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RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — The North Carolina county that is home to Asheville overcounted deaths caused by Helene by as many as 30, according to a statement Tuesday from its sheriff’s office and data from the state, significantly reducing the death toll from the historic storm. Buncombe County officials, who previously reported 72 deaths, are now deferring to a state tally of 42 deaths for the county. The county’s number dates back to an Oct. 3 news release in which county officials reported that “72 lives have been lost due to Hurricane Helene,” repeating a number cited by Sheriff Quentin Miller at an earlier media briefing. But state officials, relying on reviews by the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner in Raleigh, have consistently reported a number lower than that for the county. The number for Buncombe County included in the state’s tally has stood at 42 since at least Oct. 10. On Tuesday, the Buncombe County Sheriff’s office acknowledged in a statement that the number of deaths in the county was lower than the number it provided. The statement, attributed to Public Information Officer Christina Esmay, cited factors ranging from updated causes of death to communication challenges after the storm knocked out cell service and electricity in multiple mountain counties. “In the early aftermath of Hurricane Helene all deaths were being classified as storm related and from Buncombe County. However, as the days progressed BCSO was able to identify who had passed away due to the hurricane, who was in fact from Buncombe County, and who passed away from other causes,” the statement said. “Compounded with the lack of consistent communication, due to widespread outages, the Buncombe County fatality number that was initially provided to Sheriff Miller has decreased.” The sheriff’s office did not provide additional information on how they arrived at their tally, and spokesman Matt Marshall said any other questions about how deaths have been investigated and counted should be sent to state officials. In response to a request to interview the sheriff, Marshall said he would look into his availability. Another county, Henderson, had previously reported two more local deaths than the state, but said on Tuesday that it agrees with the state’s number. The Office of the Chief Medical Examiner in Raleigh typically reviews weather deaths and makes a ruling on cause before reporting numbers through state officials, a process it has used in past storms for years. But in the chaos following Helene, a number of counties reported fatality numbers independently of the state. The state’s tally has gradually increased through Tuesday, but the climb has slowed as bodies have been examined. State Department of Health and Human Services spokesperson Kelly Haight Connor said in an email Tuesday that all examinations are complete for storm-related deaths, but she wouldn’t rule out additions if other cases emerge. The state reported 96 deaths from Helene statewide on Tuesday. The AP had tallied at least 246 total deaths across multiple states due to Helene through Monday, including 128 in North Carolina, based on data from the state and counties, including Henderson and Buncombe. With the disclosure from Buncombe County that its number was inflated, the AP has adopted the state’s total of 96, so the news organization’s multistate tally now stands at 214.

WASHINGTON – Parking has long been a debated issue in the trucking business with the need for federal government or legislative intervention. This week, the feds took a step, and made it public via media release. U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg announced more than $4.2 billion in funding from the Biden-Harris Administration’s Investing in America agenda through two major discretionary grant programs, the National Infrastructure Project Assistance (Mega) grant program and the Infrastructure for Rebuilding America (INFRA) grant program, both of which have historic levels of funding thanks to the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, according to the release. The government stated that a  total of 44 projects were selected in this round of funding, “including projects that improve safety, mobility, and economic competitiveness, constructing major bridges, expanding port capacity, redesigning interchanges, and more. Three projects – in Phoenix, Ariz., Chicago, Ill., and Providence, RI – received awards from both programs, following through on the Department’s commitment to invest in non-traditional, multimodal projects that have been challenging to fully fund with limited resources in the past.” “Thanks to the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, the Biden-Harris administration is carrying out ambitious, complex transportation projects that will shape our country’s infrastructure for generations to come,” said U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg. “With this latest round of awards, dozens of major and much-needed projects – projects that are often difficult to fund through other means – are getting the long-awaited investments they need to move forward.” The initiative is a capper to a nearly four-year period since the start of the Biden-Harris Administration where nearly $12.8 billion in funding through the INFRA and Mega programs has been announced for 140 projects across 42 states, Washington D.C., and Puerto Rico, including approximately: 35 large bridge projects 18 large port projects 20 rail projects 85 highway improvement projects Approximately 53% of projects that have received funding to date are in rural communities, and about 42% of projects are located in disadvantaged communities, delivering on President Biden’s Justice40 commitment. “Lack of safe truck parking has been a top concern of truckers for decades and as a truck driver, I can tell you firsthand that when truckers don’t have a safe place to park, we are put in a no-win situation,” said Todd Spencer, President of the Owner-Operators Independent Drivers’ Association. “We must either continue to drive while fatigued or out of legal driving time, or park in an undesignated and unsafe location like the side of the road or abandoned lot. It forces truck drivers to make a choice between safety and following federal Hours-of-Service rules. OOIDA and the 150,000 small business truckers we represent thank Secretary Buttigieg and the Department for their increased focus on resolving an issue that has plagued our industry for decades.” Projects include: $17.9 Million – Ohio Truck Parking Expansion Project Ohio Department of Transportation (ODOT) Trumbull and Preble Counties The project will repurpose two closed rest areas as new truck parking facilities; one on I-70 eastbound near New Paris with 100 truck parking spaces, and the other on I-80 eastbound near Hubbard with 38 truck parking spaces. NOTE: The I-70 and I-80 corridors are two of the most heavily used long-haul trucking routes in the nation. ODOT’s 2022 Statewide truck parking study revealed that over a one-year period, 654 trucks parked in