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(WASHINGTON) — Politicians in the nation’s capital are expected on Tuesday to pass what is being called an emergency public safety bill to address rising crime rates in the city.

As of Monday, homicide in Washington was up 17% year-to-date compared to 2022, while reported robberies were up 52% and motor vehicle thefts were up 117%, according to police statistics.

“We are in a state of emergency right now. … And like in any emergency, we have to act like it and we have to act urgently as a government to address the problem that we’re seeing,” Councilmember Brooke Pinto told reporters on Monday.

Pinto, who chairs the council’s judiciary and public safety committee, said that “when we have members of our community being shot and killed at rates that we haven’t seen for 20 years, that’s an emergency. Period. That was an emergency several months ago. That’s an emergency today.”

Some of the proposed emergency laws include removing requirements for a person to be held for a dangerous crime — such as carjacking, kidnapping, felony assault with a knife or other weapons — and for juveniles to be held whether or not they were armed if they are suspected of committing a dangerous crime.

Mayor Muriel Bowser said on Monday that she believes if the new bill passes, “I think we’re going to be safer, because people who are committing violent crime won’t be on the street to commit more violent crime.”

The district’s public safety laws have not been comprehensively updated since 1901. The most recent effort was rejected by Congress earlier this year, in a highly unusual use of the federal government’s authority over local regulations.

At a Monday press conference, Council Chairman Phil Mendelson reversed an earlier assessment he gave Congress during testimony at a March hearing about D.C.’s public safety.

Criminals, he said on Monday, “can get away with murder in this city.”

During the earlier March hearing on Capitol Hill, Republican Rep. Virginia Foxx noted that “on average, any given homicide suspect in D.C. has already been arrested 11 times before he or she actually commits homicide,” a statistic many officials, including former Police Chief Robert Contee, have shared.

Councilmember Pinto echoed that on Monday, telling reporters that within the first three months of 2023, the city “had over 100 cases where people were charged with a crime of violence, released pretrial and recommitted another violent offense.”

At the March hearing, Mendelson had said, “While perception is important, the reality is less concerning. Let me be clear: People should feel safe, and it is a problem that many residents of the district don’t.”

On Monday, he explained that his remarks to Congress were, he said, because Republicans had tried to interject themselves into local affairs while claiming there was a crime crisis.

Although Mendelson said he will vote in favor of the new crime bill, he told reporters, “Folks are looking at the council to solve this. I don’t have a badge to make arrests. I don’t have a badge to investigate. But what will make a difference is increasing the closure rate and what also will make a difference is more aggressive prosecutions.”

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(LOS ANGELES) — A dozen homes in a Southern California community were evacuated over the weekend after the ground beneath them shifted, putting them at risk of a collision course into a nearby canyon, according to Los Angeles County officials.

Los Angeles County Fire Department (LACFD) officials red-tagged and evacuated homes in the Peartree Lane neighborhood in the Rolling Hills Estates Saturday, which displaced 16 people, the city said.

In a video shared on Twitter by the Los Angeles County Fire Department, homes are seen partially collapsed and the ground cracked, exhibiting significant damage.

Rolling Hills Estates is working with Los Angeles County agencies and the Red Cross to provide shelter for the displaced residents, the city said in a statement on its website.

The city said it’s also working with the LACFD and the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department to monitor the situation in the impacted area.

“Homes have been pulled off their foundations,” Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors Chair Janice Hahn tweeted on Sunday. The land is continuing to move, but the evacuation order continues to be limited to these 12 homes.”

The landslide caused the ground to move around 20 feet since she was in the area the day before when there were only a “few cracks” and the garages were bent, Hahn said at a press conference on Monday.

Hahn said garages and back decks were “gone” and had fallen into the ravine.

“I’ve never seen anything like it. They’re completely uninhabitable,” Hahn said, adding that officials are waiting for the homes to fall into the ravine to figure out what caused the incident.

