(NEW YORK) — Authorities are asking for the public’s help in locating a missing California mom who vanished after leaving for what she called a “pandemic road trip,” according to her family.
Erika Lloyd, 37 of Walnut Creek, California, disappeared more than a month ago, after embarking on a seven-hour drive to Joshua Tree National Park on June 14. Family members said they lost contact with her two days later.
Authorities located her black Honda Accord, abandoned and damaged, that same day near Twentynine Palms, a city located in the southern Mojave Desert, about 500 miles from her hometown and not far from her vacation destination.
The front and back windshields of Lloyd’s car were broken, but police said there were no signs of foul play at the scene.
“We both feel like that she could still be out here, she could be with people, somebody could have taken her in,” her father, Wayne Lloyd, told ABC affiliate KESQ-TV. “We are hopeful as of this time the sheriff’s department hasn’t seen anything negative.”
Nathan Lewis, a ranger at the Joshua Tree park where the vehicle was found, said it’s unclear if Lloyd had camped there before she disappeared.
“When the vehicle was noticed inside of the campgrounds there was no camping equipment directly associated with or in the vicinity of it,” Lewis told KESQ. “So we can’t confirm or deny that the individual camped or stayed in the park.”
They said she took the trip to help get her mind off the ongoing pandemic.
“She seemed like she was fine,” her mother, Ruth Lloyd, told KESQ. “Being in lockdown for almost three months not being able to work and she was trying to home school her son, it was starting to get to her, the pressure and not having any income.”
She said she fears that her daughter may have gotten into an accident and became disoriented.
“We don’t know if she had some memory loss when she got hit by the airbag,” Ruth Lloyd said. “Maybe she doesn’t know who she is, we don’t know, we aren’t sure about her mental state.”
Ruth Lloyd said she’s been helping to care for her daughter’s 12-year-old son, who hasn’t stopped asking about her since she left.
“Are you calling about my mom? Are you talking to people? Wayne would say, ‘Yeah, we are trying to find your mom.’ So he misses her,” Ruth Lloyd said. “We know we are not the only family that has gone through this.”
The family said it’s working with Doug Billings, a cave and mine expert, who helped locate the body of 19-year-old Erin Corwin in a mine near Joshua Tree in 2014.
“In this case, I know the area particularly from the Erin Corwin search,” said Doug Billings. “But it’s the same general area, just a little less isolated than Erin’s case.”
“We hiked up and down the washes and canyons that are at the foothill of the mountains there,” he added.
Police said anyone with information on Lloyd’s whereabouts should contact the Walnut Creek Police Department or the Morongo Basin California Highway Patrol office, which is investigating the case.
iStock/MotortionBy: MEREDITH DELISO and LISA SIVERTSEN, ABC News
(NEW YORK) — As many as 20 people were injured when three hot air balloons crashed in Wyoming Monday morning.
According to a Federal Aviation Administration spokesperson, each balloon “landed hard under unknown circumstances” shortly after 8 a.m. local time in Teton Village, near Jackson in western Wyoming.
Teton County Sheriff Matt Carr told ABC affiliate KIFI-TV that emergency responders were treating between 16 and 20 people for a wide range of injuries. No deaths have been reported.
A local hospital confirmed to ABC News that as of mid-afternoon Monday it had received 10 people involved in the crashes. Two were admitted, three were still being evaluated and five were treated and released, the hospital said.
Passenger Clinton Phillips was visiting Wyoming from Austin, Texas, with his wife and three children, and said a hot air balloon ride was on their “bucket list.” The family was in the largest balloon that crashed and saw the other two balloons hit the ground first, Phillips told ABC News.
The winds were “pushing up hard sideways,” he said, and the second balloon was “getting tossed around” before it crashed and tipped over.
“While we were so busy looking at that, we didn’t realize that we were coming down,” Phillips said. “Our pilot hadn’t said anything, and I turned around and looked and I shouted, ‘Brace for impact!'”
