Summer scorcher: Dangerous heat to head to Northeast after slamming Midwest
ABC News
(NEW YORK) — Extreme heat is gripping the Midwest before moving into the Northeast.
Chicago is in the center of an excessive heat warning that stretches north to Madison, Wisconsin, and south to Springfield, Illinois.
The heat index — what temperature it feels like with humidity — soared to a scorching 114 degrees in Chicago on Tuesday. Chicago’s actual temperature hit 98 degrees, breaking the city’s daily record of 97 degrees.
In Detroit, public school students were released three hours early on Tuesday due to the heat.
Next, the dangerous temperatures will move east.
On Wednesday, the heat index is forecast to climb to 104 degrees in Nashville, Tennessee; 100 degrees in Indianapolis; 105 in Philadelphia; and 103 in Washington, D.C.
D.C. may hit a new record-high actual temperature of 100 degrees.
By Thursday, the Northeast will cool down. But temperatures will stay in the 90s in the South as the week ends.
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.
Last year marked the most heat-related deaths in the U.S. on record, according to JAMA, a peer-reviewed medical journal published by the American Medical Association.
Click here for tips on how to stay safe in the heat.
(WINDER, Ga.) — When a gunman opened fire outside Stephanie Reyna’s classroom at Apalachee High School in Georgia, killing math teacher and football coach Richard Aspinwall, she said her classmates jumped into action, shutting and barricading their door.
The chaos began when Reyna, 17, said her class “heard banging on the lockers right outside of the classroom door.”
Brayan Maldonado, also 17, said it sounded like someone had been pushed up against a locker.
“My teacher, Coach Aspinwall, he opened the door, and he ran outside to see what’s going on,” Reyna told ABC News.
“We heard some popping sounds,” Reyna said. “We just stopped, we froze, we didn’t know what was going on. … So we all ran to the back of the classroom. We hid in the corner.”
Reyna said she and her 17 classmates were lying on the ground for several minutes when they heard more popping sounds.
“That’s when we realized that our classroom door was still open,” Reyna said.
Maldonado said he started to hear “a little bit of breathing” and “a little bit of groaning.”
The students then saw Aspinwall on the ground, they said.
“He was just there, in the doorway, just laying there,” Reyna said. “He was trying to crawl back to us … we just think he was trying to get to us.”
“A couple minutes passed by. He’s taking his breaths,” Maldonado said. “And then we hear his final breaths.”
“Then one of my classmates got the courage to stand up from his position of hiding” and drag Aspinwall’s body into their classroom, Maldonado said.
“That encouraged me to stand up,” Maldonado said.
He said he and his classmates closed the door and barricaded it with cabinets, desks and chairs.
“We were just putting anything we possibly could to make sure [the shooter] couldn’t get in,” Maldonado said.
Once the door was secured, Reyna and Maldonado said they tried to console their classmates.
“Some were hyperventilating, some were crying,” Maldonado said. “I was really trying to calm everyone down. Once everyone was calm, I got calm and all the feelings kicked in.”
Reyna said first responders evacuated the students to another classroom before they joined the rest of the school at the football field.
Aspinwall, fellow teacher Christina Irimie, and two students were killed in Wednesday morning’s shooting in Winder. Nine others were injured.
The 14-year-old suspect, Colt Gray, a student at the school, surrendered at the scene to the school resource officers and was taken into custody, authorities said.
Gray is charged with four counts of felony murder and will be tried as an adult, authorities said. A motive is not known.
(NEW YORK) — A 28-year-old mother has been missing for two weeks under what police in Virginia said are believed to be “involuntary” circumstances.
Mamta Kafle was last seen on July 31 in Manassas Park, Virginia, about 30 miles outside of Washington, D.C, the Manassas Park Police Department said. She hasn’t had any contact with family or friends since then, police said.
Authorities said they believe Kafle is “involuntarily” missing, citing the length of time since she’s been seen.
“Investigators have conducted several follow-ups with neighbors, friends, co-workers and the husband,” police said in a statement. “The investigators are also utilizing several investigative tools to help in an attempt to locate Mamta Kafle.”
Manassas Park police gave a detailed timeline of the investigation on Thursday while asking for the public’s help in locating her.
Kafle, a registered nurse at a hospital, was last seen at work on July 27, police said. She spoke to a friend on July 28 and was last seen by her husband on July 31, police said.
