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(KILLEEN, Texas) — A small county in Texas is bracing for a state of emergency when hundreds of thousands of skywatchers are expected to flock to the South for the total solar eclipse in April.

Bell County Judge David Blackburn issued a local disaster declaration this week, ahead of the April 8 natural phenomenon, saying the county’s population of 400,000 residents is expected to double in tourists.

The declaration allows Bell County to coordinate with the state’s Department of Emergency Management if needed on eclipse day.

“In order to protect the health, safety, and welfare of both residents and visitors, Bell County has determined that extraordinary measures must be taken in the form of a local disaster declaration,” the county said in a press release Wednesday.

Bell County is expecting the influx of eclipse viewers in the area to cause traffic congestion, shortages of food and fuel and cellular network congestion, according to the release.

The declaration also requires property owners planning to host events with over 50 attendees to register with the county to ensure proper “life safety and critical infrastructure” is in place.

“Registering information will provide public safety officials and first responders with important information that will aid them during this period when roads and highways may be stressed, and responders may be impeded by population conditions,” the release notes.

A total solar eclipse occurs when the moon passes between the sun and the Earth and, for a short time, completely blocks the face of the sun, according to NASA.

In the U.S., the path of totality begins in Texas and will travel through Oklahoma, Arkansas, Missouri, Illinois, Kentucky, Indiana, Ohio, Pennsylvania, New York, Vermont, New Hampshire and Maine. Small parts of Tennessee and Michigan will also experience the total solar eclipse, the agency reports.

April’s total solar eclipse will be the last of its kind to occur in North America for 20 years and is expected to be the largest mass travel event in 2024, Michael Zeiler, expert solar eclipse cartographer, told ABC News.

Zeiler compared eclipse day travel to “50 simultaneous Super Bowls across the nation,” saying 4 million people are estimated to travel to view the eclipse.

“When you look at the number of people expected to come to the path of totality for the solar eclipse, we estimate those numbers are roughly the equivalent of 50 simultaneous Super Bowls across the nation, from Texas to Maine,” he said.

Zeiler said Texas is a prime place for eclipse chasers to head to because it is located in the path of totality and has the best chances for clear skies on eclipse day.

“You want to be in the center of the path for the longest duration,” Zeiler explained. “If you have a friend or relative in the path in Texas, and there are 12 million Texans inside the path, that’s the spot to go because that’s where the best weather prospects are.”

Zeiler explained how eclipse travel should be celebrated, despite the hazard of heavy tourism, “All of us are united in pursuing the unimaginable beauty of a total solar eclipse.”

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(NEW YORK) — Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg criticized his Maricopa County, Arizona, counterpart who doesn’t want to extradite a New York City murder suspect, saying she’s playing “political games in a murder case.”

Raad Almansoori, 26, is in custody in Arizona, where he is charged in two stabbings. He is also the suspect in the death of Denisse Oleas-Arancibia, 38, who was found beaten and strangled at New York’s SoHo 54 Hotel earlier this month.

Bragg said he learned from Maricopa County Attorney Rachel Mitchell’s Wednesday news conference that Mitchell would not extradite Almansoori.

“Her reasoning?” Bragg said at a news conference Thursday. “Not because that’s what the law dictates. Not because that’s what advances justice. Not because of a concern for victims. Not at the request of the NYPD. But rather, plain and simple, old-fashioned grandstanding and politics.”

“That should have no place in our profession,” Bragg said. “It is deeply disturbing to me that a member of my profession … would choose to play political games in a murder case.”

Mitchell said at her news conference Wednesday that she would not agree to send Almansoori to New York.

“Having observed the treatment of violent criminals in the New York area by the Manhattan DA there, Alvin Bragg,” Mitchell said, “I think it’s safer to keep him here and keep him in custody, so that he cannot be doing this to individuals either in our state or county, or anywhere in the United States.”

Mitchell “professes concern that a murder suspect in Manhattan would be released?” Bragg responded at his news conference. “I do not know what they do in Arizona, but I know that here in this county, New York County, we routinely seek and get remand … in our murder cases.”

Bragg said shootings in Manhattan decreased by 38% and homicides have dropped 24% during his two years as DA.

He stressed that New York City’s murder rate is less than half Phoenix’s rate.

Almansoori is facing charges of attempted homicide, theft of means and aggravated assault in Surprise, Arizona, and robbery, assault, theft and criminal damage in Phoenix, police said. He is being held without bond.

The Arizona and New York crimes are both important, Bragg said, but he slammed Mitchell for not calling him to speak about the cases and instead holding a news conference.

Moving forward, Bragg said he hopes to have “regular, professional conversations” about Almansoori’s extradition.

If Almansoori agrees to be extradited to New York, “it’s a moot issue,” Bragg said, but if he does not agree to be extradited, Bragg said his office would likely prepare an extradition package.

Bragg said that extradition package would be reviewed by the governor, not a local prosecutor.

“This is not the Maricopa County attorney’s decision, and I’m hoping that facts, law, justice and reason will prevail,” he said.

