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Tag: Hurricanes and typhoons

  • 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.

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    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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  • What to know about Biltmore Estate reopening after Hurricane Helene

    What to know about Biltmore Estate reopening after Hurricane Helene

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    North Carolina’s Biltmore Estate will soon reopen after being forced to close when floodwaters pushed by Hurricane Helene devastated the area.

    The popular tourist destination announced over the weekend that they plan to open and “celebrate the joy of the holiday season” on Nov. 2.

    “For more than 125 years, Biltmore has been a witness to the resilience of this community,” the Asheville-based estate posted in a statement. “The compassion and resolve of our region have been rising every day from beneath the weight of this storm.”

    Here are a few things to know:

    Why did Biltmore close?

    On Sept. 27, the remnants of Hurricane Helene destroyed large swaths of the Southeast as flooding overwhelmed communities, swiped out roads and knocked out power for thousands. North Carolina’s largest mountain city was left largely isolated as many of the main routes into Asheville were washed away or blocked by mudslides.

    Officials have warned that rebuilding after Helene will be lengthy and difficult. Helene first roared ashore in northern Florida on Sept. 26 as a Category 4 hurricane and quickly moved through Georgia, the Carolinas and Tennessee. The storm upended life throughout the Southeast, where to date nearly 250 deaths have been reported in Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina and Virginia.

    Western North Carolina was hit especially hard because that’s where the remnants of Helene encountered the higher elevations and cooler air of the Appalachian Mountains, causing even more rain to fall. Asheville and many surrounding mountain towns were built in valleys, leaving them especially vulnerable to devastating rain and flooding.

    It was the deadliest hurricane to hit the U.S. mainland since Katrina in 2005.

    What damage did Biltmore experience?

    According to the Biltmore Estate, the 8,000-acre property was impacted very little by Hurricane Helene. Along with the Biltmore House, the estate includes a conservatory, winery, gardens and overnight properties, which received varying degrees of minimal or no damage.

    Instead, some of the property’s more low-lying areas were the most impacted by the storm. Notably, the entrance to the Biltmore Estate experienced flooding and is currently undergoing “extensive repairs.” The estate’s website says the recovery effort will result in the removal of weakened poplar trees that lined the entrance gate.

    Why is the Biltmore a tourist destination?

    The Biltmore Estate was completed in 1895 during the nation’s Gilded Age. It was anchored by a 250-room French chateau built at the direction of George Vanderbilt and is the largest privately owned home in the United States.

    Biltmore draws about 1.4 million visitors on average in a year and employs nearly 2,500 employees — all of whom were accounted for after the storm, according to the estate’s website. The estate is one of the largest employers in the Asheville area.

    The mansion has rarely closed since opening to the public. When Biltmore laid off most its staff in 2020 because of the coronavirus pandemic, the estate said it was first time it was forced to close since World War II.

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  • AI is being used to send some households impacted by Helene and Milton $1,000 cash relief payments

    AI is being used to send some households impacted by Helene and Milton $1,000 cash relief payments

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    Nearly 1,000 hurricane-impacted households in North Carolina and Florida will benefit this week from a new disaster aid program that employs a model not commonly used by philanthropy in the United States: Giving people rapid, direct cash payments.

    The nonprofit GiveDirectly plans to send payments of $1,000 on Friday to some households impacted by Hurricanes Helene and Milton. The organization harnesses a Google-developed artificial intelligence tool to pinpoint areas with high concentrations of poverty and storm damage. On Tuesday, it invited people in those areas to enroll in the program through a smartphone app used to manage SNAP and other government benefits. Donations will then be deposited through the app’s debit card.

    The approach is meant to deliver aid “in as streamlined and dignified a way as possible,” said Laura Keen, a senior program manager at GiveDirectly. It removes much of the burden of applying, and is intended to empower people to decide for themselves what their most pressing needs are.

    It won’t capture everyone who needs help — but GiveDirectly hopes the program can be a model that makes disaster aid faster and more effective. “We’re always trying to grow the share of disaster response that is delivered as cash, whether that is by FEMA or private actors,” said Keen.

    The influx of clothing, blankets, and food that typically arrive after a disaster can fill real needs, but in-kind donations can’t cover getting a hotel room during an evacuation, or childcare while schools are closed.

    “There is an elegance to cash that allows individuals in these types of circumstances to resolve their unique needs, which are sure to be very different from the needs of their neighbors,” said Keen. She added that getting money into people’s hands fast can protect them from predatory lending and curb credit card debt.

    The organization employs direct payments for poverty relief around the world, but it first experimented with cash disaster payments in the U.S. in 2017, when it gave money to households impacted by Hurricane Harvey in Texas and Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico. Back then, GiveDirectly enrolled people in person and handed out debit cards activated later. The process took a few weeks.

    Now that work is done in days — remotely. A Google team uses its SKAI machine-based learning tool to narrow down the worst-hit areas by comparing pre- and post-disaster aerial imagery. GiveDirectly uses another Google-developed tool to compare those findings with poverty data. It sends the target areas to Propel, an electronic benefits transfers app, which invites users in those places to enroll.

    “They don’t have to find a bunch of documentation that proves their eligibility,” Keen said. “We already know they’re eligible.”

    Still, focusing on areas with lots of damaged buildings won’t pick up all low-income households devastated by a disaster. Nor will reaching out to those already signed up for government benefits, as not all poor people enroll in them, and undocumented residents aren’t eligible for them. People without smartphones can’t access the app. Propel serves only 5 million of the 22 million households enrolled in SNAP benefits.

    In North Carolina, where electricity in some communities has still not been restored after Hurricane Helene, having a smartphone makes no difference without a way to power it and a signal to connect to.

    Keen said GiveDirectly is aware of this model’s shortcomings. She said some can be alleviated with a hybrid model that uses both remote and in-person enrollment. But the limitations also come down to funding. So far, GiveDirectly has raised $1.2 million for this campaign, including a $300,000 donation from the Conrad N. Hilton Foundation.

    Despite the pitfalls, GiveDirectly hopes its model sparks ideas for other direct payment programs.

    FEMA overhauled its own cash relief program, called Serious Needs Assistance, in January. The agency increased the payments from $500 to $750 ($770 with the start of the new fiscal year on Oct. 1) and eliminated the requirement that states request the aid first.

    Across all Helene- and Milton-impacted states, more than 693,000 households have received Serious Needs Assistance as of Oct. 24 for a total spend of more than $522 million, according to a FEMA spokesperson.

    But the program still requires households to apply, which proved problematic when misinformation about the program ran rampant in the weeks after Helene. In places with high costs of living, the $750 might not go very far.

    Technology could help FEMA improve its system, said Chris Smith, who managed FEMA’s Individual Assistance program from 2015 to 2022 and is now director of individual assistance and disaster housing at the consulting firm IEM. “I think that we have to open up our imaginations that maybe there are other ways to quickly identify need and quickly identify eligibility.”

    But Smith cautions that a publicly funded program doesn’t enjoy the same license to experiment as a philanthropic one. “There has to be ultimately an accountability of how any level of government is providing assistance to individuals. People are going to want to know that, and to have that degree of certainty is very important.”

    The government has experimented with other types of unconditional cash assistance, such as when it expanded the child tax credit into a monthly direct deposit payment in 2021. That program briefly cut the child poverty rate almost by half before it expired.

    Research on guaranteed income programs shows recipients spend the money on their needs, said Stacia West, founding director at the University of Pennsylvania’s Center for Guaranteed Income Research. “There is no one who can budget better than a person in poverty,” she said.

    In a study tracking spending across 9,000 participants in more than 30 guaranteed income programs in the U.S., the Center for Guaranteed Income Research has found that the majority of the money is spent on retail goods, food and groceries, and transportation.

    West said one-time cash payments can be a huge help to families recovering from a disaster, but the money can make a more profound difference if it’s given for a sustained time.

    That has happened in two U.S. disasters. In 2016, Dolly Parton funded a program that gave $1,000 per month for six months to people in Tennessee who lost their homes in the Great Smoky Mountains wildfires. The People’s Fund of Maui, a program sponsored by Oprah and Dwayne Johnson, gave 8,100 adults affected by the 2023 Maui wildfires $1,200 month for six months.

    Keen said GiveDirectly would love to implement such a program if it had the funding, especially because long-term assistance could help people build future resilience. “So you’re not only repairing your home, but also fortifying it to a level that is more protected against the next time.”

