Super typhoon hits Philippines as Asia braces itself for worst storm of the year

A super typhoon with 140mph winds hit the Philippines today in the worst storm to hit the country in years.

Typhoon Megi hit the northern Isabela province at shortly before 6am UK time.

Thousands of villagers fled to safety amid fears that rice harvests could also be wiped out by the ensuing floods.

Eye of the storm: Typhoon Megi approaches the northern Philippines. It is also set to hit China and Vietnam

Power and communication lines are also expected to be brought down.

The storm packed sustained winds of 140mph and gusts of 162mph but could strengthen further as it progresses today.

Megi was expected to move on later Monday toward southern China, which already has evacuated more than 100,000 people from villages because of earlier flooding.

Vietnam's central coast, where 21 people have died in floods, also prepared for another soaking.

With its ferocious wind and rains, Megi is the most powerful typhoon to threaten the Philippines in four years, government forecasters say.

A 2006 howler with 155mph winds set off mudslides that buried entire villages, killing about 1,000 people.

Philippine weather officials issued the highest of a four-tier public storm alert for the two coastal provinces of Isabela and Cagayan and three mountain provinces where the typhoon is expected to pass before exiting the main northern island of Luzon into the South China Sea.

More than 3,000 people in coastal areas moved to school buildings and town halls that were turned into evacuation centres.

Classes and outdoor activities were cancelled, and officials advised families to have one person stay awake overnight for any contingency.

Ships and fishing vessels were told to stay in ports, and several domestic flights also were canceled.

Thousands of military reserve officers and volunteers were on standby, along with helicopters, including six Chinooks that were committed by U.S. troops holding war exercises with Filipino soldiers near Manila, said Benito Ramos, a top disaster-response official.

'This is like preparing for war,' Ramos, a retired army general, said. 'We know the past lessons, and we're aiming for zero casualties.'

An angry President Benigno Aquino III fired the head of the weather bureau in July for failing to predict that a typhoon would hit Manila.

That storm killed more than 100 people in Manila and outlying provinces.

Weather forecasts said the capital is expected to be spared a direct hit this time,although the lowest weather alert was in effect Monday with preschools closed.

In Cagayan, a vast agricultural valley crisscrossed by rivers and creeks, authorities ordered villagers to move out of high-risk neighbourhoods in 12 coastal towns.

"If nobody will budge, we may carry out forced evacuations," said Bonifacio Cuarteros of the provincial disaster office.

With its current course and speed, the typhoon is expected to barrel across the northern tip of Luzon then blow into the South China Sea later today toward northern Vietnam or southern China.

China's National Meteorological Center issued its second-highest alert for potential 'wild winds and huge waves,' warning vessels to take shelter and urging authorities to brace for emergencies.

Floods triggered by heavy rains forced more than 100,000 people to evacuate from homes in China's southern island province of Hainan, where heavy rains left thousands homeless over the weekend, the official Xinhua News Agency reported Monday.

Record-level flooding in Hainan over the past month has damaged roads, overflowed reservoirs and cut off telecommunication networks across the region.

In central Vietnam, the death toll from heavy rains and floods over the weekend rose to 21, disaster officials said Monday, warning that Megi could add to the misery.

'People are exhausted,' Vietnamese disaster official Nguyen Ngoc Giai said by telephone from Quang Binh provinvce.

'Many people have not even returned to their flooded homes from previous flooding, while many others who returned home several days ago were forced to be evacuated again.'

Some 300 Vietnamese soldiers have been deployed to rush instant noodles, rice and water to people affected by the floods, he said.

At risk: The fishing village of Navotas is set to be hit by a storm similar to a 2006 one that killed 1,000 Filipinos

Preparations: Filipino soldiers haul rubber boats into areas that could be affected by typhoon Megi

Super typhoon Megi 'biggest in 20 years'

The roof flies off a house as super typhoon Megi hits Ilagan City, Isabela province, northern Philippines. (Reuters: Stringer ) The Philippines has declared a state of calamity in a northern province after super typhoon Megi made landfall..

‘Very large’ Hurricane Igor moves north of Bermuda

Hurricane Igor pounded Bermuda with high winds and driving rain early today as it moved north over the Atlantic, skirting the US East Coast, which should suffer only rough surf and a stiff breeze.

The US National Hurricane Centre said the core of the “very large” category 1 hurricane, packing maximum sustained winds near to 120 kph, was about 203km north northwest of Bermuda, a popular resort and global insurance service hub, as of 5am EDT/0900 GMT.

