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Agence France-Presse

Two hurricanes are expected to slam into the US Gulf Coast in the coming days, forecasters said Sunday, as Tropical Storm Laura killed at least 12 people when it struck Haiti and the Dominican Republic.
US media said twin hurricanes were unprecedented in the Gulf of Mexico since records began 150 years ago.
Tropical Storm Marco strengthened into a hurricane with winds of 120 km/h, and is forecast to hit the state of Louisiana on Monday.
Tropical Storm Laura hammered Haiti and the Dominican Republic with heavy rain, killing at least 12 people - 9 in Haiti and three in the Dominican Republic.
It was set to become a hurricane on Tuesday that could hit the US coastal region on Wednesday.

Energy companies have suspended some oil and natural gas production in the Gulf as the weather deteriorates.
The US National Hurricane Centre said Storm Laura was “bringing torrential rainfall and life-threatening flooding” to Haiti, which shares Hispaniola island with the Dominican Republic.
The storm killed three people in the Dominican Republic’s capital Santo Domingo, said Juan Manuel Mendez, head of the country’s Centre of Emergency Operations.
A woman and a child died at home, while a young man died when a tree fell on his home, Mendez said.
Trump wanted to swap ‘dirty’ Puerto Rico for Greenland, says ex-official
The storm has flooded houses, cut off remote villages and left more than one million Dominicans in the dark, Mendez added.
In neighbouring Haiti, a 10-year-old girl was among the nine dead, authorities said. They said some homes were flooded and evacuations were underway.
With brown water up to their knees, some residents tried to save what they could from their flooded homes, while street traders saw their goods washed away.
“I didn’t know there was bad weather forecast. We don’t often have electricity in my neighbourhood so I couldn’t follow the news on the radio,” said Sony Joseph, trembling with cold.

The Atlantic storm season, which runs through November, could be one of the busiest ever this year, with the Hurricane Centre predicting as many as 25 named storms. Laura is the 12th so far.
Haiti, a country of 11 million, has seen a relatively low incidence of Covid-19 - with just over 8,000 cases and around 200 deaths to date - but authorities urged caution to prevent further spread in the aftermath of Storm Laura.
“Wear your masks and respect distances, especially in temporary shelters,” Interior Minister Audain Fils Bernadel said at a briefing Saturday. “With Covid, we have considerably less capacity in our shelters.”
Storms pose a serious risk to Haiti every year from June to November. Even a heavy rainfall can threaten the country’s poorest residents, many of them living in at-risk zones, near canals or ravines that can be obstructed by debris and quickly overflow.
The Miami-based Hurricane Centre said on Sunday that “a slightly stronger Laura was just south of eastern Cuba” after sending “life-threatening flash flooding likely over the Dominican Republic, Haiti, Cuba and Jamaica.”
Marco was expected to bring “life-threatening storm surges and hurricane force winds” to parts of the US Gulf coast on Monday and Tuesday, the NHC warned.


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Extreme weather

US Gulf coast braces for  hurricane double hit

This satellite image shows Tropical Storm Laura moving over Haiti and the Dominican Republic in the Caribbean as a second storm, named Marco (upper left), moves into the Gulf coast on Sunday. Image: RAMMB/NOAA via AFP

epa08619258 A woman records with her cell phone the strong waves due to the Laura storm in Guayama, southern Puerto Rico, 22 August 2020. Laura is causing heavy rains on several parts of Puerto Rico and will later pass near the Dominican Republic and Haiti, while on the other side of the Caribbean the Marco storm has strengthened between Cuba and Mexico near Yucatan channel and may become in Hurricane today. Both storms put on alert large parts of the Caribbean and also the US states of Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Texas, where according to the National Hurricane Center the storms could impact early next week. EPA-EFE/Thais Llorca

epa08619507 A handout picture made available by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) shows a wind speed probabilities projection map for the Tropical Storm Marco (L) and Laura (R) moving over the Caribbean Sea and the Gulf of Mexico (issued 23 August 2020). Both tropical storms are projected by the NOAA to strengthen into hurricanes and make landfall starting 24 August 2020. Both hurricanes are projected to make landfall within 24 hours, the first time two hurricanes made landfall within a day since September 1933. EPA-EFE/NOAA / HANDOUT HANDOUT EDITORIAL USE ONLY/NO SALES

