(NEW YORK) — The plaintiffs’ attorney in a defamation trial against Alex Jones argued the conspiracy theorist should pay more than half a billion dollars to victims of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting for calling the massacre a hoax.
“It is your job to make sure he understands the wreckage he has caused,” the attorney, Chris Mattei, told the Connecticut jury during his closing argument Thursday at a trial to determine how much the Infowars host should pay in damages.
A judge last year found Jones and Infowars’ parent company, Free Speech Systems, liable in the defamation lawsuit, with plaintiffs that include an FBI agent who responded to the scene and eight families of victims that Jones called actors.
Mattei said $550 million was a “baseline” and did not take into account the emotional distress of the families, who claim Jones violated a Connecticut law that prohibits profiting off of lies.
“He built a lie machine,” Mattei said. “You reap what you sow.”
Mattei asked the six jurors to “think about the scale of the defamation,” citing as one example Jones’ claim the families, “faked their 6- or 7-year-old’s death.”
Defense attorney Norm Pattis said he represents a “despised human being” but balked at the half-billion-dollar sum proposed by the plaintiffs’ attorney.
“It would take a person earning $100,000 a year hundreds of years to make $550 million,” Pattis said during his closing statement.
The defense said the plaintiffs presented no evidence that put a price tag on the harm the families said they suffered.
“You heard from no physician. You saw no medical bill. You heard nothing about a lost wage. No receipt for anything has been put before you,” Pattis said.
Pattis told jurors it was not their job to bankrupt Jones so he would stop broadcasting lies.
“That’s not why you’re here,” Pattis said.
Each of the plaintiffs, which include parents of some of the 20 children killed in the 2012 massacre, have testified during the weeks-long trial, detailing how they have faced years of death threats, rape threats and confrontations outside their homes from people who believed Jones’ lies.
In his closing argument Thursday, Mattei told the jurors that Jones built an argument based on “fear, anger and demonization” that the 2012 mass shooting was a hoax so his loyal audience would buy products he was selling.
Mattei said Jones knew “darn well” his lies about the massacre prompted harassments of the families that sued Jones for defamation and infliction of emotional distress.
“As these families were living out their daily lives Alex Jones was waiting to pounce,” Mattei said. “He knew his army was coming after them.”
In his testimony last month, Jones declined to apologize, declaring he was done saying sorry and actually believed the government staged the shooting to generate support for gun control legislation.
“Is this a struggle session? Are we in China? I’ve already said I’m sorry hundreds of times and I’m done saying I’m sorry,” Jones said.
Jones declined to testify as a witness for the defense this week, claiming he could be held in contempt if he says he is “innocent.”
After closing arguments wrapped, Judge Barbara Bellis gave the jury final instructions and they are now deliberating on how much Jones should pay to the plaintiffs.
In August, a Texas jury ordered Jones to pay nearly $50 million in damages to the parents of one of the Sandy Hook victims in a separate defamation trial.
(NEW YORK) — More than eight in 10 kids under the age of 17 have antibodies from a past COVID-19 infection, according to new data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The analysis shows that as of August, 86% of children between 6 months and 17-years-old have had at least one COVID infection since the pandemic began.
That number is an increase from data in April, when the public health agency found 75% of people under the age of 17 had been infected with the virus.
“What we have to recognize is this is more of an indication that there’s been broad spread of this virus in the pediatric community,” said Dr. John Brownstein, an ABC News contributor and chief innovation officer at Boston Children’s Hospital. “And that, you know, the kids are not sheltered from this virus. And we know that in a small number of cases, there’s severe impacts.”
What the findings don’t mean is that 86% of children and adolescents are now protected against COVID reinfection because they’ve had COVID before. Experts have noted that they don’t know exactly how long protection from infection lasts after contracting the virus.
“What we should not take away from this data is that that the kids are now immune from infection, so we can’t make the leap that continual investment in vaccines and protections of our kids is not important,” Brownstein said. “As we know, immunity wanes, variants evolved to evade prior immunity and so, you know, this is more a reflection of how amazingly widespread this virus is but it’s not a reflection of future risk.”
