(SALT LAKE CITY) — Four skiers are dead after an avalanche Saturday in Utah’s Salt Lake Valley, authorities said.
The avalanche occurred in a backcountry region of Millcreek Canyon. Eight skiers were in the area of Wilson Basin, which is not affiliated with any ski resorts, when they triggered the avalanche, Sgt. Melody Cutler of Millcreek’s Unified Police Department said.
All eight were caught in the avalanche. A couple of skiers were able to dig themselves and the deceased skiers out, Cutler said.
Rescue crews were notified of the avalanche at 11:40 a.m. local time. The four survivors had minor injuries and were rescued via helicopter. Rescue teams were working to bring the deceased off the mountain, Cutler said.
The ages of the skiers range from early 20s to late 30s, Cutler said.
The accident occurred amid warnings of high avalanche danger for the region.
At 7 a.m. local time Saturday, the Forest Service Utah Avalanche Center issued a backcountry avalanche warning for the mountains of northern Utah. It remains in effect through 6 a.m. Sunday.
Cutler stressed that it’s important to pay attention to those warnings.
“There’s been advisories out recently about the very high avalanche danger that exists with the current conditions,” Cutler told Salt Lake City ABC affiliate KTVX. “This is a very unfortunate circumstance with these conditions.”
Utah Gov. Spencer Cox reacted to news of the deadly avalanche on Twitter.
“This is a terrible tragedy and our prayers go out to the victims and families involved,” he said. “We are grateful to the first responders and others who engaged in this rescue and recovery effort. With avalanche danger high right now, please exercise extreme caution.”
The Salt Lake County Sheriff’s Canyon Search and Rescue Unit, Unified Police Department, Unified Fire Authority and others were involved in the response, Mayor Jenny Wilson said.
“We are heartbroken over the tragic news of four fatalities as the result of an avalanche in the Millcreek Canyon area this afternoon,” Wilson tweeted. “We deeply mourn the loss of life due to this devastating incident.”
This is Utah’s third fatal avalanche this year, according to the Utah Avalanche Center.
Two people died last month in separate avalanches in the Salt Lake region.
On Jan. 30, a 57-year-old man was killed while skiing in the backcountry adjacent to the Park City Mountain Resort’s Canyons Village. Three weeks earlier, a 31-year-old snowboarder was buried after descending a slope with another skier in the backcountry of the Canyons Village area on Jan. 8.
BlakeDavidTaylor/iStockBy MEREDITH DELISO and ALEXANDER MALLIN, ABC News
(WASHINGTON) — Federal authorities are continuing to charge rioters who allegedly took part in the siege on Capitol Hill on Jan. 6.
Here is the latest:
Man alleged to have ‘repeatedly maced’ officers arrested
A man who allegedly “repeatedly maced” Capitol Police and Metropolitan Police Department officers was arrested in Pennsylvania on Feb. 4, authorities said. Peter Schwartz faces five charges, including assaulting an officer, in connection with the riot.
The FBI affidavit identified Schwartz in a video posted on YouTube and body-worn camera footage from a Metropolitan Police Department officer wearing a “distinctive” blue-and-yellow checked shirt. The FBI also received a tip from someone “personally acquainted” with Schwartz who confirmed the defendant was at the Capitol on Jan. 6, according to the affidavit.
The YouTube video allegedly showed Schwartz spray an “orange substance” toward a group of officers protecting the Capitol building, according to the affidavit. “The orange substance lands near the face of an unidentifiedofficer, causing him to turn his face away and step backwards. The officer appears to try to avoid inhaling the orange substance,” the affidavit stated.
The body-worn camera footage also “captures Schwartz’s face and an arm extending through the crowd of rioters and spraying an orange substance at the officers,” the affidavit alleges.
The tipster allegedly told the FBI, according to the affidavit, that Schwartz was supposed to be at a rehabilitation facility in Owensboro, Kentucky, the day of the insurrection after he was released from prison because of the pandemic. Schwartz was sentenced to two years probation in April, state records show.
An Owensboro lieutenant who interacted with Schwartz last year also identified him in footage from the Capitol, according to the affidavit.
Schwartz appeared before a federal judge on Feb. 4 and is being held in custody until a detention hearing Feb. 10 in Pittsburgh. ABC News was unable to reach his attorney Saturday for comment.
