It’s possible that I shall make an ass of myself. But in that case one can always get out of it with a little dialectic. I have, of course, so worded my proposition as to be right either way (K.Marx, Letter to F.Engels on the Indian Mutiny)
Tuesday, October 08, 2024
Hurricane Milton One Of The Strongest Storms Ever Recorded In Atlantic Basin; Threat Has Residents Fleeing & Disney World Resort Closing Some Attractions – Update
Tom Tapp Tue 8 October 2024
UPDATED, 1:20 a.m. PT: Hurricane Milton has officially became one of the strongest storms ever recorded in the Atlantic Basin. Milton’s maximum sustained winds reached 180 mph late Monday, then declined to 155 mph as the storm skimmed across the top of Cancun, Mexico. It is now a Category 4 cyclone and expected explode in size as it approaches Florida, making landfall as a Category 3 major hurricane.
More important than windspeed — and meteorologists say more accurate — is the storm’s barometric pressure. Pressure more accurately predicts damage from storm surge, inland flooding and tornadoes as well as storm size or storm duration over a community.
To that point, Milton’s pressure dropped to 897 millibars on Monday night. That’s the fifth-lowest reading ever seen in the Atlantic Basin. The other storms in that group are Rita in 2005 at 895 mb, the Labor Day Hurricane of 1935 at 892 mb, Gilbert in 1988 at 888 mb and Wilma in 2005 at 882 mb. Since dropping to 897, Milton’s pressure has since come up to 924 mb.
For a sense of the storm’s power as it brushed past Cancun, see the video below of conditions there on Monday night.
Walt Disney World Resort on Monday announced the first closures as Milton barrels toward Florida. Some attractions are expected to be closed for days after the storm, according to a WDW statement.
Resort officials say they are “closely monitoring the path of the projected storm, and the safety of our Guests and Cast Members remains our top priority.” While Walt Disney World Resort announced on Monday that it “is currently operating under normal conditions and will continue to be on Tuesday,” officials have just announced the first “Looking ahead, we are making “adjustments based on the latest weather forecast and some areas with unique environments.”
Those are:
Disney’s Fort Wilderness Resort & Campground (including dining and recreation locations), the Copper Creek Cabins at Disney’s Wilderness Lodge, and the Treehouse Villas at Disney’s Saratoga Springs Resort & Spa will temporarily close beginning at 11:00 AM on Wednesday, Oct. 9.
Disney’s Fort Wilderness Resort & Campground and the Treehouse Villas at Disney’s Saratoga Springs Resort & Spa are likely to remain closed until Sunday, Oct. 13.
The Copper Creek Cabins at Disney’s Wilderness Lodge will likely reopen on Friday, Oct. 11.
The resort’s cancellation or change policy in regard to hurricanes reads as follows:
If a hurricane warning is issued by the National Hurricane Center for the Orlando area—or for your place of residence—within 7 days of your scheduled arrival date, you may reschedule or cancel your Walt Disney Travel Company Disney Resort hotel packages and most room only reservations (booked directly with Disney) without any cancellation or change fees imposed by Disney.
The NWS announced on Monday evening that Orlando (and much of the rest of west and central Florida) is currently under a Hurricane Warning, which means that hurricane conditions are expected.
In 2022, much of Walt Disney World closed for three days as Hurricane Ian brought gusts of 74 mph to Orlando International Airport and 14 inches of rain to the region. Universal Orlando also closed. Flooding was a major issue and, with airports closed, WDW had some guests shelter in place through the storm. Guests trapped inside its resort hotels had the makings of a horror movie. Instead, WDW castmembers’ above-and-beyond care for those guests was a bright spot in our related coverage.
How Milton impacts the parks remains to be seen. But Florida’s governor is not expecting sunshine.
“We have to assume this is going to be a monster,” said Florida Governor Ron DeSantis at a Monday briefing on Hurricane Milton preparations.
As the storm hit sustained winds of 180 mph on Monday, Milton’s sustained wind speed had jumped 100 mph in 24 hours as it went from tropical storm to Cat. 5 hurricane in near-record time. According to the National Hurricane Service, only Wilma in 2005 and Felix in 2007 intensified more quickly.
As a result, states of emergency have been declared in counties across the state as residents and visitors begin to evacuate. Sporting events are being postponed and some WDW-adjacent Florida theme parks are being closed. Donald Trump’s scheduled town hall with Univision was also postponed.
In Winter Haven Florida just north of Orlando, Peppa Pig Theme Park will shutter today through Thursday, October 10. Hotel operations will continue with limited capacity. The park also closed down during Helene. Nearby LEGOLAND Florida will be closed on Wednesday, October 9 through Thursday, October 10. Hotel operations there will also continue with limited capacity.
DeSantis, for his part, said the federal government has given him everything he has asked for, rebutting media questions seeking to identify any friction between the combative GOP governor and the Biden Administration. He also noted that emergency personnel were coming from as far away as rival Gavin Newsom’s California.
DeSantis said a state of emergency had been declared in 51 counties, including Hillsborough, Pinellas, Pasco, Miami-Dade, Broward, Orange and Osceola (the major Orlando resorts are located in the latter two counties).
Milton is expected to slam into Florida near Tampa at around 8 p.m. Wednesday.
The storm is expected to weaken further before it makes landfall, likely still as a Category 3 major hurricane. Even that would be a historic, unprecedented landfall for the vulnerable Tampa Bay region. Weather Channel meteorologists noted Monday afternoon that storms that start at Cat. 5 and weaken just before landfall are often very large and very destructive, even though they’ve lost wind velocity. That was the case with Hurricane Katrina.
Per the latest NWS forecast at 4 p.m. ET on Monday: “Radar data indicate that Milton could be at the beginning of an eyewall replacement cycle, with some signs of a moat and a partial outer eyewall. The evolution will likely cause the system to gradually weaken on Tuesday but grow larger.”
The top sustained winds ever for a cyclone in the region were recorded in 1980 with Hurricane Allen. Its winds were estimated to have reached 190 mph before it slackened and made landfall in Texas.
A Hurricane Watch is in effect for the Florida Gulf coast from Chokoloskee to the mouth of the Suwanee River, including Tampa Bay, Dry Tortugas and Lake Okeechobee near palm beach. Nearly the entire state of Florida — besides the Panhandle — is under a Flash Flood Watch. A Storm Surge Warning is in effect for the Florida Gulf coast from Flamingo northward to the mouth of the Suwannee River, including Charlotte Harbor and Tampa Bay. Many of those areas are still piled with debris and wreckage from Helene.
This is Anna Maria Island, near Tampa, after Helene. A complete loss- looks like a bomb went off. The residents didn’t have time to clear this debris before having to evacuate again for Hurricane Milton, which will be a major hurricane when it hits on Wednesday. Heart breaking. pic.twitter.com/YbCJbYBXVc
Smack in the middle of Milton’s current predicted path is Tampa Bay and its barrier islands.
“The combination of a dangerous storm surge and the tide will cause normally dry areas near the coast to be flooded by rising waters moving inland from the shoreline,” a NWS statement read. “The water could reach the following heights above ground somewhere in the indicated areas if the peak surge occurs at the time of high tide…”
The NWS updated its surge forecast for the west coast of Florida this evening, moving Tampa Bay and environs from 8-12 feet to 10-15 feet.
For comparison, Hurricane Helene brought a maximum storm surge of eight feet to the barrier islands around Tampa Bay. That was less that two weeks ago. Now, the region could see a column of water very close to double that stacked across some low-lying areas.
The deadliest hurricane in the Tampa region’s recorded history was a Cat. 3 storm that hit in October of 1921. It killed eight people. At the time, the population of the area was about 120,000, according to reporting by the New York Times. Its current population is three million.
In recent history, Tampa Bay has dodged major impacts. That will no longer be the case after Milton.
“We are telling people this will be like the worst hurricane in their lifetime in Tampa Bay,” Rick Davis, a meteorologist at the National Weather Service in Tampa, told the paper.
Tampa International Airport will close at 9 a.m. today and St. Pete-Clearwater Airport will close after the last flight today and remain closed Wednesday and Thursday, according to the Orlando Sentinel.
In Orlando, which is inland but also directly in the predicted path of the storm, a local state of emergency has been declared in the city. Orlando International Airport and Orlando Executive Airport announced they will cease operations in advance of Hurricane Milton beginning Wednesday morning.
Even as Milton weakens it will scour the state. The inland region is likely to see hurricane-force winds.
“Milton is forecast to remain a hurricane as it crosses the Florida Peninsula and life-threatening hurricane-force winds, especially in gusts, are expected to spread inland across a portion of the entire Florida Peninsula,” according to the 4 p.m. ET NWS forecast on Monday.
