Nearly all of Puerto Rico without power on New Year’s Eve
Ricardo Arduengo/AFP via Getty Images
(PUERTO RICO) — An island-wide blackout in Puerto Rico Tuesday left millions of residents without power ahead of New Year’s Eve celebrations.
As of Tuesday afternoon, less than 10% of customers on the island had their power restored, according to power company LUMA.
LUMA said the exact cause of the power outage, which began at 5:30 a.m. local time, remains under investigation.
“As part of our coordinated response, our LUMA team is in close communication and collaboration with island officials, including the Governor, Governor-elect, and our Mayors to keep them updated on the status of restoration,” the power company said.
Puerto Rican Gov. Pedro Pierluisi earlier said work was underway to restore the service at energy plants in San Juan and Palo Seco.
The U.S. territory has continued to face a slow rebuild of its infrastructure since Hurricane Maria caused widespread damage to the island in 2017.
In 2020, 1 million customers were without power following back-to-back earthquakes. An explosion and subsequent fire at a substation left 900,000 customers on the island without power in June 2021.
Another massive fire at a major power plant caused a massive outage for about 1.3 million customers in April 2022, followed by Hurricane Fiona in September of that year.
(WASHINGTON) — After prevailing in a state that went for Republican Donald Trump, Democratic Gov.-elect Josh Stein said that his service as attorney general gave North Carolina voters confidence and called the Tar Heel state a “bright spot” for Democrats on election night.
Stein told ABC “This Week” co-anchor Jonathan Karl that Kamala Harris ran a “strong campaign,” but was hindered by a condensed timeline and “tough national mood.”
“It was a unfortunate night for Democrats across this country, but North Carolina was a bright spot,” Stein said. “ And we’re proud of what we accomplished here.”
This is a developing news story. Please check back for updates.
K.M. Cannon/Las Vegas Review-Journal/Tribune News Service via Getty Image
(LAS VEGAS) — Six years before packing a rental truck with firework mortars and gas cannisters before shooting himself in the head — an act he called a “wake-up” call to America in a note later found by law enforcement — Army Master Sgt. Matthew Livelsberger told an ex-girlfriend he was spiraling.
“Sometimes, I get so hopeless and depressed, it’s [expletive] ridiculous,” he texted, at one point describing a close-range firefight in which he killed two men.
“By far the worst of my life,” he wrote in 2018.
The violent death of Livelsberger, a 37-year-old decorated war veteran and Green Beret, on New Year’s Day is reviving questions about the unique risks that military personnel, and in particular special operations forces, face in their jobs and whether enough is being done to identify members in crisis.
Experts say the military has dramatically ramped up access to mental health support in recent years but that special operations forces in particular still remain vulnerable, in part out of fear that if they seek help their careers will be sidelined.
SOF personnel are more frequently exposed to the kinds of severe mental trauma that can trigger post-traumatic stress syndrome, as well as repeated concussive blasts from high-powered weapons that military officials suspect cause scarring and other physical changes to the brain.
Acute stress and relationship problems also can play a role in a person’s deteriorating mental state. In a 2020 study sponsored by U.S. Special Operations Command that examined the suicide deaths of 29 special operations personnel, nearly all of them experienced emotional trauma in their first deployments. But other issues factored in as well, the study found.
“The downhill trajectory with compounding relationship issues, financial issues and legal issues occurs over many years,” the report found, noting the “large number of variables” typically involved.
In the case of Livelsberger, the Army will soon have to decide whether his nearly two decades of service as a special forces soldier with nine overseas deployments contributed to his death.
Enlisted by the Army in 2006 to train as a member of its special forces, Livelsberger became a member of the 10th Special Forces Group, which conducts counterterrorism and training missions around the world. He deployed five times to Afghanistan, as well as had stints in Ukraine, Tajikistan, Georgia and Congo.
Livelsberger was awarded five Bronze Stars, including one with a valor device for courage under fire. He also was awarded an Army Commendation Medal with valor.
His ex-girlfriend Alicia Arritt, who shared her text exchanges with Livelsberger with ABC News, said she remembered the Green Beret as funny, generous and kind and someone who loved children. He also liked art, basketball and fast cars. She said he was not impulsive.
If the Army finds that his suicide was caused by his service and “in the line of duty,” Livelsberger’s survivors would receive increased benefits.
With an FBI investigation ongoing, the Army has said only that Livelsberger participated in a holistic treatment program offered to special operations forces called the “Preservation of the Force and Family” program but that there were no red flags. The program, called POTFF, includes “physical, cognitive, medical and support resources as appropriate to each individual.”
Livelsberger, who was stationed in Germany at the time, didn’t display any “concerning behaviors” and was granted personnel leave shortly before his death, a spokesperson said.
“We encourage our Soldiers, if they need help, mental health treatment or need to speak with someone, to seek proactive behavioral health treatment either on base or online. They also have the option of talking to an Army chaplain,” Brig. Gen. Amanda Azubuike, chief of Army Public Affairs, said in a statement.
Dr. Rachel Yehuda, a professor of psychiatry and the neuroscience of trauma at Mount Sinai’s Icahn School of Medicine, said there are risk factors that seem to explain why some people are more vulnerable to PTSD than others.
This can include a person’s family history, exposure to trauma at a young age and biological factors that could make it more difficult for a person to “recalibrate” their nervous system after a traumatic event.
Yehuda, who is not involved in Livelsberger’s case and did not want to speak to his particular situation, said the trauma faced in general by service members in combat can be particularly challenging because it often occurs overseas when members are far away from close family and friends who can provide support. That support system, she said, can be critical to calming the nervous system.