undesignated locations within 8 miles of the I-70 location, while 487 trucks parked in undesignated locations within 2 miles of the I-80 site. Providing these drivers with a safer alternative to rest and recuperate will improve safety for drivers and other motorists alike. The project will incorporate video surveillance and the parking areas will be incorporated into the Truck Parking Information Management System, providing real-time parking information to drivers $12.5 million – I-43 Safety Rest Areas and Truck Parking Expansions Wisconsin Department of Transportation Manitowoc County The project will replace both the Rest Area 51 Maribel and Rest Area 52 Denmark facilities along I43 in Manitowoc County, Wisconsin. Each of the sites would include razing and construction of a new rest area building, maintenance garage, and parking lots for both automobiles and trucks. The capacity of truck parking would increase by a total of 72 stalls. Lighting will be replaced throughout both facilities, ingress/egress roadways will be reconstructed to accommodate the addition of truck parking stalls, pavement will be improved, and a substandard beam guard will be removed. NOTE: The project will increase the availability of safe truck parking facilities between Green Bay, Wisconsin and Chicago, Illinois, to eliminate commercial vehicle operators from parking in unsafe or unauthorized areas and improve conditions of the roadway connections to the parking areas. Additionally, the project will incorporate the rest areas into the state’s Truck Parking Information Management System, which provides real-time data to drivers on the number and location of available truck parking spots. $275 million – I-80 East Lane Addition and Shoulder Widening Nevada Department of Transportation Washoe County, Nevada The project will widen I-80 from Vista Boulevard to USA Parkway between the Reno/Sparks metro area and Tahoe Reno Industrial Center. Improvements include one additional lane in each direction, shoulder widening, bridge reconstruction, new pavement, and ITS facilities. NOTE: The project is located in an area of rapid residential, commercial, and industrial development, contributing to elevated crash rates that could be reduced with wider shoulders and reduced congestion. This project will connect the Reno/Sparks area with the Tahoe Reno Industrial Center (TRIC), create 50 new truck parking spots, and improve travel time reliability along the corridor. The TRIC facility is home to some of the nation’s largest manufacturing and distribution centers and is anticipated to produce 35,000 to 50,000 jobs over the next 20 years, as a key Northern Nevada employment center. View the full list of Mega awards HERE and INFRA awards HERE. Applications opened in March under a joint notice of funding opportunity (NOFO) for this year’s $5.1 billion Multimodal Discretionary Grant Program, or MPDG, which allows applicants to submit one application for consideration under the Mega, INFRA, and Rural grant programs. As with last year’s awards, despite these historic increases in funding, these programs were significantly oversubscribed. The Department received approximately 200 INFRA and Mega applications requesting more than $27 billion in funding, far exceeding the amount of funding available. Applications for the MPDG grants were evaluated based on the criteria published in the NOFO. The criteria included safety; state of good repair; economic impacts, freight movements and job creation; climate change, resilience, and the environment; equity, multimodal options and quality of life; and innovation areas such as technology, project delivery, and financing. The Department also considered cost effectiveness, project readiness, and certain statutory requirements related to funding and design in evaluating the MPDG applications received. Rural Surface Transportation grant applications are still under evaluation, and the Department anticipates announcing selections by January 2025.

WASHINGTON – The U.S. Department of Transportation’s Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) announced recently the immediate release of $10 million in Emergency Relief funding for the Virginia Department of Transportation. The federal government calls the funds a “down payment,” according to a press release to help in the immediate aftermath to support emergency repair work stemming from Hurricane Helene. “Hurricane Helene’s devastation affected communities in multiple states, including Virginia, and the Biden-Harris Administration is here to support all of them as they recover and rebuild,” said U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg. “The Department is deploying this initial $10 million for Virginia to help restore key transportation networks and routes, and we will continue our support for impacted states and communities for as long as it takes to fully recover.” “This funding represents the first step in our commitment to help Virginia restore roads, bridges, and critical transportation infrastructure that were damaged by Hurricane Helene,” said Acting Federal Highway Administrator Kristin White. “We stand with Virginians whose livelihoods and businesses have been impacted by the destruction of the storm, including the washout on Route 58. FHWA is working with our state partners on the ground to repair roads and do the work to reconnect Virginia.” Hurricane Helene caused damages to roads and bridges in southwestern Virginia, including road washouts. In particular, one mile of Route 58 near Damascus is closed to traffic due to the damage to the roadway where it no longer exists. A 30-mile detour is in place until the road is re-opened, which affects residents and travel within the state. Virginia DOT will use the emergency relief funds provided through “quick release” to restore and reopen the one-mile section of Route 58 that is currently washed out and on other sections of the route that require repair. The FHWA’s Emergency Relief program provides funding to states, territories, tribes, and Federal Land Management Agencies for highways and bridges damaged by natural disasters or catastrophic events. These Emergency Relief funds, provided through the “quick release” process, are an initial installment of funds toward restoring this essential transportation link. Additional funds needed to repair damage in Virginia will be supported by the Emergency Relief program through nationwide funding allocations. The FHWA Emergency Relief program complements Bipartisan Infrastructure Law programs and provisions by encouraging agencies to identify and implement measures to incorporate resilience in the design, restoration, and repair of damaged infrastructure, to better withstand future damage from climate change and future weather events. Virginia requested and the FHWA approved the “quick release” amount. North Carolina was approved for $100 million dollars on Oct. 5 while Tennessee got $32 million on Oct. 5 as well, and South Carolina was approved for $2 million on Oct. 4. More information about the FHWA’s Emergency Relief program can be found online at https://www.fhwa.dot.gov/programadmin/erelief.cfm.

