Irene grows on path to US Southeast - Weather

Image by NASA Goddard Photo and Video via Flickrhttp://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/44218395/ns/weather/t/hurricane-irene-slams-puerto-rico-eyes-fla/#.TlR-VV0mSSo

See the links below for more up to date news on this.

NAGUA, Dominican Republic — A rapidly strengthening Hurricane Irene roared off the Dominican Republic's resort-dotted northern coast on Monday, whipping up high waves and torrential downpours on a track that could see it reach the U.S. Southeast as a major storm by the end of the week.

Irene grew into a Category 2 hurricane late Monday and the U.S. National Hurricane Center in Miami said it could reach Category 3 as early as Tuesday and possibly become a monster Category 4 storm within 72 hours.
"We didn't anticipate it gaining this much strength this early," said center meteorologist Chris Landsea, adding that the ocean's warm temperatures and the current atmosphere is "very conducive" to energizing storms.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Forecasters said it could still be that strong when it slams into the United States, possibly landing in Florida, Georgia or South Carolina. Irene is expected to rake the Turks and Caicos and the Bahamas on Tuesday and Wednesday.
Projections for U.S. coast
Most computer forecast models show Irene threatening Florida and South Carolina by the end of the week.
Forecasters said a low pressure trough over the eastern United States was expected to shift Irene's track to the east, reducing the risk of a direct landfall in densely populated South Florida but raising the risk in the Carolinas.

"The storm is tracking north of all the big islands in the Caribbean now," said meteorologist Brad Panovich of WCNC-TV in Raleigh, N.C. "This is significant because now the storm will have little interference as it moves towards the U.S. This also means a shift in the track east squarely puts the Carolinas in the strike zone."
"I would prepare now along the entire South and North Carolina coasts," he added. "Preparing for the worst and hoping for the best is the goal here. Get your supplies and plan together today through Wednesday. Thursday we’ll know who needs to activate that plan. If you wait you’ll be fighting crowds for supplies late week."
Earlier Monday, the storm slashed directly across Puerto Rico, tearing up trees and knocking out power to more than a million people, then headed out to sea north of the Dominican Republic, where the powerful storm's outer bands were buffeting the north coast with dangerous sea surge and downpours.
Late Monday, the storm's downpours forced more than 1,000 Dominicans to evacuate their homes, with some families in low-lying areas fleeing to churches and public buildings. Others hunkered down inside their homes as the winds howled outside and heavy waves pounded the piers and washed onto coastal boulevards.
"We are going to see if the zinc roof resists" the storm, Fidelina Magdaleno, 60, said in her house in Nagua while a chicken dinner was prepared inside without electricity.
Residents earlier had jammed supermarkets and gas stations to get supplies for the storm. Schools were closed and emergency services were placed on alert. At least 33 flights were canceled at Santo Domingo's international airport.
The first hurricane of the Atlantic season was a large system that could cause dangerous mudslides and floods in Dominican Republic, the hurricane center said. It was not expected to make a direct hit on neighboring Haiti, though that country could still see heavy rain from the storm.
Dominican officials said the government had emergency food available for 1.5 million people if needed and the country's military and public safety brigades were on alert.
"We have taken all precautions," presidential spokesman Rafael Nunez said.
Irene is forecast to grow into a Category 3 hurricane late Tuesday as it moves over the warm waters of the Turks and Caicos Islands and the southeastern Bahamas, and could maintain that strength as it nears the U.S. coast.

Related articles

• Hurricane Irene strengthens to category 3 storm (charlotte.news14.com)
• Hurricane Irene strengthens, puts Bahamas in its sights (csmonitor.com)
• Hurricane Irene strengthens, puts Bahamas in its sights - Christian Science Monitor (news.google.com)
• Hurricane Irene gets stronger, could hit Florida or South Carolina (nj.com)
• Will Hurricane Irene Wreck The East Coast? (zerohedge.com)
• Irene Could Threaten Entire East Coast, FEMA Says (jhaines6.wordpress.com)
• Closed captioning of: Hurricane Irene growing; Carolinas on watch - msnbc.com (news.google.com)
• Hurricane Irene gaining strength (cbc.ca)
• Powerful Hurricane Irene Churns toward Southeast U.S. (scientificamerican.com)
• U.S. braces for Hurricane Irene's blow (thestar.com)
• Hurricane Irene getting bigger, stronger (csmonitor.com)
• Hurricane Irene expected to hit U.S. this weekend (macleans.ca)
• Hurricane Irene: 12 Ways to Track the Storm Online (mashable.com)
• Irene Approaches; Weather Sites Are Ready (datacenterknowledge.com)
• Hurricane Irene Path: Major Storm Hits North Carolina by Saturday (blippitt.com)

