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Volume: 118 No.193, September 2, 2021

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JUST WHAT THE DOCTOR ORDERED

Minnis reveals free school meals plan for all children regardless of family income

By KHRISNA RUSSELL Tribune Chief Reporter krussell@tribunemedia.net IN A bid to eliminate childhood hunger, Prime Minister Dr Hubert Minnis last night announced his administration would implement a universal school meals programme in the public school system if re-elected.

The plan would provide free breakfast, lunch and snacks for all students in the government school system.

Billed as a huge announcement ahead of last night’s Free National Movement drive-in rally, the programme will be offered to families regardless of income.

Dr Minnis described it not only as a means of providing nutritious meals for children in a nation where obesity is a challenge, but as a tool to boost savings in families where there is more than one child.

SEE PAGE FIVE

AFTER months of demonstrations and speaking out against alleged injustices, the Bahamas Electrical Workers Union has finally ratified an industrial agreement proposal from Bahamas Power and Light and is ready to sign off on it.

In a late meeting on Tuesday, BEWU president Kyle Wilson and his

team presented the latest proposal from BPL to members of the union who agreed to it. The industrial agreement between the two parties had expired some four years ago and negotiations for a new agreement were soured by industrial action following what the union called disrespectful and insulting proposals.

“The members have ratified the proposal that was sent by BPL giving way for the executives of the union to sign it,” Mr Wilson said.

SEE PAGE SEVEN

- SEE PAGE EIGHT

PEDESTRIAN KILLED IN HIT-AND-RUN

By DENISE MAYCOCK Tribune Freeport Reporter dmaycock@tribunemedia.net

A MALE pedestrian was killed in a hit-and-run accident in Abaco earlier this week, police reported yesterday.

ASP Stephen Rolle said the accident occurred shortly after 6pm on Tuesday on Crocket Drive in Dundas Town.

According to reports, officers from Marsh Harbour Police Station received reports that a black Honda Fit vehicle with two occupants was travelling north on Cricket Drive, when the vehicle struck a male pedestrian, who was walking north along the street.

SEE PAGE FIVE

BPL’S UNION MEMBERS PASS NEW AGREEMENT

By TANYA SMITHCARTWRIGHT tsmith-cartwright@ tribunemedia.net

FRONT PORCH: LIBERATING POWER OF READING

BE VACCINATED OR HAVE TEST RESULT FOR UB CAMPUS ENTRY

PRIME Minister Dr Hubert Minnis at last night’s FNM drive-in rally at the Carnival grounds.

Photo: Racardo Thomas/Tribune Staff

RCL TO PRESS AHEAD ON PI PROJECT

By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

A BAHAMIAN entrepreneur yesterday said he is taking legal advice over fears Royal Caribbean will “run roughshod” over the disputed Paradise Islandbased Crown Land that is subject to a legal dispute.

Toby Smith, the Paradise Island Lighthouse and Beach Club principal, said he plans to consult Wayne

AN ARTIST’s impression of the Royal Caribbean development.

Munroe QC, also the PLP’s general election candidate for Freetown, on “appropriate legal steps” after the global cruise giant asserted in an e-mail it did not need

his permission to enter land involved in his court battle with the Government.

Jay Schneider, a Royal Caribbean executive, told Mr Smith on August 31: “Please note that Royal Caribbean possesses a valid Crown Land Lease in respect to the demised premises contained therein, which premises are subject to ongoing due diligence work.”

FULL STORY - SEE BUSINESS

Nassau & Bahama Islands’ Leading Newspaper

THE board of trustees at the University of The Bahamas has mandated that anyone entering the school’s campuses and facilities must show proof of being fully vaccinated or present a negative COVID-19 rapid antigen test effective from next Monday.

People who are unvaccinated but seek entry to its campuses must have a rapid antigen test result issued within the last 72 hours. UB said this refers to faculty, students, staff, alumni, vendors and members of the public.

Anyone seeking entry to UB as of September 30 however, must show proof of full vaccination, the university said.

SEE PAGE FOUR

STATESIDE:

HAS AMERICA LOST ITS MIND?- SEEMAYBE PAGE NINE

PAGE 2, Thursday, September 2, 2021

THE TRIBUNE

Wreaths laid to remember victims of Hurricane Dorian

By DENISE MAYCOCK Tribune Freeport Reporter dmaycock@tribunemedia.net

ON the two-year anniversary of Hurricane Dorian’s landfall in the country yesterday, government officials as well as members of the official opposition remembered those who lost their lives.

State Minister for Grand Bahama Senator Kwasi Thompson met with the families of Dorian victims in East Grand Bahama.

Meanwhile, Pakesia Parker Edgecombe, minister of state for disaster preparedness, management and reconstruction in the Office of the Prime Minister, attended a remembrance ceremony in Abaco.

PLP leader Philip “Brave” Davis also travelled to Abaco for the ceremony while the party’s deputy leader Chester Cooper, and his wife, Cecille, travelled to Freeport and laid a wreath at the monument site at the foot of the Jack Hayward Bridge at Grand Bahama Highway.

Dorian hit Abaco on September 1, 2019, flattening homes, buildings and taking lives before moving to Grand Bahama the next day where it left more devastation and death.

The current death toll stands at 74 people, with 63 from Abaco and 11 from Grand Bahama, however many more remain missing.

Mr Thompson said Bahamians throughout the country would never forget the tragic events of September 1.

He said: “Today, we remember the victims of Hurricane Dorian, and we remember the family members of those victims. We remember the survivors.

PLP leader Philip “Brave” Davis in Abaco to mark the second anniversary of Hurricane Dorian and, below, Chester Cooper, his wife and PLP GB candidates laying a wreath for Dorian victims.

And I don’t believe that anyone in The Bahamas will ever forget what has taken place. We continue to offer our thoughts and our prayers to all of the victims and their families. We believe those families continue to be affected by what

took place those two years ago, and the islands of GB, Abaco, and the entire country continue to remember those that we lost.”

He said as he made his way through East Grand Bahama, stories of survival and strength were common,

demonstrating the resilience of Bahamians.

“As we remember and pray for those we lost, we also pull on the encouragement of those that continue to survive,” he said.

“Our hearts go out to all of those persons affected,

not just on this day. We continue to assist persons who have been affected by Hurricane Dorian. And today, we wanted to publicly say to the island of Grand Bahama, to all persons affected, that our hearts, thoughts, and minds are still with you; that we stand with you, we remember those lost, and we will continue to be with them through this entire process.”

Mr Thompson assured residents that the government is committed to the reconstruction and rebuilding efforts on both islands.

“While a lot of work has been done during reconstruction, there is still a lot more to be done. And it motivates me and my colleagues to continue the rebuilding efforts,” he said.

Agriculture Minister Michael Pintard, a survivor of Dorian, said even after two years, what he had experienced in his home with his family is still surreal.

“I went in the upstairs section of my home, and it was surreal looking at the areas where my family and I spent time and just thinking about how difficult the last two years have been for so many in Grand Bahama,” he said.

“While we can now go in the home we enjoyed for years, many families today are still in the rebuilding process. We know that many have recovered and rebuilt their homes, but there are still residents doing so. I join with my colleagues in reaffirming our commitment to continue to help every single family in GB and Abaco, to rebuild community by community.”

He commended those Bahamian volunteers, particularly the faithbased organisations who brought their international

partners to assist in the relief and rebuilding on both islands.

In a statement issued on Wednesday, Mr Davis said his party is “inspired by the indomitable spirit of the people of Abaco and Grand Bahama.”

“As we mark this deadly and destructive anniversary, our thoughts and prayers are ever glued with those who are still mourning the dead and others seemingly hopelessly seeking closure on the status of their missing loved ones,” Mr Davis said.

“Today, 1 September, we commemorate the lives lost and the devastating circumstances caused

by Hurricane Dorian two years ago. The catastrophic Category 5 storm hit Abaco and then Grand Bahama, leaving both northern islands in the worst state during our nation’s modern history. Sadly, thousands of Abaco and Grand Bahama residents remain homeless, jobless, in search of supplies, and crying out to the government for meaningful support.”

The PLP said the government should have extended the timeline for the people of Abaco and Grand Bahama to bring in cars duty-free adding that the government should not have allowed the exemption to expire on August 31 “when so many people are still suffering and out of work.”

At the monument site in Grand Bahama, Mr Cooper and several persons gathered at 10.30am to lay a wreath in remembrance of the victims.

“We wanted to temporarily suspend our campaign and send a strong signal to families that our hearts go out to them at this difficult time,” he said.

THE TRIBUNE

Thursday, September 2, 2021, PAGE 3

DARREN Henfield and Pakesia Parker Edgecombe laying a wreath in Abaco and, right, PLP members also laying a wreath to pay tribute to Hurricane Dorian victims.

Two years on and residents still picking up the pieces

By LEANDRA ROLLE Tribune Staff Reporter lrolle@tribunemedia.net TWO years after losing their homes and belongings to Hurricane Dorian, rubble, debris and a flattened foundation are still all that remains for some Abaco residents.

Abaco resident, Mrs Wilmore said daily life on the island is still a struggle two years later.

The 60-year-old, who only wanted to be referred to by her last name, said a lack of funds has made it difficult to rebuild her home after it was decimated

by Dorian in 2019.

“This is two years to the date that I lost my home,” she said in an emotional interview yesterday. “I lost a rental that I used to rent to the government, but I had to leave because my house was (swept away) and I was only left with the foundation and the clothes on my back, okay.”

