(NEW YORK) — Millions of people in the eastern United States awoke to cooler, drier air on Monday morning after blustery storms helped bring an end to the first heat wave of the season.
Over the weekend, severe storms swept through Virginia, Washington, D.C., and Maryland, downing trees and knocking out power for more than 200,000 customers.
There were five reported tornadoes from Colorado to Massachusetts on Saturday, according to the National Weather Service. One tornado with winds up to 105 miles per hour touched down in Foxborough, Massachusetts, about 22 miles southwest of Boston.
Strong winds from the tornado in Foxborough caused a tree to fall on a house in the nearby town of Easton, with the residents narrowly escaping.
“My wife was actually on the porch filming the rain and she turned her camera off. Within 15 seconds, that tree came down,” Mark Butler told Boston ABC affiliate WCVB-TV.
In Washington, D.C., winds gusted to 84 mph as storms moved through the area.
On Sunday, powerful storms pummelled the Plains, from Montana to Missouri, with damaging winds up to 91 mph and hail larger than the size of a baseball. Kansas City, Missouri, got hit hard overnight with winds gusting near 80 mph in the metropolitan area.
Now, comfortable weather is settling on the East Coast.
But scorching temperatures continue to plague the South, where more than 70 million Americans are on alert for extreme heat.
Arizona’s capital is currently on a record stretch of 31 consecutive days with high temperatures at or above 110 degrees Fahrenheit. Earlier this month, overnight temperatures in Phoenix did not drop below 90 degrees for a record 16 days in a row.
For now, the Southwest will catch a short break from the record-smashing heat wave as monsoon storms bring much-needed moisture to the area. The heat will instead focus on Texas and the Gulf Coast this week, according to the latest weather forecast.
Austin, Texas, already went 19 straight days with high temperatures at or above 103 degrees, the most on record and marking the hottest July ever for the city.
The National Weather Service has issued heat alerts that are in effect Monday morning across 10 states, from Florida to Kansas. A number of cities could see record high temperatures by the afternoon, including 106 degrees in Dallas, Texas; 103 degrees in Austin, Houston and San Antonio, Texas; 99 degrees in New Orleans, Louisiana; and 95 degrees in Miami, Florida. The heat index values — a measure of how hot it really feels when relative humidity is combined with the air temperature — are forecast to be even higher.
The heat waves occurring in North America, Europe and China throughout the month of July would not have been possible without global warming, according to a rapid attribution analysis by World Weather Attribution, an academic collaboration that uses weather observations and climate models to calculate how climate change influences the intensity and likelihood of extreme weather events. In some regions, the sweltering temperatures have triggered wildfires as well as heat-related hospital admissions and deaths, the researchers said.
(BOISE, Idaho) — An Idaho mother is set to learn her fate after being convicted in the murders of her two youngest children.
Lori Vallow Daybell will return to court in eastern Idaho’s Fremont County on Monday for a sentencing hearing, according to Boise ABC affiliate KIVI-TV. She faces up to life in prison without parole. In March, before the trial began, a judge granted the defense’s motion to dismiss the death penalty in her case.
Lori and her husband, Chad Daybell, were both charged with two counts of first-degree murder for the 2019 deaths of her two youngest children, 16-year-old Tylee Ryan and 7-year-old Joshua “J.J.” Vallow. The children were last seen alive in September 2019 and were reported missing by extended family members that November. Their remains were found on Chad’s property in Fremont County in June 2020, according to authorities.
The couple were also charged with conspiracy to commit murder in the death of Chad’s ex-wife, 49-year-old Tamara Daybell, who died of asphyxiation of in October 2019, less than a month before Lori and Chad married. Chad was also charged with his former wife’s murder.
Both Lori and Chad pleaded not guilty to their charges. In April, a Fremont County judge allowed their cases to be tried separately, with Lori’s first and Chad’s expected to start at a later date.
Lori was deemed fit to stand trial last year following a 10-month stint at an Idaho mental health facility. Her defense attorneys had said they did not plan to raise a mental health defense at the guilt-phase portion of the trial.
During Lori’s six-week trial, prosecutors argued that she and her husband thought the children were zombies and murdered them. Chad has authored many religious fiction books and is Lori’s fifth husband. The couple both reportedly adhered to a doomsday ideology, with Lori at one point claiming she was “a god assigned to carry out the work of the 144,000 at Christ’s second coming in July 2020” and didn’t want anything to do with her family “because she had a more important mission to carry out,” according to court documents obtained by ABC News.
