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Tag: Accidents and disasters

  • Small protests appear in Havana over islandwide blackout

    Small protests appear in Havana over islandwide blackout

    HAVANA — The power outage caused by Hurricane Ian has prompted protests in the streets of Cuba‘s capital as several hundred people demanded restoration of electricity more than two days after a blackout hit the entire island,

    An Associated Press journalist saw about 400 people gathered Thursday night in at least two spots in the Cerro neighborhood shouting, “We want light, we want light,” and banging pots and pans.

    It appeared to be the first public display over the electricity problems that spread from western Cuba, where Ian hit, to the entire island, leaving the country’s 11 million people in the dark. The storm also left three people dead and caused still unquantified damage.

    Power was restored to much of the island within a day after the storm’s blast.

    Internet service was interrupted Thursday, but there were signs it had returned by Friday morning, at least in some areas.

    On Thursday, groups that monitor internet access reported a “near-total internet blackout in Cuba.” Alp Toker, director of London-based Netblockssaid that what his group saw was different than what happened right after the hurricane hit the island.

    “We believe the incident is likely to significantly impact the free flow of information amid protests,” he said.

    Doug Madory, director of internet analysis at Kentik Inc., a network intelligence company, describes it as a “total internet blackout” that started at 00:30 GMT.

    At a protest on Calzada del Cerro, protesters surrounded a work team trying to repair a pole and a light transformer.

    Protesters were still in the streets late into the night, but the gatherings remained peaceful.

    Repeated blackouts on the already fragile grid were among the causes of Cuba’s largest social protests in decades in July 2021. Thousands of people, weary of power failures and shortages of goods exacerbated by the pandemic and U.S. sanctions, turned out in cities across the island to vent their anger and some also lashed out at the government. Hundreds were arrested and prosecuted, prompting harsh criticism of the administration of President Miguel Diaz-Canel.

    Cubans on Thursday complained that the outages forced them to throw out refrigerated meat and other goods that is costly or hard to find.

    The government has not said what percentage of the overall population remained without electricity as of early Friday, but electrical authorities said only 10% of Havana’s 2 million people had power Thursday.

    Experts said the total blackout showed the vulnerability of Cuba’s power grid and warned that it will require time and sources — things the country doesn’t have — to fix the problem.

    Authorities have promised to work without rest to address the issue.

    Calls by AP to a dozen people in Cuba’s main cities — Holguín, Guantánamo, Matanzas, Ciego de Ávila, Camagüey and Santiago — found problems similar to those in Havana, with most reporting their neighborhoods were still without electricity.

    Authorities say the total blackout happened because of a failure in the connections between Cuba’s three regions — west, center and east — caused by Ian’s winds.

    Cuba’s power grid “was already in a critical and immunocompromised state as a result of the deterioration of the thermoelectric plants. The patient is now on life support,” said Jorge Piñon, director of the Center for International Energy and Environmental Policy’s Latin America and Caribbean program at the University of Texas.

    Cuba has 13 power generation plants, eight of which are traditional thermoelectric plants, and five floating power plants rented from Turkey since 2019. There is also a group of small plants distributed throughout the country since an energy reform in 2006.

    But the plants are poorly maintained, a phenomenon the government attributed to the lack of funds and U.S. sanctions. Complications in obtaining fuel is also a problem.

    ———

    Andrea Rodríguez on Twitter: www.twitter.com/ARodriguezAP

    ———

    Associated Press writer E. Eduardo Castillo contributed to this report from Mexico City.

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  • Nobel Prize season arrives amid war, nuclear fears, hunger

    Nobel Prize season arrives amid war, nuclear fears, hunger

    This year’s Nobel Prize season approaches as Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has shattered decades of almost uninterrupted peace in Europe and raised the risks of a nuclear disaster.

    The secretive Nobel committees never hint who will win the prizes in medicine, physics, chemistry, literature, economics or peace. It’s anyone’s guess who might win the awards being announced starting Monday.

