South, Midwest and Northeast brace for yet another storm
ABC News
(NEW YORK) — A winter storm has left tornado damage along the Gulf Coast and piles of snow in the Plains and the Midwest — and residents are now preparing for a new storm moving in this weekend.
This latest storm has dropped over 11 inches of snow in Iowa, 10 inches in Illinois and 7.5 inches in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
On the southern end of the storm, at least two tornadoes were reported in Alabama and Mississippi on Wednesday as winds gusted near 60 mph.
(NEW YORK) — The Gulf Coast is digging out from a once-in-a-lifetime snowstorm that struck from Texas to Florida, closing airports and crippling roadways.
Over 2,000 flights were canceled on Tuesday and more than 1,300 flights have been canceled on Wednesday.
Multiple fatalities have been reported due to car crashes and hypothermia.
In the Atlanta area, DeKalb County officials declared a state of emergency on Wednesday and are urging all residents to shelter in place due to the severe winter weather. Over 100 cars have been reported stranded on roadways, keeping crews from responding to emergencies, officials said.
Many areas saw more snow than they have in at least 130 years.
Florida saw its most snow on record, with a preliminary 8.8 inches of snow observed in Milton, north of Pensacola.
The southeast part of Houston saw over 4 inches, making it one of the top snowstorms to impact the area.
Mobile, Alabama, and Pensacola, Florida, saw all-time record highs with 7.5 inches and 7.6 inches respectively.
In Louisiana, Baton Rouge saw 7.6 inches, New Orleans saw 8 inches and Lafayette recorded 9 inches.
New Orleans demolished its most recent highest snow total, which was 2.7 inches in 1963.
Snow is still falling early Wednesday in Georgia, Florida and the coastal Carolinas.
About 5 inches have so far been reported in parts of coastal North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia.
The snow is expected to end this morning but rain will continue in Florida.
(WASHINGTON) — At the U.S. Agency for International Development this week, as a team from the Department of Government Efficiency quietly worked to dismantle the aid agency, those who hadn’t already been locked out of its Washington headquarters busied themselves with work they never imagined doing — shutting it down.
“We feel like it’s closing time at the store and we’re the ones left to turn off the lights,” one career official told ABC News. “There’s lots of tears, lots of heartbreak.”
Normal day-to-day work ceased earlier in the week, when the Trump administration announced plans to place all direct-hire employees on leave starting Friday, leaving career officials to focus on the logistical hurdles of recalling thousands of overseas employees back to the U.S., including reserving flights for those officials and their families.
“We could be doing the lifesaving work we’ve been doing,” the official said, “but instead we’re stuck here like travel agents.”
As congressional Democrats scramble to rescue USAID, its thousands of employees in the U.S. and around the globe are grappling with how to “leave with dignity,” another career agency official said.
But doing so has proven to be a challenge. A message posted on USAID.gov signaled that some “designated personnel” would remain on the job, prompting a frantic race among staff to secure their livelihoods.
“It’s the Hunger Games,” another career USAID official based in Washington said. “They’re narrowing down lists to the smallest number of staff. People fighting to be on those lists.”
USAID staff on Thursday were digesting news that all but roughly 600 employees would be placed on leave by the end of the week. President Trump has accused the agency of perpetrating “tremendous fraud” and promoting left-wing ideologies.
Meanwhile, officials deployed overseas face hurdles of their own. The abrupt stop-work orders and funding freezes imposed by the Trump administration have placed frontline USAID employees in the uncomfortable position of explaining to regional partners what is happening.
“Many of [the foreign service nationals] have worked for USAID for 20-30 years,” said one USAID official stationed in the Democratic Republic of Congo. “It’s impossible to explain to them what is going on. It breaks their faith in America. We are going to lose thousands of our best friends and allies.”
In a different African country, staff met earlier in the week to begin choreographing their departure, a local USAID official recalled.
