BREAKING NEWS Chaos at America's busiest airport as ALL flights are grounded due to 'equipment failure'
A ground stop has been ordered at the Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport due to equipment outage.
The Federal Aviation Administration issued the ground stop at 10:40 a.m. ET and is in effect until noon.
This is a developing story...
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Guardian
5 hours ago
- The Guardian
Oregon wildfire destroys homes and raises fears for looming fire season
A growing wildfire in Oregon has destroyed multiple homes and prompted evacuation orders in the Columbia River Gorge area, in what officials are calling an early warning of the fire season ahead. The so-called Rowena fire had grown on Thursday to 3,500 acres and remained 0% contained, prompting officials to issue evacuation orders for hundreds of homes and to temporarily close a section of an interstate highway. The state's governor, Tina Kotek, invoked the Emergency Conflagration Act for the Rowena Fire, allowing the state fire marshal agency to mobilize resources, it said in a statement. The agency said it was mobilizing an incident management team and six structural taskforces, with three responding on Wednesday night and the other three arriving early on Thursday. The fire has already destroyed about 20 homes, according to local news reports, and is threatening nearly 2,200 structures. The wildfire comes as the US west readiest for what could be a brutal fire season exacerbated by a dry winter and warming temperatures. Parts of Oregon are already dealing with record-breaking early season heat. Acres burned US wildfires are measured in terms of acres. While the size of a wildfire doesn't necessarily correlate to its destructive impact, acreage provides a way to understand a fire's footprint and how quickly it has grown. There are 2.47 acres in a hectare, and 640 acres in a square mile, but this can be hard to visualise. Here are some easy comparisons: one acre equates to roughly the size of an American football field. London's Heathrow airport is about 3,000 acres. Manhattan covers roughly 14,600 acres, while Chicago is roughly 150,000 acres, and Los Angeles is roughly 320,000 acres. Megafire A megafire is defined by the National Interagency Fire Center as a wildfire that has burned more than 100,000 acres (40,000 hectares). Containment level A wildfire's containment level indicates how much progress firefighters have made in controlling the fire. Containment is achieved by creating perimeters the fire can't move across. This is done through methods such as putting fire retardants on the ground, digging trenches, or removing brush and other flammable fuels. Containment is measured in terms of the percentage of the fire that has been surrounded by these control lines. A wildfire with a low containment level, such as 0% or 5%, is essentially burning out of control. A fire with a high level of containment, such as 90%, isn't necessarily extinguished but rather has a large protective perimeter and a rate of growth that is under control. Evacuation orders and warnings Evacuation warnings and orders are issued by officials when a wildfire is causing imminent danger to people's life and property. According to the California office of emergency services, an evacuation warning means that it's a good idea to leave an area or get ready to leave soon. An evacuation order means that you should leave the area immediately. Red flag warning A red flag warning is a type of forecast issued by the National Weather Service that indicates when weather conditions are likely to spark or spread wildfires. These conditions typically include dryness, low humidity, high winds and heat. Prescribed burn A prescribed burn, or a controlled burn, is a fire that is intentionally set under carefully managed conditions in order to improve the health of a landscape. Prescribed burns are carried out by trained experts such as members of the US Forest Service and Indigenous fire practitioners. Prescribed burns help remove flammable vegetation and reduce the risk of larger, more catastrophic blazes, among other benefits. Prescribed burning was once a common tool among Native American tribes who used 'good fire' to improve the land, but was limited for much of the last century by a US government approach based on fire suppression. In recent years, US land managers have returned to embracing the benefits of prescribed burns, and now conduct thousands across the country every year. 'This early season conflagration should come as a reminder to Oregonians to be ready for wildfire,' said Mariana Ruiz-Temple, the state fire marshal. The Oregon department of transportation said on Wednesday Interstate 84 was closed between Hood River and The Dalles, though the highway was reportedly reopened by Thursday. Hood River, a popular tourist destination about 55 miles (90km) east of Portland, is home to about 8,000 people, and more than 15,000 people live in The Dalles farther east. Residents of more than 700 homes were ordered to evacuate in an area stretching north-west of The Dalles along I-84 and farther inland, according to the Wasco county sheriff's office. Residents of more than 1,300 homes were told to prepare to leave, including in part of the town's northern end. A middle school in The Dalles was set up as a temporary shelter, while the county fairgrounds opened as a shelter for livestock and horses, the sheriff's office said. Photos shared by the transportation department showed flames burning alongside and in the median of I-84 as wind gusts fanned the smoke. A water helicopter and a plane dropping fire retardant helped fight the fire, which broke out on Wednesday.