One ABC News analysis of state data found that, as of June, there’d been more than 1.6 million reinfections across 24 states, but experts said the number was likely much higher.
The CDC recommends everyone, regardless of prior infections, stay up to date on vaccinations — including the newest booster shot, which targets the currently circulating BA.4 and 5 variant.
The agency recommends people ages 12 and older to receive one updated booster at least two months after their last vaccine dose. Boosters are also available for kids ages 5 through 11, but only if they received the Pfizer-BioNTech primary vaccine series.
The booster for that age group targets the original virus strain, not variants, but the CDC has said it expects vaccine boosters designed to target variants like omicron to be available for children aged 5-11 years by mid-October.
The CDC previously said it expects vaccine boosters designed to target variants like omicron to be available for children aged 5-11 years by mid-October.
Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna have submitted requests to the Food and Drug Administration to authorize their updated boosters for adolescents for emergency use.
Dr. Peter Marks, the FDA’s vaccine chief, said in late September he was “confident that we’re only a matter of weeks away” from authorizing new boosters for the 5-11 age range. For kids under 5, Marks said there were still “a few months away” from authorization.
In the meantime, Marks encouraged parents to make sure their children get the primary vaccine series.
“There are a lot of kids ages 5 to 11 out there who haven’t had their primary series, so you can’t get the updated booster until you’ve had the primary series. So it’s a good idea to think about getting your child vaccinated against COVID-19,” he said.
(TUCSON, AZ) — A professor was shot and killed on the University of Arizona campus in Tucson on Wednesday afternoon, allegedly by a former student, campus police said.
The suspect, Murad Dervish, 46, was taken into custody hours later following a traffic stop by the state’s Department of Public Safety near the town of Gila Bend, University of Arizona Police Chief Paula Balafas said at a news conference.
Police said the suspect used a handgun.
The victim was identified Thursday as professor Thomas Meixner, department head of the Department of Hydrology and Atmospheric Sciences, said university president Robert Robbins.
“This incident is a deep shock to our community, and it is a tragedy. I have no words that can undo it, but I grieve with you for the loss, and I am pained especially for Tom’s family members, colleagues and students,” Robbins said.
(FORT MEYERS, FL) — Power has been restored to more than 2.1 million customers as of Thursday morning in some of Florida’s hardest-hit areas, a week after Hurricane Ian made landfall as a Category 4 hurricane, Florida Power & Light said. Less than 100,000 of its customers are still in the dark, the utility company reported.
“In some of the hardest-hit areas, multiple specialized tree-trimming crews are needed to clear debris for every traditional line crew working to repair or, in some instances, rebuild infrastructure,” FPL said in a statement.
Crews have been working around the clock to restore power to customers and made a lot of progress overnight, Eric Silagy, FPL’s Chairman and CEO, said during a press conference held in Fort Meyers.
“Lots of destruction in the area, many buildings are unsafe and need to be inspected before they can actually have the power turned back on. Even when we have power in the area, you have to make sure that your home, your condominium building, your apartment building or your business can safely be restored,” Silagy said.
Sanibel Island remains inaccessible and FPL cannot turn the power back on in Fort Meyers Beach until search, rescue and recovery operations cease, according to Silagy.
In a statement Silagy said that progress will “slow some” as FPL focuses on the hardest-hit areas.
FPL expects to restore power to 95% of customers in the counties of Charlotte, DeSoto, Lee and Sarasota (south of Fruitville Road) by end of day Friday, except those who cannot safely accept service or who are still located in heavily-flooded area, the company said in a statement.
A total of more than 186,000 customers remain in the dark in Florida, according to PowerOutage.us.
The death toll from Ian continues to rise with at least 120 people, according to local officials. President Joe Biden visited Florida Wednesday to tour the damage and meet with local officials including Gov. Ron DeSantis.
(WASHINGTON) — President Joe Biden on Thursday announced he is taking executive action to pardon Americans who’ve been convicted of simple marijuana possession under federal law.
The action will benefit 6,500 people with prior federal convictions and thousands of others charged under the District of Columbia’s criminal code, according to senior administration officials.
