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Fauci optimistic omicron will peak in February

January 24, 2022 by WDNY Radio

(NEW YORK) — Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation’s top infectious disease specialist, said Sunday he is “as confident as you can be” about the prospect of most states reaching a peak of omicron cases by mid-February.

“You never want to be overconfident when you’re dealing with this virus,” Fauci told ABC This Week co-anchor Martha Raddatz, adding that the COVID-19 virus has “surprised us in the past.”

“Things are looking good. We don’t want to get overconfident, but they look like they’re going in the right direction right now,” he said.

Fauci said there are states in the northeast and in the upper midwest where cases have already peaked and declined “rather sharply” but that cases are still rising in southern and western states.

“There may be a bit more pain and suffering with hospitalizations in those areas of the country that have not been fully vaccinated or have not gotten boosters,” he warned.

When Raddatz asked “what should life look like” going forward and about the “long-term strategy” for dealing with future peaks and variants, Fauci said the hope is the level of infection will be below what he calls an “area of control.”

“Control means you’re not eliminating it, you’re not eradicating it, but it gets down to such a low level, that it’s essentially integrated into the general respiratory infections that we have learned to live with.”

Fauci said the aspiration is that future variants won’t “disrupt society” or “create a fear of severe outcomes that are broad” but that the country should still be “prepared for the worst-case scenario.”

“We’d like it to get down to that level where it doesn’t disrupt us in the sense of getting back to a degree of normality. That’s the best-case scenario.”

As the Biden administration begins to ship out free COVID-19 tests to Americans and provide free masks across the country, Fauci told Raddatz these kinds of protections could help keep future variants at a “lower level.”

“What about the next booster shot?” Raddatz pressed, noting that it’s now been five months since some Americans received their booster. “How soon should we get another one?”

“We don’t know,” Fauci responded, adding that it’s unclear whether an additional booster shot will be recommended since scientists are still trying to determine how much protection is provided by the first booster. But, he said, it’s “quite conceivable, and I hope it’s true, that the third shot boost will give a much greater durability of protection.”

“We may need to boost again, but before we make that decision, we want to determine what the durability is,” Fauci added.

Data released on Tuesday shows that nearly 1 million children tested positive for COVID-19 last week, according to new a weekly report by the American Academy of Pediatrics and the Children’s Hospital Association, and 28.8 million eligible children still remain completely unvaccinated.

Some schools in the U.S. are opting to remove mask mandates, and when asked by Raddatz if it is “safe to send your kids back to school without masks,” Fauci stressed their importance, along with other mitigation efforts.

“You surround the children with people who are vaccinated. For the children who are eligible to be vaccinated, get them vaccinated. And provide in the school masks where you can have children protected, as well as ventilation to make sure that you can get a respiratory infection at its lowest level of infectivity. All of those things go together. And masking is a part of that.”

Supreme Court takes cases on future of affirmative action

January 24, 2022 by WDNY Radio

(WASHINGTON) — The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday said it would take up a pair of cases that could decide the future of affirmative action in college admissions.

The justices will hear appeals from a conservative student group that has been challenging the use of race as a factor in undergraduate admissions at Harvard University, the nation’s oldest private college, and the University of North Carolina, the nation’s oldest public state university.

It will be the first test on the issue for the court’s 6-3 conservative majority, following the retirement of Justice Anthony Kennedy and death of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, both of whom defended race-conscious admissions.

The group which brought the case — Students for Fair Admissions — alleges that Asian American applicants have been illegally targeted by Harvard and rejected at a disproportionately higher rate in violation of Supreme Court precedent and the students’ constitutional rights.

Two lower federal courts have rejected these claims.

In the second case, the group alleges UNC refused to use workable race-neutral alternatives to achieve the stated goal of a diverse study body.

“Public schools have no legitimate interest in maintaining a precise racial balance,” the group wrote in its brief to the court. “The same Fourteenth Amendment that required public schools to dismantle segregation after [Brown v. Board of Education] cannot be cowed by the diktats of university administrators.”

That the Supreme Court has agreed to hear the cases is widely seen as an indication that the court could be willing to revisit its precedents on affirmative action and end the use of racial classifications in admissions altogether.

Chief Justice John Roberts has been among the most outspoken critics of affirmative action, famously declaring in a 2006 opinion, “It is a sordid business, this divvying us up by race.”

