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It was the response Strachan had hoped for. He wanted to confront the children with something alien to show that otherness is OK, and to inspire a curiosity about the world beyond. I think being an artist, to me, always had to do with disrupting some system or another, and just putting that piece of ice there was the most disruptive thing I thought I could have done, he said. It was the opening salvo in what became a long crusade to expose young people in the Bahamas (and elsewhere) to the forms of knowledge he wishes he had encountered as a child.

To that end, Strachan later established the Bahamas Air and Sea Exploration Center (B.A.S.E.C.), a community organization where children can perform experiments, conduct research and meet visiting artists and scientists. With a collapsing educational system and the distraction of tourism, a focus on developing an agency that allows its citizens to expand beyond its waters seems appropriate, Strachan wrote about B.A.S.E.C. This project, though difficult for me to summarize, comes down to the belief in the possibilities of what art can do and where it may take us. In 2011, Strachan launched B.A.S.E.C., which supports teaching programs in the Bahamas with a clothing line exclusively made by locals in collaboration with his mother.

That project is tied to Strachans training as a cosmonaut at Star City, a complex of Brutalist buildings about an hour east of Moscow. Being there was essential for Strachan, for whom the usual academic definitions of research are insufficient. I needed to go and experience it versus reading about it, he said. Every part of the trip was a challenge, from the stomach-churning effects of being strapped in a chair and spun upside down, to the more intangible ones: Its hairy being a Black man in Russia, he said. But physical and mental discomfort parallels nicely with the project of being an artist.

DURING THE EARLY stages of Strachans career, each piece became a strategic means of funding the next one. If he sold an artwork its not like he bought himself some shoes or whatever, said Hoover, who noted that he was impressed that Strachan didnt just want to do expensive things, but [that] he wanted to do these expensive things to invest in himself. In the case of the cosmonaut training, Strachan convinced Grand Arts, an erstwhile project space in Kansas City, Mo., founded by Margaret Silva (a Hallmark heiress), to underwrite the experience. The negotiation process felt familiar. Rewind back to RISD, rewind back to the meeting with the provost, he said. You ask 16 times, and the 17th time, you get it.

Strachans refusal to take no for an answer is inextricably tied to the life he left behind in the Bahamas. Seeking hard-to-reach places with no guarantee of success is what motivates him, and the uphill process of blasting through invisible barriers is as important to him as the physical objects that might result. I do imagine that these actions add up to something, but I think for me the joy of it is the pursuit, he said. And theres a certain pain-to-pleasure ratio in that pursuit, because its a super risky enterprise, its a risky set of problems that youre creating and inventing for yourself and its why I think most artists do what they do.

Most artists, though, do not train as astronauts to make work about space travel. Strachan sees artists like Titus Kaphar and Tala Madani painters who engage, in markedly different ways, with issues of representation and the Western canon as his immediate peers, but his scientific experiments, adventures to remote destinations and pure ambition set him apart. For Strachan, science is not just a subject but a medium, one that allows him to aim a floodlight at the shadowy reality that knowledge and truth do not just exist in the world but are actively created by society. Science is widely held to be an objective, authoritative discipline, but Strachans work reminds us that it is also a subjective, interpretive practice that exists within larger systems of control. A huge part of scientific narrative has to do with power, he said. Biology was for centuries used to legitimize racist eugenic theories and colonial oppression, and even now, science remains part of a capitalist structure, one that determines which types of research get funding and support.

Excerpt from:
The Artist Whose Medium Is Science - The New York Times

Its too much.

First the pandemic, which divided us, economically devastated us, and has killed nearly200,000 of us. Then the racial unrest, erupting at the deaths of more Black Americans at the hands of police:George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Rayshard Brooks, Daniel Prude.

Now the extreme weather. For only the second time in history, the National Hurricane Center has moved into the Greek alphabet for storm names. This seasons wildfires are bigger, deadlier and more frequent than in years past. In the West, people cant breathe.

Dual disasters: How climate change is worsening wildfires and hurricanes

Add the headlines: Feminist icon Ruth Bader Ginsburg, lost to complications of cancer on the first day of Rosh Hashanah, 46 days before the presidential election. Black Pantherstar Chadwick Boseman, a hero in the Black community, gone at 43 after quietly battling colon cancer. Another woman accuses the president of sexual assault. A whistleblower claims federal immigration detainees underwent full hysterectomies without their consent.

And the polarization, worsethan ever. We dont agree on masks, on reopening schools, on what to do when a vaccine becomes available.

Many of us are vacillating between horror and disbelief at what can only be described as an American nightmare. Devastation doesnt cover it. Its impossible to know if the worst is behind us or still lies ahead.

Apart from our own suffering, constant exposure to suffering of others exacts a toll. Experts say what many of us are experiencing is disaster fatigue.

Its a sense, essentially, of psychological overwhelm, said Patrick Hardy, a certified emergency manager and risk manager. Youre being constantly bombarded with negative information. It creates this sense of doom.

Story continues

When disasters occur sequentially, it can make it seem as though our problems are insurmountable. Its getting worse and worse, we think. Its never going to get better.

A strict interpretation of disaster fatigue, Hardy said, puts disasters into three major categories: Natural disasters (such as COVID and hurricanes), technological emergencies (chemical spills and power outages) and security emergencies (acts of terrorism and active shooters).

But Hardy said what qualifies as a disaster can also be subjective.

What may be a disaster to someone else, isnt a disaster to you and me, he said.

While all of us are tapped into the disasters that become national news, community events can add to the mental load. A plant closing in your town that puts hundreds of people out of work is a disaster, too.

Manyare personally suffering and bearing witness to even more suffering, which can lead to another condition called compassion fatigue.

Its really referring to the stress or the emotional strain of having that high level of empathy, and exposing yourself to this level of suffering, and when that happens over long periods of time, it can manifest in a variety of different psychological ways, said Vaile Wright, director of clinical research and quality at the American Psychological Association.

Lisa Phillips, 57, who lives with depression, says shes sick over whats happening to the country.

Her husbands dental practice was on mandatory closure for two months, and since she works there, too, both incomes stopped. Theyve since re-opened, but many of the staff have been struggling with health issues and lack of childcare, which has ripple effects for Phillips and her husband.

Her daughters university moved exclusively online. Wildfires in Oregon forced her brother and sister-in-law to evacuate their home. The day after their evacuation, her father died in California. The family didnt gather for a funeral.

To cope, Phillips went back to counseling and increased her medication.

A culmination of crises: America is in turmoil, and a mental health crisis looms next

It kind of feels like when something else cant possibly happen, it does, she said. I put one foot in front of the other but it takes quite a bit of effort.

Political differences have also divided her family, compounding tangible losses. Stress and conflict are the new normal.

I dont feel apathetic, I feel overwhelmed and Im very discouraged about the polarization in our country, she said. Im fearful we wont get back to who we were.

Matt Wunderli, 36, was in the middle of building a technology startup when he went into lockdown with his wife and kids in Salt Lake City. Now, hes surrounded by wildfires.

