Rare tornado warning issued for South as dangerous weather moves in: What to know
ABC News
(NEW YORK) — A dangerous, multiday severe weather outbreak is set to bring tornadoes, flash flooding and damaging winds to the Midwest, the South and the East Coast, with the worst of the weather hitting the South on Saturday.
This is the first outbreak of this magnitude this year and is only the third time the National Weather Service has issued a high risk warning one day ahead.
The severe weather begins in the Midwest on Friday evening.
Residents from Davenport, Iowa, to Peoria, Illinois, and St. Louis to Memphis, Tennessee, are in the bull’s-eye for strong tornadoes. Destructive winds from thunderstorms could reach 90 mph and hail could be as large as baseballs.
On Saturday, the highest threat for tornadoes moves into the Deep South, focusing on eastern Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and the western Florida Panhandle.
In a rare warning, the highest risk level for severe weather/tornadoes has been issued from Jackson, Mississippi, to Birmingham, Alabama, where Gov. Kay Ivey issued a state of emergency. Those in the area should brace for numerous, significant tornadoes, some of which could be long-track and potentially violent.
The most dangerous tornado threat will begin in Louisiana and Mississippi late Saturday morning and the early afternoon. The threat spreads into Alabama in the late afternoon and evening and then reaches Florida and Georgia late Saturday night.
Destructive winds up to 80 mph and large hail are also in the forecast.
The severe storms will cover a large area, spreading as far north as Atlanta and Nashville, Tennessee.
On Sunday, the severe storms will be weaker as they target the East Coast from Florida to Pennsylvania.
The tornado threat will be focused on the Carolinas and Georgia in the afternoon.
Storms with the potential for damaging winds will reach the Northeast by the evening and last through early Monday morning.
(OHIO) — An Ohio doctor has been charged with arson after allegedly setting fire to another doctor’s house, officials said.
Andrew Campbell, 33, was arrested following an investigation into the Dec. 7 blaze, which police told ABC News they “determined to have not been accidental in nature.”
On Tuesday, a grand jury indicted Campbell on six counts of aggravated arson.
Authorities are looking into a possible connection between the fire and an alleged affair between Campbell’s wife and Dr. Tahir Jamil, who was targeted with the arson.
Jamil told police he and Campbell’s wife had an affair from late July to early August 2024, according to the police report. On Aug. 7, she allegedly told Jamil her husband had discovered their relationship.
A spokesperson for the University of Toledo confirmed Campbell is a fellow in their Hematology-Oncology program.
He was placed on unpaid administrative leave after the school was informed of the charges, the spokesperson said in a statement to ABC News.
“The University will decline further comment at this time as authorities conduct their investigation,” the spokesperson said.
(NEW YORK) — Planning to travel by air in the U.S. later this year? A regular driver’s license may not cut it.
Travelers flying through U.S. airports will soon need to show TSA agents a REAL ID-compliant driver’s license, a passport or another form of REAL ID-compliant identification if they want to pass through the security screening.
In an announcement this week, the TSA said it’s sticking with a May 7, 2025, deadline to start enforcing REAL ID requirements. However, officials also said they’re planning for a two-year “phased enforcement” that could allow travelers who don’t have REAL IDs to board flights — with a warning notice.
REAL ID is an effort by the federal government to make driver’s licenses and ID cards more reliable, accurate and standardized. Depending on which state your license or ID is from, REAL IDs will have a gold or black star (or a star in a bear, in the case of California) in the upper portion of the card.
The REAL ID requirement was supposed to go into effect years ago, but was delayed — in part due to state motor vehicle departments working through COVID-19 backlogs.
Federal officials are concerned about how many Americans still don’t have a REAL ID. In January 2024, only about 56% of driver’s licenses and IDs in circulation across the country comply with REAL ID. The Department of Homeland Security estimated that only 61.2% of driver’s licenses and IDs will be REAL ID-compliant by the May 7 deadline.
“We have four months ahead of us,” said Stacey Fitzmaurice, TSA’s executive assistant administrator for operations support. “There’s definitely work to be done, so we want travelers to take the time now to get their REAL ID before the deadline.”
What is REAL ID? The REAL ID Act was passed by Congress in 2005 after the 9/11 Commission recommended the federal government set security standards for states to issue driver’s licenses and identification cards.
“This came out of a recommendation that looked at the events of 9/11 and the vulnerabilities associated with that,” said Fitzmaurice. “The REAL ID requirement is as important today as it first was coming out of the recommendations from the 9/11 Commission, and we are in a much better spot today, given that all of the states have implemented the changes for REAL ID and are implementing the REAL ID licenses today.”
