Section:GDN 1N PaGe:33 Edition Date:190906 Edition:01 Zone: Sent at 5/9/2019 20:15 cYanmaGentaYellowbl
Friday 6 September 2019 The Guardian •
‘True apocalypse’ 33
Church condemns
Amazon destruction
Page 39Cock-a-hoop
Maurice wins right to
carry on crowing
Page 36
Going loopy
Trump mocked
over redrawing
of Dorian’s path
to suit his claim
United States
200,000 homes
lose power as
hurricane rakes
Carolina coast
Associated Press
CharlestonAfter hammering the Bahamas ,
Hurricane Dorian began raking the
south-east US seaboard yesterday.
The Carolina coast was hit by howl-
ing winds and sideways rain, spinning
off tornadoes and knocking out power
to more than 200,000 homes and busi-
nesses as the storm pushed north
towards the dangerously exposed
Outer Banks.
After registering as a category 5hurricane over the Bahamas, the
storm weakened substantially, drop-
ping to a category 2, before increasing
to category 3 late on Wednesday. It
then dropped back to a category 2,
with winds of 110mph still a threat to
hundreds of miles of coastline. It was
expected to gradually weaken through
Saturday, said the US National Hurri-
cane Center (NHC).
Dorian swept past Florida at a rel-
atively safe distance, grazed Georgia,
and then began hugging the South Car-
olina coastline.
“Get to safety and stay there,” North
Carolina’s governor, Roy Cooper, said.
“This won’t be a brush-by. Whether
it comes ashore or not, the eye of the
storm will be close enough to cause
extensive damage in North Carolina.”
An estimated 3 million people in
Florida, Georgia and the Carolinas
were warned to evacuate as the storm
closed in. Navy ships were ordered to
ride it out at sea and military aircraft
were moved inland.
At least two deaths were reportedon the US mainland, in Florida and
North Carolina, both involving men
who fell while getting ready for the
storm.
The NHC projected track showed
Dorian passing near or over North Car-
olina’s Outer Banks today, lashing the
thin line of islands off the US coast. It
was then expected to peel away.
“I think we’re in for a great big
mess,” said Leslie Lanier, who
decided to stay behind and boarded
up her home and bookstore on Ocra-
coke Island on the Outer Banks. “We
are thinking maybe we should have
moved the books higher because of
storm surge. “But we’re kind of to the
point where we can’t do much more.”
About 830,000 people were under
mandatory evacuation orders on the
South Carolina coast alone. The NHC
forecast as much as 15 inches of rain
for the coastal Carolinas, with fl ash-
fl ooding likely.
In Charleston, South Carolina, a
historic port city of handsome ante-
bellum homes on a peninsula that is
prone to fl ooding, the wind sent sheets
of rain sideways, thunder boomed in
the night sky, and power fl ickered on
and off as the storm closed in. More
than two dozen blocks were closed by
fl ooding and stores and restaurants
downtown were boarded up with
wood and corrugated metal.
Dorian also apparently spun off
at least one tornado in North Myrtle
Beach, South Carolina, damaging sev-
eral homes. Another twister touched
down in the beach town of Emerald
Isle, North Carolina, mangling and
overturning several trailer homes.
No immediate injuries were reported.
Yesterday morning the hurricane
was centered about 50 miles south-
east of Charleston, moving north at
8mph with winds of 110mph extend-
ing about 60 miles outward.Martin Pengelly New York
David Smith WashingtonDonald Trump faced ridicule and a
barrage of criticism yesterday after
displaying a National Hurricane
Center map in the Oval Offi ce which
appeared to have been altered with a
black marker pen.
At one point during the briefi ng on
Hurricane Dorian , the president held
up a map from 29 August displaying
the hurricane’s track and intensity.
A marker pen appeared to have been
used to add a black loop falsely extend-
ing the hurricane’s path up from
Florida to Alabama, which Trump
had insisted for several days was in
the Dorian’s path.
According to the Washington Post,when he was asked about the doctored
map later , Trump said his briefi ngs had
included a “95% chance probability”
that Alabama would be hit. Asked if
the chart had been drawn on, he said:
“I don’t know, I don’t know.”
Altering offi cial US government
weather forecasts is against the law.
Former FBI director James Comey
was among those to criticise Trump in
an incident labelled online as Sharpie-
gate – in reference to a brand of pen.
“Americans are in harm’s way and
the president is laser-focused on ...
covering up a small mistake he made.
Narcissism is not leadership. Amer-
ica deserves better,” Comey tweeted.
Pete Buttigieg , a Democraticpresidential contender , told CNN he
felt “sorry for the president”.
He added: “And that is not the
way we should feel about the most
power ful fi gure in this country. This
is humiliating. This is an embarrass-
ing moment for our country.”
Trump defended himself yesterday,
tweeting : “ In the one model through
Florida, the Great State of Alabama
would have been hit or grazed ... what
I said was accurate! All Fake News in
order to demean!”
Later, he again insisted “Alabama
was going to be hit or grazed” before
the hurricane changed path, adding:
“The Fake News knows this very well.
That’s why they’re the Fake News!” Trump with
the contentious
map showing
the path of the
storm. A loop
appears to have
been added with
a marker pen
PHOTOGRAPH:
JONATHAN
ERNST/REUTERS Damage to
houses on Great
Abaco Island.
About 20 aid
organisations
have been
mobilised
PHOTOGRAPH:
GONZALO GAUDENZI/
APrelief offi cial who wished to remain
anonymous in order to speak frankly
about the situation.
A bout 20 aid organisations have
mobilised , including the US Coast
Guard and the Royal Marines, who
have run emergency evacuations for
critically ill people since Tuesday.
But with the airports in the northern
islands either destroyed or still
closed , delivering aid and making
evacuations has been slow.
A steady stream of evacuees from
the Abaco Islands streamed into the
rescue centre at a private airstrip
in Nassau throughout Wednesday.
Sixty-seven-year-old Gary Smith,
a lay minister from the St Andrew
Baptist church on the Abaco Islands,
clutched a small bag with everything
he had been able to salvage from his
destroyed home – a passport and a
few other documents.
“I’m feeling grateful to almighty
God,” he said, adding that almost
every church in his community had
been destroyed. In the Bahamas,
90% of the population profess a
religion, the vast majority aligned
with the Protestant faith.
Smith said he had evacuated with
his wife as the eye of Dorian passed
over his home, which had already
lost its roof.
“It happened so fast, some water
was beating in, and we had to get
sandbags – by the time I tried to get
back into the room I couldn’t even
get in.
“As long as I’ve been on this earth,
I’ve never seen anything like that.
You can’t imagine.”
He found a way to a medical
centre on the island where, he said,
he witnessed an elderly woman die.
“She died of a heart attack,” he said.
“Some people just couldn’t take it.”▲ Six-year-old Chrishon after being
reunited with his mother in Nassau
A fl ooded street
in Charleston,
South Carolina.
The Carolina
coast was hit by
howling winds
and sideways
rain yesterday
PHOTOGRAPH:
ANADOLU/GETTY
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