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World

Nigeria floods: More than 600 killed in worst flooding in a decade

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CNN
 — 

The death toll from the worst flooding Nigeria has seen in a decade has passed 600 people, the country’s humanitarian affairs ministry tweeted on Sunday.

According to the ministry, more than 2 million people have been affected by flooding that has spread across parts of the country’s south after a particularly wet rainy season.

More than 200,000 homes have been completely or partially damaged, the ministry added.

Earlier this month, Nigeria’s National Emergency Management Agency warned of catastrophic flooding for states located along the courses of the Niger and Benue rivers, noting that three of Nigeria’s overfilled reservoirs were expected to overflow. NEMA said the release of excess water from a dam in neighboring Cameroon had contributed to the flooding.

While many parts of Nigeria are prone to yearly floods, flooding in certain areas has been more severe than the last major floods in 2012, a Red Cross official in Kogi told CNN last week.

NASA images show decimating reach of worst flood this region has seen in a decade

Nigeria’s Minister of Humanitarian Affairs Sadiya Umar Farouq warned Sunday that more flooding was likely and urged regional governments to prepare accordingly.

“We are calling on the respective State Governments, Local Government Councils and Communities to prepare for more flooding by evacuating people living on flood plains to high grounds, provide tents and relief materials, fresh water as well as medical supplies for a possible outbreak of water-borne diseases,” the ministry of humanitarian affairs said on Twitter Sunday.

The country will soon implement its National Flood Emergency Preparedness and Response Plan, aimed at improving coordination of the flood response efforts.

According to the ministry, “relief has gone to every state of the federation,” and “many state governments did not prepare for the floods.”

A delegation organized by the ministry will be visiting state governors across the country to suggest strengthening states’ flood response mechanisms.

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US

Ian lashes South Carolina as Florida’s death toll climbs

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CHARLESTON, S.C. (AP) — A revived Hurricane Ian pounded coastal South Carolina on Friday, ripping apart piers and flooding streets after the ferocious storm caused catastrophic damage in Florida, trapping thousands in their homes and leaving at least 17 people dead.

The Florida Department of Law Enforcement said the deaths included a 22-year-old woman ejected in an ATV rollover Friday because of a road washout and a 71-year-old man who died earlier of head injuries when he fell off a roof while putting up rain shutters. Many of the other deaths were drownings, including that of a 68-year-old woman swept into the ocean by a wave.

Another three people died in Cuba earlier in the week as the storm churned northward. The death toll was expected to increase substantially once emergency officials have an opportunity to search many of the hardest-hit areas.

Ian’s center came ashore near Georgetown, South Carolina, with much weaker winds than when it crossed Florida’s Gulf Coast on Wednesday as one of the strongest storms to ever hit the U.S. As Ian moved across South Carolina, it dropped from a hurricane to a post-tropical cyclone.

Sheets of rain whipped trees and power lines and left many areas on Charleston’s downtown peninsula under water. Parts of four piers along the coast, including two at Myrtle Beach, collapsed into the churning waves and washed away. Online cameras showed seawater filling neighborhoods in Garden City to calf level.

Ian left a broad swath of destruction in Florida, flooding areas on both of its coasts, tearing homes from their slabs, demolishing beachfront businesses and leaving more than 2 million people without power.

Rescue crews piloted boats and waded through riverine streets in Florida after the storm to save thousands of people trapped amid flooded homes and shattered buildings .

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said Friday that crews had gone door-to-door to over 3,000 homes in the hardest-hit areas.

“There’s really been a Herculean effort,” he said during a news conference in Tallahassee.

Officials fear the death toll could rise significantly, given the wide territory swamped by the storm.

Among those killed were an 80-year-old woman and a 94-year-old man who relied on oxygen machines that stopped working amid power outages, as well as a 67-year-old man who was waiting to be rescued and fell into rising water inside his home, authorities said.

Florida Division of Emergency Management Director Kevin Guthrie said first responders have focused so far on “hasty” searches, aimed at emergency rescues and initial assessments, which will be followed by two additional waves of searches. Initial responders who come across possible remains are leaving them without confirming, he said Friday, describing as an example the case of a submerged home.

“The water was up over the rooftop, right, but we had a Coast Guard rescue swimmer swim down into it and he could identify that it appeared to be human remains. We do not know exactly how many,” Guthrie said.

Desperate to locate and rescue their loved ones, social media users shared phone numbers, addresses and photos of their family members and friends online for anyone who can check on them.

Orlando residents returned to flooded homes Friday, rolling up their pants to wade through muddy, knee-high water in their streets. Friends of Ramon Rodriguez dropped off ice, bottled water and hot coffee at the entrance to his subdivision, where 10 of the 50 homes were flooded and the road looked like a lake. He had no power or food at his house, and his car was trapped by the water.

“There’s water everywhere,” Rodriguez said. “The situation here is pretty bad.”

University of Central Florida students living at an apartment complex near the Orlando campus arrived to retrieve

The devastating storm surge destroyed many older homes on the barrier island of Sanibel, Florida, and gouged crevices into its sand dunes. Taller condominium buildings were intact but with the bottom floor blown out. Trees and utility poles were strewn everywhere.

