Georgia Today: GEMA preps for Hurricane Milton; Pandas are leaving Zoo Atlanta

Orlando Montoya: Hello and welcome to the Georgia Today podcast from GPB News. Today is Tuesday, Oct. 8. I'm Orlando Montoya. With another hurricane headed towards the Gulf Coast in the wake of Hurricane Helene, the Georgia Emergency Management Agency has been very busy. On this episode, we'll get a glimpse of how GEMA is helping Georgians while preparing for more evacuees from Florida, Georgia Power's answer to the crisis, and the emotional toll all of this is taking on some people. Plus, Atlanta's pandas are headed home. These stories and more are coming up on this edition of Georgia Today.

Story 1:

Orlando Montoya: Officials in Florida are ordering many residents to evacuate ahead of Hurricane Milton. But parts of South Georgia, where they normally go, are still without power and water after Hurricane Helene. Georgia Emergency Management Agency director Chris Stallings is advising evacuees to avoid areas hit by Halloween, like Valdosta and others preparing for Milton impacts like Brunswick.

Chris Stallings: Make sure you get further north, not just for hospitality and room availability, but also so that you're completely out of the way of the storm. I'd hate for you to evacuate Florida only to come to Georgia and not get far enough north and you're impacted here.

Orlando Montoya: This hurricane season has been especially busy for GEMA. Tropical Storm Debby and then Hurricane Helene blew through the state in quick succession, slowing down applications for much-needed disaster relief. Stallings applauds the efforts of his partners at the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

Chris Stallings: They're in office with us right now. We've got a full team. There's about 40, maybe 45 members of FEMA downstairs right now that are working very hard to — to make sure we've got recovery efforts going on in Georgia.

Orlando Montoya: The head of FEMA says misinformation about the government's response to Helene is, quote, "absolutely the worst" she's ever seen. FEMA administrator Deanne Criswell today said the rumors are hurting morale among responders and prompting people not to ask for help.

Deanne Criswell: This one is at a level that I honestly have never seen before. I anticipated some of this, but not not to the extent that we're seeing it.

Orlando Montoya: Some of the false claims are linked to comments made by former President Donald Trump and his supporters. FEMA has had rumor control pages in the past to deal with false websites and fraud.

Caption

Satellite image of Hurricane Milton on Monday, Oct. 7, 2024.

Credit: NOAA

Story 2:

Orlando Montoya: Some interstate highways were jammed and many flights were canceled today, as travel between Georgia and Florida becomes increasingly difficult ahead of Hurricane Milton. The storm is expected to make landfall on Florida's west coast tomorrow. Georgia 511 this afternoon showed Interstate 75 northbound slow north of Valdosta, north of Macon and north of Atlanta. And the state of Georgia's Welcome Center at Valdosta was closed because of a plumbing issue. GPB's Grant Blankenship spoke with evacuees at a rest stop near Macon. Kelsey and Brant Yantzer left Tampa with their two daughters at 8 p.m. Monday and had made it to Macon by 1:30 p.m. today.

Kelsey Yantzer: Found a rest area. There's no hotels, but right after we got into Georgia around 5 a.m. and we slept for two hours. We're lucky we got a parking space. Like, people were parked wherever they could.

Orlando Montoya: Felicia Mendez says she also had been on the road since Monday. She's on her way to Nashville, Tenn., and is says she fared better than her friends during Halloween, but is taking no chances with Milton.

Felicia Mendez: I wasn't personally affected. I know people that were, who lost everything. Five feet of water in their homes, lost their cars, everything. So it's not a joke. Yeah, don't. And when they tell you to go, go.

Orlando Montoya: Adam Myers of Port Charlotte, Fla., was at the rest stop filling up his truck from a jerry can in the truck's bed. He said he saw many evacuees stranded looking for gas on Interstate 75.

Adam Myers: I saw a lot of cars that didn't get gas ahead of time and went out on the road. And then so you see them on the side of the road. You know, I started out, I'm going to say like 11:00 at night, and it was just nothing but like cars, like bouncing back and forth between each side of the road.

