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(NEW YORK) — As the COVID-19 pandemic has swept the globe, more than 5.3 million people have died from the disease worldwide, including over 815,000 Americans, according to real-time data compiled by Johns Hopkins University’s Center for Systems Science and Engineering.

About 61.7% of the population in the United States is fully vaccinated against COVID-19, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

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

Dec 24, 1:25 pm
Another outbreak reported on cruise ship

A COVID-19 outbreak has been reported on the South Florida-based cruise ship Carnival Freedom as Florida sees a massive surge in cases.

Carnival said a “small number” of people tested positive and are in isolation, but the cruise line did not disclose how many.

All passengers were vaccinated and tested ahead of the trip, Carnival said.

Carnival Freedom left Miami on Dec. 18 and stopped in Curacao on Dec. 21. Stops in Bonaire and Aruba were canceled but instead the ship will visit Amber Cove in the Dominican Republic on Friday, Carnival said.

The ship will return as planned to Miami on Dec. 26, Carnival said.

This is the third cruise ship outbreak this week. On Thursday, Royal Caribbean’s Odyssey of the Seas ship reported 55 positive cases, days after setting sail from Florida. On Saturday, Royal Caribbean’s arrived in Miami with at least 48 confirmed cases, according to The Miami Herald.

ABC News’ Will Gretsky, Mina Kaji

Dec 24, 12:44 pm
UK breaks case record for 3rd day in a row

The United Kingdom recorded 122,186 new cases in the last 24 hours, according to official government data, setting a new record high for the third day in a row.

The U.K. has recorded 707,306 cases in the last week — a 48.2% jump from the previous week.

London has the highest proportion of cases for any region in England, with one in 20 people testing positive last week, according to new interim data from the U.K.’s Office for National Statistics.

ABC News’ Ibtissem Guenfoud

Dec 24, 11:36 am
New York sees record-smashing 44,431 cases in 1 day

New York state has set yet another daily case record with 44,431 new positive COVID-19 cases, Gov. Kathy Hochul announced Friday. This comes as New Yorkers seek testing in record numbers ahead of the holidays.

This breaks Thursday’s record high of 38,835 cases.

The governor on Friday also announced new return-to-work guidelines for critical workers who test positive. If a critical worker has tested positive but is vaccinated, they can return to work after five days if they are asymptomatic or no longer have symptoms.

In New York state 95% of adults have had at least one vaccine dose, Hochul said, but she stressed that one dose isn’t enough.

ABC News’ Alexandra Faul, Will McDuffie

Dec 24, 11:18 am
Delta cancellations continue into the weekend 

Delta’s flight cancellations are continuing into the weekend, with the airline citing “a combination of issues,” including weather and omicron.

“Up to 200 of 3,004 flights on Saturday may be canceled, and up to 150 are expected for Sunday,” Delta said.

So far on Christmas Eve there are 331 canceled flights between Delta, United and Alaska Airlines.

ABC News’ Mina Kaji

Dec 24, 9:39 am
White House to lift travel restrictions on southern African countries

The travel restrictions on eight southern African countries, put in place by the White House when omicron emerged, will be lifted on Dec. 31, according to a senior administration official.

This decision was recommended by the CDC for two reasons, the official said: vaccines and boosters have been determined to help prevent severe disease from omicron; and omicron is already prevalent in the U.S. and around the world so travel from those eight countries won’t have a major impact on U.S. cases.

Dec 24, 8:43 am
New record highs set in Illinois, Ohio, New York, New Jersey

New York and New Jersey set record case highs again on Thursday with 38,835 and 18,660 new daily cases respectively.

The new high came as New York saw a record high for testing as people check their status before seeing relatives for the holidays.

Illinois and Ohio also shattered pandemic case records Thursday with 18,942 and 15,989 new cases respectively, according to ABC Chicago station WLS and ABC Cincinnati affiliate WCPO.

Until this week, Ohio hadn’t seen over 12,000 daily cases since January, WCPO reported.

In response to the case surge in Cook County, Illinois, which encompasses Chicago, customers must show proof of vaccine inside restaurants, bars, gyms and entertainment venues beginning Jan. 3.

Dec 24, 8:19 am
Hawaii Bowl canceled

Friday’s Hawaii Bowl has been canceled after the University of Hawaii pulled out.

