SoylentNews

Puerto Rico "Destroyed" by Hurricane Maria

posted by takyon on Thursday September 21 2017, @04:04PM   
from the good-time-to-implement-strict-building-codes dept.

-- OriginalOwner_ writes:

At 9PM ET September 20, ABC News reported

The island of Puerto Rico has been "destroyed" after Hurricane Maria made landfall there as a Category 4 storm Wednesday morning, according to emergency officials.

Puerto Rico's office of emergency management confirmed that 100 percent of the U.S. territory had lost power, noting that anyone with electricity was using a generator.

Multiple transmission lines sustained damage from the storm, said Ricardo Ramos, director of the Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority. Ramos said he hopes to begin launching helicopters by this weekends to begin inspecting the transmission lines.

Telecommunications throughout the island have "collapsed", Abner Gomez Cortes, executive director of Puerto Rico's office of emergency management and disaster administration agency, told ABC News.

[...] Cortes described Maria as an unprecedented storm, adding that the island had not seen a storm of that strength since 1928.

[...] Puerto Rico was still experiencing tropical-storm force winds Wednesday afternoon, forcing emergency services and search and rescue teams to wait before heading out to assess the damage, Cortes said.

More than 12,000 people are currently in shelters, and hospitals are now running on generators, Cortes said. Two hospitals--one in Caguas and one in Bayamon--have been damaged.

No deaths have been reported so far, but catastrophic flooding is currently taking place on the island. Multiple rain gauges have reported between 18 and 24 inches of rain, with some approaching the 30-inch mark over the last 24 hours.

Flooding is the danger "that will take lives", Cortes said, advising residents not to venture out of their homes until Thursday because "it is not safe to go out and observe".

[...] As of 8 p.m. ET, Maria had weakened to a Category 2 hurricane with maximum sustained wind of 110 mph, according to the National Hurricane Center.

[...] Some strengthening is possible now that the storm is back over the ocean, so Maria has potential to become a Category 3 hurricane again.

National Hurricane Center graphics for Maria.
Map of Caribbean Islands.

At 15:20 UTC, Mashable reported

Clips shot in the [cities] of Farjado, San Juan, and Guyama show buildings experiencing extreme structural damage. Doors are being ripped right off their hinges, and windows, walls, and roofs of homes, restaurants, and hotels are being stripped away by the storm's incredible power.

---

Original Submission

• Incorrect. There are restrictions on parentage. (Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday September 21 2017, @06:55PM

  by Anonymous Coward on Thursday September 21 2017, @06:55PM (#571318)

  OK, Mr. Shrute, besides the fact that such rules could be changed through a statute, here is what Wikipedia says [wikipedia.org] on the matter:

  Children born overseas to married parents

  The following conditions affect children born outside the U.S. and its outlying possessions to married parents (special conditions affect children born out of wedlock: see below):

  • If both parents are U.S. citizens, the child is a citizen if either of the parents has had residency in the U.S. prior to the child's birth

  • If one parent is a U.S. citizen and the other parent is a U.S. national, the child is a citizen if the U.S. citizen parent has lived in the U.S. for a continuous period of at least one year prior to the child's birth

  • If one parent is a U.S. citizen and the other parent is not, the child is a citizen if

    • the U.S. citizen parent has been "physically present" in the U.S. before the child's birth for a total period of at least five years, and

    • at least two of those five years were after the U.S. citizen parent's fourteenth birthday.

  Children born overseas out of wedlock

  There is an asymmetry in the way citizenship status of children born overseas to unmarried parents, only one of whom is a U.S. citizen, is handled.

  Title 8 U.S.C. § 1409 paragraph (c) provides that children born abroad after December 24, 1952 to unmarried American mothers are U.S. citizens, as long as the mother has lived in the U.S. for a continuous period of at least one year at any time prior to the birth.

  8 U.S.C. § 1409 paragraph (a) provides that children born to American fathers unmarried to the children's non-American mothers are considered U.S. citizens only if the father meets the "physical presence" conditions described above, and the father takes several actions:

  • Unless deceased, has agreed to provide financial support to the child until he reaches 18

  • Establish paternity by clear and convincing evidence and, while the person is under the age of 18 years

    • the person is legitimated under the law of the person’s residence or domicile,

    • the father acknowledges paternity of the person in writing under oath, or

    • the paternity of the person is established by adjudication of a competent court.

      8 U.S.C. § 1409 paragraph (a) provides that acknowledgment of paternity can be shown by acknowledging paternity under oath and in writing; having the issue adjudicated by a court; or having the child otherwise "legitimated" by law.

  Because of this rule, unusual cases have arisen whereby children have been fathered by American men overseas from non-American women, brought back to the United States as babies without the mother, raised by the American father in the United States, and later held to be deportable as non-citizens in their 20s. The final element has taken an especially significant importance in these circumstances, as once the child has reached 18, the father is forever unable to establish paternity to deem his child a citizen.

  This distinction between unwed American fathers and American mothers was constructed and reaffirmed by Congress out of concern that a flood of illegitimate Korean and Vietnamese children would later claim American citizenship as a result of their parentage by American servicemen overseas fighting wars in their countries. In many cases, American servicemen passing through in wartime may not have even learned they had fathered a child. In 2001, the Supreme Court, by 5–4 majority in Nguyen v. INS, first established the constitutionality of this gender distinction.

  Parent

  Starting Score:	0		points
  Moderation		+1
  Informative=2, Overrated=1, Total=3
  Extra 'Informative' Modifier		0
  Total Score:		1