The defense characterized Lori as a devoted mother who loved her children and Jesus, but that all changed near the end of 2018 when she met Chad.
Prosecutors argued that Lori set a plan for the children’s murder in motion in October 2018 “using money, power and sex,” and that she and her husband “used religion to manipulate others.” Lori was additionally charged with grand theft related to Social Security survivor benefits allocated for the care of her children that prosecutors said were appropriated after they were reported missing and ultimately found dead. Meanwhile, Chad was additionally charged with two counts of insurance fraud related to life insurance policies he had on Tamara for which prosecutors said he was the beneficiary.
Prosecutors also shared photographs of Lori and Chad dancing on a beach during their wedding in Hawaii when her children’s bodies were buried in his backyard.
In May, a 12-member jury reached a verdict after two days of deliberations, finding Lori guilty on all charges. The defense declined to comment on the verdict at the time.
(NEW YORK) — Six people were hit by a car Sunday outside a store in North Carolina in what authorities said they suspected was an intentional assault on a group of migrant workers.
At around 1:17 p.m. local time, an unknown driver of an older model, mid-size, black, sport utilitiy vehicle with a luggage rack, drove the vehicle into six people described as migrant workers, according to the Lincolnton Police. The alleged victims were taken to Atrium Health Lincoln, though none of their injuries appeared life-threatening, police said.
The incident appeared to have been an intentional assault with a vehicle, police said in an announcement Sunday. The driver has been described as an older white male, police said.
Authorities are looking for the public’s help in identifying both the driver and the vehicle. Several security video screengrabs showing the vehicle were posted on the police department’s Facebook page on Sunday.
(CIRCLEVILLE, Ohio) — The firing of an Ohio K-9 officer was not due to him siccing his police dog on an unarmed Black truck driver who surrendered with his hands up following a highway chase, according records officials released to ABC News.
The reason former officer Ryan Speakman was terminated from the Circleville, Ohio, Police Department last week is because he allegedly lied to his superiors about whom he shared confidential details of the incident with, according to the newly released documents.
The documents, released by the Circleville city law director in response to a public records request from ABC News, indicate Speakman was an emotional wreck following the police dog mauling of 23-year-old Jadarrius Rose and was repeatedly crying at work. He was also upset a local newspaper published the initial report of his involvement in the July 4 arrest.
Circleville Police Chief Shawn Baer disclosed in a July 25 written report that at one point Speakman came to him “crying and very upset,” concerned that he was going to take away his K-9 partner, Serge — a 4-year-old Belgian Malinois Shepherd mix.
“He was begging I do not take his best friend from him,” Baer wrote, according to the report. “I told him that we had not taken K-9 Serge from him and that he was scheduled to go to training. I told him again, if you haven’t done anything wrong, we would not take (the) K-9 from him.”
Baer, according to the documents, said he also told Speakman, “The review board had convened, and everything appeared that the deployment was within policy and training guidelines.”
The review board met on July 6, two days after the incident, which started when state police troopers attempted to pull Rose over for a missing mudflap on his trailer.
Baer said he received a report from the chairman for this use-of-force review board, acting Capt. Kenny Fisher of the Circleville Police Department, who wrote, “The board concluded that all personnel involved acted within departmental policy regarding the use of force and canine operations policy.”
Fit-for-duty review ordered
When Circleville officials announced on Wednesday that Speakman had been immediately terminated, Baer, issued a statement, saying, “Circleville police officer Ryan Speakman’s actions during the review of his canine apprehension of suspect Jadarrius Rose on July 4 show that officer Speakman did not meet the standards and expectations we hold for our police officers.”
Now, the records released by the city’s law director detail the circumstances of the alleged conduct during the review.
The newly released records, first reported by the Scioto Valley Guardian newspaper, show Speakman was terminated for “unauthorized and inappropriate intentional release of confidential or protected information,” disobeying orders from his superiors not to discuss the incident with anyone other than investigators and for lying to Baer as well as investigators about whom he spoke to in the days after the dog attack.
In his July 25 report, Baer wrote that he initially placed Speakman on paid administrative leave “pending a fit-for-duty review.”
