Hurricane Florence: more than 1m ordered to evacuate in Virginia and South Carolina

More than a million people living along the coastlines of South Carolina and Virginia have been ordered to evacuate their homes on Tuesday, as parts of America’s mid-Atlantic coast brace for what could be the most powerful storm to ever hit the region.

One million told to flee as Hurricane Florence bears down on US coast. 

Hurricane Florence is expected to bring potentially catastrophic winds, flooding and storm surge. Forecasters predict it will make landfall sometime late Thursday.

Currently rated as a category 4 storm – the second most powerful on the national weather service’s (NWS) classification system – Florence would be the first storm of that magnitude in recorded history to strike the eastern coastline so far north if it remains on its most likely track.

Read the story from The Guardian by James Lartey in New York - “Hurricane Florence: more than 1m ordered to evacuate in Virginia and South Carolina.”

Devastation as typhoon Jebi's toll rises

Tokyo: At least 11 people have been killed and about 600 injured as Typhoon Jebi ripped through Japan, the most powerful storm to hit the country in 25 years.

Overturned cars are seen on street following
powerful typhoon Jebi in Osaka, western Japan.

The deaths included a man in his 70s who was blown to the ground from his apartment in Osaka prefecture. Police said five others died elsewhere in the prefecture after being hit by flying objects or falling from their apartments.

In nearby Shiga prefecture, a 71-year-old man died when a storage building collapsed on him, and a man in his 70s died after falling from a roof in Mie, officials said.

Read the story from today’s Age - “Devastation as typhoon Jebi's toll rises.”

On Hurricanes and Hypocrisy

Floods have killed over 1,200 Nepal and Bangladesh in a disastrous South Asian monsoon. Meanwhile, Hurricane Irma, the most powerful storm ever recorded over the Atlantic Ocean, has destroyed 90% of structures on Barbuda making the nation ‘practically uninhabitable’. Millions of people have been displaced by the effects of climate change, and it’s only time before millions more will need to look towards finding a new home.

Haiti — Hurricane Matthew.

This, combined with the news of Myanmar’s religious genocide against the Rohingya Muslims, and the ever increasing death tolls in Syria and Afghanistan… there has never been a more appropriate time to demand that we in the West start welcoming people into our country. I believe it is, in fact, our moral duty to offer a home to those who seek asylum.

Read Katherine Sylwester’s story on Voices of the Revolution - “On Hurricanes and Hypocrisy.”