American emergency alert systems continue to face challenges in reaching everyone in harm's way

Tornado sirens are designed to warn people outside to take cover. 
 (Photo by G. Johnson, Unsplash)

Despite significant improvements in American emergency alert technology, the country often fails to broadcast warnings that reach people in time. "Federal, state and local authorities share responsibility for alerting citizens that they are in danger," report Drew FitzGerald, Josie Reich and Caitlin Ostroff of The Wall Street Journal. "But the country’s patchwork of digital and physical emergency-alert tools is often a step behind Mother Nature, with deadly consequences."

The tragic July 4th flooding, where, in Kerr County alone, there were more than 90 confirmed fatalities, offers a sobering picture of how much can go wrong. "There were repeated flash flooding warnings in Kerr County, as rain moved in and the Guadalupe River surged at the start of the July 4 weekend," the Journal reports. "Those alerts never reached some of the campers and residents who lacked cellphone service, silenced notifications or didn’t have phones with them, and outdoor sirens were considered but never built."

Texas is not alone. Human errors during the January Los Angeles wildfires caused some text alerts to be delayed, with some even sent to the wrong areas. During Maui's deadly wildfires, cellphone networks failed, leaving some residents who would have received text warnings unaware and unable to seek safety in time.

Besides Mother Nature's stealth, human error and the unpredictability of first-time disasters, what else is going wrong? "The Federal Emergency Management Agency’s internet-based alert system has made it easier for local authorities to reach residents," they write. "But industry experts say some rural officials often lack the funding, expertise or permission from state authorities to push their own alerts through broadcasters and cellphones."

Too many alerts "can cause cellphone users to shut off notifications that become bothersome or irrelevant. A menu of warnings for floods, fires, missing children and more have caused 'alert fatigue' in some areas," the Journal reports. "The FCC is working on changes that would let authorities send muted or vibrate-only notifications in less-dire situations. Those changes won’t go into effect until 2028."

Six months after Hurricane Helene, North Carolina is still trying to measure the loss while pushing recovery efforts

Flooding from Hurricane Helene wiped out homes and roads.
 (Adobe Stock photo)

North Carolina lawmakers are pushing Hurricane Helene recovery efforts forward despite not knowing the extent of Helene's damage or how much and when federal aid will be available. Brady Dennis of The Washington Post reports, "Officials seem determined to move quicker after Helene and avoid the mistakes of the past, even as North Carolina faces the most massive disaster recovery in its history."

Hurricane Helene hit western North Carolina six months ago, leaving a swath of decimation caused by extreme rain, flooding and mudslides. More than 100 people died and thousands of homes were damaged or destroyed. Flooding "wiped out bridges, roads, businesses and farms," Dennis reports. The storm left "an estimated $60 billion of economic ruin in its wake."

State officials still don't know how much federal aid will "ultimately arrive and in what quantity, even amid President Trump’s promises to speed help to the region," Dennis adds. "FEMA has helped more than 157,000 families and distributed $402.5 million to storm victims in North Carolina. . . . But the larger sums of funding meant to fuel long-term rebuilding that often follow large-scale disasters, historically takes months, if not years, to be fully implemented." 

The storm's scope of catastrophic damage explains why recovery has been slow. "Disaster recovery is almost always frustrating, tedious and too costly for most states and localities to bear without a significant assist from the federal government," Dennis explains. "Lawmakers continue to hash out the final details of the state’s most recent — though almost certainly not its last — Helene aid package. If passed, it will include more than $500 million to help struggling farmers, jump-start a home building program and repair private roads and bridges."

Even with that progress, the state will need billions to get back on its feet. Gov. Josh Stein’s deputies admit "that serious hurdles remain," Dennis reports. "Among them: the staggering damage Helene inflicted, the lack of data in some counties about the actual number of damaged and destroyed homes and the difficulties posed by rebuilding amid mountainous terrain."

