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USA Catastrophe: Latest - Kebakaran Hutan di California
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Taufan Gustav: Bush isytihar darurat di Louisiana, Texas
WASHINGTON 30 Ogos |
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akibat perayaan MARDI GRAS |
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Taufan Gustav dijangka kuat
LOS ANGELES - Kekuatan Taufan Gustav menurun kepada ribut Kategori 3 ketika bergerak melepasi Teluk Mexico semalam tetapi ia dijangka kuat semula sebelum melanda kawasan pesisir pantai Amerika Syarikat (AS) di sekitar New Orleans hari ini.
Analisis komputer Jabatan Meteorologi AS menunjukkan Gustav sedang menuju New Orleans, bandar raya yang musnah teruk diserang Taufan Katrina tiga tahun lalu dengan menyebabkan kematian 1,500 orang.
Pihak berkuasa di bandar raya itu sudah mula memindahkan penduduk di kawasan rendah ke tempat-tempat lebih selamat sejak awal pagi semalam.
Lebuh raya-lebuh raya utama di sekitar New Orleans pula penuh sesak dengan kereta, trak dan ratusan orang ramai yang berasak-asak menaiki bas untuk mengelak ribut yang semakin menghampiri itu.
Gustav, sebelum itu, melanda Cuba dengan kekuatan ribut Kategori 4 dan mencetuskan kemusnahan besar-besaran tetapi tanpa berlaku sebarang kemalangan jiwa.
Taufan tersebut sebelum ini membunuh 86 orang ketika melanda beberapa negara Pasifik iaitu Republik Dominica, Haiti dan Jamaica sebelum sampai ke Cuba. - Reuters
selalunya nama taufan ni pompuan... yg ni lelaki pulok!! tak kiralah pompuan ke lelaki ke tapi both mmg dahsyat punyer impak nih!!! |
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Taufan Gustav sasar Amerika
BERBARIS: Orang ramai menunggu bas dan kereta api yang akan memindahkan mereka sebelum ketibaan Taufan Gustav.
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New Orleans bakal dilanda angin 251 kilometer sejam
NEW ORLEANS: Taufan Gustav yang diramal mencecah kategori lima dengan kelajuan angin kira-kira 251 kilometer sejam, kini menuju kawasan Teluk Mexico dan New Orleans, Amerika Syarikat dalam tempoh seawal 24 jam lagi dan disifatkan datuk bandar wilayah itu sebagai taufan paling ganas abad ini.
Kehadiran Gustav berlaku ketika New Orleans menghampiri ulang tahun ketiga kemusnahan besar akibat Taufan Katrina dan kawasan Teluk Mexico itu turut menempatkan banyak lombong minyak Amerika.
Pihak berkuasa Amerika sudah mengeluarkan amaran berjaga-jaga di sepanjang kawasan pantai barat, Louisiana hingga ke sempadan Alabama-Florida bagi bersedia menghadapi kehadiran Gustav yang diramal seawal tempoh 24 jam lagi.
Gustav mencecah kelajuan kira-kira 221 kilometer sejam ketika mengganas di Carribean dan meragut lebih 80 nyawa.
Di Cuba, Gustav memusnahkan ladang tembakaunya semalam dan menyebabkan sekurang-kurangnya 300,000 penduduk terpaksa dipindahkan manakala tiang telefon, pokok buah-buahan tumbang dan menghempap banyak kediaman.
Ketua Jabatan Pertahanan Awam Cuba Ana Isla berkata, ramai orang cedera di kawasan Isla de la Juventud yang didiami 87,000 penduduk. Bagaimanapun, tiada sebarang laporan kemalangan jiwa, setakat ini.
 | KEADAAN TERUK: Penduduk cuba menegakkan kenderaan yang terbalik akibat Taufan Gustav yang melanda Cuba.
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Sementara itu, penduduk New Orleans diarah keluar untuk menyelamatkan diri. Datuk bandar, Ray Nagin turut menggunakan kata-kata keras sebagai membuktikan betapa Gustav bukanlah perkara remeh dan menyifatkannya sebagai 'Taufan Abad Ini' yang merujuk kepada kekuatan anginnya yang boleh membawa kemusnahan besar.
"Ini adalah hakikat dan bukannya satu perkara main-main," katanya ketika mengeluarkan perintah berpindah, semalam.
"Hanya ini yang ingin saya katakan kepada mereka yang memperlekeh ancaman Gustav dan mendakwa boleh menempuhnya. Anda mungkin membuat kesilapan paling besar seumur hidup."
Usaha pemindahan penduduk juga dilakukan di kawasan barat Mississippi dan Texas Timur.
Perintah wajib berpindah di kawasan sekitar tebing barat New Orleans yang mana projek pembinaan tebatan banjirnya belum siap, dilaksanakan seawal jam 8 pagi waktu tempatan.
Ia juga menjadi ujian sejauh mana keberkesanan pelan pemindahan yang bertujuan mengurangkan kekalutan, kejadian curi serta kematian yang berlaku ketika Katrina pada 2005.
