6
SEPTEMBER 7, 2019
NATION/WORLD
By Jeffrey Collins
and Ben Finley
ASSOCIATED PRESS
ATLANTIC BEACH, N.C. —
A weakened Hurricane Dorian
flooded homes on North Caroli-
na’s Outer Banks on Friday with
a fury that took even storm-
hardened residents by surprise,
forcing people to climb into
their attics. Hundreds were
feared trapped by high water,
and neighbors used boats to
rescue one another.
Sheriff’s officials rushed
medics and other rescuers to
Ocracoke Island — accessible
only by boat or air — to reach
those who made the mistake of
defying mandatory evacuation
orders along the 200-mile rib-
bon of low-lying islands that
sticks out from the Eastern Sea-
board like the side-view mirror
on a car.
Its winds down to 90 miles
per hour, Dorian howled over
the Outer Banks as a far weaker
storm than the brute that
wreaked havoc on the Bahamas
at the start of the week. Just
when it looked as if its run up
the Southeast coast was coming
to a relatively quiet end, the
Category 1 hurricane lashed
communities with rain and
surging seas, flooding the first
floors of many homes, even
ones on stilts.
‘‘There is significant concern
about hundreds of people
trapped on Ocracoke Island,’’
Governor Roy Cooper said.
Over and over, longtime resi-
dents said that they had never
seen flooding so bad, or that
places in their homes that had
never flooded before were inun-
dated.
‘‘We were all on social media
laughing about how we’d done
well and there was really no
flooding at all, just rain, typical
rain,’’ said Steve Harris, who
has lived on Ocracoke Island for
most of the last 19 years. And
then, ‘‘the wall of water just
came rushing through the is-
land.’’
The Coast Guard began
landing aircraft on the island to
drop off local law enforcement
officers and evacuate a resident
inneedofmedicalcare,andau-
thorities used military vehicles
to reach those stranded. Resi-
dents were told to get to the
highest point in their homes as
they waited to be rescued.
Meanwhile, in the storm-
ravaged Bahamas, residents
carrying their possessions in
duffel bags and shopping carts
gathered at the port in Grand
Abaco on Friday in hopes of get-
ting off the hurricane-devastat-
ed island, amid signs of rising
frustration over the pace of the
disaster-relief effort.
‘‘It’s chaos here,’’ said Gee
Rolle, a 44-year-old construc-
tion worker who waited with
his wife for a boat that could
take them to the capital, Nas-
sau. ‘‘The government is trying
their best, but at the same time,
I don’t think they’re doing a
good enough job to evacuate
the people. It ain’t livable for
nobody.’’The Bahamian Health Min-
istry said helicopters and boats
were on the way, but officials
warned of delays because of se-
vere flooding.
The search for victims and
survivors went on five days af-
ter Dorian slammed the Baha-mas with 185-mile-per-hour
winds that obliterated count-
less homes. Officials said 30
people have been confirmed
dead, but the toll is sure to rise.
At the port, some of those
who lined up behind a yellow
cloth tape arrived as early as 1a.m., hoping to get to Nassau.
In Buxton on Hatteras Is-
land, close to where Dorian
blew ashore, Radio Hatteras
volunteer Mary Helen Goodloe-
Murphy said that people were
calling in to report that ‘‘houses
are shaking like crazy’’ and that‘‘it’s never been like this before.’’
Around midmorning, the
eye of the storm came ashore at
Cape Hatteras, Dorian’s first
landfall in the continental Unit-
edStates after a week and a half
in which it spread fear up and
down the coast and kept people
guessing as to where it would
go.
It is expected to remain a
hurricane as it sweeps up the
East Coast through Saturday,
veering far enough offshore
that its hurricane-force winds
are unlikely to pose any threat
to land in the United States.
More than 350,000 people
were without electricity in the
Carolinas and Virginia as
Dorian moved up the coast.
At least four deaths in the
Southeast were blamed on
Dorian. All were men in Florida
or North Carolina who died in
falls or by electrocution while
trimming trees, putting up
storm shutters, or otherwise
getting ready for the hurricane.By Nicholas Fandos
NEW YORK TIMES
House Democrats, furious
over President Trump’s contin-
ued promotion of his branded
properties for government
business, said Friday they
would scrutinize whether two
recent cases would violate the
Constitution’s ban on presi-
dents’ profiting from domestic
or foreign governments.
