NATION
Thursday, September 13, 2018
East Oregonian
AP Photo/Chuck Burton
Page 9A
AP Photo/David Goldman
Left: Sand bags surround homes on North Topsail Beach, N.C., Wednesday, Sept. 12, 2018, as Hurricane Florence threatens the coast. Right: Marge Brown, 65, says goodbye to her
father, George Brown, 90, before he is evacuated from a healthcare home in Morehead City, N.C., Wednesday, Sept. 12, 2018, as Hurricane Florence approaches the east coast. “I’d
like to stay and see what happens. I’m 90 plus,” said Brown, a WWII veteran who says he’s survived a plane crash and severe burns from a laboratory fire where he once worked.
Storm’s uncertain track sows fear; 10 million in crosshairs
By JEFFREY COLLINS
Associated Press
MYRTLE BEACH, S.C.
(AP) — Hurricane Flor-
ence put a corridor of more
than 10 million people in
the crosshairs Wednesday
as the monster storm closed
in on the Carolinas, uncer-
tainty over its projected
path spreading worry across
a widening swath of the
Southeast.
Faced with new forecasts
that showed a more south-
erly threat, Georgia’s gover-
nor joined his counterparts
in Virginia and North and
South Carolina in declar-
ing a state of emergency,
and some residents who had
thought they were safely out
of range boarded up their
homes.
The National Hurricane
Center’s best guess was that
Florence would blow ashore
as early as Friday afternoon
around the North Caroli-
na-South Carolina line, then
push its rainy way westward
with a potential for cata-
strophic inland flooding.
Florence’s
nighttime
winds were down to 115
mph (185 kph) from a high
of 140 mph (225 kph), and
the Category 4 storm fell to
a Category 3, with a further
slow weakening expected
as the storm nears the coast.
But authorities warned it
will still be an extremely
dangerous hurricane.
“Do you want to get hit
with a train or do you want
to get hit with a cement
truck?” said Jeff Byard, an
administrator with the Fed-
eral Emergency Manage-
ment Agency.
Tropical
storm-force
winds extended 195 miles
(315 kilometers) from
Florence’s center, and
hurricane-force
winds
reached out 70 miles (110
kilometers).
The National Weather
Service said 5.25 mil-
lion people live in areas
under hurricane warnings
or watches, and 4.9 million
live in places covered by
tropical storm warnings or
watches.
At the White House,
President Donald Trump
both touted the govern-
ment’s readiness and urged
people to get out of the way
of Florence.
“Don’t play games with
it. It’s a big one,” he said.
As of 8 p.m., the storm
was centered 335 miles
(540 kilometers) southeast
of Wilmington, North Car-
olina, moving northwest at
16 mph (26 kph). The hur-
ricane center said Florence
will approach the coast Fri-
day and linger for a while
before rolling ashore.
As of Tuesday, more than
1.7 million people in the
Carolinas and Virginia were
warned to clear out. Airlines
had canceled nearly 1,000
flights and counting. Home
Depot and Lowe’s activated
emergency response centers
to get generators, trash bags
and bottled water to stores
Trump comments sting in Puerto Rico
amid slow storm recovery on island
By DANICA COTO
AND ANGELIKI
KASTANIS
Associated Press
SAN JUAN, Puerto
Rico (AP) — President
Donald Trump’s assertion
that the federal govern-
ment’s response to Hurri-
cane Maria was “an incred-
ible, unsung success” fell
flat in Puerto Rico, where
islanders are still strug-
gling to recover from the
devastating storm a year
later.
“I was indignant,” said
Gloria Rosado, a 62-year-
old college professor who
watched the president’s
news conference on TV
late Tuesday from San
Juan and was still fuming
the next day. “The image
of my dead husband imme-
diately came to my mind ...
as well as all the lives that
were lost.”
Rosado’s husband, who
was hospitalized for respi-
ratory and renal complica-
tions and ultimately suf-
fered a heart attack, was
one of the estimated 2,975
people who died in the Cat-
egory 4 storm’s aftermath
when medical resources
were strained beyond the
breaking point.
