Monthly Archives: August 2012
Isaac Becomes a Hurricane in Gulf of Mexico; Moving Toward Louisiana
Isaac formed into a hurricane Tuesday afternoon as it continued moving over the Gulf of Mexico toward Louisiana, according to the National Hurricane Center in Miami.
As of 11 a.m., Isaac had maximum sustained winds near 70 mph as it moved northwest at 10 mph about 80 miles south-southeast of the mouth of the Mississippi River and 165 miles south-southeast of New Orleans, Louisiana.
The center of Hurricane Isaac will be near of over the Louisiana coast Tuesday night or Wednesday, according to the NHC.
Gov. Rick Scott said Tuesday he remained concern about flooding in the Panhandle but was confident
Although Isaac’s approach on the eve of the Katrina anniversary invited obvious comparisons, the storm is nowhere near as powerful as Katrina was when it struck on Aug. 29, 2005. Katrina at one point reached Category 5 status with winds of more than 157 mph, and made landfall as a Category 3 storm.
Still, forecasters at the National Hurricane Center warned that Isaac, especially if it strikes at high tide, could cause storm surges of up to 12 feet along low-lying areas.
In a brief news conference from the White House Tuesday, President Barack Obama urged residents of the Gulf Coast to listen to local authorities and follow their directions as Tropical Storm Isaac approaches.
Obama told Gulf Coast residents, “Now is not the time to tempt fate. Now is not the time to dismiss official warnings. You need to take this seriously,” he said.
In the Big Easy on Monday, Mayor Mitch Landrieu did not activate a mandatory evacuation. Instead, officials urged residents to hunker down and make do with the supplies they had.
Federal officials said the updated levees around New Orleans are equipped to handle storms stronger than Isaac.
The hurricane warning from the Mississippi-Alabama border eastward to Destin, Florida is now a tropical storm warning.
A hurricane warning was in effect for east of Morgan City, Louisiana to the Mississippi-Alabama border, including metropolitan New Orleans, Lake Pontchartrain and Lake Maurepas, while a hurricane watch was in effect for Intracoastal City to Morgan City.
A tropical storm warning was in effect for the Mississippi-Alabama border to Destin, Florida and Morgan City to Cameron, Louisiana. There was a tropical storm watch in effect for east of High Island, Texas, to just west of Cameron, Louisiana.
Meanwhile, in Tampa, the Republican National Convention was expected to start it’s first full day Tuesday, after Isaac forced organizers to delay most of the events on Monday.
NBC News Reports.
Isaac Location and Information as of August 25 11AM EST
As Tropical Storm Isaac swept across Haiti, at least three people were reported dead.
A woman and a child died in the town of Souvenance, Sen. Francisco Delacruz told a local radio station. A 10-year-old girl died in Thomazeau when a wall fell on him, said Marie Alta Jean-Baptiste, director of Haiti’s Civil Protection Office.
Meanwhile, the National Hurricane Center Saturday issued new watches and warnings for parts of Florida.
A tropical storm warning was extended northward along Florida’s east coast to Sebastien Inlet.
A tropical storm watch has been issued along Florida’s east coast north of Sebastien Inlet to Flagler Beach. Florida’s west coast north of Bonita Beach to Tarpon Springs is also under a tropical storm watch.
A hurricane warning was issued for the Florida Keys and the west coast of Florida from Bonita Beach southward, according to the National Hurricane Center.
A hurricane watch was issued for the Florida East Coast from Golden Beach Southward, the NHC said.
As of 11 a.m., Isaac was located about 40 miles east of Guantanamo, Cuba and 385 miles south-southwest of Nassau. The storm had maximum sustained winds at 60 mph and was moving northwest at 17 mph.
Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Gimenez said tropical storm force winds from Isaac could begin in South Florida as early as tomorrow morning.
He urged residents Saturday to begin putting up their shutters, gather supplies and fill up their cars with gas.
“You should begin putting up your shutters now. Even tropical storm winds can cause damage so you shouldn’t wait until the last moment to protect your home,” he said.
