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Tag: disasters and safety

  • Florida residents still recovering from Hurricane Ian are asked to prepare for possible tropical system later this week | CNN

    Florida residents still recovering from Hurricane Ian are asked to prepare for possible tropical system later this week | CNN

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    CNN
     — 

    Florida officials are warning residents, including those recently hit by the destructive Hurricane Ian, that a tropical system could bring heavy rain and damaging winds this week.

    The warning comes as Subtropical Storm Nicole has formed in the southwest Atlantic about 555 miles east of northwestern Bahamas, according to the National Hurricane Center. The storm, now packing winds of 45 mph with higher gusts, is expected to begin impacting Florida by Tuesday evening.

    Already, the US territories of Puerto Rico and Virgin Islands are under a flash flood watch through Monday afternoon, and tropical storm watches are in effect for northwest Bahamas.

    As the system forms, it will possibly churn toward Florida and the Southeast US through early this week, according to CNN Meteorologist Robert Shackelford.

    “Regardless of development, heavy rainfall, coastal flooding, gale force winds and rip tides will impact eastern Florida and the southeast US,” Shackelford explained.

    Rainfalls in the Sunshine State could range between 2 and 4 inches, with isolated amounts possibly exceeding 6 inches, according to Shackelford.

    Areas south of Tampa, some of which are still in recovery mode following Hurricane Ian’s landfall in late September, could be drenched with 2 to 4 inches of rain. Orlando is also at risk of seeing 1 to 2 inches of rain while areas south of Jacksonville could be hit with 1 to 4 inches.

    Ahead of the storm, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis urged residents Sunday to take precaution.

    “I encourage all Floridians to be prepared and make a plan in the event a storm impacts Florida,” DeSantis said in a news release. “We will continue to monitor the path and trajectory of Invest 98L and we remain in constant contact with all state and local government partners.”

    DeSantis stressed that residents should prepare for an increased risk of coastal flooding, heavy winds, rain, rip currents and beach erosion. “Wind gusts can be expected as soon as Tuesday of next week along Florida’s East Coast,” he added.

    On Tuesday, which is Election Day, much of the Florida Peninsula can expect breezy to gusty conditions. Chances of rain are expected to increase throughout the day for central and eastern cities such as Miami north to Daytona Beach and inland toward Orlando and Okeechobee.

    “Conditions may deteriorate as early as Tuesday and persist into Thursday night/Friday morning,” the National Weather Service in Miami said. “Impacts to South Florida may include rip currents, coastal flooding, dangerous surf/marine conditions, flooding rainfall, strong sustained winds, and waterspouts/tornadoes.”

    In the meantime, DeSantis said as the state continues recovering from Ian’s disastrous destruction, officials are also coordinating with local emergency management authorities across the state’s 67 counties.

    The goal is to “identify potential resource gaps and to implement plans that will allow the state to respond quickly and efficiently ahead of the potential strengthening” of the storm system, said the release.

    Hurricane Ian made landfall as a strong Category 4 storm on the west coast of the Florida peninsula, packing nearly 150 mph winds. The storm killed at least 120 people in Florida, destroyed many homes and leveled small communities. Thousands of people were without power or water for running days.

    And although the exact forecast for the upcoming storm is still unclear, forecasters said confidence has increased that the storm system could develop into a tropical or subtropical depression within the next two days.

    “The system could be at or near hurricane strength before it approaches the northwestern Bahamas and the east coast of Florida on Wednesday and Thursday, bringing the potential for a dangerous storm surge, damaging winds, and heavy rainfall to a portion of those areas,” the weather service said.

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  • 19 dead after commercial aircraft crashes into Lake Victoria in Tanzania | CNN

    19 dead after commercial aircraft crashes into Lake Victoria in Tanzania | CNN

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    CNN
     — 

    A Tanzanian commercial flight operated by Precision Air crash-landed in bad weather in Lake Victoria on Sunday, killing 19 people.

    The country’s Prime Minister, Kassim Majaliwa, said officials believe all bodies have been recovered from the airplane.

    “We’re starting to pull out the luggage and personal items from the aircraft. A team of doctors and security agencies have started the process of identifying the dead and notifying the families,” Majaliwa said.

    The airline confirmed the death toll and amended the number of survivors down to 24 in an updated statement on Sunday evening. Earlier, the carrier as well as local officials had said that 26 of the 43 people on board had been rescued.

    “Precision Air extends its deepest sympathies to the families and friends of the passenger and crew involved in this tragic incident. The company will strive to provide them with information and whatever assistance they will require in their difficult time,” the airline said.

    “The names of passengers and crew on board the aircraft will not be released until all next-of-kin have been notified,” it added.

    The flight, including 39 passengers and four crew members, had taken off from Tanzania’s commercial capital of Dar es Salaam and was headed to the town of Bukoba before it plunged into Lake Victoria as it was preparing to land.

    Video circulating on social media taken by onlookers on the shores of Lake Victoria showed the aircraft submerged in the water with emergency responders coordinating rescue efforts from nearby boats.

    Precision Air CEO Patrick Mwanri appeared visibly distressed while speaking to reporters in Dar es Salaam Sunday.

    Mwanri’s voice broke and he had to pause to wipe away tears as he said the plane had departed around 6 a.m. local and had been expected in the northwestern lakeside town of Bukoba at 8.30 a.m.

    “But at 8.53 a.m. our Operations Control Center got a report that that aircraft had not arrived,” he said in a televised statement.

    The accident is believed to have happened on the final approach to the airport whose runway begins right next to Lake Victoria, Africa’s largest freshwater lake.

    Local officials suggested bad weather may have played a part in the accident, saying the area had been under heavy rainfall and strong winds at the time.

    The regional airline has opened a Crisis Management Center and established information areas in Bukoba and Dar es Salaam to communicate with families of the passengers.

    Following news of the crash, Tanzania’s President took to social media to call for calm while rescuers worked at the site of a downed plane.

    “I have received with sadness the information of the crash of the Precision Air flight at Lake Victoria, in the Kagera region,” President Samia Suluhu Hassan wrote on Twitter Sunday.

    “I send my condolences to all those affected by this incident. Let’s continue to be calm as the rescue operation continues and we pray to God to help us.”

    Precision Air is a Tanzanian airline based out of Dar es Salaam.

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  • As countries convene at climate summit in Egypt, reports show the world is wildly off track. Here’s what to watch at COP27 | CNN

    As countries convene at climate summit in Egypt, reports show the world is wildly off track. Here’s what to watch at COP27 | CNN

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    CNN
     — 

    As global leaders converge in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, for the UN’s annual climate summit, researchers, advocates and the United Nations itself are warning the world is still wildly off-track on its goal to halt global warming and prevent the worst consequences of the climate crisis.

    Over the next two weeks, negotiators from nearly 200 countries will prod each other at COP27 to raise their clean energy ambitions, as average global temperature has already climbed 1.2 degrees Celsius since the industrial revolution.

    They will haggle over ending the use of coal, the dirtiest fossil fuel, which has seen a resurgence in some countries amid the war in Ukraine, and try to come up with a system to funnel money to help the world’s poorest nations recover from devastating climate disasters.

    But a flood of recent reports have made clear leaders are running out of time to implement the vast energy overhaul needed to keep the temperature from exceeding 1.5 degrees Celsius, the threshold scientists have warned the planet must stay under.

    Reports from the United Nations and the World Meteorological Association show carbon and methane emissions hit record levels in 2021, and the plans countries have submitted to slash those emissions are beyond insufficient. Given countries’ current promises, Earth’s temperature will climb to between 2.1 and 2.9 degrees Celsius by 2100.

    Ultimately, the world needs to cut its fossil fuel emissions nearly in half by 2030 to avoid 1.5 degrees, a daunting prospect for economies still very much beholden to oil, natural gas and coal.

    “No country has a right to be delinquent,” US Climate Envoy John Kerry told reporters in October. “The scientists tell us that what is happening now – the increased extreme heat, extreme weather, the fires, the floods, the warming of the ocean, the melting of the ice, the extraordinary way in which life is being affected badly by the climate crisis – is going to get worse unless we address this crisis in a unified, forward-leaning way.”

    Here are the top issues to follow at COP27 in Egypt.

    Developing and developed countries have for years tussled over the concept of a “loss and damage” fund; the idea which suggests countries causing the most harm with their outrageous planet-warming emissions should pay poorer countries, which have suffered from the resulting climate disasters.

    It has been a thorny issue because the richest countries, including the US, don’t want to appear culpable or legally liable to other nations for harm. Kerry, for instance, has tiptoed around the issue, saying the US supports formal talks, but he has not given any indication of what solution the country would sign on to.

    Meanwhile, small island nations and others in the Global South are shouldering the impact of the climate crisis, as devastating floods, intensifying storms and record-breaking heat waves wreak havoc.

    The deadly flooding in Pakistan this summer, which killed more than 1,500 people, will surely be an example the countries’ negotiators point to. And since September, more than two million people in Nigeria have been affected by the worst flooding there in a decade. At this very moment, Nigerians are drinking, cooking with and bathing in dirty flood water amid serious concerns over waterborne diseases.

    It is likely loss and damage will have space on the official COP27 agenda this year. But beyond countries committing to meet and talk about what a potential loss and damage fund would look like, or whether one should even exist, it is unclear what action will come out of this year’s summit.

    “Do we expect that we’ll have a fund by the end of the two weeks? I hope, I would love to – but we’ll see how parties deliver on that,” Egypt’s chief climate negotiator Ambassador Mohamed Nasr recently told reporters.

    Former White House National Climate Adviser Gina McCarthy told CNN she thinks loss and damage will be the top issue at the UN climate summit this year, and said nations including the US will face some tough questions about their plans to help developing nations already being hit hard by climate disasters.

    “It just keeps getting pushed out,” McCarthy said. “There’s need for some real accountability and some specific commitments in the short-term.”

