Tropical Storm Jose forms near Bermuda:National Hurricane Center (Reuters)

MIAMI (Reuters) – Tropical Storm Jose formed near Bermuda on Sunday, becoming the 10th named storm of the 2011 Atlantic hurricane season, U.S. forecasters said.

The Miami-based U.S. National Hurricane Center said Jose formed about 115 miles south-southwest of Bermuda and was moving northward. It posed no threat to the U.S. coast or to energy interests in the Gulf of Mexico.

The storm was packing top sustained winds of 40 miles per hour and moving north at about 16 mph, the hurricane center said.

It said tropical storm conditions were expected on Bermuda, where Jose could dump up to 3 inches of rain but the storm was forecast to lose strength later on Sunday after passing near the British territory.

Jose formed as Hurricane Irene, the first hurricane of the 2011 Atlantic season, was closing in on New York City after churning its way up the U.S. East Coast from North Carolina, where it made landfall Saturday.

(Reporting by Tom Brown; Editing by Bill Trott)

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Tropical Storm Harvey strengthens, nears Honduras (AP)

MIAMI – Tropical Storm Harvey is strengthening off the coast of Honduras as the Atlantic storm threatens to bring high winds and several inches of rain to Central America.

The U.S. National Hurricane Center in Miami said Saturday that Harvey was located about 35 miles (56 kilometers) east of Roatan, moving west at about 12 mph (19 kph). Maximum sustained winds were 60 mph (97 kph).

Showers and thunderstorms have increased overnight.

Tropical storm warnings were issued for the northern coast of Honduras from Punta Patuca westward, the Bay Islands of Honduras, and coastal Belize and Guatemala. A warning for the Yucatan Peninsula was canceled.

Hurricane conditions were expected along part of the Belize coast later Saturday.

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Billowing dust storm engulfs downtown Phoenix (Reuters)

PHOENIX (Reuters) – A billowing wall of dust engulfed downtown Phoenix on Thursday, cutting visibility to a few hundred yards and delaying flights at the international airport, authorities and news reports said.

Driving rains and winds gusting at nearly 60 miles per hour also buffeted San Tan Valley, southeast of Phoenix in the early evening, according to the National Weather Service.

Roaring gusts downed trees and power lines in Pinal County, trapping drivers in their cars and preventing commuters from reaching their homes south of the state capital.

"This storm hit during a very busy time for traffic, bringing down power lines over several miles on top of cars with visibility near zero," Pinal County Sheriff's Office spokesman Elias Johnson said in a statement.

Deputies "will keep residents out until we can determine their safety is no longer at risk," he added.

The dust storm prevented planes from taking off or landing at Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport for about 40 minutes, The Arizona Republic newspaper reported.

A call to the airport seeking confirmation of the delays was not immediately returned on Thursday.

In early July, a huge sand storm -- dubbed a haboob -- swallowed the Phoenix valley, darkening the streets, sending residents scrambling for cover and cutting power to thousands of homes.

Weather experts say haboobs frequently occur during the swelteringly hot summer monsoon season in the southwest United States.

(Reporting by Tim Gaynor; Editing by Cynthia Johnston)

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Tropical storm brings rain, wind to China, NKorea (AP)

BEIJING – A tropical storm was lashing northeast China and North Korea as it approached land Monday, but fears of a toxic chemical spill appeared to have eased after a breached dike guarding a chemical plant was reinforced.

Waves as high as 65 feet (20 meters) broke the dike in Dalian in northeastern Liaoning province and threatened to hit the compound of Fujiahua chemical plant where unspecified chemicals were held, and residents were told to evacuate, Xinhua News Agency said, citing soldiers at the scene.

An official from Dalian's Propaganda Department referred The Associated Press to two reports on a Dalian news website that said the danger had been controlled and the dike was being reinforced with large stones and concrete. The official gave only his surname, Zhang, as is common with Chinese officials.

The waves were caused by Tropical Storm Muifa, which China's weather agency forecast will make landfall Monday evening somewhere in Liaoning province or western North Korea.