A car makes it way through driving wind and heavy rains in Southampton, Bermuda, as Hurricane Igor strikes the island, September 18, 2010

Hurricane force winds extended about 150km from its core.

The hurricane was moving north northeast at 32km per hour. A turn northwest away from the US coast and an increase in forward speed were expected in the next 24 hours.

The Canadian Hurricane Centre issued a tropical storm watch for the coast of Newfoundland in maritime eastern Canada.

Bermuda residents reported uprooted trees, flying debris, widespread power outages, some flooding of streets and homes and boats torn free from moorings. There were no immediate reports of casualties.

Well over half of the territory’s electricity users were hit by cuts in power according to the local power utility Belco. Bermuda has a population of more than 67,000.

Police spokesman Dwayne Caines said yesterday high winds had driven waves up to 3-3.6 metre high “almost coming to the buildings in front of the ferry terminal” in the capital Hamilton.

“The rain is coming in sideways, basically it is very rough. Trees are down and there are branches blowing all over the place and there is lots of debris flying,” Mark Tatem, a photographer for The Royal Gazette newspaper, wrote in a live hurricane chatroom set up by the paper.

Several roads in the capital were flooded.

Bermuda’s roads were deserted and churches had cancelled services. Most shops and restaurants in the capital were boarded up and residents had bought up emergency supplies like fuel, batteries, food and candles.

Local authorities yesterday closed the causeway that links L.F. Wade International Airport and the eastern parish of St George’s to the rest of Bermuda. The airport was also closed.

Hurricane expert Jeff Masters of private US forecaster Weather Underground said Igor lost some of its original destructive power due to the collapse of its eyewall – a hurricane’s most damaging inner zone – earlier yesterday.

The hurricane centre predicted total rainfall of 15 to 22cm over the Atlantic territory and said Igor’s storm surge could produce significant coastal flooding and destructive waves, particularly along the south coast.

East of Igor, Tropical Storm Julia posed no threat to land, and was expected to gradually weaken and dissipate within the next 48 hours, the hurricane centre said.

In Mexico over the weekend, the remnants of Hurricane Karl dissipated over the mountains of south central Mexico, after killing at least eight people, emergency workers said.

Karl appeared to have spared Mexican oil operations from major damage after sweeping through the Bay of Campeche, where Mexico produces more than two-thirds of its 2.55 million barrels per day of crude output.

Raw Video: Earl Causes Flooding in Buxton, NC-Earl Soaks NC Coast, Heads for New England-High Alert: Hurricane Earl makes US landfall

Fear 110mph Hurricane Earl could sideswipe New York, Boston and Cape Cod

New York is last night bracing itself for the worst storm in 19 years.

Winds gusting up to 110mph were expected to lash the north-east of the U.S. as Hurricane Earl grew larger than California and was due to hit the mainland.

In anticipation of the high winds and 30ft waves that will flood homes, cause power cuts and delay flights, the state issued a storm warning.

Putting on a brave face: The Wood and Rollins families say they will ride out the storm in this rented beach house in Avon, North Carolina

Earl was expected to hit North Carolina first, where Barack Obama has declared a state of emergency.

But homeowners all the way up to New Jersey and New York were boarding up their windows and preparing for evacuation.

In the coming days Boston will take a near direct hit before it continues through Maine to Canada.

The governors of Virginia and Maryland have also declared a state of emergency, handing control of planning and response to the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

Earl's first encounter with the U.S. mainland was due at midnight in the U.S. last night as it passes just off Cape Hatteras in North Carolina where 100,000 residents have been ordered to evacuate.

By mid-afternoon, it will have reached New Jersey and New York before heading to Boston tonight.

North Carolina governor Beverly Perdue said: 'We're ready. As ready as anybody can be.'

The timing coincides with Labour Day in the U.S. when millions were planning to travel to the coast for a day break.

Earl's predicted path means the eye of the storm will be over the Atlantic, just 30 miles off the coast.

But the National Hurricane Centre has only been able to plot is path with what it calls a 'cone of uncertainty', meaning it could swing inland at any moment.

The storm does not even have to hit land to cause serious problems as it can cause hurricane force winds 90 miles from its eye and tropical force 240 miles away, putting cities such as New York in
its sights.

Earl was today downgraded to a category three storm, two less than the most serious, such as the deadly level five Katrina in 2005.

The last notable hurricane to hit the north-east coast was hurricane Bob in 1991 which left 18 dead and £1.8billion of damage.

