(SELMA, Ala.) — A tornado delivered “significant damage” to the city of Selma, Alabama, as strong storms moved through the region on Thursday, according to the mayor’s office.
The “large and extremely dangerous” tornado struck Selma at 12:20 p.m. local time, according to the National Weather Service.
Most of Selma’s streets are closed due to downed power lines and trees, according to the mayor’s office.
All Selma students are reported to be safe and at their schools, the office added.
The tornado in Selma is one of at least 18 twisters reported across Alabama on Thursday. Storms are pummeling Alabama, including rough rain 150 miles north of Selma in Hartselle.
The tornado watch remains in effect from Atlanta to Mobile, Alabama, through Thursday evening.
Selma, a famous focal point of the civil rights movement, is located in central Alabama and has a population of about 17,000.
ABC News’ Melissa Griffin contributed to this report.
(NEW YORK) — With the Federal Aviation Administration’s Notice To all Air Missions, or NOTAM, system back up and running, staffing remains high and systems monitoring is at an urgently high level this morning, a senior official told ABC News Thursday.
Computer traffic on the NOTAM system is at super-high levels as airlines, pilots and airports start the day with normal flight operations while also trying to make up for delays and cancellations yesterday. At the same time, public and media computer traffic on the NOTAM system is running high because of global interest in the antiquated system that crashed on Wednesday.
The ground stop order that paused all airplane domestic departures and the FAA systems failures Wednesday morning appear to have been the result of a mistake that occurred during routine scheduled systems maintenance, according to a senior official briefed on the internal review.
An engineer “replaced one file with another,” the official said, not realizing the mistake was being made. As the systems began showing problems and ultimately failed, FAA staff feverishly tried to figure out what had gone wrong. The engineer who made the error did not realize what had happened.
Engineers and IT teams are working to keep the system from crashing again today while they also try to figure out if there are any similar systems that could fail without redundancies.
The official equated this morning’s situation in the FAA networks to the unprecedented strain that was placed on residential internet systems in the first days of the COVID shutdowns in 2019. The systems were just not built for that level of sustained traffic, the official said.
Canada’s NOTAM system was also disrupted Wednesday. FAA teams in contact with the Canadians do not know what happened to the Canadian NOTAM system Wednesday or whether it was connected to the U.S. chaos, the official who spoke with ABC News said. Canada did not have to initiate a ground stop and its system had backups and returned to normal function much more quickly than the U.S. operation. Canada also has a more modern system, the official said, and a fraction of U.S. air traffic.
ABC News’ Sam Sweeney, Jon Haworth, Kevin Shalvey and Meredith Deliso contributed to this report.
Photography by Keith Getter (all rights reserved)/Getty Images
(NEW YORK) — Extreme drought, the second-highest level of drought, has been nearly eliminated in the state of California in the wake of storms caused by atmospheric rivers slamming the state over the last several weeks.
Extreme drought fell from 27.1% last week to 0.32% in the numbers released Thursday, according to the U.S. Drought Monitor. Severe drought, the third-highest level, fell from 71% to 46%.
(MOSCOW, Idaho) — University of Idaho quadruple murder suspect Bryan Kohberger is due back in a Latah County, Idaho, courtroom on Thursday.
The 28-year-old faces first-degree murder and burglary charges and has not yet entered a plea.
Kohberger was arrested on Dec. 30 in his home state of Pennsylvania in connection to the quadruple murders that captivated the nation. Kohberger, a Ph.D. student in Washington State University’s department of criminal justice and criminology at the time, was visiting his family in Pennsylvania for the holidays.
A law enforcement source told ABC News that federal investigators saw Kohberger throw out garbage into neighbors’ trash bins in the middle of the night as they surveilled him in Pennsylvania in the days leading up to his arrest.
Kohberger has since been extradited to Idaho in connection to the Nov. 13 slayings.
Roommates Xana Kernodle, Kaylee Goncalves and Madison Mogen, as well as Kernodle’s boyfriend, Ethan Chapin, were all stabbed to death in the girls’ off-campus home in the middle of the night. Two other roommates survived, including a young woman who saw a masked figure inside the house.
At Kohberger’s first Idaho court appearance last week, charges were read for the murders of each student. The judge said each victim was “stabbed and murdered with premeditation with malice and forethought.” Families were overcome with emotion as their children’s names were read.
(MINNEAPOLIS) — At least one person was killed and two others were critically injured in a shooting that broke out in a Minneapolis parking lot on Wednesday night, police said.