The Central Meteorological Station reported coastal winds up to 46.6 miles per hour (75 kilometers per hour) in Liaoning and Shandong provinces and heavy rain in Liaoning on Monday afternoon.

Citing a weather agency, North Korea's official Korean Central News Agency said heavy rain was falling and expected through the night in northwestern provinces as the storm inches northward.

South Korea's state weather agency, the Korea Meteorological Administration, said up to 8 inches (200 millimeters) of rain were expected in some western areas of North Korea. Waves up to 26 feet (8 meters) high were also expected along the coastal areas due to Muifa, the agency said.

The Central Meteorological Station said Muifa was creating sea gusts of up to 63 mph (102 kph) and traveling at a speed of 15-18 mph (25-30 kph). It will weaken after making landfall and bring heavy rain to Liaoning, it said.

Previously a strong typhoon, Muifa downed power lines, billboards and trees in Shanghai and brought heavy rain to coastal Shandong province Sunday. Last week, it killed four people in the Philippines and caused injuries and power outages in far southern Japan without making landfall.

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Tropical Storm Emily kills 1 in Haiti, 3 in DR (AP)

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti – The tropical storm that brushed the southern coast of Hispaniola killed one person in Haiti and three in the Dominican Republic, but spared the Caribbean nations the severe damage many feared, officials said Friday.

Tropical Storm Emily threatened to soak more than 600,000 Haitians made homeless after last year's earthquake but the tempest merely skirted the southern coast before it stalled at sea and dissipated.

More than 100 people left their crudely built homes to find safer housing in churches, schools and other building as the storm moved west. There were scattered reports of flooded houses and crops.

"We are thrilled that there was no major damage," Marie Alta Jean-Baptiste, director of Haiti's Civil Protection Department, told The Associated Press.

There was some damage in the neighboring Dominican Republic, where 7,000 people were displaced by floods and three people died, Dominican authorities said.

The Emergency Operations Center said the bodies of two men, ages 19 and 20, were pulled from a river near the town of Higuey, 100 miles (160 kilometers) east of Santo Domingo. A 23-year-old man died after falling through a drain in Santo Domingo province.

Rain also triggered landslides that affected a dozen homes on the banks of the Ozama River, which separates the capital from the Santo Domingo province.

Juan Manuel Mendez, director of the Emergency Operations Center, said a broken bridge and floods had isolated more than 50 villages.

In Haiti, one person died. Government workers found a body at the bottom of a ravine in the southwestern coastal city of Les Cayes, said Joseph Edgard Celestin, an official with Haiti's Civil Protection Department.

One person was injured in the southeastern coastal village of Cayes-Jacmel after a tree fell.

Civil Protection worker Jean Renel said an undetermined number of farm fields and houses were flooded in two villages in the southeastern part of Haiti. He said government workers were shoveling mud from a thoroughfare in one of them, Saint-Louis du Sud.

Heavy rainfall also caused several dozen homes next to a river in the Artibonite Valley to flood.

On Friday, the biggest showers in Haiti passed over the southern peninsula but dropped only less than an inch of rain, said Michel Davison, international desk coordinator for the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

"It looks like you guys are going to catch a break," said Davison.

The U.S. National Hurricane Center reported Friday that the remnants of Emily had a 70 percent chance of reforming as a tropical storm during the next 48 hours as it approached southern Florida.

___

Associated Press writer Ezequiel Lopez in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, contributed to this report.

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Storm threatens China chemical plant (AFP)

BEIJING (AFP) – China battled Monday to avert a disaster at a chemical plant on its northeast coast as a severe tropical storm that has killed three people in South Korea approached.

Workers were rushing to repair a dyke protecting a chemical plant after it was breached by high waves in the province of Liaoning, where the storm was expected to make landfall later Monday.

Residents near the Fujia Group plant in the port city of Dalian were evacuated as a precaution, the state Xinhua news agency said in a report confirmed by an official with the Liaoning border police.

The official, who refused to be named, would not provide further details when contacted by AFP.

Authorities did not say which chemicals were in danger of spilling from the plant, which makes paraxylene -- a flammable, carcinogenic liquid used in the production of polyester films and fabrics, Xinhua said.

