Once-in-a-generation storm turns deadly: Where to expect tornadoes, dangerous flooding
ABC News
(NEW YORK) — A four-day, once-in-a-generation weather event turned deadly on day 1 on Wednesday — and the risk for destructive storms and tornadoes will continue on Thursday, and the threat of flooding will increase.
Here’s what you need to know:
Wednesday
The rare weather event began Wednesday with a tornado outbreak that led to at least 20 reported tornadoes from Arkansas to Indiana.
Matt Ziegler documented the moment a tornado ripped through his town of Lake City, Arkansas.
“I’ve always heard that they sound like a train on a track, but to be honest with you, it was eerily quiet,” he told ABC News. “If you weren’t looking, you wouldn’t know that there was a major tornado just a field over from us.”
At least four weather-related fatalities have been confirmed in Tennessee, according to state officials.
The governors of Tennessee and Kentucky have declared states of emergency.
“We are facing one of the most serious weather events we’ve had forecast,” Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear warned on social media. “Please stay alert, take all precautions, and be prepared.”
Thursday
On Thursday, the severe weather risk is a level 3 out of 5, bringing the chance for a few strong tornadoes from Little Rock, Arkansas, to Memphis, Tennessee, to Jackson, Tennessee.
The flooding threat ramps up on Thursday as the system begins to stall and dump heavy rain over the same areas.
Overall, more than 38 million people are under a general flood watch until Sunday morning, spanning 11 states from Arkansas to Ohio including the cities of Louisville, Kentucky; Indianapolis; and Cleveland.
Public schools in Nashville, Tennessee, are closed on Thursday.
A particularly dangerous situation, or PDS, flood watch is in effect until Sunday morning for about 4 million people in parts of Arkansas, Mississippi, Tennessee, Missouri, Illinois, Indiana and Kentucky. Cities in the PDS flood watch include Memphis; Little Rock; Jonesboro, Arkansas; Union City, Tennessee; Paducah, Kentucky; and Evansville, Indiana.
On Thursday, a rare high risk (level 4 of 4) warning for excessive rainfall is in effect in northeast Arkansas, northwest Tennessee, as well as Memphis, and western Kentucky.
Friday
Friday’s severe weather threat is a level 3 of 5 for nearly all of Arkansas, with strong tornadoes possible.
A moderate risk (level 3 of 4) for excessive rainfall is in place for Friday from just east of Dallas to Fayetteville, Arkansas, to Springfield, Missouri, to St. Louis.
Saturday
Saturday’s severe weather threat is a level 3 of 5 for Arkansas, Louisiana, western Mississippi and eastern Texas, with strong tornadoes possible.
For flooding, a rare high risk threat is in effect on Saturday from Memphis to Jonesboro to Evansville.
Rain totals
The four-day event will dump 10 to 15 inches of rain or more over the area from Jonesboro to Paducah.
Seven to 10 inches of rain is possible from Little Rock to Memphis to Louisville to Cincinnati.
The system will finally move east Sunday afternoon, bringing rain to the Southeast on Sunday, Monday and Tuesday.
(LOS ANGELES, Calif.) — Approximately 55,000 of Los Angeles County’s workers have taken to the streets downtown in a massive, two-day protest — affecting a range of industries, from public services and health care to libraries and park management.
Members of the labor union SEIU Local 721 began the strike on Monday night, saying in a press release that failed contract negotiations and 44 alleged labor law violations sparked the walkout.
The strike also comes nearly four months after the devastating spate of wildfires burned through parts of Los Angeles County in January, causing billions in damage and a strain on public workers, the union said.
“This is the workforce that got LA County through emergency after emergency: the January wildfires, public health emergencies, mental health emergencies, social service emergencies and more,” David Green, SEIU 721’s executive director and president, who has worked as an L.A. County children’s social worker for more than two decades said in the union’s release.
“From the San Fernando Valley to the San Gabriel Valley, from the foothills to the beaches, all across LA County, we get the job done. That’s why we have had it with the labor law violations and demand respect for our workers,” Green added.
The union claims the alleged labor violations include refusal to bargain with union members in good faith, surveillance and retaliation against SEIU 721 members engaged in union activity, restricting union organizers’ access to worksites and contracting out of SEIU 721-represented positions.
Additionally, the union claims the county’s proposal had a 0% increase for workers’ cost of living while its board of supervisors financed a $205 million downtown skyscraper for new office space.
“These are the very same people telling the workforce – and taxpayers – that there is no money for more services or frontline staff,” the union said in the release.
In a statement to ABC News on Tuesday, L.A. County’s Chief Executive Office said it’s “committed to negotiating in good faith with SEIU 721, and we are disappointed that the union is opting to stage a strike that will affect residents and impact service delivery at a time of great public need.”
The department added that it “disputes the union’s assertion that the County has engaged in unfair labor practices.”