Southern California is prone to landslides because of its location on a major tectonic plate boundary and geological complexity, according to the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) and the California Geological Survey.

The area experiences different types of landslides, including rapid debris flows caused by heavy rainfall, USGS said in its report.

Hahn said the landslide could be attributed to heavy rainfall, leading to underground water to cause a fissure, resulting in the homes falling into the canyon.

Rolling Hills Estates sits on the north side of Palos Verdes Peninsula in Los Angeles County, Google Maps data shows.

A landslide in 1956 destroyed 140 homes in the city of Rancho Palos Verdes, and the land still moves in the area, according to The Associated Press.

“Luckily, we got everybody out, people were given 20 minutes to get their belongings,” she said. “Everyone was coopering. We’re now here kind of in a recovery mode eventually to see what we can do to help people.”

Peartree Lane is closed to the public and only available to residents, city officials and public safety staff, the city said.

City officials and their partners are investigating the incident, according to Rolling Hills Estates.

“The outpouring of support from our community has been amazing over these past few days. Not just from within Rolling Hills Estates, but from our neighboring cities and our elected officials at the County and State levels,” Mayor Britt Huff said in a statement on the city’s website. “It has been truly inspiring to see how everyone is pulling together to offer assistance, especially to our displaced residents and their families.”

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(TULSA, Okla.) — Tulsa Race Massacre survivors and their attorneys gathered Monday afternoon to respond to the dismissal of their lawsuit seeking reparations for the 1921 deadly event.

This gathering comes just days after Oklahoma Judge Caroline Wall dismissed the 2020 lawsuit “with prejudice,” meaning the ruling is a final and permanent dismissal, and the case cannot be refiled.

According to attorneys, the survivors found out from a reporter about the dismissal and are still awaiting a written order for the motion.

The 1921 massacre left 300 African Americans dead, and thousands homeless after a white mob attacked Greenwood, a town known as “Black Wall Street.” The lawsuit hoped to seek reparations for the long-term effects of the event.

Lead attorney for the lawsuit, Damario Solomon-Simmons, plans to file an appeal with the Oklahoma Supreme Court.

“We know we have a conservative Supreme Court, but we believe the law and the facts are so clear, that any lawyer [and] any judge that’s actually looking at the documents will say, ‘Hey, you can let these people into court,'” he said during the Monday press conference.

The survivors and attorneys also called on the the Department of Justice and President Joe Biden to open a federal investigation into the Tulsa Race Massacre.

“Despite Tulsa and America’s attempt to silence change and gaslight the facts and truth about collective racial history and trauma, we as survivors– and all of those that believe in racial justice– we will not sit quietly or passively to allow mistruths or injustice to persist,” a statement on behalf of the three survivors of the case read.

Filed under Oklahoma’s public nuisance law, Lessie Benningfield Randle, Historic Vernon A.M.E. Church, Inc., Laurel Stradford, Ellouisa Cochrane-Price, Tedra Williams, Don M. Adams, Don W. Adams, Stephen Williams and The Tulsa African Ancestral Society were listed as plaintiffs, according to the original 2020 lawsuit.

The petition sought to “remedy the ongoing nuisance caused by the 1921 Tulsa Massacre in the Greenwood District of Tulsa and to obtain benefits unjustly received by Defendants based on the Massacre,” the lawsuit read.

Regarding the dismissal, the mayor’s office has not received Wall’s opinion on the motion nor a written order.

“The City remains committed to finding the graves of 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre victims, fostering economic investment in the Greenwood District, educating future generations about the worst event in our community’s history and building a city where every person has an equal opportunity for a great life,” Tulsa Mayor G.T. Bynum said in official statement.

In addition to the city of Tulsa being listed as a defendant, the lawsuit also listed the Tulsa Regional Chamber, Tulsa Development Authority, Tulsa Metropolitan Area Planning Commission, Board of County Commissioners for Tulsa County, Oklahoma, Tulsa County Sheriff Vic Regalado and the Oklahoma Military Department.