Municipal rescuers, private teams and the Coast Guard used boats and helicopters Friday to evacuate residents who stayed for the storm and then were cut off from the mainland when a causeway collapsed. Volunteers who went to the island on personal watercraft helped escort an elderly couple to an area where Coast Guard rescuers took them aboard a helicopter.

Hours after weakening to a tropical storm while crossing the Florida peninsula, Ian regained strength Thursday evening over the Atlantic. Ian made landfall in South Carolina with maximum sustained winds of 85 mph (140 kph). When it hit Florida’s Gulf Coast on Wednesday, it was a powerful Category 4 hurricane with 150 mph (240 kph).

After the heaviest of the rainfall blew through Charleston, Will Shalosky examined a large elm tree in front of his house that had fallen across his downtown street. He noted the damage could have been much worse.

“If this tree has fallen a different way, it would be in our house,” Shalosky said. “It’s pretty scary, pretty jarring.”

In North Carolina, heavy rain bands and winds crept into the state Friday afternoon. Gov. Roy Cooper warned residents to be vigilant, given that up to 8 inches (20.3 centimeters) of rain could fall in some areas, with high winds.

“Hurricane Ian is at our door. Expect drenching rain and sustained heavy winds over most of our state,” Cooper said. “Our message today is simple: Be smart and be safe.”

In Washington, President Joe Biden said he was directing “every possible action be taken to save lives and get help to survivors.”

“It’s going to take months, years to rebuild,” Biden said.

“I just want the people of Florida to know, we see what you’re going through and we’re with you.”

___

Gomez Licon reported from Punta Gorda, Florida; Associated Press contributors include Anthony Izaguirre in Tallahassee, Florida, Terry Spencer and Tim Reynolds in Fort Myers, Florida; Cody Jackson in Tampa, Florida; Freida Frisaro in Miami; Mike Schneider in Orlando, Florida; Seth Borenstein in Washington; Bobby Caina Calvan in New York, and Jeffrey Collins in Columbia, South Carolina.

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Science

China’s Mars rover finds hints of catastrophic floods

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China’s Zhurong rover has peered deep under the surface of Mars, finding evidence of two major floods that probably shaped the region the robot has been exploring since it landed in May 2021.

An analysis published in Nature today1 is the first result from Zhurong’s radar imager, which can probe up to 100 metres below the surface. “It is a very interesting paper, and I was particularly impressed by how deep they can see with this radar,” says Svein-Erik Hamran, a planetary scientist at the University of Oslo, who analysed the only previous data from ground-penetrating radar used on the planet, collected by NASA’s Perseverance rover.

The history of Zhurong’s landing site — on Utopia Planitia, vast plains in Mars’s northern hemisphere — has puzzled scientists. Some have theorized that water or ice was once a feature of the landscape. Observations from space have identified sedimentary deposits that suggest the region was once an ancient ocean or submerged by huge floods, and geological features, such as pitted cones, resemble structures formed by water or ice. In May, researchers analysed infrared images of the landing site taken by China’s Mars orbiter, Tianwen-1, and found hydrated minerals that could have formed when groundwater rose through the rock or ice melted.

But the region could have also been covered in lava, concealing some of these hydrological processes in the subsurface. Eruptions from the volcano Elysium Mons to the east of the landing site, or other volcanic activity, could have covered the region in magma, as has been observed in other parts of the Utopia basin. By studying the radar data, researchers hope to understand what happened, and whether water or ice could still be lurking below the rocks. “We want to know what is going on beneath the surface,” says study co-author Liu Yang, a planetary scientist at the National Space Science Center in Beijing.

Below the surface

Zhurong is China’s first rover on the red planet, and it has been exploring the southern part of Utopia Planitia. The rover’s ground-penetrating radar transmits high-frequency radio waves that can penetrate the surface to a depth of between 3 and 10 metres, and low-frequency waves that can reach up to 100 metres underground but offer poorer resolution. The study authors analysed low-frequency data taken between 25 May and 6 September over more than 1,100 metres of terrain as Zhurong travelled south of its landing site. Radar signals reflect off materials under the surface, revealing the size of their grains and their ability to hold an electric charge. Stronger signals typically indicate larger objects.

The radar did not find any evidence of liquid water down to 80 metres, but it did detect two horizontal layers with interesting patterns. In a layer between 10 and 30 metres deep, the team reports, the reflection signals strengthened with increasing depth. The researchers say this is probably due to larger boulders resting at the base of the layer, and smaller rocks settling on top. An older, thicker layer between 30 and 80 metres down showed a similar pattern.

The older layer is probably the result of rapid flooding that carried sediments to the region more than three billion years ago, when there was a lot of water activity on Mars, says co-author Chen Ling, a seismologist at the Institute of Geology and Geophysics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, in Beijing.

The upper layer could have been created by another flood some 1.6 billion years ago, when there was lots of glacial activity. Chen says it is unlikely that the upper layer contains intact lava flows, because it has a smaller ability to hold an electric charge than would be expected for intact volcanic rocks. Furthermore, the researchers didn’t see any sudden changes in layering, which would be expected when lava flows meet sedimentary material.

