News

Hurricane Maria lashes Turks and Caicos, fresh flooding in Puerto Rico

By Dave Graham and Robin Respaut

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Reuters•September 22, 2017

Hurricane Maria lashes Turks and Caicos, fresh flooding in Puerto Rico

By Dave Graham and Robin Respaut

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (Reuters) - Hurricane Maria lashed the Turks and Caicos Islands on Friday and was blamed for fresh flooding on Puerto Rico, where it had already destroyed homes and knocked out power during its rampage through the Caribbean.

The storm killed at least 25 people on the U.S. territory of Puerto Rico and other Caribbean islands, according to government officials and local news media accounts.

U.S. weather forecasters warned that a dam on the Guajataca river in northwestern Puerto Rico was failing, causing flash flooding in the area.

"This is an EXTREMELY DANGEROUS SITUATION," the National Weather Service's San Juan office said on Twitter. "Buses are currently evacuating people from the area as quickly as they can."

Maria was the second major hurricane to hit the Caribbean this month and the strongest storm to hit the U.S. territory of Puerto Rico in nearly 90 years. It completely knocked out the island's power, and several rivers hit record flood levels.

Puerto Rico officials said on Friday that six people had been confirmed killed by the storm: Three died in landslides in Utuadno, in the island's mountainous center; two drowned in flooding in Toa Baja, west of San Juan, and one died in Bayamon, also near San Juan, after being stuck by a panel.

Earlier news media reports had the death toll on the island as high as 15.

"We know of other potential fatalities through unofficial channels that we haven't been able to confirm," said Hector Pesquera, the government's secretary of public safety.

In San Juan, people worked to clear debris from the streets on Friday and some began to reopen businesses, though they wondered how long they could operate without power and with limited inventory.

"There's no water, no power, nothing," said Rogelio Jimenez, a 34-year-old pizzeria worker.

"We're opening today," he said, estimating that the restaurant had enough supplies to last a week. "If there's nothing after that, we'll close."

Puerto Rico Governor Ricardo Rossello imposed a dusk-to-dawn curfew through Saturday for the island's 3.4 million people.

DAMAGE ESTIMATED AT $45 BILLION

Puerto Rico was already facing the largest municipal debt crisis in U.S. history. A team of judges overseeing its bankruptcy has advised involved parties to put legal proceedings on hold indefinitely as the island recovers, said a source familiar with the proceedings.

The storm was expected to cause $45 billion of damage across the Caribbean, with at least $30 billion of that in Puerto Rico, said Chuck Watson, a disaster modeler at Enki Research in Savannah, Georgia. The figures included both physical damage and losses in business from tourism.

Elsewhere in the Caribbean, 14 deaths were reported on the island nation of Dominica, which has a population of about 71,000. Two people were killed in the French territory of Guadeloupe and one in the U.S. Virgin Islands. Two people died when the storm roared past the Dominican Republic on Thursday, according to local media outlet El Jaya.

Communications outages throughout the region were making it difficult for officials to get a clear picture of the damage.

MARIA HEADS NORTHWEST

Maria was 90 miles (145 km) north of Grand Turk Island by 2 p.m. ET (1800 GMT) on Friday, the NHC. It was packing sustained winds of up to 125 miles per hour (205 km per hour), making it a Category 3 hurricane on the five-step Saffir-Simpson scale.

The hurricane was headed north-northwest and expected to bring a storm surge - ocean water pushed inland - of as much as 12 feet (3.7 meters) above normal tide levels to parts of the southeastern Bahamas and the Turks and Caicos Islands.

Officials on Turks & Caicos ordered all residents of the islands to remain indoors and businesses to close on Friday.

Storm swells driven by the storm were expected to reach the southeastern coast of the U.S mainland on Friday, the NHC said, adding that it was too soon to determine what, if any, other direct effects it would have.

In the Dominican Republic, Maria damaged nearly 3,000 homes and sent more than 9,300 to shelters, local emergency response agencies reported. Some 25 towns remained cut off.

Maria passed close by the U.S. Virgin Island of St. Croix, home to about 55,000 people, early Wednesday, knocking out electricity and most mobile phone service.

Maria hit about two weeks after Hurricane Irma pounded two other U.S. Virgin Islands: St. Thomas and St. John.

