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Tag: Disaster planning and response

  • Colorado gov accuses Trump of playing ‘political games’ on disaster requests

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    DENVER — Colorado Gov. Jared Polis accused President Donald Trump of playing “political games” Sunday after the Trump administration denied disaster declaration requests following wildfires and flooding in the state earlier this year.

    Polis’ office said he received late Saturday two denial letters from the Federal Emergency Management Agency. The letters follow requests for major disaster declarations following wildfires and mudslides in August and what Polis had described as “historic flooding” across southwest Colorado in October.

    Polis and Colorado’s U.S. senators, fellow Democrats Michael Bennet and John Hickenlooper, decried the denials. Polis said the state would appeal.

    “Coloradans impacted by the Elk and Lee fires and the flooding in Southwestern Colorado deserve better than the political games President Trump is playing,” he said in a statement.

    Abigail Jackson, a White House spokesperson, said Trump responds to each request for federal disaster assistance “with great care and consideration, ensuring American tax dollars are used appropriately and efficiently by the states to supplement — not substitute, their obligation to respond to and recover from disasters.”

    Jackson said there is “no politicization” to Trump’s decisions on disaster aid.

    Trump has raised the idea of “phasing out” FEMA, saying he wants states to take more responsibility. States already take the lead in disasters, but federal assistance comes into play when the needs exceed what they can manage on their own.

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  • MacKenzie Scott gives $60 million to the Center for Disaster Philanthropy

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    MacKenzie Scott, one of the world’s richest women and most influential philanthropists, has donated $60 million to the Center for Disaster Philanthropy, according to a Tuesday announcement from the nonprofit.

    The donation is among the largest single gifts Scott, the ex-wife of Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, has made to a nonprofit, and the largest the Center for Disaster Philanthropy has ever received.

    Patricia McIlreavy, CDP president and CEO, called the gift a “transformative investment” that would help the nonprofit “strengthen the ability of communities to withstand and equitably recover from disasters.”

    The gift comes at a time when climate disasters are becoming more frequent and costly and as President Donald Trump stokes uncertainty about how much federal support communities will receive to recover from future emergencies.

    Founded in 2010, CDP offers advice and resources to donors seeking to maximize their impact on communities recovering from climate disasters and other crises. The organization emphasizes medium- and long-term recovery, two oft-neglected phases of disaster response.

    CDP also does its own disaster giving, including through its Atlantic Hurricane Season Recovery Fund which will soon support Hurricane Melissa recovery in the Caribbean, according to the group.

    The $60 million grant would go toward “improving disaster preparedness, addressing the root causes of vulnerabilities to hazards and providing vital resources for the long-term recovery of disaster-affected communities,” according to a CDP statement.

    Scott, 55, amassed most of her wealth through shares of Amazon that she acquired after her divorce from the company’s founder and executive chairman, Jeff Bezos. Forbes estimates her current wealth to be about $34 billion.

    Soon after her divorce, Scott signed the Giving Pledge, promising to give away at least half of her wealth throughout her lifetime. She has donated more than $19 billion since 2019.

    The author of two novels is known for her quiet and trust-based giving. Scott rarely comments on her donations apart from sporadic essays published on her website, Yield Giving.

    Nonprofits are often surprised to learn they are receiving one of her grants, which come without restrictions on how groups can use the money.

    McIlreavy told The Associated Press she found out about the gift in September through a phone call. “There was a disbelief and joy mixed together,” she said.

    The lack of restrictions allows CDP to put some of the money toward general operations like staffing, an aspect of nonprofit work for which it is often difficult to fundraise.

    McIlreavy said nonprofits trying to raise money for administrative costs can sometimes feel like they are running a pizza shop. “People would come in and say ‘I want pizza, but I don’t want to pay for the staff to make it, or the trucks that bring in the cheese.’”

    The support comes as climate disasters continue to grow in frequency and cost, stretching the abilities of both governments and donors to respond.

    The U.S. has experienced at least 14 disasters this year that exceeded $1 billion in damages, according to Climate Central, totaling $101.4 billion. That count does not include the deadly July Texas floods, which are still being assessed.

    President Donald Trump has repeatedly floated the idea of eliminating the Federal Emergency Management Agency, which manages the federal response to disasters. He has denied major disaster declaration requests to states even when FEMA assessments proved extensive damage. His administration has also cut billions in disaster resilience funding.

    The uncertainty is challenging for survivors, and for donors and philanthropists who can’t anticipate where and when their support will be most needed, said McIlreavy.

    “When people are facing disasters across this country, not knowing what may come, how they may get assistance and from whom, that steals a bit of the hope that is intrinsic in any recovery,” she said.

    Several other groups announced this month that they received grants from Scott, including the African American Cultural Heritage Action Fund, which got $40 million, and the Freedom Fund, which received $60 million. Scott donated $70 million to UNCF, the nation’s largest private provider of scholarships to minority students, last month.

    Scott hinted at a new cycle of donations in an Oct. 15 essay on her website while downplaying her own giving and touting the power of smaller acts of kindness and generosity.

    “What if care is a way for all of us to make a difference in leading and shaping our countries?” Scott wrote. “There are many ways to influence how we move through the world, and where we land.”

    ——

    Associated Press coverage of philanthropy and nonprofits receives support through the AP’s collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content. For all of AP’s philanthropy coverage, visit https://apnews.com/hub/philanthropy.

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  • State emergency officials say new rules and delays for FEMA grants put disaster response at risk

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    State crisis managers say severe cuts to federal security grants, restrictions on money intended for preparedness and funding delays tied to litigation are posing a growing risk to their ability to respond to emergencies.

    It’s all causing confusion, frustration and concern. The federal government shutdown isn’t helping.

    “Every day we remain in this grant purgatory reduces the time available to responsibly and effectively spend these critical funds,” said Kiele Amundson, communications director at the Hawaii Emergency Management Agency.

    The uncertainty has led some emergency management agencies to hold off on filling vacant positions and make rushed decisions on important training and purchases.

    Experts say the developments complicate state-led emergency efforts, undermining the Republican administration’s stated goals of shifting more responsibility to states and local governments for disaster response.

    In an emailed statement, the Department of Homeland Security said the new requirements were necessary because of “recent population shifts” and that changes to security grants were made “to be responsive to new and urgent threats facing our nation.”

    Several DHS and FEMA grants help states, tribes and territories prepare for climate disasters and deter a variety of threats. The money pays for salaries and training, and such things as vehicles, communications equipment and software.

    State emergency managers say that money has become increasingly important because the range of threats they must prepare for is expanding, including pandemics and cyberattacks.

    FEMA, a part of DHS, divided a $320 million Emergency Management Performance Grant among states on Sept. 29. But the next day, it told states the money was on hold until they submitted new population counts. The directive demanded that they omit people “removed from the State pursuant to the immigration laws of the United States” and to explain their methodology.

    The amount of money distributed to the states is based on U.S. census population data. The new requirement forcing states to submit revised counts “is something we have never seen before,” said Trina Sheets, executive director of the National Emergency Management Association, a group representing emergency managers. “It’s certainly not the responsibility of emergency management to certify population.”

    With no guidance on how to calculate the numbers, Hawaii’s Amundson said staff scrambled to gather data from the 2020 census and other sources, then subtracted he number of “noncitizens” based on estimates from an advocacy group.

    They are not sure the methodology will be accepted. But with their FEMA contacts furloughed and the grant portal down during the federal shutdown, they cannot find out. Other states said they were assessing the request or awaiting further guidance.

    In its statement, DHS said FEMA needs to be certain of its funding levels before awarding grant money, and that includes updates to a state’s population due to deportations.

    Experts said delays caused by the request could most affect local governments and agencies that receive grant money passed down by states because their budgets and staffs are smaller. At the same time, FEMA also reduced the time frame that recipients have to spend the money, from three years to one. That could prevent agencies from taking on longer-term projects.

