Unexpected Fury of Storm Pounds Coast of Florida Trump Scorns Own Scientists Over Virus Data

C M Y K Nxxx,2020-09-17,A,001,Bs-4C,E1

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NO COHERENT MESSAGE HUNDREDS ARE RESCUED

Rebukes C.D.C. Chief on Near-Record Flooding Is Vaccine Timeline and Expected in Deluge of Face Masks a Slow Hurricane

By PETER BAKER This article is by Richard Fausset, Rick Rojas and Nicholas Bogel-Bur- WASHINGTON — President roughs. Trump on Wednesday rejected the professional scientific conclu- PENSACOLA, Fla. — Massive sions of his own government National Guard trucks navigated about the prospects for a widely subdivisions engulfed by raging available coronavirus vaccine and floodwaters. Hundreds of people the effectiveness of masks in curb- were rescued from flooded homes ing the spread of the virus as the and cars. And on one suburban death toll in the United States street, a family of four was found from the disease neared 200,000. clinging to a tree as the murky In a remarkable display even brown rainwater unleashed by for him, Mr. Trump publicly Hurricane Sally early Wednesday slapped down Dr. Robert R. Red- swirled below. field, the director of the Centers Through the downtown streets for Disease Control and Preven- of Pensacola, water gushed like a tion, as the president promised river, the flooding at one point that a vaccine could be available reaching higher than five feet. A in weeks and go “immediately” to portion of a major bridge span- ning the bay was wiped out. And the general public while diminish- WILLIAM WIDMER FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES ing the usefulness of masks de- more than 400 people were res- spite evidence to the contrary. Joe Hernandez and his wife, Tammy Hurd, needed assistance from the National Guard on a flooded street in Cantonment, Fla. cued from across Escambia The president’s comments put County, which includes the city of him at odds with the C.D.C., the Pensacola. world’s premier public health “We weren’t expecting it,” said agency, over the course of a pan- Peter McDavid, who owns a re- demic that he keeps insisting is Crash Inquiry Cornered by Fire, and Left to Hope for a Miracle ception venue next to a marina in Pensacola, where a big blue sail- “rounding the corner” to an end. Firefighters assigned each per- Mr. Trump lashed out just hours Scolds Boeing boat had smashed into the railings By JACK HEALY son a number that would deter- of the deck and water had invaded after Dr. Redfield told a Senate and MIKE BAKER In a Tiny Oregon Town, mine who would get on the first committee that a vaccine would SALEM, Ore. — They were helicopter dispatched by the Na- not be widely available until the And the F.A.A. One Final Chance to trapped. As walls of fire and tional Guard. They spoke with a middle of next year and that smoke encircled their town and matter-of-fact calm, even as some masks were so vital in fighting the Outrace an Inferno blocked the roads, the last people privately began to fear the worst disease caused by the coronavi- By NIRAJ CHOKSHI in Detroit, Ore., trickled onto a and tried to get messages of love rus, Covid-19, that they may even The two crashes that killed 346 boat launch beside a half-drained to their families. more important than a vaccine. people aboard Boeing’s 737 Max reservoir — residents and vaca- So as a black dawn broke one Roberto DelaMontaigne, a 25- “I think he made a mistake and led to the worldwide ground- tioners, barefoot children in paja- morning last week, the 80 people year-old volunteer firefighter, when he said that,” Mr. Trump told ing of the plane were the “horrific mas, exhausted firefighters. trapped in the lakeside vacation shoved his personal worries aside reporters. “It’s just incorrect in- culmination” of engineering There were two people on bikes. town on the evergreen slopes of as he cleared away bushes to cre- formation.” A vaccine would go “to flaws, mismanagement and a se- One man rode up on a powerboat. the Cascades huddled together in ate a fire break. Laura Harris, a the general public immediately,” vere lack of federal oversight, the Seven miles to the west, one a blizzard of ash, waiting for a res- volunteer firefighter working the president insisted, and “under Democratic majority on the path to safety out of the mountains cue by air. alongside her husband, wondered no circumstance will it be as late House Transportation and Infra- along Highway 22 was blocked by Jane James sprawled out on the to herself: If the helicopters can- as the doctor said.” As for Dr. Red- structure Committee said in a re- flaming trees and boulders as the pavement with her two dogs. Greg not get in, what would their GERALD HERBERT/ASSOCIATED PRESS field’s conclusion that masks may port on Wednesday. largest of 30 wildfires consuming Sheppard, a former wildland fire- daughter’s life be as an orphan? be more useful than a vaccine, Mr. Winds over 100 miles per hour The report, which condemns Oregon raced through the can- fighter, borrowed a phone to call Through the din of wind and rat- tossed boats and stripped roofs. Trump said that “he made a mis- both Boeing and the Federal Avia- yons. Thirteen miles to the east, his wife. Some people prayed. Oth- tling trees, the crews could occa- take,” maintaining that a “vaccine tion Administration for safety fail- the other way out of town was cov- ers cried. The children, brushing sionally hear the whirring blades is much more effective than the ures, concludes an 18-month in- ered with the wreckage of another off the threat, ate Oreos and of a helicopter above. On the edge from flooded streets and a broken masks.” vestigation based on interviews seething blaze. played in the parking lot. Continued on Page A22 skylight. The sharply divergent mes- with two dozen Boeing and Sally, a stubborn storm that sages further undercut any effort agency employees and an esti- churned as slowly as 2 miles per to forge a coherent response to the mated 600,000 pages of records. hour over the Gulf of Mexico for virus that the United Nations sec- The report argues that Boeing em- two days, slammed into the Flor- retary general on Wednesday phasized profits over safety and ida and Alabama coasts with an called the “No. 1 global security that the agency granted the com- unexpected fury. The storm had threat in our world today.” With pany too much sway over its own been unpredictable from the be- Mr. Trump saying one thing and oversight. ginning, evolving repeatedly in his health advisers saying an- “This is a tragedy that never recent days in its projected path other, many Americans have been should have happened,” said Rep- and strength. As it neared landfall left to figure out on their own resentative Peter A. DeFazio of on Wednesday morning, it esca- whom to believe, with past polls Oregon, the committee chairman. lated into a Category 2 hurricane showing that they have more faith “It could have been prevented, and suddenly veered east, batter- in the experts than their presi- and we’re going to take steps in ing the Florida coast. dent. our legislation to see that it never “I think many of us were beat- The public scolding of Dr. Red- happens again.” ing ourselves up first thing this field was only the latest but per- Republicans on the committee, morning,” said David Morgan, the haps the starkest instance when without issuing their own report, sheriff in Escambia County, citing the president has rejected not just also called for safety improve- forecasts that had the storm strik- Continued on Page A19 Continued on Page A25 ing Alabama and Mississippi. In- stead, it unleashed “devastating effects” on the area, with flooding expected to reach near record lev- els. Saudi Strikes in Yemen Put U.S. Sally had been defined in large part by its sluggish pace, camping In Danger of War Crime Charges out over Gulf waters made warmer than usual by climate change and chugging tediously to- BRYAN DENTON FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES By MICHAEL LaFORGIA and EDWARD WONG ward the coast. Just as forecasters Smoke cloaked Mount Shasta in Northern California on Tuesday as fires ravaged the West Coast. Continued on Page A24 WASHINGTON — The civilian address the legal issues, State De- death toll from Saudi Arabia’s dis- partment leaders have gone to astrous air war over Yemen was great lengths to conceal them. steadily rising in 2016 when the Even after a State Department in- State Department’s legal office in spector general investigation this Beaten on Camera, She Sought Divorce. At First, China Said No. the Obama administration year revealed that the depart- reached a startling conclusion: ment had failed to address the le- low in the central Chinese city of showed that about one in four Top American officials could be gal risks of selling bombs to the By SUI-LEE WEE Shangqiu. The woman, Liu women had suffered physical or charged with war crimes for ap- Saudis, agency officials ensured The husband and wife were Zengyan, said later that it was the Battered Women Face verbal abuse, or had their free- proving bomb sales to the Saudis that details of the finding were put alone in her boutique, but the se- only way she could escape. a Stacked Legal Deck doms restricted by their partners. and their partners. in a classified part of the public re- curity cameras captured it all: As she lay in the hospital after But activists, citing interviews Four years later, more than a port released in August, and then him pushing her down, punching the assault, with fractures in her with abused women, estimate the dozen current and former U.S. of- so heavily redacted that lawmak- her, slapping her and dragging her waist, chest and eye socket and numbers are far higher, especially ficials say the legal risks have only ers with security clearances could by the hair across the floor. her lower limbs temporarily para- biggest issues facing women in after millions were placed under grown as President Trump has not see them. In footage from last year that lyzed, Ms. Liu said, she was deter- China: the prevalence of domestic lockdown during the pandemic. made selling weapons to Saudi At a congressional hearing on recently circulated online, he can mined to leave her husband for violence and the difficulties of get- Though China introduced an Arabia, the United Arab Emirates Wednesday, Democrats on the be seen hauling her into another good. ting justice in a legal system anti-domestic violence law in and other Middle East nations a House Foreign Affairs Committee room. Minutes later, the woman — But a court said no. stacked against them. 2016, penalties are minimal. Mari- cornerstone of his foreign policy. accused the State Department’s her hair flailing — plummets from Ms. Liu’s case has set off a na- A survey conducted by the All- tal rape is still legal, and women Yet rather than taking steps to Continued on Page A12 the second floor onto the street be- tionwide debate about two of the China Women’s Federation in 2011 Continued on Page A11