In the beginning, I think we were all kind of sheepishly laughing about this, like what is going on?, he said. From the pandemic to the civil unrest to the political divides. As a country were sort of being slowly unwoven.

Wunderli says hes often overwhelmed by the negativity on Twitter, and can find it hard to stay optimistic. Living in a very religious state, he said, people around him often talk about this as the end of times.

Its a very stressful time for me as a founder, an entrepreneur, a husband, a father, a neighbor thinking about all the calamity around me and whats next, he said.

Christina Cuevas, 35, lives with her husband and two sons in Gardena, California, and recently recovered from postpartum depression. Then the pandemic hit.

Her anxiety spiked. Cuevas, who has asthma, is having panic attacks. Shes stressed about her familys businesses she and her husband are in real estate developmentand shesworried for her children and their futures.

Every day youre bombarded with something new, she said. Im of Mexican descent, and I was born in America. Yesterday was Mexican Independence Day. I had tequila with my husband. We were celebrating the culture and then I read that news article about hysterectomies being performed on immigrant women. I was sick. Its repulsive that this can happen in America.

Right now, she says there is no hope. There is only the election.

Abbey Barton, 26, lives in New Orleans, which is often hard-hit during the hurricane season. New Orleans has had a couple of close calls in 2020, on top of the pandemic.

Were in the peak of hurricane season, and theres no outlet for stress fatigue, she said. Can 2020 just be over?

She knows people sooverwhelmed theyre not preparing for storms as they typically would.Defeat, she says, seems all around.

Ive had people say to me I was exhausted by everything before the hurricane season. If it gets me, it gets me,' she said.

Barton worries about what her city, in some ways already unrecognizable, may look like when the pandemic is finally over.

Walking downtown, you dont hear the music anymore, she said.

Austin Sargent, 29, is an English teacher and high school football coachin South Carolina. There are times hes felt overwhelmed, but mostly hes focused on his students, who often seem paralyzed by their circumstances.

School was a release for a lot of kids. And while in-person instruction has resumed where he teaches, they are now dealing with new and different stressors. Friends whove been apart for months are adjusting to new protocols and social norms.

The kids, he said, are struggling just as much as adults.

Im an English teacher.We read, and then we ask ourselves, What is the author really trying to say? In the first couple of weeks of school, were going over literary terms, talking about the mood of the text, how it makes the reader feel. And one of my students raised their hand and said I dont watch the news, because it makes my mood so terrible.'

Denys Williams, 48, moved from San Leandro, California, to Reno, Nevada, about a year ago, when it all felt different. Now, shes living in a new citymuch less diverse than her previous one, which can be isolating.

Its not only that 2020 is a dumpster fire, its that theres no one around me who I can really relate to or talk to about it, she said. We couldnt breathe in Reno for a good week and a half, add to that the political unrest, the racial injustice, not feeling like anyone is in my corner its been so difficult.

George Floyd video adds to trauma: When is the last time you saw a white person killed online?

This summer, she said the KKK showed up in a town about 20 minutes from where she lives. Shes dealing with stressors some of her non-minority friends and co-workers cant fathom.

My co-workers will say, How are you? and Ill say, Its tough. Theyre like, Hang in there, were all in this together. But were not. I want to say, You have no idea.'

Hardy says when feeling overwhelmed, look for positive stories. Theyre out there, even when theyre difficult to find.

Cut yourself slack: Its called decision fatigue

There arestories of people surviving disasters, people doing the right things, people enduring, he said.

So much of what feels surreal and absurd about this moment is how much is out of our control. Making a plan, for what to do in a disaster or even what to do to feel productive amidthe chaos, can help people wrest back some control.

We all want to know how this ends: How do we cope with uncertainty?

COVID has robbed us all: Let yourself mourn the loss, experts say

The greatest danger, experts say, is a descent into apathy. That people will start to believe that the things they do dont matter.

Phillips, Wunderli, Cuevas, Barton, Sargent and Williamsall said they plan to vote in November. Wunderli started a podcast addressing mental health issues for founders and entrepreneurs. Phillips said she joined the board of a local non-profit and has continued to support local charities. And even though shealways wears a mask when shes out, she says she still tries to smile, with her eyes, at everyone she sees.

What if everybody just gave up? Wright said. Then the world would really be in trouble. Individual actions do count because they accumulate. The worst thing that we could do is throw up our hands and say, Nothing matters, so why even bother? Because if every single person did that, what would this world look like?

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: COVID, hurricanes, wildfires, politics: Is 2020 the worst year ever?

See the article here:
It was a cat and dog fight in the battle for human hearts during lockdown, says animal charity - Sports Grind Entertainment

Blackstones Jonathan Gray (Getty; iStock)

Blackstone is turning its attention to one of the most recession-resistant sectors of real estate.

The giant asset manager is planning to buy about 40 mobile-home parks from Summit Communities for about $550 million, according to Bloomberg. Most of the properties are in Florida, the publication reported, citing confidential sources.

Blackstone will make the investment through Blackstone Real Estate Income Trust, also known as BREIT. Real estate investment trust Sun Communities also made an offer for the mobile-home communities.

Blackstone shelled out $200 million for seven mobile home parks largely in Florida and Arizona earlier this year, according to Bloomberg.

Large investment firms like Brookfield and Sam Zells Equity LifeStyle Properties have been eying mobile homes in recent years won over by the sectors high returns and limited supply.

There are just 6,250 mobile home parks in the U.S., according to a 2019 Cushman & Wakefield report. And despite their name, mobile homes are not that easy to move, and their occupants often cannot afford the upfront costs to relocate. That leaves them vulnerable to rent increases that boost profits for owners of trailer parks.

More than $800 million worth of such properties traded in the second quarter of this year, an increase of 23 percent from a previous year, according to JLL, Bloomberg reported. [Bloomberg] Keith Larsen

Read the original post:
Blackstone bets $550M on mobile homes - The Real Deal

Portland Battalion Chief John Derr drove south through the night on Interstate 5, leading a caravan of four fire engines and one smaller brush rig straight to a fire charging toward the southern edge of Medford.

They pulled in at 1:15 a.m. that Wednesday, barely 24 hours after winds on Labor Day whipped up fires all along Oregons west side.

They had no time to rest.

The 20 firefighters in the Multnomah Task Force 30 got a quick briefing on the side of a road from local fire bosses.

Then they pulled past burning blocks of mobile homes, about a quarter mile west of I-5, and got to work.

Seven hours later, they had helped save 80 to 100 homes in the Medford Estates mobile home park as bright orange flames consumed other homes and downed trees just feet away.

It was a dramatic start to 12 days on duty for the task force -- one of 38 structural firefighting squads activated by the state fire marshal as more than 1 million acres in Oregon burned from south of Portland to the California border and from Lakeview to the coast. Nine people have died in the fires and another 11 people are missing, according to the state.

The team slept in tents set up in a Medford middle schools football field before shifting to safeguard a residential road in rural Jackson County near the South Obenchain fire, northeast of Medford. There, they set up controlled burns as two helicopters scooped up water from a nearby pond to drop on the encroaching wildfire.

