(NEW YORK) — Dangerous, record-breaking heat is ongoing in the West, with the temperature in Phoenix reaching the triple digits every day for the last three weeks.
Phoenix climbed over a scorching 110 degrees on 80 days in 2024 — shattering the record set last year with 55 days of temperatures over 110 degrees.
The heat spreads across the Southwest and the South this weekend, with temperatures soaring to the 90s in cities including Las Vegas, Austin, Dallas and Little Rock, Arkansas.
There are hundreds of deaths each year in the U.S. due to excessive heat, according to CDC WONDER, an online database, and scientists caution that the actual number of heat-related deaths is likely higher.
Meanwhile, as Florida cleans up from the devastation left by Hurricane Milton, lingering river flood warnings are ongoing for parts of Florida and Georgia.
Choppy seas are also keeping the rip current risk high for many beaches in Georgia and Florida’s east coast.
(TAMPA, Fla.) — As Danny Pownall looked through the piles of debris on the street in front of one of his rental properties in Redington Shores, Florida, he pointed out suitcases, beds and even a workout ball.
“Their lives just got flipped upside down, literally, and dumped on the street,” he said of residents still recovering from Hurricane Helene, which made landfall in Florida on Sept. 30 and then cut a path of destruction and death up through Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina and Tennessee.
Pownall told ABC News that Helene destroyed his home as well as some of his rental properties. As a line of dump trucks waited to pick up the piles of debris left by Helene, Pownall and other residents in the Tampa metropolitan area are bracing for Hurricane Milton, which the police chief of Tampa described as “the storm of the century.”
“We don’t know what this storm is going to do,” said Pownall, surveying the sagging second-floor terrace of one of his properties still standing. “That could be a one-two punch to take out this property.”
As of Tuesday, Milton was a Category 4 hurricane swirling in the Gulf of Mexico about 500 miles south-by-southwest of Tampa. It is expected to make landfall around 11 p.m. Wednesday between St. Petersburg and Sarasota, possibly as a Category 3 hurricane, officials said.
From Treasure Island near St. Petersburg to Sanibel Island near Fort Miles, officials are preparing for an emergency on top of the emergency left by Helene and issuing mandatory evacuations.
Florida officials warn that Milton is stacking up to be a monster, forecasting a 10-to-15-foot storm surge, nearly twice as high as what transpired in the area during Helene.
“I know that our residents, our staff, everyone is absolutely, purely exhausted from the recovery effort for Hurricane Helene, but we do need to start preparing for another potential serious hit from another hurricane,” Treasure Island Mayor Tyler Payne said in a video message to his community on Monday. “And you’re still trying to recover from that, and now we have to go through it all over again. But it is absolutely critical that you obey the evacuation orders when they are issued and really protect yourself at this point.”
Sarah Steslicki told ABC News on Tuesday that she has endured more than two decades of hurricanes since building her house in Belleair Beach near Tampa, but said she will decide at the last minute whether to evacuate to higher ground.
“We are still staying put. The storm has been delayed. It’s slowed down a bit. We want to make sure we know the path of the storm. Is it safer to stay at home or are we going to leave?” said Steslicki, adding that she lives on high ground and that her garage got about 2 inches of water during the 8-foot storm surge caused by Helene.
The last time multiple hurricanes hit Florida in such a short period was in 2004, when hurricanes Charley, Frances, Ivan and Jeanne pummeled the state in just six weeks.
“It was chaotic. They were spread out like a week apart,” Steslicki said of surviving the quadruple hit in 2004. “As soon as we’d put our patio furniture out, we’d have to bring it all back in.”
Milton is lining up for a direct hit on the Tampa metro area, which would be the first since 1921. In the time that has passed, the population of Hillsborough and Pinellas counties has grown 20 times over, now home to 2.5 million people.
“We built our house new about 20 years ago. So we know the construction. It’s concrete block,” Steslicki said. “We’d rather be in a safe environment and maybe be out of power and water than to be in jeopardy in a structure that’s not sound.”
Making matters worse, Steslicki said she and her family plan to travel to California on Saturday for her daughter’s wedding.
“It’s especially stressful for us. If there’s any kind of damage, we’re not going to cancel our daughter’s wedding,” Steslicki said.
Kevin Doyle, the co-owner of the Celtic Public House in Punta Gorda, near Fort Myers, said he was taking no chances after staying put during Hurricane Helene. He told ABC News on Tuesday and that he is evacuating south to Coral Gables on the east coast of southern Florida near Miami.
Doyle also survived the 2004 barrage of hurricanes. He said his pub and much of his town were destroyed by Hurricane Charley, which caused $16 billion in damage and, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, killed 18 people. Doyle spent seven years rebuilding his business only to see it damaged again by Hurricane Helene.
“It was treacherous; the worst thing to happen,” Doyle said of riding out Helene at home.
Doyle said Helene flooded his pub with up to 42 inches of water and damaged the inside of the business. He said his two cars were also destroyed by the flooding.
Doyle said he finished installing new drywall in his business “in record time” as officials began issuing warnings of Milton. He said he’s erected a 4-foot-high wall of sandbags around his pub hoping it will protect it.
“I’m just hoping it’s not as high as Helene,” he said.
(SALIDA, Colo.) — A worker on an office hiking retreat to a national forest in Colorado had to be rescued after 14 of his colleagues allegedly left him stranded on a 14,230-foot mountain, authorities said.
