NATION/WORLD
Thursday, September 21, 2017
Maria destroys homes, triggers
serious flooding in Puerto Rico
SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) —
The strongest hurricane to hit Puerto
Rico in more than 80 years destroyed
hundreds of homes, knocked out power
across the entire island and turned some
streets into raging rivers Wednesday in
an onslaught that could plunge the U.S.
territory deeper into financial crisis.
Leaving at least nine people dead in
its wake across the Caribbean, Hurri-
cane Maria blew ashore in the morning
near the southeast coastal town of
Yabucoa as a Category 4 storm with
winds of 155 mph.
It punished the island of 3.4 million
people with life-threatening winds for
several hours, the second time in two
weeks that Puerto Rico has felt the
wrath of a hurricane.
“Once we’re able to go outside,
we’re going to find our island
destroyed,” warned Abner Gomez,
Puerto Rico’s emergency management
director. “The information we have
received is not encouraging. It’s a
system that has destroyed everything in
its path.”
There were no immediate reports
of any deaths or serious injuries on the
island.
As people waited in shelters or took
cover inside stairwells, bathrooms
and closets, Maria brought down cell
towers and power lines, snapped trees,
tore off roofs and unloaded at least 20
inches of rain.
Widespread flooding was reported,
with dozens of cars half-submerged in
some neighborhoods and many streets
turned into rivers. People calling local
radio stations reported that doors were
being torn off their hinges and a water
tank flew away.
Felix Delgado, mayor of the
northern coastal city of Catano, told
The Associated Press that 80 percent
of the 454 homes in a neighborhood
known as Juana Matos were destroyed.
The fishing community near San Juan
Bay was hit with a storm surge of more
than 4 feet, he said.
“Months and months and months
and months are going to pass before we
can recover from this,” he said.
Gov. Ricardo Rossello imposed a
curfew from 6 p.m. to 6 a.m. daily until
Saturday to allow rescue crews and
officials to respond to the hurricane’s
aftermath.
“We are at a critical moment in
the effort to help thousands of Puerto
Ricans that urgently need aid and to
AP Photo/Tatiana Fernandez
A woman covers herself with a plastic bag as she makes her way to
work as Hurricane Maria approaches the coast of Bavaro, Dominican
Republic on Wednesday.
assess the great damage caused by
Hurricane Maria,” he said. “Main-
taining public order will be essential.”
As of 5 p.m. EDT, Maria had weak-
ened into a Category 2 hurricane with
winds of 110 mph. It was centered just
off the northwestern corner of Puerto
Rico, moving at 12 mph.
It was expected to pass off the
northeastern coast of the Dominican
Republic late Wednesday and Thursday.
Even before the storm, Puerto Rico’s
electrical grid was crumbling and the
island was in dire condition financially.
Puerto Rico is struggling to
restructure a portion of its $73 billion
debt, and the government has warned
it is running out of money as it fights
against furloughs and other austerity
measures imposed by a federal board
overseeing the island’s finances.
Rossello urged people to have faith:
“We are stronger than any hurricane.
Together, we will rebuild.”
He asked President Donald Trump
to declare the island a disaster zone, a
step that would open the way to federal
aid.
Many people feared extended power
outages would further sink businesses
struggling amid a recession that has
lasted more than a decade.
“This is going to be a disaster,” said
Jean Robert Auguste, who owns two
French restaurants and sought shelter
at a San Juan hotel. “We haven’t made
any money this month.”
More than 11,000 people — and
more than 580 pets — were in shelters,
authorities said.
Along the island’s northern coast,
an emergency medical station in the
town of Arecibo lost its roof, while
communication was severed with
several emergency management posts.
A hospital and a police station reported
broken windows, and a tree fell on an
ambulance.
As the storm closed in on the
Dominican Republic, about 4,000 tour-
ists in the Bavara-Punta Cana area on
the eastern tip of the island were moved
to hotels in Santo Domingo, the capital.
About 100 flights were canceled and
the government suspended school and
sent workers home.
“The government has prepared
itself for the worst case scenario and
so should the people,” presidential
administrative secretary Jose Ramon
Peralta said.
Maria posed no immediate threat
to the U.S. mainland. The long-range
forecast showed the storm out in the
Atlantic Ocean hundreds of miles off
the Georgia-South Carolina coast by
Monday morning.
Previously a Category 5 with 175
mph winds, Maria hit Puerto Rico
as the third-strongest storm to make
landfall in the U.S., based on its central
pressure. It was even stronger than
Hurricane Irma when Irma roared into
the Florida Keys earlier this month.
East Oregonian
Trump: GOP health
bill short of votes
before deadline
WASHINGTON (AP) —
President Donald Trump said
Wednesday the Republicans’
last-resort
“Obamacare”
repeal effort remains two or
three votes short, forecasting
days of furious lobbying
ahead with a crucial deadline
looming next week.
The legislation by Sens.
Bill Cassidy of Louisiana and
Lindsey Graham of South
Carolina would repeal major
pillars of former President
Barack Obama’s health law,
replacing them with block
grants to states to design their
own health care programs.
