New Hope Motel In The Woods

Snohomish County will kick off a new initiative in coming weeks to protect the region’s farmland from increasing urban pressures.

The Agricultural Sustainability Project, headed by the county’s 11-member agricultural-advisory board, will create a long-term vision for increasing the acreage of land now being farmed in Snohomish County as well as find new ways to promote the county’s agricultural economy.

Among the components are a comprehensive inventory of existing or potential farmlands outside current use; an analysis of ways to remove red tape for farmers looking to increase usable acreage; recommendations on preserving farmland; and new ideas for building agricultural businesses in Snohomish County.

The initiative will rely on a mix of project leaders that will include farmers, local and state agriculture agencies, farm and environmental advocates and other residents interested in farming.

To start, the county will host a series of community meetings in which the public will be asked to create priorities and a long-term vision for county agriculture. From there, the county will begin to find ways to implement those plans.

That could include new policies for farming at a local government level, better promotion of Snohomish County’s agricultural products and increased lobbying of state and federal lawmakers for support of the county’s farming industry.

At present, there are about 1,600 farms in Snohomish County, of which more than 70 percent are either family or individually owned. Total acreage farmed is beginning to increase, after years of decline, say county officials. Part of that is because of increased corn prices for ethanol production and feed.

The entire agriculture industry is worth about $127 million to Snohomish County’s economy, local studies show.

“Farms are the backbone of Snohomish County,” said County Executive Aaron Reardon during Tuesday’s project announcement. “To make an agriculture plan sustainable and functional, we need continued input from farmers.”

Reardon said increased farming will eventually help the county retain local food production and, because of increased interest in biofuels, could reduce the reliance on foreign sources for energy.

Christopher Schwarzen: 425-745-7813 or cschwarzen@seattletimes.com

British politics were dominated for three decades by the strong personalities of Margaret Thatcher and Tony Blair, the faces of Conservative and Labor governments from 1979 until 2007. Totally different in approach and style, they dominated their parties with their personal political skills.

They confounded the theory that under a parliamentary system, policies and performance, not personality, should drive debates and elections.

Don’t bother telling that to Gordon Brown. The new British prime minister, selected by Labor this summer when Blair stepped down, had one of the briefest honeymoons on record. I watched it implode during a recent visit to Britain. He is reeling under attacks from opposition parties, a hostile media and an unexpectedly aggressive independence movement in Scotland.

Brown started strong, his government handling a banking crisis, terrorist incidents in London and Glasgow, and in general looking like the no-nonsense Scot who had earned respect as Blair’s chancellor of the exchequer.

He was riding high, buoyed by polls, and at Labor’s annual conference in September his backers widely talked of a “snap election,” a hastily called national vote to elect a new Parliament and (hopefully) give Brown a personal mandate. He must hold an election by 2010, but under the parliamentary system he can call it at any time, or be forced to call it by losing a vote of confidence in Parliament.

Had Brown lost a snap vote, he would have become the shortest-serving prime minister in British history. For someone who had waited 10 years for his opportunity and who seems naturally cautious, it was a chance too far. He dithered, procrastinated, and allowed Conservatives to steal the spotlight with their own annual conference and a strong television performance by leader David Cameron.

Cameron epitomizes the politics of today’s media. His background is in public relations, his skills are those of presentation (he delivered his conference speech without notes) and understanding today’s 24-hour news cycle. At first, he urged Brown to call the snap vote, although Brown had the upper hand. But when Cameron’s conference appearance produced a bounce in the polls (Conservatives 43 percent, Labor 36, Liberal Democrats 14), he went on offense, taunting Brown and forcing him to back down from a fall vote.

If that weren’t sufficiently embarrassing, Brown tripped over an old British land mine, the European Union. Britain has always been divided on the EU, and still refuses to adopt the euro as its currency. Labor, under Blair but with Brown on board, promised in 2005 to call a national referendum on the proposed EU Constitution. But, rejection by French and Dutch voters made a British vote unnecessary.

This year, however, EU leaders proposed a “treaty” similar to the defeated constitution, and Brown’s opponents and most of the British media pushed him to honor Labor’s 2005 pledge. Cameron, urged on by Rupert Murdoch’s The Sun, the biggest tabloid in the country, clamored for a vote. But, Brown met other EU leaders in mid-October and agreed to the treaty without calling a referendum, which might have rejected the treaty.