TRACKING AN OUTBREAK A4-8 BUSINESS B1-7 Inside a Covid Nursing Home A Hint of Economic Weakness In a New Mexico center, residents rely Retail sales in the United States rose on care providers for medical treatment only 0.6 percent in August, prompting and moments of connection. PAGE A6 concerns that the recovery may be running out of steam. PAGE B1 NATIONAL A16-25 INTERNATIONAL A10-14 ARTS C1-6 THURSDAY STYLES D1-6 Barr Urges a Crackdown SPORTSTHURSDAY B8-10 Familiar Faces in Japan Attorney General William P. Barr told A Stroll in Historic Midtown The Big Ten Calls a Reverse A Catwalk in the Covid Era The cabinet of Prime Minister Yoshi- federal prosecutors to consider sedition We explore the area from Carnegie Hall After saying that the conference would The designer Jason Wu tested the run- hide Suga, above, retains many officials charges over protest violence. PAGE A18 to Lincoln Center with the architects not compete until 2021, its leaders cited way’s new normal when he displayed from Shinzo Abe’s team. PAGE A11 Tod Williams and Billie Tsien. PAGE C1 new medical advice in announcing his spring 2021 collection at a rare New York fashion show. PAGE D1 OBITUARIES B11-12 football’s return this fall. PAGE B8 Helping Fellow Targets of Hate Brooklyn Museum Selling Art Music Critic With Deep Views A Jewish group in Germany hopes its The institution will put 12 pieces on the EDITORIAL, OP-ED A26-27 aid to Turkish victims of a 2019 attack is Stanley Crouch saw jazz as a metaphor auction block. The proceeds will pay for a wider message of solidarity. PAGE A10 for democracy. He was 74. PAGE B12 the care of the collection. PAGE C1 Nicholas Kristof PAGE A27 U(D54G1D)y+@!:![!$!"