(NEW YORK) — Two tropical systems are on a path toward the Gulf of Mexico and could possibly make landfall at the same time in the U.S. early next week.
The latest forecast from the National Hurricane Center depicts two hurricanes in the Gulf of Mexico on Tuesday.
There are only a few times, according to the National Weather Service, when two tropical cyclones have been in the Gulf at the same time. The most recent example was in 1933.
Tropical Depression 13 is in the Atlantic near the northeastern Caribbean Islands and Tropical Depression 14 is in the western Caribbean near Honduras Friday morning.
Tropical Depression 14 is likely to become Tropical Storm Laura as early as Friday afternoon. This system is forecast to cross the Yucatan Peninsula as a strong tropical storm or maybe even a weak hurricane on Saturday. Because of that, a hurricane watch has been issued for that part of Mexico.
What will be Tropical Storm Laura is forecast to move into the Gulf of Mexico by Sunday morning and strengthen into strong Tropical Storm or maybe even a hurricane.
What could be Laura will approach the Texas and Louisiana coastline as a possible Cat 1 hurricane with winds of 75 mph on Tuesday.
Hurricane-force wind gusts are possible for both states. A storm surge could flood coastal areas, with flooding rain on top of that.
At the same time, Tropical Depression 13 in the Atlantic is approaching the eastern Caribbean Islands with tropical storm watches posted for Puerto Rico and the southern Bahamas.
The depression is expected to become Tropical Storm Marco early Saturday morning as it approaches Puerto Rico. It is not expected to be very strong, with winds only 40 to 45 mph, but heavy tropical rain could cause flash flooding on Puerto Rico Saturday.
By Monday afternoon, what will be Tropical Storm Marco could brush the southern Florida coast as it heads into the Gulf of Mexico.
With very warm Gulf of Mexico water, Marco could possibly strengthen into a low-end Cat 1 Hurricane on Tuesday and Wednesday, with winds of 75 mph as it heads for the Gulf Coast around the Alabama coastline.
Hurricane-force wind gusts, storm surge and flooding from heavy rain are expected in Florida, Alabama and Mississippi.
Those are words that come to mind when one speaks with Michelle Parelleo, a New Jersey mom-turned-special needs advocate, who sprang into action earlier this year when COVID-19 shuttered schools across the country, forcing her to home school her 12-year-old daughter, who has cerebral palsy.
Parelleo is one of the many parents across the country forced to fill the gaps in learning as many schools around the country gear up to go virtual for at least another semester.
Wearing all of those hats is difficult for even the most capable parent, but the situation in the state and elsewhere, is now being complicated by considerable uncertainty surrounding the upcoming school year.
New Jersey, like other states, recently announced a plan that lets school districts decide for themselves how they want to conduct the school year — allowing in-person learning, fully remote learning or a blend of the two.
The plan, announced last week by New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy, also puts the onus on districts to come up with plans to bring students and staff back to schools safely.
In the wake of the announcement, many school districts that had initially called for students and teachers to return to physical classrooms have been holding emergency meetings to approve revised plans, according to local news outlet NJ.com. At least 139 school districts had inquired with the Department of Education about making the switch as of Tuesday, the outlet reported, citing officials.
And some districts — including densely populated public school districts in New Brunswick and Camden — have opted to stay remote until early 2021.
The move has set up a showdown with educators, thousands of whom are now demanding that classes be virtual for the rest of the year due to safety concerns.
And critics say the plan, while allowing for flexibility, could exacerbate disparities between the haves and have nots and make the situation tougher for those with special needs, who rely on in-person services in many cases.
“A lot of the issues that have happened within virtual learning since the shutdown is a lot of the children are not receiving all the services that they’re entitled to, and the things that are outlined in their individual education plans,” Parelleo, whose children attend school virtually in Union, County, New Jersey, told ABC News. “So if you have a child, like my child who requires physical and occupational therapy, those are done remotely.”
Not a one-size-fits-all plan
Murphy defended his plan in an op-ed earlier this week amid the ongoing backlash, which provides the option to reopen schools but maintains closure of gyms and indoor dining. Schools must meet safety requirements, including having social distancing measures in place in classrooms and solving any issues with ventilation systems, according to the governor’s plan.
“We have worked alongside our districts to ensure they have the flexibility to meet their unique needs. There is no one-size-fits-all plan for this very difficult situation,” Murphy wrote. “The simple fact that New Jersey is home to nearly 600 public school districts — more districts than we have municipalities — plus charter and Renaissance schools, non-public and parochial schools, and other specialized places of learning proves this point.”
He said the Department of Education had put forward “strong guidelines” to allow the option for in-person instruction, but he noted that for some districts, “there are legitimate and documentable reasons why some of these core health and safety standards cannot be met on Day One.”