Kebanyakan penduduk juga enggan mengambil risiko dengan anggaran kira-kira sejuta orang meninggalkan kawasan pesisiran Teluk Mexico berkenaan menaiki bas, kereta api, kereta serta pesawat, sejak kelmarin. Ini menyebabkan kesesakan berlaku di jalan raya, stesen minyak kehabisan bahan bakar itu serta talian telefon yang sukar digunakan kerana terlalu sibuk.
"Saya tidak mahu mengambil risiko. Saya tidak mahu berada di sini," kata Lester Harris, 53, yang bertugas sebagai juruteknik, ketika menunggu di sebuah stesen bas, semalam.
Beliau pernah menjadi mangsa Katrina apabila terpaksa diselamatkan pihak berkuasa menggunakan bot.
"Saya terpaksa berjemur di atas bumbung selama dua hari, tiada minuman atau makanan. Keadaan memang memeritkan." � AP
deja vu 31 ogos 2005 ler pulok.... masa katrina serang new orleans tu... |
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Gulf Coast braces, flees as deadly Gustav takes aim at US
Chief B.J. Bilbo (left) of Orleans Schools Police
directs people on board an evacuation bus at
Warren Easton High School in New Orleans. Killer
Hurricane Gustav churned toward the US Gulf Coast
where residents jammed highways on mandatory
orders to evacuate New Orleans, still battered by
the 2005 Hurricane Katrina catastrophe.
NEW ORLEANS, Louisiana (AFP) - More than a million people fled Louisiana as killer Hurricane Gustav on Sunday churned toward New Orleans, a fragile US coastal city still healing from the devastating 2005 Katrina storm.
Highways out of New Orleans have been crammed since before dawn as people scurried to escape a monster storm that could slam the Louisiana coast as early as midday Monday.
The state's governor, Bobby Jindal, said that more than a million people are on the move because of Gustav. Officials are carefully watching whether Gustav strengthens as it crosses the warm water of the Gulf of Mexico.
A slightly weakened Gustav -- still a dangerous Category 3 storm with winds near 125 miles (205 kilometers) per hour -- battered Cuba Sunday after claiming at least 81 lives in its tear across the Dominican Republic, Haiti and Jamaica.
New Orleans mayor Ray Nagin, desperate to avoid a replay of the 2005 Katrina catastrophe, ordered the city emptied in the face of what he called "the storm of the century" and roads quickly filled with fleeing residents.
"Get out of town," Jefferson parish president Aaron Broussard said in a public announcement Sunday morning.
"Have the courage to disconnect yourself from your material things. You cannot protect yourself against what Mother Nature is going to throw at us."
Jefferson Parish includes the West Bank, where a "storm surge" of water pushed ashore by hurricane winds is expected to easily wash over levees guarding that area.
Weather models indicate a surge could be more than 20 feet (almost three meters) high, double the height of levees on the West Bank.
"We are going to see storm surge on the West Bank like we have never seen before," said Jefferson parish councilman Chris Roberts.
"Now is the time to sound the alarm."
In Cuba, Gustav tore off roofs, flattened buildings and plunged communities into darkness as it smashed through the Isle of Youth, then tore across mainland Cuba southwest of Havana, which has a population of more than two million.
There were no immediate reported deaths in Cuba.
The storm lost some of its punch in the process, with US officials downgrading it from four to three.
At 1200 GMT, the US National Hurricane Center said Gustav's eye was about 375 miles (605 km) southeast of the mouth of the Mississippi River, as the storm moved northwest about 16 mph (26 km/h) and was expected to strengthen.
"On this track Gustav will be moving across the central Gulf of Mexico today (Sunday) and make landfall on the northern Gulf coast on Monday," the NHC added, warning "an extremely dangerous storm surge of 18 to 25 feet (more than six meters) above normal tidal levels is expected near and to the east of where the center of Gustav crosses the northern Gulf Coast."
President George W. Bush is unlikely to travel to the Republican Convention Monday as Hurricane Gustav closes in on the US Gulf Coast, the White House said in Washington.
The Katrina catastrophe was a major political disaster for his administration.
Republican White House hopeful John McCain and his running-mate Sarah Palin also said they would suspend their normal election campaign and visit to Mississippi to inspect preparations for Gustav's arrival.
Major oil producers BP, ConocoPhillips and Shell on Thursday evacuated workers from their facilities in the Gulf where nearly a quarter of US crude oil installations are located.
"If one major deep-water production platform is destroyed, you're talking about a billion dollar or more loss," said Rice University engineering professor Satish Nagarajaiah.
"If it's multiple rigs and platforms in a variety of water depths, then we're talking billions of dollars."
Cuban national television reported that the scene on the Isle of Youth was one of devastation after the monster storm ground its way across the low-lying island of fishing villages, factories and citrus farms.
