BARCELONA, Spain (AP) — Three stowaways were found on a ship’s rudder in the Canary Islands after an 11-day ocean voyage from Nigeria, Spain’s maritime rescue service said.
The men found on the Alithini II oil tanker at the Las Palmas port on Monday afternoon appeared to have symptoms of dehydration and hypothermia and were transferred to hospitals on the island for medical attention, according to Spain’s Maritime Safety and Rescue Society.
The survivors were all from Nigeria, the Spanish government’s delegation in the Canary Islands told The Associated Press. One of them remained hospitalized Tuesday.
The maritime rescue agency, known in Spain as Salvamento Marítimo. shared a photo of the three men sitting on top of the rudder under the ship’s massive hull with their feet hanging only a few centimeters (inches) from the water.
According to the MarineTraffic tracking website, the Malta-flagged vessel left Lagos, Nigeria on Nov. 17 and arrived in Las Palmas on Monday. The distance between the ports is roughly 4,600 kilometers (2,800 miles).
Other people were previously discovered clinging to rudders while risking their lives to reach the Spanish islands located off northwest Africa. Salvamento Maritimo has dealt with six similar cases in the last two years, according to Sofía Hernández who heads the service’s coordination center in Las Palmas.
Migrants may seek cover inside the box-like structure around the rudder, Hernández explained, but are still vulnerable to bad weather and rough seas. “It is very dangerous,” she told the AP.
A ship’s fluctuating draft level – the vertical distance between the waterline and the bottom of the hull- is another hazard for such stowaways. The levels vary depending on the weight of the cargo onboard.
“We are talking about several meters difference. This part could have been perfectly submerged in the water,” Hernández said.
In 2020 14-year-old Nigerian boy was interviewed by Spain’s El País newspaper after surviving two weeks on a ship’s rudder. He had also departed from Lagos.
“It’s not the first time nor will it be the last,” tweeted Txema Santana, a journalist and migration advisor to the regional government of the Canary Islands.
In cases like these, the ship owner is responsible for bringing the stowaways back to their point of departure, according to the Spanish government delegation in the islands.
Thousands of migrants and refugees from North and West Africa have reached the Canary Islands irregularly in recent years. Most make the dangerous Atlantic crossing on crowded boats after departing from the coast of Morocco, the Western Sahara, Mauritania and even Senegal.
More than 11,600 people have reached the Spanish islands by boat so far this year, according to figures released by Spain’s Interior Ministry.
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SYDNEY, Nov 22 (Reuters) – Authorities in the Solomon Islands said no tsunami warning would be issued after two earthquakes on Tuesday afternoon, including one with a magnitude of 7.0 just off the southwest coast.
The first quake hit at a depth of 15 km (9 miles), about 16 km (10 miles) southwest of the area of Malango, said the United States Geological Survey, which had initially put its magnitude at 7.3.
A second quake, with a magnitude of 6.0, struck nearby 30 minutes later.
The Solomon Islands Meteorological Service said there is no tsunami threat to the country, but warned about unusual sea currents in coastal areas.
“People are also advised to be vigilant as aftershocks are expected to continue,” an employee said on social media.
Widespread power outages are being reported across the island and the Solomon Islands Broadcasting said in a statement on Facebook that all radio services were off air.
The National Disaster Management Office said it has received reports that people felt the quake but are waiting for reports of damage.
“People in Honiara moved up to higher ground in the minutes after the earthquake but some have now moved down,” an official told Reuters by phone.
Seismology Fiji said the quake did not pose an immediate tsunami threat to the archipelago nation roughly 2,000 km to the southeast.
Reporting by Kirsty Needham in Sydney and Akanksha Khushi in Bengaluru;
Writing by Alasdair Pal and Lewis Jackson
Editing by Tom Hogue
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
A tsunami warning was issued after a magnitude 7.0 earthquake struck off the coast of Solomon Islands on Tuesday, the United States Geological Survey said.
The US tsunami warning system said waves between 30cm and one metre could hit Solomon Islands, with waves of up to 30cm possible for Papua New Guinea and Vanuatu.
The office of the Solomon Islands prime minister advised people to move to higher ground, but stressed that no major damage to buildings in the capital Honiara had been reported.
The quake near Malango was shallow, with a depth of 10km, the USGS said.
