International

Hurricane Earl has strengthened to a Category 2 storm and forecasters are predicting it will become a major category 3 or 4 hurricane within the next 24 hours - and it's heading for populated tropical islands.

Tonight (early Monday morning local time) the storm is passing close to the Leeward Islands, which is the home to Puerto Rico, a nation home to 4 million people.

Five years ago, the family had never seen a cactus up close. Mexican food meant Taco Bell. And the phrase "dry heat" would have been absurd. Back then, of course, they had never lived anywhere but Louisiana.

Now cactus plants abound, and Mom knows how to make the traditional Mexican dish menudo. And that dry heat helped salvage the Disney movies retrieved from a flooded-out house in New Orleans, the place Lois Thomas still can't help calling "home."

Fresh warnings and watches have been issued this evening as Tropical Storm Earl moves quickly westward toward the Leeward Islands.

Earl remains a strong tropical storm and is predicted to become a hurricane in the next 12 to 24 hours.  His winds are averaging 100km/h.  Hurricane status is 120km/h sustained.

Earl is strengthening and Hurricane watches and warnings have just been issued.

The death toll from Pakistan's massive flooding has climbed to 1,639, but the number could rise substantially as flood waters recede and more bodies surface, government officials say.

More than 17 million Pakistanis -- about the population of the Netherlands -- have been affected by the monsoon floods that began a month ago.

In the past few days, at least 1 million people have been displaced in Pakistan's Sindh province, the United Nations said. Authorities issued evacuation orders after a levee burst.

Two and possibly soon three tropical storms are today moving across the Atlantic Ocean as the hurricane season suddenly comes alive.

Hurricane Danielle is today roaring to the east of Bermuda with sustained winds over 150km/h.

The hurricane has started to turn to the north stopping her advancement on the tiny resort island.

Hurricane Danielle is continuing to track towards Bermuda this evening however in the past few hours she has started to turn more northerly - slowing her advancement towards the British territory resort island.

Danielle has also weakened dropping from a Category 4 storm to a Category 2.

Hurricane Danielle is going to have an impact across the eastern United States - and with bad timing.  Huge seas and dangerous rips are expected to move in across the weekend, when many trying to escape the summer heat will be flocking to the beach.

Flooding has displaced an additional 1 million people in Pakistan's Sindh province in the past two days, according to new UN estimates released Friday.

Monday NZT marks the fifth anniversary of Hurricane Katrina's landfall along the Gulf Coast.  It was a day that indelibly changed the coast forever. 

Parts of Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana are still struggling to recover from the storm.  In any given community, you can find homes and businesses destroyed by Katrina that have been rebuilt bigger and better. However, next to them you may find blighted buildings that still look as they did in the days and weeks after Katrina hit. 

The following collection of images from Weather.com show the damage left behind by Hurricane Katrina in 2005 compared to recent images from 2010.  These are the images of Hurricane Katrina, then and now.

Hurricane Danielle has reached "major hurricane status" and has become a dangerous Category 4 hurricane says the National Hurricane Center (NHC).

The storm now has sustained winds of 215km/h with gusts much higher.  The central air pressure has fallen from 955hPa to 946hPa.

Pakistan's government has warned about 500,000 people in the country's southeastern Sindh province they should evacuate immediately because of possible flooding, government officials said Thursday.

Residents of three major towns -- Sujawal, Mirpur Bathoro and Daro -- and their surrounding villages have been urged to evacuate as soon as they can to avoid possible flooding.

See full story below

You may also be interested in:

• Philip Duncan - Why don't we care about overseas disasters?
• NZ Herald - Terrorists' threat to flood aid workers