Hurricane Maria eyes next target as Puerto Rico surveys damage — live updates

Hurricane Maria lashed the northeast coast of the Dominican Republic on Thursday after leaving a path of destruction in Puerto Rico.

Maria left millions of people in Puerto Rico facing the dispiriting prospect of weeks and perhaps months without electricity.

The Category 3 storm was blamed for at least 19 deaths. Maria’s next potential target was the Turks and Caicos Islands, which are still recovering from Hurricane Irma.

On Wednesday, Maria barreled through Puerto Rico from end to end, knocking out all the power. It was the strongest hurricane to hit the U.S. commonwealth in more than 80 years. Officials said recovery will take months.

CBS News’ David Begnaud reports that in the coastal city of Cantano, residents forged through flooded streets, heading to the only open grocery store. Only five were allowed in at a time to avoid chaos.

Begnaud said in the small town of Toa Baja, hundreds of residents were rescued by the National Guard, packed into trucks while scores of others waded through two feet of water, carrying what’s left of their possessions.

Follow along below for live updates on the storm. All times are Eastern unless otherwise noted. 

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10 p.m.: Trump speaks with Puerto Rico governor

The White House says President Trump spoke with the governors of Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands.

Mr. Trump said earlier Thursday that Puerto Rico was “absolutely obliterated” and the Virgin Islands were “flattened” by recent hurricanes Irma and Maria.

The entire island of Puerto Rico was left without power after Maria knocked out its already weakened electrical grid.

Mr. Trump said FEMA and other emergency responders are helping both U.S. territories begin the recovery process.

He says he’ll visit Puerto Rico.

8:30 p.m.: Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor eagerly awaits news of her family in Puerto Rico

Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor, whose family is from Puerto Rico, says she hasn’t yet heard from half her family after Hurricane Maria walloped the island.

Sotomayor, the high court’s first Hispanic justice, was speaking Thursday at an event at the Newseum in Washington. She said Puerto Rico “is suffering a great tragedy right now.”

Sotomayor says that she and her family in the United States are “exceedingly concerned.” She asked for the crowd’s prayers for Puerto Rico but also the other islands, Texas and Florida that have been recently impacted by hurricanes.

Sotomayor’s parents immigrated to the United States from Puerto Rico before she was born. Sotomayor grew up in New York.

8 p.m.: Hurricane Maria’s large eye gradually approaching Turks and Caicos Islands

The National Hurricane Center (NHC) released its latest advisory tonight to say that Hurricane Maria is gradually nearing the Turks and Caicos Islands with sustained winds of 125 mph — a slight uptick from the 120 mph winds earlier in the night.

Maria remains a Category 3 hurricane.

Maria is moving toward the northwest near 9 mph, NHC says, and the eye will continue to pass offshore of the northern coast of the Dominican Republic this evening, and then move near or just east of the Turks and Caicos Islands and southeastern Bahamas later tonight and on Friday.

NHC says an additional 4 to 8 inches of rain is expected in Puerto Rico and an isolated maximum storm total totaling 40 inches.

Tropical storm conditions are possible in the central Bahamas beginning late Friday.

6:40 p.m.: Residents should expect prospect of weeks without power or longer

A day after Hurricane Maria ravaged Puerto Rico, flooding towns, crushing homes and killing at least two people, millions of people on the island faced the dispiriting prospect of weeks and perhaps months without electricity.

The storm knocked out the entire grid across the U.S. territory of 3.4 million, leaving many without power to light their homes, cook, pump water or run fans, air conditioners or refrigerators. Now many are hunting for gas canisters for cooking, collecting rainwater or steeling themselves mentally for the hardships to come in the tropical heat. Some are even contemplating leaving the island.

“You cannot live here without power,” said Hector Llanos, a 78-year-old retired New York police officer who planned to go back to the U.S. mainland on Saturday to live there temporarily.

Like many Puerto Ricans, Llanos does not have a generator or gas stove. “The only thing I have is a flashlight,” he said, shaking his head.

5:50 p.m.: Power industry executive refuses to speculate on when power will be restored in Puerto Rico

Puerto Rico’s government hired 56 small contractors to clear trees and put up new power lines and poles and will be sending tanker trucks to supply neighborhoods as they run out of water. The entire island was declared federal disaster zones.

Mike Hyland, senior vice president of engineering services for the American Public Power Association, a utility industry group that is sending repair crews into the Caribbean, refused to speculate on how long it would take to restore power.

“Let’s see what the facts tell us by the end of the weekend,” he said. But he acknowledged: “This is going to be a tall lift.”

