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The post ‘Bodies everywhere’: Harrowing account of Bahamas after Dorian first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.

An Isle of Palms resident clears the drain during Hurricane Dorian in South Carolina, USA on September 5, 2019. (AP)

Officials in the Bahamas say the country’s death toll from Hurricane Dorian has increased to 30.

Bahamian Health Minister Duane Sands told The Associated Press in a phone interview late on Thursday that he expects that number to be “significantly higher” in upcoming days as crews continue search and rescue missions.

Sands said the victims are from Grand Bahama and the Abaco Islands and includes those who were injured and airlifted to New Providence island.

Dorian hit the Abaco islands on Sunday as a Category 5 storm and then hovered over Grand Bahama for a day and a half as a Category 4 storm.

Floodwaters rise on Carolina’s streets 

Deserted, rain-lashed streets in Charleston, South Carolina, vanished beneath the water on Friday as Hurricane Dorian churned a few dozen miles offshore after reducing parts of the Bahamas to rubble.

Water pooled a few inches deep near the centuries-old waterfront.

In certain low-lying blocks, it rose to a foot or more, as high tide approached and forecasters warned of storm surges of up to 2 meters.

Officials said Thursday afternoon that more than 18 cm of rain had fallen in parts of Charleston.

Dorian was about 80 kilometres off Charleston on Thursday, wavering in strength between a Category 2 and 3 on the five-step Saffir-Simpson wind scale. It was forecast to possibly make landfall in North Carolina late Thursday or early Friday.

Life-threatening storm surges and dangerous winds were possible in much of the coast of South Carolina, North Carolina and Virginia, the National Weather Service said.

Dorian whipped up at least three tornados in the region, officials said. One in North Carolina damaged scores of trailers in a campground in Emerald Isle, but no one was injured, North Carolina’s News & Observer reported.

Governors in the region declared states of emergency, closed schools, opened shelters, readied national guard troops and implored residents to take warnings seriously, as fresh images of the devastation wrought by the storm in the Bahamas earlier this week continued to circulate in the media.

At least 70,000 Bahamians needed immediate humanitarian relief after Dorian became the most damaging storm ever to hit the island nation.

In the Carolinas alone, more than 900,000 people had been ordered to evacuate their homes.

It was unclear how many did so.

In Kill Devil Hills, in North Carolina’s Outer Banks, Mark Jennings decided to ignore the order, lining his garage door with sandbags and boarding up his home with plywood.

The retired firefighter planned to stay put with his wife and two dogs: “We are ready to go. If something happens, we can still get out of here.”

At least four deaths in the US

At least four storm-related deaths have already been reported. Three people died in Orange County, Florida, during storm preparations or evacuation, according to the Orange County mayor’s office.

In North Carolina, an 85-year-old man fell off a ladder while barricading his home for Dorian, the governor said.

More than 210,000 homes and businesses were without power in South Carolina and Georgia early on Thursday, according to local electric companies.

On Charleston’s historic South Battery Street, which runs down to the harbor, Brys Stephens tried to keep the water away from his stately home, built in the veranda-wrapped Southern style that lures crowds of tourists to the city.

He and his family pumped water out of the yard and tried to reattach metal flood gates into the perimeter wall.

“The gates worked pretty well so far and we’ve managed to keep water away from the house,” Stephens said. “But we’ve got another storm surge coming later on, so we’ll see then if it holds.”

Source: https://www.trtworld.com/americas/hurricane-death-toll-in-bahamas-at-30-as-aid-begins-to-land-29561

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Social media / Michelle Cove / Trans Island Air

Parts of the Bahamas hit by Hurricane Dorian have been “decimated,” the country’s prime minister said.

Hubert Minnis told a news conference Tuesday that the current death toll of seven was expected to rise, calling Dorian “one of the greatest national crises in our country’s history.”

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Matthew Champion is a deputy world news editor for BuzzFeed News and is based in London.

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The National Hurricane Center said in a 5 a.m. update that Dorian had maximum sustained winds near 120 mph and was stationary just north of Grand Bahama Island.

“It’s as if we’re fighting a war with the enemy having all the weapons at its disposal,” Prime Minister Hubert Minnis told reporters.

Parts of the northern Bahamas were in the midst of a “historic tragedy” and that five people had been confirmed dead and at least 21 people had been injured and taken to hospitals, Minnis said Monday.

