The storms “Laura” and “Marco” sweep through the Caribbean. Both are heading through the Gulf of Mexico towards Louisiana and Texas and pose a risk of flooding.
Fears of a double hurricane in the Gulf of Mexico.
Video: Tamedia
Two tropical storms are sweeping the Caribbean and moving towards the United States. The hurricane “Marco” will continue to gain strength over the Gulf of Mexico and hit the southern US coast as a hurricane on Monday, the National Hurricane Center (NHC) said on Sunday. It already brings winds with a speed of up to 110 kilometers per hour and even stronger gusts with it. “Marco” should therefore continue to gain strength over the warm waters of the Gulf and reach hurricane strength on Sunday.
The somewhat weaker tropical storm “Laura” also moved towards the USA. On Sunday, it moved with winds of up to 85 kilometers per hour over the island of Hispaniola, which is shared by the Dominican Republic and Haiti, and caused heavy rain and floods there.
In Haiti, a ten-year-old girl died when a tree fell on a house in the southeastern coastal town of Anse-à-Pitres, the Caribbean state’s civil protection agency announced. A dam on the eastern Péligre Lake overflowed. The residents of the surrounding areas were asked to get to safety.
Trees and power lines fell over in the Dominican Republic. According to a report in the Listin Diario newspaper, more than a million people were without electricity. TV pictures showed rescue workers trying to free a woman and her child from the rubble of their collapsed house in the capital Santo Domingo.
Puerto Rico also got heavy rain from “Laura”. According to forecasts, the storm should pass Cuba and arrive in the Gulf of Mexico on Monday night (local time) at the earliest. The Cuban government asked the administrations in the east of the country to prepare for an emergency. According to the NHC, “Laura” could also become a hurricane on Tuesday.
Storm surges and floods
According to the hurricane center, “Marco” will hit land on Monday afternoon (local time) in the area of the state of Louisiana. Storm surges, floods and dangerous gusts of wind are to be expected in the affected areas, as the weather department warned. A hurricane of the lowest category one brings winds of at least 119 kilometers per hour with it. Overland, however, the hurricane should then “quickly” weaken again and move west to Texas, as the weather department said. In parts of Mexico, the storm brought heavy rain and strong winds over the weekend.
Tropical storms are called hurricanes in the western Atlantic and eastern Pacific. In the Atlantic, the hurricane season – from June to November – could be one of the most violent this year, according to the US climate agency NOAA.
Most recently, in 2002, two storms raged practically simultaneously in the Gulf of Mexico, “Fay” off the coast of Texas and “Edouard” off Florida. Now the “Marco” and “Laura” systems could sweep over the same areas in the Texas and Louisiana areas in quick succession.
“Genevieve” flattens out
In the Pacific, hurricane Genevieve caused waves up to ten meters high and heavy rain on the Mexican peninsula of Baja California. It passed the Pacific coast on Thursday and weakened a bit during the day.
With sustained wind speeds of 110 kilometers per hour, it was downgraded to a tropical storm in the afternoon (local time).
On Tuesday, “Genevieve” was a category four hurricane – the second highest. Although the center of the storm was never overland, power outages occurred on Thursday in La Paz, the capital of the state of Baja California Sur, and the Los Cabos district, popular with vacationers. Around 1200 people sought refuge in emergency shelters, according to Governor Carlos Mendoza Davis. Three airports in the region have meanwhile been closed.
This image provided by the US space agency NASA shows hurricane Genevieve from the ISS off the west coast of Mexico.
Keystone / Nasa
Two people were killed in the resort of Cabo San Lucas on Tuesday. According to the Mexican civil protection authority, it was a 15-year-old who had bathed in the stormy sea despite a ban, and a lifeguard who had come to her aid. Previously, there had been four deaths in heavy rain in the southern state of Oaxaca, which was attributed to the storm.
“Genevieve” center was about 100 kilometers from the coast in the evening and was moving in a north-westerly direction. According to the US Climate Agency’s National Hurricane Center, NOAA was expected to stay on this course, move away from Baja California, and weaken further in the coming days.
Tropical storms are called hurricanes in the western Atlantic and eastern Pacific. In the Atlantic, the hurricane season – from June to November – could be one of the busiest of all time this year, according to a statement from NOAA.
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