Miami International Airport will remain open but some airlines could decide to cancel certain flights, Gimenez said. No word yet on whether schools will open Monday.
Monroe County began urging visitors Saturday to leave the Keys if they could but did not issue a mandatory evacuation. Shelters in Monroe will open at 2 p.m.
Meanwhile in South Florida, officials said residents should not let their guard down and begin preparing for the storm.
“Today is really the day when we need to start doing our preparations because by tomorrow, especially for mainland South Florida, at least by late tomorrow morning, we could already be starting to experience the first tropical storm winds,” Robert Molleda of the National Weather Service told NBC 6.
“It’s a pretty large storm,” Molleda said. “That tropical force wind field, even if the center passes over the lower Keys, Miami-Dade and Broward County will likely see some tropical force storm winds, probably for most of the day on Sunday.”
The center of Isaac is expected to move near or over eastern Cuba later Saturday. Forecasters expect Isaac to become a hurricane Sunday.
The storm brought heavy rain to Haiti and the Dominican Republic.
Organizers of next week’s Republican National Convention in Tampa say they are monitoring the storm. Some 70,000 delegates, journalists and protesters are expected, and Florida Gov. Rick Scott said there are no plans to cancel the convention.
A hurricane watch remains in effect for Haiti. A tropical storm warning remains in effect for the Dominican Republic, parts of Cuba, The Bahamas and Lake Okeechobee.
A tropical storm watch remains in effect for parts of Cuba and Jamaica.
NBC 6 South Florida Reports.
Stranded Jet-Skier Walks Across JFK Runways Undetected
A jet-skier who became stranded in Jamaica Bay easily breached JFK’s security system by walking undetected through two runways and into a terminal.
Daniel Castillo of Queens swam to shore and then walked past motion sensors and closed-circuit cameras of the airport’s state-of–the art Perimeter Intrusion Detection System.
The $100 million system is meant to safeguard against terrorists.
Castillo climbed an eight-foot-tall perimeter fence and made his way to Terminal 3, according to The New York Post. He approached a Delta Airlines worker, who alerted authorities, the paper said.
The breach raised a host of troubling questions about safety.
” If it had been a coordinated Al Qaeda operation I wouldn’t even want to think how bad this could’ve been,” said Rep. Peter King, the Long Island Republican who chairs of the House Homeland Security Committee. ” Raytheon is the contractor. Raytheon is trying to determine what went wrong, what didn’t work, but it appears that nothing worked.”
Raytheon did not yet return calls for comment.
The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey is investigating. The agency says it has increased patrols on the ground and in the water and plans to meet with the security system’s maker this week.
NBC New York Reports.
Subway Service Resume in Buenos Aires After 10 Day Strike
All six lines of the subway and the Premetro overground tram service were resumed today following a ten-day union strike that had paralyzed transport across Buenos Aires City.
From 5 am this morning all of the subway lines were running as normal, with the exception of the E line, which “due to technical problems” began running at 6am, Metrovías said today.
The Subte underground trains strike, which dragged both national and City government under the spotlight and affected the daily commute of over 900 million people, was lifted last night following yet another last-ditch meeting between the parties involved.
“The conflict continues, but we decided to make a gesture towards users and workers,” by lifting the strike, said AGTSyP breakaway subway workers union boss Roberto Pianelli, in a press conference last night.
Taylor Swift Reveals New Album ‘Red’ & New Single
Multi-platinum superstar Taylor Swift is releasing her fourth studio album which is called “Red”, on Oct. 22.
Taylor Swift sat in a red and white striped dress, in front of a group of very lucky fans in Nashville, Tenn. (and the millions of fans watching via YouTube chat) Monday night, to reveal the new album.
“For the last two years, I’ve been working on an album called Red,” Taylor said in a statement. “I called it Red because of the tumultuous, crazy adventures in love and loss that it chronicles. In my mind, when you experience love that’s fast paced and out of control and mixes infatuation, jealousy, frustration, miscommunication, and all of those lovely emotions…in retrospect, it all looks red.”
“I am so excited for you to hear the new direction of things,” Swift said, adding that “really disfunctional” and “not good” relationships can provide “a lot of inspiration.”