In the next days, they relieved exhausted fire crews in Talent and Phoenix, responding to the cities' regular dispatch calls. By weeks end, they were near Cave Junction, helping assess homes and other buildings near the Slater fire straddling the Oregon-California line.

Pat McAbery, 54, a 28-year Gresham firefighter on the task force, remembers how emotionally spent he was after hed been sent to Californias Camp Fire in Paradise in 2018. By the time his crew arrived, there was little they could do beyond shutting off water and gas utilities, clearing roads and putting out any flare-ups. The deadliest fire in California history had killed 86 people and leveled more than 13,900 homes.

This time, he said he was grateful the crew reached Medford to contribute on the front lines.

Were doers. Were helpers. We want to save things, McAbery said.

"Sometimes you never see that positive side, never feel that reward,'' he said, speaking from the seat of a fire rig outside the Illinois Valley Fire District Station in Selma, near Cave Junction. Yes, theres horrible destruction, but in some way, we had made a difference.

Martin Buchert, a resident of Medford Estates, took this photo just before he and his family evacuated from their mobile home about 4:40 p.m. on Tues., Sept. 8, 2020. He was stunned to learn the next day that his home was still standing.

***

The task force of Portland, Gresham and Port of Portland firefighters was activated at 4:45 p.m. on the Tuesday after Labor Day.

With Portland Fire Bureau Lt. Gordon Hartung and Derr at the lead, they headed to the Clackamas County community of Colton, located between Estacada and Molalla, to check water supplies and do fire spotting.

But they had barely checked in when they got the call to move on to Medford instead.

Instructed to drive Code 3 with full lights and sirens to the freeway, they raced through dark smoke and past the clogged traffic of evacuees through Colton and Woodburn before reaching I-5.

As they got near Salem, they were stunned by an eerie pitch black all around them from the boiling wildfires that were consuming miles of forestland and small towns up the Santiam River to the east.

They stopped once to grab truck-stop sandwiches and reached Medford in the pre-dawn hours.

Medford Estates is a 244-space mobile home park, with streets all named after trees set along a paved trail and greenway surrounded by mature foliage that attracts hummingbirds, owls and finches. A tennis court, pool and a central community space where people played bingo completed the development. Latino residents make up about half of the community.

The task force members joined crews of local firefighters from the Medford Fire Department, Jackson County Fire District No. 3 and Oregon Department of Forestry. They were told to look out for big floating embers stoked by the fierce winds -- and keep them from spreading to other structures. They rushed to wet down any firebrands that were landing on fences and bushes.

McAbery and Gresham Fire Lt. Anthony Foster maneuvered their brush rig to the neighboring Bear Creek Greenway, a stretch of bike and walking paths that had been burning north from Ashland.

A brush rig is a more maneuverable pickup-sized truck with a smaller water tank and pump.

Through thick smoke, Foster spotted a cluster of mobile homes that seemed untouched in the back of the development as fire raged in front.

We think we have about 10 homes that havent burned back here. Can we get somebody back there? Foster radioed to Derr. I think we can save some of these homes.

Foster, 35, a 16-year firefighter, and McAbery used a chainsaw to cut through a back fence, hoping to drag their one-inch-wide hose line through. But they realized there were many more homes that could be saved on the other side, so they cut out a bigger hole in the fence, shoveled out some dirt and four-wheeled their rig into the mobile home park.

There, they dragged their 200-foot-long hose where they could, flying to water down homes that hadnt yet burned as fire destroyed other property, incinerated cars and playground structures and torched trees just steps away.

The task force leaders walked down a dirt road that threaded past rows of melted mobile homes to get a better look.

Theres not 10 homes. Theres not 20 homes. There ended up being 100 mobile homes that hadnt been burned, Derr said.

We decided to put in one of our engines and test the water a little bit. We dont want to get big rigs deep into a fire that we cant get them out, he said. "We soon determined it was worth the risk and slowly brought another rig in and eventually we had all of our rigs in there protecting that mobile home park.''

The winds had shifted no longer coming from the south but pushing in from the east, Derr said.

The winds were in our favor, he said.

At first they used one fire hydrant and then hooked up to several hydrants on the same grid. A city water pump was operating at only 70 percent.

By daylight, the hydrants in the mobile home park had gone dry. That forced Portlands fire engines to drive out to a main road, fill up their 500-gallon tanks from a hydrant there and shuttle the water back, Derr said.

The team members were wearing their much thinner wildfire uniforms lightweight flame-resistant yellow shirts and green pants -- rather than their typical thick turnout gear and could feel the intense heat.

You have things burning to the ground a few feet away from somebodys home, McAbery said. Wed been better off in our turnouts, but youre in a mode of you got to act now.

They had arrived at Medford Estates at 2:45 a.m. and kept at it through 8:30 a.m.

They rotated people in and out of a staging area that local firefighters had provided for water breaks and breakfast lots of scrambled eggs and egg burritos.

We worked as one big team and were able to stop the fire in that mobile home park, said Derr, 51, a 24-year firefighter. Were used to doing one house or two houses. Ive never been on a fire on that large of scale in a residential area.

***

Just before 8 a.m., Telia Fogle drove into Medford Estates to check on the 27-year home of her parents. She made her way past Fir Street, then Birch, Willow and Oak streets.

The fire had reduced so many of the homes to smoldering piles of charred debris.

When she got to slot 183 on Cedar Street, her parents' place still stood.

When I showed up there they were still putting fires out behind the home, Fogle said.

She saw Portlands fire engines.

I couldnt believe it. It was just so fast that they got here, she said.

The flames had melted the skirting of her parents' home and warped a vinyl fence. One shed had caught fire. But that was it.

Im grateful that these firefighters came from all over the state to help, Fogle said. When I saw those firefighters behind my dads house, I was amazed that someone was here from Portland.

6

Homes saved in Medford Estates mobile home park in southern Medford

***

Over the next several days, Multnomah Task Force 30, whose members range in age from their early 20s to 58, went wherever it was asked to go.

From the Almeda fire, the crew headed to the South Obenchain fire, northeast of Medford.

This time, they were dealing with a total different animal, Derr said.

They fought to protect homes along a rural gravel road off Buttes Fall Highway, southeast of Crater Lake National Park.

They used controlled burns starting fires in low grass around houses -- that would head toward the main fire coming down the hill. That created a large scorched space between the homes along Derby Road and the main fire, removing potential fuel that could feed the blaze.

Its literally fighting fire with fire, McAbery said.

They watched as two helicopters filled up buckets from a pond beside a mans home at the end of the road to drop on the burning ridge above.

By last Sunday and Monday, they turned to help Jackson County Fire District No. 5 in Talent and Phoenix, answering dispatch calls to give those firefighters a well-deserved and much-needed break after fire had devastated the two towns north of Ashland.

We ran their district for a day and a half, Derr said.

It was a challenge with different radio frequencies. The dispatchers ended up alerting two local battalion chiefs, who would relay the calls to Derrs team. The crew then used a PulsePoint app, which tracks emergencies in an area and helps map the locations.

