easily, and wrap her head around their breakup. >> she told me she wanted to have an apartment in panama city just spend some time in the city and get out of bocas. cause it was such a small community and -- >> she was getting a little tired of it? >> yeah, you just keep bumping into the same people, having to tell the same story. and she was just ready for a little break of bocas. >> it's not unusual for people to come and go around here. after all, the easy-going lifestyle is part of the island's charm. but cher's friends and family said it wouldn't be like her to leave so abruptly. leave her cherished island with all of her belongings still here. >> reporter: cher's aunt mary started phoning cher's friends in panama. >> we immediately started calling her friends and everyone going, "what's going on?" and everyone was saying "you know cher. she might've just gone -- for a week. and you know, lost her phone, and we're like, "well, ok, maybe." >> reporter: mary logged on to cher's facebook page and reached out to those friends. >> "where's cher?" and they're going, "i don't know. but we're ma

. >> reporter: block after block giant piles of debris are rotting on the sidewalks in panama city andfficials say it might not be cleared until the end of the year. hurricane michael slammed into the panhandle five weeks ago killing nearly 30 people and destroying thousands of homes and businesses. recovery here has been slow. how long have you been out here? >> about two days because it's been cold. >> reporter: after the storm, arieynna nichols went from living in the apartment to staying in shelters. she suffers from a chronic condition that keeps her in a wheelchair. >> my daughter had her first tee ball game five days before the hurricane hit. we were living normal lives. >> reporter: for the last few days, she's been sleeping in this tent city with her 4-year-old daughter and more than 100 other hurricane survivors. more than 95,000 people in the disaster zone have asked fema for help. so far, just over 25,000 have been approved for housing assistance. a fema official told cbs news other applicants are waiting for insurance claims to be processed before they're approved for fede

>> yes, i do. >> reporter: panama city mayor greg brudniki sayings the city foying to move forward, but admits it's going to take a long time to rebuild. do you still need help? >> you betcha we need help. we were not planning on a catastrophic event that was going to absolutely carpet-bomb this area, and it happened. c reporter: this is a common scene here in panama city-- homes that have been damaged but n ven't even been worked on yet. the mayor says less than half of the debris has been removed, and, jeff, there hasn't been any big benefit concert or telethon for victims, so the city started its own non-profit to raise money to try to raise money for its own recovery effort. >> glor: okay, omar, thank you very much. john mccain's widow, cindy, sat ucwn with john dickerson today, in her first interview since her husband's death. iey discussed president trump in part, who was frequently at odds with the mcca al give me the sum total of where we are right now. what is your feeling about the president? >> oh, gosh, i think, i think g 's questioning himself right now, as to where he goes

good morning again, t.j. >> reporter: good morning to you, strahan, and, look, you can argue panama cityber 10th but this cleanup is because of a mess they gladly made themselves last night. yeah, we good a lot going on. a lot of work still going on this morning, but they gladly made the mess themselves and have a lot in the community still without homes so having a thanksgiving meal wasn't in the cards, then these folks stepped up with hundreds more volunteers and said, hey, we got 450 turkey, let us cook for you. hurricane michael was a monster. the strongest storm to ever hit the florida panhandle, its primary target panama city. the storm virtually wiped out this coastal community, thousands were left homeless. some schools were so badly damaged that they were only able to re-open last week, a full month after the storm. >> come on, y'all. >> reporter: their first order of business, turkey. 5,000 pounds of it. >> these are the largest. they'll take longer. >> reporter: bay high school's culinary director greg bailey had what he admits was a crazy idea, get his students to prepare a t

we're in panama city.damage. third-most powerful hurricane ever to hit the u.s. so, we wanted to shine a light on what's going on here. let's take a quick look and show you what's going on as far as your weather is concerned and tell you more about it on the backside. we're looking at severe weather making its way through the gulf that's ways going open around the country. here's what's happening in your neck of the woods. >> good morning, i'm meteorologist kari hall. live look outside in san jose where we're seeing sunshine, dry roads and more people out. our high temperatures heading to 57 for the middle of the afternoon. we will also be watching the next storm system that's going to bring us a quick round of rain during the overnight and early morning hours. it starts to reach into the north bay right at about midnight and continuing to move through early tomorrow morning. >> and that's your latest weather. i'm here with our sponsor, one of our sponsors, from state farm, dawn mckenzie. why did you decid