Alleged ‘Sergeant of Arms’ of Seattle Proud Boys chapter arrested
A self-described “Sergeant of Arms” of the Seattle chapter of the far-right group Proud Boys was arrested Feb. 3 in connection with the U.S. Capitol riot, authorities said.
Ethan Nordean, 30, a Washington state resident who authorities said is also known as Rufio Panman, was charged with obstructing or impeding an official proceeding, aiding and abetting, knowingly entering or remaining in restricted building or grounds, and violent entry and disorderly conduct on Capitol grounds. The charges carry a maximum of 32 years in prison if he’s convicted.
The Proud Boys, which has ties to white nationalism, has been characterized by the FBI as a “nationalist organization” with international chapters whose members sometimes engage in acts of violence. The Anti-Defamation League describes the group as “violent, nationalistic, Islamophobic, transphobic and misogynistic.”
The FBI affidavit includes photographs and video stills that allegedly show Nordean entering the U.S. Capitol building on Jan. 6 “near the front of the crowd of rioters, who collectively approached, stood off against, and vastly outnumbered Capitol Police.”
The affidavit also identified Nordean in a video taken near the Capitol on Jan. 6 marching with Joseph Biggs, a “self-described organizer of the Proud Boys” who was arrested on Jan. 20 in Florida on charges related to the violence at the Capitol.
According to the affidavit, Nordean was an “active poster” on the social media site Parler, under the username @Rebelrufio. “Nordean’s posts prior to January 6, 2021, indicate that he and other Proud Boys members were planning in advance to organize a group that would attempt to overwhelm police barricades and enter the United States Capitol building,” the affidavit alleged.
Nordean allegedly asked for donations of “protective gear” and “communications equipment” in late December and allegedly posted a video a few days before the siege with the caption, “Let them remember the day they decided to make war with us,” the affidavit stated.
Nordean appeared in federal court in the Western District of Washington the afternoon of Feb. 6, where his attorney requested a preliminary detention hearing in his case be set for Feb. 8 at 9 a.m. PT so she could have time to deliberate with him on the charges brought by the government. He will remain in the government’s custody until then.
ABC News has reached out to Nordean’s attorney for comment.
Men who allegedly wrote ‘Murder the Media’ on Capitol building door
Another alleged member of the Proud Boys was indicted by a federal grand jury in connection with the Capitol riot, the Department of Justice said Feb. 3.
Nicholas Ochs, 34, of Honolulu, has been accused of conspiring to obstruct the certification of the presidential election.
According to the indictment, Ochs was a founding member of the Proud Boys Hawaii chapter and has the words “Proud Boy” tattooed on his right arm. He unsuccessfully ran for Hawaii’s state legislature as a Republican last year.
Ochs was indicted along with Nicholas DeCarlo, 30, of Burleson, Texas.
The indictment accuses both men of “taking steps to plan an operation to stop, delay, and hinder Congress’ certification of the Electoral College vote” and “fundraising for this effort.”
It also alleges the men “defaced” a Capitol door with the words “Murder the media.” The Justice Department released a photo of the two allegedly posing next to it.
The indictment also alleges that they stole a pair of flex handcuffs belonging to U.S. Capitol Police and “posted photographs and videos to social media depicting their actions inside the U.S. Capitol building in real time.”
DeCarlo told the Los Angeles Times last month that he entered the Capitol as a “journalist,” though charging documents from last month stated that he did not have press credentials. He is an employee of MT Media News, which stands for Murder the Media, according to the criminal complaint.
DeCarlo and Ochs previously were taken into custody on Jan. 26 and Jan. 7, respectively, on other charges for their alleged participation in the Capitol riot.
Both will be arraigned on the indictment in front of a district judge, the Justice Department said. If convicted, both men could face a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison, a fine of up to $250,000, and three years of supervised release.
ABC News left a message with Ochs’ attorney. No attorney information was available for DeCarlo.
Anna Moneymaker-Pool/Getty ImagesBY: LEIGHTON SCHNEIDER, ABC NEWS
(NEW YORK) — 2020 was historic in many ways — from a once in a century pandemic to the national outcry over the deaths of unarmed black Americans. The year in weather was no different.
