Page 27 - bon-dia-aruba-20210506

A27
u.s. news Diahuebs 6 Mei 2021

Flood threats persist as storms continue to drench the South

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. sponsible for at least three from the waters surrounding
(AP) — Relentless wind deaths and dozens of in- an apartment complex.
and rain keeps pummel- juries this week, and more
ing much of the southeast- than 200,000 customers Strong winds blowing be-
ern United States, spawn- were without power from hind a line of storms were
ing tornadoes, sparking Arkansas to Maryland early toppling trees across central
a flash flood emergency Wednesday, including about Alabama, where soil was sat-
in Alabama and damag- 75,000 in Alabama, about urated with water, and light-
ing homes from Texas to 66,000 in Mississippi, about ning struck a church in cen-
Virginia. The storms have 13,800 in Georgia and about tral Alabama, causing exten-
prompted boat rescues 25,700 in Virginia, according sive damage from a fire. The
and toppled trees and to the website poweroutage. National Weather Service in
power lines. us. Birmingham said late Tues-
day it planned to send two
Crews were preparing to con- Torrential rains near Bir- crews to Greene and Tusca-
tinue cleaning up debris and mingham, Alabama, on loosa Counties to assess wind
assessing destruction across Tuesday, dumped more than and possible tornado damage
the region early Wednesday, 7 inches (17.7 centimeters) from storms that started Sun- flipped tractor-trailers on an touched down in South Car-
as some schools canceled of water in a few afternoon day. interstate and damaged struc- olina and southern Kentucky
classes or moved them online hours, causing flooding tures. while a possible tornado hit
due to damage on campuses problems across much of the Strong winds and heavy rain West Virginia.
and surrounding areas. state's most populous areas. whipped through Missis- In Tennessee, at least 11
sippi's capital city of Jackson counties were hit by possible In Mississippi, forecast-
The National Weather Ser- Emergency Management late Tuesday while thunder EF-0 tornadoes, according to ers confirmed 12 tornadoes
vice's prediction center officials in the area urged rattled windows. The high an official with the National Sunday evening and night,
warned Wednesday morning residents to stay off roads be- winds cracked some limbs Weather Service in Nash- including the Yazoo City
that flash flooding could also cause so many were flooded, off trees and sent them onto ville. A tornado that struck twister, which stretched for
now affect the Central Gulf including some downtown. nearby houses. The storms Virginia's Northumberland 30 miles (50 kilometers), and
Coast with storms shifting In the Birmingham suburb of left streets littered with County near the Chesapeake another tornado that moved
southeast and rain continu- Homewood, fire department branches and leaves. Bay destroyed one home and through suburbs south of
ing to soak much of the re- rescuers in a small boat pad- severely damaged a few oth- Jackson, producing a damage
gion. dled past submerged cars in At least eight people were ers Monday. track 1,000 yards (910 me-
a parking lot, slowly remov- injured when storms that ters) wide.
The storms have been re- ing more than a dozen people brought tornadoes to Texas On Monday, tornadoes also

Four people killed when plane crashes into Mississippi home

HATTIESBURG, Miss. Mississippi late Tuesday were called to the scene of tion Officer Ryan Moore ple died; later Wednesday
(AP) — Four people were night, police said. the civilian plane crash just said. morning, they raised the toll
killed when a small plane before 11:30 p.m., Hatties- to four. Authorities did not
crashed into a home in Authorities in Hattiesburg burg Police Public Informa- Police initially said two peo- immediately identify the
victims or say whether they
were on the plane or in the
home.

The Federal Aviation Admin-
istration was called to inves-
tigate the cause of the crash.
Meanwhile, police said any-
one who finds de, police said.

Hattiesburg is about 90 miles
(145 kilometers) southeast of
Jackson.

Outreach to neighborhoods, homeless for vaccines

WASHINGTON — The visit to Community of Hope. fruit — the people who really
federal departments of It's a service organization want the vaccines —now we
health and housing have in the nation's capital that's have to go and do the next
launched a joint project to had high rates of coronavi- step."
provide coronavirus vac- rus and relatively low rates
cines to the homeless and of vaccination. The organiza- Becerra, who formerly served
people living in low-in- tion runs community health as California's attorney gen-
come neighborhoods and centers while also working eral, says the Biden admin-
subsidized housing. to end homelessness among istration is trying various
families. communication strategies.
Health and Human Services "I think it is past time that this Those include directly reach-
Secretary Xavier Becerra and country understands that its ing people who lack internet
Housing and Urban Devel- government does care about access and enlisting minis-
opment Secretary Marcia them," said Fudge, a former ters, community leaders and
Fudge made the announce- Ohio congresswoman. "We sports figures as vaccination
ment on Wednesday during a have gotten the low-hanging advocates.