TV News LIES

Scurry County Judge Dan Hicks has declared a disaster and is requesting assistance from the state after one of the strongest earthquakes in Texas history caused damage across the area Friday morning.

According to the USGS, a 5.1-magnitude quake occurred east of Snyder, northeast of Hermleigh. It was felt about 80 miles to the northwest in Lubbock, and across parts of the South Plains and West Texas. On the Modified Mercalli Intensity (MMI) scale, the USGS shows a VI-Strong rating. The USGS again updated the magnitude, now to 5.1 as of 11 a.m. There were also aftershocks of 3.2 at 9:40 and 2.7 at 10:44.

Judge Hicks said Scurry County has experienced 61 earthquakes in the last seven days.

“Since the first earthquake that was felt on July 22, 2024 at about 9:38 PM, a 4.9, and a 4.4 at about 9:46 PM to today’s 5.0 at about 9:28 AM July 26, 2024, damage has been found throughout Scurry County in businesses and residences,” Hicks wrote on Facebook. He said emergency management coordinator Jay Callaway is working closely with the Texas Department of Emergency Management to monitor the damage throughout Scurry County and the surrounding area.

More...

 

The largest wildfire to break out in the West this summer continued its explosive growth Friday morning as emergency responders in northern California struggled to gain control of the blaze, which has put thousands of residents under evacuation orders and has destroyed homes.

The so-called Park Fire broke out Wednesday afternoon near the city of Chico and quickly swelled in size as it was fueled by hot weather, low humidity and strong wind gusts. As of Friday morning, the inferno had engulfed over 164,000 acres, an area larger than the city of Chicago.

Butte County District Attorney Mike Ramsey on Thursday announced the arrest of a local man accused of pushing his mother's flaming vehicle into a gully, sparking the largest fire that California has seen this year. Ronnie Stout, 42, of Chico, faces at least one charge of arson, though more charges could follow in the days ahead, Ramsey said.

More...

The Park Fire, already the largest wildfire in California this year has burned over 71,000 acres in less than a day. CalFire has issued evacuation orders and warnings across Butte and Tehama counties, some reaching Chico city limits. No fatalities have been reported. The cause of the fire, currently only 3 percent contained, is under active investigation.

Some communities are in immediate danger said Rick Carhart, public information officer with Cal Fire and the Butte County Fire Department. “Cohasset and Forest Ranch are under evacuation orders now, so the structures in those areas are in immediate threat and we're hopeful that everybody has heeded the evacuation orders.”

The blaze started at approximately 4 p.m. local time Wednesday near Upper Park Road in Upper Bidwell Park, east of Chico.

According to CalFire this is the largest blaze in the state this year, currently at 71,489 acres and only three percent contained as of 1:30 p.m. local time Thursday. 2024's second largest fire is the Lake Fire near Santa Barbara which has burned at least 38,000 acres but is now 90 percent contained.

More...

World temperature records were shattered on Sunday on what may be the hottest day scientists have ever logged, data suggests.

Inflamed by the carbon pollution spewed from burning fossils and farming livestock, the average surface air temperature hit 17.09C (62.76F) on Sunday, according to preliminary data from the Copernicus Climate Change Service, which holds data that stretches back to 1940. The reading inched above the previous record of 17.08C (62.74F) set on 6 July last year, but the scientists cautioned that the difference was not statistically distinguishable.

As the temperature soared in the Houston-area home Janet Jarrett shared with her sister after losing electricity in Hurricane Beryl, she did everything she could to keep her 64-year-old sibling cool.

But on their fourth day without power, she awoke to hear Pamela Jarrett, who used a wheelchair and relied on a feeding tube, gasping for breath. Paramedics were called – but she was pronounced dead at the hospital, with the medical examiner saying her death was caused by the heat.

“It’s so hard to know that she’s gone right now because this wasn’t supposed to happen to her,” Janet Jarrett said.

Almost two weeks after Beryl hit, heat-related deaths during the prolonged power outages have pushed the number of storm-related fatalities to at least 23 in Texas.

More...

Alejandra Palma lives in perpetual fear of the next storm.

“We are constantly checking the weather,” said Palma, who co-owns Root Hill Cafe in Brooklyn’s low-lying Gowanus neighborhood. “If we see that there’s a hurricane in Florida, it’s like, oh my God, please let it not come here.”

Last September, when record rain hit New York, it flooded her small businesses, damaging walls and floors already weakened from previous flooding and causing gasoline from a nearby construction site to leak into her basement. It took almost two days to clean up and reopen the shop.

Last year wasn’t entirely a fluke: Palma said that each year she loses about five business days to flooding and estimates that each day Root Hill is closed, it costs her business about $3,500 in lost sales and employee pay.

More...