February 27, 2021 • No Comments • National News

ABC NewsBy SAMANTHA WNEK, ABC News

(NEW YORK) — The Pacific Northwest will get a bit of a break in the active weather Saturday as the latest storm to drop feet of snow moves further east.

Snoqualmie Pass was shut down for a while Friday to allow for crews to do avalanche control work. After re-opening they were forced to shut down I-90 again due to multiple collisions.

Snoqualmie Pass has picked up an incredible 396 inches of snow so far this season.

Stevens Pass — which was also forced to close down for some time on Friday — has picked up another 19 inches of snow.

The Northwest will continue to see heavy snow and gusty winds. There is also an avalanche threat in the area, and very high avalanche conditions are expected Saturday.

While some winter storm warnings have been allowed to expire overnight, others will continue through Saturday morning for the Northwest.

Winter weather advisories stretch into Utah, where the snow will last through the day, with nearly 2 feet expected in the mountains. Winds will be gusting at 45 mph.

In California and Nevada, winds have already gusted at up to 80 mph at Mount Rose and 69 mph at Mammoth Mountain.

Gusty winds will continue through the weekend.

A high wind watch has been issued for Southern California including Anaheim, Riverside and San Bernardino from Saturday night through Sunday afternoon.

Some wind gusts will reach 75 mph.

As a system moves into the Plains and Tennessee Valley, strong storms and flooding rain are possible over the next few days.

Flood watches have been issued from Arkansas to West Virginia, as several rounds of rain will be moving through those areas.

A wide swath of 2-5 inches of rain is expected from Texas to West Virginia over the next several days.

Additionally, strong to severe storms are possible Saturday with the highest threat of hail and damaging winds occurring in parts of Northern Texas, Oklahoma and Arkansas.

On Sunday, the threat of severe storms will include Dallas, Little Rock, Arkansas and Memphis, Tennessee.

A system bringing rain, snow and an icy mix is moving through the mid-Atlantic and Northeast Saturday.

Winter weather advisories are issued for parts of the Poconos, Adirondacks, Catskills and across a large part of New Hampshire and Maine.

The highest snow totals will be 6 inches in Maine. The other areas will likely see 1-3 inches with a light glaze of ice.

It is a quick-moving system and by late Saturday morning and early afternoon the rain will stop from from Washington, D.C., to Boston.

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February 26, 2021 • No Comments • National News

MarsBars/iStockBy EMILY SHAPIRO, ABC News

(NEW YORK) — Delayed shipments due to last week’s massive winter storm has left New York City with an “extra” vaccine supply, Mayor Bill de Blasio said, prompting the city that never sleeps to add some overnight appointments.

De Blasio said the city is adding overnight shifts at three mass vaccination sites: Brooklyn Army Terminal, Bathgate in the Bronx and Citi Field in Queens.

“We’re going to blitz this week. This is going to be a very intense weekend,” de Blasio said at a news conference Thursday.

De Blasio said the city is also “doubling the number of appointments at some of the key sites in communities where we’re focusing on fighting disparity, at Teachers Prep and at Martin Van Buren high schools. We’re opening new pop-up sites in communities that need more outreach.”

“We get the supply we need, we can take off,” he said.

New York City had administered more than 1.6 million vaccine doses — which equals more than the entire population of Philadelphia, the mayor said.

New York City’s seven-day positivity rate stands at 7.12% as of Thursday.

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February 26, 2021 • No Comments • National News

Ridofranz/iStockBy STEPHANIE EBBS, ABC News

(NEW YORK) — An increasing number of Americans are anxious to get COVID-19 vaccines as the rollout continues, with more than half of Americans saying they plan to get vaccinated as soon as possible or have already received at least one dose.

More than 13% of the adult population has received at least one dose, according to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data, and more than 6% are fully vaccinated with the two-dose regimen required for the available vaccines.

The new figures from a Kaiser Family Foundation poll show that anticipation for the vaccines is growing. At least 55% of Americans have received the vaccine or plan to get vaccinated as soon as possible, according to new results released Friday, compared to 47% in January.

The supply of available vaccines still can’t meet demand, but the number of doses is expected to increase in the coming weeks, with enough doses for 130 million adults expected by the end of March.

One in five Americans also report they are willing to get vaccinated but plan to wait, a decrease from 31% in January. Black Americans and young adults are more likely to say they want to wait and see how the vaccine works for people who already got it.

But a notable percentage of Americans still have concerns, with one in five saying they are reluctant to get the vaccine. About 7% of adults say they would only get the vaccine if it is required and 15% say they definitely will not get it.

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February 25, 2021 • No Comments • National News

RoschetzkyIstockPhoto/iStockBy MARLENE LENTHANG, ABC News

(HARRIS COUNTY, Texas) — A $1 billion class-action lawsuit has been filed against Texas wholesale electricity retailer Griddy Energy for allegedly charging exorbitant prices during last week’s historic storm that left millions powerless in the freezing cold.

