(NEW YORK) — An atmospheric river is slamming the West Coast, bringing intense rain, winds and snow that could make for treacherous conditions.
Atmospheric rivers are like “rivers in the sky,” according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. The long, narrow regions in the atmosphere carry large amounts of water vapor over the Pacific Ocean, which is released as rain in lower elevations or snow in higher elevations when they make landfall. The events are “tied closely to both water supply and flood risks,” NOAA said.
More than a dozen states in the West are under weather alerts from this storm, which is bringing damaging winds and flood risks from Washington state down to California Tuesday into Wednesday.
“As a deep layer of moisture streams onshore it will help spread a few inches of rainfall/feet of snowfall at elevation possible along the coastal areas and south into central California throughearly Wednesday morning,” the National Weather Service said. “The pattern will present the possibility for widely scattered instances of flash flooding are possible at lower elevations, particularly in burn scars.”
Flood concerns
Flood watches and advisories have been issued from Seattle to the San Francisco Bay, with up to 6 inches of rain possible in some locations. Flooding caused by “excessive rainfall” is possible in portions of northern and central California.
Areas along the coast of Oregon have already reported 2 to 4 inches of rainfall. Hoodoo Ski Area, a ski resort in the central Cascade Range of Oregon, said it be closed Monday and Tuesday “due to excessive rain.”
There have already been several reports from law enforcement and the public of roadway flooding Tuesday in Seattle and in several California cities, including Salinas, Clayton and Gonzales, with vehicles reported to have been getting stuck.
Strong winds and high surf
The system has brought strong winds as it moved ashore this week. Heavenly Ski Summit in California, south of Lake Tahoe, recorded a 111-mph wind gust overnight.
Wind advisories are in effect for parts of northern and central California, with the National Weather Service warning of downed trees and power lines and power outages possible. Nearly 200,000 customers from Washington to California are without power as of midday Tuesday, with most in Oregon, according to PowerOutage.us.
High surf advisories have also been issued along the California coast. Large breaking waves of up to 26 feet are forecast in Northern California throughout Tuesday.
Heavy snowfall
Winter storm warnings have been issued from California to Colorado, where some areas could see up to 40 inches of snow. Avalanche danger is high, with five states under avalanche watches and warnings — California, Nevada, Colorado, Montana and Idaho.
Into the rest of the week, a “significant atmospheric river storm will bring renewed impacts” to the greater Lake Tahoe area Friday through early Sunday morning, according to the National Weather Service, including heavy rain and snow.
ABC News’ Max Golembo and Kenton Gewecke contributed to this report.
(INDIANAPOLIS, Ind.) — Three days after he went missing in an alleged carjacking in Ohio, 5-month-old Kason Thomass was found safe across state lines in Indiana.
It was an emotional moment for the Indianapolis officers who were the first to arrive at the scene.
“The first thing that went through my mind was thank God we found baby Kason. He’s alive and well,” Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Sgt. Shawn Anderson told ABC Indianapolis affiliate WRTV on Friday.
His colleague, Sgt. Richard El, said he picked up Kason and held him, thinking, “You’re safe now, we got you, we going to get you back to your parents.”
“He was still in a onesie and it just gave me memories of my kids being young and whatnot,” El told WRTV. “So I gave him a hug and just held him and bounced him around a little bit and let him know that everything was going to be all right and that he would soon be reunited with his family.”
The search for Kason began Monday night, after a homeless woman allegedly stole his mom’s running 2010 Honda Accord outside a Columbus restaurant. Kason and his twin brother, Kyair, were inside the vehicle while their mom stepped away to pick up a food order, police said.
Kyair was found early Tuesday at the Dayton International Airport, more than 70 miles from Columbus. Surveillance cameras captured the suspect, 24-year-old Nalah Jackson, allegedly abandoning Kyair in his car seat in a parking lot at the Dayton airport, authorities said.
Police had received tips earlier Thursday that Jackson may have been spotted in Indianapolis. A person believed to be Jackson was stopped by police Thursday afternoon in the city and was positively identified through fingerprints, police said. She has been charged with two counts of kidnapping.