“This is a very active and ongoing investigation, but we believe that there is at least one person who is a suspect who remains at large at this time,” Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara told reporters at a press conference late Wednesday.
According to the Minneapolis Police Department, officers were on the scene of a car crash at approximately 8:20 p.m. local time when they heard multiple gunshots a few blocks away in the McKinley neighborhood of Minnesota’s largest city. They responded and found a man and a woman, both suffering from gunshot wounds, in an SUV near the parking lot of Gold Star Foods, police said.
The man was transported to North Memorial Medical Center, where he was listed in critical condition, while the woman was taken to Hennepin County Medical Center, where she was listed in critical but stable condition, according to police.
Officers also located another man with life-threatening gunshot wounds lying on the street across from the parking lot. Despite life-saving measures, he was pronounced dead at the scene, according to police. The Hennepin County Medical Examiner will release the victim’s identity, along with the cause and nature of his death.
Police said preliminary information indicates two men on foot approached the man and the woman seated in the parked SUV. One of the men on foot walked around the vehicle to the driver’s side door, which was opened. The male driver then put the car in reverse, dragging the man with the open door, according to police.
At some point, gunshots were fired from at least the other man on foot. A gunshot detector system marked 23 rounds being fired from the Gold Star Foods parking lot at that time, police said.
The SUV got stuck on a snowbank and the man who was being dragged ran from the parking lot before collapsing on the street. The second man on foot fled the scene and remains on the run, according to police.
Police said at least two handguns were recovered from the scene — one from inside the vehicle and another on the street next to the collapsed man. Police believe a third firearm is in possession of the fleeing suspect.
So far, no arrests have been made.
“I think this just speaks volumes to the challenges that we are facing,” O’Hara told reporters. “This is a scene here, where — from what we know so far — there were at least three guns on the scene and it just shows the crisis that we are facing.”
“We are already living in a country that has more guns than people and there’s 10-20 million more guns entered into circulation each year,” the police chief added. “It’s an incredible challenge for us to be able to partner with all of our law enforcement partners and also partner with our community organizations to try and take as many guns out of the hands of people who should not have them before situations like this happen.”
Anyone with information about the incident is urged to call CrimeStoppers at 1-800-222-TIPS (8477). Tips may also be submitted online at www.CrimeStoppersMN.org. All Tips are anonymous and anyone providing information leading to an arrest and conviction may be eligible for a financial reward, according to police.
(NEW YORK) — A U.S. Air Force cadet died after experiencing a “medical emergency” on Monday, the Air Force Academy announced.
Hunter Brown, 21, an offensive lineman for the Academy’s football team, the Falcons, left his dormitory and was on his way to class when he experienced a health emergency.
Academy first responders attempted to save Brown’s life but were unsuccessful, the Academy said.
“The entire U.S. Air Force Academy mourns his loss, and our hearts and condolences are with his family, his squadron, and all who were touched by this incredible young man,” Lt. Gen. Richard M. Clark, U.S. Air Force Academy Superintendent, said in a statement on the Air Force Academy website.
Brown, a Lake Charles, Louisiana native, majored in management, minored in French and was assigned to Cadet Squadron 16. He also was part of the Falcon football team’s back-to-back winning seasons, according to the Academy.
He graduated from the U.S. Air Force Academy Preparatory School in May 2021.
In a statement from the school announcing Brown’s death, the Falcon’s head football coach Troy Calhoun said, “our players, staff and entire Academy have been so blessed and fortunate to have Hunter as a part of our lives. He was a pure joy to coach and have as a teammate.”
Adding, “he was tough, a great worker, and no one unselfishly pulled harder for others than Hunter. His mom and dad, Candyce and Dustin, raised a wonderful son who made each of us a better person. We love our great brother, and our thoughts and prayers are with Hunter’s incredible soul and his family.”
Brown’s death came a week after Buffalo Bills safety Damar Hamlin suffered cardiac arrest during a Monday Night Football game against the Cincinnati Bengals.
MORE: Mississippi State college football coach Mike Leach dies after heart attack
Hamlin was released from the hospital on Wednesday, the team said. He had been transferred from UC Health in Cincinnati to Buffalo General earlier in the week.
(NEW YORK) — Joan Donovan was 84 years old when she finished her college degree, but the great-grandmother said she didn’t want to stop learning just yet.
“I couldn’t wait to get up in the morning to go to school. I met the most wonderful, intelligent people and professors and just everyone surrounded me with encouragement and support. And I learned that I had a love for writing,” Donovan told “Good Morning America.” “That’s when I found Southern New Hampshire University, which is a wonderful school too and I just loved every minute of it.”