Brown’s decision found little media or public support, brought grumbling in his own party, and left him looking indecisive and defensive. Compared to the nimble Tony Blair, Brown looked dogged, determined but dull, marshaling complex arguments while his critics were trashing his image.

The ascent of the Scottish National Party to control of Scotland’s semi-independent government in May brought its separatist crusade to the fore, and forced Brown to emphasize his “Britishness” over his “Scottishness.” If Scotland were to secede, Labor would lose its most reliable voter base, including Brown’s own constituency in Fife. Separation, unlikely now, would advance if Tories return to power in Parliament.

Speaking to the Labor conference, he used the terms “British” or “Britain” 74 times. Now he’s in a wedge between his Scottish heritage and voters and Conservative anti-Scot “Little Englanders” to the south, with plenty of parochialism on both sides.

Hoping to benefit from the pile-on, Liberal Democrats, Britain’s perpetual third party, drove into retirement its respected 66-year-old leader, Menzies Campbell (another Scot), who unfortunately looked his age on television. The search for his replacement features two young men who look a lot like David Cameron and a lot unlike Gordon Brown.

Watching this develop, I felt for this dour Scot, so in need of charisma to combat the creations of 21st-century media. We’ve exported sound-bite politics to the world, something I’m not sure it needed. Brown may eventually prevail, but there’s sure to be a young Blair-Cameron waiting in the wings.Floyd J. McKay, a journalism professor emeritus at Western Washington University, is a regular contributor to Times editorial pages. E-mail him at floydmckay@yahoo.com

WASHINGTON - Science is getting a grip on people’s fears.

As Americans revel in all things scary today for Halloween, scientists say they now know better what’s going on inside our brains when a spook jumps out and scares us. Knowing how fear rules the brain should lead to treatments for a major medical problem: When irrational fears go haywire.

“We’re making a lot of progress,” said University of Michigan psychology professor Stephen Maren. “We’re taking all of what we learned from the basic studies of animals and bringing that into the clinical practices that help people. Things are starting to come together in a very important way.”

About 40 million Americans suffer from anxiety disorders, according to the National Institute of Mental Health. A Harvard Medical School study estimated the annual cost to the U.S. economy in 1999 at roughly $42 billion.

Fear is a basic primal emotion that is key to evolutionary survival. It’s one we share with animals. Genetics plays a big role in the development of overwhelming - and needless - fear, psychologists say. But so do traumatic events.

“Fear is a funny thing,” said Ted Abel, a fear researcher at the University of Pennsylvania. “One needs enough of it, but not too much of it.”

Armi Rowe, a Connecticut freelance writer and mother, said she used to be “one of those rational types who are usually calm under pressure.” She was someone who would ski the treacherous black diamond trails of snowy mountains. Then one day, in the midst of coping with a couple of serious illnesses in her family, she felt fear closing in on her while driving alone. The crushing pain on her chest felt like a heart attack. She called 911.

“I was literally frozen with fear,” she said. It was an anxiety attack. The first of many.

The first sign she would get would be sweaty palms and then a numbness in the pit of her stomach and queasiness. Eventually it escalated until she felt as if she were being attacked by a wild animal.

“There’s a trick to panic attack,” said David Carbonell, a Chicago psychologist specializing in treating anxiety disorders. “You’re experiencing this powerful discomfort but you’re getting tricked into treating it like danger.”

These days, thanks to counseling, self-study, calming exercises and introspection, Rowe knows how to stop or at least minimize those attacks early on.

Scientists figure they can improve that fear-dampening process by learning how fear runs through the brain and body.

The fear hot spot is the amygdala, an almond-shaped part of the deep brain.

The amygdala isn’t responsible for all of people’s fear response, but it’s like the burglar alarm that connects to everything else, said New York University psychology and neural science professor Elizabeth Phelps.

Emory University psychiatry and psychology professor Michael Davis found that a certain chemical reaction in the amygdala is crucial in the way mice and people learn to overcome fear. When that reaction is deactivated in mice, they never learn to counter their fears.

Scientists found D-cycloserine, a drug already used to fight hard-to-treat tuberculosis, strengthens that good chemical reaction in mice. Working in combination with therapy, it seems to do the same in people. It was first shown effective with people who have a fear of heights. It also worked in tests with other types of fear, and it’s now being studied in survivors of the World Trade Center attacks and the Iraq war.

The work is promising, but Michigan’s Maren cautions that therapy will still be needed: “You’re not going to be able to take a pill and make these things go away.”

