Thursday, September 29 top stories
It is Thursday, September 29. Here are today’s top stories.
Tropical Storm Ian updates
Hurricane Ian is now a tropical storm. At the time of signing this news, the storm is swirling over central and northeastern Florida with wind speeds of around 70 mph. Forecasters said Ian is expected to become a hurricane again tonight before making landfall near Charleston, South Carolina on Friday.
The FEMA chief said Lee County, where the cities of Fort Myers and Cape Coral is in, was the hardest hit and that there is catastrophic damage. A sheriff said he expects there to be fatalities but doesn’t have the exact number. There was a large storm surge that flooded many areas.
A hospital in Port Charlotte, which is north of Fort Myers, had a part of its roof torn off, impacting an ICU area. The hospital’s first-floor emergency room was also flooded.
Sanibel Island was cut off from mainland Florida due to severe damage to a causeway.
There was one death reported in Deltona, on Florida’s eastern side. A 72-year-old man tried to drain his pool by connecting a hose to a canal near his home but slipped into the canal and drowned. This happened around 1 a.m. today.
There are over 2.5 million customers without power in Florida with the majority of them in southwest Florida. The hurricane damaged electric infrastructure and cell phone towers.
The Coast Guard said they are rescuing people who are trapped by floods by pulling them from the roofs of their homes. The Florida National Guard are using high-water trucks to reach people.
Suspect who punched Asian woman pleads guilty to hate crime
In March of this year, a 67-year-old Asian woman in Yonkers, New York was trying to enter an elevator in her apartment building when she was attacked from behind by a 42-year-old man named Tammel Esco. A video shows that Esco punched the woman 125 times after calling her an “Asian b——.”
NBC News explained that both individuals lived in the same apartment building. The victim was hospitalized for several days.
On Tuesday, Esco pleaded guilty to first-degree assault as a hate crime in a plea deal that will bring a sentence of 17 1/2 years in state prison.
Rapper Coolio dies at 59
Rapper Coolio passed away at the age of 59. News reports said his friend found him lying on the bathroom floor. It is possible that he suffered cardiac arrest. The cause of death is under investigation.
Coolio’s legal name is Artis Leon Ivey Jr.
Coolio won a Grammy Award for Best Rap Performance in 1996 for his song, “Gangsta’s Paradise.” He appeared in several movies such as Space Jam and Clueless.
He was also a foodie and once hosted a cooking show and appeared on other cooking shows.
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American mountaineer killed after fall in Nepal
A 49-year-old American mountain climber Hilaree Nelson was found dead after falling from Mount Manaslu in Nepal. The mountain is the eighth-tallest mountain in the world. News reports said she was considered one of the world’s most successful climbers. She had completed climbing the mountain and was beginning a ski descent when she fell. Her partner said as they were skiing down from the summit, there was a small avalanche that swept Nelson off her feet, sending her down a narrow snow slope. There was a two-day search for her before her body was found.
Nelson was a mother of two and lived in Colorado.
Las Vegas bomber escapes from prison
A man who was convicted of making a bomb and detonating it near the Luxor hotel near the Las Vegas Strip in 2007 — killing one person — escaped from prison on Friday.
The bomber’s name is Porfirio Duarte-Herrera. He was incarnated at a prison near Las Vegas. Prison officials did not even realize that Porfirio was missing until Tuesday when they did a head count. There is now a search for him. He is 5’4 and 135 pounds.
The bomb was placed in a coffee cup that was in a car parked at the Luxor. Prosecutors said Porfirio was targeting a man for dating his ex-girlfriend — that man was killed.
[Full-screen text:
UPDATE: Porfirio Duarte-Herrera was captured near downtown Las Vegas and is now back in custody.]
That is all the top stories for today. See you tomorrow and stay with the light.
https://www.foxla.com/news/rapper-and-compton-native-coolio-dies-at-59-tmz-reports
https://www.cnn.com/2022/09/28/sport/ski-mountaineer-hilaree-nelson-death-nepal-spt-intl/index.html
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-09-28/hilaree-nelson-found-dead-mount-manaslu-fall/101482748