just up the coast in panama city, cleanup is still under way. mayor greg brudniki says less than half of the debris has been picked up. do you still need help? >> you betcha we need help. >> how many, just one? >> reporter: even the city workers helping with recovery are still rebuilding their own lives. >> well, water leaks, and the whole roof fell. >> reporter: jorge del valle, adrien latorre, and alan forbes are all working for the city while living in a hotel. their homes were destroyed. jorge lost all of his possessions in hurricane michael. but his family barely survived. jorge, your kids keep you going. >> yeah, we're survivors. we can-- we can go back now. >> reporter: we found more than 100 others living in this makeshift tent city outside of a church, struggling to get back to normal. for some of these people that we've talked to, everything they own is in or outside of the tent covered in tarps, and some people have been here since the day after the storm. the federal emergency management agency has been placing people in shelters and

all right. >>> but first, down to al in panama city. >>y, guys, thanks so much.d women, the first responders, not just the fire and police. we have got also folks from salvation army. we have got folksro f habitat for humanity,lt animal ser volunteers all helping to rebuild after hurricane michael. a quick look at your weekend weather, show you what's happening. we are looking tomorrow we are going to see stronstorms down through the southeast. look for heavy snow through the rockies. now and wind through the plains blizzard conditions. sunday, sunday we are looking at it's turning mildner the mid-atlantic state. wet weather in the east coast. rain in the pacific northwest. that's what's going on around the country. here's what's happeni o in your nef the woods. >> soood. >>> i'm storm team4 meteorologist chuck bell. dloud outside. there are areas of rain acrosst parts of c virginia and northern virginia now. a couple of raindrops which could includele pellet or two in winchester and loudon county. temperatures are at or above the freezing mark. precipitation is

just up the coast in panama city, cleanup is still under way.eg brudniki says less than half of the debris has been picked up. >> do you still need help? >> you betcha we need help. >> how many? just one? >> reporter: even the city workers helping with the recovery are still rebuilding their own lives. >> well, water leaks and the whole roof fell. >> reporter: jorge del valle, adrian latour, and alan forbes are all working for the city while living in a hotel. their homes were destroyed. jorge lost all of his possessions in hurricane michael. but his family barely survived. >> jorge, your kids keep you going. >> yeah. we're survivors. we can go back now. >> reporter: we found more than 100 others living in this makeshift tent city outside of a church. struggling to get back to normal. for some of these people we've talked to, everything they own is in or outside of the tent covered in tarps, and some people have been here since the day after the storm. the federal emergency management agency has been placing people in shelters and hotels, but so

. >> reporter: panama city mayor gre greg brudnicki says the city is trying to move forward, but it's going to take a long time to we rest build. >> do you still need help? >> you bet we need hem. we were not publicing on a catastrophic ent bombed this area, and it happened. >> reporter: this is a common scene here in panama city, homes that have been damaged but haven't even been worked on yet. the mayor says half of the the brie has been removed. jeff, there hasn't been any big concert or benefit for victims so, the city started its own nonprofit to try to raise money >> okay, omar, thank you very much. >>> the department of veterans affairs said today it is trying to speed up benefits payments to thousands of veterans who are struggling to cover their education and housing billings. chip reid says the delays are being blamed on computer problems. shea washington is an air force veteran who served in afghanistan. she is working on a masters in business and had hoped to graduate next year, but now her plans are on hold. she depends on tuition assistance through the gi bill, but the p

but officis in bay county, where the hardest hit cities of mexico beach and panama city are located, complain e federal emergency management agency has been slow to provide its residents with fema rs. >> people feel like fema doesn't help them. they estimate around 2,000 people have qualified for some sort of housing assistance. right now there's less than probably a dozen what we nsider fema trailers in bay county. they tell us they're going to ramp those numbers up to 25 daily. i'd love to see that. it's hard to believe at the rate they're going right now. >> reporter: although almost 1700 people have been approv for trailers in the five worst- hit counties, fema has supplied just 40 in the month-and-a-half since rricane. that means many floridians are spending the holidays out in the elements. michael cannon weathered the hurricane in his mobile home. this is all that's left. >> it's total devastation. the two bedrooms are gone.ki the tchen, the walls. i watched the walls ripple like a rippling like this as thesh floor waing. it was scary. >> reporte these two tents with his famil