SAVANNAH, Ga. (AP) — Authorities said at least seven people were killed Saturday when part of a ferry dock collapsed on Georgia’s Sapelo Island, where crowds had gathered for a fall celebration by the island’s tiny Gullah-Geechee community of Black slave descendants. Eight people were taken to hospitals, at least six of them with critical injuries, and crews from the U.S. Coast Guard, the McIntosh County Fire Department, the Georgia Department of Natural Resources and others were searching the water, according to Natural Resources spokesperson Tyler Jones. The agency operates the dock and ferry boats that transport people between the island and the mainland. A gangway at the dock collapsed, sending people plunging into the water, Jones said. A team of engineers and construction specialists planned to be on site early Sunday to begin investigating why the walkway failed, he said. “There was no collision” with a boat or anything else, Jones said. “The thing just collapsed. We don’t know why.” Helicopters and boats with side-scanning sonar were used in the search, according to a Department of Natural Resources statement. Among the dead was a chaplain for the state agency, Jones said. There were at least 20 people on the gangway when it collapsed, he said. The gangway connected an outer dock where people board the ferry to another dock onshore. Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp said he and his family were “heartbroken by today’s tragedy on Sapelo Island.” “As state and local first responders continue to work this active scene, we ask that all Georgians join us in praying for those lost, for those still in harm’s way, and for their families,” Kemp said on the social platform X. President Joe Biden said federal officials were ready to provide any assistance needed. “What should have been a joyous celebration of Gullah-Geechee culture and history instead turned into tragedy and devastation,” Biden said in a statement. “Jill and I mourn those who lost their lives, and we pray for the injured and anyone still missing. We are also grateful to the first responders at the scene.” Sapelo Island is about 60 miles (97 kilometers) south of Savannah, reachable from the mainland by boat. The deadly collapse happened as island residents, family members and tourists gathered for Cultural Day, an annual fall event spotlighting the island’s tiny community of Hogg Hummock, home to a few dozen Black residents. The community of dirt roads and modest homes was founded after the Civil War by former slaves from the cotton plantation of Thomas Spalding. Hogg Hummock’s slave descendants are extremely close, having been “bonded by family, bonded by history and bonded by struggle,” said Roger Lotson, the only Black member of the McIntosh County Board of Commissioners. His district includes Sapelo Island. “Everyone is family, and everyone knows each other,” Lotson said. “In any tragedy, especially like this, they are all one. They’re all united. They all feel the same pain and the same hurt.” Small communities descended from enslaved island populations in the South — known as Gullah, or Geechee in Georgia — are scattered along the coast from North Carolina to Florida. Scholars say their separation from the mainland caused residents to retain much of their African heritage, from their unique dialect to skills and crafts such as cast-net fishing and weaving baskets. In 1996, Hogg Hummock, also known as Hog Hammock, was placed on the National Register of Historic Places, the official list of the United States’ treasured historic sites. But the community’s population has been shrinking for decades, and some families have sold their land to outsiders who built vacation homes. Tax increases and zoning changes by the local government in McIntosh County have been met by protests and lawsuits by Hogg Hummock residents and landowners. They have been battling for the past year to undo zoning changes approved by county commissioners in September 2023 that doubled the size of homes allowed in Hogg Hummock. Residents say they fear larger homes will lead to tax increases that could force them to sell land their families have held for generations.

