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(ATLANTA) — Carol Yancey of the Atlanta metro area was planning to spend a festive Christmas holiday with her large extended family. But she said the threat of possibly contaminated water in Clayton County ended her holiday plans.

Boil water notices were issued last weekend and this week in Georgia’s Atlanta metro area counties, including Clayton, Butts, Forsyth, and parts of Dekalb, Haralson and Monroe. Freezing temperatures caused pipes to burst and valves to freeze, resulting in little to no water pressure in many homes.

The Environmental Protection Agency has previously said that a loss of water pressure could potentially lead to contamination in the water.

“This is the time you really get the community – the unity in it,” Yancey, a community activist, said. “We’re not waiting on elected officials. We’re stepping up and trying to do what we can – we find out something, we tell somebody else.”

Some Atlanta metro residents affected by the water boil advisory say they learned about the possibility of contaminated water from friends and relatives rather than water authority officials. With many local officials on break during the holidays, these residents say they took it upon themselves to help each other get through the ordeal.

Forsyth county resident Kristen Flory said she found out about the water boil notice from a friend a day after the county issued the advisory on Christmas on the water authority’s website. Forsyth lifted its water boil advisory on Dec. 28.

“I was just in shock that I had to go on their website to find out about the possible contaminants that could be in our water,” Flory said. “They should come out and send out a mass text saying, ‘Hey, just so everyone is aware, we had this happen and you need to boil your water until further notice.'”

Spokespeople for Butts, Forsyth and Haralson counties told ABC News that their agencies used a combination of alerts on their websites, social media posts and press announcements through local radio and TV to inform residents.

Local officials have established bottled water distribution sites for residents in the meantime. Forest Park in Clayton County distributed over 1900 cases of bottled water as of Dec. 27, doling out one case per family, according to Forest Park Mayor Angelyne Butler.

“I have to leave those details up to the Clayton County Water Authority,” Butler said when asked when the water system would return to normal. “We are asking for extreme patience during this time, as the water authority is working on a permanent resolve.”

Water authorities for counties that are still affected told ABC News that boil water notices should be lifted on Dec. 29 or 30 after testing results come in.

On the Clayton County Water Authority website, residents experiencing little to no water pressure are directed to call a phone number to notify the agency. But when ABC News tried to call the number on Wednesday evening an automated message stated that the service was experiencing system problems and was unable to process calls.

“I can imagine how inundated with calls and inquiries that they’re receiving at this time. But no, I have not heard of anything,” Butler said when asked if Forest Park residents have complained about not being able to get through to the Clayton County Water Authority.

Clayton County Water Authority General Manager Bernard Franks did not immediately reply to ABC News’ request for comment about the agency’s ability to respond to residents.

About 3,000 homes and businesses experienced low to no water pressure in Butts County, according to Alyssa Hopson, the Butts County Water Authority’s general manager. Other water authority officials that ABC News reached out to were unsure of the estimated number of homes affected.

The water in Forsyth County was likely not contaminated and the boil water advisories were initiated in an abundance of caution, according to Russell Brown, the county water authority’s director of communications and external affairs.

Yancey, who says she does a lot of community work in Clayton County, believes about half of the people she’s been in contact with in the county are experiencing water pressure issues.

Yancey has normal water pressure in her home, but plumbers had to tear down walls in her neighbor’s house to fix busted pipes and restore adequate water pressure.

“To know that infrastructure can shut you down, shut down the county, the water system,” Yancey said. “It reminds me of what went on earlier this year in Mississippi.”

Yancey is referring to the Jackson, Mississippi, water crisis earlier this year where its 150,000 residents were left with contaminated water and little to no water flow in their faucets after inclement weather debilitated its water infrastructure. Jackson residents are currently dealing with another water boil advisory because of freezing temperatures.

Despite the circumstances, residents in the Atlanta area say they have no choice but to trudge on.

“We’re just trying to make sure we bring awareness to the community at large,” Yancey said. “And we look out for each other because the last five letters of community is unity.”

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(BUFFALO, N.Y.) — Thirty-seven people have died in Erie County, New York, after a historic winter storm slammed Buffalo.