    ——

    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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  • North Carolina lawmakers convene again to address Hurricane Helene’s billions in damages

    North Carolina lawmakers convene again to address Hurricane Helene’s billions in damages

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    RALEIGH, N.C. — North Carolina state legislators returning to work Thursday to consider further Hurricane Helene relief have received an estimate of the monetary scope of the catastrophic flooding and what Gov. Roy Cooper wants them to spend soon on recovery efforts.

    The Republican-dominated General Assembly scheduled a one-day session to consider additional funding and legislation four weeks after Helene tore across the Southeast and into the western North Carolina mountains.

    Earlier this month, lawmakers unanimously approved — and Cooper signed — an initial relief bill that included $273 million, mostly the state’s matching share to meet federal requirements for disaster assistance programs. Lawmakers said it would be the first of many actions they would take to address the storm.

    North Carolina state officials have reported 96 deaths from Helene, which brought historic levels of rain and flooding to the mountains in late September.

    Thursday’s session comes one day after Cooper, a Democrat, unveiled his request to legislators to locate $3.9 billion to help pay for repairs and revitalization. The request was included in a report from his Office of State Budget and Management, which calculated that Helene likely caused at least a record $53 billion in damages and recovery needs in western North Carolina.

    Cooper said on Wednesday that the state’s previous record for storm damage was $17 billion from Hurricane Florence, which struck eastern North Carolina in 2018.

    State government coffers include several billon dollars that can be accessed for future recovery spending. Almost $4.5 billion is in the state’s savings reserve alone.

    Cooper’s request includes $475 million for a grant recovery program for businesses in the hardest-hit areas; $325 million to help homeowners and renters quickly with rebuilding and minor repairs; $225 million for grants to farmers for uninsured losses; and $100 million for public school and community college capital needs.

    Agricultural and residential losses are expected to be particularly acute in the damaged areas because few growers were covered by crop insurance and homeowners by flood insurance.

    According to the budget office, the storm and its aftermath caused 1,400 landslides and damaged over 160 water and sewer systems, at least 6,000 miles (9,650 kilometers) of roads, more than 1,000 bridges and culverts and an estimated 126,000 homes.

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  • What to know about Biltmore Estate reopening after Hurricane Helene

    What to know about Biltmore Estate reopening after Hurricane Helene

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    North Carolina’s Biltmore Estate will soon reopen after being forced to close when floodwaters pushed by Hurricane Helene devastated the area.

    The popular tourist destination announced over the weekend that they plan to open and “celebrate the joy of the holiday season” on Nov. 2.

    “For more than 125 years, Biltmore has been a witness to the resilience of this community,” the Asheville-based estate posted in a statement. “The compassion and resolve of our region have been rising every day from beneath the weight of this storm.”

    Here are a few things to know:

    On Sept. 27, the remnants of Hurricane Helene destroyed large swaths of the Southeast as flooding overwhelmed communities, swiped out roads and knocked out power for thousands. North Carolina’s largest mountain city was left largely isolated as many of the main routes into Asheville were washed away or blocked by mudslides.

    Officials have warned that rebuilding after Helene will be lengthy and difficult. Helene first roared ashore in northern Florida on Sept. 26 as a Category 4 hurricane and quickly moved through Georgia, the Carolinas and Tennessee. The storm upended life throughout the Southeast, where to date nearly 250 deaths have been reported in Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina and Virginia.

    Western North Carolina was hit especially hard because that’s where the remnants of Helene encountered the higher elevations and cooler air of the Appalachian Mountains, causing even more rain to fall. Asheville and many surrounding mountain towns were built in valleys, leaving them especially vulnerable to devastating rain and flooding.

    It was the deadliest hurricane to hit the U.S. mainland since Katrina in 2005.

    According to the Biltmore Estate, the 8,000-acre property was impacted very little by Hurricane Helene. Along with the Biltmore House, the estate includes a conservatory, winery, gardens and overnight properties, which received varying degrees of minimal or no damage.

    Instead, some of the property’s more low-lying areas were the most impacted by the storm. Notably, the entrance to the Biltmore Estate experienced flooding and is currently undergoing “extensive repairs.” The estate’s website says the recovery effort will result in the removal of weakened poplar trees that lined the entrance gate.

    The Biltmore Estate was completed in 1895 during the nation’s Gilded Age. It was anchored by a 250-room French chateau built at the direction of George Vanderbilt and is the largest privately owned home in the United States.

    Biltmore draws about 1.4 million visitors on average in a year and employs nearly 2,500 employees — all of whom were accounted for after the storm, according to the estate’s website. The estate is one of the largest employers in the Asheville area.

    The mansion has rarely closed since opening to the public. When Biltmore laid off most its staff in 2020 because of the coronavirus pandemic, the estate said it was first time it was forced to close since World War II.

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  • Cubans struggle as power not fully restored days after blackout and hurricane hits island

    Cubans struggle as power not fully restored days after blackout and hurricane hits island

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    HAVANA — Many Cubans waited in anguish late Sunday as electricity on much of the island had yet to be restored days after an island-wide blackout. Their concerns were heightened as Hurricane Oscar slammed into Cuba’s eastern coast, lashing the island with heaving rain and wind.

    Energy Minister Vicente de la O Levy said in a press conference he hopes the country’s electricity grid will be restored on Monday or Tuesday morning.

    But he recognized that Oscar, which hit the island’s eastern coast Sunday evening, will bring “an additional inconvenience” to Cuba’s recovery since it will touch a “region of strong (electricity) generation.” Key Cuban power plants, such as Felton in the city of Holguín, and Renté in Santiago de Cuba, are located in the area.

    Some neighborhoods had electricity restored in Cuba’s capital, where 2 million people live, but most of Havana remained dark. The impact of the blackout goes beyond lighting, as services like water supply also depend on electricity to run pumps.

    People resorted to cooking with improvised wood stoves on the streets before the food went bad in refrigerators.

    In tears, Ylenis de la Caridad Napoles, mother of a 7-year-old girl, says she is reaching a point of “desperation.”

    The failure of the Antonio Guiteras plant on Friday, which caused the collapse of the island’s whole system, was just the latest in a series of problems with energy distribution in a country where electricity has been restricted and rotated to different regions at different times of the day.

    People lined up for hours on Sunday to buy bread in the few bakeries that could reopen.

    Some Cubans like Rosa Rodríguez have been without electricity for four days.

    “We have millions of problems, and none of them are solved,” said Rodríguez. “We must come to get bread, because the local bakery is closed, and they bring it from somewhere else.”

    About half of Cuba was plunged into darkness on Thursday evening, followed by the entire island on Friday morning after one of the plants failed.

    Besides the Antonio Guiteras plant, whose failure on Friday affected the entire national system, Cuba has several others, and it wasn’t immediately clear whether they remained functional.

    The blackout was considered to be Cuba’s worst in two years after Hurricane Ian made landfall as a Category 3 storm in 2022 and damaged power installations. It took days for the government to fix them. This year, some homes have spent up to eight hours a day without electricity.

    Cuba’s government had said on Saturday that some electricity had been restored after one of the country’s major power plants failed. But the 500 megawatts of energy in the island’s electricity grid, far short of the usual 3 gigawatts it needs, had quickly decreased to 370 megawatts.

    Even in a country that is used to outages as part of a deepening economic crisis, Friday’s collapse was massive.

    The Cuban government has announced emergency measures to slash electricity demand, including suspending school and university classes, shutting down some state-owned workplaces and canceling nonessential services.

    Local authorities said the outage stemmed from increased demand from small- and medium-sized companies and residential air conditioners. Later, the blackout got worse because of breakdowns in old thermoelectric plants that haven’t been properly maintained, and the lack of fuel to operate some facilities.

    Cuba’s energy minister said the country’s grid would be in better shape if there had not been two more partial blackouts as authorities tried to reconnect on Saturday. De la O Levy also said Mexico, Colombia, Venezuela and Russia, among other nations, had offered to help.

    The U.S. National Hurricane Center in Miami said Hurricane Oscar made landfall on Cuba’s eastern coast after striking the southeastern Bahamas earlier in the day.

    The hurricane center said the storm’s center hit Cuba’s province of Guantanamo, near the city of Baracoa, on Sunday evening. Its maximum sustained winds were 75 mph (120 kph).

