Month: October 2024

Hurricane Milton made landfall on Florida’s west coast Wednesday night as a Category 3 hurricane, bringing with it life-threatening storm surge, powerful winds and flooding rains.

Milton made landfall near Siesta Key, Florida, Wednesday night at about 8:30 p.m. Eastern Time Wednesday as a Category 3 storm, with maximum sustained winds of 120 mph.  It has since weakened to a Category 1, with the storm continues to move across the Florida peninsula and by early Thursday, was mostly over the Atlantic Ocean

According to the National Hurricane Center, as of 5 a.m. Eastern Time, Milton had maximum sustained winds of 85 miles per hour and was moving off Florida’s east coast. Milton’s center was some 10 miles northeast of Cape Canaveral.   However, forecasters warn that the effects of Milton could still cause potential flooding in parts of Florida’s Gulf Coast with storm surge as high as 3 to 5 feet.

As of press time, more than 3.25 million customers were without power in Florida early Thursday, according to utility tracker PowerOutage.us.

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Per The Associated Press, officials confirmed Wednesday that five people were killed after a small plane crashed during takeoff from Santa Catalina Island off the Southern California coast on Tuesday.

The Federal Aviation Administration said Wednesday the twin-engine Beechcraft 95 crashed shortly after it departed from Catalina Airport in Avalon at around 8 p.m. on Tuesday. The FAA said later in an their online incident report that the crash occurred under “unknown circumstances” during takeoff, and those killed were the pilot and four passengers. The names of the victims, their relation to one another and the flight’s destination were not released.

The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Office said confirmed that five adults were found dead at the scene in rugged terrain about a mile (1.6 kilometers) west of the airport, sharing in a statement that their Avalon station received a 911 emergency notification from a cell phone indicating that its user had been involved in a collision with possible injuries and provided GPS coordinates.  According to the Sheriff’s Department’s news release, joint search and rescue team comprised of Avalon station deputies, Los Angeles County Fire Department, Avalon Search and Rescue and Avalon City Fire Department members found the plane about a mile west of Catalina Airport.

Santa Catalina Island, part of the Channel Islands, is located about 22 miles southwest of Los Angeles. Catalina Island Airport has a single, 3,000-foot-long runway and occupies a 1,602-foot-tall mountaintop at the center of the island. The airfield is known as the Airport in the Sky because of its precarious location at an elevation of 1,602 feet (488 meters) on the island about 25 miles off the coast of Los Angeles. It has a single 3,000-foot runway. About 4,000 residents live year-round on Santa Catalina Island.

The FAA and National Transportation Safety Board will continue the investigation into the cause of the crash.

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Florida authorities are issuing dire warnings and advising residents in the path of Hurricane Milton that “time is running out” to evacuate before the potentially historic storm makes landfall on Wednesday evening.  Milton re-intensified to a Cat 5 storm on Tuesday evening, with forecasters estimating that the hurricane will reach Florida’s Gulf Coast between 10 p.m Wednesday and 2 a.m. Thursday.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis continued to urge those who have yet to move out of Milton’s path to do so as soon as possible, with mandatory evacuations placed into effect for parts of western Florida, and 51 counties currently under a state of emergency.  As of press time, mandatory evacuation orders were in effect for the counties of Collier, Lee, Charlotte, Manatee, Hillsborough, Pinellas, Pasco, Hernando, Citrus and Levy along Florida’s western coast and Volusia on the eastern coast of Central Florida.

DeSantis told reporters at a press conference at the state Emergency Operations Center in Tallahassee: “You have time today. Time is running out. But you do have time today to heed any evacuation orders and do what you need to do to protect yourself and our families .. There’s no guarantee what the weather’s going to be like starting Wednesday morning. You may have a window where it may be safe, but you may not. So use today as your day to finalize and execute the plan that is going to protect you and your family.”  