“People were screaming for their lives and sobbing,” he said. “It was horrific.”
Phillips said that one of his daughters fainted in the ordeal, he believes his son has a concussion, and that his wife’s ribs are “very likely” broken. She was one of over 20 people, he estimated, who went to a hospital. One person was airlifted, he said.
“I was in tears, just so relieved that everybody was OK and not dead,” he said.
The FAA and National Transportation Safety Board are investigating the crashes. They may have been weather-related, Carr told KIFI-TV. ABC News’ Amanda Maile contributed to this report.
(RICHMOND, Va.) — The legal battle over the future of the Robert E. Lee statue in Richmond, Virginia, had two major developments on Monday.
Judge W. Reilly Merchant dismissed a case filed by one resident who is blocking Gov. Ralph Northam’s June 4 order to remove the statue from Monument Avenue. He also granted an injunction on a second suit that’s aiming to keep the Confederate statue in place.
In the first case, the resident, who is a great-grandson of one of the statue’s land donors, contended that the state didn’t have the legal authority to remove the statue of the Confederate leader. Judge Merchant ruled the plaintiff’s claims “fail as a matter of law.”
“The plaintiff has articulated no substantial legal right sufficient for the court to create a declaratory judgment,” Merchant wrote in his ruling.
Meanwhile, another lawsuit filed against Northam’s order continues to play out in the courts. Merchant ordered a 90-day injunction on Monday against the removal while residents of Monument Avenue make their case against the governor’s order.
“The fact obviates the need for the court to address the remaining…counts,” the judge’s order said.
A spokeswoman for Virginia Attorney General Mark Herring’s office said in a statement that he filed a motion to dismiss that suit.
“Attorney General Herring remains committed to ensuring this divisive, antiquated relic is removed as soon as possible,” the spokeswoman said in a statement.
The statue’s removal is among the monuments to Confederate leaders that have come under extra scrutiny following the Black Lives Matter protests. Statues and other monuments around Virginia have been removed over the last few months, including busts from inside the state Capitol.
A descendant of Robert E. Lee told ABC News he supports the removal, calling it a “no-brainer.” And Lee himself opposed statues to Confederate leaders. “I think it wiser,” he wrote in 1869, “…not to keep open the sores of war but to follow the examples of those nations who endeavored to obliterate the marks of civil strife, to commit to oblivion the feelings engendered.”
The statue’s opponents have held rallies outside the statue since the end of May and on several occasions projected images of Black figures, including the late Rep. John Lewis, on the statue to decry racism.
Myriam Borzee/iStockBy JON HAWORTH and EMILY SHAPIRO, ABC News
(NEW YORK) — A pandemic of the novel coronavirus has now killed more than 690,000 people worldwide.
Over 18.1 million people across the globe have been diagnosed with COVID-19, the disease caused by the new respiratory virus, according to data compiled by the Center for Systems Science and Engineering at Johns Hopkins University. The actual numbers are believed to be much higher due to testing shortages, many unreported cases and suspicions that some national governments are hiding or downplaying the scope of their outbreaks.
Since the first cases were detected in China in December, the United States has become the worst-affected country, with more than 4.6 million diagnosed cases and at least 154,992 deaths.
Here’s how the news is developing today. All times Eastern.
1:25 p.m.: Hospitalizations reach new low in New York
In New York, which was once the U.S. epicenter of the pandemic, hospitalizations, ICU patients and intubations have all reached new lows, Gov. Andrew Cuomo said Monday.
The number of hospitalizations in the state has fallen to 536. The number of coronavirus patients in ICUs is at a new low of 136, while the number of intubations is at the record low of 62, the governor said.
Cuomo called New York’s progress “even better than we expected.”
“We started reopening May 15,” Cuomo said. “Since the reopening, the numbers continued to go down. No expert predicted that. So New Yorkers are doing better than anyone else even expected.”