Kason was not with Jackson at the time of her arrest, at which point the search for the missing baby expanded to Indiana and an Amber Alert was initiated there, police said. Kason was ultimately located near an Indianapolis Papa Johns on Thursday in the stolen car, police said.
A Columbus Division of Police spokesperson confirmed to ABC Cleveland affiliate WEWS this week that two women, Shyann Delmar and her cousin Mecka Curry, were involved in the arrest of Jackson and the recovery of Kason, as first reported by the Indianapolis Star. The two mothers, confident they had met the suspect in Indianapolis, told the publication they helped lead police to Jackson during a traffic stop on Thursday, then found the Honda Accord with Kason inside near the Papa Johns later that day.
The two Indianapolis officers couldn’t speak to the details of the ongoing investigation, though they said they knew to be on the lookout for Kason.
“We understood that as the day went on, and the colder that it got, the conditions would have gotten a little bit worse if maybe Kason was out there,” El said. “So we wanted to make sure that we could reunite him with his family.”
Kason was found to be in good health and taken to a hospital for further evaluation. His grandmother, Lafonda Thomass, told WRTV the family was waiting for him to return home to Columbus.
“We are thankful he’s OK and for the support,” Lafonda Thomass said.
For Anderson, holding Kason after he was found safe was “one of the best feelings I’ve had in my career,” and reminded him why he became an officer.
“Moments like this are few and far in between. We see a lot of terrible things as law enforcement officers, it doesn’t happen a lot where we have positive, successful outcomes,” he said. “But when it does, it’s really what keeps me going. So this is just more fuel in my tank to continue to serve the community.”
Both officers are fathers, which made the moment particularly poignant.
“I got three kids at home. When I got home last night, I got out of my uniform, went and gave all of them a big hug,” El said. “It was just a very emotional day.”
Editor’s note: A previous version of this story stated the officers found the baby. It was updated to reflect they responded to the scene and to note the participation of Shyann Delmar and Mecka Curry in the case.
(NEW YORK) — The Mega Millions jackpot keeps growing. The numbers for the $565 prize will be drawn Tuesday.
After players failed to win the top prize on Friday, the amount rose from roughly $510 million to $565 million, the second-largest Mega Millions jackpot this year.
The cash prize totals $293.6 million.
In July, the jackpot surpassed the $1 billion mark for only the third time in the 20-year history of Mega Millions.
The historic $1.34 billion prize was won by an anonymous ticket owner in Des Plaines, Illinois.
The last winning ticket for a Mega Millions jackpot was on Oct. 14. Two ticket winners split a $502 million prize.
Only six Mega Millions jackpots have been won this year. Winning tickets were in California, Florida, New York, Minnesota, Illinois and Tennessee.
(NEW YORK) — A 44-year-old man has died after he was buried by an avalanche in Colorado, officials said.
The victim was among four snowboarders who got caught in the avalanche near Winter Park on Monday afternoon, the Colorado Avalanche Information Center said.
Two of the snowboarders were buried, the Grand County Sheriff’s Department said. Bystanders and relatives were able to rescue one of the buried snowboarders, but the second was pronounced dead at the scene, the sheriff’s office said.
“This is a pretty popular backcountry riding and recreating area,” said Ethan Greene, director of the Colorado Avalanche Information Center. “These folks actually did most of the rescue themselves, which is really what you need to do if someone’s buried in the snow pack. They don’t have a whole lot of time to wait for the cavalry to come, so to speak. So everybody in the group needs to have rescue equipment: that’s an avalanche transceiver, a shovel and a pro pole. and know how to use them. These folks actually had all that equipment. and they did a really great rescue. But unfortunately, one person still didn’t survive.”
The victim’s identity has not been released.
“The most important things that people can do are to check the avalanche forecast, make sure that you have some sort of training, make sure you carry proper rescue equipment,” Greene said. “Part of traveling in avalanche terrain is trying to expose just one person at a time. So as you’re planning your route, make sure that you’re spreading out and making sure that only one person is in the in a place where they could get caught in an avalanche at one time.”
(JACKSON, Miss.) — The city of Jackson, Mississippi — long plagued with water problems — issued a boil-water advisory on Christmas Day until further notice.