She spoke to The Tribune as the island marked its second anniversary since Hurricane Dorian. Recalling her memories on the day of the storm, the mother-oftwo said she remembered her and family having to vacate their Dundas Town home, which was located on the water side, in order to find shelter.

“About this same time, two years ago I was in the water swimming with my 26-year-old daughter and she was six months pregnant and she had a

MRS Wilmore’s property before and after Hurricane Dorian. seven-year-old son with her was any assistance. Nobody and we were trapped in that has given me one piece of water for nine hours,” she thing,” she said. “They said the Small Home Repair said.

“You’re talking water programme was not for about 26 feet high and eve- people who had lost their rywhere we went for refuge house completely. It was for collapsed when we got people with roof damage. there okay. We almost lost You had to have partial our lives not once, but three structure. It wasn’t for me. times in one day and here it “And then they were is two years later, I have yet giving a $10,000 grant for to get any help.” people like myself, but For the past two years, they said I didn’t qualify the Abaconion said she because I have lost my land has been appealing for papers so I was not qualiassistance from both fied, but I don’t know what government and non-gov- that means because I know ernmental agencies, but to countless people who lost no avail. their land papers just like “I went to every NGO me and got assistance, but I you can think about and got nothing. that was like my sixth time “I have a neighbour back to them to see if there who had some left over

two-by-six (wood) and he gave me about twenty pieces of lumber and that’s what I have.”

With no proper home to go to and little financial support, Ms Wilmore said life has been hard for her.

“June of this year made a year since we were living in the dome that we got from the (DRA) and we just got running water to the dome on Friday. No water, no light, nothing and the dome is giving me respiratory problems because mould was in it,” she said.

“But to tell you the truth, I’m only surviving because of God’s grace because before Dorian, social services used to give me a card

UNION CHIEF AIRS CONCERNS WITH WSC

By EARYEL BOWLEG Tribune Staff Reporter ebowleg@tribunemedia.net

THE president of the Water and Sewerage Management Union Montgomery Miller highlighted a myriad of concerns his members have with affairs at the Water and Sewerage Corporation.

He also said he supports calls for a full investigation into activities at WSC. He claimed there were cases where managers had been dismissed wrongfully, employees’ salaries were withheld wrongfully, and people were transferred without any justification.

“We’ve had a recent case where one manager was threatened to be moved and within a few days I think hopefully the corporation recognising the errors of its ways they rescinded that action, but this is a consistent pattern that we’ve seen in the organisation. “ He further highlighted vacancies in WSC. A forensic audit took place in 2017 and Ernst and Young was commissioned. An investigation was done.

According to Mr Miller, a

WATER and Sewerage Management Union president Montgomery Miller. general manager, a tenured financial controller, and a human resources manager were “separated from the organisation”.

“Those posts effectively, particularly with respect to human resources which is critical to the organisation, remain vacant, and the general manager who would’ve had experience in internal audit and control, the now general manager that is taking on human resources without the expertise is a concern.

“We see where union relations are at an all-time low and in addition to that internal control and compliance which is now the subject of a lot of the public discourse in regards to contract awards and oversight that position

remains vacant.”

Issues with the security of records were also flagged.

“We call upon the authorities to step in and secure the records of WSC as we have received reports from managers that access to normal information is being restricted and we are aware that the IC&C staff have been granted administrative access to some key systems. This is a serious concern,” Mr Miller stated.

He later said: “We are aware that documents were removed from one of our facilities some time ago.

We are concerned about the storage of those files because our understanding is that they’re very sensitive and very important files that need to be kept. At the time they were stored in air-conditioned facilities and now it is possible that they’re stored in unsecured, unsuitable circumstances.

We’re not clear why the files were moved in the first place because they were safely and securely kept.”

When asked if the situation warranted an investigation, support was expressed.

“We have no difficulty

with a full investigation of the activities at the corporation - none whatsoever. We would support that. As we mentioned as well, we are concerned even now about the security of documentation,” said the president.

“In a press release recently issued, asserted to be issued by the general manager, (that) was not circulated internally but we see it in the public domain.

His first paragraph refers to himself as the data commissioner responsible for data and as we mentioned we have executive chairman using a hotmail account with confidential corporation information that is a concern and so anything that’s going on right now where potentially documents are being concealed, removed, we have a concern about that. So, we would have no difficulty with the police coming in and doing an investigation.”

Mr Miller said they call on executive chairman Adrian Gibson and general manager Elwood Donaldson to do the “honourable thing”. However, he shied away from calling for their resignations.

where I could get food, but they cancelled it. I wouldn’t say I was rich, but I could’ve made it.”

The Abaco resident said it brings tears to her eyes when thinking about how drastically her life has changed in the span of two years.

“Like this morning, I got up and I’m going to be honest with you I felt like I was having COVID,” she said reflecting on Dorian’s second year anniversary.

“I didn’t have no energy.

I was hot and I was cold and the doctor told me ‘you just depressed Mrs Wilmore and it’s to be expected’ but I wasn’t even hungry. I just sit right out my foundation

looking out to sea because I live on the water side and I just went on the neigbour’s porch and looked out to sea, thinking and that’s it.”

Despite the challenges, she still thanks God for sparing her and her family and allowing them to see another day.

Dorian hit Abaco on September 1, 2019 as a Category Five storm. The storm’s official death toll is 74.

In May, then Coroner Jeanine Weech-Gomez declared 22 people dead whose family members had reported them as missing after the storm. However, many more are still believed to be missing.

PAGE 4, Thursday, September 2, 2021

THE TRIBUNE

‘No evidence’ that Delta strain in The Bahamas

By LEANDRA ROLLE Tribune Staff Reporter lrolle@tribunemedia.net DESPITE increasing concerns that the Delta variant could be present in the country, one Pan American Health Organization official said there is still no evidence the highly contagious strain is here.

Dr Jairo Mendez Rico, PAHO’s virology advisor, spoke during PAHO’s weekly webinar yesterday where he gave an update on test results sent to a reference laboratory in Brazil for variant testing.

According to Dr Rico, none of the recent COVID19 samples sent from The Bahamas have yet yielded positive results for the Delta virus.

However, he confirmed the Alpha variant was

detected in most of the samples.

He said: “Several samples from The Bahamas have been sent to the sequencing genomic lab in Fiocruz lab in Brazil and more recently also to (a lab) in Panama where complete genomics have been obtained.

“According to the most recent information readily available in our database, the Alpha variant of concern has been detected in most of the samples from The Bahamas together with other variants in less proportion.

“So far, there is no evidence of Delta variants correlation in The Bahamas.

Nevertheless, increasing detection in the region has been most particularly in Antigua and Barbuda, Aruba, Cayman

Islands, Dominica, Guadeloupe and Barbados in close correlation with others, including Alpha and Ghana.

“Talking about the regional situation, the Delta variant has been detected in at least 44 countries and territories.”

Concerns about the Delta variant have reignited in recent weeks due to increasing infection rates and virus-related hospitalisations.

Local health officials have previously said they believe the variant’s presence in The Bahamas is partly what’s contributing to the country’s worsening COVID situation.

Yesterday, PAHO’s director, Dr Carissa Etienne urged nations in the region to make vaccinations a

TWO MORE DEATHS BRING TOTAL TO 408

By LEANDRA ROLLE Tribune Staff Reporter lrolle@tribunemedia.net

THE Ministry of Health reported 125 new COVID19 cases and two virus related deaths yesterday, pushing the nation’s overall coronavirus tally to 18,460.

The country’s death toll is now 408.

According to data provided in the Ministry of Health’s August 31 dashboard, 102 of the new cases were recorded in New Providence, eight in Grand Bahama, six in Abaco, three in Eleuthera and two in Abaco. Officials said 3,167 cases are still active, with 169 people in hospital sick with the virus.

Of the two new deaths recorded, health officials said both victims were from New Providence, including a 68-year-old woman who died August 25 and a 45-year-old man who died August 27.

In its August 30 dashboard, the Ministry of Health recorded 10 COVID-19 related deaths, while 27 new deaths were added to the nation’s death

toll on Sunday, August 29.

One hundred and twenty-one new deaths were reported this month, which health officials said occurred over a five-month period.

In terms of new infections, 3,540 COVID cases were recorded in August, representing the highest tally recorded in a month since the start of the pandemic.

Director of the National HIV/AIDS and Infectious Disease Programme at the Ministry of Health, Dr Nikkiah Forbes predicted there will be more deaths as the virus surges in the country.

“We’re still very much seeing an increase in the number of cases,” she told The Tribune on Tuesday. “We still have a large number of cases every day and the healthcare system is under a tremendous amount of pressure because of that and all of the COVID care sites are extremely full and above capacity.

“At Princess Margaret Hospital we’re above capacity and it’s very challenging and that’s exactly

the problem when you have a surge with a virus like COVID because if it’s spreading exponentially, spreading a lot, there is going to be a tremendous increase in the number of cases above the capacity that the healthcare system can manage.

“So, that does get challenging because we know that we see an increase in the number of deaths when we are above the capacity of the health system to manage.”

However, Health Minister Renward Wells remains optimistic the situation will improve before this month’s end thanks to the large vaccine supply now in the country.

“I do believe by the end of September, and I personally believe even before the general elections we’re going to see a reduction in the numbers. We’ve seen it fluctuate and so we may see some numbers going down even before that time….

And at the end of the day, as long as we continue to vaccinate, we will get over this,” he told reporters Tuesday.

result must have been issued within the last 72 hours. In this instance, ‘all persons’ refers to faculty, students, staff, alumni, vendors and other members of the public.

