MAZAN, France (AP) — The mayor of a French town making headlines for the trial of dozens of men accused of rapes that occurred there over almost a decade has apologized for comments that appeared to downplay the case.
“I have been criticized for minimizing the seriousness of the heinous crimes of which the defendants are accused,” Louis Bonnet, the mayor of Mazan in southern France, said in a statement Thursday. "I understand that these remarks are shocking and I sincerely apologize.”
Dominique Pelicot, 71, told the court this week in the nearby city of Avignon that for nearly 10 years he drugged his wife and invited dozens of men to rape her as she lay defenseless.
In an interview with the BBC, Bonnet said the case could have been far more serious.
“There were no children involved, no women were killed, the family will have a hard time but they can rebuild. After all, nobody died,” he told the broadcaster.
Gisèle Pelicot, who was married to her husband for 50 years and had three children with him, has become a hero to many rape victims and a symbol of the fight against sexual violence in France for waiving her anonymity in the case, letting the trial be public and appearing openly in front of the media.
Her ex-husband and the 50 other men on trial, who range in age from 26 to 74, face up to 20 years in prison if convicted.
“This terrible story has deeply wounded our community," the mayor said in the statement. "But I am fully aware that this wound is in no way comparable to the suffering of Gisèle Pelicot and her family.”
This courtroom sketch by Valentin Pasquier shows Gisèle Pelicot, left, and her ex-husband Dominique Pelicot, right, during his trial, at the Avignon court house, in Avignon, southern France, Tuesday, Sept. 17, 2024. (AP Photo/Valentin Pasquier)
FILE - Gisele Pelicot speaks to media as she leaves the Avignon court house, southern France, Thursday, Sept. 5, 2024. (AP Photo/Lewis Joly, File)
Florida residents began repairing damage from Hurricane Milton, which smashed through coastal communities and tore homes to pieces, flooded streets and spawned a deadly tornadoes.
At least nine people are dead, but many expressed relief that Milton wasn’t worse.
Follow AP’s coverage of tropical weather at https://apnews.com/hub/hurricanes.
Here’s the latest:
FEMA Deputy Director Erik Hooks said he believes reforms implemented at the start of this year have allowed for greater and faster access to disaster aid compared to years past.
“What we have seen is with our changes in our (individual assistance) program is really to break down the complexity, and we really went through a lot of internal work to make sure that we are truly meeting people where they are,” Hooks said in an interview with The Associated Press.
“The ability to have upfront money put in people’s hands who have applied for assistance, and to get them jump started on the recovery for those immediate needs, things that are really life-sustaining to be able to get water make medicines that look like that, I think they have a positive impact on those communities, especially those communities where those are cash strapped to begin with, and then suffer the impacts of the storm,” he added.
President Joe Biden said ahead of a Friday briefing about hurricane damage that estimates are that Hurricane Milton alone caused $50 billion of damage. He also said his predecessor, former President Donald Trump, is “just the biggest mouth” for disinformation about the government’s response.
The president added that the disinformation is a “permanent state of being for some extreme people,” but that he belives the country as a whole wants facts and bipartisan cooperation to address natural disasters.
An apartment complex in Clearwater was evacuated early Thursday when water from a canal started rising.
Residents were gathered in a shopping center parking lot as crews worked to clear the property Friday.
Jared Lynch, 32, said he was at home on his first floor apartment when the water started to rise Wednesday night.
“It wasn’t that bad at 10 o’clock, but that’s when it started rising,” he said, adding that by 2 a.m., the water was up to his doorknobs. That’s when he left.
“There were literally people walking through the water with baskets on their heads. It was the craziest thing I’ve ever seen,” Lynch said.
But Deanne Criswell says FEMA will need additional funding at some point.
Criswell says the agency is keeping account every day of how much they’re drawing from the disaster assistance fund. That’s a pot of money allocated specifically to help the agency respond to emergencies across the country.
The fund gets replenished every year by Congress and is used to pay for recovery from hurricanes, floods, earthquakes and other disasters.
Congress recently replenished the fund with $20 billion — the same amount FEMA got last year. About $8 billion of that is set aside for recovery from previous storms and mitigation projects.
Criswell says the fund won’t have enough money to last through the entire fiscal year, which stretches to September of next year. She says at some point, they’ll have to go back to Congress to ask for a boost to the disaster relief fund.