While NWS graphics released Sunday put Orlando on the edge of the swath at moderate risk of flash flooding (see below for that archived graphic), Monday’s update (see above) puts the city and most of Northern Florida in that category.
The Weather Channel today reported traffic on the I-4 at a standstill heading north as residents and visitors begin evacuating. Video posted online showed the backup.
The current color-coded map of evacuation orders issued by Florida Governor Ron DeSantis is below.
Further south near Fort Lauderdale, the NHL champion Florida Panthers postponed their ring ceremony which had been set for today out of an abundance of caution.
UPDATED, 6:43 AM: Hurricane Milton has intensified into a Category 4 hurricane, with a dangerous surge threatening Tampa Bay.
In a briefing this morning, the National Weather Service said that Milton will be a historic storm for the west coast of Florida and that its path includes Tampa and Orlando.
PREVIOUSLY, October 6: Ten days after the Southeast was wracked by Helene, one the deadliest storms in modern history, the National Weather Service today forecast that newly formed Hurricane Milton is headed toward Central Florida and could impact the entire state.
“Milton is forecast to move just north of the Yucatan Peninsula and across the southern Gulf of Mexico on Monday and Tuesday and approach the west coast of the Florida Peninsula by Wednesday,” reads a NWS report.
“Maximum sustained winds have increased to near 90 mph (150 km/h) with higher gusts. Milton is forecast to intensify rapidly and become a major hurricane on Monday.”
That means Milton will shift from a tropical storm to a Cat. 3 hurricane in the space of 24 hours. Cat. 3 on the Saffir-Simpson Scale means winds of 111-129 mph. Per the NWS, “The official intensity forecast…shows Milton rapidly strengthening to category 4 intensity within the next couple of days.” Thankfully, it is expected to weaken slightly before reaching the west coast of Florida. According to the chart below, it is expected to make landfall as a major hurricane, likely Cat. 3.
Hurricane-force winds currently extend outward up to 25 miles from the center and tropical-storm-force winds up to 80 miles out.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said Sunday that most of the state will likely be impacted. He has declared a state of emergency in 51 counties, including Hillsborough, Pinellas, Pasco, Miami-Dade and Broward.
“I don’t think there’s any scenario where we don’t have significant impacts at this point,” he said at a news conference. “If you’re on that west coast of Florida and barrier islands, just assume that you likely are going to be called upon to evacuate.”
Unnamed hurricanes of 1909, 1910, 1929, 1933, 1945, and 1949 were all Category 3 storms when they struck South Florida, as were King of 1950, Betsy of 1965, Jeanne of 2004, and Irma of 2017. Milton would be the third hurricane to hit the state this year.
The current forecast cone, which could change drastically in the next two days, has Milton making landfall just south of Tampa Bay which just 10 days ago saw a storm surge of eight feet on some of the barrier islands in and around Pinellas County. Local officials there are desperately trying to clean up debris from Helene so they don’t become airborne or floodborne projectiles.
Officials told the Tampa Bay Times that Milton could be far worse than Helene. Sewage systems and power could be out for weeks, according to the paper’s reporting.
DeSantis warned in a statement posted to social media that the storm threatens more than just the state’s west coast.
“Impacts will be felt across the Florida peninsula, as Milton is forecasted to exit Florida’s east coast as a hurricane,” wrote the governor.
In a news conference with the governor, Florida Division of Emergency Management Director Kevin Guthrie told residents, “I highly encourage you to evacuate. We are preparing, and I have the State Emergency Response Team preparing, for the largest evacuation that we have seen most likely since 2017 Hurricane Irma.”
'I highly encourage you to evacuate': State officials say they are planning for what may be the largest evacuation Florida has seen since Hurricane Irma in 2017. MORE: https://t.co/BNR4Pido38pic.twitter.com/5JALWaRK9t
The storm’s current projected path takes it over Orlando, with the region and its theme parks just on the edge of the greatest projected risk of flash flooding over the next five days, at 40%. During Helene, Walt Disney World and Universal Orlando mostly stayed open, closing only a few outdoor attractions.
Peppa Pig Theme Park Florida closed its doors on September 27, after the storm damaged attractions at the preschool experience. SeaWorld Orlando shut at 2 p.m on the 26th. Busch Gardens Tampa, Adventure Island, and Aquatica Orlando also shut down that day.
Orange and Osceola Counties, in which the parks sit, are among those DeSantis placed under a state of emergency this weekend in anticipation of the storm. Currently, both of the Orlando parks have issued notices that they are currently operating as normal but “closely monitoring” the storm as it develops.
Of note, the low-lying area in and around Miami is also projected to be at the greatest flash flood risk.
Per the NWS, “After crossing Florida, the cyclone should turn east-northeastward to eastward over the Atlantic waters off the southeastern United States.” Currently, it looks set to spare hard-hit western North Carolina.
Greg Evans contributed to this story
'This is just horrific': Meteorologist breaks down as Hurricane Milton rapidly intensifies
RAW STORY October 7, 2024 John Morales of South Florida's NBC 6 forecast on Hurricane Milton (Photo: Screen capture NBC 6 video)
Veteran meteorologist and hurricane expert John Morales of South Florida's NBC 6 became emotional when he examined the latest data on Hurricane Milton as it barreled toward Florida.
Monday afternoon, meteorologists upgraded the storm to a Category 5, the strongest and most powerful hurricane.
"It's just an incredible, incredible, incredible hurricane. It has dropped," he paused as he looked to his left. His head fell as he let out a deep sigh.
"It has dropped 50 millibars in 10 hours, um," he paused, his voice cracking. "I'm sorry. This is just horrific."
The seas are "incredibly hot," which is how the storm would gain strength moving over the Gulf of Mexico.
"You know what's driving this. I don't need to tell you. Global warming, climate change leading to this and becoming an increasing threat for, uh," Morales' voice cracked again as he became emotional.
He went on to give the rest of his report, describing the "dirty side" of the storm, which he said would hit part of the Yucatan Peninsula.
Predictions said that the storm would weaken after it went over the Yucatan, but Morales said that it has gained so much strength that "you're going to find it very difficult for it to be nothing less than a major hurricane."
Tampa zoo rushes Chompers the porcupine and others to safety as Milton nears
Agence France-Presse October 8, 2024 Protect Chompers: zookeepers move the African porcupine into a carrier before carting it to safety ahead of Hurricane Milton (AFP)
With carrots and strawberries, zookeepers lure Chompers the porcupine into an animal carrier, hoping to keep the creature -- and all the rest of the inhabitants of Zoo Tampa -- safe from the fury of Hurricane Milton.
Orangutans watch the flurry of activity before allowing their keepers to move them to safety, while African elephants are herded gently to the protected areas.
Tiffany Burns, director of animal programs at the zoo, says it has a few hurricane-proof buildings where they will move all the animals -- very carefully.
"We hope that the animals have very minimal stress, that's always our goal," the 41-year-old says.
Florida's west coast is still digging out from the devastation of Hurricane Helene, which roared onshore as a Category 4 storm on September 26, causing widespread devastation.
Now, with the debris from Helene still strewn about, the battered region is bracing for Milton -- a potentially catastrophic Category 5 storm taking aim at Tampa. Residents are bracing for the worst storm the city has faced in years -- perhaps a century.
The city of roughly 400,000 people, separated from the Gulf of Mexico by Tampa Bay, faces the worst impact from storm surges and flooding.
Burns explained that staff have tried to maintain a positive attitude as they prepare the zoo, but fear the impact of Milton on their own homes.
"It's really hard to see such a big storm coming back toward us so soon," she says.
They are not alone. - 'Too much' -
Ernst Bontemps boarded up the windows of his medical clinic in the nearby city of St. Petersburg for the second time in two weeks.
"This is too much," sighed the 61-year-old gastroenterologist.
"It's painful because last time we had complete devastation everywhere in St. Petersburg. And here we go again."
The entire Tampa Bay metropolitan area -- which includes the eponymous city, St. Petersburg and Clearwater -- still bears the scars of Helene, which left more than 230 people dead across the southeastern United States.
On Treasure Island, located in the Gulf of Mexico and accessible via a bridge from St. Petersburg, the streets remain littered with debris.
Helene caused flooding in most of the homes and businesses on the island, leading inhabitants to pile up everything damaged by the water in front of their residences, including mattresses, refrigerators, televisions and more.
David Levitsky looked at the pile in front of his own home on the island.
"All this stuff is just wind fodder that's going to just be blowing down the street and hitting who knows what," the 69-year-old retiree said.
Like other Treasure Island residents, Levitsky is trying to protect what little survived Helene before he evacuates.
"Being on the water is a joy, but obviously, with the joy comes a lot of possibilities on the other side of that spectrum," he said.
In St. Petersburg, meanwhile, Bontemps fears that repeat hurricanes are the new normal for this part of Florida.
