A flash flood that washed through a town on the Utah/Arizona border has left 8 people confirmed dead and others missing.
All of the victims are mothers and small children who reportedly were sitting in cars watching the rushing waters.
The flooding roared through the streets of Hildale, Utah to Colorado City, Arizona. Heavy rains started Monday night in mountains around the town causing the water to rush into canyons and valleys.
“It happened within like a half-hour, 45 minutes,” Chris Wyler told CNN. “(Then) it was just gone. And then the sun was shining again.”
The two vehicles that contained those who died had 16 people within them. Many were thrown from the vehicles by the force of the water.
Rescuers were forced to call off rescue efforts because of dangerous conditions overnight but resumed work with heavy equipment during the morning.
Another western U.S. resident is dead because of the plague.
Officials in Utah say an elderly woman has died after contracting the potentially fatal disease earlier this month. They could not confirm how the woman was infected but speculated that she likely had contact with a dead animal or fleas.
Utah officials would not release the name of the woman or any demographic information other than she was “elderly.”
The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) says 11 plague cases have been found this year in the U.S. and three patients have died.
“It is unclear why the number of cases in 2015 is higher than usual,” the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention stated in a brief update.
The average number of cases per year is between 5 and 6.
“Health care providers should consider the diagnosis of plague in any patient with compatible signs or symptoms, residence or travel in the western United States, and recent proximity to rodent habitats or direct contact with rodents or ill domestic animals,” the CDC says in its report.
“In humans, plague is characterized by the sudden onset of fever and malaise, which can be accompanied by abdominal pain, nausea, and vomiting.”
The Fourth of July weekend had more than fireworks shaking things up in Utah, Oregon and Alaska.
Oregon residents started their day out in an unusual way when a 4.2 magnitude quake struck around 8:42 a.m. Saturday. The quake was centered about 12 miles east of Eugene.
Officials from the Lane County Sheriff’s office and the Oregon Department of Transportation reported no damage being reported. Residents say that the quake caused some shaking of homes, pictures to fall off walls and wood piles to shift.
In Utah, a 4.0 magnitude quake struck around 10 a.m., 1 mile south of Panguitch or 200 miles south of Salt Lake City.
Panguitch Fire Chief Dave Dodds told the Deseret News the quake lasted between three and four seconds but caused no major damage.
Alaska was the most shaken up with weekend quakes.
The U.S. Geological Survey reported Alaska was shaken by two quakes within one minute.
The first, a 4.9 magnitude quake, struck around 4:49 p.m. about 24 miles southwest of Talkeetna. The second quake a minute later in the same area was reported at magnitude 5.1.
Also, the Arctic community of Kaktovik in the Arctic Ocean reported a quake around 11:26 a.m. that measured 4.6 according to the USGS.
The Pentagon says an investigation into an accidental shipment of live anthrax to labs in nine states and South Korea was significantly larger and lasted over a decade.
The anthrax, sent from the Dugway Proving Ground in Utah, has been shipped to 51 sites in the United States and overseas in the last 10 year. The samples were all believed to have contained irradiated and inactivated virus.
The officials admitted they are testing 400 additional batches and if they are found to be live, the number of locations with live virus could significantly jump.
Deputy Defense Secretary Robert Work said that 31 lab workers have ben undergoing post-exposure treatment as a precaution but that the public is safe.
“We know of no risk to the general public from these samples,” Work said.
The admission of the shipments of live anthrax are part of a pattern of accidents involving viruses that have observers questioning the way the military is handling potentially deadly pathogens. A year ago, the CDC admitted a dozen employees may have been exposed to live anthrax and that another lab contaminated a flu virus with the deadly H5N1 bird flu and then shipped it out to another laboratory.
Less than a year ago, live smallpox vials were found in a storage lab at the National Institutes of Health.
A former porn star is using a fake religion created to mock Christians as an excuse to take a driver’s license photo with a colander on her head.
Jessica Steinhauser, who performed in adult films as “Asia Carrera”, brought a spaghetti strainer to a Utah Department of Motor Vehicles location, demanding she be allowed to wear it in her photo because she is a member of the “Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster.”
The “church” was created when an anti-Christianist named Bobby Henderson created concept to mock Christians where he says he worships a “flying spaghetti monster” that no one could see.