Torrential downpours and high winds unleashed by Muifa -- which was a typhoon before it weakened to a severe tropical storm -- have already wreaked havoc along China's eastern coast, as well as neighbouring South Korea.

Airlines cancelled hundreds of flights and thousands of fishing boats were ordered to stay in port over the weekend as Muifa approached. It had initially been due to hit Shanghai, but changed course and travelled north instead.

The storm drenched the eastern province of Shandong, where more than 100,000 people were moved to safety, local authorities said.

US oil giant ConocoPhillips was also forced to suspend clean-up operations on a two-month-old oil spill in Bohai Bay off the coast of Shandong due to the storm, the firm said in a statement.

"Clean-up activities will resume as soon as it is safe to do so," it added.

Muifa also left three people dead and one missing as it battered nearby South Korea with strong rain and winds that toppled hundreds of power lines, signposts and trees.

Power was cut to 320,000 houses in southwestern provinces, while roads, port facilities and breakwaters were destroyed in dozens of locations.

A 76-year-old fisherman was found dead Sunday on the southern South Korean island of Wando. A man in his 40s drowned after being swept away by stormy seas in the southern port of Busan.

A 50-year-old woman was found dead Monday after falling into a flooded stream in Hwasun in the southwest and a 65-year-old man was reported missing in Busan.

Muifa is also due to hit North Korea -- which neighbours Liaoning province -- on Monday night.

The impoverished state is still reeling from summer downpours and floods that have killed 30 people, destroyed more than 6,750 houses and inundated more than 48,000 hectares (120,000 acres) of farmland.

Authorities in Dandong, a border city in Liaoning, have set up more than 750 temporary shelters that are capable of accommodating more than one million people, Xinhua reported.

Thousands of soldiers are also on standby to conduct rescue and relief work after the storm passes, it said.

Muifa has already destroyed nearly 170 houses and caused damage worth 1.9 billion yuan ($290 million) in the eastern province of Zhejiang, where one person went missing over the weekend after a boat sank.

But so far, the storm has not caused as much damage as initially feared.

Authorities had expressed concern that Muifa could cause destruction similar to that unleashed by Typhoon Saomai in 2006, which was the worst to hit China in 50 years and killed at least 450 people.

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Severe Storm Causes Two Deaths in Wisconsin (ContributorNetwork)

Severe storms moved through Wisconsin and Minnesota on Friday, resulting in tragedy in one Wisconsin county where countless people were camping and getting ready for the holiday weekend. One 11-year-old girl was killed when a tree fell on her after it was struck by lightning. The Associated Press reported that the girl was from Minnesota but did not release her name.

According to Wisconsin Emergency Management Agency, the girl was camping in Burnett County with her family when the storm hit. The Agency reported that two deaths resulted from this storm. The other death occurred when a local man suffered a heart attack but it was not clear if the heart attack was related to the storm.

More than three dozen other people in northwestern Wisconsin were injured by the storm and reports stated that this weather event brought 80 mile per hour winds, softball size hail and plenty of damage. Campgrounds, lakes, rivers and state parks suffered damage from downed trees. The storm knocked out power to thousands of homes in eastern South Dakota and western Wisconsin.

This round of storms affected areas that normally have smaller populations but due to the Fourth of July holiday, thousands of visitors had already started packing the campgrounds that were hit by the storm.

This year has already seen excessive weather events that have grabbed headlines and plenty of attention. A number of EF-5 tornadoes have struck at various locations in the United States and caused extreme death and destruction. Town names such as Joplin and Tuscaloosa have become synonymous with severe weather due to this year's tornado season. Historically, Wisconsin has not been known for having a high number of storm fatalities or injuries.

For example, 2010 statistics from the National Weather Service show that the state experienced six storm-related fatalities last year and 50 injuries. In contrast, Oklahoma had the highest number of injuries in 2010 with 410 while Tennessee had the highest number of deaths at 53.

Wisconsin EMA reported that several counties had storm damage and power outages from this storm. The agency stated that the hardest hit counties in northwest Wisconsin were Douglas, Burnett and Washburn counties where there were reports of at least two homes destroyed. WEMA reported that a hanger in Solon Springs had one wall collapse due to the storm causing the building to fall on a small single engine plane. It was reported that the high winds blew away the roof of the hanger building.