The storm knocked out the entire grid across the U.S. territory of 3.4 million, leaving many without power to light their homes, cook, pump water or run fans, air conditioners or refrigerators.

5:15 p.m.: Flash flood warnings continue in portions of Puerto Rico due to persistent heavy rainfall

The National Hurricane Center (NHC) released its latest advisory to report that catastrophic flooding is occurring in Puerto Rico — and everyone on the island should continue to follow advice from local officials to avoid life-threatening flooding conditions.

Hurricane Maria is moving northwest near 9 mph with maximum sustained winds of 120 mph.

NHC says tropical storm conditions begin to spread over the Turks and Caicos Islands. Maria’s eye will continue to pass offshore of the northern coast of the Dominican Republic this evening and then move near or just east of the Turks and Caicos Islands and southeastern Bahamas tonight and Friday.

Swells from Hurricane Maria are expected to begin reaching the coast of the southeastern United States on Friday which could cause dangerous surf and life-threatening rip currents along the coast for several days even though Maria is forecast to stay well offshore in the western Atlantic Ocean, NHC says.

4:03 p.m.: Puerto Rico surveys extent of Maria’s wrath

Rescuers fanned out to reach stunned victims Thursday after Hurricane Maria ravaged Puerto Rico, knocking out electricity to the entire island and triggering landslides and floods.

The extent of the damage is unknown given that dozens of municipalities remained isolated and without communication after Maria hit the island Wednesday morning as a Category 4 storm with 155 mph winds, the strongest hurricane to hit Puerto Rico in over 80 years.

Uprooted trees and widespread flooding blocked many highways and streets across the island of 3.4 million residents, creating a maze that forced drivers to go against traffic and past police cars that used loudspeakers to warn people they must respect a 6 p.m. to 6 a.m. curfew imposed by the governor to ensure everyone’s safety. People resorted to rafts and kayaks to get around because flooding made many roads remained impassable.

“This is going to be a historic event for Puerto Rico,” said Abner Gomez, the island’s emergency management director.

2:58 p.m.: 1 dead, 3 rescued from boat off Puerto Rico

The U.S. Coast Guard says a woman and two children were rescued from a boat that went missing off Puerto Rico during Hurricane Maria, but a man died aboard the vessel.

The Coast Guard in Miami said in a statement that a British Royal Navy helicopter hoisted three people Thursday from the capsized vessel. It had sent a distress call Wednesday saying it was disabled and adrift in seas with 20-foot waves and 100 mph winds near Vieques, Puerto Rico.

The Coast Guard says the dead man’s body was not retrieved and that the boat had capsized.

The search included an HC-130 search plane, a fast response cutter, the USS Kearsarge amphibious assault ship and Navy helicopters.

The names of those on the vessel were not released.

2:24 p.m.: Maria strengthens slightly

Hurricane Maria has strengthened slightly as it nears the Turks and Caicos Islands and the southeastern Bahamas.

The National Hurricane Center in Miami says data from reconnaissance aircraft showed maximum sustained wind speed increasing Thursday to 120 mph, up slightly from 115 mph. It remains a Category 3 hurricane.

Hurricane conditions are expected to begin in the Turks and Caicos Islands and the southeastern Bahamas late Thursday or early Friday.

Tropical storm conditions are possible in the central Bahamas beginning late Friday.

1:15 p.m.: Severe flooding in Dominica after Maria’s direct hit

Dominica Tourism Minister Robert Tonge said his badly damaged country’s capital of Roseau still has severe flooding three days after Hurricane Maria made landfall in the eastern Caribbean island and there’s heavy damage throughout the city.

The hospital and a community center both lost roofs. One of two airports serving the country is inoperable while the other is expected to be operational in the coming days. An estimated 95 percent of the roofs were blown off in some towns, including Mahaut and Portsmouth.

There are at least nine communities that no one has any information about because they’re cut off and most communications are down in the country.

Prime Minister Roosevelt Skerrit said more than 15 people are dead and 20 remain missing after Maria’s direct hit.

Skerrit cried as he spoke to a reporter on the nearby island of Antigua.

He said it was a miracle that the death toll was not in the hundreds.

The center of the Category 5 storm hit Dominica with massive force late Monday night and early Tuesday, destroying hundreds of homes and cutting off the mountainous island’s communication systems and shutting its airport.

Skerrit says Dominica “is going to need all the help the world has to offer.”

12:55 p.m.: At least 15 dead on Dominica

Dominica Prime Minister Roosevelt Skerrit says at least 15 people are dead and 20 missing on the Caribbean island after Hurricane Maria.

The death toll on the hard-hit island was seven before Skerrit’s announcement Thursday.