People reported violent shaking that threw televisions and other items to the ground.
Freelance journalist Charley Piringi said he was standing outside a warehouse next to a primary and a secondary school on the outskirts of the capital, Honiara, when the quake struck, sending the children running.
“The earthquake rocked the place,” he said. “It was a huge one. We were all shocked, and everyone is running everywhere.”
A Twitter account that appeared to belong to the attorney general posted images of offices strewn with files and papers after the earthquake hit.
Honiara got rocked by m7.0 earthquake. pic.twitter.com/CZk6JCbAeY
— John Muria (Jnr) 🇸🇧 (@Jnr_Muria) November 22, 2022
“This was a big one,” Joy Nisha, a receptionist at the Heritage Park Hotel in Honiara, told the AFP news agency. “Some of the things in the hotel fell. Everyone seems OK, but panicky.”
An AFP reporter in the capital said the shaking lasted for about 20 seconds.
Power was out in some areas of the city and people were leaving their offices and fleeing to higher ground.
This is a developing story, please check back for updates.
Hundreds of pilot whales washed up on the remote shores of New Zealand’s Chatham Islands in two separate “mass stranding” events that occurred just days apart and deeply “affected” the people who live there, officials said.
Some 230 whales became stranded — or beached — northwest of Chatham Island on Friday, and 245 more washed up on Pitt Island, south of the archipelago, on Monday, the New Zealand Department of Conservation said.
Many of the whales were already dead, but the remaining ones had to be euthanized to minimize their suffering because they could not be put back into the water, the department added. That operation ended Wednesday, it said.
“This is a sad event for the team and the community,” Dave Lundquist, a technical adviser to the conservation department, said in a statement, adding that representatives of tribes that inhabit Chatham Island “were present to support” the department’s efforts. “Many people” were “affected” by the terrible scenes, he said.
Some 200 whales died just two weeks ago after stranding themselves on the west coast of Tasmania, an Australian island southeast of the mainland.
Efforts to save the whales that were not already dead when they washed up on the Chatham Islands were made more difficult by the archipelago’s remote location and the predators roaming the waters that surround it, the department said.
“We do not actively refloat whales on the Chatham Islands due to the risk of shark attack to humans and the whales themselves, so euthanasia was the kindest option,” Lundquist said.
Rescuers save dozens of whales after hundreds die on shores of Tasmania
Experts don’t always know why whales wash up on land, but it’s a relatively common occurrence that can also affect other marine animals such as dolphins. A “mass stranding” involves at least two animals, unless it involves a mother and calf. Pilot whales in particular are “prolific stranders,” according to the conservation department.
The largest mass stranding recorded on the Chatham Islands involved nearly 1,000 whales and happened more than 100 years ago, the department said.
The archipelago is extremely remote — it takes about two hours to fly from New Zealand’s capital, Wellington, to Chatham Islands Tuuta Airport — and “limited communications and challenging logistics” make operating there difficult, the department added.
When whales that strand themselves are not already dead or seriously injured, conservationists will in some cases work to “refloat” them into the water. This involves keeping the whales cool and wet on land to stabilize them before carrying them back into the ocean using tarpaulins or large floating platforms.
Because pilot whales are social mammals, their instinct is to stay with their pods; they might collectively strand themselves in an effort to help one injured whale or beach themselves even after they are refloated if they hear a whale’s distress call from land.
“So even when you got some animals successfully into deeper waters, it’s not uncommon for them to turn tail and come straight back in,” Karen Stockin, a marine biology researcher at Massey University in New Zealand, told The Washington Post in 2020.
In September, 32 whales were refloated outside Macquarie Harbor in Tasmania after the stranding there. The island’s Parks and Wildlife Service said several of them re-stranded that night. It said it would work to “re-float and release the remaining live whales.”
Lundquist said Wednesday that “all the stranded pilot whales are now deceased, and their bodies will be allowed to decompose naturally.”
“These events are tough, challenging situations,” the conservation department’s Chatham Islands team said in a statement. “Although they are natural occurrences, they are still sad and difficult for those helping.”
These whales are on the brink. Now comes climate change — and wind power.
Hundreds of pilot whales have died after becoming stranded near the shark-infested waters of a remote island chain in the South Pacific, according to rescue teams and conservationists.
