ReportWire

Tag: iab-home utilities

  • Bay Area Rapid Transit running limited service to Oakland Airport due to power outage | CNN

    Bay Area Rapid Transit running limited service to Oakland Airport due to power outage | CNN

    [ad_1]



    CNN
     — 

    California’s Bay Area Rapid Transit system says it is running a “limited service” to the Oakland International Airport because of a power outage in Alameda County.

    “Oakland Airport Connector service is running limited service due to a power outage. Shuttles will depart every 18 minutes,” BART said in a 2:38 p.m. PST update.

    Pacific Gas and Electric Company spokesperson Tamar Sarkissian tweeted that a “large outage” was impacting approximately 50,000 Oakland customers. “We are currently investigating the details and will provide more information on the timing of restoration as soon as we can,” Sarkissian said.

    A transformer fire at a substation caused the outage, Pacific Gas and Electric told CNN in an email Sunday evening.

    “The cause of the outage is a transformer fire within the substation, and we are working closely with fire officials to make the situation safe. We will provide more information on the timing of restoration once we have those details,” spokesperson JD Guidi said.

    The outage impacted the Oakland International Airport for more than an hour Sunday afternoon, according to airport spokesperson Robert Bernardo.

    The power at the airport went down at approximately 1 p.m. PST and was restored at 2:50 p.m. PST, Bernardo told CNN.

    [ad_2]

    Source link

  • Biden administration restores Obama-era mercury rules for power plants, eyes more regulations in coming months | CNN Politics

    Biden administration restores Obama-era mercury rules for power plants, eyes more regulations in coming months | CNN Politics

    [ad_1]



    CNN
     — 

    The Biden administration on Friday finalized a decision to reestablish Obama-era rules that require coal and oil-fired power plants to reduce toxic pollutants, including mercury and acid gas, that come out of their smokestacks.

    Mercury is a neurotoxin with several health impacts, including harmful effects on children’s brain development. And while the updated rule significantly benefits public health for communities around these kinds of power plants, it also has the effect of requiring plants to cut down on planet-warming pollution that comes from burning coal to generate electricity.

    President Joe Biden’s Environmental Protection Agency announced early last year that it intended to undo a Trump-era rollback of the 2012 mercury pollution rules, one of many Trump-era environmental decisions it has reversed.

    “This is a really good day for public health in this country,” EPA Deputy Administrator Janet McCabe told CNN. “We’re talking about mercury, arsenic, acid gases; these are dangerous pollutants that impact people’s health.”

    The EPA estimates the 2012 rule brought down mercury emissions from power plants by 86% by 2017, while acid gas emissions were reduced by 96%.

    McCabe said the EPA is currently working on its own, stronger mercury standard that it expects to propose “not too long from now” and finalize before the end of Biden’s first term.

    The Mercury and Air Toxics Standards rules are part of a larger tranche of regulations the agency is expected to roll out this spring that would cut down on coal-fired power plant pollution, including rules on proper disposal of coal ash.

    It also plans to release a much-anticipated rule that would regulate planet-warming pollution like carbon dioxide and methane. That rule is expected to be more limited than climate advocates desire, after the US Supreme Court limited the EPA’s ability to broadly regulate carbon pollution in a ruling last year.

    “We’re very mindful of the Supreme Court precedent,” McCabe told CNN. “We’ve been working very, very carefully to craft a rule that will be in the four corners of the direction that the Supreme Court has laid down.”

    McCabe said the agency will propose that rule “in the relatively near future,” but did not share specifics about what the rule would do to limit pollution.

    Many of the nation’s coal-fired power plants are aging and new ones are not being built – especially as it’s getting more expensive operate existing plans. If the EPA implements stronger federal regulations on mercury, coal ash and greenhouse gas emissions, it could have the impact of more utilities shuttering coal-fired plants, as many are already doing.

    [ad_2]

    Source link

  • Power outage disrupts New York’s JFK Airport Terminal 1 | CNN

    Power outage disrupts New York’s JFK Airport Terminal 1 | CNN

    [ad_1]



    CNN
     — 

    A power outage is disrupting flights at a John F. Kennedy International Airport terminal, the airport said Thursday.

    The outage at Terminal 1 was caused by an electrical panel failure that resulted in a “small isolated fire overnight that was immediately extinguished,” the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey said in a statement.

    “The power outage is currently impacting the terminal’s ability to accept inbound and outbound flights,” the statement said.

    Other terminals are being used to accommodate the affected flights, and travelers should check with their airlines for flight status, the Port Authority said.

    An Air New Zealand flight that was due to land at JFK at 5:40 p.m. ET Thursday was diverted back to its origin airport, according to flight tracking site FlightAware.

    Some arriving international flights were diverted to other East Coast airports, including Newark Liberty International Airport in New Jersey, Boston’s Logan International Airport and Washington Dulles International Airport, JFK’s website showed.

    The Port Authority is trying to restore power at Terminal 1 by working around the circuits affected by the overnight fire, according to a Port Authority official with knowledge of the outage.

    If this method of restoring the power to the terminal is not successful, they are prepared to use generator power to get Terminal 1 back online, the Port Authority source added.

    The aircraft ramp around Terminal 1 has been closed and is scheduled to reopen Friday morning, according to a notice posted in a Federal Aviation Administration safety database.

    The FAA referred questions about the incident to the airport operator. The Transportation Security Administration said: “TSA is eagerly awaiting the power situation to be resolved.”

    Passengers on the Air New Zealand flight found themselves on a nearly 16-hour flight from Auckland back to Auckland after ANZ2 turned around because of the disruption at JFK.

    “Diverting to another US port would have meant the aircraft would remain on the ground for several days, impacting a number of other scheduled services and customers,” the airline said in a statement to CNN.

    Airline staff will be on hand to rebook passengers when they arrive back in Auckland.

    “We apologise for the inconvenience and thank our customers for their patience and understanding.”

    [ad_2]

    Source link

  • A vulnerable power grid is in the crosshairs of domestic extremist groups | CNN

    A vulnerable power grid is in the crosshairs of domestic extremist groups | CNN

    [ad_1]



    CNN
     — 

    Gunshots fired at two power substations in Moore County, North Carolina, late last year left 45,000 homes and businesses without power and more attacks just like that could already be planned by domestic extremist groups, according to experts.

    “All of a sudden, about 8:45 p.m., about 20 shots fired off right across the street,” Spencer Matthews told CNN affiliate WRAL shortly after the December attack.

    The gunfire hit critical parts of the substations and the power went out.

    “Got no way to heat because we don’t have a fireplace,” one woman told WRAL after her home was plunged into darkness.

    Investigators found nearly two dozen shell casings from a high-powered rifle near the substations, but so far have not found a gun or made any arrests.

    Experts say the two substation attacks could be the work of domestic extremists who have openly advocated targeting a vulnerable power system.

    The motive behind the December 3 attack is still not known, but it came after an FBI bulletin in November warned of threats by extremist groups to “create civil disorder and inspire further violence.”

    “This typically very primitive style attack equals millions of dollars in damage,” Brian Harrell, a former US Department of Homeland Security Assistant Secretary for Infrastructure Protection, told CNN. “If you were to shoot out some very key components you can quickly create an effect where this large multimillion dollar transformer becomes essentially a paperweight.”

    In 2022 there were 25 “actual physical attacks” reported on power facilities across the US and one report of “sabotage,” according to the latest statistics available from the Department of Energy.

    The data also shows 57 reports of suspicious activity, and 80 acts of vandalism.

    The numbers are mostly trending up, compared with 2021, when there were six actual physical attacks reported and two reports of sabotage. The data also shows 32 reports of suspicious activity, and 52 acts of vandalism.

    Many attacks remain unsolved.

    “There’s no doubt in my mind that 2023… is probably going to be the most catastrophic when it comes to the uptick of DVE (Domestic Violent Extremist) attacks on electricity infrastructure,” Harrell said. “A number of individuals and extremist groups online right now have already signaled that this is a part of their playbook.”

    One of those playbooks, with a swastika and lightning bolts on the cover, published on a social media platform by a neo-Nazi group, makes their aim quite clear.

    “The main thing that keeps the anti-White system going is the powergrid,” the document reads. “This is something that is easier than you think. Peppered all over the country are power distribution substations… Sitting ducks, worthy prey.”

    It’s part of a White-power philosophy called “accelerationism,” which wants to destroy society and replace it with one based on their racist ideologies.

    “With the power off, when the lights don’t come back on… all hell will break lose, [sic] making conditions desirable for our race to once again take back what is ours,” they write.

    The head of another accelerationist group posted on social media that these attackers have “cracked the code on lone wolf attacks.”

    The attacks “check off all the necessary boxes which I didn’t think possible for lone wolf ops in USA – Frequency, sustainability, geographic concentration,” he is quoted as saying. “Law enforcement appears powerless (no pun intended) to stop them.”

    These groups dream of striking exactly the right spots in the power grid, which government reports have warned for decades could cause a domino effect and leave huge parts of the country in the dark.

    “If you were to target, you know, eight or nine very key nodes throughout the United States, you potentially could have a collapsing effect,” Harrell warns.

    High voltage transmission power lines and substations are often spread across the country in out of the way places which can be hard to keep safe and technically challenging to secure.

    “It’s inherently very difficult to harden or protect it all,” Granger Morgan, an engineering professor at Carnegie Mellon University told CNN. “It may not take all that high tech an approach to cause physical disruption that could have very large consequences.”

    Morgan is the chair of the National Academy of Science’s committee on enhancing the resilience of the nation’s power system.

    “Physical attacks on major system components could cause serious physical damage, especially to large transformers and other hard to replace substation and transmission equipment such as high voltage circuit breakers,” one of his papers from 2017 warned. “Recovery could easily require many days or weeks.”

    Right now there is no central authority that regulates the entire power system, which, Morgan says, gets in the way of changes needed to make the system more robust and resilient from attack.

    Justice Department forms new domestic terrorism unit

    “No one at the moment has authority to deal with the entire system, and we need to get that situation fixed,” he said. “We’ve got the federal regulators overseeing the high voltage system that brings power across long distances. We’ve got state public utility commissions dealing with things at the state level, we got both private and public power.”

    Morgan said a presidential commission or other powerful political body needs to be appointed to take the lead in protecting the grid and making it more resilient to attacks.

    “We just need to get much more systematic in terms of figuring out both how we protect against it, but also how we can quickly put the system back together again, once a problem arises,” he said.

    [ad_2]

    Source link

  • The deadly ice storm crippling much of the South leaves more than 300,000 Texans without power in the frigid cold | CNN

    The deadly ice storm crippling much of the South leaves more than 300,000 Texans without power in the frigid cold | CNN

    [ad_1]



    CNN
     — 

    Treacherous road conditions are now linked to three deaths in Texas as a wave of ice and sleet continues to hammer parts of the southern and central US into the overnight hours.

    A 49-year-old woman was killed this week when she lost control of her truck on an icy road north of Eldorado, the Texas Department of Public Safety told CNN on Wednesday.

    Two other deaths were previously linked to the storm that coated Texas cities with sleet or ice. In south Austin, one person died Tuesday morning in a 10-car pileup, the city’s fire department said. Another person died when their car rolled over in the Dallas-area city of Arlington, police said.

    The dangerous conditions are not over. A nasty combination of freezing rain, sleet and accumulating ice are expected hit parts of Texas, Arkansas and Tennessee through at least Thursday morning, forecasters said.

    “Road conditions will be AWFUL after sunset and overnight,” the National Weather Service in Fort Worth said. “DO NOT BE ON THE ROADS.”

    More than an inch of sleet has already piled up in parts of Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Missouri, Kentucky and Illinois since Monday.

