U.K News

Hurricane Otis Now A Catastrophic Category 5 Storm Off Mexico’s Pacific Coast Nearing Acapulco

Published

1 year ago

2023-10-25

ACAPULCO, MX — Residents of Mexico’s once-glamorous resort of Acapulco and nearby coastal villages waited for the arrival of “potentially catastrophic” Hurricane Otis, a quickly strengthening Category 5 hurricane that brought up memories of a 1997 storm that killed dozens.

“A nightmare scenario is unfolding this evening for southern Mexico with rapidly intensifying Otis approaching the coastline,” a National Hurricane Centre forecaster said late Tuesday.

Hurricane Otis grew from a tropical storm to a Category 5 hurricane in 12 hours as it reached Mexico’s southern Pacific coast on Tuesday.

The National Hurricane Centre in the United States reported that Otis had maximum sustained winds of 160 mph (260 kph) late Tuesday evening and was projected to land near Acapulco early Wednesday. It was located around 55 miles (90 km) south-southeast of Acapulco and traveled north-northwest at 9 miles per hour (15 kilometers per hour).

Acapulco is a metropolis of about one million inhabitants at the base of rugged mountains. Luxury houses and slums coexist on the city’s hillside vistas of the glittering Pacific.

Hurricane Otis Now A Catastrophic Category 5 Storm Off Mexico’s Pacific Coast, Nearing Acapulco

While it once drew Hollywood stars for its nightlife, sport fishing, and cliff diving shows, Acapulco has fallen victim to competing organized crime groups, which have sunk the city into violence, driving many international tourists to the Caribbean waters of Cancun and the Riviera Maya, or hippie beaches further down the Pacific coast in Oaxaca.

From Punta Maldonado to Zihuatanejo, a hurricane warning was in place. A hurricane warning is in force from Lagunas de Chacahua to Punta Maldonado.

Otis was expected to stay a Category 5 hurricane until landfall, but it is expected to diminish quickly due to Mexico’s higher topography. On Wednesday night, Otis will very likely fade over southern Mexico.

“This is an extremely serious situation for the Acapulco metropolitan area with the core of the destructive hurricane likely to come near or over that large city early on Wednesday,” the National Hurricane Centre stated. “There are no hurricanes on record even close to this intensity for this part of Mexico.”

People in Acapulco rushed home as rain began to fall and winds increased, pushing tourists away from the beach.

The Guerrero state administration said it was constructing 396 shelters in case families were forced to flee their houses due to wind damage or rising seas.

“We’re on maximum alert,” Acapulco Mayor Abelina López said Tuesday night, urging residents to stay home or seek shelter. She believes Otis will be much more deadly than Hurricane Pauline, which devastated Acapulco in 1997 and killed over 200 people. Hundreds more were injured as a result of flooding and mudslides.

President Andrés Manuel López Obrador advised citizens to “go to shelters, stay in safe places away from rivers, streams, ravines, and be alert, without being overconfident” via the platform X, formerly Twitter.

Jess Pantaleón, general manager of the Las Brisas hotel, located further inland from Acapulco’s coastline, said guests from oceanfront hotels began arriving late Tuesday. “People from various hotels along the ocean drive are arriving because they felt that being higher up, they are safer,” he said.

According to Roberto Arroyo, Guerrero state’s civil defense secretary, authorities toured through low-lying areas of the city, telling people to evacuate using megaphones.

Hurricane Otis Now A Catastrophic Category 5 Storm Off Mexico’s Pacific Coast Nearing Acapulco

Mexico’s army and navy sent around 8,000 personnel to the area with specialized equipment to assist rescue efforts. Authorities shut down Acapulco’s port, which housed 300 fishing vessels.

Otis was forecast to bring five to ten inches (13 to 25 centimeters) of rain to Guerrero, with up to 15 inches (38 centimeters) likely in isolated locations. Guerrero’s rugged, hilly terrain increased the risk of mudslides and flash floods.

According to the National Hurricane Center, a storm is considered to be rapidly intensifying if its wind speed increases by 35 mph (46 kph) in 24 hours. Warmer waters are now more than twice as probable for Atlantic hurricanes to swiftly accelerate from wimpy minor hurricanes to destructive and catastrophic, according to a study published Thursday by Andra Garner, a climate scientist at Rowan University in New Jersey.

Six storms swiftly intensified that much in 2020, a record year for hurricanes and the final year of Garner’s study. Hannah, Laura, Sally, Teddy, Gamma, and Delta are some of the characters. Since then, numerous catastrophic storms have rapidly intensified, including Ida in 2021, Ian in 2022, and Idalia in 2023.

