Hurricane Sandy raged through the Bahamas early Friday after leaving 21 people dead across the Caribbean, following a path that could see it blend with a winter storm and reach the U.S. East Coast as a super-storm next week.
Sandy knocked out power, flooded roads and cut off islands in the storm-hardened Bahamas as it swirled past Cat Island and Eleuthera, but authorities reported no deaths in the scattered archipelago.
"Generally people are realizing it is serious," said Caroline Turnquest, head of the Red Cross in the Bahamas, who said 20 shelters were opened on the main island of New Providence.
Sandy, which weakened to a category 1 hurricane Thursday night, caused havoc in Cuba early in the day, killing 11 people in eastern Santiago and Guantanamo provinces as its howling winds and rain toppled houses and ripped off roofs. Authorities said it was Cuba's deadliest storm since July 2005, when category 5 Hurricane Dennis killed 16 people and caused $2.4 billion in damage.
Sandy also killed one person while crossing Jamaica on Wednesday and 10 in Haiti, where heavy rains from the storm's outer bands caused flooding in the impoverished and deforested country.
Late Thursday, the hurricane's center was about 185 miles (300 kilometers) east-southeast of Freeport, Bahamas. The storm had maximum sustained winds of 90 mph (150 kph) and was moving north-northwest at 13 mph (20 kph).
Forecasters warned that Sandy will likely mix with a winter storm to create a monster storm in the eastern U.S. next week whose effects will be felt along the entire Atlantic Coast from Florida to Maine and inland to Ohio.
Sandy, which crossed Cuba and reached the Bahamas as a category 2 hurricane, was expected to maintain its category 1 storm status for the next several days.
In the Bahamas, power was out on Acklins Island and most roads there were flooded, government administrator Berkeley Williams said.
On Ragged Island in the southern Bahamas, the lone school was flooded.
"We have holes in roofs, lost shingles and power lines are down," said Charlene Bain, local Red Cross president. "But nobody lost a life, that's the important thing."
Steven Russell, an emergency management official in Nassau, said that docks on the western side of Great Inagua island had been destroyed and that the roof of a government building was partially ripped off.
Sooner Halvorson, a 36-year-old hotel owner from Colorado who recently moved to the Bahamas, said she and her husband, Matt, expected to ride out the storm with their two young children, three cats, two dogs and a goat at their Cat Island resort.
"We brought all of our animals inside," she said, though she added that a horse stayed outside. "She's a 40-year-old horse from the island. She's been through tons of hurricanes."
On Great Exuma island, guest house operator Veronica Marshall supplied her only customer with a flashlight and some food before Sandy bore down. She said she was confident that she and her business would make it through intact.
"I'm 73 years old and I've weathered many storms," she said.
Tropical storm conditions were possible for Florida's southeastern coast, the Upper Keys and Florida Bay by Friday morning.
Hurricane Sandy was expected to churn through the central and northwest Bahamas by Friday afternoon and then head northward off the U.S. coast.
With storm conditions projected to hit New Jersey with tropical storm-force winds Tuesday, there was a 90 percent chance that most of the U.S. East Coast would get steady gale-force winds, flooding, heavy rain and maybe snow starting Sunday and stretching past Wednesday, U.S. forecaster Jim Cisco said.
In an announcement at the end of Cuba's Thursday night newscast, Cuban authorities said the island's 11 dead included a 4-month-old boy who was crushed when his home collapsed and an 84-year-old man in Santiago province.
Santiago, Cuba's second largest city near the eastern tip of the island, was spared the worst of the storm, which also slammed the provinces of Granma, Holguin and Las Tunas.
There were no reports of injuries at the U.S. naval base at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba, but there were downed trees and power lines, said Kelly Wirfel, a base spokeswoman. Officials canceled a military tribunal session scheduled for Thursday for the prisoner charged in the 2000 attack on the Navy destroyer USS Cole.
In Haiti, Joseph Edgard Celestin, a spokesman for the civil protection office, said the country's death toll stood at nine, including three people who died while trying to cross storm-swollen rivers in southwestern Haiti. He did not provide specifics of how other people died.
Officials reported flooding across Haiti, where many of the 370,000 people still displaced by the devastating 2010 earthquake scrambled for shelter. More than 1,000 people were evacuated from 11 quake settlements, according to the International Organization for Migration.
Sandy was blamed for the death of an elderly man in Jamaica.
Associated Press
Fri Oct 26 2012
Dunia Islam antara rakan Rusia paling penting, hubungan berkembang dengan mantap, kuat
Perolehan perdagangan antara Rusia dan negara OIC telah meningkat sebanyak 37 peratus dan berjumlah lebih US$156 bilion.
Penembakan atas PM Slovakia adalah serangan politik
Menteri Pertahanan Slovakia, Robert Kalinak pada Rabu dalam satu sidang akhbar mengatakan bahawa penembakan ke atas Perdana Menteri Robert Fico adalah "serangan politik".
Bersama-sama Kalinak, Menteri Dalam Negeri Slovakia, Matus Sutaj Estok berkata bagaimanapun beliau tidak akan mendedahkan butiran mengenai penembak buat masa ini tetapi mengesahkan bahawa serangan itu bermotifkan politik.
