Page 10A
NATION/WORLD
East Oregonian
Saturday, October 13, 2018
Trump vows
to unearth truth
about Khashoggi
disappearance
By ZEKE MILLER AND
SUZAN FRASER
Associated Press
Chris Urso/Tampa Bay Times via AP
Jay Faulk, 56, surveys the damage to his home on Friday in Mexico Beach, Fla. Residents of the small beach town
of Mexico Beach began to make their way back to their homes some for the first time.
Official: Searchers find body
in hurricane-stricken town
By RUSS BYNUM AND
BRENDAN FARRINGTON
Associated Press
MEXICO BEACH, Fla.
— Search-and-rescue teams
found at least one body in
Mexico Beach, the ground-
zero town nearly obliter-
ated by Hurricane Michael,
an official said Friday as
the scale of the storm’s fury
became ever clearer.
The death toll across the
South stood at 14, includ-
ing the victim discovered in
Mexico Beach.
Miami Fire Chief Joseph
Zahralban, leader of a search-
and-rescue unit that went
into the flattened town, said:
“We have one confirmed
deceased and are working
to determine if there are oth-
ers.” Zahralban said search-
ers were trying to determine
if that person had been alone
or was part of a family.
Zahralban spoke as his
team — which included a
dog — was winding down
its two-day search of Mex-
ico Beach, the town of about
1,000 people that was nearly
wiped off the map when
Michael blew ashore there
Wednesday with devastating
155 mph winds.
Blocks and blocks of
homes were demolished,
reduced to splintered lum-
ber or mere concrete slabs by
the most powerful hurricane
to hit the continental U.S. in
nearly 50 years.
As the catastrophic dam-
age across the Florida Pan-
handle came into view 48
hours after the hurricane
struck, there was little doubt
the death toll would rise.
How high it might go
was unclear. But authorities
scrapped plans to set up a
temporary morgue, suggest-
ing they had yet to see mass
casualties.
State officials said that
by one count, 285 people in
Mexico Beach defied man-
datory evacuation orders and
Chris Urso/The Tampa Bay Times via AP
Destruction can be seen all over Mexico Beach, Fla.,
on Friday. The death toll across the South stood at 14,
including the victim discovered in Mexico Beach.
stayed behind. Some of them
successfully rode out the
storm. It was unclear how
many of the others might
have gotten out at the last
minute.
Emergency officials said
they have received thou-
sands of calls asking about
missing people. But with
cellphone service out across
vast swaths of the Florida
Panhandle, officials said it is
possible that some of those
unaccounted for are safe and
just haven’t been able to con-
tact friends or family.
Across
the
ravaged
region, meanwhile, author-
ities set up distribution cen-
ters to hand out food and
water to victims. Some sup-
plies were brought in by
trucks, while others had to
be delivered by helicopter
because of debris still block-
ing roads.
Residents began to come
to grips with the destruction
and face up to the uncer-
tainty that lies ahead.
“I didn’t recognize noth-
ing. Everything’s gone. I
didn’t even know our road
was our road,” said 25-year-
old Tiffany Marie Plushnik,
an evacuee who returned
to find her home in Sandy
Creek too damaged to live in.
When she went back to
the hotel where she took
shelter from the storm, she
found out she could no lon-
ger stay there either because
of mold. “We’ve got to figure
something out. We’re start-
ing from scratch, all of us,”
Plushnik said.
President Donald Trump
announced plans to visit
Florida and hard-hit Geor-
gia early next week but
didn’t say what day he would
arrive.
“We are with you!” he
tweeted.
Shell-shocked survivors
who barely escaped with
their lives told of terrifying
winds, surging floodwaters
and homes cracking apart.
Emergency officials said
they had completed an initial
“hasty search” of the stricken
area, looking for the living
or the dead, and had begun
more careful inspections of
thousands of ruined build-
ings. They said nearly 200
people had been rescued.
Gov. Rick Scott said state
officials still “do not know
enough” about the fate of
those who stayed behind in
the region.
“We are not completely
done. We are still getting
down there,” the governor
added.
Federal Emergency Man-
agement Agency chief Brock
Long said he expects to see
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the death toll rise.
“We still haven’t gotten
into the hardest-hit areas,”
he said, adding with frustra-
tion: “Very few people live
to tell what it’s like to experi-
ence storm surge, and unfor-
tunately in this country we
seem to not learn the lesson.”
Long expressed worry
that people have suffered
“hurricane amnesia.”
“When state and local
officials tell you to get out,
dang it, do it. Get out,” he
said.
On the Panhandle, Tyn-
dall Air Force Base “took
a beating,” so much so that
Col. Brian Laidlaw told the
3,600 men and women sta-
tioned on the base not to
come back. Many of the 600
families who live there had
followed orders to pack what
they could in a single suit-
case as they were evacuated
ahead of the storm.
WASHINGTON
—
President Donald Trump
declared Friday the U.S.
will uncover the truth about
what happened to journal-
ist and U.S. resident Jamal
Khashoggi, whose possi-
ble murder at Saudi hands
after disappearing in Istan-
bul has captured worldwide
attention. Trump promised
to personally call Saudi
Arabia’s King Salman soon
about “the terrible situation
in Turkey.”
“We’re going to find out
what happened,” Trump
pledged when questioned
by reporters in Cincinnati
where he was headlining a
political rally.
Khashoggi, a forceful
critic of the Saudi govern-
ment, went missing more
than a week ago after enter-
ing a Saudi consulate in
Istanbul, and Turkish offi-
cials have said they believe
he was murdered there. U.S.
officials say they are seek-
ing answers from the Saudi
government and are not yet
accepting the Turkish gov-
ernment’s conclusions.
The Saudis have called
accusations that they are
responsible for Khashog-
gi’s disappearance “base-
less.” Widely broadcast
video shows the 59-year-
old writer and Washington
Post contributor entering
the consulate on Tuesday of
last week, but there is none
showing him leaving.
Separately, Secretary of
State Mike Pompeo spoke
to Khashoggi’s fiancée,
Hatice Cengiz, the State
Department said Friday. No
details of the conversation
were released.
In an interview Friday
with The Associated Press,
Cengiz said Khashoggi
was not nervous when he
entered the Saudi consul-
ate to obtain paperwork
required for their marriage.
“He said, ‘See you later
my darling,’ and went in,”
she told the AP.
Citing
anonymous
sources, the Post reported
Friday that Turkey’s gov-
ernment has told U.S. offi-
cials it has audio and video
proof that Khashoggi was
killed and dismembered.
The AP has not been able
to confirm that report. In
written responses to ques-
tions by the AP, Cengiz said
Turkish authorities had not
told her about any record-
ings and Khashoggi was
officially “still missing.”
She said investigators
were examining his cell-
phones, which he had left
with her.
Saudi Arabia says
Khashoggi left the consul-
ate. He hasn’t been seen
since, though his fiancée
was waiting outside.
Both Turkey and Saudi
Arabia are important U.S.
allies in the region. Trump
said Treasury Secretary
Steve Mnuchin will eval-
uate whether to attend a
Saudi investor conference
later this month. Mnuchin
had indicated earlier Friday
he still planned to attend.
On Thursday, Trump
had said U.S. relations with
Saudi Arabia were “excel-
lent” and he was reluc-
tant to scuttle highly lucra-
tive U.S. weapons deals
with Riyadh. A number of
members of Congress have
pressed the Trump adminis-
tration to impose sanctions
on the country in response
to the Khashoggi affair.
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