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Two Nuclear Power Plants In Florida Are Directly In The Path Of Hurricane Irma

Two Nuclear Power Plants In Florida Are Directly In The Path Of Hurricane Irma

Hurricane Irma is more powerful than all of the other major Atlantic storms this year combined, and it has an eye as large as the entire Detroit metro area. It is being reported that “upwards of 90%” of Barbuda has already been destroyed by the storm, and it is being projected that some areas of Puerto Rico could be without power “for between four and six months”. You may want to view these photos and these videos to get a better idea of the immense destructiveness of this very powerful storm. The latest forecasts have Hurricane Irma making landfall in Florida, but so far the two nuclear power plants in Florida that would be directly in the path of the storm have not even started the process of shutting down

In anticipation of powerful Hurricane Irma, which projections on Wednesday showed headed straight for South Florida, Florida Power & Light’s two nuclear plants were finalizing staffing plans and cleaning up the grounds. But neither Turkey Point nor the St. Lucie plant further up the coast had made the call yet to shutting down the plants.

Peter Robbins, spokesman for FPL, said shutting down a reactor is a gradual process, and the decision will be made “well in advance” of the storm making landfall.

We all remember what happened with Fukushima, and we definitely do not want to see a repeat on U.S. soil. The Fukushima nuclear disaster changed millions of minds about the safety of nuclear power, and as a member of Congress I will do all that I can to encourage the development of our solar power, wind power and geothermal power capabilities.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

Hurricane Irma Barrels Toward Miami As Residents Scramble To Evacuate

Hurricane Irma Barrels Toward Miami As Residents Scramble To Evacuate

After laying waste to much of the Leeward Islands and leaving most of Puerto Rico without power, Hurricane Irma is continuing its destructive march through the Caribbean which is expected to culminate with landfall in Miami sometime this weekend.

As we noted yesterday, Irma’s catastrophic 185+ mph winds left 90% of the dwellings on the island of Barbuda completely leveled, according to Prime Minister Gaston Browne.


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First images out of Barbuda from a Facebook broadcast live by ABS Radio & TV.

Widespread destruction has occurred on the island.


Unfortunately, Irma’s power isn’t expected to subside all that much as it moves over several Caribbean islands over the next couple of days before ending up in Southern Florida.  Here is the latest from the National Hurricane Center:

Maximum sustained winds remain near 180 mph (285 km/h) with higher gusts.  Irma is a category 5 hurricane on the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Wind Scale.  Some fluctuations in intensity are likely during the next day or two, but Irma is forecast to remain a powerful category 4 or 5 hurricane during the next couple of days.

FORECAST POSITIONS AND MAX WINDS

  • INIT  07/0900Z 20.0N  68.3W  155 KT 180 MPH
  • 12H  07/1800Z 20.7N  70.5W  150 KT 175 MPH
  • 24H  08/0600Z 21.7N  73.1W  145 KT 165 MPH
  • 36H  08/1800Z 22.3N  75.5W  140 KT 160 MPH
  • 48H  09/0600Z 22.8N  77.4W  135 KT 155 MPH
  • 72H  10/0600Z 24.5N  80.0W  130 KT 150 MPH
  • 96H  11/0600Z 28.5N  80.5W  105 KT 120 MPH
  • 120H  12/0600Z 33.0N  81.0W   75 KT  85 MPH…INLAND

Hurricane-force winds extend outward up to 50 miles (85 km) from the center and tropical-storm-force winds extend outward up to 185 miles (295 km).

STORM SURGE:  The combination of a life-threatening storm surge and large breaking waves will raise water levels ABOVE NORMAL TIDE LEVELS by the following amounts within the hurricane warning area near and to the north of the center of Irma.  Near the coast, the surge will be accompanied by large and destructive waves.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

FEMA Expected To Run Out Of Money By Friday As Superstorm Irma Approaches Florida

FEMA Expected To Run Out Of Money By Friday As Superstorm Irma Approaches Florida

By Carey Wedler

The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) has suffered from a shoddy reputation for quite some time, particularly after its failed response to Hurricane Katrina in 2005. As the Gulf coast recovers from Hurricane Harvey and Hurricane Irma approaches Florida, FEMA faces further failure as its funds near depletion.