12:30 p.m.: White House considers unilateral action as coronavirus relief package appears deadlocked in Congress
While millions of Americans who lost their jobs in shutdowns are waiting for an extension to federal unemployment benefits, a deal appears deadlocked in Congress.
Talks are expected to continue between Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer Monday afternoon on Capitol Hill.
The Trump administration is also considering taking unilateral action on a coronavirus relief package if no deal is reached with Congress, a senior White House official confirmed to ABC News Monday.
“Unilateral action is certainly an option if the democrats continue to find a plethora of ways to say no to reasonable options,” the official said.
It’s unclear what unilateral steps the White House could take without Congress.
12 p.m.: WHO points to Vietnam as example of how to combat the pandemic
The coronavirus “has two dangerous combinations: it moves fast and at the same time, it’s a killer,” Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, director general of the World Health Organization (WHO), said Monday.
Tedros said the effects of the pandemic will be felt “for decades to come.”
Maria Van Kerkhove, the WHO’s COVID-19 technical lead, on Monday pointed to Vietnam as an example of a country that is “applying the public health tools that can bring these outbreaks under control.”
“Vietnam has a lot of experience in dealing with infectious disease outbreaks and what they’re doing is applying the tools,” Van Kerkhove said. “They’re acting fast, they’re acting comprehensively, and, again, they have the system in place that can bring these outbreaks under control.”
“They’re not doing just one thing — they’re doing it all,” she continued. “They’re bringing everything together on active case finding, contact tracing, the use of public health measures, testing, communicating. And this is what we need to see from all countries.”
11:18 a.m.: Florida has 4 counties with no available ICU beds
In hard-hit Florida, 46 hospitals have no open ICU beds and 26 hospitals have just one available ICU bed, according to the state’s Agency for Healthcare Administration.
In four counties — Jackson, Monroe, Nassau, Okeechobee — no ICU beds were available as of Monday morning, the agency said.
These numbers are expected to fluctuate throughout the day as hospitals and medical centers provide updates.
10:30 a.m.: NYC outdoor dining to return in 2021
With the success of New York City’s outdoor dining during the pandemic, Mayor Bill de Blasio said Monday that open restaurants will return next summer, starting June 1, 2021.
Open restaurants may be extended to spring 2021, he said.
9:30 a.m.: Cases reported on football team as school gets ready to open
As North Paulding High School near Atlanta gears up to open for the school year, “new positive tests and potential symptoms” have been reported among football players, school principal Gabe Carmona said Sunday in a letter to families.
Football practices have been canceled, Carmona said.
School begins Monday with both in-class and virtual learning options, reported ABC Atlanta affiliate WSB-TV.
5:01 a.m.: Thousands take part in Moscow half-marathon amid ban for mass events in the city
Moscow hosted a half-marathon with over 16,000 participants on Sunday.
“Many marathons have been canceled abroad, and we are showing to the whole world how to continue living as normal in very tough conditions,” Russian Sports Minister Oleg Matitsyn said at the event’s opening.
He said the event was to celebrate the victory over the coronavirus.
On Sunday morning city authorities said 664 novel coronavirus infections were diagnosed in the city. The number of daily cases have been declining but still consistently remains over 600 per day.
On Wednesday, Moscow Mayor Sergey Sobyanin said that all mass events were banned in the city until Aug. 16, even though that announcement did not affect the half-marathon event on Sunday.
4:49 a.m.: Kosovo PM tests positive for COVID-19
Kosovo’s prime minister, Avdullah Hoti, said late Sunday he has tested positive for COVID-19, though he does not have serious symptoms.
Hoti, who has only been in office since June, wrote in a post on his official Facebook page that he does not have symptoms “except a very mild cough,” and will self-isolate for two weeks while working from home.
3:15 a.m.: Arrests after illicit party boat with 170 guests cruises around New York City
The owners and captain of The Liberty Belle, a large riverboat that can fit up to 600 guests with four bars and three outdoor decks, have been arrested after flouting the rules and hosting a party on Saturday with more than 170 guests on board.