Tammy Lee Morris is certified as a Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) member and is a trained Skywarn Stormspotter through the National Weather Service. She has received interpretive training regarding the New Madrid Seismic Zone through EarthScope--a program of the National Science Foundation. She researches and writes about earthquakes, volcanoes, tornadoes and other natural phenomena.

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Six dead in Mexico in wake of Tropical Storm Arlene (AFP)

HIDALGO, Mexico (AFP) – At least six people were confirmed dead in Mexico after Tropical Storm Arlene drenched much of the country with heavy rains and left thousands homeless, officials said.

The first named storm of the Atlantic season barreled ashore along Mexico's Gulf coast on Thursday, dumping several centimeters (inches) of rain in areas still recovering from last year's wettest season on record.

Three people died in Hidalgo state, where swollen rivers burst their banks forcing more than 1,000 people to evacuate their homes, Civil Protection force director Miguel Garcia said.

Two people died in Tamaulipas state, including a bricklayer who was struck by a live electrical cable that snapped in strong winds.

Much of the country was subjected to the foul weather, including the capital Mexico City and its outskirts, where a child's death Friday was blamed on the storm, and the Pacific coast resort city of Acapulco.

Mexico's Weather Service said at least a dozen districts in central and northern Mexico were on alert for "intense and occasionally torrential" rains from the remnants of Arlene, whose winds weakened substantially after heading inland but still carried heavy moisture.

Some 278,000 people were left homeless or otherwise impacted by the storm, according to provisional tallies.

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3 dead in Mexico as tropical storm breaks up (AP)

MEXICO CITY – Mexican authorities confirmed three deaths from Tropical Storm Arlene on Friday as remnants of the storm continued dumping rain over the country's central highlands.

The U.S. National Hurricane Center warned that rain could continue for 48 hours causing life-threatening flash floods and mudslides as the system moved toward the Pacific.

The Atlantic season's first tropical storm came ashore over Mexico's central Gulf coast early Thursday morning, bringing heavy rains to a wide swath of the country over the course of the day but causing only sporadic damage.

In the coastal state of Tamaulipas, a 54-year-old man whose name was not available was electrocuted to death by a downed powerline and a fisherman drowned in the Vicente Guerrero dam, on the border with the United States, civil protection officials said.

Rescuers in helicopters flew water and food on Friday to the Tamaulipas township of Nuevo Tantoan, where 200 people were cut off by two rivers that swelled around them, said Pedro Benavides, the state's civil protection director.

They also reported that, further inland in Hidalgo state, 27-year-old Armando Acosta Monroy was pulled from his home after it collapsed from heavy rains, but died after being taken to a medical center. There were at least six landslides along a highway in that area.

Continuous rain fell in Mexico City and its metropolitan area, where the Remedios River, which carries sewage water, overflowed in the suburb of Ecatepec.

The mayor of Ecatepec, Indalecio Rios, asked residents in three flooded neighborhoods to move into government shelters, according to the newspaper El Universal.

But even coastal towns in Veracruz and Tamaulipas states appeared to have escaped serious damage beyond minor flooding in low-lying neighborhoods. Drought-stricken areas of Tamaulipas, suffering from the worst dry spell in 50 years, were mainly grateful for the rain.

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Storm deaths in Veracruz raise Arlene's toll to 13 (AP)

VERACRUZ, Mexico – Mexican civil protection officials have confirmed two more deaths from Tropical Storm Arlene.

That brings the total official death toll from the storm to 13.

A farmer and his son were killed trying to drive across a flooded bridge in the town of Zentla on Friday. A relative in the car managed to escape and informed authorities.

Arlene was the first named storm of the 2011 Atlantic season. It came ashore as a tropical storm and broke apart like a water balloon over the highlands of central Mexico.

