Page 40 - June 23, 2017

Groton Daily Independent
Friday, June 23, 2017 ~ Vol. 24 - No. 344 ~ 40 of 54
expected to move into Arkansas Thursday night.
National Weather Service statistics show roughly 12 inches (300 millimeters) of rain had fallen in some
spots along the Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Florida coasts since Tuesday.
Forecasters warned that ash oods remained a danger as the storm moved north. But Cindy was also bringing rain to an area that needed it. Southeastern Arkansas hadn’t seen signi cant rain in more than
a week.
“If there’s not so much rain, it could end up being bene cial,” corn and rice farmer David Hillman said
in Almyra, Arkansas, 55 miles (90 kilometers) southeast of Little Rock. “A couple inches? Yes. I don’t think we’d have a problem with that. Now if we get wind and it knocks the corn down, well, I don’t want that.” In southwest Louisiana, not far from where Cindy came ashore before dawn, trucks navigated knee- high water in the streets of Cameron Parish — but there was no serious ooding. “We haven’t heard of water getting into homes,” said Ashley Buller, an assistant in the parish emergency of ce. “Mostly a few
downed trees, power outages.”
In Gulfport, Mississippi, Kathleen Bertucci said about 10 inches (250 millimeters) of rain water found its
way into her business selling granite countertops. “It’s pretty disgusting, but I don’t have ood insurance because they took me out of the ood zone,” Bertucci said.
Some threats could be lurking in the ood waters, including oating colonies of re ants that Alabama of cials warned about in a statement.
And in Ocean Springs, Mississippi, there was another worry in a neighborhood where streets and some homes ooded Thursday.
“One of our safety concerns is alligators,” said local neighborhood watch organizer Erin West. “We have several alligators in the nearby ponds and it’s springtime and they like to move around during springtime and everything.”
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Associated Press writers Melinda Deslatte in Baton Rouge, Louisiana; Jeff Amy and Emily Wagster in Jackson, Mississippi; Jay Reeves in southern Mississippi; Kimberly Chandler in Montgomery, Alabama; Kelly Kissel in Little Rock, Arkansas; Brendan Farrington in Tallahassee, Florida; and Jeff Martin in Atlanta contributed to this report.
Pelosi defends leadership following special election loss By ERICA WERNER, AP Congressional Correspondent
WASHINGTON (AP) — Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi defended her leadership, and her job, on Thursday in the face of needling from President Donald Trump and grumbling from fellow House Democrats exas- perated after a high-pro le special election loss.
“So you want me to sing my praises, is that what you’re saying?” the California Democrat remarked dismissively to reporters when asked why she should stay on as leader. “Well, I’m a master legislator. I’m a strategic, politically astute leader. My leadership is recognized by many around the country.”
“That is why I’m able to attract the support that I do, which is essential to our elections, sad to say,” Pelosi added, in a reference to her unparalleled fundraising hauls.
Pelosi’s de ant comments came as Democrats remained angry and divided after throwing some $30 million into a House race in Georgia on Tuesday, only to end up with a loss that wasn’t even very close. Republican Karen Handel beat Democrat Jon Ossoff by around 5 percentage points in the suburban Atlanta district previously represented by Tom Price, now the Health and Human Services secretary.
Democrats lost another race in South Carolina that same night, and that followed previous disappoint- ments in Montana and Kansas.
All the races were on GOP-friendly terrain. Pelosi and other Democratic leaders insisted that they demon- strated important progress by coming in a close second, and have a good shot at taking back the House in next year’s midterm elections. They must pick up 24 seats to do so.
But some rank-and- le House Democrats scoffed at such explanations and raised questions about Pelosi’s