For many, Trump’s
boast about “one of the
best jobs that’s ever been
done” was hard to square
with their daily reality:
Blackouts remain com-
mon; nearly 60,000 homes
are covered by only a
makeshift roof not capa-
ble of withstanding a Cat-
egory 1 hurricane; and 13
percent of municipalities
lack stable phone or inter-
net service.
“Nobody is singing
his praises because we all
saw what happened,” San
Juan Mayor Carmen Yulin
Cruz told The Associated
Press. “He wasn’t up to
the task...and the way that
he neglected our lives gave
permission to other peo-
ple in his administration to
look the other way.”
Cruz criticized Trump in
a series of tweets, includ-
ing one that said, “If he
thinks the death of 3,000
people (is) a success God
help us all.”
That reignited a long-
standing feud between
before and after the storm.
The two hardware chains
said they sent in a total of
around 1,100 trucks.
Duke Energy, the nation’s
No. 2 power company, said
Florence could knock out
electricity to three-quarters
of its 4 million customers in
the Carolinas, and outages
could last for weeks. Work-
ers are being brought in
EARTHLINK INTERNET
HIGH SPEED INTERNET
AP Photo/Gerald Herbert, File
In this Sept. 26, 2017 file photo, Nestor Serrano walks on the upstairs floor of
his home, where the walls were blown off, in the aftermath of Hurricane Maria,
in Yabucoa, Puerto Rico. Blackouts remain common, and nearly 60,000 homes
have only a makeshift roof.
the mayor and Trump,
who fired back calling her
“totally incompetent” and
saying the U.S. govern-
ment “did an unappreci-
ated great job in Puerto
Rico.”
A July report by the Fed-
eral Emergency Manage-
ment Agency, or FEMA,
noted several shortcom-
ings in its response, includ-
ing that it underestimated
how much food and water
would be needed after the
storm and that not enough
Spanish-speaking
aid
workers were deployed to
the island.
At the same time, the
agency also faced chal-
lenges that were arguably
beyond its control such as
the sheer force of the mon-
ster storm and the logisti-
cal difficulties of reaching
the Caribbean island over
a thousand miles (1,600
kilometers) away from the
mainland.
And many residents say
local officials share much
of the blame. Puerto Rico’s
government has acknowl-
edged that its emergency
plans were designed for a
Category 1 hurricane, as
well as failures to follow
those plans and communi-
cations breakdowns.
Ramon Ruiz, a 56-year-
old business owner whose
father died from heart
problems on Thanksgiv-
ing after riding out the
hurricane alone at home,
pressed up against the door
to keep it from caving in, is
among those who say both
local and federal authori-
ties were slow to act.
“If it wasn’t for the
churches and private orga-
nizations, we truly would
not have received help
from anyone,” Ruiz said.
“They are treating us like
second-class citizens. ... If
we were another state, the
response would have been
much faster.”
In Maria’s aftermath,
according
to
FEMA
data analyzed by the AP,
approvals for individual
assistance checks in Puerto
Rico were slower com-
pared with what happened
with large storms last year.
From Sept. 30 to Oct. 7,
not one of those checks
was approved. On Oct. 8
the approvals began roll-
ing again, but with a large
spike suggesting a backlog.
In addition, data from
the U.S. Small Business
Administration
indicate
that approvals for disas-
ter loans in Puerto Rico
were slow — the first one
was not approved until 15
days after the storm was
declared, four times as long
as with Hurricane Harvey.
For Maria, there was a
large gap between when
the first loan was approved
and when loans started
ramping up. While 25 per-
cent of Harvey loans were
OKed within 42 days, for
Maria, that didn’t happen
until Jan. 9, more than three
months after the storm hit.
Overall, compared with
Harvey and Irma, Maria
saw more funds loaned to
homeowners rather than
business owners.
Islanders have also been
angered by recent dis-
coveries of supplies that
never got delivered. A
from the Midwest and Flor-
ida to help in the storm’s
aftermath, it said.
Boarding up his home
in Myrtle Beach, South
Carolina, Chris Penning-
ton watched the forecasts
and tried to decide when to
leave.
“In 12 or 18 hours, they
may be saying different
things all over again,” he
said.