Orlando Montoya: About 7 million people are under evacuation orders in Florida. The Red Cross is opening shelters this afternoon in Albany, Cordele and Columbus, with a cluster of five in Middle Georgia, from Warner Robins north to Jackson. Flight tracking website FlightAware showed 55 flights, mostly to or from Florida, canceled at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport today.

Story 3:

Orlando Montoya: Hundreds of lives lost and billions of dollars in damage. The emotional toll from Helene is weighing on many across the Southeast. In Valdosta, the state has set up resources to connect people with mental health services in the storm's wake. GPB's Ellen Eldridge reports.

Ellen Eldridge: The Georgia Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Disabilities is providing mental health services for storm victims throughout Georgia Recovery Project. The federally funded program helps residents and first responders needing help, including hard-hit farmers. Agricultural communities in Georgia already struggle with higher rates of suicide. Kevin Tanner is the commissioner of the DBHDD. He is also encouraging people to call the 988 crisis line.

Kevin Tanner: Even if we're not able to know about someone's need, if they have access to a cellphone or a landline, they can call 988. And — and through that we can dispatch mobile crisis to them.

Ellen Eldridge: Tanner says support teams will be on the ground in the area for a few months and plan to monitor mental health longer term. For GPB News, I'm Ellen Eldridge.

Story 4:

Orlando Montoya: Georgia Power is extending and expanding customer assistance programs following Hurricane Helene. The company said yesterday it is suspending disconnections, waiving late fees and pausing collection activities for residential and business customers through at least Dec. 15. A Georgia Power official says the utility encourages residents to pay their bills on time to avoid falling behind, but is ready to support customers facing challenges. The company says it has restored power to 99% of impacted customers. About 7,000 Georgia Power customers, though, mostly in the Augusta area, remained without power as of Tuesday afternoon, 11 days after the storm hit. The situation in the state's rural areas, served mostly by electric membership cooperatives, is substantially worse. Georgia EMC, representing the cooperative, says 65,000 EMC customers, mostly in South Georgia, are still without power.

Story 5:

Orlando Montoya: And finally on the storm, on this episode, Gov. Brian Kemp today did extend the state of emergency for counties impacted by Hurricane Helene. He said he did that today to ensure state resources remain available.

And you can always find the latest from our state officials on the storms by visiting GEMA.georgia.gov. And for our latest coverage about Helene — and now Milton — in Georgia, visit GPB.org/storms.

Caption

Some residents east of Atlanta were evacuated and others told to shelter in place after a fire at a chemical plant Sept. 29, 2024.

Credit: Rockdale County via X

Story 6:

Orlando Montoya: Residents of metro Atlanta's Rockdale County are voicing frustration over a week of shelter-in-place orders and business closures because of the BioLab fire. The plant making chlorine for pools caught fire on Sept. 29 and sent a chemical plume across the county and region for days. County Sheriff Melody Maddox was among residents who spoke today at a panel of lawmakers at the state capitol.

Melody Maddox: I would like to see our community protected. Compensate those residents that had to move, that have nowhere to go, that have no food. We're helping our other victims of Hurricane Helene. But what about the victims of this? I understand people want pools, but they need to find somewhere else to put that plant.

Orlando Montoya: The company says it's launching a call center to address compensation and other questions.

Story 7:

Orlando Montoya: Georgia high school seniors posted a record graduation rate of 85% this year, up slightly from 84% in 2023. The State Department of Education said today the rate has increased 18 points since the state began using the adjusted cohort calculation first required by federal law in 2011. The record high school graduation numbers are among several indicators of student success announced in recent weeks. The class of 2024 also beat the national average on the SAT and showed strong gains on the Georgia Milestones tests.

Credit: Allexa Ceballos/GPB News

Story 8:

Orlando Montoya: After 25 years, Zoo Atlanta is saying goodbye to its giant pandas. The zoo's four pandas are set to depart this month and return to China, marking the end of a yearslong partnership with the zoo focused on species conservation. GPB's Sofi Gratas spoke to panda fans about what it means to be the fluffy bamboo-eating bears farewell.