some windy conditions for you but also very rainy down here across parts of costa rica even into panama citywe do expect to see a temperature with rain of twenty nine. xenophobic violent and beating the drum for an ethnic civil war in the heart of europe. or infiltrates one of the continent's fosters growing far right organizations. and exposes links to members of the european parliament supported by marine le pen national rugby park. generation hate. the special tupac investigation coming soon on the. stories of life. and inspiration. a series of short documentaries from around the wilds. that celebrate the human spirit. against the arts. al-jazeera selects palestinians. we understand the differences. and the similarities of cultures across the world so no matter how you take it al-jazeera will bring you the news and current events that matter to al-jazeera. this is al-jazeera. along daryn jordan this is the opposite news hour live from doha coming up in the next sixty minutes top u.s. officials are to brief the senate on saudi arabia turkey wattles the search for journalist his body. ukrai

western extreme, pensacola, panama city areas will have to deal with rain and thunderstorms.hat snowy weather in mont mobt frana from missoula. cold and almost like winter. >> expect that around those parts. bill, thank you. still to come, one of the most popular musical groups in the world is getting back together. we'll tell you wlho when we com back on "early today." ck yeah i! it concentrated detergent plus stain fighters plus odor flighers that fight for clean. boom! ugh... tide pods. if it's clean, it's got to be tide. for you, it's always now over later. and pause. not even in your vocabulary. so when a cold sore tingle strikes. you act on it. only abreva can get rid of a cold sore in as little as 2 1/2 days when used at the first sign. it start to work immediately to block the virus and protect healthy cells. nothing gets rid of a cold sore faster. and because abreva acts on it... you can too. act on it, with abreva. >>> let's bring in another board. i want to show you district by district party break downs in local texas neighborhoods. here we go right here. sorry, t

see some windy conditions few but also very rainy down here across parts of costa rica even into panama citywe do expect to see a temperature with rain of twenty nine. capturing a moment in time. snapshots of the night. other stories. providing a glimpse into someone else's wild. inspiring documentaries from impassioned filmmakers. witness documentaries to open your eyes on al-jazeera. never again you're watching al-jazeera as a reminder of our top stories this hour u.s. actions take my palm parents actually of defense james mattis or brief senators on wednesday on the latest developments related to saudi arabia comes as to police investigating the murder of saudi journalist mark associate search to just northwest of istanbul. ukraine's parliament has backed president petro poroshenko decision to impose martial law for thirty days after of tensions with russia on sunday russian forces opened fire on and seized three cranium boats off the coast of crimea. and u.s. called make it general motors is shutting down five manufacturing plants across north america fourteen thousand jobs will be lost

blue and yellow lines will shut down for repairs between braddock and panama city. >>> the search isfor a brazen serial thief. video show him reaching into the car and taking the parking permits. apparently they can sell for a lot of cash on the black market. >>> weaw a pretty crazy scene this morning in melbourne. a fire, stabbing and a shooting. why police are now calling it a rror attack. >> and former first lady michelle obama getting very personal in her new book from her struggles sta >>> scary moments in australia when a man went on a stabb rage on a busy strt in melbourne. you can m see a swinging a knife at police ofencers. just m earlier police say the man emerged from a burning pickup truck, stabbed three bystanders. one of them was killed. >> eventually the police shot and killed the suspect. they're treating it as an act of terrorism. er>>> prote across the country are speaking out about president trump's choice to lead the justice department. >> they think he's biased about the russia investigation and robert mueller. tracee potts has more fromca pitol hill. >> reporter

see some windy conditions few but also very rainy down here across parts of costa rica even into panama citywe do expect to see a temperature with rain of twenty nine. once welcomed now fear. dividing a nation. al-jazeera explores germany's long term economic strategy of pursuing immigrants from the arab world i feel more just among the syrian. the much money does a richer get those paper and put up think that it's been one german and american the new germans on al-jazeera. and monday put it well on the. us and british companies have announced the biggest discovery of natural gas in west africa but what to do with these untapped natural resources is already a source of heated debate nothing much has changed they still spend most of their days looking forward to for dry riverbeds like this one five years on the syrians still feel battered or even those who managed to escape their country haven't truly been able to escape the war. welcome back a quick reminder the top stories here on al-jazeera u.s. secretary of state mike pompei o. and secretary defense jim mattis will brief senators on wedne

