Helene and other storms unleash 40 trillion gallons of rain
More than 40 trillion gallons of rain drenched the Southeast in the last week from Hurricane Helene and two other other storm systems. That’s enough to fill the Dallas Cowboys stadium 51,000 times, or enough to fill all of Lake Tahoe. It could also fill more than 60 million Olympic-sized swimming pools.
Ryan Maue, a former NOAA scientist, came up with the 40 trillion number using precipitation measurements made in 2.5-by-2.5-mile grids. The measurements were calculated by satellites and ground observations.
“I have not seen something in my 25 years of working at the weather service that is this geographically large of an extent and the sheer volume of water that fell from the sky,” Ed Clark, head of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s National Water Center in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, told The Associated Press,
At least 130 people have died across six states with many more reported missing on Tuesday, Oct. 1.
Hundreds of roads are closed. Some people have hiked hours to try to get to their family. On Tuesday, 1.5 million customers were without power.
President Joe Biden is expected to fly over Asheville Wednesday, Oct. 2. The damage is currently so bad, his motorcade cannot make it through.
California gets snow dusting in August for first time in 2 decades
California faced extreme heatwaves and devastating wildfires during the summer of 2024, but now, an unusual weather event has added to the state’s dramatic weather patterns: snow. For the first time in over 20 years, snow fell in the state during August.
An unusually strong and rare snow system swept through California’s Sierra Nevada mountain range early Saturday, Aug. 24. According to the National Weather Service, Yosemite National Park has not experienced August snow for at least two decades.
The snow was particularly welcomed at Mammoth Mountain and Palisades Tahoe ski resorts. Mammoth Mountain shared video footage on Instagram showing the fresh snowfall. Lassen Volcanic National Park also received about 3 inches of snow, while other areas experienced only a light dusting before temperatures returned to summertime norms just 24 hours later.
In addition to the snow, the storm brought a record amount of rainfall to northern California cities, including Redding, Red Bluff and Stockton. The National Weather Service described the cool conditions as an “anomaly,” coinciding with what is often considered the unofficial end of summer on Labor Day weekend.
Club Q mass shooter to take plea deal: ‘I have to take responsibility’: June 15 rundown
The suspect in the Club Q mass shooting is expected to take a plea deal, and hundreds of migrants were unaccounted for after an overloaded fishing boat sank. These stories and more highlight the rundown for Thursday, June 15, 2023.
Club Q shooting suspect to take plea deal
The suspect in last November’s mass shooting at the gay nightclub Club Q in Colorado Springs is now expected to take a plea deal. This is according to several survivors of the shooting who have spoken to the Associated Press.
In a series of jail calls to the Associated Press, 23-year-old Anderson Aldrich expressed remorse, as well as his intention to face the consequences for the shooting, which left five people dead and 17 others wounded. Aldrich faces more than 300 state charges, including murder and hate crimes.
The Justice Department is also considering filing federal hate crime charges. A plea deal over the Club Q shooting would ensure that Aldrich gets the maximum state sentence of life in prison. A hearing is set for June 26.
9 more women accuse Bill Cosby of sexual assault
Bill Cosby, the first celebrity to be tried and convicted in the #MeToo era, has been sued again for sexual assault. Nine women accuse the actor of individually drugging and assaulting them between the years of 1979 and 1992.
The women claim the sexual assaults occurred in dressing rooms and hotels in Las Vegas, Reno and Lake Tahoe. The 85 year-old former “Cosby Show” star has been accused of rape, sexual assault and sexual harassment by more than 60 women.
Cosby was released from prison in 2021 after a court overturned his 2018 conviction.
Texas sends buses of migrants to Los Angeles
Gov. Greg Abbott (R-TX) has sent dozens of migrants to California in several buses that arrived in Los Angeles on Wednesday, June 14. It’s the first time Texas has chosen Los Angeles as the final destination.
42 migrants left the Rio Grande Valley of south Texas for the 15,000-mile journey. According to one of the nonprofits assisting the migrants, there were eight children between the ages of 2 and 9, accompanied by their families on the bus. Los Angeles city officials learned about the migrants while the bus was on its way.
The bus trip comes days after dozens of migrants arrived in Sacramento. Those migrants were sent courtesy of Florida.
The city of Los Angeles voted last week to draft a “sanctuary city” policy, which often limits immigration enforcement actions.
78 migrants dead after fishing boat sinks
Nearly 80 migrants died after an “overloaded fishing boat” trying to reach Europe capsized and sank off the coast of Greece. An aerial photo of the blue vessel was released by the Greek Coast Guard. It shows scores of people covering almost every inch of the deck.
A undated handout photo provided by the Hellenic Coast Guard shows migrants onboard a boat during a rescue operation, before their boat capsized on the open sea, off Greece, June 14, 2023.
Greek Coast Guard officials have described this sort of fishing boat as a “floating coffin.”
Survivors fear hundreds of migrants were trapped in the lower deck and still unaccounted for. The migrants included Egyptians, Syrians, Pakistanis, Afghans, and Palestinians.
Greece has declared three days of mourning as rescue efforts neared an end in the Mediterranean.
“Right now, they’re under shock. So, I think that the medical and psychological needs of the people as well as their communication with their families, that’s their biggest concern. They want to tell their families that they are well,” said Erasmia Roumana, the senior protection associate at the United Nations Human Rights Center in Greece.
Report finds Boris Johnson misled Parliament about COVID parties
A seven-member committee in the British Parliament has released its “Partygate” report after spending more than a year investigating former Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s role in a series of parties in 2020 and 2021. The parties were held during the pandemic, when such gatherings were prohibited by law.
The report suggested Johnson “deliberately misled parliament about the parties.” It also ordered a 90 day suspension with a potential of sanctioning the former prime minister.
Johnson resigned from his post in Parliament less than a week ago, ahead of the report’s release. He released a statement saying he was being “forced out” by a handful of people and claimed the committee had no evidence to back such allegations against him.
Johnson resigned as prime minister in July of 2022.
U.S. open begins in wake of PGA/LIV merger
The U.S. Open golf tournament kicks off Thursday. The tournament gets underway just days after the bombshell merger announcement between the PGA Tour and LIV Golf.
The two organizations had a short-but-complicated history of spats. It was one year ago when the PGA Tour held its U.S. Open on the heels of LIV’s first event.
