They also expressed concern about the devastation wrought in the Southeast by Hurricane Helene and called for a vigorous response from government to help those affected by the powerful storm. Helene was one of the deadliest storms in U.S. history, with the death toll surpassing 150 across six states. Damage stretched from Florida to Virginia, with some of the worst in western North Carolina, which experienced substantial inland flooding.

Vance, a Republican senator from Ohio and former President Trump’s running mate, called the destruction from Helene an “unbelievable and unspeakable human tragedy.” He said that he and Trump “want as robust and aggressive [of] a federal response as we can get to save as many lives as possible and then of course, afterwards, to help the people in those communities rebuild.”

“I commit that when Donald Trump is president again, the government will put the citizens of this country first when they suffer from a disaster,” he said.

On climate change, Vance said that “a lot of people are justifiably worried about all these crazy weather patterns,” and that he and Trump “support clean air, clean water” and “want the environment to be cleaner and safer.”

Vance did not answer how a Trump administration would address climate change, but said it would support more domestic energy production. He called Democratic concerns about carbon emissions a debate about “weird science.”

If emissions are a concern, Vance said, Democrats are addressing them in the wrong way. He said Democrats should be more interested in making energy cleanly in the United States than allowing energy to be produced in dirtier ways in other countries, such as China.

“If we actually care about getting cleaner air and cleaner water, the best thing to do is to double down and invest in American workers and the American people. And unfortunately, Kamala Harris has done exactly the opposite,” Vance said.

Walz, the Democratic governor of Minnesota and Vice President Harris’ running mate, also called the devastation in the Southeast “a horrific tragedy,” adding that he and other governors have been in contact on how to address the disaster.

Walz said officials are working on helping people, and “we need to make sure that they’re staying there, staying focused.”

On climate change, Walz attacked Trump for calling it a “hoax” in the past and for suggesting that rising ocean levels will provide more beachfront property.

Walz said his constituents in Minnesota, including many farmers, understand that climate change is very real. And they are helping to lead the country on the right path forward, toward truly clean energy.

“They’ve seen 500-year droughts, 500-year floods back to back. But what they’re doing is adapting, and this has allowed them to tell me, ‘Look, I harvest corn, I harvest soybean and I harvest wind.’ ”

He also said the Biden-Harris administration has invested in infrastructure and other programs that are helping communities adapt to climate change and has invested in domestic energy.

“We are producing more natural gas and more oil at any time than we ever have. We’re also producing more clean energy,” Walz said. “So the solution for us is to continue to move forward. That climate change is real. Reducing our impact is absolutely critical.”

Trump has slammed the Biden administration’s response to Helene as inadequate, and alleged with no evidence that the administration and Democratic leaders in North Carolina were “going out of their way to not help people in Republican areas.”

The Biden administration has rejected Trump’s claims. White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre dismissed them as unfounded and said that more than 1,400 people have been supported or rescued in affected areas. Republican leaders have said the White House has been helpful in disaster relief.

President Biden has approved major disaster declarations in Florida, North Carolina and South Carolina, which will ease the path for those states to receive recovery funds.

“It doesn’t matter if it’s a red state or blue state,” Jean-Pierre said Monday. “This is their job — to get food there, to get generators there, to save some lives, to rescue people.”

Trump’s supporters, including those behind Project 2025, have called for federal agencies that warn of weather disasters to be disbanded or face dramatic budget cuts, and Trump as president delayed post-hurricane aid to Puerto Rico. He also diverted money from the Federal Emergency Management Agency, which responds to natural disasters, to an initiative aimed at returning undocumented migrants to Mexico.

More than 150,000 households have already registered for assistance from FEMA in the wake of Helene, and that number is expected to rise rapidly in coming days, agency officials have said.

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The Republican nominee for president in the upcoming November election took the podium at about 10 a.m. at Trump National Golf Course, which is a course he’s owned for more than 20 years.

Trump talked about the ongoing crisis in Rancho Palos Verdes during the news conference Friday. Many residents have been displaced from their homes, and thousands of others have had electricity shut off as landslides have affected crucial elements of the community’s infrastructure.