He and many of the court’s other conservatives have long argued that the best way to root out discrimination on the basis of race is to not permit discrimination on the basis of race.

“Harvard’s mistreatment of Asian-American applicants is appalling,” the plaintiffs wrote in their brief in the Harvard case. “That Harvard engages in racial balancing and ignores race-neutral alternatives also proves that Harvard does not use race as a last resort.”

In a series of decisions, beginning in 1978, the court said that race could be used as one factor among many when considering college admissions applications but that a school could not use quotas or mathematical formulas to diversify a class.

Harvard has defended the educational value and social benefits of admitting a diverse student body and rejected claims that it has given outsized importance to race.

“Harvard does not automatically award race-based tips but rather considers race only in a flexible and non-mechanical way; consideration of race benefits only highly qualified candidates; and Harvard does not discriminate against Asian-American applicants,” the school wrote the court in its brief.

The school is asking the court to affirm its precedent.

“The American public has looked to this precedent for assurance that the nation recognizes and values the benefits of diversity and that the path to leadership is open to all,” it wrote.

The cases join a blockbuster series of issues on the Supreme Court’s docket, including gun rights and abortion. It will likely be scheduled for oral argument this spring and decided by the end of June.

COVID-19 live updates: Scale of education lost ‘nearly insurmountable,’ UNICEF warns

January 24, 2022 by WDNY Radio

(NEW YORK) — As the COVID-19 pandemic has swept the globe, more than 5.5 million people have died from the disease worldwide, including over 866,000 Americans, according to real-time data compiled by Johns Hopkins University’s Center for Systems Science and Engineering.

About 63.4% 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:

Jan 24, 7:45 am
Scale of education lost ‘nearly insurmountable,’ UNICEF warns

More than 635 million students around the world remain affected by full or partial school closures due to the coronavirus pandemic, according to the United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF), which described the scale of education lost as “nearly insurmountable.”

“In March, we will mark two years of COVID-19-related disruptions to global education. Quite simply, we are looking at a nearly insurmountable scale of loss to children’s schooling,” Robert Jenkins, UNICEF chief of education, said in a statement Monday. “While the disruptions to learning must end, just reopening schools is not enough. Students need intensive support to recover lost education. Schools must also go beyond places of learning to rebuild children’s mental and physical health, social development and nutrition.”

As Monday marks the International Day of Education, UNICEF warned that many schoolchildren, especially the younger and more marginalized, have lost basic numeracy and literacy skills since the start of the pandemic in March 2020. In low- and middle-income countries, learning losses to school closures have left up to 70% of 10-year-olds unable to read or understand a simple text, up from 53% prior to the pandemic, according to UNICEF.

In Ethiopia, primary school children are estimated to have learned between 30% to 40% of the math they would have acquired if it had been a normal school year, UNICEF said.

In South Africa, schoolchildren are between 75% and a full school year behind where they should be. Some 400,000 to 500,000 students reportedly dropped out of school altogether between March 2020 and July 2021, according to UNICEF.

Across Brazil, one in 10 students aged 10 to 15 reported they are not planning to return to classrooms once schools reopen. In several Brazilian states, around three in four children in second grade are off-track in reading, up from one in two children prior to the pandemic, UNICEF said.

Meanwhile, learning losses have also been observed across the United States. In Texas, for example, two-thirds of children in third grade tested below their grade level in math in 2021, compared to half of children in 2019, according to UNICEF.

Stowaway survives 11-hour flight in wheel well from Africa to Europe

January 24, 2022 by WDNY Radio

(AMSTERDAM) — A stowaway was found alive in the nose wheel well of a cargo airplane that traveled from South Africa to the Netherlands on Sunday, according to Dutch police.

Authorities discovered the man hiding after the plane landed at Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airport on Sunday morning. He was taken to a hospital in stable condition, a Dutch police spokesperson told ABC News.

The man’s name has not been released. His age and nationality were unknown.

The freight flight flew 11 hours from Johannesburg to Amsterdam, with a stop in Nairobi. It was unclear whether the stowaway climbed into the aircraft’s landing gear in South Africa or in Kenya, the Dutch police spokesperson said.

An investigation into the incident is ongoing.

It’s unusual for stowaways to survive long flights, due to the cold temperatures and low oxygen levels at high altitudes.