New Zealand’s Department of Conservation told CNN nearly 500 whales washed up in the Chatham Islands, 840 kilometers (520 miles) east of the main South Island, in two separate mass stranding events reported by residents over the weekend.
Dave Lundquist, a marine technical adviser for the department, said it does not attempt to refloat stranded whales in the area due to the risk of shark attacks to both people and the whales. The surviving whales were euthanized to prevent further suffering, he said.
“This decision is never taken lightly, but in cases like this it is the kindest option,” Lundquist said.
Daren Grover, general manager of rescue organization Project Jonah, said most of the pilot whales were already dead when they came ashore, and the survivors were in poor health.
“Having such a high number of whales in one location is unusual, but it’s certainly not unheard of,” he said.
In addition to the risk posed by sharks, it was “almost impossible” for rescue teams to travel to the Chatham Islands on short notice, he said, compounding the difficulty of saving the whales.
The mass stranding incident comes less than a month after about 200 pilot whales died on the coast of Tasmania in Australia.
It’s common for pilot whales to become stranded but the behavior is not well understood, according to the Department of Conservation. Most scientists believe that individual whales strand because they are diseased and coming to the end of their natural lifespan.
The Chatham Islands, which are home to about 600 people, are among the top three “stranding hotspots” in New Zealand. In 1918, the archipelago saw the biggest recorded stranding in the country of about 1,000 pilot whales, according to the department.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky called on the international community to recognize Japanese claims to four disputed islands that Russia has controlled for more than half a century.
Zelensky said in an address to the Ukrainian people on Friday that he had signed a decree recognizing the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Japan, including the Russian-held territories.
The islands of Habomai, Shikotan, Kunashiri and Etorofu, referred to as the Northern Territories by Japan and the Southern Kurils by Russia, have historically been part of Japan, but Russia captured them in the final days of World War II in 1945. Japan contends that this was in violation of the Neutrality Pact that it and the Soviet Union signed earlier in the war.
Japan and the Soviet Union were not at war for most of the conflict until the end, after Germany’s defeat.
The 1951 Treaty of San Francisco, which officially dismantled Japan’s empire, stated that Japan should give up its right to the Kuril Islands, but it does not recognize the Soviet Union’s control over them. Japan argues that it should control the four southernmost islands in the chain.
Zelensky said Russia has no right to the territories, and the entire world knows this. He said the international community must “de-occupy” all lands that Russia has occupied and is trying to keep.
“With this war against Ukraine, against the international legal order, against our people, Russia has put itself in conditions — and it is now only a matter of time — of the real liberation of everything that once was seized and is now under the control of the Kremlin,” he said.
Zelensky’s push comes as Ukraine has conducted a major counteroffensive to regain control of territory that Russia had taken earlier in the war. He said Ukrainian forces liberated almost 800 square kilometers of territory in the east and almost 30 settlements this week.
Zelensky said Russia will show all “potential aggressors” that conducting an “aggressive terrorist war” in the present day is a way to weaken and destroy the one that starts it.
SYDNEY — American efforts to rally Pacific island leaders at a White House summit this week were dealt a blow when the Solomon Islands said it would not endorse a joint declaration that the Biden administration plans to unveil.
As President Biden prepared to host the leaders of a dozen Pacific countries on Wednesday and Thursday in a first-of-its-kind gathering, the Solomon Islands sent a diplomatic note to other nations in the region saying there was no consensus on the issues and that it needed “time to reflect” on the declaration.
The setback just hours before the start of the summit is a sign of the challenges Washington faces as it tries to reassert influence in a region where China has made inroads. It came as Vice President Harris tours East Asia, where she is emphasizing U.S. commitment to a “free and open Indo-Pacific” during stops in Japan and South Korea. In remarks in Japan on Wednesday, Harris condemned China’s “disturbing” actions in the region, including “provocations” against Taiwan.
China has increased diplomatic ties with and financial aid to Pacific island nations in recent years, while also pushing security agreements that could increase its military presence in a region whose key shipping routes and natural resources make it strategically valuable.
China’s growing reach is transforming a Pacific island chain
While the timing of the objection to the summit declaration was something of a surprise, the source was not.