“No one should be in jail just for using or possessing marijuana,” Biden said in a statement outlining the administration’s new actions. “Sending people to prison for possessing marijuana has upended too many lives and incarcerated people for conduct that many states no longer prohibit.”
“Criminal records for marijuana possession have also imposed needless barriers to employment, housing, and educational opportunities,” Biden continued. “And while white and Black and brown people use marijuana at similar rates, Black and brown people have been arrested, prosecuted, and convicted at disproportionate rates.”
Biden is also urging governors to do the same for individuals with state convictions and is requesting Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra and Attorney General Merrick Garland to expeditiously review how marijuana is scheduled under federal law.
(ORLANDO, FL) — The world’s tallest tower drop ride will be taken down after a Missouri teenager fell to his death while riding it earlier this year, the operator of the Florida amusement park attraction announced Thursday.
Fourteen-year-old Tyre Sampson died after slipping out of his seat while on the Orlando FreeFall ride at ICON Park on March 24. The eighth grader was a star football player who was visiting the theme park with his team.
Orlando Slingshot, which operates the ride, said it has decided to take down the 430-foot-tall attraction in the wake of Sampson’s death.
“We are devastated by Tyre’s death. We have listened to the wishes of Tyre’s family and the community, and have made the decision to take down the FreeFall,” Ritchie Armstrong, an official with Orlando Slingshot, said in a statement.
The timeline for decommissioning the ride, which has been closed since the incident, will be determined pending approval from “all involved parties and regulatory entities,” the operator said.
Orlando Slingshot also plans to create a scholarship in Sampson’s name to honor his “legacy in the classroom and on the football field,” Armstrong said.
ICON Park said it supports the removal of the Orlando FreeFall.
“Tyre’s death is a tragedy that we will never forget. As the landlord, ICON Park welcomes and appreciates Orlando Slingshot’s decision to take down the ride,” ICON Park said in a statement.
An attorney representing Sampson’s mother, Nekia Dodd, said the ride should have been taken down “immediately” after the teen’s death.
“This is not a ride that can be operated safely, given the design defects,” the attorney, Bob Hilliard, said in a statement. “Dismantling the ride is the right move, though it should have been done immediately after Tyre’s death.”
Civil rights attorney Ben Crump, who is representing Sampson’s father, Yarnell Sampson, called the announcement “long overdue” and one his father has been advocating for “since the day Tyre fell to his death.”
“The Orlando Free Fall ride never should have been permitted to operate under those faulty conditions,” Crump said in a joint statement with Hilliard. “Theme parks, their parent companies, and regulatory agencies must do better to prevent this kind of tragedy from happening to any other family.”
Operator error is suspected as the primary cause in Sampson’s death, according to a forensic engineer’s field investigation report released in April. The report showed that the individual operator of the FreeFall ride, who was not identified, “made manual adjustments to the ride resulting in it being unsafe.”
According to the report, manual manipulations were made to the seat Sampson was sitting in to allow the harness restraint opening to be loosened, apparently to accommodate the more than 300-pound teenager. The investigation found Sampson’s harness restraint opening was “almost double that of a normal restraint opening range.”
Sampson’s parents have filed a civil wrongful death lawsuit accusing ICON Park and other defendants of negligence.
(NEW YORK) — An alliance of oil-producing countries on Wednesday announced a dramatic cut in oil output with major implications for U.S. gas prices, industry analysts told ABC News.
The group of nations known as OPEC+, led by Saudi Arabia and Russia, agreed on Wednesday to cut oil production by two million barrels per day starting in November.
The decision to slash oil supply arrives as crude oil prices stand at $93, well below a high in June of $123. Many forecasters are anticipating a global economic slowdown.
The move will cause a spike in U.S. gasoline prices that will last for months, analysts told ABC News. President Joe Biden can reduce some of the immediate price hike but lacks an effective option to mitigate the overall cost increase for U.S. drivers, they said.
Here’s what the OPEC+ oil cut means for U.S. gas prices and how Biden has responded:
The OPEC+ oil cut will significantly raise U.S. gas prices
The OPEC+ oil cut will hike U.S. gas prices because the price depends on a balance between supply and demand.