They handled about 10 calls, including one where a power company nicked a gas line putting in a power pole. The firefighters slept on cots and recliners in the stations workout room.

They also helped assess fire damage to properties by filling out maps, noting properties in green if there was no damage, repairable homes in yellow and destroyed homes in red.

By this past Thursday, theyd worked several days in and around Cave Junction near the Slater fire, which has been burning on the Klamath, Six Rivers and Rogue-Siskiyou national forests in Siskiyou and Del Norte counties in California and Josephine County in Oregon.

They patrolled the area to do whats called structural triaging south of Cave Junction, noting homes in evacuation zones that are surrounded by lots of brush or have gutters filled with needles and how easy they would be to protect or not.

Each day, the crew isnt sure what theyll be assigned to next. Theyre available for up to 14 days, before they time out, Derr said.

Our story continues, he said Thursday night.

On Friday, they were set up in a defensive mode along the north edge of the Slater fire, between the fire and a residential neighborhood.

By evening, they got the green light to head home. They planned to hit the road around 7 a.m. Saturday and head north for the six-hour trip back to Portland.

Learning in the fire business is completely by experience, McAbery said. The value to our home community is when it hits the fan at home, we can bring back what weve learned.

-- Maxine Bernstein

Email at mbernstein@oregonian.com; 503-221-8212

Follow on Twitter @maxoregonian https://twitter.com/maxoregonian

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Excerpt from:
12 days in the life of a firefighting crew: Portland-area battalion helps save southern Oregon homes - OregonLive

Another step has been taken that might eventually lead to Columbus city water being made available to Garden City residents.

Approval has been given by the Bartholomew County Commissioners for a local firm, Administrative Resources Association (ARa), to move ahead to apply for a $500,000 grant to bring municipal water to the Garden City Mobile Home Community LLC.

If funds can be obtained through the Indiana Office of Community and Urban Affairs, a line will be connected to a water treatment plant, and extend across property owned by Columbus Regional Health before it reaches Garden Street, which is in reach of the mobile home park, ARa Municipal Program manager Trena Carter said.

The quality of drinking water in the small town southwest of downtown Columbus has been a concern for several years. The Garden City Groundwater Plume site was placed on the U.S. Environmental Protection Agencys National Priorities List in December 2013.

This has been something that has been needed for some time, commissioners chairman Carl Lienhoop said.

While the mobile home park is hooked up to the city sewer system, it is not served by the citys water utility at present. Instead, the homes are served by shared wells where pollution has been a concern for several years.

Two years ago, federal environmental officials said they would spend $320,000 to clean up trichloroethylene (TCE) in the plume, and to continue with filtering water at several private wells at properties there. TCE, which is an industrial solvent, has been known to be a cause of cancer.

Although water tests taken in 2018 did not turn up any form of health risk, former Columbus Utilities Director Keith Reeves said at the time those tests might be inconclusive because some residents dont want their wells tested. He cited trust issues among residents who fear they will be forced to connect to city utilities and pay installation costs that exceed their means, said Reeves, who was succeeded by Scott Dompke after Reeves retirement.

Going door-to-door to a number of Garden City homes, most homeowners said they were satisfied with the shared wells after they installed a granular activated carbon (GAC) filter system. But some said they would prefer hooking up to city water if the cost was within their means.

Carter said her organization, which is working with the county commissioners, Columbus City Utilities and the mobile home park, is still in the preliminary stages of requesting the money.

There are a lot of processes that need to happen before we will be ready to go to full application, Carter said. But if everything aligns, we hope to apply for the funding by this November. If not, we would look at something for the first of next year.

The decision to have ARa seek funds for the water line comes one month after the Garden City Mobile Home Community used a split Columbus City Council vote to their advantage.

Because there was no council decision, the park was allowed to follow the recommendation of the planning commission to rezone the 1-acre site that is capable of holding up to eight new mobile homes.

But in that same month, the mobile home park agreed to planning staff recommendations that include not bringing in new mobile homes until after the city of Columbus annexes the property.

Other conditions the planning staff placed on the mobile home parks request include:

The subject property is to be combined with the existing mobile home park parcel and developed with shared access and amenities.

No new homes may be occupied until public water service has been established.

A 6-foot tall fence shall be constructed along the railroad tracks.

Direct access from the subject property to State Road 11 shall be limited to emergency and construction use only.

Additional State Road 11 right-of-way shall be dedicated along the frontage of the subject property.

A minimum of 3,400 square feet of open space, including picnic and playground amenities, shall be provided.

Having the water line run to the mobile home park is expected to be split between 46 or 47 residences, mobile home park owner Dana DelSignore said last month.

When asked if a line carrying city water might make it more affordable for other Garden City residents to hook up to city water, Carter said the answer to that question is beyond her level of expertise.

There may be a possibility others could come on, but thats not what this project is about, Carter said. Its about getting water to the mobile home community.

Excerpt from:
Garden City closer to city water access - therepublic.com

At least 377 people were rescued from flooding in a Florida county.

Floodwaters rushed through parts of Alabama and Florida on Wednesday, turning roads into rivers, submerging cars and sending several out-of-control construction barges into waters along the Florida Panhandle as Hurricane Sally dumped a torrent of rain.

The surging water reached higher than five feet in Pensacola, Fla., and slammed a barge into a section of the Pensacola Bay Bridge that was under construction, destroying part of it, Sheriff David Morgan of Escambia County said.

The Pensacola area has already seen more than two feet of rainfall from Sally, and meteorologists said that up to 35 inches of rain could fall in coastal communities.

Sally made landfall at around 5 a.m. Central time over Gulf Shores, Ala., as a Category 2 hurricane and eventually weakened to a tropical depression after it passed through the Florida Panhandle, but its deluge was not forecast to let up any time soon. As of 9:30 p.m. Central time, the center of the storm was in southeastern Alabama, with its heavy rain extending into western Georgia. It was continuing to crawl northeast at about 9 miles per hour.

Catastrophic and life-threatening flooding occurring over portions of the Florida Panhandle and southern Alabama the National Hurricane Center warned.

In and around Pensacola, several barges came loose and were floating out of control through the choppy waters, including one with a crane that was at one point heading toward the Escambia Bay Bridge. Sheriff Morgan said he had considered all kinds of ways to stop the barge as it neared the bridge, even getting permission to fire 40-millimeter grenades at it before determining that the extreme step would be too dangerous and likely would not work anyway. Luckily, he said, the barge ran ashore and never reached the bridge.

With water and downed trees making roads impassible, and with still strong winds, residents were told it could be hours before emergency services were dispatched in force. At least 377 people were rescued from flooded areas in Escambia County as of Wednesday afternoon, officials said, and at least one shelter had been opened to handle the crush of evacuees. Two rivers in the county are expected to overflow, leading to more flooding.

Mayor Tony Kennon of Orange Beach, Ala., said that one person had died as a result of the storm and that another was missing. Officials would perform minimal search-and-rescue operations at night because of dangerous conditions, including debris in the water, he said.