Officers responded to their home on Aug. 2 to conduct a welfare check, police said. They had received the request to conduct a welfare check from her employer, Washington ABC affiliate WJLA reported. Her husband provided information but did not want to report her missing at that time, police said.
Three days later, on Aug. 5, her husband contacted police and reported her missing and she was entered as missing with Virginia State Police, police said.
Over the next several days, “detectives conducted an extensive investigation and found that there was a significant lack of recent contact by Mamta with her family, friends, employer and on social media postings,” police said.
At that point, detectives were able to elevate her missing person status to an involuntary/critical missing person and “additional resources have been afforded to this investigation,” said police, who subsequently released a missing person flyer to the public on Aug. 8.
Her friend and former colleague, Sunita Basnet Thapa, told WJLA the two bonded over both being from Nepal, and that she was a mentor to Kafle. She attended an event Tuesday in Manassas Park to raise awareness about Kafle’s disappearance and press for updates.
Basnet Thapa told WJLA they have “no clue what is going on,” adding that she has been waiting for news for 14 days.
The case remains active, police said.
“The husband, friends, and co-workers have all been cooperative throughout the investigation and detectives will continue to follow up on all investigative leads to locate Mamta Kafle,” the Manassas Park Police Department said Thursday.
Kafle’s friend, Nadia Navarro, who organized Tuesday’s gathering, told WJLA that it is unlike the mother to leave her 11-month-old daughter.
“Even if she was desperate, even if she might have been facing something, she wouldn’t have left her daughter,” Navarro told WJLA. “She was very self-sacrificial that way, no matter what would have been happening.”
ABC News was unable to reach Kafle’s family.
Her husband spoke to a crowd gathered in support of Kafle on Monday by phone, saying that he couldn’t attend because he was caring for their daughter, according to WRC.
“I need to find her as soon as possible, and then using all the tools — community, society, police,” he told the crowd.
Friends are planning to hold a search for Kafle on Thursday afternoon.
Kafle is 5 feet tall, weighs 132 pounds and has black hair and dark brown eyes, police said. She was last seen wearing blue scrubs, police said.
Police urge anyone with information to call the Manassas Park Police Department at 703-361-1136 or submit an anonymous tip to Manassas/Manassas Park Crime Solvers at 703-330-0330.
(SPRINGFIELD, Ohio) — A bomb threat has prompted a major police response in Springfield, Ohio, on Thursday morning, according to the city commission office.
The threat was sent via email “to multiple agencies and media outlets,” the office said.
“Our primary concern is the safety and well-being of our employees and residents. We are working to address this situation as swiftly as possible,” the office said. “We ask the community to avoid the area surrounding City Hall vicinity while the investigation is ongoing and to report any suspicious activity to the Springfield Police Division.”
Though it is not yet known if they are connected, the threat comes after baseless rumors spread online in the wake of viral social media posts claiming Haitian migrants were abducting people’s pets in Springfield order to eat them. The rumors were amplified by right-wing politicians, including former President Donald Trump and his running mate Sen. JD Vance.
“In Springfield, they’re eating the dogs,” Trump said at Tuesday night’s presidential debate. The people that came in, they’re eating the cats, they’re eating, they’re eating the pets of the people that live there.”
A spokesperson for the city of Springfield told ABC News these claims are false, and that there have been “no credible reports or specific claims of pets being harmed, injured or abused by individuals in the immigrant community.”
“Additionally, there have been no verified instances of immigrants engaging in illegal activities such as squatting or littering in front of residents’ homes,” the spokesperson said. “Furthermore, no reports have been made regarding members of the immigrant community deliberately disrupting traffic.”
Springfield estimates there are around 12,000 to 15,000 immigrants living in the county; migrants have been drawn to the region because of low cost of living and work opportunities, according to the city. The rapid rise in population has strained housing, health care and school resources, according to the city. But city officials also said the migrants are in the country legally and that many are recipients of Temporary Protected Status.
The Haitian Bridge Alliance condemned the “baseless and inflammatory” claims about Haitian migrants, arguing they “not only perpetuate harmful stereotypes but also contribute to the dangerous stigmatization of immigrant communities, particularly Black immigrants from the Republic of Haiti.”
Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine, who dispelled the rumors this week, said the state would send more resources to Springfield.
