Powerful storm leaves path of power outages and flooding across the Midwest and northeastern United States
Extreme high winds up to 76 mph across the Midwest and northeastern United States led to power outages, property damage, flooding and the delay of the Texans-Browns NFL game in Cleveland on Sunday.
After a new storm formed over the Great Plains on Saturday, AccuWeather meteorologists accurately predicted strong winds would target the Great Lakes and Northeast to end the weekend.
In Dayton, Ohio, the winds were blamed for at least one fatality. According to The Associated Press, a 63-year-old woman was struck and killed by a falling tree. The death remains under investigation by the Montgomery County sheriff’s office, the AP said.
More than 25 million were under a winter weather alert in parts of Oklahoma, Kansas, Nebraska, Iowa, Illinois, Wisconsin, Michigan, New York, New Hampshire, Vermont and Maine on Sunday afternoon.
“A deepening area of low pressure over the Great Lakes has resulted in damaging winds across much of the Midwest and Great Lakes region,” AccuWeather Meteorologist Brett Rossio said.
By Sunday afternoon, a broad area of wind gusts ranging between 40 to 76 mph were recorded in Missouri, Indiana and Ohio.
By 1 p.m. EST on Sunday those high winds and winter weather conditions led to more than 126,000 power outages in Ohio, while another 200,000 customers were without electricity in Michigan, Indiana and Kentucky, according to poweroutage.us.
Those outages quickly escalated within a few short hours. By 4:00 p.m. EST outages topped 350,000 in Ohio and nearly 215,000 in Michigan. By 6 p.m. EST, over 800,000 customers in the region were out of power.
The inclement weather with heavy rain, hail and lightning at FirstEnergy Stadium in Cleveland, Ohio, sparked a 37-minute delay for the Texans-Browns kickoff. The stadium asked the fans present to shelter in place while the players retreated to their locker rooms, USA Today reported. The Cleveland Browns posted images of their players getting ready for the game in the inclement weather and noted “The pre-game weather was wild.”
Across the Great Lakes, winds were strong enough to not only knock down trees but also break large tree limbs, cause property damage and lakeshore flooding.
The National Weather Service (NWS) Detroit issued a high wind warning on Sunday for the Detroit area as well as across much of Michigan.
The Mackinac Bridge in Michigan closed for high-profile vehicles due to the very strong winds affecting the region on Sunday. Drivers were asked to reduce speed to 20 mph while approaching the bridge and prepare to stop.
In Buffalo, New York, tides were pushed up to seven feet above normal on Sunday, causing flooding from Lake Erie. Across the lake, Toledo, Ohio, experienced tides that were six feet lower than usual. This phenomenon is called a seiche, and is similar to a storm surge.
The flooding in Buffalo could continue throughout the night, and places like Michigan City, Indiana, and Benton Harbor, Michigan could expect lake-shore flooding as well through Sunday night. By 7 p.m. EST, lakeshore flooding from Lake Erie had also begun in Presque Isle State Park in Erie County, Pennsylvania.
Airline delays and turbulence could be issues that airline passengers face as the strong winds take aim. In Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, thunderstorms were already responsible for delays up to an hour on Sunday evening.
Cold air will be pulled down behind the earlier Sunday rain, allowing for snow showers in parts of Michigan and Wisconsin through Sunday night. Some lake-effect snow squalls are also possible.
In addition to the gusty winds, rain will also be sweeping eastward with this storm through Sunday night.
Gusty winds that arrived Sunday afternoon will persist into Monday. Coastal areas of the mid-Atlantic and New England could experience wind gusts between 40 and 50 mph with local gusts to 60 mph prior to the arrival of rain.
Travel over high bridges in Philadelphia and New York City could be hazardous, especially for high-profile vehicles such as trucks and trailers.
When the rain arrives, it could come in the form of a squall line, containing wind-whipped rain and a burst of even stronger winds.
As the severe weather subsides along the I-95 corridor, precipitation will be changing from rain to snow across the eastern Great Lakes.
Gusty winds will persist, triggering lake-effect snow across the Great Lakes to the central Appalachians spanning Monday night and Tuesday.
The infamous storm that sunk the Edmond Fitzgerald in November 45 years ago was similar in nature to the current wind storm, and is an example of how powerful and dangerous this type of storm can become.
Courtesy of northcentralpa.com
Storm Vamco hits Vietnam
STORM Vamco barrelled into Vietnam, damaging buildings and injuring at least 19 people, as the death toll in the Philippines climbed to at least 67.
The storm made landfall on Sunday morning with reported winds of up to 90 kph, uprooting trees and blowing the roofs off houses and schools.
According to the latest report from Central Steering Committee for Natural Disaster Prevention and Control, at least 19 people suffered injuries.