    Bryan Koon, president and CEO of the consulting firm IEM and a former Florida emergency management chief, said state governments and local agencies need time to adjust their budgets to any kind of changes.

    “An interruption in those services could place American lives in jeopardy,” he said.

    In another move that has caused uncertainty, FEMA in September drastically cut some states’ allocations from another source of funding. The $1 billion Homeland Security Grant Program is supposed to be based on assessed risks, and states pass most of the money to police and fire departments.

    New York received $100 million less than it expected, a 79% reduction, while Illinois saw a 69% reduction. Both states are politically controlled by Democrats. Meanwhile, some territories received unexpected windfalls, including the U.S. Virgin Islands, which got more than twice its expected allocation.

    The National Emergency Management Association said the grants are meant to be distributed based on risk and that it “remains unclear what risk methodology was used” to determine the new funding allocation.

    After a group of Democratic states challenged the cuts in court, a federal judge in Rhode Island issued a temporary restraining order on Sept. 30. That forced FEMA to rescind award notifications and refrain from making payments until a further court order.

    The freeze “underscores the uncertainty and political volatility surrounding these awards,” said Frank Pace, administrator of the Hawaii Office of Homeland Security. The Democratic-controlled state received more money than expected, but anticipates the bonus being taken away with the lawsuit.

    In Hawaii, where a 2023 wildfire devastated the Maui town of Lahaina and killed more than 100 people, the state, counties and nonprofits “face the real possibility” of delays in paying contractors, completing projects and “even staff furloughs or layoffs” if the grant freeze and government shutdown continue, he said.

    The myriad setbacks prompted Washington state’s Emergency Management Division to pause filling some positions “out of an abundance of caution,” communications director Karina Shagren said.

    Emergency management experts said the moves have created uncertainty for those in charge of preparedness.

    The Trump administration has suspended a $3.6 billion FEMA disaster resilience program, cut the FEMA workforce and disrupted routine training.

    Other lawsuits also are complicating decision-making. A Manhattan federal judge last week ordered DHS and FEMA to restore $34 million in transit security grants it had withheld from New York City because of its immigration policies.

    Another judge in Rhode Island ordered DHS to permanently stop imposing grant conditions tied to immigration enforcement, after ruling in September that the conditions were unlawful — only to have DHS again try to impose them.

    Taken together, the turbulence surrounding what was once a reliable partner is prompting some states to prepare for a different relationship with FEMA.

    “Given all of the uncertainties,” said Sheets, of the National Emergency Management Association, states are trying to find ways to be “less reliant on federal funding.”

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  • 3 dead and others believed missing after flooding in rural Arizona community

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    GLOBE, Ariz. — Three people have died and others are believed missing after flooding in a rural community in Arizona, officials said Saturday.

    Carl Melford, the Gila County Division of Emergency Management manager, told KPHO-TV that two of the people who died were found in a vehicle and a third person was found elsewhere after flooding on Friday in Globe, a city of about 7,250 people about 88 miles (142 kilometers) east of Phoenix.

    “I grew up here, and I don’t recognize the town that I grew up in right now,” he said.

    Searchers looked for people missing all night, and more help arrived Saturday to continue the search, city officials said on Facebook. They urged people to stay away from the historic downtown of the former mining town because of compromised buildings and hazardous chemicals and debris, including propane tanks swept away in the floodwaters.

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  • New Hampshire police say multiple gunshot victims at country club. 1 suspect in custody

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    NASHUA, N.H. — A shooting at a country club left multiple gunshot victims, police in New Hampshire said Saturday night.

    Nashua police said video surveillance confirmed there was one shooter, and they are the person being detained by police. They said the scene is still an active investigation, but there is no further danger to the public.

    The shootings happened at Sky Meadow Country Club in Nashua.

    Information on the conditions of the victims was not immediately available.

    An aerial via of the scene from WMUR-TV showed multiple emergency responders heading to the scene. Nashua police said on the social platform X to “not respond to the area of Sky Meadow at this time.”

    U.S. Rep. Maggie Goodlander said in a statement that she was “closely monitoring the tragic reports of a shooting tonight at Sky Meadow Country Club in Nashua” and that her heart was with the victims, their families and the entire community.

    Nashua is about 45 miles (70 kilometers) northwest of Boston, just across the Massachusetts border.

    Dunstable, Massachusetts, which neighbors Nashua, issued a shelter-in-place order.

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  • AI simulation of a Mount Fuji eruption is being used to prepare Tokyo for the worst

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    TOKYO — Mount Fuji hasn’t erupted since 1707. But for Volcanic Disaster Preparedness Day, Japanese officials have released computer- and AI-generated videos showing a simulation of a potential violent eruption of the active volcano.

    The videos, released this week, are meant to prepare the 37 million residents in the greater Tokyo metropolitan area for potential disasters.

    The Tokyo Metropolitan Government’s video warns an eruption could strike “at any moment, without warning,” depicting volcanic ash shrouding central Tokyo, about 100 kilometers (60 miles) away, within hours, paralyzing transportation, disrupting food and power, and causing long-term respiratory problems.

    The video ends with the message: “We need to arm ourselves with facts and prepare for disaster in our daily lives.” It shows a family’s pantry stocked with canned food and a first-aid kit.

    The Tokyo government said in a statement that there are currently no signs of Fuji erupting. “The simulation is designed to equip residents with accurate knowledge and preparedness measures they can take in case of an emergency,” it explained.

    But the videos have caused anxiety and confusion among some residents.

    “Are there actually any signs of eruption?” said Shinichiro Kariya, a 57-year-old hospital employee. “Why are we now hearing things like ‘10 centimeters of ash could fall,’ even in Tokyo? I’m wondering why this is happening all of a sudden.”

    Hiromi Ooki, who lives in Mishima City, which has prime views of Fuji, said she planned to buy emergency supplies the next day. “Nature’s power is so great that maybe it’s better if it scares us a little,” she said.

    Representatives of both the Tokyo Metropolitan Government and Japan’s Cabinet Office Disaster Prevention Division said they had not received complaints from Tokyo residents about the videos.

    University of Tokyo professor and risk communication expert Naoya Sekiya said the government has for years modeled scenarios for volcanic eruptions and earthquakes, but added that does not mean Fuji is about to erupt.

    “There’s no particular significance to the timing,” Sekiya said.

    Japan is highly vulnerable to natural disasters because of its climate and topography and is known for its meticulous disaster planning which spans earthquakes, typhoons, floods, mudslides and volcanic eruptions.

    The Japan Meteorological Agency last August issued its first-ever “megaquake advisory” after a powerful quake struck off the southeastern coast of the southern main island of Kyushu.

    Of the world’s roughly 1,500 active volcanoes, 111 are in Japan, which lies on the Pacific “Ring of Fire.”

    Fuji, Japan’s tallest peak, used to erupt about every 30 years, but it has been dormant since the 18th century.

    ___

    Video journalist Ayaka McGill contributed to this report.

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  • Trump makes false claims about federal response as he campaigns in area ravaged by Hurricane Helene

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    VALDOSTA, Ga. (AP) — Donald Trump repeatedly spread falsehoods Monday about the federal response to Hurricane Helene despite claiming not to be politicizing the disaster as he toured hard-hit areas in south Georgia.

    The former president and Republican nominee claimed upon landing in Valdosta that President Joe Biden was “sleeping” and not responding to Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp, who he said was “calling the president and hasn’t been able to get him.” He repeated the claim at an event with reporters after being told Kemp said he had spoken to Biden.

    “He’s lying, and the governor told him he was lying,” Biden said Monday.

    The White House previously announced that Biden spoke by phone Sunday night with Kemp and North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper, as well as Scott Matheson, mayor of Valdosta, Georgia, and Florida Emergency Management Director John Louk. Kemp confirmed Monday morning that he spoke to Biden the night before.

    “The president just called me yesterday afternoon and I missed him and called him right back and he just said ‘Hey, what do you need?’ And I told him, you know, we’ve got what we need, we’ll work through the federal process,” Kemp said. “He offered if there are other things we need just to call him directly, which I appreciate that.”

