PBS高端访谈:新冠和飓风让美国陷入两难（在线收听）

JUDY WOODRUFF: The remnants of Hurricane Laura made their way east today. The weather system was downgraded to a tropical depression, but it still is dropping heavy rains and spawning tornadoes across the South. At least 14 people have been killed. Residents are starting the business of recovery, but it's a daunting road ahead. Power could be out for days or weeks for many. Our senior producer Adam Raney is on the ground in Louisiana with this report.

ADAM RANEY: The noisy din of generators and chain saws filled the air across Southern Louisiana, where the destruction from Hurricane Laura was all around. From the toppled old Southern trees to flattened homes, residents who didn't evacuate started the business of cleaning up. Hundreds of thousands of people who were in the storm's path along the Gulf Coast are still without power. And one of the worst hit-places was Lake Charles, Louisiana, a city of 78,000 just off the Gulf Coast.

CECIL MORGAN, Louisiana: I have never run from a hurricane. This is probably the worst one that I have ever been through.

ADAM RANEY: Eighty-two-year-old Cecil Morgan has lived here in Lake Charles his entire life. His house survived. The barn he built himself did not.

CECIL MORGAN: All I know is, it's going to be a job cleaning it up. And I have got to go through it, because there's probably a lot of stuff in there that I want to save.

ADAM RANEY: Not far away, Michael Dewayne Eleam was trying to save what he could from his store, Drips and Kicks. The front and back of it were blown off by the high winds of the storm.

MICHAEL DEWAYNE ELEAM, Owner, Drips and Kicks: Things happen, but we will get it back on track. We will get it back on track.

TARA BARTIE, Louisiana: We don't even have a home to go back to.

ADAM RANEY: Tara Bartie showed us photos of how badly her hometown of Lake Charles was damaged. She had to evacuate and stay in a hotel in Lafayette. She's a shift manager at a Burger King, and was already financially strapped, but this is wiping her out.

TARA BARTIE: We have got like 12 people in our party. We don't really have any more cash, and we can't afford to go try to drive to Baton Rouge or New Orleans in the middle of nowhere, and don't know who or what or where. So, all we're asking is, can someone, Red Cross, FEMA, somebody, reach out to come and assist us?

ADAM RANEY: Bartie was also very concerned about COVID-19. She's already lost three family members to the virus.

TARA BARTIE: I have a senior citizen mother. I have a cancer child, sick cancer child, that is up here. And we is really in a strict, strict bind right now. So, anybody…everybody that's listening, Red Cross, FEMA, somebody, please come give us some type of help, some kind of information. Lead us to where we can go at, because, after tonight, it will be our last night, and we will be stuck on the road without any place to go. And, right now, we can't afford that.

ADAM RANEY: We met 71-year-old Carole Porter outside her apartment complex. The roof had blown off and the power was out.

CAROLE PORTER, Louisiana: Thank God we made it through. He blessed us really well.

ADAM RANEY: She and her neighbors were waiting to be evacuated. The community is mostly retirees and people with disabilities.

CAROLE PORTER: Because I don't know where I'm going to wind up at. And when you are retired, you have to live off a pension, and you just can't move anywhere or any way you want to go. So you just have to hold in there and just pray to God that you make it.

ADAM RANEY: Speaking a little while ago with Carole Porter, she says that she, along with other residents from her housing complex, were evacuated to New Orleans last night, some 200 miles from Lake Charles. They don't really know when they're going to be able to go back home. What's being used much less in the wake of Hurricane Laura are large shelters, like this one in an arena in Alexandria, Louisiana. This one's run by the American Red Cross. But Louisiana is one of the state's hardest-hit by COVID-19. And public health officials and evacuees themselves say the last thing they want to do is gather with a lot of people in these congregate shelters. What that means is that people already stretched thin have fewer options as to where to look for shelter. Reporting for the PBS NewsHour, I'm Adam Raney in Louisiana.