According to Jackson officials, the city’s water system lost pressure because of unidentifiable breaks in its distribution system, resulting in some parts of Jackson experiencing little to no water pressure.
The city’s main water treatment facility, the O.B. Curtis Water Plant, and the J.H. Fewell Water Treatment Plant are working to increase production to reestablish pressure, officials said in a boil water alert.
“Our crews are all busy today working to restore pressure,” Jackson’s communications director Melissa Payne told ABC News on Monday in an emailed statement.
“We continue to struggle to return pressure to the water system,” officials said in a press release Monday. “We are producing significant amounts of water and pushing that into the system, but the pressure is not increasing — despite those efforts at the plants.”
The city’s most recent boil-water advisory impacts all surface water connections and excludes customers using its well systems.
Historic flooding in Mississippi in August damaged a major pump at the O.B. Curtis Water Plant, which left around 150,000 of the city’s mostly Black residents without drinkable water.
The water crisis highlighted residents’ years-long plight with the city’s ongoing water issues and raised questions about how Jackson came to be in this situation and what the long-term plans were to fix the issue.
In November, the U.S. Department of Justice reached an agreement and filed a new complaint with Jackson over the city’s alleged mismanagement of its water system.
Through its agreement with the City of Jackson, the DOJ will establish a third-party monitor to ensure that water in the city is safe to drink.
(NEW YORK) — Airlines have canceled thousands of flights in what has become a Christmas nightmare for so many, as winter storms and staffing issues continue to cause havoc across the U.S.
Most major airlines have canceled or delayed thousands of flights, with Southwest Airlines canceling at least 70% of its flights Monday — more than 2,600 — due to a reported system meltdown. The airline has also canceled 60% of its flights for Tuesday.
On Christmas Day, 42% of Southwest’s flights were canceled and 48% were delayed, according to data from FlightAware. As of Monday night, data showed that nearly 4,000 flights had been canceled within, into or out of the U.S., while more than 7,700 had been delayed.
Jay McVay with Southwest Airlines said Monday night that “the sheer size of the storm” nationwide affected all major airports.
“It’s just the fact that this one started West swept east and impacted almost every single one of our largest airports that put us in a position where we struggled to recover, and we struggled to get our flight crews and airplanes where they needed to be,” McVay said from Houston’s William P. Hobby Airport.
Capt. Casey Murray, president of the Southwest Airlines Pilots Association, said in a statement earlier Monday that the ordeal has “been catastrophic.”
“It’s been a failure at every level at Southwest. Our pilots, our front-line employees have worked under enormous stress to try to get our passengers from A to B, but we were dealt a really bad hand as far as Southwest is concerned,” Murray said, in part, adding that their “processes,” information technology or infrastructure “just wasn’t there to support the operation.”
“And, unfortunately, our customers are bearing the brunt of it,” Murray added.
Angry Southwest customers took to Twitter on Monday, sharing their frustrations over the delays, cancellations and long hold times to speak to customer service agents.
“With consecutive days of extreme winter weather across our network behind us, continuing challenges are impacting our customers and employees in a significant way that is unacceptable,” Southwest said in a statement posted online. “And our heartfelt apologies for this are just beginning.”
Southwest said it is working to “address the wide-scale disruption” by repositioning its crew and planes, which were all in the wrong spots.
ABC News spoke with three stranded travelers — one staying overnight at an airport in Boston until her new flight, one stranded in Chicago after his flight got canceled and one driving with a stranger to make it to his Disney Cruise in Tampa after flight issues.
Each traveler blamed delays on staffing rather than the weather.
ABC News reached out to American Airlines, JetBlue, Delta and United to learn about how staffing is impacting their current delays and cancellations.
“I wanted to fly home for Christmas,” Laetitia Duler, who was flying home to San Francisco from Boston for the holiday, told ABC News. “As soon as I entered the line, they were just like, ‘your flights canceled. Like, bye.'”
Eric Jernigan was trying to fly from Jackson, Mississippi, to Tampa, Florida, for a Disney cruise when his Delta flight was canceled because of a lack of crew, he told ABC News.
He and five others decided to drive to Florida after getting stuck at Jackson-Medgar Wiley Evers International Airport.