“I want to express my support for all of the families affected by the landslides in Rancho Palos Verdes,” Trump said. “Landslides are something to be taken care of … The mountain is moving and it can be stopped, but they need some help from the government.”

Trump’s criticism of the government’s response comes more than a week after California Gov. Gavin Newsom proclaimed a state of emergency in the community, giving the city state funding and support from the Office of Emergency Services.

Still, many residents congregated outside the golf course on Friday, hoping to have the chance to show the former president the impact that the landslides is having on their lives.

One resident, identified as Jerry, told KTLA’s Omar Lewis that his daughter was about to move into his new home in the city when Southern California Edison abruptly turned his power off on Labor Day weekend.

“We’re hoping for FEMA money to come in,” he said. “It’s a working class neighborhood. I think the perception is these people have an endless amount of money … You have a lot of older people that have nowhere to turn.”

Jerry said he was not present at the event in support of former President Trump, but rather to get his attention on the issue.

“We’re not going to go out without a fight,” he said. “We’re here to stay.”

While lots of residents were there to advocate for the residents affected by the natural disaster, most in attendance were there in support of Trump, who rarely makes campaign stops in California due to the political demographics of the state.

Dozens, if not hundreds, of Trump supporters were seen outside. One large banner read “Kamala Harris is an idiot,” alongside an American flag.

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SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — California cities and counties still don’t know how much they’ll have to pay for Gov. Gavin Newsom’s pandemic program to house homeless people in hotel rooms after the Federal Emergency Management Agency said in October that it was limiting the number of days eligible for reimbursement.

State and local officials say they were stunned to learn via an October letter that FEMA would only pay to house homeless people at risk of catching COVID-19 for at most 20 days — as opposed to unlimited — starting June 11, 2021, which is when Gov. Gavin Newsom rescinded the sweeping stay-at-home order he issued in March 2020.

In response, the Governor’s Office of Emergency Services requested that FEMA reconsider the policy change, saying that it would cost cities and counties at least $300 million at a time when budgets are tight and that local governments had relied on assurances that the federal government would pick up the cost.

Late Tuesday, FEMA said in a statement that it will review California’s Jan. 31 letter, but that all states had been provided “the same guidance and policy updates throughout the pandemic.”

Newsom announced the hotel housing program — called Project Roomkey — in March 2020 as part of the state’s response to the pandemic. Homeless advocates heralded it as a novel way to safeguard residents who could not stay at home to reduce virus transmission. FEMA agreed to pay 75% of the cost, later increasing that to full reimbursement.

California officials argued to the federal agency that no notice was provided on the policy change.

Robert J. Fenton, the regional administrator for California who wrote the October letter, told CalMatters, which was first to report on the discrepancy last week, that the policy was not new.

“What I’m doing is clarifying the original guidance of the original policy and providing that back to them,” he told the nonprofit news organization.

FEMA declined Tuesday to make Fenton available to The Associated Press for an interview.

Brian Ferguson, a spokesperson for Cal OES, said earlier Tuesday that inaction by FEMA “would have a chilling effect on the future trust of local governments and the federal government” in times of crisis.

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Jolted awake at 3 a.m. by a neighbor’s urgent knocking, Aaron and Jacqueline Pate were greeted by a horrifying sight — flames encroached on their neighborhood amid thick smoke and ash from the wildfire that had been miles away when they went to bed.

“We grabbed the go bags, the kids, the dog and got in our cars and left,” said Aaron, of the fast-moving Woolsey fire that burned to within 100 feet of their Westlake Village, California, home in 2018.

It was the deadliest and most destructive wildfire season the state has on record, but it’s been followed by record-setting hurricanes, winter storms, and other extreme and abnormal weather events in one place after another. Experts expect that such natural disasters will only become more frequent.

“Having a personal preparedness plan increases your chances of staying safe,” according to a training program from the Columbia University’s National Center for Disaster Preparedness. Having supplies ready to go, it says, is one of the steps that provides “resilience to all types of emergencies.”