That’s because “fear is the most powerful emotion,” said University of California Los Angeles psychology professor Michael Fanselow.

And people recognize fear in other humans faster than other emotions, according to a new study being published next month. Research appearing in the journal Emotion involved volunteers who were bombarded with pictures of faces showing fear, happiness and no expression. They quickly recognized and reacted to the faces of fear - even when they were turned upside down.

“We think we have some built-in shortcuts of the brain that serve the role that helps us detect anything that could be threatening,” said study author Vanderbilt University psychology professor David Zald.

Other studies have shown that just by being very afraid, other bodily functions change. One study found that very frightened people can withstand more pain than those not experiencing fear. Another found that experiencing fear or merely perceiving it in others improved people’s attention and brain skills.

To help overcome overwhelming fear, psychologist Carbonell, author of the “Panic Attacks Workbook,” has his patients distinguish between a real threat and a perceived one. They practice fear attacks and their response to them. He even has them fill out questionnaires in the middle of a fear attack, which changes their thinking and reduces their anxiety.

That’s important because the normal response for dealing with a real threat is either flee or fight, Carbonell said. But if the threat is not real, the best way to deal with fear is just the opposite: “Wait it out and chill.”

LONDON - Queen Elizabeth II welcomed Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah Tuesday with an honor guard and rode with him to Buckingham Palace in her gilded carriage, passing protesters who condemned the oil-rich kingdom for alleged human-rights abuses.

Before arriving Monday for the first state visit by a Saudi king in two decades, Abdullah accused Britain of failing to act on intelligence that might have prevented the 2005 London transit bombings. Analysts said the comments appeared to be an attempt to distance himself from the extremists and at the same time pre-empt attacks on Saudi Arabia’s record of fighting terrorism.

“I don’t think the U.K. should be hosting human-rights abusers,” said Anna Jones, 26, who donned a mask of Queen Elizabeth as she joined a row of dozens of other protesters along the procession route.

Other protesters yelled and waved banners condemning the British government’s “hypocrisy” and saying: “You can’t do this in Riyadh.”

ABECHE, Chad - Chad’s authorities brought abduction and fraud charges on Tuesday against nine French and seven Spanish nationals it accused of illegally trying to fly 103 African children to Europe.

A Chadian prosecutor said the French, members of a group called Zoe’s Ark, which said it wanted to place orphans from Sudan’s war-torn Darfur with European families, faced five to 20 years hard labor if convicted in the landlocked African state.

The French group has denied it was acting illegally.

Seven Spanish crew members of the plane chartered for the operation were charged as accessories, along with two Chadians.

Chadian President Idriss Deby has denounced “a crime against children” and demanded stiff penalties. He has suggested the children, aged 3 to 10 years old, could have been sold to a pedophile ring or used to supply human organs.

The 16 Europeans were arrested Thursday as they tried to fly the children, believed to be Sudanese and Chadian, out of Abeche in eastern Chad. A Belgian pilot has been detained separately but was not cited in Tuesday’s charges.

The case has embarrassed France, which is an ally of Deby and has a military contingent stationed in Chad.

France will provide the bulk of a European Union peacekeeping force that is to start deploying in east Chad next month to protect around 400,000 Sudanese refugees and Chadian civilians who have fled violence spilling over from Darfur.

France’s government, which has criticized the activities of the Zoe’s Ark group and opened an inquiry into illegal adoption procedures, said the accused would face justice in Chad.

The children, some believed to have come from families who fled to Chad from Sudan’s Darfur, were to be housed with host families in Europe who paid several thousand euros each.

Some of the children said their parents were still alive and they were lured from their villages on the Chad-Sudan border with offers of sweets. They are being looked after at an Abeche orphanage by U.N. children’s agency (UNHCR) officials who are trying to establish where they came from.

More than 300,000 Darfur refugees are living in camps along the Sudanese border after fleeing four years of conflict that has left more than 200,000 people dead and driven 2.5 million from their homes.

The Portland Trail Blazers have strong Seattle connections - owner Paul Allen, coach Nate McMillan, Brandon Roy and Martell Webster, to name four.

For some Sonics fans, the Blazers are their most hated rival. Of course, Sonics fans can’t even be sure their team will be in Seattle beyond this season, so some might be tempted to root for the Blazers.

But then this Seattle vs. Portland debate is nothing new. Which city is best? Some things to consider:

Detlef Schrempf played for both teams. He helped the Sonics reach the NBA Finals. He was washed up by the time he played his final two seasons for the Blazers, and his flattop just didn’t seem as sweet. Plus, best song titled “Detlef Schrempf” is by Seattle’s Band of Horses. Advantage, Seattle.