The city of Buffalo, New York, initiated a travel ban as blizzard conditions moved into the area.
According to New York Gov. Kathy Hochul and local officials, 29 people have died in the state following the aftermath of an enormous lake-effect snowstorm.
Buffalo Niagara International Airport announced Monday that it will be closed until Wednesday as its crews work “around the clock” to get the airport back up and running.
ABC News’ Cherise Rudy contributed to this report.
(PIERCE COUNTY, Was.) — The search continued Monday for vandals who targeted four power substations on Christmas Day in Pierce County, Washington, setting fire to at least one of the facilities and knocking out power to more than 14,000 utility customers, authorities said.
Two of the break-ins were at Tacoma Public Utilities substations and two others were at a Puget Sound Energy station, according to the sheriff’s office in Pierce County, which encompasses Tacoma.
No arrests have been announced.
The vandalism came amid a string of similar sabotage incidents across the country, including several in the Northwest, and follows a bulletin issued last month by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security warning that critical infrastructure could be among the targets of possible attacks by “lone offenders and small groups motivated by a range of ideological beliefs and/or personal grievances.”
“It is unknown if there are any motives or if this was a coordinated attack on the power systems,” the Pierce County Sheriff’s Office said in a statement.
The substation attacks unfolded Sunday between 2:39 a.m. and 7:21 p.m. local time, authorities said. In all four episodes, the saboteurs broke into the fenced-off power stations and deliberately damaged equipment, according to the sheriff’s office.
Officials initially said three power stations were vandalized, but early Monday morning they said a fourth substation was damaged in a deliberately caused fire near the city of Graham, cutting power to homes in Kapowsin and Graham.
“The suspect(s) gained access to the fenced area and vandalized the equipment which caused the fire,” the sheriff’s office said in a statement. “All law enforcement agencies in the county have been notified of the incidents and will be monitoring power substations in their area.”
Power was restored to most customers affected by the attacks by Monday morning, the sheriff’s office said.
Tacoma Public Utilities reported about 7,300 customers in the southeast of Tacoma were affected by the vandalism. Puget Sound Energy said nearly 7,700 of its customers lost power.
Power was restored to all customers by Monday afternoon, Puget Sound Energy said. Tacoma Public Utilities said later Monday night that all customers were back online but to be prepared for possible outages amid windy conditions overnight.
“Unfortunately, the impacts to our system from today’s deliberate damage are more severe in some places than initial testing indicated,” the company said Sunday. “Some customers will be restored closer to 8 AM tomorrow. We appreciate your patience as we respond to this intentional vandalism to our system.”
“We know this incident has impacted many people’s holiday celebrations, and our crews are working hard to get power safely restored to all customers as quickly as we can,” it added.
Earlier this month, two electrical substations were shot up in North Carolina, causing tens of thousands of customers to lose power and prompting local officials to declare a state of emergency. No one was arrested in the attacks.
(SAN RAMON, Calif.) — An arrest has been made following an incident of anti-Asian hate that occurred in California’s East Bay over the Christmas holiday weekend.
San Ramon Police Chief Denton Carlson announced the arrest of suspect Jordan Douglas Krah in a tweet Monday evening. Krah, a Denver, Colorado resident, is facing hate crime charges and is currently in custody at Martinez Detention Facility in Martinez, California, the chief said.
“The San Ramon Police Department strives to ensure everyone in our community feels safe and welcome. We will continue to take swift and diligent legal action against acts of hate to help create an inclusive place for all to live, work and visit,” the department said in a press release.
On Christmas Eve, Arine Kim and her friend Elliot Ha were eating at an In-N-Out Burger in San Ramon when they were approached by a man who cornered them with racist insults.
The pair were recording a TikTok video and trying menu items when he approached, calling them “weird homosexuals,” before returning to make other bigoted remarks about their race and ethnicities.
“I personally couldn’t believe it. I didn’t believe it was real, it was so random,” Ha, who initially responded with nervous, shocked humor, told San Francisco ABC station KGO.
“It’s a fear response, so you’re nervous and you don’t know what to do in that situation but to laugh it off,” Kim said, adding that she was grateful for Ha’s humor at the time.
