On Thursday’s episode of The Excerpt podcast: Hurricane Milton made landfall Wednesday night as a Category 3 storm on Florida's west coast . FEMA Acting Associate Administrator for Response and Recovery, Keith Turi explains officials' response plan. North Carolina lawmakers pass legislation that will make it easier for residents affected by Hurricane Helene to vote. USA TODAY Pentagon Correspondent Tom Vanden Brook breaks down what Israel's next move might be amid heightened tensions with Iran . Democratic vice presidential nominee Tim Walz endorses abolishing the Electoral College . The WNBA Finals tip off.
Hit play on the player below to hear the podcast and follow along with the transcript beneath it. This transcript was automatically generated, and then edited for clarity in its current form. There may be some differences between the audio and the text.
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Taylor Wilson:
Good morning, I'm Taylor Wilson, and today is Thursday, October 10th, 2024. This is The Excerpt. Today how FEMA is approaching its response to the latest major hurricane to make landfall, plus lawmakers in North Carolina make it easier for residents affected by Helene to vote. And what's Israel's next move amid tensions with Iran?
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Hurricane Milton slammed into Florida's west coast last night as a category three storm. The National Hurricane Center said Milton made landfall near Siesta Key in Sarasota County with maximum sustained winds of 120 miles an hour.
President Joe Biden before Milton's landfall called it the storm of the century and warned residents to heed evacuation orders. Numerous news outlets and Tampa residents posted video of the roof of Tropicana Field being ripped to shreds by Milton's winds. The Dome Stadium is home to Major League Baseball's, Tampa Bay Rays, and has recently been used as a base camp to support the Florida Department of Emergency Management ahead of the hurricane. By early this morning, Milton's winds had weakened in 90 miles an hour as it moved cross state toward Florida's Atlantic Coast as a category one storm.
It's still too early to assess initial damage, but hundreds of homes have been destroyed and nearly three million people were without power earlier this morning.
For a look at how FEMA is approaching its emergency response to the latest major hurricane, I spoke yesterday with FEMA's acting associate administrator for response and recovery, Keith Turi before Milton made landfall. Keith, I thank you so much for hopping on during this busy week.
Keith Turi:
Happy to do it.
Taylor Wilson:
So starting here, Keith, how is FEMA balancing the demands of really two major hurricanes back to back, and are there enough resources both human and financial?
Keith Turi:
Yeah, we absolutely have enough resources to be able to respond to both these hurricanes. As you can imagine, having multiple hurricanes in a season is something we plan for. We prepare for the fact that over the course of hurricane season we may be responding to multiple storms and so we do a couple of things. First, we have enough resources to pre-position and put into each of the particular states with our disaster assistance resources, but we also can bring in resources from other federal agencies, from the Department of Homeland Security from other partners to be able to help support as well. So it's a lot to be dealing with at one time, but it is something we absolutely plan for and we have the resources that we need to do both the Helene response and deal with Hurricane Milton.
Taylor Wilson:
And are there any unique challenges to this storm, Milton, in particular that you're most concerned about Keith?
Keith Turi:
Well, I think one, the track of this storm is one as it comes kind of across perpendicular into the coast, is going to create a pretty significant storm surge risk. That is something we've been watching for. Obviously a range of hazards across the entire Florida Peninsula. You've got tornadoes that we've already seen. Storm surge , again, that's going to be happening. Riverine flooding, there's going to be 12 to 18 inches of rain in some places and with a storm sums up that water's not going to have anywhere to go so we're expecting to see flooding in areas that we haven't seen before. So just the strength of this storm, even though it's going to weaken a little bit, it's going to get bigger. It's already pushing all of that energy forward. And so we expect it to be, unfortunately, a very significant storm for the state of Florida.
Taylor Wilson:
And, Keith, more broadly speaking, as we see disasters become ever more intense and costly amid climate change, how does FEMA plan to maintain support in the years to come?
Keith Turi:
Well, it's absolutely something that we've seen is more frequent disasters of different types in different locations. And so a couple things. One, we are continuously preparing with our state and local partners to make sure that we're ready. We're continuously building our workforce to make sure that we are prepared for all of the resources that are going to be required, but we're also focused on resilience. One of the things we need to do overall is help make our communities more resilient. And that comes to how we build, how we plan, what kind of codes we use. We really need to recognize that this threat of hazards, a range of them across the nation is not going away, and responding is only one portion of it. We have to find ways to mitigate those potential impacts, become more resilient so that we can withstand them as they're going to continue to happen.