FEMA advised residents to have a disaster plan in place and heed evacuation orders. 'You need to make sure you know where to go when you need to go.'

In New York, the Red Cross is ready to open up shelters housing up to 60,000.

Sign of the times: As motorists evacuate Hatteras Island in North Carolina, one person had time to leave Hurricane Earl a not-so-welcome message

Preparation: The path the hurricane is expected to take and (inset) workers prepare a house for a battering

Hurricane chaser: Carolyn Butler, a computer scientist, studies information about Hurricane Earl on board the NASA aircraft that is following the storm

Leaving nothing behind: Mobile homes in Westport, Massachusetts are driven to safety

Time to go: Motorists are backed up along Route 12 as they leave the North Carolina coastline

Watching and waiting: Eight-year-olds Morgan Langley (right) and Stephen Lee watch the high surf caused approaching hurricane Earl

Make way for Earl: Lifeguards at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina clear the beach in preparation for the storm

Flying into the eye of the storm: A NASA aircraft with a sensor used to measure data flies into Hurricane Earl to learn more about the storm

Batten down the hatches: A carpenter installs wooden boards over windows and doors on Hatteras Island

Calm: An image from the NASA 'hurricane chaser' shows the eye of Hurricane Earl over the Atlantic

Centre of the storm: This satellite image from the International Space Station shows the swirls of heavy rain and high winds

Powerful: The category four hurricane was predicted to touch the North Carolina coast before moving out to sea, but forecasters say it could now hit the state, Long Island and even Boston

Fears: The hurricane has winds of up to 140mph and could cause widespread damage if it does hit land

Calm before the storm: Glorious weather in Hatteras Village the evening before Hurricane Earl was expected to hit and, right, one resident takes a light-hearted view of the storm

Three killed as Typhoon Kompasu tears through South Korea

Three people were killed and millions of pounds of damaged caused after the strongest tornado in 15 years tore through Seoul.

Powerful gusts ripped over power lines and forced the cancellation of scores of international flights after the tropical storm hit South Korea this morning.

An 80-year-old man died after being hit by a flying roof tile and a 37-year-old businessman was killed on his way to work by a falling branch, the National Emergency Management Agency said.

Spectacular: The NASA satellite image shows Typhoon Kompasu - the seventh storm to affect the region this season - as it moves northwards

Powerful: The typhoon, the strongest to hit the Korean peninsula in 15 years, killed three people

A 75-year-old man also died after he was electrocuted while examining a transformer.

More than 60 international flights were cancelled, mostly to and from China, officials at Incheon and Gimpo airports said.

Services on Seoul subway lines and five railway routes were also suspended and schools in the capital were also ordered to delay the start of lessons for two hours.

The storm caused at least £5.4million in damages to the football stadium in Incheon, west of Seoul.

Typhoon Kompasu also left more than 60,000 homes along South Korea's west coast without power.

Kompasu, the Japanese word for 'compass', hit Ganghwa Island around 40 miles west of Seoul this morning.

The Korean peninsula is expected to be rid of the typhoon by tonight, but more than 3 inches of rain may fall on the captial and surrounding areas tomorrow, according to the state-run Korea Meterological Administration.

The typhoon also caused torrential rain and heavy gusts in North Korea, although there were no reports of casualties.

Last month, floods swamped farmland, houses and public buildings in the northwestern city of Sinuiju in North Korea and displaced more than 23,000 people.

Warnings: People walk past the wreckage of street vending booths in Seoul

Gusts: A towering wave crashes over the walls in Sinan. Around 60 flights to South Korea had to be cancelled because of the storm

Damage: Trees lie torn out of the ground after Typhoon Kompasu battered Chuncheon in South Korea

Tropical storm Bonnie forces BP to suspend relief well drilling

BP's efforts to finish relief oil wells in the Gulf of Mexico have been set back.

The approaching tropical storm Bonnie has forced BP to temporarily suspend drilling on its relief well in the Gulf of Mexico. Work to permanently plug the oil giant's leaking Macondo oil well, that has spewed more than 4m barrels of oil into the gulf, could be held up for up two weeks.





In a major setback for BP, ships working on the damaged Macondo oil well are leaving the site due to the storm, which formed over the Bahamas and could reach the spill area by the weekend. They have been ordered to evacuate the area by the US government.

The fleet of 65 ships involved in the disaster response is now leaving, including vessels being used in the monitoring of the well, although some ships may remain on site.

