(CAPE SAN BLAS, Fla.) — Tropical storm Fred made landfall near Cape San Blas, along the Florida Panhandle, on Monday afternoon with winds near 65 mph.
One foot of rain is possible in the Florida Panhandle. Fred then is forecast to barrel north through Alabama and Georgia, delivering up to 10 inches of rain.
The flash flood threat will stretch to Atlanta and could even reach Richmond, Virginia, and Washington, D.C., by Wednesday.
President Joe Biden warned last week that the hurricane-prone states also are ones with surging COVID-19 cases.
“Let me be clear. If you’re in a state where hurricanes often strike, a vital part of preparing for hurricane season is to get vaccinated now. Everything is more complicated if you’re not vaccinated and a hurricane or natural disaster hits. If you wind up having to evacuate, if you wind up having to stay in a shelter, you don’t want to add COVID-19 to the list of dangers that you’re going to be confronting,” Biden said at a briefing alongside Federal Emergency Management Agency officials.
Fred isn’t the only storm moving through the Atlantic Ocean.
Tropical depression Grace is targeting Haiti, where residents are dealing with a devastating 7.2-magnitude earthquake this weekend that killed nearly 1,300 people.
Gusty winds and heavy rain are expected in Haiti Monday and Jamaica on Tuesday.
And a new tropical depression formed near Bermuda on Monday morning that could become Tropical Storm Henri later in the day.
A tropical depression near Bermuda could cause high waves and rip currents along the East Coast of the U.S.
Henri is expected to circle around Bermuda, where a tropical storm watch is in effect. Henri’s only impact on the U.S. could be high waves and rip currents along the East Coast.
(NEW YORK) — The United States is facing a COVID-19 surge this summer as the more contagious delta variant spreads.
More than 621,000 Americans have died from COVID-19 and over 4.3 million people have died worldwide, according to real-time data compiled by the Center for Systems Science and Engineering at Johns Hopkins University.
Just 59.3% of Americans ages 12 and up are fully vaccinated against COVID-19, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Here’s how the news is developing Monday. All times Eastern:
Aug 16, 9:58 am
Positivity rate climbs to 25% at Children’s Hospital New Orleans
The positivity rate has climbed to 25% at Children’s Hospital New Orleans, Dr. Mark Kline, the hospital’s physician-in-chief, told ABC News on Sunday.
The hospital had 12 pediatric patients on Sunday. Half of them were under 2 years old, Kline said.
Five of the 12 patients in the hospital were in the ICU: an 8-week-old, a 3-month-old, a 13-month-old, a 23-month-old and a 17-year-old, Kline said.
“As we see more children infected and ill with COVID-19, it occurs to me that our children have become the collateral damage of many adults who frame refusal of masks and vaccines as an issue of personal freedom rather than the common-sense public health measures that they are,” Kline said.
“Children currently have no way out of this pandemic other than through the advocacy and personal responsibility of their parents and all adults,” Kline added. “So far, we are failing them miserably.”
(NEW YORK) — The United States is facing a COVID-19 surge this summer as the more contagious delta variant spreads.
More than 620,000 Americans have died from COVID-19 and over 4.3 million people have died worldwide, according to real-time data compiled by the Center for Systems Science and Engineering at Johns Hopkins University.
Just 59.1% of Americans ages 12 and up are fully vaccinated against COVID-19, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Here’s how the news is developing. All times Eastern:
Aug 15, 7:20 pm
Texas Supreme Court sides with Gov. Greg Abbott on mask mandate
Two days after a Dallas appeals court dealt Texas Gov. Greg Abbott a legal setback by upholding Dallas County Judge Clay Jenkins’ order requiring masks in schools and businesses, the Texas Supreme Court shut the mandate down Sunday.
The entirely Republican Court granted a temporary stay at the request of Abbott and Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton.
“The ban doesn’t prohibit using masks. Anyone who wants to wear a mask can do so, including in schools,” Abbott tweeted Sunday.
Hearings on the mask mandates will continue in lower courts as scheduled, the Court ruled.
“We won’t stop working with parents, doctors, schools, business + others to protect you and intend to win that hearing,” Jenkins tweeted Sunday.