Fatalities including people found in cars, people found outside and cardiac events from shoveling or blowing snow, according to Erie County Executive Mark Poloncarz.

Monique Alexander

Among those killed was 52-year-old Monique Alexander, a Buffalo woman who doted on her three grandchildren, said her daughter, Casey Maccarone.

Alexander went out on Christmas Eve and never returned, Maccarone told ABC News.

“She never said where she was going, just that she would be right back,” she said.

“My mother was the rock of our family,” Maccarone said in a statement.

“You could count on her for anything, she was the caretaker every time someone needed them,” she said. “During the holidays she would even cook for neighbors or strangers who she knew didn’t have families, because she cared that much.”

William Clay

William Clay died on Dec. 24, which was his 56th birthday, his sister, Sophia Clay, told ABC News.

He was “an avid reader” and “very religious” and read his Bible every day, his sister said.

“There’s people in this world that can quote the Bible but it’s not in their hearts — he’s one of those people that it was in his heart. He spoke it, he lived it,” Sophia Clay said.

William Clay is survived by family including his son and two grandchildren.

“He was a great brother, he was a great grandfather, he was a great friend,” Sophia Clay said.

Abdul Sharifu

Abdul Sharifu, who died in the storm on Christmas Eve, would have turned 27 on Jan. 1, his cousin said.

His wife is pregnant and is due in about one week, The Buffalo News reported.

Sharifu, a refugee from the Congo, was known as someone who helped others around the neighborhood, the newspaper reported.

Anndel Taylor

Anndel Taylor, 22, got stuck in the snow when leaving work on Dec. 23, according to her sister, Tomeshia Brown. Taylor sent a video to a family group chat around midnight that night; the next morning, calls to Taylor went unanswered and the family later learned of her death, Brown said.

Taylor, who grew up in Charlotte, moved to Buffalo in the summer of 2021 to take care of her father, Brown said.

“She was the most kind-hearted and loving person,” Brown said in a statement. “She went to take care of him, but also build a career so she can take more care of her family here in Charlotte. That was her main focus: go back to school, help her dad…She came to visit every chance she could.”

ABC News’ Christopher Looft, Lena Camilletti and Layla Ferris contributed to this report.

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(NEW YORK) — The Mega Millions jackpot for Friday is expected to climb to $640 million, after no ticket matched all six winning numbers in Tuesday’s drawing, the lottery said.

“It’s by far the largest Mega Millions prize ever offered in the final week of any year, and could provide someone with a very happy New Year’s celebration,” the lottery said in a statement early Wednesday.

The cash prize option for Friday’s drawing is expected to top $328 million, the lottery said.

The winning numbers on Tuesday were 9, 13, 36, 59 and 61. The megaball was 11 and the megaplier was 2.

Players had also failed to win the top prize on Friday, sending the jackpot from roughly $510 million to $565 million, the second-largest Mega Millions jackpot this year. The cash prize option on Tuesday was $289.8 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.

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(NEW YORK) — Missing 11-year-old Madalina Cojocari’s parents “clearly” know more than they’ve told investigators, local police said on Tuesday.

The Cornelius Police Department offered an update into the steps it’s taken — with the help of the FBI and the North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation — in the 12 days since Cojocari was reported missing.

“We know everyone has a lot of questions,” Capt. Jennifer Thompson said in a video posted to Facebook. “We also have questions and are doing everything we can, with proper legal authority, to get those answers.”

She added, “This is a serious case of a child whose parents are clearly not telling us everything they know.”

The FBI last week released a surveillance video that investigators said showed the 11-year-old leaving her school bus on Nov. 21, which they said was the last confirmed sighting of the child.

Her parents told investigators she’s been missing since Nov. 23, but she was reported missing on Dec. 15, according to a police report.

Her parents — mother Diana Cojocari, 37, and stepfather, Christopher Palmiter, 60 — were both arrested on Dec. 17 and charged under a North Carolina law that requires guardians to notify police within “a reasonable time” when a child goes missing.

Each faces a felony charge of failure to report the disappearance of a child to law enforcement, police said in two statements. Both are scheduled to appear on Wednesday morning in Mecklenburg County Court, according to the local sheriff’s website.