Major energy firms shut 13 per cent of offshore oil production in Gulf of Mexico as storms draw near

Tropical Storm Laura over Puerto Rico and approaching Haiti. Photo: Handout via AFP

A passenger plane flies behind a Shell logo at a petrol station in west London, January 29, 2015. Royal Dutch Shell blamed writedowns and forex losses for making almost no money in oil production, its most powerful division, in the last quarter of 2014, causing the company to miss profit forecasts by more than 20 percent. Shell, the largest of the European energy majors, also announced a relatively modest three-year, $15 billion cut in spending to help it weather the plunge in oil prices. REUTERS/Toby Melville (BRITAIN - Tags: BUSINESS ENERGY LOGO TRANSPORT)

Typhoon Mangkhut, which slammed Hong Kong in 2018, joins Rumbia in ‘retirement’ from international storm list as more fruit-based names added

A satellite view of Typhoon Mangkhut, which saw the Hong Kong Observatory issue its highest-ever No 10 signal. Photo: Shutterstock

A playground at Heng Fa Chuen, a harbourside housing estate, is left destroyed after Typhoon Mangkhut hit Hong Kong on Sunday September 16.  17SEP18  SCMP / Winson Wong  *** This photo won second prize, Nature & Environment category in the "Hong Kong Press Photographers Association "Focus on the Frontline" 2019 ***

Image of strong waves in Kennedy Town when Typhoon Mangkhut is approaching and typhoon signal No.10 is in effect. 16SEP18 SCMP / Xiaomei Chen

Mangosteen fruit in China. Photo: Shutterstock

Hurricane Isaias rips through Bahamas on its way to Florida

Hurricane Isaias over the Bahamas. Photo: NOAA via AP

31 July 2020, US, Hollywood: People stock up groceries and water before tropical Hurricane Isaias makes landfall in Florida. Photo: Orit Ben-Ezzer/ZUMA Wire/dpa

Signs lashed to a palm tree are shown at a closed COVID-19 testing site at the FITTEAM Ballpark of The Palm Beaches Saturday, Aug. 1, 2020, in West Palm Beach, Fla. Hurricane Isaias is headed toward the Florida coast, where officials have closed beaches, parks and coronavirus testing sites. (AP Photo/Wilfredo Lee)

MIAMI, FLORIDA - AUGUST 01: Storm clouds are seen over the city as Hurricane Isaias approaches the east coast of Florida on August 01, 2020 in Miami, Florida. The hurricane is expected to brush past the east coast of Florida within the next 24 hours. Joe Raedle/Getty Images/AFP == FOR NEWSPAPERS, INTERNET, TELCOS & TELEVISION USE ONLY ==

News

World

United States & Canada


Tropical Storm Marco reaches hurricane strength and is forecast to make landfall on Monday
Tropical Storm Laura already lashing northern Caribbean, with state of emergency declared in Puerto Rico



Tropical Storm Marco reaches hurricane strength and is forecast to make landfall on Monday, with Tropical Storm Laura expected to follow.


Natural disasters

Weather

United States

US Gulf coast braces for hurricane double hit

Tropical Storm Marco reaches hurricane strength and is forecast to make landfall on Monday Tropical Storm Laura already lashing northern Caribbean, with state of emergency declared in Puerto Rico

Tropical Storm Marco reaches hurricane strength and is forecast to make landfall on Monday

Tropical Storm Laura already lashing northern Caribbean, with state of emergency declared in Puerto Rico