"I've been here for 22 years and we've never been hit by hurricanes twice in one year," he said.
Busted: Bundy collaborator fueled FEMA conspiracy in Hurricane Helene aftermath
RAW STORY October 8, 2024 Clockwise from upper right: Ammon Bundy, Ryan Bundy, Brian Cavalier, Shawna Cox, Pete Santilli, Jon Ritzheimer, Ryan Payne, Joe O'Shaughnessy
This article was paid for by Raw Story subscribers
Only 30 minutes after billionaire Elon Musk began publicly accusing the federal government of blocking his company from delivering the satellite internet components to the disaster zone in western North Carolina, another extraordinary claim popped up on X.
“NC State Police issue statement that they will start arresting any federal employees trying to hinder rescue operations,” an Arizona man named Joseph O’Shaughnessy wrote on X Oct. 4.
Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg and the Federal Emergency Management Agency, or FEMA, quickly disputed the claim from Musk, who owns both SpaceX and the social media platform X and would speak at Trump’s rally in Butler, Pa. the following day. But O’Shaughnessy’s claim piggy-backing off Musk's post added a new layer to manufactured intrigue: a potential clash between state and federal authorities in a region traumatized by the staggering loss.
The statement is completely false, and it comes from someone with a history of armed confrontation with the FBI and other federal agencies. O’Shaughnessy served prison time for his role in the armed occupation of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge in Oregon in 2016 and was also charged in the standoff at Cliven Bundy’s ranch in 2014.
Prior to his involvement in the Bundy ranch standoff, O’Shaughnessy had been arrested for disorderly conduct, domestic violence and drugs, according to federal prosecutors.
“If you tie back to this guy, you’ll see that nothing reliable comes from that guy,” First Sgt. Christopher Knox, a public information officer for the N.C. State Highway Patrol, told Raw Story. “That’s not a trusted source of information. That information is not true in any way, shape or form.”
Knox pointed out that North Carolina doesn’t even have an agency called “NC State Police.” The claim is even more dubious if one considers that State Highway Patrol in North Carolina is under the command of Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper, an ally of Vice President Kamala Harris. From a purely partisan standpoint, it is unlikely the two agencies would end up in an adversarial position with one another.
O’Shaughnessy did not respond to a request for comment for this story that was forwarded through his lawyer.
While O’Shaughnessy’s post was quickly shot down by X users who pointed out that no such agency exists in North Carolina, it landed within a matrix of false claims by Trump allies that has created a mutually reinforced narrative, belied by the facts on the ground, that the federal government is abandoning the people of western North Carolina.
O’Shaughnessy’s post was reshared 18,000 times, including Trump’s former national security adviser, Michael Flynn, who has a long history of promoting conspiracy theories despite a professional background that requires an ability to separate fact from fantasy astutely.
Before joining the Trump administration, Flynn held the highest military intelligence position as head of the U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency, re-shared O’Shaughnessy’s post, writing: “Finally, some good news!”
Flynn, who has persistently used his X account to push apocalyptic messages about the impending breakup of the United States, has also pushed misinformation related to the disaster. During an Oct. 4 interview with right-wing influencer Benny Johnson, Flynn said there were “reports” about “illegals” raping children, while describing the flood-ravaged region as a “warzone.”
Flynn also could not be reached for comment for this story.
Johnson, who interviewed Flynn on his show, was recently employed by a media company alleged by federal prosecutors to be a front for a Russian influence operation. Johnson and other conservative influencers linked to the company have said they were victims of the scheme. During his interview with Flynn on Oct. 4, Johnson echoed many of the same themes as his guest during his opening monologue for the segment, claiming that the federal government has “chosen” immigrants over Trump supporters.
“Our federal government has left you to die in whatever small, inconsequential town that you come from because you are a Trump voter, because you support MAGA, because you are America first,” he said.
Flynn wasn’t the only one who greeted O’Shaughnessy’s bogus claim about a state law enforcement agency challenging the federal government.
Gianna Miceli, who co-hosts a podcast that promotes sovereign citizen ideology, enthused: “Now we have a jurisdiction war happening! What a great time for people to learn some lessons about who is the government and who is not.”
“Exactly,” O’Shaughnessy responded.
In another reply to O’Shaughnessy’s thread, Miceli falsely claimed: “FEMA is a private for-profit corporation. It is not government.”
O’Shaughnessy’s false claim that a state agency in North Carolina is threatening to arrest federal agents in the run-up to the 2024 presidential election fits a pattern with not only his involvement in the 2014 Bundy ranch standoff and 2016 Malheur occupation, but also the effort to overturn the 2020 election.
Bundy ranch, Malheur occupation and Stop the Steal 2020
O’Shaughnessy was described in a federal indictment in response to the Bundy ranch standoff as a “mid-level leader and organizer of the conspiracy who, among other things: organized gunmen and other followers; led gunmen and other followers in the assault and extortion of federal law enforcement at the impound site; organized protection for members of the criminal enterprise; and organized armed patrols and security checkpoints.”
Similarly, federal prosecutors would later describe O’Shaughnessy as a “mid-level organizer” of the Malheur occupation. In a video interview during the occupation, according to the criminal complaint, O’Shaughnessy said: “I’m right now in the process of trying to set up a constitutional security protection force to make sure these federal agents and these law enforcement don’t just come in here like cowboys.”
O’Shaughnessy pleaded guilty to conspiracy to impede federal officers for his conduct during the Malheur occupation, but the government dismissed charges in the Bundy ranch case. O’Shaughnessy was sentenced to time served, and reportedly spent one year and nine months in custody for the two cases.
O’Shaughnessy has described Roger Stone, a political consultant and longtime confidant of Trump, as a “hero and a mentor.” Like Flynn, Stone was pivotal in mobilizing a pressure campaign to overturn the 2020 election. Immediately following the 2020 election, Stone privately strategized with Flynn, the Washington Post reported.
O’Shaughnessy’s Instagram account shows that he was with Stone during a dinner in Florida with Stop the Steal organizer Ali Alexander in November 2020. Another post shows dated Dec. 11, 2020, the eve of the pro-Trump Jericho March rally in Washington, D.C. includes a photo that shows Stone drinking with InfoWars conspiracy trafficker Alex Jones.
It is unclear what, if anything, O’Shaughnessy discussed with Stone, Jones and Alexander when they met on those two occasions.
A false claim that evolved out of Elon Musk’s dustup with FEMA
In his false post about state law enforcement threatening to arrest their counterparts last week, O’Shaughnessy appears to have taken a cue from Nick Sortor, a right-wing videographer who spent the past week in the Asheville area delivering Starlink terminals while producing media assailing the federal government response to the disaster.
In an Oct. 3 X post, Sortor thanked Musk and SpaceX “for bringing us another truckload of Starlinks. A photo in the post shows an officer wearing a North Carolina State Highway Patrol uniform holding a box labeled “Starlink,” while a video shows police vehicles that appear to be providing an escort for Sortor down a winding mountain road.
The following day, Sortor replied to Musk’s post accusing FEMA of preventing his engineers from allowing him to deliver supplies. In his reply, Sortor appears to reference the State Highway Patrol, while using the same misnomer that O’Shaughnessy would later use.
“Let me know where the blockades are and we’ll have the NC State Police move them out of the way,” Sortor wrote. “Already did it once, which is one reason why we have an escort now. FEMA has zero jurisdiction.
“Trust me,” he added. “They’re not going to win this one.”
Twenty-four minutes later, O’Shaughnessy made his post claiming that the “NC State Police” were prepared to start arresting federal agents.
Challenged to substantiate his claim, O’Shaughnessy responded to one detractor by writing, “Calm down stranger danger, my boys were one of the 1st on-scene to bring aid…. I am the source.”
O’Shaughnessy didn’t identify his “boys” on the ground in North Carolina, but on Sunday he praised Sortor for delivering the Starlink terminals, writing, “And everyone, please follow @nicksortor. He’s the one who made it happen.”
Manufacturing a fake turf war between FEMA and state law enforcement doesn’t help the residents of western North Carolina, Christopher Knox, the State Highway Patrol spokesperson, told Raw Story. Instead of relying on dubious accounts on X, Knox recommended that people seek information about the recovery effort from trusted sources such as the NC Department of Public Safety.
“There’s a lot of people hurting and a lot of people looking for resources,” Knox said. “We hate that there’s stuff out there slowing the response. Getting people to the right sources is a big goal of the state of North Carolina.” Jordan Green is a North Carolina-based investigative reporter at Raw Story, covering domestic extremism, efforts to undermine U.S. elections and democracy, hate crimes and terrorism. Prior to joining the staff of Raw Story in March 2021, Green spent 16 years covering housing, policing, nonprofits and music as a reporter and editor at Triad City Beat in North Carolina and Yes Weekly. He can be reached at jordan@rawstory.com. More about Jordan Green.
