Weather News

The remnants of Tropical Storm Gustav were rumbling northeastward into the Great Lakes early Friday, while rain hit the central Plains and the Northeast and Southwest were toasty warm.

MIAMI (AFP) - Tropical Storm Hanna closed in on the southeastern US coast on Friday after leaving 136 dead in Haiti, as a powerful hurricane swept across the Atlantic, posing a potential threat to Caribbean islands and the United States.

MIAMI (AFP) - Hurricane Ike was downgraded to a category three storm in the Atlantic Ocean on Friday but remained a serious potential threat to the Caribbean and the United States, the US National Hurricane Center said.

WILMINGTON, N.C. - Some Southeastern states declared emergencies and officials urged residents to head inland Thursday as Tropical Storm Hanna headed toward the Atlantic coast, where it could bring high winds and rain from South Carolina to Maine.

New Orleans - As Gustav evacuees return home, and as those who stayed put survey the terrain, it's apparent how much a hurricane's unpredictability can cause varying degrees of damage.

GONAIVES, Haiti - The convoy rumbled out of the U.N. base toward a flooded, starving and seething city Thursday, carrying some of the first food aid since Tropical Storm Hanna killed 137 Haitians and drowned Gonaives in muddy water three days ago.

NEW ORLEANS - Victims of Hurricane Gustav who can't return to their homes over the next month because of storm damage or power outages can have their hotel costs covered by the Federal Emergency Management Agency, officials said Thursday.

GONAIVES, Haiti - Haiti's government says the death toll from Tropical Storm Hanna has more than doubled to 137, with most of the deaths coming in the flooded port city of Gonaives.

WILMINGTON, N.C. - Tropical storm watches or warnings were extended from Georgia to areas just south of New York City on Friday as states along the Atlantic braced for Tropical Storm Hanna.

GONAIVES, Haiti (Reuters) - Powerful Hurricane Ike weakened slightly as it charged across the Atlantic toward the Bahamas and the United States on Thursday while Tropical Storm Hanna's death toll from floods in Haiti grew to 136.

NEW ORLEANS (AFP) - Desperate people queued for ice and food in the sweltering, still powerless suburbs of New Orleans on Thursday as life returned slowly to a swath of the US Gulf Coast deserted three days ago as Hurricane Gustav bore down.

NASA's space shuttle Atlantis moved out to its Florida launch pad Thursday to prepare for one last flight to the Hubble Space Telescope next month after weather concerns related to Tropical Storm Hanna eased at the seaside spaceport.

HOUSTON (Reuters) - Entergy Corp officials on Thursday said power should be restored in 70 percent of the Louisiana parishes where Entergy supplies power within one week as thousands of workers continue to repair damage from Hurricane Gustav which slammed the state's coast Monday.

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. - NASA moved shuttle Atlantis to the launch pad on Thursday for a flight next month to the Hubble Space Telescope after being waylaid by a pair of tropical storms.

CHARLESTON, S.C. - Residents moved boats and booked inland hotel rooms while National Guard troops prepared to deploy along the Southeastern coast as Tropical Storm Hanna plowed through the Atlantic on Thursday, with Category 4 Hurricane Ike trailing a few days behind.

Weather around the U.S.A.

NEW ORLEANS, Louisiana (AFP) - New Orleans slowly came back to life Wednesday as hundreds of thousands of residents trickled home after their city survived a pounding from Hurricane Gustav.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Hurricane Ike strengthened rapidly into an "extremely dangerous" Category 4 storm in the Atlantic Ocean with 135 mph (215 kph) winds late on Wednesday, the U.S. National Hurricane Center said.

NEW ORLEANS (Reuters) - President George W. Bush made a quick visit to Louisiana on Wednesday to survey damage from Hurricane Gustav as New Orleans officials lifted roadblocks to allow tens of thousands who fled the city to return despite widespread power outages.

NEW ORLEANS - If Hurricane Katrina was one big lesson in government bungling, Gustav has been an open-book test of whether the politicians learned anything from the disaster.

MIAMI (Reuters) - Tropical Storm Ike strengthened into a hurricane in the open Atlantic Ocean on Wednesday with winds of 80 miles per hour (130 km/hour) winds, the U.S. National Hurricane Center said.

BATON ROUGE, La. - Buffing his administration's reputation for handling hurricanes, President Bush viewed toppled trees and downed power lines in Louisiana on Wednesday and declared that the government's response to Hurricane Gustav was "excellent" — much better than during Katrina.

Strong hurricanes are getting stronger, likely thanks to global warming, a new study finds. The news comes as Tropical Storms Hanna, Ike and Josephine march almost in a line across the Atlantic basin, and just days after Hurricane Gustav slammed into the Louisiana coast. Scientists have previously predicted that as global warming further heats up the ocean, hurricanes could become more frequent, more intense or both. ...

BATON ROUGE, Louisiana (AFP) - Residents of storm-battered Louisiana should wait to return home until authorities give them the all-clear, a top disaster relief aide to US President George W. Bush warned Wednesday.

SAHARSA, India (AFP) - Flood-hit northern India is in dire need of international aid on the scale of that seen after the 2004 Asian tsunami, a state official said Wednesday.

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. - Railroad operator CSX says it is rerouting some traffic due to damage to some of its tracks from Hurricane Gustav.