A reduction of two million barrels of oil a day amounts to a roughly 2% loss from the oil market, since the world consumed nearly 100 million barrels of oil each day in August, the most recent month on record, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.
The U.S. is set to produce an average of 11.8 million barrels oil per day in 2022, which stands 500,000 barrels short of a record set in 2019, according to the EIA. But oil prices are set on a global market, where the OPEC+ cuts cannot be offset by a comparable short-term increase in U.S. oil output.
“You’ll be looking at substantial upward pressure on gas prices,” Ramanan Krishnamoorti, a professor of petroleum engineering at the University of Houston, told ABC News.
The average price for a U.S. gallon of gas is $3.86, according to AAA data. That price marks a 2% rise from a month ago and a 20% rise from a year ago. In California, the state with the highest average gas price, a gallon costs $6.42.
After the OPEC+ oil cut, the price will rise even further. The price will increase as much as 40 cents, reaching as high as $4.26, analysts said. The price hike will begin within weeks and last for months, they said.
The move will impose a uniform impact on gas prices across all regions of the U.S., according to Krishnamoorti and Peter McNally, a global sector leader for industrial materials and energy at Third Bridge.
Patrick de Haan, the head of petroleum analysis at GasBuddy, disagreed. Prices have already begun to increase in the South and Northeast, where prices had been stable in recent weeks, he said.
Areas on the West Coast and some of the Great Lakes states, however, which have experienced massive price spikes over the last few weeks due to refinery issues, will likely continue to see prices drop, though by not as much as originally anticipated, he added.
The Biden administration response
The Biden administration sharply criticized the OPEC+ oil cut on Wednesday. In a statement, the White House said Biden “is disappointed by the shortsighted decision by OPEC+ to cut production quotas while the global economy is dealing with the continued negative impact of Putin’s invasion of Ukraine.”
The Biden administration ordered the Department of Energy to release another 10 million barrels from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve in November.
The move continues an effort launched by the administration in March. The U.S. and its allies announced the collective release of 60 million barrels of oil from their strategic reserves over the following months, seeking to alleviate some of the supply shortage and blunt price increases.
The additional release next month from the strategic reserve could blunt some of the price increase in November but cannot mitigate the overall impact, analysts said. The administration lacks an effective tool to dial back the extended price hike, they added.
“There is no operation warp speed for the energy industry,” said McNally.
(PHOENIX) — Kicking off a season of senatorial debates in key battleground states, Arizona Sen. Mark Kelly and his Republican challenger Blake Masters will face off Thursday in Phoenix for their only debate — one week before early ballots go out in the state. Libertarian candidate Marc Victor will also participate.
The one-hour debate, hosted by the Citizens Clean Elections Commission at the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication at Arizona State University, will air live on Arizona PBS at 9 p.m. ET/6 p.m. local time.
Gina Roberts, the voter education director at the Citizens Clean Elections Commission, the leading debate organizer for the last 20 years in Arizona, told ABC News that her team has been working on the midterm debates for more than year, “So it takes a lot to bring this to life, to bring this to voters — it’s quite a bit in terms of production.”
Her group outsources debate questions from Arizona voters, which they then share with the debate moderators, Ted Simons of Arizona PBS and an alternating reporter from the Arizona Republic, who go over the voter-submitted questions together and come up with the discussion topics.
“Bringing these debates to voters from a nonpartisan entity that only has the goal to educate, not influence, is a really great resource for voters,” Roberts added, “Because it gets all the candidates together on the same stage where Arizonans can hear directly from them on the issues that matter most.”
Masters, a 36-year-old venture capitalist from Tucson in his first run for public office, has gone after the junior senator on southern border security and high inflation, while Kelly is expected to raise Democrats’ concerns that Masters would support a federal abortion ban and spread baseless doubts about American elections since he has alleged, without evidence, that the 2020 presidential race was corrupt.
With former President Donald Trump’s endorsement, Masters beat out five other Republican candidates in the August primary, but after swinging far-right to stand out in the bunch, he’s faced criticism for an apparent post-primary pivot to being the “commonsense” candidate.