Taylor Wilson:
And Keith, how much is mis and disinformation really affecting FEMA's ability to help people? And are there any new strategies in place to fight that?
Keith Turi:
Yeah, unfortunately we've seen a lot of that happening over the last couple of weeks, and it's not just this storm. We've seen it before, but it's really been at a different level here this hurricane season. It's unfortunate because it results in people not understanding the process, not trusting FEMA, thinking that if they come to FEMA then we're going to take their property or they're only going to get a certain amount of assistance, which all of that is not true. So it's a challenge.
What we've been doing is really aggressively trying to get our message out. On our website we have a rumor response page that people can go to see the true information about what we do, what we don't do. And we have a lot of great partners that have come forward over the last couple of weeks that are helping also get that right information out. So it's a challenge, but we're not going to let it stop us from doing what we need to do and focus on the response to those response activities. And as we're talking now, that's really about keeping people safe from Hurricane Milton.
Taylor Wilson:
And Keith, for the folks listening right now thinking, "How can I get involved?" How can regular people help here in the wake of this storm?
Keith Turi:
One of the best things to do is to find one of the organizations that you believe in and you can donate to them. The Red Cross is a great partner of ours and they have opportunities to support financially. And so that's one of the best ways to be able to support. There are lots of people bringing resources in into the area, and so giving your financial support is one way that you can enable them to do even more.
Taylor Wilson:
Keith Turi is FEMA's acting associated Administrator for response and recovery. Keith, I thank you for the time and good luck over the next few days and beyond.
Keith Turi:
Great. Thank you
Taylor Wilson:
For all the latest in the aftermath of Milton stay with usatoday.com.
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For those still dealing with the aftermath of Hurricane Helene, North Carolina lawmakers passed legislation yesterday that will make it easier for residents affected by that storm to vote. The move comes as former president Donald Trump's allies have worried that fallout from the storm could hurt turnout in the battleground state's rural conservative areas isolated by Helene. North Carolina is one of seven competitive swing states that both Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump have a shot at winning. And the area hit hardest by Helene is deeply Republican.
Trump won about 62% of the vote in 2020, and the 25 counties declared to be a disaster area after Helene, while Democratic President Joe Biden won about 51% in the remainder of the state according to a Reuters analysis. New rules allow local election boards and the 25 storm-hit counties to modify voting hours, combine precincts, change voting sites, and permit absentee ballots to be returned to any county board or voting site, among other measures.
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As tensions grow between Israel and Iran, Israel is weighing its next move. Would it target Iran's nuclear facilities? I spoke with USA TODAY Pentagon correspondent Tom Vanden Brook to learn more. Tom, it's always good to hear from you.
Tom Vanden Brook:
Taylor, good to be here.
Taylor Wilson:
So Tom, it's been a frenetic few weeks in the region to say the least, on top of an already frenetic year. Can you just reset where things stand as it pertains to Israel and Iran and some of these recent heightened tensions?
Tom Vanden Brook:
So on September 27th, Israel bombed suburbs of Beirut and killed Hassan Nasrallah who was leading Hezbollah, which has been rocketing Israel repeatedly since shortly after the October 7th attacks, and they're supported by Iran. And then four days later, Iran sent 180 ballistic missiles at Israel, Israel intercepted virtually all of them with some help from the United States Navy. Israel vows retaliation. And just yesterday, president Biden had a conversation with Benjamin Netanyahu. The feeling is that he was urging him to restrain himself from hitting Iran's nuclear facilities in particular and perhaps also their oil facilities.
Taylor Wilson:
Can you break down what we know about Iran's nuclear capabilities as of now and ostensibly what their nuclear aims have been and what they are currently?
Tom Vanden Brook:
Sure. Well, thanks to the good work of my colleague Kim Helmgard, who wrote the story with me and did most of the heavy lifting on it. He's been in Iran. They've been seeking to build a nuclear device for some time, and there have been agreements that have held them back from doing so. Most estimates now suggest that they could have a nuclear device of some sort, an explosive within weeks, maybe months. And how they would be able to deliver that's another matter that could be up to a year or something along those lines. The concern obviously is once they have that they are an avowed enemy of Israel, and Israel considers them to be an existential threat. Israel does not want them to have a nuclear weapon. Will Israel act preemptively to make sure that doesn't happen? So that's where we stand right now.
Taylor Wilson:
What would be some of the risks or calculations for Israel to actually strike a nuclear facility in Iran and what would potentially be the downstream consequences?