How to get it? You can get a REAL ID-compliant driver’s license from your state’s DMV. You must be able to prove who you are by bringing documentation that includes your full name, date of birth, Social Security number, two proofs of residence and lawful status. Documents with this information could include a birth certificate, Social Security card or passport.
Who needs it? While travelers boarding commercial flights need a REAL ID or an alternative form of approved documentation, children under 18 do not need to have a REAL ID.
For foreign travelers, foreign passports are an acceptable form of identification, according to a TSA spokesperson. The spokesperson said noncitizens who are lawfully admitted for permanent or temporary residence, have conditional permanent residence status, have an approved application for asylum or entered the country as refugees can obtain a REAL ID at their state’s DMV.
REAL ID does not work for international travel. If you’re traveling outside of the country, you’ll still need to bring your passport.
What is the ‘phased enforcement’ of the REAL ID deadline? On Jan. 13, TSA published a final rule sticking with the May 7 deadline but allowing two-year phased enforcement of REAL ID until May 2027.
The agency described the need for a phased deadline.
In the example of TSA, if large numbers of individuals arrive at an airport security checkpoint with noncompliant driver’s licenses or ID cards, they would not be able to proceed through screening, “potentially resulting in missed flights,” the published final rule stated. “Additionally, long lines, confusion, and frustrated travelers at the checkpoint may greatly increase security risks both to passengers and TSA personnel by drawing the resources and attention of TSA personnel away from other passengers, including those known to pose an elevated risk.”
A TSA spokesperson told ABC phased enforcement would “introduce and enable a temporary warning period for those travelers.”
The TSA has not yet unveiled its plan for phased enforcement.
The regulations published this week state that agencies could choose to issue a written or verbal warning if someone attempts to use a non-REAL ID after the deadline.
“We want travelers to be prepared so that they don’t come to the checkpoints in May without a REAL ID-compliant or another acceptable form of ID,” said Fitzmaurice. “If they do — come May — not have their real ID, they could experience delays…We need to verify everyone’s identity who is going through the TSA checkpoints. And for those individuals who don’t bring identification or do not have acceptable forms of identification, we oftentimes will have to do additional requirements before they are able to go through security.”
(WASHINGTON) — A federal judge on Friday will consider issuing a temporary restraining order to block the dismantling of the United States Agency for International Development, the embattled agency that handles foreign aid, disaster relief and international development programs.
Two foreign service unions are suing the federal government as the Trump administration attempts to reduce USAID’s workforce from 14,000 to only 300 employees.
The American Foreign Service Organization and the American Federation of Government Employees filed the lawsuit in D.C. federal court Thursday, alleging that President Donald Trump engaged in a series of “unconstitutional and illegal actions” to systematically destroy USAID.
“These actions have generated a global humanitarian crisis by abruptly halting the crucial work of USAID employees, grantees, and contractors. They have cost thousands of American jobs. And they have imperiled U.S. national security interests,” the lawsuit said.
The plaintiffs said Trump has unilaterally attempted to reduce the agency without congressional authorization, arguing that Congress is the only entity with the authority to dismantle USAID.
The lawsuit reads like a timeline of the last two weeks, laying out each step that formed the groundwork to break USAID, beginning with Trump’s first day in office. Shortly after Trump froze foreign aid via an executive order on his first day, he began to target USAID by ordering his State Department to begin issuing stop work orders, the lawsuit said.
“USAID grantees and contractors reeled as they were — without any notice or process — constrained from carrying out their work alleviating poverty, disease, and humanitarian crises,” the lawsuit said.
Next came the layoffs, the lawsuit alleges, with thousands of contractors and employees of USAID losing their jobs, leading medical clinics, soup kitchens, and refugee assistance programs across the world to be brought “to an immediate halt.”
“The humanitarian consequences of defendants’ actions have already been catastrophic,” the lawsuit said.
The lawsuit alleges the Department of Government Efficiency and Elon Musk — who boasted about “feeding USAID into the woodchipper” — made the final move to gut the agency, locking thousands of employees out of their computers and accessing classified material improperly.
While each step to dismantle the organization differed, the lawsuit alleged that they were unified by one thing: “Not a single one of defendants’ actions to dismantle USAID were taken pursuant to congressional authorization.”
The plaintiffs have asked the court to declare Trump’s actions unlawful and issue an order requiring the Trump administration to “cease actions to shut down USAID’s operations in a manner not authorized by Congress.”
