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(BODEGA BAY, Calif.) — Surfer Eric Steinley is recovering in the hospital after he was bitten by a great white shark in Bodega Bay, California.

The 38-year-old told ABC News he was on his surfboard Sunday at Salmon Creek Beach waiting to catch a wave when the harrowing incident occurred.

“I was in a lot of pain and still thinking, you know, I’m either going to lose my leg or I’m gonna die,” Steinley said. “I just felt this heavy thing pull on me and it was like a clamp right around my leg. And we went underwater together in slow motion.”

Another surfer who was nearby in the water, Jared Davis, said he saw “the tail fin of a shark. They were kind of going down into the water.”

As Steinley was under the surface and bleeding, he fought back.

“I punched this thing. And I mean, you can see just from grazing its teeth. I cut my hand. But it was such a measly punch compared to how big this creature was,” he explained.

The shark loosened its bite, according to Steinley, who then came up for air and warned other surfers.

“He was saying, ‘shark,’ he was saying ‘out,’ he was saying ‘help,'” Davis recalled.

Nearly a five minute paddle from shore, Steinley said he questioned his own fate.

“I started to see spots and then I know, you know, [thought] I’m definitely I’m not going to make it,” he said. “And I catch up to Jared and he paddles next to me.”

When Davis saw Steinley’s leg, he said it looked like there was a red stripe on his wetsuit.

“He goes, ‘You going to make it, don’t look at your leg, let’s just keep going.’ And then we paddled in together until a wave came, and then I gave it my all,” Steinley said of the moment he fought to get to safety.

Nearly a dozen surfers rushed in to help once they got to shore, using surfboard leashes as a makeshift tourniquet to help stop the bleeding.

“All of the surfers that were with me out in the water came out altogether and grabbed this big, long board and put me on that long board,” Steinley said. The group “held me on the board, kept up the board and carried me all the way up the steps, saving time for when the ambulance got there.”

Timothy Saluzzom, a paramedic who responded on the scene, said the care Steinley got prior to his arrival “really helped to save his leg.”

The California Department of Fish and Wildlife confirmed that this was a great white shark, at least 10-feet long, based on the DNA and bite radius from Steinley’s surfboard.

Dave Bader, chief operations and education officer at the Marine Mammal Care Center, said bites from great white sharks can be severe. Steinley “was lucky enough to be in and around a space where there were other people that were there to help him.”

He added, “Eric did all the right things by being in a space where he could get that immediate help.”

Steinley is out of the ICU after two surgeries with a long recovery ahead. While surfing may not be the same, he said he wants to get back up on the board at least one more time.

“I still want to be part of the lifestyle,” Steinley explained. “I’m just so thankful … and still in disbelief that I’m alive because of it.”

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(ANDERSON, Texas) — Authorities in Grimes County, Texas, are scrambling to find any clues surrounding the disappearance of 3-year-old Christopher Ramirez, who has been missing since Wednesday.

Ramirez’ mother, Araceli Nunez, is pleading with the public for help in finding her son.

“I am asking you all to please help and find my son. I don’t know anything about him, and a lot of time has passed. I don’t know what to do. Please everyone help me,” she told reporters in Spanish at a press conference Thursday.

“I’m desperate and my heart has a hole in it. Please bring back my son, please help me,” she said.

Nunez said she believes that someone may have abducted her son, but Grimes County Sheriff Don Sowell said there is no evidence of foul play.

According to authorities, Christopher was playing with a neighbor’s dog on Wednesday around 2 p.m. local time while his mother unloaded groceries from her car. The boy then followed the dog into the woods.

The dog returned but Christopher hasn’t been seen since.

Sowell told ABC News on Thursday that the search is ongoing.

“We continue what we’ve been doing yesterday and last night with a new team, fresh teams and no news to report,” he said.

“We’ve had search teams on the ground also yesterday and through the night, so we have another group of them already on the ground,” he added.

Crews and community volunteers are canvassing the wooded area and using everything from drones and dogs to track Christopher’s scent.

The FBI has also offered to help in the search.

“The FBI has offered all of our assistance,” Brittany Garcia, public affairs representative at the FBI in Houston, told ABC News affiliate KTRK on Thursday. “The biggest resource that we are offering to them is personnel. So our evidence response team is out here doing searches high and low, between the trees everywhere, even in water to to find Christopher.”

ABC News’ Abby Cruz contributed to this report.

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(GUNTERSVILLE, Ala.) — Five people, including a 4-year-old, have died from devastating flooding in Alabama and Tennessee.

