Fears for those with medical needs after Helene as search for missing continues
(NEW YORK) — At least 1,000 National Guard troops are heading into the most hard-hit areas in western North Carolina on Thursday in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene as the death toll from the storm approaches 200 with hundreds of people still unaccounted for.
“The nation has your back. We’re not leaving ‘til you’re back on your feet completely,” President Joe Biden said on Wednesday after surveying the mass destruction from the storm in North and South Carolina.
Helene is now the deadliest mainland hurricane to strike the United States since Katrina in 2005 which claimed the lives of nearly 1,400 people.
More than a million people still don’t have power and a nearly completely dark strip marks the path of Helene through the Southeast as the crisis over getting access to drinkable water is growing.
Vice President Kamala Harris met with local authorities and grieving families in Augusta, Georgia, on Wednesday.
“It is particularly devastating in terms of the loss of life that this community has experienced, the loss of normalcy,” Harris said.
Elsewhere, new video captured the moment a landslide hit a house in Newland, North Carolina, as Helene trampled the Southeast.
In Fairview, Connecticut, Philip Morgan showed ABC News the system of ropes he has had to create to rappel the terrain since the bridge to his neighborhood was wiped out.
Morgan’s brother is on a ventilator and in dire need of supplies as Philip Morgan says it is only a matter of time before his brother will need to be moved.
“[My biggest fear is] something happening to him and not being able to get out of here fast enough,” Morgan told ABC News.
Meanwhile, nearby at Mission Hospital in Asheville, North Carolina, 400 nurses arrived in buses from across the country — even as far as Alaska — all to lend a helping hand in the aftermath of the sheer destruction of the storm.
“They showed up with a smile on their face. Eager to help, eager just to give us a little bit of reprieve,” said Matt Alligood, a resident nurse at Mission Hospital. “So, it’s … it’s been amazing.”
(NEW YORK) — Thirty-eight million people are under heat alerts Monday as dangerously high temperatures are set to take over the Midwest.
An excessive heat warning has been issued in Chicago, where the heat index — what the temperature feels like with humidity — could reach a scorching 110 degrees on Monday and Tuesday.
The cities of Minneapolis; Madison, Wisconsin; and Omaha, Nebraska, are also under excessive heat warnings. The heat index may climb as high as 115 degrees in these cities on Monday.
In Detroit, public schools will be released three hours early on Monday and Tuesday due to the heat.
The heat will spread east and south through the week. Record highs are possible from Chicago to Louisville, Kentucky, on Tuesday and from Nashville, Tennessee, to Washington, D.C., on Wednesday.
This comes after record-high temperatures in Texas this weekend. Amarillo climbed to a record of 104 degrees on Sunday.
There are hundreds of deaths each year in the U.S. due to excessive heat, according to CDC WONDER, an online database, and scientists caution that the actual number of heat-related deaths is likely higher.
(SAN FRANCISCO) — In a first-of-its-kind lawsuit, California Attorney General Rob Bonta and a coalition of environmental nonprofit groups are suing ExxonMobil for the company’s alleged role in the global plastics pollution crisis.
The state claims the oil and gas giant engaged in a “decades-long campaign of deception” to lie to consumers about the sustainability of plastic recycling, according to the lawsuit filed Monday in San Francisco County Superior Court.
The suit alleges the company perpetuated the myth that plastics, particularly single-use plastics, are sustainable and recyclable, knowing this was false and that 95% of plastics end up in landfills.
ExxonMobil is the leading producer of synthetic polymers, which are essentially the building blocks of single-use plastics such as bottles, wrappers and bags, according to the lawsuit.
“Plastics are everywhere, from the deepest parts of our oceans, the highest peaks on earth, and even in our bodies, causing irreversible damage — in ways known and unknown — to our environment and potentially our health,” Bonta said in a press release announcing the lawsuit.
The lawsuit claims ExxonMobil deliberately shifted the responsibility for plastic waste to consumers by promoting the idea that plastic recycling was their individual duty, while the company knew recycling was not a viable solution.
In response to the lawsuit, a spokesperson for ExxonMobil released a statement to ABC News saying, “For decades, California officials have known their recycling system isn’t effective. They failed to act, and now they seek to blame others. Instead of suing us, they could have worked with us to fix the problem and keep plastic out of landfills.”
The filing follows a two-year investigation initiated in 2022, during which the attorney general says his office issued multiple subpoenas and obtained extensive materials to build the case.
“For decades, ExxonMobil has been deceiving the public to convince us that plastic recycling could solve the plastic waste and pollution crisis when they clearly knew this wasn’t possible,” Bonta said.
“We are focused on solutions and meritless allegations like these distract from the important collaborative work that is underway to enhance waste management and improve circularity,” a spokesperson for the company told Reuters in a written response after the AG opened the investigation in 2022.
Bonta claimed in the lawsuit that ExxonMobil promoted “advanced recycling,” which is portrayed as an innovative recycling solution but that the program is neither new nor effective.
ExxonMobil’s “advanced recycling” process cannot handle large amounts of post-consumer plastic waste such as potato chip bags without risking the safety and performance of its equipment, according to the suit.
The lawsuit claims the recycling program only accounts for “less than one percent of ExxonMobil’s total virgin plastic production capacity, which continues to grow.”
