Historic snowstorm hitting the South from Texas to Florida
An ABC News graphic shows the weather forecast on Tuesday, Jan. 21, 2025. (ABC News)
(NEW YORK) — The first ever blizzard warning has been issued for parts of the Texas and Louisiana coast as a historic snowstorm hits the South.
Debilitating travel conditions and power outages are possible across the region.
Houston’s airports are closed and nearly 2,000 flights are canceled across the U.S.
The snow is underway Tuesday morning from Austin to Houston to Louisiana to Mississippi to Alabama.
By midday, the snow will leave the Houston area and push east, continuing across Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and into Georgia and the Carolinas.
By the evening, the snow will be ending in Alabama and still hitting Tallahassee, Florida; Atlanta; Charlotte, North Carolina; and Charleston, South Carolina.
Houston may see 1 to 3 inches of snow and New Orleans may see 3 to 5 inches of snow.
New Orleans has only recorded snowfall on eight days since National Weather Service records began in 1948.
New Orleans Mayor LaToya Cantrell said a storm of this magnitude has not been documented since 1963.
Baton Rouge, Louisiana, may get 3 to 6 inches of snow and the Florida Panhandle may see 2 to 4 inches.
Schools are closed from Houston to New Orleans to Savannah.
“Our reality is this, we can do hurricanes and tropical storms, alright? We don’t do cold and we don’t do ice well,” Savannah Mayor Van Johnson said Monday. “If you don’t have to go outside, don’t. Stay home. Watch Netflix, get make some soup, enjoy your family.”
The snow will be done by sunrise Wednesday but rain will continue in the Florida Peninsula.
(WASHINGTON) — President-elect Donald Trump this week voiced support for tens of thousands of unionized dockworkers in a dispute with major shipping companies.
Negotiations between workers and management are deadlocked over the companies’ plan for further automation of ports, which the union said would eliminate jobs.
“I’ve studied automation, and know just about everything there is to know about it,” Trump said Thursday in a post on Truth Social. “The amount of money saved is nowhere near the distress, hurt, and harm it causes for American Workers, in this case, our Longshoremen.”
The vow of support for dockworkers aligns with Trump’s campaign promise to safeguard blue-collar workers threatened by global capitalism, depicting automation as an unwelcome change foisted on workers by foreign-owned shipping firms, some experts said.
Trump’s rejection of automation highlights a tension found in his economic policy, however, some experts added.
Like tariffs, the policy aims to protect a narrow set of workers at the possible expense of importers and consumers, who could suffer higher costs as a result of a missed opportunity to improve the supply chain, some experts said. While others defended Trump’s attempt to protect dockworkers from technological change.
The Trump transition team did not respond to ABC News’ request for comment.
Here’s what to know about the labor dispute over automation at East and Gulf Coast docks, and what it says about how Trump may approach the economy in his second term.
Dockworkers and freight companies feud over automation
A strike in October at docks across the East and Gulf coasts threatened to upend the economy and drive up prices, but workers and management ended the stoppage with a tentative agreement after three days.
The deal includes a 62% wage increase over the life of the six-year contract, but the two sides have yet to finalize it due to a disagreement over plans for further automation.
The standoff centers on the potential installation of cranes that would facilitate the retrieval and storage of freight containers, said John McCown, a non-resident senior fellow at the Center for Maritime Strategy who closely tracks the shipping industry.
Cranes already help remove containers from a ship and place it in a nearby port terminal, but shipping companies have sought the use of additional automated cranes once goods have reached land, McCown said.
The cranes work like an old-fashioned juke box, he added. “You hit a number and it goes to pick a record and play a record,” McCown said, noting the cranes would similarly mechanize sorting and transport of containers.
The U.S. Maritime Alliance, or USMX, the organization representing shipping firms in negotiations, said on Thursday that such automation would improve efficiency and increase capacity. Those enhancements would benefit U.S. companies and consumers that depend on goods from abroad, the group added.
“We need modern technology that is proven to improve worker safety, boost port efficiency, increase port capacity, and strengthen our supply chains,” USMX said in a statement.
The USMX did not immediately respond to ABC News’ request for comment.
The plans have drawn rebuke from the International Longshoremen’s Association, or ILA, the union representing dockworkers. The union has pointed to massive profits enjoyed by the shipping firms during the pandemic, saying further automation would invest those gains in job-cutting machinery rather than increased compensation. Workers have also disputed the supposed productivity benefits of the technology.
“This isn’t about safety or productivity — it’s about job elimination,” ILA President Dennis Daggett, said in a statement earlier this month. The union has proven that the automated cranes at issue “are not more productive than traditional equipment operated by human workers,” Daggett added.
In response to ABC News’ request for comment, the ILA shared a statement from Daggett praising Trump.
“Throughout my career, I’ve never seen a politician — let alone the President of the United States — truly understand the importance of the work our members do every single day,” Daggett said.
What could Trump’s approach to the standoff mean for his 2nd term?
In his social media post backing the workers and opposing port automation, Trump criticized foreign-owned shipping firms for what he described as penny pinching.