    In Texas alone, more than 350,000 homes, businesses and other power customers had no electricity in the frigid cold Wednesday night, according to PowerOutage.US.

    Ice brought down multiple trees and large tree limbs Wednesday, causing power outages across the Austin metro area, the National Weather Service said.

    Dangerous conditions prompted Parkland Health system in Dallas to extend the closure of its clinics on Thursday.

    Here’s what’s on tap in the southern and central US:

    • Texas: The state has seen heavy freezing rain throughout Wednesday, which will continue steadily into overnight across much of northern and central Texas as temperatures remain below freezing.

    • Southern Oklahoma: Freezing rain continues to move across the region and will last through Thursday morning.

    • South-central Arkansas and Tennessee’s Memphis area: An additional tenth- to quarter-inch of ice could pile up through Thursday morning.

    • Across the region: Total ice accumulation of at least a quarter of an inch is likely from West Texas to western Tennessee through Thursday morning. Up to a half-inch could build up in parts of central and north-central Texas and southern Arkansas, the National Weather Service said.

    • Widespread flight cancellations: More than 2,400 flights within, into or out of the US were canceled Wednesday, according to the tracking website FlightAware.

    Jackknifed tractor-trailers blocked Interstate 10 in Reeves County, Texas, on Tuesday.

    In a state not accustomed to heavy ice, a group of Jeep enthusiasts used their vehicles to help stranded drivers.

    The Dallas-based “Carnales Off Road” group regularly supports those in need, founder Jorge Coronilla Muñiz told CNN.

    “It’s not the first time we’ve done this during bad weather. We try to help as often as possible,” Muñiz said.

    Several semi-trucks got stuck on Interstate 20 on Tuesday, and about 30 Jeeps helped tow them.

    “Before we got to I-20, we also helped a few other cars who were stuck on the streets,” Muniz said. “We eventually came across the standstill on Interstate 20 and helped an additional 20 trucks.”

    Muñiz said he and other group members helped stranded motorists from early Tuesday morning all the way until 10 p.m.

    “Everyone was very grateful for our help, especially the truck drivers. Some even asked if we were going to charge them for the help, but we told them we were just there to help.”

    The group is back out on the roads Wednesday and will help medical professionals having difficulty getting to and from work, Muñiz said.

    More than 12 million people across parts of southeastern Oklahoma, southern Missouri, central and eastern Arkansas, western Tennessee, northwestern Mississippi and Texas are under ice storm warnings Wednesday.

    The weather service issues ice storm warnings when ice accumulations of more than a quarter of an inch are possible.

    Unsafe travel conditions Tuesday led to hundreds of car crashes across Texas, officials said. Emergency workers responded to people suffering from hypothermia or those injured after slipping on ice. The Texas National Guard is prepared to help stranded motorists, clear roadways and provide welfare checks, Gov. Greg Abbott said. And Texas Parks and Wildlife has at least 30 responders ready for search and rescue operations.

    Meanwhile, a separate storm system will also send temperatures plunging across the Northeast.

    The National Weather Service predicts “dangerously cold temperatures” in the region Friday and Saturday, with freezing cold wind chills that can cause frostbite in just 10 minutes, it said.

    “Limit time outdoors and cover all skin if going out,” the service added.

    The service forecasts wind chills of -20 to -35 degrees Fahrenheit early Friday affecting parts of New York, Vermont, New Hampshire and Maine, while Saturday morning could bring wind chills of -60 degrees Fahrenheit across northern New England, the weather service said.

    Leaders across states including Rhode Island, Connecticut and Maine were coordinating resources ahead of the extreme weather and setting up warming centers, according to messages from the governors.

    “Temperatures this weekend will be extremely – and dangerously – cold across the state,” Maine Gov. Janet Mills said in a Tuesday news release. “Please take extra precautions, be careful if you go outside, and be sure to check on your family, friends, and neighbors to make sure they are okay.”

    [ad_2]

    Source link

  • Dead chickens and decomposing bodies: Inside South Africa’s power blackout ‘pandemic’ | CNN

    Dead chickens and decomposing bodies: Inside South Africa’s power blackout ‘pandemic’ | CNN

    [ad_1]


    Johannesburg, South Africa
    CNN
     — 

    Car crashes, opportunistic criminals, rotting food, decomposing bodies, bankrupt businesses, and water shortages. Welcome to life under South Africa’s power blackouts.

    Last week the grim extent of the outages was laid bare when South Africans were advised to bury dead loved ones within four days.

    In a public statement, the South African Funeral Practitioners Association warned that bodies in mortuaries were rapidly decomposing because of the unrelenting electricity outages, putting huge pressure on funeral parlors struggling to process corpses.

    The situation is so bad that the country’s President Cyril Ramaphosa is considering declaring a national disaster, similar to one in 2020 at the height of the Covid pandemic, which had a devastating effect on the country’s economy.

    Last week scores of supporters from the Democratic Alliance opposition party marched under heavy security through the streets of Johannesburg and Cape Town to voice their frustrations over the persistent blackouts.

    Known locally as loadshedding, widespread electricity blackouts are carried out multiple times a day by state-owned energy utility Eskom to avoid the total collapse of the grid.

    Shortages on the electricity system unbalance the network, and Eskom has stated that controlled outages are necessary to ensure reserve margins are maintained, and the system remains stable.

    While the country has been experiencing on-off power outages for years, since September 2022 scheduled blackouts have become routine, affecting every part of South African society.

    For some people, not having access to reliable power can be the difference between life and death.

    Before she died in October 2022, Lis Van Os needed oxygen for 17 hours a day. Her stationary oxygen machine required mains power, making periods of loadshedding extremely stressful, particularly when power did not return as scheduled, her family said.

    Her daughter Karin McDonald was forced to explore backup options such as inverters and a back up oxygen mobile tank, which only lasted short periods.

    “Towards the end (of her life) power outages created a lot of anxiety for everyone,” she said.

    South Africans experienced more than twice as many power cuts in 2022 than in any other year. And things are set to get worse in 2023.

    Even simple daily tasks need to be arranged around loadshedding schedules, including meal planning, travel times, work that requires internet connectivity.

    From preparing baby formula to keeping fans running during the summer heat, not having access to mains power is makes daily life challenging for South Africans.

    Maneo Motsamai, a domestic worker in Johannesburg, says the outages prevents her from simple tasks such as cooking.

    “I boil water to cook mealie meal (maize porridge) and the power goes. I can’t eat, it’s a waste. I can’t cope like that,” Motsamai told CNN.

    Pump stations can’t provide water and many small businesses without access to backup power are having to close shop and lay off employees, according to people CNN spoke to.

    Thando Makhubu runs Soweto Creamery, an ice cream shop in Jabulani, Soweto, on the outskirts of Johannesburg. His family pooled small welfare grants they received during the Covid-19 pandemic to set up the business, but are now feeling the pressure from power outages.

    In early January, the shop was without power for 72 hours, when electricity did not return as scheduled. Thando was forced to shell out money for diesel to power their generator and prevent all his stock melting. He says the outages are costly and destroying their hopes of expanding.

    Bongi Monjanaga, who runs a startup cleaning services company operating across Johannesburg, says the outages affect every part of her fledgling business, such as operating electric cleaning equipment, entering and leaving premises when security gates aren’t functioning, and having internet to invoice clients and complete online tax compliance documents.

    “I find myself in this pool of misery when I’m just trying to start up. I’m just trying to grow,” she says.

    The escalation of power outages is also deeply worrying for South Africa’s food security, driving up prices, and placing an even greater strain on stretched household budgets.

    With modern farming practices ever more reliant on electricity for crop irrigation, processing, and storage, loadshedding is having a huge impact on agricultural output.

    Gys Olivier, a farmer from Hertzogville in Free State province, in east-central South Africa, says he and other farmers in the area have been forced to throw away hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of seed potatoes due to disruptions to the ‘cold chain’ – (the process of keeping produce refrigerated throughout the supply chain.)

    There is also less demand from growers due to water shortages, with pump stations reliant on electricity to operate.

    Protests against power blackouts in South Africa

    “We have done everything we can to make sure there is food on the table for a very good price, but it’s become so capital-intensive to farm,” Olivier says.

    Meanwhile livestock and poultry are dying before they even get to the slaughterhouse.

    A gruesome video circulating on social media shows workers removing 50,000 dead broiler chickens from a farm in North West province, the birds suffocated when power outages caused ventilation systems to stop. The financial damage to the farmer was around ZAR1.6m ($93,300) according to local media reports.

    South Africa is notorious for high crime rates, and loadshedding is making it worse as home security systems fail when the power goes out, giving criminals a field day inside unsecured properties.
    Policing also becomes harder, with officers unable to reach crime scenes fast enough due to congestion when traffic lights are off.

    Tumelo Mogodiseng, General Secretary of the South African Policing Union (SAPU), describes the load-shedding as “a pandemic.”

    He says his members’ lives are now more at risk, with officers unable to see potentially dangerous situations in the darkness, and police stations, many of which don’t have backup power systems, at risk of attack from criminals during blackouts.

    “Police are dying every day in this country. If this is happening in the daylight, what happens when there is no light for them to see at night?”

    Mogodiseng also worries that crimes are going unreported, with citizens fearful of leaving their houses during outages and traveling in the darkness. “Communities won’t travel to police stations to open cases because they are afraid,” he told CNN.

    Gareth Newham, who runs the Justice and Violence Prevention Programme at the Institute for Security Studies (ISS) in Pretoria, says that it’s hard to get solid data on the impact outages are having on crime. While anecdotal evidence suggests criminals are exploiting outages, the recent escalation of loadshedding has coincided with the Christmas holidays, when crime rates typically spike.

    His biggest concern is that continued loadshedding or a temporary grid collapse could lead to a repeat of the coordinated civil unrest, rioting, and looting in parts of South Africa’s KwaZulu-Natal and Gauteng provinces 18 months ago.

    “A complete breakdown in the grid could be the trigger for local level gangs getting more power, and we could see a similar kind of violence to that we saw in July 2021.”

    Under the ruling African National Congress (ANC), in charge since 1994, Eskom has become synonymous with corruption, crime, and mismanagement.

    Last year a judge-led inquiry into graft under the former president, Jacob Zuma, found that there were grounds to prosecute several former Eskom executives.

    The government has failed to build new power stations to keep up with increased demand, and warnings from energy experts on looming supply shortages across the past two decades have gone ignored.

    A 2019 report by the South African Institution of Civil Engineering shows skilled engineers have been leaving the country in droves.

    Despite spending billions of USD on two huge coal power stations, neither works properly.

    Older plants are dilapidated due to a lack of maintenance, and organized crime steals vital coal supplies and cable from the rail lines going from mines to power stations.

    South Africa's opposition party Democratic Alliance protests onto headquarters of ruling ANC against power blackouts in the country

    Renewable energy companies say they are desperate to supply to the grid, but the government has been slow to cut red tape and streamline regulatory processes that would reduce the time frame for environmental authorisations, registration of new projects and grid connection approvals.

    Legal challenges against the government and Eskom are stacking up. Several political parties and trade unions say they will take the government and state utility to court for not upholding their duty to provide electricity.

    With no end in sight to the outages, South Africans are desperate for alternative energy sources, but even they are out of the reach of many citizens.

    Thando Makhubu says he was shocked by the cost to power his ice cream business off-grid. “We were quoted R100,000 ($5,945) and that excluded the solar panels.”

    Karin McDonald, who runs a swimming school, similarly found the upfront costs of solar prohibitive. “We received quotes for solar for the business and house and were not looking at anything less than half a million rand ($29,500) which is a major life decision to make,” she said.