Minnis said that images and videos seen by officials are heartbreaking, with many homes and businesses and other buildings completely or partially destroyed.

“Dorian is still battering Grand Bahama Island and will continue for many more hours,” Minnis tweeted. “We know that there are a number of people in serious distress. We pray for their safety and will provide relief and assistance as soon as possible.”

Although it had been downgraded, Dorian was expected to remain a perilously powerful hurricane for the next couple of days, with “devastating” winds and a “life-threatening” storm surge, the center said.

The storm was forecast to travel “dangerously close” to the Florida east coast late Tuesday through Wednesday evening, the center said. It would then move “very near” the Georgia and South Carolina coasts Wednesday night and Thursday, and near or over the North Carolina coast late Thursday, the center added.

The Latest on Dorian:

• The storm had maximum sustained winds of 120 mph and was stationary just north of Grand Bahama Island, in a “stationary” position, the hurricane center said at 5 a.m. Tuesday. Isolated rainfall of over 30 inches in northwestern Bahamas could cause “life-threatening flash floods.”
• At least five people have died in the Abaco Islands, Bahamian officials say. A woman told Eyewitness News Bahamas that her 8-year-old grandson was killed in a possible drowning.
• Officials say Dorian is set to come “dangerously close” to Florida’s east coast late Tuesday through Wednesday evening, very near the Georgia and South Carolina coasts Wednesday night and Thursday, and near or over North Carolina’s coast late Thursday.
• Several airports including Fort Lauderdale, Palm Beach and Orlando international airports in Florida have shut down their operations. As of 6 a.m. Tuesday, some 1,381 flights within, out and into the U.S. had been canceled, according to FlightAware, an aviation data company. Amtrak also canceled some of its East Coast service.
• More than 70 nursing homes and assisted living facilities have evacuated along Florida’s east coast. Many of the state’s toll roads are suspended, and several ports have closed. In addition, more than 85 shelters are open statewide.
• Six counties east of Interstate 95 in Georgia were ordered to evacuate, Gov. Brian Kemp says.

The National Hurricane Center warned that a tornado or two was possible near the east coast of Florida through Tuesday night. The risk will then shift to coastal Georgia and the coastal Carolinas on Wednesday into Thursday.

Millions of people along the southeastern coast of the United States are bracing for Dorian’s effects in the coming days as meteorologists warn the storm’s actual trajectory is uncertain. President Donald Trump has approved emergency declarations for Florida, South Carolina, and Georgia. Virginia Gov. The governors of North Carolina and Virginia have also declared states of emergency.

Southport, North Carolina, Mayor J.V. Dove said that forecasts show the storm traveling up the coast and not making landfall.

“Still, we are expecting and do expect heavy rainfall, perhaps 10 inches or more, plus tropical-storm-force winds, and we’re preparing for that,” Dove said on MSNBC early Tuesday. A state of emergency would be in effect at 7 a.m.

“One thing I’ve learned about hurricanes is that a lot of people are very afraid of the winds, but most of our trouble comes from the flooding, the heavy rains that are caused by the hurricanes themselves,” the mayor said.

The National Weather Service in Miami tweeted early Tuesday that coastal flooding had been reported in the city, and urged people to not drive through flooded roadways. The weather service in Jacksonville said fast-moving rain bands would produce brief but torrential downpours and up to 30-mph wind gusts.

On Sunday, the governors of South Carolina and Georgia ordered at least 1 million people to evacuate their coasts beginning Monday.

Authorities in Florida ordered mandatory evacuations in some vulnerable coastal areas. In Florida, more than 120 shelters are filling up with people who’ve decided its too dangerous to risk staying at home.

Areas in the United States with populations of more than 3.5 million were under hurricane warnings, and another 9 million were under tropical storm warnings early Tuesday, according to the weather service.

A hurricane warning was in place for Jupiter Inlet, Florida, to Ponte Vedra Beach near Jacksonville as well as for the northwestern Bahamas.

A hurricane watch extended from Deerfield Beach north of Fort Lauderdale to Jupiter Inlet, Florida, as well as north of Ponte Vedra Beach Florida to the South Santee River in South Carolina.