12:38 p.m.: Maria heading toward Turks and Caicos Islands

Hurricane Maria was heading toward the Turks and Caicos Islands Thursday morning, the National Hurricane Center said.

Forecasters expected tropical storm conditions to begin on the islands and in the southeastern Bahamas later Thursday. Hurricane conditions were expected there Thursday night or early Friday.

At 11 a.m., Maria remained a Category 3 hurricane with maximum sustained winds of 115 mph. Its eye was located about 105 miles east-northeast of Puerto Plata, Dominican Republic, and about 155 miles southeast of Grand Turk Island in the Turks and Caicos.

The major hurricane was moving northwest at 9 mph.

12:11 p.m.: Severe flood threat in Puerto Rico

Forecasters say a severe flood threat is continuing across Puerto Rico as Hurricane Maria’s outer rain bands pelt the island.

Senior Hurricane Specialist Mike Brennan at the National Hurricane Center says rains are expected to dump at least 4-8 inches of additional rain and up to 35 inches in isolated spots on the island.

“We’re still seeing heavy rainfall occurring over Puerto Rico,” Brennan said Thursday via social media from the Miami-based center. “We could see 4-8 inches of additional rainfall through Saturday that will exacerbate the ongoing flash-flooding situation that’s occurring over that entire island.”

He warned Puerto Rico residents who are venturing out after the storm to avoid areas near already flood-swollen rivers and not to attempt to cross flooded highways and roads on foot or in vehicles because of the threat to personal safety.

Forecasters say the ongoing rains also raise the risk of life-threatening mudslides.

11:54 a.m.: Trump pledges to visit Puerto Rico

President Trump has pledged to visit Puerto Rico, which he said was “absolutely obliterated” by Hurricane Maria.

While the president was meeting with Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko in New York, a reporter asked if he would visit the U.S. territory.

“Yes, I will,” Mr. Trump said.

Mr. Trump provided no immediate details about when he would visit the island.

The president went to Texas and Louisiana after they were hit by Hurricane Harvey, and he visited Florida after Hurricane Irma struck the state.

Mr. Trump and Poroshenko are in New York for the annual U.N. General Assembly.

8:46 a.m.: Trump approves disaster declaration for Puerto Rico

President Trump has approved a federal disaster declaration for Puerto Rico.

The White House announced Thursday morning that Mr. Trump approved the declaration on Wednesday, the same day Hurricane Maria made landfall on the U.S. territory.

The declaration makes federal funding available to Puerto Ricans affected by the storm, which has knocked out power across the entire island and caused flooding and landslides.

8:33 a.m.: Maria remains major hurricane off Dominican Republic

Hurricane Maria remained a major storm as its eye was passing offshore of the northeastern coast of the Dominican Republic, the National Hurricane Center said.

At 8 a.m., Maria was still a Category 3 hurricane with maximum sustained winds near 115 mph. Its eye was located about 95 miles north-northwest of the resort city of Punta Cana, Dominican Republic, and about 190 miles southeast of Grand Turk Island in the Turks and Caicos.

It was moving northwest at about 9 mph.

Forecasters said it was possible for Maria to gain more strength over the next day or so.

5:13 a.m.: Maria could get stronger before hitting Bahamas

In its 5 a.m. advisory, the National Hurricane Center said Hurricane Maria was centered about 70 miles north of Punta Cana, Dominican Republic, and heading northwest at 9 mph. 

The Center said the storm’s eye would continue to pass offshore of the northeastern coast of the Dominican Republic over the course of Thursday before moving toward the Turks and Caicos Islands and the southeastern Bahamas by Friday evening.

“Some strengthening is possible during the next day or so,” warned the advisory.

2:38 a.m.: Maria regains major hurricane status

The U.S. National Hurricane Center says Maria has regained its major hurricane status, rising to a Category 3 storm early Thursday.

An update from the Miami-based center says maximum sustained winds have increased to near 115 mph with higher gusts.

Maria’s fierce core was centered about 55 miles northeast of Punta Cana, Dominican Republic. It will continue to move away from Puerto Rico during the next several hours, and then pass offshore of the northeast coast of the Dominican Republic early Thursday.  Maria should then move near the Turks and Caicos Islands and the southeastern Bahamas tonight and Friday.

President Trump has declared a major disaster in the U.S. Virgin Islands after Hurricane Maria hit. Mr. Trump’s action early Thursday makes federal funding available to people on the island of St. Croix.

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Wednesday, Sept. 20

11:18 p.m.: Trump tweets “Stay safe!” to Puerto Rico

President Trump again tweeted about Hurricane Maria, writing “we are with you and the people of Puerto Rico” to Gov. Ricardo Rossello.