    Xi Jinping, President of the People's Republic of China, left, and John Kerry, US Special Presidential Envoy for Climate.

    People will be watching to see if the US and China can repair a broken relationship at the summit, a year after the two countries surprised the world by announcing they would work together on climate change.

    The newfound cooperation came crashing down this summer when China announced it was suspending climate talks with the US as part of broader retaliation for House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan.

    Kerry recently said the climate talks between the two countries are still suspended and will likely remain so until China’s president Xi Jinping gives the green light. Kerry and others are watching to see whether China fulfills the promise it made last year to submit a plan to bring down its methane emissions or updates its emissions pledge.

    The US and China are the world’s two largest emitters and their cooperation matters, particularly because it can spur other countries to act, too.

    Separate from a potential loss and damage fund, there is the overarching issue of so-called global climate finance; a fund rich countries promised to push money into to help the developing world transition to clean energy rather than grow their economies with fossil fuels.

    The promise made in 2009 was $100 billion per year, but the world has yet to meet the pledge. Some of the richest countries, including the US, UK, Canada and others, have consistently fallen short of their allocation.

    President Joe Biden promised the US would contribute $11 billion by 2024 toward the effort. But Biden’s request is ultimately up to Congress to approve, and will likely go nowhere if Republicans win control of Congress in the midterm elections.

    The US is working on separate deals with countries including Vietnam, South Africa and Indonesia to get them to move away from coal and toward renewables. And US officials often stress they want to also unlock private investments to help countries transition to renewables and deal with climate effects.

    Ships carry coal outside a coal-fired power plant in November 2021 in Hanchuan, Hubei province, China.

    COP27 is intended to hold countries’ feet to the fire on fossil fuel emissions and gin up new ambition on the climate crisis. Yet reports show we are still off-track to keep global warming under 1.5 degrees Celsius.

    A UN report which surveyed countries’ latest pledges found the planet will warm between 2.1 and 2.9 degrees Celsius. Average global temperature has already risen around 1.2 degrees since the industrial revolution.

    Records were set last year for all three major greenhouse gases: carbon dioxide, methane, and nitrous oxide, according to the World Meteorological Organization.

    There is a spot of encouraging news: the adoption of renewable energy and electric vehicles is surging and helping to offset the rise in fossil fuel emissions, according to a recent International Energy Agency report.

    But the overall picture from the reports shows there is a need for much more clean energy, deployed swiftly. Every fraction of a degree in global temperature rise will have stark consequences, said Inger Andersen, executive director of the United Nations Environment Program.

    “The energy transition is entirely doable, but we’re not on that pathway, and we have procrastinated and wasted time,” Andersen told CNN. “Every digit will matter. Let’s not say ‘we missed 1.5 so let’s settle for 2.’ No. We must understand that every digit that goes up will make our life and the life of our children and grandchildren much more impacted.”

    The clock is ticking in another way: Next year’s COP28 in Dubai will be the year nations must do an official stocktake to determine if the world is on track to meet the goals set out in the landmark Paris Agreement.

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  • Mother seeks further investigation into death of sons who died after firefighters failed to properly search burning home | CNN

    Mother seeks further investigation into death of sons who died after firefighters failed to properly search burning home | CNN

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    CNN
     — 

    The mother of two boys who died following a house fire in Michigan earlier this year is pushing for an independent investigation after two firefighters were accused of lying about properly searching for survivors.

    Zyaire Mitchell, 12, and his brother Lamar, 9, died soon after a fire at their home in Flint on May 28.

    Several weeks later, an investigation led by the fire department found two firefighters tasked with the initial search of the room the children were in lied about properly sweeping for victims. Almost seven minutes later, the children were found by other firefighters. Both later died at a hospital from smoke inhalation, their mother said. State fire investigators ruled faulty electrical wiring caused the fire.

    In his July report, Flint Fire Department Chief Raymond Barton determined the two firefighters — Daniel Sniegocki and Michael Zlotek — should be terminated from the department, “due to the nature of the incident in question, and the actions or lack of action possibly contributing to the loss of life of two victims.”

    But instead, the city accepted the resignation of one of the firefighters and a second was “disciplined,” Barton said in August, without elaborating on what disciplinary actions were taken. On Friday, the city provided CNN with a copy of a letter sent to Zlotek dated July 28 detailing his two-week suspension.

    Barton refused to comment further on the investigation or its outcomes when contacted by CNN on Saturday.

    Attorney Robert Kenner, who is representing the boys’ mother, said he thinks there is an indication of racial bias in the way the investigation has been handled because the children were Black.

    “I can’t say in good faith that these firemen intentionally failed at their responsibility because these boys were African Americans, I would never say that,” Kenner said. “I think the way it was handled subsequent to the boys being found was a disparity in how others have been treated.”

    Speaking at a press conference Friday, the boys’ mother, Crystal Cooper, said, “Only if I could just give six minutes, my babies would still be here with me. I just want justice for them. They didn’t deserve this. Every day is a struggle knowing that I won’t see them anymore.”

    Kenner accused the city of a coverup and on Friday called for another investigation.

    “There was an investigation by a Chief Raymond Barton and, what he found, was that two firemen — Daniel Sniegocki and Michael Zlotek — fabricated and lied on a report and said that they checked the room,” Kenner said. “Based on what they said, the chief did his own investigation and what was uncovered was they couldn’t have checked the room, they didn’t even mention anything about a bed, the location of the bed, the location of items.”

    “No parent should ever have to go through this,” the attorney added. “No parent. So, what we’re calling for, we’re calling for a thorough investigation, an earnest investigation, no cover-ups, no change in documents. We’re calling for the truth.”

    Kenner on Saturday told CNN the decision not to terminate the firefighters came from the office of Flint Mayor Sheldon Neeley.

    A representative of Flint Firefighters Local 352 told The Flint Journal that the two firefighters are being scapegoated in the matter because they failed to search a small room on the second floor of the home due to extreme heat and low visibility.

    CNN has reached out to the union for comment.

    “The mayor is in a hotly contested race right now and made the decision not to terminate based on political reasons,” Kenner claimed. “He’s tied to the fire union and didn’t want to upset the union or other constituents.”

    Neeley is facing former Mayor Karen Weaver in the election on Tuesday.

    Neeley, the mayor, told CNN, “There is absolutely no truth to the allegation that there is a cover up.”

    “We continue to lift this family in prayer, and we are sad to see their pain shamefully exploited,” he added.

    CNN has attempted to contact Zlotek and Daniel Sniegocki for comment.

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  • At least 38 injured, 2 critically, in a Manhattan apartment fire | CNN

    At least 38 injured, 2 critically, in a Manhattan apartment fire | CNN

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    CNN
     — 

    At least 38 people were injured in a Manhattan apartment building fire Saturday morning, which authorities believe was caused by a lithium ion battery connected to a micromobility device.

    Of the injuries, two were critical, five were serious and the rest minor, Fire Commissioner Laura Kavanagh said in a news conference.

    Authorities received calls about fire and smoke at the building on East 52nd Street shortly before 10:30 a.m., the commissioner said. Fire units were on scene in “just over three minutes” after first receiving reports and encountered a “heavy fire condition” on the building’s 20th floor, FDNY Deputy Assistant Chief Frank Leeb said during the news conference.

    Two civilians were rescued from the apartment with the fire, Leeb said. Fire personnel used ropes to make the rescues, he said.

    “Fire, EMS and dispatch did an extraordinary job rescuing a number of civilians, including an incredible roof rescue,” Kavanagh said, adding that fire personnel were working in “unbelievably dangerous conditions.”

    The blaze was “close to our 200th fire this year where the cause of the fire is a lithium ion battery from a micromobility device,” Dan Flynn, the chief fire marshal, said.

    Authorities believe that the occupant in the apartment where the fire likely began had been repairing bikes in the building, Flynn said.

    The fire likely started “right behind the front door,” Flynn added. At least five bikes were recovered from the apartment, he said.

    “We are heading into the cold winter season, fires do go up, and so we really implore all New Yorkers to ensure that they and their families are safe,” Kavanagh, the fire commissioner, said. “We also want to emphasize the rising cause of fires from e-bikes and to ensure that families are making sure that they are following the safest possible way to use these, including not charging them overnight when they are asleep, including making sure they are certified and that the batteries that they are using are not damaged in any way.”

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  • Wells are running dry in drought-weary Southwest as foreign-owned farms guzzle water to feed cattle overseas | CNN

    Wells are running dry in drought-weary Southwest as foreign-owned farms guzzle water to feed cattle overseas | CNN

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    La Paz County, Arizona
    CNN
     — 

    Workers with the water district in Wenden, Arizona, saw something remarkable last year as they slowly lowered a camera into the drought-stricken town’s well: The water was moving.

    But the aquifer which sits below the small desert town in the southwestern part of the state is not a river; it’s a massive, underground reservoir which stores water built up over thousands of years. And that water is almost always still.

    Gary Saiter, a longtime resident and head of the Wenden Water Improvement District, said the water was moving because it was being pumped rapidly out of the ground by a neighboring well belonging to Al Dahra, a United Arab Emirates-based company farming alfalfa in the Southwest.

    Al Dahra did not respond to multiple requests for comment on this story.

    “The well guys and I have never seen anything like this before,” Saiter told CNN. The farm was “pumping and it was sucking the water through the aquifer.”

    Groundwater is the lifeblood of the rural Southwest, but just as the Colorado River Basin is in crisis, aquifers are rapidly depleting from decades of overuse, worsening drought and rampant agricultural growth.

    Residents and farms pull water from the same underground pools, and as the water table declines, the thing determining how long a well lasts is how deeply it was drilled.

    Office manager Brianna Davis, left, chats with manager Gary Saiter, right, at Wenden Domestic Water Improvement District.