    There is also a long wait for solar. “I know a solar provider that had 40 requests just last week, all for big solar projects, ” said Angus Williamson, a cattle farmer from KwaZulu-Natal province.

    As they come to terms with their new reality, many South Africans are finding it hard to stay optimistic.

    “The light at the end of the tunnel is a train heading in our direction,” said Williamson.

    [ad_2]

    Source link

  • Thousands without power after reported tornadoes strike Texas and Louisiana communities as storm continues to threaten South, Midwest | CNN

    Thousands without power after reported tornadoes strike Texas and Louisiana communities as storm continues to threaten South, Midwest | CNN

    [ad_1]



    CNN
     — 

    More than a dozen reported tornadoes struck across communities in Texas and Louisiana, damaging many homes and businesses as windows and roofs were blown off buildings – and the threat is expected to persist Wednesday in other southern states.

    A massive, multi-day storm is bringing different impacts to a large swath of the US this week, with parts of Alabama, Florida and Mississippi under a tornado watch through 5 a.m. Wednesday while snow is also in store for the Midwest.

    “A winter storm will move into the Mid-Mississippi Valley by Wednesday morning. Areas of heavy snow and a wintry mix over Oklahoma and the Ozarks will expand northeastward into the Ohio Valley through early Wednesday,” the National Weather Service said on Twitter.

    On Tuesday, the storm inflicted extensive damage to the Houston-area communities of Deer Park and Pasadena, where downed trees and debris littered streets and thousands were without power after lines were knocked down.

    “We’ve seen plenty of damage. We’ve seen buildings that have collapsed,” Pasadena Mayor Jeff Wagner said.

    Josh Bruegger, the city’s police chief, described the damage as the worst he has seen in 25 years, adding, “For the coming days, we’re going to have our hands full.”

    In Deer Park, people who were at St. Hyacinth Catholic Church hunkered down in a hallway and closed all doors as they heard what they believe to be a tornado roll through the area, Father Reginald Samuels said.

    “It got really loud, we heard glass breaking, and the building was shaking then it was calm,” Samuels told CNN, adding that no one was hurt.

    Damage was also reported at a Deer Park nursing home, prompting the evacuation of about 60 residents Tuesday afternoon, Mayor Jerry Mouton told CNN. There were no reports of injuries, according to Jerry Dilliard with the Atascocita Fire Department. CNN reached out to the nursing home’s operator Tuesday for more information.

    Mr. Electric employees Héctor Vázquéz, left, and Lucas Perry pass off a phone outside their office building where they were working when a powerful storm system hit Tuesday in Deer Park, Texas.

    As clean-up efforts are underway in Deer Park, schools in the city will close Wednesday, the district said.

    “We hope this will give families a chance to recover from the stress of today’s events, and we believe it is best for children to be with their parents or guardians after a natural disaster,” the district said in a statement sent to parents and employees Tuesday night.

    “It appears many homes and businesses in our area were damaged, and some neighborhoods remain without power at this time,” the statement continued.

    Photos of damage in Deer Park show tree limbs lying on roads, roofs flown off buildings and damaged vehicles.

    John Liparito surveys storm damage Tuesday in Pasadena, Texas.

    More than 100,000 homes and businesses in Texas and Arkansas were left in the dark early Wednesday morning, according to the tracking site PowerOutage.us. As of 9 p.m. ET, at least 14 tornadoes had been reported across southeastern Texas and southwestern Louisiana.

    In Louisiana’s Beauregard Parish, the sheriff’s office reported significant damage to homes and other buildings, noting that roads were blocked and power lines were down. Nearly 16,000 homes and businesses were also without power in Louisiana early Wednesday morning.

    Overall, there were no reports of serious injuries associated with Tuesday’s storm damage, with Pasadena officials reporting one injury.

    [ad_2]

    Source link

  • Tens of thousands without power in Northeast as another storm threatens the US from New Mexico to Maine | CNN

    Tens of thousands without power in Northeast as another storm threatens the US from New Mexico to Maine | CNN

    [ad_1]



    CNN
     — 

    Tens of thousands of homes and businesses across multiple states in the Northeast were without power early Tuesday after a winter storm dumped more than a foot of snow across areas from central New York to the Maine-Canada border.

    And while the region is expected to get a slight reprieve from heavy snow Tuesday, another storm system is forming in the southern region of the country that’s forecast to move into the Northeast later this week.

    “A large-scale winter storm will move into the southern Plains Monday night and Tuesday, producing areas of heavy snow from eastern New Mexico through Oklahoma,” the National Weather Service’s Weather Prediction Center said on Twitter.

    “The storm is expected to strengthen and track northeastward from the lower Mississippi Valley to the Great Lakes Tuesday night and Wednesday, and produce a stripe of moderate to heavy snow from the Ozarks to the Great Lakes,” the agency added.

    On Tuesday, parts of New England, especially southern parts of Maine, may experience light snow, National Weather Service said on its website. Meanwhile, areas across the Northeast are expected to see cold, dry air and windy conditions.

    And those conditions are persisting as thousands across Massachusetts and New Hampshire are without power after wind and snow from the previous storm knocked down power lines.

    “York County, Maine, has been most impacted by today’s long duration storm as leftover snow on trees and power lines from (last) Friday’s storm resulted in downed trees and blocked roads throughout the area,” Central Maine Power spokesperson Jon Breed told CNN Monday.

    As of early Tuesday morning, more than 30,000 homes and businesses were in the dark in Maine’s south westernmost York County, according to the PowerOutage.us.

    Snow already packed on trees from recent storms along with strong winds are likely to exacerbate damage to the electric system and bring additional outages, New England’s largest energy provider Eversource said in a statement Monday on the status of power outages in New Hampshire.

    “Our system has continued to take damage into tonight, and we are actively assessing and clearing damage while also supporting public safety efforts,” Eversource spokesperson William Hinkle told CNN Monday night.

    Eversource is tapping into its regional resources, bringing in additional crews from its Connecticut and Massachusetts based operations to support restoration efforts in New Hampshire, where more than 66,0000 homes and businesses were also without power Tuesday morning, according to PowerOutage.us.

    About 17 inches have fallen across parts of Maine and New Hampshire while some areas in Vermont and New York saw about 14 inches of snow.

    The next storm is expected to impact the country for several days beginning Tuesday, when more than 15 million people are under the threat of severe storms. High wind alerts have also been issued for more 20 million people as gusts could reach as high as 55 mph.

    There is an enhanced risk of severe storms (level 3 of 5) from southeastern Texas to the western Florida Panhandle, including New Orleans, Baton Rouge and Mobile, Alabama. The main threats are damaging winds, large hail and several tornadoes, a few of which could be strong.

    A slight risk for severe storms (level 2 of 5) surrounds the enhanced risk area and includes Houston, Beaumont, Texas, and Lake Charles, Louisiana – which could also see tornadoes, damaging winds and isolated large hail.

    Meanwhile, there is also a marginal risk (level 1 of 5) for the middle Texas coast, across southern Louisiana into Alabama and the western Florida Panhandle, including Corpus Christi, Texas, and Jackson, Mississippi.

    On Wednesday, the severe storm threat will continue as it shifts to the east.

    A slight risk of severe storms has been issued for the region of southeastern Alabama and northern Florida and expands through Georgia and the Carolinas into Virginia and includes Jacksonville, Florida, north to Virginia Beach. That region is expected to see a few tornadoes and damaging winds.

    [ad_2]

    Source link

  • 90% of Californians are under flood watches as another storm threatens mudslides, power outages and deadly inundation | CNN

    90% of Californians are under flood watches as another storm threatens mudslides, power outages and deadly inundation | CNN

    [ad_1]



    CNN
     — 

    Much of California can’t soak up another drop of rain. Yet the state is getting pummeled again with torrential downpours and ferocious winds, causing power outages and treacherous travel conditions.

    More than 34 million Californians were under a flood watch Monday – about 90% of the state’s population and 10% of the US population.

    Parts of the central California coast got walloped with 1 to 1.25 inches of rainfall per hour, the Weather Prediction Center said. Extensive rainfall there Monday triggered significant flooding, mudslides, debris flows and closed roadways.

    Widespread rainfall totals of 3 to 6 inches have been observed from just south of San Francisco to just north of Los Angeles. Isolated amounts of 6 to more than 10 inches have been observed in the higher terrain near the coast.

    As the rain shifted slowly to the south Monday toward Los Angeles, the National Weather Service there warned of the risk of flooding, debris flow in land scarred by recent wildfires and an increased risk of rock and mudslides in mountains and on canyon roads.

    And hurricane-force wind gusts topping 74 mph thrashed states across the western US. More than 37 million people were under wind alerts Monday in California, Nevada, Oregon, Washington, Utah, Arizona and Wyoming.

    A 132-mph wind gust lashed Oroville, California. Residents in Washoe City, Nevada, were hit with a 98-mph gust, the Weather Prediction Center said.

    TRACK THE STORMS

    “Expect widespread power outages, downed trees and difficult driving conditions,” the National Weather Service in Sacramento tweeted. “Now is the time to prepare if you have not already!”

    Almost 92,000 homes, businesses and other power customers had no electricity Monday evening, according to PowerOutage.us.

    And the central California coast could be at risk of a tornado, CNN Meteorologist Dave Hennen said.

    The severe weather is part of a relentless parade of atmospheric rivers slamming the West Coast.

    California is now extremely vulnerable to flooding because much of the state has been scarred by historic drought or devastating wildfires – meaning the land can’t soak up much rainfall.

    And after an onslaught of storms since late December led to deadly flooding, Gov. Gavin Newsom warned Sunday: “We expect to see the worst of it still in front of us.”

    Two bouts of major rainfall are expected to hammer the West Coast over the next few days – without much of a break between events for the water to recede.

    The system is part of an atmospheric river – a long, narrow region in the atmosphere that can transport moisture thousands of miles, like a fire hose in the sky.

    The atmospheric river slamming California on Monday could result in a 1-in-50 year or 1-in-100 year rainfall event near Fresno, the Weather Prediction Center said.

    A moderate risk – level 3 of 4 – of excessive rainfall covers over 26 million people in California, including in San Francisco, Sacramento, Los Angeles and Fresno, where rain could fall at 1 inch per hour.

    Owners of a restaurant in Aptos, California, place sandbags in front of their establishment Monday.

    The San Lorenzo River in Santa Cruz County has risen 14 feet in just over four hours and is in major flood stage. Parts of the county will experience “widespread flooding at shallow depths,” and the city of Santa Cruz will have serious flooding, according to data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and US Geological Survey.

    The threat will shift further south Tuesday, with a level 3 of 4 risk centered over Los Angeles.

    “While some of the forecast rain totals are impressive alone, it is important to note that what really sets this event apart are the antecedent conditions,” the National Weather Service office in San Francisco said.

    “Multiple systems over the past week have saturated soil, increased flow in rivers and streams, and truly set the stage for this to become a high impact event.”

    In Sacramento County, officials warned “flooding is imminent” and issued evacuation orders for the Wilton community near the Cosumnes River before roads become impassable.

    Wilton residents also had to evacuate during last week’s storm, when exit routes flooded quickly, officials said.

    A man wades through a flooded street in Aptos Monday.

    El Dorado, Monterey, Santa Cruz and Santa Clara and Alameda counties have issued evacuation warnings or recommendations for some areas due to possible flooding and other safety risks as forecasters warned of swelling rivers.

    Residents in all all areas of Montecito, parts of Santa Barbara and Summerland are being ordered to evacuate immediately due to the threat of the ongoing storm, the local fire department announced Tuesday.