Majority Leader Mitch McCo-
nnell is trying to round up 50
votes to pass the legislation
before Sept. 30, when special
rules preventing a Democratic
filibuster will expire.
“We think this has a very
good chance, Obamacare is
only getting worse,” Trump
told reporters covering the
U.N. General Assembly
meeting in New York. “At
some point the Senate is going
to be forced to make a deal.”
By his reckoning, “we’re at
47 or 48 already, senators, and
a lot of others are looking at it
very positively.”
Trump’s comments came
several hours after McCon-
nell’s office announced that
the majority leader’s “inten-
tion” is to bring the legislation
to the Senate floor next week,
a question McConnell was
noncommittal on a day earlier.
After the embarrassing defeat
of an earlier repeal bill in July,
some Republicans believe
McConnell would bring a bill
to the floor only with the votes
in hand.
In a Senate split 52-48
between Republicans and
Democrats, McConnell has
little room for error. GOP
Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky
has
already
announced
his opposition, saying the
bill doesn’t do enough to
repeal “Obamacare,” while
moderate Republican Sen.
Susan Collins of Maine is also
BRIEFLY
Mexico quake rescuers race
to free girl, other survivors
MEXICO CITY (AP) — The wiggling
fingers of a young girl trapped in the rubble
of her collapsed school in Mexico City raised
hopes among hundreds of rescuers working
furiously Wednesday to try to free her — a
drama that played out at dozens of buildings
toppled by the powerful earthquake that
killed at least 223 people.
But it was the ongoing rescue at the
Enrique Rebsamen school, where 25 people
including 21 children perished, that was seen
as emblematic of Mexicans’ rush to save
survivors before time runs out.
Helmeted workers spotted the girl buried
in the debris early Wednesday and shouted
to her to move her hand if she could hear.
She did, and a rescue dog was sent inside to
confirm she was alive.
Hours later the crews were still laboring
to free her, as images of the rescue effort
were broadcast on TV screens nationwide.
Workers in neon vests and helmets used
ropes, pry-bars and other tools, frequently
calling on the anxious parents and others
gathered around to be silent while they
listened for any other voices from beneath
the school.
At one point, the workers lowered a
sensitive microphone inside the rubble to
scan for any noise or movement. A rescuer
said they thought they had located someone,
but it wasn’t clear who.
“It would appear they are continuing to
find children,” said Carlos Licona, a burly
sledge-hammer wielding volunteer who
came to help in any way he could. Asked if
that made him optimistic, he said, “I hope
so.”
It was part of similar efforts at the scenes
of dozens of collapsed buildings, where
firefighters, police, soldiers and civilians
wore themselves out hammering, shoveling,
pushing and pulling debris aside to try to
reach the living and the dead.
By mid-afternoon, 52 people had
been pulled out alive since Tuesday’s
magnitude 7.1 quake, Mexico City’s Social
Development Department said, adding in a
tweet: “We won’t stop.”
Fed announces a start to
reducing its bond holdings
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Federal
Reserve will begin shrinking the enormous
portfolio of bonds that it amassed after the
2008 financial crisis to try to sustain a frail
economy. The move reflects a strengthened
economy and could mean higher rates on
mortgages and other loans over time.
The Fed announced Wednesday that it
will let a small portion of its $4.5 trillion
balance sheet mature without being replaced,
starting in October with reductions of $10
billion a month and gradually rising over the
next year to $50 billion a month.
AP Photo/Moises Castillo
Rescue personnel work on a collapsed building, a day after a devastating 7.1 earth-
quake, in the Roma neighborhood of Mexico City, Wednesday.
The central bank left its key short-term
rate unchanged but hinted at one more
hike this year — most likely in December.
The Fed policymakers’ updated economic
forecasts show an expectation for three more
rate increases in 2018.
The Fed’s policymaking committee
approved its action on a 9-0 vote after ending
its latest meeting.
Stocks turned lower after the
announcement before finishing mixed. Bond
yields rose, reflecting expectations of higher
rates.
Prospects for air traffic
control privatization slim
WASHINGTON (AP) — President
Donald Trump has made airlines’ longtime
goal of privatizing air traffic control a
key part of his agenda to boost America’s
infrastructure. But his prospects for closing
the deal with Congress appear slim.
A House bill that would put the aviation
industry in charge of air traffic control has
repeatedly stalled and prospects appear even
worse in the Senate, where there has been no
effort to take up the issue. While the White
House and airline lobbyists have pushed
for privatization, there has been fierce
opposition from private pilots, corporate
aircraft owners and others who fear they
will have to pay more to use the system and
would lose access to busy airports.
Airlines have pushed for getting the
government out of air traffic operations for
decades and seemed to have the brightest
prospects after meeting with Trump early
this year. Trump embraced the idea as part of
his overall plan to boost infrastructure — a
big part of his campaign promise to create
Page 7A
jobs. While Trump has offered few other
specifics about his overall infrastructure
plans, he put the spotlight on air-traffic
privatization at a White House infrastructure
event in June.