    Now frustration is growing in Arizona’s La Paz County, as shallower wells run dry amid the Southwest’s worst drought in 1,200 years. Much of the frustration is pointed at the area’s huge, foreign-owned farms growing thirsty crops like alfalfa, which ultimately get shipped to feed cattle and other livestock overseas.

    “You can’t take water and export it out of the state, there’s laws about that,” said Arizona geohydrologist Marvin Glotfelty, a well-drilling expert. “But you can take ‘virtual’ water and export it; alfalfa, cotton, electricity or anything created in part from the use of water.”

    Residents and local officials say lax groundwater laws give agriculture the upper hand, allowing farms to pump unlimited water as long as they own or lease the property to drill wells into. In around 80% of the state, Arizona has no laws overseeing how much water corporate megafarms are using, nor is there any way for the state to track it.

    But rural communities in La Paz County know the water is disappearing beneath their feet.

    Shallow, residential wells in the county started drying up in 2015, local officials say, and deeper municipal well levels have steadily declined. In Salome, local water utility owner Bill Farr told CNN his well – which supplies water to more than 200 customers, including the local schools – is “nearing the end of its useful life.”

    And in Wenden, water in the town well has been plummeting. Saiter told CNN the depth-to-water – how deep below the surface the top of the water table is – has dropped from about 100 feet in the late 1950s to about 540 feet in 2022, already far beyond what an average residential well can reach. Saiter is anxious the farms’ rapid water use could push the water table too low for the town well to draw safe water from.

    La Paz County supervisor Holly Irwin told CNN getting the state to act on – or even acknowledge – the region’s dwindling water supply has been a “frustrating” yearslong battle which has left her community feeling “forgotten.”

    Middle East agriculture companies “have depleted their [water], that’s why they are here,” Irwin said. “That’s what angers people the most. We should be taking care of our own, and we just allow them to come in, purchase property and continue to punch holes in the ground.”

    In 2018, Saudi Arabia finalized a ban on growing thirsty crops like alfalfa and hay to feed livestock and cattle. The reason was simple: the arid Middle East – also struggling with climate change-fueled drought – is running out of water, and agriculture is a huge consumer.

    But vast dairy operations are a point of national pride in the Middle East, according to Eckart Woertz, director of the Germany-based GIGA Institute for Middle East Studies. So, they needed to find water somewhere else.

    “They have all their cows there and they need feeding. That feedstock comes from abroad,” Woertz told CNN.

    Groundwater gushes into a cement canal near the Fondomonte farm in Vicksburg, Arizona.

    Valued at $14.3 billion, the Almarai Company – which owns about 10,000 acres of farmland in Arizona under its subsidiary, Fondomonte – is one of the biggest players in the Middle East’s dairy supply. The company also owns about 3,500 acres in agriculture-heavy Southern California, according to public land records, where they use Colorado River water to irrigate crops.

    Woertz said while most of the company’s cattle feed is purchased on the open market, Alamarai took the extra step of buying farmland abroad, as part of a growing trend in foreign-owned farmland in the US. Foreign-owned farmland in the West increased from around 1.25 million acres in 2010 to nearly three million acres in 2020, according to data from the US Department of Agriculture. In the Midwest, foreign-owned farmland has nearly quadrupled.

    “It gives you that sense you’re closer to the source,” Woertz added. “The sense that you own land or lease land somewhere else and have direct bilateral access [to water] gives you a sense of maybe false security.”

    In the high desert of Arizona, emerald-green fields stretch for miles alongside dry tumbleweeds and Saguaro cactus.

    The Fondomonte-owned Vicksburg Ranch near Salome is massive. The company spent $47.5 million to buy nearly 10,000 acres of land there in 2014, and it leases additional farmland from the state.

    Bill Farr, owner of Salome Water Company, looks at his water pump and water storage tank. Farr supplies water to the entire town of Salome and has since 1971.

    Hay bales are stored at Al Dahra Farms in Wenden.

    Huge storage facilities were erected to hold the harvests. Rows of small houses were built for the farm’s workers, all surrounded by flowering desert shrubs. Tractor trailers filled with bales of alfalfa hay rumble down the highway, which local officials told CNN they had to repair because of the increased agricultural traffic.

    The alfalfa on the trucks is eventually shipped to feed cattle in Saudi Arabia.

    “They’ve definitely increased production,” Irwin said. “They’ve grown so much since they’ve been here.”

    Almarai was transparent about why it wanted the land, according to an article on the purchase from Arab News: The transaction was part of “continuous efforts to improve and secure its supply of the highest quality alfalfa hay from outside the Kingdom to support its dairy business.”

    “It is also in line with the Saudi government direction toward conserving local resources,” Arab News added.

    Representatives of Fondomonte declined an interview request for this story, but Jordan Rose, the company’s Arizona attorney, provided a statement: “Fondomonte decided to invest in the southwest United States just as hundreds of other agricultural businesses have because of the high-quality soils, and climatic conditions that allow growth of some of the finest quality alfalfa in the world.”

    Rose added the farm installed “the most technologically advanced conservation oriented watering systems available on the market.”

    Cacti dot the hillsides outside of Salome, Ariz. on Wednesday, Oct. 26, 2022.

    Indeed, there is nothing illegal about foreign-owned farming in the US. And many American farmers use the West’s water to grow crops which are eventually exported around the globe.

    But amid the worst drought in centuries, residents and officials have questioned the merit of allowing countries, which themselves are running out of water, unlimited access to a resource as good as gold in the Southwest.

    Cynthia Campbell, water resources management adviser for the city of Phoenix, has been watching the La Paz County water situation with frustration.

    Phoenix currently gets most of its water from local rivers and the Central Arizona Project, which diverts Colorado River water to Phoenix and Tucson. But it could use rural groundwater as a safety net in the coming years if the city’s primary sources are further restricted.

    That is, if there is any groundwater left by then.

    “We are literally exporting our economy overseas,” Campbell said. “I’m sorry, but there’s no Saudi Arabian milk coming back to Southern California or Arizona. The value of that agricultural output is not coming through in value to the US.”

    Despite the ever-looming water crisis, people are still drawn to small Southwest towns like Wenden and Salome because of the low home prices and the freedom of desert living.

    While housing costs in the country rocket upward, rural Arizona has remained a stubbornly affordable place to live. Homes cost between $30,000 and $40,000, and residential taxes paid to the county are below $300 per year, Saiter, the head of Wenden’s water district and a longtime resident, told CNN.

    “People are able to afford to live here, versus Phoenix,” Gary’s wife, De Vona Saiter, told CNN. Median incomes in the county are low, “but you can still have a beautiful life.”

    The Saiters’ house and rental properties around town – as well as De Vona’s mother Gloria Kaisor’s home down the street – are decorated with hand-drawn art, gardens and antiques.

    Kaisor is a longtime resident who first moved to Wenden with her family in the 1960s. After living in Phoenix for years, she gravitated back to the rural area.

    “This is home,” Kaisor said. “You don’t hear a noise. It’s quiet. I don’t want to be around a lot of people. You can do whatever you want.”

    Yet the impacts of living near a corporate farm are starting to pile up.

    Kaisor’s home was inundated with silty, wet mud this summer. Rainfall runoff from a recent monsoon flood carried it from the farm right into Wenden. Gary Saiter believes Al Dahra farm staff have rerouted natural waterways, forcing the rainfall into town rather than out into the desert washes.

    Kaisor and her neighbors’ fences are reinforced with sheet metal to try to stop mud and water from coming into their houses, but Kaisor was trapped in her house during a storm earlier this year.

    “The whole property was full of mud,” De Vona Saiter said.

    Saiter speaks with his neighbors in Wenden in late October.

    Hard mud remains caked onto paved streets, a remnant of the August flood that saw silt from Al Dahra fields wash into Wenden.

    Al Dahra did not respond to CNN’s questions for this story, including questions about its water usage, the uptick in residential flooding and potential rerouting of natural waterways.

    The company did provide a statement to the Arizona Republic for a story published in 2019: “Water resources in Arizona must be managed wisely in order to preserve our quality of life and to protect the state’s economic health,” Al Dahra said. “The company is fully committed to Arizona and plans to remain here for the long-term.”

    Living near the Al Dahra farm also brings more frequent and alarming drought-related impacts.

    When it gets windy, a “dirt wall” of soil and dust whips up from the alfalfa fields, exacerbating the Saiters’ allergies. And most noticeably, the ground is literally sinking as the water below the surface gets pumped out.

    The floor in De Vona’s shop has sunk a couple inches, she said, and the ground around one well casing has sunk about a foot; so much the wellhead needed to be cut and resized.

    With all of this, Gary Saiter doesn’t care if the farm is owned by a company overseas. The way he sees it, it doesn’t make much of a difference who owns the farm; he just wishes they were better neighbors.

    “I am kind of ambivalent about the Saudis,” Saiter said. “You can’t control where people sell stuff, and it’s going to go somewhere.”

    “I just don’t like the crops they’re growing and the water they’re pumping,” he added.

    Evidence of a sinking floor due to excessive groundwater pumping at Mas Paz, De Vona's shop.

    Kari Avila, superintendent and athletics director for Salome High School, believes the farms are providing local economic benefits. Rose, Fondomonte’s Arizona attorney, told CNN in an email the company is the fourth-largest employer in the county.

    “They employ a lot of people,” Avila told CNN. “If they weren’t farming it, someone else would be. A lot of people are upset it’s not Americans farming.”

    Avila praised the farms for their internship programs and career fairs. Last year, Al Dahra donated an irrigation pump and generator to water Salome’s high school fields, which had been drying up. Avila said the pump installation for the field was fast and took just a few weeks.

    But even as the companies are trying to invest in the area, many still question whether those benefits are worth it as water disappears.

    “It’s great,” Irwin, the La Paz County supervisor said, “but if you can’t turn your faucet on in five years, that sh*t’s not going to matter.”

    The reason some rural residents feel powerless about the fate of their groundwater is because they say Arizona’s state lawmakers have thus far not acted to protect it.