In the document, Baer said he met with Speakman on July 19 — 15 days after the dog attack — and spoke to him “about reports I received that he was crying and talking to other employees about being stressed over the July 4, 2023, K-9 deployment.”
During a meeting, which was also attended by the police department’s deputy chief and human resources director, Baer ordered Speakman to stop talking to people about the incident, according to the records.
“I explained to him that his conduct was not beneficial to himself or the agency,” Baer wrote.
Baer said when he asked Speakman who he had spoken to about the K-9 deployment, the officer initially replied he had only spoken to a few employees of the Circleville Police Department (CPD) and no one outside the agency.
The chief wrote in his report that even after ordering Speakman to keep quiet about the incident, Speakman “continued to approach CPD employees upset and crying.”
‘You’re going to get bit’
Baer said he ordered Speakman to give him a written list of all the people he spoke to about the incident, the records state. The chief wrote that on July 21, “Ryan Speakman brought a two-page list of people outside of CPD that he had spoken with” and that a day later gave him two additional names.
Baer, according to the records, described Speakman as being “deceptive” about his initial claims of who he had spoken to about the dog deployment.
“Ryan Speakman discussed so much information with so many people it had immense potential to impact the (use-of-force review) board’s ability to provide an accurate review,” Baer wrote.
The records released by the Circleville city law director also included Speakman’s body camera footage that captured the officer siccing his K-9 Serge on Rose immediately after arriving on the scene and issuing verbal warnings to Rose to drop to his knees.
Other body camera footage released earlier by the Ohio State Highway Police shows that as Speakman was commanding Rose to get on his knees, a state trooper was ordering Rose to walk toward him and another trooper was repeatedly yelling at Speakman, “Do not release the dog with his hands up.”
Speakman’s body camera footage shows the officer arriving at the scene and yelling at Rose from a distance, saying, “Get on the f—— ground or I’m going to send the dog.” As Rose, with his hands up, continued to walk in the direction of the trooper instructing him to move forward, Speakman warned Rose a second time, “Police K-9. You’re going to get bit.”
“Final chance. You’re going to get bit,” Speakman yelled, according to his body camera footage, before he released the dog on Rose.
The body camera video shows the dog initially running toward the trooper giving instructions to Rose, and then turning and charging in Rose’s direction when Speakman ordered him to attack.
The video shows Rose falling to his knees with his hands up before the dog sunk his teeth into his left arm, prompting Rose to scream out in agony.
In an interview on Thursday, Rose told ABC News that when he saw the K-9 officer and his dog racing across the grassy center median toward him, he “didn’t know what to do.”
“So, I just stopped because I didn’t want to make a bad move or anything like that,” Rose said.
He added, “I was defenseless. If I would have tried to defend myself, that would have given them more reason to shoot me. I just wanted my life.”
Rose said that even after the police dog latched onto his arm, it did not appear that Speakman or other police officers were in a rush to get the animal off of him. He said he directly pleaded with the dog to let him go.
“I had to tell the dog to stop,” Rose said. “I asked the dog, ‘Please stop. It hurts’ and he finally let go.”
‘I think it’s a justifiable bite’
In the immediate aftermath of the incident, as officers were trying to bandage Rose’s arm, Speakman appeared to try to justify his actions when Rose asked why he turned the dog loose on him, according to Speakman’s body camera footage.
“I gave you three warnings. Did I not? You didn’t comply, so you got the dog,” Speakman said, according to the video.
The footage also captured Speakman telling another officer at the scene, “I think it’s a justifiable bite.”
In his written narrative of the incident, contained in the records released to ABC News, Speakman repeated that he gave Rose three warnings and then “made the decision to deploy K-9 Serge off lead in the suspect’s direction.” He did not mention whether he heard the trooper ordering him not to release the dog while Rose’s hands were in the air.
Rose’s encounter with the police dog came after he led state troopers on a three-county chase, officials said. The pursuit unfolded when the Ohio State Highway Police attempted to pull Rose over for missing a mudflap on his trailer, according to an incident report.
Rose told ABC News that he initially stopped, but then pulled away when he saw officers approaching his semi-truck with their guns drawn.
He said he called 911 during a more than 30-mile chase because he was “hoping that they would be able to help me.”
“I wanted to get out. I hadn’t committed a crime. It’s not like I murdered somebody, and they got their guns ready to shoot me,” Rose said. “I just didn’t want to die. That’s what was going through my mind. I just didn’t want to die. That’s why I called them for help.”