The county also cited “unprecedented stresses on our budget” including a $4 billion settlement of thousands of childhood sexual assault claims brought under AB 218, a projected $2 billion in impacts related to the January wildfires and recovery and the potentially catastrophic loss of hundreds of millions or more in federal funding, according to the statement.
Speaking with ABC News’ Los Angeles affiliate KABC, L.A. County’s Chief Executive Officer Fesia Davenport said, “We have to monitor our revenues” and explained that the county’s growth from property taxes is declining.
“Our revenues are down because interest rates are up, and the number of houses that have been sold over the last couple of years have been declining. Our main source of revenue are local property taxes, so even though we get growth every year from property taxes, the amount of that growth is declining,” Davenport said.
The county is planning to meet with union workers Tuesday night, according to KABC.
Marking the first strike of it kind for the union, SEIU 721 members include health, public health and mental health care professionals; social workers; parks and recreation staff; social services eligibility workers; public works personnel; clerical workers; custodians; coroner personnel; beaches and harbors staff; and traffic and lighting personnel, according to the release.
The strike could impact non-urgent health clinics, libraries, wildfire debris removal, homeless encampment enforcement and trash pickup services, according to the union.
Further information on closures and service delays can be found out lacounty.gov/closures.
(NEW YORK) — It’s the rivalry that has defined hip-hop for a generation. And, according to many in law enforcement, it has claimed the lives of at least two of rap’s brightest stars.
Sean “Diddy” Combs vs. Marion “Suge” Knight.
Their names are synonymous with the explosion of hip-hop, and the bad blood between the two moguls emerged as a central pop culture plotline of the 1990s. Inside the music industry, their respective record labels – Combs’ Bad Boy Records and Knight’s Death Row — vied for market share. On the streets of cities like Los Angeles and New York, their personas clashed and their allies fought as part of what came to be known as the battle between the East and West Coast rap scenes.
In the East, Combs stood tall. Bad Boy Records boasted the top talent of the Notorious B.I.G. – aka Biggie Smalls – and, authorities said, often hired members of the Crips street gang for security. In the West, it was the domain of Knight and Death Row Records, which, police said, had long-standing connections with the Crips’ rivals, the Bloods. Atop the Death Row roster was Tupac Shakur.
The grudge between Combs and Knight was a key focus of testimony Tuesday at Combs’ ongoing sex-trafficking and racketeering trial in Manhattan, in which Combs has pleaded not guilty to all of the charges. On the stand, Combs’ former personal assistant, David James, said one night in 2008, he spotted Knight and his entourage eating at Mel’s Diner in Hollywood. He testified that Combs, upon hearing that, wanted to confront the rival group.
“I was really struck by it. I realized for the first time, being Mr. Combs’ assistant, that my life was in danger,” James testified. A short time later, he gave his notice and left the company.
The enmity between Knight and Combs was fueled by insults – perceived, real and even put to lyrics – and in the era of hip-hop getting hot in the mainstream, the two groups feuded on stage, and in the streets.
Taking the stage at the August 1995 Source Awards in New York City, Knight hurled a thinly-veiled insult at Combs, publicly taunting Combs for allegedly stealing the spotlight from the artists whose music he produced.
In June 1996, Shakur released “Hit ‘Em Up,” which called out Biggie, Combs and Bad Boy by name, and bragged about sleeping with Biggie’s wife. The song further inflamed the feud.
“The East Coast, West Coast rivalry led to a lot of bad blood between Suge, Death Row, and Puffy and Bad Boy. Both were big at the time,” said retired NYPD Det. Derrick Parker, the first cop assigned to investigate crime in the hip-hop world. Parker was known on the streets as the “Hip-Hop Cop.”
“As soon as these guys started to become big in the industry, they started aligning themselves with certain people – they started bringing in the gangs, people affiliated with the gangs, and then came the diss records,” Parker said.
“The beef between them started to go on wax, on records, on tapes, on music. And it just got worse,” Parker said. “And the beef got louder and louder, it got more problematic, more violent.”
The rivalry turned deadly in the fall of 1996. On Sept. 7, Shakur was riding around Vegas in a BMW driven by Knight when a fusillade of gunfire rained down on them. Six days later, Shakur was dead.
The only man ever arrested in connection with the killing has previously alleged that Combs requested the murder: Duane “Keffe D” Davis told police Combs put a bounty on the lives of his rivals, Knight and Shakur.
Combs has repeatedly denied any involvement in the killing and has never been named as a suspect or a person of interest by authorities in connection with the homicide.
Davis, in police interviews, the pages of his own co-authored memoir and in media appearances, has previously told a different story – one he now denies.
