The New York Times - USA (2020-08-03)

MONDAY, AUGUST 3, 2020 A

N

on Saturday evening when its sustained

winds slipped below 74 miles per hour;

they were about 65 m.p.h. most of Sun-

day but picked up again to 70 m.p.h. late

in the afternoon. Forecasters said some

minor fluctuations in the strength of the

storm were possible over the next few

days, and they posted hurricane watches

for areas in its immediate path and tropi-

cal storm watches all the way to Rhode

Island.

The storm, which has largely run par-

allel to the Florida coast since leaving the

Bahamas, is expected to give the Geor-

gia coast only a glancing blow but to

strike the Carolinas more directly.

After pummeling the Bahamas for the

better part of the weekend, the storm

blew away on Sunday morning, leaving

parts of low-lying Grand Bahama soaked

with more than a foot of rain and other

islands in the archipelago with minor

flooding, downed trees and power out-

ages.

No storm-related deaths were re-

ported in the country, which remains

haunted by the devastation caused last

year by Hurricane Dorian. That storm

killed at least 74 people. Many storm vic-

tims are still living in tents and damaged

homes.

The coronavirus pandemic has made

rebuilding more difficult and weakened

the country’s tourism-dependent econ-

omy, leaving the Bahamas particularly

vulnerable this hurricane season.

Tropical Storm Isaias’s path now in-

cludes vacation destinations in the Car-

olinas that are usually popular with tour-

ists at this time of year — but the pan-

demic has left them struggling.

The Two Meeting Street Inn, a water-

front bed-and-breakfast in Charleston,

S.C., closed in March because of the pan-

demic. It was planning to reopen on Aug.

15, but that might now be delayed until

September. “It’s been devastating for

us,” said Julie Spell Roberts, whose fam-

ily has owned and operated the inn since

1946.

In preparation for the storm, her fam-

ily has removed furniture from the porch

and cleared the property of anything that

might break a window or damage the inn

— measures that Ms. Spell Roberts

called “Stage 1.”

“It can change in a minute,” she said of

the weather. “What we have learned over

time is that you’re foolish if you don’t

think that Mother Nature is a formidable

foe, because she is.”

Myrtle Beach is preparing for a “lower

to moderate threat,” said Steve Pfaff, a

National Weather Service meteorologist.

Sustained winds are expected to be

around 50 to 60 m.p.h., with gusts of up to

70.

Those wind speeds can knock down

trees, cause minor structural damage

and litter roads with debris. Rainfall will

range from four to six inches in most ar-

eas, with a few areas getting up to eight

inches, which could lead to flash flood-

ing. Myrtle Beach will probably see the

brunt of the storm on Monday night.

There could be a storm surge of two to

four feet, and a possibility of tornadoes.

Gov. Henry McMaster of South Car-

olina said on Friday that he did not ex-

pect a need for an emergency declara-

tion or mandatory evacuations.

“It looks like it will not be necessary —

we certainly hope not,” Mr. McMaster, a

Republican, said. “We’re hoping this

storm will not hit us hard, if at all.”

But Gov. Roy Cooper of North Car-

olina, where the storm is expected to ar-

rive by Tuesday, has declared a state of

emergency. Some islands in the vulnera-

ble Outer Banks were under mandatory

evacuation orders.

“The storm continued its march to-

ward North Carolina overnight,” Mr.

Cooper, a Democrat, said in a briefing on

Sunday. “We’re asking North Carolinians

in the storm’s path to make sure they are

prepared.”

The residents of inland counties saw

flooding inundate streets in 2016 during

Hurricane Matthew and in 2018 during

Hurricane Florence. The past few years

of inclement weather have been espe-

cially brutal for Carolinians.

In Palm Beach County, Fla., the au-

thorities said they had braced for hurri-

cane-force winds, but the storm caused

only limited damage.

“I think we can all agree, we’ve all

been very fortunate, very lucky in this

county,” Dave Kerner, the Palm Beach

County mayor, said on Sunday.

Some Florida officials said that Isaias

had served as somewhat of a drill. Bill

Johnson, the emergency management

director for Palm Beach County, de-

scribed the combination of the coro-

navirus pandemic and a tropical storm

as “something we have never done or

been faced with before.”

“We are blessed that Hurricane Isaias

spared us of significant damage,” he said.

“I am pleased that this was more of an

exercise than a real event.”

ATLANTA — Tropical Storm Isaias
buffeted Florida’s eastern edge on Sun-
day with more heavy rainfall and power-
ful winds as it skirted the Atlantic Coast,
leaving many people bracing for the
threat of flash floods, storm surges and
even tornadoes as the storm made its
way north.
The storm failed to deliver the punch in
Florida that state officials had feared. But
that has not been enough to allay the con-
cerns of officials and residents in its path.
“It’s a wait-and-see game,” said Jay
Slevin, the manager of a pizzeria about a
mile from the shore in Myrtle Beach, S.C.,
where the center of the storm appeared
to be heading.
Isaias, the ninth named storm in what
has become a busy hurricane season, has
come at a time when many people in the
Southeast are already beleaguered by
the coronavirus outbreak. Officials in the
region are juggling the response to a
storm with a pandemic, and business
owners are wary of being dealt yet an-
other crippling blow.
Isaias, which is written as Isaías in
Spanish and pronounced ees-ah-EE-ahs,
clobbered the Bahamas with hurricane
conditions over the weekend after hitting
parts of Puerto Rico and the Dominican
Republic.
It was downgraded to a tropical storm

Storm Grazes

Florida Coast

As It Heads

To Carolinas

By RICK ROJAS

and REBECCA HALLECK

Rick Rojas reported from Atlanta, and
Rebecca Halleck from New York. Melina
Delkic contributed reporting from Cleve-
land; Christina Morales from Hialeah.
Fla.; Rachel Knowles Scott from Nassau,
the Bahamas; and Lucy Tompkins from
Bozeman, Mont.