“The recent surge in COVID-19 cases has forced us to not participate in the game,” the university’s athletics director, David Matlin, said in a statement.

The team in a statement cited “COVID issues within the program” as well as “season-ending injuries and transfers.”

Friday’s game was supposed to be against the University of Memphis.

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(NEW YORK) — Gabby Petito’s parents and stepparents have established a foundation in her name aimed at fighting domestic violence and finding missing people.

The 22-year-old Petito went missing during a cross-country trip with her boyfriend, Brian Laundrie, and was later found killed in Wyoming. Laundrie, who was named a person of interest in the case, but never charged with her death, disappeared three days after Petito was reported missing by her family and was later found dead. His death was ruled a suicide.

Petito’s disappearance and death due to strangulation started a nationwide conversation on domestic violence.

“I don’t want to see this happen to another person. I know that we can’t save everybody, but I think that this — just awareness alone is giving people the strength,” Petito’s mother Nichole Schmidt said in an interview that aired on “Good Morning America.”

The foundation said it has already donated $50,000 to the Aware Foundation, Safe Space and the National Domestic Violence Hotline, all foundations with similar missions to fight domestic violence and help find missing persons.

The hotline said in a news release that in just over two months, it has been able to help more 300 people who contacted them after visiting the Petito Foundation website.

“If we can even be a small piece of support network for somebody else in a similar situation and try to just help them get through it, that’s it goes a long way,” said Jim Schmidt, Petito’s stepfather.

Despite saying they will never get closure in the case of Petito’s tragic death, they said their foundation’s work gives them hope.

“She’s doing a lot of good and she’s touched a lot of people,” said Joe Petito, Gabby Petito’s father.

On the eve of their first Christmas without their daughter, Gabby Petito’s mother said some days can be harder than others.

“We have our days where we just need to shut down and take a moment. But … the whole goal is prevention and helping other young people,” Nichole Schmidt said. “We hope that we save lives and in Gabby’s name and because of what happened to her, that that gives us a lot of hope.”

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(LOS ANGELES) — The 14-year-old girl believed to have been killed by a stray police bullet in a dressing room in Los Angeles was identified by the local coroner — a death the city’s police chief called “tragic.”

Two people were fatally shot in the incident, when officers opened fire during a confrontation with a suspect at the clothing store, police said.

The 14-year-old girl was identified by the LA County Coroner on Friday as Valentina Orellana Peralta. The coroner did not provide any further information regarding cause of death, but police said Thursday that preliminarily they believed she was struck by one of the rounds fired by officers at the suspect.

“This chaotic incident resulting in the death of an innocent child is tragic and devastating for everyone involved,” Chief Michel Moore said in a statement. “I am profoundly sorry for the loss of this young girl’s life and I know there are no words that can relieve the unimaginable pain for the family.”

The incident occurred shortly before noon Thursday at a Burlington store in North Hollywood, where police responded to reports of an assault with a deadly weapon, the Los Angeles Police Department said.

While searching for the suspect, “the officers encountered an individual who was in the process of assaulting another, and an officer-involved shooting occurred,” LAPD Capt. Stacy Spell told reporters during a news briefing.

The male suspect was shot by police and declared dead at the scene, LAPD said.

Police found the teenage victim during a search for additional suspects and victims and she was pronounced dead at the scene, police said.

Officials said the dressing room was directly behind the suspect and out of the officer’s view.

“At this time we believe it was a round coming from an officer,” LAPD Assistant Chief Dominic Choi told reporters Thursday evening.

The identity of the suspect has not been released.

A third person, a woman, was also injured during the alleged assault, Spell said, and was transported to the hospital. Investigators were still determining the extent and nature of her injuries.

It is also unclear if there was any connection between her and the suspect, Choi said.

Investigators were still determining what prompted the officers to open fire and what the alleged weapon was. Police have not found a gun during the search of the area at this time, Choi said.

“We’re at the very preliminary stages of this investigation,” Spell said. “There’s still a lot of surveillance video to review, there are witnesses to interview.”

Investigators will also be looking at police body-worn camera footage, which was on during the incident, Choi said. The officers involved in the shooting also still need to be interviewed, he said.

A Burlington spokesperson said the company is supporting authorities during the ongoing investigation.

