AFP

People were evacuating high-risk areas and lining up to buy supplies Friday as Louisiana braced for Hurricane Ida, which was expected to strengthen to an “extremely dangerous” Category 4 hurricane when it hits the southern United States this weekend.

Forecasters warned of surging seas and flooding that could spill over levees as the storm made landfall late Friday in western Cuba as a Category 1 storm, packing maximum sustained winds near 80 miles (130 kilometers) per hour.

“The time to act is NOW. Hurricane Ida is now forecast to make landfall as a category 4 hurricane,” the US National Weather Service urged in a tweet, after the National Hurricane Center (NHC) branded the storm “extremely dangerous.”

That level is the second-highest on the Saffir-Simpson hurricane wind scale, with a minimum winds of 130 miles per hour. 

The NHC forecast a storm surge of up to six feet (1.8 meters) above normal tide levels on Cuba’s Isle of Youth and warned Friday of expected “life-threatening heavy rains, flash flooding and mudslides” on Jamaica and the Cayman Islands.

Ida struck Cuba in the province of Pinar del Rio, the current coronavirus epicenter of the island. More than 10,000 people were evacuated and the electricity was cut off ahead of the storm as a precaution.

In the capital Havana, public transport was suspended by midday and thousands of people evacuated.

Louisiana officials have already ordered mandatory evacuations outside the levee-protected areas of New Orleans — which was devastated 16 years ago this month by Hurricane Katrina — and flood-prone coastal towns on the state’s coast such as Grand Isle.  

“People are packing and leaving right now,” Scooter Resweber, police chief in Grand Isle, told nola.com. “We know this is going to be a big one.”

Louisiana declared a state of emergency in preparation for the storm, which is forecast to make US landfall late Sunday. 

The declaration, approved by President Joe Biden, will funnel federal supplemental funds and aid to the southern state to bolster its emergency preparedness and response efforts.

– ‘Potentially devastating’ –

Louisiana is frequently hit by major storms. New Orleans remains traumatized from Katrina in 2005, which flooded 80 percent of the city and killed more than 1,800 people. 

“Now is the time for Louisianans to get prepared,” tweeted the state’s governor John Bel Edwards, calling on residents to “make sure you and your family are ready for whatever comes.”

But New Orleans mayor LaToya Cantrell told residents inside the city’s protective levee system to stay in their homes.

“We do not want to have people on the road, and therefore in greater danger,” she told nola.com.

A public shelter was being prepared for people who could not evacuate but did not want to shelter at homes, she added.

NHC said the storm was likely to produce heavy rainfall and “considerable” flooding from southeast Louisiana to coastal Mississippi and Alabama. 

“Potentially devastating wind damage could occur where the core of Ida moves onshore,” the hurricane center noted. 

Last week, a rare tropical storm struck the US northeastern seaboard, knocking out power to thousands of Americans, uprooting trees and bringing record rainfall. 

Henri missed New York City by several miles but still forced the halt of a star-studded Central Park concert billed as a “homecoming” for a metropolis hard-hit by the pandemic.

Scientists have warned of a rise in the number of powerful cyclones as the ocean surface warms due to climate change, posing an increasing threat to the world’s coastal communities.

When Canadian conservation enthusiasts head out to find monarch eggs, it’s always with a magnifying glass and a notebook. They are volunteers taking part in a summer census of the iconic, endangered butterflies.

July and August are the best months, when the monarch is visible in Canada at all stages of its development: eggs, caterpillar, chrysalis and adult butterfly.

It is also the reproduction period for the generation which will take off in a few weeks for a 4,000 kilometer (2,500 mile) journey to Mexico.

But it’s complicated research. “The monarch lays one egg per leaf. There are insects which can lay a dozen eggs all together while the monarch lays one. So we are looking for something very small,” explains Jacques Kirouac, who is among the hundreds of people who take part in the citizen science program Mission Monarch.

The eggs of these creatures known for their striking orange and black colors are off-white or yellow and about the size of a pinhead, with ridges that run from the tip to the base.

The species’s dire situation led to the creation five years ago of this program set up by the Montreal Insectarium to document monarch breeding grounds. The data is used by researchers, in particular to determine zones in need of protection. There are similar programs in the United States.

