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Tag: iab-disasters

  • Communities face major destruction after large tornadoes tear through the South and Midwest, leaving at least 24 dead | CNN

    Communities face major destruction after large tornadoes tear through the South and Midwest, leaving at least 24 dead | CNN

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    CNN
     — 

    Devastated communities across the American South and Midwest are digging through debris Sunday after ferocious storms and tornadoes this weekend left at least 24 people dead and leveled neighborhoods, as parts of the Southern Plains brace for the possibility of their own round of severe weather later in the afternoon.

    The outbreak that walloped the country Friday spawned more than 50 tornado reports in at least seven states, where tornadoes crushed homes and businesses, ripped roofs off buildings, splintered trees and sent vehicles flying.

    Deaths have been confirmed across a wide swath of states, with multiple victims reported in Arkansas, Tennessee and Indiana, where the death toll rose after the Indiana Department of Natural Resources confirmed in a news release that two people had died at a campground in McCormick’s Creek State Park in Owen County.

    At least four people are dead in Wynne, Arkansas – a community about 50 miles west of the state’s border with Tennessee – where the storm peeled the turf off a high school’s football field. At least seven people died after two back-to-back lines of storms hit McNairy County, Tennessee, where the storm “crossed our county completely from one side to the other,” Sheriff Guy Buck told CNN Saturday evening as authorities continued to search collapsed buildings.

    Among the other deaths were four people killed in Illinois, including one person who died after the roof of the Apollo Theatre in Belvidere collapsed Friday while more than 200 people were inside, injuring more than two dozen others, according to the city’s fire chief. Three more people were reported dead in Crawford County, Illinois, in the collapse of a residential structure, according to the Illinois Emergency Management Agency.

    Elswhere, three people were reported dead near Sullivan, Indiana, per state police. State and local officials also reported one person dead in each of the following places: North Little Rock, Arkansas; Madison County, Alabama; and Pontotoc County, Mississippi. Finally, the storm system left another person dead in Delaware’s Sussex County after a structure collapsed, according to the county’s emergency operations center.

    The latest spate of damaging weather across the South and Midwest comes just a week after a severe tornado-spawning storm walloped the Southeast, killing at least another 26 people and destroying much of Rolling Fork, Mississippi.

    On Sunday, the threat will shift to the Southern Plains, where nearly 13 million people in north Texas, including the Dallas-Fort Worth area, face an enhanced – or level 3 of 5 – risk for severe weather in the later afternoon or early evening hours, according to the Storm Prediction Center.

    “Several tornadoes are possible, a couple of which may be strong,” the center said in an update Sunday, adding there was a 10 percent or greater probability of tornadoes between EF-2 and EF-5 strength within 25 miles around the Dallas-Fort Worth metropolitan area.

    Scattered severe thunderstorms are expected across central to northeast Texas between 2 p.m. and 11 p.m. CT, the Storm Prediction Center said. Hail the size of golf balls or larger could also pose a threat.

    The governors of Indiana, Iowa, Illinois and Arkansas all announced emergency or disaster declarations in their states to help free up immediate assistance for impacted counties, and on Sunday, President Joe Biden issued a major disaster declaration for Arkansas.

    The federal declaration frees up federal resources, per the White House, to aid those impacted in Cross County, Lonoke County and Pulaski County, which encompasses the city of Little Rock, where heavy damage but no fatalities had been reported as of Saturday afternoon.

    The National Weather Service reported that an EF-3 tornado had roared through Pulaski and Lonoke counties in Arkansas with estimated peak winds of 165 mph.

    Efforts are now focused on recovery and rebuilding, Little Rock Mayor Frank Scott Jr. said. Nearly 2,600 structures in Little Rock were impacted and around 50 people were sent to hospitals, according to the mayor.

    “It’s unbelievable anytime that you see, literally, vehicles flying across the air, structures being flattened,” the mayor said. “Many people were not at their homes. If they were, it would have been a massacre,” Scott Jr. told CNN.

    An aerial view of destroyed homes in the aftermath of a tornado in Little Rock, Arkansas, Saturday.

    In addition to leaving trails of destruction, storms have also knocked out power to battered communities. More than 30,000 customers in Arkansas remained impacted by outages as of Sunday morning, according to PowerOutage.US, with hundreds of thousands more without power across the South and Northeast, including 120,000 in Pennsylvania and 73,000 in Ohio.

    The severe weather left Wynne, Arkansas, “basically cut in half by damage from east to west,” said Mayor Jennifer Hobbs, who watched the twister as it approached from a distance.

    “I don’t know how to put it into words. It was devastating. It’s much different seeing it firsthand than it is when you see it on TV hit other communities,” Hobbs said.

    Some houses in Wynne – home to about 8,000 residents – were completely crushed into piles of wood while others had their roofs ripped off, exposing the interiors of homes littered with storm debris, drone footage provided to CNN shows.

    “We have a lot of families that are completely devastated. Have no home at all, no belongings survived,” the mayor added.

    Janice Pieterick and her husband, Donald Lepczyk, were in their RV in Hohenwald, Tennessee, when they got the alert of an incoming tornado and rushed to her daughter’s home across the yard, CNN affiliate WTVF reported. The tornado hit minutes later.

    The family hurried into the bathroom where they huddled together as the storm roared outside.

    “We made her and the kids get into the bathtub because that’s supposed to be the safest place. And we just all hunkered down because all the doors blew out. Double doors in the front, double doors in the back, all the glass in the windows. It all blew out at once,” Pieterick said.

    Pieterick said the whole house shook. “You can literally feel it moving. Lifting up. That’s when we thought we were going, too,” she said.

    In nearby McNairy County, Sheriff Buck said the death toll could have been much higher if residents had not heeded early warnings and sought out proper shelter.

    “Had they not, looking at the devastation that we had, our death toll could have been in the hundreds,” Buck said. “The power of mother nature is something not to be underestimated.”

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  • California’s salmon fishers warn of ‘hard times coming’ as they face canceled season | CNN

    California’s salmon fishers warn of ‘hard times coming’ as they face canceled season | CNN

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    CNN
     — 

    Sarah Bates, the captain of a fishing boat in San Francisco, had a feeling something was wrong with the chinook salmon population back in December.

    “The fish weren’t coming up the river, and to a certain extent, we were just waiting,” Bates, 46, told CNN. “We thought the run was late. And then at some point, it just became clear that fish weren’t coming.”

    But she and other fishermen weren’t sure how bad it could be. It later turned out that catchers along much of the West Coast likely won’t be fishing for salmon at all this year.

    “Salmon is my livelihood. It’s my main fishery,” she said. “And it’s the main fishery for a lot of folks in Fisherman’s Wharf. So, I think there are a lot of us that have some hard times coming.”

    In early March, West Coast regulators announced that they may recommend a ban on salmon fishing this year. It would be only the second time salmon fishing season has been canceled in California.

    The looming ban comes as the West sees a massive decline in fish populations following a blistering, multiyear drought that drained reservoirs and dehydrated much of the land, particularly in California.

    The potential closure, which the Pacific Fishery Management Council is discussing in a multi-day meeting that began Saturday, would affect tens of thousands of people like Bates who depend on salmon fishing for their economic livelihood. It will also upset thousands of Californians who enjoy recreational fishing during the summer.

    The council, which manages fisheries off the Pacific Coast and advises the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) on potential bans like this one, had previously recommended three options for this year – but all of them would result in a cancellation of the salmon fishing season through at least next spring.

    These are necessary measures, according to California and Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife officials, to protect the dwindling Chinook salmon populations, which scientists say have fallen to their lowest levels in recent years due to rampant dam construction as well as climate change-fueled droughts.

    “The outlook is really bad,” Ben Enticknap, Pacific campaign manager and senior scientist with Oceana, told CNN.

    Chinook salmon smolts tumble into net pens for acclimation and transportation in the Sacramento River at Rio Vista, California, on March 26, 2015.

    Beginning their lives in freshwater systems, then traveling out to the salty ocean and back again to their spawning grounds, Pacific salmon face a variety of dangers.

    Manmade dams, which were built decades ago and are prolific on Oregon and California rivers, prevent many salmon species from swimming back to their spawning grounds. Large swaths of wetlands and other estuaries, where smaller fish can feed and find refuge, have also been plagued by infrastructure development.

    Then there are the consequences of the climate crisis: Warmer water temperatures and drought-fueled water shortages in rivers and streams can kill salmon eggs and juvenile fish.

    Michael Milstein, a spokesperson for NOAA Fisheries, also said the models that many scientists use to forecast salmon returns and fishing success “appear to be getting less accurate.”

    “They have been overestimating returning salmon numbers and underestimating the number caught,” Milstein told CNN. “That has further complicated the picture. Since the models are based on past experience, they struggle with conditions we have not seen before.”

    In late 2022, one of California’s driest years on record, estimates show that the Sacramento River chinook returned to the Central Valley at near-record-low numbers. Meanwhile, the Klamath River, which flows from Oregon to California, had the second-lowest forecast for chinook salmon since 1997, when the current assessment method started.

    Cassandra Lozano lifts a dead fall-run Chinook salmon from the Sacramento River while conducting a survey of carcasses in January.

    State and federal scientists forecast that less than 170,000 adult salmon will return to the Sacramento River this year – one of the lowest forecasts since 2008, which was the only other time the salmon season was closed. They also estimate that less than 104,000 will likely return to the Klamath River.

    “Climate change is expected to be detrimental to Pacific salmon populations at every life stage,” Enticknap said. “We know that the salmon need cold and clean freshwater for spawning and for growth, and that climate change and this megadrought have decreased water flows and increased river temperatures in a way that’s lethal for salmon.”

    The US Bureau of Reclamation, which controls some of the dams in the Klamath River, announced in February that it would cut flows on the river due to historic lows from the drought, prompting concerns it would kill salmon further downstream.

    “There’s a lot at stake with the Pacific salmon in the West; they’ve been so important to communities as a source of food, and when that’s at risk, those communities and cultures are at risk,” Enticknap added. “There’s also so many species of wildlife that depend on healthy populations. They’re the backbone of the ecosystem here.”

    The $1.4 billion salmon fishing industry provides 23,000 jobs to California’s economy, and businesses that rely on large salmon populations have been particularly devastated, according to the Golden State Salmon Association.

    “When someone catches a salmon, it’s really an emotional experience because the fish is so magnificent,” Andy Guiliano, a 59-year-old owner of a charter boat company, told CNN. “People really have a connection with the salmon.”

