Hurricane Dorian may spare Florida a direct hit, making landfall in South Carolina on Wednesday or Thursday, and in response President Donald Trump cancelled a visit to Poland to meet with FEMA officials at Camp David to discuss the response to Hurricane Dorian, CBS News reports [1].
Hurricane Dorian has been downgraded to a Category 4 hurricane and has been ravaging the Bahamas for hours, The New York Times is reporting as of Tuesday.
Reports state that the hurricane is moving west at just 1 mph and is 105 miles from the coast of Florida, as one 12:00 p.m. EST.
“Tonight and tomorrow morning, we’ll start to see the pull to the north that we’ve all been anxiously awaiting, because we really need to get this thing off of the Bahamas and moving northward,” Ken Graham, the director of the National Hurricane Center, said in a Facebook video.
The storm ripped through the Bahamas late Sunday and early Monday, with sustained winds of over 160 moph and storm surges that raised water levels 20 feet above normal.
CBS News states that acting Department of Homeland Security Chief Kevin McAleenan said Sunday that the storm could cause major issues with with winds and rain even if it stays off the U.S. mainland. CoreLogic reports that 668,052 single-family homes could be impacted along the eastern coast of the state, with a reconstruction cost value (RCV) of nearly $144.6 billion.
Florida officials declared a state of emergency on Thursday as the storm barreled through the Atlantic.
Early projections showed for the storm to strike Puerto Rico, which is still recovering from the devastating Hurricane Maria.
The Five Star Institute recently held its Disaster Preparedness Symposium on July 31 in New Orleans, Louisiana.
Tim Carpenter, Fannie Mae’s Director, Disaster Response & Rebuild, Housing Access, gave an update on Puerto Rico’s rebuild two years after Hurricane Maria at the event. He said working with the Commonwealth and FEMA was helpful, and there has been progress on homes with mortgages, but there continues to be a struggle in non-traditional housing.
“No clear title, no permits, no code—you combine these issues and it becomes much more difficult to get a mortgage to repair or sell that home,” Carpenter said.