Once-in-a-lifetime snowstorm hits Gulf Coast, with record-breaking snowfall in Florida
An ABC News graphic shows the radar for the southeastern United States at 5 a.m. ET on Wednesday, Jan. 22, 2025. (ABC News)
(TALLAHASSEE, FL) — For much of the Gulf Coast, the snowstorm that’s expected to end soon was a once-in-a-lifetime snowstorm.
Many areas saw more snow than they have in at least 130 years, making this truly a historic event.
Florida just saw the most snow on record, with a preliminary 8.8 inches observed in Milton, which is north of Pensacola. This is the highest snow total on record for the state, according to the National Weather Service.
Snow reports from the last 24 hours include about 1.2 inches in Houston, Texas. That’s the official number because it was taken at the city’s George Bush Intercontinental Airport, but the southeast part of the city saw over 4 inces. The NWS said it “is one of the top snowstorms to impact the Houston area.”
Elsewhere in the South, the snowfall was higher. In Louisiana, Baton Rouge saw 7.6 inches, New Orleans saw 8 inches and Lake Charles saw at least 4.8 inches, with up to 6 inches in some areas. Lafayette has seen 9 inches.
The snowfall the most recent highest total in New Orleans was from New Year’s Even in 1963 when 2.7 inches fell.
The 7.5 inches that fell in Mobile, Alabama, and the 7.6 inches in Pensacola, Florida, were all-time records.
Snow is still falling early Wednesday along the coastal Carolinas, in Georgia and in northern Florida.
About 5 inches have so far been reported in parts of coastal North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia. Even North Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, said it’s seen 3.8 inches — and it’s still snowing there.
The snow is expected to end around 7 a.m. for the east coast, exiting Charleston, South Carolina, and Wilmington, North Carolina, last.
Rain will continue in the Florida peninsula into the afternoon, heading south and exciting Miami, with lingering spot showers expected through the evening and again on Thursday for the Florida peninsula.
(ILLINOIS) — An Illinois man has been convicted of murder and hate crime charges in the 2023 fatal stabbing of a 6-year-old Palestinian-American boy.
Wadee Alfayoumi was stabbed 26 times and his mother more than a dozen in the Oct. 14, 2023, attack inside their home in the Chicago suburb of Plainfield.
Their landlord, 73-year-old Joseph Czuba, was indicted on multiple murder charges, as well as attempted murder, aggravated battery and hate crime counts. He had pleaded not guilty.
Authorities said he targeted his tenants because they were Muslim and in response to the war between Israel and Hamas that had just ignited after Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel.
A Will County jury found Czuba guilty of all counts.
Jurors began deliberating around noon Friday, before reaching their verdict less than two hours later.
Wadee’s father, Odai Alfyoumi, thanked those who supported him in remarks following the verdict.
“I don’t know if I should be pleased or upset, if I should be crying or laughing,” he said through a translator during a press briefing with the Chicago division of the Council of American-Islamic Relations, the U.S.’ largest Muslim civil rights organization.
“People are telling me to smile. Maybe if I were one of you, I would be smiling. But I’m the father of the child, and I’ve lost the child,” he said.
He also prayed that “this senseless loss is the last that we will see, that no child would suffer what my beloved had to go through.”
CAIR Chicago Executive Director Ahmed Rehab said they are pleased with the verdict, calling it a “very clear-cut case.”
“This is a case that shook up the Muslim community, the Palestinian community, and really Chicago and Illinois and the nation, maybe even the world at large,” Rehab said. “This is one of the worst hate crimes that have been committed in recent memory that targeted an innocent 6-year-old boy, a kindergartner, and his mother.”
The child’s mother, Hanan Shaheen, was the first to take the stand in the weeklong trial.
She said Czuba attacked her first with a knife, stabbing her multiple times, saying, “You devil Muslim, you must die,” as her son watched, according to Chicago ABC station WLS, which was in the courtroom.
She testified that she called 911 from the bathroom when he appeared to leave, but then she started to hear her son screaming, according to WLS.
“I started hearing my son screaming, screaming, screaming, ‘Oh no, stop,'” Shaheen said, according to WLS.
Jurors also listened to the mother’s 911 call from the bathroom, in which she was heard telling the dispatcher, “He’s killing my baby,” WLS reported.
