Hurricane Joaquin slams Bahamas, will bring heavy rain to Mid-Atlantic area

Palafox said she had discussed the weather forecast with Arteaga earlier this week, but she hadn’t seemed concerned about the expected heavy rains. “But our hope is that they are either on the vessel or on life rafts, and we can identify them”. National Guardsmen and more than 150,000 sand bags were on standby.

Hurricane Joaquin is battering the Bahamas and moving northward.

Because of the storm’s proximity to the coast, high winds, rainfall, and flooding will potentially affect energy infrastructure such as power transmission and distribution lines, petroleum refineries, natural gas processing plants, and distribution terminals. Sylvia Arteaga, 56, drowned in a flash flood under a railroad bridge in Spartanburg while driving home from the night shift.

Joaquin’s hurricane-force winds, which extended 50 miles (80 km) from its center, were forecast to miss the larger Bahamas islands and the main cities and cruise ship ports of Freeport and Nassau.

Coast Guard officials in Miami say the rescue took place Thursday evening as the area experienced heavy weather caused by Hurricane Joaquin (wah-KEEN’). The message stated that the ship was listing and crew members were preparing to abandon it.

What’s not going away is the rain for the already waterlogged region.

“We checked them all”, he said. In New York, Gov. Andrew Cuomo has mobilized the State Emergency Operations Center as a precaution. The Carolinas, already saturated from previous storms, also could see more rain and damaging flooding.

“Until it starts curving back out to the northeast, or goes over land and stays over land, we’ll be flying it over the next few days”, Stack said.

The Appalachian Mountains could get soaked because of the interaction between Joaquin and a low-pressure system over the southeastern United States, according to Myers. Low lying areas may see moderate flooding.

People watch the waves in a rainstorm at Atlantic Ocean at Carolina…

There were no boarded-up windows.

There was no panic at the Sunsations beach shop.

“It had actually gotten a little bit stronger as we were flying it”, Stack said.

Experts agree that keeping an eye on the storm path is key.

Flood watches and warnings also are in effect in Delaware and parts of New Jersey, Maryland and Virginia. Six inches of moving water can make you fall. “I certainly hope that something of that proportion doesn’t happen again”. Winds are 130 miles per hour.

Communications were cut to several islands, majority lightly populated, but there had been no reports of fatalities or injuries, said Capt. Stephen Russell, the director of the Bahamas National Emergency Management Agency.

Even though Hurricane Joaquin pounded the Bahamas for a second day, it was not expected to be a major threat to the US East Coast.