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Severe Storm Causes Two Deaths in Wisconsin (ContributorNetwork)

Severe storms moved through Wisconsin and Minnesota on Friday, resulting in tragedy in one Wisconsin county where countless people were camping and getting ready for the holiday weekend. One 11-year-old girl was killed when a tree fell on her after it was struck by lightning. The Associated Press reported that the girl was from Minnesota but did not release her name.

According to Wisconsin Emergency Management Agency, the girl was camping in Burnett County with her family when the storm hit. The Agency reported that two deaths resulted from this storm. The other death occurred when a local man suffered a heart attack but it was not clear if the heart attack was related to the storm.

More than three dozen other people in northwestern Wisconsin were injured by the storm and reports stated that this weather event brought 80 mile per hour winds, softball size hail and plenty of damage. Campgrounds, lakes, rivers and state parks suffered damage from downed trees. The storm knocked out power to thousands of homes in eastern South Dakota and western Wisconsin.

This round of storms affected areas that normally have smaller populations but due to the Fourth of July holiday, thousands of visitors had already started packing the campgrounds that were hit by the storm.

This year has already seen excessive weather events that have grabbed headlines and plenty of attention. A number of EF-5 tornadoes have struck at various locations in the United States and caused extreme death and destruction. Town names such as Joplin and Tuscaloosa have become synonymous with severe weather due to this year's tornado season. Historically, Wisconsin has not been known for having a high number of storm fatalities or injuries.

For example, 2010 statistics from the National Weather Service show that the state experienced six storm-related fatalities last year and 50 injuries. In contrast, Oklahoma had the highest number of injuries in 2010 with 410 while Tennessee had the highest number of deaths at 53.

Wisconsin EMA reported that several counties had storm damage and power outages from this storm. The agency stated that the hardest hit counties in northwest Wisconsin were Douglas, Burnett and Washburn counties where there were reports of at least two homes destroyed. WEMA reported that a hanger in Solon Springs had one wall collapse due to the storm causing the building to fall on a small single engine plane. It was reported that the high winds blew away the roof of the hanger building.

Tammy Lee Morris is certified as a Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) member and is a trained Skywarn Stormspotter through the National Weather Service. She has received interpretive training regarding the New Madrid Seismic Zone through EarthScope--a program of the National Science Foundation. She researches and writes about earthquakes, volcanoes, tornadoes and other natural phenomena.

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Falling tree kills Wis. man in severe hail storm (AP)

KENOSHA, Wis. – A powerful storm system raced through the upper Midwest Thursday night, killing a Wisconsin man when a tree collapsed onto his motorcycle, pelting Chicago skyscrapers with golf ball-sized hail and packing winds so strong they spun a grounded military cargo plane.

Several injuries were reported in Kenosha, Wis., where winds between 70 and 80 mph downed or damaged hundreds of trees and knocked out power to some 22,000 homes and businesses by early Friday, authorities said.

The 31-year-old man who died was riding his motorcycle on a local road at 8:12 p.m. CDT when he was struck by the tree, according to a news release from the Kenosha County Sheriff's Department. He was later pronounced dead at a hospital.

Two other residents were injured when they touched live electrical wires, and a woman was treated for a broken hip after she was struck by debris from a shed, authorities said.

"We are continuing to assess the damage in the city," Kenosha Mayor Keith Bosman. "It may take several days to clean-up debris."

The storm raced down through Lake Michigan coastal communities, ducking further inland before reaching the Windy City and losing strength once it moved into Indiana, said David Beachler, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Chicago. He said a gauge on the beach in Waukegan Harbor, a Chicago suburb about 10 miles south of the Wisconsin border, registered a hurricane-strength wind gust of 94 mph.

David Mann, a manager at Batten International Airport in Racine, Wis., said a wind gauge there registered a gust of 82 mph and that the storm caused a C130 military plane on display to pivot 45-50 degrees.

As the storm moved southward into Chicago, it dumped heavy rain and hail the size of golf balls and even baseballs, said Casey Sullivan, a weather service meteorologist.

Lake County Emergency Management Agency coordinator Kent McKenzie said the storm felled trees into buildings and power lines, and that there were several reports of trees damaging recreational vehicles camped at Illinois Beach State Park, north of Waukegan. Emergency workers freed several people trapped by a tree in a vehicle at the park, but no one was hurt, McKenzie said.

