FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (AP) — Lionel Messi's first MLS Cup playoff match with Inter Miami will be on Oct. 25. And it'll be aired live on a massive screen spanning an entire block of New York's Times Square.
Major League Soccer announced Thursday that Inter Miami's opener will be the lone playoff match played on that Friday night, with an 8:30 p.m. Eastern start time. It's a slight adjustment to the MLS Cup schedule; original plans called for the playoffs to begin on Oct. 26.
Inter Miami clinched the MLS Supporters Shield — given to the league's best regular season team — on Wednesday night with a 3-2 win at Columbus. With the No. 1 overall seed, Inter Miami also has home-field advantage throughout the playoffs and would play host to the MLS Cup final on Dec. 7 if it makes it.
“We have a significant advantage since we’ll be playing all our matches at home, which is what we were aiming for,” Messi said. “I think we are very strong at home. ... I believe that being at home gives us a great advantage, and now we just have to prove it.”
The Supporters Shield was Messi's 46th trophy won for his various clubs or while playing for Argentina, extending his record. Inter Miami won the Leagues Cup last season in Messi's first year with the club, but did not qualify for the MLS playoffs.
MLS also announced there will be some different broadcast elements for Inter Miami's playoff opener. Apple TV will make the match available to its customers, regardless of whether they have an MLS Season Pass subscription or not. And the match will be shown live on a 25,000-square-foot digital television display screen on Broadway between 45th and 46th streets in New York's Times Square.
Inter Miami will open the playoffs in a best-of-three series against the winner of the Eastern Conference's wild-card match, which will be played on Oct. 22. The full MLS Cup playoff bracket won't be set until Oct. 19, the final day of the league's regular season.
Playing the match on Friday night in Fort Lauderdale also avoids the potential for conflict with other significant sporting events in South Florida that weekend.
Miami and Florida State renew their annual college football rivalry on Oct. 26. Miami Dolphins quarterback Tua Tagovailoa — currently sidelined while dealing with the aftereffects of a concussion — will be eligible to return from injured reserve for his team's game against Arizona on Oct. 27. And NASCAR has a playoff race at Homestead-Miami Speedway that weekend as well.
AP soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/soccer
Inter Miami's Drake Callender makes a save on a Columbus Crew penalty kick during the second half of an MLS soccer match, Wednesday, Oct. 2, 2024, in Columbus, Ohio. (AP Photo/Jay LaPrete)
Inter Miami's David Ruiz, right, tries to kick the ball past Columbus Crew's Marcelo Herrera during the second half of an MLS soccer match, Wednesday, Oct. 2, 2024, in Columbus, Ohio. (AP Photo/Jay LaPrete)
BLACK MOUNTAIN, N.C. (AP) — Hurricane Helene’s death toll has reached 200 on Thursday after Georgia and North Carolina reported more fatalities from the storm.
The death toll jumped from 189 to 200 after Georgia officials added eight to their tally and North Carolina added three.
Search and rescue operations continued Thursday in the mountains of western North Carolina, which bore the worst of the storm.
Helene came ashore last Thursday in northern Florida before carving a path of destruction through the Southeast. It was the deadliest to hit the U.S. mainland since Hurricane Katrina in 2005.
THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. AP’s earlier story follows below.
BLACK MOUNTAIN, N.C. (AP) — Sarah Vekasi is a potter who runs a store in Black Mountain, North Carolina, called Sarah Sunshine Pottery, named after her normally bubbly personality. But these days she’s struggling with the trauma of Hurricane Helene and uncertainty about the future of her business.
“All I can say is that I’m alive. I’m not doing great. I’m not doing good. But I’m extremely grateful to be alive, especially when so many are not,” Vekasi said.
One thing that makes her feel a little better is the fellowship of the daily town meeting at the square.
“It’s incredible being able to meet in person,” said Vekasi, who was cut off by impassible roads for days. At Wednesday’s session more than 150 people gathered as local leaders stood atop a picnic table shouting updates.
In the midst of the devastating destruction left by the deadliest hurricane to hit the mainland U.S. since Katrina, human connections are giving the survivors hope in western North Carolina. While government cargo planes brought food and water into the hardest-hit areas and rescue crews waded through creeks searching for survivors, those who made it through the storm, whose death toll has topped 180, were leaning on one another.
Martha Sullivan, also at the town meeting, was taking careful notes so she could share the information — roads reopened, progress in getting power restored, work on trying to get water flowing again — with others.