Volcanic or sedimentary?

But, Chen says, it is possible that a thin coat of lava once covered the upper layer and it has gradually been broken down into smaller pieces. Radar data alone cannot definitively reveal whether material is sedimentary or volcanic, says Xu Yi, a planetary scientist at Macau University of Science and Technology.

Radar data are good at indicating the layering and geometry of subsurface material, but not so good at pinpointing its composition, including whether the material is ice or rock, says Hamran. Often, researchers rely on other clues, such as rocks peering out from the surface, to build a picture of past events, he says. The authors say they can’t rule out the possibility that the region contains buried saline ice.

More radar results are expected from the mission, including data taken during Zhurong’s continued traverse of Mars, results from the high-frequency radar measurements already made, and Tianwen-1’s orbital radar observations, which penetrate deep into the planet. They could help to clarify details of the terrain. “This is only the first step,” say Ling.

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World

Fiona swipes Turks and Caicos, Puerto Rico faces big cleanup

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CAYEY, Puerto Rico (AP) — Hurricane Fiona blasted the Turks and Caicos Islands on Tuesday as a Category 3 storm after devastating Puerto Rico, where most people remained without electricity or running water and rescuers used heavy equipment to lift survivors to safety.

The storm’s eye passed close to Grand Turk, the small British territory’s capital island, on Tuesday morning after the government imposed a curfew and urged people to flee flood-prone areas. Storm surge could raise water levels there by as much as 5 to 8 feet above normal, according to the U.S. National Hurricane Center.

Late Tuesday afternoon, the storm was centered about 75 miles (120 kilometers) north of North Caicos Island, with hurricane-force winds extending up to 30 miles (45 kilometers) from the center.

Premier Washington Misick urged people to evacuate. “Storms are unpredictable,” he said in a statement from London, where he had attended the funeral of Queen Elizabeth II. “You must therefore take every precaution to ensure your safety.”

Fiona had maximum sustained winds of 125 mph (205 kph) and was moving north-northwest at 8 mph (13 kph), according to the Hurricane Center, which said the storm was likely to strengthen into a Category 4 hurricane as it approaches Bermuda on Friday.

Rain was still lashing parts of Puerto Rico Tuesday, where the sounds of people scraping, sweeping and spraying their homes and streets echoed across rural areas as historic floodwaters began to recede.

In the central mountain town of Cayey, where the Plato River burst its banks and the brown torrent of water consumed cars and homes, overturned dressers, beds and large refrigerators lay strewn in people’s yards Tuesday.

“Puerto Rico is not prepared for this, or for anything,” said Mariangy Hernández, a 48-year-old housewife, who said she doubted the government would help her community of some 300 in the long term, despite ongoing efforts to clear the streets and restore power. “This is only for a couple of days and later they forget about us.”

She and her husband were stuck in line waiting for the National Guard to clear a landslide in their hilly neighborhood.

“Is it open? Is it open?” one driver asked, worried that the road might have been completely closed.

Other drivers asked the National Guard if they could swing by their homes to help cut trees or clear clumps of mud and debris.

The cleanup efforts occurred on the fifth anniversary of Hurricane Maria, which hit as a Category 4 storm in 2017 and knocked out power for a year in parts of Cayey.

Jeannette Soto, a 34-year-old manicurist, worried it would take a long time for crews to restore power because a landslide swept away the neighborhood’s main light post.

“It’s the first time this happens,” she said of the landslides. “We didn’t think the magnitude of the rain was going to be so great.”

Gov. Pedro Pierluisi requested a major disaster declaration on Tuesday and said it would be at least a week before authorities have an estimate of the damage that Fiona caused.

He said the damage caused by the rain was “catastrophic,” especially in the island’s central, south and southeast regions.

“The impact caused by the hurricane has been devastating for many people,” he said.

The head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency traveled to Puerto Rico on Tuesday as the agency announced it was sending hundreds of additional personnel to boost local response efforts.

Meanwhile, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services declared a public health emergency on the island and deployed a couple of teams to the U.S. territory.

The broad storm kept dropping copious rain over the Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico, where a 58-year-old man died after police said he was swept away by a river in the central mountain town of Comerio.

Another death was linked to a power blackout — a 70-year-old man was burned to death after he tried to fill his generator with gasoline while it was running, officials said.

Parts of the island had received more than 25 inches (64 centimeters) of rain and more was falling Tuesday.

National Guard Brig. Gen. Narciso Cruz described the flooding as historic.

“There were communities that flooded in the storm that didn’t flood under Maria,” he said, referring to the 2017 hurricane that caused nearly 3,000 deaths. “I’ve never seen anything like this.”

Cruz said 670 people have been rescued in Puerto Rico, including 19 people at a retirement home in Cayey that was in danger of collapsing.

“The rivers broke their banks and blanketed communities,” he said.

Some people were rescued via kayaks and boats while others nestled into the massive shovel of a digger and were lifted to higher ground.

He lamented that some people initially refused to leave their homes, adding that he understood why.

