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– Authorities in Mexico Beach, Florida, estimate that 285 people decided to stay home and try to ride out Hurricane Michael, reports the AP. As has been well reported by now, the coastal community was decimated by the storm, and authorities are now trying to figure out how many of those 285 survived. Similar situations exist elsewhere in the state, and Florida officials are fielding scores of calls from worried loved ones. Still, with cellphone service down throughout wide areas, rescue officials are holding out hope that the missing are fine and simply haven't been able to get in touch yet. As of Friday afternoon, CNN had the death toll at 13: Five in Virginia, four in Florida, three in North Carolina, and one (an 11-year-old girl) in Georgia. “Unfortunately, I think you’re going to see that number climb,” said FEMA Administrator William “Brock” Long Friday morning. “I hope we don’t see it climb dramatically.” As for the storm itself, the Washington Post notes that Michael is now Post-Tropical Cyclone Michael and has moved out to sea. However, communities from New Jersey to Massachusetts could still get 3 to 5 inches of rain through Friday. More than 1 million people were without power in the affected states.

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 (CNN) The devastation left by Hurricane Michael in several states is still coming into focus, with coastal Florida cities destroyed beyond recognition, and homes, businesses and agriculture torn or swamped from Georgia to Virginia.

 More than 1 million customers were left without electricity, and emergency officials have no access to many towns. The US death toll has risen to at least 17 -- including five in Virginia and eight in Florida -- and it's expected to climb.

 "I expect the fatality count to rise today and tomorrow as we get through the debris," Federal Emergency Management Agency Administrator Brock Long said Friday morning.

 Michael, which smacked Florida's Panhandle as one of the most powerful hurricanes to hit the United States, left Virginia's coast as a post-tropical low early Friday -- and its trail of destruction will take weeks to take into account.

 Sen. Bill Nelson called the devastation left by Michael "the worst destruction that the Panhandle has seen for however long that I've been living. It's akin to Hurricane Andrew in 1992 where everything was leveled."

 Aerial footage shows coastal cities in the Panhandle, like Mexico Beach , wiped out. Search teams used dogs as they combed the area for people killed or trapped in debris.

 One death was reported in Mexico Beach -- that of an elderly man found alone, Mayor Al Cathey said. The man's name has not been released, but authorities said his body was found several hundred yards away from his home.

 City manager Tanya Castro said Mexico Beach won't be up and running for 12 to 18 months.

 Nelson said there are not enough resources -- food, shelter and water -- for those in Mexico Beach who stayed and for those residents returning. In Panama City, he said "there's going to be a period of time that it's difficult to get supplies in."

 Dawn Vickers rode out the storm in Mexico Beach, but her house and vehicles were demolished. Without cell phone service or transportation, she has been taking shelter in one of the few condos left standing, invited by someone she met at what's left of a gas station.

 "This has been the worst nightmare I've ever been through in my life," she told CNN on Friday.

 A psychiatric hospital in Florida is isolated after downed trees blocked roads around Chattahoochee, and a tree caused a water line to break. The facility is running on power generators, and helicopters have delivered food and water, the state's Department of Children and Families said.

 Photos: In pictures: Hurricane Michael's trail of destruction President Donald Trump, first lady Melania Trump and Florida Gov. Rick Scott tour a Lynn Haven, Florida, neighborhood that was affected by Hurricane Michael. Hide Caption 1 of 66 Photos: In pictures: Hurricane Michael's trail of destruction Lisa Patrick is overcome with emotion as she visits the remains of her home in Mexico Beach, Florida, on Monday, October 15. Hide Caption 2 of 66 Photos: In pictures: Hurricane Michael's trail of destruction The President and first lady hand out bottles of water to people in Lynn Haven on October 15. Hide Caption 3 of 66 Photos: In pictures: Hurricane Michael's trail of destruction The Trumps tour damage in Lynn Haven. Hide Caption 4 of 66 Photos: In pictures: Hurricane Michael's trail of destruction President Trump flies over the devastation in Mexico Beach. Hide Caption 5 of 66 Photos: In pictures: Hurricane Michael's trail of destruction Mexico Beach residents make their way across a washed-out road on Friday, October 12. Hide Caption 6 of 66 Photos: In pictures: Hurricane Michael's trail of destruction An aerial view shows the devastation in Mexico Beach on October 12. The small beach resort saw the brunt of Michael, authorities say. Hide Caption 7 of 66 Photos: In pictures: Hurricane Michael's trail of destruction Dough Shelby looks out at the destruction from his house in Mexico Beach on October 12. Hide Caption 8 of 66 Photos: In pictures: Hurricane Michael's trail of destruction Little remains of a burned home destroyed by the hurricane in Mexico Beach on October 12. Hide Caption 9 of 66 Photos: In pictures: Hurricane Michael's trail of destruction Benny Hobson sits in his recliner on Thursday, October 11, after losing the front wall of his house in Panama City, Florida. Hide Caption 10 of 66 Photos: In pictures: Hurricane Michael's trail of destruction Storm-damaged boats are piled up in Panama City on October 11. Hide Caption 11 of 66 Photos: In pictures: Hurricane Michael's trail of destruction Elizabeth Hanson, right, and her daughter Emaly hug their neighbor Cindy Clark on October 11. The hurricane heavily damaged their homes in Mexico Beach. Hide Caption 12 of 66 Photos: In pictures: Hurricane Michael's trail of destruction Collector cars are covered in debris in Panama City on October 11. Hide Caption 13 of 66 Photos: In pictures: Hurricane Michael's trail of destruction Tom Bailey walks his bike past a home that was carried across a road and slammed up against a condo complex in Mexico Beach. Hide Caption 14 of 66 Photos: In pictures: Hurricane Michael's trail of destruction Joyce Fox stands in front of her heavily damaged home in Panama City on October 11. Hide Caption 15 of 66 Photos: In pictures: Hurricane Michael's trail of destruction A boat sits amid debris in Mexico Beach on October 11. Hide Caption 16 of 66 Photos: In pictures: Hurricane Michael's trail of destruction Kylie Strampe holds her 4-month-old daughter, Lola, while surveying the damage in Callaway, Florida, on October 11. Hide Caption 17 of 66 Photos: In pictures: Hurricane Michael's trail of destruction Trees snapped by Michael's winds are seen in Mexico Beach on October 11. Hide Caption 18 of 66 Photos: In pictures: Hurricane Michael's trail of destruction Amanda Logsdon faces a heavy cleanup task at her Panama City house on October 11. Hide Caption 19 of 66 Photos: In pictures: Hurricane Michael's trail of destruction Rescue personnel search Mexico Beach. Hide Caption 20 of 66 Photos: In pictures: Hurricane Michael's trail of destruction A man walks through a damaged store in Springfield, Florida. Hide Caption 21 of 66 Photos: In pictures: Hurricane Michael's trail of destruction An aerial photo shows a destroyed boat in Mexico Beach on October 11. Hide Caption 22 of 66 Photos: In pictures: Hurricane Michael's trail of destruction A tree sits on top of a Panama City mobile home. Almost all the residents of the mobile-home park rode out the storm. All homes were damaged except one. Hide Caption 23 of 66 Photos: In pictures: Hurricane Michael's trail of destruction Kathy Coy stands among what is left of her home in Panama City. She said she was in the home when it was blown apart and is thankful to be alive. Hide Caption 24 of 66 Photos: In pictures: Hurricane Michael's trail of destruction The view from a Panama City hotel room that lost a wall in the storm. Hide Caption 25 of 66 Photos: In pictures: Hurricane Michael's trail of destruction Firefighter Austin Schlarb performs a door-to-door search in Mexico Beach on October 11. Hide Caption 26 of 66 Photos: In pictures: Hurricane Michael's trail of destruction Damaged buildings are seen in Panama City on October 11. Hide Caption 27 of 66 Photos: In pictures: Hurricane Michael's trail of destruction Debris is scattered in Mexico Beach early on October 11. Hide Caption 28 of 66 Photos: In pictures: Hurricane Michael's trail of destruction Wreckage is piled up in Mexico Beach, near where Michael made landfall. Hide Caption 29 of 66 Photos: In pictures: Hurricane Michael's trail of destruction Debris burns in Mexico Beach on October 11. Hide Caption 30 of 66 Photos: In pictures: Hurricane Michael's trail of destruction Haley Nelson inspects damage at her family properties in the Panama City area on Wednesday, October 10. Hide Caption 31 of 66 Photos: In pictures: Hurricane Michael's trail of destruction Cars are tossed among the debris in Mexico Beach. Hide Caption 32 of 66 Photos: In pictures: Hurricane Michael's trail of destruction Kaylee O'Brian cries inside her Panama City home after several trees fell on it on October 10. Hide Caption 33 of 66 Photos: In pictures: Hurricane Michael's trail of destruction Floodwaters overwhelm vehicles in Panama City on Wednesday, October 10. Hide Caption 34 of 66 Photos: In pictures: Hurricane Michael's trail of destruction A storm chaser climbs into his vehicle to retrieve equipment after a hotel canopy collapsed in Panama City Beach on October 10. Hide Caption 35 of 66 Photos: In pictures: Hurricane Michael's trail of destruction A helicopter circles a Panama City neighborhood in the storm's wake on October 10. Hide Caption 36 of 66 Photos: In pictures: Hurricane Michael's trail of destruction A woman and her children wait near a destroyed gas station in Panama City on October 10. Hide Caption 37 of 66 Photos: In pictures: Hurricane Michael's trail of destruction A McDonald's sign is mangled in Panama City on October 10. Hide Caption 38 of 66 Photos: In pictures: Hurricane Michael's trail of destruction Boats are left damaged in a Panama City marina on October 10. Hide Caption 39 of 66 Photos: In pictures: Hurricane Michael's trail of destruction People comfort each other outside an apartment building in Panama City. Hide Caption 40 of 66 Photos: In pictures: Hurricane Michael's trail of destruction People make their way through a building's wreckage in Panama City on October 10. Hide Caption 41 of 66 Photos: In pictures: Hurricane Michael's trail of destruction The powerful hurricane left houses battered in Panama City Beach. Hide Caption 42 of 66 Photos: In pictures: Hurricane Michael's trail of destruction Phlomena Telker stands on the remains of her covered porch in Panama City. Hide Caption 43 of 66 Photos: In pictures: Hurricane Michael's trail of destruction Boats are damaged at the Port St. Joe Marina in the Florida Panhandle. Hide Caption 44 of 66 Photos: In pictures: Hurricane Michael's trail of destruction Lenora Adams evacuates a motel with her dog as the hurricane comes ashore in Panacea, Florida, on October 10. Hide Caption 45 of 66 Photos: In pictures: Hurricane Michael's trail of destruction Rick Tesk, left, helps a business owner rescue his dogs from a damaged business in Panama City. Hide Caption 46 of 66 Photos: In pictures: Hurricane Michael's trail of destruction Wrecked boats sit near a pier in Panama City. Hide Caption 47 of 66 Photos: In pictures: Hurricane Michael's trail of destruction A resident of St. Marks, Florida, pulls a cooler out of the floodwaters near his home. Hide Caption 48 of 66 Photos: In pictures: Hurricane Michael's trail of destruction Pine trees litter a yard in Port St. Joe. Hide Caption 49 of 66 Photos: In pictures: Hurricane Michael's trail of destruction Streets begin to flood as high tide approaches in St. Petersburg, Florida, on October 10. Hide Caption 50 of 66 Photos: In pictures: Hurricane Michael's trail of destruction Mike Lindsey stands in his Panama City antique shop after it was damaged by Hurricane Michael on October 10. Hide Caption 51 of 66 Photos: In pictures: Hurricane Michael's trail of destruction Trees lie on top of a home in Panama City. Hide Caption 52 of 66 Photos: In pictures: Hurricane Michael's trail of destruction Bo Lynn's Market is flooded in St. Marks on October 10. Hide Caption 53 of 66 Photos: In pictures: Hurricane Michael's trail of destruction A truck drives along a road in Alligator Point, Florida, that had been washed out by the storm on October 10. Hide Caption 54 of 66 Photos: In pictures: Hurricane Michael's trail of destruction Waves hit a house in Alligator Point on October 10. Hide Caption 55 of 66 Photos: In pictures: Hurricane Michael's trail of destruction The eye of the storm, as seen from the International Space Station on October 10. Hide Caption 56 of 66 Photos: In pictures: Hurricane Michael's trail of destruction A woman checks on her vehicle after a hotel canopy collapsed in Panama City Beach. Hide Caption 57 of 66 Photos: In pictures: Hurricane Michael's trail of destruction Mitchell Pope tries to salvage what he can from his mobile home in St. Marks. Hide Caption 58 of 66 Photos: In pictures: Hurricane Michael's trail of destruction This boat ran aground at Florida's Quietwater Beach. Hide Caption 59 of 66 Photos: In pictures: Hurricane Michael's trail of destruction Jayden Morgan, 11, evacuates his home as water starts to flood his neighborhood in St. Marks. Hide Caption 60 of 66 Photos: In pictures: Hurricane Michael's trail of destruction A person takes pictures of the surf and fishing pier on Okaloosa Island in Fort Walton Beach, Florida. Hide Caption 61 of 66 Photos: In pictures: Hurricane Michael's trail of destruction Emily Hindle lies on the floor at an evacuation shelter set up at a Panama City Beach high school on October 10. Hide Caption 62 of 66 Photos: In pictures: Hurricane Michael's trail of destruction Kathy Eaton takes what she can from her Panama City Beach home as she tries to get out of the way of the storm on October 10. Hide Caption 63 of 66 Photos: In pictures: Hurricane Michael's trail of destruction Justin Davis, left, and Brock Mclean board up a business in Destin, Florida, on Tuesday, October 9. Hide Caption 64 of 66 Photos: In pictures: Hurricane Michael's trail of destruction Krystal Day, left, leads a sandbag assembly line at the Old Port Cove restaurant in Ozello, Florida, on October 9. Hide Caption 65 of 66 Photos: In pictures: Hurricane Michael's trail of destruction Workers scramble to store boats at Shields Marina in St. Marks. Hide Caption 66 of 66