    In addition to being humanitarian crises, natural disasters can create political tests for elected officials, particularly in the closing weeks of a presidential campaign in which among the hardest-hit states were North Carolina and Georgia, two battlegrounds. Trump over the last several days has used the damage wrought by Helene to attack Harris, the Democratic nominee, and suggest she and Biden are playing politics with the storm — something he was accused of doing when president.

    Biden is defiant about spending time at his beach house

    While the White House highlighted Biden’s call to Kemp and others, the president faced questions about his decision to spend the weekend at his beach house in Delaware, rather than the White House, to monitor the storm.

    “I was commanding it,” Biden told reporters after delivering remarks at the White House on the federal government’s response. “I was on the phone for at least two hours yesterday and the day before as well. I commanded it. It’s called a telephone.”

    AP Washington correspondent Sagar Meghani reports Donald Trump is touring Hurricane Helene’s damage in Georgia, while blasting the Biden administration’s response to the deadly storm.

    Biden received frequent updates on the storm, the White House said, as did Harris aboard Air Force Two as she made a West Coast campaign swing. The vice president cut short her campaign trip Monday to return to Washington for a briefing from the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

    Trump, writing on his social media platform Monday, also claimed without evidence that the federal government and North Carolina’s Democratic governor were “going out of their way to not help people in Republican areas.” Asheville, which was devastated by the storm, is solidly Democratic, as is much of Buncombe County, which surrounds it.

    The death toll from Helene has surpassed 100 people, with some of the worst damage caused by inland flooding in North Carolina.

    Biden said he will travel to North Carolina on Wednesday to get a first-hand look at the devastation, but will limit his footprint so as not to distract from the ongoing recovery efforts.

    During remarks Monday at FEMA headquarters, Harris said she has received regular briefings on the disaster response, including from FEMA Administrator Deanne Criswell, and has spoken with Kemp and Cooper in the last 24 hours.

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    “I have shared with them that we will do everything in our power to help communities respond and recover,” she said. “And I’ve shared with them that I plan to be on the ground as soon as possible without disrupting any emergency response operations.”

    When asked if her visit was politicizing the storm, she frowned and shook her head but did not reply.

    Trump partnered with a Christian charity to bring supplies

    The Trump campaign partnered with the Christian humanitarian aid organization Samaritan’s Purse to bring trucks of fuel, food, water and other critical supplies to Georgia, said Karoline Leavitt, the Trump campaign’s national press secretary.

    Leavitt did not immediately respond to questions about how much had been donated and from which entity. Samaritan’s Purse also declined to address the matter in a statement.

    Trump also launched a GoFundMe campaign for supporters to send financial aid to people impacted by the storm. It quickly passed its $1 million goal Monday night.

    “Our hearts are with you and we are going to be with you as long as you need it,” Trump said, flanked by a group of elected officials and Republican supporters.

    “We’re not talking about politics now,” Trump added.

    Trump said he wanted to stop in North Carolina but was holding off because access and communication is limited in hard-hit communities.

    When asked by The Associated Press on Monday if he was concerned that his visit to Georgia was taking away law enforcement resources that could be used for disaster response, Trump said, “No.” He said his campaign instead “brought many wagons of resources.”

    Katie Watson, who owns with her husband the home design store Trump visited, said she was told the former president picked that location because he saw shots of the business destroyed with the rubble and said, “Find that place and find those people.”

    “He didn’t come here for me. He came here to recognize that this town has been destroyed. It’s a big setback,” she said.

    “He recognizes that we are hurting and he wants us to know that,” she added. “It was a lifetime opportunity to meet the president. This is not exactly the way I wanted to do it.”

    Trump campaign officials have long pointed to his visit to East Palestine, Ohio, the site of a toxic trail derailment, as a turning point in the early days of the presidential race when he was struggling to establish his footing as a candidate. They believed his warm welcome by residents frustrated by the federal government’s response helped remind voters why they had been drawn to him years earlier.

    Trump fought with Puerto Rico and meteorologists while president

    During Trump’s term as president, he visited numerous disaster zones, including the aftermaths of hurricanes, tornadoes and shootings. But the trips sometimes elicited controversy such as when he tossed paper towels to cheering residents in Puerto Rico in 2017 in the wake of Hurricane Maria.

    It also took until weeks before the presidential election in 2020 for Trump’s administration to release $13 billion in assistance for the territory. A federal government watchdog found that officials hampered an investigation into delays in aid delivery.

    In another 2019 incident, Trump administration officials admonished some meteorologists for tweeting that Alabama was not threatened by Hurricane Dorian, contradicting the then-president. Trump would famously display a map altered with a black Sharpie pen to indicate Alabama could be in the path of the storm.

    ___

    Fernando reported from Chicago, and Amy reported from Atlanta. Associated Press writers Jill Colvin in New York, Chris Megerian and Aamer Madhani in Washington, and Will Weissert in Las Vegas contributed to this report.

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  • Harris calls out Trump for hurricane misinformation

    Harris calls out Trump for hurricane misinformation

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    GREENVILLE, N.C. — Kamala Harris used an appearance Sunday before a largely Black church audience in battleground North Carolina to call out Donald Trump for spreading misinformation about the government’s hurricane response. President Joe Biden visited Florida for the second time this month to survey storm damage.

    Harris, the Democratic presidential nominee, did not speak Trump’s name, but he is most prominent among those promoting false claims about the Biden administration’s response to Hurricanes Milton and Helene. Florida was in the path of both storms, with Helene also hitting North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia, while Milton headed for the open Atlantic.

    The vice president spoke at the Koinonia Christian Center about the “heroes” all around who are helping residents without regard to political affiliation.

    “Yet, church, there are some who are not acting in the spirit of community, and I am speaking of these who have been literally not telling the truth, lying about people who are working hard to help the folks in need, spreading disinformation when the truth and facts are required,” Harris said.

    “The problem with this, beyond the obvious, is it’s making it harder, then, to get people life-saving information if they’re led to believe they cannot trust,” she said. “And that’s the pain of it all, which is the idea that those who are in need have somehow been convinced that the forces are working against them in a way that they would not seek aid.”

    Harris said they are trying “to gain some advantage for themselves, to play politics with other people’s heart break, and it is unconscionable,” she said. “Now is not a time to incite fear. It is not right to make people feel alone.”

    “That is not what leaders, as we know, do in crisis,” she said.

    Trump made a series of false claims after Helene struck in late September, including saying that Washington was intentionally withholding aid from Republicans in need across the Southeast. The former president falsely claimed the Federal Emergency Management Agency had run out of money to help them because it was spent on programs to help immigrants who are in the United States illegally.

    He pressed that argument on Fox News’ “Sunday Morning Futures,” saying the White House response was “absolutely terrible” and repeating the claim about FEMA’s dollars. “It came out from there and everybody knew it,” Trump said in an interview that was taped Thursday and broadcast Sunday.

    Before Harris spoke in church, Biden was surveying hurricane damage on a helicopter flight between Tampa and St. Pete Beach on the Gulf Coast. From the air, he saw the torn-up roof of Tropicana Field, home of the Tampa Bay Rays baseball team. On the ground, the president saw waterlogged household furnishings piled up outside flooded homes. Some houses had collapsed.

    The president said he was thankful that Milton was not as bad as officials had anticipated, but that it still was a “cataclysmic” event for many people, including those who lost irreplaceable personal items. He also praised the first responders, some of whom had come from Canada.

    “It’s in moments like this we come together to take care of each other, not as Democrats or Republicans, but as Americans,” Biden said after he was briefed by federal, state and local officials, and met some residents and responders. “We are one United States, one United States.”

    Harris opened her second day in North Carolina by speaking at the Christian center in Greenville, part of her campaign’s “Souls to the Polls” effort to help turn out Black churchgoers before the Nov. 5 election.

