LEILA FADEL, HOST:
Millions of people who live on Florida's west coast are preparing and waiting anxiously for Hurricane Milton.
A MARTÍNEZ, HOST:
Yeah, Milton is one of the most powerful hurricanes ever in the Gulf of Mexico and is expected to hit Florida late tonight. The hurricane has 160-mile-per-hour winds and could bring a storm surge as high as 15 feet to parts of Florida's coast between Fort Myers and Tampa.
FADEL: NPR's Greg Allen is in Florida, and he joins us now from Brandon just outside Tampa. Hi, Greg.
GREG ALLEN, BYLINE: Hi, Leila.
FADEL: OK, so Florida was just really battered by Hurricane Helene. Has that motivated people to take evacuation orders seriously now?
ALLEN: It appears so. People are still cleaning up here from Helene, and there are still piles of debris everywhere when you drive around here. But another factor, though, is that meteorologists and emergency managers are warning that the impacts of Milton will be worse than Helene, and this is an area that's very susceptible to storm surge. Here's National Hurricane Center director Mike Brennan.
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MIKE BRENNAN: And you're going to have structural damage to buildings. Some buildings will wash away. Evacuation routes will be quickly cut off. We've lost people to storm surge in previous hurricanes who were trying to get out at the last minute, and they drown in their cars.
FADEL: Wow. So are people in the storm surge areas leaving?
ALLEN: Yes, many are. We have reports in some of the riskiest areas - you know, the beach communities out on the Barrier Islands - that they've really emptied out. But there will always be some who decide to stay, of course. I ran into one yesterday. Edward Vil Mitty (ph) was gassing up his vehicle and heading out to his home in Tarpon Springs. He lives near the Gulf and is in an evacuation zone, but he said he was planning to stay.
EDWARD VIL MITTY: I've survived Hurricane Charley. I've survived Hurricane Irma. You know, we lost power for two, three weeks at a time for both Irma and Charley. For me, it's just something I'm used to.
ALLEN: This one, of course, they're saying could be the worst one in a century - right?
VIL MITTY: Right. Absolutely.
ALLEN: ...Fifteen-foot storm surge some areas.
VIL MITTY: Terrifying, definitely.
ALLEN: You know, Vil Mitty said he thought he might see as much as 10 feet of water in his home, but he said he definitely was not leaving.
FADEL: Now, Milton is a monster of a storm now, and it hasn't made landfall yet. How powerful could it get when it does reach land?
ALLEN: Well, the National Hurricane Center expects that Milton will weaken some as it approaches the coast, but it's still projected to be a major Category 4 hurricane with 130-mile-per-hour winds when it makes landfall. And Milton will remain at hurricane strength as it crosses west-east across the Florida Peninsula before exiting out onto the Atlantic.
Governor Ron DeSantis is warning residents of Orlando and other parts of central Florida that they have to be ready. They may see winds strong enough to destroy mobile homes and other structures, as well as tornadoes. And there could be as much as 18 inches of rain in some areas likely to bring flash flooding. Here's the governor.
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RON DESANTIS: So this is not just an event about the west coast of Florida. That will be where the initial impacts - and probably the most significant, but the impacts will not be limited there.
FADEL: OK, so Milton is expected to hit tonight. How much can you tell us about precisely when and what parts of Florida could be hit hardest?
ALLEN: Right. Yeah, well, it looks like Milton will hit Florida's west coast either late tonight or early tomorrow morning. The speed is varied as it's come through the Gulf. As to where it hits, that's an important question, but one the National Hurricane Center warns us that we should not focus on because Milton has grown in size as it's approached the coast. Its storm surge, winds and rain will affect a very large area.
Hurricanes, of course, also sometimes wobble as they grow and reform, and Milton has done that a few times. The models show it now on a path a little south of Tampa Bay. But it's important to note that this far out, the hurricane center's track forecasts are off by an average of 60 miles, and the message is - so almost all Florida's west coast should be ready for this storm.
FADEL: NPR's Greg Allen in Brandon, Florida. Thank you, Greg, and stay safe.
ALLEN: OK. Thank you.
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MARTÍNEZ: Was TikTok designed to make young people addicted to it?
FADEL: Fourteen state attorneys general think so. They are suing the popular video app, claiming it harms young people and misled the public about that.
MARTÍNEZ: NPR tech correspondent Bobby Allyn has been following this story. So Bobby, states have been investigating child safety on TikTok for more than two years now. What did they find?
BOBBY ALLYN, BYLINE: Yeah, you know, quite a bit. I mean, they say all sorts of features on TikTok are intended to draw in young people and keep them hooked on the app's endless feed - right? - this infinite scroll that we hear so much about. And the states actually obtained a internal communication from TikTok employees, and one TikTok staffer said the app's algorithm had a slot machine effect on young people. And I actually talked to California Attorney General Rob Bonta, and he described some of the other internal emails they obtained.
ROB BONTA: One TikTok executive referred to American teens as a golden audience - also stated, quote, "it's better to have young people as an early adopter." They deployed a suite of manipulative features that exploited young people's psychological vulnerabilities.
MARTÍNEZ: All right, so that's how TikTok discussed young people internally, but how did the company present itself publicly?
ALLYN: Yeah, you know, very differently. This really gets at the heart of the case, right? I mean, what the states are arguing here is that TikTok violated consumer protection laws by knowing the app was addicting teens and, in some cases, causing harm but, you know, was telling the world publicly that it was keeping teens safe.