They also watched body camera footage of the officers responding to the bloody scene and were shown the knife used in the attack, which an officer said was still in the boy’s body when they arrived. Jurors additionally heard remarks Czuba made in a law enforcement vehicle following the attack.
“I thought they were going to do jihad on me,” Czuba said, according to WLS.
He also said he was “afraid for my life” and his wife and said the family was “just like infested rats,” according to WLS.
Czuba and his wife rented part of their Plainfield home to the mother and son for two years.
His now-ex-wife testified for prosecutors that Czuba became withdrawn in the days after the war and wanted the family to move out immediately, while she wanted to give them 30 days’ notice, according to The Associated Press.
Czuba did not take the stand, waiving his right to testify.
His defense attorneys told jurors at the start of the trial that there were holes in the state’s case and urged them to “go beyond the emotions to carefully examine the evidence,” according to the AP.
ABC News’ Cheryl Gendron contributed to this report.
(WASHINGTON) — Internet-connected cameras made in China are giving the Chinese government the ability to “conduct espionage or disrupt US critical infrastructure,” according to a Department of Homeland Security bulletin obtained by ABC News.
The cameras typically lack data encryption and security settings and, by default, communicate with their manufacturer. It’s believed there are tens of thousands of Chinese-made cameras on the networks of critical U.S. infrastructure entities, including within the chemical and energy sectors, the bulletin said.
Chinese cyber-operatives have previously exploited internet-connected cameras and the fear is China could gain access and manipulate systems without tighter restrictions on these cameras, the DHS warns.
“A cyber actor could leverage cameras placed on IT networks for initial access and pivot to other devices to exfiltrate sensitive process data that an actor could use for attack planning or disrupting business systems,” the bulletin said. “A cyber actor could use cameras placed on safety systems to suppress alarms, trigger false alarms, or pivot to disable fail-safe mechanisms.”
So far, China has successfully kept U.S. regulators from blocking the use of internet-connected cameras made in China through the use of a practice known as “white labeling,” where the cameras are imported after they’re packaged and sold by another company, according to the bulletin.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
(WASHINGTON) — A coalition of nonprofit aid groups said Wednesday at an emergency hearing that the Trump administration’s “opaque and chaotic” 90-day pause on foreign aid had already “devastated” their operations — consequences they said justified a judicial order halting the administration’s sweeping executive order.
The aid groups filed suit Tuesday against President Donald Trump, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Acting USAID Administrator Peter Marocco, Office of Management and Budget Director Russ Vought, the State Department, USAID, and OMB.
Stephen Wirth, an attorney representing the nonprofits, argued at Wednesday’s hearing that his clients’ “businesses are shuttering” while the administration sifts through its foreign aid priorities.
“Food is rotting,” Wirth said. “Medical supplies are expiring and community relationships that took decades to build are crumbling.”
Wirth and his co-counsel noted that the payment portal for government contracts and grants is “completely frozen,” preventing groups from completing projects that have already been appropriated funds.
Eric Hamilton, a Justice Department attorney, replied by arguing that the nonprofits’ lawsuit amounts to a “one-size-fits-all vehicle to litigate highly fact-dependent issues,” and that it should instead be addressed “case by case, contract by contract,” in contrast to the broad relief the plaintiffs are seeking.
Hamilton said waivers that have been put in place to rescue programs deemed to be critical to the “national interest” are sufficient to allow the 90-day pause to continue unimpeded — even through he acknowledged that “there might be some hiccups in implementing” the waivers.
“The policy we’re talking about is just a 90-day pause in funding,” Hamilton argued.
But Nicolas Sansone, an attorney for Public Citizen, another group suing the government, said some of the aid groups “may well not be able to survive the 90 days.”
U.S. District Judge Amir Ali, the Biden-era appointee who convened the emergency telephone hearing, said he would issue a written ruling at some point in the future and asked that plaintiffs file a “more tailored” proposed order by 7:30 p.m. ET.
The aid groups accuse several U.S. government entities, including the president and secretary of state, of breaking multiple federal laws and violating the Constitution by failing to administer funds appropriated by Congress.
The groups claimed on Wednesday morning that contract terminations from the administration had “accelerated” in the 24 hours since they filed their lawsuits, and asked Judge Ali to issue a temporary restraining order to prevent further actions from the administration.