    The last time the state passed regulations around groundwater was in 1980, with a law creating certain zones in mostly urban areas, where officials had to ensure they were replenishing underground aquifers and not pumping them dry.

    The laws governing the so-called active management areas, or AMAs, are strong compared to groundwater laws in other Southwest states, said Kathleen Ferris, a former top state water official and senior researcher at Arizona State University’s Kyl Center for Water Policy.

    But “outside of the AMAs, not so much,” Ferris told CNN.

    About 80% of the state falls outside the active management areas, with no restrictions on how much groundwater can be pumped and no way to monitor it.

    “It can’t get any worse” than Arizona’s lack of regulation on rural groundwater, Ferris said. “Let’s put it that way.”

    High desert landscape next to to Al Dahra Farms in Wenden.

    Groundwater overflow from afternoon irrigation puddles on Al Dahra farmland.

    Water officials can measure whether water levels in the aquifers are going up or down, but because groundwater is so lightly regulated in rural areas, they don’t have enough data to answer a crucial question: Exactly how much water is left?

    “That is one of the challenges of our state; you can’t manage what you don’t measure,” said top Arizona water official Tom Buschatzke, the director of the state’s Department of Water Resources. “We do the best we can with the data and estimated data that we have, but it really begs questions about how much benefit we can really provide.”

    As the West’s water crisis grows more intense, groundwater reform has become a flashpoint in this year’s election campaigns.

    Arizona attorney general candidate Kris Mayes, a Democrat, has seized on the state’s practice of leasing public land to corporate farms, including more than 6,000 acres leased to Fondomonte, according to the state land department.

    A recent investigation by the Arizona Republic found Fondomonte – the second-largest agricultural lessor of Arizona land – is paying the state a heavily discounted rate which does not take their water usage into account.

    Mayes said she thinks the leases violate the state constitution and has vowed to cancel them if she’s elected.

    “It shouldn’t have happened in the first place,” Mayes told Irwin in September, standing outside Fondomonte’s farm. “We can get these leases canceled, and we should. We are essentially giving our water away for free to a Saudi corporation, and that has to come to an end.”

    Irrigation systems run as the sun sets near Salome.

    The Arizona State Land Department is studying the state’s water resources in western Arizona, department spokesman Bill Fathauer told CNN. But he added it does not have the authority to implement additional groundwater restrictions.

    “The comprehensive data determined from these studies will allow the Department to make an informed decision about not only future land use in these areas but also help determine what the future value of the land is as well,” Fathauer said in an email.

    The kind of sweeping water reforms Arizona needs must ultimately come from the state legislature, says outgoing state House member Regina Cobb, a Republican.

    For years, Cobb tried to advance bills to allow local officials to regulate their aquifers. The bills never got a committee hearing, Cobb said, never mind making it to the floor for a vote. CNN reached out to Gov. Doug Ducey and top Arizona lawmakers in the state House and Senate for comment; none responded.

    As the Colorado River shrinks and Arizona’s share of the water continues to be cut, Cobb told CNN the state’s approach to groundwater has been unthinkable.

    “Why are we allowing a foreign company to come into Arizona – which is drought-stricken right now – and have a sweetheart deal [on leases], when we are trying to conserve as much water as we can?” she asked.

    “It boggles my mind.”

    Read more:

    The Colorado River provides drinking water and electricity to 40 million people. As its supply dwindles, a crisis looms

    As California’s big cities fail to rein in their water use, rural communities are already tapped out

    The West’s historic drought is threatening hydropower at Hoover Dam

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  • Tourists held by Peruvian indigenous group protesting oil spill will be released, says official | CNN

    Tourists held by Peruvian indigenous group protesting oil spill will be released, says official | CNN

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    CNN
     — 

    A group of tourists traveling in the Peruvian Amazon, who were detained on Thursday by an indigenous community demanding government action over an oil spill, will be released Friday, Abel Chiroque, head of the ombudsman office in Loreto, told CNN.

    “We have been in touch with the leader of the Cuninico community… and they have accepted our request to release the passengers onboard the boats,” Chiroque said.

    An estimated 150 tourists, believed to include American and British citizens, were traveling down the Marañon river in Cuninico of the Loreto region, Angela Ramirez told Peruvian local media RPP. The 28-year-old Peruvian is one of the tourists being held by the indigenous community.

    Wadson Trujillo, leader of the Cuninico community, confirmed to RRP that his community stopped the boats in a bid to pressure the government to take action over the oil spill, which has disrupted their water supply. They are demanding the government declare a state of emergency over the oil spill.

    Chiroque said three boats were being held by the community. While the passengers will be let go, the other boats carrying food and animals will stay, he added.

    Ramirez told RRP the detained group included Spanish, French, American and British citizens. Children, pregnant women and the elderly were also being held, she told CNN. CNN has contacted Peru’s Interior Ministry for comment.

    Estimates for the number of people detained have ranged from 70 to 150. Among those held are 20 foreigners, said Peru’s National Police.

    Peru’s ombudsman office in Lima announced the release on social media, while also calling for the continued dialogue between the Cuninico community and government’s representatives.

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  • Families of Halloween crush victims identify lost items as South Korean police admit mistakes | CNN

    Families of Halloween crush victims identify lost items as South Korean police admit mistakes | CNN

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    Seoul, South Korea
    CNN
     — 

    ln a cavernous Seoul gymnasium Tuesday, grieving families inspected neat rows of belongings left behind at the scene of the deadly street crush in Itaewon.

    Shoes, bags, glasses, notebooks, wallets, cardholders and colorful hats were laid out on makeshift tables and exercise mats along the polished floor – waiting to be claimed by the next of kin of 156 victims killed in Saturday night’s crowd surge.

    “Found it. I think this is the one,” said one woman, as she recognized a black coat, hugging it as she cried.

    The middle-aged woman, who had arrived with her husband, collapsed to the floor in tears after discovering a missing pair of knee-high boots. It was among rows of black boots, stilettos and sneakers. In many cases, there was just one shoe.

    Another younger woman, wearing a cast on her left arm, walked into the gymnasium to find her lost shoe. This woman, who didn’t want to be named, said she was in front of a bar in the alley when the crush happened.

    Stuck in the crowd, she said she passed out from asphyxiation “to the point I thought I was dead, but a foreigner shouted at me to wake up.” Her arm was badly bruised during the incident, and after she came to, the woman said she just held on until the crowd eased and she could be rescued.

    Family members walked into the gymnasium, one by one and in small groups, escorted by officials who hurriedly put on white gloves and showed them to the tables, so they could inspect and claim the carefully arranged possessions.

    South Korea is in deep mourning for the 156 people killed, including 26 foreigners, in the crowd crush on Saturday night when as many as 100,000 people crammed into the narrow streets of Itaewon to celebrate Halloween.

    Officials expected large numbers due to the popularity of the area for Halloween parties in pre-Covid years, but police have admitted they were unprepared for this year’s crowd.

    Alongside the shoes and bags were 156 miscellaneous items including hats and masks.

    Speaking to the media on Tuesday, Yoon Hee-keun, head of National Police Agency, bowed deeply as he began a press conference, admitting for the first time failings on the behalf of the police in the capital that night.

    Yoon said officers failed to adequately respond to the emergency calls that flooded into the police call center before the disaster.

    “The calls were about emergencies telling the danger and urgency of the situation that large crowds had gathered before the accident occurred,” Yoon said. “However, we think the police response to the 112 (emergency telephone number) calls was inadequate.”

    South Korean police received at least 11 calls from people in Itaewon about concerns of a possible crush as early as four hours before the incident occurred on Saturday night, records given to CNN by the National Police Agency show.

    The first call was made at 6:34 p.m. Saturday from a location near the Hamilton Hotel, which borders the alley where the deadly surge occurred, the records show.

    “People are going up and down the alley now, but it looks really dangerous. People can’t come down but people keep coming up (the alleyway), so I fear people might be crushed,” one caller said, according to the record.

    “I managed to get out, but it’s too crowded. I think you need to control this. Nobody is controlling (the crowd). I think police officers should be standing here and moving some people so that others can go through the alleyway. People cannot even go through but there are more people pouring down,” the caller added.

    Then at 8:09 p.m., another person in Itaewon reported that there were so many people in the area that they were falling over and getting hurt. The caller asked for traffic control, the record shows.

    The deadly crowd surge took place just after 10 p.m.

    The items included 258 articles of clothing.

    On Monday, Oh Seung-jin, director of the agency’s violent crime investigation division, said about 137 personnel had been deployed to Itaewon that night, compared to about 30 to 90 personnel in previous years before the pandemic.

    “For this time’s Halloween festival, because it was expected that many people would gather in Itaewon, I understand that it was prepared by putting in more police force than other years,” said Oh.

    However, police at the scene were tasked with cracking down on illegal activity such as drug taking and sexual abuse in the area “rather than on site control,” Oh said.

    Police walk among personal belongings retrieved from the scene of a fatal Halloween crowd surge.

    On Tuesday, South Korea’s Prime Minister Han Duck-soo said a “lack of institutional knowledge and consideration for crowd management” was partly to blame for the crowd crush.

    “One of the reasons was a lack of deep institutional knowledge and consideration for crowd management. However, the police are investigating,” Han said.

    “Even if more police were put in (to the site), there seems to have been a limit in the situation as we don’t have a crowd management system, but we’ll need to wait for the police investigation to find out the cause,” he added.

    screengrab will ripley walk and talk

    CNN reporter returns to Itaewon’s narrow alley one day after the Halloween disaster. See what’s it like

    At a Tuesday Cabinet meeting, President Yoon Suk Yeol urged the need to establish systems to prevent similar tragedies.

    “In addition to side streets where this time’s large disaster happened, (we) need to establish safety measures at stadiums, performance venues and etc. where crowds gather,” he said, adding that the government will hold a national safety system inspection meeting with relevant ministers and experts soon.