Aug 15, 11:54 am
Nearly 600 patients waiting for hospital beds in Houston
As of Saturday, 575 patients are waiting for a general bed in hospitals in the Houston area. Eighty-seven patients are waiting for an intensive care unit beds.
Hospital officials in Houston said last week that area hospitals with beds had insufficient numbers of nurses to serve them.
Nurses the state was going to surge to the area have yet to arrive, more than two weeks after they were promised.
Gov. Greg Abbott appealed for out-of-state help to fight the third wave of COVID-19 in Texas while two more of the state’s largest school districts announced mask mandates in defiance of the governor last week.
As of Saturday, there are 3.3M confirmed cases of COVID-19 and there have been 54,289 deaths, according to data from Johns Hopkins University. 46.33% of Texans have been fully vaccinated.
(NEW YORK) — Three major U.S. cities struggling to curb a surge in gun violence collectively had at least 64 people wounded and 12 dead, including a 7-year-old girl, in multiple shootings this weekend, according to police.
The shootings in New York, Philadelphia and Chicago came as all three cities have seen sharp increases in the numbers of shootings in 2021.
In Chicago, at least 46 people were shot between 5 p.m. on Friday and Sunday afternoon, four of them fatally, according to the Chicago Police Department. According to police incident reports reviewed by ABC News, 23 of the shootings occurred over just a 4 hour period between 12:26 a.m. and 4:30 a.m. on Sunday.
Around 3 p.m. on Sunday, a 7-year-old girl was killed and a 6-year-old girl was seriously wounded when someone opened fire on a parked vehicle they were sitting in the Belmont Central neighborhood on the city’s Northwest Side, police said. The 7-year-old was shot in the chest and later died at a hospital.
The 6-year-old girl was also shot in the chest and right armpit and was in serious but stable condition at Loyola University Medical Center Sunday evening, police said.
Police were working to identify the shooter or shooters involved in the incident. Police did not comment on a possible motive.
More than 250 children have been shot and 32 killed in Chicago this year, according to police data obtained by ABC station WLS.
Prior to this weekend, more than 2,123 people had been shot in Chicago this year, which is a 12% increase from the same time period in 2020, according to police department crime statistics. Before this weekend, Chicago has recorded 478 homicides, a 2% increase over last year at this time.
A shooting that occurred Friday night on the Eisenhower Expressway on the city’s West Side left one person dead and two others critically wounded. Illinois State Police said the three victims were in a car on Interstate 290 when a vehicle pulled up alongside them and someone inside opened fire.
In a shooting around 12:36 a.m. on Sunday, a woman and three men, ranging in age from 30 to 45, were shot and wounded as they stood outside a building in the Grand Crossing neighborhood on the city’s South Side, police said. The victims told police they did not see where the shots came from, according to an incident report.
Just after 2 a.m. Sunday, three teenagers, the youngest 15, were shot and wounded while standing outside a gas station in the city’s Chatham neighborhood on the South Side, police said. About 20 minutes later, three other people were shot while traveling in a car in the Mayfair neighborhood in northwest Chicago, police said.
The shootings in Chicago followed last weekend’s violence, which saw 73 people shot in the city, 11 fatally.
Chicago police Officer Ella French was among those gunned down last weekend when she and her two partners pulled over a car for having expired tags. One of French’s partners, a 39-year-old officer, was shot in the eye and remains in a hospital in critical condition with a bullet lodge in his brain, police said. Two brothers were arrested and charged in French’s slaying.
The Chicago Police Department has launched several programs this summer in an attempt to curb shootings and reduce the number of illegal guns on the streets.
Last month, Police Superintendent David Brown assembled a team of 50 officers to target gun traffickers, straw buyers, unscrupulous licensed firearms dealers and anyone who facilitates the flow of illegal guns into the city of Chicago.
11 people shot, 5 fatally in Philadelphia
Entering the weekend, 1,333 people had been shot in Philadelphia this year, a 19% increase from the same period a year ago, according to police department crime statistics. By the end of Friday, the city had recorded 329 homicides, a 26% increase from the same time period in 2020, the data shows.
“We need to stop this,” Philadelphia resident and retired Marine Jamal Johnson told ABC station WPVI in Philadelphia.