“In what might cause some awkward encounters at the office in the coming days and weeks, one member of their party was left to complete his final summit push alone,” Chaffee County, Colorado, Search and Rescue said in a statement.
The team-building expedition gone wrong unfolded Friday on Mt. Shavano in central Colorado’s San Isabel National Forest, according to search-and-rescue officials.
“Initial reports to our communications center indicated a group of 15 hikers on an office retreat had left the Blanks Cabin Trailhead at sunrise that morning, with a group completing summit attempts and a separate group ascending to the saddle [area of the mountain] and returning from there,” rescuers said in the statement.
While 14 employees made it down the mountain safely, rescue officials said one was left to complete the summit push alone.
The lone employee made it to the summit at 11:30 a.m., but when he tried to descend, “he became disoriented,” according to rescue officials.
Making matters worse, his colleagues descending the mountain ahead of him inexplicably collected belongings left in a boulder field to mark the path down, officials said.
“In his initial attempts to descend, he found himself in the steep boulder and scree field on the northeast slopes toward Shavano Lake,” according to officials.
The man, whose name and company were not released, used his cellphone to pin-drop his location to his coworkers, who informed him that he was on the wrong route and instructed him to hike back up to the summit to get to the correct trail down, officials said.
Just before 4 p.m. local time on Friday, he sent another location pin-drop to his colleagues that he was near the correct trail.
“Shortly after that message, a strong storm passed through the area with freezing rain and high winds, and he again became disoriented, losing his cell phone signal as well,” rescue officials said.
When his colleagues didn’t hear from him, they reported him missing to Chaffee County Search and Rescue at 9 p.m., some eight-and-a-half hours after he started his descent, officials said.
A search was immediately launched, but rescue teams on the ground encountered freezing rain and high winds that hampered their hike to the Mt. Shavano summit, officials said. The foul weather also made it difficult to operate a search-and-rescue drone in the area, authorities said.
While an aerial search continued, a rescue helicopter crew flew several search patterns over the area where the lost hiker pin-dropped his last location but found no sign of the man, who was dressed in all black clothing, leaving him to spend the night stranded on the mountain, officials said.
Rescue teams continued to search for the man into Saturday morning and summoned other teams from across the region to help.
The lost hiker regained enough cellphone service Saturday morning to call 911 and report his location, enabling rescuers to find him in a gully near a drainage creek, extract him and take him to a hospital, where he was in stable condition, officials said.
“He reported being very disoriented on his descent and falling at least 20 times on the steep slopes,” rescue officials said in the statement, adding that the hiker was unable to get up after his last fall.
“This hiker was phenomenally lucky to have regained cell service when he did, and to still have enough consciousness and wherewithal to call 911,” said rescue officials.
(NEW YORK) — A rideshare driver has been arrested for allegedly murdering his female passenger, who was found shot to death near a wooded area after she was reported missing, police announced Tuesday.
The victim, 30-year-old Chanti Dixon, was reported missing on Monday, according to Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Chief Chris Bailey. She had ordered an Uber around 3:30 a.m. Sunday to take her home from work, but she had not been heard from since then, according to the probable cause affidavit.
On Monday, police received a report of a dead person found near woods in a residential area of Indianapolis who was ultimately identified as Dixon, police said. She had an injury consistent with a gunshot wound, Bailey said.
The investigation led detectives to 29-year-old Francisco Valadez, who has been arrested on a murder charge, police said.
Police believe that Valadez, a rideshare driver, had picked Dixon up “just prior to her murder,” Bailey said during a press briefing on Tuesday.
“This is disgusting, it’s disturbing,” Bailey said. “No one deserves to be treated this way in our community.”
Valadez is in custody and is scheduled to appear in court on Thursday, according to online jail records. It is unclear if he has an attorney at this time.
The Marion County Prosecutor’s Office will make final charging decisions. Bailey said he anticipates there will be additional charges in the case.
Dixon was found at a dead end with a possible gunshot wound to the left side of her head, according to the probable cause affidavit. Two cell phones belonging to her were also found nearby, according to the affidavit.
Detectives traced the Uber information to Valadez, according to the affidavit. Valadez allegedly told police that after he dropped her off a man attempted to rob her and shot her in the leg, according to the affidavit. After being brought to the homicide office for an interview, Valadez told two different stories before allegedly admitting to shooting Dixon in his car while trying to have sex with her, according to the affidavit.
Valadez has been banned from Uber, the company said.
“Our hearts break for Ms. Dixon’s family and loved ones,” an Uber spokesperson said in a statement. “The details of this act of violence are atrocious and we will assist Indianapolis police however we can as they continue to investigate.”
Assistant Chief of Police Catherine Cummings said this is believed to be an isolated incident.
“As a woman, this hits differently for me,” she said during Tuesday’s press briefing. “Women, girls, mothers have a right to exist freely in our community without fear of something heinous happening to them. They have a right to walk, bike, order, rideshare without fearing something bad will happen to them. This is a family’s worst nightmare, and we extend our heartfelt condolences to her family during this trying time.”
Cummings and Bailey stressed to the community that rideshares continue to be a safe option.
“This woman is gone from the world unnecessarily by an evil act,” Bailey said. “I’m glad that we were able to find this individual as quickly as we did, so that he didn’t have an opportunity to perpetuate violence further in our community.”