    The vice president later spoke to roughly 7,000 supporters at a Sunday afternoon rally at East Carolina University’s arena, suggesting that Trump’s team has stopped him from releasing medical records or debating her again because they might be “afraid that people will see that he is too weak and unstable.”

    The North Carolina appearances mark the start of a week that will find Harris working to shore up support among Black voters, a key constituency for the Democratic Party. She is counting on Black turnout in competitive states such as North Carolina to help her defeat Trump, who has focused on energizing men of all races and has tried to make inroads with Black men in particular.

    On Tuesday, she will appear in Detroit for a live conversation with Charlamagne tha God, a prominent Black media personality.

    Black registered voters have overwhelmingly favorable views of Harris and negative views of Trump despite his attempts to appeal to nonwhite voters, according to a recent poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research. But the poll also shows that many Black voters aren’t sure whether Harris would improve the country overall or better their own lives.

    In Florida, which Biden had visited the Big Bend region on Oct. 3 after Helene struck, the president announced $612 million for six Department of Energy projects in hurricane-affected areas to bolster the region’s electric grid. The money includes $47 million for Gainesville Regional Utilities and $47 million for Switched Source to partner with Florida Power and Light.

    With a little more than three weeks before the election, the hurricanes have added another dimension to the closely contested presidential race.

    Trump has said the Biden administration’s storm response was lacking, particularly in western North Carolina after Helene. Biden and Harris have hammered Trump for promoting falsehoods about the federal response.

    Biden said Trump was “not singularly” to blame for the spread of misinformation but that he has the “biggest mouth.”

    “They blame me for everything. It’s OK,” Trump told Fox.

    Biden has pressed for Congress to act quickly to make sure the Small Business Administration and FEMA have the money they need to get through hurricane season, which ends Nov. 30 in the Atlantic. He said Friday that Milton alone had caused an estimated $50 billion in damages.

    Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, whose department oversees FEMA, said the hurricane season is far from over and there are other natural disasters for which the agency must ready.

    “We don’t know what’s coming tomorrow, whether it’s another hurricane, a tornado, a fire, an earthquake. We have to be ready. and it is not good government to be dependent on a day-to-day existence as opposed to appropriate planning,” Mayorkas said on CBS’ “Face the Nation.”

    House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., said there was plenty of time and that lawmakers would address the funding issue when Congress comes back into session after the Nov. 5 election.

    “We’ll provide the additional resources,” Johnson told CBS.

    Milton made landfall in Florida as a Category 3 storm on Wednesday evening. At least 10 people were killed and hundreds of thousands of residents remain without power. Officials say the toll could have been worse if not for widespread evacuations. ee.

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    By JOSH BOAK, AAMER MADHANI and DARLENE SUPERVILLE – Associated Press

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  • Biden will survey Hurricane Milton damage in Florida, Harris attends church in North Carolina

    Biden will survey Hurricane Milton damage in Florida, Harris attends church in North Carolina

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    WASHINGTON — WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden on Sunday will survey the devastation inflicted on Florida’s Gulf Coast by Hurricane Milton as he urges Congress to approve additional emergency disaster funding. Vice President Kamala Harris will spend a second day in North Carolina, hard-hit by Hurricane Helene, to attend a Black church and hold a campaign rally.

    Biden’s visit to Florida offers him another opportunity to press Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson to get lawmakers to provide more funding before the Nov. 5 election. Johnson has said the issue will be dealt with after the election.

    “I think Speaker Johnson is going to get the message that he’s got to step up, particularly for small businesses,” Biden told reporters as he and Harris met with aides on Friday to discuss the federal response to hurricanes Milton and Helene. Biden and Johnson have yet to discuss the matter directly.

    In Florida, Biden was set to announce $612 million for six Department of Energy projects in areas affected by the hurricanes to improve the resilience of the region’s electric grid, the White House said. The funding includes $94 million for two projects in Florida: $47 million for Gainesville Regional Utilities and $47 million for Switched Source to partner with Florida Power and Light.

    Harris, the Democratic presidential nominee, visited Raleigh on Saturday to meet with Black elected and religious leaders and help volunteers package personal care items for delivery to victims of Helene in the western part of the state.

    The vice president was spending Sunday in Greenville, with plans to speak during a church service as part of her campaign’s “Souls to the Polls” effort to help turn out Black churchgoers before Election Day. She was also scheduled to hold a rally to talk about her economic plans and highlight Thursday’s start of early voting in the state, her campaign said.

    Harris and her running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, will spend the coming week campaigning in the competitive states of Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin and North Carolina, according to a Harris campaign official who asked for anonymity to share details not yet made public.

    With less than four weeks to go before Election Day, the hurricanes have added another dimension to the closely contested presidential race.

    Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump has said the Biden administration’s storm response had been lacking, particularly in North Carolina after Hurricane Helene. And Biden and Harris have hammered Trump for promoting falsehoods about the federal response.

    Trump made a series of false claims after Helene struck in late September, including incorrectly saying that the federal government is intentionally withholding aid to Republican disaster victims. He also falsely claimed the Federal Emergency Management Agency had run out of money because all of it had gone to programs for immigrants in the country illegally.

    Biden said Trump was “not singularly” to blame for the spread of false claims in recent weeks but that he has the “biggest mouth.”

    The president is pressing for swift action by Congress to make sure the Small Business Administration and FEMA have the money they need to get through hurricane season, which ends Nov. 30 in the Atlantic. He said Friday that Milton alone had caused an estimated $50 billion in damages.

    Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said last week that FEMA will be able to meet “immediate needs” caused by the two storms. But he warned in the aftermath of Helene that the agency does not have enough funding to make it through the hurricane season.

    But Johnson has pushed back, saying the agencies have enough money for the time being and that lawmakers will address the funding issue during the lame-duck session after the election.

    Also percolating in the background are tensions between Harris and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis. As Helene barreled toward Florida last week, the Democratic vice president and Republican governor traded accusations that the other was trying to politicize the federal storm response.

    Harris’ office last week suggested that DeSantis was dodging her phone calls. DeSantis responded that he was unaware she had called and grumbled that she hadn’t been involved in the federal government’s response before she became the Democratic presidential nominee.

    Biden, for his part, said he hoped to see DeSantis on Sunday, if the governor’s schedule permitted.

    “He’s been very cooperative,” Biden said about DeSantis. He added, “We got on very, very well.”

    DeSantis said Saturday that he had no details about the president’s visit.

    Biden was scheduled to survey damage during an aerial tour between Tampa and St. Pete Beach, where he will be briefed on the storm by federal, state and local officials. He’ll also meet residents and first responders.

    Hurricane Milton made landfall in Florida as a Category 3 storm on Wednesday evening. At least 10 people were killed and hundreds of thousands of residents remain without power.

    Officials say the toll could have been worse if not for widespread evacuations. The still-fresh devastation wrought by Helene just two weeks earlier probably helped compel many people to flee.

    ___

    Boak reported from Raleigh, North Carolina.

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  • Voters in North Carolina and Georgia have bigger problems than politics. Helene changed everything

    Voters in North Carolina and Georgia have bigger problems than politics. Helene changed everything

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    VILAS, N.C. (AP) — Brad Farrington pulls over to grab a case of water bottles being passed out in Vilas, a small rural community tucked away in the Blue Ridge Mountains. He’s on his way to help a friend who lost much of what he owned when Hurricane Helene blew through last weekend.

    His friend, like countless others across western North Carolina, is starting over, which explains why Farrington isn’t thinking too much about politics or the White House race between Republican Donald Trump and Democrat Kamala Harris right now.

    “I don’t believe people’s hope is in either people that are being elected,” he said.

    Farrington pauses, then gestures toward a dozen volunteers loading water and other necessities into cars and trucks.

    “I believe we’re finding a lot more hope within folks like this,” he said.

    In the election’s final weeks, people in North Carolina and Georgia, influential swing states, are dealing with more immediate concerns: widespread storm damage. If that weren’t enough, voters in Watauga County, a ticket-splitting Appalachian county that has become more Democratic in recent years, must contend with politicians laying blame while offering support as they campaign in a race that could be decided by any small shift.