    The system is expected to move across eastern Cuba Sunday night and Monday. Forecasters said 6 to 12 inches (15.2 to 30.5 centimeters) of rain are expected across eastern Cuba through early Wednesday, with some isolated locations getting up to 18 inches (45.72 centimeters). A storm surge of up to 3 feet (0.91 meters) in some areas of Cuba’s north shore in the area was possible, the center said.

    Oscar was expected to weaken over eastern Cuba before making a turn to the northeast and approaching the central Bahamas on Tuesday, the center said.

    The storm’s center late Sunday was located about 20 miles ( kilometers) west of the eastern tip of Cuba and about 45 miles (75 kilometers) east of Guantanamo. It was heading west-southwest at 6 mph (9 kph).

    Oscar made landfall on Great Inagua island in the Bahamas earlier Sunday.

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    Follow AP’s coverage of Latin America and the Caribbean at https://apnews.com/hub/latin-america

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  • Japan, UK and Italy to expedite next-generation fighter jet to replace F-2s and Eurofighter Typhoons

    Japan, UK and Italy to expedite next-generation fighter jet to replace F-2s and Eurofighter Typhoons

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    TOKYO — The defense ministers of Japan, the U.K. and Italy agreed to accelerate the joint development of a next-generation fighter jet, and announced that a trilateral government organization would be established by the end of this year to work with the parties producing the aircraft, Japanese officials said Sunday.

    The three countries agreed in 2022 to jointly produce a new combat aircraft that will be ready for deployment in 2035, under the Global Combat Air Program, or GCAP, to strengthen cooperation in the face of growing threats from China, Russia and North Korea.

    The next-generation stealth fighter jet would replace Japan’s retiring F-2s that it jointly developed with the U.S., and Eurofighter Typhoons, which were produced in partnership with the U.K, Italy, Spain and Germany.

    On Sunday, Japanese Defense Minister Gen Nakatani, after meeting with his U.K. and Italian counterparts, John Healey and Guido Crosetto, said a joint body called the GCAP International Government Organization, or GIGO, will be set up by the end of this year to oversee the aircraft’s development.

    The ministers met on the sidelines of the Group of Seven defense ministers meeting in Naples, Italy.

    Several private sector companies, including Japan’s Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Britain’s BAE Systems PLC and Italy’s Leonardo, are taking part in the project.

    GIGO, to be based in the U.K. and headed by a Japanese official, will oversee the aircraft’s development.

    “We now see the launch of GIGO and a joint venture on track” toward signing their first contract next year, Nakatani said.

    Sunday’s agreement addresses concerns over the progress of the project despite changes of leadership in both Japan and the U.K.

    Mitsubishi Heavy and their U.K. and Italian counterparts had a 1/10th model of the joint fighter jet on display at their GCAP booth for the first time in Japan at a major aerospace exhibit in Tokyo last week.

    Akira Sugimoto, MHI’s Japan program senior representative for GCAP, said that the joint fighter jet development will be meaningful for Japanese suppliers and for the country’s industrial base.

    “Our basic position is to bring our strengths together to develop a high quality fighter jet. I believe Japanese suppliers have outstanding technologies and I do hope as many of them as possible would join (GCAP),” Sugimoto said.

    “I think it will also help Japanese suppliers to enhance their capacity to develop equipment and contribute to provide a better outlook and business environment and stability,” he said.

    Japan, which is rapidly building up its military, hopes to have greater capability to counter China’s rising assertiveness, and the joint fighter jet project would help strengthen Japan’s mostly domestic and underdeveloped defense industry.

    Japan has significantly eased its arms export restrictions to allow foreign sales of the future fighter jet and licensing back of weapons, such as surface-to-air PAC-3 missile interceptors produced in Japan to complement U.S. inventory, which has decreased because of its support for Ukraine.

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    This story has been corrected to show that the name of one of the retiring jets is Typhoon, not Tempest.

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  • Cuba gets some electricity back after major power outage left millions in the dark

    Cuba gets some electricity back after major power outage left millions in the dark

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    HAVANA — Cuba’s government on Saturday said that some electricity was restored on the island after one of the country’s major power plants failed and left millions without electricity for two days.

    Energy Minister Vicente de la O Levy said the country had 500 megawatts in its electrical grid early Saturday, as compared to 3 gigawatts that are normally generated. He posted on X that “several substations in the west now have electricity.”

    O Levy also said two thermoelectric power plants are back and two more will resume their operations “in the next few hours.”

    About half of Cuba was plunged into darkness on Thursday evening, followed by the entire island on Friday morning after one of the plants failed.

    Havana’s electricity company said in a statement earlier on Saturday that a part of its western system was disconnected “after the exit of one of the plants that was delivering service.” That issue has left some parts of the city in the dark once again.

    The streets of Cuba’s capital, where 2 million people live, were quiet on Saturday, with few cars driving by after a night that was lit by candles and lamps. The impact of the blackout goes beyond lighting, and services like water supply also depend on electricity to run pumps.

    This is considered to be Cuba’s worst blackout in two years, after a category 3 hurricane damaged power installations and it took days for the government to fix them. This year the electricity service worsened, with several homes in the dark for hours every day.

    In addition to the Antonio Guiteras plant, whose failure on Friday affected the entire national system, Cuba has several others and it wasn’t immediately clear whether or not they remained functional.

    There is no official estimate for when the blackout will end. Even in a country that is used to outages as part of a deepening economic crisis, Friday’s supply collapse was massive.

    The Cuban government has announced emergency measures to slash electricity demand, including suspending classes, shutting down some state-owned workplaces and canceling nonessential services. Officials said that 1.64 gigawatts went offline during peak hours, about half the total demand at the time.

    Local authorities said the outage, which started in a smaller scale on Thursday, stemmed from increased demand from small and medium-sized companies and residences’ air conditioners. Later, the blackout got worse due to breakdowns in old thermoelectric plants that haven’t been properly maintained and the lack of fuel to operate some facilities.

    Changes to electricity rates for small- and medium-sized companies, which have proliferated since they were first authorized by the communist government in 2021, are also being considered.

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  • North Carolina maker of high-purity quartz back operating post-Helene

    North Carolina maker of high-purity quartz back operating post-Helene

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    SPRUCE PINE, N.C. (AP) — One of the two companies that manufacture high-purity quartz used for making semiconductors and other high-tech products from mines in a western North Carolina community severely damaged by Hurricane Helene is operating again.

    Sibelco announced on Thursday that production has restarted at its mining and processing operations in Spruce Pine, located 50 miles (80 kilometers) northeast of Asheville. Production and shipments are progressively ramping up to full capacity, the company said in a news release.

    “While the road to full recovery for our communities will be long, restarting our operations and resuming shipments to customers are important contributors to rebuilding the local economy,” Sibelco CEO Hilmar Rode said.

    Sibelco and The Quartz Corp. shut down operations ahead of the arrival of Helene, which devastated Spruce Pine and surrounding Mitchell County. Following the storm, both companies said that all of their employees were accounted for and safe.

    The Quartz Corp. had said last week that it was too early to know when it would resume operations, adding it would depend on the rebuilding of local infrastructure.

    Spruce Pine quartz is used around the world to manufacture the equipment needed to make silicon chips. An estimated 70% to 90% of the crucibles used worldwide in which polysilicon used for the chips is melted down are made from Spruce Pine quartz, according to Vince Beiser, the author of “The World in a Grain.”

    The high-tech quartz is also used in manufacturing solar panels and fiber-optic cables.

    A Spruce Pine council member said recently that an estimated three-quarters of the town has a direct connection to the mines, whether through a job, a job that relies on the mines or a family member who works at the facilities.

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  • Hurricane Milton has caused thousands of flight cancellations, is yours one of them? What to know

    Hurricane Milton has caused thousands of flight cancellations, is yours one of them? What to know

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    NEW YORK (AP) — Thousands of flights in and out of the U.S. have been canceled this week as Hurricane Milton barreled into the Gulf of Mexico and plowed across Florida — causing many airports in the storm’s path to close their doors.

    And airlines across the country grounded flights as a result. There were more than 2,270 U.S. flight cancellations as of Thursday afternoon, according to tracking service FlightAware, following 1,970 on Wednesday.

    After battering the southeastern U.S. and parts of Cuba Wednesday, the hurricane moved into the Atlantic Ocean Thursday. Dangers still persist, with officials pointing to storm-surge warnings for much of Florida’s east-central coast and farther north into Georgia, for example, as well as tropical storm warnings reaching South Carolina. That means travel disruptions across the region will likely continue.

