South-Carolina

Tropical Storm Idalia descends on North Carolina after pounding Florida, Georgia and South Carolina

Published

9 months ago

August 31, 2023

Tropical Storm Idalia descends on North Carolina after pounding Florida, Georgia and South Carolina

PERRY, Fla. (AP) — Tropical Storm Idalia descended on the Carolinas on its way out to the Atlantic Ocean on Thursday, leaving a trail of flooding and destruction throughout the Southeast that stretched back to its landfall as a hurricane in Florida.

Rescue and repair efforts continued in the areas the storm passed Wednesday and there was no immediate word on the toll from the ferocious winds and inundating waters, but authorities counted at least one death.

The storm left as many as a half-million customers without power in Florida and other states at one point as it ripped down power poles and lines. Still, it was far less destructive than feared, providing only glancing blows to Tampa Bay and other more populated areas as it came ashore with 125 mph (201 kph) in rural Florida.

The weakening storm still packed winds of up to 60 mph (96 kph) as it blasted through Georgia and South Carolina on Wednesday evening. It was expected to reach the North Carolina coast Thursday and roll off into the ocean through the weekend.

North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper, who declared a statewide emergency earlier this week as Idalia approached, had warned residents in coastal and eastern inland counties to prepare for heavy rainfall and localized flooding and urged them to stay off roads covered by water.

In South Carolina, the storm coupled with king tides to send seawater flowing over sand dunes and spilling onto beachfront streets. In Charleston, a surge from Idalia topped the seawall that protects the downtown, sending ankle-deep ocean water into the streets and neighborhoods where horse-drawn carriages pass million-dollar homes and the famous open-air market.

Preliminary data showed the Wednesday evening high tide reached just over 9.2 feet (2.8 meters), more than 3 feet (0.9 meters) above normal and the fifth-highest reading in Charleston Harbor since records were first kept in 1899.

In this photo made in a flight provided by mediccorps.org, the remains of a destroyed home built atop a platform on piles are seen in Keaton Beach, Fla., following the passage of Hurricane Idalia, Wednesday, Aug. 30, 2023. (AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell)

Bands from Idalia also brought short-lived tornadoes. One flipped a car in suburban Goose Creek, South Carolina, causing minor injuries, authorities said. No major damage was reported.

After traveling across the Gulf of Mexico, Idalia came ashore Wednesday morning near Keaton Beach, pummeling Florida’s remote and lightly populated Big Bend region with powerful winds.

The area, where the Florida Panhandle curves into the peninsula, saw streets turned into rivers that submerged cars and homes, while the howling winds tore off roofs, snapped tall trees, sent sheet metal flying and shredded homes.

“All hell broke loose,” said Belond Thomas of Perry, a mill town located just inland from the Big Bend region. Thomas fled with her family and some friends to a motel, thinking it would be safer than riding out the storm at home but the roof was torn away and debris showered onto her pregnant daughter, who fortunately wasn’t injured, Thomas said.

Rescue workers with Tidewater Disaster Response wade through a tidal surge on SW 358 Highway while looking for people in need of help after the Steinhatchee River flooded on Wednesday, Aug 30, 2023, in Steinhatchee, Fla., following the arrival of Hurricane Idalia. (Douglas R. Clifford/Tampa Bay Times via AP) — Rescue workers with Tidewater Disaster Response wade through a tidal surge on SW 358 Highway while looking for people in need of help after the Steinhatchee River flooded on Wednesday, Aug 30, 2023, in Steinhatchee, Fla. (Douglas R. Clifford/Tampa Bay Times via AP)

Pick up trucks and debris lie strewn in a canal in Horseshoe Beach, Fla., after the passage of Hurricane Idalia, Wednesday, Aug. 30, 2023. (AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell)

No hurricane-related deaths were officially confirmed in Florida, but the state’s highway patrol reported two people killed in separate weather-related crashes just hours before Idalia made landfall.

Even so, Idalia appeared to be far less destructive than first feared. It avoided large urban regions, striking only glancing blows to Tampa Bay and other more populated areas while focusing its fury on the rural Big Bend section.

However, damage there was likely to be extensive.

At Horseshoe Beach in central Big Bend, Jewell Baggett picked through the wreckage and debris of her mother’s destroyed home, finding a few pictures and her mother’s pots and pans.

Her grandfather built the home decades ago and it had survived four previous storms, she said.

“And now it’s gone,” she said. “Nothing left. A few little trinkets here and there.”

