At least 23 dead in Alabama tornadoes

Rescuers sifted through rubble looking for more dead and wounded after two back-to-back tornadoes touched down in Alabama, US, killing at least 23 people, authorities said.

The storms inflicted their worst damage on Lee County, Alabama Sunday, destroying numerous homes and businesses.

More than 50 people were reported injured and the death toll is expected to rise.

Meanwhile, about 10 inches of snow was expected to fall in the New York City area by Monday morning with the arrival of another arctic blast, prompting all schools in the city to be closed and New Jersey to declare a state of emergency.

Punishing cold winds will make it feel 15 degrees below zero Fahrenheit in Chicago Monday with the windchill effect, the National Weather Service said. Actual temperatures will hover around 15 degrees Fahrenheit Monday.

Classes in schools across Boston were also cancelled or delayed as about 7 inches will fall by morning before turning into icy sleet, said Bob Oravec, a forecaster with the weather service.

"Winter is definitely not over," Oravec said.

COLD WEATHER WARNING

In Alabama, Lee County Sheriff Jay Jones said that rescue and recovery operations overnight were difficult.

"The challenge is the sheer volume of the debris where all the homes were located," Jones said in an interview with CNN on Sunday. "It's the most I've seen that I can recall."

On Twitter, US President Donald Trump urged residents of Alabama and other areas affected by the storms to be "careful and safe."

"Tornadoes and storms were truly violent and more could be coming," Trump wrote. "To the families and friends of the victims, and to the injured, God bless you all!"

As thousands faced a night without power, temperatures in Alabama looked set to fall to near freezing following the storm.

"Colder air will sweep into the Southeast behind the severe weather with temperatures dropping into the 30s (1 C) southward to central Georgia and across most of Alabama by Monday morning," AccuWeather meteorologist Kristina Pydynowski said.

"Those without power who rely on electric heat need to find ways to stay warm," she added.

source: news.abs-cbn.com

Storm Alberto churns toward Florida, Alabama and Mississippi

Gulf Coast residents should "take this storm seriously," the National Weather Service said on Sunday as Subtropical Storm Alberto drove north through the Gulf of Mexico, threatening heavy rains and winds to the southern coastal states.

Florida, Alabama and Mississippi declared states of emergency on Saturday with up to 15 inches (38 cm) of rain forecast over the Memorial Day weekend, as well as tidal surges and damaging winds, according to Patrick Burke of the weather service's Weather Prediction Center in College Park, Maryland.

"This is jogging more to the east and will hit the Florida panhandle," Burke said. "We're talking eight to 12 inches of rain this weekend, and storm surges on the Gulf Coast."

"It's heavy rainfall on the entire coast," he said.

By midday Sunday, the US Southeast was seeing 50-mile-per-hour (80-km-per-hour) winds and up to 10 inches of rain in some places, Ken Graham, director of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's National Hurricane Center, said in a video briefing. Downpours caused some street flooding, he said.

"So we need to really be careful with that rainfall," Graham said. The storm was moving north at about 14 mph, he added, "so not real fast."

Alberto, the first named Atlantic storm of 2018 which spun up days before the formal start of the 2018 hurricane season, is expected to intensify and bring wind speeds of up to 65 mph (40 kph) to the Gulf Coast when it approaches over the holiday on Monday, the National Weather Service said.

By midday on Sunday, the storm was about 240 miles (386 km) northwest of Key West, Florida, according to the U.S. National Hurricane Center (NHC).

State officials urged their residents to monitor the storm.

"I ask everyone to please make final preparations to your family emergency plan, especially those that live in mobile homes and low-lying areas," Mississippi Governor Phil Bryant said in a statement.

Alberto's projected storm track has shifted eastward since Friday, lessening its threat to the active oil production areas in the Gulf of Mexico. Royal Dutch Shell Plc, Exxon Mobil Corp and Chevron Corp have evacuated some personnel from offshore Gulf oil facilities.

source: news.abs-cbn.com

Hurricane Nate makes landfall at US Gulf Coast

NEW ORLEANS - Hurricane Nate made landfall near the mouth of the Mississippi River as a Category 1 storm with winds of 85 miles per hour on Saturday evening, threatening parts of Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama with torrential rain and potential flooding.

Nate, the fourth major storm to strike the United States in less than 2 months, killed at least 30 people in Central America before entering the warm waters of the Gulf and bearing down on the US South.


As the hurricane struck at about 7 p.m. CDT (8 a.m. Sunday, Manila time), the National Hurricane Center (NHC) downgraded its warning for New Orleans to a tropical storm. But Nate was expected to regain some strength and make a second landfall along the coast of Mississippi to the east.

"While it appears we're being spared ... our hearts go out to Mississippi," said Amos Cormier, president of Plaquemines Parish, a low-lying area in the New Orleans area.

The hurricane's center was expected to pass over portions of Mississippi, Alabama, and Tennessee late Saturday through Sunday night, eventually weakening to a tropical depression. Before then, storm surges of up to 11 feet on the Mississippi-Alabama border were still possible, the NHC said.

Earlier in the day, a state of emergency was declared in the 3 states, as well as in more than two dozen Florida counties.