Bloomberg reported Tuesday that the agency is nearly broke and is expected to run out of money on Friday, according to a Senate aide. According to the outlet:

As of 10 a.m. Tuesday morning, FEMA’s Disaster Relief Fund, which pays for the agency’s disaster response and recovery activity, had just $1.01 billion on hand. And of that, just $541 million was ‘immediately available’ for response and recovery efforts related to Hurricane Harvey, according to a spokeswoman for FEMA who asked not to be identified by name.

The $1.01 billion in the fund Tuesday morning is less than half of the $2.14 billion that was there at 9 a.m. last Thursday morning — a spend rate of $9.3 million every hour, or about $155,000 a minute.

The Trump administration has already asked Congress for nearly $8 billion in additional funds, though Reuters noted that request may be delayed unless Congress raises the debt limit, as Secretary of the Treasury Steven Mnuchin has asked it to do.

“Without raising the debt limit, I am not comfortable that we will get money to Texas this month to rebuild,” Mnuchin told Fox News.

Even the $8 billion sum is only a drop in the bucket compared to the estimated damage Harvey incurred. Texas Governor Greg Abbott expects recovery and rebuilding will cost between $150 to $180 billion.

Unsurprisingly, Brock Long, head of the U.S. Federal Emergency Management Agency, told CBS News that state and local governments need to step up their efforts.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

6 Reasons Hurricane Irma Could Be the Natural Disaster of Our Time

One meteorologist admits he’s “at a loss for words” over the size of the storm.

Photo Credit: Screenshot / Raw Story

Hurricane Harvey was a tragic nightmare that hit the Texas shores with force and then lingered for days, dumping dump-trucks full of rain on a city ill-equipped to handle it. Florida is next, and if predictions are accurate, Hurricane Irma is going to be far worse than Houston was, and worse than anyone has prepared for.

Already, Irma is setting records and being named the strongest storm the Atlantic Ocean has seen on record. Here is a short list of things meteorologists and experts at the Hurricane Center have already seen from Irma that should give everyone pause.

1. The wind speeds broke the measuring tool.

The wind was so strong when Irma passed over Barbuda that the monitoring equipment used to measure the wind was damaged and couldn’t report an accurate account of the wind speed. It tapped out at 151 mph.

2. The prospect of 185mph wind should strike fear into our hearts.

The gusts for the Category 5 storm have reached 185 mph. That’s the equivalent of an EF4 tornado sitting on an area, nonstop for hours. To put that into perspective, the photo below is of the damage sustained by residents of Garland/Rowlett, Texas after an EF4 tornado blew through in 2015.

Damage in a residential area as a result of the EF4 Garland/Rowlett, Texas tornado. (Photo: Wikipedia)

To make matters worse, NOAA’s tools dropped into the hurricane to measure the storm and recorded 226mph gusts from its northeast eyewall.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

Barbuda “Totally Demolished” After Hurricane Irma Levels 90% Of All Dwellings

Barbuda “Totally Demolished” After Hurricane Irma Levels 90% Of All Dwellings

Having mauled the Caribbean island of St. Martin overnight, where this morning the French government said that the four “most solid” buildings have been destroyed, Hurricane Irma – now at 185mps for a record 33 straight hours – has just passed north of Puerto Rico, buffeting the US island territory’s capital, San Juan, with heavy downpours and strong winds that scattered tree limbs across roadways, but not before totally demolishing” the island of Barbuda, with 90% of all dwellings leveled, Prime Minister Gaston Browne said.


Images show Irma damage in Barbuda; officials say destruction could be “upwards of 90%” http://cnn.it/2vMPepD 


Browne said that Irma has unleashed “absolute devastation” on the island making Barbuda, home to some 1,800 people, “basically uninhabitable” with preliminary damage estimated at some $150 million.


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Antigua & Barbuda’s Prime Minister: “The way it stands now, is basically uninhabitable.”

Photos: ABS Television/Radio.