    Airlines can’t control the weather, but they are still required to provide refunds for customers whose flights are canceled. Earlier this week, President Joe Biden and other government officials also warned companies not to overcharge people fleeing the storm — as some travelers reported unusually high prices — but airlines defended themselves, with some noting they had recently imposed fare caps.

    Here’s what to know about your rights, and what to do when cancellations start piling up.

    Watch the weather and check your flight before heading out

    The widespread damage of Hurricane Milton, which arrives as the region is already reeling from Hurricane Helene, is still being assessed. And, again, storm-surge warnings continued to be in place on Thursday.

    Watching weather forecasts and checking your flight’s status ahead of time is key. In recent days, many airports in Florida ceased commercial operations — with Orlando International Airport and Tampa International Airport, for example, remaining closed to the public Thursday. But Orlando, which saw the highest number of cancellations Thursday, later said it would receive a few arrivals in the evening and plans to begin departures again Friday. Tampa’s airport also said it would reopen Friday.

    People in the region have been instructed to stay inside and shelter in place until officials say it’s safe.

    “If you’re traveling out of Florida, please do not head to the airport unless that airport is open and it’s safe to drive there,” the U.S. Transportation Security Administration wrote Thursday on social media platform X. “Always check with your airline(s) to verify flight status.”

    While Florida has been hit hardest by Milton, travel disruptions spread across the country. For those not in the storm’s path, some might be able to reroute their trips, but capacity will be limited. And it’s better to be stuck at home or in a hotel than to be stranded in an airport terminal, so use the airline’s app or flight websites to make sure that your flight is still on before heading out. Carriers try to cancel flights hours or even days before departure.

    And with nearly two months of Atlantic hurricane season left to go, it’s possible there will be other severe storms in the near future. Keep an eye on weather forecasts leading up to your trip.

    Contact your airline

    Airlines should rebook passengers automatically, but that could take much longer as carriers recover from the hurricane, so passengers may have to take more initiative. And be more creative.

    People already at an airport usually go to an in-person help desk — but lines are long when there’s widespread disruptions. Travel experts suggest calling the airline and using an international help-desk number, if there is one, to reach an agent more quickly.

    Another tactic is to post a few words to the airline on the social platform X. Many airlines have staffers who will help rebook passengers who contact the carrier through social media.

    Use your airline’s app — it may have more-current information about flight status than delays and cancellations displayed in the airport terminal.

    Can I ask to be booked on another airline?

    You can, but airlines aren’t required to put you on another carrier’s flight. Some airlines, including the biggest ones except Southwest, say they can get you to a partner airline, but even then it’s often hit or miss.

    A good tip is to research alternative flights while you wait to talk to an agent. It may also be worth checking nearby airports for other routes.

    Can I get a refund?

    Passengers whose flights are canceled are entitled to a full refund in the form of payment they used to buy the ticket. That’s true even if the ticket was sold as non-refundable.

    A refund may be acceptable to travelers who no longer want to make the trip, but many people just want another way to reach their destination, and buying a last-minute replacement ticket could cost more than the refund will cover.

    Am I eligible for other cost reimbursements?

    There is no provision for additional compensation under U.S. law, and airlines set their own policies for reimbursing stranded travelers for things like hotels and meals.

    However, the Biden-Harris administration has been working to change that. In other recent moments of widespread travel disruptions, Transportation Department has appeared to be taking the view that many cancellations and delays are within the airlines’ control, pressuring carriers to cover passengers’ costs.

    “We have reminded the airlines of their responsibilities to take care of passengers if they experience major delays,” Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said earlier this year, when a widespread technology outage also canceled thousands of flights in July.

    And last year, the Transportation Department fined Southwest $35 million as part of a $140 million settlement to resolve an investigation into nearly 17,000 canceled flights in December 2022.

    The department maintains a “dashboard” showing what each airline promises to cover during travel disruptions.

    ___

    Koenig reported from Dallas.

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  • Harris helps pack aid boxes for NC hurricane victims ahead of campaign push

    Harris helps pack aid boxes for NC hurricane victims ahead of campaign push

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    RALEIGH, N.C. — Vice President Kamala Harris on Saturday helped pack diapers into boxes of personal care products destined for North Carolina hurricane victims, agreeing with one helper who said “it takes a village.”

    “You’re exactly right,” Harris replied to Greg Hatem, owner of The Pit Authentic Barbecue restaurant as she put two packages of diapers inside each cardboard box that was placed in front of her assembly-line style.

    Harris met with Black leaders at the barbecue restaurant in Raleigh before she joined volunteers who were there to pack bandages, baby formula, baby wipes, pain relief pills and other items for victims of Hurricane Helene, which tore through western North Carolina last month.

    The vice president was overnighting in the state, which narrowly backed her rival, Republican Donald Trump, in 2020. Democrats are campaigning hard to flip North Carolina into their column in the presidential election next month. On Sunday, Harris was attending church in Greenville as part of her campaign’s “Souls to the Polls” effort to get out the vote and holding a rally.

    The weekend trip was her second to the battleground state after it was struck by Hurricane Helene. The Democratic presidential nominee went to North Carolina last Saturday to survey the aftermath of Helene and pledged federal assistance for its victims.

    Before her plane left Washington, Harris told reporters accompanying her that she looked forward to talking with residents “first and foremost to see how they’re doing in the wake of the hurricane.”

    Democrats view North Carolina as swinging their way this year with its base of Black and college-educated voters, as well as women concerned about the loss of abortion protections. But the aftermath of Hurricane Helene has become a political flashpoint with former President Trump and his allies attacking the Biden administration’s response to the natural disaster.

    At The Pit, Harris met with Black elected, faith and community leaders. Her campaign did not release a list of the people she met with.

    After church on Sunday, Harris, a Baptist, was set to speak about her economic plans at a rally to generate support for early voting, which starts Thursday in North Carolina.

    Making landfall on Sept. 26, Hurricane Helene resulted in the deaths of roughly 230 people and wiped out roads, electrical power and cell phone service. Just two weeks later, Hurricane Milton hit Florida this week and generated an estimated $50 billion worth of damage and left several people dead.

    Harris also visited Georgia after Helene struck there, too, in addition to virtually attending briefings on the federal government’s response and rejiggering her campaign schedule. She continued to travel for the presidential race with time spent this week in Nevada and Arizona.

    One of her prime messages has been that there should be no price gouging by companies seeking to take advantage of shortages caused by the hurricanes, an issue she has made central to her campaign as a way to tackle inflation.

    “To any company or individual that is using this crisis to jack up prices through illegal fraud or price gouging, whether it be at the gas pump, the airport or the hotel counter, we will be monitoring and there will be a consequence,” Harris said at Friday’s briefing.

    But Trump and his allies have falsely suggested that disaster relief from the Federal Emergency Management Agency went to immigrants instead of hurricane victims, while also suggesting that people are not getting the full financial support to which they’re legally entitled.

    At a recent rally in Reading, Pennsylvania, Trump said the response has been worse than during 2005’s Hurricane Katrina, which left nearly 1,400 people dead and caused $200 billion in damages.

    “North Carolina’s been hit very hard and this administration has not done a proper job at all. Terrible, terrible,” Trump said at the rally, adding that Harris was “on a fundraising comedy tour while people are stranded and drowning all over some of our greatest states.”

    President Joe Biden has called Trump’s falsehoods about the government’s response “un-American” and told his predecessor to “get a life, man.”

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  • Florida neighbors band together to recover after one-two punch from hurricanes Helene and Milton

    Florida neighbors band together to recover after one-two punch from hurricanes Helene and Milton

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    TAMPA, Fla. — When ankle-deep floodwaters from Hurricane Helene bubbled up through the floors of their home, Kat Robinson-Malone and her husband sent a late-night text message to their neighbors two doors down: “Hey, we’re coming.”

    The couple waded through the flooded street to the elevated front porch of Chris and Kara Sundar, whose home was built on higher ground, and handed over their 8-year-old daughter and a gas-powered generator.

    The Sundars’ lime-green house in southern Tampa also became a refuge for Brooke and Adam Carstensen, whose house next door to Robinson-Malone also flooded.

    The three families met years earlier when their children became playmates, and the adults’ friendships deepened during the coronavirus pandemic in 2020. So when Helene and Hurricane Milton struck Florida within two weeks of each other, the neighbors closed ranks as one big extended family, cooking meals together, taking turns watching children and cleaning out their damaged homes.