House Republicans tout infrastructure funding they voted against

January 24, 2022 by WDNY Radio

(WASHINGTON) — In November, Rep. Rob Wittman, R-Virginia, was one of 205 House Republicans to vote against the bipartisan, $1.5 trillion infrastructure bill, calling it irresponsible and the “Green New Deal in disguise.”

On Friday, he took to Twitter to tout funding from the bill he voted against — highlighting a $70 million expansion of the Port of Virginia in Norfolk — one of the busiest and deepest ports in the United States.

Wittman, who deleted the tweet Friday shortly after ABC News reached out to his office for comment, is the latest member of a growing group of Republicans celebrating new initiatives they originally opposed on the floor.

Shortly after voting against the measure last fall, Rep. Gary Palmer, R-Alabama, celebrated its hundreds of millions in funding for a stalled highway project in Birmingham.

Last week, Rep. Kay Granger, R-Texas, touted new funding for a flood control project from the package, which she opposed last year, decrying it at the time as a “so-called infrastructure bill.”

Rep. Ashley Hinson, R-Iowa, a freshman lawmaker who also voted against the infrastructure bill, celebrating new “game-changing” funding to upgrade locks along the Upper Mississippi River.

Thirteen House Republicans and 19 Senate Republicans — including Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Kentucky — voted with Democrats to approve the package, with many working with Democrats and the Biden White House on the details and legislative language.

“When I voted for the bipartisan infrastructure bill, I was voting for exactly this type of federal support for critical infrastructure that Iowans depend on,” Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, said in a statement about the new lock and dam funding that Hinson also recognized.

Democrats have been quick to call out Republicans who voted against the infrastructure deal and recent COVID-19 relief package while praising elements of the legislation, criticizing them for “voting no and taking the dough.”

“When these Republicans had the chance to actually do something good for their constituents, they refused,” Nebeyatt Betre, a spokesperson for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, said in a statement. “We’re not going to let them get away with this blatant attempt to rewrite history.”

Republicans have pushed back on the characterizations of their votes, arguing that they had issues with Democrats’ larger agenda that included the bipartisan package, called the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act.

“Congresswoman Hinson opposed the infrastructure package because it was tied to trillions of other spending in the House. Since the bill was signed into law, this money was going to be spent regardless. If there’s federal money on the table she is, of course, going to do everything she can to make sure it is reinvested in Iowa,” a spokesperson for Hinson told ABC News.

A spokesperson for Rep. Steve Scalise, R-Louisiana, the No. 2 House Republican who touted a $1 billion investment in flood protection and hurricane repairs in his home state funded by the package he opposed, told ABC News that the GOP whip has “consistently supported these flood protection projects” and approved earlier legislation to pave the way for them.

“What he did not support is tying necessary infrastructure needs to unrelated, Green New Deal policies Democrats put in their $1.2 trillion dollar bill — very little of which was dedicated to traditional infrastructure — that would cripple Louisiana’s energy economy and hurt workers and families in his state,” the spokesperson said.

“You can see why the Obama administration insisted on signage” for projects funded by the American Recovery Act, Jeff Davis, a senior fellow with the Eno Center for Transportation, told ABC News.

“People will be claiming these things for years, and it’s going to be hard to tell five years from now which projects were funded mostly or entirely with IIJA money or money out of the annual budget, he said.

Another violence interrupter killed in Baltimore as community reels from gun violence

January 24, 2022 by WDNY Radio

(BALTIMORE) — A man who worked on the front lines of preventing gun violence in Baltimore, Maryland, was shot and killed on Wednesday night in a quadruple shooting on E. Monument Street, in the McElderry Park neighborhood.

Baltimore native DaShawn McGrier, 29, worked as a violence interrupter for Safe Streets and is the third member of the organization to be shot and killed in the last year.

“[DaShawn] was passionate about his community, and was working hard to make that community safer for his family, friends and neighbors,” said Meg Ward, Vice President of Strategic Growth and Community Partnerships at Living Classrooms — a nonprofit that operates two of the 10 Safe Streets sites in the city, including McElderry Park. “He was a son, he was a father, he was a partner. He was a brother, he was a devoted and present father to his child.”

According to Ward, McGrier was having a conversation with the other two victims while working at his post on Monument Street when the shooting occurred.