Her new song, “We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together,” which is about ending a bad relationship, is out today on iTunes and GooglePlay. While at a shoot for Glamour magazine, the 22-year-old singer told “Nightline” anchor Cynthia McFadden exclusively that the song was about something that actually happened to her.
Tune into “Good Morning America” October 22nd and 23rd to watch Taylor Swift’s first live concert of her brand-new album, “Red.”
Here’s her latest single available now on iTunes now:
1 World Trade Center glows boldly in red
Naomi Campbell’s Hair Weave Disaster
Even supermodels have bad hair days, but from the looks of this recent photo, Naomi Campbellappears to be dealing with something far worse.
A photo of the 42-year-old beauty vacationing in Ibiza earlier this week shows what appears to be a receding hairline.
Florida hair surgeon Dr. Alan Bauman, who has not treated Campbell, said the former supermodel appears to be suffering from traction alopecia – hair loss due to extensions.
“Extensions, weaves, anything artificial hanging on hair – no matter whether you attach it with glue, special magnets, tape – it’s going to cause damage over time,” Bauman told ABCNews.com. “And unless you give your hair a break from those extensions, it won’t rebound.”
Bauman said the weight from extensions pulls on a person’s natural hair over time, causing it to rip out by the root. The hair follicle can be damaged or destroyed – in some cases, permanently. In the latter case, the only option is a hair transplant, which involves moving healthy hair follicles from one part of the scalp to the damaged area.
Read more on ABC’s Good Morning America.
New World Trade Center Images Released
World Trade Center 1 is now nearly built up to its 1,368-foot roof. New Renderings came out this week for the WTC Site.
The new images—the first in more than five years—aren’t dramatically different from the past renderings, but show some changes to the design of the building that have been made in the past few years by its owners, the Port Authority of New York & New Jersey, and the Durst Organization.
Among the notable changes: the recent removal of the casing around the tower’s 408-foot antenna mast (which angered the building’s architects and sparked debate over whether its height will actually be counted as the symbolic 1,776 feet it sought to achieve at the top of the mast) and a revamped base. The base was tweaked when a prior design for the glass ran into manufacturing problems.
Another point of note in the renderings: They don’t include 2 World Trade Center and 3 World Trade Center, towers planned by developer Larry Silverstein. Both require tenants to proceed, although the base of 3 World Trade Center is being built out in the interim.
Parents’ Outrageous Backyard Roller Coaster
Forget about begging your parents for a trip to Disney World, all the two children of one Ohio couple have to do is ask their mom and dad to play in the backyard.
There, they have their very own roller coaster at their disposal, built by hand by their parents, Jon and Natasha Cain. The Lancaster, Ohio, couple engineered and constructed the ride on their own using just wood, concrete and PVC pipe.
They built the coaster in the summer of 2009 for their daughter, Olyvia, and son, Samual, and captured them on camera enjoying the thrill of the ride two years later, they told ABC News.
The Cains posted their video on YouTube earlier this year, and it has now become a viral sensation with more than 500,000 views.
The video shows Jon Cain pushing Samual through the 12-second ride as he lets out squeals of delight.
The 12-foot-high roller coaster, full of twists and turns, took the couple three weeks to build, they told Yahoo! News.
The total cost of $700 more than doubled an original estimated budget of $300, but still clocked in at far less than a family trip to a theme park.
In an interview with ABC News, Cain said her children enjoyed the homemade attraction.
“My daughter was three when we built it and she loved it. At first, she was hesitant, but not scared,” she said.
Now 6 years old, Olyvia is too big to go over the roller coaster’s highest point, but she can ride over the smaller hill, Cain said.
The Cains are now building themselves a new home. It’s a log cabin and, not surprisingly, they’re building it themselves.
Neither of the Cains – Jon is 29, and Natasha, 23 – has an engineering background. They run a car dealership, but enjoy putting things together, Natasha Cain said.
“We did talk about doing a Ferris wheel at the new house … not like a ginormous one, just one that you could manually do,” she said.