    Yet there’s no lack of urgent causes deserving the attention that comes with winning the world’s most prestigious prize: Wars in Ukraine and Ethiopia, disruptions to supplies of energy and food, rising inequality, the climate crisis, the ongoing fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic.

    The science prizes reward complex achievements beyond the understanding of most. But the recipients of the prizes in peace and literature are often known by a global audience and the choices — or perceived omissions — have sometimes stirred emotional reactions.

    Members of the European Parliament have called for Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and the people of Ukraine to be recognized this year by the Nobel Peace Prize committee for their resistance to the Russian invasion.

    While that desire is understandable, that choice is unlikely because the Nobel committee has a history of honoring figures who end conflicts, not wartime leaders, said Dan Smith, director of the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute.

    Smith believes more likely peace prize candidates would be groups or individuals fighting climate change or the International Atomic Energy Agency, a past recipient.

    Honoring the IAEA again would recognize its efforts to prevent a radioactive catastrophe at the Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia atomic power plant at the heart of fighting in Ukraine, and its work in fighting nuclear proliferation, Smith said.

    “This is really difficult period in world history and there is not a lot of peace being made,” he said.

    Promoting peace isn’t always rewarded with a Nobel. India’s Mohandas Gandhi, a prominent symbol of non-violence in the 20th century, was never so honored.

    But former President Barack Obama was in 2009, sparking criticism from those who said he had not been president long enough to have an impact worthy of the Nobel.

    In some cases, the winners have not lived out the values enshrined in the peace prize.

    Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed won in 2019 for making peace with neighboring Eritrea. A year later a largely ethnic conflict erupted in the country’s Tigray region. Some accuse Abiy of stoking the tensions, which have resulted in widespread atrocities. Critics have called for his Nobel to be revoked.

    The Myanmar activist Aung San Suu Kyi won the peace prize in 1991 while being under house arrest for her opposition to military rule. Decades later, she was seen as failing in a leadership role to stop atrocities committed by the military against the country’s mostly Muslim Rohingya minority.

    The Nobel committee has sometimes not awarded a peace prize at all. It paused them during World War I, except to honor the International Committee of the Red Cross in 1917. It didn’t hand out any from 1939 to 1943 due to World War II. In 1948, the year Gandhi died, the Norwegian Nobel Committee made no award, citing a lack of a suitable living candidate.

    The peace prize also does not always confer protection.

    Last year journalists Maria Ressa of the Philippines and Dmitry Muratov of Russia were awarded “for their courageous fight for freedom of expression” in the face of authoritarian governments.

    Following the invasion of Ukraine, the Kremlin has cracked down even harder on independent media, including Muratov’s Novaya Gazeta, Russia’s most renowned independent newspaper. Muratov himself was attacked on a Russian train by an assailant who poured red paint over him, injuring his eyes.

    The Philippines government this year ordered the shutdown of Ressa’s news organization, Rappler.

    The literature prize, meanwhile, has been notoriously unpredictable.

    Few had bet on last year’s winner, Zanzibar-born, U.K.-based writer Abdulrazak Gurnah, whose books explore the personal and societal impacts of colonialism and migration.

    Gurnah was only the sixth Nobel literature laureate born in Africa, and the prize has long faced criticism that it is too focused on European and North American writers. It is also male-dominated, with just 16 women among its 118 laureates.

    The list of possible winners includes literary giants from around the world: Kenyan writer Ngugi Wa Thiong’o, Japan’s Haruki Murakami, Norway’s Jon Fosse, Antigua-born Jamaica Kincaid and France’s Annie Ernaux.

    A clear contender is Salman Rushdie, the India-born writer and free-speech advocate who spent years in hiding after Iran’s clerical rulers called for his death over his 1988 novel “The Satanic Verses.” Rushdie, 75, was stabbed and seriously injured at a festival in New York state on Aug. 12.

    The prizes to Gurnah in 2021 and U.S. poet Louise Glück in 2020 have helped the literature prize move on from years of controversy and scandal.