Homes were under water, warehouses toppled, and roads washed away on the Isle, state television said, adding there were some injuries though no immediate reports of deaths.
More than 250,000 were evacuated from western parts of mainland Cuba before the storm hit, the Cuban weather service said.
Used to fairly frequent smaller tropical storms, Havana residents ran around town Saturday gathering candles and food, boiling water and taping up windows.
"Really, I just did not expect this -- it has been a long time since we have been hit by such a powerful hurricane, and this Gustav looks like it will be quite strong," retired actress Gliseria Farinas said in Havana.
A key concern was for the crowded and charming colonial-era Old Havana, which UNESCO declared a World Heritage Site in 1982.
Most of Cuba's housing stock is old and fragile.
Cuban authorities have said that in Havana alone there are 1,000 buildings in "critical condition".
These include about 8,000 structures housing some 26,000 people, many of them in Old Havana.
Earlier Gustav's path of destruction left 66 dead and 10 missing in Haiti.
In neighboring Dominican Republic, the death toll stood at eight, while in Jamaica the toll stood at seven, with many thousands displaced.
Gustav loomed just after the third anniversary of Katrina, the deadliest US natural disaster in almost eight decades.
More than 1,800 people were killed by the hurricane and related flooding, authorities say. |
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Kerajaan Amerika dah arahkan rakyatnya berpindah agar tidak berlaku kemalangan jiwa |
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Originally posted by derose83 at 1-9-2008 03:00 PM 
Kerajaan Amerika dah arahkan rakyatnya berpindah agar tidak berlaku kemalangan jiwa
aku dengar news gustav dah sampai kat perairan tadi.....
yang kat new orleans tu bandar dah lengang tinggal 2-3 ribu worang aje lagi belum pindah..... aku lak naik saspens ni... sbb tingat kemusnahan hartabenda dan kematian masa katrina 3 taon dulu  |
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01 September, 2008
US battens down for arrival of deadly Hurricane Gustav
One of the first bands of wind and rain from Hurricane Gustav arrive in August 31 in New Orleans, Louisiana. According the National Hurricane Center Gustav downgraded to Category 3 with top winds near 125 mph.NEW ORLEANS (AFP) - Killer Hurricane Gustav plowed toward the US Gulf coast, as nearly two million residents fled to safety and officials shut down the area's vital oil production facilities.
The outer edge of the storm, which left scores dead across the Caribbean over the past few days, was due to hit the US Gulf coast within hours, prompting Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal to issue an 11th hour appeal to remaining residents to take advantage of a last chance to escape its fury.
"If you're hearing this, seeing this, if you've not evacuated, please do so. There's still a few hours left," Jindal told a press conference Sunday in the state capital of Baton Rouge.
"This is a serious storm. If it veers slightly to the east, we could have massive tidal surge and flooding issues," the governor said. "I'd encourage everybody hearing and seeing this, if you're in coastal Louisiana, please do evacuate," he said.
Gustav also wrought havoc with the US political calendar, forcing US President Bush to cancel plans to appear at the Republican National Convention in St Paul, Minnesota. The US leader said Sunday that he would instead travel to Texas to monitor the storm.
The Republican who would succeed Bush in the White House, presumed presidential nominee John McCain, drastically scaled back the itinerary for the first day of the convention Monday.
"We're going to suspend most of our activities tomorrow, except for those absolutely necessary," said McCain. "I hope and pray we will be able to resume some of our normal operations as quickly as possible," he told reporters via a video link from St. Louis, after returning from a tour of relief preparations in Mississippi.
The storm had maximum sustained winds of 115 miles (185 kilometers) per hour and was expected to strengthen before blowing ashore, probably on the northern Gulf Coast about midday Monday, forecasters said.
The National Hurricance Center in Miami warned of storm surges of as much as 14 feet (4.2 meters) above normal, rainfall of up to a foot (30 centimeters), and isolated tornadoes in Louisiana.
Military and civilian disaster relief operations were on full alert with the memory of the catastrophic hit on New Orleans by Hurricane Katrina almost exactly three years ago, and the local and federal governments' botched response. Katrina made landfall near New Orleans on August 29, 2005, smashing poorly-built levees surrounding the city and causing massive floods that destroyed tens of thousands of homes and killed nearly 1,800.
Louisiana officials said there some 750 national guard troops already on the ground in New Orleans if needed for rescue operations.
Mayor Ray Nagin on Sunday ordered a sundown curfew in the city and vowed to throw looters into prison. He told local television that the city had become a "ghost town" after a massive evacuation campaign, and that only about 10,000 residents remained after thousands fled the wrath of Gustav. Some of those who left said they felt reassured.
"The mayor assured us our property will be safe," Wilson Patterson, 48, said as he prepared to board a bus with wheelchair-bound 84-year-old Earline Martin at the combination bus and train depot know as The Gate.
"We don't want to get caught up in the Katrina craziness," he said, recalling the lawlessness that swept New Orleans in 2005. Jindal said search and rescue efforts were already in place, hours before the storm was due to crash on shore. "We will begin search-and-rescue operations as soon as we safely can.