The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) recommends collecting what everyone in the household needs to survive for several days along with important documents into an easy-to-carry kit, often called a go bag. The Pate family saw the value of these preparations. “Because we had go bags, we weren’t running around trying to pack things at the last minute,” said Jacqueline. “We had the time we needed to comfort our kids and get everyone safely into the car.”

The Pates credited the disaster-preparedness help they received as Jehovah’s Witnesses, both through periodic reminders at their congregation meetings and from tips for putting together go bags on the organization’s website, www.jw.org.

“Life is precious, so we encourage all to heed the Bible’s advice to take practical steps to protect ourselves from danger,” said Robert Hendriks III, spokesman for Jehovah’s Witnesses in the United States.

Just three miles east of the Pate’s residence, their fellow congregants Joseph and Chelsea San Roman also fled the Woolsey fire with with their go bags. Although their home burned to the ground, Chelsea said they didn’t even consider staying behind in hopes of fighting the flames. “There was no way we were going to risk our safety for material things,” she said. “We were ready to leave it all behind.”

Go bags also have proven useful in the opposite circumstances as “stay bags.”

When February’s Winter Storm Uri left millions of Texans without heat, electricity, and running water, many go bags there saw their first-ever use outside of hurricane season.

Northwest Houston residents Dan and Rhiannon Muey’s advance preparation enabled them to shelter in place for days, even as many in their area braved treacherous road conditions to scour barren store shelves for supplies.

“Our hurricane ‘go bags’ became our winter storm ‘stay bags,’ but we were so glad we had them,” said Dan. “Instead of waiting in lines for hours to get basics like drinking water, we already had what we needed.” Emergency kits provide not just practical but emotional value as well.

Lake Charles, Louisiana, residents Matthew and Daisy Gauthier regularly sit down with daughters Madison, 17, and Sadie, 15, to review and replenish the family’s emergency supplies. “We don’t look at it as a chore,” said Matthew. “It’s quality time we can spend together. We look over jw.org‘s list of suggested items, and if we’re missing something, we add it.”

The Gauthiers’ efforts paid off last August, relieving stress as they prepared to evacuate ahead of Hurricane Laura.

“If we hadn’t already packed our go bags, I would’ve been scrambling,” said Daisy. “My mom would’ve been running around the house in tears,” affirmed Madison.

Being prepared meant the Gauthier family could leave the area before the evacuation order was issued. “Having our go bags allowed us to act faster,” said Matthew. “If we had to start from scratch and say, ‘OK, we need this, we need that,’ it would’ve slowed us down a lot.”

Two days later, Laura made landfall as a deadly Category 4 storm with the strongest hurricane winds recorded in Louisiana in over 150 years.

Another Lake Charles family, the Rinis, returned after the storm to find that their go bags had unexpected post-storm practicality.

“Our neighborhood looked like a scene from a disaster movie,” said Cullen, 13, of the splintered trees and mangled electrical towers the family passed on their drive home.

The Rinis’ property sustained only minor damage. Still, with no power or water and days of cleanup ahead, the family made immediate use of their emergency supply kit. “We questioned including many of those items when we first packed them,” admitted mom Ashley. “But within the first 36 hours, we used over half of our go bags’ contents: cash for gas, a flashlight, duct tape, matches, bug spray, water, extra clothes, batteries, and so many other things.”

Today, these ‘ready bags’ occupy a place of honor in the Rini home: their own shelf by the door. To anyone who has not yet assembled a go bag, 10-year-old Arden solemnly said: “You might not think you need one, but trust me—you really do!”

Disaster-preparedness suggestions and tips for putting together a go bag are available from FEMA at ready.gov and from Jehovah’s Witnesses at https://www.jw.org/en/library/magazines/awake-no5-2017-october/disaster-steps-that-c an-save-lives/.

JW.org • Contributed

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FEMA opened its first COVID-19 mass vaccination sites Tuesday, setting up in Los Angeles and Oakland as part of an effort by the Biden administration to get shots into arms more quickly and reach minority communities hit hard by the outbreak.

Snow and ice across much of the U.S., meanwhile, forced the cancellation of many vaccination appointments and delayed vaccine deliveries around the country. Houston’s public health agency lost power and had to scramble to give out thousands of shots before they spoiled.

