Important Takeaways:
- Florida is bracing for another day of rain and devastating flash flooding despite already reeling from historic rainfall that has left entire neighborhoods underwater.
- An additional 2 to 5 inches of rain could fall, the fourth straight day of flood concerns for South Florida.
- Elsewhere in the U.S., 31 million people are under the risk for severe storms Friday across two areas: one across the western high Plains and the other in the Northeast.
- This weekend 12 million people are under heat alerts across the West and into Southwest Texas with triple-digit highs forecast including a high of 113 in Phoenix forecast Saturday.
- Highs in the 90s are forecast for the Southeast, where high humidity will make it feel like over 100 degrees.
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Important Takeaways:
- Multiple communities across South Florida — including the Miami and Fort Lauderdale areas — flooded Wednesday amid bouts of torrential rain that prompted the state’s governor to declare an emergency and stranded drivers across the region.
- Along with the heavy rainfall, the storm system also brought an EF1 tornado Wednesday to Hobe Sound, located in Martin County about 35 miles north of West Palm Beach, a National Weather Service damage survey confirmed.
- The city saw a preliminary rainfall total of roughly 9.58 inches Wednesday, making it Fort Lauderdale’s eighth wettest day on record, according to data from the National Weather Service. That preliminary rainfall total is also just above Fort Lauderdale’s average June rainfall of 9.55 inches – meaning the area saw over a month’s worth in one day.
- Heavy rainfall over the last 48 hours totaled about 12.8 inches, making it the ninth wettest two-day period for the city.
- Flood watches are in effect for more than 8 million people in South Florida Wednesday through Thursday night at the earliest.
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“When once a Republic is corrupted, there is no possibility of remedying any of the growing evils but by removing the corruption and restoring its lost principles; every other correction is either useless or a new evil.” ~ Thomas Jefferson
Important Takeaways:
- Former President Trump became the first-ever former U.S. president to become a convicted felon on Thursday.
- Trump, the presumed 2024 GOP nominee, is scheduled to be sentenced on July 11, just one week before the Republican National Convention.
- His attorney Todd Blanche told CNN Trump’s legal team would “vigorously fight” with motions in the coming weeks and if unsuccessful with these, they would appeal following his sentencing.
- The appeals process is unlikely to conclude before the November election.
- Would Trump go to jail?
- Judge Juan Merchan will determine whether Trump’s punishment will include a prison sentence.
- The 34 charges are all Class E felonies — the least severe level in New York. They each carry the possibility of up to four years in prison.
- But the judge can also decide to sentence Trump to probation without prison time. That would require the former president to regularly report to a probation officer. If he commits any more crimes, Trump could then be jailed.
- Can Trump run for president as a convicted felon?
- While Trump can still run for president, it’s not yet clear if he’ll be able to vote for himself since some states have laws that limit the voting rights of a person with a felony conviction.
- Trump moved his residency to Florida after leaving the White House in 2021. According to Florida law, the ability of people with a felony conviction to vote depends on the laws in the state where they were convicted.
- “New York only disenfranchises people while serving a prison sentence, so assuming Trump is not sentenced to prison time, his rights would be restored by New York law and therefore also in Florida,” Blair Bowie, an attorney at the Campaign Legal Center said.
- “The only way he wouldn’t be able to vote is if he is in prison on Election Day,” Bowie said.
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Important Takeaways:
- According to the owner, Alejandro Otero, the massive object ripped through the roof and both floors of his two-story house.
- The debris included depleted batteries, attached to a cargo pallet that was initially intended for a controlled return to Earth.
- However, due to a series of delays, the cargo pallet missed its scheduled return, prompting NASA to release the batteries from the space station in 2021 for an unguided reentry.
- NASA didn’t expect anything to survive re-entry
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Important Takeaways:
- ‘Hurricane equivalent’ winds and torrential rains leave more than 120,000 without power in Florida as more than 7million are under flood watch
- Nearly 120,000 homes in Florida are without power after ‘hurricane’ level winds and torrential rain hit the state overnight.
- Thousands of people have woken up in the dark across Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach amid hurricane-force winds, with over 7 million people under flood watch.
- The National Weather Service has called the wind speeds recorded in some of these areas ‘hurricane equivalent’, as they topped 74mph.