    And as Milton threatened a direct strike on Tampa last week, the Malones, the Sundars and the Carstensens decided to evacuate together. They drove more than 450 miles (725 kilometers) in a caravan to metro Atlanta — seven adults, six children, four dogs and teenage Max Carstensen’s three pet rats.

    “Everyone has, like, the chain saw or a tarp,” Robinson-Malone said Sunday. “But really the most important thing for us was the community we built. And that made all the difference for the hurricane rescue and the recovery. And now, hopefully, the restoration.”

    Recovery efforts continued Sunday in storm-battered communities in central Florida, where President Joe Biden surveyed the devastation. Biden said he was thankful the damage from Milton was not as severe as officials had anticipated. But he said it was still a “cataclysmic” event for people caught in the path of the hurricane, which has been blamed for at least 11 deaths.

    Nearly 800,000 homes and businesses in Florida remained without electricity Sunday, according to Poweroutage.us, down from more than 3 million after Milton made landfall late Wednesday as a Category 3 storm.

    Fuel shortages also appeared to be easing as more gas stations opened, and lines at pumps in the Tampa area looked notably shorter. Gov. Ron DeSantis announced nine sites where people can get 10 gallons (38 liters) each for free.

    While recovery efforts were gaining steam, a full rebound will take far longer.

    DeSantis cautioned that debris removal could take up to a year, even as Florida shifts nearly 3,000 workers to the cleanup. He said Biden has approved 100% federal reimbursement for those efforts for 90 days.

    “The (removal of) debris has to be 24/7 over this 90-day period,” DeSantis said while speaking next to a pile of furniture, lumber and other debris in Treasure Island, an island city near St. Petersburg that has been battered by both recent hurricanes. “That’s the way you get the job done.”

    National Weather Service meteorologist Paul Close said rivers will keep rising for the next several days and result in flooding, mostly around Tampa Bay and northward. Those areas got the most rain, which came on top of a wet summer that included several hurricanes.

    Meanwhile, residents unable to move back into their damaged homes were making other arrangements.

    Robinson-Malone and her husband, Brian, bought a camper trailer that’s parked in their driveway. They plan to live there while their gutted home is repaired and also improved to make it more resilient against hurricanes.

    “These storms, they’re just going to keep happening,” she said. “And we want to be prepared for it.”

    The Carstensens plan to demolish what’s left of their flooded, low-slung home, which was built in 1949, and replace it with a new house higher off the ground. For the time being they are staying with Brooke Carstensen’s mother.

    Chris Sundar said he’s questioning his plan to remain in Tampa until his children have all graduated from high school a decade from now. His house remains the home base for the families’ kids, ages 8 to 13. On the wall there is a list of chores for them all, from folding laundry to emptying wastebaskets. Brooke Carstensen, a teacher, has helped the children through an extended period without school.

    The Sundars lost both their vehicles when Helene’s storm surge flooded their garage, so they drove Robinson-Malone’s car when they evacuated to Georgia. Arriving, exhausted after the 14-hour trek, Chris Sundar said to Robinson-Malone: “This is where community shines or it falls apart.”

    “And that night we got together and we all hung out,” he said.

    On Sunday back in Florida, they worked together to remove sticks and logs from a large oak limb that dangled over another neighbor’s driveway. Brian Malone cut it up with a chain saw.

    Tackling recovery as a group has made it seem far less overwhelming, Brooke Carstensen said. The families share tips and ideas on a group text thread. The Sundars threw an impromptu 13th birthday party for her son at their house between the storms. And she found solace and laughter from Brian Malone’s advice about rebounding: “How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time.”

    It’s why she wants to remain in Tampa, despite her concerns that Helene and Milton won’t be the last storms.

    “Why do we live here in a place that’s trying to destroy us?” Brooke Carstensen said. “Well, it’s all the people that we have here.”

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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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  • Volunteers bring solar power to Hurricane Helene’s disaster zone

    Volunteers bring solar power to Hurricane Helene’s disaster zone

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    BAKERSVILLE, N.C. — Nearly two weeks after Hurricane Helene downed power lines and washed out roads all over North Carolina’s mountains, the constant din of a gas-powered generator is getting to be too much for Bobby Renfro.

    It’s difficult to hear the nurses, neighbors and volunteers flowing through the community resource hub he has set up in a former church for his neighbors in Tipton Hill, a crossroads in the Pisgah National Forest north of Asheville. Much worse is the cost: he spent $1,200 to buy it and thousands more on fuel that volunteers drive in from Tennessee.

    Turning off their only power source isn’t an option. This generator runs a refrigerator holding insulin for neighbors with diabetes and powers the oxygen machines and nebulizers some of them need to breathe.

    The retired railroad worker worries that outsiders don’t understand how desperate they are, marooned without power on hilltops and down in “hollers.”

    “We have no resources for nothing,” Renfro said. “It’s going to be a long ordeal.”

    More than 43,000 of the 1.5 million customers who lost power in western North Carolina still lacked electricity on Friday, according to Poweroutage.us. Without it, they can’t keep medicines cold or power medical equipment or pump well water. They can’t recharge their phones or apply for federal disaster aid.

    Crews from all over the country and even Canada are helping Duke Energy and local electric cooperatives with repairs, but it’s slow going in the dense mountain forests, where some roads and bridges are completely washed away.

    “The crews aren’t doing what they typically do, which is a repair effort. They’re rebuilding from the ground up,” said Kristie Aldridge, vice president of communications at North Carolina Electric Cooperatives.

    Residents who can get their hands on gas and diesel-powered generators are depending on them, but that is not easy. Fuel is expensive and can be a long drive away. Generator fumes pollute and can be deadly. Small home generators are designed to run for hours or days, not weeks and months.

    Now, more help is arriving. Renfro received a new power source this week, one that will be cleaner, quieter and free to operate. Volunteers with the nonprofit Footprint Project and a local solar installation company delivered a solar generator with six 245-watt solar panels, a 24-volt battery and an AC power inverter. The panels now rest on a grassy hill outside the community building.

    Renfro hopes his community can draw some comfort and security, “seeing and knowing that they have a little electricity.”

    The Footprint Project is scaling up its response to this disaster with sustainable mobile infrastructure. It has deployed dozens of larger solar microgrids, solar generators and machines that can pull water from the air to 33 sites so far, along with dozens of smaller portable batteries.

    With donations from solar equipment and installation companies as well as equipment purchased through donated funds, the nonprofit is sourcing hundreds more small batteries and dozens of other larger systems and even industrial-scale solar generators known as “Dragon Wings.”

    Will Heegaard and Jamie Swezey are the husband-and-wife team behind Project Footprint. Heegaard founded it in 2018 in New Orleans with a mission of reducing the greenhouse gas emissions of emergency responses. Helene’s destruction is so catastrophic, however, that Swezey said this work is more about supplementing generators than replacing them.

    “I’ve never seen anything like this,” Swezey said as she stared at a whiteboard with scribbled lists of requests, volunteers and equipment. “It’s all hands on deck with whatever you can use to power whatever you need to power.”

    Down near the interstate in Mars Hill, a warehouse owner let Swezey and Heegaard set up operations and sleep inside. They rise each morning triaging emails and texts from all over the region. Requests for equipment range from individuals needing to power a home oxygen machine to makeshift clinics and community hubs distributing supplies.

    Local volunteers help. Hayden Wilson and Henry Kovacs, glassblowers from Asheville, arrived in a pickup truck and trailer to make deliveries this week. Two installers from the Asheville-based solar company Sundance Power Systems followed in a van.

    It took them more than an hour on winding roads to reach Bakersville, where the community hub Julie Wiggins runs in her driveway supports about 30 nearby families. It took many of her neighbors days to reach her, cutting their way out through fallen trees. Some were so desperate, they stuck their insulin in the creek to keep it cold.

    Panels and a battery from Footprint Project now power her small fridge, a water pump and a Starlink communications system she set up. “This is a game changer,” Wiggins said.

    The volunteers then drove to Renfro’s hub in Tipton Hill before their last stop at a Bakersville church that has been running two generators. Other places are much harder to reach. Heegaard and Swezey even tried to figure out how many portable batteries a mule could carry up a mountain and have arranged for some to be lowered by helicopters.

    They know the stakes are high after Heegaard volunteered in Puerto Rico, where Hurricane Maria’s death toll rose to 3,000 as some mountain communities went without power for 11 months. Duke Energy crews also restored infrastructure in Puerto Rico and are using tactics learned there, like using helicopters to drop in new electric poles, utility spokesman Bill Norton said.

