Donald Trump mocked for warning people that Hurricane Florence is going to be 'tremendously wet'
Donald Trump’s way with words has once again seen him at the centre of mockery, after he said Hurricane Florence would be ‘tremendously wet’.
As the Category 2 storm looms on the eastern coast of the United States, the President urged residents to prepare for the deluge.
As 130mph winds and torrential downpours are set to hit Virginia and North and South Carolina, Trump said: ‘They haven’t seen anything like what’s coming at us in 25, 30 years, maybe ever.
‘It’s tremendously big and tremendously wet. A tremendous amount of water.’
Naturally, the President was taken to task for stating the obvious:
I defy anyone to name a prominent Democrat who is stupid enough to describe a hurricane as “tremendously big and tremendously wet”. That’s where we are today, folks. That’s our Donald Trump. Oh, and we’re a trillion dollars in debt. ‘Night.
— Ken Olin (@kenolin1) September 12, 2018
@realDonaldTrump on Hurricanes:
“Tremendously big and tremendously wet”
People on @realDonaldTrump:
Tremendously orange and tremendously stupid”— Danny Woodburn (@DannyWoodburn) September 13, 2018
Trump’s brilliant meteorological analysis of #hurricaneflorence: It’s tremendously big and tremendously wet. 😳 https://t.co/t29GRYY4Nt
— Jeronimo Saldaña (@JeronimoSaldana) September 13, 2018
“They haven't seen anything like what's coming at us in 25, 30 years, maybe ever. It's tremendously big and tremendously wet. Tremendous amounts of water," Trump said in the Oval Office.
Wait. I need to know. Will it also be tremendously windy?— Rob Urban (@roburban) September 12, 2018
The deep thoughts of self-proclaimed "stable genius" @realDonaldTrump on hurricane Florence:
“Tremendously big and tremendously wet — tremendous amounts of water.”
— David Cay Johnston (@DavidCayJ) September 12, 2018
Trump previously spoke about about people going out in boats to watch Hurricane Harvey in Texas who subsequently had to be rescued.
He said in June: ‘People went out in their boats to watch the hurricane. That didn’t work out too well. That didn’t work out too well.’
However, neither law enforcement first responders – or anybody else – were able to verify the claim, according to Politifact.
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While Hurricane Florence has been downgraded to a Category 2 storm, it is still considered an extremely dangerous and life-threatening storm, according to US officials.
Faced with new forecasts that showed a more southerly threat, Georgia’s governor joined his counterparts in Virginia and North and South Carolina in declaring a state of emergency, and some residents who had thought they were safely out of range boarded up their homes.
The National Hurricane Centre’s best guess was that Florence would blow ashore as early as Friday afternoon around the North Carolina-South Carolina border, then push its rainy way westward with a potential for catastrophic inland flooding.
Hurricane Florence may now be dipping a bit south and hitting a portion of the Great State of Georgia. Be ready, be prepared!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 12, 2018
Night-time winds were down to 110mph from a high of 140mph, and the Category 3 storm fell to a Category 2, with a further slow weakening expected as the storm nears the coast.
The hurricane centre said Florence will approach the coast on Friday and linger for a while before rolling ashore.
More than 1.7 million people in the Carolinas and Virginia were warned to clear out, while airlines have cancelled nearly 1,000 flights.
Power company Duke Energy said Florence could knock out electricity to three-quarters of its four million customers in the Carolinas, and outages could last for weeks.