Three weeks later, the House
transportation committee approved a bill
by its chairman, Pennsylvania Republican
Bill Shuster, to spin off air traffic control
from the Federal Aviation Administration
and place it under the authority of a private,
non-profit corporation run by aviation
interests, including airlines.
But the bill still hasn’t come to the
House floor. Trump’s special assistant for
infrastructure policy, D.J. Gribbin, told
an airline industry conference last week
that House leaders are planning a vote in
early October. But the bill’s supporters
acknowledge the vote would have already
happened if there was enough support to
pass it.
Manafort offered to brief
Russians during campaign
WASHINGTON (AP) — In the middle
of Donald Trump’s presidential run, then-
campaign chairman Paul Manafort said he
was willing to provide “private briefings”
about the campaign to a Russian billionaire
the U.S. government considers close to
Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Manafort’s offer was memorialized in an
email exchange with a former employee of
his political consulting firm in July 2016. It
was first reported by The Washington Post,
which said portions of Manafort’s emails
were read to reporters.
Manafort spokesman Jason Maloni
confirmed to The Associated Press that
seen as a likely “no” vote.
With Democrats unani-
mously opposed, McConnell
cannot afford to lose even
one more Republican senator.
The focus is on Sens. John
McCain of Arizona and Lisa
Murkowski of Alaska, both
of whom opposed earlier
versions of repeal legislation.
This time may be McCain
because his closest friend
in the Senate, Graham, is a
co-author of the bill.
One leading Republican,
Chuck Grassley of Iowa,
voiced pessimism Wednesday
in a phone interview with
home-state reporters, saying
glumly: “I think we’re one or
two votes short and I don’t see
those other votes coming and I
hope I’m wrong.”
Trump touched on one of
the most contentious aspects of
the bill in a tweet Wednesday
night, asserting: “I would
not sign Graham-Cassidy if
it did not include coverage
of pre-existing conditions. It
does! A great Bill. Repeal &
Replace.”
Whether it truly does
protect people with pre-ex-
isting health problems is
fiercely under debate.
Cassidy defended the
health care bill against criti-
cism from late-night TV host
Jimmy Kimmel, who jumped
into the debate after his son
was born with a congenital
heart defect in April.
“I am sorry he does not
understand,” Cassidy said of
Kimmel on CNN. “I think the
price will actually be lower.”
“This guy Bill Cassidy
just lied right to my face,”
Kimmel said on his ABC
show Tuesday night, refer-
ring to Cassidy’s promises
to Kimmel and others that
his health bill would pass
the “Jimmy Kimmel test.”
Cassidy coined the phrase
to mean that people with
pre-existing conditions would
have protections and not face
lifetime caps on coverage
from insurers.
the email exchanges were legitimate but
said no briefings ever occurred. The email
involved an offer for Oleg Deripaska, a
wealthy Russian who made his money in the
aluminum business.
The July 7, 2016, email came a little
over a week before the Republican National
Convention, while Manafort was leading the
Trump campaign’s day-to-day operations. It
also occurred about a month after Manafort
attended a meeting with a Russian lawyer at
Trump Tower. That meeting was brokered
by Donald Trump Jr., who was told in emails
that the meeting was part of a Russian
government effort to help his father’s
campaign.
The Manafort email exchange regarding
Deripaska is one of thousands of pages
of material turned over to congressional
committees by the Trump campaign. It is
also in the possession of special counsel
Robert Mueller, who is investigating whether
there was any coordination between Trump
associates and Russians looking to interfere
in the presidential campaign. Mueller is also
probing Manafort’s taxes and his foreign
banking as part of an investigation related to
his consulting work in Ukraine.
Huge sea turtles coming back
from brink of extinction
WASHINGTON (AP) — Sea turtles are
lumbering back from the brink of extinction,
a new study says.
Scientists found more populations of the
large turtles improving than declining when
they looked at nearly 60 regions across the
globe. That’s a big change from a decade or
two ago, experts said.
Long-living sea turtles have been pushed
to endangered levels by hunting, accidentally
being caught in fishing nets, habitat loss,
plastics pollution and climate change,
experts say.
But massive efforts to save the egg-laying
turtles by changing fishing nets and creating
protected and darkened beaches are working,
said study lead author Antonios Mazaris, an
ecology professor at Aristotle University of
Thessaloniki in Greece.
“There’s a positive sign at the end of the
story,” Mazaris said. “We should be more
optimistic about our efforts in society.”
The research was published Wednesday
in the journal Science Advances.
There are seven different species of sea
turtles, all but one endangered.
The slow creatures live for several
decades with some species weighing about
100 pounds and others well over 1,000
pounds.
Mazaris pointed to Hawaiian green sea
turtles, once in trouble 40 years ago, as story
of success. Maybe too much success.
“They have more turtles than they
know what to do with,” said Roderic Mast,
advisory group chairman at the International
Union for Conservation of Nature.