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Rescue missions after Helene’s flooding include dozens stranded on Tennessee hospital roof

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NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — As floodwaters from Hurricane Helene quickly surrounded a small Tennessee hospital near a riverbank, workers first tried to get patients out by ambulance. Then, the road washed out.

They tried to move people to the center of the building, but they were met by water.

Once rescue boats arrived, the water was so dangerous they couldn’t leave. Ultimately, dozens of staff and patients went to the roof to wait to be taken to safety, and a few others stayed in rescue boats, as winds whipped and brown waters gushed nearby with debris beneath them.

Within a few hours, they were all rescued.

The dramatic scene at Unicoi County Hospital, in Erwin, Tennessee, near the North Carolina border, was one of several that played out across the southern U.S. in Helene’s wake. Flooding caused by its storm surge and rain sent thousands of police officers, firefighters, National Guard members and others on rescue missions. Hundreds were saved, but at least 40 died.

“It was just the grace of God we had ample amount of people to move people up to the roof,” Jennifer Harrah, the Tennessee hospital’s administrator, told WJHL-TV. “And we were able to put the non-ambulatory patients in the boats and keep them safe and have medical personnel with the patients in the boats as well. And we kind of had them in a corner, protected by a couple of walls.”

Unicoi County Hospital tried to evacuate 11 patients and 43 others Friday morning after the Nolichucky River overflowed its banks and flooded the facility, but the water was too treacherous for boats sent by the Tennessee Emergency Management Agency.

The decision was made to direct more than 50 people to the roof. Another seven had been temporarily stuck in rescue boats. Ballad Health, which operates the small 10-bed hospital, asked for people’s prayers as it provided the social media update.

After other helicopters failed to reach the hospital because of the storm’s winds, a Virginia State Police helicopter was able to land on the roof. Three National Guard helicopters with hoist capabilities were sent, officials said.

In a later post, Ballad Health said all of the staff and patients had been rescued about four hours after dozens of them were moved to the hospital’s roof. Patients were transferred to a different facility and no one remained at the hospital.

“The water there simply came up faster with more debris than was safe to operate in the rafts to ferry from a dry point back to the hospital,” said Patrick Sheehan, Tennessee’s emergency operations director.

Meanwhile in Florida, the efforts of 1,500 search-and-rescue personnel will be concentrated on securing and stabilizing affected communities through the weekend, said Kevin Guthrie, the state’s emergency operations director. The Category 4 storm made landfall on the Northwest Florida coast late Thursday, but it created flooding from storm surge all along the state’s Gulf Coast.

“As those sorts of rescue missions happen today, and continue, please do not go out and visit the impacted areas,” Guthrie said at a Friday news conference in the Florida capital of Tallahassee. “I beg of you, do not get in their way.”

The reported rescues ranged from life-threatening situations to people trapped in their homes by waist-high water and unable to flee on their own.

Five people died in Pinellas County and dozens were rescued after the storm surge hit an unprecedented 8 feet (2.4 meters), forcing some to seek shelter in their attics. Sheriff Bob Gualtieri said the deaths all occurred in neighborhoods where authorities told residents to evacuate, but many ignored the warnings.

He said survivors told deputies they didn’t believe the warnings after other residents told them the surge wouldn’t be that bad.

“We made our case. We told people what they needed to do, and they chose otherwise,” Gualtieri said.

Gualtieri said his deputies tried overnight to reach those who had been trapped, but in some neighborhoods it just wasn’t safe. Pinellas County includes St. Petersburg.

“I was out there personally. We tried to launch boats, we tried to use high-water vehicles and we just met with too many obstacles,” Gualtieri said. He said the death toll could rise as emergency crews go door-to-door in the flooded areas to see if anyone remains.

In neighboring Hillsborough County, which includes Tampa, the sheriff’s office rescued more than 300 people overnight from storm surge. Spokesperson Amanda Granit said those included a 97-year-old woman with dementia and her 63-year-old daughter, who got surprised by the surge and needed help fleeing their flooded home; and a 19-year-old woman whose car got stuck as she drove in the rising water and couldn’t get out.

Granit said deputies were conducting rescues in such large numbers they had to request county transit buses to get the people to safety.

“Deputies couldn’t move them fast in enough in their patrol vehicles,” Granit said.

In the Tampa Bay-area city of South Pasadena, rescue video shows a house burning early Friday amid flooded streets. Other counties along the Gulf reported more than 100 rescues.

When water from the storm surge reached Kera O’Neil’s knees inside her Hudson home, 45 miles north of Tampa, she knew she and her sister needed to flee with her two cats.

“There’s a moment where you are thinking if this water rises above the level of the stove, we are not going to have much room to breathe,” she said.

O’Neil and her sister waded into the chest-deep water with one cat in a plastic carrier and another in a cardboard box. They found refuge on a neighbor’s more elevated property before Pasco County firefighters on a raft rescued them and three others.

“I’m a Florida girl, and we have been here since we were kids,” she said. “We have never experienced anything like this.”

At sea, the Coast Guard said it rescued three boaters and their pets from the storm in separate incidents. In a Thursday helicopter rescue captured on Coast Guard video, a man and his Irish setter were stranded 25 miles offshore in the Gulf on their 36-foot sailboat in heavy seas.

The video shows the man putting his dog into a yellow rescue vest and pushing it into the raging sea before jumping in himself. A Coast Guard swimmer helped them into a rescue basket and they were hoisted into the copter.

In North Carolina, more than 100 swift-water rescues had occurred as Helene’s rains caused massive flooding Friday, particularly in the state’s western section. Gov. Roy Cooper said the flash floods are threatening lives and are creating numerous landslides.

“The priority now is saving lives,” Cooper said, begging people to stay off the roads unless they were seeking higher ground.

“With the rain that they already had been experiencing before Helene’s arrival, this is one of the worst storms in modern history for parts of western North Carolina,” Cooper said.

In Georgia, Gov. Brian Kemp said crews are working to rescue people trapped in more than 115 homes.

Helene’s rains flooded homes in Hanover West, a neighborhood in north Atlanta. Emergency personnel rescued several people from their homes, said Richard Simms, a resident in a nearby neighborhood.

___

Spencer reported from Fort Lauderdale, Florida. Associated Press reporter Beatrice Dupuy contributed to this report.



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Alberta Energy Regulator to hold Rocky Mountain coal hearings despite legal challenge

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Alberta’s energy regulator will go ahead with hearings on coal exploration in the Rocky Mountains despite concerns about the legality of the applications from the province’s top court.

“While we have the discretion to grant an adjournment, we are not persuaded that doing so in this case is appropriate,” the Alberta Energy Regulator said Friday in a letter to the Municipal District of Ranchland, which had asked for the adjournment.

Ranchland wanted an adjournment for public hearings on applications from Northback Holdings for coal exploration in the Crowsnest Pass area. It said the hearings should wait until the Alberta Appeal Court rules on whether those applications were legally accepted.

Ranchland argued that the court’s decision may invalidate the applications, rendering hearings on them a waste of time.

The Australian-owned company is trying to develop a coal mine at the site in southwest Alberta area despite the fact the same project, under a different company name, has previously failed to pass an environmental review. As well, the Alberta government has issued an order blocking coal development in the Rockies.

But in November 2023, Energy Minister Brian Jean wrote the Alberta Energy Regulator suggesting Northback’s applications be accepted. He said because the project had previously come before regulators, it should be considered an “advanced project” and exempt from the order.

The regulator then accepted Northback’s three applications.

In accepting Ranchland’s appeal application, the court said it needs to weigh Ranchland’s argument that a project, once rejected by a regulatory body, no longer exists and can’t be considered advanced. The court also said the regulator may have placed too much weight on Jean’s letter.

But on Friday, the regulator said an undetermined delay until court proceedings were complete would be inefficient.

“We should proceed to consider the applications in a fair, prompt and efficient manner,” the letter says. “We would not be doing that if we attempt to ‘peer into a crystal ball’ and halt our process … because of something that might occur in the future.