Rose was forced to stop when police put spike strips in front of his big rig, blowing out his tires, authorities said.
After being attacked by the dog, Rose was treated at a hospital and later booked at the Ross County Jail on charges of failure to comply, a fourth-degree felony. The charges have not been dismissed, according to national civil rights attorney Ben Crump, who is representing Rose.
Efforts by ABC News to reach Speakman for comment have been unsuccessful.
Prior disciplinary action against Speakman
The records released by the city law director also included documents from a previous incident in which Speakman was disciplined.
In April 2021, Speakman was given a one-day suspension without pay after he was the subject of an internal affairs investigation over “horseplay,” according to the records. Officials said Speakman admitted to approaching a fellow Circleville cop on Feb. 27, 2021, at the police station, snatching the officer’s gun from his holster and emptying it of bullets, an act police brass described as “muzzling” the officer.
“Speakman stated that he took full responsibility for his actions and that it was a dumb thing to do,” according to the records.
Tom Austin, executive director of the Ohio Patrolman’s Benevolent Association, said in a statement released Wednesday following the announcement of Speakman’s firing that the union’s senior lawyer, Joseph Hegedus, has filed an official grievance with the city of Circleville contending the officer was terminated “without just cause.”
In the grievance, Hegedus wrote the officer’s firing is “contrary to mandatory principles of progressive discipline” and is a violation of the union’s collective bargaining agreement. The grievance asked that Speakman’s termination be rescinded and that he be reimbursed for “wages, seniority and benefits lost.”
Hegedus also asked that Speakman’s termination be expunged from his personnel records.
A central Ohio Black Lives Matter group held a small boisterous protest outside the Circleville Police Department on Saturday, calling on Baer to resign or be fired for his handling of the incident involving Rose, for the dog that attacked Rose to be retired and that all charges against Rose be dropped. The organization also asked that race sensitivity training be provided to all Circleville police officers and the police department’s budget be cut by 50%.
Baer could not be reached for comment on Sunday.
Crump told ABC News the incident harkened back to the 1960s Civil Rights Movement when police dogs were let loose on non-violent protesters.
“We have to say, we will not tolerate this,” Crump said. “We won’t go back to the days where they’re siccing dogs on unarmed Black people.”
(LANSING, Mich.) — Gunfire erupted early Sunday in the parking lot of a Michigan shopping center, leaving five people wounded, two critically, and several people detained for questioning, police said.
The shooting unfolded about 1 a.m. outside the Logan Square Shopping Center in Lansing, according to the Lansing Police Department.
When officers arrived at the scene, they found a large crowd with multiple gunshot victims, police said.
The victims ranged in age from 16 to 26, police said. Two of the victims were taken to local hospitals in critical condition, according to police.
A motive for the shooting is under investigation. It was not immediately clear why a large crowd was gathered at the shopping center when the shooting occurred.
Due to the size of the crowd, Lansing police requested backup from several neighboring law enforcement agencies, officials said.
Police officials said several firearms were recovered at the scene and several people have been detained for questioning, but no arrests have been announced.
(MUNCIE, Ind.) — One person has died, and multiple others were injured following a shooting at a large gathering in Muncie, Indiana, overnight, according to the city of Muncie.
Delaware County dispatchers received a call at 1:14 a.m. Sunday morning for multiple gunshot victims at a large party in the area of S. Hackley Street and E. Willard Street in Muncie.
Multiple agencies responded, “due to the number of victims and nature of the incident,” the city said.
One 30-year-old man has died, the city said. Multiple victims are being treated at a local hospital, and more critical gunshot victims have been airlifted to other medical facilities.
An exact number of those being treated has not been provided at this time. The IU Health Ball Memorial Hospital in Muncie received 19 patients from the overnight shooting, hospital representative Neil Gifford confirmed to ABC News.
The city said there is no immediate threat to the public at this time, and that the investigation is ongoing.
“We are heartbroken to learn of this terrible incident, and our deepest condolences go to the families of the young man who was killed and everyone who was injured,” the city said.
Anyone with information can contact the Muncie Police Department Detective Division at 765-747-4867.
(OCALA, Fla.) — The family of Ajike “AJ” Owens, the Black mother of four who was fatally shot through a closed door by her white neighbor on June 2 in Ocala, Florida, is calling on the Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody and the U.S. Department of Justice to review the case and consider whether the shooting was a hate crime.