Monarchs of the eastern side of the continent are in a difficult situation: their population has decreased by more than 80 percent in two decades. Western monarchs — which hibernate in California — are even worse off: fewer than 2,000 were reported in the last census by Western Monarch Count, down 99.9 percent since the 1980s.

More generally, the disappearance of insects — less spectacular and less striking for the public than that of large mammals — is just as worrying, say the scientists.

They are essential to ecosystems and economies because they pollinate plants, recycle nutrients and serve as staple food for other animals.

– ‘Not enough data’ –

“It’s a beautiful butterfly. It would be a real loss to lose it,” says Renald Saint-Onge, also a volunteer for Mission Monarch.

This 73-year-old former carpenter and ornithologist feels driven to “save this butterfly.” So he decided to let grow at his home as many milkweed plants as possible. Often considered a weed, this perennial plant is the only one on which the monarch butterfly lays. But we find it less and less.

“The natural fields where we had milkweed and nectar-bearing plants are increasingly rare,” says Alessandro Dieni, coordinator of the Mission Monarch program. And the plants are “of lower quality because we have fields with monocultures everywhere” and an intensive use of pesticides in the country that killed them off.

Logging has also devastated forests in Mexico where the monarchs spend the winter.

Faced with the catastrophic decline of this insect, the Canadian government has decided to get involved in helping the monarch by seeking to protect its breeding grounds. “However, there was not enough data in Canada to know where to go to protect the monarch,” says Dieni.

The decline of insects, which represent two-thirds of all terrestrial species, dates back to the beginning of the 20th century, and accelerated in the years 1950-60 to reach alarming proportions over the last 20 years.

“Thanks to the censuses, we can now do more precise research,” explains Marian MacNair of McGill University.

“This allows us to better determine the routes taken, the conditions that the monarch particularly like,” adds the biologist who expresses amazement over this small, emblematic butterfly’s ability to fly thousands of kilometers.

The monarch butterfly makes a good study for scientists because often “we have great difficulty in observing the evolution” of populations of insects. But the monarch’s territory is rather small and therefore it is easy to do calculations and observations and document “the extent of the disaster,” explains MacNair.

People were evacuating high-risk areas and lining up to buy supplies Friday as Louisiana braced for Hurricane Ida, which was expected to strengthen to an “extremely dangerous” Category 4 hurricane when it hits the southern United States this weekend.

Forecasters warned of surging seas and flooding that could spill over levees as the storm made landfall late Friday in western Cuba as a Category 1 storm, packing maximum sustained winds near 80 miles (130 kilometers) per hour.

“The time to act is NOW. Hurricane Ida is now forecast to make landfall as a category 4 hurricane,” the US National Weather Service urged in a tweet, after the National Hurricane Center (NHC) branded the storm “extremely dangerous.”

That level is the second-highest on the Saffir-Simpson hurricane wind scale, with a minimum winds of 130 miles per hour. 

The NHC forecast a storm surge of up to six feet (1.8 meters) above normal tide levels on Cuba’s Isle of Youth and warned Friday of expected “life-threatening heavy rains, flash flooding and mudslides” on Jamaica and the Cayman Islands.

Officials have already ordered mandatory evacuations outside the levee-protected areas of New Orleans — which was devastated 16 years ago this month by Hurricane Katrina — and flood-prone coastal towns on Louisiana’s coast such as Grand Isle.  

“People are packing and leaving right now,” Scooter Resweber, police chief in Grand Isle, told nola.com. “We know this is going to be a big one.”

Louisiana declared a state of emergency in preparation for the storm, which is forecast to make US landfall late Sunday. 

The declaration, approved by President Joe Biden, will funnel supplemental funds and aid to the southern state to bolster its emergency preparedness and response efforts.

– ‘Potentially devastating’ –

Louisiana is frequently hit by major storms. New Orleans remains traumatized from Katrina in 2005, which flooded 80 percent of the city and killed more than 1,800 people. 

“Now is the time for Louisianans to get prepared,” tweeted the state’s governor John Bel Edwards, calling on residents to “make sure you and your family are ready for whatever comes.”

