Episode Details

On the Thursday, Oct. 10 edition of Georgia Today: Congress is working on disaster relief for farmers; More Georgia counties have been added to FEMA's list of major disaster areas; The Carter Center celebrates World Mental Health Day today

Orlando Montoya: Hello and welcome to the Georgia Today podcast from GPB News. Today is Thursday, October 10th. 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, 47 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. Senator Jon Ossoff announced that he will work alongside Georgia Representative 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, Governor 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 o