Investigators have developed and followed about 250 leads in the 12 days they’ve been searching for the girl, Thompson said on Tuesday. Those leads have been “across state lines and across the globe,” she said.

“We have interviewed hundreds of people in North Carolina, other states, and, again, across the globe,” she said.

Police have knocked at about 245 homes as they’ve gone door-to-door in the Victoria Bay neighborhood around Madalina Cojocari’s home, Thompsons said. Investigators have “scoured” hours of surveillance video from local businesses.

“Investigators received multiple search warrants for Madalina’s home, to make sure we legally gathered each and every piece of evidence to find Madalina,” Thompson said.

Police said the girl’s school reached out to Diana Cojocari “several” times between Nov. 23 and Dec. 15, when the mother reported the girl missing at her school.

“One of the challenges in the case, simply put — we were not notified she was gone, a delay of three weeks,” Thompson said.

Officials have worked to piece together a timeline of Madalina Cojocari’s disappearance, according to an arrest sheet obtained by ABC News affiliate WSOC-TV.

Diana Cojocari told police she’d last seen the girl at about 10 p.m. on Nov. 23, according to the arrest sheet, which was dated Dec. 17.

Diana Cojocari told police “Madalina went to her room that night to go to bed. Diana stated her and her husband, Christopher Palmiter, argued that night and the next morning he drove to his family’s house in Michigan to recover some items,” law enforcement officials wrote in the arrest sheet.

Diana Cojocari said she went to check on her daughter at about 11:30 a.m. on Nov. 24, but the girl wasn’t in her room, according to the arrest sheet. Police said Diana Cojocari told them that she’d waited until Palmiter returned home, at about 7 p.m. on Nov. 26, to ask if he knew where Madalina Cojocari was.

Police “asked Diana why she did not report Madalina missing until” mid-December, and she “stated she was worried it might start a ‘conflict’ between her and Christopher,” officials wrote in the arrest sheet.

Palmiter told police that he’d asked Diana Cojocari where Madalina was when he’d returned from his trip, officials wrote.

“Chris stated he spoke with Diana several time[s] about Madalina’s whereabout[s] over the next three weeks,” the arrest sheet said, “and both stated they did not know where she was but they did not contact the police to report Madalina missing.”

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(NEW YORK) — Adam Fox, a militia member who plotted to kidnap Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, was sentenced to 16 years in prison on Tuesday, according to the Department of Justice.

After Fox’s first trial ended in a hung jury, he was found guilty in August of kidnapping conspiracy and conspiracy to use a weapon of mass destruction.

Fox, 39, faced up to life in prison.

“For his role in the plot to kidnap the Governor and trigger further violence, he will serve a long term in prison,” according to a statement from Andrew Birge, the former U.S. attorney for the Western District of Michigan who was appointed to oversee the trial. “Responding to domestic terrorism has been a priority for the Department of Justice since its founding. Rest assured: we will spare no effort to disrupt plots like these and hold those responsible accountable.”

Fox and another convicted militia member, Barry Croft Jr., “intended to kidnap Governor Whitmer from her vacation cottage near Elk Rapids, Michigan” in 2020 and use “destructive devices to facilitate their plot by harming and hindering the governor’s security detail and any responding law enforcement officers,” according to the Department of Justice.

Prosecutors said the men’s goal was to ignite a civil war.

More than a dozen people were arrested in the kidnapping plot. Fox and Croft were accused of the most serious charges.

Croft is set to be sentenced on Wednesday.

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(JACKSON, Miss.) — Jackson Mayor Chokwe Antar Lumumba declared a local state of emergency Tuesday after cold weather damaged the Mississippi capital’s water system last week.

Jackson — long plagued with water problems — issued a boil-water advisory on Christmas Day until further notice because of the broken system.

Describing the situation as the “worst case scenario,” Lumumba called on city residents to report leaks to aid in repair efforts and to shut off water taps to preserve water pressure.

“There is no way to prevent what is happening to our water treatment facilities,” Lumumba said during a press conference Tuesday. “We do not control mother nature.”

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.”

Lumumba was unclear about whether the water posed a risk to residents, instead describing the boil water notice more as a technicality due to EPA rules, which require a boil water notice when water pressure reaches below a certain level.