That would be when winds are below 140 miles per hour," he said, which probably will occur "late Monday," he said. "We've got ... boots on the ground, eyes on the ground.
So before that, even before we can get into the air, before we can get boats on the water, we do have people on the ground to make sure that we're doing everything that we can to save every single life."
Meanwhile, Jindal told reporters there were unconfirmed reports that three critically ill patients died while being transported to safer ground.
"They had to weigh the risk between sheltering in place and evacuating and made the decision they thought was best for their patients," the governor said. |
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Monday September 1, 2008
Hurricane Gustav nears Louisiana coast
By Tim Gaynor and Matthew Bigg
NEW ORLEANS (Reuters) - Hurricane Gustav hurtled toward collision with the Louisiana coast on Monday, bringing pounding rain, surging wind and the most direct threat to New Orleans since the devastation of Hurricane Katrina in 2005.
 | A view of New Orleans as the first storm clouds of Hurricane Gustav swept over the city August 31, 2008. (REUTERS/Matthew Bigg)
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Nearly 2 million people fled the Louisiana coast and more than 11 million residents in five U.S. states were braced for the impact from the fast-moving storm, which was expected to make landfall on Monday morning around New Orleans.
Oil companies shut down nearly all production in the energy-rich Gulf of Mexico, a region that normally pumps a quarter of U.S. oil output and 15 percent of its natural gas.
Gustav also took center stage in U.S. presidential politics as Republicans prepared to open their convention on Monday to nominate presidential candidate John McCain with a bare-bones program stripped of the usual pomp and circumstance.
By Sunday night, the streets of New Orleans were ghostly quiet after some 95 percent of the city's population responded to desperate calls by officials for a sweeping evacuation.
An estimated 1.9 million people had fled coastal areas. Only 10,000 people were believed to have stayed behind in New Orleans. Police and national guard troops patrolled the empty city as a curfew went into effect in a bid to prevent looting.
By early Monday the outer bands of the storm were nearing the coast and had kicked up strong, gusting winds south of the city that were expected to gather force through the morning.
The storm packed maximum sustained winds of 115 mph (185 kph), making it a Category 3 storm, the U.S. National Hurricane Center said.
Forecasters said Gustav could still strengthen but said the hurricane was no longer expected to be a Category 4 hurricane on the five-step Saffir-Simpson scale.
Even so, a storm surge of up to 14 feet (4.3 metres) could threaten the same levees that failed during Hurricane Katrina. Federal officials say the levees protecting New Orleans are stronger now but still have gaps.
Hurricane Katrina brought a 28-foot (8.5 metre) storm surge that burst levees on Aug. 29, 2005. New Orleans degenerated into chaos as stranded storm victims waited days for government rescue and law and order collapsed.
Gustav was expected to swamp parts of Louisiana, Mississippi, Arkansas and Texas with up to 12 inches of rain and could spin off isolated tornadoes, forecasters said.
Centered some 170 miles (275 km) offshore, southeast of New Orleans, Gustav was rumbling toward the Louisiana coast at a 16 mile-per-hour (26 km-per-hour) pace as of 1 a.m. EDT (0500 GMT).
The approach of the storm stirred uneasy comparisons to Katrina which flooded some 80 percent of New Orleans, killed some 1,500 people in five states and cost near $80 billion.
President George W. Bush, who was criticized for the slow relief efforts after Katrina, canceled his appearance at the Republican convention as scheduled instead a visit to Texas on Monday to oversee emergency response effort.
McCain headed to the Gulf to survey preparations and ordered political speeches canceled on Monday for his nominating convention.
Fearing televised images of a choreographed Republican celebration would be seen as out of touch, McCain's campaign sought to distance itself from the botched response to Katrina's chaos almost exactly three years ago.
In New Orleans, Mayor Ray Nagin ordered a mandatory evacuation and imposed a dusk-to-dawn curfew, warning looters they would be sent straight to jail.
'A BIG, UGLY STORM'
Long lines of cars and buses streamed out of New Orleans on Sunday after Nagin ordered an evacuation of the city of 239,000 and told residents, "This is still a big, ugly storm, still strong and I encourage everyone to leave."
New Orleans resident Vanessa Jones, 50, said she had planned to stay but changed her mind after watching the news all night. "I can't take a chance because so many people died in Katrina," she said as she prepared to board a bus headed to an unknown destination.
The government lined up trains and hundreds of buses to evacuate 30,000 people who could not leave on their own and Nagin said 15,000 had been removed from the city, including hundreds in wheelchairs.
Flights from New Orleans and other Gulf Coast cities were canceled on Monday as the storm bore down on the region.
Residents boarded up the windows of their shops and homes before leaving town, while others hunkered down as "hold-outs" with stockpiled food, water and shotguns to ward off looters.