“We will need one. It’s just a matter of when,” she said.
Mayor Lynne Matthews spoke at a news conference Friday with FEMA Administrator Deanne Criswell and the city’s manager, Gregory B. Murray.
Matthews says 121 people had to be rescued after Hurricane Helene made landfall Sept. 26 but rescuers only had to save three people after Milton came through.
“So people listened to the evacuation order,” Matthews said.
“I know we had teams out with the megaphones going through all of our mobile home communities and other places to let people know that they needed to evacuate,” she said.
Bruce Kinsler, 68, was part of a Polk County “push crew” that began clearing roads before 6 a.m. on Thursday. A truck struck Kinsler as he and a coworker were trying to clear a tree that had fallen across the road as the storm passed through the area. The driver of the truck was a county employee who was arriving to join Kinsler for post-storm recovery work.
“The tragedy of this incident is compounded by the fact that Bruce Kinsler was killed serving the residents of this county,” said Bill Braswell, chairman of the Polk County Commission. “We ask a lot of the employees as public servants, and they respond to the call. For this to happen is just a tragedy.”
The White House announced Biden’s visit but did not detail exactly where the president will travel.
Biden was scheduled to be briefed by aides Friday afternoon on the federal response and recovery in the aftermath of Hurricanes Milton and Helene. He’ll then deliver remarks from the White House to update the public about those efforts.
One of those Friday was a large pig stuck in high water at a strip mall in Lithia, FLorida, which is east of Tampa. Cindy Evers led the rescue of the pig and she’s also saved a donkey and several goats.
The animals are being taken to Evers’ farm for the time being.
“I’m high and dry where I’m at and I have a barn and nine acres,” she said. “So we have plenty of room for these animals to be safe.” Evers said she’ll figure out next steps later, such as finding the animals' owners.
Gov. DeSantis noted interactions with downed power lines and water.
“We are seeing hazards that are still there,” he said. He said people should take care around standing water and should use generators properly.
“You have to make the proper decisions and know that there are hazards out there,” he said.
Human-caused climate change intensified deadly Hurricane Milton ’s rainfall by 20 to 30% and strengthened its winds by about 10%, scientists said in a new flash study. The analysis comes just two weeks after Hurricane Helene devastated the southeastern United States, a storm also fueled by climate change.
World Weather Attribution researchers said Friday that without climate change, a hurricane like Milton would make landfall as a weaker Category 2, not considered a “major” storm, instead of a Category 3.
WWA’s rapid studies aren’t peer-reviewed but use peer-reviewed methods. The WWA compares a weather event with what might have been expected in a world that hasn’t warmed about 1.3 degree Celsius since pre-industrial times.
▶ Read more about how climate change affected Milton.
Only authorized personnel are allowed on the bases. There was damage and flooding at MacDill, which is home to U.S. Central Command and Special Operations Command.
There's no significant damage at Patrick and teams are working to restore critical infrastructure, according to the Air Force.
The river is 25 miles (40 kilometers) long and runs from eastern Hillsborough County, east of Tampa, into Tampa Bay.
The sheriff’s office asked people to call 911 if they need help getting out of their homes.
A pair of unwelcome and destructive guests named Helene and Milton have stormed their way into this year’s presidential election.
The back-to-back hurricanes have jumbled the schedules of Democrat Kamala Harris and Republican Donald Trump, both of whom devoted part of their Thursdays to tackling questions about the storm recovery effort.
The two hurricanes are forcing basic questions about who as president would best respond to deadly natural disasters, a once-overlooked issue that has become an increasingly routine part of the job. And just weeks before the Nov. 5 election, the storms have disrupted the mechanics of voting in several key counties.
A pick up drives past a guard gate on a flooded street in Siesta Key, Fla., following the passage Hurricane Milton, Thursday, Oct. 10, 2024. (AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell)
FILE - People are rescued from an apartment complex after flooding in the aftermath of Hurricane Milton, Oct. 10, 2024, in Clearwater, Fla. (AP Photo/Mike Stewart, File)
FILE - A house sits toppled off its stilts after the passage of Hurricane Milton, alongside an empty lot where a home was swept away by Hurricane Helene, in Bradenton Beach on Anna Maria Island, Fla., Oct. 10, 2024. (AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell, File)