The weekend gun violence came as Johnson and a group of supporters are marching to Washington D.C. to draw attention to the escalating number of shootings and killings in their city. Johnson calls his action the “Stop Killing us March” and hopes to meet with members of the Congressional Black Caucus when he reaches the U.S. Capitol later this month.
“I would personally like them to encourage (Philadelphia) Mayor (Jim) Kenney to declare a state of emergency in Philadelphia due to gun violence,” Johnson said. “Most of all to save the lives of our children.”
Kenney said during a news conference last month that the city allocated over $150 million in its fiscal year 2022 budget to address gun violence. He said he has spoken to President Joe Biden “on the urgent need for new and enhanced approaches” to combat the problem.
“An emergency or disaster declaration would not change the direction of this work,” the mayor said.
In the weekend homicides in Philadelphia, a 25-year-old man was shot multiple times on a street in the Tioga-Nicetown neighborhood of North Philadelphia about 9 p.m. on Saturday, police said. The victim, whose name was not released, was taken to Einstein Medical Center and pronounced dead.
Around 5 a.m. Saturday, a man was found shot in the parking lot of a gas station in the Wynnefield neighborhood in the northwest part of Philadelphia police said. The man, who was not named by police, was pronounced dead at a hospital.
A 30-year-old man died after being shot multiple times around 12:44 a.m. Saturday on a street in the Grays Ferry neighborhood of South Philadelphia, police said. And a 46-year-old man died after being shot in the chest around 1:36 a.m. Saturday in the parking lot of the Rite Aid in southwest Philadelphia.
No arrests have been made in any of the homicides, police said.
More than 1,100 shot in New York City this year
In New York City, where more than 1,100 people have been shot this year, an 11% increase from a year ago, police said 15 more people were shot, three fatally, in 11 separate incidents on Friday night alone. The three homicides occurred in just 4 1/2 hours.
The deadly violence started about 12:20 a.m. on Saturday when police discovered a man lying next to a motorcycle with a bullet wound to the head in the Woodlawn neighborhood of the city’s Bronx borough, according to the New York Police Department. The victim, whose name was not immediately released, was pronounced dead at the scene, police said.
About 40 minutes later, a 38-year-old man was shot in the Far Rockaway neighborhood of the city’s Queens borough, police said. He was taken to a hospital, where he was pronounced dead.
Just after 4 a.m. on Saturday, a 27-year-old man was shot dead while standing on a street in the Morris Heights neighborhood of the Bronx, police said. The shooting also left a 23-year-old man wounded.
No arrests have been made in the New York homicides.
Among the non-fatal New York shootings, four men were wounded just after midnight Saturday at the Louis Armstrong Houses in the Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood in the city’s Brooklyn borough.
(NEW YORK) — The remnants of Fred redeveloped into a tropical storm over the southeastern part of the Gulf of Mexico earlier Sunday morning.
Tropical Storm Fred has maximum sustained winds of 40 mph, is moving to the north-northwest at 10 mph and the center is currently about 235 miles south of Panama City, Florida.
A tropical storm warning has been issued for parts of the Florida Panhandle, from Navarre to the Wakulla/Jefferson County line. Parts of Florida, including Panama City, Pensacola, and southeastern Alabama are under a tropical storm watch.
As Fred continues to move across the open waters of the eastern Gulf of Mexico, scattered thunderstorms will be possible across parts of Florida throughout the day. The main impacts from Fred are expected on Monday.
Fred will likely strengthen more before closing in on the Florida Panhandle on Monday.
Heavy rain and gusty winds will begin to impact the state Monday morning, with the brunt of the impact arriving in the afternoon ahead of a likely landfall Monday evening along the panhandle. Over a half-foot of rain is possible in spots, with flash flooding and storm surge impacts possible during high tide.
Fred will rapidly weaken after landfall and then bring areas of heavy rain into parts of Alabama and Georgia through Tuesday morning. Flash flood watches are also in effect from Tallahassee, Florida, up into portions of southern Alabama and Georgia.
Meanwhile, Tropical Storm Grace currently has maximum sustained winds of 35 mph and is moving west-northwest at 15 mph. The center is about 200 miles east-southeast of Santa Domingo, Dominican Republic. Grace remains disorganized as it moves just south of Puerto Rico.
