When Chrissy Economos and Gloria McCourtney heard that the last full-size Kmart in the mainland United States was closing down, they knew they had to pay their respects, even if the store was more than 1,300 miles away.

In the final weeks of the 2024 election, Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump are staking their chances on two radically different theories of how to win: one tried-and-true, the other untested in modern presidential campaigns.

NORTH FORT MYERS, Fla. — Cindy Miller wasn’t sure where to begin the cleanup this weekend at her home in Englewood, Florida. Hurricane Milton had drenched her home and dumped debris everywhere. Much of it was not even hers. A sofa, doors and shoes littered the backyard, along with detritus that remained from Hurricane Helene, the deadliest hurricane to hit the U.S. mainland in nearly two decades.

Until late last month, there was optimism in the insurance industry. Hurricane season had been quiet, and the number of wildfires was still below the yearly average. Insurers were beginning to hope that the cost of reinsurance — that is, insurance for insurers — would only inch up next year, instead of shooting higher as it did the previous two years.

Cities blasted to rubble. Burned bodies and flayed flesh. Invisible waves of radiation coursing through the air. And the indelible image of a mushroom cloud.

As Hurricane Milton spun out over the Atlantic Ocean on Thursday, St. Lucie County reported five people dead in its wake. But those fatalities were eerily on the opposite coast from Siesta Key, where Milton made landfall Wednesday as a powerful Category 3 hurricane.

SIESTA KEY, Fla. — Hurricane Milton cut an uneven path of destruction as it tore across Florida from the Gulf of Mexico late Wednesday and entered the Atlantic Ocean on Thursday, largely sparing the densely populated cities around Tampa Bay but spawning deadly tornadoes far from its center.