Almansoori was arrested in Arizona on Feb. 18 after he allegedly stabbed a woman and stole a car, authorities said. While in custody, Almansoori allegedly indicated to police that he was involved in another stabbing in Arizona, a deadly attack in New York City and an attack in Florida, authorities said.

ABC News’ Aaron Katersky and Alex Stone contributed to this report.

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(ATHENS, Ga.) — Foul play is suspected after a woman who went for a run on the University of Georgia’s Athens campus was found dead Thursday, school officials said.

A friend reported the woman missing shortly after noon after she failed to return home from a run at the school’s intramural fields earlier that morning, the university said.

University police officers subsequently found her in a wooded area behind a lake near the fields “unconscious and not breathing” with “visible injuries,” the university said. Officers attempted to provide medical aid but she was pronounced dead at the scene.

The name of the woman has not been released. The university did not say whether she was a student.

The Georgia Bureau of Investigation and Athens-Clarke County Police Department are assisting in an investigation into the death, the university said.

“We have been fully briefed on this terrible situation,” the university said in a statement. “We want to assure you that the safety and welfare of our campus community is our top concern.”

The incident follows the “sudden death” of a student in the campus’ Brumby Hall Wednesday night, the school said. A cause of death has not been released.

Classes have been canceled Thursday evening and Friday and will resume on Monday, the school said, calling the past 24 hours a “traumatic time” for the university.

University officials recommended that students travel in groups when possible and download the school’s safety app.

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(DENVER) — A monument honoring the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., created by the nation’s first African American NASA astronaut candidate, was vandalized in a Denver park this week by perpetrators who pried off a large bronze plaque and other pieces from the statue’s pedestal, authorities said.

The damage to the “I Have a Dream” monument in City Park occurred in the middle of Black History Month and was discovered Wednesday morning by a concerned citizen, according to Vern Howard, chairman of the Martin Luther King Jr. Colorado Holiday Commission.

Howard, who was the project manager on the monument, told ABC News Thursday he suspects the vandalism and theft was a “coordinated effort,” saying the largest piece taken from the monument was too heavy to have been carried off by a single individual.

He said that while some people he has spoken to about the incident believe the parts were taken to be sold on the black market, he suspects the crime was racially motivated.

“I believe that it was more sinister than what may meet the eye,” said Howard.

Howard said Denver is full of bronze art, including five other bronze statues in City Park that would have been easier to steal.

“The Dr. King monument is lit at night, the lights are on. And the Dr. King monument is also on the main thoroughfare as you go through the park,” Howard said. “Well, guess what? There are other monuments in City Park that are not lit. They are literally in the dark. So, it’s a heck of a lot more daring and challenging to go after the Dr. King monument.”

The Denver Police Department Bias Motivated Crime Unit has launched an investigation and police are asking for the public’s help in catching the culprits.

The city of Denver commissioned sculptor Ed Dwight, the first African American NASA astronaut candidate, to create the monument, which also features bronze statues of Frederick Douglass, Mahatma Gandhi, Rosa Parks and Sojourner Truth.

“Obviously, I’m extremely disappointed. But it was sitting there waiting to be vandalized,” the 90-year-old Dwight told ABC News on Thursday, citing the lack of security cameras or other means to protect the monument.

Dwight estimated the large bronze plaque stolen from the monument weighs more than 200 pounds. The plaque depicts African Americans who served in the United States military from the Revolutionary War to the Vietnam War.

Two smaller bronze pieces pried off and taken from the monument were of a unity torch and choir lady.

“It’s one of my big successes in my body of work,” said Dwight, who lives in Denver. “It attracts people from all over the world that come here just to see this memorial. So for somebody to come and vandalize it is just disgusting to tell you the truth.”

Dwight said the stolen bronze plaque is curved at the same radius as the pedestal and will be difficult to replace because the molds he used to create it no longer exist.

Howard said the entire monument is valued at $3 million and that the swiped plaque is worth about $75,000.

“This will not deter us. We will continue to march. We will continue to seek justice. We will continue to seek love,” Howard said.

In late January, a bronze statue of Jackie Robinson, the legendary Brooklyn Dodgers player who broke Major League Baseball’s color barrier in 1947, was stolen from a park in Wichita, Kansas. The Robinson statue, which had been cut off at the ankles, was later found dismantled and burned in a trash can. A 45-year-old man was arrested and charged with felony theft valued at more than $25,000, aggravated criminal damage to property, identity theft and making false information, according to the Wichita Police Department.

Police said they are “very confident” that the theft of the Robinson statue was not a race-related crime, but that it was stolen for the potential financial value of the metal. Investigators are still trying to identify other individuals involved in the theft.

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(HOUSTON) — A Houston-based company is attempting to make the first-ever commercial moon landing on Thursday, and the first by a U.S.-built spacecraft in more than 50 years.

Intuitive Machines’ lander, named Odysseus, launched last week from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida and entered lunar orbit on Wednesday.

It will orbit the moon for about one day before beginning its descent and will attempt to soft-land near the south pole at 6:24 p.m. ET, according to NASA. However, video of the landing will be delayed reaching Earth by at least 45 minutes.