“For employees who must work on campus to ensure continued operations, but who are not fully vaccinated, University of The Bahamas will cover the cost of rapid antigen tests provided that proof

of employment at UB is presented at the test site.

The university will publish shortly the locations where legitimate faculty and staff may take these tests.

“Further, the university advises that effective Thursday, September 30, 2021 all faculty, staff, students and members of the public seeking to enter any university campus or facility must show proof of being

priority as it is the only way out of the pandemic.

Dr Etienne said in the last week, the region reported more than 1.6 million new COVID-19 cases and nearly 22,000 virus related deaths.

Hospitalisation rates among younger people, including adults aged 50 and below, she added, are higher than ever seen before since the start of the pandemic.

“We need to let public health, not politics, guide our pandemic response,” the PAHO director stressed yesterday.

“As vaccines remain limited, countries should prioritise doses for the most vulnerable, like the elderly, health workers and those living with pre-existing conditions. Too many of these vulnerable groups have yet

to be vaccinated, even as vaccination campaigns are reaching others who are less at risk.

“So, we continue to urge countries to follow the science, both by designing campaigns that protect the most vulnerable and by applying public health measures that can bring transmission down.”

Meanwhile, Dr Enrique Perez, PAHO’s representative, said while officials understand countries needs to reopen their economies to recover from COVID-19, they must do so safely and “act with extreme caution” especially as it relates to the cruising industry.

“So, consequently with this all the attempts to reopen the ports to cruise ships it is imperative to act with extreme caution.

At the present, as per the WHO’s position paper published in February, 2021, the proof of vaccinations against COVID-19 should neither be regarded as a guarantee of free of infections nor be required.”

According to the latest emergency orders, cruise ships will not be allowed to enter a port in The Bahamas unless passengers aged 12 and older are fully vaccinated against COVID-19 starting September 3 to November 1.

However, the policy said exceptions to the vaccination requirement will be made in cases of emergencies, “in other exigent circumstances approved by the government” or if a passenger has a medical excuse for not being vaccinated.

TOTAL CASES

TOTAL DEATHS

NEWLY CONFIRMED CASES

NEWLY CONFIRMED DEATHS

18,460 408 TUESDAY

125 CASES

NEW PROVIDENCE 102 GRAND BAHAMA 8 ABACO 6 ELEUTHERA 3 ANDROS 3 EXUMA 2 LONG ISLAND 1

TOTAL TESTS

HOSPITALISED

134,425 169

• A 68-YEAR-OLD WOMAN FROM NEW PROVIDENCE ON AUGUST 25.

• A 45-YEAR-OLD MAN FROM NEW PROVIDENCE ON AUGUST 27.

CASES IN ICU

15

RECOVERED

14,760

BE VACCINATED OR HAVE TEST RESULT FOR UB CAMPUS ENTRY from page one

In a press release issued yesterday, UB said: “Effective Monday, September 6, 2021, all persons entering the campuses and facilities of University of The Bahamas must show proof of being fully vaccinated or present a negative COVID19 rapid antigen test.

“The rapid antigen test

fully vaccinated. However, members of the university community who are unvaccinated due to medical or religious reasons, approved

by University Health Services or University Human Resources, will receive direct instructions regarding health and safety measures that they must follow while on campus.”

UB also announced that it will move to predominantly

remote teaching and learning as well as remote operations effective today.

The only exceptions to the virtual teaching and learning mode will be courses that require faceto-face components and athletic training, UB said. These must occur in strict compliance with all COVID-19 protocols. A subsequent announcement regarding these courses

is forthcoming from the Office of Academic Affairs.

At all campuses and facilities, faculty and staff are to work remotely, where possible, with the exception of essential workers.

Other employees who must work on campus must do so for limited periods and/or in shifts only, following all COVID-19 measures, and limiting physical contact with others.

THE TRIBUNE

Thursday, September 2, 2021, PAGE 5

Just what the doctor ordered

from page one Those in primary school and high school will be eligible for the initiative.

The FNM would roll out the programme over a fiveyear period to ensure it is well funded and properly designed for sustainability, Dr Minnis said.

Vegan options will be available along with the inclusion of locally grown and produced food products.

“Many children go to school each day hungry,” he told FNM supporters at the Queen Elizabeth Sports Centre. “Their parents do not have the money to provide them with enough to eat. I came from the inner city, from the ghetto. I know.

“There are school lunch programmes to help those

ATTENDEES at the FNM rally.

Photo: Racardo Thomas/Tribune Staff most in need. However, so children in government much more is necessary operated education systems for so many more children. regardless of family income.

The FNM has decided to be “This programme will even bolder. be available to every child “If and when re-elected in government operated we will launch the universal school systems throughout school meals programme the country. We are making and this programme will it universal so there is no provide nutritionally bal- stigma attached to any child anced free breakfast, lunch getting food.” and snack to all school Dr Minnis said the

THE Free National Movement has pledged to “review an increase to the minimum wage,” pass legislation to replace the emergency orders and introduce a medical marijuana industry if the party secures another term.

The party also pledged to invest $50m to $70m in upgrades to Bahamas Power and Light’s transmission and distribution infrastructure to further reduce electricity outages.

The pledges, among others, were outlined in the FNM’s 2021 Manifesto, which was released yesterday.

Regarding marijuana, the FNM says: “In recent years attitudes toward cannabis have changed around the world. The old view that use of the plant was dangerous has given way to widespread acceptance of its various medicinal and industrial uses.

“Our cannabis laws are antiquated. They have unfairly punished too many Bahamians who used the plant for various personal, medical and religious reasons.”

Draft marijuana reform legislation was circulated by the Minnis administration for consultation this term, however, it was never brought to Parliament. The FNM now says it will introduce marijuana reform in its next term if it is successful at the polls later this month.

“In the next term we intend to decriminalise possession of small amounts of marijuana for personal use; legalise

medicinal marijuana; expunge the records of Bahamians who have convictions for possession of small amounts of marijuana; establish a Cannabis Licensing Authority to oversee the new cannabis industry in The Bahamas.

“This will include regulation of issuance of licenses and other matters related to the sector,” the manifesto says.

All companies in the new cannabis industry would be at least 51 percent Bahamian and the FNM says it would make Crown land available for Bahamians to grow legal cannabis.

Regarding its plans for the COVID-19 pandemic, the Minnis administration says it will ensure there is enough vaccine supply for all residents; ensure there are booster shots as needed on the advice of health professionals; and acquire equipment to conduct in-country analysis to determine the presence of coronavirus variants.

Other promises relating to the pandemic include providing the National Reference Laboratory with the resources needed to continue expanding its testing and analysis capacity; ensure there are adequate supplies of proven medical therapies to treat those with COVID-19; provide the resources to ensure robust contact tracing continues; and pass and bring into effect legislation to replace the emergency orders.

The Minnis administration tabled draft legislation in the House of Assembly to replace the emergency

programme will be optional so parents who would want to continue to prepare their child’s lunch and snacks may do so.

“There will also be a vegan option and the programme will be careful in dealing with food allergies. We will significantly draw on Bahamian food products.

“We will significantly use Bahamian fish, poultry and meats. We will significantly use Bahamian grown fruits and vegetables and this programme will help grow our agricultural and fisheries sectors while also providing nutrition to all children in government operated school systems free of charge.

“To help us create this initiative we will work with Bahamian food programmes, chefs, nutritionists and medical experts.

“Obesity is a major

problem in our society. We need to stop the amount of sugary drinks and fatty foods our children are drinking and eating. We want to help our children develop better eating habits, drawing on more organic and locally grown foods here in The Bahamas and this new programme is an investment in our children.

“It is an investment in our future. This is an investment in their future and our future.”

Dr Minnis said the initiative was about lessening the burden on hardworking families while helping children focus on learning and not on where their next meal will come from.

“Hungry and insufficient nutrition affects a child’s ability to concentrate and ability to learn.

Better health and nutrition

allow children to learn and perform better and this programme will relieve parents of having to budget for lunch.

“This represents a significant savings for homes with more than one child.

This will be a significant contribution to eliminating childhood hunger and childhood obesity.

“The programme will benefit the local economy.”

Before he left the stage, Dr Minnis continued his criticisms of the Progressive Liberal Party.

He said the choice was clear regarding who Bahamians ought to choose when they head to the polls on September 16.

Dr Minnis said Bahamians should re-elect the FNM because the PLP and its leader Philip “Brave” Davis want power to take care of party supporters.

ensure access to land and homeownership, the Minnis administration says it will launch the Bahamas Homes Initiative, through which there will be the creation of at least one major serviced lot development on all major Family islands.

The FNM said it will also make materials for home construction in government subdivisions VAT-free and continue with the duty free and real property tax concessions it previously implemented.

The party said it will also continue creating communities for young professionals throughout The Bahamas; repair all governmentowned rental properties in inner-city communities and

sell units for a nominal fee; and continue to work with the Bahamas Mortgage Corporation to make home ownership available for more Bahamians.

The Minnis administration’s previously announced plans to upgrade hospital infrastructure at Rand Memorial Hospital in Grand Bahama and Princess Margaret Hospital in New Providence are also noted in the manifesto.

Regarding social development, the FNM said it would work with NGOs to establish four transitional shelters in New Providence, one in Grand Bahama and one in Abaco to accommodate the homeless population using existing

grants and provide grants to non-profit organisations to establish safe homes for women and families experiencing domestic violence, among other promises.

The FNM also pledged to implement a universal school meal programme if re-elected, that will provide nutritionally balanced, free breakfast, lunch and snacks to all school children in the government-operated education system regardless of income.