    In 2018, the award was postponed after sex abuse allegations rocked the Swedish Academy, which names the Nobel literature committee, and sparked an exodus of members. The academy revamped itself but faced more criticism for giving the 2019 literature award to Austria’s Peter Handke, who has been called an apologist for Serbian war crimes.

    Some scientists hope the award for physiology or medicine honors colleagues instrumental in the development of the mRNA technology that went into COVID-19 vaccines, which saved millions of lives across the world.

    “When we think of Nobel prizes, we think of things that are paradigm shifting, and in a way I see mRNA vaccines and their success with COVID-19 as a turning point for us,” said Deborah Fuller, a microbiology professor at the University of Washington.

    The Nobel Prize announcements this year kick off Monday with the prize in physiology or medicine, followed by physics on Tuesday, chemistry on Wednesday and probably, though the date has not been confirmed, literature on Thursday. The 2022 Nobel Peace Prize will be announced on Oct. 7 and the economics award on Oct. 10.

    The prizes carry a cash award of 10 million Swedish kronor ($880,000) and will be handed out on Dec. 10.

    ———

    Jan M. Olsen in Copenhagen, Denmark, Jill Lawless in London and Laura Ungar in Louisville, Kentucky, contributed.

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  • 2 rock climbers found dead in Southern California

    2 rock climbers found dead in Southern California

    Authorities say two rock climbers, including a former NFL player, were found dead near a Southern California peak after rescue crews responded to reports of injuries

    IDYLLWILD, Calif. — Two rock climbers were found dead near a Southern California peak after rescue crews responded to reports of injuries, authorities said.

    Rescuers were called around 12:30 p.m. Wednesday to Tahquitz Rock near Idyllwild following a distress call, the Cal Fire/Riverside County Fire Department said on Twitter.

    A team managed to climb into the steep, remote area and found both unidentified climbers dead at the scene, the department said.

    They were identified Thursday as Chelsea Walsh, 33, and Gavin Escobar, 31.

    A small amount of rain fell in the area earlier in the day, but officials didn’t immediately say if weather was a factor in the deaths.

    Escobar was a Long Beach firefighter who was hired in February, the department said.

    Escobar previously had been a tight end, playing for the Dallas Cowboy in a backup role from 2013 to 2016. He then had brief stints with the Kansas City Chiefs, Baltimore Ravens, Cleveland Browns and Miami Dolphins, ending his career in 2019 with the now-defunct Alliance of American Football.

    Tahquitz Rock, with its steep granite cliffs, is a popular destination for climbers.

    Two climbers from Los Angeles fell 200 feet (60 meters) to their deaths on the rock in 2000, according to the Los Angeles Times.

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  • Ex-PG&E execs to pay $117M to settle lawsuit over wildfires

    Ex-PG&E execs to pay $117M to settle lawsuit over wildfires

    OAKLAND, Calif. — Former executives and directors of Pacific Gas & Electric have agreed to pay $117 million to settle a lawsuit over devastating 2017 and 2018 California wildfires sparked by the utility’s equipment, it was announced Thursday.

    The settlement was announced by the PG&E Fire Victim Trust, which was established to handle claims filed by more than 80,000 victims of deadly wildfires ignited by PG&E’s rickety electrical grid. The trust’s lawsuit, filed last year, alleged that former officers and board members neglected their duty to ensure the utility’s equipment wouldn’t kill people.

    The complaint was an offshoot of a $13.5 billion settlement that PG&E reached with the wildfire victims while the utility was mired in bankruptcy from January 2019 through June 2020.

    As part of that deal, PG&E granted the victims the right to go after the utility’s hierarchy leading up to and during a series of wind-driven wildfires that killed more than 100 people and destroyed more than 25,000 homes and businesses, including the 2018 Camp Fire, which killed 85 people and destroyed much of the town of Paradise in Butte County.

    PG&E pleaded guilty to 84 felony counts of involuntary manslaughter for causing the fire and was fined $4 million, the maximum penalty allowed.

    All told, PG&E has been blamed for more than 30 wildfires since 2017 that wiped out more than 23,000 homes and businesses and killed more than 100 people.