A storm surge warning covered a stretch of the coast from Lantana, Florida, to the Savannah River. A tropical storm warning was issued for Deerfield Beach to Jupiter Inlet and north of Ponte Vedra Beach Florida to Altamaha Sound in Georgia.

A storm surge and tropical storm watch covered other areas of Florida and South Carolina.

Phil Helsel
Phil Helsel is a reporter for NBC News.

Saphora Smith
Saphora Smith is a London-based reporter for NBC News Digital.

Source: https://www.nbcnews.com/news/weather/hurricane-dorian-weakens-category-3-it-camps-out-over-devastated-n1049011

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The storm’s top sustained winds decreased slightly to 170mph as its westward movement slowed, crawling along Grand Bahama island early on Monday at 2mph in what forecasters said would be a day-long assault.

Hurricane Dorian, churning over the Atlantic Ocean. Picture: AP

Earlier, Dorian churned over Abaco island with battering winds and surf.

There was little information from the affected islands, but officials expected many residents to be left homeless.

Most people went to shelters as the storm approached, with tourist hotels shutting down and residents boarding up their homes.

“It’s devastating,” said Joy Jibrilu, director-general of the Bahamas’ Ministry of Tourism and Aviation. “There has been huge damage to property and infrastructure. Luckily, no loss of life reported.”

On Sunday, Dorian’s maximum sustained winds reached 185mph, with gusts of up to 220mph, tying the record for the most powerful Atlantic hurricane ever to come ashore. It equaled the Labour Day hurricane of 1935 before the storms were named.

As of early Monday, the hurricane’s westward movement had slowed somewhat to 5mph.

Forecasters said Dorian was most likely to begin pulling away from the Bahamas early on Tuesday and curve to the north-east parallel to the US Southeast seaboard.

Still, the potent storm was expected to stay close to shore and hammer the coast with dangerous winds and heavy surf, while authorities cautioned that it could still make landfall.

South Carolina Governor Henry McMaster ordered a mandatory evacuation of the entire coast of the state amid Dorian’s threat. The order, which covers about 830,000 people, goes into effect at noon local time on Monday, when state troopers will begin reversing lanes so they all head inland on major coastal highways.

“We can’t make everybody happy,” Mr. McMaster said. “But we believe we can keep everyone alive.”

Georgia’s governor Brian Kemp also ordered a mandatory evacuation of the state’s Atlantic coast, also starting at noon on Monday.

Authorities in Florida ordered mandatory evacuations in some vulnerable coastal areas.

More than 600 Labour Day flights in the US had been canceled as of Sunday afternoon, many of them in Florida as Dorian barrelled towards the state’s coast.

The only recorded storm that was more powerful was Hurricane Allen in 1980, with 190mph winds. That storm did not make landfall at that strength.

“Catastrophic conditions” were reported in Abaco, with a storm surge of 18-23 feet (5.5-7 meters), and Dorian was expected to cross Grand Bahama later in the day “with all its fury”.

In the northern stretches of the archipelago, hotels closed, residents boarded up homes and officials hired boats to move people to bigger islands.

Video that Ms. Jibrilu and government spokesman Kevin Harris said was sent by Abaco residents showed homes missing parts of their roofs, downed power lines and smashed and overturned cars. One showed floodwaters rushing through the streets of an unidentified town at nearly the height of a car roof.

In some parts of Abaco, “you cannot tell the difference as to the beginning of the street versus where the ocean begins”, said Prime Minister Hubert Minnis.

According to the Nassau Guardian, he called it “probably the saddest and worst day of my life to address the Bahamian people”.

Earlier, Mr. Minnis had warned that anyone who did not evacuate was “in extreme danger and can expect a catastrophic consequence”.

The government opened 14 shelters across the Bahamas. Dozens ignored evacuation orders, officials said.

After the Bahamas, the slow-crawling storm was forecast to turn sharply and skirt toward the US coast, staying just off Florida and Georgia on Tuesday and Wednesday and then buffeting

South Carolina and North Carolina on Thursday.

The National Hurricane Centre issued a hurricane watch for Florida’s East Coast from Deerfield Beach north to the Volusia and Brevard county line. The same area was put under a storm surge watch. Lake Okeechobee was under a tropical storm watch.

Florida governor Ron DeSantis warned the state’s densely populated Atlantic coast: “We’re not out of the woods yet.”

