A (2:39)

There has been precedent in the expansion

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of sovereign claims on the surface of

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the earth for just as long as those activities have happened, but there simply is no precedent for doing so on a foreign celestial body.

E (2:50)

Gonzalez Roberts says it's important to have these policy conversations now as nations gear up for the next space race. For GPB news, I'm Chase McGee.

A (3:02)

A bill that would allow people to go straight to pharmacists for birth control is headed to Georgia Governor Brian Kemp's desk for a signature. GPB's Sophie Gradus has more on how the legislation will roll out.

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The bill authorizes pharmacists to dispense and administer birth control pills and injections without a prescription from a doctor. But but this won't be until 2027. That's the deadline for the Department of Public Health and the state Board of Pharmacy to agree on rules like how pharmacists will be trained to dispense the medication and what information they'll give out with it. Lead bill sponsor Republican Representative Beth Camp says the language in the bill is meant to be inclusive.

A (3:38)

We don't know what kind of contraception could be in existence in years to

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come, but this is everything right now,

A (3:44)

from a depo Provera shot to anuva ring to oral contraception.

G (3:49)

Birth control is already available at local public health departments after an initial assessment and is priced based on income. For GPB News, I'm Sophie Gradas.

A (4:01)

Floyd county officials are moving forward with plans to stabilize the county's historic courthouse, which was gutted by fire last month. At a special called meeting yesterday, county commissioners approved a nearly half million dollar contract aimed at ensuring safety around the site and opening roads around it. The 1892 red brick structure, a fixture in downtown Rome, caught on fire on March 21 and was declared a total loss. County officials say they'll evaluate the structure again once stabilization is complete in about three to four weeks. It's been close to two years since Hurricane Helene cut a path across 62 Georgia counties. Since then, people have been rebuilding their homes, their routines and their sense of security. GPB's Grant Blankenship recently dropped in on some of those efforts and learned there are still many years of recovery left to go.

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It's a cool spring morning, and the crew's already been at work for hours at a home site in rural Columbia county west of Augusta. They only recently picked up where a crew like them other carpenters from an Amish community from up in Ohio left off just a few days ago. Hurricane Helene is why the modular home that was here is long gone. This house will be brand new and hurricane resilient, thanks to the long metal straps attaching the roof to the wall studs.

D (5:17)

4 foot 6, 6 foot, then the

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bottom space about every foot or so. Carpenter Matthew Miller leads this crew. He says this is not how he builds in Ohio.

D (5:28)

Just around here. Yeah, just for the hurricanes.

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Just for the hurricane. About a year ago, Scott Parrish started doing the legwork to get volunteer crews like this one from the group Mennonite Disaster Services to his part of Georgia. Parrish works in disaster response all over the country for the Methodist Church, and he has a farm nearby in the town of Thompson. He says in 35 years of disaster work, though, Helene was the first one to find him at home.

D (5:58)

Quickly, I realized Asheville and western North Carolina had terrible flooding, and they were all over the news coverage. They had a huge influx of funding and volunteers, whereas Georgia was quickly. Our story was lost because of the scale and scope of Hurricane Helene hitting four states.

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Blame it on the news cycle, he says. But at the time, he told colleagues in Florida, this is really frustrating.

D (6:29)

When I whined about Augusta's being overlooked, we need some help. They said, oh, this Amish group's worked with us. We're not standing up recovery. We're gonna send them to you.

F (6:43)

That was Mennonite Disaster Services, and when they wrap up here, they will have done about 80 home projects around Augusta, almost half. Half of them total rebuilds in something like six months. Parrish is still getting requests for help. He says many people who come to him had home insurance, just not enough for a hurricane. Under insurance is the homeowner's problem. At the next house he shows me,

D (7:06)

it gets weird with some of this. Oh, they've got the back roof all the way off. Sweet, sweet.

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This one is an Augusta proper, and it's not a total teardown and rebuild. A tree tossed by Helene in the roof left the house needing a new one, sending the homeowner to live with relatives across the Savannah River. There's another crew of young men who are building the roof. And on the ground, young women in traditional dress are scraping the house to prepare it for new paint, where a Yoder oversees that work.

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I've been here 11 times.

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Gibbs been here 13 times.

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Gib is Yoder's husband.

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My husband was a carpenter for 40 years, so this was always his dream, Cora explains.

F (7:50)

Gibbs job is making sure the pace of the crew's work doesn't outrun the permits they need to keep it all legal. He gets up at 4am every day. She gets another hour of sleep until 5. They've done this work in disaster areas all across the South.

A (8:05)

We were to Lake Charles for two years. Like in a row.

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Yoders and others like them making these trips from the Midwest are the adult guides for crews of young workers who may have never left their home communities before.