A tropical storm warning remains in effect for Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands and parts of the Dominican Republic. A tropical storm watch remains in effect across Haiti, just a day after a devastating 7.2-magnitude earthquake killed hundreds, injured thousands and left widespread damage throughout the country.
Grace is forecast to impact Hispaniola Monday into Monday night, bringing torrential rain across the Dominican Republic and eventually parts of Haiti with over a half-foot of rain, flash flooding and mudslides possible in spots.
Grace will then likely move into the Gulf of Mexico, however, there remains a great deal of uncertainty, so the track possibilities could range from Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula to the U.S. Gulf Coast.
(WASHINGTON) — The upcoming 20th anniversary of 9/11, religious holidays and more pandemic restrictions amid a COVID-19 surge caused by the delta variant, could give rise to terrorist attacks in the U.S, the Department of Homeland Security is warning.
DHS’ National Terrorism Advisory System bulletin issued on Friday, warned that threats from domestic terrorists — individuals engaged in grievance-based violence — and foreign terrorists are exacerbated by the pandemic, “including grievances over public health safety measures and perceived government restrictions.”
The bulletin said that racially or ethnically motivated extremists will exploit the reintroduction of COVID-19 variants as a means to carry out attacks because of re-implemented pandemic restrictions.
This is the third NTAS bulletin the Department has issued since January.
The DHS also warned that because of the upcoming 9/11 anniversary foreign terrorists or people inspired by foreign terrorists might seek to carry out an attack around the anniversary.
Al-Qaeda released an issue of Inspire magazine for the first time in over four years, with the hopes of inspiring people to carry out attacks, according to the bulletin.
The bulletin also warned that domestic violent extremists have targeted houses of worship. “Historically, mass-casualty domestic violent extremist attacks linked to RMVEs have targeted houses of worship and crowded commercial facilities or gatherings,” it read and that some RMVEs (racially motivated violent extremists) “advocate via online platforms for a race war and have stated that civil disorder provides opportunities to engage in violence in furtherance of ideological objectives.”
Reopening of schools and other institutions, as well as religious holidays over the next few months could become “targets of opportunity for violence,” the bulletin further warned.
DHS also cautioned about foreign and domestic groups as well as foreign intelligence services (but did not specify which ones) that “continue to introduce, amplify, and disseminate narratives online that promote violence, and have called for violence against elected officials, political representatives, government facilities, law enforcement, religious communities or commercial facilities, and perceived ideologically-opposed individuals.”
ABC News previously reported on the Department’s concern about the conspiracy theory that former President Donald Trump will be reinstated as U.S. president last Friday.
“Law enforcement have expressed concerns that the broader sharing of false narratives and conspiracy theories will gain traction in mainstream environments, resulting in individuals or small groups embracing violent tactics to achieve their desired objectives. With a diverse array of threats, DHS is concerned that increased outbreaks of violence in some locations, as well as targeted attacks against law enforcement, may strain local resources,” the bulletin reads.
Some domestic violent extremists “continue to derive inspiration and obtain operational guidance through the consumption of information shared in certain online communities. This includes information regarding the use of improvised explosive devices and small arms.”
The Department also warned of nation-state adversaries attempting to sow politcal discord, citing examples of Russia, China and Iran attempting to cast doubt on vaccine efficacy.
“DHS remains committed to sharing timely information with the public about the heightened threat environment in order to protect communities across our country,” said Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro N. Mayorkas in a statement on Friday. “Today’s NTAS Bulletin advises the public about the heightened threat landscape we face and how DHS is working with our partners, at every level of government and in the community, to combat domestic terrorism and targeted violence in all its forms. We are committed to ensuring every initiative undertaken by DHS in response to the threat is consistent with privacy protections, civil rights and civil liberties, First Amendment-protected rights, and other applicable laws.”
(ALTAMONTE SPRINGS, Fla.) — A Florida mother was fatally shot by her toddler while on a Zoom video call for work, prompting one of her colleagues to call 911, authorities said.
Shamaya Lynn, 21, was killed Wednesday at her apartment in Altamonte Springs in central Florida after one of her two toddlers picked up an unsecured, loaded handgun and shot her in the head, according to police.
