Latest news with #Herminia
Al Bawaba
06-04-2025
- Climate
- Al Bawaba
Severe floods kill tens of people in the US
Published April 6th, 2025 - 07:03 GMT ALBAWABA - Massive storms jolted the central-eastern United States leaving at least 16 people killed, local authorities said. Also Read Heavy floods in France, Italy amid Storm Herminia AFP reported that the US National Weather Service warned on Saturday of "severe" flash floods in the coming days. The storms hit from Arkansas to Ohio leaving notable damage to buildings, flooding the roads and causing dozens of tornadoes. Pendleton County Search and Rescue take county electricians on a boat to turn off an electrical box in a flooded park on April 5, 2025, in Falmouth, Kentucky./AFP According to US media, Tennessee was the top state to be affected by the harsh weather, on Saturday authorities said 10 people were killed in the state. On the other hand, two lost their lives due to severe weather and floods in Kentucky, state Governor Andy Beshear revealed. He added a child was "swept away by floodwaters" leading to his death. "Severe, widespread flash flooding is expected" into Sunday in parts of the central-eastern region, the National Weather Service (NWS) noted. © 2000 - 2025 Al Bawaba (
The Guardian
06-03-2025
- The Guardian
The devil waits at every crossroads: a walk between darkness and light on Dartmoor
The story of the church of St Michael de Rupe begins – as all the best Dartmoor stories do – on a dark and stormy night. A sailor, stricken in a wild and furious sea, fell to the deck of his ship to pray for salvation. The almighty unveiled a mountain in the midst of the tempest where the ship duly made landfall: in gratitude the sailor built a church on its summit. The devil – who had unleashed that evil storm – did his best to prise the church from its foundations, but Archangel Michael sprung to its defence and became the patron of this Devon parish. The tale has many versions, but this is the general gist. Today, St Michael de Rupe counts as the highest working church in southern England – poised dramatically on top of a western outlier of Dartmoor's tors. This medieval building casts a striking silhouette over the west Devon landscape, but it also marks the start of the Archangel's Way: a pilgrimage route created in 2021 by the diocese of Exeter that travels 38 miles eastward from here across Dartmoor to a second St Michael's church in Chagford. I chose to walk the route in February when the moor was at its quietest and most mysterious – and though the seas of the famous folk tale had receded, on my visit the storm had not. Storm Herminia was thrashing through the West Country as I climbed the muddy path to the porch of St Michael de Rupe. Inside, the church had the mood of a ship in a storm. There was the whistle of the wind in the roof: gusts pressing lead-lined glass into ancient panes. The winged figure of Archangel Michael adorned the stained glass behind the altar. In folklore he is the guardian of high places, and the vanquisher of heathen forces that once held dominion over the peaks. Sitting in the porch, I unfolded a map and considered the path ahead of me. The Archangel's Way passes villages with parish churches, pubs with warm hearths, places where you can find succour and society. However, it also skirts the North Moor – the more desolate and remote half of Dartmoor, where signs of Christendom are still outnumbered by prehistoric pagan edifices, such as stone circles and cryptic megaliths. In Dartmoor folklore there is barely a crossroads the devil does not frequent to barter for a soul, nor a hill nor stone at which some evil entity claims authority – phantom, beast, horned figure. To walk this route was, in a sense, to walk a line between dark and light. To be a wanderer of the English wilderness for, if not exactly 40 days, then at least about 40 miles. The path led to Lydford and then climbed the western flank of Dartmoor proper. Green fields turned to bracken the colour of a well-thumbed two pence piece. A final stone cross guarded the approach on Brat Tor: to the south red flags fluttered on poles, a warning sign that the army were conducting live firing exercises nearby. The storm blew on. The overflow waterfall of the Meldon reservoir flew upwards into massing clouds. I was walking with my friend, Justin Foulkes, a Devonian who has been exploring the moor since he was 15. He pointed out the lonely ruin named Bleak House, and Amicombe Hill, the scene of fires attributed to the devil by residents of the farmland below. Justin was clear that, for him, Dartmoor was never a sinister place. As a teenager he had found himself too anxious to revise for exams at home and so brought piles of textbooks out on to the moor to find focus. 