 Key developments

 • No electricity: At least 1.15 million customers in seven states are without power, including 383,000 in Virginia, 365,000 in North Carolina and 301,613 in Florida.

 • 17 killed: Eight people have died in Florida, including three fatalities announced Friday in Jackson County, north of Apalachicola. One of those deaths was due to debris, authorities said, and circumstances of the other two deaths were not immediately known. Five people died in Virginia. Four of those drowned, and the fifth was a firefighter who died in a storm-related crash on Interstate 295 in Hanover County, officials said. Three people in North Carolina and a child in Georgia also died.

 • Severe crop damage: Georgia officials are receiving reports of damage to pecan, cotton, vegetable and peanut crops. "For me the cotton crop is as bad as it gets. I was picking three bale cotton (this week); today it is gone," cotton farmer and state Rep. Clay Pirkle said. "Can't tell the difference between what I've picked and what I haven't."

 • Poultry industry: Georgia's Department of Agriculture said it received reports that Georgia's Department of Agriculture said it received reports that 84 chicken houses -- estimated to hold more than 2 million chickens -- were destroyed in the storm.

 • Public health emergency declared in Georgia: The move will help ensure those who rely on Medicare and Medicaid have access to the care they need, US Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar said.

 Mexico Beach was one of the hardest hit areas by Hurricane Michael.

 Flooding in the Carolinas and Virginia

 The rapid-moving rainfall from Michael triggered flash floods in parts of Virginia and the Carolinas, including areas threatened by swollen rivers during Hurricane Florence.

 Hundreds of residents were rescued Thursday from cars, apartments and homes flooded by rushing water.

 President Donald Trump tweeted his sympathy for people affected by the storm, saying, "People have no idea how hard Hurricane Michael has hit the great state of Georgia. I will be visiting both Florida and Georgia early next week. We are working very hard on every area and every state that was hit - we are with you!"

 People have no idea how hard Hurricane Michael has hit the great state of Georgia. I will be visiting both Florida and Georgia early next week. We are working very hard on every area and every state that was hit - we are with you! — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 12, 2018

 In Virginia, the Roanoke River jumped its banks and flooded nearby homes and businesses. Cory Patirlo, who lives near the river, said the impact was unexpected. It was the first time he had nearly 2 feet of water in his home.

 "It wasn't going to get this high, realistically. It never has," he told CNN affiliate WDBJ.

 "I'm gonna be sleeping in my van, with my dogs."

 Video that Trina Lockhart posted on Twitter showed drivers making their way cautiously though a flooded Roanoke street Thursday afternoon.

 In the southern Virginia city of Danville, floodwaters turned the Grove Park neighborhood into a virtual lake Thursday, and firefighters checked on a nearly submerged car, photos taken by Jim Heffinger show.

 The water receded within hours in some areas, and cleanup was underway Friday. Some people are expected to remain in shelters through the weekend as river levels go down.

 In North Carolina, Gov. Roy Cooper said first responders rescued nearly 100 people and evacuated many more this week in the face of flash flooding.

 Fallen trees have left hundreds of primary and secondary roads closed, he said.

 Florida residents return to broken homes

 Thousands of residents in the Florida Panhandle are slowly returning to their homes and discovering that everything or almost everything they owned has been reduced to rubble.

 Linda Clarke gasped repeatedly at the sight of her once new home in Shell Point Beach -- now severely damaged.

 "But you know what ... it's just stuff, it's just stuff," she told her husband, Raoul, as they walked through the ruins. "It's just stuff we can replace."

 There is not much left of what used to be the parish hall of St. Dominic Catholic Church in Panama City. Despite the destruction, the Rev. Luke Farabaugh and his congregation celebrated Mass on Thursday.

 "Things, we can replace," Farabaugh said on CNN's "Erin Burnett OutFront." "We've seen a lot of signs of hope. ... I've been telling people ... to have hope.

 "Hope is that even if the storm does come, even if I lose my car, my house, my family, even if I lose my life, blessed be God," he said. "Our reward isn't just in this life but in the life to come. So we're just trying to give people hope at this point."

 The hurricane carried a home across a road and slammed it against a condo complex in Mexico Beach.

 In Mexico Beach, Councilwoman Linda Albrecht learned through online news video that her home was gone.

 "Everything in my house, it was almost like it was pushed back with a bulldozer," she said

 "Mexico Beach needs your prayers," Albrecht said of the town of about 1,200 people. "It's not the Mexico Beach we know."

 But there are signs of recovery.

 Delta Airlines said it resumed all operations at airports impacted by Hurricane Michael, including Panama City Airport.

 The City of Tallahassee reported that 90% of the traffic lights in the city were back online Friday and that power had been restored to 38,000 customers.

 Several businesses in the city have reopened, including Walmart, Target and various gas stations.

 On St. George Island, a 28-mile-long and 1-mile-wide island off the Panhandle, a few dozen people didn't evacuate and as the storm raged, those who stayed were surrounded by oncoming water. Security camera video shows water creating its own current in the streets of one neighborhood.

 "There were a few points and times when I thought it could happen, that I could die," said Tiara Walker, who stayed in an apartment on the island. "There was a point in time where I thought the roof was going to fly away, so I flipped a couch over and just tried to prepare for the worst situation."

 'A freak accident'

 Sarah Radney saw trees falling down all around her grandparents' home when Hurricane Michael roared over Georgia. She was safe until a carport came crashing through the roof , killing her.

 "It was just a freak accident, I never heard of anything like that," said her father, Roy Radney.

 Sarah, 11, had just started the sixth grade and joined the drama club and the band. Her father says she loved playing the trumpet, acting and singing.

 A man who died when a tree fell on a home near Greensboro, Florida, has been identified as Steven Sweet, 44, according to Lt. Anglie Hightower, the spokeswoman for the Gadsden County Sheriff's Office. CNN's Anderson Cooper said Friday on "AC360" that Sweet managed a local car dealership. His wife, Gayle Sweet, was with him when he died.

 Here's what we know so far about some of the 17 and counting who did not survive Hurricane Michael https://t.co/wc4NyV6S73 pic.twitter.com/jwxTXFYF49 — Anderson Cooper 360° (@AC360) October 13, 2018

 "He's one of a kind, so kind he'll help anybody. Always giving money to people at the stop sign and stuff. He would help anybody," Gayle Sweet said of her husband.

