MIAMI: Hurricane Gordon sped across the Atlantic early yesterday toward the eastern Azores islands, where a hurricane warning is in effect, US forecasters in Miami said.
The US National Hurricane Center in Miami said Gordon was centered about 340 miles (550 kms) west-southwest of Sao Miguel Island in the Azores as of 8 a.m. EDT (1200 GMT). It added that Gordon remained a Category 2 hurricane with top sustained winds of 100 mph (155 kph) and higher gusts.
The hurricane, which formed on Saturday, was moving toward the east at 23 mph (37 kph). The hurricane was on a forecast track expected to take it near or over the islands of the eastern Azores today.
Portugal's government, meanwhile, has discontinued a hurricane warning for the central Azores.
Forecasters said Gordon, on an eastward track in the pre-dawn hours, turned toward the east-northeast later yesterday. Hurricane-force winds extended outward up to 35 miles (55 kms) from the center and tropical storm force winds reached outward up to 125 miles (205 kphs).
Gordon's dangerous surf and ocean swells could reach the central and eastern Azores yesterday, the Miami forecasting center said.
Gordon became a hurricane on Saturday even as onetime Tropical Storm Helene swiftly weakened into a tropical depression as it lumbered ashore on Mexico's Gulf Coast and degenerated into a rain storm without reports of significant damage.
Authorities in Mexico had worried Helene's rains could pose a threat to areas where thousands of people are recovering from flooding spawned last week by Hurricane Ernesto. But Mexico's Veracruz state civil defense office said none of the region's numerous rivers had overflowed Saturday.
Hurricane Gordon heads toward Azores islands
Hurricane Gordon heads toward Azores islands
South Africa declares national disaster as floods batter region
- Authorities continued to search for survivors and recover bodies at the weekend, but flooding had started receding in some areas
- Rivers burst their banks and swallowed entire neighborhoods in several regions of Mozambique
JOHANNESBURG: South Africa on Sunday declared a national disaster after widespread flooding that destroyed homes and killed dozens, while thousands sought shelter in neighboring Mozambique.
Heavy rains and storms have battered the two southern African countries for weeks, claiming more than 30 lives in South Africa’s northeastern Limpopo and Mpumalanga provinces.
Rivers burst their banks and swallowed entire neighborhoods in several regions of Mozambique, displacing thousands including a woman who was forced to give birth on a roof as she sheltered from flood waters.
“I classify the disaster as a national disaster,” the head of South Africa’s National Disaster Management Center Elias Sithole said in a statement Sunday.
Authorities continued to search for survivors and recover bodies at the weekend, but flooding had started receding in some areas, including the famed Kruger National Park, which had been forced to close and evacuate guests Thursday.
“Day visitation to the park will resume as of tomorrow,” South African National Parks announced on social media, still urging visitors to “exercise caution.”
- Baby born on a roof -
In Mozambique, rescue efforts were slow to reach survivors who sheltered on roofs and in trees.
At least eight people had died in the country since December 21, according to official data, but numbers were expected to rise as more people were declared missing.
A resident of Gaza province north of Maputo, Chauna Macuacua, told AFP that her sister-in-law had given birth on a roof where the family was waiting to be rescued since Thursday.
“We’ve been here for 4 days. My nephew was born yesterday around 11 PM (2100 GMT), and we still haven’t had any rescue or assistance for the baby and mother,” she said.
Wilker Dias, the director of a civil society group called Plataforma Decide, said he had received reports of several people missing.
“I think the numbers of dead will increase in the next hours,” he told AFP.
South Africa also dispatched rescue teams to southern Mozambique Sunday after a car carrying five members of a South African mayoral delegation was swept away by floodwaters in Chokwe, 200 kilometers (124 miles) north of Maputo.
According to the latest figures released by the Mozambican government on Friday, more than 173,000 people had been affected by the floods across the country.