“For the great privilege of accessing our markets, these foreign companies should hire our incredible American Workers, instead of laying them off, and sending those profits back to foreign countries,” Trump said. “It is time to put AMERICA FIRST!”
The framework presents U.S. workers as victims of foreign companies, which he says aim to make use of America’s economic resources at the expense of its citizens. As such, Trump’s intervention in this case favors the ILA in its longstanding fight against automation, Peter Cole, a professor at Western Illinois University who studies the history of dockworkers, told ABC News.
“The ILA will really benefit if in fact Trump pushes employers to back off automation,” Cole said, noting that the explanation offered up by Trump reflects a larger political shift in the U.S. against unrestricted global trade.
“Presidents in both main parties have supported more manufacturing domestically,” Cole said.
However, Trump’s opposition to automation risks imposing higher costs on consumers and even some domestic manufacturers, since advances in productivity would help lower supply costs otherwise passed along to buyers at the end of the chain, some experts said.
Trump mistakenly claims that foreign shipping companies would bear the cost of forgone automation, just as he inaccurately says that foreign countries would pay the cost of tariffs, David Autor, a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology who specializes in technological change and the labor force, told ABC News.
“The assertion that raising tariffs at our ports will force foreigners to cover these costs is beyond naive,” Autor said. “It’s simply false.
Autor said the hardship that dockworkers would face if automation were to advance and put many of them out of work. “It will not be good for the livelihoods of longshoremen and we should not pretend otherwise,” Autor said, adding that the workers should receive compensation or other protections under such circumstances.
Megan Varner for The Washington Post via Getty Images
(ATLANTA) — Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis on Wednesday filed an appeal to the Georgia Supreme Court asking them to reverse her disqualification from the Georgia election interference case against Donald Trump and others.
The Georgia Court of Appeals last month disqualified Willis from her prosecution of Trump and his co-defendants due to a “significant appearance of impropriety,” leaving the question of who takes over the case — and whether it continues — to the Prosecuting Attorneys Council of Georgia.
In her filing Wednesday, Willis argued that the appeals court “erred” when it disqualified her from the case based only on the appearance of a conflict of interest, which stemmed from her relationship with a prosecutor on the case.
“No Georgia court has ever disqualified a district attorney for the mere appearance of impropriety without the existence of an actual conflict of interest,” the filing stated, asking the higher court to review the decision.
The filing also claimed the lower court’s opinion was an “overreach” and “created a new standard for disqualification” that it did not have the authority to enact.
“The opinion ignored precedent and created a new, mechanical standard for disqualification uniquely applicable to public prosecutors, usurping authority properly reserved to this Court while ensuring confusion and uncertainty to follow,” the filing stated.
Trump and 18 others pleaded not guilty last year to all charges in a sweeping racketeering indictment for alleged efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election in the state of Georgia. Four defendants subsequently took plea deals in exchange for agreeing to testify against other defendants.
The case has been on pause while Trump and his co-defendants have pursued Willis’ disqualification.
(LOS ANGELES) — Family members have begun to identify the Los Angeles residents who were killed in the wildfires sweeping through the area since Jan. 7.
As of Sunday evening, the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner said it was investigating at least 14 fire-related deaths from the Eaton and Palisades Fires which have burned through thousands of acres.
Here is what we know of the deceased victims.
Anthony and Justin Mitchell
Hajime White told ABC News that her father, Anthony, and brother Justin, were killed in the Eaton fire in Altadena.
Both had disabilities and were in wheelchairs and were waiting for an ambulance to transport them to relatives, White told ABC News.
White says her father called her the morning of the fires, saying he knew the fire had broken out and he had to evacuate. He told her he loved her, and then all of a sudden, he said, “Baby, I gotta go. The fire is in the yard,” according to Hajime.
“And that’s the last words I have from my dad,” she said.
Anthony was an amputee and lived with Justin who had cerebral palsy, according to White.
Anthony had several grandchildren, including Hajime’s six daughters, and welcomed two great-grandchildren last year, according to his daughter.
“He was a great man. A great dad that any little girl could want,” she said.
White said Justin was very smart and enjoyed reading, especially the newspaper with their dad.
“He’d try his hardest to say ‘hi.’ He tried to tell me he loved me,” White said of her brother.
Victor Shaw
Victor Shaw died he died in a heroic attempt to protect his home in Altadena, his sister Shari Shaw, told ABC News.
Shaw lived in the family home since 1965, and had health issues that impacted his mobility, according to his sister.
“I can’t imagine what he might have been thinking, how he might have been so frightened,” Shari said.
Charles Mortimer
The Los Angeles County Medical Examiner’s office confirmed on Sunday that 84-year-old Charles Mortimer was among those killed in the fires.
Mortimer’s family said he “truly lived life to its fullest.”
“He was a world traveler, a sun worshipper and an avid sports fan,” the family said, adding that he was happy to see his “beloved” Chicago Cubs win the World Series.
“He will be remembered as a man with a quick wit, a brilliant mind, and a love for his family. His infectious smile and never-ending sense of humor will be greatly missed by his friends and family all over the world,” the family said.
ABC News’ Sean Keane and Mola Lenghi contributed to this report.
