Early voting for most counties in the special election in North Carolina's 3rd congressional district and for some counties in the special election for the 9th congressional district was also temporarily halted after Wednesday, September 4 as a result, until the North Carolina State Board of Elections could decide what action to take. Ultimately, Karen Brinson Bell, the Board's Executive Director, would opt to use her emergency powers to extend early voting hours for the 9th district through Saturday, September 7, but only in four harder-hit counties that actually closed polling sites, and to have other counties further inland which did not close polling sites end early voting on Friday, September 6, as originally prescribed under state law, in order to make the most of the district's resources. Likewise, the Board extended early voting hours through Saturday for 11 counties in the 3rd district, but not for 6 other affected counties suffering from "power outages, poor conditions or a lack of workers."
Isabel Saint Malo de Alvarado, Vice President of Panama, said in an op-ed piece published April 21 in The Guardian that President Juan Carlos Varela and his administration have strengthened Panama's controls over money-laundering in the twenty months they have been in power, and that "Panama is setting up an independent commission, co-chaired by the Nobel laureate Joseph Stiglitz, to evaluate our financial system, determine best practices, and recommend measures to strengthen global financial and legal transparency. We expect its findings within the next six months, and will share the results with the international community."
More InfoSZ also had concerns about security, not only for their source, the leaked documents, and their data, but also for the safety of some of their partners in the investigation living under corrupt regimes who might not want their money-handling practices made public. They stored the data in a room with limited physical access on air gapped computers that were never connected to the Internet. The Guardian also limited access to its journalists' project work area. To make it even harder to sabotage the computers or steal their drives, SZ journalists made them more tamper-evident by painting the screws holding the drives in place with glitter nail polish.
More InfoThree Mossack Fonseca companies started for clients of Helene Mathieu Legal Consultants were later sanctioned by the US Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC). Pangates International Corporation was accused in July 2014 of supplying the government of Syria with "a large amount of specialty petroleum products" with "limited civilian application in Syria". The other two, Maxima Middle East Trading and Morgan Additives Manufacturing Co, and their owners Wael Abdulkarim and Ahmad Barqawi, were said to have "engaged in deceptive measures" to supply oil products to Syria.
More InfoOn August 28, Georgia governor Brian Kemp declared a state of emergency for coastal counties of Georgia that are in the forecast path of the hurricane, including Brantley, Bryan, Camden, Charlton, Chatham, Effingham, Glynn, Liberty, Long, McIntosh, Pierce and Wayne counties. Governor Kemp added several more counties on Wednesday, September 4, bringing the total number of counties under emergency to 21. Atlanta Motor Speedway opened their campgrounds free of charge to evacuees of Hurricane Dorian. The Georgia State Park System waived parking and pet fees at their parks and made many campgrounds available for evacuees. Georgia State University offered free tickets to their September 7 football game to any evacuees. The College of Coastal Georgia announced campus closures for both Tuesday and Wednesday following Labor Day. Savannah State University also cancelled classes Tuesday. The Georgia coast began experiencing tropical storm force wind gusts and Dorian's outer rain on Wednesday, September 4.
More InfoFrom August 26 to August 28, the storm affected several parts of the northernmost Lesser Antilles. Damaging winds primarily affected the Virgin Islands where gusts reached 111 mph (179 km/h). Extensive precautionary measures were taken to mitigate damage, especially in Puerto Rico, where one person died. Elsewhere in the Lesser Antilles, impacts from the storm were relatively minor. In preparation for the storm, the states of Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina and Virginia all declared a state of emergency and many coastal counties from Florida to North Carolina issued mandatory evacuation orders. Damage in the Bahamas was catastrophic due to the prolonged and intense storm conditions, including heavy rainfall, high winds and storm surge, with thousands of homes destroyed and at least 77 direct deaths recorded, 74 of which occurred in the Bahamas. The true death toll is unknown with 245 people still missing as of April 2020. Dorian is the costliest disaster in Bahamian history, estimated to have left behind $3.4 billion in damage.
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