It was hot in the area on Thursday, and temperatures were expected to reach the upper 90s on Friday.

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Four Tornadoes Hit Kentucky Hit During Storm System (ContributorNetwork)

The National Weather Service has now confirmed that at least four different tornadoes touched down in Louisville, Kentucky on Wednesday evening, with a fifth striking in Indiana. No injuries were reported.

One of the tornadoes struck iconic Churchill Downs, where the Kentucky Derby is held each year. Concern for the stabled horses led many to brave the weather and make sure the animals were safe. Several barns on the property sustained damage, which led to some of the horses being set free to wander the Downs, but they were eventually rounded up and no injuries to the animals were reported.

The number of tornadoes and the ensuing damage has been compared to activity normally seen in the Gulf area. Media outlets and residents were also quick to compare Wednesday's storms with the much larger tornado that hit the area in 1974.

Here are some numbers related to the Louisville tornadoes.

EF2: The strongest of Wednesday night's tornadoes is believed to only have been a medium-strength funnel according to guidelines. The wind speed of this twister is believed to have been approximately 115 miles per hour. The path of this tornado was measured at about 1 mile in length.

EF0: The tornado that hit Churchill Downs was reportedly fairly weak according to guidelines, although the National Weather Service believes it may have picked up a little strength to become an EF1 as it left the area and moved towards Papa John's Cardinal Stadium.

EF1: The strength of the other two tornadoes that touched down in Kentucky on Wednesday night. The wind speed of this tornado is thought to have reached between 95-100 miles an hour.

100: The number of stable workers that are in residence at Churchill Downs at any one time.

1,300: The number of horses that were stabled at Churchill Downs when the tornado struck.

136: The number of years Churchill Downs has been in business. Wednesday's tornado was the first to ever strike the property.

1974: The year of Louisville's largest tornado to date. An EF4 that caused massive property damage, including the destruction of 900 homes. It also downed power lines all over the city, as well as causing the deaths of 2 people and the injuries of 207 more.

25: The number of crew members that Louisville Gas and Electric has assigned to deal with all the downed power lines.

7,600: The number of people without power in Jefferson County, which includes Louisville, after Wednesday's storms.

Vanessa Evans is a musician and former freelance writer based in Michigan with a lifelong interest in politics and community issues.

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90,000 flee storm in Philippines (AFP)

MANILA (AFP) – Nearly 90,000 people have been forced to flee their homes in the Philippines due to floods caused by Tropical Storm Meari, with 15 people listed as missing, the civil defence office said.

In Marikina, a low-lying suburb of Manila, 25,000 people were in evacuation centres after waters reached dangerous levels, the office added on Saturday. Authorities indicated it was too early to say when people would be able to return home.

Seas were still too rough for small craft, the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council said.

One of 10 fishermen who were listed as missing at sea on Thursday had been rescued but the nine others had still not been found. A further three fishermen had failed to return to port by Saturday.

In addition, a woman was washed away by raging waters while two children could not be accounted for amid floods and landslides outside the capital.

While Meari only brushed the eastern side of the country, it still brought torrential rain for most of the week.

Even though the storm was about 600 kilometres (350 miles) north of Manila and moving further away towards China on Saturday, it continued to add to seasonal monsoon rains, the government weather station said.

Numerous schools closed and at least 26 flights had been cancelled since Friday due to the bad weather, the disaster risk reduction council said.

Meari had strengthened and was packing maximum gusts of 135 kilometres per hour (85 miles per hour) and was forecast to continue moving north at 24 kilometres per hour, the weather station said.

An average of 20 storms and typhoons, some of them deadly, hit the Philippines every year.

Over the past six weeks, more than 50 people have been killed in a series of storms, one of which became a typhoon.

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Taiwan issues sea warning for tropical storm (AP)

TAIPEI, Taiwan – Taiwan has issued a sea warning for Tropical Storm Meari and cautioned residents on the eastern and southern parts of the island to watch out for torrential rain.

Taiwan's Central Weather Bureau says the storm was 340 miles (550 kilometers) south of Taiwan's southern tip as of Friday morning, and was moving north at 15 miles (25 kilometers) per hour.