    Montecito is a haven for the rich and famous, including Prince Harry and his wife, Meghan, Duchess of Sussex; Oprah Winfrey and Ellen Degeneres. Monday marks exactly five years since heavy rains in the area caused deadly mud- and landslides.

    Santa Barbara County authorities are advising residents to “be prepared to sustain yourself and your household for multiple days if you choose not to evacuate, as you may not be able to leave the area and emergency responders may not be able to access your property in the event of road damage, flooding, or a debris flow.”

    A section of a parking lot sits sunken Sunday after a storm at Seacliff State Beach in Aptos, California.

    Newsom on Sunday asked the White House for an emergency declaration to support response and recovery efforts.

    “We are in the middle of a deadly barrage of winter storms – and California is using every resource at its disposal to protect lives and limit damage,” Newsom said in a statement. “We are taking the threat from these storms seriously, and want to make sure that Californians stay vigilant as more storms head our way.”

    San Francisco Mayor London Breed on Monday issued a Local Proclamation of Emergency due to the ongoing series of winter storms that began New Year’s Eve, according to a news release from his office.

    This storm system arrives on the heels of a powerful cyclone that flooded roads, toppled trees and knocked out power last week to much of California. Earlier, a New Year’s weekend storm system produced deadly flooding.

    At least 12 Californians have died from “storm-related impacts” such as flooding since late December, the governor’s office said.

    In San Luis Obispo County, dive teams from the sheriff’s office and Cal Fire rescuers were searching Monday for a 5-year-old child reported to have been swept away in flood waters near the Salinas River in San Miguel.

    “Floods kill more individuals than any other natural disaster,” California Emergency Services Director Nancy Ward said Sunday. “We’ve already had more deaths in this flood storm since December 31 than we had in the last two fire seasons of the highest fire acreage burned in California.”

    Flood-related deaths can happen when drivers attempt to cross standing water.

    “Just a foot of water and your car’s floating. Half a foot of water, you’re off your feet. Half foot of water, you’re losing control of your vehicle,” Newsom said.

    “We’re seeing people go around these detours because they don’t see any obstacles – they think everything is fine, and putting their lives at risk or putting first responders lives at risk.”

    For anyone who doesn’t need to travel during the peak of this storm, “please don’t,” California Secretary of Natural Resources Wade Crowfoot said. “Be prepared for power outages and other interruptions. Have those flashlights, the candles, batteries, charge cell phones at the ready.”

    Already, flooded roads, toppled trees and downed power lines are making travel difficult, California Highway Patrol said. Some fallen trees crushed cars and homes over the weekend. On Monday, portions of the Pacific Coast Highway – US 101, a major north-south highway, were closed.

    The Santa Barbara Airport, a tri-county regional airport, is closed because of flooding airport officials said Monday.

    Crane operator Ricky Kapuschinsky prepares to lift uprooted trees Sunday in Sacramento, California.

    California is experiencing “weather whiplash,” going from intense drought conditions to now contending with its fifth atmospheric river, Newsom said.

    Much of the state has already seen 5 to 8 inches of rain over the last week. Two to 4 more inches of rain are expected across the coasts and valleys – and even more in mountains and foothills through Tuesday.

    Rising from swelling rivers could spill over and inundate communities.

    The rainfall over the weekend brought renewed flood concerns for streams, creeks and rivers. The Colgan Creek, Berryessa Creek, Mark West Creek, Green Valley Creek and the Cosumnes River all have gauges that are either above flood stage or expected to be in the next few days.

    “The cumulative effect of successive heavy rainfall events will lead to additional instances of flooding. This includes rapid water rises, mudslides, and the potential for major river flooding,” the National Weather Service said Monday.

    The moisture is expected to sink southward Monday night, making flooding “increasing likely” over the Southern California coastal ranges Tuesday, the weather service said. Fierce winds are expected to accompany the storm as it pushes inland.

    “Valley areas will likely see gusts as high as 45-50 mph, with gusts greater than 60 mph possible in wind prone areas,” the National Weather Service in Reno said. The Sierra Ridge could receive peak gusts between 130 to 150 mph Monday.

    For those at higher elevations, intense snow and ferocious winds will be the biggest concerns.

    Parts of the higher elevations in the Sierra Nevada have gotten more than 100” – or 8.3 feet – of snow in just the past few weeks, the Weather Prediction Center said.

    Now, another 6 feet of snow is expected in some parts of the Sierra.

    As the storm pushes inland, more than 5 feet of snow could fall along the Sierra Crest west of Lake Tahoe, the weather service said.

    The heavy snow and strong winds could lead to near whiteout conditions on roads.

    [ad_2]

    Source link

  • Hackers stole data from multiple electric utilities in recent ransomware attack | CNN Politics

    Hackers stole data from multiple electric utilities in recent ransomware attack | CNN Politics

    [ad_1]



    CNN
     — 

    Hackers stole data belonging to multiple electric utilities in an October ransomware attack on a US government contractor that handles critical infrastructure projects across the country, according to a memo describing the hack obtained by CNN.

    Federal officials have closely monitored the incident for any potential broader impact on the US power sector while private investigators have combed the dark web for the stolen data, according to the memo sent this month to power company executives by the North American grid regulator’s cyberthreat sharing center.

    The previously unreported incident is a window into how ransomware attacks on critical US companies are handled behind the scenes as lawyers and federal investigators quietly spring into action to determine the extent of the damage.

    The ransomware attack hit Chicago-based Sargent & Lundy, an engineering firm that has designed more than 900 power stations and thousands of miles of power systems and that holds sensitive data on those projects.

    The firm also handles nuclear security issues, working with the departments of Defense, Energy and other agencies “to strengthen nuclear deterrence” and keep weapons of mass destruction out of terrorists’ hands, according to its website.

    Two people familiar with the investigation of the Sargent & Lundy hack told CNN that the incident was contained and remediated, and didn’t appear to have a broader impact on other power-sector firms.

    There is no sign that data stolen from Sargent & Lundy, which includes “model files” and “transmission data” the firm uses for utility projects, is on the dark web, according to the memo from the Electricity Information Sharing and Analysis Center.

    But security experts have long been concerned that schematics held by electric and nuclear power contractors could be dumped online and used for follow-on physical or cyberattacks on those facilities.

    “These are literally the configurations for your programmable logic controllers, your relays,” said longtime security consultant Patrick Miller, referring to critical electric equipment that keeps the lights on. “We’re really concerned about the data that’s in those organizations.”

    Those concerns are particularly acute following a spate of physical attacks and vandalism at electric utilities in multiple states. Tens of thousands of people lost power in Moore County, North Carolina, this month after Duke Energy substations were damaged by gunfire. On Christmas, thousands of people lost power in a Washington county after someone vandalized multiple substations there.

    “We’re fully recovered from the incident, which had minimal impact on our normal business operations,” Brenda Romero, a spokesperson for Sargent & Lundy, said in a statement to CNN. Romero said the firm “notified law enforcement” of the hack.

    Romero declined to answer further questions on the ransomware attack, including whether the hackers had tried to extort Sargent & Lundy, citing an ongoing investigation.

    The Biden administration has urged companies to share data on such hacks as US officials have tried to get a grip on the epidemic of ransomware, which has cost critical infrastructure firms many millions of dollars.

    The hackers that hit Sargent & Lundy used a strain of ransomware known as Black Basta that first surfaced early this year, according to two people familiar with the investigation. Scores of Black Basta attacks have been reported since April, according to cybersecurity firm Palo Alto Networks. The hackers steal data from their victims to give them added leverage in ransom negotiations.

    Sargent & Lundy is one of several engineering firms whose work on critical infrastructure projects cuts across different sectors of the economy. For US cybersecurity officials, this engineering work can be harder to evaluate in terms of its risk to supply chain security than a firm that only makes software.

    Federal regulations require electric utilities to maintain certain cybersecurity standards for protecting their systems from hacks. Companies that contract with those utilities, such as Sargent & Lundy, aren’t necessarily held to the same standard and are instead bound by the security requirements in the contract, experts told CNN.

    “Utilities are effectively allowed to accept as much risk as they want,” said Miller, who is CEO of Oregon-based Ampere Industrial Security, a consulting firm. “Is it perfect? No, but [the contractors] are being assessed [for their security] in some ways through the utilities.”

    [ad_2]

    Source link

  • Power substations vandalized in Washington state weeks after North Carolina electricity attack and FBI warning | CNN

    Power substations vandalized in Washington state weeks after North Carolina electricity attack and FBI warning | CNN

    [ad_1]



    CNN
     — 

    After thousands of customers in Pierce County, Washington, were affected Sunday when burglars vandalized three energy substations, power was then knocked out for even more homes after a suspect or suspects gained access to a fourth substation, vandalizing the equipment and causing a fire, according to an update from the Pierce County Sheriff’s Department.

    The damaged equipment cut power to around 14,000 customers, police said, weeks after an attack in North Carolina left thousands in the dark for days amid federal warnings of extremist threats to electricity infrastructure.

    The Christmas Day vandalism near Tacoma marked more such incidents in the state, where two November attacks on Puget Sound Energy substations were investigated by the FBI. Vandalism and deliberate damage were reported last month at substations in southern Washington and Oregon.

    No suspects are in custody in the latest case affecting Puyallup and Graham, Washington, and it “is unknown if there are any motives or if this was a coordinated attack on the power systems,” the Pierce County Sheriff’s Department said Sunday in a statement.

    The FBI’s Seattle Division was aware of the vandalism reports but would not confirm or deny its role in any investigation, adding, “We do take threats against our infrastructure seriously and urge anyone with information to contact law enforcement,” it told CNN on Sunday.

    The bureau in a November 22 bulletin warned of reports of threats to electricity infrastructure by people espousing racially or ethnically motivated extremist ideology “to create civil disorder and inspire further violence,” according to the alert sent to private industry.

    The first report of a burglary at a Tacoma Public Utilities substation came at 5:26 a.m. PT, the sheriff’s office said.

    “Deputies arrived on scene and saw there was forced entry into the fenced area,” according to its statement. “Nothing had been taken from the substation, but the suspect vandalized the equipment causing a power outage in the area.”

    Then, a second burglary was reported at another Tacoma Public Utilities substation, with forced entry and damage to equipment, the statement said. Similarly, nothing was taken.

    “At 11:25 we were notified by Puget Sound Energy that they too had a power outage this morning at 02:39 a.m. Deputies are currently on scene at this facility where the fenced area was broken into and the equipment vandalized,” the statement continued.

    Dispatchers received a call about a fire at another substation at 7:21 p.m. local time Sunday, the sheriff’s department said. Firefighters and Puget Sound Energy employees responded to the scene and were able to extinguish the fire and secure and the substation.

    Power has since been restored to most of the affected homes, the update said.

    Anti-government groups over the past two years have used online forums to urge followers to attack critical infrastructure, including the power grid. They have posted documents and even instructions outlining vulnerabilities and suggesting the use of high-powered rifles.

    Investigators probing the attacks last month at substations in Moore County, North Carolina, zeroed in on two possible threads: extremists’ writings in online forums encouraging attacks on critical infrastructure, and recent disruptions of LGBTQ+ events across the nation by domestic extremists, law enforcement sources told CNN.

    The attackers “knew exactly what they were doing,” Moore County Sheriff Ronnie Fields said at the time.

    The resulting outages left some 40,000 customers scrambling as temperatures dipped to the mid-40s, with schools and businesses forced to close for days before power was restored.