In the video, Ha said he had never experienced anything like that before. For Kim, however, this was an unfortunate reminder of hate speech she’s encountered in the past.
She told KGO that this was not the first time she’d been attacked with racist slurs and epithets.
In the video, Kim said the man stared at them from outside the restaurant for a while, prompting them to have the fast food restaurant’s staff escort them to the parking lot over fears of being followed.
Only a few miles away in Danville, a woman named Abigail Hailili said she was met with similar comments on Christmas morning.
A spokesperson for the San Ramon Police Department said in a statement to ABC News Monday afternoon that the department had made significant progress in its investigation of both incidents. It remains unclear whether the two incidents are related. The department has asked for the public’s help in identifying both perpetrators.
With a rise in violence against Asian Americans across the country, advocates have launched initiatives to make necessary change.
“It’s the realization this is real and that affects people you know, you love, that are close to you,” Ha told KGO. “That’s why people are finding ways to spread awareness, because it’s an issue that does matter. It’s a real thing and people need to be aware of it.”
Reported anti-Asian hate crime events in the state increased by an alarming 177.5% from 2020 to 2021, according to the California Department of Justice’s Hate Crime in California report, released in June. Many other incidents go unreported.
(BUFFALO, N.Y.) — At least 51 people have died nationwide from the wintry weather wreaking havoc across the U.S. over Christmas weekend.
The most deaths are in New York state, where 29 people have died in the wake of a massive lake effect snowstorm, according to New York Gov. Kathy Hochul and local officials.
Hochul called the storm “the blizzard of the century” in western New York during a news conference Monday and said the White House has promised to quickly approve an emergency disaster declaration. President Joe Biden said he spoke to Hochul on Monday afternoon.
Twenty-seven of New York’s deaths are in Erie County, which includes the city of Buffalo, Mark Poloncarz, the executive of Erie County, said Monday. Among the causes of death confirmed by the Erie County Medical Examiner’s Office were three people who suffered heart attacks while shoveling or blowing snow, 14 people who were found outside and three who died due to an EMS delay.
“We do expect that there will be more,” Poloncarz said.
Buffalo Mayor Byron Brown said 18 bodies were recovered in the city of Buffalo; most were found by police inside of vehicles.
A driving state of emergency remains in effect in Erie County and Poloncarz said police will start issuing summons to people driving around — “joyriding” — in violation of the driving ban. He said the city of Buffalo remains impassable.
Poloncarz said another 8 to 12 inches of snow is forecast for the region through 1 p.m. Tuesday. Buffalo received 43 inches of snow over the weekend, according to the National Weather Service.
Reports of looting
Poloncarz also said that police are investigating scattered reports of looting in Buffalo.
“I’m heartbroken about the deaths, just absolutely devastated to see as many deaths. And then to find out that there’s looting going on in our community at the same time we’re still recovering bodies is just horrible,” Poloncarz said.
Daniel Neaverth Jr., the Erie County commissioner of Emergency Services, said more than a dozen gas stations in the county have been reported inoperable “because the convenience side of them has been looted and the equipment inside has been rendered ineffective and thus the pumps for the fueling are ineffective.”
Neaverth said the looting was hampering emergency vehicles from fueling up.
“So if you don’t think there’s a trickle down from going looting and grabbing individual little things, this is a drastic implication for us that we now have to deal with to find alternate fuel sources,” Neaverth said.
Brown said police responded to several looting in the city of Buffalo and have made some arrests. The mayor said it was “reprehensible” that people are taking advantage of a natural disaster, calling the looters “the lowest of the low.”
Poloncarz said 12,473 utility customers countywide remain without power on Monday and he warned some might not have electricity until Tuesday due to the “serious nature of the substation damage.” He said power was restored to about 13,000 customers overnight.
At one point, 23,000 households lost power, said Jackie Bray, the state commissioner of Homeland Security and Emergency Services. Bray said 12,500 households remain without electricity Monday.
‘Winter wonderland tour’ bus rescue
Polocarz added that hundreds of cars were left abandoned on roadways across the county, including tractor-trailer rigs and buses.