As of 9 p.m. Central time, 275,000 electricity customers in Alabama and 240,000 customers in Florida were still without power, prompting the National Weather Service in Mobile and Pensacola to issue warnings about the proper use of generators. At least seven people died from carbon monoxide poisoning from generators during Hurricane Laura last month.

Videos from residents and local media outlets showed images of homes that had been ripped apart by the howling winds, boats torn from their moorings and power lines downed in many towns and cities. In Foley, Ala., just north of the hurricanes landfall, images showed a destroyed mobile home and a door that appeared to have been yanked by wind from a house.

And everywhere, water.

In recent days, the storms projected point of landfall had veered by nearly 200 miles. It had once been expected to rake over the remote, low-lying areas of southeastern Louisiana and possibly reach beyond the New Orleans metropolitan area. Instead, it was the more populated areas around Mobile, Ala., and Pensacola that bore the brunt of the storm.

Blocked roads and standing water made driving difficult in Alabama.

Sally left much of south Alabama in a chaotic mess on Wednesday as it dumped rain and battered the region with dangerous wind gusts.

Mobile, which had virtually shut down, avoided the brunt of the storm but still saw high wind gusts that caused the Renaissance Mobile Riverview Plaza Hotel, a high-rise, to sway and shudder as if it were in an earthquake. Outside, debris from damaged buildings cluttered walkways, including big panels that had flown off a valet parking overhang.

On Interstate 65, a few drivers inched their way across the high twin-span bridge north of the city that crosses the Mobile River. On Alabama State Route 59 a highway that ends at Gulf Shores large trees completely blocked northbound lanes, forcing drivers onto the opposite side of the road. Smaller roads were choked with fallen branches and leaves.

In Loxley, Ala., a convenience store and gas station was crowded with motorists fueling up. Inside, residents bought 12-packs of beer, cigarettes and potato chips.

Down the road, Tim Booth, 62, a semi-retired truck driver, was standing in his front yard, a mist of rain falling on him while he chopped up a downed fir tree with a buzzing chain saw. Mr. Booth said he and his wife and 19-year-old son had thought about heading to a relatives brick house in Pensacola, but they decided to ride out the storm given the predictions of relatively low wind speed.

But the wind was stronger than anybody thought, and Mr. Booths family spent a harrowing night in their mobile home. We really started feeling it after midnight, he said. Man, it just unloaded. It felt like Ivan a Category 3 hurricane from the 2004 season.

Rick Rojas

Nobody saw it coming.

Hurricane Sally looked like it was going to hit New Orleans. Then Gulfport, Miss. Then Mobile, Ala. But after making landfall in Gulf Shores, Ala., it took a right turn on Wednesday morning and plowed into Pensacola, Fla.

The city knows about the fickleness of hurricanes. But this one surprised nearly everyone. It was worst by the waterfront, where a pretty square called Plaza Ferdinand was a tangle of fallen magnolia and oak branches.

Nearby, two 72-foot catamaran ferries, used to shuttle tourists out to the Gulf Islands National Seashore, were banging wildly against black metal fencing near the marina. Frank Rawley, the captain of one of the boats, was improvising a way to tie them up. He said the dock to which they had been tethered was gone. Everything got ripped away, he said. It just tore everything away.

Sandy and Peter McDavid, the owners of the Palafox Wharf Reception Venue, a 19th-century building next to a marina, had come down to inspect the place, which if often rented for wedding receptions. A big blue sailboat had smashed into the railings of their deck. Water from the street had seeped onto the wooden floor on the ground level, and a skylight had blown off and let rainwater in, soaking the carpet on the second floor.

We werent expecting it, Mr. McDavid said. We thought it was going to go to Alabama.

Richard Fausset

Omi Yoder and her husband moved to the Bristol Park subdivision two months ago. They bought a brick house with white siding generously sized but not too fancy on a cul de sac next to a creek.

It is a place to nest: Ms. Yoder is due to have a baby her first child, a girl in about a month. On Wednesday, the place filled up with about two feet of water. The nursery they had been working on was ruined.

They had seen the water rising up from the street and were able to scramble and move some things upstairs. But the water ruined carpets and other things, which they and some friends were dragging out to the curb in the late afternoon.

Ms. Yoder did not know if the cars in the garage would start. They got water, too. She figured they would have to redo the floors. And start over again on the nursery.

She described her emotional state succinctly: Overwhelmed.

As raging wildfires burn vast swaths of the West Coast, and as the molasses-slow Hurricane Sally pounds the Gulf Coast, scientists say we are witnessing, again, the role of climate change in exacerbating natural disasters.

True to predictions by government scientists in May, this hurricane season has been among the most active on record, with 20 named storms so far. With the National Hurricane Center rapidly running out of letters of the alphabet for subsequent storms, ones after that will be based on the Greek alphabet in the likely event there are two more.

Scientists know that climate change has made hurricanes wetter, because as the atmosphere warms it can hold more moisture. But there is evidence that it can make them slow down, too, enabling the storms to pelt land with heavy rains and winds for longer.

Studies by Michael E. Mann, a climate scientist at Penn State, and others suggest that increased Arctic warmth reduces the temperature differential between that region and the tropics. This leads to a slowing of the jet stream, which affects other circulation patterns in the tropics but also in mid-latitude areas like North America.

Our work indicates that climate change is favoring this phenomenon, Dr. Mann wrote in an email. It likely plays a role in the decreased translation speed of landfalling hurricanes.

Though conservative media and President Trump have disputed any suggestion that climate change is a factor in the West Coast wildfires, scientists have identified it as a primary cause.

Hurricane Ivan hit Pensacola on the same day 16 years go.

Sally made landfall on the 16th anniversary of Hurricane Ivan, a Category 3 beast that made landfall just west of Gulf Shores on Sept. 16, 2004.

Sept. 16 does not seem to be a good day for Pensacola, Chief Deputy Sheriff Chip W. Simmons of Escambia County said in a briefing on Wednesday.

Ivan wreaked more havoc with its powerful winds, while Sallys rain and storm surge appeared worse, the deputy sheriff said, describing low-lying parts of western Perdido Key being underwater on Wednesday, with fallen trees and electricity poles.

The 2004 hurricane season was deadly. Hurricane Ivan killed 57 people in the United States and 67 people in Caribbean countries and caused billions of dollars in damage.

The storm also collapsed a portion of the I-10 Escambia Bay Bridge over Pensacola Bay, an eerie parallel to an accident during Sally. On Wednesday, the Pensacola Bay Bridge which was under construction and is known as the Three Mile Bridge sustained significant damage when a construction barge repeatedly slammed into it.

A couple of days ago, Pensacola officials hoped the worst part of the storm might miss them.

Then all of a sudden it takes a bit of a jog, Deputy Sheriff Simmons said, describing the storms path. And it stayed with us, and it stayed with us, and it stayed with us.

Still recovering from Hurricane Laura and now bracing for Hurricane Sally, residents along the Gulf Coast and the Eastern Seaboard warily watched reports of other major storms developing in the Atlantic.