In the statement to ABC News, a spokesperson for ExxonMobil claimed, “To date, we’ve processed more than 60 million pounds of plastic waste into usable raw materials, keeping it out of landfills.”
As of September 2024, Exxon Mobil’s market cap was ranked at over $512 billion, making it the 18th most valuable company in the world.
“ExxonMobil lied to further its record-breaking profits at the expense of our planet and possibly jeopardizing our health. Today’s lawsuit shows the fullest picture to date of ExxonMobil’s decades-long deception, and we are asking the court to hold ExxonMobil fully accountable for its role in actively creating and exacerbating the plastics pollution crisis through its campaign of deception,” Bonta said.
The California DOJ is seeking billions in civil damages, for environmental destruction, harm to public health, and to end the company’s “deceptive practices.”
More than 26 million pounds of trash has been collected from California beaches and waterways since 1985, according to the lawsuit, and approximately 81 percent of it was plastic.
The lawsuit alleges most of the plastic items collected on the annual California Coastal Cleanup Day can be traced to ExxonMobil’s polymer resins.
(NEW YORK CITY) — Comedian Tony Hinchcliffe came under fire for comments made about Latinos and Puerto Rico at former President Donald Trump’s Sunday campaign rally in New York City’s Madison Square Garden.
After making a vulgar joke about how Latinos “love making babies,” Hinchcliffe later turned to the Caribbean island.
“I don’t know if you guys know this, but there’s literally a floating island of garbage in the middle of the ocean right now. I think it’s called Puerto Rico.”
That joke came after Trump made a similar comment last Thursday, calling the U.S. a “garbage can for the world” in an escalation of his anti-immigrant rhetoric.
Hispanic groups on both sides of the aisle called Hinchcliffe comments “derogatory,” “offensive” and “disrespectful.”
An estimated 36.2 million Latinos are eligible to vote this year, making up about 15% of the electorate, according to Pew Research Center. Puerto Ricans who live in the U.S. territory do not have the right to vote in the presidential election — but key swing states like Florida and North Carolina are home to prominent Hispanic and Latino communities.
“The Trump campaign’s tolerance for offensive humor, especially against Puerto Rico and its residents, highlights a disturbing pattern of disregard toward the island’s people and its challenges,” the League of United Latin American Citizens said in a statement to ABC News. “Such careless words not only deepen wounds but also normalize harmful rhetoric.”
The Republican National Hispanic Assembly also condemned the remarks.
“Such ignorant comments not only fail to capture Puerto Rico’s resilience but also misrepresent the commitment shown to the island by President Trump and his administration,” its statement read. “Puerto Ricans deserve respect and recognition for their resilience and contributions to this great Nation.”
Frankie Miranda, president and CEO of Hispanic Federation, noted in a statement to ABC News that the Trump campaign gave Hinchcliffe a platform to make his remarks on the same day the Vice President Kamala Harris’ campaign introduced a plan for resolving issues impacting Puerto Rico.
“Millions of Puerto Ricans in states like Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Florida and New York may no longer live on the island, but they still revere it as their ancestral and cultural home, and you cannot continue to disrespect us and think that we are not going to remember that when we go to the ballot box,” Miranda said.
Hinchcliffe also made jokes targeting other racial or religious minorities, including both the Black and Jewish communities. He defended his jokes online in a response to criticism from Democrats like Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Harris’ running mate Tim Walz.
“These people have no sense of humor,” Hinchcliffe wrote in an X post. “Wild that a vice presidential candidate would take time out of his ‘busy schedule’ to analyze a joke taken out of context to make it seem racist. I love Puerto Rico and vacation there. I made fun of everyone … watch the whole set. I’m a comedian Tim … might be time to change your tampon.”
The Trump campaign distanced itself from Tony Hinchcliffe’s joke against Puerto Rico.
“This joke does not reflect the views of President Trump or the campaign,” Trump campaign senior adviser Danielle Alvarez wrote in a statement to ABC News.
Other GOP figures, including María Elvira Salazar, denounced the jokes online.
“This rhetoric does not reflect GOP values,” Salazar said on X.
The joke came shortly after Harris announced an “Opportunity Economy” plan for Puerto Rico, which was applauded online by prominent Hispanic figures with tens of millions of followers, including singers Bad Bunny, Jennifer Lopez and Luis Fonsi.
Her plan includes the creation of a new task force for Puerto Rico with the goal of rebuilding and modernizing the territory’s energy grid, expanding access to clean energy, building affordable housing and more.
Trump has been criticized for how he handled Hurricane Maria in 2017, during his first term. He’s long overstated how much disaster funding Puerto Rico received after the storm and also came under fire for infamously tossing paper towels into a crowd of Puerto Ricans at a relief center in the hurricane-ravaged territory after Maria hit.
Additionally, FEMA lost track of more than a quarter-billion dollars in food and supplies intended for Puerto Rico over the course of its response to 2017 hurricanes Irma and Maria, according to a Department of Homeland Security report that found delays and mismanagement in the disaster response efforts.
However, Trump’s White House approved nearly $13 billion in federal aid to help rebuild Puerto Rico’s electrical grid system and the education system in 2020.