"I saw quite a bit of looting last time with Katrina, even 30 minutes after the winds had stopped," said construction contractor Norwood Thornton, who opted to stay behind to protect his home in New Orleans' historic Garden District.
Gustav weakened to a still-dangerous Category 3 storm after it passed over Cuba. It killed at least 86 people in the Dominican Republic, Haiti and Jamaica.
The U.S. Coast Guard reported the first storm-related death in Florida on Sunday, where a man fell overboard as his craft ran into heavy waves.
Katrina and Hurricane Rita, which followed it three weeks later, wrecked more than 100 Gulf oil platforms, but Gustav could deal a harsher blow.
In a special trading session to accommodate the Labor Day holiday and the storm's impact, U.S. crude oil features on Sunday rose nearly $3 to over $118 per barrel.
"It remains likely that Gustav will prove to become a worst case scenario for the producing region and places the heart of the oil production region under a high risk of sustaining significant or major damage," said Planalytics analyst Jim Roullier. |
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tak lama dah nak hit fully... malam ni.... aku lak yg debor debor.. kawan aku kat NO dah pindah... buat sementara... depa sumer doa supaya bila balik semula rumah masih ada.. tapi depa tak sure pung.... saspens lak aku.. |
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Gustav hampiri pantai Louisiana
TINJAU: Penduduk Los Palacios melihat kerosakan dan kemusnahan selepas wilayah Pinar del Rio dilanda Taufan Gustav, 100 kilometer di barat Havana, Cuba, semalam.
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11 juta penduduk di lima negeri di Amerika Syarikat bersiap hadapi ribut
NEW ORLEANS: Taufan Gustav bergerak pantas menuju pantai Louisiana sambil membawa hujan lebat dan angin kencang serta dianggap ancaman besar terhadap kota New Orleans sejak bandar itu musnah dilanda Taufan Katrina pada 2005.
Hampir dua juta orang sudah meninggalkan kawasan dekat pantai Louisiana dengan lebih 11 juta penduduk di lima negeri Amerika Syarikat melakukan persiapan menghadapi ribut itu.
Syarikat minyak juga menutup semua operasi pengeluaran di sekitar Teluk Mexico, sumber keluaran suku daripada pengeluaran minyak Amerika dan 15 peratus gas asli.
Gustav juga diberi tumpuan dalam politik Amerika ketika Parti Republikan bersedia melancarkan konvensyen untuk menamakan John McCain sebagai calon Presiden dengan program sampingan.
Menjelang malam kelmarin, jalan raya New Orleans sudah lengang selepas 95 peratus penduduknya berpindah.
Hanya 10,000 orang dipercayai belum meninggalkan kota itu.
Anggota polis dan Pengawal Kebangsaan melakukan rondaan bagi menghalang mana-mana pihak mencuri.
Di Havana, Gustav memusnahkan berpuluh ribu rumah, menumbangkan pokok serta tiang telefon dan menenggelami jalan raya di Cuba, tetapi tiada kematian dilaporkan kelmarin ketika ia bergerak menjauhi kepulauan itu.
Gustav melanda Isla de la Juventud di selatan tanah besar Cuba sebagai taufan Kategori Empat Sabtu lalu dengan kelajuan angin 220 kilometer sejam. Ia kemudian melalui seluruh barat negara itu sebelum menuju ke Teluk Mexico dan seterusnya ke selatan Amerika Syarikat.
Ribut itu memusnahkan atau merosakkan 86,000 rumah dan merobohkan 80 menara elektrik di seluruh pulau itu, kata ketua operasi pertahanan sivil Cuba, Kolonel Miguel Angel Puig.
Bercakap mengenai program kerajaan, Puig berkata, 19 orang cedera walaupun tiada seorang mangsa cedera parah. Kebanyakan daripada 250,000 penduduk yang berpindah ke pusat perlindungan kembali ke rumah masing-masing petang kelmarin.
Pegawai mengukur kekuatan angin selaju 340 kilometer sejam di bandar Paso Real del San Diego di barat Cuba - rekod baru kelajuan angin bagi negara yang kerap dilanda taufan besar, menurut jurucakap Institut Kaji Cuaca Cuba, Miguel Angel Hernandez. � AP/Agensi |
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New Orleans levees hold as Gustav winds down
By Matthew Bigg and Tim Gaynor
NEW ORLEANS (Reuters) - Hurricane Gustav weakened to a tropical storm by late Monday after crashing into the Louisiana coast and menacing New Orleans, where rebuilt levees managed to hold floodwaters out of the city devastated by Katrina three years earlier.
 | Adrian (R) and his son John Herbert walk past an overturned travel trailer in their neighborhood in Houma, Louisiana, which was heavily damaged as Hurricane Gustav passed through, September 1, 2008. (REUTERS/Mark Wallheiser)
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Gustav weakened before hitting land, easing fears it would be another Katrina, whose floodwaters burst protective levees in 2005, swamping 80 percent of New Orleans and stranding thousands.