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  • What we know about India’s deadly bridge collapse | CNN

    What we know about India’s deadly bridge collapse | CNN

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    CNN
     — 

    The deaths of 135 people in the collapse of a cable suspension bridge in India’s western state of Gujarat is one of the worst public safety tragedies to hit the country in recent years.

    As authorities investigate the incident, questions have been raised about how the narrow walkway collapsed and the role of an electrical manufacturing company tasked with maintaining the colonial-era structure, which only reopened to the public last week after repairs.

    Here’s what we know.

    Some 200 people are estimated to have been on the bridge across the Machchhu River in the town of Morbi when it collapsed into the water below on October 30 at around 6:30 p.m. local time, according to Gujarat authorities.

    At least 30 children were among the 135 killed, officials said. It is unclear how many people remain missing and authorities have not released a figure for those injured.

    A 36-second video clip shared by the Morbi District Administration via CNN affiliate News-18 shows a large crowd of young men gathered on the bridge in the moments before it collapsed.

    The video appears to show some of the men shaking the bridge from side to side before the structure gives way, plunging the people standing on it into the river.

    Gujarat Home Minister Harsh Sanghavi said on October 31 that a cable appeared to have snapped.

    Photos from the aftermath show people gathering on the riverbank beside the mangled metal walkway, which hung at a sharp angle into the water.

    Survivors and witnesses of the deadly incident described scenes of chaos.

    “People were hanging from the bridge after the accident, but they slipped and fell into the river when it collapsed,” Raju, a witness who gave only one name, told Reuters. “I could not sleep the entire night as I had helped in the rescue operation. I brought a lot of children to the hospital.”

    Narendrasinh Jadeja, whose friend lost seven members of his family, including four children, told Reuters: “I cannot express how angry and helpless I am feeling.”

    Rescue personnel conduct search operations in Morbi, October 31, 2022.

    The Morbi Suspension Bridge was built during British rule around 1900 and is 230 meters (755 feet) long and just 1.25 meters (4 feet) wide.

    For decades, it’s been a popular tourist attraction in the riverside town, whose cobblestone streets carry the architectural legacy of colonial rule.

    The bridge was closed for six months of renovations in April, according to the managing director of Oreva, a Gujarat-based electrical appliances manufacturer that oversaw the maintenance work.

    At a reopening ceremony on October 26, the managing director told reporters the structure would not need any major work for “eight to 10 years,” according to a video of the event posted to social media.

    A shoe lies near a damaged suspension bridge in Morbi, India, November 1, 2022.

    A five-person special investigation committee has been established to investigate the incident, Gujarat Home Minister Sanghavi said on October 31.

    Search and recovery operations by hundreds of personnel from state and national disaster relief teams and the Indian military remain ongoing.

    Nine people have been arrested and are being investigated for culpable homicide charges, state police said on October 31. All of the suspects are associated with Oreva.

    They include two managers, two ticket clerks, two contractors and three security guards, according to senior police officer Ashok Kumar Yadav.

    Since the deadly incident, public scrutiny has turned to Oreva, a company based in Ahmedabad, Gujarat’s largest city.

    Oreva started out as a clockmaker before diversifying into electronics, according to its website, which describes the firm as the “World’s Largest Clock Manufacturing Company” and “one of the Major Brands in India.”

    CNN has reached out to Oreva several times, but has not received a response.

    Mourners take part in a funeral procession while carrying the coffins of victims who died after a bridge across the river Machchhu collapsed at Morbi in India's Gujarat state on October 31, 2022.

    Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi is expected to visit Morbi on November 1. Families of the victims will receive compensation from the Prime Minister’s National Relief Fund, he said.

    Gujarat Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel said the state government would provide the equivalent of about $5,000 in compensation per family of the deceased and about $600 each for the injured.

    Cremations of the victims are expected to begin on November 1.

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  • 4 dead, including 10-month-old baby girl, in Bronx house fire, NYPD says | CNN

    4 dead, including 10-month-old baby girl, in Bronx house fire, NYPD says | CNN

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    CNN
     — 

    Four people, including a 10-month-old baby girl, were killed in a fire at a home in the Bronx early Sunday morning, the New York Police Department said.

    New York Fire Department Assistant Chief Kevin Brennan said firefighters immediately began removing victims from the building after responding to a report of a fire at the residence just after 6 a.m ET.

    Two boys, aged 10 and 12, were declared dead at the scene by emergency service workers. The baby girl and a 22-year-old man were rushed to a nearby hospital where they were later pronounced dead, according to the NYPD

    Police have not publicly released the identities of those killed and the cause of the fire, which will be determined by the fire marshal, is under investigation, according to the NYPD.

    A 21-year-old woman and a 41-year-old man were seriously injured and are currently being treated at an area hospital, police said.

    Several firefighters also suffered minor injuries, the FDNY said.

    Due to the “heavy fire” on the first and second floor, the incident was upgraded to a second-alarm fire, prompting the response of more than 100 firefighters and EMS personnel, according to the FDNY.

    The fire comes months after New York Mayor Eric Adams signed an executive order in March on fire safety, after a separate fatal Bronx apartment building fire left 17 people dead in one of the deadliest fires in the city’s history.

    The executive order is designed to enhance fire safety enforcement, outreach efforts to educate New Yorkers, and identify safety violations, Adams announced in a news release at the time.

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  • At least 146 killed during incident at Halloween festivities in Seoul | CNN

    At least 146 killed during incident at Halloween festivities in Seoul | CNN

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    Seoul, South Korea
    CNN
     — 

    At least 146 people are now reported to have been killed during an incident at Halloween festivities in Seoul’s Itaewon neighborhood Saturday night, according to Choi Seong-bum, chief of the Yongsan-gu Fire Department.

    At least 150 others were also reported injured, the chief added.

    Authorities are still investigating exactly what caused the incident, but the fire chief said it was a “presumed stampede” and that many people fell, resulting in casualties. The chief said they received reports of people “buried” in crowds starting around 10:24 p.m. local time Saturday night.

    There was no gas leak nor fire on site, according to the chief. The cause of the deaths has not been confirmed.

    Earlier, the Yonhap News Agency reported that some people had suffered from “cardiac arrest,” attributing the statement to fire authorities. Emergency officials assisted at least 81 people in Seoul’s Itaewon neighborhood reporting “difficulty breathing.”

    Dozens of the injured were transferred to nearby hospitals, said Choi Jae-won, the head of Yongsan Health Center, adding that the death toll would likely increase.

    The Seoul city government is also receiving reports of missing people as there are many unidentified victims. The bodies of the victims are being transferred to multiple hospital mortuaries, according to authorities.

    A witness described a chaotic scene to CNN, saying he saw people jammed in a narrow street unable to breathe.

    “I saw people going to the left side and I saw the person getting to the opposite side. So, the person in the middle got jammed, so they had no way to communicate, they could not breathe,” Song Sehyun told CNN.

    Crowds are seen in the popular nightlife district of Itaewon in Seoul on October 30, 2022.

    Police closed off the area and social media videos showed people lying in the streets and on stretchers as first responders rendered aid.

    The fire chief said that more than 1,700 emergency response forces have been dispatched, including 517 firefighters, 1,100 police officials, and about 70 government workers.

    South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol sent a disaster medical assistance team to the Halloween incident, according to the presidential office.

    Emergency services treat injured people on October 30, 2022, in Seoul, South Korea.

    The president also ordered authorities to secure emergency beds in hospitals nearby and to implement swift rescue operations and treatment, presidential spokesman Lee Jae-Myung said in a briefing.

    Yoon was in an emergency meeting regarding the situation, the office said in a statement.

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  • Jerry Lee Lewis, rock ‘n’ roll pioneer who sang ‘Great Balls of Fire,’ dies at 87 | CNN

    Jerry Lee Lewis, rock ‘n’ roll pioneer who sang ‘Great Balls of Fire,’ dies at 87 | CNN

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    CNN
     — 

    Jerry Lee Lewis, the piano-pounding, foot-stomping singer who electrified early rock ‘n’ roll with hits like “Great Balls of Fire” and “Whole Lotta Shakin’ Goin’ On” before marital scandal derailed his career, has died, according to a statement from his representative, Zach Farnum. He was 87.

    Lewis passed away at his home in Desoto County, Mississippi, south of Memphis, the statement said. Farnum told CNN that Lewis died of “natural causes” when reached by phone.

    His seventh wife, Judith, was by his side when he died and Lewis “told her, in his final days, that he welcomed the hereafter, and that he was not afraid,” the statement added.

    Along with Chuck Berry, Elvis Presley and others, Lewis was one of the leading figures of the 1950s rock era and a master showman – nicknamed “The Killer” – whose raw, uninhibited performances drove young fans into spasmodic fits. 

    “I was born to be on a stage. I couldn’t wait to be on it. I dreamed about it. And I’ve been on one all my life,” Lewis said in “Jerry Lee Lewis: His Own Story,” a 2014 biography by Rick Bragg. “That’s where I’m the happiest.”  


    But offstage, the singer’s personal life was turbulent. Lewis was near the peak of his popularity in 1958 when the public learned that he had married Myra Gale Brown, his first cousin. She was 13 at the time; Lewis was 22. 

    News of the marriage leaked in London, where Lewis had flown to play some concerts. Lewis told the press that Myra was 15, but the truth soon came out and caused an outcry, as newspapers blared such headlines as “Fans Aghast at Child Bride.” Audiences heckled Lewis, and the tour was canceled after three shows. 

    Lewis continued to record and tour over the next decade, but his rockabilly music didn’t sell in the Beatles era and he couldn’t regain the popularity of his early years – until he made an unlikely comeback as a country singer.  

    Lewis was born in 1935 into a poor farming family in Ferriday, Louisiana. One of his cousins, Jimmy Swaggart, would go on to become a popular TV evangelist. Lewis’ website says he began playing the piano at age 9, aping the styles of preachers and Black musicians who passed through the region.

