WASHINGTON >> President Donald Trump today urged any U.S. residents still in Hurricane Irma’s path to “just get out of its way” and not worry about possessions, as he monitored the powerful storm’s advance on Florida from the secluded Camp David presidential retreat.
Irma was expected to strike the Florida Keys at daybreak Sunday, with Hurricane Jose following closely behind.
Trump said Irma is a “storm of enormous destructive power and I ask everyone in the storm path to heed all instructions, get out of its way.”
“Property is replaceable but lives are not and safety has to come first,” Trump said at a Cabinet meeting at the president retreat in Maryland, where he was spending the weekend with his wife, first lady Melania Trump. “Don’t worry about it. Just get out of its way.” Trump shared a brief video of his remarks at the meeting on Twitter.
Irma hammered Cuba today with punishing winds and rain before setting her sights on Florida, where massive evacuations were being carried out.
Trump said the U.S. was grieving for those who were killed by Irma before she reached the mainland. The storm left more than 20 people dead in the Caribbean. He said the administration is monitoring the situation “around the clock” and is in “constant communications” with governors and other officials from the affected areas.
“We’ve never seen anything like this,” he said, pledging — as he did after Hurricane Harvey — that recovery and rebuilding will happen quickly.
Tens of thousands in Florida were without electrical power today, said Gov. Rick Scott, who again urged those who have been ordered to evacuate to leave.
Trump has been receiving regular briefings on both storms, along with updates on recovery and relief efforts that continue in southeast Texas and Louisiana after Harvey, the White House said. Harvey brought record rainfall and severe flooding to Houston and surrounding areas of the Texas Gulf Coast in late August before it moved on to Louisiana.
Elaine Duke, the acting head of the Department of Homeland Security, was scheduled to provide Trump and the rest of the team with a full briefing today on Irma and Jose.
In between storm updates, Trump was to spend part of his fourth Cabinet meeting discussing administration priorities and how to advance them during what’s left of his first year in office.
Trump sided with Democrats this week to raise the U.S. borrowing limit and keep the government operating through early December in a bid to speed federal assistance to hurricane victims. Congress acted quickly to pass the $15.3 billion deal and send it to Trump, who signed it Friday after he arrived at the Maryland retreat.
The agreement allowed Trump to taste victory after months of legislative setbacks and whet his appetite for more wins.
The president recently launched a public push to rewrite the tax code to make it simpler and more competitive by cutting taxes for corporations and the middle class. He wants new spending to upgrade roads, bridges and other infrastructure. Trump has also given Congress six months to resolve the status of individuals who were brought to the U.S. illegally as children after he decided to end an Obama administration program that allowed them to live, work and attend school without fear of being deported.
The president and Mrs. Trump invited members of the Cabinet and their spouses to Camp David for the weekend, the White House said. It marked Trump’s fourth visit to the retreat. He met there in August with members of his national security team, but today was the first time Trump had entertained the entire Cabinet there, including Defense Secretary Jim Mattis, who turned 67 on Friday.
Mrs. Trump spent time today with Cabinet secretaries and their spouses, and met with her staff while also keeping tabs on Irma, a spokeswoman said.
In a bit of deja vu, Trump was at Camp David when Harvey struck Texas last month.
“All of America continues, I must say, to pray for the families affected by Hurricane Harvey, Hurricane Irma, which looks like it’s going to be a really bad one, really bad,” Trump said at Camp David. “But we’re prepared, we’re as prepared as you can be for such an event, that I can say.”
