MIAMI (AP) — Heavy winds and rains from a storm in the Atlantic that wasn't quite organized enough to get a name hit a stretch of the southeastern U.S. coast Monday.
The center of the storm system was near the South Carolina coast Monday afternoon, moving inland, the U.S. National Hurricane Center said. Strong winds were spreading onshore and dozens of roads were flooded. Known as Potential Tropical Cyclone No. 8, the system never organized enough to become the eighth named tropical storm of the season, Helene.
But no matter its classification, the storm prompted school closings, including Coastal Carolina University, and flooded areas south of Wilmington, North Carolina, with more than a foot (30 centimeters) of rain while nearby Wrightsville Beach had a wind gust of 65 mph (105 kph).
In Brunswick County, North Carolina, flooding reached waist high in areas around the courthouse, the Sheriff's Office said. About 15 miles (24 kilometers) away in Carolina Beach, blocks of the city were covered with a few inches of water and dozens of vehicles had floodwaters up to their doors as officials urged people to stay home. Radar estimated up to 18 inches (46 centimeters) of rain fell in the area.
According to North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper's office, building and road damage was reported in Brunswick and in New Hanover County, where Wilmington is located. In a news release, the governor urged people in storm areas Monday night and Tuesday to stay off the roads.
A tropical storm warning was in effect for parts of the coasts of North Carolina and South Carolina for about 24 hours before it was canceled Monday afternoon.
The low-pressure system was near the South Carolina coast about 100 miles (156 kilometers) northeast of Charleston on Monday afternoon. It had maximum sustained winds of 35 mph (55 kph) and was moving to the north-northwest at 7 mph (11 kph), forecasters said.
Late Sunday night, forecasters said the system had a chance of becoming a tropical or subtropical storm, but it then became less organized, with the strongest winds in outer rain bands instead of near the center, said Carl Morgan, a meteorologist at the National Weather Service's office in Wilmington.
“There are still strong winds out there. They just not concentrating near a center,” Morgan said.
In an updated hurricane outlook last month the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration was still predicting a highly active Atlantic hurricane season thanks to near-record sea surface temperatures and the possibility of La Nina. Emergency management officials have urged people to stay prepared.
The storm was expected to dump 4 to 8 inches (10 to 20 centimeters) of rain in northeast South Carolina into southeast North Carolina and up to 10 inches (25 centimeters) in isolated spots, with smaller amounts expected across the remainder of North Carolina through Tuesday, according to forecasters.
Over much of Virginia, 1 to 3 inches (2.5 to 8 centimeters) of rainfall, with locally higher amounts, were expected from Monday night through Wednesday. The hurricane center predicted the rainfall could lead to isolated and scattered flash and urban flooding, as well as minor river flooding.
The system will likely dissipate over the Carolinas by late Wednesday, forecasters said.
Elsewhere in the Atlantic, Tropical Storm Gordon weakened to a depression as it swirls through open ocean waters. Gordon could either dissolve in upcoming days or strengthen back into a tropical storm, forecasters said.
Roads flood in heavy rains Monday, Sept. 16, 2024, in Southport, N.C. (Renee Spencer/The Star-News via AP)
Flooding on Water Street near Princess in downtown Wilmington, N.C., Monday morning, Sept. 16, 2024. (John Staton/The Star-News via AP)
Flooding along Lord Street on Monday, Sept. 16, 2024, in Southport, N.C. (Renee Spencer/The Star-News via AP)
This image provided by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration shows tropical storm conditions along a stretch of the U.S. Southeast seacoast, Monday, Sept. 16, 2024. (NOAA via AP)
Taiwanese company Gold Apollo said Wednesday that it authorized its brand on the pagers that exploded in Lebanon and Syria but that another company based in Budapest manufactured them.
Hundreds of handheld pagers exploded almost simultaneously Tuesday across Lebanon and in parts of Syria, killing at least 12 people, government and Hezbollah officials said. Officials pointed the finger at Israel in what appeared to be a sophisticated remote attack. The Israeli military declined to comment.