Earlier Wednesday Rossello asked Mr. Trump to declare the island a disaster zone, a step that would open the way to federal aid. 

11:11 p.m.: Maria moving away from Puerto Rico, but torrential rains continue

The National Hurricane Center said Maria is moving away Puerto Rico, but the island is still being slammed by torrential rains.

Maria is expected to bring 20 to 30 inches of rain through Saturday to Puerto Rico, the National Hurricane Center said. Strong gusty winds are still occurring over portions of Puerto Rico, but should continue to gradually subside.  

The storm had maximum sustained winds of 110 mph, making it a strong Category 2 storm. The eye of Maria is moving away from Puerto Rico, heading toward the Dominican Republic and then is expected to move toward Turks and Caicos.

10 p.m.: Coastal city sees hundreds of homes destroyed in Puerto Rico

Felix Delgado, mayor of the northern coastal city of Catano, told The Associated Press that 80 percent of the 454 homes in a neighborhood known as Juana Matos were destroyed. The fishing community near San Juan Bay was hit with a storm surge of more than 4 feet, he said.

“Months and months and months and months are going to pass before we can recover from this,” he said.

8:40 p.m.: Officials say tourists should delay visit to Caribbean territory

The U.S. Virgin Islands Department of Tourism says people who want to visit the Caribbean territory should postpone their trip while authorities assess the effects of Hurricane Maria on St. Croix and recover from the damage to St. Thomas and St. John from Hurricane Irma.

The department says Hurricane Maria brought heavy rainfall and flooding to St. Croix when it passed to the south of the island and communications throughout the islands are limited.

There were no immediate reports Wednesday of any casualties from the storm on St. Croix.

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Click here for Wednesday’s updates on the storm.

 

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Thoughts on Facebook’s 9 plans to curb election interference

Election meddling is Facebook’s next adversary, and it’s got a plan to attack it just like it did with fake news. Solutions to both these scourges come too late to prevent tampering that may have aided Donald Trump winning the presidency — but at least Facebook is owning up to the problem, working with the government and starting to self-regulate. Here’s the nine-point plan Zuckerberg has devised to combat election interference, plus our commentary on each strategy’s potential.

One: Providing Russian-bought ads to Congress – “We are actively working with the US government on its ongoing investigations into Russian interference. We have been investigating this for many months, and for a while we had found no evidence of fake accounts linked to Russia running ads. When we recently uncovered this activity, we provided that information to the special counsel. We also briefed Congress — and this morning I directed our team to provide the ads we’ve found to Congress as well. As a general rule, we are limited in what we can discuss publicly about law enforcement investigations, so we may not always be able to share our findings publicly. But we support Congress in deciding how to best use this information to inform the public, and we expect the government to publish its findings when their investigation is complete.”

TC – Facebook initially shared more information with Special Counsel Robert Mueller than Congress, but after checking to make sure it won’t violate privacy laws, it’s giving the Russian-bought ads to Congress too. This could aid their investigation while preventing them from legally extracting the information from Facebook in a messy public ordeal.

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Two: Continuing Facebook’s own investigation – “We will continue our investigation into what happened on Facebook in this election. We may find more, and if we do, we will continue to work with the government. We are looking into foreign actors, including additional Russian groups and other former Soviet states, as well as organizations like the campaigns, to further our understanding of how they used our tools. These investigations will take some time, but we will continue our thorough review.”

TC – Facebook’s depth of access to its systems means it could surface evidence of election interference that Mueller or Congress can’t get from just the data Facebook provides. Facebook needs to review not just its advertising systems and fake news in the News Feed, but also use of Events, chat, user profiles, Groups and its other apps like Instagram and WhatsApp.

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Three: Political ad transparency – “Going forward — and perhaps the most important step we’re taking — we’re going to make political advertising more transparent. When someone buys political ads on TV or other media, they’re required by law to disclose who paid for them. But you still don’t know if you’re seeing the same messages as everyone else. So we’re going to bring Facebook to an even higher standard of transparency. Not only will you have to disclose which page paid for an ad, but we will also make it so you can visit an advertiser’s page and see the ads they’re currently running to any audience on Facebook. We will roll this out over the coming months, and we will work with others to create a new standard for transparency in online political ads.”

TC – Facebook has held that ads are user content and therefore it could violate privacy to disclose the content and targeting of all ads. Businesses see their ads and targeting schemes as proprietary secrets. But when it comes to election and political advertising, the public good may need to be prioritized above corporate privacy. Building this transparency system may be complicated, and most users might not take the time to use it, but it could assist investigators and provide peace of mind.

