PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — Democratic U.S. Rep. Val Hoyle has won reelection in Oregon’s 4th Congressional District.
The freshman incumbent defeated Republican Monique DeSpain, an Air Force veteran who has never held elected office and pitched herself as an “outsider” candidate.
The district, which hasn’t elected a Republican to the House since 1972, was seen as a likely win for Democrats, according to the Cook Political Report. Hoyle had outraised DeSpain by about $1.6 million as of late October, but Republican-affiliated groups still spent heavily in their bid to flip the seat, federal campaign finance records show. The fundraising arm of U.S. House Republicans, the National Republican Congressional Committee, spent some $375,000 on ads opposing Hoyle.
The district spans the southern half of the state’s coast and includes rural, mountainous communities and also the more populous, liberal college towns of Eugene and Corvallis.
FILE - State Rep. Val Hoyle, D-Eugene, speaks during a legislative forum at the Capitol in Salem, Ore., Jan. 27, 2015. (AP Photo/Don Ryan, File)
HAVANA (AP) — Cuba was left reeling Thursday after a fierce Category 3 hurricane ripped across the island, knocking out the country’s power grid, downing trees and damaging infrastructure. No fatalities were immediately reported.
Hurricane Rafael crossed a western portion of Cuba on Wednesday evening about 75 kilometers (45 miles) west of Havana, where José Ignacio Dimas returned home from his night shift as a security guard to find his apartment building in the historic center of the city had collapsed.
“The entire front wall of the building fell,” José Ignacio Dimas said in a tight voice as he scanned the damage early Thursday. Like many buildings in the capital, it was aging and lacked maintenance.
Some 50,000 people took shelter in Havana, with thousands more doing the same in regions south and just west of the capital since they lived in flood zones or in flimsy homes. The main road from Havana to the southern coastal city of Batabanó was strewn with dozens of utility poles and wires.
Lázaro Guerra, electricity director for the Ministry of Energy and Mines, said power had been partially restored in the island’s western region and that generation units were powering back up. But he warned that restoring power would be slow-going as crews took safety precautions.
As Rafael plowed across Cuba on Wednesday evening it slowed to a Category 2 hurricane as it chugged into the Gulf of Mexico before heading toward Mexico, according to the National Hurricane Center in Miami.
Late Thursday morning, the hurricane was located about 200 miles (320 kilometers) west-northwest of Havana. It had maximum sustained winds of 100 mph (345 kph) and was moving west-northwest at 9 mph (15 kph).
Earlier in the week, Rafael brushed past Jamaica and battered the Cayman Islands, downing trees and power lines and unleashing heavy flooding in some areas.
Authorities in Jamaica are searching for a couple last seen inside a car that was swept away by floodwaters, police told Radio Jamaica News.
Thousands of customers in Jamaica and Little Cayman remained without power as crews worked to restore electricity after the storm.
Rafael was expected to keep weakening as it spins over open waters and heads toward northern Mexico, although the hurricane center warned there was “above average uncertainty” in the storm's future track.
Meanwhile, many Cubans were left picking up the pieces from Wednesday night, after a rocky few weeks in the Caribbean nation. In October, the island was hit by a one-two punch. First, it was hit by island-wide blackouts stretching on for days, a product of the island’s energy crisis. Shortly after, it was slapped by powerful hurricane that struck the eastern part of the island and killed at least six people.
The disasters have stoked discontent already simmering in Cuba amid an ongoing economic crisis, which has pushed many to migrate from Cuba.
Classes and public transport were suspended on parts of the island and authorities canceled flights in and out of Havana and Varadero. Thousands of people in the west of the island had been evacuated as a preventative measure.
Rafael is the 17th named storm of the season.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration predicted the 2024 hurricane season was likely to be well above average, with between 17 and 25 named storms. The forecast called for as many as 13 hurricanes and four major hurricanes.
An average Atlantic hurricane season produces 14 named storms, seven of them hurricanes and three major hurricanes.
A youth plays in a flooded street after the passing of Hurricane Rafael in Batabano, Cuba, Thursday, Nov. 7, 2024. (AP Photo/Ramon Espinosa)
Madeleine Mur carries her dog through a flooded street after Hurricane Rafael passed through Batabano, Cuba, Thursday, Nov. 7, 2024. (AP Photo/Ramon Espinosa)
Residents ride through a flooded street on a horse-drawn cart after Hurricane Rafael passed through Batano, Cuba, Thursday, Nov. 7, 2024. (AP Photo/Ramon Espinosa)
Children wade through a flooded street after the passing of Hurricane Rafael in Batabano, Cuba, Thursday, Nov. 7, 2024. (AP Photo/Ramon Espinosa)
A man makes his way through trees brought down by Hurricane Rafael along the road leading to San Antonio de los Banos, Cuba, Thursday, Nov. 7, 2024. (AP Photo/Ramon Espinosa)
People drive along a road littered with fallen power lines after the passing of Hurricane Rafael in San Antonio de los Banos, Cuba, Thursday, Nov. 7, 2024. (AP Photo/Ramon Espinosa)
Residents wade through a flooded street after the passing of Hurricane Rafael in Batabano, Cuba, Thursday, Nov. 7, 2024. (AP Photo/Ramon Espinosa)
Waves break on the beach during the passing of Hurricane Rafael in Havana, Cuba, Wednesday, Nov. 6, 2024. (AP Photo/Ramon Espinosa)
A man walks through the wind and rain brought by Hurricane Rafael in Havana, Cuba, Wednesday, Nov. 6, 2024. (AP Photo/Ramon Espinosa)
A man walks through the wind and rain brought by Hurricane Rafael in Havana, Cuba, Wednesday, Nov. 6, 2024. (AP Photo/Ramon Espinosa)
People at a bus stop shield themselves with cardboard amid wind and rain during the passage of Hurricane Rafael in Havana, Cuba, Wednesday, Nov. 6, 2024. (AP Photo/Ramon Espinosa)
A man walks through the wind and rain brought by Hurricane Rafael in Havana, Cuba, Wednesday, Nov. 6, 2024. (AP Photo/Ramon Espinosa)
A Cuban flag shredded by the winds of Hurricane Rafael flies above the statue of General Calixto Garcia in Havana, Cuba, Wednesday, Nov. 6, 2024. (AP Photo/Ramon Espinosa)
