Hurricane Helene aftermath and Israeli ground operation in Lebanon: Morning Rundown

Residents in Asheville, North Carolina, criticize what they see as the city’s lack of preparedness for Helene’s destruction. Israel launches a ground operation in Lebanon. And vice presidential candidates JD Vance and Tim Walz are set to debate.

Here’s what to know today.

North Carolina residents raise questions over disaster response

North Carolina residents are only beginning to pick up the pieces after Helene roared through the western part of the state, causing devastating flooding and catastrophic damage. The total death toll from Helene and its aftermath in six states has exceeded 120, according to an NBC News tally, and that number is likely to climb as the search for survivors continues. At least 49 people have died and dozens of others are missing in western North Carolina, which includes hard-hit Asheville.

North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper assured residents that assistance from “federal, state and local partners” is already present, with more help on the way. FEMA said yesterday that it had delivered about 1 million liters of water and more than 600,000 meals to the state. And more than 1,200 federal workers are now on the ground, FEMA Administrator Deanne Criswell said.

But some North Carolina residents are criticizing what they view as a lack of preparation for the storm. Sara Legatski, a business owner in Asheville, thinks officials should have brought in emergency water supplies earlier. “None of this is a surprise,” she said. “Anyone acting like this is a surprise has not been here long enough and is not from the mountains and does not understand how water works.” 

Meanwhile, storm survivors were still scrounging for food and clean water and shuffling from shelter to shelter three days after Helene first made landfall in Florida.

Meanwhile, storm survivors were still scrounging for food and clean water and shuffling from shelter to shelter three days after Helene first made landfall in Florida.

Spokespeople for the city and Buncombe County, which includes Asheville, didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment about residents’ criticisms.

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Read the full story here, and follow our live blog for the latest.

More coverage of Helene’s aftermath: 

• What unfolded in Asheville, starting Wednesday evening and lasting through the weekend, was a well-studied atmospheric phenomenon. Weather situations like that could become increasingly common, experts warn.
• Several areas in western North Carolina have experienced severe to total communications blackouts, leaving them cut off from the outside world.
• Some workers died after floodwaters left them trapped in an eastern Tennessee plastics factory.
• Trump visited Valdosta, Georgia, to inspect storm damage. There, he falsely claimed that Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp hasn’t been able to reach President Joe Biden.
• Biden said he plans to visit North Carolina tomorrow, which will include an aerial tour of Asheville.
• Harris canceled campaign stops to race back to Washington D.C. to meet with federal emergency officials. She said she plans to visit areas affected by the storm “as soon as possible.”

Israel launches ground operation in Lebanon

Israel announced its ground forces had begun an operation in southern Lebanon as overnight strikes left scenes of destruction in the nation’s capital, Beirut. The ground offensive is expected to last for days, U.S. officials said, with the goal of pushing Hezbollah forces farther away from the Israeli border. 

Lebanon’s Prime Minister said the country is facing “one of the most dangerous stages in its history.” And in southern Lebanon, fears are growing of what the days, weeks and potentially months ahead will look like after Israel launched what it said were “limited” ground raids across the border. 

The Israel Defense Forces’ move into Lebanon is the latest escalation in its conflict with Hezbollah after the militant and political group started firing on Israel following Oct. 7. In recent weeks, Israel has launched attacks using exploding pagers and walkie talkies, unleashed heavy bombings in Lebanon and killed longtime Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah. Read more about the operation and follow our live blog.

What to watch for in the vice presidential debate

Sen. JD Vance of Ohio and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz are set to face off in what could very well be the last debate before Election Day. The 90-minute showdown in New York, hosted by CBS, is scheduled for 9 p.m. ET. 

Vance, former President Donald Trump’s running mate, will attempt to sway voters after making a rough first impression in the 2024 presidential race. And his role in amplifying a debunked rumor about Haitian immigrants in Springfield, Ohio, could force him to answer questions about racism. 

Walz, Vice President Kamala Harris’ running mate, is expected to highlight where his experience contrasts with Vance’s Yale Law School background, focusing on his own background as a high school football coach, a hunter and a Midwestern fixer-upper dad. Expect the concept of manhood — and how Walz and Vance have different ideas of what that means — to be an undercurrent in their messaging. Here’s what else to watch for in tonight’s debate.

More coverage of the 2024 election:

• The wives of both vice presidential candidates have become fixtures on the campaign trail, supporting their husbands in different ways.
• President Biden wants Harris to win in November, but he’s bothered by how he has virtually disappeared from the national conversation and how quickly the Democratic Party appears to have moved on from him, sources said.

East and Gulf coast ports shut down amid strike

Tens of thousands of longshoremen officially went on strike at midnight ET, forcing the shutdown of ports along the East Coast and Gulf Coast. The strike caps months of heated negotiations between the International Longshoremen’s Association, a union representing 85,000 members, and the United States Maritime Alliance, which represents major ocean freight and port operators. Workers want raises, as well as limitations on automation at ports that they say could cost jobs.

In the short term, consumers aren’t likely to feel the pinch because businesses and logistics firms took preemptive steps to blunt the strike’s impact before the start of the holiday shopping season. But things might change if the walkouts last for several weeks. Here’s what else to know.

Politics in Brief 

Carter the centenarian: Jimmy Carter turns 100 years old today — a feat that no other former U.S. president has reached. And while he’s grown weaker in recent months, he has told relatives he wants to hang on until at least Oct. 15.

Abortion rights: A state judge in Georgia struck down the state’s six-week abortion ban, which allows the procedure to resume and makes it legal up to 22 weeks of pregnancy. 

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Read All About It

Claudia Sheinbuam officially take office today as Mexico’s first female president and the first one of Jewish heritage.

Pete Rose, Major League Baseball’s all-time hits leader who was banned from the sport after gambling on his own team, has died at the age of 83.

Sing Sing activist Jon-Adrian Velazquez was exonerated more than 20 years after a retired NYPD officer’s murder.

The Kentucky sheriff accused of fatally shooting a judge in his chambers is retiring, his lawyer said.

State laws targeting transgender people made trans and nonbinary young people more likely to attempt suicide in the past year, according to a first-of-its-kind study.

Staff Pick : They’re uncovering their ancestry — secrets and all

Comedian Gadiel del Orbe always heard his brown-skinned Dominican father say their family came from Spain or the Canary Islands, and their more obvious African roots never came up. But that changed after del Orbe got results from his DNA test. For him and others, greater access to online archives and DNA testing are proving what they long suspected: Their family histories, which were long focused on their white, Spanish ancestry, also include African roots and the legacy of slavery. 

At Vanderbilt University, a historian is in a race against time to preserve crumbling, centuries-old logs and records, which offer proof of these unknown ancestors. This is a fascinating read about how new branches of family trees can challenge narratives that have been passed down for generations. — Sandra Lilley, NBC Latino editorial director

NBC Select: Online Shopping, Simplified 

NBC Select’s editors rounded up the 63+ best online sales to shop this week. Plus, these podiatrist-recommended snow boots have arch support and will keep your feet warm and dry, and they look cute.

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