Ronny Vargas and Alex Suazo, the boat’s owners, were arrested on Saturday night and accused of violating a number of state law provisions.
“Deputy Sheriffs intercept the Liberty Belle at Pier 36 & arrest owners and captain for illegal party: violation of social distancing provisions of the Mayor’s and Governor’s Emergency Orders, Alcohol Beverage Control Law: unlicensed bar & bottle club & Navigation Law,” the sheriff’s office said in a statement.
The sheriff’s office also said that the captain of the boat, who was not identified, was issued a summons for not displaying its identification number.
This comes just a week after New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo slammed an event where The Chainsmokers were performing at a packed concert in the Hamptons, which saw audience members clustering together and outright defying social distancing guidelines.
Cuomo blasted The Chainsmokers last Tuesday saying the performance was “grossly disrespectful to fellow New Yorkers” considering how hard the state fought to control the spread of COVID-19.
“The concert that happened in the town of Southampton was just a gross violation of not only the public health rules, it was a gross violation of common sense,” the governor fumed during his daily press conference regarding the novel coronavirus.
The Chainsmokers and those involved in the show now face potential civil or criminal repercussions, with the governor saying that violations of “public health law has civil fines and a potential for criminal liability, so we’re taking that very seriously.”
1:38 a.m.: Lord & Taylor files for bankruptcy as retail collapses pile up
Lord & Taylor has become the latest retailer to file for bankruptcy as the coronavirus pandemic has wreaked havoc on retail chains and sales around the country.
The company filed for bankruptcy protection in the Eastern Court of Virginia on Sunday.
“Today, we announced or search for a new owner who believes in our legacy and values,” the company said in a statement on its website. “Part of our announcement also includes filing for Chapter 11 protection to overcome the unprecedented strain the COVID-19 pandemic has placed on our business.”
Just last year Lord & Taylor sold its flagship building on New York City’s Fifth Avenue after more than a century in the 11-story building.
“Thank you for your support, now more than ever,” the statement continued. “Our mission is to continue to serve you, your family and your community for generations to come.”
ABC NewsBy EMILY SHAPIRO and DANIEL MANZO, ABC News
(NEW YORK) — Tropical Storm Isaias is expected to strengthen to a Category 1 hurricane as it approaches northeastern South Carolina and southern North Carolina on Monday.
Hurricane warnings have been issued for parts of the Carolinas and tropical storm alerts stretch from Florida to New England. Isaias is forecast to bring torrential rain, flash flooding and storm surge.
Isaias is forecast to bring torrential rain, flash flooding and storm surge to the East Coast, as well as dangerous winds to the Northeast.
At 11 a.m., Isaias was moving north at 13 mph and was located about 80 miles east-southeast of Brunswick, Georgia.
As Isaias approaches the Carolinas, storm surge may reach 5 feet, especially near the South Carolina-North Carolina border. Tornadoes are also possible in the Carolinas.
North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper declared a state of emergency on Friday.
Evacuations have been ordered for Hatteras and Ocracoke Islands, Ocean Isle Beach, Holden Beach and Caswell Beach.
The last hurricane to make landfall in North Carolina was Dorian in 2019. The last hurricane to make landfall in South Carolina was Matthew in 2016.
After landfall in the Carolinas, Isaias will weaken and race up the East Coast.
Isaias will reach the Mid-Atlantic by early morning Tuesday and the Northeast by Tuesday night.
Over six inches of rain are forecast for the Mid-Atlantic.
The heaviest rainfall is expected to hit along the Interstate 95 corridor from Washington, D.C., to Philadelphia to New York City.
New York City is expected to get hit by tropical-storm force winds, storm surge and several inches of rain, city officials said.
Lower Manhattan is particularly vulnerable to storm surge, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio said Monday. Emergency management crews are deploying flood protection measures, he said.
“We are not taking any chances at all,” de Blasio said.
CHP-Morongo Basin/FacebookBy KARMA ALLEN, ABC News