 Three others died in Gadsden County, Hightower said. Authorities did not discuss the circumstances of their deaths, but their bodies have been taken to the medical examiner's office to determine the cause of death.

 In North Carolina, a 38-year-old man died when a large tree fell on his vehicle Thursday on US 64 east of Statesville, Iredell County Fire Marshal David Souther said.

 Cooper also said Friday that firefighter Lt. Brad Clark, 43, was killed when a tractor trailer lost control on a rainy highway and hit his truck in Hanover County, Virginia. A colleague said he loved the military, loved his family and loved the fire service dearly.

 Two people also were killed Thursday night in Marion, North Carolina, when their vehicle struck a tree that had fallen because of high winds, said Adrienne Jones, deputy director for the McDowell County Emergency Medical Services.

 In Nottoway County, Virginia, state police and local authorities were searching for a missing motorist, said Jeffrey Stern, the director of the Virginia Department of Emergency Management Agency. Virginia State Police Superintendent Col. Gary Settle said crews recovered a vehicle but not the person known to be in it.

 Hundreds of people have been rescued from the debris, and authorities fear the toll could climb higher as search-and-rescue efforts continue.

 Elizabeth Hanson, right, and daughter Emaly hug their neighbor Cindy Clark in Mexico Beach.

 Lack of resources

 Sen. Nelson said Friday on "AC360" that Mexico Beach does not not have enough shelters, water or food.

 Nelson said Panama City was "a city in the dark." A cavalry of utility trucks arrived Friday in Bay County, Florida, according to post from the Panama City Beach Government Facebook page.

 The Federal Emergency Management Agency approved individual assistance families in for Jackson, Liberty, Calhoun and Gadsden counties Friday according to a press release from Florida Gov. Rick Scott's office.

 The approval expands the individual assistance program — the original major disaster declaration made individual assistance available in five Florida counties: Bay, Franklin, Gulf, Taylor, Wakulla.

 Damage from Hurricane Michael in Marianna, Florida.

 Jackson County Emergency Management Director Rodney Andreassen said the county is hoping to get two or three trailers worth of food and water from FEMA but had not yet received them.

 A distribution center set up at a Walmart in Jackson County handed out food for a few hours Friday and will be open again Saturday. A Red Cross shelter with food and water has also been set up at Marianna High School

 The impact of climate change on storms

 Michael's strength may reflect the effect of climate change on storms. The planet has warmed significantly over the past several decades, causing changes in the environment.

 Human-caused greenhouse gases in the atmosphere create an energy imbalance, with more than 90% of remaining heat trapped by the gases going into the oceans, according to the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration.

 While we might not get more storms in a warmer climate, most studies show storms will get stronger and produce more rain. Storm surge is worse now than it was 100 years ago, thanks to the rise in sea levels.

 And unless the rate of greenhouse gas emissions changes, hurricanes are expected to intensify more rapidly in the coming decades, the scientific research group Climate Central said.

 Get the latest delivered to your inbox: Sign up for storm email alerts here.

 CORRECTION: An earlier version of this story gave the incorrect surname for storm victim Steven Sweet. It has been corrected. ||||| Hurricane Michael is no more. The violent storm that ripped through the Southeast, leaving a trail of death and destruction from Florida to Virginia, finally moved off the coast over the Atlantic Ocean overnight. It is now known as Post-Tropical Cyclone Michael.

 Michael made landfall in the Florida Panhandle on Wednesday as a Category 4 hurricane — the strongest on record to hit the area — and charged north through Georgia and into the Carolinas and Virginia, wreaking havoc and causing emergencies. In the storm’s wake lay crushed and flooded buildings, shattered lives and at least 11 deaths that state and local officials have linked to the storm, with authorities investigating another three deaths.

 5:12 p.m.: North of Panama City, long waits for gas, food

 FOUNTAIN, Fla. — When everything else was closed, Buck’s Piggly Wiggly Express opened with fuel and food. A line of cars extended a quarter mile, and the queue to enter the convenience store was so long, it took buyers more than 30 minutes to get in.

 Ann Jackson, 62, had heard the store in Fountain, Fla., about 30 miles north of Panama City, was selling water and other supplies, so she and her two daughters had rushed to it. They stood in line for 40 minutes to get in. Each family was allowed to buy 20 items and two cases of water. They had to limit their gas purchase to $15.

 Jackson had prepared for the hurricane with supplies for three to four days. It wasn’t supposed to be a category 5 storm, she said, so she thought she had enough. Now, the drinking water was running low in their home about 20 minutes south from the store.

 “This wasn’t our first hurricane, but it was way worse,” said Jackson, who lived through Opal years ago. For that storm, she said, they were without power for seven days. Now she worries the electricity won’t come back for weeks. She does have faith, she said, that the Walmart where she works will open with days and supplies will be more available.

 But Friday, Jackson was relieved to have found Piggly Wiggly open. She and her three daughters split up to get the shopping done, each assigned some necessities. She got water, bleach to make the toilet last longer without flushing, charcoal for the grill, plastic cups, plates and toilet paper. And a treat for her two grandchildren – a watermelon slushie.

 Store owner Allen Spikes said the store was luckily spared from major damage, and he was soon on task to put a generator to work to get it open. Friday, he had two semis deliver water, and as customers lined up outside, store workers continued to stock up the water shelves. He was expecting one more fuel delivery on Friday and Saturday.

 “People are desperate. They need supplies,” he said, as he and his wife Rachel worked the ice machine and talked to customers. “I am just glad we can serve our community.”

 Jackson and her family were grateful.

 “This will get us through a few more days,” she said. “All this will go away. But it’s going to be a long time to recover.”

 — Luz Lazo

 4:53 p.m.: Virginia continues search for missing woman

 The Virginia State Police said Friday afternoon that officials were continuing to search for a woman swept away when the vehicle she was riding in was stranded on a bridge along Mt. Harmony Road. The state’s death toll from the storm remained five people late Friday afternoon, according to the Virginia Department of Emergency Management.

 — Mark Berman

 3:50 p.m.: The impact Michael left far inland

 Although the obliterated beachfront communities have gotten most of the media attention, rescue operations are underway far inland. Many people in the Florida Panhandle live on dirt roads now completely blocked by fallen trees.

 Rescue teams that can’t reach rural residents by vehicle are having to go on foot, said Sean Collins, 47, a retired firefighter in Marianna, Fla.

 “We don’t know if some of the elderly who live back in these woods, are they okay and have they been contacted,” Collins said.

 Marianna is about 50 miles from the coast and took a direct hit from the eye of the storm. Buildings downtown were badly damaged. Collins estimated that 100 percent of homes and vehicles were damaged in some way.

 But because Marianna is so far from the coast – nearer to Alabama than to Panama City – residents did not evacuate, Collins said.

 “Nobody thought it was going to be this devastating,” he said.

 — Joel Achenbach

 2 p.m.: North Carolina, Georgia report additional storm deaths

 Authorities in North Carolina and Georgia confirmed additional deaths in those states, pushing the number of fatalities officials have linked to the storm to at least 11 people as of Friday afternoon, with three more deaths being investigated.

 North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper (D) said two people — a man and a woman — were killed in McDowell County when their car hit a large tree that had fallen on the road. State and local officials previously said a man in the state was killed Thursday when a tree fell on his car in Iredell County.

 “We extend our heartfelt sympathy to the loved ones and friends of those killed,” Cooper said in a statement.

 Meanwhile, officials in Georgia confirmed that a second life had been lost there, after an 11-year-old girl in Seminole County was killed while in a mobile home when the wind hurled a metal carport into the air. The Georgia Emergency Management and Homeland Security Agency on Friday morning said another person had died in the state. The agency declined to provide additional details on the death beyond saying it occurred in Wayne County.

 Virginia authorities said they had confirmed five deaths there and had one person still missing Friday.

 In Gadsden County, Fla., the sheriff’s office said Thursday they had four “storm-related fatalities following Hurricane Michael,” although they had only confirmed the details of one death: a man killed when a tree crashed through the roof of his home. A spokeswoman said Friday the four deaths had been forwarded to the medical examiner’s office, but additional details were not immediately available.

 Authorities have warned that the storm’s death toll was likely to climb as they were able to head into the areas — like Mexico Beach, Fla. — that endured particular damage this week. FEMA Administrator William “Brock” Long said he believed that the toll would increase, particularly as first responders got into places like Mexico Beach.

 “Unfortunately, I think you’re going to see that number climb,” Long said Friday morning. “I hope we don’t see it climb dramatically.”

 — Mark Berman

 12:10 p.m.: Five dead, one missing in Virginia after storm

 Five people are dead and one is still missing in Virginia after the area was hit by Hurricane Michael. In Charlotte County, three people became stranded in a vehicle on a bridge along Mt. Harmony Road, according to state police.

 When rescuers arrived, they were clinging to the railings of a bridge as high waters surrounded them. A local sheriff’s deputy saved a 17-year-old man using a human chain with law enforcement officers, local residents and rope, officials said, but a man and a woman – who police said are related to the teenager – were swept away. Rescuers found the body of the man overnight and the woman is still missing.

 [Before and after images of Hurricane Michael]

 In Pittsylvania County, a 45-year-old man died after he was swept away from his vehicle. A sheriff’s deputy and a local resident tried to rescue James E. King Jr., state police said, but the floodwaters were too deep and too swift.

 In Hanover County, a firefighter died and four others were injured, including three seriously, after a tractor trailer crashed into them as they tried to help with another crash involving two vehicles along Interstate 295 outside Mechanicsville, Va.

 And in Danville, two people died after being swept away by flood waters. One man, William Lynn Tanksley, 53, was swept from his vehicle during flash flooding at around 5 p.m. Thursday. Another person, who police have not yet identified, was stranded in a car overcome by flooding at around 10:20 p.m.

 — Dana Hedgpeth

 10:04 a.m.: FEMA chief warns the death toll likely to climb

 FEMA Administrator William “Brock” Long said Friday morning that the death toll from Hurricane Michael is likely to go up as rescue workers are able to venture more deeply into the areas devastated by the storm.