FEMA administrator continues pushback against false claims as Helene death toll hits 230 North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper, right, and Deanne Criswell, Administrator of the U.S. Federal Emergency Management Agency, await the arrival of Democratic presidential nominee Vice President Kamala Harris for a briefing on the damage from Hurricane Helene, at Charlotte Douglas International Airport, Oct. 5, 2024, in Charlotte, N.C. (AP Photo/Chris Carlson, file)Read More A worker cuts up a tree that impaled itself on a fire hydrant during Hurricane Helene, Friday, Oct. 4, 2024, in the Oak Forest neighborhood of Asheville, N.C. (AP Photo/Jeff Amy) Contractors for Duke Energy rebuild destroyed electrical lines near the Swannanoa River in Asheville, N.C., Friday, Oct. 4, 2024. (AP Photo/Jeff Amy) Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee visits with a volunteer at the East Tennessee Disaster Relief Center, for Hurricane Helene disaster response Monday, Oct. 7, 2024, in Bristol, Tenn. (AP Photo/George Walker IV via Pool) Volunteer Ann Davis speaks with Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee, right, during his visit to the East Tennessee Disaster Relief Center, for Hurricane Helene disaster response Monday, Oct. 7, 2024, in Bristol, Tenn. (AP Photo/George Walker IV via Pool)
BY JOHN RABY AND GABRIELA AOUN ANGUEIRA October 7, 2024
LAKE LURE, N.C. (AP) — The head of the U.S. disaster response agency continued to forcefully push back Monday against false claims and conspiracy theories about her agency’s response to Hurricane Helene as the death toll from the storm continued to climb.
Federal Emergency Management Agency Administrator Deanne Criswell pointed to the agency’s massive, collaborative effort that keeps growing, and she strongly urged residents in hard-hit areas to accept the government’s offer for assistance.
“We have thousands of people on the ground, not just federal, but also our volunteers in the private sector,” Criswell said at a news conference in Asheville, North Carolina. “And frankly, that type of rhetoric is demoralizing to our staff that have left their families to come here and help the people of North Carolina. And we will be here as long as they’re needed.”
On Friday, the agency put out a statement debunking rumors that it will only provide $750 to disaster survivors to support their recovery. Criswell said that initial money helps residents with expenses for medicine or food. She said additional funding will be available to reimburse them for the cost of home repairs, personal items lost, post-hurricane rental units and hotel stays.
“But I can’t give it to them if they don’t apply,” Criswell said. “And if people are afraid to apply, then it is hurting them.”
When asked directly about a circulating claim that FEMA would seize people’s property if they don’t pay back the $750 in within one year, Criswell said that was “absolutely false.”
The cleanup and response to the storm that killed at least 230 people continued Monday, while Milton strengthened rapidly into a Category 5 hurricane on a path toward Florida, the same area battered by Helene less than two weeks ago.
More than 130,000 customers in western North Carolina were still without electricity Monday, according to poweroutage.us.
Also in North Carolina, more than 1,600 local and state search-and-rescue team members have been joined by about 1,700 members of the state National Guard, according to Gov. Roy Cooper’s office.
Meanwhile, the Pentagon said Monday that an additional 500 active-duty troops have been deployed to North Carolina. Maj. Gen. Pat Ryder, the Pentagon press secretary, said troops with advanced technological assets will be arriving, bringing the total number of active-duty forces to about 1,500. The troops are bringing surveillance equipment to allow officials to get a better overview of the region.
Air Force Gen. Gregory Guillot, commander of the North American Aerospace Defense Command, said search-and-rescue aircraft were flying 10-hour sorties providing wellness checks, medical care and evacuations. He called the military’s operations the “most important and honorable mission for us, which is to help fellow citizens.”
Cooper said more than 50 water systems were destroyed or impaired by the storm and that the pace of restoring service varies by community. He said he couldn’t give a specific timeline but said the process might take longer in Asheville and Buncombe County, where at least six dozen people died.
“It’s still going to be a while,” he said.
Cooper also visited the towns of Chimney Rock and Lake Lure in Rutherford County, which both experienced devastating damage.
“We’re going to help western North Carolina come back,” Cooper said as he stood with Lake Lure’s mayor, Carol Pritchett. “It’s too important to our economy, to our state, not to do it.”
Pritchett told Cooper that the tiny town would need all the help it could get. Its sewer and wastewater treatment systems needed complete replacements, and the lake would have to be completely dredged. She estimated the costs would be in the tens of millions of dollars.
“We’re a town of 1,300; we certainly can’t do it on our own,” Pritchett said.
Without restoring major infrastructure, Pritchett said the tourism on which the town depends could not come back.
“The town’s name is Lake Lure. With no lake here, the ‘Lake Lure’ kind of begs the question,” she said.
In South Carolina, officials estimate $250 million has been spent on debris cleanup, infrastructure damage and emergency response. More than 300 homes were destroyed and 5,200 damaged, state Emergency Management Division Director Kim Stenson said Monday.
The state’s largest school district, Greeneville County, plans to reopen Wednesday after shutting down for seven days. The district said it has had to modify bus routes because of blocked roads, closed bridges, sinkholes, and traffic signal outages at major intersections.
In Tennessee, where at least 12 people died from Helene, Gov. Bill Lee on Monday visited Bristol Motor Speedway, now a hub for collecting donations for victims and centralizing other operations in the wake of the flooding. Lee met with coordinators and volunteers who were sorting through donations.
“These are Tennesseans and they’re hurting,” Lee said. “Not only are they hurting, but they’re helping.” ___
Associated Press writers Lolita C. Baldor, Jeffrey Collins and George Walker contributed to this report.
US disaster relief chief blasts false claims about Helene response as a ‘truly dangerous narrative’
President Joe Biden talks with Deanne Criswell, Administrator of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), as he arrives at Greenville-Spartanburg International Airport in Greer, S.C., Wednesday, Oct. 2, 2024, to survey damage from Hurricane Helene. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)
WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. government’s top disaster relief official said Sunday that false claims and conspiracy theories about the federal response to Hurricane Helene — spread most prominently by Donald Trump — are “demoralizing” aid workers and creating fear in people who need recovery assistance.
“It’s frankly ridiculous, and just plain false. This kind of rhetoric is not helpful to people,” said Deanne Criswell, who leads the Federal Emergency Management Agency. “It’s really a shame that we’re putting politics ahead of helping people, and that’s what we’re here to do. We have had the complete support of the state,” she said, referring to North Carolina.
Republicans, led by the former president, have helped foster a frenzy of misinformation over the past week among the communities most devastated by Helene, promoting a number of false claims, including that Washington is intentionally withholding aid to people in Republican areas. Trump accused FEMA of spending all its money to help immigrants who are in the United States illegally, while other critics assert that the government spends too much on Israel, Ukraine and other foreign countries.
“FEMA absolutely has enough money for Helene response right now,” Keith Turi, acting director of FEMA’s Office of Response and Recovery said. He noted that Congress recently replenished the agency with $20 billion, and about $8 billion of that is set aside for recovery from previous storms and mitigation projects.
There also are outlandish theories that include warnings from far-right extremist groups that officials plan to bulldoze storm-damaged communities and seize the land from residents. A falsehood pushed by Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., asserts that Washington used weather control technology to steer Helene toward Republican voters in order to tilt the presidential election toward Democrat Kamala Harris.
Criswell said on ABC’s “This Week” that such baseless claims around the response to Helene, which caused catastrophic damage from Florida into the Appalachian mountains and a death toll that rose Sunday to at least 230, have created a sense of fear and mistrust from residents against the thousands of FEMA employees and volunteers on the ground.
“We’ve had the local officials helping to push back on this dangerous -- truly dangerous narrative that is creating this fear of trying to reach out and help us or to register for help,” she said.
President Joe Biden said in a statement Sunday that his administration “will continue working hand-in-hand with local and state leaders –- regardless of political party and no matter how long it takes.”
Meantime, FEMA is preparing for Hurricane Milton, which rapidly intensified into a Category 1 storm on Sunday as it heads toward Florida.
“We’re working with the state there to understand what their requirements are going to be, so we can have those in place before it makes landfall,” she said.
'Field day for Russia': Ex-Trump staffer slams his 'gross' and 'dangerous' FEMA 'lies'
Daniel Hampton October 7, 2024 A former White House communications director for Donald Trump ripped her old boss Monday over the MAGA leader's falsehoods relating to hurricane response in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene. (Screengrab via CNN)
A former White House communications director for Donald Trump ripped her old boss Monday over the MAGA leader's falsehoods relating to hurricane response in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene.