But New Orleans mayor LaToya Cantrell told residents inside the city’s protective levee system to stay in their homes.

“We do not want to have people on the road, and therefore in greater danger,” she told nola.com.

A public shelter was being prepared for people who could not evacuate but did not want to shelter at homes, she added.

NHC said the storm was likely to produce heavy rainfall and “considerable” flooding from southeast Louisiana to coastal Mississippi and Alabama. 

“Potentially devastating wind damage could occur where the core of Ida moves onshore,” the hurricane center noted. 

Last week, a rare tropical storm struck the US northeastern seaboard, knocking out power to thousands of Americans, uprooting trees and bringing record rainfall. 

Henri missed New York City by several miles but still forced the halt of a star-studded Central Park concert billed as a “homecoming” for a metropolis hard-hit by the pandemic.

Scientists have warned of a rise in the number of powerful cyclones as the ocean surface warms due to climate change, posing an increasing threat to the world’s coastal communities. 

People were evacuating high-risk areas and lining up to buy supplies Friday as Louisiana braced for Hurricane Ida, which was expected to strengthen to an “extremely dangerous” Category 4 hurricane when it hits the southern United States this weekend.

Forecasters warned of surging seas and flooding that could spill over levees as the storm made landfall late Friday in western Cuba as a Category 1 storm, packing maximum sustained winds near 80 miles (130 kilometers) per hour.

“The time to act is NOW. Hurricane Ida is now forecast to make landfall as a category 4 hurricane,” the US National Weather Service urged in a tweet, after the National Hurricane Center (NHC) branded the storm “extremely dangerous.”

That level is the second-highest on the Saffir-Simpson hurricane wind scale, with a minimum winds of 130 miles per hour. 

The NHC forecast a storm surge of up to six feet (1.8 meters) above normal tide levels on Cuba’s Isle of Youth and warned Friday of expected “life-threatening heavy rains, flash flooding and mudslides” on Jamaica and the Cayman Islands.

Officials have already ordered mandatory evacuations outside the levee-protected areas of New Orleans — which was devastated 16 years ago this month by Hurricane Katrina — and flood-prone coastal towns on Louisiana’s coast such as Grand Isle.  

“People are packing and leaving right now,” Scooter Resweber, police chief in Grand Isle, told nola.com. “We know this is going to be a big one.”

Louisiana declared a state of emergency in preparation for the storm, which is forecast to make US landfall late Sunday. 

The declaration, approved by President Joe Biden, will funnel supplemental funds and aid to the southern state to bolster its emergency preparedness and response efforts.

– ‘Potentially devastating’ –

Louisiana is frequently hit by major storms. New Orleans remains traumatized from Katrina in 2005, which flooded 80 percent of the city and killed more than 1,800 people. 

“Now is the time for Louisianans to get prepared,” tweeted the state’s governor John Bel Edwards, calling on residents to “make sure you and your family are ready for whatever comes.”

But New Orleans mayor LaToya Cantrell told residents inside the city’s protective levee system to stay in their homes.

“We do not want to have people on the road, and therefore in greater danger,” she told nola.com.

A public shelter was being prepared for people who could not evacuate but did not want to shelter at homes, she added.

NHC said the storm was likely to produce heavy rainfall and “considerable” flooding from southeast Louisiana to coastal Mississippi and Alabama. 

“Potentially devastating wind damage could occur where the core of Ida moves onshore,” the hurricane center noted. 

Last week, a rare tropical storm struck the US northeastern seaboard, knocking out power to thousands of Americans, uprooting trees and bringing record rainfall. 

Henri missed New York City by several miles but still forced the halt of a star-studded Central Park concert billed as a “homecoming” for a metropolis hard-hit by the pandemic.

Scientists have warned of a rise in the number of powerful cyclones as the ocean surface warms due to climate change, posing an increasing threat to the world’s coastal communities. 

People were evacuating high-risk areas and lining up to buy supplies Friday as Louisiana braced for Hurricane Ida, which was expected to strengthen to an “extremely dangerous” Category 4 hurricane when it hits the southern United States this weekend.