'When you're sitting on top of a bronze age burial chamber it puts everything in perspective,' he said. After a night on the moor at a friend's near Belstone, further prehistoric remains followed on the second day of walking. First came the Nine Maidens stone circle – the stones said to come alive with the ringing of the church bells (out of earshot in the wind). There followed the stone rows on Cosdon Hill, arriving through a thick Hammer Horror mist. There followed the stone rows on Cosdon Hill, arriving through a thick Hammer Horror mist. Lastly came the spectacular Scorhill stone circle – supposedly protected by a magic forcefield which prevents livestock from entering. Folklore is an errant guide to these relics of an unfathomable past – whose meaning and function are lost to an age before recorded history – indeed an age before climate change helped lead to a large-scale human exodus from Dartmoor's high country. However, where certainties are absent the imagination steps in to complete the picture. It was perhaps natural for God-fearing folk to populate the moorland with supernatural entities that could thrive in the wild weather and hostile terrain where humans could no longer live. 'Dartmoor is like the sea,' Chloe Axford of the diocese of Exeter later told me. 'It's a rugged, wild and unpredictable place. We wanted to harness the spirituality of the moor in the creation of the Archangel's Way. And also encourage people to visit its churches and chapels, and give them a warm welcome there.' Eventually, there were signs I was returning to society: a cattle grid, a row of conifers. A country lane winding down to St Michael, Chagford, where snowdrops were sprouting among the graves. Inside the beautiful little church was a rough-hewn sculpture of St Michael – a demon vanquished beneath his foot. Yet, you could still hear the wind pressing upon the rafters, as if Herminia herself was trying to get inside. On This Holy Island: A Modern Pilgrimage Across Britain by Oliver Smith is published by Bloomsbury (£10.99). To support the Guardian and the Observer buy a copy at Delivery charges may apply
The Guardian
31-01-2025
- Climate
- The Guardian
Weather tracker: Elvis shakes Madagascar after Europe's triple threat
A compact and stationary area of low pressure brought a sustained period of heavy rain to southern parts of Madagascar this week, with weather stations at Taolagnaro and Toliara recording five-day rainfall totals of 178mm and 196mm respectively, with a peak 24-hour total of 93mm at Toliara. This area of low pressure strengthened to tropical cyclone status on Tuesday and was given the name Elvis. Although southern Madagascar experienced gusty winds due to the storm, Elvis's primary impacts on land resulted from the persistent rainfall. As of 9am on Thursday, Elvis contained maximum sustained winds of 40 knots and was tracking south-south-east, with no further impacts on land expected before the storm undergoes extratropical transition by Sunday. The European windstorm season continued apace, with three named storms affecting western Europe. While Storm Éowyn was bringing strong winds and heavy rain and snow to Ireland and Britain last weekend, Storm Herminia was named by the Spanish national weather service. This was swiftly followed by Storm Ivo, named on Monday by the Portuguese national weather service. A strong jet stream across the North Atlantic was responsible for the rapid intensification of these systems. In Spain, Herminia brought gusts of 96mph to the Picos de Europa national park. Strong southwesterly winds also brought an unseasonably warm airmass to Spain, leading to January temperature records being broken. Valencia recorded a maximum temperature of 27.1C, beating the previous January record of 26.5C. Finistère in north-western France had gusts of 75mph on Sunday, and these strong winds continued into the new week, with much of the west coast of the country put on orange alert for winds on Tuesday. The rain from Herminia caused major problems, with parts of Brittany put on red alert for rain and flooding on Monday. In Rennes, the regional capital, about 400 people were evacuated after the worst flash flooding in 40 years. Eight other departments were put on orange alert, mostly for rain and flooding, with the French Alps put on orange alert for avalanches. Sign up to Down to Earth The planet's most important stories. Get all the week's environment news - the good, the bad and the essential after newsletter promotion Later in the week, France was affected by Storm Ivo, which arrived on Wednesday and brought further heavy rain, notably in the west.