In September of 2022, a second amended complaint was filed, omitting the Tulsa Development Authority and the Tulsa Metropolitan Area Planning Commission from the defendant list.

The three plaintiffs listed on the amended complaint are Randle, Viola Fletcher and Hughes Van Ellis, Sr., all Tulsa Race Massacre survivors who are over 100 years old.

Solomon-Simmons told press the appeal will include all of the plantiffs from the original lawsuit, including the three survivors.

“From the period immediately after the Massacre until the present day, Defendants actively and unreasonably, unwarrantedly, and/or unlawfully thwarted the community’s efforts to rebuild, neglecting Greenwood and predominately Black, North Tulsa communities,” the amended complaint stated. “Instead, Defendants redirected public resources, which should have been used to abate the nuisance surrounding Greenwood, to benefit the overwhelmingly white parts of Tulsa.”

The survivors and descendants of the town were never compensated by insurance companies, and resulted in financial disparities in the Tulsa community that are still present today, the lawsuit argued.

“Plaintiffs and thousands of Black Greenwood and North Tulsa residents and their descendants have experienced, and continue to experience, insecurity in their lives and property, and their sense of comfort, health and safety has been destroyed,” the lawsuit continued.

Although Wall dismissed the case, she previously ruled against the defendant’s motions to dismiss the case and allowed the case to continue.

The three survivors were not present at the Monday press conference, but Solomon-Simmons read a statement on their behalf.

“After taking our case under advisement for the better part of two years and originally permitting the case to proceed just a year ago, Judge Wall strikingly backpedaled on her prior order, permitting us, the three living survivors of the massacre, to proceed with our public nuisance litigation, seeking justice for the continuing harms of a massacre,” the statement read. “Without a doubt Judge Wall failed to review this case within the scope of well established Black letter Oklahoma law. We were forced to plead this case beyond what is required by under Oklahoma standards, which is sadly a familiar circumstance when Black Americans ask the American legal system to work for them.”

The three survivors still experience flashbacks of the event, and some “constantly relive the terror,” according to the lawsuit.

The oldest survivor, Fletcher, recently published a memoir about her life “in the shadow” of the massacre, and it will be publicly available in the upcoming weeks.

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(ROCKLIN, Calif.) — A murder suspect who escaped from a Northern California medical facility on Sunday has been captured following a massive manhunt, authorities said.

Eric Abril, a suspect in Northern California hostage-taking homicide and shootout with police, was caught on Monday afternoon, according to the Placer County Sheriff’s Office.

Abril was captured at 12:45 p.m. after being spotted in a residential area in Rocklin, California, roughly 6 miles from where he escaped, law enforcement sources told ABC affiliate station KXTV in Sacramento.

Abril was one of three murder suspects to escape in separate incidents across the country between Thursday night and Sunday morning, authorities said.

More than 70 law enforcement officers from multiple agencies, including the Rocklin Police Department, were involved in the search for Abril.

The 35-year-old Abril escaped just after 3 a.m. Sunday from a medical facility in the Sacramento suburb of Roseville, where he was supposed to be under 24-hour surveillance, Placer County Sheriff Wayne Woo said at a news conference Sunday afternoon.

Woo said a sheriff’s deputy spotted Abril shortly after he escaped but lost him during a brief foot chase. Woo had described Abril as a “very dangerous fugitive.”

Authorities released few details on how Abril escaped while supposedly under around-the-clock guard. He bolted from the Sutter Roseville Medical Center after being taken there Thursday for an undisclosed medical issue.

Woo promised that a “thorough investigation” into Abril’s escape will include looking into whether there were any policy violations by deputies assigned to guard him.

“I know there’s a lot of questions surrounding this case, specifically, surrounding the circumstances regarding the escape. Quite frankly, I have a lot of questions as well,” Woo said at a news conference on Sunday afternoon.