Nate comes on the heels of three other major storms, Harvey, Irma and Maria, which devastated Texas, Florida and Puerto Rico, respectively. But as a Category 1, the weakest in the 5-category ranking used by meteorologists, Nate appeared to lack the devastating punch of its predecessors.

Plaquemines Parish evacuated some 240 residents who were not protected by its levee system as the storm approached.

New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu lifted a curfew in the city on Saturday evening that was originally scheduled to last until Sunday morning. He said in a statement on social media however, that there was still a serious threat of storm surge outside levee areas.

ALABAMA, MISSISSIPPI BRACE

In a statement, the City of Biloxi was warning its 46,000 residents that the highest storm surge would occur between 10 p.m. and 3 a.m. and could reach 11 to 12 feet.

In Alabama, Governor Kay Ivey urged residents in areas facing heavy winds and storm surges to take precautions.

East of the Mississippi River from the central Gulf Coast into the Deep South, eastern Tennessee Valley, and southern Appalachians, 3 to 6 inches and a maximum of 10 inches of rain was expected, the NHC said.

The Ohio Valley into the central Appalachians could see 2 to 5 inches with maximums of 7.

Major shipping ports across the central US Gulf Coast were closed to inbound and outbound traffic on Saturday, as Nate intensified and storm surges of up 11 feet (3.74 m) were expected at the mouth of the Mississippi River.

The storm has curtailed 92 percent of daily oil production and 77 percent of daily natural gas output in the Gulf of Mexico, more than three times the amount affected by Harve

Workers had been evacuated from 301 platforms and 13 rigs as of Saturday, said the US Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement.

Before heading north into the Gulf, Nate brushed Mexico's Yucatan peninsula, home to beach resorts such as Cancun and Playa del Carmen, the NHC said.

The storm doused Central America with heavy rains on Thursday, killing at least 16 people in Nicaragua, 10 in Costa Rica, two in Honduras and two in El Salvador.

Thousands were forced to evacuate their homes and Costa Rica's government declared a state of emergency.

(Additional reporting by Chris Kenning, Brendan O'Brien in Milwaukee, Alex Dobuzinskis in Los Angeles, Oswaldo Rivas in Managua, Erwin Seba and Gary McWilliams in Houston; Editing by Matthew Lewis, Bill Rigby and Diane Craft)

source: news.abs-cbn.com

Christmas Day cleanup after storms kill 14 in US

CHICAGO, United States - Rescue workers and heartbroken residents on Friday sifted through what was left of homes wiped out by several ferocious storms and tornadoes that killed at least 14 people in southeastern United States.

The storms, feeding on unseasonably warm air, left a trail of destruction in rural communities from Alabama to Illinois, just as Christmas reached its crescendo.

More than a dozen tornadoes were reported in six states, with the southern states of Mississippi and Alabama hardest hit. Seven people were confirmed dead there and another 60 injured, with one person missing, said the Mississippi emergency management agency.

"We are experiencing some flash flooding today, with storms coming through right now in five counties. And damage assessments are still ongoing," the emergency agency's Brett Carr told AFP.

Among the Mississippi dead was a seven-year-old boy who was killed when a storm picked up and tossed the car he was travelling in, fire chief Kenny Holbrook told reporters in the town of Holly Springs, where thousands greeted Christmas Day without power.

Mississippi Governor Phil Bryant declared a state of emergency in seven counties after the storms caused widespread damage.

Governor Robert Bentley also declared a state of emergency across Alabama on Friday to deal with the effects of the storm.

Hours after the declaration, a tornado touched down in Birmingham, Alabama, the state's most populous city, uprooting trees, tearing off roofs and injuring three people, local media reported.

Six fatalities were confirmed in Tennessee, including three people found dead Thursday in a car submerged in a creek, according to the fire department in Columbia, Tennessee.

Another person was killed in Arkansas.

Georgia's governor declared a state of emergency in counties affected by the severe weather.

- Cleanup volunteers wanted –
Debris from ravaged buildings and other structures littered roads, making them impassable in parts of the southeast.

Officials across the affected region were inviting volunteers to help clean up or make donations as people who fled returned to their homes to see what, if anything, was still standing.

Television footage and pictures posted on social media showed homes flattened across the affected states, with possessions and Christmas presents strewn on the ground or left in a messy heap.

Power lines, trees and mobile phone towers were also toppled.

Therese Apel, a reporter at Mississippi's Clarion-Ledger newspaper, spoke with a north Mississippi family hard hit by the violent weather.

"The Wilkins family lost everything, but they told me, 'It's still Christmas. It's about family and being grateful,'" Apel posted on Twitter.

The worst appeared to be over, but forecasters at the National Weather Service warned severe weather was possible in several states including Mississippi, Missouri and Oklahoma. Flash floods in the US southeast were also a possibility.

The East Coast meanwhile was enjoying unseasonably warm weather, with temperatures in New York's iconic Central Park peaking at 72 degrees Fahrenheit (22 Celsius) Thursday, the warmest Christmas Eve since records began in 1871.

The location set a Christmas Day record with temperatures reaching 66 degrees (19 Celsius) on Friday.

