Transcript of Milton Makes Landfall, Israel and Lebanon, Detroit's Black Voters

Hurricane Milton has stormed ashore in Florida.

Millions are without power, and officials are warning of flash, flooding, and dozens of tornadoes as the storm moves east across the state. We'll have the latest.

I'm Leila Fadel. That's Michelle Martin, and this is Up First from NPR News. On Lebanon's Southern border with Israel, the Israeli military says they're conducting limited raids, but from the ground, it feels like war. What does it mean for civilians trapped in the middle?

And recent polling by the NAACP shows a generational divide among black men. Most black men, over 50, say they support Kamala Harris this fall, but more than a quarter of younger black men said they favor Donald Trump. Should Democrats be worried? Stay with us. We've got the news you need to start your day.

As we're all navigating a divisive election, no matter what happens, The question remains, how the heck are we going to move forward together? So in this season of the StoryCore podcast from NPR, stories from people who made a choice to confront the conflicts in their own lives head-on. And in sharing stories from the bravest among us, maybe we can take their lead and find some hope for the rest of us. Get the StoryCore podcast wherever you listen. Wilderness is changing.

More wildfires, more people, more self-service.

The How Wild podcast hits trail to explore the history of wilderness, how it's changing, and what that says about us as humans.

Listen now to the How Wild podcast from KALW, part of the NPR Network.

Once again, we find ourselves in an unprecedented election. With all that's happening in the lead up to the big day, a weekly podcast just won't cut it. Get a better grasp of where we stand as a nation every weekday on the NPR politics podcast. Podcast. Here are seasoned reporters dig into the issues that are shaping voters' decisions and understand how the latest updates play into the bigger picture. The NPR politics podcast, listen on Spotify.

Hurricane Milton is plowing across Florida today with high winds, torrential rain, flooding, and tornado. The hurricane made landfall last night near Sarasota at Ciesta Key as a Category 3 storm with 120-mile-per-hour winds.

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis warned communities in that part of Florida's West Coast to be prepared for a historic storm surge.

So the storm is here.

It's time for everybody to hunker down. I know we've got massive amounts of resources that have been prepared for this storm.

Milton is still at hurricane strength today as it moves across the Florida Peninsula, bringing damaging winds, heavy rain, and flash flooding.

Npr's Greg Allen is here to tell us what he's seeing. He's with us now from Brandon, Florida, near Tampa. Good morning, Greg.

Morning, Michelle.

It's Still early, but what can you tell us so far about Hurricane Milton's impact?

Well, the first thing I can tell you is that there's at least 3 million people without power all along the Coast here. That includes where I am in Tampa Bay, south to Sarasota and Fort Myers. We have other NPR reporters stationed. Milton delivered the biggest storm surge to communities close to where the landfall is. It's hard to know how much yet, but tide gage showed a big storm surge in Venice and Sarasota. A creek in Sarasota rose by eight feet very quickly after the landfall yesterday. St. Petersburg also got a stunning 19 inches of rain, so flooding is certainly an issue that we all be dealing with in these low-lying areas. But we won't get a good assessment how bad it is until later today. We saw a lot of damage and death even before landfall, though. Milton bought a minimal number of powerful tornado. Governor DeSantis said there was 116 tornado warnings in Florida yesterday with 19 confirmed touch downs. In St. Lucy County, over on Florida's East Coast, the Sheriff said there were deaths from tornadoes that touched down Wednesday. Search and rescue crews were out there working through the night. We'll have to keep watching for tomatoes today.

In Tampa Bay, we saw a lot of wind damage already. A construction crane toppled into a building in St. Petersburg, and high wind shredded the roof at the tropical afield.

Wow, that sounds really devastating. The hurricane made landfall a couple of hours earlier than had been forecast. What did that mean for the communities that were in its path?

Well, Governor DeSantis said that he thought it was good because it meant the storm came in before high tide, which could have made the inundation worse, but also presented a challenge for first responders.

It's going to mean pretty much all the rescues are going to be done in the dark in the middle of the night, but that's fine.

They're going to do that. All of our folks are doing that, and they will be on target.

You know, Greg, one of the things I was wondering about is that hurricanes usually lose power quickly after making landfall, but Milton is still at hurricane strength as it crosses through Florida. What impact could that have?