 Authorities as of Friday morning had confirmed 11 deaths in Florida, Georgia, North Carolina and Virginia, but they have repeatedly warned that this number could go up. Long reiterated that during a news briefing in Washington, saying that authorities have yet to fully explore areas like Mexico Beach, Fla., which Long has called “ground zero” after it was pummeled by the hurricane.

 “Unfortunately, I think you’re going to see that number climb,” Long said. “I hope we don’t see it climb dramatically. But I have reasons to believe — we haven’t gotten into some of the hardest hit areas, particularly the Mexico Beach area.”

 Long said the storm posed a direct threat to people who ignored warnings and evacuation orders on the coastlines, particularly given the threat of storm surge capable of tearing apart and flattening buildings.

 “Very few people live to tell what it’s like to experience storm surge,” he said.

 Long asked people in the areas directly hit by the storm to be patient for what is poised to be a long recovery, because it will take time to assess the damage and confront the destruction.

 “This is going to be a frustrating event,” he said. “It takes time to put things back together.”

 Long, who plans to head to the area hit by the storm over the weekend, said that in Bay County, Fla. — home to Mexico Beach — “it’s not safe to return,” given the downed power lines and other debris littering the region.

 “Quite honestly, it’s a dangerous area to go back into,” he said.

 — Mark Berman

 8:55 a.m.: In final advisory, hurricane center says Michael’s remnants are moving toward the sea

 The National Hurricane Center on Friday morning posted its final advisory for the storm formerly known as Hurricane Michael, writing that the “post-tropical cyclone” was trundling northeast and heading for the Atlantic.

 The forecast calls for the storm’s center to “move away from the United States today and move rapidly across the open Atlantic Ocean” beginning Friday night and through Sunday.

 The storm is still expected to produce storm surge flooding along the North Carolina coast, though that should diminish Friday, along with powerful winds in the mid-Atlantic in the early part of the day. The storm is even expected to drop some rain on New England and could produce up to 5 inches of rain in Nantucket and Martha’s Vineyard, while flash flooding remains possible from the heavy rain left behind in the Carolinas and elsewhere in the mid-Atlantic.

 — Mark Berman

 8:40 a.m.: Tyndall Air Force base “took a beating,” commander says

 When Hurricane Michael swept ashore in northwestern Florida, it delivered a punishing shot to Tyndall Air Force base, which sits between Panama City and Mexico Beach, not far from where the storm made landfall.

 The “base took a beating,” Col. Brian S. Laidlaw, the installation’s commander and commander of the 325th Fighter Wing, wrote in a letter to the people who call it home.

 “By now you already know that Tyndall Air Force Base requires extensive cleanup and repairs,” Laidlaw wrote. “I will not recall you and your families until we can guarantee your safety.”

 Laidlaw said he did not know how long the cleanup would take, but asked for patience because of the work involved.

 “We need to restore basic utilities, clear our roads of trees and power lines, and assess the structural integrity of our buildings,” he wrote. He added: “We can rebuild our base, but we can’t rebuild any of you.”

 — Mark Berman

 7:59 a.m.: Five deaths reported in Virginia

 The known death toll from Michael now stands at 11, after this sobering bulletin from the Virginia Department of Emergency Management:

 Virginia storm updates as of 7 a.m today. 5 confirmed Michael-related fatalities. 520,000 without power. 1,200 closed roads. 5 suspected tornadoes. — VDEM (@VDEM) October 12, 2018

 Four of the deaths were related to people being swept away in floodwaters along roads; the fifth was a firefighter who was killed in a crash along a highway, according to the Virginia Department of Emergency Management.

 In one incident, Virginia State Police said James E. King Jr., 45, of Dry Fork, Va., was swept away from his vehicle after he got caught Thursday afternoon in a flash flood in Pittsylvania County.

 A local sheriff’s deputy and a local resident tried to rescue him but police said the “floodwaters were too deep and too swift” for them to reach him. Around 10:37 p.m., his body was found.

 A firefighter in Hanover County was struck and killed by a tractor-trailer and three other firefighters were seriously injured as they tried to help with another crash on Interstate 295. The driver of the tractor-trailer also suffered serious injuries.

 Authorities in Florida, Georgia and North Carolina had previously linked at least six deaths to the storm, a toll officials have worried will continue to rise as search-and-rescue efforts continue.

 In Florida, the Gadsden County Sheriff’s Office reported four deaths related to the storm. A spokeswoman said that one man was killed when a tree crashed through the roof of his home in Greensboro. The sheriff’s office said that it also had three other “storm-related fatalities following Hurricane Michael,” although it did not immediately release further information about what happened beyond saying that all four deaths were “in relation to or occurred during the storm.”

 Gadsden, a county in northwest Florida not far from Tallahassee, took a direct shot from Michael as it churned northward on Wednesday.

 In North Carolina, a 38-year-old man was killed Thursday afternoon shortly before 1 p.m. in Iredell County, north of Charlotte, when a tree fell on the vehicle he was driving, according to David Souther, the county’s fire marshal.

 And in Georgia, officials in Seminole County, on the Florida border, said early Thursday that an 11-year-old girl in a mobile home was killed by a metal carport that was thrown in the air by Michael’s gusting winds.

 William “Brock” Long, the FEMA administrator, said Thursday that “search and rescue is where we are hyper-focused this morning.” He warned that the death toll may go up, saying in an appearance on CNN that “those numbers could climb as search-and-rescue teams get out.”

 Motorists must adjust driving to road conditions caused by the storm. Slow down. DO NOT DRIVE ACROSS FLOODED ROADWAYS. This causes most storm-related fatalities. Remember, “Turn Around, Don’t Drown.” Call 511 for the latest road conditions. #MichaelVA — VDEM (@VDEM) October 12, 2018

 — J. Freedom du Lac, Dana Hedgpeth and Mark Berman

 7:13 a.m.: More than a million power outages reported

 “You fix the power, you solve a lot of problems,” FEMA Administrator William “Brock” Long said Thursday, of the post-Michael recovery and cleanup efforts.

 There’s a lot left to fix: Nearly 1.5 million people throughout the Southeast woke up without power Friday, including more than a half-million in Virginia — mostly in the Richmond and Hampton Roads areas, according to Dominion Energy. There are about 425,000 outages in North Carolina, according to a Duke Energy spokeswoman. The Florida State Emergency Response Team reported more than 350,000 outages.

 — J. Freedom du Lac

 6:19 a.m.: ‘All coastal tropical cyclone warnings and watches are discontinued’

 The National Hurricane Center’s first public advisory arrived with little notice on Oct. 6, a Saturday. Michael wasn’t even a named storm then; it was simply “Potential Tropical Cyclone Fourteen,” and the center noted that it was “getting better organized over the northwestern Caribbean Sea.”

 By the following day, the storm had its name — and by Monday, the center was sounding the alarm about Michael’s potential impacts on the United States.

 Landfall came quickly — on Wednesday, along Florida’s “Forgotten Coast” — and Michael was as bad as advertised, delivering a devastating blow before heading north.

 Now, it is gone. Early Friday, in “Post-Tropical Cyclone Michael Advisory Number 23,” the National Hurricane Center wrote that Michael had moved away from the United States, and that “all coastal tropical cyclone warnings and watches are discontinued.”

 There may be lingering effects, though, the center wrote: “Gale winds may continue for a few more hours over portions of southeastern Virginia, the southern Chesapeake Bay, and the Delmarva Peninsula.”

 And: “Michael is expected to produce 1 to 3 inches of rain from New Jersey to Long Island to Cape Cod, and 3 to 5 inches over Nantucket and Martha’s Vineyard through this afternoon.”

 And: “This rainfall could lead to flash flooding. Elsewhere, flooding and flash flooding may continue where Michael produced heavy rain very recently in the Carolinas and Mid-Atlantic states.”

 But it is gone and done, the center noted, adding: “This is the last public advisory issued by the National Hurricane Center on this system.”

 — J. Freedom du Lac ||||| Matthew Washington carries out items he salvaged from the damaged Thai restaurant he owns with his wife in the aftermath of hurricane Michael in Callaway, Fla., Thursday, Oct. 11, 2018. (AP Photo/David... (Associated Press)

 Matthew Washington carries out items he salvaged from the damaged Thai restaurant he owns with his wife in the aftermath of hurricane Michael in Callaway, Fla., Thursday, Oct. 11, 2018. (AP Photo/David Goldman) (Associated Press)

 MEXICO BEACH, Fla. (AP) — Florida authorities fielded a barrage of calls about people missing in Hurricane Michael's aftermath as search-and-rescue teams Friday made their way through ravaged neighborhoods, looking for victims dead or alive. The death toll stood at 13 across the South.

 The number of dead was expected to rise, but authorities scrapped plans for setting up a temporary morgue, indicating they had yet to see signs of mass casualties from the most powerful hurricane to hit the continental U.S. in nearly 50 years.

 Search teams continued to pick their way through the ruins of Mexico Beach, the ground-zero town of about 1,000 people that was nearly wiped off the map when Michael blew ashore there on Wednesday with devastating 155 mph (249 kph) winds.

 State officials said that by one count, 285 people in Mexico Beach defied mandatory evacuation orders and stayed behind. Whether any of them got out at some point was unclear.

 Emergency officials said they have received thousands of calls asking about missing people. But with cellphone service out across vast swaths of the Florida Panhandle, officials said it is possible that some of those unaccounted for are safe and just haven't been able to contact friends or family to let them know.

 Gov. Rick Scott said state officials still "do not know enough" about the fate of those who stayed behind in the region.

 "We are not completely done. We are still getting down there," the governor added.

 Emergency officials said they had done an initial "hasty search" of 80 percent of the stricken area, looking for the living or the dead.

 Shell-shocked survivors who barely escaped with their lives told of terrifying winds, surging floodwaters and homes cracking like eggs.

 Federal Emergency Management Agency chief Brock Long said he expects to see the death toll rise.

 "We still haven't gotten into the hardest-hit areas," he said, adding with frustration: "Very few people live to tell what it's like to experience storm surge, and unfortunately in this country we seem to not learn the lesson."

