Mitch McCann: US Correspondent says that Hurricane Helene is the "second deadliest" hurricane in 50 years

Up to 1,000 active-duty soldiers will join the North Carolina National Guard in delivering supplies, food and water to isolated communities.

President Joe Biden consoled victims whose lives were upended by the devastation of Hurricane Helene during a Thursday visit to Florida and Georgia.

At least 215 people are known to have died because of the destruction wrought by Hurricane Helene.

US Correspondent Mitch Mccann told Jack Tame that Helene is the second deadliest hurricane to hit the US mainland in 50 years after hurricane Katrina.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
International correspondence with ends at Eye Insurance, Peace of mind
for New Zealand business.

Speaker 2 (00:06):
You f correspondent Miss McCann is, whoever's now kyoda?

Speaker 1 (00:09):
Good afternoon, Jack.

Speaker 2 (00:10):
So, more than two hundred people are now known to
have died as a result of Hurricane Helene, and up
to one thousand active duty soldiers are going to be
joining the North Carolina National Guard.

Speaker 1 (00:21):
Yeah, this is still a developing situation, Jack. Joe Biden,
the President, actually traveled to Florida today and Georgia to
surveying the damage from Hurricane Helene, a major disaster in
which you said two hundred and fifteen people have now died.
Helene is the second deadliest hurricane to hit the US
mainland in fifty years, after Hurricane Katrina, and the scenes
of devastation, particularly in places like North Carolina, are horrendous.

(00:45):
Joe Binding acknowledged in his words, he said it was
a situation where residents have been through hell. Right now,
hundreds of people are still missing and many still remain
without power.

Speaker 2 (00:55):
Yeah, I mean, obviously this is a humanitarian crisis, but
there is political risk with all of this as well,
with an election so close.

Speaker 1 (01:02):
Yeah, that's very much the case. Both presidential candidates Kamala
Harris and Donald Trump have been in these states in
the last couple of days, and Donald Trump has actually
seized on this for political gain. He posted on social media, Jack,
Joe Biden and Kamala Harris are universally being given Paul
grades for the way they are handling the hurricane, especially

(01:22):
in North Carolina. However, there has been bipartisan support actually
for the way Joe Biden has handled this, with many
Republican governors praising him.

Speaker 2 (01:31):
Speaking of the campaign trail, Milania Trump has signaled her
support for abortion access.

Speaker 1 (01:38):
Yeah, very interesting. Donald Trump boasted about his role in
overturning Roe v. Way, that is, the women's constitutional right
here in the US to an abortion. He's been calling
it a miracle in previous months, but recently he's been
dodging questions over abortion, frequently referring to it as an
issue for the states, not the federal government. However, it
seems that may be it odds who has views generally

(02:02):
on abortion with his wife, Milania. After The Guardian published
a paragraph from her new book, which is about to
come out, Millennia Trumps he's restricting a woman's right to
choose whether to terminate an unwonted pregnancy is the same
as denying her control over her own body, So it
might be some interesting conversations in the trumb household.

Speaker 2 (02:21):
Meanwhile, CNN has reached out to Millennia Trump's book publisher
to try and get an interview. Obviously, CNN and the
Trump campaign are usually pretty antagonistic towards each other, and
they got an interesting response.

Speaker 1 (02:32):
They certainly did. They said they've been talking for weeks
or CNN said that they've been talking for weeks about
an interview with Millenia Trump, and then they revealed that
last week the publisher sent them an agreement to sign
that said CNN shall pay a licensing fee of two
hundred and fifty thousand dollars. That's a very expensive interview
jack for days later, when CNN followed up looking to

(02:53):
do a potential story on this, they said, neither Millennia
nor anyone from her team knew anything about this, and
the document it was sent it was an internal miscommunication,
So a bit of a backdown there.

Speaker 2 (03:05):
All right, Hey, thanks for that, Mitch, We appreciate it.
That is US correspondent Mitch McCann. For more from Heather
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