Alyssa Farah Griffin joined CNN anchor Anderson Cooper on Monday night to discuss the former president's false statements over the weekend that Helene victims were only receiving $750 in disaster relief.
"They send hundreds of billions of dollars to foreign nations. And you know what they're giving our people? 750 bucks," Trump told rally-goers in a clip shared on Cooper's show. He repeated the misleading statement in a second clip as Cooper noted that the $750 is "for immediate need."
"One form of aid, among others, that the government offers," Cooper said, noting the Federal Emergency Management Agency, or FEMA, now has a webpage dedicated to combatting false information.
In a second clip, Trump claims FEMA spent over $1 billion on sheltering "illegal migrants" and said the agency now has "no money" for states reeling from the storm.
Cooper then played a clip of Thom Tillis, the Republican senior senator of North Carolina, who told CBS News' "Face The Nation" that the Biden administration's immigration policies have not affected its hurricane response.
"Not at this time," said Tillis.
When Cooper asked Griffin her reaction to her former boss' remarks, she gave a blunt assessment.
"It's gross, but it's dangerous," she said.
Griffin said FEMA may have been the "most effective" at executing its job of all the agencies she's worked with.
"He knows this information isn't true and it has real-life consequences on the ground," said Griffin.
Volunteers are depressed due to fears they think there's not a need or they're unable to get where they need, she said. Additionally, FEMA is now spending resources to "knock down these lies," and there are people who need help who are being told the're no help to give, when "in fact, there are quite a lot of federal resources out there."
Moreover, America's adversaries "love this," she said.
"This is a field day for Russia and China who are then going to amplify on social media ahead of the election to tear us apart," she said. "Listen, everything becomes politicized a month out from an election, but this is a step further that I've never really seen something like this. When you're dealing with multiple horrible national natural disasters at the same time."
She added: "It shows Donald Trump is willing to go so low."
Water gushes through sand dunes after a rare rainfall in the Sahara desert
SAM METZ and BABA AHMED Updated Tue, October 8, 2024
A rare deluge left blue lagoons amid the palm trees and sand dunes of the Sahara, bringing more water to its drought-stricken regions than many had seen in decades.
A view of lakes caused by heavy rainfall between sand dunes in the desert town of Merzouga, near Rachidia, southeastern Morocco, Wednesday, Oct. 2, 2024. (AP Photo)
Palm trees are reflected in a lake caused by heavy rainfall in the desert town of Merzouga, near Rachidia, southeastern Morocco, Wednesday, Oct. 2, 2024. (AP Photo)
A man gestures as he walks on sand dunes next to a lake caused by heavy rainfall in the desert town of Merzouga, near Rachidia, southeastern Morocco, Wednesday, Oct. 2, 2024. (AP Photo)
Palm trees are flooded in a lake caused by heavy rainfall in the desert town of Merzouga, near Rachidia, southeastern Morocco, Wednesday, Oct. 2, 2024. (AP Photo) A vehicle transports tourists on sand dunes next to a lake caused by heavy rainfall in the desert town of Merzouga, near Rachidia, southeastern Morocco, Wednesday, Oct. 2, 2024. (AP Photo)
The Moroccan government said two days of rainfall in September exceeded yearly averages in several areas that see less than 250 millimeters (10 inches) annually, including Tata, one of the areas hit hardest. In Tagounite, a village about 450 kilometers (280 miles) south of the capital, Rabat, more than 100 millimeters (3.9 inches) was recorded in a 24-hour period.
The storms left striking images of water gushing through the Saharan sands amid castles and desert flora. NASA satellites showed water rushing in to fill Lake Iriqui, a famous lake bed between Zagora and Tata that had been dry for 50 years.
In desert communities frequented by tourists, 4x4s motored through the puddles and residents surveyed the scene in awe.
“It’s been 30 to 50 years since we’ve had this much rain in such a short space of time,” said Houssine Youabeb of Morocco’s General Directorate of Meteorology.
Flooding kills more than 20 people in Morocco and Algeria Such rains, which meteorologists are calling an extratropical storm, may change the course of the region’s weather in months and years to come as the air retains more moisture, causing more evaporation and drawing more storms, Youabeb said.
A view of lakes caused by heavy rainfall between sand dunes in the desert town of Merzouga, near Rachidia, southeastern Morocco, Wednesday, Oct. 2, 2024. (AP Photo) Palm trees are reflected in a lake caused by heavy rainfall in the desert town of Merzouga, near Rachidia, southeastern Morocco, Wednesday, Oct. 2, 2024. (AP Photo)
Six consecutive years of drought have posed challenges for much of Morocco, forcing farmers to leave fields fallow and cities and villages to ration water.
The bounty of rainfall will likely help refill the large groundwater aquifers beneath the desert that are relied upon to supply water in desert communities. The region’s dammed reservoirs reported refilling at record rates throughout September. However, it’s unclear how far September’s rains will go toward alleviating drought. An oasis is reflected in a lake caused by heavy rainfall in the desert town of Merzouga, near Rachidia, southeastern Morocco, Wednesday, Oct. 2, 2024. (AP Photo)
Salmon swim freely in the Klamath River for 1st time in a century after dams removed
Associated Press Mon, October 7, 2024 FILE - The Iron Gate Dam powerhouse and spillway are seen on the lower Klamath River near Hornbrook, Calif., March 2, 2020. (AP Photo/Gillian Flaccus, File)
Researchers determined that Chinook salmon began migrating Oct. 3 into previously inaccessible habitat above the site of the former Iron Gate dam, one of four towering dams demolished as part of a national movement to let rivers return to their natural flow and to restore ecosystems for fish and other wildlife.
“It’s been over one hundred years since a wild salmon last swam through this reach of the Klamath River,” said Damon Goodman, a regional director for the nonprofit conservation group California Trout. “I am incredibly humbled to witness this moment and share this news, standing on the shoulders of decades of work by our Tribal partners, as the salmon return home."
The dam removal project was completed Oct. 2, marking a major victory for local tribes that fought for decades to free hundreds of miles (kilometers) of the Klamath. Through protests, testimony and lawsuits, the tribes showcased the environmental devastation caused by the four hydroelectric dams, especially to salmon.
Scientists will use SONAR technology to continue to track migrating fish including Chinook salmon, Coho salmon and steelhead trout throughout the fall and winter to provide "important data on the river’s healing process,” Goodman said in a statement. “While dam removal is complete, recovery will be a long process.”
Conservation groups and tribes, along with state and federal agencies, have partnered on a monitoring program to record migration and track how fish respond long-term to the dam removals.
As of February, more than 2,000 dams had been removed in the U.S., the majority in the last 25 years, according to the advocacy group American Rivers. Among them were dams on Washington state’s Elwha River, which flows out of Olympic National Park into the Strait of Juan de Fuca, and Condit Dam on the White Salmon River, a tributary of the Columbia.
The Klamath was once known as the third-largest salmon-producing river on the West Coast. But after power company PacifiCorp built the dams to generate electricity between 1918 and 1962, the structures halted the natural flow of the river and disrupted the lifecycle of the region’s salmon, which spend most of their life in the Pacific Ocean but return up their natal rivers to spawn.
The fish population dwindled dramatically. In 2002, a bacterial outbreak caused by low water and warm temperatures killed more than 34,000 fish, mostly Chinook salmon. That jumpstarted decades of advocacy from tribes and environmental groups, culminating in 2022 when federal regulators approved a plan to remove the dams.
Klamath River dam removal: before and after images show dramatic change Cecilia Nowell Tue, October 8, 2024 Water flowing down the Klamath River where the Copco 2 dam once stood in Siskiyou county, California.Photograph: Swiftwater Films/AP
With California’s Klamath Dam removal project finally completed, new before and after photos show the dramatic differences along the river with and without the dams. The photos were taken by Swiftwater Films, a documentary company chronicling the dam removal project – a two decade long fight that concluded 2 October.
“The tribally led effort to dismantle the dams is an expression of our sacred duty to maintain balance in the world,” Yurok tribal chairman Joseph L James said in a statement. “That is why we fought so hard for so long to tear down the dams and bring the salmon home.”
Between 1903 and 1962, the electric power company PacifiCorp built a series of dams along the Klamath River to generate electricity. The dams disrupted the river’s natural flow, and the migratory routes of its fish - including, most famously, the Chinook salmon.
By 2002, low water levels and high temperatures caused a bacterial outbreak in the river, killing more than 34,000 fish. The incident spurred tribes, like the Yurok and Karuk, and environmentalists to begin advocating for the removal of the river’s dams. In 2022, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission approved a plan to remove four dams, which would allow the river to flow freely between Lake Ewauna in Oregon to the Pacific Ocean.
The Klamath Dam removal project, which the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (Noaa) called “the world’s largest dam removal effort”, began in July 2023 and concluded more than a year later.
