Texas
Off-road volunteers help North Texas nurses make it to and from work
WEATHERFORD, Texas – Despite icy roads, healthcare workers still have to work. And there’s a group of people who help make it happen.
The Dedicated Nurses
Mikki Sells is a nurse in Weatherford. But lately getting to work has become a job of its own.
“You know, we‘re nurses. We have to be there to help people,” she said. “Without us, you know, they wouldn’t have anybody. So it’s what we have to do.”
To get to work, she and a group of nurses have to cross a very steep hill. And on Tuesday night, the ride home didn’t go as planned.
“Last night, we didn’t make it. We got to the very top, and we got stuck on the very top, started sliding backwards. It was so scary,” she said.
The truck stopped. Everyone got out. And they did the only thing they could think to do. They called Trendsetter Customs.
The Off-Road Volunteers
Kevin Barwell was on the other end of the call. He runs an off-road shop in Weatherford. And when the weather gets bad, he doesn’t stay home.
“Everybody needs help in a bad time. And this seems like a bad time,” he said. “Every time we get a bad storm or something like this, we try to make sure first responders get where they need to be.”
For Barwell, it’s really that simple. Since Friday, he and a group of volunteers has been busy.
“Saturday, my day started at 5 a.m. I had to start delivering nurses at the 6 a.m. shift change. And then in between that, I was pulling people out. And then the 2 p.m. shift change and then the 10 p.m. shift change,” he said.
That included Sells and her group of nurses.
“I had actually just gotten home from my last delivery, just was about to get in the shower, and got a phone call,” Barwell said. “And she’s like, ‘We’re stuck on the hill. Can you please rescue us?’”
Five minutes later, the nurses were on their way.
Gratitude and Recognition
Barwell said he doesn’t need recognition.
“I served 20 years in the military, so I know what it’s like to be in a bad situation,” he said.
But Sells has a message she hopes he hears.
“I’d love to give him a big old hug,” she said. “Thank you so much. I hope you get the recognition you deserve.”
The Source: FOX 4’s Vania Castillo gathered the information for this story by talking to Mikki Sells and Kevin Barwell.
AUSTIN, Texas (KBTX) – The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has notified the Texas Department of State Health Services (DSHS) that two Texas residents were passengers on the MV Hondius, a ship that experienced an outbreak of hantavirus while traveling in the Atlantic Ocean. The passengers left the ship and returned to the United States before the outbreak was identified.
“Public health workers in Texas have reached the two individuals, and they report they are not experiencing any symptoms and did not have any contact with a sick person while aboard the ship. They have agreed to monitor themselves for symptoms with daily temperature checks and contact public health officials at any sign of a possible illness,” the agency said on Thursday in a statement.
DSHS will not release additional personal details about the passengers to protect their privacy.
“This is not the next COVID, but it is a serious infectious disease,” said Maria Van Kerkhove, director of epidemic and pandemic preparedness at the World Health Organization. “Most people will never be exposed to this.”
More than two dozen people from at least 12 different countries left the ship without contact tracing nearly two weeks after the first passenger died on board.
Health authorities on at least four continents are now tracking down and in some cases monitoring the cruise passengers who disembarked on April 24, and trying to trace others who may have come into contact with them since then.
That includes two people in Georgia who are also being monitored, according to our affiliate WTOC.
Hantaviruses are usually spread through contact with wild rodent droppings or urine. The strain in the Hondius outbreak, Andes virus, can spread from person to person in limited circumstances. It typically requires close, prolonged contact with a person who is actively sick with the disease.
It is not known to spread through casual contact such as shaking hands or being in the same room for a few minutes. There have been no documented cases where a person without symptoms spread it to someone else.
Copyright 2026 KBTX. All rights reserved.
PORTLAND (WGME) – A Portland woman who has been held in a Texas ICE facility for more than six months is reportedly set to be released by Friday.
That’s according to Maine Congresswoman Chellie Pingree, who traveled to the facility this week to demand that ICE release 19-year-old Olivia Andre.
Pingree says a federal district court judge ordered Andre to be released no later than Friday.
Andre and her family were arrested by ICE when they were seeking asylum in Canada.
DHS previously said Andre is in the United States illegally but didn’t explain why the rest of her family was released and she wasn’t.
Pingree called the conditions at the facility inhumane, and Andre’s lawyer says her physical and mental wellbeing deteriorated from not having access to clean drinking water, palatable food and appropriate medical care.
“Olivia and her family should never have been detained. The federal court ordered her release because the Trump administration had no lawful basis for detaining her,” Pingree said. “She suffered in detention for six months in violation of federal law and the U.S. Constitution’s protections.”
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