Monday morning news: September 2, 2019

Dorian slams Bahamas, tracks toward Southeastern U.S. » Winds gusting above 200 miles per hour and massive storm surge began pummeling the Bahamas on Sunday. Dorian slammed into the islands as a category 5 hurricane. 

National Hurricane Center Director Ken Graham said this is a slow-moving and relentless monster of a storm. 

GRAHAM: 30 hours-plus of very slow movement, major hurricane winds over the northern Bahamas, torrential rainfall. We’re talking 15 to 25, isolated, 30 inches of rain in some of these areas.  We’re talking storm surge 10 to 15 feet with the waves. Just a very dangerous, dangerous situation. 

The storm is moving slowly toward Florida and will approach the coast later tonight. But where it’s going next, we still don’t know exactly. Forecasters expect Dorian to take a right turn up the Atlantic coastline.   

Florida and Georgia have been bracing for this hurricane for days, but three other states could be in its path. South Carolina Governor Henry McMaster said officials in his state are getting ready. 

MCMASTER: We have already begun the movement of people and material and equipment to the places where it needs to be, and whatever happens we’ll be ready, and we will certainly keep you informed of what is happening. 

Likewise in North Carolina, where Governor Roy Cooper said first responders and the National Guard are preparing. 

COOPER: We are working to prepare shelters and mass feedings in case of evacuations. Our state and local transportation people, shelter workers and law enforcement officers are on alert. 

Virginia could also see hurricane winds and storm surge later this week. 

Dorian’s cone of uncertainty is a wide one. Best-case, the storm makes a hard right turn, spinning back out to sea.

Worst-case, the eye could track straight up the center of Florida along Interstate-75 or straddle the shore—shredding the coastline all the way up to Georgia. 

Death rises from West Texas shooting rampage » The death toll has risen from a Saturday shooting rampage in West Texas. At least seven people died after a gunman shot more than 20 people in the Midland and Odessa area. 

The shooting began when police stopped the suspect for failing to use his turn signal. After exchanging gunfire with police, the shooter fled, later hijacking a mail carrier truck. He then drove around and fired at random. 

Police shot and killed him the gunman outside a movie theater in Odessa. 

TURNER: To have a coward do something like this, you just ask yourself why? 

Odessa Mayor David Turner told Fox News that for him the tragedy is personal. 

TURNER: Just found out a friend of mine passed away. He was sitting in his car at a light and this coward pulls up and shot him – with his family in the car. 

The gunman was a white male in his mid-30s. Investigators have not publicly named him or a possible motive.

Saudi-led airstrikes kill at least 60 in Yemen » The Saudi-led coalition in Yemen launched a series of airstrikes on Sunday that killed at least 60 people. The coalition, fighting Yemen’s rebels, reportedly attacked a detention center in southwestern Yemen. 

The coalition denied it hit a jail, saying it had targeted a military site.

But it has faced widespread criticism for airstrikes that have killed civilians and hit non-military targets.

A spokesman for the Houthi-run Health Ministry, said at least seven airstrikes hit three buildings in the complex overnight.

World leaders mark the 80th anniversary of start of WWII » A military salute in Poland on Sunday…

AUDIO: [Sound of cannons]

Cannons firing during a memorial ceremony marking the 80th anniversary of the start of World War II in Warsaw. Leaders from several nations paid tribute to victims of the war. 

Germany’s president expressed deep remorse for the suffering his nation inflicted on Poland and the rest of Europe during World War II. President Frank-Walter Steinmeier said—quote—“This war was a German crime.” 

Vice President Mike Pence praised Polish people who he said have been an inspiration to the world. 

PENCE: During the five decades of untold struggle and suffering that followed World War II, the Polish people never lost hope. You never gave into despair, and you never let go of your thousand-year history. 

Some who saw the ravages of the war with their own eyes attended the ceremony—including Polish war veterans wearing military uniforms. A Holocaust survivor was also there wearing a yellow Star of David and the striped clothes that prisoners wore at Nazi German death camps.

(NOAA via AP) This GOES-16 satellite image taken Saturday, Aug. 31, 2019, at 16:00 UTC and provided by National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), shows Hurricane Dorian, right, churning over the Atlantic Ocean. 

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