Seven people have died in a Caracas slum due to heavy rains from Tropical Storm Matthew, which brought fresh misery to a region were hundreds have been killed in flooding and landslides this year.
An unrelated freak storm in Haiti killed at least five survivors from the devastating January quake and wounded dozens as it blasted through the capital, Port-au-Prince, tearing down shabby tent homes, trees and power lines.
Citing local fire department officials, Venezuela’s VNA state news agency said Tropical Storm Matthew killed its seven victims on Friday in the Santa Ana de Antimano neighborhood after their home was flooded.
Caracas fire chief William Martinez said authorities also conducted preventive evictions in other high-risk areas.
Thousands of people had been evacuated elsewhere in Central America ahead of Matthew, which made landfall in a lightly populated area of northeastern Nicaragua, then headed west, dumping rain across much of northern Honduras.
Rosalba Silva of Nicaragua’s Meteorology Institute said that the storm struck further south than had been expected.
At 3am GMT yesterday, Matthew’s center was located inland about 130km east-southeast of the coastal city of La Ceiba, the US National Hurricane Center said. It packed top winds of 85kph.
The storm was moving west-northwest at 24kph.
There have been no reports of victims or serious damage in Honduras, though the Honduran government expanded a red alert nationwide because Matthew threatened all 18 departments.
“This is a new threat. Tropical Storm Matthew has entered the territory, and we predict heavy rains throughout the country,” Honduran President Porfirio Lobo told reporters.
Randolfo Funez of the national emergency commission pointed to high water levels in rivers, noting that the soil was highly saturated after frequent rains since May.
About 10,000 Miskito Indians living on the Caribbean coast were evacuated ahead of the storm, Nicaraguan civil defense chief Mario Perezcassar said.
“Torrential rains will be the biggest threat for the next few days,” the National Hurricane Center said.
The eye of the storm was forecast to move across Honduras yesterday and today, reaching Belize and Guatemala late yesterday and today.
Matthew is a large storm, with tropical force storm winds extending outward up to 280km to the north of the center, the center said.
It was expected to produce total rain accumulations of 15cm to 25cm over portions of Honduras, Nicaragua, southern Belize and Guatemala, with up to 38cm in isolated areas.
“These rains could produce life-threatening flash floods and mud slides,” the center warned.
The storm was expected to weaken and lose its tropical storm status by today.
Central America is in the midst of one of the most intense rainy seasons in the past 60 years, with flooding and landslides that have killed more than 300 people and caused serious damage in recent months.
The storm was expected to approach Belize’s coast later yesterday and the country placed its entire coastline on a tropical storm watch.
Since the arrival of Tropical Storm Agatha in late May, heavy rain has swamped the region.
Guatemalan President Alvaro Colom has declared a “state of national emergency” due to the heavy rain and flooding, which has killed at least 36 people, left some 40 people missing, forced the evacuation of about 11,500 people and caused US$1.5 billion in damage.
Meanwhile, Hurricane Julia formed out in the eastern Atlantic with maximum sustained winds of 130kph. It was expected to become a tropical storm today.
People with missing teeth might be able to grow new ones, said Japanese dentists, who are testing a pioneering drug they hope will offer an alternative to dentures and implants. Unlike reptiles and fish, which usually replace their fangs on a regular basis, it is widely accepted that humans and most other mammals only grow two sets of teeth. However, hidden underneath our gums are the dormant buds of a third generation, said Katsu Takahashi, head of oral surgery at the Medical Research Institute Kitano Hospital in Osaka, Japan. His team launched clinical trials at Kyoto University Hospital in October, administering an experimental
‘GOOD POLITICS’: He is a ‘pragmatic radical’ and has moderated his rhetoric since the height of his radicalism in 2014, a lecturer in contemporary Islam said Abu Mohammed al-Jolani is the leader of the Islamist alliance that spearheaded an offensive that rebels say brought down Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and ended five decades of Baath Party rule in Syria. Al-Jolani heads Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), which is rooted in Syria’s branch of al-Qaeda. He is a former extremist who adopted a more moderate posture in order to achieve his goals. Yesterday, as the rebels entered Damascus, he ordered all military forces in the capital not to approach public institutions. Last week, he said the objective of his offensive, which saw city after city fall from government control, was to
IVY LEAGUE GRADUATE: Suspect Luigi Nicholas Mangione, whose grandfather was a self-made real-estate developer and philanthropist, had a life of privilege The man charged with murder in the killing of the CEO of UnitedHealthcare made it clear he was not going to make things easy on authorities, shouting unintelligibly and writhing in the grip of sheriff’s deputies as he was led into court and then objecting to being brought to New York to face trial. The displays of resistance on Tuesday were not expected to significantly delay legal proceedings for Luigi Nicholas Mangione, who was charged in last week’s Manhattan killing of Brian Thompson, the leader of the US’ largest medical insurance company. Little new information has come out about motivation,
‘MONSTROUS CRIME’: The killings were overseen by a powerful gang leader who was convinced his son’s illness was caused by voodoo practitioners, a civil organization said Nearly 200 people in Haiti were killed in brutal weekend violence reportedly orchestrated against voodoo practitioners, with the government on Monday condemning a massacre of “unbearable cruelty.” The killings in the capital, Port-au-Prince, were overseen by a powerful gang leader convinced that his son’s illness was caused by followers of the religion, the civil organization the Committee for Peace and Development (CPD) said. It was the latest act of extreme violence by powerful gangs that control most of the capital in the impoverished Caribbean country mired for decades in political instability, natural disasters and other woes. “He decided to cruelly punish all
RSS