According to Colorado State University hurricane researcher Phil Klotzbach, Otis has intensified by 80 mph in the last 12 hours, from 65 mph to 145 mph. “That’s the fastest 12 hr intensification rate in the eastern North Pacific” since 1966, according to NASA.

After sweeping over the Lesser Antilles over the weekend, Hurricane Tammy proceeded northeastward over open water with winds of 85 mph (140 kph). Tammy was approximately 570 miles (915 km) south of Bermuda. According to the National Hurricane Centre in the United States, the storm was projected to strengthen into a powerful extratropical cyclone by Thursday.

SOURCE — (AP)

U.K News

London Hit With Heavy Snow as Temperatures Plummet

Published

5 days ago

2024-11-19

Geoff Brown

London, England, has been gripped by an Arctic freeze, with temperatures dipping well below zero, snow forcing trains to stop, and over 200 schools closing in and across the UK.

Commuters faced traffic mayhem as Braemar in Aberdeenshire recorded the coldest temperature in the UK this early in the season since 1998, at -11.2C (12.2F).

Today, the Met Office issued three yellow weather warnings for snow and ice across the Midlands and North of England, Wales, Scotland, and Northern Ireland.

The UK Health Security Agency issued the season’s first amber cold weather health advisory, warning that circumstances could be hazardous to vulnerable people.

Poor weather hampered rail travel, with no trains running between Nottingham and Worksop or between Llandudno and Blaenau Ffestiniog in North Wales.

A couple walks on the snow-covered ground at Pavillion Gardens in Buxton, Derbyshire.

Northern services in Yorkshire between Bradford and Huddersfield, Hebden Bridge to Halifax, and Halifax to Hull were all disrupted while flooding at Ulverston in Cumbria caused delays between Barrow-in-Furness and Lancaster.

Around 130 Welsh schools closed in Wrexham, Powys, Denbighshire, and Flintshire, with closures also reported in Birmingham, Nottinghamshire, and Derbyshire.

Nearly 5 inches (12 cm) of snow fell at Watnall in Nottinghamshire, with 3 inches (8 cm) at Cranwell in Lincolnshire and 2 inches (5 cm) at Lake Vyrnwy in Powys, Wales.

The Met Office issued warnings that vehicles might become trapped, power outages could occur, remote communities could be shut off, and falling on ice could cause injury.

England has a yellow warning until 11 a.m., while Scotland has a warning until 10 a.m. tomorrow. Another warning for Northern Ireland expired at 10 a.m.

The UK Health Security Agency issued an amber cold weather health notice for the East and North of England, the Midlands, Yorkshire, and the Humber.

Yellow health alerts went into effect for the South East, South West, and London at 8 a.m. today and will run until 6 p.m. on Saturday.

National Rail warned that the cold weather would impair several routes on northern rail services until at least 2 p.m. today.

Merseyrail issued a notice informing passengers that due to the possibility of snow and ice covering tracks, the first train on each line in North West England would run without passengers to allow conditions to be examined.

National Highways also issued a strong amber weather advisory for snow, indicating that the M1 in Leeds and Sheffield, the M56 in Manchester, junction 39 of the M6, and junctions 21-23 of the M62 may see interruption.

WEATHER WARNING 1: The Met Office snow warning in Northern Ireland terminated at 10 a.m. today.

WEATHER WARNING 2: A separate snow and ice warning for Northern England until 11 a.m. today.

WEATHER WARNING 3: Scotland’s snow and ice warning is live until 10 a.m. tomorrow.

The Met Office, which characterized the weather as ‘the first taste of winter,’ said heavy snow will cause problems in England, with Derbyshire being the most vulnerable.

According to Dan Suri, the Met Office’s chief meteorologist, a low-pressure system will move eastward on Monday night.

The related frontal system, which marks the border between cold air in the north and milder weather in the south, may deliver disruptive snow to certain locations between Monday evening and Tuesday morning.

Dr. Agostinho Sousa of the UK Health Security Agency stated, “This is the first amber Cold Weather Health Alert of the season, but we can expect more as winter approaches. It is critical to check in on vulnerable friends, family, and neighbors to ensure they are well prepared for the onset of cold weather.”

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U.K News

Windsor Castle Robbed While Royal Family Slept

Published

6 days ago

2024-11-19

Geoff Brown

UK police report two men broke into the Windsor Castle estate, home to Prince William and Catherine and their three children and stole two vehicles.

According to the Sun newspaper, the robbers broke into a farm building on the Windsor estate and stole a black Isuzu pick-up truck and a red quad bike stashed in a barn.