The Solomon Islands has drifted closer to China since the election of its combative prime minister, Manasseh Sogavare, in 2019. The Solomon Islands switched its diplomatic recognition from Taipei to Beijing a few months later and made headlines again this year when it struck a controversial security pact with China that the United States and its allies fear could lead to a Chinese base in the archipelago, about 1,000 miles from Australia’s coast. The Solomon Islands and China have denied plans for a base.
This month, Solomon Islands lawmakers voted to delay national elections from 2023 until 2024, in what critics called a “power grab” and a sign of growing Chinese-style authoritarianism.
In an address to the U.N. General Assembly in New York last week, Sogavare said his nation had been “unfairly targeted” and “vilified” because of its relationship with China.
Solomon Islands’ pro-China leader wins bid to delay elections
In the diplomatic note, reviewed by The Washington Post and dated Sept. 25, the Solomon Islands Embassy to the United States in New York said the declaration would need “further discussion.” The Australian Broadcasting Corp. first reported that the Solomon Islands was refusing to sign the joint statement, which the ABC said has been in the works for weeks.
According to a draft of the declaration reviewed by the ABC, the statement will declare climate the “highest priority” and “single greatest existential threat” to the Pacific. But Pacific countries appeared to have removed a reference to the China-Solomon Islands security pact, deleting language emphasizing the need to “consult with one another closely on security decisions with regional impacts,” the ABC reported.
During the summit, the White House will unveil its first Pacific Island strategy, a focus of which will be climate change — an issue on which Pacific nations have demanded more decisive American action. Another component will be increasing efforts by the Coast Guard and other U.S. agencies to combat illegal fishing and to help Pacific countries sustainably manage swaths of ocean.
More details on the strategy and related initiatives would come during the summit, U.S. officials said.
China fails on Pacific pact, but still seeks to boost regional influence
“Our goal over the next couple of days fundamentally is to meet the Pacific islanders where they live,” said a senior U.S. administration official who spoke on the condition of anonymity about the discussions. “They’ve made it clear to us that they want us as partners on the biggest issues.”
There had been a “huge amount of enthusiastic support” for the joint statement, said the official, who acknowledged disagreements over the declaration but did not directly address the Solomon Islands’ refusal to sign it.
“The Solomons have been here,” he said. “They have been deeply engaged in our efforts over the last couple of days, and we expect them to be actively engaged in our meetings over the next few days.”
The Solomon Islands’ objection to the White House summit declaration will be seen by some as obstructive and influenced by China, said Anna Powles, senior lecturer with the Center for Defense and Security Studies at New Zealand’s Massey University.
But other Pacific states have also expressed concerns about the haste with which the United States convened the summit, she said, noting that the leaders of Vanuatu and Nauru are not attending because of elections. Kiribati will not be represented, and a few other countries were late invites.
China signs security deal with Solomon Islands, alarming neighbors
“The United States is strongly welcomed back in the region, but arguably the tempo by which the U.S. has pursued its re-engagement in the Pacific is felt to be too rushed, too hurried,” Powles said.
By initially failing to invite all members of the Pacific Islands Forum — an important regional body — the United States also risked emulating China, which fell short in its bid for a broad regional security deal in May partly because some Pacific nations felt rushed to sign the sweeping agreement, she added.
“Absolutely there are parallels in terms of the lack of consultation, the lack of consensus and the circumventing of the Pacific Islands Forum,” Powles said, noting that China’s failed regional security pact was very different from what is likely to emerge from the White House summit.
The Biden administration is increasing its diplomatic presence in the Pacific with new embassies planned in the Solomon Islands, Tonga and Kiribati. In July, Harris announced that the administration would ask Congress to triple funding for economic development and ocean resilience in the region to $60 million a year for the next decade.
Ellen Nakashima in Washington contributed to this report.
By Kirsty Needham, David Brunnstrom and Michael Martina
SYDNEY/WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The Solomon Islands has told Pacific nations invited to a White House meeting with President Joe Biden it won’t sign the summit declaration, according to a note seen by Reuters, prompting concern over the islands’ ties to China.
Leaders from the Pacific Island Forum bloc have been invited to the two-day White House summit starting Wednesday, at which the Biden administration seeks to compete with China for influence in the strategically important South Pacific.