U.S. dams are aging and not made to withstand new climate extremes, increasing the risk of disastrous failures

Flood waters approached the top of the Wrightsville Dam near
Montpelier, Vt. (Montpelier police photo via The Boston Globe)

Often overlooked and mostly old, dams provide drinking water, energy and transportation across the U.S., and as the recent flooding in Vermont showed, many need repair and updates that take weather extremes into account. "Heavy rainfall in the Northeast on June 9-11, 2023, generated widespread flooding," writes Hiba Baroud for The Conversation, a journalism platform for academics. "One major concern was the Wrightsville Dam, built in 1935 on the Winooski River north of Vermont's capital city, Montpelier. The reservoir behind the dam rose to within 1 foot of the dam's maximum storage capacity, prompting warnings that water could overtop the dam and worsen already-dangerous conditions downstream or damage the dam. . . . There are more than 91,000 dams across the U.S., in all 50 states, with diverse designs and purposes. . . . The average dam is 60 years, and more than 8,000 dams are over 90 years old."

Besides age, climate change adds another reason for dam fortification. "Compounding the risk in ways that are not yet fully understood are the intensifying rains brought about by a warming planet. Warmer temperatures mean more water in the air and a roiled atmosphere that brings both periods of drought and the potential for deluge," reports Sabrina Shankman of The Boston Globe. Baroud reports: "Designing new dams and upgrading existing infrastructure will need to be based on updated design procedures that consider future climate projections. . . . While older dams aren't necessarily unsafe, they were constructed following outdated design standards and construction procedures and for different environmental conditions. That influences the likelihood and consequences of their failure during disasters."

The U.S. receives an "infrastructure report card" from the American Society of Civil Engineers every four years. "The most recent report card estimates that 70% of U.S. dams will be more than 50 years old by 2030," Baroud reports. "Overall, the report gave U.S. dams a 'D' grade and estimated that more than 2,300 high-hazard potential dams – those that could cause loss of life or serious property damage if they fail, based on the level of development around them – lacked emergency action plans. . . . Decommissioning or replacing dams can be complicated and cost-prohibitive. Regularly maintaining and upgrading older dams can be a cost-effective way to strengthen them and make them resilient to natural hazards."

While overtopping is the number one cause of dam failure, overall structural integrity is influenced by "how long water flows over a dam and the volume of water. . . its purpose, size and location," Baroud explains. "If a dam is designed for flood protection and is surrounded by homes, businesses or critical infrastructure, a large uncontrolled release of water could be catastrophic."

Hurricane-force winds leave half a million Kentuckians without power, most of them rural electric co-op members

Wind destroyed some farm buildings in the southern part of the Bluegrass Region. (Inter County Energy photo)

What was effectively a dry-land hurricane left almost half a million Kentuckians without power Friday evening, most of them rural. More than 300,000 consumer-members of rural electric cooperatives lost power, the Kentucky Association of Electric Cooperatives said Sunday night.

"With damage as widespread as any natural disaster in Kentucky electric cooperative history, co-ops are making steady progress restoring power," a news release said. "As of 1 p.m. ET Sunday, about 87,000 members remain without power. With the ground saturated from heavy rains, heavy trucks have had difficulty accessing damaged infrastructure."

Kentucky crews are being helped by employees of 58 co-ops in Illinois, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Missouri, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee and Virginia, the release said: "Because the national network of transmission and distribution infrastructure owned by electric cooperatives is built to federal standards, line crews from any co-op in America can arrive on the scene ready to provide emergency support, secure in their knowledge of the system’s engineering."

“With the help of our fellow co-ops, power restoration work is continuing around the clock.” KAEC President and CEO Chris Perry said in the release. “We are thankful that most homes and businesses were spared damage in this event, but the persistent high winds and hurricane-strength gusts on Friday took a tremendous toll on electric infrastructure.”

The storm that moved through the region lowered barometric pressure at Louisville to 28.85 inches of mercury, or 977 millibars, the lowert ever recorded there. Hurricane-force wind gusts were reported at several locations, and the Lexington airport was knocked out of service.

Quick hits: Rural entrepreneurs well-placed to be climate leaders; Kansas faces dire foster-parent shortage

Here's a roundup of stories with rural resonance; if you do or see similar work that should be shared on The Rural Blog, email us at heather.chapman@uky.edu.