In a statement released Monday before Abril was taken into custody, the sheriff’s department said, “We can confirm at some point, Abril was able to defeat his restraints.”

“Our preliminary investigation reveals the deputy was not asleep during the incident,” according to the statement that did not elaborate more on Abril’s escape.

The sheriff’s officials said they have already begun conducting a review of all corrections policies and procedures regarding inmate transportation, inmate supervision and security when it is necessary for inmates to be transported or housed outside our correctional facilities.

“We are taking every measure necessary to ensure all our policies and protocols are adequate and within industry standards to ensure this does not happen again,” the sheriff’s statement reads.

Abril was arrested on April 6 after he allegedly shot a California Highway Patrol officer in an ambush while wearing body armor and took two hostages at gunpoint at a Roseville park, killing one and wounding the other, according to police. He was arrested when he was injured during a shootout with law enforcement officers, authorities said.

Abril was one of three murder suspects who escaped from custody in separate incidents over a four-day period, each prompting separate large-scale manhunts in different parts of the country.

Michael Burham, a suspect in homicide and rape cases in Jamestown, New York, escaped from the Warren County, Pennsylvania, Jail late Thursday night, according to the Pennsylvania State Police. He was described by officials as a “self-taught survivalist” with military experience. He remains at large and authorities are focusing their search for him on the Northern Pennsylvania woods.

Fugitive Chadwick Shane Mobley, 42, is alleged to have absconded from authorities in Montana on Sunday while being taken to Michigan to face charges in the 2011 slaying of a 20-year-old woman found fatally shot in the basement of a relative’s home, according to officials.

Employees of a private transport company contracted by the U.S. Marshals Service were driving Mobley from the Lincoln County Jail in Libby, Montana, to Michigan on Sunday when he managed to slip out of his handcuffs and ankle shackles and bolt from custody around 10 a.m. local time at a gas station in Plains, Montana, according to the Sanders County Sheriff’s Office. He also remains at large.

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(NEW YORK) — A federal judge should consider holding New York City and its Department of Correction in contempt for failing to adequately address security, management and discipline at the problem-plagued Rikers Island jail complex, a court-appointed monitor recommended Monday in a new report.

The recommendation followed the monitor’s conclusion “that the risk of harm in the jails remains grave and that the jails remain patently unsafe” after a year of “unprecedented rates of use of force and violence.”

“Real harm is occurring to real people in real time, and that cautious optimism that meaningful change can occur in this system has significantly diminished given the current climate of regression in key areas and the lack of sustained progress in others coupled with an increasing and troubling lack of transparency,” the report said.

The report said that “some progress has been made” since a monitor was appointed in 2014 but it also said court-ordered reforms “remain incomplete or have not been addressed,” leaving “no meaningful relief for people in custody or staff from the violence and the unnecessary and excessive use of force.”

New York City Mayor Eric Adams’ administration has argued it should retain control of Rikers. A federal judge is considering whether the federal government should take it over.

The mayor’s office didn’t immediately issue a statement about the monitor’s report.

The dynamics at Rikers have changed since the monitor was installed. COVID-19 triggered a staffing crisis and New York’s bail reform law changed the composition of the incarcerated population.

Individuals with less serious offenses are generally no longer held pending trial, resulting in a heavier concentration of violent offenders.

Still, the monitor found there is a “pervasive, imminent risk of harm to both people in custody and staff,” citing “extraordinarily high” rates of use of force, stabbings and slashings, fights, assaults on staff, and in-custody deaths.

Staff members are deploying head strikes, chokeholds, kicks and body slams, the monitor said.

The report included security camera images that captured instances of what the monitor called an “apathetic approach to basic security,” including when staff cede control of a housing unit to the inmates.

One image showed a prison officer watching a fight among inmates from a stairwell.

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(NASH COUNTY, N.C.) — A routine traffic stop in North Carolina may have prevented a case of child trafficking, according to police.