“I’ll give anything for those dude’s heads,” Davis said Combs told him months before Shakur’s death, according to a police report on their interview with Davis in 2008. His accounts of alleged conversations with Combs came during interviews with police in 2008 and 2009, obtained by ABC News, and later in on-camera interviews and the 2019 memoir with his name on it, “Compton Street Legend.”
Amid mushrooming violence and tensions between the two groups, Combs worried about “retaliation” and “began to solicit Davis to kill Knight and Shakur,” according to the police report on Davis’ 2008 interview.
More than once, Combs repeated the offer, Davis alleged: summoning him at a Hollywood eatery, Combs “again told Davis he [Combs] needed to get rid of Knight and Shakur. Combs offered Davis $1,000,000 to handle the problem. Davis remembers Combs being very afraid of Knight,” the report said.
Tensions had already begun boiling over months before Shakur’s killing when a fight broke out between a number of Bloods and Crips over a coveted Death Row medallion. Among the scuffling group was Davis’ nephew, Orlando Anderson, according to police interviews and grand jury testimony. It was an act of “war” between the two groups that would warrant “retaliation,” a Crip affiliate testified before Davis’ indicting grand jury.
On Sept. 7, 1996, gang members and glitterati alike convened in Las Vegas for a Mike Tyson fight. In the crowds, Shakur and Knight caught sight of Davis’ nephew and identified him as the would-be medallion snatcher, according to prosecutors. A brawl ensued. That beatdown gave Davis and his crew “the ultimate green light” to take revenge, his memoir said – and which prosecutors have quoted. Paired with the request he said Combs had made, vengeance for his nephew was a “double whammy,” motivating him to seek out Shakur and Knight, according to the memoir.
Davis, behind bars and awaiting trial for orchestrating Shakur’s killing, now insists he is “innocent.” In his first interview since being arrested in September 2023, Davis told ABC News in March that he’s “never read” the memoir ascribed to him, and only confessed to his purported role in the crime because he was getting paid to lie.
His trial for Shakur’s murder is set for February 2026. He has pleaded not guilty.
Six months after Shakur was killed, Biggie Smalls was gunned down in Los Angeles, in what detectives have theorized was orchestrated revenge for Shakur’s murder. Smalls was killed after leaving through a rear entrance of an overcrowded awards afterparty that was also attended by Combs. The rapper and the mogul were in separate cars.
The hip-hop icons’ back-to-back deaths would punctuate years of escalating hostility and traded barbs between the groups.
“The rivalry between the gangs was all part and parcel of that East Coast-West Coast war,” Parker said. “This was how the rap world was. It was very violent, very turbulent at that time. That beef between them marked the hip-hop scene for more than a generation.”
Knight is currently in prison, serving a 28-year sentence for voluntary manslaughter stemming from a 2015 fatal hit-and-run. That case is not connected to Combs, Shakur or Smalls. He did not respond Tuesday to questions about the Combs trial.
Referring to the fact that he, Knight and Combs were all locked up at the time, Davis told ABC News in March: “All three of us are f—ed up now. All three of us are in jail. Me, Suge, and him.”
(TALLAHASSEE, Fla.) — Members of the Florida State University community will return to the areas in and around the student union building on Friday for the first time since Thursday’s shooting.
They are being allowed there to retrieve the personal belongings they left behind — items abandoned in the chaos when gunfire shattered the calm and sent students fleeing for their lives.
McKenzie Heeter, a 20-year-old junior, was just feet away from the gunman when the shooting began.
“I was leaving the union with food in my hand,” McKenzie recalled. “I noticed [an orange vehicle that looked like a Hummer]. Then I saw him [wearing a matching orange shirt], waving around a bigger rifle … and then he pulled out the handgun and shot that woman. That’s when I just completely ran.”
McKenzie describes sprinting across campus in sheer panic.
“I did a four-minute mile in sandals. I’ve never run that fast in my life,” she said. “I felt like I have got to leave or else it could be me next.”
While she says the entire afternoon feels surreal, one moment replays vividly in her mind — the horrific moment she saw the suspect shoot a woman in purple scrubs from behind.
“Her back was to him. She was just walking. I don’t even think she registered what happened. That’s what I just keep thinking about.”
In the chaos, McKenzie’s first call was to her mom.
“She’s my best friend. I just wanted her to know I was okay,” she said.
Investigators say the gunman killed two people, neither of them students, and injured six others who have yet to be identified.
One suffered critical injuries but, on Thursday evening, was upgraded with the rest of the injured survivors to fair condition.
The accused gunman, a stepson of a local sheriff’s deputy, was also taken to the hospital for non-life-threatening injuries after law enforcement agents shot him.
Investigators say the suspect used a handgun that was once his stepmother’s service weapon. He was also carrying a shotgun, investigators say.
As the entire campus continues to process the trauma, McKenzie tells ABC News that her sense of safety has been shattered.
“The most heartbreaking part is that everybody feels unsafe now. Someone just came and took that from us,” she said.
