(ELOY, Ariz.) — Four people were killed and one person was critically injured when a hot air balloon crash-landed in the desert in Eloy, Arizona, on Sunday morning, the Eloy Police Department said.
The crash happened in Pinal County, a rural desert area about five miles north of town, at 7:30 a.m. local time, Eloy Police said.
The mayor of Eloy confirmed that a total of 13 people were in the hot air ballon at the time of the crash — eight skydivers, four passengers and a pilot, according to local ABC Arizona affiliate KNXV.
Just before the crash the skydivers exited the hot air balloon and witnesses who spoke to KNXV said the balloon appeared to be flying up and down before impact occurred.
One person was pronounced dead at the scene of the crash, the other three victims died at the hospital and a fifth person is currently in critical condition at Valley Hospital, according to KNXV.
NTSB officials said the hot air balloon crashed due to an unspecified issue with its envelope. Officials with the NTSB and FAA are investigating the incident.
A record-breaking Arctic cold snap is sweeping across much of the United States as the Great Lakes deal with heavy snow and the South prepares for a significant winter storm.
Saturday brought record-breaking cold to much of the northern Plains, with Montana feeling the deepest chill. Chester, Montana, clocked in as the coldest spot in the nation when the temperature plunged to a mind-numbing minus 54 degrees.
In Kansas City, Missouri, on Saturday, football fans braved negative-degree wind chills to watch the Kansas City Chiefs beat the Miami Dolphins.
Wind chill alerts are in effect Sunday across two dozen states from Colorado to Illinois to Texas.
On Sunday morning, the wind chill — what temperature it feels like — fell to minus 35 degrees in Kansas City — the coldest since 1989.
Chicago is facing blowing snow and life-threatening cold.
And in Iowa, wind chill warnings have been issued across nearly the entire state as residents gear up for Monday’s caucuses. It could feel as cold as minus 35 degrees in Des Moines on Monday morning.
The record-breaking cold temperatures will persist in the southern Plains over the next few days, with Dallas, Nashville and Little Rock, Arkansas, feeling the freeze.
In the Northeast, extremely heavy snow and whiteout conditions are pounding the Buffalo, New York, area, where New York Gov. Kathy Hochul issued a travel ban.
The Buffalo Bills were set to host the Pittsburgh Steelers on Sunday, but the game was pushed to 4:30 p.m. Monday because Sunday’s snow forecast would make driving extremely dangerous.
Snowfall rates are reaching up to 2 inches per hour and travel around Buffalo is nearly impossible.
The Buffalo and Watertown, New York, areas will see snow totals of 1 to 3 feet by the time the storm tapers down early in the week.
And in the larger Northeast region, snow squalls are in the forecast on Sunday.
Meanwhile, a new storm will bring snow and an icy, wintry mix to the South.
Light freezing rain or freezing drizzle is possible Monday morning across a large swath of Texas, including Dallas and Austin, making roads very treacherous.
Snow is in the forecast for Little Rock and Nashville. Up to 3 to 5 inches of snow is possible in Memphis.
Even Shreveport, Louisiana, could see sleet and 1 to 2 inches of snow.
The Iowa high school principal who was shot and wounded while trying to protect his students during a school shooting earlier this month has died from his injuries, according to the school district.
Perry High School Principal Dan Marburger was among seven people injured in the Jan. 4 shooting. One student, 11-year-old sixth grader Ahmir Jolliff, was killed, authorities said.
The suspected shooter — a student at the high school — died of an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound, authorities said.
“Our entire state is devastated by the news of Dan Marburger’s death,” Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds said in a statement Sunday. “Dan courageously put himself in harm’s way to protect his students, and ultimately gave his own life to save them. He will forever be remembered for his selfless and heroic actions. May he rest in peace.”
Reynolds ordered all flags in Iowa to be lowered to half-staff.