Irma, one of the most powerful Atlantic storms on record, killed more than 80 people in the Caribbean and the United States. It followed Harvey, which also killed more than 80 people when it hit Texas in late August and caused flooding in Houston.

More than two months remain in the Atlantic hurricane season, which runs from June 1 to Nov. 30, although the busiest period is generally from mid-August to mid-October.

(Reporting by Dave Graham and Robin Respaut in San Juan; Additional reporting by Jorge Pineda in Santo Domingo, Nick Brown in Houston, Devika Krishna Kumar and Daniel Wallis and Jennifer Ablan in New York and Steve Gorman and Alex Dobuzinskis in Los Angeles; Writing by Scott Malone; Editing by Frances Kerry and Jonathan Oatis)

Asteroid-bound spacecraft zips by Earth for gravity boost

AFP•September 22, 2017

The OSIRIS-REx spacecraft being prepared last year for launch (AFP Photo/Bruce Weaver)

Miami (AFP) - An unmanned NASA spacecraft traveling to a distant asteroid veered toward Earth on Friday for a gravitational slingshot maneuver that will better aim it toward the Sun-orbiting space rock, Bennu, the US space agency said.

The gravity-boost took place about halfway through the journey of the spacecraft, known as OSIRIS-REx (Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, and Security – Regolith Explorer).

"Catch you on the flip side!" said the NASA Twitter account for OSIRIS-REx, just before it made its closest approach to Earth at 12:52 pm (1652 GMT).

The mission launched last year from Cape Canaveral, Florida. Its goal is to collect a sample from Bennu in 2018, and return it to Earth for further study in 2023.

Dante Lauretta, OSIRIS-REx principal investigator at the University of Arizona, Tucson, described the gravity-assist as "a clever way to move the spacecraft onto Bennu's orbital plane using Earth's own gravity instead of expending fuel."

The spacecraft zipped over Antarctica at a distance of 11,000 miles (17,000 kilometers), using Earth's gravity to shift its trajectory so it can eventually meet up with Bennu.

Bennu is a primitive, carbon-rich asteroid, the kind of cosmic body that may have delivered life-giving materials to Earth billions of years ago.

The asteroid's orbit around the Sun is tilted six degrees in comparison to Earth's.

NASA cautioned that during the gravity assist, OSIRIS-REx must swing through a region of space that contains Earth-orbiting satellites.

"NASA has taken precautions to ensure the safety of the spacecraft as it flies through this area," said the space agency.

"The mission's flight dynamics team designed a small maneuver that, if necessary, could be executed a day before closest approach to change the spacecraft’s trajectory slightly to avoid a potential collision between OSIRIS-REx and a satellite."

OSIRIS-REx was expected to lose communications with Earth for about an hour during the flyby.

"The spacecraft will be too low relative to the southern horizon to be in view with either the Deep Space tracking station at Canberra, Australia, or Goldstone, California," explained Mike Moreau, the flight dynamics system lead at NASA's Goddard Spaceflight Center.

An update on its progress is expected later Friday.

Science

NASA's asteroid chaser swings by Earth on way to space rock

•September 22, 2017

NASA's asteroid-chasing spacecraft is swinging by Earth on its way to a space rock. Launched a year ago, Osiris-Rex will pass within about 11,000 miles (17,700 kilometers) of the home planet Friday afternoon. It will use Earth's gravity as a slingshot to put it on a path toward the asteroid Bennu. If all goes well, Osiris-Rex should reach the small, roundish asteroid next year and, in 2020, collect some of its gravel for return to Earth. Friday's close approach will occur over Antarctica. It will be a quick hello: The spacecraft will speed by at about 19,000 mph (31,000 kph). NASA has taken precautions to ensure Osiris-Rex does not slam into any satellites. Ground telescopes, meanwhile, have

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Alabama Power busy helping neighbors in Georgia after massive Irma outages

•September 15, 2017

Alabama Power busy helping neighbors in Georgia after massive Irma outages

Alabama Power crews went from restoring more than 70,000 customers in Alabama after Tropical Storm Irma to helping their very appreciative neighbors in Georgia. Georgia Power at one time had nearly 1 million customers without power due to Hurricane Irma’s strong winds. As of 9 p.m. Thursday, Alabama Power’s sister company had restored power to 920,000 customers. More than 8,000 personnel are working around the clock as part of Georgia Power’s statewide restoration effort, including more than 2,300 Alabama Power crew members and support personnel. Of the remaining approximately 75,000 customers with outages, the 95 percent of those who can receive power are expected to have it restored by Saturday