…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

Meanwhile Two More Hurricanes Form: Jose Right Behind Irma, Katia In The Gulf

Meanwhile Two More Hurricanes Form: Jose Right Behind Irma, Katia In The Gulf

As previewed yesterday, moments ago the National Hurricane Center said that “quickly strenghtening Jose” which has been quietly following in Irma’s foosteps, has become a hurricane.

Located about 1040 miles east of the Lesser Antilles, Jose is headed at 16 mph on a steady west-northwest track, steered by the same ridge that is helping to direct Irma.

On its current track, Jose would reach the northern Leeward Islands by Saturday, but the ridge is predicted to weaken enough by Saturday to allow Jose to arc just northeast of the islands. Conditions are favorable for Jose to strengthen into a hurricane by later Wednesday, and it could approach Category 3 strength by late in the week. About 25% of the European model ensemble members bring Jose into the northern Leeward Islands, but all of the GFS ensemble members keep Jose north of the islands.

The news means that there are now two major hurricanse barreling toward Florida in the Atlantic, as shown in the map below.

Meanwhile, Katia, which was christened as a Tropical Storm by NHC at 5 am EDT Wednesday, was also just upgraded to a Hurricane.

Hurricane Irma Could Destroy Oil Demand

Hurricane Irma Could Destroy Oil Demand

Oil

About half of the shuttered refining capacity along the Gulf Coast could be back up and running by Thursday, assuaging concerns about the possibility of acute gasoline shortages in much of the U.S.

The disruptions of more than 4 million barrels per day of refining capacity have been cut in half, with major refineries restarting operations in Corpus Christi and Houston. ExxonMobil is ramping up operations at its Baytown facility, the second largest in the country. Valero Energy brought two refineries in Corpus Christi and Texas City back online, with another large one in Port Arthur scheduled to resume operations soon.

The massive Motiva refinery – the largest in the country with 600,000 bpd of capacity – is still offline, but is getting closer to resuming operations. The large volume of restarts led to a spike in crude oil prices on Tuesday, with WTI up more than 3 percent. Gasoline futures fell back as the Colonial Pipeline restarted shipments.

Goldman Sachs predicts that as of Thursday, half of the shuttered refining capacity will have resumed.

But what about the rest? An estimated 1.4 mb/d could remain offline through mid-September at least, the investment bank predicts. Goldman says the lingering effects will be “modestly bearish,” projecting a 40-million-barrel increase in crude oil inventories. But the quick comeback of some larger refineries led Goldman to lower its projected demand impact from -750,000 bpd in the first month after the storm to just -600,000 bpd. Related: Oil Markets Rebound After Hurricane Harvey

However, the effects could actually become slightly bullish over time as the recovery efforts pick up, and intriguingly, there is “potential for some sustained US onshore production curtailments.” Eagle Ford shale drillers were forced to shut in some shale output as both the takeaway capacity (i.e., pipelines) and Gulf Coast refineries went offline, backing up crude at the wellhead.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

“Devastating” Hurricane Irma Flattens “Most Solid” Buildings On Caribbean Island

“Devastating” Hurricane Irma Flattens “Most Solid” Buildings On Caribbean Island

Irma is the kind of storm where you get thousands of lives lost. This is not going to be the big slow-motion flood like Harvey – this is a real, honest-to-God hurricane.”

       – Chuck Watson, disaster modeler with Enki Research

Hurricane Irma, the most powerful Atlantic storm on record according to the NHC, raced across northern Caribbean islands on Wednesday with a “catastrophic mix of fierce winds, surf and rain”, ahead of what appears a virtually guaranteed Florida landfall at the weekend. While Irma precise trajectory remained uncertain, the latest NHC forecast sees the cone coming right on top fo the panhandle.


.@NHC_Atlantic cone w/ & how its changed over time. Trend back to the right and a wide cone still relaying uncertainty on future track


The eye of Irma, a Category 5 storm packing winds of 185 miles per hour (295 km per hour), moved away from the island of Barbuda and toward the island of St. Martin, east of Puerto Rico, early on Wednesday, the U.S. National Hurricane Center (NHC) in Miami reported. It could hit Florida on Saturday. It is expected to bring strong storm surges and up to 20 inches of rain in some places.