    [ad_2]

    Source link

  • A prolonged winter storm delivers power outages, snarled travel and frigid temperatures on Christmas Day | CNN

    A prolonged winter storm delivers power outages, snarled travel and frigid temperatures on Christmas Day | CNN

    [ad_1]



    CNN
     — 

    A nearly weeklong winter storm blasting much of the US has plunged temperatures to life-threatening lows, brought blizzards and floods, and left more than a quarter million people without power on Christmas Day.

    Blizzard conditions continue across the Great Lakes, while frigid cold temperatures grip the eastern two-thirds of the US, with some major cities in the Southeast, Midwest and East Coast recording their coldest Christmas in decades.

    Large areas of the central and eastern US remain under wind chill warnings and advisories, as freeze warnings are in effect across the South.

    New York City saw record cold temperatures on Christmas Eve at several locations, including its JFK and LaGuardia airports. The high at Central Park was 15 degrees, marking its second-coldest December 24 in at least 150 years, according to the National Weather Service.

    At least 22 deaths have been attributed to dangerous weather conditions since Wednesday, and some residents in the Northeast are spending the holiday without sufficient heat or hot water as extremely cold temperatures persist.

    Across the US, 275,856 homes and businesses in the US had no electricity service as of 1 a.m. ET, many of them in Maine and New York, according to PowerOutage.us. Since the start of the storm the number of outages has at times exceeded a million customers.

    A power grid operator for at least 13 states in the country’s eastern half asked customers to conserve power and set thermostats lower than usual from early Saturday to 10 a.m. on Sunday because usage was straining capacity.

    The operator, PJM Interconnection, serves about 65 million people in all or parts of Delaware, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Maryland, Michigan, New Jersey, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia, and warned rolling blackouts could happen if the strain becomes too much.

    In New York, utility companies Con Edison and Natural Grid US also urged customers to conserve energy, citing extreme weather conditions and increased energy demand on interstate pipelines carrying natural gas into the city.

    Meanwhile, a shortage of electricity in Texas prompted the US Department of Energy to declare an emergency Friday, allowing the state’s energy provider to exceed environmental emissions standards until energy usage drops.

    In Jackson, Mississippi, frigid temperatures are hampering efforts to repair a large water main break late Saturday, which has caused a loss in water pressure for residents, city officials said.

    “We are grateful to the crews who are braving these frigid temperatures on this Christmas Eve night, while working to restore pressure to residents. Their sacrifice does not go unnoticed and is appreciated not only by this administration, but also by every resident who is affected,” the release stated.

    The brutal weather conditions have also snarled travel during the busy holiday weekend, with more than 5,000 flights canceled Friday, more than 3,400 flights canceled Saturday, and more than 1,000 canceled for Christmas Day.

    Conditions on the road weren’t any better in parts of the country amid whiteout conditions and icy and snow-covered roadways.

    In New York’s Erie County – which is seeing blistering blizzard conditions – about 500 motorists found themselves stranded in their vehicles Friday night into Saturday morning, despite a county driving ban put in place during the storm, according to County Executive Mark Poloncarz.

    National Guard troops were called in to help “rescue people that are stuck in vehicles,” and to give rides to medical workers so they could relieve colleagues who had been working at hospitals for more than a day, Poloncarz said.

    In Seattle, Washington, online videos have documented cars sliding on the icy roads and bumping into each and residents slipping as they walked on sidewalks, CNN affiliate KOMO reported.

    New York Gov. Kathy Hochul said she will ask the federal government for a declaration of emergency after a blistering winter storm.

    “I’ll be asking the federal government for a declaration of emergency that’ll allow us to seek reimbursements for the extraordinary expenses of all the overtime and the fact that we brought in mutual aid from other parts of the state,” Hochul said to reporters Saturday. “We’ve deployed individuals – the utility crews have come but also making sure that we have all the vehicles we need.”

    New York’s three storm-related deaths were reported in Erie County. Two died in separate incidents Friday night when emergency medical personnel could not get to their homes in time for medical emergencies, Poloncarz said Saturday morning. Details about the third death, confirmed by a county spokesperson Saturday afternoon, weren’t immediately available.

    “The loss of two lives in Buffalo – storm related – because people were not able to get to medical attention, is again a crisis situation that unfolds before your eyes and you realize that lifesaving ambulances and emergency medical personnel cannot get to people during a blizzard situation,” Hochul added.

    Other storm-related deaths have been reported in the country. They include:

    • Colorado: Police in Colorado Springs, Colorado, reported two deaths related to the cold since Thursday, with one man found near a power transformer of a building possibly looking for warmth, and another in a camp in an alleyway.

    • Kansas: Three people have died in weather-related traffic accidents, the Kansas Highway Patrol said Friday.

    • Kentucky: Three people have died in the state, officials have said, including one involving a vehicle accident in Montgomery County.

    • Missouri: One person died after a caravan slid off an icy road and into a frozen creek, Kansas City police said.

    • Ohio: Eight people have died as a result of weather-related auto accidents, including four in a Saturday morning crash on Interstate 75, when a semi tractor-trailer crossed the median and collided with an SUV and a pickup, authorities said.

    • Tennessee: The Tennessee Department of Health on Friday confirmed one storm-related fatality.

    • Wisconsin: Wisconsin State Patrol on Thursday reported one fatal crash due to winter weather.

    In pictures: Winter storm impacts the US


    The storm system is forecast to gradually weaken as it lifts into southeastern Canada, moving slowly during the next couple of days and pulling arctic air from Canada down into much of the eastern side of the country.

    The Arctic blast being felt across the eastern two-thirds of the nation will slowly moderate into Monday, but dangerous conditions will persist Christmas Day.

    The cold temperatures combined with dangerous wind chills will create a potentially life-threatening hazard for travelers who become stranded, people who work outside, livestock and pets, according to the National Weather Service.

    “In some areas, being outdoors could lead to frostbite in minutes,” the Weather Service warned.

    As the frigid air continues to blast the warm waters of the Great Lakes, lake-effect snows and blizzard conditions are expected to continue, but slowly become less intense.

    Still, strong gusty winds initially up to 60 mph accompanying the snow downwind from the Great Lakes will continue to make for extremely dangerous conditions on the road.

    By Christmas night into Monday, another low pressure system coming from the Pacific will deliver the next surge of moisture toward the Pacific Northwest and then into northern California, according to the Weather Service.

    [ad_2]

    Source link

  • A powerful winter storm claims at least 11 lives across the US as temperatures plunge, winds howl and power lines fall | CNN

    A powerful winter storm claims at least 11 lives across the US as temperatures plunge, winds howl and power lines fall | CNN

    [ad_1]



    CNN
     — 

    Hundreds of thousands of Americans are waking up in the dark to unlit trees on Christmas Eve, after destructive winds and heavy snow from a winter storm tore down power lines and endangered drivers across the country, killing at least 11 people in its path.

    As bone-chilling temperatures continue to grip the US this holiday weekend, the unrelenting storm is pummeling the Midwest and parts of the East with heavy snow, blizzard conditions and even flooding along the Northeast coast. No letup is in sight until the end of Christmas Day.

    Related: Follow live updates

    At least 11 people have died since Wednesday across four states, a result of how dangerous and life-threatening conditions have been this week over a large swath of the country.

    Three people died in separate car crashes in north-central Kansas on Wednesday, Highway Patrol spokesperson Lt. Candice Breshears said. All three deaths are confirmed to have been weather-related, Breshears noted.

    In Kansas City, Missouri, one person died after losing control of their vehicle on icy roads Thursday afternoon, according to the Kansas City Police Department. The vehicle “went down the embankment, over the cement retaining wall and landed upside down” into a creek, police said in a statement.

    Four people died in car crashes in Ohio, where others were also injured, Gov. Mike DeWine said.

    Kentucky reported three deaths caused by the storm: Two in car crashes and another was a person who was unhoused in Louisville, Gov. Andy Beshear said. The man’s body was found outside with no obvious signs of trauma – an autopsy is required to determine the cause of death, police said.

    For days, forecasters and officials have been sounding the alarm on the grim conditions the storm promised to bring, while imploring drivers to stay off the icy, snow-covered roads and other travelers to alter holiday plans for optimal safety.

    “Remember your loved ones care more about having you alive and that next Christmas than whether you can make this one,” Beshear told CNN Friday.

    “People need to stay off the roads. … Being together is more important than ever, but staying safe is even more important than that,” Beshear added.

    The ominous warning comes as the storm continues to bear down with blizzard conditions from the Great Lakes and interior Northeast, bringing the double threat of heavy snow and speedy winds.

    Hundreds of drivers across multiple states, including New York, South Dakota and Minnesota were stranded this week and needed rescuing. Some states have closed major highways to deter drivers from getting behind the wheel. Plus, more than 5,000 flights were canceled Friday, and more than 10,000 were delayed.

    To make matters worse, even if snowfall stops or slows down, whiteout conditions are likely because winds are forecast to near or surpass 60 mph, resulting in damage and more power outages.

    “If you do lose power, it is going to be dangerously cold,” said Jackie Bray, the commissioner of New York’s Homeland Security and Emergency Services, adding people should seek warming shelters provided by some counties. “Please don’t assume that you can weather this cold overnight without heat. You may not be able to.”

    So far, hundreds of thousands of homes and businesses have no electricity, according to PowerOutage.US, which means millions of residents likely do not have proper heating or hot water as extremely cold temperatures persist Saturday.

    New Hampshire, New York and Virginia each have more than 50,000 outages as of early Saturday, while more than 240,000 outages are reported in Maine, the website shows.

    In pictures: Winter storm impacts the US


    Here’s what else you can expect this Christmas Eve:

    • The cold is coming for many: More than 175 million people are under wind chill alerts from across much of the central and eastern US. “The life-threatening Cold Temperatures and Dangerous wind chills will create a potentially life-threatening hazard for travelers that become stranded,” the National Weather Service said.
    • Record temps in the South: Atlanta and Tallahassee, Florida, are forecast to have their coldest high temperature ever recorded on December 24, according to the weather service.
    • Brutal cold elsewhere: Philadelphia and Pittsburgh will also see their coldest day Christmas Eve ever on Saturday. Washington, DC, could see its second-coldest on Christmas Eve, the first being in 1989. New York is set to experience its coldest Christmas Eve since 1906. Chicago is expecting temperatures to rebound above zero but will still experience its coldest Christmas Eve since 1983.
    • Flooding threats persist: Both coastal and inland flooding risks are in store for the Northeast from heavy rain falling onto a melting snowpack. Moderate to isolated major coastal flooding is possible due to strong onshore winds.

    [ad_2]

    Source link

  • A least 9 dead as massive winter storm leaves more than a million without power and bitter cold across much of US | CNN

    A least 9 dead as massive winter storm leaves more than a million without power and bitter cold across much of US | CNN

    [ad_1]



    CNN
     — 

    A massive winter storm battered the US on Friday with frigid temperatures, high winds and heavy snow, leaving at least nine people dead, knocking out power to over a million customers and wrecking holiday plans from coast to coast.

    The storm – expected to intensify throughout Friday as it barrels through the Midwest and East – is making for grim road conditions with poor visibility and ice-covered streets. Coastal flooding is also an issue, particularly along the shorelines of the Northeast.

    All modes of travel – planes, trains and automobiles – were being disrupted: There were hundreds of miles of road closures and flight cancellations were growing rapidly. In New York, flooding along the Long Island Rail Road forced part of the Long Beach branch to temporarily shut down.

    Related: Follow live updates

    “Christmas is canceled,” said Mick Saunders, a Buffalo, New York, resident who was two hours into blizzard conditions that are expected to last through Sunday morning. “All family and friends agreed it’s safer this way.”

    At least 9 deaths have been reported since Wednesday.