Deputies with the Nash County Police Department arrested Alejandro Hernandez Vazquez, 40, after realizing his 16-year-old female passenger had been reported missing by Florida’s Coral Springs Police Department only five hours earlier.

“It was not like she was bound in the car and things of that nature, but you know, it’s a young 16-year-old and a grown man, and he’s manipulated her and carried her across this country,” Nash County Sheriff Keith Stone told ABC affiliate WTVD. “This is a true case of child trafficking.”

Deputies initially pulled over Alejandro Hernandez Vazquez at midnight on July 4 after he committed a traffic violation in a 2016 Audi SUV on Interstate 95. The release noted that the deputies “developed reasonable suspicion to believe that criminal activity was afoot” after asking a series of routine questions.

Deputies later learned that Vazquez’s 16-year-old female passenger was reported missing by her family five hours earlier, according to the release. Officers also recovered two THC vape pens in the car’s driver door and center console.

“The suspect was not known to the family, nor did he have permission to transport the juvenile across state lines,” police said.

Stone added that the teen appeared to be traveling willfully with Vazquez.

Children account for over 30% of the missing persons in the United States, with 337,195 reports of missing young people entered into the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s National Crime Information Center in 2021.

The 16-year-old was transported to Wake County Juvenile Detention Center to be picked up by her family, while Vazquez was taken into custody at the Nash County Detention Center where he was held on a $500,000 secured bond.

Vazquez was charged with abduction of child, contributing to the delinquency of a minor, felony possession of a synthetic cannabinoid, and possession of marijuana paraphernalia, according to the Nash County Sheriff’s Office.

His next court appearance is scheduled for July 20.

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(NEW YORK) — A few moments after Idlewild Creek began to rise on Sunday, the first wave of murky water washed into the ground floor of Kristine Schmidt’s blue-and-white house.

Moments later, she saw her neighbors swept away in their SUV, Schmidt told ABC News on Monday. Fire trucks arrived and pulled their car out of the creek, she said.

As the floodwater receded from her home in Cornwall, New York, it left a trail of a thick mud in its wake. Outside her home, potted plants had been knocked over and grass had been uprooted. Inside, amid the ruins of her living room and kitchen, a bookshelf and fridge lay on their sides.

“We’re all heartbroken,” she said.

The flooding in Cornwall, in Orange County, came as heavy rain drenched much of the Mid-Atlantic and Northeast on Sunday, prompting flash flood alerts in parts of New York.

As much as 8 inches of rain fell in some areas and at least one person was killed in the storm in Orange County, New York.

Areas in New York counties including Orange, Putnam, Rockland and Westchester were under flash flood warnings into the early hours of Monday.

“Last night was complete chaos,” Orange County Executive Steve Neuhaus told ABC News’ “Good Morning America” on Monday.

Members of his staff were working to contact people throughout the county on Monday morning, he said, adding that roads and bridges were washed out by the storm. His staff was attempting to reopen “major arteries” throughout the area, he said.

Everyone who had reported an issue appeared to have been accounted for, “but there are some people who could have been swept away,” Neuhaus said.

There’s significant damage to homes, businesses and infrastructure in Orange County, New York Gov. Kathy Hochul said.

“Orange County experienced a 1-in-1,000-year weather event last night,” the governor tweeted Monday. “The rain has subsided, but the crisis is not over.”

Hochul warned, “New York State is facing simultaneous weather emergencies: Southern New York is recovering from last night’s damage. Heavy rain is impacting the Mid-Hudson, Capital Region, & North Country. A Flood Watch is in effect for most of Eastern New York through Tuesday night.”

“As ongoing extreme weather conditions continue in Northeast New York, the Lake Champlain region is at greatest risk for flash flooding,” Hochul said. “As we’ve seen, conditions can change in an instant. New Yorkers should take this seriously & prepare.”