Thad Allen, the official appointed by Barack Obama to lead the federal response to the disaster, said: "Some of the boats may be able to remain on site but we will err on the side of safety.

"While these actions may delay the effort to kill the well for several days, the safety of individuals at the well site is our highest concern."

He warned: "If we have to evacuate the area ... we could be looking at 10 to 14 day gaps in our lines of operation."

BP confirmed this morning that "relief well activities at the well site will be temporarily suspended because of potentially adverse weather associated with tropical storm Bonnie, which is projected to track into the Gulf of Mexico.

"BP will continue to monitor the well as long as weather permits. Duration of the suspension of relief well activities will be dependent on the weather."

Undersea robots that monitor the sealed well will be the last to leave the site and first to return, because they are connected to ships able to handle waves as high as 15 feet, Allen added.

"We are staging our skimming vessels and other assets in a manner that will allow us to promptly restart oil mitigation efforts as soon as the storm passes and we can ensure the safety of our personnel," he said.

The threat of bad weather has already delayed efforts to plug the well at its source deep beneath the sea bed. Engineers were obliged to suspend work on the first of two relief wells that are being drilled down to the source, setting back the final procedure to plug it.

They had been expecting to spend this week reinforcing the last section of the relief well with concrete, which would have allowed an attempt to plug the well with heavy mud over this weekend. Now that will be delayed .

A federal investigation panel in New Orleans continues its exploration of the causes of the disaster which began on 20 April when the Deepwater Horizon oil rig exploded. A widow of one of the 11 workers who died, Natalie Roshto, told the hearing on Thursday that he had been anxious about conditions on the rig before it went up. She said that her husband Shane had called it the oil well "from hell" and told her: "Mother Nature just doesn't want us to drill here."

Meanwhile a Senate committee has called on BP boss Tony Hayward to testify before it on whether the company played any role in the release of Lockerbie bomber Abdelbaset al-Megrahi from prison in Scotland last year. It has been suggested BP lobbied for his release in the hope of securing a lucrative oil deal with Libya.

China activates disaster response to Typhoon Chanthu-Worst floods in a decade leave 701 dead in China

Submerged streets are seen at Qu County in Dazhou City, southwest China's Sichuan Province, July 18, 2010. A torrential flood swept the county on Sunday. The flood peak level was 4.66 meters higher than the safe line.


High billows strike the seashore in Zhuhai, south China's Guangdong Province, July 22, 2010. The Typhoon Chanthu landed onto coastal areas in Wuchuan City of Guangdong Thursday afternoon.
BEIJING, July 22 (Xinhua) -- China Thursday launched an early-warning response to Typhoon Chanthu as it is believed the tropical cyclone could devastate parts of the nation's southern coastal areas.

The National Disaster Reduction Commission and the Ministry of Civil Affairs alerted civil affairs authorities in Guangdong, Hainan, Guizhou and Hunan provinces and Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, about the risks posed by Chanthu.







 Tourists view dark rain clouds gathering in sky of the coastal area in Zhuhai, south China's Guangdong Province, July 22, 2010. The Typhoon Chanthu landed onto coastal areas in Wuchuan City of Guangdong Thursday afternoon




Dark rain clouds gather in sky of the coastal areas in Zhuhai, south China's Guangdong Province, July 22, 2010. The Typhoon Chanthu landed onto coastal areas in Wuchuan City of Guangdong Thursday afternoon.



Tourists view billows at the seashore in Zhuhai, south China's Guangdong Province, July 22, 2010. The Typhoon Chanthu landed onto coastal areas in Wuchuan City of Guangdong Thursday afternoon.

Chanthu, the third typhoon of the season, made landfall at the coastal area of Wuchuan City, southern China's Guangdong Province, at around 1:45 p.m. Thursday.

The ministry required local governments, particularly in areas previously hit by floods and landslides, and relevant departments to closely monitor the development of Chanthu and take action to alleviate disasters.

The ministry also ordered residents in severely affected areas to relocate, particularly those in port areas, on fishing farms on the sea, low-lying grounds, and places with dilapidated housing.

The ministry required storm shelters be open to the public well in advance.

Torrential rains and floods, the worst in a decade, have claimed the lives of 701 people and left 347 missing in China since the beginning of the year, according to government figures Wednesday.

Floods had hit 27 provinces and municipalities, affecting 110 million people and 8.06 million people had been relocated, figures from the State Flood Control and Drought Relief Headquarters and the Ministry of Civil Affairs show.

