MIAMI - Hurricane Dorian churned toward Florida with more powerful winds and drenching rains on Friday, wreaking havoc on people's Labor Day weekend plans in one of America's biggest vacation destinations.
In the Bahamas, evacuations were underway in the two days before Dorian was expected to bring a life-threatening storm surge of as much as 3 to 4.5 meters to the northwest of the islands, the National Hurricane Center said.
On Florida's east coast, where Dorian's winds were expected to begin hitting on Monday morning, items ranging from bottled water to plywood were being bought as quickly as they could be restocked. There were reports some gas stations had run out of fuel.
"They’re buying everything and anything that applies to a hurricane, flashlights, batteries, generators," said Amber Hunter, 30, assistant manager at Cape Canaveral's ACE Handiman hardware store.
The Miami-based National Hurricane Center warned that Dorian could further strengthen and batter Florida with winds of over 210 kph. That would put millions of people at risk along with big vacation parks such as Walt Disney World, the NASA launchpads along the Space Coast, and even President Trump's Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach.
NHC Director Ken Graham saw a worrying, unpredictable situation for Florida with the hurricane set to hit land somewhere up its east coast.
"Slow is not our friend, the longer you keep this around the more rain we get," said Graham in a Facebook Live video. While it was unclear where the hurricane would make landfall, the results were expected to be devastating: "Big time impacts, catastrophic events, for some areas 140 mph winds, not a good situation," said Graham.
Mindful of that warning, Cocoa Beach Mayor Ben Malik was putting up storm shutters on his Florida home on Friday afternoon and worrying about the flooding Dorian could unleash on his barrier island town.
"It's slowed down, we’re looking at a multiple day event, we were hoping it would just barrel through and leave,” Malik said of forecasts Dorian could sit over Florida for up to two days dumping up to 46 centimeters of water. "I’m really worried about the amount of rain we’ll be getting."
WEEK'S WORTH OF FOOD
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis urged residents to have at least a week's worth of food, water and medicine.
Fort Pierce Mayor Linda Hudson urged its 46,000 residents who planned to evacuate to go now.
"It's decision time now. Don’t wait until I-95 north and I-75 north and the turnpike are parking lots," said Hudson, who lived through two devastating hurricanes in 2004.
Dorian's course remained unpredictable. One of Florida's last major hurricanes, 2017's Irma, swept up the peninsula, instead of hitting the east coast.
Florida residents like Jamison Weeks, general manager at Conchy Joe's Seafood in Port St. Lucie, planned on staying put.
"I’m planning on boarding up my house this evening," said Weeks. "The mood is a little tense, everybody’s a little nervous and just trying to prepare as best as possible."
In the Bahamas, Freeport's international airport was set to close Friday night and would not open until Sept. 3, amid worries Dorian would slam tourist hotspots Grand Bahama and Abaco on Saturday.
Dorian began on Friday over the Atlantic as a Category 2 hurricane on the five-step Saffir-Simpson Wind Scale but strengthened to a Category 3 with sustained winds of 185 kph, the NHC said. It is moving just at 16 kph, giving it more time to intensify before making landfall.
Some 2,000 National Guard troops will have been mobilized for the hurricane by the end of Friday, with 2,000 more joining them on Saturday, Florida National Guard Maj. Gen. James Eifert said.
Florida officials also were making sure all nursing homes and assisted living facilities had generators.
Only one in five Florida nursing homes plans to rely on deliveries of temporary generators to keep their air conditioners running if Dorian knocks out power, a state agency said on Friday, short of the standard set by a law passed after a dozen people died in a sweltering nursing home after 2017's Hurricane Irma.
North of Cape Canaveral, the Kennedy Space Center's 400-foot launch tower was dragged inside a towering vehicle assembly building to shelter it from Dorian, according to a video posted by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)-owned space launch center.
source: news.abs-cbn.com
WASHINGTON - Accusations of racism flared up on Wednesday in the Florida governor's race after the Republican candidate told voters they would "monkey this up" if they chose a liberal African-American Democrat backed by Senator Bernie Sanders.
The upset victory by Democrat Andrew Gillum, 39, in the Florida gubernatorial primary was the most notable of a slate of party primaries held on Tuesday to decide candidates for the midterm election.
Gillum's opponent in November will be Representative Ron DeSantis, an enthusiastic backer of President Donald Trump who surged in the polls in Florida, America's third-largest state, after earning the endorsement of the president.
DeSantis, also 39, landed in hot water within hours of his primary victory, however, with comments to Fox News which were interpreted by some as being racially charged.
Speaking of his opponent, who is seeking to become Florida's first black governor, DeSantis said "the last thing we need to do is to monkey this up by trying to embrace a socialist agenda with huge tax increases and bankrupting the state."
"That part wasn't lost on me," Gillum responded on Fox News when asked about the "monkey this up" comment.
"It's very clear that Mr DeSantis is taking a page directly from the campaign manual of Donald Trump," he said. "In the handbook of Donald Trump, they no longer do whistle calls. They are now using full bull horns."
DeSantis spokesman Stephen Lawson rejected any racial overtones.