“It’s human nature,” he said. “But when they saw their lives were in danger, they agreed to leave.”

The blow from Fiona was made more devastating because Puerto Rico has yet to recover from Hurricane Maria, which destroyed the power grid in 2017. Five years later, more than 3,000 homes on the island are still covered by blue tarps.

U.S. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said Tuesday he would push for the federal government to cover 100% of disaster response costs — instead of the usual 75% — as part of an emergency disaster declaration.

“We need to make sure this time, Puerto Rico has absolutely everything it needs, as soon as possible, for as long as they need it,” he said.

Authorities said Tuesday that at least 1,220 people and more than 70 pets remained in shelters across the island.

Fiona triggered a blackout when it hit Puerto Rico’s southwest corner on Sunday, the anniversary of Hurricane Hugo, which slammed into the island in 1989 as a Category 3 storm.

By Tuesday morning, authorities said they had restored power to nearly 300,000 of the island’s 1.47 million customers. Puerto Rico’s governor warned it could take days before everyone has electricity.

Water service was cut to more than 760,000 customers — two thirds of the total on the island — because of turbid water at filtration plants or lack of power, officials said.

Fiona was forecast to weaken before running into easternmost Canada over the weekend. It was not expected to threaten the U.S. mainland.

In the Dominican Republic, authorities reported two deaths: a 68-year-old man hit by a falling tree and an 18-year-old girl who was struck by a falling electrical post while riding a motorcycle. The storm forced more than 1,550 people to seek safety in government shelters and left more than 406,500 homes without power.

The hurricane left several highways blocked, and a tourist pier in the town of Miches was badly damaged by high waves. At least four international airports were closed, officials said.

The Dominican president, Luis Abinader, said authorities would need several days to assess the storm’s effects.

Fiona previously battered the eastern Caribbean, killing one man in the French territory of Guadeloupe when floodwaters washed his home away, officials said.

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Associated Press reporters Martín Adames in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, and Maricarmen Rivera Sánchez in San Juan, Puerto Rico, contributed.

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Technology

Mega ‘GTA 6’ Leak Floods the Internet With Gameplay Footage and Screenshots

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In what could be one of the biggest gaming bombshells of all time, Rockstar Games’ upcoming GTA 6 has suffered a major leak, revealing footage of an early build of the release and loads of unfinished gameplay. While this new leak seems to confirm certain previously rumoured elements, it also does dampen all the surprises the developers had in store for players. Grand Theft Auto 6 is among the most hyped and talked about video games on the planet, with speculation over the plot, characters and release date brewing long before its existence was even confirmed.

RELATED: Grand Theft Auto VI’ Confirmed by Rockstar Games

Image: Rockstar Games

Rockstar Games has been extremely secretive about the whole project and until recently there was almost nothing we knew or had seen of the game, but that has now completely changed, all thanks to more than 90 videos and screenshots that surfaced on GTA Forums. Recently, a user going by the name of ‘teapotuberhacker’ uploaded an overwhelming amount of GTA 6 footage to the forum, which they argued was from a test build of Grand Theft Auto 6, running with “GTA 5 and 6 source code and assets”.

The leaked screenshots and video footage have already taken over YouTube, Twitter, Reddit, and other social media forums, and align with some previous information from past GTA 6 leaks, such as the game having multiple playable characters, including a female protagonist, and the location which seems to be a Miami-like Vice City. Bloomberg reporter Jason Schreier substantiated the authenticity of the leaked clips and photos, saying, “Not that there was much doubt, but I’ve confirmed with Rockstar sources that this weekend’s massive Grand Theft Auto VI leak is indeed real. The footage is early and unfinished, of course. This is one of the biggest leaks in video game history and a nightmare for Rockstar Games”.

Image: Rockstar Games

Despite several sources claiming the videos were real, the internet was divided on the authenticity of the clips. However, just days later, the actual confirmation came with Rockstar Games officially taking to Twitter to share its disappointment in the reveal.

“We recently suffered a network intrusion in which an unauthorised third party illegally accessed and downloaded confidential information from our systems, including early development footage for the next Grand Theft Auto,” Rockstar Games confirmed on Twitter. “At this time, we do not anticipate any disruption to our live game services not any long-term effect on the development of our ongoing projects.”

“We are extremely disappointed to have any details of our next game shared with you all in this way. Our work on the next Grand Theft Auto game will continue as planned and we remain as committed as ever to delivering an experience to you, our players, that truly exceeds your expectations, We will update everyone again soon and, of course, will properly introduce you to this next game when it is ready. We want to thank everyone for their ongoing support through this situation.”

Image: Rockstar Games

In one of the leaked videos, we can see a playable female character named Lucia looting a restaurant and taking NPCs as captives. Since the footage is from an early build of the game, you can see an abundance of placeholder texts such as ‘Time Until Cops Dispatched’, and dialogue texts like “Jason: GENERIC_CURSE_TO_SELF.” In yet another video, we see a playable character on the “Vice City Metro” train, which appears to verify the information that the game will take place in a fictionalised rendition of Miami. There’s another clip showing a poolside conversation where we hear dialogue like, “Oh yeah, he’s dead, is he? Just like there’s a country called Finland.” Other clips also reveal gunplay along with fleeing from Vice City police.