“This is a monumental achievement – not just for the Klamath River but for our entire state, nation and planet,” Gavin Newsom, the California governor, said in a statement. “By taking down these outdated dams, we are giving salmon and other species a chance to thrive once again, while also restoring an essential lifeline for tribal communities who have long depended on the health of the river.”
With the removal project completed on 2 October, scientists with the non-profit California Trout captured images of a 2.5-ft-long Chinook salmon migrating upstream for the first time in more than 100 years the very next day. Yet, scientists stress that it will take many more years to fully restore the ecosystems impacted by the dams.
Yukon River salmon runs remain low, but glimmers of improvement emerge
Salmon numbers in the Yukon River and its tributaries remained low this year, continuing a yearslong trend of struggles and harvest closures, but there were some positive signs, according to late-season information from Alaska and Canadian fisheries managers.
The fall run of chum salmon, which usually comes into the river system from mid-July to October, is the third lowest in a record that goes back to the 1970s, the Alaska Department of Fish and Game said in a Yukon River update issued on Wednesday. It is expected to be less than a quarter of the historic average of about 900,000 fish, the update said.
However, the summer run of chum salmon, which arrived in the river system earlier, was strong enough this year to allow some subsistence harvests, albeit with various gear restrictions and a requirement that any Chinook salmon that were caught be returned to the water alive.
Subsistence fishing was allowed in both state-managed segments and federally managed segments of the Yukon River system. And it was allowed during the period when the two runs were overlapping.
Subsistence harvests of chum salmon from the summer run were allowed last year as well, after the return emerged as better than forecast.
While runs are low – and are failing to meet treaty targets for returns into Canada — there has been some marginal improvement since the worst period a few years ago, official reports show
“We hit rock bottom in 2021 for all species on the Yukon,” said Christy Gleason, an Alaska Department of Fish and Game area biologist for the Yukon River region.
There were upticks even for the river’s troubled Chinook salmon runs. As of Sept. 19, 24,112 of the fish had reached the Alaska-Canada border, according to the most recent update from Fisheries and Oceans Canada.
That is well below the goal of a 71,000-fish target in the U.S.-Canada Yukon River Salmon Agreement. But it is well above the 14,752 Chinook that made it that far up the river last year and the 13,000 total predicted in this year’s preseason forecast, according to the update.
Fewer fall chum salmon had reached the Yukon River’s Canadian border than the total counted the same time last year, however, Fisheries and Oceans Canada said.
The summer chum salmon run, which generally returns in the period leading up to mid-July, has presented a brighter picture than the fall run, which generally starts in mid-July and runs to October.
The runs differ more in the timing of their entry into the Yukon River system, Gleason said.
The summer run is bigger and has a different age composition, she said. While both have a mix of 4-year-old and 5-year-old fish, the summer run’s mix is more even while the fall run typically tilts heavily to the age-4 fish, she said.
That is important because the age-4 fish are part of an age group that was especially hard-hit by poor ocean conditions triggered by warmer temperatures, she said.
Federal and state scientists have found evidence that extreme marine heatwaves in the Bering Sea from 2014 to 2019 harmed the chum salmon that were in the ocean at the time.
Problems in the saltwater environment appear to be lingering, including for the age-4 salmon that are the offspring of the poor 2020 return, Gleason said. “The ocean conditions aren’t really improving, so we’re not seeing improvement in the fall chum,” she said.
Another difference between the summer and fall chum runs concerns spawning areas. The fall chum spawn much farther upstream in the Yukon River system, including in the Canadian headwaters, according to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
An additional factor hindering recovery of the fall chum salmon run could stem from that reliance on Canadian headwaters
An abrupt change in Canadian river habitat, resulting from extreme glacial retreat in 2016, created a case of what scientists termed “river piracy” that wiped out an important chum-spawning site.
That event is tied to climate change. It happened when Canada’s Kaskawulsh Glacier retreated so much that it stopped sending water to one of the two rivers it previously fed. The Slims River, which fed the Yukon River system, was the loser, and the water was instead diverted to the Kaskawulsh River, which flows into the Gulf of Alaska rather than the Bering Sea. Exclusive The Salmon’s Call Trailer Explores Indigenous Relationship With Wild Salmon
Anthony Nash Mon, October 7, 2024 (Image Credit: Firediva Productions)
ComingSoon is debuting an exclusive The Salmon’s Call trailer, previewing the upcoming documentary exploring the spiritual and cultural relationship between salmon and the Indigenous people of British Columbia.
What happens in The Salmon’s Call trailer?
The Salmon’s Call trailer highlights the film’s exploration of wild salmon and the Indigenous people who share a connection to them. The film dives deep into the salmon’s cycle, the unique ways of catching and preserving the fish, and the hidden dangers of fish farms on the Pacific coast.
The Salmon’s Call is directed by Joy Haskell, an Indigenous filmmaker and founder of Firediva Productions. The film will have its world premiere at the Red Nation International Film Festival in Los Angeles on Friday, November 15, 2024. More screenings, including future festival appearances and a broadcast date for the film’s premiere on Knowledge Network, will be announced in the future.
“The Salmon’s Call is a powerful documentary that explores the intricate spiritual and cultural relationship between wild salmon and Indigenous people that has lasted centuries,” reads the film’s official synopsis. “It is told through an Indigenous lens and gives a unique voice to a vital symbol of renewal, transformation, and resilience. The film takes viewers on a breathtaking journey with the Sockeye salmon from the West Coast waters of British Columbia, traversing the Fraser River, through the Chilcotin and the Stuart River (Nak’alkoh) and Stuart Lake (Nak’albun) situated in Northern British Columbia. Along this journey, we meet various members of the community from elders to youths as they share their rich connection to the salmon.”
Tony Diver Mon, October 7, 2024 The Chagos Islands has been a UK overseas territory since 1965 known officially as the British Indian Ocean Territory - US Navy
Joe Biden pushed the UK into giving up the Chagos Islands over concerns the US would lose control of an important air base, The Telegraph understands.
Days after the general election in July, senior officials from the White House’s National Security Council and State Department told the incoming Labour government that refusing to sign away the islands would jeopardise the “special relationship” with Washington.
Sir Keir Starmer was criticised last week for his decision to give up the archipelago of more than 1,000 tiny islands, a UK overseas territory since 1965 known officially as the British Indian Ocean Territory.
It was suggested the deal could give China access to the Diego Garcia air base, which is on the largest island in the chain.
Under the deal, Mauritius will take control of the islands, but Britain and the US will rent the base for 99 years. Strategically important air base
The Telegraph understands that American officials pushed the UK toward the deal, fearing that if it was not signed, Mauritius would successfully apply for a binding ruling at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) to take control of the islands, effectively shuttering the air base. The Diego Garcia military air base is on the largest island - AFP
The base is considered strategically important because it puts some bomber aircraft within range of the Middle East. Diego Garcia was previously used by the US to conduct bombing runs in Iraq and Afghanistan.
US officials told the Foreign Office that a quick deal should be signed before the American and Mauritian elections next month, agreeing to give up UK territory in exchange for the base.
The officials argued that handing over the islands would safeguard Britain’s special relationship with the US, and that a binding court ruling would make it more difficult to fly aircraft to the base, conduct repairs, and cooperate with UN agencies. ‘Deal makes UK look pathetic’
Since announcing the deal on Thursday, the Government has faced criticism from MPs, who argue that Britain should not have agreed to give up territory and to rent a military base it already controls.
Some also argued that the base would come under threat from Chinese spyware, because Mauritius and China are economically aligned.
The Telegraph understands that the full terms of the deal, which has not been made public, contain protections against Chinese influence in the islands without the agreement of Britain and the US. Joe Biden and Sir Keir Starmer meet in the White House last month - Simon Dawson / No 10 Downing Street
On Monday, Robert Jenrick said David Lammy had signed the deal so that he could “feel good about himself at his next north London dinner party”.
In a debate discussing the decision in Parliament, the Tory leadership contender said: “We’ve just handed sovereign British territory to a small island nation which is an ally of China – and we’re paying for the privilege.
“All so that the foreign secretary can feel good about himself at his next North London dinner party.” ‘Unsustainable’ legal position
However, the Foreign Secretary told MPs on Monday that the dispute between Britain and Mauritius was “clearly not sustainable” and that Labour faced a choice between “abandoning the base altogether or breaking international law”.
Friends of the British Overseas Territories, a charity dedicated to British-owned islands abroad, called Mr Lammy’s statement “shameful”.
“Proceeding with the transfer of [the island] goes against our national interests and must be stopped at once,” it said.
The ICJ had already issued a non-binding ruling that the islands belong to Mauritius, and a further ruling that forced the handover of the base was likely, he said, because of the “regrettable” removal of indigenous islanders by the UK in the 1960s.