Haiti prosecutor seeks 6-month sentence for U.S. missionary

Thanks for trying to help out, Now your going to jail.

clipped from www.cnn.com (CNN) -- A Haitian prosecutor asked for a six-month prison sentence Thursday for an American missionary accused of trying to take nearly three dozen children out of the country after a devastating and deadly earthquake in January. Laura Silsby's attorney, Chiller Roy, said the judge is expected to make a ruling in the next few days. Silsby was charged with trying to arrange "irregular travel" for 33 children she planned to take to an orphanage she was building in the Dominican Republic. She was jailed January 29, along with nine other American missionaries who were later released.

Related articles by Zemanta

• Haiti prosecutors urge prison for US missionary (seattletimes.nwsource.com)
• Judge says Silsby deceived fellow missionaries (seattletimes.nwsource.com)
• Missionaries' abduction charges dismissed (cbc.ca)
• World Briefing | The Americas: Haiti: Lesser Charge For Missionary (nytimes.com)
• Judge says Silsby deceived fellow missionaries (msnbc.msn.com)
• Haiti judge: Likely to order Americans released (seattletimes.nwsource.com)
• Haiti drops kidnapping charge for missionaries (msnbc.msn.com)
• Decision expected on American missionaries in Haiti (cnn.com)
• Haiti judge: No release of US Baptists this week (seattletimes.nwsource.com)
• Haiti judge likely to order release of Americans (ctv.ca)

Quake rattles Puerto Rico, Dominican Republic

Image via Wikipedia

clipped from www.foxnews.com SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) — A moderate earthquake has rattled the eastern Dominican Republic and western Puerto Rico. No damage or injuries are being reported in what the U.S. Geological Survey recorded as a magnitude-5.1 temblor. The quake struck Sunday at 4:16 p.m. in the Mona Passage separating the Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico. The epicenter was roughly 59 kilometers (37 miles) south-southeast of the Dominican city of Higuey in the easternmost province of La Altagracia. The quake had a depth of 86 kilometers (53 miles). The quake was felt across western Puerto Rico, as well as by high-rise dwellers in the northeast capital of San Juan.

Related articles by Zemanta

• Quake rattles Puerto Rico, Dominican Republic (seattletimes.nwsource.com)
• Dominican Prospects Protest Reform (ballhype.com)
• Smart USA appoints new dealer in Puerto Rico (newstatesman.com)
• CVS says it will expand into Puerto Rico this year (seattletimes.nwsource.com)

American missionary held in Haiti released

clipped from www.cnn.com Port-au-Prince, Haiti (CNN) -- Charisa Coulter, one of two American missionaries detained for more than a month in Haiti on suspicion of kidnapping 33 children after January 12's devastating earthquake, was released Monday. She walked out of judicial police headquarters and headed to the nearby airport Monday afternoon. Attorneys Chillier Roi and Ricardo Chachoute, who are representing Coulter and the American who still is being detained, Laura Silsby, earlier told CNN that the judge had OK'd Coulter's release. Silsby and Coulter were among 10 Americans stopped by Haitian authorities on January 29 as they tried to cross the Haiti-Dominican Republic border with 33 children. Authorities said the group didn't have proper legal documentation. The 10 Americans, many of whom belong to a Baptist church in Idaho, have said they were trying to help the children get to a safe place after the 7.0-magnitude earthquake flattened cities and towns in Haiti.

Related articles by Zemanta

• Detained American missionary in Haiti released (cnn.com)
• US missionary freed by Haitians (news.bbc.co.uk)
• Decision expected on American missionaries in Haiti (cnn.com)
• Haiti judge likely to order release of Americans (ctv.ca)
• Jailed missionaries in Haiti could be released soon (cnn.com)
• U.S. missionaries still held in Haiti to be freed (calgaryherald.com)

Attorney says U.S. Baptists charged in Haitian child case

clipped from www.onenewsnow.com PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti - Ten Americans detained in Haiti for trying to take 33 children out of the country after the earthquake were charged with child kidnapping and criminal association on Thursday, their Haitian lawyer said. Edwin Coq said that a judge found sufficient evidence to file charges against the Americans, who were arrested Friday at Haiti's border with the Dominican Republic. Coq attended Thursday's hearing and has represented the entire group in Haiti. The U.S. citizens, most of them members of an Idaho-based church group, were whisked away from the closed court hearing to jail in Port-au-Prince, the capital. One of them, Laura Silsby, waved and smiled faintly to reporters but declined to answer questions. Coq said that under Haiti's legal system, there won't be an open trial, but a judge will consider the evidence. It could take the judge three months to render a verdict, Coq said.

