hello. Welcome back to Emergency. My name is Zoya Teirstein. We have heard this many times. Despite what the science says, climate change does not rank high among Americans’ priorities at the ballot box. But when we launched this series in August, we realized that climate change disaster It can affect voting and elections locally as well as nationally. We saw evidence of that in Hurricane Helene.
Two weeks ago, a Category 4 storm carved a deadly path as it swept through the southeastern United States. This was the first major disaster in U.S. history to hit two swing states, Georgia and North Carolina, just weeks before the presidential election.
“All the tinfoil hats saying the government controls the weather now feel validated because even Marjorie Taylor Greene said so.”
— Rachel Goldwasser, Southern Poverty Law Center
Former President Donald Trump said this on social media and during a trip to the disaster area: A series of fake claims In response to the federal response to the storm, President Joe Biden ignored Georgia’s Republican Governor Brian Kemp’s request for federal assistance and falsely claimed that the Biden administration, particularly Vice President Kamala Harris, had spent FEMA money on housing for illegal immigrants. .
Trump surrogates like Georgia’s far-right representative, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, and conspiracy theorist Alex Jones, aided by an army of online bots, have helped fuel a flood of disinformation about Helen and her origins. FEMA contributed to the following claims: We are confiscating community donated items. “That’s right. They can control the weather.” Greene Posted in Last week, the government justified a viral plot that it targeted hurricanes at Republican counties to overturn the presidential election.
“We’ve moved into a space where conspiracy thinking has become mainstream,” said Rachel Goldwasser, who tracks far-right activity and disinformation at the nonprofit Southern Poverty Law Center. “All the tinfoil hats saying the government controls the weather now feel validated because even Marjorie Taylor Greene said so.”
Online conspiracies have real consequences. False reports of FEMA and federal assistance efforts are overwhelming the real information needed to begin the recovery process in Western North Carolina and other affected states, and false claims of government misconduct have far-reaching implications. Goldwasser said there is correct militia activity going on in the area. There have been multiple reports that the neo-fascist militant group Proud Boys is active in North Carolina and Tennessee.
Roxanne Brooks plants an American flag on a pile of concrete blocks outside her friend’s destroyed mobile home (right) in the aftermath of Hurricane Helen flooding in Swannanoa, North Carolina.
Mario Tama/Getty Images
Meanwhile, election officials in western North Carolina are struggling to find ways to allow residents to vote during the early voting period and on Nov. 5. Several polling places are closed and the U.S. Postal Service is unable to deliver mail. Washed-out roads and damaged vehicles have put several ZIP codes on the ballot. “This storm is like nothing we’ve ever seen in our lifetime in western North Carolina,” Karen Brinson Bell, one of the state’s top election officials, said last week.
On Monday, the North Carolina Election Commission voted unanimously Relaxes voting rules in counties hardest hit by storms. Thirteen counties in the western part of the state could develop new early voting procedures, establish more polling places and appoint new poll workers if existing poll workers are unable to serve.
“Early voting will continue, although it may look different in some of the 13 hardest-hit counties,” Brinson Bell told reporters. Read full story Learn how Helene can influence voting in North Carolina.
Milton approaches
“There is no good scenario.”
— Jeff BerardelliChief Meteorologist at WFLA, Tampa Bay’s NBC affiliate.
Hurricane Milton exploded to Category 5 intensity yesterday as it barreled east across the Gulf of Mexico toward Florida. The exact path of the storm is still unclear, but most models predict it will make landfall tomorrow in or near Tampa Bay, one of the most vulnerable cities in the United States to hurricane storm surge. The city hasn’t seen direct damage from a hurricane in over a century, but if Milton lands in the wrong spot, the bay will act as a sort of funnel for the storm surge, sending a massive wall of water into the heart of the city. The largest metropolitan area in Korea.
Hurricane Milton on Monday, October 7, 2024 at 16:30.
CIRA/NOAA
To make matters worse, coastal communities in West Florida are still recovering from post-Helen chaos. Thousands of tons of debris are strewn along roads, flooded residents are soiling their homes, and FEMA began distributing relocation assistance to storm victims last month. Gov. Ron DeSantis sent many of the state’s rescue and repair crews to North Carolina last week to help respond to the disaster, but recalled those crews over the weekend and is now working to clear as much debris as possible before Milton makes landfall. .
My colleague Matt Simon explains more about how Milton gained power so quickly. Read the full story here.
— jake beetle
What we’re reading
Presidential candidates are taking the following steps to respond to disaster situations: Donald Trump and Kamala Harris visited areas affected by Hurricane Helen last week, with President Trump touring the devastation in Valdosta, Georgia, and Harris touring the devastation in North Carolina. We investigated the village. Each candidate criticized the other for not doing enough to help storm victims.
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FEMA is running out of money: President Joe Biden returned to Washington over the weekend to urge Congress to pass legislation to replenish FEMA’s depleted disaster relief fund. The agency has said it lacks the resources to respond to a large-scale disaster like Hurricane Milton, but House Speaker Mike Johnson said Sunday he would not commit to calling lawmakers back.read more
Helene and Manufactured Homes: When Hurricane Helen made landfall in Florida’s Big Bend, it struck an area where much of the housing stock consists of mobile and manufactured homes, making it highly vulnerable to wind and flood damage. These homes, which are not subject to local building codes, are a last resort for residents who can’t find affordable housing and a loophole for those who can’t afford to build to hurricane standards.read more
Who will pay for Helen?: Preliminary damage estimates from Hurricane Helene suggest the storm could cost more than $200 billion, but almost none of those losses will be covered by insurance. That’s because traditional homeowners insurance does not cover flood damage, and most people in North Carolina and other inland states do not purchase supplemental flood insurance.read more
A word from Al Gore: My colleague Kate Yoder sat down with former Vice President Al Gore at Climate Week to share his thoughts on where we stand in the climate fight. that an inconvenient truth The producer, who narrowly lost the 2000 election, said he was surprised by how difficult it was to achieve climate change. I believe this is due to the power of the oil and gas lobby.read more
DeSantis is avoiding Harris. As Category 5 Hurricane Milton approaches Tampa, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, a Republican, is dodging Vice President Kamala Harris’ calls for help in the state’s storm recovery, NBC News reported. The vice president’s call “appeared to be political,” a DeSantis aide said. DeSantis decided twice last week not to meet with President Joe Biden, who was in Florida to assess the damage.read more