Forecasters warned of surging seas and flooding that could spill over levees as the storm was passing over western Cuba, packing maximum sustained winds near 80 miles (130 kilometers) per hour.

“The time to act is NOW. Hurricane Ida is now forecast to make landfall as a category 4 hurricane,” the US National Weather Service urged in a tweet, after the National Hurricane Center (NHC) branded the storm “extremely dangerous.”

That level is the second-highest on the Saffir-Simpson hurricane wind scale, with a minimum speed of 130 miles per hour. 

The NHC forecast a storm surge of up to six feet above normal tide levels on Cuba’s Isle of Youth and warned Friday of expected “life-threatening heavy rains, flash flooding and mudslides” on Jamaica and the Cayman Islands.

Officials have already ordered mandatory evacuations in parts of New Orleans — which was devastated 16 years ago this month by Hurricane Katrina — and flood-prone coastal towns on Louisiana’s coast such as Grand Isle.  

“People are packing and leaving right now,” Scooter Resweber, police chief in Grand Isle, told nola.com. “We know this is going to be a big one.”

– ‘Potentially devastating’ –

Louisiana is frequently hit by major storms. New Orleans remains traumatized from Katrina in 2005, which flooded 80 percent of the city and killed more than 1,800 people. 

“Now is the time for Louisianans to get prepared,” tweeted the state’s governor John Bel Edwards, calling on residents to “make sure you and your family are ready for whatever comes.”

“Potentially devastating wind damage could occur where the core of Ida moves onshore,” the NHC added, noting the storm is likely to produce heavy rainfall and “considerable” flooding from southeast Louisiana to coastal Mississippi and Alabama. 

Last week, a rare tropical storm struck the US northeastern seaboard, knocking out power to thousands of Americans, uprooting trees and bringing record rainfall. 

Henri missed New York City by several miles but still forced the halt of a star-studded Central Park concert billed as a “homecoming” for a metropolis hard-hit by the pandemic.

Scientists have warned of a rise in the number of powerful cyclones as the ocean surface warms due to climate change, posing an increasing threat to the world’s coastal communities. 

President Joe Biden said Friday that China was withholding “critical information” on the origins of Covid-19 after the US intelligence community said it did not believe the virus was a bioweapon — but remained split on whether it escaped from a lab.

The United States, however, does not believe Chinese officials had foreknowledge of the virus before the initial outbreak of the pandemic that has now claimed 4.5 million lives, according to an unclassified summary of an eagerly awaited intelligence report.

“Critical information about the origins of this pandemic exists in the People’s Republic of China, yet from the beginning, government officials in China have worked to prevent international investigators and members of the global public health community from accessing it,” Biden said in a statement. 

“To this day, the PRC continues to reject calls for transparency and withhold information, even as the toll of this pandemic continues to rise.”

US intelligence has ruled out that the coronavirus was developed as a weapon, and most agencies assess with “low confidence” it was not genetically engineered.

But the community remains divided on the pathogen’s origins, with four agencies and the National Intelligence Council judging in favor of natural exposure to an animal as the likely explanation, and one agency favoring the lab leak theory.

Analysts at three agencies were unable to reach a conclusion.

“Variations in analytic views largely stem from differences in how agencies weigh intelligence reporting and scientific publications, and intelligence and scientific gaps,” the summary said.

The intelligence community and global scientists lack clinical samples or epidemiological data from the earliest Covid-19 cases, it added.

Biden said the United States would continue to work with allies to press Beijing to share more information and cooperate with the World Health Organization.

“We must have a full and transparent accounting of this global tragedy. Nothing less is acceptable,” he said.

The office of the director of national intelligence said it was reviewing de-classifying parts of the report in the near future, in light of the historic nature of the pandemic and importance of informing the public, all the while protecting its sources and methods.

– Lab leak fading –

Beijing has rejected calls from the United States and other countries for a renewed origin probe after a heavily politicized visit by a World Health Organization team in January also proved inconclusive, and faced criticism for lacking transparency and access. 

At the outset of the pandemic, the natural origin hypothesis — that the virus emerged in bats and then passed to humans, likely via an intermediary species — was widely accepted.