“The meeting today with local staff was rough,” the official said. “The ambassador was there, and folks were crying. It was extremely sad. Both the mission director and the deputy mission director were also in tears.”
One official with 20 years at USAID under their belt said the ambassador in their country encouraged staff to “start preparing your CVs and start looking for jobs, because inevitably, you’re all going to be terminated.”
“[The administration is] just terrorizing everyone in USAID who has served their country, making huge sacrifices, moving around the world every four years, pulling kids out of school and away from friends and like spouses giving up their own careers so that we can serve our country and do this important work around the world,” the official said. “And I feel like It’s being erased.”
At the agency’s Bureau for Humanitarian Assistance, which has been the U.S. government’s lead response coordinator for international disasters, several employees said their email access was revoked, rendering them unable to communicate with senior officials.
One USAID contractor overseas said they were “stuck abroad on official travel with no guidance on how to proceed, where they are able to work, how to get home, or whether they are able to work.”
On Thursday, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who is overseeing USAID as its acting administrator, insisted during a press conference in the Dominican Republic that the administration would accommodate “exceptional circumstances regarding families or displacement.”
“We’re not trying to be disruptive to peoples’ personal lives,” Rubio insisted. “We’re not being punitive,” he said.
Back in Washington, Peter Marocco, a Trump loyalist and the architect of plans to drastically diminish the agency’s footprint, has been “in and out” of the building, but has not engaged with career officials or addressed any large numbers of staff. Marocco did not reply to ABC News’ request for comment.
Rubio has said rank-and-file USAID officials had demonstrated “rank insubordination” during attempts to overhaul the agency, claiming that the administration was left with “no choice but to take dramatic steps to bring this thing under control.”
Late Thursday, as working hours on the East Coast wound down, a senior career official at USAID shared this somber text message with ABC News: “I just lost my job.”
The official, who spent nearly a decade at the agency, was not told she was dismissed. Instead, she said agency leaders alerted those who will remain in their roles on Thursday afternoon, leaving the remaining employees to assume they would be placed on administrative leave.
(TRENTON, N.J.) — A New Jersey state senator is calling for a limited state of emergency over the mysterious drones that have been seen flying over New Jersey in recent weeks.
“The State of New Jersey should issue a limited state of emergency banning all drones until the public receives an explanation regarding these multiple sightings,” Republican state Sen. Jon Bramnick said in a statement Tuesday.
The call came amid numerous recent drone sightings reported across New Jersey in recent weeks. The drones are larger than the type typically used by hobbyists, officials and eyewitnesses have said.
The source and reason for the drones remains unknown as local, state and federal investigators look into the matter.
The Picatinny Arsenal in New Jersey — a military research and production facility in Morris County — has reported 11 confirmed sightings by a police officer or security guard in response to a report since Nov. 13.
“While the source and cause of these aircraft operating in our area remain unknown, we can confirm that they are not the result of any Picatinny Arsenal-related activities,” Picatinny Arsenal Garrison Commander. Lt. Col. Craig Bonham II said in a statement Tuesday.
An FBI spokesperson said the agency is “doing all we can figure out what’s going on.” “The public can continue to call our 800 line, or submit a tip online, we are acting on every substantive lead that we get,” the spokesperson said.
Law enforcement has limited authority to actually address such drone activity and the authority they do have is reactive rather than proactive, a senior U.S. official told ABC News.
The mayors of 21 towns in New Jersey penned a letter to Gov. Phil Murphy demanding action over the mysterious drones.
Michael Melham, the mayor of Belleville, New Jersey, posted Monday night on Facebook that there will be a briefing held exclusively for New Jersey mayors on Wednesday with the New Jersey State Police and the New Jersey Office of Homeland Security and Preparedness regarding the drones.
The drones have raised concerns due to their proximity to both a military installation and President-elect Donald Trump’s Bedminster golf course.
ABC News’ Alex Faul and Julia Reinstein contributed to this report.
