Recovery

Tropical Storm Imelda was downgraded after it made landfall near Freeport and continued to batter Houston and southeast Texas with heavy rainfall. The storm is near Beaumont, according to the National Weather Service.

Slipping into devastation ignorance could be unintentional, but easy for many people in Ohio’s Miami Valley who weren’t directly affected — simply because they do not see the destruction every day as others do.

Among the lessons learned in Panama City from the storm is the inadequacy of the widely accepted guidance that people need to have water, food and other resources to sustain themselves for three days after a hurricane.

If the federal and state governments don’t pay for the Hurricane Dorian-related expenses, Chatham County, Ga., taxpayers could end up holding the bag for significant costs brought about by hurricane preparations.

The new investment — on top of the roughly $6 million already committed by USAID and the Department of Defense — comes amid a frantic humanitarian effort to evacuate thousands and provide clean drinking water, food and medicine.

Americans often spring into action after a disaster, sending food, clothing and all manner of items thinking it will help. But often, those items aren’t what’s needed, and experts caution the public about what to donate.

In the end, the story of Erick Auguste, and how is left arm was severed by plywood, is the story of tragedy and resiliency, a storm's savagery and how family and strangers came together to save one man's life.

FEMA records show only about 100 applications for the Continued Temporary Housing Assistance program have been turned in, but as many as 1,500 could be eligible in Montgomery County, said a FEMA voluntary agency liaison.

Lakeland has only gotten a small slice of the more than $1.02 billion FEMA said it’s paid to state and local governments for the 2017 storm. The city has only received about $435,000 back — or about 2.4% of its expenses.

The Bahamian government is working with search and rescue teams to reach communities isolated by flood waters and clear debris left after the hurricane slammed the northern Bahamas last week with 185 mph winds.

The center of the storm made landfall at 8:35 a.m. with maximum sustained winds of 90 mph. The storm crept back into Category 3 status briefly on Thursday, but has been diminishing since it began its northward run.

Officials with most local governments said something along the same lines after Dorian’s passage. The hurricane passed by the Golden Isles early Thursday morning, skimming the coast and leaving little damage in its wake.

Dorian “brushed” North Carolina’s coast late Thursday after flooding South Carolina, the National Hurricane Center said. At 2 a.m., the National Weather Service said the storm’s center will “move near or over the coast.”

The cyclone now has winds of 110 mph and was moving north-northeast at 8 mph. At 2 p.m., the cyclone was located approximately 115 miles south-southwest of Wilmington, N.C., according to the National Hurricane Center.

After pounding the Bahamas as a Category 5 storm, killing at least 20 people, the erratic storm weakened early in the week only to pick up strength briefly overnight Wednesday and then weaken again.