The bureau says ships off the island's eastern and southern coasts should brace for the storm, and that heavy rain may hit eastern and southern Taiwan on Saturday.

It says the storm may gain strength as it moves past the East China Sea toward the Korean peninsula.

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50,000 flee storm in Philippines (AFP)

MANILA (AFP) – Some 50,000 people were in evacuation centres in the Philippines on Friday after fleeing their homes following days of torrential rains caused by Tropical Storm Meari, officials said.

More than 3,200 people fled their homes overnight in the capital Manila alone as the storm added to seasonal monsoon rains, bringing massive flooding to city streets, the civil defence agency said.

The swift evacuation of Manila residents as the waters rose overnight prevented any deaths, said Benito Ramos, executive director of the official National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council.

"It is a good thing we pre-positioned rubber boats. Thankfully, people reacted well. When we told them to evacuate, they evacuated," Ramos said.

However 11 people were still missing in or near the less-developed Bicol peninsula southeast of Manila that bore the brunt of Meari as it brushed past the eastern side of this country, the council added.

The missing included 10 fishermen who ventured out to sea from the island of Catanduanes before Meari struck and a woman swept away by flash flooding in another part of Bicol, a council said.

The rains, which have been falling for most of the week, intensified on Thursday, forcing people to flee their homes, fearing floods and landslides.

Most schools in and around Manila cancelled classes on Friday due to the flooding with debris blocking many streets, authorities said.

Science Department Undersecretary Graciano Yumul said that rain would further intensify over the main island of Luzon where Manila is located, even though the storm was moving away from the Philippines towards Taiwan.

The government weather station reported that Meari had strengthened as it moved northwest towards Taiwan, with gusts of 100 kilometres (60 miles) per hour.

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Storm kills Amish teen, power outages in Northeast (Reuters)

BOSTON (Reuters) – The Mid-Atlantic is expected to be battered by another round of severe weather over the weekend just as a previous series of storms and heat subside.

Damaging winds, hail and lightning were expected on Saturday during the late afternoon or evening as the threat of severe weather loomed in New York, Pennsylvania and south through Virginia, said AccuWeather.com senior meteorologist John Feernick.

The latest severe weather predictions come on the heels of Thursday's lightning storms that left thousands in the Northeast without power and killed an Amish teenager rushing to bring in hay before the rain struck.

Thunderstorms had rumbled through the region late Thursday, marked by dramatic and deadly lightning strikes.

Before the rain reached southeastern Pennsylvania, Levi Lantz, 13, was working his Amish family's farm in Christiana Borough when he was struck by lighting and killed, according to Eric Bieber, chief deputy coroner of Lancaster County.

Lantz was baling hay with his father when he was electrocuted by the lightning, Bieber said. Lantz's father was driving a team of horses about 30 feet away from his son and felt a slight tingling sensation from the electrical charge, he said.

"They were trying to get the hay in before the rain started," Bieber said.

Further west, in Tennessee, a second possible weather related death on Thursday was reported at the Bonnaroo music festival, which was gripped by stifling heat. The body of a 32-year-old woman from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania was found outside her tent at the festival and heat exhaustion may have played a role, authorities said.

Throughout the Mid-Atlantic and Northeast, a line of severe thunderstorms on Thursday brought strong winds and hail to communities from Washington, D.C., to Maine, according to National Weather Service reports.

Wind, downpours and lightning strikes in Connecticut caused damage and more than 140,000 power outages at the peak, the state's emergency management agency reported.

Later on Friday, 42,000 customers remained without power in what was expected to be a multi-day outage, according to emergency management officials.

New York officials reported roughly 13,000 customers remained in the dark statewide on Friday at mid-day with the bulk of outages in the lower Hudson Valley. Power was expected to be restored fully by midnight on Saturday, officials said.

The intense weather ushered in more moderate temperatures after days of unseasonable heat.

Temperatures across the region were expected to remain warm in some spots, but Friday's weather "is going to be a lot more tolerable than the last two days," said John Koch, a National Weather Service meteorologist.