On Monday, before Tropical Depression Rene dissolved, there were five concurrent named storms in the Atlantic, which has not happened since 1971, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

Three are still active.

Hurricane Paulette packed winds of 100 miles per hour about 450 miles south of Newfoundland, Canada, and threatened to bring dangerous surf and rip current conditions to Bermuda, the Bahamas and parts of the Atlantic Coast.

Tropical Storm Teddy was gaining strength about 865 miles east of the Lesser Antilles and was projected to near major hurricane strength as it approaches Bermuda over the weekend.

And Tropical Storm Vicky had maximum sustained winds of 50 miles per hour about 710 miles west of Cape Verde, though it was not projected to threaten land and was expected to weaken in the coming days.

Reporting was contributed by Nicholas Bogel-Burroughs, Johnny Diaz, Richard Fausset, Patricia Mazzei, Rick Rojas, Marc Santora, Daniel Victor and Will Wright.

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Hundreds Rescued as Floods From Hurricane Sally Hit Florida and Alabama - The New York Times

Emergency officials in Dauphin Island, Alabama, had to pick up about a dozen people stranded as sand and ocean water began to inundate part of the island Monday ahead of Hurricane Sally.

Mayor Jeff Collier said emergency officials drove a Humvee to pick up 12 to 15 people, incluidng an infant, the Associated Press reported.

At least four cars were lost.

We werent able to move the vehicles, they were already stuck in the sand, Collier said.

(MORE: Forecast Track for Hurricane Sally)

Parishes and counties along the coasts of Mississippi, Alabama and Louisiana ordered evacuations, closed beaches and made last-minute preparations Monday as Hurricane Sally strengthened into a hurricane in the Gulf of Mexico.

My message to my fellow citizens is this: If youre in a flood-prone area, go ahead and get out now.," Pascagoula, Mississippi Mayor Steve Demetropolous told The Weather Channel. "Go stay with friends or family or go stay at a hotel, but get out now. If you have a chance of being flooded, please dont stay at home.

Sally is expected to bring life-threatening storm surge and flooding rain when it makes landfall, possibly as a Category 2 storm, overnight Tuesday into Wednesday morning.

President Donald Trump approved disaster declarations for Louisiana and Mississippi.

Gov. Kate Ivey declared a state of emergency for Alabama on Monday morning. Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards and Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves had declared states of emergency for their states over the weekend.

"Those on the Gulf Coast know a flood and heavy rains can be just as deadly as tropical winds," Ivey said.

In a briefing Monday morning, Gov. Reeves said, "Over the last 18 hours, a lot has changed."

Reeves said Sally, instead of making landfall in Louisiana, was now projected to hit Biloxi, Mississippi.

"The slowing of the storm is concerning," Reeves said. "The longer it stays out in the Gulf of Mexico, the higher the likelihood is it continues to grow in size and scope and severity."

Here are some of the steps states are taking to prepare for the arrival of Hurricane Sally.

"Right now, Im doing what everybody else that has any sense would do," said Al Ward as he stocked up on propane Sunday at a hardware store in Gulfport, Mississippi. "Im being prepared for the worst and hoping it will be as it has been earlier this year. We dodged the bullet."

Ward told WLOX-TV he has dealt with a hurricane every year since moving to the coast.

"If you want to enjoy the pleasures of whats down here in South Mississippi, there are hazards that go with it as well," he said.

(MORE: Full List of Evacuation Orders Ahead of Sally)

Ward was one of many in south Mississippi preparing for Sally's arrival.

Evacuation shelters opened in Jackson, Hancock, Harrison counties, Pearl River and Stone counties.

Hancock County Emergency Management issued a mandatory evacuation beginning at 7 a.m. Monday "for all low lying areas, residents living on rivers, river inlets, bayous, creeks and in travel trailers." Also, modular homes, mobile homes, homes under construction and/or partially constructed homes were under evacuation orders.

Harrison County ordered mandatory evacuations "south of the Harrison County Sand Beach sea wall, including the 26 miles of Harrison County Sand Beach, as well as low-lying areas" in the county.

Jackson County asked residents in low-lying areas to evacuate voluntarily. The request applied to people who live along rivers, river inlets, bayous, creeks, and in travel trailers, modular homes, mobile homes and homes under construction.

Officials in Pascagoula, Long Beach, Gulfport, Pass Christian and Biloxi told boat owners to move their vessels out of city marinas and harbors, WLOX reported.

(MORE: Hurricane Sally Tracker)

Many schools along the coast announced they would dismiss students early Monday or close altogether. Districts that planned to close included Hancock County, Bay Waveland and Long Beach.

Officials in Hancock, Harrison and Jackson counties set up sandbag stations, WXXV-TV reported.

Rupert Lacy, Harrison County emergency management director, said U.S. Highway 90 will become impassable after sunset Monday into Tuesday and Wednesday, the Biloxi Sun Herald reported.

Lacy also said water will back up into the Bay of Biloxi, Bay of St. Louis and area rivers, lakes and low-lying areas.

Gulf Islands National Seashore closed islands and mainland areas of the national park in Florida and Mississippi because of Sally. The Davis Bayou Area and Mississippi islands including Petit Bois, West Petit Bois, Horn, Ship, and the NPS-owned portion of Cat Island closed at 5 p.m. Saturday. Campers at the Davis Bayou campground were told to evacuate by 9 a.m. Sunday.

In Alabama, officials are recommending evacuations in parts of Baldwin County, along the Gulf of Mexico and on the southeast edge of Mobile Bay. The advisory includes Gulf Shores and other beach communities, as well as some inland areas.

Gov. Ivey closed all the state's beaches effective at 3 p.m. Monday, and she recommended evacuations for all residents of flood-prone areas south of Interstate 10 and for all non-residents.

Sand and water surround vehicles on Tonty Court on Dauphin Island in Alabama as Hurricane Sally headed toward the Gulf Coast on Monday, September 14, 2020.

Mobile County public schools and Gulf Shores City schools closed Monday, WALA-TV reported. The University of South Alabama moved Monday and Tuesday classes online.

The Baldwin County Commission had an emergency meeting Monday morning to discuss preparations for Sally.

(WATCH: Why Slow-Moving Tropical Systems Are the Worst)

On Dauphin Island, Collier told residents to be ready for the storm.

"Once the conditions change, you dont have a chance to tweak your plan, so we just need to go ahead and be prepared for the worst-case scenario, and then as they say hope for the best," Collier said.

Monday morning, Collier announced on his Facebook page that flooding was already happening on the west end of Dauphin Island.

Gulf Shores lifeguards closed the waters to the public Sunday night because of the high risk of rip currents, WALA reported.

In New Orleans, the mayor issued a mandatory evacuation order for residents living outside of the parish's levee protection system: Venetian Isle, Irish Bayou and Lake Catherine. Those areas could see storm surge of 7 to 9 feet, the National Weather Service said.

The city's Sewerage and Water Board said all 99 of the city's drainage pumps are available for service. The other two were under repair and expected to be up and running ahead of any potential impacts from the storm.