 Long expressed worry that people have suffered "hurricane amnesia."

 "When state and local officials tell you to get out, dang it, do it. Get out," he said.

 Officials, meanwhile, set up distribution centers outside big stores such as Wal-Mart and Publix to pass out food and water to victims. Some supplies were brought in by trucks, while others had to be delivered by helicopter because some roads had yet to be cleared.

 The deaths were spread throughout the storm's vast path, from Florida to Virginia, where at least four people drowned in flooding caused by Michael's rainy remnants. Two died in North Carolina when a car smashed into a fallen tree.

 On the Panhandle, Tyndall Air Force Base "took a beating," so much so that Col. Brian Laidlaw told the 3,600 men and women stationed on the base not to come back. Many of the 600 families who live there had followed orders to pack what they could in a single suitcase as they were evacuated.

 A small "ride-out" team that hunkered down as the hurricane's eyewall passed directly overhead ventured out to find nearly every building severely damaged, many a complete loss. The elementary school, the flight line, the marina and the runways were devastated.

 ___

 Contributors in Florida include Associated Press writers Jay Reeves in Panama City, Brendan Farrington in St. Marks, Gary Fineout in Tallahassee, Tamara Lush in St. Petersburg, Terry Spencer in Fort Lauderdale, and Jennifer Kay and Freida Frisaro in Miami. Others include Jonathan Drew in Raleigh, North Carolina, and Seth Borenstein in Kensington, Maryland.

 ___

 For the latest on Hurricane Michael, visit https://www.apnews.com/tag/Hurricanes |||||


Here is a news article: Resisting calls by President Obama to accept Donald Trump’s victory, tens of thousands of protesters — some too young to vote — took to the streets in cities across the country to protest that Trump “is not my president.’’

 During a second night of demonstrations, a protest in Portland, Ore., was transformed into what police called a “riot.” Police said a small number of “anarchists” in a crowd of 4,000 smashed cars with baseball bats, threw rocks and Molotov cocktails and spray-painted graffiti. There were 26 people arrested.

 Overnight, protests were popping up almost spontaneously in other cities around the country. Columbus, Ohio; Minneapolis; Madison, Wis.; and Milwaukee joined in protests that had begun Wednesday in New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Seattle, Philadelphia, Boston and other larger cities.

 Trump addressed the protests in his usual fashion — over Twitter. On Thursday night, he decried them as “professional protesters, incited by the media.” But by Friday, as protests spread, he issued a conciliatory message, tweeting at 6.14 am.: “Love the fact that the small groups of protesters last night have passion for our great country. We will all come together and be proud!’’

 Trump himself had urged a “march on Washington” in protest of President Obama’s re-election in 2012.

 More demonstrations are planned in the coming days, with some organizers saying they were saving their energy for the weekend.

 In Oakland on Wednesday, police reported that they extinguished at least 40 fires and that protesters had thrown rocks and Molotov cocktails and vandalized police cars.

 “Time to riot,’’ read a hand-scrawled poster carried by one woman.

 Rudolph W. Giuliani, former New York mayor and advisor to the Trump campaign, also denounced the student movement. “The reality is they are a bunch of spoiled crybabies,’’ he said Thursday on Fox News’ “Fox & Friends.” He added that campuses are getting more conservative. “If you’re looking at the real left-wing loonies on the campus, it's the professors, not the students.”

 So far the protest movement — barely 48 hours old — appears to lack strategy and coordination. But some activists are focusing on the electoral college, which is due to meet Dec. 19 to formally vote Trump into office. Political scientists say electors have in the past switched their votes, but such occurrences are rare and have not altered the election outcome.

 Clinton appears on track to win the popular vote — as of last count she was 388,000 votes ahead — the fourth time in U.S. history that the largest vote-gatherer has failed to get the necessary electoral votes. The last time was 2000, when Al Gore won the popular vote but lost the election to George W. Bush.

 In the past, about 99% of electors have voted for the candidate to whom they are pledges, but defections do happen and Democratic activists promise to work on those Republican electors who have expressed anti-Trump sentiments.

 A petition on Change.org that started Thursday morning received more than 2 million signers in less than 24 hours.

 The potential challenge to the electoral college does not appear to have the support of Clinton, who conceded defeat and, like Obama, has urged the American public to accept Trump. In fact, during the campaign, Clinton blasted Trump’s threats not to respect the outcome of the election.

 Still, the nascent anti-Trump movement among young people threatens to throw another wrench into a painful and prolonged election process that many people want to have behind them.

 “The passive side of this generation needs to step up to the plate and show that we have not surrendered,” said Ariana Shirzay, a 20-year-old graphic design student who is organizing protests in New York in coming days. She says that her generation was lured into complacency about America’s liberal values.

 “We basically grew up with liberal America and transcended into adulthood under Obama,’’ Shirzay said.

 At Pratt Institute, Shirzay said, her classmates, who had assumed that Democrat Hillary Clinton would win, watched the election results in tears, the shock comparable to the aftermath of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks — at least for those old enough to remember.

 High school students around the country walked out of classes Wednesday and Thursday to show their support for the anti-Trump movement. Most protesters were young.

 “It's important to me as a 14-year-old — seeing people like this, united. [It] makes me feel like I'm not the only one here,’’ said middle schooler Yesena Gomez, who was one of the speakers at a rally in Seattle.

 “When I walked into school Wednesday morning, my teachers were crying. Students were sobbing, fearing for their family and themselves and friends. We held each other up. And I think we all felt like we wanted to feel heard because most of us are never heard by the government or the world,’’ said Chloe Li, 15, who goes to a high school with many immigrant`

 Elsewhere, protesters targeted Trump-branded buildings — the newly opened hotel in Washington, D.C., near the White House, Trump Tower in Chicago. A Trump effigy was burned in Los Angeles, where protesters on Wednesday had also blocked the 101 Freeway and spray-painted anti-Trump graffiti on vehicles and buildings.

 Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times Protesters burn an effigy of Donald Trump outside Los Angeles City Hall. Protesters burn an effigy of Donald Trump outside Los Angeles City Hall. (Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times)

 "White Supremacy. Misogyny Is Not My America," “No More Small Men With Big Mouths,’’ read the slogans — along with what have become the hashtag of the protest movement, #notourpresident and #notmypresident.

 The largest protest Wednesday appeared to be in front of New York’s 58-story Trump Tower, where Trump lives in a penthouse condominium. Two separate marches through Manhattan converged in front of the building, forming a crowd that some reporters estimated at 10,000. The night was illuminated by hundreds of iPhones taking selfies of protesters gesturing with their middle fingers toward the Trump building.

 New York City police said Thursday that there were 65 arrests, mostly for disorderly conduct, obstructing governmental administration and resisting arrest.

 The protests appear to be less about supporting Clinton than opposing Trump. Many young voters were unenthusiastic about Clinton, failing to lend her campaign the energy they put behind Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders — or for those old enough, behind Barack Obama in 2008. ||||| Story highlights As many as 185 protesters arrested in Los Angeles, police say

 Portland police tweet of "extensive criminal and dangerous behavior"

 (CNN) Thousands protesting Donald Trump's victory in the presidential election took to the streets for a third night of demonstrations and vigils in several US cities.

 An anti-Trump rally in Portland, Oregon, revved up as protesters confronted police Thursday night. What started out as a peaceful march, with more than 4,000 people, quickly turned violent.

 Over the course of the evening, "anarchists" in the crowd threw objects at officers, vandalized local businesses and damaged cars, Portland Police Sgt. Pete Simpson said.

 Protesters marched through Portland's streets Thursday night.

 Police publicly declared a "riot" due to "extensive criminal and dangerous behavior" and called the protest "unlawful," according to posts on the department's Twitter page.

 The crowd was dispersed using "less lethal munitions" and at least 26 protesters were arrested, police said.

 Read More ||||| Tweet with a location

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A summary of this is?

– Looks like the honeymoon might be over: President-elect Donald Trump complained on Twitter Thursday night about "unfair" protests against him, which continued for a second night. "Just had a very open and successful presidential election. Now professional protesters, incited by the media, are protesting. Very unfair!" he tweeted in his first public comment on the protests. But his tune was changed by this 6am tweet, which read, "Love the fact that the small groups of protesters last night have passion for our great country. We will all come together and be proud!" The Washington Post notes that after President Obama was re-elected in 2012, Trump urged people to "fight like hell" and tweeted: "We can't let this happen. We should march on Washington and stop this travesty. Our nation is totally divided!" The Los Angeles Times reports that the many of the anti-Trump demonstrations around the country Thursday night were not as big as the protests on Wednesday, though some organizers say they are planning bigger rallies over the weekend. One city where things intensified was Portland, Ore., where police declared the protest to be a riot because of "extensive criminal and dangerous behavior," CNN reports. The BBC reports that protests remained largely peaceful in cities including Philadelphia, Baltimore, Denver, Minneapolis, Chicago, and New York City, where a crowd gathered outside Trump Tower for a second night.


Keith Urban is no stranger to sexy selfies—but unlike some stars, he's only sharing them with wife Nicole Kidman. Instead of posting them online a la Nicki Minaj, Urban and his spouse of seven years keep things hot by sexting each other when their jobs force them to be on separate sides of the globe.

 Urban, 45, is currently touring and taping American Idol in the United States, while Kidman, 46, is shooting a movie in London. "We never text. We never email," Urban says during the Monday, Oct. 28, episode of The Ellen DeGeneres Show. "Phone calls only, which I really love." ||||| Photos: Nicole Kidman’s Style Evolution

 “I was so young,” Nicole Kidman tells Vanity Fair contributing editor Sam Kashner in the December-issue cover story, reflecting back on her marriage to Tom Cruise when she was just 23 years old. “And you know, with no disrespect to what I had with Tom, I’ve met my great love now. And I really did not know if that was going to happen. I wanted it, but I didn’t want it for a while, because I didn’t want to jump from one relationship to another. I had a lot of time alone, which was really, really good, because I was a child, really, when I got married. And I needed to grow up.”

