Trump Monitors Hurricane as His Cabinet Descends on Camp David
September 10, 2017 by admin
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Al Drago for The New York Times
WASHINGTON — President Trump monitored the impact of Hurricane Irma from the presidential retreat at Camp David on Saturday as he held the fourth full cabinet meeting of his presidency to discuss how to advance his administration’s priorities during the balance of his first year in office.
Aides said Mr. Trump would receive hurricane briefings throughout the day as the powerful storm marched toward the southern tip of Florida, forcing millions of residents to flee the impending surge of water and brutally strong winds.
“With gratitude for our first responders, and prayers for those in the storm’s path, America stands united — and I mean totally united,” Mr. Trump said in his weekly address, which was released Friday evening.
White House officials did not allow journalists to photograph the cabinet meeting or to ask the president questions. Instead, the White House released official photographs showing Mr. Trump and his cabinet members sitting around a conference room table on Saturday afternoon in what it said was a briefing on the “track and potential impact” of the hurricane.
One picture indicated that Mr. Trump and his advisers were praying. Other pictures showed the president, dressed in a navy suit, white shirt and striped tie, having a discussion.
Later in the evening, the White House released a nearly five-minute YouTube video of Mr. Trump speaking to his cabinet members at the beginning of the meeting.
Reading from prepared remarks, Mr. Trump said that “all of America grieves” for those who have already lost their lives from Hurricane Irma, and he urged people in Florida to heed the directions offered by state and local authorities.
“This is a storm of enormous destructive power. I ask everyone in the storm path to heed all instructions. Get out of its way,” he said, adding: “Property is replaceable, but lives are not, and safety has to come first. Don’t worry about it. Just get out of its way.”
Mr. Trump said that he planned to discuss other topics with his cabinet as well, including what he called “the latest provocative and destabilizing actions of North Korea” and the need for an overhaul of the nation’s tax code.
He said the tax effort would seek to lower rates and bring back capital parked by businesses overseas because of high business tax rates in the United States. He said that would amount to “in the neighborhood of 4 to 5 trillion” dollars.
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Mr. Trump is scheduled to return to the White House on Sunday afternoon. Officials said that Mr. Trump would receive a teleconference briefing on the hurricane at 10 a.m. before he returned to Washington.
On Friday, administration officials expressed confidence that the Federal Emergency Management Agency had the resources to respond to Hurricane Irma even as it continues to deal with the aftermath of the flooding in Texas and Louisiana from Hurricane Harvey.
“I’m pretty comfortable in our ability and our capacity as leaders, but also as institutions to handle the various different things that come our way,” said Thomas P. Bossert, the president’s Homeland Security adviser.
In his address, Mr. Trump pledged that “we will endure and come back stronger than ever before.” But in a tweet later Friday night, Mr. Trump raised concerns with a longstanding policy that prevents FEMA from providing grants to houses of worship that are damaged by hurricanes and other natural disasters.
Churches in Texas should be entitled to reimbursement from FEMA Relief Funds for helping victims of Hurricane Harvey (just like others).
—
Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump)
Sept. 9, 2017
Three Texas churches that were damaged by Hurricane Harvey filed a lawsuit this past week arguing that the policy violates their constitutional right to freely exercise their religion. FEMA’s position for years has been that the constitutional separation of church and state prevents the use of federal money to build religious institutions.
White House officials said the president had invited all of the members of his cabinet, and their spouses, to Camp David for the weekend.
Among the agenda items for the cabinet meeting, officials said, was a discussion of Mr. Trump’s push for new investments in infrastructure and his call for Congress to extend protections for the young undocumented immigrants known as “Dreamers.”
“The goal is that Congress makes a permanent fix and that Congress actually does their job, and that we have responsible immigration reform that takes place over these six months,” Sarah Huckabee Sanders, the White House press secretary, said on Friday.
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West Coast Florida Thought They’d Be Spared The Worst, But Now Irma’s Coming For Them
September 10, 2017 by admin
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Francis Ryan, a 69-year-old retiree who lives in Naples, told BuzzFeed News that he was waiting out Irma in his condo.
Ryan said that he’s one of the few people left in his complex.
“If it’s going to hit, it’s going to hit here,” he said of Irma’s western turn.
Ryan said that it’s too late now to evacuate, and that if he wanted to he should have done it “a week ago.”
“Right now, there’s barely any gas in this part of Florida,” he said. “You know — Florida’s a big state.”
Another Naples resident, Vanessa Medina, expressed frustrations to BuzzFeed News over her parents’ decision for their family to stay in the area during the storm.
Medina said she was already nervous at the early news of Hurricane Irma being a Category 5 storm before reports said the storm was now headed in her direction.
To prepare, her family has put up plywood and shutters as well as sandbags on their garage door in case of flooding. Their house is 6 or 7 feet above sea level, she said, but still Medina is very worried about the rest of her neighborhood.
While most of her friends have fled Naples, her house currently is holding 27 people through the storm, she said.
Bill Fassold, a spokesperson for Collier County, which includes Naples, told BuzzFeed News Saturday evening that shelters were packed.
“Most of the shelters are at capacity, if not all of them,” he said around 5 p.m. ET.
Fassold said that around 25 shelters were filled with over 15,000 people and that the county may try to open up some last-minute shelters.
These additional shelters will be “minimally staffed,” Fassold said, and evacuees will have to bring their own supplies. Pets will not be allowed.