朱迪·伍德乐夫：飓风劳拉的残余力量开始向东转移，气象系统降级为热带低气压，但仍会在南方地区带来暴雨和龙卷风，目前已有至少14人丧生。居民们正着手恢复工作，而前方道路艰难，停电可能会持续数天或数周，我们的资深制作人亚当·拉尼在路易斯安那州为我们报道。

亚当·拉尼：发电机和链锯的噪音充斥着路易斯安那州南部的空气，那里到处都是飓风劳拉造成的破坏。从倒下的南方老树到被夷为平地的房屋；没有撤离的居民已经开始了清理工作；飓风经过的墨西哥湾沿岸数十万人仍然没有得到电力供应。受灾最严重的地区之一是路易斯安那州的查尔斯湖，这座拥有78,000人口的城市就在墨西哥湾沿岸。

塞西尔·摩根，路易斯安那州：在飓风面前我从来没有逃跑过，而这可能是我经历过的最糟糕的一次。

亚当·拉尼：82岁的塞西尔·摩根一直住在查尔斯湖，他的房子幸免于难，而他自己建的谷仓却并没有。

塞西尔·摩根：我只知道把这些清理干净不容易，我需要全部清理一遍，因为里面可能有很多我想留着的东西。

亚当·拉尼：就在不远处，迈克尔·德韦恩·埃莱姆正在竭尽所能从他的商店“Drips and Kicks”里拿回他能拿的东西，商店的前面和后面已经被暴风雨的强风吹走了。

迈克尔·德维恩·埃莱姆，Drips and Kicks的老板：事情发生了，但我们会让它回到正轨，我们会让它重回正轨。

塔拉·巴蒂，路易斯安那州：我们甚至无家可回。

亚当·拉尼：塔拉·巴蒂给我们看了她的家乡查尔斯湖被严重破坏的照片，她不得不撤离并住在拉斐特的一家旅馆里。她是一家汉堡王的店务助理，当时已经经济拮据，而飓风让她彻底垮了。

塔拉·巴蒂：我们总共有12个人，我们真的没有更多的现金，我们也负担不起开车去巴吞鲁日或新奥尔良这样的地方，我们不知道找谁求助，也不知道怎么办，不知道去哪里。所以，我们想要求的是，能不能有人，红十字会、联邦应急管理署什么的，有人能够伸出手来帮助我们？

亚当·拉尼：巴蒂也非常担心新冠疫情，她已经有三个家庭成员死于新冠。

塔拉·巴蒂：我有一个年迈的母亲，有一个患癌症的孩子，患病的癌症孩子。我们现在的处境真的非常非常的艰难。所以，有没有人在听，红十字会、联邦应急管理局什么的，不管是谁，请给我们一些帮助，给我们一些信息，带我们去我们可以去的地方，因为，今晚过后将会是我们的最后一晚，我们会被困在路上无处可去，而现在，我们还负担不起路费。

亚当·拉尼：我们在卡萝尔·波特的公寓大楼外遇到了71岁的她，她家的屋顶被风刮掉了，电也停了。

卡罗尔·波特，路易斯安那州：感谢上帝我们挺过来了，上帝一直在庇佑我们。

亚当·拉尼：她和她的邻居们正在等待疏散，住在这个社区的主要是些退休人员和残疾人。

卡罗尔·波特：因为我不知道自己最后会在哪里，当你退休了，你必须靠养老金生活，去不了任何自己想去的地方。所以你必须坚持住，向上帝祈祷自己能够挺过去。

亚当·拉尼：刚才和卡罗尔·波特交谈时，她说她和她所在住宅区的其他居民昨晚被疏散到了新奥尔良，离查尔斯湖大约200英里，他们不知道自己什么时候才能回家。劳拉飓风过后使用较少的是大型避难所，比如路易斯安那州亚历山大市的一个竞技场，由美国红十字会运营。因为路易斯安那州是受疫情影响最严重的州之一，公共卫生官员和撤离者们表示他们最不想做的就是和很多人聚集在这些避难所里，这说明已经捉襟见肘的人们在寻找避难所方面的选择更少了。这里是PBS新闻一小时，亚当·雷尼在路易斯安那州报道。