The Solomon Islands, which struck a security pact with China in April, wrote to the Pacific Islands Forum and asked it to tell the other members it wouldn’t sign a proposed Declaration on the U.S.-Pacific Partnership, to be discussed at the summit on Sept. 29, and needed more time for its parliament to consider the matter, according to the note dated Sunday.
Federated States of Micronesia President David Panuelo said on Tuesday in Washington that countries had been working on the summit declaration – “a vision statement” – that would cover five thematic areas, including human-centered development, tackling climate change, geopolitics and security of the Pacific region, commerce, and industry and trade ties.
The Solomons note said the declaration was “yet to enjoy consensus”.
“Solomons does state it won’t be able to sign the declaration but it doesn’t call on others to follow suit,” said Anna Powles, a Pacific security expert at New Zealand’s Massey University who has seen the note.
Solomon Islands Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare’s office did not respond to a request for comment. A spokesperson for the White House National Security Council declined to comment.
Solomon Islands opposition party leader Matthew Wales wrote in a tweet: “Strange inconsistency. Agreements with China are signed in secret & kept secret. Now insisting Parliament must deal with the regional agreement with the US? Insincerity writ large!”
The Solomon Islands says in the note, signed by its embassy in Washington, that the Pacific Islands Forum already has a mechanism for engaging with partners outside the region.
“Of course, China is a part of that mechanism, hence the U.S. seeking to create alternative architecture such as its own regional partnership framework,” Powles said.
Speaking at an event in Washington hosted by Georgetown University, Panuelo said the Pacific island nations had come to realize the importance of “strength in numbers” and called for superpowers to talk to them about the issues most important for the region.
Efforts to reach a final text on the declaration ran into problems this week during a call between the U.S. State Department and Pacific islands ambassadors, when the U.S. side demanded removal of language agreed to by the island countries that Washington address the Marshall Islands’ nuclear issue, three sources familiar with the call, including a diplomat from a Pacific island state, told Reuters.
(Reporting by Kirsty Needham, David Brunnstrom and Michael Martina. Editing by Gerry Doyle)
Earth and its distinct terrains have been formed over the course of millions of years. Sometimes an entire mountain range can be formed due to earthquakes caused by the movement of tectonic plates while at other times, a volcanic eruption can build new islands.
While we may have been a few million years late to observe how the Himalayan mountain range or the Andes had formed, scientists have discovered a ‘baby’ island in the Central Tonga islands, which is currently in its infancy.
Reportedly, the baby island has been born in the region due to an underwater volcano spewing lava, steam, and ash. A statement released by NASA Earth Observatory noted that one of the submerged volcanoes in the region awoke on September 10 and blasted its matter outside.
Within 11 hours after the volcanic eruption, the new island started to take shape above the water’s surface which was visible in the images captured by NASA through satellites.
Read more: Artemis I mission: NASA delays launch of its new moon rocket due to Storm Ian
The scientists at NASA reported that by September 14, the estimated area of the island had grown to 4,000 square metres with an elevation of 10 metres. A week later on September 20, the island was sprawling across an area of 24,000 square metres.
According to Tonga Geological Services, the exact location of the nascent island lies northeast of Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha‘apai, and northwest of Mo‘unga‘one.
“The volcano poses low risks to the aviation community and the residents of Vava’u and Ha’apai. All mariners are, however, advised to sail beyond 4 kilometers away from Home Reef until further notice,” informed the Tonga Geological Services in a statement.
While it is indeed fascinating and rather miraculous to witness an island develop in front of our eyes, such volcanic islands often have a short shelf life. However, a few exceptions do exist.
The researchers observing the island stated that the island could grow more as the home reef volcano was still erupting.
Hurricane Fiona strengthened into a Category 4 storm Wednesday after devastating Puerto Rico, then lashing the Dominican Republic and the Turks and Caicos Islands. It was forecast to squeeze past Bermuda later this week.
The U.S. National Hurricane Center said Fiona had maximum sustained winds of 130 mph on Wednesday afternoon and it was centered about 650 miles southwest of Bermuda, heading north at 8 mph.
It was likely to approach Bermuda late Thursday and then Canada’s Atlantic provinces late Friday. The U.S. State Department issued an advisory Tuesday night telling U.S. citizens to “reconsider travel” to Bermuda.