“It’s just awful, it’s a senseless murder. These children should never have to have gone through this,” Owens family attorney Anthony Thomas told “Good Morning America” on Saturday. “We feel as though a higher charge should have been brought other than manslaughter.”
Susan Lorincz was arrested on June 6 and charged with first-degree manslaughter, which is punishable by up to 30 years in prison if she is convicted, according to the Marion County Sheriff’s Office. She was also charged with culpable negligence, battery and two counts of assault. She pleaded not guilty on July 10.
The family has been calling for the charges against Lorincz to be upgraded from manslaughter to murder, though authorities have said there is not enough evidence to do so.
Owens’ mother, Pamela Dias, who is now taking care of her four grandchildren, told “GMA” the children are traumatized and are asking her how long Lorincz will be in jail.
“Thirty years, that’s not sufficient, because this is a lifetime of trauma that these children are going to have to deal with,” Dias said, adding that Owens’ youngest child is only 3 years old and “the reality of it is that he may never remember his mother.”
Lorincz’s attorney, Amanda Sizemore, declined to comment. Sizemore previously declined to comment on the charges that her client is facing.
ABC News also reached out to the Florida AG’s office and the DOJ but requests for comment weren’t immediately returned.
The Marion County Sheriff’s office released body camera video of Lorincz’s arrest to ABC News on Saturday that shows the moments after Owens was shot and killed through Lorincz’s closed front door in front of her 9-year-old son. Video shows first responders racing to save Owens’ life as bystanders crowded the scene.
“Show me your hands, show me your hands- where’s your gun at?” a sheriff’s deputy tells Lorincz.
“Can I just get my water?” Lorincz can be heard asking law enforcement.
“No, no, not right now,” a sheriff’s deputy replied.
According to a June 6 statement from the Marion County Sheriff’s Office, Lorincz shot Owens through a closed door after she went to speak with Lorincz about a dispute over Owens’ children playing near Lorincz’s home.
Dias told “GMA” that nearly two months after their mother was killed, “reality has truly set in” for Owens’ four children and they are dealing with a “lifetime trauma.”
“One single person has truly changed our lives – the kids’ lives forever. Forever. So it’s a lot of grief, a lot of sadness over here,” Dias said.
“I see the hurt and the despair in the children’s eyes and what they’re going through – the restlessness and not being able to sleep. It’s heartbreaking because this did not have to happen,” she added.
Lorincz was held on a $150,000 bond and remains in custody. Court records show that Lorincz’s pretrial hearing is scheduled for Nov. 2, while jury selection in her case is expected to begin on Nov. 13.
Body camera footage released on July 3 by the Marion County Sheriff’s Office showed seven incidents between Feb. 25, 2022, and April 25, 2023 in which Lorincz called sheriff’s deputies over the past two years to complain about neighborhood children, including Owens’ children, playing near her home.
The body camera videos also show a child alleging in comments to sheriff’s deputies that Lorincz called the children in the neighborhood “the n-word” and another who accused Lorincz of being “racist.”
Lorincz admitted to calling children in the neighborhood the n-word and other derogatory terms in the past, according to a police report.
“I do not have a comment at this time,” Lorincz’s attorney, Amanda Sizemore, told ABC News on July 3 when asked to comment about the release of the body camera footage and the allegation that Lorincz called the children the “n-word.”
According to a June 6 statement from the Marion County Sheriff’s office, Lorincz claimed in an interview with law enforcement that she “acted in self-defense. Investigators found that “Lorincz’s actions were not justifiable” under Florida’s stand-your-ground law, which gives someone a legal right to use of force if the person deems their life is in danger.
Florida State Attorney William “Bill” Gladson said on June 26 there was insufficient evidence to prove a murder charge in court.
“As deplorable as the defendant’s actions were in this case, there is insufficient evidence to prove this specific and required element of second-degree murder,” Gladson said.
ABC News reached out to Gladson for further comment.
(SEATTLE) — Five people were injured, two critically, in a shooting that broke out in a parking lot during a community outreach event in Seattle Friday night, police said.
Police responded to reports of a shooting in a parking lot in Rainier Valley shortly before 9 p.m. local time Friday, according to Seattle Police Chief Adrian Diaz.
“We know that there were dozens and dozens of rounds that were fired,” Diaz told reporters at a press briefing near the scene.