Hezbollah began striking Israel almost immediately after Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack that sparked the Israel-Hamas war. Since then, Israel and Hezbollah have exchanged fire daily, coming close to a full-blown war on several occasions and forcing tens of thousands on both sides of the border to evacuate their homes.
Gaza’s Health Ministry says more than 41,000 Palestinians have been killed in the territory since Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack. The ministry does not differentiate between fighters and civilians in its count but says a little over half of those killed were women and children. Israel says it has killed over 17,000 militants, without providing evidence.
Here's the latest:
GENEVA — The U.N. human rights chief is calling for an independent investigation into mass explosions from detonating pagers in Lebanon and Syria.
Volker Türk said in a statement Wednesday that “the fear and terror unleashed is profound” and urged world leaders to step up “in defense of the rights of all people to live in peace and security.”
Türk said the targeting of thousands of people — whether civilians or members of armed groups — without knowledge of who held the devices or where they were, violates international law.
The statement made no reference to who might be responsible for Tuesday’s explosions.
“The protection of civilians must be the paramount priority,” he said, alluding to the deadly violence in the Middle East in the wake of the Oct. 7 attacks in Israel. “De-escalation is today more crucial than ever.”
TEL AVIV, Israel — Israeli police said an explosion in a park in Tel Aviv last September was intended to target former military chief of staff and defense minister Moshe Yaalon. No one was injured in the September 15, 2023 attack, which authorities have attributed to Hezbollah, based on the type of explosive used, without providing additional information.
Police said investigations of the people involved in placing the explosive revealed that Yaalon was the intended target. The explosive was equipped with cameras allowing the attackers to trigger it remotely when they saw their target approaching.
The announcement comes after police said they and Israel’s Shin Bet security agency had thwarted a similar attack using the same type of explosive on Tuesday. The Shin Bet said in a statement that it had found an explosive device fitted with a camera and a mechanism that would allow it to be activated by Hezbollah from Lebanon. It said the attack was to be carried out in the coming days.
The Shin Bet did not provide evidence linking the device to Hezbollah, which has been trading fire with Israel along the Lebanese border since the outbreak of the war in Gaza. Authorities did not say where the device was found or identify the target of the foiled attack, but said the official had been notified.
Iran’s President Masoud Pezeshkian has accused the U.S. and its allies of backing the exploding pagers attack on Hezbollah in Lebanon and Syria.
“Using devices, made for welfare of human beings, as a tool for assassination and annihilation” of those who don’t hold the same views of the U.S., Israel and the West is “an indication of the collapse of humanity as well domination of savagery and barbarism,” the website of the president quoted him as saying Wednesday.
“The incident once again showed that western nations and Americans fully support crime, killings and blind assassinations by the Zionist regime, in practice,” Pezeshkian added.
Iran is the chief supporter of Hezbollah, the militant Lebanese group that Israel sees it as its most direct threat. Many of the group’s fighters were killed and injured in Tuesday’s explosions.
Iran has already sent a group of Iranian medics to Lebanon to help victims of the explosions.
BEIRUT — Lebanon’s health minister says the death toll from the exploding pager attack on Hezbollah has increased to 12 people, including two children and an unspecified number of healthcare workers..
Health Minister Firas Abiad said that two-thirds of the wounded needed hospitalization, adding that the scale of the incident was far greater than the thousands wounded in the massive Beirut Port explosion in 2020.
Most of the wounded were in Beirut and its southern suburbs, he said.
TEL AVIV, Israel — Israel’s military said they had intercepted two suspicious drones that approached Israel from Lebanon and Iraq on Wednesday morning, the day after pagers used by the militant group Hezbollah exploded in Lebanon and Syria, killing at least nine people, including an 8-year-old girl, and wounding nearly 3,000. Hezbollah and the Lebanese government blamed Israel for what appeared to be a sophisticated remote attack.
On Wednesday, the Israeli military said they intercepted a drone launched from Lebanon over the Mediterranean Sea near the coast of northern Israel. Another drone launched from Iraq was intercepted by Israeli air force fighter jets. There were no injuries or damage reported.
Israel also began moving more troops to the northern border with Lebanon in preparation for a possible retaliation.