Take-Two Interactive already has begun filing takedown requests for a lot of GTA 6 videos uploaded on YouTube, with many videos now reading, “This video is no longer available due to a copyright claim by Take-Two Interactive.” However, there are still a few that remain online.

All the leaked videos and images are clearly from an alpha build of the game and it seems like an unfinished development build used for testing some facets of the game by the devs. While we don’t have any idea or confirmation as to how old this footage is or how far along Rockstar is in development, GTA 6 is still a way off and probably won’t be out before late 2024 or early 2025. However, these newly leaked videos and screenshots do confirm a wide array of information surrounding the game’s location and characters.

Did you love this story on Grand Theft VI? Check out some of our other recent GTA 6 coverage:

CONTRIBUTOR

Shubhendu Vatsa

Shubhendu Vatsa is an experienced reporter specialising in video game, eSports and technology coverage. A BTech IT graduate, Shubhendu has previously written for entertainment-based publications such as GiveMeSport, Touch, Tap, Play, Attack of the Fanboy, EssentiallySports, Twinfinite and The Load Out.



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World

Ancient skeleton found in Mexico cave threatened by train

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MEXICO CITY (AP) — A prehistoric human skeleton has been found in a cave system that was flooded at the end of the last ice age 8,000 years ago, according to a cave-diving archaeologist on Mexico’s Caribbean coast.

Archaeologist Octavio del Rio said he and fellow diver Peter Broger saw the shattered skull and skeleton partly covered by sediment in a cave near where the Mexican government plans to build a high-speed tourist train through the jungle.

Given the distance from the cave entrance, the skeleton couldn’t have gotten there without modern diving equipment, so it must be over 8,000 years old, Del Rio said, referring to the era when rising sea levels flooded the caves.

“There it is. We don’t know if the body was deposited there or if that was where this person died,” said Del Rio. He said that the skeleton was located about 8 meters (26 feet) underwater, about a half-kilometer (one third of a mile) into the cave system.

Some of the oldest human remains in North America have been discovered in the sinkhole caves known as “cenotes” on the country’s Caribbean coast, and experts say some of those caves are threatened by the Mexican government’s Maya Train tourism project.

Del Rio, who has worked with the National Institute of Anthropology and History on projects in the past, said he had notified the institute of the discovery. The institute did not immediately respond to questions about whether it intended to explore the site.

But Del Rio said Tuesday that institute archaeologist Carmen Rojas told him that the site was registered and would be investigated by the institute’s Quintana Roo state branch Holocene Archaeology Project.

He stressed that the cave — whose location he did not reveal because of a fear the site could be looted or disturbed — was near where the government has cut down a swath of jungle to lay train tracks, and could be collapsed, contaminated or closed off by the building project and subsequent development.

“There is a lot more study that has to be done in order to correctly interpret” the find, Del Rio said, noting that “dating, some kind of photographic studies and some collection” would be needed to determine exactly how old the skeleton is.

Del Rio has been exploring the region for three decades, and in 2002, he participated in the discovery and cataloguing of remains known as The Woman of Naharon, who died around the same time, or perhaps earlier, than Naia — the nearly complete skeleton of a young woman who died around 13,000 years ago. It was discovered in a nearby cave system in 2007.

President Andrés Manuel López Obrador is racing to finish his Maya Train project in the remaining two years of his term over the objections of environmentalists, cave divers and archaeologists. They say his haste will allow little time to study the ancient remains.

Activists say the heavy, high-speed rail project will fragment the coastal jungle and will run often above the fragile limestone caves, which — because they’re flooded, twisty and often incredibly narrow — can take decades to explore.

Caves along part of the coast already have been damaged by construction above them, with cement pilings used to support the weight above.

The 950-mile (1,500-kilometer) Maya Train line is meant to run in a rough loop around the Yucatan Peninsula, connecting beach resorts and archaeological sites.

The most controversial stretch cuts a more than 68-mile (110-kilometer) swath through the jungle between the resorts of Cancun and Tulum.

Del Rio said the route through the jungle should be abandoned and the train should be built over the already-impacted coastal highway between Cancun and Tulum, as was originally planned.

López Obrador abandoned the highway route after hotel owners voiced objections, and cost and traffic interruptions became a concern.

“What we want is for them to change to route at this spot, because of the archaeological finds that have been made there, and their importance,” said Del Rio. “They should take the train away from there and put it where they said they were going to build before, on the highway … an area that has already been affected, devastated.”

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US

Heat wave breaks in Southern California with spotty rain

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SAN DIEGO — Southern Californians welcomed cooler temperatures and spotty rain Saturday from a tropical storm veering off the Pacific Coast days after a relentless heat wave nearly overwhelmed the state’s electrical grid.

Officials braced for flooding in coastal and mountain areas from the storm and feared powerful winds could expand the massive Fairview Fire about 75 miles (121 kilometers) southeast of Los Angeles. But minimal flooding was reported early Saturday and crews made significant progress on the fire and said they expected full containment on Monday. More than 10,000 homes and other structures have been threatened by the blaze.