The Prince and Princess of Wales reportedly arrived at their estate home during the nighttime burglary.

Thames Valley Police stated the individuals ran to the Old Windsor/Datchet area, but no arrests have been made.

“Offenders entered a farm building and stole vehicles,” the police added. An investigation is underway regarding the incident.

There have been previous security incidents at Windsor. On Christmas Day in 2021, an intruder was apprehended on the grounds of Windsor Castle. Jaswant Singh Chail, who was equipped with a crossbow, received a nine-year prison sentence.

The Windsor estate, located west of London, spans 15,800 acres and contains functioning farms, conservation areas, Windsor Great Park, and well-known royal attractions, including Windsor Castle.

Windsor Castle received 1.4 million visitors last year, making it the UK’s most popular royal tourist site.

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U.K News

Britain’s Conservative Party Elects Kemi Badenoch as Leader

Published

3 weeks ago

2024-11-02

Ana Wong

Conservatives pick Kemi Badenoch as party leader

U.K. Conservatives pick Kemi Badenoch as their party's new leader

Britain’s Conservative Party elected outspoken MP Kemi Badenoch as its new leader on Saturday, making her the first woman of color to lead a major British political party.

She has promised to give the right-of-center Tories “renewal” by advocating for a smaller state and rejecting identity politics.

The new leader faces a daunting challenge in restoring the party’s reputation after years of division, scandal, and economic turbulence, hammering Labour Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s policies on key issues such as the economy and immigration and returning the Conservatives to power in the 2029 election.

“The task that stands before us is tough but simple,” Kemi Badenoch said in a victory address to a room full of Conservative legislators, staff, and journalists in London. She stated that the party’s role was to hold the Labour administration accountable while developing commitments and a government strategy.

Addressing the party’s electoral defeat, she stated, “We have to be honest — honest about the fact that we made mistakes, honest about the fact that we let standards slip.”

“The time has come to tell the truth, to stand up for our principles, to plan for our future, to reset our politics and our thinking, and to give our party, and our country, the new start that they deserve,” according to Badenoch.

Kemi Badenoch was Born in London

Kemi Badenoch, a business secretary in Sunak’s cabinet, was born in London to Nigerian parents and grew up in West Africa.

The former software engineer positions herself as a disruptor, advocating for a low-tax, free-market economy and promising to “rewire, reboot, and reprogram” the British state. Like her adversary Jenrick, she has opposed multiculturalism and advocated for decreased immigration, but unlike him, she has not asked that Britain abandon the European Convention on Human Rights.

Kemi Badenoch, a self-proclaimed hater of wokeness, opposes identity politics, gender-neutral toilets, and government initiatives to reduce carbon emissions in the United Kingdom. During the leadership race, she was chastised for claiming that “not all cultures are equally valid” and implying that maternity pay was excessive.

Tim Bale, a politics professor at Queen Mary University of London, predicted that under Badenoch, the Conservative Party would “swing to the right both in terms of its economic and social policies.”

He foretold that Badenoch will follow “what you might call the boats, boilers and bathrooms strategy …. focusing very much on the trans issue, the immigration issue and skepticism about progress towards net zero.”

Conservative Party Becoming More Diverse

While the Conservative Party is unrepresentative of the country as a whole, with a decreasing membership of 132,000 mostly affluent, elderly white men, its higher echelons have become significantly more diverse.

Badenoch is the Tories’ fourth female leader, following Margaret Thatcher, Theresa May, and Liz Truss, who became prime ministers.

She is the second Conservative leader of color, following Sunak, and the first with African heritage. The center-left Labour Party has a more diversified membership, but its leaders have always been white men.

In a more than three-month leadership contest, Conservative MPs narrowed the field from six to two in a series of votes before presenting the last two to a vote of the party’s membership.

Both finalists were from the party’s right-wing and claimed they could reclaim votes from Reform U.K., the hard-right, anti-immigrant group led by populist leader Nigel Farage that has eroded Conservative support.

However, the party lost many votes to the winning party, Labour, and the centrist Liberal Democrats, and some Conservatives are concerned that tacking right may move the party away from popular sentiment.

Kier Starmer’s Labor government has had a difficult first few months in power, plagued by unfavorable headlines, fiscal woes, and a sinking approval rating.

However, Bale stated that the historical record implies Badenoch’s chances of leading the Conservatives back to power in 2029 are slim.

“It’s quite unusual for someone to take over when a party gets very badly beaten and manage to lead it to election victory,” according to him. “However, Keir Starmer did just that after 2019. So there are records to break.”

Source: AP