“At Burlington, our hearts are heavy as a result of the tragic incident that occurred today at our North Hollywood, CA store,” the spokesperson said in a statement. “Our top priority is always the safety and well-being of our customers and associates.”

Copyright © 2021, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

(NEW YORK) — As the COVID-19 pandemic has swept the globe, more than 5.3 million people have died from the disease worldwide, including over 815,000 Americans, according to real-time data compiled by Johns Hopkins University’s Center for Systems Science and Engineering.

About 61.7% of the population in the United States is fully vaccinated against COVID-19, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Dec 24, 9:39 am
White House to lift travel restrictions on southern African countries

The travel restrictions on eight southern African countries, put in place by the White House when omicron emerged, will be lifted on Dec. 31, according to a senior administration official.

This decision was recommended by the CDC for two reasons, the official said: vaccines and boosters have been determined to help prevent severe disease from omicron; and omicron is already prevalent in the U.S. and around the world so travel from those eight countries won’t have a major impact on U.S. cases.

Dec 24, 8:43 am
New record highs set in Illinois, Ohio, New York, New Jersey

New York and New Jersey set record case highs again on Thursday with 38,835 and 18,660 new daily cases respectively.

The new high came as New York saw a record high for testing as people check their status before seeing relatives for the holidays.

Illinois and Ohio also shattered pandemic case records Thursday with 18,942 and 15,989 new cases respectively, according to ABC Chicago station WLS and ABC Cincinnati affiliate WCPO.

Until this week, Ohio hadn’t seen over 12,000 daily cases since January, WCPO reported.

In response to the case surge in Cook County, Illinois, which encompasses Chicago, customers must show proof of vaccine inside restaurants, bars, gyms and entertainment venues beginning Jan. 3.

Dec 24, 8:19 am
Hawaii Bowl canceled

Friday’s Hawaii Bowl has been canceled after the University of Hawaii pulled out.

“The recent surge in COVID-19 cases has forced us to not participate in the game,” the university’s athletics director, David Matlin, said in a statement.

The team in a statement cited “COVID issues within the program” as well as “season-ending injuries and transfers.”

Friday’s game was supposed to be against the University of Memphis.

Dec 23, 7:11 pm
Major nurses’ union condemns new CDC health care quarantine guidance

Not long after the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention updated its quarantine guidance for health care workers, the largest union of registered nurses fired back at the agency calling the shorter isolation period “dangerous.”

National Nurses United (NNU) contended the update, which allows workers with COVID-19 to return to work seven days with a negative test if they are asymptomatic, would result in more transmission of the virus and focuses on profit margins, rather than stopping the spread.

“Sending frontline nurses and other health care workers to work while infected would be dangerous,” NNU President Zenei Triunfo-Cortez said in a statement.

ABC News’ Sasha Pezenik

Dec 23, 6:41 pm
CDC updates quarantine guidance for health care workers

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention updated its guidance to health care workers who need to quarantine.

The updated rules come as health care facilities around the country are reporting staff shortages brought on by the rise in omicron cases.

Under the new guidance, the CDC said health care workers with COVID-19 and who are asymptomatic can return to work after seven days with a negative test.

“Isolation time can be cut further if there are staffing shortages,” the agency said in its updated guidance.

Health care workers who received both vaccine doses and a booster don’t need to quarantine following high-risk exposures, the CDC said.

ABC News’ Anne Flaherty

Copyright © 2021, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

(NEW YORK) — While Santa Claus may be busy this time of year, Shawn Triplett is certainly the next best thing.

Nearly two weeks ago, a slew of tornadoes upended the lives of thousands near Triplett’s hometown of Mayfield, Kentucky. Triplett, a retired Marine, said he rushed to town immediately to see how he could help.

“I’ve been deployed three times, and I’ve seen the worst,” Triplett said. “It was just absolute war zone destruction everywhere.”

Triplett said that while he was visiting a storm shelter, he overheard a little boy tell his mother, “I lost my Christmas.”

After that, he put a call out on social media, he said. His goal was to help 20 to 30 kids who were at storm shelters for the holidays.

“I reached out to my social media, friends and family and said, ‘This is what I’m doing. Please trust me that this is going to happen. Let’s get to work,'” said Triplett, whose post went viral.