Although promised, but not delivered in this term, the FNM has committed to introducing local government in New Providence if re-elected.

The full manifesto can be viewed at ourfnm.org.

FNM REVEALS MANIFESTO PROMISES ON MARIJUANA, BPL orders shortly before the House of Assembly was dissolved and a general election was called.

Regarding the electoral process, the FNM says it will establish a new and independent Parliamentary Registration Department to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of election administration; continue the digitisation of the electoral process; and create opportunities for greater participation, accountability and transparency regarding the electoral process.

The Minnis administration also says it will create a National Sovereign Wealth Fund and a National Infrastructure Fund.

The wealth fund will be a “vehicle for public-private partnerships in order for Bahamians to economically benefit from our natural resources and to invest in infrastructure development and to provide a source for the generation of future wealth,” the FNM says.

“The fund will be vested with Bahamian assets, which are the basis of the country’s wealth, and it will accumulate and convert those assets as necessary in order to spur developments in the country; and income generated through the fund’s activities as well as returns on investments will accumulate in the fund for the benefit of the Bahamian people,” the party’s plan says.

The FNM said it will also create a new Ministry of Investments, Financial Services and Commerce if it secures a second term.

Regarding its plans to

CHRISTIAN COUNCIL CRITICISES CAMPAIGN ADS THE Bahamas Christian Council has spoken out against the negative election ads being produced this campaign, saying name calling and character smearing will not advance the nation.

“We are witnessing, with concern, the negative advertisements being produced by political organisations and/or their surrogates for the consumption of the Bahamian people on television and social media,” BCC president Bishop Delton Fernander said in a statement released Tuesday night.

“We thought it important to draw attention to this issue, as it is feared that this behaviour will only worsen as we draw nearer to Election Day. We are better than this.

“Presently, in our country, we have a myriad of challenges that need to be addressed. We need those who are vying to become our leaders to be able to contend with these issues competently and to the benefit of every Bahamian.

Those who seek office and those who wish to retain it should understand the dire

position that we are in as a nation and people and govern themselves accordingly. Every election is important and it is understood that everyone who has put themselves forward wants to be the victor at the polls. But we all must know that the will of God prevails in this and in all things.

“The name calling and character smearing does nothing to add to the national discussion. Nor does it bode well for the unity that will be necessary for us to move forward as a nation after Election Day. Surely, there must be better ways to communicate your points than what we have seen thus far.”

Bishop Fernander said Bahamians know how to conduct decent elections and this time should not be different.

“We believe that the next five years will be pivotal to the growth and development of our country,” the bishop also said. “We must approach this upcoming decision with the solemnity that it deserves. We call on all political organisations, their surrogates and

supporters to rise to the occasion.”

The statement came after Free National Movement chairman Carl Culmer denounced negative social media ads being shared about the Progressive Liberal Party, saying they have not been commissioned nor authorised by the FNM. “While I unequivocally maintain that Brave Davis and the PLP do pose a grave threat to good governance and transparent fiscal responsibility, the FNM has absolutely no need to levy nasty personal attacks against the opposition or any other political opponent,” Mr Culmer said this week.

In response, PLP chairman Fred Mitchell chided Mr Culmer, accusing the FNM of using negative and misleading ads for months attacking the PLP and its leader.

“The FNM’s last ditch desperate attempt to now distance this failed government from the nasty election campaign ads, falls short on confession, contrition, and convincing,” Mr Mitchell said yesterday.

PEDESTRIAN KILLED IN HIT-AND-RUN

from page one

Reports are that the driver refused to stop and while travelling on Archers Hill, also collided with a

white coloured vehicle.

Both vehicles fled the scene before the arrival of police. EMS personnel were dispatched to the scene, where they examined the male pedestrian

and found no signs of life.

ASP Rolle said the man was later pronounced dead by a doctor.

He said investigations are continuing into the matter.

PAGE 6, Thursday, September 2, 2021

THE TRIBUNE

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Free school food could make a big difference THE word ahead of Prime Minister Dr Hubert Minnis’ speech last night was that there would be a big announcement – and a free school meals programme certainly fit the bill.

The plan would mean free breakfast, lunch and snacks for all students in the government school system.

Why is this important? Well, time and again, research has shown that free or reduced price school meals helps across the board in society. It helps those in poverty, it helps to reduce obesity rates – an issue our country absolutely needs to tackle – and to tackle other areas of poor health.

It can lay in place good eating habits for a lifetime, eating fruit and vegetables that might not get served up at home.

Sitting at school while hungry leaves students who don’t have access to basic good food unable to concentrate properly. That means lower grades. That means weaker exam results. It can mean generations of students locked into a cycle of poverty because they weren’t in a position to excel, simply because they didn’t have enough food.

While it is a lesson we might have wished to learn another way, the pandemic has taught us the importance of supplying food to those in need, the infrastructure needed to do it and what the costs are for doing so.

As we hopefully start to emerge from the pandemic – although the current numbers show we are a long way off from that – those lessons can be turned from how we support families who are out of work to how we can help our children to excel in school.

Will there be a cost attached? Absolutely. But in the long-term there could also be a saving, with our healthcare system in future years hopefully having to deal with fewer cases of obesity or diabetes or any of the other host of problems we currently face in Bahamian society which if tackled young could be reduced or averted.

“This programme will be available to every child in government-operated school systems throughout the country.

We are making it universal so there is

no stigma attached to any child getting food,” said Dr Minnis.

That is important too – children can be subject to being teased and bullied as it is, and taking away another reason for someone to be picked on might make the world of difference for those children.

The goal is also to use Bahamian products where possible – fish, poultry and meat, fruits and vegetables. That can bolster a food sector that could do with a solid base to build on if we are going to reduce the percentage of our food that is imported from overseas rather than produced here at home.

Overall, it is a win for everyone – with the caveat being the potential cost.

That’s no small amount to consider.

We’ve argued in this column already that election promises need to have a price tag attached, and the same applies here.

But if we can afford it, it could be a real game changer for children in our schools, setting them on the path to healthy eating from an early age. That is a goal worth striving for.

BPL peace?

Could there be peace at last over at BPL? After a summer of demonstrations, the Bahamas Electrical Workers Union has ratified an industrial agreement from Bahamas Power and Light – and is ready to sign.

It is sad of course that it took such disruption, and such time, and that it took until the last minute before the elections to resolve, but it is progress, and that is to be welcomed.

Is it the end of the matter? Well, we’ll believe that when all is quiet. There still seems to be some resentment towards management, and that doesn’t go away quickly.

It is, however, a testament to the value of sitting down and negotiating properly – to get things done rather than to grandstand in protest. We hope both sides can move forward more harmoniously from now on.

Union vote gimmick EDITOR, The Tribune.

THEY were overjoyed that the National Congress of Trade Unions and the Trade Union Congress had signed a memorandum of understanding committing the PLP, on becoming the government, of ensuring that all long standing union issues would be resolved and the united unions would continue in the best interest of the workers.

No sooner had the announcement been made and the rejoicing started than it was realized that the most important unions knew nothing about it. No reason was given for them

being left out of the grand secret that was presented as having been signed with the PLP in the best interest of all unionists.

However, those who participated in the big secret were jubilant that it was signed at last and all they had to do as a part of the agreement was help the PLP become the government. The PLP Leader assured his followers that the signing was not a “gimmick” for votes. Well you certainly could have fooled me – all I see here is another grand “gimmick” to fool Bahamians into wasting their ballot!

It seems to me that Mr

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Davis’ final statement says it all. “Today we are here,” he said, “and we signed a precatory agreement with the two umbrella unions signaling the unification of labour as well.”

As for you, enthusiastic unionists, do you know what you have signed? Do you know the meaning of the word precatory? A precatory agreement is one that can be changed to suit the occasion. There is nothing binding about it. It is a lot of noise in the market place. And should the PLP win, the unions have a worthless precatory agreement – nothing set in stone, just another issue to squabble over when unionists come to demand their pound of flesh only to find that there is no flesh on the union bone!

Wake up Bahamians!

When you go to the polls this time, try to understand what you are voting for.

A TRUE BAHAMIAN Nassau, August 30, 2021

Hypocrisy at best?

EDITOR, The Tribune.

THE current Prime Minister while in opposition spoke heavily about corruption and bigotry within the Progressive Liberal Party.

In fact, he campaigned to stand and stamp out chauvinism in politics. He championed creating good governance, accountability, and transparency. He said himself that he would hold his cabinet and members of his party feet to the fire; should they cross lines they will be dealt with.

While he was in the opposition, I can recall how he was ranting and raving for the removal of a cabinet minister for being included in corruption as well as soliciting contracts for his company. The Prime

LETTERS letters@tribunemedia.net Minister was outraged. His words were that a cabinet minister must ensure that no conflict arises or appears to arise between their duties in the office and their private interests.

Hence why he campaigned on “accountability.” In all of this, he accosted the former Prime Minister as an accomplice because of his silence in the matter.

Recently, it was brought to light that the Chairman of the Water and Sewerage Corporation had awarded not just his fiancée contracts but his campaign general too. These contracts summing up to nearly half a

million dollars. With all of the media scrutiny and evidence, the Prime Minister has not yet said anything, nor asked the Chairman for his resignation as he did with Peter Turnquest who was the then Deputy Prime Minister at that time.

How can you champion for good governance and accountability when those that are in your party appear also to be participating in what you lobbied against? In my opinion this is hypocrisy at its best. In my opinion the Prime Minister has been playing on the emotions of the Bahamian people from day one.

