Latest / In Focus with Carolyn Hutcheson / Hurricane Isaias - TPR's In Focus - Oct. 9, 2026

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Hurricane Isaias - TPR's In Focus - Oct. 9, 2026 · In Focus with Carolyn Hutcheson

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  Support comes from the Rosa Parks Museum on Troy
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  University's Montgomery campus, located on the spot of
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  Mrs. Parks' historic 1955 arrest and featuring
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  exhibits that chronicle the history of the Montgomery Bus Boycott.
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  More information at troy.edu/rosaparks.
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  From Troy Public Radio, this is the News
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  Wrap from In Focus, and I'm Carolyn Hutcheson.
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  Todd Stacy, host of APT's Capitol Journal
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  discusses the hurricane in the Gulf and preparations
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  mandated by Governor Ivey. And the wild card is big
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  and orange.
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  Todd, welcome back to the News Wrap. Good to be with you. Can you get
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  us up to date on the hurricane? We're trying to reason with hurricane season,
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  as Jimmy Buffett said. We've got Isaias— I think I pronounced
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  that right— is a hurricane looking to make landfall right
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  on the Alabama-Florida line late tonight. This could be a dangerous
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  storm. It has 100-mile-an-hour winds, but this is going to pack a punch. The governor
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  has declared a state of emergency basically everywhere south of Clanton. Government offices
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  are shut down. There is a voluntary evacuation in place for
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  those coastal communities. They are really being urged to get out.
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  Storm surges are real problems. If you traveled Interstate 65
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  either today or yesterday, you know that there's a whole train of traffic heading
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  north. So it's a big deal. Everybody needs to be safe out there, but hopefully
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  we'll make it through without too much damage. What has Governor
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  Ivey done ahead of time? Well, she again declared a state of
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  emergency. She's activated the National Guard just in case. And what states
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  of emergency do, they put the state at the ready for after the storm,
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  come in, do emergency management, do damage assessment and
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  get help to folks more quickly. And if there's a disaster declaration,
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  it makes it easier for that. And so she's essentially
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  telling everybody, be prepared, protect yourself, and the state is ready
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  as well. Look, this is not a Hurricane Ivan situation
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  or a Katrina that were so devastating and Category
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  4s and 5s, but it is a dangerous storm and you can't take it for
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  granted. And the Better Business Bureau is concerned about possible
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  scams with the cleanup. Oh, absolutely. And there are
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  laws in place. Governor Ivey talked about that, too. There are price gouging laws
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  in place for things like gas stations and others that violate that law,
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  and they go into effect with those emergency declarations.
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  And the Better Business Bureau, I know, has contacts to where they can obviously
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  shine a light on all that. So a good idea is to keep your weather
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  radio at hand. And Alabama Public Television
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  is there. Troy Public Radio is there. And speaking of APT,
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  what's the news about the board? There's no secret that the commission
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  overseeing APT has been very dysfunctional, bickering over
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  politics for the last 18 months. And so the governor,
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  thanks to a new law that just went into effect on October 1st,
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  replaced almost all the board members with brand
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  new members of the commission. And so it's a breath of fresh air.
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  And if you look at the quality of these individuals who have just
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  been appointed by the governor to the commission, it makes me really excited about
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  the future of APT, and the whole team is reinvigorated to
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  turn this page, write a new chapter of APT. And the recent
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  survey was a pat on the back. Oh, absolutely. High marks
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  all the way around. It is heartening to see that from Alabamians
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  that appreciate the programming, appreciate the mission, especially the education programming.
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  So some good news for Alabama Public Television. Who's on
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  Capitol Journal tonight? We're going to be talking with Secretary of State
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  candidates Caroline Dobson on the Republican side and Wayne Rogers on
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  the Democratic side. But a special treat, if you've been watching The Amazing
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  Race on CBS, there's an Alabama couple featured
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  as one of the teams on the shows. They're from up in Northeast Alabama,
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  and so they are on Capitol Journal this week. Young couple just got married.
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  Can't wait for you to meet them on the show tonight. So leave us with
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  a wild card. Speaking of fun, great news. We're getting into pumpkin season,
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  and this farmer in Britain just broke
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  his own Guinness World Record for the largest pumpkin. This current
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  one weighs 2,856 pounds.
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  Congratulations to him. I don't know how he's going to carve that into a jack-o'-lantern.
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  That'll be a chore. Todd, thanks for the news wrap. Thank you.
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  That was Todd Stacy, host of Alabama Public Television's
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  Capitol Journal. More information can be found at the website
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  aptv.org. Thanks for joining
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  us for In Focus, which is a podcast wherever you
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  get your podcasts. I'm Carolyn Hutcheson, and this is listener-supported
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  Troy Public Radio.