The rain is continuing to push north on Monday, with flooding expected from upstate New York to Vermont to New Hampshire to Maine.

In Vermont, where a state of emergency is in effect, rare excessive rainfall and life-threatening flash flooding is expected. So far, 19 people have been rescued by boat and another 25 people have been evacuated, officials said.

Vermont Gov. Phil Scott said the state has not seen flooding like this since 2011’s Hurricane Irene, and in some places, the flooding will surpass that.

“Flash flood warnings are in effect from the Massachusetts line to the Canadian border,” Vermont State Police said. “If you can, please stay home today. However, if floodwaters are approaching your home, leave immediately.”

FEMA Administrator Deanne Criswell said the agency is closely watching the situation.

ABC News’ Alexandra Faul contributed to this report

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(NEW YORK) — More than 35 million Americans are on alert for dangerous heat that’s baking the Southeast and Southwest.

On Monday, the temperature will hit about 109 degrees in Palm Springs, California; 108 in Las Vegas; 110 in Phoenix; 105 in Tucson, Arizona; and 98 in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

The unrelenting heat will stay throughout the week. By Friday, temperatures could soar to 115 degrees in Palm Springs and Phoenix.

This could be the worst heat wave ever for the Phoenix area. Phoenix has reached 110 degrees or above for 10 days straight, and could reach its record of 18 days straight.

In the Southeast, the heat is infiltrating cities from Dallas to Houston to New Orleans to Miami.

The heat index — what the temperature feels like with humidity — is forecast to climb above 100 degrees for much of this week in areas from Dallas to Miami.

Water temperatures are reaching about 90 degrees in Miami and 92 degrees in Key West, Florida. Miami on average hits its warmest water of the year — 87 degrees — in August.

Click here for tips on how to stay safe in the heat.

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(CLEVELAND) — Nine people were shot early Sunday in Cleveland’s historic Warehouse District when a gunman opened fire as bars and nightclubs were closing and police officers were nearby patrolling the bustling entertainment area, according to the Cleveland Police Department.

Police officers were on weekend patrol in the Warehouse District when they heard gunshots erupt at 2:25 a.m. They discovered multiple victims at the corner of West 6th Street and Johnson Court suffering from gunshot wounds and in need of medical aid, police said.

Cleveland Police Chief Wayne Drummond said at a news conference Sunday that several officers were on duty in the area when an “individual started shooting toward the crowd.”

“I stress, we had officers assigned here … a very visible presence of officers, yet this individual decided to use that weapon and shot individuals even with our officers here,” Drummond said. “So it’s not a matter of police response. It’s not a matter of police visibility because we were here and we will continue to be here.”

Cmdr. Richard Tucker of the Cleveland Police Department said the gunman opened fire 50 to 75 feet away from the crowd he targeted before fleeing the scene.

“I’m really proud of our officers. They were here and they responded immediately. They ran to the gunfire and took care of the victims until EMS could respond,” Drummond said. “I hope what they did helped save some of those victims.”

No arrests have been announced and a motive for the shooting remains under investigation, police said.

“Investigators are in the process of reviewing evidence and video, as well as interviewing victims at MetroHealth Medical Center,” according to the police statement.

One victim was in critical condition Sunday afternoon while the others were in serious to stable condition, police said.

Of the nine victims, seven are men and two are women, officials said. The victims ranged in age from 23 to 38.

The victims were all being treated at MetroHealth Medical Center in Cleveland.

Drummond said the preliminary investigation indicates the shooting came without warning and no apparent provocation.

“We have no information, at least right now, from our investigators that there was any type of issues or concerns, or trouble taking place … before this individual started shooting,” Drummond said.

A $5,000 reward is being offered for information leading to the arrest and prosecution of the gunman, authorities said.

Police asked anyone with information about the shooting to call them immediately.

Drummond said investigators are following several leads in an attempt to identify the gunman.