The developments came as the vaccination drive ramps up. The U.S. is administering an average of nearly 1.7 million doses per day, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. At the same time, coronavirus deaths are down sharply over the past six weeks, and new cases have plummeted.

In the early morning in Los Angeles, several dozen cars were already lined up with people sitting inside, reading newspapers and passing the time, a half-hour before the 9 a.m. opening of the nation’s first mass vaccination site run with assistance from the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

Troops in camouflage fatigues stood around the sprawling parking lot at California State University, Los Angeles, where some 40 white tents were erected and dozens of orange cones put in place to guide traffic.

The site, set up in heavily Latino East L.A. as part of an effort to reach communities that have suffered disproportionately during the crisis, aims to vaccinate up to 6,000 people a day. Another such site opened at the Oakland Coliseum, near working-class Black and Latino neighborhoods.

Hard-hit California has overtaken New York state for the highest death toll in the nation, at over 47,000.

The Los Angeles site is “proximate to a community that has been disproportionately impacted by this pandemic,” Gov. Gavin Newsom said. “The effort here is to address that issue forthrightly.”

The Biden administration intends to establish 100 such federally assisted vaccination sites nationwide in cooperation with state authorities.

Elsewhere around the country, the virus put a big damper on Mardi Gras in New Orleans. The French Quarter’s Bourbon Street, where the rowdiest partying usually takes place, was blocked off with police barricades, and bars were ordered closed, a year after Mardi Gras crowds were blamed for a severe outbreak of COVID-19 in Louisiana.

“It’s hard to wrap my head around it,” New Orleans lawyer Dave Lanser, wearing a luminescent green cape and a black mask with a curved beak, said as he looked up and down a nearly empty Bourbon Street. But “I don’t think there’s a way to safely do it this year,” he said. “So, I support canceling the parades, closing the bars, all that kind of stuff.”

Snow, ice and bitter cold forced authorities to cancel vaccinations in places such as Memphis, Tennessee, and Missouri. In snowy Chicago, Public Health Commissioner Dr. Allison Arwady said more than a hundred vaccine sites in the city didn’t get shipments Tuesday because of the extreme weather, leading to many cancellations.

The Biden administration said the weather is expected to disrupt shipments from a FedEx facility in Memphis and a UPS installation in Louisville, Kentucky. Both serve as vaccine shipping hubs for a number of states.

Houston’s Harris County rushed to dispense more than 8,000 doses of Moderna’s coronavirus vaccine after a public health facility lost power early Monday and its backup generator also failed, authorities said. The shots were distributed at three hospitals, the county jail and Rice University.

“It feels amazing. I’m very grateful,” said Harry Golen, a 19-year-old sophomore who waited for nearly four hours with his friends, much of it in the frigid cold, and was among the last people to get the shots — which otherwise wouldn’t have reached students until March or April.

More than 400,000 additional doses due in Texas now won’t arrive until at least Wednesday, officials said.

Nearly 39.7 million Americans, or about 12% of the U.S. population, have received at least one dose of the vaccine, and 15 million have gotten both shots, the CDC said.

Deaths are running at about 2,400 per day on average, down by more than 900 from their peak in mid-January. And the average number of new cases per day has dropped to about 85,000, the lowest in 3 1/2 months. That’s down from a peak of almost a quarter-million per day in early January. The overall U.S. death toll is at nearly 490,000.

Still, some public health experts warn it’s far too early to declare the virus is on the wane. For one thing, they are worried about the more contagious variants that are taking hold.

Dr. Ronald Hershow, director of epidemiology at the University of Illinois-Chicago School of Public Health, predicted there will be upticks.

“Honestly, I would be surprised if we can point to this recent downturn as the moment in time where we turn the corner and everything’s downhill from here,” he said.

The federal government is boosting the amount of vaccine sent to states to 13.5 million doses per week, a 57% increase from when President Joe Biden took office nearly a month ago, White House press secretary Jen Psaki announced.

Psaki also said the administration is doubling to 2 million doses per week the vaccine being sent to pharmacies across the U.S. as part of a program to improve access in neighborhoods.

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