    Those sued by the fire trust included two of PG&E’s former chief executives, Anthony Earley and Geisha Williams, who were paid millions of dollars during their terms, and former board members. They were covered by liability insurance secured by the utility, the trust has said.

    PG&E is the nation’s largest utility, with an estimated 16 million customers in central and Northern California.

    In a statement, PG&E said the settlement is “another step forward in PG&E’s ongoing effort to resolve issues outstanding from before its bankruptcy and to move forward focused on our commitments to deliver safe, clean and reliable energy to our customers, and to continue the important work of reducing risk across our energy system.”

    The settlement money won’t go to fire victims. Instead, under a bankruptcy court order, the money will be used to satisfy “the vast majority” of claims made by federal agencies, such as the U.S. Forest Service, that helped fight the blazes and assist the victims, said a statement from Frank M. Pitre, lead attorney for the trust.

    That means the money won’t have to come out of funds earmarked for the trust, which has paid out $4.9 billion to victims.

    The trust has said it faces a huge shortfall because half of the promised settlement consisted of PG&E stock that has consistently traded at less than what was hoped for when the deal was struck toward the end of 2019.

    The stock closed Thursday at $12.38 a share on the New York Stock Exchange, down more than 30 cents.

    Would-be investors might be spooked by PG&E’s continuing wildfire woes. In June, the company pleaded not guilty to involuntary manslaughter and other charges it faces after its equipment sparked the Zogg Fire, which killed four people and destroyed hundreds of homes in Northern California two years ago.

    Also earlier this year, PG&E agreed to pay more than $55 million to avoid criminal prosecution for two other major wildfires sparked by its aging Northern California power lines. But the company didn’t acknowledge wrongdoing in those cases.

    And last week, federal investigators seized a utility transmission pole and attached equipment in a criminal probe into what started the Mosquito Fire in the Sierra Nevada foothills.

    The fire that broke out on Sept. 6 destroyed nearly 80 homes and other buildings. The fire, which has burned nearly 120 square miles (311 square kilometers), was 85% contained Thursday.

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  • Hurricane Ian ‘street shark’ video defies belief

    Hurricane Ian ‘street shark’ video defies belief

    Photos and videos of sharks and other marine life swimming in suburban floodwaters make for popular hoaxes during massive storms. But a cellphone video filmed during Hurricane Ian’s assault on southwest Florida isn’t just another fish story.

    The eye-popping video, which showed a large, dark fish with sharp dorsal fins thrashing around an inundated Fort Myers backyard, racked up more than 12 million views on Twitter within a day, as users responded with disbelief and comparisons to the “Sharknado” film series.

    Dominic Cameratta, a local real estate developer, confirmed he filmed the clip from his back patio Wednesday morning when he saw something “flopping around” in his neighbor’s flooded yard.

    “I didn’t know what it was — it just looked like a fish or something,” he told The Associated Press. “I zoomed in, and all my friends are like, ‘It’s like a shark, man!’ ”

    He guessed the fish was about 4 feet in length.

    Experts were of mixed opinion on whether the clip showed a shark or another large fish. George Burgess, former director of the Florida Museum of Natural History’s shark program, said in an email that it “appears to be a juvenile shark,” while Dr. Neil Hammerschlag, director of the University of Miami’s shark conservation program, wrote that “it’s pretty hard to tell.”

    Nevertheless, some Twitter users dubbed the hapless fish the “street shark.”

    The surge worsened in Fort Myers as the day went on. Cameratta said the flooding had only just begun when the clip was taken, but that the waters were “all the way up to our house” by the time the AP reached him by phone Wednesday evening.

    He said the fish may have made its way up from nearby Hendry Creek into a retention pond, which then overflowed, spilling the creature into his neighbor’s backyard. A visual analysis of nearby property confirmed it matches the physical landmarks in the video.

    Leslie Guelcher, a professor of intelligence studies at Mercyhurst University in Erie, Pennsylvania, was among the online sleuths who initially thought the video was fake.