DeSantis said that the entire west coast of Florida is facing significant storm surge from Milton, with some areas expecting to see water get as high as 15 feet from the storm. The governor noted that movements in the storm could vary from the National Weather Service cone, where the eye could end up anywhere from Tampa to Fort Myers:  “We just saw what just four feet [of storm surge] did to some of these communities. This is something that’s going to be really significant. Milton is no longer a Category 5, but it can grow back to that as it moves to the state of Florida. The forecast expects it to weaken before it makes landfall. I hope that is true. Even if it does weaken, you’re still looking at a major hurricane. It’s really going to have some significant impacts.”

Sarasota Mayor Liz Alpert noted: “What everyone has been saying is, you have to evacuate, it is not survivable, to survive a 10- to 15-foot storm surge. It just simply isn’t.”  

Tampa Mayor Jane Castor said she fears that debris left by Hurricane Helene might make things worse when Milton makes landfall: “Anybody and everybody, neighbors helping neighbors, just to get that household debris out of the way so that Milton doesn’t pick it up and use it as a weapon. This is literally a difference between life and death,” Castor said. “So people don’t have to go far, they just need to get inland. They have got to get out of the path of that storm surge.”  When speaking with CNN,  Castor said bluntly: “I can say without any dramatization whatsoever: If you choose to stay in one of those evacuation areas, you’re going to die.”

Hurricane warnings have been issued for both the East and West coasts of Florida, with the mandatory evacuation orders being the latest warnings given by officials as Milton moves closer to Florida in areas just hit by Hurricane Helene about two weeks ago. On the West coast, hurricane warnings were issued from Bonita Beach northward to the mouth of the Suwannee River, including the Tampa Bay area.  In addition, hurricane warnings were issued on the East coast from the Indian River/St. Lucie county line to Ponte Vedra Beach to the mouth of the St. Mary’s River.

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Attorneys general from 14 states filed lawsuits Tuesday against TikTok, alleging that the social media platform is misleading the public about its safety.

The lawsuits, filed individually by state, allege that TikTok (owned by the China-based company Byte Dance) is harming children’s mental health, with some kids getting injured or even dying because of TikTok’s viral “challenges.”  The suit also claim that TikTok relies on “addictive features” that keep users glued to its platform, which in turn can hurt their mental health. These features include notifications that can harm kids’ sleep patterns and video autoplay that encourages users to spend more time on the platform, without the option to turn off the autoplay function, according to the complaint.

New York Attorney General Letitia James said in a statement: “Challenges are campaigns that encourage users to create and post certain types of videos on TikTok, such as a video of a user performing a certain dance routine or a dangerous prank. Challenge videos are a cornerstone of the platform and are among the most popular videos on the platform. Young people are struggling with their mental health because of addictive social media platforms like TikTok. TikTok claims that their platform is safe for young people, but that is far from true. In New York and across the country, young people have died or gotten injured doing dangerous TikTok challenges and many more are feeling more sad, anxious and depressed because of TikTok’s addictive features.”  

Along with New York, attorneys general from California, Illinois, Kentucky, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Mississippi, New Jersey, North Carolina, Oregon, South Carolina, Vermont, Washington, and Washington, D.C. filed suits in their own jurisdictions.

TikTok said it will fight against the lawsuits, sharing a statement: “We strongly disagree with these claims, many of which we believe to be inaccurate and misleading. We’re proud of and remain deeply committed to the work we’ve doneto protect teens and we will continue to update and improve our product … We’ve endeavored to work with the attorneys general for over two years and it is incredibly disappointing they have taken this step rather than work with us on constructive solutions to industrywide challenges.”

TikTok is also fighting a potential ban that was signed into law earlier this year by President Biden, and is also facing charges from various states and children’s advocates about privacy issues and their impact on kids and young adults.

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On Monday, Hurricane Milton reached Category 5 — the strongest of the classifications — with maximum sustained winds of 175 mph. The National Hurricane Center (‘NHC’) said Milton has undergone “remarkable” rapid intensification after being upgraded from a tropical storm on Sunday, moving rapidly past a Category 4 strength hurricane in a matter of hours.  The NHC now considers Milton “potentially catastrophic” as it continues to make its way east toward Florida, bringing the threat of damaging winds and life-threatening storm surges.