In Van Buren County, Tennessee, about 60 miles north of Chattanooga, a man died after his car was swept off a flooded roadway Wednesday afternoon, according to Van Buren County Sheriff Eddie Carter.

Emergency personnel rescued the man’s wife and took her to a hospital where she is still recovering, the sheriff said Friday.

In Alabama, 13 inches of rain flooded roadways Wednesday night.

In Marshall County in northern Alabama, a 4-year-old girl and an 18-year-old woman died as a result of the flooding, the county coroner’s office said.

In Hoover, near Birmingham, a 23-year-old-woman and 23-year-old man were found dead in their submerged car Thursday after being swept away in floodwaters Wednesday night, Hoover police said.

.@HooverFireDept and @HooverPD responding to Hwy 31 at Deo Dara on female on top of submerged vehicle. @spann @WBRCnews pic.twitter.com/LWp6KsVpzm

— John Lyda (@johnlyda) October 7, 2021

After pummeling Alabama, the flash flooding moved east into North Carolina on Thursday, dropping more than 6 inches of rain in McDowell County within hours.

Georgia and the Carolinas are on alert for more flash flooding Friday morning.

Two to three more inches of rain is possible in the Southeast.

ABC News’ Will McDuffie contributed to this report.

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(UPPER MARLBORO, Md.) — Two victims are dead following a shooting at a senior living facility in Prince George’s County, Maryland, Friday morning, police said.

One suspect is in custody, police said.

“We are searching the facility for any additional victims as well as suspects per protocol,” police said.

This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.

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(AUSTIN, Texas) — Hours after a federal judge temporarily blocked enforcement of the most restrictive abortion law in the country, some Texas clinics have resumed providing abortions after a so-called fetal heartbeat is detected.

Under SB8, physicians are banned from providing abortions once they detect electrical activity within the cells in an embryo. That can be seen on an ultrasound as early as six weeks into a pregnancy — before many women even know they’re pregnant. Since the law went into effect on Sept. 1, clinics in the state have largely stopped providing abortions past that point, under the threat of potentially costly civil litigation.

After U.S. District Court Judge Robert Pitman granted the Biden administration’s emergency injunction to halt SB8 Wednesday night, Whole Woman’s Health, which operates four clinics throughout the state, said it resumed providing the abortions Thursday for an unspecified number of patients.

There is a 24-hour waiting period for most patients before they can get an abortion in Texas. Since Sept. 1, the clinics have been continuing the required consent process in the event an injunction was later handed down, allowing them to offer the procedure so soon after the injunction, according to Whole Woman’s Health founder Amy Hagstrom Miller.

“Last night, we reached out to some of the patients that we had on a waiting list to come in to have abortions today, folks whose pregnancies did have cardiac activity earlier in September,” Hagstrom Miller said during a press briefing with the Center for Reproductive Rights Thursday. “And we were able to see a few people as early as, 8, 9 this morning, right away when we opened the clinic.”

“And we are consenting people for care beyond that six-week limit today and hope that we will be able to take care of those people tomorrow and beyond as long as this injunction stands,” she added.

Texas promptly took steps to appeal the injunction to the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton said late Wednesday. “The sanctity of human life is, and will always be, a top priority for me,” he said on Twitter.

Pending the outcome in that court, the case could make its way to the U.S. Supreme Court.

Legal experts and abortion rights advocates were unsure if physicians would feel comfortable providing abortions following the injunction, as there is the threat of being sued retroactively under the law, if it isn’t ultimately struck down.

The retroactive provision “remains a serious piece of concern for physicians and clinics” and makes for a “tenuous” situation in the state, Molly Duane, a senior staff attorney for the Center for Reproductive Rights, told reporters.

“But what we can say today is that there are independent providers across the state that are working to reopen full services and are doing so wary of the fact that the Fifth Circuit may take away this injunction at any moment,” she said.

Hagstrom Miller said there is “hope” but also “desperation” among patients at this time, as call volume has increased at the clinics. “Folks know that this opportunity could be short-lived,” she said.

In the wake of the injunction, Planned Parenthood’s Texas affiliates are “assessing what’s possible during this period of uncertainty,” their leaders said in a statement, while recommending that patients seeking an abortion call their local health center to discuss their options.

