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Tropical Storm Ileana brings pounding rain as it moves over southern Gulf of California, flooding roads
Mexico issued a tropical storm warning Saturday along the coast, from Altata to Huatabampito, and has discontinued all watches and warnings for Baja California Sur after rain from Storm Ileana pounded the resort-studded Los Cabos a day before.
Ileana moved northward over the southern Gulf of California at 7 mph, according to the U.S. National Hurricane Center. The storm was about 70 miles (110 km) east of La Paz, Mexico with maximum sustained winds of 40 mph (65 kph), the center said.
Tropical storm warnings have been issued for the coasts of northern Sinaloa and extreme southern Sonola.
On Friday, a warning was in effect for portions of the Baja California Peninsula, including Cabo San Lucas and San Jose del Cabo.
Juan Manuel Arce Ortega, from Los Cabos Civil Protection, said the municipalities of La Paz and Los Cabos were on red alert at the time and urged residents to avoid crossing rivers, streams, and low areas where they can be swept away by water.
All schools in Los Cabos were also suspended Friday due to the storm.
Óscar Cruces Rodríguez of Mexico’s federal Civil Protection said in a statement that residents should avoid leaving their homes until the storm passes and if residents are in an area at risk of flooding to find temporary shelters.
Authorities prepared 20 temporary shelters in San Jose del Cabo and Cabo San Lucas, according to Los Cabos Civil Protection.
At the Hacienda Beach Club and Residences in Cabo San Lucas, valet worker Alan Galvan said the rain arrived late Thursday night and has been constant. “The rain isn’t very strong right now, but the waves are choppy,” he said.
“The guests are very calm and already came down for coffee,” Galvan said. “There’s some flights canceled but everything is ok at the moment.” Galvan said they are awaiting further advisories from authorities.
The rain remained consistent through Los Cabos Friday afternoon, with several roads flooded and some resorts stacking up sandbags on their perimeters. Some people were still walking around boat docks with their umbrellas.
“The priority has to be safety, starting with the workers. We always have to check on our colleagues who live in risk areas,” said Lyzzette Liceaga, a tour operator at Los Cabos.
“We give them the information shared by the authorities — firefighters in risk areas — so that they can go to the shelters if necessary,” she added.
Earlier this week, Francine weakened into a post-tropical cyclone as it moved north across Mississippi, soaking that state and its neighbors in heavy rain after it slammed into the Louisiana coast Wednesday evening as a dangerous Category 2 hurricane. In August, Tropical Storm Ernesto moved away from Bermuda after making landfall on the island as a Category 1 hurricane.
Hurricane activity tends to peak in mid-September, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
At least 11 employees were taken to hospitals and residents were urged to shelter in place on Tuesday after an explosion at a Louisville, Kentucky, business.
The Louisville Metro Emergency Services reported on social media a “hazardous materials incident” at 1901 Payne St., in Louisville. The address belongs to a facility operated by Givaudan Sense Colour, a manufacturer of food colorings for soft drinks and other products, according to officials and online records.
Louisville Mayor Craig Greenberg said emergency teams responded to the blast around 3 p.m. News outlets reported that neighbors heard what sounded like an explosion coming from the business. Overhead news video footage showed an industrial building with a large hole in its roof.
WLKY-TV
“The cause at this point of the explosion is unknown,” Greenberg said in a news conference. No one died in the explosion, he added.
Greenberg said officials spoke to employees inside the plant. “They have initially conveyed that everything was normal activity when the explosion occurred,” he said.
The Louisville Fire Department said in a post on the social platform X that multiple agencies were responding to a “large-scale incident.”
The Louisville Metro Emergency Services first urged people within a mile of the business to shelter in place, but that order was lifted in the afternoon. An evacuation order for the two surrounding blocks around the site of the explosion was still in place Tuesday afternoon.
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A rare square 37-carat emerald owned by the Aga Khan fetched nearly $9 million at auction in Geneva on Tuesday, making it the world’s most expensive green stone.
Sold by Christie’s, the Cartier diamond and emerald brooch, which can also be worn as a pendant, dethrones a piece of jewelry made by the fashion house Bulgari, which Richard Burton gave as a wedding gift to fellow actor Elizabeth Taylor, as the most precious emerald.
In 1960, Prince Sadruddin Aga Khan commissioned Cartier to set the emerald in a brooch with 20 marquise-cut diamonds for British socialite Nina Dyer, to whom he was briefly married.
Dyer then auctioned off the emerald to raise money for animals in 1969.
FABRICE COFFRINI/AFP via Getty Images
By chance that was Christie’s very first such sale in Switzerland on the shores of Lake Geneva, with the emerald finding its way back to the 110th edition this year.
It was bought by jeweler Van Cleef & Arpels before passing a few years later into the hands of Harry Winston, nicknamed the “King of Diamonds.”
“Emeralds are hot right now, and this one ticks all the boxes,” said Christie’s EMEA Head of Jewellery Max Fawcett. “…We might see an emerald of this quality come up for sale once every five or six years.”
Also set with diamonds, the previous record-holder fetched $6.5 million at an auction of part of Hollywood legend Elizabeth Taylor’s renowned jewelry collection in New York.