DR MATHEO SMITH Nassau, September 1, 2021

The many faces of Brave Davis EDITOR, The Tribune.

WE must size up two men to lead the country. A doctor and a lawyer. Where they differ is on character.

The Prime Minister has advanced a poor people’s agenda that has lifted many out of not just poverty, but misery.

PLP leader Brave Davis is running hard to get away from his miserable record of doing little for poor people while always being a champion for the rich and powerful.

He sat in parliament for decades as the

representative for Cat Island, the spiritual home of culture. For five of those years he was Deputy Prime Minister and, in great irony, was Minister of Works and Urban Development.

Yet it took a brave decision by Hubert Minnis to kick-start a project to get piped water into Cat Island.

Water was not on Davis’ agenda.

Apparently, neither is respect for the voice of the people. He co-engineered the gambling referendum and when the voters said no, he jooked us in the eye

and reversed the will of the people.

He pledged to honour the outcome of that referendum then flip-flopped. Previously he supported the equal rights referendum inside parliament then trashed it when he got outside.

Cat Islanders who only now have running water know that Brave isn’t studying them.

Bahamians don’t need to roll the dice again to know that Brave can’t be trusted.

CHICKCHARNEY Nassau, September 1. 2021

THE TRIBUNE

Thursday, September 2, 2021, PAGE 7

Probe into assault on unvaccinated officer

By KHRISNA RUSSELL Tribune Chief Reporter krussell@tribunemedia.net A WOMAN police officer has alleged she was assaulted while at the Royal Bahamas Police Force’s dorm facility for not being vaccinated against COVID-19.

The officer described the ordeal in a voice note that was uploaded to Facebook

and was shared numerous times.

In it, she claimed to have been pushed by an assistant superintendent and subsequently sustained a “gash” to her head, adding that she had to seek medical treatment for the injuries.

A photo of the injured officer in a bloodied uniform with a white bandage taped to her head and sitting in what appeared to be

a wheelchair is also making the rounds on social media.

“The ASP try to run me out the door say I can’t be in the dorm if I’m not vaccinated,” the unnamed officer said in the recording.

“So, at first I thought it was a joke and then I realised it wasn’t a joke and then he try to pull me out the door and he end up pushing me out.

“When he pushed me,

he pushed me into a stack of tiles that was stacked up in the back there and thank God the tiles were in a box ‘cause if it wasn’t in a box I would have got hurt more ‘cause it woulda been a severe gash or cut.”

She continued: “But I bleed so much I was unconscious for couple minutes and then when I came to, they tried to reach the ambulance

and they couldn’t get no ambulance….”

The officer said she was taken to the hospital by other means, adding “I’m dealing with that now. I pressing charges and I will be suing him and the force.”

When contacted about the claims, Commissioner of Police Paul Rolle did not say much about the alleged incident yesterday.

However, he said the

RBPF’s Complaints Unit is investigating the circumstances surrounding how the officer received her injuries.

While Commissioner Rolle last week preemptively urged officers to protect themselves from dire symptoms of the coronavirus by receiving one of the available vaccinations, it is not a mandatory requirement.

BPL’S UNION MEMBERS PASS NEW AGREEMENT

from page one

“The executives of the union have a proposal that is favourable to membership. The company sent a proposal to the executives, we looked at it, were satisfied and took it to our people.

“The majority of our members were satisfied and we ratified the proposal. So now we are going to take that proposal back to the company for signing of the official industrial agreement. It then becomes the law of the company.

“We are grateful to Cora Colebrook, the (Permanent Secretary). We are grateful to Desmond Bannister, the minister. We are grateful to the Prime Minister because

they had to step in and see to it that Bahamians can have a brighter day and more bread on their table.”

With the next general election two weeks away, Mr Wilson was asked if he was hopeful that the new agreement would be signed off on by then. He said he is.

“I will see if we can have an agreement signed off on by next week,” he said. “It would be a good sign for the current administration as they would have shown Bahamians that they have our backs. I am trying to get this agreement signed off as soon as possible.

“Right now this is crunch time. We are in the middle of election season. We already have an agreement in principle. We did

not do an agreement with FNM, PLP or DNA. We do agreements with the company no matter who is in charge of the government.

So whoever wins the next government, whether it’s the FNM, PLP or DNA, we expect them to honour the agreement.”

Works Minister Desmond Bannister, who is responsible for BPL, had to step in to bring calm to the negotiations between BPL’s executive management and union executives as a stalemate had occurred on several occasions. Mr. Bannister also involved Rev Ranford Patterson to help mediate.

Asked about the tumultuous relationship between the union and executive management now that

a document is agreed upon, the union president doubted the relationship would be any better after the signing. He also addressed the high points of the now ratified industrial proposal.

“The contract signing doesn’t mean that things will be that much better, it just means that there will be just a little more bread on the table for our already struggling members,” Mr Wilson said. “All of this doesn’t kick in until 2023.

They are still mean spirited and disrespectful to the staff. Their pockets are still fat and they don’t care if we have bread on the table.

“One of the most satisfying things in this proposal is the pay increases in 2023 and 2024 and the fact that

the linesmen and craftsmen that had to take on so much additional responsibilities as a result of the pandemic and Hurricane Dorian.

“I am happy for all those members in Abaco who had to fight so hard to see the company brought back up after that hurricane.

They all now get to move up to a new pay scale. I feel happy for them as they have been doing all that work without any recognition or compensation. I am now thankful to God that they can now get recognised for all the hard work they have been putting into this company.”

Before the union ratified BPL’s latest proposal, The Tribune spoke to BPL chairman, Dr Donavon

Moxey who was optimistic that the union would find the proposal fair.

“What we put forth to the union … the proposal is something that the executive management and the board have signed off on,” Dr Moxey said in a recent interview. “We are now waiting for the union to come back and ratify that as the offer.

“We think that what’s been offered is fair. We think that what’s been offered is something that we hope the union members would ratify.”

In protest of the unfinished negotiations and citing disrespectful treatment by executive management, the BEWU’s members walked off the job on June 28 and again on August 19.

PAGE 8, Thursday, September 2, 2021

THE TRIBUNE

The liberating power of reading “Once you learn to read, you will be forever free.” Frederick Douglass Throughout the year, a group of women in their 40s and older meet as part of a book club in New Providence. Each takes turn hosting a meeting, which typically includes good food, wine and spirits, which lubricate discussions and equally tasty and intoxicating debates.

The reading companions seem to take to heart and body the 11th to 12th Century mathematician, astronomer and poet Omar Khayyam’s exuberant wisdom: “Give me a flagon of red wine, a book of verses, a loaf of bread, and a little idleness. If with such store … I should deem myself happier than a king in his kingdom.”

At the heart of the fellowship is lively and often soulful reflections on the novel chosen by the host for that month. The books chosen are works of fiction, exploring a constellation of stories and ideas and emotions traversing historical epochs and settings.

The members of the club share the joy, the exhilaration, the wellsprings of discovery that come with reading in general and reading as a group, with members sharing their insights, life experiences and perspectives.

Like companionship and wonderful food, reading may be one of the greatest joys in life, with the power to transform, heal, educate, agitate, inspire, infuriate

and transport. Reading has the potential to be powerfully democratic and may be a portal to personal freedom and to liberation for oppressed peoples and groups.

Malcolm X The great liberationist and civil rights leader El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz (Malcolm X) wrote and spoke of how reading and travel were among the greatest liberating forces in his life. A powerful and charismatic orator and thinker, he famously studied the dictionary in depth while incarcerated.

Malcolm X read voraciously, hungrily, while in prison, and would likely wonder today why so many of us with access to so many books and to the internet refuse to emancipate ourselves from all manner of mental slavery, including the failure to read.

FREDERICK DOUGLASS, the reformer and statesman, who extolled the virtues of reading.

From his prison cell, reading and conversion to Islam saved his life and transformed him into a champion for equality and social justice before his 1965 assassination at age 39.

No matter one’s circumstance in life, access to books and reading, especially where there are libraries, offers every citizen the same treasury of nonfiction, biographies, world literature and the elixirs of poetry.

Books and reading offer us the power of words, enfleshing our spirits and humanity. Words and language help us to struggle, to imagine, to survive, to transcend and overcome. In the words of the Native American Pulitzer Prize poet N Scott Momaday: “A word has power in and of itself.

It comes from nothing into sound and meaning; it gives origin to all things.”

He observes: “Anything is bearable if you can make a story out of it.”

Fundamental Reading is fundamental for human happiness and development, priming us for growth and unimagined possibilities. University of Toronto researchers Maja Dijkic and Keith Oatley researched the effect of reading fiction.

The research pair found: “People who read more fiction are also better at reading other people’s emotions. It’s not that empathic people read more, but that reading promotes empathy.”

In her blog on the power of books to engender empathy, Rohit Meena enthuses: “When you feel empathy towards someone, emotions rush out. Their experiences become yours because you can relate to them and these experiences can be happy or sad. In empathy, you merely don’t understand what a person is feeling, but you are experiencing those feelings.”

Reading not only makes us more knowledgeable, it also has the potential to make us more humane and virtuous, depending on what we read.

Reading, like travel, is among the greatest ways to explore the world and to explore the human condition, including our foibles, conceits, deadly sins, virtues and necessary vulnerabilities.

The failure to read is like refusing to travel beyond one’s village or beyond one’s insularity and selfabsorption. Like music, food and sex, reading affects our mood. Reading seizes our being, turns us upside down, shatters our pretensions and opens us to genuine conversion

or metanoia of heart and soul.