just as we watch the deterioration around the coastline, it was bad in panama city beach, but i've neverhing like this. >> i will never forget flying over and meeting all these amazing people who just had lost everything in mexico beach. it's been about five weeks since that category four storm hit the florida panhandle. and today even amidst the destruction, families are coming together, making sure everyone has a hot meal and feel at home. here is martin savidgsavidge. >> reporter: there w >> there was a building here, i promise. >> reporter: as michael shows me what used to be his restaurant, it's obvious the pain is still fresh. >> an open kitchen where everybody could see what was going on. >> reporter: it's gone. hal summers was general manager. he's lost his job and his home. both men could have wallowed in self-pity and left town. instead they decided to help the only way they could. they cooked. in a church parking lot amidst of roar of generators and grill, they began feeding first responds are and residents three times a day, seven days a week, for free. they call it camp happ

our severe weather threat today is all of the areas of southern alabama from mobile to panama city tollahassee. the storms will be a little weaker as they trek into arieas of the southeast coast. rest of the country looks okay today. rain ending in st. louis as we go throughout the day. friday, it is going to pour early in the morning in areas of new england especially. then we get a line of storms here through the southeast. as we head through the weekend into saturday, we're going to see another storm on that front heading up through new england. two period of heavy rain with two separate storms, one friday morning, the other one saturday morning heading through the northeast. and we have another clipper system coming down through the plains. by sunday the east coast clears out for a beautiful fall day. we like the sunday forecast because in new york city that's the new york city marathon. we are going to start off chilly and brooeezy, about 46 degrees. then it should be perfect conditions during the afternoon. i am running my first marathon on sunday new york city. >> wow. [ applau

let me use an example, bay county florida, where panama city is, was hit by a category 4 hurricane about to the day of this election. they were without power, you guys covered all of this. they didey all of their ballotst a 52% turnout rate, despite the hurricane. they did all their ballots, submitted them on time, they were done basically on election night.it earlier the following morning. broward county is still counting, and they didn't have a category 4 hurricane, and it is not the first time that they did this. problem number two is we don't know how many votes they have, either they don't knowt where they won't tell anybody, how many ballots are left to count and so forth. it's concerning when you go to sleep at 3:00 a.m. on wednesday morning after the election and for example, rick scott is up by 50,000 votes, whatever it was, today is at 17,000. the only counties that are still reporting our palm beach and broward. who have a history, by the way, of these things. broward county lost to the republican party a while back becausent they were opening up absentee ballots and beginning

master class a few showers just east of hate in dominican republic but not much else even down in panama city as wet as it was it's mexico's been the focus recently just off shore from mexico there is a small tropical storm but beyond that the showers are fewer as well if you watch the energies up in the u.s. itself where the cold winter's been kept a long way indoors but we've had incursions acoa through the rockies that's always cloud here and a very obvious system on the eastern seaboard which is on its way offshore so bit of an unpleasant day in new york day on shore breeze i think was rain but this line here could well develop through the eastern plains moving eastwards. the weather sponsored by qatar airways. in the eighteen seventy's hundreds of will genia as were banished to the farthest corner of an empire where their descendents still live today. my grandparents died with a heavy heart they left everything behind. you don't deal with lame argyria and identity it's always present inside as this french territory in the pacific prepares to vote on independence al-jazeera world tells th

i can't believe those troops aren't being sent to puerto rico, panama city and florida that need the reconstruction. it is a ploy to gin up his base and get people out to vote based on fooer and hysteria and angst. the only way this changes is if people reject this at the ballot box on tuesday. >> where is general mattis? is he okay with this? >> that was the ambiguous statement. we don't know if what he's saying is he won't let the president go too far or what we're doing is not a stunt. i find it fascinating they put out the president scripted yesterday and at that rally last night. that was an unusually scripted rally. >> what do you think that message is? >> they don't trust him right now because they are nervous what will happen if he does. he was weighing in by saying the momentum statement. and then, frank, this gets to something you have written that's out this morning. but it's for the weekend review this weekend. your focus is on how to democrats focus this on 2020, but it really applies to now. >> yeah. >> so the democrats have been struggling with this since before 2016 b

by the way, i do want to mention, you had a truck circulating panama city, the most recent hurricane. they had no clean water. >> so we were involved in all the hurricane rescues and all the after the floods in texas, we were in port arthur, texas, in miami, florida. we generated thousands of gallons of water. the beauty of having a truck is it's mobile. so we can go to areas that have a problem with water and as a result, we produce the water, you don't have to truck water in every day. you don't have to resupply. as long as we have power, we are able to create water. liz: i find it fascinating. the company is watergen, usa. ready to open three to four plants more here in the united states. thank you. >> it's been a pleasure. thank you very much. liz: by the way, last night at the ces award ceremony in manhattan, watergen, usa was awarded most innovative technology for ces 2019. >>> dow jones industrials coming up off the floor as we speak. down now just about 175 points. they say an apple a day keeps the doctor away. with the closing bell ringing in 39 minutes, now an apple a day is