The town of Grand Isle, Louisiana, on a tiny barrier island in the Gulf, also issued a mandatory evacuation order to begin at 9 a.m. Sunday. Mayor David Camardelle already had asked campers, RVs and boats to leave the island beginning at 8 a.m. Sunday.

Mandatory evacuations were ordered in the Jean Lafitte area of Jefferson Parish, too, including Barataria and Crown Point.

(PHOTOS: How Much Oil Did Hurricane Laura Spill?)

All of Jefferson's 192 drainage pumps are operating, Parish President Cynthia Lee Sheng said Sunday.

"What happened in the past doesnt matter," Lee Sheng said at a news conference. "We handle every threat the same ... You cant say, 'Im tired of this, I dont want to do it.' It doesnt matter what kind of year we've had ... we still have a major threat in front of us."

Mandatory evacuations were ordered in St. John the Baptist Parish for Pleasure Bend and low-lying areas of the parish north of Interstate 10 in LaPlace, including Frenier, Peavine and Manchac. A voluntary evacuation order is in place for the rest of the parish.

Plaquemines Parish ordered mandatory evacuations for the entire East Bank of the parish and on the West Bank from Phillips 66 Alliance Refinery to Venice. A voluntary evacuation is in place from the community of Oakville to the Phillips 66 Alliance Refinery.

President Matthew Jewell ordered a mandatory evacuation for all St. Charles Parish residents, saying Sally could cause widespread power outages and cut off the availability of crucial and emergency services.

"We want residents to heed our warnings and make preparations to leave now," Jewell said Sunday.

(WATCH: What the NHC Director Had to Say About Sally)

A mandatory evacuation is in effect south of the Leon Theriot Lock in Golden Meadow and all low-lying areas of Lafourche.

Several parishes announced schools would be closed Monday and Tuesday, including Jefferson, Lafourche, Plaquemines, St. Bernard, St. Charles, St. John the Baptist and Terrebonne parishes. In Orleans Parish, all Monday courses will be delivered online. No face-to-face courses will meet on campus on Monday. All Tuesday classes (in-person, online and hybrid) are canceled.

Loyola University will have classes Monday until 4 p.m. but will be closed Tuesday. The University of Holy Cross, Nunez Community College and New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary all plan to close.

The Louisiana National Guard tweeted that more than 1,200 soldiers and airmen along with 51 high-water vehicles, 32 boats, eight helicopters and two engineer work teams were being deployed in southeast Louisiana in preparation for Sally.

Sally arrives less than three weeks after Hurricane Laura came ashore in Louisiana as a Category 4 storm on Aug. 27.

Santa Rosa County and Escambia County schools closed Monday because of Sally, the Pensacola News Journal reported.

The two counties could see 10 to 20 inches of rain through Wednesday.

The University of West Florida announced all of its in-person classes are either going fully remote or are canceled from noon Monday through Tuesday. Pensacola State College also closed Monday.

In Pensacola, the county seat of Escambia, the mayor declared a state of emergency on Monday.

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Clinton and Randal Ream, with their son Saylor and daughter Nayvie, and two neighbors Aubrey Miller and Harmony Morgan, at their home in a small trailer park in West Pensacola, Fla. The area received a lot of damage after Hurricane Sally came through as a Category 2 hurricane in Pensacola, Fla., on Sept. 16, 2020. (Bryan Tarnowski for The Washington Post via Getty Images)

The Weather Companys primary journalistic mission is to report on breaking weather news, the environment and the importance of science to our lives. This story does not necessarily represent the position of our parent company, IBM.

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Mississippi, Alabama and Louisiana Brace for Hurricane Sally; Cars Lost to Water, Sand in Dauphin Island - The Weather Channel

The federal government spends roughly $700 billion a year on the military. It spends perhaps $15 billion a year trying to understand and stopclimate change.

I thought about those numbers a lot last week, as I tried to stop my toddler from playing in ash, tried to calm down my dogs as they paced and panted in mid-morning dusk light, tried to figure out whether my air purifier was actually protecting my lungs, tried to understand why the sky was pumpkin-colored, and tried not to think about the carcinogen risk of breathing in wildfire smoke, week after week.

The government has committed to defending us and our allies against foreign enemies. Yet when it comes to the single biggest existential threat we collectively facethe one that threatens to make much of the planet uninhabitable, starve millions, and incite violent conflicts around the worldit has chosen to do near-nothing. Worse than that, the federal government continues to subsidize and promote fossil fuels, and with them the destruction of our planetary home. Climate hell is here. We cannot stand it. And we cannot afford it either.

Again and again, Republicans have insisted that it is clean energy and a safer, stabler homeland that we cannot possibly afford. The Paris climate accord is simply the latest example of Washington entering into an agreement that disadvantages the United States to the exclusive benefit of other countries, leaving American workers, who I love, and taxpayers to absorb the cost in terms of lost jobs, lower wages, shuttered factories, and vastly diminished economic production, Donald Trump said, pulling out ofthe agreement, citing its draconian financial and economic burdens.

But the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Changeestimatesthat global warming of 1.5 degrees Celsius above preindustrial levels would cause something like $50 trillion in economic damage by the end of the century. The warmer the planet gets, the more expensive the consequences, and some scientists now predict that if the global community fails to act, temperatures will rise 4 degrees Celsius by 2100. If we do not limit emissions, economic activity across 22 vital American business sectors could decline by half a trillion dollars on an annual basis,one studyfound. No country save for India is expected to bear a heavier financial burden from climate change thanthe UnitedStates. (Indias anticipated damage is so high because of its already hot climate and large GDP.)

A warming planet is destroying the countrys physical infrastructure: In2019 alone, the United States experienced more than a dozen billion-dollar weather events, and 2020 might be worse. Fires in California and Oregon are incinerating homes, businesses, schools, power lines, and roads. Hurricanes in the Gulf Coast are swamping mobile homes and carrying away cars and livestock. The United States faces the potential task of relocating towns and cities and fortifying others, trapped in an endless cycle of destruction and rebuilding.

Climate change is damaging American productivity too, sapping away output from millions of workers and thousands of businesses. Researchershave estimatedthat every workday above 86 degrees Fahrenheit costs a given county $20 perpersonin lost income, with other studies showing workers who toil outside, such as construction workers and farmers, facing the worst and harshesteffects. Temperature increases screw with the economys basic elements, such as workers and crops, the researchers Tatyana Deryugina and Solomon M. Hsiang argue.

Climate change is killing Americans. Wildfires, heat waves, mudslides, hurricanes, and floods lead to hundreds if not thousands of deaths every year. But those are only the direct fatalities. Climate change is increasing rates of conditions such as heatstroke. Climate change is worseningbirth outcomes, leading to more premature deliveries and maternal deaths. Climate change is putting the world at risk of famine, and the United States at risk of hunger.

The air we are breathing is toxic because of our addiction to fossil fuels. As Dave Roberts writes atVox, ditching gas would be worth it for theeffects on air pollutionalone. The researcher Drew Shindell of Duke Universityhas testifiedthat keeping the world to a 2-degrees-Celsius pathway would prevent 4.5 million premature deaths, 3.5 million hospitalizations and emergency-room visits, and 300 million lost workdays over the next 50 years.