The storm roared through the heart of the U.S. Gulf oil patch but oil and natural gas prices plunged as Gustav weakened before landfall and spared key Gulf oil installations, easing fears of serious supply disruptions.
Gustav's powerful storm surge pushed tons of water into the Mississippi River, Lake Pontchartrain and New Orleans canals, putting pressure on barriers that were repaired or reconstructed after failing three years ago and prompting a tense watch for signs it would happen again.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers closed massive new floodgates intended to keep Lake Pontchartrain waters from surging back into the city and over the banks of two canals.
Water flowed over flood walls and spurted through cracks, but a barrier system which officials had warned left New Orleans vulnerable appeared to hold up as of late Monday.
Six inches (15 cm) of water pooled in streets near the New Orleans Industrial Canal, but new cement-girded floodwalls protecting the city's Ninth Ward held off the a repeat of the flooding that devastated that neighborhood during Katrina.
New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin said residents could begin to return to the city later this week. With the city still under curfew, officials will assess hurricane damage on Tuesday and begin allowing businesses to return as soon as Wednesday.
"Reentry is only days away and not weeks away," Nagin said.
Some residents emerged from boarded up homes relieved to find only broken tree branches and toppled signs.
DODGED A BULLET
"We'll still get some nasty weather but we've dodged a big-time bullet with this one," said stockbroker Peter Labouisse, sitting on the porch of his home, which was shuttered and without power.
Louisiana officials reported six storm-related deaths, including an elderly couple in Baton Rouge who were killed when a tree fell on their home.
In contrast to the widespread lawlessness that followed after Katrina, New Orleans police said they had only arrested two people for looting during the storm.
Oil companies had shut down nearly all production in the region, which normally pumps a quarter of U.S. oil output and 15 percent of its natural gas.
Exxon said it was shutting down its Baton Rouge refinery, the second largest in the United States, although the storm weakened to a Category 1 hurricane with 75 mph (120 kph) winds as it moved inland Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal said Exxon would ask for crude oil from the U.S. emergency Strategic Petroleum Reserve and Shell Oil Co was expected to make a similar request, as refiners look to ensure gasoline supplies in the wake of Gustav.
Mindful of the ravages of Katrina, which killed some 1,500 people, nearly 2 million people fled the Gulf Coast as Gustav approached and only 10,000 were believed to have remained in New Orleans.
More than 14,000 National Guard troops and pilots were deployed to the Gulf Coast and the Pentagon authorized up to 50,000 troops. Soldiers are routinely deployed in U.S. disasters for rescue and clean-up and to prevent looting.
Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff warned residents it was too early to sound the all-clear.
"This is not over. It's still hitting parts of the state very hard," he said.
Underscoring continued concern about the fragile flood barriers, officials in rural Plaquemines Parish told the handful of residents remaining to flee as a levee protecting 200 homes had been weakened by water surging over the top.
Some officials recalled that catastrophic breaches in the city's levees occurred a day after Katrina departed.
BUSH RESPONSE
Gustav stole the limelight from the Republican Convention to nominate presidential candidate John McCain. It opened on Monday with a bare-bones program.
President George W. Bush, who was heavily criticized for the slow Katrina relief efforts, canceled his appearance at the convention and went to Texas to oversee relief effort.
A dangerous Category 4 hurricane a few days ago, Gustav hit shore near Cocodrie, Louisiana, about 70 miles (115 km) southwest of New Orleans, as a Category 2 storm, one step below Katrina's strength at landfall.
EQECAT Inc., which helps insurers model catastrophe risk, said it estimated Gustav's insured losses at $6 billion to $10 billion. Katrina's insured losses were more than $40 billion and total damage was more than $80 billion, making it the costliest hurricane in U.S. history.
Before landfall in Louisiana, Gustav killed at least 97 people in the Dominican Republic, Haiti, Jamaica and Florida. Cuba, swatted by Gustav on Saturday, said on Monday that more than 90,000 houses were damaged or destroyed in the storm.
By late Monday, the U.S. National Hurricane Center called off coastal warnings for the storm. Gustav, now a tropical storm spinning toward Texas, will continue to lose power over the next day, even as it dumps heavy rain parts of six states, forecasters said.
Gustav knocked out power to some 750,000 Entergy customers across Louisiana and the utility said it could take as long as two weeks to restore power in some areas.
In New Orleans, some 77,000 customers were without power as of Monday night, down from a peak of about 107,000 just after the hurricane hit, the utility said.
