Storm Dorian weather: Mayor tells Donald Trump to 'get out of the way' as Puerto Rican officials prepare for direct hit from near-hurricane strength storm

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Rebecca Speare-Cole28 August 2019

The mayor of San Juan has slammed Donald Trump's response to a likely hurricane which is set to hit Puerto Rico within hours.

Mayor Carmen Yulin Cruz told Mr Trump to "get out of the way" as officials prepared for Tropical Storm Dorian, which comes after Hurricane Maria devastated the area in 2017.

Both Puerto Rice and the Dominican Republic are under states of emergency as the storm tears through the Caribbean, with landslides, widespread flooding and power outages possible.

Forecasters have said heavy rain could also cause life-threatening floods.

Tropical Storm Dorian as it approaches the east coast of Puerto Rico.
EPA

Ms Yulin Cruz, a vocal critic of the president, said Mr Trump had demonstrated a 'lack of understanding".

“It seems like some people have learned the lessons of the past or are willing to say that they didn’t do right by us the first time and they’re trying to do their best,” Ms Cruz told CNN.

“That is not the case with the president of the United States. We are not going to be concerned by, frankly, his behaviour, his lack of understanding, and it is ludicrous."

She added: "So get out of the way, President Trump, and let people who can do the job get the job done.”

Her comments came as Mr Trump approved an emergency declaration for Puerto Rico, allowing federal assistance to help local response teams.

Officials said he authorised the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) "to coordinate all disaster relief efforts which have the purpose of alleviating the hardship and suffering caused by the emergency on the local population."

"Emergency protective measures, limited to direct federal assistance, will be provided at 75 percent federal funding," a White House statement said.

Mr Trump tweeted on Tuesday that Congress approved $91 billion for Puerto Rico last year for Hurricane Maria.

More than half the $91 billion he touted in aid for the country was based on the White House estimates for the costs FEMA would incur in years to come.

Only $42.2 billion of relief has been appropriated by Congress, with about $13.9 billion sent to the island, according to statistics from FEMA.

Carmen Yulin Cruz, mayor of San Juan (File photo).
Getty Images

Tropical Storm Dorian made a last-minute shift in its path on Tuesday, threatening Puerto Rico with a direct hit as forecasters said it could reach near-hurricane strength in its approach to the US territory.

"Practically the entire island will be under sustained tropical storm force winds," said Roberto Garcia, director of U.S. National Weather Service San Juan, during a press conference late Tuesday.

Dorian was located about 300 miles (480 kilometers) southeast of Ponce, Puerto Rico, on Tuesday night.

The US National Hurricane Center said it had maximum sustained winds of 50 mph (85 kph) and was forecast to strengthen during the next 24 hours as it moves west-northwest at 13 mph (20 kph).

The storm is expected to dump 4 to 6 inches (10 to 15 centimeters) of rain with isolated amounts of 8 inches (20 centimeters).

The change in the storm's course concerned many across the US territory, where some 30,000 homes still have blue tarps as roofs nearly two years after Hurricane Maria.

The island's 3.2 million inhabitants still depend on a shaky power grid that has remained prone to outages since it was destroyed by the Category 4 storm.

Mr Trump was recently accused of taking sci-fi films too seriously after he reportedly suggested dropping nuclear bombs into hurricanes to stop them hitting America.

During discussions on the threat of hurricanes, the US president allegedly told top national security officials: “I got it. I got it. Why don’t we nuke them?”

He added: “They start forming off the coast of Africa, as they’re moving across the Atlantic, we drop a bomb inside the eye of the hurricane and it disrupts it. Why can’t we do that?” according to US news website Axios.

He later denied making the comments.

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