    “Don’t think this is real. According to the index on the video it was created in June 2010. Someone else posted it at 10 AM as in Fort Myers, but the storm surge wasn’t like that at 10 AM,” she tweeted Wednesday.

    Guelcher acknowledged later, though, that online tools she and others were using to establish the video’s origins didn’t actually show when the video itself was created, merely when the social media profile of the user was created.

    The AP confirmed through the original clip’s metadata that it was captured Wednesday morning.

    “It makes a bit more sense from a flooding standpoint,” she said by email, when informed the fish was spotted near an overflowing pond. “But how on earth would a shark go from the Gulf of Mexico to a retention pond?”

    Yannis Papastamatiou, a marine biologist who studies shark behavior at Florida International University, said that most sharks flee shallow bays ahead of hurricanes, possibly tipped off to their arrival by a change in barometric pressure. A shark could have accidentally swum up into the creek, he said, or been washed into it.

    “Young bull sharks are common inhabitants of low salinity waters — rivers, estuaries, subtropical embayments — and often appear in similar videos in FL water bodies connected to the sea such as coastal canals and ponds,” Burgess said. “Assuming the location and date attributes are correct, it is likely this shark was swept shoreward with the rising seas.”

    Cameratta sent the video to a group chat on WhatsApp on Wednesday morning, according to his friend John Paul Murray, who sent the AP a timestamped screenshot.

    “Amazing content,” Murray wrote in reply.

    ———

    Associated Press writers Philip Marcelo and Arijeta Lajka in New York contributed to this report.

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  • Police arrest convicted Vegas bombmaker who escaped prison

    Police arrest convicted Vegas bombmaker who escaped prison

    LAS VEGAS — Police have arrested a convicted bombmaker who escaped from a Nevada prison where he was serving a life sentence for a deadly 2007 explosion outside a Las Vegas Strip resort, authorities said.

    Las Vegas police said they received information Wednesday night that a person matching the description of Porfirio Duarte-Herrera was in the area. Officers took the man into custody, confirmed he was Duarte-Herrera and arrested him, the department said in a statement.

    Additional information wasn’t immediately released by Las Vegas police.

    Gov. Steve Sisolak had earlier ordered an investigation into the escape after he said late Tuesday his office learned the escapee had been missing from the medium-security prison since early in the weekend.

    Officials didn’t realize until Tuesday morning that Duarte-Herrera, 42, was missing during a head count at Southern Desert Correctional Center near Las Vegas.

    Duarte-Herrera, from Nicaragua, was convicted in 2010 of killing a hot dog stand vendor using a motion-activated bomb in a coffee cup atop a car parked at the Luxor hotel-casino.

    Records show his co-defendant, Omar Rueda-Denvers, remained in custody. The 47-year-old from Guatemala is serving a life sentence at a different Nevada prison for murder, attempted murder, explosives and other charges.

    A Clark County District Court jury spared both men from the death penalty in the slaying of Willebaldo Dorantes Antonio, whom prosecutors identified as the boyfriend of Rueda-Denvers’ ex-girlfriend.

    Prosecutors said jealousy was the motive for the attack on the top deck of a two-story parking structure. The blast initially raised fears of a terrorist attack on the Strip.

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  • US woman appears via videolink in UK in fatal accident case

    US woman appears via videolink in UK in fatal accident case

    LONDON — An American woman who fled the U.K. claiming diplomatic immunity after she was involved in a fatal traffic accident has appeared in a British court via videolink — an apparent breakthrough in the long-deadlocked case.

    Anne Sacoolas, 45, was accompanied by her lawyer during the 6-minute hearing Thursday at Westminster Magistrates Court in London, speaking only to confirm her name. The court granted her unconditional bail and scheduled the next hearing for Oct. 27.

    Sacoolas was charged with causing death by dangerous driving after an August 2019 accident in which 19-year-old Harry Dunn was killed when his motorcycle collided with a car outside RAF Croughton, an air base in eastern England that is used by U.S. forces.

    Sacoolas and her husband, who had been a U.S. intelligence officer at the air base, returned to America days after the accident. The U.S. government invoked diplomatic immunity on her behalf, prompting an outcry in Britain.