“Dan Marburger is more than the Perry High School Principal. Dan is a husband, a father, a grandpa, a son, a brother, an uncle, a cousin, and a friend who lives and breathes for his family,” his family wrote on GoFundMe. “Being the principal at Perry High School since 1995, also means that Dan’s family includes those who have ever walked the halls of Perry High School.”
“Dan Marburger gave the ultimate sacrifice,” his family said in a GoFundMe post Sunday. “All of the Marburger family and the entire Perry Community will forever be touched by the selflessness of Mr. Marburger.”
Break out the gloves and hats: A record-breaking Arctic cold snap is bringing dangerously cold temperatures to much of the United States.
In Kansas City, Missouri, on Saturday, football fans braved negative-degree wind chills to watch the Kansas City Chiefs beat the Miami Dolphins.
Twenty-six states remain under wind chill alerts on Sunday.
With minus 30-degree wind chills expected in Chicago, the city has activated its “emergency operation plan for extreme cold.”
Even Texas is feeling the freeze, with temperatures dropping below zero.
Here is your cheat sheet for how to brave the frigid weather:
How to keep pipes from freezing
Keep the temperature in your home consistent during the day and night, the Red Cross advised. If you’re leaving home for the holidays, keep the heat on with the temperature set at a minimum of 55 degrees.
Prop open the cabinet doors in your kitchen and bathroom so warmer air can circulate around the plumbing, according to the Red Cross — just make sure to move any chemicals so children can reach them.
Keep your garage door closed if there are water supply lines inside, the Red Cross said.
You can also let the water drip, even at a trickle, from the faucet connected to exposed pipes, according to the Red Cross.
How to stay safe outside
Those with prolonged exposure or those not dressed appropriately for the weather are in danger of frostbite and hypothermia, National Weather Service meteorologist Jay Engle told ABC News.
Frostbite results in the loss of feeling and color in affected areas — usually the nose, ears, cheeks, fingers, toes or chin, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Frostbite could potentially cause permanent damage and, in severe cases, can lead to amputation, the CDC said.
Someone suffering from frostbite can be unaware of it because tissues that become frozen are numb, the CDC said. These are all signs of frostbite: numbness, white or grayish-yellow skin, or skin that feels unusually firm or waxy.
“Don’t rub your hands — if you have frost-nip or frostbite, rubbing actually causes tissue damage,” Dr. Randall Wexler, professor of family medicine at Ohio State University, told ABC News.
If you think you are developing frostbite, “keep the area covered if you can … because if you have frostbite on your hand and you pull off your glove, you may cause tissue damage,” Wexler said.
He added, “That’s also when you want to start trying to raise your core body temperature — get rid of wet clothes, put on clothes that are warm and dry.”
There’s also hypothermia — or abnormally low body temperature — which can impact the brain, “making the victim unable to think clearly or move well,” the CDC said. “This makes hypothermia especially dangerous because a person may not know that it’s happening and won’t be able to do anything about it.”
Warning signs for adults are shivering, exhaustion, confusion, fumbling hands, memory loss, slurred speech and drowsiness. Warning signs for infants are bright red or cold skin and very low energy, the CDC said.
Engle recommends to “dress in three or more layers. One big thick winter coat tends not to do the trick. You have to have a thick sweater underneath and then a lighter jacket on top of that and then your winter coat.”
“People really should keep their heads covered because that’s where majority of heat gets lost,” Engle added.
Wexler said moving can generate heat. But try to avoid sweating.
“If you are overheated and start to sweat, that lowers your body temperature and makes you more susceptible to cold injury,” he said. “You want to be able to adjust your layers, zip and unzip.”
Wexler also recommended staying hydrated because “dehydration can help promote cold injury.”
The young and elderly should be especially careful in the cold.
“Their ability to maintain core body temperature is harder than mid-age and younger adults,” he said. “Kids, especially babies, lose a disproportionate amount of heat from their head — that’s why you want to have a hat on their head when you’re out there. Older people are more at risk simply because it is more difficult to regulate our core body temperature as we get older.”