As of now, it has now moved off the East Coast into the Atlantic, but it was so powerful when it came in that even after weakening, it still had hurricane force winds. We're going to see a lot of wind damage far from the Coast in central Florida, places that don't usually see those wind speeds. There's also expected to be a lot of flash flooding because of the torrential rain, which would cause rivers and creeks there to overflow. We've seen that in the past in central Florida. Despite the high winds, W. Desantis was cautially optimistic that there would be less damaged buildings, though, than many feared, because Milton had been a Category 5 storm with 150-mile-per-hour winds, but it weakened before landfall. When it arrived, the winds were at a still substantial 120 miles per Here's the governor.

It doesn't mean there's not storm surge.

It doesn't mean there's not hazards.

There is.

It's a serious, serious storm.

But in terms of some of the damage that we're going to see from wind, there just is a big difference between 140, 150, and 120.

Modern buildings in Florida, the Senate said, are constructed to be able to withstand winds in the 120-mile-an-hour range. So we'll see today.

All right. Very briefly, this comes two weeks after Hurricane Helene. Some prominent Republicans, mainly former President Trump, have criticized the federal response. They say it's failed. What are people saying down there?

Well, Governor DeSantis and his team are very complementary to federal officials for the help and the resources they provided so far. Deanna Criiswell, the FEMA head, is here in Florida.

That is NPR's Greg Allen in London, Florida. Greg, thank you, and stay safe.

Thank you.

We're going to turn now to the latest from Lebanon. Npr has been reporting from the town of Marjayun, which is on Lebanon's border with Israel.

Southern Lebanon is where the Israeli military is conducting a ground incursion. What it insists are limited raids on Hezbollah targets there. Israeli airstrikes have killed more than 2,100 people in Lebanon since the war began a year ago. And Pierre's Eider Peralta says he spent the night listening to outgoing rocket fire and air raids.

Eader is on the line now to tell us more. Welcome, Eader.

Hey, Michelle.

What does the ground incursion look like from where you are.

Well, Israel has said that this would be a limited ground operation. But from here, it feels like a war. All day, all night, all we hear is the sounds of explosions. We hear Hezbollah shooting rockets across the border, and a minute or two later, we hear the roar of Israeli planes and the booms of explosions. On the way over here, one of the roads we were on had been destroyed by a missile. There was A hole in the middle that was so big that two mangled cars fit inside of it. The streets here are desolate. Life has stopped. Stores are closed, schools are closed, and the few people who are left seem to just sit on their porches smoking cigarettes, counting rockets, worrying about what's to come.

Well, I can hear that there are some people behind you, so there are a few people around, and I do understand that you've been able to talk to them. What are they telling you?

I mean, most of the people who have stayed are older folks who think that if they leave, they may never come back or they're scared. If they leave, their house will be targeted by an air strike. They were surprised that we were here and happy to receive visitors. They've been inviting us into their homes. They've made coffee for us. They've given us chocolates. And everyone told me the same thing. We want peace. This is Nameer, who asked us only to use his first name so he could speak candidly.

We are against war because we are involved in the war, not by Yes.

And he says it feels like Hezbollah has dragged them into a conflict that they want nothing to do with. I also spoke to Nabi Lahoud, who is a teacher here. And what he said is that he's just tired of the constant disruption. He says that growing up, classes were often canceled because of war. And here we are again. At 71, he said he has never lived a good day. So I asked him, do you have hope that one day Lebanon might actually be okay? It depends on the… Shall I live till that day? I'm hopeful. I'm hopeful, always. These are rockets from Hezbollah, three. You might hear One, four. Count them. Some days ago, I counted 46, 46 after each other. That's what life is like here right now. Everyone is worried that things could get worse. A couple of days ago, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned that if Lebanis do not turn their back on Hezbollah, Lebanon would turn into Gaza. And that is what everyone here is worried about.

What about the the basics of right now, like food, water, medical supplies?

Yeah. I mean, as I said before, a lot of the people who are staying here are older, and right now there's no hospital, no doctors, not even a pharmacy is open. So I've heard a lot of worry from people. What happens if we get sick? Right now, there is food and there is water. It's hard to come by. But the UN says that they haven't been able to create a humanitarian corridor because of the uncertainty they have about any attacks. It means that the roads here are too dangerous, and they worry that if this keeps up the humanitarian situation here, it could become dire.