    Dunn’s family has met with politicians in the U.K. and the U.S. to demand that Sacoolas face justice in a British court. But American authorities rejected Britain’s extradition request.

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  • Garrett back with Browns, cited for speeding following crash

    Garrett back with Browns, cited for speeding following crash

    BEREA, Ohio — Cleveland Browns All-Pro Myles Garrett returned to the team’s headquarters Thursday after crashing his car earlier this week when police said he lost control while speeding on a rural road after practice.

    Garrett veered his Porsche off the hilly road near his home a few hours after practice Monday, flipping the vehicle and hitting a fire hydrant. The defensive end suffered a sprained shoulder, strained biceps and had several cuts and bruises from the wreck.

    On Thursday, the Ohio State Highway Patrol cited Garrett for speeding, saying he was going 65 mph in a 45 mph zone.

    According to the accident report, Garrett, who had a female passenger in his car, told an officer he was accelerating up a hill when he saw a vehicle coming in the opposite direction but didn’t make any type of swerving maneuvers to avoid a crash.

    The officer said Garrett couldn’t exactly recall how he went off the road.

    A witness at the scene told the highway patrol “they came over the hill flyin’, went airborne, took the fire hydrant out and rolled three times.”

    Garrett and his 23-year-old passenger were taken to Akron General Hospital for emergency care. The highway patrol said the passenger suffered a minor head injury. They were both released a few hours later.

    Garrett has a history of speeding. He was ticketed on consecutive days in Medina County last year for driving 120 mph. In the second case, he paid a ticket in which the speed was amended to 99 mph in a 70 mph zone.

    Garrett has not yet been ruled out of Sunday’s game at Atlanta. Coach Kevin Stefanski said Garrett would be evaluated by team doctors before he practices or plays. The Browns (2-1) are missing several defensive starters due to injuries as they ready for the Falcons (1-2).

    On Wednesday, Stefanski and several of Garrett’s teammates offered gratitude and relief he was not more seriously injured.

    “Something like that happens, it’s just scary for anybody,” safety John Johnson III said. “But I heard he had his seatbelt on. I don’t know if that helped out or not, but that was good. I’m just glad he came out of there clean.”

    The No. 1 overall pick in 2017, Garrett needs one sack to pass Clay Matthews (62) for the team’s career record.

    The Browns, who had an extended break after beating the Pittsburgh Steelers last Thursday, are dealing with rash of injuries to their defense. Along with Garrett, end Jadeveon Clowney (ankle), cornerback Denzel Ward (back, ribs), linebacker Jeremiah Owusu-Koramoah (groin) and tackle Taven Bryan (hamstring) were also sidelined.

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    More AP NFL: https://apnews.com/hub/nfl and https://twitter.com/AP—NFL

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  • Live Updates: Hurricane Ian

    Live Updates: Hurricane Ian

    The Latest on Hurricane Ian:

    WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis spoke by telephone Thursday morning to discuss next steps in the federal response to Hurricane Ian.

    Biden formally issued a disaster declaration Thursday morning and told DeSantis that he was dispatching Federal Emergency Management Agency Administrator Deanne Criswell to Florida on Friday to check in on response efforts and to gauge where additional support will be needed.

    Meanwhile, officials at Tampa International Airport tweeted that damage assessments are underway there and that they hope to have an update later Thursday on plans to reopen.

    ———

    KEY DEVELOPMENTS:

    — Hurricane Ian leaves destruction in southwest Florida

    — Ian strikes Florida hospital from above and below

    — Search on for migrants after boat sinks off Florida Keys

    — Cuba begins to turn on lights

    — Find more AP coverage here: https://apnews.com/hub/hurricanes

    ———

    OTHER DEVELOPMENTS:

    TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — The U.S. Coast Guard began performing hurricane rescue missions on barrier islands off southwest Florida early Thursday, as soon as the winds died down, Gov. Ron DeSantis said at a news conference.