    In the past 52 years, the family-owned business Fish Emeryville has chartered patrons to fish for chinook salmon. Guiliano said salmon fishing is what reels in roughly 50% of the business’ revenue.

    Angelo Guiliano holds a freshly caught Chinook salmon. His father, Andy, runs charter fishing expeditions for recreational salmon fishing in Emeryville, California.

    During the ban, Guiliano said, he and other fishermen would have to make do with other fish, though he emphasized that nothing can compete with the revenue that salmon brings in.

    “It’s a poor second tier. It won’t sustain the amount of effort and it is not a replacement,” Guiliano said. “We might get 10 to 15 % [of business] back.”

    While the megadrought largely contributed to the downfall in salmon numbers, some fishing groups blame the way California distributes its water.

    “The shutdown we are seeing now is completely avoidable,” said John McManus, the senior policy director of the Golden State Salmon Association. “Decisions made during the drought deprived salmon of the water that they need to survive. By doing so, they took away our livelihood.”

    Jordan Traverso, a spokesperson for the California Department of Fish and Wildlife, said water management is part of the salmon strategy. But Traverso argues that water policy in California is much more complex, underscoring concerns with regards to agriculture and pointing to the rapidly warming climate.

    “Recent decisions about agriculture aren’t the reason for low numbers because these fish are returning from the ocean voyage as part of their journey,” Traverso told CNN. “Climate disruption is causing strings of dry years and hotter temperatures, shrinking salmon habitat and eliminating the space for them to rebound.”

    The rivers in the middle of California are largely diverted to agriculture. The result is that these rivers are not cold enough for salmon to reproduce and not high enough to help baby salmon swim back to the ocean.

    “We have major issues with barriers to passage in their historic habitat, with dams preventing them from utilizing hundreds of miles of it,” Traverso said.

    The chain reaction from the announcement has already affected a huge swath of business, from bait shops to restaurants that put salmon on the table.

    Another main fishery in California is the Dungeness crab. Here, men can be seen unloading the crabs from fishing boats for Water2Table, Joe Conte's fish distribution company.

    “San Francisco is all about the two iconic California fisheries, which are Dungeness crab and our local king salmon,” Joe Conte, owner of Water2Table, a fish distribution company, told CNN. He said he has been delivering to some of the best restaurants in the Bay Area for more than a decade.

    “It’s disastrous for the fishermen and for us on the pier,” Conte added.

    To meet needs, fishermen can dip into other species, but they run the risk of depleting those populations as well, as they did in 2008.

    “We know exactly what’s going to happen,” Guiliano said. “We saw an enormous amount of effort on the California halibut inside of San Francisco Bay. And then there was four or five years following where the fishery was really poor.”

    Up north in the Klamath River basin, the impact is taking an additional emotional and cultural toll on Native Americans. The Karuk, Hoop and Yurok tribes, in particular, have long fished for the chinook for subsistence. Other fish along the basin like the two endangered native suckerfish – the C’waam and Koptu – are also under threat.

    While some tribes have set their own catch limits, others have made the tough decision to stop their hunting and fishing in hopes of the species’ recovery.

    But as planet-warming pollution rises in the atmosphere, the impacts on biodiversity are ubiquitous. Without salmon, which are a keystone species, other wildlife that depend on it will suffer.

    Last month, the West Coast fishery managers held a public hearing to allow stakeholders to comment on the proposed cancellation.

    What’s surprising, experts say, is that many fishermen support the closure to save the dwindling salmon population, noting that they need every fish to come back to the river.

    “One striking thing is that the fishing community – the commercial fleet and recreational fishing groups – have largely supported the closure of the salmon season,” Milstein said. “That has been apparent in the public comments at the council and elsewhere. They argue that they should not be fishing when the stocks have declined to this level.”

    On the Klamath River, salmon recovery efforts are underway. After a decadeslong campaign by tribal organizers, the federal government in 2022 approved the removal of four dams there. The first dam is set to come down this summer; the rest will be removed by 2024.

    In late 2022, one of California's driest years on record, estimates show that the Sacramento River chinook returned to the Central Valley at near-record-low numbers.

    And there are also “hopeful” signs of rebound, Enticknap said. The recent barrage of storms that pummeled the West has replenished drought-stricken rivers and reservoirs and alleviated arid conditions in California, providing somewhat of a relief for fisheries.

    “We’re hoping that this is going to help salmon populations get back on track and that it’s not an anomaly – in that, this happens once and then we slip back into a drought,” Enticknap added. “My concern right now is that with climate change we’re expecting hotter conditions and more drought and marine heatwaves, where it’s ultimately worse for salmon.”

    Despite the recent onslaught of rain and snow, advocates say they need federal and state officials to implement fair water allocations, since the fishing industry would have to compete with larger California markets like agriculture for the same water supply.

    Although Bates says she is still digesting the new reality they’re facing, she remains hopeful.

    “Don’t waste a crisis, right?” Bates said. “This is a forced opportunity, but it is an opportunity nonetheless, to fix some things that have been broken in California for a long time … so I am somewhat optimistic that this is not the end. It’s just a chapter in the middle.”

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  • 1 dead, at least 28 injured after roof collapses at the Apollo Theatre in Illinois following dangerous storms | CNN

    1 dead, at least 28 injured after roof collapses at the Apollo Theatre in Illinois following dangerous storms | CNN

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    CNN
     — 

    One person was killed and 28 others were injured after a full roof collapse at the Apollo Theatre in Belvidere, Illinois, on Friday evening following devastating storms and tornadoes that ripped through the South and Midwest, officials said.

    Approximately 260 people, including guests, performers and staff, were inside the venue for a heavy metal rock concert at the time of the collapse, according to the event coordinator.

    Belvidere is in northern Illinois, approximately 14 miles outside the city of Rockford. Despite severe weather in the region, there were no reports of an “actual tornado” hitting the area, Belvidere Fire Chief Shawn Schadle said.

    In southern Illinois, three other people died in Crawford County after a residential structural collapse during Friday’s severe weather, according to Kevin Sur, a spokesperson for the Illinois Emergency Management Agency. The deaths confirmed in Illinois bring the overall death toll from Friday’s severe weather outbreak to 21 fatalities across six states.

    At the Apollo Theatre, 28 people were transported by ambulance to nearby hospitals, Schadle said. Five had severe injuries; 18 had moderate injuries; and five had minor injuries. “Obviously there were probably other patients transported by personal vehicle,” he added.

    During their initial response, crews coming into the building assisted in getting people out from under the debris. Crews established a triage center and relocation point for victims.

    “It was a large response not only from all the public safety agencies, police, fire, as well as the bystanders to rescue those that were initially injured,” Schadle said.

    A primary search of the theater has been completed, the chief said. “Right now, the MABAS 8 TRT rescue team is still operating behind us. They’re performing the secondary searches. They’re also looking into the stabilization of the building,” Schadle said.

    Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker said he is “closely monitoring” the situation. “I’ve been in touch with officials for updates and to direct any available resources we can,” he said in a tweet Friday night. “As we learn more, please follow the guidance of all local authorities.”

    Morbid Angel, one of the metal bands scheduled to perform at the event, issued a statement on Facebook canceling the concert and urging fans to “seek shelter and stay safe.”

    “We are currently sheltering in place, and want to extend our support and hope that everyone at the show tonight is safe. Right now our focus is on making sure everyone in the venue tonight is ok and gets home,” the band said.

    A flyer for the event shows other bands set to perform on Friday evening were Revocation, Skeletal Remains and Crypta.

    An investigation into the collapse is ongoing. Schadle said no first responders were injured and so far everyone has been accounted for.

    “The Illinois Emergency Management Agency is working closely with our local and county public safety partners and Emergency Managers to assess the widespread damages across the state including here at the Apollo Theatre in Belvidere in Boone County, and at Robinson in Crawford County,” the agency’s director, Alicia Tate-Nadeau, said in a statement. “We continue to assessing other damages in many counties across Illinois.”

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  • At least 5 killed and dozens others are hospitalized as tornadoes tear through the South and Midwest | CNN

    At least 5 killed and dozens others are hospitalized as tornadoes tear through the South and Midwest | CNN

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    CNN
     — 

    Devastating storms and tornadoes scraped the South and Midwest Friday into early Saturday, killing at least five people, injuring dozens more, trapping others in their homes, and damaging businesses and critical infrastructure – with the threat of more severe weather looming into Saturday afternoon.

    More than 50 preliminary tornado reports were made Friday in at least six states, including in Arkansas, where storms killed three people – two in the small city of Wynne and another person in North Little Rock, local officials said.

    Two people were killed in Indiana by a storm Friday night that damaged homes and a volunteer fire department near Sullivan, a city about a 95-mile drive southwest of Indianapolis, State Police Sgt. Matt Ames said.

    At least 50 people were sent to hospitals in Arkansas’ Pulaski County, where a tornado roared through the Little Rock area Friday, county spokesperson Madeline Roberts said. Five others were hospitalized after a tornado touched down Friday in Covington, Tennessee, according to a spokesperson for Baptist Memorial Health Care.

    Preliminary information shows at least 22 tornadoes were reported in Illinois, eight in Iowa, four in Tennessee, five in Wisconsin and a couple in Mississippi.

    In Arkansas, at least a dozen tornadoes were reported, including in the Little Rock area. Twisters in that state left homes nearly leveled, and roads were covered with what once was the roofs and walls of buildings.

    William Williams, who told CNN affiliate KATV he’s an employee at a Kroger supermarket in Little Rock, said he’s “thankful to be alive” after a tornado rolled near the area while he was working Friday afternoon. He’d taken shelter inside the store, and went outside afterward to see people injured, including a woman he said had a severe leg injury.

    “Everything happened in like five seconds. It came – boom,” Williams told KATV. “You could hear a lot of commotion and stuff. … I go outside, and it is crazy. People had blood all over their faces. … I’m just thankful that I’m alive.”

    About 100 miles east of Little Rock, the city of Wynne was “basically cut in half by damage from east to west,” Mayor Jennifer Hobbs told CNN Friday evening.

    “We are still in triage mode,” Hobbs said, adding that crews were trying to determine the severity of the damage and any potential injuries.

    In northern Illinois, more than 200 people were inside the Apollo Theatre in Belvidere for an event when its roof collapsed Friday night, leaving one person dead and dozens injured, the city fire chief said. The collapse came as a line of storms packing 50 mph winds and dumping hail moved through the area, according to officials and the National Weather Service. It wasn’t immediately clear whether the storm caused the theater’s roof to crumble.

