Good morning, I'm Taylor Wilson, and this is five things you need to know Thursday, the 31st of August, 2023.

Today, the aftermath of Adalia, plus Senator Mitch McConnell, freezes at a press conference again,

and some Republicans are wrangling with the question of whether Trump should be allowed on the 2024 presidential ballot.

Adalia has been downgraded to a tropical storm after making landfall yesterday along Florida's big bend as a category 3 hurricane.

It then moved quickly over southeastern Georgia and the Carolinas last night.

As of early this morning, the storm center was located around 20 miles southwest of Myrtle Beach, South Carolina.

No hurricane-related deaths were officially confirmed in Florida, but two people were killed in separate weather-related crashes just hours before Adalia made landfall.

Nearly 300,000 homes and businesses were without power in Florida as of yesterday afternoon, according to the utility tracker PowerOutage.us.

And another 175,000 were powerless in Georgia.

The storm hit land near Keaton Beach, Florida, with maximum sustained winds of 125 miles an hour.

It was the strongest hurricane to make landfall in the big bend area of Florida's Gulf Coast since 1896.

According to Colorado State University, Hurricane researcher Phil Klotzbach.

The big bend region is mostly rural, and the worst of the storm appears to have avoided Tampa Bay and other more populated areas of Florida's Gulf Coast.

Authorities said the worst damage appeared to be in Taylor County, southeast of Tallahassee, already one of the most economically challenged areas of the state.

Two businesses reportedly caught fire, some had roofs torn off, and the county's emergency operation center had to evacuate to more secure facilities.

And the storm was no different, gaining strength in the hot Gulf of Mexico as a series of marine heat waves cover nearly half of the world's oceans this summer.

The heat is blamed on several factors, including the warming climate, which scientists say is contributing to more extreme weather events.

If you want to learn more about how warmer waters can impact hurricanes like Adalia, we are at a special episode featuring Noah's Chief Scientist Dr. Sarah Kaepnic earlier this month.

You can find a link in today's show notes.

Senator Mitch McConnell froze in front of a group of reporters yesterday once again raising concerns about the 81-year-old Republican leader's health.

At an event yesterday in Kentucky, he was asked about running for re-election in 2026 and appeared to begin an answer before quickly freezing and going silent for seven seconds.

It's the second time in less than two months that such an incident has interrupted a news conference featuring McConnell.

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