Bersama-sama Kalinak, Menteri Dalam Negeri Slovakia, Matus Sutaj Estok berkata bagaimanapun beliau tidak akan mendedahkan butiran mengenai penembak buat masa ini tetapi mengesahkan bahawa serangan itu bermotifkan politik.
Pemimpin dunia kutuk serangan terhadap PM Slovakia
Pemimpin-pemimpin dunia mengutuk sekeras-kerasnya insiden tembakan terhadap Perdana Menteri Slovakia, Robert Fico yang mana tindakan itu dianggap sebagai serangan ganas yang tidak mempunyai tempat dalam masyarakat dan serta mempersendakan kuasa demokrasi dunia. Kecaman dan doa dititipkan oleh pemimpin dari pelbagai negara dalam laman media sosial 'X' selepas menerima berita insiden mengejutkan itu.
600,000 penduduk Palestin jadi pelarian sejak Rafah diserang
PBB anggarkan 600,000 penduduk Palestin menjadi pelarian sejak Israel lancar serangan ke atas Rafah.
Hamas dakwa Israel punca rundingan gencatan senjata gagal
Ismail Haniyeh menyalahkan Israel atas kegagalan rundingan gencatan senjata yang dikemukakan oleh Mesir dan Qatar.
Manfaat kerjasama Mashariq-Tabung Haji
Syarikat Mashariq di Arab Saudi lahirkan rasa gembira dengan kerjasama yang terjalin antara mereka dan Tabung Haji khususnya berhubung jalinan teknologi memandangkan ia banyak mendatangkan manfaat kepada jemaah haji Malaysia.
TPM Slovakia percaya nyawa PM Robert Fico 'tidak terancam'
Taraba mengkritik parti pembangkang, menuduh mereka menggunakan "naratif palsu" dan menggambarkan Fico sebagai "seperti raksasa".
Dua pegawai kanan badan berkanun seleweng projek RM1.2 bilion
Suruhanjaya Pencegahan Rasuah Malaysia (SPRM) Putrajaya menahan DUA Pegawai Kanan Badan Berkanun kerana disyaki menyalahgunakan kuasa dan Menyeleweng dana peruntukan pinjaman daripada Kementerian Kewangan (MOF) bagi Projek Pembangunan bernilai RM 1.2 billion.
Buah-buahan Malaysia pikat warga Namibia, pacu potensi perdagangan
Produk pertanian Malaysia terutama buah-buahan berpotensi besar untuk dieksport ke Namibia. Ini kerana negara di benua Afrika itu melihat produk Pertanian Malaysia adalah istimewa dan hanya terdapat di negara tropika seperti nangka manggis dan durian.
Putin tiba di Beijing dalam usaha dapatkan sokongan China terhadap perang di Ukraine
Lawatan Putin dilihat sebagai talian hayat ekonomi bagi Rusia selepas Barat mengenakan sekatan yang tidak pernah berlaku sebelum ini.
Wanita AS maut diserang jerung di Bahamas
Seorang wanita dari Boston, Massachusetts, Amerika Syarikat (AS) maut diserang seekor jerung semasa menaiki papan dayung di pantai berhampiran sebuah pusat peranginan di Bahamas pada pagi Isnin.
Barbados umum hasrat singkir Ratu Elizabeth II sebagai ketua negara
Kerajaan negara pulau itu ingin mencapai matlamatnya menjelang sambutan kemerdekaan ke-55 pada November 2021.
Taufan Isaias dijangka kembali kuat - Gabenor Florida
Angin kencang dan ribut dari Taufan Isaias menumbangkan pokok serta mengakibatkan bekalan elektrik termati sebaik sahaja ia mula membadai pantai Florida.
Taufan Dorian kekal bahaya walaupun semakin melemah
Taufan Dorian yang sebelum ini membadai dengan kekuatan 180 kilometer sejam (km/j) semakin lemah dengan kelajuan angin 175 km/j pada Kategori 2.
Lapangan Terbang Antarabangsa Bahamas musnah teruk dibadai Taufan Dorian
Lapangan Terbang Antarabangsa The Leonard M. Thompson di Bahamas antara yang musnah teruk terkena penangan Taufan Dorian yang melanda negara itu sejak beberapa hari lalu.
Taufan Dorian ragut 20 nyawa di Bahamas
Usaha menyelamat mangsa akibat Taufan Dorian di Bahamas sedang dipergiat.
Selepas Bahamas, kini Selatan Carolina bakal dibadai Dorian
Gabenor Selatan Carolina, Henry McMaster, memberi peringatan kepada penduduk tempatan agar keluar daripada zon evakuasi dalam kadar segera.
Hurikan Dorian ragut lima nyawa di Bahamas
Sekurang-kurangnya 21 orang turut cedera semasa hurikan itu bergerak merentasi Lautan Atlantik ke arah tanah besar Amerika Syarikat (AS).
Apakah kemampuan taufan Dorian?
Taufan Dorian yang kini berada dalam kategori kelima telah pun membadai di Bahamas dengan catatan kelajuan angin mencecah 300km per jam.
Taufan Dorian landa Bahamas, penduduk Florida dan Carolina bersiap sedia
Pusat Taufan Kebangsaan (NHC) yang beribu pejabat di Miami berkata kekuatan angin 160 kilometer sejam (km/j) dicatat awal hari Isnin pada kedudukan 55 kilometer ke timur Abaco.