After the weekend storm system passes, cooler air was expected to bring some relief to the Northeast early next week, according to AccuWeather.com.

(Reporting by Lauren Keiper and Daniel Lovering; Editing by Barbara Goldberg and Greg McCune)

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Adrian downgraded to tropical storm in Pacific (AP)

MIAMI – Forecasters say Hurricane Adrian has been downgraded to a tropical storm off the Pacific coast of Mexico and it continues weakening rapidly.

Forecasters say maximum sustained winds for what had been the first hurricane of the 2011 season decreased Saturday morning to about 70 mph (113 kph). It is expected to weaken further over the next two days.

The U.S. National Hurricane Center in Miami predicts the storm's center will stay well offshore but will generate large swells that could affect the southwestern coast of Mexico into the weekend.

The center of the storm was about 500 miles (805 km) south-southwest of the southern tip of Baja, Calif. It is moving west-northwest at 12 mph (19 kph).

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Six dead as storm exits Philippines (AFP)

MANILA (AFP) – Six people were killed and 27 others were missing at sea as Tropical Storm Sarika headed out of Philippine waters Friday with many communities still flooded, rescuers said.

Four people drowned in the major southern island of Mindanao earlier this week while a boy died after falling into a swollen creek in Batangas city near Manila, and a woman drowned on the central island of Tablas, they said.

The National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council said 26 Filipino fishermen were missing near the Spratly Islands in the South China Sea.

One crew member of a barge went missing as the vessel, which was carrying agricultural products, was driven by strong winds off the town of Sariaya, south of Manila, it added.

Several hundred people remained at evacuation centres across Luzon early Friday while waiting for floodwaters to recede, the disaster council said in its latest update.

Sarika was heading for southeastern China on Friday with peak winds of 65 kilometres (40 miles) an hour, after brushing the west coast of the main Philippine island of Luzon, the state weather service said.

An average of 20 storms and typhoons, some of them deadly, hit the Philippines every year.

Last month, tropical storm Aere left 31 people dead before Typhoon Songda killed another three.

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Storm kills Amish teen in Pennsylvania, power out in Northeast (Reuters)

BOSTON (Reuters) – Thousands remained without power across the Northeast on Friday in the wake of severe lightning storms that killed an Amish teenager rushing to bring in hay before the rain struck.

Thunderstorms had rumbled through the region late Thursday, marked by dramatic and deadly lightning strikes.

Before the rain reached southeastern Pennsylvania, Levi Lantz, 13, was working his Amish family's farm in Christiana Borough when he was struck by lighting and killed, according to Eric Bieber, chief deputy coroner of Lancaster County.

Lantz was baling hay with his father when he was electrocuted by the lightning, Bieber said. Lantz's father was driving a team of horses about 30 feet away from his son and felt a slight tingling sensation from the electrical charge, he said.

"They were trying to get the hay in before the rain started," Bieber said.

Throughout the Mid-Atlantic and Northeast, a line of severe thunderstorms brought strong winds and hail to communities from Washington, D.C., to Maine, according to National Weather Service reports.

Wind, downpours and lightning strikes in Connecticut caused damage and more than 140,000 power outages at the peak, the state's emergency management agency reported.

By early Friday, 62,000 customers remained without power in what was expected to be a multi-day outage, according to Connecticut Light & Power.

New York officials reported roughly 18,000 customers remained in the dark statewide on Friday morning with the bulk of outages in the lower Hudson Valley.

Local teams were managing clean-up efforts, said William Peat, spokesman for the office of emergency management in New York.

The intense weather ushered in more moderate temperatures after days of unseasonable heat.

Temperatures across the region were expected to remain warm in some spots, but Friday's weather "is going to be a lot more tolerable than the last two days," said John Koch, a National Weather Service meteorologist.

New York looked forward to temperatures in the mid 80s compared to normal readings in the upper 70s. Harrisburg, Pennsylvania was expected to reach the upper 80s while residents in Boston anticipated cooler weather in the low 70s.

(Reporting by Lauren Keiper and Daniel Lovering; Editing by Barbara Goldberg and Jerry Norton)

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