“We are hunkered down and it is very windy … the wind is a major threat,” said Garfield Burford, the director of news at ABS TV and Radio on the island of Antigua, south of Barbuda. “So far, some roofs have been blown off” he added according to Reuters.  Most people who were on Antigua and Barbuda were without power and about 1,000 people were spending the night in shelters in Antigua, according to Burford. “It’s very scary … most of the islands are dark so it’s a very, very frightening,” he said.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

Virgin Islands Authorizes National Guard To Confiscate Guns, Property, And Supplies

Virgin Islands Authorizes National Guard To Confiscate Guns, Property, And Supplies

With the devastation of Harvey still fresh in the public’s memory, stores in southern Florida are already running out of necessities like bottled water, and the Mayor of Miami is telling reporters to expect an evacuation order on Wednesday. But outside of the US mainland, the US Virgin Islands, which has activated the national guard as the storm approaches. However, Mapp’s order differed from the order signed by Texas Gov. Mike Abbott with one concerning twist: guardsmen can “appropriate” guns, ammunition, explosives and property needed to respond to Hurricane Irma. The order was signed by Virgin Islands Gov. Kenneth Mapp on Monday.

Irma’s eye is expected to pass just north of the heart of the U.S. Virgin Islands on Wednesday and bring four to eight inches or rain and 60-mile-per-hour wind gusts, though the gusts in the most powerful areas of the storm have been as fast as 185 mph, the Daily Caller reported.

Mapp signed the order Monday in preparation for Hurricane Irma. It allows the Adjutant General of the Virgin Islands to seize private property they believe necessary to protect the islands, subject to approval by the territory’s Justice Department. Mapp issued an emergency declaration Tuesday and mobilized National Guard units to prepare for the massive storm.

“This is not an opportunity to go outside and try to have fun with a hurricane,” Mapp said. “It’s not time to get on a surfboard.”

Because of its location in the middle of the Pacific, it’s understandable that the Virgin Islands would need to take extraordinary measures to ensure its response to the storm is successful. However, the order too closely resembles an expansion of US civil asset forfeiture powers adopted by Attorney General Jeff Sessions.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

Hurricane Irma Strenghtens To “Extremely Dangerous” Category 5, Eastern Caribbean On Lockdown

Hurricane Irma Strenghtens To “Extremely Dangerous” Category 5, Eastern Caribbean On Lockdown 

Irma has strengthened to an “extremely dangerous” Category 5 hurricane, the National Hurricane Center said in its advisory at 7:45am AST. According to the Hurricane center, NOAA and Air Force hurricane hunter aircraft data indicate Hurricane Irma has intensified into an “extremely dangerous” Category 5 hurricane on the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Wind Scale with maximum winds of 175 mph (280 km/h) with higher gusts.


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Recon finds surface winds of 152 knots (175 mph) in ‘s right front quadrant. Holy crap.


As of this moment, the hurricane is located 270 miles east of Antigua, moving west at 14 mph. States of emergency were declared in Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands and all of Florida while people on various Caribbean islands boarded up homes and rushed to find last-minute supplies, forming long lines outside supermarkets and gas stations. This morning the Dominican Republic has issued a Hurricane Watch from Cabo Engano to northern border with Haiti; Tropical Storm Watch from south of Cabo Engao to Isla Saona.


BREAKING: Hurricane is the first Category 5 storm of the 2017 Atlantic season. Winds are at 175 mph. This is a very dangerous storm!


According to meteorologists, Irma is the 17th hurricane in the Atlantic on record to have max winds >= 175 mph. Atlantic max wind record is Allen (1980) at 190 mph.


Ultimately, the question is how strong Irma will be when it inevitably makes landfall on the Eastern Seaboard, somewhere in the vicinity of Miami.