That is NPR's Eidr Peralta in Marjayun, Lebanon, near the border with Israel. Eidr, thank you.

Thank you, Michelle.

Leila, you are in Michigan now, which is a crucial swing state. Every vote really counts there. Who have you been talking with?

Yeah, the team and I have been speaking to a lot of people across demographics, and today we're focusing on Black men, in part because we know the margins matter in close elections like this one, and Black voters help deliver the 2020 election to Biden. So both the Harris and Trump campaigns are vying for these votes. Last month, the NAACP released a poll showing this really big generational divide among Black men when it comes to who they might choose this fall. The poll found that the vast majority of Black men over age 50 say they support Kamala Harris, but about one in four Black men under age 50 say they're supporting Donald Trump.

That might be surprising because for decades now, most Black voters have supported Democrats. When you were out talking to people, did you hear a lot of support for Donald Trump?

Yeah, it's really a mix. Really, most Black voters still do support Democrats. But one of the places I visited was more than a half-century old barbershop on the west side of Detroit. And there's where I met John Moore, who's been cutting hair there for more than 20 years. He's a lifelong Democrat, and he finds Trump's rhetoric dangerous.

Make the country great again. You know what I'm saying? What do you mean by that? You want to make the country great again. So you want to bring back the Jim Crow days. You want to bring back anti-Semitism. We don't need that. We don't need that, baby.

He also just thinks Harris is smart and a better candidate.

What about people who say they'll vote for It was funny, Michelle, because more '71, and as soon as I got to Men Under 50, that tone of excitement I heard from him and others just wasn't as prevalent.

Even the barber at the next chair told me he was meh about the two candidates.

You know what? I'll be honest with you. I'm still on fence. I might just not vote for nobody.

Really?

She talk about building a middle class.

I was like, What about the lower class? What are you going to do to help the lower class?

I know half the people I see every day, a tier-lower class, not middle class. What's the solution for that?

Then I I came across a group of longtime friends in their 40s that were hanging out around the corner from the barbershop. Most of them told me they were undecided or voting for Trump. They gave a variety of reasons, and that included a healthy amount of sexism, actually.

Oh, okay. What about some of the issues like abortion that's a big issue for a lot of voters. That really has been a big issue this election year.

Yeah. I asked one man who would only identify himself by his first initial B because he's worried about sharing his political leanings in this tense time, and here's what said.

It's the civil rights issue and abortion. My daughter having control of her own body.

So you really do feel that civil rights will roll back under Donald Trump? Yes.

As a people, we won't be able to survive that.

He was the one Harris voter in this group, and he says the way Trump speaks about Black people and other minorities is, quote, horrible. He's taken a look at some of the language in Project 2025, that conservative wishlist for a future Republican President put together by Trump loyalists, and he didn't like what he saw.

Looking forward to the rest of your reporting, Leila. Thanks, Michelle. That's up first for Thursday, October 10th. I'm Michelle Martin.

I'm Leila Fadel. Stay connected with NPR for all the latest on Hurricane Milton. Then you'll find all your coverage on the NPR app at npr. Org, and tomorrow morning here on Up First.

Today's episode of Up First was edited by Hannah Block, Gigi Doban, James Hyder, Russell Lewis, Ali Schweitzer, and Alice Wolfley. It was produced by Paige Waterhouse, Christopher Thomas, and Ana Perez. We get engineering support from Carly Strange, and our technical director is Zack Coleman. We hope you'll join us again tomorrow. Want to hear this podcast without sponsor breaks? Amazon Prime members can listen to Up First sponsor-free through Amazon Music. Or you can also support NPR's vital journalism and get Up First Plus at plus.

Npr. Org. That's plus. Npr. Org. Election seasons are tough on everyone. So pop culture Happy Hour is there to serve you recommendations and commentary on everything in the pop cultural universe while helping you snap out of that doomscrolling mindset. It's important to stay informed, but you also need to take care of yourself. So treat yourself to a new episode about the pop culture you love on pop culture Happy Hour, only from NPR. What do you think are the greatest things to come out of your city?

Well, get ready to defend your argument because It's been a Minute is bringing the smackdown, a debate series to cities all across the country. Serena Williams versus Muhammad Ali, The peanuts versus Prince. Listen to smackdowns you never saw coming on the It's been a Minute podcast.