Much of rural Kansas has so few foster parents that the loss of just one can leave a huge hole in a county, reports Kansas City's KCUR.

How to prepare for, and react to, storms that knock out your electricity, from The Daily Yonder.

The last line of the paid obituary for a man who was a major paper-company executive in Idaho reads: "The best tribute you can give to Lee [Gill] is to pick up a piece of trash." His funeral is today.

The Guardian digs up a 1977 climate memo to Jimmy Carter "that should have changed the world."

Through simple measures, rural entrepreneurs can become climate leaders, says the Nebraska-based Center for Rural Affairs. Read more here.

Abbott baby formula factory shuts down again after storm flooding; could start production again in a few weeks

Just weeks after the Abbott Nutrition baby formula plant in Sturgis, Mich., got back up and running, production has stalled again after a severe storm caused flooding in parts of the facility. "On Wednesday, the company said that it was assessing damage from the storm and cleaning the plant, which would delay production and distribution for a few weeks, but that it had sufficient supplies of EleCare and most of its specialty and metabolic formulas to meet demand until new formula is available," Christine Hauser reports for The New York Times. 

Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Robert M. Califf "said that the agency had been informed about the stoppage but that it was not expected to have much impact, given increased imports of formula as well as production by Abbott and other manufacturers," Hauser reports. The plant is expected to be up and running again in a few weeks. 

Tornadoes shift to Southeast, where they tend to be deadlier because of timing (night), geography and population density

Northern Illinois University map; click on it to enlarge

"Tuesday night’s deadly tornado that struck the New Orleans area is the ideal example of what experts say is the 21st century problem with twisters: Killer tornadoes have shifted a bit out of the vast emptiness of the Great Plains, more into the Southeast where there are more people to hit, poorer populations and more trees to obscure twisters from view," Seth Borenstein reports for The Associated Press. "Since 2000, nearly 89% of the 1,653 Americans killed by tornadoes — not counting this week’s victims — lived east of the Dakotas, Nebraska, Kansas, Oklahoma and Texas, according to an Associated Press analysis of National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration data."

These tornadoes aren't necessarily more powerful than the ones that hit the Great Plains; they're just hitting more densely populated areas. Twisters in Tornado Alley, in contrast, can go for miles without hitting much, Borenstein reports.

Climate change plays a major part in why tornado frequency is shifting east to "tornado fatality alley in the Mid-South, according to a 2018 study by Victor Genseni, a Northern Illinois University meteorology professor who specializes in severe storms, and Harold Brooks, a senior scientist at NOAA’s National Severe Storms Laboratory. "What’s likely happening is that the West is getting drier because of human-caused climate change, which makes it harder for the air to become moist and unstable, which is crucial for tornado formation, they said," Borenstein reports. "The Southeast is getting warmer air, which holds more water vapor, which creates that important instability."

Southeastern tornadoes also tend to be deadlier because they're more prone to happen at night. "About three-quarters of the tornadoes that hit Oklahoma and other Great Plains states occur between 5 and 9 p.m. so people know when to expect them and its more daylight, Brooks said. But in the Southeast they can hit any time, which means more often at night than in Oklahoma, making them more dangerous," Borenstein reports. "Another reason they happen more at night in the Southeast is because they happen more in the springtime and there are just fewer daylight hours, Gensini said. Spring storms are juicier and stronger than summer ones so they don’t need the sun’s daytime heat to add that extra kick of energy to spur tornadoes, he said."

The Southeast also has more trees, hills, and buildings that can block people's sight lines and keep them from seeing a twister coming; that can make them less likely to heed a tornado warning, Borenstein reports. But, "The one advantage tornadoes in the Southeast have is that they are easier for meteorologists to forecast the conditions ripe for bad outbreaks much earlier."

Why it's so hard to predict tornadoes

The ingredients for Tornado Alley (Wikipedia map by Dan Craggs)

Tornadoes are notoriously difficult to predict and people often get warnings only minutes in advance, especially those in rural areas who tend to be less-covered by weather radars.