    Twenty-eight people were taken to hospitals as a result of the collapse, Belvidere Fire Chief Shawn Schadle said.

    Friday’s severe storms came a week after severe weather walloped the Southeast and killed at least 26 people. An overnight tornado, which makes people most prone to extensive damages, leveled much of Rolling Fork, Mississippi, where estimated maximum winds of 170 mph roared.

    A team from Summit Energy say a prayer together before investigating a burst gas line in Cammack Village, Arkansas, near Little Rock, after a tornado swept through the area Friday.

    Tornadoes still could happen in southeastern Indiana, western Ohio and northern Kentucky on Saturday through 5 a.m. ET, according to the Storm Prediction Center. The area, which includes the cities of Dayton and Cincinnati, was under a tornado watch that warned of wind gusts up to 70 mph along with large hail.

    For Saturday, about 55 million people are under a slight risk of severe weather – a Level 2 of 5 – in parts of the Ohio Valley, the Northeast, including New York City and Philadelphia, and parts of the Southeast, according the Storm Prediction Center.

    Scattered strong to severe thunderstorms could happen in these areas, and hail and few tornadoes are possible, the center said.

    On Friday, large hail proved to be a dangerous when it bombarded northern Illinois, cracking and denting cars’ windshields, according to a Facebook post from the Fulton County Emergency Services and Disaster Agency.

    Police and firefighters get help from volunteers clearing downed trees on Keihl Avenue after storms ripped through the area on Friday in Sherwood, Arkansas.

    About 78 miles southeast of there, several businesses were “basically destroyed,” Sheriff Jack Campbell told CNN, and up to 40 homes were damaged around Sherman, less than 10 miles north of Springfield.

    Nearly 300,000 homes and businesses were in the dark early Saturday across Indiana, Illinois, Arkansas and Tennessee, with about one-third of the outages reported in Indiana, according to the tracking website PowerOutage.us.

    In Arkansas, Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders declared a state of emergency, noting the state will “spare no resource” in responding and recovering from the storm and activated the state’s National Guard.

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  • Officials say water and air are safe after train carrying highly flammable ethanol derails in Minnesota | CNN

    Officials say water and air are safe after train carrying highly flammable ethanol derails in Minnesota | CNN

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    CNN
     — 

    The day after a train carrying a highly flammable chemical derailed and burst into flames in a small city in southwestern Minnesota, crews are still working to clear the area as officials reassure residents the water and air are safe.

    Of the 22 cars that derailed in Raymond, Minnesota, Thursday morning, four containing ethanol ruptured and caught fire, the US Environmental Protection Agency said. Other cars carrying the substance were also at risk of releasing the chemical, the EPA said.

    Other cars that derailed contained corn syrup, the Kandiyohi County Sheriff’s Office said. No injuries have been reported.

    Sen. Amy Klobuchar said at a Friday news conference at the site that it “seems” there is no contamination within the soil.

    “No one was hurt. The ground is good. The air is good. So, let’s just see what we can do going forward to make sure it does not happen again,” the Minnesota Democrat said.

    There are currently 100 people at on the scene of the derailment cleaning up the cars. The National Transportation Safety Board is investigating, Klobuchar said.

    The EPA said it has been at the crash site and monitoring the air for particulate matter and other compounds, noting there hasn’t been severe impact to the community thus far. And the train operator, BNSF Railway, said it did not find any impact to the drinking water and the air either, it said in a statement Thursday afternoon.

    “Our concern, after the safety of the people here, was what was going to happen with the air and they have done multiple tests and they will continue to do that,” Klobuchar said.

    The cars are expected to be running again – barring a major blizzard – in the next few days, according to Klobuchar and remediation efforts are also underway to help residents who were impacted by the incident.

    Klobuchar said she and fellow Minnesota Sen. Tina Smith are looking into rail safety legislation in Congress.

    In the meantime, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz said in a tweet Friday that he’s “grateful for the swift, coordinated response” of local, state, and national partners.

    “Yesterday’s derailment amplifies the critical need to pass my budget’s investments in rail safety to prevent this from happening again,” Walz said.

    The response to the derailment and fire included 28 fire departments, including several volunteer departments who remained at the crash late Thursday, the sheriff’s office had said in a post online.

    The derailment happened around 1 a.m. Thursday in Raymond, a small city of some 800 residents.

    Homes within a half-mile of the derailment were evacuated, but the order was lifted later in the day, according to the sheriff’s office.

    The derailment in Minnesota comes less than two months after a Norfolk Southern train carrying hazardous chemicals crashed in the Ohio community of East Palestine.

    The blaze burned for days, and toxic chemicals were released into the air and killed thousands of fish. Many residents there have complained of health problems after the derailment and raised concerns about the impact of the chemicals.

    Firefighters work near piled up train cars, near Raymond Thursday.

    In Minnesota, preliminary information from the crash suggested 14 of the train’s 40 cars were carrying hazardous materials, “including ethanol, which was released – leading to a fire,” US Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg told CNN Thursday morning.

    Ethanol can explode when mixed with vapor and air. Exposure to ethanol can lead to coughing, dizziness, the feeling of burning eyes, drowsiness and unconsciousness.

    “Ethanol, like many chemicals, can be toxic if inhaled or comes into contact with skin or is ingested. But it requires a certain concentration to be a health hazard,” said Purdue University professor Andrew Whelton, an expert in environmental chemistry and water quality.

    Ethanol is highly soluble in water, meaning it will be relatively easy to dilute.

    “Dilution is one way to reduce the risk” of health issues from any water that may be contaminated with ethanol, Whelton said.

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  • US Justice Department sues Norfolk Southern following train derailment in East Palestine | CNN

    US Justice Department sues Norfolk Southern following train derailment in East Palestine | CNN

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    CNN
     — 

    The US Justice Department filed a civil lawsuit against Norfolk Southern Thursday, alleging violations of the Clean Water Act (CWA) and seeking damages over the train derailment and subsequent environmental disaster in East Palestine, Ohio, in February.

    The Norfolk Southern Railway Company and parent company Norfolk Southern Corporation are both named in the suit, court records show. The DOJ filed the lawsuit on behalf of the Environmental Protection Agency.

    The DOJ says the lawsuit seeks “injunctive relief, cost recovery, and civil penalties” for violations of the CWA, including discharges of pollutants and hazardous materials into waters, and under the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA).

    Norfolk Southern says its focus is on making “progress every day cleaning up the site, assisting residents whose lives were impacted by the derailment, and investing in the future of East Palestine and the surrounding areas,” according to a statement sent to CNN from the company’s spokesperson, Connor Spielmaker, on Friday.

    “We are working with urgency, at the direction of the US EPA, and making daily progress,” the statement said. “That remains our focus and we’ll keep working until we make it right.”

    On February 3, a Norfolk Southern train derailed, igniting a dayslong inferno, spewing poisonous fumes into the air, killing thousands of fish and leaving residents to wonder if it was safe to live in East Palestine, Ohio.

    The fiery derailment prompted fears of a catastrophic explosion of vinyl chloride – a highly flammable chemical linked to an increased risk of cancer. After a mandatory evacuation order, crews released vinyl chloride into a trench and burned it off – averting an explosion but spawning new health concerns.

    Officials said tests showed that the air and municipal water were safe and allowed residents to return home, but some have reported a variety of new health problems including rashes, nausea, bloody noses and trouble breathing.

    While studying the possible health impacts from the train derailment, seven US government investigators also briefly fell ill in early March, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention confirmed to CNN on Thursday.

    “Symptoms resolved for most team members later the same afternoon, and everyone resumed work on survey data collection within 24 hours. Impacted team members have not reported ongoing health effects,” a CDC spokesperson said in a statement.

    The train operator Norfolk Southern must handle and pay for all necessary cleanup, according to the Environmental Protection Agency. The company has sent some hazardous waste out of state – fueling more questions about safety.

    The DOJ isn’t the only one filing a lawsuit against the railroad. The state of Ohio also filed a 58-count federal lawsuit against the rail company on March 14, saying Norfolk Southern violated numerous state, federal and Ohio common laws and violated the state’s CERCLA act.

    Norfolk Southern has set up a new web page that summarizes community impact efforts. Spielmaker said it “provides a 7-day look ahead and is updated daily and outlines Norfolk Southern’s continued environmental remediation efforts in concert with state and federal authorities.”

    “When a Norfolk Southern train derailed last month in East Palestine, Ohio, it released toxins into the air, soil, and water, endangering the health and safety of people in surrounding communities,” Attorney General Merrick B. Garland said in a statement. “With this complaint, the Justice Department and the EPA are acting to pursue justice for the residents of East Palestine and ensure that Norfolk Southern carries the financial burden for the harm it has caused and continues to inflict on the community.”

    The Justice Department, citing annual company reports, alleges in the suit Norfolk Southern both increased operating income and dropped operating costs over the past four years, including making “reductions in spending to repair, service, and maintain locomotives and freight cars, perform train inspections, and pay engine crews and train crews.” The suit also alleges that these measures are a “focus” of the compensation of the company’s executives.

    The lawsuit claims when the train derailed and cars carrying hazardous materials were breached, the dispersion and subsequent combustion of those materials released toxic chemicals into the “air, soil, groundwater, and waterways.”

    The DOJ says seven local waterways including the Ohio River were contaminated as a result.

    The Ohio Department of Natural Resources reported “thousands of aquatic animals were killed in the five-mile span of waterway from the Site” to the confluence of two creeks the DOJ described as contaminated, the lawsuit says.

    DOJ is asking for $64,618 per day, per violation of the CWA and $55,808 per day or $2,232 per barrel of oil or unit of hazardous substance, per violation of the CWA – but it was not immediately clear from the suit how many days the DOJ considered the violation to be applicable.

    They’re also seeking a declaration of liability against the company for response costs; a mandated increase in safety precautions by Norfolk Southern when transporting hazardous materials; and for the railroad to “remedy, mitigate, and offset” the environmental damage and public health issues that have arisen as a result of the derailment, court documents show.

    In early March, Norfolk Southern CEO Alan Shaw told a US Senate hearing that the company would “clean the site safely, thoroughly, and with urgency.”

