|

This
GOES-16
GeoColor
satellite
image
taken
Saturday,
Aug. 1,
2020, at
9:40
a.m.
EDT.,
and
provided
by NOAA,
shows
Hurricane
Isaias
over the
Bahamas.
Hurricane
Isaias
snapped
trees
and
knocked
out
power as
it blew
through
the
Bahamas
on
Saturday
and
headed
toward
the
Florida
coast,
where
officials
said
they
were
closing
beaches,
parks
and
coronavirus
testing
sites.
(NOAA
via AP)
|
|
Hurricane
Isaias
lashes
Bahamas
while
Florida
battens
down
By
DÁNICA
COTO
and CURT
ANDERSON
apnews.com
SAN
JUAN,
Puerto
Rico -
Hurricane
Isaias
snapped
trees
and
knocked
out
power as
it blew
through
the
Bahamas
on
Saturday
and
headed
toward
the
Florida
coast,
where
officials
said
they
were
closing
beaches,
parks
and
coronavirus
testing
sites.
Florida
authorities
said
they
have
prepared
shelters,
but
didn’t
expect
to have
to
evacuate
people.
“The
most
important
thing we
want
people
to do
now is
remain
vigilant,”
said
Gov. Ron
DeSantis.
Authorities
in North
Carolina
ordered
the
evacuation
of
Ocracoke
Island,
which
was
slammed
by last
year’s
Hurricane
Dorian,
starting
Saturday
evening.
Meanwhile,
officials
in the
Bahamas
cleared
people
out of
Abaco
island
who have
been
living
in
temporary
structures
since
Dorian
devastated
the
area,
killing
at least
70
people.
Isaias
had
maximum
sustained
winds of
80 miles
per hour
(130
kilometers
per
hours)
at 11
a.m.
Saturday
morning,
a slight
decline
from
earlier
in the
day, the
U.S.
National
Hurricane
Center
said.
The
center
of the
storm is
expected
to move
over
northern
Andros
Island
in the
next
hours,
on to
Grand
Bahama
Island
in the
northwestern
Bahamas
later in
the day
then
near the
east
coast of
Florida
overnight
through
Sunday.
It is
expected
to
weaken
slowly
late
Monday.
A
hurricane
warning
was in
effect
for
northwest
Bahamas.
Isaias
was
expected
to drop
from 4
to 8
inches
(10 to
20
centimeters)
of rain
in the
Bahamas
and the
Turks
and
Caicos
Islands.
Bahamian
officials
said
they
were
concerned
about a
Category
1 storm
hitting
amid the
coronavirus
pandemic.
“The
center
of
COVID-19
now is
in Grand
Bahama,”
the
island’s
minister,
Sen.
Kwasi
Thompson,
told
government-run
ZNS
Bahamas.
“No one
wanted
to see a
situation
where we
are now
facing a
hurricane.”
Paula
Miller,
Mercy
Corps
director
for the
Bahamas,
told The
Associated
Press
that
people
on the
island
were
still
standing
in line
for gas
on
Saturday
ahead of
the
storm.
The
area was
still
recovering
from
Dorian,
complicating
preparations
for this
one.
“People
are
doing
the best
they can
to
prepare,
but a
lot of
businesses
still
have not
fully
repaired
their
roofs or
their
structures,”
she
said.
“Even a
lower
level
storm
could
really
set them
back.”
A
hurricane
warning
was in
effect
for
Florida’s
east
coast
from
Boca
Raton,
just
north of
Miami,
about
150
miles
(240
kilometers)
north to
the
Volusia-Flagler
county
line. A
hurricane
watch
was in
effect
from
Hallendale
Beach to
south of
Boca
Raton.
The
state
was
“fully
prepared
for this
and any
future
storm
during
this
hurricane
season,”
DeSantis
said,
with
stockpiles
of
personal
protective
equipment,
generators,
bottled
water
and
meals
ready to
be
distributed.
But
he said
state-run
coronavirus
testing
sites
would be
closed
in areas
where
the
storm
might
hit.
“Our
sites,
because
they’re
outdoors
with
tents,
if it
were to
get 40-,
50-mile-per-hour
winds,
it would
just
collapse,”
he said.
“Safety
is
paramount
for
that.”
That’s
concerning
in a
state
that has
been a
hot spot
in the
United
States
in
recent
weeks.
The
pandemic
forced
officials
to
wrestle
with
social-distancing
rules at
the same
time as
disaster
response.
Miami-Dade
Mayor
Carlos
Giménez
said
each
person
in
shelters
needed
to have
40
square
feet
(nearly
4 square
meters)
and no
more
cafeteria-style
dining
would be
allowed.
Any
evacuees
infected
with the
new
coronavirus
will be
isolated
in
classrooms
separate
them
from the
general
population,
Giménez
said.
In
the
Bahamas,
Prime
Minister
Hubert
Minnis
relaxed
a
coronavirus
lockdown
as a
result
of the
storm,
but
imposed
a 10
p.m. to
5 a.m.
curfew.
He said
supermarkets,
pharmacies,
gas
stations
and
hardware
stores
would be
open as
long as
weather
permitted.
The
Bahamas
has
reported
more
than 570
confirmed
COVID-19
cases
and at
least 14
deaths.
It
recently
barred
travelers
from the
U.S.
following
a surge
in cases
after it
reopened
to
international
tourism.
On
Thursday,
while
still a
tropical
storm,
Isaias
toppled
trees,
knocked
out
power,
destroyed
crops
and
caused
widespread
flooding
and
small
landslides
in the
Dominican
Republic
and
Puerto
Rico.
One man
died in
the
Dominican
Republic,
where
more
than
5,000
people
were
evacuated,
hundreds
of homes
were
damaged
or
destroyed
and more
than 130
communities
were cut
off by
floodwaters.
In
Puerto
Rico,
the
National
Guard
rescued
at least
35
people
from
floodwaters
that
swept
away one
woman
who
remained
missing.

|
|
|
|
|
|