"As of 2011, the average lead time for tornado warnings was just around 13 minutes. But as The Washington Post has reported, lead times have been getting worse in recent years, dropping to 8.4 minutes between 2012 and 2020. Some people have even less warning," Brian Resnik reports for Vox. When tornado warnings do come, an actual twister may not follow. The vast majority of tornado warnings issued by the National Weather Service prove to be false alarms; in some years, the false alarm rate can be as high as 70 to 80 percent. Tornado forecasting hasn’t improved much since the 2011 tornado disaster in Joplin, Missouri, killed 162 people."

One big problem is that tornadoes are harder for scientists to observe than other natural phenomena such as hurricanes: They're so short-lived and often so violent that it's difficult to gather data about them. They may disperse before scientists can drop instruments in the area, and tornadoes often destroy scientific equipment. Click here for an in-depth explainer (including a video) of how tornadoes form and why it's so difficult to predict them.

Fears of hog lagoon flooding in N.C. raise question of who should fund industry efforts to adapt to climate change

This year's hurricane season is predicted to be stronger than usual. That has some North Carolina residents and organizations worried that storms will again overwhelm hog lagoons and flood communities with waste. That, in turn, invites consideration of a larger issue: who should fund efforts to keep industry from harming communities because of climate change-fueled disasters.

North Carolina has the most poultry farms and the second most hog farms of any state, and the concentration of such operations on the coastal plain makes them uniquely vulnerable to storm damage, Cameron Oglesby reports for Environmental Health News. Animal waste is stored in open lagoons, and contains harmful bacteria like E. coli or salmonella. When lagoons are flooded, the bacteria can get into local waterways and contaminate groundwater. In 2018, more than 100 lagoons were damaged or flooded by Hurricane Florence, and some state officials and environmental advocates told Oglesby they worried the hog industry has not adequately prepared for future storms since then.

Roy Lee Lindsey, CEO of the North Carolina Pork Producers Council, told Oglesby their lagoons are not outdated, and that the industry has participated in a voluntary state program that buys out hog farms in floodplains, leading to the permanent closure of 43 farms and about 103 waste lagoons since 2000. More hog farmers would participate if the state better funded it, he said.

After Florence, the legislature allocated $5 million to expand the program, Oglesby reports. Will Hendrick, environmental justice advocate for the North Carolina Conservation Network and staff attorney with the Waterkeeper Alliance's Pure Farms program, questioned whether taxpayers should fund buyouts and pollution mitigation instead of imposing and enforcing stricter regulations.

Rural Texas papers struggling to operate amid winter weather disaster

Many Texas newspapers are having difficulty operating and/or delivering because of the winter weather that has brought the state to a halt.

In Colorado City, (whose mayor resigned after a social media diatribe saying that "only the strong will survive" amid power shortages) The Colorado City Record warned subscribers that the paper will be delayed this week because there is no electricity to run the software for designing the paper.

Mike Hodges, Texas Press Association director, said in an email to The Rural Blog that, though he doesn't have exact numbers on how many papers are being delayed, "suffice it to say that the challenge is widespread." Many papers face staff shortages and electrical outages (which sometimes means no heat, water, and/or internet), and mail delivery has been slow because of road conditions. But, Hodges wrote, papers are persevering: "I am not aware of any publishers failing to produce their product this week. However, my staff and I did field an abundance of phone calls and emails from publishers who were having difficulty in meeting deadlines, getting the paper to the printer, getting to and from the press, etc."

Frozen wind turbines not to blame for Texas power outages; natural-gas issues, isolated power grid responsible instead

Millions of Texans have lost power after the state's electrical grid was unable to cope with extreme winter weather. Some conservative pundits and state lawmakers have cited reports of frozen wind turbines as evidence that the state must be relying too much on renewable energy, but that's not true, Erin Douglas and Ross Ramsey report for The Texas Tribune.

"An official with the Electric Reliability Council Of Texas said Tuesday afternoon that 16 gigawatts of renewable energy generation, mostly wind generation, were offline. Nearly double that, 30 gigawatts, had been lost from thermal sources, which includes gas, coal and nuclear energy," Douglas and Ramsey report. "It’s estimated that of the grid’s total winter capacity, about 80% of it, or 67 gigawatts, could be generated by natural gas, coal and some nuclear power. Only 7% of ERCOT’s forecasted winter capacity, or 6 gigawatts, was expected to come from various wind power sources across the state."

