Georgia Today: Relief for farmers; More counties declared disaster areas; World Mental Health Day

Orlando Montoya: Hello and welcome to the Georgia Today podcast from GPB News. Today is Thursday, Oct. 10. I'm Orlando Montoya. On today's episode, a bipartisan group in Congress is looking to secure disaster relief funding for farmers affected by Hurricane Helene. Forty-seven Georgia counties have been declared major disaster areas. And the Carter Center is highlighting World Mental Health Day today. These stories and more are coming up on this edition of Georgia Today.

Story 1

Orlando Montoya: The University of Georgia is putting its initial estimate of Hurricane Helene's damage to Georgia agriculture at $6 billion. GPB's Chase McGee has more on a bipartisan push in Congress to secure farmers more relief funding.

Chase McGee: Georgia's congressional delegation is leading a joint political effort to fund agricultural damages in the Southeast. Sen. Jon Ossoff announced that he will work alongside Georgia Rep. Austin Scott to seek financial compensation for self-reported damage, bypassing normal pathways through the USDA.

Jon Ossoff: This country is always better served, and Georgia is always better served, when elected leaders in both parties put aside their partisan differences and do what's in the national interest and in our state's interest.

Chase McGee: For GPB News, I'm Chase McGee.

Orlando Montoya: More than 40 agriculture organizations in Georgia have announced a fundraising effort to support Georgia farmers affected by the storm. It's at SupportGeorgiaFarmers.org.

Story 2

Orlando Montoya: Meanwhile, Gov. Brian Kemp has shed some light on how Georgia went from 11 counties initially declared major disaster areas following Hurricane Helene to 41 counties. Those decisions are made by the Federal Emergency Management Agency, ultimately under the president's direction. While speaking in Savannah yesterday, Kemp said he told Joe Biden's chief of staff that the initial designated made it look like if you weren't in those 11 counties, you weren't hit hard.

Gov. Brian Kemp: I just said, look, you're creating kind of a political problem here. People feel like that no one cares about them. And I said, you're going to hear about that when you come down here. But they immediately got on that. They understood that. So they were very receptive to our lobbying, if you will.

Orlando Montoya: FEMA soon after increased the designation to 41 counties, bringing millions of dollars in federal relief. It's now 47 counties with more to come possible.

Caption

Milton rapidly strengthened in the Gulf of Mexico on Monday and was forecast to become a Category 5 storm on a path toward Florida, threatening a dangerous storm surge in Tampa Bay and setting the stage for potential mass evacuations less than two weeks after a catastrophic Hurricane Helene swamped the coastline.

Credit: NOAA

Story 3

Orlando Montoya: Kemp is pledging to send National Guard troops and other state resources to Florida once recovery from Hurricane Milton begins there. GPB's Benjamin Payne has that story.

Benjamin Payne: Speaking in Savannah late Wednesday afternoon, Kemp said he expects Milton to have minimal impact on Georgia. Some 50,000 Georgians are still without power after Hurricane Helene hit two weeks ago, but Kemp said the state should be able to free up resources to help Florida with Milton.

Gov. Brian Kemp: Now, if we're needed here, we'll stay here, take care of our folks first. But with the amount of power we have coming back on, people's water coming back on, grocery stores opening back up, we've been able to pull back some of our Guard resources so we can redeploy them if needed to Florida. We just have to wait and see what, if anything, they would request of us.

Benjamin Payne: Public schools in Savannah's Chatham County will hold classes online today because of Milton. Some other districts in Southeast Georgia will be closed, including in Brunswick's Glynn County. For GPB News, I'm Benjamin Payne in Savannah.

Story 4

Orlando Montoya: A federal judge won't order Georgia elections officials to reopen voter registration because of disruptions caused by Hurricane Helene — at least for now. The judge said yesterday that three voting rights groups haven't yet done enough to prove the disruptions unfairly deprived people of the opportunity to register last week. Monday was Georgia's registration deadline. Another hearing on the matter was scheduled for today. State officials and the state Republican Party argue it would be a heavy burden on counties to order them to register more voters as they prepare for early in-person voting to begin on Tuesday. The plaintiffs, including Georgia's NAACP, say widespread power outages, county office closures, mail delivery suspensions and other issues kept people from registering.