“Apparently, a tow truck came around the corner and they just shot up the block,” Ward said.

BPD identified the other victims as 28-year-old Tyrone Allen and 24-year-old Hassan Smith. A spokesperson told ABC News Friday that “no arrests have been made at this time.”

“We are dedicating every available resource to finding and apprehending the cowardly perpetrators of this act,” Baltimore Police Commissioner Michael Harrison said in a statement Wednesday.

When asked if this was a targeted shooting, police said the investigation is ongoing.

There have been more than 300 homicides in Baltimore each year for the past five years, with 338 in 2021 and 335 in 2020, BPD data shows.

Community members and Safe Streets workers gathered on E. Monument Street Saturday afternoon to honor McGrier and other victims of gun violence.

“What choices are we going to make? This is our community,” said Safe Streets violence interrupter Alex Long in a passionate speech at the event. “These shootings gotta stop.”

Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott also attended the event and said that the city is “determined to honor DaShawn’s legacy in the best way we can — by expanding community violence interventions across the city.”

“[Safe Streets Baltimore] is not just an organization, but a calling. DaShawn believed that we could build a better Baltimore. Let’s show him that we can,” Scott tweeted, along with photos of the event.

Ward said Safe Streets organizes shooting response events to “denormalize” gun violence — especially in neighborhoods where shootings are common — by creating an opportunity for the community to come together to honor the victims and send the message that, “This is not OK.” And on Saturday, they honored one of their own.

Violence interrupters also connect individuals with resources such as job placement opportunities and financial support.

Ward said that McGrier had been working as a violence interrupter for a little over a month, but had been a part of the Safe Streets community for a long time. He was a “hard worker,” she said, who was a welding student at the North American Trade School during the day and worked at the Safe Streets McElderry Park site at night to help mediate conflicts that could lead to shootings.

“The work that is being done to stop this from happening is really, really important. And it makes it that much more important when you lose one of your own,” she said.

McGrier’s killing came as the Safe Streets community continues to mourn the deaths of two beloved longtime members who were killed over the past year and who had dedicated their lives to reducing gun violence.

Dante Barksdale, a Safe Streets outreach coordinator, and Kenyell “Benny” Wilson, a Safe Streets violence interrupter, were shot and killed in separate incidents in January and July. Two days before McGrier was killed, the community gathered to honor Barklesdale on the anniversary of his death.

“We were devastated, it was very traumatizing. It’s very difficult to say their names or to think of them, and to not feel that consistent void in our hearts, because they were definitely individuals who impacted the community in such an incredible way,” Rashad Singletary, the associate director of gun violence prevention at MONSE told ABC News last year. “And for them to lose their lives to the same thing that we tried to save thousands of lives from, it was very, very disheartening and tragic.”

How violence interrupter programs work

Safe Streets was launched in Baltimore in 2007 in the McElderry Park neighborhood. It is one of several violence prevention programs in the country that is based on a model that started in Chicago in the mid 1990s.

Violence interrupters also connect high risk individuals with resources that the organization offers, including job placement and financial support that could help alleviate some of the suffering — conditions that lead some to resort to violence.

What the data shows

Recent studies have shown that Safe Streets programs have been effective at reducing gun violence in various neighborhoods.

A 2012 study published by the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health found that Safe Streets workers were successful at reducing gun violence in three of four neighborhoods where the initial sites were established, Director of the Center for Gun Policy and Research at Johns Hopkins University Daniel Webster previously told ABC News.

Safe Streets workers mediated more than 2,300 conflicts in 2020, according to MONSE, and after gaining more funding from the city, the organization opened its tenth site in 2021.

“Safe Streets workers mediate the very types of conflicts we saw tonight,” Harrison said in a statement Wednesday. “All the Safe Streets workers are to be applauded for their work in reducing gun violence and promoting a message of redemption and peace to the many young people of our city.”

MONSE Director Shantay Jackson said that the mayor’s office will be providing support to the family of the victims and the staff, including grief counseling.

“This is a reminder of the courageous, yet dangerous job our frontline staff does each day when working with those at the highest risk of being a shooter or the victim of a shooting,” she said in a statement.

Ward said that the “tremendous loss” highlights the need for violence-prevention work in Baltimore.

“People are heartbroken,” she said, “and at the same time, [the] feeling or sense is this is the reason to double down.”

