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Path of Destruction
Last week we had all kinds of concern over powerful Hurricane Helene’s violent landfall in Florida’s Big Bend area. As the weekend unfolded the big storm rolled inland, dumping rain and causing damage in Georgia, South Carolina, then eastern Tennessee and Western North Carolina.
All told, according to Associated Press reports, there have been hundreds of water rescues, including stories of people being plucked off roofs, millions without power, and a death count nearing a hundred and rising as rescue teams fanned out.
In South Carolina there were at least 25 deaths, making it the deadliest hurricane there since 1989′s Hugo.
North Carolina is seeing its worst flooding in a century. The Spruce Pine community took more than two feet of rain From last Tuesday through this past Saturday. And supplies were being airlifted into the Asheville area.
AL.com’s Josie Howell reports that Alabama first responders are joining the efforts in North Carolina. According to the Prattville Fire Department, its crew, along with Swift Water Rescue Technicians from Hoover, Vestavia Hills, Mountain Brook, Calera and Mobile were in the Tar Heel State.
DOJ vs. Alabama
The U.S. Department of Justice has filed a lawsuit over the Alabama Secretary of State’s efforts to remove noncitizens from voting rolls this close to an election, reports AL.com’s Howard Koplowitz.
As one might expect, if you’re not a citizen of the U.S. and resident of Alabama, you’re not allowed by law to register to vote here. And federal law makes it a crime for non-U.S. citizens to vote in a federal election.
Alabama Secretary of State Wes Allen announced on Aug. 13 a program to remove ineligible voters from the voter rolls. That was 84 days before the Nov. 5 election. And that, argues the DOJ, is a problem because the National Voter Registration Act of 1993 restricts systematic list purges to more than 90 days before the election.
The DOJ says a removal program could make mistakes, confuse voters and remove eligible voters.
101-year-old building
Birmingham’s 101-year-old Bankhead Towers, where Alabama football teams once stayed before ballgames at Legion Field, has been condemned by the city, reports AL.com’s Greg Garrison.
The Crimson Tide stayed in the building when it was a hotel during Bear Bryant’s early years with the program.
This summer during the MLB at Rickwood baseball game, Hall of Famer Reggie Jackson said he lived in the Bankhead Towers during his 1967 season with the Birmingham A’s after threats were made to burn down the apartment he had lived in with white teammates.
Bankhead Towers has had problems before and went through $3 million worth of renovations in 2004. City spokesman Rick Journey said its current issues include fire, building and housing code violations.
The building is housing elderly and disabled residents.
An entourage at Bryant-Denny
The former president made it to the Alabama-Georgia game, in case you haven’t heard about that.
How you feel about that event is undoubtedly tied to how you’ve felt about pretty much everything else since 2016.
One one side, former U.S. Sen. Doug Jones criticized Donald Trump’s decision to be at the game, arguing that Vice President and Trump campaign opponent Kamala Harris was campaigning “where it mattered” while Trump was here in Alabama — certainly a done-deal red state.
Meanwhile, current U.S. Sens. Katie Britt and Tommy Tuberville joined Trump in the box seats. It was a bit of a surreal scene, no matter what side of the election or ballgame you were one, as TV cameras showed them joined by the likes of Kid Rock, Herschel Walker, Hank Williams Jr. and John Daly. Hershel and Bocephus, I suppose, made it a bipartisan group in the Alabama-Georgia sense.
While being in Tuscaloosa didn’t physically put him in a swing state, you can bet Trump knew he was in front of a national TV audience and a huge viewership out of Georgia, which is considered a swing state this year.
Meanwhile, CNN reported that the Harris camp planned to have a plane fly over Bryant-Denny Stadium with a banner that said “Trump’s Punting on 2nd Debate,” but according to The New York Times, that flight was canceled because of the weather.
More Alabama News
Born on This Date
In 1924, writer Truman Capote, who was born in New Orleans but spent part of his youth in Monroeville.
In 1954, NBA player John Drew of Vredenburgh.
Alabama news quiz results
Here’s how quiz-takers did on Friday’s news review:
This week, a deal was announced for Birmingham Southern College to sell its campus. If that deal is finalized, who’ll be the buyer?
Miles College (CORRECT) 91.6%
UAB 5.6%
The University of Alabama System 2.8%
The Chinese company that owns TikTok 0.0%
According to a recent study, in what category does Alabama lead the nation?
Women arrested on pregnancy-related charges (CORRECT) 57.3%
Improved reading comprehension among third-graders 30.9%
Drug trafficking arrests per capita 7.3%
Beating Mississippi in state rankings 4.5%
Four Florida men were recently arrested for allegedly taking this from the Bon Secour National Refuge.
Palmetto berries (CORRECT) 84.8%
Sea oats 9.0%
Live sand dollars 3.9%
Manatees 2.2%
The mayor of which Alabama city announced this week he would not seek re-election in 2025.
Mobile (CORRECT) 81.5%
Montgomery 9.0%
Huntsville 6.7%
Birmingham 2.8%
This week we acknowledged the 70th birthday of this Tuscaloosa native who became the first black head football coach in the Southeastern Conference.
Sylvester Croom (CORRECT) 77.5%
Charlie Strong 19.1%
Joker Phillips 3.4%
Bill Clinton 0.0%
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