Georgia Today: Helene bears down; Coca-Cola ditches flavor; Braves' playoff hopes still alive

Peter Biello: Welcome to the Georgia Today podcast from GPB News. Today is Thursday, Sept. 26. I'm Peter Biello. On today's episode, President Biden officially approved the state of Georgia's emergency declaration as Hurricane Helene bears down. Coca-Cola ditches what it had claimed was a permanent new flavor. And despite a season full of injuries, the Braves' postseason dreams are still alive. These stories and more are coming up on this edition of Georgia Today.

Story 1:

Peter Biello: Georgians are preparing for multiple threats as Hurricane Helene moves closer to landfall on the Florida Panhandle tonight. President Biden officially approved the state of Georgia's emergency declaration, which now unlocks federal assistance to supplement state and local response efforts to the storm, which is expected to drop 10 more inches of rain in North Georgia. Officials there are warning of possible landslides and flash flooding. Bryce Barrett is with the Wake County Emergency Management Agency.

Bryce Barrett: Be prepared to shelter in place anywhere from 72 hours to three to five days. The biggest things that we're stressing to the public, especially today, is for them to have preparedness kits, to have their food and water ready to go without power.

Peter Biello: Tropical storm force winds are likely to hit every part of the state tonight with hurricane force winds possible as far north as Macon. That's where social workers are trying to convince people who live on the streets to seek shelter. Elizabeth de Guzman says she trusts her home of plywood and plastic sheets.

Elizabeth de Guzman: The lady came around here and given me a bus fare to go to Salvation Army because that's where I used to eat a long time ago. But I went there for overnight stay, but it's really far away. So I said, Well, maybe I'll just stick it out here tonight. And I'll just uh. Burger King is like a close awning. I might go over there.

Peter Biello: Gov. Brian Kemp held a press conference this afternoon and outlined the multitude of resources the state has mobilized in anticipation of the storm.

Brian Kemp: We have put considerable state resources toward this, literally all across state government. The Georgia National Guard, as I mentioned, we got 250 called up now with the ability to go to 500, we'll go to whatever we need. For the Department of Public Safety, Col. Hitchens, All troopers and officers are available and on duty in what they call as a Phase A condition. Department of Natural Resources: We have 120 Ranger teams called up for duty, seven task force teams and 24 strike teams ready to go that will respond as needed to help clear roads, conduct water rescues, provide security and deliver critical supplies. Commissioner McMurry's with us, the Georgia Department of Transportation. We have crews literally embedded all across the state to help remove debris. They wanted to have me ask all our citizens: If it is not necessary for you to be on the roads during and after the storm, please try to stay home. This is a big storm. It is going to affect our entire state. We feel certain we're going to be having to remove debris and clear roads statewide. So instead of deploying a bunch of resources to one part of the state like we normally do before a storm, we're expecting to have to deal with debris fields in all parts of the state. So we're going to have a lot of people that we need to get moving to get the roads clear. And if — and if there are people in our way, that's just going to slow down our progress. And it's very dangerous as well. As you remember, in the last storm, we had a loss of life with a tree falling on a car. So just if people can stay home and stay off the roads unless it's an emergency or something critical that they have to do, that would be a big help to us.

Peter Biello: Gov. Kemp also provided the expected timeline of the storm as it moves across Georgia.

Brian Kemp: Just to recap real quick on the storm moving through the state: So we believe that the South Georgia window for the storm hitting is going to be sunset tonight through sunrise in the morning. Middle Georgia will be roughly a 10 p.m. to 10 a.m. event. And then in North Georgia, we're looking at midnight to noon. So certainly this storm hitting in the middle of the night with the potential for tornadoes and other things, people just need to be very, very, very weather-aware all this evening and be prepared at home. I would encourage people to make final preparations before this afternoon so that you'll be ready when this storm comes into our state. And again, I can assure you we will respond with every asset that we have available as soon as it's safe to do so.

Peter Biello: The city of Savannah is providing free sandbags to residents in the parking lot of Enmarket Arena until 8:00 tonight, Thursday night, or until weather conditions become unsafe. John and Deborah Thomas loaded sandbags into their pickup truck this morning. They told GPB's Benjamin Payne their neighborhood on Savannah's east side gets easily flooded.

John Thomas: I wish there would be a better, more effective drainage system here in Savannah.

