TAMPA, Fla. (AP) — Hurricane Milton plowed into Florida as a Category 3 storm Wednesday, bringing misery to a coast still ravaged by Helene, pounding cities with winds of over 100 mph after producing a barrage of tornadoes, but sparing Tampa a direct hit.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The FBI has arrested an Afghan man who officials say was inspired by the Islamic State militant organization and was plotting an Election Day attack targeting large crowds in the U.S., the Justice Department said Tuesday.

Sheriff's deputies in Washington's Kitsap County frequently get calls about animals — loose livestock, problem dogs. But the 911 call they received recently from a woman being hounded by dozens of raccoons swarming her home near Poulsbo stood out.

TAMPA, Fla. (AP) — Fearful Florida residents streamed out of the Tampa Bay region Tuesday ahead of what could be a once-in-a-century direct hit from Hurricane Milton, as crews worked furiously to prevent furniture, appliances and other waterlogged wreckage from the last big storm from becoming deadly projectiles in this one.

Not even two weeks after Hurricane Helene swamped the Florida coastline, Milton has strengthened rapidly into a major hurricane on a path toward the state.

BELLEAIR BEACH, Fla. (AP) — Milton rapidly strengthened in the Gulf of Mexico on Monday to become a Category 5 hurricane on a path toward Florida, threatening a dangerous storm surge in Tampa Bay, leading to evacuation orders and lending more urgency to the cleanup from Hurricane Helene, which swamped the same stretch of coastline less than two weeks ago.

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — A spacecraft blasted off Monday to investigate the scene of a cosmic crash. The European Space Agency's Hera spacecraft rocketed away on a two-year journey to the small, harmless asteroid rammed by NASA two years ago in a dress rehearsal for the day a killer space rock threatens Earth. It's the second part of a planetary defense test that could one day help save the planet.

FRANKFORT, Ky. (AP) — The death toll from Hurricane Helene inched up to 227 on Saturday as the grim task of recovering bodies continued more than a week after the monster storm ravaged the Southeast and killed people in six states.

ERWIN, Tenn. (AP) — With shaking hands, Daniel Delgado kissed a photo of his wife, Monica Hernandez, before lighting a candle in a supermarket parking lot. Family members hugged pictures printed on poster board, some collapsing into them in tears as search helicopters flew overhead in the direction of the hills.

While hospitals and health care organizations in the Southeast largely stayed open and functioning during Hurricane Helene to provide essential care for their communities, they were not unscathed.

MIAMI (AP) — People across Florida were given notice Sunday that Hurricane Milton is intensifying rapidly and will likely be a major hurricane before slamming midweek into the storm-ravaged Gulf Coast.

As the Hurricane Helene-driven waters rose around the Nolichucky River in Tennessee, Boone McCrary, his girlfriend and his chocolate lab headed out on his fishing boat to search for a man who was stranded by floodwaters that had leveled his home. But the thick debris in the water jammed the boat's motor, and without power, it slammed into a bridge support and capsized.

CHIMNEY ROCK VILLAGE, N.C. (AP) — The stone tower that gave this place its name was a marvel of creation,  but in just a few minutes, nature undid most of what it has taken humans a century and a quarter to build in the North Carolina mountain town of Chimney Rock.

A week after Hurricane Helene overwhelmed the Southeastern U.S., homeowners hit the hardest are grappling with how they could possibly pay for the flood damage from one of the deadliest storms to hit the mainland in recent history.

PENSACOLA, N.C. (AP) — The search for victims of Hurricane Helene dragged into its second week on Friday, as exhausted rescue crews and volunteers continued to work long days — navigating past washed-out roads, downed power lines and mudslides — to reach the isolated and the missing.

PITTSBURGH (AP) — Jewish communities everywhere reacted with horror at last year's Oct. 7 attack by Hamas on Israel, but the approaching one-year commemoration of the assault hits home particularly hard in Pittsburgh's Jewish community, which already marks a grim anniversary each October.

ASHEVILLE, N.C. (AP) — Before Hurricane Helene’s landfall last week, the National Weather Service began an all-out blitz to alert emergency planners, first responders and residents across the Southeast that the storm’s heavy rains and high winds could bring disaster hundreds of miles from the coast.

PENSACOLA, N.C. (AP) — Rescue crews and volunteers facing obstacles at every turn in North Carolina’s remote mountains paddled canoes across swollen rivers and steered horses past mudslides in the rush to reach those stranded or missing by Hurricane Helene’s rampage that killed more than 200 throughout the Southeast.

Sam Dutcher had just finished running errands when the 18-year-old's Honda Pilot suddenly began to accelerate, even though his foot wasn't on the gas pedal. The brake wouldn't work, he couldn't shift into neutral, and before long, the runaway SUV was speeding into the western Minnesota countryside with no way to stop.

HORSESHOE BEACH, Fla. (AP) — It was just a month ago that Brooke Hiers left the state-issued emergency trailer where her family had lived since Hurricane Idalia slammed into her Gulf Coast fishing village of Horseshoe Beach in August 2023.

ASHEVILLE, N.C. (AP) — Isolated and without electricity or phone service since Hurricane Helene inflicted devastation across the Southeast nearly a week ago, residents in the mountains of western North Carolina are relying on old-fashioned ways of communicating and coping.

While hospitals and health care organizations in the Southeast largely stayed open and functioning during Hurricane Helene to provide essential care for their communities, they were not unscathed.

SWANNANOA, N.C. (AP) — Rescuers fanned out across the mountains of western North Carolina on Tuesday in search of anyone still unaccounted for since Hurricane Helene’s remnants caused catastrophic damage to the Southeast, with the death toll nearing 140 people.

ASHEVILLE, N.C. (AP) — Desperate residents of the storm-battered mountains of western North Carolina lined up for water and food, hunted for cell signals, and slogged buckets from creeks to flush toilets days after Hurricane Helene's remnants deluged the region.

More than 40 trillion gallons of rain drenched the Southeast United States in the last week from Hurricane Helene and a run-of-the-mill rainstorm that sloshed in ahead of it — an unheard of amount of water that has stunned experts.