KOSCIUSKO, COUNTY, Ind. — An afternoon crash on US 30 between a semi and a van resulted in a man being flown from the scene due to his injuries, according to a release from the Indiana State Police.  Police say on October 17, at approximately 2:41 p.m., Master Trooper Alan Lehman responded to a crash in the eastbound lanes of US 30 between a semi and a cargo van. The trooper’s preliminary investigation indicated that a white 2014 Mercedes van, driven by Felix Farinola, 49 of Harrisburg, Pa., was traveling eastbound on US 30 in the right lane behind a blue 2006 Peterbilt towing a covered trailer.  The Peterbilt came to a stop for the red light at the intersection with SR 19 when the Mercedes failed to stop in time and collided with the rear of the trailer.  Farinola was flown from the crash scene to a hospital in Ft. Wayne due to injuries sustained in the crash.  The driver of Peterbilt, Michael Worsham, 74 of Bourbon, Ind., was not injured in the crash. “While neither alcohol nor drugs are suspected to factors in this crash it is suspected that Farinola was following too closely,” the release stated. “Farinola’s condition is unknown at the time of this release.” The Indiana State Police was assisted by the Kosciusko County Sheriff’s Office, Mentone Police Department, Etna Green Fire, and Lutheran EMS.

Shortly after taking the stage 91 minutes late for his Atlanta rally this week, Donald Trump did what he can’t help doing — go off on a tangent. This was clearly going to be a night at the improv. He marveled at length about how Elon Musk’s SpaceX rocket booster was snatched from the skies by mechanical arms on its return. All that fire and smoke. “Coolest thing I’ve seen in a long time,” he told his crowd. “Was that crazy?” Talk about a rocket’s red glare. A day earlier in Erie, Pennsylvania, Kamala Harris was buzzing with energy and blinding smiles on stage, and so were the thousands there to see her. No tangents. She delivered a lacerating putdown of her opponent, polishing the art of looking incredulous about the man half the country might be voting for. If she’d held up a sign, “WTF” would have nailed the expression on her face. Her crowd was on a sugar high. If next month’s election is the ultimate battle of good vs. evil, which we are told by both sides that it is, why are all these Georgia and Pennsylvania people dancing in the hall and having all this fun? Harris’ rhetoric is existential, the country’s very foundation susceptible to crumbling away Nov. 5, in her reckoning. Trump’s always provocative words have gone darker still, even with violent undertones at times. Yet in a country sick of what American politics has become, here were thousands marinating in it. Enjoying it. Making a date night out of it. Cocooned in it. The Harris rally Monday and the Trump one Tuesday were on different planets, to borrow Trump’s phrase for the world each candidate is offering Nov. 5. Trump looked ahead by looking back, promising a return to the country “you were born in.” Harris was fiercely future-focused. Chants of “U.S.A., U.S.A” rang out at both events and love of America was in the air. But what America? For U.S. Rep. Byron Donalds, who warmed up the crowd for the tardy Trump, it’s the country where boys grow to be men — “manhood is needed” — and girls become strong women who get husbands. Added Trump when he spoke, “Transgender insanity will be out of our schools immediately” if he wins. For Harris, it’s the country where people have “the freedom to love who you love openly and with pride.” At the Trump rally, Jonathan Cordero, 31, a former Bernie Sanders supporter now backing the Republican, was asked whether he recognizes that Democrats are patriots, too. He said yes, and compared patriotism to religion — different faiths all devoted to a deity. “Somebody who believes in, let’s say, Islam or Hinduism, they fully are committed to that belief system,” he said. “Same concept here — if somebody is for Harris and they’re chanting ‘U.S.A.,’ that’s because that’s their vision for where the country should go.” Erie was electrified More than four hours before Harris took the stage, the line to get inside the Erie Insurance Arena wrapped around a city block. Once inside, people had more than two hours to kill before the first speaker addressed them. Many were on their feet much of that time, dancing as a high-energy DJ spun a club mix heavy on female artists like Katy Perry, Whitney Houston, Beyonce, Madonna and Taylor Swift. People danced the Cha Cha Slide at their seats when prompted by the DJ. “Woah, we’re halfway there!” the crowd shouted when Bon Jovi’s “Livin’ on a Prayer” came on, with those lyrics. Before the speakers started, Robert Cabaniss, a 28-year-old music artist from Pittsburgh, two hours away, and his companion on a fishing trip showed up to support a strongly Democratic friend at the rally. If not a pure party loyalist himself, Cabaniss nevertheless supports Harris because “she fights for all of us” and, in his mind, she’s the only grownup running. “It’s like, man, did he grow out of his shoe size yet?” he said about Trump and his “spoiled brat talk.” He went on: “I’m still waiting. It’s like Peter Pan hasn’t grown up yet.” As for Trump’s supporters, he said, “I think they love their country, but not the right way.” A few sections over sat Angela Cox and her adult daughter, Taylor Norton, who had driven from Buffalo, New York, about 90 minutes away, after learning about the rally online. They were in line two hours before settling in their seats, and Cox had no complaints about that. “I’ve been having conversations with people all day long, and I love it,” she said. “The camaraderie.” The hall was electrified when Harris walked out and launched into a half hour speech hitting on the touchstones of her campaign — her plans, biography, patriotism and the “brutally serious consequences” should Trump, whom she’s come to call an “unserious man,” win. In a twist for her, she had the crowd watch a video on the jumbo screen of Trump musing about using the military to suppress “the enemy within” — the political opponents, investigators and resistant bureaucrats he branded as more dangerous than Russia or China. “You heard his words coming from him,” she said. “He’s talking about the enemy within, Pennsylvania. … He considers