Deborah Thomas: Savannah knew we were going to have this much rain. I think we should have been more prepared, much more prepared than what we are. And the neighbors in our neighborhood, there's nothing we can do but try and deterred water. You can't stop it. But you can deter it.

Peter Biello: For storm resources and the latest on Helene, there's a GPB.org/storms.

Caption

Broadband internet

Story 2:

Peter Biello: The Biden administration has approved Georgia's plans for using federal funding for broadband internet expansion. The $1.3 billion in federal funding comes from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law. The money is meant to deploy or upgrade internet networks to ensure, quote, "that everyone has access to reliable, affordable, high-speed internet service." The funding was first announced by Democratic Sen. Jon Ossoff in June.

Story 3:

Peter Biello: The Georgia Ports Authority is expanding one of its shipping terminals in Brunswick. The agency's board on Tuesday approved a plan to add 50 more acres of paved vehicle storage at the Colonel's Island Terminal. The move is aimed at meeting the needs of an increased trade in roll on roll off cargo, which includes automobile shipments and heavy machinery. Colonel's Island Terminal handled more than 870,000 units of roll on roll off cargo in the fiscal year that ended in June.

Story 4:

Peter Biello: Meanwhile, as a strike deadline of Oct. 1 looms, the group representing East and Gulf Coast ports is asking a federal agency to make the longshoreman's union come to the bargaining table to negotiate a new contract. The union represents 45,000 dockworkers from Maine to Texas, and it says it will go on strike at 12:01 a.m. on Tuesday. The U.S. Maritime Alliance says it filed an unfair labor practice charge with the National Labor Relations Board, alleging that the International Longshoremen's Association is not bargaining in good faith. The alliance said in a statement today that it filed the charge over the ILA's refusal to come to the table. The union says it has communicated with the alliance, which continues to make an inadequate wage offer.

Caption

U.S. Sen. Raphael Warnock expressed to his colleagues Wednesday the importance of passing federal voting rights laws to combat the wave of Republican-sponsored state legislation that will make it harder to vote.

Credit: Screen shot/U.S. Senate

Story 5:

Peter Biello: Sen. Raphael Warnock is working on a children's book centered on a generous boy and a proliferating baloney sandwich inspired by the biblical story of Jesus and his disciples feeding 5,000 people with just five loaves of bread and two fish. We're In This Together: Leo's Lunchbox is scheduled to release April 25 of next year. Sen. Warnock, a Baptist pastor, is also the author of The Divided Mind of the Black Church and A Way Out of No Way.

Story 6:

Peter Biello: Coca-Cola is discontinuing its newest "permanent" flavor a little more than seven months after putting the product on the market. The Atlanta-based beverage giant said yesterday that Coca-Cola Spiced and Coca Cola Spiced Zero Sugar will be phased out and replaced with a new flavor that will be introduced next year. At the time of its release in February, the company said it would be the first new permanent addition to its North American portfolio in three years. Coke didn't say what went wrong, but the product's name might have confused buyers since it didn't taste very spicy.

Story 7:

Peter Biello: The Braves had been scheduled to play two more games with the New York Mets this week, one yesterday and one tonight. But with the statewide threat of Hurricane Helene, Major League Baseball has decided to reschedule those pivotal games to a doubleheader on Monday. And that means the National League postseason picture most likely won't be completed until those two games are played. Currently, the Braves are a game behind the Mets and just a half-game behind the Arizona Diamondbacks in the battle for the National League's final two wildcard spots. Both the Braves and Mets own the tiebreaker over the Diamondbacks, meaning the Mets would need to sweep Monday's doubleheader to gain the tiebreaker over the Braves. First pitch is Monday, scheduled for 1:10 p.m. and the second game of the doubleheader will begin 40 minutes after the last out of the first game.

And that's a wrap on this edition of Georgia Today. As always, check GPB.org/storms for the latest on Hurricane Helene. That's GPB.org/storms. And on the rest of the news, you could always check GPB.org/news. Subscribing to this podcast is the best way to stay on top of the complete Georgia picture of news. So subscribe now and will pop up in your podcast feed tomorrow afternoon. If you've got feedback or story idea — an angle we should know about — send it to us by email. The address is GeorgiaToday@GPB.org. I'm Peter Biello. Thanks again for listening. We'll see you tomorrow.

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For more on these stories and more, go to GPB.org/news