Henderson and others who belong to his anti-Christian group claim it’s no different than Christians worshipping God.
The group celebrates blasphemy against the Holy Spirit. In one place on their website, they have a mockery of John 3:16 where they say “he boiled for your sins” and mark it “Spaghetti 3:16.”
Atheists and anti-Christianists in other states have been bringing a colander to their photos for official pictures as a way to mock and show their hatred for Christians.
Summer is just around the corner for the United States, but winter hasn’t given up yet.
Residents of Alta, Utah were surprised with nine inches of snow on Tuesday. More snow is expected in parts of the Northern Rockies until Thursday morning. Meteorologists report winds will gust up to 30 miles per hour and visibility will be less than half a mile during the worst parts of the storm.
“Seeing this in June is crazy,” Utah resident, Jan Frazier said. “I’ve never seen it. You wouldn’t expect thunderclouds like this turning into snow in June, you know?”
State officials hope the weather is a brief anomaly. Local meteorologists predict the temperatures will increase to the lower 90’s by Saturday.
A Utah woman is behind bars and facing multiple murder charges after authorities found the bodies of seven babies within a garage at her former home.
In 2011, Meagan Huntsman, 39, moved out of a home in Pleasant Grove, Utah that was owned by her ex-husband’s parents. Her ex-husband went to the home Saturday to begin to clean up in preparation for moving into the home this summer when he found an infant’s body in the home’s garage.
Six more babies were found packed away in boxes in the garage.
According to reports from investigators, it appears at all of the children were full term and born alive between 1996 and 2006. The babies are currently undergoing DNA testing for paternity but it is believed the ex-husband is the father. Authorities say that he apparently had no idea what his then wife had been doing and is not a person of interest in the case.
Huntsman is facing six counts of murder and authorities have not said why it was six cases and not seven considering that seven babies had been found in the home She also reportedly moved out of the house in 2011 leaving behind her 18-year-old daughter to care for her two remaining teen daughters.
The top two made it back-to-back-to-back.
Mississippi and Utah finished first and second for the third consecutive year in Gallup’s annual survey of the most religious states in the United States. The survey has been conducted annually since 2008.
Vermont and its neighboring New England states continue to rank near the bottom.
Mississippi reported that 61 percent of residents classified themselves as “very religious” meaning they consider religion to be an important part of their lives. They also attend a worship service at least once a week, many more than once. Utah is close behind with 60 percent. Alabama was third followed by Louisiana, South Carolina, Tennessee and Georgia.
Vermont was the least religious with 22 percent of residents saying they were “very religious.” Vermont was followed by New Hampshire, Maine, Massachusetts and western state Oregon.
The poll showed the number of “very religious” Americans was up slightly at 41.4 percent while the number of “nonreligious” fell to 29.4, the lowest of any previous survey.
An April 2013 avalanche near Salt Lake City that registered a 5.0 on the Richter Scale has been confirmed to be the largest in recorded history.
Researchers with the University of Utah said the slide, which was large enough to bury New York’s Central Park under 66 feet of debris, sent 165 million tons of materials into a large open-pit copper mine.
“We don’t know of any case until now where landslides have been shown to trigger earthquakes,” Jeff Moore, assistant professor of geology and geophysics, told Fox News.
The blessing in the natural disaster is that the mining company that ran the copper mine noticed the shifting of the Earth and evacuated their workers. However, 14 giant trucks were buried by the slide and the company was forced to layoff a large part of their work force.
The force of the slide was strong enough to crack the bedrock under the mine resulting in 16 smaller earthquakes in the region.
Wildlife officials in Utah have solved a mystery revolving around a cluster of dead bald eagles.
The Utah Division of Wildlife Resources says lab tests confirmed that 27 bald eagles found in a small area all died from West Nile Virus.
The statement from the DWR guesses that the birds ate smaller birds who had been migrating through the area which were carriers of the virus. The cluster of birds infected include five other eagles who are being treated at a wildlife rehabilitation center.
The agency says the migration of the feeder birds is ending decreasing the likelihood of finding more dead birds. However, members of the public are encouraged to avoid contact with any dead or sick bird they may find.