Two chairmen acting in tan-
dem sent letters to the White
House, the Secret Service, and
the Trump Organization ask-
ing for documents and com-
munications related to Vice
President Mike Pence’s deci-
sion to stay this week at
Trump’s resort in Ireland dur-
ing an official visit, as well as
Trump’s recent statements pro-
moting Trump National Doral,
near Miami, as a possible site
for the Group of 7 summit of
world leaders next year.
In both cases, the Demo-
crats argued, Trump stands to
benefit financially from US tax-
payer dollars, and in the case
of the potential summit in
Doral, from foreign funds as
well. The Constitution’s emolu-
ments clauses prohibit presi-
dents from accepting any pay-
ment from federal, state, or
foreign governments beyond
their official salary.
“The committee does not
believe that US taxpayer funds
should be used to personally
enrich President Trump, his
family, and his companies,”
wrote Representative Elijah E.
Cummings, a Maryland Demo-
cratandchairmanoftheOver-
sight and Reform Committee.
The cases in question, he add-
ed, could be a conflict of inter-
est.
In a letter of his own, Repre-sentative Jerrold Nadler, a New
York Democrat who chairs the
Judiciary Committee, raised
what could be a more troubling
outcome for the president. He
said his committee was consid-
ering potential violations of the
ban on profiting from the pres-
idency as part of its impeach-
ment investigation.“Potential violations of the
foreign and domestic emolu-
ments clauses of the Constitu-
tion are of grave concern to the
committee as it considers
whether to recommend arti-
cles of impeachment,” he
wrote. The letter was also
signed by Representative Steve
Cohen, a Tennessee Democratwho leads a relevant subcom-
mittee.
Trump and Pence drew
sharp criticism this week after
the vice president and his cote-
rie of family, aides and security
stayed a night at the Trump In-
ternational Golf Links & Hotel
in Doonbeg during a trip to Ire-
land, despite the fact that itwas 181 miles from his meet-
ings in Dublin. Government re-
ceipts for such stays usually
run in the tens of thousands of
dollars — or far more, depend-
ing on the size of the group and
the length of stay.
Pence’s chief of staff initially
told reporters that the vice
president, who has familyroots in Doonbeg, had chosen
the accommodation at the
“suggestion” of Trump. Facing
a flurry of criticism for the
choice, the vice president’s of-
fice later released a statement
saying that “at no time did the
president direct our office to
stay at his Doonbeg resort.”
Cummings’ request asked
for documents showing item-
ized expenses from the most
recent Ireland trip, any com-
munications related to Pence’s
accommodations and records
related to Trump’s own stay at
the Doonbeg resort during an
official visit to Ireland in June.
Pence’s Ireland trip came
justa week or so after Trump
had raised the idea of hosting
the next G-7 summit at his golf
resort in Doral, Fla.
Speaking to reporters at this
year’s summit in France, he
said the resort had “tremen-
dous acreage” and buildings
that could naturally house
each national delegation.“We haven’t found anything
that could even come close to
competingwithit,”hesaid.
Most recently, the United
States has hosted G-7 summits
at Camp David, the presiden-
tial retreat in Maryland, under
former president Barack
Obama, and Sea Island, Ga.,
under George W. Bush.
Democrats and ethics ex-
perts have criticized Trump’s
use of his private properties
since he took office. In addition
to his own frequent visits —
with an expensive coterie of
aides and security in tow —
most of Trump’s Cabinet mem-
bers and about half of House
Republicans have been seen at
or spent money at Trump-
branded properties, according
to an independent tally. And a
Center for Responsive Politics
count found that close to $
million has been spent since
2015 at the Trump hotels by
political groups, including
those of Trump.Democrats to look into Pence’s Ireland stay
Trumpproperty
patronizedbyhis
vicepresident
‘Potentialviolationsoftheforeignand
domesticemolumentsclausesofthe
Constitutionareofgraveconcern.’
JERROLD NADLER,chairman of House Judiciary Committee
WASHINGTON — The Re-
publican parties in Arizona,
Kansas, Nevada, and South
Carolina intend to cancel the
2020 presidential primaries
in their states, according to
three people familiar with
their plans, a move aimed at
depriving President Trump’s
long-shot challengers of
chances to build support.