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  • A train carrying highly flammable ethanol derails in Minnesota, sparking an hourslong fire. Now 4 more cars with ethanol could spill | CNN

    A train carrying highly flammable ethanol derails in Minnesota, sparking an hourslong fire. Now 4 more cars with ethanol could spill | CNN

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    CNN
     — 

    A train hauling ethanol derailed Thursday morning in Raymond, Minnesota, igniting several rail cars and forcing a mandatory evacuation of the city of about 800, officials said.

    The fire was still burning more than 8 hours after the derailment, the US Environmental Protection Agency said in a statement late Thursday morning.

    “Four cars containing ethanol, a highly flammable product, ruptured, caught fire and continue to burn,” said the EPA, which had members at the scene by 6:30 a.m.

    And there’s a risk that more ethanol could spill.

    “Four additional cars containing ethanol may also release,” the EPA said. “The local fire department is currently the lead for the response and ordered a mandatory evacuation of the city. The evacuation remains in place.”

    The EPA team is on the ground in Raymond to conduct air quality monitoring.

    Preliminary information suggests 14 of the train’s 40 cars were carrying hazardous material, “including ethanol, which was released – leading to a fire,” US Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg told CNN on Thursday.

    In addition to ethanol, the train was carrying mixed freight including corn syrup, said Lena Kent, general director of public affairs for BNSF Railway.

    Ethanol can explode when mixed with vapor and air. Ethanol exposure can lead to coughing, dizziness, the feeling of burning eyes, drowsiness and unconsciousness.

    First responders work the scene of a train derailment Thursday in Raymond, Minnesota.

    The derailment happened around 1 a.m. Homes within a half-mile of the derailment were evacuated, the Kandiyohi County Sheriff’s Office said.

    “There have been no injuries as a result of the crash or emergency response,” the sheriff’s office posted on Facebook. “BNSF specialists are on scene and continued mitigation is occurring.”

    Brittney Phelps and her family were startled by a knock on their door at 1:30 a.m. It was a first responder going door to door telling residents to flee as a precaution.

    “I heard a loud crash but didn’t think anything of it ‘til ambulances were outside the house,” Phelps said.

    She soon smelled the stench of ethanol and saw the wrecked train cars and large fire, Phelps told CNN.

    The derailment happened at about 1 a.m. Thursday, the Raymond Fire Department said.

    The Minnesota Department of Transportation closed a nearby highway due to the derailment and blaze, the fire department said. The main railroad track is blocked, and an estimated time for reopening the line was not available.

    “The City of Raymond is not accessible to the public, so Unity Church in Prinsburg is willing to be a drop off location for bottled water and snacks for the firemen,” the wife of a fire department member said, according to the department’s Facebook page. “These brave souls have been working hard for hours already, and have several hours of work ahead for them.”

    The cause of the derailment is under investigation. A team from the National Transportation Safety Board is expected to arrive at the site Thursday afternoon, the NTSB said.

    Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz and state emergency management leadership will travel to Raymond on Thursday to visit the site of the derailment, the governor’s office said.

    The derailment happened nearly two months after another train carrying hazardous chemicals derailed in East Palestine, Ohio – igniting a dayslong inferno, spewing poisonous fumes into the air and killing thousands of fish. The Ohio health department is preparing to offer health tests to first responders as part of a long-term effort to monitor the health of those who responded to the disaster.

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  • Severe weather threat ramps up as western storm pushes east | CNN

    Severe weather threat ramps up as western storm pushes east | CNN

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    CNN
     — 

    The same storm system that brought so much rain and snow to the western US is moving east and intensifying, making for a potential severe weather outbreak that could impact nearly 70 million people from the Mississippi Valley to the Ohio and Tennessee Valleys on Friday.

    “A concerning scenario appears to be developing,” warned the Storm Prediction Center. “Intense, damaging gusts and several tornadoes (some strong and long-track) are expected.”

    This weather pattern will be similar to the ones we have seen repeatedly over the last few months, when an atmospheric river event or storm system impacting the West intensifies as it moves eastward, resulting in a severe weather outbreak across the midsection of the country.

    There is a small chance of storms Thursday across the Plains, including in Oklahoma City, Tulsa, Sioux Falls and Topeka. We could also see gusty winds, hail and the possibility of an isolated tornado.

    However, the severe threat ramps up on Friday.

    The storm center has placed a Level 4 out of 5 “moderate risk” of severe weather for nearly 4 million people in two separate areas along the Mississippi River: For portions of northeastern Arkansas, the Missouri Bootheel and western Tennessee, including Memphis, and for portions of eastern Iowa and northwest Illinois.

    Places such as Cedar Rapids, Davenport and Iowa City are included in the severe weather threat.

    Track the storms here

    “Things are still looking quite volatile in our region for Friday,” the National Weather Service office in Quad Cities, Iowa, said. “The storm motions are progged to be over 50 mph, given the strong wind fields, so people should plan ahead for sheltering in case severe weather strikes, as these storms will be moving quickly!”

    A wider area that stretches from northern Iowa and southwestern Wisconsin down to central Mississippi and southern Arkansas is under a Level 3 out of 5 “enhanced risk” of severe weather.

    This threat affects more than 14 million people in places such as Nashville, St. Louis, Des Moines and Little Rock.

    “Initially there could be a small tornado threat with storms as they enter our western counties, but a line of storms with a straight-line damaging wind threat will ultimately be the main concern,” the National Weather Service office in Nashville explained.

    Winds could gust as high as 70 mph and large hail is possible.

    Many of these storms will continue into the overnight hours, creating an even more dangerous scenario because people are asleep.

    How to be safe in severe weather

    This severe weather event comes one week after a deadly tornado outbreak killed dozens of people, many of them in Mississippi.

    Hear how tornado lifted couple up in the air while sitting in their bathtub

    “For this week our highest chance of severe weather is a little north of where it was last week,” National Weather Service meteorologist Amber Schlessiger told CNN. Schlessiger says that the region hit hard one week ago must be prepared. “People are going to be asleep and not put their alarms on until the next morning, so they need to have a way to be woken up.”

    There is also an existing threat of severe weather for more than 31 million people from southern Minnesota and Wisconsin down to portions of East Texas, northern Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama.

    Gusty winds, large hail and the possibility of isolated tornadoes are all possible as the fast-moving storms track eastward.

    Along with the severe threat, heavy rainfall could lead to flooding. The prediction center has highlighted an area that stretches from eastern Oklahoma to Kentucky for a slight risk of excessive rainfall.

    “Hourly rates of 1-2 (inches) +/hr are possible (with these hourly rates largely driving the flash flood threat, as the bulk of the forecast precipitation is expected over a period of 3-6 hours,” the prediction center explained.

    Once the storms form, we could see them begin to “train” – meaning they roll over the same areas for long periods of time. This will be the main driver for potential flash flooding.

    Heavy snow will spread across much of the Upper Midwest, adding to their already banner winter season.

    “Winter weather-related advisories are in effect from South Dakota east into Minnesota and Wisconsin for the potential of snow totals generally between 3-6 (inches), with locally heavier totals of 10 (inches) + possible,” the prediction center said.

    Along with heavy snow, winds gusts as high as 50 mph could lead to whiteout conditions.

    “Gusty winds behind the front upwards of 50 mph will lead to areas of blowing snow and blizzard conditions, making travel treacherous to impossible.”

    Temperatures will remain unseasonably cold with highs on Thursday and Friday only making it into the 20s and 30s.

    Lows at night will drop into the single digits Saturday morning.

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  • Government to step up efforts to monitor health of East Palestine residents, first responders | CNN

    Government to step up efforts to monitor health of East Palestine residents, first responders | CNN

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    CNN
     — 

    Almost two months after a train carrying hazardous materials derailed in the town of East Palestine, Ohio, the state Department of Health is preparing to offer blood and urine testing and physical exams to first responders who rushed to fight the blaze.

    The testing is set to start within the next two weeks and will be the first step in a long-term effort to monitor the health of responders to the accident, according to an email obtained by CNN.

    This move closely follows an announcement that a health assessment clinic for East Palestine residents that has been operating out of a local church will become permanent and expand its services.

    Roughly 300 firefighters from 50 departments – many of whom were volunteers – responded to the derailment and fire, which happened the night of February 3 and continued to burn for several days.

    Many of the firefighters had their gear ruined by the heat and chemicals. Some wore breathing apparatus to protect themselves from the fumes and smoke, but others didn’t have or didn’t know that they needed self-contained breathing apparatus to protect their lungs and airways, according to firefighters who were at the scene and spoke with CNN.

    The email about health testing, which was sent to area fire chiefs Sunday, says the long-term monitoring plans for the first responders are still being developed, but a first step will be the physicals, which will include “blood work, urinalysis, and an exam.” It does not describe what the tests will look for or their purpose.

    The Ohio Department of Public Health said in a statement Monday that it “has been working with the East Palestine fire chief to make sure responders’ unique needs are addressed.

    “In early March, ODH began soliciting first responders to voluntarily fill out a specialized After Chemical Exposure (ACE) survey, and more than 200 have filled those out so far. This collects information on type of exposure and PPE worn as well as any health impacts responders may be experiencing,” the statement says. “The next step in our comprehensive plan of ongoing monitoring of first responders involves creating a clinical service within the next several weeks. This service is in the planning stages and many details still have not been determined, but it would include voluntary laboratory testing.”

    In addition to the testing through the health department, firefighters who responded to the derailment will be followed by the Firefighter Cancer Cohort Study, Candice McDonald, deputy chief executive of the National Volunteer Fire Council, said Monday.

    The study, which is funded by the Federal Emergency Management Agency, aims to follow 10,000 firefighters for 30 years to learn more about how their exposures contribute to cancer risks.

    Cancer caused by chemicals in smoke is the leading cause of death for firefighters, according to the International Association of Fire Fighters.

    First responders to the Ohio derailment were among the most heavily exposed to a cocktail of chemicals that spilled into the ground and nearby creeks.

    David Comstock, chief of the Western Reserve Joint Fire District, says there are still a lot of unknowns about the nature of the chemical hazards that the firefighters were exposed to that night.

    “One of the things that I’ve raised is, what’s in tank car A? And what’s in tank car B? But what happens when they mix and burn? Now, what do I have?” he said.

    Comstock says that three firefighters from his station responded to the derailment and were 50 to 100 feet from a burning railcar. He asked them what was in the derailed cars, “and my crews couldn’t answer me,” he said.

    It was hard to get information about the chemicals on the scene, he said.

    He arranged physical exams for the firefighters at his station within a week, but he wishes they had happened even faster. He spoke to some doctors who advised blood testing within 48 hours.

