Hurricane death toll in Bahamas at 30 as aid begins to land

ABACO, Bahamas (AP) — Carrying possessions in plastic bags, some weary Bahamians whose homes were smashed by Hurricane Dorian waited Thursday for a flight out of the disaster zone as an international humanitarian effort to help the Caribbean country gained momentum. The death toll rose to 30.

A few hundred people gathered at the partly flooded Leonard M. Thompson airport on Abaco island in hopes of getting a seat on one of the small planes picking up the most vulnerable survivors, including the sick and the elderly. However, the evacuation was slow and there was frustration for some who said they had nowhere to go after the Category 5 hurricane tore through the area, shattering whole neighbourhoods.

"They told us that the babies, the pregnant people and the elderly people were supposed to be first preference," said Lukya Thompson, a 23-year-old bartender. But many were still waiting, she said.

Despite hardship and uncertainty, those at the airport were mostly calm. The Bahamian health ministry said helicopters and boats were on the way to help people in affected areas, though warned of delays because of severe flooding and limited access.

At least 30 people died in the hurricane and the number could be "significantly higher," Bahamian health minister Duane Sands told The Associated Press in a telephone interview Thursday night. The victims are from Abaco and Grand Bahama islands and include some who had been injured and flown to New Providence island, he said.

___

Dorian grazes Carolina coast, aims for Outer Banks

CHARLESTON, S.C. (AP) — Hurricane Dorian sideswiped the Carolinas with shrieking winds, tornadoes and sideways rain Thursday as it closed in for a possible direct hit on the dangerously exposed Outer Banks. At least four deaths in the Southeast were blamed on the storm.

Twisters spun off by Dorian peeled away roofs and flipped trailers, and more than 250,000 homes and businesses were left without power as the hurricane pushed north along the coastline, its winds weakening after sunset to 100 mph (160 kph). Trees and power lines littered flooded streets in Charleston's historic downtown. Gusts had topped 80 mph (129 kph) in some areas.

North Carolina's Outer Banks, a thin line of islands that stick out from the U.S. coast like a boxer's chin, braced for a hit late Thursday or early Friday. To the north, Virginia was also in harm's way, and a round of evacuations was ordered there.

The damage from the same storm that mauled the Bahamas was mercifully light in many parts of South Carolina and Georgia as well, and by midafternoon many of the 1.5 million people who had been told to evacuate in three states were allowed to return.

But overnight winds will cause trees and branches to fall on power lines, and debris could block repair crews from accessing damaged lines, said Mike Burnette senior vice-president of Electric Cooperatives, a North Carolina utility provider. Customers should prepare for prolonged power outages, he said.

___

Singer says opera's Domingo harassed her, grabbed her breast

The glittering production was a high point of the Washington Opera's 1999-2000 season: Jules Massenet's "Le Cid," about a legendary Spanish conqueror, starring a tenor legendary in his own right — Placido Domingo, then the company's artistic director.

The opera, also being filmed for broadcast on public television, was unquestionably a career break for a 28-year-old singer named Angela Turner Wilson, who'd been cast as the second female lead and was singled out for praise in reviews. "I knew this was the start of big things for me," she says now.

But one evening before a performance, she said, she and Domingo were having their makeup done together when he rose from his chair, stood behind her and put his hands on her shoulders. As she looked at him in the mirror, he suddenly slipped his hands under her bra straps, she said, then reached down into her robe and grabbed her bare breast.

"It hurt," she told The Associated Press. "It was not gentle. He groped me hard." She said Domingo then turned and walked away, leaving her stunned and humiliated.

Wilson, now 48 and a college voice teacher in the Dallas area, was one of 11 women to come forward after an Aug. 13 AP story in which numerous women accused the long-married, Spanish-born superstar of sexual harassment or inappropriate, sexually charged behaviour and of sometimes damaging their careers if they rejected him.

___

Official: Trump to challenge California authority on mileage

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Trump administration is moving forward with a proposal to revoke part of California's authority to set its own automobile gas mileage standards, a government official said Thursday, confronting a state that has repeatedly challenged the administration's environmental rollbacks.

The Environmental Protection Agency was preparing paperwork for the White House for the move, meant to help the administration set a single, less rigorous mileage standard enforceable nationwide, according to the official, who is familiar with the regulatory process and spoke on condition of anonymity because the plan has not been made public.

President Donald Trump has pushed for months to weaken Obama-era mileage standards nationwide and has targeted California's decades-old power to set its own mileage standards as part of that effort.

Administration moves to rescind authority that Congress granted probably would end up in court. When President George W. Bush challenged California's greenhouse gas emissions and mileage-setting ability, California fought it. The Obama administration subsequently dropped the Bush effort.

The Trump plan would have to be posted in the Federal Register and would be subject to public comment.

___

AP-NORC Poll: Most Americans see weather disasters worsening

WASHINGTON (AP) — Nearly three-quarters of Americans see weather disasters, like Hurricane Dorian, worsening and most of them blame global warming to some extent, a new poll finds.

And scientists say they're right.

The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research survey shows 72% of Americans think catastrophic weather is more severe, while 4% see it as less nasty. About one-quarter say those disasters are about as extreme as they always were.

Half of those who think weather disasters are worsening say it's mainly because of man-made climate change, with another 37% who think natural randomness and global warming are equally to blame.