His campaign website was scrubbed in August to soften his views on abortion and the 2020 election and removed language about how Democrats “want to import a new electorate,” which appeared to echo the right-wing “replacement theory” that white people are being strategically diminished. (Masters has denied any pivot in his message and likened the website scrub to a run-of-the-mill update.)
Kelly, a former astronaut and Navy combat pilot who often flies himself in a two-seater plane to events across the state, is running on bipartisan wins in the Senate, such as a bipartisan infrastructure package, the CHIPS and Science Act investing in domestic manufacturing and measures in the Inflation Reduction Act to fund drought and Colorado River relief measures and lower prescription drug costs for Arizona’s seniors.
While Kelly won his 2020 race by earning more votes in the battleground than now-President Joe Biden, it’s unclear if Arizona will maintain its purple hue given that southern border encounters are at an all-time high and inflation is the steepest in the country in the Phoenix-metro area, home to most of the state’s voters.
Abortion access has also taken on new significance in the swing state after a judge lifted an injunction on a territorial-era, near-total ban on the procedure, with prison time for doctors, which the Republican attorney general revived in the wake of the Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade.
Kelly has said he supports codifying the right to an abortion with “some limits” late in pregnancy, while Masters supports the procedure only to save a mother’s life. Masters told ABC News last month that he would support Sen. Lindsey Graham’s proposal for a federal ban on most abortions after 15 weeks but also said a federal “personhood law” banning all third-trimester abortions could garner more support.
On the campaign trail, Masters has tried to keep the conversation on Democrats’ spending in Washington and on Kelly voting with Biden 94% of the time, according to FiveThirtyEight, with Masters contrasting that record with Arizona’s other Democratic senator, Kyrsten Sinema.
Still, Kelly has consistently polled ahead of Masters since the summer, according to FiveThirtyEight.
The Arizona Senate race has already surpassed $120 million in funding and is expected to reach more than $240 million, according to AdImpact, as the midterm elections are poised to be the second most expensive cycle in history after the 2020 election.
Two years ago, Kelly flipped his Senate seat for Democrats in a special election triggered by the death of the late Sen. John McCain. Kelly defeated Sen. Martha McSally, who was appointed by Republican Gov. Doug Ducey, by more than 78,000 votes to serve out the remainder of McCain’s term through January 2023.
Kelly became a strong advocate for gun restrictions in the aftermath of a failed assassination attempt on his wife, former Rep. Gabby Giffords, and he won his last election by pitching himself as an independent-minded candidate who would work across the aisle — a strategy he’s deployed in 2022 as well.
Masters, betting that Arizona is still a red state, joined former President Trump for a rally in Prescott in July after gaining his endorsement and will do so again on Sunday in Mesa.
Thursday marks Kelly’s second debate but his first as a senator. While Masters participated in a GOP primary forum in June, Thursday is his first senatorial debate as a nominee.
“Senator Kelly looks forward to the upcoming debate where Arizonans will have a chance to see the stark choice in front of them this November,” Kelly’s campaign spokesperson Sarah Guggenheimer told ABC News. “While Masters will have to answer for his dangerous support of a national abortion ban and privatizing Social Security, Senator Kelly will speak directly to Arizonans about his work with Republicans and Democrats to lower costs, create jobs, and get our economy back on track.”
Masters’ campaign declined to comment to ABC News for this story.
(NEW YORK) — As Hurricane Ian pounded the West Coast of Florida, Tiffani Henning watched the Category 4 storm from the third floor of Golisano Children’s Hospital in Fort Myers.
Henning huddled with about two dozen other moms last week as they watched their cars float away from the hospital’s parking garage, boats float down what were once roads in front of the hospital and trees sway sideways and completely uproot from the ground.
Behind them through it all laid their newborn children, some of them critically ill, in the hospital’s neo-natal intensive care unit, or NICU.
“We were right in the eye, right in the path of destruction,” Henning told ABC News of the hospital, which is located less than nine miles from Sanibel Island, which suffered much of the storm’s most devastating damage. “You’re already in a situation of being a NICU mom and now you’re in the position of being a NICU mom in the middle of a hurricane.”
Less than 48 hours before, Henning said she barely made it to the hospital to be able to ride out the storm with her twin sons, Paxton and Kamden, who were born in August, around three months premature.