anyone who doesn’t support him or who will not bend to his will an enemy of our country.” Lusty boos washed over the hall. Her rally-goers were jazzed throughout. Afterward, she snaked through the crowd on the floor, shaking hands and chatting for 20 minutes. “I think she’s superb,” said Luther Manus, a 97-year-old World War II and Vietnam veteran as the arena started emptying out. “And it’s something, because what we had we don’t need again.” It was date night in Atlanta The upper-crust suburban setting outside the 2,800-seat Cobb Energy Performing Arts Centre put something of a damper on the carnival-hawker midway vibe that traditionally accompanies an outdoor Trump rally in a fairground setting. But the usual merch was on display, like the T-shirts saying “I’m voting for the felon and the hillbilly,” a reference to Trump’s criminal conviction and running mate JD Vance’s 2016 memoir, “Hillbilly Elegy.” “I just want to be around people that feel the same way I feel,” said Lydia Ward, a 33-year-old makeup artist, mother of two and longtime Trump supporter. “I’ve never been to something like this. The weather’s great, and we were able to get a babysitter and kind of made a date out of it.” The typical attendee invested as many as eight hours in Trump’s event, from joining the lineup into the home of Atlanta’s ballet and opera companies to seeing him leave the stage with Village People’s 1978 song “Y.M.C.A.” blasting. A screen over the stage flashed slides that few seemed to heed. Some slides made dystopian threats about the consequences of a Harris victory that focus on an America overrun by violent migrants. “Kamala’s border plan: Make America Haiti,” proclaimed one, with a dog picking its way down a junk-strewn street. “Kamala is responsible for a broken economy, broken border and broken world,” said another. Whether because he was tired in his third event of the day or just feeling chill, Trump was a bit lower key and shorter in his remarks than in some recent speeches, clocking in at 70 minutes. But he covered his bases. He cracked up his crowd with one-liners. He made common cause with MAGA supporters by telling them his rich friends are “boring as hell,” though one of the world’s richest, Trump supporter Musk, plainly fascinates him. He mocked Harris for being wed to a teleprompter and not knowing what inflation is ( she does ). He tapped the thrill of group transgression, as when he said that under Democrats, “Everything turns to …” The crowd completed the sentence. A hearty ovation greeted one of his newer lines about immigration: “The United States is now an occupied country, but Nov. 5 is liberation day.” “I love the excitement,” said Kay Bomar, a retiree from Ringgold in northwest Georgia. “You can talk to these people about what you feel and they tell you what they feel. You can say what you think here and not have to be afraid of offending somebody because they feel something different.” Cordero, the former Bernie Sanders supporter, plans to vote for Trump for the first time. “There’s similarity,” he said. “Not in the literal sense, but in the sense of the energy that they provoke out of people. They are very about change.” Cordero, who lives in the Atlanta suburb of Marietta and works in technology and advertising, showed up to be part of history. “I’m Hispanic,” he said. “I’m Puerto Rican, and there’s some people who would say that Latin people shouldn’t like Trump, or that Hispanics shouldn’t support somebody like Trump. But I disagree with that statement. “I think that Trump, this time around, has really reached all kinds of people simply by saying that we’re going to get the economy to a good place. We’re going to get our country safe again.” Harris got under Trump’s skin in their debate by noting how his crowds can thin out while he’s still speaking. A few did bail Tuesday night, starting about 25 minutes into his much-delayed speech. Most hung in. Among them were Julius Adams, a student collecting disability who is Black, and his wife, Tanya Young-Adams, who delivers pizzas for Papa Johns and is white. He has faith that Trump will follow through on deporting those immigrants who are “causing trouble,” even if he doesn’t pull off the mass deportations he’s promised. She is sold on Trump’s plan to exempt tips and car loans from taxes. “We’re on disability,” she said. “We can barely get by with trying to buy groceries. And I’ve got a car payment and gas is outrageous.” Trump and Harris gave their supporters a night away from that sort of grind. In Erie and Atlanta both, it was a welcome-to-the-tribe party, a performance and a chance to cut loose. The election results will tell which rally’s exuberance proved more rational

WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court heard arguments on Wednesday on an appeal from a CBD hemp oil maker fighting a lawsuit from a truck driver who says he got fired after using a product falsely advertised as being free from marijuana’s active ingredient. Douglas Horn said he took the product to help with chronic shoulder and back pain he had after a serious accident. The company said it contained CBD, a generally legal compound that is widely sold as a dietary supplement and included in personal-care products, but not THC, which gives marijuana its high, Horn said in court documents. After a failed routine drug test got him fired, Horn says he confirmed with a lab that the product did have THC. He sued the Vista, California, company under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, among other claims, alleging the THC-free marketing amounted to fraud. The law known as RICO was crafted as a tool to prosecute organized crime, but people can also file civil suits under it against alleged schemes and collect triple the damages if they win. An appeals court found Horn’s claim should be allowed to go forward. Medical Marijuana, Inc. appealed that decision to the Supreme Court. The company disputes Horn’s claims and argues that he can’t sue under RICO because he’s claiming a personal injury. Other appeals courts have dismissed RICO suits in similar circumstances, the company said, making this case a good one to decide on a nationwide rule. Horn, for his part, says his firing was a business injury and he’s been financially ruined. This is an on-going story.

