LUY-Development

Category: Regional News

  • Tennessee residents clean up after severe weekend storms killed 6 people and damaged neighborhoods

    Tennessee residents clean up after severe weekend storms killed 6 people and damaged neighborhoods

    NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Residents of central Tennessee communities slammed by deadly tornadoes this weekend described tragic and terrifying scenes in which one mobile home landed on top of another, roofs were ripped from houses and an entire church collapsed during a string of powerful storms that killed six people.

    Emergency workers and community members cleaned up Sunday from the severe weekend storms and tornadoes that also sent dozens more to the hospital while damaging buildings, turning over vehicles and knocking out power to tens of thousands.

    Marco Tulio Gabriel Pérez came to Nashville from Atlanta after hearing that his sister and 2-year-old nephew were killed in the tornado. He said two other children in the family survived with minor injuries.

    Family members were crying as they looked through the rubble of the trailers on Sunday morning.

    “Regrettably, a tragedy happened here. Since it’s a tornado, it came through like you can see here. She lived in this trailer. The other trailer overturned on top of my deceased sister. She remained underneath, the other trailer went on top,” Pérez told The Associated Press in Spanish.

    The Metropolitan Nashville Police Department identified the victims killed north of downtown as Joseph Dalton, 37; Floridema Gabriel Pérez, 31; and her son, Anthony Elmer Mendez, 2. Dalton was inside his mobile home when the storm tossed it on top of Pérez’s residence. Two other children were taken to a hospital with injuries that were not life-threatening, the department said in a statement.

    Officials elsewhere confirmed that three people, including a child, died after a tornado struck Montgomery County 50 miles (80 kilometers) northwest of Nashville near the Kentucky state line on Saturday afternoon. They did not immediately provide names. About 60 people were treated for injuries at area medical facilities, including nine transferred in critical condition to a Nashville hospital, said Jimmie Edwards, Montgomery County’s director of emergency services.

    Twenty-one total injuries were reported in Nashville, city officials said. A church north of downtown collapsed during the storm, resulting in 13 people being treated at hospitals, Nashville emergency officials said in a news release. They were later listed in stable condition.

    The sanctuary and activities building at Community Baptist Church in Nashville were totally demolished, Donella Johnson, the wife of the church’s pastor, said in a Facebook video. Several members caught by the damage had emergency surgeries for broken hips and legs, she said.

    The church website had publicized an appreciation banquet for the Johnsons for late Saturday afternoon.

    “Though we have experienced devastation beyond measure, we did not lose life,” the pastor, the Rev. Vincent Johnson said. “God took brick and wood and metal and it was mangled in a tornado … yet God preserved us.”

    At least six tornado tracks were reported Saturday in central Tennessee, according to the National Weather Service. Agency meteorologist Cory Mueller in Nashville said it was sending out tornado tracking teams on Sunday to attempt to confirm these potential tornadoes and calculate their severity.

    Mueller said it wasn’t uncommon for tornadoes to be generated during this time of year.

    Joe Pitts, mayor of the Montgomery County city of Clarksville, said it could be a couple of weeks before power is restored to everyone. Residents of the city of about 166,000 spent Sunday helping one another dig out from the devastating storms, he said.

    “We know we have people who are suffering because of loss of life, loss of property,” Pitts said. “One thing I love about this city is that when someone has a need, we rally around that need.”

    At a news conference with Metropolitan Nashville leaders, Mayor Freddie O’Connell said that over 20 structures had collapsed there as a result of Saturday’s storm and that “countless others have sustained significant damage.”

    Nashville Electric Service executive Teresa Broyles-Aplin said electric substations in north Nashville and in nearby Hendersonville suffered significant damage and that outages could last days in some areas.

    She said it was possible that a widely distributed video showing a fireball in the Saturday evening sky could have been caused by Nashville Electric equipment.

    “That gives you a good idea of the extent of damage that we’re dealing with at some of these substations,” she said.

    Residents in the region are familiar with severe weather in late fall. Saturday’s storm came nearly two years to the day after the National Weather Service recorded 41 tornadoes through a handful of states, including 16 in Tennessee and eight in Kentucky. A total of 81 people died in Kentucky alone.

    Ellen Schlavach and Robyn Robichaud said that a tree fell on their house in the Madison neighborhood of Nashville, and many of their neighbors’ homes were damaged worse. They had been out running errands on Saturday and had seen some warnings that a thunderstorm was coming. They realized things were serious after they got back home and received emergency alerts on their phones.

    “We very quickly realized that we had to gather up all the pets and hide in the bathroom,” Schlavach said. “The house was shaking. A tree fell on the house. Very loud. Very scary.”

    Greg Chance of Nashville said that he was watching the news on Saturday with his wife and daughter and knew there was bad weather coming. Within minutes, they went to their safe place at a spot in the kitchen where there were no windows nearby and sat on the floor.

    “And then the next thing we know, it just sounded like an explosion went off. You could hear stuff flying everywhere. It was crazy. It’s crazy. It is terrifying,” he said, emotion rising in his voice as he described the three of them holding onto each other.

    He said he worked with Dalton, one of those killed in the storm, at a company that makes fasteners for construction. Chance said he couldn’t sleep knowing that his coworker lost his life and left behind a son. He said the boy and his mother were taken to the hospital with injuries.

    About 35,000 electricity customers were without power in Tennessee on Sunday evening, according to PowerOutage.us, down from more than 80,000 on Saturday night. School would be closed in Clarksville through Tuesday, officials said.

    Recovery continued as areas east faced severe weather Sunday. Tornado warnings were posted in the afternoon in the Raleigh, North Carolina, area and points in counties toward the Virginia border. Some homes were damaged by storms in Garner, a suburb of Raleigh.

  • Texas judge grants pregnant woman permission to get an abortion despite state’s ban

    Texas judge grants pregnant woman permission to get an abortion despite state’s ban

    AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — A Texas judge on Thursday granted a pregnant woman permission to obtain an abortion in an unprecedented challenge to the state’s ban that took effect after Roe v. Wade was overturned last year.

    It was unclear how quickly or whether Kate Cox, a 31-year-old mother of two from the Dallas area, will be able to obtain an abortion. State District Judge Maya Guerra Gamble, an elected Democrat, said she would grant a temporary restraining order that would allow Cox to have an abortion under what are narrow exceptions to the state’s ban. That decision is likely to be appealed by the state.

    Cox is 20 weeks pregnant and doctors say her fetus has a fatal diagnosis. In a brief emergency hearing Thursday, her attorneys told Gamble that Cox went to an emergency room this week for a fourth time since her pregnancy.

    Cox and her husband both attended the hearing via Zoom but did not address the court. Doctors have told Cox that if the baby’s heartbeat were to stop, inducing labor would carry a risk of a uterine rupture because of her prior cesareans sections, and that another C-section at full term would would endanger her ability to carry another child.

    “This law might actually cause her to lose that ability is shocking and would be a genuine miscarriage of justice,” Gamble said.

    The lawsuit is believed to be the first of its kind in the nation since the U.S. Supreme Court last year overturned Roe v. Wade, according to the Center for Reproductive Rights, which is representing Cox.

    Since that landmark ruling, Texas and 12 other states rushed to ban abortion at nearly all stages of pregnancy. Opponents have sought to weaken those bans — including an ongoing Texas challenge over whether the state’s law is too restrictive for women with pregnancy complications — but until now, a woman has not gone to court seeking approval for an immediate abortion.

    “I do not want to continue the pain and suffering that has plagued this pregnancy or continue to put my body or my mental health through the risks of continuing this pregnancy,” Cox wrote in an editorial published in The Dallas Morning News. “I do not want my baby to arrive in this world only to watch her suffer.”

    Although Texas allows exceptions under the ban, doctors and women have argued that the requirements are so vaguely worded that physicians still won’t risk providing abortions, lest they face potential criminal charges or lawsuits.

