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US-WEATHER-HURRICANE
Trump cancels Poland visit as hurricane heads for Florida
MIAMI, Aug 30, 2019 (BSS/AFP) – US President Donald Trump on Thursday
canceled a trip to Poland as Hurricane Dorian bore down on Florida, where it
could make landfall as a dangerous Category 4 storm.
Trump, who had been scheduled to attend World War II anniversary
commemorations in Poland this weekend, said he would focus instead on
preparations for the approaching hurricane.
“Our highest priority is the safety and security of the people in the path
of the hurricane,” he told reporters in the White House Rose Garden.
Vice President Mike Pence would go to Poland in his place, Trump said.
He called his Polish counterpart Andrzej Duda to apologize for the
cancelation, saying the storm could be “catastrophic,” the president’s chief
of staff Krzysztof Szczerski said, according to the PAP agency.
Weather forecasters said Dorian, currently a Category 1 storm — the lowest
on a five-level scale — could make landfall as a powerful Category 4
hurricane with the potential to cause life-threatening storm surges.
Florida’s governor declared a state of emergency in all 67 of the state’s
counties, warning the millions of people who live up and down the eastern
coast of the “Sunshine State” to prepare for a potentially major hurricane.
“All Floridians really need to monitor Hurricane Dorian and make the
necessary preparations,” Governor Ron DeSantis said. “Have your plan and make
those preparations right now.”
– ‘Catastrophic impacts’ –
Georgia — another southeastern state potentially in the storm’s path —
followed suit for 12 counties.
Governor Brian Kemp said the storm “has the potential to produce
catastrophic impacts to citizens” throughout the southeast coastal region of
the United States.
Trump, who has properties including the Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida, a
politically important state for his 2020 re-election bid, also warned
Floridians to get ready.
“Be prepared… it will be a very big Hurricane, perhaps one of the
biggest!” he said on Twitter.
The US Coast Guard said ocean-going commercial vessels should make plans to
depart South Florida ports.
“The risk of devastating hurricane-force winds along the Florida east coast
and peninsula late this weekend and early next week continues to increase,”
the National Hurricane Center (NHC) warned.
Miami’s Ocean Drive, a normally-vibrant strip along the beach, was
abnormally quiet, with some empty tables and fewer tourists than usual.
Grocery stores were full of shoppers making last-minute purchases of water,
food, propane canisters and other supplies. There were lines at some gasoline
stations as drivers filled up their tanks.
One shopper, Magdalena Gomez from Argentina, was preparing for her first
hurricane: “If they tell me to go buy water, I go buy water. I do everything
they say.”
A Rolling Stones concert originally scheduled for Saturday night was moved
up by a day “due to the weather forecast,” the band’s Twitter account said.
In its latest advisory, the NHC said Dorian was a Category 1 hurricane with
maximum sustained winds of 85 miles per hour (140 kilometers per hour), and
that it was forecast to make landfall in Florida on Monday. – Puerto Rico
spared –
“Strengthening is forecast during the next few days, and Dorian is expected
to become a major hurricane on Friday, and remain an extremely dangerous
hurricane through the weekend,” the NHC said.
The US territory of Puerto Rico, still recovering from a powerful storm two
years ago, was largely spared from Dorian but the NHC said it could dump up
to seven inches (18 centimeters) of rain on some parts of the Bahamas.
In Puerto Rico, the new governor, Wanda Vazquez, gave the all-clear, but
there was no let-up in the political storm involving Trump and Carmen Yulin
Cruz, the mayor of San Juan, the island’s capital.
“Now that Dorian is going to the east coast let us hope that
@realDonaldTrump sets aside his prejudice and racism & moves the federal
response to efficiency,” the mayor tweeted.
Trump declared a state of emergency in Puerto Rico ahead of Hurricane
Dorian, authorizing federal assistance, but alleged that the island is “one
of the most corrupt places on earth” and its political system is “broken.”
Puerto Rico was devastated in 2017 by Hurricane Maria, a Category 4 storm.
A study accepted as valid by the government, which initially put the death
toll at 64, estimated that nearly 3,000 people died as a result of the
hurricane and the months of disruption that followed.
BSS/AFP/GMR/0907 hrs