ABC News’ Abby Cruz and Kendall Ross contributed to this report.

Minnesota COVID patient, transferred to Texas after judge prohibited doctors from taking him off ventilator, dies

January 24, 2022 by WDNY Radio

(HOUSTON) — Battle against omicron variant pushes hospitals, health care workers to the brink
COVID-19 cases have soared to new records with nearly 800,000 new infections per day.

A 55-year-old Minnesota man, who was transferred to a Texas hospital earlier this month, after a judge blocked a local hospital from taking him off a ventilator, died on Saturday, at a hospital in Houston, a family attorney has confirmed to ABC News.

“On behalf of the family of Scott Quiner, I would like to thank the public for the outpouring of love and support during this difficult time. The family now requests privacy as they grieve the loss of their beloved husband and father,” Marjorie J. Holsten, the Quiner’s family attorney, told ABC News on Sunday.

Eleven days ago, Scott Quiner’s wife, Anne, was granted a temporary restraining order against Mercy Hospital in Coon Rapids, preventing the hospital from taking her husband off a ventilator, after healthcare providers advised her that they “intend[ed] to take actions on Thursday, January 13, 2022, that [would] end [her] husband’s life.”

Representatives from Allina Health, which operates Mercy Hospital, told ABC News on Sunday that they are saddened to hear about Quiner’s death.

“We are saddened to hear about the passing of Scott Quiner and our deepest condolences go out to family, friends and loved ones. His passing marks yet another very sad moment as collectively we continue to face the devastating effects of the pandemic,” a representative said.

Previously, an Allina Health representative told ABC News that they had “great confidence” in their team’s work.

The family attorney told ABC News last week that legal action against the hospital had “not been ruled out.”

‘Multiple’ dogs may have been sickened by rat-transmitted illness, NYC official says

January 22, 2022 by WDNY Radio

(NEW YORK) — New York City dog owners are being warned after several pets may have been sickened by leptospirosis, a disease commonly associated with rats.

A city council member said this week his office had received “reports of multiple dog fatalities” in the Brooklyn neighborhood of Williamsburg.

“The reports to our office indicate that dogs played at McCarren [Park] Dog Run before becoming sick,” council member Lincoln Restler said in a social media post Wednesday, which advised dog owners about the potentially deadly bacterial disease that is spread through the urine of infected animals.

In an update Friday, Restler said his office had received a report about potential cases of leptospirosis “allegedly causing the death of four dogs” that had been to the park’s dog run.

The city’s health department told ABC News Saturday it has not confirmed reports of canine leptospirosis related to McCarren Park, but it is working with the city’s parks department to inspect rat activity there.

“Dog owners who are concerned should consult their veterinarian about vaccination and seek vet care early if their dog is ill,” the health department said in a statement. “We urge veterinarians who receive positive results of leptospirosis to report it to the Health Department as required by the NYC Health Code.”

The parks department also said an “outbreak” of reported cases has been unconfirmed.

“We like our four-legged friends happy and healthy, and are sad to learn that some pups may have recently been impacted by leptospirosis,” the parks department said in a statement to ABC News. “We are actively engaged with the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, and exploring options to mitigate any related risks.”

On Friday, workers replaced trash cans with rat-resistant ones in the area and an exterminator conducted an inspection. Starting Monday, the park will also “work to refresh this area” including replacing wood chips.

An exterminator last treated the area for rats three weeks ago, the parks department said.

“We understand the cause for concern and urge dog owners to be vigilant and cautious when walking their pets,” it added.

Restler said the concerns highlight the need to address “the rat infestation and underlying conditions to make sure dogs & our whole community are safe.”

Dakarrie Garcia, a local dog trainer, told ABC New York station WABC he was concerned about conditions at the park.

“It’s disgusting. If you look around the park, there’s rat holes everywhere around the dog park,” Garcia said.

NYC Parks said it received two complaints regarding rodents in McCarren Park in the past year.

The health department said it investigates about 15 cases of canine leptospirosis each year and that “clusters” of the disease are “very rare.”

Symptoms of leptospirosis may include fever, chills, vomiting, muscle aches or diarrhea and usually appear one to two weeks after exposure. In some cases the disease may cause kidney or liver failure.