    Large uprooted trees litter the sides of roads, sometimes blocking driveways. Some homes in Vilas are inaccessible after bridges collapsed and roads crumbled. More populous areas like Boone, home of Appalachian State University, saw major flooding.

    Residents wonder where are missing friends and relatives, is there enough food and water to last until new supplies arrive and how will they rebuild.

    The focus is on survival, not politics — and may remain that way for weeks.

    Politicians travel to affected battleground states

    Trump and Harris have visited North Carolina and Georgia five times since the storm hit. Trump was in North Carolina on Friday, and Harris was there the next day.

    After Trump went to Valdosta, Georgia, on Monday, 20-year-old Fermin Herrera said the former president clinched his vote with his display of caring, not out of any frustration with how President Joe Biden and Harris, the vice president, are handling the federal disaster response. Herrera already leaned toward voting for Trump.

    “I feel like everybody’s kind doing what they can,” he said. “All the locals are appreciating the help that’s coming.”

    Trump, who has his own mixed record on natural disaster response, attacked Biden and Harris for what he said was a slow response to Helene’s destruction. Trump accused the Democrats of “going out of their way to not help people in Republican areas” and said there wasn’t enough Federal Emergency Management Agency money because it was spent on illegal immigrants. There is no evidence to support either claim.

    “I’m not thinking about voters right now,” Trump insisted after a meeting with Gov. Brian Kemp, R-Ga., on Friday. “I’m thinking about lives.”

    Biden pushed back hard, saying he is “committed to being president for all of America” and has not ordered aid to be distributed based on party lines. The White House cited statements from the Republican governors of Georgia, South Carolina and Tennessee expressing satisfaction with the federal government’s response.

    FEMA’s head, Deanne Criswell, told ABC’s “This Week” that this “truly dangerous narrative” of falsehoods is “demoralizing” to first responders and creating “fear in our own employees.”

    What to know about the 2024 Election

    Criticism of aid efforts so soon after a natural disaster is “inappropriate,” especially when factoring in the daunting logistical problems in western North Carolina, said Gavin Smith, a North Carolina State University professor who specializes in disaster recovery. He said the perilous terrain from compromised roads and bridges and the widespread lack of power and cellphone service make disaster response in the region particularly challenging.

    Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper has made several stops in western North Carolina, including Watauga County and surrounding areas, and Biden viewed the extensive damage via an aerial tour.

    A focus on recovering and rebuilding

    In Watauga County, Jessica Dixon was scraping muck and broken furniture off the ground with a shovel, then dumping it in the bucket of a humming excavator. The 29-year-old stood in a home she bought two years ago. It’s now gutted after a rush of water forced Dixon, her boyfriend and their two dogs to flee to safety.

    Without flood insurance, Dixon is not sure what will happen over the next month. She said she filled out a FEMA application but hasn’t checked her email since. She had given the presidential election some thought before Helene, but now she’s preoccupied with cleaning her home.

    “It wouldn’t change my views on anything,” said Dixon, who was planning to vote for Harris.

    The presidential election isn’t top of mind for 47-year-old Bobby Cordell, either. He’s trying to get help to neighbors in western Watauga County, which has become inaccessible in some parts.

    His home near Beech Mountain is one of those places, he said, after a bridge washed away. Cordell rescued his aunt from a mudslide, then traveled to Boone and has been staying in Appalachian State’s Holmes Convocation Center, which now serves as a Red Cross emergency shelter.

    He’s trying to send disaster relief back where he lives by contacting officials, including from FEMA. That conversation, he said, “went very well.”

    Accepting help isn’t easy for people in the mountains, he said, because they’re used to taking care of themselves.

    Now, though, the people who are trapped “need everything they can get.”

    Helping neighbors becomes more important in Helene’s aftermath

    Over the past week of volunteering at Skateworld, where Farrington stopped for water, it’s become harder for Nancy Crawford to smile. She’s helped serve more than 1,000 people, she said, but the emotional toll has started to settle in for “a lot of us that normally are tough.”

    That burden added to the weight she was already feeling about the election, which she said was “scary to begin with.” Crawford, a registered Republican, said she plans to vote for Harris. As a Latina of Mexican descent, she thinks Trump’s immigration policies would have harmful effects on her community.

    The storm, she said, likely won’t change her vote but has made one thing evident.

    “It doesn’t matter what party you are, we all need help,” she said.

    Jan Wellborn had a similar thought as she made her way around the Watauga High School gym collecting supplies to bring to coworkers in need. A 69-year-old bus driver for the school district, she said the outpouring of support she’s seen from the community has been a “godsend.”

    She takes solace from the county’s ability to pull together. The election matters, she said, but helping people make their way through a harrowing time matters more.

    “The election, it should be important,” Wellborn said. “But right now we need to focus on getting everybody in the county taken care of.”

    ——

    Associated Press writer Russ Bynum in Savannah, Georgia, contributed to this report.

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  • A Tennessee nurse and his dog died trying to save a man from floods driven by Hurricane Helene

    A Tennessee nurse and his dog died trying to save a man from floods driven by Hurricane Helene

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    As the Hurricane Helene-driven waters rose around the Nolichucky River in Tennessee, Boone McCrary, his girlfriend and his chocolate lab headed out on his fishing boat to search for a man who was stranded by floodwaters that had leveled his home. But the thick debris in the water jammed the boat’s motor, and without power, it slammed into a bridge support and capsized.

    McCrary and his dog Moss never made it out of the water alive.

    Search teams found McCrary’s boat and his dog’s body two days later, but it took four days to find McCrary, an emergency room nurse whose passion was being on his boat in that river. His girlfriend, Santana Ray, held onto a branch for hours before rescuers reached her.

    David Boutin, the man McCrary had set out to rescue, was distraught when he later learned McCrary had died trying to save him.

    “I’ve never had anyone risk their life for me,” Boutin told The Associated Press. “From what I hear that was the way he always been. He’s my guardian angel, that’s for sure.”

    The 46-year-old recalled how the force of the water swept him out his front door and ripped his dog Buddy — “My best friend, all I have” — from his arms. Boutin was rescued by another team after clinging to tree branches in the raging river for six hours. Buddy is still missing, and Boutin knows he couldn’t have survived.

    McCrary was one of 215 people killed by Hurricane Helene’s raging waters and falling trees across six states — Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee and Virginia — and was among a group of first responders who perished while trying to save others. The hurricane caused significant damage in nearby Unicoi County, where flooding swept away 11 workers at an plastics factory and forced a rescue mission at an Erwin, Tennessee, hospital.

    McCrary, an avid hunter and fisherman, spent his time cruising the waterways that snake around Greeneville, Tennessee. When the hurricane hit, the 32-year-old asked friends on Facebook if anyone needed help, said his sister, Laura Harville. That was how he learned about Boutin.

    McCrary, his girlfriend and Moss the dog launched into a flooded neighborhood at about 7 p.m. on Sept. 27 and approached Boutin’s location, but the debris-littered floodwaters clogged the boat’s jet motor. Despite pushing and pulling the throttle, McCrary couldn’t clear the junk and slammed into the bridge about two hours into the rescue attempt.

    “I got the first phone call at 8:56 p.m. and I was a nervous wreck,” Harville said. She headed to the bridge and started walking the banks.

    Harville organized hundreds of volunteers who used drones, thermal cameras, binoculars and hunting dogs to scour the muddy banks, fending off copperhead snakes, trudging through knee-high muck and fighting through tangled branches. Harville collected items that carried McCrary’s scent — a pillowcase, sock and insoles from his nursing shoes — and stuffed them into mason jars for the canines to sniff.

    On Sunday, a drone operator spotted the boat. They found Moss dead nearby, but there was no sign of McCrary.

    Searchers had no luck on Monday, “but on Tuesday they noticed vultures flying,” Harville said. That was how they found McCrary’s body, about 21 river miles (33 kilometers) from the bridge where the boat capsized, she said.