hurricane michael appears to have done its worse in panama city, florida, and nearby areas. but alabama's second district was also badly impacted in several counties in the wire grass region. in fact, hurricane michael is the most powerful storm to ever hit houston county, according to recorded history. in my district, the agricultural community faces the most significant devastation. while the full scale of the damage to local agriculture is still being assessed, hurricane michael dealt a terrible blow to our cotton, timber, and peanut farmers. in the aftermath of the storm, i traveled to the wire grass several times to be with our farmers and to see firsthand what they were experiencing. the devastation is heartbreaking, to say the least. the farmers in southeast alabama are in the midst of a very real crisis. in alabama's second district, agriculture is the backbone of our economy. throughout my time in congress, i have you made it a priority to fight for our farmers of all commodities. their work to provide food and fiber we depend on is vitally important. i will continu

we know since in two hours this is hitting landfall at ground 0 about panama city, that track has beensolid there. the local authorities have had ample warning and the national hurricane center was right on the money. a lot of that ability to forecast so accurately has come because this committee has authorized the assets and i want to say that this one is a big one. when you get above 100 miles an hour, the destructive force goes up exponentially and because of the hot water of the gulf, it has fueled it up to 140 miles an hour with wind gusts up to 107. that will just about level most any structure unless it is made of concrete and steel and that is the destructive force that we see approaching the florida coast right now which i will be going back as soon as we passed the water bill, i will be headed back. so all of the agencies that this committee has jurisdiction, department of transportation, coast guard, noah, i visited with those representatives in the emergency operations center in florida just the other day. i wanted to make that statement before taking off. >> thank you, sen

the one woman that was talking about florida, panama city had the right idea. building intop flood zones, we will have the time there is a storm. the same thing in houston. all those houses that were flooded in houston were built on a floodplain. they were first told they were not supposed to build on the floodplain. then it was ok for them to build on the floodplain. host: you mentioned florida and some of the coastal areas. what about inland california where the fires are continuing to rage? what about the midwest, where they see drought on a regular basis? caller: i don't think there is anything you can do about drought. that is something that is going to happen regardless of what we're doing as human beings. i agree with the caller that said instead of the president yelling at people for not taking care of the forests, he should instead army out there of at the mexican border. they should be doing something that is helping everyone. host: more of your calls in a moment. some facebook comments. ben writes, where is the proof except when the computer says? ba

bay county, florida, where panama city is, was hit by a category 4 hurricane about four weeks to thethis election. they were without power. they did all their ballots, submitted them on time. they were done basically on election night. problem number two is, we don't know how many votes they have. either they don't know or they won't tell anybody how many ballots are left to count and so forth. steve: senator rubio in a series of tweets yesterday said the courts found improperly handled votes and destroyed ballots in 2016 in violation of state law and federal law. and so you have got that as a background as they are mysteriously finding more votes. katie: other issue here in terms of legal problem is the early voting numbers that were in on sunday were -- they are counted on tuesday by florida law standards. and here we are getting to the weekend and those early totals are still being counted in broward county. steve: they were busy. katie: very busy. brian: you have some power in florida. when you see marco rubio that exercised. he is not known as a fire brand orsonizationalist. he

joining us from panama city, florida, dan bongino. >> good to be with you all.e senate? >> republicans hold the house. i think we definitely take it to the bank, add seats in the senate. but let me give you some benchmark races. a couple i haven't heard a lot about. you hear about the andy barr a lot on house side, one of the races slipping under the radar indicative after trend people should pay attention to, steve, will hurd's race in texas. the identity politic people on the left told us forever, since donald trump elected there is rebellion amongst hispanic voters. they can't stand donald trump. how is it that a race in southern texas, largely dominated by hispanic voters the republican is up in the polls significantly? by the way in a district that is very swing. doesn't make any sense. florida 27. salazar and donna donna shalala. i think we could hold the house by a few. brian: will hurd, across the country with the famous dialogue, with beto o'rourke. he got in a car, said there would be a way to come together republicans and democrats. oops, that didn't