According to a report from the National Oceanic and Atmosphere Administration, there were 22 separate billion-dollar weather and climate disasters in 2020. The total damages from the disasters totaled approximately $95 billion and killed at least 262 people, according to NOAA.
Last year, the world saw a record number of hurricanes named in the Atlantic, with a record 12 making landfall in the Southeast. Seven of those cyclones caused damage exceeding one billion dollars, which NOAA says is a record since it started keeping track of billion-dollar damages in 1980.
We saw a derecho with its straight-line winds, race across the midwest, a tornado outbreak spanning from Texas to Maryland, and firestorms in Washington, Oregon, and California – all of which caused at least a billion dollars in damage.
Melissa Griffin, a meteorologist at ABC News, has researched what role climate change may have played in these disasters.
She told ABC Audio’s “Perspective” podcast that climate change can be connected to the more powerful hurricanes we’ve seen over the past few years.
“Hurricanes are happening over warmer than normal ocean temperatures. When you have warmer water, there’s more fuel for those hurricanes to strengthen. A warmer atmosphere also holds more water content and more moisture, which means hurricanes like, say, Hurricane Harvey, Hurricane Florence, for example, they’re dumping tremendous and record-breaking amounts of rain and that leads to more devastating flood disasters,” said Griffin.
Hurricane Harvey dumped nearly 52 inches of rain on Houston in 2017. Hurricane Florence set records for a tropical cyclone in North Carolina, 35 inches, and South Carolina, 23 inches.
Griffin says the strengthening is also happening closer to shore.
“You can go from a category two, three, or a category four hurricane in less than 20 hours right before landfall. That can cause extreme disaster because people aren’t prepared and that is linked to these warmer than usual water temperatures, much warmer than usual near the coast,” said Griffin.
It’s not just the Southeast that is getting hit with more destructive weather events.
Griffin says drought and record heat, two things that can fuel wildfires can be linked to the Jet Stream: a fast-moving tunnel of air in the upper atmosphere caused by the temperature difference between the equator and the pole.
“When you have the pole warming. We’re seeing the Arctic ice. We’re seeing warmer places in Antarctica. You can see that warming trend there and that can make the jet stream become more wiggly and then can make it become stalled. It shows a big ridge in the west and a big trough in the east. And that’s the stalled pattern that can create these long-duration droughts in the west. It could also create record heat,” said Griffin.
NOAA says 2020 was the second hottest year on record for the globe, just behind 2016.
If the climate continues to warm Griffin says years like 2020 may be considered tame.
“We’re breaking records now and in the last five years. We could be breaking these records again in the next 10 years,” said Griffin.
President Joe Biden’s administration says the climate crisis is a key issue, and has elevated it to a national security priority.
In Biden’s first week in office, the administration issued several executive orders including re-entering the Paris Climate Agreement, stopping the Keystone XL Pipeline, and pausing all new oil and natural gas leases on federal lands and offshore waters.
Opponents of these moves, like the American Petroleum Institute, say they will cost American’s their jobs and make the country dependent on foreign gas and oil. Others, like Todd Staples, President of the Texas Oil and Gas Association, say they agree that climate change is important, but the administration shouldn’t exclude oil or natural gas as an energy resource.
“We understand society has concerns about the climate, but our energy choices do not have to be either/or, but rather an all of the above,” said Staples on a call with reporters following President Biden’s announcement last week.
John Paul Mejia is the national spokesperson for the Sunrise Movement, a youth-led progressive group whose goals include stopping climate change and says it can create millions of jobs in the process. He told the ‘Perspective’ podcast the actions that President Biden has taken in the opening days of his administration is a good start, but there is still more to be done.
“When we talk about averting the climate crisis from our movement’s perspective, it’s not like we’re going to sign a couple of executive actions and ride off into the sunset singing. It’s about essentially reorganizing our economy to operate and more fair practices and put more power in the hands of working people while averting the climate crisis,” said Mejia.
The Sunrise Movement recently put out a list of their top choices for President Biden’s cabinet. The administration picked New Mexico Representative Deb Haaland for Secretary of the Interior, inline with the movement’s recommendation. Haaland would become the first Native American to run the department if she is confirmed.
The pick is significant because the department once had a role in the forced relocation and oppression of Native Americans.
