Domingo when it hit Dominican Republic Photo: afp / Erika SANTELICES
A and a child died in his home, while a young man died when a tree fell on his house, Mendez said.
The typhoon flooded homes, isolated remote villages and left more than a million Dominicans in the dark, Mendez said.
The projected trail of Tropical Storm Marco, which is expected to succeed in the force of a hurricane when it hits the U.S. coast, as the hurricane reaches the United States. Picture: AFP / Kun TIAN
In neighboring Haiti, a 10-year-old woman in the nine dead, the government said. They said some houses had flooded and evacuations were taking place.
With brown water up to their knees, some citizens tried to save what they could from their flooded homes, while street investors watched their goods be taken away.
“I didn’t know there were bad weather forecasts. We don’t have much electric power in my neighborhood, so I couldn’t keep up with the news on the radio,” Sony Joseph said, shivering with cold.
The Atlantic typhoon season, which runs until November, may be one of the busiest this year, and the Hurricane Center forecasts up to 25 named typhoons. Laura is the twelfth to date.
Haiti, a country of 11 million people, has experienced a low incidence of COVID-19, with just over 8,000 cases and about two hundred deaths to date, however, the government has suggested caution to avoid further spread after Storm Laura.
“Wear your mask and respect the distances, especially in transit shelters,” Interior Minister Audain Fils Bernadel said at a briefing on Saturday. “With COVID, we have significantly less capacity in our shelters.”
Storms pose a serious threat to Haiti every year from June to November. Even heavy rains can threaten the poorest people in the country, many of whom live in high-threat spaces near canals or ravines that can become clogged with debris and quickly overflow.
The Miami-based Hurricane Center said Sunday that “a more powerful Laura was south of eastern Cuba” after sending “potentially fatal flash floods over the Dominican Republic, Haiti, Cuba and Jamaica.”
Marco hoped to bring “storm surges of deadly typhoons and hurricane-force winds” to parts of the US Gulf Coast on Monday and Tuesday, the NHC warned.