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Aug. 26 (UPI) — El Salvador and Panama have declared their highest-level alerts nationwide as the effects of El Niño threaten economies and residents’ safety.

In Panama, the climate phenomenon already has brought torrential rains and severe flooding to northern and Caribbean areas, affecting more than 15,600 people.

In El Salvador, it has triggered extreme agricultural drought and unprecedented heat that destroyed 20% of basic grain crops, seriously threatening the country’s food security.

In contrast, Panama’s metropolitan and central regions are facing a rainfall deficit that could persist at least through March, according to forecasts from Panama’s Institute of Meteorology and Hydrology.

Eleven watersheds already are experiencing “water stress,” with the effects expected to persist through May, along with elevated temperatures, Infobae reported. The situation has prompted the Panama Canal Authority to impose preventive restrictions on vessel traffic because of low water levels.

El Niño is a natural climate phenomenon marked by warmer-than-normal surface waters in the central and eastern equatorial Pacific, causing shifts in global wind and rainfall patterns, as well as erratic weather conditions.

The U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration issued a historic forecast this month, warning that the current El Niño has a greater than 90% chance of becoming a “very strong” event.

The agency’s official models indicate a nearly 70% chance that it will surpass all events recorded since 1950 in intensity, exceeding the record set by the massive 1982-83 event.

Panama’s Government Minister Dinoska Montalvo said Tuesday the state of emergency was declared to streamline administrative procedures, strengthen operational capacity and prepare “for what is to come,” the Panamanian newspaper La Estrella de Panamá reported.

According to El Salvador’s Environment Ministry, the country is experiencing its third consecutive drought period during the current rainy season, with the eastern and coastal regions hardest hit, the news outlet elsalvador.com reported.

The government declared a nationwide red alert Tuesday because of the risk that the drought could threaten people’s livelihoods and food security.

The Environment and Natural Resources Ministry expects estimated rainfall from August through October to total only about .24 inch, compared with a normal average of 37 millimeters during that period, La Prensa Gráfica reported.

In July, El Salvador experienced a heat wave that pushed temperatures above 104 degrees-F in the country’s eastern and central regions for 12 consecutive days, representing a severe anomaly.

Although those areas are accustomed to hot weather, regular rainfall during the country’s rainy season typically acts as a natural temperature regulator, keeping average highs closer to 91 degrees.

A major incident has been declared by Police Scotland as emergency services continue to tackle a wildfire which has been burning in the Cairngorms National Park for 10 days.

The force said it followed “a significant change in weather conditions” which has increased the risk of fire spreading towards the village of Nethy Bridge.

All Nethy Bridge residents have been evacuated as a precaution to allow emergency services to continue their response.

But a local resident told the BBC the wildfire should have been declared a major incident sooner and the lack of communication from authorities had been “pretty poor”.

The BBC has contacted the Scottish government and Police Scotland for comment.

First Minister John Swinney, who held a meeting of the Scottish government’s resilience room early on Saturday, said additional police resources were being deployed to assist with the Nethy Bridge evacuation.

He urged people to “respect the exclusion zone that’s been put in place”, adding that the change in weather conditions illustrated “the scale and difficulty of the situation that we are managing”.

Smoke from the wildfire can now be seen 59 miles away in Aberdeen following a change in wind direction.

Supt Judy Hill said weather conditions “experienced within the Cairngorms over the last 24 hours have added further complexities to this situation”.

“With evidence suggesting the fire is spreading towards Nethy Bridge, the decision has been taken to declare a major incident and evacuate residents as a precaution.”

She said additional police resources were being deployed to help contact those who need to leave their properties.

Supporters of a half-cent sales tax proposed to help fund health services in Los Angeles County declared victory Tuesday after days of steadily gaining ground as more ballots were counted.

The latest results show the “yes” camp ahead by a slim margin, with just more than 50% of the vote. The measure needs a simple majority to win.

“Today, Angelenos sent a clear message: we take care of each other,” said Jim Mangia, chief executive of St. John’s Community Health and a spokesperson for the campaign, in a statement. “For months, we watched Washington make decisions that stripped healthcare away from hundreds of thousands of our neighbors — and today, Los Angeles County answered.”

The campaign said it would be organizing a news conference Wednesday to celebrate the “historic win.”

The proposal, on the ballot as Measure ER, had gained traction since election night, when results showed the tax had failed to gain a majority of support among early voters. Voters have not rejected a sales tax hike in L.A. County since 2012, when a transportation measure fell just short of a needed two-thirds majority with 66.1% support.

Approval of Measure ER would impose a new sales tax of half a penny of every dollar spent in the county, with the proceeds going to local hospitals and clinics that say they’re bleeding funding after federal cuts. Officials anticipate it will bring in $1 billion annually to patch the holes in the health services network.

The tax, which was championed by a coalition of healthcare advocates, takes effect Oct. 1 and will last for five years.