 Kidman, who was playing Virginia Woolf in The Hours at the time of her divorce from Cruise, recalls shooting Woolf’s suicide scene, walking into the River Ouse over and over again, as electric fans whipped up the river’s waves. “Walking into the river with those stones in my pockets—I chose life,” she says. “At the time, I was at a low point, and by playing her, it put me into a place of appreciating life.”

 Photos: Nicole Kidman in Vanity Fair Throughout the Years

 When asked about the unreal level of fame she endured during her marriage to Cruise, Kidman says, “There is something about that sort of existence that, if you really focus on each other and you’re in that bubble, it’s very intoxicating, because it’s just the two of you. And there is only one other person that’s going through it. So it brings you very close, and it’s deeply romantic. I’m sure Brad and Angelina have that—because there’s nobody else that understands it except that person who’s sleeping right next to you.”

 Kidman tells Kashner, “Having experienced extreme fame and now getting to a place where it’s not so dominating in my life, I’m always surprised when I go somewhere and people know who I am.” She explains that when it’s seen through the eyes of her children “it jars me again, because they ask, ‘Why do they want a photo?’ and ‘Why is that person saying hello to you when you don’t know them?’ All of that stuff has to be explained to a five-year-old. So I see it through a different perspective.”

 Kidman, who now lives in Nashville with her husband, Keith Urban, and their two daughters, tells Kashner she doesn’t miss Hollywood. “The whole business side of it—it’s too present. It doesn’t suit me,” she explains. “There’s an enormous amount you have to give up if you want to have a family. You can have a certain career, but you can’t be living in Hollywood, [where] absolutely everything, everything revolves around it. That wasn’t my choice. I’d rather revolve around somebody else’s career and then still find my own.” Kidman says she loves living in Nashville, “because I can kind of have a very odd, idiosyncratic kind of path. I have stepped away from the fame part of it. I didn’t find what I was looking for in fame. So I went, O.K., this is not for me. And it was such a blessing that I found somebody who said, ‘Well, are you willing to move to Tennessee?’ And I was ‘Oh, am I willing to move!’”

 Photos: Tom Cruise in Vanity Fair Throughout the Years

 Kidman talks to Kashner about how having children has affected her marriage with Urban, saying it “gives you some glue, [so] you’re both kind of in there together and you’re having to work through raising them, which brings up an enormous amount of personal things in terms of history and your own life. Yet if you kind of move into each other, you discover and heal a lot of things in each other, too. Well, that’s what I’ve found for us—very, very healing, when it’s gently, gently done.”

 Though Kidman calls her marriage “very, very peaceful,” she admits to Kashner that she struggles between “giving my life to my lover and my children” and “giving my life to my artistic desires.” Kidman says that’s always going to be her struggle “because I’m passionate, so I want to be able to give completely to both, and that doesn’t work always.” She tells Kashner “it’s a push-pull. It’s uncharted. My husband and I are in uncharted territory because we’re trying to find artistic expression but also we’re incredibly connected as a family—we’re very, very tight, very, very close, and I have a very, very primal protection of my family.”

 To read the full version of this story, and the rest of the December issue, download Vanity Fair’s digital edition (available for your tablet device or iPhone) with Amazon’s one-click shopping. |||||
What is a one-paragraph summary of the above article?

– Nicole Kidman continues her recent trend of dishing about her marriage to Tom Cruise in a new cover interview with Vanity Fair. "I was so young," she says of marrying Cruise at age 23. "I was a child, really, when I got married." That's why she was alone for some time after her divorce. "I needed to grow up," she says, and she also "didn't want to jump from one relationship to another." As for what it was like to be in a relationship with such a high-profile person, well, there's one other couple that likely understands, Kidman says. "There is something about that sort of existence that, if you really focus on each other and you’re in that bubble, it’s very intoxicating, because it’s just the two of you," she explains. "And there is only one other person that’s going through it. So it brings you very close, and it’s deeply romantic. I’m sure Brad and Angelina have that—because there’s nobody else that understands it except that person who’s sleeping right next to you." But she wouldn't call Cruise her "great love"—that's current husband Keith Urban, she says, adding, "No disrespect to what I had with Tom." As for Urban, E! reports that he yesterday admitted to Ellen DeGeneres that he and Kidman engage in "nice sex texting" maybe once "a year." Also: "I'm a little red right now."


News article:

Covered bodies fill a mass grave reported to be in Dariya, Syria, where hundreds of people have been killed. (Shaam News Network / )

 BEIRUT — Bloodied bodies lay strewn in the streets, in basements and even in the cemetery in the besieged Damascus suburb of Dariya, site of what may be the largest mass killing to date in more than 17 months of fighting in Syria, according to opposition and pro-government accounts Sunday.

 Video posted Sunday on the Internet purported to show groups of victims in Dariya being buried in a mass grave, a deep trench several yards long.

 "We are finding bodies everywhere. What has happened in Dariya is the most appalling of what has happened in the revolution till now, what has happened in Syria till now," said an opposition activist who goes by the name Abu Kinan for security reasons. "The smell of death is everywhere."

 At least 320 people have been killed in Dariya, a working-class town southwest of the capital, since the military launched an assault on the suburb five days ago, said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a British-based group opposed to President Bashar Assad.

 The killings reported in Dariya contributed to a death toll Saturday that topped 400 throughout Syria, according to the Local Coordination Committees, an opposition umbrella coalition. It appears to be the largest single-day death toll reported to date in the conflict. The group reported more than 200 people killed Sunday.

 The numbers could not be independently confirmed. The government has accused the opposition of exaggerating death tolls and inventing massacres in a bid to discredit the armed forces.

 According to United Nations figures, at least 17,000 people, mostly civilians, have been killed in Syria since antigovernment protests broke out in March 2011. The opposition puts the death toll at more than 20,000.

 Verifying casualty counts in Syria has become more difficult with the departure of United Nations monitors, who had visited some previous massacre sites and provided confirmation of the numbers killed and injured. With the U.N. monitoring mission over, there was little prospect Sunday of any independent investigation into the killings in Dariya. The Syrian government places severe restrictions on media coverage.

 Opposition advocates blamed government troops and plainclothes militiamen for the killings. The government blamed "terrorists," its usual term for armed rebels.

 The opposition says many victims in Dariya, previously a stronghold of rebels seeking to oust Assad, were executed after pro-government forces entered the town Friday. Others were killed in shelling or shot by snipers, the opposition says.

 Opposition activists said many victims were taken prisoner by government forces and executed in basements. In one grisly discovery Saturday, more than 120 bodies were found in one basement, activists said.

 According to opposition activists, more than 100 additional bodies were discovered Sunday as government forces withdrew to the town's outskirts and residents were able to begin searching more thoroughly.

 Most victims were men, but many women and children were also among the dead, the opposition said.

 Even the pro-government Syrian TV channel Addounia showed images of residents who had apparently been killed in the midst of seemingly routine daily activities. The station aired footage of a girl killed on a street, a man fallen from his motorcycle, and several bodies at a cemetery.

 "As we have become accustomed, every time we enter an area that has terrorists, they have committed crimes and killings in the name of freedom," the Addounia reporter said in her report.

 As the camera scanned behind her and got closer on a man shot to death in the driver's seat of a blue pickup truck, she added, "This is their doctrine and this is how they think."

 The Addounia footage from Dariya that aired Sunday showed bloodied bodies on streets, in homes and scattered in a cemetery. Many victims appeared to be women and children. The members of one entire family executed in their home were shot because they didn't support the "terrorists," a soldier told the station's reporter.

 On Sunday, the army returned to some Dariya neighborhoods that had been raided the day before, leading to the deaths of additional residents, said Abu Kinan, the opposition activist.

 The government onslaught against Dariya began last week when regime forces began shelling from tanks, helicopters and fighter jets, according to opposition activists. It was the latest in what the opposition calls a methodical attempt to retake and punish rebel-held neighborhoods in Damascus and surrounding suburbs. The assault on Dariya and other suburbs followed an uprising last month that saw intense combat in many parts of the city.

 The Syrian military eventually crushed the rebellion in the capital districts. The army then moved its focus to outlying areas such as Dariya.

 After fighters with the Free Syrian Army, the rebel umbrella group, withdrew from the town Friday night, soldiers accompanied by shabiha militia members stormed in, opposition groups said. They raided homes and arrested many, taking prisoners to the basements of empty buildings where they were shot execution-style, according to opposition accounts.

 Before Dariya, the opposition said, dozens were killed in Moadamyeh al-Sham, another Damascus suburb, and on Sunday military forces were reported to be moving toward the nearby town of Ajdaideh, the opposition said.

 The pro-government Addounia channel, reporting on the violence in the Damascus suburbs, aired a surreal sequence in which a reporter, standing in the cemetery where fresh corpses were tossed about, announced the discovery of a woman shot but "clinging to life." The camera cut to a woman lying on the ground, her head resting on a shattered stone grave marker, her hands bloody from her wound.

 "I was heading to Damascus with my husband and children and suddenly I found myself like this," explained the wounded woman, who said that her husband worked for state security and that she didn't know what had happened to him or her three children.

 "Who hit you, ma'am? Tell us," the reporter said.

 "I don't know," she said. "I don't remember anything, I don't remember, except that I was shot."

 Once the brief interview was over, army soldiers arrived and took the wounded woman away on a stretcher.

 A Times staff writer in Beirut and special correspondent Rima Marrouch in Antakya, Turkey, contributed to this report. ||||| UN chief leads world outcry over Syria 'massacre'

 DAMASCUS — UN chief Ban Ki-moon demanded an independent inquiry Monday into the killings of hundreds of civilians in the Syrian town of Daraya as world outrage mounted over the "massacre" by pro-government forces.

 Rebels from the Free Syrian Army claimed to have downed a military helicopter as they battled the army in a new front in east Damascus where a human rights watchdog reported at least 35 people killed, among them children.

 France said it was working with allies on possibility of setting up buffer zones to protect civilians inside Syria amid growing concern about the plight of fleeing civilians camped out on the country's borders.

 The UN chief was "shocked" by the reports of hundreds of bodies found in Daraya, a satellite town southwest of Damascus that was subjected to a five-day assault by pro-government forces last week, his spokesman Martin Nesirky said.

 "The secretary general is certainly shocked by those reports and he strongly condemns this appalling and brutal crime," Nesirky told reporters.