Henning was preparing her Bonita Springs home for the hurricane on Monday, when she made a last-minute decision to drive the 35 minutes back to Golisano Children’s Hospital that same day. She made it just in time before a state of emergency was declared in Lee County and the hospital was locked down to visitors.
During the storm, Henning said she and fellow moms of NICU patients became worried as the hospital’s first floor took on water and a call came over the loudspeaker for people on that floor to find higher ground.
“I’m like, if this water keeps rising, how are we getting the babies, because there were so many babies that were in the NICU,” recalled Henning. “If the water keeps going up, there’s only so many floors we can go up to before there are no more floors.”
Inside the same NICU, Jennifer Morales Uparela spent much of the hurricane in a chair next to the isolette where her 1-month-old daughter, Allison, slept.
Morales Uparela said she tried to sleep too in order to help pass the time quickly. A native of Colombia, she was experiencing her first hurricane and doing so alone in a foreign country.
“I’ve never experienced something like this, and this is my first baby,” Morales Uparela told ABC News through a translator. “What kept me going is I know that my baby needs me.”
Morales Uparela, who had a high-risk pregnancy, was staying with family members in Cape Coral, Florida, when she was induced at 37 weeks on Sept. 4. Allison weighed 3 pounds, 13 ounces, at birth and was taken immediately to the NICU, where doctors have monitored her ever since.
On Sept. 28, the day of the hurricane, Morales Uparela said she went downstairs to get something to eat, and saw the flooding on the hospital’s first floor.
“People did a good job of staying calm and the staff did a great job of keeping everyone under control,” she said. “But I went back to the unit, and that’s when everything started going downhill.”
A ‘Herculean effort’ to evacuate dozens of babies
Hurricane Ian, which devastated parts of Fort Myers and the surrounding area, killing over 100 people, caused Golisano Children’s Hospital to lose both power and water.
The hospital had a generator that kicked in at the time of the power outage, but lacking water, it began the process of evacuating its NICU patients.
Directly across the state, in the cities of Miami and Hollywood, two children’s hospitals went into overdrive, activating their plans to begin treating the evacuated babies.
The hospitals — Nicklaus Children’s Hospital in Miami and Joe DiMaggio Children’s Hospital in Hollywood — had been planning for the past week as Ian’s path was formed, working with hospital leaders across the state to figure out who could accept patients.
“We started to hear that they were going to evacuate due to infrastructure issues and that is the point where we started thinking, okay, this is real. They’re really going to need those patients out,” said Caitlin Beck Stella, CEO of Joe DiMaggio Children’s Hospital. “As soon as the hospital said, ‘It’s time to evacuate. It’s unsafe,’ everyone just jumped into motion.”
In addition to figuring out where the babies would go, hospital officials had to figure out how the babies would get there.
One obstacle was that some roads and helicopter landing areas were unusable due to the storm. A second obstacle was that patients as small and critical as NICU babies are considered “complex transports,” explained Dr. Marcos Mestre, vice president and chief medical officer of Nicklaus Children’s Hospital.
“They are essentially mini-ICUs that travel with the patients,” Mestre said of the hospital’s two helicopters and six ambulances that were used to transfer NICU babies.
In addition to the medical equipment, each patient travels with a transport team that consists of nursing staff and a medical coordinator.
“Every single case is unique,” said Beck Stella. “Some of them are singletons. Some of them are multiples, so you have to think of how do you keep families together. You can’t send one twin to Tampa and one twin to Joe DiMaggio.”
Early Thursday, hospital officials said they got the green light that the roads and helicopter landing pads were safe.
That began a 48-hour effort of helicopters and ambulances flying and driving back and forth across the state of Florida to transport patients, according to Mestre and Beck Stella.
While the roads were safe, the ambulances were often dodging debris on the ground from the storm, both officials said.
“I think our ambulance drove back and forth across the state 10 times, just back and forth,” said Beck Stella, whose hospital is located about 150 miles away from Golisano Children’s Hospital. “We even had people from other parts of the state and from outside the state that started jumping in and being able to transport these babies safely.”
She continued, “It was a Herculean effort.”