Vamco is the latest in a series of storms that have pummelled Vietnam over the past six weeks, causing flooding and landslides that have killed at least 159 people and left 70 others missing.
Vamco has weakened since hitting the Philippines as a typhoon with winds of up to 155 kph, but state media said it had still caused significant damage.
Pictures showed restaurants in the tourist hotspot of Hoi An – a Unesco world heritage site – ripped apart by the storm, and huge trees uprooted in the old imperial city of Hue.
Authorities evacuated nearly 650,000 people from seven coastal provinces to higher and safer ground before the storm hit, but on Sunday warned of the danger of landslides triggered by the heavy rains.
The storm also damaged embankments and caused landslides along them at many rivers and beaches, including 13.3km in Quang Tri province.
Ministries, sectors and localities were asked to continue keeping a close watch and to stand ready to respond to natural disasters, especially flooding and landslides.
The storm had also destroyed electrical wires and poles, causing power outages in 177,000 households in Quang Binh.
More than 110ha of perennial trees in Bo Trach district were also destroyed.
Households who were relocated to avoid the storm had also returned home and those in the area at risk of landslides had been relocated to temporary houses.
The National Centre for Hydro-meteorological Forecasting warned that the northern and central region would continue seeing heavy rain.
Courtesy of thestar.com.my
MAGNITUDE 2.1 YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK, WYOMING, USA
Depth: 14 km
Distances:
170 km SSW of Billings, United States / pop: 110,000 / local time: 07:20:35.8 2020-11-1777 km W of Cody, United States / pop: 9,700 / local time: 07:20:35.8 2020-11-17
MAGNITUDE 3.8 SOUTHERN IDAHO, YELLOWSTONE, USA
Depth: 8 km
Distances: 123 km NE of Boise, United States / pop: 145,000 / local time: 19:20:03.5 2020-11-16
66 km WSW of Challis, United States / pop: 1,000 / local time: 19:20:03.5 2020-11-16
MAGNITUDE 4.4 GREECE
Depth: 8 km
Distances: 20 km NNE of Pátra, Greece / pop: 168,000 / local time: 03:49:30.3 2020-11-17
2 km NE of Náfpaktos, Greece / pop: 13,400 / local time: 03:49:30.3 2020-11-17
Ebola-like virus which causes massive bleeding found to jump from human to human after Bolivia outbreak
Scientists have sounded the alarm over an Ebola-like virus from Bolivia which has been found to spread from person to person, killing three out of every five confirmed patients.
The rodent-borne Chapare virus first emerged in 2004 in the Bolivian province from which it gets its name, about 370 miles east of the country’s capital city, La Paz.
New research has shed light on the deadliness of the disease and how it spread from patient zero.
Following a 2019 outbreak in the country, researchers have found that, though it comes from a different viral family than Ebola, it also causes hemorrhagic fever, which can, in turn, cause life-threatening organ failure and bleeding.
At present, there is no treatment for Chapare outside of intravenous hydration and supportive care. The virus causes fever, headache, abdominal pain, rash and bleeding of the gums, and is believed to result from contact with rat urine or droppings.
Dr. Caitlin Cossaboom, an epidemiologist with the US Centers for Disease Control, presented findings from her research into a 2019 outbreak to the American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene’s annual meeting on Monday.
A 65-year-old rice farmer was patient zero in the outbreak who then spread the disease to a 25-year-old doctor who treated him.
“The night before he died, she suctioned saliva from his mouth, and then she fell ill nine days later,” Cossaboom explained.
The 48-year-old paramedic who transported the doctor to hospital was the next to be infected after performing CPR on her.
A gastroenterologist conducted an endoscopy on the doctor and developed symptoms 14 days later. All of the cases resulted in exposure to bodily fluids from an infected person.
Patient zero, the doctor and the gastroenterologist all died from the Chapare virus, while the ambulance worker and another infected person survived.
The pygmy rice rat and the small-eared pygmy rice rat were found to be the primary carriers of the pathogen. They inhabit Bolivia and several neighbouring countries.
Scientists now worry the virus may have been circulating in the country for years with patients having been misdiagnosed with dengue fever, a mosquito-borne virus which cannot be transmitted from human-to-human, unlike Chapare.
The good news is that arenaviruses, such as Chapare, are vulnerable to both heat and disinfectants, which means that global spread is extremely unlikely.
Courtesy of rt.com
MAGNITUDE 5.8 KEPULAUAN MENTAWAI REGION, INDONESIA
Depth: 10 km
Distances: 612 km W of Palembang, Indonesia / pop: 1,441,000 / local time: 08:44:09.1 2020-11-17
230 km SSW of Padang, Indonesia / pop: 840,000 / local time: 08:44:09.1 2020-11-17
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