Reading, like air and food and friendship are fundamental for life and for joy. Reading is one of the greatest ways for our imaginations to travel.

In reading the lyric poetry of the 19th century French poet Charles Baudelaire (1821–1867) we experience the beauty of a rapidly industrializing Paris. From his work, The Flowers of Evil, we uncomfortably encounter ourselves: “Stupidity, delusion, selfishness and lust, torment our bodies and possess our minds, and we sustain our affable remorse the way a beggar nourishes his lice.”

Abundant new life and insights are at our fingertips from the ancient wisdom of the Greeks, including Aeschylus, Sophocles, Euripides and Aristophanes to the “wickedly sumptuous” magical works of the Nobel Prize winner and Chilean poet and diplomat Pablo Neruda to the brilliance and feminist power of Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. In We Should All Be Feminists, she offers: “What if, in raising children, we focus on ability instead of gender? What if we focus on interest instead of gender?”

Bahamian wrtiers Here at home we are challenged to see beyond our insularity through Jeannie Thompson’s plays, including those found in her book, Bahamian Tapestry.

In his writings and sermons over many decades Rev. Dr. Colin Archer has called us to a more holistic and revivifying Christian spirituality in the imitation of Christ.

There is also the varyingly luscious, endlessly provocative and often joyfully irreverent stories and poems found in the liberationist writings of Patricia Glinton Meicholas.

In her book Chasing Light, Glinton Meicholas invites us in the poem, “Staking Claim to Our Souls: “We are our own discoverers, staking claim to territory too many centuries colonized burning flags of conquest, too long planted in our souls, repurposing manacles, forging keys to liberate creation.

“With the hammer of pen and paintbrush

on the resilient anvil of canvas and page, drawing from their deep dye bold strokes of peace, metaphors of hope, to serve as viceroy and governor of a New World of Freedom.”

Our individual lives and our lives in common are much poorer, less rich, less enchanting, less promising when we fail to encounter the written word and the oral literary traditions that make us human and which may help us wrestle demons and civilize various instincts.

Imagine having access to a buffet of wonderful foods and only eating the rice and drinking water. This is what life is like for many of us who have access to more books than our ancestors could ever imagine, as well as to the Internet.

That group of women who gather in fellowship do so for enjoyment and for much more. They do so also to enrich their hearts and souls and to confront and to seduce the tedium and difficulties of life which may find a balm and a necessary escape among reading companions.

A former mentor who is passed away and who taught Caribbean literature and the classics of the Western canon, both in which he delighted.

A master and teacher of the English language, he quipped in one of his Christmas newsletters after the removal of a section of his colon, that he was now mastering the semi-colon.

Nearing his nonagenarian years, this Jesuit father mused toward the end of his life that he was finding more solace in the classics than in Scripture, in both of which he discovered abundant life.

A friend recalls going into her teenage daughter’s room just before the latter was about to leave for university. The mother scanned the room, flushed with memories. She realized that few of the toys she bought for her daughter were to be found.

Yet the bookshelves were filled with just about every book she and her husband and others had given her daughter over the years.

“Now that you’re gone off to college, should I give away these books?”

There was an emphatic, “No!” in reply. “I’m saving these books to pass on to my children someday.”

THE TRIBUNE

Thursday, September 2, 2021, PAGE 9

Has America lost its mind?

Maybe

FLORIDA Governor Ron DeSantis.

STATESIDE

with Charlie Harper

HURRICANE Ida brought gloom, cloudy weather and occasional monsoon rain to the American Northeast yesterday.

The dismal weather created a fitting backdrop for a generally discouraging outlook for Democrats and liberals.

A sober Republican from Ohio may have summed it up best. Rarely given to hyperbole, he spoke to listeners in a calm voice.

“So it looks like we’re soon going to have a Republican President, a Republican Senate and a Republican House of Representatives.”

Wait a minute! Didn’t the Democrats just win back the White House ten months ago and hold on to both houses of Congress?

What about the miracle run-off election in Georgia in January that swept out two GOP Senators in a traditionally red state and introduced the two Democrats who gave their party a slim but working majority?

Didn’t a former President clearly incite an unprecedented and shocking riot at the nation’s capital building that was recorded on live

television and thousands of cell phones and surveillance cameras? Who else but out of control Republican radicals and right-wing nuts could be held accountable for this outrage?

Has America lost its mind? Maybe.

For his audience, one word in the visitor’s remarks stood out. He said “Republican” President. He did not say “Donald Trump will return as President.”

Trump has not vanished from public life. He retains his amazing ability to be newsworthy and to make news. But his impact has undeniably been severely diminished by his banishment from big American social media platforms. He also continues to face potential legal problems that could at least theoretically land him in prison or bankruptcy court.

The speaker’s implicit point is that Trumpism can and is apparently surviving Trump himself. Perhaps the best evidence of this is the durable popularity of Florida Governor Ron DeSantis.

Even casual observers can make the connection

between DeSantis’ obdurate resistance to mask mandates and other precautions designed to protect the public health on one hand and the recent spike in COVID cases in his state on the other hand. But the Governor is still polling better than his likely Democratic opponents as he seeks reelection next November.

Analysts point out that DeSantis’ behaviour, outrageous as it is to his many national and local critics, is very unlikely to turn off his support from right-wing zealots and activists who control the GOP base in Florida and many other states.

The issue for them is not so much the public health.

It is an allegiance to the concept of personal choice and freedom from the distant, disdainful control of a federal government determined to impose its will across the sprawling US. Furthermore, previous COVID patterns in the US point to a flattening soon and then a decline in Florida case numbers. If this happens and the Sunshine State’s commerce recovers, many observers feel DeSantis’

SEISMIC MOVES IN EUROPEAN SOCCER IN the Northern Hemisphere, the late, “dog” days of August aren’t ordinarily very significant in the world of sports. Baseball is typically in the doldrums. Pro football is staging exhibition games where starters often never play. Basketball and hockey are asleep.

Big soccer leagues are just getting started. College football hasn’t begun yet.

Many people in Europe and North America are on vacation or preoccupied with getting kids ready for school. In our special part of the world, there is a growing, dreadful preoccupation with the weather, beyond the heat and rising humidity. Louisiana’s – and our own – hurricane calamities in recent years are unwelcome and unwanted reminders of nature’s August and September fury.

Last month, however, was remarkably different from the usual in the world’s most popular sport and in its biggest, richest leagues.

Soccer fans, and its most established figures and players have been repeatedly rocked by developments unimaginable just a few months ago.

To start with, how about world soccer’s two most celebrated and accomplished players both changing teams within weeks of each other?

First, Lionel Messi, whom historians will regard as the greatest soccer player ever to come from Argentina (also home to Diego Maradona), moved, against his and his team’s will, from Spanish powerhouse Barcelona to French titan Paris St. Germain.

The move, openly and profoundly regretted by both player and team, was forced upon Barcelona by its COVID-ravaged

financial situation. But Barca will still be Barca, and they’ll still remain one of world soccer’s powers.

Then, just this past week, the prodigiously talented and accomplished Portuguese striker, Cristiano Ronaldo, returned to English giants Manchester United after several years of championships and goals at Juventus, Italy’s supreme club team of recent times.

Ronaldo returns to United after 12 years away.

The Red Devils finished second last season in the world’s-best English Premier club League. Signing Ronaldo has fortified this legendary team even further for a title run this year.

While Ronaldo has also scored prodigiously for Sporting Lisbon and Real Madrid in his illustrious 20-year professional career, his transfer was not as shocking as that of Messi, who had been with Barcelona for 17 years and had professed his desire to stay with them for his career.

Paris St. Germain, Messi’s new French club, like Man U, is loading up for more European competition glory. Messi joins the world’s best front line with astonishingly fleet Frenchman Kylian Mbappe and Brazilian wonderkid Neymar to terrify opposing defenses. But PSG is only one among several other clubs who have been adding to already strong teams.

In England, Manchester City, Chelsea, Liverpool and Tottenham – which retained star Harry Kane after much transfer speculation -- are all notably reinforced and improved.

Bayern Munich will again be formidable in the Bundesliga. Several top Spanish and Italian teams have high

hopes for 2021-22.

In the Premier League, schedule-makers have rewarded early season fans returning to pack stadiums as (hopefully) COVID restrictions continue to recede. The best match of the season so far was played Saturday at Anfield in Liverpool, where the Reds hosted Chelsea.

The Blues were bolstered at the front by their new striker, Romelu Lukaku, a Belgian one-time Chelsea prodigy who has matured and developed over the past ten years at West Bromwich Albion, Everton and Manchester United in England and Inter Milan in Italy. Lukaku rejoins the defending European and Super Cup champions as they seek to reclaim the Premier League title.

Liverpool, meanwhile, has methodically extended the contracts for virtually all its defensive and midfield stalwarts, setting up the Reds for success in years to come.

Both teams arrived undefeated on Saturday at Anfield, and the match was as good as advertised. After Chelsea’s Kai Havertz headed in the first score early on, Blues winger Reese James was controversially red-carded for a handball in the penalty area just before halftime. Egyptian Mohamed Salah scored the penalty kick and Liverpool looked forward to an entire second half facing only ten Chelsea players.

But the Blues’ defence held firm and the game ended 1-1. The “beautiful game” was on full display and augurs well for all the excitement and despair still to come for fans around the world – public health conditions permitting.

bet on resistance to President Biden and the federal government will actually strengthen his support.

Is DeSantis already the heir to Trump’s legacy?

Nothing is certain so early in the upcoming election campaigns. But the key point is the Florida Governor seems to be holding his strength in the face of conditions likely to be as unfavourable as he will confront for a while.

