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The Times, Gainesville, Georgia | gainesvilletimes.com
Saturday, September 7, 2019 3A
Dorian’s floodwaters trap people in N.C.
JEFFREY COLLINS I Associated Press
Residents of the Bogue Shores condominiums work to hook up a generator after the complex lost its roof
during high winds from Hurricane Dorian in Atlantic Beach, N.C., on Friday, Sept. 6.
BY JEFFREY COLLINS
AND BEN FINLEY
Associated Press
ATLANTIC BEACH — A weak
ened Hurricane Dorian flooded
homes on North Carolina’s Outer
Banks on Friday with a fury that
took even storm-hardened resi
dents by surprise, forcing people
to climb into their attics. Hundreds
were feared trapped by high water,
and neighbors used boats to rescue
one another.
Medics and other rescuers
rushed to Ocracoke Island —
accessible only by boat or air — to
reach those who made the mistake
of defying mandatory evacuation
orders along the 200-mile ribbon of
low-lying islands.
“We are flooding like crazy,”
Ocracoke Island bookshop owner
Leslie Lanier texted. “I have been
here 32 years and not seen this.”
Its winds down to 90 mph, Dorian
howled over the Outer Banks as a
far weaker storm than the brute
that wreaked havoc on the Baha
mas at the start of the week. Just
when it looked as if its run up the
Southeast coast was coming to a
relatively quiet end, the Category
1 hurricane sent seawater surging
over neighborhoods, flooding the
first floors of many homes, even
ones on stilts.
“There is significant concern
about hundreds of people trapped
on Ocracoke Island,” Gov. Roy
Cooper said.
Over and over, longtime resi
dents said that they had never seen
flooding so bad, and that places in
their homes that had never flooded
before were inundated.
“We were all on social media
laughing about how we’d done well
and there was really no flooding at
all, just rain, typical rain,” Steve
Harris, who has lived on Ocracoke
Island for most of the last 19 years.
And then, “the wall of water just
came rushing through the island.”
“It just started looking like a
bathtub, very quickly,” said Har
ris, who was safe in his third-floor
condo. “We went from almost no
water to 4 to 6 feet in a matter of
minutes.”
The Coast Guard began landing
local law enforcement officers
on the island via helicopter and
airlifting out the sick, the elderly
or others in distress, Hyde County
authorities said. National Guard
helicopters also flew supplies and
a rescue team in. Residents were
told to get to the highest point in
their homes in the meantime.
“Several people were rescued
from their upper floors or attics
by boat by good Samaritans,”
Ocracoke Island restaurant owner
Jason Wells said in a text message.
In Buxton on Hatteras Island,
close to where Dorian blew ashore,
Radio Hatteras volunteer Mary
Helen Goodloe-Murphy said that
people were calling in to report
that “houses are shaking like
crazy” and that “it’s never been
like this before.”
By evening, the governor said
that officials were aware of no
serious injuries on the Outer Banks
from the storm. One 79-year-old
man was airlifted from Ocracoke
Island because of a pre-existing
condition, authorities said.
“The hurricane has left behind
destruction where storm surge
inundated Ocracoke Island,” Coo
per said. “Currently the island has
no electricity and many homes and
buildings are still underwater.”
Around midmorning, the eye
of the storm came ashore at Cape
Hatteras, Dorian’s first landfall in
the continental U.S. after a week
and a half in which it spread fear
up and down the coast and kept
people guessing as to where it
would go.
By late afternoon, Dorian had
peeled off the coastline and was
finally making its exit out to sea. It
is expected to remain a hurricane
as it sweeps up the Eastern Sea
board through Saturday, veering
far enough offshore that its hurri
cane-force winds are unlikely to
pose any threat to land in the U.S.
Power outages had dropped by
about one-third, to around 213,000
in the Carolinas and Virginia.