Four years later, on Dec. 13, 2022, Donovan, now 89, graduated from Southern New Hampshire University with a master’s degree in creative writing.
Although Donovan wasn’t on campus to receive her diploma, she still donned a cap and gown and walked to pomp and circumstance in a celebration courtesy of SNHU and her family.
“Took me two days to recuperate from it because of the whole wonderful, wonderful event that they planned. I just can’t tell you how excited I was,” said Donovan.
Donovan said the university heard she was graduating when her son called the school to ask for a frame for her diploma as a Christmas present this year. However, the school decided to send more than just a framed diploma, including a cap and gown, cupcakes, balloons and university spirit wear.
“And the funny part is, [my son] said to me the other day, ‘Gee mom, I owe you a Christmas gift because I got out of that one pretty cheap,'” said Donovan.
Now, Donovan said she is using her new degree to write a rom-com novel as well as an autobiography.
“Well, I waited 60 years to fulfill my dream. So I hope others don’t have to wait that long,” said Donovan, adding that her autobiography will be about overcoming the “roadblocks” of life.
Donovan, who has 10 grandchildren and nine great-grandchildren, said the most important things she’s learned in life are to be a “lifelong learner” and a “lifelong laugher.”
“Don’t ever give up. I mean, if something doesn’t work the first time, just try it again,” she said. “And eventually you’ll find your dream come true.”
(NEW YORK) — The ground stop and Federal Aviation Administration systems failures Wednesday morning that impacted thousands of flights across the U.S. appear to have been the result of a mistake that occurred during routine scheduled systems maintenance, according to a senior official briefed on the internal review.
An engineer “replaced one file with another,” the official said, not realizing the mistake was being made. As the systems began showing problems and ultimately failed, FAA staff feverishly tried to figure out what had gone wrong. The engineer who made the error did not realize what had happened.
“It was an honest mistake that cost the country millions,” the official said.
Earlier Wednesday, the FAA said normal operations were “resuming gradually” after ordering a nationwide pause on all domestic departures until 9 a.m. on Wednesday morning following a computer failure that has delayed and canceled flights around the country.
“The ground stop has been lifted,” officials said at about 8:50 a.m. ET. “We continue to look into the cause of the initial problem[.]”
Departures were resuming at about 8:15 a.m. ET at two of the nation’s busiest hubs — Newark, New Jersey, and Atlanta — FAA officials said on Twitter, adding, “We expect departures to resume at other airports at 9 a.m. ET.”
The affected Notice To all Air Missions, or NOTAM, system is responsible for sending out flight hazards and real time restrictions to pilots, administration officials said earlier.
“The FAA is still working to fully restore the Notice to Air Missions system following an outage,” said the FAA announcing the temporary grounding of all planes nationwide. “The FAA has ordered airlines to pause all domestic departures until 9 a.m. Eastern Time to allow the agency to validate the integrity of flight and safety information.”
Had the FAA’s new NOTAM system been in place, redundancies would likely have stopped the cascading failures. With the antiquated system in place, there was nothing to stop the outages, the official told ABC News.
“At this time, there is no evidence of a cyberattack. The FAA is working diligently to further pinpoint the causes of this issue and take all needed steps to prevent this kind of disruption from happening again,” the FAA said in a statement Wednesday night.
There were still more than 7,300 delays and 1,100 cancellations midday, according to tracking website Flight Aware.
Failures likely due to ‘glitch’
Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said a full investigation is necessary to prevent any future mishaps.
“When there’s an issue in the FAA that needs to be looked at, we’re gonna own it, same way we asked the airlines to own their companies and operations,” Buttigieg said during an appearance on CNN Wednesday.
Congressional hearings are expected as is a possible speed-up of system replacement.
On what caused the system meltdown, Buttigieg said that overnight there “was an issue with irregularities in the messages that were going out” — though more needs to be learned on what led to the widespread failure.
“Now we have to understand how this could have happened in the first place. Why the usual redundancies that would stop it from being that disrupted, did not stop it from being disrupted this time, and what the original source of the errors or the corrupted files would have been,” he said.
A senior official briefed on the FAA computer problems told ABC News the software issue developed late last night and led to a “cascading” series of IT failures culminating in this morning’s disruption. As has been reported, the disruption is confined to the commercial side of aviation.
As of now, the assessment is the failures are the result of a “glitch” and not something intentional. All possibilities are being looked at to ensure that the FAA systems were not breached.
