Weather News

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

Houston; and Hattiesburg, Miss. - For many who fled the path of hurricane Gustav, there's a sense that the worst is over. But most evacuees also have an unease that won't dissipate until they're able to unlock their own front doors and see for themselves what damage – if any – Gustav wrought in their absence.

FREEPORT (AFP) - Tropical storm Hanna turned its heavy winds and rains on the Bahamas and threatened to head toward the southeastern US coastline after leaving at least 19 dead in Haiti.

WASHINGTON (AFP) - The United States is releasing 250,000 barrels of oil from its strategic reserve to help with recovery efforts in the wake of Hurricane Gustav, the Energy Department announced.

NEW ORLEANS - Thousands of people who fled Hurricane Gustav forced the city to reluctantly open its doors Wednesday, while President Bush returned to the site of one of the biggest failures of his presidency to show that the government had turned a corner since its bungled response to Katrina.

NEW ORLEANS - Many of the illegal immigrants who have been rebuilding New Orleans since Hurricane Katrina stayed behind when Gustav struck because they were afraid of being arrested if they boarded the buses and trains arranged by emergency officials.