A state of emergency has been declared across all three countries

A powerful tropical storm in Central America has claimed at least 73 lives in floods and mudslides, officials say.

The worst-hit country was Guatemala, where officials say at least 63 people died. Nine were killed in El Salvador and at least one in Honduras.

Storm Agatha swept in from the Pacific Ocean on Saturday, bringing torrential rains that added to disruption caused by a volcano erupting in Guatemala.

Heavy rains have continued, sparking fears of further destruction.

Rescue workers have been clearing debris from roads to reach cut-off communities.

Many areas have not been reached and the death toll is expected to rise.

Parts of Guatemala have received their highest rainfall in more than 60 years, according to the country’s President Alvaro Colom, who said more than 3 feet (1m) of rain fell in some areas.

“Many places are cut off but it appears the weather will improve a bit today and we will be able to airlift supplies to those places. The road network is badly damaged,” President Colom said at a news conference.

More than 70,000 people have been evacuated from their homes across Guatemala, according to Reuters news agency.

Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras have all declared emergencies in an attempt to increase immediate aid and resources.

Agatha – the first named storm of the Pacific hurricane season – also hit southern Mexico.

It is dissipating over the mountains of western Guatemala – but emergency workers have warned residents to expect heavy rain for several more days.
Devastation

A mudslide devastated an entire neighbourhood in the Guatemalan town of San Antonio Palopa, 90 miles (150km) southeast of the capital.

“There was a mudslide that wiped out homes, trees and everything in its path,” an eyewiness told local radio.

In Quetzaltenango, 125 miles (200km) west of Guatemala city, a boulder became loose and crushed a house, killing four people, including two children.

In El Salvador, rains triggered at least 140 landslides in which President Maruricio Funes said nine people had died.

One man in the Honduran town of Santa Ana, near the capital Tegucigalpa, was crushed to death after a wall collapsed, officials said.

The storm has also complicated efforts to clear up ash from the Pacaya volcano in southern Guatemala, which began erupting on Thursday.

Guatemala’s main airport has been closed while workers clear the runways.

A state of emergency declared because of the volcanic eruption has been extended across the country.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/latin_america/10195619.stm

A woman makes the most of the sunshine at Granchester Meadows, Cambridgeshire, with a showery and breezy weekend in prospect.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/shared/spl/hi/pop_ups/08/uk_enl_1275060775/html/1.stm

Hurricane Ike left a trail of destruction in the Caribbean in 2008

As many as 14 hurricanes could hit the Atlantic basin this year, the top US climate agency says.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) forecasts 14 to 23 named storms. Eight to 14 of these could develop into hurricanes, it says.

The season could be one of the most active on record, with between three to seven major hurricanes, the NOAA said.

“In short, we urge everyone to be prepared,” added a spokesperson for the agency said.

Major hurricanes can reach category three or higher, which means they bring sustained winds of at least 111mph (178km/h).

The NOAA says the seasonal forecasts have a 70% probability.

The hurricane season begins on 1 June and runs until the end of November.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/us_and_canada/10134964.stm

Water quality was tested at 769 beaches in the UK

More UK bathing beaches have excellent water quality than last year, but pollution has worsened since 2006, the Marine Conservation Society says.

It rated 421 of 769 beaches as excellent – 33 more than 2009, but below the 505 rated highly in 2006.

It blamed heavy rainfall during the past three summers for overloading sewage systems and washing fertiliser and pollutants onto beaches.

It also warned that several popular beaches would fail EU rules from 2015.

The annual Good Beach Guide is published on Friday and lists results of water quality tests conducted from May to September 2009.

It has four grades: “MCS recommended” for the highest water quality and good sewage treatment; “guideline” for good water quality only; “basic pass” means the water passed the European Commission statutory minimum; and “fail”.

Sewage overflow

The latest guide recorded fewer failures than last year – 41 as opposed to 66.

Water quality had steadily improved from 2001 to a peak in 2006, but has declined ever since, the marine society said.

Based on Met Office data, the summers 2007 to 2009 combined were the wettest period since 1914.

The society said this caused overloaded sewer systems to discharge raw sewage on to some beaches, and pollutants such as animal waste, fertilisers and refuse to be washed from farm land and city streets into rivers and the sea.

“The regional pattern to this rainfall means that some regions such as north west England and Scotland fared worse in this year’s guide whereas others like the Channel Isles did markedly better,” a spokeswoman said.

Tougher rules coming

It warned that stricter EU regulations, due to come into force in 2015, will see 83 beaches fail even the minimum water quality standard unless improvements are carried out.