    State officials had asked Gamble to deny the request, alleging that Cox does not meet the requirements for an exception to the ban.

    “There are no facts pled which demonstrate that Ms. Cox is at any more of a risk, let alone life-threatening, than the countless women who give birth every day with similar medical histories,” the state wrote.

    Cox has been told by doctors that her baby will likely be stillborn or live for a week at most, according to the lawsuit filed in Austin. The suit says doctors told her their “hands are tied” under Texas’ abortion ban.

    The lawsuit was filed a week after the Texas Supreme Court heard arguments about whether the ban is too restrictive for women with pregnancy complications. That case is among the biggest ongoing challenges to abortion bans in the U.S., although a ruling from the all-Republican court may not come for months.

    Cox had cesarean sections with her previous pregnancies. She learned she was pregnant for a third time in August and was told weeks later that her baby was at a high risk for a condition known as trisomy 18, which has a very high likelihood of miscarriage or stillbirth and low survival rates, according to the lawsuit.

    In July, several Texas women gave emotional testimony about carrying babies they knew would not survive and doctors unable to offer abortions despite their spiraling conditions. A judge later ruled that Texas’ ban was too restrictive for women with pregnancy complications, but that decision was swiftly put on hold after the state appealed.

    More than 40 woman have received abortions in Texas since the ban took effect, according to state health figures, none of which have resulted in criminal charges. There were more than 16,000 abortions in Texas in the five months prior to the ban taking effect last year.

  • Mississippi Republican Gov. Tate Reeves wins 2nd term, defeating Democrat Brandon Presley

    Mississippi Republican Gov. Tate Reeves wins 2nd term, defeating Democrat Brandon Presley

    JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — Mississippi Republican Gov. Tate Reeves won a second term Tuesday in the conservative state where his party dominates.

    Reeves defeated challenger Brandon Presley, who raised more money and made an aggressive push to give Democrats a rare statewide victory in the Deep South.

    “Mississippi has momentum, and this is Mississippi’s time,” Reeves told cheering supporters at a party in the Jackson suburb of Flowood, reflecting the main theme of his campaign.

    The mood at Presley’s party in Jackson, the capital city, was somber as he said hours after the polls closed: “Tonight’s a setback, but we’re not going to lose hope. … This campaign elevated issues that had to be elevated in Mississippi.”

    The race was unusually competitive for this GOP stronghold. But Reeves prevailed with a message focused on job creation, low unemployment and improvements in education. He also cast Presley as a liberal backed by out-of-state donors who were out of step with Mississippi.

    “For you to believe Brandon Presley in anything that he says, you’ve got to believe that everything in Mississippi is bad,” Reeves said last week during the candidates’ only debate.

    Presley, a state utility regulator and second cousin of Elvis Presley, said Reeves had hurt the state by refusing to expand Medicaid to cover people working lower-wage jobs that do not provide health insurance. Presley pledged to clean up government corruption, pointing to welfare money that was spent on pet projects for the wealthy and well-connected rather than aid for some of the poorest people in one of the poorest states in the nation.

    “He’s not going to open his mouth about ethics reform,” Presley said of Reeves. “He is the poster child of this broken, corrupt system.”

    Republicans have held the Mississippi governorship for the past 20 years. They hold all statewide offices and a wide majority in the Legislature. The last time a Democrat won the presidential vote in Mississippi was 1976, when Georgia’s Jimmy Carter was on the ballot.

    The hard-fought contest was disrupted by a voting mess when polling places in the state’s largest county ran out of ballots and voters endured long lines in the key Democratic stronghold. One judge ordered all polls in the county to remain open an extra hour, until 8 p.m. CST. Another judge said four polling places in some suburbs of Jackson had to extend voting until 9 p.m.

    Hinds County election commissioners — all Democrats — were said to have underestimated the turnout and failed to have enough ballots on hand. Long lines of frustrated voters were kept waiting for batches of ballots that arrived and then ran out again.

    “Sheer incompetence,” said Perry Perkins, an organizer for Working Together Mississippi, a nonpartisan group that coordinates voter mobilization. “This is a travesty.”

    Presley’s campaign raised $11.3 million this year, compared with Reeves’ $6.3 million. But Reeves started the year with more money. By late October, Presley spent $10.8 million and still had $1.3 million, while Reeves spent $11 million and still had $1.2 million.

    Reeves, 49, served two terms as state treasurer and two as lieutenant governor before winning an open race for governor in 2019.

    Presley, 46, was mayor of his small hometown of Nettleton for six years and before being elected in 2007 to the three-person Mississippi Public Service Commission, which regulates utilities.

    In other contests:

    — Republican Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann won a second term by defeating a Democratic challenger who had spent little money, business consultant D. Ryan Grover. In a contentious Republican primary in August, Hosemann defeated state Sen. Chris McDaniel.

    — Republican Attorney General Lynn Fitch, whose office led the legal fight to overturn Roe v. Wade and change abortion access, also captured a second term by defeating Democrat Greta Kemp Martin, an attorney for Disability Rights Mississippi.

    By EMILY WAGSTER PETTUS

  • Daylight Saving Time is coming. This is how the time change impacts you, according to a sleep expert

    Daylight Saving Time is coming. This is how the time change impacts you, according to a sleep expert

    CHICAGO (AP) — Brunch dates and flag football games might be a little easier to get to this Sunday, when phones grace early-risers with an extra hour of rest before alarm clocks go off.

    The downside: Next week across most of the U.S., the sun will set well before many folks step foot out of the office, leaving them to run errands or take walks in utter darkness. Come Nov. 5, daylight saving time is out and standard time is in, and will last until March 10.

    No need to wait till the midnight hour to prepare for the time change that clocks in early Sunday, when 2 a.m. becomes 1 a.m. Before bed beckons Saturday night, rewind the clock on the microwave, oven, car, or any other device not yet clever enough to make the leap on its own.

    Besides scheduling stumbles and sleep habit disruptions, experts say the twice-yearly ritual can have more serious effects on human health.

    Many Americans are already sleep-deprived, and a change in time messes with sleep schedules even more, says Dr. Phyllis Zee, a sleep researcher at Northwestern Medicine in Chicago, although she says “falling back” and gaining an extra hour is generally easier on the body than “springing forward” and losing one.

    Chronic sleep deprivation can increase levels of stress hormones that boost heart rate and blood pressure, and of chemicals that trigger inflammation, research suggests.

    “Just that one hour can change the amount of sleep you get, the quality of sleep that you get,” Zee said. Off-kilter sleep can affect people’s ability to multitask, stay alert, and even maintain their balance, making them more prone to accidents.

    Molly Hart, spokeswoman for AAA’s Auto Club Group, warned that there may be an uptick in accidents on the road following the time change.

    “With daylight savings coming to an end, what people really need to be focused on is their driving now in the afternoon when it’s darker earlier,” and when they may be feeling drowsy, she said.

    Hawaii, American Samoa, Guam, Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands and most of Arizona do not observe daylight saving time.

    Some members of Congress have pushed to end the back-and-forth and make daylight saving time permanent.

    The U.S. Senate in March 2022 passed a bipartisan bill named the Sunshine Protection Act, but it stalled in the House. The bill was re-introduced by Sen. Marco Rubio in March of this year, then referred to committee, where it has remained idle.

  • Texas Walmart shooter agrees to pay more than $5M to families over 2019 racist attack

    Texas Walmart shooter agrees to pay more than $5M to families over 2019 racist attack

    AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — A white Texas gunman who killed 23 people at a Walmart in 2019 after ranting about Hispanics taking over the government and economy has agreed to pay more than $5 million to victims of the racist attack, according to an order signed by a judge Monday.

    Patrick Crusius was sentenced to 90 consecutive life sentences in July after pleading guilty to federal hate crime charges following one of the nation’s worst mass killings. Court records show his attorneys and the Justice Department reached an agreement over the restitution amount, which was then approved by U.S. District Judge David Guaderrama.

    There is no indication Crusius, 25, has significant assets. He was 21 years old and had dropped out of community college when police say he drove more than 700 miles from his home near Dallas to target Hispanics with an AK-style rifle inside and outside the store. Moments before the attack began, Crusius posted a racist screed online that warned of a Hispanic “invasion” of Texas.

    He once worked at a movie theater, a job that his attorneys have said Crusius was forced to leave because he was having violent thoughts.

    Crusius pleaded guilty in February after federal prosecutors took the death penalty off the table. But Texas prosecutors have said they will try to put Crusius on death row when he stands trial in state court. That trial date has not yet been set.

    Under the agreement between the gunman and the government, Crusius will pay $5,557,005.55, according to court filings.

    Joe Spencer, an attorney for Crusius, and a spokesperson for the Justice Department did not immediately return messages Monday.

    In January, the Justice Department proposed changes to how it runs federal prisoners’ deposit accounts in an effort to ensure victims are paid restitution, including from some high-profile inmates with large balances. The move came as the Justice Department faced increased scrutiny after revelations that several high-profile inmates kept large sums of money in their prison accounts but only made minimal payments to their victims.

    The 2019 attack was the deadliest of a dozen mass shootings in the U.S. linked to hate crimes since 2006, according to a database compiled by The Associated Press, USA Today and Northeastern University.

    Before the shooting, Crusius had appeared consumed by the nation’s immigration debate, tweeting #BuildtheWall and other social media posts that praised then-President Donald Trump’s hardline border policies. Crusius went further in his rant posted before the attack, sounding warnings that Hispanics were going to take over the government and economy.

  • Alabama high school band director stunned, arrested after refusing to end performance, police say

    BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (AP) — An Alabama high school band director was shocked with a stun gun and arrested after Birmingham police said he wouldn’t tell his band to stop playing.

    Local news outlets report that Minor High School’s band director was arrested Thursday night after a football game between Minor and Jackson-Olin High School. He’s charged with disorderly conduct, harassment and resisting arrest.

    Birmingham Police Officer Truman Fitzgerald, a department spokesperson, said police were trying to clear the stadium at Jackson-Olin after the game and asked both bands to stop playing so people wouldn’t linger.

    Police say the Jackson-Olin band stopped performing, but that the director disregarded officers and told his students to keep playing.

    Police officers accompanied by school security guards went to arrest him for disorderly conduct but he got into a scuffle with them, Fitzgerald said. He said the band director refused to place his hands behind his back and shoved an officer. One of the officers shocked the band director with a stun gun.

    Paramedics treated the band director and took him to a hospital to be checked out, Fitzgerald said. He was later booked into jail and released after posting bail.

    Jefferson County School Superintendent Walter Gonsoulin said Friday that he’s gathering facts and declined further comment for now. “I urge everyone not to jump to conclusions,” Gonsoulin said.

    The Birmingham Police Department’s Internal Affairs Division investigates all incidents where an officer uses force during an arrest.

     

  • 4 former officers plead not guilty to federal civil rights charges in Tyre Nichols beating

    4 former officers plead not guilty to federal civil rights charges in Tyre Nichols beating

    MEMPHIS, Tenn. (AP) — Four former Memphis police officers pleaded not guilty Wednesday to federal civil rights charges in the violent beating and death of Tyre Nichols after a traffic stop nine months ago.

    Tadarrius Bean, Demetrius Haley Desmond Mills and Justin Smith were led by U.S. Marshals into a courtroom wearing handcuffs and leg restraints for their first hearing since they were charged Tuesday with using excessive force and conspiring to lie about the Jan. 7 beating of Nichols as he cried out for his mother just steps from his home.

    Magistrate Judge Charmiane G. Claxton accepted the not guilty pleas from lawyers for the four officers, who were fired for violations of Memphis Police Department policy after Nichols died three days after he was punched, kicked and hit with a baton in a pummeling that was caught on police video.

    A fifth officer who was also fired and indicted by a federal grand jury, Emmitt Martin, was scheduled to make his first appearance Thursday. All five were charged with deprivation of rights under the color of law through excessive force and failure to intervene, and through deliberate indifference; conspiracy to witness tampering; and obstruction of justice through witness tampering.

    The five officers also have been charged in state court with second-degree murder and other alleged offenses in the beating death of Nichols, which is one of several violent encounters between police and Black people that have sparked protests and renewed debate about police brutality and police reform in the U.S.

    The five former officers, all Black like Nichols, have pleaded not guilty to the state charges as well.

    Claxton ordered the release of the four officers who were present in court Wednesday on a $50,000 unsecured bond, which means that they don’t have to pay any money unless they fail to appear in court.

    Kristen Clarke, who leads the U.S. Department of Justice’s civil rights division, said at a Tuesday news conference that the five former officers used excessive force, failed to advise medical personnel about Nichols’ injuries, and conspired to cover up their misconduct.

    The officers were part of a crime-suppression team that officials disbanded after Nichols’ death. However, members of that Scorpion unit have been moved to other teams.

    The indictment says the officers failed to tell dispatchers, their supervisor and emergency medical technicians they knew Nichols had been hit repeatedly, trying to cover up their use of force and shield themselves from criminal liability.

    Additionally, the indictment alleges instances where the officers used their body cameras to limit what evidence could be captured at the scene: Martin moved his body camera where it wouldn’t show video of the beating; Haley and Smith activated theirs only after the assault; and Haley and Mills took theirs off when emergency medical personnel were on the scene.

    At the arrest scene, the officers afterward discussed hitting Nichols with “straight haymakers,” even as Nichols’ condition deteriorated and he became unresponsive, the indictment said. Nichols could be seen on police video on the ground, slumped against a police car.

    The indictment accuses the officers of gathering after the beating and saying, among other things, that “I thought when he wasn’t going to fall, we about to kill this man.” The indictment does not specify which officer made that statement.

    The indictment also alleges the officers falsely stated Nichols actively resisted arrest at the beating scene and that he grabbed Smith’s protective vest and pulled on the officers’ duty belts.

    Attorneys for several of the former officers said the federal indictment was no surprise. Blake Ballin, Mills’ lawyer, told reporters outside the federal courthouse that Mills is taking the charges very seriously, and he is looking forward to defending himself in court.

    “It’s especially scary and uncomfortable for somebody who dedicated his life to being a law enforcement officer and now finds himself on the other side of things,” Ballin said.

  • Hurricane Idalia unleashes fury on Florida and Georgia, swamping wide stretch of coast

    Hurricane Idalia unleashes fury on Florida and Georgia, swamping wide stretch of coast

    CEDAR KEY, Fla. (AP) — Hurricane Idalia made landfall Wednesday in Florida as a Category 3 storm and unleashed devastation along a wide stretch of the Gulf Coast, submerging homes and vehicles, turning streets into rivers, unmooring small boats and downing power lines in an area that has never before received such a pummeling.

    More than 330,000 customers in Florida and Georgia were without electricity while rushing water covered streets near the coast. As the eye moved inland, high winds shredded signs, sent sheet metal flying and snapped tall trees.

    “We have multiple trees down, debris in the roads, do not come,” posted the fire and rescue department on the island of Cedar Key, where a tide gauge measured the storm surge at 6.8 feet (2 meters) — enough to submerge most of the downtown. “We have propane tanks blowing up all over the island.”

    Idalia came ashore in the lightly populated Big Bend region, where the Florida Panhandle curves into the peninsula. It made landfall near Keaton Beach at 7:45 a.m. as a high-end Category 3 hurricane with maximum sustained winds near 125 mph (205 kph).

    RJ Wright stayed behind on Cedar Key so he could check on elderly neighbors. He hunkered down with friends in a motel and when it was safe, walked outside into chest-high water. It could have been a lot worse for the island, which juts into the Gulf, since it didn’t take a direct hit, he said.