“When it drops below that threshold, that does not mean that they’ve been having trouble out of the plant in terms of the treatment of the water,” he said. “It means that when pressure goes below a certain threshold, it is our requirement by the EPA [and] the State Department of Health to issue a city-wide boil water notice.”

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.

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(BALTIMORE) — When John Gelinne Sr. and his son saw a small plane crash-land into an ice-covered creek near their Maryland home on Monday morning, they immediately jumped into action.

The two military men grabbed their kayaks and made their way out to the downed plane, which had landed in Beards Creek in Edgewater, not far from Lee Airport. They used shovels to propel themselves across the iced-over creek, as their paddles were rendered useless by the frozen water.

As the single-engine Piper Cherokee plane sank, the pilot was able to exit and stood on the wing while waiting for help, Maryland State Police said.

When the father and son reached the pilot, he was standing waist-deep in the freezing waters.

Gelinne Sr. said he told the pilot, “‘Get out of the water, just get out of the water and just hold tight.'”

“I just pick-axed backwards and got my kayak back out of the ice and he was out of the water,” Gelinne Sr., a retired naval officer, told Baltimore ABC affiliate WMAR.

Anne Arundel County Police Officer Elizabeth Myersalso also responded via kayak, using a screwdriver to skim across the ice. Body-camera footage shows her reaching the scene of the crash as the 71-year-old pilot, who was the sole occupant of the plane, is hanging on to Gelinne Sr.’s kayak.

A Maryland Department of Natural Resources Police vessel then reached the scene and took the pilot to an awaiting ambulance, police said. He was transported to a local hospital and received treatment for non-life-threatening injuries, authorities said.

The cause of the crash is under investigation, though the preliminary investigation indicates that the plane’s engine began sputtering “moments after the pilot took off from Lee Airport,” state police said.

“Witnesses told police they heard the sputter and shortly thereafter, they heard the plane crash into Beards Creek,” state police said in a statement.

The Gelinnes thought the plane was going to hit their house — until it landed in the creek.

“He recognized he was in trouble and he banked it hard left,” Gelinne Sr. told WMAR.

The father and son suspect the pilot saved lives with this maneuver.

“He probably saved himself and some houses around him, too,” John Gelinne Jr. told WMAR.

The kayakers were not injured in the rescue operation. Gelinne Jr., a U.S. Marine, was left impressed by his father’s actions.

“I’m sore, so I’m sure he’s pretty sore as well,” Gelinne Jr. told WMAR.

First responders hailed the Gelinnes for their quick thinking and likely life-saving actions in getting to the pilot quickly and pulling him partially out of the freezing water. Anne Arundel County Fire Department Lt. Jennifer Macallair called their efforts “heroic.”

Though Gelinne Sr. told WMAR he doesn’t see it that way.

“I look at it just as someone who saw something that needed to do something,” he said.

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(MANCHESTER, N.H.) — A mom is facing charges after she allegedly left her newborn in a tent in the freezing-cold New Hampshire woods, according to authorities.

At about 12:30 a.m. Monday, the Manchester Fire Department was dispatched to a reported pregnancy problem, and a woman told responders she gave birth prematurely in the woods, the department said.

Police and fire crews searched the area where the woman directed them but couldn’t find the baby, Manchester police said.

Crews spent about one hour looking for the newborn, but “the search was hampered by inconsistent information,” according to the Manchester Fire Department.

“After nearly an hour, the mother revealed the true location of the baby and led officers to the area,” the police department said.

Searchers found the newborn uncovered on the floor of a tent, the fire department said. The baby had been born that night, according to Manchester police spokesperson Heather Hamel.

The wind chill — what temperature it feels like — plunged to just 6 degrees that night. The baby was taken to a hospital and is “doing well,” Hamel told ABC News on Tuesday.

The mother, Alexandra Eckersley, 26, has been charged with felony reckless conduct, according to police. She was also facing an unrelated warrant for endangering the welfare of a child, police said.

Any baby up to one week old can be anonymously left at a New Hampshire fire station, as long as staff is there, the fire department said. Hospitals, occupied churches and occupied police stations also fall under the state’s Safe Haven law.