The National Weather Service forecast an end to the grueling heat wave in the Los Angeles area Saturday though heat and wind advisories remained in effect through the evening, and warned of possible flooding in mountain areas and some beach communities.

In San Diego County, inland areas such as Mt. Laguna and Julian received several inches of rain from the storm while coastal communities got less than an inch, the National Weather Service reported.

Hurricane Kay made landfall near Mexico’s Bahia Asuncion in Baja California Sur state Thursday, but it quickly weakened into a tropical storm by the time it reached Southern California. The tropical conditions added a swelter to the heat wave that saw temperatures soar past 100 degrees Fahrenheit (38 degrees Celsius) in many parts of California this week.

Some residents welcomed the respite from unusually high temperatures.

“The heat was killer, so for now this feels good,” Charles Jenkins said as rain fell Friday in San Diego.

With flooding possible, officials in coastal cities posted warning signs in low-lying areas and made sandbags available to the public. In the Orange County community of Seal Beach, a beach parking lot experienced minor flooding Friday from the high tide, police said.

September already has produced one of the hottest and longest heat waves on record for California and some other Western states. Nearly 54 million people were under heat warnings and advisories across the region this week as temperature records were shattered in many areas.

California’s state capital of Sacramento hit an all-time high Tuesday of 116 degrees (46.7 C), breaking a 97-year-old record. Salt Lake City tied its all-time high temperature Wednesday at 107 degrees (41.6 C).

On Tuesday, as air conditioners whirred amid the stifling heat, California set a record for power consumption and authorities nearly instituted rolling blackouts when the electrical grid capacity was at its breaking point.

Scientists say climate change has made the West warmer and drier over the last three decades and will continue to make weather more extreme and wildfires more frequent and destructive. In the last five years, California has experienced the largest and most destructive fires in state history.

While firefighters made progress against the Fairview Fire, the fast-moving Mosquito Fire in the foothills east of Sacramento doubled in size Friday to at least 46 square miles (119 square kilometers) and threatened 3,600 homes in Placer and El Dorado counties, while blanketing the region in smoke.

Flames jumped the American River, burning structures in the mountain hamlet of Volcanoville and moving closer to the towns of Foresthill, home to about 1,500 people, and Georgetown, population 3,000. More than 5,700 people in the area have been evacuated, said Placer County Sheriff’s Office Lt. Josh Barnhart.

David Hance slept on the porch of his mother’s Foresthill mobile home when he woke up to a glowing red sky early Wednesday morning and was ordered to evacuate.

“It was actually fricking terrifying, cause they say, ‘Oh yeah, it’s coming closer,’” he said. “It was like sunset in the middle of the night.”

Hance left behind most of his electronic gear, all his clothing and family photos and fled to Auburn, where he found his mother, Linda Hance, who said the biggest stress is wondering: “Is my house still there?”

Organizers of the Tour de Tahoe announced Friday they were canceling the annual 72-mile (115-km) bicycle ride scheduled Sunday around Lake Tahoe because of the heavy smoke from the blaze — more than 50 miles (80 km) away — and noted that cycling is a “heavy cardio activity that does not pair well with terrible air quality.” Last year’s ride was canceled due to smoke from another big fire south of Tahoe.

The Mosquito Fire’s cause remained under investigation. Pacific Gas & Electric said unspecified “electrical activity” occurred close in time to the report of the fire on Tuesday.

————

Antczak reported from Los Angeles. Associated Press writers Stefanie Dazio and Christopher Weber in Los Angeles, Noah Berger in Auburn, California, Scott Sonner in Reno, Nevada, and Gillian Flaccus in Portland, Oregon, contributed to this report.

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US

Floods, dangerous surf forecast for California from Hurricane Kay

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The remnants of Hurricane Kay are just a day away from bringing significant rainfall to parched areas of Southern California and southwest Arizona — but the downpours may end up being too much of a good thing.

Forecasters say areas of flash flooding are probable in the region Friday through Sunday. The interior mountains of Southern California could see up to 5 inches of rain, an exceptional amount.

“Confidence remains high for a significant rainfall event across this region,” the National Weather Service said in an online discussion Thursday.

The storm’s remnants could also bring gusty winds and dangerous surf conditions to coastal areas of Southern California.

A Category 1 hurricane with 85 mph winds, Kay is expected to make landfall on the west-central coast of Baja California in Mexico Thursday evening. The storm is weakening and forecast to be downgraded to a tropical storm on Friday.

Blamed for at least three deaths over Baja California, Kay continues to be a major rain-producer.

The storm is projected to bring 6 to 10 inches of rain to much of the peninsula, with localized amounts of up to 15 inches. Near the coast, Kay is expected to whip up large waves and dangerous rip currents, with a damaging storm surge, or rise in ocean water above normally dry land, possible as well.

Tropical storm warnings have been hoisted for the entirety of Baja California’s coastline, even on its eastern side, which rests on the Gulf of California. This is because Kay is a large hurricane; tropical-storm-force winds (39-plus mph) extend up to 230 miles from its center, while hurricane-force winds (74-plus mph) extend 35 miles from the center.