They also affected more than 7 million hectares of farmland and destroyed 645,000 houses.

Direct economic losses had reached 142.2 billion yuan (20.88 billion U.S. dollars).

Since the beginning of April, when the flood season started, the levels of more than 230 rivers had passed the danger mark. Some areas along the Yangtze River even experienced the worst flooding in 30 years.

Liu Ning, vice minister of Water Resources and secretary general of the State Flood Control and Drought Relief Headquarters, said at a press conference Wednesday that the Three Gorges Dam on the Yangtze River and a series of structures built after 1998, when worst flood in half a century hit south China, had been crucial in controlling the floods.

The flow on the river's upper reaches topped 70,000 cubic meters a second Tuesday -- 20,000 cubic meters more than the flow during the 1998 floods that killed 4,150 people and the highest level since the dam was completed last year.

"The sluice gates have kept the water levels of the dam at 154 meters, enabling the dam to block 4 billion cubic meters of water and preventing severe flooding in the lower reaches," Liu said.

The reservoir has a capacity of 22.15 billion cubic meters for flood control, as water levels could rise to as high as 175 meters, he said.

Flood waters had breached six small reservoirs this year, but timely evacuations prevented any casualties, he said.

Liu also warned authorities to maintain their high alert as the flood season was far from over, and the six to eight typhoons expected to land later this year would bring more rain and exacerbate the situation.

About 287,000 military personnel had been mobilized in anti-flood operations.


The State Council, China's Cabinet, urged local governments Wednesday to step up efforts to combat floods as the nation faces severe weather conditions in several regions.

The State Council made the appeal at its executive meeting presided over by Premier Wen Jiabao.

"The situation is grave," the State Council concluded at the meeting, noting that water levels on the Yangtze River, the nation's longest river, and on the Huaihe River and Taihu Lake are over their respective warning levels.

The arrival of the typhoon season has added to problems, according to the State Council.

Floods in China this summer have left hundreds dead and forced tens of thousands to relocate.

The State Council stressed at the meeting local governments should attach great importance to flood control and protect the public and their property.

Typhoon lashes south China with heavy rain, winds

BEIJING — Typhoon Chanthu sent debris flying through the air in southern China's Guangdong province on Thursday, bringing rain that could aggravate the country's worst floods in a decade.

No casualties have been reported so far from Chanthu, which was upgraded from a tropical storm one day earlier. Authorities urged residents to stay indoors as winds reached up to 70 miles per hour (115 kilometers per hour).





People fill up a hole on a dyke soaked by weeks of flooding in Xingzi county, in central China's Jiangxi province, Sunday, July 18, 2010. At least 146 people have died and 40 remain missing from the floods and landslides caused by heavy rainfalls in China in July, the state news agency Xinhua reported.


In this photo released by China's Xinhua news agency, flood water is released from the Three Gorges Dam's floodgates in Yichang, in central China's Hubei province, Tuesday, July 20, 2010. Rescuers were searching Tuesday for 30 people buried in landslides as flood waters from days of heavy rain surged past the Three Gorges Dam, the world's largest



n this photo provided by China's Xinhua News Agency, a man struggles his way in the flooded field in Tieling County, north China's Liaoning Province, Wednesday, July 21, 2010. More than 1,000 people have died or disappeared in severe flooding in China so far this year, and the heaviest rains are still to come, a senior official warned Wednesday.

The storm comes as China grapples with severe flooding that has left more than 701 people dead and 347 missing so far this year, according to the flood prevention agency. The death toll is the highest since 1998, when more than 4,000 people died. Damages are in the tens of billions of dollars.

In Guangdong, floods have killed more than a dozen people and forced the evacuation of tens of thousands, the state-run Xinhua News Agency has said. Landslides triggered by heavy rains crushed homes and floods have wiped out crops across the province since June.

Chanthu reached Leizhou city in Guangdong early Thursday and was rumbling north along the coast of Guangdong's southern tip, China's Meteorological Administration said. The storm was expected to travel farther inland toward the Guangxi region later in the day, the administration said.

State broadcaster CCTV's noon broadcast showed intense winds tossing around large pieces of debris and objects such as pipes and shingles in Maoming prefecture. Two people were killed in southern China last week by falling debris from Typhoon Conson.

Calls to the Guangdong provincial government office rang unanswered on Thursday.

More torrential rains are expected across China this week, in provinces ranging from Yunnan in the southwest to Jilin in the northeast.