Best 7-footer from a former Soviet Republic? Portland’s Arvydas Sabonis gets a big edge over Seattle’s Vladimir Stepania. (Stepania also played one season, poorly, for the Blazers.)

Worst draft pick? The Sonics had a three-year run from 1968 through 1970 of Bob Kauffman (No. 3 overall), Lucius Allen (No. 3) and Jim Ard (No. 6). That’s just not good. But at least they never passed on Michael Jordan to take Sam Bowie (like the Blazers did, in 1984) or made LaRue Martin the No. 1 overall pick (1972). Advantage, Seattle.

OK, enough basketball talk … Each city likes to take credit for the popularity of the song “Louie Louie,” which was written by Los Angeles musician Richard Berry in 1955 and recorded as a calypso song (with little resulting fanfare) by Berry’s group, the Pharaohs, in 1957. Many Seattle/Tacoma bands performed and/or recorded it as a rock song - including the Dave Lewis Combo, the Frantics, Ron Holden & the Playboys, Little Bill and the Blue Notes and, most famously to that point, Tacoma’s Fabulous Wailers in 1961. Portland bands the Kingsmen and Paul Revere and the Raiders each recorded the song in April 1963, the Kingsmen’s version becoming the one you’re probably most familiar with. So, slight edge to Portland.

Both are very literate cities, with great book stores. The best, though, with apologies to Elliott Bay Book Co., Queen Anne Books, Third Place Books and many other fine Seattle stores, is Powell’s Books in Portland.

Ever taken a ferry ride in Portland? Advantage, Seattle.

And you still can’t pump your own gas in Portland, a skill we seem to have mastered here. Advantage, Seattle.

But, Portland’s light-rail system is pretty cool. Advantage, Portland.

Mount Hood. You call that a mountain? Advantage to Mount Rainier/Seattle.

Hipster doofus quotient. Extremely high in both cities. Seem to be more walking the streets of Seattle. Advantage, Portland.

Major-league sports. Well, Seattle also has the Seahawks, Mariners, Storm. This category will be even at two teams each once the Sonics and Storm move to Oklahoma City and Portland gets a baseball team. For now, advantage, Seattle.

How about rock ‘n’ roll shrines? Seattle has Experience Music Project, Portland has the Oregon Music Hall of Fame. EMP is often criticized, and maybe it’s overrated, but at least it’s a real place. The Oregon Music Hall of Fame is just a Web site (omhof.org). Advantage, Seattle.

Trips to the coast? It’s easier to get to Oregon’s more accessible beaches. And once you’re there, you’re not in any danger of being run over by some idiot driving a pickup, which is legal on Washington’s beaches. (Driving on the beach, that is. Not, you know, running over people. That’s still illegal.) Advantage, Portland.

Oregon has a state-income tax, Washington a sales tax. Advantage? Beats me, ask your accountant. But here’s some free advice: Live in Washington, do as much shopping as you can in Oregon.

So there you have it. Wait, what were we talking about? Oh yeah, the Sonics and Blazers, Seattle vs. Portland. We’ll let the teams settle it on the court - they play four times this season, the first meeting in Portland, on Christmas.

As for this whole Seattle vs. Portland thing, that’s an ongoing debate we’re not going to be able to settle today.

Seattle is one of the first major U.S. cities to claim it has cut greenhouse-gas emissions enough to meet the targets of the international Kyoto treaty aimed at combating global warming.

The achievement, at a time when the city has enjoyed a boom in population and jobs, sets Seattle apart both from the nation as a whole and other cities that have seen greenhouse gases soar in recent years.

But keeping a lid on such emissions in the future means confronting one of the city’s most intractable problems: how to get people out of their cars and driving less.

While overall greenhouse-gas emissions fell by 8 percent between 1990 and 2005 - the most recent data available - the amount attributed to transportation rose 3 percent, due largely to more gas slurped up by cars, according to a draft report issued by the city on Monday.

“This is a remarkable milestone that shows how cities can lead the way in the fight against global warming,” Mayor Greg Nickels said. “But it is just the start of our work.”

Although critics say trying to meet the Kyoto targets nationwide would hurt the economy without solving global warming, supporters call it a critical first step toward much deeper reductions needed to slow or even reverse the warming.