He noted that some forecast models still bring Dorian close to or even onto the Florida peninsula.

“That could produce life-threatening storm surge and hurricane-force winds,” he said. “That cone of uncertainty still includes a lot of areas on the east coast of Florida and even into central and north Florida, so we are staying prepared and remaining vigilant.”

Mandatory evacuation orders for low-lying and flood-prone areas and mobile homes were in effect starting either Sunday or Monday from Palm Beach County north to at least the Daytona Beach area, and some counties to the north issued voluntary evacuation notices.

On Tuesday and Wednesday, Dorian is forecast to be 40 to 50 miles off Florida with hurricane-force wind speeds extending about 35 miles to the west.

National Hurricane Centre director Ken Graham urged residents not to bet on safety just because the specific forecast track has the storm just a bit offshore.

Complicating matters is that with every new forecast, “we keep nudging (Dorian’s track) a little bit to the left” which is closer to the Florida coast, he said.

Dorian is a powerful but small storm with hurricane-force winds on Sunday only extending 29 miles to the west, but they are expected to grow a bit. That makes forecasting its path delicate and difficult.

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As the weather forecasts and warnings from officials grew increasingly dire, hundreds of thousands of people across Florida fled their homes in an effort to get out before the rapidly-closing window to escape Irma’s wrath slammed shut. Forecasters said Irma, a storm of remarkable size and power that has already battered islands across the Caribbean, would approach South Florida by Sunday morning and could slam ashore there before tracking up the state’s spine.

“It’s not a question of if Florida’s going to be impacted, it’s a question of how bad Florida’s going to be impacted,” William “Brock” Long, administrator of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, said at a news briefing on Friday.

Even as emergencies were declared in Georgia and the Carolinas – where heavy rains and flooding are expected early next week – attention remained focused on Florida as the state anxiously prepared for Irma’s arrival, with forecasts calling for up to 20 inches of rain in some areas and thrashing winds no matter how the storm pivots before hitting the mainland United States.

“Irma is likely to make landfall in Florida as a dangerous major hurricane, and will bring life-threatening wind impacts to much of the state regardless of the exact track of the center,” the National Hurricane Center said Friday.

The center said that Irma, which had maximum sustained winds near 155 mph and higher gusts on Friday and passed between the Central Bahamas and north coast of Cuba, was expected “to remain a powerful Category 4 hurricane as it approaches Florida.”

Local, state and federal officials have offered ominous warning after warning as the storm zeroed in on Florida, making clear how much danger they felt the Sunshine State could face in the coming days. Long urged people from Alabama to North Carolina to monitor and prepare for Irma, calling the storm “a threat that is going to devastate the United States, either Florida or some of the southeastern states.”

Floridians are familiar with ominous forecasts and hurricane warnings, and many in the state have painful memories of Hurricane Andrew, which made landfall as a Category 5 monster in 1992, and other storms that brought lashing rain and winds. But when asked about people in South Florida who intend to ride out the storm at home, Long was blunt.

“I can guarantee you that I don’t know anybody in Florida that’s ever experienced what’s about to hit South Florida,” Long said. “They need to get out and listen and heed the warnings.”

Mark DeMaria, acting deputy director of the hurricane center, said Friday afternoon that the latest models showed the storm track shifting slightly to the west, putting southwest Florida in particular jeopardy for the most violent winds even as all of South Florida will have significant impacts.

“We really want to emphasize the very vulnerable Southwest Florida area,” DeMaria said.

Scott, the governor, has warned people that evacuation zones could expand and said that all Floridians “should be prepared” to leave their homes. Scott has also cited the memories of Andrew, calling Irma “more devastating on its current path,” and warned that much of the state could be imperiled.

“Based on what we now know, the majority of Florida will have major hurricane impacts with deadly storm surge and life-threatening winds,” Scott said. “And we can expect this along the entire east coast and the entire west coast.”

In addition to packing intense power, Irma was also an immense storm, forecasters say, with hurricane-force winds extending some 70 miles from the center – and tropical-storm force winds extending as far as 185 miles out.

Airports around the state said they would suspend flights and cease operations. Publix, the grocery store chain, announced plans to close stores across the state in waves and did not say when they would reopen. Tom Bossert, homeland security adviser to President Donald Trump, on Friday said that people need to have enough food and water to get by during a period when the rain and wind will prevent authorities from getting to them.