As U.S. fears over Gustav eased, Tropical Storm Hanna grew to hurricane strength near the southeast Bahamas, threatening the U.S. east coast from Florida to the Carolinas, and Tropical Storm Ike formed in the Atlantic Ocean. |
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As U.S. fears over Gustav eased, Tropical Storm Hanna grew to hurricane strength near the southeast Bahamas, threatening the U.S. east coast from Florida to the Carolinas, and Tropical Storm Ike formed in the Atlantic Ocean.
berapa banyak tropical storm hit ni weyyyy... tu yang kat lautan atlantic... yang kat pacific pung... banyak gak landa philippines, taiwan, hongkong, china dan japan.... ni sumer aku bajet ada kes dengan global warming nih!! |
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Lebih dua juta penduduk telah meninggalkan bandar tepi pantai Gustav mula badai Lousiana
| Kelihatan penduduk Los Palacios, Cuba, melalui jalan raya yang rosak dengan tiang elektrik dan telefon condong akibat dilanda Taufan Gustav, Sabtu lepas.
- Reuters
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NEW ORLEANS 1 Sept. -Taufan Gustav mula membadai pantai Lousiana membawa angin kencang serta hujan lebat dan sedang menuju ke New Orleans yang pernah dilanda kemusnahan teruk akibat Taufan Katrina pada 2005.
Lebih dua juta orang telah meninggalkan bandar tepi pantai Lousiana, manakala lebih 11 juta penduduk di lima negeri berdekatan bersiap sedia untuk menghadapi taufan itu yang dijangka melanda malam ini.
Setakat malam tadi, jalan-jalan di New Orleans lengang dan 95 peratus penduduk di bandar itu bersetuju mematuhi arahan pihak berkuasa supaya berpindah ke kawasan selamat.
Dipercayai 1.9 juta penduduk telah berpindah dan hanya tinggal 10,000 penduduk yang berdegil.
Pihak berkuasa bertindak mengawal keadaan di bandar ini dan arahan perintah berkurung dilaksanakan bagi mengelakkan kecurian.
Sehingga petang ini dilaporkan taufan itu sudah semakin hampir dengan bandar ini dan tiupan angin kencang dengan disertai ombak besar semakin dirasai.
Taufan itu dijangka melanda bandar ini dengan kekuatan angin 185 kilometer sejam dan ia telah ditetapkan sebagai taufan kategori tiga berbanding empat sebelum ini.
Adalah dijangkakan ketinggian taufan itu adalah sekitar 4.3 meter berbanding taufan Katrina yang lebih tinggi sekitar 8.5 meter.
Gustav juga dijangka akan menenggelamkan sebahagian bandar di Lousiana, Mississippi, Arkansas dan Texas sehingga satu kaki.
Bencana ini juga menarik perhatian calon-calon yang bertanding jawatan Presiden Amerika Syarikat.
Malah calon daripada parti Republikan, John McCain, membatalkan beberapa program sempena Konvensyen Kebangsaan Republikan yang akan mengesahkan pelantikan beliau sebagai calon Presiden.
Presiden George W. Bush turut membatalkan kehadiran beliau ke konvensyen ini bagi menangani taufan itu setelah nama beliau terjejas teruk semasa Taufan Katrina melanda bandar ini tiga tahun lalu, akibat kegagalan pengurusan bencana yang efektif.
Sehingga kini 86 orang terbunuh akibat Taufan Gustav yang melanda Cuba, Haiti dan Jamaica.
- Reuters |
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Taufan Gustav landa barat New Orleans
Benteng elak banjir, ribut Hanna pula mengancam
NEW ORLEANS: Taufan Gustav yang melanda barat New Orleans kelmarin tidak menyebabkan kemusnahan besar seperti Katrina pada 2005 selepas benteng yang dibina dapat menahan air daripada melimpah.
Bagaimanapun, penduduk pantai timur Amerika Syarikat juga bakal menghadapi satu lagi ribut baru iaitu Taufan Hanna, beberapa hari lagi, kata Pusat Taufan Nasional Amerika, semalam.
Angin kencang sekuat 177 kilometer sejam dibawa Gustav mula reda selepas melanda sekali gus melenyapkan kebimbangan berulangnya tragedi Katrina yang menyaksikan 1,500 orang terbunuh dan 80 peratus New Orleans ditenggelami air selain memerangkap beribu-ribu penduduknya.
Air dibawa Taufan Gustav memasuki sungai Mississippi, tasik Pontchartrain dan terusan New Orleans memberi tekanan kepada benteng yang dibina semula selepas gagal menahan limpahan air tiga tahun lalu. Limpahan air di beberapa kawasan di New Orleans hanya menyaksikan kenaikan air setinggi 15 sentimeter.
Namun, pegawai memberi amaran masih wujud bahaya banjir walaupun setakat ini benteng yang dibina berkesan menahan limpahan air.
Ada penduduk yang berlindung dalam rumah mula keluar dan berasa lega apabila mendapati hanya beberapa pokok dan papan tanda yang tumbang akibat Gustav.
"Kami kadang kala menghadapi beberapa bencana cuaca di sini tetapi kali ini bagi dapat mengelaknya," kata seorang broker saham, Peter Labouisse.
Kira-kira 750,000 penduduk di New Orleans masih terputus bekalan elektrik dan Gabenor Louisiana, Bobby Jindal berkata ia akan mengambil lebih daripada dua minggu untuk memulihkan bekalan.