"Ron DeSantis was obviously talking about Florida not making the wrong decision to embrace the socialist policies that Andrew Gillum espouses," Lawson said in a statement. "To characterize it as anything else is absurd."
In other races, a former air force fighter pilot, Representative Martha McSally, won the Republican primary in Arizona to replace the retiring Republican Senator Jeff Flake, a vocal critic of Trump.
With 52 percent of the vote, McSally easily defeated arch conservative Kelli Ward, a former state senator, and Joe Arpaio, an immigration hardliner who was convicted of criminal contempt and pardoned by Trump last year.
Trump had mostly stayed out of the race but he endorsed the 52-year-old McSally on Wednesday, saying she was "strong on crime" and "the border."
'WE WERE COUNTED OUT'
McSally will take on Democrat Kyrsten Sinema as Republicans seek to hold on to their slim 51-49 majority in the Senate in November.
Democrats had been hoping for a victory by one of the right-wing candidates -- Ward or Arpaio -- in a bid to increase their chances of capturing the seat.
A replacement for the other senator from Arizona, the late John McCain, is to be named in the next few days by the southwestern state's Republican governor and will be up for election in 2020.
Trump welcomed DeSantis's victory in Florida and criticized Gillum, the mayor of Tallahassee, the Florida capital.
"Not only did Congressman Ron DeSantis easily win the Republican Primary, but his opponent in November is his biggest dream... a failed Socialist Mayor named Andrew Gillum who has allowed crime & many other problems to flourish in his city," Trump tweeted. "This is not what Florida wants or needs!"
DeSantis's campaign featured an ad in which he encourages his toddler to use blocks to "build the wall" -- a reference to Trump's border wall with Mexico -- and dresses his baby in a "Make America Great Again" outfit.
Gillum, who has called for Trump's impeachment, is the first African-American to win Florida's Democratic nomination for governor and his surprise win came against better-funded, more mainstream opponents.
"We were counted out every step of the way," Gillum said. "My four opponents collectively spent over 90 million dollars. I think our total spending may have been six."
If elected, Gillum promised to work for universal health care and "common sense" gun laws in a state where there has been a spate of mass shootings.
Sanders, who represents the left wing of the party and came up short in his 2016 challenge to Hillary Clinton for the Democratic presidential nomination, welcomed his victory.
"Floridians joined Andrew in standing up and demanding real change and showed our nation what is possible when we stand together," the Vermont senator tweeted.
Also in Florida, current governor Rick Scott won the Republican Senate nomination and is set to take on Democratic Senator Bill Nelson in November.
Nelson, 75, has represented Florida in the Senate since 2001 but the latest polls show Scott with a slight lead in what is expected to be one of the most expensive congressional races.
All 435 seats in the House of Representatives will be up for grabs in November along with 35 seats in the 100-member Senate.
The midterm elections in Arizona and Florida are being closely watched as harbingers of how the key states may vote in the 2020 presidential election.
source: news.abs-cbn.com
ALEXANDRIA, Virginia - US representatives Ron DeSantis and Jeff Duncan had ducked out of baseball practice early on Wednesday when a middle-aged man in the parking lot asked them if the players in red shirts on the field were Republicans or Democrats.
"Republican," Duncan said before departing.
Minutes later, the man, rifle and handgun in tow, opened fire on the congressmen's teammates - Republican lawmakers gathered on a muggy morning near Washington to prepare for a charity ballgame.
"A killing field," U.S. Senator Rand Paul said in a televised interview, describing the scene in Arlington, Virginia.
"We were sitting ducks," said Representative Roger Williams.
Williams, the team coach, told reporters he was hitting ground balls when he heard what sounded like a car engine backfiring.
"He's got a gun! Run for cover," Williams heard next.
He dove into the dugout behind first base. Zack Barth, a staffer shot in the leg, ran in from the outfield and landed in Williams' arms.
Barth texted for help as more bullets flew. U.S. Senator Jeff Flake used his belt as a makeshift tourniquet to stop the staffer's bleeding, Williams said.
Taking cover behind home plate, U.S. Representative Mo Brooks saw a rifle pointing from a chain link fence behind the third base dugout.
A scream rang out from second base, Brooks said.
Steve Scalise, the No. 3 Republican in the House of Representatives, had been shot in the hip and fell to the ground. He left a trail of blood as he dragged himself to the outfield, seeking distance from the gunman who said nothing as he fired.
On her front porch just across the street from the field in a trendy, family-friendly neighborhood, Reba Winstead heard a dozen shots.
"A bullet just came down my street,” she told an emergency dispatcher.
Police audio obtained by media recorded a flood of frantic calls: "Shots being fired ... We need medics ... Victim down in the baseball field.”
Alexandria police arrived at 7:12 a.m., about three minutes after the first emergency phone call reporting an active shooter. Members of the Capitol Police, serving as security detail to Scalise, were firing at the gunman.
By 7:14 a.m., the gunman, 66-year-old James Hodgkinson from the St. Louis suburb of Belleville, Illinois, was down. Later he died.
source: news.abs-cbn.com