    After dropping out of school to focus on playing music, Lewis traveled in 1956 to Sun Studios in Memphis, where he quickly gained work as a session player for such budding stars as Carl Perkins and Johnny Cash. He also recorded with Elvis Presley.

    A December 1956 recording session with Lewis, Presley, Perkins and Cash – nicknamed the “Million Dollar Quartet” – became a seminal moment in rock history.

    By the following year, thanks to Top 5 hits like “Great Balls of Fire,” Lewis was internationally famous, even though his incendiary style and suggestive lyrics led some radio stations to boycott his songs.

    Then came the marriage scandal, and Lewis’ aura was never quite the same.

    After a decade of dwindling sales, he reinvented himself in the late 1960s as a country artist and revived his career, scoring a series of Top 10 country hits well into the Seventies.

    In 1989 “Great Balls of Fire!”, a biopic starring Dennis Quaid as Lewis, brought new attention to Lewis’ life and music. Lewis even recorded new versions of his hits for the soundtrack.

    But his personal life remained messy. He was married seven times and filed for bankruptcy in 1988, claiming he owed the IRS more than $2 million.

    He also battled alcoholism, drug addiction and other health problems for years. In one infamous 1976 episode, he was arrested at Graceland in the wee hours of the morning after drunkenly crashing his car into the mansion’s gates – with a loaded gun – while trying to visit Presley.

    “I ain’t no goody goody, and I ain’t no phony,” Lewis said in Bragg’s biography. “I never pretended to be anything, and anything I ever did, I did it wide-open as a case knife. I’ve lived my life to the fullest and I had a good time doin’ it.”

    In October, Lewis was inducted into Country Music Hall of Fame but was unable to attend the ceremony because he was ill with the flu, according to a statement posted to his social media.

    Lewis was raised in a strict, religious household and sometimes struggled to reconcile his faith in God with his love of rock ‘n’ roll, which conservative listeners in the 1950s condemned as “the devil’s music.” 

    He didn’t write many songs but was brilliant at reinterpreting others’ compositions with his infectious, boogie-woogie rhythms, which helped bring rockabilly music into the mainstream. 

    But his most enduring legacy may have been his unhinged piano-playing style, which influenced Elton John and many other musicians. During concerts Lewis banged the keys with his fists and elbows, kicked over his piano stool, climbed atop his instrument and once even set it on fire. 

    In this way, he showed that rock ‘n’ roll wasn’t just about the guitar. 

    In 1986, he joined a constellation of seminal figures – Berry, Presley, James Brown, Ray Charles, Sam Cooke, Fats Domino, Buddy Holly, Little Richard and the Everly Brothers – as the first group of artists inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. 

    Lewis lived most of his life on a ranch in northern Mississippi with a piano-shaped swimming pool. He never quite outran the scandal of marrying his young cousin. But to his fans, his infectious music and his fiery live shows made up for his personal transgressions. 

    Jerry Lee Lewis speaks at the Country Music Hall of Fame 2022 inductees presented by CMA at Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum on May 17, 2022 in Nashville, Tennessee.

    “I want to be remembered as a rock-n-roll idol, in a suit and tie or blue jeans and a ragged shirt, it don’t matter, as long as the people get that show. The show, that’s what counts. It covers up everything,” he told Bragg.   

    “Any bad thoughts anyone ever had about you goes away. ‘Is that the one that married that girl? Well, forget about it, let me hear that song.’” 

    Lewis is survived by his wife, Judith Coghlan Lewis, his children Jerry Lee Lewis III, Ronnie Lewis, Pheobe Lewis and Lori Lancaster, sister Linda Gail Lewis, cousin Swaggart and many grandchildren, nieces and nephews, according to his representative’s statement.

    Information on services will be announced in the coming days, the statement added.

    In lieu of flowers, the Lewis family requested donations be made in the singer’s honor to the Arthritis Foundation or MusiCares.

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  • 7 injured at a Missouri theme park after a train ride derails | CNN

    7 injured at a Missouri theme park after a train ride derails | CNN

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    CNN
     — 

    Several people were injured Wednesday at an amusement park in Branson, Missouri, after sections of a train ride derailed from the track, the park said.

    Six guests and one employee were transported by ambulance to get medical treatment, the Silver Dollar City theme park said in a statement on Twitter. The park did not detail the extent of the injuries.

    “Onsite paramedics provided emergency care until first responders arrived,” the park said.

    The Frisco Silver Dollar Line Steam Train brings guests on a scenic 20-minute ride through the countryside, interrupted by a theatrical “stick-up” by a band of train robbers, the park’s website says. The ride is billed as a staple of the park that has been in operation since 1962.

    Gary Eldridge and his family came to Silver Dollar City for the pumpkin festival and were riding in the last car of the train when it derailed, he told CNN.

    “We had just passed the part of the ride where they gave the moonshine skit,” Eldridge said. “We went around the next corner and the car in front of me acted like it hit a bump and started shaking real bad. It derailed and took the cars in front of it with it.”

    A video he took of the toppled train shows several bright red train cars flipped on their side, some with their wheels detached and sitting on the track.

    Eldridge’s family was in a car that didn’t flip and were unharmed, he said.

    “At this time, we are wholeheartedly focused on providing support for guests and team members in partnership with Stone County first responders,” the park statement said.

    Silver Dollar City has not commented on a possible cause of the accident.

    A dispatcher at the Stone County Sheriff’s Office declined to comment Wednesday.

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  • A 5.1 magnitude earthquake strikes near San Jose, US Geological Survey reports | CNN

    A 5.1 magnitude earthquake strikes near San Jose, US Geological Survey reports | CNN

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    CNN
     — 

    The US Geological Survey (USGS) is reporting a 5.1 magnitude earthquake in Seven Trees, near San Jose, California.

    Preliminary information from the USGS says the quake was 6.9 kilometers (4.2 miles) deep and hit around 11:42 a.m. PT Tuesday.

    “Additional shaking from aftershocks can be expected in the region. We are continuing to monitor this region,” the California Geological Survey tweeted.

    Earthquakes are measured using seismographs, which monitor the seismic waves that travel through the Earth after an earthquake strikes. Quakes between 2.5 and 5.4 in magnitude are often felt, but only cause minor damage, according to Michigan Tech’s UPSeis website.

    This is a developing story.

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  • Plane crash into multi-family home in New Hampshire kills 2 people on board, officials say | CNN

    Plane crash into multi-family home in New Hampshire kills 2 people on board, officials say | CNN

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    CNN
     — 

    A single-engine airplane crashed into a home Friday evening near an airport in New Hampshire, killing both people on board, officials said.

    Although parts of the multifamily home where eight people lived erupted in flames following the crash, no fatalities were reported on the ground.

    “There were no injuries at the multifamily building. Unfortunately, those on the plane have perished,” Keene officials said, describing the crash as an accident and saying emergency personnel was responding to the scene.

    The men who died were identified as Lawrence Marchiony, 41, of Baldwinville, Massachusetts, and Marvin David Dezendorf, 60, of Townshend, Vermont, according to the Keene Police Department.

    The Beechcraft Sierra aircraft crashed north of Keene Dillant-Hopkins Airport just before 7 p.m. Friday, the Federal Aviation Administration told CNN.

    “Last night at 6:48 p.m., the call came into 911, so our first responders responded to the call. It was a plane crash, a small plane that hit a multifamily building and started a subsequent fire that was declared out at 8:47 p.m.,” Mayor George Hansel said during a Saturday news conference.

    “The crash occurred right after departure from the Dillant-Hopkins Airport shortly after departure,” Hansel added.

    The mayor said the eight people who resided in the home were displaced and the Red Cross is helping to relocate them.

    The FAA and the National Transportation Safety Board are investigating the crash. The transportation safety board will oversee the investigation and release updates.

    “This incident is still under investigation, further information regarding the accident will be made public when it is released by the NTSB,” the City of Keene said in a news release posted to Facebook Monday.

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  • 2 students injured in school shooting in St. Louis, suspect in custody police say | CNN

    2 students injured in school shooting in St. Louis, suspect in custody police say | CNN

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    CNN
     — 

    Two students were injured in a shooting at Central Visual and Performing Arts High School in St. Louis on Monday morning, according to a tweet from the district, and police report the suspect is in custody.

    “Police are on site … following reports of an active shooter and both CVPA and Collegiate are on lockdown,” St. Louis Public Schools tweeted, referring to the adjacent Collegiate School of Medicine and Bioscience.

    The “shooter was quickly stopped by police inside CVPA,” the post said.

    The St. Louis Police Metropolitan Police Department reporting the active shooter on Twitter, and about 45 minutes later, tweeted, “At this time, the scene is secure and there is no active threat.”

    The high school is a magnet school about 6 miles southwest of downtown.

    Students were being evacuated from campus “to safe and secure sites,” the district said. People are being asked to avoid the area, and parents have been informed they can pick up their children at Gateway Stem High School, about a mile and a half north of CVPA.

    Word of the shooting comes on the same day Michigan teen Ethan Crumbley pleaded guilty to murder charges in a Michigan school shooting last year that left four people dead and seven injured. On November 1, Nikolas Cruz will be sentenced for the February 2018 shooting at Florida’s Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, where 17 people died.

    As the shooting in St. Louis was unfolding, a Michigan prosecutor addressed the nation’s gun violence in the wake of Crumbley’s guilty plea.

    “It’s not just about sharing with other departments. Gun violence is preventable. That’s what I’ve learned, and the fact that there is another school shooting does not surprise me – which is horrific,” Oakland County Prosecutor Karen McDonald said. “It is preventable, and we should never, ever allow that to be something we just should have to live with.”

    The FBI’s St. Louis field office is assisting local law enforcement in its response to the shooting, spokesperson Rebecca Wu said. The Kansas City, Missouri, field office for the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosive is assisting as well, spokesperson John Ham said in a statement.