Natural gas seems to be the energy source least able to cope with the spike in demand, with gas freezing in pipelines without winter insulation. Michael Webber, an energy-resources professor at the University of Texas, told the Tribune that the gas industry is producing much less power than usual. Dan Woodfin, a senior director at ERCOT, which manages the electric grid in Texas, said on a Tuesday call with reporters, "It appears that a lot of the generation that has gone offline today has been primarily due to issues on the natural-gas system."

Winter weather problems with natural gas are not new, Jason Whitely reports for the Dallas Business Journal. After a winter weather disaster in 1989, the Public Utility Commission of Texas recommended that natural-gas generators and producers winterize their operations, but didn't make it mandatory as other states have. Another such disaster in 2011 prompted the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission and the nonprofit North American Electric Reliability Corp. to issue a report saying the same thing, but it was largely ignored.

Both wind turbines and natural-gas pipelines can be winterized, but many Texas power generators haven't made the investment because the state doesn't often get such cold weather. Compounding the problem, Texas has its own electrical grid, meaning the state can't easily import electricity, Matt Egan reports for CNN Business.

UPDATE, Feb. 18: "Texas counts on wind to meet only 10% of its winter capacity, according to the state’s grid manager," The Wall Street Journal reports. "Natural gas and coal make up the lion’s share, comprising 82%. Sure, some wind turbines glitched under cold weather conditions, but so did natural gas- and coal-fired power."

Federal derecho aid excludes relief for farmers and homeowners; some could be approved in a week

"A federal major disaster declaration approved Monday does not include financial assistance for Iowans recovering from last week's devastating derecho, despite President Donald Trump tweeting he approved the state's application in 'FULL.' Kim Norvell reports for the Des Moines Register. "Gov. Kim Reynolds' request for $82.7 million to cover the 8,273 homes that were damaged or destroyed was not approved. Neither were her requests for $3.77 billion for agriculture damage to farm land, grain bins and buildings and $100 million for private utilities repair."

The Federal Emergency Management Agency said it is still assessing damage to determine if the state qualifies for more assistance. Acting Secretary of Homeland Security Chad Wolf said Tuesday it could be another week before individual assistance is approved. The disaster declaration issued Monday, which includes 16 Iowa counties, "includes federal funding for emergency work, such as debris removal, and repair or replacement of storm-damaged facilities for local governments and nonprofits," Reynolds reports.

The Aug. 10 storm carved a 700-mile swath across the Midwest. In Iowa alone, a quarter of a million people remain without power, and nearly half of the corn crop was damaged or destroyed. About 6.1 million acres of corn and soybeans were destroyed, Donelle Eller reports for the Register.

Recent Midwestern derecho was like an 'inland hurricane' but hasn't seen comparable news coverage from outsiders

On Monday, Aug. 10, a storm known as a derecho wreaked havoc over a 700-mile stretch of the Midwest. But though the storm was as strong as a Level 2 hurricane and destroyed or damaged nearly half of Iowa's corn crop, the disaster isn't getting the same kind of outsider coverage that a hurricane would, Cedar Rapids Gazette columnist Lyz Lenz writes for The Washington Post.

"While the storm did garner some coverage, mostly via wire stories, its impact remains under-reported days later. The dispatches, focused on crop damage and electrical outages, have been shouted down by the coverage of the veepstakes and the fate of college football. Conservatives’ consternation over the new Cardi B single has gotten more attention than the Iowans left without power or food for what may be weeks. And all this, as the pandemic continues to wreak havoc throughout the state," Lenz writes. "Iowa’s last disaster, breathlessly covered by the media, was the caucuses. After that, everyone moved out. The dearth of coverage means we are struggling here, and no one knows."

