Author: Danica Coto
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Nicole forms; Florida awaits rare November storm
MIAMI • A Florida-bound storm strengthened into Hurricane Nicole on Wednesday after pounding the Bahamas as U.S. officials ordered evacuations that included former President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago club. It’s a rare November hurricane for storm-weary Florida, where only two such hurricanes have made landfall since recordkeeping began in 1853 — the 1935 Yankee Hurricane and…
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Puerto Ricans desperate for water after Fiona’s rampage
CAGUAS, Puerto Rico • More than a half million people in Puerto Rico remained without water service three days after Hurricane Fiona slammed into the U.S. territory, and many spent hours in lines Wednesday to fill jugs from water trucks while others scooped water from mountain runoff. Sweat rolled down the faces of people in…
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Fiona swipes Turks and Caicos, Puerto Rico faces big cleanup
CAYEY, Puerto Rico • Hurricane Fiona blasted the Turks and Caicos Islands on Tuesday as a Category 3 storm after devastating Puerto Rico, where most people remained without electricity or running water and rescuers used heavy equipment to lift survivors to safety. The storm’s eye passed close to Grand Turk, the small British territory’s capital…
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Puerto Ricans left homeless after biggest quake in century
GUANICA, Puerto Rico • Cars, cots and plastic chairs became temporary beds for hundreds of families who lost their homes in southwest Puerto Rico as a flurry of earthquakes struck the island, one of them the strongest in a century. The magnitude 6.4 quake that struck before dawn on Tuesday killed one person, injured nine…
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‘Total devastation’: Hurricane slams parts of the Bahamas
FREEPORT, Bahamas — Relief officials reported scenes of utter ruin in parts of the Bahamas and rushed to deal with an unfolding humanitarian crisis in the wake of Hurricane Dorian, the most powerful storm on record ever to hit the islands. At least five deaths were reported, with the full scope of the disaster still…
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Dorian hits U.S. Virgin Islands as Category 1 hurricane
SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico • Dorian became a Category 1 hurricane Wednesday as it struck the U.S. Virgin Islands, with forecasters saying it could grow to Category 3 status as it nears the U.S. mainland as early as the weekend. The British Virgin Islands and the Puerto Rican islands of Vieques and Culebra were also…
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Puerto Ricans get their 3rd governor in 6 days
SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico • Justice Secretary Wanda Vázquez became Puerto Rico’s new governor Wednesday, just the second woman to hold the office, after weeks of political turmoil and hours after the island’s Supreme Court declared Pedro Pierluisi’s swearing-in a week ago unconstitutional. Accompanied by her husband, Judge Jorge Díaz, and her daughter, Vázquez took…
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Puerto Ricans savor governor’s resignation, chart new course
SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico • After weeks of flag-waving, cowbell-clanging protests in the streets, Puerto Ricans on Thursday celebrated the resignation of Gov. Ricardo Rosselló, even as they debated where the movement should go from here and how to root out the corruption and other chronic problems that fueled the unrest. Some protesters immediately set…
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Cellphones sought in Puerto Rico as political crisis deepens
SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico • A Puerto Rico judge issued search warrants for the cellphones of government officials involved in a crude online chat whose leak has set off a political crisis that threatens to bring down the U.S. territory’s governor. One of the search warrants said that government officials used the chat to transmit…
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Haitians seek water, food as businesses reopen after protest
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti • Businesses and government offices slowly reopened across Haiti on Monday after more than a week of violent demonstrations by hundreds of thousands of protesters demanding the resignation of President Jovenel Moise over skyrocketing prices that have more than doubled for basic goods amid allegations of government corruption. Public transportation resumed in the…