Downing Street insisted the deal to give up sovereignty over the British Indian Ocean Territory (BIOT) was due to the “unsustainable” legal position and had no impact on other disputed territories including the Falkland Islands and Gibraltar.
The Prime Minister’s official spokesman would not be drawn on the cost to the UK taxpayer of the deal which will see Mauritius being given sovereignty over the islands, with a 99-year agreement to secure the strategically important UK-US military base on Diego Garcia.
The spokesman said: “The Government inherited a situation where the long-term secure operation of the military base at Diego Garcia was under threat with contested sovereignty and legal challenges, including through various international courts and tribunals.
“You will be aware that the previous government initiated sovereignty negotiations in 2022 and conducted a number of rounds of negotiations. This Government picked up those negotiations and has reached an agreement, which means that for the first time in over 50 years, the base will be undisputed, legally secure, with full Mauritian backing.”
Asked why the Islands should not be seen as a precedent for other sovereignty disputes such as the Falklands and Gibraltar, the spokesman said: “It’s a unique situation based on its unique history and circumstances, and has no bearing on other overseas territories.”
The spokesman added: “British sovereignty of the Falkland Islands or Gibraltar is not up for negotiation.”
THIRD WORLD U$A
Majority of homeowners left to clean up without insurance after Hurricane Helene
Anne Geggis, Palm Beach Post Updated Mon, October 7, 2024
While she baked cookies at her home at the foot of the Smoky Mountains, Vicki Hunter heard a flood alert for the other side of the river. An hour later, she was hanging on for life.
Hunter, 62, like countless others in the inland counties of Georgia, Tennessee, and the Carolinas, was completely unprepared for the events of Sept. 27 as Hurricane Helene came to call. The death toll of 215 deaths and climbing is already the most deadly of a mainland weather event since Hurricane Katrina in 2005. Beyond the heartbreak, though, financial trauma from the event promises to linger into the future.
Little of the damage is covered by insurance and that reality has already filled GoFundMe with pleas for help, spotlighted the ailing National Flood Insurance Program and spurred leaders to call for a re-evaluation of how flood insurance works and who should buy it. All as another tempest, Hurricane Milton, takes aim at the already-battered Florida Gulf Coast this week.
Foreboding signs appeared soon after Hunter heard the flood warning. She looked out her window and thought how strange it was that the trees surrounding her rural oasis in Jonesborough, Tennessee appeared to be moving toward her home, she recalled.
She couldn't feel the house moving and that flash flood warning she heard for Embreeville, on the other side of the Nolichuckee River, had seemed like it had nothing to do with the place she’d lived for 14 years.
“It hasn’t flooded here in 50 years,” Hunter said of her home that sits at 1,519 feet above sea level.
But, in fact, something grave was happening.
As the river’s rise became undeniable, 30 minutes of sheer terror began. Hunter saw her husband’s car and hers bobbing like apples in the carport. She lost track of her husband’s exact whereabouts as she dodged furniture that started moving around faster in the rising water as her house moved into neighbors’ farm fields.
“My little dog was shaking and I didn’t know where Jerry was,” she said, recalling a moment on her back porch, the last time she saw her miniature Schnauzer, Batman, alive and dry. “I was praying to Jesus.”
She managed to call her sister, Vedette Rice, from her cell to say she loved her — just before a swift water rescue came to her aid and saved her. She could only watch helplessly as Batman was swept away, struggling in the water.
Her 77-year-old husband’s body was found Sunday.
As she and countless others are faced with the shock of suddenly losing a loved one, financial realities are pressing down. Hunter said she felt she had no other choice other than selling five of her 12 quarter horses to pay for her husband’s funeral, especially after a recent meeting with her insurance agent added to the inundation of bad news.
“My car insurance … they are going to take care of me, but my homeowners’ said, ‘Nope, sorry, I can’t do anything for you.’”
Hunter said she never imagined she’d need flood insurance. Another of her sisters, gathered around Vicki Hunter to offer support, summed up the reason: “Who would ever think that a Category 4 (hurricane) would come to Tennessee and kill more people than it did in Florida?” Valerie Paulson, 61, of nearby Johnson City asked rhetorically.
Not only has Hurricane Helene dealt out unimaginable grief, the disaster has also come in a form from which there is no easy financial recovery. New territory for floodwaters
Hurricane Helene’s strengthening in the Gulf of Mexico and landfall in the Big Bend area of Florida were predicted, but the devastation the monster storm wreaked across the inland Southeast from Georgia to North Carolina came as a shock. This turn has experts in disaster management and the insurance industry calling for rethinking flood coverage and expanding the definition of areas prone to destructive deluges.
“Asheville (North Carolina) wasn’t supposed to flood,” said Michael Hecht, president and CEO of Greater New Orleans, Inc., whose involvement in rebuilding New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina’s devastation has meant working to improve the country’s flood insurance.
Parts of the famed tourist town in western North Carolina's high country is in ruins and searches for those unaccounted for were still ongoing a week after the calamity.
“What this latest disaster is making clear is that virtually anywhere in America can experience intense weather and subsequent devastating flooding,” continued Hecht, who testified before the Senate Banking, House, and Urban Affairs Committee about national flood insurance earlier this year. “We need national policies that address this new reality.” Record-breaking uninsured losses expected due to Hurricane Helene
In the counties hardest hit by Hurricane Helene’s deadly inland tear from Georgia to North Carolina, fewer than 1% of the properties are insured against flooding through the National Flood Insurance Plan (NFIP), which underwrites most of the nation’s flood insurance policies, according to the insurance industry-funded Insurance Information Institute. It's administered by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA).
Given the scant flood coverage in the area and how standard homeowner insurance policies like the one Hunter has don’t cover flood losses, the collective financial devastation to Helene's victims is likely to make a mark in the history books, according to Mark Friedlander, director of communications for the Insurance Information Institute.
“Helene may be the largest uninsured loss we have seen from a landfalling hurricane because of the widespread devastation in areas where flood insurance take-up rates are so low,” Friedlander said. Joi McPherson, right, hugs her brother-in-law, Thomas Hall, as they remove items from her home which flooded during Hurricane Helene in Swannanoa, North Carolina, Thursday, Oct. 3, 2024.
A standard insurance policy doesn't cover water damage from hurricanes unless it is determined the hurricane's winds caused an opening in the property allowing the water to pour in, or the winds blew a tree branch down that caused a breach for the water to flow into the insured structure.
Without those factors, flood insurance must provide the financial backstop for fixing storm-induced damage or replacing what was lost. Or, without flood insurance, as most of the residents in this area of the country are, the loss will largely be managed out of their own pockets.
Limited consumer awareness
Flood insurance is not widely required by lenders as homeowner insurance is. Only those who live in federally designated flood hazard zones are required by their lender to get it.
Many homeowners are unaware of their standard policy's limitations and don't understand that living in a flood hazard zone is not a prerequisite for fortifying property with flood insurance, said Dan Kaniewski, former FEMA deputy administrator for resilience. And hearing that your property has a chance of flooding once every 100 years may lead to a false assessment of the risk, he added.
Nationally, the average flood insurance policy bought through the NFIP costs between $800 and $1,000. It can be twice as a high in a flood hazard zone.
“They (a potential policyholder) might think, ‘Well, I’m only going to own this house for 30 years,’” Kaniewski said. “What they don’t realize is that means there’s a 1% chance of flooding every single year.
“It’s not surprising that a lot of these homes that were inundated (in Helene) lack flood insurance because it (flood risk) is a hard concept to communicate in an effective way,” he added.
Florida has an average elevation of 100 feet above sea level — lower than Tennessee’s lowest point — and lists the highest percentage of properties protected by flood insurance than any other state. Most of the participation in flood insurance — amounting to 20% of Florida properties — is driven by mortgage lender requirements because of the property location in a flood hazard zone, industry officials say.
FEMA's flood hazard zone maps are where the error lies, said John Dickson, president and CEO of Aon Edge, a private flood insurance company, based in Montana. These zones that lenders use to determine who must buy flood protection don’t reflect the real flood risks and emerging realities of climate change, Dickson said.
“We have mandatory purchase area maps that were drawn five to 10 years ago, and they are not keeping pace with how the weather is changing,” Dickson said. “Flood has been historically driven by proximity to the coast. Today, it’s rainfall.” Federal flood insurance woes in contrast to private market
Hurricanes have caused disruption to the private, insured market that most homeowners participate in.
After Hurricane Ian in 2022, for example, some Florida property owners’ standard homeowner insurance premiums were hit by increases that doubled their annual bill, pushed a bevy of insurers out of state or into insolvency, and increased the number of property owners who were dropped by private insurers and had to go to the Citizens Property Insurance Corp. The state-backed insurer of last resort hit a new high in the number of policies it issued shortly after that storm.