“This legal victory is an important first step toward restoring abortion access in Texas, but the fight is not over,” Planned Parenthood South Texas’ Jeffrey Hons, Planned Parenthood Gulf Coast’s Melaney Linton and Planned Parenthood of Greater Texas’ Ken Lambrecht said in a joint statement. “The state has already appealed this ruling and we don’t know if or when this injunction could be lifted, and the law could be back in effect.”

ABC News’ Nicholas Kerr contributed to this report.

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(WASHINGTON) — A U.S. Navy nuclear-powered attack submarine collided with an unknown submerged object this weekend while traveling through international waters in the Pacific Ocean, according to the Navy.

The Navy describes the submarine as being in “safe and stable” condition and said it is making its way to port for a damage assessment that could help determine what it struck.

“The Seawolf-class fast-attack submarine USS Connecticut (SSN 22) struck an object while submerged on the afternoon of Oct. 2, while operating in international waters in the Indo-Pacific region,” said a statement from the Navy’s Pacific Fleet. “The safety of the crew remains the Navy’s top priority. There are no life threatening injuries.”

USNI News was first to report the incident involving the USS Connecticut.

Two sailors aboard the submarine were treated for what a Navy official described as “moderate injuries” and additional sailors received bumps, bruises and lacerations.

“The submarine remains in a safe and stable condition,” said the statement. “USS Connecticut’s nuclear propulsion plant and spaces were not affected and remain fully operational. The extent of damage to the remainder of the submarine is being assessed. The U.S. Navy has not requested assistance. The incident will be investigated.”

Officials said it remained unclear what the submarine struck while underwater. They said it could include stationary objects like a sea mount, an underwater sea mountain, or an object being towed by a surface vessel.

Two U.S .officials said the submarine is headed to the U.S. Naval Base Guam where a damage assessment of the submarine’s hull could help determine what the vessel struck underwater.

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(JOPLIN, Mont.) — A survivor of last month’s Amtrak train derailment in Montana said he “hung on for dear life” to a restroom handicap bar as the car he was in toppled on its side and skidded along a gravel embankment.

Justin Ruddell said during a news conference on Thursday that he suffered two broken vertebrae and five broken ribs in the Sept. 25 crash, and witnessed “death and destruction around me that I’ll never be able to forget.”

“I thought I was going to die,” said Ruddell, a mechanic from Klamath Falls, Oregon, adding that he also suffered injuries to his jaw and head.

The crash of the Amtrak Empire Builder train near Joplin, Montana, killed three people and injured more than 50. The National Transportation Safety Board and the Federal Railroad Administration are still investigating the incident.

Ruddell and three other injured passengers filed federal lawsuits in U.S. district court on Thursday against Amtrak and the BNSF Railway Company, which owns and operates the track on which the derailment occurred. The passengers accused Amtrak and BNSF of negligence, saying the crash was preventable.

Seven other injured passengers filed similar lawsuits earlier this week.

“This derailment should not be happening in this country in 2021. It’s inexcusable,” said attorney Henry Simmons of the Clifford Law Offices in Chicago, which is representing the injured passengers. “It should be a never-event and we are going to hold Amtrak and BNSF responsible, and we’re doing it for our clients and for the future of all traveling passengers in the United States.”

It’s the third time in five years lawsuits have been filed against Amtrak for a fatal derailment.

Amtrak and BNSF declined to comment when reached by ABC News, other than the following statement from Amtrak: “We are deeply saddened by the loss of life and injuries due to the derailment of the Empire Builder train on Sept. 25, near Joplin, Mont., on BNSF railroad. It is inappropriate for us to comment further on pending litigation.”

Ruddell said he was returning home after fulfilling a promise to a friend who died: to take a trip together to the East Coast. He was traveling with that friend’s ashes in a glass container.

“It was my first experience on an Amtrak train, and I was looking forward to a comfortable, relaxing ride across the country,” Ruddell said.

Moments before the crash, he said he left the train’s observation car and went into an adjoining car to use the restroom, soon after which the train “suddenly jolted and veered on its side.”

He said it was a “miracle” he survived.

“I could look outside the train and see all the gravel and dirt and everything that was outside along the tracks getting scooped up into the car as it was skidding down the side of the tracks,” he said. “If I were to let go, I would have fallen down and out that door, and got crushed by the train or ground up in the dirt.”

After fellow passengers helped him crawl from the wreckage, he went back to rescue his friend’s ashes.

“I was supposed to start a job after I got back, which I’m not able to. The pain is unreal,” Ruddell said. “I’m not able to sleep at night. I have a hard time eating because of the injury to my jaw. I never thought this was going to happen.”