Since then, he has raised nearly $95,000 from donations all over the world to buy holiday presents for Kentucky storm victims in just over a week.

“It’s really been pretty cool, because I don’t really I don’t speak Japanese or French, so I’ve had to go use Google Translate to reply back to people and just thank them,” Triplett said.

After partnering with a local Walmart, Triplett and his hardworking team of volunteers have wrapped each gift.

“They probably wrapped close to 4,000 toys in three days,” Triplett said. “It was an assembly line of epic proportions, and they were so good at it.”

Once the gifts are tied with a Christmas bow, Triplett puts on his red hat and coat and gets to work. He and his team of volunteers have delivered more than 20,000 toys and counting.

“If we can distract them from that trauma even for just a few hours, it can mean the world to them,” he said. “They can have all this destruction all around them, but still find happiness.”

Copyright © 2021, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

(NEW YORK) — On Christmas Day, NASA is launching into space its biggest, most expensive and most powerful telescope yet.

The James Webb Space Telescope will rocket into the cosmos and orbit nearly 1 million miles away from Earth.

If the launch is successful, the telescope will spend five to 10 years studying the formation of the universe’s earliest galaxies, how they compare to today’s galaxies, how our solar system developed and if there is life on other planets.

ABC News explains how the telescope works, how it compares to its predecessor — the Hubble Telescope — and what needs to happen for the mission to go just right.

 

 

The history of the Webb Telescope

The Webb Telescope was jointly developed by NASA, the European Space Agency and the Canadian Space Agency.

Development first began in 1996, when it was known as the Next Generation Space Telescope, before it was renamed in September 2002 after James Webb, who was the head of NASA in the 1960s and helped launch the Apollo program that eventually went to the moon.

The project suffered from numerous setbacks and delays, including a redesign into 2005, and ended up costing $10 billion.

Construction was completed in 2016, and the Webb Telescope underwent extensive testing before it was approved for launch.

How does it work?

The Webb Telescope is an infrared telescope, meaning it uses infrared radiation to detect objects in space.

It is able to observe celestial bodies, such as stars, nebulae and planets, that are too cool or too faint to be observed in visible light — what is visible to the human eye.

Infrared radiation is also able to pass through gas and dust, which appear opaque to the human eye, according to NASA.

This is different from the Hubble Telescope, which sees visible light, ultraviolet radiation and near-infrared radiation.

What are the goals of the Webb Telescope?

There are four goals of the Webb Telescope. Firstly, scientists want to study the first stars and galaxies formed right after the Big Bang.

Normally, humans wouldn’t be able to see this because, as light travels through the universe, it gets stretched and becomes infrared, which is invisible to the naked eye.

But an infrared telescope will be able to detect this light, which has been traveling toward Earth for more than 13 billion years, essentially allowing the Webb Big Bang to look back in time.

This leads to the second part of the mission: comparing the galaxies from the past to those of today.

Thirdly, because infrared radiation can pass through astronomical dust, which can’t be viewed on a visible-light telescope — such as Hubble — the Webb Telescope will be able to study how stars and planetary systems, such as our solar system, formed, NASA explained.

Lastly, the telescope will study planets outside of our solar system to see if there are any signs of life or if they have atmospheres capable of sustaining life.

What is needed for the mission to be successful?

According to a report conducted by an independent review board in 2018, there are 344 “single-point failures,” or steps that need to work for the mission to succeed.

The telescope will be tucked inside the nose of an Ariane 5 rocket and will be launched from the European Space Agency’s Spaceport in French Guiana around 7:20 a.m. ET, according to the official countdown.

It will separate from the rocket after the launch and begin unfolding. According to NASA, about 30 minutes after the launch, the solar panels will unfold so the telescope can get power from the sun.

About two hours later, the antenna will deploy, so the telescope can communicate back to Earth.

Three days later, the sunshield, which is 69.5 feet by 46.5 feet — about the size of a tennis court — will deploy.

In order for the instruments aboard to work, they need to be kept at extremely cold temperatures: -370 degrees Fahrenheit or lower. The sunshield protects the telescope from the heat of the sun and keeps the instruments cold.

Next, the mirrors will start unfolding and latching into place so they can reflect light.