And, you know, when I asked TikTok for a response to these allegations, a spokesman referred to privacy settings and parental controls and screen time reminders the app has. But California's Bonta said, yeah, yeah, we know about those things, right? We looked into them in our investigation, and those tools, yeah, we just weren't very impressed by them.
BONTA: They are essentially empty gestures, with very little to no effect.
ALLYN: And, you know, A, TikTok will be fighting back in 14 separate state courts here because there was 14 state lawsuits filed as part of this action. And a major question is going to be, are TikTok safeguards effective? And if not, did the company lie to the public about what it knew about some of the dangers of the app?
MARTÍNEZ: And what do those attorneys general say those dangers are?
ALLYN: Yeah, the states point to features like TikTok's beauty filters. They enhance someone's image to look, you know, younger, skinnier or apply makeup using AI. And the lawsuit says TikTok knew its beauty filter could increase the risk of body image issues, anxiety, depression. And look. This isn't unique to TikTok, right? We all know that many social media apps have beauty filters and other features that can be described as addictive. But the states here are concerned with TikTok because of just how popular the app is with young people, right? The suit also puts the spotlight on TikTok's livestreaming feature. Authorities found that it actually can be used among underage kids in pretty inappropriate ways. They compared the livestream here to a virtual strip club.
MARTÍNEZ: So Bobby, we know a new federal law will require TikTok to be sold to a non-Chinese buyer by early next year or be banned all over the United States. TikTok is going to challenge this law in court - a ruling maybe by December. But isn't TikTok in the attention-grabbing biz? Are they being penalized for doing their job well? I mean, at what point do parents need to be held responsible?
ALLYN: I think TikTok, like all social media apps, are engaged in a very competitive world, which is the attention economy. All these social media apps are trying to grab young people's attention and keep it retained. It's a fair point that maybe parents should have some kind of role there, but parents say it's a really complicated world of trying to keep your kids accountable on social media. TikTok says they're doing what they can - the AGs saying they know a lot more, and they're not revealing it. And it's just really messy.
MARTÍNEZ: All right. That's NPR's Bobby Allyn. Bobby, thanks.
ALLYN: Thanks, A.
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FADEL: There are some nine million homes across the U.S. getting water through lead pipes.
MARTÍNEZ: And now the Environmental Protection Agency says those pipes need to come out.
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MICHAEL REGAN: The science has been clear for decades. There is no safe level of lead in our drinking water.
MARTÍNEZ: That's EPA administrator Michael Regan.
FADEL: NPR's Pien Huang has been following this story, and she joins us now. Hi, Pien.
PIEN HUANG, BYLINE: Hey, Leila.
FADEL: OK, so I got to admit I was kind of surprised this wasn't already a rule. What is the EPA saying about it?
HUANG: Yeah, you would think, right? I mean, it's definitely something...
FADEL: Yeah.
HUANG: ...That water advocates have been fighting for for many, many years now. And the main thing about this rule is that for the first time on the federal level, it requires most water systems to replace all their lead pipes within 10 years. Now, Leila, this is a problem with a long history, but it got a lot of attention 10 years ago with the Flint water crisis in Michigan. And there, there was a change in the water chemistry that caused old pipes to leach high amounts of lead into the drinking water. And since then, some cities and states have actually already been swapping out those lead pipes for copper.
FADEL: Right. It was clear even back then that it wasn't just a problem in Flint. Are there parts of the country that are more likely to rely on lead pipes?
HUANG: Yeah, places with homes that were built before 1986. That's the year that Congress banned lead pipes, but the ones that were already in the ground were allowed to stay there until now. So there are lead pipes in every state, but some have more than others. Those include Illinois, Florida, Pennsylvania, Ohio, New York and New Jersey. All of those states have over half a million lead pipes.
FADEL: Wow. So that's a lot of pipes. They're going to have to replace all those in 10 years?
HUANG: Yeah, it is a lot of pipes, and for the most part, they will have to, but there are some interesting exceptions. So Chicago, for instance, has the most lead pipes out of any city - around 400,000 in Chicago alone - and that's because they actually required lead pipes there until they were banned. So when this rule was first proposed, Chicago got a pretty big exemption - something like 40 to 50 years to replace all their pipes - 'cause they just had too many of them. And a lot of advocates pushed back on that. They said it's way too long. That's generations more people growing up with lead pipes. So in the final rule, the EPA has tightened that up. Now instead of 40 years, they have more like 20 to 25. I talked with Brenda Santoyo, and she's a water justice advocate in Chicago.
BRENDA SANTOYO: It's definitely progress. I think that, like, the city, the state should take, like, their own measures to try to speed up that process as much as they can. We also don't want our water systems to be set up for failure, for them to take shortcuts.
HUANG: Yeah, she says that the time line seems reasonable, so long as families are able to protect themselves in the meantime.
FADEL: Yeah, I mean, even 10 more years seems like a long time to be drinking water that might have lead in it. So what can families do to protect themselves?
HUANG: Yeah, well, Step 1 is figuring out whether they have a lead service line. The service line is the pipe that brings tap water into your house, and that would be the most likely culprit. If you can see that line, you can scratch it with a coin, try a magnet on it. There's some guidance online that can help you figure out if it's made of lead, copper or coated steel. And in case you're wondering, if it's easy to scratch, and a magnet does not stick to it, those are some of the signs that it could be lead.
They can also test their water for lead. There are some water districts out there that offer free water testing, so they can check for that. And here's the thing. Even if there is lead in the water, common home filters can take them out. So pitcher filters, faucet filters that are certified to remove lead - all these are really great solutions until the lead pipes themselves get eliminated.
FADEL: That's NPR health correspondent Pien Huang. Thank you.
HUANG: Thank you. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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