The lawsuit was filed on behalf of Chambers County resident Lisa Khoury in Harris County on Monday, who claimed her electricity bill soared to $9,340 the week of the storm. According to the lawsuit, her average monthly bills typically range from $200 to $250.

She said Griddy automatically withdrew $1,200 from her bank account from Feb. 13 to 18 and her overall bill from Feb. 1 to 19 was $9,546. The lawsuit states that some customers had bills as high as $17,000.

The complaint accused the company of “overcharging” some 29,000 customers “knowing consumers would be harmed.”

Khoury said she was hit with the charges even as she and her husband suffered “mostly without power” in their home from Feb. 17 to 18 when they hosted her parents and in-laws who are in their 80s during the storm.

She claimed that despite expressing concern over the withdrawals and subsequently bouncing checks, she never heard back from Griddy. She ultimately placed a stop payment on her bank account on Feb. 18.

In Texas residents can choose between two electricity bill options: A fixed plan, where their price stays at one rate regardless of market conditions, or a market rate plan, which can fluctuate based on how much electricity is used and the market price of electricity. Griddy offers the latter plan.

“We charge (customers) the wholesale, real-time price of energy, which changes every 5 minutes. You effectively pay the same price as a retail energy provider or utility,” Griddyy said in a statement. Griddy boasts on its website that this strategy ends up being cheaper for most customers.

Last week’s storm pummeled the state’s power grid and led to rolling blackouts. It also led Griddy’s wholesale rate to soar to $9,000 per megawatt hour due to a shortage of supply and increased demand for power. Before the storm the rate was $50 per megawatt hour, the suit states.

In the build up to the storm Griddy advised its customers to switch to another provider with a fixed rate and told customers via its website that it was “seeking relief from utility regulators.” But many were unable to change due to the impending weather.

The lawsuit seeks $1 billion in monetary relief for Khoury and “on behalf of all others similarly situated.”

It also accuses Griddy of violating the Texas Deceptive Trade Practices Act and requests an injunction to stop the company from collecting payment for “excessive prices”.

Khoury’s attorney Derek Potts, of the Houston-based Potts Law Firm, told ABC News Griddy has 29,000 customers in Texas that the lawsuit could impact.

“What happened financially to all of the customers of Griddy both in terms of the exorbitant prices charged and the manner in that they were collected from peoples’ bank accounts and credit cards literally in the middle of a catastrophe while many were without power, heat, and water, is clearly contrary to Texas laws in place to protect consumers,” Potts said.

Griddy has not immediately responded to ABC News’ request for comment, but dismissed the lawsuit as “meritless” to Reuters.

Griddy has cast blame on the Public Utility Commission for raising the wholesale market price of electricity in the crisis, saying the company didn’t profit from the raised prices.

“We intend to fight this for, and alongside, our customers for equity and accountability – to reveal why such price increases were allowed to happen as millions of Texans went without power,” Griddy said in a blog post.

Texas’ embattled power grid operator the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) is also facing lawsuits after more than 4 million customers lost power in the storm.

ERCOT’s top board leaders announced Tuesday that they will step down amid outrage over the corporation’s handling of the storm. Four board directors, including the chairwoman and vice chairman, submitted their resignations, which were effective as of Wednesday. A candidate for a board director position also said he was withdrawing his name from consideration. All five live outside of Texas, which only intensified scrutiny of ERCOT.

ABC News’ Morgan Winsor contributed to this report.

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February 25, 2021 • No Comments • National News

ABC NewsBy MAX GOLEMBO, ABC News

(NEW YORK) — The beautiful and tranquil weather around the country is over on Thursday as several storms systems are expected to move from West to East with heavy rain, strong to severe thunderstorms, heavy snow and damaging winds.

In the West, a snowstorm hit Colorado overnight with Denver getting 6 to 12 inches of snow which caused numerous accidents, spinouts and stalled vehicles.

On Thursday morning, 10 states are on alert from California to Montana with damaging winds, heavy snow and avalanche danger as a winter storm warning continues for Denver early Thursday.

Gusty, damaging winds are even expected in southern California with local gusts of up to 50 to 70 mph possible in Los Angeles County.

In the Rockies and the Cascades, locally 1 to 3 feet of snow is possible over the next several days as these storms continue to move through.

A combination of gusty winds near 80 mph and heavy snow will continue to produce dangerous avalanche conditions, especially for the northern Rockies and the Cascades.

Some of this wild western weather will move into the South Thursday with heavy rain and a chance for strong to severe thunderstorms and a chance for damaging winds and hail.

Some of the strongest storms are expected to fire up Thursday from Dallas to Shreveport, Louisiana and into northern Mississippi.

Over the next several days, storms will continue to move through the South over the same areas, increasing chances for flooding and locally some areas could see up to a half a foot of rain from eastern Texas into northern Alabama and Tennessee.

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