It’s also more difficult to maintain your core temperature if you are diabetic or taking decongestant antihistamines or certain blood pressure medications, Wexler said.
How to keep your car safe
When the temperature dips, getting behind the wheel can prove to be a challenge. Problems include dead car batteries, iced-over windshields, broken car locks and driving with no traction.
Audra Fordin, founder of Woman Auto Know and the owner of Great Bear Auto Repair in Queens, New York, provided these tips:
1. Before you hit the road, check under the hood.
“If it’s really cold outside, you want to make sure that your battery is going to be good in the freezing cold weather,” Fordin said. “If you see any snow or blue stuff that’s growing off your battery, that’s an indication you want to go to the shop to have your battery checked.”
2. Iced out windshields? Turn to your wallet for help.
“If you get to your car and can’t see, pull out a credit card, and you can just wipe that frost away,” Fordin said.
3. Fighting a stubborn car lock? Get sanitizing.
“If your lock is frozen, put the sanitizer on the key, and then put the key into the lock,” Fordin said.
4. If your car can’t gain traction, let your floor mat give an assist.
“Grab your floor mat, you’re going to put it underneath the wheel,” Fordin said. “That will give you enough traction to pull your car out and hit the road.”
This story was originally published in the winter of 2017-2018.
After a close call on an Alaska Airlines flight where a door plug flew off of the Boeing 737 Max 9 jet last week, officials are advising on the safest way to travel with an infant or baby.
Jennifer Homendy, Chair of the National Transportation Safety Board, said at a press conference on Sunday, Jan. 7, that three babies were held in the laps of caregivers on the Alaska 1282 flight. While no injuries were reported to babies, she noted the NTSB and Federal Aviation Administration both recommend that children under two be placed in their own car seat or carrier.
An NTSB safety alert focused on child passenger safety on an aircraft said that while caregivers are permitted to hold babies mid-flight, that is not the safest approach to infant travel.
“The Federal Aviation Administration’s (FAA) official guidance emphasizes that the safest place for young children in turbulence or an emergency is in an approved child restraint system or device, not on an adult’s lap,” reads the alert.
A statement from the FAA offered similar advice and pointed to a webpage with specific advice for flying with children.
Sarah Nelson, International President of the Association of Flight Attendants, supported the car seat recommendation from the FAA and NTSB.
“The reality is that even the most loving mother and father cannot hang on to their child in an incident of a sudden drop in turbulence or in the situation of Alaska 1282 near a hole that’s punctured in the aircraft at that altitude or higher,” said Nelson.
Nelson said the conditions in the Alaska Airlines flight created “an explosive decompression, a massive sucking.”
“There’s no ability, even with all the love in the world, if you are near that, that you can hang on to your child.” said Nelson.
Nelson said many car-seat products for babies are stamped with FAA approval so consumers can be certain that it is a safe option for air travel.
Extreme turbulence and plane malfunctions are rare, but ABC News Aviation contributor Steve Ganyard warned that even regular turbulence can be a risk to unsecured babies.
“Oftentimes, the worst turbulence is not predicted or not able to be seen on radar so we see people getting hurt on planes with what’s called clear-air turbulence,” he said.
“Are you going to be ready to hold that child if all the sudden there is turbulence that’s so severe that it could to pop them off the ceiling or take them out of your arms?”
Ganyard recognized the financial burden of purchasing a new seat and advised caregivers looking to save money to remain vigilant and prepared while holding a baby mid flight.
Kiersten DeCook, a mother who said she has traveled both while holding her child and with an individual seat for her child, said oftentimes, it comes down to a financial decision.
“In my head it was like, why am I going to pay hundreds to possibly over $1,000 for her to be in her own seat? Whenever I can just suffer through for a few hours and save tons of money,” said DeCook, though she noted when her children grew big enough they slept better in their own individual seats.