A (8:19)

When people go home, they have a new perspective of what they were taught because it's so different.

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Scott Parish, himself a Methodist minister, says he's come to learn this work is core to the faith of the Mennonite and Amish volunteers.

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Love God, love neighbor. And so if you, if you've got a skill that can help a neighbor who's hurt and can't rebuild their home and their life, why not go?

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Paris says after the Amish leave, a Jewish volunteer group will be on the ground. An Islamic group will follow, as will other volunteers from other faiths. He says this work will continue here for two or three more years. Rachel Young says in terms of hurricane recovery, even that is still just the start.

B (9:05)

We're talking about even further down like 15 years after a storm, these places that are getting hit hit have a higher likelihood of mortality, particularly amongst infants and black populations.

F (9:16)

Young is a professor in the School of Public affairs at the University of Minnesota. In 2024 she was a postdoc at Stanford University where she was lead author on a paper looking at the long term health effects of hurricanes in the United States.

B (9:29)

Using many many years of cyclone impact data and many many years of state level all cause mortality data.

F (9:38)

501 storms over 85 years. And what she saw were these lingering waves of extra death in storm struck places long after the storm itself was gone.

B (9:48)

So why yeah, so we there is some literature that shows that people experience heightened levels of stress after a major disaster.

F (9:57)

Young says a lot of the time that post storm stress is economic but extreme stress of any origin can hurt health in a bunch of different ways. From heart disease to diabetes, suicide, even increased infant death.

B (10:12)

The conditions that the mother is in when they're giving birth is leading to those infants that are born five, ten years later to be more vulnerable to dying prematurely.

F (10:21)

So while helene officially killed 37 people in Georgia, Young's research suggests the eventual death toll could be more like 15,000.

B (10:29)

I think our findings really suggest that we're significantly under investing in both resilience before a storm and then recovery after a storm. When you're given a key, you're actually

A (10:45)

being given two things.

F (10:47)

Weeks after visiting Augusta, I'm in south Georgia city of Douglas in Coffee County. Today nine families displaced by Helene are receiving keys to their new homes. The heart of this building effort. Mennonite Disaster Services same group 140 miles away along Hurricane Helene's track near Augusta. Ronlan Ullerich of MDS says here as there, these homes are built to the MDS hurricane resiliency standard.

D (11:16)

They're tied down from the top all the way down to the bottom. Meant to withstand 150 to 160 mile an hour winds.

F (11:23)

It's more than twice the wind speeds that destroyed these families old homes.

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It's a security for them knowing that they're in a home that's that's going to stay there.

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Ulrich has done this work for decades. He says he's seen the stress of disaster recovery take its toll.

D (11:39)

Sad thing is that depression sets in after about 18 months. The despair that goes along with where we at. So yeah, this is remarkable here that they rebuilt in 18 months.

F (11:53)

And so it could be for the long term health of these families. Their new cones, these keys landed in their hands in the nick of time. For GPB News, I'm Grant Blankenship.

A (12:10)

The King center has named a new chair of its board of directors. The Atlanta based nonprofit said today Mothers Against Drunk Driving CEO Stacy Stewart would lead its board. She succeeds an interim chair who took over the role following the 2024 death of longtime board chair Dexter Scott King, the younger son of civil rights leaders Martin Luther and Coretta Scott King. Delta Air Lines is joining a growing list of US Carriers raising checked bag fees. The Atlanta based company announced the move today as higher fuel costs ripple through the airline industry. Most Delta passengers on domestic and short haul international routes will now pay $45 for the first checked bag and $55 for the second starting tomorrow. That's $10 more than before the Iran war started and disrupted global oil supplies. Delta says a third bag will now cost $200, a $50 increase. United Airlines and JetBlue also raised fees last week. Jet fuel is refined from crude oil and typically ranks as the second largest expense for airlines after labor. In sports, the Braves face the angels again tonight after taking the loss last night. Chris Sale gave up six earned runs over four innings, including a first pitch home run off the bat of Zach Nitto. Jose Soriano pitched eight dominant innings, allowing a solo homer from Drake Baldwin and a single to Matt Olson in the first before sitting down 19 straight batters. Ronaldo Lopez gets the start for the Braves tonight. And that's it for this edition of Georgia Today. Make sure you tune into this podcast tomorrow as we break down the results of the 14th district election. If you'd like to learn more about any of these stories, go to gpb.org news and remember to subscribe to this podcast now. If you've got feedback for us or maybe a story idea, we are all ears. Send us a note by email. That's the best way to reach us. The address is Georgia Today. I'm Peter Biello. Thanks again for listening. We will see you tomorrow.