    The force of the floodwaters carried McCrary under two other bridges, under the highway and over the Nolichucky Dam, she said. The Tennessee Valley Authority said about 1.3 million gallons (4.9 million liters) of water per second was flowing over the dam on the night McCrary was swept away, more than double the flow rate of the dam’s last regulated release nearly a half-century ago.

    Boutin, 46, isn’t sure where he will go next. He is staying with his son for a few days and then hopes to get a hotel voucher.

    He didn’t learn about McCrary’s fate until the day after he was rescued.

    “When the news hit, I didn’t know how to take it,” Boutin told the AP. “I wish I could thank him for giving his life for me.”

    Dozens of McCrary’s coworkers at Greenville Community Hospital have posted tributes to him, recalling his kindness and compassion and desire to help others. He “was adamant about living life to the fullest and making sure along the way that you didn’t forget your fellow man or woman and that you helped each other,” Harville said.

    McCrary’s last TikTok video posted before the hurricane shows him speeding along the surface of rushing muddy water to the tune, “Wanted Dead or Alive.” He wrote a message along the bottom that read:

    “Some people have asked if I had a ‘death wish.’ The truth is that I have a ‘life wish.’ I have a need for feeling the life running through my veins. One thing about me, I may be ‘crazy,’ Perhaps a little reckless at times, but when the time comes to put me in the ground, you can say I lived it all the way.”

    ___

    Bellisle reported from Seattle.

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  • Today in History: September 29, Willie Mays makes “The Catch”

    Today in History: September 29, Willie Mays makes “The Catch”

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    Today is Sunday, Sept. 29, the 273rd day of 2024. There are 93 days left in the year.

    Today in history:

    On Sept. 29, 1954, Willie Mays of the New York Giants made a running, over-the-shoulder catch of a ball hit by Vic Wirtz of the Cleveland Indians in Game 1 of the 1954 World Series; “The Catch” would become one of the most famous plays in baseball history.

    Also on this date:

    In 1789, Congress officially established a regular army under the U.S. Constitution.

    In 1938, British, French, German and Italian leaders concluded the Munich Agreement, which was aimed at appeasing Adolf Hitler by allowing Nazi annexation of Czechoslovakia’s Sudetenland.

    In 1965, President Lyndon Johnson signed an act creating the National Endowment for the Humanities and the National Endowment for the Arts.

    In 1982, Extra-Strength Tylenol capsules laced with deadly cyanide claimed the first of seven victims in the Chicago area; the case, which led to legislation and packaging improvements to deter product tampering, remains unsolved.

    In 1990, the construction of Washington National Cathedral concluded, 83 years to the day after its foundation stone was laid in a ceremony attended by President Theodore Roosevelt.

    In 2005, John G. Roberts Jr. was sworn in as the nation’s 17th chief justice after winning Senate confirmation.

    In 2017, Tom Price resigned as President Donald Trump’s secretary of Health and Human Services amid investigations into his use of costly charter flights for official travel at taxpayer expense.

    In 2018, Tesla and its CEO, Elon Musk, agreed to pay a total of $40 million to settle a government lawsuit alleging that Musk had duped investors with misleading statements about a proposed buyout of the company.

    In 2021, a judge in Los Angeles suspended Britney Spears’ father from the conservatorship that had controlled her life and money for 13 years, saying the arrangement reflected a “toxic environment.”

    In 2022, rescue crews piloted boats and waded through flooded streets to save thousands of Floridians trapped after Hurricane Ian destroyed homes and businesses and left millions in the dark.

    Today’s Birthdays: Writer-director Robert Benton is 92. NASA administrator and former Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Fla., actor Ian McShane and jazz musician Jean-Luc Ponty are 82. Nobel Peace Prize laureate Lech Walesa is 81. TV journalist and sportscaster Bryant Gumbel is 76. Olympic gold medal runner Sebastian Coe is 68. Rock musician Les Claypool is 61. Actors Zachary Levi and Chrissy Metz (TV: “This Is Us”) are 44. Actor Kelly McCreary (TV: “Grey’s Anatomy”) is 43. Football Hall of Famer Calvin Johnson is 39. NBA All-Star Kevin Durant is 36. Pop singer Halsey is 30.

    Copyright 2024 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.

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    By The Associated Press

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  • Strong storm flips over RVs in Oklahoma and leaves 1 person dead

    Strong storm flips over RVs in Oklahoma and leaves 1 person dead

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    PAWNEE, Okla. — A strong storm moved through part of Oklahoma, flipping over several camping vehicles and downing trees and power lines, authorities said. One death was reported.

    Early Friday, the city of Pawnee asked residents to move about the area carefully and said there were several areas still without power.

    “Crews have worked through the night and are still out,” according to the city.

    The city earlier said damage around the town from the Thursday night storm was significant, with several roads closed. The National Weather Service office in Tulsa received wind gust reports of up to 72 mph (116 kph) and hail the size of golf balls.

    One person died in an RV that flipped, said Pawnee County Sheriff Darrin Varnell. He said others were damaged and people “essentially lost just about everything they own in a matter of seconds.”

    “Right now, we’re not sure whether it was straight-line wind damage or tornado,” meteorologist Mark Plate in the Tulsa office said Friday morning. “We’ll have to send out survey teams today to survey the damage.”

    Pawnee Public Schools were closed Friday due to storm damage. Homecoming activities Thursday night were canceled because of the weather.

    Pawnee, which has about 1,900 people, is in northeast Oklahoma, about 60 miles (97 kilometers) west of Tulsa.

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  • Child trapped between boulders for 9 hours rescued by firefighters in New Hampshire

    Child trapped between boulders for 9 hours rescued by firefighters in New Hampshire

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    CONCORD, N.H. — Rescuers freed an 11-year-old boy who slipped between two boulders near his school and was trapped for more than nine hours, a New Hampshire fire chief said Monday.

    The boy was pried out of the boulders in Windsor at about 3:15 a.m. He was taken to a hospital for evaluation and released, according to the Wediko School, where the boy is a student.

    “On Sunday evening, while under supervision, a student exploring a rocky area on campus slipped between two boulders when sticks and debris gave way beneath them,” the school, a residential treatment center for boys, said in a statement Monday.

    “Despite multiple staff members’ efforts to free the student, they were unsuccessful and promptly called local emergency rescue services,” the statement said. “Emergency responders worked tirelessly through the night, successfully rescuing the student in the early morning.”

    Firefighters got a call to respond shortly before 6 p.m. Sunday, where they found the boy “lodged between the crevasse” in a large boulder, Hillsborough Fire Chief Kenny Stafford said. They used ropes and a lubricant to rescue the child, he said.

    First responders from at least five other communities, as well as the state police and Fish and Game Department, assisted with the rescue in Windsor, in southern New Hampshire.

    Manchester Fire Battalion Chief Jon Fosher said crews at the location reached out to the department in part because Manchester had a heavy rescue truck with a four-person crew.

    He said trying to move the giant boulders to try to free the child wasn’t an option. Rescuers had initially attempted to break away some of the stone, but the child was still stuck, he said.

    “We basically had to tunnel underneath the boulder to get access to the child’s feet which allowed us something to push on from the bottom,” he said.

    Rescuers also used dish soap and applied friction-reducing sheets to the boy’s knees and back to help them lift him up and out.

    Fosher credited teamwork from all those working to free the boy for the success.

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  • Major power outage hits Venezuela’s capital, with government blaming ‘sabotage’

    Major power outage hits Venezuela’s capital, with government blaming ‘sabotage’

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    CARACAS, Venezuela — Venezuelans awoke Friday to a major power outage in the capital, Caracas, and several states.

    President Nicolas Maduro’s government blamed the outage, which it said began about 4:50 a.m., on “electrical sabotage.”

    Freddy Nanez, the communications minister, said officials were working to restore power. “Nobody will take away our peace and tranquility of the Venezuelan people,” he wrote in a message shared with journalists on Telegram.