“We have pre-deployed and pre-staged, but we can’t actually get to that final point of care until conditions permit,” he said during a White House briefing Friday.

The hurricane center has issued a hurricane warning covering all of South Florida, where local officials have ordered evacuations along the coast. In Miami-Dade County, the state’s most populous, mandatory evacuations were issued for about 660,000 people, including for Miami Beach and Key Biscayne. It was the largest evacuation ordered in Miami-Dade history, said Carlos Gimenez, the county’s mayor.

Miami City Hall, an Art Deco style building right on Biscayne Bay in Coconut Grove, an evacuation zone, was locked and mostly vacant on Friday. The only City Hall parking spot that was occupied? A black Ford Expedition in the spot labeled for Mayor Tomas Regalado.

Many people ordered to leave Broward and Palm Beach counties were directed to public schools, which have been shuttered across the state by Gov. Rick Scott, R, so they can serve as shelters and staging areas for first responders. Many public schools across the state had already canceled classes, while colleges had also shuttered campuses and rescheduled football games.

Pompano Beach High School, which sits just a few miles from the Atlantic Ocean and is normally home of the Golden Tornadoes, was transformed Friday into a safe haven for about 150 people seeking shelter from Irma. Several volunteers said they expected the school, one of about 20 facilities Broward County is using as a shelter, to reach its capacity of 280 people by Saturday.

Those already packed into the school’s cafeteria had one thing in common: They were either unable or unwilling to leave the area, despite a mandatory evacuation order for several sections of the county, including anyone close to the nearby ocean. Only those who had registered starting at noon on Thursday were allowed into the school, and once capacity was reached, others who showed up were directed to venues with larger spaces.

Three Broward County Sheriffs deputies were at the front door on Friday, inspecting all bags for weapons, drugs and alcohol. Two paramedics were assigned to the shelter in three shifts, and two will be in the building 24 hours a day starting Saturday morning, along with at least a half dozen law enforcement officers. The men, women and children filing inside have been greeted by several volunteers and county employees who will be working around the clock starting Saturday at 8 a.m.

They’re staffing a facility that doesn’t quite have all the comforts of home – there are two bathrooms and no showers, cots or Wi-Fi – but there are a few. Two television sets were tuned to the Weather Channel, providing the latest news about Irma’s approach – all of it bad. There were also nine microwave ovens, plugs for cellphone sand computers and, eventually, a generator that will be put into use once the power fails, as is expected once the hurricane hits.

Still, according to one volunteer, the school was built to withstand a Category 5 hurricane. Many occupants came fully-prepared, with a number of air mattresses, chaise lounges and sleeping bags set up in neat rows throughout the cafeteria. Three free meals a day will be served during the duration, and water, coffee and snacks are also available.

Someone brought in stacks of books, and others played checkers, cards, watched TV, read or took naps. An elderly couple came in concerned about keeping their insulin refrigerated. They were quickly assured by a paramedic they would be stored in a cafeteria fridge and available any time.

Suzie and Renè Wilhelm are here on vacation from the Netherlands. They were staying at a hotel a block from the nearby Fort Lauderdale beach, located in one of the evacuation zones.

Renè, a Mercedes Benz salesman back home, said they left Amsterdam for Orlando last Monday, not really aware of the monster storm gathering hundreds of miles away.

“We’ve been coming to Florida since 2000- Orlando, Miami, Fort Lauderdale, and we had no idea this was happening,” Renè said, sitting on one of two chaise lounges he had purchased Friday morning at a nearby Target. “We’re used to snow, but not this.”

They stayed in Orlando for a day, then drove south on Wednesday hoping the storm still might veer away from South Florida.

“We knew it was coming,” said Suzie, who works in health care. “But we also heard it was coming to Orlando, so we didn’t know what to do. As we were driving here, I thought, ‘This is a stupid thing to do.’ I called our travel agent in the Netherlands, and also the same company here, to see if they could get us out, but they never even called me back or answered my emails. The woman at our hotel tried to book us somewhere else, but everything was filled.”

They tried one shelter, but were told there was no food and that they could not leave if they went in.

“It was terrifying, so we came here,” she said. “You can come and go. People have been very nice to us.”