 "Where hundreds of civilians have been killed in Daraya, this needs to be investigated immediately in an independent and impartial fashion," the spokesman added.

 The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said that 334 bodies had now been found in Daraya after what activists described as brutal five-day onslaught of shelling, summary executions and house-to-house raids by pro-government forces.

 The Sunni Muslim town of some 200,000 people is seen as a stronghold of opposition to the minority Alawite-led regime of President Bashar al-Assad.

 Grisly videos issued by opposition activists showed dozens of charred and bloodied bodies lined up in broad daylight in a graveyard in Daraya, and others lying wall-to-wall in rooms in a mosque.

 State media said the operation had "purified terrorist remnants" in Daraya, while pro-government television Al-Dunia said "terrorists" had carried out the killings.

 -- 'Atrocity on a new scale' --

 -------------------------------

 The White House said the reports of the Daraya massacre were the latest evidence of Assad's "wanton disregard for human life."

 Britain said it would be "an atrocity on a new scale" and the European Union said it was "totally unacceptable."

 In a new front in east Damascus, rebels from the Free Syrian Army claimed to have downed a military helicopter in the Qaboon district, where activists reported shelling, heavy fire by combat helicopters and fierce clashes between troops and rebels.

 State television said the aircraft crashed near a mosque.

 The FSA had previously said it shot down a Syrian warplane two weeks ago in the eastern province of Deir Ezzor and captured its pilot, but the claims cannot be independently confirmed.

 Heavy shelling and fierce fighting also engulfed the Jubar district of east Damascus as well as several towns outside the capital, the Observatory said.

 The Britain-based watchdog said that nationwide a total of 148 people were killed in violence on Monday.

 Human rights groups have accused the regime of committing many atrocities during the 17-month conflict and a UN panel said earlier this month it was guilty of crimes against humanity. It also accused the rebels of war crimes.

 Activists say around 25,000 people have been killed since the uprising against Assad's rule broke out in March last year, while the United Nations says at least 200,000 people have fled to neighbouring countries and another 2.5 million are in need inside Syria.

 Underscoring the growing humanitarian crisis, Turkey, which is struggling to cope with an influx of 80,000 refugees, said another 9,000 were now massed at the border awaiting for more camps to open.

 Turkey has called for establishment of protected buffer zones inside Syria to receive people displaced by the conflict and prevent them flooding over the border and French President Francois Hollande said Monday that discussions were under way with allies on the possibility.

 "We are working ... (on) the initiative of buffer zones proposed by Turkey," Hollande said, adding: "We are doing so in coordination with our closest partners."

 Hollande urged the Syrian opposition to form a "provisional, inclusive and representative" government, adding: "France will recognise the provisional government of the new Syria as soon as it is formed."

 But Washington cautioned against moving ahead too rapidly with a provisional government, saying more work needed to be done to ensure that it was broad-based and representative.

 State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said that the United States was calling on the opposition "to coordinate more closely" with Syrians both inside and outside the country.

 "We would want to ensure that that was based on a solid democratic plan and that it reflected a broad cross-section of those in Syria and reflected the values of inclusion, the values of human rights and protections for all groups," she said.

 Some analysts have voiced concern that the opposition is dominated by Sunni hardliners who could seek revenge against Assad's minority Alawite community, threatening prolonged sectarian bloodshed.

 Copyright © 2012 AFP. All rights reserved. More » |||||
What is a shorter version of the above article?

– A government helicopter crashed today in Damascus, with rebel groups claiming they shot it down. "It was in revenge for the Daraya massacre," a spokesman for the Free Syrian Army told AFP. A video posted online shows the burning helicopter falling to the ground, reports the AP. Syria's official news agency verified the crash, but did not provide details or confirm it was destroyed at the rebels' hands. Meanwhile, the toll from the Daraya massacre continues to rise, and has hit 334 by the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights' count. The Los Angeles Times reports that video footage shows victims placed in a mass grave. "We are finding bodies everywhere," says one activist. "The smell of death is everywhere." August has seen 4,000 people killed, according to the Observatory.


Article:

Press office of President

 Due to sharp aggravation of the situation in Donetsk region, President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko cancelled his working visit to the Republic of Turkey.

 "I have made a decision to cancel my working visit to the Republic of Turkey due to sharp aggravation of the situation in Donetsk region, particularly in Amvrosiivka and Starobeshevo, as Russian troops were actually brought into Ukraine," the President noted.

 Petro Poroshenko informs that the NSDC meeting will be convened today to elaborate further plan of actions.

 "The President must stay in Kyiv today," the Head of State emphasized.

 Ukraine will urgently initiate the convocation of the UN Security Council meeting. "The world must provide assessment of sharp aggravation of the situation in Ukraine," the President noted.

 According to him, Ukraine will address its European partners with a request to call an emergency meeting of the Council of the European Union.

 The President noted that he had made a decision to cancel the visit despite seven bilateral meetings planned within the framework of festivities on the occasion of the Turkish President's inauguration. ||||| NOVOAZOVSK, Ukraine (AP) — The strategically positioned southeastern Ukraine town of Novoazovsk appears firmly under the control of Russia-backed separatists as concerns grow about the opening of a new front in the Ukraine conflict.

 Members of the OSCE examine the scene of a shelling in the town of Donetsk, eastern Ukraine, Wednesday, Aug. 27, 2014. The Obama administration accused Russia on Wednesday of orchestrating a new military... (Associated Press)

 Local residents look at a burned car, hit by shelling in the town of Donetsk, eastern Ukraine, Wednesday, Aug. 27, 2014. The Obama administration accused Russia on Wednesday of orchestrating a new military... (Associated Press)

 On Thursday morning, an Associated Press journalist saw rebel checkpoints at the outskirts and was told he could not enter. One of the rebels said there was no fighting in the town.

 Novoazovsk, which lies along the road connecting Russia to the Russia-annexed Crimean peninsula, had come under shelling for three days, with the rebels entering on Wednesday. The southeastern portion of Ukraine along the Azov Sea previously had escaped the fighting engulfing areas to the north.

 In Donetsk, the largest rebel-held city, 11 people were killed by shelling during the night, the city administration said in a statement. ||||| Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Pro-Russian rebels enter the strategically-vital port of Novoazovsk on Wednesday

 A pro-Russian rebel leader in eastern Ukraine has said 3-4,000 Russian citizens are fighting in their ranks.

 Alexander Zakharchenko told Russian TV many of the Russians were former servicepeople or current personnel on leave.

 He was speaking as rebels captured the town of Novoazovsk and threatened to take the city of Mariupol, after opening a new front in the south-east.

 Reports say they are advancing on the city, a key port on the Sea of Azov.

 Ukraine says Russian forces have crossed the border and are supporting the rebel attack, but Moscow has repeatedly denied arming or covertly supporting the rebels.

 There are suspicions that Russia wants to divert Ukrainian forces from the besieged cities of Donetsk and Luhansk, further north.

 Government forces have made significant advances against the separatists in recent weeks.

 In other diplomatic developments:

 An "increasing number of Russian troops" are involved in the fighting, the US ambassador to Ukraine, Geoffrey Pyatt, writes on Twitter

 German Chancellor Angela Merkel demands an explanation from Russia's President Vladimir Putin amid the reports of an incursion

 French President Francois Hollande says it would be "intolerable" if Russian troops are in Ukraine, and demands that Russia stop sending aid to the rebels

 The Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) is holding a special meeting in Vienna to discuss developments in Ukraine.

 Ukrainian forces 'leaving'

 Mr Zakharchenko, who is prime minister of the self-declared Donetsk People's Republic, said Russian citizens were coming to Ukraine to fight because they felt it was their duty.

 "There have been around 3,000-4,000 of them in our ranks," he said, adding that the rebels' struggle would have been much harder without them.

 But he insisted that any Russians fighting on the rebel side were doing so voluntarily.

 "Many former high-ranking military officers have volunteered to join us. They are fighting with us, considering that to be their duty," he said.

 "There are also many in the current Russian military that prefer to spend their leave among us, brothers who are fighting for their freedom, rather than on a beach."

 Ukraine's security and defence council confirmed reports that Novoazovsk had been captured by the rebels, whom they described as "Russian troops".

 It said it had withdrawn its forces to save their lives, and they were now reinforcing Mariupol's defences.

 Image copyright AP Image caption There has been shelling in the town of Novoazovsk for several days

 Image copyright AP Image caption Ukrainian forces are being deployed to help defend the southern city of Mariupol

 Image copyright AFP Image caption Shelling is continuing in the city of Donetsk hitting buildings including this school

 Image copyright Reuters Image caption Railway lines in eastern Ukraine have been destroyed in the fighting

 A Ukrainian company commander, Vladimir Shilov, told Ukrainian TV that he had heard from sources inside the town that it was blocked by tanks and no-one was allowed to leave. Local officials had already fled to Mariupol, he added.

 A spokesman for the rebels told Interfax news agency that Novoazovsk was under their control and they would soon "liberate" Mariupol.

 Reports on Twitter suggested the rebels were already advancing towards Mariupol, and rebels said they had captured checkpoints to the west of the city.

 The port has until now been peaceful and cut off from rebel positions.

 Rebels have been trying for weeks to break out of an area further north in the Donetsk region where they are almost encircled.

 Analysts say the separatists could also be seeking a land link between Russia and Crimea, which also would give them control over the entire Sea of Azov.

 Russia annexed the Black Sea peninsula of Crimea from Ukraine in March.

 War in eastern Ukraine: The human cost

 At least 2,119 people had been killed and 5,043 wounded since mid-April, a UN report on 7 August said

 951 civilians have been killed in Donetsk region alone, the official regional authorities said on 20 August

 Official casualty counts only record certified deaths while in some particularly dangerous parts of the war zone, such as Luhansk region, victims are said to have been buried informally, for instance in gardens

 Rebels (and some military sources) accuse the government of concealing the true numbers of soldiers killed

 155,800 people have fled elsewhere in Ukraine while at least 188,000 have gone to Russia

 Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko promised a roadmap for peace in the east on Tuesday after holding his first direct talks on the crisis since June with Mr Putin.

