Daily Caller
‘There Were Bodies In Trees’: Rural South Decimated By Hurricane Helene As Death Toll Rises Above 130

From the Daily Caller News Foundation
Hurricane Helene has continued to cause destruction and claim lives in the Southeast since Thursday night when it made landfall, leaving a combined death toll of 132 and nearly 600 missing as of Monday.
The catastrophic aftermath that became fully apparent on Monday left a scene of utter devastation with homes shattered, cargo containers crushed and highways engulfed in mud, according to The Associated Press. Infrastructure failures in Western North Carolina have plunged the area into crisis, cutting off roads and disrupting power and communications, forcing residents to queue for fresh water and to send messages to their loved ones to confirm that they were alive.
The storm affected Alabama, Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina and Tennessee, the Federal Emergency Management Administration (FEMA) stated. White House homeland security adviser Liz Sherwood-Randall reported during Monday’s briefing that as many as 600 individuals were unaccounted for, some feared dead, AP reported.
Death toll triples in Asheville area after Hurricane Helene guts North Carolina: ‘There were bodies in the trees’ https://t.co/IRq5QpIgno pic.twitter.com/Dz2nJkHuHr
— New York Post (@nypost) September 30, 2024
President Joe Biden is scheduled to visit North Carolina on Wednesday to assess the damage and coordinate federal response efforts, the AP reported. Efforts to deliver relief to the affected regions are underway, with government and aid organizations attempting to reach isolated communities by various means, including air and truck deliveries, and even by mule. (RELATED: FEMA Lists ‘Equity’ Among Top Goals Even As Americans Face The Aftermath Of Hurricane Helene)
Relief efforts are ongoing in Asheville and Western North Carolina following the devastation of Tropical Storm Helene, according to the Citizen Times Monday. The full extent of the damage remains unclear, with more updates expected.
“There were bodies in trees. They were finding bodies under rubble,” Alyssa Hudson from Black Mountain, a village significantly impacted just 12 miles from Asheville, said, the New York Post reported Monday. “We started seeing videos of our house posted to Facebook. Our floors are caved in, our walls are gone. We had a shed in our backyard that they found two miles away.”
It's hard to wrap my head around this video. Underneath all of this debris is Lake Lure in North Carolina. All of this debris is parts of homes, businesses and other belongings that were washed here by the remnants of Hurricane Helene.
This will be a very long cleanup process. pic.twitter.com/9OlXKJIrmS
— Gage Goulding – KPRC 2 (@GageGoulding) September 30, 2024
Hurricane Helene Aftermath – NORTH CAROLINA
WATCH – DISASTER: North Carolina suffers historic flooding
Aerials show damages in Chimney Rock following Helene
SEP 28, 2024
Helene will end up being one of the most significant weather events of the modern era in western North… pic.twitter.com/yOW2DPUEuT
— Abhay (@AstuteGaba) September 29, 2024
Couple Kimberly and Jimmie Scott navigated through the devastated Black Mountain to rescue their daughter from Montreat College, where 1,000 students were stranded without power.
“All along the road, there were downed trees, downed power lines, structures collapsed, cars pushed over, train tracks destroyed. Buildings collapsed on the road,” Kimberly said, The Post reported.
GOP national committee member and local homeowner Ed Broyhill reported that storm damage has devastated Chimney Rock, North Carolina, washing away the community’s tourism-driven businesses into Lake Lure, Fox News reported Monday.
“The saddest thing in the world is that a lot of the folks have etched out a living catering to tourism … They have everything from hotels and motels and restaurants and nice stores and souvenir stores and clothing stores, and all of that was washed away. Every bit of it, all of it, was washed into the lake,” he said, Fox News reported.
Business
‘Time To Make The Patient Better’: JD Vance Says ‘Big Transition’ Coming To American Economic Policy