“There are cars everywhere pointing the wrong direction on roads. They’ve basically been plowed in and need to be dug out and towed,” Poloncarz said.
Among the hundreds who had to be rescued was a group of tourists from around the world on a “winter wonderland bus tour,” Poloncarz said. He said the bus got stuck in the Buffalo suburb of Lackawanna and that rescue crews had to evacuate passengers and take them to a nearby shelter.
“These tourists are getting more than they bargained for with regards to their ‘winter wonderland tour’ as they’ve gone through one of the worst storms in U.S. history,” Poloncarz said.
The “colossal” snowstorm brought winds of nearly 80 mph to Buffalo, the governor said.
“This will go down in history as the most devastating storm” in Buffalo, Hochul said during a Christmas morning news conference.
Poloncarz said Monday that the death toll has now outpaced the Blizzard of 1977.
Buffalo initiated a travel ban as blizzard conditions moved in.
“I cannot overstate how dangerous the conditions still are,” Hochul said Sunday, urging people to stay off the roads on Christmas.
This storm marked the first time in history that the Buffalo Fire Department couldn’t respond to any calls, officials said. National Guardsmen have been called in.
Hundreds of people have been rescued from cars, Hochul said, adding, “We still have people who need to be rescued.”
Buffalo’s airport will be closed until Wednesday. Pittsburgh’s airport is sending plows to help dig out the runways.
The National Hockey League canceled the Tuesday game between the Buffalo Sabres and Columbus Blue Jackets due to the weather and the Sabres not being able to travel from Buffalo in time for the game.
Weather fatalities across the nation
Weather-related fatalities were also reported in Ohio, Vermont, Colorado, Wisconsin, Kansas, Missouri and Kentucky, according to The Associated Press.
The storm comes as brutally cold air slammed the country on Christmas morning.
The temperature plunged to minus 9 degrees in Minneapolis, 2 degrees in Chicago, 3 degrees in Denver, 15 degrees in New York, 16 degrees in Atlanta and 21 degrees in Dallas.
More than 6.3 million customers across the United States were without power at some point over the holiday weekend, officials said.
More than 165,000 customers woke up without power on Christmas morning across Maine, New York, New Hampshire, Virginia and Florida. The majority of those customers had power restored by Monday, though 15,800 customers in Maine and 13,900 in New York — the vast majority in Erie County — remained without power Monday afternoon.
Airlines continue to cancel thousands of flights in what is becoming a Christmas nightmare for so many. More than 18,200 flights have been canceled since Wednesday, according to FlightAware, a flight tracking website. More than 3,000 flights were canceled into, out of or within the United States on Christmas Eve, and more than 2,000 flights were canceled on Christmas Day.
Another 3,500 flights were canceled in the United States Monday, as of 3:30 p.m. Southwest Airlines is having significant systemwide issues and has canceled 2,600, or about 65%, of scheduled flights.
(NEW YORK) – A look at the level of gun violence in the U.S. through statistics.
More than 6,000 children have been killed or injured in the United States by gunfire in 2022, the most ever recorded in the nine-year history of a nonprofit that tracks shooting incidents.
With five days to go in the year, the Gun Violence Archive found that 6,023 U.S. children 17 years old or younger have been killed or hurt in gunfire this year, surpassing the 5,708 killed or hurt 2021.
The Gun Violence Archive said it was the most children to die or be injured by gunfire in a single year since it started keeping track in 2014.
At least 306 children 11 years old or younger have been killed by gunfire in 2022, according to the website. Another 1,323 children between the ages of 12 and 17 died in shootings, according to the website.
In the first year the Gun Violence Archive began to track shootings in 2014, it recorded 2,859 children 17 years old or younger killed or injured by gunfire.
The grim statistics come after a 3-year-old girl in Kansas City, Missouri, was killed on Christmas Eve in what police suspect was an accidental shooting, Kansas City ABC affiliate KMBC reported.
The child shooting deaths in 2022 also include 19 students, all 11 years old or younger, killed in a mass shooting on May 24 at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas.
One of the youngest victims killed by gunfire this year was 5-month-old Cecilia Thomas, who was shot in the head while sitting in a car in Chicago during a June 24 drive-by shooting.