Four victims were transported to an area hospital, he said. A man and woman in their 20s were transported in critical condition, while two men in their 20s were in stable condition, police said. A man in his 30s was treated at the scene for minor injuries, police said.
All victims had been attending the community outreach event, police said.
It’s unclear what led up to the shooting and no suspects have been identified at this time, police said.
Seattle Mayor Bruce Harrell called the shooting a “tragedy” while vowing that investigators will “get to the bottom of it.”
“What you have tonight in the light of this tragedy is, you have these fine community leaders here. People that come from these streets, that come from this community, protecting the community — literally putting their lives on the line to protect the community,” he said.
“That’s the tragedy of today — of too many guns in the wrong places, in the wrong hands,” he said.
(NEW YORK) — More than 110 million Americans across 29 states are under heat alerts Saturday from southern California to Massachusetts.
The Northeast has one more day of its first heat wave of the season, with highs reaching near 90 degrees along the I-95 corridor and heat indices in the upper 90s around 100.
Excessive Heat Warnings are in effect for Washington, D.C. and Baltimore today where heat indices may reach up to 112 degrees.
A cold front will sweep through tonight bringing a chance of damaging wind and an isolated tornado. This front will usher in much cooler air and for the next week temperatures will top out near 80 and cool into the 60s at nighttime.
The heat from the north is getting shoved south toward and it will create a week-long heat wave for the gulf states. Heat alerts are already in effect for the entire state of Mississippi as well as parts of Louisiana, Alabama and Florida.
Temperatures today will reach near 100 degrees with heat indices jumping up to 110 degrees through the weekend and into next week for places like Corpus Christi, Texas, and New Orleans, Louisiana. Heat alerts are in effect for places like Kansas City and St. Louis, Missouri, and central and eastern Kansas where temperatures will reach near 100 degrees Saturday and heat indices will jump as high as 112 degrees.
The Excessive Heat Warnings are expected to end Saturday night as the main heat is pushed further south. However, Heat Advisories may continue on Sunday for some with lingering temps in the 90s and some heat indices near 100 degrees.
The record heat wave in the Desert Southwest is going to come to an end either this weekend or early next week as monsoonal moisture ramps up. But until then it is still very much at the height of danger after over a month of life-threatening heat. On Saturday, temperatures will reach near 110 degrees in places like Phoenix, Palm Springs and Las Vegas. El Paso may have an afternoon that doesn’t reach 100 degrees for the first time in more than 40 days.
On Sunday, temperatures may dip below 110 degrees in Las Vegas, but remain for Phoenix and Palm Springs. In the Northwest, there is fire weather danger with Red Flag Warnings in effect for parts of California, Nevada, Oregon, Washington and Idaho.
(NEW ORLEANS) — As extreme heat takes over the U.S., millions of Americans will be faced with the “urban heat island” effect.
The lack of vegetation and shade, as well as an increase in paved surfaces and buildings, is causing temperatures to rise as much as 20 degrees in an urban area compared to surrounding regions.
With July poised to be the hottest month in recorded history, the impacts of climate change for the 85% of the U.S. population living in metropolitan areas are already being felt.
Residents across the country are taking the dangers of extreme heat into their own hands and channeling nature to cool their neighborhoods.
In New Orleans – one of the worst urban heat islands in the country – neighbors are planting hundreds of trees throughout the city. It’s a simple yet effective solution to reducing urban heat.
Trees and vegetation lower surface and air temperatures, reduce energy use from air conditioners, improve air quality, and aid in stormwater management, according to the Environmental Protection Agency.
Trees provide shade, which could leave surfaces 20 to 45 degrees cooler and leads to evapotranspiration, the process by which water moves from the earth’s surface into the atmosphere and can reduce peak summer temperatures by 2 to 9 degrees, according to research from the Energy and Buildings journal.
New Orleans residents lead the reforestation
Angela Chalk, 60, is a fourth-generation New Orleans resident who lives in the Seventh Ward neighborhood. She lived through Hurricane Katrina, which decimated her city and uprooted the trees, homes, and lives of residents for years.
It’s estimated that New Orleans lost anywhere from 100,000 to 200,000 trees in the hurricane, according to tree-planting group SOUL (Sustaining Our Urban Landscape).
