It is 13 years ago today that Princess Diana died as a result of injuries, sustained in a car crash in Paris. Just after midnight on 31 August 1997, the Princess was rushed from the Paris Ritz Hotel in order to evade waiting celebrity journalists, paparazzi. Her driver, Henri Paul, was called up at the last moment, although he had been drinking that evening. The third person in the car was Diana's lover, Dodi al-Fayed, son of Mohamed al-Fayed, the Egyptian businessman who was the owner of the Harrods store in London. Just before 1 am, the Princess' car entered an underpass along the Seine River at high speed, and careered out of control into a pillar. The vehicle deflected off the pillar and came to a halt in the middle of the underpass. Dodi al-Fayed and Henri Paul were killed on the spot, but Princess Diana was still alive. She was transferred to hospital in Paris, but died at 5 am.
I have never seen such an outpouring of public grief, including by radio and television presenters. Ordinary people congregated outside Buckingham Palace and Kensington Palace and left banks of flowers. The Royal Family nearly tripped up over the issue, with Queen Elizabeth II taking days to properly assess the situation and make a public statement. Princess Diana was a royal who appealed to average British people.
Fast forward to the year 2010. As I type this, the month of August is quietly coming to a close. I've spent the day compiling a tribute to a Lewis sailor who drowned off the Irish coast in 1918 after his ship was torpedoed. The U-boat involved was sunk a few weeks later, with 9 of its crew left to drown in the sea; 31 others went down with the sub. Only one crewmen was saved by HMS Jessamine. An understandable action - U-boat crews were responsible for some pretty atrocious acts after torpedoing ships in the First World War.The tribute will be published on this blog in the next few days.
Tuesday 31 August 2010
Hurricane update - 31 August
Five tropical cyclones to watch today. Danielle is no longer a tropical cyclone, just a very deep area of low pressure southeast of Newfoundland.
Hurricane Earl is a category IV hurricane, now moving away from Puerto Rico. This system will approach the American East Coast, anywhere north from Cape Hatteras to Nova Scotia. The inherent uncertainty surrounding hurricanes is very visible, as Earl has the potential to directly affect any part of the aforementioned coastline. The hurricane is now carrying maximum sustained winds of 135 mph.
Tropical storm Fiona is approaching the Leeward Islands, which will have to suspend mopping up after Earl. This is a relatively weak affair, with winds at galeforce (force 8 to 9 on the Beaufort scale).
In the Pacific, Lionrock, Kompasu and Namtheun are doing a menage-a-trois, but the first two should be watched. Kompasu will make landfall near Seoul with winds of 90 knots, that's a trifling 105 mph near the centre. Lionrock will make landfall in eastern China at tropical storm strength, bringing deluges of rain.
Hurricane Earl is a category IV hurricane, now moving away from Puerto Rico. This system will approach the American East Coast, anywhere north from Cape Hatteras to Nova Scotia. The inherent uncertainty surrounding hurricanes is very visible, as Earl has the potential to directly affect any part of the aforementioned coastline. The hurricane is now carrying maximum sustained winds of 135 mph.
Tropical storm Fiona is approaching the Leeward Islands, which will have to suspend mopping up after Earl. This is a relatively weak affair, with winds at galeforce (force 8 to 9 on the Beaufort scale).
In the Pacific, Lionrock, Kompasu and Namtheun are doing a menage-a-trois, but the first two should be watched. Kompasu will make landfall near Seoul with winds of 90 knots, that's a trifling 105 mph near the centre. Lionrock will make landfall in eastern China at tropical storm strength, bringing deluges of rain.
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