A woman on the video call dialed 911 after she heard a noise, observed Lynn fall backward and then saw blood.
“I don’t know where to begin, but I’m on a live with a company, we just got hired. And one of the girls just passed out. She’s bleeding,” the coworker said in a 911 call released by police.
The woman told the dispatcher she could hear a baby crying but couldn’t see anything else.
“We heard a loud ‘kaboom’ and then she leaned back, and then we just got blood from her face,” the woman said.
A man who identified himself as Lynn’s boyfriend also called 911 after coming home and finding her unconscious and bleeding.
“Hurry!” he told the 911 dispatcher. “There’s blood everywhere.”
The man, who told police he was the father of the two children, was handcuffed at the scene due to his “state and guns being present in the apartment,” the police report stated.
Responding officers and paramedics rendered aid but couldn’t prevent Lynn from dying due to her injuries, police said.
“This young mother lost her life after one of her toddlers found an unsecured handgun in the apartment,” Sgt. Rob Ruiz of the Altamonte Springs Police Department told reporters. “We do have a responsibility as adults to keep people safe, especially when you own a firearm.”
Detectives are working with the Seminole County State Attorney’s Office to determine whether charges should be filed against the children’s father, who owned the gun, police said. The case was still being reviewed as of Saturday evening, Ruiz told ABC News.
The father was questioned but not arrested, ABC News Orlando affiliate WFTV reported.
(BETHEL, Penn.) — A search is underway for a 3-year-old Pennsylvania boy who went missing from a camping area along the Allegheny River in Bethel Township Friday afternoon.
Pennsylvania Police in Kittanning are searching for Dwight Dinsmore, who is described as 3-foot-5 blonde with blue eyes, last seen wearing a gray T-shirt with a black collar and a motorcycle depicted on the front, police said in a news release.
Police said the search started around 3:15 p.m. Friday, in a news release.
The search was conducted by several local police departments, K9 units, state police and family members, but was called off Friday evening due to inclement weather, officials said.
It will resume Saturday morning.
Police are asking anyone who sees the child to contact them at 724-543-2011 immediately.
(NEW YORK) — Tropical depression Fred continues to produce heavy rain across central Cuba as of Saturday morning.
Fred is located about 90 miles south of Key West, Florida, and moving northwest at 13 mph.
Sustained winds are traveling at 35 mph with higher gusts.
Tropical storm conditions are expected in portions of the warning area across the Florida Keys later Saturday.
A tornado or two may even be possible across central and South Florida.
Fred is expected to strengthen to a tropical storm as it passes near or west of the lower Florida Keys on Saturday afternoon.
It will move across the eastern Gulf of Mexico overnight and into Sunday, and move inland over the northern Gulf Coast on Monday.
Through Monday, 3 to 5 inches of rain are anticipated across the Keys and South Florida.
Across the Florida Big Bend and Panhandle, 3 to 7 inches with isolated maximum totals of 10 inches are expected. Flooding may occur. From Monday onward, heavy rain and flood impacts could extend into inland portions of the Southeast and into the southern and central Appalachians and Piedmont, as Fred interacts with a front in the area.
(BENA, Minn.) — A 3-year-old girl was fatally shot by a 5-year-old boy in a home in Bena, Minnesota, early Friday, officials said.
The Cass County Sheriff’s Office received a report of an accidental shooting around 3:50 a.m.
When deputies responded they learned the little girl “had been shot by accidental gunfire” by the boy, Sheriff Tom Burch said in a news release.
She was transported to the Deer River hospital by family members and intercepted by the Deer River Ambulance and lifesaving efforts were attempted on the child.
The girl was pronounced dead at the Deer River Hospital.
An autopsy is pending with the Midwest Medical Examiner’s Office and an investigation is underway.
The relationship between the boy and girl is not clear. It’s also not know how the child got a hold of the firearm.
It’s not clear whether possible criminal charges will be filed in the fatal incident.
So far this year 968 children have been killed by guns, according to the Gun Violence Archive.
In 2019, 3,371 American children and teens were killed with guns, the Children’s Defense Fund, a nonprofit child advocacy and research group reported.