Liberal pessimists are fretting about other signs that look bad for the near term. Republican success in confirming hundreds of conservative judges across the federal judiciary under Trump and Mitch McConnell is being felt in judicial decisions or non-decisions recently rendered on such hot-button issues as voter restrictions and abortion rights.

The situation in America is obviously in flux and likely to remain unsettled for months to come, so many trends that seem established today may be distant memories by the end of this year.

But there seems little doubt that President Joe Biden, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and other “mainstream” Democratic leaders have much work ahead if they want to continue to retain their current

power in the face of such determined opposition.

The outcry over Afghanistan will likely abate soon.

Biden and Company need to make sure they get ahead of whatever narratives come next.

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PAGE 10, Thursday, September 2, 2021

THE TRIBUNE

$20,000 award for unlawful arrest

By FARRAH JOHNSON Tribune Staff Reporter fjohnson@tribunemedia.net THE SUPREME Court has awarded $20,000 to a man who was unlawfully arrested and subjected to unhygienic conditions when he was detained in police custody for more than two days.

Michael Martin, Sr, was awarded the large sum after he sued the Commissioner of Police, Attorney General and Corporal 3880 Frazier for the “inhuman and degrading treatment” he endured at two police stations in 2018.

According to court

documents, Martin was “accosted” by police officers in his home around 4am on November 1 of that year. He was shown a warrant with the name Michael Martin, Jr, on it, but when he told the officers he was Martin, Sr, he was ignored and arrested. After being forced to get dressed in the presence of the officers, he was escorted to an “unmarked” vehicle, handcuffed and taken to the Carmichael Road Police Station.

When he arrived there, he was photographed before he was placed in a cell. Sometime later, he was moved to another cell at

the Central Detective Unit until he was taken back to the Carmichael Road station.

“The conditions in each location were unequally unpleasant,” Deputy Registrar Carol Munnings Misiewicz noted in her ruling.

“It was unclear to me which station he was describing, but I accept his evidence as to the nature of what it was like. He says that he was in a cell with no toilet, just a concrete slab floor. It was a small room about five feet by six feet, with four other males occupying the cramped space. It was filthy and

contained garbage containers from previous meals. He had to sleep on the floor, use his shoes for a pillow and urinate in plastic bottles.”

According to the judgment, Martin was kept in “unhygienic and unpleasant conditions” for 62 hours.

During his testimony, he also claimed he was not allowed to have any visitors other than his attorney, although his wife was permitted to bring medication and meals to him. Martin, Sr, was eventually released without being charged with an offence on November 3, 2018.

In his legal action,

Martin, Sr, sought $30,000 for unlawful arrest and false imprisonment, $30,000-$40,000 for breach of his constitutional rights, $10,000 for exemplary damages and $20,000 for vindicatory damages.

In her ruling, Deputy Registrar Munnings Misiewicz noted the evidence on Martin, Sr’s assessment was not contested by the defendants. She also noted there was no dispute regarding the facts of his arrest or the conditions in which he was held.

After reviewing a few cases of a similar nature she stated: “I find that the

circumstances surrounding the arrest and detention of the plaintiff are less harsh or extreme than in the Collie, Cunningham and Kane cases cited by Mr Martin, but more harsh than in Russell’s case... I therefore consider that a sum less than $30,000 but more than $10,000 is appropriate. I award the plaintiff the sum of $20,000 for damages and for unlawful arrest and false imprisonment….In conclusion the plaintiff’s damages are assessed in the sum of $20,000 for false imprisonment and $10,416 for legal costs, including VAT.”

APPEAL COURT RULES ON WOMAN ACCUSED IN SCOTIABANK FRAUD CASE

By FARRAH JOHNSON Tribune Staff Reporter fjohnson@tribunemedia.net

THE Court of Appeal has ordered the remand of a woman convicted of defrauding Scotiabank of $900 three years ago.

Decarla Bullard was sentenced to 18 months in prison after she pleaded guilty to forgery, uttering a forged document and committing fraud by false pretences in March 2018.

According to court documents, Bullard evaded the requirements of the law when she fraudulently obtained cash from Scotiabank by means of false pretences.

She recently appealed her conviction on the grounds that it was unduly severe.

She also asserted that the presiding magistrate erred by accepting her guilty plea when the offences she was charged with were not offences “known to law”.

She argued this point on the basis that the “intent to evade” was not one of

the specified intents listed in section 366 of the Penal Code.

Yesterday, Chief Justice Brian Moree, along with Justices Maureen CraneScott and Milton Evans allowed Bullard’s appeal in part by quashing the convictions and sentences imposed on her for forgery and uttering a forged document. However, after some consideration, the panel affirmed Bullard’s conviction and sentence for defrauding Scotiabank and ordered that she surrender herself to police to be taken into custody.

In their judgment, delivered by Justice Evans, they agreed that counts one and two, which were laid under sections 366 and 375 of the Penal Code, were not known to law.

“Section 233 does not operate to bar an appeal in the circumstances,” Justice Evans stated. “Count three is not infected by the malady from which counts one and two suffer. The

guilty plea on this count was unequivocal. Regarding the appeal against sentence on count three, the maximum sentence which may have been imposed was five years. The sentence of 18 months acknowledges the appellant’s early guilty plea, her age and her previous good character. It cannot be considered unduly severe having regard to the circumstances of the case.”

He continued: “As the appellant is presently on bail and has been on bail pending appeal following her conviction, her bail is revoked with immediate effect. The appellant is to immediately surrender herself into the custody of the police at the Central Police Station or any other police station to be transported to the Bahamas Department of Correctional Services where she will begin serving her 18-month sentence relative to count three. The appellant’s sentence will commence on the day she is admitted into the prison.”

POLICE Commissioner Paul Rolle.

ROLLE ‘NOT INCLINED TO SPEAK’ ABOUT PROMOTIONS

By KHRISNA RUSSELL Tribune Chief Reporter krussell@tribunemedia.net SOME Royal Bahamas Police Force reserves received promotions this week, Police Staff Association executive chairman Sonny Miller confirmed yesterday.

While he confirmed the promotions of the part-time officers, Mr Miller said he could not speak about what was expected to come for full-time officers.

Asked about it yesterday, Commissioner of Police Paul Rolle said: “I am not inclined to speak

to promotions at this time other than to say that we are in the process.”

Large-scale police promotions have at times taken place in the weeks leading up to a general election.

In the case of the 2017 police promotions, that exercise took place on the eve of the May 3 advanced poll.

At the time, 851 officers were promoted before they cast ballots in the early poll.

The promotions took effect January 1, 2018.

In that round of promotions, two superintendents were promoted to chief

superintendents; 76 assistant superintendents made superintendents; 90 inspectors promoted to assistant superintendent while 107 sergeants rose to the rank of inspector.

Then Commissioner of Police Ellison Greenslade further announced in 2017 that 253 corporals had been promoted to sergeant while 323 constables had been promoted to the rank of corporal.

The advanced poll for election 2021 is slated to take place on September 9.

It is unclear when or if police officers will be promoted beforehand.

MECHANIC DENIES THEFT OF $5,000 FROM 3 PEOPLE

By FARRAH JOHNSON Tribune Staff Reporter fjohnson@tribunemedia.net

A MECHANIC who denied stealing over $5,000 from three people over a six-month period was yesterday granted bail ahead of his trial.

Police said Adrian Rodgers stole $3,000 from Dawn Knowles Simmons, which he had custody of by reason of his service, on February 21.

They further alleged

he stole another $1,098 from Vernita Moss on May 20. Prosecutors said the accused also took $1,000 from Shandor Neymour on July 24 without completing the service he was paid to carry out.

When he appeared before Magistrate Shaka Serville he pleaded not guilty and the matter was adjourned to November 16 for trial.

In the interim, Rodgers was granted $1,500 bail on each charge.

THE TRIBUNE

WEATHER SLOWS CALIFORNIA WILDFIRE, BUT FLAMES KEEP MOVING

By SAM METZ, JANIE HAR and JOHN ANTCZAK Associated Press/ Report for America SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, Calif. (AP) — Favourable weather helped firefighters trying to save communities on the south end of Lake Tahoe from an approaching wildfire, but officials warned Wednesday that stiff winds and dry conditions mean that homes in the CaliforniaNevada alpine region are still in danger.

“We lucked out a little bit yesterday with some of the winds that didn’t come up quite as hard as we expected them to,” Tim Ernst, an operations section chief for the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, told firefighters in a briefing.

“We were fortunate the fire did not make as strong a push into Tahoe as it did the previous day.”

The Caldor Fire remained roughly three miles (5 kilometres) south of the recently evacuated city of South Lake Tahoe, moving northeast toward the California-Nevada state line, said Henry Herrera, a battalion chief for the agency, which is also known as Cal Fire.

Crews tried desperately to keep flames away from urban communities, where houses are close together and shopping centers, hotels and other structures would provide even more fuel for a fire that so far has been feeding on trees, grasses and scattered homes and cabins.

“We’re still not out of the woods. The fire is still moving,” he said.

The fire has been burning toward Lake Tahoe from the southwest along California Highway 50, climbing over a Sierra Nevada summit and descending into the Tahoe Basin.

Thick smoke has enveloped the city of South Lake Tahoe, which is all but deserted at a time when it would normally be swarming with tourists. On Monday, roughly 22,000 residents and thousands of others from neighbouring communities jammed the city’s main artery for hours after they were ordered to leave.

South Lake Tahoe city officials said only a handful of residents defied the evacuation order.