The poll was conducted in mid-August before Dorian formed, pummeled the Bahamas and put much of the U.S. East Coast on edge.

___

Treasury unveils plan to privatize Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Trump administration has unveiled its plan for ending government control of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the two giant mortgage finance companies that nearly collapsed in the financial crisis 11 years ago and were bailed out at a total cost to taxpayers of $187 billion.

The administration's plan calls for returning Fannie and Freddie to private ownership and reducing risk to taxpayers. That while preserving homebuyers' access to 30-year, fixed-rate mortgages, a pillar of housing finance. The Treasury Department published the plan Thursday and submitted it to President Donald Trump, who called for it in March.

While not prominently in the public eye, the two companies perform a critical role in the housing market. Together they guarantee roughly half of the $10 trillion U.S. home loan market.

Fannie and Freddie, operating under so-called government conservatorships, have become profitable again in the years since the 2008 rescue and have repaid their bailouts in full to the Treasury.

The administration initially looked to Congress for legislation to overhaul the housing finance system and return the companies to private shareholders. But Congress hasn't acted, and now officials say they will take administrative action for the core change, ending the Fannie and Freddie conservatorships.

___

Mr Never Wrong: Storm spat underscores Trump's mindset

NEW YORK (AP) — President Donald Trump doesn't make mistakes. At least according to him.

Trump's relentless justifications of his erroneous warnings that Hurricane Dorian was threatening Alabama on Sunday, which created days of ridicule and skepticism, are just the latest example of the president's lifelong reluctance to admit an error, no matter how innocuous.

His fervent, dayslong pushback has displayed not only his prolonged focus on a personal spat but his willingness, notably again late on Thursday, to deploy government staff and resources to justify an inaccurate claim. Presidential proclamations can move markets, rattle world capitals and, in this case, unnecessarily alarm the residents of a state. Trump's relationship with the truth and accountability threatened to, yet again, diminish the weight of any president's words.

"Great presidents admit when they've screwed up, they fix it, and they move on," said presidential historian Jon Meacham. "Right now, it is a mistake about a hurricane hitting a state. But it can also be a far bigger deal and cost people lives and help create a climate where people can't trust the government."

This was far from the first time Trump has refused to admit a mistake. Examples range from the harmless, like his assertion that he had the largest inauguration crowd in history, to the more serious, like his claim of widespread voter fraud in 2016 that led to the establishment of an election commission to try and back up his claim.

___

Fire foiled rescued attempts by California boat crew

LOS ANGELES (AP) — The crew of a scuba diving boat that sank off the coast of Southern California made several attempts to rescue the 34 people who were trapped below decks by fire, but intense flames drove them back and all perished, federal authorities said Thursday.

All those lost in the Labor Day tragedy aboard the Conception were sleeping in a bunkroom below the main deck when fire broke out around 3 a.m. The captain and four crew were above and survived, and one of the searing questions was whether they tried to help the others before saving themselves.

The crew members told investigators in "very lengthy, detailed, comprehensive interviews" what Jennifer Homendy, a member of the National Transportation Safety Board, called a harrowing story of the moments after the fire erupted on the vessel.

One said he awoke to a noise — but did not hear a smoke alarm — and saw flames "erupting" from the ship's galley below, Homendy said. He tried to get down a ladder, but flames had engulfed it.

Crew members then jumped from the ship's bridge to its main deck — one breaking a leg in the effort — and tried to get through the double doors of the galley, under which the ship's 33 passengers and a 26-year-old crew member slept. A stairway and escape hatch from the bunkroom both exited into the galley.

___

No conviction in California warehouse fire stuns families

OAKLAND, Calif. (AP) — A jury on Thursday didn't convict two men charged after flames tore through a party at a San Francisco Bay Area warehouse that had been converted into a mazelike artist space, stunning families of the 36 victims who had opposed a deal that would have put the pair behind bars.

Jurors acquitted Max Harris of involuntary manslaughter but said they could not agree on whether to convict or acquit Derick Almena after deliberating over a two-week period.

As the judge declared a mistrial, sobs and gasps erupted from family and friends of the victims who have packed the courtroom for the emotional three-month trial. The men were accused of filling the building in Oakland with so much clutter that it trapped people at an electronic music party nearly three years ago.

"I'm in shock," said David Gregory, whose 20-year-old daughter Michela perished in the fast-moving fire. "We were hoping for justice, but we didn't get justice today."

Michela Gregory and her 22-year-old boyfriend, Alex Vega, died when fire roared through the so-called Ghost Ship warehouse, which had been illegally converted into a live-work space for artists and held events.

___

1 more for 24: Serena Williams reaches US Open final again

NEW YORK (AP) — By no means was Serena Williams perfect at the start of her U.S. Open semifinal.

She faced three break points in the opening game and managed to pull it out. She trailed 40-love in the second, then came through again. Another trio of break points arrived later in that initial set. Once more, Williams was up to the task. Soon enough, she was on her way to yet another final at Flushing Meadows — and yet another shot at Grand Slam singles trophy No. 24.

Williams turned in an increasingly impressive performance for a 6-3, 6-1 victory over No. 5-seeded Elina Svitolina of Ukraine at Arthur Ashe Stadium on Thursday night, reaching her fourth final in the past six major tournaments.

"To be in yet another final, it seems, honestly, crazy," Williams said. "But I don't really expect too much less."

Nor does anyone else at this point.

News from © The Associated Press, 2019