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Four: Political ad reviews – “We will strengthen our ad review process for political ads. To be clear, it has always been against our policies to use any of our tools in a way that breaks the law — and we already have many controls in place to prevent this. But we can do more. Most ads are bought programmatically through our apps and website without the advertiser ever speaking to anyone at Facebook. That’s what happened here. But even without our employees involved in the sales, we can do better.”

TC – The lack of stronger oversight of political ad buying given the contentious 2016 U.S. presidential election may have been one of Facebook’s most obvious mistakes. It needs to do a better job of understanding when scale isn’t an excuse for weak monitoring of this highly sensitive type of advertising. Facebook has long touted its ability to influence people, but didn’t put sufficient safeguards in place to prevent unethical or illegal influence campaigns.

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Bonus – Facebook admits it can’t block all the interference – “Now, I’m not going to sit here and tell you we’re going to catch all bad content in our system. We don’t check what people say before they say it, and frankly, I don’t think our society should want us to. Freedom means you don’t have to ask permission first, and that by default you can say what you want. If you break our community standards or the law, then you’re going to face consequences afterwards. We won’t catch everyone immediately, but we can make it harder to try to interfere.”

TC – It’s good to see Facebook being honest about its limitations here. It’s built a community too big to perfectly police, and accepting that is the first step to getting closer to satisfactory protection.

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Five: Hiring 250 more election integrity workers – “We are increasing our investment in security and specifically election integrity. In the next year, we will more than double the team working on election integrity. In total, we’ll add more than 250 people across all our teams focused on security and safety for our community.”

TC – Again, this is something Facebook should have known to do before the 2016 election. It’s earning more than $3 billion in profit per quarter, so it can easily afford this staff increase. It’s merely a matter of Facebook foreseeing the worst-case scenarios of how its products could be used, which it’s repeatedly failed to do.

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Six: Partnerships with election commissions – “We will expand our partnerships with election commissions around the world. We already work with electoral commissions in many countries to help people register to vote and learn about the issues. We’ll keep doing that, and now we’re also going to establish a channel to inform election commissions of the online risks we’ve identified in their specific elections.”

TC – Rather than simply reacting to election interference, it’s smart for Facebook to proactively seek to provide information to election commissions while also educating the public in order to inoculate them against malicious influence.

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Seven: Collaboration with other tech companies – “We will increase sharing of threat information with other tech and security companies. We already share information on bad actors on the internet through programs like ThreatExchange, and now we’re exploring ways we can share more information about anyone attempting to interfere with elections. It is important that tech companies collaborate on this because it’s almost certain that any actor trying to misuse Facebook will also be trying to abuse other internet platforms too.”

TC – Facebook already does this to protect people across the internet from terrorist propaganda and child pornography. As the largest social network, it has the opportunity to serve as a central hub for connecting services like Twitter, YouTube, Snapchat and Google to ensure strategies for blocking election interference are propagated across the web.

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Eight: Protecting political discourse from intimidation – “We are working proactively to strengthen the democratic process. Beyond pushing back against threats, we will also create more services to protect our community while engaging in political discourse. For example, we’re looking at adapting our anti-bullying systems to protect against political harassment as well, and we’re scaling our ballot information tools to help more people understand the issues.”

TC – Beyond broadcast forms of interference like ads, fake news and events, Facebook users are vulnerable to being shouted down for voicing reasonable political opinions. While these attacks deal with a person’s viewpoints rather than their inherent identity, like most bullying, Facebook can efficiently repurpose existing technologies to suspend accounts that try to disrupt civil discourse.

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Nine: Monitoring the German election – “We have been working to ensure the integrity of the German elections this weekend, from taking actions against thousands of fake accounts, to partnering with public authorities like the Federal Office for Information Security, to sharing security practices with the candidates and parties. We’re also examining the activity of accounts we’ve removed and have not yet found a similar type of effort in Germany. This is incredibly important and we have been focused on this for a while.”

TC – For Facebook to start earning back public trust, it needs to show it can block a significant amount of the attempted interference in elections. This weekend’s German election is a good opportunity for this. If Facebook is seen as inadequately defending democratic processes after being put in the spotlight, it risks even more stringent backlash.

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Overall, Facebook’s plan is sensible, even if it comes a year later than needed. Hopefully its mistakes and the general naiveté of tech companies and the public toward election interference will lead to a swing far in the other direction as the world wakes up to how sophisticated attacks on democracy have become.

You can watch Zuckerberg’s announcement video of this new initiative below:

Additional reporting by Jonathan Shieber

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