Schools are also required to accommodate any parent who opts to keep their children home, according to the plan.
“New Jersey’s education system has long been rooted in local control and decision-making, based on local input. I would not ask the students and parents in one community to decide what’s best for the schools next door — or vice versa,” he said. “And so for the past six weeks, we have relied upon the work of local educational communities to determine the best way for their schools to reopen.”
Concerns about structural inequalities
Many educators acknowledged the state’s plan as a good-faith effort to give individual districts the flexibility to do what is best for their communities, but some say it could create grave inequalities that could force some kids to be left behind.
For example, some child safety advocates have complained about the lack of a statewide plan to mandate equal levels of personal protection equipment across all districts. Schools can implement some requirements, including one that mandates 6 feet of distance, in various ways depending on their resource levels.
“You can meet the 6 feet guidance in a lot of different ways. You can either have the 6 feet of distance say on a school bus, or if you couldn’t have the 6 feet you would put plexiglass barriers, but if you couldn’t put the plexiglass barriers, then you would have everybody wear masks on the bus. And that just is different degrees of health safety,” Patricia Wright, of the New Jersey Principals and Supervisors Association, said. “So we were looking for more specific guidelines where we can be sure that we’re not creating an inequity in health safety for students across the state.”
“We also felt that there was also a need to ensure that schools had the funding for staffing, proper facilities and personnel protection equipment needed to adhere to these guidelines safely,” she added.
The New Jersey Principals and Supervisors Association, which has nearly 7,000 members, composed of principals, supervisors, directors and other school district leaders, penned an open letter along with the New Jersey Association of School Administrators and the New Jersey Education Association last week, urging Murphy to go virtual.
“We’re very concerned about just being able to fulfill the obligations of in-person learning,” Richard Bozza, executive director of the New Jersey Association of School Administrators, told ABC News. “Number one, we have so many staff at all levels indicating that they will not be returning to school [because] they or their family members might be compromised or they’re having childcare issues because of the pandemic.”
“And that’s clearly going to create an unhealthy and unsafe situation if we cannot cover classes, even in a hybrid model,” he added.
‘Inappropriate’ to let superintendents make the call
Like many states, New Jersey’s policy essentially leaves it up to local communities to determine if they can safely reopen school buildings, but Bozza said it’s “absolutely inappropriate” to let superintendents make that call.
“I think it’s absolutely inappropriate to say to a school superintendent that you have to make a decision about health and safety on a medical matter when our training is in education,” Bozza said. “That’s why we were all asking for clearer guidance when it comes to deciding which schools should stay closed, which should open and should it change by community or region.”
“We’re fine in determining what to do in any situation with regard to education — whether it be remote, in-person or hybrid — but I think any health standard shouldn’t be community by community, they should be statewide,” he added.
Bozza said his organization, and many others, have requested the state develop some sort of standard for how schools should operate — one that could be applied to every school district in the state.
“Think about how hard it would if you’re running a high school that’s set to reopen its doors in less than a month,” he said. “First, you have to ask your parents what students are coming in, then you’d have to ask your staff who’s coming, and are your bus drivers, custodians, nurses, paraprofessionals and cafeteria workers going to be available. It’s an almost impossible task.”
(NEW YORK) — For the first time in its over 160-year history, New York City’s famous Central Park will have a statue commemorating real-life women.
A statue featuring women’s rights pioneers Susan B. Anthony, Sojourner Truth and Elizabeth Cady Stanton, all New Yorkers, will be unveiled on Aug. 26 in the same month that the United States celebrates the 100th anniversary of women gaining the right to vote.
“The honor of being able to do this is profound,” said Women’s Rights Pioneers Monument sculptor Meredith Bregmann, who was picked for the project from a pool of nearly 100 entries. “It astonishes me and it fills me with pride.”
Bregmann, who lived most of her life in New York City and now lives in Connecticut, was commissioned for the project by Monumental Women, an all-volunteer nonprofit made up of women’s rights advocates, historians and community leaders.
The organization began its fight to “crack the bronze ceiling” in Central Park nearly seven years ago when leaders decided to change the fact that women were only represented through statues of fictional female characters like Alice in Wonderland, while real-life men are immortalized in nearly two dozen statues in the park.
“The sad thing is that so many people for so many years never even noticed that real women were missing in Central Park, and what does that say about the invisibility of women and the lack of recognition that women face in this country and this world for the hard work that they have done and will always do,” said Pam Elam, president of Monumental Women. “We said, ‘If the city is not going to do what it should in terms of representing all of the people in its public spaces, then our small, all-volunteer, nonprofit group will step up and do that.”