Effects on the Southwest United States

Kay is expected to further weaken and bend away from the Mexican coast as it gets closer to bone-dry Southern California. Still, winds from the southwest will drag Kay’s moisture into the region, first bringing with it cloud cover that will help to end the prolonged, record-setting heat wave.

Driest, wettest, hottest: Sacramento’s troubling trifecta of extremes

The hurricane’s remnants will also carry unusual amounts of moisture that could help ameliorate the ongoing drought across Southern California. Some thunderstorms associated with Kay have already started rumbling near Riverside, Calif., bringing isolated heavy rain and lightning.

Although the rain is needed, the National Weather Service is cautioning that Kay’s arrival will not be without its dangers.

“Despite those positives, it’s never a good thing to get too much rain all at once, a trait all too common among slow-moving tropical storms,” the Weather Service wrote.

Hurricanes are moving more slowly — which makes them even more dangerous

Precipitable water, a measure of atmospheric moisture, is forecast to be over 2 inches across parts of Southern California by late Friday. That is five standard deviations above the norm for the region at this time of year, meaning it is very rare.

Flash flooding is most likely in narrow slot canyons, in urbanized areas like San Diego, Palm Springs, Calif., and Yuma, Ariz., and over burn scars, where fire has stripped away vegetation and water tends to rapidly run off rather than soaking into the ground.

Flood watches have been hoisted from central Southern California into western Arizona, and the Weather Service has placed a large swath of Southern California and an increasing portion of southwestern Arizona in the slight- to moderate-risk zone for flash flooding from Friday to Saturday morning.

Rainfall amounts of more than 2 inches are likely in the zone covered by the flood watch, with up to 4 or 5 inches possible on the east slopes of mountains, where winds from the east will intensify the precipitation.

In San Diego, an inch or less of rain is expected, mostly falling Friday into Saturday morning. But, being along the coast will bring a separate set of hazards. The Weather Service is warning of dangerous rip currents and an elevated surf of 3 to 6 feet, along with the possibility of gusty winds up to 40 miles per hour.

In Los Angeles, the Weather Service predicts 0.25 to 0.75 inches of rain, with 1 to 2 inches in the mountains to its east, mostly falling Friday night into Saturday.

Some beneficial rain could reach as far north as the southern San Joaquin Valley before precipitation gradually dissipates on Sunday.

While Kay won’t come close to making landfall in California, it will still bring strong winds on Friday that will enhance the local fire danger. Gusts on the Laguna Mountains east of San Diego could exceed 70 mph, which will help feed any blazes.

Thunderstorms could also bring dangerous cloud-to-ground lightning that could ignite wildfires in the region — though any downpours from Kay may help quash some of them.

Kay is not the first tropical system to affect California, but such occurrences in the state are fairly rare. They typically originate from the remnants of tropical storms and hurricanes, as is the case with Kay, rather than direct strikes.

No named system has ever made landfall in California, though an unnamed storm in 1939 crossed the coast around Long Beach, bringing tropical storm conditions.

California’s most notable encounter with a tropical system was probably in 1976 when Tropical Storm Kathleen, previously a hurricane over the ocean, entered south-central California from Mexico. Kathleen unleashed a maximum rainfall of nearly 15 inches, a state record. The storm caused severe damage in Ocotillo, Calif., and was blamed for 12 deaths in the United States.

Jason Samenow contributed to this report.



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Pakistan’s hope as lake fills: Flood villages to save a city

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ISLAMABAD (AP) — Pakistani engineers cut into an embankment for one of the country’s largest lakes on Sunday to release rising waters in the hopes of saving a nearby city and town from flooding as officials predicted more monsoon rain was on the way for the country’s already devastated south.

While officials hope the cut in the sides of Lake Manchar will protect about half a million people who live in the city of Sehwan and the town of Bhan Saeedabad, villages that are home to 150,000 people are in the path of the diverted waters. The hometown of Sindh province’s chief minister was among the affected villages, whose residents were warned to evacuate ahead of time, according to the provincial information minister.

More than 1,300 people have died and millions have lost their homes in flooding caused by unusually heavy monsoon rains in Pakistan this year that many experts have blamed on climate change. In response to the unfolding disaster, U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres last week called on the world to stop “sleepwalking” through the crisis. He plans to visit flood-hit areas on Sept. 9.

Several countries have flown in supplies, but the Pakistani government has pleaded for even more help, faced with the enormous task of feeding and housing those affected, as well as protecting them from waterborne diseases.

While floods have touched much of the country, Sindh province has been the most affected.

With meteorologists predicting more rain in the coming days, including around Sindh’s Lake Manchar, and its level already rising, authorities ordered that water be released from it. Sindh’s chief minister, Murad Ali Shah, made the call even though his own village could be flooded, said Sharjil Inam Memon, the provincial information minister. The government helped residents of the villages in the waters’ path to evacuate ahead of time, said Memon.