The state parties have yet
to formalize their decisions,
but Trump’s challengers de-
nounced the move. Joe
Walsh, a former Tea Party
congressman from Illinois
who announced his candida-
cy last month, said he
planned to fight the move.
“It’s something a mob boss
would do,” Walsh said.
William Weld, a former
governor of Massachusetts
who is also challengingTrump for the party’s nomi-
nation, said he found the
move concerning but not sur-
prising.
“Mr. Trump has not been
bashful about his desire to
avoid primaries or even elec-
tions,” Weld said.
Other states could follow
suit before the Oct. 1 dead-
line for state parties to file
delegate selection plans with
the Republican National
Committee, campaign offi-
cials said. States that do not
hold primaries still choose
delegates, often by holding a
state convention.
The Trump campaign said
there was nothing unusual
about a move that was de-
signed to help state parties
save money on costly primary
elections.
NEW YORK TIMES4 states may drop GOP primaries
Howard Schultz, the for-
mer chief executive of Star-
bucks who took steps earlier
this year to prepare to run
for president as an indepen-
dent, announced Friday that
he was abandoning those
plans.
In a letter to supporters,
Schultz said he had conclud-
ed that an independent bid
would pose too great a risk of
helping President Trump win
a second term.
“Not enough people today
are willing to consider back-
ing an independent candidate
because they fear doing so
might lead to reelecting a
uniquely dangerous incum-
bent president,” Schultz
wrote.
The announcement caps
15 months of speculation
about Schultz’s intentions.
During that span, the Demo-
cratic primary field ballooned
to 24 candidates and then
shrunk back down to 20.
In June 2018, Schultz an-
nounced he would leave Star-
bucks after more than three
decades leading the company,
immediately stoking specula-
tion about a 2020 run. He
did little to bat away the pos-
sibility at the time, saying he
was “deeply concerned”
about the country.
His move toward a run in-
stantly drew criticism from
both high-profile Democrats
and Trump, beginning what
would become months of
public pleading by those who
worried that an independent
bid would only help Trump
achieve reelection by splitting
the anti-Trump vote.
NEW YORK TIMESSchultz won’t run for president
SAN FRANCISCO — A
jury in Oakland, Calif., ac-
quitted one man and could
not reach a decision on a sec-
ond man’s role in a 2016
warehouse blaze that killed
36 people, one of the deadli-
est structural fires in recent
American history.
The fire tore through a
late-night party in Oakland’s
Fruitvale neighborhood on
Dec. 2, 2016, in a building
that had been transformed
into a ramshackle artist col-
lective known as Ghost Ship.
Many of the building’s res-
idents were living there in vi-
olation of zoning laws, and
the tragedy highlighted the
glaring failures of the city’s
leaders to enforce building
and fire codes. The inferno
also became an emblem of
the rising cost of living in theBay Area, which led so many
people to seek shelter in a
rundown building.
The two men on trial were
Derick Almena, 49, the mas-
ter tenant and leaseholder,
and Max Harris, 29, de-
scribed by prosecutors as Al-
mena’s right hand in manag-
ing the warehouse. They each
were charged with 36 counts
of involuntary manslaughter
and faced a maximum of 39
years in prison.
Harris was acquitted, and
the jury told Alameda County
Superior Court Judge Trina
Thompson that they could
not reach a verdict on simi-
lar charges against Almena.
“I’m just stunned,” said Al-
berto Vega, whose brother Al-
ex was one of the victims,
outside the courtroom.
NEW YORK TIMESNo convictions in ‘Ghost Ship’ fire
Dorian f looding
in N.C. leaves
some trapped
Stormtakesmanybysurpriseas
Bahamasstillstruggletorecover
TOM COPELAND/ASSOCIATED PRESS
GONZALO GAUDENZI/ASSOCIATED PRESS
High winds
blew the roof
off a building
in North
Carolina,
above. At left,
people in the
Bahamas
waited to be
evacuated off
a storm-
ravaged
island.RELEASED BY "What's News" vk.com/wsnws TELEGRAM: t.me/whatsnws