Story 5

Orlando Montoya: Early in-person voting does start on Tuesday, and election officials in the state's most populated county are preparing for voters to cast ballots. GPB's Amanda Andrews reports Atlanta's Fulton County has made several changes since Georgia's contentious 2020 presidential election.

Amanda Andrews: Fulton's new election hub facility consolidates all Election Day vote counting and support operations under one roof. Officials are also preparing for a series of election rule changes, including a hand count of ballots. Fulton Director of Registration and Elections Nadine Williams says they're also training additional poll workers.

Nadine Williams: Some people might fall off. We still have to recruit. You know, sometimes people sign up, then they go to training, decide that "this is not my — I don't want to do this." So, you know, we have a reserve list that we have to pull from.

Amanda Andrews: Early voters can check wait times on the Fulton Votes Mobile App. For GPB News, I'm Amanda Andrews.

Caption

Former President Bill Clinton speaks during the Democratic National Convention on Aug. 21, 2024, in Chicago.

Credit: AP Photo/Paul Sancya

Story 6

Orlando Montoya: Former President Bill Clinton will campaign for Vice President Kamala Harris in Georgia on Sunday as part of a bus tour through the Southeast. The location for Clinton's visit has not yet been announced, but campaign officials say he's targeting rural areas and will take a bus tour through eastern North Carolina as well. Former President Donald Trump visited Georgia earlier this month after Hurricane Helene. He'll return to the state for a National Rifle Association event in Savannah on Oct. 22 and heads to Duluth for a Turning Point PAC rally on Oct. 23.

Story 7

Orlando Montoya: Embracing the arts, whether dance, music or visual, is one way to promote mental health and healing for the whole community. That's what the Carter Center is highlighting for World Mental Health Day today. GPB's Ellen Eldridge has more.

Ellen Eldridge: The Carter Center's mental health program is collaborating with Emory University and its Carlos Museum for Atlanta's Healing Arts Week. Experts say embracing the arts, whether through dance, music or visual mediums, can promote good mental health for entire communities. Director Eve Byrd says mental health care is a human right.

Eve Byrd: Environments and communities that embrace mental health and wellbeing helps those without illness remain healthy and those with illness reach their recovery goals.

Ellen Eldridge: Byrd says in addition, the David J. Sencer CDC Museum in Atlanta is celebrating World Mental Health Day with a new exhibit: Stand and Witness: Art in the Time of Covid-19. For GPB News, I'm Ellen Eldridge.

Story 8

Orlando Montoya: Delta Air Lines says its third quarter earnings fell 26%, largely because of the fallout from a technology outage that caused several thousand canceled flights in July. It's the second straight quarter that Delta's profit has dropped from the same period last year. Delta said today that it expects to return to year over year earnings growth in the fourth quarter.

Story 9

Orlando Montoya: All right, Atlanta foodies: We now know when the Michelin guide will reveal its 2024 Atlanta dining guide. We learned this week that that will happen during a ceremony at the Georgia World Congress Center on Monday, Oct. 28. This year marks the city's second dining guide from the French tire company, which awards coveted stars, Bib Gourmands, and other distinctions to restaurants worldwide, including in Atlanta. In 2023, Michelin recognized 45 restaurants in the city of Atlanta, and within its perimeter. No restaurants were recognized by the guide last year outside of the perimeter. Sources indicate, however, that that might change with the 2024 guide. In addition to learning if new restaurants achieve Michelin status of any kind, the ceremony also will reveal whether current restaurants in the guide have retained, leveled up or dropped out of the guide altogether.

And that's it for this edition of Georgia Today. If you'd like to learn more about these stories, visit gpb.org/news. Hit subscribe on this podcast to keep us current in your feed and send us feedback to GeorgiaToday@gpb.org. I'm Orlando Montoya. I'll talk to you again tomorrow.