    The hardest customers to help could be people whose homes and businesses are too damaged to connect, and they are why the Footprint Project will stay in the area for as long as they are needed, Swezey said.

    “We know there are people who will need help long after the power comes back,” she said.

    ___

    Associated Press coverage of philanthropy and non-profits 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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  • North Carolina maker of high-purity quartz back operating post-Helene

    North Carolina maker of high-purity quartz back operating post-Helene

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    SPRUCE PINE, N.C. — One of the two companies that manufacture high-purity quartz used for making semiconductors and other high-tech products from mines in a western North Carolina community severely damaged by Hurricane Helene is operating again.

    Sibelco announced on Thursday that production has restarted at its mining and processing operations in Spruce Pine, located 50 miles (80 kilometers) northeast of Asheville. Production and shipments are progressively ramping up to full capacity, the company said in a news release.

    “While the road to full recovery for our communities will be long, restarting our operations and resuming shipments to customers are important contributors to rebuilding the local economy,” Sibelco CEO Hilmar Rode said.

    Sibelco and The Quartz Corp. shut down operations ahead of the arrival of Helene, which devastated Spruce Pine and surrounding Mitchell County. Following the storm, both companies said that all of their employees were accounted for and safe.

    The Quartz Corp. had said last week that it was too early to know when it would resume operations, adding it would depend on the rebuilding of local infrastructure.

    Spruce Pine quartz is used around the world to manufacture the equipment needed to make silicon chips. An estimated 70% to 90% of the crucibles used worldwide in which polysilicon used for the chips is melted down are made from Spruce Pine quartz, according to Vince Beiser, the author of “The World in a Grain.”

    The high-tech quartz is also used in manufacturing solar panels and fiber-optic cables.

    A Spruce Pine council member said recently that an estimated three-quarters of the town has a direct connection to the mines, whether through a job, a job that relies on the mines or a family member who works at the facilities.

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  • Hurricane Milton has caused thousands of flight cancellations, is yours one of them? What to know

    Hurricane Milton has caused thousands of flight cancellations, is yours one of them? What to know

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    NEW YORK — Thousands of flights in and out of the U.S. have been canceled this week as Hurricane Milton barreled into the Gulf of Mexico and plowed across Florida — causing many airports in the storm’s path to close their doors.

    And airlines across the country grounded flights as a result. There were more than 2,270 U.S. flight cancellations as of Thursday afternoon, according to tracking service FlightAware, following 1,970 on Wednesday.

    After battering the southeastern U.S. and parts of Cuba Wednesday, the hurricane moved into the Atlantic Ocean Thursday. Dangers still persist, with officials pointing to storm-surge warnings for much of Florida’s east-central coast and farther north into Georgia, for example, as well as tropical storm warnings reaching South Carolina. That means travel disruptions across the region will likely continue.

    Airlines can’t control the weather, but they are still required to provide refunds for customers whose flights are canceled. Earlier this week, President Joe Biden and other government officials also warned companies not to overcharge people fleeing the storm — as some travelers reported unusually high prices — but airlines defended themselves, with some noting they had recently imposed fare caps.

    Here’s what to know about your rights, and what to do when cancellations start piling up.

    The widespread damage of Hurricane Milton, which arrives as the region is already reeling from Hurricane Helene, is still being assessed. And, again, storm-surge warnings continued to be in place on Thursday.

    Watching weather forecasts and checking your flight’s status ahead of time is key. In recent days, many airports in Florida ceased commercial operations — with Orlando International Airport and Tampa International Airport, for example, remaining closed to the public Thursday. But Orlando, which saw the highest number of cancellations Thursday, later said it would receive a few arrivals in the evening and plans to begin departures again Friday. Tampa’s airport also said it would reopen Friday.

    People in the region have been instructed to stay inside and shelter in place until officials say it’s safe.

    “If you’re traveling out of Florida, please do not head to the airport unless that airport is open and it’s safe to drive there,” the U.S. Transportation Security Administration wrote Thursday on social media platform X. “Always check with your airline(s) to verify flight status.”

    While Florida has been hit hardest by Milton, travel disruptions spread across the country. For those not in the storm’s path, some might be able to reroute their trips, but capacity will be limited. And it’s better to be stuck at home or in a hotel than to be stranded in an airport terminal, so use the airline’s app or flight websites to make sure that your flight is still on before heading out. Carriers try to cancel flights hours or even days before departure.

    And with nearly two months of Atlantic hurricane season left to go, it’s possible there will be other severe storms in the near future. Keep an eye on weather forecasts leading up to your trip.

    Airlines should rebook passengers automatically, but that could take much longer as carriers recover from the hurricane, so passengers may have to take more initiative. And be more creative.

    People already at an airport usually go to an in-person help desk — but lines are long when there’s widespread disruptions. Travel experts suggest calling the airline and using an international help-desk number, if there is one, to reach an agent more quickly.

    Another tactic is to post a few words to the airline on the social platform X. Many airlines have staffers who will help rebook passengers who contact the carrier through social media.

    Use your airline’s app — it may have more-current information about flight status than delays and cancellations displayed in the airport terminal.

    You can, but airlines aren’t required to put you on another carrier’s flight. Some airlines, including the biggest ones except Southwest, say they can get you to a partner airline, but even then it’s often hit or miss.

    A good tip is to research alternative flights while you wait to talk to an agent. It may also be worth checking nearby airports for other routes.

    Passengers whose flights are canceled are entitled to a full refund in the form of payment they used to buy the ticket. That’s true even if the ticket was sold as non-refundable.

    A refund may be acceptable to travelers who no longer want to make the trip, but many people just want another way to reach their destination, and buying a last-minute replacement ticket could cost more than the refund will cover.

    There is no provision for additional compensation under U.S. law, and airlines set their own policies for reimbursing stranded travelers for things like hotels and meals.

    However, the Biden-Harris administration has been working to change that. In other recent moments of widespread travel disruptions, Transportation Department has appeared to be taking the view that many cancellations and delays are within the airlines’ control, pressuring carriers to cover passengers’ costs.

    “We have reminded the airlines of their responsibilities to take care of passengers if they experience major delays,” Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said earlier this year, when a widespread technology outage also canceled thousands of flights in July.

    And last year, the Transportation Department fined Southwest $35 million as part of a $140 million settlement to resolve an investigation into nearly 17,000 canceled flights in December 2022.

    The department maintains a “dashboard” showing what each airline promises to cover during travel disruptions.

    ___

    Koenig reported from Dallas.

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  • US filings for jobless benefits jump to 258,000, the most in more than a year

    US filings for jobless benefits jump to 258,000, the most in more than a year

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    The number of Americans filing for unemployment benefits last week jumped to its highest level in a year, which analysts are saying is more likely a result of Hurricane Helene — and the Boeing machinist strike — than a broader softening in the labor market.

    The Labor Department reported Thursday that applications for jobless claims jumped by by 33,000 to 258,000 for the week of Oct. 3. That’s the most since Aug. 5, 2023 and well above the 229,000 analysts were expecting.

    Analysts highlighted big jumps in jobless benefit applications last week across states that were most affected by Hurricane Helene, including Florida, North Carolina, South Carolina and Tennessee.

    “Claims will likely continue to be elevated in states affected by Helene and Hurricane Milton as well as the Boeing strike until it is resolved,” said Nancy Vanden Houten, lead U.S. economist of Oxford Economics. “We think, though, that the Fed will view these impacts as temporary and still expect it to lower rates by (25 basis points) at the November meeting.”

    Venden Houten said that Washington state was the most impacted by the Boeing strike and accounted for a disproportionate share of the increase.

    Applications for jobless benefits are widely considered representative of U.S. layoffs in a given week, however they can be volatile and prone to revision.

    The four-week average of claims, which evens out some of that weekly volatility, rose by 6,750 to 231,000.

    The total number of Americans collecting jobless benefits rose by 42,000 to about 1.86 million for the week of Sept. 28, the most since late July.

    Outside of the weather and labor strife, some recent labor market data has suggested that high interest rates may finally be taking a toll on the labor market.

    In response to weakening employment data and receding consumer prices, the Federal Reserve last month cut its benchmark interest rate by a half of a percentage point as the central bank shifts its focus from taming inflation toward supporting the job market. The Fed’s goal is to achieve a rare “soft landing,” whereby it brings down inflation without causing a recession.