Related articles by Zemanta

• Haiti Missionaries Charged With Child Kidnap (news.sky.com)
• US Baptists charged with kidnapping Haitian children (telegraph.co.uk)
• Hearing for U.S. missionaries starts in Haiti (windsorstar.com)
• Jailed U.S. Baptists in Haiti seek release (cbc.ca)

US Baptists face court in child quake victim case

Image via Wikipedia

The 10 Baptists, most from Idaho, were arrested last week trying to take 33 Haitian children across the border without the required documents, according to Haitian authorities.

Standing amid piles of debris that used to be their homes and the makeshift shelters of tin and plastic sheeting that have replaced them, the people of Callebas told how they came to surrender their children.

clipped from news.yahoo.com PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti – Ten American missionaries who tried to take Haitian children out of the country faced a prosecutor on Thursday to learn if they will face child smuggling charges that could put them in prison on the impoverished Caribbean island. The Idaho-based church group says it was trying to rescue orphaned and abandoned child victims of the Jan. 12 earthquake, taking them to a better life at an orphanage in the neighboring Dominican Republic. And parents in the badly damaged village of Callebas said they willingly had handed over children because they were unable to feed or clothe the youngsters. "I am living in a tent with a friend," said Laurentius Lelly, a 27-year-old computer technician who gave up his two children, ages 4 and 6. "My main concern is that if the kids come back I'm not going to be able to feed them."

Related articles by Zemanta

• Americans to Appear Before Haitian Prosecutor (abcnews.go.com)
• U.S. Baptists to appear before Haitian prosecutor (seattletimes.nwsource.com)
• U.S. Baptists to appear before Haitian prosecutor (ctv.ca)
• Haiti may release most church members (msnbc.msn.com)

U.S. missionaries go before judge in Haiti child case | Reuters

Image by Getty Images via Daylife

• U.S. missionaries go before judge in Haiti child case | Reuters

  "The missionaries were arrested on Friday trying to cross into the Dominican Republic from Haiti with a busload of 33 children they said were orphaned by the January 12 quake. They denied charges they were engaged in child trafficking, insisting they were trying to help vulnerable orphans. Haitian police have said some of the children have living parents. The case could be diplomatically sensitive at a time when the United States is spearheading a huge relief effort to help hundreds of thousands of Haitian quake victims, and as U.S. aid groups pour millions of dollars of donations into Haiti. The five missionaries were questioned behind closed doors at Haiti's judicial police headquarters in Port-au-Prince, where they are being held behind bars. They were escorted from their cells by uniformed Haitian National Police officers to a separate room where the judge awaited along with a clerk and a translator. "I heard five of them. Then I will hear the other five tomorrow," Judge Ezaie Pierre-Louis said. "After the hearing tomorrow, I will make a report to the prosecutor, then he will decide what he does next." Communications Minister Marie-Laurence Lassegue said the missionaries did not have lawyers present. One of the missionaries, a woman, was returned to the police building on Tuesday after being treated at a hospital for hypertension. Before the hearing, prosecutor Mazarre Fortil said authorities were in the preliminary stages of the investigation. "I am here to hear the Americans, to know more about the case, about what were their intentions," he said. "We are looking deeper into what happened to determine the next steps." SOME PARENTS GAVE UP CHILDREN Haitian authorities have repeatedly expressed concerns that child traffickers could prey on children in the chaos that followed the earthquake that killed up to 200,000 people."

  tags: missionaries, Haiti, trafficking

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

Related articles by Zemanta

• US missionaries face Haiti judge (news.bbc.co.uk)
• Haiti questions Americans over child 'abductions' (nationalpost.com)
• US Missionary 'Child traffickers' held in Haiti (harlemworldblog.wordpress.com)
• Haiti says US missionaries could face kidnapping charges (telegraph.co.uk)