    In north-central Kansas, three people were killed in separate car crashes on Wednesday evening; one death was confirmed to be weather-related, and two were believed to be weather-related but need more investigation, according to Kansas Highway Patrol spokesperson Lt. Candice Breshears.

    In Kansas City, one person died after losing control of their Dodge Caravan on icy roads Thursday afternoon, according to the Kansas City Police Department. “The Dodge went down the embankment, over the cement retaining wall and landed upside down, submerged in Brush Creek,” police said in a statement.

    In Kentucky, three people died due to the storm, including two in vehicle crashes and the other a “housing insecure” person in Louisville, Gov. Andy Beshear said. The man’s body was found outside with no obvious signs of trauma and an autopsy would determine the cause of death, police said.

    And in Ohio, four people have died “as a result of weather-related auto accidents” and several others have been injured, according to Gov. Mike DeWine.

    Life threatening cold has pushed all the way to the Gulf Coast and the Mexican border, with below zero wind chills reported as far south as Austin and Atlanta. Many locations in the eastern US are in for their coldest Christmas Eve in decades as the Arctic blast reaches its peak.

    About 1.2 million customers in the US are experiencing power outages amid the winter weather and frigid temperatures, according to the website PowerOutage.US. Maine, New Hampshire, New York, Virginia and Pennsylvania have the most outages.

    In pictures: Winter storm impacts the US


    In all, more than 200 million people in the US were under wind chill alerts from the Canadian border to the Mexican border and from Washington state to Florida, with below-zero wind chills expected in the Southeast by Friday. Other winter weather alerts are in effect for blizzard conditions, ice, snow as well as flooding.

    “The National Weather Service’s Watch Warning graphic depicts one of the greatest extents of winter weather warnings and advisories ever,” the agency said Thursday.

    Notably, parts of Montana, South Dakota and Wyoming have already seen wind chills below minus 50 degrees Fahrenheit in the past two days.

    The entire state of Texas was seeing temperatures below freezing by early Friday afternoon, according to weather observations from around the state.

    New York Gov. Kathy Hochul warned residents about the “epic, statewide hazard” of winter weather.

    “I called it a kitchen sink storm because it is throwing everything at us but the kitchen sink,” Hochul said at a press conference Friday afternoon. “We’ve had ice, flooding, snow, freezing temperatures, and everything that mother nature could wallop at us this weekend.”

    For Brian Trzeciak, the storm was “living up to the warnings” at his home in Hamburg, New York. Buffalo’s airport, just to the north, reported zero visibility shortly after noon on Friday.

    “Whiteout conditions, frigid temperatures, and the waves are like what you would see during a hurricane,” he told CNN.

    He and his family decided to cancel their Christmas plans because of the dangers from the storm.

    “My mother lives about 30 minutes away and so does my sister and her family, in the other direction,” he said. “We always get together for Christmas Eve and Christmas, but we’re all hunkering down in our houses until it all stops on Monday.”

    Driving bans are in place in Erie, Genesee, Niagara and Orleans counties in Western New York because of whiteout conditions.

    As many as 250 people could be stranded in their cars in Erie County in a situation that Buffalo Mayor Byron Brown said put first responders at unnecessary risk. Brown told CNN Friday night that forecasts call for 36 to 48 inches of snow. The area has had wind gusts of 79 mph.

    Many will experience a cold holiday unlike any other: Atlanta, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh and Tallahassee, Florida, are all forecast to have their coldest high temperature ever recorded on December 24, according to the National Weather Service.

    Washington DC is forecast to see its second coldest Christmas Eve, only behind 1989. In New York, it will be the coldest Christmas Eve since 1906. Chicago is expecting temperatures to rebound above zero, but will still experience its coldest Christmas Eve since 1983.

    Much of Florida will experience the peak of their cold on Christmas Day. It will be coldest Christmas Day since 1983 for Miami, Tampa, Orlando and West Palm Beach.

    On Friday, the storm unleashed more heavy snow and blizzard conditions, particularly in the Midwest.

    As it treks east across the country, the storm is expected to become a “bomb cyclone,” a rapidly strengthening storm which drops 24 millibars of pressure within 24 hours. The storm’s pressure was forecast to match that of a Category 2 hurricane as it moved into the Great Lakes on Friday morning.

    Governors in at least 13 states, including Georgia and North Carolina in the South, have implemented emergency measures to respond to the storm. Declarations of a state of emergency in several states have included the activation of National Guard units.

    More than 5,400 Friday flights have already been canceled as of 7:30 p.m. ET, after nearly 2,700 cancellations on Thursday, according to flight tracking site FlightAware.

    • It will remain very cold: Friday will bring record-low temperatures in large swaths of the US, including from the Lower Mississippi Valley, northeastward into the Tennessee and Ohio Valleys and stretching across large sections of the east from the Southeast, through the Southern to Central Appalachians and into the mid-Atlantic, according to the National Weather Service.

    • Dangerous wind chills: The plummeting temperatures will be accompanied by high winds, which will create dangerous wind chills across nearly all the central to eastern US.

    • Blizzard warnings: The Upper Midwest will see frigid temperatures, heavy snow and high winds. The warning applies to parts of Iowa, Minnesota, South Dakota, North Dakota and Michigan. Buffalo, New York, will go under a blizzard warning Friday morning. Such warnings go in effect when snow and wind of 35 mph will reduce visibility to less than a quarter of a mile for at least three hours.

    • Whiteout conditions: Blizzard conditions may exist even if snowfall stops, because high winds can pick up snow already on the ground and cause low visibility.

    A separate storm system is bringing heavy mixed precipitation to the Pacific Northwest on Friday.

    A winter storm warning is in effect for western Washington, including Seattle, until 7 p.m. PST Friday. Additional snowfall of up to 2 inches is possible and ice accumulations could reach a quarter of an inch. Precipitation will begin as snow and transition to sleet/freezing rain and then finally to rain. More power outages are likely and travel will be made very difficult.

    The ice caused the closure of runways at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport, where nearly half of flights going into and out of the airport were canceled, according to FlightAware. Further, all express services for Sound Transit, a regional transportation network in the Seattle metro area, were suspended Friday due to the icy conditions.

    A winter storm warning is also in effect for northeastern Oregon, including Portland, from 4 p.m. to 10 p.m. PST. Total snow and sleet accumulations of up to one inch and ice accumulations of .2 to .4 inches is likely as well as winds gusting to 55 mph. Wind chills as low as zero are possible, and frostbite is possible on exposed skin in as little as 30 minutes.

    One of the biggest dangers of the massive winter storm besides heavy snow and blizzard conditions is the rapid drop in temperatures over a short period of time. The air will continue to get and feel colder, especially during night hours.

    [ad_2]

    Source link

  • Tornadoes leave a trail of destruction in Louisiana and the Southeast, killing at least 3, collapsing homes and knocking out power | CNN

    Tornadoes leave a trail of destruction in Louisiana and the Southeast, killing at least 3, collapsing homes and knocking out power | CNN

    [ad_1]



    CNN
     — 

    A severe weather system cutting through the South has left a trail of destruction in Louisiana, killing at least three people and injuring dozens of others as violent tornadoes touched down, collapsing homes, turning debris into projectiles and knocking out power.

    The deaths attributed to storm-related events include a 56-year-old woman who died after a tornado hit her home in the Killona area in St. Charles Parish, according to the Louisiana Department of Health.

    Additionally, a boy and his mother were found dead after a tornado destroyed their home Tuesday in the northwestern Louisiana community of Keithville, the Caddo Parish Sheriff’s Office said. The mother and son’s bodies were found hours apart, far from where their house once stood, officials said.

    Multiple communities throughout Louisiana reported destruction, with roofs ripped off, homes splintered, debris littering roadways and cars flipper over. As ferocious winds downed power lines, more than 50,000 customers were left without power in across Louisiana and Mississippi Wednesday evening, according to PowerOutage.us. That number was down to less than 15,000 early Thursday.

    There were at least 49 tornado reports across Louisiana, Mississippi, Texas, Alabama and Florida Tuesday and Wednesday, according to the Storm Prediction Center. More tornado reports are likely to come in as surveyors continue to check for damage.

    And the threat isn’t over yet. More than 15 million people could see severe weather Thursday in parts of Florida, Georgia and the Carolinas as the severe weather shifts the east, according to CNN Meteorologist Robert Shackelford.

    More than 1.5 million people were under tornado watches in southeastern Alabama, northern Florida and southern Georgia until 9 a.m. Thursday. Strong tornadoes are still likely as well as quarter sized hail and powerful wind gusts up to 70 mph.

    The massive storm that brought the destruction to Louisiana and across the Southeast is part of a massive system that has also brought blizzard conditions in northern parts of the central US.

    For Thursday, the storms are expected to weaken slightly, but there is a risk for severe weather for much of Florida, coastal Georgia and coastal Carolinas. Cities like Tampa, Orlando, Jacksonville, Savannah and Charleston could see damaging winds, large hail and isolated tornadoes, Shackelford said.

    In Louisiana, the damage has been widespread, affecting multiple communities, prompting Gov. John Bel Edwards to declare a state of emergency.

    As many as 5,000 structures were likely damaged when a tornado struck the city of Gretna, across the Mississippi River from New Orleans, Mayor Belinda Constant said.

    Farther north, at least 20 people were injured in the small Union Parish town of Farmerville when a tornado struck Tuesday night, demolishing parts of an apartment complex and a mobile home park, Farmerville police Detective Cade Nolan said.

    Patsy Andrews was home with her children in Farmerville when she heard “rushing wind like a train” outside, she told CNN affiliate KNOE-TV.

    Her son told her not to open the door when she went to investigate, but it was too late.

    “All of a sudden that wind was so heavy, it broke my back door,” Andrews said. “The lights went off and all we could hear was glass popping everywhere.”

    She said she and her daughter hit the floor, crawling into a hallway as glass shattered around them and water leaked through the roof. They ended up taking shelter in their bathroom.

    “We just got in the tub and we hugged each other. We just kept praying and I just kept calling on Jesus,” Andrews said. Her family survived the storm but were left with damage to their home.

    In the Algiers area of New Orleans, four residents were taken to area hospitals as the storm battered the area on the west bank of the Mississippi River, Collin Arnold, director of the New Orleans Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness told CNN. At least one house collapsed in the area and other residences and businesses have been impacted, Arnold added.

    Officials in St. Bernard Parish also reported “major damage” in Arabi, where a tornado touched down, they said, leaving much of the area without power.

    Crews in Arabi will be conducting search and rescue efforts throughout the night, St. Bernard Parish Sheriff James Pohlmann said. Ten people have been rescued due to severe weather, but no serious injuries or deaths have been reported, Pohlmann added.

    Cindy DeLucca Hernandez thought she could beat the storm while driving home after picking up her 16-year-old son from school. But on the journey, she found herself facing a tornado.

    “It was extremely scary, I’ve never ever been through anything like that,” Hernandez said.

    Video she shared with CNN shows her waiting at red light as a tornado blew through Arabi, kicking up debris and taking out power lines.

    “We started seeing debris and we got hit a couple of times by it and that’s when I put the car in reverse,” she said. Hernandez and her son made it home safe.

    Jefferson Parish Councilman Scott Walker said he saw at least a mile-long path of debris.

    “Power lines down, homes severely damaged, rooftops ripped off,” he said in a video shared online describing the scene. “It is an extensive damage scene and a long path of destruction here on the west bank.”

    Two schools in Jefferson Parish suffered storm damage and were expected to stay closed Thursday.

    Iberia Medical Center “sustained a significant amount of damage,” police Capt. Leland Laseter said on Facebook. CNN has sought comment from the medical center.

    The New Iberia Police Department reported on Facebook that two tornadoes touched down in the city, with several homes damaged and reports of people trapped in the Southport Subdivision.