“The requested adjournment, which would likely result in a lengthy delay, would make this proceeding less efficient.”

A representative of Ranchland declined to comment, saying the municipality will focus its efforts on the appeal. No date has been set for it.

The company has been pressing for the hearings to be held as soon as possible.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 27, 2024.

The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.



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Ontario education minister to schools ahead of Oct. 7: keep ‘biases’ out of classroom

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TORONTO – Ontario Education Minister Jill Dunlop is telling school boards to keep classrooms free of “political biases” ahead of the anniversary of a Hamas attack on Israel that triggered the war in Gaza.

Dunlop says in a memo to boards that as Oct. 7 approaches, she wants all school boards to “be vigilant in ensuring classrooms remain safe, inclusive, and welcoming for all students and staff.”

She says it is particularly important as the province, including its schools, sees a rise in intolerance, racism, antisemitism and Islamophobia.

The memo comes as the Ministry of Education investigates a Toronto District School Board field trip that saw students from 15 schools attend a protest on mercury contamination that is affecting a First Nation community in the north.

Videos on social media showed some march participants chanting pro-Palestinian slogans, which prompted Premier Doug Ford earlier this week to call it a “Palestinian rally” and complain that teachers were trying to indoctrinate children.

Dunlop says the focus in schools must always be learning.

“This means our schools and school-related activities should never be used as vehicles for political protests that enable inflammatory, discriminatory, and hateful content,” she wrote.

“While everyone is entitled to their own political opinions, they are not entitled to disseminate political biases into our classrooms.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 27, 2024.

The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.



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Lawsuit settlement, collective agreements and Hydro losses drive up Manitoba deficit

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WINNIPEG – The Manitoba government posted a deficit in the last fiscal year of $1.97 billion, documents released Friday show. It is the largest in the province’s history outside of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The final numbers for the 2023-24 fiscal year, which ended in March, confirm projections from an earlier quarterly budget update and point to a number of factors.

A drought reduced water levels at Crown-owned Manitoba Hydro, turning an expected profit into a loss. New public sector collective agreements covering teachers, civil servants, nurses and others, with retroactive raises, drove up expenses. And the NDP government’s decision to temporarily suspend the provincial fuel tax in January led to $104 million in lower-than-budgeted revenue at the pumps.

There was also a one-time, half-billion-dollar cost associated with a lawsuit settlement over federal payments to kids in child welfare. The class-action lawsuit was launched over a policy, enacted by a former NDP government, that clawed back the payments. The lawsuit was settled by the current NDP government this year, but the cost was attributed to last year’s budget, which was introduced by the Progressive Conservatives before they were defeated in the October 2023 election.

Booking such a cost in a previous year, when a payout begins to appear likely, is in line with standard accounting practices, the government said. The auditor general’s office confirmed the practice is normal.

Manitoba has run deficits in every year but two since 2009, and the government remains committed to balancing the budget by 2027, Finance Minister Adrien Sala said.

“We know that in order to deliver on that balanced-budget commitment, we have to do hard work of controlling expenses,” Sala said Friday.

“We’ll be making those decisions as we move into the following fiscal year, but that’s a lot of hard work that we have to do.”

Premier Wab Kinew has also talked about looking for areas in which the province can tighten its belt, but has said no decisions have been made yet.

The province is expecting somewhat easier fiscal times this year and a lower deficit of $796 million.

It’s forecasting a profit at Manitoba Hydro instead of last year’s $172-million loss. And Manitoba’s share of equalization payments from the federal government, which are aimed at helping less-wealthy provinces, is jumping sharply from last year by 24 per cent, or $840 million.

The NDP government has also put on hold plans for some of the new schools promised by the former Tory government. Sala accused the Tories of making the commitments without having funding in place, while the Tories have said the funding was accounted for.

On the tax side, the government will forgo more fuel revenue this fiscal year. The NDP recently announced a second extension of the fuel-tax holiday through to the end of December. The tax normally brings in $340 million annually.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 27, 2024

The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.



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