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News

About 1.5 million, mostly in Florida, without power in Irma's wake

By Zachary Fagenson

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Reuters•September 15, 2017

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Hurricane Irma flooding is seen from presidential helicopter flight near Fort Myers, Florida

Flooding caused by Hurricane Irma is seen from a U.S. Marine helicopter accompanying U.S. President Donald Trump as he flies over storm damage near Fort Myers, Florida, U.S., September 14, 2017. REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst

By Zachary Fagenson

MIAMI (Reuters) - About 1.5 million homes and businesses in Florida and Georgia remained without power on Friday after Hurricane Irma, including 46 of Florida's nearly 700 nursing homes caught in the deadly storm's path.

Irma, which ranked as one of the most powerful Atlantic storms on record before striking the U.S. mainland as a Category 4 hurricane on Sept. 10, killed at least 84 people. Several hard-hit Caribbean islands, including Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands, suffered more than half the fatalities.

Florida Power & Light, owned by NextEra Energy Inc and the state's biggest electric company, said it was working aggressively to restore power to the 23 percent of its customers still in the dark.

The utility has never before had to deal with a storm affecting its entire service territory, company spokesman Rob Gould said.

"It will go down as one of the largest and most complex restoration efforts in history," he said. "Now we are literally into the house-to-house combat mode."

The storm's death toll grew to at least 33 people in Florida after a woman died of suspected carbon monoxide poisoning from a generator in Palm Beach County, the Palm Beach Post newspaper reported.

A total of eight others died in Georgia and the Carolinas. North Carolina reported its first Irma death on Friday, saying a man there also had died of carbon monoxide poisoning from a generator.

Eight elderly people died earlier this week after being exposed to the heat inside a nursing home north of Miami that had been left without full air conditioning after the hurricane hit.

The deaths at the Rehabilitation Center at Hollywood Hills, now under police and state investigation, stirred outrage over what many saw as a preventable tragedy and heightened concerns about the vulnerability of the state's large elderly population amid widespread, lingering power outages.

"The governor will continue to review all ways to ensure tragedies like this never happen again," Lauren Schenone, a spokeswoman for Florida Governor Rick Scott, said in a statement.

Florida's healthcare agency ordered the nursing home on Thursday to be suspended from the state Medicaid program. The center said it plans to the fight the state's efforts to shut it down.

A timeline of events issued by the nursing home shows administrators repeatedly called Florida Power & Light and state officials after a transformer powering its air conditioning system went out during the storm on Sunday. The center said it was informed that service would soon be fixed.

Nursing home operators had put out cooling units and fans in an effort to maintain reasonable temperatures and added additional cooling units supplied by a hospital next door on Tuesday.

But it was not until multiple patients began experiencing health emergencies, which promoted the evacuation of the center, that the utility company arrived to make the repair, the nursing home said.

However, officials at the Florida Department of Health said the facility did not indicate the extent of its problems nor requested assistance in reports to a state monitoring database. In its status reports, the center indicated that its cooling system was operational for much of the time, according to the state.

(Additional reporting by Letitia Stein in Detroit, Brendan O'Brien in Milwaukee, Scott DiSavino in New York and Colleen Jenkins in North Carolina)

News

Hurricane Jose's center seen staying off U.S. East Coast: NHC

Reuters•September 16, 2017

Atlantic Ocean (---), 14/09/2017.- A handout photo made available by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) on 16 September 2017 shows an image acquired by the Suomi NPP satellite's Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) instrument of Hurricane Jose (R) in the Atlantic Ocean, 14 September 2017. Jose strengthened from a tropical storm to a Category 1 hurricane on 15 September 2017, and is moving toward the northwest near 15kph. According to NOAA, swells generated by Jose are affecting Bermuda, the Bahamas, the northern coasts of Hispaniola and Puerto Rico, and the southeast coast of the USA, and will spread northward along the Mid-Atlantic coast of the US during the next few days. There are no coastal watches or warnings in effect, but swells are likely to cause life-threatening surf and rip current conditions, NOAA added. (Bermudas, Estados Unidos) EFE/EPA/NOAA/NASA HANDOUT HANDOUT EDITORIAL USE ONLY/NO SALES

(Reuters) - Hurricane Jose's center is forecast to pass well east of the North Carolina coast on Monday and to remain offshore from Virginia to New England, the U.S. National Hurricane Center said on Saturday.