JD Vance on “Rob Schmitt Tonight” discussing tariff results
From the Daily Caller News Foundation
By Hailey Gomez
Vice President JD Vance said Thursday on Newsmax that he believes Americans will “reap the benefits” of the economy as the Trump administration makes a “big transition” on tariffs.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 1,679.39 points on Thursday, just a day after President Donald Trump announced reciprocal tariffs against nations charging imports from the U.S. On “Rob Schmitt Tonight,” Schmitt asked Vance about the stock market hit, asking how the White House felt about the “Liberation Day” move.
“We’re feeling good. Look, I frankly thought in some ways it could be worse in the markets, because this is a big transition. You saw what the President said earlier today. It’s like a patient who was very sick,” Vance said. “We did the operation, and now it’s time to make the patient better. That’s exactly what we’re doing. We have to remember that for 40 years, we’ve been doing this for 40 years.”
“American economic policy has rewarded people who ship jobs overseas. It’s taxed our workers. It’s made our supply chains more brittle, and it’s made our country less prosperous, less free and less secure,” Vance added.
Vance recalled that one of his children had been sick and needed antibiotics that were not made in the United States. The Vice President called it a “ridiculous thing” that some medicines invented in the country are no longer manufactured domestically.
“That’s fundamentally what this is about. The national security of manufacturing and making the things that we need, from steel to pharmaceuticals, antibiotics, and so forth, but also the good jobs that come along when you have economic policies that reward investing in America, rather than investing in foreign countries,” Vance said.
WATCH:
With a baseline 10% tariff placed on an estimated 60 countries, higher tariffs were applied to nations like China and Israel. For example, China, which has a 67% tariff on U.S. goods, will now face a 34% tariff from the U.S., while Israel, which has a 33% tariff, will face a 17% U.S. tariff.
“One bad day in the stock market, compared to what President Trump said earlier today, and I think he’s right about this. We’re going to have a booming stock market for a long time because we’re reinvesting in the United States of America. More importantly than that, of course, the people in Wall Street have done well,” Vance said.
“We want them to do well. But we care the most about American workers and about American small businesses, and they’re the ones who are really going to benefit from these policies,” Vance said.
The number of factories in the U.S., Vance said, has declined, adding that “millions of workers” have lost their jobs.
“My town [Middletown, Ohio], where you had 10,000 great American steel workers, and my town was one of the lucky ones, now probably has 1,500 steel workers in that factory because you had economic policies that rewarded shipping our jobs to China instead of investing in American workers,” Vance said. “President Trump ran on changing it. He promised he would change it, and now he has. I think Americans are going to reap the benefits.”
2025 Federal Election
‘I’m Cautiously Optimistic’: Doug Ford Strongly Recommends Canada ‘Not To Retaliate’ Against Trump’s Tariffs

From the Daily Caller News Foundation
By Jason Cohen
Ontario Premier Doug Ford urged Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney to avoid retaliation against the tariffs President Donald Trump announced on Wednesday.
Trump announced in the White House Rose Garden that he would impose “a minimum baseline tariff of 10%” on all goods entering the United States, with Canada not being included on the list of countries with higher rates. When asked about what Canada’s response would be on “Bloomberg: Balance of Power,” Ford said he was “cautiously optimistic” about Canada’s omission from the higher-tier tariffs and emphasized the importance of a cooperative relationship with the U.S.
WATCH:
“Well, let’s see where these tariffs go. I’m cautiously optimistic that I never saw Canada or Mexico on that list. And it just goes to show you two great countries working together, collaborating together and building relationships,” Ford said. “So again, I’m cautiously optimistic. I think if that’s the case, it’s the right thing for both the U.S and Canada.”
Host Kailey Leinz noted that there are currently tariffs on Canada in place as well as an exemption for goods that are in compliance with the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA).
“Does that mean, sir, at least in your mind, that it wouldn’t be appropriate for Canada to retaliate for this at this time?” Leinz asked.
“That is correct. If that’s the case, then I would highly recommend to the prime minister not to retaliate. And let’s carry on a strong relationship,” Ford answered. “Let’s build the American-Canadian fortress around both countries and be the wealthiest, most prosperous, safest two countries in the world.”
Trump declared a national emergency to levy a slew of reciprocal tariffs on what he has deemed “Liberation Day.”
“My fellow Americans, this is Liberation Day, April 2, 2025, will forever be remembered as the day American industry was reborn, the day America’s destiny was reclaimed, and the day that we began to make America wealthy again,” Trump said.
The president also announced that he would proceed with implementing a 25% tariff on “all foreign-made automobiles” that will take effect at midnight.
Ford in March had imposed a 25% surcharge on electricity to New York, Michigan and Minnesota, but promptly rescinded the policy and apologized to Americans on WABC’s “Cats & Cosby” radio show the following day. The tariffs were a retaliatory measure against Trump’s flurry of tariffs against Canada since starting his second term.
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