Climate change is also increasing rates ofdomestic abuse, pumping up the number ofgun deaths, leading to more violent interactions withpolice officers, inciting resource conflicts, and raising the likelihood of war andcivil conflicts. We all are at greater risk of violent death because of climate change, and not just as a result of changes in the weather. Trump sees himself as the law-and-order candidate, the man who can restore peace and security to the country. But homes across the West Coast are burning down. Some of my fellow Californians were recently immolated. My unhoused neighbors are suffering from smoke-induced asthma in the middle of a respiratory pandemic.

The Paris Agreement, the Green New Deal, cap-and-trade legislation, renewable-energy mandates: These things are not expensive. They are cheap compared with the cost of climate change. And they are necessary investments in our collective security, no less important or vital than investments in our military. Instead of subsidizing fossil fuels, the government could be creating millions of green jobs that would save the lives of millions around the planet. This election, and every election from here on out, is existential on this issue: If 2016, per the conservative writer Michael Anton, was theFlight 93 election, 2020 is the 4-degrees-Celsius election. Politicians can choose the safer, greener path for all of us, or the path to oblivion.

What price would we put on breathing without fear? What price would we put on keeping our children safe? What price would we put on being freed of this terror?

This story was originally published by The Atlantic. Sign up for their newsletter.

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The U.S. Is on the Path to Destruction - Defense One

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Plans to convert a Greensburg mansion into a group home for former mental health patients at Torrance State Hospital was approved this week over objections from neighbors who claimed the project could lower nearby property values.

The citys zoning hearing board voted to grant a special exception that clears the path for the property at 320 W. Pittsburgh St. to be sold and renovated for use as part of a $1.4 million county project, funded with state dollars, to allow former institutionalized mental health patients to relocate to a community setting.

The seven-bedroom, 10,000-square-foot brick home sits on 1.43 acres that serves as an entryway to Morey Place, a narrow, tree-lined street dotted with family homes.

Neighbors called on zoning board members to reject the project over safety and parking concerns as well as predictions that the group homes presence could drive down the value of their properties.

There are an astronomical number of concerns, said Alex Mickinak, a Morey Place resident.

Bill Lightcap, another Morey Place resident, said he feared the facility could house convicted sex offenders. We need to know if Megans Law or sex offenders will be in this facility, he said.

Officials said Southwest Behavioral Health, a private nonprofit based in Charleroi, will buy and renovate the building and operate what it calls a personal care home. Residents will not be locked in the facility, but they will be monitored around the clock by at least three staffers, administrator Lyndsay Burrik said.

No sex offenders are expected to moved into the facility, Burrik said, but she could give no assurances that none would be housed there in the future.

The ages of those expected to initially live in the home range between 40 and 80. The home will serve as their permanent residence, she said.

We want to give individuals a right to live in this community. Its a great place to live, Burrik said. If theres anything we can do to make people more comfortable, we are willing to listen.

John Sweeney, a Greensburg resident and Southwest Behavioral Care Board member, defended the project as one that fills a need for the community.

Theres this group of people in state homes who have languished in those facilities that really need a stepped-down level of care, Sweeney said.

Greensburg lawyer Jim Antoniono said he and his family have owned the home for more than two decades. He has been trying to sell it for more than 7 years. It is listed for sale at $650,000.

This is the first offer we had. Were moving next week, and this property will not stay as it is. I have enough room to put three or four mobile homes behind it, and if you dont approve this, I might have to consider something like that, Antoniono told the zoning board.

The property would be the second group home in Westmoreland Countys hospital diversion program and reduce the number of beds the county is allocated at Torrance, in Derry Township, from 46 to 32. The programs first group home in Penn Township opened for 10 residents in 2016.

Rich Cholodofsky is a Tribune-Review staff writer. You can contact Rich at 724-830-6293, rcholodofsky@triblive.com or via Twitter .

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AP Published 5:12 p.m. ET Sept. 18, 2020

Bubba Watson was outside New York city preparing for the first round of the U.S. Open when Hurricane Sally made landfall on the Florida Panhandle, where he grew up and now lives again.

The first text I sent my wife is, Should I come home? Because golf is golf and life is more important than that, he said on Friday after shooting a 1-under 69 at Winged Foot to improve to 1 over for the tournament.

Right now Im trying to stay focused on a very difficult golf course instead of the very difficult situation at home, Watson said. But my wife is holding the fort down pretty nicely.

Two people died in Alabama and a Florida kayaker is missing after Sally slammed into the Gulf Coast early Wednesday morning with wind of more than 100 mph. Hundreds of thousands remained without power Friday.

Watson said he was ready to leave the club in Mamaroneck, New York, if wife Angie asked him to. But it wasnt clear whether he would even be able to fly into Pensacola during the storm, and the mobile home he stays in at tournaments would require a two-day drive.

If boss lady said, Come home. Or if there have been some more damage to my own house, I mean, Id have been down there as fast as I could get down there, Watson said, adding that after an opening round 72 he thought he might miss the cut and be able to leave Friday night.

My focus was I had my plane ready to go home today just in case because I wanted to get home and be with the family and be with the community. But now Ill have to cancel the flight, he said.

Thats a good problem to have, I guess, Watson said. Cancel the flight and be home late Sunday night, hopefully.

A two-time Masters champion who tied for fifth in the U.S. Open in 2007, Watson started the second round tied for 57th -- just inside the cut line. He knocked in three straight birdies before making the turn and was still 3 under before a double bogey on the final hole when his third shot -- a putt from the fairway -- rolled back off the green, farther back than he started.

Watson was in 20th place when he signed his scorecard, but he sensed that he might move up and he did.

Its not getting any easier out there, he said.

Watson said his family is all OK, and his house escaped the worst of the damage from the hurricane. Friends have been staying at his home, which has generators, and others have been coming by for ice and other essentials.

Watson also has three businesses in the area: a part-ownership of the Pensacola Blue Wahoos minor league baseball team, a car dealership and an ice cream and candy store called Bubbas Sweet Spot. There was some damage to the Wahoos stadium and the car dealership; he hadnt received a report on the candy store.

Watson said that when he gets home he would like to help Pensacola the way J.J. Watt helped in Houston after Hurricane Harvey flooded the city. The Texans defensive lineman raised more than $37 million and helped rebuild more than 1,000 homes.

Tour commissioner Jay Monahan has offered to help.

Something like that would be tremendous, Watson said. Anything like that in that direction, just to help the community, lift the spirits of the community because I know theres some people hurting for sure.

A self-proclaimed head case who is easily distracted -- he burnished the reputation when he backed off a tee shot three times at Doral in 2016 -- Watson said he cant blame the hurricane for distracting him from the tournament.

But nor did the devastation back home help keep golf in perspective. Even after making three birdies in a row, he said he was still worried whether he was going to make the cut.

Im telling you, Im still a head case, he said. You would think it would relax me a little bit.

___

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Watson rallies in US Open with home, hurricane on mind - USA TODAY