    “Your blood, your body, processes many of the chemicals out of it within that time period, that they don’t become detectable at that point,” he said.

    It’s unclear how much information testing will yield now, Comstock said, but he hopes the exams and tests from the Department of Health will offer a baseline so the first responders will know if their health changes over time.

    East Palestine residents will also soon get expanded access to health services. The temporary health assessment clinic that opened in downtown in the wake of the train derailment will remain open permanently, Gov. Mike DeWine testified Wednesday before the US Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation.

    “We started back clinic shortly after this tragedy occurred. This morning … I met with medical leaders from the East Liverpool City Hospital. And we are announcing today that we’ll be making this clinic into a permanent clinic for the community,” DeWine said last week.

    “This is going to be a full-service clinic that will provide comprehensive care and treatment. Anybody can walk in anyone can be treated. And this is a long-term commitment to the health of the people of East Palestine,” said DeWine, who offered his testimony remotely, from the library of East Palestine High School.

    DeWine gave few details on the services that might be available to the clinic or who would ultimately pay for them.

    Currently, residents can walk into the clinic to get information about their risk, answer questions as part of an ongoing health study, and meet with a physician to get a basic exam and advice on any necessary follow-up care.

    DeWine suggested that these offerings might be expanded under a partnership with East Liverpool City Hospital. His comments were also an acknowledgment of ongoing health needs in the community.

    East Palestine residents are “worried about their future they’re worried about where things are going to be in five or 10 or 15 years. It’s important that they be able to continue to get assessed,” he said.

    DeWine said it would be particularly important for the health of the first responders to continue to have regular checkups.

    “They all need to be assessed. That needs to be established – a baseline – and they need to be assured that in five years or 10 years, there’s still a place where they can go.”

    DeWine said Norfolk Southern would be expected to pay for those things.

    “We look to the railroad to establish that fund,” he said.

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  • How to give or receive help after the Mississippi tornado | CNN

    How to give or receive help after the Mississippi tornado | CNN

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    CNN
     — 

    In the wake of the powerful tornado that killed dozens of people in the Mississippi delta, aid groups are on the ground assisting those in need. Here are ways you can help the relief effort, and also ways you can get help.

    Team Rubicon is on the ground in the devastated town of Rolling Fork, performing chainsaw operations to clear roads for residents and first responders. The group is also set up to help survivors clear trees, tarp roofs, and muck out debris inside homes.

    Devon Miller of Team Rubicon told CNN the group is looking for new volunteers. Although the team is led by military veterans, first responders and civilians can also sign up to volunteer.

    The Salvation Army (Alabama, Louisiana, Mississippi Division) has deployed their canteens to Rolling Fork, Amory, Silver City, and Winona, Mississippi. These mobile units distribute ready-to-eat meals and water to people in need.

    William Trueblood, Emergency Disaster Services Director for The Salvation Army ALM Division, expects to distribute between 16,000 and 20,000 meals daily. Donations and volunteer support will be vital. Volunteers not already trained with the organization can be paired with certified workers to join the deployed canteen crews.

    Red Cross of Alabama and Mississippi have set up a shelter in Humphreys County at the Greenville Multipurpose Center for those who have been displaced. The group is also serving meals.

    The Center for Disaster Philanthropy is focusing on long-term recovery needs such as rebuilding homes and mental health services.

    Along with essentials like food and water, Save the Children is delivering child-focused items like hygiene kits and diapers to families in western Mississippi.

    Mercy Chefs is serving lunch and dinner in Rolling Fork. The non-profit says it expects to serve thousands of meals each day and will increase meals as needed.

    Global Empowerment Mission is also in Rolling Fork, distributing food, hygiene, health supplies, cash cards, animal survival kits, water, and other necessities.

    Led by former CNN Hero Stan Hays, Operation BBQ Relief has been on the ground since Saturday offering hundreds of hot meals for lunch and dinner service.

    The MSEMA (Mississippi Emergency Management Agency) coordinates state and local emergency food and shelter.

    If you’re facing emotional distress as a result of this tragedy, experienced counselors from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Service Administration (SAMHSA) Distress Hotline are available for 24/7 emotional support. Call or text 1-800-985-5990.

    North Mississippi Rural Legal Services (NMRLS) helping residents of north Mississippi with legal issues related to property loss. If you are in need of their services, call their hotline at 1-800-498-1804 Monday through Thursday between 9:30 am to 3:30 pm and press Option # 3 to get help.

    The Impact Your World team will update this list as more ways to help become available.

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  • The Southeast gets hammered by another round of dangerous weather after weekend storms killed dozens of people in the South | CNN

    The Southeast gets hammered by another round of dangerous weather after weekend storms killed dozens of people in the South | CNN

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    CNN
     — 

    A fresh round of violent storms is battering the Southeast on Monday after a spate of tornadoes and treacherous weather over the weekend killed 26 people in the South.

    From Houston to South Carolina, more than 20 million people are at risk of severe storms Monday.

    “Large hail, damaging wind gusts, and frequent lightning will remain the primary risks throughout the day today but isolated tornadoes could still be possible,” CNN Meteorologist Haley Brink said.

    Track the system here

    A tornado watch is in effect for parts of central Georgia – including Macon and Warner Robins – until 11 a.m. ET Monday, the National Weather Service’s Storm Prediction Center said. Hurricane-force wind gusts of 75 mph are also possible.

    There’s also a threat of dangerous flooding throughout the region.

    “Due to the repeated rounds of heavy rainfall over the weekend and today, bouts of heavy rainfall could lead to instances of flash flooding across the Southeast,” Brink said.

    Parts of the South repeatedly walloped by recent storms have seen 4 to 6 inches of rain over the last few days – and could get deluged with another 1 to 3 inches Monday.

    Atlanta – which had already been pummeled by hail and up to 2 inches of rain overnight – could get another 2 inches of rain – leading to a risk of flooding.

    The South has suffered an onslaught of destructive weather since the weekend. At least 10 confirmed tornadoes struck Mississippi, Alabama and Tennessee on Friday night, according to storm surveys by various National Weather Service offices.

    At least 25 people were killed in Mississippi – prompting President Joe Biden to approve a disaster declaration for parts of the state. Another storm victim was killed in Alabama.

    In Rolling Fork, Mississippi – home to about 2,000 people – an especially violent tornado obliterated houses, businesses and city buildings.

    “Homes have been totally demolished,” Rolling Fork Vice Mayor LaDonna Sias told CNN on Monday. She said her own home was also destroyed.

    Sias and her husband survived by hiding in a closet just before the EF-4 tornado shredded their house.

    “He pushed me in … his closet, and he was able to close the door,” Sias said. “And the minute he closed the door, the force … he was just constantly trying to hold the door so it wouldn’t come open. And you could literally hear the house ripping apart.”

    Despite the loss of her own home, Sias said she’s focused on helping other residents – including those who have lost loved ones.

    “The hardest part is having to witness someone that has lost a loved one and then having to talk to people that were residents here but have been displaced due to this disaster,” Sias said. “It’s hard. It’s overwhelming. And it’s heart-wrenching.”

    Search and recovery efforts were still underway in Mississippi on Sunday as emergency personnel also worked to distribute critical resources, including bottled water, portable restrooms, batteries and fuel, the Mississippi Emergency Management Agency said.

    KeUntey Ousley tries to salvage belongings from his mother's boyfriend's vehicle as his mother LaShata Ousley and his girlfriend Mikita Davis watch in Rolling Fork, Mississippi.

    Some Rolling Fork neighborhoods and businesses were so badly hit there was “not any immediate shelter anywhere” on Sunday, Sharkey County District 1 Supervisor Bill Newsom told CNN.

    “Everyone is affected. Entire subdivisions and neighborhoods … some are just wiped away, they’re just not even there,” Newsom said.

    “It looks like a battle zone.”

    Satellite images show Rolling Fork, Mississippi, before and after a powerful tornado hit the area.

    The vice mayor said she is the most concerned about finding support for the families who have lost loved ones and are facing “total devastation.”

    “We need to make sure that those people that are displaced, that no longer have any type of structure – they need immediate housing. They need some kind of assistance,” Sias said.

    Teams from the Federal Emergency Management Agency have been deployed to Mississippi, and the agency will work with state officials to find interim housing for those impacted, the Department of Homeland Security said.

    Residents survey the damage Sunay in Rolling Fork, Mississippi.

    Resident David Brown’s parents, Melissa and Lonnie Pierce, were both killed Friday when a tractor-trailer was picked up by the tornado and thrown on top of their home, CNN affiliate WAPT reported.

    “Words can’t express how I’m feeling. I don’t know – broken,” Brown told WAPT.

    Brown said his son could have been in the home if he had not picked him up before the storm.

    His family spent the weekend sifting through the crushed home, searching for any salvageable reminder of his parents.

    “Honestly, if I can find anything in the rubble,” he said, “it would mean more than anything.”

    Another tornado destroyed dozens of homes Sunday in LaGrange, Georgia, Troup County Emergency Management Director Zachary Steele said.

    And many as 100 homes were damaged in the western Georgia city.

    Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp issued a state of emergency order to provide more state resources for affected communities’ recovery.

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  • Philadelphia officials say drinking water remains safe for now after a chemical spill in the Delaware River | CNN

    Philadelphia officials say drinking water remains safe for now after a chemical spill in the Delaware River | CNN

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    CNN
     — 

    The City of Philadelphia says it is now confident tap water from the Baxter Drinking Water Treatment Plant will remain safe to drink until at least 11:59 p.m. Monday following a chemical spill in the Delaware River.

    At a news conference late Sunday afternoon, city officials said they had not found any contamination in Philadelphia’s water supply and there would be no disruptions to schools or city services on Monday.

    “There has not been any contamination in the Philadelphia water system,” Mike Carroll, the city’s deputy managing director for transportation, infrastructure and sustainability, told reporters.

    “We have enough water to sustain a safe use for drinking, cooking – all purposes – through till at least 11:59 p.m., Monday, March 27,” Carroll said. “The potential for contamination is diminishing over time.”

    The Philadelphia Police Department and Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection had also conducted a flyover across the Delaware River and saw no visual evidence of contamination plumes, Carroll said.

    “In this case, because we were talking about essentially ingredients that go into latex paint, we would have been able to see a kind of white plume under the river surface,” he said.

    The city earlier sent out mobile phone push alerts recommending area residents use of bottled water from 2 p.m.

    “Contaminants have not been found in the system at this time but this is out of caution due to a spill in the Delaware River,” the alerts shared with CNN said.