 Mr Putin said Russia would assist any ceasefire talks, but that stopping the fighting was a matter for Ukraine alone.

 Are you in south-east Ukraine? Have you been affected by recent events in the area? You can send us your experiences by emailing haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk. |||||
What is a summary?

– Ukraine's Ministry of Foreign Affairs tweeted a pair of hashtags last night—#UkraineUnderAttack and #RussiaInvadedUkraine—which appear to sum up the situation on the ground, the Washington Post reports. Pro-Russia separatists backed by Russian troops, artillery, and armored vehicles are now attacking on two fronts, authorities in Kiev say, with fierce fighting along a new southeastern front. The Russian tanks and armored personnel carriers seen in the area—which would give Russia a land bridge to Crimea—appear to have come straight over the border instead of from separatist-controlled areas in eastern Ukraine, the Los Angeles Times reports. President Petro Poroshenko canceled a trip to Turkey, citing sharp aggravation of the situation in Donetsk region, as Russian troops were actually brought into Ukraine," according to a statement. Russia has not acknowledged any troop movements. A rebel commander says there are around 4,000 Russians fighting with the separatists, but they are all volunteers. "Many former high-ranking military officers have volunteered to join us. They are fighting with us, considering that to be their duty," he tells the BBC. "There are also many in the current Russian military that prefer to spend their leave among us." The US has expressed its "deep concern" about Russian involvement in the rebel offensive. "Russia is clearly trying to put its finger on the scale to tip things back in favor of its proxies," a senior American official tells the New York Times. "Artillery barrages and other Russian military actions have taken their toll on the Ukrainian military." After days of fighting, the strategic southeastern town of Novoazovsk now appears to be under rebel control, the AP reports.


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 President-elect Donald Trump is interviewed Saturday by Chris Wallace of “Fox News Sunday” in Trump Tower in New York. (Richard Drew/AP)

 Global warming — “it’s a hoax.”

 Donald Trump has said that more than once.

 So it’s understandable that the request by the president-elect’s transition team for the names of individual Energy Department employees and contractors who worked on the issue makes them worry that the trick could be on them.

 “There is major concern amongst my members,” said Jeff Eagan, president of the National Treasury Employees Union (NTEU) chapter at the department’s headquarters building in Washington. He’s also a 17-year Energy employee but was speaking in his union capacity. “I have received lots of calls, emails, messages expressing shock and dismay.”

 The scientists and their colleagues at Energy know global warming is real. What they don’t know is what Trump might do to those whose work has been in line with the science and the Obama administration, which has spoken about “the real and urgent threat of climate change.”

 Perhaps Trump’s crew will do nothing. Trump more recently has said he has an open mind about global warming, so maybe he’s discarding his flat-Earth approach to the subject. Nonetheless, the transition team’s request to “provide a list of all Department of Energy employees or contractors who have attended” certain climate change meetings casts a shroud of apprehension over the workforce. The transition team ignored a request for comment.

 [Scientists are frantically copying U.S. climate data, fearing it might vanish under Trump]

 Given civil service protections, it’s not likely department employees would be fired for working on climate change. There is good reason for concern, however. Trump advisers have urged him to fire feds faster, and Energy staffers know that protections for senior executives at the Department of Veterans Affairs have been weakened. But firing isn’t the only way to punish people.

 “A greater concern would be that selected employees could be marginalized, i.e., ignored, by new leadership at the department solely based on unfounded conjecture that those employees cannot be trusted by the new political team,” said John Palguta, a civil service expert with decades of federal government experience. “The consequences for contract employees could be greater if a future decision not to renew a contract is influenced by the same unsupported speculation.”

 On the question of providing names, Energy officials resolutely rejected the request, while reassuring workers.

 “The Department of Energy received significant feedback from our workforce throughout the department, including the National Labs, following the release of the transition team’s questions. Some of the questions asked left many in our workforce unsettled,” said Eben Burnham-Snyder, a department spokesman. “Our career workforce, including our contractors and employees at our labs, comprise the backbone of DOE (Department of Energy) and the important work our department does to benefit the American people. We are going to respect the professional and scientific integrity and independence of our employees at our labs and across our department.

 “We will be forthcoming with all publically-available information with the transition team. We will not be providing any individual names to the transition team.” Burnham-Snyder’s email had the last sentence in boldface for emphasis.

 That’s the response members of Congress, who were outraged by Trump’s request, wanted.

 “I am alarmed by the questionnaire sent by the Trump transition team to the Department of Energy seeking the names of career civil servants who have worked on climate change policy,” said Rep. Steny H. Hoyer (Md.), the second-ranking Democrat in the House. “This raises serious concerns as to the motivation of such a request and raises questions of possible retribution for following President Obama’s policies.”

 “This looks like a scare tactic to intimidate federal employees who are simply doing their jobs and following the facts,” added Rep. Elijah E. Cummings (Md.), the top Democrat on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee. “I am sure there are a lot of career scientists and others who see this as a terrible message of fear and intimidation — ‘either ignore the science or we will come after you.’ ”

 Committee Chairman Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah) did not respond to a request for comment.

 The Trump transition team has issued a list of 74 questions for the Energy Department, asking officials there to identify which department employees and contractors have worked on forging an international climate pact as well as domestic efforts to cut the nation's carbon output. (Whitney Shefte/The Washington Post)

 Trump’s request surprised employee leaders.

 NTEU President Tony Reardon said his Energy Department members were “stunned” by the transition team request.

 American Federation of Government Employees President J. David Cox Sr., who also represents Energy employees, warned against “a return to the political witch hunts of the 1950s. President-elect Trump must instruct his transition team to cease this profoundly anti-democratic behavior immediately.”

 Senior Executives Association President Bill Valdez said the questionnaire only increases the nervousness and apprehension that comes with any change of administrations.

 “I can’t recall that I’ve ever seen anything like this,” said Valdez, who worked at Energy for 20 years. “I guess there is a first time for everything.”

 This needs to be the last.

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 Trump transition team for Energy Department seeks names of employees involved in climate meetings

 It’s likely Earth’s hottest year on record — and some people are talking about global cooling

 Trump urged to fire feds faster ||||| WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Energy Department said on Tuesday it will not comply with a request from President-elect Donald Trump’s Energy Department transition team for the names of people who have worked on climate change and the professional society memberships of lab workers.

 A child embraces a globe shaped balloon ahead of the start of the 2015 Paris World Climate Change Conference, known as the COP21 summit, in Rome, Italy , November 29, 2015. REUTERS/Alessandro Bianchi

 The Energy Department’s response could signal a rocky transition for the president-elect’s energy team and potential friction between the new leadership and the staffers who remain in place.

 The memo sent to the Energy Department on Tuesday and reviewed by Reuters last week contains 74 questions, including a request for a list of all department employees and contractors who attended the annual global climate talks hosted by the United Nations within the last five years.

 Energy Department spokesman Eben Burnham-Snyder said Tuesday the department will not comply.

 “Our career workforce, including our contractors and employees at our labs, comprise the backbone of (the Energy Department) and the important work our department does to benefit the American people,” Burnham-Snyder said.

 “We are going to respect the professional and scientific integrity and independence of our employees at our labs and across our department,” he added. “We will be forthcoming with all publicly available information with the transition team. We will not be providing any individual names to the transition team.”

 He added that the request “left many in our workforce unsettled.”

 Andrew Rosenberg, an official at the Union of Concerned Scientists, said the Energy Department “made the right choice in refusing this absurd and dangerous request. Federal agencies need the best available science to respond to the growing risk of climate change.”

 Reuters reported late Monday that former Texas Governor Rick Perry is expected to be named by Trump to run the Energy Department. The agency employs more than 90,000 people working on nuclear weapons maintenance and research labs, nuclear energy, advanced renewable energy, batteries and climate science.

 The memo sought a list of all department employees or contractors who have attended any meetings on the social cost of carbon, a measurement that federal agencies use to weigh the costs and benefits of new energy and environmental regulations. It also asked for all publications written by employees at the department’s 17 national laboratories for the past three years.

 Trump transition officials declined to comment on the memo.

 “This feels like the first draft of an eventual political enemies list,” a Department of Energy employee, who asked not to be identified because he feared a reprisal by the Trump transition team, had told Reuters.

 Josh Earnest, a White House spokesman, said in a news briefing on Tuesday that the queries “could have been an attempt to target civil servants,” including “scientists and lawyers and other experts who are critical to the success of the federal government’s ability to make policy.”

 By design, their work transcends the term of any one president, Earnest said.

 Trump, a Republican, said during his election campaign that climate change was a hoax perpetrated by China to damage U.S. manufacturing. He said he would rip up last year’s landmark global climate deal struck in Paris that was signed by President Barack Obama.

 Since winning the Nov. 8 election, however, Trump has said he will keep an “open mind” about the Paris deal. He also met with former Vice President Al Gore, a strong advocate for action on climate change.

 After that meeting, he picked Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt, a climate change skeptic, to head the Environmental Protection Agency. ||||| There are no items to show. |||||

– Donald Trump's transition team sent a memo with 74 questions to the Energy Department this week, among them a request for the names of people who have worked on climate change issues recently. Specifically, it requested a list of all employees and contractors who attended the UN's annual global climate talks during the past five years, Reuters reports. The Energy Department responded Tuesday with a refusal. "We are going to respect the professional and scientific integrity and independence of our employees at our labs and across our department," says a department spokesperson, who added that the Trump team's request "left many in our workforce unsettled." Many media outlets are framing the Trump team's request as an attempt to "purge" the Energy Department of certain workers. "We will be forthcoming with all publicly available information with the transition team. We will not be providing any individual names to the transition team," the Energy Department spokesperson continued. An official at the Union of Concerned Scientists applauded the Energy Department's response, calling the Trump team's request "absurd and dangerous," and an anonymous Department of Energy employee called the Trump memo "the first draft of an eventual political enemies list." White House spokesperson Josh Earnest said the request for a list of names "could have been an attempt to target civil servants ... who are critical to the success of the federal government's ability to make policy," and a civil service expert tells the Washington Post that even if named employees weren't fired, they could be "marginalized" in other ways. (Trump has made an interesting choice for the head of the Energy Department.)