Sullivan, who has lived in Black Mountain for 43 years, said her children invited her to come to Charlotte after the storm, but she wants to stay in her community and look after her neighbors.
“I’m going to stay as long as I feel like I’m being useful,” Sullivan said.
In remote mountain areas, helicopters hoisted the stranded to safety while search crews moved toppled trees so they could look door to door for survivors. In some places, homes teetered on hillsides and washed-out riverbanks.
Electricity is being slowly restored, as the number of homes and businesses without power dipped below 1 million for the first time since last weekend, according to poweroutage.us. Most of the outages are in the Carolinas and Georgia, where Helene struck after barreling over Florida’s Gulf Coast as a Category 4 hurricane. Deaths have been reported in Florida, Georgia, Tennessee and Virginia, in addition to the Carolinas.
Robin Wynn lost power at her Asheville home early Friday and was able to grab a bag of canned goods and water before getting to a shelter despite water up to her knees.
“I didn’t know where I was going, didn’t know what was going to happen next. But I got out and I’m alive,” Wynn said on Wednesday.
Now that she’s back home, her neighbors have been watching out for one another. Plenty of people have come around to make sure everyone has a hot meal and water, she said.
Eric Williamson, who works at First Baptist Church in Hendersonville, normally makes home visits to members who can’t physically get to church. This week, he’s their lifeline, delivering food that meets dietary restrictions and tossing out food that had spoiled.
Beyond checking in on the essentials, he says it’s important to just socialize with folks in a moment like this to help them know they aren’t alone.
He has a handwritten list of everyone he needs to visit. “They don’t have telephone service, even if they have a landline, a lot of that isn’t working,” Williamson said. "So we're bringing them food and water, but also just bringing them a smile and a prayer with them just to give them comfort.”
Volunteers in Asheville gathered on Wednesday before going out to help find people who have been unreachable because of phone and internet outages. They took along boxes of drinking water and instructions to return in person with their results.
Even notifying relatives of people who died in the storm has been difficult.
“That has been our challenge, quite honestly, is no cell service, no way to reach out to next of kin,” said Avril Pinder, an official in Buncombe County where at least 61 people have died. “We have a confirmed body count, but we don’t have identifications on everyone or next-of-kin notifications.”
Thursday marks the seventh day of search and rescue operations, Pinder said, adding the county doesn’t have an official tally of people who are unaccounted for or missing.
“We’re continuing to find people. We know we have pockets of people who are isolated due to landslides and bridges out,” she said. “So they are disconnected but not missing.”
President Joe Biden flew over the devastation in North and South Carolina, getting a firsthand look at the mess left by a storm that now has killed at least 189 people.
Speaking afterwards in Raleigh, North Carolina, Biden praised the Democratic governor of North Carolina and the Republican governor of South Carolina for their responses to the storm, saying that in the wake of disasters, “we put politics aside.”
“Our job is to help as many people as we can as quickly as we can and as thoroughly as we can," he said.
That includes a commitment from the federal government to foot the bill for debris removal and emergency protective measures for six months. The money will address the impacts of landslides and flooding and will cover costs of first responders, search and rescue teams, shelters, and mass feeding.
“We’re not leaving until you’re back on your feet completely,” Biden said.
Vice President Kamala Harris traveled to neighboring Georgia, where she said the president had approved a request to pick up the tab for similar emergency aid there for three months.
Biden plans on traveling to disaster areas in Florida and Georgia on Thursday.
Employees at a plastics factory in rural Tennessee who kept working last week until water flooded their parking lot and power went out at the plant were among those killed. The floodwaters swept 11 workers away, and only five were rescued. Two are confirmed dead.
Tennessee state authorities said they are investigating the company that owns the factory after some employees said they weren’t allowed to leave in time to avoid the storm’s impact.
Hospitals and health care organizations in the Southeast mostly stayed open despite dealing with blackouts, wind damage, supply issues and flooding. Many hospitals halted elective procedures, while only a few closed completely.
In Florida, officials were turning to “low-risk” state prisoners to help clear the mountains of debris left behind.
“Department of Corrections, they do prison labor anyways. So they’re bringing them to do debris removal,” Gov. Ron DeSantis told reporters on Wednesday.
Verduzco reported from Swannanoa, North Carolina, and Peterson from Hendersonville, North Carolina. Contributing to this report were Associated Press journalists Colleen Long in Raleigh, North Carolina; Kate Payne in Madiera Beach, Fla.; John Raby in Charleston, West Virginia; John Seewer in Toledo, Ohio; Jonathan Mattise in Nashville, Tennessee; Michael Kunzelman in College Park, Maryland; and Cedar Attanasio and Jim Mustian in New York.