Then, as time wore on and scientists were unable to find a virus in either bats or another animal that matches the genetic signature of SARS-CoV-2, investigators said they were more open to considering a leak involving the Wuhan Institute of Virology, which carried out bat coronavirus research.

Recent scientific papers, however, are tilting the debate back towards a zoonotic origin.

Researchers in China and the University of Glasgow published a paper in the journal Science that found “animal-to-human transmission associated with infected live animals is the most likely cause of the Covid-19 pandemic.”

Additionally, a paper by 21 top virologists in the journal Cell bluntly concluded: “There is currently no evidence that SARS-CoV-2 has a laboratory origin.”

Scientific experts sent to the Galapagos Islands to count a critically endangered lizard species estimate there to be just 211 pink iguanas left, local authorities said Friday.

Around 30 scientists and Galapagos park rangers took part in the expedition this month on Wolf Volcano, in the north of Isabela Island — the largest on the archipelago.

“In the census, 53 iguanas were located and (temporarily) captured, 94 percent of which live more than 1,500 meters (4,900 feet) above sea level,” said the Galapagos National Parks (PNG) in a statement.

That allowed the experts to “estimate a population of 211 pink iguanas.”

The pink iguanas were first discovered in 1986 and identified as a separate species from the Galapagos land iguana in 2009.

They live exclusively in a 25 square kilometer (9.5 square miles) area on the Wolf Volcano, where the PNG has set up cameras to study the iguanas’ behavior and the threats they face.

Prior to the census, Ecuadoran expert Washington Tapia told AFP that there could be as many as 350 pink iguanas.

So far, “no juveniles have been discovered,” said Tapia, the director of the American Galapagos Conservancy NGO that took part in the expedition.

In quotes released by PNG on Friday, Tapia said “being restricted to one single site makes the species more vulnerable.”

“Urgent action is required to guarantee their preservation.”

The Galapagos Islands are a protected wildlife area and home to unique species of flora and fauna.

They lie 1,000 kilometers (600 miles) west of Ecuador.

The archipelago was made famous by British geologist and naturalist Charles Darwin’s observations on evolution after visiting the islands.

An unvaccinated teacher at an elementary school in California spread the coronavirus to at least 26 other people, including 12 students in their classroom, a new study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said Friday.

The health agency said the case highlights the importance of vaccinating school staff in order to protect young children who are not yet eligible for vaccines, as schools reopen amid a new nationwide surge driven by the ultra-contagious Delta variant.

The CDC said the incident took place in Marin County, a suburb of San Francisco.

The teacher, who reported attending social functions from May 13-16, became symptomatic on May 19 but did not take a Covid test until May 21, initially believing the symptoms were due to allergies. 

“On occasion during this time, the teacher read aloud unmasked to the class despite school requirements to mask while indoors,” the study said.

In the days that followed, among the teacher’s 24 students, all ineligible for vaccination because they are under 12, 22 received tests and 12 were found to be positive.

Eight out of 10 students in the front two rows tested positive, an attack rate of 80 percent, as well as four out of 14 in the three back rows.

The school required students to mask, each student’s desk was set six feet apart from the next, windows were open on both sides of the classroom, and a high-efficiency particulate air (HEPA) filter was placed in front of the class white board.

Six students in a separate grade also tested positive.

It wasn’t clear how the virus spread between the two classes, with researchers presuming an interaction occurred at school. 

However, genetic sequencing of available samples confirmed they were all part of the same outbreak, and identified the Delta variant as responsible.

Eight additional cases were identified among parents and siblings of children in the two grades. Among four parents infected, three were fully vaccinated.

Twenty-two of the 27 total infected people (81 percent) reported symptoms, the most frequently reported were fever, followed by cough, headache and sore throat.

No one involved in the outbreak was hospitalized.

The CDC said the outbreak was likely underestimated because all testing was voluntary.

“The outbreak’s attack rate highlights the Delta variant’s increased transmissibility and potential for rapid spread, especially in unvaccinated populations such as schoolchildren too young for vaccination,” said the report’s authors.

– What works –

In addition to vaccinating school staff, they stressed the need for multi-pronged mitigation strategies, including using masks, distancing and ventilation, and staying home when sick.