    “The Coast Guard had people who were in their attics and got saved off their rooftops,” DeSantis said. The most vulnerable areas were along the barrier islands of Lee, Charlotte and Collier counties, along with inlets and inland areas along rivers.

    Power failures from Hurricane Ian are significant, he said. Two counties, Lee and Charlotte, “are basically off the grid at this point,” the governor said, and will likely have to rebuild the power structure.

    “We’ve never seen storm surge of this magnitude,” DeSantis said. “The amount of water that’s been rising, and will likely continue to rise today even as the storm is passing, is basically a 500-year flooding event.”

    An earlier report of hundreds of deaths in Lee County has not been confirmed and was likely an estimate based on 911 calls, the governor said.

    DeSantis said he will ask the federal government to expand its emergency declaration to cover counties in central Florida that are also reporting damage.

    ———

    NAPLES, Fla. — The Naples Pier, a top tourist destination, has been destroyed by Hurricane Ian, with even the pilings torn out, a county official said Thursday.

    The storm sent waves of at least 20 feet over the historic structure, said Penny Taylor, a commission in Collier County.

    “Right now, there is no pier,” Taylor said.

    Deanne Criswell, administrator of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, told CBS News on Thursday that the agency has “put together a large search and rescue capability” and that searchers are combing areas of southwest Florida where people may be trapped.

    To the north in the Tampa Bay area, officials lifted evacuation orders. Beachfront communities around St. Petersburg and Clearwater emerged largely unscathed, with the main damage being toppled trees and power lines, officials said.

    But with the storm still marching across the state, highway officials closed the Florida Turnpike in the Orlando area because of flooding.

    ———

    FORT MYERS, Fla. — Valerie Bartley’s neighborhood in the Fort Myers area had been under an evacuation order ahead of Hurricane Ian, but she felt it was too late to leave Tuesday with no plans in place.

    As the strong storm passed overhead, she and her husband had to push their dining room table against a sliding door leading to the back patio because they felt the wind was going to blow it into the house, she said in a telephone interview Thursday.

    “My husband just sat there and held it for two hours,” said Bartley, 36.

    “I was terrified through it. What we heard was the shingles and debris from everything in the neighborhood hitting our house. It sounded like the shingles were being ripped out,” she said.

    Bartley said her 4-year-old daughter gave her courage. “She grabbed my hand and said, ‘I am scared, too, but it is going to be OK.’”

    Their patio was torn apart, with some sections missing, and trees were down in their back yard, but their own roof and house stayed mostly intact.

    ———

    FORT MYERS, Fla. — In Lee County, home to the city of Fort Myers, rescue officials said they were overwhelmed with calls for rescues and feared significant fatalities.

    Sheriff Carmine Marceno told ABC’s “Good Morning America” that there had been thousands of calls to 911.

    Rescues have been underway, he said, but “we still cannot access many of the people in the waterways, bridges are compromised, and it’s a real real rough road ahead.”

    Fort Myers Mayor Kevin Anderson told NBC’s “Today” that he has not been told of any deaths in the city, though there may have been some elsewhere in the metro area.

    Anderson said that he has been in the area since the 1970s and that this was by far the worst storm he has ever witnessed.

    “Watching the water from my condo in the heart of downtown, watching that water rise and just flood out all the stores on the first floor, it was heartbreaking,” Anderson said.

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  • Police: 2 killed, 10 injured in three-car crash in Texas

    Police: 2 killed, 10 injured in three-car crash in Texas

    UVALDE, TEXAS — A road accident in Texas Wednesday evening killed two people and left 10 injured, police said.

    Authorities in Uvalde said the accident occurred around 6:30 p.m. on Highway 90 near the downtown area of Uvalde, KSAT-TV reported.

    Border Patrol agents reportedly saw a black truck speeding on the highway before crashing into an 18-wheeler and another vehicle.

    The dead and injured were in the passenger truck, said police, who closed the intersection while the Department of Public Safety began an investigation.

    Uvalde was the site of a school shooting on May 24 at Robb Elementary School where a gunman killed two teachers and 19 students with an AR-15-style rifle inside a fourth grade classroom.

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