    The alert also provided a link to a community website for updates.

    But an updated statement Sunday afternoon the city said new hydraulic modeling and sampling results showed “there is no need to buy water at this time.”

    “This updated time is based on the time it will take river water that entered the Baxter intakes early Sunday morning to move through treatment and water mains before reaching customers,” the statement reads. “The water that is currently available to customers was treated before the spill reached Philadelphia and remains safe to drink and use for bathing, cooking and washing.”

    A ShopRite store in South Philadelphia said it was selling out of bottled water before 2 p.m. Sunday after the alerts were sent out.

    When the store is able to restock shelves, it plans to limit cases of bottled water to three per customer, a store worker told CNN.

    Carroll said in a statement issued earlier on Sunday that the contamination occurred Friday and involved a latex product that spilled along a Delaware River tributary in Bristol Township, Bucks County.

    “As has been reported, on Friday night a chemical spill occurred in Bristol Township, Bucks County which released contaminants into the Delaware River,” Carroll said. “The Philadelphia Water Department (PWD) became aware of this through the Delaware Valley Early Warning System (EWS) and has been evaluating the situation since that time to understand potential impacts to the public. Although early indications have not revealed contamination, we are still monitoring the situation and conducting testing.”

    Trinseo PLC, which owns the facility where the spill occurred, said in a statement on its website Sunday it “appears to be the result of equipment failure.”

    The latex product chemical spill happened on Friday evening at a facility in Bristol, Pennsylvania, which manufactures acrylic resins, according to the statement.

    The company estimated 8,100 gallons of solution – which is half water and half latex polymer – was spilled.

    “The latex emulsion is a white liquid that is used in various consumer goods. Its pigmentation makes the water-soluble material visible in surface water,” the statement reads.

    The Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection said an “unknown amount” of the spilled product had entered the Delaware River. Water sampling is ongoing and contaminants have not been detected at drinking water intakes, the department said in a Sunday statement.

    Fish and wildlife are said to have not been affected, according to the statement.

    “Since the first hours after the incident, the Department of Environmental Protection has been at the facility where the spill originated and will be staying until there is no longer a threat to those impacted in Bucks and Philadelphia counties,” the department’s acting secretary Rich Negrin said in the statement. “We are working closely with our partners to monitor the spread of the contaminants and we will hold the responsible party accountable.”

    On its website, the Philadelphia Water Department said it provides water to more than “2 million people in Philadelphia, Montgomery, Delaware, and Bucks counties.”

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  • 2 tigers recaptured after escaping Georgia safari park during tornado warning | CNN

    2 tigers recaptured after escaping Georgia safari park during tornado warning | CNN

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    CNN
     — 

    Two tigers have been recaptured after escaping a Georgia safari park during a tornado warning Sunday morning, according to the park.

    In a Facebook post, the Wild Animal Safari park in Pine Mountain wrote that it sustained “extensive tornado damage.”

    No staff or animals were injured but “several animal enclosures” were breached and “two tigers briefly escaped,” said the park.

    Since then, both big cats have been “found, tranquilized, and safely returned to a safe enclosure.”

    Wild Animal Safari, a drive-through park, is home to over 75 species of animals housed on 250 acres of land, its website says. Tigers are included in the park’s “walkabout” section, where guests can observe animals in a more zoo-like environment, the website says.

    In a Sunday morning Facebook post, the Troup County Sheriff’s Office said it received a report of a tiger “unaccounted” for inside the park in Pine Mountain, Georgia.

    The park announced that it was closed for Sunday on Facebook. “We have sustained damage at the park and will not be open today,” the post said. “We are working diligently to keep our team and animals safe and will update with more news as it is available.”

    The storm came after a tornado warning was issued for parts of Georgia, including southeastern Troup County.

    Troup County authorities received reports of trees and power lines down after severe weather hit the area, the sheriff’s office said in a Facebook post Sunday morning.

    “We are receiving MULTIPLE reports of trees down, damage on houses and power lines down,” the agency wrote. “If you do not have to get on the roads this morning please do not travel.”

    The county is located about 70 miles southwest of Atlanta.

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  • Preparations for ‘de-occupation’: Annexed Crimea not forgotten by Ukraine | CNN

    Preparations for ‘de-occupation’: Annexed Crimea not forgotten by Ukraine | CNN

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    CNN
     — 

    While the fury of conflict echoes across the eastern Donbas region, a very different war is being waged in Crimea: one of night-time explosions, sabotage and disinformation.

    Reclaiming Crimea may seem like an unlikely quest for Ukraine but it is putting considerable effort into making Russia’s occupation as uncomfortable as possible. And the Russians are going to great lengths to fortify the peninsula, which they illegally annexed in 2014.

    That includes hiring legions of workers to build fortifications and trenches.

    The Ukrainian military has been carrying out attacks in Crimea with two goals: harass the Russian Black Sea fleet and disrupt vital Russian supply lines.

    Satellite imagery in February showed a substantial Russian build-up of equipment and armor at several points across northern Crimea.

    Few details emerge about Ukrainian strikes in Crimea. Only occasionally does unofficial social media video provide clues about what has been hit. And only occasionally do normally circumspect Ukrainian officials refer to any actions in Crimea.

    This is part of the conflict that is fought largely in the shadows, a far cry from the brutal attritional warfare that rages across Donbas.

    But last week Ukraine’s Main Intelligence reported that explosions in the Crimean town of Dzhankoi were due to a strike against Russian Kalibr cruise missiles being transported via rail. It said the strike served to “demilitarize Russia and prepare the Crimean peninsula for de-occupation.”

    There’s no way to confirm that Kalibrs were destroyed. But Russia did launch an inquiry “into a recent drone attack repelled by Russian air defense systems near the city of Dzhankoi,” which is one of the main hubs for Russian equipment moving through Crimea.

    Kalibrs would be a high priority target given the havoc they cause when fired by the Black Sea fleet at targets in Ukraine.

    Two days after the Dzhankoi explosions, the night sky above Sevastopol – the home of the Black Sea fleet – was lit up by air defenses. Social media video showed a large explosion in the harbor area. The governor of the city said a Ukrainian attack using marine drones, not the first against the port of Sevastopol, had been foiled.

    These strikes do not presage a Ukrainian plan to retake Crimea, even if that remains a distant goal for President Volodymyr Zelensky. But the peninsula is an artery through which Russia pushes troops and weapons into southern Ukraine, as well as being the defensive rear for Russian forces still holding part of Kherson region.

    Ukrainian officials say that the Russians have begun mining part of the Dnipro river delta to impede any landings in southern Kherson. Most days, there are dozens of artillery and rocket strikes by Russian forces across the river into Ukrainian-held areas of Kherson.

    There are also occasional acts of sabotage inside Crimea by unknown actors. Russian media reported an attempt to blow up a gas pipeline in the city of Simferopol this month, which caused an explosion and fire.

    The Ukrainian Resistance Center, an official agency, claimed in February that partisans had sabotaged a railway in Bakhchisaray near Sevastopol; pro-Russian social media showed modest damage to tracks.

    The extent of any partisan movement in the peninsula is unclear; at most it’s an irritant to the Russian-backed authorities – for now. There are occasional reports from the Russian-appointed authorities about the arrest of infiltrators. The United Nations reported this week that it had documented 210 prosecutions in Crimea through the end of January on the grounds of “public actions directed at discrediting” and “obstructing” the Russian armed forces.

    In this file photo taken in 2015, people walk by fresh graffiti depicting Vladimir Putin in Crimea.

    There are also occasional curfews in towns near Crimea, such as Chaplynka, through which Russian armor frequently passes – most likely to prevent any information being passed to the Ukrainian military. Ukraine alleged that last week the Russian National Guard raided Chaplynka and inspected locals’ documents, phones and vehicles.

    Another aspect to the low-key conflict in Crimea is disinformation. Radio station frequencies have been hacked — for example recently to spread fake news about an order to evacuate the peninsula. There is a constant drip-feed of claims from Kyiv designed to unsettle Russians in Crimea. On Friday Ukraine’s Defence Intelligence spokesman, Andrii Yusov, said that officials from the Russian-backed administration in Crimea were rushing to sell their property and evacuate their families.

    There is no independent evidence of an exodus of pro-Russian officials.

    While any Ukrainian offensive to reclaim Crimea is at best distant, the Russians are taking no chances. Satellite imagery shows extensive defensive fortifications such as trenches close to or in Crimea, near the town of Armiansk, for example.

    This month the Russian-appointed head of Crimea, Sergei Aksenov, said the creation of a fortification line in the peninsula was a guarantee of its security.

    Denys Chystikov, a senior Ukrainian official with responsibility for Crimea, said Friday that fortifications are being built on the coast and near the border [with mainland Ukraine, but also deeper inside Crimea. “This is being done in order to show to local population that the peninsula is preparing to repel an attack.”

    Ukrainian soldiers stand guard at a check point at the border between Ukraine and Crimea near the Salkovo village near Kherson, on March 18, 2014.

    CNN reviewed online job postings for builders and carpenters that promised up to 7,000 rubles ($90) a day plus accommodation. One read: “Laborers wanted for fortifications, 3,000-7,000 rubles, per job completed, Krasnoperekopsk,” a town just inside Crimea.

    A reporter with the Russian independent outlet Verstka was told that dozens of people were needed for the fortification work. The Ukrainian military has claimed that residents are also coerced to do the work and that defensive fortifications are being built between the towns of Ishun and Voinka in northern Crimea. A social media video appears to show the work in progress.

    It may be a prudent move by the Russians. Ukrainian intelligence officials are on record as saying that a strategic goal of any counter-offensive this spring would be to cut the occupied corridor between Crimea and the Russian border along the Sea of Azov.

    That would entail striking south towards Melitopol and into parts of Kherson adjacent to Crimea. Whether Ukrainian forces would try to enter Crimea is an open question. Much to Kyiv’s annoyance, some US officials are distinctly cool on such a prospect, feeling it would usher in unpredictable escalation. Gen. Mark Milley, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said earlier this year that “it would be very, very difficult to militarily eject the Russian forces from all – every inch of Ukraine and occupied – or Russian-occupied Ukraine.”

    Ukrainian artillery unit members fire toward Kherson on October 28, 2022.

    Anchal Vohra wrote recently in Foreign Policy magazine that “while isolating Crimea is one thing, entering, attacking, and holding such a heavily fortified region guarded by the Russian naval fleet is quite another.”

