Travel advisory issued for parts of Minnesota as whiteout conditions target Upper Midwest
ABC News
(NEW YORK) — The Minnesota Department of Transportation has issued a “no travel advisory” for highways in northwestern Minnesota as high winds cause dangerous blowing snow and low visibility.
Drivers in Minnesota and North Dakota should be prepared for intense bursts of heavy snow, wind gusts over 40 mph and visibility under one-quarter of a mile.
The cold front will move through the Minneapolis-St. Paul area during the afternoon and reach Chicago by the evening.
The cold front will head to the East Coast by early Thursday morning.
The heaviest snow from this quick-moving clipper system will be near the Great Lakes, where the shot of cold air will create heavy lake effect snow bands.
One to 2 feet of snow is possible from Michigan to upstate New York.
The clipper system will also bring 3 to 10 inches of snow from Massachusetts to Maine.
Up to 10 inches of snow is possible in the Appalachian Mountains in Maryland and West Virginia.
The Interstate 95 corridor — including Washington, D.C., Philadelphia and New York City — is not expecting any snow accumulation. But those major cities should be prepared for wind gusts reaching 50 mph.
(ASHEVILLE, N.C.) — Twenty-six people remain unaccounted for in hard-hit North Carolina, weeks after the devastation unleashed by Hurricane Helene, officials said Monday.
Hurricane Helene made landfall in Florida on Sept. 26, wreaking havoc across the Southeast from Florida to Virginia. Helene destroyed homes and roads, stranded residents without cellphone service and water, and claimed the lives of nearly 250 people throughout the Southeast.
At least 95 of Helene’s fatalities were in North Carolina, officials said. Gov. Roy Cooper called Helene “the deadliest and most devastating storm” in the state’s history.
“It hurts the very people we are all trying to help,” he said. “It discourages and makes people fearful of signing up for help. It enables scam artists and it hurts the morale of government officials, first responders and soldiers who are on the ground trying to help.”
Former President Donald Trump is set to visit to the hard-hit city of Asheville on Monday to survey damage from the storm.
Cooper said he’s asking the former president to “not share lies or misinformation while he is here.”
Cooper said the White House “responded quickly and positively to our request from FEMA, which has had 1,400 staff on the ground and has registered 206,000 people for individual assistance, and distributed $124 million directly to people who need it.”
“As for long-term recovery, state and local government will be all in, along with the federal government,” Cooper said. “This will take billions of dollars and years of bipartisan focus from everyone working together to make it happen — from new roads and bridges to public building to water supplies to people’s homes.”
FEMA is now launching a “new initiative” to hire community liaisons in North Carolina’s impacted counties, FEMA Administrator Deanne Criswell announced Monday.
“We know that so many people have temporarily lost their jobs. We know that others just want to be able to give back, and we want to help keep people in these communities while they recover,” she said. “So these new community liaisons are going to work alongside us at FEMA to make sure that they are the local voice, the trusted voice in their community, and that they can share with us the local considerations and the concerns, so we can include them as part of this recovery. They’re going to be embedded in every county, working directly with county administrators, mayors and community leaders, bridging their concerns with our FEMA staff. And these jobs are available for people to apply right now.”
(NEW ORLEANS , LA) — At least 10 people are dead and about 30 others are injured after a white pickup truck struck a crowd on Bourbon Street early on Wednesday, New Orleans police and city officials said.
LaToya Cantrell, the mayor of New Orleans, described the incident as a “terrorist attack.” The FBI said it wasn’t yet using that term. Anne Kirkpatrick, superintendent of police, said the driver had attempted to kill as many people as possible. She said he exited the vehicle and fired on police.
The strike appeared to be intentional, police told ABC News, adding the driver had not been taken into custody. Local authorities asked the FBI for assistance early on Wednesday, a senior federal law enforcement source told ABC News. A command center was being set up, the source said.
“A horrific act of violence took place on Bourbon Street earlier this morning,” Gov. Jeff Landry said, adding that his family was praying for the victims and first responders.
Leading up to the holidays, federal law enforcement and intelligence had warned police around the country that low-tech vehicle ramming was a key area of concern and that they needed to prepare — and that was before the German Christmas market attack on Dec. 20, in which five people were killed.
In a Dec. 9 assessment for the Times Square New Year’s Eve celebration, federal and local agencies wrote: “We remain concerned about the use of vehicle ramming against high-profile outdoor events…Vehicle ramming has become a recurring tactic employed by threat actors in the West, marked by a continued interest by (terrorists, extremists) and lone offenders in targeting crowded pedestrian areas.”
The City of New Orleans, describing Wednesday’s event as a “mass casualty incident,” said the vehicle drove into a large crowd on Canal and Bourbon streets. Police said the strike happened at about 3:15 a.m., according to ABC News affiliate WGNO.
“There are 30 injured patients that have been transported by NOEMS and 10 fatalities,” the city said, using an acronym for the New Orleans Emergency Medical Services.
The injured were taken to five local hospitals, according to the city. They were at University Medical Center, Touro Hospital, East Jefferson General Hospital, Ochsner Medical Center Jefferson Campus and Ochsner Baptist Campus.
The New Orleans Police Department said it was “staffed 100%” for New Year’s Eve and the Sugar Bowl, a college football game played annually on New Year’s Day. An additional 300 officers were on duty from partner agencies, the force said.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
(WELCHES, Ore.) — A man has been arrested and charged with murder after his estranged wife was found dead in the Oregon wilderness.
Michel Fournier, 71, was taken into custody Friday on second-degree murder charges. He is now being held without bail, according to the Clackamas County Sheriff’s Office.
Earlier Friday, Susan Lane-Fournier was found deceased in Welches, a remote part of Clackamas County, after a multi-day search. An autopsy ruled her manner of death as homicide, according to authorities.
Lane-Fournier, 61, had been reported missing one week earlier, on Nov. 22, after failing to show up at work, according to officials.
She was also known as “Phoenix,” the sheriff’s office said.
Officials previously said she was believed to have been in the wooded area hiking with her two dogs.
The two dogs, which had also been considered missing, were also found dead on Saturday, the sheriff’s office said.
Weeks before she disappeared, according to The Oregonian, Lane-Fournier filed for divorce, citing irreconcilable differences. The two had been married for 12 years.