“I think that we have to understand that trauma is a real thing. And it can really be detrimental to mental health, especially if you’re not in an environment where people can help you cope with all the things that you’re carrying,” she said.
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Fran Racioppi, a former 10th Special Forces Group officer who hosts a podcast on Green Berets and leadership, said the profile of a Green Beret soldier is unique because it’s someone capable of “extreme degrees of compassion” while also capable of going to war and maintaining the highest standards in warfighting.
“Whenever we have an incident when the behavior of a special operator drastically deviates from the standard profile, we need to understand the driving cause of that change and what contributing factors may cause a grievance,” he said.
Racioppi said he thinks the resources are there to support personnel like Livelsberger.
“But the first step will always be an operator’s self-assessment and willingness to seek help for themselves,” he said.
The SOCOM-sponsored study, conducted by the American Association of Suicidology, found at the time of its review, from 2012 through 2015, that many personnel were reluctant to raise their hands out of fear of getting sidelined, with suicide prevention training seen as a “check in the box.”
Livelsberger’s ex-girlfriend Arritt said he told her he feared getting help “because he wouldn’t be deployable.”
Sara Wilkinson, a suicide prevention advocate whose Navy SEAL husband died by suicide, said that while PTSD can be prevalent in the military, it’s not an arbitrary label that can be used to explain everyone’s experience. Wilkinson’s husband, Chad, was found to have suffered a unique type of brain scarring found in other deceased Navy SEALS.
Service members should know their story in life also can be one of tremendous resilience, she said.
“The point is you served. That comes at a price because of our last 20-plus years” of war, she said. “And you owe it to yourself, your loved ones and your life to be your own advocate physically and mentally.”
ABC News’ Alexandra Myers, Alex Stone, Matt Seyler and Luis Martinez contributed to this report.
If you are struggling with thoughts of suicide or worried about a friend or loved one, call or text the Suicide & Crisis Lifeline at 988 for free, confidential emotional support 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
A new exhibit titled “77 Minutes in Their Shoes” honors the victims of the Robb Elementary shooting. (Sarah Sudhoff)
(UVALDE, TEXAS) — When authorities were trying to identify the victims of the 2022 mass shooting at Robb Elementary School, many of the children could only be identified by the shoes they were wearing that day.
“How often do you take your child to school and not pay attention to what they’re wearing that day?” Kimberly Rubio, mother of victim Alexandria “Lexi” Rubio, said to ABC News.
A new exhibit titled “77 Minutes in Their Shoes” underscores this question to raise gun violence awareness while honoring the 21 victims of the Uvalde mass shooting on May 24, 2022. The exhibit, which runs Jan. 10 to Jan. 19 at the Canopy Projects Gallery in Austin, is a collaboration between Houston artist Sarah Sudhoff and Lives Robbed, a gun violence prevention non-profit created by families of the children killed in the Uvalde mass shooting.
“I thought, ‘What are children wearing when they’re gunned down in schools? And how do we bring this to the attention of Americans?’ And so that’s kind of how the idea was born,” Rubio, who is also president of Lives Robbed, said.
The “77 Minutes” in the exhibit’s name refers to how long the gunman was in the school before police confronted him and ended the massacre.
Sudhoff, a Cuban American artist whose work often merges themes of motherhood and gender with social issues like gun violence and domestic violence, told ABC News that the exhibit was partly influenced by others showcasing the clothing women wore on the night they were sexually assaulted.
However, in this exhibit, photographs of the shoes and portraits of family members with the shoes will be on display. Thirteen of the 21 families participated in the exhibit and all photographs were shot by Sudhoff.
The photographer said she chose to print the images on sheer fabric hanging from the ceiling so that the public can experience the portraits in a more direct manner.
“These portraits are on fabric, and they are thin and you can see through them and maybe you’ll see somebody else through them,” Sudhoff said.
She added, “I intentionally did not make them rigid, I did not make them hard, I wanted you to see the public through them, I wanted them to move because these families are still evolving, they’re on an endless journey, they’re on this unfortunate, heartbreaking journey, and they’re constantly moving and shifting and morphing.”
Although “77 Minutes in Their Shoes” honors the victims of the mass shooting, Rubio said creating the exhibit still posed moments that were emotionally challenging.
“The hardest part was when we took the photos at Robb Elementary featuring the three moms [Rubio, Veronica Mata, and Gloria Cazares] and our girls’ shoes,” Rubio said. “That was difficult—to be back at Robb, to think about taking them to school that morning and the shoes they were wearing, walking into that school and never walking back out.”
The exhibit’s opening weekend also includes panels tackling topics such as gun violence prevention, legislation, art activism, and grief. Arnulfo “Arnie” Reyes, who taught at Robb Elementary School and was the sole survivor of classroom 111, is speaking on a panel titled “The Classroom After Tragedy” to talk about his former students and his recovery.
“It’s always important for me to be one of the voices that supports this and speaks on behalf of the students that are no longer here … I might have a little bit more of an impact just because I was there,” Reyes said to ABC News.
Reyes said he tries to spread awareness and support the families of the victims every opportunity he gets, and he hopes that by participating in the exhibit, that he can continue to advocate for his students and inspire change.
“I would like for people to come with an open mind to see the shoes, to see this is all they have left,” Reyes said. “Something that I said from the beginning is that I would try to do anything that I can do to not let these babies die in vain, and I hope that people join me in that journey to not let anybody else die in vain and to change things.”
