Federal money to help states hit by hurricanes Helene and Milton nears $2 billion

WASHINGTON (AP) — The federal government has approved nearly $2 billion in assistance across six states to help people hit hard by hurricanes Helene and Milton, the White House said Wednesday.

The federal government has been under intense pressure to show that it is getting help to areas devastated by the back-to-back hurricanes in late September and early October as it warns that more money will be needed to fund the response.

Helene was a Category 4 storm that first struck Florida’s Gulf Coast on Sept. 26, dumped trillions of gallons of rain and left a trail of destruction for hundreds of miles across several states. Hurricane Milton swept across Florida two weeks later.

Hurricane response has become a key part of the upcoming presidential election with former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris both positioning themselves as the best candidate to respond to such calamities.

The money approved so far includes funds that go to residents for things like rental reimbursements when they cannot live in their house or quick infusions of $750 in cash to pay for things like diapers or food. It also includes money for public assistance such as reimbursing local governments for removing debris or repairing public infrastructure like roads, bridges or schools.

About $911 million has gone toward damage caused by Hurricane Helene, while about $620 million has gone toward recovery from Hurricane Milton, according to the White House release. Other funds have gone toward things like agriculture assistance. The six states where the money has gone are Florida, South Carolina, Georgia, North Carolina, Tennessee and Virginia.

FEMA and the federal government have been battling misinformation about their efforts with many of the false claims being fueled by Trump and others just ahead of the election. Much of the misinformation has centered on the agency's response in North Carolina, whose mountainous regions were especially hard hit by Helene.

The rumors have raised concerns about the safety of FEMA staffers on the ground and whether residents would be discouraged from applying for assistance.

The agency said Wednesday that it monitors how many people register for assistance in areas where a disaster has been declared. So far, about 15.2% of households in affected North Carolina counties have applied for assistance, which is lower than in Georgia and South Carolina but still in the range of what's expected. The agency also noted that it is still early in the 60-day period that people have to register for help.

“FEMA is continually assessing registration patterns across all affected states to identify any outlier communities that may be registering at lower rates than anticipated,” the agency said.

On Tuesday, the Small Business Administration said it has run out of money for the disaster assistance loans it offers small businesses, homeowners and renters. So far the SBA has offered $48 million in loans to survivors of the two hurricanes, the news release said.

FEMA Administrator Deanne Criswell has repeatedly said that her agency has enough money in its disaster relief fund to respond to Helene and Milton.

Congress replenished the fund with $20 billion in early October but a little less than half of that was already allocated for previous disasters. Criswell said Wednesday there's about $8.5 billion currently in the fund.

Criswell has said the agency eventually will need supplemental funding from Congress. If that doesn’t happen, FEMA would go into what’s called “immediate needs funding," which means it would stop paying out for previous disasters and conserve its money for life-saving missions during any new ones.

Pike Corporation linemen, of North Carolina, repair power lines damaged by Hurricane Milton Monday, Oct. 14, 2024, in Lithia, Fla. (AP Photo/Chris O'Meara)

People gather at a FEMA Disaster Recovery Center at A.C. Reynolds High School in Asheville, N.C.,, Tuesday, Oct. 15, 2024. (AP Photo/Makiya Seminera)

A FEMA official gives a fist bump to Alycia Scott, 9, after he inspected the apartment complex where Scott's resides and was flooded during Hurricane Milton, Friday, Oct. 11, 2024, in Clearwater, Fla. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez)

Damage from Hurricane Milton is seen at a mobile home community on Manasota Key, in Englewood, Fla., Sunday, Oct. 13, 2024. (AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell)

WINDER, Ga. (AP) — The father of a teenager accused of a deadly high school shooting in Georgia was aware that his son was obsessed with school shooters and even had a shrine above his home computer for the gunman in the 2018 massacre in Parkland, Florida, prosecutors said at a Wednesday court hearing.

Colin Gray had also given his son, Colt, the assault-style weapon used in the shooting that killed four people at Apalachee High School as a Christmas gift and was aware that his son's mental health had deteriorated in the weeks before the shooting, investigators testified.

Colt Gray, 14, charged with four counts of murder, is accused of using the gun to kill two fellow students and two teachers on Sept. 4 at the high school in Winder, outside Atlanta. Because he’s a juvenile, the maximum penalty he would face is life without parole.

Georgia Bureau of Investigation Agent Kelsey Ward said in court Wednesday that Colin Gray, 54, had asked his son who the people in pictures hanging on his wall were. One of them, Colt told his father, was Nikolas Cruz, the shooter in the 2018 massacre at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida.

Investigators say they also found a notebook Colt had left behind at the school, with one page that included the labels “hallway” and “classroom” at the top.

In the hallway column, it says “I'm thinking 3 to 4 people killed. Injured? 4 to 5,” GBI agent Lucas Beyer testified. “Under the classroom column is written 15 to 17 people killed, Injured? 2 to 3.”

Ward interviewed several family members, including Colt's mother, Marcee Gray.

“She said that over the past year his fascination with guns had gotten very bad,” Ward testified.

At one point, Colt asked his dad to buy him an all-black “shooter mask,” saying in a joking manner that, “I've got to finish up my school shooter outfit, just kidding,” Ward said.

Colt's parents had discussed their son's fascination with school shooters, but decided that it was in a joking context and not a serious issue, Ward said.

For Christmas before the shooting, Colin Gray purchased the weapon for his son, Barrow County sheriff's investigator Jason Smith testified. Later, Colt asked his father for a larger magazine for the gun so it could hold more rounds and his father agreed, Smith said. Colin Gray also purchased the ammunition, Smith said.

Colin Gray has been charged with involuntary manslaughter and second-degree murder related to the shooting. Arrest warrants said he caused the deaths of others “by providing a firearm to Colt Gray with knowledge that he was threat to himself and others.”

Gray’s lawyers, Jimmy Berry and Brian Hobbs, did not immediately respond to requests for comment Wednesday from The Associated Press. In court on Wednesday, they mainly asked questions of the witnesses and did not make statements regarding their client’s actions.

The judge on Wednesday decided that prosecutors met the standard to continue their case against the father, and the case will now move to Superior Court.

The charges came five months after Michigan parents Jennifer and James Crumbley were the first convicted in a U.S. mass school shooting. They were sentenced to at least 10 years in prison for not securing a firearm at home and acting indifferently to signs of their son’s deteriorating mental health before he killed four students in 2021. The Georgia shooting has also renewed debate about safe storage laws for guns and prompted other parents to figure out how to talk to their children about school shootings and trauma.

Colt Gray denied threatening to carry out a school shooting when authorities interviewed him last year about a menacing post on social media, an earlier sheriff's report said. Conflicting evidence on the post’s origin left investigators unable to arrest anyone, the report said. Jackson County Sheriff Janis Mangum said she reviewed the report from May 2023 and found nothing that would have justified bringing charges at the time.

FILE - Colin Gray, 54, the father of Apalachee High School shooter Colt Gray, 14, sits in the Barrow County courthouse for his first appearance, Sept. 6, 2024, in Winder, Ga. (AP Photo/Brynn Anderson, File)