"However, an increase in the size of the storm or a westward adjustment in the track forecast could bring tropical storm conditions closer to the Outer Banks" off North Carolina, the forecaster said.

As a large cyclone, Jose could also affect the Virginia-to-New-England area, especially if it deviates from its forecast track, the NHC said.

At 11 a.m. EDT (1500 GMT), the NHC said the storm was generating swells affecting Bermuda, the Bahamas, the

northern coasts of Hispaniola and Puerto Rico, and much of the U.S. East Coast.

It was moving northwest at 9 miles (14.5 km) per hour, with maximum sustained winds of 80 miles per hour.

(This story corrects spelling of North Carolina in first paragraph.)

(Writing by Lisa Von Ahn, Editing by Franklin Paul)

News

More protests break out in St. Louis after acquittal in police shooting

By Valerie Volcovici and Kenny Bahr

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Reuters•September 16, 2017

More protests break out in St. Louis after acquittal in police shooting

By Valerie Volcovici and Kenny Bahr

ST. LOUIS (Reuters) - Protesters marched through an upscale St. Louis-area shopping mall on Saturday and the rock group U2 canceled a concert hours after police clashed with a crowd outraged over the acquittal of a white former policeman accused of murdering a black man.

In a second day of protests over the judge's ruling in the 2011 shooting death, hundreds of people chanted “Shut it down” and waved fists in the air as they snaked through the West County Center in the St. Louis suburb of Des Peres.

Police officers were out in force but there were no skirmishes, unlike the previous night, when nine city officers and a state trooper were injured, and at least 23 people were taken into custody during the clashes.

"We don't want to see property destruction or see people getting hurt," Elad Gross, 29, a St. Louis civil rights attorney said on Saturday as protesters gathered in a park before going to the mall. "But this is a protest that addresses injustices not only happening here in St. Louis but around the country."

On Friday, Circuit Judge Timothy Wilson acquitted former St. Louis Police Officer Jason Stockley, 36, of first-degree murder in the shooting death of Anthony Lamar Smith, 24.

The verdict and the subsequent protests come about three years after rioting broke out in the St. Louis suburb of Ferguson when an unarmed teenager was shot dead by a white police officer. That killing touched off a nationwide soul-searching over law enforcement's use of force against African-Americans, the mentally ill and other groups.

After the ruling on Friday afternoon, around 600 chanting protesters marched from the courthouse through downtown St. Louis, some of them holding "Black Lives Matter" signs.

Later, some of protesters broke windows at a library and two restaurants, and threw bricks and bottles at officers, who used tear gas and rubber bullets to disperse them. At one point, protesters also threw rocks and paint at the home of St. Louis Mayor Lyda Krewson, police said.

Following the violence, rock band U2 canceled a concert scheduled for Saturday night in St. Louis, citing safety concerns for fans who would have attended.

SHOOTING AFTER CHASE

Smith was shot five times in his car after attempting to elude Stockley and his partner, who had chased the suspect after an alleged drug deal, authorities said.

During the pursuit, Stockley could be heard saying on an internal police car video he was going to kill Smith, prosecutors said.

Stockley believed that Smith was armed, defense attorneys said, and a gun was found in the car. But prosecutors argued Stockley planted the weapon and the gun had only Stockley's DNA on it.

Stockley, who left the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department in 2013 and was arrested last year, had waived his right to a jury trial, allowing the judge to decide.

"This court, as a trier of fact, is simply not firmly convinced of defendant's guilt," Judge Wilson wrote in his ruling.

Smith's family settled a wrongful death lawsuit against the city for $900,000 in 2013, according to Al Watkins, an attorney for Smith's fiancée, Christina Wilson.

(Additional reporting by Brendan O'Brien in Milwaukee and Chris Kenning in Louisville, Kentucky, Writing by Alex Dobuzinskis,; Editing by Simon Cameron-Moore, Andrew Heavens and Franklin Paul)

News

World leaders face crises in North Korea and Myanmar at UN

EDITH M. LEDERER

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Associated Press•September 16, 2017

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — Facing an escalating nuclear threat from North Korea and the mass flight of minority Muslims from Myanmar, world leaders gather at the United Nations starting Monday to tackle these and other tough challenges — from the spread of terrorism to a warming planet.

