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Hanna in the Gulf of Mexico

Tropical Storm Hanna was the ninth tropical cyclone and eighth named storm of the 2002 Atlantic hurricane season. Hanna formed through the complex interaction of a surface trough, a tropical wave, and an upper-level low pressure system. Initially designated a tropical depression, it attained tropical storm status and a peak intensity of 1,001 mbar (29.6 inHg), with winds of 60 miles per hour (100 km/h). Hanna crossed southeastern Louisiana, and made a second landfall along the Alabama–Mississippi border. On Dauphin Island, Alabama, the storm caused coastal flooding which closed roads and forced the evacuation of residents. Florida received high wind gusts, heavy rainfall, and strong surf that resulted in the deaths of three swimmers. 20,000 homes in the state lost electricity. In Georgia, significant flooding occurred. Crop damage was extensive, and about 335 structures were damaged by the flooding. The storm caused a total of about $20 million USD in damage. (Full article...)

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Men disarming a dud mortar shell in the Café Adria basement

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In the news

Typhoon Yagi over the South China Sea

Typhoon Yagi (satellite image shown) leaves more than 200 people dead across six Asian countries.
Michel Barnier is appointed prime minister of France by President Emmanuel Macron, leading to nationwide anti-government protests.
An attempted jailbreak at Makala Central Prison in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of the Congo, leaves 129 people dead.
A Mil Mi-8 helicopter crashes in Kamchatka, Russia, killing all 22 people on board.

On this day

September 12

Elizabeth Barrett Browning and Robert Browning

379 – Yax Nuun Ahiin I took the throne as the ruler (ajaw) of the Mayan city of Tikal.
1846 – The English poets Robert Browning and Elizabeth Barrett Browning (both pictured) married in secret to avoid their disapproving families before moving to Italy.
1933 – Hungarian-American physicist Leo Szilard conceived of the idea of the nuclear chain reaction while waiting for a traffic light in Bloomsbury, London.
1948 – The People's Liberation Army launched the Liaoshen campaign, the first of the three major military campaigns during the late stage of the Chinese Civil War.
1995 – Hurricane Ismael formed off the southwest coast of Mexico; it went on to kill over a hundred people in the country.

Parsley Peel (d. 1795)
Alice Ayres (b. 1859)
Ion Agârbiceanu (b. 1882)
Steve Biko (d. 1977)

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Today's featured picture

The smooth-billed ani (Crotophaga ani) is a bird in the cuckoo family. It is a resident breeding species from southern Florida, the Caribbean, parts of Central America, south to western Ecuador, Brazil, northern Argentina and southern Chile. The smooth-billed ani is a mid-sized species, larger on average than the groove-billed ani but smaller than the greater ani. It measures approximately 35 centimetres (14 inches) in overall length. Males weigh around 115 grams (4.1 ounces), while females are lighter at around 95 grams (3.4 ounces). Adults are mainly glossy black, with a long tail, deep ridged black bill and a brown iris. This smooth-billed ani was photographed in George Town, on the island of Grand Cayman in the Caribbean.

Photograph Charles J. Sharp

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