Cleveland Mayor Justin M. Bibb said he was thankful no one was killed and that shooting illustrates “the massive gun problem we have not just in Cleveland, not just in Ohio, but across this nation.”

Drummond said police are also investigating a shooting that occurred at 1:10 a.m. Sunday on West 6th Street in the neighboring Tremont area in which three men were wounded. The chief said investigators have found no evidence connecting that shooting with the mass casualty incident that erupted 95 minutes later.

“From what we know right now, there was some kind of street party and an argument ensued. An individual pulled out a firearm and started shooting and three individuals were struck there,” Drummond said, adding that all three victims suffered non-life-threatening injuries.

No arrests have been announced in the Tremont neighborhood shooting.

The shooting came just days after 22 mass shootings occurred across the nation over the long Fourth of July holiday weekend, according to the Gun Violence Archive, a website that tracks shootings nationwide and defines a mass shooting as a single event with four or more victims either injured or killed. The mass shootings, according to the website, occurred in 17 states and Washington, D.C., and rocked several major cities, including Baltimore, Philadelphia, Boston, Chicago and Fort Worth, Texas.

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(NEW YORK) — Heavy rain from the Mid-Atlantic into the Northeast prompted flash flood alerts in parts of New York state Sunday.

A flash flood warning and a flash flood emergency were both issued in the lower Hudson Valley, New York, by the National Weather Service.

Southeastern Orange, western Putnam, Rockland and northern Westchester counties continue under flash flood warnings through 12:15 a.m. Monday, meteorologists said. Thunderstorms are impacting the area, which has already seen 5 to 8 inches of rainfall.

County Executive Steve Neuhaus declared a state of emergency in Orange County, New York, due to Sunday’s storms.

Neuhaus later confirmed the drowning death of a woman in her mid-30s he said was trying to leave her house with her dog when she got swept up. Officials are trying to rescue a number of people trapped on U.S. Route 9W, Neuhaus said.

New York Gov. Kathy Hochul declared states of emergency in both Ontario and Orange counties late Sunday night.

Over the next few hours, rain showers and thunderstorms will continue to make their way east to New York City, according to the National Weather Service’s New York division.

As the storm system slowly moves through the northeast Sunday and throughout the day Monday, there is a concern for catastrophic flooding in parts of New England, according to meteorologists.

The Weather Prediction Center, a division of the National Weather Service, issued a rare high-risk warning for excessive rainfall for Monday in Vermont and parts of New York. These areas could see up to 5 inches of rain through Tuesday.

The already-soaked ground could lead to major flooding, especially in the morning hours.

Parts of New York, Pennsylvania, Connecticut, Vermont, New Jersey and Maryland are under a flood watch, with impacted areas seeing a possible 1 to 2 inches of rainfall per hour through Monday, according to experts.

There has already been significant flooding in the area. Norfolk, Connecticut, has issued an emergency declaration after several roads and bridges were washed out in the northwestern Connecticut town.

Extreme weather is impacting other parts of the country, as 37 million Americans are on alert for dangerous heat.

The National Weather Service issued dangerous heat alerts Sunday for residents from the Pacific Northwest to the deserts in the Southwest — even stretching east toward the Florida Panhandle.

Phoenix has reached at least 110 degrees for nine consecutive days, with the pattern of scorching temperatures expected to continue for another week, meteorologists said.

El Paso, Texas, has set a record for the longest streak of consecutive days above 100 degrees, with Sunday marking the 24th day in a row with a temperature in the triple digits. The city broke a record on Saturday after reaching 108 degrees, exceeding 107, set in 1951.

Regions worldwide have been experiencing extreme heat in recent days, leading to the hottest temperatures ever recorded on the planet.

Earth warmed to the highest temperature ever recorded by human-created tools when the average global temperature reached 17.18 degrees Celsius, or 62.92 degrees Fahrenheit, on the Fourth of July.

ABC News’ Julia Jacobo and Kenton Gewecke contributed to this report.

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