美国有线新闻 CNN 热带风暴“伊梅尔达”袭击美国 美联储再次下调利率

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CARL AZUZ, CNN 10 ANCHOR: A state of disaster in the state of Texas is our first story this Friday. Thank you all for taking 10 for CNN 10. I'm CarlAzuz at the CNN Center. Imelda was the name of the storm system that is soaking parts of the Lone¹ Star State. It formed as a tropical depression, strengthened to a tropical storm and made landfall all on the same day. That was Tuesday, so there really wasn't time for people near Texas' Gulfcoast to make any major preparations. Still, Imelda wasn't projected to have anywhere near the impact that Hurricane Dorian had on the Bahamasearlier this month. But it did cause flooding, tremendous amounts of it in Texas. And even though Imelda is no longer a tropical storm or a weaker tropical depression for that matter, conditions were still worsening yesterday for many people in southeast Texas.

In the city of Beaumont, for example, where the average rainfall is about 60 inches per year, police say the city got a third of that as much as 20 inches in one night. Beaumont is in one of the 13 Texas counties where Governor Greg Abbott declared a state of disaster yesterday. That s?peeds up money and help to those in need and there are a lot of people in need. Police say they've gotten hundreds of calls for rescues. People have been trapped in homes and cars. Residents are being told not to drive because the roads are flooded. And entire neighborhoods have become like lakes with houses and trees in the middle of them.

As what's left of Imelda moves northeast, millions of people in eastern Texas and western Louisiana were told to keep an eye out for possible flashfloods. Some victims are comparing this storm to Hurricane Harvey, and it certainly caused the worst flooding in the region since Harvey did this in2017. Though that storm was considered to be an even bigger rainmaker, Imelda's threat continues with more rain in the forecast before it completely moves out of Texas.

For the second time since July, the United States Federal Reserve cut interest rates this week. The federal funds rate was reduced a quarter of a percentage point and it will now hover² between 1.75% and 2%. Does that affect individual Americans? Yes, because lower interest rates make it cheaper to borrow money. Payments on mortgages, payments on credit card balances, what businesses have to pay back when they borrow, all of that can decrease when the Fed cuts interest rates. It's a move the central bank can make to influence the U.S. economy. And analysts³ think that economy will continue to grow in the months ahead, and that the nation's unemployment rate will stay near its lowest levels in 50 years. But there are concerns that global growth will slow down. This rate cut, according to the Fed chairman, was made to keep the U.S. economy strong.