Tuesday, Nov 26th
Last update09:24:43 PM GMT
Domestic Glance
Paul Weismann got the call for help Monday night at his home in Connecticut. By Tuesday afternoon, he was flying to Puerto Rico on his personal plane, with food, water, and power generators as his passengers.
“You fly over Puerto Rico on the way to the airport, and you see the place is wrecked,” Weismann told The Daily Beast. At night, “a few streets and highways are lit up, because of people and businesses with generators. But the rest of the island was just pitch black.”
The mayor of San Juan expressed her dismay after the Homeland Security chief called the federal government's Hurricane Maria response "a really good news story."
“Dammit, this is not a good news story,” Mayor Carmen Cruz said in an interview with CNN. “This is a people are dying story.”
Cruz was responding to acting DHS Secretary Elaine Duke, who told reporters on Thursday, "I know it is really a good news story in terms of our ability to reach people and the limited number of deaths that have taken place in such a devastating hurricane."
President Donald Trump on Thursday waived a federal law to allow relief shipments to reach Puerto Rico, as the island continues to struggle to provide life-sustaining services after Hurricane Maria.
Press secretary Sarah Sanders announced the waiver of the Jones Act, and said it will "go into effect immediately."
Trump granted the waiver after it was requested by Puerto Rico Gov. Ricardo Rossello, who thanked the president Thursday morning.
A vital dam in suburban Houston that protects the central city began overspilling on Tuesday, and officials said the rainfall from Harvey is so unprecedented they do not know what the impact on surrounding communities will be.
Water levels in the Addicks reservoir have reached 108ft, said Jeff Lindner, a Harris County flood control district meteorologist.
He warned that neighbourhoods in the spillway zone would begin to see street and possibly structural flooding.
Houston is facing worsening historic flooding in the coming days as Tropical Storm Harvey dumps more rain on the city, swelling rivers to record levels and forcing federal engineers on Monday to release water from area reservoirs in hopes of controlling the rushing currents.
Harvey was the most powerful hurricane to strike Texas in more than 50 years when it came ashore on Friday near Corpus Christi, about 220 miles (354 km) south of Houston, and has killed at least two people. It has since lingered around Texas’ Gulf Coast, where it is forecast to remain for several more days, drenching parts of the region with a year’s worth of rain in the span of a week.
Former FBI Director James Comey will deliver a keynote address to Howard University students in the coming weeks and take on a part-time post giving lectures at the school.
The university said Wednesday that Comey, who was fired earlier this year by President Donald Trump, would speak at the convocation slated for Sept. 22, which is designed to welcome students to the historically black university.
Workers in Charlottesville draped giant black covers over two statues of Confederate generals on Wednesday to symbolize the city's mourning for a woman killed while protesting a white nationalist rally.
The work began around 1 p.m. in Emancipation Park, where a towering monument of Gen. Robert E. Lee on horseback stands. Workers gathered around the monument with a large black drape. Some stood in cherry-pickers and others used ropes and poles to cover the statue as onlookers took photos and video. Some of the crowd cheered as the cover was put in place.
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