The list included Rock in Cornwall, Paignton Sands, Robin Hood’s Bay, Bridlington South, Chalkwell Bay at Southend, Plymouth Hoe and the main beach at Weston super Mare, it said.

Sewer overflow pipes, which transport raw sewage into rivers and the sea, were a cause of concern, said the society’s coastal pollution officer, Thomas Bell.

“MCS knows of at least 500 UK beaches with one or more of these pipes.

“There are many places where they don’t cause a problem but 45% of tested beaches aren’t recommended by MCS because of pollution.

“That percentage is set to increase because of tougher bathing water standards from 2015, and we think [overflow pipes] are partly to blame,” Mr Bell said.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/10176940.stm

Katla eruption would have global consequences

Since the start of the Eyjafjallajökull eruption there has been much speculation about an eruption of its larger neighbour, Katla.

In a report published today, experts from the newly formed UCL Institute for Risk and Disaster Reduction warn that with the high frequency of eruptions of Katla, an eruption in the short term is a strong possibility.

The authors warn that an eruption of Katla is likely to be preceded by new earthquake activity – volcanic activity at the site has increased by over 200% in recent days.

Seismic readings of the volcano indicate the tremors around the area have increased substantially.

Four earthquakes were detected near Katla during a 12-hour period on May 21st, more than at any other time since the Eyjafjallajokull volcanic eruptions first occurred in March.

Three earthquakes at the Katla Volcano were reported on Sunday evening. The tremors may have been due to ice movements within Mýrdalsjökull glacier or magma movement under the volcano.

The last earthquake to take place at the volcano was recorded yesterday.

The eruption of the long-dormant Eyjafjallajökull volcano has prompted fears among some geophysicists that it might trigger an eruption at the larger and more dangerous Katla. In the past 1,000 years, all three known eruptions of Eyjafjallajökull have triggered subsequent Katla eruptions.

The last large eruption at Katla was in 1918 but there have been small eruptions at Katla as recently as 1955.

An eruption of Katla volcano has the potential to be more devastating than the current eruption of Eyjafjallajokull. Geophysicists at Iceland’s Institute of Earth Sciences say Katla would be locally and globally damaging.

Icelandic President Ólafur Grímsson has warned Governments around Europe that a significant eruption at the volcano is “coming close”. He said: “We [Iceland] have prepared … it is high time for European governments and airline authorities all over Europe and the world to start planning for the eventual Katla eruption.”

In the UCL Institute for Risk and Disaster Reduction report, earth scientists, engineers, transport experts, statisticians, atmospheric modellers and ethicists have brought together their most recent data and thinking on Icelandic volcanic activity and its wider consequences.

It represents the fruits of the first project of UCL’s new multi-disciplinary Institute for Risk and Disaster Reduction, which has been established to promote understanding of the complexity of risk and to reduce the impact of disasters through collaborative research, teaching and knowledge exchange.

Entitled “Volcanic Hazard from Iceland: Analysis and Implications of the Eyjafjallajökull Eruption”, the report concludes that future moderately to highly explosive Icelandic eruptions combined with appropriate weather conditions are highly likely to cause a repeat of the recent air transport disruption.

The authors note, however, that due to unpredictability of volcanic activity and weather conditions it is difficult to say when disruption will occur and at what scale.

The report is also critical of the response to the Eyjafjallajökull eruption, describing it as entirely reactive and therefore less effective than it should have been. This was primarily a function of the failure to recognize in advance the potential threat presented by volcanic ash clouds from Iceland.

The situation was made worse by the inflexible nature of existing aviation protocols and by the absence of any pre-existing agreement within the aviation community on safe ash levels.

The recommends that, too avoid chaos, ill-feeling and exploitation, regulation should be considered to control the actions of organisations such as airlines at times of emergency. This might include approval of night operations at airports, insistence that no plane flies with empty seats if passengers with valid tickets are stranded, and no increase in fares during the affected period.

The impact of the eruption on airspace could have been predicted and better prepared for as the growing problem of serious aircraft-ash cloud encounters has been recognized for nearly 30 years.

Similarly, the potential for ash clouds, specifically from Icelandic volcanoes, to interfere with air traffic in UK, European and North Atlantic air-space was appreciated by the aviation industry well before the start of the Eyjafjallajökull eruption.

The report contains the following recommendations:

* The potential threat presented by volcanic ash to aviation should be added to the National Risk Register.

* National capabilities for measuring and predicting the extent and character of volcanic ash in and around UK airspace should be enhanced.

