Biden postpones trip to Germany and Angola to monitor Hurricane Milton

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden said Tuesday he is postponing a planned trip to Germany and Angola to stay at the White House to monitor Hurricane Milton, as it spins closer to Florida’s Gulf Coast.

“I just don’t think I can be out of the country at this time,” he said at the White House after senior members of the administration updated him on the storm and the government's preparations. Biden warned that Milton “could be one of the worst storms in 100 years to hit Florida,” and said he's working “to increase the size and presence” of the federal government's response.

He said people in the storm's path should heed local orders to evacuate and leave “now.”

“You should have already evacuated,” Biden said, seated with some of the officials who briefed him. “It’s a matter of life and death, and that’s not hyperbole. It's a matter of life and death."

Biden said Milton's strength was such that it has the potential “to both enter Florida as a hurricane and leave Florida as a hurricane on the Atlantic Coast. This could be the worst storm to hit Florida in over a century. God willing it won’t be, but that’s what it’s looking like right now.”

He asked commercial airlines and other companies for help with evacuations.

“I’m calling on the airlines and other companies to provide as much service as possible to accommodate evacuations and not to engage in price gouging, to just do it on the level," Biden said.

It was unclear when Biden's overseas trip might be rescheduled and the White House did not announce new travel dates. The president had been scheduled to depart Thursday for Germany, where he had planned to host a summit on the war in Ukraine with allied nations at a U.S. military base before continuing on to Angola.

Maj. Gen. Pat Ryder, the Pentagon press secretary, said officials would look for a date and location to replace Saturday's planned meeting on Ukraine.

The German government issued a statement saying “we very much regret the cancellation, but of course we understand due to the situation in Florida.”

Biden had promised to visit Africa during his term in office, which ends in January. He said Tuesday that he still intends to make the journey.

“I’m still planning on visiting all the places I said I’d be and all the conferences I said I'd participate in," he said.

Hurricane Milton weakened slightly Tuesday but remained a ferocious storm that could land a once-in-a-century direct hit on the populous Tampa Bay region with towering storm surges and turn debris from Helene’s recent devastation into projectiles.

Most of Florida’s west coast was under a hurricane or tropical storm warning as Milton and its 145 mph (230 kph) winds spun just off Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula, creeping toward the state. With the storm expected to remain fairly strong as it crosses Florida, parts of the state's eastern coast were put under hurricane warnings early Tuesday. Milton’s center could come ashore Wednesday night in the Tampa Bay area, which has a population of more than 3.3 million people.

This year's hurricane season has caused havoc for political calendars in the closing weeks of the presidential campaign. Less than two weeks ago, Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic nominee, cut short a West Coast trip to return to Washington after Helene made landfall. She later visited Georgia and North Carolina, where some of the worst damage took place.

Donald Trump, the Republican nominee, has also traveled through the Southeast, including two trips to Georgia.

President Joe Biden delivers remarks on the federal government's response to Hurricane Helene and preparations for Hurricane Milton in the Roosevelt Room of the White House, Tuesday, Oct. 8, 2024, in Washington, as from seated left, Acting Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Adrianne Todman, Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack, Biden, and Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm, right, look on. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

President Joe Biden delivers remarks on the federal government's response to Hurricane Helene and preparations for Hurricane Milton in the Roosevelt Room of the White House, Tuesday, Oct. 8, 2024, in Washington, as Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack, left, and Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm, right, look on. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

President Joe Biden delivers remarks on the federal government's response to Hurricane Helene and preparations for Hurricane Milton in the Roosevelt Room of the White House, Tuesday, Oct. 8, 2024, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

President Joe Biden delivers remarks on the federal government's response to Hurricane Helene and preparations for Hurricane Milton in the Roosevelt Room of the White House, Tuesday, Oct. 8, 2024, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

President Joe Biden delivers remarks on the federal government's response to Hurricane Helene and preparations for Hurricane Milton in the Roosevelt Room of the White House, Tuesday, Oct. 8, 2024, in Washington, as Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack, left, and Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm, right, look on. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

President Joe Biden delivers remarks on the federal government's response to Hurricane Helene and preparations for Hurricane Milton in the Roosevelt Room of the White House, Tuesday, Oct. 8, 2024, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

President Joe Biden speaks during a surprise appearance to take questions during the daily briefing at the White House in Washington, Friday, Oct. 4, 2024. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)

White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre, who was promoted to senior adviser to the President, speaks during the daily briefing at the White House in Washington, Monday, Oct. 7, 2024. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)

CANYON DE CHELLY NATIONAL MONUMENT, Ariz. (AP) — Commercial air tours will soon be prohibited over Canyon de Chelly National Monument in northeastern Arizona under a plan approved this week by the Federal Aviation Administration and the National Park Service.

The park service said in a statement that the plan was was signed Thursday and will take effect in 180 days, barring any legal challenges. It will ban the tours over the park and within a half mile (800 meters) outside its boundary.

“Prohibiting commercial air tours protects these lands’ cultural and spiritual significance to the Navajo Nation,” said park Superintendent Lyn Carranza. “Canyon de Chelly National Monument’s Air Tour Management Plan honors the unique nation-to-nation relationship regarding decisions affecting the park and helps to preserve one of the most important archeological landscapes in the southwest.”

The park lies within the Four Corners region inside the Navajo Nation and is among the most visited national monuments in the United States. It's known for its soaring sandstone cliffs and 800-foot (244-meter) high Spider Rock spire. Prehistoric rock art is found throughout the area, which has been home to Native Americans for millennia.

The sightseeing flights reportedly date back to the 1930s, when crews building the Hoover Dam on the Arizona-Nevada border asked helicopter pilots working on the project to give flyovers to their families.

The tours offering a unique overhead view of spectacular landscapes have long been popular at Grand Canyon National Park in Arizona. Some of the nation’s busiest spots for tour operators have included Hawaii Volcanoes National Park, which is home to one of the world’s most active volcanoes, and Haleakala National Park.

Supporters of the tours say they offer an exciting experience to tourists and allow older people and those with disabilities to see and enjoy the parks. Critics say the flights are an unnecessarily dangerous way to view some of the most stunning public lands in the United States.

Rules designating routes and minimum altitudes were set in 1986 after two tour aircraft collided over the Grand Canyon, killing 25 people. Still, there are currently numerous options for helicopter tours to the Grand Canyon, departing from places including Las Vegas and Sedona, Arizona.

Critics also complain that the buzz of helicopters drowns out the sounds of nature, disrupting the experiences of visitors on the ground and tribal members who call the land around the parks home.

The park service works with the FAA to implement the National Park Air Tour Management Act of 2000, which requires tour operators who want to conduct such commercial air tours to get FAA approval. The law also requires the FAA, in conjunction with the park service, to establish management plans for air tours for those parks and nearby tribal lands where applications are made.

Canyon de Chelly is the last of roughly two dozen national park units where the group Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility had fought for flyover restrictions. Other national parks where such commercial flyovers essentially are or will be banned in coming years include Badlands National Park and Mount Rushmore National Memorial in South Dakota, Glacier National Park in Montana, and Bandelier National Monument in New Mexico. Only two air tours per year are allowed at Death Valley National Park along the California-Nevada border.

FILE - The vast landscape opens up inside Canyon de Chelly National Monument, May 30, 2010, near Chinle, Ariz. (AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin, File)