The News Not Noise Letter: Hundreds Missing After Helene
Efforts underway to save rural Americans trapped by Helene. Plus: A remarkable abortion ruling, and don’t hoard supplies (yet).
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We’ve got a lot of breaking news.
Today we start with a longer report on the devastation across the Southeast after Hurricane Helene, including resources to donate if you’re so inclined. You’ll find the rest of the headlines toward the bottom of today’s newsletter.
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Helene’s Devastation
All weekend I watched with horror as many of you shared images and stories of the devastation caused by Hurricane Helene. The storm made landfall Thursday as a Category 4 hurricane. At least 128 deaths are reported. 600 people remain unaccounted for. FEMA says they are still working to bring search and rescue crews to communities isolated by destroyed roads, failed power, water and cell service. If you have a missing loved one, they urge you to call 211 and report their last known location. FEMA’s administrator says your call could make all the difference.
North Carolina:
Latest Death Toll: 47+
In Appalachian western North Carolina residents are trapped in place by fallen trees, landslides, downed bridges and destroyed roads and historic flooding. Hundreds of thousands of people remain without power, safe running water, or cell service. 40 of the deaths reported in North Carolina so far were in Buncombe County, where Asheville is located. Community members volunteered to bag groceries at a Publix in Weaverville which had generators, and the checkout lines extended all the way down every aisle. Many gas stations were closed, lacking electricity to power their pumps, and at the few regional stations with working pumps, lines stretched for blocks. One downtown Asheville hotel, the Moxy, had working wifi. Dozens of people gathered outside the lobby, connecting for 1-2 minutes at a time in hopes of getting a message through to their loved ones. FEMA and North Carolina’s National Guard are deployed and working to reach those still in need.
South Carolina:
Latest Death Toll: 30+
South Carolina’s western region was inundated by Helene’s heavy rains, with some areas receiving over one foot of rain. Hundreds of thousands remain without power. The state’s National Guard has been deployed to assist in clearing roads and distributing aid.
Georgia:
Latest Death Toll: 25+
Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp visited Valdosta in Helene’s aftermath, where he said “it looks like a bomb went off.” Like South Carolina, parts of Georgia received over a foot of rain. Harsh winds and heavy rain sheared through 159 counties in Georgia, and hundreds of thousands remain without power. Kemp said Helene was “unlike any other storm I think we’ve ever faced,” and anticipates the recovery effort will need to be equally unprecedented. (Georgia is additionally impacted by an unrelated chemical fire in Conyers which is also drawing an emergency response.)
Florida:
Latest Death Toll: 13+
Helene made landfall in Florida’s sparsely-populated Big Bend region, though flooding and strong winds were felt throughout the state. Some parts of Florida saw a 16-foot storm surge. The Tampa Bay area was most heavily impacted with homes, streets, and businesses flooded. Six locations in Florida logged their highest-ever storm surges.
Tennessee:
Latest Death Toll: 5+
Dozens were rescued from a hospital rooftop in Erwin, Tennessee after the state’s eastern region was flooded. Over 100 remain unaccounted for in the state, and thousands do not have clean running water.
Virginia:
Latest Death Toll: 2+
Most of Virginia escaped the brunt of Helene, but its Appalachian regions bordering North Carolina and Tennessee saw severe flooding and damaging winds. Hundreds of thousands in southwest Virginia remain without power.
Note: Even a high-functioning government takes time for emergency response when roads are destroyed. We wish we had more information about all the areas in need but information is coming in slowly. If you have video, stories or resources to share please do so and we will post on Instagram. Moody’s estimates the storm could cost up to $26 billion.
Donation Resources (find more in IG stories):
Here are your headlines:
Judge Strikes Down Georgia Abortion Ban: On Monday, Fulton County Superior Judge Robert McBurney ruled Georgia’s six-week abortion ban unconstitutional. Abortion is now legal in Georgia for up to 22 weeks. In a 26-page opinion, McBurney wrote that the “liberty of privacy” protects women’s right to “choose whether they serve as human incubators,” continuing, “it is not for a legislator, a judge, or a Commander from The Handmaid’s Tale to tell these women what to do with their bodies during this period when the fetus cannot survive outside the womb any more so than society could – or should – force them to serve as a human tissue bank or to give up a kidney for the benefit of another.” National Right to Life put out a statement calling the decision “an act that defies reason” and denounced McBurney for making “rulings based on his own beliefs rather than the law and higher court judgments.” Expect the decision to be appealed.
Trump: I Know You Are But What Am I? With 5 weeks left until the election, Trump is stepping up his name-calling and fabricated claims. In hurricane-impacted Valdosta, GA, he falsely claimed that Gov. Kemp could not reach President Biden to which Biden replied, “he’s lying.” The head of FEMA told CNN they’ve been in touch with the governor of every impacted state and have 3000 federal assets already on the ground. At a rally in Erie, PA on Sunday, Trump alleged that Kamala Harris is “mentally impaired” and that she should be “impeached and prosecuted.” Reminder: Trump has been impeached twice, convicted of felonies, and currently faces prosecution. At the same rally, he claimed that climate change is “one of the greatest scams of all time.” Project 2025 would defund the National Flood Insurance program that provides affordable flood insurance for high-risk homes.
VP Debate: J.D. Vance is preparing for tomorrow’s VP debate with Minnesota Rep. Tom Emmer playing the role of Tim Walz.
Harris: Say It to My Face, Redux: To no one’s surprise, the New York Times Editorial Board endorsed Harris, calling her “the only patriotic choice for president.” Today, Harris cut her campaigning short to head to DC, where she was briefed at FEMA headquarters on hurricane response. During campaign stops along the West Coast this weekend, VP Harris continued to taunt Trump about his refusal to agree to a second debate.
VP Debate: Tim Walz is preparing for tomorrow’s VP Debate with Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg standing in for Vance. CNN reports Walz is “nervous” as the campaign works to set low expectations he can outperform. (See how that works?)
Looming Port Strike: 45,000 dock workers from the East Coast to the Gulf of Mexico are poised to strike Tuesday if a deal is not reached by the Oct 1 deadline. The walk-off could cost the economy “billions of dollars a day.” Biden could block a strike by invoking the Taft-Hartley Act, but administration officials say he doesn’t plan to do so. Longshoremen are demanding a limit on automation and a $5-an-hour raise each year over 6 years, bringing them to $69/hour.
Don’t Panic-Buy or Hoard: A trusted NNN member and supply chain expert tells us there is ample inventory on shore and people should not stock up and hoard supplies. She said suppliers will move deliveries to West Coast ports and some big retailers have 85% of the goods they need through the holiday. She said we can start to worry about holiday impacts if the strike lasts more than 2 weeks. New York Gov. Kathy Hochul also said on Monday that shortages were not expected and consumers do not need to stockpile food.
Middle East: Israel has launched a “limited ground operation” in Lebanon targeting militant infrastructure near the Israeli border. The IDF warned residents in southern Beirut to evacuate. On Sunday, Israel bombed power plants in the Yemeni port city of Hodeidah to retaliate against Iranian-backed Houthis, who have fired missiles into Israel. The attacks caused fireball explosions.
Also this weekend two US airstrikes in Syria killed 37 militants with reported affiliations to al Qaeda and ISIS. US Central Command says this will “disrupt ISIS' capability” to attack the US and its allies.