| | | | |  | | By Kimberly Leonard and Kierra Frazier | | Presented by |  | | | |  Water from the Gulf of Mexico floods a road as Hurricane Helene churns offshore on September 26, 2024 in St. Pete Beach, Florida. | Joe Raedle/Getty Images | Our thoughts this morning are with everyone in Florida who’s been affected by this catastrophic storm. Hurricane Helene has left Florida and become a tropical storm. The sun is just coming up and the waters are starting to recede. In the light of day the devastation will soon become apparent. The grueling, heart-wrenching work of rescues, assessing damages, restoring power, removing debris and rebuilding where possible is ahead. “We’re going to be waking up to a state where very likely there’s been additional loss of life, and certainly there’s going to be loss of property,” Gov. Ron DeSantis said Thursday night, as the storm was making landfall. “You’re going to have people that are going to lose their homes because of this storm, and so please keep those folks in mind. Keep them in your prayers.” Rural Taylor County, which also got battered by Hurricanes Debby and Idalia in the last year, had the most direct hit last night, about 50 miles from Tallahassee. The county had been under a mandatory evacuation order in the days leading up to landfall. Helene strengthened to a Category 3 storm around 2 p.m. EST and reached the Cat 4 level a little after 6 p.m. It remained at that catastrophic strength through landfall, at 11:10 p.m. just east of the mouth of the Aucilla River, about 10 miles west-southwest of Perry, Florida, reported POLITICO’s Arek Sarkissian. The storm had maximum sustained winds of 140 miles per hour at landfall. The hurricane’s sheer size meant that it touched nearly every part of Florida. One death has been reported so far: a person who was killed while driving in the storm in Tampa, when a sign fell. The Tampa Bay area also saw record storm surge. Even areas of Florida that weren’t in the storm’s direct path were affected somewhat. Key West had some minor street flooding, reported David Goodhue of Florida Keys News. Helene’s squalls caused a tree to fall onto a mobile home in the eastern part of the state in Stuart, reported Olivia Franklin of Treasure Coast Newspapers. Central Florida saw strong wind gusts, per the Orlando Sentinel. Even southeast Florida faced tornado warnings throughout the day. Power outages have hit over 1.2 million homes and businesses, according to the Florida Public Service Commission, which last recorded outages at 6 a.m. The worst-hit county power-wise was Pinellas, with 235,876 outages. A total of 68,492 outages have been reported in Leon County, where Tallahassee is located. DeSantis predicted Thursday that crews to get rid of debris and fix power lines would start coming in first thing this morning. The governor will brief the public at 9 a.m. today. (Tune in at the Florida Channel.) “It’s actually going to work out that we are going to get a full day of sunlight for all of our emergency responders to get out there and do really good, solid work,” Kevin Guthrie, Florida’s emergency management director, said Thursday. “We pride ourselves on being fast. We will have our commodities moving into those areas within 12 to 24 hours.” Federal Emergency Management Agency Administrator Deanne Criswell told reporters during Thursday’s White House Press briefing that Florida had “a really robust plan” to get 85 percent to 90 percent of power restored within 48 hours. President Joe Biden directed Criswell to visit Florida today to meet with DeSantis and survey the damage, likely from an aircraft, she said. FEMA began sending resources to Florida on Monday, she said, and 11,000 people from the agency were helping support preparations for the storm. The storm is also expected to do significant damage throughout the Southeast United States. Given that, Biden already approved pre-landfall disaster declarations in Alabama, Georgia, North Carolina and South Carolina. “This is going to be a multi-state event with the potential for significant impacts from Florida all the way to Tennessee,” Criswell said. Both Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris addressed the hurricane in public remarks on Thursday, urging people to take the storm seriously. Have a tip, story, suggestion, birthday, anniversary, new job, or any other nugget in the campaign reporting that Playbook should look at? Get in touch at: kleonard@politico.com.
| | | | A message from Uber: How does Uber expand transit access in Florida?