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  • Start your week smart: China, Hurricane Roslyn, Boris Johnson, Red Bull, Jan. 6 | CNN

    Start your week smart: China, Hurricane Roslyn, Boris Johnson, Red Bull, Jan. 6 | CNN

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    CNN
     — 

    The 2022 midterm elections are now just weeks away, and with control of both chambers of Congress and dozens of governorships, secretaries of state and attorneys general posts on the line, it’s important to know both how and when to vote in your state. To help you plan your vote, CNN has gathered the deadlines for early in-person voting, absentee/mail-in voting and for voter registration in each of the 50 states leading up to Election Day on Tuesday, Nov. 8.

    Here’s what else you need to know to Start Your Week Smart.

    • Chinese leader Xi Jinping has formally stepped into his norm-breaking third term ruling China with an iron grip on power as he revealed a new leadership team today stacked with loyal allies.

    • Hurricane Roslyn slammed into Mexico’s Pacific coast as a major Category 3 storm today, bringing dangerous storm surge and flooding to parts of the country, forecasters said. 

    • Boris Johnson is trying to win enough support to make what would be a stunning comeback as Britain’s prime minister, as senior Conservative politicians declared their support for former finance minister Rishi Sunak. The two men have become the early favorites to replace Liz Truss, who announced her resignation last week.

    • Dietrich Mateschitz, the owner and co-founder of the sports drink company Red Bull, has died, the company announced Saturday. He was 78. As well as turning his energy drink into a market leader, the Austrian billionaire also founded one of the most successful Formula One teams in recent history.

    • The House select committee investigating the January 6, 2021, attack on the US Capitol announced on Friday that the panel has officially sent a subpoena to former President Donald Trump as it paints him as the central figure in the multi-step plan to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election.

    Monday

    Opening statements are scheduled to begin in the sexual assault trial of disgraced movie producer Harvey Weinstein in Los Angeles. Weinstein, 70, was convicted of first-degree criminal sexual act and third-degree rape charges in New York more than two years ago and sentenced to 23 years in prison. In Los Angeles, Weinstein faces multiple sexual assault charges that he pleaded not guilty to last year.

    Diwali, the Hindu celebration known as the “Festival of Lights,” also begins on Monday. New York City Mayor Eric Adams announced last week that Diwali will be a public school holiday starting in 2023.

    Tuesday

    A Moscow regional court has set October 25 as an appeal date for WNBA star Brittney Griner. Griner was sentenced to nine years of jail time in early August for deliberately smuggling drugs into Russia. She was arrested with less than 1 gram of cannabis oil in her luggage at Moscow’s Sheremetyevo International Airport on February 17.

    In what has become one of the most closely watched Senate contests in the country, Pennsylvania Democratic Senate nominee John Fetterman and Republican candidate Mehmet Oz will face each other in a televised debate in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. Fetterman, who had a near-fatal stroke more than five months ago, has faced a number of questions about transparency surrounding his health and recovery.  Fetterman’s primary care physician released a medical report earlier this month stating that the candidate is “recovering well from his stroke” and “has no work restrictions and can work full duty in public office.”

    Wednesday

    Hillary Clinton – former secretary of state and 2016 Democratic nominee for President – turns 75.

    Saturday

    October 29 is National Cat Day. “Meh,” said cats …

    Hear a story of Iranian resistance

    In this week’s One Thing podcast, CNN Chief International Investigative Correspondent Nima Elbagir joins us from Northern Iraq, where some Iranian dissidents have fled a brutal crackdown in response to nationwide protests set off by the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini. We explore if these protests will bring lasting change and hear from one Iranian-Kurdish activist who is now taking up arms across the border. Listen here. 

    British Prime Minister Liz Truss announces her resignation in front of 10 Downing Street in London on Thursday, October 20.” class=”image_gallery-image__dam-img”/>

    Ukrainian firefighters search for survivors after <a href=a drone attack in Kyiv, Ukraine, on Monday, October 17. A wave of drone attacks pummeled the capital city early Monday as commuters headed to work.” class=”image_gallery-image__dam-img”/>

    Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock gestures next to an empty podium set up for Republican challenger Herschel Walker, who was invited but did not attend, during a Senate debate with Libertarian challenger Chase Oliver in Atlanta on Sunday, October 16.

    Tennessee Volunteers fans tear down the goal post after storming the field when their team defeated the Alabama Crimson Tide in Knoxville, Tennessee, on Saturday, October 15. Tennessee <a href=ended a 15-game losing streak against Alabama. They won 52-49 with a last second 40-yard field goal.” class=”image_gallery-image__dam-img”/>

    The Diamond Lady, a once majestic riverboat, rests with smaller boats in mud along the Mississippi River in Memphis, Tennessee, on Wednesday, October 19. Severe drought across the Midwest has shrunk the<a href= Mississippi to record lows.” class=”image_gallery-image__dam-img”/>

    Chinese leader Xi Jinping delivers a speech during the opening session of the<a href= 20th Communist Party Congress at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing on Sunday, October 16. Xi is poised to secure a norm-breaking third term in power.” class=”image_gallery-image__dam-img”/>

    The SpaceX Crew Dragon Freedom spacecraft is seen <a href=as it splashes down off the coast of Jacksonville, Florida, on Friday, October 14, with European Space Agency astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti and NASA astronauts Kjell Lindgren, Robert Hines and Jessica Watkins. They are returning after 170 days aboard the International Space Station.” class=”image_gallery-image__dam-img”/>

    Steph Curry of the Golden State Warriors takes a shot against Los Angeles Lakers guard Patrick Beverley during the second half of a game at Chase Center in San Francisco on Tuesday, October 18. The Warriors won 123-109.

    Protesters stand in the smoke of flares during a demonstration in Marseille, France, on Tuesday, October 18. France is in the grip of transport strikes that have sparked chronic gasoline shortages around the country.

    David Zabala, an 8-year-old boy with cerebral palsy, is assisted by a physical therapist and his mother, Guadalupe Cardozo Ruiz, during a rehabilitation session with the robotic exoskeleton Atlas 2030 in Mexico City on Tuesday, October 18.

    Ryan Reaves of the New York Rangers punches Marcus Foligno of the Minnesota Wild during a NHL hockey game in St. Paul, Minnesota, on Thursday, October 13.

    This image released by NASA on Wednesday, October 19, was captured by the <a href=James Webb Space Telescope. It shows a highly detailed view of the Pillars of Creation, a vista of three looming towers made of interstellar dust and gas that’s speckled with newly formed stars. The area, which lies within the Eagle Nebula about 6,500 light-years from Earth, had previously been captured by the Hubble Telescope in 1995, creating an image deemed “iconic” by space observers.” class=”image_gallery-image__dam-img”/>

    A shearer sharpens his tool in Semonkong, Lesotho, on Friday, October 14. Wool and mohair are some of the main exports of Lesotho.

    Soldiers of the Swiss special forces command perfom, suspended from an helicopter, over the Axalp in the Bernese Oberland on Wednesday, October 19. At an altitude of 2,200 meters above sea level, spectators attended a unique aviation display performed at the highest air force firing range in Europe.

    First-year students of the University of St. Andrews kiss as they take part in the annual

    Actor Kevin Spacey leaves court in New York on Thursday, October 20. The jury on Thursday afternoon <a href=found him not liable for battery on allegations he picked up actor Anthony Rapp and briefly laid on top of him in a bed after a party in 1986. Jurors deliberated for about an hour and concluded Rapp did not prove that Spacey “touched a sexual or intimate part” of him.” class=”image_gallery-image__dam-img”/>

    Houston Astros catcher Martin Maldonado breaks his bat on a ground out against the New York Yankees during Game 1 of the American League Championship Series in Houston, Texas, on Wednesday, October 19. The Astros won 4-2.

    Police carry a woman across a flooded street in El Castano, Venezuela, on Tuesday, October 18.

    Turtle hatchlings head to the sea after being released on the beach of Sipacate, Guatemala, on Wednesday, October 19.

    Demonstrators are sprayed with water cannons in Santiago, Chile, during clashes with riot police that erupted on Tuesday, October 18, the third anniversary of a social uprising against rising utility prices.

    French President Emmanuel Macron waves goodbye on Wednesday, October 19, after visiting the Grand Mosque of Paris to commemorate 100 years since it was built.

    People ride in boats across floodwaters in Dadu, Pakistan, on Tuesday, October 18. Last month, authorities in Pakistan <a href=warned it could take up to six months for the water to recede in the wake of the country’s “unprecedented” flooding.” class=”image_gallery-image__dam-img”/>

    An aerial view of a tidal flat forms into a shape resembling a tree in the Qiantang River in Zhejiang, China, on Monday, October 17.

    Saul, 4, wipes the tears of his father, Franklin Pajaro, in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, after the two were <a href=expelled from the United States on Monday, October 17.” class=”image_gallery-image__dam-img”/>

    A drone flies over the Kyiv sky during an attack on Monday, October 17. Russian forces struck Ukraine with a flurry of <a href=deadly drone attacks.” class=”image_gallery-image__dam-img”/>

    Roddy Ricch performs in Nashville, Tennessee, on Sunday, October 16.

    An Andean condor named Yastay, meaning god that is protector of birds, spreads his wings after being freed by a conservation program in Rio Negro, Argentina, on Friday, October 14. Yastay was born in captivity and spent almost three years with the conservation program.

    King Charles III shakes hands with a boy in Aberdeen, Scotland, on Monday, October 17, while visiting refugee families from Afghanistan, Syria and Ukraine who have settled in the town.

    Jose Ramirez of the Cleveland Guardians dives safely into third base during an American League Division Series baseball game against the New York Yankees on Friday, October 14. Cleveland won the game 4-2 but lost the series to New York in five games.