Tropical Storm Isaias created large waves in Palm Beach Shores, Fla., left, as it passed offshore Sunday, and strong winds brought down power lines in the area.

LANNIS WATERS/THE PALM BEACH POST, VIA ASSOCIATED PRESS SAUL MARTINEZ FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES

PORTLAND, Ore. — Late on Saturday
night, with protests in Portland continu-
ing into their third month, one crowd of
demonstrators gathered yet again in
front of the city’s fortified federal court-
house while another group traveled
miles east to a precinct used by local law
enforcement.
At the federal courthouse, the crowd
saw a third consecutive night of calm
since the start of a plan to withdraw fed-
eral agents who had brought a milita-
rized crackdown to the city. But at the po-
lice precinct, officers pointed bright
lights into the crowd, warned protesters
to disperse, then chased them through
the streets, knocking people to the
ground, using pepper spray and making
arrests.
While the arrival of federal agents
wearing camouflage last month out-
raged protesters and local government
leaders alike, their presence also
masked the more personal grievances
that protesters have long had with their
local police force.
Gia Naranjo-Rivera, who had been
protesting for weeks, said that while she
was appalled by the arrival of federal
agents, she believed local police officers
brought their own form of hyper-militari-
zation and repressive tactics. She was ar-
rested on Thursday by local police after
breaking caution tape the police had put
up to close two locked parks next to the
federal courthouse.
Ms. Naranjo-Rivera said the protests
needed to continue.
“If this movement doesn’t succeed
right now, we are just kicking the can
down the road to the next civil rights up-
rising,” Ms. Naranjo-Rivera said.
The city’s protests in June were large-
ly about local policing, with crowds de-
crying a criminal justice system that dis-
proportionately harms Black people and
a Portland Police Bureau that has em-
braced aggressive tactics to contain un-
ruly crowds. The police have said the
crowd had flung objects at officers, in-
cluding bottles and fireworks.
Mayor Ted Wheeler, who serves as po-
lice commissioner and is largely reviled
among protesters, said last week that he
believed police had at times made mis-
takes in the past, including using tear gas
indiscriminately, and he hoped the de-
parture of federal officers brought a
chance to bring renewed peace.
“My hope is we will all do an outstand-
ing job of de-escalating tensions,” Mr.
Wheeler said.
At the precinct on Saturday night, the
crowd stood on the street and chanted.
Officers set up bright lights to shine into
the crowd, angering some. When it ap-
peared one of the officers had brought
out what looked like a camera to film the
crowd, some protesters pointed lasers at
the device. Police said someone threw a
glass jar or bottle at officers.
The protest crowds have remained

much larger than they had been in the

days before federal agents had arrived.

While protest crowds numbered in the

thousands in early June, those figures

waned over the month. But with the fed-

eral courthouse among the targets of

some of the remaining demonstrators,

and President Trump issuing an execu-

tive order to protect statues and govern-

ment property around the country, fed-

eral agents deployed at the beginning of

July.

Their presence and tactics, including

firing crowd-control munitions and

swinging batons, infuriated the city,

drawing thousands out to the streets

once again to stand against what many

saw as a troubling federal incursion into

a city that didn’t want them. At that

point, the epicenter of the protests

shifted from a county justice center to

the federal courthouse across the street.

Clashes at the courthouse, with

nightly volleys of tear gas, continued to

draw more people out to stand against

the federal presence, including lines of

mothers linking arms and a group of mili-

tary veterans.

Last week, in an agreement between

Gov. Kate Brown of Oregon and leaders

from the Department of Homeland Secu-

rity, the state found a pathway to with-

draw federal agents, with Ms. Brown

vowing to put state troopers in place to

provide security around the courthouse.

Since that plan went into effect on

Thursday, there has been a minimal law

enforcement presence on the streets.

Protesters have continued to show up

outside the fenced courthouse, chanting

and giving speeches around a bonfire in

the middle of the street. While some have

occasionally thrown bottles over the

fence toward the empty courthouse en-

trance or burned flags, others in the

crowd have confronted them to keep

things peaceful and focused on the Black

Lives Matter cause that drew millions to

the streets after the death of George

Floyd in Minneapolis.

Demetria Hester, who led a group of

women in chants in front of the federal

courthouse over the weekend, said she

was going to continue calling out people

who lit fires or threw objects.

“How is that helping?” Ms. Hester

said. “The protest right now is about

Black Lives Matter. Burning a flag is not

about Black Lives Matter.”

Federal agents haven’t fully retreated.

Federal leaders have said the agents

won’t be gone until local officials contain

the unrest.

On Saturday night, as protesters

downtown marched peacefully through

the streets, they noticed through the win-

dows of a different federal building that

Homeland Security agents were stand-

ing inside watching them. Some in the

crowd stopped to flash lights through the

window. One agent appeared to respond

by raising a middle finger.

Then the crowd continued on.

As Federal Forces Retreat, Portland Protesters Switch Focus

Portland police gather reinforcements near the sheriff ’s office, left. Protesters

march near the justice center, above, as the demonstrations go into their third

month. Demonstrators are shifting their focus back onto local issues, like the

use of aggressive tactics from police to control unruly crowds.

MASON TRINCA FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES

Anger Turns Back

Toward City Police

By MIKE BAKER

MASON TRINCA FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES