Uncommon Knowledge
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GREENWOOD, S.C. (FOX Carolina) – An Upstate family experienced a rare and unexpected sighting during a recent trip to Georgia, making the vacation stand out (and up!) above the rest.
“Now we have another new species on the island which is really cool,” amateur naturalist Joshua Wicker said.
When Joshua Wicker and his family visited St. Simons Island a few weeks ago, they were tickled pink by what they saw.
“They’re up on a big marsh on the inside of the island, and it was just like, ‘Oh there it is!’”
During the trip, Wicker spotted five flamingos hanging out in the water.
“This shouldn’t be happening right now. This is Georgia,” Wicker thought when he first saw them.
St. Simons Island sits just off the coast between Savannah, GA and Jacksonville, FL. It’s also hundreds of miles away from the flamingos’ natural habitat.
“You can find them more frequently on the Caribbean Islands and sometimes on the tip of Florida, so you can find them in North American; but they just don’t come north very often,” John Quinn, Director of Environmental Studies at Furman University, said.
The journey to Georgia for these 4 to 8 pound birds is ‘flamazing!’
“It could have been a strong storm this summer. Maybe they were caught in a current blown around or something like that. They do get blown around by certain weather events,” Quinn added.
Last year, Hurricane Idalia flung flamingos around the East Coast, landing as far north as Pennsylvania. But experts say this is the first time there has been a recorded sighting in Georgia.
“It’s a new experience of type of birds you’ve never seen,” Rey Wicker, 12, said.
Rey Wicker, Joshua Wicker’s daughter, believes no matter how they got here, these birds have a leg up on all the rest.
“Cause they’re pink!” Rey Wicker said with excitement.
If you’re interested in learning more about wildlife in the area, Joshua Wicker offers entertaining and educational videos on his page, Y’all, Be Looking!
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Severe thunderstorms across the Southeast United States on Tuesday have led to dangerous conditions in Georgia and South Carolina.
The National Weather Service (NWS) issued a hazardous weather outlook on Wednesday for parts of north and central Georgia, and the agency warned that a line of thunderstorms from Tuesday is continuing to move southward through the state, and scattered thunderstorms are expected across the entire region.
“Similar to what occurred yesterday, a line of thunderstorms may develop in the evening, possibly persisting into the overnight hours,” the NWS said.
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The announcement came after Tuesday’s storms left extensive power outages, significant damage and claimed one life in the state.
Brandon Bell/Getty Images
The NWS previously issued a severe thunderstorm warning for several areas across Georgia, as well as warnings about wind and hail.
According to the Associated Press (AP), citing Georgia’s Cherokee County Sheriff’s Office, a 27-year-old man lost his life in Cherokee County when a tree fell onto his moving car late Tuesday. The incident occurred on a residential road northwest of Atlanta.
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Additionally, the storm wreaked havoc on the power grid with outages affecting hundreds of thousands across southeastern Tennessee and northern Georgia.
By Wednesday morning, power had been restored to many, but approximately 30,000 customers remained without electricity, particularly around Ellijay in the North Georgia mountains, the AP reported.
The power outages are the latest caused by the storms as Georgia Emergency Management Agency Director in Hall County Zack Brackett said there were continuous reports of blocked roads and ongoing cleanup efforts from Tuesday’s storm into early morning hours on Wednesday.
“Crews have worked tirelessly overnight to clear the majority of main roads and are now focusing on secondary roads,” Brackett said in a press release.
The area in Georgia also saw residential damage, with at least one house in Gainesville hit by falling trees, the AP reported.
Newsweek reached out to the Georgia Emergency Management Agency via email on Wednesday for comment.
In Orangeburg, South Carolina, the city’s downtown district also suffered significant damage from straight-line winds as metal roofing and wooden awnings were torn from buildings, prompting city officials to begin extensive cleanup efforts, according to the AP.
Newsweek reached out to the South Carolina Emergency Management Agency via email for comment.
The NWS had previously issued a severe thunderstorm warning for several areas of South Carolina including Newberry, Whitmire and Prosperity.
The NWS has also confirmed that a weak tornado touched down in Murfreesboro, Tennessee, on Monday, which reportedly impacted parts of the Middle Tennessee State University campus. The tornado, with winds up to 75 mph, caused minor damage to the football stadium and uprooted trees, though no injuries were reported.
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
People wait in line to cast their ballot during the Midterm Elections at Fox Theatre on November 08, 2022 in Atlanta. (Photo by Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images)
The Georgia State Election Board, which has become embroiled in conflict over how the state administers elections, voted Tuesday to redo some of its actions amid a lawsuit accusing it of meeting illegally.
The board voted 5-0 on Tuesday to debate again on Aug. 6 a pair of proposed rules sought by Republicans that three members advanced on July 12, including allowing more poll watchers to view ballot counting and requiring counties to provide the number of ballots received each day during early voting.
American Oversight, a liberal-leaning watchdog group, sued the board over the July 12 meeting where only board members Dr. Janice Johnston, Rick Jeffares and Janelle King were present. Democratic member Sara Tindall Ghazal was missing, as was nonpartisan board chair John Fervier,
The suit alleged the board broke Georgia law dealing with posting notices for a public meeting. It also alleged that at least three board members were required to physically be in the room, invalidating the meeting because Johnston attended remotely.
King had argued it was merely a continuation of the July 9 meeting and was properly noticed.
The board also voted to confirm new rules that it advanced on July 9 when all five members were present. Those measures have already been posted for public comment. They could be finalized by the board on Aug. 19, after a 30-day comment period.
One of those proposed rules would let county election board members review a broad array of materials before certifying election totals. Critics worry board members could refuse to certify until they study all the documents, which could delay finalization of statewide results, especially after some county election board members have refused to certify recent elections.
Other rules would require workers in each polling place to hand-count the number of ballots to make sure the total matches the number of ballots recorded by scanning machines, and require counties to explain discrepancies in vote counts.
During the July 12 meeting, Democrats and liberal voting activists decried the session as illegal.
“There was a weirdly overdramatic and excessive alarm raised — a seemingly coordinated misinformation campaign — followed by apparent media attacks and outrageous and ridiculous threats made to the State Election Board,” Johnston said in a statement Tuesday. She was appointed by the state Republican Party to the board and has led efforts to adopt rules favored by conservatives.
American Oversight’s interim executive director, Chioma Chukwu, called the decision a victory, saying the lawsuit had helped reverse the July 12 actions.
“However, we remain deeply concerned by the board’s decision to promptly revisit these problematic measures — including those coordinated with the state and national GOP — that serve to intimidate election workers and grant partisan advantage to preferred candidates this November,” she said in a statement.
Chukwu was referring to state Republican Party Chairman Josh McKoon’s claim that the party helped orchestrate the appointments of a majority of members and to emails that McKoon sent to Jeffares before July 9 with proposed rules and talking points.
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