In Iowa alone, a quarter of a million people are without power, and nearly half of the state's corn crop was damaged or destroyed. According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Risk Management Agency, about 8.2 million acres of corn and 5.6 million acres of soybeans in the state were in the path of the storm, Natalina Sents reports for Successful Farming. Preliminary estimates say the storm also damaged or destroyed more than 57 million bushels of permanently licensed grain storage that will cost more than $300 million to remove, replace or repair.

Nearly half of Iowa corn crop damaged in derecho storm

Before and after satellite images show the scale of crop damage in Iowa
from Monday's storm. (NASA Worldview images)

Monday’s derecho across the Corn Belt and Midwest laid siege to more than 10 million acres of Iowa’s corn and soybean crop, devastating farmers and capping off what has already been a difficult few years of farming for many," Matthew Cappucci reports for The Washington Post. "Up to 43 percent of the state’s corn and soybean crop has suffered damage from the storms that brought winds exceeding 100 miles per hour at times, a severe blow to a $10 billion industry that’s central to the Hawkeye State’s economy. The magnitude of the battered vegetation was even visible on the same weather satellites used to track Monday’s violent thunderstorms."

It may take weeks to understand the full scope of the damage, but initial reports say it's significant, said Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds at a news conference Tuesday. In the meantime, Reynolds declared 20 counties as disasters, allowing more state funding for disaster response and recovery. "The state is also making grants available to low-income families who find themselves faced with food, repair, or temporary housing expenses in the wake of the disaster," Cappucci reports.

The state is juggling storm response along with pandemic management efforts. Some drive-up coronavirus testing sites were closed earlier this week, but Reynolds said they will reopen as soon as possible.

Public lashes back as meteorologist loses job for objecting live on air to Sinclair-mandated 'Code Red' weather alerts

Meteorologist Joe Crain has been fired from WICS-TV in Springfield, Ill., after criticizing the "Code Red" weather alerts that Sinclair Broadcast Group had ordered its stations to use. Crain, who had been at the station for 15 years and was a trusted local source for viewers, felt the Code Red days were alarmist, Matthew Cappucci reports for The Washington Post.

Sinclair confirmed to CNN Wednesday that Crain was "let go" but declined further comment. WICS wouldn't comment publicly, but issued a statement defending the Code Red alerts and stressing that the decision to declare a Code Red day was made locally. The statement obliquely acknowledged that viewers were unhappy, and aaid the alerts would now be called "Weather Warn." They also promised to "continue to work to more precisely define the specific geographic areas of greatest concern." 

Meanwhile, public support for Crain remains strong. A Facebook page called "Supporters of Meteorologist Joe Crain" has more than 15,500 members. And on Wednesday, comedian Stephen Colbert praised Cain and poked fun at the Code Red system.  "With Joe Crain gone, the problem of scaring viewers isn’t getting any easier,' said Colbert, as the screen flipped to a graphic reading 'Storm Team Death Cast.' The audience laughed and applauded," Cappucci reports. 

At least four businesses have pulled their ads from WICS in support of Crain, the State Journal-Register in Springfield reports. And Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., told reporters that Crain "said something that was obvious" in criticizing the Code Red alerts, and that WICS and Sinclair were "overstating the danger to our community . ..  and they want to blame it on him."

"A petition to reinstate Crain as WICS’s morning meteorologist has gathered more than 16,000 signatures, but the effectiveness remains to be seen," Cappucci reports.

Sinclair station meteorologist may lose job after objecting on the air to mandated 'code red' weather alerts

A meteorologist for a Sinclair Broadcasting station could lose his job after he criticized, on the air, last week, new orders from corporate to declare "code red" weather alert days.

Joe Crain has been a meteorologist at WICS-TV in Springfield, Ill., for 15 years, and is trusted by locals as a source for severe weather coverage. He said Sinclair management encouraged meteorologists at his and other affiliates to declare "code red" days as part of weather forecasts, which he believed undermined his credibility, Matthew Cappucci reports for The Washington Post.