    “It got pretty gnarly for a while, but it was nothing compared to some of the other storms,” Wright said.

    The system remained a hurricane as it crossed into Georgia with top winds of 90 mph (150 mph), after drenching Florida mostly to the east of Tallahassee. Forecasters said it would punish the Carolinas overnight as a tropical storm.

    Some models had predicted that Idalia could circle southward toward land again after that, but the National Hurricane Center predicted it would move deeper into the Atlantic this weekend.

    In the town of Perry, the wind blew out store windows, tore siding off buildings and overturned a gas station canopy. Interstate 275 in Tampa was partially flooded, and toppled power lines closed northbound Interstate 75 just south of Valdosta, Georgia.

    About 200 miles to the south of where Idalia made landfall, the roads around the chic shops and restaurants of St. Armands Circle in the Sarasota area were underwater.

    Astounded by the flooding that turned Tampa’s Bayshore Boulevard into a river, Bill Hall watched a paddleboarder ride along the major thoroughfare.

    “This is actually unbelievable,” Hall said. “I haven’t seen anything like this in years.”

    In Tallahassee, Florida’s capital city, the power went out well before the center of the storm arrived.

    Tallahassee Mayor John Dailey urged everyone to shelter in place. Florida residents living in vulnerable coastal areas had been ordered to pack up and leave as Idalia gained strength in the warm waters of the Gulf of Mexico.

    “Don’t put your life at risk by doing anything dumb at this point,” Gov. Ron DeSantis said Wednesday at a news conference. “This thing’s powerful. If you’re inside, just hunker down until it gets past you.”

    Storm surge could rise as high as 16 feet (4.9 meters) in some places. Some counties implemented curfews to keep residents off roads.

    Diane Flowers was sound asleep at 1 a.m. Wednesday in her Wakulla County home, but her husband was up watching the weather on TV when he got a text from their son after the storm was upgraded to a Category 4. He’s a firefighter/EMT in Franklin County, which is also along the Gulf Coast.

    “He said, ‘You guys need to leave,’” Flowers said. “And he’s not one for overreacting, so when he told us to leave, we just packed our stuff, got in our car and got going.”

    They quickly packed a few clothes, medicine, food for their two border collies, a computer, important documents and a bag of Cheetos. Motels were packed all the way into Alabama, where they ended up finding a room in Dothan.

    The National Weather Service in Tallahassee called Idalia “an unprecedented event” since no major hurricanes on record have ever passed through the bay abutting the Big Bend. The state, still dealing with lingering damage from last year’s Hurricane Ian, feared disastrous results.

    Not everyone heeded the warnings to leave, and Hernando County Sheriff Al Nienhuis said authorities couldn’t guarantee rescues for people who didn’t evacuate, since coastal roads would only get more flooded as high tide pushes more water inland.

    “It’s going to do nothing but go up from here,” Nienhuis, whose county is north of the Tampa area, said Wednesday.

    Idalia grew into a Category 2 system on Tuesday and then a Category 3 storm on Wednesday before peaking as a Category 4 hurricane. It then weakened slightly.

    Tolls were waived on highways out of the danger area and shelters were opened. More than 30,000 utility workers were gathering to make repairs as quickly as possible in the hurricane’s wake. About 5,500 National Guard troops were activated.

    Both Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp and South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster announced states of emergency, freeing up state resources and personnel, including hundreds of National Guard troops.

    As he finished tying down about 20 sailboats and motor yachts docked on Wilmington Island east of Savannah, Georgia, Brandon Long said his biggest worry was that the storm surge was forecast to coincide with a higher-than-normal tide.

    “If these docks float off their pylons or come apart because of the violent current and the choppy waters, then that’s what destroys a marina,” said Long, owner of the Bull River Marina.

    Asked about the hurricane Tuesday, President Joe Biden said he had spoken to DeSantis and “provided him with everything that he possibly needs.”

    Ian was responsible last year for almost 150 deaths. That Category 5 hurricane damaged 52,000 structures, nearly 20,000 of which were destroyed or severely damaged.