This satellite image released by Maxar Technologies shows flooding from Hurricane Helene by the North Toe River and downtown in Spruce Pine, N.C., Wednesday, Oct. 2, 2024. (Satellite image ©2024 Maxar Technologies via AP)
This satellite image released by Maxar Technologies shows damage from Hurricane Helene in Old Fort, N.C., Wednesday, Oct. 2, 2024. (Satellite image ©2024 Maxar Technologies via AP)
This satellite image released by Maxar Technologies shows flooding by the North Toe River and market damage from Hurricane Helene in Spruce Pine, N.C., Wednesday, Oct. 2, 2024. (Satellite image ©2024 Maxar Technologies via AP)
This satellite image released by Maxar Technologies shows the town in McDowell County before storm damage occurred in 2024 from Hurricane Helene in Old Fort, N.C., Jan. 7, 2022. (Satellite image ©2024 Maxar Technologies via AP)
This satellite image released by Maxar Technologies shows mud and debris near Old Fort Elementary School, damage from Hurricane Helene in Old Fort, N.C., Wednesday, Oct. 2, 2024. (Satellite image ©2024 Maxar Technologies via AP)
President Joe Biden talks with Asheville Mayor Esther Manheimer, as he arrives at Greenville-Spartanburg International Airport in Greer, S.C., Wednesday, Oct. 2, 2024, to survey damage from Hurricane Helene. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)
Marine One, with President Joe Biden on board, flies around areas impacted by Hurricane Helene over Asheville, N.C., Wednesday, Oct. 2, 2024. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh) (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)
Contents of a home are piled on the side of a home after flooding from Hurricane Helene on Wednesday, Oct. 2, 2024, in Indian Rocks Beach, Fla. (AP Photo/Mike Carlson)
Contents of homes line the streets after flooding from Hurricane Helene on Wednesday, Oct. 2, 2024, in Reddington Shores, Fla. (AP Photo/Mike Carlson)
Resident Anne Schneider, right, hugs her friend Eddy Sampson as they survey damage left in the wake of Hurricane Helene, Tuesday, Oct. 1, 2024, in Marshall, N.C. (AP Photo/Jeff Roberson)
Damaged to one of the White family's homes that was destroyed by Hurricane Helene is seen, Tuesday, Oct. 1, 2024 in Morganton, N.C. The adjacent Catawba River flooded due to torrential rains destroying seven of the family's nine homes on the property. (AP Photo/Kathy Kmonicek)
Vehicles and debris that were caught in a flash flood from Hurricane Helene rest on the side of the road near the Swannanoa River, Tuesday, Oct. 1, 2024, in Swannanoa, N.C. (AP Photo/Mike Stewart)
Train tracks washed out during Hurricane Helene run along the French Broad River, Tuesday, Oct. 1, 2024, in Marshall, N.C. (AP Photo/Jeff Roberson)
Eva Markowitz stands covered in mud left by Hurricane Helene as she works to clean up Zadie's Market and Deli Tuesday, Oct. 1, 2024, in Marshall, N.C. (AP Photo/Jeff Roberson)
A person carries bags of fresh water after filling up from a tanker at a distribution site in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene Wednesday, Oct. 2, 2024, in Asheville, N.C. (AP Photo/Jeff Roberson)
FILE - Brian McCormack pauses after using a wheelbarrow to clean up debris left in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene, Oct. 1, 2024, in Marshall, N.C. (AP Photo/Jeff Roberson)
Loaves & Fishes food group serve meals for residents in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene, Wednesday, Oct. 2, 2024, in Lake Lure, N.C. (AP Photo/Mike Stewart)
A destroyed mobile home and vehicles lay scattered across muddy land, Tuesday, Oct. 1, 2024, in Hendersonville, N.C., in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene. (AP Photo/Brittany Peterson)
People ride in the back of a pickup truck on a mud-covered street left in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene, Tuesday, Oct. 1, 2024, in Marshall, N.C. (AP Photo/Jeff Roberson)
Debris is strewn on the lake in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene, Wednesday, Oct. 2, 2024, in Lake Lure, N.C. (AP Photo/Mike Stewart)
FILE - A passerby checks the water depth of a flooded road, Saturday, Sept. 28, 2024, in Morganton, N.C. (AP Photo/Kathy Kmonicek, File)