A second CDC study also released Friday was held up by the agency’s director Rochelle Walensky as an example of what happens when best practices are followed.

It showed that during the winter pandemic peak, case rates among children and adolescents in Los Angeles County schools were nearly 3.5 times lower than rates in the surrounding community.

“We know what works. Now let us unify together to follow these steps to ensure fundamentally that our children and our future are safe,” said Walensky at a press briefing.

DR Congo’s famed Virunga National Park announced Friday the birth of a mountain gorilla in this tourist region threatened by armed groups.

The birth of a new baby male occurred on the morning of August 22,” the park’s communication officer Olivier Mukisya told AFP.

The discovery was made by “a team of eco-guards” during a routine monitoring visit to the home of the gorillas in the Kibumba area of North Kivu in the east of the country, Mukisya explained. 

The national park said that the new baby belonged to the Baraka family of gorillas which was ‘currently composed of about 18 individuals”.

The Baraka family records its first birth of the year and this last one brings the number to 13 since January 2021,” from all the gorilla families in the region, said Mukisya.

Situated on DR Congo’s borders with Rwanda and Uganda, Virunga covers around 7,800 square kilometres of the North Kivu province, of which Goma is the capital.

Inaugurated in 1925 it is the oldest nature reserve in Africa and a sanctuary for the rare mountain gorillas, which are also present in neighbouring Rwanda and Uganda.

The total population of mountain gorillas in the region covering the three countries is estimated at 1,063, according to the last full count in 2018.

The gorillas Virunga retreat has also become a hideout for local and foreign armed groups that have operated in eastern DR Congo for around 25 years. 

The eco-guards regularly clash with rebels and militias in the area.

An unvaccinated teacher at an elementary school in California spread the coronavirus to at least 26 other people, including 12 students in their classroom, a new study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said Friday.

The health agency said the case highlights the importance of vaccinating school staff in order to protect young children who are not yet eligible for vaccines, as schools reopen amid a new nationwide surge driven by the ultra-contagious Delta variant.

The CDC said the incident took place in Marin County, a suburb of San Francisco.

The teacher, who reported attending social functions from May 13-16, became symptomatic on May 19 but did not take a Covid test until May 21, initially believing the symptoms were due to allergies. 

“On occasion during this time, the teacher read aloud unmasked to the class despite school requirements to mask while indoors,” the study said.

In the days that followed, among the teacher’s 24 students, all ineligible for vaccination because they are under 12, 22 received tests and 12 were found to be positive.

Eight out of 10 students in the front two rows tested positive — an attack rate of 80 percent — as well as three out of 14 in the three back rows.

The school required students to mask, each student’s desk was set six feet apart from the next, windows were open on both sides of the classroom, and a high-efficiency particulate air (HEPA) filter was placed in front of the class white board.

Six students in a separate grade also tested positive.

It wasn’t clear how the virus spread between the two classes, with researchers presuming an interaction occurred at school. 

However, genetic sequencing of available samples confirmed they were all part of the same outbreak, and identified the Delta variant as responsible.

Eight additional cases were identified among parents and siblings of children in the two grades. Among four parents infected, three were fully vaccinated.

Twenty-two of the 27 total infected people (81 percent) reported symptoms, the most frequently reported were fever, followed by cough, headache and sore throat.

No one involved in the outbreak was hospitalized.

The CDC said the outbreak was likely underestimated because all testing was voluntary.

“The outbreak’s attack rate highlights the Delta variant’s increased transmissibility and potential for rapid spread, especially in unvaccinated populations such as schoolchildren too young for vaccination,” said the report’s authors.

– What works –

In addition to vaccinating school staff, they stressed the need for multi-pronged mitigation strategies, including using masks, distancing and ventilation, and staying home when sick.

A second CDC study also released Friday was held up by the agency’s director Rochelle Walensky as an example of what happens when best practices are followed.

It showed that during the winter pandemic peak, case rates among children and adolescents in Los Angeles County schools were nearly 3.5 times lower than rates in the surrounding community.

“We know what works. Now let us unify together to follow these steps to ensure fundamentally that our children and our future are safe,” said Walensky at a press briefing.