    Just this week, the deputy head of Russia’s Security Council, Dmitri Medvedev, warned that Russia would use “absolutely any weapon” should Crimea try to retake Ukraine.

    As the rumor mill about the goals of a possible Ukrainian counter-offensive later this spring intensifies, so does the appetite for what the Russians call maskirovka, the art of deception. Neither side has a monopoly on that.

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  • An explosion at a candy factory in Pennsylvania leaves at least 5 dead, others remain missing | CNN

    An explosion at a candy factory in Pennsylvania leaves at least 5 dead, others remain missing | CNN

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    CNN
     — 

    At least five people are dead and six are unaccounted for following an explosion at a candy factory in eastern Pennsylvania on Friday, CNN affiliate WFMZ reported Saturday, citing local officials.

    The explosion occurred at the R.M. Palmer Company facility in West Reading just before 5 p.m., West Reading Police Chief Wayne Holben said in a press conference on Friday night. The cause for the explosion is unknown and remains under investigation, he said.

    “There is no danger to the surrounding area at this time,” Holben went on. “However, the borough is urging residents to avoid the area and follow directions of law enforcement and emergency personnel.”

    A spokesperson for the Reading Hospital told CNN Saturday that at least eight individuals were hospitalized following the explosion. Of those, one patient has been transferred, two are in fair condition, and five have been discharged.

    The hospital sent six ambulances – including their mass casualty incident vehicle – to the scene following the explosion.

    The factory building is leveled and there was significant damage from the explosion, according to West Reading Mayor Samantha Kaag.

    “There is not too much to salvage from it,” Kaag said.

    R.M. Palmer Company is a candy company that launched n 1948 and has been at its current location since 1959, according to the company’s website. CNN has reached out to the company for comment.

    West Reading is about 50 miles northwest of Philadelphia.

    CNN has reached out to the Pennsylvania Emergency Management Agency for further details on the casualties.

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  • Truck fire shuts major Maryland highway weeks after deadly tanker fire in the region | CNN

    Truck fire shuts major Maryland highway weeks after deadly tanker fire in the region | CNN

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    CNN
     — 

    A tanker crash sparked a massive fire on a Baltimore County interstate Friday morning, state police and local officials said, just weeks after a deadly tanker fire about 50 miles away.

    Firefighters stood back as a yardslong trail of bright orange and red flames roared from the pavement, fueling thick black smoke that rose into the predawn darkness, an image released by the Baltimore County Fire Department shows.

    The tanker overturned and was the only vehicle involved in the crash, Sgt. Arthur Horton of Maryland State Police told CNN. A tanker strike team responded, the fire department said.

    The crash on I-795 forced all ramps from inner and outer loops to close, Maryland’s State Highway Administration said.

    The fire was put out, the fire department said in a Twitter post shortly before 9 a.m., and crews were working with the Maryland Department of the Environment to contain diesel fuel. “Beltway will be shut down for an extended period. Avoid the area,” the fire department said.

    The tanker driver was taken to a local trauma center with non-life-threatening injuries, police said.

    The crash happened weeks after a deadly gas tanker explosion following a crash on a highway in nearby Frederick, Maryland. The March 4 explosion on US Route 15, about 50 miles west of Baltimore, damaged homes and vehicles and killed the tanker driver. Hazardous materials, including gasoline and diesel fuel, were contained within hours, Frederick County officials said.

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  • Most Californians are under a severe weather alert as another atmospheric river dumps heavy rain | CNN

    Most Californians are under a severe weather alert as another atmospheric river dumps heavy rain | CNN

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    CNN
     — 

    California state emergency officials have deployed crews across the state to respond to the potentially damaging impacts of yet another atmospheric river slamming the storm-fatigued state.

    More than 35 million Californians – most of the state’s population – were under some kind of weather alert Tuesday afternoon.

    Powerful winds, thunderstorms and showers were impacting most of central and Southern California Tuesday.

    Wind gusts reaching up to 70 mph coupled with the heavy rain could down trees and cut power, the National Weather Service’s Weather Prediction Center said. More than 170,000 customers across the state were without power Tuesday afternoon, according to PowerOutage.us.

    State transportation officials reported snow and windy conditions in the mountains of Southern California’s Riverside and San Bernardino counties. Officials recommended residents in the area maintain at least a two-week supply of food, water, medication and fuel ahead of the rapidly strengthening storm’s arrival.

    “Visibility is at a big ‘nope’ today,” the state transportation department for the region wrote on Twitter. “Please consider travel when conditions are more favorable. If you must travel, be prepared and stay safe.”

    The heavy rain and snow could worsen conditions for communities still flooded from the previous atmospheric river that pummeled the state – and ended just days ago.

    “Locally several inches of rainfall is expected by Wednesday morning across especially southern California and this will foster concerns for rapid runoff, flooding and mudslides given the already wet, saturated soil conditions that are in place,” the weather prediction center said.

    California has already seen at least 12 atmospheric rivers this winter season that ravaged communities, displaced residents and prompted emergency declarations as floodwater inundated neighborhoods, swelled rivers, damaged roads and sent mud and rocks sliding down hills.

    “Now’s the time to ensure you and your family are prepared,” officials from the California Governor’s Office of Emergency Services urged residents Tuesday.

    Swift-water rescue teams, hand crews and bulldozers were also stationed in counties throughout the state.

    “This is going to be yet another challenging event – probably not an extreme storm individually by historical standards – but once again, another significant event that, on top of everything that has come before, it’s going to cause some major problems,” UCLA climate scientist Daniel Swain said in a video.

    It’s unclear how the climate crisis could be influencing the number of storms that hit the West Coast, but scientists have linked it to an increase in the amount of moisture the atmosphere holds. That means storms, like these atmospheric rivers, are able to bring more moisture inland, leading to an increase in rainfall rates and flash flooding.

    Since October 1, Los Angeles has received more than 24 inches of rain — roughly twice as much as it normally gets for this time period. That’s also about 10 inches above their annual average, as the vast majority of California’s rainfall occurs from late fall to early spring.

    And it’s not just Los Angeles: cities across the state are seeing very similar numbers.

    San Francisco, Oakland, Sacramento, Stockton and Fresno have all seen 150 to 200% of their normal rainfall since October 1.

    While the extreme rainfall has triggered flash flooding, mudslides and caused damage, it has also significantly increased critical state reservoirs including Lakes Shasta and Oroville, which have risen by more than 100 and 180 feet respectively since December.

    The widespread rain, mountain snow and strong winds across parts of central and Southern California will continue Wednesday and will gradually clear up Thursday, said National Weather Service Meteorologist Sarah Rogowski.

    The heaviest impact will likely be felt in southern California, which could see around 1 to 3 inches of rain across lower elevations and 2 to 4 inches across the foothills through Thursday.

    The Weather Prediction Center raised the flood threat to a moderate level Monday for areas of Southern California, covering more than 15 million people in coastal areas from Los Angeles to San Diego.

    Soils are still overly saturated with water from last week’s storms, setting the stage for more flooding and rapid runoffs.

    The powerful storm could also lash Southern California with maximum wind gusts near 75 mph, adding the dangers of fallen trees and powerlines to the mix of hazards Californians are facing this week. More than 30 million people are under alerts for strong winds from California into Nevada and Arizona.

    In the Sierra Nevada and Southern California mountains, as much as 3 to 4 feet of snow could be piled on top of already buried communities, likely straining infrastructure and making travel difficult, the weather service said.

    Thousands were evacuated from two small central California towns, Alpaugh and Allensworth, in Tulare County, where there have been multiple breaches in waterways and repair efforts were “unsuccessful with the amount of water,” Tulare County Sheriff Mike Boudreaux said.

    Officials worried roads could become impassable and isolate residents, and deputies went door-to-door before dawn Monday asking people to flee.

    So far, seven structures were destroyed and more than 680 were damaged by floods in Tulare County, according to Cal Fire.

    Amid fears over mud and debris flows from the El Dorado and Apple fire burn scars in San Bernardino County, an evacuation warning was issued for the communities of Oak Glen, Forest Falls, Mountain Home Village, Angelus Oaks and Northeast Yucaipa.

    With more rain on the way, protecting people near vulnerable wildfire burn scar areas is among the top concerns for crews.

    Scorched soil can’t absorb rain at a normal rate, making it unstable, explained Yucaipa Fire Chief Grant Malinowski, who is part of the operations group keeping watch over the El Dorado burn scar.

    The fear is that mud and debris could slide down, make roads impassable, damage homes and strand people, Malinowski told CNN.

    Firefighters across the state have been stationed around burn scars each time an atmospheric river menacingly takes aim at the state – and they’ve been doing it a lot this winter season.

    “It’s kind of like almost like fire season right now,” Malinowski said, describing thousands of firefighters and crew members from Cal Fire and the National Guard throughout the state responding to recent storms.

    But unlike with wildfires, residents could have less time to get away from mudslides.

    “It’s not like a fire where they can see the fire building and getting closer. This is instantaneous. It just happens and it’s too late for you to react to it,” Malinowski said.

    And performing rescues in mudslides is no easy task – so it’s important for residents to obey evacuation orders, which aren’t made lightly, Malinowski said.

    “We understand the gravity of asking people to voluntarily leave their homes, but it’s also weighed with the ability for us to rescue people, knowing that it’s going to be a very difficult – if not impossible – task to get through just tons of tons of dirt and debris where we just literally can’t make access,” Malinowski said.

    Up in the mountains, the concern is heavy snow stranding people.

    “The storm is expected to peak on Tuesday and Wednesday and dump as much as three feet of additional snow on mountain communities that were hit with as much of 10 feet of snow during storms in late February and early this month,” San Bernardino County officials said.

    The county said it is activating public works employees for 24-hour snow plowing and storm patrol, having County Flood Control District crews active on split shifts during the storm and adding additional sheriff deputies to routine patrols for the next two weeks.

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  • DeSantis needles Trump as he breaks silence on hush money case | CNN Politics

    DeSantis needles Trump as he breaks silence on hush money case | CNN Politics

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    CNN
     — 

    Breaking his silence on Donald Trump’s legal troubles, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis on Monday criticized the Manhattan district attorney who is pursuing charges against the former president and vowed his office would not be involved if the matter trickles into Trump’s adopted home state.

    But DeSantis, a rising rival for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, stopped well short of offering support for the former president and instead seemed to poke fun at the situation Trump has found himself in as he attempts a political comeback and a third campaign for the White House. A grand jury is in the final stages of determining whether Trump should face charges over an alleged payment to adult film star Stormy Daniels related to a supposed affair.