    It was the Fed’s first rate cut in four years after a series of rate hikes in 2022 and 2023 pushed the federal funds rate to a two-decade high of 5.3%.

    Inflation has retreated steadily, approaching the Fed’s 2% target and leading Chair Jerome Powell to declare recently that it was largely under control.

    In a separate report Thursday, the government reported that U.S. inflation reached its lowest point since February 2021.

    During the first four months of 2024, applications for jobless benefits averaged just 213,000 a week before rising in May. They hit 250,000 in late July, supporting the notion that high interest rates were finally cooling a red-hot U.S. job market.

    In August, the Labor Department reported that the U.S. economy added 818,000 fewer jobs from April 2023 through March this year than were originally reported. The revised total was also considered evidence that the job market has been slowing steadily, compelling the Fed to start cutting interest rates.

    Despite some signs of labor market slowing, America’s employers added a surprisingly strong 254,000 jobs in September, easing some concerns about a weakening job market and suggesting that the pace of hiring is still solid enough to support a growing economy.

    Last month’s gain was far more than economists had expected, and it was up sharply from the 159,000 jobs that were added in August. After rising for most of 2024, the unemployment rate dropped for a second straight month, from 4.2% in August to 4.1% in September.

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  • Here’s what has made Hurricane Milton so fierce and unusual

    Here’s what has made Hurricane Milton so fierce and unusual

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    With its mighty strength and its dangerous path, Hurricane Milton powered into a very rare threat flirting with experts’ worst fears.

    Warm water fueled amazingly rapid intensification that took Milton from a minimal hurricane to a massive Category 5 in less than 10 hours. It weakened, but quickly bounced back, and when its winds briefly reached 180 mph, its barometric pressure, a key measurement for a storm’s overall strength, was among the lowest recorded in the Gulf of Mexico this late in the year.

    At its most fierce, Milton almost maxed out its potential intensity given the weather factors surrounding it.

    “Everything that you would want if you’re looking for a storm to go absolutely berserk is what Milton had,” Colorado State University hurricane researcher Phil Klotzbach said.

    That’s not all. Milton’s eastward path through the Gulf is so infrequent the most recent comparable storm was in 1848. Tampa — the most populous metro area in its general path — hasn’t had a direct hit from a major storm in more than 100 years, making this week the worst-case scenario for many experts.

    The track “is not unprecedented but it’s quite rare,” said University of Miami hurricane researcher Brian McNoldy. “And of those that did that track, this is by far the most intense.”

    “It is unusual in a number of ways,” Princeton University climate scientist and hurricane expert Gabriel Vecchi said. “This storm is probably going to be very unlike any storm anyone has experienced on the west coast of Florida.”

    But it might be getting less rare, and the U.S. is already on a particularly unlucky streak. When Helene plowed through Florida less than two weeks ago, it was the seventh Category 4 or stronger storm to make landfall in the continental U.S. in eight years. That’s more than triple the average annual rate of such monster landfalls in the U.S. since 1950, according to a data analysis by The Associated Press.

    If Milton somehow hits as a Category 4 storm at landfall it will be only the second time the nation was struck twice in a year by hurricanes so powerful. This is after an unusual 12-year period when no Category 4 or higher storms hit the mainland between 2005 and 2016.

    University of Albany atmospheric scientist and hurricane expert Kristen Corbosiero said Milton’s threat now, compared to that 12-year quiet period, is probably a combination of luck — that those previous big storms didn’t make landfall — and climate change that is steering big storms differently than before.

    “With more and stronger storms, the chances of a major hurricane hitting the U.S. increase,” she said.

    So much of what makes Milton nasty is rooted in the warmer water of its birth and in human-caused climate change, Vecchi, Corbosiero and others said.

    Milton formed in the Bay of Campeche in the southwestern Gulf of Mexico. For awhile, forecasters didn’t give the unstable air mass much of a chance to develop into a tropical storm, let alone a monster hurricane. But once it defied the odds, it took off because of warm water and it managed to avoid high-level cross winds that often decapitate storms, especially in autumn. As Milton neared Florida it hit those winds, called shear, which ate away at its strength, as meteorologists had forecasted.

    Warm water fuels hurricanes. It’s crucial that the surface water be at least 79 degrees (26 degrees Celsius) and it helps incredibly when there’s deep warm water.

    The water at Milton’s birth and along its path was around 87 degrees (30.5 degrees Celsius). That’s almost 2 degrees (1 degree Celsius) warmer than normal and near record levels, both on the surface and deep, McNoldy said.

    “Part of the reason it was so warm is because of global warming,” Vecchi said, though he added that last year’s El Nino — a natural warming of ocean waters that influences weather worldwide — and other natural factors played a role. “Now the storm has a lot more energy to draw on.”

    That water became an all-you-can eat buffet for Milton.

    Much like an ice skater spinning with her arms close in rather than outstretched, Milton’s small size and pinhole eye — which became as small as 4 miles across — also made it easier to supercharge.

    And then there’s the track. Corbosiero couldn’t think of a similar track for such a powerful storm, especially in October when there are fewer strong storms in the Gulf and the nastiest storms are more in the Caribbean.

    Klotzbach found one in 1848, before good records were kept, unearthing a storm other experts weren’t quite familiar with.

    Usually storms in the Gulf of Mexico start in the east and go west or just go north, but Milton is heading east-northeast, Vecchi said. That’s because of a weather system in Canada and the U.S. East Coast that is pushing the westerly winds that are common in mid-latitudes down to where Milton is, where autumn wind from the west is less common.

    With water piling up with storm surge in this “very, very rare direction,” Corbosiero said Milton “has the potential to be a worst-case scenario” if it directly hits Tampa, where the last major hurricane direct hit was in 1921.

    “It’s extraordinarily bad,” McNoldy said.

    —-

    Mary Katherine Wildeman contributed from Hartford, Conn. and Christopher L. Keller contributed from Albuquerque, New Mexico

    ___

    Read more of AP’s climate coverage at http://www.apnews.com/climate-and-environment

    ___

    Follow Seth Borenstein on X at @borenbears

    ______

    The Associated Press’ climate and environmental coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP’s standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org.

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  • More than 1 million without power as Hurricane Milton slams Florida

    More than 1 million without power as Hurricane Milton slams Florida

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    TAMPA, Fla. — TAMPA, Fla. (AP) — Hurricane Milton crashed into Florida as a Category 3 storm Wednesday, pounding the coast with ferocious winds of over 100 mph (160 kph) and producing a series of tornadoes around the state. Tampa avoided a direct hit.

    The cyclone had maximum sustained winds of 120 mph (205 kph) as it roared ashore 8:30 p.m. near Siesta Key, the Miami-based National Hurricane Center said. Siesta Key is a prosperous strip of white-sand beaches that’s home to 5,500 people about 70 miles (112 kilometers) south of Tampa. The Tampa Bay area has not taken a direct hit from a major hurricane in more than a century, but the storm was still bringing a potentially deadly storm surge to much of Florida’s Gulf Coast, including densely populated areas such as Tampa, St. Petersburg, Sarasota and Fort Myers.

    Heavy rains were also likely to cause flooding inland along rivers and lakes as Milton traverses the Florida peninsula as a hurricane, eventually to emerge in the Atlantic Ocean on Thursday.

    More than 1 million homes and businesses were without power Wednesday night in Florida, according to poweroutage.us, which tracks utility reports. The highest number of outages were in Sarasota County and neighboring Manatee County.

    Milton slammed into a Florida region still reeling from Hurricane Helene, which caused heavy damage to beach communities with storm surge and killed a dozen people in seaside Pinellas County alone.

    Earlier, officials issued dire warnings to flee or face grim odds of survival.

    “This is it, folks,” said Cathie Perkins, emergency management director in Pinellas County, which sits on the peninsula that forms Tampa Bay. “Those of you who were punched during Hurricane Helene, this is going to be a knockout. You need to get out, and you need to get out now.”

    By late afternoon, some officials said the time had passed for such efforts. By the evening, some counties announced they has suspended emergency services.

    “Unless you really have a good reason to leave at this point, we suggest you just hunker down,” Polk County Emergency Management Director Paul Womble said in a public update.

    Multiple tornadoes spawned by the hurricane tore across Florida, the twisters acting as a dangerous harbingers of Milton’s approach. Videos posted to social media sites showed large funnel clouds over neighborhoods in Palm Beach County and elsewhere in the state.