The spotlight will be on U.S. President Donald Trump and France's new leader, Emmanuel Macron, who will both be making their first appearance at the General Assembly. They will be joined by more than 100 heads of state and government, including Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe, one of Africa's longest-serving leaders who is said to be bringing a 70-member entourage.

While Trump's speeches and meetings will be closely followed, it will be North Korea, which Secretary-General Antonio Guterres calls "the most dangerous crisis that we face today," that will be most carefully watched. No official event addressing Pyongyang's relentless campaign to develop nuclear weapons capable of hitting the United States is on the U.N. agenda, but it is expected to be the No. 1 issue for most leaders.

Not far behind will be the plight of Myanmar's Rohingya Muslims, victims of what Guterres calls a campaign of ethnic cleansing that has driven nearly 400,000 to flee to Bangladesh in the past three weeks. The Security Council, in its first statement on Myanmar in nine years, condemned the violence and called for immediate steps to end it. British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson is hosting a closed meeting on the crisis Monday, and the Organization of Islamic Cooperation's contact group on the Rohingyas is scheduled to meet Tuesday.

Guterres said leaders would also be focusing on a third major threat — climate change. The number of natural disasters has nearly quadrupled and he pointed to unprecedented weather events in recent weeks from Texas, Florida and the Caribbean to Bangladesh, India, Nepal and Sierra Leone.

While Trump has announced that the United States will pull out of the 2015 Paris Climate Agreement, Macron will be hosting a meeting Tuesday to spur its implementation. And a late addition to the hundreds of official meetings and side events during the ministerial week is a high-level session Monday on the devastation caused by Hurricane Irma.

Several terrorism-related events are on the agenda. Macron is holding a meeting Monday with leaders of five African nations — Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Burkina Faso and Chad — that are putting together a 5,000-strong force to fight the growing threat from extremists in the vast Sahel region.

A side event Wednesday on "Preventing Terrorist Use of the Internet" will be attended by senior representatives of major social media companies. Co-hosts Britain, France and Italy said a global response is needed "to make the online space a hostile environment for terrorists."

Trump has accused Iran of supporting terrorists and is threatening to rip up the 2015 deal to rein in its nuclear program. With a U.S. decision due in October, ministers from the six parties to the agreement are expected to meet next week. The five others strongly support the deal.

Trump has also been critical of the United Nations and has promised to cut the U.S. contribution to its budget, which is the largest. So some diplomats were surprised that the United States would sponsor an event Monday on reforming the 193-member world body.

Trump and Guterres will speak, and the United States has asked all countries to sign a declaration on U.N. reforms. Over 100 have added their names, but Russia's U.N. Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia said Friday that "we are not sure we will sign this declaration."

He said that while "lots of ideas contained in this document are important and look similar to what the secretary-general proposes," U.N. reforms should result from negotiations among all countries instead of from "a declaration of like-minded countries."

The Security Council is holding a high-level meeting Wednesday on U.N. peacekeeping operations, which cost nearly $8 billion a year. The United States, which pays over 28 percent of the peacekeeping budget, is reviewing all the missions in an effort to cut costs and make them more effective.

While there are many side events on other global hotspots from Central African Republic and South Sudan to Libya, Mail and Somalia, the ministerial meeting will also see sessions on achieving U.N. goals for 2030 to end extreme poverty and preserve the planet, women's economic empowerment, migration and conflict prevention — a top priority of the secretary-general.

Germany's U.N. Ambassador Christoph Heusgen said the most important thing about the General Assembly ministerial session, which officially begins Tuesday and ends Sept. 25, is the opportunity for leaders to talk one-on-one or get together in groups.

"I think this is indeed the Super Bowl," he said. "If it didn't exist, one had to create this opportunity so that can people can talk to each other."

General Assembly President Miroslav Lajcak reminded member states that even representatives of countries "with profound disagreements on fundamental issues will sit side-by-side."

He suggested a simple rule: "Treat every speaker on this podium as if he or she is our own head of delegation."

"As long as we can use these meeting rooms to talk and reach compromises in good will, then we all have the collective opportunity to use the U.N. to make the world a better, and more peaceful place," Lajcak said. "If we don't do this, the failure will lie with us — not the U.N."