Overall, it will take 29 days for the telescope to reach the final stop on its journey and settle into orbit nearly 1 million miles from Earth.

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(NEW YORK) — Revered journalist and author Joan Didion died Thursday at her home in New York City due to complications from Parkinson’s disease, her longtime publisher confirmed to ABC News. She was 87-years-old.

Didion was known as one of most incisive writers of her time, penning screenplays, novels and works of nonfiction, including two books about her own personal losses: “The Year of Magical Thinking” and “Blue Nights.”

“Joan was a brilliant observer and listener, a wise and subtle teller of truths about our present and future. She was fierce and fearless in her reporting. Her writing is timeless and powerful, and her prose has influenced millions,” her editor, Shelley Wanger, said in a statement. “She was a close and longtime friend, loved by many, including those of us who worked with her at Knopf. We will mourn her death but celebrate her life, knowing that her work will inspire generations of readers and writers to come.”

Born in Sacramento, Didion was a graduate of the University of California, Berkeley, and went on to live in New York City, where she launched her career as a journalist, working at Vogue. Her first book, “Run River,” was published in 1963; other novels included “A Book of Common Prayer,” “Democracy” and “The Last Thing He Wanted.”

The next year, Didion married fellow writer John Gregory Dunne, who became her longtime collaborator. Together, they moved to California and worked on screenplays for “The Panic in Needle Park,” “Play It As It Lays,” based on her novel of the same name about Hollywood and depression, and “A Star Is Born,” among others.

In 1967, Didion and Dunne adopted their daughter, Quintana Roo.

Didion documented her time in California in the ’60s, including an unflinching look at the counterculture movement, in an essay collection, “Slouching Towards Bethlehem,” that became iconic.

“My only advantage as a reporter is that I am so physically small, so temperamentally unobtrusive, and so neurotically inarticulate that people tend to forget that my presence runs counter to their best interests. And it always does,” she wrote as part of that collection.

Alongside “The White Album,” a later collection of essays, Didion established herself as a storyteller for California in the second half of the 20th century.

Through the last two decades of the 20th century, Didion wrote about the Central Park Five, El Salvador and the Cold War, and plenty on American politics, among many other topics — sometimes as reporting and nonfiction essays, sometimes as novels.

“The narrative is made up of many such understandings, tacit agreements, small and large, to overlook the observable in the interests of obtaining a dramatic story line,” she wrote in a 1988 piece for The New York Review about presidential election campaigns.

Even as she had said “Goodbye to All That,” Didion kept a foot in New York for the rest of her life. Into the 2000s, Didion and Dunne lived in a New York City apartment, where Dunne died in late December 2003 of a sudden heart attack.

She wrote a memoir, “The Year of Magical Thinking,” as a sort of attempt to understand her husband’s death. With her characteristic specificity and thoughtfulness, she reported on her own thoughts in the year after Dunne’s death, a portrait that earned her the National Book Award for Fiction in 2005.

As her husband died, their daughter, Quintana, was in the hospital with pneumonia and septic shock. While Quintana ultimately survived that, she died a year and a half later, in August 2005, shortly before “The Year of Magical Thinking” was published, after a fall. After her daughter’s death, Didion wrote “Blue Nights,” published in 2011, a kaleidoscopic rumination on motherhood, illness and death, and Quintana.

Didion, a 2013 recipient of the National Medal of Arts and Humanities, had her latest essay collection, “Let Me Tell You What I Mean,” published earlier this year.

“All I knew then was what I couldn’t do,” Didion wrote about her college years, in a 1976 piece for the New York Times titled “Why I Write.” “All I knew then was what I wasn’t, and it took me some years to discover what I was.

Which was a writer.”

Copyright © 2021, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

(LOS ANGELES) — Two people were fatally shot, including a 14-year-old girl struck by a stray bullet that entered her dressing room, after officers opened fire during a confrontation with a suspect at a Los Angeles clothing store, police said.

The incident occurred shortly before noon Thursday at a Burlington store in North Hollywood, where Los Angeles police responded to reports of an assault with a deadly weapon, the Los Angeles Police Department said.

While searching for the suspect, “the officers encountered an individual who was in the process of assaulting another, and an officer-involved shooting occurred,” LAPD Capt. Stacy Spell told reporters during a news briefing.

