Death toll rises from devastating flash flooding in West Virginia as rain threat continues
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(NEW YORK)– The death toll has climbed to seven in the wake of heavy rains and devastating flash flooding in West Virginia, Gov. Patrick Morrisey said on Tuesday, as he warned the threat isn’t over.
“Flood watches continue throughout West Virginia,” Morrisey said on social media. “With the ground already saturated, there is the possibility of further flash flooding. Please continue to heed local warnings and do not attempt to drive through high waters.”
Two people remain missing as of Tuesday, the governor’s office said.
A state of emergency is in effect and the West Virginia National Guard and Federal Emergency Management Agency officials are on the ground in Marion County, the governor said.
Flash flooding struck Ohio County in the northern part of the state on Saturday night, dumping about 3 to 4 inches of rain over a short time period, according to the governor’s office.
The flash flooding continued on Sunday in Marion County, dropping 3 inches of rain in the city of Fairmont over a short time period, state officials said.
On Sunday, a residential building in Fairmont partially collapsed.
Footage from the scene showed water rushing out of the severely damaged structure as emergency crews responded to the scene.
Displaced residents are being housed at Fairmont State University, officials said.
ABC News’ Darren Reynolds and Victoria Arancio contributed to this report.
Astrid Riecken For The Washington Post via Getty Images
(WASHINGTON) — Attorneys for wrongly deported Kilmar Abrego Garcia are requesting a conference Tuesday to address what they say is the Trump administration’s “failure to comply” with a court order granting expedited discovery in the case.
U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis last week slammed Justice Department attorneys over their inaction over Abrego Garcia’s wrongful detention and ordered government officials to testify under oath through expedited discovery.
In a letter to the judge Monday night from both the government and Abrego Garcia’s attorneys, lawyers for Abrego Garcia said that the Trump administration has responded to their discovery requests by producing “nothing of substance” and providing interrogatory responses that are “non-responsive.”
Abrego Garcia’s attorneys said the administration has claimed state secrets privilege and governmental privilege “without any foundation for doing so.”
The attorneys also said they invited government officials to meet and confer several times, but the officials declined to meet until Monday evening, “on the eve of depositions.”
Department of Homeland Security Acting General Counsel Joseph Mazzara was scheduled to be deposed Tuesday morning, according to the letter.
The government, in the same letter, said they have “put forward a good-faith effort to provide appropriate responses to both Plaintiffs’ Interrogatories and Request for Production.”
Abrego Garcia, a Salvadoran native who has been living with his wife and children in Maryland, was deported in March to El Salvador’s CECOT mega-prison — despite a 2019 court order barring his deportation to that country due to fear of persecution — after the Trump administration claimed he was a member of the criminal gang MS-13.
The Trump administration, while acknowledging that Abrego Garcia was deported to El Salvador in error, has said that his alleged MS-13 affiliation makes him ineligible to return to the United States. His wife and attorney have denied that he is an MS-13 member.
Judge Xinis early this month ruled that the Trump administration must “facilitate” Abrego Garcia’s return, and the U.S. Supreme Court unanimously affirmed that ruling, “with due regard for the deference owed to the Executive Branch in the conduct of foreign affairs.”
The government, in Monday’s letter to the judge, said that any requirement for a more detailed response on the legal basis for Abrego Garcia’s confinement “would be wholly inappropriate and an invasion of diplomatic discussions.”
“Upon Abrego’s repatriation to El Salvador, his detention was no longer a matter of the United States’ confinement, but a matter belonging to the government of El Salvador — which has been explained to the Plaintiffs repeatedly,” the government said. “Their insistence on obtaining any information on ‘diplomatic discussions’ is a facially unwarranted and inappropriate intrusion into the diplomatic process — a matter which the Supreme Court specifically reserved to the Government’s province.”
In a separate filing, attorneys for Abrego Garcia included as an exhibit the government’s objections to the plaintiff’s first set of expedited interrogatories, in which the government says that “disclosing the details of any diplomatic discussions regarding Mr. Abrego Garcia at this time could negatively impact any outcome.”
In the exhibit, the government acknowledges the $6 million that has been made available to the government of El Salvador to be used for its “law enforcement needs,” including for the detention of the Venezuelan migrants that were sent to El Salvador’s CECOT mega-prison.
“The United States has not provided any specific assistance with respect to the detention of Abrego Garcia or any other Salvadoran national,” the government said.
(NEW YORK) — Hours before Luigi Mangione’s arraignment in federal court, federal prosecutors submitted formal notice that they intend to seek the death penalty if he’s convicted, citing, in part his alleged desire “to provoke broad-based resistance to the victim’s industry” by killing United Healthcare CEO Brian Thompson.
Mangione is expected to plead not guilty when he appears Friday for his arraignment on a four-count indictment that charged him, among other things, with murder through the use of a firearm — a death-eligible offense.
Attorney General Pam Bondi already signaled that President Donald’s Trump administration’s intended to execute Mangione as part of the president’s push to reinstate capital punishment.
The “notice of intent to seek the death penalty” is the government’s formal step to inform the court and lay out the reasons.
Federal prosecutors said Mangione deserves the death penalty because of “the impact of the victim’s death upon his family, friends and co-workers.”
They also said “he expressed intent to target an entire industry and rally political and social opposition to that industry, by engaging in an act of lethal violence.”
Prosecutors stated that Mangione’s choice of site and victim made clear he sought “to amplify an ideological message, maximize the visibility and impact of the victim’s murder, and to provoke broad-based resistance to the victim’s industry.”
Defense attorneys have already called the decision to seek the death penalty “barbaric” and a “political stunt.”
(NEW YORK) — Destructive, long-track tornadoes are possible from Arkansas to Ohio on Friday as over 70 million Americans prepare for potential severe weather.
Strong tornadoes, destructive winds in excess of 75 mph and very large hail the size of baseballs are possible.
More than 300,000 customers are without power on Friday afternoon, including over 200,000 in Michigan, with severe weather moving through the Midwest overnight.
One or two tornadoes may become a high-end, long-track twister.
There is a moderate risk — level 4 of 5 — for significantly severe storms Friday, from southeast Missouri through southern Illinois, western and central Kentucky and southern Indiana. After storms move through in the morning, the majority of the afternoon will be dry and sunshine is expected. However, this will work to re-energize the atmosphere, especially considering the extremely warm air mass creating record high temperatures for surrounding areas.
Around 3 to 4 p.m. Central time, storms will begin popping up over eastern Missouri and central Illinois, which may turn severe quickly.
There will be storms over Paducah, Kentucky, and Little Rock, Arkansas, around 6 p.m. CT.
The storms will reach Indianapolis around 7 p.m.
The storms will then hit Cincinnati; Louisville, Kentucky; and Jonesboro, Arkansas, at 8 p.m. CT before hitting Memphis, Tennessee, at 9 p.m. They will reach Nashville, Tennessee, from 10 to 11 p.m.
Strong storms are possible in the Mid-Atlantic on Friday afternoon as the energy from the morning system reach the area. Strong winds and some hail are the main risks for the East Coast.
Saturday’s risk area is mainly centered over Texas, Oklahoma and Arkansas, where damaging wind, large hail and a few tornadoes are possible. These storms are expected in the evening and overnight hours.
