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DOD report notes 'tables, chairs and cots broken' by Afghans, 'tents and cots ruined by spray paint, human biological matter and holes' ... A new Department of Defense (DOD) report found that the U.S. military bases that housed Afghan evacuees suffered $260 million in damages, with the Air Force saying the damage was "unrepairable." The DOD inspector general reported last week that the eight bases housing the refugees in Texas, Wisconsin, New Jersey, Virginia, New Mexico and Indiana are asking for repair money after they sustained over a quarter-billion dollars in damage. Over 17 days, 120,000 evacuees were taken to...

The Biden administration is giving America gifts that will keep on giving for generations to come, and one of the foremost of these gifts is the newly-arrived group of Afghan evacuees: 70,000 are now in the U.S., and the total number is expected to exceed 124,000 before long. One of Biden’s handlers, unnamed in a Wednesday Wall Street Journal report, has admitted that ten of these evacuees have already been detained as risks to national security. Only ten out of 70,000 isn’t bad, right? Sure. But Biden’s handlers’ catastrophic mishandling of the withdrawal from Afghanistan makes it virtually certain that...

Six people on Britain’s ‘no fly’ list picked up in security checks in Kabul and Frankfurt.. Six people deemed a “direct threat” to the UK have been flagged up in security checks of would-be evacuees from Kabul, amid broader warnings that the Islamic State terror group is targeting British soldiers and officials at the airport. The individuals were on Britain’s “no fly” list – although MPs were told in a briefing on Monday that one had made it to Birmingham airport, where many evacuees are landing. It is unclear what happened to the person next. ... Kevin Foster, a junior...

The first groups of Afghan evacuees arrived at Dulles International Airport Saturday, one week after the Taliban’s takeover of Afghanistan. At a Defense Department briefing at the Pentagon Saturday, Army Maj. Gen. Hank Taylor told reporters that three flights carrying Afghan evacuees had landed at Dulles, near Washington, D.C., and those evacuees will be transitioned to Fort Bliss in Texas "for further processing." On Thursday, "the U.S. military airlifted nearly 6,000 evacuees in a single day," Taylor said. "In the last 24 hours, six U.S. military C-17s and 32 charters departed Kabul. Through this combined effort, the total passenger count...

Overnight, 12 US Air Force C-17 cargo jets removed 2,000 people from the region - an average of just 160 people per flight, despite the planes being able to carry 600 people - six fewer aircraft than in the previous 24 hours. Since August 14, the US has only removed 7,000 people in total from the region. Only 300 of those who flew out were American and officials can't give a breakdown of who else was on the planes or whether or not they had the right paperwork to be there.

Jarred Evans is one of the evacuated Americans staying at the California base for at least 72 hours. Before landing in the US on the chartered flight, he spent more than a week holed up in his apartment in Wuhan as coronavirus raced through the city. During that time, he said, residents sent panicked messages, warning others to take precaution. "It hit fast and ... it just was very hectic for like three days straight," he said. "I got the news from my Chinese friends saying, 'Hey, stay inside. Wear a mask. Don't go outside, stock up on some food...

The jet landed shortly after 8 a.m. at March Air Reserve Base about 60 miles (96 kilometers) east of Los Angeles. A ground crew dressed in white approached the aircraft shortly after it landed and three charter-style buses parked near the plane. Federal and local public health officials scheduled a media briefing for later in the morning. All the passengers already underwent two health screenings in China and were screened twice more in Anchorage by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. One passenger received medical attention for a minor injury that happened before boarding the airplane in China, Dr....

The US government is rushing to evacuate Americans from the coronavirus-stricken Chinese city of Wuhan as officials warned the deadly strain's spread is picking up speed. A charter flight is scheduled to fly from the Wuhan Tianhe International Airport to San Francisco International Airport on Tuesday. The US consulate in Wuhan began reaching out to all Americans registered as living in the city - of which there are said to be roughly 1,000 - last week to offer them a seat on the plane. The State Department warned that the single flight will have 'limited capacity' to transport private US...

Bahamas Paradise Cruise Line ship Grand Celebration transported more than 1,100 Bahamians to the United States, the line said in a statement. Evacuees were taken to Port of Palm Beach in Riviera Beach, Florida, early Saturday, according to the cruise line. The ship was in the Bahamas on Thursday and Friday with nearly 300 first responders, 850 boxed lunches and a total of 225,000 pounds of supplies, including food and water, the line stated.

More than $45 million in revenue is believed to have been lost when the state suspended highway toll collections to help speed evacuations and relief efforts for Hurricane Irma, Florida's Turnpike system estimates. However, the estimated $3 million-a-day impact is not expected to hinder operations of the system or ongoing work programs, “as impacts such as toll suspensions due to a hurricane are taken into consideration during the annual budgeting process,” turnpike spokesman Chad Huff said in an email Friday. Funding 404 full-time positions, the turnpike system is budgeted at $1.57 billion for the current fiscal year, which began July...