Seattle’s reductions were largely the result of energy conservation by households and businesses, and changes in power production at Seattle City Light, the report said.

The announcement was a triumph for Nickels, who has made climate change a cornerstone of his administration and hosts a global-warming conference of U.S. mayors this week.

Nickels has lobbied the nation’s mayors to sign a pledge promising to meet the Kyoto Protocol’s target of cutting greenhouse gases to 7 percent below 1990 levels by 2012. More than 650 mayors have joined the movement, which is aimed partly at pressuring the federal government to join the international treaty.

The Bush administration has opposed the treaty, which doesn’t restrict emissions from developing countries such as China and India that are among major sources of greenhouse gases. In 1999, the U.S. Senate voted 95-0 against the treaty.

The reductions in emissions from homes, cars and factories in Seattle can’t be credited to the citywide climate-change plan, which Nickels unveiled in 2006.

The City Council first passed a resolution adopting the Kyoto goals in 2001, before Nickels took office.

Part of the cuts are due to changes in power production at Seattle City Light, which provides clean-running hydropower to homes and businesses.

“We have the good fortune of owning our own utility,” said Steve Nicholas, head of the city’s Office of Sustainability and Environment.

City Light says its operations now produce no net greenhouse gases. Since 1990, the utility sold its part-ownership in a coal-fired power plant in Centralia and stopped buying power from a natural-gas plant in Klamath Falls, Ore. Both plants produce greenhouse gases.

City Light also has embarked on more aggressive conservation measures and bought greenhouse-gas offsets - essentially paying someone else to stop polluting as much - to make up for emissions from sources such as its utility trucks.

Another share of the drop came from homeowners and businesses switching from fuel oil to cleaner-burning natural gas to heat buildings, something city officials attributed largely to market forces rather than city policies.

The city was helped temporarily by a drop in 2005 emissions from the two cement plants along the Duwamish River. Those plants account for almost a seventh of the city’s greenhouse gases, and their emissions fell by more than 160,000 metric tons.

But that reduction could evaporate, since those plants were expected to boost production after 2005, Nicholas said.

For now, Monday’s report puts Seattle ahead of other U.S. cities leading the push to curb greenhouse gases - notably Portland, which has been working on the issue since 1993.

Portland and Multnomah County have seen a gradual drop in greenhouse-gas emissions since 2000, and levels are hovering near 1990 levels.

Unlike Seattle, Portland gets power from two investor-owned utilities that generate greenhouse gases. The city also doesn’t count offsets, which are controversial because some people question whether the claimed pollution reductions are real.

But Portland has shown more progress on the transportation front, where emissions are at almost the same level as 1990, and have been dropping in recent years.

Seattle has started trying to lure people from their cars. Two tax measures approved by voters in 2006 are aimed at improving bus service, bike lanes and sidewalks.

The city also has passed development rules to encourage people to move downtown, where they will drive less, said Nicholas, with the Office of Sustainability and Environment.

But Nicholas said the city will need to do more if it wants to keep greenhouse gases from creeping up, particularly as Seattle’s population grows.

Outgoing City Councilman Peter Steinbrueck said Monday’s report is welcome news.

But he said the city also needs to take more aggressive steps to stem the growth of car traffic.

He mentioned the proposed replacement of the Alaskan Way Viaduct with a similar structure, or an underground roadway, as an example of continued emphasis on cars.

“My concern here is that while the news is good, it shouldn’t put us at ease in any way. We are working against time,” he said.

Warren Cornwall: 206-464-2311 or wcornwall@seattletimes.com

TACOMA - Police say two young military men are dead in a car crash following a chase or street race in Tacoma

Officer Mark W. Fulghum says speed appears to be a factor in the crash.

According to a police report, the two were in a car that was either racing with or chasing another car early Sunday morning. The other driver told investigators the car followed him through an east side intersection, then went out of control and slammed into a tree.

The other driver stopped and tried to help, but the passenger died and the driver died shortly afterward at a hospital.

A police investigation is continuing.

Halloween can be a scary time for animals. The Seattle Animal Shelter and the Seattle Humane Society offer tips to keep Halloween from being a fright for pets and trick-or-treaters.

• Don’t leave pets out in the yard on Halloween.

• Trick-or-treat candies are not for pets. Chocolate is poisonous to dogs.

• Keep dogs and cats away from lit pumpkins and other flames that can be knocked over easily.

• Consider keeping your pets in a separate room during trick-or-treat visiting hours and parties.

• Make certain your pet is wearing a pet license in case it escapes through an open door.