* As the newly defined safe limits of ash are ad hoc and arbitrary and cannot be scientifically justified, there is an urgent need to determine a range of robust, best estimate safe levels of ash for a wide range of situations, aircraft, engine types and pilot response. This will cost time and money and will require commitment from the aviation industry.

* Mechanisms should be put in place by stakeholders so that a communications centre can be established, as and when required, in order to advise the public during future airspace closures. This would avoid the large-scale confusion, delay and expense of individuals attempting, without success, to contact individual airlines, regulators and other bodies within the aviation community. Efforts should be made to enable such a communications plan to make use of media resources in order to maximise communication of objective advise and information.

* At a national level plans should be developed to deal with the long term grounding of aircraft with consideration given to the financial impact on stakeholders as well as arrangements for repatriation of travellers.

While such contingency measures are not inexpensive, they would likely have saved the airline industry alone a good fraction of their £1 billion estimated economic loss arising (to date) from the Eyjafjallajökull eruption. The main cost of such measures should be seen, therefore, in the context of investment rather than a recurrent cost.

Professor Peter Sammonds, Director of the Institute for Risk and Disaster Reduction, said: “Volcanoes in Iceland have now become a key concern for the UK. We need to know how these ice-caped volcanoes may disrupt air transport in the future, and that means understanding better the volcanology, the ice physics and meteorology, as well as assessing the risk of ash to aircraft engines and systems.”

Dr Stephen Edwards, Aon Benfield UCL Hazard Research Centre, said: “Eruptions comparable to the 2010 Eyjafjallajökull event occur in Iceland every 20 to 40 years and the present eruption is not unusual and may continue for many more months to a year or more.

“The transport of ash from Iceland to northwestern Europe is a consequence of north to north-westerly airflow from Iceland, which although atypical is not unusual. Consequently, further disruption to air transport should be expected as long as the eruption continues with explosive episodes during periods of north to north-westerly airflow.”

Professor Bill McGuire, Director of the Aon Benfield UCL Hazard Research Centre, noted that: “Serious failings remain in relation to raising awareness of natural hazards capable of regional or global impacts.

“In this context, I again urge action in light of the principal recommendation of the UK Government’s 2005 Natural Hazards Working Group, vis a vis the establishment of an international science panel to catalogue, evaluate and raise awareness of, natural hazards with the potential to affect more than one nation.”

Carina Fearnley, Aon Benfield UCL Hazard Research Centre, said: “The severe disruption to European airspace in April from Eyjafjallajökull’s ash clouds reflect a lack of integration between the monitoring, warning and risk management systems.

“On the one hand the monitoring system needs improved atmospheric ash monitoring methods; on the other the risk management system requires scientifically determined safe ash concentration thresholds, and needs to consider the European context of crowded flight paths. In contrast to these two elements, the warning system functioned effectively as a communication network.”

http://www.clickgreen.org.uk/news/international-news/121358-stark-forecast-as-icelands-larger-volcano-shows-increased-sign-of-life.html

Four walkers have been injured in lightning strikes in the Lake District in three separate incidents.

Four walkers have been injured in lightning strikes in the Lake District in three separate incidents.

All were rescued by the same Royal Navy Sea King helicopter from hillside locations on Wednesday afternoon.

It is believed that none of the walkers was seriously hurt. Police said the first victim was a man on Grassmoor near Buttermere.

Lightning then struck between a pair of walkers in Braithwaite, and the final victim was a woman in Buttermere.

The first call came in to Cockermouth Mountain Rescue team just after 1500 BST.

It was reported that a man in his 50s had been struck by lightning at Ladd Hows, Grassmoor, blown 30 ft (9m) and left unconscious for a short time.

Meanwhile, the Keswick Mountain Rescue team received a call about an incident at Craghill, near Braithwaite, where lightning had hit the ground between two people, blowing them off their feet.

Singed hair

The Royal Navy Sea King from HMS Gannet in Prestwick was called first to rescue the injured man at Grassmoor.

While on the way to drop the man at a location at where he could be picked up by ambulance, the helicopter was diverted to the second incident.

The helicopter crew rescued the injured pair, along with an uninjured third person who had been with them, and dropped all four at the Buttermere Hotel to be transported to the West Cumberland Hospital.

At 1535 BST the Cockermouth Mountain Rescue was called to the third incident at Whiteless Pike in Buttermere.

It was reported a woman in her 30s had been struck on the head by lightning and had singed hair.

She too was rescued by the Royal Navy helicopter, taken to Buttermere Hotel and then transported by ambulance to hospital.

A Royal Navy spokeswoman said: “It is relatively unusual to have four people from two separate incidents in a helicopter. And their conditions, too, were relatively unusual.”

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/cumbria/10167686.stm