NEW YORK (AP) — The Small Business Administration has run out of money for the disaster assistance loans it offers small businesses, homeowners and renters, delaying much needed relief for people applying for aid in the wake of the destruction caused by Hurricanes Helene and Milton. The SBA offers Economic Injury Disaster Loans to businesses and people affected by disasters. The SBA warned earlier this month that it could run out of funding, given the anticipated surge in claims from Hurricane Helene, without additional funding from Congress. There are other disaster relief programs available, including assistance from the Federal Emergency Management Agency, or FEMA. The FEMA aid isn’t affected by the SBA shortfall. Helene was a Category 4 storm that first struck Florida’s Gulf Coast on September 26, dumped trillions of gallons of rain and left a trail of destruction for hundreds of miles across several states. Hurricane Milton swept across Florida two weeks later. So far, the SBA has received around 37,000 applications for relief from those impacted by Hurricane Helene and made more than 700 loan offers totaling about $48 million. It has received 12,000 applications from those impacted by Hurricane Milton. The SBA is pausing new loan offers until it gets more funding, which means loans that have not already been offered will be delayed by at least a month. SBA Administrator Isabel Casillas Guzman said people should keep applying for the loans, however. “We know that swift financial relief can help communities recover quickly to stabilize local economies.” Guzman said in a statement. She added that the SBA will continue to process applications so assistance can be quickly disbursed once funds are replenished. The SBA said it could also be able to make a small number of new loan offers during this time, if it gets more funds from loan cancellations or similar actions. House Speaker Mike Johnson assured there would be strong support to provide necessary funds – when Congress returns after the November election. “There’s no question these devastating back-to-back storms have stressed the SBA funding program,” Johnson, a Republican, said in a statement. “But the Biden-Harris Administration has the necessary disaster funding right now to address the immediate needs of American people in these hurricane affected areas.” The speaker has declined to recall lawmakers back to Washington to vote on aid in the aftermath of deadly hurricanes and declined to do so now. He said Congress is tracking this situation closely. “When Members return in just a few short weeks, the Administration should have an accurate assessment of the actual dollar amount needed and there will be strong bipartisan support to provide the necessary funding,” he said. The SBA offers two different types of disaster loans. Business physical disaster loans are for repairing or replacing disaster-damaged property, including real estate, inventories, supplies, machinery and equipment. Economic injury disaster loans are working capital loans to help small businesses, small agricultural cooperatives, small businesses engaged in aquaculture, and most private, non-profit organizations meet financial obligations that cannot be met as a direct result of a disaster. Businesses can access loans up to $2 million. Interest rates are as low as 4% for businesses and 3.25% for nonprofit organizations. The SBA also offers disaster loans up to $500,000 to homeowners to repair or replace disaster-damaged or destroyed real estate. Homeowners and renters are eligible for up to $100,000 to repair or replace disaster-damaged or destroyed personal property. FEMA’s disaster relief fund is a pot of money the agency uses to respond to disasters. The money pays for things like refunding state and local officials for debris removal and rebuilding public infrastructure damaged by disasters. FEMA also gives disaster survivors money for things like rent while their homes are uninhabitable or for emergency needs like diapers. FEMA Administrator Deanne Criswell has repeatedly said that the disaster relief fund has enough money to respond to Helene and Milton. But Criswell has said that the agency eventually will need supplemental funding from Congress. If that doesn’t happen, the agency would go into what’s called “immediate needs funding.” That means the agency stops paying out for previous disasters and conserves its money for life-saving missions during any new ones. For more details about all aid programs the government offers visit https://www.disasterassistance.gov.