    Nanez said in a voice message on Telegram that all 24 of Venezuela’s states had been at least partially impacted. He characterized the outage as a “desperate” attempt by Maduro’s opponents to violently oust the president.

    “The entire national government has been activated to overcome this new aggression,” he said.

    Venezuela in 2019, during a period of political unrest, suffered from regular power outages that the government almost always blamed on its opponents, but that energy experts said were the result of brush fires damaging transmission lines and poor maintenance of the country’s hydroelectric infrastructure.

    Many of the energy problems have subsided as the South American nation’s economy has stabilized, high inflation has eased and a de facto dollarization has reduced shortages of imported goods.

    Still, following last month’s contested presidential election, officials are quick to blame opponents for even minor disruptions. That was the case on Tuesday, when a brownout affected Caracas and several central states.

    “This is a constant strategy of the opposition, the enemies of this country, to impact the population,” Diosdado Cabello, the newly appointed interior minister who is believed to be the second most powerful man in the country, said after the earlier outage.

    Residents of the capital were taking Friday’s disruption in stride. Traffic during the normally busy rush hour was lighter than usual and some people complained about being unable to communicate with family members due to a lack of cellphone service.

    Alejandra Martinez, a 25-year-old salesclerk, said she noticed the power went out when a fan stopped working. “I thought the power would come back and I went back to sleep,” she said while trying to catch a bus to work as dawn broke over Caracas. “But when I woke up, I realized it was an outage.”

    Venezuela’s power grid relies heavily on the Guri Dam, a giant hydroelectric power station that was inaugurated in the late 1960s. The electrical system has been burdened by poor upkeep, a lack of alternative energy supplies and a drain of engineering talent as an estimated 8 million Venezuelan migrants have fled economic misery in recent years,

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  • Hurricane Ernesto makes landfall on Bermuda as a Category 1 storm

    Hurricane Ernesto makes landfall on Bermuda as a Category 1 storm

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    MEXICO CITY — Hurricane Ernesto which made landfall on the tiny British Atlantic territory of Bermuda early Saturday was downgraded to a tropical storm by afternoon, according to the National Hurricane Center.

    The storm brought heavy rain and strong winds forcing residents to stay indoors and keeping more than 26,000 without power, officials said.

    Earlier, the U.S. National Hurricane Center warned of strong winds, a dangerous storm surge and significant coastal flooding.

    It said some 6 to 9 inches (150-225 millimeters) of rain was expected to fall on Bermuda. “This rainfall will likely result in considerable life-threatening flash flooding, especially in low-lying areas on the island,” the center said.

    Due to the large size of the storm and its slow movement, tropical storm force winds and gusts to hurricane force are expected to continue through Saturday afternoon, with tropical storm-strength winds continuing well into Sunday, the Bermuda government said. Ernesto is moving toward the north-northeast at around 7 mph (11 kph).

    The Bermuda Weather Service confirmed the passage of the eye was from 5:30 am to 8:30 am local time in Bermuda. The eye expanded as it crossed Bermuda and they had lighter than expected winds.

    The Minister said that the Emergency Measures Organisation (EMO) is receiving damage assessments as reports from overnight come into the Operations Group. They have not received any reports of any major damages yet.

    The NHC reported life-threatening surf and rip currents on the east coast of the United States and said they would reach Canada during the day. The center of Ernesto will slowly move away from Bermuda Saturday and pass near southeastern Newfoundland late Monday and Monday night, said the center.

    Lana Morris, manager of Edgehill Manor Guest House in Bermuda said that conditions are calm, though the wind has started to pick up again.

    “I spoke to my guests, they told me they still have electricity, they have running water, and are comfortable.”

    Morris said she has been communicating with her guests via phone.

    “They do not have internet — but if the network is down, it’s down. They are safe and I’m happy with that.”

    Bermuda is an archipelago of 181 tiny islands whose total land mass is roughly the size of Manhattan.

    According to AccuWeather, it’s uncommon for the eye of a hurricane to make landfall in Bermuda. It noted that, before today, since 1850 only 11 of 130 tropical storms that came within 100 miles (160 kilometers) of Bermuda had landfall.

    The island is a renowned offshore financial center with sturdy construction, and given its elevation, storm surge is not as problematic as it is with low-lying islands.

    Ernesto previously battered the northeast Caribbean, where it left tens of thousands of people without water in Puerto Rico as the National Weather Service issued yet another severe heat advisory, warning of “dangerously hot and humid conditions.”

    LUMA, Puerto Rico’s national power company said they have restored more than 1.3 million customers’ electricity 72 hours after the passage of Ernesto. Hundreds of thousands of others were without water, as the National Weather Service issued yet another severe heat advisory, warning of “dangerously hot and humid conditions.”

    “It’s not easy,” said Andrés Cabrera, 60, who lives in the north coastal city of Carolina and has no water or power.

    Like many on the island, he could not afford a generator or solar panels. Cabrera said he was relying for relief only “on the wind that comes in from the street.”

    Officials said they hoped to restore power to 90% of nearly 1.5 million customers in Puerto Rico by Sunday, but have not said when they expect power to be fully restored.

    After a process of cleaning up and removing debris, The Virgin Islands Department of Education (VIDE) said that all public schools will resume operations on Monday.

    Classes in Puerto Rico public schools also were scheduled to start Monday, nearly a week after their original date.

    Ernesto is the fifth named storm and the third hurricane of this year’s Atlantic hurricane season.

    The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has predicted an above-average Atlantic hurricane season this year because of record warm ocean temperatures. It forecast 17 to 25 named storms, with four to seven major hurricanes.

    ——

    This story has been corrected to give the conversion of rainfall as millimeters instead of centimeters.

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  • Ernesto becomes a hurricane after pummeling northeast Caribbean and knocking out power in the region

    Ernesto becomes a hurricane after pummeling northeast Caribbean and knocking out power in the region

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    SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico — Ernesto strengthened into a hurricane on Wednesday as it dropped torrential rain on Puerto Rico and left nearly half of all clients in the U.S. territory without power as it threatened to strengthen into a major storm en route to Bermuda.

    The storm was located about 175 miles (280 kilometers) northwest of San Juan, Puerto Rico and was moving over open waters. It had maximum sustained winds of 75 mph (120 kph) and was moving northwest at 16 mph (26 kph).

    “The official forecast still reflects the possibility of Ernesto becoming a major hurricane in about 48 hours,” the National Hurricane Center said late Wednesday morning.

    A tropical storm warning was in effect for Puerto Rico and its outlying islands of Vieques and Culebra and for the U.S. and British Virgin Islands.

    “I know it was a long night listening to that wind howl,” U.S. Virgin Islands Gov. Albert Bryan Jr. said in a news conference.

    An island-wide blackout was reported in St. John and St. Croix, and at least six cell phone towers were knocked offline across the U.S. territory, said Daryl Jaschen, emergency management director.

    He added that the airports in St. Croix and St. Thomas were expected to reopen at midday.

    Schools and government agencies, however, remained closed in the U.S. Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico, where heavy flooding was reported in several areas, forcing officials to block roads, some of which were strewn with trees. Nearly 100 flights also were canceled to and from Puerto Rico.

    “A lot of rain, a lot of rain,” Culebra Mayor Edilberto Romero said in a phone interview. “We have trees that have fallen on public roads. There are some roofs that are blown off.”

    Ernesto is forecast to move through open waters for the rest of the week and make its closest approach to Bermuda on Friday and Saturday. It is expected to become a major Category 3 storm in the upcoming days and then weaken slightly to a Category 2 as it nears Bermuda.

    “Residents need to prepare now before conditions worsen,” said Bermuda’s National Security Minister Michael Weeks. “Now is not the time for complacency.”

    Forecasters also warned of heavy swells along the U.S. East Coast.