    “I don’t know what goes into paying hush money to a porn star to secure silence over some type of alleged affair,” DeSantis said as laughter broke out at a news conference in Panama City, Florida. “I just, I can’t speak to that.”

    DeSantis added: “I’ve got real issues to deal with here in the state of Florida.”

    The dismissive quips traveled quickly across the state to Mar-a-Lago, where Trump has decamped while he awaits for word on the New York grand jury’s findings. His allies immediately started attacking DeSantis across social media, suggesting he would face a political price for failing to recognize Republicans are rallying around Trump amid his mounting legal threats.

    Trump responded in a statement posted to his social media site, Truth Social, leveling a series of personal attacks against DeSantis.

    “Ron DeSanctimonious will probably find out about FALSE ACCUSATIONS & FAKE STORIES sometime in the future, as he gets older, wiser, and better known, when he’s unfairly and illegally attacked by a woman, even classmates that are ‘underage’ (or possibly a man!). I’m sure he will want to fight these misfits just like I do!” Trump wrote.

    As part of the post Trump also shared a photo that suggested DeSantis had behaved inappropriately with teenage girls while teaching history in Georgia in his early 20s, an image the former president previously shared on social media to go after the Florida governor.

    The episode Monday was illustrative of the increasingly fraught rivalry between two of the GOP’s biggest stars as they battle for party supremacy — one made more awkward by their proximity inside the Sunshine State. Trump has suggested his arrest is forthcoming, and if he is in Florida at that moment, it could require a coordinated effort by police in DeSantis’ state.

    DeSantis said he is not aware of any arrangements with local law enforcement regarding Trump, and he said he had “no interest in getting involved in some type of manufactured circus.”

    The delayed remarks by DeSantis stand in stark contrast to the forceful defense he offered on Trump’s behalf last August when federal authorities seized documents from the former president’s Palm Beach estate. Just hours after the raid, DeSantis on Twitter called the FBI search at Mar-a-Lago “another escalation in the weaponization of federal agencies against the regime’s political opponents, while people like Hunter Biden get treated with kid gloves.”

    But there was no such tweet this time from DeSantis, who had remained quiet for days amid reports that a New York grand jury was interviewing witnesses and has largely avoided discussing Trump at all amid escalating attacks from the former president and his allies. DeSantis instead last week held events focused on relief for Hurricane Ian victims and the pandemic. He posted a picture from the World Baseball Classic picture standing next to the Miami Marlins mascot.

    Over the weekend, as other Republicans criticized Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, a Democrat, for pursuing charges in a case that dates back to the 2016 election, Trump allies engaged in a coordinated pressure campaign to get DeSantis to speak out in defense of the former president.

    “Thank you, Vice President @Mike_Pence and @VivekGRamaswamy, for pointing out how Radical Left Democrats are trying to divide our Country in the name of Partisan Politics,” Trump campaigdn adviser Jason Miller wrote on Twitter. “Radio silence from Gov. @RonDeSantisFL and Amb. @NikkiHaley.”

    Trump’s son, Donald Trump Jr., wrote in a tweet on Sunday: “Pay attention to which Republicans spoke out against this corrupt BS immediately and who sat on their hands and waited to see which way the wind was blowing.”

    MAGA, Inc sent several emails tracking which Republicans had commented on the potential criminal charges and hitting DeSantis for “remaining silent.” Trump allies acknowledged that this was a concerted effort to force DeSantis to weigh in on the matter, believing that he would have to offer support to Trump.

    When DeSantis finally weighed in Monday, it came during an unrelated press conference about central bank digital currencies, a recent area of concern among some conservatives but hardly the topic of the day, given the revelations about Trump’s legal case. He didn’t address Trump’s legal situation until asked by an individual from the Florida Standard, a conservative website friendly to DeSantis.

    DeSantis echoed other criticism of Bragg, accusing the Democrat of seeking charges against Trump for political reasons. He compared Bragg to the local state attorney in Tampa, Andrew Warren, who DeSantis controversially removed from office last year over his politics, and linked them both to George Soros, the Hungarian-born billionaire and progressive donor often at the center of conservative conspiracies.

    “If you have a prosecutor who is ignoring crimes happening every single day in his jurisdiction, and he chooses to go back many, many years ago to try to use something about porn star hush money payments, you know, that’s an example of pursuing a political agenda and weaponizing the office, and I think that that’s fundamentally wrong,” DeSantis said.

    But DeSantis also seemed to downplay Bragg’s pursuit of Trump as a lesser concern compared to issues related to crime in the city.

    “That’s bad, but the real victims are ordinary New Yorkers, ordinary Americans in all these different jurisdictions that they get victimized every day because of the reckless political agenda that the Soros DAs bring to their job,” he said. “They ignore crime and they empower criminals.”

    Haley weighed in later Monday, saying a prosecution of Trump would be “for political points.” The former South Carolina governor, who announced her White House campaign last month, told Fox News’ Bret Baier, “And I think what we know is that when you get into political prosecutions like this, it’s more about revenge than it is about justice.”

    “I think the country would be better off talking about things that the American public cares about than to sit there and have to deal with some revenge by some political people in New York,” added Haley, who served as ambassador to the United Nations under Trump.

    This story has been updated with additional information.

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  • A 12th atmospheric river is headed toward storm-fatigued California, threatening even more floods | CNN

    A 12th atmospheric river is headed toward storm-fatigued California, threatening even more floods | CNN

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    CNN
     — 

    Still reeling from an onslaught of powerful storms and destructive floods, California is bracing for a 12th atmospheric river that’s expected to bring a new round of heavy snow and rain to the state.

    The latest in the parade of storms ushered moisture into California Sunday, lashing the state with high winds and dumping more rain and snow over the region before it was expected to spread inland Monday.

    Thousands were under evacuation orders Sunday in two small central California towns – Alpaugh and Allensworth – as officials worried roads could become impassable and isolate residents, according to the Tulare County Sheriff’s Office. First responders from dozens of agencies, including the California National Guard, were out Sunday afternoon helping residents evacuate – a sight that has become familiar in the flood-ravaged state this winter season.

    “The devastation is indescribable,” Tulare County farmer Brandon Mendonsa told CNN affiliate KFSN. “The water is still coming – this is far from being done.”

    The next atmospheric river, mainly taking aim at southern California, is expected to be colder than the last and arrive Tuesday with high winds, heavy rain, mountain snow and the threat of more floods. Soils in the Golden State are still overly saturated from last week’s storm, making the ground vulnerable to more flooding and rapid runoffs, the National Weather Service said.

    Though not forecast to be as potent as the atmospheric rivers of previous weeks, the system is expected to bring 1-3 inches of rain across the lower elevations and 2-4 inches across the foothills of Southern California through Thursday. Arizona could also see up to 3 inches of rainfall.

    Powerful winds are also a concern. Gusts could reach up to 80 mph – strong enough to down trees and power lines from the central California coast to Southern California, according to the Weather Service.

    High wind watches were issued for Southern California, including Los Angeles, for Tuesday and Wednesday.

    In the Sierra Nevada and Southern California mountain ranges, snowfall could add up to several feet for some the highest terrain and likely make for hazardous travel over the next few days.

    Winter storm watches have already been issued for the Sierra Nevada Mountain Range, where an additional 1-4 feet of snowfall is possible late Monday through Wednesday afternoon. The San Bernardino Mountains are also under a winter storm watch, with snowfall expected to reach up to 4 feet through Wednesday with gusts up to 85 mph.

    This winter, California was hit with 11 different atmospheric rivers – long, narrow bands of moisture that can carry saturated air thousands of miles like a fire hose. While the storms have upended life for many in the state, damaging homes and forcing evacuations, they’ve also helped put a dent in the state’s historic drought.

    Last week’s atmospheric river alone shattered daily rainfall records in Los Angeles, Santa Barbara and Santa Maria.

    There’s been so much rain that the Southern California water board called off emergency drought conservation measures for over 7 million people.

    Severe drought in California was cut in half from the previous week, now covering only 8% of the state – down from 80.6% just three months ago, according to the US Drought Monitor. Just over a third of the state remains in some level of drought.

    The abnormally wet winter – combined with recent storms – wiped out exceptional and extreme drought in California for the first time since 2020, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

    “Moderate to exceptional drought coverage across the U.S. is at its lowest since August 2020 and is likely to continue improving, or end entirely, across much of California and the Great Basin,” NOAA forecasters said.

    As the snowpack melts in the coming months, it’s expected to further improve drought conditions across much of the western US, according to NOAA. But, that could also mean more floods.

    “Approximately 44% of the U.S. is at risk for flooding this spring,” said Ed Clark, director of NOAA’s National Water Center. “California’s historic snowpack, coupled with spring rain, is heightening the potential for spring floods.”

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  • At least 13 dead after magnitude 6.8 earthquake shakes Ecuador | CNN

    At least 13 dead after magnitude 6.8 earthquake shakes Ecuador | CNN

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    CNN
     — 

    At least 13 people died after a magnitude 6.8 earthquake struck southern Ecuador on Saturday afternoon, according to government officials.

    The earthquake struck near the southern town of Baláo and was more than 65 km (nearly 41 miles) deep, according to the United States Geological Survey.

    An estimated 461 people were injured in the quake, according to a report from the Ecuadorian president’s office. The government had previously reported that 16 people were killed but later revised the death toll.

    In the province of El Oro, at least 11 people died. At least one other death was reported in the province of Azuay, according to the communications department for Ecuador’s president. In an earlier statement, authorities said the person in Azuay was killed when a wall collapsed onto a car and that at least three of the victims in El Oro died when a security camera tower came down.

    People who were injured were being treated at hospitals, the Presidency added, but did not provide further details.

    The USGS gave the tremor an “orange alert,” saying “significant casualties are likely and the disaster is potentially widespread.”

    “Past events with this alert level have required a regional or national level response,” the USGS added. It also estimated damage and economic losses were possible.

    Relatives of a CNN producer in the western port city of Guayaquil said they felt “very strong” tremors.

    View of a flood at the Puerto Bolivar dock after the earthquake.

    CNN afiliate Ecuavisa reported structural damage to buildings in Cuenca, one of the country’s biggest cities. The historic city is in the UN list of world heritage sites.

    There is no tsunami warning in effect for the area, according to the US National Weather Service.

    The airports of Guayaquil and Cuenca remained open and operational, the country’s statement said.

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