The FAA first reported the system failure on Tuesday, according to an internal memo from the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency obtained by ABC News.
Notably, the FAA system that failed is overdue for replacement.
The official compared the current outage to the crisis that crippled Southwest Airlines during the holidays: antiquated software overdue for replacement inside a critical IT network. If one thing goes down, the system can become paralyzed.
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre confirmed in a tweet that President Joe Biden had been briefed and said “there is no evidence of a cyberattack at this point.”
“I just spoke with Buttigieg,” President Joe Biden said addressing the media on the South Lawn of the White House. “They don’t know what the cause is. But I was on the phone with him about 10 minutes. I told him report directly to me when they find out. Aircrafts can still land safely, just not take off right now. We don’t know what the cause of it is expected to be able to — in a couple hours we’ll have a good sense of what caused it. And we’ll respond at that time.”
Buttigieg also said there’s currently no indication of a cyberattack, but “we also are not going to rule that out until we have a clearer and better understanding of what’s taking place.”
Republican Sen. Ted Cruz criticized the FAA’s management of the system and called for an explanation of issues.
“The flying public deserves safety in the sky,” Cruz said in a statement. “The FAA’s inability to keep an important safety system up and running is completely unacceptable and just the latest example of dysfunction within the Department of Transportation. The administration needs to explain to Congress what happened, and Congress should enact reforms in this year’s FAA reauthorization legislation. This incident also highlights why the public needs a competent, proven leader with substantive aviation experience leading the FAA.”
Airlines hit with delays, cancellations
In the wake of the temporary nationwide pause, several airlines confirmed they were experiencing delays and canceling or diverting flights due to the NOTAM system outage.
“We are closely monitoring the situation, which impacts all airlines, and working with the FAA to minimize disruption to our operation and customers,” American Airlines said in a statement. “We encourage customers to check aa.com for the latest flight information.”
The airline had canceled nearly 400 flights and 850 flights have been delayed as of late Wednesday morning due to the FAA system issue, it said.
United Airlines said it has “temporarily delayed all domestic flights and will issue an update when we learn more from the FAA.”
Southwest Airlines also confirmed it was suffering through delays due to the technical issues at the FAA.
“Please check your flight status in the Southwest app or website to watch for any flight status changes,” Southwest Airlines said in a statement released early Wednesday morning. “If your flight status changes substantially we will message the day of travel contact listed on your reservation by their preferred contact method.”
Delta said it “will continue to work with the FAA on strategic delay programs at certain airports throughout the day,” with 130 flights canceled and another 30 diverted.
“Potential for additional delays and cancels continue,” Delta said in a statement.
Several airlines are waiving fees to rebook flights due to the FAA issues, including American, Delta and United.
ABC News’ Sarah Kolinovsky contributed to this report.
(NEW HAVEN, Conn.) — The five New Haven, Connecticut, police officers charged in the case of Richard “Randy” Cox, a Black man who was paralyzed while being transported in custody, pleaded not guilty on Wednesday during an arraignment hearing.
The officers — Sgt. Betsy Segui and officers Oscar Diaz, Ronald Pressley, Jocelyn Lavandier and Luis Rivera — were each charged in November 2022 with one count of second-degree reckless endangerment and one count of cruelty to persons.
Both charges are misdemeanors and the officers were each released on a $25,000 bond.
Cox, who is now paralyzed from the neck down, did not appear in court for the arraignment because to do so was “logistically too difficult,” his attorney Jack O’Donnell said.
“Randy is very disappointed that these officers were only charged with misdemeanors,” Donnell told ABC News in a phone interview on Tuesday.
ABC News reached out to the attorneys representing Diaz, Pressley, Lavandier and Rivera for further comment.
Gregory Cerittelli, the attorney for the fifth officer Sgt. Betsy Segui, confirmed to ABC News on Tuesday that Segui will plead not guilty.
“The job of a police officer has become increasingly more difficult in recent years,” Cerittelli told ABC News. “Police officers are often required to utilize their best judgment in assessing situations, and are now being judged with the benefit of 20/20 hindsight. Our Supreme Court has consistently held this is not the appropriate standard.”
The judge set the next pre-trial hearing for Feb. 23.
The charges filed by New Haven’s state attorney John P. Doyle, Jr. against the officers stemmed from a June 19, 2022 incident when the officers arrested Cox for criminal possession of a firearm and breach of peace. Surveillance video shows the officers then placed Cox in the back of a police van without seatbelts. During an abrupt stop, Cox was thrown headfirst into the back wall of the van.