As a precautionary measure, the Israeli military moved its 98th Division to the northern border, an official said. The division, which includes infantry, artillery and commando units, has until recently been fighting in Gaza. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media.
Hezbollah began firing rockets over the border into Israel on Oct. 8, the day after a deadly Hamas-led attack in southern Israel triggered a massive Israeli counteroffensive and the ongoing war in Gaza. Since then, Hezbollah and Israeli forces have exchanged strikes near-daily, killing hundreds in Lebanon and dozens in Israel and displacing tens of thousands on each side of the border.
JERUSALEM — The Israeli military says four soldiers were killed in southern Gaza and five others were wounded, with three of them in serious condition.
The deaths on Tuesday came nearly a year into the war in Gaza, which was triggered by Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack. The army did not describe the circumstances, but Israeli media reported that the soldiers were killed by a hidden bomb that exploded inside a building.
One of the four, Staff Sgt. Agam Naim, an army paramedic, was the first female soldier to have been killed in combat in Gaza, according to Israeli media.
Hamas and other armed groups remain active across the territory despite months of heavy Israeli bombardment and ground operations that have destroyed vast areas and displaced most of the population.
Israel says 346 of its soldiers have been killed since the start of ground operations last October. The military says it has killed over 17,000 militants, without providing evidence.
TAIPEI, Taiwan — Taiwanese company Gold Apollo said Wednesday that it authorized its brand on the pagers that exploded in Lebanon and Syria but that another company based in Budapest manufactured them.
Pagers used by hundreds of members of the militant group Hezbollah exploded near-simultaneously Tuesday in Lebanon and Syria, killing at least nine people, including an 8-year-old girl, and wounding more than 2,000. Hezbollah and the Lebanese government blamed Israel for what appeared to be a sophisticated remote attack.
The AR-924 pagers used by the militants were manufactured by BAC Consulting KFT, based in Hungary’s capital, according to a statement released Wednesday by Gold Apollo.
“According to the cooperation agreement, we authorize BAC to use our brand trademark for product sales in designated regions, but the design and manufacturing of the products are solely the responsibility of BAC,” the statement read.
Gold Apollo chair Hsu Ching-kuang told journalists Wednesday that his company has had a licensing agreement with BAC for the past three years, but did not provide evidence of the contract.
The AR-924 pager, advertised as being “rugged,” contains a rechargeable lithium battery, according to specifications once advertised on Gold Apollo’s website before it was apparently taken down Tuesday after the sabotage attack. It could receive text messages of up to 100 characters and claimed to have up to 85 days of battery life. That’s something that would be crucial in Lebanon, where electricity outages have been common as the tiny nation on the Mediterranean Sea has faced years of economic collapse. Pagers also run on a different wireless network than mobile phones, making them more resilient in emergencies — one of the reasons why many hospitals worldwide still rely on them.
FILE - Israeli soldiers move next to destroyed buildings following Israeli strikes during a ground operation in the Gaza Strip, Sept. 13, 2024. (AP Photo/Leo Correa, File)
Civil Defense first-responders carry a man who was wounded after his handheld pager exploded, in the southern port city of Sidon, Lebanon, Tuesday, Sept. 17, 2024.(AP Photo)
People gather outside the American University hospital after the arrival of several people who were wounded by exploding handheld pagers, in Beirut, Lebanon, Tuesday, Sept. 17, 2024. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar)
Palestinians in Lebanon wave their national flags during a protest in front of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) headquarters in Beirut, Lebanon, Tuesday, Sept. 17, 2024. (AP Photo/Bilal Hussein)
People gather around an ambulance carrying wounded people whose handheld pager exploded, at the emergency entrance of the American University hospital in Beirut, Lebanon, Tuesday, Sept. 17, 2024. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar)
The supermoon rises behind the houses in Mas'ade, a village in the Israeli-annexed Golan Heights, Tuesday, Sept. 17, 2024. (AP Photo/Leo Correa)
A Lebanese Red Cross volunteer collects blood donations for those who were injured by their exploded handheld pagers, Tuesday, Sept. 17, 2024, at a Red Cross center in the southern port city of Sidon, Lebanon. (AP Photo/Mohammed Zaatari)