    Storm damage in Blue Ridge, Texas, on December 13, 2022.

    The storm also left damage behind in Texas and Oklahoma as it moved through the south earlier this week, spawning tornadoes.

    In Texas, at least seven people were injured Tuesday in the Dallas-Fort Worth area – including at least five hurt around the city of Grapevine. Two tornado reports were made in Grapevine, where police said a mall and other businesses were damaged.

    An EF2 tornado struck Wise County near the communities of Paradise and Decatur, damaging homes and businesses, officials said. Video showed homes splintered, with roofs ripped off in Decatur.

    In Wayne, Oklahoma, an EF2 tornado damaged homes, outbuildings and barns early Tuesday, officials said. No injuries were reported but homes were flattened or had roofs torn off, video from CNN affiliate KOCO shows.

    [ad_2]

    Source link

  • Power may be back for thousands on Wednesday night as authorities continue to go through tips on electric substation attack | CNN

    Power may be back for thousands on Wednesday night as authorities continue to go through tips on electric substation attack | CNN

    [ad_1]



    CNN
     — 

    The tens of thousands of customers in central North Carolina who haven’t had power since two weekend attacks on utility substations should see the lights come on by late Wednesday, a spokesperson for Duke Energy said at a news conference.

    The two substations in Moore County were damaged by gunfire Saturday night in what investigators believe were “intentional” and “targeted” attacks, officials said, with Moore County Sheriff Ronnie Fields saying that whoever fired at the substations “knew exactly what they were doing.”

    Duke Energy, which has has about 47,000 customers in Moore County, has made “very good progress” since Saturday and moved up its restoration timeline by a day, saying it expects most customers to have power restored by late Wednesday.

    “That will not happen all at once,” Duke Energy spokesperson Jeff Brooks said Tuesday afternoon. “You will see waves of customers coming on. A few thousand at a time.”

    He said new equipment has been installed but it needs to be calibrated and tested so that it works in sync with the grid.

    About 35,000 customers in Moore County remained without power Tuesday afternoon, according to Brooks.

    The mayor of Southern Pines called the attack a cruel and selfish act.

    “There are so many people that are hurting,” Mayor Carol Haney said on CNN on Monday. The revenue stream has been stopped. If you have health issues, it is critical. It is just a horrible, horrible, terrorist, in my opinion, act.”

    No suspects or motives have been announced.

    At Tuesday’s news conference, Moore County Chief Deputy Richard Maness had no major updates about the investigation but said a tip line has been “very, very active” in the past 24 hours.

    Tom McInnis, the North Carolina Senate Majority Whip whose district includes Moore County, told reporters he is looking at potential legislation to modernize penalties for this kind of incident, which he said is something that has never happened in North Carolina.

    The outages have made life difficult for residents. Schools will be closed through Thursday, four days with no classes. Businesses without generators are shuttered. Residents without power must leave their homes for hot food and to charge their electronic devices.

    The owner of a Moore County pharmacy is storing medicines in his home, which is powered by a generator, so that people can continue to get their prescriptions, he said.

    Rob Barrett, the owner of Whispering Pines Prescription Shoppe, believes he has enough gas to keep the generator running, but the pharmacy faces other issues: Some employees have no gas to get to work, and there are communication issues.

    In rural areas of the county, the loss of electricity has also impacted the water supply to families.

    “Rural communities rely on electricity a lot more than people realize,” Andrew Wilkins, whose parents own a farm in Whispering Pines, told CNN. “Many big cities don’t lose their water when the power goes out, but a lot of rural areas rely on a well for water.

    “My family draws their water from a well, so when the power goes out, the well stops and the water pressure drops and we slowly lose water.”

    Southern Pines, a town of about 15,900 residents roughly a 40-mile drive northwest of Fayetteville and a 70-mile drive southwest of Raleigh, lost all power, according to the mayor. Haney said she had to get her 98-year-old mother out of the town and to Charlotte so she could be in a warm home.

    With the power out, the town’s water and sewer system is operating on generator power, according to Southern Pines Fire and Rescue.

    The town’s fire department has seen an increase in car crashes related to the lack of traffic lights, and more fires as people try to find alternate ways to heat their homes, Southern Pines Fire Chief Mike Cameron told CNN.

    The fire department also is getting more medical calls from people using supplemental oxygen or other medical devices that require power, Cameron said.

    FirstHealth Moore Regional Hospital in Pinehurst is running on a backup generator. However, the hospital is postponing certain elective procedures, and family medicine and other clinics in the country will be closed until power service is restored, hospital officials said in a news release Sunday.

    Investigators are “leaving no stone unturned to find out who did this,” North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper told “CNN This Morning” on Tuesday. FBI and state investigators have joined the investigation.

    “This was a malicious, criminal attack on the entire community that plunged tens of thousands of people into darkness,” Cooper said.

    “Our priorities now are health and safety, getting the power back on as quickly as possible, and making sure that federal, state and local law enforcement find out who did this, and why, and bring them to justice.”

    Several communities across the county began experiencing power outages just after 7 p.m. Saturday, the Moore County Sheriff’s Office said.

    Whoever fired bullets at the substations “knew exactly what they were doing,” Moore County Sheriff Ronnie Fields said Sunday.

    Fields on Sunday noted “no group has stepped up to acknowledge or accept they’re the ones who (did) it.”

    Investigators were trying to determine whether both substations were fired at simultaneously, or one after the other, the sheriff said Monday.

    A countywide mandatory curfew from 9 p.m. until 5 a.m. has been in effect since Sunday night, with Fields saying the decision was made to protect residents and businesses.

    Residents fill gas containers Monday just outside the area impacted by the power outage.

    The governor stressed Tuesday that the state needs to learn from the incident, saying “this is unacceptable to have this many people without power for this long.”

    “This is a retirement community, so there are a lot of adult care homes that do not have power,” Cooper told CNN on Tuesday. “We’re providing generators and help to make sure people are safe here.”

    The country needs to have “a serious … conversation about protecting our critical infrastructure,” Cooper said.

    “It was clear that (whoever is behind the gunfire) knew how to cause significant damage, and that they could do it at this substation, so we have to reassess the situation,” Cooper said.

    Officials are not disclosing whether there were cameras at the two affected substations, because that is “part of the investigation that they do not want to reveal at this time,” Cooper said.

    Less than two weeks before Saturday’s substation damage, the FBI said there had been an increase in reported threats to electric infrastructure from people who espouse “racially or ethnically motivated violent extremist ideology.”

    The FBI has received reports of threats to electric infrastructure by people espousing racially or ethnically motivated extremist ideology “to create civil disorder and inspire further violence,” the FBI said in a November 22 bulletin sent to private industry, which CNN obtained.

    Though the motives for Saturday’s damage still are unclear, US officials have consistently been concerned by the interest violent extremists have shown in the country’s electric grid.

    Cooper said Tuesday he was aware of the FBI warning.

    “Matter of fact, we have worked to organize and step up our protection of our infrastructure, particularly in the area of cyber security. We know that those attacks can be massive and put down power or water or other infrastructure for a lot of people across the country, so we’ve been working on that,” Cooper said.

    [ad_2]

    Source link

  • Why the power grid is an ‘attractive target’ for attacks | CNN Politics

    Why the power grid is an ‘attractive target’ for attacks | CNN Politics

    [ad_1]

    A version of this story appears in CNN’s What Matters newsletter. To get it in your inbox, sign up for free here.



    CNN
     — 

    The motivation behind an attack on the electrical grid in a North Carolina county remains a mystery.

    But the method – apparently coordinated attacks on multiple substations – exploits a vulnerability that has long been a source of concern for authorities warning about domestic terrorism.

    Just last week the Department of Homeland Security renewed a national bulletin to warn of attacks on critical infrastructure.

    The details of this particular story are only starting to come into view, although Moore County, North Carolina, remains plunged in darkness. The FBI has joined the hunt for answers into how attacks on substations left around 40,000 without power over the weekend.

    In a Sunday news conference, the county sheriff described the attacks as “intentional” and “targeted,” but had no reason why the person or persons involved would choose the place.

    CNN’s Whitney Wild, reporting from Moore County, mentioned online rumors that disrupting a drag show planned for Saturday night may have been the cause of the attack, but authorities have not confirmed that and said no person or group has claimed responsibility.

    What authorities have confirmed is that someone or some people removed a gate at one substation from its hinges. The damage to transformers was apparently caused by gunfire, although it’s not clear what kind of weapon was used.

    Most of the roughly 40,000 people who lost power aren’t expected to get it back until Thursday, according to Duke Energy.

    Mike Cameron is the assistant town manager and fire chief of Southern Pines, North Carolina, which is in Moore County.

    Appearing on CNN on Monday, he said medical calls have increased as people who rely on oxygen and plug-in medical devices struggle.

    In temperatures that have dipped almost to freezing overnight, people have gotten creative to heat their homes, which has led to an increase in calls about house fires.

    There has also been an increase in emergency calls about traffic accidents, “just because our traffic lights are obviously not working,” he said.

    Southern Pines Mayor Carol Haney did not hold back on her message to whoever is responsible for plunging her town into darkness.

    “It is just a horrible, horrible terrorist, in my opinion, act. Cowardly,” she told CNN’s Victor Blackwell on Monday.

    The mayor of Pinehurst, North Carolina, John Strickland, said on CNN that investigators will have to determine if this was a targeted attack by domestic extremists, but he said it was meant to be destructive.

    “This is clearly an act that was intentional, very forceful and an act of vandalism to create a situation where the citizens of Pinehurst and Moore County are lacking heat and other support services at the present time,” he said on “CNN Newsroom.”

    FirstHealth Moore Regional Hospital is currently being powered by diesel fuel, according to its president, Jonathan Davis, but elective procedures have been delayed.

    CNN’s chief law enforcement and intelligence analyst John Miller said this type of attack has long been feared.

    The American electrical grid is decentralized and controlled by a hybrid of public and private entities.

    “The challenge is most of these places are outdoors, most are in remote areas and most of them are available for attack from a long distance,” Miller said on “CNN This Morning.”

    He also noted there has been an uptick in chatter among various anti-government and ecoterrorist groups who consider attacks on the electrical infrastructure as a way to create chaos in the US.

    In particular, Miller said right wing neo-Nazi groups have suggested creating a chain reaction of attacks to systematically take down the power grid.

    “Their theory is that if you identify the key nodes and you knock out one and they divert power to the next one, and you knock out the next one and the next one, a domino effect can actually start to topple the national grid and plunge the nation into darkness and chaos,” Miller said.

    It’s obviously not clear if this North Carolina attack is anything along those lines, but the Department of Homeland Security has been warning about such attacks for some time.

    Sniper fire hit a Silicon Valley substation in April 2013, when 150 rounds from an assault rifle took out 17 transformers. Workers rerouted power in that case, but repairs to the transformers took nearly a month.

    Miller said that after that incident, power companies and the government undertook a systemic review of grid security and made changes to add more cameras and motion sensors.

    In January 2022, CNN’s Geneva Sands reported on a DHS memo about potential electrical grid threats from extremist groups angry at the outcome of the 2020 presidential election.

    Violent extremist groups have identified the electrical grid as a “particularly attractive target,” according to the intelligence bulletin, and have drawn up specific plans.

    In October 2020, the memo noted, White supremacists in Idaho were charged with conspiracy for trying to damage transformers in that area.

    Also, in May 2020 the government charged followers of the Boogaloo movement, which believes there is a civil war coming, for allegedly conspiring to attack a substation in Las Vegas. Their larger goal was to incite riots and violence.