Tom Vanden Brook:
Lots of different things could happen if they do that, Taylor. First of all is their question is whether they're capable of doing it on their own. A lot of these facilities are deeply buried so they're going to be very difficult to reach with conventional weapons. Israel isn't believed to have the bunker buster bombs that the Pentagon has nor the means to deliver them. If they were to use bombing runs they'd have to hit the same site over and over and over again, which they did in Beirut to kill Nasrallah, so perhaps. Someone suggested to me that might be a way for them to do that. But that doesn't answer the question, what happens next? Attacking those nuclear facilities presumably could immediately spread some dangerous radiation. And beyond that, Iran has said this is a red line for them and could spark an all-out war more than what we've seen so far. So lots of things could happen, not all of them good.
Taylor Wilson:
Israel is a big U.S. ally, Iran is a U.S. adversary. What does all this mean for the U.S. Tom?
Tom Vanden Brook:
President Biden has said publicly that he does not want Israel to attack Iran's nuclear sites. We're pledged to defend Israel as we did last week when Iran launched missiles at them. So the likelihood that United States military would be drawn into this would be high. And even if that weren't to happen right away there are 40,000 U.S. troops in the region. They have been attacked by Iranian proxies already for years. You'd expect those attacks to increase right away. So there's just a lot of vulnerabilities, lots of things could go wrong with this in a hurry.
Taylor Wilson:
What's potentially next here as far as these tensions are concerned, and if not, nuclear facilities, what might be Israel's next move?
Tom Vanden Brook:
So Israel yesterday, their defense minister Gallant said that there's going to be an attack and it's going to be a surprise. So it's going to happen. I mean, Israel's going to follow through on this. They have before. The question is what's their target going to be and how they're going to do it? If they hit oil facilities that would cause environmental damage for one thing, but would also invite another response. So that would be an issue. They could hit military sites in Iran. That might be something they would do or some sort of cyber attack. But there are just, again, so many unknowns involved in this, Taylor.
Taylor Wilson:
All right. Tom Vanden Brook covers the Pentagon for USA TODAY. Tom, I always appreciate picking your brain on this topic. Thanks so much.
Tom Vanden Brook:
You bet, Taylor.
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Taylor Wilson:
Democratic vice presidential nominee, Tim Walz endorsed abolishing the Electoral College during a fundraiser yesterday, prompting his own campaign to distance itself from the position. Walz brought up the Electoral College, the system used to elect presidents since the nation's founding while speaking to supporters at a Kamala Harris campaign fundraiser at the Sacramento home of California Governor Gavin Newsom. Walz at the event said that we need a national popular vote. But getting rid of the Electoral College is not an official position of the Harris campaign, a campaign official told USA TODAY.
The electoral college system, which awards electors based on a state's congressional representation, has skewed toward Republicans in recent elections because of the influence it places on smaller rural states. Democrats have won seven of the last eight popular votes and presidential elections dating back to 1992. And in two cases, Hillary Clinton in 2016 and Al Gore in 2000, Democrats won the popular vote, but still lost the Electoral College. Most polls have Harris leading Donald Trump nationally in next month's election, but it's a much tighter contest in the race to 270 electoral votes. The outcome will likely be decided by seven top battleground states.
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The WNBA Finals tip off tonight as the Minnesota Lynx take on the New York Liberty in a best of five series. The matchup caps a historic season with record attendance, a sensational rookie of the year in Caitlin Clark and superstars across the league. In July, WNBA also announced a new 11-year media rights deal worth a reported $2.2 billion. And the WNBA is expanding with a Bay Area team set for 2025 and incoming teams from Portland and Toronto in 2026. As for this year's finals, the Liberty and Lynx were the league's two best teams from the regular season, and that form has continued in the playoffs. You can read more about the matchup with a link in today's show notes. And you can tune in tonight to Game One at 8:00 Eastern, 5:00 Pacific on ESPN.
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Our beliefs about sex and marriage have shifted tremendously over the years, both a reflection and a driver of how we talk about sex. From baby boomers to Gen X to millennials, how does our age influence our sex lives? USA TODAY wellness reporter, David Oliver, joined my colleague Dana Taylor for the second installment of our series on Generation Divides. You can hear that episode right here today, beginning at 4:00 P.M. Eastern Time right here on this feed. And thanks for listening to The Excerpt. You can get the podcast wherever you get your audio. And if you're on a smart speaker, just ask for The Excerpt. I'm Taylor Wilson and I'll be back tomorrow with more of The Excerpt from USA TODAY.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Hurricane Milton brings devastation across Florida | The Excerpt
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