MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 14 , 2020. THE WASHINGTON POST EZ RE A
GEORGIA
Deputy who punched
man on video is fired
A sheriff’s deputy in Georgia
has been fired after being
captured on video repeatedly
punching a Black man during a
traffic stop, authorities said
Sunday.
The deputy was being let go
for “excessive use of force,” the
Clayton County Sheriff’s Office
said in a statement. It did not
identify the deputy but said a
criminal investigation has been
turned over to the district
attorney’s office.
Roderick Walker, 26, was
arrested and beaten after
Clayton County sheriff’s deputies
pulled over the vehicle he was
riding in Friday with his
girlfriend, their 5-month-old
child and his stepson for an
alleged broken taillight, his
attorney, Shean Williams, of the
Cochran Firm in Atlanta, said
Sunday. The deputies asked for
Walker’s identification and got
upset and demanded he get out
of the vehicle when he
questioned why they needed it
when he wasn’t driving,
Williams said.
The subsequent arrest,
captured on video by a bystander
and shared widely, shows two
deputies on top of Walker, one of
whom repeatedly punches him.
Walker’s girlfriend screams and
tells the deputies Walker says he
can’t breathe. As Walker is
handcuffed, the deputy who
punched him tells the bystander
that Walker bit him.
Williams said his client denies
biting the deputy. Walker was
trying to survive and lost
consciousness at least twice
during the beating, Williams
said.
Walker later wobbles and
appears to try to jerk free as
deputies get him on his feet. He
was arrested on suspicion of
obstructing officers and battery,
according to jail records.
Williams demanded his release
on bond and said he has asked
the Georgia Bureau of
Investigation to review the case.
He also accused investigators of
improperly talking to his client
without an attorney at the jail.
The sheriff’s office said in its
statement that a court denied
bond for Walker because of
outstanding warrants, including
a felony probation warrant out
of Fulton County for cruelty to
children and possession of a
firearm by a convicted felon.
It said Walker was being
monitored by a doctor at the jail
hospital.
— Associated PressOHIOGrandson of Harding
pushes for exhumationThe grandson of President
Warren G. Harding and his lover,
Nan Britton, went to court in an
effort to get the Republican’s
remains exhumed from the
presidential memorial where
they have lain since 1927.
James Blaesing told an Ohio
court that he is seeking
Harding’s disinterment as a way
“to establish with scientific
certainty” that he is the 29th
president’s blood relation.
The dispute looms as
benefactors prepare to mark the
centennial of Harding’s 1920
election with site upgrades and a
new presidential center in
Marion, the Ohio city near which
he was born in 1865. Blaesing
says he deserves to “have his
story, his mother’s story and his
grandmother’s story included
within the hallowed halls and
museums in this town.”
Members of the Harding
family say that they already have
accepted as fact DNA evidence
that Blaesing’s mother, Elizabeth
Ann Blaesing, was the daughter
of Harding and Britton and that
she is set to be acknowledged in
the museum.
— Associated PressDIGESTPolitics & the Nation
BY MATTHEW CAPPUCCI,
JASON SAMENOW
AND ANDREW FREEDMANAfter deluging South Florida
and the Florida Keys, Tropical
Storm Sally is strengthening and
forecast to become a powerful
hurricane in the Gulf of Mexico.
When it slugs ashore Monday
night into Tuesday, the storm is
expected to unleash a prolonged
and dangerous assault from wind
and water in southeastern Loui-
siana and coastal Mississippi, in-
cluding New Orleans.
Sally may rapidly intensify to a
Category 2 or stronger storm
before landfall, with “an extreme-
ly dangerous and life-threatening
storm surge” expected, according
to the National Hurricane Center.
The surge is the storm-driven rise
in water above normally dry land
at the coast.
Double-digit rainfall totals —
even up to two feet — are also
expected, with the risk of wide-
spread and serious flash flooding
added atop a growing threat from
damaging winds.
A hurricane warning is in ef-
fect from Grand Isle, La., north-
east to Ocean Springs, Miss., in-
cluding the greater New Orleans
metro area, Lake Pontchartrain
and Lake Maurepas. The region
from Morgan City to Grand Isle in
Louisiana is under a hurricane
watch. Storm surge warnings
have been hoisted as well be-
tween Port Fourchon and the
Mississippi-Alabama state bor-
der.
Tropical storm warnings ex-
tend into the Florida Panhandle,
where heavy rain and flooding
are expected.
Sally is a particularly danger-
ous threat because it is forecast to
both slow and strengthen as it
approaches land, potentially pro-
longing its surge over several
tidal cycles and the period of
excessive rainfall. Battering from
high winds will also be extended.
The mouth of the Mississippi
River could see a storm surge of
seven to 11 feet, especially if Sally
makes landfall around the time
of high tide.
A mandatory evacuation order
was placed outside the zone de-
fended by the storm surge protec-
tion system in New Orleans and
in Grand Isle.
At a news conference Sunday
afternoon, New Orleans Mayor
LaToya Cantrell (D) said that
sandbags had been made avail-
able to districts in the city and
that all pumps used to remove
floodwater were operational. “We
are prepared,” she said.
Louisiana Gov. John Bel Ed-
wards (D) declared a state of
emergency Sunday and said state
offices will be closed in 17 parish-
es Monday. “We have every rea-
son to believe this storm presents
a very significant threat to the
people of southeast Louisiana,”
he said.
The storm is closing in just 2^1 / 2
weeks after Laura made a de-
structive landfall in western Lou-
isiana as a Category 4, with
13,000 evacuees spread across
the state in hotels, the majority in
New Orleans.
“I can only imagine their frus-
tration of having to move away
from Laura and now being tar-
geted by Sally,” Edwards said.