“What happened on the Alaska Airlines flight was terrifying. And while it is super rare, it was super scary,” said DeCook.
DeCook said occasionally gate agents will allow her to take up an extra seat with a car seat free of charge, making the decision to secure her child in an individual seat easy.
DeCook noted that choosing to hold your child rather than put them in a car seat should not result in a judgment that a parent does not care about their kids safety.
(FLORIDA) — The National Transportation Safety Board is investigating after three people were killed in two separate vehicle-train collisions at the same high-speed rail crossing in Florida this week.
On Friday, two people were killed — the driver and passenger — after a Brightline train struck their Chevrolet Avalanche pickup truck, Melbourne police said.
Melbourne Mayor Paul Alfrey told reporters at the scene that the vehicle tried to outrun the train.
The deadly collision came two days after a Brightline train struck a Honda Element SUV at the same crossing. The driver was killed and three others injured, police said.
Both vehicles were traveling west on WH Jackson Street, police said. The crashes remain under investigation.
The NTSB said Saturday it is sending a team to conduct a safety investigation into Friday’s “fatal grade crossing crash.” The investigation will include looking at the crash history, including Wednesday’s incident, an NTSB spokesperson said.
“NTSB investigators arrived on site this morning to begin the on-scene portion of the investigation,” the agency said in a statement on Saturday. “They will be collecting perishable information and documenting the scene for several days.”
A preliminary report is expected to be released within 30 days and final findings in 12 to 24 months.
“Investigators will work to better understand the safety issues at this crossing and will examine opportunities to prevent or mitigate these crashes in the future,” the NTSB said.
Following Friday’s collision, Mayor Alfrey urged drivers to follow safety measures at train crossings, saying, “When the arm is down, don’t go around!”
“I have spoken to Brightline officials and we will be ramping up a public safety campaign,” he said in a Facebook post. “There is NO good outcome against a train!”
ABC News did not immediately receive a response from Brightline to an email seeking comment on this week’s crashes.
Brightline, Florida’s high-speed rail, began offering passenger service between Miami and Orlando in late September, passing through Melbourne.
Since the service launched, there have been two other deadly incidents involving Brightline trains in Melbourne.
On Oct. 19, a female pedestrian was struck and killed by a train at a rail crossing in the area of Aurora Road and Cypress Avenue, police said. On Dec. 24, a 36-year-old female pedestrian was struck and killed by a train in the same area, police said.
Brightline ran a public safety campaign ahead of launching the new service, which has increased train traffic in the city of Melbourne, located about 70 miles southeast of Orlando.
“Years ago we had five or six trains maybe a day, and now we’re getting five, six times that,” Alfrey told WPLG following Wednesday’s fatal collision. “You really have to focus on your safety, your passenger’s safety.”
Alfrey told reporters at the scene following Friday’s incident that they need to do another, “aggressive” public safety campaign on rail safety. He also touched on other safety measures, such as enhanced barriers.
“This area — it doesn’t require a quad gate at this location, maybe that’s something that needs to be brought in,” he said.
(NEW YORK) — Almost every single U.S. state is under some form of weather alert ranging from flood watches in the east to blizzard warnings in Iowa to wind chill warnings for over a dozen states in the central U.S.
The Northeast has been getting drenched by rain for the past 24 hours, but it is expected to taper off as the day continues.
In the upper Midwest, heavy snow and gusty winds have caused whiteout conditions as a blizzard rages. Des Moines, Iowa, has been hit with nine inches of snow and Davenport — located on the eastern border with Illinois — was hit with 15 inches.
In addition to the snow totals, winds gusting over 45 miles per hour have led to rough travel conditions with blowing and drifting snow.
Hundreds more flights were canceled with 1,062 flights as of Saturday morning, according to FlightAware. It comes after more than 2,000 were canceled on Friday.
Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport continued to see impacts with 9% of its flights canceled and Detroit’s Metropolitan Wayne County with 13% of flights canceled on Saturday.