All road-toll collections in Florida remain suspended following Hurricane Irma, as evacuees make their way home.Gov. Rick Scott directed the Florida Department of Transportation to suspend the tolls ahead of the storm so residents could access hurricane supplies and evacuate faster. Now, the same measure is being implemented to allow for safe return. The governor reported that all interstates and turnpikes were opened as of Monday afternoon.However, the governor is also cautioning residents to check with local authorities before returning, to make sure their communities and homes are safe to re-enter.The FDOT reports heavy traffic on eastbound Interstate 10 and...

A couple displaced by the Oroville Dam evacuations almost had their Valentine’s Day wedding plans canceled -- were it not for a number of fellow evacuees and Placer County workers who helped put on an impromptu wedding at the evacuation center. Henry Rueda and now-wife Leotta's marriage was 10 years in the making, but Sunday they were forced to evacuate their Olivehurst, California, home for the Placer County Fairgrounds, with about 300 other displaced residents. Authorities ordered people to leave the area when a hole developed in an eroded area of the spillway, raising concerns that the spillway could fail...

"It's just hardwired into us and our religion," Harsimran Singh aid. "Anytime someone needs help, we need to be there." Members of the Sikh faith are inviting the 188,000 evacuees who were forced to leave their homes because of the damaged Oroville Dam emergency spillway to come to their temples for a nice vegetarian meal and a rest on the floor of their prayer halls. Yuba City and Sacramento — both about an hour's drive from Oroville — are central migration spots for Sikhs in California, most of whom originally hailed from Punjab, India. Several temples in the surrounding Northern...

The number of evacuees coming to Florida soon will probably be 45,000.

Dallas/Fort Worth Airport may serve as a key landing point for hundreds of medical patients airlifted from New Orleans to Metroplex hospitals beginning Sunday, as Hurricane Gustav moves into the Gulf of Mexico.Additionally, if Gustav hits New Orleans, the former Delta Air Lines satellite facility near Terminal E would end up serving as temporary living quarters for 800 federal relief employees who were stationed at New Orleans' Louis Armstrong Airport as the storm approached, officials said."This is going to be a huge team effort," said Brian Magana, D/FW spokesman.The first patients are tentatively scheduled to arrive early Sunday -- D/FW...

State's plan calls for putting some offenders on separate bus Texans seeking to escape the next hurricane or state emergency by evacuation bus will first be submitted to criminal background checks, the state's emergency management director says. The idea, according to Jack Colley, is to keep sex offenders and others who may be wanted by police off the same buses used by the most vulnerable during an evacuation: the elderly, disabled residents and children. "This will allow us to help them evacuate," Colley said of sex offenders and others wanted for crimes. "We're not going to leave anyone." Though the...

It doesn't bring back lost family heirlooms, a child's favourite toy or photos of your daughter's wedding but evacuees of the fires raging around San Diego, California can take solace in the fact that their home away from home is safe, comfortable and even has a few extra frills. CanWest correspondent Sheldon Alberts reports about conditions from the Qualcomm Centre, which is housing thousands who have left their homes because of the massive fires in California: Instead of chaos, there was relative calm as evacuees arrived to discover a carnival-like atmosphere that included live music performances, a makeshift pre-school and...

Exerted.... "SAN DIEGO — Like Hurricane Katrina evacuees two years earlier in New Orleans, thousands of people rousted by natural disaster fled to the NFL stadium here, waiting out the calamity and worrying about their homes. The similarities ended there, as an almost festive atmosphere reigned at Qualcomm Stadium." "Bands belted out rock 'n' roll, lavish buffets served gourmet entrees, and massage therapists helped relieve the stress for those forced to flee their homes because of wildfires." "At Qualcomm, thousands of tents, many set up by relief organizations, provided temporary roofs, while hundreds of people slept on open-air cots. Some...

NEW YORK, May 2 (Reuters Life!) - Evacuees of Hurricane Katrina which devastated New Orleans in 2005 felt a deep level of distrust towards public health authorities, according to a new study. Researchers at the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA) said the level of distrust influenced how people reacted to warnings to evacuate and why some residents decided to stay. "The statements of distrust were all spontaneous statements," said Dr. Kristina Cordasco, the lead author of the study published in the Journal of Health Care for the Poor and Underserved.

WASHINGTON — Just as federal housing money was to start flowing again to thousands of Texas-based hurricane evacuees, a federal appeals court put everything on hold Friday. The ruling means that about 4,200 families in Houston, San Antonio and Austin who were left homeless by hurricanes Katrina and Rita will have to wait until at least February to find out whether the federal government is required to restore their rental assistance payments. By then, the temporary housing program will have expired — unless Congress or President Bush extend it.