“We know that she’s a staunch movement ally that we can really expect to be with us over the course of the administration and also a staunch ally for indigenous people who are a core constituency of the Green New Deal,” said Mejia.
The movement does back some of President Biden’s cabinet picks including Gina McCarthy, who became the first-ever White House National Climate Advisor.
“We know that she has centered environmental justice and environmental racism in the core of her work. We know that she holds it to be true, that we can create millions of jobs by boldly acting on the climate crisis,” said Mejia.
Listen to this story on ABC’s ‘Perspective’ Podcast.
Samara Heisz/iStockBy MORGAN WINSOR, ERIN SCHUMAKER, IVAN PEREIRA and EMILY SHAPIRO, ABC News
(NEW YORK) — A pandemic of the novel coronavirus has now infected more than 104.9 million people worldwide and killed over 2.28 million of them, according to real-time data compiled by the Center for Systems Science and Engineering at Johns Hopkins University.
Here’s how the news is developing Friday. All times Eastern:
Feb 05, 9:41 am Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine effective against UK variant, researchers say
University of Oxford researchers said Friday that the COVID-19 vaccine they developed with British-Swedish pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca remains effective against a new, more contagious variant of the novel coronavirus currently circulating in the United Kingdom.
A preprint of ongoing work to assess effectiveness of the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine shows that the existing version has similar efficacy against the so-called B117 variant to previously circulating variants. The preprint also describes recent analysis showing that the vaccination “results in a reduction in the duration of shedding and viral load, which may translate into a reduced transmission of the disease,” according to a press release from the university.
“Data from our trials of the ChAdOx1 vaccine in the United Kingdom indicate that the vaccine not only protects against the original pandemic virus, but also protects against the novel variant, B117, which caused the surge in disease from the end of 2020 across the UK,” Andrew Pollard, professor of pediatric infection and immunity at the University of Oxford and chief investigator on the Oxford vaccine trial, said in a statement.
The B117 variant was first identified last September in Kent, England, and has since spread to dozens of other countries.
“We are working with AstraZeneca to optimize the pipeline required for a strain change should one become necessary,” Sarah Gilbert, professor of vaccinology at the University of Oxford and chief investigator on the Oxford vaccine trial, said in a statement. “This is the same issue that is faced by all of the vaccine developers, and we will continue to monitor the emergence of new variants that arise in readiness for a future strain change.”
Feb 05, 8:11 am Ghana’s Parliament reduces sessions amid COVID-19 outbreak
The Parliament of Ghana will reduce its sessions to twice a week after dozens of lawmakers and legislative staff tested positive for COVID-19.
Addressing lawmakers on the floor Thursday, Speaker of Parliament Alban Bagbin said at least 15 members of Parliament and 56 staffers have tested positive for COVID-19 so far. They have been asked to self-isolate while steps are being taken to have members of their household tested as well.
There are still 48 members of Parliament who have yet to be tested, according to Bagbin.
Starting next week, Ghana’s Parliament will only sit on Tuesdays and Thursdays in an effort to control the spread of the virus. Only the lawmakers and staffers who are needed on those days will be allowed inside the building, Bagbin said.
Schools reopened across the West African nation in January, following a 10-month closure due to the coronavirus pandemic. But as COVID-19 infections rise again, Ghanaian President Nana Akufo-Addo on Sunday reimposed a ban on social gatherings.
Ghana has confirmed at least 63,883 cases of COVID-19 since the start of the pandemic, including 390 deaths, according to the latest data from the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Feb 05, 7:24 am New vaccine helpline in Pennsylvania’s Allegheny County gets over 15,000 calls per second
The Allegheny County Health Department in Pennsylvania said 750 residents made appointments to be vaccinated against COVID-19 on Thursday through a new phone registration offered by the United Way of Southwestern Pennsylvania’s 211 helpline.
The call center began receiving calls well before the official start time at noon on Thursday. In the first five minutes following the announcement of the phone registration, there were 653 calls into the helpline. More than 15,000 calls were coming in per second throughout the day, attempting to reach the center, according to a press release from the Allegheny County Health Department.
