Hurricane Florence kills 5 in US
Washington, Sep 15 : At least five people, including an infant, were killed in the US state of state of North Carolina as hurricane Florence made landfall, authorities said.
After coming ashore in North Carolina as a Category 1 hurricane, Florence downgraded to a tropical storm on Friday afternoon and trudged into South Carolina later in the night, reports CNN.
The police force of Wilmington, the largest population centre in the impact zone, said via Twitter that a woman and her baby died after a tree fell on their home, while the father was taken to a nearby hospital.
Another person died in nearby Hampstead, North Carolina, reports Efe news.
Tom Collins, director of Pender County's Emergency Management, said that a woman who suffered a heart attack died because an ambulance was unable to reach her in time due to fallen trees blocking the roads.
Soon afterward, the administration of North Carolina Governor Roy Cooper said that a 78-year-old man died of electrocution as he was attempting to connect a power generator, while CBS 17 television reported that a 77-year-old man was killed after a gust of wind knocked him to the ground.
Some areas have already received 15 inches of rain, according to the National Hurricane Centre, which warned that the storm could bring up to 40 inches of rain to parts of North and South Carolina, producing "catastrophic flash flooding and prolonged significant river flooding",
Authorities were most concerned about inland flooding and storm-surge flooding from Florence.
A storm surge of about 10 ft above normal levels was reported by the National Weather Service's office in Morehead City, North Carolina.
Duke Energy, a utility company that serves the Carolinas, estimated that up to 3 million customers could lose electricity as a result of the hurricane.
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Bridge portion collapses on Jammu outskirts; 3-4 labourers feared trapped, 1 rescued
Jammu (PTI): A portion of a small bridge collapsed in the Bantalab area on the outskirts of Jammu city on Friday, trapping at least three to four labourers under the debris, while one injured worker was rescued, official sources said.
Authorities have closed the road link following the collapse of the portion of the bridge.
The incident occurred when labourers were carrying out repair work on a retaining wall near the bridge that was damaged in last year's flash floods, the sources said.
According to the sources, a section of the bridge suddenly gave way, burying workers engaged at the site under the rubble.
Police, Army and State Disaster Response Force (SDRF) teams launched rescue operations to extricate those buried under the debris. They pulled out one injured labourer and shifted him to a hospital, the sources said.
Family members of the labourers present at the site said around six workers engaged at the site at the time of the incident came under the debris when the structure collapsed. The family members said while two of the labourers managed to escape, four got trapped.
The sources said those trapped included the husband of a woman labourer, a mason, an unmarried labourer and a relative of the contractor.
There was no official confirmation on the exact number of persons trapped under the debris till the filing of this report.
The rescue operations are ongoing.