Though Cox repeatedly asked for help, saying he couldn’t move, the officers did not immediately render him medical aid and allegedly assumed he was drunk when they arrived at the police station.
The video footage also shows the officers dragging Cox by his feet and throwing him into a wheelchair, which his lawyers said could have exacerbated his already life-threatening injuries.
“[Randy] is essentially quadriplegic. He’s in a rehab facility. He can’t feed himself, he can’t clean himself, he can’t relieve himself without assistance,” O’Donnell said on Tuesday.
“Randy is going to be left with permanent injuries. The least that can happen to these officers is that they have permanent records,” he added.
Cox filed a $100 million federal lawsuit against the city of New Haven and New Haven Police Department officers in September 2022.
In October 2022, all charges against Cox were dropped, according to the New Haven Superior Court clerk’s office.
The five officers were placed on paid administrative leave pending an internal investigation, a spokesman for the New Haven Police Department told ABC News on Tuesday.
“The State’s Attorney’s Office is handling the criminal aspect of the investigation and the New Haven Police Department Office of Internal Affairs is conducting an internal investigation,” the spokesman said.
The U.S. Department of Justice announced in July 2022 that it is closely monitoring the investigation.
“All suspects taken into police custody must be afforded timely and appropriate medical care in the event of an emergency,” said U.S. Attorney Vanessa Roberts Avery in a statement. “If federal action is warranted, the Justice Department will pursue every available avenue to the full extent of the law.”
(COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo.) — Matthew Haynes has 20 years of memories at Club Q, the site of the Nov. 19 shooting that left five people dead and dozens more injured in Colorado Springs, Colorado.
As the co-owner of the LGBTQ bar, Haynes says in the aftermath of the shooting, he has been contemplating the bar’s significance in the community and its role in helping the community continue to recover from the tragic event — and rebuilding the bar is part of that goal.
Club Q was a place where people met their significant others, where they made new friends, where they’ve “grown up,” Haynes said.
“The biggest takeaway that this community has had, that I concur with, is that [the shooter] will not win,” Haynes told ABC News. “This man will not take away our space. This man will not destroy this community.”
The suspect is facing 305 charges, including first-degree murder, attempted murder and bias-motivated crimes.
Haynes, alongside the bar’s advisory and development team, said they will restructure the inside of the bar, implement new security precautions, and build a memorial to honor the lives lost, as well as the lives affected.
It’s unclear what a memorial would look like, or how long a rebuild will take, Haynes said. He said he is hoping for a four-monthlong remodeling process, with hopes of a May reopening — but the path forward remains uncertain.
In recent meetings with city officials, including Colorado Springs mayor John Suthers, Haynes said Suthers has put Club Q staff in touch with an architecture firm to plan a memorial and address the damage done to the inside of the bar during the shooting, pro bono.
According to Haynes, the city has also assigned a supervisor to work through the technical processes needed to get the business back up and running.
“Colorado Springs is a welcoming and vibrant community. We are supportive of the efforts underway to redesign and rebuild Club Q and believe this will be an important step to heal and to honor the lives lost in November’s tragic shooting,” Suthers said in a statement to ABC News.
“From every aspect, from the police department to the FBI, to anything that’s underneath the city and certainly from the state — a this point, we are feeling fully supported,” Haynes said.
Haynes said he doesn’t want to just fix the damage done — he wants to make aesthetic changes to the bar, so it can be a welcoming and freeing environment for those who were present in the bar on that tragic night.
“In talking to the victims that were actually shot, they [want] to have it changed up a little bit … would help with some of the trauma,” Haynes said.
Since the tragedy, the bar owners and staff have also been tending to an ever-growing memorial outside of Club Q, lush with flowers, cards and artwork.
They’ve preserved many of the gifts left at Club Q’s doors, and Haynes said they hope to create a permanent memorial at the location to honor not just those who died or were injured, but also the “thousands that have been impacted.”
“The plan is to make it serene, to make it peaceful, to make it full of the life that they were living when this happened to them,” Haynes said.
He thanked supporters nationwide for the support the community has received in the aftermath of the tragedy.
“We take our responsibility very seriously and we’re all very passionate about it,” Haynes said. “We certainly would like to thank everybody for the support and the love and the thousands of cards we have received, the letters we have received, donations directly to the rebuilding, donations in the millions of dollars to all of the victims. There’s just been such an outpouring of kindness and so so we’re very humbled to be in this position.”
