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Hundreds of flights canceled as Hurricane Florence pummels Carolinas

<p>Citing the relief efforts after Hurricane Maria, President Donald Trump says the federal government is ready for Hurricane Florence. That storm, downgraded to a Category 2 hurricane, is expected to fully hit the Carolinas on Friday.</p><p>"I think that Puerto Rico was an incredible, unsung success," Trump said. </p><p>That's despite <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2018/08/31/health/puerto-rico-deaths-names-update/index.html" target="_blank">new estimates</a> that almost 3,000 people died as a result of the storm — a number Trump now <a href="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1040217897703026689" target="_blank">doesn't believe is accurate</a>, blaming Democrats for inflating the number for political gain. </p><p><b>SEE MORE: <a href="https://www.newsy.com/stories/56e721dfcd9c3dd3363eecc6-54bfc99f8ce7e03f09a4e90c-5a8eeb238ce7e09f1160d1f6/">Resilience: Puerto Rico In Recovery (Trailer)</a></b></p><p>Some of Trump's critics denounced his latest tweets and statements on how he handled the response to Maria almost a year ago. </p><p>"You did not do a good job in Puerto Rico," San Juan Major Carmen Yulín Cruz said.</p><p>"The Trump administration did too little and did it too late," U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren said. </p><p>"If he thinks that's an unparalleled success, god only knows what he would think a failure would be," U.S. Rep. Gerry Connolly said.</p><p>Others argued the criticism of Trump was overly harsh. </p><p>"I think that the FEMA director and others who were there, I think they did everything they possibly could," U.S. Rep. Chris Stewart said. </p><p><b>SEE MORE: <a href="https://www.newsy.com/stories/why-a-category-2-hurricane-florence-is-still-dangerous/">Hurricane Categories Don't Tell You Anything About The Water</a></b></p><p>But politics aside, FEMA says it learned from its shortcomings in responding to Maria and other disasters last year. And those lessons are helping the agency better prepare for Hurricane Florence.</p><p>In <a href="https://www.fema.gov/media-library-data/1531743865541-d16794d43d3082544435e1471da07880/2017FEMAHurricaneAAR.pdf" target="_blank">a report released last July</a>, FEMA admitted it was insufficiently prepared to handle multiple hurricanes in a short amount of time — Hurricane Irma struck the Caribbean two weeks before Hurricane Maria. As a result, the agency didn't have nearly enough supplies or qualified staff to send to Puerto Rico.</p><p>We should note the response to Hurricane Maria was made especially challenging by these one-off factors: It was the third major hurricane of the season, it struck outside the continental U.S., and Puerto Rico's electric grid and financial situation was already in disarray.</p><p>By comparison, Hurricane Florence is the first major hurricane of 2018, so FEMA and local authorities have had more time to prepare. </p><p>The FEMA report also mentioned what it called collaboration and communication "shortfalls" with Puerto Rican government officials. </p><p>To avoid those issues, the agency created <a href="https://www.fema.gov/fema-integration-teams" target="_blank">FEMA Integration Teams</a>, which are groups of experts and technicians permanently deployed in various states to help local officials better prepare for future disasters. North Carolina was <a href="https://www.fema.gov/news-release/2018/04/17/fema-launches-first-fema-integration-team-north-carolina-0" target="_blank">the first state to receive that support</a>.</p><p>As for the power outage that left <a href="https://www.google.com/search?q=millions+without+electricity+months&oq=millions+without+electricity+months&aqs=chrome..69i57.13119j0j7&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8" target="_blank">hundreds of thousands of Puerto Ricans in the dark for months</a>, the agency will now rely on workers from private power companies to begin repairs after Florence. <a href="https://www.tdworld.com/electric-utility-operations/bracing-impact-more-40000-workers-17-states-prepare-hurricane-florence" target="_blank">An industry magazine</a> says more than 40,000 workers from at least 17 states have already been mobilized.</p><hr><b>Trending stories at <a href="http://www.newsy.com">Newsy.com</a></b><ul class="inline-related-links"><li><a href="http://www.newsy.com/stories/gm-recalls-more-than-1m-vehicles-over-power-steering-defect/">GM Recalls More Than 1M Vehicles Over Power Steering Defect</a></li><li><a href="http://www.newsy.com/stories/preparing-children-for-dangers-of-hurricane-florence/">How Parents Can Help Kids Understand The Dangers Of Hurricanes</a></li><li><a href="http://www.newsy.com/stories/us-sanctions-2-companies-for-being-north-korean-fronts/">US Sanctions 2 Companies For Being North Korean Fronts</a></li></ul>
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About 1,100 flights scheduled for Friday and Saturday have been canceled as a result of Hurricane Florence, according to the flight tracking site FlightAware.com. That's in addition to more than 600 cancellations Thursday.

Operations at many airports along the coast remain suspended as the storm pummels the Carolinas.

The Category 1 hurricane made landfall at 7:15 a.m. ET Friday near Wrightsville Beach, North Carolina, east of Wilmington.

Service at Wilmington International Airport was suspended Wednesday and is expected to remain halted through Friday, FlightAware said. Operations at airports in New Bern, Fayetteville and Jacksonville, North Carolina, and Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, are also expected to remain suspended through Friday.

Runways at South Carolina's Charleston International Airport closed late Wednesday and may reopen around 6 p.m. ET Friday, pending facility, infrastructure and airport staffing assessments, according to FlightAware.

Hundreds of miles inland in North Carolina, Charlotte Douglas International and Raleigh-Durham international airports have seen some of the most significant cancellation numbers, with more than 400 across the two airports on Friday, according to FlightAware figures.

Operations at additional regional airports across the Carolinas are also suspended.

Wind and the tidal surge will be the biggest issues for airports in the coastal Carolinas as the storm hits, FlightAware spokeswoman Sara Orsi said. "Once the storm moves further inland ..., the biggest issue will be rain and thunderstorms," she said.

FlightAware doesn't anticipate closures at any East Coast hubs (Charlotte, Atlanta or any Washington-area airports), limiting "cascading disruption to the rest of the nation's airport system," Orsi said in a statement Thursday.

Airlines have extended waivers and advisories for travelers with itineraries involving airports in the path of the storm.

Carriers including American Airlines, Delta Air Lines, Southwest Airlines, United Airlines, Alaska Airlines, JetBlue Airways and Spirit Airlines have all posted information for travelers online about fee-free changes to affected itineraries this week.

All four major US airlines have said they are capping selected airfares below what last-minute tickets would cost. Last year, some airlines caught flack because of high fares in advance of Hurricane Irma.

Rail and cruise ship travel have also been affected by the dangerous storm.

Amtrak modified East Coast service on a number of routes from Wednesday through Sunday. Many routes in the affected areas have been canceled or will operate on modified schedules during some or all of that period.

Service alerts, passenger notices and other announcements are posted at Amtrak.com/alerts. Passengers can sign up for delay alerts online.

Amtrak will waive charges for reservation changes for the affected period and routes. Call the reservations center at 800-USA-RAIL.

Some cruise ships have rerouted ships or delayed sailings this week due to the storm, according to the website CruiseCritic.com.

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