Hurricane Joaquin leaves the Bahamas, U.S. braces for separate floods

[WorldNews]

By Harriet McLeod CHARLESTON, S.C. (Reuters) - Hurricane Joaquin regained strength on Saturday as it swirled away from the Bahamas with the fate of a missing cargo ship and its 33 crew still unknown, while vast swaths of the U.S. Southeast and mid-Atlantic braced for more heavy rains and flooding from a separate weather system. By 12 p.m. EDT, Joaquin had strengthened significantly since Saturday morning and now had maximum sustained winds of 155 miles (250 km) per hour, the U.S. National Hurricane Center said, bringing it back up to a potentially catastrophic Category 4 on a scale of 1 to 5. The storm was about 595 miles (960 km) southwest of Bermuda, the Miami-based NHC said.

Continue reading...