Meanwhile, officials across the northeastern Caribbean canceled airline flights, shuttered schools and urged people to hunker down indoors as Hurricane Irma barreled toward the region, now as an “extremely powerful” Category 5 storm. Irma’s maximum sustained winds increased to near 175 mph early Tuesday.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

Hurricane Irma Projected To Reach Category 5 And Hit The East Coast – Panic Prepping Begins In Florida

Hurricane Irma Projected To Reach Category 5 And Hit The East Coast – Panic Prepping Begins In Florida

On Monday, Hurricane Irma strengthened into a category 4 hurricane, and some meteorologists are projecting that it will eventually become a category 5 storm before it eventually makes landfall in the United States.  And since a “category 6” has not been created yet, category 5 is as high as the scale goes at the moment.  Over the past couple of days, the track of the storm has shifted “a lot further to the west”, and at this point it appears that Miami is the most likely to take the full force of the hurricane.  But as we have seen, trying to forecast the behavior of hurricanes is not an exact science.  Irma may never become a category 5 storm, and it may never hit the U.S. at all.  Or it may zip past Florida to the south and end up making landfall in the Gulf of Mexico.  The truth is that we just don’t know.

But for the moment things are not looking good for Florida, and a state of emergency has already been declared for every single county in the state

On Monday afternoon, Florida Gov. Rick Scott declared a state of emergency for every county in Florida in anticipation of Irma. A state of emergency was also declared in Puerto Rico earlier in the day.

Another scenario still on the table is that Irma curve northward and miss the East Coast entirely. This would still generate large surf and rip currents along the East Coast. However, this scenario is the least likely to occur at this point.

And as I mentioned above, many are projecting that Irma will become a category 5 storm just a few days from now.  The following comes from the Express

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Florida Declares State Of Emergency As Category 4 Hurricane Irma Barrels Straight For Miami

Florida Declares State Of Emergency As Category 4 Hurricane Irma Barrels Straight For Miami

With Florida already bracing for a hit from Hurricane Irma, which according to some models may attain “monster” Category 5 winds as it nears land prompting locals to store up on everything from water to food to gas and various other housing supplies, late on Monday afternoon Florida Gov. Rick Scott declared a state of emergency ahead of potential landfall, just hours after the governor of Puerto Rico did the same.


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BREAKING: @FLGovScott has declared a state of emergency in Florida ahead of Hurricane


At roughly the same time, the NHC announced that Irma’s top sustained winds have reached 130mph (215 kph), which prompted an upgrade to a Category 4 stormfor Irma. According to the latest update, Irma was moving west at 13mph, and was currently located about 490 miles east of Leeward Islands.

A hurricane warning was in effect for Antigua, Barbuda, Anguilla, Montserrat, St. Kitts, and Nevis, Saba, St. Eustatius, and Sint Maarten, Saint Martin and Saint Barthelemy.

Puerto Rico is expected to be hit at 2pm on Wednesday.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

Florida Stores Running Out Of Water, Gas As Gov Warns “Make Sure Your Disaster Kits Are Ready” For Irma

Florida Stores Running Out Of Water, Gas As Gov Warns “Make Sure Your Disaster Kits Are Ready” For Irma

Hurricane Irma is hurtling toward the eastern US faster than meteorological models anticipated. According to the latest readings from NOAA, the storm will probably make landfall in Southeastern Florida next weekend, or perhaps earlier – that is, unless wind patterns intervene and spare residents of Miami, Ft. Lauderdale and West Palm Beach from flooding and winds witnessed in Texas and Louisiana, according to NOAA forecasts.

Bloomberg chief energy correspondent Javier Blas noted that the Hurricane has “shifted a lot further west,” and that, according to the latest forecasts, there’s still a small chance that Irma strikes the Gulf of Mexico, compounding the devastation that Harvey left behind.


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forecast has shifted a lot further to the west — with some weather models suggesting a small chance (as today) of US GoM hit


Here’s what we know about Irma (courtesy of the Weather.com & NOAA):

  • The center of Irma is located 610 miles east of the Leeward Islands and is moving west-southwestward at about 14 mph.
  • Irma is a Category 3 hurricane and satellite imagery shows that it has become better organized in the past day with an eye now clearly evident.
  • Low wind shear, increased mid-level moisture and ample oceanic heat content favor that Irma will remain a major hurricane (Category 3 or stronger) for the next several days, though some intensity fluctuations are likely.
  • One potential inhibitor of Irma maintaining its intensity would be if the hurricane’s core interacts with land as it cruises westward near the Greater Antilles later this week.