Jewell Baggett stands beside a Christmas decoration she recovered from the wreckage of her mother’s home, as she searches for anything salvageable from the trailer home her grandfather had acquired in 1973 and built multiple additions on to over the decades, in Horseshoe Beach, Fla., after the passage of Hurricane Idalia, Wednesday, Aug. 30, 2023. (AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell)

Baggett, whose mother had left before the storm hit, said at least five or six other homes also were destroyed.

In Tallahassee, the power went out well before the center of the storm arrived, but the city avoided a direct hit. A giant oak tree next to the governor’s mansion split in half, covering the yard with debris.

State officials, 5,500 National Guardsman and rescue crews went into search-and-recovery mode, inspecting bridges, clearing toppled trees and looking for anyone in distress. More than 30,000 utility workers gathered to repair downed power lines and poles.

Idalia had weakened to a tropical storm by late Wednesday afternoon but it still packed a punch as it advanced into Georgia, where a man in Valdosta died when a tree fell on him as he tried to clear another tree out of the road, Lowndes County Sheriff Ashley Paulk said.

Two others, including a sheriff’s deputy, were hurt, he said.

Officials in Bermuda warned that Idalia could hit the island early next week as a tropical storm. Bermuda on Wednesday was being lashed by the outer bands of Hurricane Franklin, a Category 2 storm that was on track to pass near the island in the north Atlantic Ocean.

President Joe Biden called the governors of Florida, Georgia, North Carolina and South Carolina on Wednesday and told them their states had his administration’s full support, the White House said.

___

Associated Press writers Mike Schneider in St. Louis, Missouri; Curt Anderson in Orlando, Florida; Laura Bargfeld and Chris O’Meara in Tampa, Florida; David Fischer in Miami Beach; Russ Bynum in Savannah, Georgia; Jeff Amy and Jeff Martin in Atlanta; Lisa J. Adams Wagner in Evans, Georgia; Jeffrey Collins in Columbia, South Carolina; Kathy McCormack in Concord, New Hampshire; Christopher Megerian in Washington; and Julie Walker and David Koenig in Dallas contributed to this report.

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South-Carolina

Top-ranked Tennessee baseball takes series-opening win over South Carolina

Published

7 hours ago

May 17, 2024

Press Room

Top-ranked Tennessee baseball takes series-opening win over South Carolina

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. (WVLT) – Christian Moore continued his record-breaking season with another stellar performance in No. 1/1 Tennessee’s 9-3 series-opening victory over No. 24 South Carolina on Thursday night at Lindsey Nelson Stadium.

The junior slugger claimed sole possession of the Volunteers’ single-season home run record after hitting a pair of mammoth blasts in his first two at-bats of the game, giving him 26 for the season, surpassing Sonny Cortez’s previous record of 24 set back in 1998.

With Moore’s two-homer night, Tennessee has had 15 multi-home run games from eight players this season. Moore leads the way with four, followed closely by Amick and Dreiling, who have three apiece.

Moore finished with a game-high three hits and three runs scored to pace the Big Orange to their 20th SEC victory of the year, marking the third time in the past four seasons that UT has reached the 20-win plateau in conference play.

Kavares Tears and Dylan Dreiling also homered in the win as Tennessee recorded its 18th game this season with four or more long balls.

Tears’ three-run shot in the third inning gave the Vols some breathing room, extending their lead to 5-1, while Dreiling’s two-run blast in the seventh capped the scoring for the Big Orange (44-10, 20-8 SEC).

The Vols and Gamecocks square off again on Friday at 6:30 p.m. on the SEC Network+ and ESPN app.

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South-Carolina

Baseball Drops Thursday Decision at Tennessee

Published

14 hours ago

May 16, 2024

Press Room

Baseball Drops Thursday Decision at Tennessee

KNOXVILLE – Tennessee used four home runs in a 9-3 win over the University of South Carolina baseball team Thursday night (May 16) in the first of a three-game series against the Volunteers at Lindsey Nelson Stadium.

Ethan Petry opened the scoring with his 20^th home run of the season, a solo shot to left in the first inning. Tennessee answered with Christian Moore’s 25^th home run, tying the game at one after one inning of play. Tennessee scored four runs the third on home runs from Moore and Kavares Tears.

The Volunteers went up 6-1 in the fourth on Blake Burke’s RBI double, but Cole Messina got that run back in the sixth with a solo home run over the batter’s eye in center.

Tennessee scored three runs in the seventh, highlighted by a Dylan Dreiling two-run home run. Dalton Reeves brought in the game’s final run in the eighth on a single up the middle.

Ty Good took the loss, allowing five hits and six runs with four strikeouts in four innings. Tyler Pitzer had four strikeouts in three innings. Petry, Messina and Reeves had two hits apiece with Messina scoring two runs.