Every week, Uber helps over 3,000 people get to and from Brightline stations across Florida. On average, riders travel nearly 6 miles to connect to Brightline, extending their reach far beyond the tracks. Learn more about how Uber is working with transit agencies in Florida and across the country. | | | |  | ...HURRICANE HOLE... | | DESPITE HELENE — “Lawmakers stunned as disaster funds left out of stopgap bill,” by POLITICO’s Andres Picon. “A pair of destructive hurricanes along the Gulf Coast, an explosion of wildfires across the West and urgent pleas from Democrats and the White House this month were not enough to persuade Congress to secure new funding for disaster victims. The House and Senate kicked off a six-week preelection recess Wednesday evening after passing a government funding extension that left out billions of dollars in requested supplemental disaster funding — even as Hurricane Helene, expected to grow into a Category 3 storm by Thursday evening, careened toward the Florida Panhandle.” LEAVING HOME — “Many who used to stay put in Florida’s coastal areas are leaving for Helene,” reports The New York Times’ Patricia Mazzei, Emily Cochrane and Abigail Geiger. “Across Florida’s Big Bend region, where residents are staring at the third named storm in 13 months, many more people appeared to be heeding evacuation orders, leaving the small towns that dot the coast eerily empty on Thursday. Wakulla County, where Panacea is, was under a mandatory countywide evacuation. So was neighboring Franklin County, where the waterfront city of Carrabelle, with a population of about 2,600, appeared mostly deserted.” STRESSFUL TIMES — “‘Ticking time bomb’: Florida’s migrant workers chased by Hurricane Helene,” reports Tampa Bay Times’ Juan Carlos Chavez. “Helene is the fifth hurricane to hit Florida since 2019 that, along with numerous other tropical storms and torrential rain showers, push thousands of Florida migrant workers to the brink. Not only must workers like [Saidy] Martinez scramble on limited budgets and bandwidths to prepare for storms, there’s little help awaiting them after the deluge of wind, rain and surge.” — “Inside the city of Tallahassee plan to restore power after Helene: 2,000 workers ready,” by Jeff Burlew of the Tallahassee Democrat.
| | PENINSULA AND BEYOND | | AT UN GENERAL ASSEMBLY — “Haiti leader makes case for reparations during UN appeal for help with gang violence,” reports the Miami Herald’s Jacqueline Charles. “The head of Haiti’s presidential transition appealed for ‘global solidarity’ Thursday during his appearance at the United Nations General Assembly, while also endorsing a Biden administration push for a formal U.N. peacekeeping mission in his crisis-wracked nation. Edgard Leblanc Fils, who spoke as the head of Haiti’s Transitional Presidential Council, said as the world’s first Black independent nation, Haiti ‘is today the greatest victim of a historical injustice, which has not only delayed our development but saddled our people with a burden.’” COMMUNITY PUSHBACK — “After resident backlash, Miami Beach decides not to increase parking rate,” reports Miami Herald’s Aaron Leibowitz. “The City Commission’s vote was unanimous to block the rate increases, which would have raised street parking in South Beach from $4 to $6 per hour and doubled a discounted rate for city residents from $1 to $2 per hour. Mayor Steven Meiner said officials had received ‘a lot of emails’ opposing the increases.”
| | | | A message from Uber:   | | | | | CAMPAIGN MODE | | |  Then-Rep. Donna Shalala, D-Fla., speaks during a House Rules Committee hearing. | Patrick Semansky, Pool/AP Photo | DEM PUSHBACK ON AMENDMENT 3 — “Former top federal health official under Clinton urges ‘no’ vote on Florida marijuana legalization ballot initiative,” reports Kyle Jaeger of Marijuana Moment. “The former head of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services under then-President Bill Clinton is urging Florida voters to reject a marijuana legalization initiative that will appear on the November ballot, arguing that it would create a ‘new addiction-for-profit industry’ in the state. In an op-ed for The Miami Herald that was published on Thursday, Donna Shalala said that her experience in the Clinton administration, as well as her time in Congress and as a top university administrator, informs her opposition to Amendment 3.” SOLE FLORIDA CANDIDATE — “DCCC adds Whitney Fox to Red to Blue program as she aims to unseat Anna Paulina Luna,” reports Florida Politics’ Jacob Ogles. “Naming Fox to the Red to Blue program signals to national donors the belief she can win the battleground district. … Fox is the only Florida candidate in the Red to Blue program out of 20 running in Republican-held U.S. House districts.” CAN’T STOP, WON’T STOP — “Florida GOP slams Debbie Mucarsel-Powell for fundraising in New York as Helene bears down on state,” reports Florida Politics’ Jacob Ogles. “The Miami Democrat, her party’s nominee to challenge Republican U.S. Sen. Rick Scott this year, held a Manhattan fundraiser on Tuesday with donors in the Empire State. … ‘While Senator Rick Scott was focused on Hurricane Helene headed to our state and the safety of Floridians, Debbie Mucarsel-Powell spent Tuesday night fundraising and hobnobbing in New York City,’ reads a Republican Party of Florida statement issued Wednesday.” $50,000 GIFT — “‘Ghost candidate’ group funds campaign to oust Orange County commissioner,” reports Jason Garcia of Seeking Rents. “Last month, right around the time early voting began for Florida’s Aug. 20 primary elections, voters in west Orange County were sent ugly mailers meant to trick people into thinking that Nicole Wilson, the county commissioner for the area, had made racist remarks. … And they were sent just as the pro-Arthur political committee got a $50,000 cash infusion from a controversial source: A dark-money nonprofit in Tallahassee that was at the center of Florida’s 2020 “ghost candidate” scandal.” TODAY — Deadline for candidates and political committees to submit their latest round of campaign finance reports.