Because Helene is largely a flooding event, flash estimates show that the storm will be a much more manageable event for the private insurance market. For traditional insurers, the storm is going cost about six times more than Hurricane Debby, which blew through in August, but about one-tenth of Ian's privately insured losses, according to a top disaster loss modeling company, Karen Clark & Company.
The nation’s flood insurance, however, has a whole different set of problems than the private insurance market, Hecht, in New Orleans, said.
“Home insurance is the acute crisis — like an avalanche,” Hecht said. “Flood insurance, because the (premium) increases are capped at 18% a year, is a slow-moving crisis, like a melting glacier.”
The program started in the wake of Hurricane Betsy in 1965. Hecht said that the water inundation along the Gulf of Mexico had caused the private insurance market to retreat from covering flood damage.
Now, as a federally run program, Congress must authorize the flood insurance program and legislators have not been able to agree on a multiyear renewal since 2017. Its most recent authorization was approved Sept. 20 and expires Dec. 20. Debris is piled up outside of a home that flooded during Hurricane Helene in the Lower Beacon neighborhood of Swannanoa, North Carolina, Thursday, Oct. 3, 2024.
That short-term commitment, national flood proponents say, has prevented FEMA from fixing the long-term problems that plague the flood insurance program. That's caused more and more policyholders to drop the coverage. The current 5 million policies in force are expected to drop to 4 million shortly, according to testimony in front of the Senate committee.
That drop in purchased policies threatens to defeat an aim of the flood insurance program: Spreading the risk far and wide, across the country.
Criticism of the country's national flood insurance has come from a number of quarters.
The National Resources Defense Council, an environmental group, for example, paints the NFIP as encouraging unsustainable development in places that repeatedly flood. And, starting in 2021, the program went to a new rate structure with the goal of being actuarily sound. Instead of just borrowing to offset larger-than-expected claims, premiums are now set to offset expected losses and reflect the risk at each property.
As some policies advance to premiums that reflect actual risk — with perhaps many years of 18% increases over the previous year — the aim is to end the deficit spending; the NFIP is about $20.5 billion in the red, reflecting money borrowed from the U.S. Treasury to offset policyholder claims, according to Ohio's Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown's office.
What to do about the debt is just one of the issues that Congress can't agree on, Kaniewski, the former FEMA official said. But the government can't let the program lapse because then new policies can't be written or renewed for properties in the high flood hazard zones that have mortgages that require the coverage.
"To address the challenges that NFIP faces, Congress needs to provide FEMA with the reforms it has requested," Kaniewski said, noting that FEMA would like to offer flooding insurance rates based on income to broaden its appeal. "The program is going to continue to have challenges well into the future until Congress acts."
Kaniewski said that he expects that Hurricane Helene's victims' effort to return to their old lives will illustrate just how important flood insurance is.
"It's only going to become more apparent that very few of these disaster survivors have flood insurance and they will struggle through this disaster recovery," he predicted. "It's going to take the government, at all levels, philanthropic organizations and friends and family to get them back on their feet." Jerry and Vicki Hunter in their home in Jonesborough, Tennessee before Hurricane Helene's destruction took Jerry's life, their home and their dog. The road to recovery from Hurricane Helene
On Saturday, Jerry Hunter was laid to rest, leaving his widow to rebuild her life without him.
Vicki Hunter is eligible for individual assistance from FEMA to begin the journey, but that funding is considered a safety net for immediate needs, not meant for rebuilding destroyed property.
Many Katrina victims also didn’t have flood insurance, relying on the levees to keep them safe, according to Stephen Murphy, a disaster management professor at Tulane University in New Orleans. A court case determined that homeowners’ policies did not cover Katrina’s flooding, and many expect that flooding claims from Helene against standard homeowners' insurance will not be covered.
“We're going to have to have some innovative tools like there were for New Orleans following Katrina,” Walker said. “It’s pretty obvious that the homeowner insurance (in the disaster zone) doesn’t cover floods, so something has to be done … or people are going to be leaving that area.”
Right now, Vicki Hunter can’t imagine going back and living in the same place. Her home’s destruction basically amounts to losing all the equity accumulated over 14 years of living there, she said.
She thinks she’ll have to sell the property. Donations to the GoFundMe her sister started five days ago have slowed since garnering more than 130 donations on its fourth day. Her tragic story competes with many more tellings of worlds shattered by a torrent of water.
“That’s where I lost my husband, my dog, my house,” she said.
After '60 Minutes,' Palm Beach County legislator calls for probe of Ian insurance payouts
Anne Geggis, Palm Beach Post Tue, October 8, 2024
Reports that damage claims from Hurricane Ian were systemically downgraded has a Palm Beach County state lawmaker leading a call for a Florida grand jury and a select legislative committee to investigate.
Democratic state Rep. Kelly Skidmore of Boca Raton said the report on the CBS network news magazine “60 Minutes” that aired Sept. 29 echoes testimony heard during a 2022 House Commerce Committee meeting. During that hearing homeowners and insurance adjusters testified that valid claims from the hurricane two years ago were rejected and underpaid once it came time to make insured Floridians whole from the damage suffered.
The Florida House Democratic Caucus has sent a letter to Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis asking for the special statewide grand jury to investigate whether illegal activity resulted in insurers giving Hurricane Ian victims short shrift. And another letter was sent asking for the select legislative committee to Speaker of the House-Designate Daniel Perez, a Miami area Republican, Skidmore said. Governor DeSantis: Concern already addressed on Hurricane Ian insurance payouts
Asked about the Democrats’ request, a spokesman for the governor provided a clip of DeSantis reacting to the 60 Minutes’ report but not the call for the statewide grand jury. DeSantis said that safeguards against downgraded claims were already baked into reforms that were passed post-Hurricane Ian.
“We now have protections in Florida law that you can't just disregard what the adjuster does,” DeSantis said, after noting he is “not much of a fan” of the CBS news magazine. “You actually have to have a clear, valid reason to be able to depart downward. That may not have been in place when Ian happened.”
DeSantis also noted that the company the news magazine focused on, Heritage Property & Casualty Insurance, was fined $1 million last May for violating claims-handling requirements after Ian. Most of the findings in that March report, however, focused on handling claims in a timely manner and following procedures, rather than the actual amounts paid, although it did note Heritage’s failure to pay interest. Kelly Skidmore
Heritage, for its part, issued a public statement after the 60 Minutes segment aired noting the program's reporting omitted information the 12-year-old company had provided about improvements that were made in its claims-handling procedures in Ian’s wake. And also there was no deliberate effort to deceive customers about the value of their claims, Heritage said.
“It is important to point out that when we did our own review of Hurricane Ian claims following 60 Minutes’ outreach — using a random sample of 10,000 claims — we found that 4,162 of those were revised downward, 2,583 of them were revised upward and about 3,311 of them had no change from what the adjuster reviewed. This is further evidence that we work to pay every eligible claim,” the company statement reads.
Perez could not be reached by email, text or phone to respond to the Democrats’ call. Florida property insurance a political hot potato
The same year that Hurricane Ian's winds made landfall at nearly Category 5 strength, five property insurance companies became insolvent or stopped doing business in the state. Special legislative sessions were called to shore up the situation.
But Democrats were unhappy with many of the reforms that the Republican-dominated Legislature put in place. Those measures largely focused on stemming the tide of litigation from contested damage claims. But critics said the Legislature's actions left consumers with little recourse to contest an insurance companies' valuation of a claim.
More than a year out from those reforms, Floridians typically pay two to three times more for their property insurance premiums than the national average. The state's potential for catastrophic hurricanes, the number of lawsuits and the financial industry's reluctance to help insurers' with the risk of those factors have been largely blamed for the state of affairs in providing ample and affordable property insurance.
Florida should lead the way in seeking solutions to the problem, Skidmore said, noting that Democratic U.S. Rep. Jared Moskowitz has proposed spreading the risk of these storms around a much wider area with a National Catastrophic Risk Pool. Moskowitz of Parkland has proposed that natural catastrophes like the one hurricanes Ian, Helene and, now possibly Milton present — with widespread, devastating damage — would be backed by the nation’s credit, instead of relying on private insurers and money markets to shoulder the worst sort of risks that have wiped out some insurers faced with a crush of damage claims.
“I am renewing my call to act and support Congressman Moskowitz’s efforts to, at the very least, have a conversation about creating a National Catastrophe Risk Pool,” Skidmore said in a prepared statement.
The risk pool idea is similar to a bill former Democratic U.S. Rep. Charlie Crist proposed when he represented Pinellas County. Moskowitz’s bill, introduced in March 2023, has not gotten a committee hearing or a cosponsor.