Atlanta, Georgia was also expected to set a record with temperatures reaching 75 degrees Fahrenheit (24 Celsius).

The opposite was happening in other areas of the country.

"Ho Ho Ho! Vegas got snow!" reported the National Weather Service before dawn Friday, saying the trace of white tied the record set in 1941 for Christmas Day snow in normally balmier Las Vegas. That record was also tied in 1988 and 2008.

source: www.abs-cbnnews.com

Why this bill is being named after Apple CEO

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. - Apple Chief Executive Tim Cook, who made headlines in October when he publicly acknowledged being gay, is lending his name to legislation to bar discrimination against state employees on the basis of their sexual orientation in his native Alabama.

Democratic state Representative Patricia Todd, Alabama's sole openly gay lawmaker, said on Wednesday that Apple was initially hesitant about having Cook's name on her bill, which faces steep odds in the Republican-dominated Legislature, but later embraced the idea.

Cook came out days after accepting an Alabama Academy of Honor award in a speech critical of the socially conservative state's lack of progress on rights for gay people.

"Nobody could have scripted this," said Todd, who plans to introduce her bill in the Alabama legislative session beginning in March. "I never in a million years would have expected it."

In the days after Cook disclosed in a magazine essay that he was gay, Todd told reporters she would put his name on a bill to bar discrimination against lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender school teachers and other state employees.

Todd said she was initially speaking in jest about using Cook's name, but her comments were published and came to the attention of Apple. Todd said she received a call early last month from a company official who expressed concern over Cook's name being attached to such a politically sensitive measure.

Todd said she told the official she would not name the bill after Cook. But after that conversation was reported by BuzzFeed earlier this week, Todd received a call from the company's general counsel, Bruce Sewell, who told her Cook would be delighted to have the bill named after him, she said.

In a statement provided to Reuters, Apple said: "Tim was honored to hear that State Rep. Todd wanted to name an anti-discrimination bill after him, and we're sorry if there was any miscommunication about it. We have a long history of support for LGBT rights and we hope every state will embrace workplace equality for all."

Todd said she hoped Cook could come to the legislature and speak on the bill's behalf, particularly its value in attracting business and talent to the state.

"We have extended the invitation to him, but he is a busy man and of course Apple comes first," she said. "I hope he can fit it into his schedule."

source: www.abs-cbnnews.com

Alabama's Tough Law On Immigration

MONTGOMERY, Alabama, United States (AP) — Hundreds of people packed the Alabama Statehouse courtyard on Tuesday to rally against the state's tough immigration law, with organizers saying they chose to send a message on Val-entine's Day that lawmakers need to love and respect immigrants.

People bused in from across the state to demand repeal of the law that aims to be tough on those in the country illegally.

Protesters carried signs reading, "Gov. Bentley, don't you have a heart?'' and "Una Familia, Una Alabama.'' They chanted in Spanish and English, "No more HB56'' (the bill that became the law) and "One family, one Alabama.'' They delivered lollipops and Valentines to lawmakers, urging them to strike down the law.

Legislative leaders have said they plan to introduce a bill in the coming weeks to make subtle changes to the law. However, House Majority Leader Micky Hammon, one of the sponsors of the immigration bill, said the proposal will not make major changes and is not aimed at softening the law.

Rally organizers said the changes aren't enough, and a full repeal is needed.

"Tweaks are only temporary Band-Aids, not a permanent solution,'' said Zayne Smith, a coordinator with the Alabama Coalition for Immigrant Justice.

The wide-ranging law requires police to determine citizenship status during traffic stops and requires government offices to verify legal residency for everyday transactions like obtaining a car license, enrolling a child in school, getting a job or renewing a business license

Opponents say they'll spend more days at the Legislature lobbying against the law, parts of which have been blocked by federal courts. The law, which was passed by the Republican-controlled Legislature and signed into law by Gov. Robert Bentley, took effect in the fall. Opponents say it's hurting the state's economy and image; supporters say it's providing jobs for legal residents.

Carmen Espinoza, 17, a high school student at Montgomery Catholic, moved to the state from California last year. An immigrant from Mexico, she is in the country legally, but some friends and family members are not. She moved to live with her aunt because her family was worried about gangs and violence in southern California, she said.

"In California, there was a big Hispanic community _ we never had to deal with racism,'' Espinoza said. "Now here, when people see me, the first thing they ask is, `Do you have papers?' It's not fair. We're all equal.''

Espinoza said she saw the trailer park where she lives with her aunt and two cousins clear out almost overnight after legislators passed the law. She said illegal immigrants left 80 trailers behind with all of their possessions still inside.

Teachers have made racist comments to her cousins, calling one a "hood Mexican,'' she said. She lives in constant fear for her friends and family who are in the country illegally.

"It's a fear we all live with _ our family could be stopped because of our appearance,'' Espinoza said. ``It's horrible to live in fear.''

Her aunt, Irma Alvarez, 39, moved to Montgomery in 2008 because it was quieter than California and she thought it would be a good place to raise her two sons. She has a hard time understanding why lawmakers are targeting immigrants, she said.

source: mb.com.ph