Hurricanes, Tropical Storm | featured news

The Federal Emergency Management Agency offers tips on how to prepare for Hurricane Sandy and other tropical storms. Sandy is expected to be especially disastrous when it merges with a winter storm system, bringing powerful winds, rain, snow and storm surge along the Eastern Seaboard.

Tropical Storm Sandy, which formed in the western Caribbean Sea late Monday, is expected to become a hurricane on Wednesday as it approaches Jamaica, the U.S. National Hurricane Center said. The storm was centered about 275 miles south-southwest of Kingston, Jamaica, and had top sustained winds of 50 miles per hour, the center said in an afternoon advisory.

Isaac was on the verge of ballooning into a hurricane Tuesday that could flood the coasts of four states with storm surge and heavy rains on its way to New Orleans, where residents hunkered down behind levees fortified after Katrina struck seven years ago this week.

As the Passaic River in New Jersey threatened to crest to dangerously high levels Tuesday, residents continued to battle the floodwaters that have forced thousands of people to relocate, authorities said.

Stocks are rising after Tropical Storm Irene wound up being less severe than many analysts had anticipated.

Hurricane Irene became a tropical storm Sunday as it made landfall in New York City, sending the sea across the Coney Island boardwalk and rapids running down some low-lying streets in Manhattan and other boroughs.

Hurricane Igor raced northeastward on Tuesday on a track that will pass energy operations in eastern Canada, while Tropical Storm Lisa formed in the far eastern Atlantic as the 12th named storm of the busy 2010 Atlantic season.

As Tropical Storm Igor spins across the Atlantic Ocean, forecasters say the the storm will probably strengthen and become a hurricane later Saturday.

A hurricane watch was issued for the coasts of Texas and Mexico in the Gulf on Monday as Tropical Storm Hermine approached.

The first named storm of the Atlantic hurricane season was on track on Saturday to reach the Gulf of Mexico within days, a potential threat to containment and cleanup of the worst ever US oil spill.