News Wrap: Hurricane Francine makes landfall in Louisiana as Category 2

In our news wrap Wednesday, Hurricane Francine strengthened to a Category 2 storm before landfall in Louisiana, the U.S. is sending $700 million in aid to Ukraine to help the country’s battered energy grid, a group of state and local election officials are warning of problems with the U.S. Postal Service could disrupt voting in the upcoming election and inflation reached a three year-low.

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Amna Nawaz: Extreme weather is affecting two parts of the country tonight.

Hurricane Francine is making landfall tonight in Louisiana as a Category 2 hurricane. Meteorologists say it could lead to a deadly storm surge, fierce winds and widespread flooding. Meanwhile, out West, scores of large wildfires have prompted tens of thousands of evacuations.

Stephanie Sy has the latest.

Stephanie Sy: In the Los Angeles area today, crews fought to contain massive blazes racing toward foothill communities. Some longtime Southern California residents told reporters they’d never seen fires like this before.

Laurie Nowocinski, California Resident: This is the biggest one and the closest one so far.

Question: In the 33 years?

Laurie Nowocinski: In 33 years, yes sir.

Stephanie Sy: Three large wildfires outside of L.A. are barely contained, the Bridge Fire to the north, the Line Fire to the east, and the Airport Fire to the south.

The Line Fire’s location in the San Bernardino Mountains has complicated suppression efforts.

Arnold Menjivar, Redondo Beach, California, Fire Department: The terrain is very difficult terrain, some inaccessible areas for the crews to reach to be able to fight this fire aggressively and safely.

Stephanie Sy: The Airport Fire, ignited by a spark from heavy machinery used by public workers, quickly exploded in size.

Jennie Browning, Airport Fire Evacuee: We hardly had any time.

Stephanie Sy: Some Orange County residents evacuated as the fire reached homes.

Jennie Browning: We had a packing list. We have done this a couple times in the past. So we grabbed all the stuff we needed and it’s in the car down here at the bottom of the hill.

Stephanie Sy: To the north, the Bridge Fire tore through a popular ski area and destroyed dozens of homes in the villages of Mount Baldy and Wrightwood.

But no state is battling more large wildfires than Oregon with 24 blazes burning right now. Idaho is dealing with 22. While tinderbox conditions plague the West, the Southeast, particularly Louisiana, is bracing for an onslaught of water from Hurricane Francine.

Gary Driskell, Saint Mary Parish, Louisiana, Sheriff: For days now, we have been prepping for the storm. We have high-water vehicles, boats, you name it, extra deputies out on patrol right now until this is concluded.

Stephanie Sy: Now they’re hunkering down for a storm forecasters say could bring up to 12 inches of rain and a storm surge as high as 10 feet.

For the “PBS News Hour,” I’m Stephanie Sy.

Amna Nawaz: The U.S. is sending $700 million in new humanitarian aid to Ukraine to help the country’s battered energy grid. The announcement came as Secretary of State Antony Blinken and the new British foreign secretary, David Lammy, traveled together to Ukraine. The U.K. is also providing hundreds of millions of dollars in assistance.

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has been asking for permission to use Western-supplied weapons to strike deep inside Russia, which the U.S. has so far denied. At a press conference today, Secretary Blinken said he would take the issue of missiles back to Washington to brief the president.

Antony Blinken, U.S. Secretary of State: We have adjusted and adapted as needs have changed, as the battlefield has changed. And I have no doubt that we will continue to do that as this evolves.

Amna Nawaz: The question of whether Ukraine can fire deeper into Russia is also due to come up when Britain’s Prime Minister Keir Starmer visits Washington later this week. He’s due to meet with President Biden at the White House on Friday.

Back in this country, a group of state and local election officials from across America is warning the problems with the U.S. Postal Service could disrupt voting in the upcoming presidential election.

In a letter to the head of the USPS today, they cited widespread delays receiving mail-in ballots during primary elections as well as mail being returned as undeliverable, which could disenfranchise voters. In an interview last month, U.S. Postmaster General Louis DeJoy insisted the USPS is ready to handle the flood of election mail come November.

Inflation reached a three-year low last month, thanks largely to cooling gas prices. Today’s report showed consumer prices rising just 2.5 percent in August, compared to the same month last year. That’s down from July’s reading of 2.9 percent and a far cry from the 9.1 percent inflation we saw back in 2022.

Today’s report comes as Federal Reserve officials prepare to cut interest rates next week for the first time since early 2020.

On Wall Street today, stocks ended higher following that inflation data. The Dow Jones industrial average shook off early losses to end more than 100 points higher. The Nasdaq jumped nearly 370 points, or more than 2 percent. The S&P 500 gained ground for a third straight session.

And a passing of note. Singer-songwriter Frankie Beverly, who fronted the group Maze, has died. In the 1970s, Beverly brought the soulful sounds of his hometown of Philadelphia to the music scene of the Bay Area. From there, the group climbed the R&B charts and were dubbed by “Ebony” magazine as Black America’s favorite band.

Anthems like “Before I Let Go” played at countless summer cookouts and family reunions over the years. His friend Beyonce covered the song in 2019 and many hip-hop artists have sampled his melodies. Frankie Beverly and Maze finished a farewell tour earlier this year. He was 77 years old.

And commemorations have been held across the country to mark 23 years since the 9/11 terrorist attacks, which killed nearly 3,000 people. The day started in New York, where flowers were laid and tributes paid for the lives lost when two planes hit the Twin Towers that morning.

Then, around midday, President Biden and Vice President Harris visited the site where the hijacked Flight 93 went down near Shanksville, Pennsylvania. And this afternoon at the Pentagon, Biden and Harris joined Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin to pay respects to the 184 people killed there.