ELLENTON, Fla. (AP) — Florida counties hard hit by Hurricane Milton are returning to a semblance of normalcy, with power restored to most areas on Monday, gas stations reopening and students preparing to return to school. Still, some neighborhoods remained without power, with many severely damaged homes and businesses, their streets flooded and filled with debris. But on the whole, things were looking up. Florida power companies had restored electricity to about 93% of the 3.4 million homes and businesses that lost service after Milton made landfall late Wednesday as a Category 3 hurricane south of Tampa, smacking the region with 120 mph (205 kph) winds and a storm surge of up to 10 feet (3 meters). At least 11 people died less than two weeks after Hurricane Helene inflicted major damage in Florida and other Southeastern states. The death toll from Helene is more than 240. The three major power companies in the area hit by Milton deployed thousands of workers to quickly repair lines, poles and other infrastructure. “I know those guys got in and started working as soon as it was possible,” Gov. Ron DeSantis told a Monday news conference at SeaPort Manatee, just south of Tampa Bay. He said the recovery has been “very rapid and we appreciate what they’ve been able to do.” Florida Power & Light, Duke Energy and TECO Energy also credited efforts over the last decade to put more power lines underground, install stronger utility poles and adopt technology that enables electricity to be rerouted around damaged equipment. Areas that remain flooded will be the last to get power, and homes with damaged electrical systems won’t be able to receive it, the companies said. “Electricity and water don’t mix, so we cannot reenergize until the water has receded to ensure the safety of those customers,” Duke spokesperson Ana Gibbs said. Gerome Ozias was startled Sunday night when power came back after four days to his home in Palmetto, about 40 miles (64 kilometers) south of Tampa. He had been prepared to wait much longer. As he sat on his shaded front porch Monday with his daughter and another relative, air conditioning units hummed from several windows. “I’m surprised, but I’m happy, too.” said Ozias, who emigrated from Haiti nearly three decades ago. With power for his refrigerator, he replaced the food that had spoiled. Lines are mostly gone at gas stations. DeSantis said about 12 million gallons (45 million liters) of fuel was brought in over the four days since the storm. That helped replenish stations that ran out of gas before Milton arrived. The state has also opened a dozen sites in the Tampa Bay area where it is giving away about 2 million gallons of fuel. According to the fuel tracking website and app GasBuddy, about half of the Tampa Bay area’s gas stations had fuel on Monday afternoon. On Friday, less than a quarter did. Indicative of the improved conditions was a line at a Palmetto car wash, where David Washington used a towel to dry and buff his now-sparkling blue Ford F-150. The pickup had been spattered with mud from driving through soggy areas as Washington checked on relatives after the two storms. “You clean your car and get inside, it just makes you feel so much better,” said Washington, a lifelong Floridian. Most school districts in the hardest-hit areas plan to reopen campuses Wednesday, though Manatee County plans to reopen its schools on Tuesday. In Hillsborough County, which contains Tampa, schools held cleanup events on Monday. “We had school staff, families and other volunteers out cleaning up debris on the campus. It was an amazing show of community,” district spokesperson Tanya Arja said. About a third of the district’s 304 schools remain without power and a dozen still have standing water, she said. DeSantis has cautioned that debris removal from Helene and Milton could take up to a year, even as Florida shifts nearly 3,000 workers to the cleanup. The federal government has approved 100% federal reimbursement for those efforts for 90 days. Including damage done by Helene in other states, Moody’s estimates that combined privately insured losses for the two storms range between $35 billion and $55 billion. That’s only insured loss, and doesn’t include the federal flood insurance program. Unlike Ozias’ neighborhood, Chuck Porter’s neighborhood in nearby Ellenton remained without power Monday afternoon. A snapped power pole was still lying across the yard of a nearby home. A large, uprooted tree still pinned down power lines near the neighborhood entrance. Utility crew trucks passed without stopping, since they couldn’t do any repair work yet. Still, Porter, a retiree who has lived in the community nearly 70 years, wasn’t complaining. Porter and his wife, Nancy, were staying with their daughter nearby. His power company says his service should be restored by Wednesday night, but even a little delay won’t bother him. “By the end of the week, we’ll be fine,” Porter said. On Monday, the Porters were still cleaning out their home, which flooded knee-deep and got swamped with muck when Helene struck more than two weeks ago. It was Milton’s winds that knocked out power lines to the neighborhood and ripped shingles from Porter’s roof. But the wind damage to his home was minimal. The Key West-style bar he built himself in the backyard survived intact, with its neon signs and displays of hanging baseball bats and guitar-shaped bottle openers undisturbed. Still, the water damage inside was extensive. He was replacing his air-conditioner, refrigerator and other appliances. “Salt water just destroys everything,” Porter said. “Any light sockets that got wet, they’ll have to rip them out.” And many of his neighbors had it worse he said: Homes one street closer to the river flooded with sewage. “It’s going to be like this for six months or more” before all the storm damage gets repaired, he said. “Insurance pays for it. It’s just time-consuming.”