And Weather.com’s latest impact projections:

  • Leeward Islands: Late Tuesday-Wednesday
  • Puerto Rico/Virgin Islands: Wednesday-Thursday
  • Dominican Republic/Haiti: Thursday-Friday
  • Turks and Caicos: Thursday-Friday
  • Bahamas: Friday-next weekend
  • Cuba: Friday-next weekend
  • United States: Next weekend into early the following week

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

Category 6? If Hurricane Irma Becomes The Strongest Hurricane In History, It Could Wipe Entire Cities Off The Map

Category 6? If Hurricane Irma Becomes The Strongest Hurricane In History, It Could Wipe Entire Cities Off The Map

Meteorologists have been shocked at how rapidly Hurricane Irma has been strengthening, and they are already warning that if it hits the United States as a high level category 5 storm the devastation would be absolutely unprecedented.  Of course we are already dealing with the aftermath of Hurricane Harvey, and many experts are already telling us that the economic damage done by that storm will easily surpass any other disaster in all of U.S. history.  But there is a very real possibility that Hurricane Irma could be even worse.  According to the National Hurricane Center, at 5 PM on Friday Irma already had sustained winds of 130 miles per hour.  But it is still very early, and as you will see below, next week it is expected to potentially develop into a category 5 storm with winds of 180 miles per hour or more.

I suppose that it is appropriate that such a powerful storm has a very powerful name.  In old German, the name “Irma” actually means “war goddess”

The name Irma is a German baby name. In German the meaning of the name Irma is: Universal, from the Old German ‘irmin’. War goddess.

Irma began forming on Wednesday, and it intensified at a faster rate than any storm that we have seen in nearly 20 years

Hurricane Irma formed early Wednesday in the warm waters off the coast of West Africa — and took just 30 hours to strengthen to a Category 3. That’s the fastest intensification rate in almost two decades. By Friday afternoon, the storm had also grown noticeably larger in size with a well-defined eye, a classic sign of a strong hurricane.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

“Rapidly Intensifying” Hurricane Irma Barreling Straight Toward The East Coast

“Rapidly Intensifying” Hurricane Irma Barreling Straight Toward The East Coast

The National Hurricane Center (NHC) has just updated its forecast for what it is now referring to as a “rapidly intensifying” Category 2 hurricane in the Eastern Atlantic ocean and the results look disastrous for a large swath of the Caribbean and Southeastern United States.  Here is a brief summary of Hurricane Irma from the National Hurricane Center released at 11AM EST:

Satellite images indicate that Irma is rapidly intensifying. Very deep convection has formed in the central dense overcast, which is now displaying a small and clearing eye.  Dvorak estimates were up to 77 kt at 1200 UTC, and since the cloud pattern continues to quickly become more organized, the initial wind speed is set to 85 kt.

At 1100 AM AST (1500 UTC), the center of Hurricane Irma was located near latitude 16.9 North, longitude 33.8 West. Irma is moving toward the west-northwest near 10 mph (17 km/h).  This general motion is forecast through early Friday, followed by a generally westward motion on Saturday.

Maximum sustained winds have increased to near 100 mph (155 km/h) with higher gusts.  Irma is forecast to become a major hurricane by tonight and is expected to be an extremely dangerous hurricane for the next several days.

Hurricane-force winds extend outward up to 15 miles (30 km) from the center and tropical-storm-force winds extend outward up to 80 miles (130 km).


A 50% chance that the northern Antilles experiences a Hurricane landfall next week; topography may cause models some issues with intensity.


Irma is expected to grow into a “major hurricane” within the next 24 hours with maximum sustained winds of 120 mph before growing even stronger throughout the weekend and eventually becoming a Category 4 storm.

Irma

The storm is moving west at roughly 10 mph and isn’t expected to pose its first threat to land until next week.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

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