Tag Archives: July 4th

4th of July parade shooting, police are investigating

2Timothy 3:1-8 “Know this: In the last days perilous times will come. 2 Men will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, 3 without natural affection, trucebreakers, slanderers, unrestrained, fierce, despisers of those who are good, 4 traitors, reckless, conceited, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God, 5 having a form of godliness, but denying its power. Turn away from such people.”

Important Takeaways:

  • Illinois 4th of July parade erupts into chaos after multiple shot
  • Witnesses say crowds fled the sound of gunfire, and others saw at least five bloodied people lying on the ground and another under a blanket, according to the Chicago Sun Times.
  • The number of victims remains unclear. Police have reportedly requested a canine unit to assist in finding the suspect. The suspect remains at large.
  • Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker stated to WGN that he believes there are at least nine shooting victims. The outlet reported that at least two were killed.

Read the original article by clicking here.

Strong aftershock jolts California as residents mop up after quake

Fissures that opened up under a highway during a powerful earthquake that struck Southern California are seen near the city of Ridgecrest, California, U.S., July 4, 2019. REUTERS/David McNew

By David McNew

RIDGECREST, Calif. (Reuters) – A strong aftershock shook Southern California early on Friday as residents were still assessing the damage from the July 4 quake, the strongest in the region in 25 years, which was felt by more than 20 million people.

The temblor, one of many aftershocks predicted by seismologists, struck the same desert region as Thursday’s major earthquake with a magnitude of 5.4 about 11 miles (18 km) west of Searles Valley at 4:07 a.m. local time, the U.S. Geological Survey said.

There had already been more than 80 smaller aftershocks since Thursday’s 6.4 magnitude quake near the city of Ridgecrest, which was felt from Los Angeles to Las Vegas, USGS seismologist Lucy Jones said.

“We should be expecting lots of aftershocks and some of them will be bigger than the 3s we’ve been having so far,” Jones told reporters on Thursday. “I think the chance of having a magnitude 5 … is probably greater than 50-50,” she said.

Some residents spent much of their July 4 holiday cleaning up the mess left by the quake.

“I mopped up over 20 gallons (75 liters) of wine that fell over in addition to the beer, soda and the cooler that fell over. We have several thousand dollars worth of damage,” said shopkeeper James Wilhorn.

Only a few injuries were reported, but two houses caught fire from broken gas pipes, officials said. Water gushed from zigzagged cracks in the pavement from busted water lines. Deep fissures snaked across the Mojave Desert, with passersby stopping to take selfies while standing in the rendered earth.

The quake hit the edge of Death Valley National Park about 113 miles northeast of Los Angeles at about 10:30 a.m. on Thursday. It was very shallow, only 6.7 miles (10.7 km) deep, amplifying its effect, and was felt in an area inhabited by 20 million people, the European quake agency EMSC said.

The Ridgecrest Regional Hospital, where 15 patients were evacuated earlier, appeared intact apart from some new cracks in the walls.

California Governor Gavin Newsom approved an emergency proclamation, and Ridgecrest Mayor Peggy Breeden said she had declared a state of emergency, a step that enables the town to receive help from outside agencies.

Breeden said she has asked residents to check on their neighbors in the high desert town.

“We’re a close-knit community and everybody is working to take care of each other,” she told Reuters by telephone.

The quake is the largest in Southern California since the 1994 magnitude 6.6 Northridge earthquake, USGS geophysicist Paul Caruso said. That quake, which was centered in a heavily populated area of Los Angeles, killed 57 people and caused billions of dollars of damage.

(Additional reporting by Bill Tarrant in Los Angeles, Sandra Maler in Washington, Lisa Richwine in Los Angeles, Gabriella Borter and Daniel Trotta and Peter Szekely in New York, Lizbeth Diaz in Mexico City and Rich McKay in Atlanta; Editing by Peter Graff and Chizu Nomiyama)

Florida At Risk For Fourth of July Hurricane

Forecasters say a tropical storm has formed off the Florida coast and conditions are right for it to strengthen over the next few days.

That means Florida could be facing a Fourth of July hurricane.

A tropical storm watch has been put into effect for parts of Florida’s east coast because of Tropical Storm Arthur.  The storm is centered about 95 miles southeast of Cape Canaveral.  The cell was mostly stationary through Tuesday morning but was expected to begin moving toward land later in the day.

The storm had maximum sustained winds of 40 miles per hour as of noon Tuesday.

While the official storm track from NOAA predicts the eye of the storm will stay far offshore, some forecasters are seeing parallels between this storm and a similar storm in 2004 that battered the eastern seaboard despite the eye staying offshore.

Meterologist Joe Bastardi of WeatherBELL says that the storm is very similar to the tropical storm that ended up as Hurricane Alex in 2004.  That hurricane ended up with wind gusts over 115 miles per hour that hammered the east coast from Florida to Virginia.