| | | DATELINE D.C. | | | ‘UNCOMFORTABLY NOSEY’ — “Gaetz says he will no longer voluntarily cooperate with House Ethics probe,” reports POLITICO’s Anthony Adragna. “[Rep. Matt Gaetz] said the investigation seeks to remove him from office and smear his name. ‘Asking about my sexual history as a single man with adult women is a bridge too far,’ he said.” GETTING FIT — “Marco Rubio bill would require schoolchildren to exercise,” reports Florida Politics’ A.G. Gancarski. “U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio is introducing legislation that would compel elementary schools in the federal school lunch program to require students to exercise in physical education classes for at least 150 minutes a week.”
| | | TRUMPLANDIA AND THE SWAMP | | | NOT HAPPENING — The task force that’s investigating the apparent assassination attempts against former President Donald Trump has scrapped a planned Friday trip to West Palm Beach to survey the golf course where the incident took place. A task force official told POLITICO’s Jordain Carney that the trip "was canceled due to inclement weather in Florida." ‘MIRACLES’— Former first lady Melania Trump was in New York during the apparent second assassination attempt against her husband, she told ‘Fox & Friends’ on Thursday. The former first lady said she believes her husband's survival in the two assassination attempts this year were “miracles,” with the second occurring at Trump’s golf course in West Palm Beach, near their Mar-a-Lago home. The former first lady has been largely absent from the campaign trail but is making media appearances to promote her new memoir.
| | | | A message from Uber: Expanding transit access in Florida
Did you know that every week, Uber helps over 3,000 people get to and from Brightline stations across Florida?
Key stat: On average, riders travel nearly 6 miles to reach these stations—extending Brightline’s reach far beyond the tracks.
From MiamiCentral to Aventura, Fort Lauderdale, Boca Raton, West Palm Beach, and Orlando, Uber is making it easier for Floridians to access public transit.
Learn more about how Uber partners with transit agencies to improve access to public transportation. | | | | | TRANSITION TIME | | — Cheyenne Range is now deputy chief of staff for Rep. Frederica Wilson (D-Fla.). She previously was deputy director of government relations of Bread for the World.
| | | ODDS, ENDS AND FLORIDA MEN | | | EMERGENCY HEARING — “Florida man’s lawsuit temporarily stops Ohtani’s 50th HR ball from being sold,” by The Associated Press. “A Florida man’s lawsuit has temporarily stopped Shohei Ohtani’s 50th home run ball from being sold at auction after saying it was stolen from him moments after he secured it. Max Matus’ representatives say their client gained possession of the Los Angeles Dodgers star’s historic ball on Sept. 19 — the man’s 18th birthday — before Chris Belanski took it away. The ball has since been turned over to Goldin Auctions, a New Jersey-based auction house specializing in trading cards, collectibles and memorabilia.” BIRTHDAYS: Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-Fla.) … Terry Spencer of The Associated Press … (Saturday) Helen Aguirre Ferré, executive director for the Florida Republican Mayors Association and former Republican Party of Florida executive director … former Rep. Curt Clawson (R-Fla.) … Jon Hukill of Crimson Atlantic Communications … (Sunday) NASA administrator and former Sen. Bill Nelson (D-Fla.) … Steve Schale, Democratic strategist and chief executive officer at Unite the Country ... Brent Kallestad, former Associated Press reporter. | | | | Follow us on Twitter | | | | Subscribe to the POLITICO Playbook family Playbook | Playbook PM | California Playbook | Florida Playbook | Illinois Playbook | Massachusetts Playbook | New Jersey Playbook | New York Playbook | Ottawa Playbook | Brussels Playbook | London Playbook View all our political and policy newsletters | | Follow us | | | | |
