An Atlantic City casino owner says he'll take in people fleeing the powerful hurricane due to strike the East Coast this week.
Bruce Deifik told The Associated Press on Sept. 12, that he will let anyone fleeing the storm stay for free at his Ocean Resort Casino until it has passed.
People must show identification proving that they live in an area endangered by the storm.
“It’s the right thing to do,” he said. “We’ve got plenty of rooms and we'll let people stay until the storm has passed.”
Deifik would not draw a geographic boundary for those who are eligible for the offer. But he is defining that area liberally, saying that all reasonable requests for shelter will be accepted as long as rooms remain.
“They have to show proof that they live in an area that is threatened with a direct hit or an area in danger,” he said. “Ninety-five percent of people I’m sure will be honest about it. There’s always going to be some scammers, but if it takes letting a few of them slip by in order to help the majority of people, then so be it.”
The Carolinas are bracing for Hurricane Florence, which was threatening a corridor of more than 10 million people on Sept. 12.
Georgia, Virginia, Maryland, and North and South Carolina have declared states of emergency.
Hurricane Florence’s Winds and Rain Begin Lashing Carolinas
The outer bands of wind and rain from Hurricane Florence began lashing North Carolina on Sept. 13, as the monster storm moved in for an extended stay along the Southeastern coast, promising to drench the properties of 10 million people with immense amounts of water.Florence’s top sustained wind speeds dropped from a high of 140 miles per hour to 110 miles per hour as its outer rain bands approached the North Carolina coast early Sept. 13, reducing the storm from Category 4 to Category 2, but forecasters warned that the enormous wind field has been growing larger, raising the risk of the ocean surging on to land.
As of 8 a.m. EDT, it was centered about 170 miles east-southeast of Wilmington, North Carolina, and about 220 miles east-southeast of Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, moving northwest at 12 miles per hour. Florence’s hurricane-force winds were blowing 80 miles from its center, and tropical-storm-force winds reached up to 195 miles from the eye.
The National Hurricane Center’s best guess was that Florence’s eye would blow ashore as early as Friday afternoon around the North Carolina-South Carolina line. Then, it will likely hover along the coast Saturday, pushing up to 13 feet of storm surge and dumping 20 to 30 inches of rain on both states, before slogging over the Appalachian Mountains.
The result: catastrophic inland flooding that could swamp homes, businesses, farm fields, and industrial sites.
About 5.25 million people live in areas under hurricane warnings or watches, and 4.9 million more live in places covered by tropical storm warnings or watches, the National Weather Service said.
More than 1.7 million people in the Carolinas and Virginia were warned to clear out. Airlines canceled nearly 1,000 flights and counting. Home Depot and Lowe’s activated emergency response centers to get generators, trash bags, and bottled water to stores before and after the storm. The two hardware chains said they sent in a total of around 1,100 trucks.
Boarding up his home in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, Chris Pennington watched the forecasts and tried to decide when to leave.
“In 12 or 18 hours, they may be saying different things all over again,” he said.
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