Not far away, Bill and Jane Borum, both native Washingtonians and retirees, were also trying to get comfortable on newly-purchased lounges and reading to pass the hours. They live in a condo at the Bay Colony high-rise in Fort Lauderdale, just steps from the ocean, and left when the evacuation order was issued. They thought about driving north to get out of harm’s way, but “we really didn’t have any place to go,” said Jane, who attended Alice Deal Junior High and Wilson High School in Northwest Washington “many years ago” and retired to South Florida with her husband a few years ago.

“We saw that all of Florida was going to be covered (by the storm), so that didn’t make sense,” she said. “My girlfriend was going to stay with relatives in Tifton, Georgia. She left here at 7:30 Thursday morning and didn’t get there until 11:30 at night. The traffic was a mess. We didn’t want to do that.

“Our kids in Maryland wanted us to fly home, but we couldn’t get on a flight, so now we’re here,” she added. “It’s our first time in a shelter, and the last, I hope.”

Some hit the road but did not want to go too far. Joseph “Tony” Vincent, 82, braked his 3-wheeled bicycle to a stop in the Naples Mobile Home Park. He has seen many storms and planned to hit the road for Irma, but he was not heading far away – he has weekend room reservations at a modest motel just outside the park, along Tamiami Trail.

“I seen Hurricane Donna blow the river completely out of its banks in Fort Myers,” he declared Friday morning. “A 2-story frame house swayed in the wind. This one is even bigger. I’m not dumb. My mama didn’t raise no fool.”

Vincent said that even if he had the money, he wouldn’t leave his home state over a hurricane.

“Hell, you’d be safer here than taking a car on those roads. You might be killed before you get to Atlanta,” he scoffed.

Other Florida fixtures hunkered down. The Miami-Dade Zoological Park and Gardens – otherwise known as Zoo Miami, which sprawls across more than 700 acres and has more than 3,000 animals – closed down on Thursday but said it would not be moving its animals.

“We don’t evacuate our animals since hurricanes can change direction at the last minute and you run the risk of evacuating to a more dangerous location,” the zoo said in a statement. “Furthermore, the stress of moving the animals can be more dangerous than riding out the storm. The animals that are considered dangerous will stay in their secure night houses, which are made of poured concrete and welded metal.”

When Hurricane Andrew struck, the zoo was hit hard. Tropical birds were missing, cages torn apart and animals traumatized – through, miraculously, most of the animals were unharmed.

Across the main arteries out of Florida, some trips took more than twice as long as normal. At one point late Thursday night and into Friday, so many cars clogged the Florida Turnpike that it took four hours to go 20 miles. People who fled the state trekked into Georgia and South Carolina. Atlanta’s downtown was turned into a temporary home for many evacuees, some of whom spent all night making the trip from South Florida. In South Carolina, the attorney general’s office reported more than 200 complaints from residents about price-gouging related to gasoline.

Fleeing to safer ground was not an option for many in the Caribbean, where Irma had claimed at least 16 lives – a toll expected to increase – and had the prime minister of tiny Barbuda grasping for a word to describe the devastation. The island, said Gaston Browne, was now “rubble.” France’s minister for overseas territories, Annick Girardin, described “scenes of pillaging” on St. Martin as people cleaned out stores and roamed the streets in search of food and water.

On Haiti’s northern coast, the mayor of the city Fort Liberty, Louis Jacques Etienne, called it a “nuclear hurricane.”

“Crops are destroyed, cattle is dead, and my cities are broken. It is bad. Very very bad,” he said.

Even as this region struggled to grasp the toll of what had happened, another powerful hurricane was following in Irma’s wake. Hurricane Jose loomed as another threat, with the National Hurricane Center saying late Friday that it was “now an extremely dangerous Category 4 hurricane” expected to bring life-threatening flooding to the Leeward Islands, Virgin Islands and other areas already left reeling by Irma.

Berman reported from Washington. Patricia Sullivan in Naples, Florida, Lori Rozsa in Palm Beach County; Dustin Waters in Charleston, South Carolina; Perry Stein and Joel Achenbach in Miami; Anthony Faiola in Port-au-Prince, Haiti; and Brian Murphy, Jenna Johnson, Jason Samenow and Angela Fritz in Washington contributed to this report.

Source: http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/ct-hurricane-irma-20170908-story.html

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