He spoke out on Wednesday in response to what he said were "thousands" of negative comments from readers. "I take my job seriously and my responsibility to the public," Crain said during his forecast. "We want you to know it’s not us. This is a corporate initiative: the code red alert. Behind the scenes, many of us have tried to dissuade it for the last few months." He encouraged viewers to continue complaining: "Despite the fact that this facility is owned by a corporation, it’s still licensed under the authority by the Federal Communications Commission to serve the public interest, convenience and necessity. You still have a voice. Keep those cards and letters coming."

Crain did not deliver a forecast Thursday morning, and his bio has been removed from the company site. Thousands of local viewers have commented on social media in support of Crain, some pledging to boycott the station. At least four local businesses have pulled advertising from WICS in response, and meteorologists across the country have spoken out, saying management needs to stay out of news coverage, Cappucci reports.

A Sinclair spokesperson told the Post that the company stands behind its decision to push code red alerts, and says the increase in code red days seen in Springfield was the product of frequent severe weather that had created "significant storm damage in the area." The spokesperson also contradicted Crain's on-air complaint and said that local meteorologists decide whether to issue a red alert, Cappucci reports.

  

Weeks after Hurricane Michael struck, some rural residents of the Florida Panhandle still need help

Though utilities have been restored in Panama City and other metro areas in the Florida panhandle, some rural residents say they still lack power, sewer and water services more than two weeks after Hurricane Michael ravaged the Gulf Coast, Tamara Lush reports for The Associated Press.

About 180,000 people live in Bay County, where Panama City is located, and 14 percent of them live in poverty. Mark Ward, 49, is one. A generator powers his mobile home, he stores food in coolers, and grills out. "It’s a struggle. You feel frustrated because our local government seems to care more about the tourism industry than the hard-working people," he told Lush. "You go off some of these dirt roads that are still unpaved, these houses are crushed. These people have no resources."

The storm did more than cut off power; it destroyed many homes, especially flimsily built mobile homes. And residents who use insulin or other medications that must be refrigerated are in dire straits if they don't have access to a cooler or generator, Lush reports. Though the Red Cross has brought some supplies, neighbors have been helping each other as much as they can, offering space to sleep, water, showers, and food.

Residents who live in poverty will have a hard time recovering from the disaster: the moisture and wreckage left by the storm are likely to spur the growth of mold, and many residents don't have property insurance to help rebuild damaged or destroyed homes.

Small electrical contractor from rural Montana tapped to rebuild Puerto Rico's power grid

Pedestrians duck under a downed power line in Puerto Rico. (Photo: Angel Valentin, Vox)

A relatively untested Montana energy contractor has signed a $300 million deal to rebuild some of the power grid in Puerto Rico, which is still largely without power a month after Hurricane Maria. Though Whitefish Energy is only two years old, company spokesperson Chris Chiames says the company's experience with rebuilding power lines in the mountains of western Montana translates well to Puerto Rico, Tristan Scott reports for the Flathead Beacon in Kalispell. Chiames says Whitefish has had crews on the ground since Sept. 26, with 265 workers and contractors in country right now. That number that could grow to 1,000 by the end of the job, which he estimates will take months. The company's specific assignment is to repair and rebuild 100 miles of transmission lines on the western side of the island. The island has about 2,400 miles of transmission lines, roughly 80 percent of which was damaged by the storm.

The Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority took the unusual step of hiring Whitefish and other private companies last month to rebuild the island. Often after disasters, U.S. states activate mutual aid arrangements with other utilities, but it's unclear why Puerto Rico didn't. Congress is scrutinizing the decision to hire Whitefish and others because of concerns about bankrupt Puerto Rico's ability to pay.

Another reason Congress is paying attention: Whitefish, Mont., is the home town of Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke, and he and Whitefish CEO Andy Techmanski acknowledge knowing each other--but only because it's a small town where "everybody knows everybody," Zinke's office told The Washington Post. Both Zinke and Techmanski deny that Zinke had any role in scoring the job for Whitefish. The House Committee on Natural Resources is examining Whitefish's hiring because "The size and unknown details of this contract raises numerous questions," committee spokesperson Parish Braden told the Post. "This is one of many things the committee is taking a close look at as it continues to work with the resident commissioner, governor’s office, and oversight board to ensure Puerto Rico’s recovery is robust, effective and sustained."