Dana Grantham: Test. Test. Can you all hear me? That's much better.

Sofi Gratas: It's a Monday morning and Zoo interpreter Dana Grantham is collecting a group near the flamingos at the zoo's entrance. This is one of the final chances visitors have to sidestep the crowds and get a glimpse of the giant pandas.

Dana Grantham: And this is a cool time to come to the zoo and see what we call the morning routines.

Erin Adams: So probably a once-in-a-lifetime kind of opportunity because they're leaving so soon. Yeah, we wanted to make sure that we got to do that.

Sofi Gratas:That's Erin Adams. It's not her first time at the zoo, but she says she doesn't remember taking notice of the pandas on previous visits. Yet her and husband Chris are decked out this morning in homemade T-shirts, black acrylic paint on white, made to look like a giant panda face.

Erin Adams: I'm also a twin, so I'm also drawn to the pandas because they're twin sister pandas. And I'm a twin sister.

Chris Adams: Nice little twinship.

Erin Adams: Twinship with the pandas.

Sofi Gratas: Zoo Atlanta got its first pandas in 1999, named Lun Lun and Yang Yang. They came on loan from the Chengdu Research Base in China, which is focused on species conservation through breeding. That's been largely successful in Atlanta. Lun Lun and Yang Yang bred seven cubs, including two sets of twins, while at the zoo. Since even pandas born abroad are considered Chinese property, most are already back at Chengdu. Twins, Ya Lun and Xi Lun and their mom and dad, now retired from breeding, are the last to be returned. Zoo interpreter Dana Grantham admits it's a loss.

Dana Grantham: I'm just going to say it. Yang Yang is my favorite animal in the whole universe. There. I've said it officially.

Sofi Gratas: Unfortunately for Grantham, Yang Yang doesn't make an appearance on this day in one of the two indoor enclosures set at a stable 65 degrees. But Mama Panda Lun Lun does. visitor Eddie Wiley watches as she gets comfortable like she's in her recliner.

Eddie Wiley: Yeah, behind the glass. I think they're the funniest creatures in the world. They're just really chill sitting, eating their bamboo.

Sofi Gratas: Meanwhile, 8-year-old panda Ya Lun kind of smiles at the group from behind the glass and tumbles around her enclosure.

Holly Burdette: It's just kind of like a feeling of awe when you look at them.

Sofi Gratas: Holly Burdette, whose family visits zoos across the country, remembers the public appearance of the first set of panda twins, born over a decade ago.

Holly Burdette: It was like I wanted my son to be able to see the pandas and to spend time with them. And even if he doesn't remember, he'll at least have the pictures of them.

Sofi Gratas: For years, these pandas have been an ambassador for their species. Along with millions of visitors have come millions of dollars for conservation and research, helping move the giant pandas from endangered to vulnerable. That's the legacy that Zoo interpreter Dana Grantham says she'll keep sharing even when the pandas are gone.

Dana Grantham: The thing I'm most frequently saying these days at the zoo is how proud I am of what we've done. Like, although I'm going to miss them, we've done amazing work and this was always the plan.

Sofi Gratas: She hopes whatever animal comes next can get the same attention and a chance at a similar success story. For GPB News, Sofi Gratas in Atlanta.

Orlando Montoya: The only time I ever made it to the Atlanta Zoo, the giant pandas were not out that day. They were hiding or otherwise unavailable. So I have not seen the giant pandas. And if you're like me, you only have a little bit of time left to go see them. Farewell to our panda friends. And that's it for today's edition of Georgia Today. If you'd like to find out more about these stories, visit GPB.org/news. Hitting subscribe on this podcast helps us out, but it also helps you out as well. It will keep you current with us in your feed. If you have anything to suggest: stories or a correction, even, send that to us at GeorgiaToday@GPB.org. We welcome feedback. I'm Orlando Montoya. I'll talk to you again tomorrow.

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