In total, 61 NICU patients were transferred from Golisano Children’s Hospital to hospitals in other parts of the state, a hospital spokesperson told ABC News.
Nicklaus Children’s Hospital in Miami admitted six of the hospital’s NICU patients, and participated in five transfers to other hospitals, according Mestre.
Joe DiMaggio Children’s Hospital took in nearly two dozen NICU patients from Golisano Children’s Hospital, according to Beck Stella.
‘It could have been so much worse’
The evacuations to different hospitals meant more stress for parents like Morales Uparela, who had just survived her first hurricane as a first-time mom.
Morales Uparela learned on Thursday that her daughter would be evacuated to Nicklaus Children’s Hospital, but had no way to get there herself as she was told the ambulance would not have space.
It was only when the ambulance arrived at midnight to transport Allison, that the transport team told her to jump in, saying they would make room, according to Morales Uparela.
With Morales Uparela sitting in the front and nurses taking care of Allison in the back of the ambulance, the team made the drive to Miami, which Morales Uparela described as treacherous.
“There was a lot of debris in the highway,” she said. “They had to go carefully with lots of debris and trees down.”
Henning, the mom of twins, navigated the drive across Florida herself on Friday, after her sons were airlifted to Joe DiMaggio Children’s Hospital earlier that morning.
Facing a city-wide curfew, Henning said she had gone home from Golisano Children’s Hospital Thursday afternoon.
She said she was woken up by a phone call early Friday morning from the hospital, letting her know the twins would be evacuated but they weren’t yet sure to where or whether they would stay together.
Kamden was eventually evacuated first, followed by Paxton, on separate helicopters.
Henning said she and her husband made the nearly two-hour drive to Hollywood on Friday, and were able to reunite with their sons.
“There were lots of tears,” she said. “I got to hold both of them and cuddle them and knowing that they were at another place and safe was just the best peace of mind.”
Henning’s sons continue to be treated at Joe DiMaggio Children’s Hospital, but she said she is hopeful they can soon return to Golisano Children’s Hospital, which has since reopened.
The family lost a car in the storm and lost power and water at their home, but feel thankful to be alive and together.
“It could have been so much worse,” said Henning, who said she is most grateful for the medical staff that cared for her sons while their own homes and families were affected by the hurricane.
(NEW YORK) — The Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays are shaping up to be the most expensive for travelers in recent years, and experts say the clock is ticking to find last minute deals on flights.
Domestic airfare for Thanksgiving is averaging $281 roundtrip — up 25% from last year, according to Hopper. Christmas will be even more expensive, with prices averaging $435 roundtrip, 55% more than what tickets cost during the 2021 holiday.
The jump in prices is fallout from the pandemic, as airlines continue to scale up their schedules.
“Airlines have not built back their networks to the size they were in 2019. So, over the holidays right now we’re going to see about 5,000 less flights scheduled per day headed into Thanksgiving and Christmas,” Haley Berg, economist at Hopper, said in an interview with ABC News. “Both of these factors are going to mean there are fewer flights available to book and higher prices for each of those flights.”
The best times to book flights for the holidays is typically four months before travel — but consumers can still lock in a good prices over the coming weeks, according to Scott Keyes, founder of Scott’s Cheap Flights.
“If you’re hoping to travel this upcoming winter holidays, you’re going to want to try to get those flights here booked here in the next couple weeks,” Keyes told ABC News. “In the second half of October and November, flights are likely to get significantly more expensive than they are today.”
Using tools such as Google Flights to track prices can be helpful, Keyes said. Also taking advantage of the lack of change fees among airlines can help save money if you’ve already bought your tickets.
“If the price goes down, that lets you again cancel your original ticket, get your full travel credit for whatever you’d paid, and then turn around and rebook the same flight using that travel credit and have some left over that for future for a future trip,” Keyes said.
The holidays can also be a good time to use points and miles accrued over the year, but Keyes says it’s important to make sure you’re using them wisely.
“If it’s at least $0.02 per point, you’ve got the green light for me. If it’s less than that, then it’s really kind of up to you,” Keyes said. “The best value is going to be getting at least $0.02 per point.”
