Hurricane Rafael could strengthen to Category 3 before landfall in Cuba: Latest track and forecast
ABC News
(FLORIDA KEYS, Fla.) — Hurricane Rafael, now a powerful Category 2 hurricane, could strengthen into a major Category 3 hurricane later in the day before making landfall in Cuba on Wednesday night.
A tropical storm warning is in effect for the Florida Keys, where heavy rain, gusty winds and even tornadoes are possible on Wednesday and into Thursday morning.
By the weekend, Rafael will weaken as it stalls in the Gulf of Mexico.
Rafael isn’t posing a major threat to the U.S. Gulf Coast, but some of the tropical moisture could move toward the coast and add to the rain from an approaching cold front.
Most models predict Rafael sitting in the Gulf into next week and possibly moving southwest toward Mexico.
(NEW YORK) — The second suspect who was arrested earlier this week in connection to the deadly Michigan home invasion on Oct. 11 that left 72-year-old Rochester Hills businessman Hussein Murray dead has been formally charged with multiple counts, including felony murder, police said.
“Joshua Zuazo, 39, of Dearborn, is charged in a three-count warrant issued today by prosecutors with felony murder – a life offense if convicted – and two counts of unlawful imprisonment – 15-year felonies,” said the Oakland County Sheriff’s Office in a statement announcing the charges. “The warrant was signed late [Thursday] afternoon by 52-3 District Judge Laura Polizzi.”
Zuazo is now being held in the Oakland County Jail and is expected to be arraigned on the charges on Friday at 1:15 p.m. ET.
Murray was found dead Friday last Friday in the basement of his Rochester Hills home, according to the sheriff’s office. His wife, who called 911, had been tied up with her hands duct-taped.
The woman told law enforcement officials that the night before the attack, the two suspects had also shown up to the home claiming to be responding to a gas leak, but they were not allowed inside.
When they showed up again on Friday, they were let into the home, and her husband went with them into the basement, “ostensibly to look for the leak,” according to the sheriff’s department.
When they came back upstairs without her husband, they tied her up and taped her hands, the woman said. She did not see him come out afterward and “assumed he had been kidnapped.”
In home security camera footage released by the sheriff’s department, the since-arrested suspect can be seen wearing a utility worker’s uniform and a mask while holding a clipboard.
“We’re DTE. We’re checking for gas leaks,” the man can be heard saying in the video, naming the Michigan-based energy company.
The other suspect, Carlos Jose Hernandez, 37, was arrested last Saturday, according to the Oakland County Sheriff’s Office. He has been charged with murder, and law enforcement officials are seeking his extradition from Louisiana.
“I want to reiterate how proud I am of our whole team and what they did to quickly move this case forward, not only taking our suspects off the street, but bringing evidence to the prosecutor to move this into her court for the next phase,” Oakland County Sheriff Michael Bouchard said in a statement Thursday.
ABC News’ Julia Reinstein contributed to this report.
A cluster of broken pieces of wood from destroyed houses rest along a damaged bridge in Lake Lure, North Carolina, Oct. 2, 2024, after the passage of Hurricane Helene. (Allison Joyce/AFP via Getty Images)
(NEW YORK) — At least 1,000 National Guard troops are heading into the most hard-hit areas in western North Carolina on Thursday in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene as the death toll from the storm approaches 200 with hundreds of people still unaccounted for.
“The nation has your back. We’re not leaving ‘til you’re back on your feet completely,” President Joe Biden said on Wednesday after surveying the mass destruction from the storm in North and South Carolina.
Helene is now the deadliest mainland hurricane to strike the United States since Katrina in 2005 which claimed the lives of nearly 1,400 people.
More than a million people still don’t have power and a nearly completely dark strip marks the path of Helene through the Southeast as the crisis over getting access to drinkable water is growing.
Vice President Kamala Harris met with local authorities and grieving families in Augusta, Georgia, on Wednesday.
“It is particularly devastating in terms of the loss of life that this community has experienced, the loss of normalcy,” Harris said.
Elsewhere, new video captured the moment a landslide hit a house in Newland, North Carolina, as Helene trampled the Southeast.
In Fairview, Connecticut, Philip Morgan showed ABC News the system of ropes he has had to create to rappel the terrain since the bridge to his neighborhood was wiped out.
Morgan’s brother is on a ventilator and in dire need of supplies as Philip Morgan says it is only a matter of time before his brother will need to be moved.
“[My biggest fear is] something happening to him and not being able to get out of here fast enough,” Morgan told ABC News.
Meanwhile, nearby at Mission Hospital in Asheville, North Carolina, 400 nurses arrived in buses from across the country — even as far as Alaska — all to lend a helping hand in the aftermath of the sheer destruction of the storm.
“They showed up with a smile on their face. Eager to help, eager just to give us a little bit of reprieve,” said Matt Alligood, a resident nurse at Mission Hospital. “So, it’s … it’s been amazing.”
(WASHINGTON) — Claiming superior leadership and casting himself as the true agent of change were keys to Donald Trump’s victory in the presidential election, per ABC News exit poll results.
He also prevailed by a wide margin among the small group of so-called “double haters” — voters with an unfavorable opinion of both candidates.
In a list of four candidate qualities, 30% of voters nationally rated “has the ability to lead” as most important to their vote, and about as many, 28%, chose “can bring needed change.” Fewer picked “has good judgment” (20%) or “cares about people like me” (18%).
These choices were closely tied to candidate preferences. Among those who cited leadership ability as the top candidate attribute, Trump beat Kamala Harris by 2-1, 66-33%. On bringing about change, the gap widened to 3-1, 74-24%.
That huge gap on change reflects Harris’ difficulties distancing herself from the unpopular Biden administration, a dynamic covered in ABC News/Ipsos pre-election polling. Seventy-four percent of Americans said they wanted Harris, if elected, to take a new direction from President Joe Biden’s. Only 33% thought she would.
Harris pushed back with big leads among voters who picked judgment or empathy as most important — but there were fewer of them.
Taken another way, among Trump supporters, 41% chose “can bring needed change” as the most important candidate attribute in their vote and 40% chose leadership, totaling to eight in 10 of all his voters.
By contrast, about six in 10 Harris supporters chose judgment or caring as top qualities to them. Compared with Trump, half as many cited leadership and a third as many picked the ability to bring change.
Personal favorability was another factor.
In 2020, Biden was seen favorably by 52%, 6 percentage points above Trump’s 46%. This year, Harris ended up rated essentially as unfavorably as Trump — 47-52%, favorable-unfavorable, for Harris, and 46-53% for Trump. (This is a change from preliminary exit poll results, in which Trump was 11 points underwater in favorability, Harris just 2 points.)
Notably, Trump won the 8% of voters who rated both candidates unfavorably, by 26 points, 56-30%.
Look also at assessments of how extreme the candidates’ views were: 47% said Harris’ views were too extreme; 54% said that of Trump. But among those who said both were too extreme, again 8% of voters, Trump won by a broad 42 points, 63-21%.