The hope was that the water, once released, would flow into the nearby Indus River, but the lake’s level continued to rise even after the cut was made, according to Fariduddin Mustafa, administrator for Jamshoro district, where the affected villages are located. Authorities have also warned residents of neighboring Dadu district that they might be at risk of more flooding in coming days.

While the release valve was created in one area, army engineers worked elsewhere to reinforce the banks of Lake Manchar, which is the largest natural freshwater lake in Pakistan and one of the largest in Asia.

In its latest report, Pakistan’s National Disaster Management Authority put the death toll since mid-June — when monsoon rains started weeks earlier than is typical — at 1,314, as more fatalities were reported from flood-affected areas of Sindh, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Baluchistan provinces. The report said 458 children were among the dead.

Rescue operations continued Sunday with troops and volunteers using helicopters and boats to get people stranded out of flooded areas to relief camps, the authority said. Tens of thousands of people are already living in such camps, and thousands more have taken shelter on roadsides on higher ground.

Hira Ikram, a physician at a camp established by Britain’s Islamic Mission in Sukkur charity, said many people had scabies, gastrointestinal infections and fevers.

Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif, who is visiting flood-affected areas and relief camps daily, called for more international help Sunday.

“With over 400 (children) dead they make up one third of overall death toll. Now they are at even greater risk of water borne diseases, UNICEF and other global agencies should help,” he tweeted.

UNICEF, in fact, delivered tons of medicine, medical supplies, water purifying tablets and nutritional supplements to Pakistan on Sunday.

Alkidmat Foundation, a welfare organization, said its volunteers used boats to deliver ready-to-eat meals and other help for residents as well as animal feed on a small island in the Indus. The group also distributed food and items needed by those living by the roadside.

In the country’s northwest, in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, the provincial disaster management authority warned of more rains, possible flash floods and landslides in the coming week in Malakand and Hazara districts. Taimur Khan, spokesman for the authority, urged residents Sunday not to go to any of the areas already flooded in recent weeks.

According to initial government estimates, the devastation has caused $10 billion in damage, but Planning Minister Ahsan Iqbal said Saturday “the scale of devastation is massive and requires an immense humanitarian response for 33 million people.”

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Associated Press journalists Mohammad Farooq in Sukkur, Pakistan; Asim Tanveer in Multan, Pakistan, and Riaz Khan in Peshawar, Pakistan, contributed to this report.

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Pakistan authorities breach lake to save other areas from floods | Pakistan

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Authorities in flood-hit Pakistan have breached the country’s largest freshwater lake, displacing up to 100,000 people from their homes but saving more densely populated areas from gathering flood water, a minister said.

Record monsoon rains and melting glaciers in Pakistan’s northern mountains have brought floods that have affected 33 million people and killed at least 1,290, including 453 children. The inundation, blamed on climate breakdown, is still spreading.

Lake Manchar, which is used for water storage, had already reached dangerous levels and the increased pressure posed a threat to surrounding areas in southern Sindh province, said the region’s irrigation minister, Jam Khan Shoro.

He said about 100,000 people would be affected by the breach but it would help save more populated clusters and also reduce water levels in other, harder-hit areas.

“By inflicting the breach we have tried to save Sehwan town. Water levels on Johi and Mehar towns in Dadu district would be reduced by this breach in the lake,” Shoro told Reuters.

It was not clear how many of the 100,000 asked to leave their homes would actually do so.

Some displaced by the floods have complained that shelters are crowded, while others are reluctant to leave their possessions.

Aside from historic rainfall, southern Pakistan has had to contend with increased flooding as a surge of water flowed down the Indus River.

The country has already received nearly three times the 30-year average rainfall in the quarter through August, totalling 390.7mm (15.38in). Sindh province, with a population of 50 million, was hardest hit, getting 464% more rain than the 30-year average.

Being downstream on the Indus River, the southern parts of the country have experienced swelling river waters flowing from the north. Pakistan’s limited dams and reservoirs are already overflowing and cannot be used to stop downstream flows.

Tarbela dam in the north-west has been at capacity – 1,550ft and 5.8m acre ft – for weeks, according to National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) data. Downstream in Sindh, barrages are under pressure with the Indus at high flood level, the NDMA said in its latest situation report.

Authorities are also prepared for more rain in the north over the next few days until Tuesday. “Pakistan Meteorological Department (PMD) has forecasted that weak monsoon currents from Arabian Sea are penetrating upper and central parts of the country which subsequently cause rain-wind/thundershowers,” the NDMA said.

It cautioned local administrations to be on an enhanced state of alert and to restrict vehicle movement in areas prone to flash floods and landslides as well as those close to water channels.

It said some populations in the north could be at risk and advised “timely evacuation”.

The overnight death toll from the floods increased by 25, of which 12 were children, according to an NDMA update. The United Nations children’s agency, Unicef, said there was a risk of “many more” child deaths from disease.

Pakistan’s prime minister, Shehbaz Sharif, on Sunday appealed to Unicef and other global agencies to help control child deaths. “As Pakistan battles one of the worst climate-induced calamities, among the most adversely affected are children,” Sharif tweeted.

On Sunday, flights carrying aid from Unicef, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates landed in Pakistan.



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