The lawsuits also seek to challenge an Amtrak policy instituted in January 2019 requiring that legal action against the company be resolved through a mandatory arbitration process. Under the change, customers, upon purchasing a ticket, waive their right to sue Amtrak for any reason.

Simmons, the lawyer, called the Amtrak arbitration clause printed in fine print on the back of tickets “reprehensible” for a rail line funded and owned by taxpayers.

“When you get on a train like Amtrak are you really thinking about a train derailing and you holding on to a handicap bar while the train doors open and you’re looking at death’s door?” Simmons said. “People don’t look at the back of the ticket.”

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(NEW YORK) — The United States has been facing a COVID-19 surge as the more contagious delta variant continues to spread.

More than 708,000 Americans have died from COVID-19 while over 4.8 million people have died from the disease worldwide, according to real-time data compiled by the Center for Systems Science and Engineering at Johns Hopkins University.

Just 65.8% of Americans ages 12 and up are fully vaccinated against COVID-19, according to data from the CDC.

Latest headlines:
-Biden: Vaccination requirements result in more people getting vaccinated
-Hospitalizations drop but deaths remain high
-Pfizer submits kids vaccine emergency use authorization request to FDA

Here’s how the news is developing. All times Eastern.

Oct 07, 4:14 pm
Biden: Vaccination requirements result in more people getting vaccinated

COVID-19 cases are down 40% and hospitalizations have dropped 25% in the last month, President Joe Biden said Thursday during a visit to Illinois to promote vaccinations.

In the month since Biden announced a six-part plan to fight COVID-19, the president said there’s been “real progress across the board,” including with vaccine equity.

Biden said recent data shows Latino Americans, Black Americans, Native Americans and Asian Americans are vaccinated at comparable rates to white Americans.

“Our work on equity isn’t done, but it is an important piece of progress,” he said.

Biden said a new report released Thursday shows vaccination requirements result in more people getting vaccinated.

“In the past few weeks, as more and more organizations have implemented their own requirements, they’ve seen vaccination rates rise dramatically,” Biden said. “For example, the Department of Defense has gone from 67% of active duty forces being vaccinated to 97%. … We’re also seeing this at colleges… We’re going to see it in health systems around the country.”

Vaccination rates are also good for the economy as they help send people back to work, Biden said.

Oct 07, 1:37 pm
78% of adults have had 1 dose: White House

Seventy-eight percent of adults have now had at least one vaccine dose, White House COVID-19 data director Cyrus Shahpar tweeted.

Oct 07, 12:35 pm
Hospitalizations drop but deaths remain high

Hospitalizations in the U.S. have dropped from 104,000 to about 69,000 over the last five weeks, according to federal data.

More than a third of the drop was in Florida, where there are about 13,000 fewer patients compared to just over one month ago.

Daily COVID-19-related hospital admissions are also down nationally by 13.6% in the last week, according to federal data.

But states like Alaska and West Virginia, are still experiencing record-breaking surges, while Alabama, Kentucky, Georgia, Idaho and Texas still have ICU capacities near 10%.

Overnight, the U.S. reported nearly 2,000 COVID-19 related fatalities.

Around 1,400 virus-related deaths are being reported each day, which is nearly 7.5 times higher than in mid-July, according to federal data.

Texas is reporting thousands of deaths each week.

ABC News’ Arielle Mitropoulos

Oct 07, 9:00 am
United expects travel surge in December

United Airlines expects a travel surge and plans to fly 3,500 daily domestic flights in December, making it the largest schedule since the start of the pandemic.

Flight searches for the holidays are up 16% on the airline’s website and app compared to 2019.

Florida and ski resorts are expected to be the hottest destinations.

ABC News’ Sam Sweeney

 

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(NEW YORK) — The U.S. Marshals have located and fingerprinted the Los Angeles Dodgers fan seen on camera during a televised 2016 home game who they said closely resembled a long-missing and most wanted fugitive. But they have determined he is not their man.

The identification came just 48 hours after the U.S. Marshals went public with a photograph of the Dodger fan, eager to determine if he was John Ruffo, a swindler convicted of a $353 million bank fraud, who has been on the run for more than 23 years. The manhunt for Ruffo is the subject of season 2 of the ABC News podcast, “Have You Seen This Man.”

A relative of the Dodgers fan alerted the U.S. Marshals Tuesday night that the man seated five rows behind home plate during the 2016 game was, in fact, a different person altogether. He has requested privacy so ABC News is not naming him.