 

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(NEW YORK) — The nation’s airports have been mired by holiday travel chaos, as several major airlines have cancelled or severely delayed thousands of flights nationwide due to dangerous weather conditions, staffing issues and system meltdowns.

Many travelers are left wondering what their rights are during extreme flight delays and cancellations.

On Tuesday afternoon, data from Flight Aware showed that nearly 3,000 flights had been canceled within, into or out of the U.S., while more than 3,500 had been delayed, after a rough Monday for flying.

Southwest Airlines alone canceled at least 70% of its flights Monday and 62% on Tuesday and Wednesday.

What are your rights?

Under federal law, consumers are entitled to a refund if the airline cancels a flight, regardless of the reason, and the consumer chooses not to travel.

Consumers are also entitled to a refund if an airline “made a significant schedule change and/or significantly delays a flight and the consumer chooses not to travel,” according to the Department of Transportation (DOT).

The hang-up — DOT has not defined what constitutes a “significant delay.” According to the agency, whether you are entitled to a refund depends on multiple factors, including the length of the delay, the length of the flight and “your particular circumstances.”

In most cases, airlines will first offer you a travel voucher for future travel, Scott Keyes, founder of Scott’s Cheap Flights, told ABC News earlier this year.

“You do not have to click there and accept that travel voucher, because under federal law you’re entitled to a full cash refund,” Keyes said. “You may have to call the airline and demand to get that cash refund rather than the voucher.”

Keyes also said to contact the party you booked your travel with, whether that be the airline itself or a third-party like a travel agency.

“You have to go through whoever you booked your flight with. And so, if you booked it with a third party with an online travel agency, that’s who you’re going to have to chat with,” Keyes said. “The best practice is actually to book directly with the airline if the price is the same. Because when things go wrong, when they’re delays or cancelations, it’s far simpler.”

There are situations, however, where consumers are not entitled to a refund. According to DOT, travelers who purchase nonrefundable tickets, but are unable to travel for a personal reason, such as being sick or late to the airport, are not entitled to a refund.

What if your flight is oversold and you’re denied boarding?

On occasion, airlines may bump passengers from a trip when the flight is oversold. In cases such as this, airlines must first ask passengers to give up their seats voluntarily in exchange for compensation, according to DOT.

There is no limit on the amount of money or vouchers the airline can offer you, and passengers are free to negotiate.

If there aren’t enough volunteers in these situations, airlines can select passengers and involuntarily bump them off the flight. If you’re one of the unlucky few, the airline is required to compensate you in certain situations — including if the passenger had a confirmed reservation, the passenger checked into their flight on time, arrived to the gate on time, and if the airline cannot get you to your destination within one hour of your flight’s original arrival.

What if you decide to change your flight?

Consumers should know most U.S. carriers did away with change fees during the pandemic — meaning if you decide to change your flight, you’ll only have to pay the difference in fare.

ABC News’ Sam Sweeney and Kiara Alfonseca contributed to this report.

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(NEW YORK) — A dog that was stranded near a frozen waterfall in Utah on Christmas Eve was saved by search and rescue officials and reunited with her owner.

According to the Weber County Sheriff’s Office Search and Rescue, a local man was hiking near Waterfall Canyon on Saturday when he became separated from his dog Nala.

The unidentified hiker couldn’t find Nala by nightfall and resumed his search the morning of Christmas Day, the sheriff’s office wrote on its Facebook page.

The hiker’s family members contacted authorities around 1:00 p.m., local time, saying he wasn’t responding to their calls or text messages, officials said.

Nala’s owner answered one of the phone calls once he regained cellphone service and was able to let people know that Nala was around the waterfall, but couldn’t reach her because of the steepness and the icy condition of the terrain, according to Weber County Sheriff’s Office Search and Rescue.

The search and rescue team responded to the call and were able to save a skittish Nala after a little coaxing, officials said. ]

“Nala was cold with a few minor injuries, but was able to hike down with the rescuers,” officials wrote. “She is one tough puppy! Once reaching the trailhead parking lot, both human and canine couldn’t have been happier to be reunited.”

According to Waterfall Canyon it is a “moderately challenging,” 2.4-mile trail near Ogden, Utah, according to AllTrails. Ogden is around 38 miles north of Salt Lake City.

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