“We have known for a while that the demand for vaccines far outweighs the supply, and today’s phone registration only underscores that,” Dr. Debra Bogen, director of the Allegheny County Health Department, said in a statement Thursday. “While we realize that there were many, many people who were frustrated because they did not receive an appointment, we also were able to serve 750 individuals who may not have had the opportunity to schedule otherwise.”
The 211 helpline is for only scheduling vaccination appointments for Allegheny County residents who are 65 and older. Appointments are for the Allegheny County Health Department’s Point of Dispensing inside the DoubleTree by Hilton Hotel in Monroevile, about 10 miles east of Pittsburgh. Other vaccine providers in the county have separate registration systems, the health department said.
Feb 05, 5:49 am US reports over 5,000 new deaths for first time
A staggering 5,078 fatalities from COVID-19 were registered in the United States on Thursday, marking a new single-day record, according to a real-time count kept by Johns Hopkins University.
It’s the first time since the start of the coronavirus pandemic that the U.S. has recorded more than 5,000 deaths from the disease in a single day. Thursday’s tally far exceeds the country’s previous all-time high of 4,466 new deaths registered on Jan. 12, Johns Hopkins data shows.
There were also 122,473 new cases of COVID-19 confirmed nationwide on Thursday, down from a peak of 300,282 newly confirmed infections on Jan. 2, according to Johns Hopkins data.
COVID-19 data may be skewed due to possible lags in reporting over the Martin Luther King Jr. Day holiday weekend last month.
A total of 26,679,554 people in the U.S. have been diagnosed with COVID-19 since the pandemic began and at least 455,869 have died, according to Johns Hopkins data. The cases include people from all 50 U.S. states, Washington, D.C., and other U.S. territories as well as repatriated citizens.
Much of the country was under lockdown by the end of March as the first wave of the pandemic hit. By May 20, all U.S. states had begun lifting stay-at-home orders and other restrictions put in place to curb the spread of the novel coronavirus. The day-to-day increase in the country’s cases then hovered around 20,000 for a couple of weeks before shooting back up over the summer.
The numbers lingered around 40,000 to 50,000 from mid-August through early October before surging again to record levels, crossing 100,000 for the first time on Nov. 4, then reaching 200,000 on Nov. 27 before topping 300,000 on Jan. 2.
So far, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has authorized two COVID-19 vaccines for emergency use — one developed by U.S. pharmaceutical giant Pfizer and its German partner BioNTech, and another developed by American biotechnology company Moderna and the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. More than 35 million vaccine doses have been administered nationwide, according to the latest data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
(NEW YORK) — A storm moving across the country brought up to a foot of snow Thursday in the Midwest and winds which gusted at over 50 mph, creating blizzard conditions.
In Iowa, 3 to 6.5 inches of snow with gusty winds produced a ground blizzard — which means snow was not falling, but rather blowing around on the ground.
In Chicago, 2 to 3 inches of snow fell very quickly Thursday afternoon, which slowed down traffic.
The storm is now moving through the Northeast with mostly rain for the I-95 corridor from Washington, D.C., to Boston.
As of Friday, some snow and icy mix has been reported in upstate New York and into northern New England, where some areas could see a few inches of snow this weekend, making roads slick.
A combination of Arctic air mass and a new storm will bring more snow to the Midwest and possibly the Northeast this weekend. Some areas will experience the coldest air of the season.
Parts of Wisconsin and Michigan will likely get 6 to 12 inches of snow over the weekend, which could cause dangerous driving conditions.
As of Friday morning, 22 states, from Washington to North Carolina, are under snow and cold alerts.
The Central U.S. will likely see wind chills in the 30s, 40s and 50s below zero this weekend.
This will be the coldest air in two years for some.
Another storm will then try to move across the country and could become a nor’easter for the East Coast.
At this moment, it does not look like a major storm, and most Northeast cities will just get some cold winds with maybe a few inches of snow on Sunday.
This weekend the heaviest snow will be in the Rockies and the Plains, where more than a foot of snow is possible.
Additional snow (possibly half a foot) is expected in the Midwest, from Iowa to Michigan. Most of it will fall near the Great Lakes.
The Northeast will likely see just a few inches on the I-95 corridor, but the heaviest snow will be the lake-effect snow from Buffalo to Watertown, New York.
Adventure_Photo/iStockBy MEREDITH DELISO, ABC News