pensacola, panama city, tallahassee, the rest of florida does look like it's going to be okay for election day. the severe weather threat, as i mentioned, chance of tornadoes later on tonight, these could be overnight tornadoes, too, those are the ones that tend to be the most deadly, people are asleep. make sure you have your phones charged if you get alerts on your phones. these are areas of mississippi, southern tennessee and northern alabama. for election day itself we have 35 million people under a slight risk of severe storms from atlanta, we have the governor race here in georgia, and then the chance of strong storms through the carolinas into areas of richmond and d.c. and philadelphia. active weather over the next two days. i know we will be diving deep into the election stuff on "morning joe" but don't be surprised if you wake up and we are hearing about bad tornadoes that occurred later on tonight into tomorrow morning. washington, d.c. you are under light rain this morning, that ends this afternoon and tomorrow afternoon a chance of some severe storms. you're watching "morning

russian partners at a number of his other sort of licensed deals, projects in other cities outside russia. toronto, panama, soho in new york city. it was russian money, russian buyers involved in those places. you know, i think he saw this as like, well, let's go to the source. why deal with russian buyers in new york or in florida when i can just go to russia? there's probably a lot more russian money there. i think that's part of the attraction. >> we have a couple seconds left. i have to ask you, bob o'brien was a lender that did business with donald trump at a time when few were willing to separately. deutsche bank headquarters in germany raided today. is anyone drawing a parallel? >> deutsche bank has had a lot of trouble with money laundering accusations that had nothing to do, as far as we know, with donald trump. i don't believe this is connect the with trump f. they raid the house on park avenue where trip's personal banker gave out loans, i would think there is a connection. so far i haven't seen one. >> david farenthold, thank you for your great work and always great contribution s to this broa

more downpours through parts of panama and into costa rica to the north of all of that is fine and dry the temperatures have got a little bit higher now a new mexico city which should be up to twenty four degrees which is seventy five in faran height now for north america here we've seen plenty of cloud in the east this gave us a very heavy downpours as it would its way across us and is being followed by yet another weather system here that's still going to be with us during the remainder of the day still giving some shop showers a more persistent rain further north as well quite widespread here eleven in. the winter sponsored by count on riis. you're watching the news hour live from the headquarter is. coming up in the next sixty minutes sources tell al jazeera the american cia director has now seen all evidence and relation to the murder of jon. americans go to the polls voting in one of the most divisive u.s. midterm elections a year exiled activists urged the international community to stop china's discrimination of ethnic muslim. national governing body rolled in the wake of a six of the war in the program. hello turkish sources have told al jazee

panama papers. the final hour of "squawk box" begins right now ♪ >> announcer: live from the most powerful city in the >>> good morning and welcome back to "squawk box" here on cnbc live from the nasdaq market site in times square. i'm joe kernin along with becky quick and andrew ross sorkin and futures right now are down, kind of in the middle of where they've been they were down 50. they were down 100 now down 80. we're down 42 on the nasdaq which had a good day obviously, the tech did rebound. a little fullback on the opening it looks like. s&p down 12. treasury yields, on the ten-year, anyway, right at 3%. the 3.012. and oil is weak again. interesting cross-currents it's not only about the equity markets. there are interesting things happening across the board >> we're watching three big stories this morning one, midweek rally the dow and s&p 500 turning in their best day since march after jay powell said they thinks the interest rate level is near a neutral level. we will learn more today from the fed. we'll get the minutes of its last meeting which are due out at 2:00 p.m. number two, a raid at

in panama city, the shallow water response teams provided food, water, and oxygen and ensured the relocation of over 130 nursing home residents, 35 of which were bedridden, and they saw them to safety and medical care in as far away as pensacola. the coast guard also conducted damage assessments to facilitate the reopening of the florida waterways and ports. and this isn't something new. the coast guard provided similar efforts to florida, the u.s. virgin islands and puerto rico following hurricanes irma and maria last fall. if there is a disaster, aside from the federal agency that is tasked with providing for that disaster -- fema -- you can bet your boots that the coast guard is going to be there. during just five weeks of the 2017 hurricane season a year ago, the coast guard saved over 11,000 people and more than 1,000 pets and mobilized nearly 3,000 personnel. for hurricane maria alone a year ago, the coast guard deployed over 500 personnel with seven helicopters, 17 planes, and 14 cutters. and you know the devastation that hurricane maria did on the island of puerto rico. on behalf of