Perilous Times and Climate Change
Heavy rains from Tropical Storm Otto have overturned cars, toppled
power lines and washed out roads in the northeastern Caribbean.
Tropical Storm Otto hits Caribbean
October 8, 2010 - 5:19AM
AP
CHARLOTTE AMALIE, US Virgin Islands, Oct 7 AP - Heavy rains from
Tropical Storm Otto have overturned cars, toppled power lines and
washed out roads in the northeastern Caribbean, officials say, while
stalling efforts to free a grounded tanker.
The British Virgin Islands has been hit with the worst flooding in the
islands' history and the government declared a state of emergency, the
director of Department of Disaster Management, Sharleen Dabreo, said on
Thuursday.
The rush of water downed power lines, broke underground drainage pipes
and flipped cars that remained mired in mud.
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Officials closed public schools in the US Virgin Islands and St Kitts
and Nevis, where government spokesman Erasmus Williams said rough
waters were frustrating efforts to free an oil tanker that broke free
of its moorings and grounded in the capital's harbour.
None of the roughly 18,000 barrels of diesel fuel inside the
Turkish-flagged Azra-S have spilled.
The US National Hurricane Centre in Miami said Otto became a tropical
storm early Thursday and it was expected to grow into at least a
minimum-force hurricane with winds of 120km/h by Friday night or
Saturday.
Its maximum sustained winds were near 95km/h at midday on Thursday -
with tropical-storm-force winds of at least 62km/hm, extending as far
as 165km from the centre.
Otto was centered about 400km northeast of Grand Turk Island and had
been almost stationary early on Thursday, but the Hurricane Centre said
it was likely to start advancing northeast across the open Atlantic
toward the Azores islands.