Month: August 2021

By FABIOLA SÁNCHEZ, Associated Press TULUM, Mexico — Hurricane Grace rapidly strengthened into a major Category 3 storm Friday night as it bore down on a second landfall in Mexico, this time taking aim at the Gulf coast after crashing through the country’s main tourist strip. The storm had lost punch as it zipped across the Yucatan Peninsula, but it emerged late Thursday over the relatively warm Gulf of Mexico and began gaining energy. The…

Brentwood; Calif — Hold Your Horses Livestock Emergency Evacuation Response Team is saving livestock from natural disasters and wildfires. In 2013, a brush fire on Mount Diablo burned nearly 4,000 acres. Chantel Tieman and her daughter Naydeene rushed to the fire to help ranch owners evacuate their livestock. “During that fire nobody really knew where they were going. They just knew there were horses and animals back there that needed help,” said Naydeene Koster, Vice…

By WRAL Severe Weather Center Raleigh, N.C. — A gentle rain fell Friday afternoon in Raleigh, and the 20% to 30% chance for precipitation grows to a 50 to 60% chance for storms by 6 p.m., which could impact the start of high school football. Parts of Johnston County were under a severe thunderstorm warning until 4:45 p.m. The heaviest storms will hit communities near Clayton with the biggest threat being lightning and strong winds,…

By Keely Arthur, WRAL reporter Canton, N.C. — On Day 3 of rescue and recovery efforts in western North Carolina, the scope of the devastation from catastrophic flooding became clearer. On Friday afternoon, officials in Haywood County confirmed that two more victims died in the devastation, floods and mudslides caused by Fred. Earlier Friday, the identities of two other victims were released. Frank Mungo, 86, and Franklin McKenzie, 68, were both from the Cruso community. As of…

MIAMI — A former University of Miami football player was arrested Thursday in connection with the 2006 fatal shooting of his teammate Bryan Pata. Rashaun Jones, 35, of Lake City, was arrested in Marion County on a first-degree murder warrant by Miami-Dade police and the U.S. Marshals Service, police spokesperson Alvaro Zabaleta said. “The Pata family has waited a long time to see the individual they had believed involved in Brian’s death arrested and charged,”…