Monumental Women had to fight through paperwork, layers of bureaucracy and doubts that a statue representing real women was needed in the park, including comments like, “Are you sure you want a statue? How about a nice garden?,” according to Elam.
The group also had to raise more than $1 million in private funding to make the statue a reality.
They were helped in the effort by Girl Scout troops that donated more than $10,000 in cookie sales, and by New York Life, which donated a $500,000 challenge grant because of its connection to Susan B. Anthony. The women’s rights advocate used the cash value of her New York Life insurance policy in 1900 to guarantee admission for the first female students into the University of Rochester, according to New York Life.
Anthony, Truth and Stanton were chosen for the statue because they were “All women who dedicated their lives to fighting for equality and justice and they often shared the same stages and attended the same meetings, so it’s only fair that they share the same pedestal,” according to Elam.
Bergmann said she hopes the statue of the three women in conversation, which will sit in the Mall in Central Park, inspires people who see it to “lead larger and more valuable lives.”
“Although there are three figures, they’re not just in place, they’re interacting very closely,” she said. “They’re kind of caught in motion, in conversation, in debate, and it’s up to you to decide what they’re saying, what they just said, what they’re going to see.”
When the statue is unveiled on Aug. 26, Monumental Women plans to also unveil a challenge to cities and towns across the country to “reimagine their public spaces” and include tributes to women and people of color, according to Elam.
She hopes the work Monumental Women did to add a statue in Central Park can be a blueprint for groups in other cities and that the statue itself “energizes” people to “move history forward.”
“We want people to look at this beautiful work of art and feel both inspired and energized to carry on the fight of those women, the fight of all the women who came before us and achieve full equality for women in our lifetimes,” said Elam. “We want people to go away with a sense of urgency that we must have a responsibility to move history forward.”
(LOS ANGELES) — Widespread fires continue to burn across California, stretching resources and expanding evacuation orders that have forced thousands to leave their homes.
A historic lightning siege in the state has ignited hundreds of fires since Monday, and as some are contained, others newly emerge or merge. The fires have also come during a record-breaking heat wave in California.
Some of the largest wildfires are in Northern California.
The biggest incident — the so-called SCU Lightning Complex fires — has burned more than 137,400 acres across Santa Clara, Alameda, Stanislaus, Contra Costa and San Joaquin counties since Tuesday. It was only 5% contained by Thursday afternoon, as more than 1,000 personnel battled over 20 fires. So far two firefighters have been injured, officials said.
The LNU Lightning Complex fires in Napa, Sonoma and Solano counties has been the most destructive, with 105 structures destroyed, 70 damaged and 30,500 threatened. It’s also one of the fastest-growing. By Wednesday, it had burned more than 46,000 acres; by Thursday afternoon, that number had ballooned to 131,000 acres, and the fires were still 0% contained. More than 580 personnel were fighting the complex fire, which so far has resulted in four civilian injuries, officials said.
In central California, 48,000 people have been ordered to evacuate due to the CZU August Lightning Complex fires in Santa Cruz and San Mateo counties. It was 0% contained as of Thursday afternoon, burning some 48,000 acres. Nearly 600 firefighters were assigned to the fires, with three reported injuries. Fifty structures have been destroyed so far, with more than 8,500 threatened.
“Those are just the confirmed structures,” Cal Fire Chief Deputy Director Craig Tolmie said Thursday evening. “We believe it will go to the triple digits, it’s just too early.”
The University of California, Santa Cruz campus was also evacuated Thursday night.
The fire complex has “significant growth” potential due to weather patterns and the fire history, Cal Fire incident Cmdr. Billy See said Thursday at a press briefing.
Smaller fires also continue to burn or pop up throughout California, including several in Monterey County.
Four people have died this week responding to fires in the state. A utility worker clearing roadways for emergency vehicles responding to the LNU Lightning Complex fires was found unconscious in his car on Wednesday and died at a nearby hospital, officials said. A helicopter pilot involved in firefighting was killed in a crash near Coalinga Wednesday morning, officials said.
On Thursday, the Solano County Sheriff’s Office confirmed to ABC News that an adult man was found dead on a road that had been burned, saying “the person succumbed to the fire.” Cal Fire said Thursday evening another person had died in Napa County, but no specifics were immediately available.
Due to the sheer number of fires, resources, from personnel to vehicles to air tankers, are stretched, authorities said.
“We’re used to lots of resources, and that’s not where we’re at today,” Chief Sean Cavanaugh, a Cal Fire incident commander, said Thursday at an update on the LNU Lightning Complex.
Down in San Mateo and Santa Cruz counties, the situation is the same.
“We have very little firefighting resources,” See said. “The emergency response capabilities in California have been pushed to their extent.”