    The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration recently said the 2023 hurricane season would be far busier than initially forecast, partly because of extremely warm ocean temperatures. The season runs through Nov. 30, with August and September typically the peak.

     

  • Oher seeks contract and payment information related to ‘The Blind Side’ in conservatorship battle

    Oher seeks contract and payment information related to ‘The Blind Side’ in conservatorship battle

    MEMPHIS, Tenn. (AP) — Lawyers for former NFL player Michael Oher are seeking his school records and information about contracts and payouts related to the film “The Blind Side” as part of his highly publicized effort to end a legal agreement between him and Sean and Leigh Anne Tuohy.

    Shelby County Probate Court issued three subpoenas Tuesday asking for information from Memphis Shelby County Schools, Alcon Entertainment, which produced the movie, and Creative Artists Agency, a prominent talent agent firm known as CAA.

    The filings are part of Oher’s attempts to end a conservatorship overseen by the Tuohys, who took in Oher while he was a high school football player in Memphis. Their story was the subject of the film “The Blind Side,” which earned Sandra Bullock an Oscar for her portrayal of Leigh Anne Tuohy.

    Oher, 37, filed a petition Aug. 14 in probate court accusing the Tuohys of lying to him by having him sign papers making them his conservators rather than his adoptive parents nearly two decades ago. Oher is asking for the conservatorship to be terminated, a full accounting of the money earned off his name and story to be done and to be paid what he is due, with interest.

    He accused the couple of falsely representing themselves as his adoptive parents, saying he discovered in February the conservatorship agreed to in 2004 was not the arrangement he thought it was — and that it provided him no familial relationship to them. He claims the Tuohys have kept him in the dark about financial dealings related to his name, image and likeness during the 19-year life of the agreement.

    The Tuohys have called the claims they enriched themselves at his expense outlandish, hurtful and absurd and part of a “shakedown” by Oher. Lawyers representing the couple also said the Tuohys would enter into a consent order to end the conservatorship they say Oher was aware of long before this year.

    The couple’s lawyers said they set up the conservatorship to help Oher with health insurance, a driver’s license and being admitted to college. In Tennessee, a conservatorship removes power from a person to make decisions for themselves, and it is often used in the case of a medical condition or disability.

    But Oher’s conservatorship was approved “despite the fact that he was over 18 years old and had no diagnosed physical or psychological disabilities,” his petition said.

    Agents negotiated a small advance for the Tuohys from the production company for “The Blind Side,” based on a book written by Sean Tuohy’s friend Michael Lewis, the couple’s lawyers have said. That included “a tiny percentage of net profits” divided equally among a group that included Oher, they said.

    The attorneys said they estimated each of the Tuohys and Oher received $100,000 apiece, and the couple paid taxes on Oher’s portion for him. The Tuohys’ lawyers said that profit participation checks and studio accounting statements support their assertions.

    Two of the subpoenas ask for all documents and communications concerning Oher from Alcon Entertainment and CAA. That includes contract information and payments related to “The Blind Side” book and movie made to the Tuohys or their foundation.

    The other subpoena asks for Oher’s cumulative school records and any communications related to Oher between Memphis Shelby County Schools and the Tuohys.

  • Hurricane Idalia makes landfall as Category 3 storm

    Hurricane Idalia makes landfall as Category 3 storm

    PERRY, Fla. — Hurricane Idalia has made landfall on Florida’s west coast as a dangerous Category 3 storm on Wednesday and threatens to unleash life-threatening storm surges and rainfall.

    Idalia came ashore in the lightly populated Big Bend region, where the Florida Panhandle curves into the peninsula. The result could be a big blow to a state still dealing with lingering damage from last year’s Hurricane Ian.

    The National Weather Service in Tallahassee called Idalia “an unprecedented event” since no major hurricanes on record have ever passed through the bay abutting the Big Bend.

    Hurricanes are measured on a five category scale, with a Category 5 being the strongest. A Category 3 storm is the first on the scale considered a major hurricane.