“We’re going to make sure they’re
safe throughout this storm.”
Sally is the 18th named storm
of the 2020 Atlantic hurricane
season, the earliest S-named
storm on record, and marks one
of the last four named systems to
go before we run out of hurricane
names and revert to the Greek
alphabet.
There is also tropical trouble
elsewhere in the Atlantic, with
Paulette barreling toward Ber-
muda at hurricane strength and
other tropical waves set to devel-
op offshore of Africa in coming
days.Sally as of Sunday
At 5 p.m. Sunday, Sally was
about 215 miles east-southeast of
the mouth of the Mississippi Riv-
er, with maximum sustained
winds of 60 mph. It was moving
west-northwest at 12 mph. A
slowdown in its forward speed is
expected through landfall Mon-
day night into Tuesday morning.
Sally drenched southern Flori-
da on Saturday, including the
Keys and the Florida Straits, with
exceptional rainfall where its
heavy rain bands stalled for
hours. Key West International
Airport reported a total of 9.
inches for the date, 3.95 inches of
which fell between about 9 and
10 p.m. That is the third-wettest
day on record in Key West, with
records dating to the 1940s. It
was the island’s heaviest rain
event since Hurricane Katrina in
2005.Gusty winds also accompanied
Sally’s passage through South
Florida, including a gust to 53
mph atop a building in Virginia
Key.
On Sunday afternoon, thun-
derstorms flaring up near the
storm center “may be a harbinger
of the expected strengthening
phase,” the Hurricane Center
wrote. Wind shear, a change in
wind direction or speed with
altitude, that had previously
slowed the storm’s organization
was weakening.
The center predicted that Sally
would gain hurricane strength
Monday, writing: “The system
still has at least another 36 h to
take advantage of the expected
conducive environmental condi-
tions.”
Its current forecast is for Sally
to make landfall late Tuesday as a
90 to 100 mph Category 1 or 2
storm, but there is a low-end
chance that the storm — which,
barring any unforeseen factors,
will be strengthening right up
until the point of landfall — could
be even stronger.Wind and surge risk
In the zone where Sally moves
ashore, which the National Hur-
ricane Center is forecasting to be
near or just west of the mouth of
the Mississippi River, a corridor
of severe wind gusts locally top-
ping 100 mph is possible. That
will be especially true east of the
center in Sally’s eyewall. Along
the immediate beaches, even
stronger winds can’t be ruled out.
Such winds would cause damage
to structures, toppled trees and
widespread power outages.
Forecasts suggest a few gusts
between 75 and 90 mph are
possible in the greater New Or-
leans area, but the exact magni-
tude, direction and location ofthose winds are highly track-
dependent and subject to change.
To the east of the center, south-
erly winds will help pile water
against the coast and generate a
serious and dangerous storm
surge, especially during high tide
on Tuesday. However, elevated
water levels and coastline inun-
dation may occur over an extend-
ed period because of the storm’s
slow movement.
Surge could stack up seven to
11 feet deep, particularly in east-
ern Louisiana and near Lake
Borgne. That area is already very
susceptible to coastal inundation
because of its low elevation above
sea level and the gradual slope of
the underwater continental shelf.Long-term, human-caused cli-
mate change is heightening
storm surge risks, making even
relatively weak storms a greater
danger than just a few decades
ago. On top of that, land subsid-
ence, or sinking, is also contribut-
ing to this effect, particularly in
coastal Louisiana.
Even as far east as Mobile Bay
in Alabama, a two- to four-foot
surge is expected.
“An extremely dangerous and
life-threatening storm surge is
now expected,” the Hurricane
Center said.
“The combination of a danger-
ous storm surge and the tide will
cause normally dry areas near the
coast to be flooded by risingwaters moving inland from the
shoreline,” the National Hurri-
cane Center wrote.
The center is urging residents
to complete preparations quickly
and follow the advice of local
officials. Most hurricane deaths
are caused by flooding, both
coastal and inland.Inland flooding expected
As Sally comes ashore, its for-
ward motion could slow to just a
few miles per hour, allowing for
excessive amounts of rain to ac-
cumulate.
A widespread eight to 16 inch-
es is forecast from the Florida
Panhandle through southeast
Louisiana, including New Or-
leans. Localized amounts up to
two feet can’t be ruled out. The
heaviest amounts will be found
near the coastline. Significant
flash and urban flooding — as
well as minor and, in a few
instances, major river flooding —
is forecast.
After crawling along the coast
late Monday into Tuesday, “Sally
is forecast to move inland early
Wednesday and track into the
Southeast with rainfall of 5 to 10
inches possible across much of
inland Mississippi and Alabama,”
the Hurricane Center wrote.
With rainfall rates topping
three inches per hour at times,
flash-flood watches are in effect
for much of the area. There may
be a steep western cutoff to the
rainfall if dry air wraps into the
system.Tornado risk
Because of the wind shear as-
sociated with tropical systems
making landfall, thunderstorms
in Sally’s outer rain bands may
rotate. That could brew an isolat-
ed tornado risk, especially east of
the center.
The greatest risk for tornado
or waterspout activity would be
east of the center, particularly
across coastal Mississippi or Ala-
bama, or the Florida peninsula
late Monday through Tuesday.
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]Hurricane warnings in much of Miss., La. as Sally looms
ALYSSA NEWTON/BILOXI SUN-HERALD/ASSOCIATED PRESS
Kim Miller and Monty Graham load up sandbags along Route 90 in Gulfport, Miss., in preparation for Tropical Storm Sally on Sunday.Storm could bring up to
two feet of rain, harsh
winds to Gulf Coast15
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