The storm has been blamed for directly causing at least four deaths in its march through the Caribbean, where winds and torrential rain in Puerto Rico left a majority of people on the U.S. territory without power or running water. Hundreds of thousands of people scraped mud out of their homes following what authorities described as “historic” flooding.
Hurricane Fiona is seen in a satellite image at 9:30 a.m. ET on Sept. 21, 2022.
NOAA
Power company officials initially said it would take a few days for electricity to be fully restored, but then appeared to backtrack late Tuesday night. As of Wednesday afternoon, three days after Fiona hit the island, roughly 70% of customers lacked electricity, according to government figures.
“Hurricane Fiona has severely impacted electrical infrastructure and generation facilities throughout the island. We want to make it very clear that efforts to restore and reenergize continue and are being affected by severe flooding, impassable roads, downed trees, deteriorating equipment, and downed lines,” said Luma, the company that operates power transmission and distribution.
Puerto Rico Gov. Pedro Pierluisi said, “I continue to hope that by the end of today, a large part of the population will have these services.”
Pierluisi tweeted Wednesday afternoon that the federal government had approved a major disaster declaration request in response to Fiona. Earlier Wednesday, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) had said the request was still under review. President Biden on Sunday approved an emergency declaration for the hurricane.
Deanne Criswell, the head of FEMA, 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 also declared a public health emergency on the island and deployed a couple of teams to the island.
The storm killed a man in the French overseas territory of Guadeloupe, another man in Puerto Rico who was swept away by a swollen river and two people in the Dominican Republic: one killed by a falling tree and the other by a falling electric post.
Two additional deaths were reported in Puerto Rico as a result of the blackout: A 70-year-old man burned to death after he tried to fill his generator with gasoline while it was running and a 78-year-old man police say inhaled toxic gases emitted from his generator.
The hum of generators could be heard across the territory as people became increasingly exasperated. Some were still trying to recover from Hurricane Maria, which made landfall as a Category 4 storm five years ago, causing the deaths of an estimated 2,975 people.
Why does Puerto Rico’s energy grid keep failing?
02:04
Luis Noguera, who was helping clear a landslide in the central mountain town of Cayey, said Maria left him without power for a year. Officials themselves didn’t declare full resumption of service until 11 months after Maria hit.
“We paid an electrician out of our own pocket to connect us,” he recalled, adding that he doesn’t think the government will be of much help again after Fiona.
Long lines were reported at several gas stations across Puerto Rico, and some pulled off a main highway to collect water from a stream.
“We thought we had a bad experience with Maria, but this was worse,” said Gerardo Rodríguez, who lives in the southern coastal town of Salinas.
Parts of the island had received more than 25 inches of rain and more had fallen on Tuesday.
Hurricane Fiona slams Puerto Rico, leaving most of the island without power or clean water
05:07
By late Tuesday, authorities said they had restored power to nearly 380,000 of the island’s 1.47 million customers. Piped water service was initially knocked out for most of the island’s users due to lack of power and turbid water at filtration plants, but 55% had service Wednesday morning.
On Wednesday, the National Weather Service in San Juan issued a heat advisory for several cities because a majority of people on the island of 3.2 million remain without power.
Workers remove downed trees in Cabo Rojo, Puerto Rico on Sept. 20, 2022. The island had widespread power outages after Hurricane Fiona hit it hard.
Jose Jimenez / Getty Images
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.
Many Americans hadn’t heard from family members who didn’t have electricity.
Palm Beach County, Florida, resident Nancy Valentin told CBS News, “I haven’t been able to talk to my mom and see how she’s doing.”
At Boston’s Logan Airport, those arriving from Puerto Rico recounted their fear of drowning in Fiona’s floodwaters.
Yolanda Rivera told CBS News, “We stayed in one room in a little corner that was safe, for a whole night no light or nothing. The place was so dark.”
In the Turks and Caicos Islands, officials reported minimal damage and no deaths despite the storm’s eye passing close to Grand Turk, the small British territory’s capital island, on Tuesday morning.
The government had imposed a curfew and urged people to flee flood-prone areas.
“Turks and Caicos had a phenomenal experience over the past 24 hours,” said Deputy Gov. Anya Williams. “It certainly came with its share of challenges.”