Computer models of
exactly what the storm
might do varied, adding to
the uncertainty. In contrast
to the hurricane center’s
official projection, a highly
regarded European model
had the storm turning south-
ward off the North Carolina
coast and coming ashore
near the Georgia-South Car-
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olina line.
Reacting to the possi-
bility of a more southerly
track, Georgia Gov. Nathan
Deal declared an emergency
but did not immediately
order any evacuations.
“I ask all Georgians to
join me in praying for the
safety of our people and all
those in the path of Hurri-
cane Florence,” Deal said.
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photo that emerged Tues-
day of thousands of water
bottles abandoned on a
runway in eastern Puerto
Rico prompted local offi-
cials to say Wednesday
that they were opening an
investigation.
Ottmar Chavez, the new
secretary of the island’s
General Services Adminis-
tration, said at a news con-
ference that Puerto Rican
officials requested the
water from the U.S. gov-
ernment and were sup-
posed to pick it up in late
May. He said some of it
was distributed but people
complained that it smelled
bad. He added that it was
unclear why the remain-
der sat on the runway for
nearly four months.
Shortly after Maria
hit last year, Trump vis-
ited Puerto Rico and was
widely criticized for toss-
ing paper towels to storm
victims in a manner seen
by many as insensitive to
the scope of the disaster.
His latest remarks once
again dredged up those
same hurt feelings.
“I ignore them because
none of them make sense,”
said Michelle Cruz, a
48-year-old airline worker
whose mother died in
December from septicemia
after contracting an infec-
tion in a hospital during
surgery after Maria. “It
bothers me and it hurts.
But I don’t pay attention to
him.”
Data journalist Ange-
liki Kastanis reported from
Los Angeles. Videographer
Chris Gillette contributed
to this report.
The shift in the pro-
jected track spread concern
to areas that once thought
they were relatively safe.
In South Carolina, close to
the Georgia line, Beaufort
County emergency chief
Neil Baxley told residents
they need to prepare again
for the worst just in case.
“We’ve had our lessons.
Now it might be time for the
exam,” he said.
In Virginia, where about
245,000 residents were
ordered to evacuate low-ly-
ing areas, officials urged
people to remain away
from home despite fore-
cast changes showing Flor-
ence’s path largely missing
the state.
Their entire neighbor-
hood evacuated in Wilm-
ington, North Carolina,
David and Janelle Garrigus
planned to ride out Florence
at their daughter’s one-bed-
room apartment in Char-
lotte. Unsure of what they
might find when they return
home, the couple went
shopping for a recreational
vehicle.
“We’re just trying to plan
for the future here, not hav-
ing a house for an extended
period of time,” David Gar-
rigus said.
Melody Rawson evac-
uated her first-floor apart-
ment in Myrtle Beach and
arrived at Atlanta Motor
Speedway in Hampton,
Georgia, to camp for free
with three other adults, her
disabled son, two dogs and
a pet bird.
“We hope to have some-
thing left when we get
home,” she said.
Forecasters worried the
storm’s damage will be all
the worse if it lingers on the
coast. The trend is “excep-
tionally bad news,” said
University of Miami hur-
ricane researcher Brian
McNoldy, since it “smears
a landfall out over hundreds
of miles of coastline, most
notably the storm surge.”
With South Carolina’s
beach towns more in the
bull’s-eye because of the
shifting forecast, Ohio vaca-
tioners Chris and Nicole
Roland put off their depar-
ture from North Myrtle
Beach to get the maximum
amount of time on the sand.
Most other beachgoers were
long gone.
“It’s been really nice,”
Nicole Roland said. “Also,
a little creepy. You feel like
you should have already
left.”
Associated Press writers
Seth Borenstein in Wash-
ington; Jonathan Drew in
Wilmington, North Car-
olina; Jennifer Kay in
Miami; Gary Robertson in
Raleigh, North Carolina;
Sarah Rankin and Denise
Lavoie in Richmond, Vir-
ginia; Meg Kinnard in
Columbia, South Carolina;
Skip Foreman in Charlotte,
North Carolina; Jeff Mar-
tin in Hampton, Georgia;
David Koenig in Dallas;
and Jay Reeves in Atlanta
contributed to this report.
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