To be certain the man was not Ruffo, the Marshals conducted a swift background investigation and on Thursday traveled to his home to verify fingerprints. The read out proved it – they had the wrong guy.

The discovery put an end to one of the most vexing aspects of the manhunt – a lead that for more than five years remained unresolved for the U.S. Marshals. It meant the investigators would have to turn their attention to other leads in the decades-long search for Ruffo.

“The ones that are the worst are when you have no resolution. That’s what bothers me, is that you just don’t know, is that him or not? The Dodgers footage, is that him? Is that Ruffo? Or is it not?,” said Deputy Marshal Danielle Shimchick, the lead investigator on the Ruffo case.

Short and balding, the unassuming one-time computer salesman is now 66 years old. He is believed to have fled with approximately $13 million. There has not been a confirmed sighting of him since he stopped at an ATM in New York City in November 1998, the day he was supposed to report for a 17-year prison term. His car was found at New York’s JFK Airport.

The look-alike baseball fan from the L.A. suburbs had put his hands on some terrific seats, placing him just off center frame every time the television feed of the game focused on the batter. It was in that prime location that he caught the eye of John Ruffo’s cousin, Carmine Pascale, of New Hampshire.

Pascale was watching the Dodgers-Red Sox game on television on Aug. 5, 2016, when he said he spotted the familiar-looking man seated four rows behind home plate.

“I’m watching and right behind home plate, they did a close up of the batter and there’s Johnny. And I said, “Holy Christ, there he is,” said Pascale, a cousin who last saw Ruffo after his arrest in 1998. “And I immediately called the Marshals. I froze the frame, kept it right in front of me.”

He phoned the tip into the US Marshals, who had placed him on the agency’s 15 most wanted list.

Deputy Pat Valdenor, an L.A.-based Marshall, was assigned to followed up on the initial tip. He said it’s rare to get a tip accompanied with video evidence. He said the resemblance was strong.

“It does look like him. It could be him,” Valdenor said. “So that was my starting point. That was the lead that I got.”

Valdenor sought help from the Dodgers, who identified the seat in Dodgers Stadium where the man had been seated: Section 1 Dugout Club, Row EE, Seat 10. He sought through baseball team’s help in identifying who bought the ticket.

The Dodgers identified the ticket holder, but he had given the ticket away. The coveted seat behind home plate passed through so many hands, Valdenor spent weeks tracking the ticket but was ultimately unable to track it to the man who actually attended the game.

It was Valdenor who traveled to a Los Angeles suburb Thursday to fingerprint the man who had attended the game.

“You can clearly see the difference between the fingerprints,” Valdenor said. “Even without the fingerprints, there was the birth certificate, and I had his whole family in front of me — three generations. I could see it wasn’t Ruffo.”

Even though the manhunt for Ruffo goes forward, he could be satisfied that he had not missed a chance to catch Ruffo.

This report is part of Season 2 of the ABC News podcast, “Have You Seen This Man?,” hosted by “The View’s” Sunny Hostin. It follows the U.S. Marshals’ ongoing mission to find John Ruffo, who engineered one of the most outlandish frauds in U.S. history, vanished in 1998 and has never been found. A four-part Hulu Original limited series on the global search for Ruffo is currently in production from ABC News Longform. MORE HERE

 

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(ARAB, Ala.) — Four people, including a 4-year-old, have died in devastating flooding in Alabama.

Up to 13 inches of rain fell — with rates as high as 5 inches per hour — in Jefferson and Shelby counties, which includes Birmingham and hard-hit Pelham.

A 4-year-old girl and an 18-year-old woman died as a result of the flooding in Marshall County, located in northern Alabama, the county coroner’s office said.

In Hoover, near Birmingham, a 23-year-old-woman and 23-year-old man were found dead in their submerged car Thursday after being swept away in floodwaters Wednesday night, Hoover police said.

In Pelham, fire officials said they responded to 282 calls for service. Officials conducted 82 rescues from homes and over a dozen rescues from cars.

Schools in Pelham are closed Thursday due to the excessive flooding. A flash flood watch remains in effect through Thursday night.

The flash flooding threat is expanding Thursday into Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina and Florida.

Residents in Panama City, Montgomery, Birmingham, Atlanta and Asheville should be prepared for flooding.

East of Asheville, rainfall rates of 2 to 4 inches per hour have been reported. A state of emergency was issued in McDowell County, North Carolina.

By Friday, the Southeast will finally start to dry out as the heavy rain shifts into parts of the Appalachians and Mid-Atlantic.

 

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