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Trump warns Americans: Don’t ‘play games’ with Hurricane Florence
WASHINGTON, Sept 12, 2018 (BSS/AFP) – US President Donald Trump promised
Wednesday that the federal government was “ready” and “able” to handle
Hurricane Florence, warning residents to get out of the way as the monster
storm bears down on the East Coast.
“They say it’s about as big as they have seen coming to this country, and
certainly to the East Coast as they’ve ever seen,” Trump said.
“We’ll handle it. We’re ready, we’re able, we’ve got the finest people I
think anywhere in the world,” he added in a video message posted on his
Twitter account.
Florence is currently a Category 4 hurricane on the five-point Saffir-
Simpson scale and was forecast to slam into the Carolinas later this week.
More than a million people are under mandatory evacuation orders, and
coastal residents frantically boarded up homes and businesses and hit the
road as the storm approached.
Florence is forecast to trigger severe flash flooding as it dumps up to
three feet (almost a meter) of rain in some areas.
Life-threatening storm surges of up to 13 feet in some places were also
forecast.
“Get out of its way, don’t play games with it, it’s a big one, maybe as big
as they’ve seen, and tremendous amounts of water,” Trump said.
“Bad things can happen when you are talking about a storm this size. It’s
called Mother Nature. You never know, but we know. We love you all, we want
you safe. Get out of the storm’s way.”
In a separate tweet, Trump warned that the storm was “looking even bigger
than anticipated.”
Trump also took a shot at the mayor of San Juan after she derided his claim
that the administration’s response to Hurricane Maria last year in Puerto
Rico was an “incredible unsung success.”
Nearly 3,000 people are estimated to have died in the US territory as a
result of that devastating Category 4 storm.
“We got A Pluses for our recent hurricane work in Texas and Florida (and
did an unappreciated great job in Puerto Rico, even though an inaccessible
island with very poor electricity and a totally incompetent Mayor of San
Juan),” Trump tweeted.
“Shame on you,” Mayor Carmen Yulin Cruz said Tuesday after Trump’s boasts
of success.
“Nobody’s going to be singing his praises,” she added, calling the
operation a “despicable act of neglect” by the Trump administration.
BSS/AFP/FI/ 1846 hrs