POSTGAME NOTES

Petry now has 43 career home runs, tied for sixth in Carolina history.
Petry has a 12-game hit streak after the home run in the first.
Good now has 341 career strikeouts between Carolina and the College of Charleston.

UP NEXT
Carolina and Tennessee continue the three-game set on Friday night (May 17) at 6:30 p.m., at Lindsey Nelson Stadium. The game will be stream

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Michael Cohen continues cross-examination in Trump's criminal hush money trial

Published

21 hours ago

May 16, 2024

Press Room

Michael Cohen continues cross-examination in Trump's criminal hush money trial

Updated May 16, 2024 at 13:22 PM ET

NEW YORK — Michael Cohen isback on the stand to testify against his former boss Donald Trump in a New York criminal trial, and he is faced with his own criminal history. Still, prosecutors, who are nearing the end of their case, allege Trump committed 34 felony counts of falsified business records — and Cohen is central to proving it.

Cohen testifiedearlier this week to his longtime relationship and falling outwith the former president. In testimony, he detailed how he negotiated a settlement with adult film star Stormy Daniels to keep quiet about an alleged affair with Trump in the months leading up to the 2016 election. A $130,000 settlement was paid for by Cohen, which he said was at the direction of Trump, and later reimbursed by Trump. Those reimbursements constitute the 34 falsified documents.

Trump lawyer Todd Blanche began cross-examination Tuesday, questioning Cohen’s motivations against Trump and about his recent profiting off of merchandise promoting Trump being put in jail. Picking up on Thursday morning, Blanche walked through Cohen’s history of perjury, including lying to Congress and federal investigators.

In 2018, when presented with an 80-page potential indictment that included his wife, Cohen said he decided to plead guilty to lying to banks, tax evasion and violating campaign finance laws. Cohen doubled down on Thursday that although he has taken responsibility, he does not believe he should have been charged for the tax evasion charges.

Blanche questioned Cohen about past testimonies related to that case before Congress in 2019, while under oath at the Southern District Court of New York and during Trump’s civil fraud trial in the fall. In those examples, Blanche was highlighting shifting statements from Cohen.

“I accepted responsibility and I suffered the consequences,” Cohen said, while also recalling that he testified in October that he falsely plead guilty to the tax evasion charges.

Before lunch, Blanche got into the settlement with Daniels.

The jury and Cohen have been shown call logs between Trump’s body guard Keith Schiller and Cohen in October 2016. Cohen has said that during that phone call he spoke with Trump about the “Stormy Daniels situation.”

On Thursday, Blanche pointed to new evidence in the form of text messages that also show Cohen was talking to Schiller about a series of harassing phone calls he had been receiving. The 1 minute and 36 second phone call became the focus of a pre-lunch questioning over whether or not Cohen recalls talking to Trump at all in that time and also speaking to him about the Daniels deal.

“Based upon what was going on and the other text messages, yes I believe I was telling the truth,” Cohen said when referencing Tuesday’s testimony.

Prosecutors have spent weeks setting up Cohen’s corroboration of Trump’s knowledge of the 34 allegedly falsified documents. But they also set him up as someone bullish, unlikeable and self-interested. At the same time, the defense and Trump himself have long attacked Cohen’s credibility.

The jury has so far listened to four weeks of testimony, including Daniels herself last week. Jurors have also heard from former National Enquirer publisher David Pecker, who first testified to the details of the deals made to flag potentially damaging stories to Cohen and Trump. And jurors heard from Keith Davidson, the lawyer who negotiated the nondisclosure agreements and settlement payments for Daniels and former Playboy playmate Karen McDougal. McDougal is not expected to be called to testify.

Trump has pleaded not guilty, and he has denied allegations of extramarital affairs

Several former and current Trump employees, both from his flagship company and his administration, testified to the process in which Trump received personal invoices and paid personal checks — including those used to pay Cohen back.

Jeenah Moon / Getty Images

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Reps. Lauren Boebert, R-Colo., Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., Anna Paulina Luna, R-Fla., and Bob Good, R-Va., arrive on Thursday to attend Trump’s criminal trial.

Trump’s defense may begin their case as soon as next week.

More guests come to support Trump

Trump’s special guest appearances have ramped up for the week of Cohen’s testimony, with groups of congressional members coming in to watch, especially those from his new home state of Florida and from the House Congressional Freedom Caucus.

On Thursday, Reps. Lauren Boebert, R-Colo., Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., Anna Paulina Luna, R-Fla., and Bob Good, R-Va., sat in the row right behind Trump as proceedings began.

Earlier in the week, House Speaker Mike Johnson, Rep. Byron Donalds, R-Fla., Rep. Cory Mills, R-Fla., North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum, a vice president hopeful, and former GOP presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy flanked the former president.

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