    “That means that anybody who goes to the beach, even if the weather is beautiful and nice, it could be dangerous … with those rip currents,” said Robbie Berg, warning coordination meteorologist with the National Hurricane Center.

    Between 4 to 6 inches of rain is expected in the U.S. and British Virgin Islands and between 6 to 8 inches in Puerto Rico, with up to 10 inches in isolated areas.

    The government of the U.S. Virgin Islands reported an island-wide blackout in St. Croix, while in Puerto Rico, more than half a million customers were without power.

    Late on Tuesday, the U.S. Federal Emergency Management Agency had warned people in both U.S. territories to prepare for “extended power outages.”

    Luma Energy, the company that operates transmission and distribution of power in Puerto Rico, said early Wednesday that its priority was to restore power to hospitals, the island’s water and sewer company and other essential services.

    Puerto Rico’s power grid was razed by Hurricane Maria in September 2017 as a Category 4 storm, and it remains frail as crews continue to rebuild the system.

    Not everyone can afford generators on the island of 3.2 million people with a more than 40% poverty rate.

    “People already prepared themselves with candles,” said Lucía Rodríguez, a 31-year-old street vendor.

    Puerto Rico Gov. Pedro Pierluisi announced late Tuesday that U.S. President Joe Biden had approved his request to use emergency FEMA funds as a result of the tropical storm.

    Ernesto is the fifth named storm of this year’s Atlantic hurricane season.

    The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has predicted an above-average Atlantic hurricane season this year because of record warm ocean temperatures. It forecast 17 to 25 named storms, with four to seven major hurricanes of Category 3 or higher.

    ___

    Associated Press journalist Julie Walker in New York contributed.

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  • A balloon, a brief flicker of power, then disruption of water service for thousands in New Orleans

    A balloon, a brief flicker of power, then disruption of water service for thousands in New Orleans

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    NEW ORLEANS (AP) — A small balloon striking a utility line near a New Orleans drinking water plant caused only a brief power outage but was followed by a drop in water pressure, a serious injury to a worker trying to restart water pumps, and a boil water advisory for most of the city that is expected to last until Thursday afternoon.

    The outage Tuesday night and the unusual circumstances that followed pointed to both the vulnerability of New Orleans’ infrastructure — including the system that provides drinking water and street drainage — and the recurring problem of Mylar balloons striking power lines.

    Entergy New Orleans, which provides electricity in the city, said in a statement that a Mylar balloon caused a “flicker” of low voltage Tuesday night at the water treatment plant that serves most of New Orleans. But it caused four pumps at the station to trip off, according to the executive director of the city’s Sewerage and Water Board.

    Water flowing from huge tanks at the plant provided pressure for a time, Ghassan Korban, told reporters at a news conference Wednesday afternoon. And under normal circumstances, the pumps would have been restored to service in plenty of time to avoid a pressure drop.

    But one of the Sewerage and Water Board employees tasked with restoring the pumps suffered an unspecified, “significant” injury, Korban said. He gave no details, but said fellow employees had to tend to their injured coworker while summoning medical help. That led to a delay in restoring the pumps, and a drop in water pressure.

    Low pressure can result in bacteria entering the water system, officials said. So, as a precaution, water system customers are advised to boil water before consuming or cooking with it until tests can be completed. The advisory covered most of the city, which has a population of nearly 370,000.

    Korban said completion of the tanks at the water plant has helped alleviate the need for frequent boil water advisories that plagued the city several years ago. And he said his agency is working on a power complex for the city’s street drainage system to reduce the dependence on the Entergy system, and is seeking funding to tie that complex into the drinking water system.

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  • Texas Gov. Greg Abbott demands answers as customers remain without power after Beryl

    Texas Gov. Greg Abbott demands answers as customers remain without power after Beryl

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    DALLAS — With around 350,000 homes and businesses still without power in the Houston area almost a week after Hurricane Beryl hit Texas, Gov. Greg Abbott on Sunday said he’s demanding an investigation into the response of the utility that serves the area as well as answers about its preparations for upcoming storms.

    “Power companies along the Gulf Coast must be prepared to deal with hurricanes, to state the obvious,” Abbott said at his first news conference about Beryl since returning to the state from an economic development trip to Asia.

    While CenterPoint Energy has restored power to about 1.9 million customers since the storm hit on July 8, the slow pace of recovery has put the utility, which provides electricity to the nation’s fourth-largest city, under mounting scrutiny over whether it was sufficiently prepared for the storm that left people without air conditioning in the searing summer heat.

    Abbott said he was sending a letter to the Public Utility Commission of Texas requiring it to investigate why restoration has taken so long and what must be done to fix it. In the Houston area, Beryl toppled transmission lines, uprooted trees and snapped branches that crashed into power lines.

    With months of hurricane season left, Abbott said he’s giving CenterPoint until the end of the month to specify what it’ll be doing to reduce or eliminate power outages in the event of another storm. He said that will include the company providing detailed plans to remove vegetation that still threatens power lines.

    Abbott also said that CenterPoint didn’t have “an adequate number of workers pre-staged” before the storm hit.

    CenterPoint, which didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment following the governor’s news conference, said in a Sunday news release that it expected power to be restored to 90% of its customers by the end of the day on Monday.

    The utility has defended its preparation for the storm and said that it has brought in about 12,000 additional workers from outside Houston. It has said it would have been unsafe to preposition those workers inside the predicted storm impact area before Beryl made landfall.

    Brad Tutunjian, vice president for regulatory policy for CenterPoint Energy, said last week that the extensive damage to trees and power poles hampered the ability to restore power quickly.

    A post Sunday on CenterPoint’s website from its president and CEO, Jason Wells, said that over 2,100 utility poles were damaged during the storm and over 18,600 trees had to be removed from power lines, which impacted over 75% of the utility’s distribution circuits.

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  • Texas Gov. Greg Abbott demands answers as customers remain without power after Beryl

    Texas Gov. Greg Abbott demands answers as customers remain without power after Beryl

    [ad_1]

    DALLAS — With around 350,000 homes and businesses still without power in the Houston area almost a week after Hurricane Beryl hit Texas, Gov. Greg Abbott on Sunday said he’s demanding an investigation into the response of the utility that serves the area as well as answers about its preparations for upcoming storms.

    “Power companies along the Gulf Coast must be prepared to deal with hurricanes, to state the obvious,” Abbott said at his first news conference about Beryl since returning to the state from an economic development trip to Asia.

    While CenterPoint Energy has restored power to about 1.9 million customers since the storm hit on July 8, the slow pace of recovery has put the utility, which provides electricity to the nation’s fourth-largest city, under mounting scrutiny over whether it was sufficiently prepared for the storm that left people without air conditioning in the searing summer heat.

    Abbott said he was sending a letter to the Public Utility Commission of Texas requiring it to investigate why restoration has taken so long and what must be done to fix it. In the Houston area, Beryl toppled transmission lines, uprooted trees and snapped branches that crashed into power lines.

    With months of hurricane season left, Abbott said he’s giving CenterPoint until the end of the month to specify what it’ll be doing to reduce or eliminate power outages in the event of another storm. He said that will include the company providing detailed plans to remove vegetation that still threatens power lines.

    Abbott also said that CenterPoint didn’t have “an adequate number of workers pre-staged” before the storm hit.

    CenterPoint, which didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment following the governor’s news conference, said in a Sunday news release that it expected power to be restored to 90% of its customers by the end of the day on Monday.

    The utility has defended its preparation for the storm and said that it has brought in about 12,000 additional workers from outside Houston. It has said it would have been unsafe to preposition those workers inside the predicted storm impact area before Beryl made landfall.

    Brad Tutunjian, vice president for regulatory policy for CenterPoint Energy, said last week that the extensive damage to trees and power poles hampered the ability to restore power quickly.

    A post Sunday on CenterPoint’s website from its president and CEO, Jason Wells, said that over 2,100 utility poles were damaged during the storm and over 18,600 trees had to be removed from power lines, which impacted over 75% of the utility’s distribution circuits.

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