At least four deaths in the South
east were blamed on Dorian. All
were men in Florida or North
Carolina who died in falls or by
electrocution while trimming
trees, putting up storm shutters
or otherwise getting ready for the
hurricane.
As Dorian closed in, more than a
quarter-million residents and visi
tors were ordered to evacuate the
Outer Banks, which stick out from
the Eastern Seaboard like the side-
view mirror on a car. But many
just tied down their boats, removed
objects from their yards that could
blow away, and hunkered down.
Dorian slammed the Bahamas at
the start of the week with 185 mph
winds, killing at least 30 people
and obliterating countless homes.
From there, it swept past Florida
and Georgia, then sideswiped the
Carolinas on Thursday, spinning
off tornadoes that peeled away
roofs and flipped recreational
vehicles.
Still, the damage was far less
than feared in many parts of
the Carolinas, including historic
Charleston, South Carolina, which
is prone to flooding even from
ordinary storms, and Wilmington,
North Carolina, the state’s biggest
coastal city.
Joseph Pawlick went out Friday
morning to rake leaves, twigs and
other debris from the sidewalk out
side his Wilmington home.
“I slept like a baby last night.
This, thankfully, was not bad,”
he said.
Health officials report new vaping deaths
BY MIKE ST0BBE
Associated Press
NEW YORK — U.S. health
officials on Friday again
urged people to stop vaping
until they figure out why some
are coming down with serious
breathing illnesses.
Officials have identified
about 450 possible cases,
including as many as five
deaths, in 33 states. The count
includes newly reported
deaths in California, Indiana
and Minnesota.
No single vaping device,
liquid or ingredient has been
tied to all the illnesses, offi
cials said. Many of the sick
ened — but not all — were
people who said they had
been vaping THC, the chemi
cal that gives marijuana its
high. Many are teens.
Health officials have only
been counting certain lung
illnesses in which the per
son had vaped within three
months. Doctors say the ill
nesses resemble an inhalation
injury, with the body appar
ently reacting to a caustic sub-
HULSEY
stance that someone breathed
in. Symptoms have included
shortness of breath, fatigue,
chest pain and vomiting.
The illnesses have all sur
faced this year, and the num
ber has been growing quickly
in the last month as more
states have begun investiga
tions. A week ago, U.S. offi
cials pegged the number at
215 possible cases in 25 states.
It’s unclear whether such
illnesses were happening
before this year.
“We’re all wondering if
this is new or just newly rec
ognized,” Dr. Dana Meaney-
Delman of the Centers for
Disease Control and Preven
tion told reporters Friday.
An Illinois health official,
Dr. Jennifer Layden, said offi
cials there don’t know when
such illnesses first began,
but she said there has been a
marked increase since spring.
Deaths previously were
reported in Illinois and Ore
gon.
Indiana officials said the
person who died there was
an adult, but they didn’t say
when it happened or release
other details. Health officials
in Los Angeles said they were
investigating a vaping death
as well. And Minnesota health
officials said that state’s first
known vaping-related death
was a person over 65 years
with a history of lung prob
lems who had vaped illicit
THC products and died in
August.
Recent attention has been
focused on devices, liquids,
refill pods and cartridges that
are not sold in stores.
New York state has
focused its investigation on
an ingredient called Vitamin
E acetate, which has been
used to thicken marijuana
vape juice but is considered
dangerous if heated and
inhaled. State investigators
have found the substance in
13 cartridges collected from
eight patients. In several
cases, the ingredient made up
more than half of the liquid in
the cartridge.
CDC officials said they
are looking at several ingre
dients, including Vitamin E
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acetate. But Meaney-Delman
added that no single factor
has been seen in every case.
Also Friday, the New Eng
land Journal of Medicine
released a series of articles
that give medical details
about cases reported in Illi
nois, Wisconsin and Utah.
An article on 53 illnesses in
Illinois and Wisconsin noted
that nearly one-fifth of the
cases were people who said
they vaped nicotine and not
anything that contained THC
or CBD oil.
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