The lander is carrying five NASA instruments, including a radio beacon meant to transmit precise geolocation and cameras that capture how the surface of the moon changes from interactions with the engine plume of the spacecraft, as well as commercial cargo.

If the landing is successful, Odysseus — nicknamed “Odie” by employees — will have seven days before darkness descends on the landing site, which will prevent the spacecraft’s solar panels from gathering energy from sunlight and bringing freezing temperatures.

Intuitive Machines was one of several companies approved by NASA under Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) contracts to build private lunar landers that the federal space agency, among others, would use to send instruments into space.

Steve Altemus, president and CEO of Intuitive Machines, said the company’s employees’ names are engraved into the footer to permanently stamp their names on the lunar surface.

“I had everyone’s name etched on the bottom of the landing gear so that their names will be indelibly printed on the moon when we touch down softly,” he told ABC News.

This is the third attempt to land on the moon this year. In early January, the Peregrine lunar lander, built by Astrobotic, developed a critical fuel leak, forcing it to return to Earth and burn upon re-entry.

Meanwhile, Japan launched a rocket to the moon in September 2023 and landed on Jan. 19, becoming the fifth country to do so. However, the lunar lander landed upside down and could not deploy its solar arrays.

“There’s reduced gravity There’s very little atmosphere, lot of dust, and so the engineers have to speculate how a spacecraft would behave in that type of environment, right? And it doesn’t exist here on Earth,” Regina Blue, NASA’s CLPS deputy program manager, told ABC News, explaining why it’s so difficult to land on the moon.

“So they have to spend lots of hours testing and testing and doing more testing and even that, getting into that environment there is a good amount of unpredictability, so that makes it very, very hard,” she continued.

These robotic missions are important to explore the moon as NASA and the Canadian Space Agency prepare to send four astronauts to fly around the moon in the upcoming Artemis II mission next year. If the mission is successful, Artemis III — a moon landing — is scheduled for 2026.

The Artemis team will be made up of three Americans — Victor Glover, Christina Hammock Koch, and Reid Wiseman — and one Canadian, Jeremy Hansen.

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(NEW YORK) — A network disruption affected AT&T customers in the U.S. Thursday, prompting federal agencies to investigate whether the outage was caused by a cyberattack.

In a statement to ABC News, the company confirmed the outage and advised customers to make calls over Wi-Fi.

“Some of our customers are experiencing wireless service interruptions this morning. We are working urgently to restore service to them. We encourage the use of Wi-Fi calling until service is restored,” an AT&T spokesperson said.

Later Thursday afternoon, AT&T issued an update saying that its network had been fully restored.

“We have restored wireless service to all our affected customers. We sincerely apologize to them. Keeping our customers connected remains our top priority, and we are taking steps to ensure our customers do not experience this again in the future,” the company said in a message on its website.

Two sources briefed on the situation told ABC News that the FBI and Department of Homeland Security (DHS), among other agencies, are now urgently investigating to determine whether the AT&T outages are the result of a cyberattack or a hack, or simply some sort of technical malfunction.

As of 5:00 a.m. ET, the U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) reported, according to a confidential memo obtained by ABC News, that “the cause of the outage is unknown and there are no indications of malicious activity.” CISA is an agency within DHS tasked with monitoring cyber threats.

The FCC has been in touch with AT&T and conversations are ongoing to figure out what’s causing today’s outages, according to National Security Communications Advisor John Kirby.

This afternoon, Kirby told reporters that DHS and the FBI are looking into the outages as well, and are working with the tech industry and network providers to see what can be done “from a federal perspective to enhance their investigative efforts to figure out what happened here.”

“The bottom line is we don’t have all the answers,” he said. “We’re working very hard to see if we can get to the ground truth of exactly what happened.”

Several police departments and municipalities warned local residents of what they described as a nationwide outage. In turn, officials urged callers to contact emergency services by alternative means.

“There is a nationwide AT&T outage that is preventing wireless customers from making and receiving any phone calls (including to 9-1-1),” the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department, which serves the Charlotte, North Carolina area, said in a post on X.

The county government in Fairfax, Virginia released a similar warning.

“There is a nationwide AT&T outage that is preventing wireless customers from making and receiving any phone calls (including to 9-1-1),” the Fairfax County Government said on X. “Try calling from a landline or ask a friend or family member to call 9-1-1 on your behalf.”

In response to an earlier request from ABC News, CISA said they had no comment on the outages.

AT&T serves more than 100 million customers across mobile and broadband services, according to the the company’s website.

Verizon and T-Mobile both told ABC News that their respective networks are not experiencing outages but customers may experience difficulty when contacting individuals affected by outages at other providers.

“Verizon’s network is operating normally. Some customers experienced issues this morning when calling or texting with customers served by another carrier. We are continuing to monitor the situation,” a Verizon spokesperson said.

T-Mobile similarly told ABC News, “We did not experience an outage. Our network is operating normally. Down Detector is likely reflecting challenges our customers were having attempting to connect to users on other networks.”

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

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