    Unsophisticated small-scale attacks are unlikely to cause the kind of large-scale meltdown that anti-government plotters envision, but they are likely to cause substantial harm and expensive damage – which is precisely what’s happening in Moore County.

    Juliette Kayyem, a CNN analyst and the former assistant secretary for intergovernmental affairs at DHS, said on CNN’s “The Lead” that investigators are probably looking at three possible scenarios:

    Foreign attack. She said this seems unlikely, since Moore County is a rural area and not the expected target for a foreign actor.

    Hate crime or domestic terrorism. She noted the lights went out at the drag show, which was organized by a LGBTQ group, just as it began.

    Insider threat. Kayyem noted the knowledge it would take to disable the substations could be a clue.

    “You don’t just drive by these places and know where to shoot,” she said. “(Investigators) will be looking at the potential there was either casing or someone who knew the area, the facilities and knew where to shoot. These aren’t drive-by incidents,” she said.

    [ad_2]

    Source link

  • FBI joins investigation into North Carolina power outage caused by ‘intentional’ attacks on substations as officials work to determine a motive and suspect | CNN

    FBI joins investigation into North Carolina power outage caused by ‘intentional’ attacks on substations as officials work to determine a motive and suspect | CNN

    [ad_1]



    CNN
     — 

    With no suspects or motive announced, the FBI is joining the investigation into power outages in a North Carolina county believed to have been caused by “intentional” and “targeted” attacks on substations that left around 40,000 customers in the dark Saturday night, prompting a curfew and emergency declaration.

    The mass outage in Moore County turned into a criminal investigation when responding utility crews found signs of potential vandalism of equipment at different sites – including two substations that had been damaged by gunfire, according to the Moore County Sheriff’s Office.

    “The person, or persons, who did this knew exactly what they were doing,” Moore County Sheriff Ronnie Fields said during a Sunday news conference. “We don’t have a clue why Moore County.”

    Fields said multiple rounds were fired at the two substations. “It was targeted, it wasn’t random,” he said.

    The sheriff would not say whether the criminal activity was domestic terrorism but noted “no group has stepped up to acknowledge or accept they’re the ones who [did] it.”

    Authorities announced a mandatory curfew from 9 p.m. until 5 a.m., starting Sunday night, with Fields saying the decision was made to protect residents and businesses.

    In addition to the FBI, the North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation has joined the investigation, officials said.

    More than 33,000 customers were still in the dark across the county Sunday evening, the Duke Energy outage map showed. For some, the outage may stretch into Thursday, officials said, upending life for tens of thousands.

    All schools in the county will be closed Monday and authorities have opened a shelter running on a generator.

    Traffic lights are also out, and while a few stores with generators were able to open their doors, several businesses and churches in Moore County were closed Sunday, CNN affiliate WRAL reported.

    “We were just getting over Covid. And now this,” the sheriff said, adding, “It’s gonna hurt all of our restaurants and businesses.”

    Inside people’s homes, it’s become difficult to keep the cold out.

    “We have a six-month-old baby in the house. We’re out of heat. We are trying to get heat for her,” Carthage resident Chris Thompson told WRAL.

    Chilly temperatures, with lows in the 30s, were expected in the area overnight Sunday with highs in the 50s and a chance of rain expected Monday, according to the National Weather Service. Moore County is in central North Carolina, about 50 miles northwest of Fayetteville.

    Mapbox

    The estimated cost of the substation damage is in the millions, the sheriff said Sunday.

    The damage has been significant and rerouting power isn’t an option, said Jeff Brooks, principal communications manager for Duke Energy.

    Damage to the gate to the Duke Energy West End substation is seen Sunday in Moore County.

    “Equipment will have to be replaced,” Brooks said. “We’re pursuing multiple paths of restoration so that we can restore as many customers as quickly as possible. Recognizing that, we are looking at pretty sophisticated repair with some fairly large equipment.”

    In addition to the gunfire damage at the substations, a gate at one of the locations appears to have been taken off its hinges, Asst. Chief Mike Cameron of the Southern Pines Fire and Rescue Department told CNN.

    While it’s unclear what motivated the alleged vandalism, the sheriff on Sunday addressed rumors circulating on social media that the attack was an attempt to thwart a local drag show.

    Fields said investigators “have not been able to tie anything back to the drag show,” which was scheduled in the town of Southern Pines at 7 p.m. Saturday, around the time the power went out.

    Duke Energy workers gather Sunday as they plan how to repair an electrical substation in Carthage, North Carolina.

    The county declared a state of emergency to protect residents and property and maintain public services, authorities said. The countywide curfew is expected to stay in effect nightly while the emergency declaration is in effect.

    “It is going to be very, very dark and it’s going to be chilly tonight, and we don’t need to have anyone out on the streets and that is the reason for our curfew,” North Carolina state Senator Tom McInnis said during the news conference. “Please stay home tonight … the roads are dangerous.”

    The emergency order also encourages residents to conserve fuel.

    With streets in the dark, the area has seen increased emergency calls and vehicle accidents are being reported because traffic lights are out, Cameron told CNN.

    People who rely on oxygen have also placed emergency calls, he added.

    A shelter was opened at the Moore County Sports Complex, and trailers with bathroom and shower facilities are being brought in, Moore County Manager Wayne Vest said.

    As for schools, it’s unclear how long campuses will stay closed. Moore County Superintendent Tim Locklair said decisions regarding school openings for the remainder of the week will be made on a day-by-day basis.

    [ad_2]

    Source link

  • NC county announces curfew as nearly 40,000 customers remain without power after 2 substations damaged by gunfire | CNN

    NC county announces curfew as nearly 40,000 customers remain without power after 2 substations damaged by gunfire | CNN

    [ad_1]



    CNN
     — 

    Authorities have announced a mandatory curfew in a North Carolina county where around 40,000 customers lost power after two power substations were damaged by gunfire Saturday night.

    At a news conference Sunday, Moore County Sheriff Ronnie Fields said the county will implement a mandatory curfew from 9 p.m. until 5 a.m., starting Sunday night.

    Municipality and county officials “have formed a plan for the night and the next few nights that we may be out of power. It’s a very serious situation,” Fields said. “So we’ve come to an agreement to best protect our citizens and to protect the businesses of our county, we’re going to implement a curfew tonight.”

    The power outage in Moore County is being investigated as a “criminal occurrence” after crews found signs of potential vandalism at several locations, CNN previously reported.

    A gate at one of the locations also appears to have been taken off its hinges, Mike Cameron of the Southern Pines Fire and Rescue Department told CNN on Sunday afternoon.

    Cameron said the area is experiencing increased emergency calls due to the lack of power, adding that auto accidents have occurred because traffic lights are out. People who rely on oxygen have placed emergency calls, he said.

    Initially, local officials estimated power would be restored Sunday evening, but Cameron said after assessing the damage, they’ve determined it could take at least until Monday.

    The equipment that was damaged is not easily replaceable and will have to be brought in to make the repairs, Cameron said.

    A local supermarket is distributing ice to impacted residents, according to a news release from grocery chain Harris Teeter.

    The power outage has also led officials to cancel Monday classes for all schools in the county. “An announcement will be made tomorrow evening to inform parents and staff of the status of schools for Tuesday,” Moore County Schools said in a tweet Sunday afternoon.

    Mapbox

    Several communities across the county began experiencing power outages just after 7 p.m. Saturday, the Moore County Sheriff’s Office said in a Facebook post.

    “As utility companies began responding to the different substations, evidence was discovered that indicated that intentional vandalism had occurred at multiple sites,” the office said.

    At least two substations were vandalized “with criminal intent,” US Rep. Richard Hudson said Sunday morning in a release.

    The North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation and the FBI are responding, according to Hudson. He said the motive remains unknown.

    Hudson, whose congressional district includes Moore County, said the Southern Pines Police Department has opened a community center for residents to charge devices.

    CNN has reached out to Southern Pines police and the FBI.

    More than 38,000 customers were without power across the county Sunday morning, according to the Duke Energy outage map. According to poweroutage.us, about 41,000 customers had lost power in Moore County and neighboring Hoke County.

    Crews were experiencing “multiple equipment failures” that are affecting substations in Moore County, Duke Energy spokesman Jeff Brooks told CNN affiliate WRAL.

    “We are also investigating signs of potential vandalism related to the outages,” Brooks said.

    Deputies and officers from other law enforcement agencies responded to the different sites to provide security, according to the sheriff’s office.

    Gov. Roy Cooper on Sunday tweeted that state law enforcement would join the investigation.

    “I have spoken with Duke Energy and state law enforcement officials about the power outages in Moore County. They are investigating and working to return electricity to those impacted,” Cooper said. “The state is providing support as needed.”

    Moore County is in central North Carolina, about 50 miles northwest of Fayetteville.

    [ad_2]

    Source link

  • Astronauts will give the space station a power boost during Saturday spacewalk | CNN

    Astronauts will give the space station a power boost during Saturday spacewalk | CNN

    [ad_1]

    Sign up for CNN’s Wonder Theory science newsletter. Explore the universe with news on fascinating discoveries, scientific advancements and more.



    CNN
     — 

    The International Space Station will receive a power boost during a spacewalk on Saturday, as NASA astronauts Josh Cassada and Frank Rubio install a solar array outside the floating laboratory.

    The spacewalk is on track to begin at 7:25 a.m. ET and will last for about seven hours, with live coverage streaming on NASA’s website.

    During the event, Cassada will serve as extravehicular crew member 1 and will wear a suit with red stripes, while Rubio will wear an unmarked white suit as extravehicular crew member 2. The duo conducted their first spacewalk together in November. Against the backdrop of spectacular views of Earth, the team assembled a mounting bracket on the starboard side of the space station’s truss.

    This hardware allows for the installation of more rollout solar arrays, called iROSAs, to increase electrical power on the space station.

    The first two rollout solar arrays were installed outside the station in June 2021. The plan is to add a total of six iROSAs, which will likely boost the space station’s power generation by more than 30% once all are operational.

    Two more arrays were delivered to the space station on November 27 aboard the 26th SpaceX Dragon commercial resupply mission, which also carried dwarf tomato seeds and other experiments to the orbiting laboratory.

    The arrays were rolled up like carpet and are 750 pounds (340 kilograms) and 10 feet (3 meters) wide.

    During Saturday’s spacewalk, Cassada and Rubio will install a solar array to increase capacity in one of the space station’s eight power channels, located on the station’s starboard truss.

    Once the array is unfurled and bolted into place by the astronauts, it will be about 63 feet (19 meters) long and 20 feet (6 meters) wide.

    The spacewalking duo will also disconnect a cable to reactivate another power channel that recently experienced “unexpected tripping” on November 26.

    “By isolating a section of the impacted array, which was one of several damaged strings, the goal is to restore 75% of the array’s functionality,” according to a release from NASA.

    Cassada and Rubio will go on another spacewalk on December 19 to install a second roll-out solar array on another power channel, located on the station’s port truss.

    The original solar arrays on the space station are still functioning, but they have been supplying power there for more than 20 years and are showing some signs of wear after long-term exposure to the space environment. The arrays were originally designed to last 15 years.

    Erosion can be caused by thruster plumes, which come from both the station’s thrusters and the crew and cargo vehicles that come and go from the station, as well as micrometeorite debris.

    The new solar arrays are being placed in front of the original ones. It’s a good test for the new solar arrays, because this same design will power parts of the planned Gateway lunar outpost, which will help humans return to the moon through NASA’s Artemis program.

    The new arrays will have a similar 15-year life expectancy. However, since the degradation on the original arrays was expected to be worse, the team will monitor the new arrays to test their true longevity, because they may last longer.

    [ad_2]

    Source link