Although a smaller airport, Buffalo Niagara International Airport saw 56% of its flights canceled. New York Gov. Kathy Hochul had declared a state of emergency Friday afternoon for western New York due to whiteout condition causing travel to be difficult.
Hochul wrote Saturday afternoon on X, the platform previously known as Twitter, that the NFL wildcard playoff game between the Buffalo Bills and the Pittsburgh Steelers has been postponed to 4:30 p.m. ET on Monday. One to three feet of snow through Monday is expected to fall in Buffalo and the surrounding area
“I’ve been in communication with @NFL commissioner Roger Goodell regarding the dangerous conditions in Buffalo this weekend. In consultation with our emergency response teams, @BuffaloBills leadership, and the NFL, the Bills game will be postponed to 4:30 pm Monday,” she wrote.
In another playoff game taking place Saturday evening in Kansas City with the Kinase City Chiefs playing the Miami Dolphins, the game time temperature is expected to be minus 4 F. with wind chills expected to make it feel like minus 20 F to minus 25 F.
The snow and bitter cold temperatures have brought dangerous conditions and have even led to a few deaths.
In Franklin, Wisconsin — located 16 miles southeast of Milwaukee — the Milwaukee County Medical Examiner’s Office is investigating the death of a 69-year-old man who is believed to have died while snow blowing his drive, according to local reports. The death is not being viewed as suspicious.
In Schiller Park, a suburb of Chicago, a man was found dead due to cold exposure, becoming the first cold-related death of the season, according to o the Cook County Medical Examiner’s Office, the Associated Press reported.
As of Saturday, more than 442,000 customers are without power across nine states including, Michigan, New Hampshire, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Vermont, Virginia, West Virginia and Wisconsin, according to PowerOutage.us.
Michigan is experiencing the highest number of customers with outages for more than 186,000 followed by Wisconsin with outages for more than 95,000 customers.
Some communities also experienced flooding including those in the northern part of New Jersey and saw rain overnight Friday into Saturday.
Gov. Phil Murphy will visit flood-damaged Paterson early Saturday afternoon, according to a schedule provided by his office.
ABC News’ Matt Foster, Jessica Gorman, Ahmad Hemingway, Alex Perez and Ileana Riveros continued to this report.
(NEW YORK) — Alleged serial killer Rex Heuermann returns to court next week on Long Island where he is expected to be charged in the death of a fourth woman whose remains were found in a marshy spot near Gilgo Beach, multiple sources told ABC News.
Heuermann, 60, is already charged with killing three women whose bodies were found wrapped in burlap in close proximity and prosecutors have said he is the prime suspect in the death of a fourth, Maureen Brainard-Barnes.
Heuermann has pleaded not guilty to killing Megan Waterman, Melissa Barthelemy and Amber Costello, all of whom were found dead in December 2010. He is being held without bail.
He is due back in court in Riverhead Tuesday when prosecutors are expected to announce that a grand jury has returned an indictment charging him with a fourth murder, the sources said.
Brainard-Barnes was found wrapped with a belt that had a distinctive buckle bearing the initials WH, which could stand for Heuermann’s father, prosecutors have said.
There was no immediate comment from the Suffolk County District Attorney’s office, which is handling the prosecution of Heuermann. The suspect is an architect who investigators linked to the women, all sex workers, through DNA evidence, including a sample taken from pizza crust in the trash outside his Manhattan office.
There are six other Gilgo Beach victims whose deaths remain unsolved.
(OKLAHOMA) — A series of earthquakes struck Oklahoma Friday evening into Saturday morning, including at least two of 4.4 magnitude.
A 3.2 magnitude earthquake was recorded at 9:37 p.m. CT near Arcadia, which is located just northeast of Oklahoma City, according to the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS)
This was followed by two smaller earthquakes of 2.7 magnitude and 2.5 magnitude, respectively, according to the USGS.
On Saturday morning, the earthquakes started again with one of 2.6 magnitude recorded near Acadia around 4:45 a.m. CT.