Meanwhile, officials prepared for the next possible phase of the firefight.

The South Tahoe Public Utility District asked people to turn off hoses, irrigation systems and sprinklers to ensure that wells can pump at full capacity. That means “the minute a firefighter hooks into a hydrant that they are getting full pressure, and as much water as possible is coming out,” said Shelly Thomsen, spokeswoman for the utility.

In the city, white pick-up rentals dropped off private firefighters dispatched by insurance companies to water around homes and clean decks. Gas stations advertised prices at $5 per gallon (per 3.8 litres).

Motels had “no vacancy” signs.

As flames moved toward the Heavenly ski resort, officials turned on the mountain’s snow-making machines to increase humidity and slow down any flames.

To his wife’s dismay, John Rhodes, 60, stuck around to defend the couple’s neighbourhood in an unincorporated area south of South Lake Tahoe that burned in the 2007 Angora Fire.

Rhodes and his neighbours, including several off-duty firefighters from other California agencies, wrapped homes in hoses and ran sprinklers to create a perimeter around the neighbourhood to supplement official firefighting work nearby.

As a rookie firefighter, he admitted to having butterflies.

“I was anxious about how I would stand up near the hot spot. These guys are trying to get me all coached,” Rhodes said, pointing toward his firefighter friends, who declined to talk to a reporter.

Thursday, September 2, 2021, PAGE 11

Afghans face hunger crisis, adding to Taliban’s challenges

By KATHY GANNON, RAHIM FAIEZ and EDITH M. LEDERER Associated Press KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — The United Nations’ stockpiles of food in Afghanistan could run out this month, a senior official warned Wednesday, threatening to add a hunger crisis to the challenges facing the country’s new Taliban rulers as they try to restore stability after decades of war.

About one third of the country’s population of 38 million doesn’t know if they will have a meal every day, according to Ramiz Alakbarov, the U.N.’s humanitarian chief in Afghanistan.

The U.N.’s World Food Program has brought in food and distributed it to tens of thousands of people in recent weeks, but with winter approaching and a drought ongoing, at least $200 million is needed urgently to be able to continue to feed the most vulnerable Afghans, he said.

“By the end of September, the stocks which the World Food Program has in the country will be out,” Alakbarov told reporters at a virtual news conference. “We will not be able to provide those essential food items because we’ll be out of stocks.”

Earlier, U.N. officials said that of the $1.3 billion needed for overall aid efforts, only 39% has been received.

The Taliban, who seized control of the country ahead of the withdrawal of American forces this week, now must govern a nation that relies heavily on international aid and is in the midst of a worsening economic crisis.

In addition to the concerns about food supplies, civil servants haven’t been paid in months and the local currency is losing value. Most of Afghanistan’s foreign reserves are held abroad and currently frozen.

Khalid Payenda, Afghanistan’s former acting finance minister, on Wednesday detailed a country existing in a dangerously fragile state.

Speaking at Georgetown University in Washington, Payenda said the Afghan currency had yet to crash because money exchanges had been shuttered. But its value could plunge by more than 100%, said Payenda, who described former Afghan President Ashraf Ghani as withdrawn and paranoid ahead of the Taliban takeover.

“I think the war had a toll on his psyche and he saw everything with suspicion,” Payenda said.

Part of the chaos reflects the speed at which the Taliban took control of the country, with Payenda saying he thought the prior government could have been sustained for two or three more years because of commitments by international donors.

“I did not expect it to be this quickly,” Payenda said. “Nobody actually did.”

TALIBAN fighters arrive outside the Hamid Karzai International Airport after the U.S. military’s withdrawal, in Kabul, Afghanistan, Tuesday. (AP Photo/Khwaja Tawfiq Sediqi) Mohammad Sharif, a shopkeeper in the capital of Kabul, said shops and markets there have supplies, but a major concern is rising food prices.

“If the situation continues like this and there is no government to control the prices, that will cause so many problems for local people,” he said.

In the wake of the U.S. pullout, many Afghans are anxiously waiting to see how the Taliban will rule.

When they were last in power, before being driven out by the U.S.-led invasion in 2001, they imposed draconian restrictions, refusing to allow girls to go to school, largely confining women to their homes and banning television, music and even photography.

But more recently, their leaders have sought to project a more moderate image. Schools have reopened to boys and girls, though Taliban officials have said they will study separately. Women are out on the streets wearing Islamic headscarves — as they always have — rather than the all-encompassing burqa the Taliban required in the past.

The challenges the Taliban face in reviving the economy could give Western nations leverage as they push the group to fulfill a pledge to form an inclusive government and guarantee women’s rights. The Taliban say they want to have good relations with other countries, including the United States.

Many Afghans fear the Taliban won’t make good on those pledges and are concerned that the nation’s economic situation holds little opportunity. Tens of thousands sought to flee the country as a result in a harrowing airlift.

But thousands who had worked with the U.S. and its allies, as well as up to 200 Americans, remained in the country after the efforts ended with the last U.S. troops flying out of Kabul international airport just before midnight Monday.

Withdrawal President Joe Biden later defended his handling of the chaotic withdrawal and evacuation efforts, which saw spasms of violence, including a suicide bombing last week that killed 13 American service members and 169 Afghans. He said it was inevitable that the final departure from two decades of war would be difficult.

He said he remains committed to getting the Americans left behind out if they want. The Taliban have said they will allow people with legal documents to travel freely, but it remains to be seen whether any commercial airlines will be willing to offer service.

Bilal Karimi, an official member in the Taliban spokesman’s office, said Wednesday that a team of Turkish

and Qatari technicians arrived in Kabul to help get the airport up and running again.

Alakbarov, the U.N. humanitarian official, said the United Nations is asking for access to the airport so it can deliver food and other supplies directly to the capital.

The Taliban also have to contend with the threat from the Islamic State group, which is far more radical and claimed responsibility for the bombing at the airport. The Taliban have pledged they won’t allow Afghanistan to be used as a base for attacks on other countries — a key U.S. demand since the militants once harbored the al-Qaida leaders who orchestrated the 9/11 attacks.

In the wake of last week’s bombing, American officials said drone strikes targeted the Islamic State group’s affiliate in Afghanistan, and Biden vowed to keep up airstrikes.

Army Gen. Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said Wednesday it was “possible” that the U.S. will have to coordinate with the Taliban on any counterterrorism strikes in Afghanistan in the future. ___ Faiez reported from Istanbul and Lederer from the United Nations.

Associated Press writers Tameem Akhgar in Istanbul and Lolita C. Baldor and Josh Boak in Washington contributed.

THIS photo provided by Bristol Virginia Professional FireFighters Association shows damage from severe weather on Monday in Hurley, Va. (Bristol Virginia Professional FireFighters Association via AP)

IDA’S REMNANTS CLOSE ROADS, PROMPT CONCERNS OF DAM FAILURE

By MARK SCOLFORO Associated Press

HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — Soaking rains from the remnants of Hurricane Ida prompted the evacuations of thousands of people Wednesday after water reached dangerous levels at a dam near Johnstown, Pennsylvania.

The storm soaked much of western and central Pennsylvania after high water drove some from their homes in Maryland and Virginia.

The storm killed a teenager, two people were not accounted for and a tornado was believed to have touched down along the Chesapeake Bay in Maryland.

Ida caused countless school and business closures in Pennsylvania. About 150 roadways maintained by the

Pennsylvania Department of Transportation were closed and many smaller roadways also were impassable. Some 18,000 customers were without power, including some 12,000 in central Pennsylvania.

Some areas near Johnstown, whose history includes several deadly floods, saw five inches (I2.7 centimetres) or more of rain by midafternoon, an inundation that triggered an evacuation order for those downstream from the Wilmore dam.

Cambria County emergency management director and 911 center head Art Martynuska said the water level at the Wilmore dam reached a height that required evacuation.

Nearby Hinckston Run Dam was also being monitored but appeared stable

by late afternoon, he said, by which time water levels at Wilmore dam were receding.

“If that trend continues we’ll be allowing folks to return back to their residences shortly, hopefully by this evening,” Martynuska said. Both dams were considered high-hazard dams that are likely to kill someone were they to fail.

Evacuees were taken to a nearby high school with help from the Red Cross, National Guard, local transit authority and school transportation services, he said.

The 1889 Johnstown flood killed 2,200 people, a disaster blamed on poor maintenance on the South Fork Dam on the Little Conemaugh River. It sent a 36-foot wall of water roaring into a populated area at 40

mph.

The National Weather Service had predicted flooding from what remained of Hurricane Ida, saying steep terrain and even city streets were particularly vulnerable to a band of severe weather that extended from the Appalachians into Massachusetts.

Flash flooding knocked about 20 homes off their foundations and washed several trailers away in Virginia’s mountainous western corner, where about 50 people were rescued and hundreds were evacuated. News outlets reported that one person was unaccounted for in the small mountain community of Hurley.

Water had almost reached the ceilings of basement units when crews arrived at an apartment complex

in Rockville, Maryland, on Wednesday.

A 19-year-old was found dead, another person was missing and about 200 people from 60 apartments near Rock Creek were displaced, Montgomery County Fire Chief Scott Goldstein said Wednesday.

“In many years I have not seen circumstances like this,” Goldstein said.

Tropical Storm Larry was strengthening and moving quickly westward after forming off the coast of Africa earlier Wednesday.

Forecasters predicted it would rapidly intensify in a manner similar to Ida, becoming a major hurricane with top wind speeds of 120 mph (193 kph) by Saturday. Kate remained a tropical depression and was expected to weaken without threatening land.