The Independent
6 hours ago
- The Independent
Thunderstorms could dampen Trump's big birthday parade and may even lead to its cancelation
Forecasted thunderstorms in Washington D.C. could dampen President Donald Trump's big birthday parade this weekend and may even lead to its cancelation. In honor of the Army's 250th birthday, Trump has pushed for a parade officials estimate will cost up to $45 million — which also happens to fall on the president's 79th birthday. 'Rain won't stop us, the tanks don't melt, but if there's lightning then that puts the crowd at risk,' Steve Warren, chief spokesman of the Army, told The Times, regarding the expected thunderstorms Saturday. He warned officials 'will disperse the crowd and even cancel or postpone the parade' if there is lightning. 'It will depend on the president, too, when he's available,' Warren said. An AccuWeather forecaster told The Independent temperatures will be in the mid-80s in the afternoon, but with the humidity, it will probably feel five to 10 degrees warmer. The parade is expected to last from 6:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. local time. 'As we head into the evening hours, we do have to be concerned about at least thunderstorms in the area,' the forecaster said. 'If there is a thunderstorm obviously not only lightning would be a concern, but also, with all the humidity in the air, it can certainly have some downpours with it.' Warren said General Randy George, the Army's Chief of Staff, will make the final call on what to do if there is bad weather. 'It's June in Washington DC. We get thunderstorms. You could delay it, you could look at it and say this is just passing through. Or say, hey, this is a storm which gets bigger for a while,' Warren said. The parade will feature around 6,600 Army troops and military equipment, including a WWII-vintage B-25 bomber, a P-1 fighter and Huey helicopters used in the Vietnam War, according to Politico. There will also be 25 M1 Abrams tanks, 28 Stryker armored vehicles and four Paladin self-propelled artillery vehicles, Reuters reported. NBC News reports it may cost as much as $16 million to repair the streets of Washington, D.C. after the tanks roll through the parade. Several lawmakers, including Republicans, have spoken out against the parade, with Senator Rand Paul, a fiscal hawk from Kentucky, going as far as to compare it to the trumped-up military parades of the Soviet Union and North Korea. A majority of Americans also don't seem to have the best view of the parade. An Associated Press and NORC survey published Thursday found 60 percent of respondents said the parade is 'not a good use of government funds.' Trump said the cost of the event is 'peanuts compared to the value of doing it,' in a May 4 interview on NBC News' Meet the Press. 'We have the greatest missiles in the world. We have the greatest submarines in the world. We have the greatest army tanks in the world. We have the greatest weapons in the world. And we're going to celebrate it,' he said. Americans against Trump's policies plan to hold 'No Kings' protests in hundreds of cities across the country Saturday to coincide with the president's birthday parade.
Daily Mail
10 hours ago
- Daily Mail
BREAKING NEWS Four dead and two missing as Texas hit with biblical floods
At least four people have died after their cars were swept away by Biblical floodwaters which tore through Texas on Thursday morning. San Antonio Police Chief William McManus said two men and two women have been confirmed dead, while several people are still missing. The deaths all occurred in the northeast part of the city, where authorities found 13 vehicles floating or submerged in the water. 'It's hard to determine at this point exactly how they got swept away,' San Antonio Fire Department spokesman Woody Woodward said. 'But it is an area where there was high water that was moving rapidly and there were several people that were caught in that water that had climbed up into trees and we did do a couple of rescues out of trees and some rescues out of vehicles.' The department has rescued 65 people from the raging torrent since midnight in the San Antonio area, Woodward added. By midmorning, rain had stopped and the flooding was receding.