Yahoo
31-01-2025
- Climate
- Yahoo
Western France battles worst floods in decades after triple storm assault
More than 1,600 people have fled their homes in western France as a third major storm in a week brought record rainfall and extreme flooding. Storm Ivo hit areas already struggling with flooding from storms Eowyn and Herminia. Red weather alerts remain active in three regions of Brittany – Ille-et-Vilaine, Loire-Atlantique and Morbihan. Their combined impact of the storms was exacerbated by the fact that the ground was already drenched from previous persistent rainfall. National weather service Météo France warned that the situation could get worse in the coming days and authorities are on high alert. The town of Redon, surrounded by two rivers, a canal and marshes, has been underwater since Vilaine river's level was hovering just below that of historic floods in 2001, but was expected to rise further, official alert body Vigicrues reported. "It's highly likely that the peak won't be reached today, but it will be in the next few days," Redon's Mayor Pascal Duchene told French news agency AFP. He said an estimated 750 residents could be affected. The Red Cross had set up an emergency shelter for 50 people at a local gym. A second shelter was being set up at another sports centre for 200 people, a Red Cross official said. Meanwhile, Ille-et-Vilaine's administrative centre Rennes experienced its worst flooding in 40 years, with rainfall around the city exceeding 178mm for January. The city of Rennes has already begun looking into ways to manage urban development and prevent flooding. Read more on RFI EnglishRead also:Number of cyclones steady, but storms more intense due to climate changeClimate disasters cost French insurers €6.5bn in 'worrying uptick'Why is northern France so vulnerable to treacherous flooding?
Khaleej Times
30-01-2025
- Climate
- Khaleej Times
'I'm out of here': French town braces for rising floods
Floods had nearly encircled and seeped into a French town on Thursday, with officials warning that one nearby river could reach historic levels in coming days. The Herminia depression earlier this week unleashed downpours on northwestern France, sparking some of the worst floods in decades. Surrounded by two rivers, a canal and marshes, several parts of the town of Redon in Brittany have been sitting in water since Wednesday. The Vilaine river's level was on Thursday morning hovering just below that of historic floods in 2001, but was expected to rise further during the day, official alert body Vigicrues reported. Its projections could see the river surge to near a level not seen since 1936. "It's highly likely that the peak won't be reached today, but it will be in the next few days," said Redon's Mayor Pascal Duchene. He said an estimated 750 residents could be affected. The Red Cross had set up an emergency shelter for 50 people at a local gym, with camp beds lined in a row and tables and chairs set up under its basketball hoops. A second shelter was being set up at another sports centre for 200 people, a Red Cross official said. Adeline Bernard, 29, was one of the first people to find refuge at the sport hall. "When I saw that the electricity was going to cut, and that the water was rising, I thought: 'That's it, I'm out of here,'" she said. Isabelle Rousselet, 66, said she was happy to be living in a higher part of town. "It will take time for it to all drain away. It's a bit scary," she said. In a flooded part of town, one resident waded through the water at the bottom of her home in rubber boots, while another wobbled along long planks of wood balanced over cinder blocks at one street corner. In the adjacent town of Saint-Nicolas-de-Redon, on the other side of a flooded bridge, police had evacuated 300 people. In total, around 1,600 people have been forced to leave their homes in the wider region. President Emmanuel Macron assured on X on Thursday his "solidarity with resident of the west" of France. Minister of Ecological Transition Agnes Pannier-Runacher said she expected a "state of natural disaster" in coming days. Scientists have shown that climate change caused by humans burning fossil fuels is making storms more severe, super-charged by warmer oceans. Herminia, which brought on the heavy weather over western France, follows Storm Eowyn that hit Ireland and Britain before the weekend. Its impact on France's northwestern regions was exacerbated by the fact that the ground was already drenched from previous persistent rainfall.