The suspect, an adult man, was shot by police and declared dead at the scene, LAPD said.

A second person was also shot during the incident, whom LAPD later identified as a 14-year-old girl.

Police believe the teenager was struck by an officer’s bullet fired at the assault suspect that penetrated a wall into her dressing room, LAPD said in an update Thursday evening. She was found during a search for additional suspects and victims and pronounced dead at the scene, police said.

“At this time we believe it was a round coming from an officer,” LAPD Assistant Chief Dominic Choi told reporters Thursday evening.

The identities of the teenager and suspect have not been released.

A third person, a woman, was also injured during the alleged assault, Spell said, and was transported to the hospital. Investigators were still determining the extent and nature of her injuries.

It is also unclear if there was any connection between her and the suspect, Choi said.

Investigators were still determining what prompted the officers to open fire and what the alleged weapon was. Police have not found a gun during the search of the area at this time, Choi said.

“We’re at the very preliminary stages of this investigation,” Spell said. “There’s still a lot of surveillance video to review, there are witnesses to interview.”

Investigators will also be looking at police body-worn camera footage, which was on during the incident, Choi said. The officers involved in the shooting also still need to be interviewed, he said.

A Burlington spokesperson said the company is supporting authorities during the ongoing investigation.

“At Burlington, our hearts are heavy as a result of the tragic incident that occurred today at our North Hollywood, CA store,” the spokesperson said in a statement. “Our top priority is always the safety and well-being of our customers and associates.”

Copyright © 2021, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

(NEW YORK) — A security assessment issued Thursday said there is no “credible” threat at this time ahead of next week’s New Year’s Eve celebration in New York City’s Times Square, which will bring back a limited crowd after last year’s virtual event.

Law enforcement agencies “have no information to indicate a credible, specific threat to, or associated with, the 2021-2022 Times Square New Year’s Eve Celebration,” according to the assessment, which was obtained by ABC News.

The threat assessment does indicate a general concern about “the sustained interest of homegrown violent extremists and domestic violent extremists in targeting mass gatherings despite the lack of information indicating a credible, specific threat.”

The city will allow 15,000 people at this year’s scaled-back ball drop, which was closed to crowds last year due to the pandemic. With spectators returning, law enforcement officials are concerned about lone offenders or small groups potentially targeting the event.

“[Homegrown violent extremists] are of particular concern due to their ability to remain undetected until operational, their willingness to attack civilians and soft targets, and their ability to inflict significant casualties with simple tactics,” the assessment stated.

Domestic terrorists could also be inspired to target the celebration, the assessment stated, citing “likely non-credible online posts mentioning the event as a potential opportunity to launch attacks.”

The FBI, Department of Homeland Security’s Office of Intelligence and Analysis, New York City Police Department, AMTRAK Police Department and Port Authority Police Department issued the threat assessment.

The city typically allows 58,000 people in viewing areas at the Times Square celebration. The smaller attendance at this year’s event will allow for social distancing, according to the mayor’s office, which announced the capacity limits Thursday as COVID-19 cases spike in the city.

Those who attend will be required to show proof of vaccination and wear masks, the office also announced. Guest entry will also begin at 3 p.m., which is “much later” than past years, it said.

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(NEW YORK) — Weather alerts are in effect from California to the Texas Panhandle, and rounds of heavy mountain snow, rain and strong winds are expected to impact much of the western U.S. in the coming days.

As of Thursday afternoon, mountain snow is falling at higher elevations in the Cascades down into the northern Sierra Nevada. Also, heavy rain is moving through parts of California, particularly through Southern California.

Officials are warning that torrential rain could trigger flash flooding, mudslides and debris flows, especially across regions burned by wildfires. A flood watch has been issued from Orange County, California, to San Diego.

Several feet of heavy mountain snow is expected to fall across much of the Sierra Nevada in California though Sunday. Some of the highest peaks in the Sierra Nevada could see up to 10 feet of snow by the end of the weekend.

Strong winds could increase avalanche risk in parts of the region, officials warn. An avalanche warning is in effect through at least Friday morning for parts of the region, including the greater Lake Tahoe area.

Also, the Rockies will eventually see at least a foot of snow heading into the weekend. Winter weather alerts are in effect across much of the mountain west with wind alerts in some areas as well.

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