“Owners should not let their pets drink from puddles or other sources of water that may be contaminated with rat urine,” the health department said.

US preparing to approve evacuation from embassy in Ukraine: Sources

January 22, 2022 by WDNY Radio

(WASHINGTON) — The Department of State is preparing to approve the evacuation of some U.S. diplomats and diplomats’ families from the embassy in Ukraine, sources confirmed to ABC News.

The final authorization has not been approved, the sources said, so the scope of the evacuation is not yet clear.

A State Department spokesperson told ABC News, “We have nothing to announce at this time. We conduct rigorous contingency planning, as we always do, in the event the security situation deteriorates.”

That contingency planning has been underway for weeks now, as ABC News first reported last month that the embassy was preparing for an authorized or ordered departure.

An authorized departure allows families and non-emergency staff to evacuate, usually on commercial flights, while an ordered departure requires them to do so.

In either case, the State Department will warn U.S. citizens to depart the country, too. Ukraine is already a Level 4: Do Not Travel on the department’s travel advisory, with an explicit warning that “Russia is planning significant military action against Ukraine.”

But while Americans will be warned to depart this week, the State Department is making clear that they will not be evacuated on government aircraft, like in Afghanistan — an evacuation that the department continues to say is not a precedent.

“If there is a decision to change our posture with respect to American diplomats and their families, American citizens should not anticipate that there will be U.S. government-sponsored evacuations,” the State Department’s spokesperson said. “Currently commercial flights are available to support departures.”

The decision to evacuate some staff and families from the embassy has upset the Ukrainian government, according to one source, who said they were “p—– off.”

Ukrainians on the ground in Kyiv and at the front lines in the war between Ukraine and Russian-led forces in eastern provinces have told ABC News they are less convinced that a full-scale Russian attack is imminent. Some have suggested that the pressure from Moscow is a bluff — and one they see the U.S. as buying into with moves like this.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy hinted at that during his meeting with Secretary of State Antony Blinken Wednesday, telling him during a photo-op beforehand, “Your intelligence is excellent, but you are far overseas, and we are here, and I think we know some things a little bit deeper.”

Hazardous weather conditions after winter storm hits southeastern US with snow, ice

January 22, 2022 by WDNY Radio

(NEW YORK) — The southeastern United States is weathering snow and ice yet again a week after the region was slammed with hazardous winter conditions.

Two to 4.5 inches of snow have been reported from South Carolina to east Virginia, as winter weather alerts were in effect Saturday morning from Georgia to Maryland as the storm moved out of the region.

Cold temperatures throughout the weekend will continue to make for hazardous road conditions.

In North Carolina, Gov. Roy Cooper urged people to stay at home due to dangerous road conditions and widespread power outages. The governor had issued a state of emergency ahead of the winter storm.

North Carolina Highway Patrol troopers had responded to more than 1,500 calls for service and 945 collisions in affected areas since Friday afternoon, the governor’s office said midday Saturday. Most were related to cars sliding off the roadway and becoming stuck or single-car collisions, the office said.

The best way to stay safe is to stay home unless you absolutely must travel. Nearly 16k power outages were reported around 4 a.m., mostly in coastal counties. Utility crews are working to quickly restore power – as of 10 a.m. about 4k outages remained.https://t.co/Pqeub3OqLr pic.twitter.com/zqUiNdPw5y

— Governor Roy Cooper (@NC_Governor) January 22, 2022

“With limited improvement and lows plummeting into the teens Saturday night, black ice will become a large hazard for the eastern half of the state,” North Carolina Emergency Management said. “Additional melting is expected Sunday, but below normal temperatures [will] keep the potential for black ice into early next week.”

Runways were also impacted by sleet and snow. At Raleigh-Durham International Airport, a Delta flight arriving from Washington, D.C., Friday night was taxiing off the runway when it slid into mud around 9 p.m. local time, airport officials said. There were no reported injuries, and the airfield reopened shortly following snow removal at an alternate runway.

Nearly 16,000 power outages were initially reported early Saturday in North Carolina, mostly in coastal counties, Cooper said, as utility crews were working to restore power. As of 10 a.m. some 4,000 outages remained, the governor said.

Authorities in South Carolina and Virginia also urged drivers to avoid impacted areas due to snow and ice conditions.

ABC News’ Melissa Griffin contributed to this report.

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