About an hour later, another 4.4 magnitude earthquake struck, this time near Edmond, which is just north of Oklahoma City, USGS data shows. This was followed by a smaller earthquake of 2.7 magnitude around 6:55 a.m. CT.
As of Saturday morning, no damages or injuries have been reported.
However, the USGS says earthquakes of 4.9 magnitude or under typically only cause disturbances and may be felt by many who are indoors. Earthquakes with a 5.0 magnitude or greater typically cause damage.
The Oklahoma Geological Survey (OGS) released a statement Saturday reporting “strong shaking in the immediate area and across Oklahoma City” as a result of the earthquakes.
“Whereas most aftershocks are smaller than the mainshock, a very small fraction of aftershocks result in a larger earthquake than the main event,” the OGS said in its statement. “The seismic hazard remains high in the area. Citizens should secure valuables that might shake during possible strong aftershocks and practice Drop, Cover, and Hold On in the event of damaging events.”
The earthquakes did not match the most powerful recorded in the state’s history, which was a 5.8 magnitude earthquake that occurred Sept. 3, 2016, near Pawnee, located in northern Oklahoma.
In March 2017, Pawnee Nation filed a lawsuit suing some Oklahoma oil companies in tribal court, alleging that the companies had injected wastewater underground, which led to the earthquake.
(NEW YORK) — Over 2,000 flights have been canceled nationwide Friday as the Midwest is pummeled by snow and the South and Northeast brace for rough weather of their own.
The Midwest and the Great Lakes are facing blizzard warnings on Friday.
Whiteout conditions, heavy snow, wind gusts up to 50mph and low visibility will continue through rush hour Friday night from Iowa to the Great Lakes, including Chicago.
Days ahead of Monday’s Iowa caucuses, the National Weather Service in Des Moines is urging drivers to stay off the roads.
The weather is also crippling travel by road and air in Illinois.
A ground stop was issued at Chicago O’Hare International Airport for part of Friday morning due to snow and ice.
Chicago O’Hare and Chicago Midway International Airport are seeing the highest number of cancellations in the U.S.
Six to 12 inches of snow is forecast for the Midwest through Saturday.
In the South, severe storms will be ongoing from Atlanta to Raleigh, North Carolina, on Friday night.
Damaging winds are expected and tornadoes are possible across the South.
The storm will move into the Northeast overnight, bringing up to 2 inches of heavy rain and winds up to 40 mph to Washington, D.C., New York City and Boston.
Rivers remain swollen in the Northeast from recent rainfall, so the incoming downpour will only prolong flooding issues. New Jersey’s Passaic River reached its crest on Thursday night in the major flood stage. Flash flooding, river flooding and coastal flooding are all possible into the weekend across the Northeast.
Moving in behind the storm is a major arctic blast that will bring brutally cold temperatures to millions this weekend and early next week.
Starting Saturday morning, the wind chill — what temperature it feels like — could plunge to minus 60 degrees in Montana and minus 40 degrees across the central and northern Plains.
In Kansas City on Saturday, when the Chiefs host the Miami Dolphins, the wind chill is forecast to be minus 23 degrees.
In New York, Gov. Kathy Hochul is warning “of potentially dangerous and life-threatening blizzard-like conditions” along Lake Erie and Lake Ontario on Saturday night and Sunday.
Some areas could get up to 1 foot of snow and residents should be prepared for freezing temperatures and possible power outages, the governor said.
Ahead of Sunday’s playoff game, Hochul urged Buffalo Bills fans to “enjoy the game from home,” adding, “however, if they are planning to attend the game, they should travel with extreme caution.”
On Monday, the temperature will be bone-chilling across the Plains and Midwest. During the Iowa caucuses Monday, the wind chill will clock in at minus 25 degrees.
There’s also the potential for snow and ice to develop in the South, from Texas to Tennessee, on Sunday and Monday.