Sementara itu, kekuatan Taufan Hanna dilaporkan menurun kepada status ribut ketika mula menjauhi Bahamas dan beberapa pulau di Atlantik dengan peramal cuaca menjangkakan ia bakal mengancam kawasan Pantai Timur Amerika.
Hanna menyebabkan pokok tercabut dan memutuskan bekalan elektrik di Providenciales, ibu kota kepulauan Turks dan Caicos. Ia juga menyebabkan banjir di Cuba, Haiti serta Puerto Rico. Sekurang-kurangnya seorang maut kerana lemas dihanyutkan air.
Kelajuan angin Hanna menurun kepada 110 kilometer sejam dan dijangka terus lemah. Tetapi, ia diramal kembali mencapai tahap taufan esok, kata Pusat Taufan Nasional.
Pegawai pusat itu berkata, Hanna dikesan menuju ke arah Florida, Georgia atau Carolina Selatan dalam tempoh dua atau tiga hari lagi. � AP/Reuters |
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Taufan Gustav dan pemanasan global
| LAUTAN Atlantik menyaksikan peningkatan kadar ribut yang diklasifikasikan antara yang terkuat.
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FAKTOR pemanasan global barang kali menjadikan taufan Gustav sedikit lebih kuat dan lebih basah, kata beberapa saintis terkemuka. Tetapi hubungan antara perubahan cuaca dengan taufan yang lebih kuat masih menjadi isu perdebatan. Itulah antara isu yang berbangkit apabila taufan Gustav semakin kuat sejak ia menghampiri Louisiana, Amerika Syarikat (AS) dengan kelajuan 217 kilometer sejam baru-baru ini.
Lautan Atlantik menyaksikan peningkatan kadar ribut yang diklasifikasikan antara yang terkuat. Dalam tempoh empat tahun ini, taufan Gustav dan Katrina, serta enam ribut yang lain telah mencapai kategori yang lebih tinggi apabila angin bertiup pada kelajuan sekurang-kurangnya 211 kilometer sejam, demikian menurut pengkaji di Georgia Tech.
Enam saintis yang dihubungi AP berkata, hubungan itu menunjukkan beberapa efek pemanasan global. Bagaimanapun, mereka berbeza pendapat mengenai saiz efek berkenaan.
"Kini, kita melihat banyaknya ribut yang dikategorikan 4 dan 5 secara global daripada apa yang pernah kita lihat," kata Judith Curry, Pengerusi Sains Atmosfera dan Bumi di institusi berkenaan. "Tahun 2004, 2005 dan 2007 mencatatkan kewujudan ribut yang tinggi, dan kita telah melihat jumlahnya semakin banyak."
| LEMBAPAN udara panas yang banyak meliputi taufan akan menyebabkan ribut dan hujan menjadi lebih kuat.
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Ukuran tenaga yang ditekan dari air yang panas kepada udara dan menjadi 'bahan api' kepada taufan telah meningkat secara dramatik sejak pertengahan tahun 1990-an. Kebanyakannya merupakan taufan yang paling kuat (berbanding terdahulu), kata penganalisis cuaca, Kevin Trenberth.
Selain itu, saintis turut memberi amaran bahawa adalah mustahil untuk menyalahkan pemanasan global atas apa sahaja masalah cuaca. Menurut mereka, ribut taufan itu tetap akan terbentuk walaupun tanpa dipengaruhi 'tangan manusia'.
Namun begitu, kajian terbaru menunjukkan tanda-tanda pemanasan global telah membawa kepada kewujudan ribut yang lebih kuat.
Ini termasuklah Gustav, yang mencapai kategori empat pada Sabtu lalu sebelum menjadi lemah.
"Memandangkan Gustav merupakan ribut yang amat kuat, bolehlah kita menjangka bahawa ia merupakan efek yang dihasilkan oleh tangan manusia iaitu pemanasan global," kata pengkaji, Gabriel Vecchi dari Pusat Penyelidik Laut, Makmal Pentadbiran Laut dan Atmosfera Kebangsaan di Princeton, New Jersey.
Berapa banyak efeknya masih menjadi persoalan. Vecchi berkata, dia tak dapat memberitahu berapa banyak.
Trenberth dalam artikel terdahulunya menyatakan ribut utama seperti Katrina dan Gustav boleh meningkatkan kadar pemanasan global antara 6 hingga 8 peratus.
Air yang lebih panas menyebabkan permukaan udara lebih panas. Ini bermakna ia mengandungi lembapan.
"Lebih banyak lembapan udara panas naik ke atas taufan akan menyebabkan lebih kuat ribut dan hujan," kata Peter Webster, profesor di Georgia Tech.
Pengkaji taufan, Hugh Willoughby pula berkata: "Kita kini mempunyai kesan sebenar akibat perubahan cuaca, tetapi pada hemat saya, efek dominannya ialah nasib malang." |
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Post time 31-8-2008 09:09 AM