    Milton was expected to remain a hurricane after hitting land and plowing across the state, including the heavily populated Orlando area, through Thursday.

    The storm threatened communities still reeling two weeks after Hurricane Helene flooded streets and homes in western Florida and left at least 230 people dead across the South. In many places along the coast, municipalities raced to collect and dispose of debris before Milton’s winds and storm surge could toss it around and compound any damage.

    With the storm weaker but growing in size, the surge was projected to reach as high as 9 feet (2.7 meters) in Tampa Bay.

    Jackie Curnick said she wrestled with her decision to stay and hunker down at home in Sarasota, just north of where the storm made landfall. But with a 2-year-old son and a baby girl due Oct. 29, Curnick and her husband thought it was for the best.

    Curnick said they started packing Monday to evacuate, but they couldn’t find any available hotel rooms, and the few they came by were too expensive.

    She said there were too many unanswered questions if they got in the car and left: Where to sleep, if they’d be able to fill up their gas tank, and if they could even find a safe route out of the state.

    “The thing is it’s so difficult to evacuate in a peninsula,” she said. “In most other states, you can go in any direction to get out. In Florida there are only so many roads that take you north or south.”

    The famous Sunshine Skyway Bridge, which spans the mouth of Tampa Bay, closed around midday. Other major bridges also closed.

    “Yesterday I said the clock was ticking. Today I’m saying the alarm bell is really going off. People need to get to their safe place,” said Ken Graham, director of the National Weather Service.

    At a news conference in Tallahassee, Gov. Ron DeSantis described deployment of a wide range of resources, including 9,000 National Guard members from Florida and other states; over 50,000 utility workers from as far as California; and highway patrol cars with sirens to escort gasoline tankers to replenish supplies so people could fill up their tanks before evacuating.

    “Unfortunately, there will be fatalities. I don’t think there’s any way around that,” DeSantis said.

    As of Wednesday night, Milton was centered about 5 miles (10 kilometers) north of Sarasota and had maximum sustained winds of 115 mph (185 kph), the hurricane center reported. It was moving east-northeast at 15 mph (28 kph), slowing slightly from earlier in the afternoon.

    Heavy rain and tornadoes lashed parts of southern Florida starting Wednesday morning, with conditions deteriorating throughout the day. Six to 12 inches (15 to 31 centimeters) of rain, with up to 18 inches (46 centimeters) in some places, was expected well inland, bringing the risk of catastrophic flooding.

    One twister touched down Wednesday morning in the lightly populated Everglades and crossed Interstate 75. Another apparent tornado touched down in Fort Myers, snapping tree limbs and tearing a gas station’s canopy to shreds.

    Authorities have issued mandatory evacuation orders across 15 Florida counties with a total population of about 7.2 million people. Officials warned that anyone staying behind must fend for themselves, because first responders were not expected to risk their lives attempting rescues at the height of the storm.

    St. Petersburg Mayor Ken Welch told residents to expect long power outages and the possible shutdown of the sewer system.

    In Charlotte Harbor, about 100 miles (160 kilometers) south of Tampa, clouds swirled and winds gusted as Josh Parks packed his Kia sedan with clothes and other belongings. Two weeks ago, Helene’s surge brought about 5 feet of water to the neighborhood, and its streets remain filled with waterlogged furniture, torn-out drywall and other debris.

    Parks, an auto technician, planned to flee to his daughter’s home inland and said his roommate already left.

    “I told her to pack like you aren’t coming back,” he said.

    By early afternoon, airlines had canceled about 1,900 flights. SeaWorld was closed all day Wednesday, and Walt Disney World and Universal Orlando shut down in the afternoon.

    More than 60% of gas stations in Tampa and St. Petersburg were out of gas Wednesday afternoon, according to GasBuddy. DeSantis said the state’s overall supply was fine, and highway patrol officers were escorting tanker trucks to replenish the supply.

    In the Tampa Bay area’s Gulfport, Christian Burke and his mother stayed put in their three-story concrete home overlooking the bay. Burke said his father designed this home with a Category 5 in mind — and now they’re going to test it.

    As a passing police vehicle blared encouragement to evacuate, Burke acknowledged staying isn’t a good idea and said he’s “not laughing at this storm one bit.”

    ___

    Contributing to this report were Associated Press journalists Holly Ramer in New Hampshire; Joseph Frederick in West Bradenton, Florida; Curt Anderson in Tampa; Freida Frisaro in Fort Lauderdale; Brenden Farrington in Tallahassee; Michael Goldberg in Minneapolis; Patrick Whittle in Portland, Maine; Jeff Martin in Atlanta and Christopher L. Keller in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

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  • A federal judge will hear more evidence on whether to reopen voter registration in Georgia

    A federal judge will hear more evidence on whether to reopen voter registration in Georgia

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    ATLANTA — At least for now, a federal judge won’t order the state of Georgia to reopen voter registration for November’s elections.

    U.S. District Judge Eleanor Ross ruled after a Wednesday hearing that three voting rights groups haven’t yet done enough to prove that damage and disruptions from Hurricane Helene unfairly deprived people of the opportunity to register last week. Monday was Georgia’s registration deadline. Instead, Ross set another hearing for Thursday to consider more evidence and legal arguments.

    Ross questioned whether the groups proved they suffered injuries, noting the plaintiffs haven’t yet produced a single person who says they were unable to register to vote because of the storm.

    “You didn’t bring me close enough to see the injury,” Ross said in denying the plaintiffs’ request.

    State officials and the state Republican Party argue it would be a heavy burden on counties to order them to register additional voters as they prepare for early in-person voting to begin next Tuesday.

    The lawsuit was filed by the Georgia conference of the NAACP, the Georgia Coalition for the People’s Agenda and the New Georgia Project. All three groups say they had to cancel voter registration activities last week. Historically, there’s a spike in Georgia voter registrations just before the deadline, the plaintiffs said.

    “Because these voters could not register by the Oct. 7 deadline, they will be deprived of the fundamental right to vote,” said Amir Badat, a lawyer from the NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund who represents the plaintiffs.

    Georgia has 8.2 million registered voters, according to online records from Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger’s office. But with Georgia’s presidential race having been decided by only 12,000 votes in 2020, a few thousand votes could make a difference in whether Republican Donald Trump or Democrat Kamala Harris wins the state’s 16 electoral votes.

    The groups say the storm kept people from registering online because of widespread power and internet outages and kept people from registering in person because at least 37 county election offices were closed for parts of last week. They also note mail service was suspended for a time in 27 counties, including the cities of Augusta, Savannah, Statesboro, Dublin and Vidalia.

    Closed offices and delayed mail are especially important for people who don’t have state identification cards and must register in person or by mail, said Julie Houk of the Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights Under Law.

    Houk said county elections offices understandably closed for the hurricane despite state law requiring them to be open.

    “On the other hand, the state wants to strictly construe its deadline against people who will lose the fundamental right to vote,” she said.

    Senior Assistant Attorney General Elizabeth Young said a recent U.S. Supreme Court case limits the ability of associations to bring these kind of lawsuits. She also argued the plaintiffs should be suing county election officials since they have the primary responsibility to process voter registration applications. She said neither Raffensperger nor Gov. Brian Kemp, the named defendants, have the power to extend voter registration deadlines.

    Young said the voting rights groups and anyone who wanted to register were hurt by the hurricane, not by government action.

    “They have not identified a single plaintiff they claim has been harmed by the failure to register to vote,” she said, adding that counties “do not need this additional burden placed on them.”

    Young and Brad Carver, a lawyer for the state and national Republican Party, both argued that people could have registered earlier.

    “We must point out that the registration period had been open for a very long time,” Carver said. “This court must consider that people could have registered for many, many months.”

    A federal judge in Florida denied a request to reopen voter registration in that state after hearing arguments Wednesday. The plaintiffs are considering whether to appeal. The lawsuit brought by the Florida chapters of the League of Women Voters and NAACP contends that thousands of people may have missed the registration deadline because they were recovering from Helene or preparing to evacuate from Milton.

    A court in South Carolina extended that state’s registration deadline after Helene, and courts in Georgia and Florida did extend registration deadlines after 2016’s Hurricane Matthew. In North Carolina, which was more heavily impacted by Hurricane Helene, the registration deadline isn’t until Friday. Voters there can also register and cast a ballot simultaneously during the state’s early in-person voting period, which runs from Oct. 17 through Nov. 2.

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