(NEW YORK) — Debby is roaring across Florida as a tropical storm after making landfall as a Category 1 hurricane Monday morning.
Here’s what to expect:
On Monday, Debby will bring very heavy rain from Gainesville and Jacksonville, Florida, up to Savannah, Georgia, where more than 20 inches of rain is possible.
Rain totals have reached 19 inches in Florida so far.
The storm surge will be the highest — up to 10 feet — in Florida’s Big Bend area, from Keaton Beach to Cedar Key.
By Tuesday, Debby is expected to stall over the Southeast, bringing potentially historic rainfall to Georgia and South Carolina. Up to 30 inches of rain is possible through Thursday.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has issued a rare “high risk” warning for extreme flooding in Florida, Georgia and South Carolina over the next two days.
The rainfall from Debby may approach Georgia’s record of 27.85 inches from Tropical Storm Alberto in 1994.
In South Carolina, the rain total could topple the state’s all-time precipitation record for a tropical cyclone: 23.63 inches from Hurricane Florence in 2018.
Debby’s remnants could then move up to North Carolina and Virginia by Friday and this weekend.
(NEW YORK) — Two burglars swiped memorabilia from St. John’s University men’s basketball coach Rick Pitino’s office on the New York City campus, according to police.
Items including a basketball and bullhorn were taken during the break-in Tuesday evening in Queens, according to police.
The suspects fled on a moped, the NYPD said.
The unidentified suspects remain at large. Both were captured in footage from a university camera that was released by police. One appeared to be holding a bullhorn and the other a small sword in the footage.
Pitino said on social media that he was “really upset” about the burglary and was “livid” over the theft of a vintage bottle of wine — a 1985 6L Petrus Pomerol, which sells for tens of thousands of dollars on some collectible wine sites — though later clarified that he was joking.
“I would never keep that on my desk! Saving that one in a wine cellar to open after the Johnnies go to the final four!” he said on X.
The incident occurred at approximately 8 p.m. Tuesday, according to St. John’s spokesperson Brian Browne.
“Property was stolen from an office in the Athletics Department,” Browne said in a statement. “The University shared surveillance footage with the NYPD and is assisting in the ongoing investigation.”
Pitino has served as the coach of the Big East team since 2023. He gained stardom coaching at the University of Kentucky, winning a national title in 1996.
He had short stints with the NBA’s Boston Celtics and New York Knicks before returning to college at the University of Louisville. He coached the Cardinals from 2001 to 2017 and won the national title in 2013, though it was later vacated for NCAA violations.
He was also inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 2013.
Editor’s Note: This story has been updated to reflect that Pitino says he was joking about the wine being stolen.
(MERRITT ISLAND, Fla.) — Embarking on a new chapter of private space exploration, the Polaris Dawn mission is poised to make history this week by launching four private citizens into ultra-high orbit and attempting the first civilian spacewalk.
Led by billionaire Jared Isaacman and in collaboration with SpaceX, the crew aims to reach as far as 870 miles above Earth, the highest altitude of any human spaceflight mission in more than a half-century since the Apollo program.
SpaceX announced Sunday the Falcon 9 rocket that will carry the Polaris Dawn crew to orbit could launch as early as Tuesday at 3:38 a.m. ET from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
Isaacman, the CEO of the payment-processing company Shift4, will be joined by former Air Force pilot Scott “Kidd” Poteet and two SpaceX engineers, Anna Menon and Sarah Gillis.
During the historic mission, which is set to span five days under normal conditions, two of the crew members will exit the spacecraft in the first commercial spacewalk at an altitude of 435 miles above Earth.
During a press briefing last week, Isaacman shared details on the ambitious mission, which will see all four crew members exposed to the vacuum of space due to the absence of an airlock on the SpaceX Dragon capsule.
The spacewalk will also serve as a critical test for SpaceX’s new Extravehicular Activity spacesuits, an evolution of the intravehicular activity suit.
This new design includes a heads-up display, helmet camera and enhanced joint mobility. It also features thermal insulation, solar protection and a suspension system that allows you to pressurize the suit, put on a harness and actually go through operations as if you are weightless.
The Dragon spacecraft has undergone significant modifications, including upgrades to the life support systems to supply more oxygen during spacewalks, according to the Polaris Program. Environmental sensing has been improved, and a new nitrogen repressurization system has been installed.
The Polaris Dawn mission will be Isaacman’s second journey to space.
In 2021, he funded his first mission to orbit Earth. The project was billed as a childhood cancer fundraiser, garnering $250 million for St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, and marked the first all-civilian mission to orbit.
Looking to the future, Isaacman believes the SpaceX vehicles could unlock a new frontier in commercial space travel.
“It could very well be the 737 for human space flight someday,” he said of the company’s Starship vehicle. “But it’ll certainly be the vehicle that will return humans to the moon and then on to Mars and beyond,” he added.
(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.
Her husband reported her missing on Aug. 5, Manassas Park Police Chief Mario Lugo said.
Authorities said they believe Kafle is “involuntarily” missing, citing the length of time she’s been missing.
“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.”
Kafle works as a registered nurse, according to her friend and former colleague, Sunita Basnet Thapa.
Basnet Thapa told ABC Arlington, Virginia, affiliate WJLA-TV 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. Lugo said in a statement to WJLA that Kafle was entered as missing in a law database “immediately,” and detectives “immediately started investigating this case.”
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-TV.
“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.