    Two hundred teddy bears wearing suits are displayed outside a Thom Browne shop in Shanghai, China, on Wednesday, October 19. <a href=See last week in 32 photos.” class=”image_gallery-image__dam-img”/>


    Check out more moving, fascinating and thought-provoking images from the week that was, curated by CNN Photos.

    TV and streaming

    The season finale of “House of the Dragon,” the “Game of Thrones” prequel that takes place almost 200 years before the events of its predecessor, airs tonight at 9 p.m. ET/PT on HBO. (HBO, like CNN, is a unit of Warner Bros. Discovery.)

    “Guillermo del Toro’s Cabinet of Curiosities” makes its debut on Netflix Tuesday. The new horror anthology promises “eight tales of terror” curated by the Oscar-winning director of “The Shape of Water.”

    “The Good Nurse,” starring Oscar winners Eddie Redmayne and Jessica Chastain, tells the story of an infamous caregiver implicated in the deaths of hundreds of hospital patients. It begins streaming on Netflix Wednesday.

    “All Quiet on the Western Front,” based on the classic World War I novel, arrives on Netflix Friday.

    Baseball

    Four teams remain in the battle to reach the 2022 World Series, which begins on Friday. Later today, the San Diego Padres face the Philadelphia Phillies in Game 5 of the National League Championship Series. On Saturday, the Phillies beat the Padres to take a 3-1 lead in the series. The Houston Astros, meanwhile, play the New York Yankees tonight in Game 4 of the American League Championship Series. Houston leads that series 3-0.

    Take CNN’s weekly news quiz to see how much you remember from the week that was! So far, 66% of fellow quiz fans have gotten eight or more questions right. How will you fare?

    ‘Beautiful’

    A lot has changed about the world in the last 20 years, but Christina Aguilera still thinks you’re beautiful – despite what social media sometimes tells us. Watch the updated version of her “Beautiful” music video released last week that takes aim at the messages often delivered through social media that have negative effects on our body image and mental health. (Click here to view)

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  • Hurricane Roslyn makes landfall in Mexico with ‘life-threatening storm surge’ | CNN

    Hurricane Roslyn makes landfall in Mexico with ‘life-threatening storm surge’ | CNN

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    CNN
     — 

    Hurricane Roslyn slammed into west-central Mexico on Sunday morning, “bringing damaging winds, a life-threatening storm surge and flooding rains,” forecasters said.

    Roslyn made landfall around 7:20 a.m. ET near Santa Cruz in northern Nayarit state.

    The major hurricane whipped maximum sustained winds of 120 mph, the Miami-based National Hurricane Center said. A “major hurricane” is one that has maximum sustained winds of at least 111 mph.

    As of 8 a.m. ET Sunday, Roslyn was about 90 kilometers (55 miles) northwest of Tepic, Mexico. It was moving north-northeast at 26 kph (16 mph).

    CNN Weather

    “Roslyn is expected to produce a life-threatening storm surge with significant coastal flooding in areas of onshore winds through today,” the hurricane center said Sunday.

    “Near the coast, the surge will be accompanied by large and destructive waves,” forecasters said. And swells are likely to cause “life-threatening surf and rip current conditions.”

    hurricane roslyn rain 102322

    CNN Weather

    But there’s a bit of good news for residents who live inland. “Now that Roslyn has made landfall, rapid weakening is expected as the hurricane moves farther inland,” the hurricane center said.

    Roslyn formed off the western coast of Mexico and its sustained wind speed increased by 60 mph in a 24-hour period from Friday to Saturday morning – a rapid intensification.

    The hurricane has been tracking similarly to Hurricane Orlene, which made landfall October 3 just north of the Nayarit-Sinaloa border.

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  • Opinion: For years, I was insulated from the effects of climate change. Evacuating my home was a rude awakening | CNN

    Opinion: For years, I was insulated from the effects of climate change. Evacuating my home was a rude awakening | CNN

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    Editor’s Note: This essay is part of the CNN Opinion series “America’s Future Starts Now,” in which people share how they have been affected by the biggest issues facing the nation and experts offer their proposed solutions. Katherine Keel is a former Division 1 swimmer who moved to Colorado shortly after graduating from the University of North Carolina with a journalism degree. She is currently training to be a paramedic. The views expressed in this commentary are hers. View more opinion at CNN.



    CNN
     — 

    The first time I was evacuated was the summer of 2018. I crammed the last of my stuff into the back of the truck and looked across the street. Flames crested the top of the hill, licking the sky and threatening to descend on the community below. Strong gusts of wind rattled my blinds, and cars pulled over on the side of the road to watch the nightmarish scene. It was the 4th of July, but that year no one was celebrating.

    Climate change has played a significant role in my daily life since moving to the mountain town of Basalt, Colorado, five years ago. Major roads close regularly due to flooding and mudslides, cutting off our town from the resources of the city. Most summers, smoke inhalation is an inevitable part of recreating outdoors, and it’s become commonplace to check the air quality index daily to see if it’s safe.

    I’ve taken up fly fishing as a hobby, and Colorado Parks and Wildlife advises anglers to refrain from fishing when the water temperature in our rivers hits 67 degrees – as it places high stress on the fish. Tourism is down when snow totals are low in the winter, which affects a major source of income for my rural community.

    And then there are the wildfires.

    I remember my eyes were glued to the rearview mirror as I drove away from my house on July 4, 2018. Eerie orange flames seemed to grow taller and taller on the hillside behind me. The smoke hung heavy in the air the next morning, stinging my eyes and making it hard to breathe – even with a mask – as I walked into the grocery store. There was a somber tone in the valley, and a very palpable fear in everyone’s eyes.

    While my home was spared, there have been wildfires in the area nearly every summer since 2018 that remind me just how treacherous climate change can be.

    We’ve all heard scientists and experts warn of the dangers of a warming world. From as far back as I can remember, I’ve been taught and encouraged to recycle, pick up trash and conserve water. From the Earth Day parades in elementary school, to the “reuse, reduce, recycle” trends of recent years, I’ve always been a big proponent of protecting the planet. But it didn’t really hit home until more recently.

    I lived in a city for most of my life and, for many years, I felt largely immune to climate change. While I knew it was happening, I was protected from the immediate impacts. I’d turn on the TV and see climate disasters happening all over the world, and yet my daily life was largely uninterrupted.

    That changed pretty soon after I moved to the mountains and had to evacuate from the Lake Christine Fire. While the fire was started by incendiary ammunition, my town, like much of the state, was experiencing severe drought conditions that propelled the fire across 12,000 acres with dried grass, brush and trees as kindling.

    As a community, we rallied. We supported the firefighters and first responders day in and day out, from making sandwiches to providing housing and everything in between. I’d only lived in the Roaring Fork Valley for a year but felt deeply connected to my community in a way that was surprising. Tragedy will create bonds, regardless of background, ethnicity or political affiliation. The question is how much more we can take before we speak up, take action and demand more from our elected officials.

    And it’s not just me, or my small town in Colorado. Extreme weather events are becoming more commonplace in every corner of the globe. This summer, an intense heat wave in Europe set record high temperatures, and fires broke out in the UK, France, Spain, Italy and Greece. Ice shelves in Antarctica are crumbling faster than they can be replaced, and losses are double what was initially estimated by scientists in 1997.

    Hurricane Fiona ravaged Puerto Rico before it made landfall in Canada as a severe tropical storm. Historic floods in Pakistan affected 33 million people and left a third of the country underwater. Closer to home, the Marshall Fire in Boulder was the most destructive in Colorado history in terms of structures lost.

    And these are just some events from this past year.

    Moving to a small town has opened my eyes to the dramatic effects of a changing world. And there are lasting reminders – more than four years later, the burn scar from the Lake Christine Fire is still visible on the landscape whenever I drive down Highway 82.

    Climate change has an economic impact as well. In the 2017-2018 season, snow totals were so low that our mountains couldn’t fully open all of the ski runs, and many employees who worked in hospitality were forced to take a two week “mandatory vacation.”

    Climate change has become an undeniable fact of life in this area, and our safety, livelihoods and wellbeing are at stake.

    Unfortunately, if we continue the way we’re headed … it’s just the beginning.

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  • More than 600 killed in Nigeria’s worst flooding in a decade | CNN

    More than 600 killed in Nigeria’s worst flooding in a decade | CNN

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    CNN
     — 

    The death toll from the worst flooding Nigeria has seen in a decade has passed 600 people, the country’s humanitarian affairs ministry tweeted on Sunday.

    According to the ministry, more than 2 million people have been affected by flooding that has spread across parts of the country’s south after a particularly wet rainy season.

    More than 200,000 homes have been completely or partially damaged, the ministry added.

    Earlier this month, Nigeria’s National Emergency Management Agency warned of catastrophic flooding for states located along the courses of the Niger and Benue rivers, noting that three of Nigeria’s overfilled reservoirs were expected to overflow. NEMA said the release of excess water from a dam in neighboring Cameroon had contributed to the flooding.

    While many parts of Nigeria are prone to yearly floods, flooding in certain areas has been more severe than the last major floods in 2012, a Red Cross official in Kogi told CNN last week.

    NASA images show decimating reach of worst flood this region has seen in a decade

    Nigeria’s Minister of Humanitarian Affairs Sadiya Umar Farouq warned Sunday that more flooding was likely and urged regional governments to prepare accordingly.

    “We are calling on the respective State Governments, Local Government Councils and Communities to prepare for more flooding by evacuating people living on flood plains to high grounds, provide tents and relief materials, fresh water as well as medical supplies for a possible outbreak of water-borne diseases,” the ministry of humanitarian affairs said on Twitter Sunday.

    The country will soon implement its National Flood Emergency Preparedness and Response Plan, aimed at improving coordination of the flood response efforts.

    According to the ministry, “relief has gone to every state of the federation,” and “many state governments did not prepare for the floods.”

    A delegation organized by the ministry will be visiting state governors across the country to suggest strengthening states’ flood response mechanisms.

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