One limited resource is people. The LNU Lightning Complex has 587 personnel responding to it. “That’s a very low number,” Division Chief Jeff Chumbley, a Cal Fire public information officer, told ABC News. For comparison, a recent fire in central California with “significantly less acreage” had about 500 personnel on it, he said.
“I’m sure that every fire is experiencing similar circumstances, as far as just shortage of personnel,” he said.
Going into the wildfire season, California was already short on personnel; the Sacramento Bee reported last month that California has had fewer inmate firefighting crews due to quarantine measures and expedited releases amid the coronavirus pandemic.
See said they are bringing in resources from outside the state to help battle the CZU August Lightning Complex, “but that takes time.”
As responders start building containment lines in one incident, that should free up resources for others, Chumbley said.
“I think we’re all just trying to be as patient as we can as we wait for resources,” he said.
In the meantime, evacuation orders have been issued for areas in nearly a dozen counties, and more are expected over the next 48 hours, Cal Fire officials said, as the fires continue to burn mostly uncontained. Santa Cruz County has also asked visitors to leave to make room for evacuees in hotels, which are being used as shelters.
Officials are urging people to comply with the evacuation orders to ease the burden of the responders and prevent injury or death.
“Evacuation areas are dangerous,” Sonoma County Sheriff Mark Essick said at a press briefing Thursday. “Once an area is evacuated, we do not want you to reenter that area.”
Essick said there were “minor reports” of people needing to be rescued after entering evacuation areas.
“When we have to rescue you from an evacuation area, it creates a secondary burden on police and fire services and adds to the problems,” he said.
Authorities are also concerned that people are pulling over on highways to take photos of the fires, which can hinder evacuations.
For those at home, the state health department is urging people near fire-stricken areas to stay indoors when possible due to poor air quality.
“Smoke doesn’t know borders or boundaries, and regions that are miles away from fires can have poor air quality,” the department’s acting director, Sandra Shewry, said in a statement.
ABC News’ Jenna Harrison and Matt Fuhrman contributed to this report.
(LOS ANGELES) — Police arrested two suspects on Thursday in connection with a hate crime against three transgender women on Los Angeles’ Hollywood Boulevard.
The violent incident was caught on video on Monday, with a man yelling derogatory slurs, allegedly robbing them and attacking one woman with a bottle. Others in the video could be seen looking on, joking about the attack and filming it. The department described the primary suspect as homeless man based in the Hollywood area who police officers said they recognized from previous encounters.
A third suspect has yet to be arrested, police said.
The department posted video of the incident that showed the face of the man, but later removed the video due to its disturbing nature. Instead, officials posted screenshots from the video, highlighting the suspect in the hope of tracking him down.
Sources with knowledge of the investigation told ABC News on Wednesday that the department knew the identity of the suspect and was working to locate him. Social media users on Instagram and Twitter also shared tips on the man’s identity.
The victims said the man first approached them inside a store and offered to buy them some items, but then he refused to pay.
They said the same man later returned and approached one of them.
“He held a crow bar to my face and threatened to kill me unless I stripped my shoes off and gave him my jewelry and all my processions,” Joslyn Allen, one of the three transgender women targeted, wrote in an Instagram post.
“He said if i was trans he would kill me,” Allen wrote. “He then forced me to hold his hand while he looks for my friends to kill them for being trans.”
Police said the suspect led Allen away and they walked together for a short distance before she managed to break free.
Once she escaped, Allen said the suspect stuck her friend, Jaslene Busanet, with a bottle, knocking her to the ground, and then made derogatory remarks about her. The other victims said their purses, cellphones and money were stolen.
“I just collapsed to the floor,” Busanet told Los Angeles ABC station KABC. “There were men saying ‘Oh, she’s dead,’ laughing at me.”
Allen said others gathered around and shouted anti-transgender slurs.
“Meanwhile men and WOMEN screaming that I’m a man and telling him to beat me,” she posted to Instagram. “Please help us find them. PLEASE.”
Northwell Health opens Long Island’s 1st transgender health care center The group said bystanders watched and recorded for more than five minutes as they pleaded for someone to call 911.
The attack comes amid rising concerns from LGBTQ rights advocates, who have accused U.S. law enforcement agencies of being too lax when it comes to crimes involving transgender victims.
At least 26 transgender or gender nonconforming people have been killed in the U.S. so far in 2020, with transgender women of color making up the bulk of those victims, according to data provided by the Human Rights Campaign.
The group reported 25 killings in 2019 and 29 in 2018, the most it had ever recorded in a year.
ABC News’ Robert Zepeda, Matt Gutman and Alex Stone contributed to this report.
ABC NewsBy MAX GOLEMBO, ABC News