Civic calendar

“Take winter by storm”

Today: New storm-response plans are being announced at 10:30 a.m. at Seattle City Hall by the city, King County, the state Department of Transportation and Puget Sound Energy. The plans will address improving storm response based on lessons learned from last winter’s storms.

Traffic watch

Today-Friday: Magnolia Boulevard will be closed from 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. between West Garfield Street and West Howe Street to all through traffic except King County Metro Transit and school buses. The street will remain open to pedestrians. Traffic southbound on Magnolia Boulevard will be detoured to West Howe Street, and then to 28th Avenue West. Northbound traffic will be detoured to 28th Avenue West, Condon Way West and then to West McGraw Street.

More flu shots

Through November: Walk-in flu-shot clinics are being offered by Kmart pharmacies through November. Call 800-822-8345 to find the date and time of a flu clinic at the various stores. The flu-shot vaccines are available for customers for $28, and pneumonia shots are available for $50.

Here & Now is compiled by Seattle Times lead news assistant Lynne Berry. To submit an item, e-mail herenow@seattletimes.com or call 206-464-2226.

Oct. 30, 1969: University of Washington football coach Jim Owens suspended four African-American football players - Gregg Alex, Ralph Bayard, Harvey Blanks and LaMar Mills - for what he termed lack of commitment to the team. In response, other African-American players on the team refused to travel to a game, and activists demanded Owens’ resignation. Owens reconsidered and reinstated all but one player. Protests against the suspension followed, and UW President Charles Odegaard promised an overhaul of football disciplinary practices.

Source: Historylink.org

SANTO DOMINGO, Dominican Republic - Tropical Storm Noel lashed the Dominican Republic with heavy rains Monday, causing flooding and mudslides that killed at least 20 people and left another 20 missing, officials said.

Noel was expected to dump up to 20 inches of rain on the Dominican Republic and Haiti, which share the island of Hispaniola, as it heads northwest toward the Bahamas.

Forecasters said a tropical-storm watch may be issued for southeast Florida early today.

The spinning storm had been forecast to hit Haiti hardest but veered toward the Dominican Republic, apparently catching residents off-guard.

“We didn’t know that it was going to be like this, it took us by surprise,” said Guarionex Rosado as he left his home in La Cienaga, one of Santo Domingo’s most affected neighborhoods.

Noel temporarily knocked out the Dominican Republic’s entire power system early Monday, plunging 9.4 million people into the dark for about two hours, said Radhames Segura, vice president of the state-owned electric company.

Some buildings tumbled down hillsides near the Dominican capital, and a cellphone tower slammed to the ground in the southwestern province of Barahona. At least 10 people vanished when the Maimon River overflowed its banks and sent a torrent of muddy water rushing through the town of Piedra Blanca.

Manuel Antonio Luna Paulino, president of the Dominican Republic’s National Emergency Commission, said at least 20 people had died and another 20 were reported missing.

Three of those killed died when they were swept up by a fast-moving river in San José de Ocoa, southwest of the capital. Three more - a couple and their child - were killed in a mudslide in the port city of Haina, officials said.

International aid workers think the death toll will likely rise as reports come in from remote areas of the Dominican Republic and Haiti.

“I think this has taken some officials by surprise. The storm was predicted to go more toward Haiti,” said Holly Inuretta, a regional adviser for U.S.-based Catholic Relief Services.

Haitian Prime Minister Jacques Edouard Alexis said there were no immediate reports of casualties in his country, but he urged people to seek shelter. “It’s moving very slowly and dropping a lot of rain,” he said.

Haiti is prone to deadly flooding because of its steep mountains and hills deforested by people who cut down the trees to make charcoal. Floods earlier this month killed at least 37 and sent more than 4,000 people to shelters.

Late Monday, the U.S. National Hurricane Center said heavy rains continued to pound Hispaniola and rain had started falling on parts of the southeastern Bahamas. Noel had winds of up to 50 mph.

At 11 p.m. EDT, Noel’s center was about 305 miles south-southeast of Nassau, Bahamas, forecasters said. It was heading northwest at roughly 13 mph. At that pace, the storm should move between the central Bahamas and the northern coast of Cuba on late Monday or today.

A tropical-storm warning was discontinued for Haiti. A tropical-storm warning was in effect for the central and southeastern Bahamas, as well as the Cuban provinces of Ciego de Avila, Camaguey, Las Tunas, Holguin and Guantánamo.