However, “in my community, we can’t relate to that because there weren’t any trees to begin with that we could miss,” said Chalk, an executive director of the non-profit Healthy Community Services, a local environmental advocacy group.
In some neighborhoods, particularly low-income or predominantly Black communities, less than 10% of the area is shaded by trees. The city’s Pontchartrain Park, one of the first suburban-style neighborhoods developed for African Americans in the segregated South, is one of these neighborhoods.
Low-income communities and communities of color are more likely than others to live in historically redlined neighborhoods that are intra-urban heat islands, according to the Environmental Protection Agency.
“We’re the first to be impacted and the worst to be impacted, and having those conversations in our community now is one of those things that we just can’t wait for it to be an acute issue. When we think about it, we have to think about it all the time and how it impacts our lives,” said Chalk.
Eugene Green, a city councilman and longtime resident of New Orleans, felt the intense heat while growing up in Pontchartrain Park but never thought about the role that the almost complete lack of trees played in his historic Black neighborhood during unbearably hot days. As an adult, it’s very clear to him.
“Pontchartrain Park is a good example of a community that is responding or is being responded to in terms of what effects discrimination and other problems had on the development of those communities,” said Green in an interview with ABC News.
SOUL, which is leading the New Orleans Reforestation Plan, worked to identify similar neighborhoods and is working to begin the city’s reforestation by ensuring that all neighborhoods have at least 10% of tree canopy coverage and shade.
This makes for an equitable and attainable starting point for the project, said Susannah Burley, the executive director of SOUL. From here, they can continue to grow the canopy, or tree cover, fairly throughout the city.
In Pontchartrain Park, the organization is planting a tree in front of every household that wants one. The organization said it has a 70% opt-in rate.
“That neighborhood is completely transformed,” said Burley. “You drive down blocks that had no trees and now there’s trees down almost every single block.”
At the center of climate change impacts
Extreme heat causes hundreds of deaths per year nationwide, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Several populations are threatened when temperatures stay high — including those who live without air conditioning, have health conditions worsened by heat, work outside, are homeless, are elderly and more.
After Hurricane Katrina, New Orleans residents were left to face the heat amid the devastation and wreckage of the storm.
“The city felt so much hotter because we just had no shade. We lost so many of our big, beautiful magnolia trees and live oak trees,” said Connie Uddo, the director of the NOLA Tree Project, which is also planting trees throughout the community. “The city was just struggling. The recovery was just like moving through sludge. Everybody was just doing nothing but cleaning. And really the question is: Are these neighborhoods able to come back?”
Although trees are an effective way for communities to address heat, many residents remain unaware of their impact. In New Orleans, trees are seen by some as dangerous or a liability in a city that faces an intense annual hurricane season.
“Katrina, it’s long ago in the calendar but it’s still at the front of everybody’s memory. It seems like yesterday and so people are worried about having trees falling over in a storm and causing more damage than they already have from wind,” said Burley. “So we are really careful to mitigate that fear by planting the right tree in the right spot. “
Trees are not just heat management, but can also act as a barrier for flooding and storm intensity as they store tens of gallons each day and reduce runoff and erosion.
Convincing residents on the impacts of tree-planting has been a priority for local advocacy groups.
“The regular person doesn’t think about placing a tree on the south side of their home and shading it in the summer. And then if you plant a deciduous tree, you’re gonna get heat in the winter. But, you know, once you start explaining this to people, they start sharing the information and it’s really exciting to see converts sharing the information,” Burley said.
Deciduous trees are those that become dormant during winter.
The EPA reports that the benefits of urban tree canopies are “always higher than the costs” of their maintenance.
A five-year study in the Journal of Forestry found that cities “accrued benefits ranging from about $1.50–$3.00 for every dollar invested. These cities spent roughly $15–$65 annually per tree, with net annual benefits ranging from approximately $30–$90 per tree.”
“One tree isn’t gonna change how a neighborhood responds to a storm event, but if you plant a whole neighborhood with trees, then you can change how the neighborhood responds,” Burley said.
NOLA Tree Project and SOUL say tree planting efforts give residents a hands-on control to the impacts of climate change on their community. Education is a priority as tree-planting projects expand.
“People can go back and forth and fight all they want about climate change, or fossil fuels and the fossil fuel industry and the big bad guy,” said Uddo. “While all that is going on, what can you do right now, right now to have a positive impact on climate change? Buy a tree.”