- In an advisory, they said: ‘Damaging winds will blow down trees and power lines. Widespread power outages are expected.’
- Forecasters have said that rainfall today will likely reach five to eight inches across Miami and the Fort Lauderdale areas of South Florida, with some areas being hit with 12 inches, according to Fox Weather.
- Florida Governor Ron DeSantis had to declare a state of emergency as storms caused mass flooding, after they dumped two feet of rain in a matter of hours.
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Important Takeaways:
- Idalia turns deadly, wreaks havoc from Florida to the Carolinas
- Two men were killed in weather-related crashes, which may be linked to Idalia, as nearly half of a million power outages resulted from the storm. Fierce storm surge engulfed homes and caused destruction along Florida’s Gulf Coast.
- Over half of a million power outages resulted from the storm across Florida and Georgia at its peak, according to PowerOutage.us. Winds gusted to 85 mph in Florida and over 60 mph in Georgia and the South Carolina coast. The number of outages has decreased since peaking on Wednesday, falling to around 310,000 by late Wednesday night and 133,000 by early Friday morning.
- AccuWeather’s preliminary estimate of the total damage and economic loss from Hurricane Idalia in the southeastern United States is $18 billion to $20 billion.
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Important Takeaways:
- Tropical Storm Idalia keeps pounding the Southeast’s Atlantic coast, prompting flash flood warnings in North Carolina
- Thousands of homes are damaged in Florida – some with shredded walls and roofs, others with knee-high, murky floodwater that officials warn could be dangerous for days to come.
- Between 2 and 5 inches of rain have fallen in parts of southeastern North Carolina, including the Wilmington area, where a flash flood warning was in effect early Thursday, the National Weather Service said.
- South Carolina’s Charleston Harbor saw its waters spike to higher than 9 feet, making it the fifth-highest level ever recorded, the National Weather Service said.
- As of early Thursday, about 150,000 homes and businesses were without power in Florida. Another 110,000 outages were in Georgia, about 50,000 were reported in the Carolinas, PowerOutage.us reported
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Important Takeaways:
- Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis warned potential thieves that anyone who tries to loot amid the chaos of Hurricane Idalia will have to face severe consequences.
- “You loot, we shoot,” Ron said during a recent press conference, according to New York Post.
- “People have a right to defend their property. This part of Florida, you got a lot of advocates and proponents of the Second Amendment
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Important Takeaways:
- The eye of Idalia roared ashore early Wednesday morning with the storm making landfall near Keaton Beach, Florida, at 7:45 a.m. EDT. Maximum sustained winds were 125 mph at the time of landfall, making it a Category 3.
- Idalia lost some wind intensity on its final approach, with maximum sustained winds peaking at 130 mph late Tuesday night, the minimum wind speed required to be classified as a Category 4.
- The number of power outages is creeping upward with nearly 66,000 outages as of 6:25 a.m. EDT Wednesday, according to PowerOutage.us. This number is up from 44,000 from two hours prior, and outages are expected to climb throughout Wednesday as Idalia makes landfall and moves inland.
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Important Takeaways:
- Eyewall of monster CAT-3 Hurricane Idalia batters Florida’s Big Bend as 16ft storm surge floods homes and leaves more than 200,000 without power: Thousands flee north
- It’s the strongest storm to make landfall in the Big Bend region in 127 years, matching an unnamed hurricane in 1896.
- Idalia surged to a Category 4 storm in the early hours because of warm waters in the Gulf of Mexico, reaching speeds of up to 156mph – before dropping to 125mph shortly after 7am.
- The US National Hurricane Center (NHC) has warned of catastrophic storm surges of up to 12 to 16 feet in the worst affected areas.
- St Petersburg Police shared a video of the level of flooding which was sweeping away homes at a mobile trailer park, and confirmed they had already rescued one person by 6:50am.
- Hurricane Idalia has been branded ‘an unprecedented event’ by the National Weather Service in Tallahassee.
- Idalia could spawn tornadoes as far south as Tampa and Sarasota, east to Jacksonville and north to the Georgia coast later today.
- During a press conference on Wednesday, Governor Ron DeSantis warned ‘don’t mess with this storm’ as the power briefly went out from his headquarters.
- He added that there have been 11 tornado warnings issued, saying: ‘It’s going to be a significant, significant impact.’
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