CORTEZ, Fla. (AP) — Floridians recovering from Hurricane Milton, many of whom were journeying home after fleeing hundreds of miles to escape the storm, spent much of Saturday searching for gas as a fuel shortage gripped the state. In St. Petersburg, scores of people lined up at a station that had no gas, hoping it would arrive soon. Among them was Daniel Thornton and his 9-year-old daughter Magnolia, who arrived at the station at 7 a.m. and were still waiting four hours later. “They told me they have gas coming but they don’t know when it’s going to be here,” he said. “I have no choice. I have to sit here all day with her until I get gas.” Gov. Ron DeSantis told reporters Saturday morning that the state opened three fuel distribution sites and planned to open several more. Residents can get 10 gallons (37.85 liters) each, free of charge, he said. “Obviously as power gets restored … and the Port of Tampa is open, you’re going to see the fuel flowing. But in the meantime, we want to give people another option,” DeSantis said. Officials were replenishing area gas stations with the state’s fuel stockpiles and provided generators to stations that remained without power. Disaster hits twice Those who reached home were assessing the damage and beginning the arduous cleaning process. Some, like Bill O’Connell, a board member at Bahia Vista Gulf in Venice, had thought they were done after the condo association hired companies to gut, treat and dry the units following Hurricane Helene. Milton undid that work and caused additional damage, O’Connell said. “It reflooded everything that was already flooded, brought all the sand back on our property that we removed,” O’Connell said. “And also did some catastrophic wind damage, ripped off many roofs and blew out a lot of windows that caused more damage inside the units.” The two hurricanes left a ruinous mess in the fishing village of Cortez, a community of 4,100 along the northern edge of Sarasota Bay. Residents of its modest, single-story wood and stucco-fronted cottages were working to remove broken furniture and tree limbs, stacking the debris in the street much like they did after Hurricane Helene. “Everything is shot,” said Mark Praught, a retired street sweeper for Manatee County, who saw 4-foot (1.2-meter) storm surges during Helene. “We’ll replace the electrical and the plumbing and go from there.” Praught and his wife, Catherine, have lived for 36 years in a low-lying home that now looks like an empty shell. All the furniture had to be discarded, the walls and the brick and tile floors had be scrubbed clean of muck, and drywall had to be ripped out. Catherine Praught said they felt “pure panic” when Hurricane Milton menaced Cortez so soon after Helene, forcing them to pause their cleanup and evacuate. Fortunately, their home wasn’t damaged by the second storm. “This is where we live,” Catherine Praught said. “We’re just hopeful we get the insurance company to help us.” In Bradenton Beach, Jen Hilliard scooped up wet sand mixed with rocks and tree roots and dumped the mixture into a wheelbarrow. “This was all grass,” Hilliard said of the sandy mess beneath her feet. “They’re going to have to make 500 trips of this.” Hilliard, who moved to Florida six months ago and lives further inland, said she was happy to pitch in and help clean up her friend’s home a block from the shore in Bradenton Beach Furniture and household appliances sat outside alongside debris from interior drywall that was removed after Helene sent several feet of storm surge into the house. Inside, walls were gutted up to 4 feet (1.2 meters), exposing the beams underneath. “You roll with the punches,” she said. “Community is the best part, though. Everybody helping each other.” Milton killed at least 10 people after it made landfall as a Category 3 storm, tearing across central Florida, flooding barrier islands and spawning deadly tornadoes. Officials say the toll could have been worse if not for the widespread evacuations. Overall, more than a thousand people had been rescued in the wake of the storm as of Saturday, DeSantis said. Property damage and economic costs in the billions On Sunday, President Joe Biden will survey the devastation inflicted on Florida’s Gulf Coast by the hurricane. He said he hopes to connect with DeSantis during the visit. The trip offers Biden another opportunity to press Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson to call lawmakers back to Washington to approve more funding during their preelection recess. It’s something Johnson says he won’t do. Biden is making the case that Congress needs to act now to ensure the Small Business Administration and FEMA have the money they need to get through hurricane season, which stretches through November in the Atlantic. DeSantis welcomed the federal government’s approval of a disaster declaration announced Saturday and said he had gotten strong support from Biden. “He basically said, you know, you guys are doing a great job. We’re here for you,” he said when asked about his conversations with Biden. “We sent a big request and we got approved for what we wanted.” Moody’s Analytics on Saturday estimated economic costs from the storm will range from $50 billion to $85 billion, including upwards of $70 billion in property damage and an economic output loss of up to $15 billion. Safety threats remain, including rising rivers As the recovery continues, DeSantis has warned people to be cautious, citing ongoing safety threats including downed power lines and standing water. Some 1.3 million Floridians were still without power by Saturday afternoon, according to poweroutage.us. National Weather Service Meteorologist Paul Close said rivers will “keep rising” for the next four or five days resulting in river flooding, mostly around Tampa Bay and northward. Those areas were hit by the most rain, which comes on top of a wet summer that included several earlier hurricanes. “You can’t do much but wait,” Close said of the rivers cresting. “At least there is no rain in the forecast, no substantial rain. So we have a break here from all our wet weather.” Farrington reported from St. Petersburg. Associated Press journalists Chris O’Meara in Lithia, Florida; Curt Anderson in Tampa; Terry Spencer outside of Fort Lauderdale, Florida; Stephany Matat in Fort Pierce, Florida; Freida Frisaro in Fort Lauderdale; and Rebecca Santana in Washington contributed.  A previous version of this story misspelled the surname of a couple at a rest stop off Interstate 75 north of Tampa. Their names are Lee and Pamela Essenburm, not Essenbaum.