NHC Director Michael Brennan called the rate of Milton’s intensification “extreme” in a Monday briefing, and stated it has only witnessed such rapid strengthening in a storm system twice before: Wilma (2005) and Felix (2007) – making Milton the third-fastest rapidly intensifying storm on record in the Atlantic, according to more than 40 years of NHC data.

Milton is expected to move just north of the Yucatan Peninsula on Monday and Tuesday before crossing the eastern Gulf of Mexico and approaching Florida’s west coast by Wednesday. While Milton is forecast to weaken slightly before it makes landfall on Wednesday night or early Thursday morning, it is expected to still be a major Category 3 hurricane, and predicted to cause major damage to the area – with parts of the Florida Peninsula and Keys potentially seeing between 5-10 inches of rain through Wednesday night, with localized totals up to 15 inches in some areas.  There is also an increased risk of life-threatening storm surge and damaging winds for parts of Florida’s west coast beginning late Tuesday/early Wednesday which could raise water levels to as high as 8 to 12 feet in coastal areas of Florida.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis urged Floridians to follow local guidance and make emergency preparations, whether they are evacuating or sheltering at home:  “You have an opportunity today to do what you need to do to execute this plan. But time is going to start running out very, very soon.”  Kevin Guthrie, the executive director of Florida Emergency Management, stated at the governor’s news conference: “Please, if you’re in the Tampa Bay area, you need to evacuate. Drowning deaths due to storm surge are 100% preventable if you leave.”

More than 50 counties along Florida’s west coast are now under state of emergency orders and several are under evacuation orders, including Charlotte, Hillsborough, Manatee, Pasco, Pinellas and Sarasota. All evacuation orders are listed on Florida’s Division of Emergency Management website.

On Monday, the Georgia Supreme Court reinstated the state’s six-week abortion ban while it reviews an appeal from a lower court ruling that had struck down the law. The law had went into effect ater the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022, with Georgia prohibiting most abortions once cardiac activity is detected (typically around six weeks).

The six-week ban will remain in place while Georgia’s highest court considers the state’s appeal; meaning, abortions will not be allowed in Georgia beyond six weeks of pregnancy. However, Georgia’s Supreme Court’s decision still left in place the lower court’s ruling blocking a separate provision of the law that had given state prosecutors broad access to the medical records of abortion patients without due process protections.

The new six-week abortion ban comes after the judge’s ruling last week that the six-week ban is unconstitutional and abortions would be permitted past six weeks. Fulton County Superior Court Judge Robert McBurney wrote in his order that while “the State’s interest in protecting ‘unborn’ life is compelling, until that life can be sustained by the State … the balance of rights favors the woman … our higher courts’ interpretations of ‘liberty’ demonstrates that liberty in Georgia includes in its meaning, in its protections, and in its bundle of rights the power of a woman to control her own body, to decide what happens to it and in it, and to reject state interference with her healthcare choices. That power is not, however, unlimited  When a fetus growing inside a woman reaches viability, when society can assume care and responsibility for that separate life, then — and only then — may society intervene.”

The state’s near-total abortion ban, known as the LIFE Act, was signed by Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp in 2019 but didn’t take effect until July 2022. Kemp issued a statement following McBurney’s ruling, saying, “Once again, the will of Georgians and their representatives has been overruled by the personal beliefs of one judge. Protecting the lives of the most vulnerable among us is one of our most sacred responsibilities, and Georgia will continue to be a place where we fight for the lives of the unborn.”

White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters Monday after the Georgia Supreme Court issued the stay: “We’re going to continue to call out these extreme agendas that we’re seeing from the other side, from Republicans. It is important to say how dangerous this is. And how this is a freedom that has been taken away from women.”

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